To Boldly Hoof It

by HeatherIsBestPlayer

Ch 13. Taking A Stand

A few hours later, in the dining room on board the Defiant, Flim and Flam were standing in front of everyone at the front of the room. Behind them, Sunset Shimmer was levitating a big square of cardboard with her magic. On it was a drawing of their attack plan that appeared to have been drawn with crayon. She looked annoyed to be doing such a menial task. The rest of them, including their recent ally, the changeling Queen Entomala, were all sitting in chairs around the long dining room table, watching Flim and Flam.

Their ship was currently flying through hyperspace back towards the plot hole.

Flam cleared his throat and spoke loudly so that everyone in the room could hear him. “Everypony, we’ve come up with a plan to stop Celestia. Okay, to recap, based on the information we know, as well as what we recently learned from Luna, we know that Celestia is going to try to cast a spell on the entire Earth that will alter everyone’s state of mind to make them nice and friendly and trusting and modest and all that crap.”

“Or it will turn them into a love-sucking changeling,” added Flim.

“Precisely,” said Flam. “Either way, its bad. Since Celestia isn’t quite powerful enough to do this on her own, she has constructed a space station near the plot hole that will absorb the massive amounts of excess energy coming from the plot hole. She intends to use this energy and the space station to amplify the power of her spell enough to engulf the entire Earth. The station is relatively unguarded… except for this armada of heavily armed battle cruisers.” He pointed to the drawing of the battle plan Sunset was levitating, his hoof hovering over a drawing of Celestia’s five massive space ships surrounding the Heart Star.

Everyone sitting at the dining room table all gulped in fear.

“If we’re going to stand a chance, we have to be clever, sneaky, and underhanded,” said Flim matter-of-factly.

“Well, that’s what we all do best!” said Gilda with a cocky grin, leaning back in her chair with her hind legs up on the table and her front legs folded behind her head in a relaxed position.

“Exactly,” said Flim.

“So what’s the plan then?” asked Iron Will impatiently.

Flam nodded. “For that, we go to… ‘The Great and Powerful Goddess Empress...” The lanky unicorn paused for a second and then picked up his right front hoof and looked at it, “...Most High Major Commander Lady Trixie’,” he read aloud.

“Oh gosh,” Upper Crust sighed, her and many of the others face-hoofing at Trixie’s ridiculous ego.

Trixie got up from her chair at the table and stepped up in front of everyone next to Flim and Flam. She spoke loudly and dramatically, clearly in the moment, as they all knew how she loved to be the center of attention. “Based on what we’ve learned from Princess Luna, we believe that all those giant spaceships Celestia has are networked together by some sort of tactical computer on board their flag ship, the Ascendency, in order to coordinate their attacks. Sunset Shim-”

“Winry!” screamed Sunset suddenly, dropping the piece of cardboard she was levitating onto the floor. “For crying out loud! My name is Winry! Why can’t any of you bloody remember that?”

“Sorry,” said Trixie impassively. “WINRY believes she can sabotage the computer so that their weapons can’t target us. We will come out of hyperspace behind Titan where their sensors can’t detect us. Then a small attack force will teleport aboard the Ascendency and sabotage the networked tactical computer from the main control room. But to do this, we'll need a distraction to get all their crew members away from that area.” Trixie looked over at where Queen Entomala was sitting. “That’s where Entomala comes in.”

Everyone looked at the changeling Queen, who grinned evilly.

Trixie continued. “She will teleport over to the Ascendancy ahead of the rest of you disguised in a form that will hopefully distract everypony on board that ship.”

“Don’t worry,” Entomala said. “I’ll take the form of something so cute and adorable, absolutely no pony could resist me!”

“Fluttershy?” asked Hoops.

“No, not Fluttershy,” said Entomala. “Something even cuter and more adorable then her!”

“But who could possibly be cuter and more adorable than Fluttershy?” Hoops raised his hooves into the air above his head to emphasis. He then noticed everyone in the room staring at him with wide eyes. “What?” he asked in confusion.

“That’s something I never thought I’d hear coming out of one of our mouths,” Dumbbell said to his friend.

“Anyway, Winry will go on the attack force to sabotage their tactical computers, but she’ll need help,” said Flam. “Any volunteers?”

“I’ll do it,” said Score, looking at Sunset and giving her a smile. Sunset simply raised a confused eyebrow at him.

“Alright,” said Flim. “And in the mean time, Gilda has already volunteered to teleport over to the Heart Star where they are most likely keeping Lightning Dust, and rescue her. Once Gilda and Lightning Dust are safely off the Heart Star, we will then fly in and destroy the Heart Star once and for all with a few of Winry’s alchemy bombs. Winry has upgraded all of our ships systems, like our shields, our engines, and our teleporter, and she’s mounted the rail gun she created onto the outside of the ship, and she’s created a cannon to fire her alchemy bombs from.”

“And there were only a few pieces left over when I was done,” said Sunset, holding her head up proudly. She then levitated a bag up into the air next to her and dumped its contents out onto the floor at her hooves, which consisted of various machinery pieces. “I also invented an escape pod, so that if anything goes wrong, we can all just squeeze in there together and fly to safety! I already installed it at the back of the ship.”

Blueblood, who up till now, unbeknownst to anyone else, had been staring off into space in deep thought about something else, suddenly looked up with interest at what Sunset had said.

“Anyway,” said Flam, “everyone on the away team will have a beacon that you will activate when you are ready to be teleported back. Once you’re back on board this ship, we’ll begin the attack. Meanwhile, while you’re all on your separate missions, we will keep the ship just out of their sensor range and await your beacons. Does everypony understand?”

“What about Upper Crust?” demanded Jet Set, placing a supportive hoof on his wife’s shoulder beside him. “She can’t go into battle while she’s with foal!”

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about that,” said Flim. “We can’t take the time to fly all the way back to Earth, drop her off, and then fly all the way back here again. But don’t worry. If everything goes according to plan, there shouldn’t even be a battle.”

The married couple looked at each other, uncertainty written on their faces, but they turned back to Flim and Flam and nodded.

“LETS DO THIS!” shouted Iron Will, suddenly standing up and slamming his hands down on the oak table enthusiastically.

Around the room, one by one, the rest of them all nodded in agreement, nervousness and fear apparent on a few of their faces. Blueblood also nodded his head, but his mind was still off somewhere else.

“Alright then!” announced Trixie loudly. “Everypony to your stations!”

Everyone started getting up from the dining room table and walking out of the room. While everyone else was heading out of the room, Gilda walked up in front of Sunset Shimmer and stopped her.

“Hey, Sunset,” Gilda said. “I’m gonna need all the firepower I can get when I go to rescue Lightning Dust on board that Heart Star. I need you to give me some of those robot parts you were talking about before.”

Sunset glared up at the griffon in front of her. “I keep telling you, its called Automail!” she said in irritation. “And my name is Winry! I don’t know who this Sunset is!”

“Whatever,” said Gilda with a roll of her eyes. “NOW MAKE ME A CYBORG!”

…………………

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Ascendency back at the plot hole, Rarity and Shining Armor bowed their heads as the image of Princess Celestia appeared on their view screen.

“Hello, Rarity. Hello, Shining Armor,” Celestia said cheerfully in her singsong voice.

The two white unicorns stood up straight to speak to Celestia. “Hello, Princess,” they both said.

“I have good news!” said Celestia. “The Heart Star is complete!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Princess,” said Rarity excitedly. Beside her, Shining Armor smiled happily in agreement.

“Indeed, Rarity,” Celestia said. “However, it will still take a little while for the Heart Star to absorb enough energy from the plot hole to be ready to use. In the mean time, your orders are to make sure the fleet stays to defend the Heart Star from any threat that might appear.”

“What about Princess Luna?” asked Shining Armor in concern. “We still haven’t found her yet!”

“Don’t worry,” said Celestia, raising a hoof to calm him. “Once the Heart Star is ready, we can use the goodness spell I’ve prepared to on my nephew and his ‘friends’ to convince them to do the right thing and bring her back to us safely. Also, with the information Lightning Dust has given me, I have a plan to capture them and rescue my sister just in case they show up again.”

“Don’t worry, Princess,” said Rarity, holding her head up proudly. “You can count on us!”

“I’m sure I can,” Celestia said sweetly. “Thank you both so much,” Celestia’s image then disappeared from the view screen, and the image changed back to the view of space outside their ship.

…………………

“We’re almost at Titan,” announced Dumbbell at the helm on the bridge of the Defiant. “Five minutes away.”

“Good,” said Trixie, who was over at her own computer station at the back of the bridge. She looked over at the command chair and saw that it was still empty. She looked around for Blueblood, but didn’t see him anywhere on the bridge. Just Dumbbell and Hoops at the pilot and copilot controls, Jet Set at the sensor station, Upper Crust at the communications station, and Iron Will at the newly installed tactical weapons station. She knew Flim and Flam were down in the engineering room since they were their chief engineers, and Sunset, Score, Gilda, and Entomala were also down there preparing to go on the away mission. But Blueblood should have been on the bridge since he was the self-declared captain.

“Where is Blueblood?” she asked. “If he declared himself the Captain, then he should be up here right now, captaining!”

Everyone on the bridge looked at each other, shrugging.

Trixie growled in annoyance. She had noticed Blueblood had been acting… distracted lately. She had thought it was just him being scared as usual about a dangerous mission, but now she was starting to get concerned. “I’ll go find him!” she said.

Trixie got up from her seat and walked off the bridge to go find Blueblood.

……………

Blueblood trotted through the hallways of the mansion/ship as quickly and as quietly as he could, heading back towards where the escape pod was. He took deep, nervous breaths from the gravity of what he was about to do. He had made a difficult decision, but was going to stick to it. As much as he wanted to say goodbye to the others, he knew he couldn’t because they would just try to stop him.

He rounded a corner and saw the circular opening in the wall at the end of the hallway that was the airlock entrance to the escape pod. He quickly trotted down the hallway to it.

“Blueblood?”

The unicorn stallion nearly jumped out of his skin in fright at the unexpected sound of Trixie’s voice behind him. He spun around and saw her standing there at the other end of the hallway, staring at him with a look of annoyance on her face.

“Blueblood, what are you doing here?” Trixie demanded. “We’re almost to the plot hole! You should be on the bridge! You’re the captain, after all!” It was then that she noticed the escape pod hatch behind him. She quickly put two and two together in her head and gaped at the stallion in disbelief. “Blueblood… you weren’t.”

“Trixie…” Blueblood began, but Trixie cut him off.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!” Trixie yelled at him angrily, approaching where he stood. “TRIXIE THOUGHT YOU HAD CHANGED! TRIXIE THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T THE KIND OF PONY ANYMORE WHO WOULD SELL OUT HIS FRIENDS TO SAVE HIS OWN SKIN! BUT TRIXIE GUESS SHE WAS WRONG-”

“TRIXIE!” Blueblood shouted so he could cut in. “IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!”

“OH, IT ISN’T!” Trixie yelled, reaching where he stood and leaning up so she was right in his face. “YOU CAN’T TELL TRIXIE YOU WEREN’T JUST ABOUT TO TAKE THAT ESCAPE POD TO GO SAVE YOURSELF! YOU WERE HEADING RIGHT FOR IT-”

“I’M GOING TO GO INTO THE PLOT HOLE!” Blueblood yelled.

Trixie stared at him, her angry expression quickly turning into one of confusion. “You’re what?” she asked in a whisper.

“I’ve been having dreams,” Blueblood explained. “In them, a voice is telling me to go into the plot hole. That my destiny is in there! What if my destiny is to stop the plot hole, and the way to stop it is inside it?”

“But that’s crazy!” argued Trixie, staring at Blueblood with deep concern. “We already know the Elements of Harmony can close the plot hole!”

“I’m not so sure,” said Blueblood. “If they could, why didn’t Nightmare Moon tell us that? She said she had no idea how to stop the plot hole, and she’s familiar with the Elements. I think the plot hole might be too great a force even for them. Besides, if the plot hole is destroyed, then Celestia can no longer use it to power her spell, so both problems will be solved at once.”

“But it was just a dream!” stated Trixie. “You can’t base all of this on just a dream!”

“You and Sunset had a dream that turned out to be a spell that not only worked, but was exactly what we needed at the time! That was no coincidence, so neither can this! Some… force… out there must have sent us those dreams! I don’t know what or why, but it’s the only possible explanation!”

“And what if you’re wrong!” said Trixie, clearly worried. “What if you die in there?”

Blueblood took a deep breath and let it out. “I had considered that. But what if I’m right, and this is the only way. Hopefully I won’t die, but if I do, at least I’ll die fulfilling my destiny, instead of wasting my life like I have been.”

Trixie suddenly swung her hoof up and struck Blueblood’s cheek with a loud SMACK! Blueblood quickly recoiled and pressed his hoof to where she had hit him. He stared at her in shock. She was glaring at him in anger, but he noticed she also had tears welling up in her eyes.

“Darn it, Blueblood! You’re not a waist to me!” she snapped at him. “I love you, you idiot! I want you to be a part of my life!”

Blueblood noticed she wasn’t talking in the third person anymore. He knew this meant this wasn’t just a show she was putting on. She truly meant every word she was saying! He was truly touched that she really thought that way about him. He smiled.

“I love you too, Trixie,” he said, still holding his cheek where she had hit him. “And I want you to be in my life too. But I know I’m right about this! I can’t explain it. I just… deep down… I know I’m right! The answer is inside the plot hole. I know it is! This is something I have to do!”

Trixie stared at him for a long moment. She didn’t say anything, she just stared at him. Blueblood wondered if she was considering what he had said. Finally, after what felt like forever, she spoke. “Promise me something.”

“What?” Blueblood asked.

“Promise me you’ll come back alive! I’m not letting you go unless you can promise me that!”

Blueblood thought for a few seconds. He didn’t want to make a promise he couldn’t keep, but the thing was he didn’t know for sure if he could keep it or not. He ultimately decided to leave it up to fate, but he would do everything in his power to get back.

“I promise,” he said at last, hoping with all his heart that it wasn’t a lie.

Trixie leaped forward and embraced Blueblood, wrapping one of her forelegs around his neck and nuzzling her cheek to his. Blueblood quickly recovered from his initial surprise and embraced her back.

“Trixie,” Blueblood began as he held her to him, enjoying the feeling of her warm fur coat pressed against his, “I want to tell you… I want to tell all of you… before I met you all, I thought I was happy, but the truth is… I didn’t even know what true happiness was before you all came into my life. The time all of us have been friends has truly been the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. Now, I don’t know how I ever lived without you all… especially you, Trixie.” Tears had started to well up in his eyes. “You’re the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

Trixie smiled, a tear falling down her cheek from one of her eyes. “I can say the same thing. The time I’ve spent with all of you has also been the happiest I’ve ever been. I know this is gonna probably sound corny, but I used to think I didn’t need friends, that all I needed was fame and power to make me happy. But now, well of course I still want to be famous and powerful, but being with all of you, knowing Trixie has all of you as her friends, I can’t imagine life without any of you now! I’m… actually happy!” She let out a chuckle. “Its funny. A year ago, we all used to be a bit selfish, and I guess a little mean too. And now look at us.”

“Yes,” agreed Blueblood, tears welling up in his own eyes. “I guess we’ve all changed since then.”

“I guess we all helped each other. I mean we were good for each other. We helped each other improve ourselves.”

“I think you’re right.”

They let go of each other and then faced each other. Then they both leaned their heads forward at the same time and pressed their lips together in a passionate kiss. The kiss lasted for ten seconds before they separated again.

“I love you,” Blueblood whispered to her.

“I love you too,” Trixie whispered back to him.

Blueblood reluctantly stepped away from her and turned back toward the escape pod. He was about to climb into it when he thought of something and looked back over his shoulder at Trixie. “Trixie. Until I get return, you’re the captain.”

Trixie smirked, wiping the tears from her eyes with her foreleg. “Lets face it. Trixie always was the real captain on this ship. She’s just now getting the recognition for it.”

Blueblood smirked back at her. “Keep telling yourself that, darling. Anyway, you should get back to the bridge to command the ship. I’ll wait until we arrive at the plot hole to launch.”

Trixie nodded.

He then climbed into the escape pod and used his magic to shut and seal the hatch behind him.

Trixie reluctantly, but confidently, turned and started galloping back through the ship to the bridge.

Everyone turned and looked at her as she walked onto the bridge.

“Where’s Blueblood?” asked Jet Set.

Trixie thought for a moment about what she should tell them. “He’ll be along any time now,” she lied. “Until then, Trixie is in command! You will all now refer to me as the Great and Powerful Goddess Empress most high General Captain Lady Trixie.” She struck a dramatic pose, swishing her cape back behind her with her magic.

“Can we just call you Captain for short?” asked Dumbbell with a roll of his eyes at Trixie’s ego.

“The Great and Powerful Goddess Empress most high General Captain Lady Trixie… allows this.” She then walked over to the command chair in the center of the room and sat down in it. She let out a relaxed sigh. Sitting in the command chair felt so right to her. She was the great and powerful Trixie, after all. As upset as she was about Blueblood, she couldn’t deny that she deserved to be in command.

“We’re about to come out of hyperspace in less then ten seconds!” said Dumbbell.

“Excellent,” she pressed the intercom button on her chair for the engineering room. “This is the captain! We are about to arrive at the designated coordinates. Prepare the away team for teleport.”

Dumbbell spoke again. “Coming out of hyperspace in three… two… one…”

Their ship emerged out of hyperspace. On the view screen, the yellow atmosphere of the moon Titan filled the entire screen.

“Captain, we’re in position behind Titan,” said Dumbbell.

“Can the enemy detect us?” Trixie asked, looking at Jet Set.

“No,” Jet Set said. “They can’t detect us here. So far the plan seems to be working.”

“Careful now!” said Hoops suddenly. “You don’t want to jinx us!”

Jet Set rolled his eyes.

Trixie pressed the intercom button on her chair again for engineering. “Flim, Flam, we are in position behind Titan. Start teleporting the away team.” Then, privately, she thought to herself, Good luck, Blueblood.

…………………

Blueblood felt the ship come out of hyperspace in the escape pod.

“Guess it’s time to go,” he said to himself.

He took deep, nervous breaths. He couldn’t believe he was actually doing this. Yet at the same time, some alien feeling in him told him that it was right. That the plot hole was where he needed to be, and that everything would be alright. A part of him suspected that he might be crazy, but a bigger part remembered that Trixie and Sunset’s dream had come true, so his must logically also… if that made any sense.

He took another deep breath, and, deciding to just do it before he changed his mind, pulled the lever with his hoof to release the pod.

He instantly felt the small, spherical, metal pod he was in being propelled forward. Out the small window in front of him, he could see he was moving away from the ship.

Away from safety.

Away from his friends.

Away from Trixie.

Blueblood’s horn glowed with blue light and he began working the navigation controls with his magic. He fired the pods maneuvering thrusters and began flying away from the Defiant, around the moon, towards the plot hole… and his destiny.

…………………

Onboard the Ascendency, Rarity and Shining Armor were sitting in their own command seats on the bridge. Shining Armor, being a solder for many years, was used to waiting and staying alert at a post for long periods of time. Rarity, on the other hoof, was bored out of her mind.

She let out a depressed sigh. “Oh, I wish my friends were here with me right now. I miss them. Things are never dull whenever I’m with them.”

“So why aren’t my sister and the rest of your friends here?” asked Shining Armor to Rarity curiously.

“Oh, they were all too busy with things back home. Well, all except for Fluttershy, but she was too afraid at the thought of going into space, especially after she watched that awful ‘Armageddon’ movie.”

Shining narrowed his eyes at her. “Hey! I liked that movie!” he said. He then lit up his horn with a blue glow, and levitated a photo of his wife, Princess Cadence, out from inside his armor. He looked at the picture with a smile and began humming the tune to ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing’.

“I could stay awake…. just to heeeeaaar you breathing…” he sang quietly to himself.

Rarity listened to the stallion sing and hum for a bit. She smiled knowingly at him. “Mmmm, you have a marvelous singing voice, Shining,” said Rarity seductively, leaning a little closer to the unicorn stallion sitting beside her.

“Oh! Thank you,” said an oblivious Shining Armor.

“It must run in the family because Twilight also has a very beautiful singing voice,” said Rarity. “Now if only she could learn how to dance.”

Shining Armor smirked. “Oh, you’ve seen her dance?” he chuckled.

Rarity snickered. “Sweet Celestia, it was like watching a full body dry heave set to music!”

They both burst out laughing.

“Oh, we’re horrible!” Rarity laughed, nonchalantly placing her hoof gently on Shining Armor’s hoof. “Anyway, I on the other hoof could afford to take a few days off to go into space to help out Princess Celestia, especially if it means I finally get to teach that awful Prince Blueblood a lesson!”

Shining Armor looked at Rarity with concern. He then noticed Rarity’s hoof was on his and he pulled it away out from under hers. “Rarity, I don’t like Blueblood anymore than you do, but don’t you think you’re taking this whole obsession you have with him a little too far?”

Rarity gaped at him in shock. “Of course not, darling! After the way he treated me at the gala, and was NEVER punished for it, he NEEDS to be taught a lesson!”

Before Shining Armor could respond, they suddenly heard a knock on the doors at the back of the bridge. Everyone, including all the crew on the bridge at their individual stations, looked up at the door in confusion.

The knocking continued.

Rarity shouted. “THE DOOR'S OPEN! YOU JUST HAVE TO PRESS THE BUTTON ON THE SIDE OF THE DOORWAY!”

There was no response. Instead, the knocking just continued.

“HONESTLY!” Rarity sighed in annoyance, and got up from her seat and walked over to the doors. She pressed the button on the side of the doorway with her hoof and the doors slid open with a soft whooshing noise. She looked out into the corridor, but didn’t see anypony in front of her.

She was about to turn around back into the bridge, assuming this was some ne’er-do-well’s idea of a bad joke, when suddenly she heard an adorable high-pitched voice.

“Down here!”

Rarity looked down, and she gasped in happy surprise at what she saw. It was a little blue cat standing up on two legs, and it had ladybug wings on its back.

“I’m Catbug!” said the unknown adorable creature.

“Oh my goodness!” Rarity cooed down at him. “Aren’t you the most adorable little thing I’ve ever seen!”

Everypony on the bridge looked over at the visitor standing in the doorway to the bridge.

“What is that thing?” asked Shining Armor, getting up and walking over beside Rarity.

“I’m Catbug!” Catbug said.

“Okay, but… how did you get on the ship?” asked Shining.

“I don’t know,” Catbug said, shrugged his little arms and sounding truly confused. “Sometimes I just randomly tewaport places. Can we have a party? It’s my birthday!”

“It’s your birthday?!” Rarity gasped in excitement.

“Yeah. But I don’t know where my friends are,” said Catbug sadly.

“Oh, you poor thing!” said Rarity as she grabbed Catbug and hugged him to her. She turned to Shining Armor. “Shiny, lets throw the little guy a party.”

Shining Armor gaped at her. “But…” the captain stuttered, “…we’re supposed to be…”

“Can you wesist this wittle guy’s face?” asked Rarity cutely, levitating Catbug out in front of Shining Armor with her magic.

“I’m Catbug!” Catbug said adorably.

“Oh my gosh! I could just eat him up!” Rarity squealed happily, leaning forward and nuzzling her cheek against Catbug’s affectionately.

Shining Armor couldn’t help but stare at the little adorable cat-ladybug creature, in total awe of how mind-blowingly cute it was! Its adorable kitty smile, its tiny arms and legs, its ladybug wings, and it’s round, fluffy body.

Around the bridge, the entire crew was watching Shining Armor intently, waiting for his answer.

“…Well… Oh, okay,” said Shining Armor with a smile as he finally gave in. “I suppose there’s no harm. After all, the only ones trying to stop us are Blueblood and his little crew of jerks. They’re no threat.”

“Yay!” Catbug cheered, and then Rarity and the rest of the crew on the bridge all let out a cheer as well.

“But we still have to stay on readiness alert, just in case!” Shining Armor attempted to shout over everypony else on the bridge as they all started getting up and speaking at once, crowding around the little alien visitor.

“Lets get the whole crew on the bridge!” shouted one of the pegasus guards as he leaped over to a computer station where the ship’s intercom button was. “They have to see this little guy!”

Author's Note:

Hey there, guys. Another chapter! I can't wait to finish this story, yet at the same time, I kind of don't want to because I really enjoy writing it. Any of you know what I mean?

Anyway, look's like the attack has begun! And anyone who has watched To Boldly Flee should know what's coming next chapter.

For those of you who don't know who Catbug is, he's a character from the web series 'Bravest Warriors'.