//------------------------------// // Episode 6: Gasping for Gas // Story: My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season V // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE SIX Word spread fast that the wedding was called off, and there was disappointment everywhere you would look. Those who had already received their invitations early were more than disappointed, preferably Pinkie Pie; she had been looking forward to the big party at the end, and the big celebration for her friends. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were disappointed that all their catering hopes were dashed for the next while. Still, this was not the half of it, after a meeting with Lightning and other officials; ultimately, with no other alternative, their majesties had no choice but to issue a tighter lockdown than ever. Officers were assigned to every home. No civilian was permitted to leave without being escorted by the guards. There were even guards posted at schools, the markets. Why even the guards had other guards watching their backs. This was to help keep a watchful eye on everyone in case the Black Dragon Knight would try to impersonate anyone again. Civilians were still allowed to go about their business and live their lives, but still, this was a strain on everyone, especially for children, always being watched as if they were under suspicion. Most children, and adults, though upset by the arrangement were more than understanding, but others were not. “This is crazy!” “You can’t keep watching us like this!” More and more protests were lashed, but to each and every one of them came the same answer. “We realize this must be difficult, but try to understand; this is for your own safety. Until we are sure the threat of the Black Dragon Knight is resolved, things will have to remain as they are. If the Black Dragon Knight finds you and impersonates you, there’s no telling what she could plot?” This did not make the protestors any friendlier, but they ultimately had no choice but to comply and adjust to the change. Even the friends were being treated like tyrannical dictators, even though they were acting out of care and concern. While out on patrol, Rhymey and Fluttershy were scoffed and hissed at. “Jailers!” “Rebels!” “How can you do this to us?!” Fluttershy could hardly take it all; to her it was like bullying ponies laughing and taunting at her. She felt almost near tears, but her husband calmed her. “I feel as bad as you, Worse even, I do. I hate seeing everyone so mad And I wish that things weren’t so bad.” Fluttershy held his hand tightly, and nodded sadly at him as they both continued their patrol. Many other protesters would tend to pass by Lightning and Starla’s place scoffing at it, knowing Lightning was home and dissing him for having suggested the lockdown. Lightning simply ignored them, but in actually he felt just as upset with himself over this. He hated seeing everyone so cooped up, or being watched all the time, but there was nothing else that could be done until the threat was resolved. “Are you okay?” Starla asked. Her husband sighed “Sometimes being a commander isn’t fun. I just hope this lockdown won’t have to last too long.” Meanwhile, Princess Phoebe was bored. Sure she loved being waited on twenty-four seven, and the Stingars would pamper her non-stop like they were now; bringing her drinks, giving her a manicure on her human hands. Finally, she bolted upright and smacked two of the Stingars down “URGH!! I can’t stand this!” she growled “Father just won’t listen to me or give me a chance.” She looked down at United Equestria through her bedroom windows. She knew the armada was still powerless to do much as long as the barrier shielded the planet. “Stupid ponies!” she hissed “I bet even I could take them all on at once.” Then suddenly, it hit her “Instead of attacking them separately in groups, why not try and wipe them all out? I need a way to wipe them all out but without them realizing it or being able to stop it in time… but how?” She picked up a bottle of her favorite perfume, and began to spray herself. The Stingars found the smell to be awful and backed away from her, much to her delight… and that’s when it dawned on her. …but she would need help, and knew just who could do the job with her. She crept to the throne room, and found nobody there. Beneath her father’s throne was a large, very large ledger, with the list of all the ships, soldiers, shifts, just about everything there was for the entire armada. Phoebe suddenly found the name she was looking for and what ship to go to. General Slick came into the room. “Princess…?” She jumped. “You startled me. Don’t ever do that again?” “What are you doing with the royal ledger?” “That is none of your concern.” “Anything that has to do with your father or his family is my concern. Perhaps I shall tell your father.” He turned to exit, but Phoebe zipped right in front of him, making him jump. “If you must know, I am going on a mission. One that will prove to my stubborn father that I am more than capable of being the fighter he dreams of.” Slick was outraged. “Your father left strict orders that you were to not deal in such matters!” “Exactly why should go.” said Stag as he entered the chamber “I couldn’t help but overhear, and I support you Princess. Should you… I mean to say when you succeed; your father will be most pleased. It wouldn’t surprise me if he no-less than compensated with say… your very own starship. ” Phoebe liked that idea, but Slick could not believe his comrade. “Neither of you are to tell my father of this, is that clear?” Phoebe practically threatened. Both generals complied, and Phoebe went off to put her plan in action. “Have you lost your senses?” snarled Slick “When his majesty hears of this he’ll have such a raging fit.” Stag snickered “Oh, well… if it happens, it happens.” Slick could not believe what he heard, or how his partner was behaving. Meanwhile, Goldwin was watching people in the streets through his telescope. As much as they tried to go on with their lives, they felt so awkward having the guards near them and watching their every move…Dyno and Myte, were there among them, filling in for a couple of sentries, and obviously not liking their jobs. Other ponies had to go home and pretty much stay home unless they had something important to take care off, it really made him feel sad. Queen Celestia approached him, not liking what she could see herself. It really broke her heart seeing how uncomfortable all the civilians were, and even more so that she and her husband and sister were the ones who passed the law. “I feel terrible.” she said “I wish there was something we could do to make it better.” Goldwin agreed “I know how some of them feel, being all cooped up all the time; just like how I can’t leave the palace.” “Oh, I’m sorry, Goldwin. I guess in all this stress and trauma I didn’t think about that.” “It’s all right…” Goldwin said “What keeps me going is the belief that one day there will be a way to bring me fully to life, and I won’t have to stay in the palace all the time, and I won’t have to wear my magic mask…” …without thinking, Goldwin foolishly took his mask off, and he turned into a golden statue. Celestia couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh, Goldwin, you silly thing.” She said as she took his mask and placed it back on his face. Then she cleared her throat and recited the magic phrase… “Powers of life, now begin awaken the magic from within!” Goldwin changed back to normal. “Your majesty…?” She smiled smugly at him “You took your mask off.” He blushed “Oh… yeah, I did.” He felt very silly. “Um… how’s Grand Ruler coming with his project?” “Oh, he and Professor Brain are still in the lab working on it.” said Celestia “I think I’ll go check on them. Oh, but first I have to put the children down for their nap.” After she left Goldwin continued to look at all the unhappy faces down in the village, still feeling sorry for them all, but at least they would be able to venture out soon. “Gee, I really wish I could be like them.” Goldwin said, and he began to sing a soft song as he wandered all over the palace. Come along with me through my world It’s beautiful palace, my world. It’s so divine! There’s a lot to see in my world So many wondrous things waiting to unfurl And it’s mine. Everywhere I go, each sight and sound entrances me My feet then began to spin and dance… With that, he began to dance, twirl and leap about as he wandered all around, all the way up to the tallest tower of the palace, and there, he walked out onto the terrace, gazing down at the world beneath and beyond. Oh, this is the end of my world For out there beyond the grounds it’s their world …one day soon I’ll be free to go see, It’s all there for me in the light of the sun and moon. While all this was going on, deep beneath the palace, far below the ground was a secret refinery that helped maintain all the activity that occurred from deep within the bowels of the planet. This way thing like unnecessary earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, temperatures of the soil and other things could be dealt with and crises could be avoided, but also, the air pockets from within the planet could be maintained to help keep oxygen flowing around the planet; almost like a full operational air-conditioning unit built into the planet. Usually the place was under heavy guard, but with most of the guards busy protecting the civilians, the place was now only manned by its technicians and regular security. All the ponies were working hard maintaining their stations to ensure than nothing whatsoever went wrong. Even the smallest of dangers could lead to a lethal disaster for the entire planet and all that inhabited it. The second anything went wrong, the warning alarms would alert the station, and if the problem was more severe, the general alarms would sound all over the planet; warning every creature of the imminent danger. The alarms were also doubly secured with special detections systems to warn of sabotage, if anyone tried to put the alarms out of action… these backups, however, where not protected! All the technicians went about their business checking the systems and maintaining properness in the levels and gauges, and the security guards did their rounds. One of the technicians was at the power controls in the generator room, checking off everything on his clipboard as “A-Okay” Suddenly, he heard a soft scraping sound. “Who’s there?” he called out. Then he could hear a soft buzzing sound. Now he knew something was wrong, and dashed over to sound the alarm, when suddenly, he was grabbed by a long tentacle… “No! Help!” he shouted, and then suddenly there was a faint hissing sound, and he was knocked unconscious. The creature that grabbed him was a female insecto; a stink-bug like creature wearing a poison shielding mask. She was very charming, but very wretched, and had just used her special gas to knock the pony unconscious, allowing her to swipe his key-card. She was then joined by several Stingars and Princess Phoebe; all wearing masks as well and holding other key-cards they had swiped from other guards on the surface, which they used to enter the refinery undetected. “You serve me well, Poisandra.” said Phoebe. Poisandra nodded “It is an honor to serve you, Princess.” Then she snapped her fingers, instructing the Stingars to disable the warning alarms and their backup systems. The Stingars then worked carefully, taking out the backup system first, and then sabotaged the alarms perfectly so they wouldn’t go off. “Excellent…” said Phoebe “Now, let’s begin.” Poisandra nodded, and shouted “POISON PODS!” and spewed form her sac several cocoons roughly the size of baseballs, which were massive stink-bombs. “Once I slip these into the main intake shafts, they will spread my toxin all over the planet. Slowly but surely the oxygen in the air shall be consumed.” The gang all made sure their poison-mask were fitted good and tight so they wouldn’t get hurt from the fumes. Then, they all worked together slipping the cocoons into the main shafts. It would take a little while from the fumes to take effect, but Phoebe only main concern was to prove herself to Pinsar. In the palace laboratory, Grand Ruler and Professor Brain had completed the new capture-sphere, and when used to capture a creature, it would record and transfer their thought-patterns and brainwaves into data. Now they were ready to run a test, just when Celestia came into the lab to witness it. “Well, here we go.” said Brain. The test was simple. They used the sphere to capture a monster dummy that had a special crystal containing old data on it. The dummy was captured successfully, and within a few seconds the data was recorded. “It works fine.” said Celestia. “No, not really.” her husband said. “What was the time, Professor?” “Precisely five point two-seven seconds, your majesty.” “Well, it can work on other monsters…” said Grand Ruler “But if we captured an Insecto, Pinsar would have already destroyed it. It’s just not fast enough to capture the data in time.” “Can you increase the power?” asked Celestia. “We most certainly can, and we must.” said Brain “It should work perfectly before long.” “I hope so…” Grand Ruler muttered. He looked rather tense; he was having another one of his traumatic flashbacks of when Starlight Braveheart was killed by Pinsar and his troops. He snapped himself out of it almost at once “I’m alright.” His wife and the professor were very concerned about him, but didn’t say a thing. “Well, I better go check on the children again.” Celestia said, and she placed her hand on Grand Ruler’s shoulder “Don’t overexert yourself.” Her husband smiled and kissed her on the lip softly “I won’t.” As Celestia headed for the door, she stopped and sniffed the air. “…Is it stuffy in here, or is it just me.” “No, we feel it too.” said Brain. “It’s probably just from our work.” added Grand Ruler. Then Celestia left, but really, the stuffiness was growing worse. The temperature inside the palace and all around the village was heating up like being in a giant steam-room, and it was getting very hard to breathe. Many of the ponies were already starting to lapse into unconsciousness from lack of oxygen. The danger had already reached New Ponyville too. Lightning began to cough and wheeze. “What’s happening…?” he groaned. “I… I feel… faint…” cried Starla “Dizzy…!” then she collapsed. “Starla…” groaned Lightning, but then he collapsed as well. Rhymey and Fluttershy were flying home, when they started to feel faint too. “Having… trouble… breathing…” groaned Fluttershy. “I… don’t… feel well. I’m going to have a dizzy spell!” added Rhymey, and both he and his wife slowly drifted right into a tree, just resting on the limbs. Back in New Canterlot, the Spanish Twins were coughing and wheezing. “Dyno! Que está pasando *What’s Going On?*?!” “I… I… Ay’-Ay’-Ay’…” Dyno could hardly answer as he collapsed along with his brother. Celestia struggled to get up the stairs. She was sweating very badly and had several wet spots all over her gown. Her mane was all droopy instead of flowing. Her husband and Professor Brain were now just starting to lose to the pressure. Brain already collapsed. Even Goldwin was starting to fade out, and took off his mask so as not to inhale the toxic air. As for Celestia… she final reached Castor and Leilani’s nursery, and just opened the door to find her children were already unconscious. “Castor… Leilani…!” she cried, but her voice could barely be heard in the thin atmosphere. Finally, she plopped down, flat on the floor. Meanwhile, Queen Ladybird could see everything. “All the ponies are suffocating.” She said with glee “Darling, your master plan is working perfectly.” Pinsar, already more than confused by all this, asked “What are you talking about, my dear? I haven’t come up with any plans to attack the planet yet.” Now his wife was confused. “If not you, then… who’s doing this?” Pinsar then noticed the royal ledger was not properly under his throne, but sitting on it. He picked it up, and smelled it with his antenna. That unmistakable perfume scent… and then, it got worse when one of the Stingars entered the chamber, and buzzed and clicked in its own language explaining to him that the Princess was not anywhere to be found, and Poisandra was not tending to her ships on schedule. Pinsar’s rage began to boil “PHOEBE…!!” Phoebe, still unaware of the trouble she was in, was feeling very content with what she had done. “By this time, even the strongest of them shall have passed out.” Then she instructed the Stingars and Poisandra to follow her back to the surface to see if it was time to move in and crush the planet while they could. Meanwhile, Grand Ruler was still struggling not to pass out from the pressure. He woozily made his way over to the vent shaft, and his three golden horns glowed magically, warning him of the toxins in the air. He tried to sound the alarms, but they didn’t work. “Sabotage!” he growled. “Must… warn… Lightning…!” He mustered up all the strength he could to send himself as a magical hologram to New Ponyville… At that moment, Krysta appeared, having returned from her home planet, Luminous, and unseen by the armada, to find Lightning and Starla collapsed on the floor, and she began to choke. “Hey… what is this? There’s no air here!” she groaned. Then she remembered the emergency respirators, including some just her size in the emergency first-aid kit. Once she had it on, she quickly touched Lightning and Starla’s energizers in specific sequences, activating their own respirators. “Come on, guys wake up!” cried Krysta. Lightning and Starla slowly began to come round. “Krysta…?” Lightning groaned. “What’s going on?” asked Starla. “You tell me.” said Krysta. Just then, Grand Ruler appeared in holographic form. “Lightning, are you alright?” “Yeah… all considering.” said Lightning. “Now, listen to me, all of you. There’s something wrong with the atmosphere. The air-support system has been sabotaged. I want you all to start helping others. Activate emergency oxygen program. I’ll warn the rest of the planet.” “Yes, sir.” said Lightning. The hologram vanished, and the friends all got up and headed outside. They saw many ponies lying unconscious all over the place, even Rhymey and Fluttershy stuck in the tree. Grand Ruler’s royal alicorn voice echoed along the air as he announced. “Attention: All inhabitants. Activate Emergency Oxygen Program. Repeat; Emergency Oxygen Program. All Chief Officers, report the condition of your personal.” Since there was no way to activate everyone’s respirators one-at-a-time, that was what the emergency program was for: Lightning went to the nearest lamppost, and above the Redbox where the alarm was, was a remote box with buttons like a telephone. Lightning unlocked the cover, and punched in a special-code. Instantly, a powerful satellite dish like object emerged from the lamppost and began emitting sonic frequency waves that magically activated respirators, making them appear on everyone. Dyno heard the message and managed to struggle up enough strength to get his respirator activated. Once he caught his breath, he quickly activated Myte’s “Come on, Myte. Breathe!” Soon, the twins activated the emergency programs all of New Canterlot, putting respirators on all the creatures, as were other officers. Grand Ruler was already going about saving the palace personal, and made his way to the nursery. He quickly gave the children their masks, and then his wife. “Celestia…! Wake up. Come on, breathe.” She started to stir, and was gaining her strength back. “Oh, Celesto…” she peeped. Her husband repeated his message again, using the magic of his horns to send it across the planet. “All inhabitants: on emergency oxygen. All Chief Officers, report the condition of your personal.” The Insectos could hear the message, and they were outraged. “No!” growled Phoebe “How could anyone have survived it?!” She then glared angrily at Poisandra. “You let me down…!” But Poisandra remained calm and assured her “I have not failed you yet, your highness. There is more than one way to conquer this planet.” She leapt up high in the air. “RED MIST SACKS!” and began to spew out more special cocoons, which spewed red smoke in the air. She snickered wickedly, and Phoebe grinned with delight. The twins could see them. “We may have guessed they were behind all this.” sneered Dyno. Myte nodded “I already sent Lightning an instant letter, but who knows when he’ll get here, and all the other officers are still reviving the civilians.” “Looks like we’re on our own, bro...” The air was getting redder as the poison continued to spread around. Poisandra snickered wickedly “It’s only a matter of time now. Even if those silly ponies figure what’s going on, by then it will be too late.” Phoebe grinned again and felt really proud with herself “I will see that you are compensated well, when my father praises me, that is.” Poisandra liked the idea. Suddenly! “Hold it right there!” shouted a voice. The bugs all peered through the smoke and saw the twins, fully transformed, and still wearing their respirators. Phoebe scoffed “Only two? I’ve seen a pack of termites more challenging than this.” “Yeah, well we’ve seen better challenges getting out of bed.” scoffed Dyno. Phoebe grunted and shouted at the Stingars “Get them!” The Stingars lunged forth. The twins nodded at one another, and jumped into battle, punching, kicking and knocking those miserable bugs down to size. “Dyno, behind you!” cried Myte as a Stingar raced towards his brother. Myte then leapt up high and kicked it in the chest, knocking it to the ground. “Gracias, bro. Now let’s deal with these two twits.” Phoebe and Poisandra stood ready to fight, but suddenly, the twins began to feel funny; really drowsy. “Now what?” groaned Dyno. “It’s this fog...” said Myte. “Correct you are…” hissed Poisandra “Those fancy masks won’t help you. This poison enters through the pores of the skin. It has no effect on us, however. We insectos spent ages building up our immunities to such elements.” Phoebe glared at the boys “Very slowly the poison is spreading all across the planet, and your precious little race won’t be so lucky this time.” She was right, all over New Canterlot the ponies were starting to feel the strain, even with their masks, it didn’t help. “No! We won’t let this happen.” said Dyno. “We’ve got to keep trying.” added Myte. They both got up and dashed at the two creatures, but in their weakening states, the ladies hardly had to put too much of a struggle and attacked them ruthlessly. Still, the boys refused to give up. Having earlier scanned the poison finding it was not inflammable; they joined their hands together “BOOM-BOOM FIREBALLS!” Their fireballs launched, and the ladies batted them all away with their multiple arms. “Easy pickings!” sneered Phoebe, and she thrust her human hands forth, and launched her finger nails, which were also powerful stingers, that exploded all around the twins, knocking them down. They tried to get up, but Posiandra leapt up high and shouted “PULSE PODS!” unleashing powerful explosive pods. Sparks and explosions blew all around the boys, knocking them down. Now the boys were really exhausted and could hardly get back on their feet. “I honestly can’t say which I will find more amusing.” said Poisandra “Be it you perish from the battle or from the poison. Either way, you’ve lost along with your pitiful planet.” The poison was continuing to spread, and more ponies were feeling the strain. Phoebe was practically leaping with joy. “Father will be so proud of me when he sees all the chaos and destruction I’ve caused, and on my first time, too.” Then she began to approach the twins, preparing for the kill. The twins tried to get up, but were far too weak from the ordeals. Phoebe then extended her stinger fingernails ready to strike, when suddenly she was blasted by powerful pulses. “What’s this?!” snarled Poisandra. There, through the smog stood Lightning, Starla, Rhymey and Fluttershy, all transformed and looking just as strong as ever. Since the poison hadn’t affected them yet, they were entering the battle fresh. Krysta even showed up with a flock of her fairies from Luminous. “Okay, now…” she shouted. Heeding their queen’s order, the fairies began to use their warping magic to contain the smog in magical orbs, making it clear to see. “My beautiful poison!” cried Poisandra. “My beautiful nails!” whined Phoebe. The others were growing annoyed. “You sure do whine a lot.” said Lightning “Now you’re going to pay for messing up our planet.” The others agreed, and they all charged into action. “WARD SWORD!” shouted Rhymey. “Coming through! Have at you!” he shouted, and wielding his sword skillfully, he began to slash at the evil duo, making more sparks fly and sent the ladies rolling along the ground. “Don’t hide behind me!” shouted Pheobe “Get them!” “PULSE PODS!” shouted Poisandra. “STAR SHOWER!” Starla quickly unleashed her cluster of star projectiles to counter the pods; this gave Lightning the chance to dash through and attack the ladies, sending the rolling along the ground again. Fluttershy had brought one of her special medicines to Dyno and Myte. “Here, drink this.” She said, handing them each a bottle of red liquid. It tasted rather nasty to the boys. “Ay’ Es horrible!” they groaned. “I know, but it’ll help you get your strength back.” said Fluttershy, and she was right; almost at once did the boys start to feel fit and fine. The ladies charged again, and were once again knocked back by the team. “Now, I’m really steamed!” growled Poisandra. “You thought we were tough before, now get ready for the big one!” added Phoebe. “Just you try it!” snarled Lightning. “Hold it!” said Dyno. “They’re ours now. We owe them this much.” added Myte. “Just a minute…” Lightning said, and he tossed them something in the form of glowing light that was absorbed into their energizers. “Grand Ruler finished the new sphere. It should work.” “Nothing you have can save you!” snarled Phoebe, and she launched her stingers, but everyone dodged. “UNIFORCE!” Lightning shouted, and he blasted the ladies hard. Pheobe was thrown back hard, and Poisandra was knocked right in front of the twins. “Let’s do it!” said Dyno. “I’m with you.” said Myte. Poisandra got up just as the twins activated their “Capture-mode” feature on their suits, joined hands, and charged up their finisher. “BOOM-BOOM FLARE!!” Poisandra was engulfed by the flame-wall, followed by the exploding transformation, and she was encased in the new capture sphere. “VIVA!!” shouted the twins. “Monsters come and go, but you won’t stop me so easily!” shouted Phoebe. The team stood ready for more, when suddenly, Phoebe was teleported away, and at the same time Poisandra was destroyed within her prison. “What happened?” asked Fluttershy. Everyone just assumed that it was Pinsar yanking his daughter back to the mothership. “I got a feeling she’s in big trouble.” said Starla. …and indeed she was. No one had ever seen Pinsar so infuriated before as he spoke severely with his daughter for disobeying. “I just don’t know what we’re going to do with you, young larvae!” Even Ladybird was very upset with her daughter. “I couldn’t be more ashamed with you, Phoebe.” “But my plan almost worked.” cried Phoebe. “Well, almost doesn’t cut it!” sneered her father “If you had continued the battle the way you were, you would have been defeated for sure.” “I was only trying to prove myself to you. You never gave me a chance.” “Pheobe, we have told you this millions of times; you are simply not ready, and today...” snarled Ladybird “And today was further proof of your inexperience and inadequacy.” “I’m over a-thousand years old… I’m not a larva anymore!” “Enough!!” shouted Pinsar “You are confined to your room until further notice.” Phoebe felt crushed and infuriated. “But father…!” “NOT ANOTHER WORD!!” shouted Pinsar “AND I AM NEVER...NEVER TO HEAR OF YOU WANDERING OFF INTO BATTLE AGAIN… IS THAT CLEAR?! Feeling very hurt and betrayed by her father’s shouting, Phoebe angrily stormed off “Out of my way!” she thundered as she shoved two Stingars down. Pinsar slumped down into his throne. “What am I going to do with her?” Ladybird placed her hands over her husband’s shoulders “Never mind, my love. I can understand where she’s coming from this. In our pursuit for power, we never did pay that much attention to her.” Pinsar simply scoffed, and decided to ignore the situation for now. He looked down at the planet below and swore the ponies would pay yet! Little did he realize that Stag and Slick had been spying on the whole thing through a couple of peepholes in the wall. “Never have I seen the king so frightfully stern.” said Slick. Stag, however, judged Pinsar’s attitude more as worry than anger. “I think that’s all I needed to know.” he muttered softly. Slick didn’t like the look in his comrade’s eyes. “He wouldn’t…?” he said to himself, and he hoped dearly the answer was No. Now that Poisandra was gone, her poisons lost all effects and just faded away into nothing. Technicians also looked into the shafts in the refinery and found the burnt out cocoons. After much needed repairs to the systems, and cleansing of the air, all was fine again, and Grand Ruler made the announcement… “Attention all inhabitants: Air support reactivated. Oxygen restored to normal. Switch back to your normal air-support.” All the ponies and other creatures took off their respirators and in a huge scent of freshness. Thankfully there were no serious casualties during the crisis. The gang all met in the palace with their majesties. “This was a close call.” said Lightning. “And it won’t happen again.” said Celestia “We’ve just ordered for the technicians to install more backups and precautions so no one can try anything like this again.” Her husband nodded “Just the same, I’m glad to see our newest invention worked.” “Well, only slightly…” said Starla, and she held up the, now, empty sphere. “According to the readout, the sphere was only able to capture a little bit of data; nowhere nearly enough to tell us much of what we want to know about the Insectos.” “Well, different Insectos have different thoughts. “We’ll have to keep gathering until we have lots.” said Rhymey. “Almost like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.” added Fluttershy. Everyone agreed. “Still…” Grand Ruler said as he walked to the window “This war is only just beginning. We all must remain on constant vigil. No telling what sort of tricks and traps Pinsar has up his sleeve.” Everyone noted the sense of upset in his tone and watched him eye at Pinsar’s ship threateningly. “Is he alright?” Krysta whispered to Celestia. “I don’t think I can tell anymore.” Celestia said. She was really getting worried about her husband’s emotional health. All this because of an incident that happened to him a millennium ago; if only she knew how to help him come to terms with it, but this was something he had to do for himself. “I just hope he doesn’t go crazy.” Lightning whispered to the others, and everyone, even Celestia shared that hope with him. (Promo) In our next episode: The Cutie Mark Crusaders continue in their efforts to help Spike, as well as their own priorities, and then decide to bait a trap to catch the Black Dragon Knight themselves, though DD is very reluctant to join. Things goes horribly wrong when the girls find themselves in a hard place, and to make matters worse, Spike considers leaving his friends to protect them, but will he actually do so? Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!” (Next Episode: “Be Brave or Be Fool”)