Chapter 8: Train Your Hardest!
"Alright Everypony listen up, Starlight Glimmer is getting closer to where we are, and we need to be prepared. So we're going to use this time today to train for when the fight comes our way, so get ready to train your flank off, and don't you dare slack! Now let's do this!"
Rainbow Dash had just given the ponies one of her usual encouragment talks before their training began. After seeing the footage of the attack on North Bay, the ponies were determined to make sure Starlight was stopped once and for all. They used several blocks of wood as a target, which Rainbow Dash had painted a rather bad picture of Starlight Glimmer on.
As for my pals and myself, we stood close by on the back porch, watching them and watching the traffic that went by.
"This is part of the highway, yet there isn't a whole lot of traffic," commented Emily. "Then again, people are probably too scared to drive after seeing that footage of North Bay."
"No doubt," Patrick agreed as he leaned aganist the side of my house. "I mean let's look at what she's done, she's set homes on fire, derailed a train, burned up vehicles on the highway, scribbled a message on the side of a building and attacked people with her magic. Uh, am I forgetting anything?"
"Nope, you covered it all Patrick," I said.
Ryan just shook his head, "hard to believe this is all for real, and that the battle aganist Starlight Glimmer is getting closer. Now I can see why you were hiding the truth Matthew."
"Yeah and I'm sorry again about that."
"It's fine Matt, at least now we know," said Patrick, "and now we can actually help. It's a good thing you have extra paintball guns, though it leaves me wondering if they will be affective on Starlight. I mean, can't unicorns use shield spells to block attacks?"
"They can, but that's why we got to time our movements perfectly, so while the ponies strike, we hit her when she least expects it."
"Okay Matthew Darling, we're ready for you!" called Rarity.
I nodded, picked up my gun and walked over to the training dummy. Twilight used her magic to create the shield, just to make it more realistic and Applejack got into position to strike.
"I'm ready whenever you are Sugarcube."
"I'm ready Applejack."
"And go!" cried Rainbow Dash.
Applejack charged in, while I snuck around to the far side of my second garage on the property. Applejack hit the shield hard with her hooves while I got the gun ready. Now of course I know what you are thinking, the target can't move, so it will be easy to hit it unlike the real Starlight, who might glance back towards me. Well to make the training more realistic, Fluttershy was flying above with strings attached to the wood, making it move in a circular motion.
Anyhow, with Applejack hitting the target, I got my gun ready, aimed it and fired multiple paintballs. It turned like the real thing probably will, which gave Applejack the chance to buck it hard and knock it over.
"Excellent!" cheered Rainbow Dash, "a winning combination, you'd both make great wonderbolts, if you had wings. Now Pinkie Pie and Patrick, you two are up!"
"I'm on it!" cheered Pinkie Pie. Patrick nodded and excepted the paintball gun from me.
The results were the same as before, which was amazing to watch since Pinkie Pie doesn't do that much fighting in the series. Only a few times have I seen her actually fight with her hooves. Next up was Ryan and Fluttershy.
"You can do it Fluttershy!" cried Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow Dash stared firmly at her pink friend, "if that was the real Starlight Glimmer, then our friends would be in serious trouble, so...KEEP IT DOWN!"
"Sorry."
"Keep it down yourself Rainbow," scolded Rarity, "do you want more humans finding out we're here?"
"Uh right, my bad. Okay Fluttershy and Ryan, go for it, I'll take care of the movements of the dummy."
Despite her shyness, Fluttershy and Ryan worked well together and took down the training dummy in no time at all. Emily got her turn next, and she worked with Rarity. Emily had never used a gun before, and sadly, some paintballs nearly hit Rarity.
"Sorry Rarity, I don't want to ruin your beautiful mane!"
"It's alright Emily, just calm yourself down, focus and aim your gun at the block of wood. You'll get it this time."
Rarity's advice was just what Emily needed, for this time, she hit the target good and proper, which allowed Rarity to finish it off.
Twilight and Rainbow soon got their turns, working alongside Patrick and myself and making sure the moves would work.
Afterwords, we all gathered on my back porch for something to drink. We had done well, but knew that those kinds of moves wouldn't work all the time, so we would have to add some extra techniques to help us in our fight.
"Boy that was rough," groaned Patrick, "I'm definetly not looking forward to facing the real Starlight Glimmer tomorrow."
"Me neither," sighed Pinkie Pie.
"Hey, just be glad it's not Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis or King Sombra," I said. "If it were any of them, the fight would be much more difficult."
Rarity shivered, "now those are three names I don't like being reminded of."
"Me neither," said Rainbow Dash, "but it's not like they'll come back anytime soon. Nightmare Moon is history and Sombra hasn't been seen since the Crystal Empire was saved. As for Chrysalis, she's been missing since the wedding."
"What about Tirek? He was pretty nasty himself."
"He was indeed Emily," sighed Twilight and looked down to the deckboards. It was clear, she was remembering the Golden Oak Library, which had been destoryed by Tirek in the Season 4 finale. "At least he won't cause anymore trouble where he is now."
"Matthew's right though, we should be glad it's only Starlight Glimmer we're fighting, not any of those baddies."
"Now that would be scary," said Ryan.
We went silent for almost a minute, that was until I remembered something, "say Twilight, do you think Sunset's found a way back to Equestria yet?"
"I don't know Matthew, let me go check."
She got to her hooves and walked inside the house. She soon returned with her journal, which wasn't glowing, so she pulled out a pen and started writing into it.
"So that book is the real journal she uses to write to Sunset Shimmer?" Emily asked.
"Yep, that's the real one alright. Believe me, I've seen it glow before."
Patrick raised an eyebrow, "something else you forgot to mention to us huh Matt?"
"For the record Patrick, I did say the book belonged to a friend, and I did say it looked like the original book from the movies, so in a way, I did mention it to you."
"Okay you got us there."
Twilight finished writing her message and closed the book, "give her a few minutes and we'll have our answer. Assuming that if she did travel to Equestria, she took the book with her."
A few minutes later, the book started glowing. Twilight used her magic and opened it to the page where she found Sunset's latest message, which read as follows:
"Dear Princess Twilight, I've had many ideas, but nothing seems to work in getting me back to Equestria. The Rainbooms even tried to use their own magic to reopen the portal, but that didn't work. I'm not giving up though, and you can rest assured Princess Celestia and I will be there as soon as we can. Until then, be very careful my friend and don't let your guard down. Signed Your Friend; Sunset Shimmer."
Twilight sighed as she closed up the journal, "she'll find a way, I know she will."
"And if she doesn't, then we'll be trapped on the human world and have to give up all we love and cherish back in Equestria, which is quite a bummer if you ask me. Still, we could learn everything we need to know from Matthew and his friends, though it'll be hard for us to adjust..." Pinkie's quick words were interupted by Applejack placing a hoof over her mouth.
"We will get back Pinkie Pie, just have faith in Sunset Shimmer and Princess Celestia."
"We hope you're right Applejack," sighed Rainbow Dash, and all the ponies nodded in agreement.
Nightfall soon came and we were once again back inside, watching the news to see if there were anymore reports of attacks on small towns after North Bay. So far there were none.
Now, since my friends had checked out of the hotel, and the town of New Liskeard was almost thirty minutes away, it made more sense to have them stay here. Patrick ended up taking the room Rarity had been staying in originally, Ryan got the futon downstairs, Emily got my room and the ponies agreed to share one room together. Twilight on the other hand, or hoof in her case, agreed to stay upstairs in the living room with me, just so that if Starlight showed up in the middle of the night, we'd see her and be able to alert everypony and everyone.
"So far, nothing on attacks," said Ryan, "maybe she's decided to give up. I mean, the length of the journey is not worth it, is it?"
"You're still underestimating her Ryan," said Rainbow Dash, "revenage is a powerful motivation and when a pony wants it, they'll travel to the ends of Equestria to get it, or travel from Markham to here in this case."
"I have to go with Rainbow Dash on this one guys, Starlight's not going to stop till she finally has her chance to face off aganist us," I said.
"But hopefully she'll be worn out by the time she gets here," said Fluttershy with her timid voice. "I mean, she has been walking for several days already, and probably with little rest."
"Perhaps you're right Fluttershy, and if that's true, we do have a fighting chance," said Twilight.
A little later, the news showed a helicopter looking down to the pony that had attacked North Bay, and by the looks of it, she was now passing threw the town of Latchford, which was an hour's drive away from where I lived. Ryan did the calculations, "with the speed she's going at, it might be between four or five A.M. tomorrow when she arrives."
"Sorry Fluttershy," groaned Rarity as she looked to the television screen, "but I doubt she's going to be tired when we have to face her."
"Well there's no harm in hoping," muttered Fluttershy.
Meanwhile, police officers had been placed outside the town of New Liskeard, ready to put a stop to the attacker. They stood ready with various different weapons, but hoped not to use their bullet guns, that would be their last resort.
At Midnight, Starlight Glimmer finally arrived on the outskirts of town. The helicopter was still filming from above, which meant we could watch.
"Come on officers, take her down," cried Rainbow Dash.
The chief called out, "attention, uh pony creature, stand down now or we will have to use force on you!"
Starlight Glimmer laughed, "Do your worst, I need a real challenge after all."
The officers ordered her to stand down, but she wouldn't, so they fired bean bags at her. At first, they thought they hit the unicorn, but Starlight had used magic to block them.
"Come on, someone get behind her and hit her," I groaned.
But none of them did, they continued to stand in front of her as tazers were used next. They were of course useless aganist a magic shield. All the while, the chief of police kept ordering Starlight to stand down.
"You can just shut up for all I care, I am to meet Twilight Sparkle, and you won't stop me," she smirked.
After using all their other weapons, they had no choice but to pull out their real guns. "Last chance, get down on the ground or we will shoot!"
Starlight smirked, "You will do no such thing." Her shield suddenly vanished.
"Did she just give up?" Patrick asked.
"Oh no Darling, not a chance," answered Rarity, "I know what she's going to do."
"So do I," groaned Twilight, "And it won't be good."
An orb of light appeared on the end of Starlight's horn, which got bigger and bigger until it was at a good size, then she fired it. It hit the officers hard, sending many of them flying and knocking many of them out cold.
"I didn't know unicorns could do that," gasped Emily.
"Well we can, with practise."
From where we were, we could see Starlight smirk and walk past the officers. She then walked down the hill and headed for the turn-off that would lead her to New Liskeard.
"Come on, don't turn down that road, don't turn down that road," I muttered to myself hopefully.
As she reached that street though, she did turn down it and walked towards the only set of lights on that section of road, which would lead her down to the road towards my house. I hoped again she wouldn't turn down there, but she did with the helicopter right behind her.
"Okay, so maybe it'll be three O'clock when she gets here," groaned Ryan.
I got up from the couch and walked over towards the back porch. I picked up my paintball gun and began loading it, "so she wants a challenge huh? Well let's deliver it to her."
Twilight walked over towards me, "it's not too late to back out now, we will protect you."
I shook my head, "Twilight, you can stop trying to keep us out, it became our fight when she started attacking our towns. We're helping you and that's final."
"Okay then everypony, and everybody, no matter what happens out there, let's kick some serious flank and teach Starlight that her sick schemes end here and now," cried Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah!" we all cheered.
"Yay!" cheered Fluttershy as loudly as she could.
As we stepped outside into the dark world outside my house, we knew there was no turning back. It was now or never. The fight was on!