//------------------------------// // Act 2: New and Old feelings // Story: Starfleet Magic Movie: How the Finch stopped Hearths Warming // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT TWO “Well, look who decided to join in the fun.” Applejack teased as Lightning and Krysta arrived. “Hope, we’re not too late?” asked Lightning. A stray snowball began to fly towards him from behind-- thrown by Buddy-- but he could feel it coming and he ducked down causing the ball to miss and hit Twilight in the face instead. “Oh!” groaned Pinkie. Twilight angrily brushed off her face and scooped up more snow in her hands to return fire, and before long, all the friends were having fun in another snowball fight. The afternoon was over before anyone realized, and the team headed back to the palace. “My Brother and his wife promised to come and visit from the New Crystal Empire.” said Twilight. “I can’t wait to see them.” Lightning and Starla walked together. “I’m so glad you decided to join us.” she said. “You know me…” replied Lightning. “Besides, I’m still sort of getting used to this whole Hearths Warming thing.” “We all are.” said Buddy. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starting to like all this.” Some of the other Space Ponies agreed. “I’m glad you do.” said Twilight “There’s so much we want to show you all, and so much we want to learn from you as well.” “And you will, in time,” said Lightning. “But in the meantime, you ladies need to keep up with your training if you want to earn your commissions into Starfleet.” Faces began to turn grim. “Aw, do we have to?” groaned Pinkie. “Yes, you do, Pinkie Pie.” replied Buddy. “We all have to keep up our training, so that way we can be ready for when the next great evil comes along.” Rainbow acted cocky as ever, “Ah, I’m not too worried. We took out Titan and Super Nightmare Moon, and now we’re stronger than ever. Just LET the next evil come for us; we’ll show them.” Many of the others were not impressed with her boasting. “Rainbow… Don’t push your luck.” cautioned Artie. “Yes, we did defeat the enemies together, and we helped save both our races from annihilation… …But we just BARELY got out of it.” Applejack agreed with him, “We haven’t a clue of knowing what’s out there, especially now that we know most of these bad guys come from Outer Space.” Rarity and Fluttershy felt shivers run down their spines; remembering how horrible it was when Equestria was enslaved by the evil, and they and all their friends were whipped and pushed about in hard labour. The most frightening thing of all was when the planet began to break up and explode. Fluttershy was shaking so nervously, that she lost her balance and began to fall over, only for Rhymey to catch her. “Thanks.” she said with rather loving smile. He blushed nervously, and helped her stand. “Look, let’s not fret about all this right now.” suggested Twilight. “It’s the holidays, and we want to have a good one here. So let’s smile and get it brighter.” Everyone agreed and promised to try. “I’m glad to hear of that…” said Princess Luna as she came down the hallway. “As it so happens, we could use extra hooves-- excuse me-- hands… to help out with the decorating.” Spike leapt for joy. “Awesome. Sure beats training.” Krysta looked at him funny. “What do you mean? You don’t train with us? “Yeah… but it’s better than spending hours watching you train while I do nothing.” Everyone brushed it off and agreed to help out. New Canterlot Palace was a tad larger and wider than what it used to be since it was reformed. Now it had a few extra floors, more corridors, and more rooms than ever; which made it necessary to have more helpers and a larger staff to help out around the place. So, everyone set to work, decorating, prepping, and singing a song while they were at it. [Twilight] Something about this time of year coming round Feelings of the joy and light is where we’re bound. [Starla] It’s all so strange and new to us, we’ve never felt before But as we learn, we’ll discover that it’s just so much more. [EVERYONE] Put up the tree and point it tall, Hang up hollies in the hall, Wrap the presents, wrap ‘em tight, Feel the warmth come from the light. [Males] With all the old and new coming into view It’s a whole new world before our eyes. [Ladies] And every smile and gift make our spirits lift to a whole new life full of surprise. [EVERYONE] Hearths Warming is coming… And the tunes we keep on humming… will sparkle like the snow in the skies Bake the goodies nice and hot, Give and share your loving lot. Show your willing and the thrilling Hearths Warming you’ve got. By the end of the song, the friends had reached the end of their decorating supplies, but there was still much more to do around the entire palace. “Ay-Ay-Ay! We could be at this all night.” said Dyno. Myte sighed. “Well, we better go get more stuff then.” “I know where there’s plenty.” said Twilight “We keep loads of decorations in the main storage rooms…” she paused “…Oh… in the lower, sub levels of the palace.” “Well, let’s get going.” said Lightning. With that, everyone headed for the hallways, for the nearest elevators. Twilight began to wonder, “Shining Armor and Princess Cadance should have been here by now. I hope nothing’s wrong.” While in the Palace Laboratories, Professor Brain, now head of the department, and chief of scientific advisors, was hard at work preparing his own special Hearths Warming presentation. He had been working on it ever since the winter began, he hardly ever was seen taking breaks except to eat, and sleep… within his private workshop. “Ahh… Satisfactory.” he said to himself. “…Most Satisfactory. I believe this should work. Oh, what a Hearths Warming surprise this shall be.” As he continued to work, there was a knock at the workshop door, in spite of the “Do Not Disturb” sign hung outside. “Oh… gracious!” groaned Brain as he made his way over and heard one of his assistants-- a unicorn mare-- call to him. “Professor... Professor Brain? Are you there?” Brain stood right at the door and answered without opening it, “Of course I am here! I gave orders that I was not to be disturbed unless of an emergency.” The worker called to him, “This may very well be, Sir. You better come take a look.” Brain sighed, but he exited the lab and followed the mare to her station where she and her colleagues were monitoring weather patterns on their computers. There was a stranger occurrence forming outside of New Canterlot and slowly spreading not only towards the town, but expanding out across the planet. “Strange… Most strange…” remarked Brain as he read over the findings. “Pressure: dropping… Abnormal cold fronts… strong gales?” Even the other scientists and workers knew this couldn’t be a trick of nature since the weather was also tightly controlled thanks to the Pegasi and the Starfleet technologies. “Alert their majesties at once.” ordered Brain. “Yes, sir.” Replied the worker as she dashed off, leaving Brain still puzzled yet concerned, “…I fear something dreadful may the cause of this.” The friends had made it to the storage area were some of the palace staff were already sorting and going through boxes and taking them back to the upper levels. The friends were admitting all the many beautiful decorations and stuff-- things for Hearts and Hooves Day, the Summer Sun Celebration; Twilight and the Equestrians found some things used from the Canterlot Royal Wedding and even Twilight’s coronation as Princess of Friendship… which happened just before The Great War. “These are all so beautiful.” remarked Artie. Rarity agreed as her eyes practically glistened with sparkles at all the beautiful fabrics of curtains, tablecloths, long tulle streamers from weddings. “This is practically heaven to me.” she exclaimed as she hugged a drape close to her. “Oh! Such memories….such exquisiteness… such ideas…!” “Eeyup, we’ve lost her.” teased Applejack. Rhymey held up a gorgeous centerpiece of a small Hearths Warming Tree. “With things like these, there is no doubt, This will really help the holiday stand out.” “They’re stunning,” agreed Buddy as he admired fake flowers. “I wonder if I can grow some of these in the Spring.” Suddenly, “WEE!!” Pinkie popped out from a box with a puff on confetti, surprising him into falling back hard onto stack of boxes that toppled all over him, covering him in Holly Wreaths. Some of the others couldn’t help but chuckle, while Buddy was barely amused. As they helped him clean up, Lightning was at another end of the clutter sorting through some things, but he had a rather silent look about him. Twilight didn’t like the looks of this and she whispered to Starla and Krysta, “Is he alright?” Starla looked over at him and shook her head, “I think all this holiday, and celebration stuff is bringing back bad memories for him.” Twilight felt sorry for Lightning, she already knew his story; about his home planet, Harmonious, blowing up when he was five, and how his family was lost too. She also remembered that Starla was an orphan too. “Oh, I’m so, sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up.” Starla smiled and raised her hand. “It’s okay. We all have our sad times. Some scars can take a very long time to heal, and there are some that just never heal and stay with you for life.” Such a concept always made Twilight’s blood run cold. “Hey, look what I found.” chirped Krysta as she pulled something up from a box, and the two mares thought of having some fun with Lightning. Starla softly approached him. “Are you okay? You seem awfully quiet.” Lightning gave her a small glare. He knew what she was thinking. “Is it that obvious?” Now it was her turn to give him a look. “I’m okay.” said Lightning. “I admit, I’m feeling a bit down because of my family and all, but I’m trying to enjoy things.” She smiled at him and then rolled her eyes up overhead. “Hey, look at that.” Lightning looked up and saw something floating above his head. “Looks like you’re standing under the mistletoe.” cooed Starla. Lightning felt his pulse starting to race. “Uh… meaning…?” She leaned in and whispered to him, “…You’re supposed to kiss me.” His cheeks went bright red! Even though by this time, since they had started dated, he had kissed her many times before, but it still tickled him inside, especially knowing the others were all watching; especially Twilight who was deliberately using her magic to float the mistletoe above his head. The others all looked on, practically telling him to go for it and Starla had already leaned in with her eyes shut, and her lips slightly pursed. Relenting happily, Lightning softly placed his arms around Starla’s waist, slowly bringing her close to him as he moved his face towards hers. The gang all watched with great glee, some of the Equestrians were squeaking softly with delight. …Lightning’s lips just barely touched Starla’s, when the warning alarms sounded; startling them both causing them to bonk muzzles hard. “Oh!” “Ow!” “What’s that?” asked Applejack. “It’s the red alert!” replied Lightning “Let’s get upstairs!” and everyone dashed out of the room like speeding comets.