//------------------------------//
// Getting to the Bottom of Things 
// Story: The Adventure of Two Sisters 
// by StormLuna 
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Finally darkness had descended upon Ponyville.  Twily headed upstairs and peeked out the door to see that all was quiet and nopony was out and about.  She headed back down to the basement and said, "Alright, it is dark and nopony is out and about.  Let's get going."

Lyra once again screamed, "No Twilight, you are not taking my pet away from me!  I love her and she will have a safe home with me."

Megan yelled, "I will not!  You will just treat me like a dog and never let me see the light of day."

Twily yelled, "Would you two be quiet.  We can't have anypony hearing us."

The five headed towards the castle under the cover of darkness.  Inside Celestia, AJ, Spike and the Ponyland ponies were wondering what was taking so long.  Just as Celestia was getting ready to send AJ out to see what was taking so long Twily came through the door with Colgate, Lyra and their captives.  Celestia saw Megan and screamed, "Aaaahhh!  What is that thing?"

Megan yelled, "Would everyone stop calling me a thing, I am a human!"

Celestia gasped, "Wait a minute?  They're real?  How could they be real?"

The Ponyland ponies were ecstatic to see their friends.  Twilight yelled, "Queen Majesty, Megan, I am so happy to see you!"

The two ran to their friends and they embraced.  Celestia glared at Colgate and Lyra and asked, "Could you two explain this?  Could you tell me why you two brought them here?"

Colgate asked, "How did you know we brought them here?"  She scowled at Twilight, pointed her hoof at her and sneered, "Let me guess, they told you that we foalnapped them and brought them here?"

Majesty yelled, "Well that's what you did!"

Celestia could tell that this was going to turn into a shouting match between the two so she decided that things needed to be discussed in a more orderly manner.  She first wanted to know how Colgate knew about the portal.  She asked, "Colgate, I want to know something.  How did you get to Ponyland to start with?"

Colgate began, "Well a bit over a month ago I needed some solitude so I decided to take a stroll in the Everfree Forest.  After walking a ways I decided to rest for a bit in your old castle and I discovered a hidden chamber where I found a book on old legends."

Celestia interrupted, "Let me guess, you just had to see what was in it.  You got it in your head that you would find an old legend, go and disprove it, bring the book to me and tell me that it was nothing but hogwash."

Colgate replied, "You know me too well your Majesty."

Celestia ordered, "Please continue."

Colgate continued, "Well I found the legend of this portal so I looked at the map that was with it and set out to disprove the legend.  I headed to the darkest part of the forest where the waterfall is and teleported myself into the cave behind it.  I saw a gray vortex so I decided to go through it.  When I went through it I discovered what looked like at first the back of the cave but it turned out to be a pile of rocks blocking something so I blasted those rocks away and found myself in a different land."

Celestia interrupted, "That was not a different land Colgate, that was a different time."

Everypony gasped, "What?  A different time?"

Celestia knew that with her saying that that she had to reveal what she had hoped to keep hidden forever.  She replied, "Yes a different time.  That is no portal to a different land in a different time, it is a time portal to THIS land from long, long ago."

Surprise interrupted, "Wait a minute, we're in the future!"  

Majesty asked, "How far in the future?"

Celestia replied, "Many thousands of years in the future.  I remember when my sister and I first came to this land it lay mostly in ruins and was shrouded in darkness.  There were a few ponies, some that look like you and some that look like my subjects, but not many.  Eventually all the small eyed ponies disappeared and it was just us Equestrian ponies that remained."

Majesty began to tear up, "You mean to tell me that Ponyland will one day be destroyed?  That one day it will fall?"

Celestia replied, "Yes it will.  To who or to what I am not sure."

Twily interrupted, "Princess Celestia, are you sure you should be giving them this information?  What if it causes them to do something to alter their future and in the process, cause us and Equestria to never even exist?"

Celestia bent down and whispered, "Don't worry.  I have a spell that before they go through the portal I will erase all of this from their memories."

Twily nervously nodded and Celestia stood back up.  She continued, "Well now that that is out of the way,"  She looked at Colgate and continued, "How about you tell us more of what happened."

Colgate continued, "Well once I blasted all those rocks away I stepped out into what we all now know is the past, Ponyland.  I decided to look around and I got curious.  I wanted to know if what is in Lyra's comic books actually existed."

Celestia sighed, "And of course you discovered they did.  Then what?"

Colgate continued, "Well I came back home and told Lyra about this and of course she was excited and begged me to take her there."

Lyra interrupted, "While it took her a while she eventually did take me there and that is when I got my pet and Colgate brought Majesty back here to punish her for firing energy at me!"

Majesty yelled, "Well she deserved it!  She BIT Megan for scratching her behind her ears!"

Celestia's eyes began to glow white and she yelled, "What, you fired energy at Lyra?  How dare you try to harm my subjects!"

Megan interrupted, "Put yourself in her shoes your Majesty, if a couple of Ponyland ponies came into your country and bit someone you hold dear, wouldn't you fire energy at them?"

Celestia replied, "No.  I would just grab them with my energy and hold them in place."

Suddenly what Majesty truly feared looked like it might come to pass.  The revelation that she fired energy at one of her captors had now been released and it was obvious that Celestia did not take kindly to her trying to harm one of her subjects.  She asked, "Your Majesty, so what is going to happen now?"

Celestia replied, "I want to hear the rest of their story then I will decide."  She glared at Lyra and asked, "Since you seem so enthusiastic about telling me what happened next, could you continue?"

Lyra replied, "Of course!  Well when Megan scratched behind my ears it hurt so I bit her.  We teleported out of the castle but I decided that I wanted her as a pet.  We waited in the forest until nightfall, broke into the castle and I grabbed Megan with my magic and began to levitate her out of there."

Celestia asked, "What about Majesty?  What caused you to bring her here?"

Colgate replied, "Well at first I didn't want to.  I didn't even want to go after Megan but I eventually realized that Lyra was not going to come home without her so I helped her get her.  I decided that since Majesty fired energy at Lyra, that she needed to be punished so I stunned her and we brought them back home.  Once we got home I wrapped Majesty in enchanted chains and put a horn cap on her while Lyra tied up Megan so she couldn't run away."

Majesty yelled, "And that horn cap is still on me!  Could one of you remove it?"

Celestia sternly replied, "Not yet.  You have a history of firing energy at Equestrian ponies and with your attitude, I don't completely trust you.  I will make Colgate remove the cap right before you go through the portal."

Majesty asked, "Why does Colgate have to be the one to remove it?  Why can't you remove it?"

Celestia replied, "Because horn caps are often enchanted by the unicorn that uses them.  Only her magic can remove it."

Majesty sighed, "Ok, but you better make her remove it before we go home!"

Celestia rolled her eyes as she was not impressed with Majesty trying to order her around but at this point she didn't feel like arguing with her.  She just wanted to get the rest out of Colgate and Lyra so she could get Majesty and her friends back home.  She asked, "Colgate, Lyra, could one of you tell me what happened after that?"

Lyra replied, "Well after we got them secured we pretty much just kept them secured although getting Megan to eat and drink was kind of difficult."

Meghan yelled, "You were trying to make me eat like a dog!  Do you know how degrading that was?"

Celestia interrupted, "And then obviously Twilight saw that you two had them held captive in your basement."

Twily replied, "Yes your Majesty, that is true."

Celestia continued, "And now here we are in this situation."   She glared at Colgate and Lyra and said "And I'm not even sure what to think about this.  I do know one thing though, once these eight have returned back to their time, I will drain that portal of all it's energy so you two can not risk destroying the time continuum and preventing Equestria from ever existing."

Lyra sniffled, "Those eight?  Does this mean I won't get to keep my pet?"

Megan yelled "I AM NOT YOUR PET!"

Celestia replied, "No, you can not keep her."

Majesty asked, "Celestia....."

Celestia interrupted, "That is your Majesty to you."

Majesty continued, "Ok your Majesty.  So are you going to have them go through with us so we can properly punish them.  Kidnapping me and Megan are serious crimes in Ponyland.  They need to pay for their crimes."

Celestia replied, "No, they will not be going with you.  Them going to your time once put the whole time continuum in great jeopardy and them returning could destroy it and cause Equestria to never come to be......."  Celestia laughed a bit and continued, "Besides, they're more powerful than any of you are and could probably overthrow you if they wanted to so if I were you, I would just let things be."

Majesty asked, "You are going to punish them aren't you?"

Celestia replied, "Well I was until I discovered that you fired energy at them.  I think making sure Lyra never sees Megan again will be punishment enough." 

Firefly had been quietly watching all of this but simply couldn't stand the fact that they would get away with this.  She yelled, "So you're just going to let these two go without any kind of punishment?  You're going to let them get away with nearly destroying everything and kidnapping our queen and our friend?"

While Celestia was not thrilled that Firefly was yelling at her she did not feel like arguing.  She replied, "Come on everypony, let's get these eight home."  She looked at Colgate and continued, "Colgate, I want you and Lyra to come with me.  After all Colgate, you do have to remove that horn cap from Majesty."

Twily asked, "What about me?"

Celestia replied, "Just stay here."

Celestia led Megan, her friends, Lyra and Colgate out of the castle and into the Everfree Forest to finally take care of this.  While Colgate was happy that this would all be over soon and both were happy that they would not be punished, Lyra did feel sad that she would not get to keep her human that she had worked so hard to get.