----
“What do ya’ mean, Spike?!”, Apple Bloom asked Spike with a concerned look on her face.
“The Mane Six and the Peace Family are being held captive by versions of themselves from the future! I don’t know what happened, but what I do know is when the future version of Stephen Fisher finishes repairing his particle accelerator, he’s going to take control of the entities and he’s gonna use them to wipe the all the residence of the City of Kransitogo, AND the Mane Six, And the Peace Family!!”, Spike exclaimed while flailing his arms.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders gasped. They thought their older sisters were just out in the city, but they were in grave danger. But Apple Bloom’s facial expression quickly changed from worried to determined.
“Spike, get as many of our friends and allies over here as ya’ can!”, Apple Bloom told Spike.
Spike’s face also changed from worried to determined, quickly understanding what Apple Bloom was thinking. He nodded at what Apple Bloom told him, and he flew out of the room.
----
That night, a huge group of ponies and other creatures were in Applejack’s room. The Crusaders, Big Macintosh, and Spike were all back in their Peace Suits. Spike walked up to the table that was in the center of the room holding a pointer, and cleared his throat.
“Attention, our fellow friends and allies! We have a massive crisis on our hands! The Mane Six and the Peace Family are being held captive by future versions of themselves! If we don’t do something soon, they’re gonna get wiped from existence!”, Spike warned, making everypony worried.
“But don’t worry! I have a plan!”, Spike told everypony, as he pointed his pointer at the blueprints.
“So, we all know that the Mane Six and the Peace Family are being held captive in the basement’s secret laboratory, but I don’t think their future-selves will be there 24/7! At some point, they’re going to have to leave so they can get more parts for the accelerator! I know all of them will leave at the same time so they can cover more ground, and I also know that Future Stephen has an assistant that will guard the lab until they're back! But if we all work together, we can take down his assistant!”
“Everypony is going to have parts during this operation! Me, Starlight, Sunset, the Crusaders, and the Mini Six are going to be the ones who will rescue the Mane Six and the Peace Family! The rest of you will have to keep an eye on the Future versions of our friends as they find the parts! We can not have them catching us!”, Spike explained.
Then Spike pulled out these small black boxes with red buttons, and handed them to the ponies he didn’t say he was bringing to the laboratory with him.
“If you see any of them walk into the hotel, press these buttons, and it will alert me! Observe!”, Spike announced as he pressed one of the buttons, causing his peace necklace to light up for a few seconds.
“Are we clear on the plan?”, Spike asked, with everypony nodding. “Perfection!”
Then everypony in the room did a hooves-in and prepared to execute their plan.
----
The ponies woke up at 6:00 AM, with Spike, the Crusaders, Starlight, Sunset, and the Mini Six sneaking out of the room, and riding the elevator to the lobby. They hid behind a laundry cart as the Future Six and the Future Peace Family snuck out of the basement door, and snuck out of the hotel.
“Let’s do this!”, Spike said, as he and his group ran into the basement door.
After they went inside the basement door, the rest of the ponies ran outside the Hotel and followed the Future versions as they traveled to different portions of the city. It was really hard work, but the ponies managed to keep track of the group of ponies from the future.
Soon enough, Spike and his group finally made it to the staircase, and walked down it slowly. Spike saw the painting of the pizzeria once again, and this time, the entity was there. But the entity wasn’t glowing a radioactive green, its eyes weren’t glowing purple, and it was animated more smoothly. From the looks of it, it just looked like somebody in a bunny costume waving.
But Spike didn’t wanna wait to see what it did next, so he quickly ran down the stairs, and caught up with the rest of the group.
“Spike, why’d you stop?”, Apple Bloom asked.
“I saw that same entity from your nightmare! It wasn’t glowing, but it was there!”, Spike quietly replied.
----
When they finally made it to the bottom of the staircase, Future Stephen’s assistant caught them, and ran towards them, while shouting, “Hey! You’re not allowed in her-”
Fortunately, for Spike and his group, Starlight and Sunset picked him up using their magic, and threw him into the wall, knocking him out.
“Good work, Starlight and Sunset!”, Spike congratulated, with the two unicorns thanking him afterwards.
Spike then flew up and found the Mane Six and the Peace Family chained to the wall. And boy, were they happy to see him.
“Spike, you came to rescue us!”, Twilight cried with joy.
“Oh, it wasn’t just me!”, Spike replied as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Starlight, Sunset, and the Mini Six ran up to their cell.
The Mane Six and the Peace Family cheered for Spike and his group as they broke the chains off their hooves, and the locks off their horns and wings. They were free.
Twilight hugged Spike, thanking him and everyone else for freeing them. Spike hugged Twilight back. But the hug didn’t last long, as Spike’s necklace lit up, warning him that the Future Six and the Future Peace Family were coming back.
“Come on, we need to get out of here!”, Spike warned everypony.
“Wait, we can’t leave now! We need to shut off that particle accelerator!”, Twilight quickly mentioned, with Spike grabbing her hoof saying, “No time!”
The Mane Six, the Peace Family, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Mini Six, Starlight, Sunset, and Spike all ran to the Laboratory’s exit, but stopped after realizing the Future versions of the Mane Six and Peace Family would be on the elevator by then.
“Oh no, we’re trapped!!”, Spike yelled with fear.
Thankfully, Applejack and Apple Bloom remembered that in Apple Bloom’s nightmare, there was an emergency exit on the Laboratory’s floor, and they weren’t at the bottom of the sea this time.
“Come on!”, Applejack exclaimed as she grabbed Apple Bloom and ran behind the particle accelerator.
She found the emergency exit, and she, along with everypony else, quickly jumped in. The exit’s door quickly shut before the Future Six and the Future Peace Family walked into the lab.
Future Stephen was shocked after he saw the Mane Six and the Peace Family were not in their chain. He quickly realized that their friends must’ve found the entrance to the Lab and freed them. And that meant eventually, the entire civilization of the City of Kransitogo could find the accelerator and put an end to their plan.
“Guys, we’re going to have to postpone our Particle Accelerator project”, Future Stephen quietly announced. “Other ponies know about our plan. At some point, they're going to shut us down! We can’t have that happen! Right now, we need to add more security to our lab! Add in more cameras, add in laser doors, add in titanium steel, add anything that will protect our lab! If they shut down our plan, we’re toast!”
“We’re already starting to fade away, and if we don’t execute our plan soon, we’ll be gone for good! We need to finish the machine before the end of their vacation! If we don’t, they’ll leave this place for who knows how long? By then, our existence will be no more! Also, I want the Mane Six and the Peace Family back here! And I want all of this done by the end of the week, understand?!”, Future Stephen demanded.
The Future Six and the Future Peace Family nodded, and they got to work.
“This won’t be the end of us! This won’t be the end of me! I’ll make my plan work, no matter what it takes!”, Future Stephen ominously mumbled to himself.
----
It turns out the emergency exit that Mane Six, the Peace Family, Starlight, Sunset, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Mini Six, and Spike took was a slide. They screamed as they slid down for two reasons. Because of the speed, and because of the bizarre imagery they saw. There were these colorful gears and moving parts. It looked like the machinery you’d see in the preschool cartoon, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, except not on a television show budget.
The ride lasted for seven whole minutes before ending with the group sliding through a giant hexagon hole. Meanwhile, one of the hexagon-shaped tiles of the dome was slowly flipping over. After it finished flipping, the group fell out of the hexagon tile at high speeds and landed in the city’s waterpark, where each pony and creature landed on different waterslides, and slid down even more.
When they made it to the bottom of the slides, they reunited at the park’s food-area with their peace suits all soaking wet.
“Dang it!”, Spike pouted. “I wish I was still wearing my bathing suit instead of this!”
“Spike?”, Twilight disappointedly asked. “We could’ve just shut that particle accelerator down, and we would’ve been fine! Both the entities, and the Future Six, AND the Future Peace Family would be gone! Why didn’t you shut it off when we had the chance?! What is wrong with you?!!!”
Twilight’s yelling shocked Spike, along with the rest of the group. He stood there, with his face frozen, and his limbs not moving at all.
“Oh, Spike! I’m sorry! I didn’t-, uh, I didn’t mean to-”, Twilight tried to convey, to not much success.
“Spike, are you okay?”, Stephen Fisher asked.
“No, Stephen. I’m not okay…”, Spike whimpered as he curled up into a ball, feeling unappreciated for saving the Mane Six in the first place.
Twilight felt really bad for yelling at Spike. She remembered how hard Spike worked to free them, and her ungratefulness was uncalled for.
“Spike”, Twilight quietly said as he walked up to Spike. “Please, I didn’t mean to hurt you! I, I couldn’t”
Twilight had a hard time apologizing for her outburst. So instead of apologizing with her words, she apologized with her actions. She hugged Spike tightly, letting him know she cared for him.
“Spike, can you please forgive me?”, Twilight asked while attempting not to cry.
Spiked looked back up at her with teary eyes. He nodded his head twice before hugging her back. They embraced for what seemed like forever, even though it was actually only ten minutes. They eventually stopped hugging each other, and Twilight took a deep breath before actually explaining things to Spike in a calm way.
“Look, I was just upset because we could’ve ended all of this easily! But we passed up on that chance! I just want to put an end to the danger and drama that hides beneath this town! Being trapped in that laboratory for a full night was dreadful! But, I admit, I overreacted. You did rescue us after all, and I should’ve been more grateful”, Twilight explained to Spike.
“It’s okay, Twilight”, Spike replied with a semi-quiet voice. “It just felt like you didn’t appreciate me anymore!”
“Spike, I could NEVER stop appreciating you! You almost always help me when I’m in danger, AND you always help me with stuff I do daily!”, Twilight told him.
“I know that!”, Spike replied while blushing a bit.
Then Twilight decided to lift Spike onto her back, and told everypony, “We should probably head back to the hotel and actually talk about what happened”
Everypony agreed and they walked to the hotel. While on the way, Twilight looked at the residents of the City of Kransitogo. And that put a sad, yet scary thought into her head. “What if these citizens actually experienced what has happened over the years?”
“Future Stephen said these ponies were only treating us nicely because they didn’t get to experience any of the attacks our enemies put us through, or anything like that. Would they actually treat us differently if the dome was never built?”
That thought just sat there in Twilight’s mind. She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to find out either.
----