The Rainbow Rod was indeed a mystical weapon, and was powered to respond to Lightning's command, and only his command. All he had to do was call for it in battle and it would come.

The Grand Ruler had also dispatched a good number of his guards to set up lookout towers all over the kingdom and be on the lookout for any signs of evil activity. The minute anything seemed wrong, they would sound the alarms, alerting everyone to head for the nearest shelter. The only exceptions would be the armed forces, and or Lightning and any allies accompanying him into battle.

Magical force fields would also surround the buildings and homes to avoid collateral damage and keep the monsters outside.

Practice drills were held and everyone seemed to get the hang of it. Emergency supplies of food and water were passed all over the kingdom in case of long waiting periods. Lightning, of course, spent the whole week helping to deliver supplies, as was his job as town helper, but he was glad when the last of the supplies were dropped off. "Well, that should be all of it, Kyrsta."

Krysta checked her clip board, which was larger than she was. "Yep!" she chirped "And about time too. I'm exhausted."

Lightning's eyes widened at that statement. "You're exhausted? Look at my wings!" Lightning Wings were all tired out from flying back and forth between towns and villages so much. "Not to mention carrying all these heavy crates and boxes."

He was really looking forward to going home for a nice long rest, only he ran into Artie along the way. He was carrying a towel with him. "Hi, Lightning. Hi Krysta…"

His friends returned his greeting. "What's with the towel?" asked Krysta. Lightning also noticed that Artie didn't have his armor on and was merely wearing his exercising clothes, sweatband and he wore shoes instead of his boots on his hind legs. "Oh, no…! Please don't tell me…?" he groaned.

It was fitness-day- The day when all unicorns were to go through exercise workouts. It wasn't just all believing and having good skill to use magic, they also had to be in good shape and keep fit for normal everyday lives, as well as combat without magic.

Participation was mandatory, with the exception of Krysta, of course. She wasn't a unicorn, and seemed fit and fiddles for her type.

Before Lightning knew it, he too was in his exercise clothes, and ready to get moving along with everyone else. Penny was the coach. As a doctor she knew fit unicorns when she saw them and how to make them stay that way.

"Okay unicorns! Are we ready…?" she called out. The crowd shouted loudly "YEAH…!"

"Yeah." groaned Lightning.

Penny put them through all kinds of exercises, aerobics, even a little bit of track and field. Many of the unicorns did superb, but some didn't do so well. Lightning was doing the worst. He could hardly do so many push-ups; he couldn't leap over the jump pole, and during a period of timed jogging he finally collapsed. "Ugh…!"

When he awoke, he was in the hospital, and Penny was wearing her uniform and looking after him. Krysta was there too. "Where am I?" he asked groggily. "Shh…! Take it easy, Lightning…" whispered Penny.

Krysta explained what happened, and Penny confirmed why. "You're overworked, Lightning. Oh, I should've known better than to put you put there. I'm sorry."

Lightning smiled sleepily, "Well… at least now I can get some rest."

Penny nodded, and said she check up on him later.

Krysta decided to get some rest too.

When Lighting woke up again, he felt much, much better. "I feel like I could lift up the moon." he joked. "Bad idea, that." Krysta said. "I don't think you could lift up anything that big."

Lightning laughed with her.

…

Meanwhile, Titan had observed the conversation, then he turned to face Rep-Stallion, "And you say you have an idea over this…?" he asked.

"Yes, my lord." answered Rep "What finer way to capture those unicorns that by using something strong and sturdy, something immovable… solid as a rock maybe."

Titan gave his minion an impatient glare. "Get to the point!"

Rep-Stallion continued to explain, that against such a hard and heavy object, "The unicorns won't know what hit them. I will capture Lightning easily, and all his secrets will be yours, might Titan."

"Rep-Stallion… you may proceed." said Titan "And do not fail me."

…

As Rep-Stallion prepared for his mission, he suffered the ridicule of his teammates. "Even I know this plan of yours won't work, Rep-Stallion." mocked Mysterious.

"Huh! Just you wait…" snapped Rep "I'll be delivering unicorn pancakes to the front door by the end of the day."

"Oh, sure you will…" Dementia said with sarcasm as she gazed at herself in her mirror from many angles.

Rep to no further notice and went on his way.

…

Lightning and Krysta were passing through though the fields, when they noticed Starla, in her exercise clothes, sitting on a bench and panting heavily. She looked as if she had been cantering a-hundred miles. "Starla…?" called Lightning.

Starla was so pooped she could barely raise her hove. "H… H… Hi…" she said, but her voice sounded very dry. Luckily there was a water fountain nearby. Starla felt much better. "Starla, what's going on?" asked Krysta.

Starla explained that the other night while she was star-gazing in her observatory. Then she was on her way down to the library to get a book when she could hear other unicorns down below talking about the exercise period, and they began to tease Starla a bit, not knowing that she could hear them…

"That Starla... she's hardly ever seen outside."

"Yeah… and the way she sometimes trips and stumbles, you'd think she was losing her shape more and more."

So Krysta decided to excesses constantly to get into shape and prove that she wasn't all those things those unicorns had said. "Starla... exercising this much isn't good for anyone." said Krysta "Look at you! You're so worn out."

"Besides, you don't look out of shape to me." said Lightning

Starla turned her pretty face towards Lightning, "I don't…?"

Lightning felt a little shy and blushed softly. "N-N-No… you'll look fine to me. Ahem!"

Starla and Krysta giggled by how cute Lightning looked when he was shy, and they walked back to town Starla still wished she looked at least a little stronger. "Who says you have to look stronger, or even be that?" Lightning said to her.

Starla was about to answer when someone shouted, "I do… for one."

The gang looked up a tree. "Rep-Stallion!" they all snarled.

That's when the alarms abounded, and all the unicorns were dashing towards the nearest building before the force fields appeared. "Looks like we're on our own out here." said Lightning "What do you want?" he snapped at Rep-Stallion.

Rep was running the tip of his hove over the blade of his scythe. "I couldn't help but overhear your little talk about… what was it…? Not having to be strong and I was wondering if you'd like to… prove it!" His eyes twinkled with a sinister and serious gaze.

Starla thought that a joke. "There's three of us and only one of you. We don't have to be strong there."

Lightning and Krysta nodded.

Rep leapt down from the tree and sniggered at them all. "Who ever said you were going to fight against me?"

"Huh…?"

"What…?"

Rep reached behind him and held out a single ordinary rock he had found, and before the others could react, he reached into a pouch he was carrying, and dusted the rock once with yellow dust and again with blue. "That dust…!" yelped Lightning.

The rock began to glow magically as it grew in size and sprouted legs and arms, and an ugly face. Rep-Stallion laughed maliciously as the monster became complete.

The gang blinked their eyes once each. "I think we're in trouble…" Krysta peeped.

Rep snickered again and held his scythe forward. "Strong Stone, Seize them!"

The monster pounded its huge feet which actually caused tremors which nearly knocked Lightning and Starla down. "Whoa…!" Lightning feared for Starla, since she wasn't in armor, but there was no place for her to go with the buildings all sealed off.

"Can't you just use the rainbow rod?" she asked.

"Not yet I can't… the time isn't right." Lightning had been studying and found out the best time to use the rainbow force was after the monster's weakness had been exposed. Using it now would do absolutely nothing. "That doesn't mean I can't try something else." And he got down on all fours and charged forward… but Strong Stone, lived up to his name by simply raising his huge stone fist to block Lightning from going any further and simply nudging him…

"WHAAA…!" Just that simple nudge sent him far. "LIGHTNING…!" cried the girls.

Lightning could see stars and birds before his dizzy eyes.

Starla features hardened. "My turn now…! STAR SHOWER…!"

Sadly, all that bombardment didn't even tickle the monster. "It's like hitting a solid rock."

"Uh, Starla…?" said Krysta, "It is a rock, and it's heading this way!"

The monster was stomping towards them, and they began to run as the monster gave chase. Rep-Stallion laughed hard and wickedly. "I'm enjoying this…! Heh, heh, ah, ah, ah…!"

Lightning finally got upright again and was charged right at the tree knocking Rep off of it and down to the ground. "Whoa..! Ah…!"

"Are you afraid to fight us yourself?" Lightning snarled. "Bring it on!" snapped Rep-Stallion.

Despite that Lightning didn't have a weapon or any other magic on him; he managed to dodge all of Rep's scythe attacks. "Being strong isn't everything, you know."

Rep growled and continued to swing his scythe at him, "Tell that to Lord Titan when I bring you to him all tuckered out!"

As their fight continued, Starla and Krysta were still on the run from Strong Stone, he wasn't very fast, being so heavy, but he sure was able to keep the girls in his sights, so the girls decided to fly up high. "We'll be safer up here." said Starla.

"Uh… I don't think so…" cried Krysta "Look!"

Strong Stone looked way up, and opened his huge mouth firing blazing meteor stones straight up at them, which they barely dodged. "Lightning…! We could use some help…!" shouted Krysta.

Down below, Lightning was engaged in a battle lock, his horn against Rep-Stallion's scythe. "I'm a little busy right now…" he shouted back to them. "Try to find the monster's weakness!"

"That is not going to happen!" growled Rep. "SCYTHE SHOCK!" and Lightning was jolted away from him.

Strong Stone continued to fire his meteors at the girls. The girls just continued to swerve and evade the shots, but they couldn't keep it up. Somehow they just had to find out the monster's weakness.

Then suddenly, as Krysta gazed into Strong Stone's huge mouth, "I have an idea…!" she said as she flew downward. "Krysta, No! What are you doing?" cried Starla.

Kyrsta had flown closer towards the monster and began teasing him to chasing her. Flying one way, then another- up and down, every way around…

She was pretty fast, and her small size made her hard to see and follow. Strong Stone was getting dizzy. Starla was beginning to see, but she already knew the monster wasn't fast. Where was its weakness?

Suddenly Krysta flew way, way up. "Follow me…!" she called to Starla. Resisting the urge to question, Starla followed her until they were both directly above the monster and he was gazing straight up at them. "What are we…?"

"Just trust me." said Krysta.

The monster opened his mouth, "Okay, get ready…!"

Starla was getting nervous, which turned into fear as the meteor began to come right at them. "Now!" shouted Krysta and they split apart from each other letting the rock go just past them, it when up, and up, and up… and would soon come down again in a prefect straight line.

The girls went back to where they last were and at Krysta's word, began to fly downward slowly. "Krysta…!" whimpered Starla "KRYSTA…!"

Lightning caught a glimpse of them. "Girls…!"

Rep-Stallion was overjoyed, "Get them, my monster…!"

Strong Stone opened his mouth to shoot again. The girls waited until the last moment, "Now!" shouted Krysta as she and Starla sprinted away just as the next meteor was launched, and while it shot straight up, the first meteor was crashing straight down.

The two meteors collided and smashed into many small fragments, some of which landed in the monster's open mouth. The monster groaned and roared as it didn't seem to like being hit there.

"What…?" snarled Rep-Stallion. "It can't be…!"

Lightning pushed him off, and ran off to join the girls. "Krsyta…! Way to go…!"

Krysta winked at him. "My turn now…!" said Starla "QUASAR BEAM…!" From her horn, she shot a beam of energy straight into Strong Stone's mouth, weakening him even more. Now was Lightning's chance and he called out, "Rainbow Rod…Come to me!" and his magical wand, responding to his voice, came flying over the fields and into his grasp.

He began to concentrate really hard as he held the rod up high as it began to glow…

"Magic of the Rainbow,

My faith burns bright

To vanquish the evil,

…in rainbow's light!"

"RAINBOW FORCE…!"

The magic flew straight down Strong Stone's throat, crushing him into ordinary rocks, and dissolving the evil magic within.

WHAAAOM!

WHAAAOM!

The girls cheered for joy and then Lightning turned to face Rep-Stallion, "Your turn now…!" but before he could act, Rep-Stallion promised him, "I'll be back! Just you wait!" then he vanished and was gone.

Lightning growled in frustration that Rep had escaped. The important thing was that everything was okay now. No serious damage had been done to the park. The force fields were lowered and everyone was allowed back outside again.

…

"And extraordinary performance, Rep-Stallion." sneered Titan "And all you return with is a tangled tail, and no Lightning? I am displeased."

"Yes, My Lord." said Rep-Stallion "The fault is mine."

Mysterious and Dementia could hear the whole thing, and couldn't help but feel sorry for Rep, in a mocking manner. "We told him it wouldn't work." They whispered to one another.

Titan clenched his fists furiously. "You've won the battle today, Unicorns, but the war is not over yet!"

…

Lightning walked Starla home to the observatory. Starla thanked Lightning and Krysta for all they did. "You should thank yourself, Starla." said Krysta.

Lightning nodded "You helped me take out that big brute and you weren't even wearing your armor. You see…? You already are strong and fit. So you really don't have to worry about what others think."

Starla smiled and felt much better "Thanks…" she said and she pecked Lightning on his cheek before she headed inside. Lightning's face turned bright red.

Krysta giggled "What's the matter, Lightning?" she teased. Lightning could barely speak and just stuttered and slurred words all the way home.

…

(In Grand Ruler's palace)

*Grand Ruler is working out*

Grand Ruler: "Turn, and turn… and stree-ee-etch…! Ahh…!"

"Everyone has their own special shape and size, and while exercise is good for you sometimes, it's never a good idea to do too much. Having big muscles doesn't mean you are in good shape either, but there are other ways to get into better shape or stay in shape. Eat healthy foods, drink plenty of water, get plenty of rest, and even doing regular chores can be a good workout."

"Starla has learned well today, and I am very proud of Lightning for helping her see that being strong is not everything, but being strong-minded and swift can be just as effective."

"See you all next time, and keep on believing!"