“And that, Princesss Celestia is how we got here”
Joe finished off telling how he and Moe had arrived, he had left out the parts of beating Crash near to death as well as Dr Brio’s past exploits and told her that Dr Brio was trying to stop Cortex from taking over their world, which was true in a small sense but she didn’t need to know that. He gave a toothy grin trying his best to seem truly convincing.
Moe sat at the table which was adorned with a large amount of food which he thought must have been a thank you for saving Shining Armour, he was sat next to his brother and was exchanging glances between him and Celestia not sure on why Joe was leaving specific moments out of their story, Spike munched a few gems as he sat on Moe’s shoulder watching Joe and the Princess exchange words along with the girls. Luna sat gave Moe a look over but couldn’t help smiling a little watching Spike cling to his shoulder like a little brother before turning her attention along with her sister’s to Joe.
“I see” Celestia replied scanning over the brother carefully as she stroked her chin with her hoof. “And you say you have no idea how to get back home?”
“That isss correct, however I do have one idea on how we could…” Joe resisted the urge to smirk.
“And what is that?”
“Gemsss”
Celestia raised her brow slightly.
“Gems?”
“Correct, the unicorn Highlight-“
“Twilight” Moe cut in.
“Gesundheit” Joe replied “Anyway, ssshe mentioned you have a magical gem mine…in my world, gemsss have a large power that can be usssed if you know how to. My idea isss that me and my brother spend sssome time in the mine so we can…tune into the gemsss power and then when that’s done…you use your power combined with our energy focusing on our home world and open a portal and we can go home.”
Joe gave her a smile which chilled her slightly, Celestia turned to her sister and quietly began talking to one another, Joe was hoping the Princess would catch his bluff. His idea was to wait till they had been left alone and open a portal themselves and take the gems back with them, Joe hadn’t caught on that Moe had frowned during his conversation with the Princess as Moe was looking from Spike to the girls conflict on his face.
“Are you ok Moe?” Twilight asked him snapping him out of his trance like state
“Huh? Oh yeah ssssorry wasss just thinking.”
Celestia and Luna nodded before the former raised her hoof to silence the room.
“I’ve had time to think over your proposal Joe…and I have come to a conclusion”
Everyone in the room was fixated in her with everyone looming in slightly waiting for the next words to come from her mouth.
“Whilst we are indeed sorry for your predicament and we truly do thank you for saving our nephews life”
Joe’s grin began to widen ‘We agree to let you ussse our mines’
“However”
Joe’s grin dropped immediately
“We have further things to…discuss regarding your proposal” Celestia shot him a glance that sent a shiver down his body, almost as if she was looking into his soul.
“In the meantime” Luna added “You will be taken back to Ponyville and will stay there as our guests, we will summon you back in two days’ time to give our final verdict on your proposal that way you can have a day to relax with your new friends in Ponyville”
Joe hissed softly under his tongue trying not to glare at the two, he got a hold of himself and bowed politely.
“Very well Princesses…”
Joe sat back down and the room began to settle into chatter, Twilight and Celestia talked to one another about her reports and various other things happening in Canterlot, Luna was talking with the other girls especially Fluttershy who seemed to be less then normally shy around her. Moe was happily munching away at his food laughing as he and Spike talked between each other. Joe sat their slowly eating as he growled to himself thinking deeply.
‘Stupid Princess….did ssshe catch my bluff I wonder?’
‘No ssshe couldn’t have, you’re an expert at lying…’
‘Ssstill… those eyes…’
Joe was nudged in the side by Moe who was looking concerned at him.
“You ok Joe?”
“Yesss…I’m fine”
The meal went on a normal as expected, the servants came to clear the empty dishes as the goodbyes were said to one another, Twilight and Celestia shared an affectionate hug as Luna gave Fluttershy a nuzzle. Spike stretched on Moe’s shoulder as the group were escorted outside where a chariot awaited them to take them back to Ponyville. Joe had remained quiet for the duration of the trip deep in his own thoughts trying to make, what he saw it as, a bad situation better, Moe on the other hand was engaged in a happy conversation with the girls asking them further questions on what changelings were.
“Ssso they can change into anything they want?”
“That’s right, that’s why they were able to nearly get Twilight’s brother” Rarity confirmed
“And they feed of love?”
“Correct” Twilight said.
Moe nodded thinking as he stroked his chin before asking them more questions, Joe hissed silently and propped his arm on the window of the chariot looking out trying to ignore them, he felt something pop itself in his lap and he glance down to see Spike looking up at him.
“Yesss?” Joe said flatly
“Are you ok Mr Joe…you’ve been really quiet since the meeting…”
Joe thought for a moment trying to think of the right words before sighing softly.
“Jusssst a lot on my mind right now, and call me Joe”
Spike grinned and nodded his head.
“Sure thing Joe…I was kinda wondering if I could ask you some things about you I mean, I know a lot about Moe but I don’t really know anything about you”
Joe blinked for a moment unsure as to why he wanted to know about him, he glanced to Moe and the girls who had stopped talking and were watching him waiting for his reply. Twilight bit her lip slightly knowing Joe was quick to anger but Joe simply smiled and ruffled Spike’s spines.
“Ok Sssspike fire away”
Spike grinned and began his barrage of questions rivalling that of Twilight as the girls giggled and went back to talking, Joe smiled as he answered the questions Spike asked him.
‘If were to gain their trust and support come the Princesses decision….might as well ssstart with the kid’ he thought to himself.
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The chariot arrived safely at Ponyville and the group descended and entered Twilight’s library, the girls all sat down as Spike ran off to make everyone refreshments. Twilight was the first to speak up.
“So do you two have any plans you want to do while you wait for the Princesses verdict?
‘Steal your gemsss’
“None at all at the moment” Joe lied
Joe was hoping he and Moe could be left alone somewhat to try and figure out how to swipe the gems if the verdict was against their favour.
“Well…if you two want to you could spend the day with us around the town?”
Joe was about to ‘politely’ decline when Moe interrupted him a grin etched on his face.
“Ssssure we’d love to”
Joe silently hissed at him before faking a smile and nodding as the girls all grinned.
“But Sugarcube” Applejack said to Twilight “There only gunna be hear fer a day, and were all gunna be to plum busy to properly spend the day together”
Twilight frowned as Joe resisted the urge to smirk.
‘Perfect…now I can get back to planning-‘his thoughts were cut off by his brother once more.
“We could sssplit up? Joe could ssspend time with three of you and vice versssa…and maybe we could have a party in the evening just the eight of usss” Moe grinned at Pinkie on the last part who had begun to bounce in place rapidly her eyes sparkling.
‘Remind me to kill you later Moe’ Joe hissed silently to himself.
“That’s a grand idea darling!” Rarity beamed as she brushed her mane out of her face.
The group began to discuss the plans for the following day except for Joe; he was silently banging his head into the wall growling softly to himself.
“Then it’s settled, Joe will spend the day with Rarity Rainbow and Pinkie whilst Moe can spend the day with me Fluttershy and Applejack.” Twilight nodded as the group agreed.
“Sssounds like a plan” Moe agreed before feeling Joe’s clawed hand firmly grasp his shoulder.
“Girlsss do you mind if I take my dear brother here for a quiet stroll”
He looked down to Spike who was looking up at him, his eyes asking him if he could join them
“Alone”
Spike frowned slightly.
“Uhm sure Joe don’t be too long ok?” Twilight replied a little confused but shrugged it off
Joe practically escorted Moe out of the building and walked him down the road, ponies gave them a slight berth but not as much as when they first arrived. The two walked in silence Moe looked down at his brother concerned.
“Isss everything alright Joe?”
Joe didn’t reply but Moe could have sworn he felt Joe’s grip tighten as they suddenly turned down a secluded alleyway away from prying eyes and ears and he slammed Moe into the wall pushing his arm into his neck and hissed menacingly.
“Now lisssten Moe, we have one ssshot of getting back home and one shot only and you are not going to messs up my plan by getting all damn chummy with thesssse horses”
“Poniesss” Moe hissed as he gasped for air.
“Whatever! The point isss we can’t get to attached to them!” he sighed and released his grip on Moe who stumbled to one knee holding his throat coughing. “I’m ssssorry I did that Moe…you know how you are easssily trustworthy and quick to befriend things like with that lizard-“.”
“Dragon” Moe stumbled up growling but nodded slightly.
“Dragon...” Joe hissed softly” And I jusssst want to be able to pull off this plan without any problems ok because remember, if we go back to Earth empty handed you know what isss in store for us…”
“AND YOU ARE DAMMED R-R-R-IGHT ABOUT WHAT I’LL D-D-DO TO YOU IDIOTS WHEN YOU G-G-GET BACK!”
The two brothers froze in fear as they slowly turned to the sound of the angry voice and looked down the alley way, there hovering was a small drone and producing a hologram, a hologram of Dr Brio.
“D-D-D-Doctor Brio” Joe stuttered “H-How did y-you find us?”
“Well, after Crash collected five more crystals for that bastard Cortex I figured you two idiots had failed. So I used my DNA tracker to locate you and found you in a different dimension, I figured you two had managed to break my device so I created another one and using your location as the portals source sent my drone to come and find out where you two were”
“I-If you let me explain Doctor…” Joe started before being interrupted.
“EXPLAIN! THERES N-N-NOTHING TO E-EXPLAIN” The drone produced a small laser gun that began to hum “I AM GOING TO DESTROY YOU TO I-IDIOTS-“
“WE CAN GET YOU MORE GEMSSSS, POWERFUL ONES!” Joe burst out as he held up his hands in fear. “This world has lotsss of magical gems and we can get them for you without any problems or troubles, pleassse just don’t kill usss!”
There was a deathly silence as Joe scrunched his eyes tight preparing for the worst, however nothing happened and he opened his eyes to see Moe his eyes closed cowering behind his own arms and turned his gaze to the hologram. Brio was in deep thought as he muttered to himself.
“If what you say is true….why should I trust you to get me these gems, why shouldn’t I just march my robot army through?"
Joe tried to think of an answer for him, it was true the Doctor had every reason to not let them do the job but at the same time he didn’t want any harm to happen to the ponies. As much as he hated them and their irritatingly happy ways, he couldn’t help but feel that they were innocent and had no reason for being dragged into potential war between Brio’s robotic armies and whatever consisted of the world’s military.
“Becaussse…if you sent them through you’d start a war with the army that protects this world and it be a lot more easssier if you let usss do it…were slowly gaining their trust anyway asss it isss” Joe said biting his lip waiting for the reply. Brio paused for a moment and began muttering to himself once more nodding his head as he looked left to right mulling out his options.
“Very well….you have a point, I won’t send my army through…yet. You have three days to get my gems and if you don’t, I’ll kill you both and take them by force!”
The drone retracted the hologram and it zipped off out of the alleyway, Joe let out a long sigh of relief as he fell to the ground on his backside resting his hand to his head. Moe slowly stood up and chuckled softly turning his head to his brother with a smile on his face.
“You do care about them….don’t you Joe”
“No I don’t, I jusssst…don’t think it’s fair for them to get dragged into a war…”
Joe hoped Moe hadn’t caught his bluff, as much as he was now regretting thinking it, part of him did care for the inhabitants and it was true that he didn’t want them to come to harm, well maybe not too much harm but not to the point of them being killed, he knew Brio would be merciless in his quest to get the gems, Joe sighed again. Moe didn’t reply smiling to himself contented with the answer and seeing through the bluff as he helped his brother to his feet, Joe thanked him before sighing once more.
“Come on Moe…we need to figure out what the hell were going to do….”