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Ch 11. The Princess's Offer

Everything started to come back to Lightning Dust while she sat up on the bed in the unknown fancy, looking around at her surroundings. She had been on a space station trying to shut down the tractor beam so she and her friends could escape, but she had gotten caught by royal guards, and then she had blacked out.I have to get out of here, she thought to herself.Looking around, she saw a door on her right and leaped off the bed, gliding through the air on her wings over to it. She landed in front of the door and grabbed the knob in her hooves. She tried to open it, but found it was locked.She began banging on the door with her hooves. "HEY! LET ME OUT OF HERE!" she shouted angrily.No one answered her cries, however. She turned around and started bucking against the door with her hind legs, but the door must have been enchanted or something because it held fast against her bucks.After a minute, she finally gave up and looked around the room. She spotted the closed curtains on the far end of the large room next to a set of fancy couches and chairs.A window! Perfect!She flapped her wings and flew into the air over to the curtains. Upon landing, she reached up and pulled the curtains aside with her hooves, but then her smile quickly fell into a frown of helplessness when she saw what was behind them. She had indeed found a window, but on the other side of it was the vast vacuum of space!Darn it! I must still be on the space station! she thought to herself.Lightning Dust slowly backed away from the window, her mind reeling as she tried to figure out a way out of this situation.Suddenly, she heard the sound of a doorknob behind her. She turned her head to look behind her, just as the door to the room opened up. Lightning Dust gasped when she saw who was standing there in the doorway.It was the great white alicorn, Princess Celestia, herself; her ethereal mane and tail flowing magically out behind her like they were in some sort of nonexistent breeze.Lightning Dust, after getting over her initial shock of being in the presence of the Princess of the sun, remembered the dire situation she was in and decided to act on this chance. She flared her wings and leaped into the air towards the open door.Lightning Dust only just noticed a golden yellow glow around the large alicorn's horn when she suddenly found herself frozen in mid air."HEY! WHAT THE...?" Sunset tried to squirm in the air, but found she couldn't move her body. Moving her eyes to look at her body, she saw she was glowing with the same color glow that Princess Celestia's horn was.Celestia spoke. "Exactly what was your plan after you got out of this room? Where would you have gone then? We're in space, remember?"Lightning Dust grumbled angrily to herself. She figured she would have tried to find her friends. But then it occurred to her that she didn't know what had happened to her friends. She looked at Celestia. "Where are my friends?" she demanded."Your friends managed to get away... with my sister!" Celestia said that second part with anger in her voice.Lightning Dust's initial reaction to this information was anger that her so called 'friends' would leave her behind. But then she couldn't help but consider the possibility that they hadn't had any choice. She remembered, before she had blacked out, she had seen Prince Blueblood and Dumbbell in the corridor ahead of her with an unconscious royal guard on Dumbbell's back who looked an awful lot like Princess Luna. She had been surrounded by guards at the moment, and escaping, as it was, was already going to be super risky for them. So maybe there had been nothing they could have done at the moment to help her, so they had been forced to retreat. After all, its what she would have done, wasn't it? What she didn't know was if they would come back to rescue her soon. They'd better, or I'm gonna invent a whole new kind of pain for them! she thought to herself bitterly.She looked back at Celestia angrily. "Why am I here?" she demanded, still trying to get out of the magical hold Celestia had her in.Celestia's expression softened. "You don't need to be afraid. All I want to do is talk with you." She walked into the room, revealing two royal pegasus guards standing behind her in the doorway at attention. Celestia tuned her head to look back at the two guards. "Leave us," she said to them with a reassuring smile.The two guards bowed their heads and then stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind them. Lightning Dust then heard a locking sound coming from it.Celestia turned her head back to Lightning Dust. "I can release you from my magic if you promise to behave yourself," she said in her usual sweet, motherly voice. "Would you like that?"Lightning Dust didn't want to give Celestia the satisfaction. However, she also didn't want to be stuck in the Princess's magic anymore. Reluctantly, she grumbled an angry "Fine. I promise," under her breath."What was that?" Celestia asked her, leaning an ear in towards her. "Well?""I promise!" Lightning Dust growled louder.Celestia smiled sweetly and gently lowered Lightning Dust to the floor, and then released her from her magic. Lightning Dust, now able to move her body again, stood to face the princess, glaring at her angrily.Celestia's gentle expression didn't change as she spoke to Lightning Dust again. "Would you like to sit down, Lightning Dust?" she gestured over to the chairs near the window with her hoof."I'd rather stand," Lightning Dust responded stubbornly.Celestia closed her eyes. "Very well," she said. She then walked past Lightning Dust over to a sofa next to the window. She sat down on the sofa and turned back to face Lightning Dust. "Ah, that's much better. I've been on my hooves all day, working on completing this space station. Its nice to get a chance to rest for a moment."Lightning Dust continued to glare at Celestia. If the Princess was trying to loll her into a false sense of security with chitchat, it wasn't going to work.Celestia continued. "I haven't seen you since I awarded you and your friends metals for saving the world from King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis.""No offense, your highness," began Lightning Dust, "but I'm not in the mood for chitchat! I want to know what the heck this is all about! Why are you locking up ponies who know about the plot hole? Why don't you want to stop the plot hole? It's going to destroy the universe! Why do you have space ships and a space station shaped like a giant bucking heart?"Celestia's smile remained. "All your questions will be answered. I assure you, everything I'm doing is for a good reason.""A good reason?!" laughed Lightning Dust. "Ha! How is locking up ponies just for knowing about a hole in space, and letting the universe be destroyed, good?""I promise, I won't let the universe be destroyed. The plot hole will be taken care of, but for now, I need it to remain open.""What the heck for?" asked Lightning Dust. "What could you possibly want to keep the plot hole around for?""Let me explain," said Celestia. "The plot hole is giving off massive amounts of powerful temporal energy. I require that energy for something extremely important. So I built this space station to absorb the excess temporal energy coming from the plot hole."Lightning Dust raised her eyebrow at that. She hadn't been expecting anything so... sci-fi. Then again, she wasn't sure what she had been expecting. "And what exactly do you need that energy for?" she asked, curious.Celestia's smile got bigger. "For centuries, I have been trying to make this world a better place for everyone. A paradise, where every creature, not just ponies, can live together in peace and harmony and happiness. And now, I am about to see my dream come to fruition. I need the massive amounts of energy coming from the plot hole to power a special spell I've been preparing for a long time now, that will turn Equestria, and the rest of the world with it, into a paradise! Only with the energy coming from the plot hole will the spell be strong enough to effect the entire world."Lightning Dust's eyes widened in surprise. "That's what this is all about?" she asked. That didn't sound too bad. However, that still left some other questions. "But if that's all you want, then why are you keeping all this a secret? And why are you locking up anypony who finds out about the plot hole?"Celestia took a slightly more serious tone. "If knowledge of the plot hole got out, there would be panic among ponies! And when ponies panic, injuries can occur. I simply don't want to cause a panic. Also, unfortunately, there are some out there, like the dragons, and the diamond dogs, and the changelings, who just wouldn't understand the good that I'm trying to do. They would see it as a threat to them, or completely despise the thought of change, and might try to stop me, even though all I'm trying to do is help them. All I want is too see everyone able to live good, happy lives, and get along with each other, and love each other."Even though what the princess just said kind of made her want to puke, Lightning Dust had to admit the explanation did make sense. But there was still one more thing that didn't add up."But then what does Princess Luna have to do with all this?" Lightning asked. "For some reason, she has Starswirl the Bearded and the plot hole on the mind, and she was saying..." she tried to remember what Blueblood had told them Princess Luna had said to him when she had broken into his house, "... that you weren't supposed to find out about something."Celestia's smile faltered for a moment as her eyes widened, and Lightning Dust could have sworn the big white alicorn looked worried for a second, before Celestia's calm demeanor returned, and a sad frown appeared on her face and she closed her eyes."My sister... is very ill. Her mind is... slipping, I'm afraid. She's suffering from hallucinations, and paranoia!" She looked at Lightning Dust, tears welling up in her eyes. "I just want my little sister back. She needs my care, and I've already lost her for a thousand years, and I only just got her back. I don't want to lose her again!"Lightning Dust narrowed her eyes at Celestia suspiciously. That explanation sounded extremely fishy. This was the first time she was ever hearing about Luna having any illness. She supposed it wasn't something Celestia wouldn't want to just go around telling everypony, but it was still very unlikely.However, Lightning Dust felt awkward standing before the big weeping alicorn princess, so she decided to try changing the subject. "Well, okay," she said. "But what did you want to talk to me about? Why was I lying on that bed in this room instead of in a cell?"Celestia sniffed and wiped her eyes with her hoof. Then she looked back at Lightning Dust. "For two reasons," she said. "One, I wanted to show you that you can trust me. And two, I require your help.""My help?" Lightning Dust was surprised, and also a tiny bit honored, that Princess Celestia herself wanted her help with something.Celestia nodded. "Yes. I want you to help me get my sister back, tell me everything you know about where your friends might have taken her and what your ship is capable of, as well as help me complete my task of creating a perfect world for everypony to live in. Since you have used the Elements of Harmony in the past when you and your friends saved Equestria from Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, that makes you an honorary Element Bearer.""Hey, I guess it does," Lightning Dust said, holding her head up proudly."Then can I rely on your help?"Lightning Dust flapped her wings and hovered up into the air several feet so that she was above Princess Celestia. She crossed her forelegs and looked down at Celestia, considering. She was still suspicious of the princess. She still wasn't entirety sure she believed Celestia's story. "I don't know. I still don't know if I can trust you."Celestia let out a sigh. "I'm glad you're trying to do what you think is right, but I'm not your enemy, Lightning Dust. I'm your Princess. All I want, all I've ever wanted, is to help all my little ponies to live good, happy lives. If you're worried that you'll be betraying your friends, don't be. Don't think of it as betraying them, because you wont be. You're saving them from themselves. They're just confused. They don't understand how wrong what their doing is, or why its wrong. By helping me, you'll be helping them as well." Lightning still didn't respond. She just kept looking down at Celestia skeptically.Celestia sighed again. Then after a few moments, she looked up at Lightning Dust again, a small smile appearing on her face."Lightning Dust, I've heard you're trying to become a Wonderbolt. Am I correct?"Lightning Dust snorted. Is she trying to use chitchat again? she thought to herself. "Yeah. So?"Celestia continued. "My dearest friend, and the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash, also had the same dream. If you'd like, I could help you."That got Lightning Dust's attention. The Pegasus uncrossed her forelegs and turned to fully face Celestia, her eyes wide with interest. "WHAT?!" she asked.Princess Celestia's smile got bigger; glad to see she now had the pegasus mare's full attention. "I could pull some strings that would help you out in becoming a Wonderbolt.""Y... you can do that?" Lightning Dust asked, still staring at Celestia with her mouth agape."Of course! I do favors like that for the Element Bearers all the time. I help them with their dreams because they help me out so much. Like I said before, all I want is to see all my little ponies be happy, including you, Lightning Dust. Help me, and I won't let your good deed go unrewarded. What do you say? Will you except my friendship?"Lightning Dust dropped down to the floor as she thought hard to herself. She really wanted to be a Wonderbolt! She wanted it more than anything else in the world! But could she truly trust Celestia?"What happens if I refuse?" she asked the princess. "Do I get pushed out an airlock or something?"Celestia's eyes widened in shock. "Of course not! I would never do such a thing to anypony! If you decline my offer, that will be fine. You will be taken to a holding room and will have to wait until after my mission is complete to be released, along with the rest of the ponies who are being held for the time being. I assure you, you will not be harmed in any way, and will be treated with every courtesy."Lightning Dust rapidly thought to herself about what she should do. "I... um...""Oh, I'd think twice before answering, if I were you."Celestia and Lightning Dust both turned their heads at the sudden male voice in the room. Over near the fireplace, a brown earth pony stallion was standing, looking at them with an unreadable expression.Lightning Dust recognized him immediately. It was Doctor Whooves!........................"Blueblood! Wake up!"Blueblood opened his eyes to see Iron Will leaning over him with his hand shaking his shoulder. Blueblood was in his command chair on the bridge.He'd just had that same dream he'd had before, where he was in space, and a voice was telling him to come into the plot hole.Iron Will spoke again. "Trixie and Sun- I mean, Winry, are in the rec room. They want to show us all something they say might help us."Blueblood nodded groggily and got up out of his chair. He followed Iron Will off the bridge, down the hall to the rec room, or billiard room, depending on what you wanted to call it.After they had used the improbability drive to escape from being destroyed by Celestia's ships, Flim and Flam had told them they had been sent only one light-year away this time.Also, they had inadvertently brought along three extra passengers when they had escaped the space station. The three guards they had knocked out and stolen their armor. No sure what to do with them, they had left them tied up and locked them in a spare bedroom.Since one of the guards had been a unicorn, Trixie had placed an anti-magic seal spell on the room she had learned to make no magic able to be used in the room. It was the same kind of seal spell used in pony prisons for unicorn prisoners.Inside the rec room, the whole crew had gathered. The pool table had been moved against a wall and a magic circle had been drawn on the floor in the middle of the room. And Princess Luna was lying inside of it.Blueblood noticed Gilda glare at him with an angry expression on her face when he entered the room. She was obviously still upset about what had happened with Lightning Dust.Blueblood looked over at Trixie and Sunset, who were standing on the other side of circle, opposite where the rest of them were standing."Okay, so what do you two have here?" Blueblood asked Trixie and Sunset.Trixie spoke. "Okay, Trixie knows this is going to sound strange, but Trixie and Su... Winry have both had very similar dreams, showing part of this magic circle, and half of a list of instructions. When we drew our dreams down on paper, and put the drawings on top of each other..." She levitated out two pieces of paper, taped together, and then lit up her horn so that the light shown through the two papers, showing the two drawings overlapping on top of each other to create a whole. "...The two halves created a whole spell.""Wait! You got this from your dreams?" said Jet Set, looking skeptic."We both had half of the same dream!" said Trixie. "How many times have you ever heard of something like that happening? This cannot just be a coincidence! Its like this was sent to us from... somewhere!" Trixie looked off into space for a few seconds before looking back at them.They all considered this for a moment. She did have a point."Okay. Do you know what the spell does?" asked Blueblood."From what Trixie can tell, it seems to be a spell that can let you go inside another pony's dream or mind. So since you say Princess Luna knows something that we need to know, and she's currently in a coma, Trixie figures we can use this spell to go into her head and look for the answer ourselves.""Hey, that sounds like a great idea!" said Flim."I also invented these!" said Sunset suddenly, levitating up a very large, odd looking gun from off the floor. "I call it a rail gun! It fires electrified projectiles at mach 7! Wanna see how it works?""No!" said Blueblood, then he looked back at Trixie. "How do you know this spell will work?""Trixie already tested it," she said. "Trixie went into your head while you were napping just now." Then she smirked. "It was pretty empty in there."Blueblood's jaw dropped what Trixie had just said. "YOU WENT INSIDE MY HEAD WHILE I WAS ASLEEP!" he exclaimed, shocked. He felt violated, even if it was by his own marefriend."Well, don't fall asleep then," chuckled Trixie. "Besides, Trixie needed a way to test the spell.""I feel violated," Blueblood groaned, shifting uncomfortably on his hooves."Oh, get over it, you big baby," said Trixie."Alright, I'm convinced," said Flam. "I say lets try it!""Yeah! What do you say, Blueblood? Luna is your aunt, after all," said Dumbbell.Blueblood looked at him, "What," he said, snapping out of his thoughts about Trixie going in his head. "Oh, right. Yes. I say we do it. If Luna knows something important that we need to know, this sounds like the best way to find it out.""Alright," Trixie said. "Everypony gather around the outside of the circle."They all did as she said and gathered around the circle on the floor.It was then that Blueblood suddenly noticed they were missing a couple of ponies from their group. "Hold on! Where are Upper Crust and Surprise?""Upper Crust said she had to use the bathroom," said Jet Set."Oh," said Blueblood, figuring she had gotten sick again.Jet Set continued. "I don't know where Surprise is-""Here I am!" Surprise said as she suddenly came galloping into the room. "I was... occupied. What have I missed?""Were going into Princess Luna's head with a spell Trixie and Sunset whipped up," said Hoops."I keep telling you, MY NAME IS WINRY!" Sunset shouted angrily."Very well," Surprise said in response to Hoops."Well, I'm not going to wait for Upper Crust to finish being sick," said Blueblood impatiently. "I say lets just proceed without her."Jet Set gave Blueblood a disapproving look, but said nothing."Alright," said Trixie. "Trixie will begin the spell!""Wait!" said Flam suddenly. "Are we all going in? Shouldn't at least one of us stay out to look after things, in case something happens, and to let Upper Crust know what's going on when she stops being sick?""Good thinking," said Flim to his brother."I'll do it," said Surprise. "I'll stay behind while you all go into Luna's head."Blueblood smiled at the pegasus mare. "Oh, thank you, Surprise," he said. "You're so helpful.""I know," said Surprise with a sinister smile on her face as she stepped back away from the magic circle."May we begin now?" Trixie asked in an annoyed voice. They all nodded to her, and she proceeded to start the spell. Trixie closed her eyes and her horn lit up with purple light. The circle on the floor then also began to glow with the same purple light."How do we know when its wor..." Blueblood didn't finish his question when he suddenly blacked out......................The next thing Blueblood knew, he, and the rest of the group, were all standing in a dimly lit, and new location. Looking around them, they stood in utter aw at their surroundings.They appeared to be in some sort of labyrinth dungeon, with stone lain passageways and staircases and doors all around them as far as the eye could see, going off in all sorts of different directions, some of which didn't even make any sense. They could see doors and staircases that were sideways from where they were, or upside down all together. It was like they were in one of those optical allusion staircase paintings."Where the heck are we?" growled Gilda."We're inside Luna's mind," said Trixie."This is what the inside of a pony's mind looks like?" asked Hoops in utter bewilderment."Actually, this is more like a visual representation of her mind," said Trixie. "This way, we can explore it in a way we can comprehend.""This place is enormous!" exclaimed Flim."And it's giving me a headache!" said Jet Set, rubbing his hoof against his forehead."Well, Princess Luna is thousands of years old," said Trixie. "Its no surprise she has a lot of stuff in her head."Blueblood felt overwhelmed by all that he was seeing. The passageways in this labyrinth of Princess Luna's mind looked like they went on forever. "How the blazes are we ever going to find what we're looking for in here?"Trixie shrugged. "Trixie guesses we should just start looking. Everypony stick together, though. It looks like it would be very easy to get lost in this place, and only Trixie knows the spell to get us out of here.".....................Surprise looked at the unconscious bodies of the others lying on the floor. From how they had all just collapsed when Trixie had activated the spell, she guessed it had worked.She smiled to herself evilly. "They're all unconscious. I couldn't ask for a better opportunity now. Its time for me to finally get my revenge!"