My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic Season XI

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 8: Part 1: Life of a Little Adult

Author's Note:

Yes, I got the idea from Batman TAS "Baby Doll" giving a pony the same condition as Mary Dhal sure helps in this plot.

After all, there's a difference between NOT WANTING to grow up, and being UNABLE to.

EPISODE EIGHT

One night, Buttonfly was sleeping peacefully in his crib…

Angel was all curled up in his little basket bed…

…And Fluttershy, she rolled over in bed to find her husband not beside.

Rhymey was outside actually patrolling the perimeter, in case the ghost would try to attack the family in the night.

With his sword in hand, he kept marching around, and around, and around the cottage. He did feel rather sleepy, and was even starting to get a little paranoid…

Every sound he heard-- every twig cracking, owl hooting-- made him stop and look around with his weapon poised.

Then he heard another sound… of the cottage door opening. He turned and saw his wife, in her night robe.

She let out a mighty yawn and saw…

“Rhymey, please come to bed.
Come and rest your weary head.

There’s nothing out here tonight,
Everything’s quiet; it’s all right.”

Rhymey wanted to believe her, but he protested…

“I feel tired, and weary too,
But I can’t stop worrying about you,
About, our friends, our son,
…I’m worried about, well, everyone.”

Fluttershy walked over and pecked him sweetly on the cheek.

“I know how you feel; it’s not the best,
But you still should come inside and get some rest.”

Her husband sighed, and with a tap of his energizer, his sword vanished. He put his arm around his wife, and they softly walked back to the house… only for the alarms to sound right as they reached the door!

One of the sentries came rushing past, “There’s another attack reported!”

Since Rhymey was still dressed, he decided to head off, while Fluttershy agreed to stay and watch the house, the animals, and the baby.

“If anything happens to go wrong…” he started to say, only for his wife to quickly tell him…

“It’ll be fine. Hurry along!”

Rhymey pecked her on the cheek, and he flew off.

He arrived to find Lightning and Swift in front of Town Hall, and the ghost had already harmed three adults on Mayor Mare’s council, but she herself was spared by Lightning and Swift and was escorted outside of the building along with everyone else.

There was a bright light flashing from the windows, and the ghost burst out through the walls.

She looked much more opaque than usual, as if she were becoming solid, and diamond eyes were looking shinier than ever.

She bellowed at everyone looking up at her, “The more life force I absorb from you all, the stronger my power grows, and soon I’ll have all that I need to exact my vengeance on all of you, especially grownups!”

Then she vanished and was gone, feeling she had done enough for another night.

“U’rgh!!” groaned Lightning. “There’s got to be a way to stop her!”

“Yeah, but how?” wondered Swift.

Rhymey looked at all the lit up houses and buildings nearby. People were woken up when the alarm sounded, for the third night that week, and the people were not happy.

Who would be with all the restless nights and all that?

The next morning…

Lil’ Fair got out of bed, and she still had no memory of the trouble last night.

School was out, she had gone to the New Ponyville Library to study, as her father had ordered her too, and when it was time to head home she passed by town hall, looking at all the grownups in suits and working hard as if they didn’t know the meaning of the word fun.

Then, when she went home, she had supper and went straight to bed. Everything else was a blank, but she knew better.

She had a feeling that creature attacked again.

She looked all around her bedroom. “I know you’re here.” she called softly hoping the spirit would answer.

When she didn’t get a response she continued to call out. “You can’t hide from me. Your little game is going to end.”

That’s when she heard wicked snickering coming from inside her very head, “Sorry, but I will decide when that happens.”

Lil began to pound her head with her pillow in a fruitless effort to shake the spirit out, but it only amused her. “Yeah, hit it harder, maybe it’ll actually work… Not!”

“Go away! Leave me alone!”

“Nah… I like it, and besides… you made a deal with me. I keep you young so you don’t ever have to worry about growing up, and the more life force we take from those “grownups” and others, the better for the both of us.”

Lil was standing in the middle of her room looking up, down, and all around, “What do you mean? What good does it do you?”

The spirit snickered. “You wouldn’t understand. Nobody ever did, which is why they deserve to pay!”

Lil shook her head. “No! I don’t want this! I don’t want to help you hurt others.”

“You have no choice. Besides… weren’t you the one who said you’d do “anything” to not ever have to grow up?

Get used to it, child; you’re strapped in for the long ride.”

“No! No!!” bellowed Lil.

The spirit said no more, especially when there was a knock at Lil’s door, and Lady Fare called, “Lil’? Are you alright?”

She let herself in. “Who are you talking to in here?”

Lil wanted to tell her mom about the spirit, but apart from still being unsure if she could trust her, it wouldn’t have mattered.

As the spirit was growing stronger with all the life force she absorbed, she was able to not only use Lil’s body, but by now she could prevent Lil from saying anything to give her away.

Then again, Lady Fare, with her constant yapping, told her. “Remember, today’s your school field trip to daddy’s shoe factory. Won’t that be fun?”

Lil could only sigh and hang her head low. Not only was she not really looking forward to it, but she didn’t think her father would like it either-- with so many children looking around his workplace.

Meanwhile, in town, Lightning and some of the others were reading the daily paper. The front page told about the number of complaints from citizens. Some were even accusing Starfleet of being lazy and not doing anything about the creature at all.

“Oh, no…!” Lightning groaned.

“Well, ain’t that just doggone nice of them.” remarked Applejack. “We’re doing our best here, and it weren’t for the alarms, they’d all be sitting ducks on a dry pond.”

Everyone gawked at her for her raging.

“Sorry, I haven’t slept too well myself.” she admitted

“Well, it’s a good thing you and Swift were at Town Hall last night.” Starla said to Lightning.

“What we’re you doing there so late anyway?” asked Krysta.

Lightning explained, “Swift wanted to comb through the archives again on Sole Maker’s house, he thinks he has a lead on the case.” he paused “…And I think he could be right.”

Everyone leaned in.

“What do you think he’s found out?” asked Rhymey.

“Will it help us solve what this is about?” rhymed Fluttershy.

Lightning showed everyone some photocopies of old newspaper clippings about the murder home, and the family that once lived there.

Though the pictures were colorless, and rather faded, they were still easy to make out. A quaint little family consisting of a mother Earth Pony, a Father Pegasus, and their only daughter, a cute little unicorn child-- the murder victim.

Lightning told everyone to focus on the little daughter. “Her name was Little Jewel.” said Lightning. “She used to be a spokes-pony for child-related products, including baby-food, diapers, and small-sized clothing.”

He showed everyone old adds from the files with Jewel’s picture on them.

“Aww… she looked like such a happy little filly.” said Starla.

“Yeah, she does look like it…” said Lightning. “…But would you believe in all of those pictures, she was actually twenty-three years old?”

The others all gasped in complete and total shock.

“Twenty-three…?!
How can that be?” asked Rhymey.

“She looks barely old enough to walk!” added Krysta.

Lightning nodded and explained, “According to her medical records, Jewel was born with a very rare and unusual medical condition. I verified it with Penny this morning.

It’s called Systemic Hypoplasia. It prevented her from physically growing. She always looked like a three-year old, no matter how much time went by.

Because of this, she was able to land all these jobs, because while she looked like a child, she was mature enough to keep up a good act.”

The others were simply astounded, just as Lightning was when he discovered the story himself.

“She couldn’t age at all?” said Applejack. “That’s incredible, and yet she was so successful. What happened?”

Lightning explained, “Jewel, though successful, began to grow resentful of her condition and her appearance. She longed for more; a better life, better respect, and better things than all that child stuff… but she was tragically denied all this because of her condition-- her inability to grow.

Tired of always being too short, always being mistaken for a mere child in-spite of her adult intelligence and maturity, or bossed around by other adults, even those her own age…

Sadly, no magic could work on her, because just as her condition prevented her from growing, no spell would do the trick either and would likely have disastrous results if attempted.

Undeterred, she decided to end it by trying to find some cure or potion that would make her grownup.

Her father wouldn’t hear of it, because he loved the fame and attention, as well as the fortune his family could make from continuously exploiting his daughter for her condition.

No one really knows what happened after this, because Jewel was discovered killed-- murdered by her father, and both he and his mother were killed too; deduced by the authorities that the father had killed his daughter in an act of insanity, and then killed his wife and himself to avoid prosecution.”

There was nothing else after that.

Fluttershy almost felt like crying.

“That’s all so sad,
It just feels so bad,
To be exploited and killed by a dear old dad!”

The others agreed with her.

“Wait!” said Starla “You think that… Jewel could be the ghost?”

“It’s just a wild guess.” replied Lightning “We’re just playing on hunches right now. After all, she’s going around attacking adults and children-- absorbing their life force-- and we’ve all heard what she wants right out.”

“The more life force I absorb from you all, the stronger my power grows, and soon I’ll have all that I need to exact my vengeance on all of you, especially grownups!”

The others couldn’t deny, that sounded like a vengeful spirit, but there was still no positive way to prove it.

“And Swift came up with all this?” asked Krysta. “Where is he?”

Swift was at the town library with pages of all the evidence he had. He had a small portfolio with him containing mini-photos of all those who had been attacked, trying to find a connection hat would probably lead to uncovering the ghost for good.

“There’s only one way to confirm if this ghost is really Little Jewel.” he thought to himself, “I’ve got to confront her again, and maybe it’ll help find out how she’s doing all this so we can stop her.”

Then, who should happen to walk up behind him but Zecora.

“If it’s a ghost that you wish to capture,
You must confront it, that’s for sure.”

Swift looked up and asked, “How did you know I was looking for the ghost?”

Zecora smirked at him and said...

“It is no secret of what you seek…”

She held up the newspaper of the story.

“…There is quite a lot of what the people speak.”

Swift sighed. He couldn’t give too much information, even to Zecora, as it was strictly Starfleet business, but he was able to say, “If we could just confront the ghost again, we might get somewhere with it, but then again we still don’t know how to stop it.”

Zecora then reached into her the burlap sack on her back and handed him a copy of a book she had written entitled “Understanding the world of the Supernatural”

The book was to help give her wisdom and advice to people who would seek it, and it would make her quite a bundle in cash to help buy her magical ingredients from the markets.

“Read the book and learn from it too,
It just may have the information for you.”

Then she excused herself leaving Swift to look through the book. It sure did look interesting, and he found himself drawn to all the pictures, instructions, and he didn’t even mind so much that it was all written in rhyme.

“Look at all this.” He said to himself as he combed through the pages, and finally got to a segment on ghosts, spectres, and spirits; including neat way approach them, fight them, and even capture them.

“I’ve got to show this to the commander!” he suddenly yelled, earning him a big “SHHH…!” from the libraries patrons, making him embarrassed.

Sole Maker’s shoe factory was located on the outskirts of New Ponyville, like most other businesses it was kept away from the village where they were hardly any homes or farms so there was plenty of space to work and make noise without much trouble, and also made shipping to other cities easier.

The factory building was as wide as the Crusaders High school, and three stories tall.

The lower area consisted of storage, where big shipments of shoes sat packaged and loaded into crates to be shipped out all over the planet, and the galaxy.

The floor above was where all the action was, and that’s where Cheerilee’s class was walking through now.

Mykan Stevens came along with the field trip to observe how alien creatures worked in manners similar to people in his world; it really wasn’t all that different.

The group saw how ponies cut out leather-- sometimes by hand, sometimes by machine-- and used modern machinery to shape and sew shoes and boots together.

The tour guide was a very nice mare who showed and explained to the children how all the machines worked, and very politely cautioned the children, “Keep well back… all this stuff looks cool, but it’s dangerous. Careless working can seriously injure someone… or worse.”

The children obeyed and stood well back, but they awed at how the machines work.

“How many shoes and boots do you make?” asked Melody.

“A little over five-thousand pairs every day.” replied the guide. “Imagine how many shoes that is in just one year.”

The students were very impressed, all but Lil that is. She was still feeling and looking rather nervous, especially being in her father’s “Domain” as she usually put it.

She looked up high, at another row of windows from the upper floor, which was the office floor. All the executives did their paper work and held meetings there, and Sole Maker’s office took up a large portion of the floor.

She wondered if her father was watching…

He was, but not from his office.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Sole Maker suddenly bellowed causing the entire factory to go silent, even the machines seemed to stop like they were afraid of him.

Sole looked extremely cross and marched over to the group. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re on a field trip.” replied Cheerilee “And if you don’t mind, we were in the middle of hearing an explanation of how slippers are made.”

Sole folded his arms, “Well I’d like an explanation of who authorized this, because I don’t remember authorizing the allowed of “Children” in a building for adults only!”

His yelling was starting to freak out some of the kids.

*Mykan’s POV*

I wasn’t about to take any of this and I marched straight up to Sole. I spoke severely but calmly, “We were given full permission from a contract agreement signed by you!” I presented to him the signed document.

Sole was out of his mind with shock, and then finally it donned on him. “I was so busy that night I must’ve signed it by mistake. Therefore, this contract is null and void.”

The children were all starting to look disappointed, some were even upset.

“Yeah…?” Sole gloated at them “Well you better get used to it. Disappoint is going to be a big part of your lives.”

“Dad, stop it!” snapped Lil.

All the other students gasped.

“Why are you always being so grumpy and miserable to people all the time?”

Her father only glared at her with furious eyes. “Don’t you go questioning me, young filly!” he scolded. “This is MY factory, and here I make the rules… and I say “Field trip is over. Vacate the premises before I call the guards.

No Children are ever allowed here!”

I clenched my fists angrily. Nothing would have made me more thrilled than to put this jerk in his place, but I didn’t.

Cheerile instructed the class, “We better go. Mykan, will you teleport us all back to school?”

I nodded at her.

She led the upset class to the exit.

Many of the students looked angrily at Sole.

Tee Base stuck his tongue out at him, further irritating him, he would have scolded the child hard had I not stepped in.

“Back off!” I sneered softly at him.

The students could see as they exited down the stairs things were starting to get ugly, but Cheerilee ushered them along not wanting them to see.

“Are you going to threaten me, Mr. Stevens?” Sole asked in an angry but mocking tone.

I remained silent.

“No? Then kindly leave before I call security.”

“Oh, I’ll be glad to, but just know this…” I paused “You have officially carried it too far today. I don’t know why you hate kids so much, but your behaviour today is totally inexcusable, and I intend to see you answer for it.”

“So you are threatening me?”

“No, sir… I’m promising you. We had a signed agreement, by your hand. You were given the permission contract, you were told to look it over, and you chose to brush it off like all the things you consider “Childish” or “Petty” but you still signed it anyway, without being forced. That gives us a legal binding, and you just broke it in a threatening and slimy matter.”

All the workers gasped in horror. None of them had ever dared talked to Sole Maker like that before. Usually it was Sole Maker doing all the barking, all the demanding, and all the insulting.

Anyone who dared speak up against Sole found themselves in hot water afterwards.

“You watch your back, Mister.” I said. “Your misdeeds will come back to get you.”

With that, I turned my back and flicked my cape at him, just barely hitting his muzzle.

As I walked down the stairs, I heard Sole scream “GET BACK TO WORK!!!” to all his employees, and the factory started up almost immediately.

Once outside, Cheerilee spoke to me, “I hope you weren’t causing trouble in there.”

“No, but I’m filing a complaint. He had no right to do that, not this time.”

Cheerilee actually agreed me with and offered to be a witness and voucher.

*POV Ends*

Melody and Tee Base were still shaking along with some of the other students.

“That guy is mean!” sneered Tee.

“He’s dreadfully rude.” agreed Melody, and she asked to Lil “Is he always like that? How do you put up with him?”

Lil didn’t answer. She was much too infuriated with her father this time. He was always mean-mean-mean, especially to her.

She looked up at the factory and glared at it furiously, but then quickly remembered to keep clam or a disaster would occur.

Worse still, the spirit inside her could feel the hate on her father.

“I think it’s about time for him to be served too.” she hissed. “But I’ll need another big boost of power before I can do that… and I think I know just where to get it from.”

Lil could hear her inside her head.

“No, don’t!” she practically begged.

“No, don’t what?” asked Melody, some of the others looked at her, even Cheerilee and Mykan did.

She wanted to tell them about the ghost, but once again was prevented by the spirit’s power; instead the spirit forced Lil to say. “No… don’t… teleport just yet, my shoe is untied.”

She bent over and seemingly tied up her laces, even though only she knew they were perfectly tied from the beginning.

Then the entire class huddled together, and Mykan used his teleporter to transport everyone back to school.

Later that day, after the afternoon patrol rounds, Swift showed Lightning and the gang Zecora’s book, and the information he got about how to deal with the ghost.

“This all seems crazy.” said Krysta as she looked through the instructions of how to deal with ghosts. “If we want to expose the ghost is Little Jewel, we have to show her something from her past?

That’s nuts!”

“…Which is why it just may work.” said Lightning. “According to this, if Little Jewel is the ghost, showing her something from her past that may cause enragement can have a nasty effect on her spirit, and this will prove that it’s her.”

“Well, does the book say how to stop her as well?” asked Applejack.

Swift admitted he hadn’t read that far yet. “Even if it does say how to stop her, we still have to find her first.”

“On that note, you’re right,
And the ghost only shows at night.” said Fluttershy.

Rhymey agreed and added…

“There are many places she can show,
Exactly where, how will we know?”

“We don’t.” answered Lightning. “The book says we can lure ghosts out… “By giving it when it wants to lure it into place.”

This was little help at all. Everyone knew the ghost wanted to absorb energy from grownups, children, which meant the next victims would be anyone at random.

A stakeout would be out the question under such conditions.

“I know it seems harsh…” Lightning said “…Especially for the citizens, but all we can do for now is wait for another sighting.”

The others agreed, but felt horrible about just sitting idly. Why it practically made what the citizens were saying true; that they were really not trying hard enough.

“Well, what do we do now?” asked Applejack.

Nobody had an answer to that, until Starla saw… “Hey, there’s Mykan.”

Normally after school was out, Mykan headed straight home to New Canterlot, but he was heading straight for New Ponyville town hall, with a red manila envelope, with a Starfleet seal on it.

“Hey, that’s a law complaint intended for Starfleet to see.” said Krysta.

“Since when does Mykan file complaints?” wondered Swift.

They decided to stop and question him.

*Mykan’s POV*

The minute I had gotten back to school that day, I spent whatever free moments I had between lecturing and grading to writing the complaint against Sole Maker.

Now it was all made out, signed with my name, and Cheerilee as witness and voucher.

“I just hope this works.” I said to myself. “Somebody needs to take that big-headed loudmouth down a peg or two.”

I was just heading up the last bit of stairs when Lightning and the gang confronted me.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked.

“We could as you the same.
Is that complaint why you came?” asked Rhymey.

I looked down at my envelope.

“Well, you could say…
we had a little trouble today.” I replied, then realizing I had just spoken in rhyme like Rhymey and Fluttershy.

The others chuckled softly.

Then I decided, since they, the top-ranked officers, were here, I’d go over the complaint with them right away, and maybe even get swift action.

“I see…” said Lightning when I told him how Sole Maker had reacted.

The others were nothing short of outraged themselves.

“I can’t believe he did that.” said Starla.

Applejack looked mad enough to take a bite out of her hat. “This time that over-worked boot-licker’s gone too far!”

“I think we should all go have a word with him…” suggested Swift, but then he straightened himself up towards Lightning and Starla. “Sorry, sir… ma’am… I mean with your permission.”

Lightning assured him, “It’s alright. Yes, I do think it’s time Sole was given a serious background check. There is no excuse for the way he behaved today.”

*End of POV*

That night, you can bet Sole was furious. He came home growling like a tiger, and screaming like a banshee.

Even at supper he was miserable.

“Then they had nerve to tell me that if I didn’t refund the money all those brats gave for the trip, as well compensate to the school, I’d face criminal charges!”

Lady Fair rubbed her chin. “Well, the law is the law dear, and you probably took a bit too far this time.”

Lil only grumbled softly as she scrapped at her dinner plate, “Being a total loudmouth jerk is more than a bit too far.”

“What did you just say?!” growled her father. “That sounded an awful lot like you were slandering me!” He got up and slowly approached his daughter in a threatening matter. “If you were slandering me, young filly, so help me… I will punish you!”

Even Lady didn’t like the way Lil spoke, but rather than be intimidated, Lil stood up and looked them both dead in the eyes with a cross expression, forgetting about the ghost and her powers…!

The dinner table suddenly collapsed, right onto Sole’s foot.

“AAAAAHHH!!” he wailed, and he fell to the floor clutching his sore foot.

“Honey!!” cried Lady as she tended to her husband.

Lil’s eyes quickly widened at what had just happened. She felt rather stupid for forgetting about the power.

“You better go to your room.” Lady said to her.

“What? But I didn’t do anything.” wailed Lil, even though she knew she unintentionally had.

“Just go! NOW!!” shouted Sole.

Tears of anger and shame rolled down her face, and nothing would have made Lil happier than to call her father out; saying “You deserved it!” but she said nothing, and stomped out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

In a fit of rage, Sole angrily kicked away a fallen dish with his good foot, and he scolded his wife. “Why? Why did you have to curse me?”

Lady sighed, “Don’t do this again.”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do! I had plans for us both. We were going to travel, live in comfort, and have everything we ever wanted, and then you just HAD to have her, and you ruined everything!”

Lady was starting to not like her husband’s tone, “I told you before; I never knew I was pregnant. It just happened.”

“Well it shouldn’t have!”

His true colors finally becoming exposed, he continued to rant on how much he hated children, and how “…Lil should never have been born! But, whatever, I’m stuck, we’re stuck! I can’t even give her up because it wouldn’t make me look good in front of my clients!”

“They’re right you know. Shoes are about family, and that includes children.”

“Children!” scoffed Sole. “Who needs them? Rotten brats…!”

Lil had heard everything from the top of the stairs. She always had suspected that her father hated her, but to hear him actually say and admit it…?

“I’m just a mistake?!” she cried under her breath.

She slowly walked to her room, and softly lay down on her bed.

No kid liked to be told by a parent that they were a mistake… unwanted… should never have happened.

This admittance from her father sparked a whole new revelation inside of her.

All the times she hated and scoffed at growing up, and not getting to hang with her friends anymore, or getting to play the way she wanted…

…It wasn’t really a fear of losing what she loved, but rather it was because some adults were being far too pushy, especially her dad… what with his All-Work and No-Fun attitude, and now especially shown by how much he admitted he hated children, and never wanted one himself.

“You see now…?” asked the spirit “All the more reason for your father to suffer the worst.”

Lil cringed tightly trying to shoo the spirit away. “Don’t you dare hurt him!” even after all she had just heard and learned, she still wished no physical harm on her father, just like hadn’t meant to smash the table on his foot.

“My dad’s a very bad pony, I agree, and he should be punished, but not like this!

Besides, what’s you’re deal anyway? Why do you really want to destroy all grownups and those who do grow up?”

She didn’t know of the story behind her own house.

The spirit only began to take control of her again.

“No! What are you doing?!” Lil wailed. “I thought I had to be asleep.”

“Not anymore.” replied the spirit “Like I told you; the more energy we obtain, the stronger and greater my power is. Now be a good little vessel, and stay out of my way!”

Lil was unable to fight back at all, and her eyes began to glow brightly… again!

The creature snickered in her own voice. “Yes! I can feel it, just a little more power, and I’ll finally have all that I need.”

She looked towards the window, “…I know just who can give me the power I need now.”

*Mykan’s POV*

The gang and I went out to dinner as a little celebratory victory for serving Sole Maker some much needed justice.

We were eating outside on the patio, because the night was so beautiful.

“…And did you see the look on his face?” laughed Applejack. “I never saw anyone throw such a childish fit.”

Krysta did an impersonation of Sole and his ranting, “This is an outrage. You can’t do this to me. I know my rights!”

Even though we all thought it was funny, and pretty satisfying to deliver that blow. Lightning kept everyone in check, “It’s nothing to joke about. We did our jobs rightfully, and justice was properly served.

We don’t want to make this into some sadistic pleasure.”

I agreed with Lightning, as a teacher I had to set good examples for the children I taught.

“I got to get going.” I said “I have tests to grade and a lesson to plan. Plus, I can’t wait to tell Cheerilee about this.”

Starla and Lightning gave him a look, reminding me of what Lightning just said.

“I’ll keep it easy.” I promised.

Since Cheerilee didn’t live to far, and I knew she was still up at this time. I left my share of money for my meal, excused myself, and headed down the road.

*POV Pause*

Fluttershy kept watching him until he was out of sight, and then she looked all around the immediate area, obviously looking for signs of the ghost.

Rhymey placed his hand softly over hers and said…

“Stay easy, dear.
She’ll soon appear.”

His wife squeezed his hand softly.

Lightning whispered to Swift and Starla, “I never thought I’d say this about a monster, but I hope she appears soon.”

“So, do I…” said Starla.

Swift nodded and said “…Especially with what I have for her.” he held up a small portfolio with special things he had obtained from the archives at the library earlier that day.

Suddenly, the alarms sounded, followed by citizens running in panic from the direction Mykan had gone, escorted by the sentries.

“This may be it!” cried Lightning. “Let’s go.”

*Mykan’s POV*

I had stopped at Cheerilee’s to tell her the news about our complaint, and while she was delighted to hear Sole got served, the minute I left to head home, the ghost suddenly appeared right outside.

The sentries saw and sounded the alarm immediately, but the ghost seemed more interested and focused on me.

“Mykan, get out of here!” Cheerilie called to me from inside the house.

I tried my teleporter, but it was out of power because of my transporting the entire class to and from the show factory-- it needed to be recharged.

I looked up at the ghastly creature, glaring at its diamond eyes.

“Give me your life force!” she demanded. “It’ll be less painful if you hold still.”

I wasn’t going to give in that easy, and I still had my magic cape…!

“You’ll have to catch me first!” and I leapt up, up into the sky.

The ghost growled and chased up after me.

As an auxiliary Starfleet member, I knew I had to keep her away from big crowds to avoid more casualties, so I kept way up high over the rooftops, and thanks to my astronaut training, I was made to fly dangerously-- especially thanks to tricks I learned while practicing with my cape.

I would power-dive, swirl in loops, make hard turns, anything to keep the ghost at bay and dodge her every attempt to fire her beams at me and sap my energy.

“Run from me all you like!” called the creature “It only makes your energy stronger and tastier!”

She shot at me again, and I powered dived down, only for her to pull a fast one and shoot at me again, and I wouldn’t be able to dodge the shot this time.

The beam hit with a small explosion.

“Got’cha!” shouted the ghost, but as she looked on, she saw that I was still fine.

At the very last second, I had pulled out my Shield of Righteous Courage and used it to defend myself.

“What? How dare you!” bellowed the creature.

“Oh, sure…” I called back “How dare I defend myself from a sick, life energy stealing, freak like you!”

Being called a “Freak!” seemed to really enrage her. I knew things were only going to get worse.

“SWORD OF PURE SOUL”

I grabbed my blade, and waved it back and forth, making its time shimmer in the moonlight.

“That puny thing can’t hurt me!!” thundered the ghost, and she furiously dove straight at me while charged up to fire another blast at me.

“Actually… it can!” I called back to her as the beam headed straight for me, and I took a mighty swing with my sword, hitting the blast hard just like a baseball, and sent it straight back up, past the ghost knocking her off balance.

The blast headed straight up into the sky and… BOOM… exploded in a huge flash.

Now she was really steamed and growled as she readied herself to attack me again when suddenly, magical holo-images began to appear in the sky behind me.

*End of POV*

They were very old advertisement images showing Little Jewel with products she promoted many years ago.

“Banana flavored baby-food”

“New and Improved Potty-Pants”

“Saddle Harnesses for little babies.”

Down below, Lightning and gang were responsible for these images.

Using the images from Swift’s portfolio, Starla and Rhymey used their magic to shine images from the old papers, flyers and magazine covers into the air like giant billboards.

All the others observed the ghost as she saw the ads, and she looked rather shocked, appalled, and even sore at seeing them all.

“No! All these…!” she groaned, and in a rage of fury, she flew through the images, waving at them angrily trying to make them go away, but they just came right back every time.

“I think she really hates them.” remarked Swift.

“Hold it...” said Lightning. “…I think this is it!”

The ghost took another look at a picture of Little Jewel in an ad for diapers, looking like a happy and giddy little filly, with a speech bubble making it look as if she were saying “Look at me, Ma! I’m a big kid now!”

The ghost roared in outrage and furiously declared “IT’S ALL A LIE!!”

That was all anyone needed to hear.

“So it’s true!” cried Lightning “She is Little Jewel.”

“But how?” asked Applejack “She doesn’t look a thing like her old self.”

Fluttershy agreed,

“She looks more like a monster,
Not a ghost of the kid that was her!”

She gasped when she suddenly realized what she had said, which really infuriated the ghost above.

“…I… AM… NOT… A KID!!!!” as she shouted, her bright aura glowed so brightly that everyone had to cover their eyes.

When the light had faded…

“She’s gone!” wailed Krysta.

Everyone looked and looked all over, but Little Jewel was nowhere to be seen.

“Do you think… we actually beat her?” wondered Starla, but even she knew that was silly. Ghosts couldn’t be dispersed that easily.

“She must’ve retreated for now.” said Lightning. “But at least now we know…”

The others all agreed; Little Jewel’s ghost was now exposed, but it was still a matter of how to stop her.

Jewel had retreated to beyond the New Ponyville limits; she sat up against a lone tree in the vast dark fields, and despite being a ghost, she felt and looked as if she were in great pain.

“I can’t believe that!” she groaned “My past… my shame… it was all there before my eyes again!”

She clenched her fists tightly, “I will make them all suffer for this!”

Suddenly she began to feel strange, and she wailed and growled while struggling with her own forum as a pale white glow seemed to emit from herself.

It was Lil trying to retake control of her body again.

“Let me out!” she groaned. “Let go of me!!”

Unfortunately, by now, Lil was so weak and Jewel’s evil was so immense, Jewel didn’t need to revert back and power down.

The glowing stopped, and Jewel assured Lil. “I still have enough power to keep you at bay, but now I need to come up with another plan to wipe out all adults… as well as your pathetic father!”

She then grinned a very wickedly “…And I think I know just the perfect setup.” she snickered. “The next time I strike, it will be a night to remember, and all will pay!”

To Be Continued…

(Promo)

In our next episode: Lil’s sudden disappearance results in a wide search, and even a few other hidden revelations in the case. Meanwhile, Little Jewel’s ghost is cooking up nasty surprises and laying a trap for all her enemies at Sole’s Shoe factory, and it is determined that there is only sure-fire way to stop the ghost once and for all, which may require an extremely risky and dangerous move!

What sorts of traps await our heroes and all the citizens now?

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

(Next Episode: “Part 2: The Parent Entrapment”)