//------------------------------// // Episode 14: To See or Not to See // Story: My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic Season I // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE FOURTEEN Lightning spread word to all his friends about the star stone and how it really did work! The others almost couldn’t wait to try it out for themselves, and spent a lot of their free time training and trying to perfect any new moves they had been working on, and sure enough, they got a little stronger and faster, but it still took them time to master their new finishing-moves. In the meantime, society and business just carried on, and once again, Lightning and Krysta were asked by Cookie Dough to deliver an ordered lunch to Professor Brain, for he was busy working on a new project, and as everyone knew he wouldn’t stop for much, but it wouldn’t be impolite to bring him the food he ordered. As Lightning and Krysta headed for Greenland Lightning asked “What do you think he’s making this time, Krysta-- A rocket-ship to take us all to the moon?” “I don’t really think so, Lightning. We don’t need a rocket to travel to the moon when we use dimensional pathways.” As they landed near the Professor’s house and laboratory, they could see Dyno and Myte standing outside. “Hola amigos.” said Dyno when Lightning and Krysta landed. “Hey, boys, why are you here?” asked Krysta. The twins explained that Brain had asked them to come over to help test his new secret project. “But we’ve waiting out here a long time-- Nada.” said Myte. Lightning knocked a few times, but as expected, Brain didn’t answer. “That’s Professor Brain for you. He gets so wrapped up in his work he can’t seem to hear anything else.” Luckily, a window was open a wee bit just enough for Krysta to slip through. “Be back in a flash.” She said as she hovered inside. Professor Brain was busy spraying a small barrel on his workbench with a clear liquid. “There! My new formula is complete.” he said to himself “Oh, I just can’t wait to tell to the others.” “Well that’s good to hear.” said a voice from behind, making Brain jump “Oh…Oh, my! Please, Krysta, I beg you… don’t do that again. I get so carried away at times, you know.” “Well just carry yourself to the door and let the others in.” replied Krysta. Brain’s eyes widened, “Oh dear! I completely forgot. I shall be back, don’t touch anything.” As soon as he was gone, Krysta sat on the barrel that was on the bench and just relaxed there, unaware that the barrel was beginning to fade away into thin air! Brain let the others in and apologized for keeping them waiting for so long. “So what’s the big project?” asked Lightning, and Brain explained that he had been working on a new spray-paint he hoped would help to strengthen Starfleet’s super armor, and the armor that civilians wore, which he hoped would help decrease the dangers involved during times of battle. “I have just tried out the new formula on a barrel that is sitting on my bench. Do whatever you wish with it. Smash it, burn it, blast it; this formula should make it so you cannot damage it.” “This I must see.” muttered Lightning. “You will in fact. You will.” said Brain as he lead everyone into the workshop, but they couldn’t see a barrel anywhere; just Krysta relaxing comfortably in midair. “Krysta!” snapped Lightning, and she snapped out from relaxation to realize she was sitting on fresh air. “Hey! What happened to the barrel?” she asked in shock. Brain was most confused, “I… I don’t understand it.” No one could see the barrel, yet they could see Krysta just standing perfectly in midair without even fluttering her wings to keep afloat. “Are you sure there was a barrel here?” Lightning asked. “I am quite positive.” replied Brain. Krysta then jumped softly, and everyone heard a knocking sound when her feet stopped. “Wait a minute.” She said and she tapped her little foot again. Brain walked over and gently tapped near Krysta’s feet and he could actually feel the barrel there. “I wouldn’t have believed it possible!” “It’s invisible!” cried Krysta. “Galloping galaxies, Professor you’ve really hit on something.” said Lightning. The twins were overjoyed. “He’s a genius.” “Si, a regular super brain…” Brain felt very proud. This was indeed a most magnificent discovery, but everyone was so captivated by the invisible barrel, they didn’t see Rep-Stallion peeking through the windows. “Just wait until I tell the others.” “A paint that makes things invisible? Now I’ve heard everything.” Dementia scoffed. “If you’d spent your time training and mastering your powers like us instead of gallivanting off, we’d be ready to finish the ponies off by now.” Rep-Stallion looked furious “Like you’ve ever had any ideas when all you do is stare at yourself in the mirror all day.” Mysterious hushed them both before they broke out into a fight, and agreed that Rep had indeed discovered something most useful, and they did also have enough powder left to make just one final monster. “So why don’t we just get the formula, make a monster, and badda-bing-badda-boom, we’ll have those ponies crushed before you can say anything.” huffed Rep-Stallion. “Uh-huh. Just one problem; it would never work!” Dementia pointed out that even if they could create an invisible monster, Starfleet’s special visors could detect indivisibility powers. They’d find the monster easily. “D’oh! I totally forgot that!” grumbled Rep-Stallion. “Just, leave it to me.” said Dementia “I think I may be able to put your idea to use after all.” “Make it a good one, Dementia.” Mysterious warned her “Need I remind you again, that this will be the last monster we can ever create.” Dementia nodded in acknowledgement. The barrel was still invisible, but Professor Brain already actually managed to chip a little piece of it, meaning his formula didn’t make it stronger at all, so the test was off. Luckily, using ordinary water to wash the paint away, the barrel reappeared again. “Yes, satisfactory, most satisfactory. Now all that remains to figure how to apply this new discovery of mine.” The others assured Brain not to worry about that. Like all his inventions, it was bound to be put to good use very soon. “Can we help in any way?” asked Lightning. “Oh, no, that shouldn’t be necessary.” said Brain. No sooner had the others all left through the front door did Dementia appear round the other side of the house. She snickered sinisterly as she watched the friends go out of sight and then made her move. As Brain was tidying up around his workshop, and still wondering what to do about the invisible paint, and the door burst wide open in a loud bang. “Oh my goodness…!” Brain yelped “What is--” he turned round and trembled at what he saw. He quickly pressed a big red button on the wall which sounded the Starfleet alert. “You shouldn’t have done that.” hissed a familiar voice—Dementia. “Whatever do you want here?” Brain asked nervously. Dementia grinned wickedly and snickered. Lightning and the others hadn’t gone too far away and began to dash back immediately as soon as the alarms sounded. “Trust there to be trouble exactly where we were before.” groaned Lightning. Nevertheless, they all continued to dash, and transformed along the way, “STARFLEET MAGIC!!” They reached Brain’s house to see “Dementia!” standing there in her normal form. “So the cavalry is here.” “What are you up to now, Dementia?” snapped Lightning. Dementia sniggered “Oh, you’ll see, or maybe you won’t.” she whistled loudly and the gang could hear something stomping its way through the door of Brain’s house, but they could see nothing there. “Qué?” remarked Dyno “I don’t see anything.” added Myte. They were suddenly able to fit it all together-- that Dementia had used Brain’s new formula on a monster to render it invisible. “No problem. Let’s scan for it.” Lightning said, but they suddenly found to their shock that they couldn’t find the monster anywhere; their visors couldn’t detect it at all; not by heat, sound, magic, or anything. Dementia just continued to grin. “What’s the matter? You can see my monster, can’t you, or maybe it’s because I’ve used more than one formula on it?” That told the others a lot. Professor Brain had not only a new invisibility formula, but he had also been able to create those that would render things undetectable by scans; which he made in case other opposing forces used technological devices. Suddenly, Lightning got hit hard and was sent skidding along the ground! “Lightning!” cried Krysta “Guys, look out!” cried Lightning, but then the twins got tripped up off their feet. Krysta fluttered up higher before she got hit, only to get grabbed by Dementia. “Going somewhere?” she hissed, and before Krysta knew it, she was thrown in a small jar and shut in tight. She pounded angrily on the glass “Help! Let me out! Let me out!” As strong as she usually was, she couldn’t break the glass so easy from the inside, nor lift up the jar. Dementia couldn’t help bust shake the jar vigorously and laugh at the poor little fairy being rocked about inside. Krysta never felt so dizzy in her life. Dementia simply placed her on the window sill of Brain’s house where wouldn’t cause any trouble, as long as she was in the jar. Poor Krysta could only watch helplessly as her friends continued to face the invisible beast. However, Lightning and the twins began to fight back, and managed to punch, kick, and bash the creature hard, much to Dementia’s horror. “You forget, Dementia, Starfleet is trained well.” Lightning yelled at her. “Just because we can’t see the beast doesn’t mean we can’t find It.” said Dyno as he and the others carefully gazed around in stealth. Suddenly, Myte could hear the sound of the monster’s footsteps coming at them and marks made in the grass. “Aha!” he shouted as he leapt up high and kicked the monster hard in either its face or stomach. Either way, their strategy was working. Dementia was furious, but not licked yet. “You’re sneaky, boys, but I’m sneakier.” And she shouted for her monster to do its thing, and suddenly the boys couldn’t hear anymore footsteps. “What’s happening?” asked Dyno, and before anyone could answer, all three of them got bashed and pounded really hard. “It must be able to fly!” cried Lightning, and he got hit again. Now the monster could move more swiftly and much harder to spot. The ponies could barely get a chance to use their stealth-training to hone in on a spot before getting hit. Even after they managed to spot the monster’s location, it sped away before they had chance to attack. “We’ve got to keep trying!” cried Lightning, but he got bashed again, as did the twins. The twins thought maybe of using their new finisher move, which would help find the monster, but they decided against it as it would run the risk of burning up the entire yard if they weren’t careful. “Wait! I have an idea.” Lightning snapped “Maybe we can dump something on the monster to make it visible. Then we’d have an edge.” The twins agreed, but unfortunately there was nothing outside that they could use that was good enough. Grass and leaves didn’t work well at all, and blowing dust on the monster didn’t help, the creature just fanned itself clean with its wings. “Ay’! This isn’t working. We need something else!” snarled Dyno. “But what?” asked Myte, and before they knew it, the monster had grabbed them both in its huge hands and slammed them both together hard multiple times. Lightning tried to save them, but kept getting kicked out of the way. Dementia was laughing with glee. “This is almost too good to be true. I should’ve tried this long ago.” Krysta could hardly stand to watch much more of this and began to rock the jar from inside, and she managed to knock it off the sill, through the open window and the jar shattered on the floor. Krysta gasped for a much needed breath of air after being cooped up in that jar for so long without air-holes. That’s when she saw the professor all tied up and gagged on the floor. She wasted no time in freeing him. “Oh, thank you Krysta!” cried Brain. “I feel I may never be the same after this experience.” “Never mind that-- The guys are in trouble. We need a plan.” Krysta said. “I agree, and I have just the idea.” said Brain. Outside, the boys had taken such beatings they didn’t know how much longer they could keep it up. “This is ridiculous!” growled Lightning as he got back up again. “We’ve beaten tougher monsters before. There’s got to be a way to beat this one.” “There is…” Dementia hissed as she began to walk forward “You can finally admit defeat and surrender yourselves willingly.” “Fat chance of that!” snapped Dyno. “Si, we will never give in to you!” added Myte Dementia sighed “Fine then…” and she raised her hand and held three fighters in place with a warping barrier so they couldn’t run anywhere, and then ordered her monster “…Destroy them now!” The boys couldn’t see the monster, but they knew it was rushing straight at them, and they couldn’t get out of the way with Dementia holding them down, as well as being beat up a lot. The monster was nearly at them, when suddenly Krysta zoomed out and swiftly kicked Dementia hard in the face, knocking her out of concentration, breaking her spell, and the boys dodged the monster just in time. Dementia pulled her face out of the dirt, and was she ever furious! “You!” she thundered at Krysta “No one… does that… TO MY FACE!!” she fired a few blasts at Krysta, but she dodged each and every one. “Go, Krysta!” Lightning cheered “VIVA!!” added the twins, but they had all forgotten about the monster and all got bashed again. The monster prepared to get at them again, but Professor Brain poked his head out the front door holding a small sphere, and though he couldn’t see the monster he could tell where it was by the motions of the gusts rustling the nearby trees. “Steady! Steady!” and he swiftly pitched the sphere-- a paint bomb-- which exploded on the monster and coated it in green paint, completely exposing it, revealing it to be a larger puppet version of Dementia. The boys stood tall and cool. “There’s no more hide and seek now.” sneered Lightning. The twins agreed. Now that they could see the monster they could attack it perfectly. “Let’s do it!” said Dyno. “Si, let’s.” added Myte. The brother held hands to increase their powers, and their bodies seemed to flare up in blazes-- their new finisher-move--“BOOM-BOOM FLARE!!” They unleashed a huge fiery blast right at the monster, engulfing it in the flames and frying it away to ashes followed by the traditional ending explosion. Dementia couldn’t believe her eyes, but Krysta cheered for joy. “You did it, guys! You did it!” but Dementia suddenly grabbed her and squeezed her hard. “If I’m going to lose this fight, at least you’ll be destroyed.” “KRYSTA!!” shouted Lightning as he leapt over and kicked Dementia hard and knocking her away, releasing Krysta. Dementia got up again angrier than ever, but Lightning already saw his chance to blast her with the Rainbow Rod “SPECTRUM STREAM!!” and he hit her full force. Dementia screamed in fury and pain, but she managed to find enough strength to teleport to safety promising she’d get her revenge, and then she was gone. Lightning growled in outrage. “Let it go, Lightning. She’s gone.” Krysta said. Lightning calmed down. “You’re right. The important thing is that we won again.” The twins and Brain agreed, it wouldn’t be denied that Dementia and the others would be back now they couldn’t make any new monsters. As for the invisible-paint, Professor Brain decided to put it in his massive storage safe along with dozens of other inventions on-hold, feeling the world was not quite ready for it until he worked out more of the bugs. “Well, I must say, this invention certainly gave us more than we bargained for.” Dementia was really in a mess. Her nose was all red and swollen, and she had an ice-bag attached to her sore head. “Uhn, look at me. I’m hideous!” she groaned “We heard you the first and thirty-first times!” snarled Rep-Stallion. “Still, you screwed up, just like I told you.” As the two of them quarreled Mysterious held his ears shut and did everything he could to silence the noise. “Some days it never pays to get out of bed.” He groaned. That night before going to bed, Lightning wrote his report… “Today’s battle has really opened all of our eyes. Everything has its fatal flaws including us. Regardless of how well we continue to train ourselves in every field, we cannot afford to get cocky and overconfident. Although it still cannot be ignored that in any battle, brains will always triumph over brawn alone, especially when the opposition doesn’t think of all possibilities on their side. Titan’s minions no longer can create monsters, but it is quite feared and agreed that they will continue in their quest to eliminate us all. It is now up to us to ensure that the planet is safe from their sinister clutches… whatever they may turn out to be.” He signed his name, and then sent the report through the magic mailbox slot. After that, he hopped into bed, and turned out the lights and dreamt of all the adventures he would have another day. (Promo) In our next episode, a star stone has been located on another planet, and Buddy Rose and Artie are sent to retrieve it, but what they find is a dismal planet in ruins, and a lost little alien girl. To make matters worse, a new powerful enemy, responsible for all the destruction, emerges and means to cause no end of trouble for the friends. Will the boys secure the Star Stone? What will become the alien girl, and what of this new enemy? Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!” (Next Episode: “The Fallen World of Elfaron”)