My Brave Pony Starfleet Humans STARPOPS

by DakariKingMykan

Act 6: Falling to Pieces

ACT SIX

The next morning, aboard the space station...

Celesto and his crew had been up, and were preparing for another spacewalk, to make some new instalments on the hubs and antennas outside. It was the last day of their mission before they would be heading back to Earth the next day... a day Celesto had been waiting almost impatiently for. He had not been pleased with himself since he had agreed to come out of retirement and return to the station.

What he wouldn't give that moment to be back home with his wife, Celestia, and help more kids in need as he preferred to do.

His crewmates noted his rather silent and downhearted behaviour.

"Sir?" said an astronaut named Jenkins "Are you alright?"

"What's that...?" Celesto said.

"You've been awfully quiet ever since you got up here."

A female astronaut, Kendal, gave her sympathy "It's alright, sir, we understand... well, most of us do." she glared at Jenkins.

Celesto smiled sadly and nodded bravely. "Right, let's get started. The sooner we finish this job, the quicker I can get out of here."

...

things didn't exactly go smooth. The gang had already registered for the Battle of the Bands.

"That's not fair!" snarled one of the campers.

"Yeah, you can't sign up twice!" growled another.

Vice Councillor Luna went over the rules drawn up for the contest. "Unfortunately, there is no rule that forbids it. The Rainbows have signed up as one band, and then signed up again with the Starpops as their musical background. They qualify."

Now all the rivalling bands were madder than ever, and the arguments heated up double-time!

Lightning and Krysta didn't like this one bit.

"If this keeps up, I don't know what's going to happen." Lightning said "I mean other than the obvious."

Krysta shuddered and her feathers fluffed up. "You don't have to tell me that twice."

Just then, Spike and Sunset dashed up to them. "Lightning!" cried Spike "You better come quick."

"It's the band, they're going crazy!" added Sunset

Lightning and Krysta gawked at each other and shock and dashed off with the others.

When they got to the music hall where the group always practiced, it really was chaos. They Rainbows were trying to rehearse some of their own songs, but Rainbow was trying to show off by adding extra guitar solos for herself.

"Hey, I gotta show off my mad skills." she argued.

"The only thing you're showing' is just how big your ego is." protested Applejack.

This didn't help the Starpops at all, they were still trying to come up with a song and dance routine for their second number.

"Oh , no puedo soportarlo más!-- Oh, I can't take it anymore! Will you quiet down?!" shouted Dyno.

"Si! How are we supposed to concentrate while you're all shouting like that?" added Myte.

Starla quietly and softly tried to get everyone's attention "Excuse me?"

"Then go concentrate someplace else!" snarled Rainbow.

"We're supposed to be a full group here!" growled Buddy Rose.

Starla tried to speak up again "Pardon me, but I have something..."

"Perhaps we should take a break." said Rarity, and she pulled out a rack of clothes hanging it "That will give us time to sample the wonderful outfits I had made for our groups."

A lot of the others sighed irritably "We're supposed to be trying to save the world. Not worrying about our fashion senses." said Arte.

Rarity felt most insulted. "Ah! When it comes to fashion sense, no other is more important. We want to look our best, don't we?"

"She's just trying to make this fun." said Pinkie "Isn't that the whole point to being in a band?"

Fluttershy and Rhymey said nothing, not wanting to argue with each other, but all this arguing was really starting to get out of hand.

"I have something to say!" shouted Starla, but still everyone continued to ignore her.

Shouting here, shouting there, all the arguments shouting back and forth.

Sunset blew her whistle loud getting them all to stop.

"Thank you." Lightning said to her.

She nodded once.

"Is this the kind of group we're supposed to all be a-part of?" Lightning scorned "Well, I'm surprised at all of you. You'd think the evil spell was starting to get to you all."

"Right!" snarled Krysta and Spike.

The others felt really ashamed, and Rhymey finally spoke up...

"We have precious little time to waste.
If we're going to perform, we must make haste."

Everyone all agreed, and all extended apologies to one-another.

"But we still don't have a song for the Starpops." said Fluttershy "How can we come up with one by the time of the contest?"

Starla completely lost patience and shouted "...I ALREADY HAVE ONE!!"

At that moment, every eye in the room was facing her. She then held up a small clipping of papers "I came up with this last night-- Lyrics, melodies, dance, all of it."

Lightning looked at it, and everyone else looked at it with her. "Starla..." Lightning said "This is... amazing!"

"Astonishing." added Rarity.

"Excelente!" exclaimed the twins.

This was just the number they all needed to bring out the positive energy in the people, and smite the baddies with a tremendous blow.

"Dang it, girl. How did you come up with all this in just one night?" asked Applejack.

"Well, actually I was planning it out a while back." said Starla "I've had it in my head for a long time, but I just never wrote it out."

"Well, why didn't you tell us before?" Rainbow asked irrationally.

Everyone gave her a strict look telling her to calm down.

"Sorry."

Starla blushed and twiddled her fingers. "Well... actually... I was thinking of Lightning the whole time making it."

"Oh...?" Lightning said while blushing softly.

Starla felt really embarrassed now and turned away. "I didn't want write it out, because it would remind me too much of... You know..."

A brief moment of silence followed.

"Starla... I..."

Starla managed to finally shrug off her feelings and turned bravely to face the others. "Ah, it's okay. I thought we could all use it for our number tonight."

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Pinkie cheered.

"Yeah, let's jam!" said Buddy.

Everyone else cheered.

Sunset smiled and then turned to leave back on her shift so the band could practice. This gave Artie an idea for the Rainbow Rocks, and he whispered something to them, which they all seemed to like, but would save it a surprise.

*Montage*

All the rest of that day, the Rainbows and the Starpops rehearsed their songs and dances.

Meanwhile the Demonites and the Sirens were already preparing for the night themselves.

The sirens were going around camp singing their hypnotic spell, to heat up the tension and harness more negative energy.

They enjoyed seeing all the bands fighting one another, it made the energy meter on Blaze's watch climb higher than ever.

"We've just about got all that we require." he said with a sinister grin.

"I hope so..." said Adagio. She and the girls checked their pendants, which were fading slightly "Our magic is reaching critical levels." said Aria.

"If we don't get an energy boost soon, we've had it." said Sonata.

"Don't worry." said Slick "Thanks to the energy we've gathered under the stage, everything is all going to plan."

"Yesss..." hissed Scales "It doesn't even matter if we win or lose this battle of the bands. In the end we will win everything."

Just then, Tempest and Boomer had returned from their pre-assigned task, to plant energy spikes and curse the air all around the stage with high levels of the spell.

"You two sure took your sweet time." said Adagio.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" sneered Boomer.

"Yeah!" added Tempest "Where were you while we were setting up the key elements for our plans?"

"We were actually something useful, like getting more energy which we need!" sneered Aria.

Blaze felt his fiery hair wanting to ignite on his head, which would blow his cover. "Ugh! Will you knock it off?!" he growled "If any of you snarl, sneer, or so much as even look at one another the wrong way again, I will personally fire you all... TO THE MOON!! Everyone clear...?!"

All the others nodded frightfully.

Blaze exhaled deeply trying to keep cool, but there was something he saw down below that did amuse him...

Flash Sentry, he looked as if he was having trouble playing his guitar properly, and kept on grasping his head in pain.

He was still struggling with himself, trying to deny what he had found out, and the fact that his memories were playing loud and strong in his head, as if his mind was trying to force him to resume his former ways.

Flash was so frustrated, that he decided to walk off to try and clear his mind.

Blaze couldn't help but snicker at Flash and silently muttered "You're fighting a losing battle, boy. You can't deny your true self much longer."

He was speaking far too softly to be heard by the bugger in Aria's hair, but Lightning's book magically captured everything else.

"That's just what I needed to know." he said to himself, and he just had to tell the others. "Who knows, maybe we won't have to do the songs after all."

He was so lost in his thoughts that he bumped right into Flash by mistake. The two boys fell down.

"Sorry, Flash." Lightning said, but Flash seemed to act rather distant and almost fearful of Lightning, but more, almost angry. "You keep away from me!"

"Huh?"

"Don't give me that! I don't believe your lies, I won't believe it! Twilight Sparkle can't be dead."

Lightning felt his heart skip a beat, at the very mention of Twilight's told him that somehow Flash had heard him talking to Sunset the other night.

Flash clenched his fists angrily, and Lightning wasn't sure but he could swear Flash's skin tone was starting to go pale a little, almost the same color as his old Crystallite form.

"Oh, no...!!" Lightning peeped softly.

Flash managed to shrug it off. "Just keep away from me!" and then he stormed off.

Lightning felt the red alarm sirens going off in his mind, but how could he tell the others? If he did he would have to confess that Twilight was dead, which, he feared, would completely devastate the others, and throw them off their game for the contest.

"What am I going to do?"

One thing he knew he could do was tell Sunset, Spike and Krysta, in private, and were they ever shocked.

"He's what?!" they all snapped.

"I'm positive. I know what I saw, and it's just as I told you. Flash heard us talking last night, and his alien powers are starting to awaken!"

"Not good! This is not good!" cried Spike.

All four of them then feared the same thing; the contest that night was bound to be stressful, and the Dazzling's spell combined with the D-Man-Knights would really make it bad. There was a very high chance of Flash full regaining his power.

"Lightning, we have to tell the others." said Sunset.

"Yes, but... well..."

The others were fully aware of his worries of how the others would feel upon hearing of Twilight's tragic death. "I can't just tell them she's dead! The last thing we need right now is for them to lose their spark and get all distraught and everything."

Krysta shook her head. "The last thing we really need right now is for Flash to regain his powers, and then unprepared for an upcoming assault worse than the one we already know is coming."

Sunset agreed "Lightning, you were able to tell me, and now you have to tell the others. It's all that important."

Lightning felt really frustrated, but he realized they were right. Even he himself didn't like lying to his friends, even if they were white ones.

"Okay, I'll tell them." he said.

He got up and opened the door to the cabin, only to find his friends were all there, and they all had deeply concerned, and somewhat sad expressions on their faces.

"I... guess you all heard?" Lightning asked, feeling embarrassed.

The gang was on their way to the bunk to call Lightning over for another rehearsal, and they were about to knock when they could hear him and the others conversing.

"She's dead?" Fluttershy squeaked softly.

Lightning felt very low, and hung his head down "Yes... it's true."

The other three nodded sadly.

"Oh, my..." Rarity cried as she held her hands to her mouth.

Pinkie Pie fell onto her bottom in shock, and she cried softly.

The Starfleet gang, though they didn't know that Twilight Sparkle very well, they all felt bad too. They did see what she was capable of when she came to Canterlot High and helped Sunset.

Now Lightning felt really bad, for Twilight, and for lying. "I'm sorry I lied..." he said.

Starla approached him and put her hand on his shoulder and smiled sadly "It's alright... we know why you did, now at least."

Everyone else nodded in respect for Lightning, and he felt touched.

Still, despite the sadness everyone was feeling, they knew they couldn't let it get to them now, especially as Lightning remembered to tell them all what else he had learned, of what the Demonites and the Sirens were up to.

“So the energy is being harnessed under the stage stetting.” said Buddy.

“So what do we do?” asked Artie.

Suddenly, Applejack remembered “I’m not sure, but I swear a saw somethin’ mighty strange just near the stage area. It looked like, some sorta black spike.”

“All right… this is what we do then.” said Lightning “We’ll split up into two teams. Some of you will check out beneath the stage, the rest of you come with me to look at the spike.”

The teams agreed and split into two.

Lightning lead his team of the Starfleet gang, with Spike.

Sunset would lead the girls and take Krysta with them to examine under the stage.

The gang would keep in touch via Rainbow and Starla’s cellphones.

It didn’t take Lightning’s group long to find the spike that was wedged deep into the ground behind the stage, and nobody had to have super powers to see that it was indeed absorbing energy emitting from all the people arguing at camp.

“These things must be set up all over the camp ground.
They’ll absorb all the energy from everyone around.” said Rhymey

“Well, come on… let’s get it out.” Spike said, but Lightning immediately halted him shouting “Wait…!”

Spike stopped dead where he was.

Lightning picked up a small stone on the ground. “I wonder…”

The others wondered what he was wondering, and then watched as he pitched the stone at the spike. BOOM!! It just exploded in a small blast.

“WHOA!!” The others all cried.

Everyone else at camp heard the bang, but they could see nothing wrong, so they ignored it.

“Just as I thought…” said Lightning “It’s not just energy absorbing, it’s highly energized. If Spike had touched it, he’d have been blown into ash just like the stone.”

Spike felt really silly “I almost ran right into it!”

“If only we had our powers, we could probably blast it out.” said Dyno.

“But we don’t…” added Myte “And don’t forget, the air has cursed too. There’s nothing we can do about that.”

Starla set her phone on speaker “Rainbow, how are you guys holding out? Find anything?”

Sunset had a key to the room where all the props were kept beneath the stage, as it was one of her duties to make sure the stage was safe, above and below.

Almost instantly did they find what they were looking for; there in the center of everything, was a large glowing orb of a special glass containing all the powerful negative energy. It didn’t seem to be shielded by any force-field.

It sparked and pulsated with nasty jolts, they made Fluttershy and Rarity jump. Krysta shuddered. “And I just had my feathers fluffed!” she groaned.

Sunset hated the sight of this and thought of all the innocent beings those monsters had tormented.

She picked up a baseball bat that was near here. “This ends now…!”

“Sunset, wait!” Lightning shouted over the phone, but Sunset had already swung hard against the glass.

BONG!!!

Sunset recoiled and was vibrating from the hit. She was fine, but she and the others were all shocked! The bat had a huge crease in it, but the glass around the energy wasn’t even scratched.

“Maybe you didn’t hit it hard enough.” said Pinkie.

Sunset felt insulted. “I nearly broke this bat!”

Rainbow wasn’t willing to give in. “Give me that!” she snapped as she snatched the bat, and she went at the glass with everything she had. She was a regular mad girl. She kept batting, and swinging, and yelling like a wild-animal.

Finally, the bat was all smashed up. Rainbow was exhausted, and still the glass had not a mark on it.

“It’s no good, we can’t break it.” said Applejack.

“You think!” panted Rainbow.

“What can we do?” cried Fluttershy.

All that energy stored in the glass, and more coming in by the second. The Demonites and the Sirens were planning to absorb the power that very night after the contest; then they would all get really strong!

Lightning then realized and remembered that the air was cursed with Tempest’s magic, as well as Boomer’s Spikes. Both were energy absorbing forces and would take the energy the people emitted no matter what.

“Then there’s only one way…” Lightning said “…We’ll have to corrupt the energy.”

“Corrupt it?” asked Artie.

“More like purify it.” said Lightning “Then they won’t be able to absorb it. They can’t stand positive energy, remember.”

He then huddled everyone close and whispered his idea to them, and didn’t speak, but texted Rainbow’s phone the plan.

“You guys really think that’ll work?” asked Rainbow.

“I don’t see why it shouldn’t.” said Spike “Even Twilight showed me things like this when practicing spells.”

With that settled, everyone was in agreement. Tonight they would play and sing, for the big top!