A/N: well I was bored, so I decided to write the next chapter for this story, hope you enjoy.
Family is Forever: chapter 9: visit to the castle
After they had went to sleep for the night, luckily being the captain of the royal guard, Shining Armor had a very large house, and plenty of spare rooms.
Most of them tried to sleep comfortably through the night, but Applejack could fall asleep, she tossed and turned in her bed, sleep evading her, she was unable to control, her fears clouded her mind, the thought of never seeing her son, her husband, her brother, her little sister, just the thought alone, sent waves of fear down her spine.
Eventually she convinced herself that they would save them, even if she had to do it alone, with that she managed to get some sleep, they were going to need it.
The next morning they all ate breakfast, and talked about what they were going to do for the day, Shining Armor told them he would get in touch with commander Comet after breakfast, but they did their best not to be in a hurry, but it wasn't enough.
After their breakfast they all got into separate carriages and taken to the castle, to meet with the princess.
(Canterlot castle, throne room)
Princess Celestia sat calmly on her throne, enjoying the day, but even she had no idea that things were about to change, suddenly the door flew open and I ran a royal guard, "my apologies for disturbing you your highness, but I bring urgent news from Captain Shining Armor" he said as he got up and took off his helmet, "yes what is it?" Celestia asked calmly, the guard stood up and cleared his throat.
"he said that Twilight Sparkle and Flame have come to Canterlot, they need help, they're on their way now, they told him that something has happened in PonyVille your help" he said in a rush, Celestia's eyes widened when she heard that there was trouble.
"Of course, find commander Comet and tell him to meet us here, when they arrive" she said, and the guards ran off, to find him.
(Canterlot castle, E.S.S. commander's office)
Comet sat at his desk, looking through papers, as part of the policy, each E.S.S. outposts, sent in records of the month's activities, and it was comet's job to search for any irregularities, but to his relief there were none.
His thoughts were interrupted, when there was a knocking on the door, "yes, come in" he said as he put the papers in a drawer of the desk, and put his hooves on the desk.
And with that the door opened and in walked a royal guard, much to his surprise, "sorry to disturb you sir, but there's been a problem, Princess Celestia asks that you join her immediately, Captain Shining Armor's family has arrived, they say there's been a problem in PonyVille" he said, that was all Comet needed to hear, and he quickly ran out the room, and made his way to the throne room.
(Canterlot castle, throne room)
Just as planned, they arrived at the castle and met with the Princess's, and Comet soon joined them, they then began to tell their story to them, so they could all understand the situation, to say they were surprised was an understatement.
After they finished telling the Princess's the story, Celestia went into deep thought as she walked up to the window, "you know I will always be around to help you, in times of need, but this seems to be a different story, miss Applejack, if your family is being held hostage, then I will do what I can to help you, but if what you say is true, then it will be your own brother, you are fighting against" she said turning to her, Applejack just sighed and hung her head.
Flame stepped forward, "we need to make some sort of plan, who knows what will happen if we wait too long" he said, and the Princess nodded her head, "I could order my troops to surround the farm, he would have no choice to surrender" Comet said stepping forward, they all looked at him.
"no, if we do that, then he'll just kill the hostages, we want to do this without any casualties, that is too risky" Celestia said, as she began pacing back and forth, just the she stopped, and turned to Applejack, "Applejack, I promise you, we will find a way to rescue your family, and we will stop your brother, you have my word as princess" she said, but that didn't make her feel any better, "that's what ah am afraid of" she said quietly to herself, as they continued to think out a plan.
(PonyVille, Sweet Apple Acres barn)
It had been a day since Shine was there to insult and threaten them, they were given foo regularly, he needed them alive, but they did not know why, Dark Star sat leaning up against a pillar, while Solar Glaze paced back and forth, "uh, there has to be a way to get a word out, somehow" he said pacing, Dark Star just looked up at him, "son, were in the barn, there's no way to get word out, even if we did, Shine would be made aware of it" he said, but Solar Glaze was persistent, a personality he got from both his mom and dad.
Just then he smiled and turned to his dad, "dad, I found out a way to tell somepony what is going on" he said, Dark Star was surprised by his son's quick thinking, and waited for him to continue.
"Okay, remember that old communication radio we found, my friends and I from school used to play with it down in spare room under the barn, we used to mess around with it, did you and mom ever get rid of it?" he asked, Dark Star thought for a moment, and smiled.
"For the first time, I'm glad I never got rid of one of your annoying toys" he said and Solar Glaze ran to the center of the barn, and cleared the hay from the ground, revealing what seemed like a trap door, he opened it, revealing a small room, that he used to play in with his friends.
He jumped down and Dark Star did his best to walkover, and did so very slowly and painfully, and looked down, Solar Glaze saw a table filled with dust and a cloth draped around it, he walked up and pulled it off and the dust flew in his face making him cough and gag slightly.
Just as he thought, there it was, the old communication radio that he found a few years ago, it had gathered a lot of dust, and it looked like it would never work again, but lucky for him, he was taught how to fix things like that by his dad.
"Think you can get it working?" Dark Star asked from above, "yeah it should be easy, but it might take a few minutes" he said as he reached and turned it on, it being old, it gave out a low hum, compared to the technology now, he began turning knobs, and trying to find the right channel, his target was trying to get the nearest, E.S.S. outpost, or somepony who could help, but luckily he got what he was looking for.
(Canterlot castle, Royal Guard headquarters)
As they usually would do, all the royal guards took control of the room, while the captain was at his meeting with the princess.
They kept control over all the incoming radio transmissions, even for older radios, as they were going about their business, one of the guards began to notice something odd about an incoming transmission.
"Um sir, we seem to be intercepting an urgent message from an older radio model, one that's not used anymore" he said and the lieutenant walked up to him, "I thought the older model's couldn't transmit and signal's anymore?" he asked and the soldier pressed a few keys, "it's not very strong, but it seems to be coming from…PonyVille" he said, as he looked for the source.
"It seems to be an audio transmission" he said as he put the headset on, and began to listen, by enhancing the quality of the voice, as he began to listen, his eyes widened and he turned to the lieutenant, "sir, you might want to hear this" he said in a shocked tone of voice.
(Canterlot castle, throne room)
At this point, they were all arguing, back in forth, some were trying to convince the others that the only way to stop them was to use military force, but the other side did not want any casualties, and Applejack was forced to listen to all of it, Celestia and Luna decided to take control of the argument.
"Alright! We all have thought of various ways to rescue Applejack's family and stop her brother, but we need to agree, or we are just sitting here wasting time" she said and Luna was about to speak up, but was stopped when the throne rooms doors flew open, and three guards ran in, out of breath.
"Guards, I thought I said this was a private meeting, and that we were not to be disturbed" she said upset, but what he said next surprised them all, "my apologies your highness, but we've received a urgent radio transmission from PonyVille…it's for her" he said gesturing to Applejack, who had a surprised look on her face, like all the other in the room.
She didn't say anything, she just ran out of the room, the others quickly followed suit, the guards lead them to the control room, which was more active than usual, they all walked to the center and saw a pony sitting down at the main console, with a headset on, arguing into the headset, when he saw them approaching, he took it off.
"Sorry to disturb your meeting, but we have a really annoyed young colt on the other end, we can't get him to calm down, whatever it is, he's panicking, he asked for you by name" he said looking at Applejack, she felt a burst of happiness in her heart, as she knew who it was, "very well, put it on the speaker" Celestia said the guard turned back to the console, and began pressing buttons, until they heard a voice come out from console speaker.
"-hello, are you guys still there, is anypony there, we need help, I repeat my dad and I need help, were being kept in the sweet apple acres barn, my father's hurt, is anypony there, please answer me!" he yelled, Applejack instantly recognized who it was, as well as the others, she felt tears fall from her eyes, as she walked up to the microphone.
"Solar, is that you?" she asked, there was a quick silence on the other end, "Mom? Mom are you there it's me!" he said out of the speaker, "oh thank heavens you're alright, are you okay, what about your father, come on talk to me" she said into the device, "I'm fine, but dad's hurt, were being kept in the barn, there's no way out, Shine's soldiers are surrounding the place, there's no way we can get out" he said, Applejack sighed sadly, and looked back at the others, and then turned back to the microphone.
"Alright, Solar, just listen to me; you're going to be fine, just hang in there" she said, but got no answer, she waited for a minute, but then a noise came on the speaker, it sounded like screaming, screams of pain, then the line went dead for a minute.
"Solar, Solar are yah there, come on sugarcube talk to me" she said but didn't get the answer she expected, as a deeper voice came over the speaker.
"Well, I'm impressed little sis, your boy is really something, he takes a lot after you, it's really quite touching" said a voice that they all recognized, Applejack felt her heart stop, as she leaned in and began speaking.
"Shine, what have you done with them, if you've hurt them, I swear I will-" she was about to finish, but was cut off by Shine laughing, "oh don't worry their fine, for now, here's what's going to happen, you and your friends will return to PonyVille, so you can confront your past once and for all, and for the Captain Shining Armor and Commander Comet, if your listening to this, and I know you are, if I see any interference by your troops, I will kill the hostages, if you want them to live, I would keep out of this, the choice is your little sis, come back here and try to save your family, or stay and Canterlot, and hide like the coward you are, the choice is yours, you have two days to decide, if you're not here by sundown then, I will kill them, the choice is yours" he said as the line went dead fully, and they were unable to get it back.
They all turned to Applejack who just stood there, with a shocked expression on her face, the first to speak up was Celestia, "it appears the situation is worse than we thought, come we need to make plans" she said as they all exited the room, Applejack followed behind them.
(PonyVille, Sweet Apple Acres barn)
After he cut the line, Shine smiled and jumped up to the main room, he looked over and saw Dark Star and Solar Glaze struggling against the ropes that were tied around them, he walked up to them with a smile.
"I suppose I should thank you, the entire time, I was thinking of a way to get her back here, but you did that for me, you just made my job easier" he said as he began walking out of the barn, "if you want her to suffer, why don't you just kill us now, what are you waiting for, are you scared or something?" Dark Star said in a brave tone, Shine stopped and walked back up to him, he took out his pistol and pointed it at him, "I could do it, I could kill you, right here, right now, it would give me one less headache to deal with, but if I want her to truly suffer, the way I did, then I want her to see you die, with her own two eyes, only then will she understand my pain, but for now you get to live, for now" he said as he holstered his pistol, and they all began walking out of the room, as the rope was cut from behind them, letting them free, they watched as he left the barn, with a smile on his face.
A/N: well, that was surely intense, were coming up on the end of the story, just a few more chapters to go, and it is going to be good, I hope you enjoyed, see you guys next time, peace.