Prologue

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For some ponies, having a brother or sister is a blessing. They can make you feel happy or turn your life into hell. For Twilight Sparkle, it was the latter rather than the former. She and her brother Shining Armor did not communicate well with each other ever since they were foals.

They were always competitive against each other and they always fight and never seem to get along. Even their parents Night Light and Twilight Velvet can't seem to get them to talk to each other.

When they do get along, they would always play different games ranging from board games to action games. However, all of them ended up quite short because Shining kept telling his little sister to stop cheating on everything, but she denied of doing so.

"Ugh, Twily, could you please stop cheating on every game we play?!" Shining yelled.

"I'm not cheating! You are!" Twilight yelled back.

"No, you are!"

This always happen every time they would play something they love doing. This continued from their foalhood all the way to when Twilight was assigned to Ponyville to check up on the preparations for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. Even then, they were always at each other's throats until Twilight finally moved out of the house in order for her to settle in Golden Oaks Library.

Since then, they never saw each other even during the holidays like Hearth's Warming Eve, Nightmare Night and even Mother's Day.

A few years later, when Twilight ascended to princesshood, she and her brother didn't even talk to each other. They just looked at each other before turned their backs and walked away. This caused a really awkward moment between Twilight's friends, Princess Cadance, Twilight's sister-in-law, and Princesses Celestia and Luna as well.

"Well, that was awkward," Rainbow Dash said, scratching her head with a nervous arm.

"To be fair, I think that goes for all of us, darling," Rarity mentioned.

"Actually, they have been like this ever since they were young. I know cause I was there watching them fight all the time," Cadance explained.

"Really? How so?" the fashionista asked.

"Well, they were always arguing about everything. They can get competitive all the time but here's where it get over the top. Every time they played something, Shining will always win and Twilight will always lose them. But when she did win, Shining will always find ways to just deny it, including calling her a cheater."

"What?!" Twilight's friends shouted.

"Okay, I know a lot about winning and losing, but calling someone a cheater is just wrong, even if he was related to you," the weather pony said.

"Yeah, Twilight didn't deserve being called a cheaty cheater. But she did win fair and square, right?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"I saw everything and she did win some games on her own effort, but Shining didn't believe her."

"Oh, poor Twilight. She really didn't deserve being treated like that. What should we do about it?" Fluttershy said.

"Well, Ah think for now, we should keep an eye on the two o' them. We will take care of Twilight while you look after her brother. Ah'm sure they will come clean in the end," Applejack assured.

After a year, Twilight and Shining still didn't get along, with all of the constant fighting, her friends have drawn blank. Even Discord can't seem to get them to be nice to each other.

And when Tirek came into her life, Twilight did what she had to, even if her so called brother wasn't there to help her. Because of that, she managed to earn a castle which served as her new home after the centaur destroyed the Golden Oaks Library. She was even allowed to reign alongside her friends as the Princess of Friendship.

However, somewhere in the castle, a board game appeared out of nowhere. Little did Twilight or Shining knew that this particular game will change their current lives forever.

The Start of an Adventure

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It was roughly a week after the castle appeared for Twilight to reign as the Princess of Friendship. She woke up, only to find all of her friends standing by her bed.

"Uh, girls? What's going on? Is there something wrong?" the lavender princess asked.

"Yeah Twilight, somethin' did go wrong and that was you," Applejack said.

"Me? What about me?"

"Darling, we have been patient with your antics towards Shin-" Rarity started but was harshly interrupted.

"Don't say that name in front of me! He always win on everything! And when I did win something, what did he do?! Calling me a cheater and all that such! It's just too much for me! Argh!" Twilight shouted, furiously scratching her head with her fingernails until her mane became even more disheveled than before.

The change in attitude caused everypony, even Applejack, to step back in shock and horror. She never acted like this towards her friends! They can sense her distress and it was really huge. Seeing her like this is causing Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie to tear up before walking up to Twilight and hugged her tightly.

"Oh Twilight, don't be like this. We know that. Please don't do this to yourself," the shy pegasus said.

"Yeah, Flutters is right! You and your brother can't stay like this forever! You two are like the greatest siblings ever!" the party pony assured.

" I wanted to believe that, but it's just too much for me. I really wish Shining and I just get along like any other sibling in Equestria," Twilight admitted.

"Which is why Ah told Spike yesterday to sent a letter to the Crystal Empire to ask yer brother ta come over," the cowgirl said.

"You did what?!"

"Twi, this is fer your own good, okay? Now, do you want to talk or not?"

At first, Twilight hesitated. Sure, she wanted to make amends with her brother, but at the same time, she really didn't want to be in the same room as him. However, she finally relented as she said the four words that brought a smile to her friends' faces.

"When will he arrive?"

Shortly after breakfast, Shining Armor finally arrived at the castle. After that, he, Twilight, Spike and all of her friends gathered at the library so that the two siblings can talk.

"So, how was your day at the Crystal Empire, Shining?" Twilight asked.

"Eh, going well, I suppose. Possibly even better than you," Shining answered.

"Really Shining? I just got this castle a week ago after my friends and I defeated Tirek all by ourselves! And I didn't even need your help at all!"

"So what? Just because you have a place of your own now, that doesn't mean I can't monitor you anymore! I'm still your brother, for Celestia sake!"

"Oh yeah? Well, what about when you keep calling me a cheater every time I finally won at something?"

"That's because you are a cheater!"

"Ugh, I'm not a cheater, for crying out loud! You're just jealous that I won and you lost!"

"I am not jealous!"

Meanwhile, at the sidelines, Rainbow and Applejack have a small conversation of their own.

"You know, AJ, this is an even worse argument than any of ours combined," Rainbow whispered.

"Ya know, you're probably right on that account. Mah sister and Ah did fight, but not at this magnitude," Applejack agreed.

"Yeah Shining, you are jealous!"

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are! In fact, you just can't stand to look my face anymore, huh Shining?"

SLAP

The slapping sound on hand to cheek resonated within the library. The sound was so loud it caught everypony off guard as Twilight was lying on the ground with her hand on her burning cheek after Shining slapped her.

"You know what, you're right. I really can't stand you anymore," Shining darkly said.

With tears on her eyes, Twilight got up from where she was lying and took off flying out of the room, sobbing her heart out with no more words left to be said.

"Twilight, wait!" That sound came from her assistant Spike, who was seen running from the room to catch up to the crying princess.

Her other friends just looked at the older sibling in disbelief before Fluttershy said in a tone that shocked everypony still present.

"Really Shining? Is that how you treat your own little sister?! Is it?! My brother may be the same, but at least he had a heart not to break mine like what you did to Twilight!"

Fluttershy then flown out of the library, possibly wanting to help Spike to search for the princess.

"Low blow, dude. Low blow," Rainbow commented, still quite shocked about the event that had just transpired.

"Twilight? Spike? Where are you?"

Fluttershy was still searching for the two when suddenly, she found Spike knocking on a door, presumably because Twilight was inside.

"Fluttershy, thank Celestia! I really need your help here! Twilight didn't want to come out of this room. Maybe you can talk to her?"

"Um, I'll try," was all the shy pegasus said before walking up to the room, which was actually one of the storage rooms that was in the castle.

Fluttershy knocked on the door and said, "Twilight, are you in here? It's me, Fluttershy. Can I talk with you, please?"

No response.

"Twilight, please. You're scaring me right now. Please come out."

Still nothing.

"It's okay. Shining is still at the library. He didn't follow me or anything."

A click sounded from the other side of the door. Then, a voice.

"You can come in."

Fluttershy and Spike glanced at each other before the mare opened the door to reveal Twilight to be in a sobbing mess on the floor. Seeing her like this is tearing her up on the inside, because she always looked up to Twilight whenever she was feeling down. Now, it feels like the other way around entirely.

"Oh Twilight..." was all the pegasus said before hugging the princess.

"He... he n-never hit me before..." Twilight sobbed.

"Shh, it's okay Twilight. I'm here. I'm here."

After that, no more words were being said as Fluttershy hugged the distressed and sobbing princess in the comfort of her arms.

Fluttershy saw something glinting on one of the shelves. It was one of the lower ones too. But she stayed silent until she was sure that Twilight stopped crying. Luckily, she didn't have to wait long when Twilight rubbed her eyes before sitting upright.

"Thanks, Fluttershy. I really needed some comfort."

"Don't mention it. I'm happy to help. Also, I saw something earlier on one of the shelves," Fluttershy said, pointing to the shelf that she mentioned.

"Really? What is it?" Twilight said. She then looked at the shelf, stopping to look at a rectangular shaped box that looked small enough to contain a board game.

The two then walked towards the box, with Twilight pulling it out with her right hand to reveal a space-like boxed board game with the words "Zathura: Adventure is Waiting" at the front. Twilight and Flutershy looked at it in awe and confusion at the same time as to how this board game appeared out of nowhere since the castle appeared from the very same chest that grew from the Tree of Harmony.

"Twilight, what is this thing?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know, Fluttershy. I never saw this thing before. But from the looks of it, this looks like a board game of sorts," Twilight deduced.

"Well, should we take it to the other girls?"

"I think we should. Come on, let's go. The others must be waiting for us."

Twilight and Fluttershy finally made it back to the library after the event that has occurred earlier. Shining, as usual, was still sitting by the window with his arms folded. With the board game in hand, Twilight said, "You're mean, you know that Shiny?"

"Well, it wouldn't have been if you didn't intimidate me like that," Shining said, not even looking at his sister.

With a roll of her eyes, the lavender princess walked towards her brother and decided to show him the board game. "Hey Shining, look at what I found earlier!"

The Crystal Empire prince glanced briefly at the game and just said," Looks dumb and old."

The comment earned a gasp from Twilight's friends as they too saw the board game that Twilight brought in earlier. Still, she said, "Don't say that! This doesn't look old at all! I found this as if it was still new. Will you please look at it with me?"

Sighing, he relented. "Fine, but if it's not interesting, I'm leaving. Got it?"

"Yes, yes. Now come on!"

"Uh, Twilight, can I take a nap for a while?" the young dragon said, yawning.

"Sure thing, Spike. Go ahead."

"Sweet, thanks Twilight!" Spike said before leaving to take a well deserved nap.

By this point, Twilight, Shining and the rest of Twilight's friends have gathered around the box. Using her magic, Twilight lifted the lid of the box, unaware that the lid contained instructions, to reveal a futuristic looking board game that left everypony in awe.

"Woah. Twilight, what is that thang?" Applejack asked.

"To be honest, I have no idea," Twilight admitted.

The board game looked really modern and sleek. At the bottom right corner of the board, there were two ships colored red and blue that was fixed on the board. And at the top left corner, there was a sphere with a capitalized Z plastered in the middle.

For the controls, they saw a key that said "Zathura" at the handle that can only be turned clockwise. There was also a button that read "Go" and when pushed, the dial in the middle will show the players the number of spaces on which they can move that ranges from one to ten but the pieces will move automatically without the help of the players, on which there were only two.

The ponies present have no idea on how to make of the game. After a long silence, Twilight said, "So, who wants to play?"

The others seemed really afraid to raise their hands. But, Shining wasn't and he raised his hand at about the same time as Twilight did. The two looked at each other before the alicorn said, "Huh, fine. Guess it's just you and me then, Shining."

"Guess so. Well, go ahead then. You go first," her brother said.

Twilight just shrugged before looking at the key. For her, it was a bit intimidating but after a while, she sucked all of her fears and turned the key clockwise. A few turns later, a "click" sound was heard, prompting Twilight to now look at the red button, which was now bulging out of the game. Without hesitation, she pushed the button, causing the dial to spin before landing at the number five.

The second the dial stopped, one of the pieces - the red ship - moved ahead from the starting position and stopped at the fifth spot from the start. Not long after, a card suddenly popped out from its slot, startling Twilight and the others present.

"Woah, that scared the living daylights out of me," Rainbow said.

"Ya don't have ta say that again," Applejack agreed.

"Oh, a card! What's it say? What's it say?" Pinkie asked enthusiastically.

Rolling her eyes, Twilight picked up the card and read the contents of the card out loud. "It says, 'Meteor Shower: Take Evasive Action.'"

"Um, Twilight, what does that mean exactly?" Fluttershy asked.

"I think it means to avoid something."

"Well, what are we supposed to be avoiding?" Shining said.

"I don't know! All it says to take an evasive-" FWOOSH "-action."

While the princess talked, a streak of light came from above and hit the card that Twilight was still holding, creating a hole in the middle of the card. This prompted everypony to look down at the hole that was on the floor before looking at the ceiling to notice another hole coming from the same direction.

"Why do Ah get the feelin' that it's not gonna be a good thing?" the cowgirl said.

The others seemed to have the same feeling before they all feel that the castle is shaking rapidly. Looking up again, they can hear that the ceiling is trying to hold on to something heavy. Then, another streak, but bigger than the first one hit the ground beside them. Like the first one, it made a hole on the ground.

Another streak hit one of the book shelves, causing several burnt books to fall down.

Then, Twilight's head clicked as she realized that the card was real and shouted, "Guys, run! It's a meteor shower! And don't fly as well. They might burn your wings!"

The others need no more encouragement as they all ran like mad ponies around the library, trying to avoid being hit by the meteors.

Meanwhile, on another room, Spike was still sleeping soundly, unaware of the event that was currently happening at the library.

Back at the library, Twilight, Shining and the rest of the Mane Six ran all over the place in a futile attempt to avoid the falling meteors. Books flown out of the shelves, furniture overturned, it was absolute chaos in the library.

Then, Shining saw that the fireplace was almost big enough to fit seven ponies if they squeezed themselves just enough to fit. He shouted, "Everypony, head to the fireplace! It's safer down there!"

Again, no more words were being said as they all ran towards the fireplace and squeezed inside, just in time for them to see that the library is decimated and rained down by possibly hundreds more of those meteors, regardless of size.

Finally, after five intense minutes, the meteor shower finally died down, making them all breathe sighs of relief. That was short lived, however, as a huge meteor crashed into one of the corners of the library with a deafening boom.

Seconds later, after checking that the coast is clear, all seven ponies crawled out of the fireplace to check the meteor that crashed. The meteor was still burning since it has traveled far from space.

"You know what, girls? I think I'm beginning to regret playing the game now," Twilight admitted.

"Uh, guys? You might wanna take a look at this."

The voice belonged to Rainbow, who was standing at the door that led to the hallway. When they arrived, Rainbow stepped aside for the others to see. There, they saw something strange. The meteor shower seemed to only hit the library, but not the other rooms of the castle. If that was the case, Spike was probably safe somewhere else.

To confirm the theory, Twilight asked her friends, even Shining, to check all of the other rooms while she checked the area by the front door. Moments later, everypony else came back with the same story; all the other rooms are still intact.

"Well, that was a crazy first ten minutes of playing the game, right guys?" the princess asked.

"Yeah, that was super duper fun. Can we do that again?" Pinkie asked.

"Ah don't think that might happen again, sugarcube," Applejack answered.

"Um, girls? What happened to Ponyville?" Fluttershy asked. The others turned to look at the shy pegasus, who was looking outside from a window.

"Why, whatever do you mean, Fluttershy?" Rarity said.

"Well, it's too complicated. Twilight, I think you should look for yourself."

Shrugging, Twilight went on to unlock the front door and peeked outside.

"Twily, wait!" Shining warned. However, that warning came a fraction of a second too late as his sister had already opened the door.

Twilight's face was showing signs of amazement and confusion. "Guys, check it out!"

Twilight's friends and Shining walked towards the front door, where the lavender princess stepped aside to allow everypony to see. Their eyes soon went wide in shock as they no longer saw the calm surroundings of the outskirts of Ponyville. Instead, all they saw was a bluish planet and deep space that seemed endless.

"Okay, what in the hay is goin' on here?" the cowgirl asked in disbelief.

"I honestly have no idea, AJ. When I opened the door, this is all what I see," the alicorn said.

Then, Shining bravely walked forward as the stairs were still there as if it was attached to the castle. He then looked down to see a void of space underneath him. However, after he grossly spit outside, he can clearly see that the globs of liquid was floating aimlessly towards the nameless planet. That did not go unnoticed by his sister and her friends as they realized that they only get oxygen and gravity while they were inside the castle.

With a scared look on their faces, they stepped back inside with Shining closing the door, or rather slamming it closed.

"Okay, not gonna lie, that was creepy as Tartarus," he mentioned.

"Yeah, what should we do now, Twilight? How are we gonna get back to Equestria if we and the castle have been accidentally sent to space?" the speedster nervously said.

The princess thought about it for a moment before an idea clicked into her head.

"I know! Maybe Princess Celestia can help! I can send her a letter with Spike's help and hopefully, she can figure out something that can help us get back home!"

"Well what are we waitin' for? Let's go get Spike, get that letter sent and hopefully it gets to the princess sooner or later," the cowgirl said.

Twilight nodded before leading her friends and Shining towards Spike's room, with high hopes that they can get some answers real soon.

Frozen Spike

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Shining Armor and the Mane Six have finally made it to Spike's room so that Twilight can hopefully send a letter to Princess Celestia on their current situation where the Castle of Friendship is floating on a small rock in an unknown outer space, which was definitely nowhere near their galaxy.

Twilight wasted no time and decided to barge into the young dragon's room, startling Spike from his slumber.

"Gah! Twilight, seriously? Why did you wake me up? I was just getting into a really nice dream."

"No time for that, Spike! There's an emergency!" the lavender princess said.

"Yeah, a really huge emergency!" Pinkie Pie agreed.

"What is it then?" Spike asked.

"Well, it's complicated. I might as well just show you," Twilight said, walking up to one of the windows that was in the bedroom and opening it, allowing Spike to see the outside world, which was currently nothing but deep space.

The dragon's eyes were wide in shock. "Woah!"

"Yeah Spike, what should we do about it?"

"What are you talking about? It's dark and you didn't have the thought to wake me up and telling me to prepare breakfast? I can't believe you!" Spike said, standing up from his small bed and heading towards the in-build bathroom.

The other ponies present was shocked upon hearing that Spike saw the current situation as nighttime. The siblings then walked towards the door, which was now closed with Spike inside.

"Spike, it's not dark outside! I saw a really huge planet outside, but I have no idea what the planet is. Please Spike, open this door!" Twilight pleaded.

All of a sudden, the door suddenly opened, revealing Spike with an annoyed look on his face.

"Look Twilight, thanks to you, I was forced to turn my seven-hour bubble bath into just one hour! Which means I have to scrub my body hard if I wanted to get any stains or odor away! Now, could you please let me have my bath now?"

"Please Spike, I'm really scared right now. There was this game that we played, but when we started playing it, one minute we were in Ponyville, the next meteors rained down and we were in space. Could you please take a look at it and see what it does next?"

At first, the young dragon hesitated. But after a while, he nodded. "Fine, but if it doesn't do anything, I'm just gonna take my bath, got it?"

"Thank you, Spike. I appreciate it," the princess said before teleporting out of the room to grab the board game that they left back at the destroyed library.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Mane Six are having a conversation of their own.

"So, what do y'all thinkin' right now? How would our family thought that we just disappeared out of nowhere?" Applejack asked.

"Well, Princess Celestia would have noticed right away. But I wonder what Sweetie Belle would think if anything happened to me," Rarity said.

"Well, my animals would starve to death if we can't figure out a way back. We could be here for days, or weeks, or maybe years," Fluttershy said.

"Don't worry girls. If anything, the princess can help us get out of this mess!" Pinkie happily mentioned.

"Well, let's hope for the best," was all Rainbow Dash said.

Back at the siblings and Spike, Twilight had just came back with the game in hand. Wasting no time, she and Shining sat the game down before Twilight told Shining on working on the controls of the game.

"Okay Shining, firstly, you need to turn the key clockwise. After a few turns, the button will pop out. Push it to make the dial spin."

The older sibling nodded as he did exactly what his sister said while Spike watched both of them with an unamused look on his face. Seconds later, the dial stopped at the number nine and Shining proudly said the number out loud.

"Okay, now you just need to wait until your piece, the blue ship, stopped at the ninth space, which was four spaces ahead of mine, which was the red ship," Twilight explained.

Seconds more passed when another card came out of its slot. Shining picked it up and read its contents aloud. "It says, 'You Are Promoted to Starship Captain. Move Ahead 2 Spaces.'"

As soon as he said it, the blue ship quickly moved two more spaces ahead, making both Twilight and Shining realize that they could be getting normal cards that didn't do anything in real life.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna have my bath now so bye," was Spike's last words before he disappeared into the bathroom.

"Wait Spike, that doesn't count!" Shining said.

"What doesn't count, darling?" Rarity asked.

Rather than telling her, the older sibling just showed her the card. The fashionista nodded. "Oh, that's why. You got a normal card."

"Yeah, and I'm going next," Twilight said. She then turned the key like she did last time and pushed the red button after a few turns. The dial finally stopped at the number four, causing Twilight's piece to move four more spaces ahead before a third card came out.

With shaky hands, she took it out and read, "Okay, the card says, 'Shipmate Enters Cryonic Sleep Chamber for 5 Turns.'"

"Twilight, hate to break it to ya, but what in the hay does that mean?" the cowgirl asked.

However, the question was soon answered when they noticed something that scared them; the bathroom door seemed to freeze up really rapidly.

Twilight tried to call out her assistant. "Spike? Are you still in there?"

No response.

With that, the lavender princess tried prying the door open, but the door kept on freezing up despite using all of her earth pony strength. "Girls, little help here!"

Then, Applejack and Pinkie, being earth ponies themselves, stepped forward to help Twilight push the rapidly freezing door open. After a few intense seconds, they finally got the door opened.

Looking inside, pretty much anything and everything was frozen with what looks like layers upon layers of ice that surrounds every item, even the smallest of things like a toothbrush. However, none of that can make Twilight's face go pale when she saw that her dragon assistant was standing right beside the bathtub, completely frozen in spot like the stuff that was in the room.

"Spike!" Twilight shouted, running over to her frozen assistant. "No, Spike..."

"Twilight, why'd ya kill Spike like that?" Applejack asked, who clearly saw Spike frozen.

"No AJ, I don't think he died. He's just frozen in place and time," the alicorn said.

"Oh, great. Now how are we gonna get Princess Celestia informed if our one and only means of sending the letter got frozen?" the speedster asked.

For the first time in her life, besides her Lesson Zero moment, Twilight had drawn blank as she had no idea on how to get out of the current situation right now. Then, her head clicked again.

"Hey Shining, did the box have any instructions or anything? Maybe that can help us," the princess said.

"You know, maybe your right. Come on, let's get back to the library," Shining said, running out of the room to get to the library, the others following behind.

When they finally got to the library, they searched the entire broken floor of furniture and books to find the box that contained the board game. A few minutes of search later, Pinkie finally shouted, "Hey guys, I found it!"

She shouted from the exact same spot that they sat earlier when they first saw the game. The box was indeed still there and somehow, managed to stay intact despite the huge meteor shower rain that happened.

Shining was the first that grabbed the lid of the box and, sure enough, there were writings on the inside of the lid which looked like instructions and read it out loud.

"ZATHURA: Adventure Awaits

Do you have what it takes to venture the space? It's not over until you reached the final space of the game, which will be Zathura's reach. The pieces reset after every game. You can play again as you wish for different adventures."

When he finished with the instructions, the older sibling concluded, "Well, I guess we have no choice but to keep playing."

"Shining, I don't think that's what it says," Twilight said.

"Yes, it did, Twily. It clearly says, 'The pieces reset after every game.' That means we can go back to Equestria if we finish."

"Well, for all I know, the longer we play, more dangers are gonna come. And I have a pretty good feeling that the meteor shower was just the beginning of bad news that this game could throw at us."

"Oh, come on now? Are you scared of facing them?"

"I'm not scared, okay? Maybe I just need a break from all of this."

"Yeah, you're scared. In fact, I bet whatever comes next, you will be running all over the place."

"Ugh, seriously Shining, I don't have time for this, alright? I'm taking a break and that's final," Twilight said before storming out of the library to head to the kitchen for something to drink.

The others, on the other hand, have caught up in another awkward moment between the feuding siblings. It wasn't until Applejack decided to check on Twilight.

"Twilight, wait up!" the orange cowgirl said, running so that she can catch up to the princess.

Applejack ran all over the castle to find Twilight. When she did, she was at the kitchen, pouring what looks like apple juice into one of the many glasses that was in the kitchenware pantry.

"Twilight, are ya alright?" Applejack asked.

"Huh, is it that obvious?" Twilight said.

"Yeah, it was. Twilight, Ah know that you wanted to take a break from all of this, but ya can't hide from yer brother forever. Ya gotta face it head on."

"I wanted to, AJ, I really do. But he's just so bucking annoying! I just can't stand him and his attitude! Every time he won, I respected him. But every time I won, he calls me a cheater! Grrr! I feel like I just wanted to strangle him! Argh!"

The poor princess then threw her tantrum that has been kept inside of her for so long that she just exploded. Her apple farmer friend just watched the scene before her unfold with wide eyes and shock on her face.

"Twilight?"

Ten to twenty seconds of anger explosion later, Twilight finally calmed down before she broke down again. Applejack was by her side a second later, trying to console the crying alicorn by rubbing her arms like she was a little filly and shushed her, with hopes that she calmed down.

After about a few minutes, Twilight wiped down the last of her tears before she spoke again.

"Thanks, AJ. I really needed the comfort."

"Don't mention it, sugarcube. Ah'm just happy ta help a distressed friend whenever," the cowgirl said.

The lavender princess laughed a little, bringing a smile on Applejack's face.

"Yeah, that's so you. Come on, let's go back to the library so that we can finish the game," Twilight said, running to the library before getting stopped by Applejack.

"Hold on a second, sugarcube. Maybe we should play the game by the livin' room this time. Who knew what danger might come lurkin' whilst you and yer brother play it?"

The young princess thought about it for a while. Then she said, "You're right, AJ. I have no idea what might come next, so let's tell the others that we're playing it in the living room from now on, in case something bad happens."

"That's the spirit, Twi! Let's go then!"

With that, Twilight downed the last few gulps of her apple juice before floating the empty glass to the sink. Afterwards, she and Applejack ran back to the library to tell everypony to move to the living room, with hopes that the dangers are just a part of the game.

Little did they knew they were wrong on that account.

A Robotic Enemy

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After telling everypony that they will be moving to the castle's living room to continue playing the game, Twilight and Applejack made sure that the library gets cleaned up as thoroughly as possible by salvaging any books that did not get damaged by the earlier meteor shower, of which there were only a few dozen left. These books were then stored in the nearby storage room for future uses.

About ten minutes later, they finally arrived at the living room, where the others were waiting for Twilight to continue playing the magical board game with her brother. Once the two were settled, Shining then repeated the process and the dial spun and landed on the number eight.

"Hah, look Twily, I got an eight and I'm like halfway there," the older sibling proudly said, of which the younger one rolled her eyes.

She was still thinking about Spike, who got frozen as a result of her previous card that read 'Shipmate Enters Cryonic Sleep Chamber for 5 Turns'. As expected, the result was rapid freezing of Spike's bathroom with the unfortunate young dragon inside.

The blue ship finally stopped eight spaces from where it started and another card popped out. Shining picked it up and read its contents. When he did, his face was shown a hint of confusion, which was noticed by Twilight.

"Shining, what did it said?"

"Quite simple, actually. 'Your Robot is Defective'," Shining stated.

"Okay, what does that mean, actually?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"My robot's broken, obviously."

"Yeah, just one problem. Equestria didn't even manufactured any robot toys at all! There's no way that you could have one that was broken!" Twilight mentioned.

Suddenly, Fluttershy screamed. She then shouted, "Girls, look!" She pointed at one of the lit up hallways.

Everypony else looked at the same direction that the shy pegasus pointed just in time for them to see a huge robotic shadowy figure that was intimidating to them. The robot seems to get closer and closer with the shadow disappearing from their naked eyes until...

"Emergency! Emergency!"

What was expected as a deep robotic voice was actually a tiny one, which prompted everypony to look down and, sure enough, a metallic robot that was the size of a two inch box entered the room.

"Wait, that's it? I honestly thought the robot was big, not this," Rainbow Dash mentioned.

"Huh, ya got that right. Come now Rarity, wake up," Applejack said, trying to wake Rarity up, who had fainted upon seeing the huge shadowy figure of the supposedly huge robot.

"Uh Shining, is that really your robot?" the lavender princess asked.

"Well, at least I got one," Shining said.

"Well, if it's yours, what does it do actually?"

"Duh, anything I want," the older sibling said sarcastically before turning to the robot and said, "Hey, get me an apple juice, stat!"

"Shining, don't say that!" Twilight said, standing up.

"Why not? The card did said that it's my robot, so I can do whatever I want with it," Shining retaliated, standing up as well.

"Uh, guys?" Applejack said. Unbeknownst to any of the siblings, the robot seems to be getting bigger.

"Well, your robot or not, don't say anything harsh to it! You might make it mad!"

"Well, I don't care. It like two or three inches tall. I can kick it across the room if I wanted to!"

"Guys?" Pinkie Pie now said.

"Oh yeah? Well, I think if I got anything like it, I would treat it nicely like my own daughter!"

"Yeah, you're just saying that cause you're jealous that I have a robot and you don't!"

"Guys!" Twilight's friends all said at once, finally receiving attention from the two fighting siblings, who turned their heads to them.

"What?!" the two yelled at once before hearing a deep robotic voice behind them.

"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!"

Fear was etched on Twilight's face when she said, "Girls, please don't tell me that the robot is bigger than us now, because I really can't stand it."

As if on cue, she and her brother turned their heads slowly to face the robot. As expected, what was once a three inch robot was now easily a seven foot tall robot with bulky shoulders, clawed hands and a seemingly angry look on its face.

"ALIEN LIFE FORM, MUST DESTROY!" the robot said, looking only at Shining when it said those words.

"Uh, Twily, why is it looking at me when it said that?"

Then, the alicorn's head clicked when she said, "Shining, the card says that your robot is becoming defective. This means that the robot thinks you are an alien!"

"What?!" the other ponies shouted.

Then, without warning, the defective robot brought out its rocket thrusters so that it can sped towards them, especially Shining, who the robot thought was the alien.

"Hit the deck!" That shout came from Applejack. The others need no more encouragement as they, as one, dodged out of the way until...

The dust finally cleared up as Twilight stood up from where she was lying down - right behind one of the couches - after trying to dodge the incoming robot. She then said, "Is everypony okay?"

"Okay, that was not fun and I am not looking forward to doing it again!" Pinkie said, who was hiding behind the door that leads to the throne room.

"Ugh, you can say that again." That came from Rainbow Dash, as she and her fellow pegasus Fluttershy flew down from the ceiling as their hiding spot.

The others too moved away from their spots; Applejack was actually standing on one of the tables out of fear, Rarity mysteriously disappeared before reappeared through teleportation (how she knew to do so I do not know) and Shining seems to be floating in midair by magic.

Then, together as one, they looked towards the direction of the robot, whose arms have been embedded deep into another one of the many fireplaces that was in the castle. They then moved closer towards the now immobile robot in all directions as they thought the danger is over.

They soon thought wrong as the robot suddenly jolted back to life as it tried to pull itself free from the fireplace. After a few unsuccessful attempts, it then turned its head towards where Shining was standing, its blood red glowing eyes fuming with fury as it said, "ALIEN LIFE FORM, MUST DESTROY!"

Without showing his fear, Shining bravely told his sister to take her turn of the game, of which she did so. Twilight was about to turn the key when the sight before her terrified her; the key was missing from its slot.

Applejack noticed the fearful look on the princess' face when she asked, "What is it, Twilight?"

"The key's gone! AJ, help me look for it!"

"Say no more, Twi!" The cowgirl then split up from Twilight to search for the missing key.

The brother heard and seen his sister's claims and decided to look for it as well. When he did find it, however, the key was inches away from one of the robot's feet. At first, he was hesitant to grab the key and hand it to Twilight. But he then sucked up all of his fears as he was lying on his stomach, his clothing dusted, reaching out to grab the key.

Before he could, however, one of the robot's arms managed to broke free of its wall prison and reached out as well. But its main objective was to grab the older brother and failed to do so several times before the brother reached for the key and moved out of the way.

That action was not missed by Twilight and her friends, who saw Shining risking his life by being so close to the defective robot. Moments later, he sprinted towards Twilight's direction, which was near the board game and handed her the key.

"Here Twily, turn it right now!"

The princess was about to do so before she was interrupted by a sawing noise. She and her brother looked up and can clearly see that the robot used its free hand to held a circular saw, which spins rapidly all on its own so that it can free its other arm and it did.

This prompted Shining to run as the robot chased him all over the castle. The Mane Six tried slowing the robot down with all manners of plans like apple throwing, fist punching, anything to make the robot stop. However, it was relentless as it felt like those attacks made it stronger and it was noticed by the friends.

"Okay, this is officially the strongest enemy I've ever faced in my life, possibly even stronger than Tirek," the cyan pegasus admitted.

"Ya can say that again! How in the hay are we gonna beat it?" the apple farmer asked.

"I don't know! Just think of something!" Shining yelled, still running away from the rampaging robot. He tried teleporting away from the chase, but it was futile because the robot seemed to always find him hiding in whatever room he was able to teleport into.

"Wait a minute? It has my Pinkie Sense?! That is unacceptable!" Pinkie pointed out.

The chase soon ended back at the living room after eight intense minutes when the robot brought out its thrusters again to charge towards Shining, who dodged just in time before it crashes on one of the walls and was now outside in the dark and deep space.

"Okay, that was crazy. Maybe even crazier than any villains we've faced so far," Twilight said.

"Wait, crazier than Discord?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, maybe not but still in the top three."

"In that case, at least it's ov-"

Rarity didn't get to finish her sentence as another crash from the robot happened just behind her. Currently, the living room was now in disarray as furniture was overturned everywhere, intact or damaged. As one again, she and the others looked at the direction of the crashed robot along the burning lines the robot made in its tracks.

What looked like hours was actually a few seconds as the defective robot stood up, possibly even more angrier than before as smoke puffed out from its nose.

Shining stayed calm as he said, "Twily, take your turn now."

"On it!" Twilight said, heading towards the game to repeat the card conjure procedure.

Meanwhile, the brother and the robot seemed to battle quietly as they clicked their respective hands and the saw started to spin.

Shining became a bit impatient as he said, "Twily, where's the card? I really need it right now."

"I'm sorry but my piece is still moving."

Back at the board game, the red piece was still moving, as the young princess claimed. However, the robot became impatient as well as it raised the arm with the saw that was spinning at full speed.

Shining saw that and yelled, "Twily, I need that card now!"

As if on cue, the red piece finally stopped and a card popped out. Wasting no time, she handed it to her brother, who then ran away to get away from the rampaging robot. It then ran in the same direction but down in another hallway.

However, Twilight and her friends cannot breathe sighs of relief yet as they saw something really concerning; the game seems to be getting pulled towards one of the intact walls along other furniture in the living room. When they looked outside, fear etched on each of their faces as they saw a glowing yellow star getting closer and closer towards the castle.

"Shining, what did the card said?!" Twilight yelled.

"Ugh, one... second!" Shining yelled back, clearly straining from something. Finally, he took refuge on one of the door frames that led to, ironically, Spike's bedroom. Pretty much anything and everything was pulled in one direction, including the frozen Spike. He then read the contents of the card out loud, with hopes that his sister can hear it. "It says, 'You Pass Too Close to Tsouris-3: Enter Gravity Field!'"

Meanwhile, outside, the Castle of Friendship is now passing by the giant star. Back inside in the living room, the Mane Six tried to escape the approaching star. It actually posed no problem to the pegasi and Twilight, being able to fly, but for the others, not so much.

Applejack and Pinkie managed to hang on by grabbing on one of the many pillars that was in the castle since they were born as earth ponies. However, for Rarity, she didn't have earth pony strength, so she struggled on hanging for dear life as she yelled to Twilight, "Oh Twilight, whatever was that star that was pulling everything and everypony towards it?!"

The lavender princess then make a book on astrology appear and decided to read away on the star that Shining had yelled at her. When she did, all of the color drained from her face.

"Oh dear. Whenever Twilight made that face, it's always bad news," Rainbow mentioned.

"It is. According to this book, Tsouris-3 is... a sun."

"What?!" all of her friends shouted.

"Is it Celestia's by any chance?" Applejack asked.

"No, it's not. We're on a completely different galaxy altogether."

"Again, what?!" This time, only Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Uh guys, I could use some help here!" That shout came from Shining, who was struggling to hang on whilst avoiding the saw on the robot's hand. It had managed to catch up to Shining while Twilight searched one of her books for the details of Tsouris-3.

"Yeah, sorry dude, having a little bit of trouble ourselves here!" the rainbow maned pegasus shouted back.

As the castle kept travelling across the huge gravitational sun, pulling everything that was unfortunate enough to be outside, including pieces of crystal that was chipped off from the walls, the ponies inside are not faring better as well. Rarity tried hanging onto the pillar that she was holding, but the gravitational force was too much for her to handle and she loses her grip, screaming before Twilight managed to grab her hand in time.

"Twilight, help!" the poor white unicorn pleaded.

"Hang on, Rarity!" the young princess assured.

"Twily, a little help here!" Shining yelled from the entrance to Spike's bedroom.

"Sorry, I'm a bit held up right now!" Twilight yelled back.

However, inch by inch, Rarity was losing grip on the lavender alicorn's strong hands. At the same time, the robot was trying to saw Shining's hooved feet off but failed each time. And then, all at once, Rarity's grip finally gave out as she was pulled towards the sun and Shining went sliding towards the front door after the defective robot tried to get a hold on Shining's leg but slipped and fell to its doom down at the basement.

For Twilight, time seemed to have stopped as she lost her grip on her unicorn friend. She then snapped back to reality when she heard her name being yelled by Rarity, who was now halfway towards meeting her doom because she was unfortunately aimed towards one of the intact windows feet first.

However, fate seemed to have other plans as Rarity was suddenly spinning until her body was facing the sun whereas Shining was still sliding until his feet hit the front door hard. As for Rarity, she also hit the window hard, but due to her body facing it, she was lucky that her chest was big and soft enough for a nice but rough landing. That was enough to make the other ponies cringe upon seeing it.

As of now, the Tsouris-3 sun has finally passed by the castle, causing everything to return to its original gravitational field of the castle, including Applejack and Pinkie. As for Shining, he was resting after the thrill of adrenaline he had earlier only to be interrupted by something hitting his head. He looked up and screamed upon seeing Spike, still frozen, was the one that hit his head.

The Mane Six heard the scream and rushed towards the front door, stopping when they saw the frozen young dragon nearby. Then, Twilight rushed to the statue and started to examine for any broken parts, relieved to find none of the sort.

"Twilight, is he okay?" That came from Applejack, who was concerned that Spike could get damaged due to how frozen he is right now.

"Surprisingly, he's still in one piece," the young princess said, making the others breathe sighs of relief, including Rarity, who has finally got out of the adrenaline rush from her earlier hard landing.

"Wait, Shining, if you're here, then where's the robot?" Rainbow asked the older brother.

Shining's head clicked as he started rushing back to the basement stairs, quickly followed by the Mane Six. When they reached the stairs that led to the basement, they looked down to see that the robot has finally became immobile after its rampage towards Shining earlier.

Then, the older brother started making his way down to make sure that the robot was actually not moving anymore.

"Shining, what are you doing?" his younger sister asked.

"Nothing, just making sure, that's all," Shining answered.

Upon closer inspection, the saw actually punctured through the robot's face, making it completely immobile. He then tried touching its face, but the second he did, its chest panel suddenly opened up and a smaller robot popped out. It seemed angry that its master was broken and did something that scared him; it tried to fix the robot. Not wanting to be in the same room any longer, he sprinted out of the room, closing the door of the basement and headed back upstairs.

Using her magic, Twilight brought Spike back to his bathroom to where he was frozen stiff earlier. She then asked, "Wait, hold up. The robot can fix itself?"

Shining had just told the others what had just transpired back in the basement earlier.

"Well, how should I know? Plus, I really don't think that we need to be in the same room when it happens."

"Great. Now we can't even get a good rest after all of that? Sheesh, I really wished that the robot stayed broken," Rainbow mentioned.

About five minutes later, they finally got Spike back to the same position on where he got frozen earlier.

"Well, that should do it. Now what?" the young princess asked.

"I don't know. Maybe continue playing that game?" Shining said.

"Uh, no way! I've had enough action for a while now. I think that we should take a break whilst having lunch. What do you say, girls?"

"Yeah, I could get something to eat right now," the cyan pegasus agreed.

"To be honest, I am a bit peckish for food. I could really go for a bite," Rarity said.

Shining was a bit annoyed that the others have decided to follow his sister, but he finally relented as he said, "Fine, but I'm taking that game with me, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on, let's go!" Twilight said, showing them the way to the kitchen and dining room area with Applejack preparing lunch. After all of the action that they have faced, they did deserve a little break every now and then.

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The group had managed to salvage any items to be made lunch with Applejack and Pinkie taking over the kitchen, which was completely trashed and all kitchen appliances and kitchenware alike looked like it was pushed to one side thanks to the Tsouris-3 sun passing by earlier. The others were lounging by the hastily fixed dining area which was also cluttered earlier. Shining came back to the room after telling them that he wanted to go and get the game from the living room.

After waiting for twenty-five minutes, the dishes are finally ready. As expected, apple related treats were served because the apples managed to survive getting crushed along with other baked items as well.

As the Mane Six were enjoying the treats, Twilight saw her brother's hand reached for the key and started to turn it.

"Shining, what are you doing?"

Her sudden voice startled the older brother as he said, "Twily, you scared the shit out of me!"

"Yeah, like I said, what are you doing? Can't you see that we're having lunch right now? We can't afford to have another distraction while we were eating!"

"Relax, I'm just gonna take a look and I will tell you if I got a normal card or not, alright?"

At first, the young princess was reluctant for letting Shining take his turn during lunch. She thought back to all of the dangers that they have faced like the meteor shower, the defective robot and the sun. However, after thinking long and hard...

"Alright Shining, go ahead. But if it is a danger card, don't make me said 'I told you so.'"

"Okay, fine," was all Shining said before finally taking his turn.

After a number of spaces has passed, another card pops out. The older brother picked it up and read its contents. The others are waiting for a confirmation from him anxiously.

"Well, good news is, it's a normal card," Shining started, making the others breathe sighs of relief before he continued, "And it says, 'You Are Promoted to Fleet Admiral. Move Ahead 4 Spaces.'"

As he said it, Twilight took a spit take while she was sipping her glass of apple juice, which was also salvaged from the earlier danger. She then said, "Okay, why does he keep getting those kinds of cards but I don't?"

"Maybe the game likes me more than you," her brother answered back.

"Shining, please don't. Twilight here is a bit down fer now. Show some respect, will ya?" Applejack asked politely.

The older brother just rolled his eyes just as his piece stopped four more spaces ahead. He then asked his younger sister, "Well, do you wanna have a turn now?"

"Maybe after we finished eating, alright?" Twilight said, which Shining reluctantly agreed to.

After the dishes were done, the Mane Six and Shining walked back to the living room so that Twilight can have her turn of the game. They soon settled on a couch and around it, which was the only furniture that was not damaged by the robot earlier, much to Twilight's relief.

"You know, I have been wondering. What do you want to do after we get back to Equestria?" the lavender alicorn suddenly asked her brother.

"Eh, nothing. Maybe getting out of your face for a change?" the brother said, earning a gasp from the rest of the group.

"Ugh, you see?! You keep treating me like I'm nothing! I'm a princess now! And a Princess of Friendship, at that! And how did I get that title? By defeating Tirek with my friends, that's how! So, could you please treat me nicely, at least for now?"

Shining just rolled his eyes again and said, "Fine."

"Good. Now it's my turn," the young alicorn said before turning the key and pushing the button, getting a number six in the process.

The red ship moved six spaces ahead and another card came out from its slot. With trembling hands, she picked up the card and read, "It says, 'You Are Visited by Zorgons.'"

"Twilight darling, what in Equestria is this 'Zorgon' thing?" Rarity asked.

"Not really sure. My books didn't say anything about them. But no need to worry, they're just visiting, that's all."

A loud gasp came from Rainbow Dash as she said, "Girls, look at that!" She pointed to a dark hallway that was suddenly filled with a bright white light that was coming from outside of all places.

The others turned their heads to where the cyan pegasus pointed. However, the light seems to be getting closer and closer towards them.

Without warning, an ear-piercing noise came to life as the ponies' ears folded and their hands instinctively on them as they tried to drown out the sound that could put the Royal Canterlot Voice to shame.

As the light slowly moved ahead, alongside a bit of shaking, they saw a cylindrical shaped spaceship with a muzzle at the front and rocket thrusters at the back slowly passing them outside when they looked out the windows and even from the hole on the walls.

"Zorgons!" Rainbow loudly said, but sadly the others were unable to hear the speedster's claim as the sound is still blaring out loud.

After about twenty more seconds of covering their ears, both the ship and the sound stopped at once, allowing the ponies to remove their hands from their folded ears. The blinding light also disappeared from view.

However, Pinkie Pie suddenly said, "Uh guys, my Pinkie Sense is tingling!"

"Really? What's it said?" Fluttershy meekly asked.

"Just one word: run."

"Run? From what?" the young princess asked without looking at her pink friend.

As if to answer her question, three cannons were summoned at the side of the ship that was facing the castle.

No wards were being said as they all ran away from the ship, which then blast a fireball the second Shining, as the last pony, ran out of the room with the game in tow. He then yelled to the Mane Six, "Girls, hide in the library! I think it's safe there!"

The mares said nothing as they made their way to the damaged library and crouched down with their backs facing the windows. But the Zorgons seemed to have sensed them because the ship is now right behind them without them noticing.

Except for Applejack, who, on instinct, turned her head around, causing her to create a horrified expression, which was unnoticed by the others. She then yelled out "Run!" before doing the deed, prompting everypony else to turn their heads around to see that the ship was about to fire again.

They then sprinted out of the library from where they crouched, just in time before the ship fired its cannons again without any of them losing their lives. The ponies then hid inside Twilight's bedroom, with hopes that the ship goes away. Sadly, it did not as the Zorgons fired their cannons again, this time aiming at a random room that was nearby Spike's bedroom. Without them knowing, the shake caused the dragon's frozen figure to fall down on his back. Thankfully, he stayed intact. The blasts also caused one of Twilight's telescopes to float aimlessly in space, but mainly orbiting the castle.

"Okay, first the robot, now the Zorgons that has my Pinkie Sense?! I hate this game!" the hyperactive pony whined.

"Worry that later, Pinkie! Now, how in the hay are we gonna git them Zorgons to leave us alone and have them ta stop blowin' up this castle?!" the cowgirl asked.

Shining said nothing as he grabbed the game and took his turn. That action was not missed by his sister as she said, "Shining, are you crazy?!"

"Well, you got any better ideas, Twily?!" her brother asked, a question that Twilight was unable to answer for the first time in years. "I thought so." He then pushed the button.

As the Zorgons ship was still moving as if waiting for its prey, another card came out. Shining picked it up, but only sighed in frustration.

"Well?" That came from Fluttershy, as she was still shaken throughout the whole ordeal.

Rather than saying it, the brother just showed them the contents of the card, which only contained one word: 'Reprogram'.

"Wait a minute! 'Reprogram'?! That's it?! What the buck does that mean?!" Rainbow impatiently asked.

"Don't look at me! I'm just as dumbfounded as you guys are right now!" Twilight retaliated.

Soon, the Zorgon ship was outside the lavender princess' room. And then, Shining had an idea. He stood up, looked at the window to where the Zorgons were and shouted whilst holding the card out.

"Reprogram!"

However, the Zorgons were prepared to fire one more blast, prompting Shining and everypony else to take cover, just in time for the cannons to fire the blast. Then, as soon as it was done, the ship was seen leaving the castle.

The ponies then stood up from where they were taking cover to avoid the blast, which was then followed by falling debris of crystals and wood. Twilight looked outside and said, "Well, that happened."

"Yeah, no kidding, Twi. Clearly that card didn't work on the Zorgons. So, what now?" Rainbow asked.

"You're asking me? How should I know?"

"I know one thing, and that is for you to take your turn now," her brother said, which earned a shocked look from her.

"What?! No!"

"Please, just go!"

"Fine," the young alicorn reluctantly said, before finally taking her turn of the game.

While she was doing so, Twilight's friends and Shining then walked towards the now decimated windows of Twilight's bedroom as a lookout in case the Zorgon ship came back.

Back at the princess, her blue piece has finally came to a stop just underneath the game's bridge that leads to the end part of it. Then, another card came out, of which she picked it up with a hint of confusion on her face.

"Uh, guys? I got a really weird card. It says, 'Rescue Stranded Astronaut.'"

"Wait a minute! 'Rescue Stranded Astronaut'? What was that about?" Pinkie asked.

"I don't know! What do you think, Shining?"

"Well, I guess it has something to do with a stran-" Shining started, but was interrupted by a clanking sound coming from outside.

He and everypony else looked out and, sure enough, a pony in an astronaut suit was suddenly outside by the castle, but with the Zorgon ship quickly passing by as well, taking the astronaut with it.

With fear etched in their eyes, the Mane Six and Shining ran out of the room, but with a thought that the Zorgons are back with a possible ally. They soon stopped by the area near the front door of the castle before hearing deep hoofsteps inching closer and closer towards the front door. This caused all of the girls, even the strong willed Applejack and fearless Rainbow Dash, to fall on their knees trembling with fear.

As the only stallion in the room, Shining tried to comfort the shivering mares as best as he can while the unknown figure moved closer until...

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The mares' shaking stopped at once, where in its place was confusion. Twilight then asked her brother, "Shining, did you lock the door when you slammed it shut earlier?"

"I have no idea," was all the older brother said.

As if to answer the lavender princess' question, the double doors suddenly slammed open, revealing a lot of smoke. When the smoke cleared, however, the astronaut was there, with all of the flying backpack that the figure had, which was only useable in space, soon moved inside the castle in small steps towards the kneeling group.

Just a few paces away did the figure stop in their tracks to open their helmet to reveal the astronaut's face and head for the first time. The sight before them was a bit shocking, because the pony was a unicorn stallion with the same fur color and mane like Shining did, but a bit more fuzzier as if he never took a shaving before. Then, when he spoke, his voice sounded a bit similar to Shining but a bit more raspier.

"Which one of you was the one that spawned me?"

When nopony spoke, he asked again, "Well, who was it?"

"She did," Shining said, pointing at his younger sister.

"Yeah, don't just throw the blame at your sister, buddy. She's the only sibling you've got," the astronaut said, just in time for the Zorgons to fire their cannons again just behind him, causing the whole castle to shake. "Well, it seems you guys got a pretty serious problem right now. Something involving the Zorgons, I presume?"

"Yeah, what should we do about it?" Shining said.

The older brother's lookalike only said, "Hide."

"Hide? If we do that, the Zorgons are gonna blow up the whole castle," the young princess claimed.

"What I meant was, we're gonna 'hide' the castle," the astronaut said before more rattling resonated within the place.

"And how are we gonna do that exactly?"

"Just follow my lead. But first, do you know where the kitchen is?"

The only alicorn in the room nodded.

"Perfect. Lead the way then."

As soon as they made it to the kitchen, the astronaut started to ransack the whole place as if he was trying to find something. He then said, "Hey, could you turn off all of the lights that was in the castle?"

"Who, me?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, you. Go now!"

The young princess nodded before realizing that the castle was huge by comparison and she needs the help of her friends.

"Girls, I need your help of turning off all of the lights in the castle."

"Wait, all of them?!" the cyan pegasus asked.

"Yes, all of them. So, I need all of us to work in pairs. Rainbow Dash, you and Fluttershy take care of the top floor of the castle. Applejack, you and Pinkie took the left side of the castle. Rarity, you and I will take care of the right side. Got that?"

Her friends nodded at once.

"Okay girls, split up now!"

With that, the six friends scattered in pairs with one goal in mind: making sure that the castle was pitch black in darkness.

Back at the kitchen, the astronaut was still searching for something until he took out a small vial of gasoline from one of the lower cabinets of the kitchen, just in time for another rumble to resonate the castle again. Afterwards, he said, "Okay, now I need you to put out the pilot light."

"Uh, what pilot light?" Shining asked.

"I'm talking about the fireplace in the basement. What I need you to do is blow it out like your blowing out a birthday candle," the Shining lookalike explained. He then took off the stovetop for him to demonstrate how its done. "See this little fire right here? It's just like it but bigger." He then proceeded to blow the small fire out.

"Okay, I'll do it. But what are you gonna do while I'm at it?" the older brother asked.

"Don't worry, I have a plan of my own. You go do yours. Now!"

That was all the encouragement Shining needed as he sprinted across the hallway to where the basement is. When he got there, he stumbled upon Pinkie, who was still turning off all of the lights on her side of the castle.

"Hey Shining, what are you doing?" the party pony asked.

"Well, I-" Shining started before getting interrupted by her moving very quickly, as if she was in a hurry to catch a train. He then shrugged before proceeding to descend the basement stairs to blow off the fireplace that was in the basement.

The castle was actually heated up by the basement fireplace, which also serve as a heating source for the showers in case anypony desired to have a warm bath rather than cold ones. The temperature of the castle can also be altered using a thermostat that was located just beside Spike's bedroom, which causes the fire in the fireplace to shrink down to a miniscule size rather than just putting it out.

The temperature thing was exactly done by Shining upon realizing that the defective robot from earlier is still there and still fixing itself, prompting him to just turn off the basement lights before heading to the thermostat and decreasing the temperature from a blazing ninety degrees to a manageable thirty five degrees. It also caused the fire to shrink down as well.

As for the Mane Six, the progress of turning off all of the lights within the castle is going well, with only about a third of it remaining. Rainbow Dash has finished with the right side of the top floor of the castle and was on her way to doing the same thing to the tower. Fluttershy was down to the last six rooms on the left side and the last hallway light.

On ground floor, Applejack and Pinkie were doing their best to close off the lights on the left side, with Applejack doing the rooms and Pinkie doing the hallways, but they were also nearly done. On the other side of the castle, Twilight and Rarity did the same thing as well, this time with Twilight doing the rooms and Rarity with the hallways.

Then finally, together as one, they each turned off the last light on each of their given tasks, causing the last six lights to turn off at once, therefore plunging the castle into eternal darkness with the remaining light illuminating inside was the light shining from the deep space. At the same time, the Zorgons finally stopped their assault on the castle, ceasing any charges on their cannons and stopping their ship as well, as if they were waiting for their prey.

The pegasi finally made it back down and was on their way to meet up with Twilight. However, along the way, Rainbow can clearly see that the astronaut was doing something to Twilight's last intact couch. Upon closer inspection, she can see that he was pouring something on it but was unable to make out the details of the liquid that was being poured onto the couch. Wanting to tell Twilight about it, she soon catches up to her fellow pegasus friend.

At the same time, the earth ponies were doing the same thing as well. Then, Pinkie stopped to look outside. She can see that the Zorgon ship has stopped moving for some reason. Shrugging it off, she ran in order to catch up to Applejack, who was already far ahead.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Rarity gathered to catch their breaths after a really long run from turning off the lights earlier. They were soon joined by Rainbow and Fluttershy, who have worked up the sweats as well. Applejack and Pinkie arrived last, with Pinkie wanting to tell Twilight of what she saw earlier.

"Twilight, that Zorgon ship from earlier stopped moving!"

"Wait, what?" Twilight said, before realizing that the castle was no longer shaking. Instead, pure silence filled the room. "Pinkie, you're right. I don't think that the Zorgons have fired their cannons anymore. It turns out that turning off all of the lights worked for some reason."

"And what would that reason be, Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"I think I know what it is, but I'm not sure if it is true or not."

"Speaking of which Twilight, I saw that the astronaut was doing something to your couch earlier. He's pouring something that came from a small canister but I can't make the details of it," the speedster explained.

"A small canister?" the young princess said, before realization dawned upon her. "Oh no..." She then took off and flew towards the front door area of the castle, leaving the others baffled before they ran or flew to catch up to the flying and panicking princess.

Once Twilight and Shining (who wanted to stay by the front door so that he can meet up with the others) made it to where the astronaut was, the former was shocked to find that he was dousing her last remaining couch with what looked like gasoline.

"Hey, what are you doing? That's the only couch I have left!"

As of now, the rest of the Mane Six have finally arrived at the scene, just in time for the astronaut to use his horn to create sparks that soon engulf the doused couch in flames, much to everypony's surprise.

However, there was a brief moment that caused the astronaut and Shining to look at each other with the fire illuminating their faces, as if they were actually the same person inside and out.

That moment was soon interrupted by the astronaut saying, "So, who wants to help me get this thing out of here?"

Without saying anything, Twilight and her earth pony friends volunteered to do so since they all have the same strength, with Twilight developing it the day she ascended to princesshood. Within seconds, the fiery couch was now floating aimlessly in deep space.

Then, they all gathered by the front door, with the astronaut mumbling to himself, which was heard by everypony.

"Come on. Take it. Follow it. Follow it," was all the Shining lookalike mumbled, looking as if he was wishing that the Zorgons would follow the couch.

Suddenly, as if on cue, the ship came back to life, but this time they no longer paid attention to the castle. Instead, to everypony's shock, they seemed to be following the couch that was currently on fire and floating further away from the castle.

"Wait, how in the hay did that worked?" the cowgirl asked.

"Well, that's because those Zorgons are actually huge bucking lizards. They are vicious, dangerous and cold-blooded heat seakers. Anything that was either on fire or lighting up, they will destroy until nothing is left," the astronaut explained, causing the others to gulp in fear.

"Oh, that's why the ship stopped moving when all of the lights went off earlier!" Pinkie said nervously.

"Yeah, that's what I thought as well. Luckily you confirmed my suspicions. But there is one thing I didn't get. Those Zorgons have a planet of their own, right?" the lavender alicorn asked.

"Yeah, they did. Why do you ask?" the astronaut said.

"Well, why didn't they burn it up if they just wander around in space like that?"

"The thing is, they already did."

"What?!" the rest of the group yelled at once.

"Yeah, you heard me. But the bad news is, that's not the worst of the stuff that they did. And I'm talking about their huge and sloppy appetite. They never stop eating," the astronaut explained again.

"Ah'm afraid ta ask but what did them Zorgons eat actually?" Applejack nervously asked.

"Meat," was all he said.

"Oh, that's good," the shy pegasus said.

"No girl, pony meat."

"What?!" the others yelled again. But for Rarity, she fainted upon hearing what the Zorgons' huge appetite for.

"Okay, that was freaky," Rainbow said.

"Yeah Dashie, I mean what kind of appetite was that? I really do not want to be their meal the next time they tried to attack this castle again!" Pinkie agreed.

No more words were being said as the remaining conscious ponies watched the Zorgons as they kept chasing the couch that was still on fire and still floating aimlessly in deep space.

Who's the Real Cheater Here?

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The group had decided to take another small break with the astronaut wanting to have a bit of something to eat, so Applejack volunteered for making him a few more apple cobblers from the leftover ingredients that was not crushed or ruined by the Tsouris-3 sun.

While the cobblers are cooking, the astronaut took a whiff of it and sighed. "Huh, just like old times."

"Why did you say that?" Twilight asked, who have been watching him drink what's left of the apple juice, which was the remaining half of the container.

"You know, back before I became an astronaut, my sister's friend would make me something to eat just like this moment right now."

"Well, did you and your sister are like friends or..." Shining said, waiting for the true story with his sister and pretty much the rest of Twilight's friends as they each took a seat around the astronaut.

"The thing is, to be honest, she and I weren't really on good terms because we always fight with each other. But then, ever since she died, I felt really empty on the inside and I have come to realize how much I didn't talk to her and have fun with her, so, yeah..." the Shining lookalike sadly explained with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Oh dear. You poor thing," Fluttershy said, clearly feeling sorry for the astronaut's sad story.

For Twilight, however, she felt like that there was more to that story than meets the eye.

"Hey, did you really deserve this treat after you helped us with our Zorgon problem we had earlier?" Pinkie suddenly asked.

"Well, that and the fact that I only ate from a couple of small food tubes for the past fifteen years," the astronaut said.

"Wait, did you said fifteen years? Okay, is that how long did you become stranded or how long have you become an astronaut for?" Rainbow now asked.

"To answer that, five for the latter and ten for the former."

"Ten?!" The others, sans the cowgirl, shouted upon hearing the length of his time getting stranded in deep space without any help at all.

"It's okay guys, I've been through worse," the unicorn said, just in time for Applejack to come back with a huge plate of apple cobblers in tow.

"Hey girls, what'd Ah missed?"

After the young princess' friends has decided to explain the astronaut's story back at the living room, the two siblings watched the unicorn as he devoured the cobblers as if he was really hungry. After being stranded for quite a while, they can't blame him for such eating manners.

"You know Twily, for the help he gave us, don't you think that we should send him away?" Shining whispered.

"What, why? The Zorgons might come back if we are not careful enough. Plus, Pinkie did have a tendency of switching back a light in case she wanted to look for something," Twilight whispered back.

"Doesn't matter, I'm gonna make him leave," the older brother said before walking towards the eating astronaut.

"Wait Shining, what are you doing? Come back!" the lavender princess said.

But it was too late. Shining was already right beside his older doppelganger.

"Hey there. So, do you mind leaving after this?"

"Well, you didn't really summoned me. Your sister did. So, I think that she should be the one to decide if I should leave or not," the unicorn astronaut said, prompting Shining to look at his younger sister.

"Well Twily, do you wanna have him out or not?"

At first, the young princess was hesitant. After a while, she said, "Well, he did help us a little bit."

"Wait a minute. 'Help'? He put your last intact couch on fire and you call that helping?"

"Shining, please don't start this. The last thing I need right now was to fight you again."

"Yeah, you know what? I'm just gonna go anyway," the astronaut suddenly said, getting up from his seat at the dining table. "But I gotta hand it to you, the castle looks really fantastic. Thanks for the tour you gave me earlier. Now, I'm gonna leave you guys to fight the Zorgons alone, alright?" he continued, about to wear his gear again, but was stopped by Twilight.

"Wait!" she yelled.

Shining looked at her in disbelief. "Twily, whose side are you on right now? His or mine?"

For a while, the young alicorn looked back and forth at her brother and his older counterpart, thinking about what she should say to make both parties happy. However, she couldn't because every time she would, her brother would end up not talking to her for a while.

With that in mind, she sucked it all up and said to the astronaut, "You can stay if you wanted to."

Without saying anything, the oldest pony in the room put down his jetpack. And as expected, Shining was a bit irritated that his sister let him stay.

The astronaut then said, "Okay then, you want me to stay, then I'll stay. Come on, let's head to the living room. Your friends might be waiting." He then walked out of the room with Twilight laughing right beside him, with a frustrated Shining right behind them.

The trio finally made it back to the remains of the living room after a little bit of stumbling due to the lights having been turned off so that the Zorgons are unable to locate the castle again. The rest of the Mane Six have just told Applejack the astronaut's story. However, they have no idea on how did he got here so fast.

So, when the siblings have settled down by the magical game and the astronaut (who wanted to get the top part of his suit off, later revealing a green colored shirt, much to Rarity's horrified expression of the color of the shirt) later settled down beside them, Applejack asked, "So, uh, ya never mentioned how did ya got 'ere. Care ta explain that?"

"Well, I was wondering when this question is gonna pop out. But to answer that, I actually had to go through a sphincter to get here," the Shining doppelganger explained.

"Ugh, great, more words that I have no idea what it means. What the hell is a 'sphincter'?" Rainbow asked.

"Believe it or not, it was a wormhole, about this big," the oldest pony said, showing the group a small 'O' sign with his fingers, causing them to show looks of shock and horror on their faces. He then continued, "Yeah, it was that small. When you tried to squeeze your body through, it's like going through a really torturing ordeal. Also, it's really tiring that you really need a huge amount of food in your belly afterwards."

"Oh, so that's why ya wanted ta have as many cobblers as Ah can make. That makes a whole lotta sense now," the apple farmer realized.

"Okay, now that we got that out of the way, now I can have my turn now," Shining said, turning the key before realizing something amiss: Twilight's red ship was ahead of his blue ship. He then pointed that and looked at his sister, saying, "Twily, I was ahead of you the whole time. How come you were suddenly ahead of me?"

The rest of the group looked at the young princess in disbelief. She then said, "Don't look at me! Maybe somepony kicked the board game or something!"

"Nopony kicked the board! You gotta be cheating!"

"Oh dear Celestia, here we go again..." thought pretty much every single one of Twilight's friends.

"No Shining, I'm not cheating! Honest!"

"Guys, could you please stop bickering? This is getting us nowhere, alright?" the astronaut yelled, prompting the siblings to stop. "Okay, now Twilight, did you move that piece?"

"Well, I could have move it accidentally but that's it," Twilight meekly said.

"Seriously? 'Accidentally'? That's impossible! You're cheating!"

"Shining, for the last time, I didn't cheat! I'm really was ahead of you!"

"Guys, please stop using the word 'cheat' is this argument," the astronaut said, but sadly his words are on deaf ears as Twilight and Shining kept on yelling at each other.

"Yes, you do, you cheater!"

"Stop calling me that! I'm not a cheater!"

"Guys, stop this right now!" the Shining lookalike shouted, finally prompting the two to stop bickering.

"Okay, this is reaaaaaally getting out of hand now! This is officially the worst fight I've ever seen, and I thought that fight with Tirek couldn't be topped!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Okay then. Now Twilight, where did you last move your piece to?"

"Right here," the lavender alicorn said, pointing to where her blue ship was currently situated.

"No, you're not! You're like right back there!" Shining defended.

The older brother then did something shocking: he started to move the piece back to where he last saw it stopped, which was just after the game's bridge.

"Well, it's fixed now," his lookalike said.

However, the bickering finally came to a head when Shining said the words that really earned shocking gasps from the rest of the group.

"You're such a dumb filly."

"What did you just say?"

"Yeah, you heard me. You're just a weak dumb filly!"

"I'm not a filly anymore! And I'm not dumb!"

"Yes, you are!"

"STOP!!!" Surprisingly, it was Fluttershy who yelled that. "Shining, she's your sister, for Celestia sake! Calling her like that just means that you are better than her! But just because you married a princess which happens to be Twilight's former foalsitter, it doesn't mean that you're better than her!

"Siblings are supposed to look after each other. But they can also distant themselves like they were enemies. And you, you're neither of the two. You're just a mean brother who should not deserved to be called one!"

Silence soon fell within the castle. Everypony, even the astronaut, was in shock upon seeing the timid pegasus' assertive side took over. The pegasus then stormed out of the room, leaving the others perplexed.

"Fluttershy, wait up!" That came from the other pegasus in the room, Rainbow, who had shook off all of the shock she had in her systems.

"Yeaaaaah, what she said. Now could you please start taking your turn now?" the astronaut said, also having been off the trance he had thanks to Fluttershy's outburst.

"Uh, yeah," Shining said, shaking his head before finally taking his turn and pushing the button. As of now, the others have finally freed from the trance as well, the young alicorn being last.

"Uh, guys, something's wrong."

"What is it, Shining?" Applejack asked.

"The dial won't stop spinning."

"What?" the others asked.

True to his word, the dial should have stopped spinning on a random number, but instead, it just kept on spinning without any signs of it stopping at all.

"What happened?" Twilight asked.

"I have no idea," her brother said.

Then, another card popped out, but this time the card was yellow in color.

"Why didn't Ah like the looks of that?" Applejack nervously asked.

At that time, the pegasi have finally made it back to the living room after Rainbow consoled Fluttershy. The former then asked, "Looks of what, AJ?"

"Well, the card is yellow like the sun. Ah had a pretty bad feelin' about it."

With that, Shining picked it up and read it. "Wait, what? 'Caught Cheating: Automatic Ejection'?"

"Does that mean-" the young alicorn started and then realized something. "Wait, maybe the game knew who's cheating and who's not! When you moved my piece back, the game reacts as if you're the cheater!"

"Okay, that's bullshit. What makes the game think that-WOAH!"

The older brother never finished his sentence as he suddenly disappeared as if he got ejected from a capsule. The mares then looked out of one of the holes on the walls and saw something that scared them: Shining was hanging on to the broken ledge for dear life as he was pulled by an invisible force to his doom.

Wasting no time at all, the astronaut took off somewhere, preferably having a plan of his own. The Mane Six, on the other hand, panicked before the cowgirl called out to her princess friend.

"Twilight, ya got a rope or somethin'?"

"Yes, I do! Follow me!" Twilight said but she was stopped by Shining.

"Twily, where are you going?"

"Don't worry, I'll be right back, I promise!" the lavender princess said before taking Applejack to the storage room that has a few lengths of ropes that could be useful.

After a few minutes, the two came back with a rope in hand. Twilight then yelled at her brother, "Shining, I got a rope. Applejack is gonna lasso you with it, and we'll try to pull you in! Hang on, okay?"

"Come on, I can't hang on any longer!" the stallion said. As he had said, his grip strength is loosening bit by bit until he was seemingly hanging by the ledge with only one hand.

"Oh no! Applejack, hurry!" the young princess panicked.

"One second... And there!" Applejack said, finally managed to get the rope into a noose and, using her rodeo skills, was able to wrap it around Shining's legs. "Got 'em!"

However, the rope was a bit too fragile to hold onto the stallion's big body and causing it to snap in the middle and making the farmer stumble backwards from the sudden snap. That was not missed by the princess as she yelled, "Don't worry Shining, I'll get another rope!"

But it was too late. After holding on for a while, Shining's grip finally gave out, causing him to get sucked into the deep space without any safety gear at all.

And then, literally a second later, the astronaut came back with his jetpack - and only his jetpack - and said, "Hang on, I'll be right back!" He then shot himself out into the deep space with only having a few brief seconds of breath to catch the older brother.

For a while, nothing else happened, other than the Mane Six hoping that the two came back safely. However, Twilight fell to her knees and cried, "Shining... Please... come back... I-I'm sorry if I cheated, but... please... I need you back..." With that, all of her defenses fell down as tears now rapidly streaming down her face with her hands buried underneath it.

The rest of the group was misty eyed looking at the young alicorn, having potentially lost her only sibling for good. They could only hope that luck came to them soon.

And then, their prayers have been seemingly answered when Twilight's friends, including herself, can hear the distinctive sound of a jetpack coming closer. After that, they can see that the astronaut have finally came back - with Shining cradled in his arms.

Twilight couldn't believe it. Her brother is alive! She had a big smile on her face as she cried, "Shining!"

However, as the older brother finally managed to catch his breath (apparently oxygen was still available within the grounds of the castle only) he just said, "Just get away from me, will you?"

The bookworm princess was stunned upon hearing her brother said that. "Please Shining, I'm sorry, I really do! Please, look at me..."

Her pleas was ignored by Shining. "Look, I don't wanna talk to you right now, okay?" With that, he stormed off.

The others, even the astronaut, was a bit shocked when Shining said that. It had caused mixed reactions to come from the rest of the Mane Six. Applejack and Rainbow was fuming that Shining had treated his sister like a sack of pillows, whereas Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity went to the now sobbing and possibly broken princess in an attempt to console her as best they can.

"I swear, by Celestia's mane, that attitude is really unheard of! Honestly, even Trenderhoof was better then him! Poor Twilight, she did not deserve any of this at all!" the fashionista commented.

"Yeah, Rares! If I wanted to compare Shining and the Flim Flam brothers based on attitude, in my opinion, I'd say, and don't tell AJ, that the twins would be better candidates as her brother, or brothers in this case!" the party pony explained.

"Ah heard that, Pinkie. But, Ah had ta admit, them twins did care fer each other. Maybe they could be Twilight's brothers instead of that no goody two horseshoes there!" the cowgirl said, mentioning Shining.

"Uh, girls, can we get to that topic later? Twilight is still crying here," the animal caretaker said.

With nothing left to say, the friends, even the astronaut (who was looking at the Mane Six like they were sisters caring for each other), moved forward to group hug Twilight, who was still sobbing heavily as her so called brother just broke her heart without even a care of their current situation right now. She looked up briefly through teary eyes before hugging her friends back, clinging to them as she kept on crying with only them and the astronaut to hang on to.

The Astronaut's True Story

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Shining Armor was still feeling angry towards his little sister about the situation that has just occurred. Her constant cheating had nearly cost him his life, if it wasn't for the astronaut's fast thinking. Sure, he can still hold his breath, but it won't be for long since there was no oxygen in space. Still though, she even claimed that the game that they played can think? What kind of game that thinks, let alone feels that somepony cheated? Her explanation makes no sense at all! But, after a little bit of rethinking, it kinda did when he literally got sucked out of the castle.

Wait, maybe the game knew who's cheating and who's not! When you moved my piece back, the game reacts as if you're the cheater! Twilight's words on the game's abilities keeps ringing in his head. The more he thought about it, the more it actually make sense. And the more he made the assumption, the more he actually wanted to apologize for not believing her in the first place. So, after what felt like an hour of himself, he finally walked backed to the living room where the others are so that he can make truce long enough until they finally finished the game once and for all.

Twilight has finally calmed down after a full half hour of crying which caused her eyes to become red. Her friends stayed by her side for every second of it, including the time when she also has stopped bawling as well. After that, Pinkie Pie volunteered to make her some hot chocolate, in which she did so in a span of half a minute from when she said that she will do the task to disappearing and reappearing with a cup of the beverage without spilling a single drop of it. They decided to just leave it as Pinkie being Pinkie before addressing the young princess again.

"You okay now, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, having been the one to be Twilight's hugging pillow.

"Yeah, I'm okay now. Thanks for the hot chocolate, Pinkie," Twilight said.

"Sure thing, Twilight! I would do anything to make you happy and smile all the time!" Pinkie happily cheered, which made the alicorn giggle a little, much to her friends' relief.

"You did now, Pinkie," she said. Then, everypony went into a group hug to make Twilight feel better.

Meanwhile, the astronaut was watching it all with a smile on his face, yet it shows signs of sadness thanks to his frowning eyebrows. During his time of being a stranded astronaut for a decade and a half, it has been quite lonely for him to travel all by himself and being unable to get back to his home world because this part of space is really unknown where there are a lot of Zorgons and other stuff that are just creepy and was beyond his imaginations. At least he found a few atmospheric planets with friendly residents to gather supplies or rest from his long journey.

However, he really misses his friends and family so much that it made him tear up. With tears slowly running down his cheeks, he closed his eyes as he thought back to his memories of his family that made him smile sadly.

I'm sorry, sis. I really am. I wish I could turn time back and start our relationship over, he mentally said.

"Um, are you crying?"

The astronaut looked back up to see the Mane Six looking at him, some with confusion and others with worry. Drying away his tears that matted his cheeks, he smiled and said, "Just reminiscing about something, that's all."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Twilight asked.

"Maybe later," he answered. The astronaut then got up from where he was sitting and said, "I'm gonna go find your brother and get him to apologize to you."

"That won't be necessary." A voice came from the same hallway Shining ran into, and sure enough, it was the stallion himself who said it. "I just came back for a temporary truce with Twilight so that we can finish the game faster." He then approached his alicorn sister and extended his hand for her to shake, but she slinked away in fear of him hurting her, which made him wince. "Look Twily, I know you're scared, and so did your friends and I. But I promise you we can work together for a while to finish the game, then we can go back to the way it was or something. What do you say?"

For a while, Twilight just sat there while taking in her brother's words. Playing the game seemed to have distanced them even further ever since they started. As time and turns progresses, they kept getting into fights and her friends have to be the ones to break it before things get worse. Even the astronaut, who had been called in one of her turns, did it as well. After a while, she finally made up her mind and slowly reached her hand out to Shining's.

"Okay, I will do it. But if you became distant towards me again or fought me, I'm leaving, got it?"

"Deal."

Seeing the siblings made up even for a while brings warmth in their hearts and smiles on their faces. Then, everypony gathered around the board game so that they can finish it together or fight off whatever the game might throw at them next. With the controls switched to Twilight, she turned the key and pushed the button after a few turns. A while later, the dial stopped at the number eight, her highest roll by far. When her red piece stopped moving, to everypony's shock, her piece stopped a space ahead of Shining's, which was exactly where he found the piece sitting before he tried to move it back and caused him to cheat. Shortly after, another card popped out from it's slot.

With shaky hands, the young princess took the card and read its contents. When she did, her right eye twitched and, with a black stare, said, "Seriously? 'Lose Map of Galaxy: Go Back 2 Spaces'?" As soon as she said it, her red piece moved back two spaces, now behind her brother's by one space. "Why am I always the unlucky one?" She continued before throwing the card away from over her shoulder in annoyance.

Unbeknownst to everypony, back in Spike's frozen bathroom, the room was no longer frozen as everything was back to normal and the water flowing normally in the hot tub. The baby dragon himself, who had also woken up from his cryonic sleep, stood up from where he was lying down to his confusion.

"Okay, that was weird..." he said before realizing something wrong with the temperature of the castle. He then walked out to the hallway, ignoring that his bedroom was messy, to check the thermostat that was outside of his bedroom. Sure enough, the temperature read thirty-five degrees instead of the usual ninety. With a groan, he went back inside to grab a ladder that was in his bathroom to change the temperature back. "Seriously, Twi? Did you really had to lower the temperature? I was about to go to my bath," the young drake complained.

After raising the temperature back to ninety degrees, he then went back inside one last time for his bubble bath, completely oblivious of the events that has occurred in the castle.

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Shining had taken his turn and the dial stopped at the number nine for his second time.

"Really, nine again? Why am I so lucky all of a sudden?" he proudly asked.

"Whatever," Twilight nonchalantly said.

After his blue piece finally stopped, another card came out, but this card was completely golden. Curious, he picked it up and read out its contents. "'Shooting Star: Make a Wish as It Passes'?" With a huge grin on his face, he continued, "Oh my Celestia, this has got to be the best card in the game! And I only had like, a couple more spaces before I won!"

"At least you won fair and square, Shining. And so did I too on some occasions!" the lavender alicorn replied.

"Yeah, right. By cheating, of course!"

"Shining, for the last time, I did not cheat! You're just jealous that I won some games fairly without using my magic. Hay, I even won out several staring contest without anything to make me win!"

"Yeah, excuses excuses. Maybe you subconsciously cast a spell that made me lose so that you can win?!"

The rest of the group looked at the bickering siblings in disbelief. They had just made truce with each other, and now they are fighting again. The astronaut tried to put an end to the fight, but it was of no avail as his words fell on deaf ears. However, he did not give up.

He then went over to the two fighting ponies and violently shook their shoulders to get their attention, which they did. "Look, this is seriously getting out of hand here! Could you please stop fighting each other for five bucking minutes?! Also Shining, can you please stop calling your sister a cheater?"

"I can call her whatever I want! I am the older sibling, after all!" the older sibling retorted back.

"Look, what makes you became really distrustful of your sister a lot?"

"You want to know why? Because she's the reason mom and dad nearly got divorced!"

The whole room became so quiet, the group could almost hear a pin drop in a distance. Tears began flowing down Twilight's cheeks again and, adding even more shock to everyone present, slapped her brother's face hard.

"I hate you. I bucking HATE you!" she shouted before running full speed towards her bedroom, sobbing all the way.

Her friends looked at Shining with angry looks on their faces. "Seriously, Shining? Seriously?! How dare you said that in front of her?!" Rainbow Dash yelled before flying towards him to get in his face. "Twilight's your sister, for crying out loud! Saying that means that you didn't want her as a sibling!"

"For once, Rainbow is making a point in this situation. Sure, Sweetie Belle and I didn't see eye to eye thanks to my workload of sewing dresses, but we always make time just hanging out together when she did not have her Crusader meeting with her friends," Rarity replied, agreeing with the speedy pegasus.

"Same goes for my own sister and Ah. We would always have fun together, even when we're down workin' on the farm. But it seems as if you didn't want anything to do with your sister and all," Applejack said.

"Yeah! Families always fight with each other, but not enough to completely hate each other. I may have three sisters, but we never fought a single time in our lives! Sure, Limestone can be a bit on the grumpy side, but that's who she really is! Unlike you," Pinkie replied with a hint of venom in her voice, especially the last sentence.

"And like I mentioned before, my brother and I didn't quite connect with each other, but at least he had a brain not to hurt my feelings," Fluttershy repeated her retort from earlier.

"You know what, girls? Forget it. Let him realise on his own that he made a huge mistake talking down on Twilight like that. I'm going to go check on our friend to see if she's okay," the rainbow maned pegasus said before flying off to the princess' bedroom to check on her, the others quickly following close behind.

Shortly after the rest of the Mane Six left the room, it was suddenly brightened with a light coming from outside. When the two remaining ponies looked out of one of the intact windows, they were in awe as a shooting star was slowly passing by the castle.

As Shining was about to give out his wish, the astronaut interrupted, "Don't do it."

"Do what, exactly?" the younger of the duo asked.

"Wishing for something while you are angry is never a good thing. I've been in this situation before, so trust me on this," his doppelganger replied.

As the star was about halfway across the castle, Shining finally made his wish, but it was unheard by the astronaut. When it finally passed by, the older one asked, "What did you wish for?"

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you," Shining replied back.

"Just tell me your wish."

"Look, why are you so-" The younger doppelganger didn't get to finish his sentence as the older one turned his whole body forcefully to face him.

"Tell me, what did you wish for, now!"

"Why? What did I do wrong?" Shining asked back, a bit surprised to see him act this way.

Fearing the worst, he left the Crystal Empire prince by the living room and ran towards Twilight's bedroom. "Twilight!" he yelled out, part of him wished that she was still around. He barged into the main bedroom, but his fears were confirmed when she wasn't in the room. The commotion was unheard by the rest of the Mane Six as they arrived seconds later. "Guys, have you seen Twilight?!"

"No, we can't find her anywhere," Rainbow replied. "Why? What happened?"

Just then, Shining walked into the bedroom with a seemingly rolled up poster in his hands. "Well, at least the wish worked."

The astronaut looked at his younger self and angrily said, "Yeah, it did work. Thanks to you, we're stuck in space forever now."

Confusion settled on Twilight's friends' faces. Before they even voice their confusion, a familiar voice called out from the main bathroom as the door leading to said room was opened. "What do you mean by 'stuck in space forever'?"

Sure enough, it was the alicorn herself emerging from the bathroom with red puffy eyes and streaks of tears on her cheeks, probably crying a lot from the hurtful comment her own brother made. Fluttershy quickly ran to the princess' side and said, "Twilight, are you okay?"

"Yes Fluttershy, I'm fine now. I just needed to get everything out of my system, that's all," Twilight replied, much to the others' relief.

For the astronaut, however, he was a bit confused as if he was expecting the worst outcome of the wish card that Shining got. Turning to the pony in question, he asked, "What exactly did you wish for?"

Shining held up the poster that was in his hands and unrolled it, revealing it to be a Wonderbolts poster with a signature from Spitfire, Soarin and Fleetfoot. "This. With some signature from some of the members."

"Seriously, Shining? You wasted your wish on a signed poster?" the young princess complained as she walked up towards her brother. "You could have just used your wish for all of us to go back home!"

"Look, it's not my fault! The astronaut kept pressuring me not to do something, so I panicked and wished for something else instead!" the ex Royal Guard captain defended, pointing to his seemingly older self.

The others, including Twilight, turned to look at the astronaut with odd looks on their faces. "Why did you yell at my brother?" the lavender alicorn asked.

Sighing, he was unable to keep up his facade and decided to tell them what had happened to him that got him stranded in space for fifteen years. He asked them to sit down before telling him his story. "Remember what I told you guys earlier about my own sister and I not being on good terms with each other?" he asked the group, who nodded in confirmation. "Actually, fifteen years ago, I played this game with her before. And yes, it was the worse decision I have ever made.

"The moment we started playing, we kept on fighting with each other and her friends, who got trapped in the same place where we played the game as well, were the ones who kept stopping the fights from getting worse. And the worst was when I landed on the wish card like Shining did earlier. I was so angry with my sister, I made my wish out of it."

"I'm afraid to ask, but what did you wish for?" the cyan pegasus asked nervously.

"I wished that my sister was never born," the astronaut replied.

"What?!" the Mane Six and Shining shouted in shock.

"Why in Equestria would you do that?!" Pinkie asked angrily.

"Like I said, out of anger. Seconds after I made that wish, I felt guilty for doing that. When I checked every single room for any signs of my sister, my fears were confirmed. She was no longer around." Tears began to well up in the stranded astronaut's eyes, the guilt seemed to have been weighing down on him greatly. "If only I could turn time back or just landed on another wish card, I will use it to bring her back. But I can't because it's not my turn."

No longer able to hold onto his emotions any longer, he broke down and cried, burying his face in his hands, not caring if anypony saw him cry. Then, the Mane Six gathered around the distraught unicorn and hugged him. He was a bit glad that these mares are quite helpful and always look up to their friends in dire situations or not.

After a few minutes, he calmed down and wiped his tears away with his sleeves. "Thanks, girls. My point is that not all games can be played alone, this game especially." He then turned to Shining. "Let me ask you this: Do you wanted to keep fighting with your sister or do you actually wanted to work together and no longer fight with her?"

Shining was in a hot seat right now. On one hand, he can make amends with Twilight and work together to finish the game once and for all. On the other, they could keep on distancing each other and they could get killed if so. Having no other choice, he walked up to his little alicorn sister. "Twily, I'm really sorry. And you were right. I was admittedly a bit jealous that you won some of the games that we played in the past. But the thing is that I was always so competitive and I looked like I had the advantage of something, but as it turns out, I don't.

"I honestly didn't want us to be like this any longer. So, what do you say, Twily? You wanna make amends?" he asked, holding out his hand with a genuine smile on his muzzle.

The young princess was a bit surprised that her brother wanted to apologize for what he did in the past and wished to make amends. With teary eyes, she did more than that and hugged him tightly, catching the stallion off guard. "I forgive you, Shiny. I really am."

Hearing her say his nickname given by their mother was enough to drop his shield and fully embraced Twilight and kissed her on the forehead as a way of saying that he do care about her now and wanted to spend time with her not fighting her ever again. The others watched the siblings finally made amends with each other, some of them misty eyed from seeing the loving and gentle kiss from the older brother to the younger sister.

A while later, the two finally broke free from their embrace before Twilight realized something was wrong. "Guys, is it just me or is the castle getting a little bit hotter by the second?"

"Wait, what?" the unicorn astronaut said in disbelief. He turned to his younger doppelganger again and asked, "You did blow out the fire in the fireplace, didn't you?"

"Ummmm.... Funny story, but there is a self fixing killer robot in the basement and I did not want to go there. So, I just changed the temperature of the thermostat that was near Spike's bedroom," Shining explained.

Just then, Pinkie said out of nowhere, "Uh, guys? My Pinkie Sense is tingling like crazy right now!"

"I got a pretty good feeling what it is, but I still need to ask, what is it?" Fluttershy asked timidly and nervously.

Her answer was questioned seconds after she voiced when a large crashing sound that came from the living room. It surprised them a lot that some of them screamed in fright, Rainbow being the loudest and the most feminine of them. Everyone looked at the speedy pegasus in confusion and awe of the sound that came from her. The pegasus blushed in embarrassment as they heard her feminine scream.

Ignoring the scream, the astronaut left to check the living room after telling the others to stay behind, but they followed regardless. Once they arrived at the dilapidated room, they all gasped in shock and horror as a huge section of the living room was completely gone, some of the castle debris still floating in deep space.

"I knew it, it was the Zorgons work again," the older doppelganger of Shining said.

"Yeah, we kinda took a little guess on that as well," Applejack said.

"Guys, where's the game?" the shy pegasus asked, pointing at a spot where they last saw the game.

"Great. Now what are we gonna do? The game is the only way back and now they are going to burn it," Twilight sadly said.

The astronaut, however, did not give up. "There is one thing we can do. Come on, let's head back to the library! I have a plan to lure the Zorgons to us so that we can retrieve the game from them!" Needing no more encouragement, the Mane Six and Shining followed him to the library. Hopefully this plan of his works, otherwise they will be stuck in space forever without any way of getting back to Equestria safely.

Operation: Getting the Game Back from the Zorgons (Part 1)

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The Mane Six, Shining and the astronaut went all over the castle to search for anything flammable and gather them all at the library, the others finally getting what the oldest pony's plan was. His plan was to lure the Zorgons towards the castle using fire since they are cold-blooded heat seekers.

After gathering enough flammable items and materials, the plan was finally put into motion as everypony worked together to break and place the items into the fireplace. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had a time of their lives as they were the strongest of the group, breaking stuff down to just mere splinters. Rarity decided to drop her ladylike self to do her part on the task as well, Fluttershy helping out too. Twilight and Pinkie Pie fared as well, the former having her newly developed earth pony strength to help while the latter was an earth pony herself. Shining helped wherever he can whereas the astronaut went off to find any more gasoline to burn the items down easily.

Meanwhile, in Spike's bathroom, the young dragon was about to towel his soaked body when he realized that the towel was completely wet. In fact, all of the towels are wet for no apparent reason. Grumbling, he went to his bedroom, now registering how messy it is.

"What the hay? What happened to my room? It wasn't like this a while ago," Spike wondered aloud. Having no time to ponder on it, he went to his dresser - or what was left of the dresser, anyways - and pulled out a fresh towel to finally dry himself of all the water, feeling refreshed all the while.

After a few minutes, he was about to go check on Twilight and her brother and friends when he smelled it. It feels like somepony was trying to bake something and ended up burning the kitchen. Fearing the worst, he went out and called out to Twilight. Following the trail of smoke to the library, his jaw dropped at what he saw inside. The Mane Six and Shining was seen trying to burn down the library, thankfully with no books on the shelves. Snapping out of his shock, he yelled, "Twilight, what in Equestria are you doing right now?! Trying to burn down the one place you liked the most?!"

Upon hearing Spike's voice, the young princess turned around to the entrance of the library, and sure enough, it was the drake himself, no longer in cryonic sleep. With teary eyes, she ran up to him and shouted, "Spike! You're okay... You're okay! I thought I was never going to see you again!" She then hugged him tightly as if not wanting to let him go. The others stopped at what they are doing and was shocked to see Spike, nearly forgetting that the dragon was in the castle as well.

Spike, however, was a bit skeptical about Twilight's weird behaviour but pushed that aside as he said, "Twilight, let me go! I need to find the fire extinguisher before the fire spreads!" He eventually slipped away from the alicorn's grip and went off to a corner of the library to grab the fire extinguisher.

The others tried to reason him on why they are doing so, but their words fell on deaf ears as he continued to put out the fire. Eventually, they gave up as the dragon finally puts down the fire, much to the others' chagrin as their plan was interrupted.

"Well, this is just great. Now how are we gonna get the game from the Zorgons if we don't have a fire anymore?" the speedy pegasus exclaimed.

"Don't worry, guys! They're back!" Startled, Spike turned towards the new voice and shocked at seeing another Shining by the entrance, though he looked a lot older than the one in the room with his sister and her friends.

While the others cheered on their successful plan, the young assistant went up to the astronaut and asked, "Who are you? And why did you look a lot like Shining, but an older version of him?"

"Well, for the former, I am an astronaut from the game they played. Twilight was the one who called me," he answered, pointing at the princess. Spike looked at Twilight, her head nodding in agreement. "For the latter, I'll tell you later. But for now, we need to go." He then ran out of the library, the others including a reluctant Spike following close behind towards the living room.

When they got there, they looked out of the large hole to see a Zorgon ship floating outside of the castle. The others were quite calm despite it all, but not for the dragon as he finally realized that Twilight really wasn't lying about them being in space, while also in even more shock that the castle was in complete disarray.

Needing an answer, he turned to the only alicorn in the room and asked, "Twilight, what's going on right now? What is that thing outside? Why are we in space?!" All of the questions went unanswered as Twilight was focusing on the ship outside. She broke free of her concentration when her dragon assistant turned her around to face him. "Twilight, answer me! Where are we?!"

"Sorry that you had to see this, Spike. But right now, we needed to find a way to get the game that was in that ship right there," Twilight answered, pointing at the ship, which had a hatch-like door that had opened earlier.

"Wait. Are you talking about the game that you showed me before I took my bath?" he asked, the young alicorn nodded her head. "Okay, but what is that thing outside?"

"They're called Zorgons, giant lizards who are heat seekers. And what's worst is that they like to eat meat. And before you ask, yes, they eat pony meat," Twilight briefly explained about the pony eating Zorgons before looking back at the ship, Spike doing the same thing.

"Okay guys, here's the plan. Once they board us, and yes, they will do that, I'm going to sneak into the basement and try to find the game. If it's not there, I'll look elsewhere, but I need to be extra sneaky or else I'm dead. Also, does anypony have some walkie-talkies?" the older doppelganger of Shining asked.

"I have some back in one of the storage rooms. I'll be right back," the lavender princess said before teleporting out of the room for a few seconds before returning with a few of the walkie-talkies in hand. She made it back just in time for the Zorgon ship to release a hook and chain that pulls the entire ship towards the castle.

This, however, causes Spike to panic as the giant lizards really were going to board them. "Guys, if any of you need me, I'll be hiding in the basement!" Without waiting for any response, he ran off towards the basement room without knowing that the killer robot is still there.

"Wait, did Spike said he wanted to hide in the basement?" Twilight asked, the others were wide eyed in shock and fear. Then, they made their way to the room, where the dragon screamed in terror at the sight of the robot and flee for his life after closing the door that leads to the underground room.

After catching his breath, he heard the others came to his rescue. "Guys, what in Equestria is a giant metallic thingy doing in the basement trying to fix itself?!"

"Actually Spike, that was supposedly my toy robot that malfunctioned and thinks that I'm an alien and tried to kill me as a result of one of the cards that came out of the game we played. Also, it was on my turn when I got the card," Shining answered, giving the short version of his ordeal after summoning the 'Your Robot is Defective' card.

"Okay then. And the... Zorgons, is that what you call them?" Spike asked, turning to Twilight for answers.

"It was on my turn when the Zorgons first showed up and nearly tried to kill all of us, but the astronaut, which I summoned on my turn as well, had a plan to lure the Zorgons away by closing all the lights and putting my last couch on fire and throw it out into space," the young alicorn replied.

"Guys, reminisce later! We need to hide now! The Zorgons are gonna board us any minute!" Rainbow called out when she saw that the ship was inching closer and closer towards the castle.

"We can hide in the laundry room! It's big enough for all of us to hide in!" Twilight mentioned.

The eight ponies and baby dragon made their way upstairs to the laundry room, but as soon as they made it to the top of the stairs, another set of hooks appeared, but they seem to come from the roof of the castle. Unfortunately, the impact of the hook had caused an avalanche of roof and crystal debris to pile up on the floor, which is where the direction of the laundry room is.

"Oh, come on! That's where the room is supposed to be!" Twilight whined.

"Great. Where are we gonna hide now, darling?" Rarity asked the princess.

"Wait, there's another laundry room that was about the same size on the opposite way! We can hide there!" Twilight mentioned again.

"Well, what are we waitin' for? Let git goin' right now before them Zorgons got to us!" Applejack said before all of them turned to the opposite direction towards the second laundry room.

Outside in deep space, as the Zorgon ship has snugly boarded the castle with the open hatch in clear view of the lower hole in the basement, another ship had also boarded the castle, which was where the second set of hooks came from. The bottom hatch of the second ship opened up and was lined up perfectly with the hole that was created from the huge asteroid when the ponies first played the game.

Back in the laundry room, the eight ponies and baby dragon are catching their breath after the sudden intrusion from the roof caught them off guard.

"Okay, what in the hay was that?! Please don't tell me there was two of those ships that boarded us right now!" the rainbow maned pegasus asked nervously.

"Unfortunately, it is. I guess my plan went better than expected," the astronaut replied. "Okay, I'm gonna try to sneak my way through the castle and find the game. We'll use these walkie-talkies to keep in touch, but keep your voices low or else you will be found. Understand?" he asked the group of seven ponies and baby dragon, who nodded in response. "Good. Wish me luck, guys." He then slipped through the small crack he made to avoid getting caught and closed it behind him.

After a moment of silence, Spike broke it when he whispered, "Twilight, when you mentioned earlier that you played the game and the whole thing was real, what happened to me after I went inside my bathroom?"

Turning to look at her assistant, the young lavender princess walked up to him and said, "Well, a lot of things, actually. And they happened without you knowing them happened at all. And before you ask, it's because I drew a card that caused you to be completely frozen, figuratively and literally."

The look on Spike's face was one of horror and confusion at the same time. "So, I have been frozen for quite a while and I missed on a lot of stuff that's happened?" The alicorn nodded. "Okay then. Well, I'm afraid to ask, but what did happen the entire time I was frozen?"

Before Twilight can answer, a static sound came from the walkie-talkie that she was still holding in her hand, getting everypony's attention. They gathered around the young princess as the astronaut finally spoke to them after some time. "Okay, guys. I'm at the basement. I saw the robot that you mentioned earlier, and it seems to be almost fixed up from whatever caused it to be broken. Anyways, I'm trying to find the box that might contain the game if the Zorgons did not have possession of it yet and-" A sudden pause from the walkie-talkie for a few seconds before the astronaut spoke again. "Wait, I think I saw the box. It was just a couple of steps away from me, but the Zorgons are in the way. I need to find another way to get to the box before they spotted me. I'll be back soon with the game, hopefully," he explained before the line went quiet again.

It was only for a few seconds before moaning sounds from the giant lizards was heard. It seems that the Zorgons might have spotted Shining's lookalike from where he was hiding and tried to make a run for it. Panicking, Twilight tried to make contact with him. "Hello?" she called, but no response. "Are you there?" She tried again, still nothing. "Hello?!" She half shouted this time, hoping that the Zorgons did not hear that, still no such luck. "Why isn't he answering? Did something bad happened to him?"

Before anypony can take a guess, Applejack heard something coming from outside that seems to be heading straight towards the room where the ponies were currently hiding. "Guys, did y'all hear that?"

The rest of the group finally paid attention to the clopping sound of hoofsteps coming closer. Looking towards the entrance of the laundry room, they can see a sliver of light coming from the crack of the door. A few intense seconds later, some of the light was blocked by an unknown figure as it was walking past the room before coming back. The ponies' heartbeats are at the speed of a moving train right now as they waited for whoever or whatever was outside tried to get in.

Suddenly, their hearts skipped a beat when they heard the doorknob rattle and slowly turning, as if the creature outside knows how to open doors. With nowhere else to run, the mares and baby dragon fell to their knees and shivered as they awaited their inevitable end. Shining also did so, hugging the terrified mares closely and tightly.

The door finally opened, making the mares flinch and closed their eyes. However, the inevitable did not come as Twilight slowly opened one eye to see who the intruder was. To her surprise, it was actually the astronaut, who was panting heavily possibly from running away from the giant pony eating Zorgons.

"Are we dead?" Fluttershy asked, too afraid to open her eyes.

"Girls, it's just the astronaut. You can open your eyes now," the princess assured her friends that the coast is clear.

Finally opening their eyes, the rest of the Mane Six and Spike relaxed upon seeing the astronaut again. "Dude, you nearly scared us half to death with you walking creepily outside, you know that?!" Rainbow yelled quietly.

"Sorry about that. But I accidentally blew my cover when I knocked a piece of crystal loudly. Because of that, I had to run away without grabbing the game," he explained.

The others are feeling lost as their only plan had failed. However, Twilight's ears perked up as she had an idea on how to get to the basement without making any sounds.

"Wait, I think I know the way." The others looked at the alicorn's direction with hopeful looks on their faces. "We can use one of the dumbwaiters that was in the castle!"

The group had no idea what it was, but Spike did. Besides the thermostat, the castle also comes with a few dumbwaiters for easy access throughout the place. However, it was only big enough to fit a skinny pony inside.

Rainbow's head finally clicked. "Twilight, that's it! Maybe the astronaut can go inside the dumbwaiter, while we hauled him down so that he can grab the game for you and Shining to finish it!" she cheered, only for her excitement to die down exactly three seconds later. "But, I don't think he's small enough to fit in the dumbwaiter. But it was still a great plan though."

"Hmmm. If only one of us, excluding Spike, is actually small enough to fit that dumbwaiter," Pinkie pondered, and seconds later, all eyes are focused on the lavender princess.

Twilight saw the looks on her friends', baby dragon's and older unicorn stallions' faces as they all stared at her. "What?" she asked. It only made sense since she was actually the youngest out of everypony in the room, again excluding Spike. With her skinny figure and a small chest, waist and hips, she was the only candidate available for the impossible task.

"Uh, no offense, Twi, but not including Spike, you are the smallest and youngest out of all of us. So it only made sense for you to do it," Applejack reasoned.

"What?! Me?! I don't think I can do it!" the young princess complained. However, the others seemed to agree with the farm mare as they nodded their heads in agreement. With no way to change their minds, she reluctantly agreed to do so. "Fine, I'll do it."

The others cheered for her bravery as they all group hugged Twilight to ease her worries, which seemed to work a little. Then, they filed out of the laundry room so that they can get started on the plan right away.

Operation: Getting the Game Back from the Zorgons (Part 2)

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After a few minutes of searching for the nearest dumbwaiter, they finally found one near the stairway where the hooked chain from the second Zorgon ship was. When they checked the dumbwaiter, it was indeed big enough for Twilight to slip inside easily with enough room for the game when she grabbed it back. The others are still waiting for the plan to continue when Shining walked up to his sister, who was already sitting inside the dumbwaiter.

"Hey Twily, how are you doing right now?" he asked her.

"A bit nervous," Twilight admitted. "Do you think I'm ready for this, Shining?"

"Don't worry, you're going to be fine. All we gotta do is lower you down, and when you find the game, we'll pull you back up. It's that simple," the older sibling explained.

"Easy for you to say," the younger one grumbled. "Shining, I'm scared. What if those Zorgons saw me and tried to eat me?"

"Twily, it's okay to be scared every now and then. When I was first elected as the captain of the Royal Guard back in Canterlot, I was scared half to death because I have no idea how to take the lead. Luckily, I managed to steel all of my nerves and able to take charge. And so can you if you can do this, Twily," he explained his first ever experience during his time as the captain of the Royal Guard.

The young princess let all of the words sink into her as she contemplated on her mission at hand. While she was still a bit scared, she has faced greater danger in the past like Nightmare Moon, who was actually Princess Celestia's younger sister, Princess Luna, Discord when he managed to break free of his stone imprisonment a thousand years later, Queen Chrysalis when she crashed the wedding of her brother's and former foalsitter now sister-in-law, Princess Cadance, and Tirek after he managed to steal all of Equestrian magic from its inhabitants. All of the villains she has faced in the past had attempted to take over Equestria and nearly succeeded, but thanks to her friends' help, she had managed to defeat them all as the Element of Magic. If she can take down the tough villains, she can most definitely take this mission of bringing back the game from the Zorgons' possession.

"Okay Shining, I can do this," she said with a smile on her face.

"That's what I like to hear," Shining replied, also with a smile on his face before turning away to get ready.

"Hey, Shiny?" Twilight called back.

The older sibling stopped in shock upon hearing his nickname that only their mother had called him since he was born. Turning back to face his sister, he said, "Yes, Twily?"

"If umm... If I had ever cheated before in the past, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to make you feel upset about it. I just... wanted to play games with you, that's all," the young princess replied sadly.

Again, the older one was shocked to hear her admit something that she had done, even though he was the one who keeps instigating the fights between them. Still, he replied back, "It's okay Twily, I forgave you." He then hugged Twilight, shocking her this time. She shook out of her shock and hugged him back, furthering amending their relationship.

The rest of the Mane Six and Spike smiled upon seeing the two siblings made up and forgiving each other after what felt like a lifetime of them constantly fighting and besting each other. The astronaut also saw them and smiled as well. However, they have a mission to do as he silently approached the siblings.

"Hey, guys. Are you ready?" he asked them.

Twilight reluctantly nodded her head, and Shining handed her the walkie-talkie before the older doppelganger pull down a rope that was inside the dumbwaiter so that the carriage that the young princess was inside was lowered down towards the basement. Both siblings had one last look at each other before she was completely gone from descending into the dumbwaiter.

While the two unicorn stallions continued to lower Twilight down, the others are keeping watch by the stairs in case they saw the Zorgons right down the stairs. At first, nothing appeared. But then, after a while, Applejack and Rarity, who were on their next shift on guarding the stairs, finally saw some movement as they spotted a shadow of a lizard downstairs.

"Guys, I saw something! Take cover!" the fashionista alerted quietly to the others.

Hearing the mare's claim, they immediately stopped what they were doing and hid by the walls to avoid getting spotted and making any noise. Inside the dumbwaiter, the princess was wondering why the simple gear and pulley machine had suddenly stopped. She decided to contact the astronaut on what had happened.

"Guys, why did you stop?" she asked the ponies upstairs, but received no response as the astronaut had closed the walkie-talkie because the Zorgon lizard was still lurking near the stairway.

A while later, the intruder finally moved somewhere else as it sensed nothing around the stairway. Meanwhile, back inside the dumbwaiter, Twilight began to grow impatient as she starts to rocket the machine back and forth to get the others' attention.

"Guys, can you see me? What's going on up there?" she asked again, hoping that they saw the rope shaking.

However, her plan backfired when one of the gears was shifted enough for it to fell off and caused the carriage to plummet down towards the basement. The young princess screamed in fear and horror as she was about to turn into a pony pancake from how fast she was descending. Luckily, the astronaut heard the creak as he desperately tried to stop the contraption from dropping too fast.

After a few intense seconds, everything happened at once as the unicorn was finally able to get a grip on the rope, but it caused his wrists to hit the top of the doorway hard. At least it was enough for the dumbwaiter to finally skid to a halt, only the bottom half of the carriage visible by the basement door as wooden debris fell on top of the poor princess.

Unfortunately, there is one downside of the entire ordeal. The Zorgon lizard from earlier had heard the commotion and was now making its way up the stairs to suspect the noise.

"Guys, Ah hate ta be the bringer of bad news, but the lizard from earlier? It's back, and it's comin' upstairs," the farm mare exclaimed nervously.

"What?! Are you serious?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh no! Where should we hide now?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Guys, go back to the laundry room! I'll take care of this!" the astronaut said, the mares and baby dragon immediately obeyed. Shining wanted to stay behind so that he can help his sister, but his doppelganger said otherwise. "Just go! I got this!" The younger stallion eventually heeded his doppelganger's warning and headed back to the laundry room, entrusting the astronaut to take care of Twilight.

As the stray Zorgon continued to climb higher and higher up the stairway, already reaching the halfway point, the astronaut desperately tried to find a spot to tie the rope and a nearby room to hide in so that he can check on the rope and the Zorgon at the same time.

Meanwhile, back at the basement where the doorway of the dumbwaiter was, Twilight carefully looked around the room to see that the coast is clear. Turning to a hole beside the furnace, she can clearly see the inside of the Zorgon ship that she and her friends saw earlier; she can see a part of what looks like a conveyer belt and a bunch of items or furniture that was stolen from inside the castle as fuel for the ship.

Looking down, the young alicorn found what she was looking for; the Zathura box that contained the board game. She jumped down from the dumbwaiter and inspected the box, but it was empty, much to her chagrin. She turned on the walkie-talkie in her hand and quietly said, "Guys, I found the box of the game, but that was the only thing here."

Getting no response, Twilight looked around the basement in search of the game. The good news is that she finally found the game. The bad news? It was inside the Zorgon ship as part of the stolen items. Holding the walkie-talkie again, she whispered, "Guys, I think I saw the game. It was inside that ship that we saw boarded us earlier." An idea clicked in her head, and it might get her caught if she wasn't careful enough. "I think I can get it back all by myself," she whispered back to the astronaut through the two-way communication device.

As the lavender princess carefully and quietly walked towards the ship, there was finally a feedback as the astronaut whispered, "Twilight, don't do it. It's too dangerous. I would like to go and get you, but there is a stray Zorgon right in the hallway across from where I'm hiding right now. So stay put, okay?"

However, his words fell on deaf ears as the princess inched ever closer towards the metallic transportation. Once she reached the edge of the hole, she looked down briefly and was startled to see a sizeable gap between the castle and the Zorgon ship. She finally braved enough to jump the gap and a hoofstep later, she was now inside the ship, finally getting a clear view of the inside.

The conveyer belt stretched out towards a furnace where a Zorgon lizard was responsible for putting all of the random items that was sent from the other end where another Zorgon lizard puts the items on the conveyer belt. Both of them had metallic shovels on them as they were too big to bent down and grab the items, which seems reasonable as passing them one by one would take too much time since they needed to keep moving around the outer space in search of heat.

Hiding behind the pile of stuff, Twilight was really nervous of trying to get the game back. Her first attempt ended too soon as the lizard puts another item on the belt. When she tried again, her second attempt backfired as the game fell on the belt, alerting the giant lizard as it flicked its hooked tongue and resumed its work.

Startled by another feedback from the walkie-talkie still in her hand, the astronaut whispered, "Twilight? Where are you? Are you still there? Just stay where you are. The stray Zorgon is still out in the hallway, but I think it was about to go away." She didn't respond as she heard the Zorgon near her was getting closer. Mouthing an 'I'm sorry', she left the walkie-talkie behind and began to pursuit after the game.

Meanwhile, the second Zorgon has finally gone around the pile and after finding nothing, it heard something said, "Twilight? Are you still there? Just stay put, okay?" It looked down and found the walkie-talkie the young princess left behind leaving feedback. "I will come and get you. Just stay-" Those were the last words that came from the astronaut as the lizard slammed its shovel down on the walkie-talkie hard, causing it to be completely broken.

Meanwhile, Twilight was sprinting down underneath the conveyer belt, chasing after the board game. At some point, she climbed out and continued cantering down the lane. She could have used her magic and grabbed the game easily, but she decided to use physical strength instead. She suddenly stopped as she stepped on something sticky. Looking down, she winced as she seems to be stepping down on some sort of green blob, leaving her left hoof covered in the substance while unknowingly left behind hoofprints on the floor.

Slowly moving forward, the young alicorn came across a chained gate that contained some animals that looked like goats. Using her earth pony strength, she snapped the chains and opened the short gate. She carefully approached the goats, not knowing if they are dangerous or not. She whispered 'They're just goats' over and over until one of them turned their heads to reveal four alien-looking eyes, scaring the alicorn as she now whispered 'It's not a goat' over and over. She came across another chained gate, but she only climbed over the gate as she was too shocked to do anything. However, she had also caused the alien goats to escape their pens after leaving the other gate opened.

Before she knew it, Twilight was now on the other side of the conveyer belt as the game had just fall down on the growing pile of random items on the floor. She hid behind the belt so that the Zorgon did not see her. To her horror, it had shoveled the game and was about to throw it into the furnace, but luckily it was saved as the lizard saw its goats escaping out of the hatch into the castle. Lowering the shoveled up game, it chased after the goats without even thinking that there was an intruder on board. The alicorn quickly grabbed the game and made her way back towards the hatch the same way she came through.

Arriving at the hatch, the lavender princess looked around to see that the coast is clear again before leaping to safety inside the basement castle. Halfway towards the dumbwaiter, she spotted the other Zorgon lizards making confused grunts as the one that just came out of the ship was the one who complained to the others. Twilight tiptoed quietly until she reached the dumbwaiter. She quickly climbed inside after safely putting the game inside, not noticing that she had left hoofprints across the room.

Without knowing that there was a Zorgon near the second floor dumbwaiter, Twilight shook the carriage and whispered, "Guys, I got the game back! You won't know what they have inside! They actually have goats with four eyes!"

Back upstairs, the stray lizard had seen the tied up rope shook a bit, signaling that there was someone who tried to get someone else's attention. However, it didn't like it and cut the rope using a machete it had wielded earlier on, which caused the dumbwaiter to now be rendered useless as Twilight yelped when the carriage she was in jolted down with more wooden debris fell on top of her, along with the cut up rope.

Meanwhile, the second Zorgon, who hadn't seen its goats escaped, had unfortunately spotted the glowing hoofprints which leads to the now broken dumbwaiter as the young princess climbed out of it. Having spotted the alicorn, it let out a shriek, alerting the others about the escapee. Twilight turned around quickly, face expressing utter horror and ears drooping as she had been caught.

Having no other choice, grabbing the game, she used her wings to fly away from the pursuing Zorgons towards the door leading out in the hallway. Luckily, her flying practices with Rainbow had paid off as she was able to outfly them easily and reached the door, opened it and quickly locked it with her magic, feeling safe for now.

Suddenly, Twilight felt her shoulder being tapped and caused her to flinch. The unknown being turned her around, and to her relief, it was actually her brother, who had escaped from getting spotted from the stray Zorgon from earlier.

"Shiny!" the princess exclaimed, quickly hugging him as she felt safe in the comfort of her brother's arms.

"Hey, it's okay, Twily. I'm here now," Shining reassured, hugging her back. After a while, they parted, and after seeing the game in his sister's arms, he said, "You got the game back? That's great! Now, come on! Let's meet up with the others."

They both turned around and started to climb up the flight of stairs towards the ground floor. However, the doorway was blocked by two of the Zorgon lizards. Then, they were startled by a few heavy punches that came from the other side of the basement door, along with a few whimpers that came from the pursuing Zorgons.

Seconds of silence later, the door burst open, revealing the damaged robot from earlier, but it was now fully repaired, looking at Shining with its bloodshot eyes.

"Oh no! We completely forgot about the robot!" Twilight fearfully exclaimed as the robot was inching closer towards them.

"ALIEN LIFE FORM, MUST DESTROY!" the robot said, still looking at the older sibling as it was still corrupted with an intent on killing him. With the Zorgons blocking their path to escape, Shining was now an easy prey of the killer robot.

It then closed one of its clawed hands around Shining's throat, startling him and Twilight. "Twily, what should I do now?" he asked.

Twilight was at a loss for words as she was racking her brain to get her brother out of this trepidation. Then, she gasped. "Shining, do you still have that 'Reprogram' card from earlier?"

"What 'Reprogram' card?" he asked back, only for his head to click a second later as he still had that card inside his jeans pocket. "Oh, that card. Hold up." He then tried to get the card out of his pocket and managed to do so, holding it up in front of the robot's face and exclaimed, "'Reprogram'."

The tiny fixing robot saw the card and immediately began to alter something inside the robot's hardware, causing it to malfunction a little bit before it shut down completely. It came back to life seconds later, but this time, it let go of Shining's throat and let him and Twilight to descend the stairs as it now had a new target to destroy: the Zorgon lizards.

"ALIEN LIFE FORM!" it said, producing thrusters on its back to capture the Zorgons a lot quicker. The lizards, in turn, ran away from the killer machine as they sensed that the robot is trying to kill them. "MUST DESTROY!" it continued as it gave chase to the Zorgons.

The ponies, however, was a bit confused and decided to follow them up towards the second floor, just in time for them to see that the lizards tried escaping to their ship that they hooked themselves on the roof and the robot kept on pursuing them, now flying up using its rocket launchers to boost itself inside the ship, causing a bunch of wooden and crystal debris to fall down as the two boarded Zorgon ships tried to flee from the killer robot. The one that was from the basement was safe and was spinning out of control, but the other one wasn't as lucky as the ship blew up, killing all Zorgon lizards that was inside the ship, including the robot itself, belting out its catchphrase before the ship blew up to pieces.

Back inside the castle, Twilight and Shining looked up the hole where the Zorgon ship was previously located and pondered about what they had just witnessed.

"Well, now we know what the 'Reprogram' card is for," the younger one said.

"Yeah, that card saved my life back there," the older one replied. Neither of them are unaware of a stray Zorgon lizard right behind them, about to kill them as it stuck its tongue out at them.

"Hey Shiny, have you seen Spike and the rest of the girls?" Twilight asked.

Her question was answered when they heard a starting fire, followed by a startled whine coming from behind them. Turning to the source of the noise, they were shocked to see an undead Zorgon that was burst up in green flames before it used its machete to impale itself in the chest, thinking it was the heat source, ending its life as blood came pouring out of its fatal wound and crashed to the hard crystal floor. Behind it was the ponies and baby dragon they were looking for, Spike hitting his chest after being successful on killing the meat eating lizard.

Overjoyed, Twilight ran towards the rest of the Mane Six and hugged them tightly. "Girls, I'm so happy to see you again! I thought I was going to get killed!"

The other mares hugged her back as they found that their friend was still alive after such a dangerous mission. "Of course, sugarcube. We're so glad that you're alive as well," Applejack reassured the young princess, who was now crying in their shoulders which didn't last long.

"Guys, what happened up there?" the astronaut asked, appearing from the stairway to see what the commotion was all about. After seeing the dead Zorgon on the floor, his suspicions were confirmed as he grimaced of all the blood pooling around the lizard. "Okay, that's something you don't see everyday. Anyway, Twilight, you got the game back?" he asked the youngest of the Mane Six, who nodded and showed him the game she carried in her arms. "Great. Now come on. Let's finish the game once and for all!"

The entire group of eight ponies and baby dragon cheered as they all headed towards the library where the adventure of the game started, hoping that they can finish what the astronaut and his sister couldn't. Hopefully there aren't any more distractions the game could have gave them so they can finish the game once and for all.

The Endgame

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After the Zorgons have been finally dealt with, the eight ponies and baby dragon filed back inside the library where the adventure in outer space first began. They sat in the middle of the room so that they can get more space between them for Twilight and Shining to finally finish the game. As soon as they all sat down around the game with the siblings sitting adjacent to each other, Twilight began to turn the key since Shining had his turn which produced a shooting star that allows him to grant a wish.

Seconds passed and the dial stopped at the number nine, the young princess' official highest roll. But, since she rolled the exact same number as Shining did on his previous turn, her red piece again stopped one space away from her brother's blue piece. Yet another card popped out and she took it out without hesitation. After seeing the contents of the card, she stared at it with a blank stare and said, "Really, game? 'Flunk Space Academy: Go Back 1 Space'?" No sooner had Twilight said that, her piece moved back one space further away from Shining's. "You know what? I'm not even gonna complain about it. It's not even worth it anymore," she exclaimed, throwing the card away.

Shining then took the chance as he spun the game around and took his turn again, but when he did, the dial stopped at the number three, his official lowest roll ever. Three spaces later, another card came out and, like his sister, took it without hesitating and grimaced upon seeing what was written on the card. "Okay, that's new for me. 'Hit Time Warp: Go Back 3 Spaces and Repeat Last Turn'." His blue piece went back to where it started three spaces back and, to everypony's surprise, the game produced another golden card just like before. Without reading the contents but only decided to take a brief look at it, he picked it up and, sure enough, it was the same wish card he received earlier. "Guys, I got another wish," the unicorn exclaimed.

After a while, another bright light filled the room and when they all looked outside, the shooting star from before had reappeared for Shining to grant his second wish. It was also Twilight and Spike's first time seeing the passing ball of rock and gas, the former when she was still resentful of her brother and hid in her room, while the latter was still taking his shower after getting freed from his cryonic sleep. The rest of the Mane Six had seen it too when they were searching for Twilight after she ran away and hid somewhere in the castle.

Shining got up from his seat and walked towards one of the windows, but stopped to look at the astronaut, who had helped them a lot ever since the alicorn summoned him during one of her turns, and said to him, "Thanks for helping us." He then continued walking towards the window and stopped just a few yards away from it. Whispering to himself so that the others wouldn't hear, he made his wish. "I wish the astronaut had his sister and her friends back."

The star heard Shining's wish and moved ever closer towards the castle. The light has become even brighter as everypony shielded their eyes from the blinding light. Thankfully, it only lasted for about five seconds, and when they all opened their eyes, they were completely shocked at what, or rather who the star had called. Standing before them were six mares and a baby dragon, but what shocked them the most was that they looked exactly like the Mane Six and Spike, from the manestyle, their clothing, and even their appearances. They all stood at attention and from left to right are Applejack, Pinkie, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Spike in the exact order with the other Twilight being an alicorn.

Snapping out of her shock first, the real Twilight said, "Shining, did you wish for two of us, sans yourself?"

"What? No! I wish that the astronaut had his sister and their friends back, but I wasn't expecting this to appear," Shining explained as the others quickly did the same as Twilight did.

Meanwhile, the astronaut walked up towards the third mare and hugged her tightly with tears in his eyes. "Twily, you're back."

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" the alternate Twilight said, apparently having amnesia as they had gotten everypony else's attention.

The astronaut broke the hug and faced the princess doppelganger. "Twily, it's me, Shining. I'm your brother, remember?"

Hearing the older unicorn's claim, the real Mane Six and Spike was really shocked to know that the astronaut was actually an older version of Shining. "What?!" the mares and baby dragon shouted at once.

The real Shining was also a bit shocked to learn that his doppelganger was actually his older alternate self. "Okay, I have no idea what's going on right now! Can I please get an explanation?"

However, the other Twilight pointed at the real Shining and exclaimed that he was her actual brother, despite the real Twilight standing right nearby. "Hey, I'm right here, you know?" she said in offense.

Feeling a little curious, the real Pinkie decided to move towards her doppelganger and examine her closely. When she did, she got a closer look at the other Pinkie, from her poofy mane, to her facial features. What made the others snickered was that the two Pinkies had mimicked each other's movements, which had gotten the others, including Twilight, to follow their friend's example.

Applejack saw her doppelganger's stetson, which looked exactly like her own. Twilight examined her other self's features, including the wings she had, confirming that the other Twilight was an alicorn as well. Rarity had the opportunity to check on her doppelganger's mane, which had the same curls as hers had. Rainbow and Fluttershy was also a bit likable on their doppelgangers, the former liked how abrasive she was, while the latter was a bit confused that hers had no emotions. Spike had always wanted a brother with the same species as him, if only the one in front of him was only his alternate self.

Then, together as one, the real Mane Six and Spike touched their hands with their doppelgangers, causing them to break apart into starry mists, which was then absorbed into the actual ponies and baby dragon, which was a sight to behold. After the last of the stars was now inside the mares and baby dragon, Twilight commented, "Okay, not going to lie, but that was actually really cool. Don't you agree, girls?" The others mumbled their levels of agreement to the alicorn's question.

After seeing his sister being absorbed into the real Twilight, the astronaut walked over to his younger self, who was still standing nearby. "Thank you for bringing my sister back," he said.

"But, I don't-" Shining began, but he was interrupted by his older self.

"You did great back there. You kept close to Twilight during the whole ordeal, and that's something you should be proud of. You hear me?" the older unicorn asked, in which the younger one replied with a nod. "Good. Now make sure you bring her back home to Equestria safely, okay?"

"Okay, I promise," Shining replied.

The astronaut said nothing as he touched his hand on Shining's shoulder, which glowed the same kind of glow the Mane Six and Spike doppelgangers did. But what shocked them was the sight before them. The astronaut seemed to have shrunken in stature and had reverted back to how he looked like fifteen years ago in his timeline, which looked exactly like the Shining the Mane Six knew. He stayed like that for a while before he too turns into a starry mist and flowed inside the stunned unicorn.

The others had seen the whole thing happen and was astounded by what they had witnessed. Snapping out of his shock, Shining said aloud, "He was actually me." The mares nodded in agreement.

"Okay, I'm really confused here. I mean-" Spike began, but he was interrupted by a blast coming from outside.

"Uh, guys? I really hate to be the bringer of bad news but, look outside right now," Rainbow said, who was pointing at the window to prompt everypony to check outside.

When they did, their faces paled and their eyes widened at the horrible sight before them. There are dozens of Zorgon ships floating outside the castle and one of them managed to get a shot underneath it, which caused the building to shook a bit. Wasting no time, the group ran back towards the game and sat down around it.

"Okay Twily, I just counted and you need a ten to win this game," Shining explained.

Nodding her head, Twilight proceeded to turn the key one last time and pushed the button. As the ships continued to fly around the castle, one of them got a lucky hit of their cannons and it hit the top floor of the castle, which caused a washing machine to fell near the scared ponies and baby dragon. Going back to the game, the young princess was disappointed that she only got a one when the dial stopped. "Really, a one? Sweet Celestia, I hate this game."

Another Zorgon ship had managed to hit the top floor again, which decimated a guest room that was thankfully nowhere near the ponies this time as Twilight's red piece moved one space forward and drawn another card. This time, Spike had gotten a hold of the card and read its contents. When he did, his eyes widened in surprise and said, "Uh, guys? I think Twilight might have won this game! Because the card said, 'Would You Like to Swing on the Stars? Move Ahead 9 Spaces'!"

"What?! I won?!" Twilight exclaimed in shock.

"She won?!" Shining and the rest of the Mane Six exclaimed as well, right as the red piece started to move towards the end of the game, which signals that Twilight had indeed won the game.

"Yeah, she won! You said she needed a ten to win, right? She rolled a one, and the card says to move nine spaces ahead, which totals up to ten, so she won!" the young dragon explained, which elicited happy squeals from the mares as they, including Shining, congratulated the young princess for actually winning a game without cheating.

Their cheer didn't last long as they can still feel the thundering of blast after blast from the still firing Zorgon cannons that threatens to tear the castle apart. Luckily, the castle managed to stay intact before the ponies saw a cool but scary spectacle before them. As soon as Twilight's piece stopped at the black sphere with the letter Z printed on top of it, the sphere began spinning rapidly and caused sparks to form from the sphere. Then, the sphere opened up to reveal what looked like a black hole that spun out of control, which scares the ponies and young drake nearby.

And then, something unexpected happened. The sphere closed up suddenly and stopped spinning at the same time, which brought confusion to everypony's faces. Then, the game emitted one final card for them, which Shining took it and said, "'Game Over: Thank You for Playing'?"

"Wait, that's the whole game?" Twilight asked.

"Now what?" Fluttershy said nervously.

It was then they realized that the scenery outside was deathly quiet and it was completely dark outside. Feeling a bit sceptical, Shining stood up and approached one of the windows to see that it was indeed dark and the Zorgons have stopped firing their cannons. Turning back to face the mares, he simply said with a shrug, "I think we're home."

The claim ended all too soon as the same hooked chain from the Zorgon ships have punctured through the wall behind the older sibling, shocking them. What came next horrified them when the entire wall of the library was torn apart, revealing a giant black hole that seemed to have sucked the Zorgon ship trying to cling onto the castle, but failed to do so as the black hole's gravitational pull was far stronger.

Seeing that Shining was still standing up, Rainbow flew towards him so that he can get to safety. However, her plan backfired as after Shining was down on all fours, she was unable to get a grip on Shining's shirt and was unfortunately pulled towards the black hole, screaming for help much to the others' horror. "Rainbow!" Twilight yelled, but it was too late to save her as she disappeared from the confines of the destructive nature of space.

As the pieces reversed back towards the starting point of the game, the other ponies and baby dragon immediately started gripping onto other stuff for dear life. Twilight and Shining dropped to their stomachs and grabbed on to the game, which surprisingly had a really strong friction that renders it immobile. The others tried clinging on to the empty bookshelves or some of the still standing crystal pillars with mixed results.

Applejack and Pinkie were able to hold on longer thanks to their earth pony strengths. Fluttershy, having lost her first friend since they first met in Cloudsdale, focused more on flapping her wings and tried to stay away from the black hole, which seemed to work for a while. Rarity, being the weakest as a unicorn, had some trouble hanging on but she managed as well. Spike had opted on clinging onto Rarity's tail, which the fashionista didn't mind as long as he was okay.

"Twilight, what in the world is that thing that had sucked Rainbow inside?!" Rarity shouted to the alicorn.

"I don't know! I think that was Zathura, the black sphere in the game! Only, it's not a planet, but a black hole!" Twilight explained.

Everypony within earshot gasped upon hearing the princess' claims. "What?!" they shouted back.

Meanwhile, they can see the Zorgon ships that attacked them earlier tried escaping the black hole as well, but it was futile as they either have not enough fuel to outrun the gravitational pull or kept slamming into each other, causing them to explode and killing all of the lizards inside.

Fluttershy is straining to keep aloft as she didn't have the same amount of stamina as Rainbow did. "Twilight, I'm getting tired..." she panted, and seconds later, she passed out, causing her wings to lock up behind her and was then pulled towards the black hole as well, to Twilight's horror.

Rarity tried hanging on for much longer, but unfortunately, due to her unicorn heritage, her tribe was the weakest based on strength and in the end, after a few more minutes, she and Spike lost their grips and screamed as they were also pulled towards the black hole.

The earth pony mares are faring a lot better hanging on. But after seeing their friends having lost their lives, time can only tell if they will suffer the same fate as well. It only lasted for a few seconds as the farm mare can hear telltale signs of crumbling on the bookshelf they were clinging onto. Sure enough, to both her and the party pony's horror, the bookshelf was about to give out from their combined weight. "Pinkie, hang on!" Applejack yelled to Pinkie as the shelf finally gave out, causing the mares to lose their grips and screamed in fear as they too were unfortunately became victims of the black hole as well.

Twilight can only watch in shocked horror as the black hole keeps consuming her friends and she was unable to do nothing at this state. One of the Zorgon ships was now rolling on its side and caused it to collide onto the castle and decimated the entire top floor of the castle, leaving only the bottom floor as the building was getting closer to being swallowed up whole.

The pieces of the game was now getting closer towards the starting point. However, just like Rarity, Shining had also lost his grip after managing to hold on to the game longer than his fellow unicorn did. "Twily!" he yelled as he has now fallen victim of the black hole.

"Shining!" Twilight shouted, closing her eyes, hoping whatever that was happening did not happen as she wished that her friends and brother were okay and...

Epilogue: Good to be Home

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Twilight opened her eyes, only to realize something really weird. The library was now in perfect condition with every single book back to where it belongs and none were burnt up. The floor was clean and there were no holes on it at all. Plus, all of the furniture was back to where it belongs and no longer broken. She looked down at the game to see that the pieces are now back to the starting point when she first started playing the game.

Looking back up, the young princess realized something was amiss. Her friends and brother weren't where they were when she and Shining first started playing. "Shining? Girls? Spike? Are you still there?" she called out to them, hoping that they answer.

Luckily, she saw the doors of the library open to reveal the very ponies and baby dragon she wanted to see for a while, but with concerned and terrified looks on their faces. "Twily, whatever you do, don't push that button," Shining warned.

"What button?" Twilight asked, only to look down to see that her right forefinger was on the 'Go' button that was ready to be pushed. She pulled her finger away, not wanting to accidentally start the game again. "Guys, did that really happen? About the whole space thing?" she asked her friends and brother.

"Actually, I think it did. I still remember what had happened when we played the game and... what had happened between the two of us..." Shining replied.

"Yeah, me too," the younger sibling said, the others mumbling their agreements as well.

She got back up from where she was sitting and told her friends to check every single room to see if everything was back where it belonged. When they did, they reported back to Twilight, who was by the front door at the time, that all of the rooms was in perfect condition, including all of the nonexistent holes that was present during the course of the gameplay.

Turning towards the large front doors of the castle, Twilight took a deep breath and opened it, where sunshine blinded her for a while before her eyes readjusted so that she can see the beautiful and familiar surroundings of Ponyville once again after seeing nothing but space for a while.

"Girls, we're home," the alicorn said, turning back to her friends and hugged them tightly. "We're home!" she said again, the Mane Six cheering and crying for their fortune, hugging and jumping together as they are finally back home in Equestria.

After a few minutes, Twilight broke the hug and turned towards Shining and ran forward to hug him, with him doing the same thing. They met up halfway and embraced each other, crying harder than ever. "You did it, Twily! You won the game! Without actually cheating this time!" Shining congratulated his sister.

"Yes Shiny, I did. I really did," Twilight said. Breaking the hug and wiping the tears from her cheeks, she asked, "Shining, do you really mean it when you forgive me for cheating, even if it really was an accident?"

"Of course I forgive you. I mean every single word about forgiving you was real," the unicorn answered without hesitation. "I love you, Twily."

"I love you too, Shiny," the young princess replied, hugging her brother again, who hugged her back in return.

The rest of the Mane Six and Spike were misty-eyed over the loving exchange between the Sparkle siblings as they had officially amended their relationship. Applejack took off her stetson and placed it on her chest as a sign of happiness for the two made up siblings. Pinkie, as usual, was bawling her eyes out seeing them. Rainbow tried to keep calm, but failed to keep a few tears to fall down her cheeks. Rarity and Fluttershy were happy while crying a bit to see that their friend and brother have finally made up. And Spike smiled upon seeing his siblings hugging in amendment of their relationship with each other.

With no more bad blood between the two siblings, they parted and looked at each other's eyes with a loving smile from them. Then, Twilight's stomach grumbled, ruining the moment as she held her stomach. "Wow, guess the whole space adventure thing really took a toll on me. You wanna go get something to eat?" she asked Shining.

"Sure thing, Twily. Sugarcube Corner?" he proposed.

"Sugarcube Corner," the princess replied. She then turned towards her friends and asked, "Girls, you wanna celebrate at Sugarcube Corner?" The others shouted yes in agreement, including Spike. "Well, let's go then!" Leading the way, Twilight opened the doors to let the others file out of the castle for their needed vacation from adventuring.

Before she had a chance to follow her friends, Shining grabbed Twilight's arm gently, getting her attention. "Twily, I was thinking maybe... we could hang out for a while? We haven't had the chance to do so since... well, you know..." he asked.

Smiling, the lavender princess replied, "Sure thing, Shiny. I'd love too." Before they can hug again, they heard something clang behind them by the grass. Turning towards the source of the noise, Twilight was shocked to see that one of her telescopes had seemingly ended up on the grass.

Thankfully, it wasn't badly damaged, but it made her curious as to how did her telescope ended up there where it should've stayed by the balcony. "Shining, are you thinking what I'm thinking right now?" she asked her brother.

"That the telescope just fallen out of the sky?" Shining replied.

"Yes, that," she said. However, they didn't ponder about it for long as Twilight teleported the telescope back to where it originally belong. "Let's figure that out later. Come on, let's have a beautiful day together!" she exclaimed.

Nodding his head, Shining grabbed Twilight's hand in his and together, walked towards town with a fresh start on their lives, one without them fighting each other and finally enjoy the rest of what the day had offered for them as they headed for Sugarcube Corner for a much needed rest and for them to enjoy each other's company. Maybe in time, they can have fun without having to save Equestria, this time together as not just friends, but as brother and sister for the years to come.

Zathura: Sibling is Magic

by SuperWriter2329

Prologue

The Start of an Adventure

Frozen Spike

A Robotic Enemy

Unknown Visitors

Who's the Real Cheater Here?

The Astronaut's True Story

Operation: Getting the Game Back from the Zorgons (Part 1)

Operation: Getting the Game Back from the Zorgons (Part 2)

The Endgame

Epilogue: Good to be Home