Starfleet Magic (Movie): The Switch Before Hearths Warming/Christmas

ACT FIFTEEN

Early in the morning, in the Magic World.

Celestia and Celesto were up bright and early, seeing Luna off to bed again, and they both managed to raise the sun without trouble. They had a goodnight’s sleep but were barely looking forward to another hard day of royal duties.

As for the friends, at least the fighters, they were all gathered in the snowy meadows, outside of New Ponyville. Krysta was looking after Shining Light and Twinkle, and Angel was looking after Button Fly. As for Twilight Sparkle Scales, Rarity… there was only one person she could trust to watch her.

Sci-Twi, she had awoken early, along with Mykan and Spike, and all three of them agreed to look after the baby before school.

*Mykan’s POV*

The two-year old was still asleep, but Sci-Twi was incredibly psyched to be babysitting. “A creature of mixed breeds.” she exclaimed softly.

“Not bad, for a half-dragon, anyway.” said Spike.

I agreed, but cautioned the others, “As long as she doesn’t wake up, we’ll be fine. You guys really don’t know what kind of tantrums she can throw.”

I also hoped Rarity wouldn’t be out too long, I still had to get to school for the last day before the holidays.

*POV Ends*

Many of the fighters looked tired and beat.

“I thought a good night sleep was supposed to be good for you.” said Dyno.

Myte yawned, “Tengo mucho sueño. *I’m very sleepy* I feel like I could’ve slept a-hundred years.”

Rarity stretched out, “A fabulous beauty like me needs her beauty sleep!”

Still, everyone knew why they were there.

“Good, you’re all here.” said Lightning. “We need to do some serious training to toughen up a bit.”

Starla murmured, “It’s about time I had a little action anyway.”

Lightning heard her, but he brushed it off. “I was lucky I was able to arrange this training today-- being the Commander has some perks.

The point is, we just barely managed to win yesterday’s battle, and we ought to be better-prepared when and if another one occurs.”

The others all agreed, and it was time to get moving.

Lots of equipment and machines had been delivered to the field earlier, per Lightning’s orders.

Cannons, traps, mini obstacle courses, exercise gear and weights.

The fighters got going, flying and running through the deadly courses, which freaked them out, but they managed to do well.

Digging through the ground just using their bare hands, to increase their finger dexterity, strength, and tolerance against the cold snow. This also helped Rarity to get used to the fact that her dragon claws were not real.

“Dig… Dig… Dig…!! Ohhh! My poor fingernails!” she groaned.

“Move along, Rarity!” Buddy called as he plowed through the ground past her and dumping snow on her, much to her annoyance. “I’ll show you!” and she got back to plowing.

Lifting weights that were many times heavier than weights at the gym back home. They were much harder to lift, even with their mighty strengths due to their being weaker than their magical counterparts.

Target practice, where projectiles and shots were fired from the cannons which the fighters were to intercept with combos of their magic and combat. They also had dodging practice, which Pinkie excelled at excellently, the way she was all bouncy, slick, and hyper; she dodged all those shots as if they were nothing.

“Missed me!

Ooh-hoo… missed me again.

Too slow!”

Applejack came stomping through, dragging behind, on a harness, an enormous stone block more than three times her size.

“Come on! Come on!” she grunted and groaned as she pulled the massive block along! “Pull! Pull!!”

She sweated up such a storm she melted the snow as she walked along.

Rainbow zoomed up, down, and all around, practically enjoying herself like a kid in a playground as she zipped through the obstacle course. “This is so cool; I could do it forever… and I thought I was cool at stunts back home.

WHAA-HAA-HOO!!”

She cleared the flaming rings, the swinging blades, the cannons shooting, the stones crushing, and all this vastly improved her speed and evasiveness.

Then… came the hardest part of all… The Sparring rounds, where the fighters would battle each other to test their fighting skills and strengths against strong, fast, and intelligent opponents.

This made things hard for some of the friends, especially Fluttershy who was facing Rhymey…

“Rhymey, I just can’t fight you,
That’s something I’d never want to do.”

Rhymey shook his head,

“Will you stop complaining?
We’re not fighting, just training.”

Fluttershy still looked grim.

Rhymey himself didn’t like having to fight his love anymore than she did, but her reminded her,

“This is something we have to do,
So, suck it up, and have at you!”

Fluttershy looked all around at all the others sparing with each other.

Even Dyno and Myte were battling with each other to test their physical and natural strengths, without having to join hands.

Even Pinkie Pie didn’t mind fighting with Applejack, furiously swinging her fists and kicking her feet, and Applejack blocked her every attack.

“Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me!” Applejack bellowed.

“I’m trying!” Pinkie wailed.

Buddy cracked his whip, “Take this, Artie!”

Artie blocked it with his staff, “Not close enough!” and he pulled hard flipping Buddy over, but Buddy quickly recovered and lassoed his leg, flipping him over too.

The two got up and exchanged a high five for a cool trick flip.

“Let’s go again.”

“You’re on.”

Seeing all the friends sparring, yet still getting along well ignited Fluttershy’s courage, and she rushed in to attack Rhymey, and together they had a wondrous brawl.

Lightning and Starla fought each other.

“I can’t use magic in battle. I don’t have the power of the Uniforce, and I haven’t got a weapon like the rest of you.” said Lightning. “So, I really need to toughen up.”

“I’ll help you in any way I can.” said Starla.

The two began to battle, swinging their fists, kicking their feet, and the two of them seemed perfectly equal. Neither one managed to land a single blow.

“Now try this!” Starla hollered, “STAR SHOWER!”

She unleashed her rain of stars, forcing Lightning to swerve and dodge around as he rushed through.

“STARLIGHT ARROW!” She fired multiple arrows from her bow, but Lightning knocked every one of them away.

“Impressive.” said Starla. She felt this called for a stronger attack, so she concentrated hard, and her horn glowed brightly. “PULSAR LASER!”

POW!! She fired an incredibly huge blast that struck Lightning hard, making a big explosion! The force of which blew everyone back.

The explosion was seen from within town, and Swift Star, who was on Dawn Patrol saw it.

“Hey, what was that?”

Because he was not properly informed of the training session, he couldn’t help but break off his patrol and rush in to investigate.

The fighters all lay on the ground and slowly began to get up.

“Wow! What a bang!” said Rainbow.

“Guess the training gave her a little boost.” said Buddy.

Even Starla was surprised and shocked at what she had just done. “Lightning?” she called into the cloud of dust. “Lightning?”

Still no response…

…And just as Starla began to fret that she hit him too hard, Lightning leapt out of the cloud and tackled her to the ground, pinning her shoulders down hard. He hardly hurt at all.

Suddenly, they were lost in each other’s eyes, and their cheeks turned red.

“Wooooooohhh….!” The others teased, forcing the two to quickly bolt onto their feet and feeling very embarrassed.

“Aw, come on, you two lovebirds, it ain’t no secret anymore.” said Applejack.

“Who said anything about lovebirds!” snapped Starla.

“Yeah, who?” put in Lightning, but the others shook their heads, more in dismay.

“You two are just hopeless.” said Artie. “You know you’re crazy about each other, so just do it already!”

Lightning and Starla blushed madder than ever, but they looked more as if they were going to explode if anyone kept talking about it anymore-- no matter how true it was.

“Where is it?!” Rarity panicked as she scrambled through the snow. “It must be here somewhere! It must be!”

Everyone looked at her.

“Rarity, what are you doing…?” asked Buddy.

That’s when Rarity turned to face her friends, and everyone gasped! Her face was that of a normal pony and not of a half-dragon.

“My disguise chip!” cried Rarity. “It must have fallen off when the blast forced me back!”

“What? Oh, no!” groaned Lightning.

Since it would be impossible to locate the tiny chip in snow, everyone activated their visors and scanned around for metal circuity.

“I got it…” said Applejack, and she picked up the chip. It didn’t look damaged. “I hope it still works.”

She quickly proceeded to attach it back onto to Rarity’s neck.

“AA-OOHH!!” Rarity wailed.

“What? What’s the matter?”

“…That’s cold.”

Applejack groaned, and then reattached the chip. In a magical flash, Rarity donned her disguise again, much to everyone’s relief.

“Thank goodness nobody else saw that.” said Dyno.

Myte then saw, “Um… I don’t think so.” he said nervously.

Everyone looked where he was staring from and saw Swift Star standing in the snow with his eyes wide in total disbelief at what he had just seen.

“…We’re Busted.” was all Pinkie could say.

The school dance was on, and the students at Canterlot High were shaking it up on their last afternoon before the holidays.

Celestia and Luna stayed behind to watch over the students and be ready to close the school when all was done and have a little fun while they were at it, joining the party, dancing, partaking in the refreshments.

As for Lightning, since there wasn’t much for him to be doing, he left school early to join the patrol.

Starla was waiting for him as he left the building.

“Hey…” she said rather sweetly to him.

Lightning couldn’t help but smile at his wife, but made not attempt to be affectionate with her. “I take it there’s been no luck?”

Starla shook her head, but she explained to him about the investigation of his apartment.

“It’s all starting to make sense…” said Lightning, and he told her what he had just learned from Celestia and Luna before he left, about Swift’s grades and stuff.

“No wonder he lives like that.” said Starla. “But it still doesn’t make sense. What kind of parents would let their kid live his life as a waste?”

Lightning had a sickly feeling, “There’s one piece missing from this puzzle, and the best way to find it is to confront Swift himself. We’ve got to find him.”

Starla agreed.

Then Lightning noticed, “Where’s Krysta? Wasn’t she with you?”

Starla only then noticed Krysta was nowhere to be seen. “I thought she came here to you by now.”

When the patrols switched, rather than fly off to see Lightning, Krysta decided to head back to Swift’s apartment. “No one said I couldn’t continue the investigation myself.” she chirped naughty.

She landed on the window to Swift’s apartment, and when she saw Swift had still not returned, she felt this was her chance, and she was in luck; the window was unlocked and had no screening. “That’s a bit careless.”

It was hard for her to lift up the huge frame for a bird her size, but she managed and let herself in, falling to the floor in near exhaustion. “I miss my super strength.”

It was a good thing she was on the floor, because she could see right under the bed the box of papers.

“What are all these?”

It turned out the papers were letters sent to Swift from his parents from the day they left for the so-called “Peace Conference” two years ago.

Basic letters of saying how much they missed him, and were thinking of him every day, and hoping to come home soon, and hoped he was taking care of himself.

Krysta found that so sweet, but as she read on, she noted how the dates between the letters were getting farther and farther apart, until finally… she reached the last one… which was dated on Christmas Eve a few months after the parents departed.

…And what she read made her blood run cold.

“Oh, my, goodness! Now it all makes sense.”

She had to tell Lightning and the others about this, and so she flew up to the window, which was still open, and she managed to shut it before flying off.

Meanwhile, DD found Tree Hugger sitting on a yoga mat in an open field, where she seemed to be meditating, which she usually did when she was bummed out.

“Tree Hugger!” she called as she dashed up to her. This caused Tree Hugger to lose focus and wake up.

DD was out of breath as she finally reached her, and she panted heavily. “What’s happened?” she asked. “Did Buddy break up with you or what?”

Hearing his name made Tree Hugger clutch her chest as more bad feelings twisted inside of her, which made DD assume the worse. “I knew it! He’s not going to get away with this one.”

“No… he didn’t break up with me.” Tree Hugger quickly said “It’s way worse… I mean it’s way uncool… it’s just…”

“What is it?!” DD snapped, but then she apologized. “I’m sorry, I just need to know what’s going on. What did Buddy say to you?”

Tree Hugger didn’t know how else to say it, “…It’s not him.”

DD was confused, “What’s not him? You mean Buddy’s not being himself?”

“No… I mean, that isn’t Buddy.”

Now DD was really confused!

Sweetie Belle hopped off the bus and could see Rhyme Time up ahead. She texted Scootaloo asking to meet up at once and heard she was at the café.

She had to tell her what she had just seen. “She’s going to flip when I tell her that Rarity was eating dog food and growling and barking too.” she said to herself.

All she had to do now was cross the street over to the café, when suddenly…

BOOM!! There was a big explosion atop a small office building down the street. Flames burst everywhere, and loads of burning debris began to crash down, forcing civilians to run for cover.

Quickly, the people began to run, and many others crowded in across the road. Others were rushing out of Rhyme Time to see what was happening.

Scootaloo was at the front, and she saw Sweetie Belle across the street, but she couldn’t rush over.

Rhymey made his way out through the crowd of people and told everyone…

“Everyone, stay here, don’t panic or shout.
I’m going over to check things out.”

He transformed in front of everyone and flew over towards the danger zone with the crowds cheering him on.

“Look, here comes Starfleet!” someone cried as more of the fighters came soaring in, and soon the fire brigade arrived, along with the police to handle the crowd control.

No one seemed to know just how the fire broke out, but it was guessed by the staff of the building that faulty wiring in the walls was overloaded.

The fire was already up on the top three floors, and there were people trapped on the roof with the flames rapidly approaching.

The firefighters had already busted into the building to help get more people closer to the ground floor out.

As for Starfleet…

Applejack, Buddy, Dyno and Myte landed on the roof and began to fly people, one at a time down to safety, while Rainbow and Fluttershy began to use their powers to gather up clouds.

They were aided by Pinkie Pie who had just come off work from Sweet Snacks when she saw the explosion from while on patrol.

“Move! Move! Move!” Applejack hollered.

“We’ve almost got them all.” said Dyno.

“Stop those flames!” Myte called.

Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pinkie gathered loads of clouds from the sky, resulting in a large raincloud which they positioned clear over the building.

Once the Fire Captain gave the okay that all the electrical power was shut off at the mains…

“Okay, do it!” Buddy hollered up.

“Here I come!” Rainbow shouted, and she flew up high, above the cloud and came crashing down on his hard, bringing torrential rains down on the building, soaking it to stop the fire from spreading.

The rain poured so hard that the water flowed like a stream down the stairs and into the building where it soaked the flames and brought the fire down enough for the fire brigade to get it under control.

The fire was going out, and the crowds began to cheer for Starfleet’s assistance, and the fire brigade’s help too.

…But someone among the civilians began to suspect something, and that something was Swift who was standing in the back rows.

“I don’t think this fire was really an accident.” he said to himself. “Just the top three floors, and no place else? That seems fishy.”

Just then, he turned his head and noticed a gang of four women in business suits and blazers, rather than being worried or concerned about the building, were slipping into back alleys behind several buildings down the street.

No one else noticed them as everyone was distracted watching the fire being put out and wondering about the conditions of the people who were in the building at the time.

Swift slipped away from the crowds, but he didn’t go unnoticed.

Lightning and Starla, who were walking up the street rather than flying in the sky, saw the explosion from afar, and so did Sunset and Artie while they were flying in the sky. They were pleased to see the team had already helped with the fire and were helping rescue the civilians.

“I have to get down there and see if I can help the paramedics.” said Sunset.

“Good luck!” said Artie. He was about fly over the regroup with his friends when he saw down below, “Is that…?” He couldn’t believe his eyes, but it was Swift.

He quickly called into his mic, “I see him! I see Swift Star!”

All the fighters, except for Sunset heard him-- she didn’t have a headset of her own.

“I see him too!” cried Lightning. “He’s heading down that alley.”

“Let’s move!” said Starla, and the two zoomed off.

Swift slinked across the alley, and he stopped at the corner. He could hear the ladies talking to each other.

“That was too easy.” one of them said

“Yeah, starting that fire was the perfect distraction.”

Swift nearly gasped in horror.

Another one of the ladies held up a briefcase containing loads of blueprints, documents, and code papers. “Now we can start our own business, and it serves those scumbags right.”

“Rotten suits!” said the fourth, “We work hard, yet they don’t promote us, they don’t give us good projects, or don’t give us anything!”

“Humph!” scoffed the first lady, “Well, so much for them. They have all that damage to worry about, while we have everything, we need in that case.”

Swift had heard enough, and he was suddenly enveloped in a golden light.

“What’s that?” one of the ladies cried as she saw the flash.

All four ladies peered round the corner, and they saw no one there… until The Golden Fighter landed before them, making them all scream in fright.

The fighter than held out his hand and magically levitated the briefcase into his grip, “The only thing you ladies are getting is a nice long holiday-- behind bars!”

One of the ladies marched up, “I don’t know who you think you are, but we’re only doing what we have to. Those morons deserved it for not recognizing our potential and talents soon enough.

So back off!”

The fighter clenched his fists angrily, and his body flared up in bright aura, scaring the ladies to the point of surrendering.

The fighter only seemed to get more and more enraged as his aura flared up brighter, making the ladies cry out for help.

That’s when the fighter rubbed his hand over his face coverings, and he seemed to calm down. He dropped the briefcase in his throes.

A couple of police cars came up to the end of the alley. The frightened women grabbed the briefcase and rushed up to the police practically yelling.

“We did it!”

“Take us away!”

“We’ll go to jail!”

“Just keep us away from him!”

The cops were confused, “Keep you away from who?” asked one of them. The ladies looked behind to motion at the Golden Fighter… only he was gone.

The fighter had teleported away. The ladies were confused but were still in panic and threw themselves into the cars before even being handcuffed, feeling it would be safer in jail.

Nobody noticed Artie was flying overhead, above the alley, and he had seen everything, including Swift transforming. He only didn’t help out because it looked as if things were already under control.

“I’ve got to tell all the others, now!”