CHAPTER NINETEEN

Corey stood frozen as Trixie went to take over another universe. This was his fault. He should have done something to stop her – and save Laney. Laney… The name still haunted him. Her small stature, her red hair, her fiery personality, all of that was gone. And it was all his fault.

He was stuck in place, but out of the corner of his eye he could see Twilight struggling to pull her hoof off of the floor of the cage, and watch Pinkie Pie and Kon communicate with just their eyeballs. Maybe I can try to get free, too, he thought. Not that it'll help things. Laney's not around to keep me on track anymore. I'll just goof up.

Corey?

The orange unicorn blinked and twitched his eyes to Twilight again. She was staring straight at him. If you can hear me, Corey, blink twice.

Corey blinked.

You should be able to talk back now that the connection is established. I was reading about this spell just before I studied the mirror laws, but it didn't come back to me until just now.

How…?

Listen, I need you to tell me exactly what happened after Trixie threatened Laney with that boulder.

How do you know about –

Just tell me.

Corey thought for a moment. I was trying to figure out what to do, and I was getting a little panicky, so I started to sing.

Sing?

Yeah. What else? And it felt like the rope was getting looser, but before I could break out, Trixie…

Twilight's body shuddered. I know. I'm sorry… Singing…that's very odd, and very interesting…keep thinking. I can feel Trixie's spell getting weaker.

Why?

She's so focused on her world-domination spells that she's losing focus on this one. Corey, can you try to wiggle your tail?

Corey bunched the muscles in his butt (something he'd never really thought about until he suddenly had a tail) and twitched with all his might. His eyes widened as he felt the long blue fur sweep against his flank.

Good! Keep trying. Once everypony else sees us moving they'll start to, too.

Corey saw Twilight's ear flick, then her nose wrinkle. He copied her and started to peel his hoof off the ground again. It felt like it was stuck in caramel, but Corey kept trying until it was loose. He pried his teeth apart next, then swiveled his head to glance at Trixie. She wasn't facing the cage. In fact, the only ponies close by were the two little drippy ones and Mina.

Twilight, is it safe to talk yet? he asked with his mind.

I think so, the unicorn responded. But whisper. Just in case.

Pinkie, Rarity, and Kin were completely free, but Spike was having trouble and Rainbow Dash was still struggling to fold in a wing. Corey walked toward them, slowly, like the air was full of Jell-O, but he figured it would just make their movements less conspicuous. "Guys, I don't think I can help with anything. I'm too messed up to do anything. Laney…"

"I know, Corey," Twilight murmured, putting a hoof on the stallion's shoulder. "But the best way to honor her memory is to get you safely home, and the first step to doing that is ridding Equestria of Trixie. With her in control of the multiverse, and Trina in control of your world, you'll never get a chance to let your feelings out."

Fluttershy wrenched her foreleg from the bar it was wrapped around. "Corey, I'm sorry about Laney, really I am, but – but I'm glad you're okay," she whispered.

"Thanks, Flutters. I was just as worried about you. All of you. I'm happy to see that you guys aren't hurt," Corey said, smiling just the tiniest bit. "I just…"

Twilight squeezed Corey's shoulders. "Let it out."

The orange unicorn looked helplessly into the purple one's eyes. "Twilight, I…I think I loved her."

Twilight opened her mouth, but as if on a Let's-torment-Corey schedule, a mocking voice issued from the bars.

"I've never seen you this miserable! Like, yay and whatnot!" Trina cackled, her mane tangling in the soft breeze of the vortex. She looked about to explode with glee.

Pinkie Pie growled and zoomed up to Trina. "What do you have against this amazing stallion? He is ten times the pony that you are. PLUS he has amazing taste in music and mares!" she yelled. Corey jumped. He had never seen the party pony this angry before; it was actually kind of scary.

Trina flicked her tail in Pinkie's face, eyes narrowing. "Um, no. Corey's band is like, über-gross. And he's always preventing me from getting Nick Mallory and having MY time in the spotlight!" she hissed.

Rarity stamped her hoof. "Whoever this 'Nick Mallory' person is, I see no way he could be attracted to you," she scoffed. "Your attitude isn't deserving of any noble stallion."

"What a fangirl," Spike quipped.

"Nick Mallory LOVES me!" Trina shrieked. "Right, MINA?"

"O-of course, Trina!" the orange Earth pony piped up from the side of the cage.

The pink mare tossed her mane and smiled evilly. "It doesn't matter what you think, anyway. Soon I'm going to rule the Earth, and EVERYONE is going to love me, whether they like it or not!" A tiny spark issued from her horn and shocked Corey in the muzzle, then Trina stomped away, leaving a quailing Mina in her wake.

Corey swallowed and took a deep breath. He felt his insides churning, but he knew now that he couldn't just sit back and watch Trixie take over every single universe ever. Or watch Trina get her crazy hands all over the Earth. "Guys, I never thought I'd say this without…you know, the whole band here…but I've got a crazy plan…"

"…that just might work!" Kin and Kon finished together, their eyes lighting up. "There's the Corey we know!"

Corey wanted to smile, but his heart still wouldn't let him. "Fluttershy and I are going to pump Mina for information. Everypony else, Twilight will give you the lowdown on what happened with Trixie, and then we'll meet with everything we've got to figure out how to escape. This is about both our worlds now."

He turned toward Mina's corner of the cage, and Fluttershy followed him. Her eyes were still wet from her meltdown at Corey's news. "Do you really think this will work?"

"Mina's given us information before," Corey said. "I'm not sure if she knew it was relevant, but she did it. And if she doesn't, well, that's what you're here for."

He tapped a hoof against the bar by Mina's head. She leapt about a foot into the air, but turned around, pushing up her glasses. "Oh…Corey. You scared me."

"Sorry," Corey apologized. "Hey, just out of curiosity, how much do you know about this Trixie mare?"

"Not a lot, really…she doesn't tell us much, except that she wants her revenge on the land that mocked her…" Mina said cautiously. "Why?"

"Do you know what it is she and Trina are planning to do with us?"

"I don't think they'd like me to say anything –"

"Oh, come on," Corey said. "What are we gonna do about it, anyway? We're trapped in here. Magically locked in. And don't we deserve to know how we're going to…" A picture of Laney's broken body flashed through his mind. "…how we're gonna die?"

Mina gasped in shock. "No! Trixie and Trina wouldn't…would they? Oh, no, is that what happened to Laney? But they couldn't have!"

"Don't you remember all the horrible things Trina did to us back in Peaceville? So much could have backfired," Corey said firmly. He kept imagining Laney dead and the only way to keep the image out of his head was to stay focused on what he was doing. "And you helped her with all of them."

"I didn't want to! I'm so sorry about everything! I just can't do anything or Trina will hurt me, too!" Mina wailed, covering her eyes with her hooves and sinking to her knees. "I can't do any different with her always in my way…"

"Um…excuse me?"

Fluttershy, who had been hiding behind her mane, had spoken up. "I just wanted to say, if you don't mind, that…that's my problem too."

Mina sniffled and looked up. "It is?"

"Yes," the yellow Pegasus nodded. "It took me a lot of tries, and pushes from my friends, to finally stand up for myself and what I believe in. And now I can pass what I learned on to you." She smiled, then reached through the bars to place her hoof on Mina's. "You'll figure it out."

"B-but won't Trina be angry with me if I try to fight her?" the Earth mare whimpered.

"Probably," Fluttershy said, her voice shaking the tiniest bit. "But you're your own pony – I mean, person – and you deserve to be free of such a rude and unkind mare. Do what you want to do." She blushed. "Um, if that's what you want, that is."

Mina lifted her glasses and dried her eyes. "Okay…I'll tell you. But that's all I'm gonna do," she whispered, peeking at Trina and Trixie from the corner of her eyes.

"Trixie taught Trina a little magic, but she wasn't very good at it. That might help, right?" Corey nodded. Mina beamed and continued, "Trina's also really worried about Nick because we haven't seen him anywhere this whole time."

"Whoa. Forgot about Nick," Corey said. "But then I didn't have Trina constantly reminding me about his existence all week."

"You already know that only Trixie can open the cage," Mina said thoughtfully. "Oh! She really likes to be flattered. And you might be able to use her anger against her."

"Thanks, Mins," Corey said. Fluttershy squeezed her hoof one more time, then the two captured ponies trotted back over to the huddle in the middle of the cage.

"Corey," Twilight said immediately. "Tell me again what you said about your world that one night on the train. Besides the fact that you walk on two legs and have, um, hands."

"Um, we don't have magic there," Corey said hesitantly. "What about it?"

"And what did you tell me just now about singing?"

"When I sang, it felt like my bonds were loosening…"

"Exactly!" Twilight clapped her hooves as quietly as possible. "We're gonna have to sing our way out!"

"And we have the perfect song already," Kin said, grinning like a maniac. "What song did we write about being trapped in a cage?"

"Stuck in Peaceville Zoo!" Corey said. " And we don't even need to worry about new lyrics."

"There's only one small problem, sugarcube," Applejack chimed in. "We don't know the lyrics."

"Don't worry, fair damsel," Kon said importantly. "We got this."

The Earth pony began to tap out a rhythm on the metal floor and Kin started humming, but suddenly Corey's throat was all choked up. He couldn't sing. Not anymore.

Grojband didn't exist without Laney.

He felt totally different than he had a minute ago. I'm having mood swings, he thought suddenly. I was super depressed, then okay, and now I'm depressed again. But even thinking that didn't change the fact that he was unable to sing. "I can't do it, guys," he gasped. "Not like this."

Rainbow Dash huffed. "I knew he'd cop out," she muttered. "All his fault, and I knew he'd cop out."

The lyrics to Stuck in Peaceville Zoo – at least the beginning ones, suddenly struck Corey like a ton of bricks. I'm feelin' all distraught, held captive in this cage…

How was he going to live without his best friend?

"A little down, Corey Riffin?" Trixie shouted from across the clearing. The portal was still flashing rainbow colors, but now instead of the Earth, Corey saw a blue box flying across a weirdly shaped galaxy. "Missing your little friend? Don't worry, she's in a better place now – at the bottom of the ocean!"

Rarity gasped. Fluttershy began to sniffle again.

Corey's head pounded. For the longest time, he'd been unable to imagine his life without Grojband, but now he was faced with that very problem, as well as a Trina-controlled Earth…he was breathing heavily, he could feel an arm closing protectively around him, then a lot of arms…the others were wrapping themselves around him like a shield…

"Nopony talks to our friend that way," Twilight said. Corey could tell just from listening that her eyes were blazing. "Nopony."

The clearing was silent, except for the faint pulsing of the portal in the background.

And then, from a distance, a beautiful melody began to play, one that everypony recognized from only an hour ago. It was the song that had played when Trixie had first re-opened the portal. Corey closed his eyes and lost himself in the beautiful music as it came closer and closer. It was probably the last he'd ever hear now that Trina was in charge of the universe, so he tried to commit it to memory and make it count…

And then, with the hugest bush-rustle of them all, the music burst into the clearing and karate-kicked Trixie across the face.

Hello again! I hope you're proud that we managed to scrounge up this beautiful chapter in only TWO WEEKS rather than THREE or FOUR.

I know I am! Anyway, we're getting really close to the end, and that means we'll have to answer some until-now-unanswered questions. Like: How did Grojband get to Equestria exactly, anyway?

What is it about music that makes it so powerful?

Will the love triangle between Corey-Laney-Rarity end the way it should?

What problems has Princess Celestia had with other worlds, and what is she going to do to Twilight?

And most importantly, where in Equestria is Nick Mallory?

Don't worry, most - if not all - will be revealed in good time. All you have to do is come back.

Don't forget to review to tell us whether this is living up to standards and expectations...

And check out Twi's new (updated) story poll in our profile. Actually, we renovated our whole profile really. Check it all out.

And thank you from the bottom of our hearts for reading our work. It's such a pleasure, even when we can't get chapters up on time.

TwiLanes