//------------------------------// // Operation: Getting the Game Back from the Zorgons (Part 2) // Story: Zathura: Sibling is Magic // by SuperWriter2329 //------------------------------// After a few minutes of searching for the nearest dumbwaiter, they finally found one near the stairway where the hooked chain from the second Zorgon ship was. When they checked the dumbwaiter, it was indeed big enough for Twilight to slip inside easily with enough room for the game when she grabbed it back. The others are still waiting for the plan to continue when Shining walked up to his sister, who was already sitting inside the dumbwaiter. "Hey Twily, how are you doing right now?" he asked her. "A bit nervous," Twilight admitted. "Do you think I'm ready for this, Shining?" "Don't worry, you're going to be fine. All we gotta do is lower you down, and when you find the game, we'll pull you back up. It's that simple," the older sibling explained. "Easy for you to say," the younger one grumbled. "Shining, I'm scared. What if those Zorgons saw me and tried to eat me?" "Twily, it's okay to be scared every now and then. When I was first elected as the captain of the Royal Guard back in Canterlot, I was scared half to death because I have no idea how to take the lead. Luckily, I managed to steel all of my nerves and able to take charge. And so can you if you can do this, Twily," he explained his first ever experience during his time as the captain of the Royal Guard. The young princess let all of the words sink into her as she contemplated on her mission at hand. While she was still a bit scared, she has faced greater danger in the past like Nightmare Moon, who was actually Princess Celestia's younger sister, Princess Luna, Discord when he managed to break free of his stone imprisonment a thousand years later, Queen Chrysalis when she crashed the wedding of her brother's and former foalsitter now sister-in-law, Princess Cadance, and Tirek after he managed to steal all of Equestrian magic from its inhabitants. All of the villains she has faced in the past had attempted to take over Equestria and nearly succeeded, but thanks to her friends' help, she had managed to defeat them all as the Element of Magic. If she can take down the tough villains, she can most definitely take this mission of bringing back the game from the Zorgons' possession. "Okay Shining, I can do this," she said with a smile on her face. "That's what I like to hear," Shining replied, also with a smile on his face before turning away to get ready. "Hey, Shiny?" Twilight called back. The older sibling stopped in shock upon hearing his nickname that only their mother had called him since he was born. Turning back to face his sister, he said, "Yes, Twily?" "If umm... If I had ever cheated before in the past, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to make you feel upset about it. I just... wanted to play games with you, that's all," the young princess replied sadly. Again, the older one was shocked to hear her admit something that she had done, even though he was the one who keeps instigating the fights between them. Still, he replied back, "It's okay Twily, I forgave you." He then hugged Twilight, shocking her this time. She shook out of her shock and hugged him back, furthering amending their relationship. The rest of the Mane Six and Spike smiled upon seeing the two siblings made up and forgiving each other after what felt like a lifetime of them constantly fighting and besting each other. The astronaut also saw them and smiled as well. However, they have a mission to do as he silently approached the siblings. "Hey, guys. Are you ready?" he asked them. Twilight reluctantly nodded her head, and Shining handed her the walkie-talkie before the older doppelganger pull down a rope that was inside the dumbwaiter so that the carriage that the young princess was inside was lowered down towards the basement. Both siblings had one last look at each other before she was completely gone from descending into the dumbwaiter. While the two unicorn stallions continued to lower Twilight down, the others are keeping watch by the stairs in case they saw the Zorgons right down the stairs. At first, nothing appeared. But then, after a while, Applejack and Rarity, who were on their next shift on guarding the stairs, finally saw some movement as they spotted a shadow of a lizard downstairs. "Guys, I saw something! Take cover!" the fashionista alerted quietly to the others. Hearing the mare's claim, they immediately stopped what they were doing and hid by the walls to avoid getting spotted and making any noise. Inside the dumbwaiter, the princess was wondering why the simple gear and pulley machine had suddenly stopped. She decided to contact the astronaut on what had happened. "Guys, why did you stop?" she asked the ponies upstairs, but received no response as the astronaut had closed the walkie-talkie because the Zorgon lizard was still lurking near the stairway. A while later, the intruder finally moved somewhere else as it sensed nothing around the stairway. Meanwhile, back inside the dumbwaiter, Twilight began to grow impatient as she starts to rocket the machine back and forth to get the others' attention. "Guys, can you see me? What's going on up there?" she asked again, hoping that they saw the rope shaking. However, her plan backfired when one of the gears was shifted enough for it to fell off and caused the carriage to plummet down towards the basement. The young princess screamed in fear and horror as she was about to turn into a pony pancake from how fast she was descending. Luckily, the astronaut heard the creak as he desperately tried to stop the contraption from dropping too fast. After a few intense seconds, everything happened at once as the unicorn was finally able to get a grip on the rope, but it caused his wrists to hit the top of the doorway hard. At least it was enough for the dumbwaiter to finally skid to a halt, only the bottom half of the carriage visible by the basement door as wooden debris fell on top of the poor princess. Unfortunately, there is one downside of the entire ordeal. The Zorgon lizard from earlier had heard the commotion and was now making its way up the stairs to suspect the noise. "Guys, Ah hate ta be the bringer of bad news, but the lizard from earlier? It's back, and it's comin' upstairs," the farm mare exclaimed nervously. "What?! Are you serious?" Rainbow asked. "Oh no! Where should we hide now?" Fluttershy squeaked. "Guys, go back to the laundry room! I'll take care of this!" the astronaut said, the mares and baby dragon immediately obeyed. Shining wanted to stay behind so that he can help his sister, but his doppelganger said otherwise. "Just go! I got this!" The younger stallion eventually heeded his doppelganger's warning and headed back to the laundry room, entrusting the astronaut to take care of Twilight. As the stray Zorgon continued to climb higher and higher up the stairway, already reaching the halfway point, the astronaut desperately tried to find a spot to tie the rope and a nearby room to hide in so that he can check on the rope and the Zorgon at the same time. Meanwhile, back at the basement where the doorway of the dumbwaiter was, Twilight carefully looked around the room to see that the coast is clear. Turning to a hole beside the furnace, she can clearly see the inside of the Zorgon ship that she and her friends saw earlier; she can see a part of what looks like a conveyer belt and a bunch of items or furniture that was stolen from inside the castle as fuel for the ship. Looking down, the young alicorn found what she was looking for; the Zathura box that contained the board game. She jumped down from the dumbwaiter and inspected the box, but it was empty, much to her chagrin. She turned on the walkie-talkie in her hand and quietly said, "Guys, I found the box of the game, but that was the only thing here." Getting no response, Twilight looked around the basement in search of the game. The good news is that she finally found the game. The bad news? It was inside the Zorgon ship as part of the stolen items. Holding the walkie-talkie again, she whispered, "Guys, I think I saw the game. It was inside that ship that we saw boarded us earlier." An idea clicked in her head, and it might get her caught if she wasn't careful enough. "I think I can get it back all by myself," she whispered back to the astronaut through the two-way communication device. As the lavender princess carefully and quietly walked towards the ship, there was finally a feedback as the astronaut whispered, "Twilight, don't do it. It's too dangerous. I would like to go and get you, but there is a stray Zorgon right in the hallway across from where I'm hiding right now. So stay put, okay?" However, his words fell on deaf ears as the princess inched ever closer towards the metallic transportation. Once she reached the edge of the hole, she looked down briefly and was startled to see a sizeable gap between the castle and the Zorgon ship. She finally braved enough to jump the gap and a hoofstep later, she was now inside the ship, finally getting a clear view of the inside. The conveyer belt stretched out towards a furnace where a Zorgon lizard was responsible for putting all of the random items that was sent from the other end where another Zorgon lizard puts the items on the conveyer belt. Both of them had metallic shovels on them as they were too big to bent down and grab the items, which seems reasonable as passing them one by one would take too much time since they needed to keep moving around the outer space in search of heat. Hiding behind the pile of stuff, Twilight was really nervous of trying to get the game back. Her first attempt ended too soon as the lizard puts another item on the belt. When she tried again, her second attempt backfired as the game fell on the belt, alerting the giant lizard as it flicked its hooked tongue and resumed its work. Startled by another feedback from the walkie-talkie still in her hand, the astronaut whispered, "Twilight? Where are you? Are you still there? Just stay where you are. The stray Zorgon is still out in the hallway, but I think it was about to go away." She didn't respond as she heard the Zorgon near her was getting closer. Mouthing an 'I'm sorry', she left the walkie-talkie behind and began to pursuit after the game. Meanwhile, the second Zorgon has finally gone around the pile and after finding nothing, it heard something said, "Twilight? Are you still there? Just stay put, okay?" It looked down and found the walkie-talkie the young princess left behind leaving feedback. "I will come and get you. Just stay-" Those were the last words that came from the astronaut as the lizard slammed its shovel down on the walkie-talkie hard, causing it to be completely broken. Meanwhile, Twilight was sprinting down underneath the conveyer belt, chasing after the board game. At some point, she climbed out and continued cantering down the lane. She could have used her magic and grabbed the game easily, but she decided to use physical strength instead. She suddenly stopped as she stepped on something sticky. Looking down, she winced as she seems to be stepping down on some sort of green blob, leaving her left hoof covered in the substance while unknowingly left behind hoofprints on the floor. Slowly moving forward, the young alicorn came across a chained gate that contained some animals that looked like goats. Using her earth pony strength, she snapped the chains and opened the short gate. She carefully approached the goats, not knowing if they are dangerous or not. She whispered 'They're just goats' over and over until one of them turned their heads to reveal four alien-looking eyes, scaring the alicorn as she now whispered 'It's not a goat' over and over. She came across another chained gate, but she only climbed over the gate as she was too shocked to do anything. However, she had also caused the alien goats to escape their pens after leaving the other gate opened. Before she knew it, Twilight was now on the other side of the conveyer belt as the game had just fall down on the growing pile of random items on the floor. She hid behind the belt so that the Zorgon did not see her. To her horror, it had shoveled the game and was about to throw it into the furnace, but luckily it was saved as the lizard saw its goats escaping out of the hatch into the castle. Lowering the shoveled up game, it chased after the goats without even thinking that there was an intruder on board. The alicorn quickly grabbed the game and made her way back towards the hatch the same way she came through. Arriving at the hatch, the lavender princess looked around to see that the coast is clear again before leaping to safety inside the basement castle. Halfway towards the dumbwaiter, she spotted the other Zorgon lizards making confused grunts as the one that just came out of the ship was the one who complained to the others. Twilight tiptoed quietly until she reached the dumbwaiter. She quickly climbed inside after safely putting the game inside, not noticing that she had left hoofprints across the room. Without knowing that there was a Zorgon near the second floor dumbwaiter, Twilight shook the carriage and whispered, "Guys, I got the game back! You won't know what they have inside! They actually have goats with four eyes!" Back upstairs, the stray lizard had seen the tied up rope shook a bit, signaling that there was someone who tried to get someone else's attention. However, it didn't like it and cut the rope using a machete it had wielded earlier on, which caused the dumbwaiter to now be rendered useless as Twilight yelped when the carriage she was in jolted down with more wooden debris fell on top of her, along with the cut up rope. Meanwhile, the second Zorgon, who hadn't seen its goats escaped, had unfortunately spotted the glowing hoofprints which leads to the now broken dumbwaiter as the young princess climbed out of it. Having spotted the alicorn, it let out a shriek, alerting the others about the escapee. Twilight turned around quickly, face expressing utter horror and ears drooping as she had been caught. Having no other choice, grabbing the game, she used her wings to fly away from the pursuing Zorgons towards the door leading out in the hallway. Luckily, her flying practices with Rainbow had paid off as she was able to outfly them easily and reached the door, opened it and quickly locked it with her magic, feeling safe for now. Suddenly, Twilight felt her shoulder being tapped and caused her to flinch. The unknown being turned her around, and to her relief, it was actually her brother, who had escaped from getting spotted from the stray Zorgon from earlier. "Shiny!" the princess exclaimed, quickly hugging him as she felt safe in the comfort of her brother's arms. "Hey, it's okay, Twily. I'm here now," Shining reassured, hugging her back. After a while, they parted, and after seeing the game in his sister's arms, he said, "You got the game back? That's great! Now, come on! Let's meet up with the others." They both turned around and started to climb up the flight of stairs towards the ground floor. However, the doorway was blocked by two of the Zorgon lizards. Then, they were startled by a few heavy punches that came from the other side of the basement door, along with a few whimpers that came from the pursuing Zorgons. Seconds of silence later, the door burst open, revealing the damaged robot from earlier, but it was now fully repaired, looking at Shining with its bloodshot eyes. "Oh no! We completely forgot about the robot!" Twilight fearfully exclaimed as the robot was inching closer towards them. "ALIEN LIFE FORM, MUST DESTROY!" the robot said, still looking at the older sibling as it was still corrupted with an intent on killing him. With the Zorgons blocking their path to escape, Shining was now an easy prey of the killer robot. It then closed one of its clawed hands around Shining's throat, startling him and Twilight. "Twily, what should I do now?" he asked. Twilight was at a loss for words as she was racking her brain to get her brother out of this trepidation. Then, she gasped. "Shining, do you still have that 'Reprogram' card from earlier?" "What 'Reprogram' card?" he asked back, only for his head to click a second later as he still had that card inside his jeans pocket. "Oh, that card. Hold up." He then tried to get the card out of his pocket and managed to do so, holding it up in front of the robot's face and exclaimed, "'Reprogram'." The tiny fixing robot saw the card and immediately began to alter something inside the robot's hardware, causing it to malfunction a little bit before it shut down completely. It came back to life seconds later, but this time, it let go of Shining's throat and let him and Twilight to descend the stairs as it now had a new target to destroy: the Zorgon lizards. "ALIEN LIFE FORM!" it said, producing thrusters on its back to capture the Zorgons a lot quicker. The lizards, in turn, ran away from the killer machine as they sensed that the robot is trying to kill them. "MUST DESTROY!" it continued as it gave chase to the Zorgons. The ponies, however, was a bit confused and decided to follow them up towards the second floor, just in time for them to see that the lizards tried escaping to their ship that they hooked themselves on the roof and the robot kept on pursuing them, now flying up using its rocket launchers to boost itself inside the ship, causing a bunch of wooden and crystal debris to fall down as the two boarded Zorgon ships tried to flee from the killer robot. The one that was from the basement was safe and was spinning out of control, but the other one wasn't as lucky as the ship blew up, killing all Zorgon lizards that was inside the ship, including the robot itself, belting out its catchphrase before the ship blew up to pieces. Back inside the castle, Twilight and Shining looked up the hole where the Zorgon ship was previously located and pondered about what they had just witnessed. "Well, now we know what the 'Reprogram' card is for," the younger one said. "Yeah, that card saved my life back there," the older one replied. Neither of them are unaware of a stray Zorgon lizard right behind them, about to kill them as it stuck its tongue out at them. "Hey Shiny, have you seen Spike and the rest of the girls?" Twilight asked. Her question was answered when they heard a starting fire, followed by a startled whine coming from behind them. Turning to the source of the noise, they were shocked to see an undead Zorgon that was burst up in green flames before it used its machete to impale itself in the chest, thinking it was the heat source, ending its life as blood came pouring out of its fatal wound and crashed to the hard crystal floor. Behind it was the ponies and baby dragon they were looking for, Spike hitting his chest after being successful on killing the meat eating lizard. Overjoyed, Twilight ran towards the rest of the Mane Six and hugged them tightly. "Girls, I'm so happy to see you again! I thought I was going to get killed!" The other mares hugged her back as they found that their friend was still alive after such a dangerous mission. "Of course, sugarcube. We're so glad that you're alive as well," Applejack reassured the young princess, who was now crying in their shoulders which didn't last long. "Guys, what happened up there?" the astronaut asked, appearing from the stairway to see what the commotion was all about. After seeing the dead Zorgon on the floor, his suspicions were confirmed as he grimaced of all the blood pooling around the lizard. "Okay, that's something you don't see everyday. Anyway, Twilight, you got the game back?" he asked the youngest of the Mane Six, who nodded and showed him the game she carried in her arms. "Great. Now come on. Let's finish the game once and for all!" The entire group of eight ponies and baby dragon cheered as they all headed towards the library where the adventure of the game started, hoping that they can finish what the astronaut and his sister couldn't. Hopefully there aren't any more distractions the game could have gave them so they can finish the game once and for all.