“Previously on Starfleet Magic…”

The royal children had led the team of fighters to the School of Nightmares itself, where, once inside, had lost the children and were forced to brave the endless amounts of danger that seemed to flood the entire institute, and backing our heroes into a helpless corner.

EPISODE TWENTY-TWO

The giant teachers snickered as they loomed over the fighters backed into the wall, and surrounded by their army of students looking ready to pounce and earn their automatic graduations.

Emcee added “First we destroy you, and then we get to take over the world outside.”

Lightning winked at her, and then at Dyno and Myte, and the twins already had an idea.

“I don’t know,” replied Rarity “But I hope it gives us the edge. There are just too many monsters to fight.”

Some of the fighters already caught on with Lightning’s idea, and the rest all just stood ready to flee at the right moment.

“Get them!” shouted Magi, and the students all began to rush forth, while Lightning and the twins stood together in front of the team.

The trio of men unleashed their powers, aiming them straight up into the darkness overhead.

KAPOW!! The forces crashed above with a huge explosion, followed by the entire room trembling as rocks and boulders began to crash down like an avalanche.

The monsters all began to run about in panic under the rain of debris, even knocking over their big teachers.

The fighters all charged forth. With the enemies distracted by the avalanche, it was easy for the heroes to avert them, while swerving around the falling the debris themselves.

Some of the monsters huddled together, ready to blast at the heroes, but Saber quickly faced behind him, as his antennae began to spark.

KAPOW!! He blasted up a huge rock that had fallen, causing it to burst into a cloud of dust, making it hard for the villains to see the heroes.

Saber snuffed, “They may just be dreams, but they still seem real enough-- real boneheads.”

Cadance chuckled softly-- gesturing by placing her fingers to her face-covers where he lips would be.

The heroes had no real idea of which door to go through, so they merely went with Lightning’s lead and headed through a really big, open door in the center of the maze.

The avalanche had stopped, and the atrium was a huge mess while the army was outraged.

…But before anyone could set off, an evil voice called to them. “Stop right there!” and Zadovia appeared. “Never mind those intruders. They shall be dealt with.

The shadow ghouls continued to furiously snarl and swipe at the barriers around the buildings, trying to get at the civilians, but it was no use for them.

“We are just fine.” The Ruler replied. “But we don’t know how long we can really keep this up.”

They paused and looked up at the sky through the barrier. The darkness was continuing to worsen, and everyone was worried, not just for their friends and the planet, but for Princess Luna as well.

Starla flew down, into Luna’s bedroom where the Court Physician and his nurse were caring for the ailing princess. She didn’t even need to ask or even use her visor to scan the vital signs…

…Just looking at how bad Luna looked-- all pale, and sweaty, even while in a cooling chamber-- she was only worsening.

“Her vital signs are dropping!” cried the nurse. “Doctor, we’re going to lose her. We have no alternative.”

The Doctor then agreed with the nurse. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but we can’t risk losing her. We’ll have to freeze her solid.”

Even Starla had to agree with it, and so the Doctor set the controls on the chamber, and in a quick, magical flash, Princess Luna was encased in ice.

The nurse checked the monitor on the chamber, “They’re steadying. She’s fine, at least for now.”

Starla’s visor gave the same readings. “Well, hopefully this can keep her from getting worse. But her only chance is if the darkness diminishes.

The moment she said that, Goldwin rushed into the bedroom. “Starla…! There’s trouble outside.”

…Monsters! Everywhere, there were more and more monsters appearing alongside the shadow ghouls, including some familiar ones Starla recognized, like the four face-molding monsters.

“All these monsters… they’ll add more strength to the army to take the barriers down.” cried Celestia.

“Stay strong, Celestia.” her husband called “We must protect our people.”

The monsters teamed up with the ghouls and began to hack at, or unleash their magical furies upon the barriers. It was still no good-- they couldn’t break them, but now it was a bigger strain for The Ruler to maintain the spell, and the worsening darkness in the sky only made it harder.

Unfortunately, all the guards remained where they were, completely powerless to do anything due to lack of dream magic.

This made Starla the only resource, but her pregnancy made it too much of a risk, and, still, there was no way she could take on an army of strong brutes by herself.

She noted how The Ruler was casting their own magic on all the buildings to keep the barriers up just like what Lightning had told her-- when Applejack cast dream magic onto an air-conditioning unit to help her take a monster down.

“It just may work.” she felt, and she quickly called out, “Captain Shaina!”

Shaina was not far, like a good Captain of The Guard would be. “Yes, General.”

Shaina was most confused, and so where some of the guards nearby, and even The Ruler themselves.

“General, we can’t battle them.” protested Shaina, but Starla simply balked, “Maternity leave or not, I gave you an order! Call out the guards, now!”

Still unsure, Shaina did call her guards to assemble, leaving Starla to gaze down at her dream-band with a look of determination and hope in her eyes behind her visor.

Meanwhile, Lightning and the group, after outrunning the army of nightmares, found themselves in yet another dark hallway with loads of regular doors along the way.

“And to think, I used to groan and complain about going to school.” grumbled Rainbow.

“Maybe it doesn’t where we go.” suggested Spike. “After what we’ve been through, there’s bound to be more danger lurking around every corner.”

“Yes, but we simply can’t stay in one place.” said Rarity. “We must find the children somehow.”

Suddenly, very faint, distance voices were heard.

“Help…!”

“Please, help us!”

“What are we waiting for?” exclaimed Pinkie, but before she could start off…

“Wait!” snapped Lightning. Pinkie halted-- suspended in mid-air without even flapping her wings, or her feet touching the ground.

“It could be a trick.” said Lightning “Remember, we’re on their grounds.” He referred to the nightmares.

“Help…!!”

“Somebody help!”

The fighters were still not able to use their visors to scan if the voices were real or not.

“Rarity, Spike, can either you smell the scent of the children?” asked Lightning.

The couple sniffed the air all they could, but the place was so dark, cool, and musty, it was hard to pinpoint anything.

With no other options, the fighters had no choice but to venture deeper into the evil school and hope something would come up.

“Who knows what we’ll find in here,
Maybe more monsters, more devices of fear?” whimpered Fluttershy.

Pinkie took this well-to-heart, and kept her face stiff and her eyes open, looking at every single corner for anything unusual.

Suddenly, she began to smell something really good. “Mmm… fresh-baked cookies, cakes, and pies…”

The smell came from a door near her, and she couldn’t resist and opened it wide, and what she saw made her eyes glitter! “Oh, wow!” the room was all decked up like a party, and there were tables of all kinds of baked goods with such sweet aromas that made her drool.

“Pinkie, No!” Artie shouted as he yanked her away, just in time as the room changed into a scary nightmare, with bats, chains, skeletons, and dangerous traps.

Kyrsta quickly slammed the door shut just before all those things came rushing out. “Oh, boy!” she groaned, while Pinkie was quaking like crazy. “That was scary! Absolutely scary…!”

“It was just another dream.” Lightning said. “They’re trying to play tricks on us.”

Rarity then looked through another door which opened wide, and inside, she had never seen such beautiful designer outfits and gowns that glittered and shined.

“Oh, my word!” she squealed, but suddenly she stopped. “Wait a moment…!” and instead of waltzing into another trap, she took a huge breath and unleashed her fire inside, exposing the shadows and tricks before kicking the door shut.

“Stay sharp.” said Lightning as everyone ran down the hall, and more and more tricks and traps seemed to leap out to try and tempt and fool everyone, but on the dashed to the end of the hallway where a giant doorway lay before them.

Myte then skid to a halt, “Wait! What if it’s--” was he was able to say when the door suddenly, and unexpectedly, zoomed in on everyone, like a mouth eating jellybeans.

The doorway then, magically, split into five segments, breaking the team up into smaller, separate groups!

Everyone screamed and yelled in fright as they slid and tumbled along through frightening backgrounds of gnashing fangs, sharp claws, thunder and lightning, and wolves howling.

Pinkie wailed until she ran out of breath, before taking another huge breath and resumed wailing.

Saber, Rarity, and Fluttershy crashed into the middle of Mash’s gym, where Mash, still a giant, and his entire team of football players and other sports-related monsters were waiting.

Fluttershy and Rarity held onto each other in fear with all those monsters up ahead.

“Play ball!!” Mash roared as he blew his whistle, and his army rushed forth, throwing, or kicking magical, explosive pulses, forcing the fighters to start dodging like crazy.

Saber began to lash his chain at some of the pulses, and the exploded with large forces. “Whoa!”

“It’s the formula made by Emcee…
It makes them stronger than ever, see?!”

Rarity breathed a huge wall of fire to black them all off, nearly exhausting her inner flames as she huffed, puffed, and panted heavily.

Dyno, Rhymey and Rainbow found themselves in Emcee’s laboratory, where not only was she still a giant, but she had her own army of monsters she equipped with all kinds of formulas, making them strong, swift, and tricky.

“Shall we experiment?” Emcee hissed as she fit on her goggles and rubber-gloves in a menacing way.

“Really…? What was your first guess?” grumbled Rainbow. “I never did like science.”

“Yuck!” groaned Rainbow and she quickly began to fly in furious circles to make strong gusts to blog the smog away.

Dyno stood ready to fight too. He couldn’t use his super attacks, not while he was separated from Myte, “I can still fight you with regular ways.

He leapt into the big gaggle of monsters, punching and kicking down any creature that came at him, and despite not be able to use his fire attacks, he was still able to fire magical beams from his horn like any alicorn.

“Nice and Steady,
I am ready!” he imedeatly jumped into action, wanting to get out of this room quickly for fear of what was happening to Fluttershy and the others.

In a large classroom for literature, Magi-- still large in size-- stood behind a big podium and opened her book.

“Today’s story is about the warriors… who lose their lives to their own dreams.” She laughed wickedly while from the blackboard behind her, magical puffs of smoke began billowing forth, forming all kinds of spell-casters, fiends, and other monsters, including Sputterfly.

Myte nodded, “I can still fight, even without Dyno. I just can’t use my super attacks.”

Sputterfly powered up her lasers to fire at them, but Arite zoomed past her, hitting her with his staff-- bouncing off her defense-shield—allowing him to crep up from behind her unprotected backside.

WHAMM! He kicked her hard in the back before she had a chance to move or defend herself.

She was knocked clear to the floor, where here lasers fired, blowing up right in her face.

Magi shielded her eyes from the bright light, but she didn’t seem distraught. She grinned and pretended to recite from her book, “What the foolish warrior forgot is… “Dreams cannot vanish so easily.”

With a wave of her staff over the book, Sputterfly was back, and more raging than ever!

“Not, good! This is not good!” groaned Spike, but neither he nor his friends were willing to give up.

“I really wish Dyno was here.” said Myte. “We could summon an inferno to roast them all alive.”

“DRAGON FLAME-WHEEL” He curled up, shrouded in his flames, and bowled his way through the army of monsters, before he bounced up, heading straight for Magi herself.

“Oh, no you don’t!” snapped Magi snapped, and she raised her staff. With just a simple blast, she knocked Spike away like a tennis ball.

“Hang on, muchaco!” hollered Myte as he soared up, and gave Spike a huge kick like a soccer-ball sending him bounding like a super-crazy-ball all over the room, and he crashed and bashed into many of the enemies before stopping.

Spike had stars swirling around his head from dizziness, but he shook it off easily. “Yeah, I’m fine, and good thinking, Myte.”

“Ha! So much for teamwork, behold MY POWER!!” shouted Magi, and she began to power put to send a rain of lightning bolts down on the fighters-- still not caring of the safety of her students, nor they themselves minding a bit.

Artie looked towards the tunnel in which they came through. “…It’s gone! There’s no door, or even any windows here!”

“FIRE!!” shouted Magi, unleashing her magic lightning everywhere, forcing the men to dodge like crazy.

Then the monsters, while doing their best to avoid the bolts, unleashed their own fury as well--firing magical blasts, lasers, and pulses at the men too, making it even harder to dodge.

When the bolts had ceased, all three men lay on the ground, smoldering and looking a little bruised. Yet, they bolted upright and looked ready for more!

Spike and Artie unleashed their fiery and explosives, while Myte fired multiple magic-blasts from his horn, striking the creatures, back.

Magi shielded herself with a magic wall, which was rather weak due to her using so much power in her lightning attack.

Buddy, Applejack, and Pinkie found themselves in the school’s monstrous cafeteria, where they were confronted by none other than Stir-Gey.

He began to flip his scaling meat sludge at everyone, and fire flame-balls from his smokestack chef’s hat again.

Then, the lunch crowd came huddling in-- an army of monsters, hungry for action!

Applejack swerved round, and Pinkie leapt from and along the heads of monsters on her way.

“Where did’a they go?!” snarled Stir-Gey. He got his answer when the two ladies suddenly appeared, and kicked him hard in his huge head from each side. “OWWWW…!! Mama-Mia!” Sir-Gey groaned as he rolled over on the floor.

Pinkie and Applejack high-footed each other, but the battle was far from over, what with the monsters still charging about.

…Just like the monsters outside were still attacking and trying to break into the royal palace, and the villages all over.

The more they pounded, clawed, or blasted at those barriers, the harder it was for The Ruler to maintain them.

Within The Ruler’s subconscious, Celestia and Grand Ruler were both struggling hard.

Her husband agreed, “If only we could gain more power and push them back. It would be easier to maintain defense.”

…A giant glowing blast fired from the palace battlements, and struck a group of monsters, knocking them back.

Starla raised her dream band to her horn, and then cast streams of magic towards cannons the guards.

The guards opened fire, and now that the cannons were doused with dream magic, the cannon balls and magical blasts were actually able to damage the nightmares and push them back.

While Starla’s strategy could not effectively defeat the nightmares, it helped to keep them back so The Ruler could focus on the barriers, and at least this way, Starla could still be a big help without putting herself in too much danger.

“Take two minutes to switch out cannons and load reserves, then standby to fire again in sequence. We must keep this ghusl back for as long as we can.”

Shaina saluted, “Yes, General.” Then she turned to the guards and called to them, “You hear her! Let’s Move, Move, Move!!”

The guards did as they were ordered and set up for the next attack, but even with all this, Starla was concerned as she thought to herself, “Even with all this I can only hold them back for so long. I hope Lightning’s okay and that he’s found a way to help everything.”

Lightning, Krysta and Cadance... they found themselves in a large, dark room-- the great assembly hall-- and they weren’t greeted by anyone at first.

“Whoever built this place must’ve had a real twisted sense of horror.” said Krysta.

“What?” he asked, but then he looked up himself and saw, “Castor…! Leilani…!”

The royal children were unconscious, and bound by magical manacles around their wrists and ankles-- attached to nothing. They just were suspended in midair and slowly floating downward towards the stage.

Suddenly, they all got that feeling something was coming their way, and they began to dodge and swerve as loads of magical blasts came shooting at them.

The ladies huddled close to Lightning, and he put up a Uniforce barrier to shield them until the shooting stopped.

Lightning dispelled the barrier when he and the ladies heard the sound of sinister laughing coming from the stage, and that’s when they saw her-- a four-armed creature with evil white hair that stuck up in waves like fire flames, and holding a large pointer-stick.

“So, we meet at last.” she hissed “I’m surprised that you managed to survive and make it this far. You’re far braver than most others.”

The creature snickered, “I am Zadovia; Headmistress of the School of Nightmares. I am responsible for educating young ones to their rightful place-- to harness the darkness that surrounds them, and to become truly, horrifying creatures, to feast on the dreams of living beings and terrorize them to no end.”

The trio felt disgusted, “All this-- an entire school just to scare people out of their wits?! That’s disgusting.”

Zadovia laughed, “What would you expect from a nightmare? Flowery fields… Kindness and laughter… joy beyond words?”

Lightning clenched his fists, “What I don’t expect, but demand, is that you release those children to us at once!”

“Oh, certainly…” hissed Zadovia. “I will gladly release them to you, but first…” she paused and looked up at the children “…These two have something we have been searching for, and we aim to take it.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Krysta. “Are you the one who led them here to this dump?”

Zadovia looked cross at that insult, “I’d watch what I’d say if I were you. Not that it matters anyway, for the time of our ultimate glory has come.”

She raised four of her arms up, and magically, above the podium appeared another unconscious body…

…A knight in silver armor, with a long pale blue skirt. He had pale skin, almost like snow, and small locks of golden hair draping from his helmet.

Lightning looked at the man deeply. “I don’t know, but…” he paused “…There’s something about him that feels familiar.”

Another evil voice was then heard, “What you are looking at is the one responsible for giving you the powers you have used to foil our plans for all this time and long enough…

The trio looked around, and then saw two wicked red eyes appear above the body, “…And I am his captor, and the true leader of all nightmares.

Cadance and Krysta didn’t know whether to feel more frightened or infuriated by the sound of this enemy, but Lightning finally realized from the very beginning…

He recalled via flashback, the spirit appearing and granting him and the other fighters their dream bands.

“With the use of my power, you will be able to thwart the great evil that now threatens your world, and protect everyone’s dreams.”

He and the ladies were astounded to finally learn all this.

“But wait!” snapped Lightning “What does this have to do with the royal children?” but almost at once, he gasped as he was able to understand without actually being told.

“You should know the answer to that by now!” sneered Phantasma. “They are the holders of that which we seek-- the one thing that has the power to repel us from our true goal.

Zadovia bowed, “Yes, mistress.” and she began to levitate up, and up towards the children.

“Stop her!” shouted Lightning, and he and the ladies opened fire, shooting at the stage with their magic blasts and shurikens, only for the blasts to be blocked by a powerful dark barrier Phantasma had conjured.

The trio tried to rush up onto the stage, but found the barrier was unlike anything they had ever faced, and they couldn’t get in.

Then they saw Zadovia creeping towards them, with her pointer glowing brightly. “You clever children really thought you could hide it from us forever, did you?” she sneered.

Before the children could say anything, she blasted them both hard with a ray of light, making them scream and wail.

…Then, out form the children’s head appeared two objects-- a hilt and a blade... when joined together formed The Golden Dream Sword.

“I… can’t…” was all Leilani could say before she and her brother passed out again.

With the sword’s appearance, the golden spirit of Arien appeared alongside of it. He said nothing, and merely merged with his body floating in midair.

Zadovia snickered, and with a wave of her stick, she transported the three unconscious beings to the trio, outside the barrier, before presenting the golden sword to her master.

“At long last, My Lady…” she said with great glee. “All Dreams are now yours to control.”

Phantasma took the sword-- levitated it up near her evil eyes—while laughing maliciously, much to the fighters’ horror.

In our next episode: With the golden sword in her clutches, Lady Phantasma unleashes her ultimate fury upon the heroes by stripping them of their dream magic. This puts them and their lands in even greater danger as the darkness and nightmares continue to spread all over.

Will all hope seem totally lost, or is there some way to set things right yet?

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

(Next Episode: “Part 4: “Impossible Dreams.”)

My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic Season XI

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 22: Part 3: Secret of the Dreams