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Ch 9. Escape

The corridors of the space station were surprisingly empty as Blueblood and Dumbbell made their way to Princess Luna's room."Weird," said Dumbbell. "I'd have thought there'd be a lot more ponies on board this station."Blueblood shrugged. "Maybe Princess Celestia is only allowing the ponies who she trusts the most with this secret access. So she only has a minimal staff here."Dumbbell also shrugged. "Could be." Then after a few moments of silence, he said, "So this is where our taxes have been going," said Dumbbell.Blueblood couldn't help but chuckle at Dumbbell's joke. But in all seriousness, he still couldn't believe all this around him actually existed. He had used to think that his aunt Celestia was a completely honest ruler, who always told her subjects the truth about everything that went on, with the exception of her good-natured little jokes every now and then. But now, he was beginning to doubt everything he knew about his great aunt. Celestia had definitely been hiding the fact that she had space ships and a giant space station, as well as trying to keep the plot hole a secret. She was definitely up to something that she wanted to keep a secret from almost everypony. And what bugged him the most was that he still had no idea what it was.They soon came across an elevator. They both got inside and Blueblood used his magic to push the button for the floor Princess Luna's room was on. The doors closed and the elevator started moving upwards.Dumbbell and Blueblood then both cringed with disgust when they heard the tune of the 'Equestria Girls' song start playing in the elevator."Oh, gosh," groaned Dumbbell.Unable to take it, Blueblood spotted the speaker the song was coming from up on the sealing of the elevator, and lit up his horn with magic. He then shot a blast of magic out of his horn at the speaker, which then exploded with a burst of electrical sparks and some smoke. The music ceased. Now all that could be heard was the soft sound of the elevator moving.Dumbbell and Blueblood waved the smoke away from their faced with their hooves."Thank you!" said Dumbbell."You're welcome," said Blueblood.After a few more moments, the elevator came to a halt, and the doors opened again. Blueblood and Dumbbell got out and began walking down the corridor the way they remembered the princess's room was on the map.They immediately could tell which room the princess was in when it came into view. They saw a unicorn guard standing in front of the door. Also, Princess Luna's name was nicely labeled on the door.Blueblood and Dumbbell stayed out of sight of the guard for the moment and looked at each other."What are we going to do about that guard?" asked Blueblood."Um... I have an idea," said Dumbbell. "Just follow my lead."They walked up to the guard at the door. He turned his head to look at them as they approached.Dumbbell spoke. "Hi. We're hear to bring the Princess her dinner."The guard stared at them, raising an eyebrow at them. "Princess Celestia has ordered that no one is to disturb her sister. And Princess Luna is in a coma. She can't eat anything at the moment. Also, where is the food?"So she IS still in a coma, Blueblood thought to himself, while also thinking about what an idiot Dumbbell was for coming up with this stupid plan."Um..." Dumbbell stuttered to the guard, realizing his plan had completely fallen apart. Panicking, he quickly leaped into the air, spun around using his wings, and bucked the surprised guard in the head. The guards was knocked back against the door and he fell to the floor, knocked unconscious.Blueblood looked at Dumbbell as he landed back on the floor beside him. "You're an idiot," he said to him.Dumbbell glared at Blueblood. "Hey, I took care of it, didn't I?"Blueblood rolled his eyes at Dumbbell and then used his magic to open up the door to Princess Luna's room. They both looked inside.The room was very large and lavishly decorated. It was actually kind of like an expensive fancy hotel room. Golden light from a crystal chandelier hanging from the sealing illuminated the room. Several Large Persian rugs lined the hard oak floor. On one side of the big room there was a living area, with some elegant sofa's and chairs, a glass coffee table, and a marble fireplace. At the far end of the room, there was an enormous window, looking out into space. In a corner, there was a fancy wooden desk, and on the other side of the room, there was large, elegant king sized bed, complete with drawn back bed curtains, and beside it on one side was a night stand with a lamp, and on the other a large wooden wardrobe.They immediately spotted Princess Luna lying on the bed, unconscious. They walked into the room and Blueblood pulled the unconscious guard into the room with them for good measure, and closed the door behind them.The two stallions walked up to Princess Luna's bedside."Okay, I know this is going to sound cheesy," said Dumbbell, "but I kind off feel like a knight in a fairy tail right now, going on a dangerous mission to rescue a beautiful princess."Blueblood could see a Dumbbell had a dreamy look in his eyes as he stared at the unconscious alicorn mare lying on the bed before them. Even Blueblood had to admit, even though he knew she was his great aunt, she really did look quite beautiful lying there unconscious, her magical cloud of a mane flowing out from her head over the pillows, her barreled chest slowly rising and falling with each breath she took.Blueblood shook those weird thoughts from his head and got back to the situation at hoof. "Come on! Lets hurry and get her out of here before somepony notices the guard that you knocked out isn't at his post."Dumbbell also shook himself from his intoxicated state and nodded. "Right!" he said.Blueblood lit up his horn and levitated Luna's unconscious body up off of the bed with his magic, and, much to Dumbbell's surprise, laid her down on the brown pegasus's back."Hey, why do I have to carry her?" Dumbbell complained. "She's heavy!""Because I'm a prince," said Blueblood.Dumbbell glared at the white unicorn angrily. Blueblood flinched."Err... I mean... because, as an athlete, you're a lot stronger than I am."Dumbbell nodded. "Darn right, I am!""Okay. Now lets get out of here!" Blueblood turned and started heading towards the door.Dumbbell was about to follow Blueblood when he realized something."Wait! We can't just walk around this place carrying the Princess like this! Even if there are hardly any guards in the corridors, somepony's gonna notice."Blueblood stopped where he was realizing with dismay that his friend was right. "You're right," he said, looking back at the brown pegasus with an alicorn on his back. "What do we do?"They both thought for a few moments, trying to come up with an idea. That was when Dumbbell noticed the guard he had knocked out still lying on the floor where they had left him. He suddenly got an idea."Lets take that guard's armor off and put it on Luna!" Dumbbell said. "We'll disguise her as a guard too!"Blueblood looked at Dumbbell like he was insane. "What? But she's in a coma!""Um..." Dumbbell scratched the back of his mane as he thought for a moment, working out his plan in his head. "We'll just carry her, and tell anypony we come across that she's just another guard that was injured or something, and that we're taking her to get medical attention!"Blueblood shook his head. "That will never work!""Do you have any other ideas?" Dumbbell asked him.Blueblood thought for a moment, then frowned and hung his head. "No," he admitted."Alright then," Dumbbell said smugly.Working quickly, they took the unconscious unicorn guard's armor off him and put it on Princess Luna. They even took care to make sure the princess's giveaway magical, starry, cloud-like mane and tail were tucked in under the armor so that they wouldn't give her away."Hey, Blueblood, I've always wondered," said Dumbbell as he tucked the princess's mane underneath her helmet, "what the heck are Princess Celestia's and Princess Luna's manes and tails made of? Because this isn't hair!"Blueblood thought for a moment, but then shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know," he admitted. "I've never thought to ask them about that. I suppose they're made of magic.""Why?" asked Dumbbell, holding up some of Luna's tail in his hoof and looking at it. "What is the point of it?"Blueblood shrugged again. "I don't know! I guess it's just to make them look pretty or something! Now let's hurry!"When they were finished putting the armor on Luna, she did indeed look like she might pass for a unicorn guard, so long as no one got a good enough look at her. They placed her back on Dumbbell's back and then walked back out of the room. They headed back down the corridor to the elevator. Fortunately, they didn't run into any guards on the way so far.When they got to the elevator, Blueblood was about to press the button when the doors suddenly opened, revealing a pegasus guard inside. Blueblood and Dumbbell froze.The guard walked out of the elevator, but then paused and looked at the guard draped over Dumbbell's back, a questioning look on his face.Dumbbell quickly spoke up. "O-our friend here had a little accident. We're taking her to get medical attention."Much to their relief, the guard smiled at them and said, "I hope she gets better. By the way, just so you know, something happened to the music speaker in that elevator." He pointed back at the elevator he had just walked out of. "It's a shame too. I really liked that song." And with that, the guard walked off and continued on his way down the corridor.Blueblood and Dumbbell walked into the elevator and Blueblood used his magic to press the button to go back down to the floor that their ship was on.As the doors of the elevator closed, Dumbbell looked at Blueblood and said. "How do you think Lightning Dust is doing?"..................Lightning Dust galloped her way through the corridors, looking for the maintenance tunnel where the tractor beam emitter was located. She had decided to stop flying through the corridors because every now and then she would pass a guard, and she figured a guard seeing her flying through the place, even if she was a pegasus, would look suspicious, even if she was disguised as a guard. She knew guards weren't supposed to act like that.Finally, she found the door she was looking for. On it, written in big letters, were the words, maintenance tunnel 12G. She leaped over to it and, making sure she was alone in the corridor, she opened it up and stepped inside.She found herself in a dimly lit tunnel. Various pipes and machines lined the walls as far as the eye could see. And looking down the tunnel, it looked like it went on forever.She trotted through the tunnel, ducking under or stepping over the occasional low hanging object, looking for anything that had to do with the tractor beam. Fortunately, all of the machines and pipes and wires were nicely labeled in big bold letters, like she was in the sixty's version of the Batcave.After searching for several minutes, she finally found a big, bulky, cylindrical machine the size of a train engine, jutting out of the wall of the tunnel. Coming from the machine was a low mechanical hum. On it was a sign that read 'Tractor Beam Generator'."Okay," said Lightning Dust to herself. "Now how do I 'disable' this thing?" After a few seconds of thinking, she decided the best thing to do was just start destroying as much as she possibly good.She began pulling all the wires and tubes that she could, lighting up the tunnel with magical/electrical sparks. She turned around and started bucking a large pipeline that was connected to the machine. After a few good bucks, the pipe broke off of the machine, sending a burst of gases into the air out of the pipe.The low hum coming from the machine suddenly quieted to a weak whine, and then ended all together.Lightning soon began to enjoy herself as she continued to break the machine."This is fun!" she grunted as she bucked a large metal panel off of the machine, exposing the machines innards. She then reached inside and began pulling whatever wires she saw in there.Wow. Security here sucks, she thought to herself, surprised that she had been able to just walk in to this place and start breaking stuff with out any guards trying to stop her.Unfortunately, she didn't realize just how much noise she was making."HEY, YOU THERE! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"Lightning Dust cringed when she heard that sudden shout and turned her head in the direction it had come from. She saw two royal unicorn guards standing a short ways down the tunnel the direction she had come in, both of them illuminated by the blue and golden light coming from the glows around their horns. They didn't look happy.Darn it, Lightning Dust thought to herself nervously. The guards began approaching her.Lightning Dust leaped into the air and flared her wings. She flew over the two surprised guards heads and sped down the tunnel back the way she had came.As she flew, she saw a couple blue and yellow flashes of light bounce off the walls and some of the machinery around her. Glancing behind her, she could see the two guards firing magic blasts at her from their horns. However, after a few more seconds, she was soon too far away from them to possibly hit her.She looked ahead of her and saw the light of the open door out of the maintenance tunnel.Crap, I had left that open, didn't I? she thought to herself, realizing that had probably helped get the attention of the guards who had found her, in addition to the noise she had been making. Lightning Dust curses herself for being so reckless again.She flew out the door into the bright corridor, and proceeded to fly down it as fast as she could back towards the hangar where she was too meet Blueblood and Dumbbell. She didn't care if guards saw her now. With the tractor beam generator successfully damaged, all that mattered was getting the heck out of this place before the guards had a chance to fix it.As she was flying, suddenly the loud whine of an alarm started blaring all throughout the corridor. It didn't take a genius to realize that those two guards she had just gotten away from must have set it off because of her.Then she heard a voice on an intercom start speaking over the sound of the alarm. "Intruder alert! All guards to maintenance tunnel twelve G on deck seventy two! This is not a drill!"Great. Now this whole place knows about me, Lightning thought to herself. I hope Blueblood and Dumbbell are having better luck then me....................Back in the elevator, Blueblood and Dumbbell heard the alarm blaring."What's that?" asked Dumbbell, glancing around him nervously."I don't know," said Blueblood, however he figured it couldn't be good. "Maybe they found out the princess is missing! We better hurry!"Dumbbell nodded.When the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened up, the two stallions poked their heads out and looked both ways. After seeing the corridor was clear, they came out and started galloping down the corridor as fast as they could, which wasn't easy for Dumbbell with Princess Luna draped over his back.As they got further down the corridor, they could hear a commotion up ahead of them."You hear that?" Dumbbell said.Blueblood gave him a quick nod as they hurried. They were almost to the hangar bay where their ship was. If he remembered correctly, it was just up ahead of them around the next corner they were about to turn.As they rounded the corner, up ahead of them in the corridor, they saw a sight that made their hearts sink. Lightning Dust was caught between two groups of guards, blocking her path to the doorway to the hangar. She was flying in the air, trying to dodge the spells being cast at her by the unicorn guards. Blueblood and Dumbbell watched helplessly as Lightning Dust made an attempt to fly over the guards in front of her. Suddenly, Lightning Dust's eyes met both Blueblood's and Dumbbell's. They could see actual panic written on her face as she tried to get past the guards. A second later, they saw Lightning Dust get hit in the back with one of the unicorn guards' spells. A brief expression of shock flashed across Lightning Dust's face before she went limp and fell out of the air, falling to the metal floor beneath her with a thud. It had apparently been a stun spell because she was now lying unconscious."LIGHTNING!" Dumbbell shouted on impulse, but realized his mistake the second after he made it.All the guards turned their heads to look at them.Dumbbell cursed himself as he and Blueblood froze on the spot."Hey, isn't that Princess Luna?" said one of the guards."It is! Hey, those two aren't guards!""Crap!" Dumbbell cursed."Wait to go," Blueblood said angrily to Dumbbell. The guards began making a move towards them. Blueblood, panicking for a way out, noticed the doorway into the hangar bay a few meters on their left."Lets get out of here!" Blueblood shouted, pushing Dumbbell with his head to start running into the hangar bay where their ship was. Blueblood hated the fact that they were leaving Lightning Dust, but they didn't have any choice. The guards knew who they were now, and there was absolutely no way they could get to Lightning Dust without the guards capturing them as well, and then their whole plan would be ruined and they would all be put in prison.The unicorn guards began casting spells at Blueblood and Dumbbell as the two ran into the hangar, which much to their surprise was deserted of any guards. They guessed it was empty because all the guards had left it to go into the corridors to search for Lightning Dust. She must have put up quite a fight for them to need all of the guards to capture her.They began running towards their ship, which was still right where it had been. All the while, ducking down to avoid getting hit by the spells the guards were hurling at them.They miraculously made it to the house ship and leap inside the open doorway, slamming the twin doors shut behind them and locking them."That was a close one!" breathed Dumbbell, now that they were out of the line of fire.Blueblood nodded as he caught his breath. He could practically hear his own heart beating in his chest.At that moment they both jumped as they heard the guards outside starting to slam against the front doors, trying to bust them open. They both looked at each other, knowing they didn't have a lot of time."Lets get to the bridge and start the ship, NOW!" urged Blueblood.Dumbbell nodded and they hurried from the foyer into the living room."What about everyone else?" said Dumbbell as they ran into the bridge, referring to the others who were probably still hiding in the closet upstairs."NO TIME!" Blueblood said, as he could still hear the guards pounding on the front door. He went to a computer station and began pressed the buttons he remembered would activate the force field around the ship. "We have to take off now. I sure hope Lightning Dust was able to stop the tractor beam."Dumbbell let Princess Luna slip off of his back onto the floor and then sat down in the pilot seat.They both heard a loud magical zap outside the ship as Blueblood successfully got the force field bubble up around the ship."That should hold them for a bit," said Blueblood, looking over at Dumbbell. "Get us out of here!""Firing thrusters!" said Dumbbell as he worked the pilot controls. "We're taking off!"They heard the sound of the rocket thrusters firing outside. The ship shook and rattled as it lifted up off the floor of the hangar bay.At that moment, Trixie, Hoops, Score, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Gilda, Sunset, Flim, Flam, Surprise, and Iron Will came running onto the bridge."What's going on?" asked Trixie."We're taking off!" said Dumbbell."So it worked?" said Iron Will, sounding hopeful."...Not... exactly," said Blueblood, looking and sounding ashamed. That was when he noticed Iron Will in the room with them. "WAIT, IRON WILL?!" Blueblood shouted in shock, surprised to see the minotaur with them, knowing full well that they had left him back on Earth. "WHAT... WHEN... HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!""What do you mean?" said the minotaur, sounding confused. "I've been here the whole time."Blueblood continued to stare at him incredulously. "What!? No you haven't!"Then Trixie spoke up. "Another anomaly opened up while you guys were gone. And now he's here, and he thinks he's been with us this whole time.""Oh," said Blueblood, deciding not to question it. He walked over to his command chair and sat down in it.Outside the ship, they could hear little booms as the guards fired spells at the force field protecting their ship. "Oh my...!" said Upper Crust, pointing at Princess Luna lying on the floor. "Is that Princess Luna? What the heck is Princess Luna doing here?" "That's a long story," said Blueblood. "Lets just get out of here!"Dumbbell worked the controls and on the view screen they watched as the ship turned around in the air so that they were facing the exit. Dumbbell pushed forward on the controls, and they flew out of the hangar bay out into space. They began flying away from the space station. "Where is Lightning Dust?" Gilda asked suddenly, looking around for her friend.Blueblood and Dumbbell both gulped in shame and sadness and looked at each other. They both knew this wasn't going to be easy, but they had to tell them all sooner or later."She... she got captured," said Blueblood, turning back to Gilda.Gilda's eyes widened in shock and horror. "WHAT!?" the griffon exclaimed."We split up," continued Blueblood, looking down at the floor in sadness. "She got caught by the guards. There was nothing we could do.""YOU LEFT HER BEHIND!!!" Gilda yelled angrily, flapping her wings and leaping over to Blueblood, landing right in front of him and getting right in his face, gritting her fangs in rage."There was nothing we could do!" Blueblood whimpered, trying to back away from the snarling griffon, but unable to because he was in a chair. "They were shooting at us! If we had tried to save her, they would have caught us as well. And they would have found you all eventually!"Before Gilda could tear into Blueblood, Hoops suddenly spoke up. "Uh, guys! Look!" He was pointing at the view screen.They all looked and gulped in fear at what they saw. On the view screen they could see that giant, odd shaped ship that had attacked them back when they first left Earth. The Ascendency. The ship, they knew, Rarity and Shining Armor, and perhaps even more of the element bearers, were aboard.And to make things even worse, it wasn't alone, either. There were four more ships, just like it, nearby it. On each of their hulls were the words, HMS Destiny, HMS Monarch, HMS Harmony, and HMS Devotion written in large bold letters.All of them were moving towards them, the massive cannon opening on each of the five ships began to glow with white light. They all remembered what that meant from before."They're gonna fire at us!" gulped Jet Set."Hoops! The red button!" shouted Trixie.They all knew what she meant by that. The improbability drive!"Press it?" Hoops asked her.Outside, all five of the enemy ships fired their energy blasts simultaneously."PRESS IT NOW!" Trixie screamed.Hoops slammed his hoof down on the red button. Just like last time, they all felt a strange stretching feeling in their bodies before they, and the ship, all disappeared in blink of an eye, just as the energy beams passed through right where their ship had been......................In another part of space, a giant horseshoe suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and it then began to rapidly transform into a pumpkin, and then a school bus, and then Derpy Hooves' head, and then finally it became the house ship, Defiant, only it was made entirely of legos.On board the Defiant, they were discovering that they themselves were made of legos too."And now we're Legos," said Flim, looking at his lego body."Huh! I have the sudden urge to start singing 'Everything Is Awesome'!" said Hoops.Suddenly, Gilda turned back to Blueblood and punched him in the head. Blueblood shouted in surprise as his lego head was knocked off his body and fell to the floor. But since he was made of legos, his body simply walked to where his head was lying and picked it up and stuck it back on. And just in time too, because a split second later they all felt that stretching feeling again, and then, in the blink of an eye, they and the ship all turned back to their normal selves as normality was restored.Blueblood looked back at Gilda in anger. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?!" he shouted."YOU LEFT LIGHTNING DUST BEHIND!" Gilda shouted back at him. She was about to swing at Blueblood again when she was suddenly Iron Will grabbed her raised arm and pulled her back away from the cowering Blueblood. "LET GO OF ME!" Gilda shouted at the minotaur, trying to pull away from him. But it was useless against Iron Will. He was way stronger than her."Gilda, calm down!" Iron Will snapped at the struggling griffon. "I'm sure the didn't leave her on purpose!""Of course we didn't!" said Dumbbell, getting up from his pilot seat and running over to them. "There was nothing we could do! The guards had her surrounded, and they were after us too!""We're gonna get her back, Gilda," said Iron Will, Gilda still struggling in his grasp. "We're gonna do all we can to rescue her, but we can't help her if we get captured ourselves!"Blueblood nodded. "That's right!" he said, though he was less sure that they even could successfully rescue Lightning Dust, but he had to say something to calm Gilda down for now. "We're going to try to rescue her, of course! I give you my word as a Prince!"Gilda slowly stopped struggling and seemed to calm down. Iron Will let go of her.She looked at Blueblood, her expression still angry. "Your word means jack squat to me," she spat.The room became eerily silent after that.Slowly, Hoops approached Gilda. "Don't worry, Gilda," he said, showing a surprising display of kindness. "We'll rescue Lightning Dust. And besides, I'm sure she'll be okay. I really doubt they'd hurt her or anything."Gilda let out a sigh, but then glared at Hoops. "You don't know that. What if they're torturing her for information or something?".....................When Lightning Dust came to, she didn't know where she was, but she had to squint her eyes as they got used to a bright golden light.As her eyes adjusted, she looked around saw that she was in what looked like a very large, luxury hotel room.On the far side of the room there was a living area, with some elegant sofa's and chairs, a glass coffee table. A marble fireplace in the wall was flickering with a few flaming logs. At the far end of the room, there was an enormous window, with closed curtains, so she couldn't see out. In a corner, there was a fancy wooden desk, covered with various stacks of papers.She became aware that she was lying on something soft and comfortable. She looked down, and saw she was lying on a large, elegant king sized bed, complete with bed curtains that were currently drawn back, and beside it on one side was a night stand with a lamp, and on the other a large wooden wardrobe.The golden light in the room was coming from a crystal chandelier hanging from the sealing illuminated the room."Where the heck am I?" she asked herself in confusion.