“Previously on Starfleet Magic”

Lightning was busy preparing for his forthcoming confrontation with Harkin; a battle to the death and with the Crystal Heart riding on the line as well. Celestia had also made it clear she intended to confront Raven and face her for killing Twilight Sparkle, which landed Celestia in the dark dimension where her sun-magic is virtually useless and Raven seems to be moving in for a the kill. While Lightning and Harkin still seem to have plenty of steam left to go… and Melantha is preparing to make her move.

EPISODE TWENTY

Celestia was still wailing under the tremendous pressure that Raven inflicted on her, and then… Raven just let her go, letting her drop to the ground hard. Celestia coughed and wheezed trying to catch her breath. She didn’t understand though. “Why did you just let me go?”

“Don’t you remember what I said? Ending it fast is not what I prefer. I told you, I plan to prolong your suffering and inflict as much pain upon you for as long as I possibly can.” and she dashed over and kicked her hard in the side sending her rolling along the ground.

Outside, the others were still gazing at the dome, and Pinkie began to have a twitchy feeling, unlike any other of her twitches before. “Ooh… that can’t be good.” she cried “I think the queen’s in danger!” she fretted.

“There’s not much we can do,
but stay out here until the battle’s through.” said Rhymey.

Rainbow was getting the edge to rush in again, but the Spanish twins gave her the look. “Don’t think about it.”

But Rainbow couldn’t stand it anymore. “I’m going in!” she shouted as she dashed at the dome. “Rainbow!” shouted Grand Ruler, but before he could do anything else, Rainbow had hit the dome and found herself clear on the other side of it. “Huh? What the…?”

“Yeah…! I passed right through it!” Rainbow called back, and she jumped back at the dome and found herself on the other side again, facing her friends. “Hold on…” said Grand Ruler as he approached the dome and stuck his hand into it, and his hand appeared right out alongside the dome waving at him “Ah?!” Then he proceeded to walk into the dome, but only came right back out again where he was. “What sort of magic is this?”

Starla approached the dome and fired one of her arrows at it, aiming at the top of the dome, the arrow just passed right through it and shot straight into the sky. “Did you see that?”

Spike approached the dome and stuck his claw through it too, only to have it stick back out and wave at him. “Man! Whatever this smoky-dome thing is, Raven must’ve cast it to keep the queen in and us out. We can’t even try to get and help her even if we want to.”

Everyone felt more aggravated with Raven than ever, but more worried about Celestia… and Lightning.

Lightning and Harkin were swinging their fists and kicking their feet, faster and fiercer than ever and even blasted each other with their powers. Both of them running alongside one another firing multiple projectiles. They both skidded to a halt and engaged in a fist-lock. “You won’t win!” growled Harkin.

“We’ll see about that.” and they both blasted each other hard and at such a close range they knocked each other far away and crashed into the mountain sides.

Harkin got to his feet first “RED-RAYS” and fired at Lightning, and he barely managed to roll out of the way as blast went right through the rocks of the mountain. Harkin continued to fire and Lightning continued to dodge and roll out of the way causing more and more of Harkin’s blasts to go through into the mountain, but also striking up thick clouds of dust.

Suddenly, Harkin couldn’t see Lightning as he had rolled into the dust cloud. Knowing this old trick, Harkin stood where he was waiting for some sign that would give Lightning away. Suddenly, he could hear the soft sounds of scraping along the ground. “Hmm…” and he fired multiple and rapid shots into the cloud, but he couldn’t hear a thing after, and suddenly, a large stream of uniforce blasted right through the cloud and hitting him hard, sending him crashing through several small rock formations and slamming into the mountain side with a huge earth quaking thud.

The cloud had cleared and Lightning stood there, panting softly, all covered in dirt, and a few bruises on his face and dents in his armor.

Harkin burst through the rubble of rocks that had fallen on him, pulling himself up to his feet. He was just as filthy and his injuries were showing too, but he felt more pleased than hurt. “This is it…” he thought to himself “The kind of battle I’ve been waiting for; someone who can actually put up a brawl with me and present me a real challenge.”

He stood tall and ready for more as Lightning approached him “You give up yet, Harkin? I’ve got plenty of fight left in me.”

Harkin grinned sinisterly and then rushed him, tackling him to the ground. The two punched and elbowed at each other fiercely, and then got up and rushed at each other, colliding into one another like billiard balls, and the separating and crashing into each other again, harder than the last time.

Celestia stood tall, after catching her breath, and charged at Raven, who fired her magic projectiles at her and she dodged each one with her swift speed. She stopped right before Raven and then zipped behind; aiming to hit her in back, but Raven zipped behind her again and held her in a neck, then rammed several punches in her side and face, but Celestia managed to use her other magic powers, and with a magical burst she blasted Raven right off of her sending her skidding along the ground, and she leapt up and down onto her ramming several punches into her face. “I don’t always need my sun magic to help Me. I have plenty magic I can use.” she said and she aimed to punch Raven again, only to be blasted hard in the chest and knocked off of her.

“And you thought I wasn’t aware of this?” Raven sneered, and she fired at her again, knocking her back harder. “You forget, Celestia… I’ve watched you all these centuries, and tested you out with my previous attempts to kill you.” She dashed over and grabbed her by the neck. “I trained myself to match your power at every level, and now you’re getting exactly what you gave me… A WORLD OF ETERNAL PAIN!!” and she threw her hard on the ground, and she didn’t get back up.

Raven slowly walked over to her, “And don’t think I’m going to fall for the playing-dead act.” She fired at her from a distance, and Celestia zipped out of sight. Raven searched all around, but she couldn’t see her anywhere. “It’s useless, Celestia. I’ll find you!”

She crept forth softly looking all along the wide open dimension, when suddenly she could hear a whooshing sound from above. Celestia dive-bombed right into her chest head first. “D’AAARGH…!” Raven was knocked father then hitting a golf ball, and she lay on the ground holding her aching chest, while Celestia landed right by her. “It’s not how much power you have that counts, but how you use them.” said Celestia “All you’ve ever done is use your powers for hatred and bitter vengeance, and what’s worse you bring harm and terror to those who aren’t even your objective target!” She clenched her fists angrily as tears came to her eyes as she remembered how Twilight was killed.

Raven didn’t care in the least. “That pathetic wimp of a student of yours-- got what she deserved for all I care.” She pulled down her hood exposing her golden horn, and concentrated hard until she was glowing in golden light. “I’ve toyed with you long enough, Queen Celestia. In the name of my husband, YOU SHALL PERISH!”

Outside, a severe shiver ran down Grand Ruler’s spine, the kind he only got when real unbearable danger was at foot. “Celestia…!” he murmured. He was desperately wishing there was some way to know if his wife was okay.

The others hadn’t seen him so tensed like this in a long time; some of them could even feel his tension. “Sire, we have to believe.” said Starla “Remember what you always taught us…?”

Everyone decided the best thing to do was offer Celestia their beliefs in spirit. It usually helped them before, and they thought why should this time be any different? “Everyone, concentrate hard.” Grand Ruler told the “And don’t lose the faith.”

Everyone did as they were told; the fell in line, held hands, and concentrated all their faith and believing, saying that they were all there for Celestia, and knew she’d find some way out of this.

Lightning and Harkin’s battle was heating up. Both were still dashing forth and colliding into one another, exchanging punches kicks and blasts. They even took their fight to the skies, high above the mouth of the volcano. Every now and then they would fire a big burst of magic, which would miss and hit the mountain instead.

Both of them were looking pretty sore and injured, and both were feeling the battle wearing them down, especially Lightning. His super-suit was running low on power. “Not getting tired, are you?” panted Harkin.

Lightning stood tall and clenched his fists “I’m not giving up!” he sneered “You hear me!”

Harkin laughed, which sounded a little raspy through his panting, he liked Lightning’s attitude. “My strength is starting to feel pressured for the first time in ages, but that changes nothing…” he growled as his fists began to glow. “I’m not backing down UNTIL ONE OF US IS BEATEN!!”

Lightning stood ready as Harking came zooming at him form high above. “FISTS OF FURY” Lightning stood ready, when suddenly the mountain began to rumble and quiver distracting him. His visor’s seismic-scan also warned him of high levels of pressure building up deep inside the volcano, but before he could do anything… WHAMM! Harkin crashed right into him, hitting him full force with his fist-attack. “G’AAAAAAAHHHH!!” Lightning felt as if he had been hit by a meteor… so hard that he went right through the ground, and Harkin fell through with him.

Lightning groaned deeply as his suit lost all power and de-activated, leaving him in his regular casual suit. “Oh…! That... wasn’t good!”

He and Harkin saw they had fallen deep into volcano, and were now sitting on cliff top high above the lava in the crater below. The heat was blistering, but Lightning hadn’t forgotten the readings his visor gave him. “The volcano… we’ve… got to… stop!”

“Why should we? I’m having so much fun.” Harkin teased as he kicked Lightning hard rolling him over. His head softly gazed over the side of the cliff as watched frightfully as a couple of rocks fell the long way into the massive bubbling lava below. Lightning managed to flip onto his backside, as Harkin loomed over him, grabbing him by the neck and laughed at him. “I must say, it will be a pity to lose you, admiral. This truly has been a fight I will treasure forever.”

Harkin didn’t believe him, as he never felt the first quake. He dismissed it as Lightning begging for mercy. He slapped him across the face for that. “Begging for mercy is a sign of weakness! You accepted this challenge, and you lost.”

“No… not yet!” said Lightning and he swiftly kicked Harkin hard in the chest and flipped him up and over the edge. Of course, Harkin didn’t fall and just hovered safely in midair with his wings, chuckling at him. “…A very desperate and amateur move.”

Lightning’s horn began to pulsate again, brighter and faster than ever. “Enticorn…!” Harkin hissed in his thoughts “His power grows stronger with each fight.”

Lightning still wasn’t sure of all this Enticorn stuff, but he could feel much of his strength returning, at least enough to continue, but he couldn’t transform. Finally finding strength again, he jumped onto his feet. “You’ve got to believe me, all our battling is setting off chain-reactions deep within the volcano. It’s going to erupt!”

“Silence!” roared Harkin, as he fired a blast at Lightning, forcing him to dodge and leap into midair with him. “I said I wasn’t giving up until one of us was down, and I meant it!” growled Harkin “NOW FIGHT ME, ENTICORN!!”

Lightning saw no choice but to fight just as he was, without his super-suit, leaving him more vulnerable.

Celestia punched, her kicked and tried her magic, but not one of her attacks worked. “No!” she cried.

“Yes!” hissed Raven “The time has come. It’s been fun, Celestia, but this is where we settle the score.”

Celestia growled as she stood, but since none of what she had could stand up to the uniforce, there was one other way she hoped would work.

“…UNIFORCE!!” shouted Raven as she fired her blast straight at Celestia, and she just stood there… waiting…! KAPOW! There was a big explosion.

The others could almost feel it from outside the dome, but they didn’t break their concentration. “Celestia, be strong my love! I believe in you! I Believe in You!!” Grand Ruler said with his mind and heart.

Raven was laughing her loudest and hardest ever. “I DID IT!! SHE’S DEAD!! I’VE DESTROYED CELESTIA!!” but her moment of joy was brought to a halt when a voice called to her saying “…Think again!”

The smoke cleared, and Celestia was standing tall and proud and looking no more injured than she was before. “Even the most powerful attack can do nothing if it misses its target.”

Raven clenched her fists and screeched loudly in fury, and blasted at her again. Celestia dodged it, and began marching towards Raven. She fired again, but Celestia dodged, and zipped right up to Raven and socked her hard in the face. Raven’s anger continued to rise, and she charged up more than ever, and she fired a huge burst of power covering a wide area, and Celestia got hit hard, really hurting her, but not fatally. Her left arm was really hurt; she could barely move it.

Raven was panting heavily, while snickering for having successfully wounded her, but she was feeling tired. So was Celestia, but neither of them seemed ready to admit defeat. “Give it up, Celestia!”

“Fine…!” and Raven charged the uniforce again and fired. Celestia was finding it harder to dodge each blow.

The dome seemed to be weakening, and they could see only a slight hint of the dimension on the other side, contained within. “It’s Queen Celestia!” cried Rarity.

It was still hard to see them completely, but they could see Raven was constantly firing at Celestia. “The uniforce…!” Grand Ruler murmured. There was still no way for any of them to effectively get inside the dome, into the dimension.

They saw Raven fire again, hitting Celestia’s right leg, forcing her down. Everyone gasped, but then they noticed that the dome was getting weaker, and Raven didn’t look like she could handle much more. “What’s happening to her?” asked Pinkie.

The Starfleet ponies looked hopeful “She’s been using the uniforce way too much. She’s getting weaker.” said Krysta.

“Raven’s power may be draining fast,
But much longer can the queen last?” said Rhymey.

They watched as Celestia blasted Raven hard with magic, but Raven fired at her again injuring her other leg, and she fell forward flat on the ground “Celestia!” shouted Grand Ruler.

Raven was really shaking weakly, but there was no doubt that she had gone completely insane. “You’re… husband and friends… can’t… save you… now!” she growled. “This is the end for you!”

While back at Fire Mountain, Lightning and Harkin were reaching the absolute peak of their fight. Harkin pounded Lightning hard, sending him crashing towards the lava below, but Lightning fired the uniforce out his hands downward, thrusting him back up and head-bashing Harkin hard, and sending them both out through the mouth of the volcano and back outside… Harkin, unnoticed by them both, dropped the Crystal Heart, and it skidded along the ground.

Unfortunately, blasting the lava like that made the mountain rumble worse than ever, and the pressure was becoming immense. “There, you see. It’s going to blow!” said Lightning.

“So, it is…” hissed Harkin, but ultimately not caring, he dashed forth and socked Lightning hard in the gut. “That’s no excuse for us to quit!” he growled.

As Lightning groaned, while holding his gut, he gazed up at Harkin. “You… miserable monster…! Is fighting to you so important that you wouldn’t even care about your own safety?”

Harkin lunged at him again, but Lightning dodged. “I told you…” Harkin sneered “I fight for power and greatness. To show that only the strong are made to survive in this world, no matter what hazards come their way!” He swung at Lightning, and punched him clean in the face. “Those who aren’t properly prepared to take on the challenges that life presents, they deserve to perish!”

He kicked at Lightning, but he dodged and landed at a spot away from Harkin. “You’re wrong, you know.” he said “There’s a reason I’ve been around all this time. It is because I fight, but I fight for completely different reasons. I fight to protect-- to help those in need. To save people and places from horrible fates that can’t be dealt with in any other way. It also helps me to understand better, and lets me develop senses that you don’t understand! Like kindness, integrity, loyalty, discipline, and many more.”

Harkin gritted his teeth and his body began to glow. “Enough!” he shouted “It’s time to settle this… once and for all. Prepare yourself, I’m going to hit you with everything I’ve got left!”

The volcano was quivering more violently than ever and smoke began to blow out from the top as air pockets burst from the ground. Lightning realized if Harkin wouldn’t be reasoned with, “If that’s the way you want it, then I guess I’ll just have to blast you into oblivion!” he said as he powered up the uniforce.

Celestia was still on the ground, unable to stand up, and Raven, though she was extremely weak from all the blasting she had done, felt she had just enough power to finish her off once and for all.

She leapt up very, very high, and her entire body began to glow. “You are mine!” she thundered as she dive-bombed straight for her.

“Not quite…!” thundered Celestia “I still have my wings... and one good arm!” as the dome got weaker, the sunlight began to shine through a little “…and my sun-magic is returning!”

“What?! No!” Raven gasped, but she continued to dive at her “I won’t let this happen. I won’t lose to you now!”

Celestia’s horn began to glow brightly, and she flapped her wings rapidly rising off the ground, and soaring at Raven like missile. The two ponies roared fiercely like dragons in a duel as they soared closer and closer towards each other. They collided into each other, in a hard struggle, but Raven’s powers were hardly working anymore. “This can’t be happening!” she cried.

Celestia’s horn glowed it’s brightest as she shouted “…FOR TWILIGHT!!!”

Harkin’s had gotten he upper hand and forced his power straight at Lightning. “It’s over, Lightning, but you’ve lost to the greatest!” he shouted. “Not today!” shouted Lightning “It’s time for you to see what the difference is between us!” He thought about all his friends, all the planet, and especially Twilight… whom he swore to fight to avenge. This gave him the edge to squeeze every ounce of power he had into his blast, forcing it back hard at Harkin.

While at the same time, Celestia fired her magic at Raven, who didn’t have enough strength to defend herself. “Ah…! AAAAHH…!”

The two mares both struck at the same time, SCREAMING AND ROARING as the blasts consumed them followed by big explosions!

Lightning was panting very heavily, and felt really tired, but managed to remain on his feet. While the dust cleared and Harkin lay on the ground, half buried in pile of rocks and dirt. He looked so incredibly hurt, he could barely keep his eyes open, could hardly move, and his voice was so faint you could hardly hear him. “No...! How…? Why…?”

Lightning stepped forth “You’re just too self-centred, Harkin. You may be a good fighter, but you fought only for all wrong reasons, and in the end it was your own blindness and your lust for power that did you in.”

Harkin laughed ever so soft and weakly, he sounded as if he was running out of air, and he was, and yet he was laughing and smiling wickedly as he murmured “I… have lost… to a worthy foe.”

The volcano continued to rumble, and Lightning could feel that the lava was coming. He demanded that Harkin hand over the Crystal Heart.

“You mean this Crystal Heart.” hissed a voice. Lightning gazed up “Melantha…!” and she had the heart. “I suppose I should thank the two of you for letting me have this. King Sombra will be pleased.”

Lightning leapt up to try and attack her and take the heart back, but he was still exhausted from fighting Harkin and Melantha slammed him hard and sent him crashing hard onto the ground. Melantha snickered wickedly, and while she would have loved to stay and kill them, she had one other task to do, and decided to leave them and let the volcano finish them off.

“All we need now is that last heart shard, and then nothing will be able to stand in our way.”

“Me… lan… tha!” growled Harkin, and he grinned and snickered at her. “Don’t be… You… and King… Sombra… you will never win! If I could not… beat him… what makes you think… that… you… can…?”

Then he finally expired from his injuries. Melantha merely scoffed at him, and vanished with the heart. “No!” shouted Lightning! After all his hard fighting, he won the battle but lost the prize, and worse, the lava was rising in the crater below and coming up to the mouth of the volcano, but Lightning felt so weak he could hardly move. “I’ve gotta… get… outta… here!”

The smoke had cleared, and they could all see Celestia and Raven lying flat on the ground. “Oh, my…!” cried Grand Ruler as he dashed over and gently scooped his wife up in his arms. “Celestia…! Celestia…!”

His wife moaned softly, and opened her eyes, looked up at him and smiled “Celesto… I did it.” she said weakly. The others huddled around her, and were glad she was okay, while Raven gave a small twitch, much to the others horror, she slowly and shakily got onto her feet. She was in a real mess. Her mane and tail were tangled; her cape and hood were charred and ripped, her suit was tattered, and she was missing a boot, and she was a very nasty sight with all those scrapes and bruises and small blood-wounds everywhere “This…is… not… over yet!” she growled.

The fighters couldn’t believe she was still trying and the others all stepped in front of Celestia, shielding her, and telling Raven to give up, but Raven refused and was determined to avenge her husband’s death. “You killed my husband, Celestia… now I… will kill you even if it takes me to my end.”

“Really…? Well… that’s determination for you.” hissed a voice, and everyone looked up and saw Melantha. “It’s amazing. Two powerful ponies fight it out and no one dies. I don’t think I can accept this.”

“Wrong again, as usual.” Melantha said, and she gazed down at Raven “As for you; you want to destroy these ponies, well, I’ll give you one last chance. HERE!”

…and she threw no less than ten monster gems at her. Raven screamed and yowled as the gems entered her body and she began to glow…!

The sky grew dark and stormy. Fluttershy quivered, “What’s happening?!” she whimpered, but the answer was revealed as Raven turned into a giant, snarling beast, with monstrous tentacles, pincers and fangs laden with drool.

“Oh, but I will… with a sweet prize in tow.” and she showed everyone the Crystal Heart. This worried everyone entirely. “What’s happened to, Lightning..?” asked Rainbow.

“You really want to know-- He’s about to be fried, like all of you!” sneered Melantha, and she vanished out of sight. Starla and Krysta didn’t like the sound of the word “Fried”

“You two go get him and bring him back here.” said Grand Ruler. The girls nodded, and Krysta warped herself and Starla away. While Raven snarled and roared and moved towards the village. “No! There’s no time to get everyone inside to safety!” cried Grand Ruler.

Everyone in the village could see the monstrous beast anyway, and began to run for the hills in panic as the monster started to blast magical plasma blasts from her mouth and swung her tentacles at the buildings and homes. Grand Ruler barely managed to raise the shields in time.

“We can’t let her ravage the planet!” cried Rarity. Everyone thought the Grand Celestial Ruler would be the one best shot at beating Raven now, but Celestia was far too weak and sore from the previous battle and couldn’t perform the fusion with her husband.

Everyone soon realized that despite the incredibly losing odds, they had no choice but to try to stop her themselves. Grand Ruler had to take Celestia back to the palace so she could recover fast and promised to join them presently. “Good luck, all of you!” he called as he flew off.

Once they were all transformed, they dashed straight at Raven, and launched their attacks…

…and got her attention, but attacking her like that was like trying to pitch a pebble at an oncoming freight train! Raven roared and growled and swung her tentacles at the flyers. “Watch out…!” shouted Spike as the all swerved, and Raven’s tentacle smashed the ground causing the others to fall off their feet by the quake.

Raven growled and swung a tentacle at her bashing her clear off. Rhymey latched himself onto the same tentacle and stabbed his sword right into it causing Raven to screech in pain, and then swing at him too. “Rhymey, behind you!” screamed Fluttershy, and thanks to her, he saw the other tentacle and flew off just in time causing Raven to bash herself.

The cavalry soon arrived; the entire Canterlot army, and the Wonderbolts as well as other Starfleet officers. Shining Armor, Cadance and Princess Luna had sent them and were there to join the battle. “Ye-Haw, now we got ourselves a fight.” cheered Applejack.

Meanwhile, the lava was slowly starting to tip over the mountain and was heading straight for Lightning, and he barely managed to crawl forth. “Gotta… keep… going!” he cried as the lava got closer and enveloped Harkin’s dead body disintegrating it.

“Gotta… keep…!” suddenly Lightning found himself at the edge leading down the steep side of the mountain and long drop below. “I’m trapped!” he groaned. The lava was getting closer, and closer, and just as it was a few feet away from him, Lightning was scooped up and flown to safety by Starla.

They landed in a clearing away from the mountain. “Are you okay, Lightning…?” Starla asked. He gazed up at his fiancée and smiled “Thanks to you… my heroine.” he flirted. Starla smiled, and Krysta felt so relieved “Don’t you scare us like that!”

“What’s going on in New Canterlot?” asked Lightning, which reminded the girls that they had to get back. They told Lightning what was going on and he wanted to help. “Not on your life!” snapped Starla “You can barely move.”

They left the volcano to burn itself out knowing the lava wouldn’t reach far and would help fill up large craters and lava pits that the dragons would all love.

Before long, Lightning had been teleported to the hospital wing of the royal palace, and was even told by his master to stay behind and rest after all he had been through, and even ordered the doctors to give him a dose of medicine to help him sleep so he wouldn’t even be able to try and get up, and sure enough, he dropped out like a light.

“Let’s go!” shouted Grand Ruler, and he and the others dashed away to rejoin the battle… which was not going very smoothly. Raven was just too big and too powerful. She grabbed some of the flyers, including Cadance and Luna in her tentacles and whirled and threw them around and even bashed them into one another and tossed them hard onto the ground.

Shining Armor and ordered the artillery soldiers to fire the cannons and catapults, Rarity, added her own magic beam to the fire, and Pinkie and Applejack helped the guards, but Raven just took all the shots and prepared to fire back. “Look out!” shouted Shining Armor as he and the guards scattered away as Raven fired her power at them causing huge explosions and blowing up the artillery, just missing the ponies.

“CHARGE!!” shouted Spitfire as she and the Wonderbolts rushed forth. Raven saw them, and fired more blasts and swung her tentacles at them. “RETREAT!!” shouted Spitfire.

Grand Ruler and Starla made it, and Starla fired an arrow right between Raven’s huge eyes, and Grand Ruler sliced off one of her tentacles. Raven roared and yowled in anger and pain. “It’s no good, she’s too strong. We need more power.” cried Shining Armor.

“We must keep trying.” said Grand Ruler “Celestia is healing right now, but she needs more time!” He then suggested that everyone charge all their remaining power and weapons into one massive blast forward in hopes it would help.

Everyone agreed and all huddled together in the air and along the ground into one massive group and charged up their powers and weapons as Raven moved in closer. “Ready!” shouted Grand Ruler “Aim… FIRE…!”

All those blasts and fire power-- not a single shot missed Raven. Sparks and small explosions hit her everywhere. The explosions got bigger and bigger, and finally a very large explosion flared causing a massive gust of wind and a violent tremor to shake across the entire land, everyone fell to the ground.

Even in the palace, everyone could feel it, including Celestia. She tried to get up but the doctors told her to lie back and that she wasn’t fully recovered yet. “I feel strength enough.” said Celestia, and she fought her way out of bed and past all the doctors and guards, and flew out the window despite the many protests and pleads for her to come back, but she was already gone.

Also, Lightning was starting to stir in his deep sleep. He felt as if he could see and hear the battle through his dreams. He could practically see everyone trying their best to battle with Raven, but despite their efforts she was still too much.

Celestia had arrived on the scene and felt she had enough power to try the fusion. She got out her half of the Rainbow Rod, and Grand Ruler took out the matching half. They joined the two halves together and the transformation was successful, and Grand Celestial Ruler had appeared, not a moment too soon as Raven launched several of her tentacles at the others… when they were suddenly attacked and sliced by The Ruler’s sceptre. “You’ve all done well.” It said to everyone “…Now, we will deal with this foe.”

The Ruler turned to face the snarling monster and began to fight back hard, punching her with their fists and whacking it hard with its sceptre. Raven was getting angrier and fired her blasts at The Ruler. The Ruler stood their ground and took the blast on full force, but they suddenly winced and felt weak. “Look!” cried Krysta.

From deep within the Ruler, Celestia and Grand Ruler were able to communicate with each other separately. “Celestia, what’s wrong?”

“Celesto… I didn’t fully recover before coming out here. I need more power!”

This was a disaster. If Celestia got any weak then she wouldn’t be able to hold up the fusion. “Quick, maybe we can transfer some of our own powers to The Ruler.” suggested Cadance.

“Agreed!” said Princess Luna. Despite that everyone’s powers were already extremely low and they could only give The Ruler the teensiest bit, every single bit form every single one them equaled a good fair amount of energy giving The Ruler a small edge so they would be able to fight a bit longer, but they still hadn’t quite enough power to give it the big burst they would need to use the Mystic Light, which would destroy Raven for good, sadly, not a single one of the ponies, nor the others had enough power to spare anymore.

The Ruler fought their best, but Raven, still taking advantage of their weakening power, managed to get the upper hand.

Lightning was twitching and frowning worse than ever in his sleep and he felt so helpless not being able to help them, and began to have fears that Raven was getting so strong that she began to slaughter everyone to death, the entire army, all his friends, and Starla!

He finally awoke from his sleep, in shock, scaring the doctors. They could hardly believe he was wide awake after the sedatives they had given him.

“Are you alright, Admiral?” one of doctors asked. Lightning held his head and sighed in relief that it was just a dream, but he was shocked to hear that the fight was still going on. He could see it happening far away by looking through the window beside his bed. “Don’t even think about it, Admiral.” said the doctor. Lightning felt outraged, and still didn’t feel he had enough power.

He gazed up at his horn hoping it would pulsate again and restore his strength like it did at Fire Mountain…

…unfortunately, it didn’t, and he didn’t know why it wasn’t working. All he could do was watch as Raven continued to pummel at The Ruler, and take swings and blast at all the others, including Starla! “No, Starla…!”

Suddenly, the most amazing thing happened, not only was his horn glowing and he felt some of his strength returning, but the Element of Magic gemstone appeared right before him, and was glowing the mystical way it used to, as if it were trying to tell him to follow it out the window. The doctors argued with Lightning not to go, but once again they were powerless to stop him and he was gone, flying after the element out the window.

The Ruler took another hit, and Raven fired another blast at the others below. Some of the ponies had gotten hurt. Spike even lost so much strength that he changed back to his normal self. “Spike!” cried Rarity as she scooped him up and held him tightly “Oh, Spikey Wikey, speak to me!”

“We’ve tried everything we have, and we’re still not strong enough!” said Myte.

Krysta looked up, and could see a small glow of light in the distance. “Look!” she cried. Everyone looked up. “It’s Lightning.” cried Pinkie. “And what’s that other light near him?” added Rainbow. “It looks like the Element of Magic.” said Applejack. “The Element of Magic?” peeped Fluttershy.

Suddenly, Twilight’s five friends began to glow as their element-powers began to awaken, much to everyone’s astonishment, and the Element of Magic seeped right into The Ruler’s body, much to Lightning’s confusion…

Inside the Ruler’s body, Celestia’s felt her energy being completely revitalized. “What’s happening?” she asked “I don’t know…” said Grand Ruler. Then suddenly, they swore they could see Twilight’s spirit appear before Celestia. “Twilight…?”

Twilight didn’t say a word, and simply smiled at her, and she along with the Element of Magic seemed to course its way all through the Ruler’s body. “I can feel it!” they said “The magic is coursing through us.”

Lightning landed atop the Ruler’s massive head, in-between their four horns feeling he knew what was happening; so did all the others as Twilight’s friends magically levitated themselves onto The Ruler’s shoulders. All at once, The Ruler’s body began to glow in that mystical light, much to Raven’s irritation, but The Ruler, along with Twilight’s friends fired their attacks.

“HARMONY BEAM” right at Raven which enveloped her in jolts and sparks of magic. She screeched and roared as she flailed around.

Lightning looked down and The Ruler gazed up at him. The two nodded and prepared for the final hit. “For Twilight…!” Lightning said. “…UNIFORCE”

The two mystical forces blasted Raven hard, and she exploded in one colossal big bang and was really gone. All that was left of her was the remains of her charred and broken locket, the same one her husband had given to her.

The darkness in the sky lifted, and all was well again, a little damage done to the village and forests, but none of the civilians were hurt, and all the ponies cheered for joy.

The Ruler defused back into Celestia and Grand Ruler, and there, atop the center point of Celestia’s crown sat the Element of Magic, which was bestowed upon her now, just as it was a millennium ago, and after all she did train Twilight which was how it bestowed itself upon her. It was only right that she got to bear it again.

Still, as much as they had reason to be joyous for their victory, a lot of them felt very worried… especially Lightning because Melantha had gotten away with an almost-complete Crystal Heart. “All is not really lost…” Celestia said and she revealed that she still had the last shard, which she managed to confiscate from Raven during her private duel with her, and as long as they still had it and the Crystal Heart remained incomplete, Sombra could still do nothing! This was a huge sigh of relief for everyone, but also a desperate warning for it meant things were only going to get worse from here on out. The final battle was approaching!

That night, Celestia and her husband tucked their babies into their cribs and pecked them goodnight. Celestia felt so happy to be alive, and that she had avenged Twilight’s death, and Grand Ruler was very proud of her. “You’re very brave, my love.” he said.

His wife smiled “The truth is, deep down, I really was frightened. I helped take someone’s life.” Obviously, even though in a sense Raven had to be destroyed, especially for killing deliberately Twilight, Celestia couldn’t help but not be able to blame her. Raven was angry and insane, and in a sense it was her fault.

Grand Ruler wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her close. “I know how you feel...” He whispered to her “… But listen to me. She was grieving, and suffering. Every second, she grew worse and worse. Who knew what she would have been capable of doing. So, in a small sense, by destroying her and ending her life… we’ve put an end to her suffering, and spared our world from more of it.”

Celestia understood, but still, she really missed Twilight, and so did Grand Ruler, but it couldn’t have been denied that she was there to help them and always would be. They just stood where they were, embracing each other softly.

While up on the highest terrace, Lightning and Starla stood together, Lightining was still beating himself up over losing the Crystal Heart, only for Starla to re-remind him that it wasn’t really his fault. “Things got out of hand. You couldn’t help what happened.”

“I know, but still… it was my responsibility to get it back and I let everyone down.”

It was difficult to argue with him there, but at least all was not totally lost, seeing as they still had one shard. “You never let me down.” Starla said “I knew you’d beat Harkin, and you promised me you’d come back, and you did.”

He turned and smiled at her cheekily “Only because you and Krysta helped me. Thank you, Starla.” His fiancée smiled and they shared a soft kiss and continued to look up at the stars. “And thank you too, Twilight.” Lightning said in his thoughts.

In our next episode, Sombra has discovered an alternative way of getting his body back, while Grand Ruler has dispatched the ponies to help recruit and alert Starfleet allies for the oncoming battles ahead, which puts them right in the middle of Sombra’s plans causing trouble and havoc to the other worlds.

What is Sombra’s evil plot, and will Starfleet be alerted and ready?

Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic”

(Next Episode: “World Warnings”)

My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season III

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 20: This is War: Part 2