Author's note
To D.J. Scales, no plans at this time; Continuing on with the fic!

 

Chapter 2: Getting into School

 

The group flew through the sky to their next destination: the fortress which would hold the key that could help them grow small and track down Spike.

"There is a school inside the fortress which has the items for creating the potion that you will need to make you all small." Zecora explains to the group.

"So what items are we looking for?" Megan asks Zecora as everyone is heading towards some sort of fortress.

"Items, items, my friends; you will know them when you get them. Speaking of which seeing things, hopefully we shall avoid being seen by the Royal Guards."

"That must be them down there." Apple Bloom said as the ponies sees a few Royal Guards in front of the fortress.

"All right, hang on!" Zecora exclaims as she peddles faster. Hopefully the gang can avoid being seen by the Royal Guards until...

"Too late," Rainbow gasps as the gate of the fortress begins to open up. This isn't good.

"We've been spotted!" Scootaloo exclaims in alarm. The Unicorn Royal Guards came out and fire magic blasts at the group in the air, causing Zecora to pedal as hard as she could.

"Hang on!"

"To what," Rarity demands. Luckily, the gang avoids the guards, with them sighing in relief. That's a close one. In another area, they saw what appears to be a castle with more of the Royal Guards firing at them.

"Is that Castle Canterlot?" Megan gasps in shock to her pony friends at what she's seeing.

"Unfortunately, with those tentacles around it," Luna said to Megan sadly and seriously.

"Eventually you got to break through such walls but for now, jump!" Zecora exclaims to her friends seriously.

"Say what?!" Rarity gasps to Zecora in alarm. Needless to say, Megan's group but Zecora in the balloon jumps down, landing on the ground with Rainbow and Luna flying down safely.

"Okay, we see an opening. Let's use it." Megan said, spotting an opening nearby. "Come on, my little ponies."

The group goes into the fortress, looking at what appears to be cracks in the floor. Nyx exclaims, "Oh goodness!" One false move on those cracks and they're dead.

The gang of course jumps around reaching a door. Sweetie exclaims happily, "Yay! We made it....wherever we're at."

"So how can we get into the school?" Scootaloo ask her friends with a frown.

"Maybe he can tell us?"

The group saw someone interrogating two creatures. The one interrogating is another dragon who looks like Spike, except his body is dark purple and green, he has long messy green hair, and the ghost has a large scar over his eye. His name is Lorcan, Spike's twin brother.

The ones he's interrogating are two Changelings, one of them has red hair and 'F' symbol on his flank in the same color, another has green hair as well as another 'F' symbol on his flank in the same color. Their names are Fred and Ed.

"Come on! You two know of a way in, now spill!" Lorcan snaps to Fred and Ed in annoyance.

"Uh, will you believe that this is the first time we came here?" Fred asks Lorcan innocently but yelps as the dragon growls at them. "It's true!"

"Lorcan!" Luna exclaims as she rush over to Lorcan.

Lorcan saw Luna, smiling as he hugs her, saying, "Luna. I'm glad you're alive."

"Who is he? Why does he look like Spike?" Megan asks her friends puzzled.

"I don't think we have time right now!" Nyx gasps as the group saw some Pegasus Royal Guards flying at them.

"Allow me." Lorcan remarks as he fires blasts, killing the first few cards quickly. Soon more came. "Oh come on!"

"Hey, what's this?"

Megan notices some sort of red box and touches it. Suddenly Twilight's voice is heard exclaiming, "Time to make some havoc!"

Suddenly the box laughs madly as it sprays Megan, making her groan. Some of the ponies exclaims in alarm, "Megan!"

"Wait, so this is Megan?" Lorcan asks in surprise as Megan before to transforms.

"The dogs of war are loose," Twilight remarks; Megan soon groans as she became red and grew horns, much to everyone else's horror.

"Oh Horse Apples," Fred and Ed exclaims with worry as they back away.

Megan soon roars as she ran through the other Royal Guards, slashing and destroying each one of them in the room. After they're dead, the girl changes back to normal.

"Megan, darling, are you okay?" Rarity asks Megan in worry as she and the others came over to Megan.

"I'm fine, but what happened?" Megan asks the ponies friends with a groan.

"You kill off the cards once you touched that red box." Nyx explains to Megan in concern. "At least we know what to avoid now, right?"

"Not necessary. Those red boxes are powerful to wipe those creeps out." Lorcan said to the ponies and Megan with a slight chuckle.

Scootaloo picks up a stack of cards, remarking, "Stack of cards, weird?"

"Hey, can we go? Maybe more of those guys would come back." Fred said to the ponies nervously.

"Right, we can help!" Ed exclaims to the ponies happily before falling on his face.

"Are we going to trust you?" Rainbow asks the Changelings doubtfully. "You Changelings gave us horse crap before!"

"But we can help!" The Changelings insists to the ponies playfully.

"Better let them, they don't know much anyway and I got bored interrogating them anyway." Lorcan remarks with a shrug.

"Right, time for us to go," Megan said as everyone ran down quickly. "So I still need an answer about Lorcan."

"I am Spike's twin brother, of course!"

"Twin brother?"

"Yes, it's kind of a long story." Luna said with a blush on his face. "He tried to destroy us but reforms; Now Lorcan is our...friend, yeah."

"Awwww," The Cutie Mark Crusaders exclaims to Luna, making her blush a bit.

"Not...not like that, come on!"

"There's nothing ashamed about being in love, Luna." Megan said with a light chuckle. Then the girl looks concerned as she ask, "Do you know what happen to the other members of the Mane Six?"

"I don't know. Let's say that after Equestria got messed up, they are shattered all over." Lorcan said with a sigh as the group goes past the rocks, noticing a doorway to the right.

"Thanks for coming with us, we really appreciate the help." Sweetie said happily to Lorcan.

"But can we really trust those two Changeling guys?" Nyx ask skeptically while glancing at Fred and Ed. "We don't know if they won't betray us or not."

"Right after your world got taken by darkness, that crazy Celestia invaded our kingdom and kill off our queen!" Fred exclaims, with tears in his eyes.

"Oh, poor Chrysalis," Ed sobs a bit, "Why must bad things happen to good queens?!"

"Give me a break!" Scootaloo groans a bit, "Chrysalis; A good queen? Ugh!"

"There's a portal, come on." Luna said as the group jumps into a portal behind themselves. On the other side, they saw the doors closing.

"Great, just great," Rainbow exclaims with a frown. Suddenly two Boojums appear, screeching and trying to hit them.

"Ugh, back off!" Megan exclaims as she attack the Boojums with Luna, Lorcan and Rainbow while the others hid quickly.

"Die!" Lorcan exclaims as he grabs a Boojum and rips it apart. Megan and Luna finish the remaining ones off. "All right, let's get going!"

"Right."

More essence was drawn to Megan as the group heads to the other side of the room. Suddenly the floor begins to break up. Nyx asks in shock, "What was that?!"

"Don't know but uh oh!" Fred exclaims in worry as the group jump/flew out of the way, positioning themselves with the middle platform.

The gang goes up the stairs to the right, walking around while Ed looks dizzy, groaning, "Wow, these are a lot of stairs."

"There's a floating path." Rairty said as she saw a floating path nearby. "Let's go."

The group heads to the floating path and run across it, jumping over to the other side where a portal's at. Then they jump through it.

On the other side of the portal, the group saw a metal gate with an Earth Royal Guard blocking it. Rainbow exclaims, "I got him!" The pony flew at the enemy and grabs him, struggling until she breaks his neck.

"Never saw Rainbow killing someone before!" Apple Bloom exclaims in amazement. "Not sure if we should be amazed or horrified though."

The group continues going to the right, seeing some blue Meta Essence as Megan took it, giving her some energy. The girl said, "There we go. Now let's see where that Royal Guard came from."

"Follow me." Lorcan said as the others follow him to where the Royal Guard came from.

Soon they came across some sort of strange object on a small structure, Megan ask Luna, "Luna, what is that thing?"

"That refills your Essence." Luna explains to Megan seriously. "It can help out."

Suddenly more of the Royal Guards came, attacking the group. Some of them corner the foals. Rarity gasps in horror, "Sweetie Belle!"

"Scootaloo," Rainbow exclaims in alarm. "Apple Bloom, Nyx!"

"Come closer and these brats die!" A Unicorn Royal Guard snaps, holding his horn right at the four foals, making some of them worry a bit.

"Okay, that's it. I'm drawing the line!" Lorcan snorts as he shoots out flames at the one who made the threat, burning him to death. The other Royal Guards gasps in horror, "All right, boys; your turn!"

The other Royal Guards scream as Lorcan jumps at them, ripping them apart. Megan and the ponies gasp at what the dragon is doing. Ed exclaims, "Dang! Your boyfriend..."

"I know, I'm glad he's on our side!" Luna exclaims in shock and amazement. Soon Lorcan finishes the Royal Guards off.

"That will show ya." Lorcan said while dusting his claws off, "Anyone okay?"

"Yeah, sure am!" Nyx exclaims to Lorcan with a smile. "Thanks for saving me and my friends."

"No problem; if anything were to happen to you...or Spike...heck, who knows what I would do?"

"I hate to think otherwise." Fred said, shivering in fear. He hates to get on Lorcan's bad side if anyone kill anyone that the dragon cares for.

"Yeah...especially if that someone is Celestia who ruined everything in Equestria," Celestia said in sadness. "We must stop her even if she's my friend..."

"Strange...I thought I saw a dark aura around Celestia before." Luna said seriously and thoughtfully. "It's as if some sort of darkness is possessing her..."

"Well, we got to get going before any more of those Royal Guards show up." Rarity said in concern.

"Let's go after 'de princess!" Apple Bloom exclaims eagerly and in determination. "We could be...Cutie Mark Crusader Princess Defeaters!"

"YAY! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER PRINCESS DEFEATERS," The Cutie Mark Crusaders cheers on wildly with Nyx.

"Wow, that's loud!" Ed exclaims while covering his ears by how loud that the three fillies are.

"What? I can't hear ya! Those fillies are too loud!" Fred yells loudly right back to Ed while covering his own ears to block out the noise.

The group moves on, heading to the small structure. They find some sort of box as Sweetie comments, "That box looks like the same one that changed Megan earlier."

"So much for healing," Nyx said with a frown at the box.

"I'm sure we can use whatever we can get." Megan assures her friends as they go into the same direction and turns right then left, finding a door. They went through it and more doors until they arrive at a crazy looking place.

The heroes spot a Boojum, though not attacking. Luna said, "I shall deal with that one, you all just deal with getting to the other side." The others go to the edge of the floor, seeing some panels appearing.

As Luna flew up and attacks the Boojum, the group follows the panels while the alicorn fires her magic spells at the enemy, killing it. Then she reunites with her friends as they follow the panels, making their way along with them.

Megan's group reaches the other side while doing some precision jumping, Luna comments, "You're almost there."

The group jump to the other side, running into a portal quickly. Upon reaching the other side, they heard a melody play and saw two more Boojums, making Rainbow exclaims, "Come on!"

Rainbow flew at one Boojum and fought it off while Megan jump and destroy the other. Once both Boojums are dead, the girl absorbs the essence that they dropped. Now the heroes head to where the levers were at.

Twilight teleport into the area, saying, "The proper order of things is often a mystery to me; you too?"

Once Twilight teleports right out, Fred in confusion ask, "What is that unicorn on about?"

"I don't know, I don't get riddles," Ed whines in confusion.

"I think what Twilight is saying is that if we pull different levers, it will do the sequences like when we heard that mysterious melody." Megan said thoughtfully while glancing at the levers.

Megan, Apple Bloom and Lorcan went to the levers. The dragon pulls the right one first, the filly the left while Megan pulls the last one in the middle. This causes the doors nearby to open up, allowing the group to go up the stairs.

Two Royal Guards attack, making Rarity frowns as she say, "Let's hurry, but let's beat these hooligans from far away!"

Luna fires two magic blasts at the two Royal Guards' heads, killing them both. After that, the heroes jump from one plate to another and reach the other side. They head to a portal on the other side but saw a Pegasus Royal Guard blocking the path.

"Die!" Lorcan snaps as he grabs the Royal Guard, snaps his neck and toss him over the side. "Good riddance!"

The gang goes through the portal, entering the next area. Now on the other side, they saw everything rearranging into what sort of a school. The floor is activated, splitting into several moving pieces that goes up and down.

"Do we have to climb those?" Scootaloo ask with a groan while looking at the pieces.

"Pretty much," Apple Bloom said to Scootaloo with a shrug.

"Let's get to climbing." Megan said as the ponies move up moving panels in different directions, heading their way to the top. Soon they found another portal, jumping in.

Now the gang enters another room where two more Boojums attack them. Fred groans a bit, "Ugh, not more of these things!"

"They are annoying!" Ed exclaims as he and Fred fights off the Boojum but got hit by the screeching. Luna flew up and kicks the two Boojums down. Megan and Lorcan slash at the monsters, killing them both.

Once the fight is over, the gang saw three doors in front of them. Rainbow looks curious as she ask, "Which door shall we go into?"

"How about the one that looks green?" Megan suggests as the group goes into the green portal on the left. Sure enough, the girl is right.

The group enters another room with another set of doors which goes to different areas. They choose the next green portal. In each one, Megan's group always choose the green one until they were out of doors/portals to use.

"Thank goodness that's over!" Rainbow exclaims in relief. "That door shuffle is annoying!"

Now the heroes are at a walkway with two Earth Royal Guards coming at them. Megan slashes at the two ponies, getting them like mad.

"Oh crap!" Lorcan yelps as he saw two Boojums coming out of the school. "Wait, why am I freaked out for?"

Lorcan got onto Luna's back as the two flew up and around them then goes upward to make the two enemies crash into each other while screaming. As they fell, Megan slashes them both, destroying the two Boojums.

"We can get into school now." Nyx said playfully. Just then a familiar unicorn teleports in. "Mommy!"

"Enterign school involves a real leap of logic." Twilight said before teleporting away from the area.

"We got it, Twilight!" Rainbow exclaims with a frown to the teleporting Twilight. "Honestly, she's more weirder than usual!"

"Don't be rude, we just have to jump." Megan said Rainbow before the gang jumps through a window, entering a school. Inside, they saw a crazy pony walking around, laughing stupidly. "Wow, what happened to him?"

"'Dat pony has gone plain crazy." Apple Bloom gulps a bit at the sight of the pony, "As if she was tortured!"

The group enters through a door, seeing a Unicorn Royal Guard. Megan kills as two more appears but Luna and Lorcan got rid of them quickly.

"That should do it." Luna said as the group goes through a door to their left, entering an auditorium. There's Zecora waiting for them by the stage.

The group saw trap doors opening on the stage as more crazy ponies appearing, laughing a bit insanely. Megan remarks to Zecora, "Damn, there's a bit more to do than what you actually suggested, is it?"

"Thanks for telling us, Zecora." Rainbow said to Zecora sarcastically.

"No need for sarcasm, Rainbow Dash. My memory isn't what it used to be but I'm here now so I will try to amend its deficiencies." Zecora said to the group seriously.

"Hopefully so what now," Fred ask Zecora curiously.

"The school library has a recipe for the potion. Consult the Book of Forbidden Spells for now."

"Oh no," Ed gasps in horror as he saw something. "Run!"

Sure enough, two more of the Royal Guards appear, ready to attack the heroes as Zecora disappears. Apple Bloom gasps in shock, "Zecora, come back!"

"We will deal with her later. Time we get to the library." Megan said seriously. Time is a wasting here!

 

Author's note
The gang's search of the school continues on! In the next chapter, they search the library for the book then go looking for the ingredients. Read, review and suggest.