My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic (Season IX)

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 24: Part 1:World War Two Ways

EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR

The portal opened wide, and the team stepped forth into the darkness of the Devils’ World!

“Wow!” Lightning exclaimed under his breath as he looked at the eerie dark world all around him-- The black skies, pierced by the distant faded lights of blue flame torches lining the pathways, islands floating in the darkness, and other small marble buildings and other areas.

The winds were whistling with creepy sounds, like thunder and lightning would strike at any moment.

“Oh, my!!” shuddered Fluttershy.

“Look at this place.” said Starla.

“It’s like something out of nightmare.” said Krysta.

Dearka, able to breathe safely, removed his mask. “This is the Devils’ World.” he explained “For many millennia, they were imprisoned here, and this was my home for the past decade.” He paused and clenched his fists “…I never thought it would ever sicken me!”

Everyone turned on the infrared vision on the visors to see better, and it was a good thing they had Agapi’s power keeping them from choking.

“Just looking at all this darkness makes me feel queasy.” groaned Rarity.

“I don’t like it here!” whimpered Fluttershy.

“Neither did we Devils.” said Dearka “All the ever wanted was to escape and reclaim their glory, but because of the fatal effects caused by love, they had little course.”

“Okay enough of the stories,” said Lightning. “We better find the King and fast.” he checked his visor which showed a timer on it counting down from two hours “Even with Agapi’s power, we won’t last too long.”

“…Then why don’t you come and find me already?” boomed a nasty voice which made everyone jump in fright.

Dearka narrowed his eyes and hissed softly, “…Von Deivlor!”

Saber’s anger began to boil, “It’s him!”

“He knows we’re here?” cried Rainbow.

Von Devilor’s laugh echoed along the darkness, “I am aware of everything that transpires in my home realm, and I see that you have brought a certain traitor back as well.” he referred to Dearka.

“I promise you,” Dearka bellowed “For what you did to my dear Calista… my family… my life!! You will pay for it!!”

Von Devilor only seemed amused as he snickered. “Why don’t we all meet, and settle this little war once and for all.”

With that, a series of flames began to light up, one-after-another, forming a supposed pathway for everyone to follow.

“I’m coming, Cadance!” shouted Saber, and he began to carelessly run towards the path.

“Wait!!” snapped Lightning, and he snapped his fingers at some of the alicorns, who used their magic to pull him back in.

“Are you crazy!” scolded Applejack “For all we know he’s leading us into a trap!”

“But we’ve got to rescue Cadance!” protested Saber.

“And we will.” insisted Starla “But we hardly even know how this world works or where every path leads to.”

Dearka also noticed something unusual; there was no sign of any other Devils anywhere, and usually there weren’t many places you could look without seeing any.

“Something isn’t right here.” he said.

Everyone seemed to agree with him.

“We better get a move on.” suggested Lightning, and he asked Dearka “Is there another path we can take?”

Dearka nodded “There are many paths we can to reach the king, but because he knows of our presence, who knows what may happen.”

Rainbow cleared her throat, “Is that a direct approach I hear?”

Lightning knew they couldn’t hesitate, with their time ticking away. “Alright, but we’ll go forth with extreme caution. Suspect danger around every corner.”

Everyone agreed, and they began to walk down the path that Von Devilor had laid for them.

Von Devilor snickered to himself in his mind, “They’re on the move. Of course it wouldn’t matter which path they take; I’m running the show here!”

His evil eyes began to glow…

…and an earthquake seemed to happen.

“What’s happening?” cried Dyno.

“And earthquake?” added Myte.

The path began to wave and twist about, heading straight for the group.

“Look out!!” cried Artie!

“Everybody fly!” shouted Lightning.

“No! Wait!!” hollered Dearka, but it was too late, and the split second everyone had leapt up high into the dark air, the winds began to magically pick up and blow in furious twisters.

“What’s going on?!” cried Spike.

“What’s all this wind?!” shouted Buddy.

Before everyone knew it, they were all blown off in different directions, scattered in groups across the realm completely separated from each other, and leaving Dearka all alone.

“Oh, no!” he groaned.

Von Devilor laughed in amusement. “Phase one is complete. We can’t have them all huddled together and helping each other.

And now, for part two.”

The groups were…

Lightning, Krysta, and Buddy…

“What was that all about?” groaned Krysta.

“Looks like we fell for an obvious trick like you said, Lightning.” said Buddy.

Lightning nodded, and he had no idea where they had landed.

Starla, Rarity, and Artie…

They had come to, and were scouting around with their visors for signs of their friends.

“I got nothing.” said Starla.

“This Devil Darkness must be filtering out our signals.” added Artie.

“Super!” grumbled Rarity “We flew straight into that like moths to a flame. Now what do we do?”

“Only thing we can do, find the others.” suggested Starla, and she checked her visor timer “We still have time.”

Rhymey, Fluttershy, and Spike…

Rhymey had just come too and rubbed his head, and he saw Fluttershy struggling awake near him.

“Hey,
You okay?”

His wife rubbed her eyes, “I think so.”

“That makes two of us.” added Spike “But where’s Rarity, and the others.”

“We better go and find them.” suggested Fluttershy.

Rhymey agreed.

The Twins and Rainbow Dash…

Rainbow tried to fly up high to get a better view all around the area, but the twins pulled her back down with their combined magic.

“Come on, guys, not this again!”

“Rainbow, we can just up and fly off again!” scolded Dyno.

“We get that you want to find the others; so do we.” added Myte “But we can’t just keep rushing about like this.”

Rainbow barely managed to contain herself. “Oh, alright! But if things start to get weird again I’m taking off.”

The two Colonels outranked her and gave her strict expressions while tapping their feet.

“…Or maybe not.”

And finally, there was Applejack, Pinkie, and Saber…

“You okay, Sugar-Cube?” asked Applejack.

Pinkie was okay, despite her head spinning after impact. “Did we win the fight yet?” she groaned wearily before flopping over forward, and snapping back to her senses.

Saber got up and brushed off all six of his arms, but then he suddenly began to get a strange and cold feeling, “…I don’t think we’re alone here.”

Pinkie’s whole body trembled with her Pinkie Sense going in overdrive. “I don’t think he’s kidding!”

Applejack turned round, and saw a swarm of snarling Devils coming for them over the hills and down the paths.

“I guess the welcoming party finally decided to show up.”

Pinkie’s features hardened, “I’m all for parties, but this time I refuse the invite! Let’s go!”

“For Cadance!” shouted Saber, and he got own his sword and sickle-and-chain, and charged forth at the oncoming creature, only for them to blast him hard with powerful dark energy and sent him crashing into the girls.

“I was a afraid of that!” said Applejack “Their powers are much stronger here on their home turf!”

More groups of Devils appeared around each and every group, all across the realm, and the fighters felt compelled to drive them off.

Three Devils lunged at Lightning, and he punched one of them hard in the face sending him crashing into his comrades.

Several more huddled together and charged for Krysta, but she waved her wand making a small trap hole in the ground causing them to fall through.

Buddy got out his whip, “Show me your moves!” and as each Devil crowded around him, he whipped, lashed, and lassoed them all, sending them back and away from him.

Everywhere, all the fighters were brawling hard to keep the swarm of Devils away, but the Devils numbers only seemed to be increasing, and the swarms grew larger, and larger.

“There is no escape!” they would hiss and sneer.

“We can’t be beaten in our home world!”

“Surrender to hatred!”

“HATE…!! HATE…!! HATE…!!”

Try as the fighters would, all those Devils just kept right on coming, and began to fire endless barrages of dark pulses and streams of energy, forcing everyone to duck behind walls, or leap into trenches while the Devils continued to fire.

Von Devilor felt most amused as he sensed all the occurrences. “This is going far better than I planned.” and he laughed wickedly.

Dearka could hear his laughing, and that tuned him in to what was really happening!

“This is a setup!” he growled under his breath “I must warn the others!”

He was about to rush off, when he was attacked by powerful blasts from behind, knocking him off his feet.

He looked round behind him, and saw “Scarlet…!”

She had a wicked grin on her face, but she meant real business. “Hello, Dearka. You wouldn’t be dreaming of disrupting our king’s plan would you?”

Dearka bolted upright. “He is no longer my king, and you are no longer my ally!”

Scarlet snickered and sneered as she approached him, “I was never your ally from the start!”

“What?”

“That’s right! It’s time you learned the truth, and how I’ve despised you ever since your arrival here!

For many centuries I trained and strengthened my powers, all to serve King Von Devilor and serve as his right-hand, his top general, only for you-- an outsider-- come in and steal any and all chances that I had!”

Dearka couldn’t help but scoff, “You always were the jealous type.”

Then he tried to make a run for it, but Scarlet snapped her fingers causing huge, dark bars to spike up out of the ground, cutting him off.

Scarlet growled at him, “You’re not going anywhere, except down for the final time!”

“I really have no time for this!” protested Dearka “But if it’s a fight you want, I’ll be glad to! I never did like you anyway, Scarlet!”

He flexed his claws, and Scarlet clenched her glowing fists.

The two Devils roared as they rushed towards one another!

Dearka swung his arm to slash, but Scarlet blocked him with one hand and socked him hard in the gut with her other fist sending him back a few paces.

“SMOOCH OF DESTRUCTION…

…Mmmmwa!!”

Her lip smear flew straight at Dearka, blowing up all around him and flipping him onto his back.

Scarlet laughed at him. “Look at the so-called “Top General” now. Why his majesty ever chose you is beyond me, but now it’s time for me to send you way beyond… to the point of no return!”

She prepared to deliver the finishing blow, when Dearka swiftly zipped out of the way and ran furious circles around her, making her dizzy, and finally head-butting her hard in the chest, and then zapping her with his dark lightning bolts, making sparks and explosions throw her to her knees.

“You were never much of one for thinking either!” he taunted, and blasted her again, but she dodged and fired a shot at him, which he dodged.

The two Devils began to run through the darkness shooting wildly at each other, and missing all the time, before skidding to a halt, and rushing straight at each other, punching, kicking, swinging, and lunging, and finally meeting in fist lock and struggling.

“Give up!” growled Scarlet.

“Never!” thundered Dearka.

Both their arms swung downward as Dearka’s claws struck the ground, jolting his thunder, making a huge explosion that threw both himself and Scarlet across the field.

Scarlet bolted up right, furiously, but she couldn’t Dearka anywhere. He had used the opportunity to make a getaway, and sped off to warn the groups of Von Devilor’s deceit.

“You won’t get away from me!” Scarlet growled “I’ll destroy you yet, Dearka!!”

Dearka continued to rush out, but he knew he couldn’t get to all the groups. “There’s got to be something I can do.”

The Devils continued to fire at all the ducked out groups. The darkness helped it so their powers never ceased.

“We can’t stay here like this.” said Starla “We’ve got to get past those creeps somehow.”

“We’ll have to use Agapi’s power.” suggest Artie “It’s the only thing that can stand up to that many Devils at once.”

“Yes, yes, it may just work.” agreed Rarity.

A lot of the other groups, including Lightning’s were thinking the same thing, and so, they all began to power up.

“Remember, don’t use too much” said Lightning “We still need to save some to keep us alive!”

Everyone agreed, and stood ready.

All at once they leapt out into the open and fired strong light-waves at the Devils, neutralizing their pulses and energy waves, and giving them all the opening they needed to confront them directly, punching and kicking them down.

Saber wasted no effort and slashed at each and every Devil with his weapons.

“This is for Cadance!

And this too…!

…And this! STRIDENT SHOCKWAVE”

KAPOW!! The big explosions blew many of the Devils over, but many more still huddled around.

“Okay, try this!” shouted Rainbow as she flew up high and came crashing down, “SONIC RAINBOOM”

She slammed into the ground hard, making a massive quake and explosion of colors, thanks to Agapi’s light, and more Devils were blown down.

“BOOM-BOOM FLARE” The Twins unleashed their massive flames.

All over all the fighters unleashed their fury on the Devils, knocking them down, blowing them away, and attacking them ruthlessly, seemingly turning the tables on the fight.

“DRAGON FLAMEWHEEL”

“STAR SHOWER”

“LEAF SWARM”

“PAINT BOMBS”

“DRILL QUILL”

“UNIFORCE” Lightning fired his power, and the Devils ran off like cowards from the bright light, and it seemed to work, all the Devils were gone, as if they had vanished into thin air!

“We did it!” cried Krysta.

“Yeah, but that was a little too easy.” said Buddy.

Lightning checked his visor timer, which had decreased immensely due to using some of Agapi’s power, but they still had just a little over an hour of protection left.

“We should still be fine.” he figured.

“Um… Lightning?” called Krysta.

“What now?” but he could see, more Devils were on the approach, and soon the massive swarm had risen to as it was before, in front of all the groups.

“What’s going on?” cried Fluttershy.

“They’re back and looking fresh like before,
And they’re still coming, and more and more!” said Rhymey.

Spike didn’t like the looks of this at all, until he thought, “Wait a second. These aren’t Devils!”

Pinkie Pie began to happen on the same idea, “They’re shadows! …Fakes!”

“What?!” snapped Saber.

Applejack smacked her own forehead in outrage, “Aargh! Of course! It’s a setup to get us to battle and waste our powers and strength!”

“I can’t believe we just fell for it!” growled Rainbow.

The twins looked outraged as well.

“What are we going to do now?” asked Dyno.

“We can’t keep fighting them like this; they’ll just keep coming back.” said Myte

Von Devilor chuckled sinisterly from the distance, and Lightning could hear him.

“We’ve got to try and find him!” he said.

“Yeah, but how do we get past all these shadows?” asked Buddy. “We can’t fly over them, we could get thrown off course again?”

“I can’t warp us in this darkness either.” said Krysta.

It was then that everyone had an even better idea.

“Instead of fighting them,” said Starla “We’ll push them back, and create open paths for us to run through.”

The others agreed, but felt skeptical.

“Won’t that use up more of our powers?” asked Rarity. “That would put us at an even greater disadvantage.”

“We won’t have too.” said Starla, “We’ll just use our normal speed. That way we can push right over them and they won’t be able to target us so easily.”

“I guess it’s worth a shot.” said Artie.

All the groups felt the same way, and waited until the shadows got closer, and closer, and then the fighters zoomed off on foot, plowing straight through the hordes of enemies as promised.

The shadows tried to open fire, as expected, missed their shots, accidently shooting their own selves and their comrades.

“Yee-Haw… We’re coming through you, boys!” hollered Applejack.

Saber roared loudly as he swung his sword at oncoming shadows, knocking them down on the way. “CADANCE…!!” he roared, wanting nothing more than to find and free his wife and fast!

Soon, the groups all met up together again, but they just kept on running until they were all safely standing on a deserted area, and there seemed to be no shadows anywhere.

They finally could stop and greet everyone.

Lightning and Starla hugged, so did Spike and Rarity, but then the ponies’ visors gave off warning beeps.

“We’ve got no more than fifty-five minutes.” said Lightning.

Everyone felt a bit concerned…

…Then things got worse as the roadway began to warp, and heading straight for them again.

“Not again!” groaned Saber.

“Everyone, huddled together so we don’t’ get separated!” shouted Starla.

Everyone huddled together and held hands tightly. Krysta grabbed onto Lightning’s mane as hard as she could, and the roads gave them all a huge flick, and sent them all hurdling high up onto the air.

“This… is getting… annoying!!” Rainbow shouted.

They all flew through he air and crashed on a long and solid pathway surrounded by two singular blue flames lightning up the dark.

“Is everyone okay?” asked Buddy.

“All things considering...” Rarity groaned as she rubbed behind her “I think I twisted both my tails.” which sounded weird for her to say having both a dragon stub and pony hairs, “…Both my tails?”

Everyone got up and brushed themselves off.

“Where are we now?” asked Fluttershy.

“How should we know?” said Artie “We don’t even remember where we were before.”

“You are you in my domain. That is where you are.” hissed a deep and sinister voice, which came from way down the path, and everyone felt chills run down their spines as they looked ahead, and the torches began to blaze, and He slowly unveiled himself from the shadows, snickering at them all.

Their expressions changed into anger, and Lightning sneered deeply, “…King Von Devilior!”

“It’s really him!” said Starla.

The others agreed, and could tell he was the real deal and not a shadow.

Von Devilor snickered again, “Welcome Starfleet. Welcome to what will surely be your final scene.”

The fighters were far from impressed, and Saber angrily demanded, “Give back my wife …NOW!!”

Von Devilor only laughed, “But I can’t do that, can I?” and right below him, his large core glowed brightly, and Cadance’s scream was heard from within as her power was sapped.

“Cadance!” cried Saber.

“I may have lost Agapi’s spirit, but Princess Cadance continues to supply me with all vast power I need. Finally, after all these millennia, I shall be free to roam the universe and lay waste to every loving-thing in my sight!

Finally, a world I envision-- A world where love and light are no more, replaced with all darkness, hatred, and all the power I could ever desire from it!”

Rainbow shook her head in disbelief, “You’re even crazier than I thought you were.”

Lightning narrowed his eyes at the evil king, “You won’t succeed, Von Devilor. Not if we have anything to say of it,” then he pointed at the core, “…Especially since we know of your one weakness.”

“Really?” hissed von Devilor “Then let’s see you actually make good on your so-called “Threats!”

His tentacles began to rise up, and he wrapped a couple of them around his core to keep it safe.

“Let’s blast him!”

Everyone agreed, and began to charge up a little more of Agapi’s power.

“Ready…” called Lightning “FIRE…!!”

Everyone unleashed their lights into one massive force and sent it soaring straight at Von Devilor.

“Ha!” scoffed the king, and his eyes glowed brightly as a dark firewall burst up before him, like a wall, shielding him from the attack entirely.

“Nothing!” groaned Buddy.

“That attack didn’t even get close!” added Applejack.

Worse than that, their timers had dropped below thirty minutes, leaving them without much time to go.

Von Devilor laughed, “Fools! Your poultry powers will serve you naught here in my world! Only the hate and the darkness reign supreme here… allow me to show you!”

He raised his human arms, growling loudly, and his remaining six tentacles stretched out, glowing with dark aura.

“Scatter!!” shouted Starla, and everyone flew off in various angles, thinking they couldn’t all be followed at once.

Von Devilor then unleashed a huge wave of expanding dark shockwaves, striking everyone hard and throwing them all about.

The tentacles then lunged forth hard and swung about like whips forcing everyone to swerve, curve, and evade!

Von Devilor then fired magical blasts from his eyes and his human hands to strengthen his onslaught.

The fighters found it harder to concentrate and keep up their dodging.

BAM!! Several got hit by the tentacles!

KAPOW!! Others got struck by the blasts, and they all fell down hard to the ground.

A few of the fighters found openings, and began to attack the tentancles.

“PULSAR LASER”

“LEAF SWARM”

Rhymey and Spike rushed forth with their swords.

CLANG!! Their swords bounced off the hard and solid surfaces while the blasts barely left a single mark.

“Wow! These things are strong!” cried Buddy.

“Our attacks didn’t do anything!” wailed Spike.

Saber looked down at the wrapped up core, “That means we can’t even close to the core and get Cadance out of there!”

Von Devilor snickered! “That’s the least of your worries!”

“Look out!!” shouted Starla as the tentacles came at them all, which they dodged, only to then get zapped by Von Devilor’s power blasts.

“It is no use, you fools!” he taunted them “Here in my domain, I have endless amount of darkness and energy, and my power only grows stronger all the time the more you keep this up.”

Lightning looked up at the evil king and shouted, “We’ll never give up! We never do! We’ll find some way to get through.”

Von Devilor only laughed, “Then taste the darkness and hatred more!!”

He unleashed more dark waves, and larges bursts of dark fire to erupt from the ground, striking all the fighters hard and slamming them onto the hard ground, but still they struggled back onto their feet.

Lightning then saw one way to fight around, and that was Von Devilor’s actual body-- past the tentacles, and sitting on the large core.

“We need to try and attack him directly there!”

“Yeah, but how?” asked Pinkie “He seems ready for us at every corner.”

“Then we’ll just have to split up and around.” suggested Dyno.

“Si, take him by surprise.” agreed Myte.

The others all agreed too, but they all felt it wouldn’t be easy in-spite of the numbers they had over the enemy, but they had to try!

“Go!!” shouted Lightning.

Everyone charged forth, and Von Devilor sprung his tentacles at them all, and fired more darkness from them, forcing everyone to dodge, but leaving the path open for his main body.

“Go for it!!” hollered Starla, and she and some of the others rushed forth.

“Think again!” growled Von Devilor, and he fired more blasts from his hands and his eyes, and made firewalls burst out, preventing them from getting closer.

Some of the fighters got hit, but Lightning and Starla managed to keep on going through, and were nearly in range to get at him, but they were grabbed by a tentacle and squeezed hard!

“Lightning! Starla!!” shrieked Rarity.

She and Applejack flew up to try and pull their friends free, but the tentacles were still too strong and wouldn’t budge, and attacking them still proved ineffective.

Von Devilor snickered, and then began to sap the light power from the two he had caught.

“He’s… draining Agapi’s love!” shouted Lightning. Both his and Starla’s visor timers began to drop rapidly, and soon they would lose whatever protection they had against the darkness.

Suddenly, they vanished out of bondage!

“What?!” snapped Von Devilor

Krysta fluttered up high in the air, and with a wave of her wand, she warped Lightning and Starla to right near her.

“Thanks, Krysta.” said Lightning.

“Are you two okay?” Krysta asked.

“Sort of,” replied Starla “He just sapped our power from Agapi. We each have no more than five minutes left!”

“Hey, look at him!” cried Artie, and everyone could see Von Devilor was glowing softly as he converted the energy into power for himself.

“Now he’s become even stronger!
And our strength won’t last much longer.” said Rhymey.

Spike decided, “It’s time to go Majestic Dragon on this case!” that’s what he wanted to do.

He began to concentrate, and he became the Majestic Dragon, roaring loudly and spreading his bright glowing wings, that illuminated the battle field.

“Aargh…! That light!” groaned Von Devilor as he covered his eyes.

The fighters all seemed giddy with glee, except Lightning, noting that Von Devilor didn’t seem all that concerned.

“You’re going down!” shouted Spike, and he flew way up high, and infused Agapi’s power into his attack.

“FLAMES OF LIGHT”

POW!! His stream of bright flames flew straight at the Devil King, only he summoned up a huge and immensely power wall of dark flames, which actually blocked the fire from reaching him!

“No way!!” cried Rainbow.

“I don’t believe it!” yelled Rarity.

Spike was ever so shocked, and Von Devilor laughed, “That was pitifully pathetic.” And in a swift move, he lathered all his free tentacles around Spike, binding him down and sapping his power too.

“SPIKE!!” everyone cried.

Spike de-transformed, and collapsed on the ground.

“Spike…!” Rarity cried as she dashed up to her husband.

“Rarity… I failed!” he said in a weary voice “He’s too strong!”

Rarity scanned him with her visor, and read his own timer which was down to less than a minute.

“Spike, your power is nearly depleted!” she cried.

“Spike…! Use your portal capsule!” said Lightning.

Spike hated to have to just up and leave like this, but knowing he wouldn’t have a chance if he stayed, he obeyed and took out his capsule, slamming beneath him, transporting him out of the realm to safety.

Rarity angrily slammed the ground with her fist, while Von Devilor taunted, “Well, that’s one pest down, but it wasn’t a total loss… he did give me more power.”

Rarity angrily turned, and in a blind rage she charged at the evil monster!

“Rarity!” shouted Lightning.

Von Devilor prepared to ensnare her as well had Rainbow and Applejack not rushed in and pulled her away.

CRASH!! The tentacle smashed the ground making a large quake that nearly knocked everyone off their feet.

They all got up again, but their hopes were starting to fade.

“What can we do?” cried Pinkie.

“Lightning, can’t you go Enticorn?” asked Buddy.

“I don’t think it’ll be enough.” answered Lightning. “Agapi was right; we’ve underestimated how strong he really is!”

He still wasn’t willing to give up though, there had to be a way to beat this evil, laughing, dark creature, but time was running out fast for all of them!

To Be Continued…

In our next episode: The fighters manage to continue battle against Von Devilor’s growing strength, while the Devil King himself refuses to give in. Finally, it comes down to one last great attack that could affect the fate of our heroes’ world.

Will Von Devilor’s reign finally come to an end?

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

(Next Episode: Part 2: “Second Winds of Love” )