Nightmare In Minequestria: Book 3 of a Mlp/TC Trilogy

Chapter 7: Hi. And Hay.

Twilight

This was crazy! How could earth ponies do magic as good as a full grown unicorn? I mean, I always knew about the magical auras that existed inside everypony. Like a soul. But...I was just in shock of how amazing that was.
We all started to head down the large spiral staircase that had opened in the ground, but Jordan called out, "Aren't you coming?" and we all turned around to see Ryan, Tyler, Bon Bon, Lyra, Seto, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, the Doctor and Derpy standing behind awkwardly.
"No...you see, we're not...er, part of this...group thing. We're going to spread word through the city about your return. But hopefully we'll see each other again soon," the Doctor replied with a smile.
"Okay. Thanks for everything!" I called, and we all shouted our thanks. We followed Button, Octavia, and Vinyl down the spiral staircase, getting one last glimpse of the beautiful statues, the cyan forcefield flashing in my mind.
The staircase was surprisingly long- King Sombra's castle all over again. I noticed that Sweetie Belle had stayed with the group, not leaving Button's side. They had to be special someponies or something.
Fluffle Puff had stayed, too. No one really seemed to question her, though. Which was good, I guess.
I instinctively lit up my horn for light as the staircase got darker, but at the same time Vinyl lit up her horn, while Octavia's bowtie began to glow purple and the propeller on Button's cap started glowing yellow. Again, amazing.
Finally, we reached the bottom of the staircase, and there was a single torch next to an old, wooden door.
Octavia trotted up to the door and gave some kind of specific knock with her hoof. The door started glowing a faint light purple, then light blue, then yellow, then it swung open by itself.
Inside was a long, rectangular room with arching ceilings and long tables crowded with minecraftians and ponies alike, although there seemed to be more ponies than minecraftians.
Torches glowing with brilliant flames from bright green to deep magenta lined the walls, and it everyone seemed to be chatting happily together. Not loudly, but many of them were talking at once. Magical sparks flew from place to place on occasion.
As we piled in, everyone slowly seemed to notice, from the nearest to the farthest on the other side of the room.
Soon, awkward, dead silence.
Ian cleared his throat. "Hi."
"Is...is that...?" a female minecraftian with long brownish-red hair and a white bow asked with wide eyes.
"Is this some kind of trap?" a light blue unicorn asked suspiciously. I think her name was Colgate.
More murmurs arose, some hopeful and others suspicious, until one loud voice in the back demanded,
"What's going on here?"
Everyone turned around to see none other than Princess Cadance standing firm with her purple wings spread. For once, she didn't look that happy. Not evil, of course, just...strict.
She saw us, and her eyes widened and filled with the hope and joy of the Cadance I knew. But then, a dark blue hoof gently took her right wing an pushed it down, to reveal Shining Armor. He looked even more hostile than Cadance-that tough look he had that usually only appeared when he was in his royal guard uniform.
"Shining..." Cadance said, turning to her husband.
"It's a trap," He said flatly. "They all died."
Cadance walked down the room with Shining Armor at her side. Everyone's heads turned slowly to watch as they stopped in front of us.
"Please explain," Cadance said to Vinyl, Octavia and Button.
"They're the real deal! I swear!" Vinyl Scratch said.
"How do you know this isn't some kind of trap? They could just be illusions created by Nightmare Notch himself," Cadance pointed out.
I sighed inwardly, knowing she was going to need some kind of proof we were real. Something seems to have made Shining Armor and Cadance very strict and suspicious, they probably ran this...group.
"Cadance..." I said quietly. The pink alicorn turned to look at me. There was no hostility in her gaze...just genuine confusion, yet interested.
"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake...?" I began.
Cadance smiled.
"Clap your hooves and do a little shake."
Shining Armor and Cadance exchanged glances.
"Maybe we should take them to...you know," Cadance suggested.
Shining Armor looked over us all. "Okay."
Cadance beckoned us with a wave of her wing, and we followed her down the long room, past the tables with many unblinking stares.
At the other end of the room was another old door. The door glowed a faint magenta and light blue on their approach, then swung open. Inside was a small hallway with a much shorter roof. There were a couple of old doors on the sides, but we were led to the one at the end if the hallway.
"...-field has been checked recently. I can feel it," a voice was saying, clearly audible through the rickety wooden door.
Shining Armor knocked, the same peculiar knock Octavia had used, and the room went silent.
"Come in," another unrecognizable voice called from inside, and the door swung open.
A minecraftian and a unicorn I didn't recognize were sitting together in a fairly nice room, with a bright torch lighting up the whole place. There was a small bed, an a desk; someone must live here.
"What the whaat?" the minecraftian asked. She looked much different from any minecraftian I had seen- she looked insectlike, with a shiny black exoskeleton, deep reddish-pink horns and a stripe on her head, along with thin, straight insectlike wings of the same color. She had various stripes across her body that glowed faintly in a bright cyan.
Cyan...
"Bonks?" Quentin asked.
'Bonks' just stared at us with wide magenta eyes, and looked over at the unicorn who I still didn't recognize. She was white with a medium-length pink mane and tail. Although she was indoors, she had a cloak that covered her cutie mark, I wondered if that was on purpose?
"What is this?" she asked Cadance.
"Vinyl Scratch, Button Mash and Octavia brought them in. I think they're real..." Cadance reported.
"Hm. Well, if they're fakes, like illusions, maybe-" the unicorn started, but stopped abruptly and shot a yellow jet of light from her horn out of nowhere from her horn straight at me.
I flinched and instinctively deflected it with a magenta forcefield. The laser absorbed into the field and was gone. I took the field down.
"What in the hay was that for?" I asked. Adam snorted, but I ignored it. "They're real," the unicorn confirmed. "Illusions wouldn't be able to do that."
"And the minecraftians?" Shining asked, looking to Bonks.
"They're real too," she said. "Illusions don't laugh when ponies say 'hay." she raised an eyebrow at Adam.
And suddenly, Shining Armor threw his front hooves around me, all the hostility gone. "Twily! It's really you!"
"Twily?" Bash muttered.
"What are we, chopped liver?" Rainbow asked. Shining smiled and let go of me, and I gasped for air.
"You want me to accidentally choke you to death, too?" he asked. Rainbow didn't respond. The minecraftians all greeted Bonks, obviously they knew her.
But there was someone I didn't know.
"Who are you?" I asked the mysterious white unicorn. Luna raised an eyebrow in my direction for some reason.
The unicorn smiled, and there was a flash of yellow light, and in her place was a much larger white unicorn-but with wings and a flowing mane of pink, blue, green and purple.
"Princess Celestia!" we all gasped except for Jordan, Bash and Bodil, who just gaped at the sudden majestic alicorn.
Fluffle Puff gasped, too, but she didn't say anything. She just gasped.
Then continued to munch on Jerome's tie.
That was obviously much more interesting.
"I would have thought you'd have guessed by now, Twilight. I'm overjoyed that I can see you-all of you-alive and well!" She walked over to Luna. "It's been four years, but it feels like one thousand again..." she murmured, and the two alicorn sisters dipped their heads onto each other's shoulder, a strange gesture I had seen them do before.
Once everyone had said their greetings, Celestia glanced at the door. "You should go tell everypony the good news," she said to Cadance and Shining Armor, and in a flash of light she was the small unicorn again.
We all exited the door, except for Celestia. I turned around as everyone left. "A-are you coming, Princess?" I asked.
She smiled and shook her head. "I can't show myself, even in this form. I may run this guild, but if word ever got out and somehow got to Nightmare Notch of where I am..." she didn't finish.
Of course. She had to be one of the most powerful magical beings in Minequestria. Who knows what would happen if she was found by Nightmare Notch?
I gave her a small smile and walked out the door, closing it behind me.