Action! The Guardians of the Stars and the Embodiments of the Elements
The sun rose highly over the small town of Ponyville, lighting the picnic that Usagi and Twilight were having with their friends. As Twilight and Ami calmly read up on ancient lore, Pinkie and Usagi were busy having a cupcake eating contest. Elsewhere, Rainbow Dash held a trembling Makoto about a few feet in the air, “All right, easy does it,” the cyan mare said as she held her friend in the air.
“Ah don’t think she’s gonna manage it, she clamped up every time,” Applejack said, looking up at the two and ready to catch them.
“Oh, you doubter,” Minako said as she looked up with Applejack, waving her hoof in disbelief, “just you watch. Makoto is going to manage to at least glide this time. You hear that!? We’re all rooting for ya!”
“Oh my, I do hope she is careful, it is awfully high up,” Fluttershy said, holding some medical bandages at her side.
“Ok, I am going to let you go now, and when I do, I want you to open your wings,” Dash said.
“Yes,” Makoto gulped, keeping her eyes tightly shut.
“AAAAAAAND NOW!” Dash said, letting go of her friend and watching as she spread her wings as she dropped.
“Hey, I think I am actually...AHHHHHHH!” Makoto said, screaming as she accidentally opened her eyes and saw how high she was. This caused her wings to close up and sent her crashing to the ground.
“Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked as she ran to the side of the fallen pegasus.
“I’m fine, just fine,” Makoto said as she slowly got up, shaking her mane free of dirt and other objects that had gotten into her mane, “I’m just a little ticked that I still can’t get the hang of flying.”
“Hey, it’s no big,” Dash said, doing a small loop before landing next to Makoto, “At least you made an epic crash.”
As the mares were having a good laugh at Makoto’s flying lessons, Rei and Rarity were busy looking over some pictures of designs that Rarity had made of Rei’s robes, “Now, I was thinking of adding some additional pockets here and there to help hold some of your... what did you call them again?” Rarity asked.
“Sutras.” Rei said, using her unicorn magic to write some characters down on a small slip of paper, “They’re spell charms.”
“Oh, right,” Rarity said, before looking at another photo of Rei’s shrine maiden robes, “ I was also thinking of-”
“Helllllp,” a pony called out from the bottom of a hill.
“My word, what was that?” Rarity asked, her ears perking at the sound.
“Down there,” Fluttershy pointed towards the ground where an earth pony laid. Moving quickly, she walked down the hill followed by Ami and placed a hoof to the throat of the fallen stallion, “He’s okay, he’s just breathing very shallow..”
“Sir, are you alright?” Ami asked, sitting down next to the stallion, “ Tell me, what happened?”
“Mon... ster... White Tail Woods,” the stallion moaned before finally collapsing.
“White Tail woods? But there ain't nothing there that could do this,” Applejack said, looking at the others girls in bewilderment.
“Come on girls, let’s get this guy to a hospital and then see what is going on here,” Twilight said, using her magic to lift up the stallion and carry his body away. As she and the small herd left, Usagi’s mind began to race at the thought of what a stallion looking like that would only mean.
An hour later, the ponies awaited word from the doctor about the patient. Soon, from the room, out came a blue haired mare with a water droplet cutie mark.
“How is he, Dr. Water?” Twilight asked.
“Its the strangest thing,” the doctor said, taking off her glasses with her hooves and wiping them, “Physically, he’s perfectly fine. All test show that he should be out that door by now; however, his breathing and heart rate are all very low. It’s like... somepony sucked out all of his energy and left him just enough to live. I’m surprised he even got out of the woods.”
“Sucked out his energy, what in the sam hill can do that to a pony?” Applejack asked, her mind trying to solve the mystery.
“I don’t know,” Twilight said, putting her hoof to her mouth and trying to work out the monster in her head, “Changelings would drain love energy, but they wouldn’t go this far and energy vampires live way too far north to hunt here.”
“I’m sorry if I can’t help you in this, Miss Sparkle, but I’m stumped myself,” Dr. Water drop said as she walked off to attend to other patients.
“So, what are gonna do Twi?” Applejack asked, looking to Twilight along with the others.
“I first want to talk with Celestia, see if she has any clues and to tell about what is going on,” Twilight said, walking towards the door, “then I want to head to the library to do some research. There has to be something about a creature like this.”
“I don’t want to say it, but it sounds like the Dark Kingdom,” Rei said, her brow furrowing as she remembered their old foes.
“But that is impossible, they’re dead!” Minako argued, “They were fried, Usagi blew Metallia away, I killed Beryl, They are dead!”
“It is possible, that it could be this world’s version of the Dark Kingdom or creatures with a similar power set,” Ami said, letting out a small sigh.
“What do you think, Usagi?” Makoto asked, before noticing that the dumpling-haired pony had disappeared, “Wait, where is she?”
Shaking her head back and forth, Rei saw no trace of their friend, “Oh, don’t tell me that idiot is going alone!”
After running for a few miles through Ponyville, doing her best to stay out of sight of anypony who might tell her friends where she was going, Usagi stood outside of White Tail Woods. Panting, she looked into the woods with determination in her eyes, “I’m sorry girls, but this is something that I want to do for myself. I can’t ask you to-”
Her discussion with herself was quickly interrupted by a yell from behind her, “USAGI!”
“Rei?” Usagi asked, seeing the black-haired unicorn running towards her, followed closely by the other senshi.
Rei, looking at Usagi with a very stern face, asked with a growl, “What were you thinking, running off alone to face this monster like that?”
“I’m sorry girls, its just that,” Usagi responded, looking down at the ground, tearing up a little, “I wanted to do this alone.”
“But why?” Ami asked.
“WHY?! Because,” Usagi said, sniffling a little, “Because for the past week and a half, you girls have been HAPPY! We have had to do nothing but be normal girls for a while, with no worries other than helping out the other ponies in whatever life they were having. No monsters, no creatures coming after my jewel because I was a princess, no nightmares, no coming destruction, and nobody wanting to kill us. And now,” Usagi said, throwing her hoof behind her, “here comes this... whatever to ruin that for all of you! I didn’t want to waste your chance to be happy by risking your lives again. I just couldn’t bear it if we got hurt on what was going to be a vacation for us!”
Minako walked up to the crying Usagi and placed a comforting hoof onto her shoulder, “Hey, we don’t mind risking our butts out there, it's our job after all.”
“But,” Usagi was about to say but was quickly interrupted by Makoto.
“Do you think it would be any easier for us if you got hurt?” The green pegasus said, walking up to Usagi, “ We would never be able to forgive ourselves if anything bad had happened to you and we had to watch you spend the rest of our time here in a hospital.”
“It’s just that-” Usagi was about to say more, but Ami came up next.
“You’re far too important to us, Usagi,” Ami said, nuzzling her friend, “You helped bring us all together, and we could never leave you alone to fight something we’re not afraid to fight ourselves.”
Before Usagi could say anything more, Rei smirked and flipped her hair back, “Besides, we’re all in this together, and we don’t abandon one another, ever.”
“Because, that is what good friends do,” Twilight said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your meeting.”
“Twilight? What are you...” Usagi began to ask but was interrupted as Dash flew in, followed by Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.
“Twilight saw your friends running off from the window and figured that you might have been heading off to fight the jerk. So we followed you,” Dash said.
“Look, before ya say anythang, whatever is back there is threatening our homes and” Applejack said, straightening her hat, “Ah aint about to let somepony else fight my battles.”
“Though I detest violence, I would never forgive myself if they were hurt and I couldn’t help,” Rarity said.
“Yeah, and besides, I would never leave any of my friends behind to get hurt,” Pinkie said with a bounce.
“I am not a fighter, but, I’ll do what I can to help,” Fluttershy said, looking at the ponies before her.
Tears came to Usagi’s blue eyes as she wiped the tears away with a hoof, “You guys... I’m too much of a big dumb selfish idiot to deserve friends like you.”
“Idiot, yeah, but you are not selfish,” Rei said, putting a hoof onto Usagi’s shoulder and giving her a hug, “You just have a big heart.”
“Well, what are we waiting for,” Dash said, flying to the edge of the forest, “Let’s show this, whatever it is, how we handle things Ponyville style!”
Usagi looked at the ponies before her, tearing up at the sight, “You guys, what did I do to deserve you.”
A smile crept to Twilight’s lips as she thought to herself, “I wonder that everyday of my life.”
Within an hour of traveling, the herd of 9 ponies found themselves within the heart of the forest; however, there was no sign of the beast to be found. As they walked onward, they kept a close eye out for the creature, and they tried not to listen to Rarity’s complaints, “I cannot believe this! An hour’s worth of walking and we do not even see this ‘thing’! If it wanted to kill us so badly, it could at least have the decency to do it BEFORE my hooves got tired, of all the....”
Applejack rolled her eyes at the complaints of the fashionista and walked up to Twilight, “So, got anything Twi?”
Twilight Sparkle shook her head sadly, “No, I reviewed my ‘Amateur's Guide to Energy Drainers’ and I found nothing. Most of the energy draining creatures out there live in hives or caves, not forests.”
“Oh, maybe he’s just visiting or maybe he’s-” Pinkie was then silenced by Rei thrusting out her hoof to stop her.
“Wait! I sense something incoming,” Rai said.
“DUCK!” Rainbow Dash called out as she pushed some of her friends out of the way from a swooping creature.
“Awwww, such a shame,” The creature said from her perch, her claws digging deep into the tree branch, “I was hoping to get annoying white one first.”
“Annoying?! You watch your tongue, you... you... whatever you are,” Rarity called out, noting the weird bird like creature’s wing arms and monkey like face.
“Twilight, what is that thang?” Applejack asked, keeping an eye on the bird creature.
“A harpy. But,” Twilight said, looking down, “That’s impossible, they live on a completely different continent across the ocean. They don’t even drink energy, they eat cows!”
“Awww, does the princess’ pet realize she doesn’t know everything? Let me fix that for you, my darlings by making sure you don’t do anything ever again!” The harpy screeched as she launched herself at the ponies, only for Dash to fly in with an uppercut.
As the fight began, the senshi backed up into a circle, “Girls, lets transform.” Minako said, pulling out a small pen with her wing that held her cutie mark on the top.
“Wh-where did you get that?” Usagi asked.
“I found in my wing when I got here,” Minako said.
“It was in my mane,” Makoto said.
“Next to my hoof,” Rei said.
“In a book,” Ami said.
“But, do you think it will work,” Usagi asked as she took out her broach.
Ami looked at her stick, “Well, if your powers worked like they did before, then it would make sense for ours to work as well.”
As the girls nodded, they lifted their sticks and broach into the air, not knowing that the harpy had caught sight of them.
“MOON CRISIS POWER!”
“MERCURY CRYSTAL POWER!”
“MARS CRYSTAL POWER!”
“JUPITER CRYSTAL POWER!”
“VENUS CRYSTAL POWER!”
“MAKE UP!”
The harpy let out a snarl as she flew away from the 6 ponies in front of her and at the senshi as they let out their calls. However, as she neared her target, she was flown back by a large white dome of pure energy that enveloped the five ponies. The element bearers could only watch in shock as the dome that surrounded their five friends began to surge forth with lighting bolts of red, blue, green, yellow, and white. As the lighting flowed and struck out from the white dome, it struck anything that was around it, but instead of harming the area, it seemed to be taking the energy from the objects that it touched, as if the lighting was only borrowing the energy.
The bird woman let out a screech as it charged at the dome once it dissipated, only to be blown away once more by the last bit of energy, “How dare you ruin these ponies day, you horrible creature,” Usagi said, now dressed in a white sailor suit. “These ponies spend their days living in peace and happiness and I WILL not stand for creatures ruining others happiness. I am the Pretty Soldier in a sailor suit, Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon-”
Ami stood next to her friend, now dressed in a similar uniform but her skirt was now blue, “In the name of Mercury.”
Rei, now with red in place of blue around her skirt held up her right leg in a snake like pose, “In the name of Mars.”
“In the name of Jupiter,” Makoto said, crossing her forelegs and turning her back to the enemy, showing off the back of her green colored uniform.
Minako had a smirk as she stood with her friends, her orange skirt flapping in the breeze, “In the name of Venus.”
The five ponies looked towards the monster before doing a final pose together, yelling out in one triumphant voice, “ We’ll punish you!”
The harpy shook her head to get herself out of the daze from the energy feedback and swiped its claws at the five senshi. Moving as one, the girls dodged the claw swipe as Makoto leapt from her crouch and delivered an uppercut to the monsters chin. With a growl, the harpy drove it’s knee into Makoto's gut, only to be struck in the head by Rainbow Dash and hit with a hard ball from Pinkie. Deciding to attack the prismatic pegasus first, she took off to the pony in flight.
“CRESCENT BEAM!” Minako yelled as she fired a golden energy beam from her hoof.
“FIRE SOUL!” Rei yelled as a fire spewed forth from her horn and combined with Minako’s beam to create a fiery beam of light that pierced the harpy’s right wing.
The creature let out a roar of pain and turned to her two opponents and flew at them, swiping her claws at the two. Moving swiftly, Minako and Rei leapt out of the way of the two claws, with Minako getting slashed across the right foreleg. Turning around in mid-air, the harpy looked at the two senshi and prepared for another attack but was then struck hard in the back by several sharp needles. Growling, the harpy cut down a small tree and threw it at the white mare.
Bracing herself for the incoming pain, Rarity heard a voice call out, “SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!” Ami stood next to Rarity, unleashing a torrent of ice water that froze the log in mid-flight.
“Moon Tiara ACTION!” Usagi yelled, throwing her tiara at the log and cutting it in half. Following Usagi’s lead, Twilight grabbed the frozen halves of logs and turned them into ice spears and threw them at the harpy, combining it with a lightning spell.
The harpy only had time to dodge one of the ice spikes, getting hit the small lightning bolt and the second ice spike in her side. Letting out a roar,she thrusted out her arms to the side, ready to fly once again. Then, the harpy felt a tight rope tie itself around her arm tightly and on the other arm, she watched as a golden chain appeared and wrapped itself around her, “LOVE-ME CHAIN,” Minako called out as she tighten the grip of her chain.
Seeing her chance, Rainbow Dash pick up Pinkie and threw her at the harpy. Without a word, the pink party mare curled up into a ball and landed hard into the creature’s gut, leaving Dash to drive her hooves hard into the harpy’s chin.
With a surge of strength, the creature pulled the two ponies who had tied her arms forward, causing Minako’s chain to dissipate and to slam Applejack against the tree. Seeing the downed earth pony as her chance to attack, she flew at the young mare. But, before she could reach her, Fluttershy flew in front of the creature, distracting it with a flurry of flaps from her wings. The creature tried to slash and take down the buttery pegasus, but continually missed until she was able to slash a shallow wound onto Fluttershy’s hind leg. Smirking, the creature aimed for the pegasus’s back, only to watch as a flurry of bubbles launched from the hooves of Ami, “SHABOON SPRAY!”
The bubbles began to flow forth, hitting each other until they became a dense fog. Turning her head back and forth, the harpy looked for her targets. After a minute of only fog, she saw 9 ponies standing in the fog and launched towards them, swiping her claws. Sadly, her claws struck only 9 little tree stumps that looked pony like.
“Burning,” Rei called out, rotating her head in a circle and making small little disks of flame appear, “MANDALA!”
“SPARKLING,” Makoto called out, forming a ball of lightning in her wings, “WIDE PRESSURE!”
As one, Makoto and Rei launched their attacks, the ball of lightning flying forth from Makoto’s wing tips and the fiery disks flying from Rei’s horn and surround the lighting ball. The harpy barely had time to react at the ball and disks hit her hard, incinerating her feathers and electrocuting her with a cascade of lighting. Panting, the creature watched in horror as Usagi stood , a strange rod like tool in her magical grip, “MOON GORGEOUS MEDITATION!” She yelled as she thrusted her device out, sending out waves of pure magical energy that struck the creature hard.
Feeling intense pain, the monster could only scream out, “REFRESH!” As it body was torn asunder, leaving behind a small bird in its place.
“Wait, that thing was a bird all this time?!” Rainbow Dash asked as she watched Fluttershy fly to the blue bird.
“Uh huh, I see. Ok,” Fluttershy stood up from talking to the bird and turned to her friends, “ The bird says that it wasn’t its fault that it did this. This strange smoke thing came and turned it into that monster thing. It was forced to gather energy for it.”
Twilight looked at Fluttershy, “Did it say anything else, like where the monster was?”
“No,” Fluttershy said sadly.
“Hmmm,” Twilight said, putting her hoof to her chin, “I think it’s best if we head back home and to the library so I can get something to the princess and see what she thinks.”
“Good, because Ah need some ice for mah back. It is aching something fierce after that fight,” Applejack said rubbing it.
“I can help with it,” Ami said, demorphing along with her four friends.
“Good, and on the way, I can talk about how AWESOME you girls were!” Dash said as she flew alongside her friends as they began to walk out of the woods.
Little did the herd of ponies realize, that as they walked away and towards the town, they were being watched by a ghostly pair of shadowy eyes, “So... the children of the white moon are here, as well as new bearers of the elements of harmony. Good, I have long waited to see the Silver Crystal shine it’s light once more for me to take it. Ahhh, the feeling of its power being so near gives me chills, or is it because of that feeling? A weird feeling that I have been having since I have taken form, a feeling of familiarity.” Metallia shook off the feeling and looked at the herd, “I would attack, but I am far too weak, I need more energy... I need a soldier for my needs.”
Meanwhile, at the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight watched in amazement as the letter that she sent to her princess appeared in a tuft of green flame, “Wow, that was fast! I didn’t think Celestia would respond so quick.”
As Twilight opened the letter, Makoto walked next to Twilight to look over her shoulder, “So, what does she say?”
Dearest Twilight Sparkle,
What you have told me is very troubling news indeed. The monster that you have described and his actions remind me of an event that had happened back when my sister had become Nightmare Moon. I hereby request that you and your friends bring along your new companions to have an audience with me and my sister here in Canterlot tomorrow.
Signed,
Princess Celestia van Solaris
Ps.
We look forward to seeing moon-buns again as well ;) signed Princess Luna Nyx Solaris
“Wow, this must be really big if Celestia wants us to go to Canterlot personally to see her,” Applejack said.
“Yeah, but why does she need to see them?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking at the five senshi.
“We’ll ask her when we get there, but right now we need to get ourselves ready for tomorrow,” Twilight said, putting away the letter and walking up to her room.
As Rei and the others began to leave, the brunette looked at Usagi, “Are you alright?” Rei asked.
“Yeah,” Usagi said with a sigh as she looked down at the ground before her, “Just thinking, I-I’ll be fine, really.”
“Are you sure?” Rei asked, worriedly and looking at her friend.
“Yeah, you know old Usagi, always brimming with energy!” Usagi said, perking up and running to Sugar Cube Corner.
“She was lying you know,” Minako said, standing next to Rei as she watched Usagi leave.
Makoto smiled softly, “Don’t worry, she’s probably just worried about us.”
On top of the roof, Usagi watched the full moon rising in the distance and let out a small sigh. It was no secret that she felt calmer and happier when she looked at the face of her guardian star, and it was no doubt she needed to feel a bit serene at that moment. Slowly, she lowered she rested her head in her forelegs, and teared up a little. She did not like the idea of her friends being forced into battle again and the idea of them being in trouble hurt her on the inside, “HEEEEEEYYY THERE! Somepony needs a cupcake!!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she popped out from behind Usagi with a plate of cupcakes on her head.
“Pinkie!” Usagi yelped as she moved back from the pink pony as she popped up onto the rooftop. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, Rei and the others saw you looking all sady-wady, and I realized that you must have been feeling really bad about something, sooooooooooo I came to cheer you up with a cupcake.”
Taking the pastry in hoof, Usagi took a small bite and smiled, “Thanks Pinkie.”
“Hey, cheering up ponies is my life. So, what has you so down?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Its nothing really,” Usagi said, looking down, “I’m just worried about my friends, and I miss Mamo-chan.”
“Aw, it’ll be ok.” Pinkie said with a smile, finishing her own cupcake.
“I guess you’re right, I,” Usagi let out a gasp as an object flew passed her, impaling what was left of her cupcake, “What was that?”
“ROSE!” Pinkie exclaimed as she pointed to the rose that was imbedded deep in the cupcake.
“Wait, a rose... then that could only mean,” USagi said, turning her head to look down at another rose that was in the ground. Her eyes widening in happiness, she made her way passed Usagi and ran down the stairs towards the door.
“Usagi wait!” Pinkie said as she ran after the young unicorn.
As Usagi made her way to the ground, she saw the rose on the ground alongside a note that said, “What would you do, if I had disappeared?”
Usagi looked at the note and smiled, remembering that question that he had asked once long ago, and she responded, “If you disappeared, then my dreams would disappear. But that won’t happen because.”
Usagi was interrupted by another rose, that another note attached, “Our love is eternal, and never ending, like our dreams.” Usagi looked up and smiled as she saw a small trail of roses leading off to the distance. Her smile growing bigger, the unicorn ran after the trial, hearing a male voice singing in the distance. As she continued her walk, she could hear the voice of the stallion getting louder until she came to a bridge near a tree. As she stood on the bridge, she let out a sad sigh as she saw the trail of roses ending. Looking down at the water, where the moon was reflected, she began to add her voice to the stallion’s.
I am mesmerized when I look at you
And yet I wonder why
Double Moonlight Romance.
“The world seems so much darker when those we love are gone, not even the beauty of moonlight can fix it,” the stallion said, standing on his hooves on top of a tree branch.
“MAMO-CHAN!” Usagi said with a cheer as she looked at the black and white stallion, his cape flying in the soft breeze.
“Usako,” Mamoru said, smiling as he took off his mask from his face to reveal his soft dark eyes. Leaping off from his perch, he leapt at Usagi with his forelegs stretched out, landing in her embrace and wrapping his forelegs around her neck. Looking into her blue eyes, he smiled as he said, “I love you.” Then he leaned in and kissed Usagi deeply, pressing his lips against hers. Not to be outdone, she returned the kiss, closing her eyes and rubbing the back of his head as she kissed her love.
As a silent guardian, the moon watched calmly as the two lovers reunited under the moonlight.
And so, did Mamoru Chiba, find his place in Equestria, in the arms of a princess.