LEGO Equestria Girls

Chapters

Prologue
A Very Strange World
Familiar Faces
What is Lego?
Attack at the Police Station
Building a Team
To the Moon
The Lunar Base
Weapons, Spaceships, and Explosions
Rocket Science
Going Medieval
Storming the Castle
The Power of Teamwork
Back to the City
The Shimmering Sunset
Coming Together
Downtown Battle
Returning Home
Epilogue

Prologue

Prologue

Things were not looking good for Princess Twilight Sparkle. It had been only a week since her coronation as Equestria’s newest princess, and today was supposed to be the start of her first Princess Summit. Her best friends — Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and number one assistant Spike — had accompanied her to the Crystal Empire to provide support. But it was not the summit that worried the novice pony princess. That had been put on hold due to a major crisis that had unfolded the previous night.

While everypony was asleep, a cloaked pony had snuck into the room Twilight was sleeping in and attempted to steal her crown — which was also the Element of Magic, one of the six Elements of Harmony. The thief would have made a clean getaway had it not been for an ill-timed move that caused her to stumble, walking up Twilight and Spike and allowing them to catch the thief in the act.

The thief had then made a run for it and Twilight, soon joined by her friends, quickly gave chase. After running through many hallways, they managed to stop the thief — by now revealed to be a unicorn mare — in a room that housed little more than a mirror. But in the process, the crown was lost when it fell through the mirror, much to everypony’s surprise. The thief had then taken advantage of their moment of shock to slip away and follow the crown through the strange mirror.

The six ponies and one baby dragon were clueless as to what had occurred before their eyes. Now, it was the morning after those events had happened, and they had just finished explaining to the three other princesses — Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance — what had happened. They had many questions, but none more important than the identity of the crown thief.

“Sunset Shimmer,” answered Celestia, solemnly. “A former student of mine. She began her studies with me not long before Twilight. But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path. One that has sadly led to her stealing your crown.”

“She replaced Twilight’s with this one,” said Spike, holding up the fake crown that Sunset Shimmer had left behind.

Princess Celestia looked closely at the fake crown. At first glance, it could have easily been mistaken for the real deal, but a closer inspection revealed otherwise. While the real crown had the look of being carefully crafted, this one seemed as if it had been quickly and perfectly shaped from one chunk of material, like it was cast from a mold. The Element of Magic, which was supposed to be a gemstone embedded in the real crown, appeared to be simply painted on. The most striking difference of all was when Celestia held the fake crown in her magical aura and immediately noticed that it was made of a much lighter material than the real one. She then dropped the fake crown, which made a noise very unlike the metallic clanging one would have expected. She said, “I suppose Sunset Shimmer thought you wouldn’t notice right away that this was not yours. And by the time you did, it would be too late to go after your crown and Element of Harmony.” Celestia then began to walk out of the room.

“But I don’t understand. Where did she go? Where did she take the crown?” asked Twilight, following after Celestia.

The Princess of the Sun could not give a definite answer to those questions, so she replied, “You’ll soon know more about this place than even I do.”

Everypony now stood in the room containing the mirror that Sunset Shimmer had vanished through the previous night with Princess Twilight’s crown.

“This is no ordinary mirror,” explained Princess Luna, looking at the mysterious mirror. “It is a gateway to another world. A gateway that opens once every thirty moons.”

“Sparkly!” said Pinkie Pie, unable to resist sticking a hoof through the mirror.

Luna gave an unamused facial expression as she used her magic to pull Pinkie’s hoof away from the mirror. She then continued, “It has always been kept in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. But when Princess Cadance took over the Crystal Empire, we sent it here for her to watch over.”

Standing behind the assembled ponies, Princess Celestia sighed. “I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would someday use it to return, to come back to Equestria seeking my guidance,” she admitted. “Obviously, this is not what has happened.”

“Twilight,” said Cadance, worriedly, “you must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown. Without it, the other Elements of Harmony have no power and Equestria is left without one of its most important means of defense.”

Twilight’s friends were left speechless. They had used the Elements of Harmony many times before to save Equestria from various threats. To think that the absence of one — let alone the most important one, Magic — would render the rest useless was shocking to them. It made very clear the importance of Princess Twilight’s mission.

“Your crown does not belong in the place Sunset Shimmer now calls home,” continued Princess Luna. “And in her possession, your Element of Harmony will no doubt be used to bring harm to the inhabitants of this other realm. They will not have the power to defend themselves.”

As Twilight walked up to the mirror, Luna grabbed Twilight’s saddle bags and levitated them onto her back, ensuring the newly-crowned princess would be ready for anything.

“You understand the importance of your task?” asked Celestia.

Twilight nodded and said, “Of course.”

“Good. Then you must go at once.”

Twilight sighed before walking towards the mirror. Before she could step through, Rainbow Dash suddenly landed in her way and exclaimed, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! She’s going, we’re going with her. Right, girls?” She and the rest of her friends stood in front of the mirror and smiled in determination. They had been friends with Twilight Sparkle for a long time now, and they were willing to do anything to help her.

“Oooh! I’m so ‘nervicited’!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie with a huge grin on her face.

“You do realize that’s not a real word, right?” Applejack pointed out.

Twilight smiled at this display of friendship, and was more than happy to accept their help.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you go,” said Celestia.

Everypony was shocked to hear such a thing. “What?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash in anger. “Why not?!”

Celestia understood why Twilight’s friends wanted to go, but she also understood the consequences of doing so. She explained, “Sending all of you could upset the balance of this alternate world, creating havoc that would make it impossible for Twilight to get the crown back from Sunset Shimmer. This is something Princess Twilight must do alone.”

Twilight’s friends were understandably upset that they couldn’t go with their friend, but if what Celestia said was true, then the only way to help Twilight was to not go with her. Reluctantly, they all stepped aside.

“Time is of the essence,” explained Luna. “On the third day, when the Moon reaches its peak in the night sky, the gateway will close. And once it does, it will be another thirty moons before you will be able to use it to return.”

With a look of determination on her face, Princess Twilight Sparkle walked up to the mirror and stuck her hoof through it. She quickly pulled back her hoof and looked back uncertainly to her friends. They all gave her various words of encouragement while Princess Celestia simply nodded. Certain once more of what to do, Twilight turned back to the mirror and stepped through.

Spike suddenly became very worried. After looking around nervously, he made up his mind and charged straight to the mirror after Twilight.

“Spike! NO!” shouted the other ponies, unable to stop him in time. They could hear the screams of terror as both Twilight and Spike were pulled through to the other side, the noise soon fading to silence.

For a while, no one said anything. They had no idea what Spike was thinking going after Twilight like that, but it was already too late to do anything about it. Princess Twilight and Spike were now on their way to another world, and their friends had no choice but to stay behind.

Eventually, Applejack broke the silence by asking, “So, uh… what now?”

Celestia sighed and answered, “There is nothing we can do now, except wait, and hope that Twilight will succeed and return to us safely.”

“How much do you know about this other world?” asked Fluttershy. “If you don’t mind me asking, that is,” she quietly added.

“Next to nothing, I’m afraid,” replied Celestia. “All I know is that it is an alternate world unlike anything we could imagine.”

“Alternate world?” asked Rarity, suspecting that such a description may be intentional.

“It means there are many differences, yet some similarities as well,” continued Celestia. “I believe this means the residents of this alternate world may take on a different form, but their lives and personalities could be very similar to our own. While she is there, Twilight may encounter another Applejack, another Fluttershy, another Rarity, and so on. She may even run the risk of encountering the Twilight Sparkle who lives there. That is why I could not let you go with her. It is dangerous enough that I had to send Twilight alone, but sending all of you would have increased that risk to near certainty.”

“And what’s so bad about that?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I cannot say for sure,” replied Celestia. “But when we’re talking about the fate of more than one world, I don’t like taking any chances.” The Princess of the Sun turned her attention back to the mirror that served as the gateway between two worlds. “Three days is not a lot of time, but Twilight is resourceful, and I have faith in her. I only hope the differences she will encounter will not overwhelm her too much.”

Author's Note

I'm assuming many of you have already seen Equestria Girls, so I decided to start this story as late as possible before it begins to diverge. In this case, the fake crown is actually a Lego part (in case you didn't figure that out). Also, if anyone can find or make some cover art that would look great for this story, go right ahead and let me know.

A Very Strange World

Chapter 1
A Very Strange World

Twilight Sparkle groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. The ride through the gateway in the mirror had been quick but terrifying. She opened her eyes and saw a clear blue sky up above. She could also feel a light breeze blowing across her face. She was no longer inside the Crystal Castle, but somewhere outside, lying on her back. At least she could confirm she had survived the journey. The only question now was where she had ended up.

“Uh, Twilight?”

Twilight immediately recognized that voice. “Huh? Spike? You’re not supposed to—” she began to say, but stopped once she turned to look at Spike.

Standing next to her was not the baby dragon she recognized, but something she had never seen or even heard of before. His body seemed… boxy, was the best word she could come up with. It was not quite a perfect square; it was slightly wider at the hips than at the shoulders. Its consistent thickness was half of its width at the hips. His legs were just as boxy; they were so short that were almost cube-shaped. The rest of his body was more rounded. His arms were much thinner and longer than his legs, reaching all the way to his waist. His head was shaped like a short cylinder with rounded edges. The strangest body part of all was his claws — if that’s what they were even called anymore. Instead of comprising of four sharp digits, they now took on a rather smooth crescent shape, and were just as thick as the rest of his arm.

And that was just the shape of Spike’s new body. The colors were just as strange. His head, “claws”, and most of his arms had the same purple color that Twilight recognized. His body above the waist and his arms around the shoulders were green, almost like he was wearing some kind of shirt. Everything below the waist was a navy blue — some kind of pants, perhaps? On top of his head was a red baseball cap — no idea where that came from. Perhaps the most surprising detail of all on Spike was his face. His mouth and green eyes seemed more like a pony than a dragon, and he apparently had no nose or ears. Despite the different details, it was similar to the face Twilight recognized, but appeared to be completely flat against his head. If it wasn’t for the occasional movement, she would have sworn it was painted on.

With all of these details accounted for, Twilight Sparkle asked the most important question of the moment. “Uh, Spike… What are you?”

Spike look down at his new body. He was just as confused by his new appearance. He was still standing on two legs, but his tail was now completely gone. After a quick look at himself, he said, “Uh… I don’t know.” He then looked over at Twilight. “In fact, I should be asking you the same question.”

“Huh?” asked Twilight in confusion. She raised her forelegs and, to her horror, what she saw was not a pair of legs with hooves, but a pair of lavender arms with the same crescent-shaped extremities that Spike now had. There was only one way a pony like her would react to such a sight. She immediately sat up and screamed.

Twilight finally covered her mouth after a few seconds. With that moment of panic over, she started to examine herself. She looked at her new appendages as she slowly moved them in every way possible. The best she could describe was that they opened and closed like crab claws, but there was more to this strange body part than that. One half of the crescent could curl to within the other half, and both halves could spread out until it was almost flat. Slightly panicked, she flailed her arms around, noticing that they could bend back and forth in the middle. She then reached down to grab one of her hind legs — now probably better known as simply a leg. Hers were twice as long as Spike’s, allowing her to differentiate the details of it better. It was more rounded at the hip joint, which allowed her leg to swing back and forth easily. At the other end, a tab-like protrusion stuck out at the front — presumably a foot. Like her arms, her legs could also bend in the middle. In fact, despite her boxy appearance, her new body seemed to be just as flexible as her pony body.

“Twilight, you have to get it together!” exclaimed Spike worriedly.

It was only now that Twilight Sparkle realized she had been panting heavily in panic. She took a deep breath to calm herself and stood up on all four limbs. Her neck didn’t seem to be able to bend backwards like it used to, so she had to turn her head sideways to look at Spike. “What… does the rest of me look like?” she asked, dreading whatever answer she would receive.

Spike answered as truthfully as he could. “Um, like you, only not you,” he answered. “You don’t seem to even have a muzzle anymore.”

“My muzzle?!” exclaimed Twilight, sitting down on her rear again. She felt her face and, sure enough, felt no protrusion at all. Just the smooth curved surface of her head. She started breathing rapidly again and was about to scream again when Spike rushed over and covered her mouth with his “claws”.

“Are you gonna scream again?” asked Spike.

Having been snapped out of it, Twilight shook her head.

Spike stepped back and looked around. “Where are we?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” answered Twilight. Looking around, she could see they were in some kind of grassy field. Not far away in the background were some tall buildings in all directions, indicating that they were in some kind of park within a city. The strangest sight of all was the trees within the park. They were conical in shape, but instead of having individual branches, they had round “sections” that got progressively smaller higher up.

Twilight looked back and saw a statue atop a pedestal. The pedestal was a little taller than she was, and the statue was of a horse — which also had a rather strange boxy shape — rearing on its hind legs. She reached out toward the pedestal and, instead of touching something solid, her arm passed through. Not only that, but she could see the part of her arm that was through has morphed back to the hoof and foreleg she was familiar with. “This must serve as the gateway back to Equestria,” she noted. She pulled her arm back through and saw it was now back to the same strange arm and “claw” she now had.

Twilight Sparkle shook her head and said with determination, “We need to find my crown and get back there as soon as possible. I suggest we start by looking around this park.”

“Works for me,” agreed Spike with a shrug.

Twilight stood up on all four limbs again and began to run forward. She only made it a few steps before tripping over herself. She got up and tried again, but got a similar result. Unable to look ahead, a third attempt ended when she slammed her head against one of the strange-looking trees.

Spike calmly walked up to Twilight and said, “Yeah, I don’t think that’s how the new you is supposed to walk.”

Twilight looked over at Spike, who seemed to be having an easy time walking around in his new body. She reasoned this was because he was already used to walking on two legs, while she, a pony, was used to walking on four legs instead.

Twilight rubbed her head — which was still sore from slamming into that tree — and soon realized something wasn’t right. She felt all over her forehead. She still had hair on her head, which stuck out quite noticeably, but that was all there was. “My horn!” she gasped. “It’s gone! Does that mean…?” Twilight looked around for something and decided to settle for the strange-looking tree in front of her. She concentrated on the tree, willing her magic to do something — anything — to it. Nothing happened. She gasped again. “My magic won’t work!”

Twilight Sparkle sighed, accepting her now powerless state. Understanding there was no point in moping about her loss, she attempted to stand up the same way Spike was. She wobbled around on her legs a bit and fell forward, grabbing one of the “branches” of the tree to stop herself. “C’mon, Spike,” she said. “I do not wanna be like this for longer than I have to.”

“Well, look on the bright side. You don’t have those pesky wings to worry about anymore,” Spike pointed out.

Twilight glared at him, but had to admit he was right. Her back was void of any wings, as far as she could tell. She let go of the tree and tried standing up again. She was getting better at her new stance, but almost fell on her first step. She quickly placed her arms on top of Spike’s head for support.

“Hey, I was just joking!” exclaimed Spike. He felt almost insulted at this display of how much shorter he was, despite their nearly identical body shapes.

Twilight quickly apologized and got off of him. She took a moment to get used to her new center of gravity before making another attempt at walking. As she stood there, she looked around and saw something useful. “Look!” she said, pointing up ahead. “There’s a path over there! That should be able to lead us somewhere.”

Twilight took a step forward. She wobbled a bit, but was able to stay upright. She smiled to herself at this achievement. Progress! She was making progress! Slowly, she took one more step, then another, then another. By the time she and Spike finally reached the path, she was no longer holding her arms out struggling for balance. Now she was able to get around with ease in this strange body.

Twilight looked left and right up both ends of the paved pathway. The park didn’t seem to have a lot of visitors today, which was just as well. She didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention from her attempts to get used to her new form. Confirming the coast was clear, she stepped forward onto the path.

Clack. Clack.

That noise startled Twilight for a moment. It was unlike anything she had heard before — except maybe for when Princess Celestia had dropped that fake crown on the floor earlier that morning. It had sounded like it came from directly beneath her, so she looked down at her feet. She took a step forward and heard that noise again. She walked around on the path a little more and confirmed the strange noise was her own footsteps. It was so unlike the clopping of hooves she was used to whenever she walked on a hard surface. It was yet another strange detail of this other world she would have to get used to.

Curious about why her feet made such a noise, Twilight wondered if the same could be true for the rest of her new body. She tapped herself on the arm and, sure enough, it made a similar clacking noise. This was nothing at all like flesh or other organic material. She thought over all kinds of materials that were known to exist. She eventually concluded there was only one type of material that could make such a noise and come in such simple shapes.

“Strange… Whatever we are, we seem to be made of some kind of… plastic,” Twilight noted. Plastic was not unheard of in Equestria, but it wasn’t exactly a common material. The fact that she was able to even identify it based only on what she had read in books was remarkable.

Spike stepped onto the path and, like Twilight, his footsteps also made the same clacking noise. He began quickly walking around in circles with a goofy grin on his face. He found the new noise rather entertaining. He was having so much fun, he almost failed to see Twilight walking away. He stopped as soon as he glanced in her direction. “Hey, where are you going?!” exclaimed Spike as he ran to catch up to her, the rapid clacking of his footsteps not lost to him.

Twilight sighed. “I’m not sure,” she admitted as they continued walking. “I just had this thought that if the crown was here, Sunset Shimmer may have already gotten it by now. If what Princess Celestia said was true, that means Sunset would already be using my crown to cause all kinds of havoc in this world. Strange as this place seems, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. That can only mean that she has yet to find it.”

“That’s good, right?” said Spike optimistically.

“I don’t know. If she hasn’t found it yet, that means she’s still looking for it. Therefore, we should expect to see her somewhere in this park. As far as I can tell, she’s not here, which means the crown’s not here either. My crown had simply fallen through the mirror, which means it couldn’t have gone far on its own. If it’s not here in this park, then that can only mean something else has taken it. We have no idea who or what may have it right now. What if they plan on doing something terrible with it? What if they have plans similar to Sunset Shimmer? What if Sunset Shimmer already knows who has it and is planning to take it from them? Would she try to steal it from them or bribe them into giving it to her? What if—”

Twilight’s panic-rant was cut short when she tripped on something and fell forward. She didn’t land on the ground, but rather at the edge of a fountain. She had been so busy with her thoughts that she had failed to even notice the fountain right in front of her. She began to get back up when she looked down at the water — actual water, thank goodness.

Looking down at her reflection in the water, Twilight Sparkle was finally able to see what she now looked like. Although the shape of her body was mostly the same as Spike’s, the colors on it were quite different. Like Spike, her face consisted of a mouth and pair of violet eyes — almost identical to what her pony form had — but lacked a nose and ears. Despite the lack of these details, she somehow still had all of her senses, including smell and hearing. Instead of a hat, she had hair on her head that was the same color — dark blue with a violet and magenta streak across the front and back — and mostly the same style — straight, short in the front and longer in the back — as her mane. Her head, most of her arms, and the upper half of her legs were the same lavender color as her pony form’s coat; everywhere else, she appeared to be wearing some kind of clothes. Her torso and shoulders were sky blue. On the front of her torso was what appeared to be a few buttons lined up vertically in the middle, and just below the neck was apparently a loosely-tied magenta bow-tie. The lower half of her legs was violet with a strip of magenta along the top, and a strip of black around her feet. Wrapped around the upper half of her legs was a violet skirt of some kind — the only part of her that was not made of plastic, but rather some kind of cloth. Printed on the left side of that skirt was a six-pointed magenta star with five smaller white stars evenly spaced around it — her Cutie Mark on her pony body.

Now that she finally saw every detail of her strange new body, Twilight had only one thought in mind. “What am I?” she quietly asked herself as she continued to stare at her reflection in the water.

“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure we won’t find any answers by just standing here,” replied Spike as he walked around the fountain to continue down the path.

Twilight shook her head and stood up. “You’re right, Spike,” she said calmly. “Our best bet now would be to search the city outside of this park.” She followed Spike around the fountain and they both walked a short distance down the path to a nearby street.

Now standing at the edge of a city street, Twilight and Spike got their first real view of what kind of world they were now in. The street itself was unbelievably smooth, with white and yellow lines painted along its length. The sidewalk they stood on was just as smooth, but consisted of square tiles just large enough for one of them to stand on just one. The buildings varied a lot in colors and seemed to be made of large bricks that had no mortar at all to hold them together. Moving up and down the street were odd-looking carriages that could move on their own, making a strange humming noise as they moved. And finally, there were the citizens. They all had the same basic shape — aside from hair or hats — but came in many different colors; not just the “clothes” they wore, but also their skin — although yellow seemed to be rather common for that part. They were all just walking up and down the street, going about their daily lives.

Taking in all of these details, Twilight Sparkle had only one thought in mind. “What kind of place is this?” she asked quietly.

Twilight and Spike jumped a little when one young individual rode by on his skateboard, laughing excitedly as he zoomed past them.

“We’re definitely not in Equestria anymore,” Spike simply said.

Author's Note

I had actually started writing this story about a month ago. I had decided to wait until I had finished writing a good amount of it before uploading it here, just to give you readers a substantial amount of material to start with. The next chapter is also already done, but I'll wait until tomorrow to add it. After that, expect future chapters to take some time to finish. I certainly hope you are liking this, so far.

Familiar Faces

Chapter 2
Familiar Faces

Twilight Sparkle and Spike were walking down yet another busy street in the strange-looking city, but still hadn’t gotten any closer to finding Twilight’s missing crown. Instead, they were simply discovering more and more details that continued to show how unusual this place was. At one point, they had overheard someone refer to the crescent-shaped appendages on the end of the arms as “hands”. If that’s what the natives called them, then Twilight decided that would be the term that she and Spike would use.

Despite the differences, they also began to notice a few similarities, too. So far, the best example they saw was when three of the natives ran by. They had passed by too quickly to give away specific details, but what Twilight could identify was that they were all as short as Spike and had a striking resemblance to the Cutie Mark Crusaders — three little fillies who lived in her hometown of Ponyville.

Right now, Twilight and Spike were starting to feel a little lost. The city streets were laid out in a grid pattern, which was a struggle for them to navigate through. They couldn’t even see the park anymore, and they certainly couldn’t remember which way to go to get back there. They walked down yet another street, not knowing what they would find next. This one was relatively quiet, meaning there was hardly anyone on the sidewalks and virtually none of the odd carriages moving by.

Spike was just as fascinated as Twilight was by their surroundings. He was so busy looking up at the tall buildings that he failed to notice that he had stepped out onto the street itself. He also happened to be facing a certain direction that prevented him from seeing one of the “carriages” heading right toward him.

Looking back up the street, Twilight gasped as she realized the danger Spike had just unwittingly placed himself in. “Spike! Watch out!” she screamed.

Spike looked back in confusion. A noise that sounded like a honking horn came from the oncoming “carriage”, catching Spike’s attention and causing him to scream in panic. Instead of running, he huddled down and braced himself.

The wheels screeched as the “carriage” turned sharply to the left to avoid hitting Spike. It missed him, but then slammed into a wall, the impact causing it to literally fly apart into pieces.

Twilight ran over to Spike and asked, “Are you okay?!”

Spike got back to his feet. He was shaken, but unharmed. “I’m fine,” he replied. “But what was that thing?”

Twilight and Spike turned to look at the remains of the “carriage”. As soon as they had turned their attention to it, they saw someone stand up from amidst the wreckage. They assumed it was a she due to her long hair, but the way that hair was on indicated something very wrong. Her head seemed to be on backwards!

“Whoa! Why does everything feel so weird?” she asked as she stumbled around with her arms flailing. She then stopped and said, “Oh, wait…” She brought her hands up to her head and felt around until they had a firm grip on opposite sides. Then, with a noise that was no more than a faint squeak, she quickly twisted her head around so that it was now facing forward again. “There, that’s better!” she beamed.

Despite the awkward display, this stranger appeared to be completely okay. She had a skin color of pink on her head, hands, upper legs, most of her arms, and around the neck on her torso. She had light blue eyes and on her head was a lot of magenta curly hair. On the lower half of her legs was light blue, except for a pink bow close to the knees. That same blue was seen in a stripe around the wrist end on the arms, around the shoulders, and over all but the front of her torso. On the front was white with a large pink heart in the middle, and a lavender border across the top and bottom. Wrapped around her upper legs was a pink skirt with a lavender strip around the top edge. On the right side was a bow in the same lavender — perhaps to give the perception that it was some piece of cloth tied around her waist. Printed on the left side were three balloons; the middle was blue with a yellow string, and the other two were yellow with blue strings — just like the Cutie Mark on one of Twilight’s friends, Pinkie Pie. In fact, aside from the obvious stature and clothing, this stranger looked strikingly similar to Pinkie Pie.

The pink stranger turned to Twilight and happily said, “Oh! Hi there! Are you new here? Or have you been here a while and I just never noticed? I’d like to try to get to know everyone here, but with this being a big city, that’s, like, almost impossible, but I try my best. I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?”

Twilight shook her head. Either Pinkie Pie hadn’t noticed she and Spike had been staring at her, or she simply didn’t care — probably both. Twilight cleared her throat and said nervously, “Uh, yes! I’m new here! Just, um, just visiting for a few days, actually. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Spike.”

Spike finally stopped staring and said, “Uh, yeah! Nice to meet you, Pinkie.” He looked over at the wreckage that Pinkie had climbed out of and felt guilty. “Sorry about your, uh…” He still wasn’t quite sure what that thing was — or rather, once was.

“Oh, that’s okay,” assured Pinkie with a wave of the hand. “I was planning to take it apart and build a new car, anyway.”

“Build a new what?” asked Twilight in confusion.

Pinkie turned to the wreckage and brought a hand to her chin as she had a thoughtful look on her face. “Hmm, but what kind of a car do I wanna build?” she muttered to herself.

Twilight took another look at the wreckage of Pinkie’s “car” and finally noticed something quite peculiar. It wasn’t actually wreckage as she knew it, but rather appeared to be a whole bunch of parts that had simply fallen apart. The parts came in all shapes and sizes, but the vast majority of them had a very similar design. They were rectangular boxes; on top were short, round protrusions evenly spaced from each other in a grid-like pattern; the bottom was hollowed out, except for tubes that extended over the entire depth of the part and were spaced apart just as evenly as the protrusions on top. All of the parts were apparently made of the same plastic that made up her new body. The only exception was the outer wheels, which seemed to be made of rubber.

Spike turned to Twilight and whispered uneasily, “I don’t know about this.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight whispered back.

“How can we be sure that’s Pinkie Pie?”

“Well, Princess Celestia didn’t want my friends to come with me. Maybe the reason for that is because they’re already here, albeit in a different form. If she’s just like the Pinkie we know, maybe we can ask her for help.”

“I doubt it. I mean, this Pinkie said she wanted to build a new, uh… something, and the Pinkie Pie we know isn’t exactly known for her building skills.”

“I know!” exclaimed Pinkie excitedly, completely unaware of the conversation that had just taken place behind her back. She rushed over to the pile of parts and quickly went to work. She literally appeared to be in many places at once as she began zooming around and putting the parts together in the middle of the road.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Click. Clack. Whoosh! Click. Click. Clack. Clack. Whoosh! Click. Clack. Click. Clack.

In only a matter of seconds, Pinkie Pie had put together all of the parts and stood atop her newly assembled car. As a finale, she threw the last part into place —which made one last clicking noise — then held her arms out and shouted, “Ta-da!”

Twilight and Spike simply stared at Pinkie with their mouths hanging wide open.

Pinkie jumped off the roof of her new car and happily exclaimed, “C’mon! Let’s take it for a test drive!”

Twilight shook her head to snap herself out of her shock. “Um, well, I guess a little ride wouldn’t hurt,” she said. “Besides, I don’t exactly know my way around this city, so—”

“I can give you a tour!” beamed Pinkie. “This is gonna be great! What are you waiting for? Hop in!” She then opened the door on the left side of the car and hopped into the driver’s seat.

Twilight and Spike walked around the front of the car to the door on the other side. Twilight opened the door and saw one seat next to Pinkie Pie, who was apparently sitting behind some kind of steering wheel.

“There’s only two seats,” Spike pointed out. “Where am I supposed to sit?”

“I put in a third seat right behind the others,” answered Pinkie. “You’ll have to use the back door.”

Spike walked to the back of the car and saw the door Pinkie was referring to. He opened the door and, sure enough, there was a third seat in the back. At least it was placed between the other two so he could see ahead. He climbed inside and crawled up to the seat. At the same time, Twilight hopped into the other front seat next to Pinkie Pie and shut the door

“Comfy?” asked Pinkie.

Twilight shifted around a bit in her seat. Comfort wasn’t exactly something that came to mind, considering both the seat and her own body were both made of plastic. It was a snug fit at least, so she replied, “I guess so.”

“Okay, let’s go!” exclaimed Pinkie with a huge grin on her face. She then stomped her foot on the floor in front of her. The wheels screeched as the car suddenly sped off down the street. Twilight and Spike were thrown back into their seats from the sudden acceleration, resulting in screams of panic from them.

Pinkie Pie was completely oblivious of her terrified passengers as she began to talk while driving. “You’re gonna love it here in Canterlot City! It’s got everything you can expect to see in a city. There’s the city hall, the stadium, the police station, the race track, the pizzeria, the theme park, the library, the—”

“There’s a library here?” asked Twilight. Despite the circumstances she was currently in, she actually smiled at this information.

Pinkie didn’t even acknowledge Twilight as she suddenly pointed to the left and said, “Oh, look, a fruit stand!” She stomped on the floor again and the car came to a screeching halt.

The sudden stop caused Twilight to fly out of her seat and face-plant against the windshield. While Pinkie Pie happily got out and ran over to the fruit stand across the street, a very dazed Twilight slowly pushed herself off from the windshield and back into her seat.

In the back of the car, Spike staggered around and groaned. “I think I broke something,” he muttered as he slowly reached for the door. As soon as he grabbed the door, it came off its hinge and fell to the street below, taking him with it. “Uh, it was already like that!” Spike quickly defended himself before getting back up to his feet.

Twilight opened the door and slowly climbed out of the car, thankful that the wild ride was over.

“I’ll take four apples, please,” said Pinkie Pie. “Two for me and two for my new friends.”

“Sure thing. That’ll be two dollars.”

Twilight stood still for a moment. She recognized that second voice. She walked around the car and saw another familiar face by the fruit stand with Pinkie Pie.

The vendor of the fruit stand had orange skin color on her head, hands, upper legs, and most of her arms. She had green eyes and on her head was blonde hair that was long in the back and apparently tied together near the end. Resting on top of that hair was a western style hat. The shoulders of her arms and lower half of her torso was white, while the upper half was green. Wrapped around her upper legs was a blue skirt with a brown stripe around the top edge, except at the very front where there was a red apple — perhaps some kind of belt buckle. Her lower legs were brown, and printed on the front of each leg were three bright red apples — the Cutie Mark on another of Twilight’s pony friends, Applejack. Was this girl also named Applejack?

From seemingly out of nowhere, Pinkie pulled out two small rectangular parts that were green and had the number “1” printed in white in the middle of the top. She gave them to the Applejack lookalike, who then grabbed what looked like four large apples from the fruit stand and gave them to her.

As Twilight and Spike walked up to the fruit stand, Pinkie tossed an apple to each of them, then grabbed one of the other apples and began chowing down on it. Twilight looked uneasily at the “apple” in her hands. It was shaped like an apple, red like a good apple, but seemed like it was yet another plastic part that made up just about everything around them. She looked over at Spike, who simply shrugged and took a bite out of his apple. Against Twilight’s predictions, a bite mark suddenly appeared on the apple and Spike seemed to be chewing something that seemed delicious, based on his facial reaction. So it was possible to eat food in this world!

Still holding her apple in both hands, Twilight looked over at Pinkie Pie, who was already almost finished with her first apple and reached over to grab the final one she had bought. Twilight noticed how Pinkie was apparently holding the apples by the stem, which was relatively much larger on these big apples than the ones she was used to. It looked like a rather awkward way of holding apples, but if that’s how it was done here, then she would have to do the same. Twilight hesitantly grabbed her apple by the stem — a perfect fit within her hand’s crescent shape — and attempted to take a bite. Keeping her eyes closed as she did so helped a lot, because it felt — and tasted — exactly like she was eating a real apple back home. After swallowing her mouthful, she commented, “Mmm, delicious.”

“Y’all got that right!” replied Applejack. “You won’t find apples as good as these anywhere else in all of the Lego World.”

Twilight stopped just as she was about to take another bite. “Lego?” she asked.

Before Twilight could get an answer, another car pulled up to the side of the road right next to the fruit stand. It was different than Pinkie Pie’s car, mostly because the rear half looked like an open cart while the front half looked like any other car. Loaded in the back were what appeared to be crates full of apples.

“‘Bout time ya got here!” said Applejack, slightly frustrated. “What took ya so long? Traffic?”

“Eeyup,” replied the driver as he stepped out and walked to the back of his truck. Red skin, short orange hair, and a large green apple printed on the corner of his torso — this guy resembled Big Macintosh!

Twilight and Spike looked at each other in confusion. Spike simply shrugged and took another bite from his apple.

“Well, can’t blame ya for that,” said Applejack in response to the truck driver, who had now lowered the tailgate and began unloading the apples into the nearly empty fruit stand. She turned to Twilight and asked, “Are you new here? Ah haven’t seen you ‘round here before.”

Before Twilight could reply, Pinkie pulled her and Spike into a tight hug and said, “Yes! Twilight Sparkle and Spike here said they’re visiting for a few days, so I offered to give them a tour of the city. We only just started, but that’s okay. I can already tell they love this place!”

Twilight pulled herself out of the hug and added, “Yes, this is a, uh… nice place you’ve got here, Applejack.”

“This is just where I’ve set up the stand for today,” Applejack pointed out. “Mah home is actually over at the apple orchard outside of town.” Applejack suddenly had a look of confusion on her face as she realized something. “Hey, how’d ya know mah name’s Applejack?”

Twilight stuttered as she tried to think of a response. She wasn’t exactly willing to explain how she was from another world that was very unlike this one. She was still struggling to understand them; how would they be able to understand her? “Uh… didn’t you say?” she finally tried.

“Nope,” said Big Mac as he tossed the now empty crates into the back of his truck and closed the tailgate.

“Uh, Pinkie told us!” said Spike, trying to help Twilight. “It was her idea to stop here.”

Pinkie said, “Actually, I—”

Twilight cut her off by shoving Pinkie’s uneaten apple in her mouth. She didn’t even turn her attention away from Applejack as she kept a nervous grin on her face.

“Mmm, juicy!” said Pinkie, her voice muffled by the apple stuffed in her mouth.

Applejack stared at the trio for a moment before saying uneasily, “If you say so.” She decided to drop the issue for now and return to her fruit stand. She turned to Spiked and commented, “Nice hat, by the way.”

“I’m wearing a hat?” asked Spike as he reached for the red cap on his head. Unlike Twilight, he had yet to see his own reflection, so he had no idea he was even wearing a hat. Spike removed his cap and took a quick look at it. “Huh? What do ya know…” he quietly muttered to himself.

Pinkie finished the last bite of her apple and tossed the core away. “Well, what are we waiting for? We’ve only just started the tour!” she said excitedly as she ran back to her car.

Spike put his cap back on as he looked at Twilight uncertainly and asked, “Do we have to go through this again?”

Twilight took a moment to consider her options. She replied, “We probably shouldn’t, but she is offering that tour, and we can’t exactly go back to where we started. Too late for us to back out now.” She shrugged as she made that final statement and walked back to Pinkie Pie’s car.

With no better alternative, Spike also returned to the car. He noticed the door was still on the ground, so he picked it up and tried to figure out how to put it back on the car.

“Here, let me,” said Pinkie as she quickly snatched the door from his hands and put it back into place with a click.

Spike grinned innocently before climbing into the car and closing the door behind him.

Pinkie hopped back into the driver’s seat and, after making sure her passengers were comfortably seated, stomped on the accelerator. Once again, the car zoomed off down the street while Twilight and Spike hung on for dear life, screaming with each high-speed turn they made.

“Look! There’s the City Park, right over there!” said Pinkie, pointing to the right.

Twilight looked over and saw that they really were passing by the park she and Spike had started in. She could even see the horse statue that held the gateway back to Equestria. “Keep the park in mind, Pinkie,” said Twilight. “We will need to get back there at some point.”

Pinkie turned to look at Twilight and asked, “Why’s that?”

Before Twilight could think of a believable answer, she saw someone on a bicycle crossing the street. At the speeds they were going, she knew they were going to collide, so she pointed ahead and shouted, “Look out!”

Pinkie finally looked forward and gasped before stomping on the brake. They were already too close, and the bicycle rider had only one second to scream before the car slammed into her.

Once the car came to stop, Twilight gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. She was horrified by the scene in the road right in front of the car. The individual they had just crashed into was now literally in pieces! Remarkably, she still appeared to be alive and well, despite her condition.

Pinkie hopped out of the car and ran over to the girl in pieces. She giggled nervously and said, “Sorry about that.”

“Yeah? Well, next time, maybe you should actually watch the road,” said the bicycle rider with annoyance. Her head was apparently the only part of herself that she could currently move, as she tried to hop it around a little. She stopped and turned to look at Pinkie. “Well? Don’t just stand there! Help me put myself back together.”

“Okie dokie!” replied Pinkie. She then quickly gathered up all of the girl’s parts and threw them together just as quickly. “Ta-da!”

Put simply, Pinkie Pie’s attempt was a disaster. An arm was where a leg should be, a leg was where the head should be, the torso was on upside-down, and the skirt was partially draped over the head.

The now scrambled-up girl’s expression turned from annoyance to anger. “This is not funny!” she shouted. “Put me back together the right way!”

Pinkie Pie giggled nervously again and said, “Sorry.” She quickly rearranged the parts back into their proper order. “There you go!”

Now fully reassembled correctly, the bicycle rider adjusted the hair on her head and said, “Much better.”

It was another voice Twilight Sparkle recognized. This girl had a skin color of sky blue on her head, hands, most of her arms, and around the middle of her legs. She had magenta eyes and the messy hair on her head consisted of all six colors of the rainbow. Her upper legs were dark grey and her lower legs were a medium blue with a red and yellow stripe around the top and what appeared to be white laces crisscrossing over the front. Wrapped around her upper legs was a skirt that was white on the sides and magenta on the front and back. Around her wrists was a stripe of red, yellow, and blue. Medium blue also covered her shoulders and most of her torso. In the middle of the front — under what was apparently an open jacket — was white with a dark grey stripe around the neck. Printed in the middle of that white area was a cloud with a rainbow colored lightning bolt — just like the Cutie Mark on Rainbow Dash.

Twilight was still in shock, not just from seeing yet another familiar face, but also because this Rainbow Dash lookalike had actually been in pieces just seconds ago. Twilight slowly climbed out of the car and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” said Rainbow Dash, slightly annoyed, as she reached down to pick up her bicycle.

“Are you sure about that?” asked Twilight, still completely baffled by what she had witnessed.

“Please, that was hardly the first time I’d fallen to pieces,” answered Rainbow Dash. “Takes a lot more than a car crash to hurt this minifig!” She smiled and pointed to herself, as if to say how awesome she was. This was definitely Rainbow Dash.

A minifig? thought Twilight. Well, I guess that answers the question of what I am.

“I’m confused,” said Spike as he walked up to the scene. “I mean, shouldn’t it hurt a lot to just… lose body parts like that?”

Now it was Rainbow Dash who was confused. “Why would you think that?” she asked.

Twilight scratched the back of her head nervously. She had to word her response carefully. “Well… it’s just that, where he and I are from, we’re not exactly used to seeing someone just… fall apart like that,” she answered. “It just didn’t happen.”

“Wow, sounds like you come from a pretty boring place,” commented Pinkie Pie. “Being made of detachable parts is great! It means you can do stuff like this!” She then took off her left arm and began using it to scratch her back. “Ahhh, that feels so good,” she said in relief. The others simply stared at her strange behavior. Even in this world, Pinkie still had moments where she was just being Pinkie.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure it has its downsides, too,” said Spike. “I mean, look over there.”

Twilight and Rainbow looked in the direction Spike was pointing and they saw a grey-skinned blonde minifig whose head was on the ground. She kept trying to pick it up, but every time her headless body walked up to it, she would accidentally kick it away. She didn’t stop and try something different, but simply kept going with the same result, over and over.

Rainbow Dash sighed and said, “I’d better go help her. She’s been known to do that for hours on end.” She hopped back onto her bicycle and rode over to the struggling minifig.

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie finished scratching her back and reattached her left arm. She looked over at her car and apparently noticed something. “Hmm, my new car looks like it’s missing something,” she said to herself thoughtfully. A smile quickly returned to her face as she got an idea. “Oh! I know what it needs!” she beamed. “A sticker!”

“A sticker?” asked a very confused Twilight.

“Yeah!” answered Pinkie cheerfully as she hopped back into the driver’s seat. “And I know the perfect place to get one! C’mon, let’s go!”

“Here we go again,” sighed Spike before he and Twilight also climbed back into Pinkie’s car.

Once again, they zoomed off down the city streets, not even slowing down as they made turns. From within the car, the outside world was a blur as it flew by. Screams of panic from Twilight and Spike and squeals of joy from Pinkie did not diminish throughout the ride. Before long, they had arrived at their destination, the car screeching to a halt again.

Pinkie didn’t even bother waiting for the others as she hopped out and ran into the building they had just parked in front of.

Twilight was still panting heavily from the crazy ride. She eventually managed to relax and breathe a sigh of relief. “At least I managed to stay in my seat this time,” she quietly told herself as she and Spike slowly got out of the car and walked up to the building Pinkie had just run into.

It was a modest rectangular building with two floors. While the building lacked in size, it more than made up for in style. Rather than just simple large bricks like many other buildings in the city, this building also had all kinds of smaller elements placed together in elegant ways. But what really caught their attention was the sign over the door that read “Carousel Boutique & Decal Shop”.

Twilight and Spike glanced at each other in confusion. They recognized the first part and assumed that meant another familiar face would be waiting inside, but the second part made almost no sense. Why would Rarity also work on decals?

Hoping to get answers, Twilight and Spike silently agreed to go inside. Once they were inside, the first thing they noticed was the many faceless minifigs, which they quickly realized were just mannequins to display the various outfits and dresses being sold here. Twilight still didn’t understand how clothing worked in this world, seeing as she couldn’t figure out where she got what she was currently wearing or even how to take it off. They could faintly hear some classical music playing in the background, which was quickly drowned out by some machinery activating in the back.

Twilight and Spike looked toward the back of the shop and saw Pinkie standing in front of the store counter, behind which was the owner who was now busy operating one of the strange machines. Stuck on the walls in the back were dozens and dozens of decals that came in all shapes, styles, and colors; it was a large display of what one could get at this shop. The active machine continued to buzz as it slowly spit out a large sheet with some kind of design on it. Twilight realized that this was how the decals were made in this world, and it was where Pinkie Pie was now getting that sticker she wanted for her car.

Once the machine finished, the store owner removed the sheet, which came out to be twice the size of a minifig. She rolled it up and handed it over to Pinkie and said, “Here you go, darling. Have a nice day.”

“Thank you!” replied Pinkie, before running past Twilight and Spike and out the door.

Twilight and Spike turned their attention back to the owner of this shop. She had white skin color on her head, hands, upper legs, lower arms, and around the neck of her torso. She had blue eyes and the violet hair on her head was curled in a very stylish way. Her lower legs were a similar violet with a lavender stripe around the top and a blue diamond close to the knees. Her upper arms and most of her torso was a very light blue, and she had a gold band around her wrists. Wrapped around her upper legs was a lavender skirt with a violet stripe across the top that had a blue square on the front — apparently another kind of belt. Printed on the left side were three blue diamonds — just like Rarity’s Cutie Mark.

The Rarity lookalike saw Twilight and Spike and said, “Ah, welcome! How may I be of service to you?”

Twilight figured Rarity may already be well-known in this city for owning a place like this, but she didn’t want to take any chances. So she walked up to the counter and said, “Oh, I’m just looking around to see what you have here. You run this place?”

“Indeed I do,” she replied. “I am Rarity, and I design some of the most fabulous dresses and outfits available here in Canterlot City. If you are instead looking to spruce up a vehicle or building, I also offer a wide range of decals in many different sizes.”

Twilight was still a little confused, so she said, “I, uh, heard you were into fashion, but I didn’t think you would be working with decals, too.”

“I’ll admit it wasn’t initially part of my passion,” explained Rarity. “You see, some time ago, one of my clients was so impressed by the dress designs I came up with that, when she sadly had to close down her own decal shop, she offered to let me have all of these printers that she could no longer use. I was unsure of entering such a business at first, but once I started realizing the full potential of this alternate means of making custom designs, I knew it was worth embracing.”

Spike gave a love-struck sigh as he rested his head and arms on the counter. Even as one of these “minifigs”, Rarity was still the most beautiful sight in the world to him.

Rarity noticed the short boy and asked, “And who might you be?”

Spike was too lost in Rarity’s eyes to say anything, so Twilight replied for him, “That’s Spike. A, uh, friend of mine.”

Rarity turned back to Spike and said, “I must say, Spike, that is a rather fine hat you are wearing.”

To hear a complement from Rarity was one of the best things Spike could have hoped for. He slowly took off his red cap and asked, “Y-you really think so?”

“But of course!” answered Rarity. “Though it looks rather… bland. You wouldn’t mind if I added a custom design to it, would you?”

Spike practically shoved his cap into Rarity’s hands as he said, “N-no, not at all! In fact, you can put anything you want on it. Surprise me!”

“Gladly,” said Rarity as she brought the cap over to a different machine and placed it within that machine. She then flipped though many sheets with different designs on them. “Perfect,” she said as she selected one and inserted it into another part of the machine. She pressed a few buttons and the machine began to make a light buzzing noise.

“You will notice that I am using a different process in this case than what I just gave to Pinkie Pie,” explained Rarity. “Stickers are preferable for large pieces and can be placed wherever you want. Removal is rather tricky, but it can be done, although it practically destroys the sticker in the process. However, smaller pieces — like a hat — are simply too small for one to place a sticker on, so the design has to be printed directly on it. The downside is that it’s permanent, so I really appreciate that you are willing to let me decide on the particular design.”

Twilight was pleased to hear such an explanation from Rarity. It helped to explain why only certain parts appeared to have some kind of artwork on them. It also possibly explained how “clothing” was made in this world — simply have it printed directly on the body parts.

A soon as Rarity had finished explaining the different ways of applying decals, the machine finished. She removed the red cap and gave it back to Spike and said, “Here you are, darling. Have a nice day.”

“Thank you,” said Spike as he continued his love-struck stare with a goofy grin on his face. Once Rarity had walked away to attend to other business, Spike looked down at his hat that now had a custom design printed on the front. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but all he cared about was that he got it from Rarity. He put his cap back on as he turned to Twilight and asked “What do you think?”

Twilight looked at the custom design on Spike’s red cap. It was simple, yet confusing. Printed in large rounded white letters, outlined in black then yellow, was a four-letter word: LEGO. This was the second time today they had encountered that word, and it still made absolutely no sense to Twilight. She didn’t know what to think of it, so she decided to just complement Spike by saying, “Uh, it’s nice. Not bad at all.” Knowing there was nothing left to do here, Twilight began walking back to the door out of the building.

“You really think so?” asked Spike as he followed Twilight. “You know, I think I’m starting to like this hat.”

Twilight smiled as she rolled her eyes. Spike would swoon at anything related to Rarity.

They stepped outside just in time to see Pinkie Pie finish applying that large sticker to the front of her car. She stepped back to admire her work and said, “There. Now you can tell who built this car.” The sticker was transparent except for the graphic printed in the middle, which was the same trio of balloons that appeared on her skirt.

As Pinkie jumped back into the driver’s seat of her car, she said with a smile, “Hop in! I still have to give you that tour.”

Twilight and Spike looked at each other and shrugged. Crazy as it was to ride with Pinkie, they still knew very little about this strange city. Once everyone was back in their seats, the car sped off down the streets again. It was still a terrifying ride, but at least now they weren’t screaming in panic.

“So many places to see, so little time,” thought Pinkie aloud. “Where should I begin?” Before she could make any suggestions, the right side of the car suddenly dropped down and the whole thing began to slow down. Twilight and Spike yelped, not anticipating such a thing would happen at all.

Pinkie looked out the windshield and quickly saw the problem. “Oh no! Runaway wheel!” she shouted. She pulled the car over to the side of the road as it came to a stop. She immediately got out and began chasing after the wheel that continued to roll away. “Wait! Come back!”

Twilight carefully got out of the tilted car and noticed that the right front wheel had indeed come off.

Spike walked over to Twilight and said, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait for her to get it back.”

Twilight took a moment to look at where they had stopped. Although each building had subtle differences, she still couldn’t figure out where she was within the city. However, she did notice the small building they had stopped right in front of. The label on the door read “Canterlot City Animal Shelter”. Much like with Rarity’s shop, Twilight had a feeling she knew who she would find in there. She walked up to the door and stepped inside. Spike was confused, but, having nothing better to do, decided to follow her anyway.

If the “minifigs” who inhabited this world looked strange, then the animals were simply bizarre. Their shapes were familiar — dogs, cats, birds, mice, and other critters — but unlike minifigs, they each apparently consisted of only one part. Even more strange was that many of them, especially the smaller critters, consisted of only one color. Their shapes still showed where their faces were, but lacked any details beyond that, such as eyes and a mouth. Despite this, they all behaved pretty much the same as their counterpart versions back in Equestria.

“Oh. Hello, there.”

Twilight and Spike turned to see who had just spoken. She had a skin color of pale yellow on her head, hands, arms, upper legs, and around the neck and shoulders of her torso. She had teal eyes and long pink hair on her head. Most of her torso was plain white. Her lower legs were light green with a pink stripe across the top and white around the feet. Wrapped around her upper legs was a light green skirt. Printed on the right side were three pink butterflies — Fluttershy’s Cutie Mark.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” asked Fluttershy. “If you really want any help, that is.”

“No, not really,” replied Twilight. “I’m just looking around while I’m waiting for my, uh, friend to fix her… car.” She was getting familiar with this world, but knew she still had much to learn. Besides, she knew she still had to be careful about using familiar names without prior confirmation, so she added, “I’m Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?”

“Oh, um, I’m Fluttershy,” she quietly replied.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight repeated, hoping to give the impression that she was simply making sure she heard right, even though she already knew for sure. She glanced out the window and saw that Pinkie Pie had yet to return with the missing wheel, so she decided a little small talk would help pass the time. “So… you own this place?” she asked.

“Yes,” answered Fluttershy. “I’ve always loved working with animals. Of course, in a big city like this, there are often a lot of strays wandering around on the cold streets. So I decided to build this shelter to give them a nice cozy place to stay and get better until I can find an even better home for them.”

It didn’t escape Twilight’s attention how Fluttershy mentioned that she had built this animal shelter. Like Pinkie Pie, the Fluttershy she knew back in Equestria wasn’t known for her building skills, either. In fact, it was starting to seem like this world regarded the building of just about anything to be as common as the use of magic was in Equestria.

While Twilight and Fluttershy were busy talking, Spike decided to take a look around the shelter. He soon came across a few small aquariums that held what appeared to be fish. He chuckled at how funny looking everything seemed to be in this world. He turned around and saw a much larger fish tank; one that almost reached the ceiling and was more than twice as wide. Within the tank was a much larger fish that was grey in color. Unlike the others, this one consisted of two pieces: a body and a head. The head was attached like a hinge, allowing the big fish to open its mouth and reveal a jagged edge along its jaws, resembling rows of sharp teeth. Realizing what he was now face to face with, Spike yelped and jumped back in shock.

“Spike?” asked Twilight, worriedly. Within seconds, she and Fluttershy had rushed over to see what had frightened him.

“Oh. I see you’ve met Bruce,” said Fluttershy.

“You keep a shark in here?!” exclaimed Spike.

“He’s not as bad as you think,” assured Fluttershy. “He’s actually quite friendly.”

“But I do have to agree with Spike. Why do you keep a shark, of all things, in a place like this?” asked Twilight, completely baffled by what she was seeing.

“Well, he was only a little pup when I found him washed up on the beach,” replied Fluttershy. “I couldn’t just let him suffer, so I brought him here and built a tank big enough for him to feel comfortable in.”

“So you just decided to keep him?” asked Twilight in confusion.

“Not really. Like every other critter in this shelter, I’ve always intended to give him a better home. So far, I haven’t gotten many offers, and the ones who have couldn’t promise they would be kind to him. I’m sure I’ll find him a good home someday.”

Still creeped out by the presence of a shark, Twilight and Spike decided to head back to the front of the shelter. As they headed for the door, Twilight thought aloud, “At this rate, I may never find my missing crown.”

“Did you lose something?” asked Fluttershy, who had quietly followed them. As they turned to her, she lowered her head in embarrassment and said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“I don’t mind,” assured Twilight. “In fact, I actually welcome any help I can get.”

“Maybe you should tell the police,” suggested Fluttershy.

“I don’t know. I mean, Sunset Shimmer went through a lot of trouble to—”

“Sunset Shimmer was involved?” Fluttershy suddenly asked. She blushed once she realized she had interrupted. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. It’s just that, if she really was involved, you should talk to Celestia Playwell. She’ll want to know everything about what happened.”

Hearing Celestia’s name caught Twilight completely by surprise. “Celestia?” she asked. “Is she the ruler here?”

“Not exactly,” replied Fluttershy, slightly confused by Twilight’s reaction. “She’s actually the head of the local branch of the Lego Team.”

Twilight sighed and quietly said to herself, “There’s that word again. Lego. What does that even mean?”

“You don’t know what Lego is?” asked Fluttershy, now even more confused.

Twilight immediately held her mouth shut. She had clearly made a big mistake. Whatever this “Lego” was, this world was apparently as familiar with it as Equestria was with magic. Thinking on the fly, she quickly said, “I mean, I, uh… didn’t know that the, uh… Lego Team had a branch here in, um… Canterlot City.” She had a huge nervous grin on her face as she waited to see if Fluttershy would buy her cover-up.

After a few tense seconds, Fluttershy finally said, “Their locations are usually pretty obvious. You’ll find ours located at the top of the mountain that looks over the city.”

“Thanks for the directions,” Twilight quickly said. “I’ll just ask my friend to give us a ride there. Bye!” She then grabbed Spike and practically dragged him out the door. Fluttershy simply stared in confusion at Twilight’s abrupt departure.

Outside, Spike got back to his feet and asked, “What was that all about?”

“Sorry, Spike, but I feel like I almost came too close to being called crazy,” replied Twilight. “I don’t know what this ‘Lego’ is, but I have a feeling it’s something that everyone in this world should know about. I don’t wanna come across as being like, say, a full-grown unicorn not knowing anything about the word ‘magic’. If I’m gonna get anywhere in this world, I’ll need to do some research on the subject. But first, I’ll need to talk to the Celestia of this world about getting my crown back.”

“Found it!”

For a moment, Twilight and Spike seriously thought that Pinkie Pie had just claimed to have found the missing crown. They turned to see her running atop a wheel as she rolled it back to the car. With nothing in her hands, it was clear that she was actually referring to the wheel that had come off the car.

“I managed to catch that runaway wheel!” Pinkie happily proclaimed. She hopped off the wheel and tried to put it back on. It took her a few seconds to realize that the axle was now lying on the ground, making it difficult to put the wheel back on. She quickly solved the problem by removing a part from the top of the car and using it to prop up the base so she could get the wheel back on. She then put the other part back where it belonged.

Before Pinkie could get back in the car, Twilight asked, “Do you know how to get to the local branch of the Lego Team? I heard it’s at the top of a mountain that looks over the city.”

“Of course I do,” replied Pinkie. “I know how to get to any place in Canterlot City. It’s actually pretty far from here, but I can get you there in a jiffy. Hop in!” Once again, she hopped into the driver’s seat, ready to drive like a maniac.

Spike turned to Twilight and asked, “Last time?”

“Last time,” assured Twilight. They needed to reach Celestia as soon as possible, and Pinkie was clearly the fastest way they had, despite her wild driving style. After that, they would likely no longer be in any rush, so there would be no need to risk their lives with Pinkie’s ride anymore after that.

Twilight climbed into the seat next to Pinkie, and Spike climbed in through the back door to his seat behind the others. Once they were ready, Pinkie stomped on the accelerator and they sped off down the street once again.

It wasn’t long until they reached open land outside the city. The road ahead led directly toward a rather tall mountain. There were numerous tunnel openings over the mountain, showing that the road up there was likely twisty and treacherous. At the top was a large building, but it was currently too far away to identify any details. In fact, its location reminded Twilight a lot of Canterlot as she knew it back in Equestria.

Twilight and Spike held on for dear life as Pinkie Pie made the car zoom up the mountain road. Many turns were so tight that it almost felt like they would tip over every time. Even more scary, Pinkie didn’t even slow down through the tunnels. One thing was very clear to Twilight: This was nothing like the peaceful train ride to Canterlot, back in Equestria.

After what felt like forever, they finally arrived at the top of the mountain. Now that they were closer, they could see just how massive this building was. It was as tall as the tallest buildings in the city, and took up a lot of ground space too. There were a lot of windows close to the ground and along the top, but none in the massive middle area. In the middle of the side of the building was what appeared to be the logo for the organization that inhabited this building. It was a large red square containing the word “LEGO” in large white rounded letters that were outlined in black then yellow — just like the decal printed on Spike’s cap.

They soon reached the end of the road right in front of the building. The car screeched to a stop and spun around so that it was now facing the other way, ready to go back down the road. “We’re here!” said Pinkie cheerfully.

Twilight sighed and said, “Thank you, Pinkie.” She carefully stepped out of the car, as did Spike. After the insane ride they had just been on, they were glad they were done with that for good. Twilight walked around to Pinkie’s side of the car and explained, “I need to take care of some important business here, and I have a feeling that it might take some time.”

“But what about that tour?” asked Pinkie.

“Sorry, but I’m afraid that’ll have to wait until another time,” replied Twilight. Hoping to keep Pinkie happy, she added, “Well, don’t let me keep you waiting. I’m sure you have plenty of things to do back in the city. As soon as I’m done here, I promise to come back.”

“Pinkie promise?”

Almost on reflex, despite the different physiology, Twilight made the motions and said, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Wow, you actually know how to make a Pinkie promise,” said Pinkie, slightly surprised. “Are you psychic?”

Twilight stuttered, realizing she had slipped up again. She finally managed to say, “Not really.”

After a moment of silence, Pinkie shrugged and said, “Oh well. Nice meeting you, Twilight. See ya later!” And with that, she immediately sped off in her car back down the road to Canterlot City.

Twilight and Spike looked down that road until Pinkie Pie’s car was no longer in sight. They then turned back to the massive building in front of them. “Now what?” asked Spike.

Twilight Sparkle looked up at the big “LEGO” logo on the side of the building and replied, “Now, we get some answers. And maybe even some help getting my crown back.” She began walking toward the glass doors directly in front of them, soon followed by Spike.

Author's Note

Lego is known for its quirky humor, so I'm hoping I'm getting that part right within this story. For example, that brief scene with Derpy (yes, that minifig trying to get her head back on was Derpy) came from one of the many gags from Lego Island, one of the earliest games I ever played. Just to make things clear, The LEGO Movie has not yet released, and I've been planning this story for months now, so don't expect many similarities. Instead, I got most of my ideas from the 2010 movie The Adventures of Clutch Powers (including the greater than normal flexibility of minifigs), so you'll know what to expect if you've seen that. Anyway, I think these first few chapters should be enough to get people interested, so I'm going to start taking my time with updates.

Oh, and one more thing. I am intentionally not going to describe in exact detail any Lego models that are used throughout this story (like Pinkie Pie's car, or Rarity's shop). I'm embracing the creative spirit of Lego, and I think a good way to let you readers do the same is to let you come up with your own ideas of what these models could be like. Feel free to build them yourself and share pictures of them. There's going to be plenty of such opportunities as the story progresses.

What is Lego?

Chapter 3
What is Lego?

As Twilight and Spike stepped inside the building, they noticed many similarities to Canterlot Castle in Equestria, such as large open spaces and tall columns holding up the ceiling. There were differences as well, such as the absence of stained glass windows and no separate towers at all. Perhaps the most notable difference was what this building was made of. Just like every other building in the city, this one was built out of more of these large plastic bricks that seemed to stick together almost magically.

Of course, this building was no castle. The first room they had entered was clearly the lobby. What lay ahead on the upper floors, Twilight had no idea. At the moment, the only other occupant in this lobby was a guard sitting behind a desk. He didn’t wear armor like the Royal Guard in Equestria, but rather wore a blue police uniform that left only his head and hands exposed. He also seemed to be busy looking at a flat square piece in his hands.

Twilight knew she had to talk to this world’s Celestia, but had no idea where to find her. She figured this guard might be willing to help. She walked up to him and asked, “Excuse me? Do you know where I could find Celestia? I need to speak with her right away.”

The guard looked over at Twilight and asked, “Do you have an appointment with her? If not, you’d better make one.” He turned his attention back to the part in his hands.

Twilight was taken aback slightly by this. The Celestia she knew was often busy with royal duties, so it shouldn’t be so surprising to expect this Celestia to be just as busy, despite not technically being royalty in this world. Still, this was the fate of Equestria and possibly even this “Lego World” as well that was at stake. Knowing there was no time to waste, she pleaded, “I’m afraid I can’t wait for that. This is important.”

“How important?” asked the guard, not even taking his eyes off the item he held.

Twilight paused for a moment to think. She had to somehow get the guard’s attention and make him realize just how important this was, without being so blunt about her coming from another world. Her recent conversation with minifig Fluttershy reminded her that maybe there was a way. “Sunset Shimmer was involved,” Twilight simply replied.

The guard quickly looked over at Twilight and lowered the piece in his hands, revealing a lot of printed words on the smooth surface he had been staring at. He wasn’t looking at some random part; he was actually reading a newspaper! “Are you sure?” asked the surprised guard.

“Positive,” answered Twilight with a nod.

After letting the revelation sink in, the guard leaned over to a sloped part resting on the desk. He pressed a small red button printed on it and said, “Ms. Playwell? Someone here wishes to speak with you right away. She says Sunset Shimmer was involved.”

After a few seconds of silence, a voice — which sounded a lot like that of Princess Celestia — came from the part and said, “Send her up right now. I’ll just postpone my next appointment.”

Twilight was very surprised to hear this. True, she had been hoping to speak with Celestia as soon as possible. But to be important enough to postpone whatever business she was dealing with right now? Twilight had no idea what Sunset Shimmer may have done in this world, but it was starting to worry her.

The guard turned back to Twilight and said, “Take this door to my left. The elevators should be on your right. Her office is on the top floor.” He then picked up his “newspaper” and continued reading.

Twilight thanked the guard and asked Spike to follow her. They walked through the nearby door and saw two sets of elevator doors just a few steps away. Back in Equestria, there actually was such a thing as an elevator, but they only existed in places with tall buildings, like Manehattan. Being as book-smart as she was, this meant she knew how to operate an elevator, despite having almost never actually used one in her whole life.

The thing that did confuse Twilight was how the controls seemed to be little more than a sticker on the wall. Not sure whether to expect anything, she pressed her hand against the up arrow button. The doors on the right almost immediately opened. Surprisingly, any buttons or switches on stickers or directly-printed decals actually worked. This kind of logic completely defied Twilight’s expectations. Perhaps there really were some subtle forms of magic in this world, after all.

Twilight and Spike stepped into the elevator. Remembering how elevators worked, Twilight pressed the button with the largest number, which would take them up to the top floor of the building. The doors closed and the elevator began to rise.

Less than half a minute later, the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Twilight and Spike stepped out to find themselves in a short hallway with a few seats on either side and ended in a single door. Printed in the middle of that door was the name “Celestia Playwell”.

Twilight was confused by the “Playwell” part of the name. Princess Celestia had never gone by such a name. Perhaps it was a different kind of title for this world’s Celestia? Regardless, Twilight didn’t hesitate to walk up to the door and knock on it.

“Come in,” said someone on the other side — presumably Celestia.

Twilight reached for the door handle, but hesitated. In Equestria, Princess Celestia was royalty, and that often required bowing before them upon entry. She had no idea if the same applied to this Celestia. What if that was not how to greet others in this world? She didn’t want to keep Celestia waiting, so she decided she could just apologize if she unintentionally greeted her the wrong way.

Twilight opened the door, took a few steps forward and bowed forward in respect. To her surprise, she heard the voice of Celestia giggle lightly and say, “There is no need to bow before me. This isn’t the Castle Region.”

Twilight immediately stood upright and quickly apologized with a nervous smile on her face. Meanwhile, Spike walked into the room and closed the door on his way in.

Twilight was now able to see the Celestia of the Lego World, who was currently standing in front of her desk. Like everyone else here, she was also a minifig. Her white/pale pink skin was visible on her head and hands. Her eyes were just like those on her pony counterpart, and her mouth had visible lips. The hair on her head consisted of the same range of bright colors as the Solar Princess of Equestria, but was just as motionless as ordinary hair. Her legs were violet, and her arms and most of the torso were a golden yellow. Based on the appearance on the front, she was apparently wearing a closed jacket of that color. On the left collar of that jacket was a sun-like symbol that looked just like Princess Celestia’s Cutie Mark.

A few seconds of silence passed before Celestia spoke up. “You said you had important information regarding Sunset Shimmer, correct?”

Twilight had momentarily forgotten what she was here for. She just as quickly remembered, thanks to Celestia getting her attention. Realizing she had been asked a question, Twilight replied, “Uh, actually, it’s not about Sunset Shimmer herself, but rather something she had stolen from me.”

“Is that so?” asked Celestia. She then walked behind her desk, tore a sheet of paper from a notebook, and picked up a pencil. Apparently, not quite everything in this world was made of plastic parts. “First of all, what is your name?”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she answered. “This is actually the first time I’ve ever been in this, um, region. The only reason I’m here is because I chased after Sunset Shimmer, which ultimately led me to this city.”

Celestia took note of that on the sheet of paper before asking, “And what exactly did she steal from you? Knowing her, it must have been a valuable item.”

“It’s a crown, made mostly of gold, except for the gemstone on the front, which is shaped like a six-pointed star.”

Spike added, “It also has magical abilities like—”

Twilight quickly covered Spike’s mouth before he could say more. She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to talk about magic objects in a place that seemed to lack magic — for the most part, at least. Once again, she smiled nervously at Celestia.

Celestia took note of everything and sighed. “It was only a matter of time before she would start stealing magical artifacts. I always knew it was too much to hope her crimes wouldn’t reach beyond the City Regions.”

“Crimes?” asked a very surprised Twilight. “She’s been doing bad things here?”

“For a long time, unfortunately,” replied Celestia. “Ever since she first appeared about five years ago, she has been responsible for all kinds of mayhem. Robbing banks, stealing vehicles, and frustrating the police at every step, it is no wonder she is number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted list.”

This information was shocking to Twilight. If the natives of this world had been struggling to catch Sunset Shimmer for five years now, then there was little hope of stopping whatever plans she may have. However, thanks to some earlier thoughts, Twilight saw a way around this problem.

“Actually, she may not even have that crown in her possession at this time,” explained Twilight. “When I was chasing her into this region, I was able to at least make her drop it. Neither of us saw where it landed, unfortunately, but I’m pretty sure she has yet to find it. That is why I came here. I was hoping that you could help me retrieve that crown, before Sunset Shimmer takes it again.”

Celestia added this information to her note. Once she was finished, she rolled up the paper and said, “Thank you for telling me this. I’d better send this to the police station right away.” She picked up a cylindrical part and inserted the paper through the hollow bottom of it, then closed off the bottom with a small round part. She then walked over to the right side of the room and flipped a lever on the wall, which caused a large section of that wall to slide over and reveal at least a dozen transparent pipes, each with a different label on the small door on the side. She opened the one marked “Police Station” and inserted the round part containing her note. As soon as she closed the door, the cylinder quickly shot up through the pipe and out of sight.

“That’s an interesting way to send a message,” remarked Twilight.

“Indeed it is,” said Celestia. “Each one leads all the way across the city directly to its intended destination.” She flipped the lever again to slide the wall cover back over. “Much faster than hand delivery, and virtually no risk of interception.”

Fascinating! thought Twilight. I wonder if it would be possible to build such a thing in Equestria. It certainly has great benefits.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” asked Celestia.

Twilight took a moment to think about what else she could ask Celestia. With the message on its way to the police station, the local law enforcement would soon start searching the entire city for her crown. With any luck, she may have it back in only a matter of hours. Until then, maybe she could actually learn a few things about this strange world.

“Well,” began Twilight, “I happen to come from a very different… region, and there’s a lot I don’t know about this place.”

“Feel free to ask me anything you want,” assured Celestia. “I have plenty of time to answer your questions.”

“In that case, I guess my first question is this: What is LEGO?”

Celestia was quite surprised to hear anyone ask such a question. She wasn’t sure if Twilight was just testing her or genuinely had no idea. Either way, her question deserved a proper answer.

Celestia smiled and replied, “To answer that as simple as possible, LEGO is what we call all of the various parts and pieces that everything and everyone in this world is made of. If you are interested, I can show you around some rooms to help explain some of the basics.”

“I would like that very much,” said Twilight.

As Celestia walked out of the office, Spike quietly said to Twilight. “I thought she would call you crazy to ask a question like that.”

“I figured she would understand,” replied Twilight. “This is Celestia, after all.” She then followed Celestia out the door.

Despite his confusion, Spike was quick to join up with them on their way to the elevator.

On one of the many middle floors, the elevator doors opened. Celestia was the first to step out, soon followed by Twilight and Spike.

“Where are you taking us?” asked Twilight. Looking around, she could see piles of various parts all over the room. There were a few bricks stacked together here and there, but there was apparently nothing definitive about what was being assembled here. It hardly seemed like the kind of place she would expect Celestia to take her.

“I call this the Creativity Floor,” answered Celestia, “because it is here where one can experience the true purpose behind the concept of LEGO, and that is to encourage one’s imagination and creativity.”

“How so?”

“You would be amazed by what you can build with just a few simple parts,” replied Celestia with a smile on her face. She walked over to a nearby pile of parts and picked up a large red brick. She showed it to her guests and explained, “This is the most basic of Lego bricks. The first thing you will notice is that it has eight studs on top, arranged two-by-four. This arrangement gives this type of part its name: a standard eight-stud brick. But the studs are only half of how these bricks fit together.” She turned over the brick in her hands to show the bottom of it. “You will notice the interior is hollow, except for these three tubes. Tell me, where are these tubes located in relation to the studs on top?”

Twilight gently took the brick from Celestia and studied it for a moment. After looking over both the top and the bottom, she finally answered, “Each tube is exactly in the middle of every two-by-two arrangement of the studs. There are three such arrangements on top of this particular brick, which is why there are three tubes on the bottom.”

“Exactly,” confirmed Celestia. “This arrangement is vital to one of the key features of Lego bricks: clutch power.” She grabbed another standard eight-stud brick, but this one was colored blue. “When one brick is placed on top of another, the tubes provide a snug fit for the studs, regardless of where you decide to place it. The result…” She demonstrated by placing the blue brick directly on top of the red brick. She continued to hold just the blue brick as she picked it up again. This time, the red brick was lifted as well, stuck to the bottom of the blue brick. “The bricks stick together,” she finished.

“Wow! That’s amazing!” exclaimed Spike, very impressed to see the two parts stick together almost magically.

“That is quite impressive,” remarked Twilight. “You said this works no matter how you put them together?”

“Of course,” answered Celestia. She proved this by separating the two bricks, turning one of them around, and putting them back together. Now, instead of covering all eight studs, only the four middle studs of the bottom brick were covered by the brick on top. “There are literally dozens of different ways of attaching just these two bricks.” She smiled as she added, “One of my favorite fun facts is the total number of possible ways to put together just six of these standard bricks: 915,103,765.”

“Whoa!” exclaimed Twilight, completely blown away by that statistic. “That many from just six bricks?”

“And that’s assuming they are all exactly the same,” continued Celestia. “Once you add in different colors, that number goes much higher.”

“And that’s just factoring in only the standard bricks,” added Twilight, catching on to the true scale of LEGO. “I can see here there are many different kinds of parts, each with their own unique ways of fitting together with others. I don’t know whether to be thrilled or overwhelmed by all of this.”

“As you can see, with so many possibilities, the imagination is the limit.”

“I’ll definitely need to do some research on this when I get to that library,” Twilight quietly said to herself. She then spoke up, “I guess that answers all but two of my questions: Why is there a LEGO Team? And where does the name ‘Playwell’ come from?”

“I suppose a little history lesson may be necessary to answer those questions,” replied Celestia. “Follow me, please.” She began walking to a nearby door out of the room.

Twilight was about to follow, but noticed that Spike was now occupied with looking at the different kinds of pieces, obviously curious about what kinds of things he could build with them. As much as she would love to do the same, there would be time for that later. “Let’s go, Spike!” she called to him as she followed Celestia.

“Okay,” sighed Spike in disappointment before dropping the parts in his hands and following Twilight.

After some walking around, Celestia, Twilight, and Spike now stood in a hallway, looking at three portraits on the wall.

“Who are these minifigs?” asked Twilight.

“Actually, the full name for a Lego person is ‘minifigure’,” replied Celestia. “But as you may have already heard, most people prefer to shorten it to just ‘minifig’. Either way is correct. Anyway, to answer your question, these are the three generations of the Playwell family.”

The portrait on the left was clearly the earliest, since it was the only one not in color. This minifig had dark hair, wore glasses, and had a moustache.

“The first was Ole Playwell,” explained Celestia. “He was the one who created the Lego World as we know it. It was he who created the first Lego bricks, and he always made sure they were made at the highest quality possible. ‘Only the best is good enough,’ he would often say. Even the very name of LEGO was created by him. It is derived from two words in his native language: leg godt, which means ‘play well’, hence the family name. Coincidentally, the word Lego also means something else in a more ancient language: ‘I build’ or ‘I create’. It is widely believed that this is what inspired Ole to make the first Lego bricks. Sadly, he did not stay with us for very long, and his work was incomplete when he left us. It was left to his son, Godtfred, to finish what he had started.”

The portrait in the middle showed a minifig that had dark hair that had receded a little, wore glasses, and had no facial hair.

“Godtfred Playwell, the second generation, was quick to realize two major problems left in his father’s absence and quickly went to work solving them,” continued Celestia. “His first great achievement was to organize everything into a system. In Ole’s time, everything went together in only one way, but Godtfred saw the full potential of the Lego brick. As you already know, there are many ways to assemble these bricks, and by allowing everyone to embrace such endless possibilities, creativity was able to flourish all over the Lego World. But there was another problem. At the time, Lego bricks were completely hollow, and had only the studs on top to hold them together. As a result, if you didn’t build something correctly, it would simply fall apart. How do you think he ultimately solved this problem?”

“By adding those tubes on the inside,” answered Twilight.

“That’s right. By making the bricks capable of sticking together, the possibilities had truly become endless. Later on, Godtfred improved the system by creating different themes and assigning them to different regions: City, Space, Castle, and dozens more in the years since. While it is nice to be able to build anything you want, sometimes an appropriate setting can provide just the kind of inspiration you may need for your best creations.”

This final portrait was of a minifig that had no hair on top of his head, but instead appeared to have short grey hair around the back as well as the beard. Unlike the other two, he did not wear glasses.

“Eventually, Godtfred, too, had left us,” continued Celestia. “His son, Kjeld Playwell, the third generation, continues to oversee the Lego World to this day. He soon came to realize that it was not something he could do alone, and that is why he created the LEGO Team. At first, there was only one site located within his home region of Lego City, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Before long, each region had its own branch, where local master builders would come together and offer their expertise.”

“Is that all there is to the LEGO Team?” asked Twilight. “An easier way for the Playwell family to look after everyone?”

“Not exactly,” replied Celestia. “This organization represents many ideas: helping others, fighting the good fight, engineering better solutions, and many more. All of them are made possible by one simple message: We build on each other.”

“Oh, I get it now,” said Twilight, smiling in realization. “You’re saying that it is only by working together as a good team that the greatest of achievements can be accomplished. Just like the magic of friendship!”

“That’s one way to look at it, I suppose,” replied Celestia, slightly unsure what Twilight meant by that last phrase.

Realizing she had slipped up again, Twilight decided to change the subject. “There’s just one thing I still don’t understand. You have the Playwell name. Where do you fit in among all of this?”

“Kjeld happens to be my uncle,” answered Celestia.

“Oh. Does this mean you’re the fourth generation?”

“You could say that.” After a few seconds of silence, Celestia added, “Is there anything else you would like to ask me?”

“No, I think that’ll be enough,” replied Twilight. “I’ll just do some further research at the library.” She began to walk away, but stopped when she realized something. “Oh! I do have one more question. Is there another way back into Canterlot City without having to go down that scary mountain road?”

“Just take the elevator down to the basement level,” replied Celestia. “There’s a train station there, and the train runs between here and downtown every two hours.”

“Thank you, Celestia. As long as you’re sure the police will do everything they can to find my crown, I’ll be just fine.”

“I included a brief description of you in that note I sent to the police station, so if they do find it, they’ll know who to look for,” assured Celestia.

Twilight thanked Celestia again before turning back to the elevator not far down the hallway, with Spike following close behind. Once again, they entered an available elevator. This time, Twilight pressed the button that would take them to the basement level.

As the elevator doors opened near the underground train station, Spike asked, “So… what do we do now?”

As they walked away from the elevator, Twilight replied, “For now, there’s not much we can do about my crown, unfortunately. We don’t know our way around this city. Instead, we’ll just have to hope the local police received Celestia’s message and will lets us know when they find the missing crown.”

“If they find it,” corrected Spike. “Just because they know the city like the back of their hoof— I mean hand — doesn’t mean they are sure to find it. And three days isn’t really a lot of time to search an entire city.”

“Still, if anyone can find it, it’s them. As far as I can tell, everyone here is just as friendly as the ponies we know back in Equestria. I’m actually optimistic we’ll be home with time to spare.”

By now, the two of them had arrived at the underground train platform, where the train was already waiting. It had a much sleeker shape than the kind seen in Equestria. Most notably was the distinct lack of a smokestack on the engine.

“Now boarding for Canterlot City. Now boarding,” said a voice that echoed across the station. Twilight and Spike had no idea where it came from, but they understood the message. Seeing the doors were open on all of the cars, they walked inside one and took their seats.

“Until then,” continued Twilight, “I think it would be a good idea to do further research at that library. We’ll have to ask for directions, of course.”

A simple tone rang out across the train before the doors slid closed. Just seconds later, the train began to roll out of the station. It didn’t take long for them to notice that this train was much faster than the ones they had ridden before in Equestria. Despite the higher speeds, the ride still felt just as comfortable, if not more so. It wasn’t long before the train left the tunnel as it continued to speed along the tracks across the landscape and toward the city.

“Wow!” exclaimed Twilight in awe as she watched the scenery rush by. “At this rate, we’ll be there in no time! That’ll give us even more time to study!”

Spike simply rolled his eyes. Twilight had always loved studying, and with so much to learn about this Lego World, he was sure they were about to spend a lot of time in that library.

Author's Note

I felt that this was a rather slow chapter, but necessary to get some background information out there. In case you didn't notice, I had decided to include Kjeld Playwell from the Clutch Powers movie, exactly as he appeared. Everything else was my own creation. Much of the history I wrote in this chapter was inspired by a 15-minute animated video about the early history of the LEGO company. I think it was called "the Lego Story", but I'm not exactly sure. I do know it was posted on the main site two years ago, in honor of the company's 80th anniversary. Anyway, things will start to pick up in the next chapter. I've already made some progress on it, so hopefully it'll be up within a week.

Attack at the Police Station

Chapter 4
Attack at the Police Station

It didn’t take long for Twilight Sparkle and Spike to find their way to Canterlot City’s library. Once there, they had noticed that while the building itself and the shelves within were built out of Lego bricks, most of the books were like real books, containing paper pages. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be surprised by this, but at least she was glad to find something familiar.

Twilight spent the entire afternoon reading everything she could about LEGO, Lego parts, and how to properly assemble them. She quickly went through the beginner’s guides, and managed to get through most of the advanced guides, too. She even took notes on each type of part and all the possible ways to attach them to other parts. She then went on to study the different themes of each region, and the types of buildings and vehicles that were typically built in each region. Some of them were quite familiar to Twilight, while others were simply beyond anything she could have imagined.

After a few hours, Twilight felt confident that she knew enough about this world to no longer risk being seen as crazy, so long as she kept quiet about Equestria.

Spike set down another stack of books at Twilight’s table and asked, “Can we take a break? I’m getting hungry.”

Twilight looked over at Spike and smiled. “Of course, Spike,” she replied as she closed the book she had been reading. “Besides, I’m sure I’ve done enough research to know how to fit in with everyone in this world.” She got up out of her seat and headed for the door out of the library.

“Hey, maybe we can try that pizza place we passed by on the way here,” suggested Spike as he followed Twilight outside. “Didn’t Pinkie mention it as one of the places to check out in this city?”

“I don’t mind, either way,” admitted Twilight as they reached the bottom of the steps down to the sidewalk. “I’m still finding it hard to believe it’s even possible to eat at all when we look like this.”

“Scootaloo!”

Twilight and Spike turned their attention across the street to three young girls who looked very familiar. Two of them, one with yellow skin and the other with white skin, ran over to the third, who had orange skin and was holding some kind of scooter.

“We finished building that wall you wanted to jump your scooter over!” exclaimed the white girl, Sweetie Belle, excitedly.

“Six bricks high, just like you wanted,” added the yellow girl, Applebloom.

“Awesome!” exclaimed the orange girl, Scootaloo. “Let’s go for it!”

The three girls cheered in unison before running back up the sidewalk.

Twilight sighed and simply said, “Some things never change.”

Twilight had barely turned her attention forward when she felt someone suddenly crash into her, sending them both to the ground. Twilight looked down at herself and gasped in shock to see that her right leg and left arm had come off! She could also see her hair nearby, as if it was a wig that had fallen off. She then looked over at the person she had bumped into and saw that he was also missing some parts.

“Sorry about that,” said the other minifig as he reattached his left leg and right arm. He then stood up and put his hat back on. He had orange skin on his head and hands, and was wearing a blue police uniform, which included the hat. He also had spiky blue hair, which was no longer visible now that he had his hat back on. In addition to the gold police badge on the left chest of his uniform, he also had some symbol printed on the right chest pocket that looked like a yellow lightning bolt over a blue shield.

“Here, let me help you,” he offered as he picked up Twilight’s leg and put it back on. He then did the same for her arm and helped her back up to her feet. Finally, he grabbed her hair and put it back on her head. “There, is that better?”

Twilight wasn’t sure what to say. It was definitely a new experience to have parts of her own body just fall off like that. She felt a little sore at the joints that had come loose, but otherwise seemed to be just fine. “Y-yes,” she finally replied. “Thank you.”

The police officer smiled and turned to continue walking. But before he took even one step, he suddenly turned back to Twilight and asked, “Hey, uh, you wouldn’t happen to be Twilight Sparkle, would you?”

Twilight was initially confused that she had been asked such a question, especially from a police officer. Regardless, there was no point in arguing with law enforcement, so she answered, “Uh, yes. That would be my name.”

“In that case, I am pleased to inform you that we have successfully located and retrieved your stolen crown,” continued the police officer. “It is currently stored inside the safety vault back at the police station. I can give you a ride there, if you’re interested.”

Twilight’s confusion quickly turned to excitement as she received such wonderful news. “Really?! That’s great to hear!” she exclaimed excitedly. “I would love to get it back as soon as possible, so yes, I would really appreciate you taking me there.”

“Consider it done,” said the police officer. “My police cruiser is just down the street here.” As he began walking, he turned to Spike and added, “And don’t worry, there’s enough seats for all of us.”

“Good enough for me,” said Spike as he followed Twilight and the police officer.

The cruiser was parked just one block away, so it didn’t take long for the trio to get to it.

As Spike climbed into the backseat, Twilight walked around to the passenger side and said, “Thank you for giving us a ride, officer…” Twilight trailed off as she realized she didn’t even know the officer’s name.

“Flash Sentry, at your service,” he introduced himself with a tip of the hat. He then opened the door of the driver side and got in his seat, while Twilight did likewise on the passenger side. He turned on the cruiser and began to drive forward down the street.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. This ride was a lot more calm and smooth that her previous ride with Pinkie Pie.

“Are you okay?” asked Flash, having heard her sigh.

Twilight blushed from her embarrassment. “It’s just… this is nothing like how Pinkie Pie drives,” she answered honestly.

“Oh yeah, that crazy girl,” said Flash, nodding in understanding. “Based on what I’ve heard from the other officers, she just can’t go even one week without getting a speeding ticket. You’d think she would learn her lesson by now, but she always just shrugs it off with a smile. At least that’s the only offence she ever commits, unlike Sunset Shimmer.”

“Speaking of Sunset, how did you manage to get my crown back from her?” asked Twilight.

Flash laughed a little before answering, “Please. If she had that thing, we would be chasing her halfway around the world before we could even catch up to her! No, we actually found it in the possession of Rocky and Mugsy, two of the most incompetent crooks you’ll ever meet. I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve had to arrest those brick-heads, and I’m still technically considered a rookie, so that’s saying something.”

“If you’ve been arresting them that much, why do you guys keep letting them go?” asked Spike in confusion. After all, they couldn’t be arrested again if they were still in jail, so they had to get out somehow, and if what Flash said about them was true, they were unlikely to break out on their own.

“We don’t,” replied Flash. “Somebody keeps breaking them out of jail. No idea who or why. What really confuses me is why the culprit would go with them, of all people. Personally, if I wanted to break some crooks out of jail, those two brick-heads would be at the bottom of my list.”

This information was relieving for Twilight, but also worrisome. Although her crown had ended up in bad hands, she was glad that it was a pair of incompetent crooks rather than Sunset Shimmer. They had probably just happened to be in the park at the moment the crown came through, and had decided to take it as simply a piece of treasure for them to loot. The part that did worry her, though, was that someone had been helping to break them out of prison, time and time again. She couldn’t help but get the sense that these “brick-heads” were maybe being used as pawns in some bigger scheme. If so, for what purpose?

There would be time to worry about that later. For now, the important thing was that the local police had recovered her crown, and she would soon have it back where it belonged.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at the police station. Twilight was sure of it, due to the word “POLICE” labeled on multiple parts of the blue and white building. Half of it was three floors tall while the other half was only two floors tall. Large windows took up most of the front side of the building. Flash slowed the cruiser as he drove around to the side of the building toward a lever gate. The gate opened as the cruiser pulled up and then continued into the parking space within the building before coming to a stop.

Flash shut off the cruiser and said, “Follow me, please.” He got out and walked up to the nearby door into the building. He held it open as Twilight and Spike followed him inside. “This way,” he said as he led them across the room to another door.

The three of them walked by a desk as they headed for yet another doorway. Spike stopped suddenly when he noticed a box containing a dozen doughnuts resting on the desk. Tempted, he reached over to grab one.

“Hands off the doughnuts!” Flash called back to him while still facing forward as he continued to walk with Twilight. “Chief gets pretty upset if he sees even one of them is missing.”

“Awww,” groaned Spike in disappointment. He didn’t keep following the others, but instead continued to stand next to the box of doughnuts on the desk. He stared at the delicious snack just sitting right there in front of him. His growling stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten anything since visiting the library.

Tempted once more, Spike looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching, then quickly grabbed a doughnut and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. It didn’t take him long to finish chowing down on it. “Mmm, doughnuts,” he muttered in satisfaction. Looking back over at the box of doughnuts, Spike looked over his shoulder again before he grabbed another one and shoved it in his mouth.

Meanwhile, Flash and Twilight walked into the next room. In the back was a large vault door. Flash walked up to the nearby control panel and tapped a few keys in a particular order. He then spun the handle around until a faint click was heard. Finally, he pulled the heavy door open, revealing the interior of the vault.

Twilight could see cash, coins, and other valuable objects stored inside, but what really made her gasp was that, sitting right in the middle of it all, was her crown. She could hardly believe it, but here it was!

“We use this safety vault to store items of value before we can return them to their rightful owners,” explained Flash Sentry as he walked into the vault. He grabbed the crown and held it out to Twilight.

Twilight reached over and gently took back her crown. It was hard to believe that she now had it back, and so easily, too! She had definitely made the right call to seek help from the Lego World’s Celestia.

“I have to say, I’ve never seen anything like that crown, before,” admitted Flash. “It’s so unlike any Lego part that I know of.”

“Let’s just say it doesn’t belong here,” said Twilight, deciding not to mention that it wasn’t even a Lego part at all. “And I’m here to bring it back.”

“Good,” said Flash, nodding in approval. “The last thing we need is an unknown artifact in the hands of some crook.”

“Thank you so much for finding it!” exclaimed Twilight happily, before throwing her arms around the police officer in a big hug.

Flash was momentarily caught off-guard by Twilight’s show of thanks. Figuring that the artifact meant a lot to her, he simply returned the hug. “Just doing an officer’s duty,” he assured her.

Meanwhile, Spike continued to happily munch on the doughnuts. He blindly reached into the box to grab another one. When he felt nothing in the box that he was now holding in his hands, he opened his eyes to see it was empty. He tipped the box upside down to confirm that he had in fact eaten every single doughnut. “Awww,” he moaned in disappointment.

At that particular moment, Spike happened to glance out the window and noticed something peculiar. “Huh?” he muttered before turning to look out the window again. He saw a vehicle parked across the street outside with three doors on the side. He was unable to see who was in the two rear seats, but the door for the driver’s seat up front did have a window just large enough to show a pale orange minifig with long red and yellow hair. There was something uncomfortably familiar about that person.

The mysterious driver turned to look towards the police station and soon found herself locking eyes with the short minifig wearing a red LEGO cap. They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither of them quite able to immediately grasp what they now saw. The driver was the first to break eye contact, as she quickly turned to the passengers in the back and said something.

“Uh oh,” said Spike nervously as he finally realized what was going on. With no time to lose, he quickly turned away from the window and ran to the nearby vault room.

Twilight had just released her hug on Flash Sentry when she heard the rapid clacking of footsteps behind her. She turned to see Spike running into the room with a panicked look on his face.

“I thought I told you to keep your hands off the doughnuts!” scolded Flash.

Spike stopped and realized he was still holding the empty box in his hands. He quickly tossed it aside and said, “That’s not important right now. We have a really serious problem, guys.”

“What is it, Spike?” asked Twilight in concern.

Spike pointed toward the large window at the front of the room and exclaimed, “We’ve got company!”

Twilight and Flash had only enough time to turn to look in the same direction before the vehicle Spike had spotted crashed through the wall, scattering Lego parts all over the floor. The vehicle, which was wide enough for only one seat, came to a stop in the middle of the room.

The driver didn’t waste any time stepping out of the vehicle to reveal herself. Her lower legs were black with a splash of magenta on the front. Wrapped around her upper legs was an orange skirt with a yellow and magenta stripe diagonally across the front. Her arms and most of her torso were also black. On the front of her torso, underneath an open jacket, was magenta, and in the middle of that was a red and yellow sun symbol.

“Sunset Shimmer,” growled Flash Sentry.

Twilight gasped at this revelation. Sunset Shimmer, the unicorn mare who had stolen her crown and was also number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted list, was now standing right in front of her, in the form of a minifig.

Flash continued, “You have a lot of nerve to break into Canterlot City Police Station like this.”

“And with good reason,” said Sunset, smugly. “I really must thank you for finding that crown. I was wondering where I had dropped it.” She then turned her attention to Twilight, who was still holding onto her crown. “You know, I went through a lot of trouble just to cast that fake crown you may have seen. I’m done fooling around! I’m here to take what’s mine!” She held out her hand. “Now hand it over. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

Twilight looked over at Flash, who quickly shook his head. She didn’t need to be told twice. “Forget it!” she declared. “You are not getting my crown!”

Sunset shrugged and said, “Fine. I guess we’ll just have to do this the hard way.”

At this, the first passenger stepped out of the vehicle. This minifig had light blue skin on her head, hands, and upper legs. Her arms, torso, and lower legs were dark blue. She also wore a violet cape and pointed hat. Barely visible underneath that hat was white and pale blue hair. Finally, wrapped around her lower legs was a violet skirt with a symbol printed on the left side that consisted of a blue scarf and star-shaped wand. In her hand, she held a staff with a five-pointed star on the end, similar to the one printed on her skirt.

It soon became clear this minifig possessed magical abilities, as the end of her staff began to glow. Once it was charged up, she pointed it toward Twilight, firing a bolt of energy.

“NOOOO!” shouted Spike as he jumped in front of Twilight to take the hit. The bolt of energy wrapped around his body and bound his arms to his sides. Once he fell to the floor, Spike squirmed around in a vain attempt to break loose from the magic bonds, but they held tight.

“Spike!” exclaimed Twilight helplessly.

The blue minifig quickly followed that up by levitating many of the various parts that littered the floor. Then, with a wave of her staff, sent them flying towards Twilight.

Twilight could only scream as she tried to jump out of the way, but she was too slow. The parts slammed into her and pinned her against the wall, causing her to drop her crown in the process. She tried to pull herself loose, but like Spike, the magic bonds held her in place.

Sunset smiled in satisfaction as she slowly walked up to the crown that now lay before her on the floor. But then, quick as a flash, Flash Sentry snatched the crown, tossed it into a nearby machine, and yanked down on the lever on the side of it. The machine made a noise that sounded like it was powering down. This was all the rookie police officer could do before he, too, was quickly pinned against the wall by a mass of levitated parts, his hat falling off in the process.

Undaunted, Sunset walked up to the lever and tried to flip it back up, but it wouldn’t budge. She grunted in frustration as she tried, and failed, to reverse whatever Flash had done.

“Did you really think we’d be stupid enough to include a reverse feature on that thing?” taunted Flash. “We know better than that!”

Sunset knew that this was a major setback, but as she looked carefully at the settings on the machine, she realized it would not be an unbearable setback. “Fine!” said Sunset as she open the machine and removed Twilight’s crown. “I can afford to wait forty-eight hours. The portal will still be open by then.”

Twilight looked over helplessly as Sunset Shimmer, once again, took away her crown. However, she noticed something different about her crown. It was drained of all color. She wasn’t sure what it was that Flash did to the magical artifact, but his relatively smug response seemed to indicate that it would hinder Sunset’s efforts.

As this was going on, the second passenger stepped out of the vehicle. She had aqua skin and had yellow and orange hair on her head. She wore what appeared to be a blue and yellow flight suit of some kind that covered everything but her head. The symbol that was printed in the middle of her torso was a white lightning bolt over three yellow stars. She was also currently holding something rectangular in her hand.

Sunset smirked when she noticed the object the aqua minifig was holding. “Good,” she said in approval. “Leave no witnesses.”

The aqua minifig tapped something on the rectangular part, which caused it to start beeping. She then simply tossed the part onto the floor in front of her.

“I got what I came for,” said Sunset to her two companions. “Now let’s get outta here!” The three minifigs quickly got back into their seats in their vehicle. Now back in the driver’s seat, Sunset backed the vehicle out of the building, turned, and accelerated forward down the street. The vehicle revved loudly as it sped away, zooming away from the scene of the crime.

Now that the attackers were gone, the effects of the blue minifig’s magic wore off, freeing the three trapped minifigs. Spike looked over at the beeping object and asked, “Um, what’s that?”

Flash needed no more than a quick glance to realize the purpose of the beeping device. “BOMB!” he shouted in absolute terror, jumping back to his feet. He quickly grabbed Twilight by the wrist and practically dragged her along as the beeping began to speed up. “QUICK! INTO THE VAULT!”

“Hey, wait for me!” exclaimed Spike as he ran into the safety vault behind Flash and Twilight.

Once everyone was inside, Flash quickly pulled the heavy door closed and spun the handle until it locked shut. By now, the bomb was beeping so rapidly that the noise was almost a blur.

The bomb finally detonated, blasting the police station completely apart. As Lego parts began raining down all over the city block, the only part of the building left intact was the safety vault.

Once the last of the Lego parts finally hit the ground, the handle spun open from the inside and the vault door was pushed open. Flash, Twilight, and Spike could now see the devastation unleashed by that bomb. Outside of the safety vault, the entire police station was completely in pieces. Not even two bricks were still together.

Flash Sentry let out a huge sigh of relief and said, “That was a very close call. A blast like that could have extinguished our Creation Sparks.”

“Creation Spark?” asked Twilight, slightly confused.

“It’s what makes you a living minifig,” explained Flash. “Without it… you’re reduced to nothing but a pile of parts.” As he explained this, he managed to find his hat among the debris. He picked it up, dusted off the top of it, and put it back on his head.

Twilight found it quite humbling to hear that the possibility of death — even by a different phrase — was still just as real in this world as it was in Equestria. Although minifigs were capable of doing incredible things, other hazards — like a massive explosion, in this case —were still just as dangerous. It was not something to fear, but rather more like not taking her new form for granted.

Flash sighed again, this time in frustration. “This should not have happened,” he simply said. “We had that artifact stored inside the safety vault, and right at the exact moment we take it out, she barges in and yanks it right out of our hands!”

“By the way, what was that machine you threw my crown in before she took it?” asked Twilight.

“That was a Deactivation Camber,” answered Flash. “It can render any object completely useless for a certain amount of time. Once that amount of time has passed, the effects will wear off and the object in question will regain its power. I didn’t have a chance to set the controls, so I had to go with whatever setting it was already on: forty-eight hours.” He gave another frustrated sigh. “But still, it should not have had to come to that. Why does it always have to be this way with Sunset Shimmer? Every time we think we’ve got a step ahead of her, she throws us back to square one.” He grunted as he kicked away a Lego part in anger. “How can she keep getting away like this?!”

“Well, at least those doughnuts didn’t go to waste,” said Spike, trying to stay optimistic.

A glare from Flash Sentry made it pretty clear he was not sharing in that optimism.

“What should we do now?” asked Twilight. “It is imperative that I get my crown back, and not just so we can bring Sunset Shimmer to justice.”

“We need to inform Ms. Playwell about this latest development right away,” said Flash in determination. “Seeing as the station is in pieces, we’ll need to find another way to contact her.” He started scanning the area around the remains of the police station for anything useful. It didn’t take him long to find just the thing he needed. “There! A pay phone!” he exclaimed, pointing at a fixture on the sidewalk that Twilight did not recognize at all. “We can just call her directly.” He immediately ran over to the fixture, soon followed by Twilight and Spike.

Twilight Sparkle observed carefully how Flash Sentry used the unfamiliar device. The first thing he did was grab a small rectangular part that was somehow attached by a wire to the device and held it against the side of his head. He reached for a pocket on his uniform and a coin appeared in his hand — Lego logic that Twilight still couldn’t quite figure out. He inserted the coin into the device and quickly tapped some of the buttons, each labeled with a different single number. Finally, he stood still and waited.

Twilight and Spike glanced at each other in confusion.

Flash rapidly tapped his foot, showing that he was struggling to keep his patience. Finally, he said, “Ms. Playwell, this is officer Flash Sentry, and I have some unfortunate news to report. I was in the process of returning that stolen artifact back to Twilight Sparkle when Sunset Shimmer came by and stole it from us.” He was silent for a few seconds before he spoke up again. “No, I was unable to see where she went. She and two others caught us completely by surprise. They even destroyed the police station in their escape.” He went silent again for a few seconds. “No, no one was harmed, as far as I know. I was able to take shelter inside the safety vault with Twilight and Spike.” Another brief silence. “Yes, she is actually standing right next to me right now. Do you wish to speak with her?” He kept silent one more time. “Okay.” He then held the part he was talking into out to Twilight.

Twilight stared at the part in confusion for a moment, not quite understanding what this device was supposed to do. Flash had been speaking as if he was having a conversation with someone, but she could not hear the other side of it at all. Perhaps the only way of hearing that other side was to hold that part against the side of her head the same way Flash had done, so she decided to do exactly that. “Hello?” she said hesitantly.

“Twilight Sparkle,” said the voice of Celestia Playwell as it came from the device. “I am terribly sorry to hear about this. I’m just glad you and your friend are both unharmed. We have no time to lose, so I’ll make this quick. I had a feeling Sunset Shimmer might try something like this, so I prepared a backup plan. Please return to the LEGO Team Headquarters as soon as possible, and I’ll assemble a team to assist you. The time has come to bring Sunset Shimmer to justice, once and for all!”

Once she quickly got over the shock of discovering how this “pay phone” worked, Twilight took a moment to think over what Celestia was talking about. It seemed that if she was going to get her crown back, she would have to do it personally. At least she would have a team to assist her in this endeavor, but she had no idea what kind of team to expect.

Twilight smiled a little as she realized that there was a team she knew she could trust to help her at every step. “Actually, I already have a team in mind,” she spoke into the phone.

“Is that so?” said Celestia. “Very well. Just tell me who they are and I’ll send for them right away.”

Twilight’s smile widened at this approval. Looks like my best friends are going to help me, after all, she thought to herself.

Author's Note

Yes, I just had to include Flash Sentry in this story, so I decided to make him a police officer. I figured it would be a good way of showing what the Lego people have thought of Sunset Shimmer over the last five years she had been staying in their world. As for her two companions, they will be identified in the next chapter, but I'm sure you can already figure out who they are.

By the way, I did in fact see The LEGO Movie this past weekend, so now I know just about everything about what happens in it. I will occasionally make a few small references to it, but for the most part, this story will continue to get most of its inspiration from the Clutch Powers movie.

Building a Team

Chapter 5
Building a Team

Thanks to some help from the guard posted at the lobby, Twilight Sparkle knew exactly where to go to meet with Celestia. At one of the middle floors, she and Spike stepped through the doorway into a massive room with a very high ceiling. One side consisted of a few massive windows that overlooked the city below, while the opposite side lacked any windows — explaining the large middle area they had seen from the outside. There were a few open doorways that lead to other sections of this floor, including along some platforms and walkways up above. Twilight was completely in awe at the sheer scale of all this. If there was one part of this LEGO Team building that reminded her of Canterlot Castle, this was it.

This particular section was dominated by a massive display screen on the wall on one side. Directly beneath that was a large console that consisted of various controls, switches, and buttons. That console was placed on a platform that stood at a height of six bricks above the floor. Also standing on that platform, resting her hands against the surrounding railing, was Celestia Playwell herself.

“Welcome back, Twilight Sparkle and Spike,” greeted Celestia, “though I wish it would have been under better circumstances. I have already called for all of your requested team members, and they have each agreed to meet us here. They should arrive at any moment.”

“Thank you very much, Celestia,” said Twilight.

Celestia added, “Though I cannot deny that I find your choices to be rather… odd.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Twilight in confusion.

“None of them are members of the LEGO Team, and most have never even been outside of Canterlot City,” answered Celestia.

Twilight was somewhat surprised to hear this, but felt it would not be a significant issue. “Still, I have a feeling we’ll get along just fine.”

At the other side of the room, a set of elevator doors opened and out stepped Applejack. “Well Ah’ll be,” she said as she walked up to Twilight. “Ah never would’ve guessed you were here on a treasure hunt against Sunset Shimmer. Ah’m even more surprised you’re askin’ me to help ya out. Ah’m just an apple farmer from the outskirts of Canterlot City. What makes ya think Ah got what it takes to stop the biggest baddie in the world?”

“There’s actually a lot of things you’re good at, Applejack,” replied Twilight. “Your strengths are not the same as my own, and the same applies for everyone else I’ve chosen for this team. As long as we can work together, I don’t see anything that can stop us.”

“Really?” asked Applejack. “Who else do ya have in mind?”

Before Twilight could reply, the two girls turned to the sound of panting coming from a nearby stairway from the lower floors. The person running up the stairs finally arrived on their floor, revealing herself to be Rainbow Dash.

Applejack smirked and said, “What took ya so long? Ah thought ya said the stairs would be faster than the elevator.”

Rainbow Dash stopped to catch her breath before replying, “Okay, I may have been wrong, but at least I got some exercise out of it.”

“I bet you wish you had wings, huh?” remarked Spike.

“Yeah, that would be awesome,” admitted Rainbow. “But it’s not like I’m going to just magically grow a pair of wings anytime soon.”

Another set of elevator doors opened, but the occupant was slow to exit. Soon, she worked up the courage to step out and meet the other team members.

“Fluttershy?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion. “Why are we bringing her along? I thought we were going on a dangerous mission, not some nature hike.”

“I know, she may seem like an unlikely choice,” replied Twilight. “But there are some things that even she is very good at. We all have strengths that we can contribute to this team.”

The noise of a dull thud caused everyone to quickly turn their attention to the window. They saw Pinkie Pie with a hang glider, and she had apparently slammed into the window. She and her hang glider made a faint squeaking noise as she slowly slid down the side.

Celestia sighed before pressing a button on the console. That activated some whirring machinery, which was soon revealed to be a large claw that lowered down the outside of the building, grabbed Pinkie and her glider, then raised back up. Following a few more whirring noises, Pinkie and her glider were simply dropped in the middle of the room.

The glider had fallen to pieces, but Pinkie simply jumped to her feet and excitedly said, “Here I am!”

“Even her?” Rainbow Dash quietly asked.

“Yes, even Pinkie Pie,” replied Twilight.

“Well, is that all of us?” asked Applejack.

“Not quite,” replied Twilight. “We’re still waiting for one more.”

A steady beeping noise made everyone turn to see Rarity arrive. Following close behind her was a forklift that was hauling dozens of luggage containers. “Just packing a few necessities,” she said as the forklift came to a stop and lowered the luggage to the floor.

“A few,” said Applejack with a deadpan expression. “Right.”

Rainbow Dash showed no courtesy as she dug through the luggage pile and pulled out a faceless bust on which sat a hair piece exactly like the one already on Rarity’s head. “You mean like extra hair?” she asked skeptically.

“A girl must always come prepared,” Rarity simply said.

Rainbow Dash carelessly tossed the bust back into the luggage pile and said, “You know, there is such a thing as being over-prepared. I’m probably more likely to lose my hair than you, and you don’t see me carrying around a spare.”

Pinkie Pie hopped over to Rainbow Dash and said, “That’s okay, you can have my spare.” She then tossed a tire into Rainbow’s arms.

“Spare hair, darling,” Rarity clarified. “Not a spare tire.”

Unamused, Rainbow tossed the tire away, which hit the forklift operator in the head and knocked him unconscious.

No one was looking at Celestia as she shook her head in disappointment. This was not the kind of team she had in mind. However, Twilight Sparkle had insisted they would be the best choice, so there would be no point in arguing otherwise. Not when she was about to send them off on an important mission. They were just going to have to work past their differences and prove themselves.

Twilight smiled nervously and said, “Okay, now that we’re all here, how about we focus on the reason we’ve all been brought here?”

“I believe you are quite right,” Celestia spoke up, grabbing everyone’s attention. “You have all been called in to assist Twilight Sparkle here in recovering an artifact that was stolen from her.”

“That’s it?” asked a perplexed Pinkie Pie.

“If only it were that easy,” said Celestia. “You may have already heard that there was an attack at the local police station just hours ago. It was during that incident that the artifact — a crown with magic abilities — was stolen.” She turned to the console and started tapping some keys, causing various images to appear on the display screen. “And I’m afraid this isn’t the act of some common criminals, but rather the top three of LEGO’s Most Wanted.”

“The top three?” asked Twilight, very surprised to hear this. “You mean those two who help Sunset steal my crown are also numbers two and three on LEGO’s Most Wanted?”

“According to the report filed by rookie officer Flash Sentry, there is simply no one else who would fit the descriptions he provided,” answered Celestia solemnly.

Celestia tapped one final key and the image of a rotating minifig came up on the display screen. It was the aqua-skinned girl who wore a blue and yellow flight suit. In one hand, she held a part that looked just like the bomb she had used to destroy the police station.

“Number three: Lightning Dust,” began Celestia. “A former recruit of the Wonderbolts Space Fleet. She was kicked out of flight camp after only a week due to reckless behavior. After numerous failed attempts to get back in, she turned rogue, attacking Wonderbolts bases and hijacking just about any spaceship she could get her hands on. Among her most recent prizes was a cargo ship loaded with hundreds of destructa-bricks, including the one she had used to destroy the police station. This has made her far more dangerous than ever before.”

Celestia tapped another key, switching the display to another minifig. It was the blue-skinned girl who wore a violet cape and pointed hat. In her hand was that magic staff with a blue five-pointed star on the end of it.

“Number two: Trixie,” continued Celestia. “Self-proclaimed, ‘The Great and Powerful’. She has made it no secret that she wishes to take over all territory within the Castle Region, and from there possibly even the rest of the Lego World. She has been very difficult to track down, but when she does appear, she does not hold back on using her magic powers, which are channeled through that staff she always carries with her. Very few have the power to even stand a chance against her, making her a very formidable foe indeed.”

Celestia tapped one more key, switching the display to Sunset Shimmer.

“And finally, number one: Sunset Shimmer. No one knows where she came from, but soon after she suddenly appeared five years ago, she began breaking just about every law you can think of: bank robberies, grand theft auto, destruction of property, and countless others. Canterlot City has seen most of her activity, but she has also extended her to reach to all of the other city regions, from the twin cities of Manehattan and Bricklyn, all the way to Lego City itself. Despite the best attempts by every police force in the world, she has always been able to evade capture every single time.”

Celestia turned back to face the assembled team and concluded, “The good news is that rookie officer Flash Sentry was able to place the magic crown inside a deactivation chamber before Sunset could steal it. We do not know what she plans to do with it, but we can rest assured that her plans are now on hold until the effects wear off. We have less than forty-eight hours to act, so time is of the essence. Can I count on you to get the job done?”

“As long as the rest of my team is ready,” replied Twilight. She turned to her teammates and asked, “Are you in?”

“No need to ask me,” replied Spike. “I’m always here to help.”

“I’ve always wanted to go on a dangerous mission to save to world,” said Rainbow Dash. “Count me in!”

“Ah don’t know about this,” said Applejack uneasily, “but if you think we got what it takes, then Ah guess Ah’m in, too.”

“I never turn down an invitation!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie cheerfully. “I’m in!”

“Well, I fail to see how someone like me can assist in going after three of the most wanted criminals in the world,” said Rarity. “But, if you genuinely think we’re the ones to do it, then I’ll do my best.”

Fluttershy remained silent until everyone turned to her, waiting for an answer. She was hesitant, but also didn’t want to disappoint everyone. She gulped and finally said, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Great!” said Twilight in approval. She turned to Celestia and said with determination, “We’re ready, Celestia. Where do we begin?”

Celestia began with the bad news. “I am afraid Sunset Shimmer’s current whereabouts are unknown,” she explained. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has also vanished since the attack at the police station. But not Lightning Dust.” She turned back to the console and started tapping a few more keys. “The Wonderbolts Space Fleet has numerous bases located on the Moon. One of them serves as their Lunar Headquarters, where the LEGO Team has a branch. My sister, Luna, is the head of that branch. Unfortunately, it seems that almost immediately after today’s attack, Lightning Dust managed to infiltrate the Lunar Headquarters.”

“Wait,” interrupted Spike, “how did she get there so quickly?”

“We have been keeping a record of every spaceship she has been able to hijack, and many of them utilize an FTL Warp Drive.”

“FTL— what now?” asked a very confused Applejack.

“‘Faster Than Light’,” explained Rainbow Dash. “It can warp space itself around the spacecraft, allowing it to travel faster than the speed of light.”

Everyone quickly gave Rainbow confused looks, not expecting someone like her to give such a detailed answer to such a subject.

As she noticed all the confused looks directed at her, Rainbow Dash became just as confused. “What?” she added. “Anybody who wants to join the Wonderbolts has gotta know these things.”

“Anyway,” continued Celestia, “Lightning Dust has been known for quick and sudden attacks, and this attack on the lunar base has been no different. Just moments before your arrival, I received this urgent distress call from Luna.”

Celestia tapped one more key before a grainy video came up on the display screen. Taking up much of the screen was the face of a blue-skinned minifig with two-toned, wavy blue hair. “This is a dire emergency!” exclaimed the minifig, her voice garbled by the poor quality of the video. “This is by far the boldest attack we have ever seen by Lightning Dust! The base is already being evacuated as we speak, but you must send help! Please hurry!” An explosion suddenly rocked the room the minifig was in, and the video turned completely to static.

Despite the distorted sound, Twilight knew that the minifig in the video was Princess Luna — or rather, Luna Playwell, as she was probably known in this world.

“Since then, I have been unable to reestablish contact with the base,” said Celestia as she shut off the video. She sighed and quietly added, “I fear for my sister’s safety.” She turned back to the team and continued, “Your first mission is to enter the Lunar Headquarters, subdue Lightning Dust, and take her in for questioning. She may be able to provide us a clue on where to find Sunset Shimmer, which is what we’re ultimately after. Are you up to the task?”

Twilight turned to the other members of her team. They seemed uncertain, but one by one, they all nodded in agreement. “We’re ready,” she answered.

“Yeah, except for one little problem,” Spike pointed out. “How are we supposed to get all the way to the Moon?!”

As Celestia walked down the steps from the platform, she answered, “Our top engineer, Rusty Wrench, should have a spaceship available for you.”

As Celestia began to walk out of the room, Twilight and Spike looked at each other in confusion. “A spaceship?” asked Twilight.

“SPACESHIP!” exclaimed Pinkie enthusiastically, jumping in between Twilight and Spike.

Startled, Spike yelped and leaped into Rarity’s arms. It took him a few seconds to realize just whose arms he had actually leapt into. Once he turned to face Rarity, he blushed and gave a rather goofy grin.

Rarity was not amused by this, so she simply dropped Spike on the floor and stepped around him as she and the others followed Celestia out of the room.

Over at the Engineering Department, on the same floor, a minifig named Rusty Wrench was busy tinkering with a small mechanism on one of his many workbenches. He had tan skin and brown eyes. On top of his head was messy brown hair that stuck upwards at the front, possibly due to the goggles resting on his forehead. His legs were light blue, with various stains all over them. On his torso was a brown vest over a white T-shirt, which was also just as stained. On one of the many pockets on his vest was a symbol of an adjustable wrench.

“Hmm…” he mumbled to himself as he carefully observed the mechanism in front of him, which consisted mostly of gears and axles of various sizes and lengths. He picked up an additional gear and slid it down an axle until it was lined up with one of the many gears on the mechanism. He turned the crank a few times to observe the rate at which the new part rotated. “Mmhmm…” He picked up a pencil and took note of his observations on a nearby sheet of paper.

As he was about to turn back to the small mechanism, Rusty glanced up and noticed Celestia arriving, along with six girls and a young boy. “Oh! Celestia Playwell,” he quickly said as he got out of his seat and walked around to the end of the workbench. “W-what brings you here? And why are they with you?”

Twilight noticed that his voice was relatively high — almost child-like — but he was clearly an adult like the other minifigs she had met. He also seemed to be in a near-constant state of nervousness, evidenced by the grin on his face and the slight stuttering in his speech. Twilight wasn’t sure if this guy had a pony counterpart in Equestria, but if there was, she probably had not even met him yet.

“I am about to send them on an important mission,” answered Celestia, “and I believe you have a spaceship ready for them to use.”

Rusty stepped back to his set of workbenches and quickly said, “O-oh yeah, yeah, sure! Let me just grab it real quick. I know I left it around here somewhere. Let’s see…” He quickly started opening cabinets and drawers everywhere as he searched for something, muttering various things like, “Not there… Not here… Not in there… Not there, either… Ooh, definitely not here… Not in here, either… Hmm, maybe it’s in here…” He walked over to a nearby closet and opened the door.

The closet was packed floor to ceiling with all kinds of parts. Rusty had only enough time to scream before the parts fell out of the closet and buried him underneath a pile. “Ouchy,” he said, his voice muffled under the pile of parts.

“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Fluttershy in worry before running over to the pile of parts. “Are you okay?”

After a brief silence, something suddenly burst out of the pile, causing Fluttershy to yelp and leap backwards. What had just come out of the pile was a small model of a spaceship, held up by a tan hand.

“Found it!” Rusty happily announced. He then proceeded to shove aside all of the parts that had piled up on top on him. Eventually, he managed to pull himself up and climb out of the pile. As he stepped away from the pile, he noticed one part was stuck to the bottom of his left foot. He shook his leg a few times until the stubborn part finally came loose and was flung back into the pile.

Now that he was out of that mess, Rusty proudly held up the model in his hand, took a deep breath and quickly said, “Final assembly was completed just this morning! It’s a medium sized shuttle craft with enough seating and bed space for up to seven passengers. It is aerodynamically shaped to fly through any atmosphere with ease, as well as survive reentry at high speeds. The air-lock is located on the lower deck, which isolates it from the rest of the interior. The engines utilize a lightweight, but very powerful propellant, providing a top velocity of 25,000 miles per hour. Unfortunately, it lacks an FTL Warp Drive, but as long as you don’t plan on going any further than the Moon, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. And, uh, I believe that’s it!” He set the model down on the nearest workbench and held his hands behind his back. “So… any questions?”

“Yeah, Ah got one,” replied Applejack as she stepped forward. She picked up the model and eyed it suspiciously. “This tiny little thing right here is our spaceship?”

“No, that is your spaceship,” answered Rusty, pointing upwards.

Everyone turned their attention in the same direction and finally saw the full-scale spaceship, resting high above them. It had the same basic shape as the model, but the much larger size provided more details in the design. It was currently held up by four massive arms — two on each side — that extended horizontally from the walls. There was also a walkway that stretched from the underside of the spaceship over to an elevator that was against the wall. Finally, the wall in front of the spaceship consisted of a large retractable door, which could open up to allow the spaceship to leave the building when it was ready to fly. It was all truly a sight to behold.

“Woah!” exclaimed Spike, having never seen anything like it before.

Finally impressed by what they were really given, Applejack turned to Rusty and asked, “Why didn’t you just say so in the first place?”

Rusty nervously tapped his hands together and said, “I, uh, kinda didn’t think I’d need to.” He gave a nervous chuckle.

Twilight was absolutely amazed by what she was seeing. Back in Equestria, space travel was considered to be nothing more than a fantasy. It was widely believed by many that a pony could never fly in space. And now, here she stood, looking up at the ship what would allow her and the minifig versions of her best friends to fly all the way to the Moon. While it was true that it was all part of her desperate mission to retrieve her crown, Twilight Sparkle couldn’t help but feel absolutely amazed by what she and her new team were about to experience.

Author's Note

As I had mentioned in my blog, I came up with many fanfiction ideas over the past year before ultimately settling with this one. Many of them included an OC of mine named Rusty Wrench. He was originally inspired by the Bionicle character Berix, and if you've seen the Bionicle movie The Legend Reborn, the similarities should be rather easy to spot. I came up with so many fanfiction ideas that included Rusty Wrench that I decided to give him a Lego World counterpart to make a brief appearance in this story. If anyone is interested, I may explain more about his character in a future blog post.

To the Moon

Chapter 6
To the Moon

Final preparations were underway to ready the new spaceship for launch. Fuel and supplies had already been loaded aboard, and ground personnel were at their stations. The only thing left to wait for at this point was for the crew to arrive and board the ship.

The first to come running into the room was Rainbow Dash, who was practically jumping around in excitement. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “We’re actually gonna go flying into space! This is gonna be so awesome!”

Rainbow Dash had changed out of her normal clothes and was now wearing a custom spacesuit, which included a pair of oxygen tanks on the back. Its base color was the same sky blue as her skin, and had a thick red stripe around the knees, elbows, waist, and across the top of the helmet from front to back. She currently wasn’t wearing her helmet, but simply held it under her arm. Printed on both of her shoulders was her symbol of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt.

The next one in the room was Pinkie Pie, who gave another enthusiastic shout of, “SPACESHIP!” Her spacesuit was pink with blue stripes, and had her symbol of three balloons on the shoulders. She quickly followed Rainbow as they both ran over to the elevator.

Next, Rarity and Fluttershy walked calmly into the room and toward the elevator. Rarity’s spacesuit was white with violet stripes and had her symbol of three blue diamonds on the shoulders. Fluttershy’s spacesuit was yellow with pink stripes and had her symbol of three pink butterflies on the shoulders.

“I really like these spacesuits you designed for us, Rarity,” complemented Fluttershy.

“Thank you, dear,” said Rarity. “Astronaut white is fine in its own right, but I felt that it wouldn’t quite suit us properly, so I took the liberty to personalize each of these suits just for us. As an added bonus, this will also make it much harder for us to get them mixed up with someone else’s.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” commented Applejack as she walked by. Her spacesuit was orange with green stripes and had her symbol of three apples on the shoulders. Since she was carrying her helmet like everyone else, she was still wearing her hat.

The last ones to arrive were Twilight Sparkle and Spike. Twilight’s spacesuit was lavender with magenta stripes and printed on the shoulders was the magenta six-pointed star surrounded by five white stars that symbolized her. Spike’s spacesuit was violet with green stripes and the symbol on the shoulders — as he had requested — was the LEGO logo, just like on the red cap on his head.

Once everyone was in the elevator, Applejack shut the gate and flipped the lever. The elevator ascended up to the walkway that led directly to the spaceship. Once the elevator stopped, Applejack opened the gate and everyone walked out in single file, all of them holding their helmets under their arms. Twilight was first, followed by Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and finally Spike. One could almost imagine them walking in slow motion as they crossed the walkway and boarded the spaceship.

Once they were inside the air-lock, each of the team members hung up their helmets directly over where a spare change of their normal clothes was left for them. Finally, they climbed up to the upper deck and forward to the control room.

There were three rows of two seats, with the seventh being in front of them all. Everyone had already discussed the seating arrangements, so they silently walked up to their seats. In the back row was Fluttershy and Spike. In the middle row was Pinkie Pie and Rarity. In the front row was Applejack and Rainbow Dash. And finally, sitting in the pilot’s seat, was Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight was quickly able to find the User’s Manual nearby, and didn’t waste any time to start reading through the important parts on how the properly fly the spaceship. Meanwhile, the others tried to get as comfortable as possible, as each felt a different mixture of excitement and nervousness. Considering they were about to be launched into space, it was quite understandable.

Finally, after a few minutes, the massive retractable door ahead of the spaceship began to open, exposing the mid-evening orange sky and the rising full moon. Twilight knew this meant they would be launching very soon, so she quickly read over again on the take-off section of the piloting chapter.

Once the door was fully open, Celestia, who stood on her personal viewing balcony, turned to the nearby ground personnel and ordered, “Begin countdown sequence.”

Among the ground personnel was Rusty Wrench, who nodded in acknowledgement before pressing a large button on the console in front of him. This triggered an automated voice that echoed across the room, making the countdown clear for all.

10…

Hearing the countdown had begun, Twilight put away the User’s Manual.

9…

“Seatbelts, everyone,” reminded Fluttershy, before pressing a button next to her seat. This made the seatbelt automatically zip out and strap her safely to her seat.

8…

Spike, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack repeated Fluttershy’s action, automatically triggering their own seatbelts to safely strap them to their seats, too.

7…

Twilight took a bit more time to find the switch for her seatbelt, but once she did find it, she also put on her seatbelt.

6…

Fluttershy noticed that only five of her six fellow teammates had put on their seatbelts, and she could easily assume who that final person was. “You too, Rainbow Dash,” she said politely.

5…

Rainbow Dash didn’t see the point of wearing a seatbelt, but she also knew better than to go against her entire team, so she threw on her seatbelt, too.

4…

Following the advice of the User’s Manual, Twilight started up the engines at this moment, making sure they were set to Hover Mode when she did so.

3…

Once the engines rumbled to life, the huge arms that held up the spaceship were detached.

2…

The seven minifigs aboard the spaceship felt it shift slightly as it was released. Now, the spaceship was hovering under its own power.

1…

Twilight grabbed the steering system in front of her and quickly inspected the small control panel behind it, just to be absolutely sure she knew what to do next. She would have only one chance to get this launch done right.

0…

The countdown was finished. It was time to launch. Twilight switched the engines to Launch Mode, igniting the main engines and causing the spaceship to shoot forward out of the building and into the sky.

Everyone was thrown back into their seats as the spaceship took off at an incredible speed. Struggling to hold onto the steering system, Twilight pulled back on it ever so slightly to take them on a gently upward trajectory towards the Moon ahead of them. The ride itself, however, was anything but gentle, as the spaceship shook around as it continued to rapidly accelerate through the air.

While most of the team was screaming for their lives, Pinkie Pie joyfully remarked with a vibrated voice, “Thi-i-is ma-akes my vo-oice sound si-i-i-i-i-illy!”

Twilight held on desperately, making sure the spaceship stayed on course during the terrifying first few moments of the flight. It wasn’t easy with the whole ship shaking around as it continued to accelerate, but she barely managed to maintain control.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the orange evening sky gave way to the starry background of outer space. The vibrations also began to lessen until the ride finally smoothed out. They had now cleared the atmosphere.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. There was no denying how grateful they were that what was perhaps the roughest part of the journey was now over. With the launch complete, Twilight switched the engines to Cruise Mode. Now, it was only a matter of staying on course.

“Whoa…” said Spike in awe as he looked out the window and saw the world below. The green land, the blue oceans, the white clouds, it was unlike anything that anyone onboard the spaceship had ever seen before.

Twilight agreed that it was a spectacular view, but she had to focus on making sure the spaceship stayed on course. Keeping one eye on the console, she opened the User’s Manual again to continue reading through the chapter on piloting the spaceship. It didn’t take her long to determine what steps she should take next. She reached over to the console and pressed a blue button, then tapped a few keys on the keypad. “Okay,” she spoke up, “Autopilot is now active, destination coordinates have been properly entered, and maximum velocity should be achieved within a few minutes.” She tapped another button and looked at a number displayed on the console as she added, “Estimated time to arrival… nine hours and thirty-two minutes.”

“Good enough for me,” commented Rainbow Dash before removing her seatbelt. She got up out of her seat and yawned. “Wake me when we get there,” she said as she began to walk back to the sleeping quarters.

“The same shall apply for me, as well,” said Rarity as she also got out of her seat and headed for the sleeping quarters. “I simply must get my beauty sleep.”

Spike yawned before he, too, walked to the sleeping quarters in the back.

Pinkie Pie simply said, “Nighty night,” before hopping out of her seat and following the others to the back.

Twilight was not surprised by this at all. She knew how late it was, and had figured the long time it would take to get to the Moon would provide a good opportunity for everyone to get some rest. However, they were onboard a moving spaceship, and she didn’t want to leave it completely unattended. “Before anyone else goes to bed, I’d like to suggest that one of us stays here to keep an eye on everything,” she suggested. “Perhaps we can do this in shifts, so everyone will get a chance to have at least some rest.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Applejack in approval. “Ah’ll take the last shift, since Ah usually wake up early, anyway.”

“I’ll have the first shift,” said Twilight, “just to make sure everything is working properly.”

“I guess that leaves me on the middle shift,” stated Fluttershy with slight resignation. With nothing else left to say, she removed her seatbelt and climbed out of her seat. “Goodnight, everyone,” she said quietly as she began to make her way to the sleeping quarters.

Applejack got out of her seat and also headed back to get some rest.

Now, the only one left in the control room was Twilight Sparkle. With all systems seemingly in good shape, she opened the User’s Manual again, taking her time to read through everything about the spaceship she and her minifig friends were now riding in.

Over six hours into the flight, Fluttershy was nearing the end of her shift, and it was clearly taking its toll on her. She was so tired from having to stay up so late that she could barely keep her eyes open. Twilight had assured her that everything should be working just fine, so long as she didn’t touch anything on the console. With virtually nothing to do at all, this only made it harder for her to stay awake.

Fluttershy slowly slumped forward in her seat as she began to doze off once again. She wasn’t sure how long her eyes had been closed when she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. This startled her and made her quickly sit up straight and look around in confusion before seeing Applejack standing next to her. Fluttershy blushed in embarrassment as she said, “Oh! I, um… was just… uh…”

Applejack simply smiled and said, “Go ahead and get some rest. Your shift’s over.”

Fluttershy quietly thanked Applejack and got out of the pilot’s seat and headed back to bed.

Now it was Applejack’s turn to sit in the pilot’s seat to keep an eye on things. Everything seemed to be running smoothly, so she took the opportunity to look up at the Moon, which had now grown to take up far more space in the sky than the world behind them. In all mah years, Ah never thought Ah’d be ridin’ a spaceship to the Moon, she thought to herself.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy entered the sleeping quarters, which consisted of three sets of bunk beds. Fluttershy took the spare bunk under Rainbow Dash and promptly fell asleep. Pinkie Pie had the top bunk over Rarity, while Spike slept on the one over Twilight Sparkle. As everyone slept peacefully, the only noise to be heard was the faint rumbling of the engines.

Not long after Fluttershy had arrived, Spike rolled over a little too far and fell out of bed. Having been woken up from the fall, Spike sat up and noticed Twilight looking over at him. He chuckled nervously and said, “I fell out of bed.”

Twilight gave no response and simply sighed as she lied back down in her bed.

Spike knew something was bothering Twilight, so he asked, “What’s wrong, Twilight?”

“It’s about our friends, Spike,” replied Twilight uneasily. “Or rather, these… minifigs who look like them.”

Spike looked over at the sleeping minifigs nearby and said, “You’re right, they do look like our Ponyville friends, but I thought we already knew that.”

“It’s not just that,” continued Twilight. “They seem to already know each other, but… that’s it. They don’t seem to be acting like close friends. In fact, I’m not even sure if they were ever friends at all, to begin with.”

Realizing what Twilight was talking about, Spike added, “It does kinda seem like this is their first time working together.”

“And that’s the problem. Each of them on their own may behave just like our respective friends, but put together… they just don’t have that connection of true friendship.” Twilight paused, then sighed sadly and said, “Maybe Celestia was right. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask for these particular girls to be on the team.”

“Maybe,” said Spike as he climbed back up into his bed. “But it’s too late to change that now. If we’re gonna get your crown back from Sunset Shimmer, then we’ll need to convince these girls that they really can make a good team.”

Twilight took a moment to consider what Spike had said before replying, “You’re right, Spike.” She yawned as she tried to get comfortable so she could fall back to sleep. “I just need to stay positive.”

A few hours later, Applejack walked into the sleeping quarters to see everyone was still fast asleep. As far as she was concerned, this was no time to be sleeping in, so she pulled out a megaphone and shouted through it, “Wakey wakey! Rise an’ shine! Up an’ at ‘em, everyone! Y’all better be ready, ‘cause we got a big day ahead of us!”

The sudden — and very rude — wake-up call made everyone jump awake, with Spike and Rainbow Dash literally falling out of bed. Rainbow quickly got to her feet and had a furious look on her face. She rushed over to Applejack, snatched the megaphone out of her hands, smacked her hat and hair off, and then stuck the megaphone on top of her head. “What was that for?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “I thought I told you to wake me when we get there!”

Disregarding the humiliation of having a megaphone on her head, Applejack simply gave a smug expression and said, “We are there.”

This announcement made everyone stop and look at the farm girl. Once they realized what this meant, everyone climbed out of bed and headed for the control room. Applejack got rid of the megaphone and put her hair and hat back on before following them.

It wasn’t long until everyone was back in their seats. Looming in front of the spaceship was the heavily-cratered surface of the Moon.

“Whoa,” said Spike. “It looks a lot different up close.”

“Okay, let’s see…” said Twilight as she quickly looked through the User’s Manual again to make sure she knew how to properly land the spaceship. Once she was certain she knew what to do, she put away the manual and switched off the Autopilot. “Better put on your seatbelts,” she recommended. “We’ll need to slow down considerably as we come in for a landing.”

Once everyone had put on their seatbelts, Twilight switched the engines to Landing Mode, which activated the reverse thrusters that helped to slow down the spaceship. This would help make it easier for the ship to land. But first, they needed to know where to land.

“Celestia told me those exact coordinates that I entered would take us directly to the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters,” Twilight thought aloud, “which means it should be right in front of us.” She looked ahead at the cratered terrain below and was soon able to notice the massive facility — which looked tiny at this height. “I believe that’s it, right there.”

Everyone waited as the spaceship continued to steadily decelerate. Since the Moon had no atmosphere, using the reverse thrusters was the only way to slow down the spaceship as it approached the lunar base.

Within a few minutes, they were less than a mile above the base. Twilight checked the velocity reading on the console and said, “Okay, we’ve slowed down enough. Switching to Hover Mode.” She switched the engines to that mode and pulled back on the steering system so the spaceship was now parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular.

The downward thrusters were able to slow the spaceship the rest of the way to the surface. By the time their decent had slowed to a crawl, they were now hovering directly over the base.

Rainbow Dash pointed out the window and said, “Take us down onto that landing pad over there. There should be an entrance nearby.”

Twilight nodded and carefully maneuvered the spaceship over towards the landing site. She wasn’t sure how sensitive the controls were, so she made sure to be extra careful with each movement. Once they made it over to the landing pad, Twilight pressed a button on the console, lowering the landing gear to provide a soft landing. She then lowered the power of the downward thrusters ever so slightly to make the ship slowly descend to the surface below. They got closer and closer until, at last, the spaceship rumbled slightly as it touched down. They were now on the surface of the Moon.

Twilight switched the engines off. The quiet humming noise faded, leaving the spaceship in absolute silence. She let go of the controls and slumped back in her seat as she sighed in relief and said, “We made it.”

“So, um… what now?” asked Fluttershy.

Twilight removed her seatbelt and said, “We grab our helmets and prepare to venture outside.” She got up out of her seat started heading down to the air-lock.

The rest of the team removed their seatbelts and followed Twilight. Since they couldn’t directly enter the lunar base, they would have to step outside into the airless environment of the Moon. That meant they would first need to make sure their spacesuits were working properly before they could go anywhere.

Author's Note

It may not seem like much happened in this chapter, but I felt like this was a good stopping point. I've had the whole story planned out for a while now, and it was only recently that I've been able to figure out at which points a chapter would start or end. By my current estimate, there should be a total of 17 chapters, not counting the prologue and epilogue. At my current rate, I'm very confident that I'll get this done within a few months.

The Lunar Base

Chapter 7
The Lunar Base

Twilight Sparkle lifted her helmet over her head and carefully fitted it on, making sure that her hair was completely tucked inside. Once she got it on in a snug fit, she flipped the transparent visor down over her face. As soon as this was done, she heard a faint hissing noise as the helmet automatically made an air-tight seal with the rest of her spacesuit.

Twilight turned to the rest of her team, all of whom also now had their helmets on. “Can everyone hear me?” she asked, testing the built-in communication system.

“Loud an’ clear, Twilight,” replied Applejack. Since she couldn’t cram her hat inside the helmet, she had decided to leave it behind with her spare change of clothes.

“Copy that,” replied Rainbow Dash.

“Coming through crystal clear,” replied Rarity.

“Yes, I can hear you,” replied Fluttershy.

“I can hear all of you just fine,” replied Pinkie Pie.

Twilight noticed that everyone’s voices were slightly distorted due to the background static from the communication systems, but she could still hear them clearly enough to understand what they were saying.

However, Spike had not said anything, so Twilight turned to see why that was so. With the way his mouth was moving, he was clearly trying to speak up, but there was absolutely no noise coming from him at all.

Rainbow sighed in frustration and lightly smacked the side of Spike’s helmet. “Can you hear us now?” she asked.

Spike had stumbled a bit from that smack, but once he steadied himself, he answered, “There we go, now it’s working.”

“Good,” responded Rainbow Dash.

“Now that we’re able to speak to each other, is everyone ready?” asked Twilight.

Everyone gave various words of agreement.

“Okay… let’s go.” Twilight flipped the lever next to the air-lock door. The door hissed lightly as it opened and lowered down to create a ramp for everyone to walk down to the floor of the landing pad. Once it was fully opened, Twilight led her team out into the airless environment.

As Spike reached the end of the ramp, he stopped suddenly and said to himself, “Wow… I’m actually about to set foot on the Moon!” He took a deep breath and, as he took his first step off the ramp, he said, “That’s one small step for me.”

“One giant leap for meeee!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she leaped over Spike. “Oof!” She hit the floor of the landing pad hard on her rear. “Hey! I thought the Moon was supposed to be a bouncy place,” she said in confusion.

“Artificial gravity is mandatory at all Wonderbolts bases,” explained Rainbow Dash as she walked by with a neutral expression on her face. “You’d have to get pretty far from here if you wanna bounce around like a lunatic.”

Pinkie moaned in disappointment before getting back up on her feet.

Fluttershy had barely gone more than a few steps before she suddenly stopped and nervously said, “M-m-maybe I should stay here and, um… guard the spaceship.”

Twilight turned back to the nervous girl and said, “There is no way we are leaving you here. We all need to stick together. That’s the whole point of this team, after all.”

Fluttershy reluctantly nodded in approval and continued walking with the rest of the team.

Right at the edge of the landing pad, just a short walk away from the spaceship, was a large air-lock door. “I believe this is our entrance into the base,” Rarity pointed out.

There was no control panel to be found anywhere near the door. In the middle of that door was a round indentation with a vertical rod through the middle. Realizing that this must be how to get the door open, Applejack grabbed the rod with both hands and tried to twist it. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t get it open. “Darn thing won’t even budge,” she grumbled.

“Now, see here, Applejack, raw power alone is often not the ideal way to solve a problem,” explained Rarity as she started walking around and gathering a few various Lego parts, “Sometimes, you need to take a closer look and consider your options. In this particular case, it would appear that we need to turn a lock in order to open the entrance door. You have already demonstrated one method of accomplishing this, but I see an easier way.” She finished attaching the few parts she had picked up and showed off her creation: a small clamp-like assembly on the end of a long rod. “We just need a little leverage.” She attached the clamp end onto the lock and, with only modest effort, yanked down on the far end of the long rod. This provided enough force to twist the lock open.

With the lock open, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash helped Rarity pull the door open. The interior door of the air-lock was only a few feet further back, so there wasn’t much room for everyone. But, since this was the only known way inside, the seven minifigs stepped inside. Once everyone was inside the air-lock, Rainbow Dash pressed a large red button on the wall. This made the overhead light flicker on as the outer door automatically slammed shut, which startled some of the minifigs.

“Relax,” assured Rainbow Dash. “We just need to wait for the air-lock to fill with air before we can open the other door.”

While they were waiting, Fluttershy pulled out a gadget she was carrying that monitored air quality. At the moment, the red light was blinking, indicating that it was not yet safe to remove their helmets. After only a few seconds, the red light stopped blinking and the green light came on. “The air is now safe to breathe,” she announced.

Everyone was understandably uncertain at first. It was Rainbow Dash who decided to go first by flipping up the visor on her helmet. After taking one breath to be sure, she completely removed her helmet and set it down on the floor. Pinkie Pie was the next to remove her helmet, followed by Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and finally Spike.

As soon as everyone set their helmets down, the inner door automatically opened. Ahead of them was a long and dimly-lit hallway. Only a few of the overhead lights were on, with one of them noticeably flickering. The seven minifigs looked at one another uncertainly.

“I guess this is where we start,” said Twilight uneasily. She started walking forward, leading the team into the deserted lunar base. The clanking of their footsteps against the metallic floor echoed though the empty hallway. There was no telling what kind of dangers could be lurking in such an eerie place, so everyone kept a close eye on their surroundings.

As they were walking, Applejack looked over at Spike and noticed that, unlike her, he was still wearing his hat. “You actually wore that thing under your helmet?” she asked.

“What?” responded Spike in confusion as he shrugged. “I really like this hat.”

“Or is it because you’re trying to hide the fact that you’re bald?” asked Pinkie Pie as she removed Spike’s hat, confirming that he did in fact have no hair at all.

Annoyed, Spike snatched his red cap back and put it back on his head. “No, it’s not that,” he grumbled. “I just like this hat.”

“Ohh, I get it now,” said Pinkie. “You just like how it was customized.” She leaned in closely and whispered, “Or rather, who customized it.” She couldn’t resist giggling at this.

Spike blushed slightly as he realized Pinkie was on to him. “S-s-so what?” he responded. “I should be allowed to like whatever I want.”

“Guys, cut it out,” Rainbow Dash called back to them over her shoulder. “This isn’t the time and place to talk about dumb things like that.”

The noise of a low growl made everyone suddenly stop in their tracks.

Pinkie Pie screamed and leaped into Fluttershy’s arms. “What was that?!” she exclaimed in terror.

The growling noise echoed through the hallway again.

Pinkie Pie screamed again and tightened her grip on poor Fluttershy. “There it is again!”

“Um, Pinkie?” said Fluttershy quietly.

Pinkie didn’t even acknowledge her as she continued shouting in panic, “What is it?! Is it some gross evil alien lizard who wants to eat us all?!”

“Pinkie?” said Fluttershy, her voice still little more than a whisper.

“Or is it a scary robot army that wants to exterminate all living things in the universe?!”

“Pinkie?”

“Or maybe it’s a big giant weirdo who wants to glue everything together and thus bring an end to all of creativity as we know it!”

“Pinkie!” said Fluttershy, finally losing just enough patience to make her only slightly raise her voice, but it was enough to get her message across.

“What?” asked Pinkie in confusion.

“That’s your stomach,” Fluttershy answered simply.

Pinkie looked down at her abdomen and heard the growling noise again. This time, it was clear that Fluttershy was right. Pinkie simply blushed as she giggled in embarrassment and said, “I’m hungry.” She leaped out of Fluttershy’s arms. “I wonder what they’re serving for lunch.” She then began to jog down the hallway while humming happily to herself.

“Pinkie, wait! We all need to stick together!” Twilight called after the party girl.

Pinkie blissfully ignored Twilight’s warning as she continued down the dim hallway on her own.

“Does this mean we have to follow her?” asked Rarity.

“Ah don’t think we got a choice,” replied Applejack as she began to chase after Pinkie Pie. She was quickly followed by Twilight and the rest of the team.

As the six minifigs ran down the hallway after Pinkie Pie, it soon became clear just how deserted the base really was. They passed rooms with doors left partially open. Many of these various rooms were just as dim as the hallway, with only about half of the overhead lights on and the occasional flickering one. They didn’t bother to check what was inside any of the rooms, as they were too busy chasing after their ignorant teammate.

Finally, Pinkie hopped her way into one of the rooms on the left. The others followed her into what appeared to be some kind of cafeteria. At least a dozen rectangular tables were set up in the room with at least four chairs to each of them. At the other end of the room was the door on the left and open counter on the right that led to the kitchen.

Pinkie threw open the kitchen door and came running back into the cafeteria, carrying a huge armful of unusual small packs. “Lookie, lookie! Look at what I found!” Pinkie dropped all of the packs on the floor and held up one of them for all to see as she excitedly exclaimed, “Space food!” In one move, she tore off the packaging and tossed it away, revealing in her hand the food that was packaged inside. “Who wants ice cream sandwiches?”

Each of the team members looked at one another and said various words of agreement as they walked over to grab some of the space food that Pinkie found. All except for Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight was stunned that everyone — including Spike — was so quick to forget what they were here for. She wanted to remind her teammates that they were on an important rescue mission, and that this was no time for snacking. However, the only responses she could think of involved yelling at them, and she was smart enough to realize that wouldn’t get them anywhere. Besides, she was curious about one thing. “What’s so special about space food?” she asked.

“It’s freeze-dried,” answered Rainbow Dash as she tossed one of the packs to Twilight. “Makes it a lot lighter, so cargo ships can pack more of it.”

Twilight looked at the pack that had just been tossed into her hands. She carefully opened the packaging and removed the item of food inside — in this case, an ice cream sandwich. She had once tried the ordinary kind back in Equestria, and the differences here were easy to see. This one had absolutely no moisture at all, which explained why it was so light. As she took a bite, she discovered that despite the lack of moisture, it still tasted just like the regular kind.

While everyone continued to snack away, they failed to notice someone standing in the doorway behind them. The shadowy figure quickly slammed the door shut, causing everyone to suddenly turn their attention to the door. Now they realized they were not alone.

Twilight ran back to the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t even budge. “The door’s locked!” she exclaimed.

From the other side of the door, a narrow horizontal opening in the middle of the door was slid open. “I was wondering when the rescue team would show up,” said the person on the other side. “Though I have to admit, I was expecting more of a challenge than this.”

Although Twilight couldn’t see who was outside and had only the voice to go by, she had a good hunch on who it was. “Lightning Dust, I presume?” she asked.

“Who else?” taunted the minifig on the other side. “You idiots are just too easy.”

“Hey! Who are you calling idiots?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash in anger.

“Oh, I don’t know,” taunted Lightning Dust again. “The people I just locked up inside a room with no other way out? Really, only a bunch of noobs would make a mistake like that.”

“I think we all know who to blame for that,” whispered Rarity to Applejack, before both of them turned their gaze to Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie quickly noticed some of her teammates glaring at her. “What?” she asked in confusion.

Twilight ignored the team issues and continued speaking with Lightning Dust. “Why are you going through all this trouble?” asked Twilight, hoping to maybe talk her out of such madness. “What do you hope to gain by attacking this base and bringing harm to others?”

“I asked the Wonderbolts to give me another chance,” explained Lightning Dust, “but they wouldn’t listen! If they can’t appreciate my talents, then I’ll make them regret turning me away like this. What better way to prove my point than to take over their Lunar Headquarters single-handedly?”

Twilight looked backed at her team worriedly. Clearly, there was no way they would be able to talk their way out of this trouble.

“I’m off to salvage this base for anything useful,” continued Lightning Dust, “but before I go, I’d like to leave you a little present.” A light tap was heard before something flew through the narrow opening in the door and landed near the right wall of the cafeteria.

Spike quickly recognized the object’s shape, detailing, and distinctive beeping noise. “AHH! BOMB!” he screamed in panic.

“Destructa-brick!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “Take cover!” She immediately dove for one of the tables. As she landed, the table tipped over so that it completely blocked her from the bomb.

Rarity and Fluttershy quickly followed Rainbow’s example. They ran to a table as far from the bomb as possible, tipped over the table, and ducked down behind it. Twilight and Spike did likewise at the opposite corner of the room, tipping over their table on its short side.

“Where are you going?” asked Pinkie in confusion, completely oblivious to the dire situation. “She said she was going to give us a present.”

Annoyed by Pinkie’s behavior, Applejack grabbed her and tossed her over to another far table, which fell over away from the bomb as she landed. Applejack then ran over to take cover behind that table.

With no way out, everyone’s best hope was to hunker down behind the tables. The seconds that followed grew more and more tense as the beeping from the destructa-brick accelerated until it finally detonated.

The blast pushed everything back a short distance. Remarkably, the tables did a good job as makeshift bomb shelters, although that did little to avoid the ringing in everyone’s ears.

As the ringing subsided, Twilight began to notice another ominous noise. It sounded like the rushing noise of a strong breeze. She peered around the table in front of her and gasped as she saw a devastating sight.

The destructa-brick had blasted a huge hole in the wall. And worse, that hole opened directly to the outside of the base, causing all of the air to rush out as if a storm was blowing through the room.

“That’s not good,” said Spike as he and the others also noticed the damage and new threat.

“We’ve gotta get our helmets back on!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“We can’t!” Rarity pointed out fearfully. “We left them back at the air-lock!”

“I don’t wanna lose my Creation Spark like this!” exclaimed Fluttershy in fear.

Although the rushing air was not strong enough to suck everyone out into the vacuum of space, it was clear there wouldn’t be much time until the air inside became too thin to breathe. They needed to find a way to cover that hole, and fast!

Twilight looked frantically around the cafeteria for anything that might be useful. It took her a moment to realize the answer was sitting right in front of her. The table — consisting of a large flat surface — was the perfect object to block up the hole in the wall. However, she quickly noticed the table was not quite big enough to cover the hole, and the only way to stop the threat was to completely cover it.

Noticing all of the studs on top of the table, Twilight suddenly remembered that everything in the room around her — including the table — was made of Lego bricks. If one alone wasn’t big enough, then she could simply put two of them together. That would be enough to cover the hole in the wall! But the two tabletops alone still weren’t enough. If she wanted to make sure they would form an air-tight seal, she needed a way to hold the two tables together. Fortunately, the parts that made up the single central leg of each table included something she could use. The base of the leg consisted of two standard twelve-stud plates, assembled in a cross shape for stability. She could remove these plates and attach them to the top of the six-by-ten plates of the tabletops, holding them together to form a single surface large enough to completely cover the gaping hole in the wall.

Now with a plan in mind, Twilight immediately went to work. She rushed over to the nearest table and tipped it over on its short side, just like the one she had taken shelter behind. She dragged it over to the other table until they were perfectly against each other. She then removed both of the twelve-stud plates at the bottom of the leg, separated them, and tucked them both under her arm. She removed one of the plates from the other table leg, but it got caught in the rushing air. She lost her grip on the part and it flew out the hole in the wall. There wasn’t much time to lose, so she ignored the loss and removed the final plate. Three would still be enough.

As Twilight ran back to behind the tables, Spike — who was holding his hat down on his head to keep it from flying away — asked, “What are you doing?”

“Trying to save our lives,” answered Twilight as she attached the first plate to the middle of where the two tables met, locking them together. She quickly added the two remaining plates to the opposite ends of the joint, for added stability.

With her solution fully assembled, all that was left to do was get it to block the hole in the wall, but that was easier said than done. One table had been heavy enough, but two of them put together was almost impossible for her to move. She quickly realized she would need some help. “Applejack!” she shouted over the rushing air. “Help me lift this thing!”

Applejack, along with the others, had been watching Twilight curiously since she tipped over the second table. Now that she realized what Twilight was trying to do, she immediately ran over to help. While Twilight held one end of the combined tables, Applejack grabbed the opposite end and picked it up off the floor.

Twilight was impressed by Applejack’s strength, but was still aware there was no time to hesitate. Barely holding up her end, Twilight guided the tables toward the wall with that massive hole in it. As they got closer, the force of the air rushing out began to pull on the tables. They were only a few feet away from the wall before stopping their advance. The suction force was now so great that they could barely hold back the tables in their hands. With only one thing left to do, Twilight gave a quick nod to Applejack. Applejack returned the nod and they simultaneously tossed the attached tables toward the wall.

The suction of the rushing air pulled the combined tables straight at the hole. The immense force caused the tables to slam loudly against the wall. The noise echoed around the room for a second, followed by absolute silence. As Twilight had hoped, the massive surface area of the two tables was able to completely cover the entire hole. Now that no more air was escaping, the lives of everyone in the room were no longer threatened.

As the rest of the team gathered around, Applejack breathed a huge sigh of relief and said, “That was a close one! Good thinkin’ Twi.”

Before any further congratulations could be made, a sudden reminder of what started this incident made itself clear when another destrusta-brick was tossed into the room.

“Ah! Another bomb!” exclaimed Spike, jumping back in terror.

“I got it!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she ran over and picked up the beeping device.

“What are you doing?!” asked Rainbow Dash, shocked to see Pinkie handling a live bomb like that.

Pinkie ran over to the wall with a huge hole in it. She pulled the blocking tables aside just enough to open a small gap, allowing air to rush outside again. She then held the bomb over the gap and let go of it. “Bye-bye!” said Pinkie as the destruscta-brick was sucked out of the room. She then pushed the tables back to completely cover the hole. The only evidence of the bomb going off was a slight vibration through the floor.

“That was quite impressive,” remarked Rarity. “I take back everything I said about you.”

“Ah! Another one!” shouted Spike as yet another destructa-brick was tossed into the cafeteria.

Without a word, Applejack ran over to where the active bomb had landed. She quickly picked it up and tossed it over to Pinkie Pie, who pulled aside the tables again and let the rushing air suck the bomb outside, where it exploded without harming anyone.

Before Pinkie could pull the tables back over the hole again, Applejack noticed yet another destructa-brick land at her feet. “Ya gotta be kiddin’ me,” muttered Applejack as she picked up the bomb and tossed it to Pinkie, who then held it in front of the open gap in the wall so it could be harmlessly sucked outside.

As soon as that was done, another destructa-brick was tossed into the room through the narrow opening in the door. Applejack picked it up and repeated the disposal process with Pinkie Pie. Applejack turned back to the door and, sure enough, yet another destructa-brick was tossed inside. This time, she caught it before it even hit the floor, before tossing it back to Pinkie to have it sucked outside where the explosion would harm no one.

And all of this just kept on going: Lightning Dust would activate a destructa-brick and toss it through the narrow opening in the door to the cafeteria, but Applejack would catch it and toss it to Pinkie Pie, who then held it out over the now small hole in the wall, where the rushing air would suck it outside into an airless environment where the explosion would do little more than put another crater in the ground.

They must have gone through at least a dozen destructa-bricks by the time Applejack said, “We can do this all day!”

At this statement, the virtually limitless supply of destructa-bricks finally stopped coming. “Fine!” declared Lightning Dust. “I’ve got other ways to tear you apart!” The narrow opening in the middle of the door slid closed, indicating that she was done with them for now.

With the crisis finally over, Pinkie Pie pulled the two attached tables back over the hole in the wall, preventing any air from escaping and bringing silence back to the cafeteria. “Wow,” remarked Pinkie. “After all of those bombs, I bet it looks like the surface of the Moon out there.”

“Um, we are on the surface of the Moon, actually,” Fluttershy pointed out.

Meanwhile, Applejack tried to open the door, but as Twilight had already discovered earlier, it was locked shut. “Darn it,” she muttered under her breath. She sighed in frustration and said, “There’s gotta be another way outta here.”

“We could try the air vents,” suggested Rainbow Dash.

“As if!” scoffed Rarity as she crossed her arms. “I may have agreed to this mission, but I still have my standards.”

“Not to mention, those cramped conditions will make us easy targets,” added Applejack uneasily.

“Then I guess that leaves us with only one option,” said Rainbow Dash. “If we can’t get the door open, we’ll just make a new one.”

“Make a new door?” asked Spike in confusion. “How do we do that?”

“Easy,” replied Rainbow Dash. “We’ll just blow a hole in the wall to another room. We already saw how well that worked.” She gestured to the tables blocking the giant hole in the wall on the right side of the room.

“Too bad I threw away all those destructa-bricks,” said Pinkie Pie. “We could really use one of them right now.”

Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully as a plan started forming in her mind. But first, she needed to be sure of one more thing. “Is there a way Lightning Dust might be watching us right now?” she asked.

“If she’s really taken over the base, she could be watching us through that security camera over there,” replied Rainbow Dash, pointing toward a small camera up in the back left corner of the cafeteria.

Twilight needed only a few more seconds to figure out how they could use that to their advantage. “I may have an idea,” she said. “Here’s the plan…”

Not far from the cafeteria, Lightning Dust had just finished restocking her personal supply of destructa-bricks, keeping most of them in a backpack. Ever since she had taken control of the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters, she had prepared for the inevitable arrival of a rescue team. She was surprised by how easy it was to lock them all up in one room, which initially made her think that this team was a joke. However, they had not only survived the first blast, but also used the collateral damage to their advantage to get rid of every single bomb before they went off. If she was going to destroy them, she would need to stay one step ahead of them. The best way to do that was to check the security video, which was relatively easy for her to hack into.

“Let’s see what those noobs are up to right now,” said Lightning Dust as she walked up to a small console nearby and tapped a key to bring up a live video from the cafeteria on the display screen. Close to the camera were Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, with Twilight Sparkle not far behind. Applejack, Rarity, and Spike stood near the door, while Fluttershy was nowhere to be found. But it was not the quiet girl’s absence that got her attention, but rather the two loudmouths up front who were shouting directly at the camera.

“Come on!” taunted Rainbow Dash with a grin on her face. “Is that the best you got?!”

“If you can do better, we’d love to see it!” added Pinkie Pie with an even bigger grin on her face.

“Are you gonna prove yourself, or are you a big chicken?!”

Pinkie Pie began making chicken noises while walking in circles and flapping her arms around.

Twilight decided to get in on the taunting by shouting, “Yeah, why don’t come here and show us, you… um…” she struggled to come up with an appropriate insult before finally settling on something she had heard the previous day. “Brick-head!”

Rainbow and Pinkie stopped what they were doing and turned back to Twilight in confusion, then to each other. “Yeah!” they both shouted to the camera, with big smiles back on their faces. “Brick-head, brick-head, brick-head!” They jumped and waved their arms around as they repeated the insult. “Brick-head, brick-head, brick-head!”

The taunting was far more than Lightning Dust could tolerate. She growled in fury and ran out of the room and rushed back to the cafeteria. Forget about forming a Plan B, she need to get rid of them now!

“Brick-head, brick-head, brick-head!” continued Rainbow and Pinkie.

“Y’all can cut it out, now!” shouted Applejack, who was listening closely for any movement from the other side of the door. “She’s comin’ back!”

Everyone knew what was about to happen, so Applejack and Pinkie Pie got ready while the others stood back.

Lightning Dust quickly returned to the cafeteria door and opened the slot in the middle. “You guys think you’re so funny?!” she shouted furiously as she pulled out a destructa-brick. She set it to maximum power before tapping the trigger button. As she did this, she failed to notice a hook on a string lower down, hook onto one of the destructa-bricks in her backpack, and then lift it up through an air vent grate in the ceiling. “Let’s see who’s laughing after I give you this!” She tossed the high-powered bomb into the room and closed the slot in the door before making a run for it. She didn’t know if they would get rid of it like all the others, but she definitely didn’t want to be anywhere near that room to find out.

Just as they had done a dozen times already, Applejack caught the beeping device and tossed it to Pinkie Pie, who then pulled aside the tables on the wall just enough to expose enough of the hole to allow the destructa-brick to be sucked outside. Pinkie pushed the tables back over the hole and cheerfully said, “Piece of cake!”

When the bomb detonated outside, it was far more powerful than they had expected. The room shook so much that Twilight, Rarity, and Spike were thrown off their feet. In addition, large pieces of lunar debris could be heard pelting the wall. None of them were enough to make any additional holes, though one of them was able to very briefly push the tables off the wall before the interior air pressure pushed them back into place.

“Whoa,” remarked Pinkie Pie. “That was a big one!”

Spike groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head. “I think we made her mad,” he deadpanned.

Once everyone was back on their feet, they heard movement from the air vent. Near the door, the grate had been removed from where the vent opened near the floor. The one making that noise, Fluttershy, crawled backwards out of the vent and stood up.

“How’d the fishing trip go?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy turned around with a small smile on her face, revealing a fishing pole in her hands with an inactive destructa-brick hanging from the hook.

“Awesome!” cheered Rainbow as she snatched the destructa-brick.

“I never knew you were so good at fishing,” commented Twilight.

“It’s the only way I can check on fish in the wild to make sure they’re healthy,” explained Fluttershy. “Of course, I never mean them any harm, so I always release each and every fish that I catch.”

Rainbow Dash looked over the inactive bomb in her hand and asked, “So, uh, who knows how to use a destructa-brick?”

The only minifig in the room who raised her hand was Applejack. When the others looked at her in confusion, she explained, “Ah once had to clear some big rocks near the edge of the farm.”

As Rainbow Dash tossed the destructa-brick to Applejack, Twilight wanted to clarify something important about the next part of her plan. “Since we have only one destructa-brick, we need to make sure we use it in the right place,” explained Twilight. “We don’t want another hole to the outside, and we certainly don’t wanna come face-to-face with Lightning Dust.” She turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “Does your extensive knowledge of the Wonderbolts Space Fleet include a floor plan of the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters?”

“Absolutely!” replied Rainbow Dash as she started walking towards the back wall near the door to the kitchen. “And lucky for us, there is a way we can avoid both of those problems. We’ll blast a hole in this wall right here.” She tapped the wall halfway between the kitchen door and the left corner of the room.

“Sounds good to me,” said Applejack as she walked up to the target wall. “But first thing’s first. Y’all better take cover in the kitchen.”

The rest of the team nodded in agreement. Everyone but Applejack quickly entered the kitchen and took cover underneath anything they could find. The last one inside was Fluttershy, who closed the door on her way in before taking shelter herself.

Now that everyone was out of harm’s way, Applejack held up the destructa-brick in her hand to look at its settings. She wanted to assure her teammates she knew what she was doing, so she decided to describe her actions as she went along. “Okay, first thing Ah need to do is set the size of the blast,” she explained. “All we want is to blow a hole in the wall, not demolish the whole room.” She lowered the lever to somewhere between small and medium. “Next, Ah gotta set the timer. Ah gotta have enough time to take cover myself, but Ah also don’t wanna make y’all wait too long. Fifteen seconds should do.” She tapped the numbers on the keypad to set the timer to what she had just specified. Once she was confident the destructa-brick was at the right settings, she tapped the detonate button, which started the beeping noise that signaled the bomb was now active. Applejack tossed the active destructa-brick to the floor right in front of the target wall. “Fire in the hole!” she shouted as she ran to the right and dove over the counter into the kitchen.

Just seconds after Applejack took shelter behind the counter, the bomb exploded. The blast shook the room with a loud bang, raising a small cloud of dust. Since everyone had prepared ahead this time, they were able to cover themselves to mostly prevent the ringing in their ears.

Once silence finally settled across the room, Rainbow Dash got up and stepped outside the kitchen. She looked to the right at where the blast had occurred. It took a moment for the dust to clear, but once it did, she saw many of the Lego bricks from the target wall had come loose and were now scattered across the floor, leaving a big hole in the wall.

“Yeah!” cheered Rainbow Dash as she jumped and pumped her fist in excitement. “Score one for the good guys!”

Twilight was very proud that her plan had worked, but she knew Lighting Dust would find out about their escape very soon — if she didn’t already know about it from the blast. “Let’s go!” ordered Twilight as she quickly got up and ran for the new hole in the wall.

The rest of the team understood why they had to move quickly, so they followed Twilight through the big hole in the wall and into the nearby hallway. Now that they were no longer trapped and had a very good idea of what they were up against, it was finally time to get serious about completing their mission.

Author's Note

I got the idea of destructa-bricks from the late-90s game LEGO Creator. I remember playing that game as a kid, and I especially loved to blow up things with those destructa-bricks. I changed the concept a little bit to fit this story, but the idea is basically the same: A 1-by-2 flat piece with a design printed on top that, when detonated, causes all of the Lego pieces within a certain adjustable distance of it to go flying all over the place. I really enjoyed that, so it's quite a shame I could never get that game to work on any of the newer computers.

Weapons, Spaceships, and Explosions

Chapter 8
Weapons, Spaceships, and Explosions

Twilight Sparkle quickly led her team through the hallway, hoping to get as far from the cafeteria as possible. They had no way of knowing if Lightning Dust knew of their escape and was already in pursuit, so they continued to run as fast as they could.

Eventually, Twilight led the team into an empty room with a missing door and just one dim light inside. They huddled together in a corner next to the doorway to avoid being seen from out in the hallway.

Once everyone had a moment to catch their breath, Rarity turned to Twilight and quietly asked, “Now that we are free, what do you propose should be out next course of action?”

“Well, Celestia said that our mission here was to subdue Lightning Dust and take her in for questioning,” explained Twilight, keeping her voice down to avoid revealing their location. “But we also need to consider that she hasn’t heard any response from Luna, who was inside this base when it was attacked. Chances are she might still be in here somewhere.”

“That’s a good point, but how will that help us?” asked Applejack quietly.

“Lightning Dust is working alone, but we can cover more ground if we split up,” continued Twilight softly. “Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike will search the base for Luna and any Wonderbolts who might also still be here. I’ll take Rainbow Dash and Applejack with me to go after Lightning Dust. With any luck, our simultaneous efforts should improve our chances of success.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Rainbow Dash, nodding in agreement. “Let’s go.”

With that, Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack stepped out into the hallway and began heading back in the direction they had come from, while Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Spike went in the opposite direction down the hallway. The Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters was a big facility, which meant that both teams would have a lot of ground to cover.

Less than an hour later, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack carefully made their way through another hallway. There was no point in going straight back to the cafeteria, so they had agreed to change course halfway there. They knew very well how dangerous it would be to directly encounter Lightning Dust, so they moved as quietly as possible.

Rainbow Dash was up front as they were about to turn right to another hallway. Rainbow had barely peeked around the corner when she suddenly backed up and held out her arm, forcing the others to stop. She turned back to them as she tapped her hand over mouth and pointed around the corner, indicating that they had to be absolutely silent as they looked around the corner.

The three girls peered around the corner and saw the backside of Lightning Dust as she slowly walked down the hallway away from their position. She came to an intersection and paused to look around. She made her choice and turned left. The brief view from the side revealed that she was holding a long grey object in her hands. Attached to the end of that object was a translucent orange piece, which somehow made the object seem more terrifying.

As the clanking of Lightning’s footsteps against the metallic floor faded, the three girls ducked back into the further hallway.

“What was that thing in her hands?” asked Twilight, keeping her voice down to avoid the risk of catching Lightning’s attention.

“That’s a Plasma Blaster,” answered Rainbow Dash, grimly. “That thing won’t just blast you to pieces; it’ll melt your pieces.”

“Sounds like things just went from bad to worse,” said Applejack, worriedly. “How’d she get her hands on such a thing, anyway?”

“She must’ve taken it from the armory,” replied Rainbow Dash. “If we’re gonna stand a chance against her now,” she smiled a little, “then that’s where we’ve gotta go next.”

“You know this place better than any of us, so lead the way,” said Twilight.

Rainbow Dash nodded in acceptance. She checked down the hallway to the right to make sure Lightning Dust had not come back. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she turned left and began jogging down the hallway in that direction. Twilight and Applejack quickly followed, hoping their teammate would successfully take them to the armory.

Meanwhile, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike had walked into yet another storage room. They had no idea where to look to find the missing Luna Playwell, so they had decided to simply check every single room they came across. So far, that strategy seemed to be getting them nowhere.

“This is ridiculous!” said Spike in frustration. “There’s gotta be a better way than this!”

“Believe me, dear, I wish the same thing, myself,” said Rarity. “Unfortunately, none of us are familiar with this facility, so I’m afraid our options are limited.”

“If only we had a map to help us,” said Fluttershy quietly.

Rarity sighed. “Come along,” she said as she turned to leave the room. “We’d best continue our search.”

A rapid pounding noise made everyone suddenly stop. After standing in silence for a few seconds, they heard that noise again. It was four pounds against a metallic object in rapid succession. Once they heard it a third time, they realized it was coming from somewhere beneath the floor.

When the pounding noise was heard a fourth time, Pinkie Pie was able to figure out the exact source of the noise. “It’s coming from right there,” she said, pointing to a nearby handle in the floor. Pinkie ran over to the handle and grabbed it. She tried to pull up on it, but no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn’t even budge. She grunted as she pulled with all of her strength, straining to pull open the hatch in the floor.

Rarity calmly waked up to Pinkie Pie and cleared her throat. Once she had Pinkie’s attention, she simply waved her hand to tell Pinkie to back off.

Pinkie looked down and finally realized that she was actually standing on top of the hatch that she had been trying to open. With her face blushing in embarrassment, she let go of the handle and backed up until she was no longer standing on the hatch.

Rarity reached down to grab the handle as Spike and Fluttershy stood by her side. Rather than simply pull up on it, she instead tried twisting it first, which turned out to be the correct way of opening the hatch.

Now that the hatch was unlocked, it suddenly flew open as the minifig trapped underneath quickly sat up and made a loud gasp for breath.

Spike screamed in shock and leaped into Rarity’s arms. It took him little more than a second to realize what he just did, so he turned to face her with a nervous grin on his face.

Rarity gave an unamused expression as she dropped him to the floor.

“I thought you guys would never arrive,” said the formerly trapped minifig, once she finally got her breathing rate under control. She had yellow skin and orange eyes, which matched her spikey hair. She was wearing the blue and yellow flight suit that was typical of a Wonderbolt. Printed on both of her shoulders was a flame symbol. She looked around at the three girls and one little boy that were currently in the room. “Uh… you are the rescue team, aren’t you?” she asked in confusion.

“Well, half of us, at least,” admitted Rarity. “The other half is going after Lightning Dust, as we speak.”

“Who are you?” asked Fluttershy.

“Name’s Spitfire,” answered the now freed minifig. “Captain of the Wonderbolts Space Fleet.”

“Oh, is that why you’re still here?” asked Pinkie Pie. “I never really understood why a captain would wanna stay with their ship.”

“That’s pirate captains you’re thinking of,” said Spitfire as she pulled herself out of the small space in the floor. “My duty was to make sure that everyone got out safely before making my own escape. We were completely caught off-guard, and even I was surprised by how quickly that rogue recruit was able to strike this base. I decided to buy some time to allow everyone else to evacuate.”

“Buy some time?” asked Spike. “You mean you actually went after her?”

“I had no other choice,” continued Spitfire. “Besides, I wanted to see her for myself. She sure didn’t waste any time throwing one of those destructa-bricks at me. I was able to reach a safe distance from the blast, but I got struck in the head by a large part that was sent flying. Next thing I know, I’m trapped underneath this hatch in the floor with no way out.”

“Well, in any case, now that you are free, perhaps you can assist us,” suggested Rarity.

“I’d be more than happy to,” said Spitfire with a smile forming on her face. “Since you said the rest of your team is keeping Lightning Dust occupied, I say we take advantage of that distraction and cut off her means of escape.”

“How do we do that?” asked Spike.

“We locate and disable the spaceship she used to get here,” answered Spitfire. “And I have a good idea where we might find it. Follow me!” She immediately left the storage room and turned left down the hallway. The other four minifigs quickly followed.

“Speaking of pirate rules,” Pinkie Pie spoke up, “did you know you should never place your rear end on a pirate’s face?”

“I would never even consider doing something as uncouth as placing my rear end upon anyone’s face,” responded Rarity as she rolled her eyes.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight to find the armory. When they arrived, what they saw was enough to make Rainbow Dash laugh victoriously. “Check it out!” she exclaimed excitedly. “That dummy left the door open!”

“Bet she didn’t think we’d backtrack where she’s already been,” concluded Applejack as the three of them quickly entered the armory.

Inside the armory, just about all of the space on the walls were covered by racks, from which hung a wide variety of high-tech weaponry the likes of which Twilight had never seen before. She had to admit, it was quite an intimidating sight.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, could sum up her reaction with just one word. “Awesome,” she said with a huge grin on her face. “I’ve seen a lot of pictures, but I’ve never been able to see weapons like these in real life.”

Rainbow was acting like a kid in a candy store as she ran up to a nearby rack and grabbed a small object from it. “Check out this laser gun,” she said as she spun it around in her hand, then aimed it at the opposite wall and fired off a shot. The laser bolt shot across the armory almost instantly and struck one of the racks, causing it and the weapons it held to come crashing to the floor.

Applejack and Twilight, after briefly being startled by the laser bolt, glared at Rainbow for such a reckless act.

Rainbow Dash grinned nervously before tossing the laser gun aside. She turned back to the nearest rack and grabbed a larger weapon that required two hands to hold it up. She chuckled in excitement and said, “Wouldn’t wanna be on the business end of this thing.” She then carelessly dropped it to the floor and turned back to the racks for another weapon.

“Look, Ah know ya find all this fascinatin’ an’ all,” Applejack spoke up, “but Ah think we should try findin’ somethin’ that’ll actually help us the way we want it to.”

Rainbow Dash ignored her and picked up an even bigger weapon that had to be held up on her shoulder, but that didn’t diminish her enthusiasm. “Yeah, Bunker Buster!” she said. “This is a good way to wake up the neighbors.”

Applejack had had enough and smacked the oversized weapon out of Rainbow’s hands. “For cryin’ out loud!” shouted Applejack in Rainbow’s face. “We need to take her in for questionin’, not blow her to pieces!”

Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration and said, “Fine, I’ll find something more appropriate.” She turned back to the racks of weapons and began to carefully look over them for something that wouldn’t cause too much harm. It wasn’t long until she found just the thing they needed: a long two-handed weapon with three prongs on the end that were arranged equally around a translucent blue piece in the middle. “This should be our best bet.” Rainbow took it off the rack and tossed it over to Twilight. “Shock Stopper. One shot and she’ll be completely paralyzed for hours.”

Twilight awkwardly caught the weapon. It was so unlike anything she had ever seen before that she wasn’t even sure how to hold it properly, let alone actually fire it.

Applejack shrugged and said, “Fair enough. Now let’s go hunt down that renegade!”

Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement and began to leave the armory. As she passed Twilight, she suddenly stopped and pointed out, “Uh, you’re holding it backwards.”

Looking down at how she was currently holding the weapon in her hands, Twilight realized the prongs were actually supposed to be pointing forward. She quickly turned it around to the correct orientation before following Rainbow Dash and Applejack out of the armory.

Spitfire continued to run down the hallways, knowing exactly where to go. Behind her, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike struggled to keep up with her. They feared they would lose sight of her when she finally came to a stop in a large open room. On the left wall were a few sliding doors, with all but one of them currently shut, and labeled on the right wall was the name of this room: Docking Bay 3.

“This is one of the docking bays in this base,” explained Spitfire. “Our defenses were lowered at the time of the attack because we were scheduled to receive a cargo shipment just minutes later. Cargo ships are massive, so it’s common practice to clear an entire docking bay to make way for it, and this is the one that was cleared for the scheduled delivery. That makes this the ideal location for where Lightning Dust likely left her spaceship.”

“Why didn’t you just surround this place when you saw the incoming spaceship?” asked Spike.

“We never received any visual of it,” answered Spitfire as she began to walk by the doors on the left and the others followed her. “By the time we began to realize we were under attack, we had already lost all radar and video cameras outside. We were essentially left blind, and convinced there would be further damage from the outside. We certainly didn’t expect her to dock with this facility and start throwing destructa-bricks left and right from inside the base.”

“Sounds to me like she’s been planning this attack for a long time,” said Rarity.

“I’ve read Lightning Dust’s file many times since she was kicked out,” continued Spitfire. “She is a very capable fighter, can easily adapt to any situation, and never hesitates to push her limits. But she is also very reckless, and prone to making lots of mistakes.” She and the four following minifigs stopped as they arrived at the opened door. “And it looks like we’re about to exploit one of them right now.”

The docking bay provided an enclosed walkway that attached to any docked spaceship, allowing people to walk directly into the ships without having to put on a spacesuit and go outside. All it took was a short walk before the group was onboard the mystery spaceship.

“What kind of spaceship is this?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“I’m not sure,” replied Spitfire as she looked around the small interior space. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I recognize some parts here and there, but never in this kind of arrangement.”

Fluttershy opened a small storage compartment in the wall and quickly took a step back as a few Lego bricks tumbled out. She looked down at the bricks and noticed they were all in-line four-stud bricks that were grey in color and had some long number printed on the side. “I think I found something interesting,” she spoke up.

Spitfire walked up to the small pile of bricks and picked up one of them. When she noticed the number printed on the side, she said, “It’s an identification number. All spacecraft are required to have them clearly visible on the outside.” She read the number more carefully and suddenly realized something. “Wait… This is the exact same I.D. number as the small shuttle craft that Lightning Dust hijacked about seven months ago.” She placed that brick on the floor and picked another one. “This one is from the scout ship she got near Mars.” She set that brick down with the first and grabbed another. “And this one is from the cargo ship that was full of destructa-bricks.” She quickly rearranged all of the bricks so that the numbers were facing up. “I don’t believe it! It’s like a complete list of every ship she’s hijacked!”

“And you said these particular bricks are supposed to be incorporated on the outside of their respective ships,” Rarity pointed out. “If she’s removed these bricks, then perhaps it’s not out of the question to think she could have also removed some other bricks.”

Rarity was definitely on to something, and Spitfire needed only to take another looked around the interior of the spaceship to understand what this meant. “Of course! Why didn’t I see this at first?!” exclaimed Spitfire in realization. “It’s no wonder we’ve never been able to track down any of the ships she’s hijacked, because she’s been taking them apart and cannibalizing the parts to build her own personal spaceship.”

Spitfire walked up to the pilot’s seat and looked down at the console in front of it. “These flight controls are from the scout ship.” She turned to look out the window at some of the armaments on the wing. “This weaponry is from the medium assault ship, the first spaceship she hijacked.” She then opened a trap door in the floor right behind the pilot’s seat, partially revealing the engine underneath. “And this engine is just like the one from that small shuttle craft.”

“Holy cannoli!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, finally catching on. “She’s created a Frankenship!”

“If she used parts from those spaceships,” said Fluttershy, “then what about the—”

“Destructa-bricks!” exclaimed Spike, looking at what lay beyond a door in the back. “Hundreds of them!”

The four girls crowded around Spike and saw a large cargo space that was packed full of destructa-bricks. “No wonder she never seems to run out,” said Spitfire. “She’s been hauling all of them with her wherever she goes.”

“We simply must do something about this!” said Rarity with determination.

Spitfire immediately ran back to the console up front and quickly inspected it for a particular feature. “Good, this thing still has the Emergency Escape feature from the assault ship,” she said. “I can fly this thing out to a safe distance and use one of those destructa-bricks to destroy the entire supply onboard this ship. The time delay should give me enough time to eject and fly back here.”

“Weren’t those destructa-bricks supposed to be delivered to someone?” asked Fluttershy “You know, before Lightning Dust… stole them.”

“The recipient has already been compensated for the loss,” replied Spitfire. “As far as I’m concerned, this supply shouldn’t even exist anymore. However, the escape pod has enough room for only one minifig, so I’m gonna have to ask all of you to stay behind.”

“We understand,” said Rarity as she began to lead her teammates out of the spaceship. “You’re the expert here, so go on and do what must be done.”

Once the four teammates were back in the docking bay, Spitfire sat down in the pilot’s seat and began the undocking procedure. In the middle of the enclosed walkway, a red light began blinking to warn anyone who might be within that the ship was about to undock. A few seconds later, the inner door to the docking bay slid closed, followed by the door in the spaceship. With both sides now airtight, the spaceship was released from the docking bay.

Spitfire immediately fired up the engines and steered the spaceship away from the base. Once the ship was cleared from the base and was facing an empty area far above the surface, she activated the primary thrusters to make the ship fly away at high speed.

In only a matter of seconds, the patchwork spaceship was already over a dozen miles away from the lunar base. Spitfire was confident that she was now at a safe enough distance to destroy the ship and its dangerous cargo. She shut off the engines to let the ship drift forward under its own momentum. She quickly got out of the pilot’s seat and ran to the cargo hold in the back. She grabbed one of the many destructa-bricks and set it to high power with a time of one minute. The blast had to be big enough to, hopefully, set off a chain reaction that would detonate the rest of the destructa-bricks, and Spitfire’s past experience with an Emergency Escape feature told her that one minute would be more than enough time to get away.

With the settings entered, Spitfire tapped the detonate button, tossed the destructa-brick back into the pile of them, and then ran back to the front of the spaceship. She quickly got back into the pilot’s seat and fastened the seatbelt before pressing the big red button on the console that was labeled “Emergency Escape”. A large wall came down directly behind the pilot’s seat, cutting off the cockpit from the rest of the ship and allowing it to separate. The emergency onboard thrusters ignited, propelling what was now the escape pod away from the patchwork spaceship.

Spitfire turned the escape pod around, flew around the abandoned spaceship, and proceeded at full speed back to the lunar base. It was much slower than a typical spaceship, but it was still fast enough to get a few miles away by the time the ship full of destructa-bricks exploded. Spitfire never bothered to look back, but the incredibly bright flash of light from behind was enough to convince her that Lightning Dust’s patchwork spaceship was no more.

It wasn’t long before Spitfire returned to the docking bay. Thanks to years of experience, she knew how to dock an escape pod like this one. Once she reached an available walkway, she spun the escape pod around so the back end could attach, then slowly backed up until she felt the brief shaking that confirmed contact with the base.

Back inside the docking bay, the four teammates had been waiting anxiously for the last few minutes when they saw the light at the top of the doorway turn from red to green. The door slid open, revealing Spitfire as she climbed out of what remained of the spaceship.

“Now that I’ve successfully destroyed Lightning Dust’s only means of escape,” said Spitfire as she walked back into the docking bay, “it’s now only a matter of time before she is finally captured.”

“That’s good to hear,” Fluttershy said quietly.

“So, uh, what’s next?” asked Spike.

“Our original plan was to find Luna Playwell, who has not been heard from since the attack,” said Rarity. She turned to Spitfire and asked, “Do you suppose you could help us with such a task?”

Spitfire answered, “If she’s followed protocol — which I’m almost certain she has — she is currently barricaded inside a blast-proof bunker underneath her office. She can monitor every part of the base from there, but she can’t communicate with anyone outside. I can take you to her office and, hopefully, she will consider the threat to be minimal enough for her to come out.”

“Sounds fair to me,” said Spike with a shrug.

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Let’s go!”

As Spitfire began to lead the four teammates to Luna’s office, Fluttershy thought aloud, “I sure hope the others are doing okay.”

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle carefully made their way down yet another dim hallway. As they walked quietly, Twilight once again looked uneasily at the weapon in her hands. Rainbow Dash had already told her how to properly hold and fire it, so it was not the lack of knowledge that bothered her. It was the simple fact that she was the one holding it, which meant she would have to be the one to use it against Lightning Dust. Rainbow’s assurances that this “Shock Stopper” would only disable and not kill did little to ease Twilight’s worries.

Rainbow Dash was up front as they reached an intersecting hallway that was twice was wide and tall as the one they were about to leave. Various crates and pipes of different sizes were stacked along the edges of this massive hallway, indicating that it also served as a storage room of some sort. The occasional hissing noise of steam could be heard coming from some of the pipes along the ceiling, adding a sense of eeriness to the scene.

As soon as Rainbow Dash looked around a massive crate to the right, she immediately spun around and ran back into the smaller hallway. “Darn it!” she whispered harshly. “She’s heading right this way! We’ve gotta hide!”

The rapid clanking of footsteps against the metallic floor confirmed their worst fears: Lightning Dust had found them.

Applejack quickly looked to the left and saw a pile of grey Lego bricks that had spilled out of another large crate. The grey color perfectly matched all of the surrounding walls, which gave her an idea. “Ah got it!” whispered Applejack as she grabbed most of those bricks and began to quickly put them together.

It wasn’t long before Lightning Dust arrived at the large crate where she thought she had seen some movement. She held up the Plasma Blaster in her hands, ready to destroy anyone she found. She skidded to a stop as she came around the crate. She found nothing but a featureless grey wall.

Lightning was sure she had briefly seen something move in this area, and she was also sure that she had heard the rapid clicking noise of Lego bricks being put together. However, a closer look had revealed nothing but an empty space between two massive crates. Since there was nothing to see here, she decided to move on.

Just seconds after Lightning began walking away, a door-shaped part of the wall was quietly pulled back and to the side. The other side of this “wall” was the smaller hallway that the three teammates had been about to leave. Applejack had used the extra bricks to build a false wall to throw off Lightning Dust.

Now that they were behind Lightning, stealth would be the key to success. Simply taking apart the wall would have been too noisy, so Applejack had first built a section of wall big enough for a minifig to walk through, then built the rest of the wall around it. A few cap pieces on the floor and the top of the removable section allowed that section to silently slide out of its place in the wall. For an improvised solution, it was a work of genius.

As Applejack set down the wall section she had carefully removed, Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight and quietly said, “Remember, that thing takes about a minute to recharge, and I seriously doubt she’s gonna wait that long, so you’d better make the first shot count.”

Twilight was still ill at ease at having to be the one to use the weapon, but she knew that it had to be done, so she nodded in understanding and carefully stepped out into the big hallway. She tried to step as lightly as possible, but walking around in a body she had been using for only one day now, and across a metallic floor, made this particularly tricky.

It didn’t take long for Lightning Dust to notice the noise of footsteps didn’t quite match her own movements. She decided to stop walking, just to be sure if she was the one making the noise or not.

As soon as Lightning had stopped, Twilight immediately stopped in her tracks. Clearly, her own footsteps were too noisy. Twilight did all she could to keep her breathing as quiet as possible, hoping to not draw any further suspicion.

Lightning Dust listened carefully for a moment, but heard nothing but the occasional hissing of steam from the ceiling pipes. Convinced that she was still alone, she continued walking forward.

Twilight wasn’t sure if she was close enough to Lightning for the weapon to be effective. To improve her chances of success, she would have to get as close as possible. To do that, she would have to somehow keep walking forward without drawing any attention. She decided to cover the noise of her footsteps by walking in perfect lock-step with Lightning Dust. After Lightning had taken a few steps, Twilight got the rhythm down and continued walking after her, perfectly matching her footsteps.

As Lightning Dust continued walking, the noise of her footsteps started getting suspicious again, so she came to an abrupt stop.

Twilight was barely able to stop herself at the exact moment Lightning did. Another moment like this made her nervous, which inevitably made her breaths quicken, though she did a good job of keeping them quiet.

Lightning looked left and right, but saw nothing suspicious, so she proceeded forward again.

Twilight barely held back a sigh of relief that Lightning had not looked back. Now that she was on the move again, Twilight continued after her in perfect lock-step.

Just a few steps later, Lightning Dust got suspicious again and came to an immediate halt.

Once again, Twilight barely stopped herself at the same time Lightning did.

Lightning Dust now knew something was definitely not right. Whatever that odd noise was, it could not be just her own footsteps, so she had to find some way to isolate the noise. She started by taking two quick steps forward.

Since those steps were made at a different pace, Twilight was able to make only one step forward.

Lightning took one step forward, then quickly made two backwards.

Twilight was able to match the last two steps, bringing her closer to her target.

Lightning made a few rapid steps back and forth, which Twilight desperately tried to match while moving forward. Before long, Lightning was moving her feet around like some sort of tap dancer. Twilight took advantage to the noise to move ever closer to her target.

Lightning Dust then suddenly stopped moving around and just stood straight.

Twilight was left standing on one foot, and her facial expression clearly showed how much she was straining to keep her balance, not to mention keeping her rapid breathing to near silence.

Lightning raised her right foot, which Twilight clearly saw. She then rapidly brought it down to the floor, and Twilight matched that stomp by bringing her suspended foot back down.

This time, it was Lightning Dust who had done the outsmarting. She had stopped her foot just an inch away from the floor, which meant she should not have heard any noise. But she had heard a very clear stomp, and with the suspicious noise now isolated, she realized it was directly behind her.

Lightning Dust quickly spun around and saw Twilight Sparkle, who was also carrying a weapon of her own. “HA!” shouted Lightning in triumph. She raised the Plasma Blaster in her hands and prepared to fire.

Twilight heard the Plasma Blaster begin to power up and saw the orange piece on it start to glow. This was her absolute last chance. If she was going to take down Lightning Dust, it was now or never.

Twilight raised the Shock Stopper in her hands and, as Rainbow Dash had instructed, quickly squeezed the rear handle. This triggered a long bolt of electricity to fly from the blue piece and strike Lightning Dust, sending her flying back a short distance and hitting the floor on her back. In the process of this, Lightning dropped the Plasma Blaster — which now powered down — as well as a few inactive destructa-bricks from her backpack.

“Yeah! We got her!” shouted Rainbow Dash excitedly as she and Applejack stepped out from behind the massive crate near the smaller hallway. They ran over to join Twilight and looked down at the fallen Lightning Dust.

The Shock Stopper had apparently done exactly what Rainbow Dash said it would do. Lightning Dust was still alive, but the only part of her body she could move around was her head. She tried in vain to get back up, but it was no use. After finally sighing in defeat, she glared at Twilight. “Nice shot, noob!” she spat.

Applejack put her hand on Twilight’s shoulder in assurance and said, “Don’t let her get to ya. She’s just bein’ a sore loser.”

Twilight turned to Applejack in confusion and asked, “That was an insult?”

Just over an hour later, all personnel of the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters had returned to the base. Work was already underway to repair all of the damages that had been sustained during the attack. The paralyzed Lightning Dust was now strapped into a gurney and being wheeled over to the interrogation room.

Both halves of Twilight’s team had since gotten back together. They were now gathered in the briefing room, where Luna Playwell would explain the next part of their mission.

The minifig version of Luna had a skin color that was a slightly lighter shade of blue than the coat of Princess Luna. Her long hair consisted of two shades of blue and, unlike that of the Lunar Princess, did not move on its own. Luna also had the same eye color as her pony counterpart and — like Celestia — had visible lips. For clothing, her legs were a navy blue and her torso and shoulders were violet. She had a navy blue belt around her waist and a white collar around the neck of the torso. Printed on the front of the collar was a dark blue crescent moon, a symbol not too different from Princess Luna’s Cutie Mark. When asked by Rarity why she wore such typical clothes in a lunar base, she claimed that she rarely ever leaves the base, and thus sees no reason to always wear some space outfit.

“I congratulate you all on a job well done,” began Luna Playwell. “That attack had caught us completely by surprise, and the Wonderbolts will do everything in their power to ensure a similar incident will never happen again.”

“What about Lightning Dust?” asked Fluttershy.

“There is no need to worry about her,” replied Luna. “We’ll take it from here and inform you of any information we get out of her. In the meantime, my sister Celestia has asked me to tell you of your next mission.”

“Our next mission?” asked Twilight. “Does this me you’ve found Sunset Shimmer?”

“Unfortunately, no,” continued Luna as she began taping some keys on a console beneath a large display screen. “We still don’t know where she is. But it seems the Great and Powerful Trixie has made her presence very clear.” A few images came up on the display screen, the most prominent of which was of a dark castle that was under cloudy skies and surrounded by a moat of lava. “She has just finished building herself this castle, and is already beginning to raise an army of skeleton warriors, which she will no doubt use in her attempt to conquer the entire Castle Region.”

A few images flashed by on the screen, showing dozens skeletons that stood and moved as if they were living people. They also carried swords, shields, and other kinds of medieval weaponry.

“Spooky!” remarked Pinkie Pie excitedly.

“So you want use to capture Trixie next?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“That is correct,” replied Luna. “But, as her self-proclaimed title suggests, Trixie is very powerful indeed. There is only one magical item that is powerful enough to defeat Trixie for good: a golden sword that is currently in the possession of one of the rulers of the Castle Region, Prince Shining Armor.”

Twilight had to suppress a gasp as the image of her brother’s minifig counterpart came up on the display screen. He had white skin, blue eyes, and blue hair on his head. Every part of his body, except the head, was covered in golden armor. Attached to an actual belt was a silver scabbard, within which was the golden sword. Draped from his neck and over his back was a white cape, and printed in the middle of it was a blue shield with a magenta six-pointed star in the middle and three smaller stars above the shield. That symbol on his cape was just like his pony counterpart’s Cutie Mark.

“Let me get this straight,” said Applejack. “You want us to go after some super powerful witch, but the only thing that can get the job done is some magic sword that this Shining Armor fellow has? Why do we have to be involved in this? Can’t we just tell him to go after Trixie?”

“It will not be that easy, I’m afraid,” explained Luna. “A few years ago, his younger sister mysteriously vanished, and he has been desperately searching for her ever since. Lately, that desperation has turned to obsession, and he now refuses to prioritize anything over the search for his missing sister. His kingdom is already showing signs of his neglect, and my sister and I believe this is why Trixie has chosen this moment to make her strike.” Luna tapped a key on the console, returning the display screen to the default setting of showing various locations on the lunar base. “Your next mission is to go to the Castle Region, defeat Trixie, and have her taken in for questioning, which should improve our chances of locating Sunset Shimmer.”

Twilight took a moment to let all of this information sink in. She was pretty sure she knew who this “missing sister” was, and could understand why the prince would be so desperate to find her. However, that was not what Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria was here for, and her top priority here was to retrieve her stolen crown from Sunset Shimmer. With no idea where to look, her best hope at this time was to defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie, and to do that, she would need the help of Prince Shining Armor.”

Twilight turned to Spike and said, “I already know I can count on you to assist.” She turned to the rest of her team and asked, “What do you say, girls?”

“I’m in!” Pinkie Pie immediately exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Same here,” said Rainbow Dash “I’d never let you down.”

“Y’all can count me in, too,” said Applejack.

“I’ve always wanted to visit the Castle Region,” remarked Rarity. “Count me in.”

“I agree with Rarity,” added Fluttershy. “The Castle Region is a nice place, and I really don’t want any harm to come to the people and creatures who call it home. I’m in.”

“Then it’s settled,” declared Twilight. “Let’s get back to the spaceship and head for the Castle Region.”

A soon as this was said, the bright flash of an explosion suddenly appeared at one of the locations shown on the display screen. Everyone quickly turned to see many Lego pieces fly apart and fall into a scattered pile in the middle on a landing pad.

“Was that our spaceship?” asked Spike worriedly.

“I forgot to mention,” said Lightning Dust with a crazy grin on her face as the gurney she was strapped to was wheeled by on the way to the interrogation room, drawing everyone's attention. “I planted a few destructa-bricks underneath your spaceship. Win or lose, I didn’t want you to make a clean getaway.” She then cackled like a maniac as she was quickly wheeled into the neighboring room, the door slamming shut behind.

The seven teammates turned their attention back to the display screen. They could do nothing but stare in shock as they looked at the pile of scattered parts that used to be their spaceship.

Author's Note

Before anyone asks, Luna of the Lego World was not banished to the Moon. The LEGO Team needed someone from the Playwell family to be head of the Lunar branch of the Space Region, and Luna was the first one to volunteer. She actually likes it there, and is always able to contact Celestia at any time (aside from the latest incident, of course).

Rocket Science

Chapter 9
Rocket Science

Twilight Sparkle and her team had put on their helmets and stepped outside to examine the pile of Lego parts that used to be their spaceship. After witnessing the destruction of it on a live video, they had no idea what they should do. The Wonderbolts were still on-edge after the recent attack, so none were willing to let them borrow any of their spacecraft. It was Luna Playwell who had suggested that they venture outside and take a closer look at what remained of the spaceship. She had left to observe the interrogation of Lightning Dust before she could offer any further advice, but at least it was a start.

Rainbow Dash kicked a stray part toward the pile in the middle. “Great,” she said dejectedly. “Now how are we gonna get back?”

Twilight looked over many of the Lego parts in the pile and was able to recognize most of them, but she couldn’t quite remember how they all went together. “Well, it looks like all of the pieces are still here,” she said with slight uncertainty. “Maybe we could build a new spaceship.”

“SPACESHIP!” shouted Pinkie Pie enthusiastically with a jump. That sudden outburst drew confused looks from the rest of the team. Pinkie looked around at them in confusion and said, “What?”

Applejack ignored her and asked Twilight, “You sure ‘bout that? Ah know nothin’ on how to build a spaceship.”

“How hard can it be?” said Twilight as she picked up two random pieces. “Just grab some parts and start putting them together, I guess.” She put the two pieces together. She wasn’t sure what part of the new spaceship those pieces would be, but at least it was somewhere to start.

“Not like we’ve got any better ideas,” said Spike with a shrug before walking up to the pile of Lego pieces.

“You can say that again,” grumbled Rainbow Dash as she and the others also began to approach the pile.

Everyone began combing through different sections of the pile, eventually separating it into a few smaller piles. Progress was slow to start, due to high levels of uncertainty on what to build.

Rainbow Dash, in particular, was already having doubts. “Who am I kidding?” she muttered to herself as she tossed another piece over her shoulder. “This wouldn’t be such a big problem if we actually knew what we’re doing.” Her frustration began to boil over as she started punching the pieces piled up in front of her, sending them flying into an even messier pile. She went through about half of the pile before finally stopping to take a breather.

Fluttershy had silently watched the whole thing. She was not the kind of person who said, “I told ya so,” but she had to admit that, had she stayed behind to guard the spaceship as she had originally requested, then perhaps this big mess would never have happened. Instead, she waited for Rainbow Dash to calm down a bit before politely asking, “Feeling better?”

Rainbow sighed in frustration and muttered, “I don’t know.”

Not long after that, Spike was fortunate to discover two pieces that had remained together.

Rarity looked over and also saw how useful those attached pieces could be. “Lovely,” she commented as she snatched the parts out of Spike’s hand.

“Hey!” protested Spike as he grabbed one of the attached parts, while Rarity continued to hold the other one. Their little tug-of-war inevitably came to an end when the two pieces separated. Spike was sent tumbling backwards into another pile. He quickly climbed out, but noticed that his hands were now empty. The part that he had held onto most likely ended up inside the pile he had fallen into. Spike could only moan in disappointment.

One the other side of that pile, Pinkie Pie noticed a rather long piece lying on the floor. “Ups-a-daisy!” she said happily as she picked it up and carried it on her shoulder. As she turned around to start going somewhere, the long piece swung around and smacked Rainbow Dash in the back of the head.

“Ow!” exclaimed Rainbow as she fell forward.

“Whoops! Sorry,” said Pinkie as she spun around to look at Rainbow, unwittingly causing the piece she was carrying to swing around and strike Fluttershy in the head.

“Ouch!” exclaimed Fluttershy as she also fell forward.

“Whoops! Sorry to you, too,” said Pinkie as she spun around to face Fluttershy, unaware her long piece now swung back towards Rainbow Dash.

“Whoa! Watch it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she ducked down to avoid getting hit.

“Whoops! Sorry again,” said Pinkie as she spun around again towards Rainbow, unknowingly swinging the part at Fluttershy again.

“Please stop doing that!” whimpered Fluttershy as she cowered against the floor, which thankfully prevented her from getting hit again.

“Whoops! Double sorry,” said Pinkie as she spun around yet again to face Fluttershy.

“Gimmie that!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she got up and snatched the long piece out of Pinkie Pie’s hands. She then grumbled under her breath as she stormed off with the piece.

After a brief silence, Pinkie turned to Fluttershy and asked, “Did you catch any of that? Because I didn’t understand a word she said.”

Unlike Pinkie, Fluttershy had a better understanding of Rainbow Dash’s current emotion, so she replied, “Um, maybe it’s best that we not know… if that’s okay with you, that is.”

After a little more digging around in the piles, everyone began putting some of the pieces together. Within only a few minutes, a structure began to take shape. Although everyone contributed to the build, each of them had a different idea in mind of what the finished model should be like.

Applejack lifted up a small engine assembly and brought it over to the underside of a wing.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” demanded Rarity as she walked up to Applejack.

“Ah’m attachin’ this here engine to the wing,” replied Applejack as she began to lift it into place.

Before the sub-model could be attached, Rarity grabbed it and said, “Well you’re doing it all wrong, darling. It should go over here.” She pulled it over toward the end of the wing.

Applejack glared at Rarity for trying to take over like that “Ah think it should go over here,” said Applejack as she pulled the small engine assembly back toward the base of the wing.

“I’ll have you know, it’ll look much better over here,” insisted Rarity as she tugged the little model back toward the end of the wing.

“But it would work better if it was over here,” stressed Applejack as she tugged the sub-model back toward the base of the wing.

Before long, Rarity and Applejack were in a tug-of-war over the small assembly, neither side willing to back down.

Twilight noticed this and quickly decided to intervene. “What is wrong with you girls?!” she exclaimed as she walked up to the two arguing minifigs. “Just strike a compromise and put it here.” She pushed the engine assembly up until it clicked into place at the middle of the wing. “Honestly, there’s no reason this has to be complicated. It’s just rocket science.”

As Applejack and Rarity begrudgingly moved on to another part of the construction, Spike climbed up to the top of what had been built so far. He turned back and motioned to Pinkie, who began tossing some pieces up to him. Each time he caught a part, he would quickly attach it to whatever part of the spaceship he thought would best need it. After about half a dozen pieces, he caught the next one in such a way that made it top-heavy, causing him to lean backwards uncontrollably. “Whoa! Whoa! Ahh!” he screamed as he lost his balance and fell off the unfinished spaceship, landing flat on his back. “I’m okay,” he said weakly.

Progress continued to be frustratingly slow, but the finished model was finally coming together. There were only a few more pieces left to attach.

“This better be worth it,” mumbled Rainbow Dash as she casually tossed a random piece onto the structure.

“Almost…” said Rarity as she carefully fitted another part into place.

Applejack attached one of the last pieces and said with satisfaction, “That should do it.”

Twilight dusted off her hands as she stepped back to join her team. “There! All done!” she said proudly as she and her team looked up at their new spaceship.

Actually, it was not something to be proud of. There were a lot of jagged edges in some places, the wings were not attached symmetrically, and a lot of interior parts had been placed on the exterior.

“This is a spaceship?” asked Spike incredulously.

Rainbow Dash screamed in frustration and shouted, “I knew this was a dumb idea!” She picked up one of the small spare pieces and threw it at the poorly-built spaceship. When the piece struck it, the spaceship completely collapsed into a pile of parts, not much different from how it all started.

Rarity sighed and said, “Back to square one.”

“No, Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight calmly. “We just went about this the wrong way.” Twilight wouldn’t admit it aloud, but this had been her idea. She was still confident it would work, but she knew a change in strategy was needed. She tapped her chin thoughtfully and said, “Let’s see… What should we do differently this time?”

“Ah doubt we’ll get anywhere at this rate,” said Applejack. “None of us are exactly skilled at buildin’ spaceships.”

“There’s gotta be at least one of us who can come up with a good idea of what to build,” said Spike desperately.

“That’s it!” Twilight suddenly spoke up. She ran back to the pile of Lego pieces and began digging around. “I know we had one around here somewhere,” she mumbled as she kept searching.

“What are you looking for?” asked Fluttershy. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Aha! Found it!” cheered Twilight as she held up the item she was looking for: a pencil. She then ran back to the others, grabbing a large flat square part along the way. “Rarity,” she said as she practically shoved the two items into her teammate’s hands. “Sketch an idea for a spaceship.”

Rarity looked completely baffled by such a request. “Excuse me, dear, but you want me to design a spaceship?!” she asked.

“That’s right!” replied Twilight with complete confidence.

“But I am a fashion designer, not some… engineer,” said Rarity with uncertainty.

Twilight sighed. “I know, but we don’t exactly have any engineers with us right now.” She then spoke with a reassuring voice, “Look, I’m not asking you to write an instruction manual. Just sketch anything that comes to mind. The only requirement is that it has to be a spaceship and use nothing more than the parts available in this pile. Can you do that for us?”

Rarity hummed thoughtfully as she looked down at the blank surface in her hands.

“Ya sure this is gonna work?” asked Applejack uncertainly.

“Let’s face it,” said Rainbow Dash doubtfully, “we’ll have better luck convincing the Wonderbolts to let us borrow one of their spaceships, and we already how hard that’s gonna be at a time like this.”

Rarity suddenly gasped and exclaimed in a sing-song voice “Idea!” She began quickly scribbling on the blank piece in her hands, sketching out the spaceship design she now had in mind. Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked over her left shoulder, while Spike and Fluttershy looked over her right shoulder. After no more than a minute, the sketch was complete. Rarity held it up in front of herself to admire her work. “Perfect!” she said with satisfaction.

“Excellent!” said Twilight as she snatched the sketch out of Rarity’s hands.

“Hey!” protested Rarity.

Twilight ignored her as she shoved the sketch into Pinkie Pie’s hands and asked, “Think you can build that?”

Pinkie Pie needed no more than one second to look over the entire sketch before replying with a salute, “No problemo!” She instantly zoomed off to the pile of Lego parts, leaving the sketch behind in her wake. Once she arrived at the pile, she literally appeared to be in many places at once as she started throwing together all of the pieces.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Click! Clack! Whoosh! Whoosh! Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Whoosh! Click! Click! Clack! Clack! Whoosh! Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Click! Clack!

Finally, Pinkie stood atop the completed spaceship as she threw the last piece into place with a final clicking noise. She then spread her arms wide out and cheerfully shouted, “Ta-da!”

The entire team had watched the entire assembly without anyone saying a word. They were still left speechless as they looked up at their new spaceship. It was more than just a decent model; it actually looked even better than the original one that had been blown up.

Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up. “Awesome!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Now that is a spaceship!”

“See, girls? We are a good team,” said Twilight in satisfaction. “We just needed to focus on our strengths.”

“Either way, the results are what matter,” said Applejack contently. “Now that we got ourselves a spaceship, let’s climb aboard an’ get goin’.”

Everyone silently agreed and began to enter their new spaceship.

The lower deck of the new spaceship served a similar function as on the old one. Once the air-lock was closed and the interior air became safe to breathe, everyone took off their helmets and left them with their spare change of clothes. Applejack grabbed her hat and followed the others up to the control room at the front of the ship. It was here that the differences became clear.

“Huh, new seating arrangements,” commented Spike. The seven seats were now arranged in two rows; three in the front and four in the back. In the front row, Rainbow took the seat to the right of the pilot’s seat, while Rarity took the one to its left. In the back row, from left to right, sat Spike, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.

Twilight Sparkle sat down in the pilot’s seat and pulled out the User’s Manual once more. As soon as she opened that book, she quickly realized something. “Uh oh, we’ve got a problem,” she said worriedly.

“What is it, dear?” asked Rarity.

“This is a completely different spaceship, which means the User’s Manual is now useless,” explained Twilight before tossing the book behind her back. She sighed in disappointment. “I’m afraid I have no idea how to fly this thing, nor do I have any way to even learn how to fly it.”

Everyone looked at one another uneasily as they realized what this meant. They knew they would need a new spaceship, but it had never occurred to any of them that they would also need someone who knew how to pilot such a ship. For a spaceship that they had built on their own, that would not be easy.

“Let me give it a try,” offered Rainbow Dash. “A highly-trained Wonderbolt knows how to fly just about any spaceship, even custom designs. If I’m gonna join them someday, then I’d like to prove that I’ve got what it takes.”

“Okay,” said Twilight uncertainly as she got up out of the pilot’s seat. As she switched places with Rainbow Dash, she asked, “How do you plan on figuring out how to fly this spaceship.”

“Easy,” replied Rainbow Dash as she sat down in the pilot’s seat. “I’m gonna improvise.”

“Ohh, I don’t like the sound of that,” said Fluttershy uneasily.

“If anybody’s got any better ideas, I’d love to hear them,” said Rainbow Dash, looking around at her teammates. When she got no replies, she turned back to the controls in front of her and flatly said, “That’s what I thought.”

Before Rainbow even touched anything, Twilight immediately tapped the side of her seat to make the seatbelt automatically strap her in. The rest of her team quickly did the same.

Rainbow didn’t need to be a genius to figure out why everyone was quick to react like that. Who could blame them? In fact, she even decided to put on her own seatbelt for the same reason. “Okay… here’s hoping we don’t blow up,” she said before pressing one of the larger buttons on the console.

That button activated the engines, which were currently set to Hover Mode. This allowed the new spaceship to slowly rise up off the landing pad.

“So far, so good,” remarked Rainbow Dash. “Now let’s try to raise that landing gear.” She looked over the entire console for a button or switch to raise the landing gear. Unfortunately, not many of them were properly labeled. Forced to do some guesswork, she decided on one likely button and tapped it.

A squeaking noise made Rainbow look up and see a pair of windshield wipers swiping back and forth over the front window. “Nope, that’s not it,” she said as she tapped that button again to bring the wipers back down.

“Let’s try this one,” said Rainbow before tapping another random button. This made her seat quickly recline all the way back, taking her with it. She tried to get back up, but her seatbelt held her down. “Uh, little help here?”

Applejack removed her seatbelt and stood up. With one mighty kick, she sent the seat and Rainbow Dash back into the upright position. She then sat back down and put her seatbelt back on.

“Thanks,” said Rainbow Dash over her shoulder. She turned back to the console and said, “How about this one?” The next button she pressed caused some insanely loud rock music to start blaring throughout the entire ship, forcing everyone to cover their ears. Rainbow quickly tapped that button again to shut off the music. “Kinda awesome, but not what I need right now.” She took another quick look and chose yet another random button. “Maybe it’s this one.”

When Rainbow pressed that button, all that seemed to happen was a faint mechanical noise. Twilight remembered the description of a similar noise mentioned in the User’s Manual for the old spaceship, specifying it as the landing gear being raised into the ship. Since they had no way of seeing it from the outside, that noise would be their only clue. “I think that’s the one you’re looking for,” she said.

“Good!” said Rainbow with determination as she grabbed onto the flight controls. “Now that that’s taken care of, let’s fly!” She pushed forward on the controls, but the spaceship moved rather slowly in that direction. She then pulled back, forward again, and in many more directions, but it continued to move at a snail’s pace. “Come on! Why isn’t this thing moving?”

“Maybe ya left it in park,” suggested Applejack.

Rainbow Dash looked down at the console and, sure enough, it was still in Hover Mode. She face-palmed before reaching over and switching it to Launch Mode. The main engines ignited, sending the spaceship shooting forward at high speed.

Everyone was quickly thrown back into their seats from the sudden acceleration. Rainbow Dash held tightly to the flight controls and pulled back on them, steering the spaceship upwards away from the surface of the Moon. Once they were vertical, the ship started spiraling uncontrollably. “Left! Left! No, right!” shouted Rainbow as she struggled to regain control. After enduring nearly a minute of violent shaking, she was finally able to stabilize the movement of the spaceship. Directly ahead of them was their destination: planet Earth.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and said, “Well, I’m glad that’s over. Now we just let this thing reach maximum velocity and wait another ten hours until we get there.”

As Rainbow was about to switch the engines to Cruise Mode, she noticed a big yellow button nearby. “Hm, I wonder what this does,” she said to herself, before pressing the button in question.

The spaceship suddenly began to accelerate even faster, throwing everyone back in their seats again. The seven minifigs screamed as the whole ship rumbled from the incredible speed.

Rainbow Dash quickly recovered from the shock and reached over to the console. She was about to tap that button again when she noticed the velocity was climbing much higher than before. That was all she needed to see to make up her mind. She left that button alone and continued to do her best to keep the spaceship on course.

“Rainbow Dash!” screamed Rarity. “Shut it off!”

“No can do!” exclaimed Rainbow as she continued working hard to keep the ship under control. “We’ll get there much faster this way!”

Twilight looked up at the planet ahead and — despite it moving around all over the window — could actually see that it was slowly growing larger, which indicated they were getting closer at a much higher speed than anticipated. Realizing what Rainbow was up to, Twilight said with concern, “I hope you know what you’re doing!”

“So do I,” responded Rainbow Dash, doing everything she could to keep the planet directly ahead.

As the seconds ticked by, their destination slowly grew ever larger — visual proof of the unbelievable speeds they were flying at. After just over minute, they were already very close, but the constant violent rumbling had made it feel like hours.

Finally, Rainbow Dash decided they were close enough to slow down, so she reached forward and tapped that big yellow button again. Whatever it was that now deactivated, it caused the spaceship to quickly slow down considerably. The force of that massive deceleration would have flung everyone forward out of their seats, had they not been wearing their seatbelts. Finally, Rainbow pulled back on the controls, bringing the spaceship to fly parallel with the surface of the world just a few hundred miles below.

Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.

“What was that?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Did you like that turbo charger I installed?” asked Pinkie Pie excitedly.

“Turbo charger?” asked Rarity in confusion. “I never specified such a thing in my sketch.”

“I decided to add a few surprises,” answered Pinkie innocently. “We didn’t have the right parts to make one of those FTL Warp Drive thingies, so I decided to go with the next best thing.”

“Where in the Lego World did ya learn to build stuff like that?” asked Applejack. Before Pinkie could give a reply, Applejack shook her head and said, “Never mind. Ah don’t wanna know.”

“I don’t care how she built it,” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “The only thing that matters is that it worked, and this ten-hour flight has now been cut down to just ten minutes. Now that’s something I consider awesome.”

“As long as we don’t have to do that again,” muttered Spike.

Rainbow looked over the console once more and tapped a key that brought up a map on the tiny display screen. “Huh, look at that. We’re already flying over the Castle Region,” she told her teammates. “Prepare to reenter!” And with that, she set the engines to Reentry Mode and brought the spaceship down to a shallow angle.

Having read in the User’s Manual about what reentry would feel like, Twilight told her team, “Hang on for another bumpy ride!”

As they started the reentry, the air around the spaceship began to glow from the intense heat. The atmospheric friction that created this heat also caused the ship to shake around again. For a spaceship that they had literally just assembled on their own with no prior experience, it seemed to be holding together quite well.

“I think I’m gonna be sick!” shouted Spike over the noise of reentry.

It wasn’t long until the spaceship slowed down enough for the heat to dissipate and the ride to smooth out. Outside the window, the team could see the surface below consisted of scattered woodland and meadows.

Rainbow Dash set the engines to Hover Mode and said, “Now that we made it through, all there is left to do is land this thing.” She tapped a button to bring down the landing gear, but instead made the windshield wipers come on again. “And that’s not the landing gear button,” Rainbow deadpanned. She shut off the wipers and hit the correct button. Once that was taken care of, she began to slowly lower the spaceship.

“Careful!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed. “Watch out for those trees!”

Rainbow looked out and saw that she was lowering the ship directly over a dense forest. She immediately stopped the descent and began to move over to the nearest clearing.

“Careful!” Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed. “Watch out for that meadow!”

“Why would we want to avoid that?” asked Rarity in confusion. “Such a clearing would make an ideal landing site.”

“But you never know what kinds of helpless critters could be hiding in the grass,” Fluttershy pointed out. “We might hurt them if we try to land here.”

“But we have to land somewhere,” argued Twilight, “and this meadow is our best bet.”

“Don’t land in the meadow, Rainbow Dash.”

“Land in the meadow!”

Twilight and Fluttershy continued to argue back and forth, while Rarity tried futilely to resolve the issue peacefully. Spike wouldn’t stop complaining about feeling airsick, while Pinkie Pie didn’t make things any better by pointing in random directions and shouting, “Over there! Over here! Over there! Over here! Over there!” In the middle of it all, Rainbow Dash was unable to get anything done in her attempt to land the spaceship.

Applejack realized that all of this nonsense was getting them nowhere, so she decided to take action. “Oh, for Ole’s sake, just land already!” she exclaimed as she took off her hat and tossed it at the console in front of Rainbow Dash. With remarkable aim, the hat struck the power button, shutting off the engines.

With nothing keeping it aloft, the spaceship simply dropped down to the open ground that was not far below. The impact violently shook the spaceship and everyone inside, but it was fortunately not enough to break anything loose.

“See? Nothin’ to it,” remarked Applejack confidently as she removed her seatbelt.

“Yeah… that’ll work,” said a slightly dazed Rainbow Dash. The impact had knocked her hair piece askew so that it covered one of her eyes. After quickly getting over her dazed state, she readjusted her hair and removed her seatbelt.

“I suppose that’s one way to solve our problems,” said Rarity as she and the rest of the team removed their seatbelts. “Not that I would recommend it in most circumstances.”

Spike breathed rapidly and heavily into a paper bag before stating, “I’m just glad we’re finally on the ground.”

Twilight got up out of her seat and said, “Yes, now that we’ve landed, let’s begin our next mission.”

“But first, I suggest we change back into our normal attire,” said Rarity. “Now that we are no longer in space, there is no need for us to wear these spacesuits anymore.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Applejack in agreement as she retrieved her hat.

Everyone got out of their seats and headed for the lower deck to grab their spare change of clothes. Their space mission was over. Now, it was time to help save the Castle Region.

Author's Note

Like I said earlier, most of my inspiration for this story came from the Adventures of Clutch Powers movie. There will be quite a few references over the next few chapters, but I think that what I have in mind will be different enough to not come across as a copy of part of that movie. Besides, that will be for only the next three chapters, and this entire story is about halfway done now, so you can be sure there will be a lot more original material to follow.

Going Medieval

Chapter 10
Going Medieval

Twilight Sparkle led her team as they walked through a forest. After they had changed back into their normal clothes and stepped outside, everyone was uncertain what their next course of action should be. There was virtually nothing to be found in this wilderness, so they had decided to walk together in a certain direction until they found something.

Twilight had to admit that it was quite a nice environment to be walking around in. After spending a lot of time in Canterlot City and the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters, she was quite surprised to see a place that looked so… natural. This wilderness consisted of real trees, real grass, real dirt, and virtually no Lego bricks at all. In fact, if not for the fact that she was currently in the body of a minifig, she would have felt like she was back in Equestria.

As much as Twilight enjoyed such a peaceful stroll through the woods, she knew she couldn’t take her mind off of the task at hand. There were sure to be many problems, and they were already facing the first of them.

“So, uh… any idea where we’re going?” asked Spike.

“Beats me,” said Applejack indifferently as she pushed aside a low hanging branch.

Rarity quickly stepped aside to avoid getting smacked by that branch as Applejack let go of it. “As I recall, Applejack, it was your idea to just head off in a random direction,” said Rarity.

“Ah didn’t think it’d matter much,” said Applejack. “We don’t exactly know where we ended up, anyway.”

“Hey, all I did was land the spaceship,” said Rainbow Dash in defense. “Nobody told me where to land.”

“If only I had thought to ask Luna for a map before we left,” thought Twilight aloud. “Not that it would be of much help right now, unfortunately.”

“Either way,” said Applejack, “we ain’t gonna get anythin’ done if we just stand around arguin’ with each other. Better to go somewhere than nowhere.”

“Unless of course if that somewhere turns out to be a really, really bad place,” Pinkie Pie spoke up. “In which case, we really would have been better off just standing still in one place, because then we wouldn’t be in any danger.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, Pinkie,” said Applejack.

“Oh, so we’re going to a bridge of some kind?” asked Pinkie, not realizing Applejack had been speaking metaphorically.

Applejack just ignored the pink girl and pushed aside another low hanging branch. She let go of it as she walked by, unwittingly causing it to smack Fluttershy in the face.

Fluttershy stumbled a little before spitting out some leaves that had gotten in her mouth. She then removed her hair and brushed out any leaves and twigs that had been caught in it. As she put her hair back on, she heard something very faint that didn’t sound very good. “Do you hear something?” she asked her teammates.

Everyone quickly stopped and listened carefully. It didn’t take long for them to hear the faint noise, which sounded like some kind of chanting that repeated over and over. Twilight quietly shushed the others and gestured for them to follow her. They quietly walked through the woods, down a hill across a small clearing, and back into the woods. The great thing about walking on soft ground was that it prevented their footsteps from making much noise.

Hoo. Ha. Hoo… Hoo. Ha. Hoo… Hoo. Ha. Hoo…

The team approached a row of bushes. They were now close enough to clearly hear the chanting, which meant the source had to be right on the other side. Each member of the team slowly walked up to the bushes and parted them just enough to see what was on the other side. They were shocked to see a dozen skeleton warriors — each armed with a spear and round shield — marching in formation down a dirt trail.

Hoo. Ha. Hoo… Hoo. Ha. Hoo… Hoo. Ha. Hoo…

The skeletons continued their low chanting as they marched on. They had just passed the row of bushes along the trail and were marching away, which meant they were not looking in the direction of the team of minifigs.

Twilight suppressed a gasp as she realized she was actually seeing some of these skeleton warriors. Back in Equestria, she had heard the occasional horror story that included skeletons coming to life and scaring ponies. But this right here was no story; these were real skeleton people — albeit made of Lego. Seeing the pictures was one thing, but to actually see them out in the open was enough to send a chill through her body.

The skeletons marched onward around a curve in the trail, the noise of their chanting growing ever fainter. Once they were out of sight, the seven minifigs retreated back from the row of bushes.

“Looks like Trixie’s army is patrolling the area,” stated Rainbow Dash.

“I’m not surprised,” said Pinkie Pie. “We are pretty close to her castle, after all.”

“How do you know that?” asked Spike in confusion.

“It’s right over there,” replied Pinkie, pointing up the trail.

Everyone turned their gaze in that direction, looking up the trail, through the woods, and uphill to a scorched landscape. In the middle of that scorched area, atop a hill that dominated the area, was a dark castle surrounded by a moat of boiling hot lava. Dark storm clouds seemed to hover over the scorched area, occasionally unleashing a boom of thunder to scare off any would-be invaders. If there was only one castle that could define evil, this was it.

Everyone was speechless for a moment as they looked upon Trixie’s castle for the first time. The first to speak up was Rarity. “Well… at least she isn’t modest,” she pointed out the obvious.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Rainbow Dash as she began to walk towards the castle with determination. “Now that we know where she is, let’s take her down.”

Twilight stepped in front of Rainbow to stop her. “No,” she said firmly. “We can’t just walk up to her castle like that. You saw some of her skeleton warriors. They’re fully armed, and we have no weapons to speak of. If we’re gonna stand a chance against the Great and Powerful Trixie, we’ll need some help.”

“You mean like from Prince Shining Armor?” asked Spike.

Twilight hesitated before replying, “Yes, but we can’t put all of our hopes on him. Besides, we don’t even know where his castle is.”

“Then what do ya suggest?” asked Applejack.

Twilight looked around as she contemplated what the next step would be. Finally, she answered, “We’ll keep walking around. Maybe we’ll find something useful.” With that, she turned away from the castle and began leading the team away from the dirt trail.

Not much later, the team arrived at a clearing near the base of a small mountain, where they saw what appeared to be an abandoned mine. The entrance was boarded up, but what was important about this place was that they finally found a small collection of Lego pieces. Most of those pieces were currently assembled into carts, tracks, and other kinds of old mining equipment — many of which were not intact.

“Well, at least we found something,” said Spike, trying to stay positive.

“Yeah,” added Rainbow Dash dejectedly. “Too bad it’s all useless.”

“True, but not in its current state,” said Twilight as she started forming an idea. “Perhaps we can salvage these parts and then reassemble them into something we can use.”

“Like what?” asked Applejack.

“If we’re going to stop Trixie, we will need some way to break into her castle,” continued Twilight. “Our best chance would be to build some kind of… siege machine, I suppose.”

“Sounds intriguing,” said Rarity. “What specifics do you have in mind?”

Back in Equestria, Twilight had read ancient history books that described how armies would attack various castles. Many kinds of siege engines were utilized in those days, from catapults to battering rams. However, those ancient works of engineering were definitely not made of Lego bricks, which meant she was almost clueless on what they would build right here with limited parts.

Then again, maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about that. Twilight thought back on the different results of their attempts to rebuild the spaceship. The first attempt had everyone do everything, and that had ended in disaster. The second attempt went much better, because she had assigned certain tasks to certain people to make the most of their talents. She didn’t need a second thought to realize which method worked best.

“I’m not thinking of what to build, but rather how we’ll build it,” Twilight replied as she turned to face her team. “This time, we’re gonna do things the right way from the start. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, your task will be to come up with the weaponry that will be utilized on the siege machine. Figure out how we can use some of these parts in a way that will help us break into Trixie’s castle.”

“Awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, excited by her given task.

“Sounds good to me,” said Applejack in approval as she and Rainbow gave each other a fist-bump.

“Rarity,” continued Twilight, “you’re in charge of the overall build. Feel free to come up with any design you want. Just keep in mind that whatever systems you incorporate will need to work properly.”

“Functionality before fabulousity,” said Rarity, nodding in understanding. “Got it!”

“Pinkie Pie, Spike,” continued Twilight, “you will offer any assistance the others may ask for. I have a feeling you’ll have little trouble handling all of these pieces.”

“You got it!” said Spike in acceptance.

“Piece of cake!” exclaimed Pinkie happily.

“Fluttershy,” said Twilight as she walked past the group and stopped next to a large footprint in the ground. “Do you see these tracks?”

“Oh! You noticed them, too,” said Fluttershy as she looked over at the set of large footprints that Twilight was pointing at. Each footprint was a large square with three separate smaller squares at the front and one at the back. Fluttershy carefully looked over one of the footprints and said, “They were clearly left by something big. Judging by its shape, I think this creature may also have wings.”

“Find out what made them and what its intentions are,” said Twilight. “The last thing we need is any unexpected problems.”

“Sure,” said Fluttershy quietly. “I can do that.”

“And what’ll you be doing?” asked Rainbow Dash to Twilight.

“I’m going to find Prince Shining Armor,” replied Twilight. “If we’re gonna have any hope of capturing the Great and Powerful Trixie, we’ll need him and his golden sword to be with us when we make our move. Good luck, girls.” Twilight turned around and began to walk away.

While everyone else started on their assigned tasks, Spike stood silently for a few seconds as he tried to make sense of what Twilight had just said. She was going to find Shining Armor? Spike was baffled by why Twilight wanted to do such a thing in these circumstances. He had to talk some sense into her. “Twilight, wait!” he called to her as he ran up to meet her. Since their conversation would inevitably involve the fact that they were from an alternate world, he wanted to make sure no one else would hear them.

“What is it, Spike?” asked Twilight in confusion as she kept walking.

“You can’t just walk up to Prince Shining Armor,” said Spike, keeping his voice down to keep the conversation private. “Don’t you remember what Luna said? His sister has been missing for a long time, and he’s been searching desperately for her. What if he thinks you are his missing sister?”

Twilight suddenly stopped as she realized what Spike was trying to explain. This was not her brother, but a different Shining Armor, trying to find a different Twilight Sparkle. If she tried to speak with the prince, it would almost certainly be very awkward, and could possibly lead to some big problems. “Huh… I guess it never occurred to me that could be a possibility,” said Twilight thoughtfully.

“That’s what I’m here for,” said Spike smugly as he tried to give two thumbs up, only to be reminded that his Lego hands lacked any digits.

“In that case…” said Twilight thoughtfully as she tried the think of a solution. Her tone changed to determination as she finished, “I’ll just introduce myself under a false name.” Twilight smiled at coming up with such a brilliant idea as she began to jog away.

Spike stood dumbfounded for a moment. Once Twilight quickly went out of sight, he face-palmed and thought, Ugh! She can be so stubborn at times!

Deep within the dark castle of the Great and Powerful Trixie, a crystal ball sat atop a small pedestal. This magical artifact served as Trixie’s way to keep an eye on anything of importance in the region. With just a little willpower, it would display an image of whatever would be of most interest to her.

Right now, that crystal ball was projecting an image of Twilight Sparkle, jogging down a stone path with a determined look on her face. Trixie stared intently at the moving image within the crystal ball. It didn’t take much for her to realize what Twilight’s intentions were, and where she was going.

“So… you think you’ve got what it takes to defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie?” said Trixie with slight amusement. She turned away and walked over to the nearby window. “Well, let’s see how you can deal with this.” Trixie slammed the bottom end of her staff against the floor, unleashing a blast of magic that caused the cloudy skies to boom and crackle with thunder and lightning.

Down below, cracks began to form in the ground just outside the castle. As the cracks widened further, white skeleton arms rose up out of the ground, numbering in the dozens.

Twilight continued to jog down a stone pathway. The hard surface meant that each step she took made that now-familiar clacking noise. She wasn’t concerned about drawing any unwanted attention, mostly because she was sure she was heading away from Trixie’s castle.

Instead, Twilight was more focused on looking at her surroundings, hoping to find something to indicate she was going in the right direction. So far, she was feeling optimistic. “It’s a good thing I found this path,” she told herself. “Paths are always good. They always lead to places of importance. Like a town, or a village, or a…”

Twilight stopped as she reached a crossroad. One path continued straight ahead though the forest, but the other led to some location to the left. Twilight looked over to see where that path went. At the end of the path, not too far away, was a small castle atop a hill with gradual slopes. The castle consisted of crenelated walls that surrounded a large keep, which had four small towers atop it on each corner. The walls appeared to be about twice the height of a minifig, and the keep was nearly twice as tall as those walls. In the middle of the front wall was the gatehouse, which was currently open. Hanging over the front of both the keep and the gatehouse was a pair of banners on either side. Each of those banners was white with the symbol of a blue shield with a magenta six-pointed star in the middle and three smaller stars above it.

“Castle!” finished Twilight excitedly. “That must be Prince Shining Armor’s castle!” Twilight immediately took off running down the left path straight for the castle. It didn’t take her long to reach her destination. However, just a few steps away from the gate, the portcullis dropped down, blocking her way into the castle. Twilight yelped in surprise as she quickly came to a stop.

“Halt!” said a guard from atop the gatehouse. “Who goes there?”

Twilight looked up at the guard. From what she could see, this guard had a blue and white square pattern on his torso, had chainmail on his arms, wore a rounded grey helmet on his head, and held a pike that he was currently pointing at her. It was clear that uninvited guests were not allowed in so easily, so she would have to explain her intentions to this guard.

“My name is, uh… Starlight… Sparks!” said Twilight to the guard, coming up with her false name on the spot and hoping he wouldn’t suspect. “I wish to speak with Prince Shining Armor. It is a matter of great importance for his kingdom.”

The guard briefly considered Twilight’s words. He then brought the pike back to his side and responded, “Wait here. I’ll send word of this to the prince.” He then turned and walked away.

Twilight had no choice but to stay right there in front of the closed gate and wait for a response. She decided to take the time to think over what she had just said. She was sure that Shining Armor would be interested hearing anything of great importance, especially in regards to his kingdom. What did worry her was if the name she came up with would be convincing enough. Starlight Sparks wasn’t exactly very creative, compared to her real name, but it was already too late to reconsider it, so it would have to do.

After waiting for over a minute, the gate reopened. Standing on the other side was the same guard from before. “The prince is willing to speak with you,” he said. “Follow me.” He turned away and began walking toward the keep.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile as she followed the guard. Although there was no denying there would soon be some awkwardness in the upcoming discussion, she was at least pleased to see she was making progress.

Back at the abandoned mine entrance, everyone was busy taking everything apart and setting aside the pieces. At one of the old models, Applejack removed three identical pieces — shaped like a pole with a base that could fit over one stud — and bundled them under her arm. She then walked up to Rarity, who was looking carefully at a mine cart that was on its side, and asked, “Hey, uh, where do ya want these doohickeys?”

Rarity turned to Applejack and replied, “Those are called hinge rods, darling. Just stack them neatly over there.” She pointed to the side, where she had neatly set aside some other pieces.

Applejack casually tossed the pieces she held over to the specified location, where they landed in scattered locations.

“I said stack them neatly, not throw them into a pile,” scolded Rarity.

“Personally, Ah don’t see the difference,” said Applejack as she walked over to another mine cart. “It’s all gonna get put together, anyway.” She then grabbed the bottom of the cart and flipped it on its side, spilling its contents all over the ground.

Rarity glared at Applejack for being so careless, then turned her attention back to the mine cart beside her. She decided to start by removing one of the wheels, so she grabbed it and prepared to pull it off.

Rainbow Dash was carrying a stack of large gears in her arms as she walked up to Rarity and asked, “What should I do with these gizmos?”

“Those are 40-tooth spur gears,” emphasized Rarity, slightly frustrated.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll just toss ‘em over with those other whatchamacallits,” said Rainbow Dash, before carelessly tossing the gears aside to where some other Lego pieces had been set aside.

Rarity glared at Rainbow and growled lightly. She then turned her attention back to the mine cart and began to try to remove one of the wheels.

Pinkie Pie quickly ran up to Rarity and held up a part in her hands as she asked, “What about this thingy? Need any of these thingies?”

Rarity was quickly losing patience as she turned to see what kind of part Pinkie was referring to. When she saw the part in question, she gave an unamused expression and flatly said, “Pinkie, that is a standard eight-stud brick. Everyone knows that.”

Pinkie looked down at the brick in her hands. “Oh yeah!” she simply said with a smile, before giggling to herself. “Silly me!” She then ran off to do something else.

Rarity sighed in frustration. Once again, she turned her attention back to the overturned mine cart and the wheel she wanted to remove. She pulled as hard as she could, but it just wouldn’t budge. She grunted in frustration as she stopped pulling and exclaimed, “Stubborn part!”

Spike, who had been watching Rarity the whole time, decided it was time for him to step in. “Let me give it a try,” he offered as he walked up her.

Rarity stepped aside and allowed Spike to try to remove that wheel. Spike gripped it with both hands and pulled as hard as he could, but he also failed to remove it. He smiled nervously and said, “Don’t worry. I got it.”

Spike climbed atop the overturned mine cart and pulled as hard as he could to remove the wheel, but each tug got no result. Finally, on the fourth tug, both of his arms came off, sending the rest of him flying backwards to the ground nearby. When Rarity looked over to check on him, he asked, “Uh, can I have my arms back?” He nervously smiled and added, “Please?”

Before Rarity could respond, Applejack walked up to them and said, “Ah’ll get that jazzamabob unstuck for ya.” She tossed Spike’s arms over to him and pulled up on the wheel. Just one mighty tug was all she needed to remove that part. “There ya go,” she said as she casually set it down beside the mine cart.

Rarity shook her head as she sighed in frustration, yet again. For her, this team was going to take a lot of getting used to. As she helped Spike reattach his arms, she thought aloud, “I wonder how Fluttershy is doing?”

Fluttershy continued to follow the large footprints intently. She had never personally seen anything like them, and was quite curious to see what kind of creature had left them.

Fluttershy was so focused on following those tracks that she failed to take note of her surroundings. She passed a sign that simply read, “Keep Out”. She then passed by another sign, which said, “Danger” and had a silhouette of some fearsome creature. The third sign she passed showed an image of a minifig on fire. After that third sign, the sides of the trail were littered with charred pieces of armor and blackened skeleton parts.

Fluttershy passed by all of this, and yet remained completely oblivious to any of it. She came to a stop and quietly said, “I can’t help but get the feeling that maybe I shouldn’t be here.” She simply shrugged and continued to follow the tracks.

A loud snort suddenly caught Fluttershy’s attention. She looked up and saw a cave entrance just up ahead, where the mysterious tracks led. It was too dark inside the cave to reveal what was in there, but she could see a pair of glowing yellow eyes. Whatever this creature was, it was big, and almost certainly the one who had left those strange footprints.

Fluttershy felt a brief breeze in her face as the creature snorted again. Hearing it a second time made her realize that it actually sounded more like a sneeze. It was a little odd to hear a massive creature sniffling, but the way its eyes moved showed that was likely what it was doing right now. Whatever this thing was, it was apparently sick, and Fluttershy knew exactly how to react.

“Aww, you poor thing,” said Fluttershy calmly and in pity. “Sounds like you got yourself a very bad cold.” She picked up a slightly singed piece of cloth on the ground nearby and slowly began to approach the cave. “Maybe I can help you feel better?”

The creature began breathing quickly and shaking its head like it was about to sneeze again. When the creature finally did sneeze, a fireball erupted from its mouth. Fluttershy could only gasp in shock as the fireball flew right at her.

A small fire crackled lightly within the fireplace of the great hall. Not far away, a rectangular table stood in the middle of the hall, and seated at the end of that table was Prince Shining Armor. He sat alone, with nothing but a cup in front of him. He took a sip from that cup and sighed sadly. This minifig had clearly seen better days, but at least he still had the will to keep going.

Shining’s attention was quickly drawn toward the heavy double doors at the front of the room as a guard opened them and stepped inside. “Your majesty, Starlight Sparks,” said the guard as he turned to the side and gestured for the guest to step inside.

Shining had not been expecting much when he decided to allow the stranger to speak with him. It had been a slow day for him, and he was curious to hear what kind of “great importance” she wished to speak with him about.

When Starlight stepped into the room, Shining’s facial expression turned from one of sadness and boredom to one of shock and confusion. He stood up and slowly began to approach his guest. Although he had never heard of anyone by the name of “Starlight Sparks”, he couldn’t help but notice that she looked strikingly familiar. But he knew by now that he should not be so quick to get his hopes up. He had been disappointed by many false leads before, and he was not about to let that happen again. He needed to be absolutely sure.

Starlight — Twilight Sparkle of Equestria — walked into the room uneasily. She could easily tell the prince was not stupid enough to not see the resemblance. She knew her false name alone would not be enough to convince him that she was not his missing sister. She needed to think of some kind of convincing explanation.

Twilight Sparkle and Prince Shining Armor finally stopped in the middle of the room, facing each other uncertainly. Shining dismissed the guard with a nod, who then stepped outside and shut the door.

After a moment of awkward silence that seemed to last much longer, Twilight decided to speak first. “Um… Hi… your majesty,” she slowly began, remembering to bow respectfully at that last part. She stood back up and continued, “I-I came here with some friends on a mission from the LEGO Team, and we need your help.” She smiled nervously, waiting anxiously to hear how he would respond.

Shining looked over the minifig who stood before him. After listening to what she had to say, he finally spoke up. “Forgive me for making assumptions, but you look quite similar to my younger sister, who has sadly been missing for years now,” he said.

Twilight grinned very nervously and asked, “Really?” She was now very worried that he really would think she was his missing sister. If it was possible for minifigs to sweat, she would be doing so profusely right now.

Shining looked at her thoughtfully for a brief moment. He then turned around and simply said, “But you can’t be my sister.”

Twilight was absolutely stunned by that remark. Her feelings of intense nervousness now turned to complete confusion. She had not been expecting him to say that, and especially not so quickly. “W-w-what makes you say that?” she asked in confusion.

Shining Armor sat back down in his seat at the end of the table and explained, “You said you came here with some friends. My sister would never allow such a thing. She always prefers to work alone.” He took another sip from the cup in front of him. “Besides, she knows better than to stick out like a damaged piece. You’re in the Castle Region, but you’re dressed up like you belong in one of the City Regions.”

Twilight looked down at her wardrobe. Aside from that spacesuit, this was the only change of clothes she had. It had never occurred to her that what she wore would be of any significant factor. She decided to not question her good fortune and simply went with it. “Uh, y-yes!” she said, quickly improvising her response. “That’s because I am from one of the City Regions. Canterlot City, to be precise.”

“I see,” said Shining Armor as he looked down at his drink. He looked back up at Twilight and asked, “So what kind of subject of great importance did you wish to speak with me about?”

Now that she was past the awkwardness of — falsely — introducing herself, Twilight could now focus on what she came here for. She walked up to Shining Armor and stood next to him. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is on the move,” she said sternly. “She has already built a castle of her own and plans to start conquering the entire Castle Region at once. I was sent here with a team to put a stop to her, but we can’t do it alone. I was told that you possess a golden sword, the only magical artifact that can capture Trixie and put an end to her threat. Prince Shining Armor… will you help us?”

Shining Armor pondered Twilight’s question for a moment before asking, “Is that all?”

“Yes it is,” replied Twilight, nodding.

Shining stared at Twilight with a neutral expression on his face. He then suddenly stood up and began walking away as he said, “We’re done here.”

Twilight was baffled by this kind of reaction. “Huh? What? Y-you’re not gonna help?” she asked. “What about what’s best for your kingdom?”

“If it doesn’t involve finding my sister, I want nothing to do with it,” said Shining Armor defiantly as he continued to walk away. He opened a door that led to a stairway, continued on through the doorway, and shut the door behind him.

Twilight stood still, completely dumbfounded by Shining Armor’s reaction. It seemed that Luna Playwell had not been exaggerating when she said that Prince Shining Armor was desperate enough to find his sister that he would even neglect the very kingdom he was supposed to rule over. Twilight growled in frustration and smacked the cup off the table and to the floor. “What is wrong with that guy?!” she exclaimed angrily.

“He wasn’t always like this.”

Twilight turned around to see who had spoken. At the other side of the hall stood a pink-skinned minifig with violet eyes and long hair on her head that consisted of the colors violet, magenta, and cream. She wore a small yellow crown on her head and a lavender dress that covered her arms, most of her torso, and her legs. In fact, because it was a dress, the piece for her legs was actually a steep-sloped piece that covered four studs at the base and two studs at the top, with the slope being on the back side. She also wore a gold necklace with a pendant of a blue crystal heart.

Considering these details, along with who she had just been speaking with, Twilight could easily assume who this minifig was. “Princess Cadance?” she asked in slight confusion.

Cadance slowly walked up to Twilight and explained, “He used to be a much better person, many years ago. He always considered the greater good to be more important than any personal desires. It’s one of the reasons why I married him.” She stopped in front of Twilight and sighed sadly. “But just two weeks after our wedding, his sister disappeared. At the time, we had very few problems to worry about, so it made sense that he dedicated a lot of effort to find her. But as the years passed, he refused to relent on the search efforts, not even when bigger issues came up that demanded his attention. The people have been losing faith in him, and some of the search parties have even considered revolting, just so they can put an end to what they think to be a lost cause. If the Great and Powerful Trixie really is on the move, then I fear that not just this kingdom, but the entire Castle Region itself may be doomed.”

With all of this information, there was still one thing Twilight was curious about. “How did his sister disappear?” she asked. “What happened to her?”

Cadance sighed and replied, “No one knows. She was last seen entering her personal bed chamber one night, and the next morning, she was simply gone. There were no signs of any kidnapping; none of the guards reported seeing anyone enter or leave the castle that night. The window and door of that room had even remained locked. We just don’t know how she could have simply vanished like that without anyone noticing anything.”

Twilight was stunned to hear all of this. It was astonishing to think that the disappearance of Twilight Sparkle of the Lego World could lead to such chaos. The fact that she had simply vanished without any trace at all was equally shocking. Twilight then suddenly realized that Cadance had mentioned what she said about Trixie, so she asked, “How much did you hear of my conversation with Shining Armor?”

“I was about to speak to him when you were brought in to ‘discuss something of great importance’, so I heard everything,” replied Cadance.

“So you also don’t think that I’m his missing sister?” Twilight wanted to be certain that no one would think she was the missing Twilight.

“Despite the uncanny resemblance, I don’t think you’re actually Twilight Sparkle,” assured Cadance. “She always said that she liked to work alone, and considered friends to be nothing but a waste of time. I don’t see that kind of attitude in you.” Cadance smiled as she said that last statement.

At first, Twilight was confused by why the other Twilight would think like that. Then she realized that she had actually once been like that herself, before she first moved to Ponyville. Princess Celestia had practically forced her into a situation where she needed the help of some friends, but there was no denying that she accepted and even embraced the outcome of that event. Perhaps the other Twilight could have had the same potential, had she not disappeared.

Now that she had a better idea of what was going on here, Twilight decided it was time to get back to what was most important. She needed to find some way to convince Prince Shining Armor to defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie. Direct confrontation had failed, so she needed some advice on what she should do instead. “Does the LEGO team have a branch here in the Castle Region?” asked Twilight. “Do you know who the head of that branch is? I’d like to get some advice from him or her.”

“You’re speaking to her right now,” replied Cadance with a small smile. “Princess Cadance Playwell.”

“Oh,” said Twilight. She was a little surprised, but had to admit that it probably should have been expected. Nevertheless, she needed some advice from someone she could trust, so she asked, “So… What do you think I should do?”

Cadance leaned in so her face was close to Twilight’s. She calmly replied, “Try to keep this in mind, Starlight: He is not here for you. You have to be here for him.”

Twilight looked down to ponder this piece of advice. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at first.

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted by the loud toot of a horn outside. A split second later, that toot repeated two more times in rapid succession. Twilight and Cadance quickly turned their attention to the general direction they heard the noise from. “What’s that?” asked Twilight.

Cadance had a very worried look on her face as she replied, “The warning signal. The castle is under attack!” She then quickly turned to the small door that Shining Armor had left through and ran towards it.

Twilight ran after Cadance as she threw the door open and ran up the stairs. The stairs spiraled around until they finally reached the highest door. They ran outside to find themselves at the top of the keep, where Shining Armor was already looking over the entire castle and giving out orders.

“Battle stations, everyone!” shouted Shining Armor. “Let’s move, move, move!”

The guards scrambled around, grabbing whatever weapons they could and climbing up onto the walls.

Twilight looked out into the distance to see who was attacking the castle. She could see an army of skeleton warriors, numbering in the dozens. They were gathered around a small encampment, where some of them were already hard at work building something that would no doubt be used to help them take the castle. The most striking detail of all was the flag that flew from the edge of the encampment. It was light blue and displayed a blue scarf and a star-shaped wand — Trixie’s symbol.

“You were right, Starlight,” said Prince Shining Armor, grimly. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is on the move.”

Author's Note

I'm really hoping I was able to make that meeting between Twilight and Prince Shining Armor seem believable. Just a reminder, the Twilight Sparkle of the Lego World will not be appearing at all in this story. Also, those of you who have seen Clutch Powers will easily see which scenes were referenced in this chapter. (The scene that inspired the part where Rarity is frustrated by everyone else being careless and not knowing the names of certain pieces happens to be my favorite scene from that move.)

Storming the Castle

Chapter 11
Storming the Castle

From atop the keep of Prince Shining Armor’s castle, Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance Playwell looked on fearfully at the amassed army of skeleton warriors. Between them, Prince Shining Armor leaned forward against the crenelated wall with a serious look on his face. He could not recall ever being placed in such a dangerous situation, but he would do everything he could to keep the invaders out.

The guards had grabbed their weapons and took their positions atop the walls. They had gone through the drills many times before, so they knew where to go. Now that they were in position, there was nothing left to do but wait for the enemy to make the first move.

It wasn’t long until most of the builds within the enemy’s encampment were complete. It was half a dozen ladders, and the skeletons who grabbed them wasted no time to rush forward toward the walls. They were closely followed by the rest of the army, which roared loudly as they charged forward.

As the skeleton army reached the walls, many of them hurled small projectiles up at the guards, who were forced to duck, dodge, and sometimes even smack them away with their weapons. The ladder carriers took advantage of the diversion to lift their ladders up against the wall. Now the skeleton warriors were free to climb up onto the walls and fight the guards directly.

The guards were quickly pushed back along the walls, as the first of many skeletons scaled the ladders and reached the walls. The stairway between the walls and the ground within the castle was at the back, so that gave the guards some room to fall back. However, they were unable to push back against the attackers, and there were still many skeletons outside the castle, waiting for more space along the walls so they could climb the ladders and join in the battle.

Twilight could easily see the odds were not looking good. She quickly turned to the prince to her left and exclaimed desperately, “Shining Armor, do something!”

Shining Armor continued to stare out at the front of the castle with the same serious look on his face. He didn’t say anything or make any sort of reaction. If anything, he seemed to be in shock at what was going on.

With Shining Armor completely unable to do anything to save his castle, Twilight turned her attention back to the battle below. As she tried to think desperately of what to do, she remembered Cadance’s words of advice:

He is not here for you. You have to be here for him.

Twilight suddenly realized the meaning behind those words. She had come here expecting some assistance in her own mission, but it was Prince Shining Armor who was in desperate need of help. If she was going to earn the trust of the prince and receive his assistance, she would first need to help him save his castle. With no time to lose, she quickly ran over to the right side of the keep.

Cadance noticed Twilight’s movement and asked, “Where are you going?”

Twilight climbed up onto the crenelated edge, looked back at Cadance, and replied, “If he’s not gonna do anything, then I will!” And with that, she jumped off the edge and toward the wall. She landed atop the wall with a small tumble to soften her landing.

At this point, one of the skeleton warriors — armed with a curved sword in his right hand and a round shield in his left — pushed his way passed the only guard on this wall and charged right at Twilight, shouting like a savage along the way.

With eyes widened in shock, Twilight could only gasp as she realized the danger she had just recklessly placed herself in. The skeleton stopped right in front of her and swung his sword. Twilight yelped as she ducked down to avoid getting hit. The skeleton swung his sword again, and she avoided it again with another yelp as she jumped over the sword. The skeleton brought his right arm back to swing again, which also made him quickly bring his shield forward. Acting on instinct, Twilight grabbed the shield and began to pull on it. The two tugged at the shield until the skeleton lost his grip on it, causing them both to stumble away from each other a little.

Twilight quickly regained her footing and turned the shield around in her hands. Now she actually had something that could give her a chance. The skeleton warrior recovered just as quickly and swung his sword at her again, but she was able to block the blow with the shield in her hands. The skeleton swung again, but this time Twilight pushed back with the shield, repelling the blow with enough force to make him drop his sword when he struck. Twilight didn’t give him a chance to pick it back up as she swung the shield again with even greater force, smacking him completely off the wall. She looked over the ramparts to see the skeleton hit the ground and literally fall to pieces.

Twilight’s attention was quickly drawn away as she heard a wailing guard fly over her head. She looked to her right and saw him remain on the wall and stand back up virtually unharmed. However, she looked left and saw three more skeleton warriors charging at her with brutish shouts. A quick glance at the fallen skeleton assured her that she now had a chance to really fight back. With a look of pure determination in her face, Twilight let loose a battle cry of her own and charged straight at the skeletons. One by one, she swung the shield at each of the advancing skeletons and smacked them off the wall, causing each of them to fly apart into pieces as they landed.

Twilight continued to charge forward, smacking two more skeleton warriors off the wall before reaching one of the ladders. Another skeleton had just reached the top of the ladder and was about to climb over onto the wall, but Twilight smacked him off with the shield, sending him crashing into the crowd of skeletons below.

Twilight set down the shield against the ramparts and prepared to push the ladder off the wall. However, she was quickly countered by more of the flying projectiles. They ranged from ordinary small Lego pieces to a few rather bizarre items like a carrot, a coffee mug, and even a rubber chicken at one point. Twilight shrugged off the bombardment and, with a mighty heave, pushed the ladder away. The skeletons who happened to be on that ladder could only scream as they fell backwards to the ground. They and the ladder shattered on impact.

Encouraged by this first stage to victory, Twilight turned to the guards struggling on the left wall and shouted, “Off with the ladders! Push them off!”

The two guards with pikes heard Twilight’s call to action and, with renewed vigor, fought back against the oncoming skeleton warriors. One guard used his pike to smack one skeleton off the wall, while the other guard stabbed his pike between the ribs of the other skeleton and flung him off the wall. With the path ahead cleared, the guards rushed to the front wall.

“Ladders away!” shouted one guard as he used his pike to push one ladder off the wall.

“Ladders away!” shouted the other as he did the same to another ladder.

Meanwhile, the guard that had been hurled over Twilight back on the right wall had finally caught up to her. He rushed passed her and used his pike to push off the nearest ladder, shouting, “Off he goes!” As that ladder fell away, the skeleton at the top leaped forward and grabbed onto the wall. The guard quickly responded by slamming his pike down on the skeleton’s head. The impact caused the skeleton’s arms to come off, sending the rest of him down to the ground below.

That left only two ladders against the wall. The guards on the wall shrugged off the flying projectiles and hurled the last remaining skeleton warriors off the wall before quickly getting rid of those final ladders.

“Yes!” shouted Twilight victoriously with a jump. “Good work, guys!”

The celebration was short-lived when a Lego boulder flew through the air and barely missed Twilight’s head. After flinching from the near-miss, she looked back out at the battlefield in front of the castle.

Those six ladders had not been the only thing that was built in the enemy encampment. Some of the skeletons were using a rather modest catapult. One would place a Lego boulder into the bucket, then two would stomp their full weight on the other end of the arm, flinging the boulder straight at the castle. The large pile of boulders nearby showed that they were unlikely to stop anytime soon.

The latest boulder flew over the wall and demolished half of a small building within the castle. Twilight knew she needed to find some way to counter this new threat. With no time for any elaborate plans, she went with whatever came off the top of her head. “Who knows how to build a catapult?” she desperately asked.

“That be I!” replied a short minifig with a distinct accent as he stepped out from within the undamaged half of that small building.

As another boulder soared over the wall, Twilight told the little guy, “We need one right now!”

“Aye, ma’am!” replied the short minifig with a salute before quickly getting to work. Using the scattered pieces of the demolished building, it took him only a matter of seconds to fully assemble a small catapult. “Catapult ready!” he announced.

Yet another Lego boulder flew over the wall and smashed into the small building, destroying the other half of it. With no time to lose, Twilight gave out her orders. “Pick up those rocks and send them back!”

The short minifig gave a quick salute and replied, “Aye, ma’am!” He then rushed over to the pile of pieces that used to be the small building and dug through it to retrieve the boulder.

Twilight turned to two of the nearby guards and ordered, “You two! Assist him!”

The two guards gave a quick salute before running off along the wall until they were standing just above the catapult. By now, the short guy had picked up the Lego boulder and, despite its hefty weight, managed to carry it over and place it into the bucket.

“Fire one!” shouted one of the guards as he and the other guard simultaneously jumped off the wall and stomped down on the free end of the arm of the catapult. The boulder was flung over the walls and out of the castle. Twilight watched it soar over the battlefield and slam directly onto the enemy catapult. Pieces of that catapult — as well as a few skeletons — went flying everywhere from the impact.

“Yes!” shouted Twilight victoriously with a jump. “Direct hit!”

With the tide of the battle completely turned around, the army of skeleton warriors now realized they had little hope of taking this castle. That left them with only one option.

“Retreat!” shouted a few skeletons. Almost immediately, every skeleton that was still standing began to flee the battlefield and ran off into the woods. None of them bothered to pick up any of the scattered pieces and skeleton parts that littered the ground outside the castle. Before long, all of the attacking forces were gone.

Cheers erupted all across the castle to celebrate their victory. Twilight cheered along with everyone and jumped around enthusiastically. She stopped only when she began to receive direct praise from some of the guards.

“Nice work, ma’am,” said one.

“We couldn’t have done it without you,” said another.

Twilight continued to smile as everyone thanked her for her actions. But when she turned back to look up at Prince Shining Armor atop the keep, that smile faded. If there was one person in the castle who was not joining in the celebration at all, it was him.

Another guard proudly said to Twilight, “We could definitely use a leader like you!”

Shining Armor continued to look down with the same serious look on his face. Finally, he shook his head sadly and walked away. Cadance glanced back at Twilight in concern before following him.

Despite their victory in battle, Twilight knew that Shining Armor had to be feeling quite upset. He had done practically nothing and would have certainly failed had it not been for her efforts. She needed to talk to him right away, so she gently pushed her way passed the celebrating guards and made her way off the walls and back into the keep.

Twilight managed to catch Shining Armor walking by as she stepped inside the great hall. “Shining Armor—” she began.

“Not now, Starlight,” interrupted the prince as he continued to walk by.

“But Shining—”

“I said not now!” exclaimed Shining Armor as he pushed Twilight away, spinning her hair piece around in the process.

Twilight readjusted her hair and watched helplessly as Shining Armor stormed off.

Cadance walked up to Twilight and uneasily said, “Perhaps it’s best that you leave him be, for a while. After all, he’s just had a rather tough reality check.”

Twilight sighed in disappointment. “What should I do now?” she asked Cadance.

“I think now might be a good time for you to return to your team,” suggested Cadance. “They’re probably wondering where you’ve been, and I’m pretty sure they’re already willing to help you defeat Trixie.”

“But what about Prince Shining Armor?” asked Twilight. “Without him and his golden sword, we have little chance of successfully capturing Trixie.”

“Let me speak with him,” replied Cadance. “After all he’s been through, he could use some words of comfort from his wife.”

“Can you convince him to take the fight to Trixie and accept the help of me and my team?”

“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises.”

Twilight reluctantly nodded in understanding. As much as she wanted to try again to convince Shining Armor of what was most important right now, she knew there was nothing more she could do. Her only hope now was that Cadance could succeed where she had failed.

As Princess Cadance Playwell followed after Prince Shining Armor, Twilight turned to leave the castle. Now that she had done her part to the best of her ability, it was time to check on the others and see how well they had done with their tasks.

Rainbow Dash idly kicked a soccer ball upwards, passing it from one foot to the other and occasionally bouncing it a few times on her head. It was clear that she was displaying some good skill.

Not far away, Applejack stood defensively in front of a makeshift goal that was made out of a few spare Lego pieces. “C’mon, Dash!” she complained. “Quit showin’ off an’ pass the ball, already!”

“Alright, you asked for it,” responded Rainbow Dash with a smirk as she kicked the ball upwards a fair distance and turned away. When the ball came back down, she jumped up and, with a mighty back kick, sent it flying right at Applejack.

“Whoa nelly!” exclaimed Applejack as she quickly dodged the incoming soccer ball, which soared straight towards the goal. It struck the goal with enough force to send pieces flying everywhere.

“Yeah!” shouted Rainbow excitedly. “Another point for me!”

Applejack grunted as she stood back up and dusted herself off. Her hat had fallen off and was on the ground near her feet. Slightly frustrated, she turned to Pinkie Pie and Spike and asked, “What’s the score?”

Pinkie and Spike looked at each other uneasily and then back to Applejack. “Uh, so far, Rainbow Dash is winning,” replied Spike.

“Ah figured that, but by how much?” asked Applejack.

Pinkie and Spike glanced at each other again and hesitated. Finally, Pinkie replied, “82 to 30.”

“Oh for cryin’ out loud!” shouted Applejack as she snatched her hat and stormed off.

Considering where Applejack was going, the others could see that it was not the soccer game that had her frustrated. It had been Rainbow’s idea to play one-on-one soccer to pass the time, and the very high score was a testament to just how much time had really passed.

Meanwhile, Rarity continued to hum happily to herself as she carefully placed the last piece in its proper arrangement.

Applejack shoved her hat back on as she stomped up to where Rarity was busy working and demanded, “Ya done foolin’ around yet?”

Rarity slightly adjusted the piece she had just placed on the ground, making sure it was perfectly aligned. Once she was satisfied with that, she declared, “There! Now we are ready!”

“Finally!” shouted Applejack, as Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike arrived at the scene.

Rarity had carefully arranged each and every individual piece on the ground, grouping them by shape, size, and color. She had certainly taken her time to make sure that each and every single piece was perfectly aligned with each other.

However, the others saw it as little more than just a bunch of pieces on the ground. Not even two parts had been put together.

“Hey, what gives?” asked Rainbow Dash in disbelief. “I thought we were gonna build something.”

“And that is precisely what I have been preparing for,” replied Rarity as she unrolled a large sheet of paper. On that paper, she had sketched an entire set of instructions, detailing how all of these pieces would be put together to build a siege machine. “As you can see, I have taken the liberty to specify how we are going to properly assemble this model, to ensure that each and every component serves its intended function.”

As Rarity was busy speaking, Rainbow Dash quickly skimmed through the instructions to give herself a good idea of what needed to be built. Once that was done, she decided to take matters into her own hands. With a wicked smile on her face, she whispered to Applejack, “Watch this.” She then quickly zoomed away.

Rarity continued to speak, completely unaware that Rainbow had left. She also failed to notice the rapid clicking noise of Lego pieces as Rainbow quickly put all of the pieces together, literally appearing in many places at once. In just ten seconds flat, the model was complete.

As this was going on, Rarity continued, “The first task is to carefully arrange the parts, making sure that every single piece has been accounted for, which I have been more than generous enough to handle myself. And now, with a little help from this instruction sheet that I have sketched out, we can begin the most important task of all: assembling the model.”

“Done!” announced Rainbow Dash.

It was only now that Rarity realized that Rainbow Dash was no longer in the audience in front of her. Following Rainbow’s voice, Rarity turned back to see her standing atop the completed siege machine with her arms crossed and a confident grin on her face. Rarity was both shocked and impressed by how quickly Rainbow had managed to complete the task of assembly. “Wow… marvelous work, Rainbow Dash,” complemented Rarity.

Rarity glanced down at the ground near the siege machine and her expression quickly turned sour. “Except you seemed to have forgotten this piece right here,” she complained as she picked up the only piece that had been left on the ground. It was an orange medium-sized gear with a round hole in the middle that was just big enough to fit around a single stud.

“No I didn’t,” said Rainbow dismissively with a wave of a hand. “All I did was follow your little instruction sheet. If anything, you’re the one who forgot it.”

Rarity scoffed as she looked back down at the gear in her hands. She was absolutely sure that each and every single piece had been properly accounted for, and was convinced the error had been made by Rainbow Dash. However, she could clearly see the siege machine was fully assembled exactly as she had imagined, so she saw little point in continuing to argue. She calmly responded, “Well… I suppose it isn’t a vital component. But just in case, we’d better hold onto it for safekeeping. Who knows? It might come in handy.” She walked up to the siege machine and began looking around it. “Now let’s see… Where shall we store this spare part?”

“I know!” beamed Pinkie Pie as she got an idea and ran up to Rarity. Pinkie removed her hair and tossed it aside, then snatched the gear from Rarity and placed it on top of her head — a perfect fit.

Rainbow Dash struggled to hold back her laughter, but failed miserably after just one second. “Nice hat, Pinkie!” exclaimed Rainbow as she continued to laugh uncontrollably.

“Thank you,” said Pinkie with a smile still on her face.

Applejack and Spike were slightly more successful in holding back, but it wasn’t long until they too were laughing uncontrollably. Spike laughed so hard that he began rolling around on the ground.

The only one who wasn’t laughing was Rarity, who simply stared in confusion at Pinkie’s solution. She eventually managed to compose herself and say, “Yes, well… I suppose that’s one way to keep it handy.” She then picked up Pinkie’s hair piece and added, “But I insist that we not leave behind such a valuable piece as this. Fortunately, I do believe this is small enough to fit inside the storage trunk that I decided to incorporate into this model.” She walked up to where that trunk had been placed. She then opened it, tossed Pinkie’s hair inside, and closed it.

Eventually, the laughter finally began to die down. Pinkie didn’t mind that it was directed at her and the gear on her head. She always enjoyed seeing people around her smile and laugh. As the laughter finally faded, Pinkie noticed the arrival of someone and told her teammates, “Oh look! Fluttershy’s back!”

Applejack, Spike, and Rainbow Dash turned to where Pinkie was pointing and Rarity peered around the siege machine to see that Fluttershy had indeed returned. As the shy girl walked up to them, her teammates couldn’t help but notice that her entire body was now covered in scorch marks.

“Oh my stars! Fluttershy!” exclaimed Rarity as she quickly walked up to Fluttershy. “What in Ole’s name happened to you?!”

Fluttershy looked down at herself and replied, “Oh, it’s not as bad as it looks. I’m just glad to…” she trailed off as she looked over at Pinkie Pie. She stared in confusion for a moment before asking, “Um… is that a… gear on your head?”

“Yup!” replied Pinkie cheerfully.

Fluttershy remained silent for a moment. “Okay…” she said uncertainly. She then resumed, “Anyway, I’m happy to tell you that I found the creature who left those tracks, and he has promised to not get in our way.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Everyone turned around to see Twilight had also just returned.

“Twilight’s back, too!” said Pinkie Pie cheerfully. “Yay! Now we’re all back together!”

Like Fluttershy, Twilight stared in confusion at Pinkie for a moment before asking, “Uh… why do you have a gear on your head?”

“It’s a spare part,” Pinkie simply said.

Like Fluttershy, Twilight replied uncertainly, “Right…” She then addressed her entire team, “Anyway, the good news is that I was able to find and talk to Prince Shining Armor.”

Applejack — understanding where Twilight was going — asked, “An’ the bad news is…?”

Twilight sighed before dejectedly saying, “I don’t know if he’s willing to go after Trixie. It’s possible we may be on our own here.”

Everyone looked down sadly at this news. They had really been hoping that Prince Shining Armor would be able to help them, but that seemed unlikely now.

Twilight knew her team needed some encouragement, so she said, “That doesn’t mean we should give up. We can still do this! As long as we have each other, I know we still have a chance.”

“That’s the spirit!” said Applejack proudly.

“Yeah, I’ll never let you girls down!” added Rainbow Dash.

“Even with the odds stacked against us, we can always rely on each other,” stated Rarity, while Fluttershy nodded in agreement.

“Ready for anything!” said Pinkie Pie with determination, before giving the gear on her head a good spin, complete with a rapid winding noise.

As Twilight had hoped, her little pep talk helped to improve her team’s outlook on what lay ahead. They may not have gotten everything they wanted for this mission, but at least they now had the confidence to succeed.

Twilight turned to the completed siege machine, proud to see that her team had been able to successfully build something so impressive. She finally said, “At least now we have this thing, and I say we should put it to good use right away.”

The team rode the siege machine as it moved along a wide trail through the woods. Its motion was powered by a crank on top that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were alternately pushing down on. Also riding atop the siege machine was Twilight, Rarity, and Spike — who held onto the steering lever up front. Twilight glanced down to the interior of the siege machine and saw Pinkie Pie, who was still wearing that gear on her head.

It wasn’t long until they reached the edge of the forest near Trixie’s castle. The siege machine slowed to a stop just before reaching the edge of the woods. The dark and forbidding landscape ahead did little calm everyone, but they knew they had to do this.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Applejack.

Twilight took a moment to think of an effective strategy. Once she had one in mind, she said, “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Fluttershy, you and—” she stopped suddenly when she realized that Fluttershy was actually nowhere to be found. Twilight looked around the top of the siege machine, then down in the interior, but saw no sign of the shy yellow girl. “Where’s Fluttershy?”

Pinkie quickly looked around the interior and simply shrugged in response.

Rainbow face-palmed and grumbled, “Ugh! Don’t tell me that coward decided to ditch us.”

Rarity turned to Twilight and asked with concern, “You don’t suppose you thought of a backup plan, did you?”

Twilight hesitated, then sighed and sat down dejectedly. “No,” she admitted. “I was expecting all of us to be here.” She paused. “I wish I knew what to do.”

“I have a plan.”

Twilight was surprised to hear that voice, and had to turn to see the source of the voice to be sure she had heard correctly. “Prince Shining Armor?” she asked, surprised as she stood back up.

Shining Armor stood proudly as he said, “I have decided to accept your help. Along with a few friends, of course.” He held his arm out, gesturing up the trail they had just traveled down.

The team on the siege machine followed the prince’s gesture up the trail just in time to see something arrive over the hill. It was a small army, dozens of troops wearing the blue and white colors of the prince, marching in formation. Each soldier carried a sword or pike in his right hand and in his left hand a shield bearing Shining Armor’s symbol. Eventually, the small army stopped and turned to look proudly up at the team on the siege machine.

“Awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “We got an army on our side!”

“Ah’m startin’ to like our chances, already,” added Applejack.

Twilight smiled at Prince Shining Armor and his army. It seemed that Cadance had succeeded in convincing Shining Armor of what his true priorities were and what he should do. She would have to thank her for this later. For now, it was time for battle.

A servant guided a white horse over to Shining Armor — a sight that slightly surprised Twilight and Spike. Shining nodded in appreciation and climbed onto the horse’s back, where a two stud gap provided room for his legs to fit. He rode his horse up to the siege machine and began to explain his plan to the team. “According to one of my scouts, there are two ways into Trixie’s castle: a drawbridge at the front, and a gate and permanent bridge at the back. I’ll have my army provide a diversion at the front, so you girls can sneak around to the back entrance and break in.”

“But we need you inside the castle,” insisted Twilight. “Your golden sword is the only thing that can capture Trixie for sure.”

“But I have to be out here with my loyal army,” Shining pointed out. “They take orders only from me.”

“Not unless you tell them otherwise,” said Rainbow Dash, stepping forward. “Put ‘em under my command. I’ll provide that diversion you’ll need.”

“Good thinkin’, Rainbow Dash,” commented Applejack. “That’ll make sure he ain’t gotta be in two places at once.”

“Are you sure you can handle it?” asked Shining Armor.

“You’re going one-on-one against the Great and Powerful Trixie,” explained Rainbow as she climbed down from the siege machine. “All I gotta do is wave a sword around and shout, ‘Do this! Do that!’ How hard can it be?”

Shining wanted to disagree, but he couldn’t deny that he and his golden sword really were needed inside the castle against the Great and Powerful Trixie herself. With no better alternative, he turned to his army and proclaimed, “Everyone! For this battle, you are to take your orders directly from Rainbow Dash. You are to provide a diversion that will allow me to sneak inside the castle to deal with Trixie, myself. Is that understood?”

The soldiers nodded and said various words of acknowledgement.

Shining nodded in acceptance and dismounted from his horse.

As the prince climbed up onto the siege machine, Rainbow hopped up onto the horse’s back and rode it over to the army that was now under her command. With no time to lose, she gave out her first order. “C’mon, guys! To battle! Yah!” And with that, the horse she rode galloped off towards the castle, quickly followed by the entire army.

Twilight found it rather surprising that the horses of this world behaved not much different from most other critters and animals, but she knew now was not the time to dwell on such things. Once Shining Armor was seated next to her, she said, “Okay, let’s get going.”

Applejack was now the only one working the power crank, but she was more than strong enough to handle it herself. As she started pushing away on the crank, Spike steered the siege machine away.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow and the army under her command to reach the front gate of Trixie’s castle. Surprisingly, there were no skeleton warriors present to fight them off. If this diversion was going to work, Rainbow knew she needed to draw their attention as much as possible.

Rainbow Dash guided the horse she was riding to trot back and forth across the front of the army, while she kept her gaze locked on the dark and foreboding castle. “Great and Powerful Trixie!” she shouted. “We are here to defeat you, once and for all! Surrender now, or prepare to fight!”

They were met only by silence.

“C’mon, Trixie!” shouted Rainbow. “We know you’re in there! Come on out with your hands up! Don’t make us have to drag you out by force!”

Again, silence was the only response. Some of the soldiers began to shift uncertainly as the awkwardness of this began to become obvious.

Near the back of Trixie’s castle, the siege machine suddenly rushed out from the nearby woods on the right. Spike had done a good job of steering it so that it stayed hidden within the forest until the last possible moment. As Applejack powered the machine ahead at high speed, Spike carefully steered the siege machine between a sheer cliff face to the right and the castle’s lava moat to the left.

Twilight turned to Rarity and instructed, “As soon as Shining Armor and I are in, sneak back around and join the army up front. With any luck, the action over there should make it easy for this siege machine to slip in unnoticed.”

“Consider it done,” said Rarity, nodding in acknowledgement.

In only a matter of seconds, they had reached the rear gate. Applejack forced the crank to a stop as Spike turned the machine sharply to the left so that it was now facing directly at the gate. Once the siege machine came to a stop, Applejack called down to the interior, “Have at it, Pinkie!”

Pinkie Pie — still wearing that gear on her head — nodded in response and began to pull back on the battering ram. Once it was back as far as possible, she happily exclaimed, “Knock knock!” She then thrust the battering ram forward, which slammed into the gate and smashed it off its hinges.

“Let’s go!” shouted Twilight as she and Shining Armor hopped off the siege machine and ran across the bridge into the castle. Once they were across, the siege machine backed up a little and then zoomed off back the way it came.

The inside of the castle was even darker than the outside. Twilight and Shining were forced to stop running and instead walk slowly to avoid bumping into anything. Shining kept one hand on his golden sword, leaving it hilted within its scabbard until it would be needed.

As Twilight walked carefully, she glanced away at just the wrong moment and bumped into a suit of armor. As the armor loudly collapsed, she caught the pike that fell from its grasp. As Shining quickly turned to see what had happened, Twilight could only grin and chuckle nervously.

Shining glared at Twilight for a brief moment before turning his attention back to finding a way through this castle. He quickly came to a stop when he noticed an eerie blue glow coming from the top of a stairway. He gestured for Twilight to follow silently as he carefully approached the base of the stairs.

As soon as Shining took his first step on the stairway, Twilight noticed a faint flash of blue light from behind them. She turned back and screamed as a bolt of magic energy flew towards her and wrapped around the pike in her hands. Panicked, she tightened her grip on the pike, causing her to be flung with it towards the other side of the room.

Shining Armor quickly turned back in time to see this. There was a third minifig in this room, and the blue glow from the five-pointed star on the end of her staff clearly illuminated who it was.

“Prince Shining Armor,” mocked Trixie as she slowly approached. “What brings you here to the home of the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“I have come here to defeat you!” said Shining Armor defiantly, tightening his grip on his golden sword, ready to pull it out at any moment.

“Are you sure that’s what you really want?” asked Trixie skeptically. Using magic from the staff in her right hand, she conjured her crystal ball into the left hand. “Trixie knows what you want, and Trixie knows where you can find her.”

Shining Armor hesitated as the cloudy image within the crystal ball slowly revealed a familiar face. “Twilight,” he whispered, loosening his grip on his sword.

At this moment, Twilight stood back up and realized what was happening. Dropping the pike, she ran over to Shining Armor and desperately shouted, “No! Don’t listen to her! It’s a trap!”

Not one to tolerate interruptions, Trixie pointed her staff at the approaching minifig and fired a bolt of magic, making Twilight vanish in a puff of smoke.

Shining was broken out of his trance by this. “Huh? What?” he said in confusion before Trixie did the same thing to him as well.

Reappearing in another puff of smoke, Shining Armor saw that he and Twilight were now locked up inside a dark dungeon cell, presumably deeper within Trixie’s castle.

Twilight could only glare at Shining Armor and grumble, “This obsession of yours is really starting to cause some serious problems.”

Once again, the siege machine rushed out of the woods towards Trixie’s castle — this time, towards the front. The four minifigs riding it — Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike — were surprised to see Shining Armor’s army just standing at the front gate doing practically nothing. They had been expecting a large battle to already be underway.

At the front of the army, Rainbow Dash continued to shout taunts and threats at the seemingly empty castle, as if Trixie was even listening. “We will tear down your castle!” she shouted. “Brick by brick if we have to, but I will have your head!”

“Whoa there, Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed Applejack as the siege machine came to a stop nearby. “Don’t ya think that’s goin’ a bit too far?”

“Oh gimmie a break!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash in frustration. “I’m running out of things to say!”

Perhaps as a testament of this, the horse she was riding responded by snorting and rolling his eyes.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie approaches!” one soldier suddenly shouted, pointing up at the castle.

Everyone quickly turned their attention up to the top of the keep, where Trixie stepped forward to reveal herself to them.

“Finally!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “What took ya so long, you overgrown slug?!”

“Forgive Trixie for being tardy,” replied Trixie, mockingly, “but she had to lock away a couple of trespassers in her home. Nobody important, really. Just a white prince and a purple city girl.”

Spike gasped, knowing who Trixie was referring to.

“Darn it!” muttered Applejack under her breath. “She was on to us the whole time.”

Trixie proudly held up her staff and loudly declared, “And now, I, the Great and Powerful TRIXIE!…” A bolt of lightning flashed across the dark skies as a loud clap of thunder echoed across the area. After pausing for a few seconds, she gently brought her staff back down and calmly finished, “needs to kick some trespassers out of her front yard.”

With that, Trixie slammed the bottom end of her staff against the floor, unleashing another loud boom of thunder and blinding flash of lightning. A series of cracking noises made everyone turn away from the castle to see large cracks opening up in the ground between them and the edge of the forest. Once the cracks were wide enough, dozens of skeleton warriors pulled themselves up and out of the ground, armed and ready for battle.

The quick emergence of Trixie’s skeleton army in such large numbers startled Spike, causing him to yelp and leap into Rarity’s arms. About a second later, he turned to Rarity and chuckled nervously.

Rarity was not amused by this and simply dropped him. She then spoke up, “Let’s try to keep ourselves together, everyone. This is not the time to panic.”

“Right!” said Rainbow Dash with determination. “We still have an army of our own — placed under my command. Even if we can’t stop Trixie, we can still save the prince.” She turned her attention to the assembled army and gave out her orders. “Hold your ground and be ready! Let them make the first move before we strike!”

Even so, there wasn’t much time to prepare. As soon as the skeleton warriors rose up out of the ground, they immediately charged straight at the assembled army. Within only a matter of seconds, the two sides met as swords, shields, pikes, and spears clashed against each other.

As Rainbow Dash rode into the fray with the other soldiers, Rarity decided to take charge of the siege machine. “Come along, everyone!” she quickly told her teammates. “We simply must put this siege machine to good use! Applejack, power us ahead at full speed! Spike, steer us directly at any opposing skeletons! And Pinkie Pie, swing away on that battering ram!”

“Aye aye, captain!” replied Pinkie with a quick salute, still wearing that gear on her head.

As Applejack began to push on the power crank as hard as possible, Spike nervously steered the siege machine towards the advancing skeletons. He stood to the left of the steering lever, which meant he had to push it forward to turn left and pull it back to turn right.

As they came very close to the first of the skeletons, Pinkie Pie pulled the battering ram back as far as she could. “Ding-dong!” she happily exclaimed as she thrust the ram forward, which slammed into one skeleton, smashing him to pieces. The ram swung back and Pinkie caught it. “Ding-dong!” she happily shouted as she thrust the ram forward again, smashing another skeleton, then let it return to her. “Ding-dong!” she happily shouted as she repeated the process. She kept on doing this, always starting with the same happy exclamation.

Rainbow Dash rode across the battlefield, dodging every swing of a weapon from the skeletons. She had the horse take her a short distance away and come to a stop, so she could look over how the entire battle was going. Although the army was doing a fair job of destroying some skeletons, it seemed like they just kept coming. She glanced towards the nearby woods and gasped.

Another evil army — this one consisting of trolls — marched onto the scorched land. Looks like Trixie decided to call in some reinforcements, thought Rainbow grimly. She may not have been a master tactician, but she knew enough to know how to avoid total annihilation. Knowing what had to be done, she rode back into the battle. As she neared a few soldiers, she ordered, “Take half of our forces and fight off those trolls! We need to keep our escape route open! That way, even if we lose today, we can still win tomorrow!”

The soldiers quickly saluted in response and followed their new orders. Meanwhile, Rainbow looked around worriedly. She was usually too proud to admit when she was afraid, but she couldn’t deny that things were not looking good right now.

Back on the siege machine, Pinkie continued to smash skeletons with the battering ram while Applejack kept pushing away on the crank to keep the machine at top speed. Rarity had decided to make herself useful by picking up a crossbow and firing a few arrows at some skeletons.

Spike struggled to steer the machine, due to being fearful of all of the surrounding chaos. Because of this, he failed to steer away from a small rock on the ground. As the siege machine ran over that rock, the large bump caused Rarity to lose her balance. Spike noticed she was about to fall off the rapidly moving machine, so he rushed over and grabbed her arm to pull her back on.

Once Rarity was back on her feet, she let out a sigh of relief and said, “Thank you, Spike.”

“Aw, just doing what had to be done,” replied Spike, slightly blushing.

Rainbow Dash continued riding around the battlefield on that white horse. She was mentally kicking herself for not grabbing a weapon of any kind when she had the chance. Now, everything around her was happening so fast that she was unable to even snatch a spear from someone.

Things suddenly took a turn for the worst when a few skeletons jumped in front, startling the horse and causing him to whinny as he reared up in his hind legs. Rainbow, unable to hold on, fell off the horse’s back and hit the ground. The horse then galloped off in panic, charging straight through those skeletons and smashing them to pieces.

Rainbow quickly got up on her feet, but the horse was already too far away to catch. “Stupid horse!” she shouted, shaking her fist in anger. She quickly dusted herself off as she tried to come up with a plan of what to do next. She then started hearing a rather odd noise coming from behind, and it seemed to be getting closer. She turned around in confusion and, with literally no time to react, was slammed into by the siege machine. Remarkably, her body stayed intact as she clung onto the front for dear life.

“Hey, Dash!” said Pinkie Pie cheerfully as she noticed Rainbow in front of her, hanging onto the frame of the machine.

“Hey, yourself,” grumbled Rainbow Dash as she adjusted her stance to ease the pain from the impact. She was also curious about where they were going, so she turned her head back to look ahead. Near the edge of the scorched area was a large ditch, and the siege machine was heading right for it! Realizing this right away, Rainbow looked up and shouted, “Who’s diving this thing?!”

Spike heard Rainbow Dash’s call and looked ahead to see the danger they were rapidly approaching. He briefly screamed in panic before running back to the steering lever as he shouted, “Applejack, slow down!”

“Ya wanted full speed, you’re gettin’ full speed!” exclaimed Applejack in response, too stubbornly focused on her task to pay any attention to her surroundings.

Realizing that all hopes were now on his shoulders alone, Spike groaned and hopelessly muttered, “We’re not gonna make it, we not gonna make it,” He then quickly pushed the lever as hard as he could, causing the siege machine to turn sharply to the left.

The siege machine turned so sharply that it quickly leaned over. The machine came dangerously close to the ditch, running right along the edge on two wheels. Eventually, the momentum proved too much and the machine toppled over right into the ditch. Everyone on the machine screamed as they all fell a short distance to the bottom of the ditch. Upon impact, the entire siege machine collapsed and fell completely to pieces.

Author's Note

If this story was a movie, I think the obligatory wilhelm scream would fit best in the first scene of this chapter, where the skeleton army attacks Prince Shining Armor's castle, though I can't decide which particular moment would work best. If you're wondering where Fluttershy went, don't worry, you'll find out in the next chapter (those of you who have seen Clutch Powers can probably guess what it is). Speaking of Clutch Powers, that gear-on-head gag was my absolute favorite from the whole movie, so I just had to include it. Also, for those of you looking for obscure references, can you figure out where I came up with the numbers 82 and 30?

The Power of Teamwork

Chapter 12
The Power of Teamwork

Twilight Sparkle tugged and pushed at the barred door of the dungeon cell, but it just wouldn’t budge at all. Despite her best efforts, she soon realized that it was a vain attempt, so she finally stopped trying. After panting for a few seconds, she looked back at the other occupant of the cell. “You know, you could at least try to be helpful,” she complained.

Prince Shining Armor was sitting on the floor and simply stared down at his feet. He sighed and sadly replied, “What’s the point? Trixie is right; I care too much about my missing sister to focus on anything else.”

“No, Shining,” said Twilight defiantly as she walked up to him. “I know you’re better than this. Cadance told me that you once considered the greater good to be more important than any personal desires. And yet, here you are demonstrating the exact opposite of that!”

“Face it, Starlight,” said Shining Armor dejectedly. “If I can’t even find my sister after all of these years, then how can I hope to save the Castle Region?”

Twilight sighed in disappointment as she turned back to the cell door and gripped the bars. It seemed like she had tried everything to get through to him, with virtually no success. She just couldn’t understand why Shining Armor would focus so much attention on his sister.

That thought made Twilight suddenly realize something. There was one method she hadn’t tried yet. It made so much sense that she couldn’t believe she didn’t think of it earlier. With so little left to lose, she knew she had to try.

“What if your sister knew about all of this?” asked Twilight as she turned to face Shining Armor with determination. “What if she was aware of how much you were beating yourself up over her absence? What would she think of you? Do you really think she would approve of your recent behavior?”

Shining Armor looked up at Twilight. He had never really considered that before. As he thought about it, he quickly realized what the answers to those questions would most likely be. He quietly replied, “Twilight always looked up to me. She was convinced that I could handle any trouble that stood in my way. If she saw me like this… she would be very disappointed in me.”

Finally, with renewed determination, Prince Shining Armor stood up and proudly said, “You’re right, Starlight. It’s time for me to stop worrying about the past and focus on what’s really important right now. We’re gonna find a way out of this dungeon, and then we’ll take the fight to the Great and Powerful Trixie, herself. For real, this time!”

“That’s the spirit!” said Twilight cheerfully. “Now that we know our true priorities, let’s find a way outta here!” She quickly looked around the cell for anything that could be useful. When she glanced up at the ceiling, she noticed that among the long flat pieces that it was made of, one of them was a little loose at one end, allowing it to stick out a little bit. It wasn’t much, but if she could just reach it…

“Over here!” Twilight called over to Shining Armor. “Let me stand on your shoulders so I can reach that!”

Shining Armor looked up at the loose piece Twilight was pointing up at. “I don’t know if that’ll work,” he said skeptically, “but it’s worth a try.” He walked up to Twilight and stood directly beneath the loose piece.

Twilight quickly climbed up onto Shining Armor’s shoulders. It took her a moment to balance herself so she could stand up straight, but once she did that, she was easily able to grab onto the loose piece. With no time to lose, she immediately began to pull down on that loose piece. She could definitely feel how loose it was, but it didn’t seem to be coming any further than that. She began to tug harder on it, which created a creaking noise of wood, but no further progress. Eventually, she pulled herself all the way up and practically stood on the ceiling as she continued to struggle to pull off that loose piece.

With Twilight no longer standing on his shoulders, Shining Armor took a few steps back and looked up at her as she kept on trying. To him, it seemed like there was no progress being made at all. Not to mention, Twilight was in a rather precarious position. “Maybe we should try something different,” he suggested.

“Almost…” strained Twilight as she tugged ever harder on the loose piece. Finally, after one mighty heave, the loose piece finally came all the way off, sending it, Twilight, and a bunch of other pieces falling to the floor with a loud crash.

“Are you okay?” asked Shining Armor in concern as he looked over the pile of Lego pieces that now buried Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight quickly pulled herself out of the pile and tossed aside some of the pieces on top of her as she replied, “Don’t worry, I’m fine.” After dusting herself off, she looked back at the pile and immediately got an idea. “And even better…” She quickly grabbed a bunch of long plates that were two studs wide and began attaching them, one end over the other. Once she had attached as many as she could, she lifted one end of the attached pieces up towards the hole in the ceiling, creating a very simple ramp up to the floor above. “I’ve just opened up a means of escape!” she finished.

Shining Armor looked up at the crude ramp and found himself quite impressed with the improvised solution. “Good work, Starlight!” he said proudly. “Now let’s go after Trixie!” He quickly ran up the ramp.

Twilight heard the ramp creak with every step. Since she had literally just thrown it together, there was virtually no stability at all. She felt tense for a moment, as there was no telling when any two pieces could come apart from the weight it was being subjected to. She quietly let out a sigh of relief as Shining Armor made it to the floor above without any problems. Convinced that it could hold for at least a little longer, Twilight quickly followed the prince up the ramp and out of the dungeon.

At the bottom of a trench not far from Trixie’s castle, all was still and quiet at the pile of Lego pieces that used to be a siege machine.

The first to emerge from under the pile was Pinkie Pie. Despite the crash, she was still wearing that gear on her head, which now had a few small Lego pieces piled on top of it. She groaned as she rubbed the back of her head.

The next one to pull herself out of the pile was Applejack. She looked over the carnage and simply muttered, “Well that stinks.” With nothing else left to say, she immediately went to work picking up some of the pieces.

Spike burst out from beneath another part of the pile and gasped for breath. He then turned to Applejack and exclaimed, “What was that for?! I told you to slow down!”

Rainbow Dash burst forth from beneath the pile and immediately turned to Spike and exclaimed, “Well maybe if somebody hadn’t left his post, we wouldn’t need to make such a sharp turn in the first place!”

“Oh, please!” argued Rarity as she carefully pulled herself free from the pile. “It’s not his fault we crashed! The siege machine could not handle such a tight turn because you FORGOT A PIECE!” At those last words, she grabbed the gear in question and shook it back and forth, not caring that she was also shaking Pinkie Pie around, as well as shaking off all of the pieces that were piled up on top of it.

“If we did things your way, we would still be building it right now!” Rainbow Dash shot back.

Rarity crossed her arms and turned away as she scoffed and rebuffed, “Well at least it would be built right!”

“Would y’all just stop bickerin’ an’ actually do somethin’ useful?!” shouted Applejack as she continued to gather up some of the pieces. “Pinkie Pie, gimme a hand here, will ya?”

Pinkie responded by removing her left hand and holding it out to Applejack. “Here you go!” she said cheerfully.

Applejack gave an unamused expression as she deadpanned, “Figuratively, not literally.”

Rainbow Dash kicked away some pieces and grunted in frustration. “What’s the point?” she responded. “Twilight and the prince are captured, our army is outnumbered two to one, the siege machine is a total wreak, and WHERE THE BRICK IS FLUTTERSHY?!!”

ROOOAAAR!!!

That loud noise made everyone suddenly stop what they were doing and look up at the sky. Quickly approaching the battle was what appeared to be a large red dragon. Even at such a distance, they could already hear the beating of its massive wings as it flew in their direction.

The first to respond was Spike. “Aww, no fair!” he moaned in disappointment. “Nobody told me there were dragons in this world!”

Rarity was, at first, quite frightened by the oncoming dragon. But then her attention to detail allowed her to notice something rather peculiar. “Look who’s riding on its back!” she exclaimed, pointing up at the dragon.

Everyone looked closely at the dragon’s back. Sure enough, there was actually a minifig riding on that mighty dragon, but it wasn’t just any minifig.

“It’s Fluttershy!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly.

“No… way…” said Rainbow Dash in total disbelief.

Fluttershy had a surprisingly calm look on her face as the dragon she was riding soared over her teammates below and swooped down to the raging battle. The dragon let loose a large burst of its fiery breath over a large swath of the skeleton army, sending blackened skeleton parts all over the place. “Good boy!” she calmly said as she gently patted the dragon’s neck.

The dragon looped through the air once and then flew straight towards Trixie’s castle. The Great and Powerful Trixie had been watching the battle from atop the keep, and was genuinely surprised to see there was now a dragon fighting against her side. As the dragon let loose another fireball from its mouth, she quickly teleported away to safety in a puff of smoke. The fireball struck where she had been standing, blasting away a few pieces of the castle.

“Now there’s somethin’ ya don’t see every day,” muttered Applejack as she and the others watched Fluttershy and the dragon.

Spike suddenly dove back into the pile and tossed aside a few parts before finding the type of piece he desired: a brown spear. “What are we waiting for, girls?!” he exclaimed as he scrambled up the side of the trench towards the battle. “We’ve got ‘em on the run! Now’s our chance to strike!” Once Spike had quickly climbed out of the trench, he held the spear high above his head and shouted, “CHAAAARGE!!!” He then brought the spear back down and pointed it forward as he charged onward with a loud and ceaseless battle cry, keeping his eyes shut tight the whole time.

As Spike blindly charged at the army of small trolls, the dragon swooped down and brought its tail down as it kept flying forward, smacking away all of the trolls the stood in Spike’s way. Once the path was completely cleared, the dragon flew upwards, away from the carnage.

After finally exhausting the single breath of his battle cry, Spike stopped his charge and turned back. In his wake, he saw many trolls thrown about, moving around slowly or not at all. Convinced that this was entirely his own doing, he proudly held the spear over his head and cheered, “Yes! I am the spear master!” At those final words, he twirled the spear around and stuck it point-down into the ground, keeping it gripped in his right hand. He laughed victoriously for a few seconds, but stopped suddenly when he tugged on the spear. He had just stuck it into the ground so hard that it actually wouldn’t come out. He pulled as hard as he could with one hand, then tried both hands, but with no success.

The four girls in the trench had watched all of this in disbelief. “Perhaps a more practical means of attack may be necessary,” suggested Rarity to her fellow teammates.

“I’ll get the parts!” said Pinkie Pie happily as she ran back to the pile and started tossing pieces out of the trench.

At the same time, Applejack was already busy hauling some big pieces out of the pile. When Rainbow Dash turned to her, the farm girl said, “Ah think we can build a catapult outta some of these here parts.”

With a confident grin on her face, Rainbow responded, “Knowing how excessive Rarity can be with her builds, I bet we’ve got enough to build a good one.” Following Pinkie’s example, she quickly ran over to the pile and began tossing pieces out of the trench.

It wasn’t long before Twilight Sparkle and Prince Shining Armor found themselves in the same exact room where they had encountered Trixie. What little light entered this room revealed empty suits of armor standing along some of the walls and a few chains that hung from the ceiling and nearly reached the floor.

The two minifigs momentarily came to a stop at the base of the same stairway that they had originally intended to climb. Twilight turned to Shining Armor and asked, “Are you sure you know what to do now?”

“Positive,” replied Shining Armor with determination before unsheathing his golden sword. “This time, I’m ready.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie would beg to differ.”

Startled, Twilight and Shining Armor turned around and, sure enough, Trixie herself was standing right behind them. Shining Armor gripped his sword with both hands and held it up defensively.

As much as Trixie enjoyed a good fight, she had an even better idea on how she could win in this particular case. “Give Trixie the sword, Prince Shining Armor,” she proposed as she once again conjured her crystal ball into her left hand. “Give Trixie the sword, and I can take you to your sister.”

Shining Armor relaxed and lowered his sword as he saw his sister’s face within the crystal ball again.

Twilight immediately realized what Trixie was trying to do. If Shining Armor gave up his golden sword, then there would be nothing left to stop the Great and Powerful Trixie. Knowing that she had to prevent this, she turned to Shining Armor and desperately said, “Don’t fall for it! You can’t trust her!”

Shining Armor turned uncertainly to Twilight as she said that, then back to Trixie.

“Give Trixie the sword or you may never see your sister again!” demanded Trixie, slightly aggravated.

“She’s alive?” asked Shining Armor quietly as he stared intently at the face of his missing sister within the crystal ball.

“Shining Armor…” said Twilight quietly, catching his attention again. “What would your sister think of you?”

Prince Shining Armor turned back to the cloudy image within the crystal ball as he considered Twilight’s question. Finally, his expression turned from confusion to determination as he realized the truth. He raised his sword and sliced through the crystal ball, sending it flying out of Trixie’s hand and crashing to the floor. “Twilight would never forgive me if I had to rely on the likes of you to find her!” he spoke firmly to Trixie. He tightened his grip on the golden sword and got into a defensive stance. “My sister can wait. Right now, my number one priority is to defeat and capture you, once and for all!”

With her persuasive offer rejected, Trixie knew there was now only one way for her to succeed. “Then so be it!” she declared. With a mighty swing of her magic staff, she unleashed a powerful shockwave that sent Shining Armor and Twilight flying to opposite sides of the room.

As Shining Armor landed, he tumbled and quickly stood back on his feet, ready to fight. Trixie followed that up with a blast of electrical energy directed at Shining Armor, but he was able to deflect it with his sword, sending the blast towards a wall and breaking loose a few pieces. She tried the same attack, but he deflected it in the other direction with the same result.

Trixie sent forth another magical blast of electrical energy at Shining Armor and kept it going. Shining Armor blocked the continuous attack with his sword. He grunted as he struggled to hold back the onslaught. As he began to focus as much willpower into his golden sword as possible, its magical properties finally began to show. A golden aura covered the sword, followed by the release of a magical blast of fiery energy that slowly began to push back against the endless attack. Eventually, the meeting point between the two beams of magical energy came to stop at the center of the room, the energy from the blasts sending Trixie’s and Shining Armor’s capes flapping in the wind.

Realizing they were at a stalemate, both sides simultaneously called off their attacks. Shining Armor tumbled to the left and fired a blast of golden magic at Trixie, who jumped to the right and fired her own blast of blue magic. Shining Armor dove to the right and tumbled once before firing another magic blast.

As all of this was happening, Twilight Sparkle stood at the sidelines, cheering on Prince Shining Armor as the fight raged on. “Go, Shining Armor!” she cheered excitedly. “You can do it! Show her who’s really powerful!”

Suddenly, a large hole was blasted into the wall right next to Twilight, who flinched and yelped in reaction. When she noticed the direction that the pieces had been sent flying, she realized the impact to her left had come from outside the room. Curious, she turned to look through the hole in the wall.

Not far outside the castle, a catapult had been assembled, and the people operating it were none other than Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash picked up a Lego boulder and loaded it into the bucket, followed by Applejack jumping off of a small raised platform and stomping down on the other end of the arm, sending the boulder flying towards the castle.

“Yeah! Now this is more like it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash excitedly, before turning back to the pile of Lego boulders and grabbing another one.

“Teamwork, Rainbow Dash!” added Applejack proudly as the boulder was loaded into the bucket. She stomped down on the other end of the arm and sent that boulder flying. As she quickly climbed back up onto the platform, she finished, “That’s what it’s all about!”

Rainbow Dash loaded another boulder, which was quickly launched by Applejack. Rainbow turned back to the pile to grab another one, but was shocked to see nothing left. “Uh oh. We’re all out!” she exclaimed worriedly.

“Now what?” asked Applejack with concern as she finished climbing back up onto the platform again.

Rainbow quickly looked around desperately for a possible solution. She noticed a sword and shield — which had the blue and white colors of Prince Shining Armor — lying on the ground nearby and immediately got an idea. She ran over to grab the shield in her left hand and sword in her right hand. “Launch me!” she exclaimed as she hopped into the bucket. She pointed her sword forward and shouted, “FIRE!”

Applejack stared at Rainbow Dash in confusion, turned to the castle the catapult was aimed at, and then back to Rainbow with the same confused look on her face. Finally, she simply shrugged and replied, “If ya say so.” She then hopped off the platform and stomped down on the other end of the arm, flinging Rainbow Dash high into the air.

Rainbow Dash kept a determined look on her face while letting loose a loud battle cry as she soared over the battlefield, over the lava moat, and over the castle walls. She eventually came down right atop the central keep, landing with a tumble until slamming into the crenelated wall at the back side. Rainbow shrugged off the mild impact and quickly hopped to her feet. She was more than ready for battle, so she banged her sword against her shield twice and shouted, “Who wants some?!”

The response was immediate. The doors of the two small towers at the front corners of the keep burst open. Dozens of skeleton warriors rushed out onto the roof of the keep, heavily armed and ready for combat. Once they were all out on the roof, they stood menacingly in front of Rainbow Dash.

For a moment, the only noise that could be heard was the rush of a gentle wind. Rainbow Dash kept holding her sword and shield up for combat, but she also couldn’t deny the ridiculous odds she had just placed herself against. “Yeah…” she said slowly to herself. “Definitely should’ve thought this one through.”

Back out on the battlefield, Spike was still struggling to pull his spear out of the ground. He was completely unaware of a skeleton warrior sneaking up behind him, raising his sword and ready to strike down the short minifig.

But then, with impeccable timing, the spear finally came loose. The momentum of its release made it thrust backwards and smack the skeleton in the face, knocking his head off. Spike turned back in time to see the rest of that skeleton fall over and fall apart upon hitting the ground.

Spike looked up from the fallen skeleton and saw three more standing before him, armed with swords and shields. Spike quickly twirled the spear around so it was pointing forward at his opponents. Ready for combat, he taunted, “You want a piece of me? Well too bad! ‘Cause you’re not gonna get any!” He relaxed his stance and briefly grasped the front of his red LEGO cap as he quietly added, “Especially not this nice hat.” He then quickly got back into his defensive stance.

Before the three skeleton warriors could make their move, something struck the one on the right and caused him to fly apart into pieces. A split second later, the same thing happened to the one on the left. The one in the middle simply looked around in confusion before that same thing happened to him as well.

Spike was also confused by what had just happened, so he quickly looked around for the source of whatever might have struck those skeletons. He soon noticed what appeared to be a wall on wheels with a narrow slot in the middle of it, through which an arrow would occasionally shoot forth from. He looked closely at the slot to see if he could figure out who was standing behind it. When he noticed white skin and violet hair, he was surprised to find out that it was Rarity!

Rarity had managed to recover that crossbow she had used on the siege machine, and was now using it from behind the safety of her portable wall. She fired off two more arrows in rapid succession, quickly grabbing them from a quiver that she had attached to her side of the wall. She was about to reach for another arrow when her field of view in front of the wall was quickly blocked by a big mass of green.

Rarity yelped and jumped backwards as she realized that a big troll — which stood more than twice as tall as a normal minifig and was much more bulky with muscle — stood in front of the portable wall. With one mighty swing of the club in his hand, the troll completely obliterated the wall. With a wicked grin on his hideous face, the troll laughed menacingly at the helpless minifig that now stood before him.

Realizing her situation, Rarity turned back and called out, “Oh Applejack! Could you be a dear and pass me that spare tire?”

Applejack immediately burst out from under the pile of Lego pieces near the trench, holding over her head a large wheel and tire with a diameter that was nearly as much as the height of a normal minifig. “One spare tire, comin’ up!” she shouted as she ran forward towards the big troll. With a mighty heave, she hurled the wheel high up into the air.

The troll grunted in confusion as he looked up at the wheel that arced through the air in his direction and ultimately came down right on his head. Right after the wheel bounced off his head, the troll groaned deliriously. As he slipped into unconsciousness, he fell forward, his massive body creating an audible slam as it hit the ground, which also shook noticeably.

“Take that, you ruffian!” said Rarity triumphantly.

Pinkie Pie suddenly ran up to Rarity and pointed up at the castle as she exclaimed worriedly, “Rarity! Look up there!”

Rarity looked up at Trixie’s castle and gasped in horror when she saw Rainbow Dash was completely on her own against an entire army of skeleton warriors.

Rainbow Dash had her back against the back wall of the roof of the keep and was forced to hold up her shield to block off all blows from the left and use her sword to parry off all the ones from the right. Against so many aggressive skeletons, there was simply no opportunity at all for an offensive move. “Back! Back, you boneheads! Back!” she shouted as she continued to futilely fight off all of those skeleton warriors.

Down on the ground outside the castle, Rarity and Pinkie were unable to do anything but watch helplessly from such a great distance. “We simply must do something!” exclaimed Rarity fearfully.

Pinkie Pie began looking around in panic, desperate to find something — anything — that could be used to save Rainbow Dash. When she reached up and felt something odd sticking out from her head, she realized that she was still wearing that gear on her head. “Oh yeah,” she said as a smile quickly formed on her face. She immediately removed the gear and then tossed it like a frisbee towards the top of the castle.

As Rarity saw that gear fly through the air, she smiled in realization and said, “Of course! I forgot about that silly thing.”

The gear soared over the castle walls and struck one skeleton in the head, the impact completely shattering him to pieces. That was only the start, as the gear was then deflected towards another skeleton, and then another, then another. Rainbow Dash was absolutely stunned as she watched the gear rapidly bounce around from one skeleton to another, shattering each and every one of them. Each impact was oddly accompanied by the ringing and dinging noises of a pinball machine. When the gear finally struck the last skeleton, it flew towards one of the small towers at the front of the keep and smashed it apart. Pieces of the tower went flying everywhere, revealing a blinking red sign that read “TILT”.

Confused, Rainbow Dash ran over the pile of skeleton parts towards the front of the keep. She looked down at the ground in front of the castle and saw Rarity and a bald Pinkie Pie looking up at her with smiles on their faces.

“I knew that part might come in handy!” Rarity cheerfully called up to Rainbow while Pinkie Pie waved her hand excitedly.

Rainbow Dash simply smiled in response before turning her attention to the intact tower to her left. With the sword and shield firmly grasped in her hands, she ran through the opened doorway and down the stairs to the inside of Trixie’s castle.

It wasn’t long until Rainbow started hearing the smashing and clashing noises of a mighty battle taking place within the castle. She was quickly able to figure out which stairways to take to reach the source of the conflict. As she reached the bottom of the final set of stairs, she found herself coming up right behind Twilight Sparkle, who was busy watching the epic battle between the Great and Powerful Trixie and Prince Shining Armor. “How’s it going?” she asked Twilight.

Twilight was momentarily startled to hear someone behind her back, but was relieved to see it was just Rainbow Dash. She was then confused by Rainbow’s presence inside the castle, so she asked, “How did you get here?”

“I took the catapult,” Rainbow simply said.

Twilight stared silently at Rainbow Dash for a moment before responding, “Okay… Well, to answer your question, I’m afraid I don’t see this ending anytime soon.” She turned her attention back to the ongoing battle as she continued, “They seem to be evenly matched, with no clear advantage for either side.”

As Twilight spoke, Shining Armor deflected another blast of magic from Trixie with his sword. He retaliated with a magic blast of his own, which was blocked by a force field that Trixie conjured around herself.

Rainbow Dash tightened her grip on the sword and shield in her hands and said, “Then we’ll just have to tip the scales in our favor.” She then charged forward and let loose a battle cry.

“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight called out, but it was already too late to stop her.

As Shining Armor dove to the left to dodge another beam of magic, Trixie took the brief opportunity to turn back and unleash a small shockwave to blast away the charging minifig, before turning her attention back to the real threat of Shining Armor.

Rainbow Dash was thrown back and slammed into the wall beside Twilight, dropping her sword and shield. She groaned painfully as she slid down the wall to the floor. Once she was on the floor, she muttered, “Maybe we should try something else.”

“My point exactly,” responded Twilight as she began looking around the massive room for anything that could be useful. She noticed that many Lego bricks were scattered across the floor, no doubt collateral damage from the ongoing battle. She tried to think of something useful she could build, but no good ideas came to mind.

After dodging another attack, Trixie telekinetically grabbed one of the chains that were dangling from the ceiling and swung it towards Shining Armor. He responded by jumping into the air and swinging his sword across, slicing through the chain as if it was made of paper. The two halves passed harmlessly above and below before he dropped back down to the floor.

Twilight saw this move and suddenly got an idea. “I got it!” she said, before running over to grab two standard eight-stud bricks. She attached the two bricks together, one on top of the other, and then ran back over to Rainbow Dash. “Here, hold this,” she said as she practically shoved the bricks into Rainbow’s arms.

“What for?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion.

Twilight didn’t respond as she then ran over to grab one of the dangling chains. She noticed that these chains were actually Lego parts in that the ends were attached to a short and round one-stud piece. She grabbed the end of the chain and carried it back over to Rainbow Dash and the pair of bricks in her arms. Twilight wrapped the chain around the two bricks once. Then she tried to tie a knot in the chain at the top of the pair of bricks. The end of the chain swung around as she did this, nearly striking Rainbow Dash in the head.

“Whoa! Watch it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she dodged the swinging chain.

Twilight quickly apologized as she finished tying the crude knot. Finally, she attached the end of the chain to one of the studs on the upper brick. She took the pair of bricks from Rainbow’s arms and gave the simple assembly a few quick tugs to make sure everything would stay in place. “That’ll work,” she said in satisfaction. She then carried the bricks on a chain with her as she ran to the end of the room. By the time she got there, she had to hold the pair of bricks over her head due to the taut chain. “Now I just gotta wait for the right moment to strike,” Twilight said to herself as she watched the ongoing battle between Shining Armor and Trixie.

Shining Armor unleashed another beam of golden magic towards Trixie, but she avoided it by teleporting away in a puff of smoke. Shining heard the crackling noise of teleporting again just a split second later, this time right behind him. He quickly spun around and brought up his sword to block as Trixie swung her staff down at him. The two weapons clashed as the two powerful foes holding them pushed against each other.

“Gotta time this just right,” Twilight quietly said to herself as she continued to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike, keeping her aim directly at Trixie.

Trixie grinned as she pushed back against Shining Armor, who grunted as he struggled to hold his ground. Finally, he brought up his right leg and kicked Trixie in the stomach, sending her flying back towards the middle of the room. She was able to land on her feet and quickly slide to a stop.

Now! thought Twilight as she immediately thrust the crude pendulum forward, straight towards Trixie.

Trixie stood defiantly before Prince Shining Armor as she bragged, “The Great and Powerful Trixie shall—”

Before she could finish, the two bricks on a chain struck Trixie on her right side. Caught completely off guard by the impact, she was sent sprawling to the floor, dropping her staff as she fell.

Shining Armor took immediate advantage of the interception. He channeled all of the magic power he could into his golden sword and swung it forward, unleashing a jet of golden flames towards the fallen witch. The flames circled around Trixie, lifting her up from the floor. By the time Trixie realized what was happening, it was already too late for her to do anything to stop it. After a few seconds, the circling flames dissipated, revealing a series of golden chains that were now wrapped around her arms and body.

“Shall be placed under arrest,” Shining Armor mockingly finished.

After dropping back to the floor, Trixie struggle to break her arms free, but it was no use. She could do nothing but watch helplessly as Shining Armor kicked her magical staff away, far from her reach. “This cannot be!” she exclaimed helplessly.

Shining Armor walked up to Trixie and threateningly pointed his sword at her face as he firmly said, “It’s over, Trixie. You lose.”

As soon as Shining Armor finished saying those words, the whole room quickly got brighter, with much of the light coming from the hole in the wall that had been created from the catapult. Twilight and Rainbow Dash ran over to the large hole in the wall to see what was going on outside. The dark skies were quickly clearing up as all of the storm clouds that had stayed over the scorched area dissipated. Happening just as quickly was the moat of lava cooling and hardening into solid rock.

The most significant change of all was what happened to all of the skeleton warriors and trolls out on the battlefield. Each and every one of them quickly vanished in puffs of dark smoke, never to be seen again. Within less than a minute, the only ones remaining outside the castle were Spike, Rarity, Applejack, a bald Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy on the back of a flying red dragon, and the army of Prince Shining Armor with seemingly no losses at all. With no more enemy forces left to fight, the army erupted into loud cheers at their victory.

With the battle now over, Fluttershy guided the dragon down to land next to her friends. Once they were on the ground, she hopped off the dragon’s back and gently patted it on the side of its head.

“So that’s where ya went,” remarked Applejack as she, Pinkie Pie, and Spike walked up to Fluttershy and the dragon. “You were callin’ in some extra help. Why didn’t ya just tell us before ya left us like that?”

“I wasn’t sure if he would actually help us,” replied Fluttershy. “He says that he usually likes to be left alone.”

The dragon growled lightly and nodded his head in response.

“I’m just surprised you were so… calm about working with this dragon,” remarked Spike. “I mean, aren’t you afraid of dragons?”

“Not really,” admitted Fluttershy. “I actually don’t find any creature to be too scary for me to care for and sometimes ask for help. I guess you can blame Bruce for that.”

“You’re still takin’ care of that shark?” asked Applejack, slightly surprised.

“Hey, what happened to Rarity?” asked Pinkie Pie as she quickly looked around. She stopped moving her head when she suddenly felt something familiar being placed on top of it. A quick feel around confirmed that it was her own hair, now back where it belonged. A quick glance to her left revealed that it was Rarity who had given her back her hair piece.

“Did you really think I would have forgotten about that?” asked Rarity, slightly amused.

“Never doubted ya for a moment,” replied Applejack as she rolled her eyes.

“Hey, look over there,” said Spike, pointing up at Trixie’s castle.

The four girls followed Spike’s gaze up towards a hole in the wall of the central keep, where they could see Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash waving at them.

“We did it!” Rainbow Dash called down to the team. “Trixie has been captured!”

The five teammates on the ground cheered victoriously at this announcement, along with Prince Shining Armor’s army.

As the celebrations outside began, Twilight turned back to Prince Shining Armor himself, who continued to point his golden sword at the formerly Great and Powerful Trixie, now captured. Twilight walked up to Shining Armor and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

Shining Armor looked back and saw Twilight smile and give a single nod in approval. Shining Armor did the same in response, before turning his attention back to Trixie.

Twilight was very pleased with the progress that had been made today. The third and second of LEGO’s Most Wanted had been successfully captured. That now left only number one: Sunset Shimmer. Although there was still no word on where she went, the successful capture of her two assistants would hopefully shed some light on the mystery. Twilight Sparkle had high hopes that she would soon be getting back her stolen crown and returning to Equestria with it.

Author's Note

Even though this chapter is the final one to closely follow Clutch Powers, there will be a few more references over the remaining chapters to follow, along with maybe a few more Lego Movie references too. The way I see it, there are now only six chapters left to go (including the epilogue), and as long as I keep up my current rate of updates, this story should be finished by the end of August.

Back to the City

Chapter 13
Back to the City

The clear skies over the Castle Region were a brilliant shade of orange as the sun began to set on Twilight Sparkle’s second day in the Lego World. Now that the Great and Powerful Trixie had been captured, Twilight knew that the next thing to do was to report this to Celestia Playwell. To do that, she and her team would need to return to their spaceship, which was currently parked some distance away in a large clearing in the forest. Finding their way back to it through the woods would already seem difficult enough, but the approaching darkness of night would make such a search nearly impossible.

Fortunately, Fluttershy was able to convince the large dragon she had befriended to help them. By riding on the back of that dragon as he flew around, they were able to find their spaceship in almost no time at all. Following Fluttershy’s calm requests, the dragon landed within the large clearing. Once he was on the ground, everyone hopped off and walked over to the spaceship. The last one to dismount was Fluttershy, who then gently patted the dragon on the side of his head and calmly said, “Thank you for helping us find our ship. You can return home now.”

The dragon growled lightly and nodded his head in response. With the massive beating of his large wings, he rose up off the ground and flew away back to his cave.

After watching the dragon fly away, the team boarded the spaceship and headed up to the control room. As they arrived there, Twilight explained, “According to the User’s Manual for the original spaceship, the control panel has a video screen that can allow us to remotely speak with Celestia, no matter how far away we are from Canterlot City. I’m not sure how to activate it on this new model, but I’m assuming it’s still available for use.”

“I think I see what you’re talking about,” said Rainbow Dash as she walked up to the control panel, which was made up of two rows of a few sloped pieces that had two studs on top and covered four studs at the base, with various controls and buttons printed on the sloped part of those pieces. The piece that was exactly in the middle of the top row had a video screen and a single button — presumably the on and off switch.

Rainbow Dash tapped that button, causing the video screen to switch on. However, the only image being displayed was black and white static. In addition, the only noise coming from the speaker right next to it was the light hissing noise of static. In other words, this thing was currently not working.

Rainbow lightly pounded a few times on the top of the piece, but that didn’t do anything to fix the problem. She then pounded harder a few times, but that still did nothing. She kicked the bottom of the control panel in frustration and grumbled, “Stupid piece of junk.”

“Ah’m pretty sure poundin’ on it ain’t gonna fix it,” Applejack remarked flatly.

“Well, whatever’s wrong with it can wait until morning,” commented Spike, before letting out a yawn. “Right now, I’m ready to get some rest.”

“Yes, I could certainly use some beauty sleep after a day like this,” agreed Rarity.

Rainbow Dash tapped the button to switch off the broken video screen before heading back to the sleeping quarters with Spike and Rarity.

Pinkie Pie wasn’t quite ready for bed just yet. “Does anyone want any snacks?” she asked. “I packed plenty of them.”

Applejack shrugged and replied, “Sure, Ah don’t mind.”

Fluttershy followed Pinkie and Applejack away from the control room without saying a word.

The only one left at the control room was Twilight Sparkle. She was a little disappointed that they were unable to contact Celestia, but there was little she could do about a technical issue. She turned to the massive front window to look out at the forested landscape as nighttime quickly approached. She was well aware that she had a total of only three days to return to Equestria before the portal closed off for the next thirty moons. This meant that tomorrow was going to be her last chance to retrieve her stolen crown.

Now that the excitement of defeating Trixie had worn off, Twilight was beginning to realize just how little time she now had. Only one day left, and they still had no idea where Sunset Shimmer had run off with the Element of Magic. Although it had been rendered completely useless by that deactivation chamber in the police station, its effects were expected to wear off just hours before the portal would close. Twilight realized that if they waited too long, taking the crown and Element of Harmony back from Sunset Shimmer could be virtually impossible, if she were to use its powers to her advantage.

With all of these worrisome thoughts buzzing through her head, Twilight knew she wouldn’t be getting much sleep tonight.

The next morning, everyone in the sleeping quarters were still sound asleep. The only one not present was Twilight Sparkle, for reasons that nobody was aware of. Their peaceful slumber was suddenly interrupted by a very loud high-pitched tone. Everyone jolted awake and covered their ears before the painful noise quickly stopped. It had lasted for only a few seconds, but it was more than enough to jolt everyone wide awake.

Applejack was the first one out of bed. She rushed out of the sleeping quarters and quickly discovered Twilight sitting in the pilot’s seat up in the control room while fiddling with something on the control panel. “What the heck is goin’ on here?!” she exclaimed irritably.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Twilight quickly apologized, holding up her hands in defense. “That was a complete accident, I swear!”

Spike rubbed his eyes as he and the rest of the team arrived at the control room. “Twilight?” he asked in confusion. “What are you doing up here?”

“Well, I’m trying to see if I can figure out how to fix that video screen,” explained Twilight, gesturing towards the video screen that still showed nothing but static. “I was hoping I could find a way to solve this technical issue, but I just don’t know what’s wrong with it!” She gripped her hair in frustration, then took a deep breath and relaxed. She then bitterly remarked, “I probably shouldn’t even be surprised, considering that most of these buttons and switches aren’t even labeled.”

“We can always find out what they do by doing this,” suggested Pinkie Pie, before pushing a random button on the control panel. This caused the pilot’s seat to suddenly shoot up and out of the spaceship, taking Twilight with it.

Everyone looked up worriedly at Twilight, whose panicked screams quickly faded as she flew higher. Rainbow Dash flatly said, “Note to self: Do not push that button, because that is the ejector seat.” The sound of Twilight’s screams quickly returned as she and the seat came back down. That was immediately followed by a loud rustling noise to the right, indicating that she had landed in a tree.

“Ah’ll get her,” sighed Applejack as she turned around and headed outside.

“Don’t forget to bring back the seat, too,” said Rainbow to the departing minifig. When she turned back to see everyone staring at her, she responded, “What? I gotta sit somewhere while I’m flying this thing.”

It didn’t take long for Applejack to find the tree that Twilight had landed in. Up in that tree, Twilight was still shivering from her unexpected and terrifying flight, but had remained firmly seated within the pilot’s seat.

Having grown up on a farm, Applejack had plenty of experience with climbing trees, so she was able to quickly climb up the various branches to reach the ejected seat and its unfortunate occupant. She touched Twilight’s arm, which finally snapped Twilight out of her terrified trance. When Applejack gave her a nod of assurance, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and allowed her to carefully guide her down the tree branches and safely reach the ground.

“Th-thank you,” said Twilight, slightly shaken.

As Twilight slowly walked back to the spaceship, Applejack climbed back up into the tree. She pulled the pilot’s seat out from among the branches and casually tossed it down to the ground. After quickly climbing back down, she picked up the seat and carried it back to the spaceship with her.

As Applejack placed the seat back where it belonged, Twilight sighed and said, “We need to figure out what to do next. Our primary objective is to stop Sunset Shimmer, but we still have no idea where she is. One of the main reasons we went after Trixie and Lightning Dust was because they might know where she might be.”

“If we can’t contact Celestia, then we certainly won’t be able to contact the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters,” Rarity pointed out. “Even if they did manage to get some useful intelligence out of Lightning Dust, they will have no way of transmitting that information to us.”

“Then I guess that leaves us with only one option,” said Twilight. “We’ll need to head back to Prince Shining Armor’s castle and see if he was able to get any information out of Trixie.”

“Then let’s not waste any time,” said Rainbow Dash in determination, already starting up the engines. “This thing will take us there in no time.”

The rest of the team soon got into their seats as the spaceship started hovering over the ground.

Fluttershy quietly muttered to herself, “I hope he won’t mind us parking a spaceship right outside his castle.”

Prince Shining Armor had just finish his breakfast and was about to leave the great hall when one of his guards came through the main doors at the front of the room. “Your majesty, they have already returned,” informed the guard.

Shining Armor turned to the main doors and was surprised to see Twilight and her team step inside. With the threat of the Great and Powerful Trixie already dealt with, he wondered what could be so important for them to come back after only one night away. “What brings you girls back here?” he asked.

Twilight, followed by the rest of her team, walked up to Shining Armor and asked, “Have you interrogated Trixie yet?”

Shining Armor shook his head and replied, “No, not yet.” He was confused by the request, so he asked, “What kind of knowledge do you expect her to reveal?”

“She may know where we can find Sunset Shimmer, number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted,” answered Twilight.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward and explained, “She recently stole a magical artifact over in Canterlot City, but not before a police officer managed to disable it with one of those deactivation chambers.”

“But its effects are expected to wear off later this afternoon, so we gotta act fast!” added Applejack.

“Can you take us to Trixie right away?” finished Rarity.

Now that he heard the full story, he didn’t need much time to make a decision. “Very well, then,” he answered with a nod. “Follow me.” He turned around and began heading towards a nearby spiral stairway. Twilight and her team followed close behind.

At the bottom of those stairs, the group of minifigs arrived at the dungeon. Just a few paces away from the base of that stairway was the barred door of the only cell down here, with a guard standing beside it. Within that cell was the only current occupant of this dungeon: the formerly Great and Powerful Trixie, still bound by those golden chains.

Trixie looked up to see who was visiting and immediately scowled when she saw who it was. “You again?” she grumbled. “Have you come to add further insult to Trixie’s defeat?”

“That depends on how cooperative you’ll be with us,” replied Twilight as she walked up to the barred door. “You were with Sunset Shimmer two days ago, when she stole my magic crown. In fact, you actually helped her, before she ran off and disappeared. Care to explain what that was all about?”

Trixie smirked and replied, “Yes, Trixie remembers. That city girl Sunset requested for me and that renegade Wonderbolt to assist with a little robbery, and then provide a diversion to keep you girls off her trail. The Great and Powerful Trixie was more than happy to comply, for I knew I was unlikely to get a better opportunity to begin my conquest of the Castle Region.”

“Do you know where Sunset Shimmer went?” asked Twilight.

Trixie laughed lightly and replied, “Yes, Trixie knows, but Trixie shall not speak.”

Twilight glared at Trixie for a moment before saying to everyone, “Looks like we may need to try other methods.” She turned to Shining Armor and added, “Let us in there.”

Shining Armor turned to the guard and nodded. The guard nodded in response and pulled out the key to the cell. He unlocked the door and swung it open. Since Trixie was already bound by those golden chains, she was unlikely to try to escape.

Pinkie Pie immediately ran into the dungeon cell. She held up a flashlight in her hand and shined it directly in Trixie’s face. With a serious look on her face, Pinkie began her interrogation by saying, “Start talking! Where is Sunset Shimmer?”

Trixie had to squint her eyes against the intense glare, but the smile remained on her face. “Nice try, but my lips are sealed,” she remarked.

“No they’re not!” rebuffed Pinkie, before slapping a piece of duct tape over Trixie’s mouth. “Now they are!”

Rarity rolled her eyes and gently pulled Pinkie Pie away. “Really, Pinkie, was that even necessary?” she asked rhetorically as she walked up to Trixie. She grabbed the piece of tape and quickly ripped it off with one yank.

“YEOW!” Trixie immediately shouted in pain. After waiting a few seconds for the pain to wear off, Trixie looked up at the interrogators with that smirk back on her face. “Still not talking,” she said with contempt.

“That’s it!” shouted Rainbow Dash impatiently. She stormed up to Trixie and leaned down so their faces were very close together as she insistently said, “We came here for answers and we’re gonna get ‘em! We have ways to make you talk.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie dares you to try your worst,” mocked Trixie in retaliation.

Rainbow Dash turned back to her teammates and asked, “Should I give it to her?”

“We ain’t got much time to lose, so have at her,” responded Applejack with a shrug.

Rainbow turned back to Trixie with a smirk on her own face. “Alright, you asked for it!” She then reached forward, grabbed Trixie’s head, and quickly removed it — her hat and hair falling off in the process.

Trixie was quite shocked by this, but that was only the start of it. Rainbow then dropped Trixie’s head and started lightly kicking it upwards, from one foot to the other. Trixie grunted in pain with each kick. It became immediately clear that Trixie’s head was being treated like a soccer ball.

“Hey, Pinkie!” shouted Rainbow excitedly as she kicked Trixie’s head up a little higher. “Heads up!” With one powerful kick, she sent Trixie’s head flying towards Pinkie Pie, with Trixie screaming the whole way.

“Heading back at ya!” exclaimed Pinkie excitedly before using her head to hit Trixie’s head and send it soaring back towards Rainbow Dash. Again, Trixie screamed as her head was sent flying through the air.

“Nice header!” exclaimed Rainbow excitedly as Trixie’s head flew back to her. When it returned, Rainbow gave it a strong upward kick, sending Trixie’s head flying straight up and nearly hitting the ceiling.

“Uncle! Uncle!” Trixie shouted desperately as her head reached the apex of its flight. “Trixie shall speak!”

When Trixie’s head came back down, Rainbow Dash held out her arms and caught it. “Now that’s using your head,” she remarked jokingly, before walking up to Trixie’s body and putting her head back where it belonged.

Trixie’s eyes rolled around for a few seconds due to her dizziness. Eventually, she shook her head to clear herself from her dazed state. The instant she stopped moving her head around, she felt her hair and hat being placed back on her head, courtesy of Rarity. She briefly glared at the fashionista, then sighed and looked downward in defeat.

Twilight slowly walked up to Trixie and asked intently, “Now tell us, Trixie; where is Sunset Shimmer?”

Trixie responded with a light chuckle before looking up with that smirk back on her face. “If she’s really the only one you were after, then you girls should have never left home in the first place,” she answered with a sneer.

“Seriously?” asked Spike skeptically.

“Stop playing games with us, Trixie!” demanded Rainbow Dash, getting in Trixie’s face again. “Give us a real answer!”

“I just did,” taunted Trixie. “I take it you’re not the smart one of the group.”

“So what ya said was a riddle?” asked Applejack. She then glared at Trixie as she crossed her arms and grumbled, “Ah hate riddles.”

Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully as she began to try to solve Trixie’s riddle. “Let’s see…” she muttered to herself. “If we wanted Sunset Shimmer, we should have never left home… That could mean she may be hiding close to home, and we just need to go back there… but where is ‘home’? That can’t realistically apply to all of us… but maybe to only a majority of us. If that riddle is intended for my team, then ‘home’ would be—”

Twilight suddenly gasped as she realized the answer. “Canterlot City!” she exclaimed. “Sunset Shimmer has been hiding in Canterlot City the whole time!”

“Congratulations,” said Trixie with a voice dripping with sarcasm, “you’ve just earned yourself the honorable title of ‘Nerd’.”

Shining Armor responded by smacking Trixie in the face and shouting, “Shut it, Trixie!”

“You’re sayin’ Sunset Shimmer never even left Canterlot City?” asked Applejack, slightly surprised. “Ain’t she worried the cops might catch her?”

“She’s been number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted for years,” Rarity pointed out. “A petty criminal could never hope to achieve such a feat. To take on such a big risk as staying in the one city where she has caused the most disruption, we cannot deny that she is definitely someone who knows what she’s doing.”

“Then what are we doing just standing here?” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “We gotta get going, now!”

“Not yet,” Shining Armor interjected, much to everyone’s shock. “One more thing.” He turned to Trixie and stared at her intently as he questioned, “You said you could take me to my missing sister. Did you speak the truth, or was that just a bluff to get me to give up my sword?”

“Trixie was being honest with her offer,” answered Trixie.

“And how are you so sure of where she is?” asked Shining Armor. He scowled as he continued “Were you responsible for her disappearance?”

“Trixie had nothing to do with what happened to your sister.”

“Then tell me where she is.”

“Why bother? By the time you get there, she will almost certainly be somewhere else.”

“And what makes you say that?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie could see all, thanks to a special magical item.” Trixie narrowed her eyes as she added, “A certain something that you so carelessly destroyed.”

Shining didn’t dwell on the revelation of his unintended mistake, so he continued, “So you’ve been watching my sister the whole time?”

“Only bits and pieces every now and then. She was never a factor in Trixie’s plans. Not more than once have I ever seen her in the same place. As for why this is…” Trixie shrugged. “Your guess is as good as Trixie’s.”

Prince Shining Armor stood silently for a moment to process the information. Finally, he said to Trixie, “I believe that will be all.” He turned back to the team of minifigs from a City Region and said, “We’re done here. I shall see you off on your departure.”

“Good,” said Rainbow Dash impatiently. “Now let’s go!”

As the group of minifigs left the dungeon and headed back up the stairs, the guard shut the barred door to keep Trixie locked up in her cell. The team quickly headed outside and left the castle. Their spaceship had been parked out in the field in front of the castle, so they didn’t have to walk very far this time.

Halfway between the spaceship and the main gate of the castle, Shining Armor stopped and placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight stopped and turned to face him. “Before you leave,” said Shining Armor, “I would like to thank you for all that you and your team have done here.”

“I’m glad we could help,” acknowledged Twilight. “I’m sorry we can’t stay and help you find your sister.”

“That’s okay,” assured Shining Armor. “I’m sure I’ll find her someday. For now, it’s enough to know that she is alive and well, wherever she is.”

“Well, at least now you’re feeling more optimistic,” Twilight pointed out. “I’m sure your sister would approve of that.”

“Indeed,” said Shining Armor, smiling in response. “In any case, I wish you and your team good luck on your mission. Farewell, Starlight Sparks.” He nodded once in respect before turning back and returning to his castle.

Twilight smiled as she watched Prince Shining Armor walk through the main gate back into his castle.

“Starlight Sparks?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion.

Twilight spun around and was briefly shocked to see everyone on her team staring at her in confusion. Clearly, they must have heard the entire conversation. Knowing that they deserved a reasonable explanation, she replied, “I couldn’t tell him my real name. It would’ve made things way too awkward.”

“What do you mean by that, dear?” asked Rarity.

Twilight stared at her team nervously. She couldn’t think of a good bluff on why she couldn’t use her real name around Shining Armor. Her only option was to tell the full truth that she was actually a pony princess from another world. But would they even believe her?

Spike could easily see the nervous look on Twilight’s face, so he decided to break away from the group and walk up to her. She needed some assurance from the only other person here who understood her situation.

Twilight was still very nervous, but seeing her loyal assistant now standing next to her made her relax just enough to actually say something. “Should I tell them?” she quietly asked Spike.

Spike thought about it for a moment before replying softly, “I think we should. They deserve to know what’s really at stake here.”

“But what if they don’t believe us?”

“Twilight, they’ve already followed you this far,” assured Spike. “You’ve proven to them many times that they can trust you. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

Twilight thought about what Spike was telling her. She then smiled as she realized that he was right. “I’m glad you followed me here, Spike,” she quietly told him.

“Me too,” responded Spike happily. He then frowned and muttered, “Unless, of course, we get stuck here for another thirty moons.”

Twilight turned her attention back to the rest of her team. She didn’t want to reveal everything out in the open, so she told them, “Okay, let’s get back inside the spaceship and I’ll explain everything.”

The team headed into the spaceship. Once everyone had gathered within the lower deck, Twilight pulled up the lever that raised the exit ramp shut. Now that there was no chance that anyone outside of this team could hear her, Twilight sighed as she prepared to reveal the truth to the Lego World versions of her best friends. She began, “You see…”

Pinkie Pie suddenly spoke up and quickly said, “You’re from an alternate world and you’re a pony princess there and that magic crown that Sunset Shimmer stole has a magical element embedded in it that helps power up other magical elements, and without it they don’t work anymore, and you need them all to help protect your magical world, and if you don’t get the crown back by tonight, you’ll be stuck in this world and you won’t be able to go back for, like, a really, really long time!” Pinkie finished with a huge grin on her face.

The room was filled with absolute silence for a moment. Twilight’s mouth was gaping wide open in shock and disbelief, as was Spike’s mouth. Finally, Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and deadpanned, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that isn’t the truth.”

“Nope, she’s pretty much spot-on,” admitted Spike.

“How are you sure of that?” asked Fluttershy in confusion.

“I’m from the same world, too,” said Spike proudly. “Except I’m not a pony, but rather a ferocious fire-breathing dragon!” He simply grinned after finishing that statement.

Twilight was still absolutely baffled by how precisely Pinkie Pie was able to describe what she was going to explain to everyone. “How did you know all of that?” asked Twilight in confusion.

Pinkie shrugged and simply answered, “Just a hunch.”

“Wait a minute!” Applejack spoke up. “Lemme get this straight: You’re a pony?”

“You’re a princess?” added Rarity.

“You’re from another world?” finished Fluttershy.

Twilight gulped nervously and silently nodded her head.

Rainbow Dash maintained her deadpan expression as she commented, “That… is… awesome!” At that last word, her expression suddenly became much more excited as she smiled and threw her arms up. She and the other girls excitedly started crowding around Twilight, saying all kinds of words of wonder and amazement.

“See? Told ya,” remarked Spike.

Twilight was genuinely surprised to see her teammates reacting like this. She gently pushed them away and said, “Wow, uh… you girls actually believe all of that?”

“Seriously? This is the Lego World!” answered Rainbow Dash.

“‘Round here, we like to say the imagination is the limit,” added Applejack.

“And if you wish to create anything, then possessing an open mind is simply a must,” continued Rarity.

“And if you’re saying all of that is the truth, then we believe you,” finished Fluttershy.

“Besides, if somebody is being all grim and serious about saying something and even feeling ashamed to have to tell everyone about it, then you know that person’s telling you the real deal.” Pinkie Pie commented.

Twilight smiled as each of her teammates explained why they all trusted her and accepted her for who she really was. With all of the praising finished, she finally said, “Wow… you girls have no idea how much better this makes me feel.” Twilight was very relieved that she no longer had to keep any secrets from her teammates. With that issue now behind her, it was time to turn back to more important matters. “Well, now that we’re finally on the same page, let’s get back to our mission, shall we?”

“Right,” said Rainbow Dash, nodding in determination. “First thing’s first. We gotta warn Celestia that Sunset Shimmer’s been hiding in Canterlot City.” She then quickly headed up towards the control room, with the rest of the team following close behind.

Up in the control room, Rainbow Dash switched on the video screen. But once again, the only visual and audio they got from it was static.

Rainbow Dash growled and kicked the control panel in frustration. “What is wrong with this thing?!” she shouted in frustration.

Rarity turned to Applejack and whispered something in her ear.

Applejack looked closely at the control panel and saw exactly what Rarity had just pointed out to her. “Huh…” she muttered in disbelief. She then walked up to the control panel and spoke up, “Well there’s your problem. This piece ain’t on all the way.”

Everyone looked closely and, sure enough, the sloped piece which had the video screen was sticking up slightly higher than the surrounding similar pieces. Although this spaceship had been designed by Rarity, it was Pinkie Pie who had actually built it. Clearly, Pinkie had been a little careless with the assembly.

Applejack pushed the loose piece down into place. Once that was done, the static immediately silenced and the video switched to show the face of Celestia Playwell. “There. All fixed,” said Applejack in satisfaction.

“Let me guess, technical issues?” asked Celestia on the video screen.

“Yeah, unfortunately,” sighed Rainbow Dash in disappointment.

“Well, I’m glad you were able to solve the problem,” responded Celestia. “I’ve been trying to contact you for hours.”

“Sorry to leave you worried like that,” Twilight spoke up. She was glad to see they could now speak with Celestia, especially considering what they had to tell her. She walked up to the video screen and explained, “The good news is that we were able to help Prince Shining Armor capture and interrogate the Great and Powerful Trixie. The bad news is that, according to Trixie, Sunset Shimmer has been hiding in Canterlot City this whole time.”

“I am very pleased to hear that,” responded Celestia on the video screen. “The reason I’ve been trying to contact you is because I have received word from the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters that Lightning Dust has confessed to knowing where Sunset Shimmer has been hiding, and that is right here in Canterlot City. I have already informed the local police to begin searching the city at once, but I have yet to hear of any findings. In the meantime, I think we can all agree it would be best for you to return to Canterlot City at once. We still do not know what Sunset’s intentions are, regarding that stolen crown, but it’s crucial that we take it back from her before the effects of the deactivation chamber wear off. According to Flash Sentry’s police report, you have until about 5 o’clock this afternoon to do so. Good luck, girls.” Celestia then switched off the connection, causing the video screen on the control panel to now simply display the LEGO logo.

Rainbow Dash switched off the video screen and began to turn on the engines of the spaceship. “Buckle up, girls,” she announced. “It’s time to fly.”

As everyone sat down in their respective seats and put on their seatbelts, Rarity turned to Twilight and stated, “One thing I still don’t understand is why you couldn’t tell Prince Shining Armor your real name, Twilight.”

Twilight realized that she — or rather, Pinkie Pie’s hunch — had forgotten about that detail, so she explained, “It’s because where I’m from, I have a brother… and his name is Shining Armor.”

Rarity gasped lightly and asked, “Are you saying…?”

“Yes,” answered Twilight, knowing very well what everyone on the spaceship must be thinking right now. “Prince Shining Armor’s missing sister in named Twilight Sparkle; the one who is native to the Lego World.” She paused. “In a way, I’m actually kinda glad she’s still missing. Who knows how awkward that meeting could’ve been.”

“I can only imagine,” Fluttershy said softly in understanding.

Finally, Rainbow Dash finished powering up the spaceship’s engines and switched them to Hover Mode. She grabbed onto the flight controls as the spaceship began to rise up over the landscape. “Next stop, Canterlot City!” she announced. She steered the spaceship in the direction of their destination and switched the engines to Flight Mode. The main engines ignited and the ship took off through the air.

It had taken a few hours, but the spaceship carrying the team from Canterlot City finally arrived at their home. Onboard, Rarity leaned forward in her seat to check the time displayed on the control panel. She looked at it just in time to see the numbers change to read 11:00. “I’m afraid we have only six hours left,” she warned her teammates.

“That won’t leave us much time if we return this ship to the LEGO Team Headquarters,” Rainbow Dash thought aloud. “I’m just gonna land this thing somewhere right outside of town and we’ll go from there. We’ll return it tomorrow, when we’ll actually have time to spare.”

Rainbow Dash carefully maneuvered the spaceship around the city as she searched for a suitable place to land. It wasn’t long before they were flying slowly over an apple orchard.

“Oh no, we are not brinin’ this thing down on Sweet Apple Acres!” stressed Applejack as she shook her head in disapproval. “Find another place to land!”

Before Rainbow Dash could respond to Applejack’s demand, a blinking red light with a buzzing alarm noise came up on the control panel. Rainbow looked at the red light to see what the problem was while everyone looked on in concern. Once she read what the alarm indicated, she sighed sadly and said, “I don’t think we got a choice. Ship’s outta fuel.”

Just one second after Rainbow Dash finished delivering the bad news, everything on the spaceship immediately shut off. All of the machinery inside fell silent. The only noise that could now be heard was the air rushing by outside.

As the spaceship began to descend uncontrollably, Twilight said the only thing she could in a bad situation like this. “Brace yourselves!” she exclaimed.

All seven minifigs onboard screamed as the spaceship dropped out of the sky. The ship crash-landed nose first, plowing into the ground and uprooting about three apple trees.

Not far away, an elderly green-skinned and white-haired minifig looked out the window of her house to see what all the commotion was about. When she saw the carnage outside, she shook her fist out the window and angrily shouted, “Darn aliens! Always tryin’ to steal mah apples.”

At the crash site, there was already some movement from within the wreckage. The first to emerge from under a pile of Lego pieces was Twilight Sparkle. She looked around and saw that, although much of the spaceship had remained intact, large chunks of it had completely fallen apart. She was amazed to see that she had come out of this crash virtually unscathed. She was even more impressed as she saw the rest of her team pull themselves out of the wreckage and walk away unharmed.

Applejack looked up at the wreaked spaceship and shook her head in disbelief. “Great,” she grumbled. “Now we gotta clean up this big mess.”

“Either way, we’ll deal with it tomorrow,” insisted Rainbow Dash. “Right now, we’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”

Twilight quickly nodded in agreement and said, “Right. We need to find and stop Sunset Shimmer before my crown regains its magical powers. Let’s go!”

There was no need to say anything more. The team quickly followed Twilight out of the apple orchard and began heading downtown towards Canterlot City. With only six hours left until the crown was no longer powerless, and only a few more hours before the gateway to Equestira closed, time was not on their side right now.

Author's Note

With this chapter finished, there will be no more additional information revealed (within this story) about what happened to Lego Twilight. Although I've been planning this story for a long time, some things do end up being added in rather recently. In this chapter for example, everything prior to Trixie's interrogation had not been in my original plan, but as I got closer to the time I would start writing this particular chapter, I realized I was leaving out a huge gap of time that most readers would notice and possibly not appreciate that. So, within only one month, I came up with the rest of the chapter to fill in that gap. (And yes, that was Granny Smith being angry at the crashed spaceship near the end of this chapter.)

The Shimmering Sunset

Chapter 14
The Shimmering Sunset

Twilight Sparkle and her team had been travelling by foot the entire way into downtown Canterlot City. They ran by the base of a clock tower just as the large clock on top struck noon. The team briefly stopped and looked up worriedly as they saw that they now had only five hours left.

Once the twelfth and final tone rang, Twilight looked back to her team and exclaimed in panic, “We’re running outta time!”

“Where are we even going?” asked Rainbow Dash as the team resumed running down the sidewalk.

“I’m not sure,” replied Twilight as she struggled to think of a plan. “The local police have been searching the city, so I guess we could ask them for any updates since we last spoke with Celestia.”

“So which way should we go?” asked Spike.

Twilight was leading the group as they arrived at an intersection. She decided to not cross either street and just continue on the same block. But just as she went around the corner, she crashed into someone, sending both of them flying apart into pieces. The rest of the group came around the corner to see the result of that accident.

Twilight — whose head had come off and landed upright — quickly looked around to see parts all over the sidewalk that belonged to both herself and someone rather familiar. Out of all the people in Canterlot City, she had crashed into none other than rookie police officer Flash Sentry.

Flash — whose body had just lost both legs — pushed himself upright and looked over to Twilight’s head. Once he realized who he had just crashed into, he simply smiled and said, “We have got to stop bumping into each other like this.”

Twilight laughed nervously in response. She then somehow managed to will her body to stand up — or at least try to. Aside from her head, her body had also lost the left leg, left arm, and right hand. First, she bent down on her only attached leg so she could reach her arm down to put her right hand back into place. Then she hopped over to her detached leg and put that back into place. Now that her body regained its balance, she quickly picked up and reattached her left arm. Finally, she reached down to pick up her head and fit it back into place, giving it a few slight twists to make sure it was a snug fit.

Meanwhile, Flash reattached his own right hand, then hopped his legless body over to his left arm and reattached that too. He then hopped over to his legs — both of which were still attached to his hip. He picked up his legs and turned them around so they stood upright, then pulled his body up and onto the hip connection. Finally, he picked up his police hat and put it back on his head.

As Flash lowered his right hand after putting his hat back on, he quickly realized something wasn’t quite right. His hand, which was supposed to be the light orange tone of his skin, was actually lavender in color. He immediately realized what the problem was. “Oh! Uh… I-I-I believe this one’s yours,” Flash said nervously as he removed the wrong hand and held it out to Twilight.

Twilight looked down at her right hand and, sure enough, it was light orange instead of lavender. She and Flash Sentry had accidentally swapped hands! “L-l-likewise,” said Twilight just as nervously as she also removed the mismatched hand and held it out to Flash.

Both Twilight and Flash raised their handless arms and simultaneously reattached their proper hands. Now their bodies were properly reassembled, but this final correction had led to something else that was quite noticeable: they were both holding hands. With slightly shocked expressions on their faces, they looked down at their clasped hands, then up at each other’s faces. After a brief moment of stunned silence, the two minfigs finally pulled their hands away from each other and laughed nervously — all of which was done by the two simultaneously.

Applejack cleared her throat and said with mild annoyance, “If y’all are quite done, we still gotta track down Sunset Shimmer before we run outta time.”

Flash Sentry quickly straightened himself out and said, “Right! Seeing as you girls have returned, I take it you are already aware that she has been hiding in this city all along.”

“Y-yes! Yes!” responded Twilight with a quick nod. “Any word recently on where she might be?”

“Not that I’m aware of, I’m afraid,” replied Flash solemnly.

Rarity sighed and muttered, “So much for going to the police for help.”

“But perhaps you girls can assist,” continued Flash with a smile forming on his face.

“What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy in confusion. “We’re just as clueless as everyone else.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that.” Flash turned to face Twilight as he added, “At least, not for Twilight Sparkle, in particular.”

“Why me?” asked a very baffled Twilight.

“You are far more familiar with that magical artifact than anyone else in Canterlot City, maybe even the entire Lego World,” answered Flash. “If anyone can figure out why Sunset Shimmer wants that magic crown of yours, it’s you. That knowledge might also help us figure out why she decided to hide in this particular city, of all places.”

Twilight placed a hand over her face as she struggled to think of any clues she might have missed. Sunset Shimmer wanted the crown, and had chosen to stay in Canterlot City while waiting for it to regain its powers. Could there really be a connection between those two key details? Twilight suddenly gasped as she realized there was something important about this city. Something that Sunset had mentioned during their latest encounter just less than two days ago.

“I can afford to wait forty-eight hours. The portal will still be open by then.”

“It’s because the gateway to Equestria is located in this city!” exclaimed Twilight in realization.

“Oh, is that the name of the alternate world you’re from?” asked Pinkie Pie. “I knew it would have something to do with ponies.”

“I was wondering how you managed to get here from another world,” Rarity spoke up. A thought crossed her mind before she added, “Though I suppose that could also explain why it was in this city that Sunset Shimmer made her first appearance.”

Applejack pointed out, “Twilight did mention on the way here that Sunset also came from that alternate world, so Ah guess that would make sense.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait,” Flash quickly said as he held up his hands to draw everyone’s attention. Baffled by this new information, he turned to Twilight and asked, “Are you saying there’s an interdimensional portal right here in Canterlot City?”

“It’s located in City Park,” explained Twilight. “I don’t know what Sunset wants, but it must somehow involve that portal while it’s still open.”

“Then we have no time to lose!” declared Flash Sentry, getting into the role of a police officer as he should. “Follow me! I know the quickest route to take!”

As officer Flash Sentry immediately took off running down the sidewalk, Twilight and the rest of her team quickly followed him. They soon began to cross a street at another intersection. Flash kept running and didn’t even slow down. To deal with the oncoming traffic, he simply blew a whistle he had and held up his hand. In both directions, all traffic came to a screeching halt to avoid hitting the police officer and his escorts, inevitably causing some cars to collide.

Flash couldn’t help but look back at the following minifigs with a grin on his face and state, “One of the great privileges of being a police officer is that you’re free to ignore the rules of the road, so long as the emergency is serious enough.” He repeated his traffic-halting gestures as he led the team across another street on their way to City Park.

Once the group of minifigs arrived at City Park, it didn’t take long for Twilight to recognize some of the landmarks from the start of her journey. She was quickly able to lead everyone over to the horse statue that was the site of the gateway to Equestria.

“Well, here it is,” stated Twilight.

Flash Sentry looked at the statue suspiciously. “I don’t see anything unusual about it,” he said.

Twilight had already figured that she would need to prove that this really was the gateway back to Equestria, so she walked up to the front of the statue and stuck her right arm towards the pedestal. Just like last time, her arm passed through the smooth surface and morphed back into the foreleg of a pony — not a Lego horse, but an organic pony. Twilight looked back and, just as she had expected, everyone was absolutely stunned by what they saw. Satisfied with the result, she pulled her arm back out, letting it morph back into a Lego arm.

Everyone — except Spike for obvious reasons — simply remained staring at Twilight in stunned silence.

Applejack finally broke the silence by simply saying, “There’s somethin’ ya don’t see every day.”

Flash shook his head before saying in shock, “Wow, uh… I’ve passed by that statue dozens of times before, and I had no idea it could do that.”

“I’m not surprised,” stated Twilight. She explained, “I’ve been told that it stays open for only three days. After that, it’ll remain closed for thirty moons before it reopens again.”

“Thirty moons?” asked Fluttershy in confusion. “Is that the same as thirty months?”

Flash muttered to himself, “That does approximately equal thirty months, which also equals two and a half years. Assuming that one cycle has been missed or ignored, doubling that would give us—” He gasped in realization and spoke up, “Five years! That’s the same amount of time that Sunset Shimmer has been known to exist here in the Lego World!”

“And now that it’s open again, she’s planning to somehow use it for her own selfish gains,” concluded Rarity.

“But for what?” asked Spike.

“I don’t know, but at least now we know where she’s probably heading. I’d better send word of this back to the station,” said Flash Sentry as he pulled out a radio from behind his back.

“Wasn’t the police station destroyed just two days ago?” asked Twilight in confusion.

“We managed to recover all of the pieces and rebuild the station within an afternoon,” answered Flash. He switched on the radio in his hand and spoke, “Hey, chief. This is officer Flash Sentry. Do you copy?”

After a brief crackle of static, a voice on the other side replied, “I copy. What is it, officer?”

Flash Sentry explained, “I just met up with Twilight Sparkle’s team, who have just returned from their earlier missions. We are currently standing in front of that horse statue in City Park. Apparently, it houses some kind of interdimensional portal to another world. The team and I have strong reason to believe that Sunset Shimmer wishes to somehow use this thing for her own benefit, though we do not yet know why. Since we still don’t know where she is, I suggest we set up a defensive perimeter around this site and wait for her to come to us.”

After a brief pause, the voice on the radio replied, “That may be our best option at this time. I’ll send over a few officers and have them get to work right away.”

“Copy that. Over and out,” responded Flash before shutting off the radio and putting it away.

“I appreciate the help, Flash Sentry. I really do,” said Twilight. She sighed sadly before continuing, “I just can’t help but get the feeling that Sunset won’t arrive until after my crown regains its magical powers. By then, it could be too late to stop her.”

Flash nodded in acknowledgement. It was not an ideal plan, but it was the only one they had for now. If Sunset needed this portal to remain open, then there was one more piece of information he needed to know. He turned to Twilight and asked, “You said the portal closes after three days. Since this is clearly your third day here, do you know what specific time it is expected to close?”

“I was told it would happen when the moon reaches its highest point in the sky,” replied Twilight.

“Then that would be midnight, which gives us about seven hours after that artifact regains its powers,” concluded Flash. He sighed sadly. “I don’t know if we can hold her off that long, but at least we can be assured that it won’t be forever.”

“Still, prevention would be a much better plan,” stated Twilight. “We won’t need to worry about all of that if I could just get my crown back before it regains its magic. If only we knew where to find her.”

“Hey, officer!” Rainbow Dash called over from the back side of the statue. “Is this thing supposed to be here?”

Everyone walked around to the back side of the statue to see what Rainbow had spotted. All four sides of the statue’s pedestal were six studs wide with one column of studs on either side, which meant that a width of four studs in the middle — just wide enough for a minifig — was made of smooth cap pieces. The back side, however, was covered up by a single plate piece with studs at all points of the imaginary grid.

“No, it isn’t,” responded Flash Sentry as he walked up to the additional piece. He gripped one side of it and tried to pull it off, but it didn’t come loose. He walked over to the other side and tried doing the same thing, but got a similar result. “That’s odd. This piece seems to be stuck.” He quickly pulled out his radio again and spoke, “Hey, chief. I’m also gonna need a brick separator. We found something unusual here.”

“Copy that,” responded the voice on the radio. “I’ll try to locate one and have it sent your way.”

“A brick separator?” asked Spike in confusion.

“The most utilitarian tool of all,” replied Flash Sentry as he put away his radio. “The only problem is that they’re in rather short supply these days, so it may take a while for one to get here.”

“I can attest to that,” said Rarity with a nod. “I once tried to obtain one for use in my shop, but the cost of purchasing it was simply outrageous!”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when she glanced over to the front side of the statue, where Pinkie Pie stood with a goofy grin on her face as she reached an arm forward. “PINKIE! NO!” she shouted as she tackled the pink minifig before she could touch the gateway to Equestria.

Seeing Pinkie down on the ground underneath her, Twilight stood back up. She was about to scold her, but instead yelped when she noticed that Pinkie’s legs were missing. She quickly turned back to see those legs — with the skirt still covering the upper half — standing in front of the portal. Apparently, Twilight’s tackle had knocked Pinkie’s torso off of her legs.

Things got even weirder when the detached legs started moving on their own, as if they were trying to look around. The pair of legs then turned right and ran off.

“Aww,” moaned Pinkie sadly. “You made my legs run away.”

“Ah’ll get ‘em,” said Applejack as she pulled out a coiled rope from behind her back and began spinning it around as a lasso as she ran after the runaway pair of legs.

Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight and asked, “What was that for?”

“Pinkie looked like she wanted to step through the portal,” explained Twilight. “I’m afraid I can’t let any of you do that.”

“Why not?” asked Fluttershy in confusion.

“It’s because that’s an alternate world,” answered Twilight. “It’s not like some alien planet filled with strangers. Many of the ponies who live there are actually quite similar to many of the Lego people I’ve met here. Similar appearances, similar behaviors, and even the same exact names.”

“Whoa, nelly!” shouted Applejack as she staggered around on her way back to the group while firmly holding Pinkie Pie’s legs in her arms. Those legs kept squirming around as they tried to escape, but Applejack was more than strong enough to keep them in place. “What is with these things?!” she exclaimed, before turning those legs around and shoving them back into place on the bottom of Pinkie’s torso.

Pinkie Pie briefly yelped in pain from the rather forceful reattachment. With her legs now back under her control she stood up as she giggled nervously and said, “Sorry. They tend to have a mind of their own.”

With that issue take care of, Applejack looked up at the others and asked, “So what’re y’all talkin’ about now?”

“Twilight’s explaining why she can’t let us step through that interdimensional gateway,” answered Rainbow Dash while gesturing at said gateway.

“It’s because in that world, there are alternate versions of everyone in this world,” explained Twilight. “The major difference is that they’re all ponies instead of Lego people.”

“If the residents of that world aren’t Lego-based, then how much of that world is made of Lego?” asked Rarity.

“Absolutely none of it,” answered Twilight. “I know, it must be hard for you to understand, but it’s true. Before I came here, I had never even heard of the word ‘LEGO’.”

“That does explain why you were so confused when we first met,” Fluttershy said softly.

Pinkie Pie quickly walked up to the portal. She turned to Twilight and pleaded, “Can I just take a quick peek? Pleeeeeease?” She then made a pouty face with adorably huge eyes.

“I’m very sorry, but I just can’t allow that,” replied Twilight with a sigh. “The first reason is that, as you can see, I’m currently not the pony that I actually am. Stepping through there will alter your body into a form I don’t think you can handle. Believe me, I know.”

“Yeah,” agreed Spike, looking down at himself. “I still can’t get used to the idea of being made of detachable parts. I can’t imagine what it must be like to go the other way.”

“The second reason,” continued Twilight, “is that the alternate forms of all of you are literally right on the other side, waiting for me to return. There’s no telling how they’ll react on seeing another of them suddenly stepping through the mirror.”

“Why’re they waitin’ for you?” asked Applejack. She then got a little confused and muttered, “Or is it the ‘other we’ who are waitin’, or…” She quickly just gave up and exclaimed, “Oh, ya know what Ah mean!”

“They’re my friends,” answered Twilight. “We’ve been friends for a long time. In fact, they actually wanted to come with me to help me retrieve my stolen crown. I would’ve been happy with that, too, but we were told that I had to go alone. It didn’t take me long to find out why.”

“Is that why you wanted us to help you?” asked Fluttershy softly.

That question immediately drew everyone’s attention. The reason behind it was easy to understand, which made it a legitimate concern for the team.

“Uh…” was all Twilight could manage to say. The implication that she had picked this team solely because they reminded her of her pony friends had left her speechless. It had never occurred to her that doing such a thing could be seen in a bad light.

“Celestia Playwell did mention that you were the one who chose us for this team,” Rarity pointed out, “despite her better wishes. Is it true you rejected her offer for what she thought would have been a better team?”

As the five girls looked at her with concerned and suspicious looks on their faces, Twilight finally sighed in defeat and sadly replied, “It’s all true.”

The five girls gasped in shock at this confirmation.

“I-I didn’t think it would be such a big deal,” explained Twilight. “It’s just… this is such an unfamiliar world to me, and I needed to trust someone other than a bunch of strangers. You all reminded me so much of my friends that I figured this would be no different than if they had actually been allowed to come with me.”

“But we’re not your friends, Twi,” stated Applejack. “Heck, we’re not even friends with each other. Sure, we may be able to trust one another like most Lego people, but Ah just don’t see us bein’ close enough to be called ‘friends’.”

“Face it, Twilight, we’re all just too different,” added Rainbow Dash pessimistically. “We always seem to find some way to fight each other instead of working together like a good team. Even if we do somehow take back your magic… thingy, I’m willing to bet that everything’s just gonna go back to the way they were before you came here.”

Twilight was at a loss on how to respond to this mess she suddenly found herself in. “Do you all feel this way?” she asked her team.

The five girls looked around uneasily. It was all Twilight needed to confirm her worst fears.

Officer Flash Sentry, who had overheard the entire discussion, finally decided to add his own input. “Regardless of your feelings for each other,” he spoke up, “you’re already on a team with an assigned mission from Miss Playwell. She expects you girls to set aside your differences and work together to succeed.”

“I work well with others,” Pinkie Pie suddenly spoke up excitedly. “I like being friends with everyone!” She quickly added, “Except for big meanies like Sunset Shimmer, of course.”

That did little to improve Twilight’s mood. She knew Pinkie Pie was like that around others. It was the uneasy reactions of the rest of her team that made her concerned. She quickly noticed how she still referred to these Lego minifigs as her “team” instead of “friends”. These thoughts were starting to make her feel quite depressed.

Flash Sentry unwittingly made things even worse by looking at the watch on his wrist to see how much time was left before the effects of the deactivation chamber on Twilight’s crown wore off. He sighed before announcing, “Four hours.”

The afternoon passed by slowly. The police had taken a while to arrive because they first had to clean up all of the traffic incidents that Flash Sentry had caused in his rush to get to City Park. But once they got here, they had quickly gone to work setting up that defensive perimeter around much of the park. A fence with just one gate was built around a large area surrounding the statue. A few simple watch towers had also been quickly built at opposite sides of the perimeter.

Twilight and her team — except for an absent Pinkie Pie — were completely bored as they continued to wait silently by the statue. Twilight glanced back at the gateway to her home world. Flash Sentry had placed a few long pieces over the side containing the portal. Those smooth pieces had the words “Police Line — Do Not Cross” printed on them in black on a yellow background. It was simply to discourage anyone from trying to step through, and Flash had told her that she was free to take them down once she was ready to return home.

The boredom was interrupted by Pinkie Pie as she drove her car into the park. The police opened the gate just in time to allow her into the protected zone. As her car screeched to a halt, she threw the door open and hopped out of the driver’s seat while carrying a stack of pizzas in her arms. “Pizza time!” she cheerfully announced.

Very few words were exchanged as each team member grabbed a pizza and started chowing down in their own way. Some ate slowly and carefully, while others rushed with big bites. It was simply another demonstration of their vast differences. Differences that were now threatening to tear the team apart.

Not long after everyone had finished eating, officer Flash Sentry walked back to the team. He sighed and shook his head before announcing, “Only one hour left, and still no sign of that brick separator.”

Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration and impatiently asked, “Do we really even need that thing?”

“If you think you can remove that piece yourself, go right ahead,” retorted Flash. “Just be aware that I’ve already had my arms come off at least three times while trying to pry that thing off by hand.”

“Ya sure that thing ain’t glued on there?” asked Applejack irritably.

Flash stared at the farm girl with an unamused expression and replied, “Applejack, everyone knows how hard it is for anyone to get their hands on such a substance. It’s even harder to come by than a brick separator. And in any case, possession of glue is highly illegal in every region of the Lego World.”

“I don’t think number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted would let that stop her,” muttered Rainbow Dash bitterly.

Spike suddenly spoke up and asked, “Do you hear something?”

Everyone stood still and listened carefully. It was faint, but they could tell that it was a rapidly thumping noise. Twilight was confused by what it was. Such an unfamiliar noise was making her feel a little uncomfortable.

“Over there!” said Applejack, pointing up at the sky.

Everyone turned to where she was pointing and saw something flying just over the city skyline. What seemed to allow it to fly was a massive and rapidly-spinning propeller on top of it.

“It’s just a police helicopter,” assured Rarity. “No need to be alarmed.”

Twilight quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Although she had done plenty of research at the local library back on her first day here, there were still plenty of details about the Lego World that she was not quite familiar with.

Before long, the helicopter was over City Park, where it began to descend to the ground. “It looks like they’re going to land here,” observed Fluttershy.

“That better be good news,” said Flash Sentry with determination as he began to approach the site where the large blue and white police helicopter was coming down. Once it was on the ground, the blast of air from the main rotor cause his hat to fly off — revealing his spiky blue hair underneath — but he ignored that. The door on the side of the helicopter slid open as he arrived, revealing two other police officers inside who were handling a large orange object.

“We had to go all the way to Bricksburg to get this thing,” explained one of the officers — who had to shout over the noise of the rotor — as he and the other officer carefully pulled the orange object out of the helicopter.

“Doesn’t matter,” responded Flash Sentry — also forced to shout over the noise — as he took the large object from them. “The important thing is that it’s here.” With the unusual object now in his hands, he stepped back and gestured to the pilot.

The pilot understood the signal and made the helicopter begin to take off. The two officers in the back closed the door as the helicopter lifted off and began to fly away.

With the helicopter now leaving, Flash Sentry turned around and began to head back to the horse statue. Along the way, he picked up his hat and put it back on his head.

“Is that the brick separator?” asked Spike.

“Yes, it is,” replied Flash Sentry as he continued walking.

The brick separator was bright orange, presumably to make it more visible against other Lego parts. At one end — with a thickness equal to the height of two thirds of a brick or two plates — there were two studs on top and a hollow space on the bottom to fit over two studs. Right behind that, the thickness was doubled, which meant that a plate on top or on the bottom of the front connection would be flush with the rest of the object. In the exact middle of a flat surface on top that covered a square of four studs, a plus-shaped axle rod stuck up to a length that was the same as the width of a one stud brick. Beyond that, the object had a long handle that stretched for a distance that was equal to the height of a regular minifig. The bottom of the handle was hollow, while the top had half a dozen ridges across its width and the LEGO logo engraved at the end. The very end of that handle tapered to a wedge.

“Okay,” said Flash as he carried the brick separator around to the back of the statue. “Let’s crack this thing open and see what we got.”

The seven team members watched as Flash stuck the bottom of the stud connection to a pair of studs along the side of the statue’s additional piece, and then pulled the handle towards the back side of the statue. After a few seconds, the brick separator came loose, with seemingly little accomplished. Undeterred, Flash stuck the brick separator onto another pair of studs along the same side and pulled again. He ended up with a similar result and tried again at another set of studs. Although the brick separator still came loose a third time, he noticed that a narrow gap had now opened between the additional piece and the rest of the statue. This was all he needed, as he now turned the brick separator around and inserted the wedge into the gap. He shoved on the free end of the brick separator a few times to make sure the wedge was firmly within the gap. Finally, with just one mighty shove to the side, the additional piece popped off and fell over to the ground.

Satisfied to have finally succeeded in removing that unusually added piece, Flash Sentry tossed the brick separator aside and took a look at what that piece had been covering up. He eyes widened in shock as he saw what had been hidden underneath. “It’s a message,” he stated.

Twilight Sparkle and the others crowded around to see the message for themselves. Scribbled in black on the smooth tiles were the words: “Big Rock. Pleasant Trail. Sunny Drive. Southern Woods.”

“I know where that is,” Fluttershy spoke up. “It’s along of one of the hiking trails in the Everfree Forest, south of the city.”

Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash with a smug look on her face as she said, “And you thought we weren’t gonna go on some nature hike.”

Rainbow Dash ignored her and impatiently exclaimed, “Can we just get going now?!”

“Yes, now that we know where to go, we must make haste,” agreed Rarity.

“It’ll take a while to get there by foot,” explained Fluttershy. “A car can take us most of the way there, but at a certain point we will need to get out and run for it.”

“All taken care of!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie happily while pointing at her car parked nearby.

“But there’s no way we’ll all fit in there,” Spike pointed out, remembering that there were only three seats inside.

Pinkie responded by quickly disassembling and reassembling her car in her typical super-quick all-over-the-place building style. Once she threw the last piece into place, she joyfully shouted, “Ta-da! Seven seater!”

“I’ll drive!” Rainbow Dash immediately claimed as she ran over to the driver’s seat of the new car. The rest of the team quickly followed and hopped inside. With less than an hour left, they all knew there was no time to waste.

Once everyone was in their seats, Rainbow Dash started up the car and hit the accelerator. The rear tires kicked up a lot of dirt before gaining enough traction to send the car speeding forward. The police officers keeping watch along the defensive perimeter didn’t even have time to respond before the car smashed through the gate, sending Lego pieces flying everywhere as the large car zoomed off.

Meanwhile, officer Flash Sentry had unexpectedly been left behind. He figured he could just grab a police motorcycle and follow them, but first he needed permission from higher authority. He pulled out his radio again and spoke, “Hey, chief. This is officer Flash Sentry. We just learned of a probable location where Sunset Shimmer might be. Twilight and her team are already on their way there. Permission to follow?”

After a brief crackle of static, the voice on the other side responded, “Negative. You’ve already caused enough trouble today, rookie. Just stay right where you are until I say otherwise.”

Flash Sentry gripped his radio tighter in frustration, then grunted as he angrily threw it on the ground. Apparently, the police chief was still disappointed in him due to all of the traffic incidents he had caused in his rush to get to City Park earlier that afternoon. Flash believed that it simply wasn’t fair — not to mention, possibly dangerous to not have a police officer with Twilight’s team — but he also knew that as a rookie officer, there was little he could do about it. He had no choice but to obey the chief’s orders.

Deep within the Everfree Forest, Pinkie Pie’s seven seater car zoomed up a dirt road — which Fluttershy had identified as being called Sunny Drive — at high speed, leaving a large cloud of dust in its wake. It sped around many bends and over many hills. Finally, after going around a bend to the right and reaching the top of a ridge, the vehicle quickly screeched to a stop next to a narrow trail in the woods — which, according to Fluttershy, was known as Pleasant Trail. The seven minifigs riding inside the car quickly climbed out and gathered together at the start of the trail.

Fluttershy pointed up the trail and explained, “There should be a big rock in the middle of a small clearing, not far up the trail from here.”

“Then let’s go!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash in determination.

The team quickly ran up the trail and around a pair of alternating bends. It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the described clearing in the woods. As soon as everyone looked up at the rock that dominated the clearing, they all immediately stopped and gasped in shock.

Standing atop that big rock was Sunset Shimmer herself. In her left hand, she held the greyed-out crown that held the Element of Magic. “Ah, so glad to see you could make it,” began Sunset tauntingly. “And with good timing, too. If I’m not mistaken, there are now only five minutes left to go before this crown regains it magical powers. And when that happens, you will be here to witness as I finally achieve all of the power that I have ever wanted!”

“Not if we have anythin’ to say about it!” declared Applejack as she and the rest of the team got ready to make a move.

Sunset simply chuckled in amusement and responded, “Oh, I beg to differ.” She then spoke up, “Come on out, boys!”

From around either side of the big rock, two minifigs stepped forward and stood in front of the rock. Their similarities were more than just the yellow skin color of a typical minifig. They both wore black and white striped prison shirts, grey pants, and black beanie hats. Both of them were also scruffy, with stubble visible on their faces. In addition, they were both armed with red crowbars, which clearly showed they were not to be messed with. The key difference between these two was that the one on the right wore a grey jacket — which was open to show that he was still wearing that black and white striped prison shirt underneath — while the one on the left had the sleeves of his prison shirt ripped off — leaving his arms completely bare.

“Ladies, allow me to introduce you to Rocky and Mugsy,” said Sunset, gesturing to the jacketed crook, then the sleeveless crook.

Rocky? Mugsy? thought Twilight as those names sounded rather familiar to her. It took a little bit of time, but she soon gasped as she realized what these two crooks had done two days ago. “They’re the ones who found my crown when it fell into this world!” she exclaimed in shock. She turned to her team and explained, “Before Sunset attacked the police station, Flash Sentry told me that he had taken my crown from them while arresting them yet again.”

“Consider it dumb luck,” explained Sunset. “I could’ve demanded that they hand that crown over to me, but by the time I found out they had gotten it, they were already back in jail. So not only did I have to call in some extra help to take back what should be mine, I also had to break these two out for the umpteenth time!”

“So you’re the one who keeps breaking them out of jail!” exclaimed Spike. Despite the shocking revelation, there was still one thing about it that confused him, so he asked, “But why go with a couple of brick-heads like them?”

“Because nobody would suspect that I would wanna work with such incompetent crooks,” explained Sunset, “and I can easily manipulate them to do anything I say.” She shrugged as she added, “Mostly because I promised to give them all of the spoils of my past crimes. Five years’ worth of robbing banks sure does provide a nice profit.” She then turned her attention to the two crooks below and said, “You know your orders, boys.”

“Yeah!” said Rocky, the jacketed crook who spoke with a gravelly gangster voice. “We ain’t gonna let these sissies pass! Right, Mugsy?”

“You said it, Rocky!” responded Mugsy, the sleeveless crook who spoke with a deeper dim-witted voice. He chuckled for a few seconds, but then stopped and mumbled in confusion before asking, “Which sissies are we stopping?”

“All the ones right in front of us, you dummy!” answered Rocky irritably, pointing his crowbar at Twilight’s team.

“Hey, I was just asking!” responded Mugsy.

“Well it was a dumb question!” retorted Rocky. “Even a brainless monkey could’ve figured it out!”

“Hey, are you calling me stupid?” asked Mugsy, getting agitated.

“How can anyone not call ya that!” answered Rocky. “You’re practically the definition of stupid!”

“Well maybe that should change!” retorted Mugsy as he threateningly held up his crowbar.

Their pointless argument was immediately stopped by Sunset Shimmer, who pulled out a megaphone from behind her back and activated the air-horn feature. The loud honk startled everyone — except Sunset, of course. “That’s enough!” exclaimed Sunset in frustration. “Focus on your job!”

Rocky and Mugsy grumbled to themselves and turned back to face the assembled team in front of them.

Twilight turned away from the rock to face her team and to make sure that Sunset and the two crooks wouldn’t see her making a plan. She whispered to her team, “We’re running out of time! We gotta get my crown out of her hands before it’s too late!”

“What ‘we’?” retorted Applejack, also whispering. “That’s your crown. You get it!”

Twilight was upset that her team was still bitter about finding out why she had originally chosen them to help her, but there was no time to argue, so she sighed and quietly responded, “Fine, I’ll get it myself. But I’m gonna need a diversion.”

“Say no more,” whispered Rainbow Dash in response. She quickly turned away from the group to face Sunset and the two crooks. “Come and get me you goons!” she shouted tauntingly. She then charged forward while shouting out a loud battle cry.

The result was almost predictable. When Rainbow Dash reached the crooks, Rocky dropped his crowbar and caught the charging minifig. After spinning around once from the momentum of her charge, Rocky held Rainbow by her arms, holding them behind her back and leaving her facing the other crook. “Have at her, Mugsy!” said Rocky menacingly as he grinned wickedly.

“Okay, Rocky!” responded Mugsy happily before laughing in excitement. He raised his crowbar over his head and swung it forward.

Rainbow Dash reacted quickly by ducking her head down just enough so that the crowbar struck Rocky on the head instead of her.

“Ow!” shouted Rocky as he held the top of his head in pain. This caused him to lose his hold on Rainbow Dash, who then stumbled away to rejoin the team. “You moron!” shouted Rocky furiously as he picked up his crowbar and struck Mugsy across the face, causing his head to rapidly spin around.

“Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoa—” said Mugsy as his head spun around. He finally made it stop by bringing his free hand up to the side of his head. His eyes spun around from the dizziness. He then shook he head to clear himself from his dazed state before glaring at Rocky and exclaiming, “Hey, that wasn’t very nice!”

“There’s plenty more where that came from!” shouted Rocky as he threateningly gripped his crowbar with both hands.

“Bring it on!” shouted Mugsy in response as he did likewise.

“Cut it out, you brick-heads!” exclaimed Sunset Shimmer in frustration. She then threateningly waved the megaphone in her right hand as she added, “Don’t make me have to use this thing again!”

Rocky and Mugsy grumbled to themselves and turned back to face the assembled team in front of them again.

Mugsy then got another confused look on his face. He turned to Rocky and asked, “Hey, uh, how many sissies were we supposed to hold off?”

“We were told there’d be seven,” answered Rocky as he rolled his eyes.

Mugsy pointed his crowbar forward as he counted the team members that stood before them. Once he finished counting, he said, “I count only five.”

“Wait, what!?” exclaimed Rocky as he did a double-take at the team. Sure enough, there were only five minifigs standing there. The other two — Twilight Sparkle and Spike — were nowhere to be found.

“Hey! Where’d they go!?” exclaimed Rocky as he started looking around the area in panic.

“What happened to them!?” exclaimed Mugsy as he also did the same.

“How’d they slip away from us!?”

“Helloooo!?”

“How could we let this happen!?”

“Come out come out wherever you are!”

Sunset Shimmer tucked her megaphone under her left arm to free up a hand so she could facepalm. “Why do I even bother with those two?” she muttered in frustration. As she lowered her hand from her face, she glanced down to the crown in her hand and saw another hand trying to reach up to grab it. She responded quickly by grabbing her megaphone and shouting through it, “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!”

The one who had tried to grab the crown was Spike. The noise from the megaphone was so intense that he was actually sent flipping backwards though the air — screaming the whole way back — before hitting the ground.

Sunset turned to the bumbling crooks and ordered, “Throw him back!”

“We’re on it!” Rocky quickly responded while running.

“Okay!” Mugsy quickly responded simultaneously while also running.

The two crooks ran over to Spike, but collided face-to-face. They stumbled around for a few seconds, then shook off the impact before they each gabbed Spike by his arms.

“Watch him fly!” said Rocky excitedly as they swung Spike once.

“Like a birdie!” added Mugsy excitedly as they swung Spike a second time.

At the third swing, they let go of Spike, sending him flying back towards the team and crashing into them, sending them all sprawling across the ground.

Sunset was satisfied that one of the missing team members was found and thrown back, but she was also concerned about the other missing minifig. Especially considering that, out of anyone, it had to be Twilight Sparkle. I wonder where she went, pondered Sunset.

Meanwhile, Twilight carefully climbed up the back side of the big rock. With possibly less than a minute left, this was almost certainly going to be her only chance to take back her crown. All she had to do was sneak up behind Sunset, snatch the crown out of her hand, and then run like mad. She would figure out the rest later, but right now, she had to get that crown back. Moving as quietly as she could, she reached the top of the rock. Neither Sunset nor the crooks noticed her, so she immediately reached up for her crown.

A blinding light suddenly flashed from the magic crown. This startled Twilight enough to make her yelp, which gave away her position.

Sunset Shimmer also noticed the flash of light. She glanced back to see Twilight had been trying to sneak up behind her, but more important was the crown itself. It was no longer greyed-out, but now had regained its brilliant gold color, along with the magenta color of the Element of Magic embedded in it. Sunset smirked as she realized what this meant.

“Oh, look. Time’s up,” said Sunset mockingly to Twilight. She then threw her megaphone at Twilight, which struck her on the head and made her fall backwards off the rock and to the ground below.

Sunset turned back to face the rest of Twilight’s team and declared, “Now, ladies, allow me to show you what real power is like!” With nothing left to stop her, Sunset Shimmer placed the crown on top of her head.

At first, nothing happened. But then, rings of cyan light quickly began to completely surround Sunset Shimmer before suddenly exploding into a brilliant and endlessly high column. As a strong wind began to rush away from the epicenter, Twilight, her teammates, and even the two crooks were forced the shield their eyes from the blindingly bright pillar of light.

Barely visible within the pillar of black and cyan light was the silhouette of Sunset Shimmer slowly rising up from where she had stood. It was very difficult for anyone to see what was going on inside, but the changing shape of her shadow showed that the magic crown was altering her body.

Finally, the pillar of light vanished, revealing the new Sunset Shimmer for all to see. Her skin was now bright red, as seen on her head, arms, and most of her legs. The lower half of her legs was black. Her hair piece still had the same red and yellow colors, but was now shaped like some kind of flame. Her torso and skirt now matched the same colors as her hair, except the skirt seemed to have some kind of tail-like extension on the back. Perhaps the most startling change of all was an additional piece — attached around the neck and extended over her back — that gave her bat-like wings, which were already flapping to keep her hovering up in the air. In short, she was still a Lego minifig, but she had just been transformed from a regular person into some kind of horrible demon.

Sunset Shimmer took a moment to note her new appearance, then cackled like a real psycho.

Twilight’s team gasped in shock at seeing Sunset’s terrifying new form. Spike was so shocked that he yelped and leaped into Rarity’s arms. When he quickly realized he had done this, he turned to Rarity and grinned as he chuckled nervously.

Rarity had an unamused expression on her face as she flatly said, “Really, Spike, this is starting to get very old.” She then carelessly dropped Spike on the ground.

Sunset flexed her hands, ready to see what her newly acquired powers could do. She started by firing a cyan-colored beam of energy off into the distance, blasting Pinkie Pie’s car to pieces. The forest was not quite thick enough to hide this demonstration of power from her audience, which suited her just fine.

“Aww,” moaned Pinkie Pie sadly. “I just built that car.”

As a cyan glow of magic enveloped her hands, Sunset levitated all of the Lego pieces up and brought them directly over the cowering team. With only a little force of will, she then morphed many of the pieces into entirely different kinds of pieces.

“How’s that even possible!?” exclaimed Applejack in disbelief.

Using only a few slight and quick hand movements, Sunset quickly began assembling all of the pieces together. In only a matter of seconds, the levitating mass of pieces had now become a large cage with an open bottom. With the creation complete, she then slammed it down onto the ground, effectively trapping the six minifigs inside.

Rainbow Dash gripped the bars of the cage as she glared up at Sunset Shimmer and grumbled, “So this is how you plan to take over the Lego World, isn’t it?”

Sunset simply cackled before responding, “Please! I don’t want the pathetic little world of plastic building blocks. I want Equestria!” She gestured in the direction of Canterlot City as she continued, “And with an entire city at my mercy, I’ll soon have all of the recruits I need to make it happen! Once every citizen has been enslaved under my total control, I shall march them through the portal. Against my army of thousands, Equestria will never stand a chance!”

“No!” said Twilight defiantly as she stood up with determination. “I will not let that happen!”

After turning around to face Twilight, Sunset simply laughed before retorting, “Are you really that mistaken? I now hold the Element of Magic. I have all of its powers, and you have none!” Her right hand glowed as she used her powers to telekinetically lift Twilight off the ground and over the treetops.

Sunset showed no mercy as she tightened her magic grip around Twilight, causing her to grunt in pain. Once she was satisfied that the message had been made clear, Sunset shouted, “Away with you!” She thrust her arm forward, releasing Twilight from her magical grip and sending her flying away over the trees and far out of sight.

“Twilight!” shouted Spike as he and the rest of the team could do nothing but watch helplessly as she was flung away screaming.

With that pest taken care of, Sunset Shimmer now turned her attention to the only other minifigs left in the area: Rocky and Mugsy. “You two!” she shouted, pointing down at them.

Rocky and Mugsy whimpered and shivered as they each fearfully held their crowbars close to their bodies like they were some kind of security blankets.

“Stay here for the entire night and make sure they don’t escape!” ordered Sunset, gesturing to the cage containing Twilight’s team. “After that, well… feel free to do whatever you want, because by then, it’ll be far too late for anyone to stop me.”

The two crooks responded by standing at attention and saluting like soldiers.

“Good,” said Sunset Shimmer contently. She turned towards the horizon in the direction of the city and smugly said, “And now, to begin my conquest!”

Sunset prepared to fly away, but before she could leave, Rocky shouted, “Hey! Ain’t you forgetting something!?”

Sunset turned back to the two crooks and quickly figured out what Rocky was mentioning. She sighed in frustration and muttered, “Fine.” With more arm and hand movements, she telekinetically overturned the big rock, then lifted up large sacks that had been buried underneath it. “Here. Take your stupid loot!” She then threw the sacks to the ground in front of the crooks. The contents that spilled out consisted of green dollar bills, gold coins, and gemstones of various colors.

As the two crooks excitedly ran over to the piles of loot, Mugsy laughed and exclaimed, “Check it out, Rocky!”

“Yeah! Money money money money money money!” shouted Rocky excitedly as he waved around a pair of one hundred dollar bills in his hands. He and Mugsy continued to laugh as they looked over the incredible loot that was now all theirs.

“Just remember what you are supposed to do!” shouted Sunset Shimmer impatiently at the two crooks.

“Yeah, yeah, we got it!” responded Rocky.

“Okay, boss!” responded Mugsy.

“Good!” said Sunset in satisfaction. She then calmly stated, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go build myself an army.” She turned away and quickly flew off towards Canterlot City.

Rocky and Mugsy both watched Sunset Shimmer fly away on her quest for total domination of Equestria. Once she was out of sight, they turned to each other and grinned before quickly turning their attention back to the piles of loot. They were both giggling and running their hands through the loot like kids with candy.

As the two incompetent crooks continued to celebrate, the prisoners within the cage could do nothing but silently sit down in defeat. This cage was pretty solid, and it was highly unlikely that Sunset would have left any weak spots to exploit.

Spike gripped the bars again as he helplessly looked back in the direction that Twilight had been flung away.

Twilight continued to scream as she flew backwards through the air at high speed. Eventually, gravity brought her back down to the tree line, and it was only a matter of time before she finally struck one of the trees. The impact completely shattered her body, sending all of her pieces flying apart.

Once all of the pieces of Twilight Sparkle finished raining down, her head — which had landed on its side — slowly looked around. Remarkably, the impact had not extinguished her Creation Spark — Lego terms which meant that she was still alive. However, in her current condition, there was absolutely no way she could reassemble all of her pieces on her own. No two pieces of her body had remained together.

Twilight sighed as she sadly closed her eyes. Her chances of success now seemed completely hopeless! Sunset Shimmer had become incredibly powerful and was on her way to attacking Canterlot City, the team was locked up inside a very strong cage that was being guarded by a pair of crooks, and Twilight herself had fallen completely to pieces and couldn’t even move at all.

Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria had failed.

Author's Note

This chapter turned out a lot longer than I had anticipated. Mostly because, like the previous chapter, much of the content of the first half was stuff that I came up with only recently. In fact, it was actually one of the rare times when I had to come up with things as I wrote. I ended up with so many details that I felt like I had to include, I was actually worried it might take me a while to finish this chapter. Fortunately, my progress was able to speed up once I brought in Rocky and Mugsy. (Anyone who's seen Clutch Powers can easily guess who were the original inspiration for those two.) A pair of incompetent crooks who always get involved in slapstick comedy is just so much fun to write (expect to see more of them in the next chapter). Speaking of humor, I've had two running gags going on throughout this story. For those of you interested in figuring out what they are, this is the only chapter where you will find both of them.

Coming Together

Chapter 15
Coming Together

The skies above Canterlot City turned a brilliant shade of orange as the sun set on another seemingly ordinary day. Many of the citizens were finishing with work and had begun to return to their homes without much to worry about. There was no sense that anything unusual would await this city tonight.

It was a completely different story among the city’s police officers. They knew that Sunset Shimmer was going to make her move tonight, and it would take place at City Park. The details of her plans were still unknown, but they were confident they were ready for anything.

However, that sense of confidence was not shared by a certain rookie officer by the name of Flash Sentry. He was still frustrated that he was denied permission to go with Twilight Sparkle and her team to find Sunset Shimmer, who they recently found out was hiding somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Although he had already been told why he was not allowed to go anywhere, he was even more upset to hear that no other police officer had been told to go with Twilight’s team. But now that the chief was here to oversee the defensive perimeter that was set up in City Park, he decided it was time to personally confront him.

Chief Keystone had the typical yellow skin and wore a blue police uniform with a gold badge on his left chest that identified him as chief of police. On his face, he had a grey moustache and wore glasses with round lenses. His age showed that he’d had this position for a while, and would likely be retiring soon.

Chief Keystone stood behind the temporary fence as he looked through a pair of binoculars, scanning the outside area for any serious danger. Behind him, Flash Sentry walked up to him and calmly asked, “May I have a word with you, chief?”

Keystone glanced back to see the rookie officer. He returned to his binoculars and responded, “What is it, rookie?”

“I understand your reasons for not letting me go anywhere at this time, but I think you’re making a big mistake here,” stressed Flash. “We finally found a real clue on where Sunset Shimmer might be, and the only ones doing anything with that knowledge is a team of girls who can’t quite seem to get along. I really think we should do more than just wait around in the park. If not me, then at least send some other officer to assist them.”

“Listen, rookie,” responded Keystone as he put down his binoculars and turned to Flash. “I am not about to send any officers on a wild goose chase. False leads are among the many ways Sunset Shimmer has been able to evade capture for five years, and as far as I’m concerned, that ‘clue’ you found is just the latest of them.”

“But Twilight’s team still went after that lead,” stressed Flash as he began to lose patience. “For all we know, they could be falling into a trap! At least let me make sure they’re okay.”

Keystone returned to looking through his binoculars as he said dismissively, “They’ll find nothing, just like we always have. Maybe by the time they give up and return, Sunset Shimmer will already be here and hopefully placed under arrest.”

Flash Sentry was stunned by Keystone’s reluctance to take any action. It just made no sense to him. “Fine!” he declared as he stormed off. “You can protect the city your way, but I’m taking the direct approach, with or without your permission!”

Keystone dropped his binoculars and quickly turned to the rookie officer. “Officer Flash Sentry, this is not the time to be an action hero!” he scolded.

“And I say this is not the time to just sit around like a brick and wait for whatever fate is heading our way,” retorted Flash as he walked up to a nearby police motorcycle and climbed onto it.

“You’re already on thin ice, mister,” warned chief Keystone. “Any further trouble and you’ll be fired.”

Flashed started up the motorcycle and retorted, “If you must fire me, then at least wait until after I’ve saved the city.” He revved the motor once before the motorcycle accelerated forward towards the gate. The gate broke loose from its lock and swung open as the motorcycle slammed into it and kept moving forward.

“We should probably reinforce that gate,” noted one of the nearby officers.

Chief Keystone could only shake his head as he watched rookie officer Flash Sentry ride away disobediently. He would have to discipline him later. For now, he had to focus on remaining vigilant for whatever may soon happen here in City Park.

Suddenly, a crackle of static came from the chief’s radio. “Chief! We got incoming from the south!” shouted a voice on the radio.

Keystone quickly picked up his radio and responded, “What is it, officer?”

There was another crackle of static, but no discernable response could be heard.

Keystone spoke to the radio, “I repeat: what is it, officer? Do you copy?”

Again, the only response the chief got was static.

Keystone turned worriedly to the southern side of the park. Along the defensive perimeter, they had built two small watch towers on that side. Even so, he couldn’t help but get the feeling that the rookie officer may have been on to something.

Meanwhile, Flash Sentry rode his police motorcycle through the city streets as quickly as possible. He knew he had already received a warning for his earlier traffic incidents, but he felt that this emergency was serious enough to disregard the risk of getting fired. For him, the only thing that mattered now was finding Twilight’s team and making sure they were unharmed.

He was halfway to the edge of town when he suddenly noticed something very unusual. Citizens were fleeing in panic, screaming for their lives as they ran across the streets and sidewalks. Various vehicles on the roads swerved through the crowds as fast as they could. When two of those vehicles collided and came to a stop, everyone in both of those cars quickly climbed out and joined the fleeing mob.

Flash Sentry quickly noticed that he was moving against the fleeing citizens. As he carefully maneuvered his motorcycle through the rushing crowd of minifigs, he looked ahead to see what kind of threat they were fleeing from. He gasped in shock when he saw the red demon-like creature flying over another crowd of minifigs, but these citizens made no attempt to flee. Instead, they stood completely still, giving out zombie-like moans as their eyes glowed a sickly green color.

Flash suddenly realized he was now through the crowd of fleeing citizens and was now approaching the enslaved crowd. As soon as that horrible creature turned to face him, he immediately turned sharply onto a side street and sped off at top speed. He was trying to save the city, and the last thing he wanted was to end up like those unfortunate citizens.

“Don’t look back, don’t look back, don’t look back,” he muttered to himself. Before he could continue south, he had to make sure he put a lot of distance between himself and that monster.

Flash had glanced up at that terrible thing for only a second, but it had been enough for him to recognize one key detail: Twilight Sparkle’s magic crown — no longer depowered — was on its head.

The rookie officer sighed in disbelief. He knew to expect something terrible if Sunset Shimmer still had the crown when it regained its powers, but he never imagined anything this terrible. At first, he assumed that demon had been summoned by Sunset, but as he recalled a few other details he had noticed during that brief glance, he slowly realized something quite startling. That flying monster was Sunset Shimmer, somehow transformed by the power of that crown.

Now there was no denying that Sunset Shimmer, with the power of Twilight’s crown, had become extremely powerful. And even worse, the entire city was already falling to her will. There was seemingly nothing that could be done to stop her at this point.

Flash Sentry turned down another side street. There was only one hope left for Canterlot City. He had to find Twilight Sparkle and her team. This artifact belonged to Twilight, which meant that she was the most likely person in all of the Lego World to even have a clue on how they could fight back.

As Flash turned onto another street and began heading south again, he noticed that all of the surrounding citizens had already been enslaved by Sunset’s new powers. Although he felt helpless at not being able to do anything to save them, he was at least assured that Sunset would not be coming this way anytime soon. Not if she planned on subjecting the entire city’s population under her command.

It wasn’t long until Flash Sentry reached the edge of town and began to approach the Everfree Forest. To an outside observer, it would have looked like he was cowardly fleeing the city to save himself. The thought made Flash feel bad about himself, his city, and just about everything. He was not a coward. He just needed to find the right kind of help.

Meanwhile, as Sunset Shimmer continued to hypnotize more and more Lego citizens, it had not escaped her attention that one particular police officer on a motorcycle had gotten away before she could enslave him, too. Let him go, she thought arrogantly. He’s just one officer, and a rookie at that! There’s absolutely nothing he can do to stop me now!

With Twilight’s team not going anywhere, Rocky and Mugsy decided to completely ignore them and continue celebrating with the massive piles of loot that now belonged to them. There was only one way they could have fun with so much money: gambling with each other.

Rocky clenched a pair of dice in his hand as he shook it around. “C’mon! Big money, big money, big money!” he exclaimed excitedly before throwing the pair of dice at a nearby tree trunk. The dice bounced off and landed on the ground. The numbers that came up were a pair of ones. “Gah! Snake eyes!” he shouted frustratingly as he smacked himself in the face with both hands.

“My turn!” exclaimed Mugsy excitedly as he quickly picked up the pair of dice and shook them in his hand. “Here we go! Roll them high!” He then tossed the dice at the same tree trunk, where they bounced off and landed on the ground. The numbers that came up were a five and a two. “Yay! Seven!” he shouted excitedly as he jumped around in celebration. He then turned to Rocky and held out his hand, as if expecting to receive something.

Rocky growled lightly as he reached into one of the nearby piles of cash and grabbed a one hundred dollar bill. “Dumb luck,” he grumbled as he reluctantly handed over the green piece of cash. As Mugsy happily tossed his winnings into his nearby pile of cash, Rocky quickly retrieved the pair of dice and declared, “Best of three!”

“You’re on!” said Mugsy, accepting the challenge.

Meanwhile, the six minifigs trapped inside the cage could do nothing but watch helplessly as the sun set on what was possibly their last day of freedom, while the two crooks continued to play with their money. The pieces that made up the cage had been completely reshaped from the parts and pieces of what used to be Pinkie Pie’s car. Notably, many of these pieces had retained their original colors of pink, white, and blue, but those bright colors did little to improve the mood of everyone trapped inside this tiny prison.

As Pinkie Pie glumly looked around at the inside of the cage, she noticed one piece in particular that stuck out noticeably. Her face suddenly brightened when she realized what this specific piece was. “Oh! Look!” she exclaimed happily as she ran over to the piece in question. “The car’s trunk is still here! This is great! I’ve got all kinds of things in here we could use!”

Mugsy, who had overheard Pinkie Pie, turned to Rocky and asked, “Hey, uh, should we be worried about that?”

Rocky stopped shaking the pair of dice in his hand and looked over at the small storage compartment. “Nah!” he said dismissively with a wave of a hand. “Look at the size of that thing! She probably ain’t got more than one or two hand tools in there.”

Pinkie Pie quickly opened the trunk and immediately began tossing out all of the items she had stored inside: a shovel, a radio, an apple, an ax, a spare tire, a pickax, a chainsaw that sounded like it was still running, a jackhammer, a spare chair, a spare steering wheel that honked when it hit the ground, an empty mug, another apple, a red parrot that squawked loudly as it flew away, a leftover pizza, a toilet seat, a pair of handcuffs, a megaphone that briefly made an air horn noise when it hit the ground, a spare car door, a spare window, a spare license plate that was labeled “PINKIE”, another spare tire, a pair of binoculars, a coiled-up whip, yet another apple, and finally a rubber chicken that squeaked when it landed on top of the pile of items.

“Whoa!” exclaimed Spike as he and the other girls stared at the large pile of items that had just been pulled out from such a small storage compartment — which any sane person would’ve thought was impossible. Of course, this was Pinkie Pie, so they chose not to question it. Instead, Spike turned to Pinkie and remarked, “You’ve got everything but the kitchen sink in there!”

“Nope! Got that, too!” replied Pinkie happily as she pulled out a kitchen sink, which hit the ground with an audible thud.

Rainbow Dash stared at Pinkie in stunned silence for a few seconds. She then snapped out of it and said, “Well, uh, at least you’re right about having some useful things in there.” She eyed the chainsaw and reached down to pick it up. “Maybe now we can—”

Before Rainbow Dash could grab the chainsaw, Rocky quickly snatched it and pulled it out of the cage, where she could no longer reach it. “Nice try, sissies!” he said tauntingly. “But you ain’t gettin’ out that easy!” He then unceremoniously tossed the chainsaw behind his back. Since it was still running when it stuck into the ground, it quickly zoomed off into the woods on its own. In its wake, a few large trees toppled over.

After watching that odd display, Applejack quickly followed Rainbow Dash’s example and picked up the ax. She brought it backwards and prepared to strike it against the bars of the cage. As soon as she began to swing it forward, she felt the ax slip out of her hands. “Huh?” she muttered as she looked at her empty hands in confusion. She looked back and saw that Mugsy had used the hooked end of his crowbar to snatch the ax out of her hands and outside of the cage.

When Rarity picked up the shovel, Rocky did the same thing while saying, “Yoink!”

With a goofy grin on his face, Mugsy quickly began scooping the rest of the items out of the cage while saying, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! ” On the other side of the cage, Rocky silently did likewise.

Eventually, the only item that was left within reach of the trapped minfigs was the pickax. As Mugsy hooked the head of it with his crowbar, Applejack grabbed onto the handle. “Hey, lego!” exclaimed Mugsy as he pulled on his crowbar. Applejack responded by pulling harder on the handle of the pickax, followed by the other girls joining in on her side.

Rocky brought a quick stop to the tug-o-war by blaring the air horn of the megaphone. The sudden loud noise startled everyone into losing their grips and falling backwards. Before anyone inside the cage could recover, Rocky grabbed Mugsy’s crowbar and the pickax and pulled them both out of the cage. “Finders keepers!” taunted Rocky as he waved the pickax around, then carelessly tossed it behind his back. The pickax spun through the air and stuck itself into a tree trunk.

As Mugsy sat up, he saw Rocky toss one of the apples at him, which bounced off his head before he managed to catch it. Mugsy looked at the interior of the cage and saw that he and Rocky had successfully removed all of the items that had been stored inside that tiny trunk. In celebration, he held up his apple and said, “Cheers!”

Rocky responded by grabbing another apple and smacking it together with the one in Mugsy’s hand. They both then simultaneously took a huge bite out of their apples.

The six minifigs inside the cage sighed in defeat. Rainbow Dash turned to Pinkie Pie and asked, “Got anything else in there?”

Pinkie Pie stuck her head inside the open trunk and looked around. She then pulled her head out and dejectedly replied, “No, I’m afraid that’s it.”

“Rats!” shouted Applejack in frustration.

Just then, a series of squeaking noises came from within the open trunk. The source was quickly revealed to be three rats that then hopped out and began scurrying around in the cage.

“AHH! RATS!” shrieked Rarity as she tried desperately to put as much distance between herself and the rats as possible.

As the trio of rats quickly scurried out of the cage, Rocky and Mugsy yelped and dropped their half-eaten apples. They then quickly grabbed their crowbars and chased after those rats. They both tried to smack those rats with their crowbars, but they were always too fast to get hit. Not to mention, they were now going in circles at this point.

“Don’t you dare hurt them!” exclaimed Fluttershy desperately. “They never did anything to harm you!”

Rocky and Mugsy continued to beat their crowbars against nothing but empty ground. Eventually, Mugsy managed to hit something, but instead of one of the rats, it was the bottom of Rocky’s leg.

“Ow! My foot!” shouted Rocky in pain as he clenched his foot and hopped around on his other leg.

“Whoops. Sorry,” said Mugsy sheepishly.

The trio of rats took advantage of the incident and scurried away into the forest.

With the rats now gone, Rocky let go of his sore foot and glared at Mugsy. He picked up his crowbar and casually smacked Mugsy in the back of the head with it.

“Ow! What was that for?” complained Mugsy as he rubbed his free hand over the back of his head.

Rocky ignored him as he walked back to the piles of loot and dropped his crowbar. He then scooped up the pair of dice and began to shake them around as he grinned and said, “Better say goodbye to your loot, ‘cause I’m doubling down on this one!”

Mugsy smiled as he walked over to the piles of loot and dropped his crowbar. He accepted the challenge by saying, “Bring it on!”

As the two incompetent crooks resumed their petty gambling, the six minifigs trapped inside the cage were now back to doing nothing but looking on in defeat. Their only hope of saving themselves had been taken away just as quickly as they had found it. Although none of them wished to openly admit it, it was now clear that their only hope of escape would come from some outside help. The only one they could think of to do that was Twilight Sparkle, but after the way they had seen Sunset Shimmer get rid of her, there were legitimate fears that she might have ended up even worse than them.

Twilight had noticed the sky growing darker on her third day in the Lego World. She knew it would only be a matter of hours before the gateway to Equestria closed, leaving her stranded here for the next two and a half years before she could even try to return home. By then, there might not be anything left for her to return to, thanks to Sunset Shimmer.

That wasn’t even counting the fact that she was now physically unable to literally do anything at all. With all of the pieces of her body separated, the only part of her that could move was her facial features. She could've tried hopping her head around, but the fact that it had landed on its side would make this very difficult. Besides, there was very little one could do when one is nothing more than a head.

And so, Twilight could do nothing but leave her eyes closed in sadness, silently moping about how she had been just a few seconds too late. And now, an entire city in this world and an entire kingdom in the other world were about to face the consequences of her failure.

This part of the forest had been very quiet ever since Twilight had crash-landed here, so when she heard the faint humming noise of some motorized vehicle off in the distance, she definitely took notice. Even so, she didn’t expect much to come of it. As far as she knew, she had landed far from any of the nearest trails in this thick woodland. Any nearby vehicles were probably just passing by, never knowing of her unfortunate fate.

Within moments, the deep humming noise of the motor steadily grew louder. In addition, a light was shining through the trees — likely the headlight on that vehicle, driving through such a dark place. It wasn’t much longer before Twilight realized that vehicle was approaching her location. Even then, she still didn’t get her hopes up. Due to her current condition, she doubted that someone passing even very close to this area would ever notice her.

Twilight’s rock-bottom expectations were exceeded yet again as that vehicle — a police motorcycle — pulled up into the area and stopped just a few paces away from where her parts lay scattered across the ground. The rider of that motorcycle brought it to a stop and shut off the motor, which also shut off the headlight. With the blinding glare of that headlight gone, she could now see who it was that had just stumbled into this part of the forest: Flash Sentry!

Rookie police officer Flash Sentry knew that he had to go into the Everfree Forest to find Twilight and her team, but he had no idea where exactly to look. Despite the fact that he knew this motorcycle was not built for off-road use, some instinct within him told him that he had to come to this particular location, even though he had never been here before. Although he still had no idea what drove him to look for something in this location, the sight that awaited him made him very glad that he chose to listen to that odd instinct.

“Twilight!” he exclaimed in horror as he saw the terrible condition she had ended up in. “What happened?! Are you okay?!”

Twilight responded by silently looking up at Flash, then glancing back down at the ground as she sadly closed her eyes again.

“Here, let me help you!” exclaimed Flash in determination as he quickly began gathering up all of Twilight’s parts. He picked up the hip joint, attached one leg, then the other, and set those legs on the ground on their feet. He placed the skirt back over those legs, then attached the armless torso on top of that. He grabbed a hand and an arm, put them together, and then attached that arm to her torso before repeating the process with the other hand and arm. Finally, he picked up her head, placed her hair on top of it, and reattached her head to the rest of her body. He stood back and smiled as he saw that Twilight Sparkle was now completely reassembled. “There!” he said in satisfaction. “Feeling better?”

Even though her body was now whole again, Twilight strangely did not share in the enthusiasm. “No…” she replied with a sigh. She dropped to the ground on her rear and looked downward in sadness.

Flash Sentry was stunned to see Twilight was still depressed. He thought that helping to put her back together would have helped a lot, but she still appeared to be just as depressed as before. He kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Twilight,” he said slowly as he stared into her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Twilight looked up at Flash Sentry. The pleading look in his eyes showed that he really wanted to help her. Knowing that he expected an answer out of her, she sighed sadly and quietly replied, “I failed, officer… I failed to take my crown away from Sunset Shimmer before it regained its magic powers… I was just a few seconds too late… And now, my team is trapped in a cage and the entire city is falling as we speak… The portal to Equestria closes in just a few hours, and when that happens… there may not even be an Equestria left for me to return to…” She paused for a few seconds and looked down in defeat. “There’s nothing left that I can do…”

Flash was understandably shocked to hear all of this. Although he had already figured out that Twilight had failed to take her crown back in time to keep its powers away from Sunset, he was very surprised that she considered that failure to be the end of everything. He had to convince her otherwise. “Twilight,” he said softly. “Look at me, Twilight.”

Twilight hesitantly looked back up into Flash Sentry’s eyes.

Flash spoke softly, but sternly. “This is not yet over, Twilight. You’re still here. Your Creation Spark still shines brightly. We still have a few hours left to go before that interdimensional gateway closes. And for all we know, it may take Sunset Shimmer some time to prepare before she can begin her invasion of your world. You can still do something about this, Twilight.”

Twilight considered Flash Sentry’s words of encouragement, but sighed dejectedly as she remembered the hopeless odds she was now up against. “But what can I do?” she quietly asked. “How can I possibly stand up to Sunset Shimmer now?”

Flash didn’t show it, but he was getting quite frustrated with Twilight’s refusal to take any action to save the two worlds. Refusing to take action… pondered Flash. He needed to snap Twilight out of her depression, and he decided to try another source of encouragement. “You know… I’m officially not supposed to be here,” he admitted.

Twilight was confused, but continued to listen carefully.

“Chief Keystone didn’t want me to go anywhere,” continued Flash Sentry. “He even refused my request to have another officer follow you and your team so I could be sure of your safety. He wanted to keep every police officer within the city and wait for Sunset Shimmer to come to us.” He paused briefly before a more determined look appeared on his face. “I didn’t like that. I wanted to take action, but he wanted us to do nothing. I wanted to go out and do something to save my city, but he wanted to stand and wait for whatever fate was heading our way.” He paused again. “I did not like what he was ordering me to do, so I decided to defy those orders.”

“You did?” asked Twilight, quite surprised by that detail.

Flash replied with a nod before continuing, “I hate feeling helpless. I knew I could still do something, so I went out and did it. I went against the chief’s direct orders and left City Park on that motorcycle and rode it all the way out here.” He tapped the police badge of his left chest as he muttered, “I understand I may have to turn in this badge for what I did… but I’m convinced that I did the right thing.” He looked Twilight directly in the eyes as he firmly said, “I did all of that for you, Twilight. I have already helped you, but now you must help me. I cannot help my city at this point, but you can. There is still time left to succeed in your mission. You and your team must come together and find a way to stop Sunset Shimmer before it really is too late. Twilight Sparkle of Equestria… can you do this?”

Twilight looked down as she considered everything that Flash Sentry had just explained to her. This minifig had practically sacrificed his career for her sake. He was clearly not the type to give up so easily, and if he truly believed that there was still hope, regardless of how slim the odds were… then there really was still a chance left.

Finally, with renewed determination, Twilight stood up and proudly said, “You’re right! I can’t just sit here and simply let things happen. I need to get back out there and do everything I can to save my world and this one. It’s never over until it’s really over!”

“That’s the spirit, Twilight,” praised Flash Sentry as he stood back up. To be sure that she really was ready to take action, he asked, “So what needs to be done, first?”

“First, I’ll need to get back to my team and find a way to rescue them,” answered Twilight. “Without their help, I’ll never stand a chance. I just need to find some way to get back there, and fast.”

“Take my motorcycle,” offered Flash. “It may not be built for off-road use, but it’s better than nothing.”

Twilight glanced at the motorcycle and noticed there was room for only one minifig on it. She turned back to Flash and replied, “Thanks for the offer, but I can’t just leave you here alone in the woods.”

“Don’t worry about me,” argued Flash. “Your world’s not counting on me to save them. They’re counting on you.”

“Yes, I know,” said Twilight as she began looking around the area for anything useful. “But until I can free my team, you’re the only help I’ve got. There is no way I’m going anywhere without— AHH!” As she had pushed her way through some foliage, she stumbled off the edge of a small cliff that had been hidden from view.

“Twilight!” exclaimed Flash as he pushed his way through the foliage, only to end up tumbling over that same cliff right after her. Both minifigs bounced off the side of the cliff a few times before landing at the bottom. Flash groaned as he slowly got up and asked, “You okay?”

Twilight sat up and held the side of her head painfully as she replied, “I’m fine.” She jokingly added, “At least I still have all of my pieces.”

Flash smiled at this assurance. He then turned to look up at the small cliff they had just fallen down and muttered, “Well, I guess the motorcycle is no longer an option.”

Understanding there was no going back, Twilight decided to take a quick look around at their new surroundings. In addition to more trees, she also noticed a few Lego pieces scattered around, though it was a little too dark to identify what kinds of pieces they were. She responded, “No, but I think we might have something useful here.”

Flash turned to Twilight, then in the general direction she was facing. He quickly noticed the various Lego pieces that she had found, so he pulled out a flashlight and switched it on to get a better look. There were only a few pieces here and there, such as a few small bricks, plates, and wheels. Flash Sentry sighed in disappointment and said, “I’m afraid we don’t much to work with here.”

Twilight, on the other hand, remained optimistic. She responded, “No, but with a little imagination, I think I can build something useful.” Twilight mentally took note of each of the pieces she could see, thanks to the light provided by Flash Sentry. This was actually the first time she really had to build something on her own, and would thus need to rely on her own creativity.

It wasn’t long before Twilight began to form an idea. Smiling, she turned to Flash and said, “Keep that light on. I’m gonna need it.” She then ran over to one of the pieces and went to work.

Flash Sentry kept aiming the flashlight at Twilight as she ran around collecting pieces. She was no speed-builder like Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash, but she knew exactly what she wanted to build. She started with a standard twelve-stud plate for the base of the model. To the bottom of that, she attached a pair of four-stud plates that each had two axles on opposite ends. She then began collecting some wheels, one of which was separate from the tire. She laid the tire down on its side and tried to push the inner wheel into it. Since the tire was made of rubber, she found that it was rather difficult to attach it to the plastic part of the wheel. It wasn’t until she tried stomping on top of the inner wheel that she finally managed to fit the tire on. She then rolled the wheel over and attached it to one of the axles. She was unable to find more than two of those kinds of tires, but she did find a pair of smaller wheels, so she decided to place the bigger wheels on the back axle and the smaller ones at the front. She then attached a pair of seats on top of the base, one in the back and one in the middle. Finally, she added a few small pieces to the front and topped it all off with something that could work like a pair of handlebars.

Twilight Sparkle took a few steps back to admire her work. “It’s not much, but it should get the job done,” she admitted with pride.

With the construction now complete, Flash Sentry switched off his flashlight and put it away. Curious, he turned to Twilight and asked, “What do you have in mind?”

Twilight turned to Flash with a smile on her face as she simply replied, “You’ll see.”

It was now many minutes after the sun had set. The skies were now dark enough for stars to appear on this clear night. Back at the cage, the six minifigs remained trapped inside while the two crooks continued to gamble with their loot. Once again, Rocky tossed the pair of dice at a nearby tree. When he saw the outcome of his toss, he grunted in frustration, yet again.

Not far from there, deep within the forest, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The peaceful silence was then interrupted by a faint buzzing noise. That noise gradually grew louder and louder until the source of it finally zoomed by. It was a small and very basic all-terrain vehicle — also known simply as an ATV. Sitting in the driver’s seat at the front was Twilight Sparkle, who worked the handlebars with all of her strength as she struggled to maintain control at high speed. Sitting behind her in the other seat was police officer Flash Sentry, who kept one hand on top of his head to prevent his hat from flying off.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Flash with concern.

“Trust me, I know what I’m doing,” replied Twilight. She and Flash had to almost shout over the loud buzzing noise of the ATV as it zoomed off through the woods.

Flash looked ahead worriedly. He was starting to regret agreeing to come with Twilight, if this was how she planned to ride to the rescue. Then again, he had to admit that there really were few options left at this point.

“There! I see them up ahead!” exclaimed Twilight, pointing at a large clearing not far ahead. Between the tree trunks, they could see the cage, the large rock, and the piles of loot in between. At the speed they were going, it would only be a matter of seconds before they arrived.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Flash.

“When I give the signal, jump off!” replied Twilight.

“WHAT!?” exclaimed Flash in shock.

Meanwhile, as Mugsy took his turn to throw the pair of dice, Rocky began to notice a faint buzzing noise. As the pair of dice was tossed in front of him, he glanced over in the direction the noise seemed to be coming from. He saw something moving through the woods. His eyes widened as he realized that it was moving fast, and it was heading right for them!

Mugsy, oblivious to the oncoming threat, looked at the result of his throw and happily exclaimed, “Yay! Another seven! This must be my lucky day!”

“Uh, Mugsy…” said Rocky worriedly as he slowly pointed at the oncoming vehicle.

Mugsy, being the dim-wit that he was, misunderstood Rocky’s fearful expression and simply assured, “Aw, don’t be jealous.”

Rather than argue, Rocky simply grabbed Mugsy’s head and twisted it around so that they could both see what was rapidly approaching. Like Rocky, Mugsy’s eyes widened in shock as he saw the oncoming danger.

Twilight steered the ATV directly towards one of the piles of loot. Directly beyond that specific pile was the cage, where her team finally began to notice what was heading their way. “Now!” shouted Twilight, just before jumping out of her seat and diving to the right.

“Whoa!” shouted Flash Sentry as he quickly jumped out of his seat and dove to the left.

Just one second after they both ditched the ATV, the small vehicle ran over the pile of loot and was launched into the air. Rocky and Mugsy yelped as they both dove aside to avoid getting run over. The six minifigs inside the cage gasped fearfully and crowded over to the far side as the driverless ATV came flying directly at them.

When the ATV slammed into the side of the cage, the impact completely demolished both models, sending Lego pieces flying everywhere. As Twilight’s team quickly realized they had not been hit by anything, they opened their eyes to see Lego parts raining down all over the clearing. They all glanced around to discover the cage was now completely gone. They were free!

Spike was to first to react. He threw his red LEGO hat up into the air and starting jumping around as he excitedly shouted, “Yes! Freedom! Woohoo!” As soon as he stopped hopping around, his hat landed back on his head, albeit at an awkward angle.

Rarity giggled as she readjusted Spike’s hat and said, “Yes, I think we can all agree this is worth celebrating.”

“Ah’d just like to know who came up with that brick-headed idea to free us like that,” remarked Applejack with a smile on her face.

“That would be me.”

The team turned to the source of the voice and gasped as they saw Twilight Sparkle walking up to them.

“Twilight!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie happily. “You’re here! And you’re okay!”

“I most certainly am, now that I’ve just freed my friends,” said Twilight as she stopped right in front of the team.

“‘Friends’?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion. “You mean…?”

“That’s right,” replied Twilight with a nod and a smile on her face. “You’re not just a team that reminds me of my pony friends. You are all my friends — my Lego friends. And right now, I need you all more than ever. Sunset Shimmer may have my crown and its powers at her command, but we still have each other. And as long as we work together, then there’s still a chance that we can succeed.”

“Now that’s the kind of spirit Ah can appreciate!” praised Applejack.

“Yay! We’re all friends again!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie cheerfully.

“Awesome!” added Rainbow Dash. “Now let’s go stop that monster!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

Twilight and her friends spun around to see Rocky and Mugsy were back on their feet. They had menacing grins on their faces as they threateningly held their crowbars.

“You sissies ain’t goin’ nowhere!” threatened Rocky.

“Yeah, sissies!” added Mugsy tauntingly, before giving a quick laugh.

Before the two incompetent crooks could make another move, a pair of hands reached up from behind and bonked their heads together. Both crooks moaned deliriously before falling forward and unconscious. Behind the two downed brick-heads was Flash Sentry.

Flash sighed and shook his head. “Crooks,” he said flatly. “When will they ever learn?”

Spike turned to Twilight in confusion and quietly asked, “What’s he doing here?”

“He actually managed to find me,” answered Twilight. “He helped me when I needed it most.”

“And you decided to bring him with you?” asked Fluttershy.

“It was the least I could do,” replied Twilight with a shrug. She glanced down at the unconscious crooks and jokingly added, “Especially considering how he just paid off the debt he owed me.”

“Just doing an officer’s duty,” responded Flash Sentry. He tried to finish that with a tip of the hat, but when his hand grasped nothing, he noticed that his hat was missing. He glanced back to where he had jumped off from that ATV and saw his hat was still on the ground there. He turned back to Twilight’s team chuckled nervously. “Hat fell off again,” he simply said, before turning around and quickly leaving to retrieve that hat.

At the same time, Pinkie Pie also walked away from the group. She quickly began gathering up some of the pieces that now lay scattered across the clearing. Spike noticed this and asked, “Uh, Pinkie? What are you doing?”

“If we’re gonna go after that big meanie, I’m gonna need to rebuild my car so we can get there fast!” answered Pinkie as she kept gathering more pieces.

“Ah’d hate to break it to ya, Pinkie,” Applejack spoke up, “but after what Sunset did to these here parts, Ah seriously doubt we’d be able to make another car outta them.”

“Besides…” added Rainbow Dash solemnly as she picked up a grey one-stud brick. The side of that piece was labeled with a black lightning bolt. “The Power Brick is dead.” She then tossed aside that piece, knowing that it was now completely useless.

Twilight remembered reading about Power Bricks during her research at the library two days ago. Just as a minifig needs a Creation Spark to be alive, a vehicle needs a charged Power Brick in its construction in order to be able to function. The lightning bolt design on its side was an indicator of how much charge was left within the Power Brick: If it was fully charged, then it would be completely green; three quarters charged and the color would still be green, but the upper quarter would be black; half charged and the color would turn yellow with the black section now covering the upper half; one quarter charged and the colored portion would turn red, while the black portion expanded to cover the upper three quarters; and finally, no charge at all was indicated by the lightning bolt being completely black, and thus be considered “dead”. Power Bricks could always be recharged — that’s what refueling stations were for — but out here in the middle of nowhere, it was very unlikely they would be even close to such a place to recharge that brick.

“What about that thing Twilight used?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Why not use that Power Brick?”

“It wouldn’t make much difference,” admitted Twilight. “That Power Brick’s charge was already very low when I added it in. I was actually afraid it would run out before I could even get here! I’m just glad that it managed to keep working long enough to do what I needed.”

“So what can we do now?” asked Fluttershy. “It’ll take hours to get back to Canterlot City by foot!”

“Not to mention, we’ll never stand a chance on our own like this,” added Rainbow Dash. “I mean, sure we’ve got each other, but we can’t exactly fight Sunset Shimmer with nothing but our bare hands.”

“She does have a point,” said Flash Sentry as he dusted off the top of his hat before putting it back on his head. “I saw Sunset Shimmer for myself on my way out of the city. She’s quickly enslaving every citizen in town, and I would’ve met a similar fate had it not been for my quick reaction on that motorcycle.” He sighed before continuing, “The only thing I could do was escape. If you girls are gonna stand any chance against someone that powerful, you’re going to need some firepower.”

“But where can we get it?” asked Spike as he looked around. “We certainly don’t have much to work with around here.”

Applejack’s face brightened as she suddenly remembered something. “Ah got it!” she exclaimed happily. She turned to her friends and explained, “Ah’ve heard there’s an old junkyard not far from here. Ah bet we can find all kinds of useful parts there.”

“Normally, I would object to the idea of working with junk,” Rarity spoke up. She then shrugged as she added, “But, beggars can’t be choosers, and in this particular case, we have definitely been reduced to beggars.”

Twilight nodded in agreement and said, “Yes, that junkyard is probably our best chance.”

“Then why are we still here!?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “Lead the way, AJ!”

Applejack nodded in acceptance before turning away to lead the team of friends off to the junkyard.

Twilight began to follow, but stopped and turned back to see that Flash Sentry was not following with the others. “Aren’t you coming?” she asked.

“As much as I’d love to, somebody’s gotta stay here and deal with those brick-heads,” answered Flash, gesturing towards the unconscious forms of Rocky and Mugsy. “I should also probably secure all this loot before any would-be robbers try to take it.” He then smiled as he added, “Besides, you’re now back with your friends. You won’t be needing my help from this point on.”

It was only at the final reason that Twilight smiled. She nodded in understanding and said, “You’re right.” As she turned around and chased after her team — no, her friends — she shouted back, “Wish us luck!”

“I will!” Flash shouted back. He decided to assure Twilight by adding, “And don’t worry about me! I’ll catch up with you in the city!”

Twilight glanced back with a smile on her face before turning her attention back to following her friends down the dirt road. She would worry about the rookie police officer later. For now, she and her Lego friends had only one chance left to stop Sunset Shimmer, and they were about to take it.

After nearly half an hour of running, the team finally reached the edge of the Everfree Forest and arrived at the old junkyard. A tall fence surrounded the entire area, except for a wide gap at the entrance where the gate had long since fallen off. Within this vast area were countless piles of parts and incomplete models and vehicles.

“Wow-wee! Look at this place!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie in awe.

“Ah figured y’all would like this,” remarked Applejack smugly.

“Awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash excitedly. “We can build all kinds of things with this much stuff!”

“Then let’s not waste another moment,” said Twilight with determination. “Come on, girls! It’s time to get creative.” She then began to walk into the junkyard, soon followed by the rest of her friends.

Each minifig began at different piles and started by taking a look at what kinds of parts could be found within those piles.

Applejack found an axle with two wheels already attached to opposite ends. She quickly pulled it out of the pile and tossed it aside to the ground.

Rarity picked up a standard eight-stud brick, but discarded it in disgust when she noticed that it was green. She then smiled when she found a similar brick that was white instead.

Rainbow Dash picked up an odd cylindrical object. Curious about what she could use it for, she unintentionally hit some kind of trigger on the bottom end of it, which immediately caused a large jet of flame to shoot out the top. She was startled by this and quickly shut it off. Once the flame was gone, a huge grin formed on her face as she thought about how she could use something like this.

Spike managed to grab a pair of two-stud bricks. He carefully attached one on top of the other, then smile at his accomplishment. But then he saw Applejack pass by while hauling a sled on which dozens of various parts and pieces had been piled up on. At this sight, Spike could only drop his jaw in shock.

Pinkie Pie ran around another pile to inspect it from every angle. Her face brightened as she suddenly got an idea. She then proceeded to quickly toss away various parts and pieces from the pile. Fluttershy, who happened to be standing nearby, immediately cowered down and held her arms over her head to protect herself from the raining Lego parts. Once pieces stopped flying everywhere, Fluttershy slowly brought her arms down and looked up to see Pinkie Pie, who gestured towards the large incomplete model that she had just unburied from underneath the pile. Fluttershy simply stood up and smiled.

Among the various pieces Twilight was pulling out from another pile, she discovered a large blue transparent piece. Its curved shaped reminded her of how it was commonly used on a particular type of vehicle, which gave her an idea on exactly what she wanted to build.

Rarity carefully removed another brick from her pile, which inadvertently caused a massive container on top of the pile to topple over, allowing its contents of large blue and green spheres to spill out and roll across the ground. When everyone noticed the mess and then turned to see who had caused it, Rarity just smiled sheepishly and blushed in embarrassment.

Rainbow Dash smiled as she was lucky enough to discover a fully-charged Power Brick. She then tossed it aside when she found one the size of a two-stud brick — which meant the charge on this one would last twice as long. She then threw that one away too when she found one the size of a standard four-stud brick — four times the charge of a regular Power Brick! Now that was the kind of power she wanted, which put a huge grin on her face.

Pinkie Pie carried a precariously balanced pile of pieces in her arms over to the large model she had discovered. With her view blocked by those pieces, she failed to watch out for those scattered spheres and slipped on one of them, causing her to fly onto her back and dumping all of those pieces all over the ground. Spike noticed the incident and, when he saw what kinds of pieces had just been dropped, finally got an idea of what he could build.

Applejack’s creation was already starting to take shape by the time she carried over a stack of large tires. When she dropped the tires on the ground, the one on top of the stack bounced off and began to roll away, forcing her to chase after it.

Fluttershy looked down at a megaphone in her hands, then looked up at Pinkie Pie’s unfinished creation. She was hesitant, but felt that Pinkie would appreciate her contribution to the build. She climbed up on top of the model and looked for an appropriate place to attach her piece. Once she found the perfect spot, she carefully attached the part. The instant it was attached, the part let out a brief honk, which startled Fluttershy and made her fall off the model and hit the ground on her back. When Pinkie Pie looked over in confusion, Fluttershy simply smiled and blushed in embarrassment. Pinkie Pie responded with a smile of her own before returning to whatever she was doing.

Rarity looked down at the few pieces she had collected and carefully arranged. She still couldn’t quite decide what she wanted to build. She glanced over at Applejack’s half-finished creation, then to the spheres that remained scattered across the ground, and then back to the small assembly she had been working on. She smiled as she finally got the perfect idea. She picked up her small assembly and brought it over to Applejack and her creation.

Spike smiled as he added the last piece to his small creation. He dragged his creation over to Pinkie Pie’s model and, with a little help from Pinkie, managed to toss it up onto the model.

Twilight searched desperately for one particular part. She knew her creation would be rendered useless without it, so she had to search through every pile, if necessary. She smiled as she finally found the part she was looking for: a small propeller.

Rainbow Dash added the last piece to her creation. After smiling at seeing it completed, she then tried to move it, but it was just too heavy for her. As she continued straining to pick it up, she was stunned when she suddenly felt her model being lifted off the ground. She opened her eyes to see that Applejack had picked up the other side of this model. Applejack just smiled and nodded once, and Rainbow Dash responded with the same gesture. Following Rainbow’s direction, they both hauled the creation over to and up onto the back of Pinkie’s large creation. The two strong minifigs wiped their brows and shook hands at this accomplishment.

Rarity finished the final attachments of her contribution to Applejack’s model. She was glad that Applejack had approved of her proposal to merge their creations into one single model. After a quick look around, she found herself very pleased with the aesthetic design of this combined model.

Fluttershy helped Rainbow Dash insert a few gears and long axles into some hidden spaces within Pinkie Pie’s creation. She wasn’t sure what purpose they would serve, but she was more than happy to help with any part of the build.

Twilight had needed a ladder to reach the top of her almost-finished creation, but once she managed to get up there, she was easily able to attach the final pieces, which were a couple of long eight-stud plates.

Finally, everything was now complete. The seven minifigs stood back to admire the creations they had been able build together. There was no doubt in anyone’s minds that they had done a very good job of using everything they had available to them.

“Nice work, girls,” said Twilight Sparkle with pride. “If these creations can’t stop Sunset Shimmer, I don’t know what will.”

With smiles on their faces, the seven minifigs returned to their creations, ready to put them into use. This was going to be their final chance to defeat Sunset Shimmer and save Equestria and Canterlot City. It really was now or never.

Author's Note

Another chapter that turned out to be much longer than I had anticipated, but I managed to find the time to write it all out and double check for any errors. If you're wondering what exactly the team just built in the junkyard, you'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out. Speaking of which, we are now getting very close to the end, as there are now only two chapters and the epilogue left to go before this story is finally complete.

Downtown Battle

Chapter 16
Downtown Battle

Sunset Shimmer soared over Canterlot City, double-checking to make sure that she had enslaved every single citizen within the city limits. Once she was satisfied that she truly had the entire city under her control, she laughed lightly in victory as she flew up towards the tall buildings in the middle of the city. Her work in the Lego World was complete. Now, it was finally time to take the fight directly to Equestria.

Sunset stopped and hovered over the roof of one of the tall buildings and looked around at the surrounding city. She took a brief moment to appreciate the eerie silence that settled across the area, thanks to her efforts. A quick glance at the clock tower confirmed there was now only one hour left before the gateway to Equestria closed, which made her grin. The time had come.

She closed her eyes as she telepathically sent out her first order to her army of Lego minifigs: “My loyal subjects, you are to gather in City Park and await my further command. Tonight, we begin the invasion of Equestria!”

As one, every single minifig stood up straight, turned directly towards City Park, and began marching. Their movements were slow and constant, almost like mindless robots. Once every one or two seconds, the loud clacking noise of thousands of minifigs simultaneously taking a single step echoed all over the city. It was downright creepy and horrifying to an outside observer, but to Sunset Shimmer, it was music to her ears.

In one seemingly random part of town, the scene appeared to be just as similar as it was everywhere else in the city. But soon, something different began to arrive. A pair of headlights could be seen approaching along a street, accompanied by the noise of a vehicle’s engine. As the glare of the headlights moved aside, the oncoming vehicle was revealed to be something like a jeep on large tires and with some kind of turret sitting in the back. This special vehicle had room for only two minifigs, a driver and an operator for the turret. Sitting behind the turret was Rarity, while the driver was Applejack.

As the junkyard jeep zoomed by, Applejack honked the novelty horn, which played a quick tune that lasted for a few seconds. Once the brief tune finished, Applejack excitedly shouted, “Yee-haw! Now we’re gettin’ somewhere!”

Meanwhile, Rarity was busy scanning the skyline through a pair of binoculars. If they were going to put this creation to good use, the first thing they needed to do was find Sunset Shimmer. She sighed in frustration as she was unable to see any clear signs of their opponent, so far. “How hard can it be to find such a hideous demon in an ordinary city like this?” she muttered to herself.

As the jeep rapidly approached an intersection, Applejack saw something that made her eyes widen in shock. “Whoa, nelly!” she exclaimed as she stomped on the brake, quickly bringing the vehicle to a screeching halt.

Rarity had not expected the sudden stop and was nearly thrown out of her seat. She immediately lowered her binoculars and glared at the driver. “Applejack! What is the meaning of… this…?” Her words of frustration trailed off as she shared the same reaction as Applejack at what lay before them.

It was only now that they finally realized what all of the enslaved citizens were doing. Applejack and Rarity looked on in stunned silence as every surrounding minifig marched in perfect lock-step in the same exact direction. They made no reactions to anything that was going on around them as they marched on. The simultaneous clacking of each footstep was impossible to ignore. Perhaps the most startling detail of all was the wide variety of minifigs that were part of this mindless march: a firefighter, a chef, a racecar driver, a construction worker, and even children!

“My stars…” muttered Rarity in shock and disbelief. “It’s like… something out of a horror movie!”

“An’ they’re all goin’ in one direction,” observed Applejack. “Towards City Park.”

“So it’s true, then,” stated Rarity in disbelief. “Sunset Shimmer really does intend to march them all through the interdimensional portal there.”

“Not if we have anythin’ to say ‘bout that!” said Applejack in determination. “We’ll track down that monster an’ put an end to her madness!”

“I could not agree more with that statement,” responded Rarity as she returned to looking through her binoculars. Within seconds, she finally found their target. “There! I see her!” she exclaimed. “She’s on top of the Octan Building!”

“Think ya got a clear shot from here?” asked Applejack.

“I believe so,” replied Rarity as she set down her binoculars.

“Then have at her!” encouraged Applejack.

“Gladly,” responded Rarity with a smirk on her face as she grabbed one of the numerous containers that were attached to the back of the jeep. These containers were actually feeders that held four large spheres that could be fired by this type of turret. Once the turret was loaded, Rarity spun it around until it was aimed directly at the distant figure atop that tall building. She took a moment to carefully make sure she was on target. Once she was finally confident with her aim, she grabbed the lever and quickly pushed it forward, which triggered the turret to fire one of the spheres. When the lever quickly sprung back, she immediately pushed it forward again, and again, and again, ensuring that all four spheres had been fired in rapid succession.

Sunset Shimmer had been basking in her apparent victory so smugly that she was completely startled when the first sphere whizzed right by her. As the second sphere whizzed by, she quickly realized she was under attack. As she moved aside to barely dodge the third sphere, she conjured up a small fireball and flung it at the fourth and final sphere. The impact of the magic blast caused the sphere to detonate in midair, far enough away to not cause any harm.

As the smoke cleared, Sunset could finally see who had dared to attack her like this. Her eyes widened as she was startled to discover that it was Applejack and Rarity. “How did they escape!?” she asked in disbelief. She immediately decided to ignore that question for now, for she knew who was responsible for this failure. As she conjured up another small fireball, she growled and muttered, “I knew I couldn’t trust those brick-heads!” Once the magic in her hand was powerful enough, she hurled it towards the offending vehicle.

Rarity had witnessed all of this through her binoculars. She lowered her binoculars as she said in disbelief, “Oh dear. It appears I’ve missed every shot.”

It seemed that Rarity was not the only one whose aim was off tonight, for Sunset’s magic energy missed hitting the jeep. Instead, it struck a nearby parked car. The blast caused that unfortunate car to fly apart into pieces.

“We’d better get goin’ while the gettin’s good!” said Applejack without hesitation. She immediately stomped on the accelerator, causing the tires to screech momentarily as the jeep sped off down the street.

As the jeep swerved around abandoned vehicles and some of the mindless marching minifigs, Rarity desperately held onto the turret for support. Trying to find some optimism, she commented, “At the very least, I hope we were able to provide a good enough diversion to assist the others in their own efforts.”

The jeep passed by another parked car just as it was blasted apart by Sunset Shimmer. Some of the pieces showered the side of the jeep, but thankfully none of them hit either of the occupants. “Ah don’t think we gotta worry ‘bout that part!” remarked Applejack irritably.

Sunset Shimmer growled in frustration before hurling another blast of magic at the speeding junkyard creation off in the distance.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, another vehicle was zooming along the streets. This thing was much bigger than the jeep and was mostly red. Specifically, it was an old fire truck. The cab up front lacked a roof or any windows, but that didn’t seem to bother any the four minifigs riding inside. Riding on that junkyard fire truck was Pinkie Pie behind the driver’s seat, Fluttershy in the front passenger seat, Spike behind the front passenger seat, and Rainbow Dash in the driver’s seat. The fire truck also lacked a bell or siren, but it did have that loud horn on the front.

Rainbow Dash blared the horn twice before shouting, “Coming through!” She was forced to swerve the fire truck around some of the people who happened to be marching right in the middle of the road. Past the upcoming intersection, Rainbow could see no way around that many people in the road, so she decided to turn right onto another street. The fire truck went around the relatively tight turn at high speed, causing the tires to screech as it made the turn.

As the fire truck straightened out, Fluttershy gasped as she saw yet another mind-controlled minifig marching across the street. “Look out!” she exclaimed fearfully as she pointed at the person ahead.

Rainbow Dash blared the horn twice again, but the hypnotized minifig made no reaction at all, as if the oncoming vehicle didn’t even exist to him. Rainbow was forced the swerve the fire truck so far to the side that it briefly went up onto the sidewalk, knocking over a trashcan in the process. “It’s no use!” exclaimed Rainbow as she steered the fire truck back onto the road. “They’re all practically zombies!”

“Good thing I thought ahead,” remarked Spike as he got up out of his seat, “because that’s where this thing comes in!” Spike reached back to grab his small creation that was stored on top of the fire truck. He grunted as he struggled to lift it over his head before flipping it over and attaching it onto the front of the vehicle. The small assembly he had just added was some kind of pendulum with a large mass on the end, making the whole thing look like some kind of giant hammer. “Not exactly the kindest approach, but it sure is better than running them over,” explained Spike.

“Good enough for me,” said Rainbow Dash, before turning the fire truck left onto another street, which turned out to have a lot of enslaved citizens marching through the middle of the road. Once the massive vehicle was straightened out again, she told Spike, “Swing away!”

Spike grinned as he grabbed onto the lever that would allow him to swing the large hammer around. Pushing the lever left would make the hammer swing to the right, and pushing it to the right would make the hammer swing to the left. As the fire truck quickly approached the marching crowd, Spike started swinging the hammer back and forth. Each time right before the hammer struck someone, Spike shouted things like, “‘Scuse me! Pardon me! Comin’ through! Move it! Look out! Incoming! Oversize load!”

In the fire truck’s wake, a few minifigs got knocked aside and landed on the sidewalk. Each of them showed no emotion as they slowly stood back up and resumed marching in the same direction and at precisely the same pace and timing as everyone else.

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was busy looking around for any sign of Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow Dash had mentioned having some kind of secret weapon loaded on the back of this fire truck, and had plans to use it against Sunset. Pinkie couldn’t wait to see what Rainbow had in mind, so she continued to look around to help her get that opportunity she needed.

Finally, Pinkie spotted that red monster hovering atop one of the tallest buildings in the city. She pointed up at the building and shouted, “Look! There she is!”

The others turned to glance up at the building to see for themselves that Sunset really was up there. Now that she knew where to go, Rainbow Dash turned her attention back to the road ahead with a determined look on her face and declared, “Good! Now let’s take her down!” She quickly turned right onto another street.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a mistake, as Spike pointed ahead and shouted, “Uh oh. Roadblock!” Blocking the road up ahead were a few cars piled up together. The fire truck was too long to turn around on such a narrow street, so the only way out was to go right through the roadblock.

Knowing what had to be done, Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes in determination and shouted, “Hang on!” She stomped down on the accelerator, pushing the mighty vehicle ahead the highest speed possible.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” whimpered Fluttershy fearfully.

“Wheeee! Smashy smashy!” shouted Pinkie Pie cheerfully.

The screams of all four minifigs onboard grew louder as they got closer to the roadblock. Finally, the massive fire truck slammed into the roadblock, demolishing the pile of cars and sending Lego pieces flying everywhere. One could almost imagine seeing the impact happening in slow motion. Remarkably, the junkyard fire truck made it through the heavy collision without losing even a single piece. This was likely because Spike’s creation — which got knocked off the fire truck from the collision — had taken most of the impact.

With that obstacle out of the way, Rainbow Dash immediately turned left onto yet another street. This time, the fire truck was going so fast around that corner that it didn’t just make the tires screech. The left side wheels actually came up off the ground as the entire vehicle leaned over towards the outside of the turn. As Rainbow Dash remained silent in concentration, Spike and Fluttershy screamed in panic, while Pinkie Pie just squealed excitedly like she was on an amusement park ride.

Finally, Rainbow straightened the steering wheel out, allowing the massive vehicle to slam back down on its base. Once the fire truck was steadily moving forward again, Rainbow Dash climbed out of her seat and kept one hand on the steering wheel as she turned back to Pinkie Pie and exclaimed, “Pinkie! Take the wheel! It’s time to use my secret weapon!”

“Roger, dodger!” responded Pinkie before hopping over and into the driver’s seat.

As Pinkie grasped the steering wheel, Rainbow Dash made her way towards the back of the fire truck, where her secret weapon sat in preparation for use. She stood up and placed her back against her creation. She then pulled part of it down over her chest, and then two more parts alongside her arms. With the set-up complete, Rainbow pointed at Fluttershy and shouted, “Fluttershy! Flip that switch!”

Fluttershy looked over on the side of the fire truck and saw the lever next to her that stuck out noticeably. She pushed the lever forward, which turned some gears and axles inside, ultimately releasing a series of clamps that held down Rainbow Dash’s creation to the fire truck.

“BLAST OFF!!” shouted Rainbow Dash before activating her secret weapon: a powerful jetpack. The small but mighty engines instantly roared to life, shooting bright flames downward and quickly pushing the jetpack up — taking Rainbow Dash with it.

“Whoa!” shouted Spike as he briefly shielded himself from the blast of smoke from the jetpack as it took off.

“Goodness!” exclaimed Fluttershy as she did likewise before she and Spike turned their attention up at the airborne creation.

“Wow-wee!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she and the others watched Rainbow Dash and her jetpack soar over their heads and high into the sky.

After a brief moment of stunned silence from the three remaining minifigs in the fire truck, a grin suddenly formed on Spike’s face as he excitedly exclaimed, “I have gotta get me one of those!”

Up in the air, Rainbow Dash was laughing, yelping, and grunting as she struggled to control what was arguably one of the most awesome things she had ever built. After swerving around uneasily, she finally managed to bring the powerful jetpack under control and steered directly towards the top of the building where Sunset Shimmer was waiting. “You’re going down, demon!” she shouted, before unleashing a battle cry as she flew straight at the monstrous minifig.

Sunset turned to see Rainbow Dash and her jetpack rapidly approaching. Smiling, she simply moved aside and let the rocket-propelled minifig pass by harmlessly.

“NOOO!!” shouted Rainbow Dash in frustration as she continued to fly forward. “I missed! How could I miss!?” Her eyes suddenly widened in shock as she saw the rapidly approaching side of another tall building. “Uh oh.” With little time to react, she immediately pulled back on the controls to steer the jetpack upwards. The jetpack sharply turned up and barely avoided slamming into that building. Unfortunately, in her haste to avoid that impact, Rainbow quickly lost all control of the jetpack as it continued to soar straight up. “Ah! Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whooooaaaaaaaa!” screamed Rainbow as she and her jetpack spiraled upwards uncontrollably and out of sight.

After witnessing the disappearance of that amusing sight, Sunset Shimmer couldn’t help but laugh. “Pathetic!” she taunted to the five remaining minifigs zooming around in the streets below. “Is that the best you wimps can do!?” The demonic minifig then resumed her evil laughter.

Sunset’s laughter was suddenly cut off as she began to hear another noise. It was a faint rapidly thumping noise. She looked around suspiciously, trying to locate the source of that strange sound.

Soon, the source of that thumping noise moved into view from behind another tall building, revealing that it was a small personal helicopter. What really surprised Sunset Shimmer was not the helicopter itself, but the one who was piloting it: Twilight Sparkle. “What the…” muttered Sunset in disbelief as the junkyard helicopter moved to hover directly overhead of her position.

Inside the small helicopter, Twilight tapped a button, allowing the winch to automatically lower down. “I sure hope that crown is magnetic,” Twilight said quietly to herself as she tapped that button again to make the winch stop, then tapped another button to activate the magnet that was dangling on the end of that winch.

As soon as that magnet activated, Sunset felt the magic crown on her head start to shift. She quickly reacted by bringing a hand up to hold the crown to her head before it could slip loose. “I don’t think so!” she shouted before using her other hand to telekinetically grab the magnet and quickly force it away, dragging the entire helicopter with it.

“Ah! There goes Plan A!” exclaimed Twilight fearfully as the helicopter was dragged backwards, despite holding the controls to move it forward — which caused the rapid thumping noise of the rotor to become much louder. She quickly shifted around in her seat so that her feet could hold the controls in their current forward state, allowing her to reach underneath the helicopter to grab something she had stored on the bottom. That item she pulled out was a brick separator, which she had been fortunate enough to find buried at the bottom of a random pile back at the junkyard.

As she kept her feet on the controls, Twilight reached the brick separator over to remove the part that attached the winch to the rest of the helicopter. After prying it around awkwardly, she finally managed to remove that piece. As the winch and the magnet continued away, the helicopter quickly slowed down to a stop and then accelerated forward. This sudden change in momentum caused Twilight to drop the brick separator and scream as she was nearly thrown out of her junkyard helicopter.

Twilight just barely managed to hang on and avoid falling out. Her feet kept holding the controls in place as her upper body stuck out precariously. With some careful maneuvering, she managed to pull herself back into her seat and into the proper position, putting her feet down and bringing her hands back to the controls. By the time she accomplished all of this, the helicopter had returned to the Octan Building and Sunset Shimmer.

The rotor quieted back down as Twilight slowed the helicopter down to hover in place. “Okay, Plan B…” said Twilight to herself with uncertainty. “What’s Plan B?”

Sunset didn’t hesitate to strike down Twilight Sparkle. She conjured a small fireball and hurled it at the helicopter, but barely missed.

“Ah! Evasive maneuvers! Evasive maneuvers!” exclaimed Twilight in panic as she quickly started working the controls back and forth, making the helicopter move left and right to keep it in motion, and thus make it a difficult target to hit.

Sunset kept on hurling magic energy at the swerving helicopter. After many tries, she finally managed to get a hit, striking the propeller that served as the tail rotor and causing it to fly off.

Twilight felt the impact and immediately started hearing alarms blaring loudly from the controls. “Oh nononononononono!” she exclaimed fearfully. Her screams of panic continued as the junkyard helicopter started spinning around uncontrollably and slowly descending.

The helicopter soon managed to land somewhat gently on the roof of the Octan Building, but it continued to spin around uncontrollably. Twilight tried desperately to slow down the main rotor, but the helicopter continued to slide around the roof in circles. Eventually, one of the skids on the bottom bumped into the ledge of the building, causing the helicopter to roll over sideways and fall off the side of the building upside down. After a long fall, the helicopter crashed into the street below and completely fell apart into pieces.

Just seconds after the crash, the junkyard fire truck arrived at the scene and quickly came to a stop. As Spike immediately hopped out of the fire truck, Fluttershy gasped and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness! That’s Twilight’s helicopter!”

Spike quickly started tossing pieces aside, searching desperately for any sign of Twilight. It wasn’t long until the pieces were scattered enough to make it clear that there were no body parts at all within the wreckage. “But Twilight’s not inside it!” exclaimed Spike.

Pinkie Pie quickly cleared up the confusion by pointing upward and exclaiming, “That’s because she’s still up there!”

Spike and Fluttershy turned to look up and gasped as they saw Twilight dangling from the ledge at the top of the building. She had somehow managed to grab onto that ledge as the helicopter rolled over it before falling off. Although she was still alive, she was also very clearly in great danger — not just because she could fall off, but also because Sunset Shimmer could simply push her off.

As the junkyard jeep slowed down on its way past the scene of the helicopter crash, Applejack and Rarity needed only to look up at Twilight hanging onto that ledge to understand what was going on. “Y’all don’t worry ‘bout a thing! We’ll take it from here!” assured Applejack, before driving off to provide Rarity with an ideal distance to use the turret against Sunset.

“Nice and steady now, Applejack,” cautioned Rarity as she removed the empty feeder from the turret and discarded it. “The last thing I need is a bump in the road to disrupt my accuracy.” She grabbed one of the full feeders and attached it to the turret. She then spun the turret around and pointed it up towards the top of the tall building. With the demonic minifig lined up in her sights, Rarity fired off all four spheres in rapid succession.

As Twilight struggled to hold her grip onto the ledge, Sunset Shimmer stared down at her with a smirk on her face. “Nice try, princess, but I’m afraid this is the end of the road for you,” taunted Sunset. She then noticed the four spheres shooting right towards her. She quickly dodged the first one, then grabbed the second in her magical grip and hurled it at the third, causing them both to explode in midair. Finally, she grabbed the fourth and final sphere in her magical grip and — after glancing at Twilight with a wicked grin — flung it at the ledge.

The impact of that sphere broke many pieces off of the building, including the one that Twilight had been holding onto. Now, there was nothing that Twilight could do but scream in terror as she fell to her doom.

“Twilight!” shouted Spike as he and the others could do nothing but watch helplessly.

Twilight flailed her limbs around and kept screaming as she continued to fall to the street far below. Minifigs may be durable, but she seriously doubted that she could survive a fall from such a great height. Even worse, there seemed to be no way that her friends could be able to save her.

Suddenly, just halfway down to the ground, Twilight felt something slam into her from the side. This object roared with the noise of rocket engines as it soared over the cityscape. The five minfigs on the ground — as well as Sunset Shimmer — gasped in shock at what they were seeing. Realizing that she was now flying instead of falling, Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see who had just saved her.

“I told ya I wouldn’t let ya down!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash excitedly as she held on to Twilight.

“Rainbow Dash?” asked Twilight in confusion as she quickly looked over the large jetpack on Rainbow’s back that propelled them through the air. “This is your secret weapon?”

“Pretty cool, huh?” smirked Rainbow proudly.

After a brief silence, Twilight suddenly asked, “So how does it land?”

Rainbow Dash’s look of pure confidence was immediately wiped away. “Uh…” was all she could manage to say.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Rainbow and simply stated, “You didn’t think about that part, did you?”

Rainbow grinned innocently for a moment, but the conversation was quickly interrupted by a blast of magic energy passing by dangerously close. The two airborne minifigs glanced back to see Sunset Shimmer was now focusing her efforts on shooting them down. “I think we’ve got bigger problems to worry about right now!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “Hang on!”

Twilight immediately reached up to hold tightly onto Rainbow Dash, freeing up Rainbow’s hands and allowing her to control the movements of the jetpack. She used all kinds of aerial maneuvers to dodge every burst of magic, from simple left and right banking, to complex moves like barrel rolls and even a vertical loop at one point. As Rainbow silently piloted the powerful jetpack around, Twilight could do nothing but scream fearfully as she was carried along for each and every wild maneuver.

After missing for the umpteenth time, Sunset Shimmer growled loudly in frustration. It soon became clear that if she was going to shoot down that jetpack and its two passengers, she would have to directly pursue it. With a mighty beat of her bat-like wings, she quickly flew away from the Octan Building and soared after the jetpack. Once she was firmly in hot pursuit, she resumed hurling small fireballs at her target.

“It’s no use!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash desperately as she struggled to control the jetpack. “This thing may be powerful and awesome, but I can’t keep doing this! There’s gotta be another way!”

Twilight thought desperately for an alternate plan. The junkyard creations had done well to distract Sunset Shimmer from focusing on her intentions to invade Equestria, but they ultimately failed to remove those magic powers from her. What Twilight and her friends really needed was some way to remove that magic. Physically removing that crown was out of the question, after her failed attempt with that magnet. That meant they would need to find some way to counteract those magic powers.

Twilight now began to think of what could work against an Element of Harmony. Suddenly, it hit her like a ton of Lego bricks. Sunset Shimmer was using an Element of Harmony… but it was being used for the exact opposite of harmony. If that magic was not being used for its intended purposes, then perhaps it could be turned against the user. It was a long shot, but it just might work.

Finally, Twilight revealed her plan to Rainbow Dash. “We gotta get everyone back together,” she quickly explained.

Rainbow briefly glanced down at Twilight in shock and exclaimed, “Are you nuts!? That’ll just help her destroy us all with only one shot!”

“Trust me!” responded Twilight desperately. “It may be our only chance!”

“If you say so,” said Rainbow Dash reluctantly. She brought the jetpack lower until they were weaving their way between buildings. It wasn’t long until she found the fire truck driving quickly down one street. Rainbow swooped the jetpack down just long enough to tell her friends below, “Meet up with the jeep!” Just seconds later, she managed to find that jeep, to which she pulled off the same maneuver with the slightly altered message of, “Meet up with the fire truck!” Knowing that it would take some time for the two vehicles to find each other, Rainbow decided to buy them as much time as possible by making sure that Sunset Shimmer remained in hot pursuit of the jetpack.

Meanwhile, the two remaining junkyard vehicles sped off through the streets in desperate search for each other. Nobody in either vehicle had any clue what the plan was, but they knew that something had to be done. After speeding through many different roads, both vehicles quickly began to turn left. Unfortunately, neither of them were aware that they were doing so at the same intersection at the same time until it was too late.

“Whoa!” shouted Applejack as she realized the jeep was turning onto the road that the fire truck was turning away from. As the long fire truck made its wide turn, Applejack had almost no time to react as she stomped on the brake and jerked the wheel as hard to the left as possible in a desperate attempt to make an emergency U-turn. Unfortunately, both vehicles were going so fast through their respective turns that they ended up sliding across the pavement and slamming into each other, broadside to broadside. The jeep and the rear of the fire truck were smashed to pieces, leaving only the incomplete cab of the fire truck intact, which spun around before sliding to a stop and facing towards the intersection.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy immediately hopped out of the fire truck cab to check on their friends. They didn’t need to worry, as Applejack and Rarity quickly pulled themselves out of the wreckage.

When Rarity reached a hand up to her head, she immediately noticed the worst possible thing imaginable to her: her hair piece was missing! “AHH! My hair!” she screamed as she started looking around desperately. “What happened to my hair!?”

Applejack quickly dug through the wreckage of the junkyard jeep and, within seconds, pulled that stylish violet hair piece out from underneath the pile and stated, “Found it!”

“Oh, thank goodness!” exclaimed Rarity with a sigh of relief as Applejack tossed the hair piece back to her. “I don’t know what I would do without this most valuable piece of all.” She quickly dusted off the outer surface of her hair and gently placed it back on her head.

The faint roaring noise of Rainbow Dash’s jetpack quickly caused the four minifigs in the street — and one Spike in the fire truck remnant — to turn their attention to the rapidly approaching airborne creation.

With the rest of their friends now together, there was only one thing Rainbow and Twilight had left to do. As Rainbow Dash carefully guided the jetpack very low along the street towards that intersection, she told Twilight, “Get ready to let go!”

Twilight looked down fearfully as she anxiously awaited Rainbow’s signal. Since this jetpack had been built with no landing feature, the only way off was to simply drop away and hope for a soft landing.

Rainbow slowed down the jetpack as much as she could while keeping it airborne. Just two seconds away from passing directly over the intersection of the crash scene, Rainbow shouted, “Now!”

Twilight put her fate in Rainbow’s instincts and let go. Rainbow had managed to bring the jetpack down to a height of less than a dozen bricks from the street, which meant that Twilight didn’t have far to fall before hitting the ground. In fact, most of her momentum on impact was horizontal instead of vertical, which caused her to quickly tumble down the street until she was caught by Fluttershy. Despite a little soreness, Twilight was relieved to be back on the ground with almost no injury.

Meanwhile, at the very instant Twilight had dropped away, Rainbow Dash quickly pushed away the piece over her chest that held her to the jetpack, briefly pulled the controls to turn the flying creation upwards, and then bailed out. She managed to do all of this in just one second, but it was just enough of a delay to have her overshoot the intersection, causing her to land just past the crash scene and tumble along the street with nothing to catch her. Fortunately, she managed to tough it out and bring her body to a complete stop. After taking a few seconds to catch her breath, she noticed Applejack run over and help her back to her feet. Although she could have been fine on her own, she didn’t resist the friendly gesture.

With the entire team now back together, everyone glanced up at the now pilotless jetpack as it soared upwards. Just seconds later, Sunset Shimmer finally managed to score a direct hit with a blast of magic energy that completely shattered the jetpack. As pieces of that destroyed jetpack began raining down on the street off in the distance, the six friends turned around and gasped as they suddenly found themselves face to face with a very furious Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset immediately began using both hands to conjure up a much larger fireball. “Playtime is over, girls!” she roared furiously. “It’s time I got rid of you pests once and for all!” Finally, once the massive bright orange fireball was formed, Sunset raised it over her head and hurled it down at the six helpless minifigs below.

With only fractions of a second to react, the six friends quickly huddled together and braced themselves for impact. The massive fireball easily struck its target, exploding brightly enough to be seen from all over the city.

Spike had ducked down behind the steering wheel of the disabled fire truck. Once the bright flash from the blast faded away, he slowly peeked over the steering wheel, fearing what he would see. As soon as he got a look at the scene in front of him, he gasped in shock.

Sunset Shimmer laughed victoriously for a few seconds, but when she finally opened her eyes, she also gasped in shock at what stood before her.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends, under the magenta glow of some kind of magic, were completely unharmed! The six friends opened their eyes and looked at one another in confusion. None of them had even a scratch on their bodies!

“What the— How is that even possible!?” exclaimed a very dumbfounded Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight smiled as she realized what just happened. She looked up at Sunset with a smirk and explained, “For the same reason you couldn’t get rid of me back in the forest. An Element of Harmony may be very powerful, but there is one thing they can never ever do, and that is to take away a pony’s life! Or, in this case, a minifig’s Creation Spark.” As she and her friends began to rise up and magically hover over the street, Twilight continued, “But there’s more to it than that. The magic contained in my Element was able to unite with those that helped create it.” As Twilight began to list the six Elements of Harmony, something remarkable started happening.

Applejack noticed her hair piece change shape. First, a pair of pony ears sprouted up from both sides, quickly followed by the back getting much longer, as if to give the impression that it was like a tail.

“Honesty!”

Fluttershy’s hair piece also gained a pair of pony ears and grew longer in the back. In addition to that, an entirely new piece came into existence. That new piece was attached by the neck and went over her back, and from there a pair of feathered wings sprouted and unfolded.

“Kindness!”

Pinkie Pie’s hair piece gained a pair of pony ears and grew longer at the back. She smiled as she reached her hands up and around to feel those new magical additions to her body.

“Laughter!”

Rarity’s hair piece transformed in three ways instead of just two. In addition to the pony ears and long extension in the back, she also gained a unicorn horn on the front.

“Generosity!”

Rainbow Dash transformed in a similar way as Fluttershy did. Her hair piece gained pony ears and a longer extension in the back, and a pair of feathered wings over her back on a new piece that attached by the neck appeared. Unlike Fluttershy, Rainbow was more than happy to start flapping those wings right away.

“Loyalty!”

Finally, Twilight Sparkle felt the magic transform her body as well. Her hair piece gained a pair of pony ears on either side, grew an extension at the back to look like a tail, and gained a unicorn horn at the front. Finally, she also gained a piece for a pair of wings over her back, though these feathered wings were broader than what Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash got.

“Magic!”

With the transformations complete, the six friends hovered closer to each other, causing the surrounding magic to start backfiring into the crown on Sunset’s head. Twilight continued, “Together with a crown, they create a power beyond anything you could imagine, but it is a power you don’t have the ability to control! The crown may be upon your head, Sunset Shimmer, but you cannot wield it, because you do not possess the most powerful magic of all: the Magic of Friendship!”

The six friends were now arranged in a circle and, as one, they all clasped hands with each other. With this gesture of friendship, a bright rainbow burst forth from the center of the circle and arced over directly towards the evil Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset gasped as the seemingly endless rainbow started to swirl around her like the funnel of a tornado. “What is happening to me!?” she exclaimed as she looked around in panic.

“Here and in Equestria,” finished Twilight as her eyes glowed brightly, “it is the only magic that can truly unite us all!”

As Sunset screamed from the loss of power, six smaller rainbows shot out from the twister, each of them striking a random minifig in the head and setting them free. From each of these minifigs, six more rainbows shot out and freed many more minifigs. This process continued, accelerating the number of people that were being set free. Soon, within only a matter of seconds, all of the thousands of Lego citizens were freed from Sunset Shimmer’s spell. At first, these people looked around and muttered in confusion.

“Huh?”

“What happened?”

“What’s going on?”

It didn’t take long for the people within sight of the magic rainbow to notice that incredible event taking place.

“Whoa! Look!”

“What is that thing?”

“What’s happening over there?”

As the citizens continued to look on in confusion and awe, the glow of magic surrounding the six close friends signaled the end of its task by flaring brightly until nothing but pure white could be seen.

Author's Note

Since this story has always been intended to be an alternate take on Equestria Girls, it was inevitable that it would have a similar ending (only one more chapter and the epilogue left to go now). Now to explain a few details. That short tune on the jeep's horn, I'm not sure what it's called and I think it comes from the dukes of hazard (all I know for certain is that I once heard it in one of the trailers for the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean video game). The turret on the back of that jeep is actually a Bionicle part, specifically a Zamor Sphere launcher from 2006 (yes, I had to find some way of making at least one Bionicle reference without bringing in any of the characters). Compared to a minifig, it obviously works better as a turret than a handheld launcher. The Octan Building in this chapter is just a regular skyscraper and nothing like the Octan Tower from the Lego Movie. And of course, the jetpack is yet another reference to Clutch Powers.

Returning Home

Chapter 17
Returning Home

The six friends — Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle — were lying unconscious in the middle of the intersection where they had made their ultimate stand against Sunset Shimmer. Scattered around them were the various Lego pieces of what used to be some of the creations they had made to help them win. Beyond that stood numerous minifigs, recently freed from Sunset’s grip and now looking on in confusion and wonder.

Spike, who had been hiding in what remained of the old fire truck, quickly hopped out and ran over to Twilight. He was currently too worried to notice the pony-like changes that had been made to her body as well as those of her friends. He gently shook her until she began to stir.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked up to see Spike, who then quickly hugged her in relief. Twilight returned the gesture, then glanced back to see the rest of her friends were also reawakening.

“Wow, Rarity. I really like your new look,” complimented Fluttershy.

“I agree,” replied Rarity as she grabbed the end of her now much longer hair and held it up in front to get a better look at it. “These hair extensions are simply divine!”

“I also like those ears and that horn, too,” added Fluttershy. “They make you look just like a unicorn.”

Rarity was surprised by the horn part, so she reached a hand up and felt that there was indeed a horn on the front of her hair piece. “Well I am rather fond of unicorns,” she muttered to herself in slight amusement. She then spoke up to Fluttershy, “Though I wish I had a pair of wings like what you now possess. Those things are just gorgeous!”

Fluttershy turned to look at the wings on her back. Realizing those wings were now part of her, she made them flutter a few times. “Oh my!” she said in both shock and excitement.

“Look at me! Look at me!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she hopped around excitedly. “I’m a pony girl!”

Rainbow Dash immediately took to the skies as she started flapping her new wings. “Awesome! Who needs a jetpack when I’ve got these!?” she shouted enthusiastically.

Applejack was almost speechless by the incredible transformations that she and the others had just experienced. “Golly, Twilight!” she finally spoke up. “Ah guess that magic crown of yours really does have some amazin’ powers!”

Twilight smiled as she saw how much her Lego friends were appreciating their new magical forms. It actually reminded her of when she and her pony friends became connected to the Elements of Harmony for the very first time, not long after she had just met them. When she turned around to face where Sunset Shimmer had been, that smile faded. In place of where Sunset Shimmer had been last seen was a large crater in the middle of the street. Silence fell across the area as everyone followed her gaze to that site. Cautiously, Twilight walked up to the rim of that crater. The lonely clacking noise of her footsteps was soon joined by those of her friends, and then the surrounding citizens. That noise was no longer the perfect unison of a mind-controlled army, but rather the randomness of many unique individuals.

Once Twilight reached the rim of the crater, she looked down at the bottom of it and saw Sunset Shimmer — transformed back into a regular minifig — lying face-down on the ground and covered in scorch marks. As everyone else began to gather around, Twilight spoke firmly to the fallen Sunset Shimmer. “You will never rule Equestria. Any power you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight, you’ve shown everyone who you really are. You’ve shown them what is in your heart.”

Down inside the crater, Sunset began sobbing as she finally raised her head and spoke to everyone, “I-I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I-I didn’t know there was another way…”

“The magic of friendship doesn’t just exist in Equestria,” explained Twilight with sympathy. “It’s everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours.”

Before Sunset could give an answer, the approaching noise of police sirens caught everyone’s attention. Within seconds, a few police cruisers drove up to the scene of the incident. The sirens stopped as the cars came to a stop, but the blue and red lights on top of those cars continued to flash on and off.

The first police officer to get out of his car was Flash Sentry. With a look of determination on his face, he immediately rushed over to the rim of the crater and looked down. With the sighting of Sunset Shimmer confirmed, Flash sighed as he quickly pulled out a pair of handcuffs and jumped into the crater. “I’ve been waiting five years to say this,” said Flash as he ran over to Sunset, who had remained face-down in the middle of the crater. “Sunset Shimmer, you are under arrest!” Without hesitation, he slapped the handcuffs on Sunset’s wrists, leaving her hands bound behind her back.

“Five years?” asked Spike in confusion. “I thought you said you were a rookie.”

“She’s the reason I decided to become a cop,” explained Flash as he pulled Sunset up to her feet and began guiding her out of the crater.

Twilight was initially shocked to see such drastic measures being taken against the defeated Sunset Shimmer, but then she realized that it shouldn’t really be so surprising, considering how much Sunset had been frustrating the police here and in other cities for the last five years. As Flash and Sunset stepped out of the crater, Twilight ran up to them and pleaded to Flash, “Wait! You don’t have to do this. What if she’s really willing to change her ways?”

Flash raised an eyebrow. “What makes you so sure of that?” he asked skeptically.

“Right before you got here, she said she was very sorry, and she seemed quite sincere about it,” explained Twilight.

Flash looked suspiciously at Sunset for a moment. She was making no efforts to resist her arrest and even seemed very saddened. It was nothing like how he had imagined the arrest of Sunset Shimmer would ultimately be like. This made him realize that even though she was a wanted criminal, she deserved some sympathy right now.

There was no way Flash Sentry was going to just let Sunset go after five years of criminal activities, so he decided to make a proposal and let her decide her own fate. He calmly said to her, “Since you seem willing to face the consequences of your past actions, I’m going to offer you a choice. You can either stay in this world and spend the next few years in jail, or you can return to your home world with Twilight and face whatever punishment they will give you upon arrival. What’ll it be?”

Sunset continued to look down silently as she considered her options. Finally, she sighed sadly and replied, “I can’t go back to Equestria… Not after everything I’ve done.”

Twilight had been hoping that Sunset would take the option of returning to Equestria, so she was shocked that she went with the other choice. “Are you sure about that?” asked Twilight with concern. “I doubt that whatever punishment you receive will be that bad, and Celestia has been hoping for a long time that you would return some day.”

Sunset slowly shook her head and quietly replied, “I… I can’t do that… I’ve already burned too many bridges. And besides… I’ve gotten too used to this world to leave.” She sighed sadly again. “I don’t even care if I have to spend the rest of my life in jail.”

“It doesn’t have to be that bad,” Flash Sentry clarified. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll let you out early for good behavior.”

“You see, Sunset? The magic of friendship can be rewarding,” assured Twilight. “You just need to have the right kind of friends on your side.”

Sunset’s expression of sorrow continued to remain unchanged. “But… but all I’ve ever done since being here is turn against everyone,” she admitted quietly. “I don’t know the first thing about friendship.”

Twilight smiled. “I bet they can teach you,” she said while gesturing toward her Lego friends, who had been watching the entire conversation. As Sunset turned to look at them, the five minifigs simply smiled in approval.

Sunset Shimmer smiled slightly in response. It was not the grin of an evil mastermind, but a small shy smile that showed that she appreciated the possibility of actually having real friends for the first time in her life. The smile quickly faded as she turned away and allowed officer Flash Sentry to guide her away and into the backseat of his police cruiser.

Twilight didn’t show it, but she was rather upset that Sunset Shimmer was going to be spending the next few years in prison in the Lego World. Despite this, a small part of her was proud to see that after everything that had happened, Sunset was at least now open to the idea of friendship.

Once the handcuffed Sunset Shimmer was in the back of the police car, Flash Sentry turned to Twilight and said, “I believe this belongs to you,” He then pulled out Twilight Sparkle’s magic crown and Element of Harmony. Before she could ask, he explained, “I found it at the bottom of that crater, next to Sunset.”

Twilight smiled at this. She then decided to kneel forward and bow her head down.

Flash was initially confused by this gesture, but then he realized that she wanted him to place the crown on her head, as if she was some sort of royalty. He wasn’t aware if that was really who she was in the other world, but he decided to play along anyway. “Okay, uh…” he mumbled to himself. He then held the crown over Twilight’s head as he cleared his throat and spoke, “Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, over the last three days, you have proven to us that you are a very great leader. Unlike those who have failed to stop you and your team, you do not force others to bow before you. Instead, you have inspired others to rise up and stand with you. Your dedication to your friends is unparalleled in the Lego World, and it is a dedication that I hope is no different in Equestria.” He placed the crown on Twilight’s head — the first time she had ever worn it since it was first stolen by Sunset Shimmer back in Equestria — and finished, “We are all proud of everything you have done to help us.”

With a smile on her face, Twilight stood back up and simply said, “Thank you.”

At this, the dozens of Lego citizens surrounding the scene cheered in excitement. Twilight looked around at them all. Seeing such a wide variety of minifigs in one place actually reminded her of Equestria and how different ponies could get along so easily. It pleased her to see that this world really did share a lot in common with her own world.

Once the cheering finally died down, Twilight turned back to Flash and complimented, “That was a nice speech.”

“Glad you think so, ‘cause that was entirely improvised,” admitted Flash. “I’m sure Celestia Playwell could’ve thought of something better, but she’s currently too busy assessing damages to personally see you off.” He then glanced down at the watch on his right wrist and suddenly got a look of shock on his face. He quickly turned his attention back to Twilight and added, “Speaking of which, you’d better get going. The interdimensional portal closes in fifteen minutes.”

The look of happiness on Twilight’s face was immediately replaced by one of panic. “Oh no, oh no, oh no!” she exclaimed fearfully as she looked around at all of the Lego pieces that remained scattered around the intersection. “Everything we built has been destroyed! How are we gonna get back to City Park in time!?”

“No problem!” boasted Rainbow Dash as she flew over to the fire truck cab. “Nothing a little creativity can’t fix!” She then tipped the cab over, causing it to fall apart and adding its pieces to the surrounding pile. She quickly flew around as she started building something new. She was flying so fast that she appeared as nothing more than a rainbow-colored motion blur.

Within seconds, she finished building and stopped flying around, revealing an entirely different vehicle. The roofless cab up front was only big enough for one seat, where the driver would be. Between the cab and the rear wheels were six seats, three on each side and facing away from the center on the vehicle. This seating arrangement allowed the vehicle to be long and narrow. In fact, the entire vehicle had very little structure to it, perhaps to reduce weight and allow it to go fast. This thing was clearly built only to get Twilight and her team to City Park as quickly as possible and nothing more after that.

Rainbow Dash laughed excitedly as she hovered over the cab and proudly said, “Now that’s what I call speed building!” She dropped down into the driver’s seat, then turned to her friends and gestured to the back of the vehicle. “What are you waiting for? Hop on!”

The six other teammates briefly hesitated before deciding to just go for it. Twilight — and Spike, of course — needed to get to City Park right away, and they wanted to be there to see her leave.

After only a few steps, Twilight suddenly stopped and turned to Flash Sentry.

Flash could easily guess the reason for Twilight’s hesitation. Since he had other police duties to deal with at this site, he would not be able to go with the team of friends to City Park. He walked up to Twilight as he uneasily said, “So, uh… I guess this is goodbye, then.”

Twilight nodded sadly. “The gateway between our worlds will remain closed for a long time,” she explained. “As fascinating as this world is, I belong in Equestria. And as much as I enjoyed making new friends here, I just can’t leave behind the ones I have waiting for me back home.”

Flash nodded in acceptance and simply replied, “Understood.” After a brief pause, he added, “Well, in any case, I wish you good luck.”

“Thank you,” said Twilight quietly. After taking a deep breath, she began to turn away. But then she seemed like she suddenly remembered something as she quickly turned back to Flash and added, “Oh, and one more thing before I leave.”

Flash raised an eyebrow, curious to hear what else Twilight had to say.

Twilight knew this would almost certainly be the last time she would ever speak to this police officer, so she wanted to say something memorable. A playful smirk appeared on her face as she decided to knock his hat off his head — revealing his spiky blue hair underneath again — and simply say, “Your hat fell off, again.” She then giggled lightly at this little mischievous act.

Flash glanced down at his police hat on the ground, then back to Twilight. Quickly realizing it was all in humor, he laughed in response and said, “I definitely won’t forget that one!” He then reached down to pick up his hat.

“C’mon, Twilight! Let’s go!” Spike suddenly called over.

Twilight turned back to see everyone else was already seated, with Spike impatiently tapping the empty seat next to him. Twilight briefly turned back to Flash with a smile before finally turning away to take her seat on the minimalist vehicle.

Although the vehicle immediately began to drive away, Twilight had just enough time to wave goodbye to the rookie police officer. Flash responded by slowly waving his hat around. Eventually, the vehicle turned around a corner and went out of sight.

Flash Sentry brought his hat down over his chest. Now that it finally hit him that Twilight was going home and almost certainly not coming back, he let out a sigh. He couldn’t deny that he had grown rather fond of her, and was going to miss her a lot. Eventually, he turned away and put his hat back on as he returned to the scene of the incident. It was time for him to get back to an officer’s duty.

At City Park, the crowd of minifigs that had managed to gather within the area had already left. Despite all of the confusion that immediately followed after being freed, the police officers who had been tasked with guarding the interdimensional portal were quick to help escort the citizens away without causing too much trouble. Now, there was nothing left for them to do but await further orders.

The sudden arrival of a strange vehicle made the officers tense for a moment, but then they relaxed when they saw that Twilight and her team were on the vehicle. One officer began to approach the gate, but the vehicle — being driven by Rainbow Dash — didn’t even slow down as it arrived and crashed through the gate, drawing groans of frustration from some of the police officers.

As soon as the vehicle skidded to a stop near the horse statue, Twilight quickly hopped out of her seat and ran over to the dimensional portal. “Don’t bother fixing that gate,” she spoke up to the officers. “The threat’s over.” She then quickly removed the “Police Line” pieces from the side of the statue that contained the portal and tossed them aside.

As everyone else climbed off of the vehicle, Pinkie Pie glanced over at the clock on the vehicle’s dashboard. “Only two minutes left,” she pointed out. “That gives us just enough time for a goodbye hug.” She then held out her arms in anticipation.

Twilight looked back at her friends. After a quick glance back at the portal, she decided that she had enough time to give them one final goodbye. She walked back to her friends and quickly found herself in the middle of a large group hug.

Once everyone pulled away, Twilight asked, “You’ll look after Sunset Shimmer, won’t you?”

“Of course we will,” assured Rarity. She then doubtfully added, “Though I’m afraid it may be some time before she’ll be allowed to leave prison.”

“Even so, I’m sure she’s already learned her lesson,” replied Twilight in assurance.

Before anything else could be said, Spike spoke up, “We better get going.”

Twilight nodded before turning to her Lego friends and spoke her final words to them. “I know we’ve only been friends for a short time, but I’m gonna miss all of you so much.” She let out a sad sigh and began to walk towards the gateway back home to Equestria.

Spike walked beside Twilight as he commented, “That crown really does suit you, Princess Twilight.”

Twilight smiled as she briefly touched the crown on her head and responded, “You know what, Spike? I am starting to feel a little more comfortable wearing it.”

“And the wings?” he added, gesturing at said wings on Twilight’s back.

Twilight had a slightly frustrated look on her face as she stopped walking and replied, “I’ve been walking on two legs with a body of detachable parts and picking up things with these!” She held up her hands. She smiled again as she added, “Wings? I’m thrilled that’s all I’ll be dealing with back in Equestria!”

Finally, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Spike stepped forward and passed through the interdimensional gateway, disappearing in a shimmer of light. Just seconds later, as the moon reached its highest point in the sky, the entire surface of the portal briefly flashed brightly.

At the same time, the pony-like alterations to the five nearby minifigs suddenly vanished, returning all of them to their original forms. Rainbow Dash, who happened to be hovering slightly above the ground, fell on her rear as soon as her wings vanished.

Pinkie Pie had remained very curious about the interdimensional gateway, and couldn’t resist running up to it. She stopped right in front of it and brought both hands up to reach through. Her hands met only a solid barrier. As the rest of her friends gathered around to confirm that the portal was indeed closed, Pinkie moaned in disappointment and muttered, “Bummer.”

Author's Note

After so many long chapters recently, I'm actually glad that this one turned out to be relatively short. I'm expecting the Epilogue (like the Prologue) to be much shorter than all of the other chapters, so I'll hopefully have it done in one week instead of two. Once that's done, this story can finally be considered complete.

Epilogue

Epilogue

On the Equestria side of the Crystal Mirror, all of the eight ponies who had seen Twilight Sparkle depart less than three days ago were now waiting in the room where that mirror was located. The three princesses stood vigilantly while Twilight’s five friends could only wait with worried looks on their faces. Many of them were seated on the floor — with Rarity on a comfortable pillow — except for Rainbow Dash, who paced back and forth impatiently in front of the mirror.

They all knew that time was running out. If Twilight didn’t step through soon, then she would be trapped on the other side for the next thirty moons. Despite knowing from the start that there was nothing they could do but wait, it did little to calm everypony’s nerves.

Finally, a shimmer of light from the mirror immediately drew the attention of every pony in the room. Through that glare, a familiar lavender alicorn stepped through. Princess Twilight Sparkle had returned!

Strangely, Twilight seemed to be standing on her hind legs. The surprised look on her face showed that even she had not expected this. She wobbled around a little before falling forward to land on all four legs in the proper stance of a pony.

“Twilight!” exclaimed Fluttershy happily as she and the rest of Twilight’s friends were immediately ecstatic by her safe return.

Rainbow screamed excitedly as she flew right up into Twilight’s face and shouted, “You’re back!”

“You’ve got your crown!” Rarity pointed out.

Pinkie Pie quickly gave Twilight a big hug as she exclaimed, “I knew you could do it!”

Applejack wiped away her tears of happiness as she added, “Oh, we were so worried.”

Princess Celestia stepped forward with a look of concern still on her face as she asked, “Sunset Shimmer. Is she alright?”

Twilight’s expression turned to slight worry as she looked back at the mirror and answered, “She chose to stay behind, even though it means spending a few years in jail for everything she’s done.” She then turned her attention back to the other ponies and continued optimistically, “But I’m confident that things for her will ultimately turn out for the better. After all, Equestria shares a lot of positive traits with the World of Lego.”

The other ponies looked at one another in confusion. When they turned their attention back to Twilight, Rainbow shrugged and asked, “What is Lego?”

Before Twilight could give an answer, Spike suddenly flew out of the mirror, bumped into the back of her legs, and landed on the floor. Spike looked up and smiled as he looked over his body to see that he was now back to being a baby dragon. But when he reached his clawed hand up to his head, that smile quickly fell. He moaned in disappointment and sadly muttered, “I really liked that hat.”

Realizing that Spike was referring to that red Lego cap he had been wearing, Twilight couldn’t help but hide her smile at his misfortune.

Not much later, Twilight was walking down one of the many hallways of the Crystal Castle while being followed by her friends, Princess Cadance, and Spike. Princess Celestia had already mentioned to the other ponies that her only knowledge of the other world was that it was home to alternate versions of every pony in Equestria. Not surprisingly, Twilight’s friends were very eager to find out more about what that alternate world — the so-called “Lego World” — was like.

“Where did you stay?” asked Fluttershy.

“What did they wear?” asked Rarity.

“Did ya have fun?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“What’d ya eat?” asked Applejack.

“Would ya say she’s just as awesome as me?” asked Rainbow Dash.

With a tired look on her face, Twilight sighed in exhaustion and answered, “I wanna tell you all everything about these last three days. Really, I do. But right now, I’m just so exhausted, especially after all of that building.”

All of the following ponies stopped and simultaneously asked in confusion, “Building?”

Twilight turned back and was about to say something in response when she bumped into something. As she fell on her rear, she also heard a hollow clanging noise nearby.

Twilight’s first reaction was to look down at herself to make sure her that body was still intact. She then mentally kicked herself for forgetting that she was no longer a Lego minifig, but now back to an organic pony, which meant that it was physically impossible for any body parts to come loose from such a mild impact.

She then looked up to see what — or rather, who — she had bumped into. The pony who stood before her was an orange pegasus stallion with a messy blue mane and wearing the golden armor of a guardspony. Interestingly, his helmet seem to be missing, but a quick glance at the floor nearby revealed that it had simply fallen off, which also explained the clanging noise she had heard.

The pegasus guard smiled warmly at Twilight as he helped her back up and joked, “We’ve got to stop bumping into each other like this.”

Twilight smiled in response, while a slight blush became visible on her face. This stallion’s voice, not to mention his manestyle, made him remarkably similar to a certain minifig she had met in the other world.

Once Twilight was back on her hooves, the guard then retrieved his helmet and put it back on his head before continuing on his way down the hallway.

While the others watched the guard walk by, Twilight walked up to Princess Cadance and quietly asked, “Who was that?”

“He’s a new member of the castle guard,” replied Cadance. “Flash Sentry, I think. Why do you ask?” A rather smug expression formed on her face as she asked, “Do you know him?”

Twilight couldn’t hide the blush on her face as she turned away and simply answered, “Not exactly.”

With the signs being very hard to miss, Twilight’s friends could easily guess the reason for her interest. “Oooh! Somepony’s got a crush on the new guy!” teased Applejack.

“No. No, I don’t” Twilight quickly denied as she continued to walk away.

Rarity gasped lightly as she walked alongside Twilight and teasingly added, “She does! She absolutely does!”

Twilight picked up her pace as she quickly responded, “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t even know him. He just…” She came to a stop as she struggled to think of a good response.

Pinkie Pie jumped in front of Twilight and quickly spoke, “Totally reminds you of a guy you met in the other world who’s a rookie cop who first saved your life from a big bomb and then two days later found you after you were left for dead in the woods and encouraged you to get back in action so you could save that world and this one too!” Having completely exhausted herself from that one continuous statement, she then quickly took a huge breath before finishing, “Right?”

“How did you know that?” asked Twilight in astonishment.

Pinkie simply replied, “Just a hunch.” She then gave a huge grin before hopping away in her usual style.

The other ponies looked in confusion at Pinkie, then turned to Twilight.

Twilight glanced over at Spike as he walked up to her side. Twilight simply smiled and rolled her eyes. She could think of only one thing to say at a moment like this.

“Some things never change.”

Author's Note

After nearly eight months of writing, this story is finally done! Yes, I am planning to write a sequel that will be an alternate take on the upcoming Rainbow Rocks movie, just as this one was an alternate take on the original Equestria Girls. But don't expect to see any work on it until early next year. I've been spending a lot of my time writing this story, so I'd like to be able to take a break for a few months. Besides, I could use that time to think over what I'd like to write for the sequel. After all, until I see that movie, not even I will know what the next story will be like. Also, as I had mentioned in the author's notes in the prologue, I'm still open to having a better cover image, if any fanartists out there are interested. For now, I can finally mark this story as complete.