{"sf1_id":791809,"sf2_id":null,"title":"To Boldly Hoof It Ch 11. The Princess's Offer","author":"BluebloodFan91","words":4046,"posted_at":"2014-12-04T19:14:00.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Blueblood","Celestia","Character Development","Clean","Doctor Whooves","Equine","Fantasy","Flam","Flim","Friendship is magic","Griffin","Gryphon","Hoops","Horse","Humor","Iron Will","Jet Set","Lightning Dust","MLP","Mare","Minotaur","My Little Pony","Pegasus","Plot Development","Pony","Prince Blueblood","Princess Celestia","Princess Luna","Sci-Fi","Stallion","Story Progression","Story Series","Sunset shimmer","To Boldly Flee","Trixie","Unicorn","Upper Crust","alicorn","dumbbell","gilda","luna","parody","score","space","surprise"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791809-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-11-the-princess-s-offer","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/791809","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=791809\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"Ch 11. The Princess's Offer\n\n\nEverything started to come back to Lightning Dust\nwhile she sat up on the bed in the unknown fancy, looking around at her\nsurroundings. She had been on a space station trying to shut down the\ntractor beam so she and her friends could escape, but she had gotten\ncaught by royal guards, and then she had blacked out.I have to get out of here, she thought to herself.Looking\naround, she saw a door on her right and leaped off the bed, gliding\nthrough the air on her wings over to it. She landed in front of the door\nand grabbed the knob in her hooves. She tried to open it, but found it\nwas locked.She began banging on the door with her hooves. \"HEY! LET ME OUT OF HERE!\" she shouted angrily.No\none answered her cries, however. She turned around and started bucking\nagainst the door with her hind legs, but the door must have been\nenchanted or something because it held fast against her bucks.After\na minute, she finally gave up and looked around the room. She spotted\nthe closed curtains on the far end of the large room next to a set of\nfancy couches and chairs.A window! Perfect!She\nflapped her wings and flew into the air over to the curtains. Upon\nlanding, she reached up and pulled the curtains aside with her hooves,\nbut then her smile quickly fell into a frown of helplessness when she\nsaw what was behind them. She had indeed found a window, but on the\nother 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,\nshe heard the sound of a doorknob behind her. She turned her head to\nlook behind her, just as the door to the room opened up. Lightning Dust\ngasped when she saw who was standing there in the doorway.It\nwas the great white alicorn, Princess Celestia, herself; her ethereal\nmane and tail flowing magically out behind her like they were in some\nsort of nonexistent breeze.Lightning\nDust, after getting over her initial shock of being in the presence of\nthe Princess of the sun, remembered the dire situation she was in and\ndecided to act on this chance. She flared her wings and leaped into the\nair towards the open door.Lightning Dust\nonly just noticed a golden yellow glow around the large alicorn's horn\nwhen she suddenly found herself frozen in mid air.\"HEY!\nWHAT THE...?\" Sunset tried to squirm in the air, but found she couldn't\nmove her body. Moving her eyes to look at her body, she saw she was\nglowing with the same color glow that Princess Celestia's horn was.Celestia\nspoke. \"Exactly what was your plan after you got out of this room?\nWhere would you have gone then? We're in space, remember?\"Lightning\nDust grumbled angrily to herself. She figured she would have tried to\nfind her friends. But then it occurred to her that she didn't know what\nhad happened to her friends. She looked at Celestia. \"Where are my\nfriends?\" she demanded.\"Your friends managed to get away... with my sister!\" Celestia said that second part with anger in her voice.Lightning\nDust's initial reaction to this information was anger that her so\ncalled 'friends' would leave her behind. But then she couldn't help but\nconsider the possibility that they hadn't had any choice. She\nremembered, before she had blacked out, she had seen Prince Blueblood\nand Dumbbell in the corridor ahead of her with an unconscious royal\nguard on Dumbbell's back who looked an awful lot like Princess Luna. She\nhad been surrounded by guards at the moment, and escaping, as it was,\nwas already going to be super risky for them. So maybe there had been\nnothing they could have done at the moment to help her, so they had been\nforced 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\nlooked back at Celestia angrily. \"Why am I here?\" she demanded, still\ntrying to get out of the magical hold Celestia had her in.Celestia's\nexpression softened. \"You don't need to be afraid. All I want to do is\ntalk with you.\" She walked into the room, revealing two royal pegasus\nguards standing behind her in the doorway at attention. Celestia tuned\nher head to look back at the two guards. \"Leave us,\" she said to them\nwith a reassuring smile.The two guards\nbowed their heads and then stepped back out of the room, closing the\ndoor behind them. Lightning Dust then heard a locking sound coming from\nit.Celestia turned her head back to\nLightning Dust. \"I can release you from my magic if you promise to\nbehave yourself,\" she said in her usual sweet, motherly voice. \"Would\nyou like that?\"Lightning Dust didn't want\nto give Celestia the satisfaction. However, she also didn't want to be\nstuck in the Princess's magic anymore. Reluctantly, she grumbled an\nangry \"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\nsmiled sweetly and gently lowered Lightning Dust to the floor, and then\nreleased her from her magic. Lightning Dust, now able to move her body\nagain, stood to face the princess, glaring at her angrily.Celestia's\ngentle expression didn't change as she spoke to Lightning Dust again.\n\"Would you like to sit down, Lightning Dust?\" she gestured over to the\nchairs near the window with her hoof.\"I'd rather stand,\" Lightning Dust responded stubbornly.Celestia\nclosed her eyes. \"Very well,\" she said. She then walked past Lightning\nDust over to a sofa next to the window. She sat down on the sofa and\nturned back to face Lightning Dust. \"Ah, that's much better. I've been\non my hooves all day, working on completing this space station. Its nice\nto get a chance to rest for a moment.\"Lightning\nDust continued to glare at Celestia. If the Princess was trying to loll\nher into a false sense of security with chitchat, it wasn't going to\nwork.Celestia continued. \"I haven't seen\nyou since I awarded you and your friends metals for saving the world\nfrom King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis.\"\"No\noffense, your highness,\" began Lightning Dust, \"but I'm not in the mood\nfor chitchat! I want to know what the heck this is all about! Why are\nyou locking up ponies who know about the plot hole? Why don't you want\nto stop the plot hole? It's going to destroy the universe! Why do you\nhave 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\ngood reason?!\" laughed Lightning Dust. \"Ha! How is locking up ponies\njust for knowing about a hole in space, and letting the universe be\ndestroyed, 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\nme explain,\" said Celestia. \"The plot hole is giving off massive\namounts of powerful temporal energy. I require that energy for something\nextremely important. So I built this space station to absorb the excess\ntemporal energy coming from the plot hole.\"Lightning\nDust raised her eyebrow at that. She hadn't been expecting anything so...\nsci-fi. Then again, she wasn't sure what she had been expecting. \"And\nwhat exactly do you need that energy for?\" she asked, curious.Celestia's\nsmile got bigger. \"For centuries, I have been trying to make this world\na better place for everyone. A paradise, where every creature, not just\nponies, can live together in peace and harmony and happiness. And now, I\nam about to see my dream come to fruition. I need the massive amounts\nof energy coming from the plot hole to power a special spell I've been\npreparing for a long time now, that will turn Equestria, and the rest of\nthe world with it, into a paradise! Only with the energy coming from\nthe plot hole will the spell be strong enough to effect the entire\nworld.\"Lightning Dust's eyes widened in\nsurprise. \"That's what this is all about?\" she asked. That didn't sound\ntoo bad. However, that still left some other questions. \"But if that's\nall you want, then why are you keeping all this a secret? And why are\nyou locking up anypony who finds out about the plot hole?\"Celestia\ntook a slightly more serious tone. \"If knowledge of the plot hole got\nout, there would be panic among ponies! And when ponies panic, injuries\ncan occur. I simply don't want to cause a panic. Also, unfortunately,\nthere are some out there, like the dragons, and the diamond dogs, and\nthe changelings, who just wouldn't understand the good that I'm trying\nto do. They would see it as a threat to them, or completely despise the\nthought of change, and might try to stop me, even though all I'm trying\nto do is help them. All I want is too see everyone able to live good,\nhappy 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\nthen what does Princess Luna have to do with all this?\" Lightning\nasked. \"For some reason, she has Starswirl the Bearded and the plot hole\non the mind, and she was saying...\" she tried to remember what Blueblood\nhad told them Princess Luna had said to him when she had broken into his\nhouse, \"... that you weren't supposed to find out about something.\"Celestia's\nsmile faltered for a moment as her eyes widened, and Lightning Dust\ncould have sworn the big white alicorn looked worried for a second,\nbefore Celestia's calm demeanor returned, and a sad frown appeared on\nher face and she closed her eyes.\"My\nsister... is very ill. Her mind is... slipping, I'm afraid. She's suffering\nfrom hallucinations, and paranoia!\" She looked at Lightning Dust, tears\nwelling up in her eyes. \"I just want my little sister back. She needs my\ncare, and I've already lost her for a thousand years, and I only just\ngot her back. I don't want to lose her again!\"Lightning\nDust narrowed her eyes at Celestia suspiciously. That explanation\nsounded extremely fishy. This was the first time she was ever hearing\nabout Luna having any illness. She supposed it wasn't something Celestia\nwouldn't want to just go around telling everypony, but it was still\nvery unlikely.However, Lightning Dust\nfelt awkward standing before the big weeping alicorn princess, so she\ndecided to try changing the subject. \"Well, okay,\" she said. \"But what\ndid you want to talk to me about? Why was I lying on that bed in this\nroom instead of in a cell?\"Celestia\nsniffed and wiped her eyes with her hoof. Then she looked back at\nLightning Dust. \"For two reasons,\" she said. \"One, I wanted to show you\nthat you can trust me. And two, I require your help.\"\"My\nhelp?\" Lightning Dust was surprised, and also a tiny bit honored, that\nPrincess Celestia herself wanted her help with something.Celestia\nnodded. \"Yes. I want you to help me get my sister back, tell me\neverything you know about where your friends might have taken her and\nwhat your ship is capable of, as well as help me complete my task of\ncreating a perfect world for everypony to live in. Since you have used\nthe Elements of Harmony in the past when you and your friends saved\nEquestria from Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, that makes you an\nhonorary Element Bearer.\"\"Hey, I guess it does,\" Lightning Dust said, holding her head up proudly.\"Then can I rely on your help?\"Lightning\nDust flapped her wings and hovered up into the air several feet so that\nshe was above Princess Celestia. She crossed her forelegs and looked\ndown at Celestia, considering. She was still suspicious of the princess.\nShe still wasn't entirety sure she believed Celestia's story. \"I don't\nknow. I still don't know if I can trust you.\"Celestia\nlet out a sigh. \"I'm glad you're trying to do what you think is right,\nbut I'm not your enemy, Lightning Dust. I'm your Princess. All I want,\nall I've ever wanted, is to help all my little ponies to live good,\nhappy lives. If you're worried that you'll be betraying your friends,\ndon't be. Don't think of it as betraying them, because you wont be.\nYou're saving them from themselves. They're just confused. They don't\nunderstand how wrong what their doing is, or why its wrong. By helping\nme, 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\ncontinued. \"My dearest friend, and the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow\nDash, also had the same dream. If you'd like, I could help you.\"That\ngot Lightning Dust's attention. The Pegasus uncrossed her forelegs and\nturned to fully face Celestia, her eyes wide with interest. \"WHAT?!\" she\nasked.Princess Celestia's smile got\nbigger; glad to see she now had the pegasus mare's full attention. \"I\ncould pull some strings that would help you out in becoming a\nWonderbolt.\"\"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\nout so much. Like I said before, all I want is to see all my little\nponies be happy, including you, Lightning Dust. Help me, and I won't let\nyour good deed go unrewarded. What do you say? Will you except my\nfriendship?\"Lightning Dust dropped down\nto the floor as she thought hard to herself. She really wanted to be a\nWonderbolt! She wanted it more than anything else in the world! But\ncould she truly trust Celestia?\"What happens if I refuse?\" she asked the princess. \"Do I get pushed out an airlock or something?\"Celestia's\neyes widened in shock. \"Of course not! I would never do such a thing to\nanypony! If you decline my offer, that will be fine. You will be taken\nto a holding room and will have to wait until after my mission is\ncomplete to be released, along with the rest of the ponies who are being\nheld for the time being. I assure you, you will not be harmed in any\nway, 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\nand Lightning Dust both turned their heads at the sudden male voice in\nthe room. Over near the fireplace, a brown earth pony stallion was\nstanding, looking at them with an unreadable expression.Lightning Dust recognized him immediately. It was Doctor Whooves!........................\"Blueblood! Wake up!\"Blueblood\nopened his eyes to see Iron Will leaning over him with his hand shaking\nhis 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\nWill spoke again. \"Trixie and Sun- I mean, Winry, are in the rec room.\nThey 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\nthey had used the improbability drive to escape from being destroyed by\nCelestia's ships, Flim and Flam had told them they had been sent only\none light-year away this time.Also, they\nhad inadvertently brought along three extra passengers when they had\nescaped the space station. The three guards they had knocked out and\nstolen their armor. No sure what to do with them, they had left them\ntied up and locked them in a spare bedroom.Since\none of the guards had been a unicorn, Trixie had placed an anti-magic\nseal spell on the room she had learned to make no magic able to be used\nin the room. It was the same kind of seal spell used in pony prisons for\nunicorn prisoners.Inside the rec room,\nthe whole crew had gathered. The pool table had been moved against a\nwall and a magic circle had been drawn on the floor in the middle of the\nroom. And Princess Luna was lying inside of it.Blueblood\nnoticed Gilda glare at him with an angry expression on her face when he\nentered the room. She was obviously still upset about what had happened\nwith Lightning Dust.Blueblood looked\nover at Trixie and Sunset, who were standing on the other side of\ncircle, opposite where the rest of them were standing.\"Okay, so what do you two have here?\" Blueblood asked Trixie and Sunset.Trixie\nspoke. \"Okay, Trixie knows this is going to sound strange, but Trixie\nand Su... Winry have both had very similar dreams, showing part of this\nmagic circle, and half of a list of instructions. When we drew our\ndreams down on paper, and put the drawings on top of each other...\" She\nlevitated out two pieces of paper, taped together, and then lit up her\nhorn so that the light shown through the two papers, showing the two\ndrawings overlapping on top of each other to create a whole. \"...The two\nhalves created a whole spell.\"\"Wait! You got this from your dreams?\" said Jet Set, looking skeptic.\"We\nboth had half of the same dream!\" said Trixie. \"How many times have you\never heard of something like that happening? This cannot just be a\ncoincidence! Its like this was sent to us from... somewhere!\" Trixie\nlooked 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\nwhat Trixie can tell, it seems to be a spell that can let you go inside\nanother pony's dream or mind. So since you say Princess Luna knows\nsomething that we need to know, and she's currently in a coma, Trixie\nfigures we can use this spell to go into her head and look for the\nanswer ourselves.\"\"Hey, that sounds like a great idea!\" said Flim.\"I\nalso invented these!\" said Sunset suddenly, levitating up a very large,\nodd looking gun from off the floor. \"I call it a rail gun! It fires\nelectrified 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\njaw dropped what Trixie had just said. \"YOU WENT INSIDE MY HEAD WHILE I\nWAS ASLEEP!\" he exclaimed, shocked. He felt violated, even if it was by\nhis 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\nlooked at him, \"What,\" he said, snapping out of his thoughts about\nTrixie going in his head. \"Oh, right. Yes. I say we do it. If Luna knows\nsomething important that we need to know, this sounds like the best way\nto 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\nwas then that Blueblood suddenly noticed they were missing a couple of\nponies 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,\nI'm not going to wait for Upper Crust to finish being sick,\" said\nBlueblood 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\ngoing in? Shouldn't at least one of us stay out to look after things,\nin case something happens, and to let Upper Crust know what's going on\nwhen 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?\"\nTrixie asked in an annoyed voice. They all nodded to her, and she\nproceeded to start the spell. Trixie closed her eyes and her horn lit up\nwith purple light. The circle on the floor then also began to glow with\nthe same purple light.\"How do we know when its wor...\" Blueblood didn't finish his question when he suddenly blacked out......................The\nnext thing Blueblood knew, he, and the rest of the group, were all\nstanding in a dimly lit, and new location. Looking around them, they\nstood in utter aw at their surroundings.They\nappeared to be in some sort of labyrinth dungeon, with stone lain\npassageways and staircases and doors all around them as far as the eye\ncould see, going off in all sorts of different directions, some of which\ndidn't even make any sense. They could see doors and staircases that\nwere sideways from where they were, or upside down all together. It was\nlike 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,\nthis is more like a visual representation of her mind,\" said Trixie.\n\"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\nfelt overwhelmed by all that he was seeing. The passageways in this\nlabyrinth of Princess Luna's mind looked like they went on forever. \"How\nthe blazes are we ever going to find what we're looking for in here?\"Trixie\nshrugged. \"Trixie guesses we should just start looking. Everypony stick\ntogether, though. It looks like it would be very easy to get lost in\nthis place, and only Trixie knows the spell to get us out of here.\".....................Surprise\nlooked at the unconscious bodies of the others lying on the floor. From\nhow they had all just collapsed when Trixie had activated the spell,\nshe guessed it had worked.She smiled to\nherself evilly. \"They're all unconscious. I couldn't ask for a better\nopportunity now. Its time for me to finally get my revenge!\" ","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791808-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-10-escape.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791814-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-12-the-truth.json"}