//------------------------------// // Episode 9: Viral Hospital // Story: My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic Season VIII // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE NINE The train pulled into the New Ponyville station, arriving from The New Crystal Empire. Many ponies stepped out, and among them was Data Stream. She was taking a much needed break being cooped up in her dark house for so long, but she did bring a small suitcase and a laptop… just in case. “Ah, it actually feels nicer to get away from that house.” she felt “Maybe I can clear my head a little out here in this tiny town-- away from that stupid Cadance.” She then patted at her small suitcase, “At least I brought my drawing kit if I need to make more monsters.” Still the main reason she had come was she had found Want-Ads in the newspapers about computer technicians wanted in New Ponyville, and she figured it had already been a while since Cadance fired her; maybe she’d land a job. Meanwhile, Cheerliee and Mykan were both teaching at the school that day. *Mykan’s POV* Cheerilee was taking attendance. “Applebloom?” “Here, Ms. Cheerilee.” “Sweeite Belle?” No response. “Where is Sweetie Belle?” Cheerilee asked. I stood up and looked at the other Crusaders, “Didn’t she come to school with you?” The girls shook their heads and thought this peculiar. “Maybe she’s sick today?” asked Scootaloo. “I don’t think so.” said Cheerilee “I would have been notified by her family.” I decided to head to Carousel Boutique and see, “Can you handle the class?” I asked to Cheerilee, and she nodded “Let me know what’s going on as soon as you know.” I nodded and then I left the schoolhouse, and flew off into the air, thanks to my magic cape. *POV Pause* Diamond Tiara couldn’t help herself and taunted, “Maybe she decided to run scared because she doesn’t want to take that big math test today.” Scootaloo was livid, “She is not worried! We all studied together!” “Okay, that’s enough.” said Cheerilee “I’m sure there’s a plausible explanation as to why Sweetie Belle isn’t here, but as for the rest of us, we’ll carry on.” Then she handed a pile of math tests to DD and asked her to pass them around. Elsewhere, Doctor Penny was doing her job, giving Fluttershy her weekly physical. She was reaching the final stages in her pregnancy-- with less than a month to go. Penny finished checking the baby’s heartbeat. “Very good…” she said “You’ve got one healthy foal in there.” “Really…?” Fluttershy asked while beaming. Penny nodded, “You should make a fine delivery; you, Tree Hugger, and Rarity too. Though I hope you all don’t go into labour on the same day at the same time, I’d have my hands full.” Fluttershy chuckled at such a thought. “Still, I can’t wait to have my baby. Rhymey and I are all set up. We’ve decked out a room at home and got everything we need.” “Well, I’m sure you’re all prepared for motherhood, but just the same you get plenty of rest and stick to your diet.” Fluttershy promised. She was dismissed and came out into the waiting room where Rhymey was chatting with Tree Hugger and Buddy Rose--Tree Hugger having come for her weekly physical as well. Rhymey smiled at his wife, and they shared a loving embrace. “So, How’d it go?” As the couple went off chatting away, Penny called for Tree Hugger to come in. Buddy helped his wife up onto her feet, and walked her to the doctor. Then he was told to stay in the waiting lounge while Penny examined Tree Hugger. Lightning and Starla had come into the hospital, and had brought Baby Shining Light for his monthly checkup. “Hey.” Buddy called to them, and the friends all sat together. “Just passed Rhymey and Fluttershy.” said Lightning “I’ve never seen them so happy, and I don’t think I can blame them.” “Me neither.” agreed Starla, and she looked down at her cooing son in his buggy, and reflecting on how happy she was while expecting him. Buddy had the same goofy smile on his face like Lightning did; the only kind a Father-to-be would get when the time was drawing near. “Ah, well, it’s still a month away.” said Buddy. He was suddenly snapped out of his trance when the hospital doors burst wide open! *Resume* “Can we get some help here?!!” I shouted out, and behind me the paramedics came in along with Spike and Sweetie Belle, they were all helping to wheel in a stretcher where Rarity lay, in her night dress, looking pale, hot, sweaty, with red heat lumps all over her face and arms, and she was breathing stressfully, but she was not in labour. “Somebody help us! My wife is sick!” Spike shouted. A couple of doctors and nurses rushed in. “What’s the story on this one?” a doctor asked. Sweetie Belle tried to explain, “She woke up, she was hot and sweaty, and she had these strange red bumps on her arm and face…!” she was so hysterical and upset, she was panicking hard. The nurse calmed her down while she and her colleagues rushed Rarity to the E.R, while Spike and Sweeite were told to sit in the waiting room. “Be careful with my wife! She’s pregnant!” Spike called to them. “We’ll do our best!” the doctor called back. Spike watched as his dear Rarity was wheeled away, through the big doors and out of sight. He was then quivering nervously wondering what was wrong with her! “Here, Spike, you better sit down.” said Lightning. Spike sat, but he was still nervous, “I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She was just fine when we went to bed last night.” “What’s happening to my sister?” cried Sweetie Belle “Is she going to be okay?! Is she going to die?!!” I comforted Sweetie Belle, “Panicking about it isn’t going to help. We’ll know what’s wrong with her soon.” We all waited for quite a while, and with Spike’s help I sent a letter to Cheerliee telling her of the problem, and I felt it was best I stayed with Sweetie Belle to comfort her. Tree Hugger came out from having her checkup with another doctor, and she saw all out worried expressions, “Hey, what’s with all blue faces here?” Buddy replied to his wife about Rarity. “Whoa, not cool. Hope she’s okay. I get a little sick while with this kid in my stomach, but this is like… majorly!” “Do you think maybe that’s what’s wrong with her?” wondered Starla. The rest of us all suddenly agreed that maybe it was something to do with Rarity’s pregnancy. After all, Spike was the baby’s father, which meant it was a crossbreed. “Maybe you’re right.” said Spike. Suddenly, all the lights in the hospital just went out, and the emergency generator kicked in. “What happened?” asked Sweetie Belle. Suddenly, the lights came on in a flash again, followed by an angry electrician and Dr. Penny scolded a pony and demanding she leave the hospital. “Isn’t that Data Stream?” I asked. We all knew the story surrounding her-- being fired from the palace in The New Crystal Empire. “Whatever she’s doing here, it can’t be short of trouble.” said Lightning figuring that Data was the cause of the power failure. “I don’t know why I ever gave you a chance, after all the stories I heard about you!” sneered the electrician. “I just made a little mistake.” protested Data “If you had let me keep doing what I was doing I could’ve required the systems.” “Data Stream, this is a hospital.” scolded Penny “Tampering with our systems and cutting our power supply is severely lethal to our patients. I’m sorry, but we cannot give the job for your serious lack of judgment.” “You can’t just kick me out because of one little mistake.” thundered Data “Maybe someone here out of give you a head examination for your own lack of judgement!” Lightning intervened “That’s enough, Data Stream! This is a hospital, don’t shout here. Now suggest you go before we have you charged with causing a double disturbance.” Data was outraged, “You’ll regret this!” she grumbled at Penny and the electrician, “You’ll see! I mean it!” Then she stormed out The rest of us were all relieved she was gone. “Boy she sounded really mad.” said Sweetie “You don’t really think she’d try anything, would she?” “Ah, she’s just full of hot air.” said Buddy “She wouldn’t dare to try anything, or we’d have her arrested in a heartbeat.” Penny then came over to us all, and Spike bolted up out of his seat, “Is Rarity okay.” “She is for now,” replied Penny “I’ve treated her hot flash, and given her something to help her sleep. You can some see her.” Spike and Sweetie felt nervous, so the rest of the gang and I decided to go with them for support. Rarity was our friend after all. *Pause* Data Stream had taken her not getting the job at the hospital a whole lot worse. “Now I have to go back to the empire and pick up garbage again!” she grumbled. She was so mad, that she sat down by a fountain and got out her laptop to work on another mega virus. “Yes…” she hissed and cackled, “Yes, this is wonderful.” Her wooing and cackling seemed to disturb other ponies that were near her. Finally, her virus was complete, “I think I’ll call you… Grog!” The virus stood on two legs, and had a tail, claws, and a strong shell on its back, which was very thick and could withstand a great deal of punishment. “With this virus I could give those fools at the hospital a real epidemic.” Data said to herself “Oh, but if only I were at home, and I could get some help from--” She was cut off where her computer screen image suddenly split in two, and there he was. “…Megadox, master of the digital world!” Data was very surprised, “How are you even here? I thought I had to be at home.” “Silly fleshling,” scoffed Megadox “I am aware of everything that transpires in my realm-- any computer, any place, and time, and we do have a pact, haven’t we?” “Then do as our pact says and make that virus infect the hospital systems before someone sees you!” “The hospital systems?” asked Megadox “An interesting choice. Without the use of their electronics, the doctors and nurses will be unable to attend to patients in need. I like it.” He charge dup his systems and fired his life beam at the picture of Grog, bringing it to life off it went-- shooting through the wavelengths in the air to a nearby power pole, and finding its way along the lines and into the hospital power generator. Once there, it wasted no time in smashing all the circuits that made the systems tick. It even used its strong, thick back shell to back ram whole towers and transmitters over in one ram! Data was most please, “The virus is in, and the doctors are to be out… out of their minds with worry.” *Resume* Rarity was sleeping peacefully, but deeply, almost as if she were in a coma. She was wired into several electronic IVs that pumped special drug into her body to reduce her body temperature and cool her down. She wasn’t sweating as much, but her skin was still covered in heat rashes, and her body temperature was still just a little above normal, especially around her belly. “So it IS the baby that’s doing this?” asked Spike. Penny nodded, and showed everyone a small X-Ray which showed the baby growing inside Rarity’s stomach. It was still hard to make out a total picture of it, but it was there. Spike could tell especially, “It’s a crossbreed; part dragon and part pony.” “I remember reading up about Dragons and their birth,” said Lightning, “A baby dragon, as it matures, its growing internal flames ignite, which can cause a raise in temperature to its mother, before the mother lays the egg.” “Of course,” Spike snapped at himself, “Oh, I should’ve known something like this would happen.” being a dragon himself, he wasn’t kidding. “Dragons are built to take certain amounts of heat. That’s how we can we stand to have our fires inside us, but Rarity’s not a dragon, and she can't lay eggs either. Her insides can’t take it as well, even with her Starfleet training.” “Is that… bad?” Sweetie Belle asked near tears, but Penny assured her “She should be alright, Sweetie. We just have to keep her temperature stable until she gives birth. That’s why, I’m sorry to say, she’ll have to stay here in the hospital. It’s the best way I can possibly treat her. She’ll also need to go on a strict diet of cool and non-spicy foods… and absolutely NO Starfleet business, not even with her drone.” Lightning couldn’t agree more; he knew all the stress wouldn’t be good for Rarity in her condition. “Thank goodness,” I sighed heavily. I was very happy that Rarity was going to be okay, even though she and I were never always on the friendliest of terms, and often teased one another, we were still friends. All Rarity needed to do now was rest, and Penny asked all of us to leave, including Spike to give Rarity some quiet. “Can’t we stay just a little longer?” asked Sweetie. “No, no, we should go.” said Buddy “Rarity needs time to cool down, but she’ll be okay.” “Just have the faith,” added Tree Hugger “Let the cool waves of love calm your inner blazes and you’ll feel chill in no time.” We all just pretended to understand what Hip she had just said, and we all filed out quietly Penny still had to give Shining Light his checkup too. Spike and Sweetie stopped a minute to look back at Rarity, still feeling a little upset to be leaving her, but they knew she would be in good hands. …Or so they felt until the lights in the hospital started to flicker again. “Now what?” asked Buddy “I thought the lights were fixed?” Penny though so too, but suddenly all the lights went out again, the emergency lights didn’t activate either, and it was very dark in the hallway due the lack of windows. Sweetie Belle gasped, and Shining Light began to cry as he hated the dark. “Oh, easy, honey. Mommy’s right here.” Starla said as she comforted her son. Then she, Lightning, Buddy and Penny made their horns glow to give some light. But soon there was panicking echoing along every corridor and in the lobby there was much chattering and whimpering. All the lights were out, all the computers were dead, and even the automatic doors to the hospital wouldn’t open-- no one could get in or out, at not without breaking the window glass. This was very serious, indeed, especially for the patients. Without use of the electronic equipment, patients could not be treated, surgeons couldn’t operate; in fact… some were in the midst of operations and couldn’t proceed any further, which was extreme dangerous to their patients. The head electrician dashed up to the group, “Dr. Sillon,” he called. “What’s happening?” asked Penny “I thought you fixed the malfunction.” “I did, but something’s gone really wrong. Every system in the entire hospital is down; even the emergency solar generators won’t function.” “What?!” snapped Penny “How can this be?” “We don’t know, my workers are trying everything, but we can’t get the systems going.” Penny was starting to fret, so was Spike, “Rarity!” She too was in trouble now due to her electronic IV’s shutting down. The electrician ponies were hard at work trying to get the systems started, but every time they tried all they got was a strong shock attack from the wires. “It’s no good, it’s like something doesn’t want us to start the systems up!” Indeed, this was the work of the virus as it continued to destroy the systems. However, Sweetie Belle wrist-com as well as my own, still working as they weren’t connected to the hospital system, began blinking red softly, it made no noise, but she and I both saw this, and so did Lightning and Starla. While the others all chatted away, threw four of us turned round and spoke quietly to one another. “It’s Megadox again,” I said “He’s sure hit low this time.” The others agreed; the fact that Megadox would put the hospital out of actions, endangering those who needed help and care, it boiled our bloods. “We have to do something.” said Sweetie Belle. “You can’t, not here.” said Lightning, and he motioned at all the others-- Even Penny, even though she knew I was Surfer, she didn’t know Sweetie was with me as well. “What are you guys whispering about?” asked Tree Hugger. “Oh, uh… nothing much.” said Starla. “What do you mean nothing much?” wailed Spike “The hospital’s in lockdown, there’s no power, the patients can’t be helped… and Rarity… Rarity she could…!” “Spike, calm down!” cried Penny. Spike could barely contain himself, with his wife on the verge of being ill again without her treatment. “Just breathe, baby… breathe.” said Tree Hugger “Channel your emotions and bliss out.” Spike only felt tenser than ever, but he tried to at least not shout about it. The others all huddled around him trying to keep him calm. Starla then saw this as her chance to whisper to Penny of the situation, and how I needed to go someplace private so I could become Surfer. I winked at Penny, and she nodded at me. “Ahem…!” Penny cleared her throat “We shouldn’t just sit out here in the hallway,” and she lead us a little ways down, past Rarity’s room, to two opposite rooms on either side of the hall that were unoccupied. “Some of you come in here, the rest go in there.” “Buddy, you and Tree Hugger look after Spike.” Lightning quickly said “Starla and I will watch over Mykan and Sweetie.” Then he practically hurried me and Sweetie into one of the rooms. “Oooo-kay then…” said Buddy. Once we were all safely inside the room where no one could really see or hear us, Sweetie and I were in the clear. “Wait!” snapped Sweetie, “What about the other Crusaders? What if we need them?” I checked the time on my wrist-com, it was only 11 Am. *Pause* The other Crusaders were still in school, and it was time to take that math test Cheerilee promised. “All right, everyone, you have twenty minutes. You may begin.” The students all quietly set to work, but Applebloom noticed the small blinking light on her wrist-com. DD and Scootaloo noticed as well, and they silently gawked at one another knowing what this meant. “Girls,” Cheerilee called to them “You better concentrate on those math problems.” The girls agreed, but now that they knew there was danger in the Digital World, it made it really hard for them to concentrate on their tests. They knew there was no way they could just excuse themselves from the test, just like that. However, lunch hour wasn’t too far away, half an hour at the most, and the figured they’d make their moves then, …but little did they realize that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were noticing how nervous the crusaders seemed, as well as little red lights blinking from their watches. Just as the two acted nasty together, they both thought the same idea and nodded at one another-- planning to figure out what the girls were up to. *Resume* “It’s no good,” I finally said “I have to go in there now. Maybe I can stop the virus on my own.” “Be careful, Mykan.” said Starla “We haven’t had to analyze what we’re up against yet.” I agreed, but I still knew I had to hurry. The longer I stalled, the more critical it would be for all the patients in the hospital. I booted up the Surfer Program, “Right, I’m going in!” The other agreed, and they all shouted with me, “…TIME TO DIGITIZE!!” I warped into the Digital World, and became Surfer, and then I traveled my way along the wirings to the hospital generator. “There you are!” I sneered at the virus. The monster turned and roared at me, and I balked at it “You’ve got some nerve hurting all those innocent patients at the hospital! It’s time for you to take your medication!” I rushed forth, and Grog rushed to me. I aimed a powerful punch, but Grog turned round making me strike his strong shell, causing the monster no pain. I tried kicked the shell, but nothing happened. The monster then rammed me hard, throwing me into a circuit tower, smashing it to pieces. I could see this was going to be harder than I thought. The monster charged at me again, but I leapt high up and over it, “Booster Boots, Go!” My boots revved up and a sped forth, and pounded the monster’s huge face. Grog however was far from finished, and as I came in for another strike, it turned its back to me, and I slammed right into its huge shell, like hitting a huge wall of steel. The monster then gave a huge buck, pushing me back, and swung at me with his tail tripping me up. Grog then loomed over me to slash at me with his claws, but I rolled out of the way just in time, and kicked for the monster’s face, but it grabbed my leg, whirled me round and round, and tossed me into another pile of messed up circuit chips. My energy was starting to run low, and the alarm went off! *Pause* Sweetie and the others viewed everything on her wrist-com images. “Surfer needs me! I have to go in!” said Sweetie “I really wish the others were here.” Lightning could see the time on the wrist-com clock; it was only 11:20-- ten minutes before the other Crusaders would have their lunchbreak at school. “Do whatever you can, Sweetie Belle.” said Lightning “Hopefully the others will have a plan.” Sweetie agreed, and activated her Data Beast, “Assault Program ready…” then she shouted, “Let’s Kick Some Megabutt!” She warped inside her beast’s cockpit, and was on her way. Lightning and Starla then made sure no one was watching from outside in the hallway, and even though Shining Light was with them, he was of no risk. The two then tapped on their energizers activating only their Starfleet Visors, which Starla using her computer skills, managed to magically link to the super computer, so she and Lightning, and they alone could view the fight from the Digital World before their eyes. *Resume* My Booster Boots had given out, but I wasn’t beaten yet. I punched and kicked at Grog some more, but it used its strong shell to block me again, and buck me back hard. “Hang on, Surfer!” Sweetie called, and she arrived with the Assault Program. The wild cat roared and fired its missile at the monster’s front, damaging it hard. “Great timing, Sweetie,” I called to her, but we both would see the monster was still coming at us. “Watch out for his shell!” I hollered. The monster charged at us, and then spun round ramming us both hard with its shell. “Whoa!” Sweetie shrieked as she was tumbled about as her beast took a spill on the ground. She pulled on her controls and got Assault standing up right again, “Try my missiles again! Fire…!” She fired the missiles, but Grog defended himself with his strong back shell, and escaped with hardly as much as a flinch. “It’s no good, that shell’s too strong!” I groaned. “We need the rest of the Data Squad, now!” cried Sweetie. *Pause* Lightning and Starla could see the situation was getting grim and growing worse still… outside. “Dr. Penny!” a nurse called as she came running down the hall and entering the room opposite of theirs. Penny came out into the hall, “Doctor,” the nurse panicked “We’ve got to get the power back on, fast! Many of our patients are starting to fall ill; we can’t tend to them all so easily! And the patients in the O.R, if they don’t get treated soon…!” She didn’t finish, and didn’t have too. Penny clenched her fist in worry. She had never faced such an epidemic before, but she still wasn’t willing to let her patients go down! “Use what little supplies we have! Operate by flashlight if you must! Whatever systems are down, treat all patients by hand!” The nurse agreed, and rushed off with Penny to tend to their much needed patients. Spike on the other hand, he had left his room and rushed down the hall to Rarity’s room. “Rarity!” he cried. His wife lay in bad, groaning and moaning, and sweating like crazy her temperature was obviously rising again. “Spike…!” Buddy called as he and Tree Hugger came into the room, and they too hated seeing the sight of Rarity suffering. Spike noted that Rarity was only wearing hospital garments. “If only she had her energizer with her maybe her suit’s cooling system would help!” This gave Buddy and idea, “Starfleet Magic!” and he transformed. “What are you doing?” asked Tree Hugger. He didn’t answer, and didn’t have to. He activated his suit’s cooling system, and then he concentrated hard, making his horn glow. He magically then transferred the coolness of his own body to Rarity, which actually worked and she began to cool down. “It’s working!” cried Spike as he held Rarity’s hand, which seemed to be cooling down, only Buddy was feeling colder, and he shivered a little. “Babe!” cried Tree Hugger, but her husband said through his shivers, “I’m o-k-k-k-kay… for now! I’ll t-t-t-try and… k-k-k-keep her… c-c-c-cool!” Spike and Tree Hugger felt worried, and Spike couldn’t use his fire to warm Buddy up, or it would warm up Rarity, not to mention the risk of causing a fire hazard in the hospital. “Why can’t they fix this power failure already?!” wailed Spike. Help was soon on the way… The bell rang for lunch hour. The children had turned in their math tests and all headed outside to eat on a beautiful day. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon looked all over the playground for the three Cutie Mark Crusaders. “There they are.” said Silver as she saw the trio disappear behind the school house. “Let’s go see what they’ve been so edgy about.” hissed Diamond. The Crusaders quickly made sure no one was watching. “Coast is clear.” said Applebloom. “We better hurry, we’re late enough as it is.” added Scootaloo. DD agreed, and booted up her wrist-com, “Program’s ready. Let’s hit it!” The girls all together shouted, “SUPER CYBER DATA SQUAD… LET’S KICK SOME MEGABUTT!!” and they vanished in a flash, just as at that very moment, Diamond and Silver leapt out, “Ha! We got…!” but no one was there. “Where’d they go?” asked Diamond “We saw those geeks come around here.” Silver Spoon thought, “Hey, maybe they’re skipping school just like Sweetie Belle.” Diamond figured it was possible, and the girls could have run off the grounds before she and Silver jumped round the bend. “Say now, we can use this as an excuse to get them all in trouble.” The two naughty ponies sniggered, and went off to fetch their teacher. *Resume* Sweetie and I got rammed again but Grog, and both our energies and power supplies were getting critical. “We won’t last much longer!” cried Sweetie. “We have to!” I said to her. The monster began to rush at us again, but it suddenly got intercepted by Dread and Totalizer. The two big burtes pushed against the virus, halting him in its tracks. “That’s as far as you go, big boy!” sneered DD. “Are you two okay?” Applebloom called out to me and Sweetie, and you can bet we were ever so glad they had made it. “Hey, what am I-- invisible?” Scootaloo joked as she and Arc came soaring in. The monster then flailed hard knocking DD and Applebloom back. “We need to break his shell.” Sweetie Belle hollered. “Right,” agreed DD “Me and Applebloom will hold him down, you and Scootaloo get ready to blast him!” The girls all agreed. The monster charged again, straight for me. “Come and get me, bad boy!” I waited until Grog got closer and then I leapt up high and over it. “Now girls…!” I shouted. Dread and Totalizer leapt in and grabbed hold of the monster’s arms, holding him down as hard they could. “This is like holdin’ down a whole heard of cattle.” said Applebloom “Hold him steady!” hollered DD. With the monster’s shell in view, Scootaloo and Sweetie positioned their beasts and armed their weapons. “Lasers at full power.” said Scootaloo “Let’s roast us some mega virus!” “For Rarity!” added Sweetie. The lasers and missiles fired like crazy, bombarding the shell, and actually making it crack under all that constant pressure. “Now’s our chance!” shouted DD. She and Applebloom then whirled the monster round, and rammed their huge beasts at the shell, shattering it away. “YE-HAW! Take that you!” cheered Applebloom “It’s all you now, Surfer.” I nodded and called for my “DATA SABER!” I grabbed my sword tightly, “Diagnosis: You’re outta here! CRASH SLASH WAVE!” My eradicating waves unleashed from my sword struck the virus, and wiped it out just like that. The girls cheered for joy, and then I wasted no time in using my restore program to fix all the systems back to normal. *Pause* All the lights in the hospital flashed right back on, and all the electronics were back online, much to the surprise of everyone else, but Lightning and Starla saw everything. “They did it!” Starla hollered. “Another job well done.” agreed Lightning. *Resume* “Good job, Data squad.” I said with pride, “Now let’s head back.” “Right,” agreed DD “We’ve got to get back to school before anyone sees we’re gone.” Applebloom and Scootaloo panicked, and they flew off with DD, while Sweetie and I flew off our own way. We appeared back in the hospital near Lightning and Starla, safe and well. “Think the others will make it in time?” Sweetie wondered. “I hope so.” I said “I also hope no one sees them just pop up out of thin air.” *Pause* The others appeared right behind the schoolhouse where no one saw them at all. While inside school, Diamond and Silver were talking with Cheerilee. “We’re telling you, Ms. Cheerilee.” said Diamond “The Cutiemark Crusaders left the school grounds.” Silver vouched for her friend “We saw them go behind the school, and they weren’t there anymore.” Cheerilee found their story very hard to believe, knowing the crusaders well, “I doubt very much the girls would want to skip school, and I also don’t appreciate it when my students try to lie to me.” “We aren’t lying.” whined Diamond. “We’re telling you, they aren’t here anymore.” added Silver. The crusaders suddenly walked through the door, “Hi.” Scootaloo called, much to Diamond and Silver’s shock. “Don’t mind us, we’re just forgot our lunches.” said DD. “Eeyup, can’t play on an empty stomach now.” added Applebloom. Diamond and Silver were at a complete loss. They stammered about in confusion, but were totally unable to prove their story now, which greatly disturbed Cheerliee. “Ladies,” she said sternly, “I will see the both of you after school.” The girls were outraged, while the Crusaders couldn’t help but snicker as they went off to eat. *Resume* With the hospital systems back online, all the patients were being tended to properly again. Thank goodness no one had suffered any serious conditions during the blackout. Still, the electricians were baffled, and couldn’t understand how the systems just suddenly fixed themselves. Not that it really mattered now. As for Rarity, she was stabilized, and wide awake, but still feeling a bit warm and rather weak. Buddy was still shiver slightly from all that coolness he gave to her, and was letting his suit’s heating unit warm him up again. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” Spike said as he stroked his wife’s hand, “I thought I’d lose you.” She smiled lovingly at him, and Sweetie Belle looked at her sister with soft tears in her eyes, “If anything happened to you, Rarity, I don’t know what I’d do.” “Don’t make me blush, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity teased, “I feel warm enough inside already.” Everyone one of us couldn’t help but laugh at that. I couldn’t help but grin at Rarity too. “Why are you grinning at me?” she asked. “Because you’re my friend, and I’m glad you’re okay.” Rarity didn’t know what to say. She and I still had a bit of a love/hate friendship, but she was glad she showed I care, “Don’t get used to this though.” “I’m over it.” I teased back at her. All the others rolled their eyes at us. *End of POV* Data Stream was already on a train bound for the New Crystal Empire, and she was in a very bad mood. “I’m sick of that Surfer always ruining my fun. I’m sick of my viruses being no good, and I’m sick of… just being sick all the time.” Megadox heard her from her computer, “Perhaps you should get remedied by a fleshling doctor.” Data rolled her eyes, “It was a figure of speech! I’m getting sick of your misunderstanding of things too, Megadox.” “You fleshlings are always getting sick of things.” grumbled Megadox, “All that flesh and bile that houses your weak bodies. Whereas here in the Digital World, everything is perfect-- Everything is order.” Data Stream sighed, “Now I’m getting sick of your constant bragging.” “Then I suggest you get started to work on your my next virus.” sneered Megadox “And don’t botch it!” Data was losing her patience fast, “Why you little cretin! I ought to…!” but before she could do anything, Megadox zapped her with a small electrical current, which made all the passengers jump in shock as they gawked at her. Her mane stood up high and was smoking a little. Data quickly shut the laptop so as no one would see her secret and lied, “…Short circuit.” But she was enraged and grumbled softly, “I’ll get you for that, Megadox, and Surfer too.” While all Megadox did was laugh sinisterly. (Promo) In our next episode: Stammadon leaves to seek out his new trainer to help him fight better, and charges his minions with attacking United Equestria, and Swift Star finds himself unable to flee from the danger zone. Can our heroes stave off all the monsters? What will Stammadon’s new trainer be like? Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!” (Next Episode: “Part 1: Findings and Bindings”)