> To Boldly Hoof It
>  by HeatherIsBestPlayer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The little colt, Prince Blueblood, sat at his desk in magic kindergarten in Canterlot. Blueblood was casually levitating a pencil with his magic to drawing a picture of himself as a spacepony in his notebook, only half paying attention to the teacher’s lecture.

Blueblood saw the little purple filly named Twilight Sparkle out of the corner of his eye sitting ahead of him, raising her hoof in the air eagerly to answer one of the teachers questions.

How he hated her.

Twilight Sparkle was Celestia’s hoof picked apprentice in magic. But he knew that the only reason Celestia had picked her to be her student was just because the little nerd had been born lucky. She had been born with extremely great and rare magical potential. And just because of that, that annoying purple commoner had been blessed with all the privileges and training of that of a royal. It wasn’t fair!

Not that he himself cared about learning great magic. He had no interest in mastering advanced spells or things of that nature. Although, truthfully, he didn’t really know what he was interested in. He didn’t care about learning magic, and he had no interest in the other lessons and practices his parents forced him to take. He hadn’t gotten his cutiemark yet, so he had no idea what his special talent was yet. He did enjoy drawing and painting. Art class was always his favorite class in school, although he admittedly wasn’t very good at it, so he doubted his cutiemark would be that.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as a yard stick slammed down on his desk with a loud snap, causing him to drop his pencil out of his levitation. He looked up and saw the teacher glaring down at him.

“Young Prince, it is not time for art class yet,” she said. “Stop your doodling, and pay attention!”

Blueblood huffed and reluctantly closed his notebook. The other students all giggled at him as the teacher walked back up to the front of the class room.

Blueblood sat there and listened as the teacher resumed her lecture.

“Now where was I,” the teacher said. “Oh yes. Not long after the unicorns, pegisi, and earth ponies realized that peace and love were better than petty fighting, the alicorn Princesses, our wonderful ruler, Princess Celestia, and her late sister, Princess Luna, came and helped us build a new kingdom here in Equestria, and also helped us continue to learn about the joys of love and peace and togetherness, and put us on the path to our destiny. In time, other races began to accept our way of life and join us, like donkeys, thestrals, and the crystal ponies. But unfortunately, creatures such as the griffons, dragons, diamond dogs, and many others, were not so enlightened. They did not understand the happiness that love and peace could bring. They even attacked us; they were so full of hatred and arrogance. But luckily, we had Princesses and the Elements of Harmony to protect us from such evils. And so, today, all who embrace love and peace in Equestria continue to prosper and live happy lives.”

Twilight Sparkle raised her hoof up into the air again.

“Yes Twilight?” said the teacher.

Twilight lowered her hoof and spoke. “Why were those other races even resisting us to begin with? Why wouldn’t they want peace and love and togetherness like we do?”

“An excellent question, Twilight.”

“I heard that dragons like to kidnap ponies and feed off their love like food!” said some other filly.

“That’s changelings, you moron!" said a colt behind her. "Dragons eat rocks!”

“Changelings aren’t real!” she spat back at him.

“They are too!”

“CHILDREN!” the teacher raised her voice. “Remember, no fighting!”

The class settled down.

The teacher continued. “It is true that there are dangers out in the untamed regions of the world. So with how perfect our lives here in Equestria are thanks to our wonderful Princess, why then do creatures like the griffons, the dragons, and the diamond dogs continue to resist our way of life?”

“Because we meddle,” said Blueblood without raising his hoof.

Everyone looked over at Blueblood.

“Blueblood?” said the teacher.

“We try to tell them how they should live their lives,” Blueblood continued. “We try to make them live like us. Tell them what to do, what not to do, what to think, and what not to think. We try to force our morals and lifestyles onto them, and they don’t like it.”

The teacher smiled and walked over to Blueblood’s desk. “Young Prince, we aren’t trying to tell them what to think,” she said sweetly. “We’re just trying to show them how to live right.”

Suddenly, Blueblood heard the bell for recess. Only it didn’t sound like the bell for recess. It sounded more like his alarm clock.

Alarm clock?

….................

Prince Blueblood suddenly jolted awake. He looked around him. He was in his bedroom at his estate in bed. He looked at himself. He wasn’t a little colt. He was an adult stallion. He threw his covers off of himself and looked at his flank. His compass rose cutiemark was there, right where it was supposed to be.

Blueblood sighed and rubbed his front hooves to his temples. “The same dream again,” he muttered to himself. “That’s five nights in a row now. Why am I suddenly dreaming about my school days?”

Blueblood once again shook his head of the dream, just like he had been doing for the past several mornings, and got out of bed and walked out of his bedroom.

After using the bathroom, he walked downstairs, hearing the echo of his own hoof steps as he went, remaining him of just how big and empty his mansion now was. After his loss of money, he had to let the many servants he had used to have go, and now only had one house keeper, who only came once a week. So the rest of the time he had to take care of himself.

He wasn’t upset by this. At least not any more. After a year, he had grown quite accustom to this.

He went to the kitchen to prepare himself some breakfast, turning on the radio as he did so. As he got some coffee and breakfast.

“In other news,” the voice of Vinyl Scratch on the radio spoke, “ponies are still baffled by the unusual occurrences as of late. Ponies are still making claims of, how they describe them, cracks appearing in thin air, glowing with bright light, and then disappearing. It is still unconfirmed if these reports are true or not. More on that later. Also, we may have an epidemic on our hands. Ponies have been reported to be having strange dreams, headaches, visions, and even sleepwalking. Doctors are baffled, but what is curious about this is that the one thing the ponies with these symptoms all have in common is that they are all unicorns. Hmmm. This is Vinyl Scratch, and I’ll be keeping you company all day right here on Equestria’s number one radio station!”

Just then, the song ‘Equestria Girls’ started playing on the radio. Blueblood quickly flicked the radio off with his magic.

“I hate that song!” he muttered as he took a sip from his coffee.

“WELL I LOVE THAT SONG!” a white mare with a yellow blond mane and tail shouted in a high pitched voice as she suddenly dropped down in front of Blueblood from out of no where.

“GAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Blueblood screamed as he fell backwards onto the floor, his hot coffee spilling all over him. “GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” he screamed again in pain.

The white Pegasus mare, whose name was Surprise, brought her hooves to her mouth with a gasp at Blueblood’s misfortune. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry, Blue! Here, let me help you up!”

She grabbed Blueblood and tried to help him up, but he was understandably upset at her and pushed her off of him, getting up himself. The coffee had cooled since it spilt on him, so he was no longer in pain, but he was still angry.

“SURPRISE! WHAT IN THE WIDE WIDE WORLD OF EQUESTRIA ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” he screamed.

“I just wanted to visit,” she said with an innocent smile on her face.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST RING THE DOORBELL?!”

“Because I knew you were asleep, silly," he giggled. "I didn’t want to wake you.”

Blueblood sighed and tried to calm himself down. Surprise was his former assistant, slash recent friend, slash long time stalker. “Surprise, we talked about this. You can’t keep popping into my house whenever you want! I have a marefriend now!” He was referring, of course, to the Great and Powerful Trixie.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Surprise asked with a shrug.

“Well, if ponies see a mare who I’m not dating sneaking in and out of my house all the time, they’ll start thinking things that aren’t true. Do you know what I mean?”

Surprise thought for a few seconds. “Oh. OH! Oh, I see,” the perky mare said with a blush and an embarrassed smile on her face. “Gotcha.”

She was about to take off when Blueblood’s recent conscience caught up with him. “Wait,” he said. “Since you’re here, you might as well stay… and clean up this mess you made while I go get cleaned up.” He pointed over at the spilled coffee on the floor.

Surprise stopped and turned back to him. “Um, actually, I have to get to work. My boss says if I’m late one more time, they'll turn me into rainbows! I don't know if she was being serious or not, but either way, I don’t want to risk it.” Surprise flapped her wings and flew out the open window she had apparently come in through.

“Can’t she just use the front door like normal ponies?” Blueblood muttered to himself, shaking his head.

Blueblood sighed and got ready to clean up the spilled coffee on the floor when he heard the doorbell ring. Blueblood wondered if it was Surprise again, finally learning to use the front door. He walked over to the door and opened it. He was surprised to find that it was in fact NOT Surprise. Instead, it was two royal unicorn guards.

“Hello?” Blueblood asked them, confused as to why they were there.

“Prince Blueblood?” asked one of them.

“Yes?”

“I’m afraid we have to place you under house arrest.”

“WHAT?!” Blueblood shouted in shock. “On what charges?”

One of the guards levitated out a scroll and began to read it. “Destruction of private property, as well as, and I quote, being a self-centered, unprincely, royal pain,” said the guard. “You allegedly damaged the Element of Generosity, Miss Rarity’s dress at the Grand Galloping Gala and treated her badly the entire evening. Now she is suing you for damages, as well as for emotional distress.”

“What!?” Blueblood exclaimed in disbelief. “But… But that was… a couple years ago!”

“I’m sorry, your highness,” said the guard, “but you will have to wear this for the time being.” They levitated out a black collar from behind them that had wires and a small black box on it. They put the collar around Blueblood’s neck, locking it with a key so that he couldn’t get it off.

“This will shock you if you ever try to leave your house,” said one of the guards. “It will also shock you if you attempt to remove it physically or with magic.”

“Have a nice day,” the other said. They bowed to the prince, and then turned and trotted away from Blueblood’s property.

Blueblood still stood there in his doorway, completely befuddled by this unforeseen turn of events.

“What the heck just happened?!” he said to himself.
> Ch 1. Midnight Visitor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Three days passed since Blueblood was placed under house arrest. Blueblood tried to pass the time in his house with what ever he could think of. Reading, eating, visits from some of his friends and girlfriend. He even tried cleaning to pass the time. No matter what he tried, however, he couldn’t distract himself from the fact that he was board out of his mind. He thought to himself how ironic it was that usually he had no complaints about spending an entire day without leaving his mansion, but now that he couldn’t leave it, he suddenly wanted to now more than ever.

One night, while he was asleep in bed, once again having the same dream as the previous nights, he was awoken by a loud noise. Blueblood sat up in bed, lighting up his horn to illuminate the room. He saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Then he heard another noise. It had come from downstairs, and it sounded like something made of glass had been shattered.

“Burglars!” Blueblood gasped to himself silently. He reached over to pick up his phone and dial 911, but when his hoof only met air, he then remembered that phones had not been invented yet in their universe somehow.

Blueblood frantically thought about what he should do. His first instinct was to simply lock the door to his room and hide under the covers. But then he remembered that he and his friends had stood up to and defeated King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis a year ago, and that he had learned to be brave that day. So Blueblood took a deep breath, and put on a determined expression.

The Prince climbed out of his bed and walked over to the door to his bedroom. Before opening the door, he thought that he should have a weapon to defend himself with. Doing a quick scan around his bedroom, he picked up a lamp with his magic and levitated it over next to him. Feeling ready, he took another deep breath, and opened his bedroom door.

Taking a peek out into the hallway and seeing no one, he silently crept out into the hallway and proceeded over to the staircase downstairs.

He heard more noises coming from down below. The sound of hooves across hard wooden floor.

Blueblood got to the staircase and started to head down it, being as silent as he possibly could on the wooden steps. He then noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the dark figure of a pony moving around in the foyer below him. Using his magic, Blueblood lit all the lights in the room, hoping to take the intruder by surprise so he could then knock them out with his lamp. As the entire room was illuminated with light, however, Blueblood was shocked to see that the intruder was none other than his great aunt, Princess Luna.

Princess Luna looked up at him in surprise, and Blueblood set his lamp down on the floor.

“Auntie Luna!” Blueblood exclaimed. “What are you doing here!?” Blueblood then noticed a broken vase lying in pieces on the floor beside the table it had been on, realizing that that must have been the sound he had heard earlier.

Luna suddenly flapped her big wings and flew up to where Blueblood was on the staircase, landing right in front of him and looking him in the eyes. Her eyes were wide and she had a crazed expression on her face.

“Blueblood!” she said, her voice filled with urgency. “Thou must help us! Take us home!”

To say the least, Blueblood was confused. “Auntie Luna… we are home. My home. Why did you break into my house? And in the middle of the night?”

“The middle of the night!?” said Luna, still acting weird. “Then perhaps there is still time! Search for my body, Blueblood! Find… the hole!”

Blueblood was taken aback, not sure what Luna was talking about. “Um… auntie Luna, there is no way I’m looking for your hole.”

Luna continued. “The hole! It’s coming!”

Blueblood was becoming disgusted. “Please stop talking about your coming hole, auntie.”

Luna then put her front hoof on Blueblood’s face. “Find it! Before Celestia finds out! She must not find out! I have to tell you... I don’t have much time!”

Blueblood pushed his aunt’s hoof off of his face. “I think you need a doctor, auntie Luna.”

Suddenly Luna’s eyes rolled back in her head as she began to fall forward. Blueblood let out a yelp as the larger pony collapsed on top of him, pining him down on the stairs.

“And now I need a doctor too!” he grunted from underneath her.

…...........

Elsewhere in Equestria, at a small home in Ponyville, a yellow unicorn stallion named Comet Tail was looking up at the night sky with his telescope. On the couch in the room behind him, his friends, Pokey Pierce and Caramel were asleep on the couch. They had been at this all night.

Comet Tail mumbled to himself as he looked through his telescope, his eyes struggling to stay open from lack of sleep.

“I know I saw it last night!” he said to himself. “Oh, why didn’t I write the coordinates down?”

He heard a yawn behind him and the sound of a pony stirring, but didn’t bother looking up from his telescope to see who it was. Then he heard a groggy Pokey Pierce speak.

“Oh my gosh, Comet, are you still up? Would you give it a rest, man?”

“I know I saw it!” said Comet. “And I want to be the one to say I discovered it!”

“You really need a marefriend, Comet,” said Pokey. “You should just buck up the courage and ask her out already!”

“Who?” said Comet.

“You know who!” said Pokey. “That mare you’ve had a crush on since you first met her. I believe your exact words were ‘our foals will be smart and beautiful’.” Pokey chuckled.

“You’re one to talk,” said Comet in annoyance. “You don’t have a marefriend either.”

“Hey, I’m still getting over the break up, okay!” snapped Pokey.

“Its been six months! You’re seriously not...” Comet suddenly cut off.

“Comet?” Pokey asked.

Comet Tail then suddenly jumped up from his telescope. “I FOUND IT!” he shouted gleefully. Turning around to face his friend. “I FOUND THE PHENOMENON!” Then he frowned as he noticed one of his friends was missing. “Hey! Where’s Thunder Lane?”

“Oh,” said Pokey. “He mentioned something about life being too short, and then left to go hook up with those two twin pegasus sisters. Cloudchaser and Flitter, I think their names are.”

“Oh. Well anyway, I FOUND WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!” Comet pointed over to the telescope.

Pokey sighed and walked over to the telescope while Comet got to work waking Caramel.

“CARAMEL! WAKE UP! I FOUND IT!”

Caramel groaned. “Unless you’re a beautiful mare, I’m going back to sleep.” Caramel turned over, trying to do just that.

Comet’s horn glowed and he used his magic to roll Caramel off the couch.

“OW! HEY!” Caramel shouted as he hit the floor.

“Come on!” urged Comet. “Before it gets too light out, come over here and see my discovery!” Comet was almost giddy as he bounced back over to the telescope.

Caramel groaned as he got to his hooves and started heading over to the telescope with Comet and Pokey. “What happened to the good old days when we would just order a pizza and play Halo all night?” he complained.

“Well, what do you think?” Comet asked.

“What is that thing?” asked Pokey.

“I don’t know,” said Comet. “At first I thought it was a galaxy, but its way too small and too close to be that.”

“Let me have a see!” said Caramel. Pokey backed off and Caramel put his eye to the opening. “I see it! Wow, that thing is weird! It looks like some sort of hole in space. Could it be a black hole?”

“No,” Comet Tail shook his head. “Black holes are super dense collapsed stars that have such a powerful gravitational pull that even light can’t escape from them, so we wouldn’t even be able to see them. But this thing is clearly visible! Plus, it’s to close to be a black hole.”

“Where is it exactly?” asked Pokey.

Comet pushed Caramel out of the way and looked through the scope. “Well if I had to estimate, it appears to be near… Titan.”

“Titan?” asked Caramel.

“Yeah. Its one of Saturn’s moons,” said Comet.

Caramel pushed Comet out of the way and looked through the telescope himself again. “Oh yeah, I see it.” Then after a few seconds he said, “Hey, is it just me, or is that thing getting bigger?”

Comet pushed Caramel aside again and looked through the eyepiece. After a few moments he spoke. “You’re right! That thing is expanding, slowly, but surely.”

“Is that bad?” asked Pokey.

“Eventually it could be,” said Comet, looking up from the telescope at his friend. “But I’d need more information on it before I can make an accurate hypothesis.”

“You think we should tell somepony about this?” asked Caramel.

Comet thought for a moment. “Good idea.”

> Ch 2. The Doctor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The following morning, Blueblood had sent out for doctors to come to see Princess Luna, who had yet to wake up. Blueblood had managed to lay her on his sofa in his living room. The doctors that came however were not what Blueblood had been expecting. One was a turquoise unicorn mare named Dr. Lyra, and the other was a cream-colored earth pony mare named Dr. Bon Bon. They both seemed oddly familiar to him, like he had seen them both somewhere before. But they said they were doctors, and they were dressed like doctors, wearing white lab coats, glasses, stethoscopes, and carrying doctors’ travel medical bags, so he let them examine his aunt.

Blueblood sat behind them on a chair and watched patiently as they looked Luna over.

After a little while, the two doctors turned away from Princess Luna to face Blueblood, who rose to his hooves as they addressed him.

“So is she going to be alright?” Blueblood asked the two doctors.

“Well, physically, Princess Luna seems to be completely normal,” said Lyra.

Bon Bon let out a chuckle. “Well, all except for her backwards-”

“BON BON!” Lyra interrupted the other mare. “EXNAY!”

“Oh! Sorry,” said Bon Bon, smiling sheepishly.

Lyra turned back to Blueblood. “The problem seems to be inside Luna’s head,” she continued.

“Her head?” said Blueblood. Then his eyes widened as he became worried. “Oh no! She’s not turning into Nightmare Moon again, is she?”

“We don’t know?” said Bon Bon with a shrug.

“We’ll have to run more tests to be sure,” added Lyra. Her horn glowed and she levitated Luna’s unconscious body into the air.

“Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of the Princess,” said Bon Bon. “Especially her backwards-”

“BON BON!” Lyra shouted at Bon Bon again, almost accidentally dropping Luna out of her levitation.

“Oops! My bad,” Bon Bon apologized again.

Blueblood raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you two are doctors?” he asked.

“Of course,” said Lyra, giving him a smile.

“What else would we be?” added Bon Bon.

Blueblood thought for a few seconds, and then shrugged. “Well, I can’t argue with that logic.”

“Good,” said Lyra. She and Bon Bon turned and headed out into the foyer with Luna levitated in the air above them, and walked out the front door.

Not five minutes passed before Blueblood heard his doorbell ring again. Thinking that perhaps those two doctors had forgot something, Blueblood walked over to his front door. Upon opening the door, however, he instead found a white unicorn mare with a purple mane and tail and eyelashes that were obviously fake.

“Hello, you pathetic excuse for a stallion,” the mare said to him.

Blueblood was taken aback and narrowed his eyes in confusion. “Um… Do I know you?” he asked the mare.

The mare suddenly became very angry and glared daggers at him. “Don’t you remember me?” she spat.

Blueblood thought for a moment. She did look kind of familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his hoof on it. He had met so many ponies in his life after all. “Um…”

“ITS ME! RARITY!” the mare screamed. “WE MET AT THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA A FEW YEARS AGO! YOU TREATED ME LIKE CRAP! YOU RUINED MY DRESS! AND YOU MADE WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE THE WORST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!”

“Rarity?” said Blueblood. Then it all came back to him. He remembered the gala. He realized this was the mare that had gotten him under house arrest. He quickly became filled with anger. “You!”

Blueblood took a step forward towards the white mare, but then felt jolts of electricity run through his entire body and he let out a scream of surprise and pain. Remembering that he was still wearing the shock collar around his neck, he stepped back inside his doorway and the electric shock stopped. He then became aware of Rarity laughing.

“I can’t tell you how satisfying this is!” Rarity said as she laughed.

Blueblood growled. “What do you want?” he demanded.

Rarity grinned. “Oh I just came by to see for myself that you were getting your comeuppance.”

Blueblood groaned at the collar around his neck. “How long do I have to where this infernal thing?!” he pointed at the collar.

“At least until your day in court,” said Rarity.

“And when is that?” asked Blueblood.

Rarity thought for a moment. “Um… last I checked, about… thirty years.”

Blueblood’s eyes widened in shock. “WHAT?! Why is it taking THAT long?!”

Rarity frowned. “Apparently the courts didn’t think the case was very important.”

“THAT’S BECAUSE IT ISN’T IMPORTANT!” Blueblood yelled at her.

“YES IT IS IMPORTANT!” Rarity yelled back at him. “Rude ponies like you NEED to be taught a lesson.”

Blueblood rolled his eyes. He still couldn’t believe this was happening to him. “Why are you even doing this?” he asked Rarity. “The gala was about three years ago! Are you seriously still upset about that? Can’t you just… let it go?”

“OF COURSE NOT!” she shouted at him. “I’ll never let it go! Not until I have justice!”

“JUSTICE? Isn’t this enough?” He pointed back to the collar around his neck.

Rarity just chuckled. “Oh, I’m only getting started. By the time I’m through with you, you will regret every day you EVER treated a lady like anything less than a Princess! I will-”

“Excuse me," Blueblood interrupted her, "but can you legally do anything to me?”

Rarity was silent for a few seconds. “Well… not legally. No,” she admitted.

Blueblood slammed the door in Rarity’s face.

Blueblood turned and walked back to his living room, glad that he no longer had to put up with that nightmare of a mare. At least, for the moment anyway. Upon entering the living room, however, he nearly jumped out of his skin as he almost ran right into yet another pony in his house.

“Hello, Blueblood old boy,” said a brown earth pony stallion standing in his living room very casually, as if showing up in somepony's house completely unexpectedly was completely normal.

After Blueblood calmed down from his initial shock, he recognized the pony as Doctor Whooves.

“Doctor Whooves!?” exclaimed Blueblood. “What are you doing here? How did you get inside my house? Didn’t you try to kill me last year?”

The Doctor responded. “This is about Princess Luna. I used my TARDIS to get in here. And yes. I would have gotten away with it to, if you and your friends had not accidentally resurrected King Sombra.”

“Oh,” said Blueblood, sighing. After just getting an unpleasant visit from that white marshmallow nightmare, he was in no mood for any more crazy stuff. But then it resonated in his mind that the Doctor had mentioned his auntie Luna’s name. “Wait! Princess Luna? What do you want with her?”

“All in good time, Blueblood,” said the Doctor cheerfully. “First, I need a cup of hot tea, and a plate of Jammie Dodgers.”

Blueblood stared at the Doctor in bewilderment. “What?”

“Tea and Jammie Dodgers!” said the Doctor as he trotted past Blueblood and headed for the kitchen.

Blueblood stood where he was, dumfounded at what just happened. “Why is all this insanity happening to me all of a sudden!?” he asked himself out loud.

Several minutes later, Blueblood and the Doctor were sitting on the sofa in Blueblood’s living room, the doctor with a cup of hot tea and a plate of Jammie Dodgers setting on the coffee table in front of them.

“Oh, that’s lovely!” said the Doctor as he took a sip of his tea.

“Good,” said Blueblood. “Now can you tell me what’s going on?” He expected the Doctor to have a darn good reason for showing up in his home completely unannounced.

“Ah, yes,” said the Doctor, setting his tea down on the coffee table and then turning to face the Prince. “I heard that Princess Luna was in your house last night.”

“How did you know that?” asked Blueblood.

“I’m a Time Pony. I have my ways. Anyway, I was hoping to see her.”

“Well you just missed her,” said Blueblood. “Doctors came and took her away to get treatment not too long ago.” Then he added, “Not doctors like you. I mean actual medical doctors.”

“Yes. I got that,” said the Doctor in annoyance.

“Anyway, I presume she’s at a hospital or at the castle now,” said Blueblood.

“Hmm,” said the Doctor, nodding thoughtfully.

“What do you want with my aunt anyway?” asked Blueblood, curious.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Blueblood, but strange things are going on,” said the Doctor, reaching down and picking up his tea in his hooves and taking another sip. “Cracks appearing in thin air, unicorns having odd dreams, and ponies behaving oddly! Well, odder than usual that is. I thought perhaps Princess Luna might be able to shed some light on it, but I want to be sure.”

“What do you mean?” asked Blueblood, confused.

“I need to see inside your memories, Blueblood,” said the Doctor, setting down his cup of tea again. “I need to perform a Time Pony mind meld with you. I need to see exactly what Princess Luna did and said while she was in your house last night.”

Blueblood was taken aback. “You want to go inside my head?!” he asked the time pony.

The Doctor nodded. “Yes.”

Blueblood thought for a moment. “Do I have to?” he asked.

“Yes!” said the Doctor, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Blueblood sighed. “Okay. Fine. But… if you happen to see any erotic images of Braeburn Apple in there… just know that I honestly thought he was a mare.”

The Doctor laughed. “Don’t worry, Blueblood. We all did!” Then he looked away for a moment, staring off into space. "We all did."

Blueblood sighed again as he prepared himself. “Okay.”

The Doctor put his hoof up to the side of Blueblood’s head, and closed his eyes and concentrated.

After a few seconds Blueblood saw the memories of last night with princess Luna appear his thoughts. Every moment, from when he first awoke, to when Lyra and Bon Bon left with her.

When it was over, the Doctor removed his hoof from Bluebloods head. Blueblood looked at the Doctor, who with sitting with his hoof scratching his chin in thought.

“Interesting,” the Time Pony muttered to himself.

“Did that help you?” Blueblood asked.

“It did answer some of my questions,” said the Doctor. “But it also raised even more questions. What is this ‘hole’ she’s talking about? Why would her body be there? And what does Princess Celestia have to do with any of this? She seemed to really want to tell you something, but it looked like she was having trouble making coherent thought.” He sighed. “Something’s definitely not right, Blueblood. I sense a disturbance in the plot.”

Blueblood blinked. “Oh! Um… Have you tried… Preparation H?” he asked.

The Doctor gave him a look. “NOT THAT KIND OF PLOT, YOU MORON!” he shouted in annoyance. He then calmed himself. “The plot is… well, think of it as an unseen force. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds our universe together. As a Time Pony, I can see the turn of the plot. What is fixed, what is in flux, what makes sense, and what is an anomaly. In a normal story, the plot should flow smoothly and make sense. But here… I have to go.” The Doctor as he got up from the sofa.

“Wait! You’re leaving?” asked Blueblood in surprise. “Just like that?”

“I’m sorry to leave so abruptly, Blueblood,” said the Doctor. “There are things that need attending to.”

Blueblood got up as well. “Doctor, I don’t understand what’s going on!”

“Nor do I, Blueblood,” said the Doctor. Blueblood could hear worry in the Doctor’s voice as he spoke. “I sense a great evil. I must confront it alone. But should I fail, it will fall to you and your friends to save the day in a suitably heroic fashion. Find Princess Luna. Listen to everything she has to say. Find out what she knows. All hope now lies in her.”

The Doctor then whistled. A second later, Blueblood was startled as the Doctor’s blue police box suddenly appeared out of thin air in the corner of the room, having apparently been cloaked there the whole time. The Doctor opened the door of the police box and walked inside, closing it behind him. The TARDIS then made its whining mechanical droning noise as it disappeared from the room.

Blueblood was left there, not sure what to think. The doctor had told him to find Princess Luna, but it was at that moment that Blueblood remembered he couldn’t because he couldn’t leave his house because of the collar around his neck.

“Oh well,” Blueblood thought to himself.

…………….

Comet Tail walked back into his house, having just returned from the post office. Caramel and Pokey Pierce were raiding Comet’s fridge and making themselves some daffodil sandwiches when he walked in.

“I sent a letter to the Canterlot Department of Science,” said Comet. “I let them know about my discovery.”

“You mean our discovery, right?” asked Pokey.

“No. I mean my discovery, seeing as I was the one who discovered it.”

“But we were with you when you found it!” said Caramel.

“You were both sleeping on the couch!” said Comet. “Anyway, I hope they contact me soon about my discovery. At the rate the phenomenon is expanding, I imagine they will want to take immediate action. Who knows? I might even get an audience with the Princesses!” he said excitedly.

Just then there was a knock at the front door.

“Wow! I wasn’t expecting them to respond this quickly,” said Comet.

“I really doubt it,” said Pokey, rolling his eyes. “You just sent that letter a few minutes ago.”

Comet walked over to the door and opened it. He was surprised when he found three royal guards, two pegasi, and one a unicorn, standing outside.

“Hello?” asked Comet.

“Hello,” said the unicorn guard. Unlike most other unicorn guards, this one had a dark curled mustache, and a light blue fur coat. “I’m Captain Sharp Spear. Are you Comet Tail?”

Comet smiled. They had to be there because of his letter. Though how they had gotten it and read it in such a short amount he had no idea, but at the moment he didn’t care.

“Yes. That’s me!” he said. “You must be here about my discovery?”

“Indeed, we are,” said Sharp Spear. “In the interest of the security of the Kingdom, I’m afraid you are all under arrest.”

Comet blinked. Pokey and Caramel looked up from where they were in the house behind him, both of their mouths filled with sandwich.

“What? There must be some mistake!” said Comet.

“There’s no mistake,” said Sharp Spear. “I’m afraid you all just know a bit too much for your own good.” His horn glowed with a violet aura as he levitated out several pairs of hoof cuffs from behind him.

Comet, Pokey, and Caramel gulped.
> Ch 3. Mental Examination
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Later that day, Prince Blueblood heard a knock at his front door again. When he walked over and opened it, for the first time that day, he was actually pleased by who was standing there.

“Trixie! You’re a sight for sore eyes,” he said.

Trixie gave him a confused look. “Um… Did you forget it’s our date night?” she asked.

It was Blueblood’s turn to give her a confused look. “Trixie, how can we go on a date? I’m under house arrest, remember?” said Blueblood, pointing at the shock collar around his neck.

Trixie smiled. “That doesn’t mean we can’t still have date night here,” she said Trixie as she walked around Blueblood into his house, giving him a quick kiss on the lips as she did.

Blueblood smiled. “I’m really glad you came by, Trixie,” he said as he closed the front door behind him with his magic. “I have been having a really weird day so far. I could use someone to talk to.”

“Oh? Tell Trixie about it,” said Trixie.

So they walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa while Blueblood relayed everything that had happened to him since the previous night, from Princess Luna showing up in his house acting crazy, to that brief yet horrible visit from that purple maned, white marshmallow from Ponyville, and then the bizarre visit from Doctor Whooves, and his gibberish about something big and strange going on with Princess Luna and the fate of the world and stuff.

“Who knows what insane thing is going to happen next?” said Blueblood, and then he sighed. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

“Well, to be honest, I have noticed some unusual things myself lately,” said Trixie.

Blueblood looked at her with interest. “Like what?”

Trixie looked upwards in thought. “Well, a few days ago, I woke up one morning and all of the leaves on the trees in Equestria had changed color to brown and orange, and it was chillier than usual out, like it was late autumn, even though it’s the middle of spring. And then the very next day, the trees and weather were back to normal. It was like the season had spontaneously changed from spring to autumn for a day. And the weirdest part was I seemed to be the only pony who noticed. When I asked other ponies about the sudden fall weather, they acted like they had no idea what I was talking about, saying that it was autumn. And then the next day, when the weather and the leaves were back to normal, no pony remembered it had been like autumn the day before.”

“Huh,” said Blueblood. “That IS weird!”

“Oh well,” said Trixie, giving him a smile. “I know something you and I could do to take our minds off things.” She gave him a suggestive look.

Blueblood grinned. “Yeah?”

Trixie nodded. “You can help me practice my magic.” Her horn glowed as she levitated several spell books out of her saddlebags lying on the floor, and shoved them in Blueblood’s face.

Blueblood frowned and sighed in disappointment.  He took the books into his magic aura and levitating them down onto the table in front of him in a pile. “You are such a tease,” he said to Trixie.

“Just open the green book there to chapter thirteen,” said Trixie, getting up from the sofa to prepare to cast spells.

...........................	

Princess Luna woke up and found herself staring at a sealing she didn’t recognize. She was lying on her back on a bed, and it looked like she was in some bedroom, but not her own bedroom. This fact immediately caused her to start to panic. 

“Ah. Your highness, you’re awake.”

Luna turned her head to her left and saw two mares in doctor’s uniforms standing next to the bed she was lying on. One was a cream-colored earth pony, and the other was a turquoise unicorn.

“Who are you?” Luna demanded. “Where am I?”

“Relax, your highness,” said the unicorn, apparently the one who had spoken before. “We’re doctors. I’m Doctor Lyra. And this is Doctor Bon Bon.”

“You’re at our office in Ponyville,” said the one named Dr Bon Bon.

Luna looked around the room she was in. The walls were a cream color, there was an open closet in which she could see a few hats and dresses, and a window to the outside with dark purple and violet curtains. The room actually looked more like a bedroom than a doctor’s office, except for the giant computer looking machine and a table covered in various doctor’s tools that is. Even the bed she was lying on wasn’t a hospital bed, or an examination table. It was just a normal, pony sized, sleeping bed.

“Why am I here?” asked Luna, sitting up on the bed.

“Well, what do you remember from last night?” asked Dr Lyra.

Luna thought for a few seconds. “I was at the castle. I had dinner with my sister, and then I retired to my bed chambers and was setting down to go through some paperwork I had been neglecting, and then…” She paused. “I… I don’t remember anything after that. The next thing I know, I’m waking up here.”

“So you don’t remember breaking in to your nephew Prince Blueblood’s house in the middle of the night?” asked Dr Bon Bon.

Luna looked at them in shock. “WHAT?! I DID THAT?”

“Yes, your highness,” said Bon Bon. “Prince Blueblood woke up and found you in his house in the middle of the night. He said you spoke to him briefly before passing out.”

Luna still looked shocked, and a bit scared too. “I… I don’t remember any of that!”

“Well, we came and brought you here to give you a full examination,” said Dr Lyra. “Don’t worry, your highness. We’ll figure out what’s going on with you.”

Luna narrowed her eyes at the two doctors. “You two look familiar?”

“We get that a lot,” said Bon Bon.

Luna sighed. As skeptical as she was about the two doctors, the fact that she had been sleepwalking frightened her, and she wanted to get some answers. “Very well. You may proceed,” she said.

The doctors brought over a big dome-like contraption that had wires attached to it that were connected to the large computer thing. They placed the dome part on top of Luna’s head like a helmet and strapped it around under her muzzle, much to Luna’s discomfort.

“Okay, Princess Luna. This device will read your subconscious and then display it on that screen,” said Lyra. She pointed to a video screen on the large computer thing.

“Where did you get this machine?” Luna asked them. “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

“Oh, don’t worry, your highness,” said Lyra. “We stole it from Twilight’s basement.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “THOU DID WHAT?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll put it back when we’re done with it,” said Bon Bon, like it was no big deal.

Luna’s jaw dropped in disbelief at what she was hearing.

“And just so you’re comfortable, we invited a few of your friends over here to help you feel more relaxed,” said Lyra.

This brought a smile to Luna’s face. Hopefully they meant Twilight and her friends.

Just then, the door to the room swung open, and standing there was a female griffon and a blueish-green pegasus mare with a blond mane and tail.

“Hey,” the griffon said casually.

Luna frowned in confusion. “Who are they?” she asked the doctors. “I don’t know either of them!”

“Yes, you do!” said the Pegasus. “I’m Lightning Dust, and she’s Gilda! We saved Equestria from King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis when they returned! You were there when we received meddles for it!”

Luna had to think for a moment before it hit her. “Oh, right! Now I remember. But even so, neither of you are my friends.”

“Well, to be honest,” said Bon Bon, “when we said we invited a few of your friends, we actually just walked outside and asked the first two living things saw if they would help us.”

Luna facehoofed.

“But we assumed you were friends with everypony,” said Bon Bon, “seeing as you visit everypony in their dreams… apparently.”

“Speaking of which,” said Lyra. “I’ve been having nightmares for like a month now, and you still haven’t visited me in my dreams. What gives?”

“Sorry, but the list is pretty full right now,” said Luna annoyance. “Besides, I’ve been having these headaches and nightmares of my own, and blacking out and sleep walking happening to me lately! So, yeah, I’ve kind of got a lot on my plate at the moment.”

Dr Bon Bon spoke up. “Alright, everypony! So just so we’re all clear on how this will work, you two,” she pointed at Gilda and Lightning Dust, “will ask the Princess a series of questions, and the machine will then read her subconscious thoughts, and display them on the screen in words. We’ll begin with a few simple questions to make sure everything is working correctly.” She looked at Lightning Dust. “Lightning, please begin with question one on the paper I gave you earlier.”

Lightning Dust lifted up a small sheet of paper in her hoof. “Okay,” she said. “Princess Luna, what are you thinking about right now?”

Luna glanced up towards the sealing in thought. “Um…”

Suddenly, the words ‘Big Macintosh’ appeared on the screen.

Luna’s eyes widened when she saw what had appeared on the screen. “Wait a minute!” she exclaimed, a blush appearing on her face. “I never said that!”

“But your mind did, your highness,” said Lyra with an amused grin.

“This is going to be juicy!” said Bon Bon with the same amused grin on her face.

Over on the other side of the room, Luna saw the griffon and the pegasus also looking amused. She growled in irritation.

“My mind did not think that!” Luna huffed defiantly.

Just then, the words ‘Yes, it did’ appeared on the screen.

Luna gritted her teeth. “The machine is a liar!” she spat angrily.

Then the words ‘No, it isn’t’ appeared on the screen.

“YES YOU ARE!” Luna shouted at the computer.

Then Bon Bon spoke up. “Alright! Enough!” she said. “Now then, Princess Luna, why exactly… are you thinking about Big Macintosh right now?” Bon Bon asked with a grin.

“I am not!” Luna growled.

On the screen, the words, ‘I am attracted to him’ appeared.

“NO, I’M NOT!” shouted Luna, still blushing deeply.

“Why exactly are you attracted to him?” Bon Bon asked, clearly enjoying this.

“I THOUGHT THOSE TWO WERE THE ONES WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO ASK ME THE QUESTIONS!” Luna shouted, pointing at Gilda and Lightning Dust.

On the screen, the words, ‘He’s big, strong, handsome, brawny, burly, simple, kind, and I just want him to plow m-’

"STOP!!!" Luna screamed, using the deafening royal Canterlot voice, causing the four other ponies in the room to cringe and cover their ears at the loud noise and miss the end of the text on the screen.

“Ow! Okay! This is getting out of hoof!” shouted Lyra, giving Bon Bon a scowl.

“Yes. Sorry, your highness,” said Bon Bon sheepishly. “I suppose I crossed a line there. Lets get back to the real questions, shall we?”

Luna crossed her hooves, rapidly loosing her patients. “Forgive me if I withhold my enthusiasm,” she said.

Dr Lyra spoke. “Okay, your highness. I want you to try to remember when you broke into Prince Blueblood’s house.”

“I told you. I don’t remember that at all!” said Luna.

“We know!” said Dr Lyra. “Just try, please.”

Luna sighed and closed her eyes.

After a few seconds, the lights in the room suddenly began to flicker, and screen on the computer froze up.

“Um… okay. That’s weird,” said Bon Bon.

“Turn the computer off and then turn it back on again,” said Lyra.

Bon Bon nodded and began working on the computer.

“Was that supposed to happen?” asked Luna in concern.

“Don’t worry, your highness,” said Lyra. “We just had a little hiccup there, but we’re fixing it.”

As soon as Dr Bon Bon turned away from the computer and gave Lyra a nod, Lyra looked at Lightning Dust. “Okay, ask her more of the questions on that paper.”

Lightning Dust looked at the paper again. “Okay. What is your name?” she asked the Princess.

“My name is Luna,” she answered, rolling her eyes.

On the computer screen, however, a very different name appeared. ‘Starswirl the Bearded.’

Everyone stared at the screen in complete silence for a few moments. Then Luna let out a small chuckle.

“Heh. The machine must be glitching again, right?” she asked.

Bon Bon gave the machine a quick look over. “Actually, it appears to be working fine,” she said.

“But… that can’t be,” Luna muttered in utter confusion.

“Ask the question again just to be sure!” said Lyra.

Lightning Dust nodded. “What’s your name?” she asked again.

“Luna,” said Luna.

Once again, the computer screen read ‘Starswirl the Bearded’.

“Okay. This is getting spooky,” said Gilda.

It wasn’t any mystery as to why. It was common knowledge to all of them that the ancient and famous unicorn, Starswirl the Bearded, was dead. Lightning Dust and Gilda had personally witnessed his death when he had been murdered by King Sombra. They had even had a funeral for him in which they had cremated his body and launched his ashes into space. Nearly half of Equestria had attended.

“Ask a different question!” said Bon Bon.

Lightning Dust looked back at the paper she had. “Um… Why would you go see Prince Blueblood in the middle of the night?”

Luna didn’t say anything this time. She just waited to see what would appear on the screen, like the rest of them.

The words, ‘To give him a warning’ appeared on the screen.

“Warning? What warning?” asked Gilda.

The lights began to flicker again and the screen froze up again. Lyra and Bon Bon started fixing it again.

“Why does it keep doing that?” asked Luna.

Dr Bon Bon shrugged. “Not sure. It could be because the computer isn’t finding any subconscious readings from that particular question, or the machine is just glitchy."

“Okay. Go ahead and ask the next question on the list!” said Lyra as soon as they got done resetting the computer again.

“Princess Luna, where are you right now?” Lightning Dust asked.

“I’m obviously in this room with you,” she said.

On the screen the words, ‘Approximately 200,000 miles above Saturn’s moon Titan, inside the hole’ appeared.

“Titan?” said Bon Bon.

“Saturn’s moon?” said Lyra.

“The hole? What hole?” asked Gilda.

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker again. Then something weird started happening on the computer screen. Instead of words appearing, images of what looked like space and bizarre calculations and charts began flashing on the screen, one after another.

“Okay. What the heck is this now?” asked Gilda.

“I don’t know!” said Bon Bon, her and Lyra looking like they were on the verge of freaking out. “It looks like… star charts!”

“But the computer isn’t designed for that!” said Lyra. “It’s only supposed to show text! Not images!”

All of them looked over at Princess Luna, and it was a good thing they did to. At that moment, the Princess of the night suddenly wasn’t looking so good. Her eyes had rolled back up in her head and her body was starting to shudder.

“Princess Luna? Are you okay?” asked Lyra.

Luna didn’t respond, and she only seemed to get worse. The Princess was starting to convulse where she sat on the bed.

Lyra and Bon Bon began to panic.

“YOU TWO!” Bon Bon shouted at Gilda and Lightning Dust. “HOLD HER DOWN SO SHE DOESN’T HURT HERSELF!”

“TURN OFF THE COMPUTER!” said Lyra as Gilda and Lighting Dust started to try and hold the Princess down on the bed while she convulsed uncontrollably.

Dr Bon Bon tried to turn the computer off, but for some reason it didn’t work. “ITS NOT WORKING!”

“QUICK! LETS GET THAT HELMET OFF OF HER!” Lyra shouted.

They tried to remove the helmet, but it wouldn’t come off. Both doctors pulled as hard as they could on the helmet, but it stayed held fast to the Princess’s head.

“Its no use!” exclaimed Bon Bon. “I think it’s being held down onto her head by her own magic!”

“So what do we do?” asked Lyra.

“I don’t know!”

On the screen, the images continued to appear one by one, getting faster and faster, until it finally stopped on one image. It was of some sort of swirling vortex in space, with a view of Saturn and its moon, Titan, behind it in the background.

Lyra spoke. “Princess Luna, is this the hole you were talking about?” She pointed at the image on the monitor.

The image then cut away and a singe word appeared on the screen. ‘Yes’.

At that moment, the computer screen exploded. Everyone in the room leaped backwards in surprise, and Luna suddenly stopped convulsing and collapsed on the bed, unconscious again.

Lightning Dust and Gilda let go of Luna, now that she was no longer convulsing.

“Wow!” said Gilda. “And I thought today was gonna be boring!”

Lyra and Bon Bon rushed to Luna’s side and began looking her over. They could safely remove the helmet on her head now, and they threw it off her and let it clang onto the floor.

“Is she okay?” asked Lightning Dust.

“She’s unconscious again,” said Lyra, “but seems to be stable.”

“Okay, so can either of you tell us what the heck just happened?!” asked Gilda.

Before either Lyra or Bon Bon could answer, they all heard a loud bang behind them, like a door had been knocked down. They all spun around and looked out the bedroom doorway to see royal guards were inside the building.

“FREEZE, CRIMINAL SCUM!” shouted one of the guards as they rushed into the room they were in. There were a bunch of them, some of them pegasi guards, and some of them unicorn guards.

“Hey! What the hay is the meaning of this?!” shouted Bon Bon at the guards.

Then one guard, a unicorn guard with a blue coat and a black curled mustache, stepped forward. Judging by the difference of his armor, they guessed he was a ranking officer. “You are all under arrest for the kidnapping of Princess Luna!” he said to them in a sharp, smug tone.

“Kidnapping!?” exclaimed Gilda. She and Lightning Dust looked at the two doctors.

“We didn’t kidnap the Princess!” said Lyra. “We’re doctors! The Princess is ill, and we are trying to treat her!” She pointed over at Princess Luna lying unconscious on the bed.

The guard raised his eyebrow. “Doctors? You two aren’t doctors.”

“Yes, we are!” shouted Bon Bon. “See our lab jackets and our stethoscopes? We are clearly doctors!”

“No. You’re just-” The ranking guard was suddenly interrupted when there was a bright flash of light beside them in the room, along with the sound of electrical sparks.

Everyone in the room squinted as their eyes adjusted to the light. When they looked at where the light was coming from, they saw a stream of bright light floating in mid air beside them, bending here and there in a zigzag pattern, like a lightning bolt.

They all stared awestruck at it.

“WHAT IS THAT?!” shouted Lightning Dust.

No one answered. Suddenly, the… thing… gave off another bright flash of light, and then it was gone.

All of them looked around the room, but the thing, what ever it was, was no where to be seen, like it had never been their at all.

However, they did notice that something was different. Dr Lyra and Dr Bon Bon were no longer dressed in their doctor clothes.

“What are you all doing in my house!?” Bon Bon shrieked suddenly, she and Lyra looking around at all the ponies in the room, their eyes widening when they fell upon Princess Luna lying unconscious in the bed. “Why is Princess Luna on my bed!?”

Gilda and Lightning Dust also noticed that Bon Bon’s voice was different now too. Where before it had been light and singsong, it was now kind of deep and nasally. Gilda and Lightning Dust looked at each other in confusion and then looked back at the two mares.

“You brought us here, remember?” Gilda said to them. “You were treating Princess Luna because she’s not right in the head?”

“Why in Equestria would we do that?!” said Lyra.

“Because you’re doctors?!” said Lightning Dust.

“We’re not doctors!” said Bon Bon.

“Yeah. What gave you a silly idea like that?!” said Lyra.

Gilda’s and Lightning Dust’s jaws dropped as they stared at the two mares in disbelief.

“BUT YOU SAID YOU WERE DOCTORS!” exclaimed Gilda.

“I never said that!” said Bon Bon.

“Me neither,” said Lyra.

“YES, YOU DID!” Gilda and Lightning Dust both shouted.

On the other side of the room, the lead unicorn guard was rubbing his chin with his hoof in thought as he watched the argument before him. He then turned to the other guards that were in the room.

“Arrest them all!” he ordered. “They’ve all learned far too much. And get Princess Luna to safety. Princess Celestia will want to know she's safe.”

“Yes, sir!” The guards saluted him and then stormed forward to arrest the three mares and griffon in the room.

...........................

“Okay. Are you ready?” Trixie asked Blueblood, levitating an open spell book out in front of her.

Blueblood whimpered where he stood. “Why do I have to this?” he whined

“Because I need an assistant to test my magic on, and as my coltfriend, that’s your job,” said Trixie. “Now hold still!”

Blueblood scowled. “I don’t remember reading THAT in the job discrp-”

“I SAID HOLD STILL!” snapped Trixie.

Blueblood froze. “Yes dear.”

Trixie smiled and closed her eyes to start concentrating on the spell.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light beside them along with the sound of electrical sparks. Blueblood glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw a stream of bright light floating in mid air beside them, bending here and there in a zigzag pattern.

“Amazing!” Blueblood said to Trixie in high regard, who was also staring at the beam of light hanging in the air. “I didn’t even see your horn glow!”

Trixie looked at Blueblood with wide-eyed expression. “Um… I… I didn’t do that,” she said, pointing at the strange light.

“What?!” said Blueblood in confusion. “But then… how did…?” They both turned their eyes back to the strange streak of light hanging in midair, and then they both instantly felt an overwhelming amount of fear wash over them.

...........................

Surprise was at her cloud house, lying on her bed in her room, reading a new book she had gotten from the library. The Hunger Games. At the halfway point through the book, she angrily slammed the book shut and through it to the floor, which since her floor was made of clouds, the book just fell right through it.

“Well that was really disappointing!” she huffed. “And here I thought a book called Hunger Games would be about an eating contest! And here I find out its actually about children killing each other! I haven’t been this disappointed in a book since I found out The Last Unicorn wasn’t about a post-apocalyptic Equestria in which all ponies, except one, had been turned into zombies. What a jip!”

Suddenly there was a knock at her front door. Surprise looked up in surprise. 

“Wow! I never get visitors!” she said to herself excitedly. “Coming!” she shouted. She got up from her bed and trotted happily over to the door.

“Hello?” she said as she opened it, instantly putting on one of her biggest smiles. But then her smile faded when she saw exactly WHO was at the door. “Oh no! Not again!” she screamed in terror.

Surprise tried to slam the door shut, but it was blocked by a pitch-black hoof with holes in it.
> Ch 4. Getting The Gang Back Together
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Blueblood and Trixie stared at the glowing streak of light just hanging there in mid air in Blueblood’s living room. It looked like a… crack. Just a giant crack in nothing! Blueblood suddenly remembered all the reports he had heard about ponies seeing cracks in thin air, and what Doctor Whooves had told him. He had just thought it was all rubbish, but now, with this right before his eyes, he was starting to think that maybe the reports were actually true.

“It looks like a… crack,” said Trixie, apparently agreeing with him. “A crack in… nothing!”

Blueblood and Trixie dropped their things and began backing away from the strange phenomenon.

“What is it?” asked Blueblood.

Trixie looked at him. “You’re asking me!?” she said.

Suddenly there was another flash of light. When the light faded, the thing was gone, but then Trixie and Blueblood immediately noticed something else weird. They were now in a completely different building. They looked around themselves at the room they were standing in. They were still in a fancy living room of what appeared to be a big fancy mansion, but it was a different one.

“Where are we?” asked Trixie.

Blueblood went to a window and looked out. To his utter surprise, he saw his yard and his neighbors’ homes right where they normally would be from his house.

“We’re… still in the same place,” he said in confusion.

“What!?” said Trixie, equally confused. She came over to the window with Blueblood and looked out. “How the heck is that possible?”

They stood there for a few moments, trying to figure this out.

Blueblood looked at Trixie. “Trixie, go outside and see what things look like from out there.”

“Hey! Why don’t you?” demanded Trixie.

Blueblood simply pointed up at the shock collar around his neck.

“Oh. Right,” said Trixie.

Trixie walked out of the room they were in, Blueblood following behind her. Glancing around the place, they could see that most of Blueblood’s belongings still seemed to be here, pictures, furniture, antiquities, and appliances.

They quickly found the foyer of this building and Trixie opened up the front door with her magic and looked outside. It still looked like the front view of Blueblood’s house. Trixie walked outside onto the walkway to the front gates of Blueblood’s land, and looked back behind her at the building. She saw a completely different mansion, exactly where Blueblood’s should have been. Not only did it have a different design, but where Blueblood’s had been white, this one was a tan color. It was still an impressive mansion though. Just a different one.

“Well?” Blueblood called from the doorway.

Trixie looked at him. “We’re still right where we were before. Your house has changed though. Its completely different.”

“How bad is it?” he asked, sounding nervous.

“Its still a nice mansion,” she shouted. “Just different.” Trixie walked back to the front doors where Blueblood was standing, looking utterly confused.

“How, and why, would something just turn my mansion into a different mansion?” he asked.

Trixie shrugged. “I don’t know. There are only a handful of ponies out there that could be powerful enough to do something like that with magic.” Then she frowned. “Sparkle being one of them.”

Blueblood remembered the streak of light that had appeared in his house only minutes ago. He wasn’t so sure it was a pony that had done this.

“Well, I’ve had enough!” Blueblood shouted, turning and stomping back into the mansion.

“What are you doing?” asked Trixie curiously as she followed him in, closing the front door behind her with her magic.

Blueblood’s horn glowed with light blue light as he walked back into the living room. “I’m bringing in some help!”

Trixie then noticed movement in the room. A side table drawer on one of the tables holding a lamp in the room suddenly opened up, and something came levitating out from inside it. It was some sort of small device, with a few buttons on it. Blueblood levitated the device over to him and, using his magic, he pressed one of the buttons on the device, which then made a beep sound.

……………………

Far away from Canterlot, out in the country, the twin unicorn brothers, Flim and Flam, were hard at work on their new, but still relatively small, apple orchard. They were planting another young apple tree in the ground. So far, their orchard was pitiful. They only had about twenty apple trees so far, and most of them weren’t fully grown yet. Needless to say, their business was coming along very slowly.

Flim dropped the shovel he had been using to plant the tree out of his magical hold and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his front leg. He looked over at his brother, who was levitating a bucket of water to pour on the recently planted tree.

“Whoever said hard work pays off was clearly an idiot!” Flim complained. “We’ve been doing this for a year now, and this is how far we’ve gotten! We’re not producing nearly enough cider to compete with other apple cider businesses!”

“I know,” said Flam as he poured the bucket of water onto the small apple tree. “But what else can we do? They agreed to drop the charges against us as long as we agreed to stop trying to swindle other ponies out of their apple orchards.”

Flim let out a long moan. “AT THIS RATE, WE’RE NEVER GOING TO BECOME RICH SELLING CIDER!”

“Well, at least it can’t get any worse,” said Flam.

Suddenly, in two bright flashes of light, they were both teleported away against their will.

……………………	

Gilda and Lightning Dust were in a dungeon cell with Lyra, Bon Bon, Comet, Pokey, and Caramel, when the two of them were suddenly teleported out of the cell.

“Hey! Where did those two go?” asked Pokey.

“And why didn’t they take US with them!?” moaned Lyra.

……………………	

A few miles away in Canterlot, Jet Set and Upper Crust were at a garden party in Fancy Pants’ backyard at his estate when in two flashes of light, they were suddenly teleported away, leaving everypony at the party who had seen them vanish with stunned expressions.

“Did you see that?!” said Fleur to her husband, Fancy Pants.

“I say!” exclaimed Fancy Pants. “I didn’t know those two could perform a teleportation spell!”

……………………

High up in the clouds, the three Cloudsdale pegasus jocks, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score, were racing each other in the sky.

“Come on, you slow pokes!” Dumbbell shouted as flew out ahead of his two best friends, doing a barrel roll to evade an incoming cloud. “If we want to learn to do a sonic rainboom, we’re gonna have to get a lot faster!”

“BET I’LL DO ONE BEFORE YOU!” Hoops shouted as he suddenly folded his wings and dived down towards the ground below.

“HOOPS, STOP! YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH ALTITUDE YET!” Score shouted at his friend in concern, but Hoops either didn’t listen, or couldn’t hear him.

Suddenly, all three ponies were teleported out of the air in three bright flashes of light.

……………………

Blueblood and Trixie waited, and then after a few seconds, there were several bright flashes of light before them, and then Gilda, Lightning Dust, Flim, Flam, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, and Surprise, all appeared in the room with surprised expressions on their faces. Hoops, who had been in the middle of a sky dive when he had been teleported, crashed into the carpeted floor head first, and crashed through the floor down into the basement, leaving a large, gaping hole right in the middle of the living room. Everyone immediately turned and looked down into the hole with concern.

“I’m… all… right,” they heard Hoops’ weak voice call up from the hole in the floor.

They all then continued looking around at their new surroundings, and each other, with utter confusion, until their eyes fell upon Blueblood and Trixie, who, unlike everyone else in the room, did not look at all confused to be there.

“Hello, everyone,” said Blueblood. Trixie also gave them all a small wave with her hoof.

“Blueblood!? Trixie!?” they all exclaimed.

“Huh?” Hoops suddenly climbed up out of the hole in the floor and stood with the others, a bit wobbly and holding his head with his hoof. He then noticed Blueblood and Trixie and the others in the room as well. “Oh hey, guysh,” he said, his voice a bit slurred. “What’sh up?”

“How did we get here?!” Jet Set asked Blueblood and Trixie.

“Yeah. How did you do that?” Trixie asked Blueblood.

“Oh. I used this teleporting device,” said Blueblood, holding up the small device he had used for them to see. “I got it so I could teleport you all here incase of an emergency.”

Everyone in the room except Blueblood groaned.

Then Blueblood suddenly noticed that one of his friends was missing. “Hey! Wait a minute! Where’s Iron Will? He was supposed to be here to!”

They all looked around for the large minotaur, but he wasn’t among them.

“Hey. What’s this?” Flim picked up a piece of paper off of the floor. “It has Iron Will’s name on it.”

“What’s it say?” asked Blueblood.

Flim cleared his throat. “It says, ‘Blueblood, I can’t make it to another one of your hair-brained schemes today. My daughter’s school play is today and I promised I’d be there. Sighed, Iron Will.’”

…………………

Meanwhile, in Minotaur country, a bunch of minotaurs were inside a school auditorium, watching a school play.

“Hamlet? Hamlet? Where art thou, Hamlet?” a young female minotaur calf on the stage called out.

“Juliet!” said a young male minotaur as he walked onto the stage from backstage. “You’re time is up, and your parole has begun! You know what that means?”

Just then, Iron Will spoke up from the audience. “Kids, I just want to tell you right now, you are not sucking me into this story at all. I am very much aware right now that I’m watching a play.” Then he noticed every other minotaur in the auditorium staring at him in shock. “What? I’m just trying to give these kids some helpful criticism!” he said.

Just then, Iron Will’s daughter began crying and ran off the stage.

“MAYBELLE, GET BACK HERE!” shouted Iron Will. “WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT BEING A DOORMAT?”

…………………

“Well, I guess Iron Will is out,” said Blueblood disappointedly.

“Out on what?” asked Gilda. “You still haven’t explained anything to us yet! What are we doing this time? Invading a micro-nation?”

“NO!” countered Blueblood. “Now, I’m sure you’ve all noticed the strange stuff that’s been going on lately.”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific,” said Dumbbell. “This is Equestria. Weird is pretty much par for the course around here.”

The rest of them all nodded in agreement.

Blueblood sighed. “I mean the weirder than usual stuff that’s been going on lately,” he said. “It’s been reported in the news papers, and on the radio.”

“You mean like ponies saying they’ve seen ‘cracks’ of light in thin air appearing and disappearing in different places?” asked Upper Crust.

“And certain unicorns getting weird dreams and head aches?” said Flam.

“And things disappearing and showing up other places?” asked Score.

“And ponies acting strange?” said Lightning Dust. “Well, stranger than usual?”

“Exactly,” said Blueblood. “Well, unfortunately, it turns out its all true. And it’s only getting worse! One of those ‘cracks’ just showed up in my house! And when it was gone-”

“Hold on!” said Gilda. “You saw one of those things too?!” Gilda and Lightning Dust suddenly look very interested.

“Um… yes,” said Blueblood. “Wait! YOU saw one of them?”

“Heck, yeah!” said Lightning Dust. “We were with these two doctors, Lyra and Bon Bon, while they were examining Princess Luna, and then-”

“You were with my aunt Luna?!” Blueblood asked.

“Yeah,” said Lightning Dust.

“How is she?” Blueblood asked with concern.

“Oh, yeah,” said Gilda. “They did say Luna had broke into your house the other night.” This got a lot of shocked and intrigued looks from the rest of the ponies in the room who didn’t know anything about this yet. Gilda continued. “Well, Blueblood, your aunt is… well… there is something definitely weird going on with her.”

Blueblood’s expression fell.

Gilda and Lightning Dust then explained about the computer test that looked into Luna’s head, and how it said stuff about Starswirl the Bearded, holes in space around Saturn’s moon, Titan, and a warning. And then they said that Princess Luna had started convulsing and fell unconscious.

Blueblood felt deep-rooted worry for his aunt.

“Starswirl the Bearded?” asked Trixie with intrigue.

Gilda and Lightning Dust nodded.

“Anyway,” said Lightning Dust, “after all that, some royal guards showed up and accused us of kidnapping the Princess. And then one of those ‘cracks’ appeared in thin air, and when it was gone, those two doctors had completely forgotten about being doctors!”

“And then we were all arrested and thrown in the dungeons,” said Gilda.

Lightning Dust nodded. “If you hadn’t teleported us out of there, we’d still be rotting with those losers!”

Blueblood tried to put his worry for his aunt aside and put his hoof to his chin in thought, considering everything he had just heard. “The Doctor did say that auntie Luna had something to do with this,” he muttered.

“What are you talking about?” asked Lightning Dust.

So Blueblood explained to them all about his visit from the Doctor, and everything he had said to him about Princess Luna, about the ‘cracks’ and something about something not being right with time and space, and about some great evil being afoot.

“And also,” continued Blueblood, “as I was saying earlier, before I was so rudely interrupted,” he shot Gilda and Lightning Dust a glare, which they just rolled their eyes too, “one of those ‘cracks’ also appeared in my house before I brought you all here! And when it was gone, my house had been replaced with this one!” He gestured to the room around them.

The others except for Trixie all looked confused when he said this.

“What do you mean?” said Upper Crust. “This is your house!”

Blueblood and Trixie looked at each other, both of them equally confused by this statement, and then looked back at Upper Crust.

“No, it isn’t!” said Blueblood. “My house is completely different from this one. Come now, you’ve all been in my home before. I mean, sure, its still a mansion, but it’s a different mansion!”

“This looks like your regular home to me,” said Flam. The others all nodded in agreement with him.

Blueblood and Trixie looked at each other again.

“They don’t notice that it’s a different house, but you and I do,” whispered Blueblood.

“Just like when I was the only pony who noticed the trees change color,” whispered Trixie.

“But how is that possible?” Blueblood asked.

“I don’t know,” whispered Trixie. “But lets not worry about it right now. We can figure it out later.”

Blueblood nodded, and they turned back to the others. “Well, okay. Whatever,” he said to them. “The point is, I don’t know what’s going on, but I am getting sick and tired of all this bizarre craziness that is happening, and I want it to stop! Now, I know I’ve never asked anything of you guys before…”

Everyone except Blueblood looked at each other in disbelief.

“Did he realy just say that?” asked Dumbbell.

“But we need to come together and make things right,” said Blueblood, pretending he hadn’t heard Dumbbell’s remark. Now Princess Luna is somehow a big part in all this.” He looked at Gilda and Lightning Dust. “Do you know where she is?”

They shook their heads.

“No,” said Gilda. “When they took us to the dungeons, they took Luna somewhere else. We have no idea where she is now.”

“Darn,” cursed Blueblood. “Well then, I think we should go tell my aunt, Princess Celestia, what’s going on. She’ll know what to do.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” said Gilda.

“Me either,” said Lighting Dust.

Everyone stared at them in confusion.

“Why not?” asked Blueblood.

Those guards that arrested us, they were Princess Celestia’s guards,” said Lightning Dust.

“So,” said Blueblood. “They arrested you because they thought you had kidnapped Princess Luna. Once we get that all cleared up-”

“We don’t think that was really the reason they arrested us,” said Gilda.

Everyone still stared at them in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” asked Blueblood.

“Right before they arrested us, we heard one of the guards say something about that we knew too much,” said Gilda.

“Yeah. And while we were in the dungeon, we met some other ponies who said they had been arrested because the guards said they ‘knew too much’ too,” said Lightning Dust. “Those ponies also knew about a hole in outer space near Titan. Whatever is going on, it seems like somepony doesn’t want anypony else to know about it for some reason.”

“And you think it’s my aunt, Princess Celestia?!” accused Blueblood angrily. “Why would she do that? She’s the most honest, caring, wisest, and greatest pony there is!”

“I don’t know!” said Lightning Dust. “But they were her guards, and given what we’ve seen, I don’t want to risk ending up back in the dungeons.”

“Me either,” said Gilda. “So lets just not involve her for right now, just to be safe.”

As much as Blueblood wanted to protest against what they were saying about his great aunt, and Princess of Equestria, Princess Luna’s last words she had said to him suddenly bubbled up inside his mind again. ‘Find it! Before Celestia finds out! She must not find out! I have to tell you… I don’t have much time!’

“Fine,” Blueblood reluctantly agreed, but then he thought to himself, I’ll just have to prove my great aunt’s innocents in all this. “Then what are we going to do?”

Everyone started thinking for a few moments.

“Well, we should probably try to find out more about what’s going on,” said Trixie. “Because, at the moment, we know pretty much jack squat!”

“And how do we do that?” asked Jet Set.

“We need to find somepony else whose smart enough to possible know what’s going on and give us some answers,” said Trixie.

“Who in Equestria could possibly be smart enough to know what’s going on?” asked Flam.

Hoops spoke. “Blueblood, you said Doctor Whooves visited you. Maybe he could give us more answers.”

“Hey, that’s actually a good idea, Hoops,” said Dumbbell.

Blueblood frowned. “Actually, I don’t know if he’s coming back,” he said. “He said he was going off to fight the ‘great evil’ by himself, and that if he fails, its up to us.”

“Well, things aren’t getting any better, so I guess he failed,” said Flim.

“Okay, the Doctor’s out of the question,” said Dumbbell. “Any other idea’s, anyone?”

They kept thinking.

“Wait a minute,” said Trixie. She turned and looked at Blueblood. “Blueblood, where did you get that teleporting device? The one that brought them here!”

Blueblood smirked. “I stole it from Sparkle’s basement,” he said. “You would not believe the stuff she has down there. Its like… Nerdvana down there!”

“Oh,” Trixie groaned.

“Well we can’t ask her for help,” said Lightning Dust. “She’s best friends with Celestia, and we already agreed we can’t go to her for help.”

“I doubt she'd know what’s up anyway,” said Trixie.

“Okay. So no Doctor, no Celestia, and no Sparkle,” said Upper Crust. “Is there anypony else out there who might be bat-shit crazy enough to know what’s going on?”

“HEY! What about Discord?” said Flim. “If any creature would know something, its him.”

“Yeah! Discord!” agreed Flam.

“Only one problem,” said Blueblood. “We have no idea where to find him. He could be anywhere!”

“Yeah,” said Trixie. “And there’s no guaranty he’d help us even if we did. Remember, he has this whole ‘rule’ about not solving ponies problems for them, because of something to do with the plot.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Flim said disappointedly.

Upper Crust moaned. “This is impossible! I can’t think of anypony we could go to for help!”

“Well we have to do something!” said Lightning Dust.

“Well…” began Blueblood.

Everyone looked at him.

“What is it?” asked Trixie.

Blueblood looked nervous. “Well… there is still one pony who might be able to help us,” said Blueblood. “But you’re not going to like who it is.”

“Who?” everyone immediately demanded.

Blueblood paused and took a deep breath before he answered. “Nightmare Moon.”

Everyone stared at Blueblood in silence.

“Nightmare Moon?” said Gilda with a chuckle. “You do know she was just an alternate personality of Princess Luna’s, don’t you?”

“And that alternate personality was destroyed by the Elements of Harmony,” said Jet Set. “Wasn’t it?”

“Actually…” began Blueblood. “It turns out, when the Elements of Harmony were used against her back when she returned, they didn’t destroy her. They separated her from Princess Luna. Since then, Nightmare Moon has somehow obtained her own body, but she’s still too weak to be a threat to anypony, so she’s been allowed to live in isolation as long as she ‘behaves’.”

They all stared at Blueblood in complete silence again, looking even more bewildered then the last time.

“You’re kidding,” said Trixie.

“That… doesn’t make much sense,” said Gilda.

“Yeah, that sounds really farfetched,” said Flim.

“It didn’t make any sense to me either when I found out,” said Blueblood, “but its true! Besides, look around!” He extended his hoof into the air to emphasis his point. “All sorts of stuff is happening that doesn’t make any sense! That’s why we’re here, remember!”

“He’s got a point,” said Lightning Dust with a shrug.

“Okay,” said Trixie. “So where is Nightmare Moon?”

Blueblood paused again. “In the same place she’s been for the past couple years,” he said. “Hiding in a cave in the Everfree Forest.”

“Oh, not that Faust-forsaken place again!” moaned Upper Crust.

“How do you know this?” Dumbbell asked Blueblood, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Being the nephew of the rulers of Equestria, I pick up on stuff,” said Blueblood. “Apparently, they’ve been trying to reform her like they did with Discord, but so far she hasn’t been swayed.”

Everyone considered this for a few moments.

“So you really think Nightmare Moon might know what’s going on?” asked Gilda.

Blueblood shrugged. “She might! She did used to be a part of Luna, after all.”

“And you’re sure she won’t try to… kill us?” asked Score.

“Like I said. She’s too weak to harm anypony anymore,” said Blueblood. “Otherwise, why would she be hiding in a cave?”

“Good point.”

“Alright,” said Lightning Dust with a shrug. “I guess Moony’s our best option so far. Lets go!”

“Hold on a second!” shot Upper Crust before Lightning Dust could flap her wings even once. “Do we really want to get involved in another one of Blueblood’s plans again?” She looked at Blueblood. “No offence, Blueblood, but the thing about your plans is they… well, they never work out.”

Blueblood glared at her. “Oh, come on!” he said. “When has a single one of my plans never worked out?”

Suddenly they heard the front door open and close, and then they heard hoof steps approaching. They turned around to face the entrance to the living room just as a light orange unicorn mare with a red and yellow mane and tail came walking into view. Blueblood recognized her as none other than Sunset Shimmer. She was levitating a familiar looking envelope beside her head.

She came into the room and looked at them all. “Hello,” she said. “I’m here about some quest for a big reward, or something like that.” She glanced at the envelope she was levitating beside her, and then back over at them. “Is this the right place?”

They all stared at her.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“That was a year ago!” exclaimed Blueblood.

Sunset’s eyes widened. “Oh!” she said in surprise, and then looked down at the floor. “I should really start checking my mail more often.”

“Who the heck is this?” said Trixie, her and everyone else turning to look at Blueblood.

“Oh, yes,” said Blueblood. “Everypony, this is Sunset Shimmer.” Then he looked at Sunset Shimmer. “Sunset, this is my marefriend, Trixie, and that’s Gilda, Lightning Dust, Jet Set, his wife, Upper Crust, Flim, and his twin brother, Flam, Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, and Surprise.”

“Hello,” they all said to the Sunset.

“A pleasure,” responded Sunset, then she looked at Blueblood. “So what’s going on here?” she asked.

“Um…” began Blueblood, scratching the back of his head as he thought. Then he looked at the others. “Somepony fill her in?”

Gilda approached Sunset. “Okay, you’re going to love this,” she said sarcastically as she began to explain the situation to the new pony as quickly as she could.

Blueblood turned back to the others and got back to the topic at hoof. “Okay, so maybe my plans don’t always turn out so great,” he admitted. “And I know I’ve made a few mistakes in the past.”

“Thousands!” said Lightning Dust.

“And sometimes I’ve led you into danger,” said Blueblood.

“Always!” said Jet Set.

“But at least I had the best intentions in mind,” said Blueblood.

“Your own!” said Dumbbell.

“And things have always turned out okay in the end.”

“RARELY!” they all shouted in unison.

“But this isn’t about me this time, okay!” said Blueblood. “This is about Princess Luna, and all this crazy stuff that is happening. This is about saving Equestria from… who knows what!? Please! I’m begging you! Just trust me one more time! Don’t do it for me! Do it for Equestria!”

Everyone in the room was silent as they considered what Blueblood had said.

“Well I’m with you,” said Trixie.

Blueblood smiled at her.

“We’re in,” said Gilda and Lightning Dust together.

“Count us in!” said Dumbbell. Hoops and Score nodded in agreement beside him.

“We’re in too,” said Flam, Flim nodding with him.

“I suppose I’ll help too,” said Sunset with a shrug. “I didn’t have anything else planned for the weekend anyway. And isn’t that just really sad?”

Jet Set and Upper Crust whispered to each other, until they looked at Blueblood and sighed.

“I suppose we’ll help too,” said Jet Set, “but only because we don’t particularly like the idea of living in a world that’s gone topsy-turvy.”

Blueblood smiled. “That’s the selfish spirit!” he said. Then he looked over at Surprise, who hadn’t spoken yet. “What about you, Surprise? Are you in?”

Surprise gave them all a dark grin, most unlike her normal bubbly expression. “Oh, I’m definitely coming too,” she said coldly. “I have to make sure you all get what you deserve in the end.”

“Glad to have you!” said Blueblood happily, he and everyone else in the room completely oblivious to Surprise’s unusual behavior. “Alright, what are we waiting for? Lets go see Nightmare Moon!” Blueblood turned and started heading out of the living room, towards the front doors. Everypony else followed behind.

Blueblood opened the front doors up with his magic and stepped outside… and then screamed as he was immediately shocked by the electric collar around his neck.

“GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Blueblood quickly leaped back inside his doorway, and took deep breaths after the electric shock stopped.

Behind him, his friends all couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Blueblood glared back at them angrily. “Well this is just perfect!” he growled. “I can’t leave the house!”

“Why don’t you just take that thing off?” asked Gilda, walking up to him.

Blueblood glared at her. “If it were that simple, don’t you think I would have done that already?”

Gilda shrugged.

Blueblood sighed. “If I try to take it off, I’ll be electrocut-”

Suddenly, Gilda hooked one of her claws underneath the collar, and then, in one clean motion, sliced right through it.

Blueblood winced, but was surprised when he felt no pain and saw the shock collar fall to the floor.

“There,” said Gilda with an amused grin.

“What the…” stuttered Blueblood in amazement as he stared at the severed collar lying on the floor. “Those guards lied to me!”

“You’re such a baby,” said Gilda, rolling her eyes. “Can we go now?”
> Ch 5. The Plot Hole
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So, the little ponies want my help now, do they?” laughed Nightmare Moon.

Blueblood, Trixie, Lightning Dust, Gilda, Flim, Flam, Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Surprise, and Sunset Shimmer, stood before the mistress of darkness herself in her cave in the Everfree Forest, after having taken a train from Canterlot to Ponyville, and then Blueblood showing them where the cave was. The only light in the cave came from a few torches hanging from the walls, and the tiny sounds of bats squeaking and flapping their wings could be heard echoing throughout the cave.

In the dim light, they could see that Nightmare Moon was not her usual self. Her body was semi-transparent, like a ghost. They guessed this was because of how weak she was now. She had gained enough power to form a body for herself, but not completely.

Nightmare Moon continued. “But what makes you think I’ll help any of you?”

“Nightmare Moon, you must have heard about the crazy stuff that’s going on,” said Blueblood. “If we don’t do something, then… well… we don’t know WHAT will happen! But cracks appearing in thin air, and random, crazy things happening all around us, it definitely can’t be good! ”

“Precisely,” said Nightmare. “Which will make it all the easier for me to finally bring about an eternal night!”

“You know, I’ve always wanted to ask you about that,” said Blueblood suddenly, causing everyone to look at him. “How exactly would you bring about an eternal night anyway?”

“Wha… What do you mean?” said Nightmare Moon in confusion. “I would simply never let the sun rise.”

“But the Earth is round,” said Blueblood. “So one side of the Earth is always facing the sun at all times, no mater what. So its always daytime somewhere.”

Nightmare thought for a moment. “Um…”

“You’re right!” Trixie said to Blueblood. “And I suppose you could just make it eternal night here in Equestria only, but that would mean on the other side of the planet it would be eternal day.”

“And that also means that everything on one side of the planet will soon freeze to death, while the other side of the planet will be burned to a crisp,” said Sunset. “Or, I suppose to make it night time everywhere, you could, somehow, get rid of the sun all together, but that will still leave you with the problem of everything on the planet freezing to death.”

“Plus, if there’s no sunlight, all the plants will die, and then there will be no oxygen, and everyone will suffocate to death,” added Trixie.

Sunset nodded.

Nightmare Moon stood there, wide-eyed, and frozen in a daze. “Huh,” she said after several moments. “I guess I never really thought my plan through all the way.”

“Wow. So all somepony had to do was just explain that to you?” said Trixie. “Why didn’t anypony think of that when you first returned?”

“Can you imagine if somepony had?” said Flim. “Things would have turned out SO differently. For one thing, there would have been no reason for the mane six to go find the Elements of Harmony, so they never would have become the Element Bearers, and… WOW!”

“If only. Am I right?” said Sunset, with a light chuckle.

Everybody looked at her. “Huh?” asked Blueblood.

“Nothing,” she said dismissively.

“Uh, guys, I think we’re getting a little off topic here,” said Score as he pointed over at Nightmare Moon, who was looking at them all, impatiently.

“You know, you’re all lucky I’m not as powerful as I once was,” said Nightmare Moon. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t still be alive.”

“Oh! Right!” said Blueblood, turning back to face Nightmare Moon. “So will you help us?” he asked her.

Nightmare thought for a second. “I still don’t see why I should,” she said. “What do I gain from it?”

“Well, you’re in just as much danger to whatever’s going on as the rest of us!" said Blueblood. "Who knows? You could spontaneously turn into a… zebra for all you know! Or worse, a mule!”

Nightmare Moon thought to herself again. “Well, I certainly don’t want to be a zebra, or a mule,” she said thoughtfully. Then she sighed. “Very well. Fortunately for you, I do know something about what is going on.”

The group felt their spirits lift.

“Awesome!” said Dumbbell. “So what’s with all the weird stuff that’s going on?”

Nightmare Moon turned away from them to face the wall of the cave. “What we’re dealing with is unlike anything Equestria’s ever faced before,” she said. “Even Discord himself is powerless against a force such as this.”

The group all became filled with dread.

“What is it?” asked Flim nervously.

Nightmare Moon turned back to face them dramatically. “A plot hole!” she said.

The group all looked at each other in confusion.

“A plot hole?” said Blueblood. “What’s that?”

“It is a rip in the space-story arc continuum itself!” said Nightmare Moon. “An unnatural opening that is causing nothing but chaos, and warping our universe. You thought Discord was bad? What he did was NOTHING compared to what this thing is capable of!”

Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed with a dark aura, and then a magical image was projected out of her horn before them all. The image looked like a swirling vortex in space.

Gilda and Lightning Dust immediately recognized it.

“That’s what we saw back when we were with Princess Luna!” said Lightning Dust. “We saw the exact same thing on the computer thing that was… reading her mind… or something like that.”

“Well, this is the plot hole!” said Nightmare Moon. “Because of it, the rules and laws that bind our universe together are no longer applied! Right is wrong, and wrong is right. Up is down, and in is out. Absolutely anything could happen! Anything that was once impossible, is now quite possible, and it’s only going to get worse!”

“How bad is it going to get?” asked Upper Crust.

“The plot hole is getting bigger,” said Nightmare Moon. “The more it grows, the worse the chaos will become, and the more it will consume the universe. It is literally ripping our universe apart. If it isn’t stopped, it will eventually destroy the entire universe!”

They all stared at Nightmare Moon, wide eyed.

“My gosh!” exclaimed Blueblood.

“Those ‘cracks’ that are appearing in thin air,” said Trixie. “Is that being caused by the universe being torn apart by the plot hole?”

Nightmare Moon nodded. “Indeed.”

“But how did this happen?!” exclaimed Blueblood. “What caused this plot hole?! I mean, it couldn’t have just happened all on its own, could it have?”

“You’re quite right, nephew,” said Nightmare Moon. “It didn’t just appear on its own.”

Blueblood cringed at Nightmare Moon calling him ‘nephew’. “Then what caused it?” he asked.

Nightmare Moon smirked. “An egg-headed mare.”

Blueblood and the rest of them blinked. “What?” he asked.

Nightmare continued. “About a year or two ago, Twilight Sparkle used a time travel spell to travel back in time to herself and give herself a warning. However, it was that very warning that caused Twilight Sparkle to travel back in time to herself. This never-ending contradiction caused a time paradox. And this paradox caused such a strain on the space-story arc continuum, that it literally ripped a hole right through it. The plot hole!”

“So what your saying is… the universe is going to be destroyed, and its all Twilight Sparkle’s fault?” said Trixie.

“Well… yes,” said Nightmare Moon.

Trixie and Sunset both facehoofed.

“I don’t know whether to laugh, or to cry,” groaned Trixie.

“I know exactly how you feel,” said Sunset.

Nightmare Moon chuckled. “Yes. She does make you just want to strangle her sometimes, doesn’t she?”

“Nightmare,” asked Blueblood, “why is it that some ponies notice the changes that happen, but other ponies don’t?”

“Is this about your house again?” asked Upper Crust, rolling her eyes.

Nightmare Moon spoke, ignoring Upper Crust. “Those who don’t notice the changes, or ‘anomalies’, created by the plot hole have also been affected by the anomaly themselves, at the same time. The only ones who will notice the anomalies are the ones who aren’t affected along with them. Unfortunately, who’s affected and who isn’t seems to be completely random.”

“So that explains why those two doctors didn’t notice when they had stopped being doctors,” said Lightning Dust.

Nightmare nodded. “Yes. And it also explains why no pony remembered who I was when I returned from the moon back in the first episode, even though there is apparently an entire holiday about me. Heck, there’s a buckin’ statue of me just outside of Ponyville, for crying out loud!”

“But wait a minute!” said Score. “Didn’t that all happen before Twilight time traveled?”

“Oh, you stupid lesser ponies,” said Nightmare. “You’re not thinking fourth dimensionally! The plot hole is making changes in the future, present, AND the past as well. Think of it like… throwing a stone into a pond, and the ripples going out in all directions. The plot hole is like the stone, and its making ripples forwards and backwards throughout time.”

“Holy crap!” said Score.

“Yes,” said Nightmare. “There could be anomalies all around us that we have no idea about. Things that we’ve accepted all our lives could very well be anomalies created by the plot hole. Even my very existence right now could be an anomaly!”

They were all silent for a few moments as they took this all in.

“Nightmare Moon, what is on the other side of the plot hole?” asked Blueblood.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

“Well, what does Princess Luna have to do with the plot hole?” asked Lightning Dust.

“I don’t know that either,” she said. “After I split from her body and got my own, I haven’t had anything to do with her.”

“Okay,” said Blueblood. “Then please tell us you know how to stop the plot hole.”

Nightmare Moon shook her head. “Sorry. I haven’t the slightest clue how to stop it. The plot hole isn’t a force of magic. It is a force of science!”

The group hung their heads in despair.

“Now what do we do?” groaned Gilda.

“I don’t know,” sighed Blueblood. He could feel himself loosing hope.

After a few seconds, Hoops suddenly spoke. “Maybe… Maybe Princess Luna knows a way to close the plot hole,” he said. “Maybe that’s what she was trying to tell you that night she was in your house!”

Blueblood and the rest of them all looked at Hoops in shock.

“Hoops, I never thought I’d say this, but you’re a genius!” said Blueblood.

Hoops smiled proudly to himself.

“But we told you before,” Gilda spoke up. “We don’t know where Princess Luna is!”

“Wouldn’t it make sense that she’s at the castle with her sister?” said Upper Crust.

“They didn’t take her to the castle,” said Lightning Dust. “When the guards arrested us, they took us to the castle dungeons, but they didn’t take the Princess to the castle. In fact, they didn’t even take the Princess to Canterlot! When they dragged us out of Ponyville, they carried the Princess off in a different direction. Towards the mountains, I think.”

“The mountains?” said Flim. “Why in Equestria would they take her there?”

“We don’t know,” said Gilda.

They looked at Nightmare Moon, hoping for an answer. 

She simply shrugged.

“Why didn’t you mention this before?!” Blueblood said to Gilda and Lightning Dust.

“We didn’t know it was important!” said Lightning Dust.

“Well, the Princess could be anywhere, and we don’t have time to go on a wild goose chaise!” said Blueblood. “What are we going to do?”

The group began to hang their heads again, loosing hope.

After a long moment of silence, Flam spoke. “If the plot hole was created by science,” he said, “could there be a scientific way to close it?” he asked.

“Maybe,” Sunset said with a shrug, uncertain. “Scientific law states that anything that can be created can also be un-created.”

They all looked at Nightmare moon expectantly.

She shrugged too. “It might be possible,” she said.

“But even if we knew a way to close it, we can’t even get to the plot hole!” said Jet Set. “Its in outer space!”

“If only we could build a spaceship,” said Hoops.

They all rolled their eyes at the large orange pegasus.

“Yeah, that would be great, Hoops,” said Dumbbell. “To bad we can’t!”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said Nightmare Moon thoughtfully. “You could always just steel the stuff you need from Twilight Sparkle’s basement.”

They all looked at each other.

“Could… Could that actually work?” asked Trixie.

……………………

A few hours later, Spike was walking down into Twilight’s basement with a basket of dirty laundry in his claws, going to put it in the wash. When he got halfway down the steps, he saw something that made him drop the laundry basket in shock.

“HOLY GUACAMOLE!” he shouted.

Everything was gone! All of Twilight’s gizmos, gadgets, computers, machines, chemicals, potions, lab equipment, notes, and some books, were all gone, leaving the basement relatively empty. Even the miniature air hockey table was gone.

Spike began to panic. “Oh man! Twilight is really going to kill me this time!”
> Ch 6. Space
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Make sure all the walls are reinforced so that they are air tight!” ordered Trixie. “Remember, there’s no air in space!”

Back at Blueblood’s home in Canterlot, after the group had ‘barrowed’ the supplies they needed from Twilight's basement to attempt to construct a craft that could actually get them to space, they had gotten to work on constructing it. Realizing that they needed quite a big hull to hold them all, they ultimately decided to do the most awesome thing ever, as Lightning Dust had put it. They were turning Blueblood’s mansion itself into a space ship. Blueblood didn’t mind this that much, since he knew that this house wasn’t really his house, thanks to an anomaly created by the plot hole.

Personally, he was more concerned with making sure the ship was safe enough for him to fly in. He still would have preferred to go to see Celestia about their predicament, but since the question as to whether or not Celestia would have them all throne in the dungeons was still up in the air, and since there was absolutely nothing else they could do to possibly protect themselves from the destruction of the entire universe, he couldn’t think of anything else they could do aside from the plan they had, even if the idea of going into space did frighten him.

Even with Twilight’s notes and books to help them, the work wasn’t easy. They had to attach two, big rocket thrusters onto the sides of the house, set up the various computers and machines they would need all through out the house and connect them all with long wires and cords running through the hallways, reinforce all the walls and windows with spells to make them strong enough to hold together in the vacuum of space, and convert Blueblood’s living room into a command bridge, and his basement into an engineering room.

They even fixed the hole in the floor that Hoops had accidently made when Blueblood had teleported them to his home.

It took them the entire rest of the day and the entire night, and it didn’t help with Hoops, Dumbbell, and Score occasionally goofing off, or Blueblood, Jet Set, and Upper Crust occasionally slacking off, or Gilda, Lightning Dust, Trixie and Sunset occasionally at each others’ throats when things got frustrating, or Surprise acting strangely more cryptic and secluded than usual, but when they were finally finished the next morning, they stood in Blueblood’s living room slash bridge, and admired their work.

In the center of the room was the captain’s chair, converted from a fancy armchair Blueblood had. And in front of it were two twin stations, one for the pilot, and one for a co-pilot. Both of these stations had the living room sofa behind them for the two pilots to sit on. Around the sides of the room were various other computer stations for other ship’s systems. And at the front of the room was a large view screen, covering up the spot where a large picture window had once been.

“I can’t believe it,” said Gilda. “We actually turned a house into a space ship. I was not expecting to do that this weekend.”

“I still don’t think this will work,” said Upper Crust.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” said Trixie. “Lets get ready to launch.”

“Wait!” said Flam. “What should we name the ship?”

“That’s right!” said Flim. “We need a name!”

“Okay, lets think up a name,” said Blueblood.

“How about… the Enterprise!” said Hoops.

“NO!” the rest of them all shouted at him.

Hoops frowned. “Aw, why?”

“Because there have literally been a billion Enterprises!” said Blueblood. “Come now! Think up something more original!”

“How about… the Providence!” said Jet Set.

“The Bounty!” said Flam.

“The Crusher!” said Dumbbell.

“The Victory!” said Lightning Dust.

“The Demon!” said Sunset Shimmer.

“Your coffin,” said Surprise darkly.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie!” said Trixie.

Lightning Dust glared at Trixie. “We’re not naming the ship after YOU!” she yelled at the blue unicorn.

“How about…” said Gilda, still thinking to herself. Then she grinned. “The Defiant, after all of us! We’re all pretty defiant.”

“The Defiant…” Blueblood ran the name over in his head. Then he smiled too. “I love it! What do you all think?” he looked at the others.

One by one, they all nodded their heads in agreement.

“Sounds good,” said Trixie.

“Okay. The Defiant it is!” Blueblood sat down in the captain’s chair. He had to admit, as afraid as he was to go into space, he was looking forward to being the captain of his own space ship. Kind of like a childhood daydream come true. “Ah, yes,” he said giddily. “With a ship in my command, and a crew to dispose of-”

“Don’t you mean ‘At your disposal’?” asked Trixie, raising an eyebrow at Blueblood.

“Whatever,” said Blueblood, then he continued. “Nothing can stop us!”

“Blueblood, aren’t you forgetting something?” said Flam.

Blueblood looked over at him and the others, who were still standing where they had been. “What?”

“We have to charge the ship's power core first,” said Flam.

Blueblood frowned as he remembered this inconvenience. “Oh. Right.”

They walked down to the engineering room. In the middle of the room was a large glass sphere with wires attached to it spreading out all across the floor into the walls, as well as to a couple computers around the room.

“The power core is powered by magic,” explained Flim, “Much like our Super Speedy Cider Squeezy is, except this one we stole from Sparkle is much more advanced.”

“All the unicorns will have to combine their magic in order to charge it,” Flam said. “It will take a few minutes to charge all the way up.”

“Then lets get started!” said Trixie, stepping forward. “Unicorns ready?”

Blueblood, Flim, Flam, Jet Set, Upper Crust, and Sunset Shimmer all gathered around the power core along with Trixie. Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, Lightning Dust, Gilda, and Surprise stood back and watched.

“Now!” said Trixie.

The unicorns all pointed their horns at the core and began pumping magic into them. Then they each shot a continuous blast of magic into the machine.

The power core began to glow and pulsate with multicolored light as it was powered up by the several unicorns’ magic.

“It’s working!” grunted Flam as he continued to focus his magic on the machine.

Suddenly, they all heard the faint sound of someone knocking at the front door upstairs.

“Somepony see who that is!” said Blueblood, straining from the effort of outputting his magic.

Gilda walked over to a window and looked out. “Aw, crap!” she said, sounding worried. “It’s a bunch of royal guards, including that one… prick!”

“But we’re not finished powering up yet!” exclaimed Blueblood. “Somepony stall them!”

“I’ll deal with them,” said Surprise suddenly.

They looked at her in surprise. “You will?”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling. “You all just stay here.”

Blueblood shrugged. “Okay. Good luck.”

…………

Up outside the front door, Captain Sharp Spear banged on the front door again with his hooves.

“Well, they aren’t answering,” he said after a few minutes, putting his hoof down. Then he looked over his shoulder at his squad of guards. “Knock the doors down and storm the place! Capture them all!”

“Yes, sir,” the guards nodded to him and prepared to buck the doors down.

Right at that moment, the front doors suddenly swung open, and the guards were shocked to see Princess Celestia standing there before them in the doorway.

“Princess!?” exclaimed Sharp Spear.

“Is there a problem here, gentlemen?” Celestia asked.

“N-no, your highness,” said Sharp Spear. “I wasn’t aware that you were here!”

“Well, I’m here,” she said. “And I assure you, everything is fine here. You may all leave.”

Sharp Spear hesitated. “But your highness, I-”

“I said leave!” Celestia snapped at them impatiently.

“Y-yes, your highness,” said Sharp Spear. He and the other guards bowed their heads, and then turned to walk away, each of them looking utterly confused.

Princess Celestia closed the doors as they left.

…………

Back down in the basement, the unicorns were still charging the power core with their magic… and they were all getting exhausted. They heard hoofsteps coming down the stares and glanced over to see Surprise trotting back down.

“I got rid of them,” she said.

“You did?!” grunted Blueblood while he continued to focus on powering the ships power core. He was in just as much surprise as everyone else at what Surprise had said.

“Yeah,” Surprise said.

“How?” he asked.

Surprise grinned. “A lady never reveals her secrets.”

“Oh,” grunted Blueblood. “Well, good job, Surprise.”

Suddenly there was a ding sound, like the sound of an oven timer going off.

“Stop powering the machine!” ordered Flam. “The core is fully charged!”

Indeed, the large, glass sphere was now glowing brightly with the colors of each of their magic.

“Finally!” Upper Crust sighed as she and the rest of the unicorns stopped putting out magic, and collapsed to the floor in exhaustion.

“Oh, come on! That didn’t look that hard!” Lightning Dust scolded them for how they were acting.

Trixie, Blueblood, Sunset, Flim, Flam, Upper Crust, and Jet Set all glared at her in annoyance.

“You don’t know what its like to have magic!” said Trixie in aggravation. “Using it drains our energy!”

Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“I think I’m gonna throw up,” groaned Upper Crust, suddenly finding the energy to get up and gallop up the stares to the bathroom.

“Okay,” grunted Blueblood, wearily getting to his hooves. “Are we ready to go now?”

“We should be now,” said Flim as he and the rest of the unicorns also started getting up off the floor and shaking off their tiredness.

“If it works, that is,” added Flam.

“Good,” Blueblood said. “Everypony to your stations!”

They all walked back upstairs to the living room, except for Flim and Flam, who it was decided would be in charge of the engineering room. Blueblood flopped back down in the captain’s chair, and Dumbbell sat down in the pilot’s seat, with Hoops sitting down next to him as his co-pilot.

“Hey, why is Dumbbell the pilot?” asked Lightning Dust.

“Because he, Hoops, and Score play video games a lot,” said Blueblood with a shrug. “So I would guess that would make them good pilots.”

“Its like that movie ‘The Last Starfighter’,” said Hoops. “Ever seen it?”

“Yeah,” said Lightning Dust, “and it was an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back.” Then she looked back at Blueblood. “And who says you get to be captain?”

“One, I’m a Prince! Two, its my house, so that makes me Captain! Three, leadership is my special talent! At least… I’m pretty sure it is.” He looked down at his compass rose cutiemark. “Honestly, I’ve never been all that sure what my cutiemark means, but I’m fairly certain it means leadership.”

“Wonderful,” Lightning Dust said sarcastically.

The rest of them all got to different computer stations all around the room.

“Preflight check?” ordered Blueblood.

Trixie replied. “Power core is online, shield generator is ready, inertial dampeners, artificial gravity, and life support are all working. All systems appear to be good to go!”

“That’s ‘All systems appear to be good to go, CAPTAIN’,” Blueblood said.

She glared at him in annoyance. “I’m not calling you that.”

“You have to!” said Blueblood. “I’m the Capt-”

“Uh oh!” Jet Set interrupted their argument from over at the radar screen. “I think those royal guards from before are back!”

“What!?” said Blueblood. “Let me see! On screen!”

Jet Set pressed a button on his control panel, and then the view screen turned on and showed them the image of the front yard. Captain Sharp Spear and several of his unicorn guards were standing out there, and they looked mad.

They could see Sharp Spear say something to his guards, and then they all pointed their horns at the house/ship.

Blueblood started to panic. “Blast! Somepony do something!” he shouted.

“I’m activating the shield generator!” said Trixie suddenly.

On the view screen, they saw a wall of magical energy suddenly appear between them and the royal guards. And just in time too, because at that moment the guard’s horns glowed, and they shot out magical blasts at the ship, which struck the magical force field with small explosions.

“Whoa! Way to think quick, Trixie!” said Score, letting out a sigh of relief.

Blueblood however knew that even their ship’s artificial shield spell wouldn’t keep out Celestia’s unicorn guards forever. There was only one way out of this.

Up.

“Well, it looks like its time to find out if this ship really works or not!” Blueblood said, taking a deep breath. “Dumbbell, lets go!”

“Right,” said Dumbbell, also taking a deep breath. “Here goes nothing. Firing rocket thrusters!” He pushed a lever forward on his control panel.

They felt a sharp jolt as the rockets outside fired, and the entire building began to shake. The loud noise of the rockets filled their ears. On the view screen, they could see the royal guards backing away as they got a blast of rocket exhaust in their faces.

“Guys, this is totally insane!” said Gilda, stating what they were all thinking.

Come on! Please work! Blueblood thought to himself as the entire building shook.

As they kept watching the view screen, they could see the ground starting to lower away from them as their ship began to lift up into the air.

They all smiled hopefully.

“It’s working!” exclaimed Hoops.

“WHAT’S GOING ON!” screamed Upper Crust as she suddenly ran into the room.

“We’re taking off!” shouted Jet Set over the noise of the rockets.

“HOLY BUCK! WE ARE?!” she screamed, looking at the view screen. “I DON’T BELIEVE IT!” she gasped.

“I don’t believe it either!” shouted Gilda in amazement. “This hunk of junk is actually working!”

Their house ship lifted higher and higher into the air.

“Dumbbell,” Blueblood began, gulping nervously. “Take us up into space!”

“You got it,” said Dumbbell, actually sounding excited. “Everypony hold on!” He put his hoof on the maneuvering pad on the control panel, and pointed the ship up towards the sky. He put more power into the rocket thrusters, and their ships continued to fly faster up towards space.

“All systems are still looking good,” said Trixie.

Just then, the ship began to shake more violently and the image on their view screen became blindingly bright.

“OH MY GOSH! WHAT’S HAPPENING?” Upper Crust screamed, in a flash, jumping over to where her husband was and wrapping her hooves around him.

“I think we’re passing through the atmosphere!” shouted Sunset over the noise. “We should put more power into the shields!”

“Doing it!” Trixie shouted over at her computer station.

The ship continued to shake and rattle as it moved through the atmosphere!

Come on! Hold together, Blueblood prayed.

Finally, the shaking and the loud rocket noise stopped as they passed out of the atmosphere. The bright light on the view screen faded and the image of millions of tiny twinkling lights in a vast blackness filled the screen.

They all gazed at the view screen in awe. The sight was truly something to take in.

“Wow!” gasped Blueblood. “That’s quite a sight!”

“I can’t believe it!” said Gilda. “We’re actually in space!”

“Its beautiful!” said Trixie.

Indeed it was beautiful. They had all seen the night sky before, but viewing the cosmos way up here in space itself was something else entirely. 

“Guys!" Score said to Dumbbell and Hoops. "You realize we’re flying higher than any pegasus has ever flown before?”

“Awesome!” Dumbbell and Hoops cheered together. Lightning Dust also grinned at that.

Suddenly, Upper Crust put her hoof to her stomach. “I don’t feel so good,” said Upper Crust, before galloping off back to the bathroom as fast as she could.

“Wow, she must have a weak stomach,” said Hoops.

“She does,” said Jet Set. “But actually, she’s been getting sick a lot lately. We think she’s caught a stomach bug or something.”

Blueblood held down an intercom button on the armrest of his captain’s chair. “Flim, Flam, are you two seeing this down there?”

Flam’s voice responded on a speaker in the room. “You mean the beautiful starry vacuum of space? You bet we see it.”

As they continued to stare out at the vastness of space, just then a white flash of light went streaking by on the screen.

“What the blazes was that!?” asked Blueblood.

Jet Set looked back at his radar screen. “There’s something approaching us from behind!” he exclaimed in a frightened voice. “It’s enormous! And it’s shooting at us!”

“WHAT?!” everyone exclaimed at the same time.

“On screen!” Blueblood ordered.

The image on the view screen changed to show the view behind their ship. They could see the gigantic blue sphere that was Earth looming there behind them, and in front of it, there was indeed something approaching them.

Whatever it was, it was definitely odd looking. It was white in color, and shaped like a giant oval, or perhaps a more teardrop shaped ring, with the rounded front of the object drawing to a forked point at the back. And on the inside of this giant ring, connected to the rounded front, was another giant ring shaped structure, this one glowing with a bright white magical energy.

And it was massive! So massive that, compared to it, their ship, the Defiant, looked the size of a small Lego piece.

“What the heck is that thing!?” asked Sunset.

“I think it’s a ship!” said Gilda as she looked at the image with squinted eyes.

As it got closer to them, they could all see that it was indeed another space ship. They could just make out the tiny glints of windows, two cylindrical twin thrusters jutting out the back, and on its hull they could see the words ‘HMS Ascendancy’ written in large, bold letters.

“Another space ship?!” exclaimed Surprise, actually expressing some emotion for the first time since they had gathered.

“Where the heck did this one come from?” asked Sunset.

The unknown ship shot another beam of white light out of a large circular opening at the front of its hull. It once again missed the Defiant, but it had been a lot closer then the last one.

“WHY ARE THEY FIRING AT US!” screamed Blueblood.

“GET US OUT OF HERE!” Trixie shouted at Dumbbell and Hoops.

“Uh… right!” Dumbbell stuttered back as he and Hoops began working together to fly their ship away from the attacking ship.

Their ship swerved in a different direction and began speeding away as fast as it could. The attacking ship sped after them, continuing to fire its energy weapon at them.

A few moments later, one of the attacking ship’s energy blasts grazed their ship’s shield bubble, sending their ship spinning out of control.

All of them screamed as they were hurled to the floor by the jolt of the impact.

Dumbbell quickly pulled himself up from the floor to the helm controls, fighting against the centrifugal force, and attempted to get them back under control. After several seconds, their ship stopped spinning, and they were all able to get back up off the floor.

“Everypony alright?” Blueblood shouted.

They all told him they were.

“I’m okay, but our shields are down!” said Trixie, back at her computer station, staring at the screen. “One more hit like that, and we’re dead!”

“Well, it looks like they’ve stopped shooting at us,” said Score, pointing at the view screen, “for now, at least.”

They all looked at the view screen. The pursuing ship had in fact ceased firing at them, and was now only looming nearby.

“Well, that’s a relief!” said Blueblood.

“Yeah, but why did they stop?” said Lightning Dust.

Before anyone could make a guess, Upper Crust suddenly came galloping back into the room. “What the heck just happened!?” she shouted, a panicked look on her face.

Jet Set pointed at the image of the ship on the view screen. “Another ship came out of nowhere and attacked us!” he said.

Sunset spoke up. “The attacking ship is sending us a video transmission!”

Good. Now we can see who or what was attacking us, Blueblood thought to himself. “Put them on.”

The view screen changed to the image of what they guessed was the bridge of the attacking ship. And they were all shocked by who they saw standing on that bridge.

“Hello, Prince Blueballs,” Shining Armor said with a cocky smirk on his face.

“Shining Armor!?” Blueblood gasped. Then he got an angry expression and growled. “Hey! I told you to stop calling me that! I’ll have you know I happen to have a marefriend now!” He used his magic to pull a startled Trixie over next to him so Shining Armor could see her. “See?”

“Whatever,” said Shining Armor with a roll of his eyes.

“Hey! Is that Blueblood?” a female voice from somewhere off screen on the other ship suddenly spoke up, startling Shining Armor. “I told you I wanted to speak to him MYSELF!”

Suddenly none other than Rarity ran onto the screen, shoving Shining Armor out of her way.

Rarity panted in exhaustion. “This ship’s too big!” she said. “If I had walked, this fanfic would be over!”

“YOU!” Blueblood shouted at her.

Rarity righted herself. “So, Blueblood, you remember me. Good! That will make my ultimate vengeance all the sweeter!”

“Charity!” Blueblood growled.

Rarity’s face became red with rage. “IT’S RARITY, YOU IDIOT!” she screamed. “FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! MY NAME IS NOT THAT HARD TO REMEMBER!”

“How… where… what are you doing on a space ship?!” stammered Trixie.

“Oh that,” said Rarity. “Princess Celestia had them built.”

“Princess Celestia!?” said Blueblood, shocked. He could just hear Gilda and Lightning Dust saying ‘I told you so’. 

“Yes,” said Rarity. “They’re absolutely amazing, aren’t they?”

“And how do you have a space ship?” asked Shining Armor as he walked back into frame and stood next to Rarity. He didn’t look happy.

“Oh…” Blueblood wasn’t too keen to tell them how they had gotten the parts to build the Defiant. “Well… um…”

“Forget it,” Shining interrupted. “We already know you stole the parts you used to make it from my sister.”

Darn it, Blueblood thought. He let out a sigh. “Okay, so maybe we did, but we had a really good reason. There’s a giant rip out there in space that’s going to destroy the universe! It’s called a plot hole. We’re trying to stop it! We should be working together!”

“Well, that’s very thoughtful of you,” said Rarity. “But we can’t let you do that! The plot hole has to stay open!”

“What!?” exclaimed Blueblood in disbelief. “Are you insane? Why?!”

“That’s none of your business!” snapped Shining Armor.

“I’m sorry,” said Rarity, “but we have to take you all back to Earth and lock you up for a little while. Its for your own good.”

They all stared at Rarity and Shining Armor in disbelief. Nothing they were saying made any sense.

“Hey, there’s no way I’m going back to jail again!” shouted Gilda angrily. “Especially since I haven’t done anything wrong… well… recently, anyway… sort of.”

“Me either!” said Lightning Dust.

“Surrender and allow us to teleport you over to our ship,” said Shining Armor, “or else we’ll have no choice but to use force! Its your choice.” The image on the view screen changed back to the view of the other ship.

“Told you Celestia had something to do with this,” Gilda said to Blueblood.

Blueblood glared at her. “But this doesn’t make any sense! Why would my aunt Celestia, and the Element Bearers, not want to also stop the plot hole? They’re the biggest goody two shoes in the entire world!”

They all looked at each other, shrugging, none of them able to come up with an answer.

“Everypony!” said Jet Set, looking worried at his computer screen. “I think that other ship is getting ready to fire its weapon again.”

They all looked at the image of the ship on the view screen. The circular opening on the front of the ship was beginning to glow with white light.

“What do we do!?” squeaked Upper Crust.

Blueblood had no idea what to do. They couldn’t outrun it, they had no weapons they could fight back with, and their shields were down. They were sitting ducks!

Suddenly Trixie shouted, “Hoops! Push the red button!”

Everyone looked at Trixie.

“What red button?” asked Hoops.

“THE BIG RED BUTTON IN FRONT OF YOU ON THE HELM CONTROLS! PUSH IT NOW!!!”

Hoops looked in front of him at his control panel and saw the big red button Trixie was talking about. He slammed his hoof down on it.

They all suddenly felt very strange, like their bodies were being stretched and twisted in every direction, except they felt no pain. A split second later, they, and their entire ship, suddenly disappeared in a blink of an eye. And just in time too, because at that instant, the other ship fired its beam weapon at the spot where their ship had just been.

……………

In another part of space, a giant baseball suddenly appeared out of no where, and it then began to rapidly transform into a train, and then a flowerpot, and then a sperm whale, and then finally it became the house ship, Defiant.

On board the ship, the crew were all becoming aware of a fascinating discovery. They had all somehow been turned into dragons!

Blueblood, Trixie, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Hoops, Dumbbell, Score, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Sunset, and Surprise all stared down at their new dragon bodies, shocked.

“Holy crap! We’re dragons!” said Hoops as he looked at his new sharp claws where blunt hooves had once been, and hard scales where soft fur had used to be.

“It must be because of the improbability drive,” said Trixie, feeling the new sharp pointed teeth with her fingers in her new beak-like snout.

“The what drive?” asked Blueblood as he stared back at his new long lizard tail, flexing it in fascination.

“The improbability drive,” repeated Trixie, now looking back at her new leathery, bat-like wings, flapping them out of curiosity. “Apparently, it can be used for quick getaways, except you never know where you’ll end up, or what you’ll be when you get there.”

“Are we stuck this way?” asked Upper Crust, biting her claws worriedly. She did not want to be a dragon for the rest of her life, even if she did have wings now.

“No,” said Trixie. “We should change back to normal once we reach one hundred percent normality again. At least, that’s what it said in the instructions.”

“Huh,” said Gilda. “So is this kind of stuff gonna happen every time we push that button?” she asked.

“Very probably,” said Trixie. “Yes.”

Suddenly, Flim and Flam’s image came up on the view screen. They were also dragons, and they looked panicked.

“Guys! Why are we dragons?” Flim asked.

“We used the improbability drive,” said Trixie.

“Oh.” The Flim Flam brothers relaxed, apparently also knowing about it.

Just then, Hoops pointed at Blueblood. “Hey, look at Blueblood!” he shouted.

“What about me?” Blueblood asked, confused. He looked over himself, but he saw no big difference between him and everyone else on board. He was just as much a dragon as the rest of them.

Hoops continued, an amused smirk on his face. “You’re a blue eyes white dragon!”

Blueblood rolled his eyes and snorted, causing a puff of smoke to come out of each of his nostrils.

Just then, they all felt that same strange stretching feeling again, and then, in a blink of an eye, they were all suddenly ponies again, except for Gilda, who of course was a griffon again.

“I’m ME again!” Upper Crust squealed happily as she hugged her soft equine self.

“We have normality!” Flam announced on the view screen.

Blueblood let out a sigh of relief, but then something occurred to him. “So where are we, anyway?”

“Let me check,” said Flim. He walked out of view on the view screen. He came back a few moments later, a shocked expression on his face. “We’re about three light years away from Earth.”

Their jaws all dropped.

“That’s really really far, isn’t it?” asked Hoops.

“Well, we better start heading back,” said Blueblood, groaning to himself. “Its gonna take us a while to reach the plot hole now. So lets get going.”

“At least we’ll have plenty of time to think up a plan,” said Sunset.

Lightning Dust groaned. “This sucks,” she complained.
> Ch 7. Alchemy?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Prince Blueblood had no clue where he was, or how he had gotten there. Wherever he was, it was very dark and vast and empty, except for tiny twinkling lights all around him. It looked like he was in space, but that was impossible. If he was out in the vacuum of space, he’d be dead.

He tried to look down at himself, but he couldn’t see his body. In fact, he just realized with a start that he couldn’t feel his own body.

“Hello?” he called out. “Is anypony there?” It was only after he had said that that he realized just how odd it was that he could hear his voice even though there’s supposed to be no sound in space. Not to mention the fact that he didn’t have a body, and therefore, no mouth.

Just then, Blueblood noticed a bright light out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look in the direction it was, and gasped at what he saw. It looked like a giant vortex of some sort, floating not to far away from him in space. Blueblood would have thought his first reaction would be fear. He was surprised to find that he oddly did not feel afraid at all. The giant swirling vortex looming so near to him gave him no fear at all. For some reason, it just didn’t seem threatening to him, and he had no idea why.

He had the strangest sense that he had seen this thing somewhere before.

“Prince Blueblood!”

Blueblood was startled by a sudden deep and booming voice. He looked around for the source of the voice, but could see nothing but stars and the vortex around him.

The voice boomed again. “Prince Blueblood! Come into the plot hole!”

The plot hole! That was what the thing in front of him was. He knew he had seen it somewhere before. He could also tell now that the unknown voice was coming from the plot hole itself.

Wait! Come into it? He thought to himself.

The voice spoke again from the plot hole. “Come into the plot hole, Prince Blueblood, and discover your destiny!”

“My destiny?” asked Blueblood, both in curiosity, as well as fear.

Suddenly, Blueblood noticed something glimmer inside the plot hole. He peered into the giant vortex as something came into view on the other side. His eyes, if he had any, became as wide as dinner plates when he could finally make out what it was.

It was his cutiemark. His compass rose cutiemark was floating on the other side of the plot hole, glowing brightly with what he could only describe as divine light. There was no mistake.

Blueblood suddenly felt drawn to the plot hole. He had to get in there! He had to know what his destiny was, and achieve it! He didn’t know how, but he somehow willed himself to start moving towards the massive vortex before him.

The voice continued to talk to him as he glided towards the opening. “Blueblood. Blueblood. Blueblood.”

Closer and closer he got to the plot hole. Closer and closer he got towards his destiny.

“Blueblood. Blueblood. Blueblood.”

Suddenly, the plot hole started moving away from Blueblood, zooming away from him through space, or perhaps it was he who was suddenly moving away from it.

“NO!” Blueblood cried, reaching a hoof out towards the plot hole in desperation as it quickly went out of sight. Why was this happening? Why now when he was so close to his destiny?

“Blueblood. Blueblood.” The voice kept calling out his name despite what was happening. In fact, it oddly seemed to be getting louder and clearer somehow.

Then he suddenly felt jolt, like he was being shaken…

………………

“Blueblood!”

Blueblood opened his eyes, feeling somepony’s hoof on his shoulder, gently shaking him and saying his name. He groggily became aware that he was in his bed, in his bedroom. He quickly realized that everything that had just happened had only been a dream.

He turned his head and in the light of the lamp beside the bed saw Trixie lying beside him in bed, retracting her hoof from his shoulder now that she could see he was awake. She had an annoyed look on her face.

“Finally, you’re awake,” she said. “Trixie has been trying to wake you for at least a whole minute! It’s time to get up!”

Blueblood looked at the windows. Even with the curtains closed, he could see that it was still dark out. He looked back at Trixie in annoyance.

“Time to get up?” he complained. “Its still dark out!”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Of course its dark out! We’re in space, remember?”

“Huh?” Then their current situation all came back to him. In his groggy state, he had forgotten they were in outer space for a moment. He looked over at the clock, and was surprised to see that it was going on ten AM. It really WAS time to get up. “Oh, right.”

“Come now! Lets go see if there’s anything left to eat for breakfast, or if everypony else already ate it all.”

Blueblood sighed. “Yes, dear,” he said. It was true that in preparing the ship to leave Earth, not one of them had considered making sure they had enough food to take with them. Now they were stuck with only what was in the kitchen and pantry, and they weren’t sure that would be enough if their time in space ended up taking longer than a few days. And since the improbability drive had sent them light years away from home, and since the hyperdrive they had stolen from Twilight Sparkle was only powerful enough to travel about one light year a day, they weren’t looking so good food wise. 

They gave each other a morning kiss, and then got out of bed and walked over to the bedroom door, yawning and stretching as they did so.

As they opened the bedroom door and walked out into the hallway, Blueblood thought how weird it was that, for the first time in a long time, he had had a different dream. And this dream had felt different than any other dream he had ever had. It had been so clear, and had felt so real.

“Trixie, I had a weird dream last night,” he said as they walked down the hallway, heading to get breakfast and to use the bathroom. “And this one was different from the ones I’ve been having.”

“Really?” said Trixie. “Trixie had a weird dream to.”

“Well, in mine I was in front of the plot hole, and there was this voice telling me to go inside it, that my destiny was in there. And then I saw my cutiemark inside the plot hole.”

Trixie raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you think it means?”

Blueblood shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably nothing. It was probably just the stress of everything that’s going on getting to me.” However, truthfully, Blueblood wasn’t so sure. The dream had felt so real, and so powerful. It left him feeling rattled by it. What if it was some sort of sign?

Trixie woke him out of his thoughts by speaking. “Well, Trixie’s dream was definitely odd. All it was was an image! It looked like a circle, like a magic circle used for certain spells, and beside it were a bunch of words, but the words didn’t say anything! It was all just gibberish! But it was all so clear! I can remember every detail of it! Every word! I can still see it clearly in her mind when I close my eyes. It’s strange.”

“Hmm,” Blueblood responded.

While they were walking through the hall, they heard the flush of a toilet from inside the bathroom, and then saw Upper Crust come out. She was holding her stomach and had a sickened look on her face.

“Did you get sick again?” Trixie asked her.

Upper Crust nodded. “I don’t think I’m made for outer space.” She groaned as walked past them.

Blueblood walked into the bathroom while Trixie decided to continue down to the kitchen to get herself some breakfast first. She saw others already up and walking around as she made her way into the kitchen. Looking through the fridge and the cabinets, she found some oatmeal mix.

“Who would have thought a guy like Prince Blueblood would have oatmeal in his house?” Trixie said to herself with a shrug.

She prepared herself a bowl of oatmeal, and then levitated it beside her as she walked into the dining room too eat. She found Jet Set and Upper Crust in there sitting at the long dining room table eating their own breakfast, which was also oatmeal. She sat down as well and began to eat.

Just then, she heard an extremely rude noise come from the kitchen. “DARN IT! THERE IS NOTHING GOOD TO EAT AROUND THIS PLACE!”  It was Gilda’s voice. No surprise there.

As she ate her oatmeal, the dream she had had once again bubbled up into her mind. This annoyed her. It was so weird, she could see the image so clearly in her mind, down to the very last detail, but it was utter nonsense.

As the day went on, the dream still wouldn’t leave her mind. She tried to forget about it, tell herself that it was only a dream and didn’t mean anything, but it kept bugging her, and she didn’t know why. And there wasn’t much she could do on the ship to distract herself from thinking about the dream. All they were doing was waiting for the ship to arrive at the plot hole, and that was going to take a couple days.

Trixie eventually felt that she had to get her dream down on paper. That perhaps that would help get it off her mind, or perhaps help her understand it better. Besides, it wasn’t like she currently had anything better to do.

She walked back into the dining room, which she was happy to see was empty now, so she would have a good amount of quiet to work in. She sat down in a seat and lit up her horn with her magic. She cast a conjuring spell and a piece of paper and pencil magically appeared in the air in front of her. She set them down on the table and began to draw her dream. She made sure to include every detail of the dream in her drawing.

Sunset Shimmer came walking into the room. She noticed Trixie drawing something and stopped while walking past her and peered over her shoulder at what she was drawing.

“What are you doing?” she asked, curious.

“None of your business!” said Trixie, not wanting to be bothered while she was working.

Sunset apparently took offense to her response. “What’s your problem?” she said, miffed. “I was just curious.” She turned and started walking away out of the dining room.

Trixie couldn’t help but feel a little bad for snapping at Sunset like that. Apparently a year after learning a lesson or two in friendship had changed her a bit. She had just been reluctant to tell somepony she was drawing her dreams like a little filly.

She sighed and turned to Sunset, who was almost out of the room. “I’m sorry,” she forced herself to say. When she saw Sunset pause and look back at her, she continued. “Trixie just had this… really weird dream, and it was really bugging her, and she just felt like she had to get it down on paper. That’s what Trixie is doing, okay?”

Sunset raised her eyes in surprise. “You did!?” she said, not in a mocking tone, to Trixie’s relief, but actually in an interested one. Sunset walked back over to Trixie’s side. “What was it like? The dream, I mean.”

Trixie snorted. “Well, if you must know, it was some sort of circle, and a-”

“And a bunch of words with it?” Sunset asked.

Now it was Trixie’s turn to look at Sunset in surprise. How had she known? “…Yes,” she answered.

“I think I had the exact same dream,” Sunset said. She pulled out a piece of paper from behind her and placed it on the table next to Trixie’s paper. “I drew this when I woke up this morning.”

Trixie looked at Sunset’s paper, and her jaw dropped at what she saw. It was just like her own drawing. However, looking at it closer, she could see that it wasn’t exactly the same as her drawing. There were a few differences. The circle looked a bit different in detail, and the words beside it were different from her own, but still gibberish none the less. But still, the resemblance of the two drawings was far too similar to be a coincidence.

Trixie looked at Sunset. “You dreamed this?”

She nodded.

Trixie continued to stare at Sunset in amazement. “How is that possible?”

“I don’t know, but what do you think this means?”

“I don’t… wait!” suddenly Trixie got an idea. She put the two pieces of paper on top of each other and then held them up to the light coming from the chandelier in the room with her magic. The light shown through the two papers, and the two unicorns could see the two drawings overlapping each other. Their jaws dropped when they saw the two sets of words overlapping actually formed a readable paragraph, and the two circles over each other now made perfect sense. It was a magic circle!”

Trixie and Sunset looked at each other and said what they were both thinking at the same time. “That’s impossible.”

“How could we both have dreams… that are… when you put them together, they actually make something!” said Trixie.

“Don’t ask me,” said Sunset, just as confused as Trixie was.

They both skimmed over what the words on the papers said. It didn’t take them long to realize it was instructions for a spell of some kind.

“It’s a spell?” said Trixie. “You think it’s a real spell?”

“I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out.”

“Wait!” Trixie held a hoof up in front of Sunset. “We shouldn’t try to cast a spell if we don’t know what it will do! I mean, only a complete idiot would do that!”

“I wasn’t going to!” Sunset huffed. “I meant we should study this and see if we can figure out…”

The end of Sunset’s sentence was droned out by a sudden ear piercing zapping noise, and the flash of a bright light in the room. Trixie and Sunset turned their heads to see another one of those anomaly cracks suddenly appear in the dining room, right across the table from them.

The two mares each let out a scream of panic as they quickly ducked down to the floor behind the table. The sudden appearance of another one of those things had taken Trixie by surprise. She hadn’t been expecting to run into more of those up in space.

A few seconds later, there was another bright flash of light, and the anomaly disappeared from the room, just like all the others had.

Trixie caught her breath, breathing with relief now that it was gone. She then did a quick glance around the room to see what effects, if any, the anomaly had had. She didn’t have to look long. Beside her, Sunset Shimmer now had a light blond mane and tail, as well as a red bandana on her head. She must have still been in shock from the anomaly because she had a look of confused shock on her face.

“Sunset, that anomaly turned your mane blond and gave you a bandana!” Trixie said, partially in amusement, and also in relief that it seemed the only thing that had been changed was Sunset’s mane color and attire. “But I wonder if anything else has been changed.”

Sunset looked back at her, still with a confused look on her face. “Who’s Sunset?”

Trixie’s eyes widened in shock as she suddenly felt a sinking feeling growing in her gut. Oh no, she thought. “Um… you are.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at her. “I don’t know what the bloody ‘ell you’re talken’ about. My name is Winry! Winry Rockbell!”

“Winry?” Trixie also noticed that Sunset was also now talking with a foreign accent.

Sunset started frantically glancing around the room. “Where am I?”

At that moment, Blueblood, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score came hurrying into the dining room, followed soon after by Flim, Flam, and Surprise. They all had concerned looks on their faces, except for Surprise, who instead seemed to look annoyed for some reason.

“We heard screaming!” said Blueblood as he looked at the two mares. “What happened?”

Trixie pointed at Sunset. “There was another anomaly here!”

The others all looked just as shocked as Trixie had been.

“ON THE SHIP!?” asked Upper Crust.

Trixie nodded. “Yes! And it… did THAT to her!” she continued to point at Sunset, who was staring at the group like she had never met any of them before.

“It turned her blond?” asked Hoops.

“Yes. And she’s calling herself Winry now. I think she thinks she’s somepony else!”

“It’s just like those two doctors who weren’t really doctors!” said Lightning Dust.

“Ooo, what’s that?” Sunset said, suddenly sounding more chipper. She was looking at the two papers still lying on the dining room table. “Is that some sort of transmutation circle?” She looked up at Trixie. “Blimy, are you a state alchemist?”

“A what?” Trixie asked.

“Ooo, what’s that out there?!” Sunset said, ignoring Trixie’s question. She was looking out into the hallway that the others had just came in through. Before any of them could say any thing, she suddenly galloped out of the room and down the hall. They all let her go, all of them more interested in talking about this latest event.

“Those anomalies can effect us out here in space?” said Jet Set.

“It makes sense,” said Flim, scratching his chin with his hoof. “If the plot hole is going to destroy the universe, I guess it can make changes anywhere, not just on Earth.”

“In fact, what if the closer we get to the plot hole, the worse the anomalies will get?” Flam added.

Upper Crust looked like she could faint at any moment.

“Oh man,” Dumbbell moaned. “So anything could happen to us at any time that might ruin everything for us, and there’s nothing we can do about it?”

“Well, I guess this means we just have to try to stop this plot hole as fast as we can,” said Lightning Dust, flying up into the air and pounding her two front hooves together.

“If we can stop it at all,” said Jet Set.

Trixie looked at Flim and Flam. “Can’t this ship go any faster?”

“No!” Flim and Flam both answered, shaking their heads. “It’s going as fast as it can. If we tried going any faster, it would damage the hyperdrive.”

“So we really have to wait a whole n’other day to get to the stupid plot hole,” Gilda growled, taking a swipe at the nearest wall to her with her claws, and leaving four scratch marks. “I’m gonna go crazy!” She stormed off out of the room.

“Wait up!” Lightning Dust shouted, flying after her best friend.

After a brief awkward silence, Blueblood spoke. “Well, I doubt the plot hole is gonna destroy the entire universe in just one more day. Its taken… what… about two years to grow this big? I’m sure we have plenty of time.” He hoped he sounded more sure about that then he actually felt.

They started walking out of the room, except for Trixie, who walked back over to the papers on the table.

Suddenly she felt the ship give a sharp lurch. She lost her balance and fell onto the floor.

“What the heck!?”

Trixie heard the others also shouting in surprise just outside the room, so she got up and ran out into the hallway, finding them all getting up off the floor as well.

“What just happened?” Trixie demanded.

“I don’t know!” said Flim. “But we better get down to engineering and find out!”

They all took off and hurried down the hall to the open basement doorway and hurried down the steps. Too their utter horror, they found Sunset Shimmer(still dressed as Winry) standing next to the large cylinder shaped machine that was the hyperdrive. A panel on the hyperdrive was opened up, and several mechanical parts were lying on the floor at Sunset’s hooves.

She turned her head to look back at them when she heard them come down the stares. She gave them an innocent smile. “Oh, hi guys,” she said.

“WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!” Flam shouted at her. “WHY DID YOU TAKE THAT APPART? WE NEED THAT!”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist!” she said, still smiling innocently. She turned her head back to the hyperdrive and levitated a wrench up beside her and started messing around inside it again. “I just love machines! I just needed to find out what was inside it, and how it all worked! Don’t worry, I’ll put it all back the way I found it.”

It was now obvious to all of them what had happened. That lurch they had felt upstairs had been the ship dropping out of hyperspace.

An angry Gilda took a step towards the unsuspecting mare beside the hyperdrive. “Out’a my way! I’m gonna murder this bitch!”

The rest of them all had to hold the enraged griffon back.

“Its not her fault,” said Trixie glumly, using her magic to hold Gilda back where she was, even though she personally also felt like tearing Sunset a new one at the moment. “She was altered by an anomaly. She’s not herself.”

After several seconds, Gilda let out an angry snort and gave up. They looked back at Sunset, who hadn’t seemed to notice what had just happened and was still messing around with the hyperdrive.

“Now what do we do?” groaned Blueblood.

Flim shrugged. “I don’t know! We don’t know how to put it back together!” he gestured to his brother and himself with a hoof. “It’s not our machine. It’s Twilight Sparkle’s, remember?”

“Well, this is just fan tucking fastic!” growled Dumbbell, stomping a hoof against the floor angrily. “Now, not only are we light years from home, but we’re also stuck out here!”

“Oh gosh, I’m going to die in outer space!” Upper Crust wined. She looked like she was on the verge of crying.

Trixie felt her heart sink. They really were bucked now.

Just then, they all heard a loud mechanical hum, and then they felt the ship suddenly lurch again, causing them all to lose their balance again and fall onto the floor.

“What the heck happened now?” growled Gilda.

They all looked over at Sunset, who was attaching a metal panel back onto the hyperdrive where she had taken it off. She turned her head to look back at them and gave them a proud smirk. “I told you I could fix it!” she said.

It was then as they were all getting up that they noticed that all the hyperdrive pieces that had been lying on the floor only moments ago were now gone.

They all stared at Sunset Shimmer in disbelief. Had she really just put it all back together that quickly?

Flim leaped over to one of the computer screens in the room and began looking over it. “We’re back in hyperspace!” he said with amazement after a few seconds.

“Not only that, but I’ve also improved it,” said a still smirking Sunset. “I’ve more than doubled its top speed!”

“She’s right!” exclaimed Flim in surprise as he kept looking at the computer screen. “Were now moving over twice as fast as we were before! At this rate we should reach Titan… within several hours!”

They all looked at each other happily. They could all feel their spirits lifting.

“Sunset, you’re incredible!” said Blueblood.

Sunset gave him an irritated look. “Why do you keep calling me Sunset? I told you all, my name is Winry!” Then her expression changed like she had just remembered something. “Oh, by the way, I couldn’t figure out where this piece went.” Sunset levitated a small piece of machinery in the air in front of her for them to see. “But oh well. I suppose there always is at least one piece left over, isn’t there? Now to go take something else apart!” She let out an excited giggle as she hurried over to another part of the room.

Everyone turned to look at Blueblood.

“What should we do with her?” asked Lightning Dust.

Blueblood shrugged. “If she’s making our ship better, I say we just let her,” he said. Then he added, “…Keep an eye on her though.”

They could hear Sunset muttering to herself across the room. “Oh, look at this place! All these gadgets and gizmos! Oh, this is just divine! I just have to have a look at it all. Can I please take it all apart and put it back together again? Please?”
> Ch 8. Capture
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After several hours of traveling through hyperspace, they were finally almost at Saturn’s moon, Titan, and the plot hole. Blueblood had gathered everyone on the bridge to go over their plan for when they arrived.

Blueblood sat in his command seat, waiting impatiently for the last crew member to arrive on the bridge. Surprise.

“Where the heck is Surprise?” Blueblood said in aggravation. “I told everypony to get to the bridge fifteen minutes ago!”

Everyone simply shrugged.

“Have you noticed Surprise has been acting a bit… odd lately?” said Trixie.

Everyone looked at Trixie in confusion.

“Odd how?” asked Blueblood.

“Trixie isn’t sure,” said Trixie. “She just… doesn’t seem to be acting like her usual self.”

Blueblood thought for a moment, but then shook his head. “No. I haven’t noticed anything.”

Everyone else all shook their heads as well.

Then Dumbbell grinned and spoke up. “Maybe it’s just her time of the season,” he said to Trixie, giving her a dismissive wave of his hoof like she should just forget about it. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Trixie wasn’t so sure, but she decided to let it go for now.

“Well, anyway,” said Blueblood, “I'm just making sure we all know what the plan is for when we get to the plot hole?”

“Yeah,” said Score. “Get to Titan, figure out a way to stop the plot hole, then stop the plot hole and save the universe, and then have a sexy dance party.”

Blueblood raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t recall anything about a dance party.”

“Are you saying we shouldn’t have a sexy dance party?” asked Score.

“Well, I’m not saying that.”

Suddenly, they heard the sound of hoof beats outside of the room in the hallway, and a second later Surprise galloped into the room. “Sorry,” she said hastily. “I was… busy.”

“What the heck took you so long?” demanded an irritated Blueblood. “You know how much I hate to be kept waiting!”

“I was… brushing my fur!” the blond pegasus said. “Normal ponies brush their fur, right?”

Blueblood looked over at Trixie. “You see? She doesn’t seem to be acting unusual to me.”

Trixie rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, Sunset Shimmer made a “Ahem” noise. Blueblood looked over at her and saw her glaring at him, tapping her hoof like she was waiting for something. Then he remembered.

“Oh, and Sunse… I mean, WINRY told me she has something she wants to show us all,” he said, remembering Sunset thought she was someone named Winry, who apparently was good with machines.

Sunset smiled and walked out to where all of them could see her. Her horn glowed and she levitated some football sized object out from behind her and levitated it in front of her for all of them to see. It was a round metal device of some kind.

“I have an invention!” she said proudly. “I call it an Alchemy Bomb! It works by fusing matter and antimatter to release massive amounts of energy when detonated. If you’d like a demonstration, I could…”

“Um, I’d hate to interrupt you,” Flam interrupted Sunset, “but we’re about to reach Titan.”

“Finally!” exclaimed Gilda.

“Everyone to your stations!” Blueblood ordered.

“DARN IT!” they heard Sunset yell in disappointment as everyone got to their computer stations, and those without a station just stood out of the way.

Flim spoke. “I’m turning off the hyper drive in three… two… one…”

The ship lurched forward as they came out of hyperspace. On the view screen, directly ahead of them was a gigantic sphere with rings around it.

Blueblood leaned forward in his seat. “There it is!” he said. “Titan!”

Trixie looked over at him from her computer screen. “Actually, that's Saturn, the planet Titan orbits. Titan doesn’t have rings like that, Saturn does. You did go to school, didn’t you?”

“Even I knew that,” Hoops said.

Blueblood glared at Trixie in annoyance. “Then where is Titan? And the plot hole?”

“According to radar, they’re on the other side of Saturn,” said Jet Set.

“Then get us there!” said Blueblood impatiently, slumping back against his seat.

“Okay. I’m going to slingshot us around Saturn,” said Dumbbell. He began working the piloting controls in front of him.

They flew at sublight speed around the giant planet Saturn to the other side. During this time, some of them took the time to admire Saturn’s beauty on the view screen.

“My gosh, look at those rings!” exclaimed a star struck Upper Crust. “Absolutely beautiful!”

“What are they made of?” asked Hoops.

Everyone in the room shrugged at that question. They were sure some more nerdy pony back home knew, but none of them were that into space to know the answer to that.

Finally, they spotted the yellow moon Titan come into view over Saturn’s horizon, and shortly after, a swirling vortex of light right near the yellow orb also came into view. They all gasped when they got their first actual look at the plot hole.

“Sweat Celestia!” exclaimed Flim.

There it is, Blueblood thought to himself. The thing that’s going to destroy everything unless we find a way to stop it. He pointed at the viewscreen with his hoof. “Okay, there’s the plot hole! Head straight for it.”

“Would you look at the size of that thing!” said Dumbbell. “It’s even bigger then that moon now!”

It was true. The plot hole had grown so big; it was even bigger than the size of Titan.

They flew towards the plot hole. As they got closer, and the swirling vortex became bigger and more visible, Blueblood remembered his dream.

Could it actually mean something? Could my destiny really be inside the plot hole, and I have to go inside it?

“Hey! What’s that?”

Blueblood was woken from his thoughts by Trixie speaking up. He looked over at her. She was pointing at the view screen. Blueblood turned his head to look at it.

On it, he could see some object floating in space near the plot hole. He squinted to try to see it better. It was dull white in color, and appeared to be shaped like a heart. Not the kind of heart that's in your body, but the symbol for love kind of heart. And it was massive! This thing dwarfed even that humongous ship they had encountered before that had Rarity and Shining Armor on it. Of course, it wasn’t nearly as big as the plot hole.

“I don’t know,” said Jet Set. “It’s shaped like a… heart.”

“Maybe it’s an asteroid or something,” said Blueblood dismissively. He wanted to just ignore what ever it was and focus on the plot hole.

As they got closer to it, they were able to get a better look at it. They could make out that it wasn’t just a rock. Its surface was too smooth. It looked metallic… and artificial.

“That’s no asteroid,” said Hoops. “It’s a space station!”

“A space what?” said Lightning Dust.

Lightning Dust’s question went unanswered. Verbally, anyway. Her question was answered visually as they got a bit closer to the plot hole and were able to see that Hoops was right. Just like with the ship they had encountered back when they had first left Earth, they could begin to see tiny windows on the heart shaped object the closer they got to it. It really was a space station!

“Oh my gosh! You’re right!” said Upper Crust just as shocked as the rest of them.

“A space station shaped like a giant heart?” said Trixie with a raised eyebrow.

“I think a better question is why the heck is there a buckin’ space station out here? And who the heck does it belong to?” said Gilda.

Oh, great. What fresh new horror have we come across now? Blueblood thought to himself with alarm.

Trixie, however, was putting two and two together in her head, and what had just occurred to her made her even more concerned. “Everypony, what if this space station is connected to that other ship we saw, and Celestia?”

They all looked at each other, a look of mutual dread on their faces. Now that they thought of it, it was very likely Celestia had something to do with this, what with the space ship Rarity and Shining Armor had been on, and them saying they didn’t want the plot hole stopped, and now a heart shaped space station right next to the plot hole that was even the same color as that other space ship. None of them wanted to risk getting caught by her, especially when they still didn’t know why Celestia and Rarity and Shining Armor, and probably the rest of the Element Bearers too, were even doing the things they were doing.

“What do we do now?” asked Score.

“I think we should get out of here,” said Trixie.

“Yeah. I think your right,” said Blueblood, in complete agreement with her, even though leaving the plot hole right when they had finally gotten to it disappointed him. “Dumbbell, get us out of here!”

“You got it,” the brown pegasus replied. He began working the controls in front of him to turn the ship away from the plot hole and the space station. However, much to his confusion, and dismay, the ship didn’t turn. Instead, the ship started to shake and rattle slightly. That, and it kept moving forward like it had been, towards the space station.

“What’s going on!?” Upper Crust squeaked fearfully.

“Dumbbell, what’s going on?!” A very anxious Blueblood repeated Upper Crust’s question. “Why are we still heading towards that thing?”

“I don’t know!” Dumbbell answered honestly, still trying to get the ship to turn away from their current course, but remaining unsuccessful. “I’m trying, but the ship isn’t turning!”

“Why is it shaking?” asked Jet Set as his wife wrapped her forelegs around him.

“I don’t know!” Dumbbell shouted. Then he looked at Hoops beside him, who looked just as worried as he felt. “Hoops, did you do anything?”

Hoops looked at his friend with indignation. “Hey, don’t look at me!” the orange pegasus said, throwing both his hooves into the air above his head to emphasis.

“Oh no!” Flam suddenly spoke up from where he and his brother stood at a computer screen at the back of the room. “We’re caught in some kind of tractor beam! That space station is pulling us towards it!”

Everyone’s eyes widened in terror at that piece of information.

“Is there anyway to get us out of it?” asked Blueblood in desperation.

Flim and Flam both shrugged, an expression of helplessness on their faces.

Blueblood looked over at Sunset, who was staring at the viewscreen, looking just as afraid as the rest of them. “Sun- I mean Winry, do you have any ideas?”

Sunset looked at him and shook her head with the same helpless expression that Flim and Flam had.

Blueblood looked back at the viewscreen. They were getting closer and closer to the heart shaped space station. They were now so close to it that its surface was starting to look flat and stretched out forever in all directions, despite the fact that they knew it was rounded. That’s how big the space station was!

They could all see row of a rectangle shaped openings going around the side of the space station that they were being pulled towards.

Blueblood could feel his heart pounding in his chest. “Isn’t there anything we can do?!” he shouted.

“You can’t win,” said Surprise suddenly from the back of the room. “But there are alternatives to fighting.”

Lightning Dust looked over at the white pegasus, confused. “Like what?”

Surprise turned to face her. “Like magically taking the form of your enemy so that you can hide right amongst them without them ever knowing.”

Lightning Dust scowled at her. “Well, we’re not changelings, so we can’t do that.”

“What a pity,” said Surprise.

They all watched the viewscreen helplessly as it showed them slowly getting pulled into one of the giant rectangular shaped openings on the side of the space station. Inside the opening, it looked like they were being pulled into some sort of massive hangar bay. Standing or marching around on the floor of the hangar bay were dozens of Princess Celestia’s royal guards. That at least answered their question as to who this space station belonged to.

“What are we going to do?” said Upper Crust, still clutching her husband. “They’re going to break in here and capture us!”

“We could put the force field up around the ship!” suggested Score.

Blueblood at first felt hopeful, but then remembered why that wouldn’t work and shook his head. “No. They will get through that eventually.”

Score hung his head.

“Well what else can we do?” argued Gilda. “There are way to many solders down their for us to fight, even for me and Lightning Dust, not to mention who knows how many more guards are in this giant place.

Sunset Shimmer spoke up. “I’ve got a few crazy idea’s that just might work!” she said, her tone actually sounding confident. “But we need a place to hide first!”

“What is it?” asked Trixie.

Suddenly they felt a big *thump* through the floor, and the ship’s shaking stopped. It also looked like they had stopped moving. They all realized their ship had landed inside the hangar bay.

“There’s no time to explain now!” said Sunset urgently. “We have to hide NOW!”

Just then Blueblood had an idea. “I know a place we can hide!” he said. “Follow me.”

Without question, they all got to their hooves and followed Blueblood as he led them out of the bridge and upstairs to his bedroom. He hurried over to a set of double doors in the room and through them open with his magic, revealing a large, walk in closet. In it were fancy horseshoes, collars, suits, jackets, ties, and even, oddly enough, pants.

“Inside!” Blueblood stated.

They all rushed hid inside, and Blueblood used his magic to close and lock the closet doors. It was a tight fit for all of them. Their hides were all pressed up against each other, much to the annoyance of most of them.

“Well this is cozy,” grunted Flim sarcastically as he was squished between his brother and Gilda.

“Get off of me!” Gilda growled at Flim, trying to shove him away from her.

“I can’t! There’s no room!”

“HEY, SOMEPONY’S TOUCHING ME!” squealed Upper Crust.

“WHO’S TOUCHING MY WIFE!” Jet Set shouted angrily.

“Everyone is touching everyone!” said Sunset as she was accidentally shoved into a wall by Lightning Dust. “There’s nothing we can do about it!”

Trixie grunted as she was squished between Blueblood and Surprise. “What good is this going to do?” she said in irritation as she shoved Blueblood way from her against the closet doors, earning an “Ow!” from him. “They’re going to find us eventually!”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan B just in case,” grunted Sunset.

Trixie was about to object when they heard the sound of the front doors bursting open downstairs, and the sound of pony guard’s hoof steps as they entered the house.

“Everyone stay quiet!” Sunset hissed.

They all did their best to keep quiet and not move as they listened to the sound of the guards hurrying around inside the house, running through the halls and up the stares, shouting to each other, and opening doors.

They all cringed when they heard hoof steps coming into the room. They all cringed again when they heard the knob of the closet doors they were in being messed with. Jet Set had to put his hoof over Upper Crust’s mouth to keep her from screaming.

After a few seconds, the noise of the knob outside being messed with stopped and they heard a stallion’s voice speak. “This door's locked. Move onto the next.”

“But what if they’re behind this door?” said another stallion’s voice.

“I just said it’s locked,” said the first stallion again.

“Well, couldn’t we knock to be sure?”

“Hey, that’s a good idea! You must be one of those idea ponies.”

“Why thank you.”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Gilda couldn’t help but whisper. Trixie quickly grabbed the griffon’s beak in her magic and clamped it shut, but it was too late.

“Did you just hear something?” they heard the second stallion say.

“I heard a voice, but I don’t hear it anymore, so I’m going to assume there’s no pony behind the door,” said the first stallion.

Then they heard another set of hooves enter the room. “Hey, I just heard something coming from behind that door,” a mare’s voice suddenly said.

“We heard a voice,” said the first stallion, “but the door’s locked.”

“Well why don’t we break it down just to be sure?” said the mare.

“Okay. I suppose it’s worth a shot.”

“Darn it!” Sunset Shimmer whispered to all of them. “Time for Plan B. Open the doors and grab them!”

They all looked at Sunset in surprise.

“What?” said Blueblood.

But the next thing they knew, Sunset’s horn glowed, and the two closet doors suddenly swung open, revealing the behinds of three royal guards, a unicorn stallion, a pegasus stallion, and a pegasus mare, who were about to buck the closet doors down with their hind legs.

“Grab ‘em!” Sunset repeated, this time as an order.

Without question, and without much else they could do now, they all reached out of the closet and grabbed the three surprised guards by their hind legs and pulled them into the closet with them. Sunset reclosed the closet doors with her magic while the rest of them all gagged the three struggling guards to keep them from shouting and then knocked them out with a few swift blows to their heads.

“Now what do we do?” said Trixie to Sunset. “They’re going to notice a few of their guards are missing.”

“Okay! Here’s the plan,” said Sunset as they tie up the three unconscious guards with some of the clothes in the closet. “Three of us will put on their armor and disguise as guards, and then go out there and tell the rest of the guards that there’s no one on board. Then, once they’re convinced, get back on the ship and we’ll take off as fast as we can.”

“What are we supposed to tell them happened to us?” said Trixie. “They probably know someone had to be on the ship! What should we tell them happened to all of us?”

Sunset thought for a moment. “Um… tell them the crew got off the ship in an escape pod!”

“But we don’t have any escape pods!” said Blueblood.

“They don’t know that!” said Sunset.

“Oh. Right.”

“Escape pods would have been a good idea to have before leaving Earth though,” said Flim.

Blueblood considered the plan for a moment. It actually did sound like it might work, as long as they didn’t get caught. “Alright. Lets do it!”

Sunset grinned proudly. “You’re welcome.”

Suddenly Flam spoke up. “Wait! This plan won’t work! If we try to take off, they’ll just get us with their tractor beam again!”

Everyone’s spirits fell at that. They should have known it wouldn’t be that simple.

“He’s right,” said Flim.

“Darn it!” Gilda growled. “What do we do now?”

Sunset thought for a second. “I have an idea.” She looked up at them. “Whoever’s going is going to also have to find a way to disable the tractor beam, so that we can get out of here without a problem. I’d go myself, but we only have one set of unicorn armor, and its too big for me.” She pointed at Blueblood. “You are the only unicorn here big enough to wear the unicorn armor.”

Blueblood frowned. He looked around him at everyone else in the room, but could see she was right. He let out a sigh. “Lucky me,” he groaned. He took the unicorn guard’s helmet off and put it on himself. “This is going to completely mess up my mane,” he complained.

In addition to Blueblood, it was decided that Dumbbell would wear the pegasus stallion’s armor, and Lightning Dust would wear the pegasus mare’s armor. 

“How do we look?” asked Lightning Dust after the three of them were fully dressed in the armor.

“Like royal guards,” said Trixie.

“Perfect!”

Blueblood, however, was still worried about something. “Promise you wont take off without us?” he asked the rest of them nervously.

“Why would we do that?” said Flim. “We’re all friends! Don’t you trust us?”

“And Trixie is your marefriend!” stated Trixie, getting right in Blueblood’s face. “Do you honestly think she would leave without her coltfriend?”

“I’m sorry,” said Blueblood, lowering his ears against his head. “I’m still getting used to the whole ‘friendship’ thing. Its still rather difficult for me to trust others, especially in life threatening situations like this.”

“Look at it this way,” said Flam. “How will we know the tractor beam is disabled unless you three get back here and tell us?”

Blueblood thought for a moment. “Hmm. Good point.”

“Okay, lets go!” said Lightning Dust, a confident expression on her face.

Blueblood was about to follow, but then he turned back to Trixie really quick.

“Can I have a kiss before I go,” he asked her, giving her a sheepish smile.

Trixie kissed him on the lips, and then she grabbed his head in her fore hooves and looked him right in the eyes. “Don’t screw this up, and you’ll get more than just a kiss when you get back.”

Yay! Blueblood thought to himself. “Yes, m’lady,” he said with a grin, and then turned and followed Lighting Dust and Dumbbell out the closet doors.

Lightning Dust turned to look at Dumbbell and Blueblood. “Okay, you two, just follow my lead. I have experience with military. Just stand up straight, keep a serious look on your faces, and don’t talk unless spoken to. Oh, and be sure to salute you superior officer! Now lets go!”

As they were walking out of Blueblood’s bedroom into the hallway, Dumbbell muttered over to Blueblood, “Dude, your marefriend has you totally whipped.”

Blueblood glared at the snickering pegasus jock walking beside him. “At least I have a marefriend,” he said.

At that, Dumbbell stopped snickering hung his head. “Darn it.”

Lightning Dust glared back at the two stallions in annoyance. “Hey, would you two shut up!” she hissed. “We’re trying to act like guards!”

Dumbbell and Blueblood were brought back to reality and stood up straight and shut their mouths, and continued to follow Lightning Dust through the hallway.

They quickly found a group of guards heading towards the stare case. They nonchalantly sidled up behind the guards and joined them as they headed down the stares to the first floor. Once there, they met up with another group of guards waiting in the foyer. One of them stepped forward, a light gray unicorn stallion, and the guards Lightning, Dumbbell, and Blueblood were with all put their hooves to their foreheads in salute. Lightning, Dumbbell, and Blueblood quickly followed suit and saluted him as well.

“At ease,” the unicorn guard said in a gruff voice. “Did you find anything?”

One of the guards in front of Lightning, Dumbbell, and Blueblood, a pegasus stallion, shook his head. “No, sir. The entire ship’s deserted.”

The other guard, who was apparently the superior, raised his eye brow. “How can that be? Where could they have gone?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

Lightning Dust decided to risk it and spoke up. “Permission to speak, sir?”

Everyone turned to look at her. She hoped she hadn’t just made a huge mistake.

“What is it, solder?” asked the superior guard.

Lightning gulped nervously. “I believe the crew may have gotten off the ship in an escape pod, sir!”

The gruff voiced superior guard walked up in front of her. “What makes you say that?” he asked.

“Err, um,” Lightning Dust struggled to come up with an answer as quickly as she could, “we searched the ship from top to bottom, sir, and found no sign of them. It’s the only logical explanation, sir. Also, we found no escape pod on board, so the crew must have taken it, because only complete morons would have flown off into space without an escape pod, sir.”

The guard stared at Lightning Dust for a few moments, and then to their surprise and relief, he let out a chuckle.

“You have a good point there, solder,” he said. Then he got serious again. “Very well. All of you return to your posts.”

“Yes, sir!” all the guards said, saluting him, and then proceeded to march out the front doors of the house. Lightning, Dumbbell, and Blueblood followed suit with them, all three of them breathing a sigh of relief that that had worked.

As they walked out into the large, brightly lit hangar bay, they couldn’t help but look around them at the place in awe. It was enormous! Then again, it had to be in order to fit an entire space ship inside it, but still it was quite a sight to see. They looked over at the large opening their ship had come in through, and gaped in amazement. The only thing separating them from the deadly vacuum of space was a thin, light pink, magical force field stretching across the opening.

Lightning Dust spotted a doorway at the back of the hangar bay and motioned to Dumbbell and Blueblood to follow her. They broke away from the rest of the solders, while still acting like guards and keeping up the appearance that they were supposed to be there, and marched back to the doorway, trying to bring as little attention to themselves as possible.

They entered through the doorway and found themselves in a white and brightly lit corridor. Seeing that it seemed to be deserted, they broke out of character and let out a sigh of relief that they had managed to get this far.

“This place must be huge!” groaned Lightning as she looked from left to right down the corridor. “How the heck are we supposed to know where the tractor beam power source or controls are?”

“Hey, there’s a map!” said Dumbbell suddenly. He pointed over to a large, square sign on the wall of the corridor. To their joy, it actually was a map of the inside of the space station. “Maybe we can get our bearings on that.”

They walk over to the map on the wall and began looking at it. There was a lot to look at. The map had to be divided into each floor of the space station, and there were a lot of floors.

“Okay, so we’re here…” Dumbbell pointed to a little red dot on the map that read ‘You are here’.

“Okay, and it looks like there are four different tractor beam machines here, here, here, and here.” Lightning Dust pointed to four areas on the map with her hoof.

Blueblood groaned. “And we have to go around to each one?! That will take forever!”

“Maybe not,” said Lightning Dust. “Maybe we could just take out the one on our side of the station.” She pointed to it with her hoof. “That’s the one they’ll probably try to get us with when we take off, after all. And while they’re wondering why it isn’t working, we can make our get away!”

Blueblood looked at Lightning Dust. “You better be right about this.”

“Whoa! Look at this!” Dumbbell suddenly spoke up, getting Lightning and Blueblood’s attention. He pointed to a spot on the map. “This says Princess Luna’s room here!”

Blueblood and Lightning Dust took a closer look at where Dumbbell was pointing. Indeed, one of the rooms was labeled ‘Princess Luna’s Quarters’.

“Auntie Luna?! She’s here?!” exclaimed Blueblood excitedly.

“Apparently,” said Dumbbell.

Blueblood thought back to Doctor Whooves words. “The Doctor said we needed Princess Luna,” he said to Lightning Dust and Dumbbell. “That she knows something important, but she can’t remember it, or something. We should get her and take her with us.”

Lightning Dust wasn’t so sure. “Are you sure?” she said to Blueblood. “She’s probably in better hooves here! After all, last time I saw her, she was in a coma.”

Blueblood sighed. He honestly wasn’t sure, but... “We have to take her with us! If she knows something that could help us, then we need her. After all, the universe is going to be destroyed unless we can stop it! She may be our only hope!”

Lightning Dust was silent for a moment, but then she nodded. “Okay, but you better be right about this.”

“Fine,” said Blueblood.

“Okay,” said Lightning Dust. “So you two go kidnap the princess, and I’ll go take care of the tractor beam thing.”

Blueblood glared at Lightning Dust. “We’re not kidnapping her!” he said indignantly. “If anything, we’re rescuing her!”

Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Whatever! We’ll all meet back here, right?”

Dumbbell and Blueblood nodded. “Right!” they both said.

“Alright! Good luck!” said Lightning Dust as she turned and flapped her wings, taking flight down the corridor.

Blueblood and Dumbbell turned and trotted off down the opposite direction.
> Ch 9. Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The corridors of the space station were surprisingly empty as Blueblood and Dumbbell made their way to Princess Luna’s room.

“Weird,” said Dumbbell. “I’d have thought there’d be a lot more ponies on board this station.”

Blueblood shrugged. “Maybe Princess Celestia is only allowing the ponies who she trusts the most with this secret access. So she only has a minimal staff here.”

Dumbbell also shrugged. “Could be.” Then after a few moments of silence, he said, “So this is where our taxes have been going,” said Dumbbell.

Blueblood couldn’t help but chuckle at Dumbbell’s joke. But in all seriousness, he still couldn’t believe all this around him actually existed. He had used to think that his aunt Celestia was a completely honest ruler, who always told her subjects the truth about everything that went on, with the exception of her good-natured little jokes every now and then. But now, he was beginning to doubt everything he knew about his great aunt. Celestia had definitely been hiding the fact that she had space ships and a giant space station, as well as trying to keep the plot hole a secret. She was definitely up to something that she wanted to keep a secret from almost everypony. And what bugged him the most was that he still had no idea what it was.

They soon came across an elevator. They both got inside and Blueblood used his magic to push the button for the floor Princess Luna’s room was on. The doors closed and the elevator started moving upwards.

Dumbbell and Blueblood then both cringed with disgust when they heard the tune of the ‘Equestria Girls’ song start playing in the elevator.

“Oh, gosh,” groaned Dumbbell.

Unable to take it, Blueblood spotted the speaker the song was coming from up on the sealing of the elevator, and lit up his horn with magic. He then shot a blast of magic out of his horn at the speaker, which then exploded with a burst of electrical sparks and some smoke. The music ceased. Now all that could be heard was the soft sound of the elevator moving.

Dumbbell and Blueblood waved the smoke away from their faced with their hooves.

“Thank you!” said Dumbbell.

“You’re welcome,” said Blueblood.

After a few more moments, the elevator came to a halt, and the doors opened again. Blueblood and Dumbbell got out and began walking down the corridor the way they remembered the princess’s room was on the map.

They immediately could tell which room the princess was in when it came into view. They saw a unicorn guard standing in front of the door. Also, Princess Luna’s name was nicely labeled on the door.

Blueblood and Dumbbell stayed out of sight of the guard for the moment and looked at each other.

“What are we going to do about that guard?” asked Blueblood.

“Um… I have an idea,” said Dumbbell. “Just follow my lead.”

They walked up to the guard at the door. He turned his head to look at them as they approached.

Dumbbell spoke. “Hi. We’re hear to bring the Princess her dinner.”

The guard stared at them, raising an eyebrow at them. “Princess Celestia has ordered that no one is to disturb her sister. And Princess Luna is in a coma. She can’t eat anything at the moment. Also, where is the food?”

So she IS still in a coma, Blueblood thought to himself, while also thinking about what an idiot Dumbbell was for coming up with this stupid plan.

“Um…” Dumbbell stuttered to the guard, realizing his plan had completely fallen apart. Panicking, he quickly leaped into the air, spun around using his wings, and bucked the surprised guard in the head. The guards was knocked back against the door and he fell to the floor, knocked unconscious.

Blueblood looked at Dumbbell as he landed back on the floor beside him. “You’re an idiot,” he said to him.

Dumbbell glared at Blueblood. “Hey, I took care of it, didn’t I?”

Blueblood rolled his eyes at Dumbbell and then used his magic to open up the door to Princess Luna’s room. They both looked inside.

The room was very large and lavishly decorated. It was actually kind of like an expensive fancy hotel room. Golden light from a crystal chandelier hanging from the sealing illuminated the room. Several Large Persian rugs lined the hard oak floor. On one side of the big room there was a living area, with some elegant sofa’s and chairs, a glass coffee table, and a marble fireplace. At the far end of the room, there was an enormous window, looking out into space. In a corner, there was a fancy wooden desk, and on the other side of the room, there was large, elegant king sized bed, complete with drawn back bed curtains, and beside it on one side was a night stand with a lamp, and on the other a large wooden wardrobe.

They immediately spotted Princess Luna lying on the bed, unconscious. They walked into the room and Blueblood pulled the unconscious guard into the room with them for good measure, and closed the door behind them.

The two stallions walked up to Princess Luna’s bedside.

“Okay, I know this is going to sound cheesy,” said Dumbbell, “but I kind off feel like a knight in a fairy tail right now, going on a dangerous mission to rescue a beautiful princess.”

Blueblood could see a Dumbbell had a dreamy look in his eyes as he stared at the unconscious alicorn mare lying on the bed before them. Even Blueblood had to admit, even though he knew she was his great aunt, she really did look quite beautiful lying there unconscious, her magical cloud of a mane flowing out from her head over the pillows, her barreled chest slowly rising and falling with each breath she took.

Blueblood shook those weird thoughts from his head and got back to the situation at hoof. “Come on! Lets hurry and get her out of here before somepony notices the guard that you knocked out isn’t at his post.”

Dumbbell also shook himself from his intoxicated state and nodded. “Right!” he said.

Blueblood lit up his horn and levitated Luna’s unconscious body up off of the bed with his magic, and, much to Dumbbell’s surprise, laid her down on the brown pegasus’s back.

“Hey, why do I have to carry her?” Dumbbell complained. “She’s heavy!”

“Because I’m a prince,” said Blueblood.

Dumbbell glared at the white unicorn angrily. Blueblood flinched.

“Err… I mean… because, as an athlete, you’re a lot stronger than I am.”

Dumbbell nodded. “Darn right, I am!”

“Okay. Now lets get out of here!” Blueblood turned and started heading towards the door.

Dumbbell was about to follow Blueblood when he realized something.

“Wait! We can’t just walk around this place carrying the Princess like this! Even if there are hardly any guards in the corridors, somepony’s gonna notice.”

Blueblood stopped where he was realizing with dismay that his friend was right. “You’re right,” he said, looking back at the brown pegasus with an alicorn on his back. “What do we do?”

They both thought for a few moments, trying to come up with an idea. That was when Dumbbell noticed the guard he had knocked out still lying on the floor where they had left him. He suddenly got an idea.

“Lets take that guard’s armor off and put it on Luna!” Dumbbell said. “We’ll disguise her as a guard too!”

Blueblood looked at Dumbbell like he was insane. “What? But she’s in a coma!”

“Um…” Dumbbell scratched the back of his mane as he thought for a moment, working out his plan in his head. “We’ll just carry her, and tell anypony we come across that she’s just another guard that was injured or something, and that we’re taking her to get medical attention!”

Blueblood shook his head. “That will never work!”

“Do you have any other ideas?” Dumbbell asked him.

Blueblood thought for a moment, then frowned and hung his head. “No,” he admitted.

“Alright then,” Dumbbell said smugly.

Working quickly, they took the unconscious unicorn guard’s armor off him and put it on Princess Luna. They even took care to make sure the princess’s giveaway magical, starry, cloud-like mane and tail were tucked in under the armor so that they wouldn’t give her away.

“Hey, Blueblood, I’ve always wondered,” said Dumbbell as he tucked the princess’s mane underneath her helmet, “what the heck are Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s manes and tails made of? Because this isn’t hair!”

Blueblood thought for a moment, but then shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never thought to ask them about that. I suppose they’re made of magic.”

“Why?” asked Dumbbell, holding up some of Luna’s tail in his hoof and looking at it. “What is the point of it?”

Blueblood shrugged again. “I don’t know! I guess it’s just to make them look pretty or something! Now let’s hurry!”

When they were finished putting the armor on Luna, she did indeed look like she might pass for a unicorn guard, so long as no one got a good enough look at her. They placed her back on Dumbbell’s back and then walked back out of the room. They headed back down the corridor to the elevator. Fortunately, they didn’t run into any guards on the way so far.

When they got to the elevator, Blueblood was about to press the button when the doors suddenly opened, revealing a pegasus guard inside. Blueblood and Dumbbell froze.

The guard walked out of the elevator, but then paused and looked at the guard draped over Dumbbell’s back, a questioning look on his face.

Dumbbell quickly spoke up. “O-our friend here had a little accident. We’re taking her to get medical attention.”

Much to their relief, the guard smiled at them and said, “I hope she gets better. By the way, just so you know, something happened to the music speaker in that elevator.” He pointed back at the elevator he had just walked out of. “It’s a shame too. I really liked that song.” And with that, the guard walked off and continued on his way down the corridor.

Blueblood and Dumbbell walked into the elevator and Blueblood used his magic to press the button to go back down to the floor that their ship was on.

As the doors of the elevator closed, Dumbbell looked at Blueblood and said. “How do you think Lightning Dust is doing?”

………………

Lightning Dust galloped her way through the corridors, looking for the maintenance tunnel where the tractor beam emitter was located. She had decided to stop flying through the corridors because every now and then she would pass a guard, and she figured a guard seeing her flying through the place, even if she was a pegasus, would look suspicious, even if she was disguised as a guard. She knew guards weren’t supposed to act like that.

Finally, she found the door she was looking for. On it, written in big letters, were the words, maintenance tunnel 12G. She leaped over to it and, making sure she was alone in the corridor, she opened it up and stepped inside.

She found herself in a dimly lit tunnel. Various pipes and machines lined the walls as far as the eye could see. And looking down the tunnel, it looked like it went on forever.

She trotted through the tunnel, ducking under or stepping over the occasional low hanging object, looking for anything that had to do with the tractor beam. Fortunately, all of the machines and pipes and wires were nicely labeled in big bold letters, like she was in the sixty’s version of the Batcave.

After searching for several minutes, she finally found a big, bulky, cylindrical machine the size of a train engine, jutting out of the wall of the tunnel. Coming from the machine was a low mechanical hum. On it was a sign that read ‘Tractor Beam Generator’.

“Okay,” said Lightning Dust to herself. “Now how do I ‘disable’ this thing?” After a few seconds of thinking, she decided the best thing to do was just start destroying as much as she possibly good.

She began pulling all the wires and tubes that she could, lighting up the tunnel with magical/electrical sparks. She turned around and started bucking a large pipeline that was connected to the machine. After a few good bucks, the pipe broke off of the machine, sending a burst of gases into the air out of the pipe.

The low hum coming from the machine suddenly quieted to a weak whine, and then ended all together.

Lightning soon began to enjoy herself as she continued to break the machine.

“This is fun!” she grunted as she bucked a large metal panel off of the machine, exposing the machines innards. She then reached inside and began pulling whatever wires she saw in there.

Wow. Security here sucks, she thought to herself, surprised that she had been able to just walk in to this place and start breaking stuff with out any guards trying to stop her.

Unfortunately, she didn’t realize just how much noise she was making.

“HEY, YOU THERE! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!”

Lightning Dust cringed when she heard that sudden shout and turned her head in the direction it had come from. She saw two royal unicorn guards standing a short ways down the tunnel the direction she had come in, both of them illuminated by the blue and golden light coming from the glows around their horns. They didn’t look happy.

Darn it, Lightning Dust thought to herself nervously. The guards began approaching her.

Lightning Dust leaped into the air and flared her wings. She flew over the two surprised guards heads and sped down the tunnel back the way she had came.

As she flew, she saw a couple blue and yellow flashes of light bounce off the walls and some of the machinery around her. Glancing behind her, she could see the two guards firing magic blasts at her from their horns. However, after a few more seconds, she was soon too far away from them to possibly hit her.

She looked ahead of her and saw the light of the open door out of the maintenance tunnel.

Crap, I had left that open, didn’t I? she thought to herself, realizing that had probably helped get the attention of the guards who had found her, in addition to the noise she had been making. Lightning Dust curses herself for being so reckless again.

She flew out the door into the bright corridor, and proceeded to fly down it as fast as she could back towards the hangar where she was too meet Blueblood and Dumbbell. She didn’t care if guards saw her now. With the tractor beam generator successfully damaged, all that mattered was getting the heck out of this place before the guards had a chance to fix it.

As she was flying, suddenly the loud whine of an alarm started blaring all throughout the corridor. It didn’t take a genius to realize that those two guards she had just gotten away from must have set it off because of her.

Then she heard a voice on an intercom start speaking over the sound of the alarm. “Intruder alert! All guards to maintenance tunnel twelve G on deck seventy two! This is not a drill!”

Great. Now this whole place knows about me, Lightning thought to herself. I hope Blueblood and Dumbbell are having better luck then me.

……………….

Back in the elevator, Blueblood and Dumbbell heard the alarm blaring.

“What’s that?” asked Dumbbell, glancing around him nervously.

“I don’t know,” said Blueblood, however he figured it couldn’t be good. “Maybe they found out the princess is missing! We better hurry!”

Dumbbell nodded.

When the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened up, the two stallions poked their heads out and looked both ways. After seeing the corridor was clear, they came out and started galloping down the corridor as fast as they could, which wasn’t easy for Dumbbell with Princess Luna draped over his back.

As they got further down the corridor, they could hear a commotion up ahead of them.

“You hear that?” Dumbbell said.

Blueblood gave him a quick nod as they hurried. They were almost to the hangar bay where their ship was. If he remembered correctly, it was just up ahead of them around the next corner they were about to turn.

As they rounded the corner, up ahead of them in the corridor, they saw a sight that made their hearts sink. Lightning Dust was caught between two groups of guards, blocking her path to the doorway to the hangar. She was flying in the air, trying to dodge the spells being cast at her by the unicorn guards. Blueblood and Dumbbell watched helplessly as Lightning Dust made an attempt to fly over the guards in front of her. 

Suddenly, Lightning Dust’s eyes met both Blueblood’s and Dumbbell’s. They could see actual panic written on her face as she tried to get past the guards. A second later, they saw Lightning Dust get hit in the back with one of the unicorn guards’ spells. A brief expression of shock flashed across Lightning Dust’s face before she went limp and fell out of the air, falling to the metal floor beneath her with a thud. It had apparently been a stun spell because she was now lying unconscious.

“LIGHTNING!” Dumbbell shouted on impulse, but realized his mistake the second after he made it.

All the guards turned their heads to look at them.

Dumbbell cursed himself as he and Blueblood froze on the spot.

“Hey, isn’t that Princess Luna?” said one of the guards.

“It is! Hey, those two aren’t guards!”

“Crap!” Dumbbell cursed.

“Wait to go,” Blueblood said angrily to Dumbbell. 

The guards began making a move towards them. Blueblood, panicking for a way out, noticed the doorway into the hangar bay a few meters on their left.

“Lets get out of here!” Blueblood shouted, pushing Dumbbell with his head to start running into the hangar bay where their ship was. Blueblood hated the fact that they were leaving Lightning Dust, but they didn’t have any choice. The guards knew who they were now, and there was absolutely no way they could get to Lightning Dust without the guards capturing them as well, and then their whole plan would be ruined and they would all be put in prison.

The unicorn guards began casting spells at Blueblood and Dumbbell as the two ran into the hangar, which much to their surprise was deserted of any guards. They guessed it was empty because all the guards had left it to go into the corridors to search for Lightning Dust. She must have put up quite a fight for them to need all of the guards to capture her.

They began running towards their ship, which was still right where it had been. All the while, ducking down to avoid getting hit by the spells the guards were hurling at them.

They miraculously made it to the house ship and leap inside the open doorway, slamming the twin doors shut behind them and locking them.

“That was a close one!” breathed Dumbbell, now that they were out of the line of fire.

Blueblood nodded as he caught his breath. He could practically hear his own heart beating in his chest.

At that moment they both jumped as they heard the guards outside starting to slam against the front doors, trying to bust them open. They both looked at each other, knowing they didn’t have a lot of time.

“Lets get to the bridge and start the ship, NOW!” urged Blueblood.

Dumbbell nodded and they hurried from the foyer into the living room.

“What about everyone else?” said Dumbbell as they ran into the bridge, referring to the others who were probably still hiding in the closet upstairs.

“NO TIME!" Blueblood said, as he could still hear the guards pounding on the front door. He went to a computer station and began pressed the buttons he remembered would activate the force field around the ship. “We have to take off now. I sure hope Lightning Dust was able to stop the tractor beam.”

Dumbbell let Princess Luna slip off of his back onto the floor and then sat down in the pilot seat.

They both heard a loud magical zap outside the ship as Blueblood successfully got the force field bubble up around the ship.

“That should hold them for a bit,” said Blueblood, looking over at Dumbbell. “Get us out of here!”

“Firing thrusters!” said Dumbbell as he worked the pilot controls. “We’re taking off!”

They heard the sound of the rocket thrusters firing outside. The ship shook and rattled as it lifted up off the floor of the hangar bay.

At that moment, Trixie, Hoops, Score, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Gilda, Sunset, Flim, Flam, Surprise, and Iron Will came running onto the bridge.

“What’s going on?” asked Trixie.

“We’re taking off!” said Dumbbell.

“So it worked?” said Iron Will, sounding hopeful.

“…Not… exactly,” said Blueblood, looking and sounding ashamed. That was when he noticed Iron Will in the room with them. “WAIT, IRON WILL?!” Blueblood shouted in shock, surprised to see the minotaur with them, knowing full well that they had left him back on Earth. “WHAT… WHEN… HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!”

“What do you mean?” said the minotaur, sounding confused. “I’ve been here the whole time.”

Blueblood continued to stare at him incredulously. “What!? No you haven’t!”

Then Trixie spoke up. “Another anomaly opened up while you guys were gone. And now he’s here, and he thinks he’s been with us this whole time.”

“Oh,” said Blueblood, deciding not to question it. He walked over to his command chair and sat down in it.

Outside the ship, they could hear little booms as the guards fired spells at the force field protecting their ship.

“Oh my…!” said Upper Crust, pointing at Princess Luna lying on the floor. “Is that Princess Luna? What the heck is Princess Luna doing here?”

“That’s a long story,” said Blueblood. “Lets just get out of here!”

Dumbbell worked the controls and on the view screen they watched as the ship turned around in the air so that they were facing the exit. Dumbbell pushed forward on the controls, and they flew out of the hangar bay out into space. They began flying away from the space station.

“Where is Lightning Dust?” Gilda asked suddenly, looking around for her friend.

Blueblood and Dumbbell both gulped in shame and sadness and looked at each other. They both knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but they had to tell them all sooner or later.

“She… she got captured,” said Blueblood, turning back to Gilda.

Gilda’s eyes widened in shock and horror. “WHAT!?” the griffon exclaimed.

“We split up,” continued Blueblood, looking down at the floor in sadness. “She got caught by the guards. There was nothing we could do.”

“YOU LEFT HER BEHIND!!!” Gilda yelled angrily, flapping her wings and leaping over to Blueblood, landing right in front of him and getting right in his face, gritting her fangs in rage.

“There was nothing we could do!” Blueblood whimpered, trying to back away from the snarling griffon, but unable to because he was in a chair. “They were shooting at us! If we had tried to save her, they would have caught us as well. And they would have found you all eventually!”

Before Gilda could tear into Blueblood, Hoops suddenly spoke up. “Uh, guys! Look!” He was pointing at the view screen.

They all looked and gulped in fear at what they saw. On the view screen they could see that giant, odd shaped ship that had attacked them back when they first left Earth. The Ascendency. The ship, they knew, Rarity and Shining Armor, and perhaps even more of the element bearers, were aboard.

And to make things even worse, it wasn’t alone, either. There were four more ships, just like it, nearby it. On each of their hulls were the words, HMS Destiny, HMS Monarch, HMS Harmony, and HMS Devotion written in large bold letters.

All of them were moving towards them, the massive cannon opening on each of the five ships began to glow with white light. They all remembered what that meant from before.

“They’re gonna fire at us!” gulped Jet Set.

“Hoops! The red button!” shouted Trixie.

They all knew what she meant by that. The improbability drive!

“Press it?” Hoops asked her.

Outside, all five of the enemy ships fired their energy blasts simultaneously.

“PRESS IT NOW!” Trixie screamed.

Hoops slammed his hoof down on the red button. Just like last time, they all felt a strange stretching feeling in their bodies before they, and the ship, all disappeared in blink of an eye, just as the energy beams passed through right where their ship had been.

…………………

In another part of space, a giant horseshoe suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and it then began to rapidly transform into a pumpkin, and then a school bus, and then Derpy Hooves’ head, and then finally it became the house ship, Defiant, only it was made entirely of legos.

On board the Defiant, they were discovering that they themselves were made of legos too.

“And now we’re Legos,” said Flim, looking at his lego body.

“Huh! I have the sudden urge to start singing ‘Everything Is Awesome’!” said Hoops.

Suddenly, Gilda turned back to Blueblood and punched him in the head. 

Blueblood shouted in surprise as his lego head was knocked off his body and fell to the floor. But since he was made of legos, his body simply walked to where his head was lying and picked it up and stuck it back on. And just in time too, because a split second later they all felt that stretching feeling again, and then, in the blink of an eye, they and the ship all turned back to their normal selves as normality was restored.

Blueblood looked back at Gilda in anger. “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?!” he shouted.

“YOU LEFT LIGHTNING DUST BEHIND!” Gilda shouted back at him. She was about to swing at Blueblood again when she was suddenly Iron Will grabbed her raised arm and pulled her back away from the cowering Blueblood. 

“LET GO OF ME!” Gilda shouted at the minotaur, trying to pull away from him. But it was useless against Iron Will. He was way stronger than her.

“Gilda, calm down!” Iron Will snapped at the struggling griffon. “I’m sure the didn’t leave her on purpose!”

“Of course we didn’t!” said Dumbbell, getting up from his pilot seat and running over to them. “There was nothing we could do! The guards had her surrounded, and they were after us too!”

“We’re gonna get her back, Gilda,” said Iron Will, Gilda still struggling in his grasp. “We’re gonna do all we can to rescue her, but we can’t help her if we get captured ourselves!”

Blueblood nodded. “That’s right!” he said, though he was less sure that they even could successfully rescue Lightning Dust, but he had to say something to calm Gilda down for now. “We’re going to try to rescue her, of course! I give you my word as a Prince!”

Gilda slowly stopped struggling and seemed to calm down. Iron Will let go of her.

She looked at Blueblood, her expression still angry. “Your word means jack squat to me,” she spat.

The room became eerily silent after that.

Slowly, Hoops approached Gilda. “Don’t worry, Gilda,” he said, showing a surprising display of kindness. “We’ll rescue Lightning Dust. And besides, I’m sure she’ll be okay. I really doubt they’d hurt her or anything.”

Gilda let out a sigh, but then glared at Hoops. “You don’t know that. What if they’re torturing her for information or something?”

…………………

When Lightning Dust came to, she didn’t know where she was, but she had to squint her eyes as they got used to a bright golden light.

As her eyes adjusted, she looked around saw that she was in what looked like a very large, luxury hotel room.

On the far side of the room there was a living area, with some elegant sofa’s and chairs, a glass coffee table. A marble fireplace in the wall was flickering with a few flaming logs. At the far end of the room, there was an enormous window, with closed curtains, so she couldn’t see out. In a corner, there was a fancy wooden desk, covered with various stacks of papers.

She became aware that she was lying on something soft and comfortable. She looked down, and saw she was lying on a large, elegant king sized bed, complete with bed curtains that were currently drawn back, and beside it on one side was a night stand with a lamp, and on the other a large wooden wardrobe.

The golden light in the room was coming from a crystal chandelier hanging from the sealing illuminated the room.

“Where the heck am I?” she asked herself in confusion.
> Ch 10. The Princess's Offer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Everything started to come back to Lightning Dust while she sat up on the bed in the unknown fancy, looking around at her surroundings. She had been on a space station trying to shut down the tractor beam so she and her friends could escape, but she had gotten caught by royal guards, and then she had blacked out.

I have to get out of here, she thought to herself.

Looking around, she saw a door on her right and leaped off the bed, gliding through the air on her wings over to it. She landed in front of the door and grabbed the knob in her hooves. She tried to open it, but found it was locked.

She began banging on the door with her hooves. “HEY! LET ME OUT OF HERE!” she shouted angrily.

No one answered her cries, however. She turned around and started bucking against the door with her hind legs, but the door must have been enchanted or something because it held fast against her bucks.

After a minute, she finally gave up and looked around the room. She spotted the closed curtains on the far end of the large room next to a set of fancy couches and chairs.

A window! Perfect!

She flapped her wings and flew into the air over to the curtains. Upon landing, she reached up and pulled the curtains aside with her hooves, but then her smile quickly fell into a frown of helplessness when she saw what was behind them. She had indeed found a window, but on the other side of it was the vast vacuum of space!

Darn it! I must still be on the space station! she thought to herself.

Lightning Dust slowly backed away from the window, her mind reeling as she tried to figure out a way out of this situation.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of a doorknob behind her. She turned her head to look behind her, just as the door to the room opened up. Lightning Dust gasped when she saw who was standing there in the doorway.

It was the great white alicorn, Princess Celestia, herself; her ethereal mane and tail flowing magically out behind her like they were in some sort of nonexistent breeze.

Lightning Dust, after getting over her initial shock of being in the presence of the Princess of the sun, remembered the dire situation she was in and decided to act on this chance. She flared her wings and leaped into the air towards the open door.

Lightning Dust only just noticed a golden yellow glow around the large alicorn’s horn when she suddenly found herself frozen in mid air.

“HEY! WHAT THE…?” Sunset tried to squirm in the air, but found she couldn’t move her body. Moving her eyes to look at her body, she saw she was glowing with the same color glow that Princess Celestia’s horn was.

Celestia spoke. “Exactly what was your plan after you got out of this room? Where would you have gone then? We’re in space, remember?”

Lightning Dust grumbled angrily to herself. She figured she would have tried to find her friends. But then it occurred to her that she didn’t know what had happened to her friends. She looked at Celestia. “Where are my friends?” she demanded.

“Your friends managed to get away… with my sister!” Celestia said that second part with anger in her voice.

Lightning Dust’s initial reaction to this information was anger that her so called ‘friends’ would leave her behind. But then she couldn’t help but consider the possibility that they hadn’t had any choice. She remembered, before she had blacked out, she had seen Prince Blueblood and Dumbbell in the corridor ahead of her with an unconscious royal guard on Dumbbell’s back who looked an awful lot like Princess Luna. She had been surrounded by guards at the moment, and escaping, as it was, was already going to be super risky for them. So maybe there had been nothing they could have done at the moment to help her, so they had been forced to retreat. After all, its what she would have done, wasn’t it? What she didn’t know was if they would come back to rescue her soon. They’d better, or I’m gonna invent a whole new kind of pain for them! she thought to herself bitterly.

She looked back at Celestia angrily. “Why am I here?” she demanded, still trying to get out of the magical hold Celestia had her in.

Celestia’s expression softened. “You don’t need to be afraid. All I want to do is talk with you.” She walked into the room, revealing two royal pegasus guards standing behind her in the doorway at attention. Celestia tuned her head to look back at the two guards. “Leave us,” she said to them with a reassuring smile.

The two guards bowed their heads and then stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind them. Lightning Dust then heard a locking sound coming from it.

Celestia turned her head back to Lightning Dust. “I can release you from my magic if you promise to behave yourself,” she said in her usual sweet, motherly voice. “Would you like that?”

Lightning Dust didn’t want to give Celestia the satisfaction. However, she also didn’t want to be stuck in the Princess’s magic anymore. Reluctantly, she grumbled an angry “Fine. I promise,” under her breath.

“What was that?” Celestia asked her, leaning an ear in towards her. “Well?”

“I promise!” Lightning Dust growled louder.

Celestia smiled sweetly and gently lowered Lightning Dust to the floor, and then released her from her magic. Lightning Dust, now able to move her body again, stood to face the princess, glaring at her angrily.

Celestia’s gentle expression didn’t change as she spoke to Lightning Dust again. “Would you like to sit down, Lightning Dust?” she gestured over to the chairs near the window with her hoof.

“I’d rather stand,” Lightning Dust responded stubbornly.

Celestia closed her eyes. “Very well,” she said. She then walked past Lightning Dust over to a sofa next to the window. She sat down on the sofa and turned back to face Lightning Dust. “Ah, that’s much better. I’ve been on my hooves all day, working on completing this space station. Its nice to get a chance to rest for a moment.”

Lightning Dust continued to glare at Celestia. If the Princess was trying to loll her into a false sense of security with chitchat, it wasn’t going to work.

Celestia continued. “I haven’t seen you since I awarded you and your friends metals for saving the world from King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis.”

“No offense, your highness,” began Lightning Dust, “but I’m not in the mood for chitchat! I want to know what the heck this is all about! Why are you locking up ponies who know about the plot hole? Why don’t you want to stop the plot hole? It’s going to destroy the universe! Why do you have space ships and a space station shaped like a giant bucking heart?”

Celestia’s smile remained. “All your questions will be answered. I assure you, everything I’m doing is for a good reason.”

“A good reason?!” laughed Lightning Dust. “Ha! How is locking up ponies just for knowing about a hole in space, and letting the universe be destroyed, good?”

“I promise, I won’t let the universe be destroyed. The plot hole will be taken care of, but for now, I need it to remain open.”

“What the heck for?” asked Lightning Dust. “What could you possibly want to keep the plot hole around for?”

“Let me explain,” said Celestia. “The plot hole is giving off massive amounts of powerful temporal energy. I require that energy for something extremely important. So I built this space station to absorb the excess temporal energy coming from the plot hole.”

Lightning Dust raised her eyebrow at that. She hadn’t been expecting anything so… sci-fi. Then again, she wasn’t sure what she had been expecting. “And what exactly do you need that energy for?” she asked, curious.

Celestia’s smile got bigger. “For centuries, I have been trying to make this world a better place for everyone. A paradise, where every creature, not just ponies, can live together in peace and harmony and happiness. And now, I am about to see my dream come to fruition. I need the massive amounts of energy coming from the plot hole to power a special spell I’ve been preparing for a long time now, that will turn Equestria, and the rest of the world with it, into a paradise! Only with the energy coming from the plot hole will the spell be strong enough to effect the entire world.”

Lightning Dust’s eyes widened in surprise. “That’s what this is all about?” she asked. That didn’t sound too bad. However, that still left some other questions. “But if that’s all you want, then why are you keeping all this a secret? And why are you locking up anypony who finds out about the plot hole?”

Celestia took a slightly more serious tone. “If knowledge of the plot hole got out, there would be panic among ponies! And when ponies panic, injuries can occur. I simply don’t want to cause a panic. Also, unfortunately, there are some out there, like the dragons, and the diamond dogs, and the changelings, who just wouldn’t understand the good that I’m trying to do. They would see it as a threat to them, or completely despise the thought of change, and might try to stop me, even though all I’m trying to do is help them. All I want is too see everyone able to live good, happy lives, and get along with each other, and love each other.”

Even though what the princess just said kind of made her want to puke, Lightning Dust had to admit the explanation did make sense. But there was still one more thing that didn’t add up.

“But then what does Princess Luna have to do with all this?” Lightning asked. “For some reason, she has Starswirl the Bearded and the plot hole on the mind, and she was saying…” she tried to remember what Blueblood had told them Princess Luna had said to him when she had broken into his house, “… that you weren’t supposed to find out about something.”

Celestia’s smile faltered for a moment as her eyes widened, and Lightning Dust could have sworn the big white alicorn looked worried for a second, before Celestia’s calm demeanor returned, and a sad frown appeared on her face and she closed her eyes.

“My sister… is very ill. Her mind is… slipping, I’m afraid. She’s suffering from hallucinations, and paranoia!” She looked at Lightning Dust, tears welling up in her eyes. “I just want my little sister back. She needs my care, and I’ve already lost her for a thousand years, and I only just got her back. I don’t want to lose her again!”

Lightning Dust narrowed her eyes at Celestia suspiciously. That explanation sounded extremely fishy. This was the first time she was ever hearing about Luna having any illness. She supposed it wasn’t something Celestia wouldn’t want to just go around telling everypony, but it was still very unlikely.

However, Lightning Dust felt awkward standing before the big weeping alicorn princess, so she decided to try changing the subject. “Well, okay,” she said. “But what did you want to talk to me about? Why was I lying on that bed in this room instead of in a cell?”

Celestia sniffed and wiped her eyes with her hoof. Then she looked back at Lightning Dust. “For two reasons,” she said. “One, I wanted to show you that you can trust me. And two, I require your help.”

“My help?” Lightning Dust was surprised, and also a tiny bit honored, that Princess Celestia herself wanted her help with something.

Celestia nodded. “Yes. I want you to help me get my sister back, tell me everything you know about where your friends might have taken her and what your ship is capable of, as well as help me complete my task of creating a perfect world for everypony to live in. Since you have used the Elements of Harmony in the past when you and your friends saved Equestria from Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, that makes you an honorary Element Bearer.”

“Hey, I guess it does,” Lightning Dust said, holding her head up proudly.

“Then can I rely on your help?”

Lightning Dust flapped her wings and hovered up into the air several feet so that she was above Princess Celestia. She crossed her forelegs and looked down at Celestia, considering. She was still suspicious of the princess. She still wasn’t entirety sure she believed Celestia’s story. “I don’t know. I still don’t know if I can trust you.”

Celestia let out a sigh. “I’m glad you’re trying to do what you think is right, but I’m not your enemy, Lightning Dust. I’m your Princess. All I want, all I’ve ever wanted, is to help all my little ponies to live good, happy lives. If you’re worried that you’ll be betraying your friends, don’t be. Don’t think of it as betraying them, because you wont be. You’re saving them from themselves. They’re just confused. They don’t understand how wrong what their doing is, or why its wrong. By helping me, you’ll be helping them as well.” 

Lightning still didn’t respond. She just kept looking down at Celestia skeptically.

Celestia sighed again. Then after a few moments, she looked up at Lightning Dust again, a small smile appearing on her face.

“Lightning Dust, I’ve heard you’re trying to become a Wonderbolt. Am I correct?”

Lightning Dust snorted. Is she trying to use chitchat again? she thought to herself. “Yeah. So?”

Celestia continued. “My dearest friend, and the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash, also had the same dream. If you’d like, I could help you.”

That got Lightning Dust’s attention. The Pegasus uncrossed her forelegs and turned to fully face Celestia, her eyes wide with interest. “WHAT?!” she asked.

Princess Celestia’s smile got bigger; glad to see she now had the pegasus mare’s full attention. “I could pull some strings that would help you out in becoming a Wonderbolt.”

“Y… you can do that?” Lightning Dust asked, still staring at Celestia with her mouth agape.

“Of course! I do favors like that for the Element Bearers all the time. I help them with their dreams because they help me out so much. Like I said before, all I want is to see all my little ponies be happy, including you, Lightning Dust. Help me, and I won’t let your good deed go unrewarded. What do you say? Will you except my friendship?”

Lightning Dust dropped down to the floor as she thought hard to herself. She really wanted to be a Wonderbolt! She wanted it more than anything else in the world! But could she truly trust Celestia?

“What happens if I refuse?” she asked the princess. “Do I get pushed out an airlock or something?”

Celestia’s eyes widened in shock. “Of course not! I would never do such a thing to anypony! If you decline my offer, that will be fine. You will be taken to a holding room and will have to wait until after my mission is complete to be released, along with the rest of the ponies who are being held for the time being. I assure you, you will not be harmed in any way, and will be treated with every courtesy.”

Lightning Dust rapidly thought to herself about what she should do. “I… um…”

“Oh, I’d think twice before answering, if I were you.”

Celestia and Lightning Dust both turned their heads at the sudden male voice in the room. Over near the fireplace, a brown earth pony stallion was standing, looking at them with an unreadable expression.

Lightning Dust recognized him immediately. It was Doctor Whooves!

……………………

“Blueblood! Wake up!”

Blueblood opened his eyes to see Iron Will leaning over him with his hand shaking his shoulder. Blueblood was in his command chair on the bridge.

He’d just had that same dream he’d had before, where he was in space, and a voice was telling him to come into the plot hole.

Iron Will spoke again. “Trixie and Sun- I mean, Winry, are in the rec room. They want to show us all something they say might help us.”

Blueblood nodded groggily and got up out of his chair. He followed Iron Will off the bridge, down the hall to the rec room, or billiard room, depending on what you wanted to call it.

After they had used the improbability drive to escape from being destroyed by Celestia’s ships, Flim and Flam had told them they had been sent only one light-year away this time.

Also, they had inadvertently brought along three extra passengers when they had escaped the space station. The three guards they had knocked out and stolen their armor. No sure what to do with them, they had left them tied up and locked them in a spare bedroom.

Since one of the guards had been a unicorn, Trixie had placed an anti-magic seal spell on the room she had learned to make no magic able to be used in the room. It was the same kind of seal spell used in pony prisons for unicorn prisoners.

Inside the rec room, the whole crew had gathered. The pool table had been moved against a wall and a magic circle had been drawn on the floor in the middle of the room. And Princess Luna was lying inside of it.

Blueblood noticed Gilda glare at him with an angry expression on her face when he entered the room. She was obviously still upset about what had happened with Lightning Dust.

Blueblood looked over at Trixie and Sunset, who were standing on the other side of circle, opposite where the rest of them were standing.

“Okay, so what do you two have here?” Blueblood asked Trixie and Sunset.

Trixie spoke. “Okay, Trixie knows this is going to sound strange, but Trixie and Su… Winry have both had very similar dreams, showing part of this magic circle, and half of a list of instructions. When we drew our dreams down on paper, and put the drawings on top of each other…” She levitated out two pieces of paper, taped together, and then lit up her horn so that the light shown through the two papers, showing the two drawings overlapping on top of each other to create a whole. “…The two halves created a whole spell.”

“Wait! You got this from your dreams?” said Jet Set, looking skeptic.

“We both had half of the same dream!” said Trixie. “How many times have you ever heard of something like that happening? This cannot just be a coincidence! Its like this was sent to us from… somewhere!” Trixie looked off into space for a few seconds before looking back at them.

They all considered this for a moment. She did have a point.

“Okay. Do you know what the spell does?” asked Blueblood.

“From what Trixie can tell, it seems to be a spell that can let you go inside another pony’s dream or mind. So since you say Princess Luna knows something that we need to know, and she’s currently in a coma, Trixie figures we can use this spell to go into her head and look for the answer ourselves.”

“Hey, that sounds like a great idea!” said Flim.

“I also invented these!” said Sunset suddenly, levitating up a very large, odd looking gun from off the floor. “I call it a rail gun! It fires electrified projectiles at mach 7! Wanna see how it works?”

“No!” said Blueblood, then he looked back at Trixie. “How do you know this spell will work?”

“Trixie already tested it,” she said. “Trixie went into your head while you were napping just now.” Then she smirked. “It was pretty empty in there.”

Blueblood’s jaw dropped what Trixie had just said. “YOU WENT INSIDE MY HEAD WHILE I WAS ASLEEP!” he exclaimed, shocked. He felt violated, even if it was by his own marefriend.

“Well, don’t fall asleep then,” chuckled Trixie. “Besides, Trixie needed a way to test the spell.”

“I feel violated,” Blueblood groaned, shifting uncomfortably on his hooves.

“Oh, get over it, you big baby,” said Trixie.

“Alright, I’m convinced,” said Flam. “I say lets try it!”

“Yeah! What do you say, Blueblood? Luna is your aunt, after all,” said Dumbbell.

Blueblood looked at him, “What,” he said, snapping out of his thoughts about Trixie going in his head. “Oh, right. Yes. I say we do it. If Luna knows something important that we need to know, this sounds like the best way to find it out.”

“Alright,” Trixie said. “Everypony gather around the outside of the circle.”

They all did as she said and gathered around the circle on the floor.

It was then that Blueblood suddenly noticed they were missing a couple of ponies from their group. “Hold on! Where are Upper Crust and Surprise?”

“Upper Crust said she had to use the bathroom,” said Jet Set.

“Oh,” said Blueblood, figuring she had gotten sick again.

Jet Set continued. “I don’t know where Surprise is-”

“Here I am!” Surprise said as she suddenly came galloping into the room. “I was… occupied. What have I missed?”

“Were going into Princess Luna’s head with a spell Trixie and Sunset whipped up,” said Hoops.

“I keep telling you, MY NAME IS WINRY!” Sunset shouted angrily.

“Very well,” Surprise said in response to Hoops.

“Well, I’m not going to wait for Upper Crust to finish being sick,” said Blueblood impatiently. “I say lets just proceed without her.”

Jet Set gave Blueblood a disapproving look, but said nothing.

“Alright,” said Trixie. “Trixie will begin the spell!”

“Wait!” said Flam suddenly. “Are we all going in? Shouldn’t at least one of us stay out to look after things, in case something happens, and to let Upper Crust know what’s going on when she stops being sick?”

“Good thinking,” said Flim to his brother.

“I’ll do it,” said Surprise. “I’ll stay behind while you all go into Luna’s head.”

Blueblood smiled at the pegasus mare. “Oh, thank you, Surprise,” he said. “You’re so helpful.”

“I know,” said Surprise with a sinister smile on her face as she stepped back away from the magic circle.

“May we begin now?” Trixie asked in an annoyed voice. They all nodded to her, and she proceeded to start the spell. Trixie closed her eyes and her horn lit up with purple light. The circle on the floor then also began to glow with the same purple light.

“How do we know when its wor…” Blueblood didn’t finish his question when he suddenly blacked out.

…………………

The next thing Blueblood knew, he, and the rest of the group, were all standing in a dimly lit, and new location. Looking around them, they stood in utter aw at their surroundings.

They appeared to be in some sort of labyrinth dungeon, with stone lain passageways and staircases and doors all around them as far as the eye could see, going off in all sorts of different directions, some of which didn’t even make any sense. They could see doors and staircases that were sideways from where they were, or upside down all together. It was like they were in one of those optical allusion staircase paintings.

“Where the heck are we?” growled Gilda.

“We’re inside Luna’s mind,” said Trixie.

“This is what the inside of a pony's mind looks like?” asked Hoops in utter bewilderment.

“Actually, this is more like a visual representation of her mind,” said Trixie. “This way, we can explore it in a way we can comprehend.”

“This place is enormous!” exclaimed Flim.

“And it’s giving me a headache!” said Jet Set, rubbing his hoof against his forehead.

“Well, Princess Luna is thousands of years old,” said Trixie. “Its no surprise she has a lot of stuff in her head.”

Blueblood felt overwhelmed by all that he was seeing. The passageways in this labyrinth of Princess Luna’s mind looked like they went on forever. “How the blazes are we ever going to find what we’re looking for in here?”

Trixie shrugged. “Trixie guesses we should just start looking. Everypony stick together, though. It looks like it would be very easy to get lost in this place, and only Trixie knows the spell to get us out of here.”

…………………

Surprise looked at the unconscious bodies of the others lying on the floor. From how they had all just collapsed when Trixie had activated the spell, she guessed it had worked.

She smiled to herself evilly. “They’re all unconscious. I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity now. Its time for me to finally get my revenge!”
> Ch 11. The Truth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lightning Dust and Princess Celestia stared at the sudden appearance of Doctor Whooves in the room. He was wearing a pair of tan saddlebags over his back.

“Doctor Whooves?” said Celestia, sounding quite surprised. “What a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Oh, I’m here because of your little project you got going on here, Celestia,” he gestured around him with his hoof, referring to the space station they were on. “You’ve been keeping secrets, your highness. Up till now, I had no idea you were keeping this level of technology at your disposal. Magitech, am I correct? The combination of magic and technology?” He let out a long whistle. “Dangerous mix if your not careful.”

“Every precaution, is being taken, Doctor,” said Celestia, watching the time pony with careful eyes.

“Right,” said the Doctor as he began casually walking around the room, looking at different items while he kept talking. “However, I’ve become aware of what you’re really doing here, Celestia. And I’m afraid I’m gonna have to put a stop to you.”

“Doctor, what are you talking about?” said Celestia, a look of confusion on her face.

“You mean she’s NOT trying to make the world a paradise?” asked Lightning Dust as she leaped into the air and flapped her wings to hover in place.

“Oh, she’s trying to make the world a paradise, alright,” said the Doctor, turning to face Lightning Dust. “Did she mention exactly how she was planning to make the world a paradise?”

“With a spell!” Lightning Dust replied.

“And did she say what that spell would do to the world that would make it a paradise?”

Lightning Dust put her hoof to her chin in thought. That question hadn’t occurred to her. She looked back up at the Doctor. “…Make cotton candy grow on trees?” she guessed with a shrug.

The Doctor and Celestia both stared at her with wide eyes.

Then they all felt their hearts leap out of their chests in shock when suddenly Pinkie Pie’s head popped up out of a vase that was setting on top of the fireplace mantle.

“HEY! THAT’S WHAT I SAID!” the pink pony shouted, and then her head disappeared back down into the vase just as quickly as she had appeared.

Lightning, Celestia, and the Doctor were all silent for a few moments as the shock of the sudden appearance of the pink party pony wore off them. Then the Doctor spoke.

“No,” he said in response to Lightning Dust’s guess from before. “She intends to use a spell that will alter the minds of every living creature on Earth! She’s planning to brainwash the entire world into thinking only how she WANTS them to think. That’s how she’s planning to create a perfect world!”

Lightning Dust gaped at Celestia in shock. “Is that true?”

Celestia, remaining calm, gently held up her hoof to silence them both. “It’s not exactly like that, Doctor. My spell will not force everyone to like each other. It will simply bring out the inner goodness and better nature and friendliness that is already inside all living creatures.”

The Doctor shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Your still manipulating others minds against their will. You’re denying them the freedom of choice! You have no right! No one should have that kind of power over another sentient being!”

“That’s not true!” Celestia argued back. “They will still be able to choose for themselves! My spell will only help them to make the right choices. Its no different than my niece, Princess Cadence’s, love spell, that she uses on ponies who she sees need help with love.”

“Which is something I’ve never approved of either,” said the Doctor, “but up till now I’ve stayed out of it because, so far, I haven’t seen anypony object to it, and she only uses it in your kingdom. But you’ve gone too far, Celestia! Also, I’ve found out about that plot hole out there, that’s going to destroy the universe, that your student, Twilight Sparkle, or former student, or whatever she is now, accidentally created because she decided to mess around with time travel irresponsibly! You know, that mare, for somepony who is supposed to be so smart, she can be incredibly thick at times! And now you’re using that swirling monstrosity out there to power this monstrosity!” He once again gestured with his hooves at the space station they were in. “Well I’m putting a stop to this!”

“Doctor, please!” said Celestia. “Can’t we talk about this like civilized ponies?” Lightning Dust noticed that Celestia suddenly looked nervous, and she was scrunching her face a little, like she was trying to concentrate on something.

The Doctor had apparently noticed this too. “What’s wrong, Celestia?” he asked with a smirk. “Wondering why your magic suddenly isn’t working?”

Lightning Dust and Celestia both stared at the doctor in surprise.

“What have you done?” demanded Celestia, her tone suddenly becoming harsh.

The Doctor continued to smirk. “That warm, fuzzy feeling you’re probably experiencing right now is the effect of a device that is inhibiting your ability to concentrate and focus your magical powers. To put it plainly, all unicorns, and alicorns as well, need to use a certain part of their brains to use their magic, and this device is keeping you from using that part of your brain.” The Doctor twisted his head around to reach into a pocket in his saddlebags with his mouth, and pulled out a small, metallic, cylindrical device between his teeth. His sonic screwdriver.

He put the sonic screwdriver in his hoof and spoke again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go shut down this space station.” He put the screwdriver back in his mouth and made a move towards the door.

“STOP!” Celestia cried and flapped her great wings and launched herself out of her seat at the doctor.

The Doctor gaped at the big alicorn flying at him and quickly leaped out of the way. Celestia sailed past him, and then a split second later, there was the sound of a loud THUMP, and Celestia suddenly came to a stop in mid air, like she had crashed into something invisible. The Princess let out a grunt of pain and then collapsed backwards onto the floor.

Lightning Dust watched the whole thing in confusion, not sure what the heck had just happened.

“You’ve been relying on your magic for far too long, Celestia,” said the Doctor while Celestia was holding her nose with her hooves. “You’re nothing without it!” The doctor turned and started heading towards the door again.

Celestia turned to look at Lightning Dust, who noticed a trickle of blood coming from the princess’s nose. “Lightning Dust! Stop him! PLEASE!”

Lightning Dust’s mind reeled as she quickly tried to make a decision while the Doctor walked over to the door of the room. She also kind of disagreed with what Celestia was doing, but this might be her best, if not only, chance to become a Wonderbolt. And she knew she wanted that more than anything!

With a determined growl, she flared her wings, and flew down at the Doctor at her top speed, just as he was about to reach the door and turn the handle. Before the Doctor could react to her sudden attack, she slammed into him, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

As they hit the floor, the Doctor’s saddlebags opened up, and a small, disk shaped device tumbled out of them onto the floor. It was blinking with a few flashing lights. Lightning Dust realized it must be what was keeping Celestia from using her magic. She quickly leaped over to the device, reared up on her hind legs, and then smashed the device beneath her front hooves.

A split second later, Celestia’s horn lit up with yellow light.

“NO!” the Doctor shouted while getting up off of the floor, but before he could do anything else, a blast of magic shot out of Celestia’s horn and struck the Doctor, who instantly collapsed unconscious.

Lightning Dust looked over at Celestia, whose horn was still glowing as she healed her bloody nose with magic, the trickle of blood disappearing instantly.

“Thank you, Lightning Dust,” the Princess said with a warm smile, walking over to where the Pegasus was standing. “If he had gotten away, everything I’ve been working on would have been ruined!”

Lightning Dust had mixed feelings as she looked back down at the Doctor’s unconscious body. She knew she was securing her future as a Wonderbolt by helping the Princess. She should be happy and excited. So why did part of her feel uneasy?

Suddenly the door burst open, and two Pegasus guards came rushing into the room. They took a quick glance around the room, seeing the unconscious body of the doctor, before speaking.

“We heard shouting! What happened?”

Celestia, smiled at them. “Everything is fine now. This intruder tried to sabotage the Heart Star,” she gestured to the unconscious Doctor, “but thankfully, this brave pony was here to stop him.” She gestured over at Lightning Dust.

The guards looked surprised by this, but said nothing.

“Guards, please lock this intruder in a holding cell,” Celestia ordered.

The guards nodded and picked up the unconscious time pony and carried him out of the room on one of their backs.

Celestia levitated the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver up off the floor where he had dropped it, and set it down over on her desk. Then she walked over to the spot where she had crashed in mid air. She leaned her head forward until it sounded like her horn tapped against something wooden.

Celestia smiled. "The Doctor's TARDIS," she said. "So that's how he got in here. He must have materialized silently and used the cloaking device to conceal it. Its a shame only he can open the door. I would have liked to have seen inside it." She turned her attention back to Lightning Dust. “So, Lightning Dust, as I was saying before, will you help me?”

Lightning Dust hung her head, and then nodded. “Yes, Princess.”

Celestia smiled. “Thank you, Lightning Dust. I’m happy to have you.”

……………………

“Hey, this place looks a lot like the pharaoh’s soul room from Yugioh,” said Score.

“Or the labyrinth from that one David Pony movie,” said Hoops. “What was it called? I forget.”

Blueblood, Trixie, Gilda, Hoops, Dumbbell, Score, Flim, Flam, Jet Set, Iron Will, and Sunset wandered through the corridors of Princess Luna’s mind for a while, looking at the names written on the doors, trying to find anything that looked like it might hold what they were looking for. The first few doors they came across they knew they could rule out because they were things like ‘Knowledge of Math’, ‘Knowledge of Science’, ‘Knowledge of Vocabulary’, and ‘Knowledge of Magic’. They knew what they were looking for probably wouldn’t be behind those doors.

They made sure to stay together so they wouldn’t get lost. Trixie was the only one who could cast the spell to get them out of Luna’s mind.

They soon came across a door with the word ‘Perception’ written on it in big bold letters.

“Perception?” asked Jet Set. “What do you suppose that means?”

“This must be how Luna views others,” said Trixie knowingly.

“Okay. Lets check it out,” said Flam.

They opened up the door and peered inside. They were surprised to see what appeared to be a stand up stage out of a nightclub inside the door.

“What the heck?” said Gilda.

Suddenly, they were all startled when Princess Celestia appeared on the stage in the spotlight. “Hello!” she said in a comedic tone. “I’m a completely incompetent idiot who can’t do anything right! But because I just happen to be the first born, I’m mom and dad’s favorite foal, and I get to be the TRUE ruler of an entire magical kingdom. And everypony loves me! It never ends for me! Its all about ME!”

“So this is how Luna views her sister?” asked Score.

“Wow! Who knew Princess Luna resented her sister so much?” said Hoops.

They all stared at him.

“What?” he asked with a shrug.

Celestia then disappeared, and a split second later Pinkie Pie appeared on the stage. “Hi! I’m a hyperactive nut job who does nothing but party, pull pranks, and eat sweets all day, and yet somehow I’m still in great physical shape!”

They all laughed.

“About time somepony acknowledged that!” chuckled Gilda, glad to see the pony she disliked the most being made fun of.

Then Twilight Sparkle appeared on the stage, levitating several open books around her with her magic. “Nyeh! Nyeh! Don’t take me outside, or else I might sparkle!” the purple mare cried out in an over the top, nasally, nerdy voice.

They all laughed again, harder this time.

“Oh, I could just stay here and watch these all day!” said Blueblood, holding his sides in laughter.

Then Blueblood stopped laughing when he saw the next pony to appear on the stage was none other than himself.

“Hello!” said the Blueblood on the stage. “I’m a spoiled brat who only thinks of himself and absolutely HATES getting a little dirty,” the Prince Blueblood on the stage said in an over the top obnoxious voice. “OW! I THINK I HAVE A SPLINTER! MOMMY, KISS IT!”

The others were all rolling on the floor with laughter now, pointing up at the real Prince Blueblood. Blueblood became angry and slammed the door to that room shut with his hoof before they could hear anymore. “Well, this isn’t what we’re looking for! Next!” he shouted angrily.

They continued walking through the labyrinth, looking for possible rooms to look inside.

They soon came across another door that had ‘Super Ego’ written on it.

“This must be how Princess Luna views herself,” said Blueblood. He opened the door for them to see what was inside it.

Inside, they saw quite the sight! Princess Luna was standing on top of a city skyscraper building at night, the full moon illuminating her behind her. She was wearing a pitch black hooded cloak, which was waving in the wind. She began speaking in an ominous tone.

“I am the hope of the universe. I am the answer to all living things that cry out for freedom. I am protector of the innocent. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the light in the darkness. I am the darkness in the light. I am truth. Ally to good! Nightmare to evil! I am vengeance! I am the night! I am…”

Blueblood closed the door. “She could go on like that for a while,” he said. “Besides, that’s not what we’re looking for either.”

They left that door and kept walking through the labyrinth. Blueblood was rapidly loosing hope that they would ever find what they were looking for in this place. They didn’t even know exactly what they were looking for.

They found a door with the words ‘Hall of Memories’ written on it.

“Maybe what we’re looking for is in here!” said Dumbbell.

They opened the door, and their mouths dropped at what they saw. It was yet another labyrinth, full of doors marked with Princess Luna’s various memories. The various stares and passageways looked like they went on forever. Since Princess Luna was over a thousand years old, obviously there were a lot of memories.

“Oh, great! This is gonna take forever!” said Flim.

They all let out a loud groan of despair as they stood in the doorway to this new labyrinth, hesitant to proceed forward. As if things weren’t bad enough, now there were labyrinths within labyrinths! And they didn’t even know for certain that what they were looking for was even in Luna’s memories. They all felt like just giving up at that point.

Suddenly, Blueblood noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He glanced upward and saw the shadowy figure of a pony up above them at the top of a staircase. Blueblood wasn’t sure, but from the beard, the pointy hat, and the robe, it looked kind of like Starswirl the Bearded. A split second later, the figure rounded a corner into a tunnel and disappeared from sight.

“Up there!” Blueblood shouted, pointing a hoof up at where he had seen the mysterious pony.

“What?” inquired Trixie.

“I think I just saw Starswirl the Bearded! Follow me!” Blueblood took off into the labyrinth of Luna’s memories and galloped up the staircase he had seen the unknown pony on. Everyone else hurried after him, Gilda and the three Pegasus jocks flapping their wings and taking flight to keep up.

Blueblood ran into the tunnel at the top of the stairs and saw the shadowy figure ahead of him at the other end of the tunnel, turning a corner. Blueblood and the others continued after him the way he had gone.

“HEY, YOU, AHEAD OF US! WAIT! WHO ARE YOU? CAN YOU HELP US?” Blueblood shouted as they continued to chaise after the mysterious pony. They got no reply from the pony, who kept galloping away from them every time they caught sight of him. Every time they rounded a corner, they saw the mysterious figure ahead of them disappearing around another corner.

Why does he keep running away from us? Blueblood thought to himself.

After several minutes of chasing him, after they rounded yet another corner, they saw the mysterious figure up ahead of them actually walk through one of the doors, like he was ghost! They ran up to the door the pony had walked through and looked at it. The door was very rusty, and it had lots of locks and chains on it. Printed on the door was no name, but rather the image of a question mark. Blueblood remembered seeing other doors similar to this while they had been running through the passageways.

“He went through this door!” said Hoops as he, Dumbbell, Score, and Gilda touched down to the floor.

“Why does this door have a question mark on it?” asked Jet Set.

Trixie tried to open the door with her magic, but it wouldn’t budge.

“It’s locked,” she said.

“Why was he running away from us?” asked Blueblood. “You’d think Starswirl would have wanted to talk to us!”

“Maybe…” Score muttered, scratching his chin with his hoof. “…Maybe Starswirl was trying to lead us to this door! Maybe what we’re looking for is behind it!”

They all looked at each other hopefully at that thought. It made sense, and if what they were looking for was behind this door, then all they needed to do was get inside it.

“This door certainly looks important,” said Dumbbell, looking at all the locks and chains over the door.

“We passed a lot of other doors that looked just like this one,” stated Flam.

“But this is the one we were lead to!” said Trixie.

Blueblood tried to open the door with his magic, but just like Trixie, he couldn’t budge it.

“Out’a my way!” said Iron Will as backed up against the opposite wall and pointed his thick minotaur horns at the door. “NEVER SEND A PONY TO DO A MINOTAURS JOB!” he yelled.

Everyone else quickly moved out of his way, and he let out a yell and ran at the door. He slammed horns first against the door, but much to their dismay, the door still didn’t budge.

“I don’t get it,” said Dumbbell as Iron Will shook his head and stepped back away from the door. “If Princess Luna or Starswirl want us to know what’s behind this door, then why are they keeping us out?”

“Maybe they aren’t,” said Trixie thoughtfully. “Maybe this door is locked to Princess Luna also.”

“But she came to Blueblood in the middle of the night to tell him about it!” said Dumbbell, pointing his hoof at Blueblood.

“Yes, but she wasn’t herself!” stated Blueblood, remembering how his aunt Luna had been acting that night. “She was sleep walking, or in a trance, or something.”

“He’s right!” said Gilda. “Remember, when me and Lightning Dust were with her when she was being examined by the doctors, she didn’t remember being in Blueblood’s house at all, or anything about all this!”

“So this could be like a repressed memory!” said Trixie. “Something Princess Luna forgot a long time ago, and now she can’t remember it.”

“What about all those other locked doors we saw?” asked Jet Set.

“Trixie supposes they are also repressed memories! After all, Princess Luna WAS Nightmare Moon for a thousand years, AND was trapped on the moon during those thousand years. That could give anypony some repressed memories.”

“So what we need to know is something she can’t remember,” said Blueblood.

“THEN LETS BUST THIS SUCKER DOWN!” said Iron Will, slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand to show his determination.

They all turned back to the locked door. There had to be a way to get through that door, somehow!

“Maybe if we all work together, we’ll be able to get that door open!” said Hoops optimistically.

“Worth a try,” said Blueblood, willing to try anything at that point.

“On the count of three, we all try to bust the door open,” said Iron Will.

They all got ready to attack the door.

“One. Two. THREE!”

They all attacked the door. Iron Will rammed into it with his horns again, while Gilda flew at the door and tried slamming against it with her shoulder. Trixie, Blueblood, Sunset, Flim, Flam, and Jet Set all tried using their magic on the door at the same time, and the pegasus jocks tried bucking against the door with their hind legs. After a few exhausting minutes, they noticed the locks on the door crack, and the door screech inward a tiny bit.

“It’s working!” shouted Flim excitedly while still pumping magic on the door. “One more good attack should do it!”

“I’M ON IT!” Iron Will shouted as he ran at the door again. His horns hit the rammed against the door, and the door finally broke free from all the locks and swung open.

Blueblood and the others all smiled with joy and relief that they had finally succeeded. Iron Will shook his head and then they all took a look at what was inside the door.

Inside, they saw a large and beautiful circular room. There was an oak desk, and a large, circular mattress on the floor. Around the room, against the walls, there were a few cabinets and chests, and standing on a golden perch, currently sleeping, was Princess Celestia’s pet phoenix. An inviting fire was flickering in a fireplace. There was a pair of glass doors leading to a balcony outside, so they guessed they were inside a tower of some castle, and outside, they could see that it was night time. And standing in the middle of the room, were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They were talking to each other.

“We know what thou hast done, sister!” said Luna, speaking in the old way. “We told thou not to do it!”

“Its unfortunate, I know,” said Celestia solemnly.

“UNFORTUNATE!?” exclaimed Luna. “Don’t thou realize the tragedy of what thou hast done!?”

“The spell was supposed to help them!” said Celestia. “The flutterponies just would not listen to reason. I tried to get them to come join the rest of the ponies here in our kingdom! Together, embracing love and friendship for each other! But they continued to refuse. Even my fable about the Windigos did not sway them. They just had too much arrogance and uncaring in their hearts. But as ponies, we are all supposed to live together in harmony! A herd! They should have just embraced their destiny, like a told them.” Celestia shook her head. “I just don’t understand why they resisted me! I thought the spell I made would show them the light, bring out the love and better nature in them.”

“Thine spell did effect them, sister, but not in the way thou thought it would!” Luna’s horn glowed, and then a magical image of a valley appeared before them from her horn. “We went and saw with our own eyes what happened. Thou thought thy spell would make them love, but instead it did the opposite of that! It turned them into monsters! Monsters that feed on other ponies love for sustenance!”

In the image of the valley, they saw a horrifying sight! An entire heard of ponies with fairy wings, who supposedly were the flutterponies mentioned by Celestia, were falling to the ground, moaning and writhing like they were in pain. Then they began transforming. Their fur fell off their bodies, revealing blackening skin underneath. The pupils in their eyes turned into slits, and in their mouths, their herbivore teeth pushed out into fangs. Horns began protruding from their heads, and in their legs, holes began to appear.

Slowly, Blueblood and the others all began to recognize the creatures the flutterponies were turning into, and were shocked!

“Changelings!” Trixie gasped, covering her mouth with her hoof in shock. “My gosh! Celestia created them!”

The monsters that the flutterponies had become soon began swarming up into the air, searching for their one and only new food source.

The magical image being projected from Luna’s horn disappeared as Luna ended her spell. “These creatures will swarm the world like a plaque, sister!” Luna said. “What are we going to tell the ponies of this land?”

“We aren’t going to tell them anything except to prepare for a possible attack!” Celestia snapped.

“What!?” exclaimed Luna in surprise. “They deserve to know the truth!”

“No!” said Celestia. “If they know about this, they will all loose faith in me! I can’t allow that. I must continue to appear as the ponies perfect leader and teacher, so that they will always look up to me as an example, and have faith in me. I won’t be able to help them, otherwise.”

“We can not just simply sweep this under the rug!” argued Luna.

“These ponies need me! I’m the only one who can help them! I’m the only one who can help them fulfill their destiny! Because that is MY destiny! This was only a minor set back, Luna. Next time, I KNOW I’ll get it right!”

“NEXT TIME!” Luna shouted. “THOU MEAN’IST THOU INTEND TO TRY THIS AGAIN?!”

“I have to, Luna! It may be the only way to help every creature in this world. To save all the unharmonious from themselves! The only way to make a perfect world!”

Luna scowled at her sister. “This is wrong!” said Luna, backing away from her sister. “If thou will not tell thine subjects of this land the truth, then we will!”

Celestia turned to her sister with pleading eyes. “Luna, please!”

Luna shook her head. “No, sister! We are telling the ponies of what has happened, and thou cannot stop us! It is the right thing to do!” Luna began walking towards the door. But suddenly, the door glowed with a golden aura and slammed shut before she could reach it.

Luna glared back at Celestia. “Sister. Open the door. Now.”

From the look on Celestia’s face, she was clearly beginning to panic. She levitated over a pitcher of some clear liquid and two glasses over to her side. “Can’t we talk about this, Luna?” said Celestia as she poured them both a glass of the liquid. “Lets have a drink to calm us down. How about some bananas? Do you like bananas?”

“Sister!” Luna cut off Celestia. “There is nothing to talk about. We have to tell ponies the truth.”

“I can’t let you do that Luna!” said Celestia sharply, still holding the door shut with her magic.

Luna looked shocked. “Are thou going to kill us?”

Now it was Celestia’s turn to look shocked. “Of course not! I would never kill you! You’re my little sister! I love you!”

“We love you too, sister, but as the rulers of these ponies, it is our responsibility to be honest with them about everything, even if we make a mistake. THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD!” Luna’s own horn glowed with dark blue light, and the glass doors over at the balcony swung open. Luna started walking over to them, obviously intending to fly out of the room since Celestia wouldn’t let her out the other door.

“LUNA WAIT!” Celestia shouted desperately. “I… I Have A Gift For You!”

Luna stopped walking and turned her head to look back at her sister. “A gift?”

Celestia nodded, a nervous smile on her face. “Yes. I wanted to wait until your birthday, but I think I’ll give it to you now because… I simply can’t wait to see how you like it!”

Celestia walked over to an armored chest that was setting on the floor over in a corner. She lowered her head and touched her horn to a lock on the chest. Her horn glowed, and then they heard a few mechanical clicks from the chest. She then opened the lid of the chest with her magic and levitated something up out of it. When Celestia turned back to face Luna, they got a good view of what Celestia had taken out of the chest. It was an elegantly designed metal war helmet.

Blueblood gasped when he recognized it. “I… I think that’s Nightmare Moon’s helmet!” he exclaimed, pointing his hoof at the scene before them.

Luna grabbed hold of the helmet with her magic and levitated it over to herself. “Its lovely,” said Luna, looking it over.

“Try it on!” urged Celestia, who was clearly twitching nervously. “I want to see how you look in it!”

Smiling, Luna levitated the helmet up above her, and then brought it down onto her head.

Suddenly, the helmet began to glow with eerie dark glow. Then, before Luna could react, she also became encased in the same dark glow. Luna squinted her eyes shut and keeled over onto the floor, groaning like she was in pain.

Meanwhile, Celestia closed her eyes and lowered her head sadly while her sister groaned on the floor. “I’m sorry, sister. You left me no choice.”

Blueblood and the others watched in horror as Luna started to transform while she writhed on the floor. She was growing bigger, and her fur was turning pitch black.

Eventually, Luna stopped groaning and the dark glow around her body faded away. Her eyes flew open, reveling her pupils had become slits. A crazed, evil grin slowly spread across her face.

“Luna?” asked Celestia cautiously, looking down at her sister.

The pitch-black alicorn that had once been Luna looked up at Celestia, chuckling evilly. “NO, you bitch. Luna is gone. I am… NIGHTMARE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!” She got up off the floor, spreading her great black wings dramatically. “And I’m sick and tired of you always getting your way, sis! Always being the favorite! Well no more! Once I get rid of you, all your precious day-lovers will have no choice but to worship ME! I think I’ll start by getting rid of your day ONCE AND FOR ALL! THE NIGHT WILL REIGN FOREVER!” Nightmare let out a long, maniacal laugh, lightning bolts flashing all around her from a dark cloud that was magically growing above her. 

While Nightmare Moon was laughing, Celestia lowered her head again, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Luna! You were going to ruin everything! So I’m going to have to send you away for a while. But don’t worry. I have a plan. I will make it so you will return one day, after I am sure you have forgotten everything in your insanity, and then I will purify you with the Elements of Harmony, and then we can put this all behind us like it never happened.”

The room then suddenly vanished, and Blueblood and the others watched as it began to re-assemble itself back as it was at the very beginning, with Luna and Celestia standing in the room talking. Realizing the memory was over, and it was just starting over again, Blueblood angrily pulled the door of the memory shut, not wanting to watch it again.

The group all looked at each other, shocked expressions on their faces. None of them could believe what they had just seen.

“Oh my, gosh,” said Flim.

“I can’t believe this!” said Trixie, so shocked she forgot to speak in the third person.

“This… Everything we thought we knew about Luna and Nightmare Moon… has been a complete lie!” said Dumbbell. “Luna didn’t become evil because she was jealous that ponies spent more time outside during the day instead of the night! Celestia turned her evil! That helmet… it corrupted her somehow!”

“Just like the Ice King’s crown!” said Hoops.

“Or the Alicorn Amulet,” added Trixie solemnly.

“This actually explains quite a bit,” said Blueblood. “I remember when Luna first returned, her memory was all screwed up! In fact, her mental state had pretty much been reduced to that of a little filly! She had to relearn pretty much everything! She even had to relearn what fun was!”

“And this explains why Nightmare Moon was able to escape the moon after a thousand years!” said Trixie. “Celestia had arranged for that to happen! After all, since Celestia and Luna were immortal, a thousand years wouldn’t be as big a loss for them.”

“That doesn’t make it right!” snapped Gilda at Trixie.

“Trixie didn’t say it did!” she snapped back at Gilda.

Just then, Sunset shouted, “HEY, LOOK!” She pointed down the tunnel.

They looked where she was pointing and saw the mysterious shadowy pony again before he disappeared around another corner at the end of the passageway, waving a hoof behind him like he was gesturing for them to follow him.

“Come on!” Blueblood ordered and took off into a gallop after the pony, the others following right behind him.

They chased after the pony through the labyrinth again. Just like before, the pony would turn a corner the moment they came into sight of him.

“STARSWIRL! IS THAT YOU? STOP!” Blueblood shouted.

A few minutes later, after they rounded another corner, they saw the pony once again walk through a door in the corridor like a ghost. They hurried up to the door. Unlike the last door, this door wasn’t one of the locked ones. On it were the words ‘The Heart Star’.

“I guess he wants us to see what’s behind this door too,” said Sunset.

Trixie opened up the door with her magic with ease. Inside the door, they could see the throne room of castle Canterlot. Princess Celestia was standing in front of all the Element Bearers, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, as well as Princess Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, and Spike. Celestia was speaking while the others all listened with looks of happiness and excitement on their faces.

“Once the Heart Star is complete, I will finally be able to create the perfect world I’ve always wanted.”

“You’re going to make cotton candy grow on trees?” asked Pinkie Pie excitedly, jumping up and down.

Everyone stared at Pinkie Pie like she was crazy.

“Um… no, Pinkie Pie,” said Celestia.

The pink pony stopped jumping up and down, a frown appearing on her face. “Awww,” she moaned in disappointment.

Celestia continued. “The magic of love, harmony, and friendship, once amplified by this gigantic orbiting space station, will engulf the entire planet, and every living creature will be transformed by its light. All creatures will finally understand and embrace love, friendship, peace, and togetherness. A perfect world, at long last!”

“It sounds wonderful, Princess!” Twilight beamed at what Celestia had said. Her friends all began cheering and nodding in agreement.

“I know it does,” said Celestia, tears of happiness in her eyes.

Beside Blueblood, Gilda suddenly let out a shout at the scene in front of them. “THAT DOESN’T SOUND WONDERFUL AT ALL!” she shouted angrily! “THAT SOUNDS HORRIBLE! THAT’S BRAINWASHING EVERYONE!”

The rest of them were all equally as appalled as Gilda by this news. This was exactly what Celestia had tried a thousand years ago, which had failed horribly, and now she was trying to do the exact same thing again! And Gilda was right! This was basically brain washing!

Celestia spoke again. “Although the chaos created by this plot hole is unfortunate, thanks to it, I finally have a power source great enough to charge the Heart Star. Once we turn the world into a paradise, we will deal with the hole with the Elements of Harmony, but for now, it must remain protected. The Heart Star should be completed within a few days.”

“Yes, your majesty,” said Shining Armor, bowing to Celestia. “I’ll inform the shipyards in the mountains to prepare for immediate departure. With these new starships we’ve built, you have nothing to worry about.”

“Thank you, Shining Armor,” said Celestia, and then at that moment the memory faded away as it ended, and began to start its loop over again back at the beginning. Gilda grabbed the door of the memory by the handle and angrily slammed it shut before it could restart.

They were all enraged by what they had just seen and heard.

“So that’s what Celestia’s up to!” said Blueblood, taking deep breaths to try to calm himself down from his anger at what he now knew.

“I can’t believe it!” said Score, shaking his head in disbelief. “She’s tried to turn everypony into a little, obedient, goody two shoes a thousand years ago, and it went wrong, and now she’s trying to do the exact same thing AGAIN!”

“Do you think the spell will turn everypony into changelings, just like it did the last time?” asked Hoops.

“Doesn’t matter!” snarled Iron Will. “Either way, it’s still wrong!”

“Did you see how those lame-o Element Bearers from Ponyville were actually agreeing with what Celestia was planning to do?” said Gilda. “How can they all think brainwashing everyone in the world into being nice is a good thing? Its totally wrong!”

“They all have complete blind faith in Celestia,” explained Blueblood. “In their eyes, everything she says and does is right, and she can do no wrong! That’s pretty much how everypony in Equestria sees her.”

“IDIOTS!” Gilda growled, looking like she was about to explode with anger. "Well, no pony's gonna screw with my mind, I guarantee you that! I like myself just the way I am!"

Blueblood looked at Trixie. “I’ve seen enough. How do we get out of here?”

“Don’t worry,” said Trixie. “Trixie will begin the exiting part of the spell. Be patient. This might take a few minutes.”

………………

Surprise stood over Prince Blueblood’s unconscious body, holding a knife from the kitchen between her teeth.

I have a present for you, your highness, she thought to herself maliciously. It’s called getting your throat slit and bleeding out. Time to see if your blood really IS blue. She lowered the knife down to his throat, ready to kill him, and then the others as well. She took a few seconds to savor the moment.

“What are you doing?”

Surprise instantly stood up straight at the sudden voice behind her. She turned her head around to see Upper Crust standing in the doorway of the room, staring at her with a look of shock on her face.
> Ch 12. A Dark Alliance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Upper Crust and Surprise stared at each other for several long awkward seconds after Upper Crust had walked into the billiard room where everyone had been gathered, and had found Surprise with a knife in her mouth, about to slit an unconscious Blueblood’s throat, as well as finding everyone in the room, except Surprise, lying on the floor unconscious around some magic circle painted on the floor, with Princess Luna lying in the center of it for some reason.

Surprise suddenly flapped her wings and leaped into the air at Upper Crust. Upper Crust froze, too terrified and startled to think to move. Just when she thought she was about to get knifed, Surprise suddenly stopped herself in mid air and hovered there staring at Upper Crust with a scrutinizing expression. Upper Crust could hear her heart pounding in her chest while she waited.

Surprise then took the knife out of her mouth in between her hooves, let out a sigh, and spoke. “I’m not going to kill you. Not while you’re in that condition. But the rest of them have to die!”

Upper Crust stared at Surprise with wide eyes. My condition? she thought to herself in confusion. Then she saw Surprise turning back towards her unconscious husband and friends, putting the knife back in her mouth. Upper Crust knew she had to do something about this sudden unexpected insanity.

“Wait!” she called out to the white pegasus. “What’s going on?! Why are you doing this?!” she asked fearfully.

Surprise turned back to look at her. For a few seconds, she looked like she was considering something. Then she spat the knife out again back onto her hooves and grinned evilly. “Ah, heck. I suppose there’s no point in keeping up this disguise any longer.”

Upper Crust nearly jumped out of her skin when emerald green flames suddenly appeared around Surprise. The green flames quickly rose up Surprise’s body and engulfed her. Then, less then a second later, the green flames disappeared and, where Surprise had just been hovering in the air, there was now a queen changeling, buzzing her insect-like wings to stay aloft in the air.

Upper Crust let out a scream, thinking it was Queen Chrysalis, but she quickly could tell that this was not Chrysalis, but yet another changeling queen.

This changeling’s slit eyes were blood red instead of green, and her mane, tail, and thorax carapace were a deep dark blue color. This queen wasn’t as big as Chrysalis either. Where Chrysalis had been about the same size as Princess Celestia, this one was more the size of Princess Luna.

Plus, she quickly remembered that Chrysalis was dead, so it couldn’t be her. Never the less, it was still a changeling, so she still screamed.

“NO! Not again!” Upper Crust cried, remembering how Queen Chrysalis had disguised herself as Surprise back when they had been on the quest for the Goblet of Life.

The changeling queen’s horn lit up with a sickly green glow and then the knife she had been holding in her hoof glowed with the same color as her horn and levitated up into the air beside her.

“FINALLY, I can use magic again!” the changeling said with relief. She turned towards the others' unconscious bodies and she levitated the knife up above Blueblood, tip pointed down.

Upper Crust’s knees quaked in fear as she watched helplessly. She had no idea who this changeling was, or why she was trying to kill them, but she knew if she didn’t do something, the others would all be killed, including Jet. But she was terrified to face the pitch-black monster all on her own. She just wasn’t as brave as the rest of her friends. When she had faced Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra a year before, she had had her husband and all of her friends at her side, as well as the powerful Elements of Harmony. That wasn’t the case now. She was all alone! But she knew she still had to do something.

Just as the changeling queen was about to bring the knife down, Upper Crust pumped magic into her horn and telepathically engulfed the knife with her own magical glow, pulling it to the side so that it just missed Blueblood and stabbed the carpeted floor instead.

The changeling queen spun her head around and glared at her, bearing her fangs and growling angrily. She pulled the knife out of the floor with her magic, but Upper Crust kept holding on to the knife with her own magic, doing her best to pull against the changeling’s hold on it.

The two of them gritted their teeth in concentration as they continued trying to yank the knife out of the other’s magical grip, while the knife kept swirling wildly around in the air as a result of the magical struggle. Upper Crust did her best to make sure the knife didn’t accidentally stab any of her friends on the floor, often sending the knife hurling into a wall or the floor instead.

Finally, the changeling queen had had enough and yelled angrily as she launched herself at Upper Crust. Upper Crust barely had time to utter a scream before the changeling tackled her, pining her to the floor with her porous black hooves. This broke Upper Crust’s concentration and she lost her magical hold on the knife.

Upper Crust tried to struggle futilely against the changeling’s weight, but then completely froze when she saw the queen levitated the knife over to them and brought it in front of Upper Crust’s face, pointing the tip at her. “Just because I won’t kill you doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you!” she said menacingly. “I think I’ll cut that pesky horn of yours right off your head!”

Upper Crust’s eyes widened at that. She realized the queen wasn’t bluffing either as the knife then hovered up to where her horn was. “NO!” Upper Crust screamed and began struggling again against the changeling holding her down. A unicorn’s horn, and the magic that came with it, were their pride and joy! The thought of loosing that would be like a pegasus loosing their wings and never being able to fly again! “PLEASE! DON’T! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?”

Upper Crust’s screaming and struggling didn’t make a difference. She felt the blade of the knife touch against her horn, and tried to move her head to get it away, but it was no use. She saw the queen grin evilly down at her.

Suddenly, they both heard soft moaning and movement behind them. They both looked behind them and saw Upper Crust's friends lying on the floor beginning to move as they started to wake up.

The changeling queen frowned in dismay. “Crap!” she whispered under her breath.

Upper Crust saw her chance and didn’t waist any time. She lit up her horn with magic and began telepathically pushing back against the knife that was being held against her horn. “HELP!!!” she screamed as loud as she could to the others. “HELP ME!!! CHANGELING!!!”

The others all looked over in her direction and gaped in horror as soon as they saw the changeling on top of Upper Crust.

“HOLY SHIT!” shouted Score in alarm as he and the others quickly leaped to their hooves.

“UPPER CRUST!” Jet Set shouted in concern for his wife as he and the others hurried forward to help her.

The changeling queen on top of Upper Crust suddenly leaped off of her. Before she knew what was going on, Upper Crust suddenly felt herself being engulfed in the changeling’s magic and being levitated up into the air beside the queen. The knife she had fighting against suddenly moved freely away from her horn, but then circled back down to hover beside her exposed throat.

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!” the changeling queen shouted at the others, who all froze in their tracks, “OR SHE GETS IT!”

Upper Crust felt the blade of the knife press against her throat. She didn’t even risk trying to use her magic to fight back against the knife this time. She knew one wrong move, and she was dead! I thought she said she wasn’t going to kill me, she thought to herself, though she was still confused as to why that was.

The others, Jet Set, Blueblood, Trixie, Gilda, Iron Will, Flim, Flam, Sunset, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score, all stood where they had halted, looking at each other in dread, trying to figure out what to do.

“What the devil happened here!?” asked Blueblood. “How did a changeling get here!?”

“It was Surprise!” Upper Crust whimpered while the knife was held against her neck. “Surprise, all this time, was a changeling in disguise!”

“Again?” said Gilda in bewilderment. “What is it with Surprise and changelings?”

Blueblood looked at the changeling queen who was holding Upper Crust hostage. “Who are you?” he asked. “What do you want?”

“My name is Entomala,” the changeling said after a moment. “Queen Entomala. And I am here to avenge my family, my mother and my hive, who you all slaughtered!”

All of them looked at each other in confusion, none of them knowing what this changeling was talking about.

“What are you talking about?” asked Trixie.

Entomala snarled. “You killed my mother Queen Chrysalis! And her entire hive! I never even got to know her! I was still an egg at the time. I want revenge!”

They all then realized what Entomala was talking about. When Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra had attacked and taken over Canterlot together a year ago, and they had all managed to unite and use the Elements of Harmony to turn Sombra into a statue, and Chrysalis and all the other changelings into dust, to save Equestria.

“Oh,” said Blueblood awkwardly. “Look, we had no choice! You’re mother was taking over the world and hurting innocent ponies! She was going to kill us, much like you were going to kill us just now! We were acting in defense!”

“AND WHAT ABOUT MY KIND!” snapped Entomala back at him. “We changelings have just as much right to live as you do! It’s not our fault we have to feed on others love in order to survive! We have no choice either!”

Just then, Trixie got an idea. “Wait! You’re right!” she said, causing everyone to look at her. “You’re absolutely right! It’s NOT your fault. But would you like to know whose fault it is?”

Entomala tilted her head as she stared at Trixie. “What do you mean?”

Trixie mentally smiled. She remembered what she had just learned about Princess Celestia while she had been inside Princess Luna’s memories. “Its Princess Celestia’s fault!”

The others all grinned at Trixie, understanding her plan.

Entomala narrowed her eyes at Trixie in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Hanging in the air beside her, Upper Crust looked just as confused as the changeling queen did.

“If you want, we can show you,” said Trixie, keeping a calm, soft voice to try to get the changeling to calm down. “It’s what we found out inside Princess Luna’s mind. Just let her go…” she gestured at Upper Crust, who was still being held in the air by Entomala with the knife held to her throat, “and we’ll show you. What do you say?”

Entomala thought for a moment. They could tell she was curious. “What if I go in the Princess’s mind, and then one of you kills my unconscious body?” she asked.

“We’ll all go in together!” said Trixie.

“Aw man,” Hoops groaned, unhappy that he had to go back into Luna’s mind when he had just gotten out.

“What do you say?” Trixie asked the changeling queen.

Entomala thought for another moment. “Very well. Show me. BUT NO TRICKS! And just to be safe, I’ll keep Upper Crust close to me until the spell is cast and we are all inside Luna’s mind.”

Upper Crust whimpered as Entomala levitated her closer to her, keeping the knife right where it was by her neck.

Trixie nodded, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to convince the changeling otherwise. They stepped back over to the magic circle that Princess Luna was lying in. Entomala continued to keep Upper Crust close to her as a hostage the whole time.

Entomala kept her eyes on all of them as Trixie activated the spell, and then all of them once again fell to the floor unconscious as they went back into Luna’s mind.

Back inside Luna’s mind labyrinth, they showed Entomala, and Upper Crust as well since she hadn’t been with them the first time, the door that contained the long forgotten memory from Luna’s past that showed that Celestia had unintentionally cursed a valley of flutterponies to transform into changelings when she had tried to cast a spell on them a thousand years ago that would ‘bring out their inner goodness and better nature’ so they would be more friendly and open to others. And the memory also showed that Celestia chose to cover up her little ‘accident’ by burying the truth, and making the only other pony who knew the truth, Princess Luna, go completely insane and become Nightmare Moon so that no one would believe anything she said, and so she would eventually become so crazy that she wouldn’t even be able to remember the truth herself.

They also showed Entomala the door that contained a memory of Celestia planning to use the plot hole and the Heart Star space station to cast yet another ‘openness and goodness’ spell, like the one she had cast on the changelings, on the entire world!

By the time they had shown her everything, Entomala was practically shaking with rage.

When they left Luna’s mind and woke up again on the floor of the billiard room, Upper Crust quickly got up and leaped away from Entomala, hurrying over to Jet Set’s side. She kept her eyes on the changeling cautiously.

Entomala didn’t bother with Upper Crust and just let her go. She got up on her own hooves along with everyone else, a look of barely contained rage on her face.

“Celestia is the reason my kind has to live this way!” she said out loud, not talking to anyone in particular. She held up one of her forelegs in front of her face and stared at the black, holey, chitinous appendage. “All because we just wanted to be left alone and live our own way, and Celestia decided she had to meddle! And that bitch was never punished for what she did!” She slammed her raised hoof back down against the floor angrily. “When I get my hooves on her… I’m… I’M GOING TO DRIVE MY HORN STRAIGHT THROUGH HER HEART!”

Everyone took a step backwards at the changeling’s sudden outburst.

Suddenly, Trixie had yet another crazy idea pop into her head. “Maybe we could help each other!” said Trixie to Entomala after a several seconds.

Everyone turned their heads to look at her in surprise.

Trixie continued, this time not just talking to Entomala, but to everyone in the room. “We both have a common enemy. Celestia. She’s going to try to do what she did to the fluttlerponies to the entire world now! With that… Heart Star space station. None of us want that to happen. If we help each other, maybe we can stop her, and bring her to justice for what she did to the flutterponies, and Princess Luna!”

“Um… not that we don’t all want to stop Celestia,” Dumbbell spoke aloud, “but how? I don’t see how we could possibly stop her.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed Flim in agreement. “She has an armada of gigantic, powerful, battle cruisers, while we only have this sorry excuse for a spaceship! We’re out numbered, out classed, and outmatched in every way! Its impossible!”

Trixie was well aware of how hopeless the situation seemed. But she wasn’t the kind of pony who ran from her problems anymore. Not since she and the rest of them had all stood up to, and defeated, King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis only a year ago, and actually saved the world! And she was never one to just give up either without even trying! She had too much pride for that!

Trixie grinned at them all and held her head up high. “Don’t worry! The great and powerful Trixie has a plan!”

“You have a plan?” asked Jet Set, him and everyone else looking expectantly at Trixie with hopeful expressions. "What is it?"

“We’ll…” Trixie rubbed the back of her head with her hoof sheepishly, realizing she had over exaggerated a bit. “Perhaps plan wasn’t the best word for it. It’s more like a… vague… idea… in the making… ish.”

Everyone’s expressions fell at that.

“Oh, well that’s just great,” Gilda mocked, rolling her eyes.

Trixie groaned in frustration. “Look, Trixie knows it won’t be easy! But we have to try! After all, what other choice do we have? Would you rather go back to Earth and get turned into a… LAME-O, like Celestia’s little goody-two-shoe Element Bearers? Or would you rather stay in space in this death trap for the rest of your life? Those are our ONLY other options, everypony! And neither of them agree with Trixie!”

They were all silent for a moment as they looked at each other, considering.

Trixie continued her speech. “True, the odds are against us, but they were also against us when we defeated King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis, and saved the world, remember!?”

Trixie then noticed Entomala giving her an irked look out of the corner of her eye.

“Oh. No offense,” Trixie quickly said to the changeling queen.

Entomala shrugged. “Whatever,” she said and then looked away, letting it go.

Trixie looked back at the others. “So what do you all say?”

“Trixie’s right!” proclaimed Iron Will loudly, with determination in his voice. “If I’m gonna go down, I’d rather go down fighting!”

“Me too!” said Gilda in agreement. “Besides, I think I’d rather die anyway then live in a world where everyone is a buckin’ lame-o goody-two-shoes who randomly break out into musical numbers about friendship and love and all that shit! Plus, we still have to rescue Lightning Dust!”

“Right,” said Trixie in agreement.

Everyone in the room looked at each other in consideration, and one by one, they all started nodding in agreement, looks of mixed courage and uncertainty written on their faces.

“What about the plot hole then?” asked Blueblood in concern. “Even if we do stop Princess Celestia from casting that spell on the world, the plot hole is still going to destroy the universe.”

Trixie frowned. She had nearly forgotten about that. And Blueblood was right. “Unfortunately, we still have no idea how to stop the plot hole.”

Sunset suddenly butted in. “Actually, we do!” she said.

Everyone stared at her, confused.

She continued. “While we were inside Luna’s head, I remember in one of the memories Celestia said that she was planning to close the plot hole with the Elements of Harmony! Was I the only one paying attention?”

Trixie thought hard back to the memories they had seen. She remembered that Celestia had said that while she had been talking to the Element Bearers, but she had been so angry about what Celestia had done at the time that she hadn’t paid attention to that.

“Oh yeah!” said Trixie happily. “Okay, so we do have a solution for that, but stopping Celestia is more urgent right now. At the rate its going, it will probably take a long time for the plot hole to destroy the universe, but Celestia could use the Heart Star to cast her spell on the world at any time now! Once we stop her, then we can worry about the hole.”

Blueblood nodded, but was still uncertain. Something about that didn’t add up to him. He remembered that Nightmare Moon had said that nothing she knew of could stop the plot hole, but if the Elements of Harmony could, wouldn’t she have known that? He flashed back to the dream he had had where a voice was telling him to come into the plot hole because his destiny was in there. Was it some kind of sign? After all, Trixie and Sunset had gotten the instructions to make that mind-entering spell from a dream. Was the solution to stopping the plot hole inside the plot hole itself?

Blueblood came out of his thoughts just as Trixie began speaking again to Entomala.

“What do you say?” she asked the changeling queen. “Will you help us stop Celestia and bring her to justice?”

Entomala didn’t answer right away. She was staring at the floor, and looked like she was considering what Trixie had said.

Finally, the changeling spoke. “Alright. I’ll help you… for the sake of making Celesta pay, and giving all my fellow changelings the justice they deserve!”

“Trixie thanks you,” said Trixie, letting out a sigh of relief.

However, Entomala’s expression quickly became stern again. “But don’t think this means that I’ve forgotten about what you did to my mother!” Entomala snapped at them. “As soon as this is over, we are enemies again! Understood?”

Trixie sighed in disappointment. “Fine.”

“Alright! Looks like we have a changeling on our side!” said Gilda in excitement.

Blueblood wasn’t so enthusiastic. He wasn’t so sure trusting the changeling who had just tried to kill them was such a good idea. And from the looks of a few of the others in the room, he could tell he wasn’t the only one.

Beside Jet Set, Upper Crust suddenly spoke up at Entomala. “Excuse me. I have a question, changeling!” Upper Crust said in a not so happy tone. “Why did you say earlier that you wouldn’t kill me, but you would kill the rest of them? I don’t understand.”

Entomala simply shrugged. “Believe me, I wanted you dead just as much as the rest of them, but do to the fact that you have a foal growing inside you, it just didn’t feel right to kill an innocent child who has committed no crimes.”

Upper Crust and everyone else in the room stared at Entomala, eyes wide in disbelief at what she had just said.

“Wha… what did you just say?” asked Upper Crust, looking a little pale.

Entomala’s eyes widened as realization suddenly hit her. “Oh! You didn’t know, did you? You’re pregnant.”

Everyone’s jaw dropped and they stared at Upper Crust, who just stared back at Entomala with a horrified expression on her face. Her mouth kept opening and closing a bit, like she was struggling to come up with something to say, but couldn’t find the words.

“To be honest, this does explain why you chose to go on a dangerous space adventure even though you had a bun in your oven,” said Entomala, thinking out loud, seeming to be completely oblivious to the awkward silence and looks around her. “And here I just assumed you were just plain irresponsible.”

“How do you even know I’m pregnant!?” demanded Upper Crust, taking deep, rapid breaths. “How could you possibly know that!?”

“Oh, easily. I could sense the product of you and your husband’s love for each other growing in your womb. It’s just one of the abilities we changeling’s have.”

They suddenly remembered about how Upper Crust had been getting sick a lot recently. They had thought it was just because they were in space, but now they realized this might have been part of the reason.

“Hey, congratulations!” said Hoops happily to Upper Crust and Jet Set.

Upper Crust and Jet Set didn’t respond. They just looked at each other with dread written all over their faces.

“Right?” asked Hoops, not so sure now.

“We weren’t trying to have a foal!” said Jet Set, rubbing his hoof up and down on his wife’s back to try to comfort her while she looked like she was about to hyperventilate and pass out. “We had both agreed when we got married that we wouldn’t have children!”

“Heck, we don’t even like children!” whined Upper Crust, tears starting to well up in her eyes. “They’re just whiny, messy, trouble making little monsters that cost you a fortune!”

“Huh. My parents said the exact same thing about me,” said Gilda.

Trixie looked over at Blueblood. “Blueblood, lets never have kids,” she said plainly.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Blueblood said in agreement.

“I don’t under stand how this could have happened!” exclaimed Upper Crust to Jet. “I took my pill all throughout my last season… oh no.” She suddenly paused mid sentence and got a faraway look on her face.

“Dear?” Jet Set asked in concern.

She looked at him, an expression like she had just realized something on her face. “I think, one day, I might have forgotten to take one! But I didn’t think just missing one would matter, so I forgot about it.” She groaned in despair and closed her eyes. “Oh gosh!” she moaned. "I can't be a mother! I don't know the first thing about it!"

“Calm down, dear,” said Jet Set, still rubbing her back with his hoof. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure something out.”

Great! Blueblood thought to himself. Now we have a pregnant mare on board this ship… in space! What else could possibly happen?
> 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!”
> Ch 14. Distraction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Here you go,” Catbug said to Rarity as he held out a microphone to Rarity on the bridge of the Ascendency. Rarity’s horn glowed with blue magic, and she levitated the microphone into the air and brought it up to her mouth. Catbug then walked over to the Karaoke machine they had brought onto the bridge and, flaring his ladybug wings, flew up to the controls and pressed the start button.

“Oh my, this is going to be so much fun!” Rarity said as the music began playing. She looked at the Karaoke machine and began to sing the lyrics that started to appear on the screen.

“There’s a fire going on
But the party’s just begun
So keep your focus looking at me tonight.
So the world’s about to end
Gonna party with my friends
And ain’t nopony gonna say it’s not right.”

………………

Down in an empty corridor in another part of the Ascendency, there were two bright flashes of light as Sunset and Score appeared. In addition to Sunset wearing a red bandana on her head like Winry Rockbell, she was also wearing a pair of saddlebags full of mechanical equipment and tools she would need to tamper with the ships tactical computer.

Score was wearing a grey bandana around his head and an eye patch over his left eye.

Sunset looked at her partner in confusion. “Why are you wearing a bandana and an eye patch?”

“Because it makes me look dangerous!” Score said with a grin.

Sunset rolled her eyes and the two began walking through the corridor. “Well, wearing an eye patch isn’t going to help your depth perception,” said Sunset.

* Smack! *

Score, at that moment, had walked face first into a support beam in the middle of the corridor. Score stumbled backwards and held his nose with his hoof, groaning in pain.

“See?” said Sunset callously while she continued walking.

“Who put that there?” Score grunted, standing in the middle of the corridor, still pressing his hoof against his nose.

“Would you quit your fooling around, you knobhead!” Sunset snapped at him impatiently. She turned her head and looked around them in all directions. “Lets find a map or something so we can find that computer room!”

………………

Back up on the bridge, Rarity continued to sing while Shinging Armor and the rest of the crewponies and guards watched her.

“And I know... nothing’s gonna stand in my way, 
No matter the ponies may say, 
Just don’t turn around and keep looking straight. 
And I see... that everypony’s starting to yell...
How the world around you’s going to Hell. 
I’m here to tell you all it’s just fate.”

………………

On the Heart Star, two unicorn guards were walking through a corridor when suddenly, up ahead of them in the corridor, there was a bright flash of light, and then something appeared from it. They paused.

It looked like a griffon, except it was covered from beak to tail in silver and black metal armor. It looked like a griffon version of Robocop.

It turned it’s head and looked at them. “I’m Robogriffon!” it said in a mechanized female voice, so they guessed it was a she. “Put down your weapons! You have five seconds to comply.”

The two unicorn guards looked at each other, and then looked back at the intruder. “But… our weapons are our horns. We can’t put them down because they’re attached to our heads.”

“Sucks to be you then,” the griffon said. A split second later, she grabbed something on her right thigh with her front talons and brought it out in front of her, pointing it at the two guards. The surprised guards had no time to react when the gun suddenly glowed with purple light, and then a blast of blue, magical energy shot out of a small opening at the end of the barrel. It struck the two guards, who instantly shook like they were being zapped with electricity, and then collapsed onto the floor, unconscious.

Gilda looked down at the magitech Caster gun Sunset had made for her. “I love this thing!” she said with a grin.

She then looked around her, making sure the coast was clear both directions in the corridor, and the bolted off through it in search for Lightning Dust.

………………

Back on the bridge of the Ascendency, Rarity continued singing.

“I’m a distraction 
Of pure satisfaction, 
Keep your eyes all on me, 
For what you’re gonna see 
Will redefine the height of attraction.
I’m a distraction 
And I’m ready for action, 
So the world’s gonna blow, 
Stop complaining and go to the show.”

………………

“It looks like the computer room is this way,” said Sunset, pointing at a spot on the internal map of the ship she and Score had found on the wall in one of the corridors of the Ascendency.

Suddenly they head approaching hoof steps and voices. They both turned their heads and looked in the direction the voices were coming from.

“Someone’s coming,” hissed Sunset.

“Hide!” said Score. He turned back to Sunset, only to see that she was suddenly gone.

“Sunset?” Score asked. He looked around him in all directions, but Sunset was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

Score heard the hoof steps and voices still approaching from down the corridor. Growling in frustration, and not seeing anywhere else to hide, he did the only thing he could think of doing. He pulled out a folded up large cardboard box from his saddlebags, quickly folded it into a box, and hid underneath it. He kept still as he heard the hoof steps approaching him him.

“I heard there’s this thing on the bridge we should see!” said a male voice. “Some sort of adorable little cat thing with ladybug wings!”

“Oh my, gosh, I want to see that!” said an excited female voice.

Score waited and listened as he heard the hoof steps pass by the box outside. He was about to breath a sigh of relief when he heard one of them stop outside his box.

“Hey, did we always have a pony size box here?” asked a third male voice.

The other hoof steps also stopped outside. Score started to panic, praying for a miracle. That they would just walk away from the box and not discover him.

However he had no such luck as the box was suddenly lifted up, and the head of an Earth pony royal guard came into view. Going with the first idea that came to mind, Score spun around and bucked the surprised guard right in his head.

The guard fell backwards onto his back, knocked out from the blow. Score didn’t celebrate, however, because at that moment, he saw two more royal guards standing in front of him, a unicorn mare, and a pegasus stallion. The unicorn was pointing her horn at him, and it lit up with a yellow glow as she prepared to cast a spell at him. 

Score cringed and readied himself for the attack, knowing there was nothing he could do.

Suddenly, the unicorn flinched and grunted, stumbling backwards like she had just been hit in the face. Her horn stopped glowing as she lost her concentration on her spell. Then she stumbled forward, like she had been hit on the back of her head, and then she collapsed to the floor, knocked out.

Score and the other guard had watched the scene in complete bewilderment. Then the exact same thing happened to the other guard, who fell to the floor unconscious beside his friend.

Just as Score was struggling to figure out just what the heck had happened, there was a distortion in the air in front of him, and then Sunset Shimmer appeared.

Score stared at her in amazement. “How did you do that?”

“The cloaking device I invented,” said Sunset with a shrug.

Score gaped at her. “You invented a cloaking device!? Why didn’t you give me one?”

“Because I only had the one. Now come on! Lets hoof it before somepony finds these guards!” She gestured to the three unconscious guards lying at their hooves.

………………

Back up on the bridge, Rarity continued to sing.

“There’s explosions in the sky 
And the neighborhood is fried 
But you don’t have to join them in all the fuss. 
Act like nothing’s going wrong 
And just keep playing my song 
Until there’s nothing left around here but us.”

Rarity levitated the microphone over to a surprised Shining Armor, whose horn glowed blue as he took the mic into his own magic and levitated it out in front of him.

“No, Rarity, don’t make me…” Shining Armor began, but then quickly brought the mic to his mouth as the next lyrics began to appear on the screen, and began to sing.

“And I know... something’s gonna happen tonight 
All the stars around us start taking flight 
But there’s something that invites me to stay,
'Cause I’m drawn... to the rhythm of the music they play 
And we’re all gonna die anyway 
So enjoy it while you can, come what may.”

Rarity came over next to Shining Armor and pulled the mic a bit lower down with her magic, and leaned her head up so that both she and Shining Armor could sing into it together.

“We’re a distraction 
Of pure satisfaction
There’s a war going on 
But in here, we all won 
‘Cause nopony is slowing the traction”

………………

Back on the Heart Star, Gilda came across a big heavy door that had a sign on it that read ‘Restricted Area’. Hoping she would find Lightning Dust inside, she pulled out a red Caster shell and loaded it into her gun. She then fired it at the door, releasing a red blast of magical energy that blasted the door open.

When the smoke cleared she looked inside the doorway. She didn’t find Lightning Dust, but what she did find made her eyes widen.

Inside was a large room, except she wasn’t sure if she should call it a room because it didn’t look like it had a ceiling of floor. It was more like an open shaft, going upwards and downwards for what looked like forever. Running down in the center of the open shaft was a giant metal tube. The tube was glowing with white lights, which were running up and down all over it, and it was humming loudly like it was pulsating with energy. It was connected to the walls of the giant shaft by a bunch of other smaller tubes.

“Well, this looks important!” said Gilda with a smirk. She flapped her wings, which were two of the few things not covered in robot armor, and flew out into the shaft.

She loaded another red caster shell into her gun, and then aimed it at the humming, glowing tube running through the shaft. She then began opening fire on the tube.

The red magical energy blasts hit the tube, causing big explosions wherever they struck.

“This is fun!” Gilda said cheerfully as she kept flying around inside the shaft and firing the gun.

After several good hits in several locations on the tube and causing some decent damage to it, the humming that was coming from it suddenly came to a whining stop, and the glowing lights that were coming from it flickered for a few moments, and then went out.

Flapping her wings and staying hovering in mid air, she admired her handiwork of destruction for a few seconds before she spun around and began flying back towards the way she had come in from. She stopped mid air, however, when she saw several pegasus guards appear in the doorway.

“STOP!” they yelled at her angrily when they saw her.

Having no interest in complying with their demands, Gilda flapped her wings and dived down the shaft away from them. Looking back up above her while she dived, she saw the pegasus guards flying into the shaft after her.

Looks like they want to play aerial tag, Gilda thought to herself.

………………

Back on the bridge of the Ascendency, Rarity and Shining Armor kept singing.

“Take a step, come inside, 
Buy a stub, ride the ride of your life”

Shining Armor began singing solo again.

“Nothing ever will come from saying never, 
So join the fun wherever it is.
There’s a power that’s growing by the hour, 
I’m positive I don’t want to miss. 
I’m a distraction…”

………………

Score and Sunset burst into the computer room. Inside they immediately saw several refrigerator size metal boxes, all of them covered in thousands of wires, dials, circuit boards, tape reels, buttons, and blinking lights. They instantly realized these must be the computers they were looking for. They walked over to them.

“These computers network the whole fleet’s weapons systems together so they can coordinate their attacks with each other,” said Sunset. “Make sure they don’t accidentally hit each other in the crossfire. An incredibly organized system.” She then looked at him with a grin. “So what do you say we make a little chaos?”

“I’d say Discord would be proud,” said Score in agreement.

“Okay. Time for me to work my magic,” said Sunset as she got to work on the computers.

Score watched as Sunset took off her saddlebags and began rummaging through them. She levitated out a few tools like pliers and wrenches, and started opening up the computers.

“So…” Score said idly while Sunset did her work, “when all this is over… you want to… get dinner together sometime, or…?”

“I already have a boyfriend,” said Sunset flatly while she was pulling some wires with her pliers.

“Oh,” said Score in disappointment, his ears lowering against his head sadly.

“His name is Edward Elric,” Sunset continued. “He’s a state alchemist! He has blond hair like me, two automail limbs that I made for him myself, and he’s very short because he didn’t drink enough milk when he was a child.” She shook her head. “He hates milk!”

“Oh,” Score responded. He realized that whoever this Edward Elric was just must be ‘Winry’s’ boyfriend, whoever it was she had turned into because of the anomaly that had affected her.

………………

Back up on the bridge, Rarity and Shining Armor were still singing.

“We’re a distraction 
Of pure satisfaction. 
Keep your eyes all on me 
For what you’re gonna see 
Will redefine the height of attraction. 
I’m a distraction 
And I’m ready for action.
So the world’s gonna blow, 
Stop complaining and go. 
Just start watching the show 
'Cause there’s no more to know. 
Here we go!”

………………

Blueblood could see the glowing swirling vortex that was the plot hole ahead of him in space. It looked like it had gotten even bigger since the last time he had seen it. It looked like it had nearly doubled in size.

He hesitated for a moment. His heart was pounding and his breathing was heavy with nervousness and fear. What if he was wrong about this, and he was flying to his own death? He was half considering turning back and not going through with what he was going to do, but he knew deep down he had come to far now to do that.

“Well, I didn’t fly all the way out here to not do this,” he told himself nervously. “I’m not wrong. There’s something, or someone, that sent us those dreams. I know my destiny lies in there. I’m sure of it.”

Hesitating for a few moments more, he finally just swallowed his fear, and pushed forward on the navigation controls with his magic. The escape pod Blueblood was in accelerated forward towards the opening in space.

Just as Blueblood was about to cross the threshold, he instinctively sucked in a breath of air and held it, and closed his eyes. And then the escape pod flew into the swirling vortex of the plot hole…

………………

“I’m a distraction,” sang Shining Armor.

“He’s a distraction,” sang Rarity.

“We’re a distraction,” the two white unicorns sang together.

Then Catbug flew up into the air to the microphone Rarity and Shining Armor were sharing.

“We're a distwactiooooooooooooooooon!!!” he sang loudly and adorably.

All the guards and crewponies on the bridge applauded and cheered for Shining Armor and Rarity and Catbug after they finished singing the song.

“I love you,” Rarity suddenly whispered to Shining Armor while the ponies were applauding them. Immediately after she said that, she wondered why she just had. She had just been so in the moment that she hadn’t been able to resist saying it to him.

Shining Armor looked down at her in surprise. “What was that?” he asked.

Rarity started to panic, frantically trying to think of something to say. “I said… err… I love… food.”

“You love food?” Shining Armor said to Rarity, raising an eyebrow at her in confusion.

“Yes! I love food! Now let us never speak of this again.” She let out a sigh of relief.

………………

“Done!” said Sunset as she took a step back from the computers. “I’ll signal Entomala that we’re done.”

She levitated all her tools back into her bag, and then she levitated out a small, round device from the bag. She pressed a button on it, and the device began making a beeping noise. 

Several seconds later, Score and Sunset were both instantly teleported back to the Defiant in a flash of light.

………………

“I want to sing ‘Let It Go’ next!” cried Rarity with glee. “I’d make a perfect Elsa!”

Suddenly they all heard a beeping noise coming from somewhere on the bridge.

“What’s that?” asked Shining Armor.

Catbug reached behind him and pulled a small round device out from under his ladybug wings, revealing the beeping was coming from it.

“Well, looks like its time for me to go,” said Catbug, suddenly smiling sinisterly.

“What?” said Rarity, confused.

“Oh, and by the way…”

Everyone on the bridge gasped loudly when Catbug’s eyes suddenly glowed a sickly green, and then green flames ran up his entire body. When the flames cleared, Catbug was gone, and a changeling queen with red eyes was now standing there, grinning evilly at them all.

“Fooled you!” she sang in a mocking tone.

A second later, the changeling queen disappeared in a bright flash of light, leaving everyone on the bridge with looks of shock and confusion.

………………

Back on the bridge of the Defiant, Flam’s voice was heard on the ships intercom. “Everyone, Sunset, Score, and Entomala are back on board!” he said.

Trixie pressed the intercom button on the captain’s chair. “What about Gilda?” she asked.

“No, nothing yet,” Flam responded. “She still hasn’t activated her beacon.”

“All right,” acknowledged Trixie, wondering how Gilda was doing rescuing Lightning Dust. “Well, we need to strike the fleet before they find out what we’ve done to their computers. So let's begin this attack! Dumbbell, take us into firing range!”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Dumbbell said enthusiastically as he began working the navigation controls.

………………

Back on the Heart Star, Gilda continued to evade the pegasus guards that were flying after her inside the giant shaft. She fired the Caster gun back at her pursuers, managing to hit a few of them and stun them, sending them falling out of the air and down the shaft into the darkness below.

“GILDA!?”

Gilda’s ears perked up at the voice she recognized all too well. She looked around in every direction for Lightning Dust, not quite sure where her voice had come from, as it was kind of echoy inside the shaft. Then she spotted Lightning Dust standing up above her in the same doorway Gilda had entered the shaft through. She flew up to where she was and landed right beside her.

“Lightning Dust!” Gilda took off her helmet so her friend could see that it was her. “Come on! Lets get out of here!”

Lightning Dust just stared at her with a shocked look on her face. “I can’t believe it! You actually came to save me!”

“Of course I did! Couldn’t resist a chance to have you owe me one, after all,” Gilda joked.

“What’s with the Robocop getup?” asked Lightning Dust, gesturing to what Gilda was wearing.

“Yeah, well, I asked Sunset to make me a cyborg, but she said she wouldn’t cut off my limbs just to give me robot parts because it was ‘immoral’, or some crap like that, so she made me a Robocop suit instead. Now come on! Lets blow this joint!”

Lightning Dust hesitated and didn’t move. Gilda stared at her friend in confusion.

“Lighting, what are you waiting for? Lets go!”

“I’m sorry,” Lightning Dust said.

Before Gilda could do anything, Lightning Dust suddenly spun around and then bucked Gilda right in her head, hard. The stunned griffon let out a squawk of surprise and pain, and then blacked out…

………………

Back on the bridge of the Ascendency, Rarity and Shining Armor and the rest of the crew on the bridge were trying to understand just what the heck had just happened.

“A changeling queen?!” Shinging Armor exclaimed, still staring at the spot where the monster had disappeared. Bad memories of changelings instantly started flooding back to him. He involuntarily shuddered at those memories.

“What was a changeling queen doing here?” asked Rarity, sounding just as terrified as Shining Armor felt at that moment.

Suddenly, one of the crewponies spoke up loudly from their post. “Sir, the Defiant has just been spotted on our sensors! It’s headed right towards us!”

“What!?” exclaimed Shining, instantly coming back to reality. He walked towards the front of the bridge in front of the viewscreen. “On screen!”

The viewscreen changed to the image of Blueblood’s mansion, turned space ship, off in the distance, coming from the direction of the yellow moon Titan. It was indeed flying right towards their position.

Shining Armor regained his composure and calmed himself so he could focus on the situation at hoof. “Open communications with the fleet,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir,” said another crewpony.

There was a small beep, indicating the channel was open, and Shining Armor began speaking. “All ships, this is Shining Armor. Lock on to the Defiant and fire on my command. Fire to disable only! I repeat, fire to disable only! Remember, Princess Luna is on board that ship. We want to get her back alive and unharmed.”

A few seconds passed before the crewpony spoke again. “The fleet’s responded, sir. They’re standing by.”

Shining Armor nodded. On the viewscreen he could see the rest of his fleet moving into position between the Defiant and the Heart Star, right beside his ship, ready to fire upon the Defiant.

He waited for the Defiant to get into firing range of their cannons. Shining smirked smugly when he saw the Defiant was still heading straight towards the armada.

“The idiots aren’t even changing coarse,” he said with a chuckle to his crew. “What the heck are they thinking?”

His crew all smirked at him in agreement with what he said.

After a few more moments, the Defiant finally came into their weapons’ range. “Fire!” Shining Armor ordered.

The fleet opened fire, and then Shining’s smug smile instantly disappeared when the ship suddenly gave a sharp lurch to the side like it had been hit by something, and he almost lost his balance. A split second later, the ship suddenly shook sharply again. On the viewscreen, he saw in horror that their fleet was all firing energy blasts on each other instead of on the Defiant. A blast from his own ship struck the ship beside them, the Destiny.

“CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!” Shining shouted in panic over the commotion on the bridge. He had no idea what was going on. On the viewscreen, he saw the other four ships in the fleet taking heavy damage from each other’s energy beam weapons. Realizing he had to do something quickly, began pumping magic into his horn as he prepared to cast the spell he was famous for with his skill at. Concentrating as hard as he could, he cast his shield spell around their entire ship. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the magical shield around their ship now protecting them from the energy blasts from the other ships.

But his relief was short lived as he saw what was happening to the other four ships on the viewscreen. The ships were literally being broken apart by the assaults they were taking, huge chunks of debris being hurled from their hulls by explosions. The glowing magical energy spheres within the ring in the center of the ships faded as the ships lost power, and the ships began drifting from their positions, completely out of control. The Destiny and the Devotion crashed into each other, their hulls crumbling from the impact. A few moments later, the Harmony and the Monarch also collided with each other. The four ships were now floating completely powerless in space, debris from their hulls floating all around them like a cloud.

Shining Armor and Rarity, and the rest of the crew on the bridge of the Ascendency, all stared at the wreckage of their fleet with mouths agape and eyes as wide as saucers.

“WHAT IN TARTARUS JUST HAPPENED!?!” Shining Armor demanded furiously.

“DID WE JUST DESTROY OUR OWN ARMADA!?!” exclaimed Rarity.

Shining Armor turned to his crew. “SOMEPONY EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT JUST HAPPENED?”

After several seconds, one of the crewponies at a computer console spoke. “Sir, there appears to be some sort of glitch in our networked tactical computers!”

Shining looked at him. “A glitch!?” he exclaimed.

“Yes, sir. I think it’s been tampered with.”

Shining Armor wondered how this could have happened. Then he remembered the changeling. His eyes widened when realization hit him. “How could I have allowed my self to get fooled like that?!” Shining Armor growled in frustration, angry at both himself, and at the enemy. “And on duty, too! Those sneaky S.O.B.s.” He turned back to his crew. “Switch all tactical controls to manual! Bring us about!”

…………………

On the Defiant, they watched as the enemy ships all opened fire on each other. They had to squint their eyes at the bright explosions as the enemy ships fired on each other. They flew right past the fleet of five distraught ships without a single problem.

“I’m a leaf on the wind,” said Dumbbell to himself as he piloted their ship right past the other ships, swerving to avoid the crossfire of energy blasts. “Watch how I soar!”

Hoops looked over at him. “Dude, did you just quote Wash from Serenity?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Don’t you remember what happened to him after he said that?”

Dumbbell thought, then his eyes widened in realization as he remembered. Then his ears lowered sadly. “Oh. Right.”

Once they were past the armada, they headed straight towards the Heart Star.

Trixie pressed the intercom button on her chair for engineering again. “Flim, Flam, any word from Gilda yet?”

Flim’s voice, or Flam’s voice, she could really tell because they both sounded alike, responded. “No, Trixie. Gilda still hasn’t activated her beacon.”

“The Heart Star is in firing range!” Iron Will announced.

Trixie looked back up at the viewscreen. The giant, heart-shaped space station was right in front of them, defenseless. They had the perfect opportunity to attack it with their alchemy bombs, which Sunset had told them were basically mini-nukes, and put an end to all this madness.

Everybody on the bridge looked at Trixie, wanting to know what they should do.

Trixie sighed in frustration. She knew they couldn’t teleport Gilda or Lightning Dust off the Heart Star unless knew they knew her exact location, but they also couldn’t blow up the Heart Star with their friends still on it.

At that moment, Sunset, Score, and Queen Entomala walked onto the bridge. They looked at the Heart Star on the viewscreen and then looked at everyone on the bridge, clearly wondering what was going on.

Trixie swallowed as she made her decision. “We have to give Gilda more time,” she said to everyone, sitting back in her chair. “We’ll wait.”

“Um… everypony,” said a nervous sounding Jet Set suddenly. Everybody looked at him. “…It looks like one of the enemy battle cruisers… survived!”

Trixie instantly sat up in a panic at what Jet Set said. “WHAT!?”

“It’s moving towards us!”

“On screen,” ordered Trixie.

The viewscreen changed to the view behind their ship, showing one of the giant battle cruisers turning around towards them out of the wreckage of the other disabled battle cruisers. They all groaned when they saw it was none other than Rarity and Shining Armor’s ship, the Ascendency.

At that moment, the ship fired a blast of white energy out of its main cannon at them. The blast passed right close by their ship. So close that they all felt the ship vibrate as it shot by.

“THAT WAS TOO CLOSE!” shouted Hoops in terror.

“I think we pissed them off!” said Dumbbell.

“SHIELDS UP!” Trixie ordered frantically. “MOVE THE SHIP! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!”

Dumbbell and Hoops got to work. The maneuvering thrusters fired and the ship began speeding away from the Ascendency. Sunset hurried over to an empty computer console and started putting up the force field around the ship.

“We’re being hailed!” announced Upper Crust suddenly.

“On screen,” said Trixie.

The image on the viewscreen changed to the image of the Ascendency’s bridge. Shining Armor and Rarity were glaring at them furiously. They did indeed look pissed.

“WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” Shining yelled at them.

Trixie narrowed her eyes at the two white unicorns on the screen. “We’re trying to stop Celestia from ruining the world!” she said confidently.

“Ruining it!?” exclaimed Rarity. “Princess Celestia is trying to make the world a better place! Horrible ponies like you are the ones ruining the world!”

Shining Armor must have just noticed Entomala at that moment because he the then shouted, “How could you be in league with a changeling!? This proves that you’re all evil!”

“We’re not evil!” shot Upper Crust from her seat. “Celestia’s the evil one! Don’t you realize what she’s doing? She wants to brainwash the entire world!”

“It’s not brainwashing!” Rarity argued back. “Her spell will simply take the inner goodness and better natures of every creature in the world, and bring it out in them. That way, all creatures can finally live together in friendship and happiness.”

“It’s just like my wife’s love spell that she uses to bring out the love ponies have inside them,” Shining Armor added.

Trixie gritted her teeth and growled. “How can you just be completely okay with Celestia, or any of the princesses, messing with everypony’s minds with magic? Don’t you think that’s… violating them?”

Rarity stuck up her nose at them. “Not in the least. Princess Celestia knows what is best for all of us! She is the kindest, wisest, most wonderful pony in the entire world, and she is always right!”

“HA!” shouted Entomala suddenly, buzzing her wings and flying up to the front of the bridge, right where the viewscreen was. “Don’t you know what that bitch Celestia has done!? She created my kind, the changelings, by trying to mind-rape a bunch of ponies with her spell a millennia ago! Oh, and the whole story about Nightmare Moon is also a lie! Celestia turned Luna evil on purpose so she wouldn’t tell everypony about her little secret.”

“BLASPHEMY!” Rarity shouted in total rage back at Entomala. “HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT THE PRINCESS THAT WAY!?”

“YOU HONESTLY EXPECT US TO BELIEVE A LOAD OF LIES LIKE THAT?!” Shining Armor yelled, just as enraged as Rarity was.

“It’s the truth!” said Trixie. “We saw it in Luna’s memories!”

“Yeah, right!” Shining Armor scoffed. “By the way, where’s Blueblood?”

Trixie froze at that question.

“Yes, where is that pathetic excuse for a pony,” said Rarity, her eyes looking around their bridge.

Trixie panicked. She didn’t think telling them he had gone into the plot hole was a good idea. They might start… firing into the plot hole or something. She tried to quickly think up a lie for him.

“Oh, he’s… um… in the john!” she said. She mentally cursed herself for coming up with such a stupid reply, but it had been the first thing that had popped into her head.

Rarity scoffed. “I’m sure. More likely he’s hiding somewhere, like the coward he is!”

Shining Armor nodded in agreement. “Surrender now, and give us back Princess Luna, or you will all face the consequences!” With that, Shining Armor’s horn glowed with blue light, and the transmission suddenly ended, the viewscreen cutting back to the view outside the ship of the Ascendency chasing after them.

“Balls!” Trixie cursed. “Evasive maneuvers! Weapons at the ready!” She knew this wasn’t gonna be a walk in the park, and she knew the rest of them knew that as well. Darn it, Gilda, what’s taking you so long!?
> Ch 15. The Battle (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Gilda felt herself being awoken by rough hooves shaking her.

“Wake up!” said a gruff male voice. Gilda opened her eyes. She was lying on a carpeted floor in a brightly lit room. She felt that she was no longer in her Robo-suit, and she felt her forelegs, hind legs, and wings were all bound with iron cuffs. She also felt a throbbing pain in her forehead.

She glanced up at her surroundings. She was in some kind of elegant throne room on board the Heart Star. There were two royal unicorn guards standing over her, one of whom was shaking her body with his hoof. In front of her, sitting upon a big purple throne, was Princess Celestia herself, and standing beside her throne was Lightning Dust, who was not bound or restrained in any way.

Gilda remembered what had happened. Lightning Dust had bucked her in the head!

“She’s awake!” said the guard again.

“On your feet before Princess Celestia!” spat the second guard.

Gilda felt her body being enveloped in a magical hold and then felt herself being forcefully lifted up onto all fours by magic. Gilda could see one of the unicorn guards’ horns was glowing with emerald green light, indicating he was the one levitating her body.

She looked back at Lightning Dust. “Lightning Dust… what the heck?” Gilda asked her friend, desperate for an explanation as to why she had bucked her in the head and knocked her out.

“I’m sorry,” said Lighting, looking away from Gilda with a look of shame on her face, which was an expression Gilda had never seen on her friend before.

Gilda was shocked.

Princess Celestia spoke. “Lightning Dust chose to join our side! She wants to help us, so I’ve given her the chance.”

Gilda stared at Lightning Dust in utter bewilderment. “WHY?” Gilda demanded, not convinced that Lightning Dust had just simply ‘chose to join Celestia’s side’ like Celestia had said.

“She said she would make me a Wonderbolt,” Lightning Dust said, still keeping her head turned away from Gilda out of shame.

Gilda gaped at Lightning Dust in disbelief.

Celestia spoke again. “I’m helping her out as a favor because she chose to do the right thing and help us.” Celestia extended one of her wings and wrapped it around Lightning Dust’s shoulder, looking down at the pegasus with a warm smile. “You’re our friend now, Lightning Dust. And friends help each other out.” She smiled kindly at Lightning Dust, who, honestly, looked a little creeped out by the Princess’s advances.

Gilda’s expression became one of rage. “YOU TRAITOR!” she yelled at Lightning Dust, trying to leap forward and attack her, but was held back by her bonds and the unicorn guards’ magic. Still she struggled to get at the pegasus mare. “YOU SELL OUT! YOU TOOL! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!”

“SETTLE DOWN, YOU!” shouted one of the guards, pulling the enraged griffon back away from a wide-eyed Lightning Dust, and using his magic to hold her down against the floor.

Celestia looked down at Gilda. “You also have a chance to do the right thing, Gilda,” said Celestia. “Join us. Help us do something wonderful for the world.”

Gilda spat on Celestia’s face. “Go buck yourself!” she said.

“HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE PRINCESS!” the two guards next to Gilda yelled, one of them hitting her hard in her side with a hoof. Gilda grunted in pain as she was knocked onto her side by the blow.

Celestia held up a hoof to stop the two guards. “Enough!” she said to them.

The two guards stopped assaulting Gilda.

Celestia wiped the spit off her face and looked back down at Gilda. “Very well. In that case, you can stay and watch the birth of a new world with us. A world where all living things live together in friendship and harmony.”

Gilda growled as she got to her feet and glared at the princess. “I know what you did!” she stated, then she looked over at Lightning Dust. “You don’t realize what she’s done, Lightning Dust. How many lives this bitch has ruined.”

“Don’t listen to her, Lightning Dust,” Celestia said to the pegasus beside her. “She’s just trying to confuse you.”

Gilda continued. “The spell she’s about to use, she used it on a race called the Flutterponies a long time ago, but the spell went wrong, and they all ended up turning into changelings because of it!”

“What?” exclaimed Lightning Dust, actually turning her head to look at Gilda now with wide eyes.

“That’s ridiculous!” said Celestia firmly.

“There’s more!” said Gilda. “When Princess Luna was going to tell everypony about what Celestia had done, Celestia put a spell on her to make her go insane in order to keep her quiet. That’s why Luna really became Nightmare Moon! Celestia pretty much lobotomized her own sister!”

“ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES, CRIMINAL SCUM!” shouted a guard loudly in Gilda’s ear, hitting her hard in her gut again with his hoof. Gilda grunted in pain again and fell to the floor.

Celestia held up a hoof to stop the two guards again. “I said enough!” Celestia raised her voice at them, making them stop assaulting Gilda once again. Celestia looked back at Lightning Dust. “Lightning Dust, I promise you. None of that is true. I would never harm anypony.”

Gilda glared at Celestia. The big white princess was clearly a very skilled liar. Had Gilda not known the truth, she herself would have believed the Princess’s statements. It was like her sweet motherly voice got inside your head and made you want to believe the things she was saying. Gilda wondered if magic was involved with that. Then again, Celestia would have to be a good liar in order to still have so many ponies complete blind faith and belief in her after all these centuries.

“IT IS TRUE!” Gilda shouted at them all. “WE LEARNED IT FROM LUNA HERSELF!”

“I SAID ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES!” the guard yelled in Gilda’s ear again.

Celestia raised her hoof again to calm her guards down before they started beating Gilda again. Then she looked at Gilda. “Well, Gilda, even if you won’t cooperate, you are still welcome to stay here and watch.”

Her throne magically spun around to face a set of closed curtains. Celestia’s horn glowed, and then the curtains were magically pulled aside, revealing a wide circular window that looked out into space. Outside she could see the house ship Defiant being chased by the massive battle cruiser Ascendency, both of them firing weapons at each other.

“We are going to use the spell on your friends on board their ship, so they will stop acting foolish, and cooperate,” said Celestia.

At that, Gilda struggled angrily, but was still held back by her bonds. “NO!” Gilda shouted in anger.

Celestia simply ignored Gilda’s protests and continued to smile calmly, which infuriated Gilda to no end.

Unknown to both of them, Lightning Dust was staring down at the floor, a look of uncertainty on her face.

………………

The Defiant did battle with the Ascendency.

Trixie watched the viewscreen as they fired their rail gun at the enemy ship, but the blasts just simply bounced off Shining Armor’s powerful shield spell that he had erected around his ship. They kept trying to evade the powerful energy blasts the Ascendency fired at them every several seconds.

“What is the status of the Ascendency?” Trixie demanded.

“It’s sustained some damage to its hull from when it and the other ships were firing on each other,” said Iron Will. “But other than that, it’s completely intact and operational. And Shining Armor’s shield spell is protecting it from taking any more damage.”

“Keep trying!” Trixie ordered, her hope in Blueblood and Gilda being pushed to the limit. “Load the alchemy bombs! Give ‘em everything we’ve got!”

The ships pitched out of control as they took a hit from an energy beam. They held onto their chairs as they all almost fell out of them.

“Shields at sixty two percent!” shouted Sunset after they had recovered from the blast, having seated herself down at an open computer console.

Trixie cringed. That was almost half their shield strength gone, and they had only taken one hit! Sunset may have improved their ships systems, but they still wouldn’t hold up very long against the Ascendency’s kind of fire power.

Their ship banked to the left to avoid another energy beam from the Ascendency.

………………

Shining Armor watched the struggling Defiant on the viewscreen with satisfaction. “Target weapon systems and shields,” he ordered to his weapons officer. “We want to capture that ship, not destroy it.”

On the viewscreen, another dazzling white blast seared from the front of the Ascendency at the tiny house ship, just missing it’s target as the Defiant swerved out of the way yet again.

Beside him, he heard Rarity speaking softly to herself. “Why don’t you give up, Blueblood?” she said. “You know you can’t win.”

Shining knew it didn’t matter. This battle wouldn’t take very long anyway. And then Blueblood and his annoying friends would all be brought to justice. Of course, knowing Princess Celestia, she would probably want to help them and rehabilitate them with magic and guidance to make them better ponies. And although he would never disagree with the Princess’s decision, personally, he would rather they were all just thrown in a dungeon cell and left to rot.

The Defiant made a pass at them and fired another volley of blasts from it’s tiny gun mounted on it’s hull, but Shining Armor wasn’t worried in the least as the blasts simply bounced off his shield bubble protecting the ship, causing only tiny ripples to appear on the bubble where they impacted.

“Is that the best you got?” Shining gloated, watching as another white blast shot from his ship at the Defiant.

………………

“Just answer me one thing, your highness,” said Gilda to Celestia. Celestia turned back to face Gilda, and she continued. “Why are you trying to make the world a paradise? Isn’t the world pretty much already a paradise as it is? You control the weather, the seasons, and practically all of nature itself! Practically everyone is a total goody two shoes who whistles while they work, and breaks into songs about friendship and love at the drop of a hat! There haven’t been any wars in hundreds of years! There is plenty of food and water to go around, practically no pollution, or any big problems of any kind! Sure, there are a few enemies out there, but you can always easily take care of them with the Elements of Harmony. It can’t really get much better than that! Isn’t that good enough?”

“No, it isn’t,” said Celestia plainly. “There are still those out there, like you, who still live unhappily because they don’t understand the happiness that comes from friendship and honest lives.”

“Okay, first of all, the only thing making me unhappy right now is YOU!” said Gilda. “Second of all, SO WHAT!? If they want to live their lives that way, then that is their choice, and it’s their right to choose that if they want! So just LET THEM BE!”

“NO!” said Celestia, shaking her head. “If I know there are those out there who need help, then I have to help them. It’s my duty as a princess.”

“No, your duty as a princess is to run and defend your kingdom, not to interfere in the personal lives of its citizens! And even so, if you want to help others, then help them by just simply talking to them! Offer them advice if they want it! Don’t start casting spells on ponies!”

“That’s the problem!” Celestia sighed. “I’ve tried talking to the many creatures of this world for centuries, but it does little good. So many, like dragons, diamond dogs, and you and even some of my own little ponies, just refuse to listen! So they’ve left me with no choice but to take more… drastic action.”

“THAT’S WRONG!” Gilda shouted angrily. “IF THEY DON’T WANT HELP, THEN THAT’S THEIR CHOICE, AND THEIR RIGHT!”

“I am their princess, and I know what is best for them! Sometimes you need to help those who might not realize that they need help, or even want help, and sometimes there are those who need to be made to do things they might not want to do… for their own good.”

Gilda growled at Celestia. “We aren’t your children! We have rights!”

“Gilda, I consider you all like my children. And as my children, it’s my duty to take care of you all, and do what is best for you.” Celestia smiled. “Just trust in me, Gilda. This is for the best.”

Gilda groaned. There was no point in talking to Celestia. She was clearly convinced that her intentions were righteous, and there was no convincing her otherwise. Still, Gilda would have given both her wings just to wipe that infuriatingly calm smile from Celestia’s face.

Suddenly, a pair of double doors at the back of the throne room opened up, and an Earth pony guard entered the room. “Princess Celestia, I’m here to inform you that the Heart Star has absorbed enough energy from the plot hole to use the spell amplifying array now.”

Gilda’s heart sunk, as she knew what that meant.

“Thank you,” said Celestia to the guard, who bowed his head to her before walking back out of the room. “The time is finally here!” Celestia said to them excitedly. “This is my destiny, and Equestria’s destiny!” She pressed one of several buttons on the arm of her throne with her hoof, which Gilda hadn’t noticed were there before. “Deploy the array!” she said aloud, Gilda supposing she was talking over an intercom to somewhere else on the space station. “And target the Defiant.”

“No!” Gilda attempted to leap at Celestia to attack her, but was held back by the two unicorn guards’ magic.

Celestia’s horn glowed, and a circular panel opened up in the sealing in the room right above Celestia. Then some sort of machine, attached to a thick tube and many wires, descended down out from it, settling right above Celestia’s head.

Celestia raised her head upwards and slid her horn up into a small hole in the bottom of the machine above her head, which was just the right size for her horn. She then closed her eyes as she began casting her spell to be amplified by the Heart Star.

The machine connected to Celestia’s horn began to glow and pulse with the same golden yellow glow as Celestia’s magic, and then the glow ran up the tubes and wires attached to it into the open panel in the sealing.

Suddenly, the large circular window in the room flickered with light, and then an image appeared on it, revealing that it was also a viewscreen.  The image was a camera view of the outside of the Heart Star. More specifically, the bottom tip of the heart shaped space station.

The pointed bottom of the heart shaped space station began to slowly fold open, like a flower’s petals opening up, revealing a giant dish antenna inside. The antenna began to spark and then glow with the golden light of Celestia’s magic. It was apparently being used as a giant, artificial unicorn’s horn.

Then, at the tip of the antenna, a pink heart made of magical energy formed. The pink heart began to pulsate as more magic was poured into it, making it bigger… and bigger… and bigger!

………………

On board the Defiant, and the Ascendency, both crews took notice of the giant pink heart of magic forming at the tip of an antenna that had opened up on the Heart Star.

“What the heck is that?” asked Hoops fearfully, pointing at the image on the viewscreen.

“I think that’s bad news,” said Iron Will.

Trixie and the rest of them all agreed with him, all of them gulping nervously, fearing that this was the end.

………………

“Finally! A perfect world!” Celestia said to herself as she watched the spell amplifying array readying her spell on the viewscreen, tears of happiness starting to well up in her eyes.

Then suddenly, there were a few wild sparks of electricity on the antenna, and then the golden yellow glow around the antenna faded away. Celestia’s smile fell into a frown of confusion as the pink heart of magical energy stopped pulsating, and then dissipated into nothingness, and then the antenna began letting off smoke into space.

Gilda was pleasantly surprised by this sudden turn of events, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“What? What happened?” Celestia said, clearly worried and confused.

Gilda grinned as something occurred to her. “Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that, right after I teleported over here, I screwed around with a bunch of the machines and computers in this place. You know, blew stuff up, did some damage. Whatever I thought looked important.”

As if to confirm this, suddenly the same Earth pony guard as before burst into the room again, a panicked look on his face. “Your majesty! A number of the Heart Star’s systems have been damaged and the array is inoperable! Its gonna take a bit of time to repair them.”

Celestia glared down at Gilda furiously, and it looked like the Princess might actually attack the griffon. Gilda just continued to grin up at Celestia, happy to see that she had finally been able to get on the Princess’s nerves and upset her.

“What’s the matter, Princess? I haven’t made you mad, have I?” Gilda said mockingly.

Celestia took a deep breath, and regained her composure. “Guards, lock Gilda up with our other... guest. I’m going to assist in repairing the array.” Celestia’s horn glowed, and then, in a flash of light, she teleported out of the room.

Gilda was suddenly yanked by the unicorn guards’ magic towards the doors at the back of the throne room. “COME ON! MOVE IT!” one of them ordered her.

“Hey, Lightning,” Gilda shouted back over her shoulder at the pegasus mare while she was being pulled out of the room, getting her attention. “You realize Celestia’s gonna cast that spell on you too, don’t you? You’re gonna have your head messed with, just like everyone else! Ya know, in all the time I knew you, I never took you as a pony who kissed others’ flanks to get ahead in life. I thought you were a rebel, like me, who didn’t take shit from anyone, who didn’t act like an obedient little filly and waited for things to be given to her, but who took what she wanted. And more importantly, I thought you were my friend, Lightning! But I guess you caved and became a lame-o tool, just like Rainbow Dash!”

Lightning Dust stood there, stunned, staring back at Gilda as she was dragged out of the throne room. Lightning Dust began to think about what Gilda had said, and about the whole situation.

………………

Princess Celestia teleported into the Heart Star’s engineering area. A number of engineering ponies’ heads turned to look at her sudden appearance. Celestia could see they were hard at work tried to fix the array, a great number of them gathered around an area with a large metal tube running up and down an open shaft in the center of the Heart Star.

A few of them were at a table, looking over a large open book with blueprints and instructions inside it. Celestia walked over to them.

“How are the repairs coming?” Celestia asked.

They all turned to look at her, quickly bowing their heads to her. “There was a lot of damage, your highness,” said one of the engineers, an indigo Earth pony mare with a magenta mane and tail, both of which were done up in a bun, wearing a white lab coat and lime green glasses. “And this book is so BIG! This might take a while.”

Celestia sighed in frustration, wishing she had Twilight with her to help with this. “We don’t have time for this. Turn on the video tutorial!” Celestia ordered.

Above their heads, a viewscreen turned on and a video started playing on it. It showed a bunch of blueprints and instructions on screen. Then she frowned when she heard a voice start speaking on the video, only it wasn’t in English.

“Oh no, you got it in FRENCH!” Celestia cried out in dismay. She facehooved. “Darn! The one language I can’t speak!”

“What do we do now, Princess?” the indigo mare asked.

Celestia looked down at her. “Find somepony who can speak French!”

………………

Shining Armor stared at the image before him on the viewscreen of the smoldering antenna of the Heart Star, his mouth agape in disbelief. Why hadn’t it worked? “The Heart Star is non-functional! Our fleet is destroyed! What else could go wrong?!” he groaned loudly.

Rarity suddenly stepped up beside Shining Armor and hit him hard with her rump, sending him flying across the deck, landing on his side on the floor with a loud thud.

“Move aside, darling!” Rarity said while he gaped up at her from the floor, in total shock at her actions. “It’s clear to me that you are unfit to command in the emotional state you’re in. So… I’m taking command!” She turned to face the stunned crew. “Maximize power to the engines! Intensify forward firepower! Target their shields and weapon systems only! And somepony bring me the complete works of Shakespeare and Herman Melville! I have some quoting to do!”

Everyone on the bridge continued to stare at the scene, not sure what to think, but soon they all shrugged and began to carry out Rarity’s orders.

Rarity smiles gleefully as she sees another one of their energy blasts hit the Defiant, sending it hurtling out of control. She laughed out loud. “Ha ha ha ha! From Tartarus's heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee! Ha ha ha ha!!”

Shining Armor got up from the floor onto all fours and stared at Rarity in deep concern. Oh yeah, you’re not taking this too far at all, he thought to himself.

………………

“SHIELDS AT TWENTY FIVE PERCENT!” Sunset screamed after Dumbbell and Hoops had used their gaming skills to get their ship back under control again.

“Fire alchemy bomb!” Trixie ordered, pounding her hoof down against the arm of her chair.

She watched on the viewscreen as one of the tiny metal spheres was fired from beneath their ship, soaring towards the Ascendency like a rocket. It made contact with Shining Armor’s shield and exploded, creating a blinding white light that lit up their entire viewscreen. They all have to squint their eyes and put their hooves in front of their faces from the blinding explosion. Trixie was hopeful that it had worked, and that the Ascendency had been destroyed, or at the very least, the shield bubble spell had been destroyed.

Trixie’s hopes were crushed however when the bright light from the explosion faded, and the Ascendency was still there, completely unharmed, and Shining Armor’s shield bubble was also still around it, shimmering dazzlingly from the residual heat from the explosion.

“IT'S NO USE!” Iron Will shouted furiously. “Shining Armor’s shield spell is too strong! The alchemy bombs aren't powerful enough, and we’re running out of them!”

“DARN IT!” Trixie slammed her hooves down on the arms of her command chair in frustration. She was considering just turning the ship around and escaping to hyperspace. At the moment she couldn’t see anyway they could win this if Gilda or Blueblood didn’t succeed in their own missions. She wondered how they both were doing.

Gilda, what’s taking so long? Blueblood, I hope you were right and that you can find a way to stop the plot hole from the inside. We could use all the help we could get right now.

………………

Blueblood woke up and opened his eyes. He found that he was lying on his side on… something. Something that he couldn't see, or feel for that matter.

He looked around him. It looked like he was in the vacuum of space, but he knew he couldn’t be, as he was breathing, and not frozen. Yet there were tiny twinkling stars all around him, and it really looked like he was lying out in space.

He got up and stood on all fours, but he wasn’t exactly sure what he was standing on. Magic?

“Where the heck am I?” Blueblood asked himself aloud, totally confused. “The Twilight Zone? Wait, am I dead!?” He lifted his foreleg up to his mouth and bit into his flesh. It hurt. “Nope. Not dead. So what is this?” Off all the things he had expected when he had flown into the plot hole… well, to be honest, he wasn’t sure what he had expected to find.

It then occurred to him that he wasn't entirely sure how he had gotten here. He looked around for the escape pod he had been in, but it was nowhere to be seen.

“Hello, Prince Blueblood,” said a voice behind him. It was an elderly male voice, and it was somewhat familiar.

Blueblood spun around, and he saw, standing there before him, none other than Starswirl the Bearded.

“Starswirl?” Blueblood said in amazement. It was indeed him, wearing his trademark long cloak wrapped around his body, and his pointed hat atop his head. And they even had the accurate bells on them. This was definitely Starswirl the Bearded.

“Yes, Blueblood. It’s me,” the elderly unicorn said.

“I thought you were dead.”

“I was… but now I have risen.” Starswirl’s cloak suddenly flew open as if by some magical wind, revealing two big, feathery wings unfurling from his sides, which he extended dramatically in full view for Blueblood to see.

Blueblood’s mouth gaped open. He could hardly believe his eyes, even as he stared at those big, feathery wings coming out of Starswirl’s back. Starswirl the Bearded was now an alicorn! He had actually become an alicorn!

“And you have risen too in a way, I see, Blueblood,” said Starswirl. “You have achieved something few other ponies have ever accomplished! Now, Blueblood, are you ready?”

Blueblood looked at Starswirl in confusion. “Ready for what?” he asked, feeling both excited and nervous.

Starswirl continued. “To finally achieve your destiny, Blueblood. Are you ready… to become an alicorn?”
> Ch 16. The Battle (part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Are you ready… to become an alicorn?” Starswirl asked Blueblood.

Blueblood stared at Starswirl, shocked at what the elderly pony had said. This was not what he had been expecting as his destiny. His shock then quickly transformed into confusion.

And he also felt offended.

“What!?” Blueblood exclaimed.

Starswirl appeared surprised by Blueblood’s outburst. “Beg pardon?”

Blueblood continued while he glared at Starswirl, very upset. “Are you saying there’s something wrong with my body the way it is!?”

Starswirl's eyes widened in surprise. “What? No, I-”

Blueblood cut Starswirl off. “I’ll have you know my body is perfect just the way it is! Look at this body!” Blueblood posed for Starswirl, so that he could get a good look at his entire well built body. “I’m sexy and I know it! I work out! Also, what would even be the point of me changing species? What’s wrong with being a unicorn?”

“Nothing…” Starswirl said, “but wouldn’t you rather be an alicorn?”

“NO!” Blueblood said, holding his head up proudly. “I’m proud to be a unicorn.”

“But aren’t alicorns better?” asked Starswirl.

Blueblood gaped at Starswirl, appalled at what the elderly alicorn had just said. “OF COURSE NOT!” Blueblood shouted angrily. “THAT’S RASIST! Or… speciesist. One of those things. Anyway, no species is better than any other! That’s one of the things we’re taught in school as children! Granted, I never paid much attention in school, but I still got the message! Me turning into an alicorn because it’s ‘better’ would be like… a donkey… or a griffon turning into a pony because it’s ‘better’, and I know that’s not right! Every species has it’s own individual strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons, benefits and costs. Yes, I know I say some speciesist things sometimes, but I’m just joking when I say those things! I don’t actually think those things!”

“But Blueblood…” Starswirl looked at Blueblood in concern. “This is your destiny!”

Blueblood thought for a moment about that. “Well… if that’s my destiny, then… buck destiny! I’m saying no!”

Starswirl stared at Blueblood in silence for a long moment after that. Then… a smile appeared on Starswirl’s face. “Congratulations, Blueblood,” he finally said. “That was exactly the answer I wanted to hear.”

Blueblood was taken aback by that response. Now he was even more confused.

Starswirl’s horn began to glow with magic. Blueblood watched as both of the elderly pony’s big wings also glowed with magic, and then began to fade away, becoming transparent like a ghost, before disappearing all together.

Blueblood stared at the now wingless Starswirl in utter confusion. “Your wings?” he asked.

“They weren’t real,” Starswirl said. “They were just an allusion created by a simple spell I cast on myself before you got here. I’m not an alicorn, Blueblood. I’m a unicorn! I’ve always been a unicorn, and I will always be a unicorn. And that isn’t a bad thing at all. I apologize for the deception, Blueblood, but it was necessary to make sure I could rely on you.”

“What do you mean? WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?” Blueblood demanded, becoming impatient.

Starswirl walked up in front of Blueblood and looked him in the eye. “I need your help, son.”

………………

The Defiant bridge lurched as the ship was nicked by another blast from the Ascendency.

“OUR SHIELDS ARE FAILING!” Sunset shrieked. “WE CAN’T TAKE ANOTHER HIT!”

“Then lets make sure we don’t get hit!” Trixie shouted up at Dumbbell and Hoops at the helm controls. She rubbed her hooves through her mane as she struggled to come up with an idea about what they could do. She thought about their ship and what it was capable of, but she couldn’t come up with much. They didn’t have a lot of firepower, and their shields were almost gone, their speed and agility were okay, but nothing impressive, and their ship was tiny compared to the Ascendency.

Wait! They were tiny! Maybe they could use that to there advantage. She looked at the enemy ship. Its weapons seemed to all be long range, good at hitting things far away from the ship, but it looked like it would have some difficulty hitting a tiny moving target that was right up next to the ship. She got an idea.

“Maybe we can use our small size to our advantage!” she spoke up to everyone around her on the bridge. She then pointed at the image of the Ascendency on the viewscreen. “Take us in closer to that ship! Get us as close to their hull as you can without hitting their shield bubble!”

They all looked at her like she was insane!

“CLOSER!?” exclaimed Dumbbell. “We should be flying away from that thing!”

“JUST DO IT! TRIXIE HAS A PLAN!” she shouted back at him. “They wont be able to hit us with their weapons if we stay close to them.”

After a few seconds, the others expressions all changed from confusion to understanding, and they nodded.

Dumbbell flew them in closer to the Ascendency, dodging another powerful blast from the enemy ship as they did. Up next to the gigantic ship’s hull, their ship was like a tiny pebble.

“That’s it, just keep us close, and keep moving around them,” Trixie said while Dumbbell and Hoops put their gamer skills to the max as they worked the ship’s helm controls, trying to keep them as close as they could to the Ascendency without bumping into it’s shield bubble. They were flying around the enemy ship like a fly buzzing around a pony’s head.

………………

“Where are they?” Rarity asked, having not seen the Defiant on the viewscreen for several seconds now.

One of the crewponies at a computer console responded. “They’re… flying around right close up to our ship,” the stallion said in a confused voice.

“What the hay are they doing?” Rarity asked thoughtfully. “Oh well. Just get them.”

“Sure you don’t want me to do this?” Shining Armor asked in annoyance, standing off to the side of the bridge.

“No, darling, I can handle this,” Rarity said to him, holding up her hoof to stop him from interfering. Then she looked back at the viewscreen. “Tickle me, do I not laugh? Prick me, do I not bleed? Wrong me… do I not revenge?” she muttered under her breath.

………………

Back on the Heart Star, Princess Celestia and the other ponies in engineering were still trying to repair the spell-amplifying array. The Princess was still waiting for them to find somepony who could speak French to translate the video instructions playing on the large computer screen in the room.

“Princess,” the magenta mare scientist from before said as she walked up to Celestia. “We’ve done a check, and no pony on the Heart Star can speak French.”

Celestia sighed, rubbing her hooves against her temples. Then a new idea came to her. She looked down at the Earth pony mare in front of her. “Turn on the computer’s French translator!”

“Yes, your highness,” said the mare, bowing her head before trotting over to the controls for the computer screen. “Why didn’t we just do that before?”

After the mare pressed a few buttons with her hooves, Celestia was surprised when the image of a griffon suddenly appeared on the computer screen. She quickly recognized the griffon as the famous baker, Gustave.

“Bonjour!” Gustave said. “I am Gustave, your French instructor. To continue this lesson in French, press 1 now.”

Celestia and the rest of the ponies in engineering all gaped at the screen in complete bewilderment.

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Celestia exclaimed, throwing her front hoves into the air above her head. “How could anypony learn French from an instructor who is only speaking French?”

“I now understand why we didn’t just do this before,” said the magenta mare scientist in mild amusement.

………………

In a different part of the Heart Star, Gilda was sitting on her haunches on a metal bench in a prison cell. Across from her, sitting on the bench against the opposite wall of the cell, was Doctor Whooves. She had been surprised to find him in the cell when she had first been thrown into it earlier.

“So Celestia caused Luna to become Nightmare Moon on purpose, and accidentally created the changelings?” the Doctor said after Gilda had finished explaining everything that had happened to her and her friends up till now. “Boy, I always suspected Celestia had some skeletons in her closet, but this…” He shook his head. “Blimey!”

“Yep,” Gilda said. “So can’t you use your sonic screwdriver or something to get us out of here?”

The Doctor sighed. “Unfortunately they took my sonic screwdriver when they imprisoned me! I’ve tried looking for other means of escaping this cell, but it’s no good. This cell is magically sealed. It can only be opened from the outside.” He let out a groan. “I hate magic.”

Gilda also groaned. The door of the cell didn’t have any bars, so she couldn’t reach her arm through and open the cell. The door only had a small slot for food to slide through, and for talking through, and her beacon had been in her Robocop armor, which they had taken off of her when she had been knocked out, so teleporting out of this place wasn’t an option either.

Her thoughts changed to Lightning Dust. This was all her fault. At the moment, she hated Lightning Dust. How could her supposed best friend have done this to her? She knew Lightning Dust wanted to be a Wonderbolt, but she hadn’t thought she would stab her in the back to become one.

Suddenly they heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching from outside the cell. A few seconds later, the steps stopped outside their cell, and the slot on the door opened up, letting in a stream of light from outside. Then a pony’s face appeared outside the slot. Gilda scowled when she saw who it was.

“What are you doing here?” spat Gilda at Lightning Dust. “Come to gloat, traitor?”

“Tell me the truth,” Lightning Dust said to Gilda, ignoring her question. “Were you being honest when you said what Celestia did to Luna, and the changelings too?”

“Yes,” said Gilda. “Like I said, we learned it from Luna herself. That was what was in her head that she wanted us to know! Come on, Lightning, I’m Gilda, your best friend… well, FORMER best friend! Would I lie to you?”

“Um…” began Lightning Dust.

“You know what, don’t answer that,” Gilda quickly said. “But I’m telling the truth this time! You have to believe me!”

Lightning Dust stared at Gilda for several seconds, looking like she was considering. After a few seconds, she said, “I believe you.”

Suddenly Gilda heard a few small clicking noises, and then the cell door swung open, revealing Lightning Dust standing alone outside.

“Well, come on! Don’t you know a jail break when you see one?” said Lightning Dust with a smirk.

Gilda and the Doctor got up off of the benches and stared at her. “What about becoming a Wonderbolt?” asked Gilda, raising an eyebrow at the pegasus.

“Oh…” Lightning Dust looked away. “I just figured… I don’t need Celestia to become a Wonderbolt! I’ll do it myself! And even if I don’t… well… who wants to be a Wonderbolt anyway? They SUCK! I heard three of them got knocked unconscious in the air once by a flailing mare who they were trying to save from falling to her death, and another time, when there was a dragon attack on Ponyville, they were totally useless! So… yeah. Why bother joining those losers? I’m already way better than they’ll ever be! I’ve saved the world!”

In that instant, Gilda couldn’t be mad a Lightning Dust any more. Gilda smirked, and then walked up to Lightning Dust. “I knew you missed me,” she said, quickly grabbing Lightning Dust in a headlock, before she could react, and giving the pegasus a noogie.

“Oh, shut up!” Lightning Dust growled as she escaped the headlock and pushed away from Gilda. “You’re not that awesome.”

“Am too!” Gilda shot back, though still smiling.

“Ladies, if you don’t mind, might we get out of here now?” asked the Doctor as he walked up to the two.

They both turned their heads to stare at him.

“Call me lady again, and I’ll deck you in the schnoz,” said Gilda.

The Doctor raised his eyebrow at Gilda, unfazed by the griffon’s threat. “In that case… ALLONS-Y!”

The Doctor took off galloping out of the cell and proceeded down the corridor out of the cellblock. Gilda and Lightning Dust quickly hurried off after him.

………………

“You need my help?” Blueblood said to Starswirl. He was so confused at that moment. He was probably more confused then he had ever been in his entire life.

Starswirl nodded. “Yes. That’s the reason I called you here.”

“Called me here?” inquired Blueblood, not knowing what Starswirl meant.

“Yes,” Starswirl said. “Those dreams you have been having, I sent them to you, in the hopes that you would come here. And you did.”

Blueblood remembered the dreams he had been having. “You sent those dreams to me?” Then something occurred to Blueblood. “And Trixie and Sunset’s dreams? The ones that showed them the spell to enter Luna’s mind?”

Starswirl nodded. “Yes, I sent them those dreams as well.”

“How?” asked Blueblood. “Why? And how are you here alive right now? I watched you DIE!”

Starswirl held up a hoof to silence Blueblood. “Calm down, young Prince. I understand you must have a lot of questions, and I will answer all of them.”

Blueblood scowled, but he obeyed.

Starswirl began. “I was indeed dead. As you may recall, my remains were launched into space as a final tribute to me. Against all odds, they flew into the plot hole, and the plot hole somehow granted me new life.”

“That’s… incredible!” said Blueblood, truly amazed.

Starswirl continued. “This place… it is quite different from our universe. It exists outside our universe, and the laws of time and space have no meaning here. As such, I gained the ability to see all places at every moment in history at once. To be quite honest, it gave me quite a headache.”

“What is this place, exactly?” asked Blueblood out of curiosity, gesturing around him at their cosmic surroundings.

“That… is a bit complicated,” said Starswirl. “We are… in a realm that serves as a buffer zone between our universe, and the universe where the writers exist.”

“The writers?” asked Blueblood.

“Yes. They are the creators of our universe, and many other universes, and all of the characters within them, like us. But I’ll get to them later. Anyway, I guess you could say we are… atop the fourth wall.”

Blueblood was now paying attention to Starswirl with complete interest.

“Anyway,” continued Starswirl, “after I came here, I discovered some things that deeply concerned me, the truth about Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the changelings, and fact that the plot hole is going to destroy the whole of creation if it is not stopped.”

“The plot hole! Yes!” said Blueblood. “That’s why I came here! To find a way to stop the plot hole from destroying the universe!”

“That is also the reason why I called you here, Blueblood,” said Starswirl. “I need your help to restore balance to the universe.”

Then something occurred to Blueblood. “Hold on. If all you needed to do was tell me these things, why didn’t you just tell me them in the dreams you sent me instead of making me come here?”

“Because it was too dangerous! Going inside another ponies mind was dangerous to their mental state. You saw what happened to Princess Luna because I lingered in her mind for too long, didn’t you? It put her into a coma! Had I tried the same with you or another pony, it might have killed you! I could only risk sending you small clues to help you along. Anymore then that, and you might have ended up no better then Princess Luna is now, or worse.”

“Oh,” said Blueblood. “Well then… why can’t you stop the plot hole yourself?”

“I can’t leave the plot hole, Blueblood,” Starswirl explained. “If I leave, I’ll be reduced back to nothing more then a pile of ashes in an urn. If I want to stay alive, I have to stay here… forever.”

Blueblood felt sorry for Starswirl, but he kept his mind on the situation at hoof. “But I can leave?”

“You can leave this place whenever you want, Blueblood.”

That was a big relief to Blueblood. He had been worried he was stuck in this place. “Okay, then tell me how to stop the plot hole!”

“Patience, my boy,” said Starswirl. “If you’re going to save the universe, then I have more to teach you then just that. There is much you need to know.”

“But there’s no time!” Blueblood protested. “My friends are in danger NOW!”

“Actually, we have all the time we could ever need,” Starswirl said with a chuckle. “Like I said, time has no meaning in this place, because it exists outside of our universe. We could spend what might seem like an hour in here talking, but out there, it is literally whatever time we want it to be. You can chose to leave this place and go wherever and whenever you want.”

“Wow!” said Blueblood, amazed by this information.

“Sit,” Starswirl said, motioning for Blueblood to sit down.

Starswirl and Blueblood both sat down on their haunches beside each other.

“Blueblood, you came in here because I told you your destiny was in here, didn’t you?” Starswirl asked.

“Yes,” Blueblood nodded. “But also because I thought my destiny was to stop the plot hole.”

“Well there is something you need to know,” Starswirl said. “A truth that so many ponies don’t realize. You see… there is no such thing as destiny.”

Blueblood stared at Starswirl in shock. “No destiny!?” 

Starswirl shook his head. “No. There cannot be. If there were, and the future was already set in stone, then there would be no free will in the world. But all living creatures have free will, so there for, things like destiny cannot exist. Many try to fool themselves into believing that they are meant for something to try to make themselves feel better about themselves, that there is predetermined plan for them, but it is a lie. None of us are meant to do anything. We are born, we live, and then we die, and during that time we make the best choices we can. When you and your friends saved the world from Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, you didn’t do it because you were destined to. You did it because you chose to of your own free will, just as the Element Bearers were not destined to become the Element Bearers. They became them because they made the choice to go and find the Elements of Harmony that night when Nightmare Moon returned. You see, great ponies are not chosen. Great ponies are the ones who make the choice. And that is an encouraging fact, Blueblood.”

“It is?” asked Blueblood, still shocked at what Starswirl was telling him. How could not being destined for anything special be an encouraging fact?

“Yes,” continued Starswirl, “because it means that it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t mater if you’re rich or poor, or have great magic or none, or have wings, or horn, or neither, or both, or have a royal title or are a commoner, or even what species you are. None of that matters! All that maters is what we as individuals choose to do with our lives. If you put your mind to it, and work hard at something, and don’t give up, you can accomplish anything you want in life.”

“But what about cutiemarks?” asked Blueblood, glancing down at his own compass rose cutiemark on his flank.

“Ah, yes. Cutiemarks,” Starswirl said with a nod. “Well, Blueblood, you see… just like power levels in the anime series ‘Dragonball Z’, cutiemarks are bullshit!”

Blueblood was surprised to hear profanity come from Starswirl the Bearded.

Starswirl continued talking. “No mark on your flank can tell you your limitations, or what to do with your life! The only one who can decide that is yourself. Everypony has the potential to do whatever they want with their life! All they have to do is put their minds to it, and work hard at it, and any pony can accomplish anything! Cutiemarks came about long ago simply to show a pony’s natural special talent or personality trait that they had, in order to show ponies that there was something special about them, but then the plot hole began changing things, and ponies forgot the cutiemark’s true purpose. Now, instead of thinking for themselves, ponies rely purely on their cutiemarks to tell them what to do with their lives, believing that the mark is their destiny, and has total control of them and their lives. It’s dreadful!”

“But what does any of this have to do with stopping the plot hole?” asked Blueblood impatiently. As interesting as he found what Starswirl was telling him, he just didn’t feel like it was helping him stop the plot hole from destroying the universe.

Starswirl looked annoyed that he had been interrupted, but he spoke calmly. “Blueblood, if you want to save the universe, then you have to understand what I’m trying to teach you. Only if you understand these things will you be able to know how to save the universe from the plot hole, as well as prevent this catastrophe from ever happening again.”

Blueblood let out a sigh of impatiens, but nodded and allowed Starswirl to continue.

Starswirl grinned. “I’m going to tell you a secret, Blueblood. A secret I’ve been keeping my entire life. My cutiemark that I’ve been showing off for all these years… Its fake.”

Blueblood was shocked. “Fake?”

Starswirl stood up on all fours. “Here is my true cutiemark that I have been concealing my whole life.” He lifted his cloak up so that Blueblood could see his flank. Blueblood looked at it closely, seeing, to his surprise, the image of a pair of barber’s scissors and a comb.”

“Barber’s scissors and a comb?” Blueblood asked.

Starswirl nodded. “I remember the day I got my cutiemark, back when I was just a little colt. Mane and tail styling was my special talent. And I was very good at it too. The only problem was it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to study magic. I didn’t care if it wasn’t my special talent or my destiny. I wanted to dedicate my life to magic and become a great sorcerer. But I new my parents and teachers would never give me the chance when they saw my cutiemark wasn’t magic related. So… before anypony noticed my cutiemark, I covered it up with a fake one, and continued to do so for the rest of my life. It wasn’t easy, but it fooled ponies, and I was granted the chance to study magic with professional teachers. As you can imagine, my schooling wasn’t easy, since I wasn’t truly naturally talented at magic like my fellow classmates, but I worked hard, and never gave up. And it paid off. It took me many decades, but I eventually became one of the most skilled ponies in magic that ever lived. I defied my so-called ‘destiny’, Blueblood, and I don’t regret it for one second.”

Blueblood gaped at Starswirl in utter amazement. He could hardly believe what he had just heard. Starswirl the Bearded had not been naturally gifted with magic. He had defied his cutiemark, and it had actually paid off for him. This meant so many things in their history books were false!

However, something was still bothering Blueblood.

“But Starswirl, if we’re all just characters in a story, like you said, then doesn’t that mean we don’t really have free will at all? That everything we do and say is being controlled by the writers?”

Starswirl smiled at him. “Well… yes and no. Listen closely, Blueblood, because what I’m about to tell you is very important. It is true, we are characters in a story, and everything that happens in that story is written by the writer, but… in truly good stories, the writers are not supposed to just write whatever they want. It is the writer’s job to listen to the characters in the story, and then write the characters the way the characters tell the writer to write them. For you see, in a good story, characters truly do take on a life of their own. Even fictional characters, like us. Just because we’re fictional doesn’t mean we aren’t alive. The characters and the writer form a sort of symbiotic relationship. We need them to write us so that we exist, and they need us to tell them what to write. The writer’s job is to write a fictional story exactly like it might actually happen as if it were real, with sense and logic. That way the suspension of disbelief can be maintained. Only if the suspension of disbelief is maintained can a fictional universe, and all the characters in it, exist. But without sense and logic, plot holes will be created, and will destroy our universe, and all of us with it, and we will all cease to exist. So you see, we are supposed to be written… with the freedom to choose our lives for ourselves. Do you understand?”

“I think so,” said Blueblood, nodding as his brain processed everything Starswirl had told him. It was all so complicated, but incredible. These beings called writers, who existed in another realm, made entire universes and characters! But at the same time, they needed the characters just as much as the characters needed them, because the writers wrote what the characters told them to write in order to make the story the best they could.

But he still didn’t understand how any of this would help him stop the plot hole from destroying the universe.
> Ch 17. The Battle (part 3)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Why is this taking so long?” Rarity demanded in annoyance back on the bridge of the Ascendency.

Their tactical officer shook his head in frustration. “The Defiant is flying too close to our ship, and too fast! I can’t target them!” he responded to Rarity.

Rarity stamped her hoof on the hard floor in irritation! “THEN FIRE IN EVERY DIRECTION AT ONCE!” she ordered.

“We can’t,” said the tactical officer plainly. “The ship isn’t designed to do that.”

Rarity growled loudly in anger as she tried to come up with something to solve this annoying problem.

“Can I make a suggestion?” asked Shining Armor, still sounding annoyed at Rarity for taking command away from him.

Unable to come up with anything herself, Rarity sighed and turned to him. “Yes, Shining?”

“Ram them with our ship,” he said to her.

Rarity thought for a few seconds, and then smiled at the idea. “Ram them with our ship!” she ordered aloud.

………………

Trixie’s eyes widened in horror as the Ascendency suddenly banked sharply in their direction. There was no way for them to have avoided getting hit.

Their ship rocked and tumbled through space violently as they were hit hard by the shield bubble around the Ascendency. They all screamed as they were hurled out of their seats onto the floor. Sparks burst from the controls and red lights began flashing. A few fires ignited in various spots on the bridge.

Seeing the flames, Trixie closed her eyes and lit up her horn with magic, and, in a flash of light, she conjured up a fire extinguisher in midair in front of her. She levitated it over to the spots of the bridge that were on fire and began putting out the flames with it.

They all quickly hurried to get back up onto their hooves and get their ship back under control again.

Trixie looked around her at the smoke filled bridge as she sat back down in the command chair. As the ship stopped it’s tumbling and steadied out thanks to Dumbbell and Hoops working the helm controls, Trixie wondered how badly they were damaged.

She didn’t have to wait long to find out.

“OUR SHIELDS ARE GONE!” Sunset shouted fearfully while coughing a bit from the smoke still lingering in the air. “WE’RE COMPLETELY DEFENSELESS!”

Trixie hung her head in despair.

Suddenly, Flim and Flam burst onto the bridge, coughing as well. “Bad news, everypony!” Flam said urgently. “Our engines are blown and our power core is damaged!”

“He’s right,” said Dumbbell at the helm. “The thrusters aren’t working. We’re sitting ducks!”

That was it. Trixie knew they had no choice now. Sorry, Gilda and Lightning Dust. “Can we use the improbability drive to escape?” she asked. She didn’t want to leave her friends behind, but with the situation as hopeless as it was, they didn’t have any other choice.

Flim and Flam shook their heads sadly. “We don’t have enough power left for that.”

And now Trixie felt utterly helpless. That strategy of staying close to the enemy ship so that it couldn’t hit them had been the best she could think of, and it had failed. It was obvious they were all in way over their heads here. And now they couldn’t even escape if they wanted to. Their ship was crippled. This was it. They were done.

On the viewscreen, they could see the Ascendency moving away from their ship, and then turning around so that it was facing them. They all gasped silently in terror when they saw the main cannon on the front of the Ascendency was beginning to glow with white light again, indicating the massive battle cruiser was about to fire another blast at them.

“What do we do?” whimpered Upper Crust.

“There’s nothing we can do,” Entomala growled, apparently having begrudgingly accepted their fate. “We’re dead.”

No! Trixie thought to herself, standing up from her chair and facing the viewscreen defiantly. I, the great and powerful Trixie, refuse to go down this way! The enemy ship was about to fire on them, and she knew if she didn’t do something, they were dead. Squeezing her eyes shut tight and gritting her teeth, she began pumping magic into her horn, focusing only on protecting the ship, herself, and her friends. Her horn ignited with a burst of violet magical energy.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Trixie in surprise at what she was doing. Her body had begun to tremble as she concentrated as hard as she could. Trixie somehow found strength she never knew she had deep inside of her, and then her eyes flew open, and were glowing with bright white light. 

“Is she going super saiyan?” asked Hoops.

On the viewscreen, the Ascendency fired its powerful beam weapon at them, the white blast soaring across the space between their ships straight towards them.

Trixie let out an angry scream, and then a powerful violet beam of magic shot out of her horn. The beam passed through the walls of their ship, and created a huge shield bubble all the way around the entire Defiant.

The blast from the Ascendency struck Trixie’s shield spell, and on the bridge of the Defiant, everyone squinted their eyes from the blinding light on the viewscreen. When the light faded, they were overjoyed to see that the shield bubble Trixie had cast had actually held up to the attack.

They all let out a cheer.

However, they could then see the bubble start to crack, and then it collapsed, dissipating into magic sparkles in space, and then into nothing. But that didn’t matter. Trixie had saved them!

Trixie, however, failed to notice this as a wave of dizziness and exhaustion overtook her just then. She wobbled on her legs, and then collapsed to the floor. The spell had completely drained her. It had taken everything she had had in her. Her world was spinning, and she wasn’t entirely sure what was going on anymore. She wasn’t even aware of all of her friends on the bridge gathering around her in a panic and seeing if she was okay.

“TRIXIE, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!” Upper Crust asked.

The dizziness started to where off and her vision came back into focus. She looked around at all of her friends around her, kneeling over her with concerned looks on their faces. “W…what happened?” she groaned.

“Trixie, that was amazing!” Hoops said.

“You saved us!” said Sunset. “You cast that shield spell around the entire ship and protected us from the blast!”

“You really are great and powerful!” said Iron Will.

Trixie smiled up at them. “Trixie… has been practicing,” she said weakly. It was true. She had been practicing spells, before they had gone on this adventure into space, including shield bubble spells. Ever since Princess Luna had agreed to tutor her in magic, Trixie had really improved, but she had never been able to cast a spell that powerful before on her own. Yet somehow, this time, knowing that she and her friends were all in danger, she had found the strength.

Just then, Entomala spoke up. “Um… I’d hate to ruin the moment, but the Ascendency looks like its getting ready to fire again!”

They all looked at the viewscreen. To their dismay, the Ascendency was indeed getting back into position for another attack.

Trixie frowned. “Trixie is to exhausted from that last spell to cast another one!” she groaned.

“Doesn't anyone have any bright ideas??” asked Dumbbell in a panic.

“Sorry I’m late, everypony!” a British male voice suddenly said over the intercom.

Suddenly, something caught their attention on the viewscreen. Something was materializing in between their ship and the Ascendency. It was tiny, and it was blue, and it was box shaped.

“IT’S THE TARDIS!” Flim shouted joyfully.

Indeed, it was Doctor Whooves’ trademark time machine, appearing directly ahead of their ship. They all felt an overwhelming sense of relief right then.

Suddenly, the image on the viewscreen changed to show the inside of the TARDIS’s main control room. And standing center screen was the legendary Time Pony himself, Doctor Whooves.

“All right, everypony, now we’ve given them something else to shoot at,” the Doctor said, a happy grin on his face.

Suddenly two more creatures ran onto the screen beside the Doctor. A griffon and a Pegasus mare they all recognized. “Hey, guys!” they both said.

“Gilda! Lightning Dust! You’re okay!” exclaimed Score happily.

Suddenly Lightning Dust looked horrified and pointed at them. “GUYS! THERE’S A CHANGELING THERE WITH YOU!”

They all looked at Entomala, who was rolling her eyes, and then back at Lightning Dust.

“It’s okay, Lightning. She’s with us,” said Iron Will.

Lightning Dust still looked at them in confusion. “Iron Will? When did you get out here?”

“Why does everypony keep asking me that?” Iron Will said, shrugging his arms into the air. “I’ve been here the whole time! Don’t you remember?”

On the screen, Gilda turned to Lightning Dust and put a reassuring paw on the pegasus mare’s shoulder. “It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in later,” she said to her.

Lightning nodded and relaxed.

……………….

On the bridge of the Ascendency, Rarity watched as the TARDIS appeared on the viewscreen, settling in directly between their ship, and the Defiant.

She smirked confidently. “Ah. The game's afoot, eh?” She pointed at the TARDIS with her hoof. “FIRE!”

She watched as a their ship sent a white energy blast at the TARDIS. The blast hit the TARDIS dead on, sending the small blue box spinning wildly through space.

“CRY ‘HAVOC!’, AND LET SLIP THE DIAMOND DOGS OF WAR!” Rarity shouted out loudly with glee.

……………….

The TARDIS shook as it was hit by the Ascendency’s blast. The Doctor, Gilda, and Lightning Dust all held onto the control console to keep from falling over.

“WOW! THAT’S SOME FIREPOWER!” the Doctor exclaimed. Then he grinned at Gilda and Lightning Dust. “But I’ve encountered better!”

“You sure this… ship… can hold together against them?” asked Gilda.

“Are you kidding?” the Doctor laughed. “This old girl can stand up to Dalek attacks.” He then began pressing buttons on the control panel. “But first, I’m going to give them the chance to surrender.”

He pressed one last button, and then the elegant bridge of the Ascendency appeared on the TARDIS’s viewscreen. A surprised looking Rarity was standing front and center in the image, and behind her in the background were dozens of crewponies at various computer stations, as well as Shining Armor.

The Doctor spoke. “Ascendency, this is the Doctor. I’m giving you this one chance to surrender and stand down.”

Rarity burst out laughing. “Surrender? Us? You must be joking! Our ship is way bigger and way more powerful then yours. You’re the ones who should be surrendering!”

“Ah, see that’s where you’re wrong, miss Rarity,” the Doctor shot back. “You forget who you’re dealing with. I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Pony. I'm from the planet Gallopfrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous. I am nine hundred and six years old, and I'm the pony who is gonna take you, and your entire ship, down, unless you surrender right now. Any questions?”

Rarity looked back behind her at her tactical officer. “Fire,” she said calmly, just as the transmission ended and the TARDIS’s viewscreen switched back to the view outside in space, showing the Ascendency charging it’s main cannon, and then promptly firing it at them.

The blast hit the TARDIS again. The control room of the TARDIS shook and Gilda, Lightning Dust, and the Doctor once again held onto the control console to steady themselves.

The Doctor shook his head. “They never listen,” he said in disappointment, then he instantly became serious. “Okay, I have a plan.” He pressed a button on the intercom for the Defiant. “Doctor to Defiant! Be ready to fire when I give you the signal. We’re gonna punch through their shields for you.”

He then began working the many controls on the control panel, and the TARDIS began flying right at the Ascendency.

………………

“What’s he doing?” Rarity thought to herself aloud as she watched the TARDIS on the viewscreen flying towards them.

“Lady, Rarity,” said one of the crewponies. “Our computers show the TARDIS is on a collision course for us.”

“What?” Rarity gaped in confusion. “Is he insane?”

But Shining Armor was more worried, and his eyes widened in terror as he realized what the Doctor was doing.

“FIRE EVERYTHING!” he shouted at the top of his lungs at his crew.

But it was too late. The TARDIS made contact with Shining Armor’s shield bubble, and the shield bubble instantly shattered against the TARDIS’s much more powerful Time Pony forcefields, the pieces of the shield bubble dissipating into magic sparkles in space, and then fading into nothing.

Then the TARDIS began to dematerialize, fading away into nothing before it could make contact with the actual hull of the Ascendency.

………………

Back on the bridge of the Defiant, the Doctor’s voice suddenly came up on the intercom again. “Doctor to Defiant. You’re all clear! Now strike while you have the chance!”

Trixie, who was now back up on her hooves, looked over at Iron Will. “Do we have any alchemy bombs left?”

“Just one,” he said.

She looked back ahead of her at the now shieldless Ascendency. “FIRE!!!”

Iron Will quickly leaped over to his tactical station and pressed the fire button for the Alchemy bomb launcher.

On the viewscreen, they all watched as their last alchemy bomb soared out from beneath their ship, heading straight for the Ascendency.

………………

On the Ascendency, everyone on the bridge all noticed the Defiant fire the alchemy bomb, and were now watching the bomb heading right towards them.

Rarity turned to Shining Armor. “SHINING, RECAST YOUR SPELL!!! QUICK!!!” she screamed in a state of panic.

“THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME! ITS TOO LATE!” Shining Armor shouted, grabbing Rarity with his front hooves and pulling her backwards with him, away from the front of the bridge.

Less than a second later, they were both deafened by the ear popping sound of an explosion behind them…

………………

The alchemy bomb detonated on impact with the Ascendency, causing another blinding explosion of light. Everyone on the Defiant squinted their eyes as they watched the explosion on the viewscreen.

When the light from the explosion faded, they could see the Ascendency was now a burning wreck, it’s hull now scorched and darkened from the explosion. Smaller explosions riddled the ship’s hull all over it, sending red-hot pieces of shrapnel hurling off of it into space.

The Ascendency then began drifting through space, completely out of control. It was on a direct course for the Heart Star.

………………

Princess Celestia smiled as she heard the loud hum of the spell amplifying array powering back up in the Heart Star’s engineering bay after the mechanics and scientist ponies finally completed repairs well enough for it to work.

“Excellent!” she said joyfully. She walked over to a computer consol and attempted to contact the Ascendency to let them know. She pressed the communications button. “Shining Armor, this is Princess Celestia.” She paused, waiting for a response, but all she got was static. “Shining Armor?” she asked again several seconds later. “Rarity? Anypony?”

Puzzled, Princess Celestia suddenly became aware of the sound of screaming all around her. She looked up from the computer controls in front of her, and glanced around the area. She was confused when she saw all of the ponies in the room screaming and running towards the exit door into the corridor.

Curious, she turned to look at what all the ponies were running from. Her ears fell flat against her head, and her eyes widened in terror when she did. There was a large window against a wall on the far side of the area she was in, and through that window, she could see the Ascendency, scorched and heavily damaged, flying out of control right towards the part of the Heart Star she was currently in.

As the rest of the ponies all ran for their lives, Celestia stoad there on the spot she was in, frozen in utter shock.

“...Oh, it's just as my fortune cookie predicted,” she whimpered to herself, just as her horn began to glow with golden yellow light…

………………

On the bridge of the Defiant, they all watched as the Ascendency crashed into the side of the Heart Star, smashing right through the giant, heart shaped space station’s outer hull, sending tons of debris hurtling out into space.

They all let out a big sigh of relief. It was over. They had not only survived. They had actually won.

They all heard a mechanical whining drone in the room, and then saw the TARDIS materialize on the bridge with them. The door opened, and The Doctor, Gilda, and Lightning Dust all walked out.

Both Gilda and Lightning Dust’s eyes widened when they looked at the viewscreen, and saw the aft section of the Ascendency sticking out of a giant smoldering hole in the Heart Star.

“Whoa! I guess I joined the right side in the end!” Lightning Dust said to Gilda with a grin.

The Doctor glanced around at their house ship, a look of astonishment on his face. “Blimey! So you lot made a space ship out of a house?” he said to all of them.

“Impressed?” asked Trixie, she and everyone else all holding their heads up proudly.

The doctor looked at her like she was crazy. “Impressed?! It’s a miracle this thing is still in one piece! What were you thinking going into space with this death trap?!”

They all glared at the Doctor in irritation.

“So where is Prince Blueblood?” asked the Doctor, seemingly oblivious to their annoyance. “I don’t see him anywhere?”

Trixie flinched at that question.

“Yeah, where the heck is Blueblood?” asked Jet Set, him and everyone else remembering that their Prince friend had been missing since before the battle. “We just fought a whole battle, and didn’t see him ONCE!”

“I swear,” said Upper Crust angrily. “If I find out he was hiding in his room cowering this whole time, or something like that, I’m going to kill him!”

“Actually…” Trixie spoke up, scratching the back of her head with her hoof awkwardly. She decided she might as well tell them now. “…Blueblood took the escape pod to go into the plot hole.”

They all stared perplexedly at Trixie.

“I’m sorry, what?” said the Doctor after several seconds.

Trixie continued. “Before the attack, Blueblood took the escape pod and flew off to go into the plot hole because he had a vision telling him there might be a way to stop the plot hole from destroying the universe inside it.”

Again, they all stared at Trixie.

“You’re joking right?” asked Gilda.

She shook her head, and they all gaped at Trixie in shock.

“So you’re telling us Blueblood is inside that plot hole right now?” exclaimed Flam, pointing at the image on the viewscreen of the giant swirling vortex of in the distance in space.

She nodded. “Yes… er,r well, Trixie hopes so. And she also hopes he’s alive.”

Before anything could be said any further about that, Sunset Shimmer suddenly spoke up over everyone.

“Hey, everyone!?” Sunset shouted to them. She was still sitting at her computer station, staring at her screen. They all looked over at her, and she continued. “I’m detecting a dangerous build up of energy from within the Ascendency. “

In a blink of an eye, the Doctor leaped over to her side and looked over her shoulder at the screen. “She’s right. Their magic power core is going critical! It’s gonna explode, and the blast will be big enough to take out both it, and the Heart Star with it.” Then a grave expression appeared on his face. “And there’s still life form readings onboard both of them.”

They all looked at each other, each of them considering the same question in their heads.

“Should we help them?” asked Hoops, shrugging his hooves into the air.

Queen Entomala stuck up her nose. “I say let Celestia die!” she said coldly.

The Doctor glared at the changeling angrily. “That’s not my way!” he said to her. “Besides, there’s more ponies over there then just Celestia!”

“It would be the right thing to do,” said Flim, and his brother nodded in agreement beside him.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Trixie said, knowing it was true. At the moment, the idea of helping her enemies infuriated her, but she knew it would be wrong to not try to save all those ponies from dying. She sighed. “Darn it, why am I such a nice pony? Alright, lets go rescue-”

Before Trixie could finish her sentence, the Ascendency suddenly exploded with a blinding light, the blast taking a huge chunk out of the Heart Star with it, sending smoldering debris and shrapnel hurtling off into space in all directions. The force of the Ascendency exploding caused a chain reaction of explosions all throughout the Heart Star. The massive hull of the heart shaped space station began to crack and split neatly in two as a series of explosions ran down the middle, exposing dozens of decks and debris into space, and making it resemble, ironically, a broken heart.

Several seconds later, after a few more smaller explosions flashed from within the Heart Star, the giant space station blew apart in one final blinding explosion, which lit up the viewscreen with white light. When it cleared, there was nothing left of the Heart Star but a massive cloud of tiny, smoldering debris and shrapnel, whirling through space in all directions.

They all just stared at the image of the field of debris on the viewscreen for a long moment, mortified. All those ponies… dead. Rarity, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia. They were all dead.

“Oh,” Trixie said awkwardly, finally breaking the eerie silence. “Oh well. Nothing we can do for them now.” She immediately felt a twinge of guilt inside her for not wanting to help them earlier.

At least it was over now. All they needed to do now was either wait for Blueblood, presuming he was still alive, or try to get him back themselves and figure out what to do about the plot hole. Fortunately, they didn’t have to hurry because they had plenty of time to do all that.

Suddenly, Hoops spoke up, and pointed at the viewscreen with his hoof, fear and uncertainty in his voice. “Guys… something weird is going on with the plot hole!”
> Ch 18. Mistakes! Mistakes Everywhere!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	On the bridge of the Defiant, they stared at the image of the plot hole on the viewscreen. The massive swirling vortex in space was suddenly increasing in size very fast. In only a matter of seconds, it had actually doubled in size.

“What’s going on?” asked Upper Crust fearfully.

“Oh no!” said the Doctor worriedly. “The Heart Star was absorbing all the excess quantum energy coming from the plot hole. That’s why, up till now, the plot hole has been relatively stable. But now that the Heart Star has been destroyed, the excess energy has nowhere to go, so it’s causing the plot hole to expand at an accelerated rate!”

Everyone was silent as they took this in.

“So the Heart Star was actually stopping the plot hole from destroying the universe?” asked Trixie in surprise.

“Not stopping,” said the Doctor as he continued to watch the plot hole expand bigger and bigger. “Just delaying. I estimate the universe only has about a few minutes left. Total armageddon.”

“What do we do?” demanded Flim. “How do we stop it?”

The Doctor looked at them solemnly. “…I don’t know. I’m not even sure it’s possible. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Trixie and the rest of them all hung their heads. That was it. Everything they had just gone through had all been for nothing. They were all about to die.

Trixie noticed Upper Crust leaned her head against her husband Jet Set’s chest, who embraced her in his forelegs as she began to sob. Trixie wished Blueblood were there with her right then.

………………

Prince Blueblood and Starswirl the bearded suddenly heard a deep rumbling sound all around them.

“Please tell me that’s your stomach,” Blueblood said to Starswirl.

Starswirl waved one of his forehooves in the air in front of him, and then suddenly a magical image appeared in the air in front of them. It showed the plot hole itself, the swirling vortex, growing bigger very quickly.

“The plot hole has begun to expand,” said Starswirl. “The universe only has minutes remaining before everything is erased from existence.”

Blueblood started to panic. “We have to stop it! Quick, how do I destroy the plot hole?”

Starswirl looked at him. “You can’t destroy the plot hole, Blueblood,” he said. “It’s a hole. A hole is emptiness. You can’t destroy emptiness.”

Blueblood grew impatient again. “Then what do I do!? How do I stop it!?”

“Calm down and think, Blueblood. Tell me, in the real world, if there is a hole in something, like the ground or a wall, how do you get rid of it?”

Blueblood was getting tired of Starswirl’s riddles, but he thought anyway. To get rid of a hole, you… cover it up, or…”

“YOU FILL IT IN!” Blueblood shouted.

Starswirl smiled. “Exactly, Blueblood! Exactly!”

Then Blueblood frowned. “But how do you fill in a plot hole?”

“How else?” said Starswirl like the answer was obvious. “With sense and logic, of course! Remember everything I just taught you, Blueblood? Use it!”

Blueblood thought about what Starswirl had just said. It made sense! The plot hole had been created by a paradox, so the only way to fix it was with sense and logic.

Blueblood got an idea. “I know what I have to do! You said I can leave the plot hole, right?”

“Yes,” Starswirl said with a nod. “Like I said, the laws of reality and time have no meaning in this place.”

“Okay then,” said Blueblood. “I know exactly where I want to go. The bridge of my ship at this current time! I know what to do, and I have to tell them.”

Starswirl waved his hoof in the air again, and then suddenly a glowing crack of light appeared in the air right in front of them. “Through there,” Starswirl said, pointing at the crack of light.

Blueblood looked at the crack with uncertainty. “Is it safe?” he asked nervously.

“Perfectly,” Starswirl said to him reassuringly. “It will take you right where and when you want to be.”

Blueblood gulped, but nodded. “Thank you,” he said to Starswirl.

Starswirl chuckled. “You have changed so much since I first met you, Blueblood. I remember when you were once an arrogant spoiled brat who only cared about himself.”

Blueblood frowned, feeling insulted.

“But now,” Starswirl continued, “…well, I’d be lying if I said you weren’t still a bit spoiled and arrogant, but you are a much better pony then you were before, and I’m happy to call you my friend.”

Blueblood smiled. “And I’m happy to call you mine.”

Starswirl held out a hoof to Blueblood. Blueblood graciously took the elderly unicorn’s hoof in his own, and they shook them in friendship.

At that moment, Blueblood realized Starswirl would be staying in this place, all alone. “Are you sure you’ll be alright staying in this place?” Blueblood asked Starswirl, letting go of his hoof after the hoofshake was over and gesturing around them at the cosmic surroundings of the realm they were in.

Starswirl nodded. “I’ll be fine. The plot hole has granted me a new life, and I don’t intend to waist it. There are an infinite number of new universes for me to observe here now, and I’ll always be watching over yours as well. That will be my job from now on, and it’s one I’m quite looking forward to.”

Blueblood smiled. “Well, then, I guess this is goodbye.” Blueblood stepped up to the crack of light. He readied himself to jump into it.

“Blueblood!”

Blueblood looked back at Starswirl.

Starswirl raised his hoof in the air up beside his head. “Live long… and prosper.”

Blueblood nodded. “I will.” And with that, Blueblood leaped forward into the crack…

………………

Back onboard the Defiant’s bridge, as all of them were staring at the viewscreen, they suddenly heard the zap of electricity, and saw a flash of light coming from behind them. They all whirled around in surprise and saw an anomaly crack appear in the air at the back of the room.

They all stared at in shock and total silence, afraid, not knowing what it was going to do to them this time.

After several seconds past, some solid object came bursting out of the glowing crack, landing on the floor in front of it. Their expressions all turned to joy and relief when they saw it was Prince Blueblood standing before them, alive and well.

“BLUEBLOOD!” all of them shouted, Trixie leaping forward and wrapping her forelegs around him in a tight embrace. He embraced her as well, just as the anomaly crack disappeared with a bright flash of light behind them.

Trixie leaned back from the hug and then pressed her lips into Blueblood’s in a deep kiss. After several seconds, they disengaged from the kiss, and then Trixie looked Blueblood in the eyes. “How did you…?”

“I’ll explain later,” said Blueblood quickly, noticing the rapidly expanding plot hole on the viewscreen. “There’s no time. I know how to stop the plot hole!”

Everyone’s eyes shot open wide at that statement. All except Sunset Shimmer, however, who was suddenly not wearing a bandana anymore, and her mane and tail were back to their normal colors.

“What’s going on?” she asked, sounding and looking utterly confused by everything around her. “I was just in the dining room. How’d I get here? And why is the room all a wreck? And why is there a changeling, a minotaur, and the Doctor and his TARDIS here now!?”

Everyone else ignored Sunset, and continued to focus entirely on Blueblood.

“You know how to stop the plot hole?” the Doctor exclaimed with renewed hope, walking up to Blueblood.

Blueblood nodded. “Yes, but I need all of your help! In fact, I need everypony in Equestria to help! Everypony! As much help as we can get.”

“What is it?” asked the Doctor.

“The only way to stop the plot hole is to fill it in with sense and logic! I believe if everypony shouts out everything that doesn’t make sense, and why it doesn’t make sense, as loudly as they can, loud enough for the writers to hear us, then the plot hole will close!”

The Doctor thought for a few seconds, and then he smiled. “OF COURSE! BRILLIANT, BLUEBLOOD!”

Suddenly they all heard loud creaking and cracking. The house ship around them was beginning to be ripped apart by the crushing pull of the plot hole. On the view screen they could see the entire moon Titan being broken up and sucked into the plot hole.

“We can use the TARDIS to contact Equestria!” the Doctor said quickly in a state of panic. “I know a friend who can help us out. Quickly, everypony into the TARDIS!” He galloped over to his blue police box and opened the door. “Come on! All of you inside! HURRY!”

Without hesitation, all of them ran into the TARDIS door.

“Seriously!” said Sunset as she hurried into the TARDIS with the rest of them. “Will one of you please tell me what’s going on?”

Blueblood was about to follow when he suddenly remembered something. “AUNTIE LUNA!!!” he shouted. He bolted out of the room and hurried to go get her. He quickly found her unconscious body lying in the bedroom on the bed where they had left her, and then he levitated her onto his back and then hurried back to the bridge to get on the TARDIS.

The Doctor was holding the door open for him. “Come one! Come on!” the Doctor urged as Blueblood galloped onto the bridge and leaped in through the TARDIS door.

Blueblood was amazed by the interior of the TARDIS. Everything he had heard about it had been true. It really was much bigger on the inside. The large circular room was aglow with golden light coming from lights on the walls. And in the center of the room was a round control panel, surrounding a glass, tube-like contraption.

“Yes, it’s bigger on the inside! No time for that now!” said the Doctor as he closed the TARDIS door behind him, having apparently noticed Blueblood and many of the others gawking at their current surroundings. “I’ll contact Earth!”

The Doctor hurried over to the control panel and began pressing various buttons and pulling levers and switches. Blueblood gently set Princess Luna down on the floor of the TARDIS and hurried over to where the others were gathered by the control panel, watching the Doctor work.

“Wait, didn’t we also have three of Celestia’s guards locked in a bedroom?” asked Trixie.

Outside they suddenly heard the loud sound of lots of wood splintering and falling apart, and then the whoosh of air being sucked out into space. The doctor turned on the viewscreen, revealing their entire house ship, the Defiant, had been destroyed, and the millions of bits and pieces were being sucked into the growing plot hole, which was also swallowing the entire planet Saturn and the rest of it’s moons.

“MY HOUSE!” Blueblood exclaimed in horror. Then he remembered. “Oh, yes, and those three guards.”

“Man, we suck at rescuing ponies,” said Score, hanging his head along with everyone else.

The Doctor continued to contact Equestria.

………………

Back in Ponyville, which was now on an island in the middle of a storming ocean, it was total chaos everywhere! Anomalies were appearing everywhere like flashes of lightning due to the acceleration of the plot hole’s expansion, and they were causing many weird things to happen.

“LOOK OUT! IT’S MEGA ULTRA CHICKEN!” somepony screamed.

A giant Scootaloo was stomping around Ponyville, roaring like Godzilla and smashing buildings in a state of animalistic rage. Everypony was running around in the streets in a state of panic.

But the giant Scootaloo attacking the town wasn’t the only reason everypony was panicking. Sweetie Belle was possessed by a deep-voiced demon. Mrs. Cake was making out with both Soarin’ the Wonderbolt and Fancy Pants in an alleyway. Berry Punch was stumbling through the street with a bottle of wine in her hoof, clearly drunk. Noteworthy had turned into a cyclopes pony. Several robots that looked a bit like Rainbow Dash were flying through the air overhead, chanting “Crush! Kill! Destroy! Swag!” over and over again. And most terrifying of all, Derpy Hooves was flying away from the Rainbow Dash robots, and her eyes weren’t derped anymore!

Applejack was galloping through town, frantically looking for her friends. She suddenly ran into the little purple dragon Spike, who had also been running through the streets among all the many ponies running about in a panic.

“Spike! Where’s Twi?” Applejack asked Spike frantically. “All the trees in my orchard just turned into banana trees, and Granny Smith is suddenly a little filly again! We need the Elements of Harmony!”

Spike gulped as he stared up at Applejack. “That’s what I was just coming to tell you! Um, I don’t know how to say this, but Twilight and your brother just spontaneously turned into spiders!”

Applejack gaped at Spike in utter disbelief. “WHAT!?! Where are they?”

Spike shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know! I lost track of them, so we should probably be careful where we step.”

Suddenly an anomaly crack appeared right near Spike. Then he looked up at the giant Scootaloo, his expression suddenly going from scared to enraged.

“TITAN!” he yelled angrily. “I’LL KILL YOU!”

Applejack was confused by the little purple dragon’s actions. “Spike, are y’all alright?”

Spike looked at her. “Spike? Who’s Spike? I’m Eren Yager, and I’m going to kill all of the titans!” Spike then bit his hand as hard as he could, drawing blood, and then he suddenly began growing.

Applejack backed up away from Spike as he rapidly grew into his full grown, giant adult dragon form.

Spike let out a deafening roar and ran at the giant Scootaloo, and the two began a giant monster fight.

Applejack galloped off, knowing she had to do something about all this insanity.

Just as she left, five streaks of colored light came zooming towards the town up in the sky, colored red, yellow, blue, pink, and black. The streaks of light zoomed down into the town streets, and faded away, revealing five ponies, Comet Tail, Lyra, Bon Bon, Caramel, and Pokey Pierce.

They all looked up at the two fighting giant monsters just as Spike started breathing fire at Scootaloo.

Alright, guys, we have two category five kaiju destroying the town!” Comet said.

“We need zord power, pronto!” said Lyra.

Caramel nodded. “Lets do it, Rangers! It’s morphin’ time!”

“Mastodon!” shouted Pokey.

“Pterodactyl!” shouted Bon Bon.

“Triceratops!” shouted Comet.

“Saber-Toothed Tiger!” shouted Lyra.

“Tyrannosaurus!” shouted Caramel.

They transformed into colored jumpsuits with helmets that resembled each of their called out animals, and then they beamed up into the Dino Megazord, which had just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of town.

They began approaching the two fighting monsters.

Meanwhile, across town, Rainbow Dash had been napping in a tree when she was awoken by the loud noise from the two giant monsters and looked over at the chaos.

“How the heck did this happen?” she wondered to herself out loud in confusion. It didn’t matter, however, because all she knew was her town was in danger, and she had to do something about it.

Suddenly, however, there was a flash of what Rainbow Dash thought was lightning, and then she heard the sound of jet engine up in the sky. She looked up, and saw a F-22 Raptor fighter jet flying down from the clouds. Her eyes widened in fear when she realized it was heading right towards her. Then suddenly the nose of the fighter jet pulled upwards, and then the plane transformed, right before Dash’s eyes, into a large robot, as tall as a house. It landed on the ground beside the tree Dash was in, its big metal feet sending dirt flying everywhere as they dug into the ground from the force of the landing. It turned its head to look at Rainbow Dash, who was at a loss for words.

“Rainbow Dash!” it said in a surprisingly high, but still sinister and angry sounding voice. “We meet at last!”

Rainbow Dash gaped at the robot from the tree branch she was sitting on. “Who… what the hay are you?”

The robot looked offended. “I am Starscream, supreme leader of the Decepticons! And I have a score to settle with you!”

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings, and flew up out of the tree into the air a few feet. “What are you talking about?” she asked, still completely confused.

“I’ve heard rumors that some people think that in a one on one death battle between the two of us, YOU would win.” He held up his arm, and large missile launcher, mounted on his wrist, armed itself. “What do you say we find out once and for all?”

“What? Look… robot, I’m not going to fight you! I have to help my town!” Rainbow Dash began to fly away towards Ponyville.

“Friendship sucks!” Dash suddenly heard Starscream say behind her while she was flying away. She instantly stopped in mid air and turned around to glare at the robot.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?” she shouted angrily.

The robot smiled evilly, knowing it had her now. “You heard me. Friendship sucks! And your friends do too.”

Rainbow Dash was infuriated. “OKAY, YOU TIN CAN! YOU ASKED FOR IT!” Dash flared her wings and launched herself at the giant robot; the only thing on her mind at the moment was making him sorry he said those words. Unfortunately for her, she was so angry at him for what he had said about her friends and friendship, she hadn’t thought things through all the way.

She crashed head first into the giant robot’s metal armored chest. She was stunned from the impact, and then fell backwards onto the ground below with a thud. She groaned in pain while holding her head with her hoof, but before she had time to react, Starscream’s big metal foot suddenly cam down over her body. She yelped in surprise and fear as the robot’s foot pressed her against the ground, pressing so hard against her ribcage that she couldn’t breath, but it didn’t crush her yet.

“So, if you can explain to me why you thought flying straight at a solid metal object at high speed was a good idea, I might just let you live,” Starscream said.

He pressed down a little harder against her. Rainbow Dash let out a squeak of pain. She tried to speak, but she couldn’t utter a word from the pressure against her ribcage.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said.

He then put his full wait down on Rainbow Dash, and, * SQUISH *, the rainbow colored pegasus was crushed flat beneath his foot. Red blood began to ooze out from beneath his foot.

“Let that be a lesson to anyone who thinks a winged horse can kill a giant, transforming, alien robot!” Starscream shouted as loudly as he could. “I’m coming for you next, Michael Bay! Kill me off in the third movie, will you?” He then leaped into the air, quickly transformed back into his fighter jet mode, and flew up into the sky.

Meanwhile, Applejack met up with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie just outside of town, now carrying a pair of saddlebags on her back, and wearing a sombrero on her head instead of her usual stetson.

“Applejack, why are you wearing a sombrero?” asked Pinkie Pie as Applejack approached them.

“I don’t know,” Applejack said in irritation. “All of a sudden, my hat just turned into this.”

“Applejack, do you know what’s going on?” asked Fluttershy worriedly.

“I’m not sure, but I think it might have somethin’ to do with that!” Applejack pointed up into the sky with her hoof. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looked, and saw a giant swirling vortex that was the plot hole clearly visible in the sky, and they could also see that it was getting bigger very quickly.

“Oh… dear,” said Fluttershy fearfully.

“How’d we miss that before?” asked Pinkie Pie in bewilderment.

“I have more bad news,” said Applejack. “Twi’s been turned into a spider, along with mah’ brother, Rarity’s in space, and I have no idea where Rainbow Dash is! Also, Spike turned into a giant dragon again.”

“That’s not all!” Pinkie Pie added. “Gummy also turned into this thing.” She turned to the side, revealing a little Totodile chomped down on her fluffy pink tail behind her.

“Totodile!” it said through its teeth, not letting go of Pinkie’s tail.

“Can we find other ponies who can use the Elements of Magic, Loyalty, and Generosity?” Fluttershy asked Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

“That’s the other bad news,” said Applejack. “When I went to go get the Elements of Harmony, they all suddenly spontaneously turned into apples!” She opened up her saddlebags and pulled them off her with her teeth. She then dumped their contents onto the ground at their hooves, which turned out to be six red apples. She spat her empty saddlebags out of her mouth. “I never thought I’d ever be so unhappy ta see apples in my life!”

“But this means…” Fluttershy stuttered in dread, “…that the plot hole… is even more powerful then the Elements of Harmony!”

They all stared at each other in silence for several seconds as that horrible fact sunk into their heads.

“So… what do we do?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Ah don’t know!” Applejack said as she hung her head in despair.

Suddenly, an anomaly crack flashed near them, and, in a flash of light, Fluttershy had been transformed into a stallion! She…, or HE rather, let out a whimper, his voice now a little bit deeper and masculine, and crossed his legs to try to cover himself from Applejack and Pinkie Pie in embarrassment.

“Things just keep getting worse and worse!” Applejack exclaimed.

“On the other hoof, you do make a rather cute stallion, Fluttershy,” said Pinkie, batting her eyelashes at Fluttershy, whose face instantly turned bright red. “Or should I call you Flutterguy?”

“And now this just got really awkward!” said Applejack, staring at Pinkie with wide eyes.

………………

Meanwhile, at a radio station near Ponyville, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were hiding under a desk because of all the chaos that was going on outside.

“Vinyl, this may be our last night on Earth, so I feel I need to tell you something,” said Octavia.

“What is it, ‘Tavy,” said Vinyl Scratch.

“I…"

Just then, they both heard the sound of static on the speakers in the room, and then a voice they both recognized spoke up on the radio. “Vinyl, Octavia, are you there? It’s the Doctor!”

Octavia and Vinyl looked at each other.

“Hold that thought,” Vinyl said to Octavia, and then they quickly crawled out from under the desk and Vinyl pressed the input button on the microphone on their desk. “Doctor, it’s Vinyl and Octavia! Where the hay have you been? It’s total chaos going on down here!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s a long story,” said the Doctor. “I know all about what’s happening, and I need your help!”

“Anything, Doctor! What do you need?” said Octavia.

“Listen closely, girls! I need you to give me the frequencies for the Equestrian emergency broadcast system. And hurry now! We don’t have a lot of time!”

“Okay, here they are Doctor,” said Vinyl, and she began giving the Doctor the radio frequencies.

………………

As soon as the Doctor had the frequencies into the TARDIS’s computer, and they were broadcasting all over Equestria, he began speaking into the microphone on the control panel in front of him.

“Attention ponies of Equestria!” the Doctor said. “In case you haven’t noticed, a massive plot hole is about to destroy the entire universe.”

Right at that moment, Trixie leaned over the controls and put her head near the mike. “By the way, this is all Twilight Sparkle’s fault, just in case you were wondering who to go after with torches and pitchforks,” she spoke into the microphone.

“TRIXIE, GET AWAY FROM THE MICROPHONE!” the Doctor yelled at her, shoving her away from the microphone with his hooves.

“Sorry. Trixie couldn’t resist,” she chuckled evilly.

The Doctor turned to Blueblood and gestured for him to speak into the microphone. Blueblood stepped up to the microphone, the Doctor moving out of his way as he did so.

Blueblood spoke into the microphone. “Okay, listen up everypony! This is Prince Blueblood. There is only one way to stop this plot hole and save the universe once and for all! We need to fill in the plot hole with sense and logic! Everypony, think up any continuity error, inconsistency, or even just something that doesn’t make sense that you can think of, and shout it out as loudly as you can! And it doesn’t even need to be something from our show! Anything from any movie, TV show, or story you can think of! Anything that has never made any sense to you in your entire life! Shout it out as loud as you can! It’s the only way to save us all! Hurry! Here, I’ll even start! Um…” Blueblood thought for a moment. “…In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, why didn’t they just use the eagles to fly to Mordor instead of walking the whole way? That would have made everything so much easier!” He turned to his friends on the TARDIS. “Now all of you try!”

They all started thinking to themselves. (BTW, possible spoiler alert if you haven't seen some of these movies or TV shows before, so if you don't want spoilers, just skip down to the bottom)

Dumbbell was the first to speak. “In Wreck-It Ralph, why does Vanellope still have her glitching ability after the game resets at the end?" he said. "Shouldn’t that have been fixed along with everything else?”

“What’s the deal with the Element of Magic?” said Gilda. "I mean, all the other elements are things like loyalty, honesty, kindness, generosity, and laughter, which make sense because they are qualities anypony can have, but magic isn’t. Not every creature can use magic. Only unicorns and alicorns. And that isn’t fair! What if the world needed saving and the only ponies around were earth ponies and pegasi? Are you telling me they wouldn’t be able to do it because none of them are physically capable of using magic? That’s so stupid… if that even IS how the Elements of Harmony really work. The show is extremely vague on that whole subject. Then again, the show is extremely vague on pretty much everything."

“In Frozen, why didn’t Elsa, or her parents, just tell Anna that Elsa had magical powers?” said Lightning Dust. “There was literally no reason not to let her know, and her knowing would have solved everything! Anna would have known she had to be cautious with her sister’s powers, and would have understood why Elsa was so reluctant to be around her, and wouldn’t have grown up to resent her! Also, why the heck does Elsa have magic powers in the first place? That is never explained! Is she just a mutant like in X-Men?”

“In ‘A Canterlot Wedding’, why didn’t my mother, Queen Chrysalis, kill Cadence and Twilight after she captured them? She totally could have! There was no reason for her to keep them alive!” said Queen Entomala.

“In the Doctor Who episode ‘Day of the Moon’, if the Doctor put that video clip of the Silence saying ‘you should kill us all on sight’ into the moon landing video, then how come he, Amy, Rorry, and River, who are all from the future and have all seen that video before, didn’t already know to kill the Silence on sight whenever they saw them?” said Doctor Whooves.

“How come Featherweight didn’t get punished when the Cutiemark Crusaders and Diamond Tiara were publishing embarrassing stories in the school newspaper, even though he was the one actually taking the embarrassing photos with his camera? He should have gotten punished right along with them. Instead, he got rewarded in the end for some reason!” said Jet Set.

“Okay, seriously, will somepony please tell me what’s going on?” asked Sunset. “I can’t remember anything that has happened in the last few days!”

“In the Yugioh Bonds Beyond Time movie, if Paradox wanted to go back in time and stop the card game from destroying the world, then why didn’t he just simply go back in time to a point before Pegasus invented the card game, and just shoot him with a gun? What was with that whole stupidly elaborate plan to go around throughout time, steeling various cards from people, to kill Pegasus with duel monsters, and after Pegasus had already created the card game? That plan wouldn’t have stopped the game from existing even if it had worked! Nothing Paradox did in that movie made any sense at all!” said Flam.

“Why didn’t they just use the Elements of Harmony when King Sombra and the Crystal Empire returned, in order to ensure that all the crystal ponies would be okay, instead of using the entire situation as some stupid test for Twilight and, thus, risking thousands of innocent ponies’ lives. If Celestia and Twilight and friends really cared about the crystal ponies’ well being, the sensible thing to do would have been to go in there, full force, to ensure the crystal ponies’ safety. Do I really have to quote Spock’s dying words? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, the crystal ponies being the ‘many’ in this situation,” said Score.

“In ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3’, how does simply turning the ship upside-down get them back to the world of the living? That doesn’t make any sense!” said Iron Will.

“Twilight Sparkle becoming a Princess makes no sense!" said Trixie. "She was being trained in MAGIC, not politics! Magic and politics are two completely different things! Its like if Merlin the wizard became King of Camelot instead of Prince Arthur. It makes no sense!” 

“In Transformers 2, they could have just revived Optimus Prime with that shard of the All Spark Sam had! They didn’t need to find that Matrix thing to bring him back to life!” said Flam.

“When Twilight Sparkle was being chased by the Hydra in season one and couldn’t get across the ravine, why didn’t she just teleport across, or levitate herself across? In fact, so many of the problems they face on the show could have been easily solved if Twilight had just simply used a teleport or levitation spell!” said Hoops.

Trixie looked at him. “I don’t think that’s a plot hole. I think Twilight Sparkle is really just that much of an idiot.”

“Oh,” said Hoops. “Okay.”

“Why did Spike become a dog in Equestrian Girls?” said Doctor Whooves. “That’s basically saying that if ponies are the equivalent of humans, then dragons are the equivalent of dogs. But we’ve seen that dragons are sentient and intelligent creatures on the show, just like ponies. So saying that they are nothing but lowly pets compared to ponies is pretty offensive. If I were dragon, I would be really upset.”

“In ‘Legend of Korra’, why did opening up the portals to the spirit world cause random people to spontaneously become air benders?” said Blueblood. “That doesn’t make any sense because we learned earlier that the bending powers were given to humanity from the Lion Turtles, not the spirit world!”

………………

Meanwhile, back on Earth, all over Equestria, all the ponies, and other sentient creatures, were all doing their part to save the universe. 

“In ‘Pacific Rim’, why didn’t they use the swords against the giant monsters right away?” said Caramel as he, Bon Bon, Comet Tail, Lyra, and Pokey Peirce continued to battle adult Spike and giant Scootaloo in their Megazord. “The swords were their most effective weapon!”

“How come in the episode ‘Too Many Pinkie Pies’, they just happened to find a secret compartment in the library that they had somehow never noticed before, even though Twilight and Spike had searched through that library hundreds of times, and that compartment just happened to contain a book that contained the exact information they needed for that exact situation? Come on, writers, even YOU have to admit that’s pretty bad writing!” said Bon Bon.

“In Power Rangers Turbo, why did they stop using the Zeo powers? There was nothing wrong with them! They just switched over to the Turbo powers for no apparent reason!” said Comet Tail.

“If Celestia is the ruler of Equestria, why is she called a Princess? Shouldn’t she technically have the title of Queen? If you’re a female royal, and you’re currently in power, then that makes you a buckin’ QUEEN! I mean, even Narnia got that right!” said Lyra.

“In Pokemon, whenever a pokemon transforms from one stage into a stronger stage, why do they call it evolution? said Pokey Pierce. “That’s not what evolution is! Evolution is the slow adaptation of a species over the course of millions of years, and it has no set path. With pokemon, on the other hoof, they go through changes as they grow older and get stronger, and you always know exactly what they are going to change into, with very few exceptions. THAT ISN’T EVOLUTION! THAT’S JUST GROWING UP! It’s no different from a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, or a tadpole turning into a frog! ITS CALLED METAMORPHASIS! Also, what kind of civilization lets ten year old kids go out completely unsupervised into the wilderness for years at a time for the soul purpose of catching and raising monsters? ARE THEY INSANE?”

“Why did Fluttershy eat Pinkie Pie’s cake that she was entering in the contest in Canterlot?” said Gustav the griffon. “That’s just so out of character for her! I mean, Rarity and Rainbow Dash I get. They’re both horrible, but not Fluttershy! Honestly, I thought the twist at the end of that episode was going to be that Pinkie Pie had been sleep walking, and she had eaten the cake. That would have made sense!”

“In Dragonball Z, why can’t the wish-granting dragon turn a cyborg back into a pure human, or wish the villain away, yet it can bring the dead back to life and even create entire new planets? That’s ridiculous!” said Garble the dragon.

“You’re telling me that, for all those centuries that Discord’s statue was sitting out in the open in the Canterlot gardens, no pony ever came along misbehaved around it before the Cutiemark Crusaders did? Seriously?” said Fido the Diamond Dog.

“And why did Celestia leave the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful objects in the world and their only defense against powerful evils, unprotected in the crumbling ruins of the castle in the Everfree Forest for a thousand years? Literally anyone or anything could have just came along and stolen them at any time, and then Equestria’s only defense against evil would be gone!” said Rover the Diamond Dog.

“And in the episode ‘Magic Duel’, you honestly expect us to believe that Trixie found a dangerous and powerful artifact like the Alicorn Amulet in some random antique store? Are you kidding me? A powerful object like that would logically be somewhere where it’s hidden and protected, or already being used by someone!” said Spot the Diamond Dog. “Why are their so many powerful and dangerous magical artifacts just laying around out in the open in Equestria?”

“I believe in Santa Christ!” said Derpy Hooves.

“Why was the Ascendency going to destroy the Defiant before if they were supposed to be rescuing Princess Luna from it?” asked the still cyclops-faced Noteworthy.

“In Iron Man 3, when Tony told the bad guy where his house was, which was incredibly stupid in and of itself, why the heck didn’t he prepare for the attack with all that advanced technology he has lying around his place, like the entire army of Iron Man suits he has that can act completely on their own?” said Thunder Lane. "Also, WHERE THE HECK WAS SHIELD AND THE OTHER AVENGERS WHILE ALL THAT WAS GOING ON? THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WAS KIDNAPPED, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!”

“How come in one episode, Big Macintosh was strong enough to pull a house down the street with hardly any effort, yet in a later episode, Big Mac had trouble carrying a cake on his back?” said Surprise, still trapped inside her cloud house pantry from when Queen Entomala had locked her in there.

“In the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special, why did Horde Prime call for Skeletor for help? Skeletor doesn’t work for Horde Prime! In fact, I believe they're enemies!” said Octavia.

“How come Applejack’s aunt and uncle Orange weren’t at the family reunion? I thought family sticking together was really important to their family!” said Vinyl Scratch.

“In Harry Potter, why didn’t anyone ever ask Moaning Myrtle about her death if they knew she was the victim of one of the Chamber of Secrets attacks, and thus, a witness to the truth?" said Diamond Tiara. "You’re telling me that, in fifty years, no one ever thought to ask the ghost of the victim about who murdered her? Is everyone in the wizarding world just an idiot or something?” 

“In The Perfect Swarm, how the heck did herding the parasprites work?” said Silver Spoon. “You can’t herd millions of tiny flying insects! Crop-dusting would have been a more obvious solution to the problem!”

“Everyone complains about the fourth Indiana Jones movie, but what about the first one?” said Pony Joe. “In ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, how are the Nazi’s able to make an exact copy of the medallion and the precisely cut crystal in its center just by looking at the burns Toht had on his hand from when he grabbed it in the burning bar? That’s impossible!”

………………

They all continued to list mistake after mistake.

“It’s working!” said the Doctor, looking at a computer screen on the TARDIS’s control panel. “The plot hole is starting to recede. We just need a little more!”

Then Blueblood turned to face you, the reader. “Now, you at home reading this story,” Blueblood said to you, “we need your help too! Think of anything you can that has never made ANY sense to you, and write it in the comment section below. Do it! Its our only hope!”
> Ch19. Fallen Idol
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	You're probably wondering what happened to this chapter. It was pointed out to me in a comment that there was a problem with the chapter, and the more I thought about it, I realized they were right. So I felt compelled to take the chapter down and rewrite it. Here is the new verson of this chapter. Enjoy.	



“It’s working!” said Doctor Whooves while he stood at the control panel of the TARDIS. “The plot hole is closing.”

Behind him, the seven unicorns, four pegasi, griffon, minotaur, and changeling queen stood and watched the small computer screen on the TARDIS’s control panel, which showed the image of the swirling vortex in space, collapsing in on itself. They all let out sighs of relief. They had done it. They had saved the universe.

The plot hole finally collapsed down to a single tiny glowing point, and then disappeared completely.

Then something unexpected happened.

At that exact moment when the plot hole disappeared, a blinding white sphere of light suddenly exploded out in all directions from where the plot hole had been.

“WHAT’S THAT?” shrieked Upper Crust in fear.

“It’s a temporal shock-wave!” replied the Doctor. “All of you brace yourselves!”

None of them knew what a temporal shock-wave was, but because of the urgency in the Doctor’s voice, they all obeyed him and quickly grabbed hold of something solid on the TARDIS. And just in time too, because at that moment, the shockwave hit them.

The TARDIS rocked and shook for a bit, and then, after a few seconds, everything became still.

“What just happened?” asked Flim as he and everyone else let go of what they were holding onto and looked at the Doctor.

The Doctor moved back to the TARDIS’s control panel and looked at the computer screen. “Well, what do you know! We’re back on Earth!” he said.

“Oh, thank heavens!” sighed Upper Crust in relief, glad to be on the safety of solid ground once again.

“More specifically…” the Doctor added, “… we’re inside the Ponyville library.”

That was a surprise to everyone.

“Ponyville library!?” asked Trixie in confusion. “What are we doing there?”

“I didn’t bring us here!” said the Doctor. “I believe the TARDIS was put here by default because this is the location where the paradox first started, where Twilight Sparkle traveled back in time to herself to try and change the past.”

“What do you mean?” asked Hoops, scratching his head with his hoof in confusion.

“When the plot hole closed, it created a ripple effect throughout the space story arc continuum, undoing all the anomalies that had ever been created by the plot hole. In a sense, we are now living in a universe where it’s as if the plot hole never existed. But since the TARDIS was protected by its temporal shielding, we were all unaffected by the corrections in the time line. So, since we didn’t get rewritten, the universe basically didn’t know what else to do with us except just stick us in the exact point where the paradox first started. That’s also the reason why we can all still remember the way things used to be when the plot hole was around.”

They all let this sink in for several seconds.

“So, all the anomalies have all been fixed?” asked Prince Blueblood.

“That’s right,” said the Doctor happily.

“And we’re the only ones in the world who can remember the way things were before?” said Trixie.

“Yes.” Then he realized something. “Oh, and more good news! Since the plot hole never existed, that means all those ponies that were on the Heart Star and the Ascendency when they exploded are all alive and well, since they had never gone into space to begin with now.”

“So Rarity, Shining Armor, and Princess Celestia, they’re all alive?” asked Flim.

“They should be,” said the Doctor. “And they shouldn’t have any memory of anything that just happened.”

“So… everything’s back to normal?” asked Dumbbell.

“Well, that depends on what you call normal,” said the Doctor. “Keep in mind, the plot hole created many anomalies all throughout time, many of them you lot are completely unaware were even anomalies. Out there is a completely different universe now from the one you all remember. All the anomalies have been corrected. You’re bound to see quite a few things that will seem very strange to you at first.”

“Like what?” asked Iron Will.

“I don’t know,” the Doctor said with a shrug. “We’ll have to find out together, won’t we?”

“But otherwise, it’s over? We saved the universe?” asked Gilda.

The Doctor nodded. “Yes. We saved the universe.”

“Good.” Gilda then turned to Lightning Dust and punched her friend right in the nose.

Everyone gasped.

“OW! WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?” Lightning Dust screamed at Gilda, holding her hurt nose with her hoof.

“FOR WHEN YOU BUCKED ME IN THE HEAD BEFORE!” Gilda yelled back, pointing at her forehead with a claw. “NOW WE’RE EVEN!”

Lightning growled. “DIDN’T YOUR MOTHER EVER TEACH YOU THAT TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT?”

“SHOULD I MAKE IT THREE THEN?”

“ALRIGHT! YOU ASKED FOR IT, BIRD-BRAIN!”

Gilda and Lightning Dust tackled each other and started fighting around on the TARDIS floor, while everyone else stood around them, watching them.

“Should we stop them?” asked Hoops.

Dumbbell held a hoof up to stop his friend. “No, Hoops! Never interfere in a cat fight! You’ll just end up getting hurt yourself… or worse! Instead, just stand back and enjoy the show.”

“Very logical,” said the Doctor, nodding in agreement with Dumbbell as they continued to watch Gilda and Lightning Dust fighting on the floor.

Queen Entomala rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said in annoyance. “My work still isn’t done! If Celestia’s alive, then I still haven’t gotten my vengeance!”

“Well, here’s your chance, Changeling.”

They all turned around at the sudden voice behind them, and saw Princess Celestia walking out from behind a doorway on the far side of the TARDIS.

“Celestia!” Doctor Whooves gasped in shock. 

Gilda and Lightning Dust immediately stopped fighting at the sudden appearance of the monarch, and got up off the floor.

“What are you doing here?” demanded the Doctor, still in shock as he faced the white alicorn. “How did you get in here?”

“Does it matter!” said Entomala as she glared at Celestia angrily. “She’s MINE!” The changeling flared her wings and leaped into the air, flying right at Celestia, crooked black horn pointed right at her target.

Celestia, however, was completely unfazed by the changeling queen’s attack, and her horn lit up with magic light. Entomala then suddenly froze in the air, mid flight, right in front of Celestia, the changeling’s body now glowing with the same golden yellow light as Celestia’s horn.

“You’re not NEARLY as powerful as Queen Chrysalis was,” said Celestia said to Entomala, who had a horrified look on her face as she stared back at Celestia with wide eyes. “You’re young, and also clearly haven’t fed in a while… which means I can easily do this.”

The flash of a spell shot out of Celestia’s horn and struck Entomala like a bolt of lightning. Entomala went flying across the control room, and she landed on the hard metal floor with a thud. From how her body was lying limp and completely still, not even breathing, and how her eyes were still open as if staring off into space, they could tell the changeling queen was dead.

“Y-You killed her!” Blueblood stuttered as he and everyone else looked back and forth between Celestia and Entomala’s lifeless body. They didn’t feel too bad for the changeling, since they hardly knew her, and she had intended to kill all of them, but Blueblood had never seen his aunt Celestia actually kill anyone before.

“She was going to kill me,” Celestia said simply. “I acted in self-defense.”

“You didn’t have to kill her!” said the Doctor. “You were more powerful then she was! She was no real threat to you!”

“ENOUGH!” Celestia raised her voice. “I am in no mood for your lectures, Doctor. You have all been so much trouble to me!”

That was when the Doctor realized something. “You remember!” he exclaimed in surprise. “But that’s impossible! How can you remember?”

Celestia explained. “Before the Heart Star was destroyed, I teleported over to your ship. Once I was there, I transformed myself into a magical cloud, and slipped by all of you into the TARDIS without any of you noticing, so I was protected from the changes in the timeline same as you.”

The Doctor was actually impressed. The others, however, were just terrified. Unknown to them, however, the Doctor had a plan.

“Aunt Celest-” Blueblood began, but Celestia quickly cut him off.

“SILENCE, nephew!” she snapped at him. She was clearly quite angry. “I hope you’re all proud of yourselves.” She said to them like a disappointed parent. “I was trying to help the world and bring every living creature together in friendship and harmony, and you’ve all ruined it.”

“Good,” said Iron Will bravely. “I wouldn’t want to live in a world where you drug everyone’s minds with magic to get them to behave the way you want them to.”

Celestia sighed and shook her head. “None of you understand!” She looked at Lightning Dust. “Lightning Dust, I’m so disappointed in you. I thought you had finally decided to become part of something greater than yourself.”

“Greater than ME?” scoffed Lightning Dust. “Impossible! Ain’t nothin’ greater than me!”

“Trixie is,” said Trixie.

Lightning Dust turned to face her angrily. “Wanna bet?”

“Challenge accepted! Anything you can do, Trixie can do better!”

Celestia shook her head again. “This is exactly what I’m talking about! You all NEED help. You call yourselves friends, but even now you’re fighting with each other. Don’t you see?”

“Hey! Just because we fight with each other, and get on each others nerves sometimes, and occasionally try to kill each other every now and then, doesn’t mean we’re not friends! We like the way we are, and we like each other the way we all are. We have our own way of friendship, and you have yours. To each their own, you know?”

Celestia shook her head. “Perhaps you all can tolerate each other, but none of you get along with the rest of the ponies in the world, and they can’t get along with you, because of the way you all are. And it’s the same way all through out the world. So many are divided from others, because of their hatred and arrogance. I want to bring all creatures in this world together, so that everyone can be friends with each other. My faithful friend, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends are perfect examples of how everyone should be.”

“Oh, I think I’m gonna barf,” groaned Gilda.

Blueblood spoke. “Not everypony has to be friends! Not everyone has to like each other! There are PLENTY of ponies in the world who I don’t like. For example, I don’t like hillbilly, farm ponies.”

“Trixie doesn’t like anypony whose better at magic than she is,” said Trixie.

“And I can’t stand ponies who go around talking about friendship and love all the time,” said Gilda.

“And I’m sure they don’t like us either. So I just stay away from them and don’t associate with them. I’m happy, they’re happy, everypony’s happy then. You can’t force ponies who don’t like each other to become friends. There’s nothing wrong with two people not liking each other as long as they leave each other alone.”

But from the look on Celestia’s face, she clearly still disagreed. “No. You’re wrong. It is better for everyone to be friends with each other and live together in peace and harmony. That is how the world should be!” she said matter-of-factually.

“Oh, and I suppose that just gives you the right to use magic on ponies to influence them without their knowledge or consent,” said the Doctor.

“I don’t see the problem,” said Celestia. “It helps them. Besides, I’m their Princess.”

“And what about the changelings, and your sister, Princess Luna? Did you also have the right to do what you did to them?” said the Doctor, pointing an accusing hoof at the white alicorn. “We know the truth, Celestia. You tried to use a spell on a valley of Flutterponies over a thousand years ago, but the spell went wrong, and you ended up creating the changelings, a race that must feed on the love of others in order to survive. And then, to cover up what you did, you betrayed your own sister, and caused her to go mad, just so you could keep her from blabbing. Don’t try to deny it! We know the truth!”

Celestia sighed and hung her head. “Yes,” said Celestia. “I caused the changelings, and I caused my sister to become Nightmare Moon. Yes, its unfortunate and sad, Doctor, but it was necessary. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” Then she looked up at them. “And besides, what my little ponies don’t know won’t hurt them.”

The Doctor walked right up to Celestia and looked her in the eye. “You’re a monster,” he said to her.

Celestia simply rolled her eyes. “Oh, this talk is all pointless!” said Celestia. “Anyway, I’m afraid I have to deal with you all now. You all know too much.”

“You’re gonna kill us?” asked Jet Set fearfully.

“Of course not! But I will have to imprison you all. I can’t have you going around telling ponies what you know.” Then Celestia smirked. “Not that many ponies would believe you anyway, but still, I’d rather not take the risk. I may have failed this time, but I’m immortal. I have all the time in the world to see my dream come true.”

At that moment, a sly grin appeared on the Doctor’s face, and then he began chuckling.

Celestia and everyone else in the room stared at him in confusion. “What’s so funny?” Celestia asked.

“The fact that you’ve failed to notice something,” the Doctor responded while still lightly chuckling.

Celestia raised an eyebrow at him. “And what would that be?”

The Doctor’s smile got even bigger. “That the TARDIS is still broadcasting everything we say in here on the Equestrian emergency broadcast frequencies. I never turned off the transmitter, or the microphone.”

Celestia’s eyes widened at what he just said, and her expression slowly transformed into one of horror. “What!?”

“That’s right!” the Doctor laughed triumphantly. “Every pony in Equestria just heard every single word that you just said!” The Doctor then leaped over to the microphone on the TARDIS control panel. “You hear that, Equestria? We’re here, right now, in Ponyville library!”

“NO!” screamed Celestia once she realized she had just unknowingly announced her incriminating secret all over her kingdom.

The others in the room all smiled at the Doctor, impressed by his cleverness, as well as the fact that he had just totally screwed Celestia.

“You should see the look on your face, Princess,” Gilda said to Celestia. “Its priceless!”

Celestia glared at them all, panic still written all over her face. “IT’S NOT TRUE! YOU’RE BLUFFING!”

“Am I?” said the Doctor. “Go see for yourself.”

In a state of panic, Celestia galloped past them all, over to the doors of the TARDIS, and threw them open with her magic, revealing the inside of Ponyville’s library. A quick glance at the dim light outside through the windows told her that it was very late in the evening, and the sun had already set. She quickly looked around the library, but no pony was in there. She then ran to the front door of the library and threw that door open as well with her magic. Her eyes widened in horror at what she saw.

In the dim dusk light, everypony in the town was out there, gathered all around in the streets outside the library. They all took a step backwards away from the Princess the moment she had emerged from the library’s front door, and they all stared at her with shocked and horrified expressions on their faces. It was true. They really had all heard everything that she had just said inside the TARDIS.

Celestia quickly spotted Twilight Sparkle in the front of the crowd, except she wasn’t an alicorn, or a princess, anymore. The purple mare was back to her normal unicorn self.

Behind Twilight were all of her best friends, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, as well as Spike, and even Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were there with them. All of them were gaping at the white alicorn standing in the doorway of the library in absolute shock and disbelief.

“C-Celestia…” Twilight stuttered sadly with tears starting to well up in her eyes. “…P-please… tell me it’s not true!”

As Celestia looked upon Twilight’s worried and confused face, she could only imagine what the purple unicorn had to be feeling at this moment. She desperately wanted to try to reassure Twilight that none of it was true, that it was all a lie and they could go back to the way things were before. But when she took a step towards Twilight, Celestia felt her heart break when she saw the purple mare actually recoil, taking a step backwards away from the monarch, fear in her eyes.

“OH, IT’S TRUE, ALRIGHT!” the Doctor’s voice suddenly blared loudly on a radio speaker somewhere nearby in the town.

Celestia turned around and saw the Doctor, as well as Blueblood and his friends, all coming out of the front door of the library behind her.

“They’ve lost their faith in you now,” the Doctor said, speaking to Celestia. “All of Equestria knows the truth now, and they heard it straight from your mouth. I doubt they’ll continue to just blindly follow you anymore. It’s over, Celestia! You’ve lost!”

It was silent for a few seconds after that. No one moved or spoke. The only thing that could be heard was Celestia’s heavy, panicked breathing as she stared down at the ground with gritted teeth and wide eyes. Blueblood wondered if Celestia was just having a hard time taking in the fact that her dream would never come true now.

Then, in a flash, her head shot back up and she glared at them, her face twisted in a look of pure rage. Blueblood was and many others were frightened, as they had never, in their lives, seen Celestia so angry.

“YOU’VE RUINED EVERYTHING!” Celestia yelled, allowing her fury full rein. “YOU’VE RUINED EVERYTHING I’VE SPENT CENTURIES TRYING TO CREATE!” On that last word, Celestia suddenly erupted in magical flames all over her body, and her eyes glowed bright white.

Everyone gathered there took a step or two backwards away from her in fear.

“YOU WILL ALL PAY DEARLY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!” Celestia screamed in the ear-piercing royal Canterlot voice. Her horn began to glow as she prepared to cast a spell at them.

The Doctor and Blueblood and company all cringed in fear; afraid of whatever it was Celestia was about to do to them.

“NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT, SISTER!”

At the sudden voice behind them, they all turned around, and their eyes widened in shock at what they saw. Princess Luna was standing there in the doorway of the TARDIS inside the library, awake! Her eyes were glowing white, just like Celestia’s, and also like Celestia, she had a look of pure rage on her face.

Celestia’s expression immediately changed from rage to shock as soon as she saw her sister. “Luna-”

Before Celestia could utter another word, Luna shot a powerful blast of magic from her horn out the library door, right past Blueblood and his friends and Doctor Whooves, straight at Celestia. The white alicorn was struck in the chest by the blast, and sent flying backwards through the air, over the heads of all the ponies gathered outside, crashing right through the wooden wall of a house all the way across the street, creating a large cloud of dust, and leaving a big gaping hole in the side of the house.

“MY HOUSE!” some pony in the crowd shouted in horror.

Blueblood gaped in astonishment, looking back and forth from the now no longer comatose Luna, to the wall Celestia had just been sent crashing through. As relieved as he was that Luna had come to their rescue, he was shocked that Luna had just attacked her own sister! Did that mean… she remembered now?

Celestia emerged from the massive hole in the wall of the house a few seconds later, walking a bit wobbly on her legs, and wincing in pain. “MY WING!” Celestia screamed. “I THINK YOU BROKE IT!”

It was then that they noticed that Celestia’s right wing was hanging in an awkward angle, indicating it was badly hurt.

“Ouch!” said Dumbbell, wincing as he looked at Celestia’s injured wing. “The worst part about having wings is that they can be easily broken, and it hurts like a bitch! I speak from experience.” 

“Kinda’ makes me glad I don’t have wings,” said Flam. his brother Flim nodding beside him in agreement.

Blueblood and his friends, and the Doctor, all got out of the way as Luna walked past them out of the library and then flapped her wings and flew up into the night air. She flew over the crowd of ponies gathered there in the street, and then hovered high in the air, right in front of her sister down on the ground.

“I remember everything now, sister,” Luna said as she looked down at Celestia, barely containing her anger. “You poisoned me, made me go insane and believe I was evil! You betrayed our friendship! You betrayed ME!”

“I’m sorry, Luna!” Celestia cried up to her sister above her. “But you were going to ruin everything I had worked so hard for! I did what I had to do to maintain order and peace! You must understand that!”

“Do you want to know what the worst part about this is?” Luna continued. “That, for the longest time, you let me feel guilty for something that was NEVER MY FAULT! I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye in the past, but I can’t believe you would do something like that to me! TO ME, YOUR OWN SISTER! You are, and always have been, a terrible, TERRIBLE SISTER!” Luna let out a relieved sigh. “THERE! I SAID IT! AND IT FELT GOOD TO FINALLY SAY IT!”

“D-don’t do something you’ll regret, Luna!” stuttered Celestia, trying to sound strong, but actually sounding fearful. “You know you’re no match for me!”

Luna simply smirked. “Actually, I think I am. So I just have one question for you, sis.”

When Luna didn’t continue, Celestia raised her eyebrow at her. “What?” she asked nervously.

Luna smiled maliciously. “Do you like bananas?”

Celestia’s eyes instantly widened in horror. “Oh, no!”

Luna’s horn glowed and she fired a beam of magic at Celestia. Celestia quickly ignited her own horn in response and shot a beam of magic from her horn back up at her sister.

The crowd of ponies standing nearby watched in awe as the two beams collided between the two alicorns, sending bright sparks flying everywhere as the two beams of magical energy were forced against each other.

Celestia and Luna grimaced as they both poured more and more power into their spells, trying to overpower the other, but still, neither of them were able to gain the upper hoof. It seemed they were both evenly matched.

“GO, LUNA!” Gilda shouted from the sidelines. “KICK HER FLANK!”

Celestia and Luna continued to stand their ground, neither of them letting up on their spells, and continuing to pump more and more magic into their attacks. Celestia’s body even began to glow with golden light as she levitated herself up into the air so that she wasn’t down beneath Luna anymore. Luna, seeing this, flapped her wings to fly higher up, trying to keep Celestia below her in order to maintain her advantage.

They were both so intently focused on defeating the other that neither of them noticed the brightly glowing sphere of magical energy starting to build up where their two spells met in the air between them.

Doctor Whooves, watching from the crowd below, however, did notice, and quickly realized the danger. “BOTH OF YOU NEED TO STOP, RIGHT NOW…”

But it was too late. At that exact moment, their was a deafening boom as the built up magic between the two princesses exploded in a blinding blast of white light, momentarily illuminating the entire town like it was daytime for several seconds. Every pony watching was forced to either close or shield their eyes from the blinding explosion.

Celestia and Luna’s faces changed from anger to panic for a split second before were both hit and engulfed by the blast, and their bloodcurdling screams were only heard for a split second before they were droned out by the deafening noise of the explosion.

When the white light faded away, many ponies ears were still ringing from the explosion. Once everyponies’ eyes readjusted to the darkness, they discovered that both Celestia and Luna were nowhere to be seen. However, a small, shiny object could be seen falling from the sky. It hit the ground with a metallic clink, and everyone gasped in shock when they saw what it was. It was Celestia’s golden crown, or rather, what was left of it. It was scorched, twisted, and a bit melted in places.

“C… Celestia’s crown!” Twilight choked out as she gaped at the smoldering item lying on the ground in front of all of them.

“But… where are Celestia and Luna?” asked Applejack as her eyes scanned the sky.

“Gone,” said the Doctor solemnly, and everyone turned and looked at him. “The blast destroyed both of them.”

Everyone gasped in shocked.

“You mean… they’re… dead?” asked Princess Cadence nervously, stepping forward with her husband Shining Armor by her side.

The Doctor slowly nodded. “No pony could survive that blast. Not even them.” He looked right back at the crowd. “I’m sorry. I tried to warn them… I’m so sorry.”

“No,” sobbed Twilight, tears streaming down her face not wanting to believe it. “It… can’t be!” Her friends beside her began trying to comfort her.

The crowd of ponies slowly began murmuring and crying in both sadness, uncertainty, and worry amongst themselves, saying things like “What do we do?” and “How can this be?” and “What’s going to happen now?” or “I didn’t even know they could die!”

Blueblood and his friends all hung their heads in sadness. The danger was finally over, at long last. Equestria, as well as the universe, had been saved, and Celestia had been brought to justice, but this sudden unfortunate turn of events had snuffed out any joy they would have felt. Luna had sacrificed herself in getting revenge on Celestia, and because of that, they would not celebrate their victory. They hadn’t wanted either of them to die.

………………

“Where am I?” Celestia asked herself as she suddenly found herself in a completely different place. The last thing she remembered was a blinding light and feeling an intense, searing pain, and then the next thing she knew, she was standing in this new place. She was in a large room inside what looked like a fancy, oriental looking palace.

In front of her, sitting atop a larger then life desk, was young unicorn colt, with a pale white fur coat, yellow eyes, and a black mane and tail. His mane had three odd white, horizontal stripes on one side of it. And around his neck was a collar with an odd looking pony’s skull on the front of it. He had a bored look on his face.

Celestia also noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Luna was standing right beside her, looking at her. Celestia turned to look back at her. Luna looked just as confused as she was. Their previous quarrel with each other was momentarily forgotten by both of them due to their current unknown situation. Celestia then noticed a glowing yellow halo floating above Luna’s head. Celestia glanced upwards, and saw the glow of a halo above her own head.

She noticed some windows in the room and through them she could see fields of fluffy golden yellow clouds as far as the eye could see outside. She wondered where on Earth she and Luna could be.

The colt up on the desk in front of them spoke. “Hello, and welcome, both of you, to the Afterlife. My name is Death the Colt, and I will be your Reaper for this evening. King Yemma has business elsewhere at the moment, so I’m filling in for him.”

Celestia and Luna were both still confused as they stared up at the colt.

“Reaper?” said Luna.

“Afterlife?” said Celestia.

The colt nodded. “That’s right.” His horn glowed with pale white magic, and he levitated up a clipboard that was sitting on the desk next to him, and looked at it. “You two must be… Celestia and Luna from Equestria. Am I right?”

“Yes, we are,” said Celestia, still confused. “Um… what’s going on here?”

“Okay, I’ll just be frank with you. You two are dead,” said the colt.

Celestia and Luna’s eyes widened. “DEAD?!” they both exclaimed at the same time.

“Yes. And now it’s my job to send you both to your proper place in the afterlife.”

Celestia was flabbergasted. “But… But how can we be dead!?” said Celestia. “We’re immortal!”

“Um, sorry to disappoint you, but just because you have the potential to live forever, it doesn’t mean you can’t still be killed by something. And according to this…” he looked back down at the papers he was levitating, “… you two blew each other up.” He looked back up at them. “Yep, that would do it!”

"But… But I’m too young to die!” cried Luna.

“Too young? You’re both over a thousand years old!” the colt stated with a role of his eyes.

Celestia and Luna were both silent, in shock of everything that was happening to them now.

“Well, anyway…” He looked back down at the clipboard, and then up at Celestia and Luna. “Given this long list of controversial information on the two of you, we aren’t quite sure where to send you right now. There are a lot of positive things in your records, but also some big negatives, like you two murdering each other for example. So here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna give the two of you a little test.”

Celestia and Luna were taken aback.

“What kind of test?” asked Luna.

The colt continued. “The two of you are sentenced to the purgatory room for an indefinite amount of time, during which, you will play video games with each other, and try to get along with each other. If the two of you can reconnect and learn to be friends, and perhaps even family, again, then the two of you will be allowed into Pony Heaven. If not, then you’ll go to the other place.”

Celestia and Luna’s mouths dropped.

“But it was all her fault!” Luna stated desperately, pointing at Celestia with her hoof.

“MY FAULT!” Celestia shouted, enraged. “YOU attacked ME!”

“YOU ruined my LIFE!” Luna screamed back, getting right in Celestia’s face.

“HEY! Shut up, both of you, or I’ll just send you straight to Pony Hell right now!” Death the Colt snapped at them.

Celestia and Luna immediately became silent, but they still eyed each other angrily.

“Alright then,” Death the Colt said. “Have fun, you two, and try to get along with each other. Remember, your eternal souls depend on it.”

Death the Colt’s horn glowed with white light again, and then there was a flash of light, and then Celestia and Luna suddenly found themselves in another place. This time, they were inside a small room. This one was small and mostly empty except for a red couch, and a T.V. set with a game console hooked up to it, and a stack of various video games lying next to it.

Celestia glared at Luna in rage. It was her fault she was dead now. But as much as she would have liked to attack Luna right then, she knew it would do no good. They were both dead. Whether they liked it or not, they were in the same boat.

Celestia’s legs gave out from under her and she collapsed back onto her haunches, hanging her head as she begrudgingly accepted her fate with a long sigh.

Unknown to her, at that moment, Luna was having similar thoughts. As much as she just wanted to beat her sister within an inch of her life for what she had done to her, she knew it was pointless now. And besides, they needed each other.

Luna walked over to the stack of video games and levitated one of them up into the air in front of her. Perhaps playing a few games really would help them get along and rekindle their sisterhood again. Plus, it might be kind of fun.

She looked over at her older sister, who was still slumped over on the floor. “You want to play a video game?” she asked, trying as hard as she could to make an effort to be nice.

Celestia looked up at her with an unhappy expression. “Well, I guess we have no choice!” she said with a sigh. “But I call dibs on the first game!”
> Ch 20. Moving On
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A week passed in Equestria, and life went on. Everypony was doing their best to adjust to the fact that their rulers, Celestia and Luna, were both gone forever.

Doctor Whooves ensured everypony that they didn’t have to worry about the day and the night. He told them that the sun and the earth and the moon would run themselves. Just because Celestia and Luna had the power to manipulate the day and the night didn’t mean it was necessary for them to. In fact, nature, in and of itself, didn’t need to be controlled at all. It needed to be cared for, of course, but not controlled. Prince Blueblood and his friends seemed to recall Discord telling them something about that about a year ago, and they thought it was odd that they seemed to have just glossed over that bit of important information.

In Celestia and Luna’s absence, their royal council of chief advisers took over running the government. Equestria, of course, would still need a new ruler to take the throne sooner or later, however. Everyone was extremely surprised when Prince Blueblood actually turned down the opportunity to take the throne for himself.

“Not too long ago, I probably would have leaped at the opportunity to be King,” Blueblood had said. “But I guess I’m wiser now. I know now that ruling requires a lot of responsibility, and you all know how I feel about that.”

Sadly, they all did.

Blueblood told them he instead wanted to become an artist. He loved art, but he had never considered it because it wasn’t his special talent. But now that he knew he could accomplish anything he wanted, he decided to practice being an artist, no matter how long it took him. Trixie offered to be his model, once he became a professional artist, so that he might “Capture her greatness on canvas!”

In the end, Princess Cadence ended up taking the throne. Turns out, in this corrected universe, she wasn’t ruling the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Empire already had its own crystal pony Empress, whom the Element Bearers and a team of Equestria’s soldiers had helped get her memory back, and retake her throne from Sombra, with the Elements of Harmony, back when the Crystal Empire had returned.

So Cadence was crowned the new Queen of Equestria. Turns out, in this universe, they had Queens ruling instead of Princesses.

Cadence also stopped using her love spell on ponies, after learning of all the trouble Celestia had caused by influencing ponies with magic, she realized how wrong it was. From then on, she decided she would help ponies with love by using her knowledge on the matter, and talking to them, rather then just simply casting spells on them. Even though magic was a useful tool, it was not the answer to everything.

Sunset Shimmer decided to leave Equestria with the Doctor in his TARDIS, becoming his new companion. Of course, she hadn’t actually given him much choice in the matter.

“Goodbye forever, Equestria!” she shouted. “I’m going on adventures in time and space with this handsome stallion!”

Her horn glowed and she suddenly started dragging Doctor Whooves behind her with her magic, towards the TARDIS.

“Hey! What the…!” the Doctor exclaimed in surprise as he was suddenly dragged across the ground against his will.

“Come on, time boy!” Sunset said. “You’re taking me to a spa on a planet made of diamonds!”

“OKAY! OKAY! JUST STOP DRAGGING ME!” the Doctor shouted. “I REALLY HATE MAGIC!”

Sunset hurled the Doctor through the TARDIS door with her magic and then she trotted in herself, slamming the door shut behind her. A few moments later, the mechanical droning of the TARDIS was heard, and the blue police box faded away.

Sunset Shimmer was never seen or heard from again.

So, seven days after the universe was saved, and Celestia and Luna had died, Trixie, Blueblood, Gilda, Lightning Dust, and Surprise were sitting around a small, fancy table outside a restaurant on the streets of Canterlot, enjoying some drinks and just hanging out, enjoying a bright, sunny day in the big, grand city. The others had all gone back to their own lives.

“Another wild adventure completed,” said Lightning Dust. “What should we do now?” 

“I don’t know,” said Gilda with a shrug. “Something good? Something bad? A bit of both?”

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I for one am adventured out!” said Blueblood.

“But I haven’t even gotten to go on any adventures yet!” complained Surprise.

“Oh, please!” said Trixie with a role of her eyes. “You went on plenty of adventures in the G1 series!”

“Oh, right!” said Surprise with a smile. Then she chuckled to herself. “Boy, that brings back memories. Nothing can stop the Smooze!”

“So where are Jet Set and Upper Crust?” asked Lightning Dust. “I thought, since they live in Canterlot, they’d be with us.”

“I believe they went to see their Doctor about Upper Crust’s pregnancy,” said Blueblood.

“Hey, any of you wanna start making bets on whether it’s a filly or a colt?” asked Gilda. “Five bits says it’s a filly!”

Trixie shook her head, and then looked at Lightning Dust. “So how are things going becoming a Wonderbolt, Lightning Dust?”

“It’s not easy,” said Lightning Dust, “especially due to the fact that I’m still on Spitfire’s bad side, but I’m gradually working my way back up.”

“HEY, YOU!”

They all turned their heads at the sudden nearby angry shout. To their dismay, they saw the white unicorn stallion, Shining Armor, standing on the other side of the brick paved street, glaring at them. He started walking over to them.

Oh, great. What does he want? Blueblood thought to himself with a groan.

Shining Armor stopped in front of their table. “I hope you’re all happy!” he said angrily.

The five friends looked at each other, confused, and then looked back at Shining Armor.

“What do you want?” Gilda said to him in annoyance.

Shining Armor continued to glare daggers at them. “Why couldn’t you all have just left well enough alone?”

They were taken aback by the guard pony’s statement.

Shining Armor continued. “We were happy! Everypony was happy the way things were! Queen Celestia gave us hope! She made us all feel special and safe! What right did any of you have to take that away! If you had all just trusted Celestia, and not stuck your noses where they didn’t belong, Celestia and Luna would still be alive, and everypony would still be happy! But you jerks had to go and ruin everything!”

They stared at Shining Armor in shock. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

“WHAT?!” exclaimed Blueblood. “You’re saying that we should have just let everything go on as it was!? You’d really rather have stayed ignorant to the truth?”

“Why not?!” said Shining Armor. “We were better off the way things were!” 

Trixie remembered an old saying she had once heard. Ignorance is bliss. She guessed this was one of those cases.

“Not only that, Twilight is in terrible shape! Her friends contacted Cadence and I, and they say she’s locked herself in her bedroom and hasn’t come out in days! She’s devastated! Finding out the truth about Celestia, the pony she’s looked up to and idolized her whole life, as well as Celestia and Luna’s horrible deaths, have caused her to just shut down! You’ve crushed everything she lived for! And now everypony in Equestria is also uncertain and scared! So I just hope your all happy and proud of yourselves! Cadence and I are going to go see Twilight today, and see if we can help her! Not that any of you care!”

Shining Armor turned away from them and trotted away.

After he was gone, the group of friends returned to their drinks.

“Poor, Twilight,” said Surprise in concern as she looked down at her sarsaparilla. “But I suppose this would hit her pretty hard.”

“That Shining Armor’s wrong though,” said Gilda. “Everyone needed to know the truth. If they can’t handle it, then… that’s they’re problem. They’re just gonna have to!” She picked up her own sarsaparilla and began sipping it through the straw.

“Yeah,” said Surprise. “But still, I feel sorry for Twilight. We should go and see her too!”

They all stared at Surprise in… surprise.

“Why?” said Trixie, making a disgusted face. “We don’t like her, remember?”

“You guys don’t like her,” said Surprise. “I, on the other hoof, like everypony!”

“Then you go see her then!” said Lightning Dust. “I don’t give a flying feather!”

Surprise looked around at her four friends at the table as they sipped their drinks. It was clear none of them liked Twilight, or any of her friends, so none of them would want to go cheer her up. She thought to herself how she could possibly get them to go with her to see her then. She knew she had to think of something clever.

Finally, an idea came to her. “You know… Twilight is probably more miserable then she has ever been before. Are you seriously telling me that you want to pass up a chance to see that?”

Trixie’s ears twitched at that, and she looked at Surprise. She couldn’t deny that that was an intriguing thought. Twilight and her friends had always been the ones who always won and succeeded at everything they did, and it had always irritated the crap out of her. This could be her one and only chance to see one of them after things had, for once, not turned out so great for them in the end. Even if this wasn’t something even she would mock someone about, it was too tempting an opportunity to pass up! Besides, she could still pretend to be nice to Twilight.

………………

A few hours later, Trixie, Surprise, and Blueblood were knocking on the front door of Ponyville library.

“I can’t believe you dragged me back here,” Blueblood said to Trixie in irritation as they stood outside the Ponyville library. He had not cared to come back to this country town. Neither had Gilda and Lightning Dust, but because Trixie had wanted to go, Blueblood was forced to accompany her since he was her boyfriend, and she told him he had to.

On the other side of the door, they heard hoofsteps approaching, and then the door opened up, revealing none other than Rarity standing there.

Rarity scowled at them when she saw who it was. “What do you want?”

“We heard Twilight wasn’t feeling so well, so we came to cheer her up,” said Trixie, doing her best to fake a concerned face.

Rarity’s scowl intensified. “You honestly expect me to believe that?”

Then Blueblood spoke. “Actually, I’m only here because Trixie wanted to come here, and I’m her boyfriend, so that means I had to go with her,” he said with a groan.

Surprise facehoofed. Now they would never get in.

Rarity looked at Trixie. “Really, Trixie, why in the wide wide world of Equestria are you dating that jerk? Even YOU could do better than HIM! I assure you, dear, he’s nothing but a royal pain who doesn’t care about anypony but himself!”

“I beg your pardon!” Blueblood shot back angrily at the white marshmallow standing in front of him.

Trixie simply turned to Blueblood and placed a hoof on his chest to calm him. “Don’t listen to her, sweetie,” she said to him calmly. “Trixie knows you’re not really like that… anymore.”

Blueblood gave her a look when she said ‘anymore’, but he shrugged and calmed down.

Trixie continued speaking. “Also, sweetie, Trixie is thirsty. This hot dry country air has made her parched.”

Blueblood nodded in agreement. “I know what you mean. I could go for a drink myself.”

Trixie just continued to look up at him expectantly.

After a few seconds, Blueblood understood. “Oh! Um… I’ll just go and get us some drinks then.”

Trixie smiled. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she said, rubbing her hoof under his chin affectionately.

Blueblood sighed and walked off away from the library to buy them some drinks.

Trixie turned back to Rarity, whose mouth was gaping open from what she had just seen. Trixie smirked triumphantly. “You just need to know how to break a stallion. AND TRIXIE IS THE GREATEST AT BREAKING STALLIONS!”

Suddenly they heard someone yelling inside the library, and Rarity turned around and ran back into the house. Trixie and Surprise both shrugged and quickly followed after her into the library.

They walked to what they assumed was the door to Twilight’s bedroom. All the rest of Twilight’s friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Shining Armor and Cadence were all standing outside the door. Their expressions changed to shock and anger when they saw Trixie, and Surprise approaching behind Rarity.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” growled Rainbow Dash at them, leaping into the air and hovering in one spot with her wings.

Rarity turned around and looked surprised to see Trixie and Surprise behind her. “Hey! I didn’t invite you in!”

“I heard Twilight was upset, so I want to cheer her up,” said Surprise, flashing them all an innocent smile.

“And what about her?” yelled Applejack, pointing at Trixie with her hoof.

“Oh… Trixie came to see her too,” said Trixie, remembering to fake a concerned expression.

At that moment, they all heard Twilight’s voice coming from behind the door.

“Go away! All of you! I’m not in the mood!” They could hear Twilight sobbing.

They all turned back to the door. “Twily, please come out!” Shining Armor pleaded. “You’ve been in there for days!” 

“We’re your friends, Twilight!” Fluttershy said. “Let us help you!”

“Leave me alone!” they heard Twilight sob.

Trixie growled in annoyance. “This is taking too long!” she said. “Trixie doesn’t have all day!” Trixie’s horn glowed. Before anyone realized what she was doing, Trixie blasted the door to Twilight’s bedroom with a spell. The blast knocked the door down off its hinges, and it fell flat on the floor inside Twilight’s bedroom.

Everyone stared at Trixie in shock at what she had just done. She, however, looked completely unconcerned by her actions.

Looking into the room, they could see Twilight sitting up on her bed, looking surprised to see that her door had just been blasted off its hinges. Her eyes were red, like she had been crying a lot recently. There were a bunch of used tissues lying all over the floor.

“OH MY GOSH!” Twilight shouted. “YOU ACTUALLY JUST DESTROYED MY BEDROOM DOOR! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL…” Twilight then noticed Trixie standing amongst her friends. She scowled at the azure unicorn angrily. “What the hay are you doing here?”

“Trixie and Surprise wanted to cheer you up,” said Trixie as she and the rest of them began entering Twilight’s room. She looked back behind her for the white Pegasus mare, but didn’t see her anywhere. “Hey! Where did Surprise go?”

Suddenly, Surprise popped up from behind the other side of Twilight’s bed. “SURPRISE!” she shouted, causing a startled Twilight to scream and leap up off of her bed in fright, and land back on her bed with a bounce.

“Did I cheer you up?” Surprise asked the purple unicorn, who was holding her hoof to her chest and taking deep breaths.

Twilight gaped at her. “NO!” she shouted angrily. “YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!”

Surprise huffed in disappointment. “Well then I’M all out of ideas!” she said, and then walked out from behind Twilight's bed with a frown.

“My gosh! You look terrible!” Trixie said as she stared up at Twilight. The purple unicorn really did look a mess and unkempt. Her fur coat was unkempt and her mane and tail were messy. And from a slight smell, they guessed Twilight hadn’t bathed recently either. Trixie actually felt a twinge of pity for Twilight. She hadn’t realized Twilight was this bad. She immediately felt a bit guilty for her original reasons for coming here.

They all walked up to Twilight’s bed.

“Twilight, I’m sorry,” said Cadence. “I know you were really close to Celestia, and Luna too. I was close to them too, and I know the death of ponies you care about isn’t easy, but you can’t just lock yourself away for the rest of your life!”

Twilight sniffed. “I appreciate it, Cadence, but you don’t understand! Its more then just that! I had put all my faith in Queen Celestia. I looked up to her! I idolized her! She was everything to me! And now, to find out that she wasn’t the great and wonderful pony I thought she was, and knowing that the one pony who I looked to for guidance and wisdom, who gave me a secure path to follow in life, is gone forever, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with my life now!” Twilight broke down again, and flopped back down on her bed on her back. “What am I supposed to do without her? All I’ve ever wanted was to make her proud of me! I have NOTHING to live for anymore!” Then she screamed, startling everyone in the room. “SOMEPONY, TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!” Twilight rolled over onto her belly and buried her face in her pillow. She began to cry some more.

Everyone in the room stared at her, feeling awkward about being in a room with a bunch of other ponies, watching a crying mare.

Trixie, however, was processing everything she had just heard Twilight say, and as she began to understand, she slowly became angry, angry at the purple mare crying her eyes out on the bed in front of her. She no longer felt sorry for Twilight. Eventually, Trixie couldn’t hold her anger in anymore, and she walked up to the edge of the bed. “Sparkle?” she said through gritted teeth.

Twilight pulled her head out of her damp pillow and looked up at the azure unicorn.

Trixie raised her forehoof up above her head, and then brought it down and smacked Twilight as hard as she could on the side of the purple unicorn's face.

Everyone in the room gasped in shock at what Trixie had just done. Twilight looked up at Trixie in shock as she pressed one of her hooves against her bruising cheek.

Trixie glared down at Twilight furiously. “You really piss me off, Sparkle! You know that?” Trixie shouted angrily, so much so that she forgot to speak in the third person. “You’ve had everything given to you on a silver platter your entire life, while I’ve had to struggle for everything I have! You were born with unnatural magical power, born into a well-connected, well-off family, and then just given the opportunity to study magic under Celestia herself after she saw how powerful you were! You have so much talent, and knowledge, and power, and connections! You could do anything you wanted to do, but all you ever cared about was just making Celestia happy, doing whatever you thought would please her! And now that she’s gone, you don’t know what to do with yourself. YOU’RE PATHETIC!”

Twilight just continued to stare up at Trixie in shock, frozen at the azure mare’s words.

“What in tarnation do ya’ll think you’re doing?” Applejack yelled at Trixie.

Trixie looked back at the orange farm pony. “I’m talking some sense into her thick head!” the azure mare retorted. “She clearly needs it!” She looked back at Twilight. “All you’re life, you’ve always just been completely happy letting Celestia decide your entire life for you, haven’t you? Whatever Celestia wanted for you, you just went along with it, just because you wanted to please her! YOU MAKE ME SICK! I, on the other hoof, know exactly what I want to do with my life! I have plans! I have dreams! I have ambitions, and I’m going to achieve them no matter what, and I will not settle for anything less! I don’t care what anypony else tries to tell me what I should do with my life. I don’t care about just pleasing somepony else! I do with my life what I want to do with my life! No pony decides my life except me!”

Unknown to any of them, someone was listening in on their conversation just outside the room.

“You want to know what you should do, Sparkle?” Trixie continued shouting. “Okay! Here’s what you should do! You should look deep down inside yourself and figure out whatever it is YOU want to do with your life, AND THEN YOU SHOULD GET UP OFF OF YOUR SORRY ASS, AND GO OUT AND DO IT!”

“Um… excuse me…”

Everyone looked back behind them, and saw a yellow unicorn stallion standing in the doorway of the bedroom. It was Comet Tail.

He spoke again. “Um… sorry if I’m interrupting anything, but I wanted to borrow a library book. The front door was opened, so I just came in, and I heard shouting back here. Is everything okay?”

“Trixie was just leaving!” Trixie said. She turned to Surprise, who was staring at her with a gaping mouth. “Come on! Lets go!”

Trixie walked out of the room. Surprise hesitated and looked back at Twilight. “Sorry about Trixie. She has a really short temper. I hope you feel better.” And then she turned and followed Trixie out.

“Ah, don’t listen to that Trixie, sugarcube,” Applejack said to Twilight as soon as Trixie and Surprise had left. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about!”

Twilight, however, was deep in thought. What if Trixie was right?

“Well, I agree with Trixie on one thing,” said Comet Tail, causing everyone to stare at him. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but over hear the conversation. You could do SO much, Twilight! You’ve saved Equestria a bunch of times! You’re great at magic, you’re great at science, you’re super organized, even if you can go a tad overboard sometimes.”

“Understatement of the century,” muttered Spike, causing everyone to give him a glare.

“Anyway,” Comet continued, “what I’m saying is, you’re an incredible pony! You could do anything you wanted with your life! Heck, before you came along, hardly any pony even knew this town HAD a library!”

“Really?” said Twilight, shocked.

“Yeah. Everypony just thought it was a funny looking tree in the middle of town,” Comet said with a shrug.

Twilight looked at her friends. “Is that true?”

Her friends all looked embarrassed. “Guilty,” said Rainbow Dash, and the others all nodded sheepishly in agreement.

Twilight looked up at him and gave him a small smile. “Thanks. By the way… who are you?”

“I’m Comet Tail,” he said, a little disappointed she didn’t know who he was, but happy to see she was smiling again, having known she had been feeling bad these past few days. He really liked her smile. It was one of the main things that attracted him to her. Secretly, part of the reason he had come to the library today was to see how Twilight was doing.

“Nice to meet you, Comet Tail,” Twilight responded.

Comet blushed. “We’ve actually met before,” said Comet, awkwardly scratching the back of his head with his hoof. “A couple of times.”

“Oh! We have?” Twilight asked in surprise.

“Yeah, although I suppose I never properly introduced myself,” he said sheepishly.

………………

Trixie walked out of the library, still in a bad mood from her talk with Twilight. Blueblood had just arrived outside, levitating a pair of cups of iced lemonade next to him.

“Trixie, I bought us some lemonade,” he said when he saw them coming out of the library. He must have then noticed the disgruntled look on her face because he added, in a concerned voice, “What’s going on?”

Without a word, Trixie simply walked past him, grabbing one of the cups with her magic, and began drinking it through the straw.

“You’re welcome,” said Blueblood in annoyance with a role of his eyes. “Is everything all right?”

Trixie stopped and looked back at him, and sighed. “Yeah, everything’s fine,” she said. “Come on. Lets go home.”

Blueblood looked at her in confusion. “But we just got here!”

“Yes, but Trixie is done here. Besides, Trixie knows you don’t want to be here, so why are you complaining?” She walked up to Blueblood and kissed him on the cheek. “Come on. When we get home you can practice drawing Trixie like one of your French mares,” she said mischievously, flashing him a smile before she turned and started walking away.

Blueblood continued to stare at Trixie for a few more seconds, but then, finally, he shrugged and started walking away from the library with her and Surprise, making their way back towards the train station.

...................


Epilogue


Trixie continued to train and practice and study with her magic, and, after many years, she eventually became a truly powerful unicorn, eventually mastering even teleportation to the point where she could do it with ease.

Prince Blueblood, after years of practice, eventually did become a talented and successful artist. His favorite subject was his beloved Trixie.

Lightning Dust eventually achieved her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt, as did her friends Gilda, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score.

About eleven months after their space adventure (which is the average gestation period for horses), Upper Crust gave birth to a baby filly. As soon as she and Jet Set looked upon their newborn daughter, all their initial fears of parenthood just seemed to melt away.

Twilight, after taking Trixie’s advice, decided to do something with her life. In fact, she did a lot of things. She became a teacher in magic at a unicorn’s magic school, and eventually the headmaster. She also became a top ranking officer in the magic division of Equestria’s military. And she also became the head of the Equestrian department of magical science and development. And she eventually also became one of Queen Cadence’s chief advisers in the field of magic.

Comet Tail worked up the courage to finally ask Twilight out on a date. Long story short, it went well.

Flim and Flam eventually became successful cider salesponies.

And Iron Will is still doing what he’s always done.

And so they all moved on with their lives, taking with them the lessons they had learned on their adventure, that everyone, no matter who or what they are, has the power and the right to choose their own paths in life, and no matter what others might say, every individual has the potential to accomplish whatever their heart desires. All one needs to do is make the choice, and put forth the effort, to do so. There is no predetermined destiny for any of us. Life is all about making choices, so we should try to make the best ones we can.


The End