EPISODE FOUR

I had come to visit Cheerilee in the hospital. The doctor said she’d be back to work tomorrow.

“Oh, they’re doing fine…” I paused and hesitated “…Well, most of them.”

I nodded. “Her grades are starting to get a little better, but she’s still all grumpy and miserable about it all, and she’s alienating herself worse than ever from everyone.”

Cheerilee sighed softly. She had already tried talking it over at times with Lil in the past, but it was like talking to a brick wall. She insisted on not growing up, or caring her about her education or anything.

We both knew of Sole Maker’s rough attitude, but even as concerned citizens we had no right to pressure on someone else, especially if they weren’t doing anything all that dangerous or trying to break the law.

As for the law, the authorities were still investigating into what attacked Cheerliee that night in her home.

The magical residue was analyzed, but the data wasn’t able to identify who could cast such a magic. Energy absorbing was a common spell, and anyone could have done it, but there was still no definite clues or matches on who exactly.

Cheerliee was also questioned on what she saw, but her story wasn’t enough to go by.

“I was getting ready for bed…” she stated. “Then all of a sudden, it started to feel really chilly, and I turned around, and I saw this… big flash of light, and I heard a sinister laugh.

For this, her brain patterns of only those moments were recorded, at her signed permission, to see if any leads could be found, or a positive identification.

They were able to dim the brightness of the flashing lights, but only come up with a small, blurry, silhouette of the creature that did it.

The vocal patterns of the laughter didn’t seem to match anyone in the entire recording data of the planet.

Starla suggested “Maybe it’s the Nightmares we’ve been fighting?” but Lightning disagreed, “There was no sign of a Dream Field. It couldn’t have been them. Even still, we would’ve matched their vocal patterns from memory.

We need more leads.” he paused, “…And that means waiting for another attack.”

“Well, you’re getting better.” I said as I passed her a rather passible test, but there was still room for improvement on her part.

Lil’ just sighed annoyingly, while some other students snickered softly at her, earning them a scowl from her.

Just then, the lunch bell rang, and since it was a beautiful day, I allowed the students to eat outside.

“We will review your Human-World history reports after lunch.” I said I dismissed the children. “And believe, I’ll know if you’ve been studying.”

Some of the students ate in the playground, others just sat along the grass, but Lil sat on a log far away from any of the kids, not wanting to get involved with any of them, including her former friends.

Melody: a white Earth Pony with a yellow mane. She and Lil’ used to be best friends, and play a lot, but she had dreams of becoming a concert pianist, and was too busy these days with lessons, practice, as well as school work.

Tee Base: a yellow unicorn pony with a brown mane that was well into sports. He was the only male friend Lil ever had. He always used to let her play sports with him, and unlike most boys his age, he never thought girls were weird or icky… but his dream was to be a pro athlete, and do that, he had to play and practice seriously, and not goof off with simple child’s play, and he also had to get good grades to make teams.

Soarina: A blue pegasus with a violet mane. She loved to fly more than anything, and her way of play usually around make-believe flying.

Lil’ loved playing flying games like that, but Soarina wanted to be a Wonderbolt someday, and she had to train well and focus hard. She grew out of child’s play, or simple-minded games, earning her a rather pompous attitude.

Because of all this, and having little to no time for Lil and her games, Lil felt hurt and betrayed by her so-called friends, and kept her distance with them.

All three of them felt different way towards Lil and her desire to remain forever young and never to grow up.

Melody felt maybe Lil was afraid of growing up, and all the responsibilities she’d have to endure, while Tee Base felt that maybe Lil was just feeling left out.

Soarina on the other hand; she was among the students who laughed at her and teased for her childish ways of thinking and going about things.

“Why would you want to?” Lil answered. “I thought you had “better things” to do, and you didn’t have time for us anymore.”

Melody and Tee felt a small sting of guilt for that, but they remained calm and easy.

“Lil, listen to me…” said Melody. “We’re sorry we haven’t been around much, and yes, we did say we didn’t have time for you and all that.”

“It’s just that… well, we’re growing up, and so are you!” added Tee, but he already realized he had said the wrong thing when Lil gave him a furious look for mentioning “growing up.”

She got up to leave, but not before stopping to look over her shoulder at her former friends. “We promised that we’d be friends forever, and we’d have nothing but fun.”

Then there was worse as Lil passed by the jungle gym, and Soarina was sitting at the top on the bridge. “Oh, never mind her. She’s just too much of a baby and a coward.”

“Why should I? She’s the one who wants to be a childish retard all her life. The rest of us will end up successes and making things of ourselves, while she’ll be sucking her thumb and running around in diapers saying, “Look at me, I don’t know how to grow up.”

“It’s not that I don’t know how… I just don’t want to. It’s better than being a bone-breaking, slave driven, paper pushing weirdo like you want to be.”

Many ponies gasped, and Soarina looked ready to explode as she marched to the end of the bridge and pointed at her, “You have five seconds to take that back, or I’m going to--”

But as she was speaking in such a threatening manner, Lil glared at her with a look of extreme fury in her eyes…

…Suddenly, the part of the bridge under Soarina’s feet collapsed, and she fell through slamming hard onto the ground below.

She burst into tears, wailing as she held her aching leg and her bent wing! “IT HURTS!! IT HURTS!!”

Lil was equally as shocked as the other students. Some of them ran off to get Mykan…

Just down from the school, Swift Star was passing by on his beat, and he saw the whole thing.

“She sprained herself, but nothing seems broken.” I replied. “But right now, I want an answer… What happened out here?”

I found that rather difficult to believe, seeing as the jungle gym was only just renovated with strong material, and the workers spared no expense.

Swift analyzed the hole with his visor and concluded without a doubt, “It was magic.”

My features hardened and I turned to face the group of students. “You all know fully-well that magic is not allowed to be used for rough play.

I folded my arms in disbelief, “Magic doesn’t just cast itself. Now I want to know who did this.”

Swift scanned all the children with his visor, using the lie-detection. “They’re telling the truth; nobody here in the guilty party.”

Swift assured me that his visor was not malfunctioning. “If any of them was the guilty party, it would tell me.”

The students and I were hardly certain of what to think of now, but of course with seemingly positive proof; I couldn’t hold the children responsible, but I did dismiss school early, right then and there. I was starting to fear that this was a deliberate attack, and I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt.

The children were a bit delighted and relieved, but still rather shaken for seeing Soarina get hurt like that, especially Lil.

She walked home by herself, still unable to get those haunting images out of her mind of when Soarina fell, while she was glaring at her too.

She got her answer when a young adult pony walked up to the bench. He looked very big, burly, and was very discourteous.

“I said get!!” the pony bellowed, and he clenched his fist, “Or maybe you’d like to get a spanking where it hurts most!

Glaring at the nasty pony, Lil slowly got up and moved away from it letting the jerk sit down.

Lil glared at him the same way she had glared at Soarina, angering the punk really much. “I SAID GET LOST!!!” he shouted, making Lil glare at him harder and madder than before.

Suddenly, the bench collapsed, and the punk was flat on his back, while Lil was wide-eyed and shocked again.

The punk was really mad as he rustled to his feet, furious enough to hit anything or anyone he saw; even Lil, so she quickly ran for it as fast as she could, growling “I hate adults! I hate adults!! I hate adults!!!”

“Lil?” her mother called as she looked up from the sofa, where she was all sticky nails, and a towel wrapped round her mane. “What are you doing home so early?”

Lady would have gone after her, but her nails were still wet and she didn’t want bring herself to wreck the polish-- the lazy, shallow, ninny!

In her room, it was still practically empty ever since Sole Maker cleared out all her toys.

Not just because that punk tried to chase her, but for what she had witnessed-- the punk and Soarina falling and getting hurt for no reason.

The strangest part was, both times she was glaring at the two ponies and thinking angry and vengeful thoughts, as if she wanted them to get hurt.

“Did I…?” she wondered, “No, that’s not possible. I don’t have magic; I’m an Earth Pony.”

Then a thought occurred to her, of the night before when that strange light and the strange voice appeared.

All this time she had gone on saying to herself it was just some crazy dream; after all, it said it would help her never grow up, and yet she never felt or seemed any different.

Though, she was a bit angrier at the way others were still constantly pressuring her to grow up, especially her father.

Speaking of whom, Sole Maker had come home early himself, looking just as frustrated, just as irritable as ever, with a briefcase full of paperwork in each hand, and a couple of long folded up scrolls under his right arm.

He was grumbling miserably at all the work he had to catch up on, when suddenly, a baseball had come flying in from two colts playing in their yard, with school out, and the ball rolled along the ground, and-- of all places-- Sole stepped on it, slipping and falling down, spilling his paperwork everywhere.

Sole got up with the ball in his hand. He looked down at the kids in a rather angry voice. He didn’t yell but what he did next was just as bad. “You know what I think…? I think I’m going to keep this.”

“Well, let this be a lesson to you!” insisted Sole, and her grabbed his papers and stormed inside.

The kids protested and marched up to the door and began to pound on it, but Sole yelled at them. “Get off my property now, before I open this door and belt you both to harassing me!!”

Sole Maker complained to Lady as he set down his papers. “Rotten kids…! When I was their age I was already selling lemonade on the side of the road, and sweeping floors at the barber shop. Not wasting my time with pointless games and other frivolities.”

“Well they should!” snapped Sole. “Learning to let go of things and starting to be disciplined at a young age made me what I am today. Others should do the same with their kids too. Then there’d be more progress, more success, and less childishness all around!”

Lady side and went back to her shameless lounging on the sofa, while her husband gathered up his things and headed upstairs to his home office, not bothering to check on Lil’ whom he knew was home.

Lil then looked through the stair rails and noticed the baseball was left just sitting by the door.

With both her parents totally preoccupied, she crept downstairs and went out the door with the ball in hand.

Luckily, she found the two colts sitting on the stoop of their house, looking very miserable.

“Here,” she said tossing them their ball. “Sorry about my dad. He had no right to do that.”

So for two hours Lil had fun playing, for the first time in a while, and with kids about her age too.

She turned to look down the road, and there was father with his arms folded and tapping his foot in a sinister look.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked in a very deep voice. “Were you playing after what we talked about?”

Lil’s features hardened at this point and she looked her father dead in the eyes and balked “Yes, I did! You had no right to take it from them, just like you had no right to take my toys from me either!”

Sole could not believe his ears, and Lil couldn’t believe herself and what she had just done-- standing up to her father like that.

Ever so furious, Sole pointed at the house, “Up to your room! Now!! There will be no supper for you tonight!”

“I can, I will, and I am!! You need to learn more than just grow up young filly; you need to learn respect, and how to properly behave when talking to your father!”

On and on he rambled, which prompted Lil to glare at him furiously like she did before that day…

“What’s going on here?!” called a voice, which snapped Lil out of her gaze before something dreadful could have happened.

Swift Star was on his afternoon patrol, when he could hear Sole shouting like a maniac.

Swift, non-too happy to see him either glared at him, “I am a Starfleet Officer, and when I sense a disturbance in the peace I will investigate it, so I suggest you mind your attitude.”

“I did what I had to.” insisted Sole. “It was punishment and deserved punishment for what they did.”

“What happened was clearly an accident, because you didn’t see where you were walking. You had no right to take that ball. It’s stealing, end of story.

And now you’re being overly harsh on your daughter because she did a nice thing.”

“Look…” snapped Sole “Maybe I do get a little carried away, and a little worked up, but she needs to learn to mature; to grow up. I’m only doing this for her own good.”

In the end, Swift could only let Sole off with a warning. “I can’t tell you how to raise kids, but I can tell you this; maybe it’s you who needs to grow up and learn to be a better parent and not just some overly-obsessed businessman.”

Sole, naturally, wouldn’t take his advice to heart, especially as he thought, “You don’t know the half of it.”

He calmly and quietly led Lil back home, and promised not to starve her for the night.

As they went inside, Swift looked up at the house, figuring it looked familiar to him from somewhere, as if that was the thing about Sole Maker he tried to remember-- the home he bought, for a great price.

With his patrol rounds nearly over, he headed off, and anxious to get something else started.

That night, Lady was not too lazy enough to tuck Lil into bed after she had been fed and did her homework, while Sole was, again, locked up in his office working nonstop.

Lady couldn’t seem to find an answer, “It’s your dad, dear. He can’t help the way he is. He does work very hard, and he does his best to support us both.

Oh, and speaking of support, I thought I’d visit Soarina’s mom and see how she’s doing.”

She left, closing the door on the way, and she hadn’t really answered the question at all.

Meanwhile, Swift had visited New Ponyville Town Hall requesting to see realtor records on Sole Maker’s home.

“Really, Lieutenant, You know it’s bad for Starfleet to snoop.” said Mayor Mare.

“I’m not snooping, ma’am, I’m conducting a small and private investigating.” he then handed a document with Lightning’s signature on it. “I have the commander’s permission.”

Her observed picture of the house, which positively matched, and its retail values were sparingly affordable.

“Even I could buy that with just a half a month’s pay.” he felt. “Why would a house like that be so cheap?”

He got his answer as he flipped through pages and found an old newspaper cut out, dated from at twenty years back, from Equestria of Old, before The Great War and the formation of United Equestria.

…It turned out to be a murder house where an insane father had killed his daughter, and then himself to avoid prosecution.

Swift was almost sickened to read such a story, and he also figured Sole Maker bought the home simply for being cheap.

Back in her room, Lil was starting to toss and turn in her sleep. She groaned and cringed as if she were struggling with something…

Then, she suddenly bolted up right, and her eyes shot open while giving off that same, eerie glow and that spirit’s voice called out, “It’s time to get to work again.”

Possessed by the spirit, Lil got out of bed and walked to her window. She looked across the street at the house where the colts she played with lived.

The spirit sensed Lil’s outrage that they just ran out on her, leaving her to face her father alone.

She turned her head and could see the window adjacent to her bedroom window, which was her father’s office window.

“Not now.” the spirit insisted. “He will get what’s coming to him in due time. For now, we must focus.”

That’s when the light began to envelop Lil’s entire body, and she just vanished.

Swift had coming back to the neighborhood to look at the house one last time. It was very quiet at night; most ponies were in bed at this time, and just a few sentries on night patrol were about to keep watch for prowlers.

He got a good look at the house, and in-spite of the modifications, there was no mistaking it was the murder house shown in the paper clipping.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of screaming coming from a house down the road, followed by flashes of light coming from the windows.

The guards had already come rushing in upon seeing the lights and hearing the screams themselves.

Other ponies from around the neighborhood were peeking out their windows and doors at all the commotion, but the sentries ordered them all to remain where they were.

Lady Fair couldn’t help but look through her bedroom window, after being woken up from the noises. “Oh, can’t a beautiful pony get her beauty sleep.” she rudely remarked.

Sole Maker only growled from his officer-- working late. “Can’t they see that I have work to do?” he complained. He stuffed cotton wads in his ears and pulled the shades over his window.

He donned his super armor-- white suit, and dark grey armor. As he was an Equestrian, he had a clear visor over his eyes.

He then leapt up high to the window where the light was shining from, and looked in.

What he saw were two little colts and their mother backed into a corner by a strange entity shrouded in the light.

“Don’t worry,” she hissed at them, “This won’t hurt… after the first ten seconds.”

The creature turned round to see Swift-- he had let himself in thanks to the window being open slightly.

In spite of the bright light, Swift got a good look at the creature. she was about his height, and quite human-shaped, but her body seemed a very dark burlap color, and her eyes were that of two bright blue diamonds, she had no nose or any sign or nostrils, no hair, and she had sharp teeth as well.

The creature hissed at him, “Another adult. This is just too good. It means more life force for me.”

Her diamond eyes began to glow, and she opened her scary mouth, revealing energy building up inside her throat.

Swift knew what he had to do. Rather try to fight the creature or even scan her for data, he waited until the last second, and she unleashed her power towards him, which he dodged, and quickly zipped behind, stopping by the hostages.

She about to zap them, but Swift, with his super strength, kicked a small chair, sending it at the creature’s back, only for it to pass right through her much to Swift’s shock.

At least to his luck, the chair passed through her at the right place and moment-- right in front of her face, causing her blast to strike the chair, blinding her in the face as he blast went all over the place-- bouncing off the walls, floor, the ceiling in tiny bits.

The family was too scared to just jump out, but the unicorn sentries below use their magic to safely lift the mother and her boys down to safety.

Swift stood on the window ready to leap down, when suddenly he was struck on the arm from behind by one of the specks of the blasts.

His armor didn’t defend him, and he screamed and wailed as he felt all the strength being painfully sapped out of his left arm, causing him to fall off the window.

“They’ll pay for this!” she growled, but felt it best she leave while she could, and she melded through the floor, down into the main house, and continued until she melded under the house, underground where she could move without being seen.

Swift wanted to know the same thing, but his arm felt much worse. It wasn’t sore anymore, and there wasn’t any physical wound or damage to his suit, but his arm was felt all numb and floppy. He couldn’t seem to lift it or feel anything in it at all.

Swift felt a little scared, not that his arm was numb, but what could have happened if he had been hit by a stronger blast.

One of the sentries helped him up. “Come on. Let’s get you to the hospital.”

His other fellow sentries agreed to look after the family and keep a lookout if that creature should reappear.

She practically raced to her daughter’s room, and opened the door softly to find Lil in bed, and fast asleep without a care in the world.

Only after which did Lil’s head glow softly for a few seconds, and that spiritual voice hissed softly, “There will be other times.”

Once at the hospital, Doctor Penny gave Swift a booster-shot to help restore his arm to normal.

“There you go.” she said “But you’re very lucky. If it were any more serious you could’ve ended up in the same situation Cheerilee was in.”

“She is…” Lightning said as he walked in. He had received word form one of the sentries of the trouble, and he rushed to the hospital at once.

“They analyzed the samples of magic in that house you saved the family from; it’s a positive match to stuff that was found on Cheerilee and around her home.”

Swift felt luckier than ever. He clutched his arm and could start to feel feeling in it slowly returning.

“Like I said…” said Penny. “If you were hit any harder, you’d be in long recovery now like Cheerilee was. A booster would be too dangerous to give anyone in that kind of condition.”

With Swift’s arm healing and nothing else wrong with him. Penny dismissed him, before deciding to head home herself after a long day’s shift.

As Lightning escorted Swift home, he noticed Swift seemed a little bummed. “I wish I could’ve gotten more information about that… thing.”

Lightning tried to assure him. “You did the right thing getting the family out of there. They asked me to thank you for helping them.”

Swift still didn’t’ look any better. “It’s not all that… We may have a better idea of what we’re after now, but that thing is still out there, and who knows who it may target next or when?”

Lightning realized this too, and it meant that all of United Equestria was now in even greater danger, especially at night.

The very next morning, Lil woke up clutching her aching head. “Ohhhh…! What a crazy dream.” she groaned. “Maybe I should calm down before I go to bed.”

She opened her curtains to look out into the neighborhood, only to see that the house those colts she played with yesterday; sealed off with yellow tape warning others to keep back, for there was an attack the other night, and Starfleet investigators were searching for any other clues or evidence before the family would be allowed to return.

Lil gasped softly, remembering dreaming about such an attack, involving those two boys and their mothers.

“No…” she peeped softly. “It can’t be. I didn’t do all that. I was here all night.”

She really didn’t remember doing much of anything. She never even remembered getting out of bed all night.

She ran to her dresser to look herself in the mirror atop of it. She looked her reflection all over, and couldn’t see anything really wrong with herself, but this didn’t really ease her at all, what with the things that happened yesterday too-- Soarina and that punk getting hurt after she glared at them…

She also glared at her father yesterday and still feared something could have happened to him if Swift hadn’t come along.

She looked down at her hands, and then felt her head, rubbing it with her fingers.

Still, she wasn’t quite sure how to test her theory. She didn’t trust any adults to go to them for help, especially not her parents.

In our next episode: Artie and Sunset’s baby finally arrives, which might bring about fresh new dangers as Emcee devises a plan of her own to grant favor to the nightmares and their by attacking all mothers and their children even Sunset herself.

Will Emcee’s plan prove successful?

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

(Next Episode: “Dreams of Mother and Child”)

My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic Season XI

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 4: Did I do those things?