//------------------------------// // Gilded Hero // Story: My Brave Pony: Starfleet Nemesis // by Scipio Smith //------------------------------// Gilded Hero “Sorry I’m late,” said Lightning Dawn, as with a single hand he held the scythe that had been about to descend on Artie firmly in place. In truth, up until this moment, when he had seen Artie about to get eviscerated by some Starfleet guy that he didn’t know, Lightning hadn’t been sure whether he had been late or too early. He hadn’t come with the girls because he hadn’t wanted to intrude on their reunion with Twilight, because he’d felt that Twilight should be met only by her true friends…because he wasn’t sure if he deserved to see her. But then Starla had landed on the surface and he’d known that he had to do something. Twilight’s friends might not realise it, they might think that Starla was as overrated as so much of the Starfleet was. She wasn’t. If Starla caught up with them…that was why he had to do something. So he and Krysta had come as fast as they could, not sure what they’d find. And what they’d found was the imminent death of Artie Bristles and Lightning…he couldn’t let that happen. Even if he didn’t know what was going on, even if he didn’t know with absolute certainty who was in the right his gut told him that he had to act. He couldn’t just stand back and let Artie die. So now, here he was, with one hand holding the scythe in place and his former team-mates, his comrades all staring at him, their gazes resolving into glares of hostility. On no face was that hostility more pronounced that on that of his wife. “Uh, hey, Lightning,” Artie murmured, looking a little shocked at the development. “I mean, um, nothing wrong with arriving in the nick of time, right?” He groaned. “Not saying it would have hurt if you’d come in a little sooner, though.” There was a rustling in Lightning’s mane before Krysta poked her head out. “Sorry about that. Hey, Artie?” “Yeah?” “You are the good guy, right?” “Well, I’m trying to give the girls time to catch up with Twilight, so…I guess?” “That’s a relief.” “EXCUSE ME I’M STILL STANDING HERE!” yelled Starla, looking like she was about to start smoking from the fires of her own rage if people didn’t stop holding their own conversations while she was glowering at them. Krysta wilted in the face of her wrath. “Sorry about that.” Starla snorted out of her nostrils, steam emerging from both of them like an angry bull about to charge. She did it a second time before she appeared to calm down enough to speak. “Lightning.” The green stallion with the scythe retreated a little way, allowing Lightning to face his wife properly. “Starla.” “I had thought to see you before this,” she said. “I had thought that you would be with them, her friends, on your way to see her. I thought that I would find you when I intercepted them.” “I didn’t go with them,” Lightning said. “Obviously not.” “It wasn’t for me to intrude by imposing myself on their reunion.” “Reunion,” Starla said. “An interesting choice of words there, my love.” “Is it so?” “Yes,” she said, almost hissing the word more than speaking it. “Because it proves that it really is Twilight Sparkle, not a copy, not a mere clone. It’s her, isn’t it. She didn’t die at Raven’s hands, that was all-“ “She died,” Lightning said. “And now she has returned.” “And now she’ll die again, at my hands.” “I came because I can’t let you do that, Starla.” Starla’s lips curled in contempt. “Because you’ve chosen her over me.” “Because I’ve chosen to do what’s right.” “What’s right?” Starla repeated in disbelief. “What’s right? How can you say something like that? Valour, duty, sacrifice! What is right is to follow the creed of the Starfleet, the creed of the Grand-“ “The creed of the person who burned my world and killed my family?” Lightning demanded. “That didn’t…you’re being deceived!” “One of us is being deceived, Starla, but I don’t think it’s me.” “His Majesty loves you,” Starla declared, and he thought that she even believed it. “As his own son. He rescued you, he raised you, he even took in Krysta to please you. How can you believe that that was all a lie? How can you turn your back on him after all he’s done for you? How can you…how can you turn your back on me after everything that I’ve done for you?” Lightning closed his eyes for a moment. “Starla…Starla, I have wronged you, and for that I’m sorry-“ “I don’t want your apology, I want my husband back!” Starla yelled, spittle flying out of her mouth. “I wanted the golden hero that I fell in love with, I want the warrior, I want the pony of unbridled strength who won my heart with his deeds of valour and unfaltering sense of duty.” “Things change, Starla,” Lightning murmured. “Why?” Starla demanded. “Why do they? Why must they? Why can’t things stay the way they are, if things are good? Or go back to the way they were when they were good? Why must things change when that change is for the worse?” “Because the stallion that you loved is just a memory now,” Lightning said. “No!” Starla howled. “I will have you back, Lightning Dawn. I will have it all back! I will purge the world of all the inferior creatures who have corrupted our society and our life together, I will kill Twilight, I will freeze all things in the stasis of a blissful summer’s day and if I have to drag you home in chains, Lightning Dawn, then I will. And you will come to love me, as you once did, and we’ll be happy as we were together. Better than we were, better than ever. We’ll live and love and you will give me children and we’ll be happy, together.” Lightning clenched his hands into fists. “I see that you’ve got this all figured out. There’s just one problem.” “Really? What?” “I won’t let it happen.” Starla bared her teeth. “Why? Just tell me that, why? Why did you choose her over me? I am a paragon of my race, I am the model and exemplar of all that a female of the space ponies ought to be, I am the benchmark of strength and the measuring-stick of fidelity. What does Twilight Sparkle have that I don’t? In what way could she possibly be superior to me?” Lightning considered that for a moment, trying to condense his feelings about Twilight and Starla into a single word. “Compassion.” Starla sneered. “Compassion. Twilight dies today, Lightning, for the second time or the first I don’t care. But I’ll go through you to get to her if I must.” “I don’t want to hurt you, Starla.” “You think you could?” Starla demanded. “You didn’t even bring your morpher with you.” “I won’t use Starfleet powers, not again,” Lightning said. “Not after what I’ve found out.” “So what are you going to do?” she snapped. “Do you think the power of friendship is going to give you a power-up so that you can take us on?” A smirk crossed Lightning’s features. “Well, I wouldn’t say no to something like that, but I was planning to rely on my rigorous training and superior fighting skills.” Starla stared blankly at him for a second. “Get him, boys.” The green stallion with the scythe was the first to attack, swinging his scythe in a wide arc before him as he closed to the attack. Lightning let him come, the other stallion’s movements seemed slow and sluggish to his eyes, that was how he’d been able to block his killing stroke on Artie. He attacked, slashing down. Lightning caught the scythe just as he had before and swung his whole body, letting the momentum of the other stallion carry him forward as Lightning threw him across the rocky cavern and into the far wall. Buddy, Dyno and Myte all tensed. Starla made no move to intervene. She wouldn’t, not until the end. With the exception of the guy just picking himself up off the floor Lightning knew these ponies; he’d commanded these ponies, and if he hadn’t been a great friend to any of them – not even the mare he had claimed to love – he knew what they were like on the battlefield well enough. He knew that Starla was too proud to muck in with the others, she would only step forward to fight if the prospect of a one-on-one duel where she could show off her skills to the fullest extent was in evidence. He knew that Buddy was weak at close-quarters compared to the rest of the team, which was why held back and used a whip rather than a more useful but shorter-ranged weapon. He knew that Dyno and Myte were arrogant, and their form suffered from sloppiness when they got annoyed. He could use all of that, but it would only take him so far. Starla was right, against the Starfleet powers that his former comrades could muster he was at a disadvantage. He had the uniforce, but he didn’t want to kill anyone if he could avoid it. These weren’t bad people, they were just…he didn’t want to kill them. Not after they’d fought beside him. Even if they were his enemies they still…they didn’t deserve to perish in the fire of heaven. He did have his enticorn form, but he couldn’t control it very well. If he unleashed it then he had no doubt that he would win the fight, but could he win in that form without ripping everyone in the chamber to shreds, including Artie? Could he win without following Twilight’s friends and going after them too? He completely lost himself in the enticorn, and he wasn’t sure anyone would be able to calm him down from it. Mark that under last resort then. Artie grunted as he tried to struggle to his feet. “I…I can-“ “Stay down, Artie,” Lightning said. “I’ve got this.” Dyno and Myte leapt at him from front and back, bearing down at him with palms open, flames springing from their fingertips. “Don’t get so cocky, commander!” Dyno snarled. Dyno made a wild swing with his right arm. Lightning caught it, turning and throwing Dyno over his shoulder, using him as a club to hit Myte in the face before dumping both brothers in a heap on the ground. Buddy’s whip cracked as he lashed out at Lightning. Lightning let the whip coil around his arm and then leapt off the ground to fly towards Buddy faster than a locomotive. Buddy’s eyes widened as he tried to retreat, leaping backwards, but Lightning was faster than he was and delivered a punch straight to Buddy’s solar plexus. Buddy groaned, and doubled over, but Lightning’s hand felt as though he’d just slammed it into a foot of solid concrete and it was all he could do not to let the pain show on his face. He readied for another hit. A roar of anger from the scythe-wielder from before distracted Lightning, who disentangled himself and jumped back to avoid a downwards scythe-stroke which splinted the rock where he’d been standing. The scythe-wielder pursued him, slashing wildly as he drove him back to where Dyno and Myte were waiting for him. “Hold tight, Krysta,” Lightning muttered, as the scythe-wielder slashed for his midriff. Lightning leapt, bending backwards as he rose in the air, legs rising up so that, if anyone watching could have slowed down his movements, he would have appeared to be floating horizontal in the air as the scythe passed beneath him with a whoosh that ruffled the hairs on the back of his coat. He kicked out, both feet colliding with the scythe-wielder’s chest. Scythe-wielder was pushed backwards, but more importantly Lightning was push himself off his opponent, sending himself flying towards Dyno and Myte with the speed of a rocket. I know you always thought that calling my attacks was stupid, Twilight, but what the hay. Lightning gritted is teeth as he crossed his arms in front of him. “Mareolina…SMASH!” “What the-“ Dyno’s words were cut off as Lightning made an X motion, slashing out with both his arms, creating a shockwave through the air that hurled them both back like unwanted toys. Unfortunately, Lightning noted as he landed, he hadn’t put any of them down for the count. And his hands and feet were feeling it were he punched or kicked the armour. There was only so much of it that they could take. I can’t win unless I use it, and I can’t control myself if I do. If only there was…unless there is. That…that just might work. Do I have any other choice? “Not bad,” Starla said. “Nothing less than I’d expect from the Supreme Commander of Starfleet. Nothing less than I’d expect from the warrior I fell in love with. But how long can you keep this up. Buddy, Dyno, Myte, they have armour to cushion the blows. You don’t. All they need to do is get lucky.” Lightning frowned. “Krysta, get away for a second. Go with Artie.” “Huh?” Krysta asked from on top of his head. “Why?” “Because I’m not sure if I can make this work,” Lightning said. “And I don’t want to be the one who hurts you.” “What are you-“ “If this doesn’t work,” Lightning said softly. “Get Artie back to the ship.” “I…okay,” Krysta murmured, and he felt rather than heard her leaving his head. Starla cocked her head to one side. “I’m not sure what you’re planning…but I’m sure I should give you the chance. Now!” They all sprang for him at once, all pride in a fair fight abandoned – by everyone but Starla anyway; she actually hadn’t sprang forward with the others, it will still guys only – in their desire to bring him down and, presumably, continue their mission. Lightning ignored them, or tried to as they came for him. He needed to focus for his. He raised his arm, holding it out at a right angle from his body, and focussed upon the power of the enticorn within him. It was like an animal, like a beast within his soul, a demon sealed in him, and he only had to will the cage to open for it to come out snarling. Lightning’s whole body began to glow with golden light as he fought to keep the enticorn contained. It was like water, it wanted to expand to fill up his whole body, it wanted to take him over, it wanted to explode out of his every pour, it wanted to cover every part of like a shroud. In the moments that remained Lightning fought a silent battle within himself, trying to catch the water where it flowed, trying to wrestle the beast within like trying to hold down a shapeshifter in a hundred protean forms. And he managed to do it. His right arm, and only his right arm, exploded with a blinding golden light, golden flames leaping up and down as his muscles swelled and the veins popped beneath his coat and his whole arm, his golden flame-wreathed arm bulged to a grotesque proportion wholly alien to the rest of his body. He could feel the anger pounding on his head, he could feel the desire to kill, to maim, to attack. He could feel the dark side of the enticorn calling out to him, urging him to strike down all whom he deemed wicked or unworthy. But he could resist it. So long as it was confined to only a single part of his body then he could master it. And he could put it to work for his own purposes. Lightning hurled himself rightwards, choosing to deal with the scythe-wielder first. The scythe descended upon him, but Lightning blocked the blow easily with his left arm before slamming his right arm, his enticorn-awakened right arm, straight into the scythe-wielder’s gut. “Detrot Smash!” The green stallion’s armour shattered under the impact of Lightning’s blow, the shockwave from his strike sweeping across the chamber to knock all the other ponies present off their feet, as the green stallion himself was caught up in a hurricane that bore him up into the air and into the very ceiling of the chamber with a mighty smash and a shower of debris that included a by now thoroughly unconscious space pony. “Grand Ruler’s mercy,” Buddy muttered. Lightning glared at him over his shoulder. Buddy took a step backwards. “Hey, Lightning, uh, I, uh…see you around!” He ran, fleeing for the way that Lightning had come. Lightning wasn’t all that surprised. It was standard procedure after all: don’t pick fights with those more powerful than you are. It was the thinking that had gotten Twilight killed, that had seen everyone hang back and leave her to die, and now…Lightning couldn’t look at it, couldn’t look at Buddy, with anything but contempt. But he let him go, because he really didn’t want to hurt the guy if he didn’t have to. Dyno and Myte were made of sterner stuff, or perhaps they just had more confidence in themselves and their abilities because they came at him all the same, awakened arm or not, leaping from either side of him to descend with their hands exploding. Lightning drove his right fist into the ground. It shattered around him as though he were the epicentre of a quake, splinters of rock leaping up to shower Dyno and Myte even as their expected landing sights crumbled around them. And as the twins struggled to keep their balance, wings flaring and fluttering madly for stability, Lightning went for them. One punch, and Dyno was slammed into the wall, a backhand blow and Myte flew past Starla’s head down the corridor, flying over the fleeing Buddy Rose before skidding down the floor in a spray of dust. Lightning said nothing as he turned to face Starla, the last pony standing. Starla pinched her forehead as though the incompetence on display were giving her a headache. “Well, it was certainly worth all the expense training you guys. I have to confess that I’m impressed, my love. You awakened your enticorn form but only in your right arm, ensuring that you can control it. For now.” She smiled. “Thank you, Lightning.” Lightning frowned. “For what?” “For showing that the old you is still in there somewhere,” Starla said, and her smile turned vicious as she drew her sword and stepped smoothly into a fighting stance. “Because if I can’t revenge on Twilight all the wounds that she has dealt to me, then at least I’ll be content in dying at your hand…and in the process reminding you of who you really are.”