//------------------------------// // Operation: Getting the Game Back from the Zorgons (Part 1) // Story: Zathura: Sibling is Magic // by SuperWriter2329 //------------------------------// The Mane Six, Shining and the astronaut went all over the castle to search for anything flammable and gather them all at the library, the others finally getting what the oldest pony's plan was. His plan was to lure the Zorgons towards the castle using fire since they are cold-blooded heat seekers. After gathering enough flammable items and materials, the plan was finally put into motion as everypony worked together to break and place the items into the fireplace. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had a time of their lives as they were the strongest of the group, breaking stuff down to just mere splinters. Rarity decided to drop her ladylike self to do her part on the task as well, Fluttershy helping out too. Twilight and Pinkie Pie fared as well, the former having her newly developed earth pony strength to help while the latter was an earth pony herself. Shining helped wherever he can whereas the astronaut went off to find any more gasoline to burn the items down easily. Meanwhile, in Spike's bathroom, the young dragon was about to towel his soaked body when he realized that the towel was completely wet. In fact, all of the towels are wet for no apparent reason. Grumbling, he went to his bedroom, now registering how messy it is. "What the hay? What happened to my room? It wasn't like this a while ago," Spike wondered aloud. Having no time to ponder on it, he went to his dresser - or what was left of the dresser, anyways - and pulled out a fresh towel to finally dry himself of all the water, feeling refreshed all the while. After a few minutes, he was about to go check on Twilight and her brother and friends when he smelled it. It feels like somepony was trying to bake something and ended up burning the kitchen. Fearing the worst, he went out and called out to Twilight. Following the trail of smoke to the library, his jaw dropped at what he saw inside. The Mane Six and Shining was seen trying to burn down the library, thankfully with no books on the shelves. Snapping out of his shock, he yelled, "Twilight, what in Equestria are you doing right now?! Trying to burn down the one place you liked the most?!" Upon hearing Spike's voice, the young princess turned around to the entrance of the library, and sure enough, it was the drake himself, no longer in cryonic sleep. With teary eyes, she ran up to him and shouted, "Spike! You're okay... You're okay! I thought I was never going to see you again!" She then hugged him tightly as if not wanting to let him go. The others stopped at what they are doing and was shocked to see Spike, nearly forgetting that the dragon was in the castle as well. Spike, however, was a bit skeptical about Twilight's weird behaviour but pushed that aside as he said, "Twilight, let me go! I need to find the fire extinguisher before the fire spreads!" He eventually slipped away from the alicorn's grip and went off to a corner of the library to grab the fire extinguisher. The others tried to reason him on why they are doing so, but their words fell on deaf ears as he continued to put out the fire. Eventually, they gave up as the dragon finally puts down the fire, much to the others' chagrin as their plan was interrupted. "Well, this is just great. Now how are we gonna get the game from the Zorgons if we don't have a fire anymore?" the speedy pegasus exclaimed. "Don't worry, guys! They're back!" Startled, Spike turned towards the new voice and shocked at seeing another Shining by the entrance, though he looked a lot older than the one in the room with his sister and her friends. While the others cheered on their successful plan, the young assistant went up to the astronaut and asked, "Who are you? And why did you look a lot like Shining, but an older version of him?" "Well, for the former, I am an astronaut from the game they played. Twilight was the one who called me," he answered, pointing at the princess. Spike looked at Twilight, her head nodding in agreement. "For the latter, I'll tell you later. But for now, we need to go." He then ran out of the library, the others including a reluctant Spike following close behind towards the living room. When they got there, they looked out of the large hole to see a Zorgon ship floating outside of the castle. The others were quite calm despite it all, but not for the dragon as he finally realized that Twilight really wasn't lying about them being in space, while also in even more shock that the castle was in complete disarray. Needing an answer, he turned to the only alicorn in the room and asked, "Twilight, what's going on right now? What is that thing outside? Why are we in space?!" All of the questions went unanswered as Twilight was focusing on the ship outside. She broke free of her concentration when her dragon assistant turned her around to face him. "Twilight, answer me! Where are we?!" "Sorry that you had to see this, Spike. But right now, we needed to find a way to get the game that was in that ship right there," Twilight answered, pointing at the ship, which had a hatch-like door that had opened earlier. "Wait. Are you talking about the game that you showed me before I took my bath?" he asked, the young alicorn nodded her head. "Okay, but what is that thing outside?" "They're called Zorgons, giant lizards who are heat seekers. And what's worst is that they like to eat meat. And before you ask, yes, they eat pony meat," Twilight briefly explained about the pony eating Zorgons before looking back at the ship, Spike doing the same thing. "Okay guys, here's the plan. Once they board us, and yes, they will do that, I'm going to sneak into the basement and try to find the game. If it's not there, I'll look elsewhere, but I need to be extra sneaky or else I'm dead. Also, does anypony have some walkie-talkies?" the older doppelganger of Shining asked. "I have some back in one of the storage rooms. I'll be right back," the lavender princess said before teleporting out of the room for a few seconds before returning with a few of the walkie-talkies in hand. She made it back just in time for the Zorgon ship to release a hook and chain that pulls the entire ship towards the castle. This, however, causes Spike to panic as the giant lizards really were going to board them. "Guys, if any of you need me, I'll be hiding in the basement!" Without waiting for any response, he ran off towards the basement room without knowing that the killer robot is still there. "Wait, did Spike said he wanted to hide in the basement?" Twilight asked, the others were wide eyed in shock and fear. Then, they made their way to the room, where the dragon screamed in terror at the sight of the robot and flee for his life after closing the door that leads to the underground room. After catching his breath, he heard the others came to his rescue. "Guys, what in Equestria is a giant metallic thingy doing in the basement trying to fix itself?!" "Actually Spike, that was supposedly my toy robot that malfunctioned and thinks that I'm an alien and tried to kill me as a result of one of the cards that came out of the game we played. Also, it was on my turn when I got the card," Shining answered, giving the short version of his ordeal after summoning the 'Your Robot is Defective' card. "Okay then. And the... Zorgons, is that what you call them?" Spike asked, turning to Twilight for answers. "It was on my turn when the Zorgons first showed up and nearly tried to kill all of us, but the astronaut, which I summoned on my turn as well, had a plan to lure the Zorgons away by closing all the lights and putting my last couch on fire and throw it out into space," the young alicorn replied. "Guys, reminisce later! We need to hide now! The Zorgons are gonna board us any minute!" Rainbow called out when she saw that the ship was inching closer and closer towards the castle. "We can hide in the laundry room! It's big enough for all of us to hide in!" Twilight mentioned. The eight ponies and baby dragon made their way upstairs to the laundry room, but as soon as they made it to the top of the stairs, another set of hooks appeared, but they seem to come from the roof of the castle. Unfortunately, the impact of the hook had caused an avalanche of roof and crystal debris to pile up on the floor, which is where the direction of the laundry room is. "Oh, come on! That's where the room is supposed to be!" Twilight whined. "Great. Where are we gonna hide now, darling?" Rarity asked the princess. "Wait, there's another laundry room that was about the same size on the opposite way! We can hide there!" Twilight mentioned again. "Well, what are we waitin' for? Let git goin' right now before them Zorgons got to us!" Applejack said before all of them turned to the opposite direction towards the second laundry room. Outside in deep space, as the Zorgon ship has snugly boarded the castle with the open hatch in clear view of the lower hole in the basement, another ship had also boarded the castle, which was where the second set of hooks came from. The bottom hatch of the second ship opened up and was lined up perfectly with the hole that was created from the huge asteroid when the ponies first played the game. Back in the laundry room, the eight ponies and baby dragon are catching their breath after the sudden intrusion from the roof caught them off guard. "Okay, what in the hay was that?! Please don't tell me there was two of those ships that boarded us right now!" the rainbow maned pegasus asked nervously. "Unfortunately, it is. I guess my plan went better than expected," the astronaut replied. "Okay, I'm gonna try to sneak my way through the castle and find the game. We'll use these walkie-talkies to keep in touch, but keep your voices low or else you will be found. Understand?" he asked the group of seven ponies and baby dragon, who nodded in response. "Good. Wish me luck, guys." He then slipped through the small crack he made to avoid getting caught and closed it behind him. After a moment of silence, Spike broke it when he whispered, "Twilight, when you mentioned earlier that you played the game and the whole thing was real, what happened to me after I went inside my bathroom?" Turning to look at her assistant, the young lavender princess walked up to him and said, "Well, a lot of things, actually. And they happened without you knowing them happened at all. And before you ask, it's because I drew a card that caused you to be completely frozen, figuratively and literally." The look on Spike's face was one of horror and confusion at the same time. "So, I have been frozen for quite a while and I missed on a lot of stuff that's happened?" The alicorn nodded. "Okay then. Well, I'm afraid to ask, but what did happen the entire time I was frozen?" Before Twilight can answer, a static sound came from the walkie-talkie that she was still holding in her hand, getting everypony's attention. They gathered around the young princess as the astronaut finally spoke to them after some time. "Okay, guys. I'm at the basement. I saw the robot that you mentioned earlier, and it seems to be almost fixed up from whatever caused it to be broken. Anyways, I'm trying to find the box that might contain the game if the Zorgons did not have possession of it yet and-" A sudden pause from the walkie-talkie for a few seconds before the astronaut spoke again. "Wait, I think I saw the box. It was just a couple of steps away from me, but the Zorgons are in the way. I need to find another way to get to the box before they spotted me. I'll be back soon with the game, hopefully," he explained before the line went quiet again. It was only for a few seconds before moaning sounds from the giant lizards was heard. It seems that the Zorgons might have spotted Shining's lookalike from where he was hiding and tried to make a run for it. Panicking, Twilight tried to make contact with him. "Hello?" she called, but no response. "Are you there?" She tried again, still nothing. "Hello?!" She half shouted this time, hoping that the Zorgons did not hear that, still no such luck. "Why isn't he answering? Did something bad happened to him?" Before anypony can take a guess, Applejack heard something coming from outside that seems to be heading straight towards the room where the ponies were currently hiding. "Guys, did y'all hear that?" The rest of the group finally paid attention to the clopping sound of hoofsteps coming closer. Looking towards the entrance of the laundry room, they can see a sliver of light coming from the crack of the door. A few intense seconds later, some of the light was blocked by an unknown figure as it was walking past the room before coming back. The ponies' heartbeats are at the speed of a moving train right now as they waited for whoever or whatever was outside tried to get in. Suddenly, their hearts skipped a beat when they heard the doorknob rattle and slowly turning, as if the creature outside knows how to open doors. With nowhere else to run, the mares and baby dragon fell to their knees and shivered as they awaited their inevitable end. Shining also did so, hugging the terrified mares closely and tightly. The door finally opened, making the mares flinch and closed their eyes. However, the inevitable did not come as Twilight slowly opened one eye to see who the intruder was. To her surprise, it was actually the astronaut, who was panting heavily possibly from running away from the giant pony eating Zorgons. "Are we dead?" Fluttershy asked, too afraid to open her eyes. "Girls, it's just the astronaut. You can open your eyes now," the princess assured her friends that the coast is clear. Finally opening their eyes, the rest of the Mane Six and Spike relaxed upon seeing the astronaut again. "Dude, you nearly scared us half to death with you walking creepily outside, you know that?!" Rainbow yelled quietly. "Sorry about that. But I accidentally blew my cover when I knocked a piece of crystal loudly. Because of that, I had to run away without grabbing the game," he explained. The others are feeling lost as their only plan had failed. However, Twilight's ears perked up as she had an idea on how to get to the basement without making any sounds. "Wait, I think I know the way." The others looked at the alicorn's direction with hopeful looks on their faces. "We can use one of the dumbwaiters that was in the castle!" The group had no idea what it was, but Spike did. Besides the thermostat, the castle also comes with a few dumbwaiters for easy access throughout the place. However, it was only big enough to fit a skinny pony inside. Rainbow's head finally clicked. "Twilight, that's it! Maybe the astronaut can go inside the dumbwaiter, while we hauled him down so that he can grab the game for you and Shining to finish it!" she cheered, only for her excitement to die down exactly three seconds later. "But, I don't think he's small enough to fit in the dumbwaiter. But it was still a great plan though." "Hmmm. If only one of us, excluding Spike, is actually small enough to fit that dumbwaiter," Pinkie pondered, and seconds later, all eyes are focused on the lavender princess. Twilight saw the looks on her friends', baby dragon's and older unicorn stallions' faces as they all stared at her. "What?" she asked. It only made sense since she was actually the youngest out of everypony in the room, again excluding Spike. With her skinny figure and a small chest, waist and hips, she was the only candidate available for the impossible task. "Uh, no offense, Twi, but not including Spike, you are the smallest and youngest out of all of us. So it only made sense for you to do it," Applejack reasoned. "What?! Me?! I don't think I can do it!" the young princess complained. However, the others seemed to agree with the farm mare as they nodded their heads in agreement. With no way to change their minds, she reluctantly agreed to do so. "Fine, I'll do it." The others cheered for her bravery as they all group hugged Twilight to ease her worries, which seemed to work a little. Then, they filed out of the laundry room so that they can get started on the plan right away.