//------------------------------// // Episode 2: Feather Blusters // Story: My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season IV // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE TWO The dark stranger had returned to his home; but all covered in extreme darkness and shadows with occasional lightning strikes flashing. The entire area was all barren, desolate; laden with destruction and devastation everywhere. In the center of the wasteland was a very large creature, the same size as New Canterlot Palace. He seemed to be made entirely out of a dark energy forming his large body, and two large red glowing eyes. He spoke in a very deep, very dark sinister voice, “What have you to report, Nomed?” Nomed bowed to his leader, “Your majesty, as per your orders, I succeeded in making my way to the distant past.” The Dark King glared down at him, “Then tell me why you haven’t succeeded in conquering the era?” “Begging your majesty’s pardon, I ran into a few… obstacles... and on top of that, my precious Cardinal, the Flame-Stripes was beaten.” “Your excuses bore me!” the Dark King thundered at him his voice echoed along the darkness. Nomed felt a little nervous deep down. He knew that displeasing the Dark King was highly inexcusable and usually meant danger. “You know how vitally important your mission is.” said the Dark King “We have conquered this pitiful world and many others, but it is still not enough. In order for me to gain complete mastery and dominance of all that exists, we must wipe out those who oppose and defy us. As I am unable to travel to the past, I trusted you to make my dream a reality.” Nomed bowed again and said “…I assure you, your highness, victory is within our grasp. Though I was unsuccessful the first time, it was merely by a small fluke. We mustn’t forget that they come from an era so primitive to that of our world, and their disadvantages will serve us well.” The Dark King hesitated a moment and then said “Very well, you may continue, but be warned; any further blundering, and you will suffer the consequences.” Nomed sighed softly in concern, but assured his king victory before he left. The Dark King took a moment to gaze off at a distant speck of light across the lands, and growled at it with hatred. “It’s only a matter of time…” he said “Once I have achieved my plot, the darkness will rule all, and the light shall be no more. I will be supreme ruler of all that is, and all that will ever be.” While at the Royal Palace in New Canterlot, the team had their injuries treated. All of them were very lucky it wasn’t so serious, and they reported to their royal majesties. They even gave Professor Brain the blank card they had confiscated hoping he could find some answers. Grand Ruler Celesto and Queen Celestia were shown images of the fight, via the magic Rarity and Lightning’s friends used. Both their majesties were extremely mystified by many things, but none concerned them more other than the facts that uniforce itself was not enough to block the monster out of the buildings, and that it was so strong if Lightning taken his risk and turned into an Enticorn, things would have gotten very serious. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Grand Ruler said “But it cannot be ignored that we have a new enemy on our hands, which means war laws will have to be enforced at once to ensure safety.” The others agreed. “But wait…” said Rainbow “If the force fields weren’t enough to shield everyone then there’s no safe place to run. So how can we protect everyone?” “We always had anticipated this would happen, and we’ve had an alternative plan.” said Celestia. She turned to face Lightning and Krysta letting them explain. As Commander, it was Lightning’s job to advise new and alternative strategies to use against threats to the planet. “It was always anticipated that though the uniforce shielding the buildings would one day prove to be ineffective, but Krysta and I talked about and came up with an evacuation strategy.” Krysta nodded and fluttered over the center of the table to face everyone. “I spoke with my husband, Topaz, and we have agreed to a new strategy to have our standby fairy soldiers come in times of danger to warp the populace in the immediate areas of danger to the safe planet, Sharma.” Everyone liked the idea and agreed to it. It would at least guarantee the safety of lives. “Well that solves one of our problems out, but we’re still not in the clear. We still don’t know much of that creature, nor who sent it here.” said Rhymey. “He’s right.” said Fluttershy “It felt like trying to battle a-hundred monsters at once.” “All our best attacks hardly even scratched it, even we all ganged up on It.” added Starla. Their majesties were deeply concerned as well, but regretted to inform the team there was little to nothing they could advise. “As I have said before…” Grand Ruler said “We ourselves have never seen anything like this. We only know as much as you all do.” Professor Brain entered the room. “Professor, have you found out anything?” Celestia asked. Brain shook his head as he held the card “I have analyzed the object, the card which you had given me, countless times, and could produce nothing. I have never seen anything like this before, nor have the computers.” The others all groaned in dismay. “So what do we do now?” asked Buddy Rose “We know we can’t beat these guys by ourselves, unless… Lightning…” Lightning could tell what he was getting at and immediately said “No, I’m not willing to take that risk. The last one was bad enough; I could’ve caused more damage or hurt someone innocent.” he spoke rather severely, and then felt everyone staring at him. “I’m sorry. I just…” The others understood how Lightning felt, but they had to come up with some plan to get stronger. “Somehow I don’t think ordinary training will pay off this time.” said Spike “Maybe we could make our weapons stronger.” “No, Spike, that would not be possible.” said Brain. He admitted he had been doing experiments to make the weapons and suits more powerful, but the results were highly unstable and often caused explosives within his laboratory, which badly shook the castle, and often woke up the infant foals, Castor and Leilani. Their majesties had ordered his project be shut down before he blew up the entire palace. “But what do we do?” snapped Applejack “Look we can’t train, and we can’t power ourselves up. What can we do?” “The first thing we must do is learn of our new enemy.” Grand Ruler “We must find out who he, she, or they are, what they plan to do and why.” Celestia nodded “All forces will be made aware of the situation, and carry out searches for any hint of where the enemy is hiding. Once we have the information we need, it’ll be that much easier to deal with the danger. Until then, all of you will remain on constant alert, and if it seems the battles are not in your favor, you may be advised to retreat.” “Que, retreat?” snapped Dyno. “But that’s insane. We can’t just let these monsters wreak havoc on the world.” “I understand your concerns.” Grand Ruler said “But what you all have to realize, is that in our current situation, rushing into a battle we know we can’t win by ordinary means increases the chances of you all being destroyed. We’ll render any assistance that we can, but for the moment we’ll have to play it safe. Is that understood?” Everyone agreed. For now it was getting late, and with the guards doing their nightly shifts and Princess Luna on watch, everyone thought of heading to bed. Krysta bid everyone goodnight and headed home to her world, the planet Luminous, and promised that by morning she’d have her fairy soldiers ready to help out in the long road ahead. As most of them headed off to their rooms, Spike remained behind for a moment to gaze at the memorial window of Twilight Sparkle. The chalice containing her ashes remained safely kept well in the niche underneath. He just stared sadly at the picture in the glass. “Goodnight, Twilight. I really wish you were here with us.” Spike said softly, and little tear fell from his eye. Rarity saw him and knelt down near and softly cuddled him close to her. “We all do, Spike.” she said “We miss her, but she is and always will be with us. Just as I will always be here for you as best I can.” Spike smiled softly and snuggled into her arms. Rarity had been a good caretaker for him since Twilight died, despite their few spats and disagreements, but Spike was very grateful to her… Meanwhile, Goldwin, the magic statue was stargazing through his telescope. “Wow, the stars look so pretty tonight.” he said. Suddenly, he caught a sight of two stars moving across the sky. “Wow! Shooting stars.” he suddenly noted their rather irregular path, and they we removing a little slow to really be shooting stars, and the seemed to be settling over the thickets and brambles of Everfree Forest, far, far away. “Gee, that was strange. They just disappeared.” He was suddenly snapped out of his wondering when he noticed how late it was getting, and he felt rather tired and figured he’d go back to be a statute, which was how he rested. So he hopped onto his pedestal and removed his magic mask, turning back into a solid gold statue until someone would wake him up in the morning. While far, far away in in the forest, two figures, one male and one female, all dressed in white monk’s robes and hoods stood in the middle of the forest road gazing at their surroundings. They said nothing, but they could hear the soft sounds of growling behind them. They turned round and saw a pack of Timber Wolves snarling at them angrily. The two strangers held out their hands and unleashed small bursts of magic at the wolves, and the wolves headed away as if the magic were forcing them to leave. The male spoke grimly. “It still fascinates me that this is what it was all like before.” His partner agreed, but reminded him “We mustn’t forget why we are here. If we are unsuccessful, then our efforts will be in vain and there shall be no hope for anyone.” They walked off together and vanished into the night. Rarity slept peacefully in her big bed, but Spike lay awake in his little bed with his flashlight on, and with a little parchment and pencil he secretly wrote something special he had been keeping secret from her and the others, and as he sat there pondering what to write next he began contemplating whether or not he would even show it to Rarity. As Spike tucked his parchment away, Rarity was awakened form hearing the soft sounds of the paper scratching. “Spike… is that you?” she whispered, but when she turned she could see hi sleeping like an angel. She smiled softly at him and then went back to sleep, and Spike peeked one eye open at her, and sighed ever so softly as he fell asleep. While everyone slept deeply, the two hooded strangers managed to sneak past all the guards and any detectors, entering the palace. They communicated through telepathy so as not to make any noise. “Wouldn’t it be easier if we just did this while they were awake? Then we could reveal ourselves to them.” the male thought, but his friend disagreed “You know just as well as I do that would cause trouble. For now, we have to do as we were told, and we’ll reveal ourselves to them in due time.” Resisting any urge and time to argue, the two set off across the palace slinking about avoiding detection as easily as they did to get in. They stopped inside the bedrooms of each of ponies, and then took out a small walnut sized crystal. Then, by magic, the crystals evaporated into a sparkling soft magic and fused into the bodies of the friend, though they did not feel a thing. Even Spike got one. The ponies felt nothing and just continued to sleep. The duo then came to Lightning and Starla’s room. “Wow, it’s really him.” the male thought as he gazed upon Lightning. His friend was just as amazed, and they gave the last crystals to Lightning and Starla. Suddenly, Lightning was beginning to stir in his sleep. He was tossing, turning, frowning. “He is having another nightmare.” the male thought. His friend nodded, and the both vanished, and a split second after, Lightning awoke softly, simply gasping rather than waking up screaming. “Oh, not again.” he groaned softly hoping not to awaken Starla, but she felt him twitching softly and didn’t and peeked her eyes open, feeling very worried about her husband. Fortunately, Lightning managed to shake off his nerves and fell back asleep. The next morning, the ponies began to awaken softly. Buddy Rose awoke to the sound of the alarm clock on the nightstand near his bed. He raised out his hand and felt around for the clock, feeling it, and he softly tapped the stopper, but smashed the clock in the process. He gasped in shock, snapping himself fully awake. Artie woke up and hopped out of bed, but at he set his feet on the floor, his feet smashed through the carpets and through the stone floor making a hole down to the next room below. He held on to the celling, but was most shocked. “What the-- How did I do that?” Rhymey stretched out, hitting his hand on one of the four posters nearest to him, snapping it like a twig. Dyno and Myte woke up in their shared guest room after hearing the crashed. “What’s going on?” asked Dyno. “I don’t know. It sounds like the palace is falling down.” said Myte. They both hopped out of bed, and placed their feet down, breaking holes though the floor just as Artie did, surprising them both. They got up and walked to the door, and as Dyno grabbed the knob, he yanked the door clear off its hinges like they were made of paper. “What is going on here?” snapped Dyno. “That’s what I’d like to know.” added Myte. It was the same thing for all the others friends. They got up, and anything they laid their hands on got smashed, crumpled or snapped with the simplest touch. Spike even crumpled his whole basket-bed, but not a single one of them had any clue how this was happening. Finally, Lightning and Starla had awoken. Lightning softly reached over and stroked his wife’s lovely mane. “Morning, dear.” he said sweetly. She smiled at him and asked, “Having anymore nightmares lately?” Lightning sighed “I guess I can’t hide well, can I.” Starla rolled her eyes playfully, but leaned forward and kissed him softly, but bopped Lightning hard in the mouth. “Ow! Hey, not so hard.” he groaned. Starla couldn’t understand “But, I was moving very softly. Come here, let me see…” she placed her hands down on the mattress, and pushed right through it. “Huh?” Even Lightning was surprised “What have you done?” Starla slowly raised her hands out of the hole still baffled and confused. Lightning softly raised his hands and felt his wife’s hands, and gasped softly. “Your hands… they feel different; much more solid than before.” “So do yours.” Starla said. They both couldn’t resisted and slapped each other and soft high five, creating a massive energy wave than knocked them both hard off their bed and straight into the walls. Lightning’s wall was the wall to the nursery, where the Grand Ruler and Queen were feeding their children their bottles. Their majesties winced in shock, and their poor little foals were frightened and cried. “Lightning Dawn, what are you doing?” snapped Grand Ruler. “I’d like to know myself.” Lightning said as he got up. There was a knock at the nursery door, and the door fell right down off its hinges, making the babies cry even more. “Oh, sorry.” said Buddy Rose. Celestia didn’t know if she was more annoyed, or confused “What is going here?” she demanded to know. Krysta appeared, having warped in from her world. “Morning everyone.” She said, but then she gawked at the confusing state everyone and the room seemed to be in. “Did I miss something?” All friends were taken to the sickbay for analysis, and the doctors could not explain at all how, but their physical strengths had increased beyond belief. It was doubly confirmed by comparing the readouts to their previous physical exams from the previous night. Now they’re strengths were so high, all the measuring devices and scanners couldn’t seem to calculate how high it was. “That’s not possible.” Grand Ruler said “Even a century of training wouldn’t increase their strengths this much.” “It’s stranger than that.” said Applejack “Except for our battle yesterday, we haven’t been training.” “I don’t know. Is there such a thing as sleep-training as well as sleepwalking?” Pinkie wondered, but everyone dismissed the idea. Regardless of anything, they were all now stronger than ever, and just the simplest touch was enough to break a hole through the thick walls of the palace. “I’m scared.” cried Fluttershy. Rarity trembled in fear as she bit her nails nervously muttering. “This can’t be happening. I must be dreaming.” “I’m afraid it’s not, we are quite awake, Just the slightest touch can make anything break.” Spike lifted a huge and solid table island over his head with one hand, which he normally wouldn’t be able to do. “Put that down!” snapped the doctor. Spike placed it down as gently as he could, and he still broke it. “Whoops! Sorry.” The doctors were very annoyed, but still astonished, but not as much as everyone else was. “This is incredible.” said Artie. “Yeah, but how did it happen?” Rainbow wondered aloud. Everyone pondered, and there was only one explanation; it had to have been done by magic. “But who could have done this?” asked Starla. Their majesties questioned the royal guards who patrolled during the night, but the guards had reported that no one could have entered the palace. The security sensors and magic detectors all checked clear as well. This began to frighten everyone; it meant that whoever did this was somehow powerful enough to be able to avoid the detection of their instruments. “First the force field failed us, then that monster nearly crushes us, and now this…?” Lightning said with concern in his voice. He was about to pound the wall in frustration, when he suddenly stopped before he broke another hole in the wall. It would take a little getting used to, but the friends realized they really had to do was concentrate harder on holding their excess strengths back, so as not to make any more messes. “Still, this could be beneficial.” said Dyno “Si, I mean, we’re so much stronger now. Isn’t that a good thing?” Their majesties were not as certain. “This power was just given to you by someone or something we couldn’t see and don’t know of.” said Celestia. Her husband agreed “Everything comes with its prices, and I have a feeling there is more involved in this than we think.” Suddenly, the warning alarms went off, and Captain Shaina rushed into the room. “Your majesties, your majesties!” she cried “There is trouble in the village! More than half my guards tried to intercept but have been seriously injured.” The ponies gazed at their majesties with concern. Grand Ruler was still very skeptical, but he knew they couldn’t ignore the danger. “Go!” he said. Everyone saluted and all flew out the open window. “Are you sure about this?” Celestia asked. Her husband gazed at her and admitted “No I’m not, but the kingdom is in danger, and we can’t ignore the call because of mere doubt.” He gazed out the window and secretly prayed he was also not putting Lightning and the others at risk as well. The civilians were all running in panic, but Krysta and a team of her fairies had arrived and instructed everyone to head into the portals, and they were all warped to safety on Sharma. The fairies also teleported away themselves so as not to get involved in the extreme danger they knew was too much for them. Grand Ruler still raised the shields around the buildings, hoping to at least avoid collateral damages and spare the planet more destruction, but still, Lightning and his team made it to the village only to find many guards and other Starfleet fighters lying critically injured all over. “My goodness, how could this happen?” cried Rarity. “I got a feeling whoever did this is still around.” said Spike. “Oh, how right you are.” said a voice, and that’s when he appeared. “Face it; you’re all no match for this kind of power. I’ve seen the future and none of you are in it. Lightning clenched his fist tight and snarled “Who are you, and just what are you after here?” “I am Nomed, servant of darkness. I exist only to rid all worlds of the light, and to spread the darkness, the chaos, in the name of the Dark King.” “…The Dark King?” Lightning muttered. Then he snapped himself back to his senses. “We won’t allow you or any darkness to invade our world. I give you this one chance; Leave now, or face the consequences!” Nomed snickered sinisterly and said “I choose this…” and he reached behind him and pulled out another card exactly like the one the ponies had found after the last battle. The picture on it was that of a rooster-like creature. “What is he doing?” asked Rainbow. She soon got her answer as Nomed held the card up high and shouted “Cardinal Buster Beak, come forth and destroy this irritants!” and he threw the card away from him… At once, the card glowed mysteriously, and the monster appeared--a fifteen foot high rooster-like monster with long legs, powerful wings, and plump round body. His beak had to be at least a yard long. The monster cawed loudly, almost like a roar. The team winced back a bit. “So that’s how it works.” said Buddy Rose. Nomed snickered “And you haven’t seen anything yet.” then he ordered his monster “Get them!” Beak cawed and leapt up high, flapping its huge wings. “Whoa? A flyin’ chicken?!” cried Applejack “…Now I’ve seen everythin’.” The monster came crashing down hard. “Watch out!” cried Fluttershy, and everyone leapt out of the way. The monster began flapping his wings hard and shouted “AIR BLAST” and sent a powerful wind current straight at everyone blowing them away and crashing hard on the ground. Nomed laughed wickedly. “Now, It’s my turn.” and without even having to shout his attacks, he just fired a stream of dark energy at everyone, creating massive explosions that threw everyone off their feet. They all quickly got up again and transformed quickly. “STARFLEET MAGIC!!” “HARMONY HOUR, FRIENDSHIP POWER!!” “Dragon Power!!” “Change all you like, it really doesn’t matter to us.” Nomed sneered. His monster growled and leapt up high again for another pounce. “Not this time you don’t.” snapped Lightning and he leapt up high and kicked the monster hard in the face. The monster roared and sent was sent crashing down hard, much to Nomed’s shock. “Huh? How did he do that?” Beak got up, still not beaten and fought back with all his might; pecking hard at the fighters knocking them all down. “That’s more like It.” growled Nomed, and he jumped down and joined in the fight. He loomed over Lightning as he lay down after being attacked. “No more games. Your time ends now.” He prepared to finish him off, but Lightning zipped out of the way and then socked Nomed hard in the face sending him skidding along the ground. “I agree; no more games.” Lightning said. Nomed could hardly believe it as he rubbed his cheek. “That hurt! That actually hurt me, but it’s impossible!” Lightning stood and glared at him from afar. Nomed began to suspect something mysterious had happened to make Lightning seem so strong. “Lightning…!” Starla called. Lightning turned to see the others still battling it out with Beak. Beak pointed his beak upward and shouted “LIGHTNING BOLT” bringing a load of lightning bolts raining down on the team. Sparks and explosions flew everywhere. “I’ll settle with you later.” said Lightning, and then he dashed over to help his friends, while Nomed still remained confused. He watched as the ponies and Spike continued to battle his monster, yet the fight seemed evenly matched. Buddy Rose got out his vine whip and Applejack got her lasso. “Shall we?” “Let’s rope this rustler.” said Applejack, and they both flew towards the monster, lassoing his beak shut, and tying his legs together. Pinkie Pie leapt for joy “Way to rope that rooster.” She cheered. Beak’s wings were still free and he was still able to leap up high, and he forced Applejack and Buddy Rose away from him, also releasing his beak from the whip, and with his beak free he was able to use his magic one more. “LIGHTNING BOLT” “Watch out!” cried Fluttershy. The twins decided to try something before the lightning struck. They held hands and shouted “BOOM-BOOM ROCKETS” firing their projectiles at the skies, so the lightning only struck the rockets. The twins were amazed that they countered the attack, but Beak suddenly unleashed his “AIR BLAST” and sent everyone soaring away again. “This isn’t getting anywhere.” Spike said “Maybe we should try our finishers.” “Good idea…” said Artie. “I agree…” said Lightning “Group formation, now.” And at his command, all the ponies and spike stood together with their weapons ready, and the magic charged. “Ready… take aim…” but before they could fire they felt their energies starting to be absorbed. “What’s happening?” cried Rarity. “I’m feeling… very weak…” added Rainbow. Nomed was then heard laughing, “Did you forget about me?” he hissed as he continued to absorb their energies. “You!” growled Lightning as he tried to get up but his body felt too weak. “Take a deep breath ponies, for it shall be your last!” hissed Nomed. As he prepared to deliver the final blow, Lightning’s insignia on his armor began to glow. “What’s happening?” Lightning muttered. He then heard two voices calling to him, one make and one female. “Activate your Mega Mode.” “Activate it and you will win.” Lightning didn’t understand what this was all about, but as soon as he saw Nomed, shouting “BE GONE…!” and fire he burst at the team… “Ah…! Mega Mode Activate!” He quickly tapped his insignia just in time as a big explosion erupted. Nomed laughed louder and wicked than ever. “I did it! I win!” he cried, but his rejoicing was cut short when he could see shadows through the smoke, and there stood Lightning. Nomed gazed at him in shock while the others gazed in awe. Lightning's white suit was now silvery shiny, and his armor was now padded with even stronger golden shoulder pads, his body armor now had a golden plate across the upper-area, armor pads on his arms, legs, and even his boots had new golden guards around the feet, and most astonishing was protective headgear covering more of his head than ever, except for his ears, horn and mouth. His golden visor still remained, only now it, too, was greatly enhanced. Lightning had activated this new power and stood in the way of the burst before it struck, sparing his friends while he himself only suffered some damage, but not nearly enough to even knock him off his feet. “That… that power!” cried Nomed “This can’t be happening.” “Lightning…” Starla cried softly in astonishment. Lightning looked himself all over, admiring his new outfit, but he could hardly find the words to even begin to describe what he was feeling; a mixture of feelings-- astonishment, incredibleness, confusion, but one thing he did feel was strong, very strong. He glared at Nomed who seemed to be shaking softly. “I don’t know much about this myself, but I’m ready to see what it can do.” Nomed began to fire many blasts at him, but Lightning swerved and twisted, evading the blasts, and even deflected one with the padding on his arm, and then fired a small burst of the uniforce from his horn straight at Nomed, hitting him in the arm. “A’RGH!!” The others could hardly believe their eyes. “How is he doing this?” asked Pinkie. “I don’t know how, or even why, but at least he can stand up to that evil guy.” said Rhymey. Nomed couldn’t believe this, but wasn’t willing to let it happen. “Buster Beak, get him, we’ll beat him together.” His monster roared and stretched his legs, breaking Applejack’s rope. Then both he and Nomed double-teamed on Lightning, but Lightning stood his grounds and fought back valiantly, punching and kicking the evil ones hard and dealing them more damage. “LIGHTNING BOLT” Beak fired his bolts at Lightning, hitting him and dealing him more damage. “Lightning!” cried Starla, but her husband got up. “I’m okay.” he said. “…But not for long.” snarled Nomed “Now have a taste of my power!” he fired so many bursts of dark magic at Lightning which he avoided by sprinting forward, zigzagging avoiding each shot, and finally kicking Nomed hard in the chest and sent him crashing into a tree. “Yeah, sock it to him, Lightning!” shouted Rainbow. “So much for him… now for that overgrown canary!” said Lightning. Beak was soaring straight for him for a fatal strike, but Lightning began to power up the uniforce. “It didn’t work before, but I have a feeling it may work now; UNIFORCE!!” He fired that big burst of power at Beak, blasting him in a big explosion. When the smoke cleared, Beak’s card plopped onto the ground, and the picture faded away. Nomed clenched his fists angrily, and he snarled fiercely “You’ve won for now, but don’t believe this is over!” Then he was gone. The second he left, Lightning’s suit had powered down, and he was wearing his commander’s outfit once more, but he felt pretty exhausted. The others, having recovered their strength, powered their suits down and ran over to help him. “Are you okay?” Starla asked. “I think so…” Lightning said “But I tell you, I feel ready to sleep for a week.” The others were still baffled by the whole thing. “Lightning what was that?” Spike asked. Lightning wasn’t sure how to answer, but suddenly he could hear those two voices talking to him again. “You have unlocked your Mega Mode power.” said the male, and then the female spoke. “It will serve you well throughout the hardships ahead, but you must be cautious how you use it.” “Anybody else hearing that?” asked Artie. “Who is that?” added Rarity “Who are you?” The voices didn’t answer as they were merely recorded magical messages explaining the rules of the mega mode. “Each of you will be able to unlock your own mega modes in due time, they will greatly increase your powers for the long road ahead, but be warned. Overusing it will have a sever effect on your physical endurance.” “Captains Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack; you five will also unlock a special force to aid you as well, but you must utilize the ultimate power of the Elements of Harmony to do so.” “We can tell you no more, the future is at stake.” “Save us all, save the world and all its histories.” The voices said no more leaving the team with many unanswered questions. “Mega Modes, and now the ultimate powers of harmony too?” Lightning asked no one in particular, “And how come I wasn’t named?” Spike wondered. At least now they had a few answers. They knew who or rather what they were up against, and that they were given new powers as a gift to help them in upcoming battle, but they still didn’t know who gave them the powers, and where the enemies were coming from. “Guys, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.” said Lightning, and the others all agreed, unaware that they were being watched since the battle began by those two hooded strangers whom were hiding very close, but out of sight. They knew their first phase had been complete, but now they had other businesses to attend to, but neither of them liked what they had to do next in their quest, but they knew it had to be done without question… whatever it was going to be. (Promo) In our next episode; Princess Cadance begins to experience terrible nightmares which put her through a stressful trauma that may jeopardize her judgment on others and in herself. Meanwhile, a wicked mystery has fallen upon the planet as ponies are reported being attacked by a mysterious figure lurking in shadows. What impact will these nightmares have on Cadance, and what will the world think of this new shadowy menace? Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!” (Next Episode: “Waking Nightmares”)