My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic Season I

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 4: Rollin' Rocks

EPISODE FOUR

The Rainbow Rod was indeed a mysterious weapon and was enchanted to respond to Lightning’s voice commands and his only; it was also doubly enhanced to sense a faker trying to imitate Lightning’s voice. Its primary purpose was to serve the finishing blow.

Now that they all knew what they were up against, the Grand Ruler was going into extra precautions to protect the civilians of his planet. From then on, any time there was extreme danger such a battle about to commence, warning alarms would sound alerting the citizens to immediately run for the nearest shelter-- either their own homes or a neighbor’s home, a school, the shopping center-- just so long as they were inside. Magical force fields, generated by the Grand Ruler’s magic would then surround the buildings and homes to prevent collateral damages, or evil invaders from getting inside.

Several practice drills were done, and soon everyone was used to the new rule.

Those who were not able to get indoors in time before the shields went up were advised to keep as far away from the danger area as possible; after all they couldn’t get hurt form battles if they were not involved.

In case of long waiting periods, emergency supplies of food and water and other essentials were passed all over. Lightning, spent the whole week helping to deliver supplies, as was his job as community worker, but he was glad when the last of the supplies were dropped off. “Well, that should be all of it, Kyrsta.”

Krysta checked her clip board, which was larger than she was. “Yep!” she chirped “And about time too. I’m exhausted.”

Lightning’s eyes widened at that statement. “You’re exhausted? Look at my wings!” Lightning Wings were all tired out from flying back and forth between towns and villages so much. “Not to mention carrying all these heavy crates and boxes.”

He was really looking forward to going home for a nice long rest, only he ran into Artie along the way. He was carrying a towel with him. “Hi, Lightning. Hi Krysta…”

His friends returned his greeting. “What’s with the towel?” asked Krysta. Lightning also noticed that Artie didn’t have his armor on and was merely wearing his exercising clothes, sweatband and he wore shoes instead of his boots. “Oh, no…! Please don’t tell me…?” he groaned.

It was fitness-day-- The day when members of the force were to go through exercise workouts. It wasn’t just all believing and having good skill to use magic, they also had to be in good shape and keep fit for normal everyday lives, as well as combat without magic. Participation was mandatory.

Before Lightning knew it, he too was in his exercise clothes, and ready to get moving along with everyone else. Penny was the coach. As a doctor she knew fit fighters when she saw them and how to make them stay that way.

“Okay ponies! Are we ready…?” she called out. The crowd shouted loudly “YEAH…!”

“Yeah.” groaned Lightning.

Penny put them through all kinds of exercises, aerobics, even a little bit of track and field. Many of the unicorns did superb, but some didn’t do so well. Lightning was doing the worst. He could hardly do so many push-ups; he couldn’t leap over the jump pole, and during a period of timed jogging he finally collapsed. “Ugh…!”

When he awoke, he was in the hospital, and Penny was wearing her medical-uniform and looking after him. Krysta was there too. “Where am I?” Lightning asked groggily. “Shh…! Take it easy, Lightning…” whispered Penny.

Krysta explained what happened, and how Lightning had already been working hard with the deliveries and countless flights back and forth. “You’re overworked. Oh, I should’ve known better than to put you put there. I’m sorry, Lightning. I should’ve known better than to force you into all those exercises.”

“We all make mistakes, Penny.” Lightning said while smiling sleepily, “Well… at least now I can get some rest. Even Starfleet fighters know better than to over-train.”

Penny nodded, and said she’d check up on him later.

When Lighting woke up again, he felt much, much better. “I feel like I could lift up the moon.” he joked. “Bad idea, that.” Krysta said. “I don’t think you could lift up anything that big.”

Lightning laughed with her.

Meanwhile, Titan had observed the conversation, then he turned to face Rep-Stallion, “And you say you have an idea?” he asked.

“Sure, boss.” answered Rep “I mean, uh… yes my lord! What finer way to crush those punks by using something strong and sturdy, something virtually immovable, solid as a rock maybe.”

“Get to the point!” snarled Titan. Rep-Stallion winced, but then replied “Well, that is my point. Don’t you see, I’m going to make a monster so strong and solid, them ponies won’t stand too much a chance, and the more they try the more energy you’ll get. You might even be able to escape from here faster than you originally thought. What do you say?”

“Rep-Stallion, you may proceed.” said Titan.

As Rep-Stallion prepared for his mission, he suffered the ridicule of his teammates. “Even I know this plan of yours won’t work, Rep-Stallion.” mocked Mysterious.

“Huh! Just you wait.” snapped Rep “I’ll be delivering pony pancakes to the front door by the end of the day.”

“Oh, sure you will.” Dementia said with sarcasm as she gazed at herself in her mirror from many angles. “The fact that your muscle makes you so strong, there’s no room for intelligence.”

Rep growled and felt steam shooting out his ears, but he decided to take no further notice and went on his way mumbling “I’ll show them.”

Lightning and Krysta were passing through though the fields, when they noticed Starla, in her exercise clothes, sitting on a bench and panting heavily. She looked as if she had been jogging a-hundred miles. “Starla?!” called Lightning. Starla seemed so tuckered out she could barely stand tall. “H… H… Hi…” she said, but her voice sounded very dry. Luckily there was a water fountain nearby and Starla felt much better after a sip. “Starla, what’s going on?” asked Krysta “The training period ended hours ago.”

“Oh, I’m just doing extra training so I can earn my astronaut wings.”

Lightning knew this, Starfleet was called STAR-Fleet for a reason, just like they were all Space-ponies, but the code stated that new fighters weren’t permitted to venture off into space or go on other planetary missions until after long periods of intensive training and being approved by the proper authorities. Until then, they were confined as planetary forces.

“I’ve always dreamed of being going into space.” Starla said “I would stay up late after my bedtime and gaze up at the stars wondering when I would ever get to actually go up there and see it all at close-hand.”

“It really is beautiful.” Lightning said “I’ve been in space before, many times.”

Starla turned swiftly and gazed excitedly at him “You have? What’s it like?”

Lightning back away a bit as Starla inched closer in near desperation for him to say why. “Well, it’s um…uh…!”

Suddenly Starla realized “Wait, you’re not licensed yet, how did you learn to travel in space anyway?”

Lightning felt a small feeling of inner pain sting him at the very mention of it. “Lightning, are you okay?” Starla asked. Lightning snapped out of his trance. “I’m okay.” he simply said, and they soon found themselves gazing deeply into each other’s eyes. They both blushed and turned away swiftly.

Lightning quickly tried to change the subject. “So… um… is that why you signed up for Starfleet, you wanted to go into space?”

“Well, not entirely.” said Starla “I wanted to prove myself… to my father. He died, killed before my eyes... a long time ago.” Her voice sounded a little down.

Lightning and Krysta couldn’t help but wonder if every member of the force had a dead relative or some sort of similarity, but Starla assured them just she and Buddy Rose were the only ones they knew of so far. “Starla… I… I know it may be painful to ask but… how did your father…”

“…Die?” Starla cut in, and she didn’t mind talking about it…

Her mother was a Starfleet fighter, and a very fine one whom Starla looked up to. This was another one of her inspirations to join the force, but her father, he wouldn’t hear of it. “No daughter of mine is going get herself involved in wargames, and battling and all that stuff.”

Her father was a control-freak, who always had to have things his way, and claiming he was always right. Though he was never abusive or violent, he was rather stubborn, thoughtless, and not a very pleasant pony.

He and Starla’s mother often got into arguments when her father’s decisions were so much as even questioned, and he wasn’t any easier on Starla either. He would always make decisions for her, or talk for her, and or decide what she would do with her life. He really wanted Starla to grow up and take over his business selling old used wagons and parts, a life which Starla was not thrilled about.

“Wow, talk about a hard relationship.” Krysta said.

“Oh, that’s just the half of it.” said Starla.

She went on to say that her father was too fond of Starfleet, thinking they and their methods of dealing with bad guys were over-the-top. He didn’t even know his own wife was a Starfleet member until he found out some years after they were married and Starla was born, this was another one of their bigger arguments, being on the force, and blaming his wife for putting ideas into Starla’s head when really it wasn’t her fault.

Some villains Starfleet captured and brought to justice in hopes there was a chance to redeem themselves, but other non-living types like the Floralbite, which had no hearts or souls and could never be reformed or were too powerful to be contained, they were destroyed and for good reason; to stop them before they hurt any innocent beings…

...But as usual, her father’s stubbornness, ignorance and stupidity continued to show. “Why can’t we just talk with them, convince them to stop all this? I’m sure they’d listen.”

Lightning and Krysta felt sick to their stomachs at such stupidity. “I know he had good intentions but... reasoning with creatures THAT evil…?” groaned Lightning.

“That’s like trying to capture the sun, either incredibly difficult or impossible.” added Krysta. “Tell me about it…” said Starla “We even tried to tell him that Starfleet DID try to reason with some enemies, but it usually never worked out. Villains would refuse to listen or simply didn't wish to change their ways...

And then, one day when I was about ten years old... my father was about to awakened from his blindness, but at a terrible price.”

A band of evil bull-creatures from the planet Tauron had invaded Unicornicopia. As usual, Starfleet was called to arms to defend the world, including Starla’s mother. So she and her dad had to stay behind. However, they failed to get to shelters in time before the barriers went up and were locked outside, forcing themselves to run far from the battle area, except Starla’s father naively thought this was his big chance to prove himself right and how he could try reasoning with the bulls.

He approached one of the big brutes…

“Get outta my way, punk!” the creature growled.

Starla’s father, feeling a bit nervous and quaking in fear at the sight of the big beast, tried to reason with him. “Look... I-I-I... don’t know what your problem is, but maybe… maybe we can just talk this out or, even… negotiate… or… or…” but he soon realized his mistake, too late when the giant bull grabbed him and glared at him threateningly “…Or maybe I can do dis to ya!”

Starla watched in horror as her father were mercilessly beaten to death before her eyes, and she would had been next if Starfleet fighters hadn’t arrived at the last second to arrest the evil brute. Nevertheless, Starla’s father was dead, and the Starfleet fighters… they had more grave news for the devastated filly.

“They told me… my mother had been killed in action.”

Starla turned away, but it was easy to tell she was trying her hardest not to shed to tears, but to no avail.

Feeling very sorry and pitiful, Lightning offered a hankie from his pocket. “Thanks.” she peeped as she dried her eyes. “As stubborn as my dad was, and as much as I didn't approve of his attitude... he really didn’t deserve to die.”

Lightning, once again, felt that same pain from deep in his heart, as if Starla's pain was much like his in many ways, but again, he didn't wish to talk about it. "Starla, I really sorry. I should never have asked."

“No, it’s not your fault.” replied Starla, and she went on to explain that she lived at an orphanage until she got a job and was able to pay for school, and she trained herself constantly to get stronger and at age 14 came the Starfleet Academy where she trained for four straight years. Now she had a reason to fight, like most Starfleet fighters, she loathed and despised evil; she knew what it was capable of doing. If it could ruin her life and kill her family, she didn’t want to imagine how others would feel. She was fighting for them, as well as to avenge the fall of her parents.

“That is deep!” Krysta said. Lightning agreed, and he felt like he and Starla really had something in common right then and there. He continued to gaze at Starla still finding it hard to believe that someone so beautiful could have it so hard.

She turned to gaze back at him, and he turned away quickly hoping she hadn’t noticed, but she had and she giggled softly. Krysta could already tell they were starting to grow close. “Well, what do you know? Looks like Lightning may have found himself a soul-mate.”

“Aw, isn’t that cute…” called a voice! The gang looked and could see Rep-Stallion standing in the tree near the bench. “What are you doing here?” snapped Lightning.

“Like duh, I’m here to cause trouble and get energy for Titan.”

The alarms sounded...

And just as they practiced all the civilian ponies ran for the nearest shelters before Grand Ruler energized the force fields with his magic. Starla, Lightning and Krysta remained where they were. “We can take you on, and anything you might throw at us.” said Starla, but Rep casually was running his fingers across the blade of his scythe. “You know, for a bunch of punks who work out a lot you sure claim to be strong” he turned then glared at them sinisterly “… well I’m here to say… YOU’RE NOT!”

“Do the math, Rep-Stallion. There’s three of us and only one of you.” said Lightning. The girls nodded.

Rep leapt down from the tree and sniggered at them all. “Yeah, about that-- Who ever said you were going to fight against me alone?” Rep then reached behind him and held out a single ordinary rock he had found, and before the others could react, he reached into the pouch he was carrying, and threw a big cloud of dust all over a simple rock that was by his feet. “What’s he doing?” asked Krysta.

The rock began to glow magically as it grew in size and sprouted legs and arms, and an ugly face. Rep-Stallion laughed maliciously as the monster became complete.

The gang blinked their eyes once each, and Lightning and Krysta remembered how the Floralbite they faced was made of plants. “So that’s how they make monsters.” said Lightning

“You better believe it.” Rep said as he held up the pouch of dust “This dust is enchanted with Titan’s special magic. One sprinkle on any object will turn it into a huge beast to serve us and our conquest for power. Now go Strong Stone; get them!”

The monster pounded its huge feet which actually caused tremors which nearly knocked Lightning and Starla off their feet. They got up quickly and nodded at each. It was time to transform!

“Starfleet Magic!!”

“Power of Believing!”

“Power of Space!”

Once they were suited up, they scanned the monster with their visors and found his defense as well as his attacks were very high, as it was a rock, but its speed was slow. The first thing they had to was battle the monster and weaken it first, then it wouldn’t have enough strength to stand up to Lightning’s finisher. “Let’s go!” shouted Lightning. “Yes sir!” shouted Starla.

“I’m going in!” said Lightning as he charged forward to attack but Strong Stone, lived up to its name by simply raising its huge stone fists and slammed the ground causing another huge tremor and that shook Lightning causing him to lose his footing and fall.

Rep-Stallion laughed at him. “Too bad punk-- Hit him again Strong Stone!”

The monster acknowledged and began stomping towards Lightning. Lightning quickly got up and tried to kick the monster, but as expected, it was solid like the rock it was, and Lightning’s kick did nothing to it, except prompt the monster to punch him hard and side again and send him rolling along the ground and hitting a tree.

“…LIGHTNING!!” the girls cried. Lightning was okay, be he felt just a wee bit dizzy

Starla features hardened “My turn now! STAR SHOWER!”

Sadly, all her stars didn’t even tickle the monster. “Ugh! It’s no good, it’s too solid!”

“We have to keep trying. There’s got to be a way!” cried Krysta.

The monster was stomping towards them, and they began to run as the monster gave chase. Rep-Stallion laughed hard and wickedly. “I’m enjoying this…!”

Lightning finally got upright again and charged right at the tree knocking Rep off of it and down to the ground “Why you little runt!” he thundered “Just you wait until Strong Stone smashes you again!”

“Oh? Are you too afraid to fight us yourself so you have to let your monster do all the work?” Lightning snarled. “Bring it on!” snapped Rep-Stallion. Lightning knew his physical attacks wouldn’t work on Strong Stone, so he’d fight Rep instead. “I’ll show you who’s strong!” growled Rep as he swung his scythe, but Lightning dodged it perfectly, and back-kicked Rep hard from behind knocking him to the ground. “It takes more than just strength alone to be a good fighter.” Lightning said with a smirk. “It takes speed, strategy, and heart to go with it.”

Rep growled and continued to swing his scythe at him, “Tell that to Titan when I bring you to him in pieces!”

As their fight continued, Starla and Krysta were left to deal with Strong Stone. Even Krysta wasn’t able to life up something that heavy. Strong Stone also was able to keep them well within its sights and pounded the ground some more knocking them down with the tremors. The girls decided to fly in the air. “We’ll be safer up here.” said Starla “Um… I don’t think so.” cried Krysta “Look!”

Strong Stone looked way up, and opened its huge mouth firing blazing meteor stones straight up at them, which they barely dodged. “Lightning, we could use some help…!” shouted Krysta.

Down below, Lightning was engaged in a struggle holding back Rep-Stallion’s scythe with his arms. “Sorry, but I’m a little busy right now…” he shouted back to them. “Try to find the monster’s weakness, it’s got to have one somewhere!”

“Fat chance…!” growled Rep “SCYTHE SHOCK!” and Lightning was jolted away from him. “Give up yet?”

Lightning leapt back up growling angrily and looked ready for more.

Strong Stone continued to fire the meteors at the girls. The girls just continued to swerve and evade the shots, but they couldn’t keep it up. Somehow they just had to find out the monster’s weakness.

Then suddenly, as Krysta gazed into Strong Stone’s huge mouth, and scanned with her visor “Of course!” she said as she flew downward. “Krysta, No! What are you doing?” cried Starla.

“I have an idea. Cover me, keep it distracted!”

Krysta didn’t know what was going on, but she trusted Starla and flew closer towards the monster and began teasing him to chasing her. Flying one way, then another-- up and down, every way around-- She was pretty fast, and her small size made her hard to see and follow. Strong Stone was getting dizzy, but angry as well, and opened his huge mouth to fire another meteor at Krysta.

Starla saw this from where she was hovering “Now’s my chance; STAR BOW!” She pulled out a purple, solid, sharp-edged bow. Rep-Stallion saw this “Hey, what’s going on?”

“I think I know…” Lightning said.

“STARLIGHT ARROW!” Starla fired a glowing blast from her bow straight into Strong Stone’s huge mouth, finally causing real damage. Sparks and small explosions emitted from its body, and it groaned in pain. “No way!” cried Rep.

“That’s it!” said Lightning “If we can’t beat it on the outside, just blow up it up inside!”

Starla fired more arrows into the monster’s mouth, weakening it further, and Krysta used her magic to pick up large stones, tossing them inside. “It’s working, he’s getting weak!” cried Starla as her visor sensory showed the energy was dropping.

“Lightning, try it now!” shouted Krysta. Lightning agreed and got out the Rainbow Rod, and held it up high as it shimmered in the sunlight. He concentrate really hard as he held the rod up high as it began to glow…

“Powers of the rainbow, heed my call
I summon you now to make evil fall
Let goodness and justice triumph in might
I summon now… the rainbow’s light!”

“…SPECTRUM STREAM!”

The magic flew straight down Strong Stone’s throat, blowing it up in a powerful explosion, and into a pile of pebbles. “No! I don’t believe it!” snarled Rep-Stallion

“We did it!” hollered Lightning. The girls cheered for joy and then Lightning turned to face Rep-Stallion, “Your turn now…!” but before he could act, Rep-Stallion decided to split. “I’ll be back! Just you wait!” then he vanished and was gone.

Lightning growled in frustration that Rep had escaped. The important thing was that everything was okay now. No serious damage had been done to the park. The force fields were lowered and everyone was allowed back outside again.

“An extraordinary performance, Rep-Stallion.” mocked Mysterious “And all you return with is a tangled tail.” added Dementia.

“You guys take that back!” shouted Rep.

“QUIET! ALL OF YOU!” shouted Titan. The minions quieted down and bowed apologetically. Even though Rep-Stallion had only gathered a little energy, Titan was pleased nonetheless. “Every little bit counts. It only makes me stronger.” he hissed “And the day draws near when I shall have all that I need.”

Lightning walked Starla home to her home in Rainbow City. Starla thanked Lightning and Krysta for all they did. “You did well too, Starla. I can see you with astronaut wings yet.”

Starla smiled “Thanks.” she said and she pecked Lightning on his cheek before she headed inside. Lightning’s face turned bright red. Krysta giggled “What’s the matter, Lightning?” she teased. Lightning could barely speak and just stuttered and slurred words all the way home.

That night, before going to bed, Lightning wrote his report…

“Although we’ve have once again thwarted another attack, it cannot be denied that Titan and his followers are proving to be pitiless enemies that will go to any lengths to fulfill their dark ambitions. At this point, until we can study more about them and their evil powers, there is little any of us can do but rest, wait, and maintain constant alert for oncoming attacks that can and will occur as this war continues.

Facing the strong stone has giving me the realization and intention to increase the effort of my physical training to improve my ever-growing strength in battle while also keeping my mind focussed.

Excessive exercise is not beneficial for anyone and can prove to be quite dangerous to one’s health, but it can also not be ignored that in battle strength is not necessarily everything necessary to win, but also the knowledge and wisdom that goes with it.”

He signed his name, then sent the report through the magic mailbox slot which would send it all the way to Grand Ruler’s floating palace in the sky.

After that, he hopped into bed, and turned out the lights and dreamt of all the adventures he would have another day.

(Promo)

In our next episode; a rainy day turns out to be an opening opportunity when Mysterious launches a new plan to gain energy for Titan, and demonstrates his own uniquely made monsters that are unlike others Lightning and his friends have faced.

What is Mysterious’ plan, and how will Lightning and friends be able to face this new type of monster?

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

(Next Episode: “Wetter Works”)

Comments

[Shuruisoul]

Having shields that protect the innocent and having supplies if it takes to long..........total genius. And starla don't let your vengeance go too far or you will be come thing you hate.I seen it happened a couple of times.