//------------------------------//
// Episode 3: Rotten Dregs 
// Story: My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season VI 
// by DakariKingMykan 
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EPISODE THREE


A week had passed since the prisoners were released, and the hunt for them was still happening, and little-by-little, thanks to Starfleet working much harder than ever, the prisoners were being returned to their cells.

So far, about fifty villains had been captured… leaving only thousands to go!

Fortunately, not many casualties or damages had occurred yet with Starfleet constantly on alert all across the cosmos, and already several monsters attacked United Equestria, but were defeated and imprisoned.

Even still, life continued, although two were not exactly having the best of times; Shining Armor and Princess Cadance.


Ever since their son, Amando, was stillborn, the result of Shining Armor being brainwashed and out of control, the couple had been trying desperately for months to have another child, but nothing they tried worked; Cadance just couldn’t seem to get pregnant again.

They finally saw the court physician and underwent extremely thorough tests to see if they were doing anything wrong, and then when the results came in, it was not good…

Several days ago, the doctor saw the couple in his private office in the Crystal Palace. He could tell they were anxious to hear the results. “So, how about it?” asked Shining Armor “Why hasn’t Cadance gotten pregnant?”

His wife elbowed him to soften his anxiety, though she herself couldn’t wait much longer herself, but she noticed the doctor had a queer expression on his face. “What is it, Doctor?” she asked, and she began to feel her insides churning with worry “Is it bad news?”

The Doctor rubbed his face trying to find words. “The results of the test have been gone over many times, and no mistakes were made…” he paused.

“Well…” Shining Armor said.

The doctor sighed and said, “There is no easy way to tell you two this, so I’ll just be blunt.”

The couple didn’t like the sound of his concern and voice, and finally he said to them, “Princess Cadance, Shining Armor… I am very sorry…” he paused again, “…You will never have any more children.”

At that very moment, it felt as if both their hearts and had been slashed by a burning knife.

According to the results, when the large column fell on Cadance, it did far more damage to her internal reproductive system, leaving her barren.

As for her husband; when Shining Armor was brainwashed by the Insectos and transformed into Saber, the unnatural transformation damaged his own reproductive system. His sperm was dead and beyond hope of proper reproduction. Even if Cadance were not barren, he wouldn’t be able to get her pregnant even if he tried for a million years!


Their dreams of being parents were completely crushed, and with them went a part of their wills.

Now it was more heartbreaking than ever to peek into the nursery they had setup. Everything they saw, the cradle, the rocking chair, mobile, baby toys.

Cadance always shed a few tears whenever she passed by it, but Shining Armor felt worse, knowing it was he who caused the accident which caused the stillbirth; though he was told constantly it wasn’t his fault as he was brainwashed.

He would often retreat to the dojo and try to train his troubles away, other times he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts.


Lightning and Starla came, along with Krysta that day to personally collect help Cadance go over reports from the Starfleet soldiers from the empire.

While they worked, they all chatted and had a good time. “Oh, we want to show you something.” Starla said, and she held out a photograph she and Lightning had gotten in the mail from New Horn Kong; a picture of their friend Cookie Dough, his wife Khanna Ling and their new baby son only a few weeks old.

A cute little blue space-alicorn, but he had his mother’s Asian-like eyes. “Oh, that’s so sweet.” Cadance cooed “What’s his name?”

“They said they named him Chop Stick, though I find that an odd name.” said Lightning “Once he gets old enough he’ll have to be assigned an ID-surname, since he won’t have a Cuite-Mark and all that.”

“So, even if a Space Pony has a child with an Equestrian…?” Cadance asked, and Lightning and Starla nodded. “It’s just how it goes.” Starla said.

“Well, he’s still cute.” Cadance said, and she gazed ever more deeply at the photo, and her facial expression began to look sad, which reminded the friends… as they had heard the news in the letters they wrote and shared only with them and with their royal majesties as well, even Princess Luna was made aware of the situation.

“Oh, Cadance…” cried Krysta “We’re so sorry, in all the excitement we didn’t think about that.”

Cadance wiped her tears and smiled bravely, “It’s alright…” she said “I’m trying to be as brave as I can about it. I know nothing I can say or do will change things.”

Lightning hardly knew what to say at all, he remembered how horrible it was when he saw the accident before his eyes, and it still pained him that he wasn’t able to totally save Cadance from getting hurt, though he did help to save her life.

“How’s Shining Armor?” he asked.

“Not very well.” replied Cadance “He hasn’t been eating much lately or sleeping too well, and when he trains in the dojo he slips up because he can’t seem to focus.” She sighed softly as her sadness began to show again “I don’t think I can blame him…” she was quivering, but couldn’t hold it in and softly let out her emotion.

“Oh, Cadance…” Starla cried as she walked over and hugged her softly, Krysta and Lightning joined her, and they hated that she was all upset like this, which made Lightning think of Shining Armor and felt maybe he needed someone to talk to as well.

He asked the girls to look after Cadance while he headed to the dojo.

There he found Shining Armor fighting with one of the practice-dummies. He tried charge and jump kick at it, but he slipped at the last few feet, obviously not concentrated, and he fell flat on the floor.

He angrily pounded the floor, but Lightning came over and offered his hand to help him up. They talked it over and Shining Armor explained his problems, “And every time I try I keep seeing Amando and Twilight, and I just… freeze up.”

Lightning shook his head in dismay.

Shining Armor then reached behind him and pulled out his enchanted Insecto-mask; the key to his transformation into Saber. “This…” he said while gazing grimly at it “This thing feels like more of a curse than a gift to me, and I almost wish I didn’t have it, knowing it caused Cadance’s accident. How can I really use it to make good?”

Lightning patted his friend’s back and said; “I may not know what it’s like to lose a child, but you know that I know what it feels like to lose those you love.” he referred again to how he lost his home planet, Harmonious.

“I don’t get how you can stand it.” Shining Armor said. 

“Well, it does bother me badly from time-to-time, and there’s nothing I can do to change that.” said Lightning “But I know there are others counting on me now; they’re counting on all of us.”

He offered to train with him and maybe try and help him get his act together.


The two trained well… meditating, slow and steady moves and poses, and some warm up exercises, Shining Armor seemed to do okay there, but when it came time to spar, he began to slip again.

“Come on, you can do it!” Lightning said, while holding out a guard-plate on his arm for Shining Armor to kick.

Shining Armor charged, and rushed with all his might, but again, at the last second, he had another frightful vision of his sister and his son, causing him to miss the shot and fall again.

Lightning sighed in dismay, and helped his friend off the floor again. “It’s no good, Lightning, I’m too soft.”

“No, you’re not; you just have to stay more focussed that’s all. Now, come on, try again.”

So, Shining Armor tried it again, and this time he managed to make it all the way to Lightning, but he hardly kicked him with any force at all, he was still holding himself back.

Lightning wasn’t sure what else to do. If this kept up, Shining Armor would be next to useless in battle if he couldn’t concentrate. After all, having powers was one thing, but having the nerves to use it right was quite another.


Suddenly, the alarms sounded outside, and Krysta appeared along with the girls. “What’s going on?” Lightning asked.

“There’s a monster loose in the Crystal Village.” said Starla “The evacuation is already underway.”

“We better get out there.” Lightning said.

“I’ll go with you.” said Cadance, and she pulled out her magic Ninja Medallion. Shining Armor wanted to come along too, but the others advised against it, even Cadance though it best he remain behind due to his troubles.

“But, wait…” cried Shining Armor, but the others wouldn’t wait and Krysta teleported them all outside, leaving him on his own to sulk.

And he gazed again at his mask, still unsure of himself.


While outside, the streets were already cleared. All the civilians had either rushed inside and were now shielded by the barriers, or those who didn’t make it were escorted by the gaurds away from the danger area.

Lightning and Starla had already donned their super suits, and Cadance transformed into her Silent Ninja form. 

“Alien readings are strong here.” Lightning said “Keep your eyes peeled.”

Suddenly, a loud cackling sound was heard, and they could see the creature stand up on a house roof. Her skin was burgundy, and her long, nasty hair was black with red streaks, and she wore a skin-tight outfight, with colors of rusted green and grey.

“It’s been some time, Starfleet.” she hissed “My name is Corrossa. I was sent to prison a-hundred years ago, and now you are going to pay for it!”

As gross as she was, Lightning and Starla scanned her with their visors. “She has the power to make things rot and corrode with her Doom Decay attack.” said Lightning “She may not look very strong, but she’s very slick and fast.”

Corrossa then leapt down from the roof and began to attack the fighters. The three ponies charged at her, punching and kicking. 

All though Corrossa had been locked up for so long, she still managed to put up a good fight, and she punched and kicked the fighters away. Even Cadance, with her Ninja speed found it hard to keep up and got hit as well.

“You okay, Cadance?” Lightning asked. Since Cadance could not speak while transformed, she gave him a thumb up. 

“None of you will be fine soon!” snarled Corrossa. “Says you!” snarled Krysta, and using her super strength, threw a huge rock at her, but she caught the rock in her hands, and her eyes began to glow, “DOOM DECAY!” she fire a beam at the rock reducing it to dust in her hands, much to everyone’s shock.

“PULSAR LASER!” Starla unleashed her beam at Corrossa, but surprisely, she held out her hands intercepting it, and rotted it away to nothing.

“Galloping Galaxies!” cried Lightning, he scanned her with his visor again and deduced hitting her with a small blast of the uniforce wouldn’t work either.

Corrossa snickered and said, “And it can be done just as easy on all of you.”

She lunged forth, and the friends scattered causing her to miss and grab a tree, rotting it… trunk, limbs, foliage, everything, much to everyone’s horror.

“Whatever you do, don’t let her grab you!” cried Starla.

Corrossa growled, and then she lunged at Lightning and Starla, forcing them to dodge, and Cadance, using her Ninja skills, burst through the ground, punching Corrossa hard in the chest and sent her rolling along the ground, yet the monster snickered.

That’s when Cadance gazed at her hand to realize a small bit of her glove had rotted.

“This isn’t going to work.” Lightning said “We can’t attack her physically without risk.”

“That’s the least of your worries.” hissed Corrossa “I don’t even need to hit you directly to make it work.” With that, her eyes glowed and so did her long hair, and her hair began to move like tentacles, “ROTTING TO THE CORE!”

With that, the tentacles dove into the ground, anchoring Corrossa in place, and she sent waves of glowing rot and decay like cracking ice.

“Look out!” shouted Lightning, and he and Starla flew up high, and Krysta warped Cadance to a spot of the way, while everything in the path of the waves rot and decayed around them; benches, lampposts, stands, trees; the barriers stopped the rot from entered the buildings and would hold it out for some time.


Shining Armor saw the whole thing from the palace, and he was growing more frustrated than ever, not just from seeing all the damage, but knowing his friends were in danger, coupled with his intense traumas were really starting to hurt him.

He even began to have horrible visions of them all losing the fight and being destroyed, and the blame pitied on him for not doing anything about it.


While down below, the friends felt as long as they stayed high up in midair, the rot wouldn’t get to them, but much to their surprise, Corrossa was able to make her hair tentacles burst through the ground and try to grab them, forcing the flyers to swerve and Cadance to leap from one place to another. “You can’t escape me for long!” she taunted at them “I’m going to enjoy making you all rot; the same way I rotted in a cell for a-hundred years thanks to the soldiers before you!”

The tentacles continued to lunge at them, and the rot in the ground was spreading.

“This isn’t working!” cried Starla.

“I need a chance to power up the uniforce!” Lightning said “According to the database, she won’t be able to rot that.”

Cadance leapt over onto an un-rotted lamppost and made gestures to them explaining an idea. “Right, Cadance…” said Krysta, and she said to Lightning “We’ll try and distract her, you power up.”

“Okay, but please, be very careful, all of you!”

He gave Starla a deep kiss on her cheek for luck and she pecked him back. Then Lightning up, up, way up and out of sight.

“Aw, flying away like a coward.” Corrossa mocked. The girls were not pleased and lunged forth, swerving and avoiding the tentacles.

“STAR SHOWER!” Starla unleashed her star clusters, but Corrossa snickered and used her tentacles to skilfully bash, swipe and intercept each one sparing her from damage.

Cadance then threw her Ninja Shurikens, actually splitting a couple of the tentacles and hitting Corrossa where she was anchored. “You’ll pay for that!” Corrossa thundered.

“How’s this for pay?” Starla said as she armed her bow, “STARLIGHT ARROW!”

“Oh, you don’t!” snarled Corrossa, and she readied her tentacles to intercept.

“Oh, yes I do!” shouted Starla, and her bow and her horn began to glow, and she used her hidden skill to control where her arrow went by the motion of her hands and fingers. The arrow flew round corners, up, down, left, right, in circles with Corrossa putting up a valiant effort to strike it.

Suddenly, the arrow dove straight at her, and she raised her tentacles to get at it, but Krysta conjured up one of her two-way portals. The arrow went through one hole, and out the other… which struck the creature hard, gashing the side her face.

“Direct hit!” cried Starla.

Corrossa then grinned, and Krysta saw two tentacles rise up behind the girls. “Look out!” Krysta shouted, but Starla already got ensnared, while Cadance was forced to jump out of the way and she fell onto the rotting ground.

Their suits immediately started to rot, and it wouldn’t be long before the decay reached their bodies and would really harm them.


“No!!” Shining Armor cried.

Corrossa laughed, “I’ve got you both now. It won’t take long to rot your suits away, and then you’ll be next.”

Krysta was totally powerless to fight her alone, and there was no sign of Lightning.


Shining Armor hated to see his wife and Starla getting hurt, and he finally began to overcome his nerves and grabbed his mask. “Hang on, girls!” and he leapt through the shield right off the terrace.


The girls could start to feel their suits wearing out and the rot starting to get at their energies. “Cadance! Starla!” cried Krysta.

“You’re rotting to the core ladies!” shouted Corrossa “And soon you’re entire planet will follow you. You’ll all be one big rotten heap…!”

Suddenly, “D’agrh…!” she felt something very strong slash at her hair from behind, cutting off from her tentacles.

It was Shining Armor, or rather Saber, the Insecto General, armed with his sword in his humanoid hands, and his four tentacles holding his shurikens.

With her hair split, the tentacles fell and the rotting ceased, and just in time or the girls would had been really hurt. “You two okay?” Saber asked.

Starla nodded, and Saber helped his wife up, and though he couldn’t see her face, he could tell she was smiling at him, but Corrossa was enraged and she got to her feet, “You may have cut off my tentacles, but you haven’t rotted me down yet!”

Saber angrily glared at her, feeling his determination peaking. Again, however, he began to think about Twilight and Amando, but he didn’t freeze-up this time. “For my loved ones!” he snarled, and he lunged forth.

“Bring it!” shouted Corrossa, and the two brawled. Saber slashed his sword and Corrossa slickly dodged it, “DOOM DECAY!”

“STRIDENT SHOCKWAVE!”

The two forces collided, resulting in an explosion, and Saber leapt through the smoke, wielding his sickle on a chain, and bound Corrossa’s hands by the wrist.

“You think this can stop me? I’ll just rot my way through it!”

“…But not quickly enough!” Saber said pointed up to the sky.

“Huh?”

“…UNIFORCE!!” Lightning came soaring down, unleashing his supped-up power, hitting the creature full force, and she screamed as the force consumed her and severely weakened her as promised.

The team stood all together in a group.

“You rotten wretches…!” Corrossa whined.

Lightning scoffed at her, and then said to Saber “Will you do the honors?”

“Gladly…” Saber answered, and he set his sword to capture, then held the blade up high and powered it up with his Strident Shockwave; this was his new finisher move recently perfected; “STRIDENT SWORD SHOCKER!”

He brought his blade down with a huge vertical slice, sending the shockwaves straight at the creature, hitting her with full force. 

“I’M ROTTING AWAY!!” she screamed, and she exploded and was imprisoned in a sphere.

The team sighed in relief that it was over. “Well, there’s another one of them down.” Starla said, “Yeah, but this isn’t over by the longest of longshots.” said Krysta.

Cadance and Saber de-transformed, and Cadance praised her husband for helping them out, “But how did you overcome your nerves?” she asked.

“Well, I guess... like Lightning said, I can’t change what’s been done but I can help others. I couldn’t bear to see you guys getting hurt, especially not you, Cadance.”

His wife smiled lovingly at him, and Krysta felt tears coming to her eyes, while Lightning and Starla smiled proudly. Lightning spoke proudly to his friend, “Maybe you should focus on that from now on. Remember, there are many who count on us, and while there may be times you’ll get distracted by your missing your loved ones, remember that you’re fighting for them.”

“He’s right, my love.” said Cadance “I miss Twilight very much, and the loss of our child hurts me more than you can imagine, but I know that avenging them won’t bring them back, but I can fight in memory of them, and for their honors.”

Shining Armor knew this wouldn’t be an easy road, but he promised to try. “Thank you… all of you.”

Everyone smiled, and then they went off so Starla and Cadance could make repairs to their suits.

A couple of days passed, and as more monsters were being apprehended and taken to prison, Shining Armor made good on his promise and tried not to let his sadness slow him down, and after a little training and a few more battles he was fighting at the top of his game again.

Still, there were times when he and Cadance would take moments to remember their loved ones, and they would share a cry or two, but they promised to be okay for everyone’s sake as the war continued.

(Promo)



In our next episode; while on a fieldtrip, the Cutiemark Crusaders are frightened at the foot of a small mountain near a village, and a new student comes to their school, but doesn’t seem very friendly, and prefers to bully the other students.

Things then grow more mysterious as the girls spot a pony slinking around in the darkness, and possibly up to no good.

How will the crusaders deal with all these mysterious happenings?

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

(Next Episode: “Two Wrongs make a Fight”)