What if....

“Are you sure about this Applebloom, we don’t know what’s in there.”  Sweetie Belle asked with a hint of fear in her voice. She was looking at the grass in front of her, but a handle was visible, indicating it was a door.

Applebloom set down her lantern. “Yep, I’m pretty sure about this.”

“Yeah, and who knows, maybe we’ll find treasure in there!” Scootaloo added excitedly.

All this brought up Sweetie Belle’s enthusiasm, so she smiled at the other two crusaders and looked up at the door handle.

“Alright, but how are we going to get up there.”

Scootaloo snorted. “Oh, that will be easy. Applebloom, can you help me with this.” Applebloom walked under the handle, for she already knew what Scootaloo was planning. Scootaloo then jumped on Applebloom’s back and reached for the handle. She grabbed it with her hoof and pulled. She gasped as she swung with the door off of Applebloom’s back.

Scootaloo called out in muffled words. “Uh guys, a little help here.”

“Don’t worry, I got you.” Sweetie Belle called out.

“I hope so.” Scootaloo let go and dropped. She fell a very small distance, though, and fell right into, or rather yet, onto Sweetie Belle. They landed with a thud. Scootaloo was the first to get up. She dusted herself off and turned to lend Sweetie Belle a helping hoof.

“See, like I told you, easy.” Once she helped Sweetie Belle up, they all turned towards the opened door. It revealed nothing but pitch black darkness. Although faced with a daunting task, Apple bloom picked up the lantern and walked towards the entrance. She turned her head towards Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who had looks of fear and determination, respectively, and motioned for them to follow.

When she shook her head, the lantern clanked, which echoed in the darkness. This only instilled fear in all of them, but Scootaloo began to walk forward anyways.

“Come on girls, we aren’t getting anywhere just standing here.” She walked into the darkness first, with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle following suit.

They walked for a few minutes, huddled together to share the light.

“I think this is some kind of tunnel, hold on wait!” Scootaloo suddenly shouted. They all stopped simultaneously, with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom turned towards Scootaloo looking on expectantly. She waited for a few seconds, and then pointed with a hoof towards the front. “Look, there’s a light!”

Indeed where she was pointing there was a small light. They all began to run towards the light and stopped suddenly when they arrived.

“What is it?” Applebloom asked.

“It looks like another door.” Sweetie Belle responded when she saw another handle.

“Well Applebloom, you know the drill.”  Scootaloo said before Applebloom began to walk under the handle. Scootaloo jumped on Applebloom’s back and reached for the handle. Once she reached it, she pulled, but it didn’t open.  She pulled on it over and over again, but it didn’t budge. Finally Scootaloo let go and looked down at Sweetie Belle in defeat. Sweetie Belle stared at the door for a while then walked over to it. She lifted a hoof and placed it on the door. She nudged it and light began to show through a crack. She pushed on it, which opened it up. A blue light greeted them. It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust, but when it did, they walked towards the light. When they looked around, they noticed they were in a very large room. Scootaloo and Applebloom both turned to Sweetie Belle.

“Nice job Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Sweetie Belle blushed.

“Yeah, now we can start exploring!” Applebloom added.

“Yeah!” They all grouped up and walked over to a door.

“Huh, looks like this one is higher. Well, now we’re going to need your help Sweetie Belle.”  Sweetie Belle, though, shook her head.

“Maybe we don’t have too. Let me try to open it.” Sweetie Belle walked over to the door and pushed on it. Luckily for them, it opened up. They walked into the room and looked around. It appeared to be a bedroom, for there was a large bed in the room. There was also a chair, but that was about it.

“Hey guys look!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked up towards the bed. On it was Scootaloo, who was wearing a large helmet.

“I found this along with a set of armor! How cool is that!” The helmet sat awkwardly on Scootaloo’s head.

“Ugh, this helmet was not made for ponies.” She took it off and placed it on the bed next to the armor.

“Hey, we should bring this stuff back to Ponyville and keep it! Did you bring the wagon Applebloom?”

“What, ah thought you brought it? Ah brought the lantern and Sweetie Belle brought the saddle bags.”

Scootaloo looked up and thought about it for a moment. She smiled guiltily though when she remembered.

She turned an eye towards the other two. “Oops, I kind of forgot… this armor is heavy anyways.”

She looked back down, and when she did she came across another door.

“Hey look, another door.” She pointed with a hoof. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom turned to where Scootaloo was pointed and indeed saw another door.

“Ah think that’s a hatch Scootaloo.” Applebloom corrected.

“Yeah yeah, but that means there’s more exploring to do, come on.”

Scootaloo jumped off and walked over to the hatch. She opened it and stared down.

“It looks like a staircase; do you really want to go down there?”

“It’s probably not even that long of a way down, besides it’s lighted. Come on, let’s go.” Applebloom said enthusiastically. She placed the lantern down then walked over to the hatch while Sweetie Belle took off her saddle bags. They all then filed into the hatch and down the staircase.

They walked, and walked, and walked, yet they seemed that they were walking forever.

“How long…. have we been walking for Applebloom?” Scootaloo asked tiredly.

Applebloom stopped and turned to Scootaloo. “Ah don’t know, maybe 30 minutes.”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stopped as well, though something caught Sweetie Belle’s attention. She looked to her left and saw an opening in the wall. She walked over to it and looked into the opening curiously.

“Hey, I found something. It looks like a slide to me.” The other two walked over to where Sweetie Belle was.

“Yeah, it does look like a slide! Maybe it’s a faster way down!” Scootaloo said with hope.  Sweetie Belle, though, shook her head.

“It sounds dangerous, how do we know that it’s safe.”

“We don’t, but that the fun part.” Scootaloo placed a hoof in the hole.

“Here it goes…” she placed the rest of her body in the hole and slid. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom heard screams and whoops of excitement soon after. They looked at each other and smiled.

“That sounds like fun!” Sweetie Belle eagerly said. They then turned towards the hole and stared down it.

“I wanna go in first!” Applebloom jumped into the hole and screamed as well, leaving Sweetie Belle alone. She looked around for a minute, and then looked back down at the hole.

“Well, here it goes…” she soon after jumped into the hole.

Sweetie Belle screamed in excitement as she slid down the hole. She heard the screams of the other’s further down the slide stop. She stopped screaming as well as she soon seen light shine on the walls. She soon bumped into Applebloom, who bumped into Scootaloo.

“Ugh, where are we?” Scootaloo asked the others behind her.

Applebloom scanned the area and notice an open door. “I think we’re at the bottom, but look the door’s already open.”   They got off each other and walked up to the door.

“Who do you think opened the…”

“Hey girls.”

They stood dumbfounded as they saw somepony they didn’t expect to see.

“Pinkie Pie!!” The three said together.

Scootaloo was the first to recover. She shook her head off and walked up to Pinkie Pie.

“What are you doing here Pinkie Pie?!”

“Well, I heard about the burglar that stole the Cake’s goods. I was like ‘I wonder who stole the food’. Then Twilight went missing, and that made me super worried, but then Princess Celestia said she found Twilight and her abductors. That made me very happy, but I felt like I had to find the Cake’s goods. So I walked over to this place to find the goods. AAAND I did find them along with…”

“What do you think you’re doing here,” A gruff voice interrupted her.

Pinkie Pie turned around to face whatever interrupted her.

“Hey, you know it isn’t nice to interrupt…. uh oh.” In front of her was a cloaked creature that stood taller than the ponies present. It walked up and put its face up to Pinkie Pie.

“You shouldn’t trespass in my home.” Pinkie Pie put her face closer to the creatures face and took a quick whiff.

“UGH, you really smell. When was the last time you took a bath?” Pinkie Pie turned her head to the fillies behind her, who stood frozen in fear.

She started speaking in a whisper. “I’ll distract him; you girls go to that door over there.” She pointed a hoof towards another door on the opposite side of the room. The three crusaders there didn’t appear to move an inch, though.

“Go, now!” Pinkie Pie turned back to face the creature, who had an angry look on his face.

“So, mister ponynapper, when is your birthday?”

The creature’s angry look suddenly lifted.

“Oh, I don’t exactly remember, it’s been a while.

“Well, I can set up your birthday party right now!”

She pulled out her party cannon out of nowhere and aimed it at the creature. She pressed the button and boom, confetti and streamers struck the creature.

“AH! It’s in my eyes!”

Pinkie Pie turned around while the creature was rubbing his eyes and noticed that the three fillies were gone.

“Ah, good, now we have to get out of here.” She ran towards the door on the opposite side and opened it. Inside were three fillies cowering next to a bright crystal. She trotted over to them and gave them a big hug.

“Alright, we need to get out of here before that monster abducts us!”

Sweetie Belle looked up to Pinkie. “But how, there’s only one way out, and that’s though the stairs.”

“I’m going to get you pink pony!”

“There’s always another way out silly.”  With one forearm around the other three, Pinkie Pie tapped the crystal. The four ponies began to glow brightly. A clap was heard as they teleported up the tower. They landed back in the main room. Pinkie Pie scanned the room around her, but let out a sigh of relief when she didn’t see the creature.

“Ah, safe, but we better get out of here before that monster comes back.”

”What monster, do you mean me. That’s not very nice.”

Pinkie Pie turned around very slowly with the three fillies in front of her poking their heads over her. A blob appeared to drop from the wall. That blob turned into the creature, but this time the creature had his arm raised with what appeared to be electricity in his claw.

“You taught me something new pony, which is I didn’t know that the crystal did that.” He began to approach the ponies.

“I wonder what else this crystal can do.”

Ding!

He suddenly stopped and lowered his hand. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a shiny watch. He tapped it with his claw and placed it in his cloak.

“I knew this thing was broken. I might be late, but not before I…”

He looked up and noticed that the group of ponies was gone and the door was wide open.

“Ugh, here we go again.”

“Come on girls we’re almost there!”

“Look there’s mah sister. Applejack, he... You!”

45 minutes earlier.  8:00 P.M.

Well here goes nothing.

Charlie had begun his walk towards the Apple Family’s Barn in the night. This was mainly to use the cover of dark to mask his walk into the town. He looked towards the dark silhouettes of the Apple trees, visible in the dark from the moonlight.

I don’t know Heinrich’s shadow spell, but even if I did I wouldn’t be able to pull Twilight into it. A gust of wind blew past him. He smiled, as he really liked the feel of wind even though he was wearing a cloak. He continued his path, determined to take Twilight back, even though he might miss out on friendship. It was for the best, for he didn’t want to risk exposing himself as a ponynapper because he had Twilight.

He looked down at Twilight. Her head was exposed through the blanket.

If only I could be accepted. Heh, I’m judging myself even though I don’t know what the ponies think. Hey, Twilight accepted me, maybe the others can too. He looked back up and noticed that the trees were way much closer than he had expected. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a watch.

Huh, 15 minutes and I’m already here…what’s that Twilight. No I didn’t steal this one; I found it on the outskirts of town on a rock… no that isn’t the same thing. You know what, never mind. He looked around for a minute, and then shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Man I really have got to stop talking to myself. He then began his walk to the barn.

He arrived in no time, and found a rock next to the barn. He looked around, but no one appeared to be watching him. The Apple’s house had no lights in it, and he doubted that anypony was out in the apple orchards right now, so he took a seat on the rock. He placed Twilight next to him, crossed his legs and waited.

Twenty five minutes later he pulled out his watch.

Oh great, Heinrich’s overdo; now I might have to go out and take her by myself.

Crack!

He suddenly lifted his head and scanned the trees.

I’m pretty sure I heard a tree branch.

He got up and walked over to the trees. He stopped when he heard some leaves crunch.

“Who’s there?” He called lightly.

“......NOW!!” Suddenly pegasi guards wearing golden armor jumped out of the trees and tackled. They piled on Charlie until he couldn’t move. While they had him down they tied rope to his arms and legs. Once they secured him they flew up and pulled on the long rope along his arms, lifting him up to his knees. A guard with purple armor walked up to him and gave him a scowl. The guard looked over his shoulder and immediately dropped his expression. He ran behind Charlie, to which he turned around. Charlie watched the guard open up the blanket and smile. He heard more leaves rustling and turned around. He watched 5 ponies and a dragon, who he assumed as Twilight’s friends, run past him towards Twilight. Once they past him another pony walked up to him. He knew who this pony was, and bowed his head in respect. A unicorn guard walked up to the pony in front of Charlie.

“Your majesty, we have confirmed that Twilight Sparkle is indeed safe, just unconscious.” The Princess of the Sun nodded her head and the guard stood by her side. She then focused her attention on the prisoner. She gave a disappointed look to Charlie.

“You, Charles, are under the arrest for the abduction of the unicorn Twilight Sparkle.” Charlie sat defeated. He turned his head in shame, but a snicker caused him to turn his head back. The Princess no longer had a look of disappointment and the guard seemed to be smiling.

“Gotcha,” the princess said in a light teasing tone.

Suddenly laughter erupted. Charlie turned around and noticed that even the guards and Twilight’s friends were laughing.

“I have been humiliated, what is this about!” The laughter slowly died down, and the Princess spoke up.

“We knew of you plan, so we decided to play a little prank on you. Just as long as you tell us what happened to Twilight, you will be fine.

“Oh, thank you Your Majesty!” He got up and the pegasi guards untied the ropes. He rubbed his wrists and began.

“Well, it was an accident. She…”

Yelling was heard in the distance, and everypony turned their heads towards the sound.

“Come on girls we’re almost there!” Three fillies ran up the hill, with a familiar pink pony following,

“Look there’s mah sister. Applejack, he... You!” They all suddenly stopped and stared at Charlie in fear. Charlie stood confused, and turned towards the young fillies and Pinkie Pie.

“What’s wrong Applebloom?” Applejack asked.

“He scared us in that ruin north of Ponyville. I’m sorry sis, but we had to check out that ruin that he was in.” Applebloom pointed a hoof at Charlie then hid behind Pinkie Pie with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

Charlie turned his head in the direction of the tower and shook his head in disappointment.

“What is this about Charles?” The princess asked Charlie with concern.

“This must have been the work of Heinrich. He’s the one who scared Twilight off the cliff and now he’s scaring these poor young fillies and Pinkie Pie.” He turned towards the princess. “I’m sorry Princess Celestia, I know this is his…”

“AH-HAH!!” A voice yelled from the trees. Everypony turned right as Heinrich jumped out from the shadow and tackled the Princess.

“Give me it! Give me your immortality!!” Heinrich had his hand above him, it was encased in electricity.

Everypony stood dumbstruck as Heinrich assaulted the princess, but not for long. Every unicorn in the area used their magic and various colors encapsulated Heinrich.

“What, I can’t move!” Heinrich turned towards Shining Armor with rage in his eyes.

“Let me go Unicorn, or so I will… hey!” The pegasi guards began to lift Heinrich off the ground. They lifted him away from the princess and dropped him on the ground. Still encapsulated in magic, he struggled to get off the ground.

“Let go off me, you…” He didn’t finish, for he was tackled to the ground by Charlie. The magic suddenly dissipated and Charlie held down Heinrich’s arms.

“I knew it! You are that spy from the West, and the leader of the OFE!” He released one hand, to which Heinrich attempted to punch Charlie. He was stopped short once again by magic, this time by Princess Celestia.

“It’s time for you to go Heinrich, and I know just the way to do it.” He released his grip, and with the princess holding Heinrich down, he turned to the group surrounding him and addressed the guards.

“I need you to tie him down; I need to put him away once and for all.” The guards looked at Shining Armor, who nodded in approval, then ran over to the rope and grabbed it. They proceeded to tie up the Heinrich, who was subdued by Princess Celestia’s magic. Once tied up and gagged, Charlie walked over to Heinrich and picked him up. He slung Heinrich over his shoulder and looked at the group behind him.

“I will follow you to oversee this.” The Princess, along with a few guards, walked over to Charlie.

“Not that I distrust you, it’s just that I need to see this for myself.” The princess told Charlie. Charlie nodded, and then turned around once more. Twilight’s friends, the three fillies and the guard in purple armor shook their heads.

“We will stay here with Twilight.” Rainbow Dash spoke for most of the group. One of the other guards staying spoke up.

“We will stay with Prince Shining Armor your Majesty.”

Princess Celestia nodded in approval, and then turned to Charlie.

“Shall we?”

“Let’s.”