To Boldly Hoof It Ch 13. A Dark Alliance
Ch 13. A Dark Alliance
Upper Crust and Surprise stared at each other for several long awkward seconds after Upper Crust had walked into the billiard room where everyone had been gathered, and had found Surprise with a knife in her mouth, about to slit an unconscious Blueblood's throat, as well as finding everyone in the room, except Surprise, lying on the floor unconscious around some magic circle painted on the floor, with Princess Luna lying in the center of it for some reason.Surprise suddenly flapped her wings and leaped into the air at Upper Crust. Upper Crust froze, too terrified and startled to think to move. Just when she thought she was about to get knifed, Surprise suddenly stopped herself in mid air and hovered there staring at Upper Crust with a scrutinizing expression. Upper Crust could hear her heart pounding in her chest while she waited.Surprise then took the knife out of her mouth in between her hooves, let out a sigh, and spoke. "I'm not going to kill you. Not while you're in that condition. But the rest of them have to die!"Upper Crust stared at Surprise with wide eyes. My condition? she thought to herself in confusion. Then she saw Surprise turning back towards her unconscious husband and friends, putting the knife back in her mouth. Upper Crust knew she had to do something about this sudden unexpected insanity."Wait!" she called out to the white pegasus. "What's going on?! Why are you doing this?!" she asked fearfully.Surprise turned back to look at her. For a few seconds, she looked like she was considering something. Then she spat the knife out again back onto her hooves and grinned evilly. "Ah, heck. I suppose there's no point in keeping up this disguise any longer."Upper Crust nearly jumped out of her skin when emerald green flames suddenly appeared around Surprise. The green flames quickly rose up Surprise's body and engulfed her. Then, less then a second later, the green flames disappeared and, where Surprise had just been hovering in the air, there was now a queen changeling, buzzing her insect-like wings to stay aloft in the air.Upper Crust let out a scream, thinking it was Queen Chrysalis, but she quickly could tell that this was not Chrysalis, but yet another changeling queen.This changeling's slit eyes were blood red instead of green, and her mane, tail, and thorax carapace were a deep dark blue color. This queen wasn't as big as Chrysalis either. Where Chrysalis had been about the same size as Princess Celestia, this one was more the size of Princess Luna.Plus, she quickly remembered that Chrysalis was dead, so it couldn't be her. Never the less, it was still a changeling, so she still screamed."NO! Not again!" Upper Crust cried, remembering how Queen Chrysalis had disguised herself as Surprise back when they had been on the quest for the Goblet of Life.The changeling queen's horn lit up with a sickly green glow and then the knife she had been holding in her hoof glowed with the same color as her horn and levitated up into the air beside her."FINALLY, I can use magic again!" the changeling said with relief. She turned towards the others' unconscious bodies and she levitated the knife up above Blueblood, tip pointed down.Upper Crust's knees quaked in fear as she watched helplessly. She had no idea who this changeling was, or why she was trying to kill them, but she knew if she didn't do something, the others would all be killed, including Jet. But she was terrified to face the pitch-black monster all on her own. She just wasn't as brave as the rest of her friends. When she had faced Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra a year before, she had had her husband and all of her friends at her side, as well as the powerful Elements of Harmony. That wasn't the case now. She was all alone! But she knew she still had to do something.Just as the changeling queen was about to bring the knife down, Upper Crust pumped magic into her horn and telepathically engulfed the knife with her own magical glow, pulling it to the side so that it just missed Blueblood and stabbed the carpeted floor instead.The changeling queen spun her head around and glared at her, bearing her fangs and growling angrily. She pulled the knife out of the floor with her magic, but Upper Crust kept holding on to the knife with her own magic, doing her best to pull against the changeling's hold on it.The two of them gritted their teeth in concentration as they continued trying to yank the knife out of the other's magical grip, while the knife kept swirling wildly around in the air as a result of the magical struggle. Upper Crust did her best to make sure the knife didn't accidentally stab any of her friends on the floor, often sending the knife hurling into a wall or the floor instead.Finally, the changeling queen had had enough and yelled angrily as she launched herself at Upper Crust. Upper Crust barely had time to utter a scream before the changeling tackled her, pining her to the floor with her porous black hooves. This broke Upper Crust's concentration and she lost her magical hold on the knife.Upper Crust tried to struggle futilely against the changeling's weight, but then completely froze when she saw the queen levitated the knife over to them and brought it in front of Upper Crust's face, pointing the tip at her. "Just because I won't kill you doesn't mean I can't hurt you!" she said menacingly. "I think I'll cut that pesky horn of yours right off your head!"Upper Crust's eyes widened at that. She realized the queen wasn't bluffing either as the knife then hovered up to where her horn was. "NO!" Upper Crust screamed and began struggling again against the changeling holding her down. A unicorn's horn, and the magic that came with it, were their pride and joy! The thought of loosing that would be like a pegasus loosing their wings and never being able to fly again! "PLEASE! DON'T! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?"Upper Crust's screaming and struggling didn't make a difference. She felt the blade of the knife touch against her horn, and tried to move her head to get it away, but it was no use. She saw the queen grin evilly down at her.Suddenly, they both heard soft moaning and movement behind them. They both looked behind them and saw Upper Crust's friends lying on the floor beginning to move as they started to wake up.The changeling queen frowned in dismay. "Crap!" she whispered under her breath.Upper Crust saw her chance and didn't waist any time. She lit up her horn with magic and began telepathically pushing back against the knife that was being held against her horn. "HELP!!!" she screamed as loud as she could to the others. "HELP ME!!! CHANGELING!!!"The others all looked over in her direction and gaped in horror as soon as they saw the changeling on top of Upper Crust."HOLY SHIT!" shouted Score in alarm as he and the others quickly leaped to their hooves."UPPER CRUST!" Jet Set shouted in concern for his wife as he and the others hurried forward to help her.The changeling queen on top of Upper Crust suddenly leaped off of her. Before she knew what was going on, Upper Crust suddenly felt herself being engulfed in the changeling's magic and being levitated up into the air beside the queen. The knife she had fighting against suddenly moved freely away from her horn, but then circled back down to hover beside her exposed throat."DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" the changeling queen shouted at the others, who all froze in their tracks, "OR SHE GETS IT!"Upper Crust felt the blade of the knife press against her throat. She didn't even risk trying to use her magic to fight back against the knife this time. She knew one wrong move, and she was dead! I thought she said she wasn't going to kill me, she thought to herself, though she was still confused as to why that was.The others, Jet Set, Blueblood, Trixie, Gilda, Iron Will, Flim, Flam, Sunset, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score, all stood where they had halted, looking at each other in dread, trying to figure out what to do."What the devil happened here!?" asked Blueblood. "How did a changeling get here!?""It was Surprise!" Upper Crust whimpered while the knife was held against her neck. "Surprise, all this time, was a changeling in disguise!""Again?" said Gilda in bewilderment. "What is it with Surprise and changelings?"Blueblood looked at the changeling queen who was holding Upper Crust hostage. "Who are you?" he asked. "What do you want?""My name is Entomala," the changeling said after a moment. "Queen Entomala. And I am here to avenge my family, my mother and my hive, who you all slaughtered!"All of them looked at each other in confusion, none of them knowing what this changeling was talking about."What are you talking about?" asked Trixie.Entomala snarled. "You killed my mother Queen Chrysalis! And her entire hive! I never even got to know her! I was still an egg at the time. I want revenge!"They all then realized what Entomala was talking about. When Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra had attacked and taken over Canterlot together a year ago, and they had all managed to unite and use the Elements of Harmony to turn Sombra into a statue, and Chrysalis and all the other changelings into dust, to save Equestria."Oh," said Blueblood awkwardly. "Look, we had no choice! You're mother was taking over the world and hurting innocent ponies! She was going to kill us, much like you were going to kill us just now! We were acting in defense!""AND WHAT ABOUT MY KIND!" snapped Entomala back at him. "We changelings have just as much right to live as you do! It's not our fault we have to feed on others love in order to survive! We have no choice either!"Just then, Trixie got an idea. "Wait! You're right!" she said, causing everyone to look at her. "You're absolutely right! It's NOT your fault. But would you like to know whose fault it is?"Entomala tilted her head as she stared at Trixie. "What do you mean?"Trixie mentally smiled. She remembered what she had just learned about Princess Celestia while she had been inside Princess Luna's memories. "Its Princess Celestia's fault!"The others all grinned at Trixie, understanding her plan.Entomala narrowed her eyes at Trixie in confusion. "What are you talking about?"Hanging in the air beside her, Upper Crust looked just as confused as the changeling queen did."If you want, we can show you," said Trixie, keeping a calm, soft voice to try to get the changeling to calm down. "It's what we found out inside Princess Luna's mind. Just let her go..." she gestured at Upper Crust, who was still being held in the air by Entomala with the knife held to her throat, "and we'll show you. What do you say?"Entomala thought for a moment. They could tell she was curious. "What if I go in the Princess's mind, and then one of you kills my unconscious body?" she asked."We'll all go in together!" said Trixie."Aw man," Hoops groaned, unhappy that he had to go back into Luna's mind when he had just gotten out."What do you say?" Trixie asked the changeling queen.Entomala thought for another moment. "Very well. Show me. BUT NO TRICKS! And just to be safe, I'll keep Upper Crust close to me until the spell is cast and we are all inside Luna's mind."Upper Crust whimpered as Entomala levitated her closer to her, keeping the knife right where it was by her neck.Trixie nodded, knowing that they wouldn't be able to convince the changeling otherwise. They stepped back over to the magic circle that Princess Luna was lying in. Entomala continued to keep Upper Crust close to her as a hostage the whole time.Entomala kept her eyes on all of them as Trixie activated the spell, and then all of them once again fell to the floor unconscious as they went back into Luna's mind.Back inside Luna's mind labyrinth, they showed Entomala, and Upper Crust as well since she hadn't been with them the first time, the door that contained the long forgotten memory from Luna's past that showed that Celestia had unintentionally cursed a valley of flutterponies to transform into changelings when she had tried to cast a spell on them a thousand years ago that would 'bring out their inner goodness and better nature' so they would be more friendly and open to others. And the memory also showed that Celestia chose to cover up her little 'accident' by burying the truth, and making the only other pony who knew the truth, Princess Luna, go completely insane and become Nightmare Moon so that no one would believe anything she said, and so she would eventually become so crazy that she wouldn't even be able to remember the truth herself.They also showed Entomala the door that contained a memory of Celestia planning to use the plot hole and the Heart Star space station to cast yet another 'openness and goodness' spell, like the one she had cast on the changelings, on the entire world!By the time they had shown her everything, Entomala was practically shaking with rage.When they left Luna's mind and woke up again on the floor of the billiard room, Upper Crust quickly got up and leaped away from Entomala, hurrying over to Jet Set's side. She kept her eyes on the changeling cautiously.Entomala didn't bother with Upper Crust and just let her go. She got up on her own hooves along with everyone else, a look of barely contained rage on her face."Celestia is the reason my kind has to live this way!" she said out loud, not talking to anyone in particular. She held up one of her forelegs in front of her face and stared at the black, holey, chitinous appendage. "All because we just wanted to be left alone and live our own way, and Celestia decided she had to meddle! And that bitch was never punished for what she did!" She slammed her raised hoof back down against the floor angrily. "When I get my hooves on her... I'm... I'M GOING TO DRIVE MY HORN STRAIGHT THROUGH HER HEART!"Everyone took a step backwards at the changeling's sudden outburst.Suddenly, Trixie had yet another crazy idea pop into her head. "Maybe we could help each other!" said Trixie to Entomala after a several seconds.Everyone turned their heads to look at her in surprise.Trixie continued, this time not just talking to Entomala, but to everyone in the room. "We both have a common enemy. Celestia. She's going to try to do what she did to the fluttlerponies to the entire world now! With that... Heart Star space station. None of us want that to happen. If we help each other, maybe we can stop her, and bring her to justice for what she did to the flutterponies, and Princess Luna!""Um... not that we don't all want to stop Celestia," Dumbbell spoke aloud, "but how? I don't see how we could possibly stop her." "Indeed!" exclaimed Flim in agreement. "She has an armada of gigantic, powerful, battle cruisers, while we only have this sorry excuse for a spaceship! We're out numbered, out classed, and outmatched in every way! Its impossible!"Trixie was well aware of how hopeless the situation seemed. But she wasn't the kind of pony who ran from her problems anymore. Not since she and the rest of them had all stood up to, and defeated, King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis only a year ago, and actually saved the world! And she was never one to just give up either without even trying! She had too much pride for that!Trixie grinned at them all and held her head up high. "Don't worry! The great and powerful Trixie has a plan!""You have a plan?" asked Jet Set, him and everyone else looking expectantly at Trixie with hopeful expressions. "What is it?""We'll..." Trixie rubbed the back of her head with her hoof sheepishly, realizing she had over exaggerated a bit. "Perhaps plan wasn't the best word for it. It's more like a... vague... idea... in the making... ish."Everyone's expressions fell at that."Oh, well that's just great," Gilda mocked, rolling her eyes.Trixie groaned in frustration. "Look, Trixie knows it won't be easy! But we have to try! After all, what other choice do we have? Would you rather go back to Earth and get turned into a... LAME-O, like Celestia's little goody-two-shoe Element Bearers? Or would you rather stay in space in this death trap for the rest of your life? Those are our ONLY other options, everypony! And neither of them agree with Trixie!"They were all silent for a moment as they looked at each other, considering.Trixie continued her speech. "True, the odds are against us, but they were also against us when we defeated King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis, and saved the world, remember!?"Trixie then noticed Entomala giving her an irked look out of the corner of her eye."Oh. No offense," Trixie quickly said to the changeling queen.Entomala shrugged. "Whatever," she said and then looked away, letting it go.Trixie looked back at the others. "So what do you all say?""Trixie's right!" proclaimed Iron Will loudly, with determination in his voice. "If I'm gonna go down, I'd rather go down fighting!""Me too!" said Gilda in agreement. "Besides, I think I'd rather die anyway then live in a world where everyone is a buckin' lame-o goody-two-shoes who randomly break out into musical numbers about friendship and love and all that shit! Plus, we still have to rescue Lightning Dust!""Right," said Trixie in agreement.Everyone in the room looked at each other in consideration, and one by one, they all started nodding in agreement, looks of mixed courage and uncertainty written on their faces."What about the plot hole then?" asked Blueblood in concern. "Even if we do stop Princess Celestia from casting that spell on the world, the plot hole is still going to destroy the universe."Trixie frowned. She had nearly forgotten about that. And Blueblood was right. "Unfortunately, we still have no idea how to stop the plot hole."Sunset suddenly butted in. "Actually, we do!" she said.Everyone stared at her, confused.She continued. "While we were inside Luna's head, I remember in one of the memories Celestia said that she was planning to close the plot hole with the Elements of Harmony! Was I the only one paying attention?"Trixie thought hard back to the memories they had seen. She remembered that Celestia had said that while she had been talking to the Element Bearers, but she had been so angry about what Celestia had done at the time that she hadn't paid attention to that."Oh yeah!" said Trixie happily. "Okay, so we do have a solution for that, but stopping Celestia is more urgent right now. At the rate its going, it will probably take a long time for the plot hole to destroy the universe, but Celestia could use the Heart Star to cast her spell on the world at any time now! Once we stop her, then we can worry about the hole."Blueblood nodded, but was still uncertain. Something about that didn't add up to him. He remembered that Nightmare Moon had said that nothing she knew of could stop the plot hole, but if the Elements of Harmony could, wouldn't she have known that? He flashed back to the dream he had had where a voice was telling him to come into the plot hole because his destiny was in there. Was it some kind of sign? After all, Trixie and Sunset had gotten the instructions to make that mind-entering spell from a dream. Was the solution to stopping the plot hole inside the plot hole itself?Blueblood came out of his thoughts just as Trixie began speaking again to Entomala."What do you say?" she asked the changeling queen. "Will you help us stop Celestia and bring her to justice?"Entomala didn't answer right away. She was staring at the floor, and looked like she was considering what Trixie had said.Finally, the changeling spoke. "Alright. I'll help you... for the sake of making Celesta pay, and giving all my fellow changelings the justice they deserve!""Trixie thanks you," said Trixie, letting out a sigh of relief.However, Entomala's expression quickly became stern again. "But don't think this means that I've forgotten about what you did to my mother!" Entomala snapped at them. "As soon as this is over, we are enemies again! Understood?"Trixie sighed in disappointment. "Fine.""Alright! Looks like we have a changeling on our side!" said Gilda in excitement.Blueblood wasn't so enthusiastic. He wasn't so sure trusting the changeling who had just tried to kill them was such a good idea. And from the looks of a few of the others in the room, he could tell he wasn't the only one.Beside Jet Set, Upper Crust suddenly spoke up at Entomala. "Excuse me. I have a question, changeling!" Upper Crust said in a not so happy tone. "Why did you say earlier that you wouldn't kill me, but you would kill the rest of them? I don't understand."Entomala simply shrugged. "Believe me, I wanted you dead just as much as the rest of them, but do to the fact that you have a foal growing inside you, it just didn't feel right to kill an innocent child who has committed no crimes."Upper Crust and everyone else in the room stared at Entomala, eyes wide in disbelief at what she had just said."Wha... what did you just say?" asked Upper Crust, looking a little pale.Entomala's eyes widened as realization suddenly hit her. "Oh! You didn't know, did you? You're pregnant."Everyone's jaw dropped and they stared at Upper Crust, who just stared back at Entomala with a horrified expression on her face. Her mouth kept opening and closing a bit, like she was struggling to come up with something to say, but couldn't find the words."To be honest, this does explain why you chose to go on a dangerous space adventure even though you had a bun in your oven," said Entomala, thinking out loud, seeming to be completely oblivious to the awkward silence and looks around her. "And here I just assumed you were just plain irresponsible.""How do you even know I'm pregnant!?" demanded Upper Crust, taking deep, rapid breaths. "How could you possibly know that!?""Oh, easily. I could sense the product of you and your husband's love for each other growing in your womb. It's just one of the abilities we changeling's have."They suddenly remembered about how Upper Crust had been getting sick a lot recently. They had thought it was just because they were in space, but now they realized this might have been part of the reason."Hey, congratulations!" said Hoops happily to Upper Crust and Jet Set.Upper Crust and Jet Set didn't respond. They just looked at each other with dread written all over their faces."Right?" asked Hoops, not so sure now."We weren't trying to have a foal!" said Jet Set, rubbing his hoof up and down on his wife's back to try to comfort her while she looked like she was about to hyperventilate and pass out. "We had both agreed when we got married that we wouldn't have children!""Heck, we don't even like children!" whined Upper Crust, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "They're just whiny, messy, trouble making little monsters that cost you a fortune!""Huh. My parents said the exact same thing about me," said Gilda.Trixie looked over at Blueblood. "Blueblood, lets never have kids," she said plainly."You don't have to tell me twice," Blueblood said in agreement."I don't under stand how this could have happened!" exclaimed Upper Crust to Jet. "I took my pill all throughout my last season... oh no." She suddenly paused mid sentence and got a faraway look on her face."Dear?" Jet Set asked in concern.She looked at him, an expression like she had just realized something on her face. "I think, one day, I might have forgotten to take one! But I didn't think just missing one would matter, so I forgot about it." She groaned in despair and closed her eyes. "Oh gosh!" she moaned. "I can't be a mother! I don't know the first thing about it!""Calm down, dear," said Jet Set, still rubbing her back with his hoof. "It's going to be okay. We'll figure something out." Great! Blueblood thought to himself. Now we have a pregnant mare on board this ship... in space! What else could possibly happen?