//------------------------------// // The return of the stars // Story: When the Moon saved the stars // by kittypetro //------------------------------// Chapter 20 The return of the stars Starvoid rose from her seat, her horn lighting up. Around her the wind blew hard, whistling as it grew in strength. Everypony reeled back as the room grew colder, a few noticing that the floor got a small layer of frost, growing from Starvoid’s hoof’s and out. Starvoid grinned. “Have you wondered why I am called Starvoid the Cold? Let me show you.” Starvoid jumped into the air and landed in front of Vinyl, lashing out. Vinyl jumped back, barely getting away as Starvoid’s horn barely scratched the surface of her chest plate. Vinyl reeled back as from the small scratch, a large chunk of ice grew magically on her armor. Starvoid gave her little time to react as she turned on the hoof, about to blast a boost of magic at Vinyl, turning her into an icy statue, but was blocked by Big Mac who stood holding off Starvoid’s horn with his sword. Starvoid glared at him. “You want a piece of the action big boy… let’s see how long you can keep it up.” Big Mac winced as the area around Starvoid grew even colder, hearing the familiar crack of ice that grew. But right before the cold grew too much to bear, Spitfire came rushing in from the side, knocking Starvoid into the air, the unicorn landing with a thud a few meters away. “You ok Big Mac?” “Eeyup.” Starvoid rose with a growl, her eyes growing white. With the arrival of a blinding white flash the group gaped, seeing that there suddenly stood 9 Starvoids in front of them. And as the clones stood there they changed. “Wonderful” Luna said with a groan. “She’s got changeling powers too.” The different Starvoid clones grew. 6 of the Starvoids kept their small pony form, the group looking back to see Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, all their eyes white and devoid of emotion. At one end one of the clones grew, turning into the long sinuous form of the draconequs Discord. At the other end, Chrysalis form grew out from the Starvoid clone, hissing at the group. And finally the original Starvoid stood in the middle, her form growing huge and white, laughing madly as she transformed into the regal form of Celestia herself. Derpy gulped. “Oboy, this is not going to end well is it?” Luna scowled. The numbers were against them, that much she saw, if only there was somepony… else… She blinked. “Guys I have a plan.” “We’re listening” Vinyl said. “I need you to distract them for a few minutes, whatever you do don’t let them attack me, ok?” “Yes ma’am” Derpy said. Trixie looked around the room. “Gilda, you shield the princess, Derpy, go into stealth mode and do as much damage as you can. Zecora and Vinyl, keep the enemy subdued and calm. Big Mac, you keep anypony that comes through the lines at bay. Spitfire and Soarin, take care of the skies.” Everypony nodded. “No problem Trixie.” Luna smiled as Trixie took a defensive stance in front of her. “We’ve got your back Princess, you do your thing.” Luna nodded and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed and she concentrated hard. Starvoid and all her clones gasped. “No… STOP HER.” The clones jumped forward, a few crashing with the wall Gilda held up. Zecora and Vinyl reeled back as the fake Discord roared and clawed at the barrier. Gilda grunted, closing one of her eyes in concentration. “Could use a little help guys.” “On it” Vinyl said, lifting her flute. Starting to play, Vinyl looked up as the Discord clone tried to shake the music as it continued to claw through the shield, but at a slower pace than before. Zecora stepped up, her bracelet glowing, the discord calming down and yawning, ending on the floor calmed down. However, the talons on the Draqonecus had made a hole, a hole big enough to allow the Applejack clone to rush in, knocking Zecora backwards with her hooves. But just as the clone had turned towards Luna, a hoof knocked her aside, Derpy smiling as she lifted her cloak. “Sorry miss fake Applejack, but you can’t see Princess Luna now, she’s busy.” And busy Luna was. It was hard trying to concentrate with all that happened around her, screams, yells, magical blasts, swooshes, crashes, she tried to tune it all out. Her magic reached out to the heavens, finding the magical energy she was looking for, and went through the hard job of taking off the barriers and enchantments. Finishing with one she went onto the next, until finally all she needed was there for her. Guiding the magic with her own she opened her eyes. “Incoming” she called, everypony looking up to see seven white blurs coming rushing into the room, crashing with the floor next to Luna’s hooves. “NO, YOU BLASTED MEDDLING IDIOT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Luna smiled at the fake Celestia in front of her. “I brought some backup.” With Starvoid distracted from the fight, Gilda lifted her barrier again, turning back as several voices groaned. “Urgh… so cold… Buck me it’s cold.” Luna laughed. “Up and at them everypony, you only stayed up there for three weeks, now shake it off.” The dust cleared and the group smiled and cheered as the holders of the elements and Princess Celestia lay on the floor. Celestia grunted, stumbling as she tried to rise to her hooves. “You OK Tia?” Celestia looked to Luna. “Better than in a long time.” Around her the other six woke up. Outside the barrier Gilda held up Starvoid was once again trying to break down the barrier, casting all kinds of magic their way. Vinyl grinned, rushing over to the form of Pinkie Pie, patting her on the back. “Good evening Pinkie, so glad you could join the party.” Pinkie grunted, still dazed and confused. “Party? What party?” “This party” Vinyl said, turning to the newly arrived allies, playing a song, helping them all shake off the despair they had been feeling the last two weeks. Pinkie felt better already. “Does the party have a theme?” “Yeah” Spitfire yelled from overhead, throwing small rocks to deflect some of the magic blasting their way. “It’s theme is windigo possessed zombie clones, with Starvoid as the host.” Everypony who had just arrived turned to look outside the barrier where the elemental bearer clones looked back with an angry hiss, flanked by the fake Chrysalis, Discord and Celestia. Fluttershy screamed in fear. “Here Pinkie, your party invitation” Vinyl said, taking off the necklace around her neck, handing it to Pinkie. “Thanks for letting me borrow it, it was tons of fun.” “Speak for yourself” Gilda grunted, struggling. “Now we can all talk about this later, for now, I say we deal with the problem at hoof.” Gilda threw Rainbow her necklace, Rainbow taking it in shock. “I am still confused” Applejack said, even as she accepted her own necklace from her brother. “But I suppose that right now all we need to be clear on is that there is somepony that needs to be defeated.” Zecora smiled, handing over Fluttershy’s necklace, trying to look reassuringly at the Pegasus, under her dark sinister war paint. “Here for you are we all, to defeat the enemies big and small.” Derpy smiled, flying down to Rarity. “Yeah, we are here to finish what Starvoid started. Thanks for letting me borrow this Rarity.” Rarity smiled. “You are most welcome Derpy dear.” Twilight blinked in shock at what was going on. “So… how and why is this happening?” Trixie walked up to Twilight’s side, levitating the tiara off her own head placing it on Twilight’s. “See the fake Celestia? That’s Starvoid. She must have used a cloning spell and taken a changeling’s ability sometime in the past. Don’t get to close to her horn, she is also using windigo magic.” Trixie turned to Twilight who looked at her shocked. “I have just spent my last three weeks on the road traveling and hiding… if I end up dead or as a constellation I will blame you for messing with my life.” “Don’t listen to her” Vinyl said with a grin. “With the exception of her encounter with an Ursa Minor she loved every second of it.” Gilda grunted. “Guys, I can’t hold them back anymore.” “Then don’t.” Gilda turned to Celestia who had spoken. The princess of the sun looked better, having already shaken the cold off her body. “Let her come… we will defeat her together.” Gilda smiled. “Yes ma’am” she said, letting the barrier go. Chaos ensued. The clones attacked. Luna and Celestia were in the air, swirling around the fake Discord which howled and spew fire, clawing after the two. Luna laughed. “That’s the best you got? No explosive bubble wrap, random flying anvils or acid lakes? What kind of poor Discord look alike are you?” The clone roared and spewed fire again, Celestia doing a careless loop around it, shooting forward and hit the clone with a beam of light, making it fade and disappear. “One down, eight to go” Luna said as she and Celestia looked out over the throne room. Flying circles around Chrysalis were Spitfire, Soarin, Gilda and Rainbow Dash, hitting the fake queen with all their might. Down on the ground Applejack and Big Macintosh stood back to back dealing with the fake Rarity and Fluttershy. Applejack huffed as she ducked under a hoof comming from the Rarity clone. “OK this is getting ridiculous… I am getting flashbacks to the royal wedding.” Fluttershy yelped as she stood face to face with the fake Pinkie Pie. Halfway in a jump the fake Pinkie Pie fell down unconscious as Derpy appeared from beneath her cloak. “You doing ok Fluttershy?” “Yeah… thank you Derpy.” Derpy smiled and rushed off again. Zecora and Vinyl kept both their elements to good use, Vinyl playing songs to lift the spirits of her friends, Zecora using her bracelet to calm down the aggressive behavior of the clones. Vinyl and Zecora turned in shock as the fake Rainbow Dash flew past them with a poof, seeing Pinkie Pie with a blue canon in her hooves, Rarity looking surprised at her. “Where in the world did you get your party canon from?” Rarity asked. “Ponybay.” “No I mean… you know what, never mind, I probably don’t want to know.” Rarity ducked as the fake Applejack came hurtling towards her, Pinkie Pie blowing that clone away too. Twilight turned to her right, seeing Trixie glaring at the fake her. “You need help?” “The great and Powerful Trixie can handle this” Trixie said with a huff. Lighting up her horn Trixie smiled and sent a large burst of magic at the fake Twilight wich fell backwards. Starvoid looked on with a glare. The Discord and Chrysalis copy and the fake holders of the elements Honesty, Magic and Loyalty were down. Well… time to up the ante. Her horn lit up and the three remaining clones grew and turned to the size of elephants, before transforming again. Huge scaly wings replaced the one’s on what had used to be the Fluttershy clone, the light yellow fur turning to scales, pink spikes growing everywhere they could do most damage, the clone’s turquoise eyes turning red as the dragon formed Fluttershy roared and spew sky blue flames. The Rarity clone grew bigger, its horn and fur turning to feathers, in a blinding white with a purple trim. Soon the group looked up on what Twilight could only assume was what the love child of a Phoenix and a Roc would look like. The Pinkie Pie clone growled as it’s body turned feline, growing claws and long vicious fangs, making the group look upon a large pink saber-toothed tiger, its stripes in a darker shade of pink. Vinyl gaped; lifting her glasses off her eyes to be sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. “That would be so cool if they weren’t going to kill us” Rainbow said gaping. Luna and Celestia simply blinked, wondering how much of the national treasury would suffer for repairs to the castle. Twilight started to panic. “How the hay are we going to deal with this?” Trixie looked at the three figures. Turning to Twilight she frowned. “Do you know any levitating spells?” “Kind of… there was a spell I cast on Rarity that gave her wings made of dew. But it takes a lot of magic.” “No problem” Trixie said, tapping her medallion. “How did it work?” Twilight quickly explained, as the three creatures looked down on them as food. “Right” Trixie said, turning to Princess Luna and Celestia. Princesses, “I have a plan. Everypony that can fly, split up and deal with the dragon and the Roc. Everypony on the ground focus on the tiger.” Celestia and Luna nodded. “You heard her everypony” Luna said, raising her voice as loud as she could without using the royal Canterlot voice. “Fight them off, they are simply clones.” On the ground Trixie turned to Twilight. “Focus the magic on yourself… we need to help out the flyers.” Twilight nodded, and together the two unicorns closed their eyes and cast the spell. Up in the air around the white Roc Luna, Soarin, and Rainbow flew around the big Bird, hitting it everywhere they managed to reach, Luna sending out powerful magic blasts. Fluttershy was near the Roc’s head, trying hard to negotiate with the thing. “FLUTTERSHY, STOP FOOLING AROUND,” Rainbow shouted as she ducked under a claw that could possibly have cleaved her in two. As Fluttershy tried to say something, the Roc recoiled of a new magic attack. Luna, knowing it wasn’t her, turned to see what was going on, seeing Twilight sporting wings, flying over to them shooting out her magenta colored attacks. “Sorry I am late” she huffed, as the Roc flapped it’s wings and roared. “Nice plan Twilight” Rainbow Dash said smiling. “It wasn’t mine” Twilight said. “It was hers.” Rainbow turned to where Celestia, Spitfire, Gilda and Derpy had been joined by Trixie who blasted out magic similar to Twilight’s own flying around the dragon’s head with wings of her own. Rainbow smiled as she heard Trixie’s voice over the dragon’s roar. “I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE. I DEFEATED AN URSA MINOR AND I AM NOT AFRAID OF A DRAGON THAT’S NOT EVEN REAL.” Rainbow Dash smile turned into a grin. “Well she seems to be having fun.” “No time to enjoy the scenery fillies, we have work to do” Luna called, charging up her horn for another attack. The fight was hard, time consuming and tiring. But finally, after nearly an hour of dodging and hitting, the large Fluttershy dragon groaned and fell, dissolving into nothing. “NO” Starvoid called out in mad anger and terror. The moment the dragon was down the ones taking it down rushed over to the Roc, making it crash into the ground, hitting the tiger overhead as it crashed, making the large thing hit the floor. With a groan all three clones disappeared, leaving only the fake Celestia transformed Starvoid. “Hey Sparkle… I think we’re up.” Twilight nodded agreeing with Trixie, the two unicorns feeling inside for the power of the elements. “NO I WON’T LET YOU.” Trixie and Twilight fell backwards, landing on the ground, their wings shattered. Looking up they saw Starvoid. Her Celestia cloak was almost gone, leaving only behind a pair of large wings together with the white fur. “I will not go back” Starvoid said, panting heavily. “I will never go back to that icy cold hell… I’ll rather die… and bring you all down with me.” As everypony looked on Starvoid started to glow. A white shimmer spread all around her body, her icy white mane and tail even starting to shine. Starvoid’s eyes turned white, nopony seeing anything other than a white halfway transformed alicorn. And then… “Oh Faust that is not good” Luna said. Celestia gaped. “She’s a Windyfoal.” “A what now?” Gilda asked. “Back in the era when Windigo’s were a recurring problem Luna and I discovered the phenomenon called a Windyfoal. It’s like a way the windigo reproduce… They often come over abandoned foals, left behind from parents that for some reason could not keep or have the child. When they are found by the windigos, the windigo pass through the child, leaving a piece of it behind. As hatred and anger grows in it’s heart, a Windyfoal starts using the Windigo’s powers… until it’s no longer a pony, simply another windigo running through the sky.” The wind was getting strong, Starvoid screaming in pain and anger. She then rushed forward, lashing out at everything and everypony, no longer having any rational thought, other than destruction and despair. “We need to help her” Twilight said. “HELP? SHE’S TRYING TO KILL US.” Trixie spoke up, having to yell over the wind. “She’s confused and scared” Twilight said. “I have just spent 3 weeks up in the sky… it’s terrible and scary and I would not want to go back there ever again… she was stuck there for 2 millennia, I can’t even begin to wonder how afraid she is that we are going to send her back there for a few millennia more.” “Right now it doesn’t seem like she has to worry about us” Gilda commented, squinting through the icy fog Starvoid was making. “No time to talk about the why’s and how’s, we need to bring her down before she turns Canterlot into a new Frozen North” Applejack called. “But how?” Fluttershy asked, shaking in the cold. “The only way we know” Twilight said. “The elements of harmony, we can help her out.” “I suppose it’s as good a plan as any” Trixie said, walking up next to Twilight. Starvoid roared again, and in the wind, ghostly figures showed up, running around the group in circles. “No time to think, we need to hurry, everypony get in line” Trixie shouted over the din. As she stood next to Twilight, Trixie found Zecora and Fluttershy at her side, and next to them Pinkie Pie and Vinyl Scratch. Right next to them was Derpy and Rarity, the two scowling at the challenge in front of them. On Twilight’s side Rainbow Dash and Gilda landed, the old friends looking at each other, before facing the blur that was Starvoid. Next to Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Big Mac stood, the siblings not budging an inch. “All right everypony… let’s do this.” Twilight smiled and closed her eyes in concentration, as did Trixie. All the way from the bottom of their hearts the holders of the element, as well as their substitutes found the good feeling of love and friendship channeling it to their elements and artifacts. Everypony glowed and was lifted off the ground before the combined might of the elements was fired at Starvoid who managed to get in one final scream of agony before the rainbow covered her from head to hooves.