“Previously on Starfleet Magic…”

Starfleet teamed with the Kallanians and set out to mount an attack on Titan’s forces, which proved to be harder than believed as the monster forces were relentless in their objective. Meanwhile, after invading New Canterlot and mounting an attack on the palace, Starlight was fully betrayed by Titan’s henchmen who plan to finish her off once and for all.

“Attack…!!” shouted a monster leader and the massive swarm rushed into to attack Starfleet’s forces.

Other monsters were still attacking the mother ship, but were shot down the defense lasers and missiles

The battle was still only just beginning, and the Dark Star was still visibly growing.

The ship was shot at and rocked about again, and the other cruiser captains were calling in to the mother ship.

Grand Ruler spoke to the captains, “Just a little longer…” he paused “…I think it’s nearly time.”

Down below in the launch bay, Lightning and the others were growing really restless, but Lightning began to look off and around into space.

Suddenly, warp portals began to open and more alien starships of all shapes and sizes appeared.

Naturally, the Kallanians weren’t the only race in the universe to manufacture starships, and Starfleet knew plenty of races, who had gladly volunteered their services in this battle to save the universe.

The plan was simply to make Titan’s think they had the upper-hand-- despite the sacrifices made-- and now the ships and allies had come through to turn the tables.

Since the ships could not communicate over the Kallanians radios, since all worked on different principles, the Kallanian mother-ship signaled all the ships by flashing bright lights in Morse code, and/or sending up flare signals for the attack to commence.

The other monsters all hollered and roared, but now they were vastly outnumbered, and all those lasers and missiles shooting at them, they were damaged harder than ever, and more of them were being destroyed a lot easier, and carving an opening for the main mother-ship to get in.

Starlight was really trapped. She even tried to teleport back to the Spider-Base, but the Darkquines, under Specter’s instructions, had erected magical barriers to deny her access.

Since she couldn’t escape, she saw no other choice… and got up on to her feet glaring her former henchmen down. “How could you do this to me, after everything we’ve been through?!”

“The real question is:” hissed Specter “…Why didn’t we get rid of you sooner?!”

Starlight’s eyes widened with anger, and she fired a huge blast from her horn forcing the henchmen to dodge.

“DISTORTION FORCE” Waverline fired a huge blast, which Starlight blocked with a blast of her own, and then leapt forth to punch her, only for Razor to rush up and defend with his spiked arm guard, making her sink her knuckles into the sharp blades.

“ARGH…!!” she groaned as she held her right fist. The pain was only minimal due to her high strength, but her blood began to drip forth, and her anger was an all-time high.

The knights and soldiers were initially stunned that she wanted them to help save the enemy, but then it all made sense; to stop the destruction from spreading.

“Let’s move!” shouted Saber, and with his sword in hand he began to rush forth with Cadance and the troops behind him.

“This does not concern you!” thundered Starlight, and she used her magic to grow giant walls of light to conceal herself and the henchmen within a large arena, but the soldiers couldn’t break through.

“…I was betrayed, therefore it is only fitting that I and I alone have revenge!”

“How pathetic can you be?” hissed Specter “Even with the soldiers on your side, it would make no difference to us.”

“I won’t let this treasonous trio make a mockery of me!” Starlight growled in her mind, and then she began to power-up, shrouding herself in dark aura, and her henchmen did the same.

Outside, Saber attacked the barrier-- swinging and slashing at it with his sword.

Luna could see this and she realized, “That’s’ the same type of barrier from before!”

She remembered the first time a barrier like this was cast when the villains an attempt on Celestia’s life by trapping her inside.

The only way to bring the barrier down was to shoot at two exact points, from inside and outside, at the same time with the Uniforce which was the only thing powerful enough…

…But with both Lightning and Grand Ruler absent, and no other pony with such power, it didn’t look hopeful.

She still had her own problems to worry about-- the Spider-Base was continuing to fire all around at everyone, blasting up the lands, burning up the forests, and pelting the barriers around the houses.

The barriers, strong as they were, would not last forever without Celestia and Grand Ruler.

The fighters knew the situation too severe precedence over the villains in the barrier.

The villains all began to brawl like crazy, rushing at each other, punching, kicking, blasting, and dodging like crazy.

Thought Starlight was outnumbered, because of her training with Titan, she was still fairly strong and swift.

“FLY CUTTERS” Razor unleashed a barrage of his blades, and Starlight, making her hands glow with magic, batted each and every one of them off to the point where Razor unleashed more and more…

Starlight knocked off the blades, and dodged more by back-flipping and leaping up through the air and swerving.

Specter suddenly pulled a fast one, by using his shadow slink maneuver, and he reached up and grabbed Starlight’s tail, and yanked hard slamming her on the ground.

“FLY CUTTERS!”

Combining their attacks, the glowing blades bombarded Starlight hard. Sparks and explosions flew everyone as she got hit.

WHAMM!! He sent her crashing up against her own barrier, weakening it severely as well as the fact her power was starting to run low, but her rage and determination to finish the traitors gave her a small boost to keep her going.

“My, my… Lord Titan has trained you well.” mocked Specter “Too bad he didn’t teach you well enough. Now it ends here for you!”

“But for the record,” taunted Waverline “…It was fun while it lasted.”

“No!” snarled Starlight as she powered herself up as hard as she could “I won’t let this happen!”

She and the henchmen fired their respective beams at each other, which met in the middle, and the powers were completely equal. Both sides were forcing with all the might that they could muster…

…Completely distracted from and unaware of what was occurring outside of the weakening barrier!

Giant light pulses bombarded like meteors making big explosions where they hit. The barriers, still withstanding, wouldn’t last much longer.

Luna had ordered every single knight and fighter in the entire area and around the village to huddle together and focus all their power together into one massive blast, just like before.

“Your highness, do you really believe this will work?” asked Captain Shaina.

“I admit I am uncertain,” said Luna. “But we’ve no alternative. It may be our only chance to stop the shelling.”

She looked up at the sky from the exact location where the shots were raining down from.

“There is our target!” she called to the army, and then she leapt up high into the air above the palace.

She held her hands out, and her eyes and horn began to glow. “Now… fighters of United Equestria, lend all the power you can give!”

Cadance and Saber held hands and were the first to lone whatever magical aura-- sent it straight up to where Luna was, and soon hundreds of small lights were flocking up towards her as more and more fighters offered their power to her, forming a massive sphere of light which Luna kept steady.

While inside the barrier, nobody noticed that Starlight was starting to lose in the struggle. With all the fighting she had done and having to keep her barrier up, her strength was starting to fail, and the henchmen’s beam was slowly inching towards her.

“Say farewell so-called leader!” shouted Specter, and he and his comrades gave it all they had pushing their blast further along.

“I WILL NOT BE DESTROYED!!” wailed Starlight, but at that exact moment her barrier vanished, and the blast was nearly at her.

Starlight only found enough strength to push the two forces at the ground near her feet, resulting in massive explosion on the ground, which forced her up, up and blew her clear across the sky.

The minions were also blown hard up into the sky, and for all the places for them to soar—right in the path of Luna’s ready power!

Luna had fired her powerful magical blast clear up at the sky, and right in the path of the henchmen.

“UH-OH…!!!” they all shouted, and while in their weakened state, they were incinerated to the very dust they were made of!

The blast kept going up, and up, and up…and KAPOW… struck the Spider-Base hard!!

Inside, sparks and explosions erupted all over the place as the Darkquines fell about all over.

While the ship was still super strong, it was being pushed out of orbit by the powerful force… straight towards the sun. It fell straight in and exploded into loads of solar flares.

The explosion could been seen in the sky from all over the planet as all the civilians and other soldiers looked up in shock and awe.

Suddenly, as the lights of the explosion wore down, he saw something coming right towards the window, and it bounced off against the barrier and landed flat on the ground two stories below.

The couple turned his way wondering what the object was too, but Swift was able to look right down through the barrier, and he could see, “…Starlight?!”

Pinkie almost leapt out of bed and off her life-support hookups. “Starlight Glimmer is out there?!” she sounded and looked rather cross, but then she saw Swift open the window and leap out, passing through the barrier.

Swift could hardly believe Starlight was here-- the second time he had found her looking badly beaten and weakened, only far worse than the first time.

“What happened to you?” he asked, but he couldn’t get an answer since Starlight was more than out-cold.

“You there!” called a sentry, and he and two of his buddies came over, and were they ever surprised to see Starlight.

“STOP!!” shouted Swift “Can’t you see she’s injured?! We have to help her!”

Using emergency disarming codes within their energizers, they unlocked the barrier to the hospital.

An anti-magic manacle was placed on Starlight’s horn once again to block her powers, and she was sedated to keep her tired and quiet while her wounds were treated.

Soon, Princess Luna had arrived, teleported from New Canterlot, leaving Cadance and Shining Armor in command.

Luna and Swift were told to remain outside the ER, and Luna ordered the sentries back to their posts outside in case of further attacks.

Luna answered straight away “She will have to be held under close arrest. We cannot let her escape this time.”

Swift agreed, but he still couldn’t deny how worried and upset he was for Starlight’s condition.

Soon, Penny came out and reported. “She was very lucky. She was only knocked unconscious when she crashed, and was able to treat all her wounds. I can awaken her for you if you wish.”

Luna insisted she did, but first she and Swift were allowed into the room where Starlight, completely healed, lay on a bed.

She had been stripped of all her armor and her suit, and was wearing hospital garbs. She still had the manacle on her horn, and Luna went to extra precautions, after Penny gave her an instant shot to revive her, she shrouded Starlight within a barrier of aura to keep her down.

Starlight began to stir and her eyes opened. “Oh…!” she groaned as her vision came back to her.

She tried to get up, but she couldn’t because of the magic, and she saw the manacle on her horn again.

“You are at New Ponyville hospital.” answered Luna. “You were found outside after what happened.”

Starlight’s eyes widened as she remembered it all, but she still couldn’t move or do anything.

“Consider yourself under arrest...” said Luna “Finally, your reign of terror has ended.”

Much as Starlight was pleased to be told the henchmen had been destroyed, she was non-too-thrilled of finally being caught.

Starlight was in disgrace. “My henchmen betray me. My master abandons me. My ship is gone, and I’ll never get my revenge on Celestia now.

She seemed so depressed, so crushed, and alone, but Luna decided to tell her right there, “My sister is not responsible for what happened to your parents.”

“It’s true…” snapped Swift, and he told her about the spiritual stone he gotten from the Shrine of Remembrance and how the spirits of Starlight’s parents told him clearly enough.

“Celestia is not responsible for our deaths. She did exile us, but she did not destroy us.” said Starpoint.

“The called “Titan” caused our demise.” explained Firelight. “You must give this message to our daughter.”

“It is no lie.” Luna assured her “A spiritual stone’s magic can neither be tainted nor altered.”

Still in disbelief, Starlight demanded to see this stone for herself as proof of the story.

“We can’t.” said Swift. “Commander Lightning has the stone.” and he further explained where the army was now.

Swift nodded, “It was hope that the stone’s would convince you that you’ve been following the wrong path, and yet here you are... which really complicated things.”

Still helplessly bound to her bed, Starlight demanded, “Then I insist we go there! I want to see this proof for myself.”

“Now just a moment!” snapped Luna. “You have been placed under arrest, and as acting ruler of this planet I won’t release you under any circumstances.”

“I can help you!” Starlight said “I know more information of the Shadow Planet and Lord Titan’s weaknesses.”

Luna shook her head. “It is nothing we cannot probe out of you. And without your magic to defend you--”

“That’s right… you may have blocked off my horn, but I can still take my own life thanks to the magic Titan casts upon all his followers, and you can’t dispel or stop me there.

All I have to do is make it happen, and KAPOW… even this barrier around me won’t shield you.”

“You’re lying!” said Swift, but Luna could sense the force within her, “…She is not bluffing.” She also thought Starlight horribly insane.

“You want to take that risk?” Starlight taunted “Don’t think I won’t do it. I’ll be destroyed, and take out a good chunk of this cursed building with it.”

Swift immediately thought of the hospital staff, the civilians taking shelter during the lockdown, and the other patients in the hospital too, preferably Pinkie, Spice, and Baby Biscuit, and how he swore especially to defend them.

Weighing the options, even Luna realized there was too much to risk. If Starlight had information on how to stop Titan for good, she had to take the chance.

The fleet of ships fought valiantly, and the captains were careful not to shoot down their own allies.

After a seemingly lengthy battle, the monster army was diminishing, opening a perfect path for the Kallanian mother ship to move on in.

“Shields holding steady, sir.” answered Mayne “We’re approaching out estimated drop zone.”

Avyanna complied and sounded the alert and announced over the intercom, “All fighters prepare to disembark. Repeat: All fighters prepare to disembark.”

“Good, you’re all powered up now.” said Grand Ruler. “Now you all understand; we’re about to run into an army far more vast than that which we fought already, but if we stick to our plans and main objectives, we should have the advantage.”

Lighting, Starla and Krysta and their majesties had their mission to search for Lightning’s missing Enticorn and try to get Lightning to merge with it and bring himself and their majesties to their proper ages.

The rest of the team would try to find and locate Titan, and bring both him and the Dark Star down.

“I can’t remember the last time a battle like this had timing so tight.” said Buddy.

“That makes two of us.” agreed Applejack. “I just hope we can bring that Dark Star down before it gets any bigger, or it’ll take us down!”

Rarity shuttered fretfully at such a thought. “Please, Applejack… my nerves are already spinning in circles.”

Many female Kallanian soldiers were all prepped up and armed to the teeth with armored suits of their own, ray guns, swords, and even explosives.

Out of concern, Krysta just had to ask, “You ladies really think you’ll be safe with all that gear? It’s Titans’ forces after all.”

The Captain of the squad flicked her long hair and snuffed, “You guys need all the help you can get, and we’re going to give it to you. Now let’s get down there and kick some evil can!”

Lightning agreed, and he was very grateful for the Kallanian’s offering their services.

Everyone stood ready as the bomb doors were open completely and their lay a long, long drop to the Shadow Planet below.

The planet sure seemed pretty dull looking. No forests, no lakes, no trees, no mountains, no cities; nothing but rocky mounds, like shelters and large areas with consoles and heavy duty machinery.

“For an artificial planet, you think this place would be far more active-looking.” said Artie.

All the flying monsters were far too busy battling the ships in orbit to notice what was about to happen.

“GO!!” shouted Grand Ruler, and all the Kallanian soldiers jumped out first, plummeting to the ground.

A massive army, far larger than the space fleet began to rush up from over the hills and around every corner.

The massive army of Kallanians began to shoot their ray-guns, sending a torrential rain of beams down below.

The monster army was bombarded from so many angles, and while the beams were not that strong and couldn’t hurt them, it did make it hard to see with all the brightness, as well as being constantly pelted.

The Kallanians began to throw their explosives down to the ground to stir up dust and stun the monsters even more.

Other monsters actually broke through and began to fire bazookas, fireballs, or whatever power they had.

“Now!!” shouted Grand Ruler, and he and Celestia conjured up a very wide barrier shielding the entire army from all that enemy fire.

With a wave of her wand, and a little help from their majesties, Krysta transported everyone away in a flash of light, scattering them in groups all around the planet.

“CHARGE…!!” The army of fighters just dropped in or popped out in many areas, catching the monsters by surprise.

The Starfleet fighters punched, kicked, and bashed their way through many of the monsters, knocking them down.

The Kallanian soldiers, since they weren’t physically as strong as Starfleet, acted as backup using their guns and explosions to stun and surprise more monsters to keep them at bay.

“STAR SHOWER”

“LEAF SWARM”

“PAINT BOMBS”

“DRILL QUILL”

“BOOM-BOOM ROCKETS”

The space ponies let out a barrage of their attacks, batting many monsters back.

“Return fire!” shouted a monster leader, and the monsters all began to retaliate with their own projectiles and attacks.

The fighters all swerved and dodged out of the way causing the blasts to miss them and to strike the other monsters.

Myte nodded and added, “There are far, far more of you than of us, leaving you guys with less room to dodge and accidently hit one-another.”

The monsters were outraged, but they still refused to turn on themselves and kept on battling… as if they actually didn’t mind attacking their own comrades by accident.

Rainbow crashed towards the ground, slamming it hard, making her signature, colorful-explosion, knocking many of the monsters back hard, and also shaking the ground.

Loads of monsters came at her, but she looked at them and imagined they were all big apple trees, with legs, coming at her.

“Ha!” she shoulder, down on her hands she went, pushing herself up and giving each and every monster a good buck-kick. “…Just like old times.”

Buddy lassoed a monster with his whip and whirled him round and around, knocking other monsters in his way out.

Artie, with his staff clobbered several monsters, and he defended himself from oncoming attacks with such skill… until he was surrounded by a load of creatures forming a perfect ring around him.

“Too easy.” he felt, and he waited for the monsters to all jump at him at once, and he sprung up high causing the swarm to smash and crash into each other.

Spike and Rhymey, with their swords attacked many monsters that had handheld weapons.

Showing off their mad fencing skills, they knocked all the weapons away, but there just so many more monsters coming in swarms from all over.

“What do you expect from an army this size?
Titan must’ve recruited millions of these guys.”

He parried another monster’s sword with his own, and slashed at him hard only to have two more to creep up on him and strike him hard in the back.

The monsters tried to strike again, but he zipped out of the way causing the monsters to miss, and then they looked up where Rarity and Fluttershy were glaring furiously at them with angry eyes and their arms folded.

With two loud POWS… the monsters were sent sailing high up and far off into the distance.

Rarity flexed her dragon claws and gave a mighty dragon roar! Slashing her claws, and breathing her flames, she made quick work of those beasts.

Fluttershy cleared her throat a few times, and then just let out a simple little, “Roar…” in a cute and quiet voice, but she still rushed forth punching, and kicking the monsters away.

Some of the monsters shot at her, but she dodged and caused them to hit one another instead.

Suddenly, she was ambushed, and Rarity was far too tied up to help her, but the Kallanian soldiers provided excellent assistance—firing their ray-guns and charging past the monsters to distract them.

The captain gave a soft shrug, “I know… I can’t believe it either.” and she dashed off.

Dyno and Myte faired pretty well themselves, smashing down all the monsters and creeps that came their way, but then they saw yet another massive force of monsters coming rushing in over the hills.

The space army of monsters was nearly diminished-- unable to hold up too long against the massive fleet.

She agreed, and then ordered the crew, “Prepare the tractor beams. The orders now were to hold the monster army below at bay as best we can.

The other ships will be signaled to try and attack the Dark Star. It must be brought down.”

Large rays of light fired from the ship, bounding straight down at the planet below.

The tractor beams grabbed many of the monsters and held them in place so they couldn’t move.

Avyanna had no wish to bring the monsters aboard and imprison them out of fear they would destroy themselves, and thus: destroy her ship from the inside.

Before the army could get a chance to, they were shot at by some of the scout ships that had broken through.

“Si…” agreed Myte “But I hope Lightning and the others are doing well on their part.”

Ever since the teleportation, while the army fought the massive monster force, Lightning and his group scouted around hoping to find a reading on the Enticorn’s signals, since Starfleet equipment could detect traces of the Uniforce which was the main source of his power.

“I’ve got a lock…” said Lightning as he scanned an abandoned control console.

“You’re right,” agreed Grand Ruler “…I can feel the power, and there can only be one explanation…”

The ladies all agreed that the Enticorn was being used to power some of the systems; either that or the consoles were being using to keep the creature weak and imprisoned.

Either way, it proved their theories right-- Titan couldn’t use the Uniforce himself, so he had the creature power up things for his project.

Lightning scanned the console and determined its power was being fed from deep within the bowels of the planet.

“Well, we better figure it out fast.” cried Krysta “…Look!” she pointed ahead at a large force of beasts and monsters coming straight for them.

The fighters all stood ready to intercept and ward them off, when suddenly a large trap door opened wide beneath their feet, and they all fell through.

…While the group of fighters were falling down what seemed to be a long series of jump-tubes, sucking them down like a vacuum.

The current was far too strong to fight off, and even still… as they continued to fall, the fighters could suddenly see all kinds of odd, and eerie-looking machinery, gears, cogs, and all kinds of wires and pipelines.

“Incredible.” remarked Grand Ruler. “The entire hollow of this planet… is one big massive engine.”

The others all felt the same way… so astounded that they didn’t brace themselves for what was coming next.

The others all got up on to their feet, brushing themselves off from the impact, but seeing where they were now nearly left them all breathless.

This had to be the very core of the Shadow Planet. Naturally, the planet was nothing like a regular planet.

Instead of molten rock, high temperatures, and things like that, they were standing on a very large land mass, equal to that of a small town.

And off in the distances the entire area seemed to be enclosed in a large dark sphere with glowing red lights that kept fading on and off.

All around the land were large generators and other unmanned consoles that seemed to be absorbing and sending power up and into the sphere, empowering the planet.

“My scanning-systems are all going crazy.” said Starla. “I’ve never seen such power before.”

Celestia was incredibly flabbergasted. “With power like this, it’s no wonder this planet is able to traverse through the cosmos.”

Grand Ruler shook his head in near total disbelief. “How is something like this even feasible?”

Suddenly, there was a sound of someone snickering. “…It wasn’t easy, I do assure you.”

The others all stiffened with anger, while Titan could only glare at them with his eyes glowing behind his hood.

In our next episode: It’s a mighty showdown as the group tries with all their might to bring Titan down in the engine core, while at the same time, the Dark Star has grown strong enough to begin its assault on the universe at Titan’s command, which could spell out doomsday if Starfleet and their allies fail to bring it down.

Can our heroes bring both Titan and the Dark Star down in time?

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

(Next Episode: Part 4: “Star Battle”)

My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic Season X

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 24: Part 3: The Empire Strikes Forth