ACT FIVE
Distraught knew of everything, and even saw the team heading out into space.
“So, they think they can actually try and stop me, eh?” he chuckled “They just never know when to quit.” As tempted as he was to go after and destroy them, he felt he didn’t have to, for he knew the location of the second orb, and he also knew something about the orb that they didn’t, and by the time they figured it out, it would be far too late. So he decided to leave them…
“Is this wise?” asked the hidden voice.
“Trust me; I know what I’m talking about. I’ll deal with them soon enough. Right now, I have better things to do, like torture United Equestria some more.”
Even with Starfleet’s power reduced with the destruction of the generators, and without Lightning, Twilight and friends, or the Queen and the Grand Ruler awake, there was still a vast army of other Starfleet fighters, and the Wonderbolts, royal guards, and even citizens brave or foolish enough to stand up and fight.
Distraught knew they wouldn’t stand a chance with the evil spell he cast growing. Soon it would be strong enough for him to really cause trouble; in the meantime, it was fun to see them all squirm.
“I hope you are not letting overconfidence blind you again…” said the voice “Perhaps the others will succeed in their mission.”
Distraught told the voice to be quiet “They won’t succeed, I know they won’t. To find this orb, they need to possess something I know they haven’t got, and it shall be their downfall.”
Across the vastness of dimensional space, the heroes zoomed across the magic pathway. Before long they had landed in the middle of a grassy field on the planet Brogan. Lightning could hardly believe after all this time, here he was again. This sure felt different the last time.
The first impressions seemed simple enough-- Ordinarily grassy fields, blue skies with a few clouds. “This place doesn’t seem so bad.” said Rainbow as she spread her wings and flew around.
“Don’t get so cocky, Rainbow.” Lightning warned her “Remember, things aren’t always what they seem.” but the others could hardly find much wrong. Fluttershy even saw some beautiful flowers growing nearby “Oh, they’re so beautiful.” she said lovingly. Rarity saw them too and her eyes were glistening with sparkle “Why, they are absolutely divine!” just their colors alone gave ideas for new clothes and dresses.
Buddy Rose got a good look at the flowers, having never seen their kind before, suddenly they began to wobble, and sprouted eyes and sharp teeth, growling at them “Hey!” snapped Buddy, and Fluttershy and Rarity shrieked, but just as the little monster looked ready to pounce, Pinkie Pie leapt up and bounced on it, and get on crushing it hard, “Bad flower! Bad!” she grouched at it and smashed her foot into it, squashing it hard.
Rarity overdramatically fainted and Fluttershy breathed heavily trying to catch her breath. “Now I see what you mean.” Buddy Rose said to Lightning, and Lightning cautioned everyone “Danger might be lurking around every corner here. You thought that was bad, just wait…!”
The team all agreed from then on to stick together. “So, where should we start looking for this orb?” asked Artie. Twilight and Rarity tried to sense for the orb as it was a gem and did give off magical energies, but they picked up so many magical forces they couldn’t tell one from the other. Twilight sighed “Well, that’s out of the question.”
They also couldn’t transform to use their visors, and even if they could, this orb wasn’t in the database, so they couldn’t track for it, but these setbacks didn’t mean they were licked, having expert tracking skills, there was always other ways, except for Pinkie’s silly idea to sniff around like a dog. “Pinkie, what in hotel bills are you thinkin’?” asked Applejack “That orb won’t give off any scent.”
“You never know.” Pinkie said.
They weren’t going to even begin to find the orb if they just stood in one place, so the best thing they thought to do was get on the move, only Twilight thought it better if they go in style. So using her magic and remembering her studies, she transformed a nearby boulder into a giant carrier car big enough for everyone to fit in with their supplies, and it could be moved forward by telekinetic magic. “Good work, Twilight.” Lightning “All right team, we’re moving out.”
“Aye-Aye, Captain!” Everyone acknowledged and climbed aboard, and soon they were off. While Twilight and Rarity moved the car forward, everyone else kept a lookout for any signs that would lead them to their destination, wherever it was. Lightning had one idea of where to look, but it was just a wild guess…
If the orb really was on the planet, it was possible that all the monsters and dangers were part of some sort of defense, keeping the orb protected “If we find a place where the dangers get bigger and nastier, we just might be on the right track.”
Fluttershy shivered in fear again, but the others realized that it was their best chance, and so they set off across the planet, unaware that they were being watched by someone on the clifftops, garbed in robes.
Meanwhile, things weren’t going to well in United Equestria, for Distraught’s evil spell was continuing to grow, just as he promised, and was causing more chaos, and more misfortune everywhere.
Forests mysteriously caught on fire, but the fire brigade managed to keep it all under control.
Weather conditions were going positively haywire, and all the pegasi had a hard time controlling them.
More monsters continued to appear out of nowhere, but other Starfleet fighters did manage to keep them at bay even without transforming. Cadance and Shining Armor managed to keep force-fields activated to help matters, and Krysta and her fairies kept their promise to Lightning and helped out a bit, using their powers to warp the monsters away but the creatures seemed to be growing stronger.
Shining Armor was getting tired of keeping the shields up non-stop already, and Princess Luna was finding it difficult to manage the kingdom by herself with so many emergencies going off at once.
Cadance wasn’t having it any easier. The danger had reached the New Crystal Empire. She did her best to keep it protected and her royal guards and squad of Starfleet fighters were doing their best.
Easily, another hard job was looking after the babies, Castor and Leilani. The poor little babies missed their parents and cried and cried seemingly endlessly. The royal housekeepers tried everything, but it no use. Shining Armor found the time to head to the nursery himself to check in on the little ones, and found they were still crying and Goldwin, who had been watching them, had turned into a statue again as his mask was on the floor.
First Shining Armor looked after the babies, and gave them each bottles of formula, they finally calmed down, and then he took care of Goldwin. “Put the mask on…” he muttered and said the magic words…
“Powers of life, now begin
awaken the magic from within!”
Goldwin came back to life “...Shining Armor.”
“What happened?”
Goldwin remembered and explained he agreed to watch over the babies to give the housekeepers a rest, and Princess Luna had a lot to deal with. He entertained them by doing a little of his dancing, to which the babies seemed to like, and even giggled and applauded, but he foolishly lifted his mask like tipping a hat and pulled it too far and it fell off.
Still, at least the babies had calmed down again, but it wouldn’t last long. They really needed the comfort of their parents, both of which were still unconscious in their bedroom.
Shining Armor sighed “I just hope Twilight’s okay with her friends.”
Rarity and Twilight drove the car a long way across the terrains, past rivers and over hills, and just as expected, many monsters and dangers-- unexpected eruptions, chasms and pits, earthquakes and avalanches, came at them, but keeping their cool and using their teamwork and skills, the team sent every monster running, and dodged ever obstacle.
Soon they stopped, as Twilight and Rarity needed to rest up a bit from using too much magic. Plus everyone else felt it was time to eat.
While Rainbow flew around doing a surveillance of the area around them, Applejack and Buddy Rose brought plenty of stuff to make chicken-vegetable stew with, and it was a good thing Spike was there to light the bonfire, though he didn’t seem to be thrilled with his job “And when anyone asks me “Spike, what was your job on the adventure?” and I’ll say “Me? Why, I was the fire lighter.”
The others couldn’t help but chuckle at how funny he sounded complaining, but gave the the old “Everyone has their job, and no job is more important than any other.” lecture, Spike understood, but he also wish he brought his lunch pack of jewels instead of having to eat chicken and vegetables.
Still, they had traveled quite a bit and it was coming up to around midday. They didn’t feel as if they had gotten any closer to finding what they had come for. All the dangers seemed to be just on the same level of difficulty as when they started, but they knew they had to press on.
By the time they finished lunch and began to pack up, Lightning noticed Starla was just standing all alone and staring off into space. He walked over to his mare-friend “Hey, you okay?” he asked tenderly. She turned to face him “I was just thinking about home, and if everyone’s okay.”
Lightning knew how she felt, but he made a promise that everything would be okay again. He gave his word as a captain, as well as all he owed to Grand Ruler.
The very spot they were camped in now was only just a few miles away from the place on Brogan where he first met him…
Lightning was just a little colt, untrained, unskilled, and unable to handle off the beasts coming at him. Had it not been for Grand Ruler, Lightning would have surely perished. “I would never have come to Unicornicopia, never would’ve joined Starfleet…” he gazed at her lovingly “And I wouldn’t have met you.”
Starla blushed and giggled. “I always knew you said you had it rough.” Starla said “I guess sometimes we all tend to forget about beginnings, no matter who has it worse than whom.”
“I guess so.” Lightning said “But in the end, aren’t we all the same? We all fought to change our lives for the better, and we all succeeded, and now we’re going to do it again.”
Starla softly rested her head on his shoulder, “And I believe you.” she said softly as the two just stood there in each other’s embrace. The others could see them and couldn’t help but “Aw” at how sweet they looked, but the moment was interrupted when Rainbow came wailing like an alarm “Red Alert! Monsters!” she cried, and sure enough a large stampede of raging beasts came dashing over the hills.
“Let’s get out here!” shouted Lightning as he and the others rushed to pack up and get into the car, but sadly, Twilight and Rarity hadn’t rested up enough and their magic couldn’t move the car fast enough. “They’re getting closer!” cried Fluttershy.
Dyno and Myte had an idea “Strap on your seatbelts amigos!” Dyno said.
“There aren’t any seatbelts.” Rarity said.
“Oh, well just hold on tight then.” Myte said as he joined his brother at the end of the car, and the others immediately realized what they were doing and hit the floor hard. “BOOM-BOOM FLARE” Shooting their flames out one end, the car began to tear across the terrain like a race-car, and they got well away from that large pack of beasts within seconds.
“Okay, that’s enough!” Lightning shouted but loudness of the fire boost, the wind, and the car running made it hard for the twins to hear him. “Que?” shouted Dyno.
“He said stop!” shouted Twilight.
“One more time?” shouted Myte.
“STOP!!” everyone shouted with all their might. The twins stopped, but the car was still rolling along much too fast. “You didn’t by chance put any brakes on this thing, did you?” Applejack asked to Twilight.
“No!” cried Twilight and the car kept rolling along, much too fast for some of them to jump off, and Twilight couldn’t teleport them off either until her magic was fully restored.
“We’re going too quickly.” cried Rhymey and he felt his stomach give a sicken gurgle “Ooh… I think I’m going to be sickly!”
“I’ve got an idea!” Lightning said and told his friends to join him in his scheme. They all flew outside and began flying faster than the car was rolling right up to the front. “Okay, push as hard as you can.” Lightning said and they all began to forcefully fly in the other direction while pushing on the car slowing it down. Dyno and Myte even fired their Boom-Boom Flare like retro-rockets, and it was working. “We’re slowing down! It’s working!” cried Pinkie.
“Yeah, but we’re still not stopping!” cried Spike.
Twilight looked up ahead and saw a huge cliff edge coming up fast. “Well, I sure hope we do stop, because I didn’t make this thing with parachutes either!”
The cliff was coming up fast. “I don’t think we’re going to make it!” cried Starla. “Keep trying!” shouted Lightning as the car continued to slow down, but it really wasn’t going to stop in time. Twilight and the others had no choice but to jump at the last minute.
“Ready? Now!” shouted Twilight, and they all leapt to safety.
“Okay, Let it go!” said Lightning and he and his team let the car go and watched it soar over the edge and tumble into the gorge, down, down, down, and crashing into the ravine below. Now they had no ride, but at least everyone was safe and they still had all their supplies. Only Rhymey still felt a little queasy and let out over the edge. “…BLARGH!!”
“Ugh!!” the others groaned.
“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked.
Her colt-friend looked up and smiled weakly…
“No pain,
No gain.”
The others sighed, but suddenly they could feel the ground rumbling softly. “Uh, Rhymey… please tell me that was just your stomach still upset?” asked Rainbow.
“I wish it were so,
But the answer is No.”
The rumbling the continued, followed by the faint, distinctive sound of monster growls as a new gang of monsters came climbing up over the edge of the gorge and eyed at them.
“Do you think we can take them?” asked Spike.
“Well, we can try. We don’t seem to have a choice.” said Lightning. They all huddled together, and waited and waited. “Scatter!” Everyone did so, and the battle was on.
Lightning kicked and punched the beasts hard. “You’re not so tough now, huh?” but the monsters could still fight back and bashed him good as well. The others fought valiantly as well too, but after the episode with the car and slowing it down, their strengths were severely weakened.
Their powers only managed to hold them off for a short while, but the monsters were still ganging up on them. Twilight and Rarity’s magic were still low. “Okay, who wants a piece of me?” Spike growled acting big and brash, but all the monsters did was just stare and growl at him. “Uh, heh-heh, so long!” and he ran right behind Twilight, holding her tail up in front of him “I’m right behind you Twilight.”
“That’s not to reassuring, Spike.”
The team continued to try. “As a new Wonderbolt, I won’t let my friends down.” and she charged fiercely towards the brutes like a missile, bashing them hard in the guts. “Ye-haw! Way to ride it girl.” Applejack said, and she could hear a monster trying to creep up on her from behind “Oh, no you don’t.” but she quickly whipped round and lassoed the monster by the legs with her rope and the big bad boy fell on his side, but the monster broke the ropes as easily as threads “Okay, maybe you do.”
As the battle continued the team felt more and more tired, their attacks were hardly even tickling the beasts anymore. Worse, the monsters managed to get hold of the bags containing the food and supplies. “No!” cried Rarity as she had a tug of war with one of them “Let go! Let go, I say!” but the monster angrily and vigorously shook her off. “My, how rude…!”
The monsters ate all the food, and were even ravenous enough to eat all the nonedible things too, even the bags. “Great! We’ve not only lost our ride, we lost all our supplies too.” snapped Rainbow.
Lightning suddenly had an idea “Quick, everyone, try to lead them all into one spot.” Lightning said.
“No problem.” Pinkie said, and she began to act very naughty, blowing raspberries, and going “Nya-Nya! You can’t catch me.” and the monsters actually began chasing her. Once all the monsters were in one place, Lightning tried to power up the uniforce hoping to blast them away, but his blast did hardly much damage at all as he was really getting tired. “It’s no good! I don’t enough power.”
Now they were all huddled together, nearly wiped out, and the monsters were coming right at them. “This can’t be happening!” cried Starla.
Fluttershy was quivering fearfully in Rhymey’s arms. “Please, can’t we talk this out!” she muttered, but knew the monsters wouldn’t agree.
Suddenly, a high pitched sound could be heard. It didn’t bother the ponies and Spike, but it did seem to irritate the monsters, so much that they scuttled off.
“Why, it… it’s a miracle.” cried Rarity.
Artie looked round, “Look!” and everyone could see a cloaked and hooded stranger coming before them blowing a strange whistle he wore round his neck, and carrying a long wooden cane with strings of beads around it tip.
The stranger stopped blowing his whistle, and approached the team. Lightning stepped forward “Whoever you are, we wish to thank you for…”
“It’s all right, Lightning.” the stranger said. Lightning was surprised, “Yes I know who you are. I saw you here once before when you were little.” Then the stranger pulled off his hood to reveal he was in fact a grey Space Alicorn, originally from Unicornicopia. His name was Kahn Swift, and his insignia code on his armor read MA3O, and he lived with his clan on Brogan. “I’ve been well aware of your arrival, and I think I know why you’ve come. You seek the blue orb of Brogan, don’t you?”
“Yes, we do.” replied Lightning.
“Please, can you tell us where it is?” asked Twilight.
Khan told them to follow him, and all would be clear soon.