Chapter 64: Starven
The fillies were the first to reach their destination, which wasn't surprising because Starven was actually somewhere in the sky above the Mushroom Kingdom.
It was a small 'land' made of clouds colored from pink to blue passing by purple, with little twinkling yellow stars decorating them and little round cloud houses with doors and windows shaped like stars a little everywhere. These houses were actually scattered on several cloud platforms, some further up than others, so unless you had a mean to fly, it was impossible to explore the whole town.
The Star Sprites inhabiting this town didn't have to worry about that of course.
However, they currently had to worry about something else: the invading Cankens.
Again, the sky was covered in dark clouds that ruined the beauty of the place, and Cankens were everywhere, attacking the Star Sprites.
The little spherical things, colored in various shades of pink, blue, and yellow, however, contrary to the inhabitants of Toad Town, were managing to defend themselves quite well. With their magic, all of them were able to fight back the Cankens. Sadly, it was obvious that they were getting overwhelmed by the Cankens' huge number. Some of the Star Sprites were dark purple with black eyes, obviously indicating that they were possessed, and the rest were gathering in groups surrounded by the Cankens where it was only temporary before they would lose the fight.
Starlow saw this and was bowling with rage before she yelled, "Don't worry everyone! The cavalry arrives!"
Scootaloo grinned. "Yeah. Excepted there's only the horses."
"It's not the time for jokes!" Starlow shouted in annoyance.
Sweetie Belle giggled. "As long as we don't horse around, that's no problem."
"Uuuugh! Let's just go!"
"Already ahead of ya!" Apple Bloom said as she charged into the action. She was immediately followed by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, leaving Starlow in the dust (figuratively since they were flying).
"Wha-h-HEY!! Wait for me!"
By the time Starlow joined the fillies, they were already busy wrecking the Cankens by the dozens per second, including a what looked like purple Kennies that could teleport that starlow revealed were called Warp Kennies. Some possessed Star Sprites gathered to use their magic and attempt to stop the girls, but they barely slowed them down. The magic of a Star Sprite was just no match.
Before long, the first groups of Star Sprites were saved, and the oldest of them, a white Star Sprite with a grey moustache, approached them.
"Starlow, glad to see that you are all right and that you brought help. I expected the famous Mario, but it seems that these young ones are a better choice."
"No kidding, Mayor! These three are an army by themselves! They will deal with these Cankens before we know it!"
"Still, that's a big army they sent for just a town," Apple Bloom remarked.
"That's not surprising," the mayor replied. "We are the ones who sealed them in their own pyramid in the first place. They didn't attack just to retrieve the Elemenstar. They want to wipe us out. Cankentriops sent no less than three of his better minions to attack us, including his own right hand man."
"Three of them?!" Starlow shouted. "Three of the five are here?! They really want us dead!"
"You mean that Cankentriops has five lieutenants?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yes," the mayor answered. "They are known as the Five Branches of the Pentacle. Five Cankens far more powerful than all the others. And in case you haven't guessed, Cankentriops himself is the Center, or Core, of the Pentacle. These six are the tip of the Canken pyramid. If they are eliminated, then it will all be over for the Cankens."
Sweetie Belle grinned. "You hear that, girls? We have our targets."
Scootaloo gave back a smirk. "And three of them are here he said. We have the occasion to do half of the job in one go."
"And get the sect's second out of the picture while we're at it," Apple Bloom said.
"These three evils are probably assaulting the Assembly as we speak," the mayor said. "It's where the Elders are sheltered, ready to defend the Elemenstar to the last with many of our most prominent mages."
"Oh no!" Starlow shouted before she turned to face the fillies, panicked. "We must hurry and save the Elders!"
"What about the other Star Sprites we haven't saved yet? There are still many Cankens attacking around," Sweetie Belle wondered.
"Leave them to us," the mayor reassured. "You eliminated a lot of them already. We should be able to manage from now. At least long enough while you defeat the Branches."
The three fillies nodded before they looked at Starlow. Understanding what they wanted her to do, she flew away, and they followed her, dealing on the way with any Cankens attacking them.
It wasn't long before they saw the building after moving around a cloud. Like the houses, it was only one floor high and circular, but it was certainly larger and more decorated, mostly with columns and stars, and the roof was only a dome at the center part of the building (where it actually went two times higher than the houses around), being flat in the rest.
And right now, many of the windows were destroyed, with Cankens entering the building through them. The entrance was also replaced by a big hole, and there were some more holes in the walls here and there.
The fillies didn't lose time and entered the building, destroying all the Cankens on the way simply by ramming them. Inside the building, they encountered many possessed Star Sprites as well as tall purple cloaked Cankens armed of spears that Starlow named Sentrykens, who were stronger and more powerful than the usual Cankens and apparently servel as the personal guards of the Branches of the Pentacle and of Cankentriops. The fillies had no problem defeating all of them before they entered the Assembly Room of the building where most of the remaining Star Sprites defending the building were gathered.
Well, gathered, but also scattered all over the room either unconscious, defending each others, or facing two figures in the center of the room.
Said figures revealed to be two Toads.
One was a 'classic' male Toad (white mushroom hat with red dots) who was dressed like an explorer with a red bandanna around the neck and a light on the hat. The other was a female Toad with a pink mushroom hat with white dots which somehow formed two pigtails, who also had a light on the hat and a red bandanna around the neck, as well as a belt on a short pink dress and pink pant.
Apple Bloom raised a nonexistent eyebrow upon seeing them. "Captain Toad and Toadette?"
"I feel great power coming from them. I think that they are possessed by two of the Branches the mayor told us about," Sweetie Belle informed.
"It was kind of obvious," Scootaloo said. "They stand out in the middle of a small field of unconscious Star Sprites, and I think that I identify a few Elders among them. Also, these two are armed with something else than spears."
As Scootaloo remarked, Captain Toad was armed with a black sword with a hilt shaped like a pyramid with an eye, and Toadette had a large black fan also with an eye.
At this moment, the fillies also stopped behind the Toads a hole in the floor that seemed to lead to a basement.
"That holes... It's where the secret trapdoor to the basement was situated," Starlow informed as she grew more worried. "The Wind Star is kept there. And there's a Branch missing. The third one is certainly in there, after the star."
"Then we must hurry with these two and go after him!" Scootaloo said.
By now, the two possessed Toads had spotted them.
Toad looked at them with amusement. "Look at that, Kirima, the idiot orbs are sending their beasts of burden against us." He then raised his sword in front of his face and looked down, eyes closed, as if praying. "Lord Crakkthulx, help me punish these inferior beings for such an insulting, albeit amusing action. Your servant will put an end to these fools' cursed existence of stupidity and pray that they return as your slaves with at least a few more neurons."
.......... Okay, the guy managed to reach the top of the fillies' shit list in just a few seconds. They will take pleasure turning that arrogant smirk upside down with a few dozens painful hits on his face.
Once they get him out of Toad, of course.
Toad was then hit on the back of the head by a very annoyed Toadette, or Kirima, after she rolled her eyes.
"Stop with your dramatics and let's just get it over with them before we join Jupacc."
"What she says!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "I just want to punch you in the face and be done! Not listen to some zealot's nonsense!"
A vein could be seen on Toad's forehead. "WHAT DID YOU SAAAAY?!!! Stupid animal! For such heretic parole, prepare to be slain by the holy sword of Maztur, the Paladin of Lord Crakkthulx!"
Maztur, as he called himself, then planted his sword in the ground, and explosions of energy suddenly erupted from it randomly in the area where the fillies were.
When he looked up to see the result of his attack, he was faced with a hoof.
The next instant, he was sent flying through the wall behind.
Kirima stared at where Maztur had been not even a second ago, then at the hole in the wall through which he disappeared, then back at the place where he had been, then back at the wall, then at Sweetie Belle, then all around her as the fillies now surrounded her.
"Oh dear...You are stronger than you look."
At this, she grabbed from somewhere in her clothes a crown with two eyes and a design looking like Toadette's mushroom hat in it. When she put it on, Toadette then transformed, taking an appearance similar to Peach with her dress having a design reminiscent of Toadette's mushroom hat. She also still had her pigtails, and now had a pink bow on her chest.
With a giggle, she then placed her fan before her face, hiding the bottom part of it. "Uhuhuhuh. With this form, I won't be as easy to fight as that idiot."
And she threw her fan which began to make circles around her while spinning.
Before she could do more, Scootaloo materialized a spear looking like a lightning bolt and pointed it at Kirima, and at the same time, Apple Bloom pointed a hoof toward her. From the weapon and the hoof then came bolts of electricity (purple in Apple Bloom's case) that absolutely roasted the doppelganger of the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.
The the lightning stopped coming, Kirima was badly burned, smoke coming out of it, and the crown fell from her head, turning her body back to Toadette.
And just as she recovered from it, she found herself face to face with a hoof.
The next instant, there was a second hole in the wall beside the one in which Maztur had disappeared into.
...
"You know. You three are starting to scare me," Starlow said.
"Yeah, I can have that effect," Scootaloo said with a grin, making the two other fillies roll their eyes.
At this moment, Maztur and Kirima returned in the room, still in possession of Toad and Toadette's bodies, and looked very, very angry.
The crown that Kirima used previously then flew right into her hand before she put it back on her head while Maztur raised his sword, charged it in purple electricity, and swung it, sending a huge wave of electricity at the fillies. The three avoided it, but then, while she was mid-jump, Scootaloo saw Kirima just beside her, back in her Peach-like form, fan fully deployed and enveloped in purple electricity too.
Scootaloo quickly teleported behind Kirima, avoiding the fan, and attacked her with her lightning spear. However, Kirima was able to avoid it with an air-jump, doing a backflip above the pegasus before she attempted to hit her on the back of the neck with her shoes enveloped in electricity.
Kirima instead hit a shield materialized here at the last second by Sweetie Belle, bolts of electricity escaping from the impact point. One went straight toward the alicorn who deflected it by hitting it with her hoof, sending it toward Maztur who was too busy trying repeatedly to hit Apple Bloom with sharp waves from his swords to see it coming. As Maztur was electrified as a result, Apple Bloom took the occasion to fly toward him and grab him before she slammed him on a giant bone she made come out of the ground. Then, she dropped him on the ground and levitated the giant bone before she bashed him with it repeatedly.
At the same time, Scootaloo grabbed Kirima by the leg and trapped her in an illusion where the clouds were replaced by hard steel before she proceeded to repeatedly slam her on it, adding some bumps on the steel to do more damage. When the crown fell again, turning Toadette back to normal, she didn't stop.
This continued until the two Cankens were forced out of the bodies, finally revealing themselves as they flew away until they were side by side again and faced the fillies, ready for another round.
They looked very different from the usual Canken. They had arms and even legs instead of just disembodied hands.
Maztur revealed to be very tall, almost two times taller than the Sentikens, and was well-muscled while not as buffed as someone like Bulk Biceps. Disturbingly, while he had a pyramid head like most other Cankens, he also had a large full-toothed mouth on his torso, the cloak he was wearing not hiding it.
Kirima was even taller, almost reaching the dome that served as the ceiling of the room, and was as slim as a stick, with a rather small pyramid head compared to all the others'. She also had four pairs of very long arms, all with a spikes protruding from the elbows. She then bent down, using her two lower pairs of arms as legs and getting her size closer to Maztur's as her body seemed to be able to bend in really weird ways.
Sweetie Belle brought out her whip while Scootaloo pointed her spear at the Cankens and Apple Bloom created a scythe out of bones. Red cubes also appeared around the pegasus.
The two Cankens were silent for a couple of seconds before Kirima said, "Let's go, Maztur. We must avoid being killed."
Maztur let out a growl. "What about Jupacc?"
"He will be okay."
"Hold it. Ya really expect us to let ya escape?" Apple Bloom asked.
The two Cankens exchanged glances before, in a blink of an eye, Kirima ran like a lizard toward a door and smashed through it, and Maztur flew after her. Some Cankens then placed themselves between the fillies and the newly created hole in the wall.
The fillies were taken off guard by the speed at which the two Branches managed to escape, but they quickly got over it and readied themselves to follow them.
"Wait!" Starlow shouted, stopping them. "We will lose too much time chasing them. Remember, there's still the third Branch in the basement going after the Wind Star! It's our priority to stop him from getting it!"
"Cankentriops' right hand man, right? All right. I guess these two bozos will have to wait their turn," Scootaloo said.
"These guys are surprisingly good at running away. We will have to be more careful against him," Sweetie Belle added.
"He won't be able to escape. The basement only has one exit, and it's that hole in the ground over here," Starlow informed. "I will remain here to help the others fight off the remaining Cankens while you go."
The fillies nodded before they jumped into the hole where they could see the remains of a door. Passing it, they had to fight their way through more Cankens, mainly Sentikens with at least half of them in possession of Star Sprites, as they traversed rooms and corridors in what seemed to be a maze. Thankfully, they had no problem finding the right path as they simply had to follow the Cankens. Any obstacles had been destroyed by that Jupacc guy and his cohort.
And before long, they reached the last room of the maze behind a large double door that had been blown up like many others.
They arrived just in time to see none other than Ludwig, the Koopaling with the wild blue hair, defeat the last Elder Star Sprites by sending a ring of explosive balls at them.
Behind the Star Sprites was an altar with a green crystal star floating on it, now defenseless as Ludwig, or Jupacc, began to advance toward it.
"Not so fast, you freak!" Sweetie Belle shouted before she teleported right beside the star and grabbed it.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo positioned themselves behind him, ensuring that he wouldn't escape. Hearing them, Jupacc turned to look at them, then looked back at Sweetie Belle.
"Three little horse things. Managing to get past Maztur, Kirima, and the legions of Cankens on the way to this room. Who are you?"
"Sweetie Belle."
"Scootaloo."
"Apple Bloom."
"We are here to save this town and stop you from get-" Sweetie Belle said before she had to teleport away as Jupacc sent without warning a giant explosive ball from Ludwig's wand, destroying the altar. Sweetie Belle reappeared between the two other fillies, Wind Star on her back. "Hey!"
Jupacc chuckled as he slowly hit the palm of his hand with the tip of the wand.
"You want to stop me from getting the Elemenstar? Very well. Then..." He pointed the wand at them as he began to levitate. "En garde!"
Explosive balls of energy then came out of the wand, but Sweetie Belle destroyed all of them by firing several beams while Apple Bloom sent herself several spheres of energy at him. Jupacc managed to avoid most of them by floating around but was eventually hit by one. To everyone's surprise however, the sphere of energy passed through him without doing anything.
Then, dozens of copies of Jupacc/Ludwig appeared everywhere in the room, all now armed with a black chakram with a small eye on a side in addition of the wand. They all threw the chakram at once, and Sweetie Belle quickly surrounded the three fillies with a shield. All of them passed through it and the fillies as if they didn't exist excepted one that bounced on the shield before disappearing.
"Darn. He's using illusions," Sweetie Belle concluded as she looked around. "And I can't even tell where's the real one. His illusion even works on that sense."
"Well, lucky I'm a master of illusions," Scootaloo said before she sent a wave of Phantom energy in all directions. The real Jupacc was obviously caught in it, and so, taken off guard, was victim of painful illusions (a giant hammer) that badly armed him and forced him to show himself as it was revealed that he had been invisible.
Before the fillies could act on this, the guy disappeared again, and this time, he seemingly managed to avoid whatever illusions Scootaloo was using on him as he didn't reappear. The fake ones were still here however and continued their fake attacks to distract the fillies, and the real Jupacc used that to attack sneakily with his chakram and Ludwig's own attacks. Again, Sweetie Belle protected the fillies with a shield, but somehow, Jupacc managed to enter the shield and gave Sweetie Belle a very bad cut with his weapon.
This gave his position to the others and both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom gave him a bad hit before he got away. Sweetie Belle then sent a fiery wave in all directions (making sure that the fire avoided her friends and the unconscious Star Sprites), hoping to hit the real Jupacc, but somehow, he was able to avoid it.
Sweetie Belle immediately put back her shield before the fillies went back to back to avoid a repeat of what happened previously.
Suddenly, Jupacc appeared right before Scootaloo who quickly attacked him, only for this Jupacc to reveal to be a illusion. Several more appeared before the fillies, and since it was impossible to know which one was the real one, they had no choice but to act to avoid being cut or hit by electricity or fireballs or whatever. Scootaloo then suddenly had a hunch, instinct telling her to do something NOW, and she quickly swung her spear, hitting the real Jupacc who had still been invisible.
When everything else fails, you can count on your instinct, and Infinite (or Zero) had very good instincts honed by years of surviving by himself in hostile environments since he was a child.
Too bad for Jupacc, he won't get the drop on her this way. And worse of all for him, it got him to be hit by a wrecking ball created by Scootaloo's illusion (under which Jupacc was still in).
Apple Bloom immediately took the occasion offered by Scootaloo to attack Jupacc directly in his mind, immobilising him long enough to allow Sweetie Belle to for at him from her ten cannon dozens and dozens of beams. Apple Bloom then made a big bone come out of the ground right under Jupacc to send him in the air where Scootaloo, who had turned giant, gave him the mother of all punches that sent him crashing on a wall with the force of a meteor.
Somehow, he was still conscious, and used Ludwig's magic to duplicate himself, creating two clones before the three of them disappeared.
"Come on..." Sweetie Belle grumbled.
Scootaloo tried to think of a solution when she facehoofed and said, "I'm an idiot." Then, she sent a wave of Phantom energy at both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, and altered reality for the three of them so their senses weren't tricked anymore by Jupacc's illusions. Immediately, all the fake Jupacc disappeared, and the three real ones appeared at different places in the room.
Well, three for three, each filly took on a Jupacc and unleashed Tartarus on them. Before long, one of the Jupacc fell unconscious wall the two others disappeared in poofs of smoke.
Jupacc himself then came out of Ludwig's body.
He revealed to have the less ordinary appearance out of all the Cankens encountered by the fillies until now, because he was just a floating pyramid about the size of Big Mac with an eye on all the faces, including the pentagonal base. He also had three disembodied hands in a triangle formation around him, slowly circling him, one of the hands holding the chakram.
"Impressive, you three. Impressive. You are not just more bark than bite, you really are threats to our cause. I have no doubt now that if I remain here, you will kill me."
"And contrary to your two friends, you can't escape from this room. We are between you and the only exit," Scootaloo said.
"True. However..."
Suddenly, one of Jupacc's hands teleported beside Sweetie Belle and grabbed the Wind Star.
"Yoink."
"Wha-?"
And then, Jupacc was gone.
But they still could hear his voice.
"It has been a very informative fight. I will inform the BigEye about the abilities I witnessed, and next time, we will be prepared to face you."
...
"Wow. He got us good," Apple Bloom said. "He could've teleported away with the star anytime, but he fought us instead to see our abilities, and even hid that he'd teleport."
"Now that I think about it, we should have guessed that he could do it. How else could he enter Sweetie Belle's shield other than by teleportation?" Scootaloo said. "Unless he was already in the shield when Sweetie Belle put it."
"There are many ways to bypass a shield, like phasing through it, or shrinking, piercing a hole too small to be seen or felt, and traversing it," Sweetie Belle corrected. "Sorry girls, I'm not used to face competent villains."
"Same."
Scootaloo chuckled. "I'm more used to face competent heroes." Her amusement quickly disappeared however. "But now, they have the Wind Star. I hope that Mario and Luigi will have more luck. You can't track him, Sweetie Belle?"
Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Like I said, their energy is all over the place. All I can feel is that he went somewhere in this direction," she said as she pointed at a certain direction. "But no idea of where exactly."
One of the Elder Star sprites placed a map of the world on a table.
"This direction, you said?" he asked to Sweetie Belle who answered with a nod. The Elder then levitated a pen and traced a line from in the direction given by the alicorn from where they were. "It seems... either he went to Cap Kingdom, or somewhere in North Emiraco." He pointed with the pen at the North part of the continent just East of the Mushroom Kingdom. "After, it could be another trick. Jupacc seems to be a tricky fellow."
"We should send a group to investigate," another elder proposed.
"I advise against this," a third Elder said. "The poor souls we would send would have all the chances to be possessed. They would need a powerful escort, and our furred friends here still must search the other Elemenstars. There are at least, hopefully, four left. As long as we manage to get one, the Cankens won't be able to bring their 'god' to our world."
"Mario is on his way to get what is supposed to be the Earth Star in Sarasaland," Starlow informed. "Hopefully, they will get it."
Apple Bloom, back in her 'normal' body, looked at her friends. "Should we help them now that we're done here?"
"Hum... could you first get us back to the surface, please?" a fully healed Captain Toad asked, standing beside an also healed Toadette. Ludwig, also healed, was standing behind them.
"Of course!" Sweetie Belle said. "It shouldn't take long." She looked at Ludwig. "And I wouldn't mind using the occasion to see what Bowser is up to."
"Before you go, allow us to thank you again for saving our town and people," the first Elder said. "We will be happy to provide you with anything you need."
"Aw chucks. It was nothing," Apple Bloom said.
"Can we keep the map?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Of course."
So they returned to the surface, the fillies dropping Captain Toad and Toadette in Toad Town before they flew to Bowser's castle following Ludwig's direction.
Before long, they reached a mountainous wasteland filled with lava, with Bowser's castle on a plateau. In the castle, they didn't find Bowser however. The few minions keeping guard of the castle informed that Bowser went to Metro Kingdom with his whole armada where there was apparently an Elemenstar. The minions also informed Ludwig that while Roy and Morton were okay and went with Bowser to Metro Kingdom, the other Koopalings were still missing. They hoped that Captain Goomba and the troops he took will find them quickly.
"Is there any airship left?" Ludwig asked.
"Sorry, but no," a Goomba answered.
Ludwig crossed his arms thoughtfully. "I won't be able to join Lord Bowser by myself with a Koopa Clown Car. The risk of getting myself possessed again would be too high, and it would take too long. I guess that I have no choice but to go help Captain Goomba find the others."
"Mmh... Once we are done in Sarasaland, maybe we will go to Metro Kingdom to see if Bowser needs help. So, just before, I could teleport back here to take you with us," Sweetie Belle said after some thought. "Hopefully, you will have found the other Koopalings by then."
"It would be appreciated," Ludwig replied gratefully.
Meanwhile, Captain Goomba and his team were able to knock out Lemmy, the Koopaling with the tri-colored hair. Since they had already freed Larry (the other Koopaling who had blue hair) who then joined them not long ago, it hadn't been a problem to fight the second oldest Koopaling and his balls, as well as the Teleken getting out of him.
"And two! Who does this leave?" Captain Goomba asked.
"Wendy, Iggy, and Ludwig," captain Koopa Troopa answered. "And let's not forget Sergeant Guy and his teammates."
"And all the minions still possessed and scattered everywhere," Captain Boo added.
"Seems like we still have a lot to do. Come on everyone, let's save everyone so we can join Lord Bowser together as quickly as possible!"
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Wow,that Jupacc guy actually managed to maintain the OPCMC on the Defensive?even if they were Taking it REALLY easy and Winned the moment a opening presented itself,that’s…still actually Impressive.
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Taking it easy is one way to put it. They had to be careful not to kill Ludwig, not to accidentally hit the unconscious Star Sprites, and not to accidentally blow up part of Starven. But yeah, illusions, a terrible power to face when you have nothing to counter it.
You Can't Thwart Stage One, CMC. The Cankens will manage to summon their dark god, and you will manage to kick its ass anyway.