//------------------------------// // Episode 14: Heart of the Underdog // Story: My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season IV // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE FOURTEEN The Dark King growled and groaned as if he felt pain or a disturbance! “The future is continuing to shift. The light is growing stronger as the darkness weakens. Why do you all keep failing me?!” Although he was alone, he knew his minions were close by and listening. “Time is running out! Those ponies must be defeated in order for us to take over completely. I want them destroyed and I want them destroyed NOW!!” Tnaig clenched his fists as he gazed at Neila. “You hear that? We can’t afford any more mistakes. The Dark King is as threatened by the light as we are, and that puts our very existence at stake.” Neila twirled a thread of her long hair on her finger “You don’t have to tell me what I already know. We were all born from the same darkness and magic that created our king. We exist only to destroy and block out the light.” Tanig didn’t like how she seemed to be acting so calm and collected at time like this. However, Neila was still on probation for her recklessness, and he himself was very much needed in the future with the impending situation worsening. “I think it’s time that our little spy finally proved how much his loyalties are.” said Neila. Tanig agreed. Rarity found herself standing in a flowery meadow, and she was staring at Thunder Cloud. He gazed at her deeply in the eyes, making her blush. “What am I doing here?” Rarity asked. “Well, isn’t it obvious…” said Thunder Cloud “Rarity, I brought you here because I have something important to say…” a long moment of silence ensued “…Rarity… I love you.” Rarity felt her heart racing, and sparkles glittering in her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.” “Do you?” “Oh… Thunder Cloud. I feel the same.” Their faces moved closer and closer towards one another as the scenery faded into white… …and Rarity woke up in bed. “Huh?” she remarked as she sat up and lifted her mask. “Oh… I thought it was really happening.” She sighed softly as she lay back down, but stared up at the canopy of her bed, and she imaged Thunder’s face up there. He was gazing down upon her, smiling lovingly. “Thunder Cloud…” Meanwhile, Esroh Dab was finding it difficult to sleep, not just because he still wasn’t used to sleeping on an actual bed, even if it was a sofa bed, but that wasn’t the main cause… He couldn’t stop thinking of Rarity. “She’s taught me a lot.” he said to himself “She’s shown me a whole bunch of things I never realized. So, why can’t I stop thinking about her?” He decided to get some fresh, or rather dark air of the night, and was soon levitating himself high above New Ponyville, with his pointed at the stars, but still he was thinking about Rarity and how nice she acted towards him. “She’s always on my mind, and when we’re together it feels even stranger… but this doesn’t make any sense. I’m a creature created from the very darkness itself. Why does my heart feel like this… when the truth is my heart doesn’t even exist?” Suddenly, a shadow loomed over him. “What do you want now, Neila?” he asked annoyingly “What are you even doing here? Aren’t you still on probation?” “Relax, I’m just here to pass you on a little message to get your act in gear. The Dark King is growing impatient.” Esroh could easily figure out the message “You want me to send a monster of my own?” “Well, it’s about time you did something than waste your time with these… creatures. After all, shouldn’t you have all the info you need by now?” Esroh hesitated. For some reason he felt a little uneasy about the idea. Neila noticed this “Are you feeling alright? Did you hear what I said?” “I heard you, and I’ll do it.” Neila vanished, but Esroh was still having doubts deep down. “This is no time to think silly.” He reminded himself “Tomorrow, I attack!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cardinal, believing it’d be the perfect choice. “Even the ponies won’t be able to stand up to this and its special ability.” The next morning, at breakfast, Spike noticed Rarity hadn’t touched a morsel, and just sat there with a goofy look on her face and her cheeks were red. Spike knew that look anywhere, and knew he’d regret asking “Everything okay, Rarity?” “Hmmmmm…?” was all Rarity could say as she remained deeply in her trance, which told him everything. She was thinking of Thunder Cloud again. Even after Spike finished his breakfast and cleaned his dishes, Rarity was still in the same state. “I’m going to help Dyno and Myte today.” Spike said, still trying to get her attention, but she hardly blinked her eyes. Spike sighed; Rarity had been ignoring him a lot lately for the past few days, and all the time it was because she was thinking about that Thunder Cloud guy all the time. “Thunder Cloud this, Thunder Cloud that. Guess that makes me invisible.” As he stepped out the door, he took a peek over at his bed basket by the fireplace, where his HMI was still buried inside, and he was starting to think that’s where it would stay. The twins had much to do in one of their mines after hitting a mother-lode of jewels. Applejack and Buddy Rose were helping too after finishing their daily chores at the farm early. Loaded up with miner hats and digging tools, everyone set to work. Dyno and Myte even got to blow up a couple of the walls to get rid of solid rock in the way. “Ready…?” asked Dyno. Myte nodded and he counted backwards from three, in Spanish, and pushed the plunger, detonating the charges. “Ye-Ha, what a bang!” cried Applejack. “Awesome!” added Buddy Rose. “Yay” Spike simply said. He sounded like Fluttershy in the dumps. It wasn’t until the digging began that they all noticed Spike was down in the dumps worse than they thought, even when he pushed a whole cart full of gems that he would normally find irresistible down the track. “All right, Spike. What’s eatin’ ya?” Applejack said. “What’s that?” “Spike…” Buddy Rose said, giving him the “Don’t play dumb with us” look. Spike came clean and admitted it was about Rarity and Thunder Cloud again. “It’s bad enough she’s falling hard for him, does she have to ignore me?” “Well, you are a pretty big dragon?” said Applejack “I don’t expect anyone can mommy ya forever.” Buddy Rose gave her a nudge “Not helping.” The twins, however, thought it was romantic that Rarity seemed to have found herself what looked like a keeper. “Young love. It’s a grand thing.” said Dyno. His brother agreed, but then they noticed Spike seemed more irritated. “Sorry, but we can’t help It.” said Myte “What do you want us to even say?” Spike knew they had a point. It wasn’t as if he was jealous enough to do anything stupid, or try to hog Rarity all to himself. He still wasn’t even sure if it was right for him to be thinking like this at all. “Are you still worried about this whole age deal and species type?” asked Buddy Rose. “Yes.” Spike admitted shyly “And I’m starting to think maybe I should just forget the whole thing.” He felt a little too depressed to work anymore, and he left the mine. “Spike…” Dyno called. “Come on, Spike.” added Myte. Applejack and Buddy sighed, but made no attempt to go after him. He had to solve out his issues himself “Just don’t do anything stupid.” they both thought. As Spike walked back into the village he could see Thunder Cloud walking along. He hid behind a trashcan and began to spy on him. He still felt uneasy about Thunder Cloud and didn’t trust him, especially when he noticed the queer look in his eyes, feeling he was hiding something. Thunder Cloud was still contemplating about launching his cardinal. He knew he had to do it; he’d never dare and defy the Dark King’s orders. He was about to reach for the card and summon the monster, when Rarity came along. “Hello, Thunder Cloud.” He jumped softly “Rarity, hi…” Spike groaned softly, now that he had to see the two of them together. “What am I doing, spying like this?” he wondered to himself, but deep down he felt it was more looking after Rarity, and he did fear maybe he was right and something really was up with Thunder Cloud, he needed evidence. So he decided to keep watching them. “Have you seen Spike anywhere?” Rarity asked. “Spike…? No, I haven’t been out here very long.” said Thunder. “Is something wrong?” “I’ll say. He just waltzed off without telling me where he was going.” Spike heard that and rolled his eyes. “That’s awful.” said Thunder “But I’m sure he didn’t mean harm.” Rarity agreed, and then suddenly her stomach gurgled. “Oh, my…! Sorry, but I didn’t eat very much this morning.” Thunder Cloud felt his insides crawling with nerves of confusion. Part of him was telling him to destroy her now while he had the chance, and that part covered a lot of him, but that tiny little other part of him won and said “Can I treat you to lunch?” Rarity’s heart began to race, and her eyes twinkled. She felt like jumping so high up into the air like Pinkie Pie when she got super excited, but she contained herself, and simply said “I’d love to.” And the ponies walked off together… …Much to Spike’s agonizing chagrin! “Not good, this is not good.” He mumbled as he slunk about following them, but keeping well out of sight. The ponies had gone to the outdoor café. Thunder Cloud acted like a gentlemen-- pulling the chair open for her, and letting her sit down. He let her order anything she wanted and he would pay for it all. Rarity felt all squishy inside, yet when her order came, she noticed Thunder hadn’t ordered anything. “I haven’t got enough money for two meals, and I’m not very hungry.” The actual truth was, being a creature of darkness; his body didn’t really require that sort of food as most creatures did. Rarity, out the kindness of her generosity offered to share some of her food with him. “Um… okay…” He shared some of her salad, half her sandwich, and Rarity placed a second straw in her lemonade, and the both shared a long sip together. Spike could see them as he peeked behind the tree, and he felt his heart weighing him down that he backed up against the other side of the tree and sagged down. “That’s it then…” he muttered softly as tears came to his eyes “I’ve really lost her. Well, it’s not like I ever had her to lose in the first place. Why am I even thinking like this?” He shut his eyes tightly trying to supress his pain, and let his tears fall onto the grass. Thunder Cloud then noticed Rarity was staring deeply into his eyes and he got that strange feeling again, stronger than ever. Then, right before his eyes he saw images of the Dark King and the others, reminding him of who he really was. He gasped softly. “What’s wrong?” asked Rarity. Thunder held his head panting softly and asked to be excused a moment to use the restrooms, and then he just ran inside before Rarity could say anything. She was most confused. Esroh was all alone in the men’s room, with his head draped over the counter and the sink. “What’s happening to me?!” he thought fearfully as he gazed into the mirror “This can’t be… am I actually feeling what they call… love? No, I can’t feel that, it’s not within me to feel these things.” He then lifted up his mane over his face and gazed at the dark insignia on his forehead, reminding him of his mission, and what Neila warned him about proving his loyalties. Esroh clenched his fists and grabbed his card. “I’ll show them where my loyalties lie…” he activated the card and threw it out the window. “Go get ‘em, Underdog!” Outside, the ponies were still enjoying their meals without much of a care in the world, when suddenly a mare shrieked when she saw a big, ferocious dog-like creature, the size of a dumpster and sharp teeth and claws, and wearing an armored vest. Many of the ponies began to panic and ran. Even Rarity screamed at the sight of the beast… This snapped Spike to his senses, and he saw the big dog “Whoa!” The alarms sounded and Krysta’s fairies came into action to warp all the civilian ponies to safety, but they did not see Thunder Cloud, for he slipped into hiding, not wanting to leave. He just watched everything from the restroom window. Rarity was now all alone in the dining area outside, and backing away fearfully as the dog inched towards her, snarling and drooling fiercely. “Rarity!” cried Spike as he leapt out from behind the tree. “Spike?” she was surprised to see him. The monster turned and glared at him, and Spike charged at him full force. “Dragon Power!” he shouted, but he didn’t transform! He tried again, and it didn’t work, and he had forgotten that he was still running right at the monster, crashing into his big legs. The dog snarled and flung him off, right into the tree. “Spike…!” Rarity screamed. “Yes!” Esroh cheered softly from the restroom so as not to be overheard “Looks like he can’t summon his super powers. This should be easy.” Rarity felt her anger spiking and she transformed-- “Harmony Hour, Friendship Power!” Then she stood tall and fierce and growled, “No one hurts my friend and gets away with it!” The dog snarled at her, and she snarled back. They then charged at one another, and as they got closer, the dog dove at the ground, burrowing away causing Rarity to miss him, and then suddenly the monster burst right through the ground attacking her hard. “Rarity!” cried Spike. He felt his anger beginning to rush. He tried to transform again, but still it didn’t work. “Come on! What’s going on?!” he cried. Rarity leapt up high for a high-jump kick, and as she came crashing down, Underdog burrowed into the ground again, causing Rarity to miss and crash onto the ground. “No, Rarity!” cried Spike. He knew what was coming now, and transformed or not, he wasn’t willing to let her get hurt again, so he rushed over as fast as he could, and shoved her out of the way hard, just as the monster burst up again, but he got hit hard. “SPIKE…!” Rarity shrieked. Spike was down and looked pretty beat up after just that one hit. Esroh saw the whole thing and snickered wickedly. “Perfect, that’s one of them down.” but right then he felt a small pain lurch through him. “What was that?” The monster growled and snarled as he glared at Spike. Spike tried to get out of the way, but he was too sore, and he still couldn’t transform, and finally he figured out why. “It’s my confidence!” he thought to himself “When I saw Rarity with Thunder Cloud, it really hurt me and sent me into the dumps. No wonder I couldn’t transform. I’ve gotta try and regain my confidence.” The monster roared and charged for Spike, and Spike still couldn’t get out in time. “Spike, No!” Rarity screamed as she rushed over to him, and pulled him out of the way just in time, causing the monster to crash into the wall of the café. The force fields were still not able to block off the very power of the future itself. Esroh ducked as the rubble collapsed. He still kept well out of sight, by hiding under the rocks. Rarity was panting heavily as she cradled Spike in her arms. “Spike, are you alright?” Spike opened his eyes “Rarity?” “You’re alright, thank heavens.” Rarity cried. “She’s worried about me?” Spike thought. He felt worse than he did better, but he felt angry at himself for thinking Rarity had stopped caring about him completely. Esroh could see them, and began to feel rather upset deep down, but he couldn’t figure out if it was either because they were still fine, or Rarity was showing affection to Spike. Either way, he whispered to his monster “What are you waiting for? Get them!” Underdog growled and charged at the two again. “Rarity…!” Spike cried as he pointed at the charging beast. Rarity couldn’t fight with Spike in her arms, but she couldn’t leave him all alone either, but suddenly… The monster’s legs were ensnared by a rope and a vine-whip, tripping it up. Applejack and Buddy Rose smirked form a-far. “Rope’em in.” said Applejack. “You got it.” added Buddy. The monster growled and fussed about, but suddenly he was bombarded by fire-balls, courtesy of the Spanish twins. “Are you guys okay?” asked Dyno. Rarity nodded. “Looks like we got here just in time.” said Myte. Esroh wasn’t willing to stand for this. “This isn’t over yet!” he hissed, and he snapped his fingers, and he broke the whip and rope off his monster’s legs. “He’s loose!” cried Buddy. The monster eyed around wondering who to strike first, and then he burrowed again. “He’s gone!” cried Dyno. “Where’d he go?” snapped Myte. Before Rarity could warn them what was about to happen, the dog burst through the ground again, sending all four of them flying out into the open street. Applejack and Buddy ran over to their friends. “You guys okay?” asked Buddy. The friends all shook themselves clean, showing they were fine. “Come on, Spike, transform!” said Applejack. “I can’t, it’s not working.” said Spike. Buddy Rose scanned Spike and saw his confidence level was way down. Before anyone could ask why this was, Underdog was charging at them again. Buddy Rose and Applejack lassoed him again. “Got’cha!” shouted Applejack, but the monster, though not as large as most of the others, proved to be mighty strong as he yanked them hard and soon it was a tail chase. “Whoa! Easy big boy!” cried Buddy Rose. He and Applejack kept running around like crazy to avoid the monster’s huge teeth. Dyno and Myte couldn’t attack, not wanting to risk hurting the others. Suddenly, the monster flung Buddy Rose off, and he rolled along the ground, and Applejack was still hanging on and running. “Easy, big boy…! Whoa, hey, easy there…!” The dog bit for her leg, she back flipped up high, and landed with a crash onto the pile of rubble in the bathroom. Some of the rocks shifted away, revealing “Thunder Cloud?!” “Thunder Cloud?!” cried Rarity. “What’s he doing here?!” snapped the twins. To keep his secret, Thunder lied by saying “I was here in the bathroom, and then I saw the monster appear, I couldn’t come outside so I missed the evacuation.” The others bought into his fib. Then the monster snarled at Thunder and Applejack. “No!” cried Rarity and she dashed over “I’m coming.” “Rarity!” cried Spike. Applejack got up and ran for it, and the monster only seemed to chase after her. He completely ignored Thunder Cloud, much to everyone’s confusion. Still, Rarity decided to stay behind and keep Thunder covered… much to Spike’s annoyance, but understanding. Thunder Cloud could hardly believe it; even though he knew his own monster wouldn’t come anywhere near him, he was deeply moved by Rarity and her willing to protect him. “I could sure use a little help!” cried Applejack. The others dashed over to help her, but Underdog burrowed underground again. “Keep sharp now!” said Buddy Rose. Everyone stood where they were, feeling the ground deeply with their feet. Suddenly, the twins could feel the vibrations, and using their expertise at geology… “I got him!” cried Dyno, and just as the monster emerged from the ground, he leapt over and gave the dog a good fist to the face. The dog growled fiercely and jumped on Dyno. Dyno held the monster’s big jaws with his hands. “Hey, you leave my brother alone!” growled Myte as he dashed over and smashed a huge rock on the monster’s back, angering it greatly. The brother stood together and held their hands ready to attack! “BOOM-BOOM ROCKETS” Their rockets hit, but when the smoke cleared, everyone saw the monster had burrowed yet again, and he emerged near Spike. “SPIKE!!” everyone shouted. He was cornered, and he still couldn’t transform. The monster charged right at him, when suddenly he got shot at by two power forces. Everyone looked up and saw Lightning and Starla hovering overhead. “Didn’t think you could cut us out of the episode that easy, did you?” said Lightning Starla smirked and aimed her bow “STARLIGHT ARROW” the monster dodge the shot, and prepared to burrow again. “Oh, no you do!” snarled Buddy Rose, and he ensnared him with his whip again. “LEAF SWARM” “BOOM-BOOM FIRE” The leaves made the fire attack from the twins stronger and dealt the monster a lot of damage, and then suddenly, the twins’ mega mode powers were glowing again. “Let’s do it.” said Dyno. “You got it.” added Myte. “MEGA MODE, ACTIVATE!” They were transformed, and ready to finish the monster off when he burrowed again. “Not again!” groaned Dyno. “How are we supposed to hit him now?” added Myte. “Don’t give up.” said Starla “I bet we can flush him out.” “She’s right.” added Lightning “Just look down…” he motioned all the many holes on the ground, indicating the many tunnels. This gave everyone the notion to launch their attacks into the ground through the holes, and hopefully flush the monster out. “UNIFORCE” “PULSAR LASER” Buddy Rose and the twins fired large beams of magic into other holes. The ground rumbled, and actually to heat up, and in a big burst, the monster emerged from the ground. “Now boys!” shouted Lightning. The twins nodded, and prepared their attack. “RED FIRE” “BLUE FIRE” The colored flames burst from their horns and hands, and began to mix into a tornado. The boys shouted together, “FIRE-STREAK TWISTER” and sent the powerful blaze right at Underdog, engulfing him in the flames, disintegrating him back into his card, which fell to the ground and the picture faded. “VIVA!” the twins cried, and the others cheered too. Thunder Cloud seemed more shocked than amazed. “Incredible! How did they do it?” he wondered in thought. Rarity then hugged him, out of joy that they were all safe. “Oh, sorry…” she said as she let go “Force of habit.” “It’s okay…” said Thunder, but deep down he was having a deep fear. “As the future shifts, the Dark King grows weaker, and with that, we and our monsters grow weaker as well, while the light continues to gain strength.” The holes in the ground were soon filled up and smoothed out, and the wall of the café was prepared. Other than that, everything was back to normal, or almost everything. Spike was still rather beat up, and the others were very concerned to why his confidence seemed down so he couldn’t transform. Spike, really didn’t want to tell anyone that he had been spying on Rarity and Thunder Cloud, but he didn’t know exactly what to say… “I’m just tired of being ignored.” “What?” snapped Rarity “How are you ignored? I’m always there, except when you don’t tell me where you’re going.” “I did tell you, but you were so busy daydreaming, what was I supposed to think?” Lightning interjected, calmly “He does have a point, Rarity. You’ve been getting a little carried off your daydreams.” He recalled the time during training. She wasn’t paying attention and messed up on the obstacle course. Then she shopping at the market and she stood at the checkout counter still as a board for five whole minutes, causing a big lineup. Even most recently before today, she remembered how she was sewing a new dress at home, and she slipped into her daydreams, and didn’t take her foot off the machine pedal, ruining the dress. Rarity felt really embarrassed. “Rarity, we know ya like the guy, but you gotta keep your head on straight for what really matters.” said Applejack. Rarity promised from then on she would try to be a bit more careful. “I hope you can all forgive me for acting so rude, especially you, Spike.” Spike didn’t know why, but he smiled up at Rarity, and then walked over and hugged her, and she hugged him. “Hug…! Hugs are good.” he thought warmly. Still, deep down he was still feeling a bit confused about Thunder Cloud. He couldn’t understand why in all the battle, Underdog didn’t go after him. The others all wondered this too, but only Spike was beginning to feel more suspicious than ever about Thunder Cloud! Esroh Dab was sitting in his dark house, thinking very deeply in regards to his failure. “This is very bad. If our forces continue to weaken like this, what will become of us?” He was finally beginning to rekindle with what he was forgetting; he had to get his act in gear. Still, as much as he tried with all his might, he couldn’t get Rarity off his mind, and all those feelings he got when he was around her, but today’s failure was his ultimate eye-opener, they could never be a thing. He wasn’t the kind of creature that was supposed to be feeling all this, and even so he was made to serve darkness, and that could never be changed. His very survival depended on it. That night, Rarity was tucking Spike into bed, and apologized again for ignoring him. “Forget it, Rarity. You’ve apologized enough.” Spike said. She smiled at him, and blinked twice, which sent warm fuzzy feelings all through his body. “Um… Rarity…?” “Hmm…?” “I know I shouldn’t be asking, but… how much do you really like Thunder Cloud?” Rarity’s cheeks turned pink. “Oh, well… I... I guess, I really do like him, maybe… you could say that I…” Poor Spike didn’t need to hear the rest. “It’s alright.” he whispered as he lay down and shut his eyes. Rarity began to wonder if that was the real reason behind Spike’s lack of confidence. She knew he had a crush on her; she began to wonder if there was something he was really hiding from her. Nevertheless, she went off to bed. Spike peeked one eye open making sure she had gone, and he felt the HMI that was buried in his bed. He was very close to wanting to fully give up on Rarity; all he needed was one more push. (Promo) In our next episode; Celestia finally wakes up from her slumber, which overjoys everyone, but she still remains weak and unable to do battle. Meanwhile, the phantom of magic is ready to unleash his ultimate plot, but not before he leads the friends and civilians into a trap, where he reveals his true identity and his motivation, and then plans to exterminate the friends once and for all. Will our heroes be able to escape their certain doom, and what is the phantoms motivation? Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!” (Next Episode: “Part 1: Phantom Unmasked”)