Chapter 8: Saving the Worlds
Within seconds, the group of twelve had reached the town square of Las Pegasus. Strangly, there weren't any other ponies around, which made the place seem rather eerie. Still, they had no time to worry about that, they had to find the bombs and stop them.
"Rainbow, Fluttershy," Twilight whispered to her pegasus friends, "fly around the area quietly and see if you can find the portals."
Both of them nodded and flew off. Meanwhile, the others walked up to the tower of Friendship. The height of it amazed Patrick, "it's almost as tall as the tallest building on Earth, I wonder how it got it's name."
"Well it got it's name from..." Twilight began.
Starlight cleared her throat, "as much as we would love to hear how this tower got it's name, we do have a mission here."
"Starlight's right," nodded Matthew. "In less than five hours, those bombs are due to go off and that's not good." He then groaned and fell to one knee. "Dang those changelings hurt me badly."
"Are you sure you're gonna be able to fight?" Starlight asked with concern.
"Yeah I'll be fine." He slowly got to his feet and pulled out his paintball gun, "I'm just hoping we don't fight, but it's best to be on the safe side. You might want to light up your horn too."
Starlight nodded and lit her horn.
Moments later, Fluttershy flew back, "I found one of the portals," and she pointed to where she saw it. "I think that's the one that leads to Sunset's home world."
Matthew nodded, "that is the one. The portal to the left leads to Canterlot High, where as the right one leads back to Earth, so those changelings said."
"It sure looks like Earth," said Rainbow Dash as she flew back to the group. "I looked through it and saw lots of humans walking around there, and none of them looked like us."
"Okay so far so good, now we just need to find the bombs."
"Uh guys, you might want to come over here!" called Patrick loudly.
The group ran over towards him. Matthew looked at him with a serious look, "geez Patrick, why don't you shout a little louder? I don't think the changelings can hear you."
"Sorry, but I found one."
Matthew, Ryan and Emily gasped, "That's a nuclear bomb alright," said Ryan. "And worst off, the timer has been set. It's due to blow in four hours, thirty minutes from now."
Starlight smacked her forehead with her hoof, "I should never have modified the bombs."
"Will it be easy to deactivate them?" Patrick asked.
"Yes, but I'll have to guide you through it step by step."
"Alright and while you're doing that, we'll remain on guard," said Twilight. "Then once that bomb's deactivated, we'll go to the other worlds and..."
"CHRYSALIS!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "Come on out and fight you coward!"
The sudden shout startled her friends. Matthew walked angerily up to his pegasus friend, "thanks alot Rainbow Dash, now I may never get the hiccups again."
"I hope Chrysalis didn't hear that," muttered Fluttershy.
Their worst fears came to pass as they heard buzzing sounds high above them, and by the sounds of it, were getting closer to where they were. The humans got out their weapons while the unicorns and one alicorn lit their horns. The others stood in a firm stand. Applejack looked angerily to Rainbow Dash, "I know you want some excitement, but this is not the time."
"Sorry," Rainbow Dash said meekily.
The changelings soon appeared, many landing on the ground while others stayed in the air. Now the ponies, humans and Discord understood why the area was so quiet.
"I suppose now's too late to say we don't want to fight?" asked Emily.
"Yeah it's too late now."
The twelve of them stood together in a circle, all of which tried to look firm and determined, even though deep down they were scared.
The last of the changelings soon arrived, but they didn't attack. Moments later, the Queen of the changelings arrived. She smirked at the sight that was before her, "is this really the best that Princess Celestia can send?" she asked. "Seven ponies, the spirt of chaos and disharmony and four humans? It's quite pathetic."
At the mere sight of the changeling queen, Twilight's expression changed to an angry glare and snarls could be heard.
"I'll teach you..."
But before she could take a hoof step forward, Starlight stuck her hoof out in front of her and shook her head, "don't let your anger get the better of you Twilight," she said firmly, "otherwise you'll get hurt."
"Like me for example," said Matthew before groaning in pain.
Twilight took in a deep breath and sighed, "Sorry guys."
"Don't worry about it," smiled Starlight. She then turned her attention back to Chrysalis, "you can't go through with this plan, you're putting innocent lives in great danger with these bombs. If you even have a heart, you'll call off your changelings and let us deactivate the bombs."
"I will not," the queen said firmly.
"I don't think you understand how dangerous nuclear bombs really are," said Matthew. "They've been unleashed a few times on our world, and well, you don't want to know the outcome."
"Oh I know about the outcome, I just want to make an example of all of you. Changelings are not ones to mess around with."
"You really don't care do you?" Starlight asked in complete shock. "I'll admit, I once thought that way, but now I see it's a stupid idea. Think of all those innocent animals, ponies and humans that are caught in the blast of these things. Won't you at least think of them? Is revenge really worth destruction and chaos?"
"If it means my changelings and I finally get what we want, then yes."
"You monster," Twilight snarled.
Starlight shook her head, "how can you be so heartless?"
"I do what I need to do for my changelings." Then a thought came to the changeling queen, and she stared angerily at two of her changelings, "You told them of this location didn't you? Traitors!"
"We didn't mean to," groaned one, "he was beating up on us."
"Talk about beating the truth out of them," muttered Patrick.
"Yeah, my bad," groaned Matthew.
"Doesn't matter, it's not like you fools can stop us," snickered Chrysalis. "We changelings are now more powerful than ever, and with our shape-shifting powers, you won't be able to tell each other apart."
The changelings were just about ready to change forms when Twilight's horn suddenly lit up. A bright beam of light shot away from her and engulfed the surronding area. When it faded, the changelings discovered that they couldn't change form.
"What did you do?" Chrysalis asked crossly.
Twilight smirked, "you're not the only one who's gotten stronger Chrysalis. I've been doing alot of studying since the wedding, and I was taught a spell that prevents you from changing forms for two solid hours."
"So that's what you were talking about back at your castle," Rarity whispered.
Twilight nodded. Chrysalis snarled angerily, "fine then. We'll still beat you, even if we can't change forms."
The changelings all got into fighting stances, ready to attack the twelve heroes. They all looked to Twilight for a plan, and thankfully, she had one, "we'll have to split up. Ryan and Emily, you two will go to Canterlot High and deactivate the bomb, that's your main concern. Starlight, you will come with Matthew and I back to Earth. The rest of you will have to try and hold the changelings back while deactivating this bomb."
"And how can we do that without Starlight's guidance?" Patrick asked with concern.
"Use the headsets."
"But the headsets won't pick up signals from other worlds."
"We're close enough to the portals, so it should work..." At that moment, the changelings charged in for the attack, "now let's go!"
Firing back, Ryan and Emily shot at the changelings in the air, then kicked and punched many out of the way until they had gone through the portal. The changelings tried to follow, but both Discord and Rainbow Dash blocked them. Matthew, Twilight and Starlight fired back at the changelings until they went through the portal and disappeared.
"Stop them, don't let them ruin my plans!" shouted Chysalis.
The changelings charged towards the portal, but were blocked by Rarity and Pinkie Pie. This left only Fluttershy, Applejack and Patrick to tend to the bomb.
The trip was rather quick for Matthew, Twilight and Starlight as they emerged on the other side of the portal. People there were quite surprised by the sudden appearance, "now how was that done?" they asked.
The three of them ignored the people and looked around, "wow, this is a big city," gasped Starlight. "It's almost as big as Las Pegasus."
"It's actually almost the size of Las Pegasus," said Matthew. "I know where we are, we're in Toronto Ontario." He then looked up, "and now I know which tower the changelings were talking about."
He pushed a button on his headset, "guys, it's the CN Tower, that's where they hid the weapon."
To his surprise, they heard him and responded back, "the CN Tower, are you flipping kidding me?" cried the voice of Patrick.
"I can't believe it," came the voice of Ryan. "However, you're not the only one to find the bomb. We just ran into Sunset Shimmer, and she told us that the bomb is in the clock tower."
"How does she know that?" Matthew asked.
"Lyra Heartstrings found it while trying to retrieve a football that went too high."
"Right then, let's get to work before we recieve anymore bad news," said Twilight.
But she had spoken too soon, "we can't hold them back anymore," cried the voice of Rarity. "Sorry Darlings, but they are heading your way."
Twilight smacked her forehead with her hoof, "I really got to stop saying things like that."
In a matter of moments, the changelings had burst through the portal and were now on the attack, launching energy beams at humans. They all started running for their lives while changelings chased them down.
"We don't have time for this," groaned Matthew. He suddenly felt another jolt of pain and went down to his knees, "or that. Ugh! Yeah, attacking changelings with too much anger, not recommanded."
"Do you think you can still help?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, of course I can."
"Alright then, since Starlight's the only one who knows how to stop those bombs, and you have fingers, I want you two to go to the top of the CN Tower. I'll try and stop the changelings here."
"All by yourself?" Starlight asked in shock.
"Twilight, that's too many of them," added Matthew.
"I know, but the least I can do is to buy you two some time. If the changelings get to the bombs, we'll never get past them and innocent beings will get hurt. Now go." And without another word, Twilight charged into the fight and started firing energy beams at the changelings. "Go now!" she cried.
Starlight and Matthew didn't really want to leave Twilight alone with the ever increasing number of changelings, but they didn't argue. They ran towards the tower while people ran away from it. They ran into the elevator and rode it to the top.
"She's got guts I'll give her that," said Matthew.
"Hey, she managed to beat me, so I guess anything's possible for Twilight Sparkle," said Starlight. "She sure is tough, but very forgiving, and I'm actually grateful for that."
"Yeah you're very lucky to have Twilight as a teacher," said Matthew. "You could definetly learn alot from her."
"Yeah, and I intend on listening to whatever lesson she gives me."
"That's good to hear."
At last, they reached the top of the tower and found people looking down to the ground. It was almost as if they were watching a movie. Matthew shouted out to them; "people, you need to get out of the tower and find shelter!" They all looked towards him, "That is no show down there, that is the real thing, so please go!"
But the people didn't go, they wanted to stay.
"I'm serious, those changelings could easily attack the tower and then we'd be in trouble."
But still the people wouldn't leave. Matthew rolled his eyes and groaned. Starlight's horn suddenly lit up, "here's a good reason why you should leave." And she fired off an energy beam at a nearby table. It exploded in a flash. That did the trick as people started running for the exit, "I didn't enjoy doing that."
"Well you had to give them a reason to leave. Now where is that bomb?"
Starlight pointed straight ahead to a table. They walked up to it and using her magic, Starlight moved it out of the way, revealing the nuclear bomb, "good hiding spot, but not good enough."
Meanwhile, at Canterlot High, a swarm of changelings were now chasing after Ryan, Emily and Sunset Shimmer. Try as they might, Rainbow Dash and Discord could not hold them all back and many slipped through. Thankfully, as they ran through the hallways towards the clock tower, they ran into the human counterparts of the mane 6.
"What in blazes is going on around here?" asked the human Rainbow Dash.
"It's changelings," explained Sunset Shimmer, "nasty little buggers from Equestria, and they have a bomb in our school set to go off real soon."
"A bomb?!" all the girls exclaimed.
"That's why these two are here," she said, pointing to Ryan and Emily before kicking one of the changelings down. "They will deactivate the bomb, but I need help to keep the changelings away from them."
"Well we can do that," smiled the human Applejack.
All the girls nodded, even the human Twilight Sparkle. She ran back into the room, which happened to be the music room and came back with several sheet music stands.
"Good thinking Twilight," smiled Sunset as she excepted one. Then used it to smack at least two changelings. She looked back to Ryan and Emily, "you go ahead, we'll hold them off."
"Okay, but be careful," said Ryan.
"We will," nodded the human Applejack.
After a minute, they finally reached the bomb. Now all the humans were at the bombs, and with Starlight telling them of what they needed to do, they worked as fast and safely as they could to deactivate them. Turned out there was more added to them than what was actually there.
"Why did you do this Starlight?" Patrick asked.
"In case anypony or anyone found them and tried to stop them. Remember, I wasn't thinking clearly at that time."
Finally, there were only two wires left, one that could activate the bombs and the second would shut it off for good. Normally it was green to activate and red to shut it off, and all three humans were about to cut the red wire.
"No don't!" cried Starlight.
"Why?" Matthew asked.
"Cause I switched them. The green one shuts it off, and the red one activates it."
"Are you sure?" came the voice of Patrick over the headphones. "It's been some time since you rewired these things. Maybe you're wrong on this one and we should cut the red wire."
"Patrick don't!" cried Matthew. Patrick stopped before he could cut the wire. "Listen to Starlight, she knows what she is talking about. Cut the green wire."
With a gulp, all of three of them cut the green wire. Everypony and everybody seemed to hold their breath, but to their relief, the bombs were deactivated. The timers shut off and they were silent.
"Whew, we did it," sighed Matthew. "Thank goodness you got a good memory Starlight."
"Yeah good thing," she sighed with relief.
Then came a question from Ryan, "what about the cores? Those things can still pack a punch if unleashed."
"Oh dang, we didn't think about the cores," groaned Patrick.
There was no answer, just the grunting sounds from those that were fighting. Matthew suddenly came up with an idea, "get the cores back to Earth, we'll take care of them." He then pulled out his cellphone and dailed a number. "I do hope her phone's on at this time."
"Her phone? Who are you talking about?" Starlight asked.
"My girlfriend; Sara."