Shine on! Ultrawoman Aster!

by Michael_Ravencroft

14th Light: Friendship In Danger / Fight Together! (Part 1)

“So, Sunset’s from some planet called ‘Equenta’?” Luna asked.

“Yes, when she climbed the mountain, some more of her memories returned to her, and from them she learned that she was a ‘Royal Knight’ on the planet of Equenta,” Celestia explained.

“I see, have you checked through the GPC?”

“The first thing I did when we found out. I even checked again once we returned, but there was nothing on this planet.” Celestia sighed sadly. “I’m afraid that…maybe this planet no longer exists.”

Luna was sad to hear about what was discovered during her sister’s impromptu space trip. Especially when she learned of Sunset’s possible advanced age and that she may no longer have a home planet anymore. “What of this ‘Gai Kurenai’, where is he?”

“He was called to O-50 by the Voice of Light to help Sunset defend it. But after we got everything sorted out there, we all went our separate ways. I’m sure he’s out there, defending other worlds as an Ultraman. Although, he did mention to us that there are more out there, more than we even realize,” said Celestia.

“Be nice if some of them were here during the First Incursion. Anyway, I’ll do some digging on my end. I’m getting rather curious as to how S.M.I.L.E. knew about Sunset Shimmer, and her abilities.”

Celestia nodded, it was a fact that they had not bothered to inquire about, but with recent information coming to light, perhaps it was worth investigating. “By the way, Luna…”

“Yes, dear sister?”

“Can you please have mercy on me?!”

During her little space adventure with Twilight and Sunset, a mountain of paperwork had been accrued in her absence. Luna did manage to cut down the workload while her sister was away, but let’s face it, sibling rivalries die hard.

“Consider it karma for leaving in the middle of the night with only a note!”

The dark master of this realm was hard at work, summoning his malevolent energies, and concentrating them into a point in the middle of the throne room. This ball of dark power continued to rage, undulating, alive, and wanting to wreak havoc.

Tirek stood with his arms crossed as he waited for his master’s work to be done, meanwhile, Sombra came walking and looked upon the work that was being done.

“I hope you’re not wasting the Master’s time and energy by doing this,” said Sombra.

“Believe me, it will pay off in the long run,” Tirek assured.

The ball of negative energy condensed until it exploded outwards, releasing a wave of dark energy. The three sisters watched from around the corner, unsure of what was happening. When the dark energy dispersed, the only thing remaining was a device. A device that was forged of pure dark power, and only sought those with evil in their hearts. This was the device known as the Dark Ring.

The Dark Ring floated towards Tirek, the device was like a small crumb in his hands, but it was fine, the Dark Ring was not made for him. The centaur turned around and looked towards where the three sisters were, making them flinch.

“Enter,” he ordered.

From that same hallway, a figure walked by the sisters, clad in black robes and with their hood up, obscuring their face from view. The figure stopped before the giant centaur and bowed before him.

“Use the Dark Ring, my disciple, bring chaos and destruction upon the Earth from the inside. They won’t know what hit them!”

The Dark Ring floated from Tirek’s hand and hovered before the robed minion. The glow of the Dark Ring illuminated their face only enough for their wicked smile to be seen.

“What did you just say?!”

Twilight and Sunset were walking through the halls of the academy, on their way to their next class when Sunset told her something that honestly made her head spin.

“I just think that you guys should put some distance between me,” said Sunset.

“I…I don’t understand, are you saying you don’t want to be friends anymore?!” Twilight asked.

Sunset did not want to say that exactly, but essentially, that’s what she wanted to happen. “Look…it’ll be better for you guys and me if we’re not all together.”

“Is this because…” Twilight looked about to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “You found out that you’re immortal?”

“Longevity, but…” Sunset sighed. “Yeah, it is.”

Twilight was still having a tough time understanding Sunset’s reasoning. “I still don’t get it.”

“Look, it does neither me nor you guys any good to be friends with me. I’ll outlive you all…I’ll…never get any older than I am now. Hell, I’m probably way older than anyone here! So, I think it’s better to spare us all the headache…and heartache…if we don’t interact with each other as much. Missions and things like that are unavoidable, but the faster you guys forget about me, the easier things will be for all of us in the long run.”

Twilight’s grip on her textbooks tightened. “I don’t accept that. I won’t accept that, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Sparky…”

“Before I met you, I never had any friends! Now I have you, and six other friends whom I adore! And the person responsible for bringing them into my life, for opening my mind up to so many things, is telling me to just forget her as if she never existed?!” Twilight began to sniffle. “Well, sorry, not sorry, I’m not going to forget you!”

Twilight ran off, leaving Sunset standing there cursing herself. Of course, Twilight would react like that, how else would she? Asking Twilight to forget about the first real friend she’s made, her best friend, someone who has saved her life, and was saved by that same girl not too long ago.

“Ugh!” Sunset smacked the side of a locker, leaving a dent in it. “Well, my strength, speed, stamina, and beam hands make more sense now.”

Meanwhile, Twilight kept running down the hallway. Normally she was one to abide by the rules, including the one about not running in the halls, but she was not in the right state of mind to care at the moment. Sunset wanted to break ties with her friends, with her. Twilight felt her heart ache when she heard those words. She wanted to no longer be friends, or a part of her life, or their lives. Just as she turned the corner, she ran into something rather sturdy, making Twilight fall onto her rear.

“Whoa there, Twilight, y’all alright?”

Twilight looked up and saw the sturdy thing she ran into was in fact Applejack. And standing next to her was her girlfriend, Rainbow.

The chromatic haired teen chuckled as she said, “So, the color is pink today.”

Twilight was confused for a moment before she looked down and realized that her skirt was up a little and her legs were open. Blushing bright red, Twilight quickly pushed her skirt down and closed her legs, embarrassed to the umpteenth power. AND THAT’S WHY YOU DON’T RUN IN THE HALLS!

“AHAHA!” Rainbow laughed. “OMPH!”

Applejack lightly elbowed her girlfriend before rolling her eyes at her. The country girl leaned down and offered a hand to her friend. “Ignore her. But what’s got ya runnin’ so fast? Ya look like a chicken runnin’ from a starvin’ fox.”

Twilight took Applejack’s hand, and with a swift pull, was brought back up to standing height. Sometimes she forgot about Applejack’s superhuman strength. “I was just upset…”

After recovering from the elbow, Rainbow noticed that Twilight had some remnants of tears in her eyes and immediately grew concerned. “Hey, what’s wrong, why are you crying? Did someone mess with you?! Tell us who, and I’ll teach ‘em a lesson!”

Twilight shook her head. “No, no one hurt me or did anything. It’s……”

Applejack and Rainbow glanced at each other, now they were more worried.

“Twi, ya can tell us anythin’. We aren’t just teammates, we’re friends,” said Applejack.

“Ya, I may tease and stuff sometimes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you any less. Just talk to us,” Rainbow added.

Twilight’s tears were starting up again. “Sunset…doesn’t want to have anything to do with us anymore.”

“WHAT?!” The three girls turned to the new voice and saw Pinkie, along with Rarity and Fluttershy walking by. The pink haired girl rushed to Twilight, turned her around, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shook her as she asked, “SHE DOESN’T WANT TO BE FRIENDS ANYMORE?! WHY?!”

“S-S-Stop s-s-shaking p-p-please!”

Pinkie did as she asked.

After regaining her senses, Twilight looked around to make sure that there were no eavesdroppers. She motioned for the girls to move further down the hall, away from the any possible listeners. Although Sunset and Twilight told the girls about what they found out about Crusader’s Peak and Sunset’s possible planet of origin, Sunset had asked her not to tell the girls about her immortality. But, if Sunset was really planning on severing ties with everyone, then they had the right to know.

“Sunset asked me not to tell you, but considering what she wants to do, I think you have the right to know.” Twilight sighed; this was not going to be easy. “There’s something else we didn’t tell you about our adventure. The other Ultra we met, who gained his powers from the same place as Sunset, it seems that he stopped aging when he did.”

Rarity furrowed her brow and asked, “Wait a minute, you said ‘stopped aging’, as in, he’s immortal?”

“I don’t think he’s like a god, more like he won’t age or get old, although I’m sure he’s still subject to death if something bad happens to him.”

Fluttershy was slowly putting two and two together as her face morphed to match her realization. “Wait…so that means, Sunset is also ageless?”

Twilight simply nodded.

“Okay, I’m not seeing how that’s a bad thing,” Rainbow stated. “Seems it be kinda awesome not to have to worry about getting old and slowing down.”

Applejack lightly swapped the back of Rainbow’s head. “Think about it, feather brain……It means Sunset’s gonna be here long after we’re all pushin’ up daisies.”

“And she’s struggling with that fact. She wants to stop being around us, because she’s afraid of being hurt when the time comes and we’re…you know,” Twilight explained.

Silence reigned over the group for a while. It was a heavy thing to consider. Sunset would still be around long after their death, and for them, all six would continue to grow older, while their friend will remain the same age.

“Well, that’s dumb,” said Pinkie.

Everyone looked at the party girl with confusion.

“She doesn’t want to hurt us or herself so she’s pushing away people who care about her. I mean, that just sounds really stupid. I know if I would live forever, I’d want to have as many friends as possible! Being alone forever sounds like it would horrible!” Pinkie stated.

Applejack blushed a little and smiled as she wrapped her arm around Rainbow’s waist and brought her girlfriend’s hip close to hers. “Ah’d have to agree with that. Even if Ah was goin’ to live forever, Ah wouldn’t want to be alone. Ah’d rather be with someone for the rest their life, no matter how long that is.”

Rainbow blushed as well, feeling embarrassed that Applejack said such a mushy, romantic thing. “Okay, okay, you don’t have to get all mushy on me…” It was taking all her willpower to keep her wings from flaring out to cover her face. “But…yeah…what she said.”

“Better to have known love and friendship, than to never have known it all. I don’t think I could bear being alone such a long time like that,” said Rarity.

Fluttershy simply nodded.

“Then it’s decided! We’re throwing Sunset a party!”

“YEAH!” the girls shouted in agreement.

Then Twilight took a moment to take in what Pinkie suggested. “Wait, what?”

Some answers had been obtained, the biggest one being Sunset’s home planet, at least what she hoped was her home planet. After returning to Earth and informing their friends about what was discovered on O-50, the girls were quick to surround Sunset with hugs and pats on the back and assurances that they would continue to help her, no matter what.

Sunset did feel relieved knowing that her friends would stand by her. However, she had Twilight omit the part about being an immortal. That was probably the thing that was proving hard for Sunset to get over the most. If Gai Kurenai was ageless after becoming Ultraman, then that meant that Sunset would never die, at least due to aging, anyway. It brought a whole new prospect onto her life as she went through classes. Constantly asking herself the question, “Does any of this matter?”

And really, did it matter? Going to these classes, attending training. Now that she thought about it, was it even a good idea for her to even continue being friends with the girls? This question was rattling in her head repeatedly, even now as she lied on the roof and stared into endless sky.

I’ll never grow old…I’ll never change. The girls will grow old…they will change. AJ, RD, Rare, Pinkie, Shy…Sparky. Even Luna and Celestia…they’ll all just…grow old and fade away. And I’ll still be here…

Sunset’s heart began to hurt when she thought about this, the first real friends she made since she decided to fight and protect the Earth, no matter how powerful she was, Sunset could not shield her friends from time. They would all eventually grow old and die, and she’d be alone.

“What am I going to do…?”

“You look bummed out.”

Sunset sat up and looked behind her, finding Flash Sentry walking onto the roof from the access door. “Oh, hey, Flash. Kinda having an existential crisis over here.”

“Wow, about what?” he asked as walked closer.

“Nothing that I can say that would sound sane,” she replied.

Flash sat down next to Sunset’s left and said, “You do remember that we fight invading aliens, giant monsters, and that we have a giant superwoman who can fight against said giant monsters. And then there was that Halloween thing last month, soooo…”

Sunset hated to admit it, but the guy did have a point. S.M.I.L.E. Academy has faced some crazy things, but that did not mean that she was ready to dump all this onto him. Heck, she still did not like that she dumped half of what she did on the girls, the last thing any of them needed was to do deal with her anxiety.

“Just…drop it…okay?”

Flash could see that the fiery redhead was not in a talking mood. So, he shrugged and said, “Okay, if that’s what you want. But I’m willing to listen. Mind if I lounge around up here, too?”

Sunset sighed as she lied on her back again. “Free country, do what you want.”

“Thanks.”

Flash lied on his back and stared up into the sky, there were a lot of clouds in the sky and Flash decided to point out, “The clouds are really nice this time of year, huh?”

“…I never paid attention to ‘em.”

“Too busy to look up?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “No.” I just fly through them a lot, so I don’t exactly care what they look like. “I just…ugh…”

Flash grinned a little and said, “I think that one looks like a dragon.”

Sunset looked towards where he pointed, she tilted her head a little, only now vaguely seeing the serpentine dragon-like cloud. “Huh, yeah, I guess.”

“You’re turn.”

“We’re taking turns?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Ugh, you’re annoying,” Sunset groaned. The flame haired teen scanned the skies and spotted a cloud that looked vaguely like a unicorn. “There, that one’s a unicorn, I guess.”

“Huh? I think it looks like horned horse.”

Sunset glanced to her left with confusion plane on her face. “That’s what I said, a unicorn.”

“No, it’s a horned horse,” Flash countered.

“What’s the difference?! A unicorn and ‘horned horse’ is the same thing!” Sunset argued.

Flash raised his finger in a matter-of-fact fashion, “Not true, a unicorn is a mystical, magical creature. Whereas a horned horse is just a horse with a horn mutation.”

Sunset chuckled in disbelief. “You’re weird, Sentry.”

“No weirder than you are, Shimmer.”

“Shut up.” Sunset went back to staring up at the sky, her eyes briefly glancing over at the young man. “Flash…thanks.”

“Anytime.”

At that moment, Sunset’s HoloFrame sounded off. The flaming redhead took out her HoloFrame from her skirt pocket and saw that she had a message from Twilight. Her first friend had been mostly silent towards her since Wednesday, no doubt upset about what she said. Sunset wanted to make amends, to tell her that it was not as if it was because Twilight was a bad friend. More like you’re a good friend that I don’t want to hurt…more.

Sighing, Sunset opened the device and read the message.

[Sunset, please come to our dorm as soon as you get this message. We need to talk.]

“Guess it’s time to confront this,” said Sunset.

“Trouble?” Flash asked as he sat up a bit.

“No, just some drama I caused between Sparky and me. It’s my mess to clean up.”

“Hmm, alright. Offer still stands, Sunset,” said Flash as he laid back down and looked up at the sky.

Sunset got up and walked towards the door and said, “Thanks, again.”

Sunset stood before the door of her dorm room. On the other side was Twilight, no doubt wanting to have a serious discussion about what she was planning on doing. With a deep sigh, she opened the door, only to find not a single light on inside.

“Uh…Twi? Sparky? You in here?” Sunset called out as she entered. “Look, I don’t want to leave things off on a sour note. But I’m doing this for–”

“SURPRISE!!!”

“AAAH!”

*Bachoom!*

The lights suddenly clicked on as all six of Sunset’s friends sprang out from the corners and couch. This startled the redhead and made her fire off a light beam from her hand. Thankfully, the light bullet burned its way through the sliding glass door, leaving a hole about six inches wide. When Sunset realized what had happened, she got irritated.

“WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! I ALMOST KILLED YOU GUYS!” Sunset yelled.

“Told ya a surprise party was not a good idea,” said Rainbow.

The light bullet had whizzed by Pinkie’s head, lightly singing her hair a little. “Yeaaaaah…mental note, next time, no surprise parties for the girl who can shoot light beams from her hands. Or for the girl who can turn into an anthropomorphic fox-wolf.”

“Most definitely not,” Fluttershy muttered.

After getting over the initial shock, Sunset managed to scan the room. There was a banner hanging across the room that read, “You’re Good Friend Sunset Shimmer!”, along with streamers, confetti, a few bottles of cola, a cake, and some pizza. The girls had on party hats, and whistles in their hands.

“I repeat, what the hell are you guys doing?”

Pinkie stepped forward and said, “Well, Twilight told us about how you’re planning on not being friends anymore, and how you’re going to do a lone wolf thing and cut us all out!”

Sunset’s brow furrowed. “Twilight, what the hell?!”

“Sunset, please, just listen to us. We don’t want you to just push us away,” said Twilight.

“She’s right, Darling, we’re your friends, from now until the end. Be it now or far in the future,” Rarity added.

Sunset gritted her teeth as she clenched her fists. “Well maybe I don’t want to see that?! Did you think about how I feel?! Maybe I don’t want to see you guys waste away?! Maybe I don’t want to watch as you all get older, and I stay the same?! Maybe I don’t want to feel the pain of…of…losing you! The answer is I DON’T!”

“Sunset…” Fluttershy began.

“No!” Sunset cut off Fluttershy. “Just get out! Just…Just leave me alone! From here on out, we’re not friends! We’re not teammates, we’re not anything!”

A pregnant silence befell the room. But that silence did not last long.

The girls’ HoloFrames went off as a Space Beast alert went off. “Ugh, you’ve got to be kidding me?! Right now?! No. You know what, good! I need some stress relief!”

“Sunset!” Twilight cried out.

Sunset ran to the roof of the dorms, to one of the several hidden blind spots of the campus and quickly summoned her StaRaizer.

Sunset’s body was engulfed in light, a light that shot straight into the air and reformed into that of the Herald of Light, Ultrawoman Aster. The giant of light flew through the skies over Canterlot City, and just in time for the Phantom Zone generator to kick on. Now that everything had been shifted into a clone-like dimension, Aster wasted little time in landing in the middle of the city, cracking the asphalt and shattering some windows upon impact. Aster got into her ready stance and stared down the new Space Beast.

“Uh…where’s the monster?”

Indeed, there was no monster, in fact, there was not that much destruction that she could see around there. There were a couple of buildings smashed, and some crushed cars, but there were no other signs of a Space Beast attack.

“What the heck?” Are the warning systems malfunctioning or something?

Far away, atop the roof of a tall building, a lone figure stood and observed Aster. They was situated behind the hero, so Aster did not spot them at all. The figure chuckled sinisterly. “Know nothing Ultra, I’ll make you suffer.” The figure pulled out the Dark Ring with their left hand, and with their right they pulled out two cards with the image of a monster on them. “Bemstar. Gan-Q. Time to come out and play.”

The figure held up the Dark Ring, and from it two beams of light shined forth from it. One beam of light shot towards the ground and from it appeared a large monster. The monster had a giant eye in the middle of its body, with its lower half having a few more of them. Its arms were long and sharp, and it was colored a rusty red color. This was Gan-Q

The second light appeared in the sky, this creature was wide, and had a leathery hide, and an almost tribal ornament around its waist. Around its belly was a metal plate, and at the center of that plate was a red, almost flowery protrusion. It had a curved horn on its head, and a short beak, this monster was Bemstar.

Aster suddenly turned around and saw the two monsters, and quickly got on guard. WHAT?! How did they get behind me?!

Bemstar channeled energy into its horn and unleashed a blue lightning attack that rained down on Aster from above. The Ultra hero rolled to the left, dodging the lightning as it tore through several buildings and reduced them to rubble. Gan-Q stepped up, releasing a pulse wave of its energy, wrapping it around the rubble as it lifted them up into the air. When Aster stopped rolling, she noticed that the chunks of metal and concrete were floating in the air. Gan-Q sent out another pulse wave, and the debris was thrown directly at Aster.

The Herald of Light quickly fired off her Beam Bullets with her hands, blasting several pieces of rubble, but this was just a feint as Bemstar came around and fired its lighting attack. Several sparks exploded from her back, causing the hero to stop her attack. Unfortunately, this allowed Gan-Q’s rubble barrage to strike her several times over.

“UGH! Okay, now I’m annoyed!” Aster channeled her energy into her forearms and shouted, “ASTRONIUM RAY!”

Aster formed an L-shaped pattern with her arms and fired her Ultra Ray, aiming it straight at Bemstar. The mutated penguin looking monster floated in the air, not even bothering to dodge the attack. The flower-like piece on its chest plate suddenly opened, creating a vacuum effect. The Astronium Ray was drawn to that, sucking it all in and causing zero damage Bemstar.

“What the hell?! He’s absorbing my attack?!”

Aster swiftly cut off her attack, preventing it from taking in anymore of her power. However, what she did not expect was that Gan-Q was now a few meters away, with a direct line of sight to Aster. The giant eye of the monster glowed, and in the next moment, Aster’s Astronium Ray came blasting straight out of its eye. Aster turned around at the last second and quickly summoned her Aurora Shield. She did not have time to completely power it up, so it only mitigate some of the damage when it hit and exploded.

The Ultra Warrior was sent flying into a building, smashing through it, and out the other side, having the entire thing fall before she impacted against another one, leaving a body sized impression in it. “Did…Did I just get hit with my own attack?” Aster glanced at Bemstar, and then back to Gan-Q. “I see, that messed up penguin can absorb my attacks, and that eyeball with legs can shot them back at me. Okay, okay. This is a tag team. So, first things first, take out the air support!”

Within the starry nexus, Sunset took out the Cosmos and Agul Coins. However, when she looked at the coins, she saw that they were grayed out.

“What is this?”

She tried to slot the Ultra Coins into the StaRaizer, but the bracer refused to allow them to be inserted.

“I don’t get it?! Why can’t I use the Ultra Coins?!”

Bemstar was getting into position to rain down more lightning, but Aster wasn’t about to let this slow her down.

“Fine, Plan B then!”

Aster tore herself out of the building and flew into the air just in time to miss the lightning as it destroyed the building she had been thrown into. Aster placed both of her hands over her crest, causing the curved crest to glow and from it, Aster produced her Stelluger. She needed to take down Bemstar to stop him from absorbing her energy attacks and having Gan-Q redirect them. So, for the time being, physical attacks would have to work. Aster flew in and slashed Bemstar across its chest, causing the mutated penguin to shriek in pain as sparks flew from its body. Aster then performed a roundhouse kick in midair, striking the monster’s head and sending it hurdling straight down into the ground.

Bemstar landed on top of skyscraper, plowing through it, and bringing down the structure around it as it finally made impact with the street below and was immobilized, temporarily, by the debris on top of it.

Sunset took a moment to look over her coins, the only ones that were not grayed out were the Ultraman, Ginga, Victory, and Gaia Coins. All the others were grayed out, their shine gone. Sunset still had no idea why this was happening, especially at a time like this, but that was a question for later. For now, she would have to make do with what she had. The young hero took the Ginga Coin and inserted it into the Stelluger.

The Stelluger sparked with yellow lightning, calling upon one of the elemental powers of Ultraman Ginga. Aster flew back down to meet Gan-Q, but the eyeball Space Beast threw more rubble at her, trying to stop her. However, the Herald of Light used her powered up Stelluger to slash through the rubble, and once she was in range, she slashed at its midsection, creating a shower of sparks from the monster before stabbing it right below its giant eye.

Lightning surged through the Space Beast before inevitably exploding on the spot. However, Aster was not done. Inside the starry nexus, Sunset placed both the Victory and Gaia Coins into the Stelluger.

Aster came down with her Stelluger, stabbing it into the earth. The ground shook violently as a surge of energy shot from the Stelluger and broke off large chunks of the ground. Bemstar was starting to get up, but the moment it did, Aster raised her Stelluger and pointed it at Bemstar. The chunks of earth shot towards it, forming a huge cocoon around it, however, before Aster could finish the attack entirely, Bemstar began to absorb the rock pieces.

“Great, it can absorb matter, too?! But it’s busy absorbing all the rocks, this is my chance!”

Aster ran and then flew as high as she could until she was right behind the monster. Inside the nexus, Sunset replaced the Gaia Coin with the Ginga Coin.

The Stelluger raged with the energy of the two Ultras, she then slashed the air in front of her, releasing a large crescent blade made of blue and yellow energy. Just like she thought, Bemstar was too busy absorbing his rock cocoon from the front, so it could not see the attack coming from behind. By the time it did realize what was happening, it was too late, Aster’s attack struck it in the back and completely sliced it diagonally. The monster penguin let out a pathetic little whimper before exploding in midair, sending a shower of rocks going everywhere. Aster landed back on the ground, panting from the effort, but satisfied that she was able to take down two monsters even without her other Ultra Coins allowing her to form shift.

“Nice going, Aster, but let’s see how you deal with this. Come on out, Segmeger.”

Out of nowhere, a spiraling column of purple, glowing flames struck her in the right arm. Aster cried out in pain as the flames managed to burn her, but when they stopped, something else was noticeable. Her right was still burning, and there was a purple, glowing burn mark. The hero looked in the direction where the attack came from and saw a third monster. This this thing looked like a dragon and a snake rolled into one. With green scales, and golden, sharper looking scales that acted as armor pieces. This was the beast known as Segmeger.

The Space Beast’s spines began to glow, and in the next moment, it fired a beam of blue light from its mouth. Aster dodge rolled out of the way of the attack. When she stopped, she got down on one knee, feeling her body hurting all over, and the pain was starting from her injured arm and spreading through her body. Is this some kind of poison? And where did that one even come from?! Screw it, just take it down!

Within the starry nexus, Sunset took out the Ultraman Victory Coin, and replaced it with the Ultraman Coin and inserted them into the weapon.

Outside of the nexus, lavender and blue light swirled around the Stelluger until they converged and turned into sharpened blade of light. Segmeger blasted another round of purple poison flames, but Aster used her Stelluger to slash through the poisonous flames, parting them down the middle as she charged straight for Segmeger.

Aster spun in place and repeatedly slashed the monster again and again, ending with one last slash down the middle of the monster before the light blade vanished. Segmeger gave a little pathetic whimper before the whole monster exploded, unfortunately, that’s what the mysterious figure wanted. The moment that Segmeger exploded, its purple blood was splattered everywhere and began to hiss against the concrete and metal of the buildings, and even melted the cars. A lot of it hit Aster’s body, making the Ultra drop her Stelluger weapon as she grunted in pain from the poison that was seeping into her body.

“Just like I planned. You’re so easy, Ultrawoman Aster. Oh, Zetton, Pandon. It’s your turn my little friends,” said the figure as they scanned the cards.

Another two lights appeared, one on either side a few meters apart. On her right was Zetton, and on her left was a two headed, red scale and feathered, two-headed bird monster known as Pandon.

The two heads of Pandon opened their beaks as they gathered flaming energy into them, at the same time, Zetton gathered more energy, forming his own fireball. Aster’s body was still burning due to the effects of the poison, she was feeling paralyzed to, about the only thing she could feel right now was pain. And it was about to get worse. The two monsters unleashed their charged fireball attacks, and blasted Aster from both sides. The attacks met and caused a huge explosion that erupted around the hero. The searing flames, combined with the poison coursing through her body, it was becoming too much for Aster, something only made worse by the blinking of her Color Timer. The two monsters continued to pummel Aster with more and more fireballs, not giving her a moment to rest or counterattack, and all the while, the figure laughed with evil glee as they enjoyed the show

“Heh, heh, that’s it! That’s it! Destroy her! Destroy her! Don’t let a single piece of her remain!” However, as the figure continued, their body noticeably began shrinking. It was slow, at first, but after summoning Zetton and Pandon, it was happening faster. The figure looked at their body and hissed in agitation. “Dammit, this is my limit? Guess I was playing around too much, but at least now I have a good idea of how the Dark Ring operates. So, for now, Aster, I’ll grant you mercy.”

The figure swiped the Dark Ring in a horizontal pattern, and immediately after the monsters stopped their attack, and broke down into particles of red light. Disappearing from the battlefield entirely as the figure disappeared with them.

Aster was on her knees now, the entire area was a molten crater, her body hissed from the heat, and her cries of agony were still going. She could tell that the battle was over, but she needed to leave, she needed to get out of here before she changed back. Aster mustered all the strength she had left, and jumped into the air, taking off in the direction S.M.I.L.E. Academy. Unfortunately, the damage she suffered, combined with the poisoning, drained the last of her energy, bringing her crashing right into the Everfree Forest. Her body glowed, transitioning from her Ultra form back to her humanoid form.

Some of the trees were crushed and uprooted, following a long groove that was cut into the dirt due to her rough landing. However, the forest began to glow, and the damage that was done due to Aster’s landing was undone almost immediately. In the depths of the Everfree, Sunset lied on the ground, her body paralyzed except for the sensation of never-ending pain. She felt like she wanted to just roll over and die, the poison coursing through her veins made even the simple act of breathing painful. Her vision was fading in and out, for a moment all she could see were flashes of bushes, and then she heard the howling.

In little time at all, a pack of the wood wolves appeared from the bushes, snarling, smelling a wounded animal. But just before the pack could do anything, a flash of light went off that scared the pack away. Sunset squinted her eyes as she tried to see what it was that made them leave. When the light faded, Sunset swore she recognized this person, the Woman of the Everfree.

The Phantom Zone was still active as several S.M.I.L.E. forces roamed the battlefield. Gungirs flew patrol patterns while the Goliaths did the same by land, all of them searching for the whereabouts of the monsters that had suddenly appeared to fight against Aster.

At the same time, Team Aster was in Commander Celestia’s office, with Twilight nearly yelling, “We have to go and find her!”

“Twilight, we understand, believe me. We do. But she crash landed in the Everfree Forest. The last time an expedition was sent in there we nearly lost some agents, and one of them was Ms. Apple,” said Celestia.

“All the more reason we need to go in there help her,” Applejack spoke up.

“Yeah! She helped me save AJ, it’s time we returned the favor!” Rainbow added.

“The new Gungir and Goliath’s for them are ready for combat, they can easily navigate the Everfree,” Twilight argued.

Luna stepped up and said, “Even if that is so, the Everfree is the one thing preventing a full-scale invasion by the Space Beasts, it’s the only reason why they haven’t descended on us in masse. If we damage the forest too much, then run the risk of jeopardizing the safety and security of the world.”

“But…”

Luna placed a hand on the teen genius’ shoulder and gave her a sympathetic look. “I know…I feel the same as the Commander. I want to rescue Sunset, but we must do this carefully.”

Fluttershy, who had remained quiet during this conversation, stepped forward, saluted, and said, “Ma’am, permission to perform a search for Sunset Shimmer.”

“Ms. Shy, we can’t risk a whole–”

“No, you misunderstand. I want to do this myself, no team.”

“WHAT?!” the girls shouted.

“Fluttershy, y-you want to go into the Everfree?! By yourself?!” Rarity asked.

“I do.” Fluttershy raised her right hand and partially transformed it. “I’m a Vivirendan. I’m not human. If I go into the Everfree in my bestial form, I can track Sunset down and bring her out. Plus, I can move faster if I’m alone.”

“Wow, I’d thought you’d be scared to go in there,” said Pinkie.

Fluttershy was shaking a bit. “I am…the Everfree is scary, it’s an unknown even after all the years it’s been here since the First Incursion.” The alien girl clenched her fists as a look of determination formed. “But Sunset would not give up on us, as her friends, we shouldn’t give up on her either! If it was any of us, she’d be the first one out there!”

Celestia closed her eyes as she considered Fluttershy’s request. This was not something she should do lightly, Fluttershy did have Special Agent status, which meant that Celestia was within her rights to have Fluttershy go on this mission and allow Fluttershy to do it as she saw fit. The Commander of Concordia base looked up at the young girl and asked, “You may need to indulge in the combative nature of your people in order to survive in there, and I know that’s something you don’t particularly like to do, and that you avoid if at all possible.”

Fluttershy nodded.

“Knowing that you might need to become a warrior in there, are you sure you want to go alone?” Celestia asked.

“I am. I run the risk of…falling prey to my instincts…but that won’t happen!” Fluttershy stated.

Celestia got out of her chair and looked the shy girl dead in the eyes. “Then, as Commander of Concordia base, and as the Principal of S.M.I.L.E. Academy, I task you with this mission. Enter the Everfree. Locate Cadet Sunset Shimmer. And bring her back.”

Fluttershy stood at attention and saluted. “Yes, Ma’am!”

“Rainbow Dash, Applejack Apple, I want you both on standby in your Pegasus Custom and Sleipnir Custom! If those monsters appear again, Sunset will need backup!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”
“Yes, Ma’am!”

“If that is what we’re doing, then, Fluttershy, I’d like you to come by my studio. I’ve made something that will at least provide you with a bit more protection,” said Rarity.

Twilight pushed up her glasses and said, “I’m going to work on a strategy to combat those Space Beasts. Pinkie, I’d like your help with this.”

“You got it!”