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Ch 5. Getting The Gang Back Together

Blueblood and Trixie stared at the glowing streak of

light just hanging there in mid air in Blueblood's living room. It

looked like a... crack. Just a giant crack in nothing! Blueblood suddenly

remembered all the reports he had heard about ponies seeing cracks in

thin air, and what Doctor Whooves had told him. He had just thought it

was all rubbish, but now, with this right before his eyes, he was

starting to think that maybe the reports were actually true."It looks like a... crack," said Trixie, apparently agreeing with him. "A crack in... nothing!"Blueblood and Trixie dropped their things and began backing away from the strange phenomenon."What is it?" asked Blueblood.Trixie looked at him. "You're asking me!?" she said.Suddenly

there was another flash of light. When the light faded, the thing was

gone, but then Trixie and Blueblood immediately noticed something else

weird. They were now in a completely different building. They looked

around themselves at the room they were standing in. They were still in a

fancy living room of what appeared to be a big fancy mansion, but it

was a different one."Where are we?" asked Trixie.Blueblood

went to a window and looked out. To his utter surprise, he saw his yard

and his neighbors' homes right where they normally would be from his

house."We're... still in the same place," he said in confusion."What!?"

said Trixie, equally confused. She came over to the window with

Blueblood and looked out. "How the heck is that possible?"They stood there for a few moments, trying to figure this out.Blueblood looked at Trixie. "Trixie, go outside and see what things look like from out there.""Hey! Why don't you?" demanded Trixie.Blueblood simply pointed up at the shock collar around his neck."Oh. Right," said Trixie.Trixie

walked out of the room they were in, Blueblood following behind her.

Glancing around the place, they could see that most of Blueblood's

belongings still seemed to be here, pictures, furniture, antiquities,

and appliances.They quickly found the

foyer of this building and Trixie opened up the front door with her

magic and looked outside. It still looked like the front view of

Blueblood's house. Trixie walked outside onto the walkway to the front

gates of Blueblood's land, and looked back behind her at the building.

She saw a completely different mansion, exactly where Blueblood's should

have been. Not only did it have a different design, but where

Blueblood's had been white, this one was a tan color. It was still an

impressive mansion though. Just a different one."Well?" Blueblood called from the doorway.Trixie looked at him. "We're still right where we were before. Your house has changed though. Its completely different.""How bad is it?" he asked, sounding nervous."Its

still a nice mansion," she shouted. "Just different." Trixie walked

back to the front doors where Blueblood was standing, looking utterly

confused."How, and why, would something just turn my mansion into a different mansion?" he asked.Trixie

shrugged. "I don't know. There are only a handful of ponies out there

that could be powerful enough to do something like that with magic."

Then she frowned. "Sparkle being one of them."Blueblood

remembered the streak of light that had appeared in his house only

minutes ago. He wasn't so sure it was a pony that had done this."Well, I've had enough!" Blueblood shouted, turning and stomping back into the mansion."What are you doing?" asked Trixie curiously as she followed him in, closing the front door behind her with her magic.Blueblood's horn glowed with light blue light as he walked back into the living room. "I'm bringing in some help!"Trixie

then noticed movement in the room. A side table drawer on one of the

tables holding a lamp in the room suddenly opened up, and something came

levitating out from inside it. It was some sort of small device, with a

few buttons on it. Blueblood levitated the device over to him and,

using his magic, he pressed one of the buttons on the device, which then

made a beep sound.........................Far

away from Canterlot, out in the country, the twin unicorn brothers,

Flim and Flam, were hard at work on their new, but still relatively

small, apple orchard. They were planting another young apple tree in the

ground. So far, their orchard was pitiful. They only had about twenty

apple trees so far, and most of them weren't fully grown yet. Needless

to say, their business was coming along very slowly.Flim

dropped the shovel he had been using to plant the tree out of his

magical hold and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his front leg.

He looked over at his brother, who was levitating a bucket of water to

pour on the recently planted tree."Whoever

said hard work pays off was clearly an idiot!" Flim complained. "We've

been doing this for a year now, and this is how far we've gotten! We're

not producing nearly enough cider to compete with other apple cider

businesses!""I know," said Flam as he

poured the bucket of water onto the small apple tree. "But what else can

we do? They agreed to drop the charges against us as long as we agreed

to stop trying to swindle other ponies out of their apple orchards."Flim let out a long moan. "AT THIS RATE, WE'RE NEVER GOING TO BECOME RICH SELLING CIDER!""Well, at least it can't get any worse," said Flam.Suddenly, in two bright flashes of light, they were both teleported away against their will......................... Gilda

and Lightning Dust were in a dungeon cell with Lyra, Bon Bon, Comet,

Pokey, and Caramel, when the two of them were suddenly teleported out of

the cell."Hey! Where did those two go?" asked Pokey."And why didn't they take US with them!?" moaned Lyra......................... A

few miles away in Canterlot, Jet Set and Upper Crust were at a garden

party in Fancy Pants' backyard at his estate when in two flashes of

light, they were suddenly teleported away, leaving everypony at the

party who had seen them vanish with stunned expressions."Did you see that?!" said Fleur to her husband, Fancy Pants."I say!" exclaimed Fancy Pants. "I didn't know those two could perform a teleportation spell!"........................High up in the clouds, the three Cloudsdale pegasus jocks, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score, were racing each other in the sky."Come

on, you slow pokes!" Dumbbell shouted as flew out ahead of his two best

friends, doing a barrel roll to evade an incoming cloud. "If we want to

learn to do a sonic rainboom, we're gonna have to get a lot faster!""BET I'LL DO ONE BEFORE YOU!" Hoops shouted as he suddenly folded his wings and dived down towards the ground below."HOOPS,

STOP! YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH ALTITUDE YET!" Score shouted at his friend

in concern, but Hoops either didn't listen, or couldn't hear him.Suddenly, all three ponies were teleported out of the air in three bright flashes of light.........................Blueblood

and Trixie waited, and then after a few seconds, there were several

bright flashes of light before them, and then Gilda, Lightning Dust,

Flim, Flam, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, and Surprise,

all appeared in the room with surprised expressions on their faces.

Hoops, who had been in the middle of a sky dive when he had been

teleported, crashed into the carpeted floor head first, and crashed

through the floor down into the basement, leaving a large, gaping hole

right in the middle of the living room. Everyone immediately turned and

looked down into the hole with concern."I'm... all... right," they heard Hoops' weak voice call up from the hole in the floor.They

all then continued looking around at their new surroundings, and each

other, with utter confusion, until their eyes fell upon Blueblood and

Trixie, who, unlike everyone else in the room, did not look at all

confused to be there."Hello, everyone," said Blueblood. Trixie also gave them all a small wave with her hoof."Blueblood!? Trixie!?" they all exclaimed."Huh?"

Hoops suddenly climbed up out of the hole in the floor and stood with

the others, a bit wobbly and holding his head with his hoof. He then

noticed Blueblood and Trixie and the others in the room as well. "Oh

hey, guysh," he said, his voice a bit slurred. "What'sh up?""How did we get here?!" Jet Set asked Blueblood and Trixie."Yeah. How did you do that?" Trixie asked Blueblood."Oh.

I used this teleporting device," said Blueblood, holding up the small

device he had used for them to see. "I got it so I could teleport you

all here incase of an emergency."Everyone in the room except Blueblood groaned.Then

Blueblood suddenly noticed that one of his friends was missing. "Hey!

Wait a minute! Where's Iron Will? He was supposed to be here to!"They all looked around for the large minotaur, but he wasn't among them."Hey. What's this?" Flim picked up a piece of paper off of the floor. "It has Iron Will's name on it.""What's it say?" asked Blueblood.Flim

cleared his throat. "It says, 'Blueblood, I can't make it to another

one of your hair-brained schemes today. My daughter's school play is

today and I promised I'd be there. Sighed, Iron Will.'".....................Meanwhile, in Minotaur country, a bunch of minotaurs were inside a school auditorium, watching a school play."Hamlet? Hamlet? Where art thou, Hamlet?" a young female minotaur calf on the stage called out."Juliet!"

said a young male minotaur as he walked onto the stage from backstage.

"You're time is up, and your parole has begun! You know what that

means?"Just then, Iron Will spoke up from

the audience. "Kids, I just want to tell you right now, you are not

sucking me into this story at all. I am very much aware right now that

I'm watching a play." Then he noticed every other minotaur in the

auditorium staring at him in shock. "What? I'm just trying to give these

kids some helpful criticism!" he said.Just then, Iron Will's daughter began crying and ran off the stage."MAYBELLE, GET BACK HERE!" shouted Iron Will. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT BEING A DOORMAT?"....................."Well, I guess Iron Will is out," said Blueblood disappointedly."Out

on what?" asked Gilda. "You still haven't explained anything to us yet!

What are we doing this time? Invading a micro-nation?""NO!" countered Blueblood. "Now, I'm sure you've all noticed the strange stuff that's been going on lately.""You're

gonna have to be more specific," said Dumbbell. "This is Equestria.

Weird is pretty much par for the course around here."The rest of them all nodded in agreement.Blueblood

sighed. "I mean the weirder than usual stuff that's been going on

lately," he said. "It's been reported in the news papers, and on the

radio.""You mean like ponies saying

they've seen 'cracks' of light in thin air appearing and disappearing in

different places?" asked Upper Crust."And certain unicorns getting weird dreams and head aches?" said Flam."And things disappearing and showing up other places?" asked Score."And ponies acting strange?" said Lightning Dust. "Well, stranger than usual?""Exactly,"

said Blueblood. "Well, unfortunately, it turns out its all true. And

it's only getting worse! One of those 'cracks' just showed up in my

house! And when it was gone-""Hold on!" said Gilda. "You saw one of those things too?!" Gilda and Lightning Dust suddenly look very interested."Um... yes," said Blueblood. "Wait! YOU saw one of them?""Heck,

yeah!" said Lightning Dust. "We were with these two doctors, Lyra and

Bon Bon, while they were examining Princess Luna, and then-""You were with my aunt Luna?!" Blueblood asked."Yeah," said Lightning Dust."How is she?" Blueblood asked with concern."Oh,

yeah," said Gilda. "They did say Luna had broke into your house the

other night." This got a lot of shocked and intrigued looks from the

rest of the ponies in the room who didn't know anything about this yet.

Gilda continued. "Well, Blueblood, your aunt is... well... there is

something definitely weird going on with her."Blueblood's expression fell.Gilda

and Lightning Dust then explained about the computer test that looked

into Luna's head, and how it said stuff about Starswirl the Bearded,

holes in space around Saturn's moon, Titan, and a warning. And then they

said that Princess Luna had started convulsing and fell unconscious.Blueblood felt deep-rooted worry for his aunt."Starswirl the Bearded?" asked Trixie with intrigue.Gilda and Lightning Dust nodded."Anyway,"

said Lightning Dust, "after all that, some royal guards showed up and

accused us of kidnapping the Princess. And then one of those 'cracks'

appeared in thin air, and when it was gone, those two doctors had

completely forgotten about being doctors!""And then we were all arrested and thrown in the dungeons," said Gilda.Lightning Dust nodded. "If you hadn't teleported us out of there, we'd still be rotting with those losers!"Blueblood

tried to put his worry for his aunt aside and put his hoof to his chin

in thought, considering everything he had just heard. "The Doctor did say that auntie Luna had something to do with this," he muttered."What are you talking about?" asked Lightning Dust.So

Blueblood explained to them all about his visit from the Doctor, and

everything he had said to him about Princess Luna, about the 'cracks'

and something about something not being right with time and space, and

about some great evil being afoot."And also," continued Blueblood, "as I was saying earlier, before I was so rudely interrupted," he shot Gilda and Lightning Dust a glare, which they just rolled their eyes too, "one of those 'cracks' also appeared in my house before I brought you all here! And when it was gone, my house had been replaced with this one!" He gestured to the room around them.The others except for Trixie all looked confused when he said this."What do you mean?" said Upper Crust. "This is your house!"Blueblood and Trixie looked at each other, both of them equally confused by this statement, and then looked back at Upper Crust."No,

it isn't!" said Blueblood. "My house is completely different from this

one. Come now, you've all been in my home before. I mean, sure, its still a mansion, but it's a different mansion!""This looks like your regular home to me," said Flam. The others all nodded in agreement with him.Blueblood and Trixie looked at each other again."They don't notice that it's a different house, but you and I do," whispered Blueblood."Just like when I was the only pony who noticed the trees change color," whispered Trixie."But how is that possible?" Blueblood asked."I don't know," whispered Trixie. "But lets not worry about it right now. We can figure it out later."Blueblood

nodded, and they turned back to the others. "Well, okay. Whatever," he

said to them. "The point is, I don't know what's going on, but I am

getting sick and tired of all this bizarre craziness that is happening,

and I want it to stop! Now, I know I've never asked anything of you guys

before..."Everyone except Blueblood looked at each other in disbelief."Did he realy just say that?" asked Dumbbell."But

we need to come together and make things right," said Blueblood,

pretending he hadn't heard Dumbbell's remark. Now Princess Luna is

somehow a big part in all this." He looked at Gilda and Lightning Dust.

"Do you know where she is?"They shook their heads."No," said Gilda. "When they took us to the dungeons, they took Luna somewhere else. We have no idea where she is now.""Darn,"

cursed Blueblood. "Well then, I think we should go tell my aunt,

Princess Celestia, what's going on. She'll know what to do.""I'm not sure that's such a good idea," said Gilda."Me either," said Lighting Dust.Everyone stared at them in confusion."Why not?" asked Blueblood.Those guards that arrested us, they were Princess Celestia's guards," said Lightning Dust."So," said Blueblood. "They arrested you because they thought you had kidnapped Princess Luna. Once we get that all cleared up-""We don't think that was really the reason they arrested us," said Gilda.Everyone still stared at them in confusion."What are you talking about?" asked Blueblood."Right before they arrested us, we heard one of the guards say something about that we knew too much," said Gilda."Yeah.

And while we were in the dungeon, we met some other ponies who said

they had been arrested because the guards said they 'knew too much'

too," said Lightning Dust. "Those ponies also knew about a hole in outer

space near Titan. Whatever is going on, it seems like somepony doesn't

want anypony else to know about it for some reason.""And

you think it's my aunt, Princess Celestia?!" accused Blueblood angrily.

"Why would she do that? She's the most honest, caring, wisest, and

greatest pony there is!""I don't know!" said Lightning Dust. "But they were her guards, and given what we've seen, I don't want to risk ending up back in the dungeons.""Me either," said Gilda. "So lets just not involve her for right now, just to be safe."As

much as Blueblood wanted to protest against what they were saying about

his great aunt, and Princess of Equestria, Princess Luna's last words

she had said to him suddenly bubbled up inside his mind again. 'Find it!

Before Celestia finds out! She must not find out! I have to tell you... I

don't have much time!'"Fine," Blueblood reluctantly agreed, but then he thought to himself, I'll just have to prove my great aunt's innocents in all this. "Then what are we going to do?"Everyone started thinking for a few moments."Well,

we should probably try to find out more about what's going on," said

Trixie. "Because, at the moment, we know pretty much jack squat!""And how do we do that?" asked Jet Set."We need to find somepony else whose smart enough to possible know what's going on and give us some answers," said Trixie."Who in Equestria could possibly be smart enough to know what's going on?" asked Flam.Hoops spoke. "Blueblood, you said Doctor Whooves visited you. Maybe he could give us more answers.""Hey, that's actually a good idea, Hoops," said Dumbbell.Blueblood

frowned. "Actually, I don't know if he's coming back," he said. "He

said he was going off to fight the 'great evil' by himself, and that if

he fails, its up to us.""Well, things aren't getting any better, so I guess he failed," said Flim."Okay, the Doctor's out of the question," said Dumbbell. "Any other idea's, anyone?"They kept thinking."Wait

a minute," said Trixie. She turned and looked at Blueblood. "Blueblood,

where did you get that teleporting device? The one that brought them

here!"Blueblood smirked. "I stole it from

Sparkle's basement," he said. "You would not believe the stuff she has

down there. Its like... Nerdvana down there!""Oh," Trixie groaned."Well we can't ask her for help," said Lightning Dust. "She's best friends with Celestia, and we already agreed we can't go to her for help.""I doubt she'd know what's up anyway," said Trixie."Okay. So no Doctor, no Celestia, and no Sparkle," said Upper Crust. "Is there anypony else out there who might be bat-shit crazy enough to know what's going on?""HEY! What about Discord?" said Flim. "If any creature would know something, its him.""Yeah! Discord!" agreed Flam."Only one problem," said Blueblood. "We have no idea where to find him. He could be anywhere!""Yeah," said Trixie. "And there's no guaranty he'd help us even if we did. Remember, he has this whole 'rule' about not solving ponies problems for them, because of something to do with the plot.""Yeah, you're right," Flim said disappointedly.Upper Crust moaned. "This is impossible! I can't think of anypony we could go to for help!""Well we have to do something!" said Lightning Dust."Well..." began Blueblood.Everyone looked at him."What is it?" asked Trixie.Blueblood looked nervous. "Well... there is still one pony who might be able to help us," said Blueblood. "But you're not going to like who it is.""Who?" everyone immediately demanded.Blueblood paused and took a deep breath before he answered. "Nightmare Moon."Everyone stared at Blueblood in silence."Nightmare Moon?" said Gilda with a chuckle. "You do know she was just an alternate personality of Princess Luna's, don't you?""And that alternate personality was destroyed by the Elements of Harmony," said Jet Set. "Wasn't it?""Actually..."

began Blueblood. "It turns out, when the Elements of Harmony were used

against her back when she returned, they didn't destroy her. They separated

her from Princess Luna. Since then, Nightmare Moon has somehow obtained

her own body, but she's still too weak to be a threat to anypony, so

she's been allowed to live in isolation as long as she 'behaves'."They all stared at Blueblood in complete silence again, looking even more bewildered then the last time."You're kidding," said Trixie."That... doesn't make much sense," said Gilda."Yeah, that sounds really farfetched," said Flim."It

didn't make any sense to me either when I found out," said Blueblood,

"but its true! Besides, look around!" He extended his hoof into the air

to emphasis his point. "All sorts of stuff is happening that doesn't

make any sense! That's why we're here, remember!""He's got a point," said Lightning Dust with a shrug."Okay," said Trixie. "So where is Nightmare Moon?"Blueblood

paused again. "In the same place she's been for the past couple years,"

he said. "Hiding in a cave in the Everfree Forest.""Oh, not that Faust-forsaken place again!" moaned Upper Crust."How do you know this?" Dumbbell asked Blueblood, raising an eyebrow at him."Being

the nephew of the rulers of Equestria, I pick up on stuff," said

Blueblood. "Apparently, they've been trying to reform her like they did

with Discord, but so far she hasn't been swayed."Everyone considered this for a few moments."So you really think Nightmare Moon might know what's going on?" asked Gilda.Blueblood shrugged. "She might! She did used to be a part of Luna, after all.""And you're sure she won't try to... kill us?" asked Score."Like I said. She's too weak to harm anypony anymore," said Blueblood. "Otherwise, why would she be hiding in a cave?""Good point.""Alright," said Lightning Dust with a shrug. "I guess Moony's our best option so far. Lets go!""Hold

on a second!" shot Upper Crust before Lightning Dust could flap her

wings even once. "Do we really want to get involved in another one of

Blueblood's plans again?" She looked at Blueblood. "No offense,

Blueblood, but the thing about your plans is they... well, they never work

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

they heard the front door open and close, and then they heard hoof

steps approaching. They turned around to face the entrance to the living

room just as a light orange unicorn mare with a red and yellow mane and

tail came walking into view. Blueblood recognized her as none other

than Sunset Shimmer. She was levitating a familiar looking envelope

beside her head.She came into the room

and looked at them all. "Hello," she said. "I'm here about some quest

for a big reward, or something like that." She glanced at the envelope

she was levitating beside her, and then back over at them. "Is this the

right place?"They all stared at her."What?" she asked, confused."That was a year ago!" exclaimed Blueblood.Sunset's

eyes widened. "Oh!" she said in surprise, and then looked down at the

floor. "I should really start checking my mail more often.""Who the heck is this?" said Trixie, her and everyone else turning to look at Blueblood."Oh,

yes," said Blueblood. "Everypony, this is Sunset Shimmer." Then he

looked at Sunset Shimmer. "Sunset, this is my marefriend, Trixie, and

that's Gilda, Lightning Dust, Jet Set, his wife, Upper Crust, Flim, and

his twin brother, Flam, Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, and Surprise.""Hello," they all said to the Sunset."A pleasure," responded Sunset, then she looked at Blueblood. "So what's going on here?" she asked."Um..." began Blueblood, scratching the back of his head as he thought. Then he looked at the others. "Somepony fill her in?"Gilda

approached Sunset. "Okay, you're going to love this," she said

sarcastically as she began to explain the situation to the new pony as

quickly as she could.Blueblood turned

back to the others and got back to the topic at hoof. "Okay, so maybe my

plans don't always turn out so great," he admitted. "And I know I've

made a few mistakes in the past.""Thousands!" said Lightning Dust."And sometimes I've led you into danger," said Blueblood."Always!" said Jet Set."But at least I had the best intentions in mind," said Blueblood."Your own!" said Dumbbell."And things have always turned out okay in the end.""RARELY!" they all shouted in unison."But

this isn't about me this time, okay!" said Blueblood. "This is about

Princess Luna, and all this crazy stuff that is happening. This is about

saving Equestria from... who knows what!? Please! I'm begging you! Just

trust me one more time! Don't do it for me! Do it for Equestria!"Everyone in the room was silent as they considered what Blueblood had said."Well I'm with you," said Trixie.Blueblood smiled at her."We're in," said Gilda and Lightning Dust together."Count us in!" said Dumbbell. Hoops and Score nodded in agreement beside him."We're in too," said Flam, Flim nodding with him."I

suppose I'll help too," said Sunset with a shrug. "I didn't have

anything else planned for the weekend anyway. And isn't that just really

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

suppose we'll help too," said Jet Set, "but only because we don't

particularly like the idea of living in a world that's gone

topsy-turvy."Blueblood smiled. "That's

the selfish spirit!" he said. Then he looked over at Surprise, who

hadn't spoken yet. "What about you, Surprise? Are you in?"Surprise

gave them all a dark grin, most unlike her normal bubbly expression.

"Oh, I'm definitely coming too," she said coldly. "I have to make sure

you all get what you deserve in the end.""Glad

to have you!" said Blueblood happily, he and everyone else in the room

completely oblivious to Surprise's unusual behavior. "Alright, what are

we waiting for? Lets go see Nightmare Moon!" Blueblood turned and

started heading out of the living room, towards the front doors.

Everypony else followed behind. Blueblood

opened the front doors up with his magic and stepped outside... and then

screamed as he was immediately shocked by the electric collar around his

neck."GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"Blueblood quickly leaped back inside his doorway, and took deep breaths after the electric shock stopped.Behind him, his friends all couldn't help but burst out laughing.Blueblood glared back at them angrily. "Well this is just perfect!" he growled. "I can't leave the house!""Why don't you just take that thing off?" asked Gilda, walking up to him.Blueblood glared at her. "If it were that simple, don't you think I would have done that already?"Gilda shrugged.Blueblood sighed. "If I try to take it off, I'll be electrocut-"Suddenly, Gilda hooked one of her claws underneath the collar, and then, in one clean motion, sliced right through it.Blueblood winced, but was surprised when he felt no pain and saw the shock collar fall to the floor."There," said Gilda with an amused grin."What the..." stuttered Blueblood in amazement as he stared at the severed collar lying on the floor. "Those guards lied to me!""You're such a baby," said Gilda, rolling her eyes. "Can we go now?"