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

ACT FOUR

Over the next two days, putting Christmas just five days away, and Rhymey and Fluttershy’s wedding just four days away, everyone just went about their business in both worlds, though Sunset had written back to their majesties voicing the approval of her team about inviting the Stevens to the Magic World for Hearth’s Warming, as well as their project of moving the portal in the Human World.

Commander Lightning was deeply concerned the day Sunset had sent the message. “Do you think our portal can handle the stress?” he asked Starla.

His wife only shrugged, “I really don’t know. You never can tell when it comes to magic.”

This concerned Lightning so much, that he headed to New Canterlot Palace, requesting to supervise in a complete look over the of the Mirror Gate and its systems.

Professor Brain and he personally supervised, and when all was done once and twice over, Lightning and Brain checked the readouts.

“Well, Professor… everything seems to be in order.”

“Most satisfactory, I must say.” agreed Brain. “Although… I must admit… I am rather concerned about this entire project.”

“So am I. We’ve checked over everything, but I’ve still got this feeling something may happen.”

“Sounds like you’re full of doubt.” said Grand Ruler, which surprised him. “You must have more faith in your friends in the Human World. They, too, understand the risks involved, but without trying, without experimenting, is there any progress?”

Lightning agreed, “It’s not that I don’t trust them… I’m just worried something could happen.

You did teach me… “Even the best thought out plans can go awry. One can never truly be prepared for the unexpected.”

His majesty chuckled, “So I did.”

Soon the two men were walking down the hallways, and his majesty stopped and pointed out a window. “Just look at it all, Lightning.” he motioned at all the glistening of Hearths Warming celebrations amongst all the citizens.

Lightning couldn’t help but smile at it. This was only his fifth Hearths Warming ever. It was not a holiday on Unicornicopia, nor even on his home planet Harmonius.

“I’d had nearly forgotten what it was like not to have all this. We managed, and we had our own holidays.”

His majesty agreed, “And yet we never lost track of what was truly important, and that was our faith… in each other, in ourselves, and the faith in the spirits.”

Lightning smiled warmly, and a wonderful song began as the two men continued to look down at the happiness below.

[Grand Ruler]

There’s a great light shining from above.
Can you see it clearly?
(Can you see it clearly?)
Giving hope and faith to all those who love
Can you see it clearly?
(Can you see it clearly?)

[Lightning]

The gifts of giving, and the joy of living
All come with Hearths Warming bright.
All come with Hearths Warming bright.

As the song continued, the scene changed to down below in town, as ponies and other creatures were shopping, being kind and polite to others by offering to carry big loads or help set up decorations and sets for events.

Then there was Mykan, who wasn’t at school that day-- it wasn’t one of his working days—making his observations, and still looking a little grim and feeling homesick, especially at the sight of all the loving families and couples being together.

All he could do was sigh and go along his way.

Celestia was in town with Castor and Leilani, giving her children a usual tour of the kingdom to help them understand how it worked if they were to rule someday.

[Celestia]

See the preciousness of giving from the heart
Can you see it clearly?
(Can you see it clearly?)
And the whole world is out doing its part
Can you see it clearly?
(Can you see it clearly?)

[The Children]

The love and cheer, is now and always here
Basking in Hearths Warming Light
Basking in Hearths Warming Light

The scenery faded, back to the Human World where everyone was going about their business, including Sunset doing her work studies at the hospital as part of her Medical Training.

She was helping to care for some of the sick children under the watchful eyes and instruction of Dr. Penny Sillion.

[Sunset]

There are miracles awaiting on the wings
Can you see it clearly?
(Can you see it clearly)
The angels and their giving it brings
Can you see it clearly?
(Can you see it clearly)

[The Children]

Good will to all, as snow will fall
Basking in the Christmas Light.
Basking in the Christmas Light.

The scene then changed to outdoors with everyone being as merry, and as helpful and giving as the ponies in the Magic World, including the friends.

Buddy was growing and selling poinsettias and baby pine trees for charity…

Rarity, taking time off from sewing wedding clothes, was making stocking caps, mittens, and scarves.

Rhymey was writing Christmas poems in cards for people, for a small price, which he also donated to charity.

Pinkie Pie was giving out free samples of Sweet Snack’s new Christmas sugar cookies and being merry and happy as ever.

Then she saw Swift, and she offered him one with a big, friendly smile, which he softly shook his head at and walked away not saying anything, much to her disappointment.

The people all began to sing…

All the people in their lives are going about
We all see it right there
(We all see it right there)
Peace and joy they’re throwing about
We all see it right there
(We all see it right there)

With everyone glowing, the brightness is showing
Have a good Christmas/Hearths Warming time.
Have a good Christmas/Hearths Warming time.

The song was over as night began to settle in.

Sunset left the hospital, bidding Dr. Penny goodnight.

“You did wonderfully today.” Penny said. “You’re going to make a great doctor someday, especially with my recommendations.”

Sunset smiled, “Thanks, Doc… maybe we’ll work together.”

“Maybe.” chuckled Penny.

Artie was there to greet Sunset. “Hey, there.”

“Hiiii…” his wife cooed, and she walked up to him and kissed him tenderly.

Their moment was interrupted when Sunset’s cellphone rang. “Should we let it ring?” Artie teased, but he knew better, and Sunset answered it, “Hello…? Twilight…?”

Then she slowly turned shocked, “…Now… Tonight…?”

Now Artie felt a shiver up his spine.

Sunset hung up and looked at him, “…It’s time.”

She held Artie’s hand tightly, and he squeezed hers. They were about to leave, when suddenly an elderly man walking down the street began to suffer from a heart-attack and he went down.

Sunset couldn’t ignore this. “I’ve got to get him help.” and she rushed over to the man, rolling him on his back.

Artie could only watch from the crowded hordes of people. He could tell this was going to take some time.

Sunset looked up, and she knew she’d be delayed from the big event. She motioned for her husband to come forth, and she handed him the message book. “Take this, go on without me.”

“But…”

“Just go! I’ll be there as soon as I can, or just start without me.”

Heeding his wife’s words, he pecked on the lips quick, and then he dashed off.

Soon, everyone else was gathered outside of Canterlot High by portal, even Cadance and Shining Armor were present.

“How come you guys are here?” asked Rainbow.

“Are you kidding? We wouldn’t miss this.” answered Shining Armor.

Cadance nodded, “Besides, the Crusaders came to us and said they were trying to earn money for Christmas Gift Shopping, and we figured we could let them babysit Flurry again.”

It was a good thing the school was locked up for the night, so there was no one around to witness what was about to happen.

Artie had already explained to everyone why Sunset wasn’t present.

“I see…” said Celesto. “She certainly is dedicated to her work and studies. That’s understandable. Well, I suppose we’ll just have to get on without her.”

“Wait a minute! Where’s Pinkie Pie?” asked Starla.

“Here she comes!” cried Applejack.

Pinkie came riding up slowly on her scooter, and she pulled off her helmet revealing her grim face.

“What happened to you?” asked Dyno.

“You look like someone who got caught in a traffic jam.” said Myte.

Pinkie sighed as she hopped onto the ground. “It’s Swift, I was trying to be nice to him all day…”

Through a series of Flashbacks…

After Swift had refused her cookie offer, Pinkie made several attempts to talk to Swift and try and befriend him, but it was no good.

“I saved you a free cookie.”

Swift miserably, but politely refused. “No thank you.”

Pinkie rushed to catch up with him, “So, how you feeling…?”

Swift just gave her an angry glare showing that he was not up to speaking to her.

“You know, I’m going to host a Christmas Party soon. You could come if you want.”

“No thanks!” Swift said sternly, “What do you think you’re trying to pull?”

“I’m just trying to be nice to you… like a good friend should.” Pinkie fluttered her eyes at him with hint on the “Friends” part, but Swift wasn’t buying.

“Since when are we friends? You guys won’t let me join you, you won’t let me help you, you snub me… and now you just want to suddenly start over?”

“Um… yeah…?”

Swift snuffed, “Just forget it. I won’t bother you guys anymore, so don’t bother me anymore.” and he walked off leaving Pinkie feeling rejected, almost enough to make her hair puff down.

Everyone hung their heads low.

Celestia felt bad still for how she yelled at him wrongly.

“I told you it wouldn’t be easy.” said Buddy.

“Never mind that now.” said Celesto “Twilight Sparkle…”

Sci-Twi approached Spike wearing a cute little sweater.

She then reached into her jacket pocket, and pulled out the device, like the one she made long ago. Same shape, same size, same design roughly.

“Ooohhhh!” everyone remarked.

“Here it is…” Sci-Twi introduced, “The Magic Manipulator Modification Master… Version 2 Point O.”

Krysta blinked her eyes in confusion “MMMM…? That’s what you call it, four M’s?”

Sci-Twi shrugged, “I only just made it.

Anyway…” she turned to face everyone else “It’s time. This should work.” She didn’t do anything yet, not until Artie got out the message book hoping for a response to the message he wrote back to their majesties.

Grand Ruler Celesto and Queen Celestia had received the message.

“It’s time…” said Celestia.

Her husband agreed, “Summon Lightning and the others. They’ll want to see this.”

“I have already done so, Brother-in-Law.” said Princess Luna, and she showed Lightning and the entire group into the chamber.

Everyone bowed to their majesties, who were very surprised to see they arrived so suddenly.

“Lightning could barely contain himself.” explained Starla. “He had us remain on standby ever since.”

Some of the others chuckled at him, and Lightning rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Well, you’re not the only ones.” admitted his majesty.

That’s when Princess Cadance and Shining Armor came out from around a bend.

“Hey…” called Shining Armor.

“We wondered when you’d all get here.” added Cadance.

Lightning smirked, “You heard about the news, huh?”

The couple nodded, and they dropped Flurry Heart off at the palace daycare where she was having fun with her friends, and especially Shining Light…

The scene showed the two kids in the daycare, and Flurry gave Shining a candy cane. “Happy Hearths Warming.” she said while fluttering her eyes in a flirty way, and Shining Blushed and kissed her hand tenderly.

“OOOHHHH.” The other kids said it in a teasing way, but they didn’t mind at all, and no one dared to make fun of Princess Cadance’s child, nor Commander Lightning’s.

Celestia wrote to Human Artie giving him the “Okay.”

He got the message and gave a thumbs up. Now he really wished his wife was here. “We can’t wait to get another chance. It’s hard to get everyone here and there all together.”

“Do it…” said Celesto.

Sci-Twi motioned for everyone to step back, and she slowly approached the portal with her device ready.

“Please work…” she murmured.

She activated the device which gave off a small glowing light, that grew brighter, and brighter. This caused the magic in the gate to glow in response.

At the same time, the mirror gate on the other side began to pulsate as it sensed something strange happening.

Starla shivered softly. Lightning held her hand while the others all watched in awe.

The human friends were all starting to grow nervous. The couples held onto each other, while Spike hid behind Rarity, and she comforted him.

Krysta flew hid behind Lightning’s neck shuddering, and Starla and Lightning… they looked at each other, and then held each other’s hand.

The glowing became brighter. Sc-Twi shut her eyes began to grunt and groan while trying to stand strong.

“Somebody, help her!” cried Applejack.

Shining Armor tried to rush forth to help his sister, but Luna held him back. “You mustn’t stop her!”

“But Twily…!”

Sci-Twi held on as the magic seeped out of the gate and into the device like a vacuum. The force of the absorption nearly knocked her off her feet, and then… finally…

…The device snapped shut, and all was quiet.

“Is it safe to look now?” peeped Krysta.

“I think so.” said Lightning.

Starla sighed in relief, and then she realized she was still holding Lightning’s hand. The two let go in a flash, and blushed.

“Did it work?” asked Rainbow. “Don’t keep me in suspense!”

Sci-Twi looked down at the device, which was now glowing and pulsating softly. She also went up to the statue and she felt around. All she felt was cold, solid metal.

Celestia breathed in relief. “That was certainly frightening, but exciting soon.”

Rarity was hyperventilating, “I think I shall never be the same. My entire system has undergone traumatic scare!”

Everyone ignored her wailing.

“So, what happens now?” asked Lightning.

Celesto explained, “We transfer the magic to the new location. Follow me, Everyone.”

But as everyone headed off, the device began to glow brighter and vibrate vigorously in Sci-Twi’s hand. “Hey!” she wailed.

“What’s happening?” cried Luna.

“Oh, no! Oh, No! No! No!!” exclaimed Sci-Twi.

Back at the Mirror, Lightning checked all the systems, and they were not operational as the gateway to the other side was now closed. Nothing would come alive no matter what he tried.

Celestia even received word in the message book, “…The magic is secure. They’re moving it to the new location.”

“Yippee!!” Pinkie cheered, but no one else was hip and leaping.

Fluttershy said…

“It’s not all over just now, see?
They still must transfer the magic
I hope they do it safely
And we won’t worry of anything tragic.”

That’s when the portal began to glow magically!

“What’s going on?” asked Spike.

“Lightning what are you doing?” wailed Rarity, but Lightning held his hands up, “It isn’t me!” and his blood ran cold as the mirror glowed brighter… This was exactly what he was worried about!

“Seal it off!” ordered Grand Ruler, and he, Celestia, Luna and Cadance cast the mirror inside a magical barrier hoping it would hold it down, but the mirror just gobbled all the magic up and went crazier as the glowing got brighter.

The Red Alarm sounded, all over the palace, alerting all the guards and staff, even civilians outside could hear it from town, though very quietly.

“What’s happening?”

“What is it?”

“Is something wrong?”

Mykan Stevens, who was by his home, heard the noise, and felt even without a proper invitation, he should investigate himself. So, he flew off to the palace.

“Let’s get out of here!!” shouted Lightning, but it was too late!

Goldwin and Professor Brain dashed into the chamber just in time as the biggest, brightest flash of light burst through the mirror.

“What’s going on!” cried Goldwin.

“Ohhhoo My…!!” wailed Brain, and he shut the door hard. “I say… Look out!!” and he dragged Goldwin away.

In the Human World, at the Starfleet Base, the alarms sounded, and the workers were scrambling at the consoles.

“What’s happening?”

“Massive amounts of energy bursts coming from Canterlot High.”

The monitors tried to pick up images of outsides the school, but the magical energies were so intense, that the cameras were knocked out, and nobody was able to see what was coming next…!

Sci-Twi threw the device down to the ground, and it just kept bouncing about going crazier and glowing brighter, until it burst open, and the magic shot at the entire group.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING-----------?!!” Spike wailed.

In the most magical of phenomena, the two groups switched places, and during the confusion and excitement, the magic in the Human World just flew off like a speeding comet over the city!

Sunset had just finished up treating the man, and helping the medics take him into the hospital.

“Good job!” Penny said to her. “We’ll take it from here.”

Sunset was about to head off, when she saw the magical light rocketing across the sky. Something inside her turned cold as shivers sped across the sky.

“Please tell me that was not what I think it was?!” she whimpered, while passers by only confused it for some low-shooting star, no matter how crazy that sounded.

Far away, Swift was sulking on the roof of his apartment building, when he saw the light in the sky… heading straight for him.

“What’s that?!” he wailed, and he began to head for the door to the stairs, but the light had already come down and crashed right into him!

“AAAAA-AAAAHHHH!!!” he screamed and wailed as he felt strange energies flowing through him.

Passersby in the streets could hear the scream for at least a mile. They had seen the shooting light in the sky, and saw it hit the building.

“What is that?”

“What happened?”

“Sounds like someone got hit!”

“Call the police! Call the meds! Anybody!!”

Swift lay on the ground of the roof for a few moments until he snapped awake and found his strength to get up onto his feet. “Whoa! My head! My body!” he groaned softly. “What in the world was that?”

He managed to make his way to the door, and he headed back down the stairs, back to his apartment.

He passed by a tenant in the hall. “Hey, did you hear someone scream?”

“Scream?” Swift said wearily. “I don’t… think… so.” and he walked groggily away, disappearing into his apartment.

Anyone else who lived in the building was either asleep, or saw the flash, but assumed it was lightning, and/or heard the scream but didn’t bother with much when all went quiet.

…A lot of cheap folks in the building!

Swift felt stranger, and stranger. He felt like the whole room was spinning in swirling, he tried to fall onto his bed, but he bounced right off the mattress, grabbing the sheets and dragging them with him as he fell to the floor and passed out.

*Mykan’s POV*

I used my teleporter to pass through the walls, passing by all the guards and security, but I still ran into the guards in the hall.

“Halt!” one of them shouted, and he charged forth, only to stop and realize, “Mr. Stevens? What are you doing here? You weren’t summoned.”

“Never mind that!” I said sternly. “I’m an auxiliary Starfleet fighter, I have a right to answer when danger strikes. Now what happened here?”

The guard explained how the alarm, which was now off, came from the gateway chamber.

So, I teleported there in a flash and found Goldwin and Professor Brain trying to open the jammed doorway to the chamber.

“It’s no use, Professor…” panted Goldwin. “I can’t budge it.”

“Oh! If only I were decade or two younger!” groaned Brain.

“Stand back!” I said, “SWORD OF PURE SOUL!”

Realizing what I was going to do, the two men backed away.

The blade of my sword glowed brightly, and I thrust it hard between the creese between the doors, and I pulled and pulled, prying the doors open.

The three of us peeked inside to find everyone lying collapsed on the floor.

“What happened here?” I wondered.

“Your Majesties!” cried Brain as he scrambled to help them up, but when he saw next made him gasp in shock. “Oh, my…!”

Celesto, Celestia, and Luna. Not one of them had sparkling and/or flowing manes and tails. His majesty’s cape no longer sparkled or flowed, and his three golden horns, they were gone… replaced by a single, regular white horn.

Goldwin found Rarity and Spike, but he took one look at them. “No! What’s going on?”

Spike was a baby dragon again, albeit a little larger than his old self, and Rarity was no longer half-dragon, but she looked regular-- to before she had her accident and surgery. She had a regular pony face, no scales, a regular pony’s tail, and feathery alicorn wings.

As for me, I got down near Lightning, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Twilight Sparkle?” It was her, only… she had no wings, her mane was done up in a large bun in back, she had no Cutiemark, and she had glasses?

And Lightning… his horn was no longer golden, but white and ordinary.

The pony began to come to, “Oh!” he groaned. “What… What happened?”

He looked up and me, and he thought he was dreaming. “Mykan Stevens? What are you doing here?”

I didn’t know what to say to him.

He looked all around him and realized, “Where am I? I was just in the school yard and…” he suddenly remembered, and then he saw Professor Brain, and Goldwin, noting their pony-like appearances.

He began to feel afraid as he looked at all his friends and noted their new appearances. Krysta didn’t look like a bird anymore.

“Lightning…!” she groaned as she woke up.

“Krysta? Are… are you a… a fairy?”

Krysta gasped at her new appearance, and then she looked up at him. “Never mind me… look at yourself!”

Lightning didn’t have to, he could feel along his muzzle, his pony ears, even his horn. “No…!” he muttered. “No… don’t tell me, I’m… that we’re all…”

“I’m afraid so…” I answered “This is United Equestria. You’re in the Magic World.”

Lightning felt like fainting, and he knew the others were in for a nasty surprise when they awoke.

“I don’t understand.” said Goldwin. “What happened to our friends?”

“I hasten to think, but I believe the answer is clear…!” stated Brain.