“Previously on Starfleet Magic”
The team were all in an uproar trying to decide what to do about Starla and the last shard of the Crystal Heart. After much deliberation and a few words form his family, Grand Ruler allowed Lightning and his team to board Sombra’s spaceship in a final attempt to get Starla back. Upon entering, Lightning’s friends deal with a swarm of shadowbolts while Lightning came face-to-face with Sombra and Starla now supposedly under his control.
EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR
Starla glared ever so fiercely down at Lightning, but he still made no attempt to attack her, and also, the way they had been fighting before, Lightning noted something odd and yet familiar about the style Starla fought him.
“Say goodbye to your sweetheart.” Sombra hissed, and he ordered Starla to strike him. Starla swung her first hard and thrust forward! POW!
Meanwhile, Lightning and the boys had been gone for over an hour, and Pinkie Pie kept shooting off her mouth. “Are they back yet? Are they back yet? Are they back yet?”
“Cut it out, Pinkie!” snapped Rainbow “You’re making me nervous. What’s going on up there?”
“Easy there, RD.” said Applejack “I’m sure Lightning and the boys are okay.”
“Of course they’re alright?” Rarity agreed “Although it has been rather a long time. Suppose they aren’t alright? Suppose… they’ve run into trouble… or if they’ve already been destroyed!!” She grabbed Fluttershy and shook her vigorously in panic “WE’VE GOT TO DO SOMETHING!”
“Um… call for help?” Fluttershy suggested softly.
“Rarity, will you calm down?” said Spike “There’s nothing we can do but keep hoping their okay up there.”
Rarity calmed down and caught her breath “You’re right, Spike. I will try.” She breathed deeply again. “I am totally calm.”
“HEY GUYS!” Krysta shouted, making Rarity jump into Spike’s arms, and of course he couldn’t carry her, and they stumbled about and crashed into a suit of armor by the wall and knocking a table and flowerpot over too. “Sorry…” peeped Krysta.
Professor Brain had sent her to tell everyone to report to the laboratory immediately. The three royal ones, Cadance and Shining Armor were there too. “Now, er… everyone… I have good news and bad news to announce.”
He first explained how after Lightning and the boys were taken onto Sombra’s ship, Krysta had flown out to gather particles of those dark clouds that had appeared and brought them back to the lab. Brain, Fratello, and Krysta then analyzed and confirmed the magical qualities of the cloud contained the same kind of power Sombra’s wicked minions used to teleport directly to and from the spaceship itself without the aid of a dimensional pathway, but rather a simple long distant teleportation, making it no difficult to help perfect the portal in the lab.
“So, does this mean the teleporter is working?” asked Shining Armor
“Er well, yes… almost.”
“What do you mean almost?” asked Luna.
Brain and Fratello decided to show them, by firing the magical transport-beam out the window and into sky in the direction of Sombra’s ship. “…Ready to fire, Professor.” said Fratello.
Brain nodded and ushered everyone to step back. “…Fire!” and the machine fired the magical beam from the portal, out the window, up, up, up into the skies, out into space and heading for Sombra’s ship, but it just stopped before it reached the ship at all.
“That’s wonderful!” said Celestia “…But it didn’t reach the ship at all.”
“That is er… the bad news, your majesty.” Brain said. Fratello nodded in agreement “We’ve been trying our hardest, but the teleporter only has a limited range. The ship is much too far out for us to reach it at present.”
“Well, can you not increase the power?” asked Grand Ruler.
“I’m afraid not, your majesty. We would require more energy from those dark clouds and there simply isn’t any left.”
That was it, at present all they could do was wait and hope if by some miracle the ship would move in close enough to be in range. Grand Ruler and Celestia hoped it would so, but Cadance hoped the Crystal heart was safe too.
“Why? Is there something else that we should know?” Rainbow Dash asked, and the others all gazed at her and the royal ones with looks of deep suspicion telling Cadance to spill it!
She had taken time and did her studies, and finally she had a good idea of what Sombra was really trying to do with it.
Not only would the Crystal Heart house power enough to grant him his body, but it had long since played a secret role that only few were aware of. It served a key for a gateway into what had to be the dark dimension, where the Crystal Empire had vanished to long ago. She was certain of this because of Raven. With just the one shard she had alone and the power she possessed allowed her to warp to and from that horrible place, but Sombra, if he somehow managed to complete the Crystal Heart and combine with it and his wicked magic, he’d be able to cast all of United Equestria and its inhabitants into that dreadful world. With all that darkness and all that power by his side… he would become invincible. Then nothing would be safe, even the strength of a million ponies wouldn’t be enough to combat him.
“Whoa!” cried Spike “All that power?! We can’t take that chance he’ll do that.”
Everyone else agreed, but until Lightning and the others got back… if they would get back, they could do nothing. “I wonder what’s happening up there.” Goldwin wondered aloud.
Lightning had actually caught Starla’s punch in his hands. They just stood where they were, hardly moving or making a sound, but Lightning looked up at her, and saw she twitched her muzzle twice…
...just what he needed to see.
“What are you waiting for? Destroy him now!” bellowed Sombra.
Lightning, now fully aware of what was really happening, shoved Starla back hard and rose to his feet and began to fight back, punching her hard in the chest and knocking her smack into Melantha. “Get him!” shouted Sombra. Lightning stood poised and the two girls lunged at him.
While down below, the others were still fighting with the shadowbolts, and all of them were starting to run low on power, but they continued to fight on.
Buddy Rose punched a shadowbolt, sending it slamming into the wall making the ceiling rumble and crack slightly. Artie kicked another one into a large stone column, breaking it, and causing more rumbling and cracks.
Rhymey powered up his sword, “THRASH SLASH” and struck three more shadowbolts, blowing them up, causing the rumbling to become more severe and little teeny bits of sand and pebbles start to fall right onto Dyno and Myte’s heads. “Huh…?”
“Que…?”
In their distraction, the shadowbolts hit them, sent them crashing to the ground, which caused more tremors and slightly larger stones to start tumbling down. “Esperen, muchachos! Stop!” cried Dyno.
Artie spun round to face the twins. “What? What do you mean stop?” and he got tackled to the ground. His staff flung out of his hands and jarred into a huge crack in the wall, now everyone could feel the rumbling and the falling stones were falling faster due to all the stress from the all the fighting, and all the slamming and crashing against the walls and breaking the supports. “I don’t think this ship can stand my more!” cried Myte.
“It’s shaking,
and it’s breaking!” added Ryhmey.
The shadowbolts however, didn’t seem to care a bit and just continued to fight and come out from the large alcoves and openings. The boys couldn’t just stop fighting either, not until they found a way to stop the shadowbolts for good or at least keep them held back.
The brawl continued with Lightning and the girls, and he didn’t hold back. He dodged all of Starla’s strikes and attacks and punched, kicked, and bashed her back hard. Melantha swung her trident at him, but he grabbed it in his hands and furiously struggled against her, and swiftly kicked it out of her hands sending jamming into wall, and the punching Melantha harder in the face than she ever had been.
“PULSAR LASER” shouted Starla, and she blasted Lightning hard in the back and down onto the floor. He got up and dashed for her. “STAR SHOWER” She unleashed her star clusters at him, but he dodged and swerved and tackled her to the ground.
Melantha grabbed her trident, yanking it out from the wall and dashed back over, bashing Lightning off of Starla.
Sombra just continued to watch and do nothing else. He didn’t care who really won or lost. Even if by some fluke Lightning would win, he believed Lightning would be tired out from all the fighting. He would be standing by and ready to finish him off and take the shard from him.
Goldwin was still gazing up at the ship though his telescope. “Hey, everyone, look at this!” he hollered. The others huddled around him, and Spike gazed through the telescope and could see that the ship seemed off balance and was ever so slowly drifting forward, towards where Brain and Fratello had fired their transport beam.
“Strange-- most strange…” remarked Brain.
“Professor, maybe you can get ready to try the device again?” asked Cadance.
The others nodded in agreement telling him to go for it, and Brain agreed that if the ship continued to drift forward and come within range “…This just may work.”
Everyone got back to the laboratory and Brain and Fratello readied the teleporter again. “But wait…” said Luna “What if something goes wrong? What if you were to accidently beam an enemy to our palace?”
“Oh, that is quite impossible, your highness-- Quite impossible.” replied Brain.
“We are able to program this device with DNA samples of the boys.” added Fratello “If this works, it should transport them, and only they. No evil ones will be able to hitch a ride on this.”
Everyone was still amazed by Fratello’s knowledge “That’s my brother.” Cadance said, but she said it to herself.
The ship continued to rumble, and the rocks seemed to get bigger as they fell, this suddenly gave the boys and idea of how to stop the shadowbolts from coming out at them. It was risky, and would defiantly cause critical damage to the ship, but they had no choice. “Get away from the openings.” shouted Buddy Rose, and he and his friends back flipped out of the way and away from the oncoming shadowbolts, and once they were in the clear. “Do it, guys!” Artie hollered at the twins…
They stepped forward, “BOOM-BOOM ROCKETS”
…the twins fired their rockets at the ceiling and walls, blowing them up and causing a huge rockslide to bury the shadowbolts, and block off the tunnels so they couldn’t come out anymore. The boys cheered for joy and slapped a few high-fives, but just as they expected, the ship was now rumbling worse than ever and the rocks were falling all around followed by small explosions.
“We better find Lightning and get out of here! This place could go up any minute!” said Artie. The others agreed and headed off.
The tremors were felt by the others on the upper-level. Sombra was well aware of what was going on, but he still didn’t care and was really losing his patience. Just as well, Lightning got punched in the chest hard and was flipped over backwards onto the floor and was once again at Starla’s mercy as she aimed her bow straight at his neck. “Yes!” and she walked over to join her ready to strike Lightning down for good.
“Destroy him! Destroy him now!” demanded Sombra.
Starla armed her bow, and Melantha raised her trident and POW…
“What?!” snarled Sombra when saw that Starla had turned at the last second and blasted Melantha and sent her skidding across the floor, and she quickly turned and blasted him as well, which he barely evaded.
Starla helped Lightning to his feet and turned to face the evil ones “You fools! Ever since our adventure on Leiko, we fighters have trained to strengthen our mind-power to withstand most kinds of hypnosis. Even if you could hypnotize me, I’d never hurt the love of my life.”
Lightning was able to tell she was faking by the Starfleet official code signals she gave-- her fighting style, slightly holding back, and the twitching of her muzzle which told him to play along. Sombra and Melantha were outraged and both decided to finish the job then and there, when they were suddenly bombarded by a swarm of attacks.
“You should know by now, Sombra, you can’t outwit Starfleet that easily.” Lightning sneered.
Sombra roared loudly in anger, and blasted at him hard from his throne, hitting him hard against the wall! “Lightning!” cried Starla as she rushed over to help him up. Melantha jumped in to help him. “Oh, no you don’t!” snarled Buddy Rose as he lassoed her leg and pulled her down so he and the others could fight her.
The battle was becoming so intense that the explosions around the ship were now visible from outside…
“Look!” cried Goldwin “The ship, it’s blowing up from the inside.” This greatly alarmed everyone. “We gotta do something!” squealed Pinkie.
“Professor is the teleporter ready yet?” asked Grand Ruler.
“It is, sire, but I am afraid the ship is still a wee bit out of range. It needs to drift in closer.”
“It might be too late by then!” cried Applejack “That thing’s getting’ ready to blow eight ways from Sunday!”
“Rhymey!” Fluttershy peeped. She was so scared she couldn’t even look and just buried her face into Rainbow’s chest weeping her little head off.”
Rainbow gently patted her back trying to comfort her, but she didn’t know what to say at this point, except muttered softly to Lightning and his friends on the ship. “Come on, guys! Don’t give up!”
Melantha fought fiercely against Lighting’s five friends, and they fought back, thought he fight was seemingly equal, what all their powers at an all-time low, it was bound to be anyone’s win. “Die!” shouted Melantha “You must die! I live only to kill! To slaughter…!” she slashed her trident around like the crazy fiend she was, hitting the boys one by one and causing their power suits to completely run out and power down, back to their regular patrol armor suits.
Melantha took a huge swing and pinned Rhymey down holding her trident just an inch above his neck.
“No!”
“Rhymey!”
Melantha laughed like a screeching banshee “Of all the lives I’ve taken, yours will be a pleasure to end all pleasures!” but Rhymey swiftly grabbed the ends of the trident preventing her from thrusting it into him.
“A thing you’ve forgotten I will explain.
You may have power, but you’ve not used your brain!”
He curled his legs inwards and kicked her hard in the stomach, sending her backwards, and her trident went soaring up high in the air. One by one the others let her have it; punching… kicking, and beating her to no ends. “You’re through, Melantha!” snarled Dyno.
“Your killing days are over!” added Myte.
“NO!!” shouted Melantha and she dashed forth to strike them all at once, when her own trident came crashing down and skewering her in the chest. The boys winced and hid their eyes in fear upon the impact as Meleantha’s body sparked and flared up. Then she simply exploded in a big bang really upsetting the structure of the ship!
At least she was gone!
…But the ship was blowing up worse than ever, but was almost within range of the teleporter. “Just a little further!” cried Fratello!
Sombra, not noticing or even caring that his ship was damaged, or Melantha was gone, just glared at Lightning and Starla, and with his new body and increased power, he was just as fierce as ever as he claws and bashed Lightning and Starla around like ragdolls, they were barely able to even get close. Lightning managed to get close enough, but as he punched for Sombra’s face, he caught his fist. “Easy pickings!” and firing a beam from his eyes shot him back into wall… and dropping the shard.
Starla had taken enough and fired her “GALACTIC PROJECTILE” straight at him, but much to her and Lightning’s shock, he caught it in his grip and crushed it to bits without succumbing to any damage himself. “Your puny little Starfleet weapons are no match for the might of King Sombra!” he laughed as he threw the projectile right back at her, really hitting her hard as sparks and explosions ruptured all around her. “Starla!” shouted Lightning.
The smoked cleared and Starla was still alive, but her suit had powered down. Lightning turned and growled at Sombra and charged at him only to be grabbed by him in his claws. “Fool!” laughed Sombra, and he shocked Lightning jolting him with his power until Lightning’s suit powered down as well. “You actually thought you could beat the most powerful being in the dimensional universe!”
The others ran over to help Starla up onto her feet. “You okay?” asked Artie.
“Lightning!” cried Starla. She and the others tried to run over to help him, but Sombra blasted them back. “Stay out of my way!” he snarled “You’ll get your turns, but first thing is first.”
“Guys!” cried Lightning, and he felt Sombra tighten his grip on him. “It is no use.” he hissed “You and your friends tried your best, but your power pales to mine, and soon everything you have come to know, everyone you’ve come to love will be bowing to me as servants of the darkness!”
“That… won’t happen… Sombra!” growled Lightning, and his horn began to pulsate wildly again as his strength slowly began to return just like all the other times. “What’s this?!” growled Sombra, and Lightning gave him a good blast of the uniforce right in his face, forcing him back and letting Lightning go!
The ship was almost completely within range, but it was still blowing up. “Closer! Closer!” cried Brain “Anytime now…!”
The others couldn’t stand the suspense. Rarity fainted for real and not overdramatically. Spike fanned her with a cloth trying to revive her.
Grand Ruler gazed out the window and up at the ship. “Come on, Lightning. Stay strong! …Fight!”
The others ran up to him, and Sombra brushed off the smoke from his face “How is this possible?” he growled “Could it be…? A real Enticorn…?! No! You don’t look anything like it, and you’ll never defeat me! I won’t lose, not again!”
Lightning stepped forth with his entire body glowing. “Evil… will always lose to good!”
Sombra roared and fired his power at Lightning, who swerved, dodging it. Sombra blasted at him again, but Lightning leapt up high yelling and roaring as he thrust his glowing fist right at Sombra’s wicked heart, striking him hard where it hurt most. Sombra roared loudly as many powerful explosions erupted, breaking the ship badly.
“Lightning!” screamed Starla.
“This is it!” cried Buddy Rose.
Dyno and Myte hugged each other whimpering “Adiós mi hermano!”
“FIRE!” shouted Brain, and Fratello fired the beam out the window and straight for the exploding spaceship, finally hitting it…
…and Lightning’s friends vanished…
…and reappeared in the lab on the floor. The Professor, Fratello, and Krysta exchanged looks of cheer and glee. “We’ve done it!” cried Fratello.
“We really did!” added Krysta, and yet all Brain could say was his same phrase, but chuckling with ever so much glee. “Satisfactory! Most-Most-Most Satisfactory!”
Everyone was so happy they made it back safely. Fluttershy tackled Rhymey to the ground and showed his face with kisses. Rarity awakened from her faint and leapt for joy but then noticed, “Wait! Where’s Lightning?”
Starla bolted upright “He’s not here?”
“Look!” shouted Luna, and everyone huddled to the window, looked up at the sky and watched the ship explode in one mighty big boom, lighting up the skies that everyone shielded their eyes, and when the brightness ceased… there was nothing left of the ship! Everyone didn’t want to believe it, but couldn’t ignore that Lightning was most likely still on it when it blew. “Lightning…!” Starla cried as she fell to her knees. Her heart was aching and tears were flowing down her cheeks.
“No! You can’t be gone!” Krysta peeped.
The boys couldn’t believe it, and all felt so incredibly outraged and crushed! Rarity felt like fainting again, and the girls couldn’t take another loss of a good friend, when suddenly the Teleporter began to glow again. “Hey look!” cried Shining Armor.
Everyone watched and their eyes filled with joy as Lightning appeared safe and sound. “Hey!” he hollered “I made it!”
“Lightning!” squealed Starla as she dashed over and he grabbed her and twirled her round as everyone else huddled around him welcoming him back and extending their congrats. “You really scared us!” cried Krysta.
“Yeah… I scared myself pretty bad too. I thought I was a goner.”
“Well done, Lightning.” his mentor said “I’m glad that you and all of your friends returned safely.”
“And an especially big thanks to you, Professor Brain, Fratello, and Krysta.” added Celestia. The three of them bowed to their queen…
But suddenly the skies began to grow dark again. “Now what…?” grumbled Lightning.
Everyone looked out the window and couldn’t believe their eyes. There, floating in the sky…
“It’s… Sombra!” cried Cadance, and still in full, demonic body as well which most of the others didn’t recognize. Celestia felt shivers run up her spine, having never seen him in his new form before.
“He has taken the true shape of evil.” Luna said.
“But… it can’t be!” cried Buddy Rose.
“We saw Lightning destroy him!” added Artie.
Sombra turned and could see them. “Oh, really…? Guess again!” he laughed maliciously as the skies grew darker and all the ponies and other creatures of the planet gazed up in horrors. Sombra just loved their whimpering, and the cries of frightened children. He turned back to face the others at the palace. “You only destroyed my spaceship. Not that I should really care as I not only have a body of my own, but I’ve also gained these!” and he held out both the incomplete Crystal Heart along with the last shard that Lightning had dropped during the battle and he forgot to check for it. “Ah! Oh, no…!”
Everyone watched in horrors as Sombra joined the last piece to the main heart and in a flash of bright light it was whole once again. “No!” cried Cadance as she and the others watched Sombra infuse it into his body-- showing it on his chest--- His magic turned it dark with evil and he power increased immensely. His evil laugh grew louder and more evil as he glowed in dark fiery magic. “UNITED EQUESTRIA IS MINE!!”
The entire planet began to rumble and quake, and there was no time to evacuate everyone or get them inside to safety. “It’s all over…!” shrieked Pinkie Pie “WE’RE DOOMED!! DOOMED I TELL YA!!”
To Be Continued…!
(Promo)
In our next episode, as United Equestria slowly begins to sink under Sombra’s wicked wrath, the inhabitants are slowly sinking into fear and despair just, only further increasing his power. Unfortunately, just as promised, the team are seemingly no match for the evil king even altogether, especially when he revives whole army of old friends from the past to aid him in his new dominance, but after witnessing so much pain and struggling, Lightning succeeds in the impossible and unlocks the legendary powers of the Enticorn.
Will Lightning be able to stand up to Sombra’s wicked power? Is United Equestria truly doomed?
Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic”
(Next Episode: “Part 4:”The Legendary Enticorn”)