LEGO Equestria Girls 5

Chapters

Alternative Solutions
It’s Dance Magic!
Behind the Scenes
Cutting to the Chase
Caught in the Act
Magic Mirror in the Hand
Visiting Equestria
Shimmer and Glimmer in the City
Monster Mayhem
Epilogue
Prologue
Entering the Contest

Alternative Solutions

Chapter 2
Alternative Solutions

Rarity had returned to her shop and immediately went to work on repairing the damage to Rainbow Dash’s costume in her shop’s workroom at the back of the building. She had already made the effort to purchase the fabric for this task, so she had resolved herself to at least finish the job, despite the devastating discovery she had made along the way back from the store. Once she was finished with the final sewing, she felt a bittersweet satisfaction. Such a shame this may never get to be used for its intended purpose… she thought to herself as she held up her completed work.

Knock, knock, knock!

Rarity carefully set aside the repaired costume and opened the door to the room. Standing just outside in the main area of the shop were all of her friends.

“We’re here!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully announced.

“We got your text,” said Twilight as Rarity allowed her and the others to step into the room and then closed the door behind them. “You said it was an emergency?”

“Everythin’ all right, sugarcube?” asked Applejack.

Rarity seated herself on a nearby chaise lounge and calmly replied, “Well, since you asked… the answer is NOOOO!” At that sudden outburst, she collapsed onto her back on the lounge and started loudly sobbing.

“Oh no. What happened?” asked Fluttershy.

Rarity sniffled as she explained, “Those former… Shadowbolt… girls stole our video concept!” As the others looked at each other in concern, Rarity sat up and continued, “I saw them filming over at Sunshine Plaza. They copied my design ideas and everything!” She monetarily relaxed as she remarked, “So of course they looked absolutely fabulous.” She then resumed her dramatic sobbing as she finished, “But the worst part is that they’re all incredible dancers!”

Pinkie gasped and exclaimed, “Major bummer in the summer!” She then held up a tissue toward Rarity and offered, “Tissue for your issue?”

“Ta,” thanked Rarity as she took the tissue, calmly wiped away the running makeup caused by her tears, then loudly blew her nose. As she wadded up the used tissue and tossed it into a nearby trashcan, she continued, “Everyone is now counting on me, on the video to win us the prize money for the camp.” She sighed and lied back down on her lounge. She then clenched her fists and grumbled, “Oh, how could I have been such a fool?! Of course those girls stole my concept! I practically served it to them on a platter!”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” assured Twilight. “Those girls had been living by the old Shadowbolts philosophy for years. It’ll take time for them to understand that winning isn’t everything.”

“You didn’t seem to have a problem rejecting their old way of thinking,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“Spike and I never fully embraced the Shadowbolts philosophy,” Twilight clarified. “It was much easier for us to cast it aside once the organization was disbanded.”

“Eh, maybe this was all for the best,” muttered Applejack.

“Hmm? W-what do you mean?” asked Rarity in confusion.

“Uh, your concept and costumes are really awesome,” Applejack carefully explained, “but, uh… our dancin’…”

Sunset smiled uneasily as she finished, “Nnnnot so much.”

Applejack couldn’t help but giggle and remarked, “We could barely get in a two-step without trippin’ over each other’s boots.”

Everyone in the room except Rarity giggled and laughed in response.

“You can say that again!” quipped Pinkie Pie.

“Nonsense!” snapped Rarity as she stood up. “You all looked great!” She hesitated for a moment before she admitted, “Okay, maybe not great, but, but… but it was getting there!” She started pacing around the room as she firmly continued, “And the point is we don’t have to let them win! That is our video concept! And I am going to find those former Shadowbolts and let them know that they have messed with the wrong girls!” She growled furiously, then raised her first and firmly declared, “Who’s with me?!”

An awkward silence filled the room as no one was willing to accept Rarity’s request.

Crestfallen, Rarity lowered her arm, then cleared her throat and sheepishly asked, “N-no, no, seriously, who is with me? I have no idea where those girls might be.”

“I’ll go,” offered Twilight with a smile. “As a former Shadowbolt agent myself, I’m familiar with all the secret locations within this city that they’re likely to use. Not to mention, as their former teammate, I might have a better chance of being able to reason with them.”

“That’s the spirit!” exclaimed Rarity excitedly. “Come on!” She immediately grabbed Twilight’s wrist and pulled her along as she rushed out the door. The rest of their friends simply watched their sudden departure in confusion.

Later that afternoon, Rarity stood with her back against a wall at a corner into an alleyway. Over her typical outfit, she was wearing a dark blue hooded cloak and a pair of sunglasses. She peered around the corner into the alleyway, then rushed over to a small crate on the other side and ducked behind it. She then hopped over the small crate and pressed her back against a taller crate further down the alleyway. She then dove and tumbled back across the alleyway to hide behind a pair of trashcans. She then removed one of the trashcan lids and used it as a form of cover as she snuck back across the alleyway to hide behind a dumpster further down.

“Is all of that movement really necessary?” asked Twilight, still wearing just her typical outfit, as she casually walked over to Rarity and made no attempts to hide herself.

Rarity removed her sunglasses and replied with a hushed voice, “We’re tracking down a group of secret agents. We must be very careful to not let them be aware of our presence until we’re ready to make our move.”

“Former secret agents,” corrected Twilight. She spoke in a normal voice as she continued, “And besides, Shadowbolts agents were almost never so conspicuous about sneaking around, unlike what you’ve probably seen in those spy movies. Often, one of the best ways to avoid detection was to simply blend in with the crowd and act like a random nobody. Trust me, I’ve had lots of experience with doing just that.”

Rarity immediately shushed Twilight and whispered, “Do you hear that?”

Twilight listened carefully and soon noticed the faint noise of some kind of pop music playing.

“That’s the music they were playing for their video,” whispered Rarity. She peered around the dumpster and saw a partially opened door at the end of the alleyway, and the music seemed to be coming from within the room beyond that doorway.

“Bingo!” whispered Rarity in satisfaction. She then turned to Twilight and silently made a series of hand gestures, first by going over something, then going forward, then beating her fist into her palm, then pointing towards them and then down, then pointing at herself and then behind her back, and finished off with a little disco dance.

Twilight rolled her eyes and said, “There was an unwritten rule among the Shadowbolts that, if a fellow agent was trying to overcomplicate things to the point of absurdity, then we would have to remind them of the acronym of K.I.S.S.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow and quietly asked, “What does that mean?”

Still speaking in a normal tone, Twilight sharply replied, “It means, ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’” She gestured at the door the music was coming from and explained, “The door’s wide open, so we can just walk right in and talk to them.” Without even waiting for a response, Twilight walked ahead towards the door.

Rarity sighed and mumbled, “This is just not my day…” She then stood up and followed Twilight.

The two girls walked through the doorway and, sure enough, they saw the four former Shadowbolt girls practicing their dance moves in the empty room. Just as Rarity had seen earlier at Sunshine Plaza, Sour Sweet was dancing in a disco style, Sunny Flare in a flamenco style, Sugarcoat in a street ballet style, and Lemon Zest in a hip-hop style, and all four girls wore costumes reflecting their respective dance styles.

The former Shadowbolts soon began to notice their unexpected guests, but continued their dance moves, albeit now with smug smiles on their faces. Once they struck the final pose at the end of the music track, they all had their gazes turned towards the two guests.

While Rarity’s jaw had dropped, Twilight quietly muttered, “Okay, even I have to admit that was a little impressive.”

“Hey girls!” greeted Sour Sweet with her sweet face. “So what did you think of our routine?” Her head spun around to her sour face and added, “Scared yet?”

“Don’t change the subject, Sour Sweet!” snapped Rarity.

The former Shadowbolts stared are her in confusion. “But you didn’t bring up a subject,” Sugarcoat pointed out.

“You, either!” Rarity shouted back.

After a momentary pause, Sour Sweet rolled her eyes and muttered, “Ooookay…”

“You know why we’re here!” accused Rarity furiously. “You stole my—”

Twilight cleared her throat and gave Rarity a disapproving frown.

“…our music video idea!” continued Rarity. “Now… change your concept, or else!”

As the other girls began stretching for another run of their dance, Sour Sweet switched to her sweet face and responded, “Sorry, but we can’t.”

“And why is that?” asked Twilight.

“Because we care about winning,” Sunny Flare smugly replied. “Duh!”

“And we will,” added Sour Sweet, “because we’re just about to submit our video.”

The former Shadowbolts couldn’t resist a mocking laughter at that statement.

“You’re what?” mumbled Rarity as her jaw dropped again. She then smacked herself in the face and waved her hands around as she exclaimed, “It doesn’t matter! Because we are still doing our video the way we planned!”

“Go ahead,” remarked Sour Sweet. She then switched to her sour face and added, “But there’s just one flaw in your little plan.”

“By the time you submit yours,” explained Sunny Flare, “it’ll just look like you copied us.”

“Except a worse version,” added Sugarcoat.

Rarity was about to hurl yet another accusation at the former Shadowbolts, but then Lemon Zest switched the boom box back on and the music started playing again. The four girls immediately went back to their dance routine without saying another word.

Rarity clenched her fists and growled furiously. She then turned around and threw a punch with her right fist against the door, throwing it further wide open as she then stormed out of the building. Twilight glanced back and forth between Rarity and the dancing girls, then turned away and left without saying anything.

By the time Twilight caught up to Rarity, they had just moved out of sight of the former Shadowbolts, so Rarity immediately started shaking her right hand around as she winced and exclaimed, “Ouch!” As she continued waving around that sore hand, she grumbled under her breath, “I should not be doing that, regardless of my temper.”

Twilight calmly placed a hand on Rarity’s shoulder as they walked back Rarity’s shop. There was no need for anything to be said, for they were both in silent agreement: that confrontation with the former Shadowbolts definitely could have gone much better.

Back at her shop and after removing her cloak, Rarity delivered the bad news to all of her friends. Her temper from the confrontation had long since faded, and now all she felt was sadness from letting everyone down.

“Oh, this is all my fault,” moaned Rarity, hanging her head in shame. “All the money we raised is gone, and now we have no music video. I should never have convinced you all that we could pull this off in so little time.”

“Are you crazy?” said Rainbow Dash with a smile and supportive attitude. “We’re great at doing stuff super-fast. I mean, look at Pinkie Pie. She just built that castle made entirely out of chocolate bars while we were talking.”

Everyone glanced over towards Pinkie Pie and, sure enough, they saw her placing the final piece onto a model castle that was made entirely out of chocolate bars — dark brown tiles and plates of sizes 1x1 and 1x2. The model stood as tall as Pinkie and bore a strong resemblance to the castle that Princess Twilight lived in back in Equestria.

As soon as her work was done, Pinkie immediately grabbed one of the chocolate bars and took a bite out of it, then offered it to Rarity and asked, “Want some?”

Normally, Rarity would have been appalled at Pinkie bringing so much chocolate into the middle of her workroom, but at this moment, she just couldn’t bring herself to even care about anything besides her failure with the music video. “What I want is a new video concept!” replied Rarity without even lifting her head.

Pinkie shrugged and took another bite from the chocolate bar in her hand.

“So let’s create one!” suggested Rainbow Dash.

“Really?” asked Rarity, her spirits already rising.

Everyone else in the room nodded and said various words of agreement.

“I’m sure if we all put our heads together, we’ll come up with something even better than before,” remarked Sunset.

Rarity sighed and muttered, “Okay, I suppose it’s worth a try.”

Pinkie Pie, having just finished the chocolate bar in her hand, immediately rushed around the room, grabbed all of her friends, and threw them together into a tight huddle with the heads in contact with each other. After a few seconds of holding the tight — and for some, uncomfortable — formation, Pinkie quietly remarked, “I think it’s working!”

“Yeah! Ah got somethin’!” Applejack spoke up. She pulled herself out of the huddle and everyone gathered around more comfortably as she continued, “Okay, so we’re in the kitchen at mah place… bakin’ some apple fritters! An’ then, a fresh batch come outta the oven… an’ everybody’s havin’ a great time!”

Most of the others smiled and muttered in agreement with the idea.

“Wait, so basically, we are just eating pastries in your kitchen in our music video?” asked Rarity skeptically.

Applejack chuckled nervously and confessed, “Uh, Ah guess Ah’m just kinda hungry.”

Rarity sighed, then turned to the rest of her friends and asked, “Anyone have another idea?”

“Oh! Oh! I do!” Rainbow Dash spoke up. She ran behind one of the clothes racks in the room and continued, “So… we’re in the middle of the jungle… and we’re being chased by henchmen who are shooting poison arrows at us!” She grabbed a few coat hangers and tossed them over the rack towards her friends, causing them to scream and dodge the flying projectiles. She then gathered up a bunch of random clothes from the rack and tried to form some monstrous shape with them as she slowly emerged from behind one side of the rack and continued, “When suddenly, out of nowhere, the shadow of a giant beast appears!”

“Wait a second!” Twilight suddenly spoke up. “Isn’t this a scene from the latest Daring Do adventure novel?”

Rainbow Dash dropped the pile of clothes and nervously chuckled before she sheepishly replied, “Oh yeah, that’s why it seemed so cool. Never mind.”

Rarity sighed in frustration and began to carefully pick up some of the discarded clothes.

“Okay! I’ve got it!” Pinkie Pie suddenly spoke up.

Rarity sighed again and muttered, “Please, do tell.”

As Rarity set one piece of clothing back on the rack, Pinkie began, “We’ll start out on…” Pinkie quickly gathered all of the discarded clothes and all the clothes from another rack and tossed it all into a big pile in the middle of the room, then finished, “…the Moon!” She reached into the pile and pulled out a sparkling blue cape and threw it on herself as she continued, “And we’ll be wearing really sparkly costumes. No, wait!” She suddenly tossed away the cape and dove into the pile, then reemerged with a space helmet over her head. “We’ll be in spacesuits!”

The others in the room looked at each other, then turned back to Pinkie.

Pinkie suddenly rushed out of the room, then rushed back in with an armful of wedges of cheese — yellow 1x1 sloped bricks. “We’re surrounded by gorgonzola cheese!” continued Pinkie as she tossed most of the cheese wedges all over the room. “But then, an alien space midget walks over and starts to eat the cheese!” She tossed the last cheese wedge in her hand over towards Spike.

Spike caught the wedge of cheese, glanced around at everyone in the room, then shrugged and took a bite out of the cheese. “Mmm! Rich with buttery undertones,” he remarked before taking another bite.

With such an outrageously silly concept, it wasn’t long before most of the girls in the room were laughing. The only one who didn’t even crack a smile was Rarity.

“STOP!!” Rarity furiously shouted, bringing immediate silence to everyone in the room. “This will never work!”

“Aw, why not?” moaned Pinkie in disappointment.

Rarity pulled a face from frustration, then took a deep breath and calmly explained, “Because the contest is for dance music videos, and not one of your ideas included dancing at all!”

“But they were pretty funny, huh?” remarked Pinkie with a giggle. She turned to Rainbow and added, “I liked yours, Rainbow Dash.”

“Thanks, Pinkie,” responded Rainbow with a smile. “Too bad copyright laws won’t allow us to use it.”

Rarity tightly gripped her hair piece and growled in frustration.

“Are you okay?” asked Fluttershy in concern.

Rarity’s immense frustration caused her to pull a few more faces as she furiously responded. “Okay? No, I am not okay! The contest deadline is tomorrow night, and we have just been wasting time!” She then stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut on her way out.

Needless to say, everyone in the room was quite shocked from witnessing Rarity having such a complete meltdown right in front of them. Even more unnerving was the realization that their dismal efforts to help, despite their good intentions, had only made things worse for their friend.

“Maybe we should have offered her some more serious suggestions,” mused Twilight.

Rainbow Dash scoffed and grumbled, “Ya think?”

“Oh, who’re we kiddin’?” muttered Applejack dejectedly as she leaned her back against the nearest wall and crossed her arms. “Rarity’s right. With those girls stealin’ our concept, there’s practically no way we can win that prize money now. An’ since we already gave away what little we had already raised, there sure ain’t no way we can afford the upcoming payment.”

“Well, we all knew that we were taking a huge risk,” Sunset pointed out. “We didn’t want to fall into the same trap of only meeting minimum payments and decided to go for all or nothing.” She sighed and lowered her head. “And it looks like we’ll be going with nothing…”

“How are we going to explain this to Gloriosa?” asked Fluttershy sadly.

No one had a good answer to that question, and silence fell across the room for a moment.

“Is the bank-robbing idea still on the table?” Pinkie Pie suddenly asked. “I got a few crowbars we could use.”

“Not an appropriate time, Pinkie,” Sunset responded flatly.

Author's Note

Since the Shadowbolt girls are former secret agents in this world rather than prep school students, I obviously made some differences from the official content, including Twilight's attitude. Also, when the girls are discussing alternate ideas, I decided to not have the scenery magically change around them, but rather have them try their best to explain it using whatever they could in the room, which offered its own kind of humor.

By the way, I'd like to say for the record that even though I have watched the new Equestria Girls special that was on this past weekend and I'm already getting ideas on how I could write my own take on it in this Lego World, I'm still going to wait until next year's story for that, as I've already got everything planned out for this story and I'd rather not make any major changes this late (and besides, I could use some extra time to think through many aspects of my new ideas). All I can say at this time is that I'm glad I decided to postpone my original idea for next year's story, because this new concept is one that I think could work out in a very interesting way.

It’s Dance Magic!

Chapter 3
It’s Dance Magic!

It was evening over at the popular sweet shop known as Sugar Cube Corner. Among the few patrons inside was Rarity seated at a table and eating a giant ice cream sundae. In times of absolute despair, tons of ice cream was her comfort food of choice, and after the complete disaster of trying to win that contest, she was in desperate need of it. She was sobbing between every spoonful of ice cream, all but accepting the apparent defeat she was now suffering.

“It’s no use, Sour Sweet. Why are we even still trying?”

Rarity suddenly stopped eating and sobbing as she recognized the voice of Sunny Flare. She turned her head to look behind her seat and, sure enough, saw the four former Shadowbolt girls were seated at another table, sipping from various milkshakes and in the middle of a conversation.

“Because the deadline hasn’t passed,” responded Sour Sweet with her sweet face, albeit expressing a little concern. “We can still come up with an original song to replace the Sapphire Shores one we’ve been practicing our choreography with.”

“That’s highly unlikely,” stated Sugarcoat. “Darn shame that copyright laws won’t allow us to use that song.”

Sour Sweet’s head spun around to her sour face and grumbled, “Not helping.”

Lemon Zest finished a sip of her milkshake and grumbled, “Why did we tell Rarity that we already submitted our video?”

Sour Sweet switched back to her sweet face and replied, “So that we can still use her concept. Rarity is very creative. She’ll come up with something else.”

Rarity used a napkin to wipe away her makeup stained tears as she continued listening.

“But if we don’t, we have nothing,” continued Sour Sweet worriedly. “We need to win that cash prize for Indigo Zap. She’s counting on us.”

“And if we don’t win, what then?” asked Sunny Flare.

Lemon Zest rested her chin on her hand as she sighed and mumbled, “By the time she recovers, she’ll blame us for letting such a huge opportunity slip out of our grasp. And we’ll be right back at square one, trying to figure out how to pay off all of her medical bills.”

“That’s what happens when you don’t buy health insurance,” remarked Sugarcoat as she stared at her milkshake and stirred the straw around. “One bad accident and all of your finances go straight down the drain.”

Rarity lightly gasped and quietly muttered to herself, “They were just trying to help a friend in dire financial need… just like us.” She turned back to the former Shadowbolts and smiled a little, then got up and began to walk over to their table.

“Come on, girls,” insisted Sour Sweet. “We still have a chance at this. We just need an original song.”

“Those other girls have their own band,” Sugarcoat pointed out. “They’ll surely have a killer original song, and we don’t.”

“Yet,” added Sour Sweet, trying her best to stay optimistic.

“Face it, Sour,” groaned Sunny Flare. “We’re doomed.”

By this point, Rarity was standing slightly behind the seat occupied by Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat, so she cleared her throat and spoke up, “Excuse me, girls.”

The four seated girls immediately turned to Rarity with surprised looks on their faces. “R-Rarity!” exclaimed Sour Sweet in shock. “Uh, how long have you been over there?”

“Long enough to hear that you have no original song,” replied Rarity.

“Like we said, doomed,” acknowledged Sugarcoat before taking a sip from her milkshake.

Sour Sweet switched to her sour face, then glared at Sugarcoat and grumbled, “Really? Must you tell her everything?”

Rarity giggled nervously, then cleared her throat and said, “Maybe you’re not,” She sat down beside Sunny Flare and explained, “Look, I know our teams haven’t been getting along too well lately, but I think I have a solution where everybody wins.”

The four former Shadowbolts glanced at one another, then turned their attention back to Rarity. Sour Sweet switched back to her sweet face and smiled as she said, “We’re listening.”

The next morning, Rarity had called her friends to come back to the old warehouse where they had been practicing for their music video. Once everyone had arrived, Rarity lead them all inside.

“So what’s this big plan you were excited about?” asked Applejack as they walked through the doorway.

Rarity simply smirked and stepped aside, allowing everyone see that the performance stage they had assembled the previous day had now received some significant improvements. In front of the stage was a dance floor that consisted of 2x2 tiles of many colors in a completely random arrangement. On either side of the stage was a pair of large crystalline structures that were of the color translucent purple. And of course, there were numerous flood lights attached to the framework of the building’s ceiling.

All of Rarity’s friends stared in awe at the stunning improvements to the stage. After a moment of silence, Sunset spoke up and asked, “Aren’t the former Shadowbolt girls using this video idea now?”

“They are, yes,” admitted Rarity. She then excitedly added, “But so are we! Girls, you can come out now!”

The others were even more stunned as they saw the four former Shadowbolt girls walk out onto the stage. At the same time, the four girls were expressing various levels of nervousness as they stared back at the other group. Needless to say, it was a rather awkward meeting for both sides.

“I know it’s hard to believe,” continued Rarity, “but these girls helped me to realize that competing against one another was getting us nowhere.”

“And Rarity helped show us that winning was the only thing driving us,” explained Lemon Zest. She hanged her head in shame as she added, “We didn’t even care if we had to steal to accomplish it.”

“But that’s not who we are,” finished Sour Sweet with her sweet face. After an awkward glance to her companions, she quickly added, “Anymore.”

Rarity turned back to her friends and stated her proposal. “These girls have offered to help with dance moves if we’ll help them with an original song.”

“Combining our talents is the most logical thing to do,” stated Sugarcoat with a smile.

“We’ll make one epic music video together,” added Sunny Flare excitedly.

“So, what do you girls think? Are you in?” asked Rarity, clasping her hands together with a hopeful expression on her face.

Most of Rarity’s friends continued to stare at the former Shadowbolts with looks of uncertainty. The only exception was Pinkie Pie, who was barely able to contain her excitement. After a few seconds, Pinkie finally exclaimed, “Best! Music! Video! Idea! Ever!”

As everyone looked at Pinkie after her outburst, Fluttershy quietly admitted, “It does kinda make sense, once you think about it.”

“Fluttershy’s right,” agreed Twilight. “Both sides seem to lack a key element that the other possesses, so the most natural solution is indeed for us to work together. Not to mention, less competition for either side means a better chance for all of us to win the contest.”

“There’s just one thing I’d like to know first,” Sunset spoke up as she turned to the former Shadowbolts. “Do you girls need any of the prize money for anything important?”

“We need to cover Indigo Zap’s medical bills,” answered Sugarcoat. “The cash prize is more than double what we need to pay them all off.”

“What a coincidence,” remarked Sunset. “That’s the same amount as what we need to pay off all of Camp Everfree’s debts. If the prize money is enough for both of us to get what we need, then I’d say that’s a win-win for all of us.”

“In that case, y’all can count me in, too,” said Applejack with a smile. “What about you, Rainbow?”

“I just have one thing to say about that,” replied Rainbow Dash. With an excited jump, she exclaimed, “Awesome! We’ve got the former Shadowbolts on our side!”

“I’m just glad we now don’t have to resort to robbing a bank,” remarked Spike. He then pulled a crowbar out from behind his back and tossed it aside. As that crowbar clattered against the floor, everyone silently stared at Spike. He glanced around in confusion and asked, “What? I thought we were seriously considering that.”

Sunset shook her head with an amused smile on her face, then turned to Rarity and said, “I guess this means we’re all in unanimous agreement.”

“Wonderful!” exclaimed Rarity excitedly with her arms raised up. She then glanced back and forth between the two groups as she explained, “But let’s not celebrate just yet. The contest deadline is tonight, so let’s get changed into our costumes so that we may get started right away.”

Everyone said various words of agreement as they headed for the makeshift changing rooms.

Once everyone had changed into their costumes, the group of eleven girls got together in different groups to discuss ideas on how their combined music video would work, as well as offer helpful advice on how to improve either the dance aspects or the song aspects.

Fluttershy handed over a sheet of paper to Sunny Flare and said, “We can start by teaching you the words to our song.”

Sunny Flare skimmed through the lyrics, then glanced up at Fluttershy and pointed out, “But this is just about the Rainbooms. There’s nothing about us in the lyrics.”

“Yet,” noted Fluttershy slyly. She held up a pen and asked, “Wanna help me make some changes?”

“Sure,” agreed Sunny Flare as she took the offered pen. Before trying to write anything, she turned back to Fluttershy and said, “Though now that I think about it, I believe it might be better if my friends and I went by a different group title besides ‘former Shadowbolts’. After all, we’re trying to move on from that past, and this video is supposed to help prove it.”

“Any ideas?” asked Fluttershy.

“I haven’t yet talked about this with the others,” replied Sunny Flare, “but considering that we’re now residing in the Crystal Castle, I was thinking that we could go with the name of ‘Crystal Girls’.”

“That sounds like a wonderful team name,” said Fluttershy with a smile. “And with the improvements you girls made to this stage, I think it’ll fit perfectly for the song.”

As Fluttershy and Sunny Flare got to work writing new lyrics, Rarity — who had overheard their conversation — turned to the others and asked, “Anybody else care to work on some music?”

Sour Sweet — with her sweet face exposed — stepped over to Rarity and responded, “We’ll get to it after I teach you some dance moves.”

As Sour Sweet did a little dance move, Rarity placed a hand on her shoulder and argued, “Music first.”

Sour Sweet shrugged Rarity off and argued, “Dance first.”

“Music first!” Rarity argued back.

Sour Sweet switched to her sour face and argued back, “Dance first!”

“Music first!” Rarity shot back.

“Dance first!” Sour Sweet shot back.

“The order is irrelevant,” Sugarcoat suddenly point out.

Once their little argument was broken up, Rarity and Sour Sweet glanced around and saw everyone staring at them.

“Oh, yes, of course,” mumbled Rarity before she chuckled in embarrassment.

Sour Sweet switched back to her sweet face and also chuckled in embarrassment.

Rarity cleared her throat and spoke up, “Well, with that little gaffe out of the way, let’s agree to a plan so we can get started with filming the video as soon as possible.”

After spending the rest of the morning finalizing their plan and then much of the afternoon rehearsing their moves and the song, it was finally time to film the video they would submit. The lights were in place, the cameras were rolling, and it was time for action.

The video started off with various scene transitions as some of the girls put on the final touches of their costumes, with the first few notes of the song beginning to play.

Due to the effects of Equestrian magic on the Canterlot City girls when they played music, they were currently “ponied up” with pony ears on their heads and longer hair to resemble a tail, with some of them also having either feathered wings on their back or a unicorn horn on their forehead.

As the music began to pick up, Sunset Shimmer stepped out onto the stage and began dancing in flamenco style as she sang the first lyrics.

I feel it stirrin’ deep down inside my soul
The rhythm’s taking hold, and it’s about to roll

Sunset gestured over to the dance floor, where Twilight Sparkle was dancing in a disco style as she sang the next lyrics.

A million sparkles falling across the floor
So, DJ, give it more, it’s what we’re looking for

The spotlights focused on different places on the dance floor, where all of the girls were in certain groups. Fluttershy was partnered with Sugarcoat, Rainbow Dash was with Lemon Zest, Rarity with Sour Sweet, close by were Twilight with Sunny Flare, and the final group consisted of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Sunset Shimmer. It was time for the chorus, so all eleven girls sang the next few lyrics.

Dance the night away
All our friends right by our side

On the dance floor, all eleven girls stood side by side and clasped hands. They smiled at one another, raised their clasped hands, then let go as they all jumped up at once. The video then quickly flashed between each individual girl as they dropped back to the floor.

It doesn’t matter what style you bring
We’re about to go on that ride, hey!

Pinkie Pie danced alone in her own style, while Applejack and Sunset danced together in a different style.

It’s dance magic, once you have it

Sugarcoat and Fluttershy danced together in a street ballet style.

Let your body move, step into the music

Rainbow Dash and Lemon Zest danced together in a hip-hop style.

It’s dance magic, and it’s electric

Sour Sweet and Rarity danced together in a disco style, with Twilight and Sunny Flare doing the same not far away.

Let your body move to the music

After a scene transition of gems, the setting was now a city alleyway with red brick walls on either side, with both walls having graffiti painted on them that consisted of the Creative Marks of all eleven girls. In addition, Pinkie Pie was now wearing a different costume, consisting of black on her torso and upper arms, green on her lower arms, tan on her legs, a white double zero printed on the front of her torso, a purple lowered hood around her neck, a purple baseball cap backwards on her head, and a white pair of sunglasses on her face. Pinkie immediately started dancing and singing the next few lyrics in a rap style.

Doesn’t matter what style you got
Just keep dancin’ on that spot

Pinkie posed in front of a group shot of the other girls in front of one of the graffiti walls.

Your friends like you for who you are

As Pinkie sang the next lyric, the video showed a split-screen of Sour Sweet, Rarity, and Twilight.

Dance queen, on the scene, superstar!

The four Crystal Girls did a synchronized dance and then posed in front of the graffiti wall to the right.

Crystal Girls, you got the moves

In front of the graffiti wall to the left, Rainbow Dash did some break dancing while the rest of the Rainbooms watched.

Rainbooms brinin’ all the grooves

Pinkie Pie danced solo in front of a blank red brick wall as she sang the final part of her solo.

Put it together and make it fit
Crystal Rainbooms, dance magic

Back on the stage — and with Pinkie back in her previous costume — the eleven girls posed around the two crystal structures on opposite sides of the stage. On the left structure were Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. On the right structure were Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Lemon Zest. Finally, in the middle of the stage between the two structures, Rarity and Sour Sweet stood next to each other. As the video slowly moved across each group, all eleven girls sang the next few lyrics.

Dance the night away
All our friends right by our side

The video then showed freeze-frames of each individual girl in a different mid-dance pose, with Sour Sweet finishing it off with a wink to the camera.

It doesn’t matter what style you bring
We’re about to go on that ride, hey!

The reprise of the next verse also came with a repeat of the different styles that each of the girls had danced to earlier in the video.

It’s dance magic, once you have it
Let your body move, step into the music
It’s dance magic, and it’s electric
Let your body move to the music

After another scene transition of gems, a disco ball was spinning over the dance floor, where all eleven girls danced together in all kinds of various styles.

Crystal Rainbooms got a style that’s all our own
Dancin’ nonstop, body movin’ in the zone
Bring whatever style you got
‘Cause the party is goin’ on

The verse finished with all eleven girls jumping up and raising their hands up all at the same time. For the final lyrics, Rarity and Sour Sweet sang and danced next to each other with smiles on their faces.

It’s dance magic, and it’s electric
Let your body move to the music

As the song ended, the video zoomed out to reveal all eleven girls in a group pose.

A few days later, the girls of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team and the Crystal Girls were in Sunshine Plaza, watching one of the numerous television screens that were showing their music video. They had submitted the completed video just hours before the deadline, and were very excited when they got word the following day that their video had won. After spending the last few days using the prize money to deal with their major issues, they had agreed to meet up again to celebrate their remarkable success.

Once their video had ended, Applejack pleasantly remarked, “Ah still can’t believe we just completely payed off all of Camp Everfree’s debts! Now Gloriosa can keep the place in her family an’ worry only about payin’ the regular expenses.”

Lemon Zest pleasantly added, “And once Indigo Zap is ready to leave the hospital, she won’t have to worry about paying anything out of her own pocket!”

“And even after all of that,” Twilight pointed out with a smile, “the remainder of the cash prize is enough for all of us to share a small portion. I even counted it myself to make sure we all got a fair share.”

Spike reached into a sack he was carrying and began passing out dollar bills as he playfully remarked, “Enjoy your bonuses, girls!”

The girls all smiled as they each received their share of the remaining portion of the cash prize.

Sunset was busy looking at her phone as she was handed her share of the money. As she pocketed the cash, she spoke up, “I’ve been reading some of the reviews online, and it looks like our song has become quite popular. ‘This one’s been in my head all day, and I love it.’ ‘Whoever these girls are, I wanna hear more from them.’ ‘Perfect party music.’ Oh! Look at this one; ‘Catchiest song since Everything is Awesome!’”

“Wow,” remarked Rainbow Dash. “If that’s not high praise, I don’t know what is.”

“Let’s celebrate!” declared Pinkie Pie excitedly. She held up her share of the prize money and cheerfully exclaimed, “Orange smoothies are on me, girls!” She immediately rushed over towards the Aunt Orange smoothie kiosk just a short distance down the street.

The rest of the group said various words of agreement as they pocketed their shares of the money and followed after Pinkie.

Rarity and Sour Sweet were about to follow, but then Rarity excitedly said, “Oh! Sour Sweet! I have just had the most brilliant idea! Once Indigo Zap has fully recovered and you girls are ready to return to the Crystal Castle, perhaps we could visit and have our band perform. It would be a wonderful occasion for you to show off your new dance moves.”

“That would be amazing!” exclaimed Sour Sweet’s sweet face excitedly. She then spun her head around to expose her sour face and grumbled, “Of course, then we’d have a new dilemma to deal with.”

“Oh no, what?” asked Rarity in concern.

After a brief moment of silence, Sour Sweet spun her head back around to expose her sweet face and playfully replied, “Figuring out what we’re all gonna wear?”

“Oh,” said Rarity, giggling in relief. “I already have some ideas that I’d be willing to share.”

“Me, too,” said Sour Sweet.

Both girls laughed together as they began to follow after the rest of their friends. After the remarkable success of their cooperation, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the friendships between the Equestria Girls and the Crystal Girls were sure to last.

Author's Note

I really like it when an opportunity comes up that I can resolve two questions with one solution. In the case of this chapter, Indigo Zap's illness is able to explain not only why she isn't with her friends, but also why her friends needed to win the cash prize. (Since they're not prep school students here, I obviously had to come up with a different reason for them needing to win the prize than what we saw in the special.) Also, just as I wanted to start calling "the LEGO Team of Canterlot City" by the shorter and easier name of "Equestria Girls", I've decided to start calling "the former Shadowbolt agents" by the name of "Crystal Girls" (we know in the official content that they're students at Crystal Prep, so I decided to make the effort to reflect that by having them take up residence in the Crystal Castle, under the leadership of Cadance). I will say that writing out the whole music video itself was quite a challenge (I'm just glad I didn't have to actually come up with those lyrics myself, as I've always thought of myself as a terrible song writer). Anyway, this chapter marks the end of the first act, so the next few chapters will cover the events of the second special.

Behind the Scenes

Chapter 4
Behind the Scenes

Dark storm clouds had gathered around the site of an active volcano. Once every few seconds, the storm would unleash a flash of lightning, followed by a boom of thunder. Under the cover of darkness, a lone individual in a dark cloak slowly approached the volcano. Once he came to a stop, the mustachioed man with grey skin and black hair threw off his cloak and let out an evil laughter.

“It is almost time!” he declared as he pulled out a golden staff with a ruby gemstone on the end of it. “Once I have all three relics, no one will be able to stop me, and Marapore will fall!” He then triumphantly held up the staff as he finished, “For I am Stalwart Stallion!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” a female voice suddenly called out.

“Ugh! Cut!” shouted the director. Out on the volcano set, the actor lowered the staff and looked back in confusion.

Behind the movie cameras, not only was the director seated in his chair, but standing around him were the eight members of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team — Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike.

“Sorry,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “but at this point in the story, Stalwart Stallion would be known as Mojo.”

Twilight glared at Rainbow and silently gestured to keep quiet.

Rainbow glanced at Twilight’s reaction and asked, “What? You think he wants Daring Do fans to call him out for making a mistake like that?”

The director rolled his eyes, then held up his megaphone and spoke to the actor on the set, “Let’s go again, and this time, say ‘Mojo’ instead of ‘Stalwart Stallion’, okay?”

As the lights dimmed and the cameras began rolling again, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but grin widely in excitement from what she and her friends had the privilege to witness in person.

“And… action!” called out the director.

Later, after filming of that scene was finished, the group of friends followed the director away from the volcano set. The director — Canter Zoom — had tan skin, olive green on his torso, pale green on his arms and the front of his torso under an open vest, beige on his legs, a pale green hair piece that was slightly receded on the front and with a short ponytail on the back, and on his face was a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a short beard the same color as his hair.

“I can’t believe we’re really here!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash excitedly. “We’ve actually been invited to the Canterlot City lot of the Lord and Miller film studio to see the making of the upcoming Daring Do movie!”

“Thank you so much for letting us come, Mr. Zoom,” said Twilight.

“We promise we won’t get in the way,” assured Sunset. She then glared at Rainbow and added, “Again.”

Rainbow Dash responded with a nervous chuckle.

Canter Zoom stopped and turned to face the girls with a smile as he explained, “I, too, had a lot of fond childhood memories of Camp Everfree, so when I heard about the remarkable effort you girls made to save it from bankruptcy, I just had to show my appreciation by letting you all visit the set of our little film.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and remarked, “Little? This is Daring Do we’re talking about! This movie is gonna be huge!”

Before Canter Zoom had a chance to respond, a female assistant with pale green skin and purple hair walked up to him and reported, “Uh, there’s a problem in wardrobe. They can’t find the costume Daring Do is supposed to wear in the nightclub scene.”

Canter Zoom facepalmed and muttered under his breath, “If we’re ever able to finish it, it will be.” He turned back to the girls and spoke up, “If you’ll excuse me, I need to take care of this.” He then followed after the assistant, leaving the group of friends behind.

“Quite a shame the Crystal Girls turned down their invitation to this film lot,” remarked Rarity, “but understandable, considering their friend is still in the hospital.”

“You know,” Sunset spoke up, “there’s one thing about this place that I’ve been wondering about.”

“What is it?” asked Fluttershy.

“Well, we’ve met the real Daring Do before,” answered Sunset, “but so far, I’ve seen no sign that she has anything to do with this film about one of her adventures.”

“That’s because she’s probably not allowed to do anything more than be a consultant for production,” explained Twilight. “A few decades ago, when the first film studios were being established, a lot of famous figures were invited to play themselves in various movies — people like adventurer Johnny Thunder, Captain Redbeard the pirate, and even pizza delivery boy Pepper Roni from Lego Island. But these film schedules would so often conflict with the real world obligations these people had to deal with that they started demanding higher wages as compensation. Eventually, it got to the point that many of these film studios were forced to shut down because they just couldn’t afford to keep hiring these famous people, so a law was passed that only full-time actors and actresses would be allowed to play major roles in any movie, with the real people they were based on allowed to provide any advice they were willing to share on their own time.”

“Ah, that explains a lot,” remarked Sunset. “I was honestly a little confused by some details when this film studio once offered to make a movie about me, but now I guess it all makes sense.”

“Lord and Miller once offered to make a movie about you?!” asked Rarity in astonishment.

“After everything we’ve been through, I wasn’t surprised,” admitted Sunset. “I rejected the offer because I wasn’t quite ready yet to share my whole life story with the entire Lego World.”

Rarity sighed dejectedly and muttered, “Such wasted potential…”

“If it makes you feel any better,” assured Sunset, “I’ll be sure to let you know if I ever change my mind.”

“Okay, enough talking,” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Seeing as Canter Zoom’s a little busy right now, what should we do?”

Twilight pulled out her copy of the visitor schedule and replied, “According to our visitor schedules, they won’t start shooting the next scene for a while, which means we have time to—”

“Get my picture taken with Chestnut Magnifico,” Rarity spoke up excitedly, “the actress playing Daring Do!”

“And ask her to sign my petition to bring more bird feeders to the parks of Canterlot City,” added Fluttershy. When her friends gave her questioning looks, she explained, “Chestnut Magnifico is an avid supporter of a foundation that helps build homes for animals in need.”

“Oh, okay,” acknowledged Twilight. “But I was thinking that we could—”

“Check out all the sets?” asked Sunset.

“Ah’d sure like to get a closer look at that volcano,” agreed Applejack.

“Actually,” Twilight spoke up, “I thought we’d—”

“Find the buffet!” exclaimed Spike.

“And the cupcake fountain!” added Pinkie Pie.

“I don’t know what a cupcake fountain is,” said Rainbow Dash, “but I’m pretty sure they don’t have one.”

“Of course they do!” remarked Pinkie as she pulled out a pamphlet. “I read it in my ‘One Hundred Things You Didn’t Know About This Movie Studio: Insider’s Tour Guide’!”

“Is the number one thing we didn’t know that the guy who first built this film lot was an eccentric oddball with a sweet tooth?” quipped Applejack.

Pinkie took a moment to read her pamphlet, then replied, “Oh! Yes!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, then glanced back at the others and muttered, “Ah thought Ah was bein’ sarcastic with that one.”

Twilight glanced around at everyone in the group, then shrugged and asked, “So I guess we’re splitting up?”

Everyone said various words of agreement and began to go their separate ways, leaving behind only Twilight and Rainbow.

Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “I don’t suppose you want to—”

“Check out the props that A.K. Yearling designed especially for the movie?” finished Rainbow Dash.

“You read my mind!” confirmed Twilight excitedly. She and Rainbow then headed off in a different direction than what the others had taken.

Once the area was cleared, Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped back in with a movie clapperboard in her hand. “Scene transition!” she exclaimed excitedly as she snapped the clapperboard shut.

It wasn’t long before Rarity and Fluttershy were able to find Chestnut Magnifico’s trailer just outside the studio building. Rarity immediately ran over to the trailer’s door, while Fluttershy followed more cautiously.

“Maybe we shouldn’t bother her when she’s in her trailer,” Fluttershy quietly suggested.

Rarity scoffed and dismissively responded, “Darling, please, actresses love interacting with their fans.” She raised her hand and prepared to knock on the door, only to have that door suddenly swing open so violently that she was left sandwiched between it and the wall of the trailer.

Standing in the now opened doorway was Chestnut Magnifico — who had tan skin, a blonde hair piece tied in a bun with a pink streak in it, white on her torso and shoulders with some pink on the front, a violet skirt around her upper legs, brown on her feet, and her face had makeup with lipstick and eye shadow. She currently had a very furious look on her face as she tightly clenched a cellphone in her hand next to her face.

While Fluttershy quickly stood aside, Chestnut stormed away from the trailer as she furiously shouted into her phone, “Ugh! I don’t care if I’m under contract! This is a joke, and I want this thing shut down! Do you hear me?!” She didn’t even bother waiting for a response as she ended the call and put away her phone while she continued marching towards the studio building.

Fluttershy continued staring in shock at Chestnut until she was out of sight. She then turned her attention back to the trailer door, which was still wide open. “R-Rarity?” she asked as she swung the door away from the trailer, exposing Rarity literally flattened against the wall.

Rarity giggled uneasily and remarked, “She, um, probably just didn’t see us.”

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer and Applejack were walking through the Mount Vehoovius set where filming was being done today. Since there was now some spare time between takes, they were taking the opportunity get a close look at the scenery. The whole set was made entirely out of Lego parts, such as brown and grey bricks and sloped bricks for the volcano, green plant and leaf parts of various shapes and sizes for the surrounding rainforest, a backdrop that consisted of a mosaic of 1x1 tiles in different colors to create an image, and even some translucent red and orange pieces for the lava atop the volcano, and all of it was built on a large brown baseplate.

“Ah have to say,” remarked Applejack, “the guys who built this thing sure seem to be real good at their job.”

“No kidding,” agreed Sunset with a smile. “There must be thousands of pieces that go into building a set like this. It must take some really talented Master Builders to pull this off.”

“Ah wonder how long it takes to build somethin’ like this,” said Applejack.

“I’m sure there’s much more to it than just putting all the pieces together,” responded Sunset. “They probably needed to start by designing some mock-ups to determine what it should look like, then determine which pieces and in what quantity they would need for the final build, followed by actually acquiring those pieces, and I’m sure that for the actual build, they probably wrote and printed copies of some instruction pages to make sure that all of the builders were getting the whole thing done correctly.”

Applejack let out a long whistle and remarked, “Ah bet it takes weeks to go through all of that.” She smiled as she glanced around at the set. “But it looks like all that effort really payed off. They sure did go all out makin’ it look like the real deal, huh?”

Crunch.

Sunset and Applejack immediately stopped walking and glanced down. Sunset moved her left foot aside and found a candy wrapper on the floor. She picked up the wrapper as she said, “Though I don’t think the rainforest is known for its…” She read aloud the label on the wrapper, “Bon Mot peanut butter praline crunch bars.”

“Better pocket that,” suggested Applejack. “Wouldn’t want it ruinin’ the shot.”

Sunset shrugged and stuffed the wrapper into her jacket pocket as she remarked, “I’m sure one of the set builders was just a little careless during a snack break.”

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were walking through the Marapore Village set. Like the other film sets in the studio, this one was also built entirely out of Lego parts. On top of the large tan baseplate, there were various buildings two or three floors tall built out of bricks of various shades of brown, grey, and red. There were some additional bits to the scenery such as palm trees, crates and barrels, shops stocked with food items and other goods, and of course the backdrop that was a mosaic of 1x1 tiles.

Although Rainbow and Twilight were impressed by the set around them, their smiles grew much wider as their eyes soon fell upon exactly what they were here for: the props of the three relics of Altoriosa, displayed on a cart topped with foam slots for them to fit perfectly inside. The one on the bottom was a short golden staff with a translucent red gemstone piece attached to the end of it, the one in the middle was a golden sword with green feather pieces attached to either side of the hilt, and the one at the top was a golden arrow with a translucent purple arrowhead piece attached to the end of it.

Rainbow Dash gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Wow! Those are the three Aloriosa Relics!” She and Twilight immediately rushed over to the cart to look closely at the props.

“The staff!” noted Twilight.

“The sword!” noted Rainbow.

“Don’t forget the Arrow of Altoriosa!”

Rainbow and Twilight glanced back when they heard that voice and saw a teenage girl standing behind them. She had light nougat skin, purple on her torso and upper arms, light blue on the front of her torso under an open jacket, a black skirt around her upper legs, white on her lower legs, purple on her feet, a blue hair piece with two long ponytails in the back that were held with hair ties shaped like film reels, and a pair of small purple-rimmed glasses on her face.

“You girls are part of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team, right?” asked the teenage girl with a smile.

“Yup! That’s us!” answered Rainbow Dash confidently.

“Though we’ve recently considered calling our specific team the Equestria Girls,” Twilight pointed out.

“I’m Juniper Montage,” greeted the teen, “director Canter Zoom’s niece. What do you think of the relics?”

“They’re awesome!” replied Rainbow Dash excitedly.

Juniper continued, “Since we all know the real Daring Do is always busy on her next adventure, A.K. Yearling has the responsibility of ensuring the film’s authenticity. She’s very hands-on when it comes to the sets and props for the movie.”

“Have you met her?” asked Twilight.

“Just once when she came to check out the relics,” admitted Juniper. She then leaned close to Twilight and whispered, “I did get her to sign my copy of the latest Daring Do book, though.” She and Twilight both squealed excitedly.

Twilight quickly relaxed and asked, “So what do you do here?”

“Mostly, I bring my uncle coffee and help get everything ready for shooting,” replied Juniper with less enthusiasm. Her excitement picked up again as she added, “I’ve been on the set for all the movies he’s shot here. Pretty much know every inch of this place like the back of my hand.” She giggled at that remark, but then she folded her arms and looked away as she grumbled, “I tried to convince him to cast me as Daring Do, but… he really didn’t go for that.” When she noticed Twilight and Rainbow giving her questioning looks, she immediately smiled again and cheerfully asked, “Hey! Have you girls seen the set for Caballeron’s secret lair?”

Rainbow Dash gasped as she and Twilight smiled and shook their heads.

“They usually lock the door to that set,” continued Juniper as she pulled out a set of keys, “but I’ve got keys that open just about every door in this place. Come on, I’ll show you.”

As Juniper turned away and gestured to follow, Rainbow and Twilight didn’t say a word as they began to follow after her with huge smiles on their faces.

At the other side of the building, Pinkie Pie and Spike sat in a couple of chairs near the buffet table. While Spike was busy snacking on some candy bars, Pinkie Pie was reading her tour guide pamphlet with a look of disappointment on her face.

Pinkie sighed and grumbled, “Three lunch buffets, six different kinds of fondue, two rooms with nothing but candy, and still no cupcake fountain!” She then relaxed and smiled as she added, “Oh well. At least we found those peanut butter praline crunch bars. They weren’t in my guidebook, but they sure were delicious!”

Spike finished the last of his candy bars and licked his hands clean before he remarked, “I’ll say! You think they got any more?”

Pinkie glanced back down at her pamphlet, but then she and Spike suddenly heard the panicked voice of Canter Zoom over at one of the nearby buffet tables. Standing next to him was Chestnut Magnifico, who was searching through all of the food trays with a look of frustration on her face.

“One more month, Chestnut!” pleaded Canter Zoom desperately. “That’s all we need! I’m doing everything I can to keep us on schedule! But with all the setbacks we’ve had, I don’t think we can do it! If you could just agree to stay on for one more month—”

“Unacceptable!” snapped Chestnut.

Canter Zoom begged, “But—”

“Where are my imported peanut butter praline crunch bars?!” demanded Chestnut furiously, seemingly oblivious to Canter Zoom’s desperate request.

As soon as they had heard the reason for Chestnut’s extreme frustration, Pinkie and Spike looked at each other uneasily. Spike leaned close to Pinkie and whispered, “Now would probably be a good time to resume the search for that cupcake fountain.”

Pinkie nodded in agreement, then she and Spike stood up and began to tip-toe away from buffet tables.

Later, all four groups got back together and gathered behind the cameras at the Mount Vehoovius set, where filming for the next scene was about to take place.

As the cast and crew got into positions, Rainbow Dash turned to her friends and whispered, “You guys should’ve seen the relics.” Unable to contain her excitement, she exclaimed, “They were awesome!”

Canter Zoom glanced back at the girls and scolded, “Ugh! Quiet on set, please!”

Rainbow chuckled nervously and quietly responded, “Sorry. Maybe I’ll just go take one more peek at them.” She then ran off towards the Marapore set.

Canter Zoom turned forward in his seat as he sighed and grumbled, “The less interruptions, the better.” He then raised his megaphone and spoke, “And… action!”

As the thunder and lightning effects of a storm were played out above the set, the actor playing Stalwart Stallion began walking towards the volcano. However, as he got close to the volcano, a large chunk of pieces suddenly broke off the side of it and tumbled directly towards him.

The group of friends gasped in shock as they watched the actor barely manage to flee from the falling chunk before it hit the floor and shattered into its individual pieces, followed by more chunks of the volcano coming apart and collapsing.

“Cut! Cut! Cut!” shouted Canter Zoom in exasperation as the collapsing chunks of the volcano also destroyed some of the brick-built plants and knocked over the backdrops, with the mosaics flying apart as those backdrops slammed into the floor. Even more unfortunate was a cart parked right behind the left backdrop, which came down right on top of one end of it, sending it flipping into the air before it smashed to pieces on the floor, sending one of its wheels rolling and bouncing across the room.

“Oh no! Runaway wheel!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

The bouncing wheel ended up going towards one of the buffet tables, and although the people nearby were able to jump out of the way, the table and its contents were destroyed as the wheel slammed into it.

Once all of the carnage had finally settled down, Canter Zoom turned to the actor and asked, “Are you okay?”

“A little shaken, but I’m fine,” replied the actor.

Canter Zoom sighed, then said to the actor, “Go ahead and take a few hours off. This is obviously going to take a while to resolve.”

The actor nodded and walked off the ruined set. Meanwhile, everyone stared at the Mount Vehoovius set, which was now reduced to little more than a massive pile of scattered Lego parts.

Canter Zoom stood up and exclaimed, “What is going on around here?! We just filmed on this volcano and it was fine! The very thorough post-build inspection was done only yesterday, and everything was confirmed to be perfectly in place!” He slumped back down in his chair and mumbled, “This could set us back weeks. Those backdrops alone could blow our budget, and I was told that using mosaics would’ve cost less than using that expensive giant decal printer. And don’t even get me started on how many labor hours will have to go into putting all those pieces back together for the rest of the set.”

“They’re gone!” shouted Rainbow Dash in horror as she suddenly rushed back to the group. “They’re all gone!”

With his eye twitching from the increasing stress, Canter Zoom glanced over at Rainbow and weakly asked, “What’s gone?”

Juniper Montage, who appeared to be just as horrified as Rainbow, also rushed over to the group and responded, “The relics!”

Everyone in the room immediately gasped in shock. Of all the possible ways production on the movie could be set back, they all knew that the loss of the relic props was a huge deal.

Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled out her movie clapperboard and exclaimed, “Cliffhanger!” She then snapped the clapperboard shut.

Author's Note

Having the team save Camp Everfree in the previous chapters also conveniently made it believable why they would next be invited by Canter Zoom to visit the film studio. (As opposed to the official content where it felt like Dance Magic was just forced in the middle of a sequence of events, I actually managed to make every part fit in.) In addition, the name I gave to the film company that owns the studio is actually inspired by the co-directors of The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Chris Miller). By the way, since Daring Do herself was included back in the second story, I had to come up with a good reason why she wouldn't be at the film studio and some actress would be needed to play as her in a movie. Also, although the main cast here are young adults just like their pony counterparts, I chose to leave Juniper Montage as a teenager to make her actions and behavior seem more believable. And since the Movie Magic special had those clapperboard scene transitions, I decided just for laughs to have Pinkie Pie break the fourth wall and do those herself.

Cutting to the Chase

Chapter 5
Cutting to the Chase

Everyone had followed Rainbow Dash back to the Marapore set and, just as she had said, the three relics were now missing from the display cart.

“I wanted to check them out again up close, and they weren’t there!” explained Rainbow Dash.

“This can’t be happening!” exclaimed Canter Zoom as he gripped his hair. “What are we gonna do?!”

“Couldn’t you just get some new ones made?” suggested Sunset.

“It’s not that easy, I’m afraid,” explained Canter Zoom. “You can’t just order new ones from the factory like any ordinary parts. These pieces have to be cast with special molds that require special permission from certain individuals. In the case of these relics, we need approval from either A. K. Yearling or Daring Do herself, and I’m afraid it’s really difficult to get in contact with either of them.” He then rubbed his chin as he quietly muttered, “Though come to think of it, I do find it kinda odd that I’ve never seen both of them in the same room at the same time. It’s always just one or the other.”

“I-it’ll be okay, though, right?” asked Rainbow Dash nervously.

Canter Zoom sighed and stressfully explained, “Chestnut’s contract with us is almost up, and with Mount Vehoovius collapsing, and now this, I fear we’ll have to stop production altogether!”

“But-but you have to finish the movie!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash worriedly. “Think of all the Daring Do fans who’ll be so disappointed if you don’t!”

Twilight stepped forward and asked, “Are you sure there’s nothing you can do to—?”

Crash!

Everyone immediately turned towards the source of that noise, but didn’t see anything in that direction, suggesting that the problem had likely happened in the neighboring room.

Canter Zoom’s eye twitched as he held up a hand towards the girls and stressfully said, “I’m so sorry. Please excuse me.” He then began to walk off towards the neighboring room.

Juniper Montage smiled awkwardly at the others and said, “Sorry you had to see him like that. My uncle Canter Zoom is usually a very easy-going guy. I’d better go with him to make sure he’ll be all right.” She then turned away and followed after her uncle.

The remaining people in the room — all eight members of the Equestria Girls team — looked at each other with various expressions of concern.

“Hmm…” mumbled Twilight as she tapped her chin. She folded her arms and began pacing around as she pointed out, “There was trouble with one of the costumes when we first arrived, a set that was fine yesterday just collapsed, and now the most important props in the movie have been stolen. I don’t think these are just coincidences.”

“Me neither,” agreed Sunset as she looked suspiciously at the empty display cart. “All the things that have gone wrong on set have put production on hold. It seems to me like someone is going to a lot of trouble to make sure this movie doesn’t get made.”

Spike asked, “Who would want to—?”

Fluttershy suddenly gasped and asked, “Oh dear, you don’t think—?”

Rarity immediately responded, “Oh no-no-no-no, certainly not!”

Rarity and Fluttershy quickly noticed everyone else was giving them questioning looks. Sunset spun her hand around, silently requesting that they explain further.

Fluttershy and Rarity glanced at each other, then turned back to the others as Fluttershy explained, “When Rarity and I followed Chestnut Magnifico to her trailer, we overheard her saying something about shutting down the movie—”

“Yes, but she said she wanted something shut down,” Rarity immediately clarified. “We don’t know whether or not she was talking about the movie.”

Pinkie Pie stepped forward and suggested, “Maybe she’s just really mad that they’re always running out of her imported peanut butter praline crunch bars.”

Sunset and Applejack glanced at each other, then turned back to the others as Sunset pulled a candy wrapper out of her pocket and asked, “Bon Mot peanut butter praline crunch bars?”

“Those are the ones!” confirmed Pinkie.

Spike rubbed the back of his head and remarked, “We, uh, may have tried a few ourselves.” He then chuckled nervously.

“We found this on the Mount Vehoovius set right before it collapsed,” Sunset pointed out.

“It sure seems like all signs are pointing to Chestnut Magnifico as the one causing all the problems around here,” noted Twilight.

“I don’t know who’s behind this or what’s going on,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “but the first thing we need to do is find those relics.”

“I agree,” said Twilight with a nod. “The relics were here earlier, and if Chestnut is behind this, then they must still be around here somewhere.”

“Chestnut Magnifico is an acclaimed actress!” Rarity firmly argued. “She’d never do something so dramatic!”

Sunset smirked and quipped, “An actress? Dramatic? Never.”

“Well, she might do somethin’ like this if she was tryin’ to get outta workin’ on a movie she didn’t wanna do,” Applejack point out.

Sunset thought for a brief moment before she suggested, “Fluttershy, Pinkie, Spike, come with me. Let’s try to find Chestnut Magnifico and see if we can find anything out.” She then began to walk away from the set.

“Let’s do it!” agreed Pinkie excitedly as she, Fluttershy, and Spike all followed Sunset out of the room.

Once Sunset’s group had left, Twilight suggested, “In the meantime, we should look for the relics.”

“Where do we even start?” asked Applejack. “It’s not like there’s some mysterious, thievin’, cloaked figure we can chase after an’ say, ‘Hey, tell us where you’re keepin’ the relics!’”

“You mean like that one?” asked Rarity as she pointed at a space between two buildings on the set. Sure enough, standing right there was a mysterious figure covered in a black hooded cloak. The figure turned to them, then immediately ran off behind the set building to the right.

“Hey!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “Stop right there!”

“I’ll handle this,” said Twilight as she removed her hair tie — a purple six-pointed star — and with a good flick of a wrist, she sent it rapidly spinning through the air. The spinning hair tie soared above the surrounding buildings and sliced through a rope, sending a massive sandbag plummeting to the floor behind the buildings in the direction the cloaked figure had gone. As the four girls began running towards that fallen sandbag, Twilight jumped up and caught her hair tie as it came back around. Once they arrived behind the buildings, they saw that the sandbag had fallen right in front of the cloaked figure, leaving them trapped between it and the girls.

“What was that all about, Twilight?” asked Applejack in confusion.

As Twilight pulled her hair back and put her hair tie back in its usual place, she replied, “Let’s just say it’s a remnant from my Shadowbolts training. To quote the rulebook, ‘If you desire to give yourself an accessory, then you’d better make sure it can also do something useful.’”

“So that hair tie of yours also works as one of those ninja throwing stars?” asked Applejack.

“Nice!” remarked Rainbow Dash with a grin.

“Impressive, yes, but I’m afraid our perpetrator won’t be halted that easily,” said Rarity as she pointed ahead.

Everyone looked ahead just in time to see the cloaked figure manage to shove the fallen sandbag out of the way. The figure quickly glanced back, then resumed running away.

“Good thing I decided to bring this,” remarked Rainbow Dash as she held up her magical geode hanging around her neck. She tightly grasped the geode and, with a bright flash of light, her magical ability was activated. She then immediately zoomed after the fleeing figure, appearing as little more than a rainbow motion blur.

Rainbow Dash ran off so fast that the resulting rush of air caused the hair pieces on the three other girls to quickly spin around until they eventually stopped at various awkward angles. Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight all glanced at each other, then readjusted their hair pieces and followed after Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash went in the direction she had seen the cloaked figure go, which led her back to the ruined Mount Vehoovius set, where the crew of set builders were already hard at work gathering up all of the scattered pieces. As soon as Rainbow had arrived, she had already lost sight of the cloaked figure. Knowing that each second she hesitated meant another second where the mysterious figure got further away, she made her choice and decided to go right, unaware that just moments earlier, the figure had instead gone straight ahead.

In a neighboring room, the cloaked figure ran by along the side of a desert landscape set. Just seconds after they had left, Rainbow Dash rushed across that set, stopped briefly to look around, then continued ahead, unaware that she was still not following the mysterious figure.

It wasn’t long before Rainbow Dash gave up trying to follow her target and started searching every area she could think of as rapidly as possible. At one point, she had even gone outside and checked near Chestnut Magnifico’s trailer. However, just seconds after Rainbow had zoomed off to the next area, the cloaked figure ran past that trailer in the opposite direction.

Finally, Rainbow Dash came to a stop in a backstage area. After so much rapid searching around, she had failed to find even another glimpse of the mysterious cloaked figure. It wasn’t long before she heard some people running over to her from behind, so she turned around and saw that it was her friends Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight. Once those three girls stopped in front of Rainbow, they hunched over and panted from exhaustion.

“I can’t believe I lost them!” grumbled Rainbow Dash in frustration. “My geode gives me super speed, but I guess being awesomely fast doesn’t help when the person you’re chasing knows their way around better than you do.”

At the other end of the backstage area, Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike all arrived right at that moment. “Hey, girls,” greeted Sunset and she and the rest of her group walked over to rejoin with the other group.

“Any luck findin’ Chestnut?” asked Applejack.

“We couldn’t find her,” replied Sunset with a shrug.

“But we did find a cupcake fountain!” added Pinkie cheerfully as she removed her hair piece, pulled a blue frosted cupcake out from underneath, then put her hair back on her head before she chomped down on the cupcake in one bite.

“Then we got lost and somehow ended up here,” continued Sunset. “What have you girls been doing?”

“We spotted this super-suspicious cloaked figure, but they got away,” replied Rainbow Dash. She folded her arms as she sighed and grumbled, “They’re here somewhere…”

“There you are!”

The Equestria Girls turned around and saw an assistant who seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with his hands tightly gripping his blue hair and his voice having a very worried tone. “W-where are your costumes?” he asked the girls. He suddenly rushed over to them as he continued, “We’ve gotta hurry! I-I-I’m so gonna be fired if you aren’t ready! The director wants to shoot in three minutes!” He moved so swiftly to shove the girls ahead that none of them ever got a chance to voice any objections.

Just a few minutes later, the Equestria Girls found themselves being shoved onto the set of a city street while wearing costumes and hairstyles similar to the outfits worn by the superhero team the Power People — who most of the girls had previously met at Cloudsdale back when the sirens had attempted to take over the Lego World. Twilight Sparkle’s costume was based on the outfit worn by Masked Matterhorn — dark magenta on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; silver on her lower arms, lower legs, around the waist, and upper part of her torso; and a pair of goggles and a silver artificial horn attached to her hair piece, which was swept back on the front. Rainbow Dash’s costume was based on Zapp — dark blue on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; white on her lower arms, lower legs, and around her waist; white lightning bolts along the sides of her upper legs; a yellow lightning bolt on the front of her torso; and her hair piece was swept back with a border of dark blue with white lightning bolts. Applejack’s costume was based on Mistress Mare-velous — red on most of her body; black on most of her face and in a band around her elbows and knees; green wrapped around the back of her hair piece and a little on the front of her torso; and had a lasso and pair of horseshoes hanging from the black belt piece attached between her torso and hip joint. Rarity’s costume was based on Radiance — medium blue on most of her body and the mask around her eyes; gold around her waist, collar, and knees; pink gemstone bracelets attached to her wrists; and her hair piece was restyled into large curls with some pink gemstones. Pinkie Pie’s costume was based on Fili-Second — white on most of her body, including parts of her head that left most of her hair sticking out the back with a little on the front; and had light purple arrows on the sides of her legs, the front of her torso, and across the top of her head. Fluttershy’s costume was based on Saddle Rager — turquoise on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; purple on her lower arms, lower legs, and the mask around her eyes; and her hair piece was swept back. Spike’s costume was based on Hum Drum — light blue on his torso, upper arms, and upper legs; medium blue on his lower arms and lower legs; a red cape; a black mask around his eyes; and on his bald head was a messy brown hair piece. And Sunset Shimmer’s costume was based on the outfit worn by the Power People’s arch nemesis Mane-iac — purple on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; black on her lower arms and lower legs; a band of yellow around her waist, elbows, knees, and collar; and in place of her usual hair piece was a wig of wild green hair.

The Equestria Girls turned back and saw all the cameras and other film equipment were already focused on them and ready for action. Needless to say, they were very confused by the situation they now found themselves in.

“Uh, Ah think there’s been some kind of mistake,” Applejack spoke up.

“Wait, wait…” called out the director — who had an orange beard and wore a red baseball cap with an image of a film reel on a white background printed on the front. The director looked closely at the girls in costume on the set, then turned to the nervous assistant who had brought them in and asked, “Who are these girls?”

“They’re the Power People!” answered the assistant as proudly as he could, though the nervous grin on his face did little to hide his true emotions.

The director sighed and facepalmed.

The awkward silenced lasted for only a few seconds before the assistant finally slumped and mumbled, “I’m fired, aren’t I?”

“So fired,” confirmed the director in a grumpy tone. He stood up out of his chair and called out to the girls, “Sorry about the mix-up. Just go ahead and change out of those costumes. I need to go find the real actresses for this movie. And find myself a new assistant who actually knows what the brick he’s doing!”

As the director walked off the set, Spike removed the hair piece from his head and tossed it aside as he remarked, “As much as I wouldn’t mind having hair, this one just isn’t my color.”

The girls turned around and were about to return to the changing rooms when Applejack suddenly pointed at a gap between two nearby buildings on the set and exclaimed, “Hey! There’s that figure!”

The others followed Applejack’s gaze and, sure enough, they all saw the cloaked figure between those two buildings for just a brief moment before that individual ran off again. Rainbow Dash immediately ran after the figure, with the rest of the team following not far behind.

It wasn’t long before the chase reached a hallway of six doors — three on each side. The cloaked figure ran down the hall, opened the door on the far left, and went into the room beyond. Rainbow Dash immediately went through the far left door. Sunset was about to do the same, but stopped when she noticed the cloaked figure emerge from the near left door, cross the hallway, and enter the near right door, so Sunset turned around and went through the near right door. Applejack arrived next, just in time to see the cloaked figure leave the far right door and go through the middle left door, which Applejack also took. Twilight and Spike saw the cloaked figure next leave the middle right door and go through the near left door, so they both also took that door. Rarity and Fluttershy arrived next and saw the cloaked figure leave the middle left door and go through the far right door, so they both went for that door as well. Finally, Pinkie saw the cloaked figure leave the far left door and go through middle right door, so she also went through that door.

The Equestria Girls then started going back and forth between the six doorways in a desperate effort to follow the mysterious figure. Many times, they would emerge from the rooms they had not previously entered, and although many such passes occurred uneventfully, there were a few slapstick moments. Twilight and Rarity emerged from opposite sides at the same time and ended up slamming into each other, causing them both to stumble backwards into the rooms they came from. Rainbow Dash and Applejack tried going through one doorway at the same time and ended up wedging themselves into the frame. They struggled for a few seconds to free themselves, then Fluttershy suddenly left another room while screaming in terror and ended up slamming into Rainbow and Applejack, sending all three of them crashing into the room and causing a loose wheel to roll out into the hallway and go into the room Fluttershy had just left. Soon after, Pinkie Pie left another room while running atop that wheel, only to end up running over Spike and sending them both tumbling into the next room. And at one point, Sunset was riding a segway from one doorway to another.

Finally, all eight members of the team ran out into the hallway at the same time, stopped right in the middle, and glanced around in confusion. Suddenly, the cloaked figure left the doorway on the far left and ran away from the hallway. Rainbow Dash saw the figure escape and immediately resumed the chase, with the rest of the team following right behind.

As the pursuit continued, they ended up running through various other film sets throughout the studio. First, they ran across an old city set that had virtually no colors aside from various shades of grey. Next, they ran across a castle chamber set, complete with a throne on a higher platform. Next, they ran across a modern city set with two street racing cars parked in the middle, where Pinkie Pie just couldn’t resist sliding across the hood of one of those cars, which ended up setting off its car alarm. Next, they ran across a space station interior set with the backdrop of stars visible through the windows. By this point, most of the girls were beginning to show signs of exhaustion.

Finally, the Equestria Girls opened the door into yet another room and paused for a moment while they all hunched over and panted as they tried to catch their breaths. After a few seconds, they stood up straight again and glanced around to see they were now on a film set of a city street with all the buildings apparently drenched in some kind of brown slop.

“Uh, what’s this place supposed to be?” asked Applejack.

“And where did that cloaked figure go?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“They must be around here somewhere,” noted Twilight. “Wherever here is.”

While the others were talking, Pinkie’s expression gradually grew more excited as she glanced around the set they had ended up on. Eventually, with an excited jump and a gasp, she turned to her friends and exclaimed, “Are you kidding?! This is the set of Stormy with a Side of Pudding!”

“Stormy with a side of what, now?” asked Applejack as she raised an eyebrow.

Pinkie scoffed and replied with slight annoyance, “It’s only my all-time favorite movie!”

No one said anything in response. Applejack continued to stare at Pinkie in confusion, Twilight and Sunset glanced at each other and shrugged, and Rarity simply face-palmed.

“I’ve tried to get you all to watch it, like, a kazillion-billion times!” added Pinkie in exasperation. She then smiled and remarked, “I’ve heard they use real pudding!” She then rushed over to the nearest wall of the set, scooped up a handful of the brown slop dripping along it, then licked it. She then shuddered in delight and whispered, “They do!” She then scarfed down the rest of the pudding in her hand.

Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration and exclaimed, “We’re running out of time! We’re supposed to be hunting down the missing relics and catching the bad guy! Not eating pudding!”

“We’re trying,” assured Twilight. “Maybe we should make our way back to the Daring Do sets. There might’ve been some clues we missed.”

While the girls were talking, they were unaware that the mysterious cloaked figure had appeared right behind them in the doorway they had just come through. The figure grinned as they picked up a large net and then tossed it at the girls.

Due to where everyone was standing at that particular moment, Rainbow Dash was the only one in the group to not get caught under that net. When she suddenly heard all of her friends scream in shock, she quickly turned back to them and not only saw them down on the floor and tangled under the net, but also saw the cloaked figure just before said figure ran off again.

Without any hesitation, Rainbow grasped her magical geode, once again activating her super speed, and exclaimed, “Don’t worry! I’ve got this!” She sped off after the figure, only to suddenly trip over a bucket of pudding on the floor just halfway to the door. She struggled for a moment to get her feet out of that bucket, but was soon able to free herself and get back up on her feet. “Like I said, I’ve got this,” she muttered before she zoomed after the fleeing figure, this time without tripping over anything.

It wasn’t long before Rainbow Dash arrived in a dimly lit storage room. She glanced around and began to slowly walk further into the room. “I saw you come in here,” she muttered quietly. “Where are you?”

Clunk.

Rainbow immediately turned to the source of that noise and saw part of the figure’s black cloak disappear behind the open door to a nearby supply closet. She took a deep breath and carefully walked towards the closet. You can do this, Rainbow, she thought to herself in an effort to calm herself. You’ve fought against magical monsters, so a shady thief should be no big deal.

Once she reached the closet, she carefully pulled the door open a little further, then began to tip-toe her way inside. The closet was much more dimly lit, with only a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. She looked around and saw various movie props such as tribal spears, a gong, medieval armor, and even a cracked space helmet. When she suddenly saw what appeared to be some kind of swamp monster, she yelped and took a few steps back, but when she noticed that it didn’t move at all, she walked up to it and lightly shook it, causing the head of what turned out to be just a costume to fall off.

Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief, then glanced to her left and noticed something inside an open locker to her left. She opened the locker door all the way and pulled out what turned out to be a dress. The dress’s torso part was red on the right side and gold on the left side with the division running diagonally from the left shoulder to the right hip, and the lower part — a 2x2x2 sloped brick— was gold with the same wavy red design as on the left half of the torso.

As Rainbow held up the dress, she quickly recognized it. “Hey! This is just like the outfit Daring Do wears in the nightclub scene,” she remarked. She then scratched her head and muttered, “What’s it doing in here?”

Creak.

Rainbow Dash immediately looked back and saw the mysterious cloaked figure was not only standing just outside the closet door, but was also closing that door. Rainbow dropped the dress and rushed for the door, but it was too late. After slamming into the now closed door, she tried to push it open, but discovered that it was locked. She pushed and pulled on the door’s handle as much as she possibly could, but it just wouldn’t budge.

“Hey!” shouted Rainbow Dash desperately as she began pounding on the door. “Let me outta here! Let me outta here!” Unfortunately for her, there was no one in the storage room outside. She was trapped inside the supply closet, and no one had any idea she was in there.

Author's Note

Since it was hinted in Movie Magic that A. K. Yearling and Daring Do are the same person like what we've seen in the pony world, I decided to suggest the same would also be true for the Lego World (both have never been seen in the same room at the same time). The part where Twilight utilizes the special function of her hair tie is something I originally wanted to include in the previous story (as a way to show how despite moving on from her Shadowbolts past from the prior story, she still retains some lessons from the training she had received from them), but was unable to find a good enough point to do so, so I'm glad I was able to include it in this story instead. Also, in case you didn't remember, the Lego World's version of the Power Ponies (who I had chosen to call Power People) made an appearance back in the second story of this series, so I made sure to at least make a note of that. And of course, since Movie Magic was said to have lots of Scooby Doo references, I decided to add in the classic hallway of doors gag during the chase sequence.

Caught in the Act

Chapter 6
Caught in the Act

“Hello?!” Rainbow Dash called out desperately from within the supply closet. “Anybody out there?!” She had already given up on trying to push and pull the door open, as it was already clear to her that it was locked.

When she got no response outside, Rainbow sighed in frustration and leaned her back against the door. She then smiled and snapped her hand when she got an idea. “No problem!” she remarked to herself. “I’ll just call my friends and let them know—” Before she could even finish that thought, she groaned and facepalmed, then grumbled, “Except I can’t, because security had to take our phones when we got here. And even if that wasn’t the case, I probably wouldn’t even have it on me right now anyway thanks to this superhero costume.”

With that hope dashed, Rainbow was left with only one option — continue pounding on the door and hope that someone would eventually come into the storage room and hear her calls for help. “Help!” she called out desperately as she resumed pounding on the locked door. “I’m trapped in here!”

Back at the set of “Stormy with a Side of Pudding”, the rest of the Equestria Girls were still down on the street and struggling to free themselves from the net that had been tossed onto them. All of them were grunting and groaning as they tugged on the net.

“Wait, wait, wait! Stop! STOP!!” Twilight suddenly shouted. Everyone immediately stopped tugging on the net and looked over to her. “This is ridiculous! Look, the only reason we’re not getting outta here is because we’re all pulling the net in different directions and it’s getting us nowhere, so let’s just agree on one particular direction to toss the net.”

“Let’s throw it towards the building,” suggested Sunset. “That should be an obvious reference point for everyone.”

“Fine by me,” agreed Rarity.

This time, rather than trying to pull the net away in some random direction, all seven of them tossed the net towards the nearest pudding-drenched building, and the net simply flew right off the group.

“Huh… that was surprisingly easy,” remarked Pinkie Pie as she and the others stood up.

“We really need to learn to work together more often,” noted Fluttershy shamefully.

“Enough foolin’ around,” Applejack spoke up. “We have to find Rainbow Dash.”

“I don’t see how,” said Rarity. “She moves so fast, she could be anywhere on the lot by now. Why she felt it necessary to wear the geode that gives her super-speed to a movie set, I’ll never know.”

“I wish I’d brought mine,” thought Sunset aloud. “One touch and I’d be able to see Chestnut’s memories and get to the bottom of this whole thing.”

“I know how to find Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie spoke up excitedly as she held up her hand with some pudding on it. “Follow the pudding!”

Everyone gave Pinkie looks of confusion as she licked the pudding from her hand.

“See?” Pinkie pointed out as she gestured at the bucket of pudding on the floor that Rainbow Dash had tripped over on her way out. Leading away from the bucket and out the door was a trail of square-shaped puddles of pudding.

“Huh. Pudding footprints. How convenient,” remarked Spike.

“You’re a genius, Pinkie Pie!” praised Twilight.

Pinkie smiled and shrugged as she simply replied, “I know.”

“C’mon, this way!” Sunset called out as she began to follow after the trail. Spike, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack soon followed after her.

Twilight was about to follow when she glanced back and saw Pinkie remove her hair piece, place the bucket of pudding on top of her head, and then place her hair piece back on her head, leaving the bucket of pudding to virtually disappear underneath like it wasn’t even there.

When Pinkie saw the questioning look from her friend, she just shrugged and remarked, “Eh, for the road.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled as she shook her head, then followed after the rest of her friends.

Before following after her friends, Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled out her clapperboard and excitedly shouted, “Scene transition!” She then snapped the clapperboard shut.

The Equestria Girls followed the trail of pudding footprints and eventually arrived at a storage room.

“There’s no more pudding,” noted Pinkie, “which means she must be here somewhere.”

As everyone began to spread out and search the room, Twilight called out, “Hello? Is anyone here?”

“Rainbow Dash! Where are ya?” Applejack called out.

As Fluttershy wandered close to a closed door, she suddenly heard some pounding on that door, followed by a muffled cry, “Help! Somebody! I’m trapped in here!”

“Hello?” Fluttershy called out to the door. “Rainbow Dash? Are you in there?”

“Yes!” responded the muffled voice on the other side of the door. “Help! I’m locked in!”

“It’s okay, Dashie,” responded Fluttershy while her friends gathered around. “We’re here.” She grasped the door handle and pulled as hard as she could, but the door stayed firmly shut. She turned back to her friends and said, “Oh dear. It really is locked.”

“Don’t worry, I can deal with this,” assured Sunset as she began to approach the door.

“No, wait,” Twilight spoke up as she held her arm out in front of Sunset. “Let me try something.” Like Rainbow, she had also decided to bring her magical geode necklace with her, so she grasped it to activate her magical ability. As her left hand glowed with magenta magical energy, she placed it over the door lock, which then rattled for a few seconds until an audible click was heard. She then grasped the handle and easily pulled the door open.

“Boy, am I happy to see you!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed quickly as she suddenly jumped out of the closet, unintentionally tackling Twilight in the process.

“Did you just make that lock unlock itself?” asked Rarity in astonishment.

“Nice!” remarked Sunset with a smile. “Glad to know I’m no longer the only go-to person if we ever have to deal with a lock without a key.”

“Ah’m thinkin’ maybe we should all start wearin’ our geodes around,” stated Applejack. “Never know when our new magic might come in handy.”

Rainbow Dash stood up and helped Twilight up, then asked, “How did you find me? I thought I’d be trapped in there all day!”

“Pudding never lies,” Pinkie slyly remarked as she removed her hair piece to expose the bucket of pudding on top of her head.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why do you always have to put weird things on your head?”

“Because I can!” Pinkie cheerfully replied as she grabbed the bucket of pudding, put her hair piece back on her head, then started chugging pudding from the bucket.

Sunset noticed Rainbow was holding a dress in her arms and asked, “Hey, is that the costume that went missing when we first got here?”

Rainbow Dash held up the dress and replied, “Yeah, but I didn’t see the person who locked me in, and there’s still no sign of the relics.”

“Ah say we head back to the scene of the crime,” suggested Applejack. “Maybe there’s somethin’ there that could lead us to the relics.”

“Or…” Twilight spoke up with a sly smile, “we could let the culprit lead us to them.”

“How?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I just told you I didn’t see who locked me in here.”

“I’ve got a pretty good idea who our thief is,” replied Twilight. “But we’re gonna need Canter Zoom’s help to catch her.”

“But first thing’s first,” Rarity spoke up, “we really need to change out of these costumes. We were never supposed to wear them in the first place, and I’m almost certain that the wardrobe department of that Power People movie will not be pleased to have these returned with sweat stains and dust stains…” She narrowed her eyes at Pinkie. “…and pudding stains.”

“Hey, how could I possibly resist something so delicious?!” argued Pinkie.

“Seriously, though, do ya have any idea where that stuff’s been?” asked Applejack.

“Nope!” Pinkie cheerfully responded before she began to chug more pudding from that bucket.

The rest of the group silently glanced at each other with looks of disgust.

After the Equestria Girls changed back into their standard clothes, they returned to the Marapore set for the Daring Do movie and, with a little assistance from a few interns, were able to gather Canter Zoom, Juniper Montage, and Chestnut Magnifico together to share their recent findings.

“You found this in a supply closet?” asked Center Zoom as he held up the dress that had gone missing.

“We didn’t find the relics,” explained Twilight, “but we don’t think the thief has had a chance to take them off the lot yet. We wanted your permission to search this set from top to bottom. Maybe we’ll find a clue that would lead us to where they’re hidden.”

While Twilight was speaking, Pinkie Pie was holding a magnifying glass up to her eye as she kept popping out of various places in the background such as behind a crate, beside the side of a building, within a barrel, out an upper floor window of another building, over the roof of yet another building, and in front of one of the cameras set up around the set.

“Of course,” agreed Canter Zoom with a nod of approval.

“‘Scuse me, Mister Zoom,” spoke up one of the set builders as he walked over to the group with a clipboard in his hands. He had light nougat skin and wore blue overalls, an orange shirt, and a yellow hardhat. “Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to give ya the latest update on the Mount Vehoovius set. We just completed a full parts inventory, and it turns out there’s actually a few pieces missing.”

Canter Zoom handed the dress over to Juniper Montage so he could grab the clipboard as the set builder handed it to him.

“And I’m not talking about some random pieces that could’ve been flung away when the whole thing collapsed,” continued the set builder. “Look, these particular pieces are in such specific locations that their absence would’ve almost certainly made the whole structure unstable.”

“Are you suggesting that someone deliberately sabotaged the set?” asked Canter Zoom.

“Can’t say for sure,” replied the set builder with a shrug, “but if ya ask me, I think that’s the most likely possibility.”

“In that case, head on back and tell the other builders to do their best to rebuild the set,” said Canter Zoom. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and find those missing pieces without having to order any replacements.”

The set builder silently nodded in agreement and began walking back to the Mount Vehoovius set.

Canter Zoom turned to Chestnut Magnifico and said, “Chestnut, I need you to get into hair and makeup. As soon as we get the relics, we’re gonna start shooting again.”

“Hmph. We’ll see,” grumbled Chestnut as she began walking away.

Meanwhile, Juniper Montage was glancing around with an uneasy expression on her face. She nearly jumped when her uncle suddenly called out to her.

“Juniper, can you do a smoothie run?” asked Canter Zoom. “I’m sure all this sleuthing is gonna make everyone thirsty.”

“Oh, yes, absolutely!” agreed Juniper with a quick salute. She then held up the dress and added, “Oh, and I’ll be sure to drop this off at the wardrobe department on my way out.”

“Good idea,” acknowledged Canter Zoom with a smile and a nod.

Juniper turned away and ran off towards the wardrobe area.

A few minutes later, the mysterious cloaked figure was on the move once again. The figure ran over to another one of the storage rooms, went around a parked forklift, and stopped in front of a crate against the wall. The figure removed the lid of the crate, reached inside, and pulled out the three missing relics. As the figure stood straight up again, the hood fell off and exposed the figure’s identity: Juniper Montage.

“I told you all it wasn’t Chestnut!” Rarity immediately spoke up proudly.

That sudden voice startled Juniper, causing her to drop the relics and turn around. Standing right behind her were the Equestria Girls and her uncle Canter Zoom.

“Holy pepperoni!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie in shock. “It was Juniper Montage!”

Juniper was momentarily speechless as she glanced around at everyone present. She eventually decided to pick up the relics and tried to sound innocent as she gasped and exclaimed, “Look! I found the missing relics!”

“Because you’re the one who stole them!” accused Sunset.

“She… she wouldn’t,” said Canter Zoom in disbelief.

“She would,” responded Twilight. “And she did.” She then began pacing around as she explained, “What she didn’t expect was for Rainbow Dash to come back to the Marapore Village set before she was able to sneak them off to a safer hiding place. So she was forced to hide them in the first place she could find — no doubt, behind one of the buildings on that set. But she knew she couldn’t leave them there, so the first chance she got, she tried to sneak them away. Unfortunately for her, we spotted her! But Juniper knows ‘every inch of this place like the back of her hand,’ and was able to trap us and lose Rainbow Dash… for a while. But when Rainbow Dash managed to figure out where she’d run of to, she locked her in a closet with a set of keys that gives her access to ‘just about every door in this place,’ which gave her the time she needed to hide the relics here.”

“When did you figure out it was her?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I started to piece things together when I unlocked the door to get you out of the supply closet,” answered Twilight. “But I knew Juniper would never admit she was the one who had taken the relics.”

By this point, the rest of the Equestria Girls were starting to smile as they understood where Twilight was going.

Sunset snatched the relics out of Juniper’s grasp as she added, “Unless, of course, she was caught in the act of trying to move them again.”

Twilight nodded in confirmation, then turned to Canter Zoom and smugly continued, “Which is why I told you to send her on that smoothie run. That way, she’d think she had the opportunity to get the relics off the lot where we’d never find them. And as an added bonus, dropping off that dress at wardrobe would give her the chance to once again don that disguise, hoping that we still wouldn’t recognize her, even if she was spotted again.”

“But instead of searching the Marapore set, you all were secretly following me here,” Juniper sadly concluded.

“Why would you do this?” asked Canter Zoom in disbelief.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, I just can’t stand Chestnut!” snapped Juniper.

Canter Zoom was speechless and took a step back from his niece’s sudden outburst.

“She’s always eating all the peanut butter praline crunch bars, which are the only candy bars I like!” continued Juniper. She paused when she heard a light crunching noise, then turned to see Spike was busy munching on one of those candy bars in question.

Spike immediately stopped chewing once he realized Juniper was staring at him. He silently stared back, glanced down at the half-eaten candy bar in his hand, glanced back at Juniper, then swiftly hid the candy bar behind his back as he looked away and whistled innocently.

Canter Zoom argued, “That’s hardly a reason to go—”

“And I was mad at you for casting her as Daring Do!” continued Juniper furiously. “I mean, I have told you over and over again how badly I wanted to play Daring Do, and you just ignored me!”

“But Juniper, we’ve been over this before!” argued Canter Zoom. “You’re too young! You don’t have any experience!”

Juniper sighed and continued, “I know. But I thought if enough things went wrong, Chestnut would maybe back out of the movie and then…” She smiled desperately. “…you would give me a chance. I-I promise I never meant to hurt anyone, and I was going to return all the props, just as soon as Chestnut quit. That would include the missing pieces from the Mount Vehoovius set, which are inside that crate over there.” She pointed at the crate that Applejack happened to be standing next to.

Applejack glanced over at that crate, then pulled the top off and looked inside. “Huh… well what do ya know…?”she remarked as she pulled out a blue three-length Technic connector peg.

Canter Zoom turned back to Juniper and facepalmed before he sharply responded, “Forgive me for being so blunt, but that is some of the most highly flawed logic I’ve ever heard come out of anyone’s mouth! Not only did you jeopardize the production, endanger the safety of the actors and the film crew, but you also lied to me and took advantage of my trust! And even in spite of all of that, by the time things reached the point you were hoping for, the whole production would’ve already been completely canceled with no chance of revival!” He took a deep breath and more calmly added, “I’m sorry, Juniper, but you have to understand, you’ve placed yourself in a lose-lose situation.”

“I guess so…” Juniper sadly replied as she turned her gaze down at the floor. “I’m really sorry. I hope you can forgive me.”

After a moment of silence, Canter Zoom placed a hand on Juniper’s shoulder and calmly stated, “You’re my niece, Juniper, so of course I can forgive you.”

Juniper glanced up at her uncle and began to lightly smile.

“But I’m sorry to say you’re no longer welcome on this set,” continued Canter Zoom with a raised voice as he snapped his hand.

A security guard — with light grey skin, black on his torso and shoulders, dark grey on his legs, nothing on his head, and sunglasses and a blue goatee on his face — immediately walked over to Juniper, who now had a very worried expression on her face.

“And it’ll be a long time before I even consider allowing you back here!” Canter Zoom firmly finished. He then held out his hand and added, “Now turn in your keys!”

Juniper sighed and reluctantly handed over the set of keys. Once that was done, the security guard escorted her to the exit out of the building. She stopped at the doorway and glared back at the Equestria Girls. If looks could convey a message, the one she sent was very clear: “This isn’t over.”

Naturally, the girls were left uneasy by such a fierce glare, but thankfully for them, it lasted for only a few seconds before the guard shoved her out the door.

Almost immediately after that was over, Chestnut Magnifico walked into the room and smiled as she remarked with a light laugh, “Canter, there you are! So sorry I’m not in makeup, but I’ve just gotten a call from my agent. I no longer have to work on that ridiculous documentary about nests next month. I swear, when Juniper brought the offer to my attention, I was told that they wanted to do a documentary about my organization for homeless animals, not on various ‘nests’ around the world. Now, I’m not necessarily blaming your lovely niece, but somewhere along the line, there was definitely a failure of communication. But no matter! That’s all behind us!”

“Does this mean…?” asked Canter Zoom in a hopeful tone.

“No more scheduling conflict!” confirmed Chestnut cheerfully. “I can extend my contract and continue filming Daring Do.” She quickly noticed the relics that Sunset was still holding and asked, “Hey, are those the missing relics?”

“They sure are!” Canter Zoom excitedly confirmed. “And I don’t think we’ll have to worry about them disappearing again.” He turned his attention to the Equestria Girls. “And it’s all thanks to our visitors from the LEGO Team. First you save Camp Everfree, now the Daring Do movie, you girls are certainly on a roll!”

The entire team was practically beaming with excitement from the high praise they were receiving. Rainbow giggled briefly, then slyly asked, “Uh, speaking of roles, don’t suppose you’ve got any extra parts my friends and I could play? You know, as a reward for saving the day?”

Canter Zoom took a moment to give each of the eight minifigs a hard stare, then smiled and replied, “I think we could figure something out…”

All eight members of the team now had huge smiles on their faces, eager to find out what they would get to do with this incredible opportunity.

“Scene transition!” Pinkie suddenly shouted as she pulled out her clapperboard and snapped it shut.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why do you keep doing that?”

Pinkie simply shrugged and replied, “I have my reasons.”

Later that afternoon, the cameras were rolling on the Marapore Village set. All of the minor actors and actresses were walking around the set, behaving like regular villagers going about a typical day.

But while some of the cameras made sure to get a few shots of the village, the primary focus of the other cameras was on one individual, who was currently running through the village. It was Chestnut Magnifico, now fully dressed up for the role of Daring Do — olive green on her torso and shoulders, beige on her legs, brown on her feet, and on her head was a long hair piece of many shades of grey with a pith helmet on top. As she ran, one of the cameras focused on one of the relics, the Sword of Altoriosa, which was attached to her belt.

As the lead actress ran across the set, a few familiar faces began to show up among the villagers — all of whom were wearing appropriate costumes for the scene of a desert village. First, there was Rarity selling some decorative fabric at the bazaar, with Sunset Shimmer holding up one that she was interested in. Nearby, Applejack was carrying a basket full of apples across the street, narrowly avoiding bumping into “Daring Do” as she ran by. Not much further away, Pinkie Pie and Spike were entertaining a small crowd with their juggling talents, and as “Daring Do” ran by, her hat fell off, but she quickly caught it and put it back on her head. A little further down the street, Twilight Sparkle was carrying a tall stack of books, and as she narrowly avoided bumping into “Daring Do” as she ran by, the stack wobbled and the book on top fell off, but “Daring Do” caught it and quickly tossed it back onto the stack as she continued running. Finally, “Daring Do” skidded to a stop right in front of Fluttershy and glared up ahead. Fluttershy and the other nearby villagers glanced ahead of “Daring Do”, and immediately ran for cover.

Standing ahead of “Daring Do” in the middle of a small clearing in the street was “Stalwart Stallion” with the Staff of Altoriosa clutched in his hand. “You will give me the Sword of Altroiosa!” he boasted.

“Daring Do” glanced down at the sword she was carrying, then glared at “Stalwart Stallion” and firmly responded, “I don’t think so, Stalwart!”

“Have it your way!” boasted “Stalwart Stallion”. He then raised the staff and began speaking an enchantment, causing the staff to start unleashing a small whirlwind of light around him with occasional flashes of lightning. Once the enchantment was complete, he pointed the staff at “Daring Do” and declared, “Give up, Daring Do! The sword shall be mine!”

The sword suddenly detached itself from “Daring Do’s” belt and was flung towards “Stalwart Stallion” before she could even react. Just then, she heard a sharp whistle to her left.

Rainbow Dash ran out onto the street and tossed a whip towards “Daring Do”.

“Daring Do” caught the whip, quickly unfurled it, and lashed it towards “Stalwart Stallion”. With incredible accuracy, the crack of that whip smacked the staff out of his hands, cutting off the enchantment and causing both the staff and the sword to fall to the ground.

“This is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed excitedly.

“CUT!!”

The actor playing Stalwart Stallion immediately slumped.

Behind the cameras and sitting in his chair, Canter Zoom facepalmed and shouted, “Seriously?! Again?!”

Rainbow Dash was so giddy with excitement that she failed to immediately notice everyone glaring at her. Once she finally came to her senses, she glanced at all of her friends gathered around her as she giggled with embarrassment and said, “Sorry. I guess I just can’t help myself.”

Her friends simply smiled in amusement at Rainbow Dash’s recent display of excessive enthusiasm.

One more time, Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled out her movie clapperboard. “And that’s a wrap on Act Two!” she exclaimed excitedly and snapped the clapperboard shut.

Author's Note

I remember reading some comments about how silly it was that the girls were so easily trapped under a simple net for some time, so I figured I would at least provide an explanation for how that could be possible. That question of why Pinkie often puts "weird things on her head" and her rather logical reason (because minifigure heads have that stud on top) is something I've always wanted to include at some point in this series. Also, if you had played one of those older Lego video games from almost ten years ago, you might recognize the design of that set builder who spoke to Canter Zoom. By the way, while using the MLP Wiki as my source of information, I surprisingly found a conflict in the name of the village set between the images (Marapore) and transcript (Tri-Corners), so I decided to settle on just one of them for all parts of this story. Finally, I added a bit more content on the reveal to (what I believe) better explain why Juniper's actions were such a bad idea. Well, that finishes the part of this story based around Movie Magic, so now that just leaves Mirror Magic, for which I've got so much planned that it'll be covered by four chapters instead of three like the other parts (not counting the epilogue, of course).

Magic Mirror in the Hand

Chapter 7
Magic Mirror in the Hand

A few weeks had passed since the incident at the film lot. With no further delays, the Daring Do movie was able to be completed, and now the day of its premiere in theaters had finally arrived. However, the time of the first showing wouldn’t be until later that evening, so those who were looking forward to seeing it still had a full day ahead of them. For now, it was the start of a new day, and the citizens of Canterlot City were ready to go about their daily lives.

Over at the district of Sunshine Plaza, one individual who was walking along the brick red tiles of Celestia Avenue knew all too well about the movie that was to premiere later that day. To say that Juniper Montage was in a bad mood would be a huge understatement. Not only was she still very resentful over getting kicked out of the film lot her uncle worked at, but now she also had the humiliation of working at one of the cinemas that would soon show the Daring Do movie — a movie that she ultimately got no involvement in at all, despite her desperate wishes. But most of all, she placed all of the blame for her misery on a certain group of girls.

Suddenly, television screens all along Sunshine Plaza began playing the Dance Magic music video, and due to the presence of those girls in that video, Juniper’s frustrations quickly boiled to the surface. “Ugh! Those girls!” she grumbled. “First they get me kicked off the Daring Do set, and now— Oh!”

Juniper hadn’t been paying attention to where she was walking and had ended up bumping into a posterboard stand. She glanced down at it and saw that, of all the things it could’ve been advertising, it just had to be the new Daring Do movie. Even worse, the seven girls responsible for her misery were displayed on the lower right corner of the poster; hardly noticeable for most, but for her, it stuck out like a damaged piece.

“They’re everywhere!” snapped Juniper. She folded her arms and grumbled, “I bet they’ll be at the premiere tonight. I bet I’ll be the lucky one ushering them to their seats. Ugh!” She smacked her hand against the posterboard, which only made it wobble a little. She then kicked it, sending it up into the air. Before it came back down, she grasped it and furiously slammed it down onto the street, breaking the posterboard apart into the separate Lego pieces it was made of.

Juniper’s shoulders rose and fell from her heavy breathing, and after a few seconds, she realized that some of the civilians walking around nearby had stopped and were staring at her. “What are you freaks looking at?!” she snapped.

Slightly intimidated, the civilians quickly turned their attention away from Juniper and continued on their way up or down the street.

“Juniper, where are you?” asked a voice through the walkie-talkie Juniper was carrying. “We need you back at the popcorn popper, stat.”

Juniper rolled her eyes, then pulled out her walkie-talkie and — while occasionally imitating static noises — responded, “Shhhh — What was that — shhhh — boss? Can’t hear you — shhhh — losing you — shhhh!” She then swiftly put away the walkie-talkie and resumed storming down the street.

It wasn’t long until Juniper arrived at a kiosk that sold sunglasses. “If those girls hadn’t shown up, I would have played Daring Do!” she grumbled to herself. “Tonight would’ve been about me! I would’ve been a star!” She took off her glasses and replaced them with a pair of star-shaped sunglasses from one of the shelves in the kiosk.

The clerk running the kiosk glanced over at Juniper and simply shook his head without saying a word.

Juniper picked up a hand mirror on the counter and looked at her reflection. “You’re right, they are a bit much,” she muttered as she set down the hand mirror and removed the sunglasses. She then put those sunglasses back on the shelf and searched for another pair.

Right at that moment, no one noticed a glowing trail of magical energy flying around over the buildings and eventually come down in Sunshine Plaza, landing on the hand mirror that Juniper Montage had been using. When the magic infused itself into the mirror, it transformed from a standard blue hand mirror into one with a more stylish crystal-like design.

The magical energy had faded completely out of sight by the time Juniper grabbed the mirror again after picking out another pair of sunglasses. As soon as she looked in the mirror, she saw her reflection suddenly change into a face that definitely wasn’t hers. Startled by such an unexpected sight, she yelped and dropped the mirror onto the counter. “What was that?” she muttered in confusion. After taking off the sunglasses, she reached for the mirror and when she touched the glass, the surface rippled with glowing energy, causing her to yelp in shock again.

Juniper glanced around and saw none of the few people in the area had their attention on her — even the clerk was now wearing headphones and had apparently tuned out his surroundings. Once she was sure no one was watching, she put her regular glasses back on as she picked up the mirror and looked at her reflection. Again, that different face was looking back at her, but now that she took the time to study that face, she realized that it was actually herself, only with a more elegant hairstyle, makeup, a sparkling dress, and no glasses at all — it was exactly how she had always envisioned herself as a movie star. Even more remarkable, the reflection moved independently of her and actually blew a kiss towards her.

Juniper gasped in delight and whispered, “Incredible…” She then reached into her pocket, pulled out a few dollars, and tossed the green 1x2 tiles over onto the counter. “Keep the change,” she said to the clerk as she began walking away with the magical hand mirror. “Something tells me this thing’s more than worth it…”

Further up the street in Sunshine Plaza, Sunset Shimmer was sitting alone at a table outside a café. She currently had her magic journal open and was writing a message to Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria.

Dear Princess Twilight,

Tonight’s the night of the big movie premiere. All my friends are really excited, and I should be too, except I can’t seem to keep my mind on anything other than our new powers and the rogue magic that’s loose in this world and how scary but exhilarating it all is. How does it work? How can we be prepared for it? When will it show up again? Well, you see the problem. With the weight of all of Equestria on your shoulders, you must have some advice on how to—

Sunset turned to the next page, only to see nothing but the back cover of the book. “Oh, shoot!” she grumbled under her breath.

“What’s the matter, Sunset?” asked Pinkie Pie as she suddenly sat down at the table across from Sunset.

Sunset glanced up and saw the rest of her friends had also arrived. She closed her journal and held it up as she replied, “Oh, I just ran out of pages in my journal, that’s all.”

“Chillax, Sun-Shim,” remarked Rainbow Dash as she and Twilight sat down at another table.

“Um, who’s ‘Sun-Shim’?” asked Fluttershy as she, Applejack, and Rarity sat down at yet another table.

“That’s Sunset Shimmer’s new movie star name,” Rainbow casually replied. “I made it up!”

Applejack facepalmed and pointed out, “For Ole’s sake, we only have bit parts in this flick. We’re not movie starts.”

“Yet, darling,” Rarity smugly remarked. “Yet.”

“There’s more bothering you than just journal pages, isn’t there, Sunset?” asked Twilight.

Sunset hesitated to respond as she stared down at her journal.

“C’mon! Share your troubles,” pressed Pinkie Pie as she leaned close to Sunset and started rubbing her cheeks. “It might help soothe your stressed nerves.”

Sunset lightly shoved Pinkie away and uneasily replied, “Uh, I don’t wanna take any of the fun out of our big night—”

“I said spill it, Sun-Shim!” snapped Pinkie as she got right in Sunset’s face.

Sunset lightly shoved Pinkie away again and replied, “Okay, okay! It’s just that… things have been calm around here, magic-wise.”

“And that’s bad how, precisely?” asked Rarity.

“It’s not,” replied Sunset shamefully. “It’s just that instead of enjoying the fact that things are calm, I’m constantly thinking about things going wrong, even when they aren’t.”

“Oh, like… like what things?” Fluttershy nervously asked.

“I don’t know,” admitted Sunset with an uneasy smile. “I shouldn’t even be thinking about any of this stuff right now, and neither should any of you.”

As Sunset finished speaking, Pinkie noticed the magic journal starting to glow and vibrate. “Look! Princess Twilight’s writing you back!” she suddenly exclaimed excitedly. She quickly grabbed the journal and held it up as she leaned over Sunset. “Hey, everybody! Sunset’s getting an Equestri-text!”

Sunset snatched the journal out of Pinkie’s hand and once again shoved her away. “Honestly, Pinkie, do you have any sense of personal space?” grumbled Sunset before she opened her journal and began reading the latest message from Princess Twilight — which took up the very final page in the journal.

“What’s it say?” asked Applejack.

Sunset took a moment to read the message, her eyes growing wide as she neared the end of it. Once she was finished reading, she replied, “Princess Twilight wants me to come to… Equestria.”

“WHAT?!” exclaimed all six of Sunset’s friends at once.

Pinkie started to tear up as she asked, “You mean… you’re gonna leave us?!”

“What? No!” responded Sunset. She turned to everyone as she explained, “You see, Princess Twilight had already realized that I was about to run out of journal pages, so with a little help from Princess Celestia, she already has a new pair of magical journals all set for us to start using. Of course, I’ll first need to actually go get my new journal, so I’m just gonna make a quick visit to grab it, then I’ll be back with plenty of time to spare before tonight’s movie premiere.”

“Oh, well then, that’s quite a relief, darling,” remarked Rarity with a smile. “For a moment there, you really had us believing that Princess Twilight was asking you to move back to Equestria.”

“No, I’d never abandon you girls like that,” assured Sunset. “You’re my friends, and even though Equestria is where I grew up, this world is where I’ve been able to build a better life for myself. Trust me, it’ll take a lot more than just a filled journal to make me throw it all away.”

“That’s good to know,” said Fluttershy with a smile.

“Besides,” added Rainbow Dash, “I’m sure there’s a few other reasons why you’d rather not go back to Equestria anyway, right?”

Sunset hesitated for a moment before she replied, “Well, I won’t exactly deny that, but I’d rather not go into any details.”

“Understandable,” noted Rarity with a smile and nod.

“I’m also glad to know that we can still keep in touch with the ponies of Equestria,” Twilight spoke up. “To be honest, I’ve always been a little concerned about the finite amount of writing space available in that one book, so it’s good that you can just simply get a new blank journal.”

“Same here, Twilight,” admitted Sunset. “With all the worries I’ve been having lately, I’m really glad one of them won’t be losing contact with Princess Twilight.”

“So when does Princess Twilight want you to head on over?” asked Applejack.

“She said I’m welcome to visit at any time,” replied Sunset. She placed her journal into her shoulder bag as she continued, “Now seems as good a time as any, so I’ll just head on over to the interdimensional portal in City Park, visit Equestria for a few minutes to get my new magic journal, then come back and meet up with you girls later.”

“We’ve already planned on spending the day here in Sunshine Plaza, so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding us once you return,” Rarity pointed out.

“Just make sure you don’t stay too long to miss the big movie premiere tonight,” warned Rainbow Dash.

“Like I said, it’ll just be a quick visit,” assured Sunset as she stood up and slung the strap of her bag up onto her right shoulder, leaving the bag hanging over her left hip. “I probably won’t even set foot outside of Princess Twilight’s castle — or rather, set hoof outside the castle.”

The seven girls all giggled at that little reminder of the inhabitants of Equestria.

“Well, I’ll see you girls later,” said Sunset as she began walking away from the café.

“Bye, Sunset!” said her six friends as they all waved to her.

Sunset waved back to them, then turned away and continued walking up the street.

A few seconds after Sunset had left, Rainbow Dash turned to the others and asked, “So, uh, what do you girls wanna do while we wait for her?”

“Well, there’s plenty to see and do here in Sunshine Plaza,” replied Twilight, “so I’m sure we can think of something.”

“Perhaps a little window shopping will help us pass the time,” suggested Rarity as she stood up.

Applejack shrugged and stood up as she said, “Eh, not like Ah’ve got any better ideas.”

“I thought we were just gonna stay here and get a bite to eat,” said Pinkie in confusion as she gestured over at the café entrance.

“We’ve still got some time before lunch,” Twilight pointed out as she and Rainbow stood up, “but we can always come back here later.”

While Fluttershy also stood up, Pinkie shrugged and remarked, “Yeah, I guess that’s true.” She then stood up and walked over to her friends.

As the six girls began walking down the street of brick red 2x4 tiles, Rarity spoke up, “Be sure to keep your eyes open, girls. You never know when you might find something of interest in this district.”

Over at the Flixiplex Cinema in Sunshine Plaza further down the street, Juniper Montage was starting her shift. Over her standard clothes, her work uniform consisted of a burgundy vest on her torso, a short red and yellow striped apron over the front of her skirt, and a headband on top of her hair that displayed the cinema’s logo of a series of film reels and film strips.

Usually, Juniper would be in a bad mood as she worked behind the counter, but today, she had a rather lovely distraction from her woes in the form of a magical mirror in her hand. She smiled as she continued staring into that mirror, which was currently displaying her dream reflection surrounded by camera flashes and microphones pointed at her. She let out a happy sigh and muttered, “It’s like this mirror is the only one around here who gets me…”

“Ahem!”

Snapped out of her daydreaming, Juniper quickly turned around and saw her manager with a displeased frown on his face and holding a broom in his hand. In addition to wearing the cinema’s uniform, he had light green skin, a short green hair piece parted to the sides, and a small mustache on his face.

“Popcorn spill at the condiment counter,” stated the manager as he held the broom out to Juniper.

Juniper furrowed her brow, then held her magic mirror up to her manager and defiantly asked, “Does this look like someone who cleans popcorn spills?”

The manager raised an eyebrow as he saw just an ordinary reflection of himself. He glared at Juniper and replied in an unamused tone, “All I see is the face of an employer, asking a certain employee to do her job, or said employee will get fired.” He then shoved the broom into Juniper’s hands. “Now start sweeping!”

Juniper groaned loudly in frustration, then begrudgingly started walking towards the site of the mess while lazily dragging the broom behind her.

“And if I catch you staring at that silly mirror again, I will confiscate it,” the manager firmly added.

Juniper let out a sigh of frustration as she arrived at the pile of spilled popcorn. She glanced back and saw her manager turn around and walk away to attend to other matters. Now that she was sure she wasn’t being watched, she tossed the broom aside and grumbled, “This is the worst.” She then smiled and quietly remarked, “Hey, I know what’ll perk me up! A little Mirror Me time!”

Juniper held up and stared into the magic mirror again, and saw her dream reflection was now signing autographs on photos of herself to a crowd of exited fans.

Juniper giggled and pleasantly remarked, “That’s more like it!” She held the mirror close to her chest as she sighed sadly and muttered, “I wish this popcorn would just clean itself up so I could just stare at you all day.” She held up the mirror again, but before she could take another look into it, a bright blue ray of magical energy suddenly shot out from the glass and spread out to cover the pile of popcorn on the floor. The ray lasted for only a few seconds before it vanished just as suddenly, and once that bright glare was gone, Juniper was shocked to discover that the entire pile was now completely gone — not even a single crumb had been left on the floor.

Behind Juniper, her manager walked by and as soon as he noticed the now completely clean floor, he stopped and said in astonishment, “Huh? Done already? I’m shocked.”

Juniper quickly turned to her manager — making sure to hide the magic mirror behind her back — and smiled innocently.

The manager scratched his head, then simply shrugged and continued on his way.

Once her manager was again out of sight, Juniper turned back to where the popcorn mess had once been and stared down at her mirror as she muttered, “You and me both…” She couldn’t help but feel a little concerned that she was actually holding such a powerful artifact in her hands. For a brief moment, she considered whether she should even be in possession of such incredible powers, but another look at her dream reflection in the mirror immediately convinced her otherwise.

Well, not like I have anything better to do around here, Juniper thought to herself. Might as well try to figure out how it actually works. Besides, there’s plenty of popcorn to go around, so I’m sure nobody will care if a little more goes missing.

Author's Note

This might seem like a rather short chapter, but that's only because there will be so much content in the upcoming chapters that it seemed best to end this one at this point. The next few chapters is where this story will start to get very interesting. Anyway, Spike's absence in this part of the story will be explained in a later chapter, so don't tell me I've forgotten about him like the official version did. By the way, some of the details of Sunshine Plaza (such as the street made of red bricks) were largely inspired the real life place of Church Street Marketplace in the city of Burlington, Vermont, which is not far from where I live.

Visiting Equestria

Chapter 8
Visiting Equestria

After a quick ride in her car across town, Sunset had arrived at City Park. Once she had parked her car, she walked through the park and soon arrived at her destination: the empty pedestal that once held a statue of a horse rearing up on its hind legs. Of course, she knew that this simple structure of white Lego bricks also housed something very special: the interdimensional portal to Equestria, the universe she had originally came from. And very soon, she was going to pass through it.

Sunset stopped in front of the portal, taking a moment to reflect on the significance of what she was about to do. She had first come through this portal over six years ago, when after her falling out with her teacher Princess Celestia, she ran away to this world. It was a rough start, to say the least, but once she made herself familiar with how everything worked in the Lego World, she had wasted no time making her presence known, ensuring that everyone knew that she was not someone to be messed with at all.

After five years of establishing herself as the most wanted criminal in the Lego World, she had finally managed to discover an opportunity to not only return to Equestria, but also obtain the power she had so desperately craved. She had made the necessary preparations, waited for just the right moment, and finally made her move.

Unfortunately, her brief return to Equestria hadn’t gone quite according to plan, and she was forced to come back to the Lego World to chase after that source of great power she desired. Although she eventually got what she wanted, it was only in the aftermath of her defeat by Princess Twilight Sparkle that she realized just how far she had fallen.

Although only a year had passed since those events, a lot had changed for Sunset since then. She had gone from a hated criminal to a beloved hero, and became great friends with the girls who she had once fought against. Yes, life for her in the Lego World had dramatically improved… but the same couldn’t quite be said for Equestria.

As far as Sunset knew, much of Equestria either never heard of her or only remembered her as that bratty former personal student of Princess Celestia. Sure, Princess Twilight knew how much she had changed for the better, but there were no guarantees that such word would’ve spread beyond her own close circle of friends.

Still, Twilight had assured her that all she really had to do was pick up her new magic journal, and if she wasn’t comfortable with doing anything else before returning to the Lego World, then that would be completely acceptable.

Sunset glanced down at the shoulder bag hanging over her right side. She had made a quick stop at her apartment to leave behind her old magic journal, as requested by Princess Twilight to ensure the contraption that forced the portal open could remain functional. She also had a few nonessential provisions stored in that bag, but there was still plenty of room for the new journal.

Well… let’s get this over with, Sunset thought as she sighed. She placed her left hand onto the front surface of the pedestal and saw it began to shimmer and ripple around the point of contact. With a little more pressure, her hand passed through the surface, and soon she stepped forward to completely pass through. Once she had entered the portal, all she saw was a very bright swirl of all the colors of the rainbow. She screamed as she was pulled around and felt her body being stretched and twisted out of shape.

Sunset Shimmer was on her way back to Equestria.

On the other side of the interdimensional portal, the contraption surrounding the Crystal Mirror suddenly began powering up on its own. First, the magic journal on the Equestria side of the mirror glowed brightly with magical energy from its mount atop the contraption. That energy was then caught by a pair of coils and transferred down a series of cables, then forced through a pump system with a pair of pistons, weaved through a loom, and finally discharged from a pair of rods directly into the mirror itself. Once that magical energy entered the mirror, the interdimensional portal was opened, its bright glow illuminating the dark room it was stored inside.

Just seconds after the interdimensional portal opened, the mirror briefly flashed much brighter and something was flung out from it. The expelled object tumbled across the floor and came to a stop just inches away from the wall at the other side of the room. What had just emerged from the mirror was a pony with an amber coat, a wavy mane and tail of faded red and yellow, and a Cutie Mark of a half red and half yellow sun.

Sunset Shimmer was back in Equestria.

The contraption quickly shut off, plunging the room completely into darkness. Sunset was lying on the floor on her back, still dazed from her interdimensional journey, and struggled to make sense of where exactly she had ended up. It wasn’t long before she heard a series of taps behind her; three quick taps, a brief pause, and three more quick taps. Suddenly, she began to hear stone blocks grinding against each other right behind her. Soon, light began pouring into the room as the wall behind Sunset somehow parted open, though the sudden change from darkness to light left her momentarily blinded, causing her to shield her eyes with her forelegs.

“Sorry about that,” said a voice behind Sunset. “I didn’t know what time you’d be here.”

Sunset removed her forelegs from over her eyes and looked up. Her vision was still a little blurred, but she could see that, upside down from her perspective, a purple pony was looking down at her. “Princess Twilight?” she asked with a slight slur in her voice. “Is that you?”

Once her vision finally came into focus, Sunset saw that it was not Twilight, but rather a unicorn with a lilac coat, a violet mane with aqua streaks and the front curled over to one side, and eyes with medium blue irises.

“Nope!” responded the unicorn with a smile on her face. “Starlight Glimmer.”

Sunset chuckled nervously and muttered, “Oops. My bad.” She then curled herself forward, pushed off the floor with her forelegs, and attempted to stand upright on her hind legs. Almost immediately, she wobbled around and waved her forelegs uncontrollably as she struggled to adjust to her new center of gravity. After a few seconds, she finally managed to steady her balance, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Um… what are you doing?” asked Starlight.

Sunset turned her head back and saw Starlight giving her a weird look. Sunset glanced down at her body and suddenly realized that she was no longer a Lego minifig, but rather a pony, which was supposed to stand on four legs instead of just two. With a giggle of embarrassment, she dropped her forelegs down onto the floor. “Wow… that feels so weird after all this time,” she remarked as she idly scrapped her right front hoof against the floor. She returned her gaze towards Starlight and added, “Starlight Glimmer… you’re Twilight’s student, right?”

“Uh-huh,” answered Starlight with a nod and a smile. “She asked me to meet you here and take you to the library to pick up your new journal. C’mon.”

As Starlight turned away and began walking down the hallway outside the room, Sunset followed after her. It was definitely a little awkward going back to walking on four legs again, but thanks to her past experiences of living as a pony in Equestria, she was able to adjust rather quickly. Now that Sunset had a better look, she saw that Starlight’s Cutie Mark consisted of a purple four-pointed star over a white four-pointed star and above it were a pair of aqua wisps of magic.

After only a few steps, Starlight suddenly stopped and said, “Oh! I almost forgot.” She quickly turned around and returned to the room with the mirror, then tapped her hoof twice against the floor on a thick black line that marked the boundary between the hallway and the room that contained the Crystal Mirror.

Sunset watched in amazement as the stone blocks began shifting around again. This time, they gradually reformed the wall that had parted open only a minute earlier. It wasn’t long until the last of the stone blocks slid into place, forming a perfectly smooth wall that left no sign there was even a room behind it.

“It was Twilight’s idea to keep that mirror hidden inside a secret room,” explained Starlight. “It’s mostly to prevent any unwanted visitors from trying to sneak through.”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea,” admitted Sunset. “That’s not exactly an option on the other side, since it’s out in the middle of a public park, so I guess it’s nice to be sure that at least one side will always be secure.”

As Starlight began walking down the hallway again, she continued, “The only way to get through that secret door is to knock on certain blocks in a specific order. I’ll show you the secret knock when we come back. It works on both sides, so you won’t have to worry about getting trapped inside that room if you visit again.”

“Sounds good to me,” remarked Sunset as she resumed following Starlight down the hallway. After a few steps, she asked, “So, uh, where’s Princess Twilight?”

“Well, she wanted to give you the journal herself, but then she and her friends were called away to solve a friendship problem,” replied Starlight with a tone of disappointment. “It happens a lot around here.”

“Really?” asked Sunset skeptically as she raised an eyebrow. “Just suddenly called away like that?”

Starlight stopped in front of a large set of double doors and used her magic to open them, revealing a massive room with a large round crystal table in the middle surrounded by six large thrones and one smaller throne. “This is the castle’s throne room,” explained Starlight. “You see that table in the middle? That’s a magical map of all of Equestria. Whenever there’s a friendship problem, the ponies needed to solve it will have their Cutie Marks glow, and their Cutie Marks will also appear over the location on the map of where they need to go to solve it. When their Cutie Marks glow again, that means they completed their mission and they can return home.”

“Wow,” said Sunset in astonishment. “I remember Princess Twilight writing to me about this, but she never really explained how it all works.”

“Believe me, we all still don’t completely understand it,” said Starlight as she closed the doors and resumed walking down the hallway with Sunset. “All it really does is tell us who needs to go where, and in many cases, it’s for something that can’t exactly be postponed, which is why Twilight and the others had to leave so suddenly.”

“That must be stressful, huh?” remarked Sunset uneasily. “Never knowing when you might be called on to save the day… dropping everything at a moment’s notice…” Her tone had gotten a little saddened as she spoke. She turned to Starlight and asked, “How does she do it?”

“Sorry,” replied Starlight regretfully. “She just told me to give you the journal.”

Sunset lowered her head and sighed.

“Hey, believe me, she was just as disappointed that she had to miss out on this chance to see you again,” assured Starlight. “She’s very proud of all the things you’ve accomplished. In fact…” She stopped and pointed down another hallway to the left. “A few doors down that hallway, well, it’s just an empty room right now, but she’s planning to use it for something she’s calling the ‘Gallery of Creativity’. It’ll pretty much be a little personal museum filled with small-scale models of all kinds of moments you and your friends have had on your adventures in that other world.”

“That sounds interesting,” remarked Sunset. She turned back to Starlight and asked, “When you mentioned small-scale, how small are we talking?”

“She said that the height of one of those ‘minifigures’ would be no more than an inch,” replied Starlight.

“Wow, that’s pretty small,” said Sunset in astonishment.

“It was really the only practical option,” explained Starlight as she and Sunset resumed walking. “Plastic is actually a very difficult material to obtain here in Equestria, which also explains why that project has been taking so long to get done. I once offered to help speed things along by using a series of transfiguration spells, but I was quickly discouraged when she mentioned that many of the models would require thousands of little pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still like to help Twilight in any way I can, but for that much effort, you’d practically need to build a factory.”

Sunset chuckled and remarked, “Yeah, well, Lego parts in the other world are made in a series of factories, so that doesn’t really surprise me.”

It wasn’t long before the two ponies arrived at another large set of double doors. “Well, here’s the library,” noted Starlight as she used her magic to open the door, then she and Sunset stepped inside. It was another massive round room like the throne room, only this room had walls that seemingly consisted of nothing but bookshelves all around, from the floor up to around hallway towards the high ceiling, with the upper half of those walls consisting of large windows. Within the room, there were a few round tables and some chairs, with a few additional bookcases in various locations.

“Ah, right where I left it,” remarked Starlight as she trotted over to the table in the middle of library. Resting on that table was a single book with a reddish-brown hard cover with a symbol on the front cover that resembled Sunset’s Cutie Mark on the left half and Twilight’s Cutie Mark on the right half. That journal was soon enveloped in Starlight’s turquoise magical aura as she levitated it off the table and over towards Sunset.

However, while Sunset held out her hoof with the expectation of physically grabbing that book, Starlight had expected the other unicorn would take control of it with her magic and thus released her hold of it when it was only halfway between them. As a result of this misunderstanding, the journal simply dropped to the floor right in front of Sunset.

Sunset and Starlight stared at each other in awkward silence for a moment. Sunset grinned in embarrassment and then reached her hoof out towards the journal on the floor. She attempted to grasp the journal, but it took her a few failed attempts before she finally realized that hooves just weren’t built for grasping objects. She let out a sigh of frustration and mumbled, “This would be so much easier if—”

Starlight cleared her throat, then once Sunset’s attention was at her, she silently pointed her hoof up at her own horn.

Sunset suddenly smiled and, with a bit of hysterical laughter, remarked, “How could I have possibly forgotten about that?!” She then concentrated on the journal and, after quickly reminding herself of her old magic lessons under Princess Celestia, was soon able to magically pick up that book. As she watched that book floating around under her own magical power, she couldn’t resist some further laughter of excitement. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed being able to do this all the time!” she remarked excitedly.

Starlight simply smiled and rolled her eyes at seeing the other unicorn get so excited over something so mundane as merely levitating a single object.

Sunset eventually stopped swinging the journal around and brought it up to in front of her face, then flexed her magic power a little more by quickly flipping through all the blank pages of that new book. But once she closed that book, she frowned as she suddenly realized something odd about her magic. “That’s strange,” she muttered. “I’m pretty sure my magical aura used to be a different color.” The previous times she had used magic as a pony, the color of her magical aura was the same aqua color as the irises of her eyes, but this time that aura was more of a reddish orange color.

“Then again, my hair used to be a brighter shade of red and yellow,” noted Sunset as she glanced back at her own body, though that was a change she was already well aware of. “I wonder if spending too much time outside your original universe causes subtle changes like this…” she muttered to herself. She then shrugged and remarked, “Oh well, doesn’t seem like anything serious.”

Sunset used her magic to open her bag — which she had noticed was no longer a shoulder bag slung loosely over her shoulder by a thin strap, but was now a saddlebag held onto her side by a thick strap tightened around her barrel. She was about to place the new journal into the bag, but stopped when she glanced inside and saw the various items that were already in there. “Oh, uh, I’d better move a few things around,” she muttered, then used her magic to levitate all of those items out of the bag, placed her new journal into the emptied bag, then began to place the various items back into the bag.

Sunset chuckled and remarked, “Magic sure makes things a heck of a lot easier to move around than using just two hands.” As she spoke, she placed the items into the bag one at a time. First was obviously the journal, followed by her phone — notably still in the form of a printed 1x2 tile Lego part — then a pair of headphones, a can of spray paint, a bottle of orange soda, a carrot, and an apple. There was only one more item left, but before she could put it into the bag, Starlight suddenly took hold of it with her magic and levitated it towards herself.

“What’s this?” asked Starlight as she tried to examine the strange object. One end of the dark grey object had a short shaft that went off to one side, and the other end had three prongs that curved back in equal directions away from each other.

“That’s a grapple gun,” answered Sunset with a smile as she took the object back with her magic. “Very useful for reaching high places. Here, I’ll show you how it works.” She prepared to aim the grapple gun at one of the additional bookcases in the room, but hesitated as she took another look at the object in her magical hold. “Actually, I’m not sure if it’ll work like this, so I guess I’ll just try my best with my hooves,” she muttered as she sat down on the floor and held out her forelegs, then levitated the grapple gun down to her front hooves. It was a little difficult to hold onto the round handle between her flat hooves, but she managed to get a firm hold on it.

Starlight was certainly curious to see how such a gadget worked, so she sat down next to Sunset.

“Okay,” began Sunset as she held the grapple gun out in front of her, “all you have to do is aim it at your target, squeeze the handle to fire it…” With an audible burst, the grappling hook suddenly shot from the gadget and flew over onto the top of one of the extra bookcases, with a long cable extending from the gun to the grappling hook. “Then once you’ve latched onto your target, just squeeze the handle again to bring it back to you.” The cable was quickly pulled taut into the gun, then the grappling hook was pulled towards it. Since it was hooked onto the top of that bookcase, it ended up pulling the bookcase over, spilling all of its books off its shelves before it toppled over. As the now loosened grappling hook fully retracted back to the gun, Sunset stared at the mess she had caused, then chuckled nervously and simply said, “Whoops.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” assured Starlight as she stood up. She first levitated the bookcase back upright into its proper place, then she levitated all of the spilled books and placed them all into a series of somewhat neat piles around the front of the bookcase.

“You’re not gonna put those books back on the shelves?” asked Sunset.

“I’m still not quite familiar with Twilight’s system,” admitted Starlight, “so I’ll just let her deal with it when she gets back.”

“Fair enough,” muttered Sunset as she levitated the grapple gun out of her hooves and back into her bag. She turned back to Starlight and asked, “Are you sure she won’t be back anytime soon?”

“Pretty sure,” replied Starlight apologetically.

Sunset sighed, then after a moment of awkward silence, she finally stated, “Well… back to that secret room, I guess.” The then instinctively attempted to stand up on her hind legs again, only to suddenly wobble around before she quickly got back down on all four legs. She gave an awkward smile as she chuckled and muttered, “Right. Pony.”

Starlight was unable to suppress a faint giggle before she followed Sunset out of the library, then magically closed the door behind her.

As they began walking back down the hallway, Sunset turned to Starlight and asked, “So it was really Twilight’s idea to build that secret door?”

Starlight nodded and replied, “Said it was one of the first things she added to castle after it first appeared. In her words, ‘Secret doors are cool.’”

Both Sunset and Starlight giggled at that quote. “That’s something I would’ve expected to hear from Spike,” remarked Sunset. “Speaking of whom, did he actually manage to keep that hat he got in the other world?”

“Well, yes and no,” replied Starlight. “He did get to keep it, but it didn’t change shape with him, so it no longer fit his head. Fortunately for him, Rarity was generous enough to make him a new one that looked the same as the old one and would actually fit him. She even custom embroidered that detailing on the front. He still likes to wear it around every now and then, and in fact it was when I first saw him wearing that hat that I had first heard of the word ‘LEGO’.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t really surprise me,” remarked Sunset under her breath with a smile.

After a few more seconds of walking in silence, Starlight slowly asked, “So… what’s it like back there?”

“In the Lego World?” asked Sunset as she looked over at Starlight.

Starlight nodded with a smile.

Sunset took a moment to consider her answer, then replied, “Well, it’s pretty different. And not so different at the same time. It’s kinda hard to explain.”

Starlight glanced away as she said, “Heh… guess you kinda have to go there to really get it, huh? I, uh, don’t suppose…”

Sunset raised an eyebrow and asked, “You really think Princess Twilight would be okay with that?”

“I don’t know for sure that she wouldn’t be okay with it,” Starlight slyly replied.

“That’s not a particularly compelling argument,” muttered Sunset with uncertainty.

Starlight sighed and said, “She wants me to learn as much as I can about friendship, and I’m certainly not gonna learn a whole lot by just hanging out here in her castle all by myself.”

Sunset took a moment to consider Starlight’s request as they continued walking down the hallway. Eventually, Sunset spoke up, “Well, I haven’t seen you before in the Lego World, so I doubt you’ll run into yourself.”

“Now there’s something you don’t hear every day,” muttered Starlight.

“So just try to lay low,” continued Sunset. “Don’t draw too much attention to your—”

Starlight immediately scoffed and dismissively remarked, “You’ll barely even notice I’m there!”

“I suppose introducing you to my friends could be a nice distraction,” admitted Sunset.

“But you’ll also totally notice I’m there!” added Starlight excitedly as she leaned close to Sunset. “And it’ll keep your mind off of other things that might be bothering you!”

Sunset chuckled and lightly pushed Starlight away. “Easy there!” she said playfully, “First, you gotta show me that secret knock to reach the portal.” She stopped walking and gestured over at the seemingly plain empty wall that she knew was actually the secret door into the hidden room.

“Oh! Right! Of course!” said Starlight with a nervous giggle. She then walked along the wall and felt her hoof along its smooth surface. “First, you need to find the one and only block that can do this.” She then pushed in one of the solid blocks on that wall about a few inches back. “Now watch carefully.” She then started tapping her hoof on the stone blocks surrounding that pushed-in block in a specific order — top left, top middle, top right, a brief pause, bottom right, bottom middle, and bottom left. Once that sequence was completed, the stone blocks that made up that wall suddenly began moving around on their own, grinding against each other as they magically shifted around. In only a matter of seconds, the wall had once again parted open to expose the secret room and the Crystal Mirror hidden inside.

With the secret door now open, Starlight turned to Sunset and eagerly asked, “So? What do you think? Can I go back with you?!” She was so excited that she actually jumped in place a few times — not unlike what her friend Pinkie Pie would typically do.

Sunset looked over at the Crystal Mirror as she considered her choice. After a bit of thought, she shrugged and smiled as she replied, “Oh, what the heck. Why not?”

“YES!!” shouted Starlight excitedly with an enthusiastic jump into the air. Once she landed, she ran over to the mirror and offered, “Here, let me activate it for you!” She then fired a quick beam of magic at the journal mounted atop the contraption, unleashing its magical energy which then passed through the various stages of the contraption and finally was discharged into the mirror, once again forcing open the interdimensional portal to the Lego World.

“Did Twilight build this thing, too?” asked Sunset.

“Actually, I’ve been told that it was built by some scrapyard engineer by the name of Rusty Wrench,” admitted Starlight. “But Twilight assures me that she did the math herself, and as long as nothing breaks, we shouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck on the other side.”

“That’s reassuring,” mumbled Sunset as she rolled her eyes.

“C’mon, Sunset!” said Starlight excitedly as she rushed towards the steps in front of the mirror and gestured towards it. “After you!”

Sunset walked over to the mirror and asked, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Once she stopped walking, she briefly pointed her muzzle out towards the hallway outside the room.

“Oh! Right!” responded Starlight with another awkward giggle. “Silly me!” She ran back to the black line on the floor at the end of the room and tapped her hoof twice against it. Once again, the stone blocks shifted around and soon reformed the wall that kept this room hidden. Of course, with no windows into this hidden room, the only illumination was now coming from the magenta glow of the opened interdimensional portal.

With that security system back in place, Sunset walked up to the Crystal Mirror, then stopped and looked back as Starlight. “Well, see you on the other side,” she remarked, then turned forward and stepped through the interdimensional portal.

Starlight could barely contain her excitement over where she was about to go. She took a deep breath to somewhat calm herself, then remarked to herself, “Alright… Time to Lego!” She then ran up to the Crystal Mirror and jumped through the interdimensional portal.

Starlight Glimmer was on her way to the Lego World.

Author's Note

It sure has been a while since Equestria was last seen in this series. I had to look back at a certain chapter of the second story in order to be sure I was accurately describing some of the differences I had made from the official version (such as the Crystal Mirror being inside a hidden room that can only be accessed with a secret knock). By having Sunset and Starlight needing to walk a little to get the journal and return to the portal, I was able to fit in some further conversation, such as pointing out the castle's magical map and how it works. I also took this opportunity to finally mention something I had wanted to include in this series, which is Princess Twilight setting aside a room in her castle to display small-scale recreations of all the major events her friends in the Lego World had gone through (kind of like someone displaying a huge collection of Lego sets, including having those models be at the same scale as actual Lego sets). Finally, some of you may recall how in each of the main stories of this series, I would include at least one appearance of my OC, Rusty Wrench, but recently I've considered doing away with such cameos as unnecessary, so the brief mention he got near the end of this chapter will probably be the last mention of him ever in this series. Just two chapters and the epilogue left to go, and considering what I've got planned, it looks like the upcoming two chapters will be much longer than any of the previous chapters.

Shimmer and Glimmer in the City

Chapter 9
Shimmer and Glimmer in the City

At Canterlot City Park, Sunset Shimmer was the first one to come through the interdimensional portal back into the Lego World. She stumbled a little as she was flung out, but managed to stay on her feet as she slowed down to a stop. With a smile on her face, she smirked and quipped, “I think I’m starting to get the hang of this interdimensional travel.” She then heard a quick whoosh from behind, so she turned around just in time to see the bright flash from the portal fade. Lying face-down on the grassy ground in front of the statue base was a minifig she had never seen before, yet knew exactly who it was.

Starlight Glimmer was left highly disoriented from her very first trip through the interdimensional portal. When it finally occurred to her that everything had stopped spinning and she was down on solid ground, she moved her forelimbs to push her face off the ground. She groaned and mumbled, “What hap—” She suddenly gasped when she got her first look at one of the alterations to her body. Her forelimbs ended in some strange kind of appendage that she would best describe as crab claws. She kept the left one down on the ground to hold herself up while she raised the right one and observed how she was able to rotate and open and close the strange new appendage.

After a few seconds of staring at part of her new anatomy, Starlight saw something walk up to her, so she turned her gaze upwards. The strange creature standing before her stood on boxy hind legs, had rounded forelimbs that simply rested on the sides of its boxy torso, and had a cylindrical head on top. Whatever this strange creature was, as soon as she saw the face and hair, it occurred to her that she at least knew who this creature was. “Sunset Shimmer?” she asked in confusion.

Sunset smiled as she knelt down in front of Starlight and calmly said, “It’s all pretty weird at first, but try to roll with it.” She then grasped Starlight’s wrist and helped her up.

Starlight was surprised when Sunset pulled her all the way up onto her hind limbs. She wobbled around a bit, but as she held onto Sunset for support and eventually found her new center of gravity, her upright stance was remarkably stable. Her wide eyes and gaping mouth very clearly expressed her astonishment.

“Now do you see why I’ve got that habit of standing on two legs?” quipped Sunset.

“I guess…” mumbled Starlight as she carefully released her grip on Sunset. She wobbled a bit again, but held her arms out and managed to stay upright.

Now that Starlight was standing up, Sunset was able to get her first good look at her new appearance. She had light grey on her legs with a few horizontal bands on the front that exposed her lilac skin; black around her feet; dark grey on her torso, with the front showing under an open vest a teal V-neck shirt that exposed the collar of a magenta shirt around a little bit of exposed skin; her arms we mostly bare except for some more teal on her shoulders and a band of magenta closer to her elbows; a black watch piece was attached to her left wrist; her face consisted of her mouth and medium blue eyes; and on top of her head was a hair piece that was long at the back, brushed over to one side at the front, was colored violet with aqua streaks, and resting on top of it was a magenta beanie hat with some white stars all over it.

Starlight stared at the strange appendages at the end of her arms and asked, “What are these?”

“Those are hands,” Sunset calmly replied.

“Are you sure?” asked Starlight in confusion as she flexed them around. “They look more like claws to me.”

Sunset chuckled and remarked, “Well, some jokes have been made based on that resemblance, but in this world, everyone calls them hands.”

Starlight’s gaze went past her hands and down to her legs as she asked, “So, uh… what happened to the rest of my hooves?”

“Those are feet,” replied Sunset.

Starlight lifted one of her legs, but then quickly lost her balance and waved her arms wildly around before Sunset caught her. With someone to lean against, she was able to get a good look at the bottom of one of her feet. She raised an eyebrow and quietly asked, “Why are they shaped like squares?”

Sunset ignored the latest question as she held Starlight upright again and explained, “Remember the whole thing where I said you need to lay low? Well, we’re kinda out in a public space, so now would be a good time to play it cool.”

“Oh, right,” said Starlight with a nervous giggle. She then flicked her hair and playfully remarked, “Play it cool.” She took a deep breath… then immediately got down on all four limbs and tried to walk forward. She quickly discovered what an awkward posture it was in her new body, as not only was she unable to tilt her head up high enough to watch where she was going, but it also didn’t take long for her to trip over herself and collapse to the ground.

Sunset walked over to Starlight. “What did I just say about the proper way of standing in this world?” remarked Sunset with a smile as she grasped Starlight’s hand and helped her back up on her feet. “If you hadn’t tripped over yourself, you would’ve slammed head-first into that tree.”

Starlight looked ahead and saw the green plastic object that was only a little taller than her and consisted of a central vertical shaft surrounded by a series of horizontal disks that was largest near the base and got progressively smaller towards the top, as if to give the impression of being a conical object. Starlight raised an eyebrow and asked, “That’s a tree?”

Sunset rolled her eyes and replied, “We’re in the middle of a big city, so of course there’s gonna be a lot of Lego parts all around us, including ones made to resemble natural objects.”

“Are there any real trees in this world?” asked Starlight.

“Yes, but only in certain regions,” replied Sunset. Before Starlight could ask any more questions, Sunset turned forward and said, “C’mon, let’s get onto that path so we can get to my car.” She then began walking forward towards the paved pathway that went through the middle of the park.

Starlight glanced back towards the Lego tree, then shrugged and followed Sunset.

Once they stepped onto the path, they began to hear the clacking of their footsteps against the solid surface, though Sunset paid it no mind. That is, until she realized that the sound behind her didn’t seem to be following her, so she stopped and turned back as she asked, “Starlight?”

Starlight was looking down at her feet as she slowly walked around in a circle on the path, taking one deliberate step after another and listening to the noise of each step.

Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack.

Sunset raised an eyebrow and asked, “Um… what are you doing?”

Slightly startled, Starlight suddenly stopped and turned her attention towards Sunset. “Oh! Uh, sorry. I just wasn’t expecting my hoofsteps to sound so different in this world.”

“Footsteps,” corrected Sunset. “And for the record, that’s the kind of sound you’d typically hear from plastic.”

“Plastic?” asked Starlight in astonishment. Curious, she clenched a fist and tapped it against her arm, creating a sound almost identical to the one her feet had made against the path. With her eyes wide in shock, she turned back to Sunset and asked, “Are you saying that… we are now made of plastic?”

“It’s not just buildings and objects that are made of Lego parts in this world,” explained Sunset. “All the people and creatures of this world are also made of Lego parts.”

Starlight began walking towards Sunset and asked, “So, uh… since we’re obviously not ponies anymore… what exactly are we?”

“The official terminology for the people of this world is Lego minifigure,” answered Sunset as she turned around and continued walking down the path ahead of Starlight, “though many of us prefer to shorten it to just minifig.”

“Minifig…” mumbled Starlight to herself. As she thought it over, she glanced down at her body and it wasn’t long before she had a different question on her mind. “Why is my coat at its natural color in some places, but so many other colors in other places?”

“First of all,” explained Sunset, “we don’t exactly have fur, so what you call your ‘natural color’ would be called skin. And second, all those other colors you’re seeing is actually clothes.”

“Clothes?” asked Starlight in shock before she started feeling all over herself. “Then why does it feel like they’re actually part of my body?”

“My best guess is that it’s just much easier for most clothes to simply be a series of layers that you can just slip over your body like a bunch of stickers, rather than trying to attach separate and sometimes bulky pieces at certain joints,” replied Sunset. “Though I’d strongly advise against trying to take them off out in public, as exposing certain areas of your body is considered highly inappropriate in most regions.”

“Okay, I am completely confused right now,” confessed Starlight in exasperation.

Sunset sighed and stated, “You’ve got a lot to learn about the Lego World, Starlight.”

“Well, you did say I’d make a good distraction,” remarked Starlight with a smile.

“True,” admitted Sunset as she also smiled. By this point, they were approaching a fountain near the edge of the park, so she turned back to Starlight and gestured at the fountain as she said, “If you’re curious about what you look like, here’s your first opportunity.”

Starlight stepped over to the edge of the fountain and looked down at her reflection in the water. The face she saw was definitely one that she recognized as herself, yet at the same time, it seemed completely unrecognizable. “What happened to my muzzle?” she quietly asked as she felt her hand over her mouth and felt nothing but the smooth cylindrical surface of her head. “And where are my ears?” she felt both of her hands over the top and sides of her head, but found no noticeable signs of any kind of ears. “I know I’ve still got a sense of hearing,” she spoke up as she turned to Sunset, “but how can I hear things if I don’t have any ears?”

“Beats me,” replied Sunset with a shrug. “All I know for sure is that our sense of hearing is somewhere on the middle of the sides of our heads.” She then smiled and added, “Nice hat, by the way.”

Starlight turned her gaze back down to her reflection in the water, then turned her head to the side so she could see the magenta beanie hat that was now resting on top of her hair. She smiled and remarked, “Not bad.” She turned back to Sunset and added, “This world sure does have its perks.”

“Oh, we’re barely scratching the surface,” said Sunset as she began walking around the fountain on the path leading out of the park. “C’mon, my car’s not far from here.”

“Car?” asked Starlight as she followed after Sunset. “What’s a car?”

“Think of it as a kind of carriage that can move around under its own power,” replied Sunset as they walked out of the park limits and stepped onto the sidewalk of one of the city streets. “Just look up and down any street and you’ll see plenty of these vehicles.”

Starlight watched the street they were now walking along and saw quite a few vehicles running up or down the street. Some were so small that only a single individual could fit inside, while others were so big that she had to wonder what kind of heavy cargo they might have been hauling. Despite the wide variety, she did notice two major similarities; they all moved on four or more wheels that seemed to be made of rubber, and they all moved all by themselves — many of which produced a steady humming noise as they moved, and would sometimes grow much louder as they moved faster.

“What kind of magic is making this possible?” asked Starlight in wonder.

Sunset chuckled and replied, “There’s no magic involved. It’s just engine power, all made possible thanks to the Power Brick. In order to keep engines and other machines running in this world, you need to keep recharging those Power Bricks through methods like burning fuel or discharging electrical energy.”

“Is there any magic in this world?” asked Starlight.

“Aside from what my friends and I have had to deal with?” questioned Sunset jokingly.

Sunset and Starlight both giggled. “Yeah, obviously,” replied Starlight as she rolled her eyes.

“Well, some certain regions have their own form of magic,” answered Sunset. “But in most places, such as cities like this one, everyone gets by just fine without any magic at all.”

Starlight had to admit, it was very strange trying to imagine a world that didn’t rely on magic the way Equestria did. Still, it was her decision to come visit the Lego World, so she was going to do her best to keep an open mind on anything she would encounter during her visit.

“Well, here it is,” said Sunset as she stopped and gestured towards a vehicle parked right in front of her and Starlight on the side of the road. The car was a convertible with the roof down, exposing the two black seats of its interior. Its shape was very streamlined with gentle curves on the front and an adjustable spoiler on the rear. Its color was bright red, with decals on the hood and doors that displayed some flickering yellow flames, as if to show that it was quite literally a hot ride.

Not being familiar with any vehicle designs, Starlight didn’t have much to compare it to, but she had to admit, this car she was looking at was quite an impressive sight. “This is yours?” she asked Sunset.

“Yup,” replied Sunset proudly. “Customized it myself.” She then walked around to the left side of the car and opened the door. “C’mon, let’s go for a ride!” she added enthusiastically as she hopped into the driver’s seat and closed the door.

Starlight walked over to the other door on the side facing the sidewalk and pulled it open, then carefully climbed into the passenger seat beside Sunset and pulled the door closed.

Once Starlight was in the car, Sunset pulled out her key, inserted it into the ignition, and started the car.

Vroom!

Starlight gasped and tightly gripped the door on her side when she heard the engine suddenly roar to life.

“Relax,” assured Sunset. “That’s just the engine starting up.”

“Oh! Right!” mumbled Starlight with a nervous chuckle and a huge uneasy grin.

Sunset reached over her shoulder and grabbed her seatbelt. “Don’t forget your seatbelt,” she pointed out as she buckled herself in.

“Okay…” muttered Starlight in slight confusion. She looked over her shoulder, grabbed the seatbelt for her side, and mimicked Sunset’s actions to buckle herself in.

As the car’s engine continued to rumble lightly, Sunset took a moment to check the mirrors.

Starlight looked over at Sunset and slowly asked, “So, uh… how fast does this thing go?”

Sunset’s smile widened as she glanced over at Starlight and slyly asked, “You really wanna find out?”

Starlight took a brief moment to consider her answer. She was undeniably hesitant, but there was a part of her that was also eager to find out for herself. After all, she was here to truly experience what this world was like, and Sunset’s offer to really take her for a ride seemed too good to pass up. “Uh… yes,” she finally answered with a hint of determination.

Sunset smirked and muttered, “Thought so.” She turned her attention forward, tightly gripped the steering wheel, shifted the car into gear, and finally stomped on the accelerator.

SCREEEEEECH!! VRRROOOOOOM!!

“WAAAAAAHHH!!” screamed Starlight in terror over the squealing of the tires and the roar of the engine as she was thrown back in her seat from the sudden acceleration.

As the car began speeding down the road, Sunset laughed and remarked, “Sorry about that. I just couldn’t resist seeing the look on your face!”

“Do you do this a lot?” asked Starlight fearfully as she tightened her grip on her seat with her left hand and on the car door with her right hand.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Sunset casually replied.

“A-and everyone here’s okay with that?” asked Starlight hesitantly.

“Well, let’s face it,” replied Sunset with a shrug as she kept her eyes on the road, “there’s a series of traffic laws that I have to obey like everyone else.” Her smile widened. “Though sometimes, I like to bend a few rules. For example, why wait for traffic when I can just make a right turn on red?”

Up ahead was an intersection, and due to the traffic light displaying the red light, some vehicles were stopped just outside the intersection in both lanes of this street, while other vehicles could be seen freely moving back and forth on the other street that went through this intersection. Without any hesitation, Sunset turned into the empty opposing lane, then made a hard right turn through the intersection, quickly getting onto the other street just ahead of another vehicle.

SCREEEEEECH!!

Honk-Honk!

Starlight glanced back at the car right behind them that had just honked its horn, then turned to Sunset and asked, “What was that?”

Sunset shrugged and casually replied, “Eh, just some guy who’s upset that I cut him off.”

Starlight glanced around and the only thing she could think of was just how fast they were going. It was definitely much faster than any cart or carriage she had ever seen, and she doubted that even the trains she was familiar with could move so quickly. As far as she knew, only a flying pegasus could possibly go any faster than what Sunset’s car seemed to be capable of. It didn’t take long for her to realize that rushing through dense city streets at such high speeds was hardly being subtle. “What happened to that whole thing about me laying low?” she asked as she continued to desperately hold on to her seat and the nearby door.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,” assured Sunset, who seemed quite relaxed as she continued to drive through the city streets at high speed. “Most of the citizens here are already familiar that this thing is my ride, and they also know that I love to have fun with it when I’m on my own. Even if some of them notice you riding with me, the only thing they’ll really care about is that I’m out on yet another one of my barely legal joyrides. And besides, many of them probably won’t even give us a second glance to even notice you at all, because as far they’re concerned, I always fly solo in this bad boy.”

By this point, after speeding down a few more streets, they were coming up to a road worksite with simple road barriers set up in front of a series of dirt piles in the middle of the road.

“Speaking of which…” added Sunset as she turned to Starlight and grinned. “Wanna see something really cool?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned her attention straight ahead at the worksite and stomped down on the accelerator.

VRRROOOOOOM!

It didn’t take Starlight long to realize that Sunset was not only speeding up the car, but also steering directly at the road barriers up ahead and the dirt piles behind them. “Uh, Sunset?” she asked worriedly as she pointed ahead. “I’m pretty sure those road barriers are there for a reason.”

Sunset continued smiling as she completely ignored Starlight and remained absolutely focused on reaching those dirt piles with as much velocity as possible.

“Sunset? Sunset?! SUNSET!” Starlight screamed and held her arms out to cover her face as the car effortlessly smashed through one of the road barriers and drove up the dirt pile just beyond, launching the vehicle high into the air.

With the car now airborne, Sunset immediately yanked the large lever between the two seats. This caused many of the Lego parts this car was made of to quickly shift around into an alternate configuration. The transformation took only a couple seconds, and when it was complete, the car that was now in flying mode began to rise even higher into the air as it gave off a gentle humming noise.

Sunset glanced over at Starlight and saw that her passenger was still shaking in her seat as she kept her arms in front of her face. “You can open your eyes now,” Sunset casually remarked.

Starlight slowly moved her arms aside and the first thing she saw was the clear blue sky above and some nearby skyscrapers passing by. As she noticed the way the buildings were moving, she realized the car they were in wasn’t falling down, but rather was going even higher up. “What the…” she muttered in shock. She looked over the side of the car, and not only did she see they really were rising impossibly further from the ground, but also the car’s wheels had apparently vanished. “Is this thing… flying?!”

“Yup!” replied Sunset proudly.

Starlight was completely speechless as she turned back to Sunset.

“Like I said, I customized it myself,” reminded Sunset smugly.

Starlight glanced over the side of the now flying car again and muttered, “I’m guessing this isn’t exactly a common form of customizing a car, is it?”

“In a way, yes, you’re right,” replied Sunset. “To custom-build a car that can easily convert between street mode and flying mode just by pulling a lever takes some seriously creative talents.” She turned to Starlight and smiled. “Fortunately for me, I happen to be a Master Builder.”

“A Master Builder?” asked Starlight. “I think I remember hearing Twilight mention that on the few occasions she talked about the Lego World.”

“How much do you know?” asked Sunset.

“Uh… I guess they’re really good at building stuff?” guessed Starlight.

Sunset giggled and replied, “It’s not quite that simple. In this world, a Master Builder is someone who can look at any assortment of Lego parts and quickly figure out how to put all those pieces together to build something useful.”

Starlight smiled and said, “Well, I did read some of the books Twilight brought over from her visit to this world, so I actually happen to know a few things about the different types of Lego parts and how they can be put together. For example, a stack of three plates is equal to the height of a single brick, and a stack of two plates is equal to the width of one module, a square unit of measurement that is equal to the width of a stud, peg, axle, or hole through which any of those can fit through.”

“Well, at least you got some experience,” acknowledged Sunset. “But just because you know how to stack some bricks to build a wall doesn’t mean you’re a Master Builder.”

“So what would it take for someone like me to be a Master Builder?” asked Starlight.

Sunset turned to Starlight and raised an eyebrow. “You really wanna be a Master Builder?” asked Sunset, slightly surprised.

Starlight glanced away and slyly responded, “Well, you said you’re a Master Builder, and you also happen to originally be a unicorn from Equestria, so really, who says I can’t be a Master Builder?”

“Fair enough,” said Sunset with a playful smile. She turned her attention ahead and continued piloting the flying car between the buildings of the city as she explained, “One thing that really separates Master Builders from those with just standard creative talents is that they can work with just about anything they can get their hands on. Many times, you won’t have all the exact parts you need to build whatever you want, and you’ll find yourself forced to work with whatever random pile you’ve got sitting in front of you. If you can improvise an excellent solution in any tough situation, then you’re probably worthy of being called a Master Builder.”

“So to be a Master Builder,” asked Starlight, “I need to be capable of quickly devising solutions from limited resources, right?”

“There’s more to it than just that,” explained Sunset. “To be capable of such remarkable creative talents, you need to be able to envision all the possible ways you can assemble all those parts, then figure out which of those ideas stands the best chance of helping you out in whatever situation you’re in at that moment. If there’s one thing to keep in mind, it’s this popular saying we have in this world: The only limit is the imagination.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” said Starlight with a nod as she gazed out in front of their flying ride. She turned back to Sunset and asked, “But what if there just aren’t enough parts to build anything useful? Even if one’s imagination has no limits, then I’ll definitely be limited by whatever parts I have to work with.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s a realistic concern,” admitted Sunset with a shrug. She then smiled as she explained, “So here’s a bit of advice that I’m personally quite fond of. If you’re in a tight spot and you don’t have many options… don’t be afraid to break stuff. Tearing apart certain objects in your area into the separate pieces they’re made of can provide you with plenty more parts to work with.”

“In other words,” asked Starlight, “if it’s made of Lego parts, then it’s pretty much fair game to destroy for the sake of building something else?”

“Yup, that’s pretty much it,” confirmed Sunset.

After a brief pause, Starlight smiled and remarked, “I think I’m starting to like this world.”

Sunset chuckled in amusement as she continued piloting her flying car over the streets of Canterlot City.

Meanwhile, over at the Flixiplex Cinema, the manager had gone out on a coffee break, leaving Juniper Montage with an opportunity to further test the powers of her magical mirror. So far, she knew for sure it could do only two things: show her an idealized image of how she envisioned herself, and instantly clean up a pile of popcorn on the floor. She fully embraced the first ability without any question, but the second ability was one that she wished to further understand. She decided that the first step to understanding that second ability was to simply try to replicate the first use of it. To do that, she first needed to set up the initial circumstances, which required a pile of popcorn on the floor. It was for this reason why, behind the counter, she was scooping popcorn out of the popcorn machine and then simply dumping it onto the floor. To Juniper, it was obvious why she had to do this, but to the two patrons waiting on the other side of the counter, that baffling kind of odd behavior made absolutely no sense at all.

Eventually, Juniper had dumped a pile of popcorn onto the floor that was just about the same size as the original pile, so she set aside the scooper, held her magic mirror down at the pile on the floor, and firmly spoke, “Mirror, pick up this popcorn!”

The two patrons, a teen boy and a teen girl, glanced at each other in confusion.

When a few seconds passed and absolutely nothing happened, Juniper glanced at the mirror, then turned it back down at the floor and spoke, “Mirror, I command thee, pick upeth this poppage of corn!”

A few more seconds passed, and the pile of popcorn on the floor remained completely undisturbed.

Juniper groaned in frustration and grumbled, “Why won’t this thing work anymore?” Convinced that perhaps the pile just wasn’t as big as the original, she grabbed another scoop of popcorn from the machine.

“Hey, uh…” spoke up the teen boy. “We kinda wanted to eat some of that, dude.”

The girl standing beside him nodded in agreement.

Getting a little desperate, Juniper held her mirror up to the two patrons and spoke, “Mirror, make these annoying people go away!”

The two teens glanced at each other again, then turned around and walked away. The girl scoffed and grumbled, “What a freak.”

Juniper watched those potential customers walk away, then looked down at her mirror again and remarked uncertainly, “Well, that kinda worked…”

“Juniper Montage?!”

That sudden shout caused Juniper to yelp and drop the popcorn scoop onto the floor, right on top of the pile of popcorn. She looked across the counter and saw standing right in front of her were six of the seven girls that she despised with a passion: Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle.

“What in the blazes are ya doin’ here?” asked Applejack.

Pinkie leaned over the counter and rapidly spoke, “Were you invited to the Daring Do premiere? Ooh, that’s exciting! No, crazy! No, concerning! No! Just no!” She stepped back to her friends and smiled as she sheepishly added, “No offense.”

“I wasn’t invited to the premiere,” grumbled Juniper bitterly. “My uncle Canter Zoom felt bad for firing me, so he pulled some strings and got me this job.”

“You work here?” asked Fluttershy.

“As little as possible,” admitted Juniper under her breath as the folded her arms and kicked the pile of popcorn on the floor, spreading the mess over a larger area.

The six Equestria Girls glanced at one another with uneasy looks on their faces. After a bit of awkward silence, Rainbow Dash eventually turned to Juniper and explained, “Y’know, if you hadn’t tried to sabotage the movie, you could’ve been celebrating with us. It’s like your uncle said, you placed yourself in a lose-lose situation, and there’s nobody to blame for it but yourself.”

As Rainbow spoke, Juniper’s frustration rapidly climbed until it soon reached a boiling point. She growled furiously as she walked over to the counter’s gate and stepped out to stand before the six girls with no obstructions between them. “This should’ve been my night!” she shouted in rage. “I would’ve found a way to be in the film if you all had stayed out of it! I would’ve been Daring Do! Everyone would’ve loved me! See?!” At the end of her rant, she held up her mirror to the six girls.

The Equestria Girls looked at the mirror, but all they saw was their ordinary reflections. They all glanced at one another and muttered various words of confusion.

Rarity turned to Juniper and apologetically said, “Darling, whatever it is you are trying to convey to us, I’m afraid we simply don’t understand. All we can see is our reflections in that mirror.” After quickly taking a second look at that crystalized mirror, she then smiled and remarked, “Though I must confess, that is a rather fabulously designed hand mirror. Do you mind telling me how you managed to acquire such a stylish trinket?”

“Can’t you see what’s right in front of your faces?!” exclaimed Juniper furiously.

“I’m sorry, Juniper,” responded Twilight apologetically, “but whatever message it is that you’re trying to tell us, we’re just not seeing it in any way, shape, or form that we can possibly understand.”

Pinkie leaned close to Twilight and rather loudly whispered, “I think she’s gone loco in the coco.”

Juniper roared furiously and snapped, “I wish you’d all just go away and LEAVE ME ALONE!!”

With that magic mirror aimed at the six girls at the moment that command was given, its powerful magic was activated. A bright blue ray of magical energy suddenly shot out from the glass, spread out to completely cover all six girls, and pulled them all in towards and through the glass. The six girls all screamed in terror as they were suddenly pulled into the mirror, unable to resist in any way. When the bright ray of energy faded after only a matter of seconds, the six girls were completely gone. The only trace of their existence that remained was the butterfly-shaped hairclip that Fluttershy happened to be wearing in her hair that day.

Juniper was initially shocked by what she had just witnessed, but whatever remorse she might have felt in that moment, it was quickly wiped away as a small trail of glowing blue magic emerged from the mirror, crawled up her arm, and passed through her eyes, causing them to briefly glow green. Once the last of the magical energies had finally faded from view, Juniper Montage stood alone in the cinema’s lobby with a smug smile on her face.

Juniper looked down and saw the hairclip on the floor, so she casually picked it up and stuck it onto the front of her torso, as if she was claiming it as a trophy of conquest. As she once again looked at herself in the mirror, she smirked and smugly remarked, “Looks like I might be finally getting the hang of this…”

Once again, Juniper saw her reflection shift into her idealized image, which then giggled, waved a hand at her, and actually spoke, “Hi, me.”

After a little while of flying around over the city, Sunset brought her car down and converted it back to street mode, then parked it on the side of the road next to a small park. They happened to park close to an ice cream truck — the side of which was labeled with the name “Pappalardo’s” — so while Sunset sat down on a nearby bench to call her friends, Starlight decided to buy herself some ice cream, though not before Sunset gave her some proper currency to purchase it. Though it took her a moment to figure out how to properly hold the cone, Starlight soon walked away from the truck and back to Sunset, carrying in her hand and happily eating an ice cream cone with a stack of three different scoops — strawberry on top of mint on top of blueberry.

Sunset tapped a button on her phone and sighed. “Six cellphones, all straight to voicemail,” she grumbled.

“I’m sure they’re around,” assured Starlight as she stood next to the bench Sunset was seated on. “What’s the worst that could’ve happened?” She then began slurping on the strawberry scoop of ice cream. She had to admit, it was a little strange to see food items like ice cream shaped like certain Lego parts, but as she messily licked away at her treat, she knew without a doubt that she was definitely eating real ice cream.

“Equestrian magic is on the loose in the Lego World,” explained Sunset in exasperation, “and it does not work the same way it does back in Equestria. Any number of terrible things could’ve happened!” She then leaned forward and hung her head down as she sighed in frustration and muttered, “And lately, I spend eighty percent of my time thinking about them.”

Starlight silently stared at Sunset’s outburst and failed to notice that she had tilted her ice cream cone a little too far to one side, causing the strawberry scoop to fall off and splatter on the sidewalk.

That faint splatter made Sunset realize Starlight was staring at her, so she grinned in embarrassment as she leaned back in her seat and remarked, “My friends are probably fine. I’m overreacting.” Her smile quickly fell. “But maybe not? I can’t tell anymore…” She sighed as she again leaned forward and sadly hung her head down.

“This is the problem you wanted to talk to Princess Twilight about, right?” asked Starlight as she sat down next to Sunset on the bench and smiled. “Because you can still talk it over with me if you want.”

Sunset didn’t respond and instead pulled out her new magic journal, opened up to the first blank page, and took out a pen.

Starlight’s smile fell and she added, “Or you could just journal with Princess Twilight about it. Whatever works.” She turned away and resumed licking and slurping her ice cream, now onto the mint scoop.

Sunset sighed, then closed her journal and put it and her pen back into her shoulder bag. She then leaned back in her seat and confessed, “It’s just… I know my friends and I have been given special powers for a reason, and I wanna be ready for whatever is gonna be thrown at us. I guess knowing that is making me feel like I can never really relax and let my guard down, so I end up obsessing about it and can’t get it out of my own head.” She once again slumped forward and stared down at her feet.

Starlight had stopped slurping her ice cream halfway through Sunset’s confession. Once Sunset was finished talking, Starlight leaned back in her seat and responded, “Hmm, that is a toughie…” She turned to Sunset and smiled. “Guess my advice would be to just trust things will work themselves out in the end. If you spend too much time worrying about the bad things that might happen, you’ll miss out on all the good things that are happening.” She brought her ice cream close to resume eating, only to discover the mint scoop had also suddenly vanished. She looked around in confusion, not realizing that as she had spoken, she had once again tipped her cone too far to one side and caused the mint scoop to fall off and splatter on the sidewalk.

Sunset chuckled at Starlight’s reaction and playfully asked, “Like how Princess Twilight’s student is teaching me a lesson right now?”

Starlight smiled again and smugly remarked, “Yup. Like that.” She then held up her ice cream cone and the one scoop that was still left on it. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish what little is left of this ice cream before it suddenly vanishes.” She then began rapidly licking and slurping the blueberry scoop, adding to the mess around her mouth.

“Careful!” cautioned Sunset. “Don’t eat it too quickly or you’ll get a—”

“AAAAHH!!” Starlight suddenly screamed as she dropped what was left of her ice cream and grasped onto her head. She fell out of her seat on the bench and collapsed to the ground, grunting in pain as she continued to tightly grasp her head.

“…brain-freeze,” finished Sunset. She then rolled her eyes and sighed as she shook her head and smiled.

As Starlight’s brain-freeze began to subside, a standard ringtone began playing from within Sunset’s shoulder bag. Sunset pulled out her phone and looked at the screen. “It’s Spike,” she said, seemingly surprised and confused. She glanced down at Starlight, who was now no longer clutching her head and was looking up at her. “I’ll put him on speaker so you can listen in.” She tapped a few buttons on the phone, then held it somewhat close to her mouth as she spoke, “Hello?”

“Hey, Sunset!” responded a voice coming from that phone. “There’s something going on, and I think you should know about it.”

As Starlight rolled over into a seated position on the sidewalk, she listened to the conversation between Sunset and the device in her hand. Although the voice coming from it was a little distorted, she immediately recognized that it was unmistakably the voice of Spike — even though she knew that it was actually this world’s Spike and not the young dragon she knew in Equestria.

“What is it?” asked Sunset with a bit of concern in her voice.

“Well, I gotta explain a few things first so that what I need to tell you will make sense,” responded Spike. “Did Twilight say anything about why I couldn’t join you girls today?”

“Yeah, she said she needed you to test out one of her new inventions while she was out with us,” replied Sunset. “I’m actually kinda surprised that she’d leave someone of your age home alone, especially with all that high-tech machinery that I’m sure she has.”

“Just because I’m a kid doesn’t mean I’m irresponsible,” responded Spike. “Back when we were Shadowbolt agents, she would always leave me behind alone at our base whenever she went out on missions, so I’ve got plenty of experience of looking after her things. Though I still don’t understand why she insists on putting up that parental block. I mean, what could possibly be out there on the internet that she doesn’t want me to see?”

Sunset rolled her eyes and replied, “More than you could imagine, believe me. So anyway, you were saying something about Twilight wanting you to test something?”

“Oh, right!” responded Spike. “Well, uh, don’t tell Twilight I told you about this, but she secretly installed a tracking system into each of your phones.”

“Are you saying she’s stalking us?!” asked Sunset in shock.

“No! No, not stalking!” Spike nervously responded. “More like, uh… keeping track of where you guys are so she can be sure that everyone is safe.”

“In other words, stalking us,” Sunset flatly stated.

Spike sighed and responded, “Look, if you’ve got a problem with it, talk to Twilight. I’m just following orders here.”

“What orders?” asked Sunset skeptically.

“She just wants me to make sure the tracking system is working properly,” responded Spike. “For example, over an hour ago, your signal was saying that you were in City Park, then it suddenly disappeared for about twenty minutes, then suddenly reappeared in the exact same spot where it had vanished. Now, I already know that exact location happens to be the site of the interdimensional portal to Equestria, so my guess is that you went through it and then came back, right?”

As Spike was talking, Sunset noticed the mess of melted ice cream around Starlight’s mouth, so she pulled out a napkin from her pocket, and held it out to Starlight. When Starlight simply stared back in confusion, Sunset quickly moved the napkin around over her own mouth and then held it out to her again. Once she understood what Sunset meant, Starlight smiled and silently accepted the napkin. She wiped the mess off her face, then handed the now messy napkin back to Sunset.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” replied Sunset to Spike’s question as she carefully took back the used napkin with a disgusted look on her face, then quickly tossed it into the nearby trashcan. “I just used up all the pages in my magic journal, so Princess Twilight asked me to come over and get a new blank journal so we can still be in touch with her.”

“That’s good to know,” responded Spike. “Well, now that I know that you’re okay, I need to tell you about the other weird thing I’ve seen on the tracking system.”

Sunset briefly hesitated before she asked, “And that would be…?”

“All the other signals from the rest of our friends were last appearing at the Flixiplex Cinema in Sunshine Plaza,” responded Spike.

“That’s where we’re planning to see the new Daring Do movie,” noted Sunset.

“Right,” responded Spike. “Anyway, just a few minutes ago, all those signals just suddenly vanished.”

Sunset’s eyes widened in shock. “What happened?” she asked.

“I don’t know, and that’s the problem!” responded Spike desperately. “I’m not seeing any breaking news about something going on over there, but something weird definitely happened. I mean, sure, you could argue that maybe something happened to just their phones to make those signals disappear, but the fact that it happened to all six of them at the exact same time is still very strange. Do you think you can head on over there and find out what’s up?”

Sunset knew immediately what her answer would be. “Got it,” she replied with determination. “We’re on our way.”

“Thank you, Sunset,” responded Spike with relief. He then suddenly asked, “Wait, we? Who’s with you?”

Suddenly realizing her slip-up, Sunset rapidly responded, “Uh, I’ll explain later, bye!” She then immediately ended the call before Spike had a chance to respond. She put away her phone, stood up, and began walking back to her car. “C’mon, Starlight, let’s go!” she called out without even glancing back.

“Hey! Wait up!” exclaimed Starlight as she quickly got up onto her feet and tried to run after Sunset, only to suddenly slip on one of the fallen ice cream scoops on the ground. “Whoa!” She ended up getting flung up into the air and then was literally smashed to pieces as she slammed down onto the sidewalk.

Sunset stopped when she heard the clattering of plastic pieces on the ground. She turned back and saw that all of Starlight’s separate parts were now scattered all over the sidewalk.

Once her head rolled to a stop, Starlight glanced over at the pieces of herself scattered all around, then after a moment of silence, she eventually said, “Well… this is inconvenient…”

Sunset sighed and muttered, “Hang on, I’ll help you out.” As she walked over to the scattered parts, the first thing she did was grab Starlight’s head and set it down in such a way that she would be able to watch the whole process. Sunset started by grabbing the hip joint, then grabbed and reattached the left leg, then the same for the right leg, then set the pair of legs on the ground up on their feet. She then picked up the torso and reattached it atop the hip joint. She then grabbed the right arm and a hand, reattached them together, then reattached the arm onto the torso’s right side. She then grabbed the left arm and the other hand, reattached them together, reattached the watch piece onto its wrist, then reattached the arm onto the torso’s left side. Finally, she picked up the combined hair and hat piece, grabbed Starlight’s head and reattached the two pieces, and finally reattached the head onto the neck joint atop the torso. “There!” declared Sunset. “Good as new!”

Starlight looked down at herself and carefully flexed every part of her body, confirming that every single part of her was still working just fine, despite the recent accident. Once she was sure that she was well and truly back to normal — or at least, as normal as she could feel in such a strange body — she turned to Sunset and flatly stated, “That was officially the weirdest experience I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

“Well, now that that’s been taken care of, let’s get going,” said Sunset. Without waiting for a response, she turned around and resumed quickly walking towards her car.

Starlight would have continued to dwell on the very strange sensation of being made of detachable parts that could very easily be reattached without any issues, but seeing that Sunset was in a bit of a rush, Starlight shook her head clear and followed Sunset into the car.

Once both minifigs were seated in the car, Sunset started up the engine and drove off down the street towards Sunshine Plaza.

Meanwhile, the six missing girls had absolutely no idea where they had ended up or even how they got there. All around them, there was nothing but a featureless pure white background that seemed to go on forever. There was no sign of any walls, floor, ceiling, or anything distinctive on their surroundings. There was also nothing but absolute silence all around, leaving the girls with quite an eerie feeling.

“Uh… any clue yet where we are or what just happened?” asked Rarity in a highly unnerved tone. “Anyone?”

“Pinkie Pie’s on the case!” declared Pinkie cheerfully. She then began running forward as she called out, “Come out, come out, walls, wherever you are!” It took only a matter of seconds for Pinkie run far enough away from her friends that they lost sight of her among the glare of the pure white surroundings.

“Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash cried out.

“Hi, girls!” called out Pinkie cheerfully as she ran towards them from the opposite side of the area she had been running towards. Naturally, such a strange discrepancy left the other girls very confused.

“Pinkie?” asked Rainbow Dash as she scratched her head and watched Pinkie again run off and vanish among the glaring white background.

“Hi, again, girls!” called out Pinkie as she ran towards them from the back right and headed towards the front left. “Okay, this is getting a little weird,” said Pinkie, starting to lose her cheerful tone as she arrived from the back left and continued on to the front right. “I don’t get this place,” she said as she arrived from the front left and continued to the back right. “I can’t find any walls anywhere!” she added as she arrived from the front right and continued to the back left. As she arrived from the very direction she had initially run off towards, she stopped and took a moment to catch her breath, then remarked worriedly, “This place is super freaky-deaky! It just keeps on repeating itself, no matter which way I go!”

It was at this moment when the six girls suddenly heard a gentle whoosh, so they turned around and saw a new feature had just appeared in the strange place. Floating above the floor just beyond their reach was a large round surface that was completely smooth and featureless. The only way they were able to identify this new feature was due to the surrounding faint magenta glow that slowly faded outwards, yet stopped abruptly at the edge of the large round anomaly. In fact, despite not seeing any of their reflections in it, some of the girls couldn’t help but notice how the shape of the new anomaly bore a striking resemblance to the glass surface of the magical mirror Juniper Montage had been holding.

As Applejack began to figuratively connect the pieces, she spoke up, “Somehow, some way, that dang Juniper sucked us all inside of that mirror of hers.”

“Or into some kind of limbo behind it,” noted Twilight worriedly. “Judging by the complete absence of, well, anything, I’d say this must be some kind of newly-created pocket universe, and most likely the only portal in or out is through that mirror.”

“I think I might be freaking out a little bit,” Fluttershy quietly mumbled as she held her arms close to her torso.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “You call that a freak-out?”

As her hair piece slid over to cover one of her eyes, Fluttershy quietly responded, “It’s sort of a deep-down-inside freak-out.”

“On the upside, there’s popcorn in here!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully remarked as she suddenly held a pile of popcorn in her arms. She then tossed the popcorn up into the air and caught a few pieces in her mouth, leaving the rest to scatter on the floor around her. As she finished eating the pieces of popcorn she caught, she casually remarked, “Mmm, sticky…”

“I think I’d rather starve than eat something that’s been on the floor,” muttered Twilight.

Rarity let out a dramatic sigh and spoke up, “How could this happen on the evening of my very first movie premiere? Of all the nights! Curse you, cruel fate!”

“Not our number one problem right now, Rarity,” grumbled Rainbow Dash.

“True,” admitted Rarity, “but perhaps we can agree it’s in the top five?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at Rarity’s skewed priorities.

Applejack turned to Twilight and gestured at the giant portal above as she asked, “Is there any way to get through that portal from this side?”

Before Twilight could answer, a series of small projectiles suddenly came flying out of the portal and began pelting the six girls in the area. The strange projectiles weren’t going fast enough to do any damage, but each impact was certainly painful, with each of the girls letting out various exclamations as the hits just kept coming.

Rarity eventually managed to use her magical geode power to summon a large flat diamond to shield herself from the projectiles. “Oh my heavens!” she exclaimed. “What is all of this?!”

Rainbow Dash used her magical geode power to swiftly deflect each of the projectiles that came her way. When she heard Rarity’s question, she decided to catch one of the projectiles. When she opened her clenched fist to identify the projectile, she raised an eyebrow and said, “Chocolate-covered almonds?”

With the raining almonds still relentless, Twilight finally decided to use her magical geode power to reach her magical grasp onto each and every one of those almonds, leaving them levitating in place and thus ending the bombardment.

“Dibs!” exclaimed Pinkie excitedly, before she started chomping onto each of the hovering almonds all around her.

Meanwhile, Sunset and Starlight arrived at the south end of Sunshine Plaza, close to the cinema. Sunset found an open parking space on the side of the road, but didn’t want to waste time trying to parallel park the traditional way, so as the car approached the empty space at high speed, she stomped on the brake and jerked the steering wheel to the left. This caused the car to power slide across the street, turn around, and slide to a complete stop perfectly within the empty spot without even touching either vehicle in the adjacent spots.

As Sunset shut off the engine, Starlight shakily opened the door on her side and stumbled out of the car. “Was that really necessary?” she asked incredulously as she struggled to stay on her feet while walking away from the parked car.

“Well, there are more reasonable methods of parallel parking,” admitted Sunset. She then grinned and added, “But it wouldn’t be nearly as cool as what I just did.”

Starlight sighed and grumbled, “I’ll never get used to the crazy ways of this world.”

As Sunset walked around her car and stood beside Starlight, she shrugged and remarked, “Eh, give it time.” Sunset then glanced back at her car and tapped something on her set of keys, causing the car to make two brief chirps.

“What was that?” asked Starlight.

“Just setting the alarm so nobody tries to steal it,” replied Sunset and she pocketed her keys and began walking ahead down the red tile street of Sunshine Plaza.

“Does it work?” asked Starlight as she caught up to Sunset and began walking beside her.

Sunset chuckled and remarked with amusement, “Trust me, there are very few things in the universe that are more annoying than the sound of a car alarm.”

Starlight considered the answer for a moment, then just shrugged and muttered, “I guess I’ll take your word for it.”

“The cinema’s right over there,” Sunset noted as she pointed at a large building on the left side, not far ahead. “Let’s find out what’s going on…” She then picked up the pace and began jogging towards the cinema, prompting Starlight to follow at a similar pace.

Inside the cinema, Juniper had just finished using her magic mirror to take away a boxful of chocolate-covered almonds that she had deliberately dumped onto the floor. Once the mess was cleaned up, she chuckled mischievously as she tossed the empty box into the trash and remarked, “A little bombardment will teach those girls to mess with me.” She then walked around back behind the counter to once again admire her desired reflection.

It was at this moment that Sunset and Starlight walked into the theater lobby. As soon as they stepped inside, Sunset immediately recognized the minifig standing behind the counter. Since Juniper currently had her back turned towards them, Sunset quickly grabbed Starlight’s wrist and brought them both to hide behind a prize-grabbing claw machine in the arcade section.

After waiting a moment to be sure they weren’t spotted, Sunset peered around the side of the machine. “It’s Juniper Montage!” she quietly noted in shock.

“No!” Starlight quietly responded with a gasp. She then smiled innocently and asked, “Who’s that?”

“She’s trouble…” muttered Sunset as she kept her attention on Juniper. Sunset watched as Juniper seemed notably fixated on that rather fancy hand mirror. It was only when Juniper turned around that Sunset noticed a familiar butterfly shape stuck on the front of her torso. “That’s Fluttershy’s barrette…” she whispered. With the knowledge that her friends had mysteriously vanished inside this building and seeing one of their possessions with the one minifig who had once caused trouble for them, Sunset knew exactly what she had to do to get answers. “Hold this for me and wait here,” she said firmly as she removed her shoulder bag and handed it over to Starlight. “I’m gonna have a little chat with her.”

Starlight may have been a little lost on just what was going on, but she couldn’t help but feel very worried as she watched Sunset step out into the open and marched right over to Juniper.

As Juniper continued staring into her mirror, she was momentarily confused why she wasn’t currently seeing her dream reflection, but her expression quickly turned to shock when she noticed in the reflection that Sunset Shimmer was approaching. That reflexive shocked expression was only brief before she smiled smugly and leaned back against the counter, all while keeping her eyes on the reflection. “Sunset Shimmer…” she noted with contempt. She then turned her head back to face Sunset directly. “I was wondering if you’d show up.”

Sunset put on a neutral facial expression as she touched her magical geode and spoke, “I’m, uh, looking for my friends. I don’t suppose you’ve seen them?”

Juniper responded with a mischievous giggle as she stood up straight and turned the rest of her body around to face Sunset.

No words were needed for Sunset to know that her worst fears were true. Knowing exactly what she had to do next, she furrowed her brow and firmly asked, “Where are they?”

Juniper kept that smug smile on her face as she replied, “I’ll never tell.”

Now it was Sunset’s turn to smile. “You don’t have to,” was all she said before she suddenly reached forward and grasped Juniper’s wrist. As soon as that contact was made, Sunset’s body stiffened and her eyes glowed completely white as she began to look into Juniper’s memories.

The first thing Sunset observed was Juniper being informed by her uncle Canter Zoom that he had gotten her a new job working at the Flixiplex Cinema. Not surprisingly, Canter Zoom was still upset with his niece’s horrible actions at the film lot, but he also made it clear to her that he still cared enough about her to go through a lot of trouble to ensure that she could have a job that was closely related to the movie industry. Juniper reluctantly accepted the job, but she once again emphasized that she wanted to play the role of Daring Do in the movie, though this time she sadly admitted that it was because she was so desperate for attention that she was convinced it was the only way to ensure that everyone would like her.

Next, Sunset saw her friends being confronted by Juniper in the theater lobby. Juniper had tried to explain her twisted belief that her one and only chance of getting everyone to love her was completely ruined by those girls, but they were only confused by her words and behavior. Finally, in a fit of rage, Juniper wished for those girls to go away forever, and that was when the magic activated, sucking all six girls into the mirror.

Once the series of visions were over, Sunset’s body relaxed and her eyes returned to normal. Her first reaction was a loud gasp, now that she knew what kind of horrible fate had really occurred to her friends. When Juniper yanked her wrist out of her grasp, Sunset glared furiously at her.

“What?” asked Juniper with contempt.

“I know you want people to like you,” Sunset spoke firmly, “but trust me, the magic in that mirror is only gonna make things worse for you.”

“You’re just saying that because you want the mirror for yourself!” accused Juniper as she held the mirror close to her chest.

“That’s ridiculous!” Sunset shot back. “I have no interest in possessing that kind of magic! It’s way too dangerous! What I really want is to just have my friends back.” Sunset tried to soften her tone as she continued, “Please, Juniper. You wished them into that mirror. Maybe there’s a way you can wish them out.”

Juniper glanced at her mirror and smiled menacingly. “Or maybe… I wish you’d join them!” she declared as she held the magic mirror out at Sunset. As Juniper’s eyes glowed green, a bright blue swirling vortex of magical energy once again shot out from the mirror’s glass and quickly pulled Sunset inside before vanishing just as suddenly.

Starlight Glimmer had been watching and listening the entire time from her hiding place, and as she witnessed Sunset getting pulled into the mirror, she couldn’t help but gasp in shock. She just as quickly realized the sound she made could’ve been heard, so she immediately covered her mouth and ducked back behind the prize-grabbing claw machine.

Juniper, with her eyes still glowing a sickly green, had definitely heard something, but as she gazed around the theater lobby, she saw no sign that anyone was in the room with her. After a few seconds of relative silence, she was convinced that she was well and truly alone, and her eyes soon returned to normal. Smug with seemingly eliminating the last of those girls she so passionately despised, she turned away and went back to admiring her reflection in the mirror.

Meanwhile, Starlight remained completely still with a look of absolute panic on her face. With Sunset taken away by some strange magic, she was now completely alone in an unfamiliar world, and she was at a total loss on what to do.

Author's Note

This chapter sure turned out much longer than the previous chapters did (and based on the progress I've got done so far, it looks like the next chapter will be just as long as this one). I must admit, I had quite a bit of nostalgia as I had Starlight go through a somewhat similar experience as Princess Twilight did way back in the first few chapters of the very first story of this series, though obviously the different circumstances allowed me to make this a uniquely different way to introduce the Lego World to a pony from Equestria. By the way, if you've ever played Lego City Undercover, you might recognize the name on that ice cream truck. Also, I did say I would eventually explain Spike's absence in this part of the story, and that phone call he made helped to get things rolling. Just one chapter and the epilogue left to go for this story, and believe me, the next chapter is going to be very exciting.

Monster Mayhem

Chapter 10
Monster Mayhem

Inside the pocket dimension behind the magic mirror, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity were still trapped inside the strange realm with seemingly no way out. Fluttershy sat on the floor with a sullen expression while Rarity stood by her side in an effort to comfort her. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were watching Applejack and Twilight make a desperate effort to reach for the mirror surface high above their heads. Twilight had decided to try something she had once done with Sunset and Spike when they were trapped inside a cave, and that involved Applejack removing her hair piece to allow her to stand firmly on top of the farm girl’s head.

Twilight struggled to reach a hand up at the mirror surface, but she soon realized that it was still way beyond her reach. “I can’t reach it,” she called back to her friends. “I’m gonna need some additional help.”

“Ah ain’t too sure ‘bout that,” said Applejack worriedly as tried to keep Twilight’s foot attached to the top of her head. “Ah’m struggling to keep mah balance with just one minifig standin’ on mah head.”

Before anyone could volunteer to help Twilight, they began to hear a faint whooshing noise and saw a red trail of magical energy start to emerge from the mirror surface.

“Incoming!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

While the other girls ducked, Applejack lost her balance and caused Twilight to fall off her head and hit the floor.

Once that trail of magic fully emerged from the mirror surface, it solidified into the form of Sunset Shimmer, who screamed as she flew over everyone and tumbled to the floor.

Twilight got up and as soon as she saw who had just arrived, she smiled and exclaimed, “Sunset Shimmer!”

Applejack picked up her hair piece and put it back on her head while she and the others rushed over to their friend.

Sunset groaned as she rolled over onto her back. She was soon helped up onto her feet by Rarity, then received a big grateful hug from Pinkie.

“Hooray!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie cheerfully. “We’re all together again!”

“But wait,” Twilight spoke up as a sudden realization occurred to her. “If we’re all together, then nobody out there knows where we are!”

At this point, Fluttershy glanced down at her magical geode around her neck and noticed that it was now flashing on and off at a constant rate. She looked around at her friends and saw that all of their geodes were also flashing at the exact same steady rate, perfectly synchronized with each other. Unsure of the significance of this, she quietly spoke up, “Um, girls…”

Apparently not hearing Fluttershy, Sunset smiled and gently pushed Pinkie away as she responded to Twilight, “Starlight Glimmer does.”

“Um, girls…” said Fluttershy, barely louder than the first time, but still not enough to catch anyone’s attention.

“You mean Princess Twilight’s student back in Equestria?” asked Rarity.

“How would she know where—?” asked Pinkie, before a sudden realization occurred to her. She then grinned and slyly added, “Ohhhh!”

Sunset could only smile uneasily and look away.

“You didn’t…” said Twilight worriedly. “She isn’t…”

Sunset rubbed the back of her head and hesitantly confessed, “I kinda told her she could come back here with me.”

“Girls…” Fluttershy once again tried to speak up, but was still not quite loud enough.

“You really think Princess Twilight would be okay with that?” asked Applejack.

Sunset uneasily replied, “I don’t know for sure that she wouldn’t be okay with it.”

“That’s not exactly a compelling argument,” Rarity pointed out uneasily.

Finally, Fluttershy nudged Sunset in addition to speaking up, “Um, so sorry to interrupt, but—”

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash suddenly spoke up as she grasped her magical geode. “Check out our geodes!”

Everyone glanced down at their respective magical geodes and finally realized that they were all flashing at the exact same consistent rate.

Fluttershy slumped as she sighed and grumbled, “That’s what I was trying to say.”

It was right at this moment that the pure white background turned blue, then turned pink, then yellow, then purple, then orange, then red, then back to white, and continued shifting between the same cycle of colors over and over.

“Something’s changed,” noted Twilight worriedly. “This wasn’t happening before.”

“Maybe it’s because all seven of us are together now,” Sunset speculated.

“Is this a good thing or a bad thing?” asked Applejack with uncertainty.

Suddenly, magical energy was released from their geodes, each with a different color — blue from Rainbow Dash, purple from Twilight, orange from Applejack, yellow from Fluttershy, red from Sunset, pink from Pinkie Pie, and white from Rarity. All seven beams of magical energy shot out towards the mirror surface, then once that energy was completely released from the geodes, the colored beams began swirling around the edge of the mirror surface.

“I’m going with… not a good thing!” exclaimed Rarity in terror.

Outside the magic mirror, Juniper Montage was once again admiring her dream reflection when that magical energy suddenly emerged from the mirror’s surface, flowed up her arm, then phased into her body, causing her to start transforming.

Still hidden behind the arcade machine, Starlight watched the entire magical transformation in shock.

First, Juniper started growing significantly taller. Next, her work outfit was quickly replaced by a green, purple, and black sparkling dress that covered most of her torso and her upper legs, a purple cloth extension to the dress attached over her hip joint that covered the back of her legs, black and green on her feet, and green on her hands and lower arms. For her head, her glasses vanished, her faced gained some makeup, and her hair piece shifted from straight pigtails to a mass of flowing curls. When the transformation was complete, the now magically corrupted Juniper Montage stood two bricks taller than the standard minifig — her legs and torso each now three bricks tall instead of just two.

After the magical transformation finished, Juniper looked over at the glass surface of the popcorn machine and saw her reflection was not the desperate teen she typically saw, but instead she was now identical to the dream reflection she had been admiring all day from that magic mirror. Seeing her wildest dream had now come true, she grinned. “Now everyone will recognize I’m a real star!” she proudly declared, then began marching towards the set of doors at the front of the lobby that led outside.

Starlight remained perfectly still as she watched the magically corrupted minifig walk right by her. She glanced down at Sunset’s shoulder bag in her hands, then slung the strap over her right shoulder and left the bag hanging over her left hip. As she watched Juniper head for the exit, she knew right away that she had to do something to stop that monster, even though she did not yet know what exactly she was going to do about it.

As Juniper reached the doors, she quickly encountered a rather unexpected dilemma. Now that she was much taller than ordinary minifigs, she was now unable to fit through any of those doors. She stuck a leg out, then stuck an arm out, then bent forward but couldn’t get her head low enough without letting her hair touch the floor — she was not about to sacrifice any of her inflated dignity by crawling through a tiny doorway.

As Juniper stood still and glared as the lobby doors, she pouted and grumbled, “Fine! If this door’s too small for a big star like me, then I’ll just make a new one.” With her right hand still tightly grasping that magic mirror, she placed her left hand onto the wall right above the set of doors. She pressed against that wall and, with remarkably little effort, managed to break a large hole through the wall, including tearing aside most of those doors. Now that there was a large enough opening through the wall, she stood straight up and stepped outside to meet her public.

Starlight waited until Juniper had made a few steps outside, then rushed over to the destroyed wall. She stopped and stayed partially hidden behind a portion of the wall that was still standing, making sure to keep watching that magically corrupted minifig.

Out on the street of Sunshine Plaza, the presence of the giant form of Juniper Montage was very hard to ignore. As she began striding along the brick red tiles of the street, numerous civilians quickly panicked and started running away, many of them rushing to hide behind any form of cover nearby.

The magic in that mirror had not only change Juniper’s body, but had also affected her mind. To her, the surrounding civilians who were screaming and running were not fleeing from her in terror. Instead, she perceived them as crazy fans rushing to get her attention. She eventually settled her attention on a young boy and his mother who stood still in the middle of the street while holding hands. She smiled down at them and asked, “Want mommy to take our picture together?”

In reality, the mother and son stood frozen in fear. When the corrupted Juniper singled them out, the young boy immediately broke down and started sobbing. The mother heard her son’s crying and, tightening her grip on his hand, immediately fled the scene with him. “Someone call the cops!” shrieked the mother as she and her son rushed down the street past a donut shop.

Standing in front of that donut shop, there just so happened to be three police officers, two of whom were carrying some boxes of donuts. The third officer was none other than Canterlot City’s Chief of Police, officer Flash Sentry, who had definitely heard the terrified screams of that mother and child.

“Good thing we happen to be in the area right now,” remarked Flash. He turned back to his two fellow officers and ordered, “Drop the donuts, boys. Let’s find out what we’re dealing with this time.”

The other two officers reluctantly set down their boxes of donuts on a nearby bench and followed their superior officer as he began walking towards the source of the mass panic. “I-I’m not so sure about this,” mumbled one of the officers nervously.

As Flash Sentry marched forward, he could easily see up ahead that they were dealing with yet another individual who had been corrupted with some form of magic. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous, but after witnessing four other magical incidents in the past year, he felt that he was now capable of facing the next such incident as professionally as when dealing with any other crime.

Juniper obliviously continued to bask in the admiration of her supposed fans, glancing around in different directions until her gazed eventually fell on the three police officers.

“Alright, whoever you are,” Flash Sentry firmly called out, “explain yourself!”

Juniper simply smiled and smugly responded, “Oh, no need to be concerned for me, security. I see no reason to keep any of my fans away from me. Everyone loves me!” She then turned away to find more “fans” to impress.

The three officers just stared at the tall minifig in confusion. Eventually, Flash stated, “Yeah, she’s definitely gone delusional.” He turned to his fellow officer to his left and ordered, “Better call the asylum and tell them to set aside a large room.”

The officer on the left nodded without saying a word, then pulled out his phone and began dialing a number.

Meanwhile, the other officer on the right nervously asked, “So, uh… w-what are we gonna do?”

Flashed sighed and reluctantly replied, “For now… nothing. We don’t know what she’s capable of, nor are we sure if she’s even deliberately trying to cause trouble. I don’t wanna put anyone needlessly at risk, so until we know for sure what we’re dealing with, the best thing we can do is just stand back and observe.”

Not far from the police officers, Starlight Glimmer was now hiding behind a tall potted shrub in front of a florist shop. The responses she had overheard from the law enforcement officers did little to ease her worries. “Of course the police aren’t gonna do anything,” she quietly muttered to herself. “They have no idea that Sunset and her friends are trapped inside that mirror. So I guess it’s up to me to save them.” She paused as a peculiar thought crossed her mind. “Wow, I seem to be the one saving the day quite a lot, lately,” she noted, but then shrugged and leaned out from behind the shrub.

As Starlight watched Juniper — who was now blowing kisses to various people just before they ran away screaming — she focused her attention on the magic mirror that the corrupted minifig still grasped in her hand. “Okay, first thing’s first,” Starlight quietly muttered to herself. “I need to get the mirror away from her. But how?”

Starlight looked around at her surroundings for any possible ideas. She struggled at first to think of something, but then she remembered the discussion she had earlier with Sunset about what Master Builders are capable of. Another quick glance at her surroundings and Starlight realized that almost everything around her really was made of Lego parts, and thus had the potential to be repurposed into something useful. It was now clear to her what she had to do to save Sunset and her friends.

“Well… guess it’s time to see if I’ve got what it takes to be a Master Builder,” she remarked as she stepped out from her hiding place and began looking around. “Let’s see, what do I have to work with…?”

Aside from the debris from the front wall of the cinema, there weren’t really any loose pieces just lying around, so Starlight was forced to rely on the other bit of advice Sunset had given her: break other objects to get enough parts to build something useful. Between the florist shop and the donut shop, there were some benches, some streetlamps, some trashcans, and a couple of hot dog carts. She wasn’t sure at first what she could possible make out of such objects, but she knew she didn’t have many other options, so she would have to get really creative. As she let her imagination run wild, a possibility started to from in her mind. She smiled and said, “I think I might have an idea…”

With no time to waste, Starlight immediately started harvesting the necessary parts. She tore some benches from the ground and smashed them to pieces, shoved over some streetlamps that broke apart as they hit the ground, and overturned the two hot dog carts to break them into pieces. “I sure hope the vandalism laws in this world are a lot more relaxed than what we have in Equestria,” she quipped as she next started throwing all those loose pieces together.

While all of that was going on, Juniper was facing away from it as her attention was focused on finding more “excited fans” to surround herself with. With all the real people running away from her, she naturally followed after them further down the street. Unlike the panicked civilians, she saw no reason to rush, so she continued to stride down the street like a fashion model on the runway. As she approached a table, she noticed that someone had left behind a notepad and pencil, so she grabbed the pencil and wrote her signature onto the exposed sheet of paper. Once she was finished with that, she held up the pencil and asked, “Who else wants my autograph?”

Juniper’s wait for a response was cut short when something suddenly swept her off her feet from behind, causing her to fall into a small seat that was elevated off the ground. As that seat moved around, a small cage-like structure dropped down around her torso, locking her into the seat. Confused by the sudden turn of events, she looked back and saw that the elevated seat she was now strapped into was attached to the front of some kind of motorized cart, and sitting in the driver’s seat of that cart was Starlight Glimmer.

“Hope you don’t mind me butting in,” Starlight playfully remarked. She tried to bring the cart to a stop, but the sudden deceleration combined with the top-heaviness of the giant Juniper in the elevated seat caused the cart to suddenly tip forward, though it was able to fall back onto all four wheels. “Sorry,” added Starlight uneasily as she started turning the cart around. “Very first time ever operating a vehicle.”

“What is the meaning of this?!” demanded Juniper.

“Let my friends go!” Starlight firmly responded as she continued driving the cart around, though she struggled to keep it going in a straight line.

“Never!” Juniper shouted back. With her right hand still firmly grasping that magic mirror, she grabbed the cage around her torso with her left hand and quickly pried it off, breaking the lever system that had allowed Starlight to hold it down.

“Whoa,” muttered Starlight in shock. “Probably should’ve expected that.”

Juniper hopped out of the elevated seat, turned around, then grabbed that seat and began to lift the whole cart.

Starlight quickly hopped out of the cart and began running away. Just seconds later, that cart flew over her head and crashed to the ground right in front of her. She stopped and glanced back and saw Juniper approaching her with a furious expression.

Starlight immediately ran forward again and tried to jump over the wrecked cart, but her right leg got caught on it. After hitting the ground on her face, she flipped over and realized that leg had actually come off. She quickly found it resting atop the overturned cart, so she reached over to grab it, only for Juniper to grab it at the same time.

“Hey!” shouted Starlight. “Lego my leg!” She and Juniper tugged back and forth on that leg. Starlight quickly got desperate enough to start slamming that leg repeatedly against the cart. That sudden jerking eventually caused Juniper to lose her grip on the leg and fall back onto her rear.

Starlight fell onto her back, but smiled as she saw that she was still holding her detached leg. She quickly reattached the leg… then immediately screamed very loudly in intense pain. She rubbed her hands over her right ankle as she hissed in pain and grumbled, “Of course that was gonna happen from banging it against the cart.”

Juniper then picked up the wrecked cart held it high up over her head as she glared down at Starlight.

Still sitting on the ground, Starlight held out her hands and fearfully exclaimed, “Whoa! Hey! No need to go that far! I’m already beaten, see?” She stood up and as soon as she put most of her weight onto her injured right leg, her facial expression showed very clearly that she was suddenly in a lot of pain, so she shifted her weight back onto her uninjured leg. “Yup. Definitely not going anywhere fast on a busted leg like this.”

Juniper continued to hold the wrecked cart over her head as she raised an eyebrow.

Starlight turned around and began limping away, wincing very noticeably every time she stepped on her injured leg. She looked back at Juniper as she continued, “Now… if you don’t mind… I’m just gonna… limp away like this… so you can… go back to… whatever it was you were doing.” Her speech was interrupted every time she stepped on that injured right leg.

As she watched Starlight limp away, Juniper scoffed and grumbled, “Pathetic.” She carelessly dropped the destroyed cart and turned away. “Now that that nuisance has been dealt with, back to me.” She smiled as she resumed striding down the street.

Behind Juniper, Starlight hopped on her uninjured left leg as she quickly made her way into a nearby alleyway between two buildings. Once she was safely out of sight, she settled her weight back down on that injured leg. It still hurt a little, but it was actually nowhere nearly as bad as she had expressed it. In fact, she was confident that she could still run around on that leg just fine. She chuckled to herself and remarked, “Good thing Rainbow Dash taught me how to exaggerate an injury.”

Starlight peered around the side of the building to observe Juniper’s current location, then turned away and muttered, “Okay, what should I try next?” She looked around the alleyway and saw a dumpster and some trashcans surrounded by various bits of junk, along with a few crates with no indications of what could be inside them. She turned her gaze up and saw a fire escape leading up to the roof of the building she was hiding behind. She initially wasn’t sure what she could possibly do with the parts from these items, but as she again let her imagination run wild, she smiled as another idea formed in her mind. “How about an oversized arcade classic?” she remarked to herself.

Starlight’s smile fell as she peered around the building again to watch Juniper. She sighed and muttered, “Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll never get her to stand still in one place long enough for it to work. Unless…”

Starlight’s gaze drifted over to just across the street, where she saw a minifig with light blue skin, a shoulder-length white hair piece, sunglasses on her face with red tinted lenses, black and white vertical stripes on her torso and upper arms with a magenta scarf on the front of the torso near the neck, black on her lower legs, a black skirt around her upper legs, and holding a camera in her hands. This minifig was currently busy snapping photos of the ongoing chaos out on the street.

Starlight smiled again, then called out across the street, “Hey! You there with the camera! Over here!”

The girl with the camera stopped snapping pictures and looked over at Starlight, who was gesturing for her to come over to her. Despite her confusion, the girl with the camera ran across the street and stopped in front of Starlight.

“I have an idea on how to stop that giant on the street,” explained Starlight, “but I’m gonna need your help. For my plan to work, she needs to be standing in front of this building and not be aware that something’s about to come down on her.”

“Say no more,” the camera girl suddenly spoke up as she held up her camera. “I, Photo Finish, shall keep zat beast distracted by capturing… za magicks.”

“Fine by me,” responded Starlight. She then firmly added, “Oh, and whatever you do, don’t let anything bad happen to that mirror she’s holding.”

“Understood,” replied Photo Finish. “I go!” She then ran off after Juniper.

With the distraction set in motion, Starlight turned back into the alleyway and muttered, “Okay, let’s start with those crates…”

Out on the street, the magically corrupted Juniper Montage continued strutting down the street, looking around for more fans that would admire her.

“STOP!”

Juniper stopped and turned around to see Photo Finish standing behind her.

Photo Finish held up her camera and asked, “You vant good photos to distribute to your fans, ja?”

Juniper smiled and replied, “Obviously.”

“Zen I, Photo Finish, is just ze pro you vant,” responded Photo Finish. “First, ve need a backdrop. Go stand over zere! Right in front of zat building!”

Juniper looked at the building Photo Finish was pointing at — the same one that Starlight was hiding behind — and raised an eyebrow when she noticed what kind of business occupied the ground floor of that building. “You want me to pose in front of a barbershop?” she asked in confusion.

“You have a spectacular hairstyle, ja?” explained Photo Finish. “Vhen your fans see zese photos, zeir attention vill be on your hair and zey vill be so impressed zat zey vill start asking hairstylists to give zem ze same style, even naming it after you.”

“The Juniper Montage hairstyle…” mused Juniper with a smile. “I like the sound of that.” Without any further questions, she walked over toward the front of that barbershop.

Meanwhile in the alleyway behind that building, Starlight had torn apart all the crates and bits of junk and had tossed all of those pieces up onto the roof of the three story building. With the whole alleyway now cleared of all the parts she needed, she next moved onto the fire escape. She climbed up the first set of stairs, then tore some parts from those stairs and tossed them onto the roof.

In front of that building, Juniper was already posing as Photo Finish began taking pictures of her.

“Ja! Good! Spectacular!” boasted Photo Finish as she snapped picture after picture. “You have ze magicks! Show it off!”

Juniper got so into the zone that at one point, she decided to playfully toss up the mirror in her hand with the intent of easily catching it only a second later.

“DUMMKOPF!!”

Startled by that sudden shout, Juniper fumbled with the mirror and barely managed to catch it before it could hit the ground.

“Do not drop zat mirror!” scolded Photo Finish. “It is more precious zan even you!”

“What?” questioned Juniper as she frowned and raised an eyebrow.

“No matter!” exclaimed Photo Finish dismissively. “Ve continue! Now start posing!”

Meanwhile, Starlight continued dismantling the fire escape as she worked her way up. Once she reached the roof, she tore off the last remaining chunk of the fire escape and tossed it onto the pile of parts she had accumulated. Now that she was finally done gathering all the Lego pieces she needed, she ran over towards the front of the building and looked down, confirming that the diversion had placed Juniper right where she wanted her. “And now to put it all together,” stated Starlight as she began grabbing pieces from the pile and started quickly assembling them.

Down on the street, Juniper struck numerous poses as Photo Finish snapped pictures of each and every one of them.

“Good! Show me your graceful face!” directed Photo Finish as she snapped another picture. “Vonderful! Show me your contemplative face!” She snapped yet another picture. “Stupendous! Now show me your schadenfreude face!”

“My what?” asked Juniper in confusion.

“FAH!” shouted Photo Finish impatiently. “Do you not speak my language?!”

Whirrrrrr. Whirrrrrr.

Juniper had definitely heard that strange sound, so rather than continue posing for the photo session, she tapped her chin and muttered, “Hmm… what is that ominous mechanical noise I’m hearing?”

Juniper soon got her answer as a giant three-armed mechanical claw suddenly dropped down around her, grabbed onto her by her waist, and quickly lifted her off the ground. “Whoa! Hey! Put me down!” she screamed as she was lifted up towards the roof of the building. Once she stopped at the roof, she slowly rotated around to see the giant claw was held by a makeshift crane sitting on the roof, and manipulating the controls of that crane was Starlight Glimmer.

“Not until you free my friends!” Starlight shot back.

“No!” Juniper shouted back defiantly.

Starlight calmly responded, “Fine. In that case…” She grinned as she placed her hands on the levers that controlled the crane. “Let’s see how long it’ll take for you to lose your lunch!”

And with that, Starlight immediately started randomly flipping the levers back and forth, sending the crane arm and its dangling cargo wildly moving around. Juniper screamed as she was sent hurtling left and right, up and down, back and forth, never stopping. So wild was her ride that one could almost imagine some banjo music playing in the background.

Starlight laughed as she sent Juniper swinging around in all directions without any mercy. “Round and round she goes!” she sang playfully. “Where she stops, nopony knows!”

Juniper kept on screaming as she continued hurtling around wildly, up and down, left and right, back and forth, on and on and on. Despite all that crazy and aimless movement, she eventually managed to hold out her magic mirror and shouted, “I… wish… you’d… put me… down… right… now!” With the magic words spoken, that bright blue ray of magical energy was unleashed from the mirror’s surface and rushed towards the crane structure.

“Uh oh.” muttered Starlight before she quickly jumped away from the controls and dove aside to avoid the magical energy. That bright blue ray quickly enveloped the entire crane, pulled it off its mount on the roof, and sucked the whole thing into the mirror, with the last part of it being the claw as it finally slipped loose from its grip on Juniper.

Now that she was no longer suspended by that crane, Juniper dropped down onto the roof just a few steps away from Starlight. However, that wild ride she had been hurtling around on had taken its toll on her, causing her to take a few stumbling steps as her dizziness continued to linger.

Back inside the pocket dimension behind the magic mirror, the seven Equestria Girls continued to stand around in the realm of nothingness, still unsure of what they could possibly do. Suddenly, a large object passed through the mirror surface and came hurtling right towards them.

“Look out!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

The seven girls screamed as they ran either left or right to avoid the large object as it crashed to the floor, followed by a giant claw at the end of a cable. Once the large object had settled in place, the girls approached it.

“What the heck is that?” asked Applejack.

Twilight adjusted her glasses as she looked at the damaged object and replied, “I think it might be some kind of crane.”

“Certainly doesn’t seem to be one of those standard models,” noted Rarity. “This one looks more like a hodgepodge of parts from various other objects.”

“Kinda like it was just quickly thrown together by some Master Builder,” remarked Pinkie Pie.

“Master Builder…” mumbled Sunset contemplatively. After a moment of thinking, she suddenly smiled and exclaimed, “Of course! I gave Starlight Glimmer some pointers on how to be a Master Builder!”

“Really?” asked Fluttershy.

“Nice!” remarked Rainbow Dash with a smile. “If she was able to build something like this, then she must be really good at it, too!”

“If that’s true,” noted Applejack, “then Ah reckon she’s throwin’ everythin’ she’s got to stop Juniper.”

Sunset turned towards the mirror surface and quietly said, “Whatever’s going on out there, Starlight, I hope you know what you’re doing…”

Starlight stood up and was relieved to see that she was still on the building’s roof, and thus had successfully avoided getting sucked into that magic mirror. Her positive feeling didn’t last long as she glanced around and soon saw that the magically corrupted Juniper Montage was also standing on the same rooftop, albeit stumbling around a little from dizziness.

As she took a few staggered steps towards Starlight, Juniper grumbled, “You… are really beginning to annoy me.” She glanced down at her right hand and smiled as she saw that she was still holding onto that mirror. Despite her balance still being a little unstable, she slowly held the mirror up and pointed it at Starlight.

Starlight immediately realized what Juniper was intending to do, so with quick thinking, she suddenly pointed past Juniper and shouted, “Look! The paparazzi! And they want your autograph, too!”

“Where?” asked Juniper as she quickly turned her head to look in the direction Starlight had pointed towards.

Starlight didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the false distraction. She jumped up and swiped the magical mirror right out of Juniper’s hand. “Yoink!” she playfully remarked as she began running off with the mirror.

As soon as she felt the mirror leave her grip, Juniper glanced down as her now empty hands, then turned back to Starlight and saw her running off with the mirror in her possession. “HEY!!” she shouted furiously as she began to chase after Starlight.

Clutching the mirror in her left hand, Starlight used her right hand to help her jump over the ledge onto the rooftop of the next building along the street. Juniper took advantage of her longer legs to clear the ledge with just one stride.

“Give that back!” shouted Juniper.

“No!” Starlight shouted back defiantly as she jumped over the ledge onto the next rooftop. “This mirror is nothing but trouble! You have to realize that!”

“What I realize is that you are just like those other girls!” Juniper shot back. “I wish you’d join them!”

Starlight reached the ledge on the other side and as she heard the magic words, she immediately turned the mirror away from herself and towards Juniper. Both of them stood still for a moment, but nothing happened. Starlight let out a sigh of relief, but was quickly forced to duck down as Juniper swiped her hand down at her.

Starlight stepped to the side and jumped over the ledge onto the next rooftop. “Looks like you can’t make that wish unless you’re the one holding the mirror!” remarked Starlight tauntingly as she ran across the rooftop.

Juniper growled furiously and stepped over the ledge as she resumed chasing after Starlight.

Unlike with the previous jumps, the next rooftop ahead was not adjacent to the building, but was separated by a narrow alleyway, and was one story shorter. Starlight noticed this and, hoping that some momentum would help, did not hesitate to step onto the ledge and immediately took a leap of faith across the gap. She screamed and flailed her limbs around as she soared across the gap.

Starlight managed to reach the next rooftop, but failed to control her landing and ended up tumbling forward. In the process of her rough landing, the mirror flew out of her hand and landed a short distance further ahead. As that mirror hit the rooftop, the mirror surface fractured upon impact.

Inside the pocket dimension, the fracturing of the mirror didn’t just occur on the giant mirror surface, but also affected the entire plane of existence around them as well. The seven girls dodged the large cracks as they spread.

“The mirror is breaking!” exclaimed Sunset.

Once the fracturing ceased for the moment, some of them hesitantly touched the cracks and were surprised to find they were solid structures, regardless of where they were or which direction they went. Not only that, but as they watched one of the loose pieces from the destroyed crane teeter on the edge of one crack and fall through, they realized that the empty blackness between the cracks could possibly lead to an endless fall through nothingness.

“If Starlight Glimmer doesn’t find a way to get us out of here soon,” said Twilight worriedly, “I don’t know what’s gonna happen to us!”

Starlight quickly got up and retrieved the mirror. Upon seeing the fractures on the reflective surface, she couldn’t help but stare at the mirror with a worried expression on her face. She then turned back and saw the magically corrupted Juniper standing at the ledge of the previous building and glaring down at her.

In an act of desperation, Starlight held out the magic mirror and boldly said, “I wish Sunset Shimmer and her friends would come back!”

Starlight and Juniper stared at the mirror for a moment, but again, nothing happened.

The tall minifig on the higher rooftop simply laughed and mockingly remarked, “Looks like you can’t use it either!” She then stepped onto the ledge and jumped across the gap.

As Juniper went airborne, Starlight desperately glanced around and soon found a crowbar laying on the rooftop near her feet. Without any second thoughts, she quickly grabbed the crowbar and tossed it at Juniper.

As Juniper was almost across the gap, the flung crowbar struck her lower legs, causing her to start tumbling around uncontrollably. She screamed as she fell, then smacked into the lower ledge on her upper back and tumbled the rest of the way down into the alleyway. The sound of cracking wood, banging metal, and rustling litter all at once marked the end of Juniper’s descent.

Starlight flinched when Juniper hit the ledge. After the sound of that final crash, she mumbled, “That’s gonna leave a mark.” With the magic mirror still in her hand, she turned away and ran across towards the next rooftop. The next rooftop was one story higher, so she had to climb onto a large crate and from there was able to jump up and grabbed onto the ledge. She struggled to pull herself up, so she swung her legs side to side until she was able to get one of them up onto the ledge, allowing her to then roll her body around until she was completely up on that ledge. Now that she was finally up on the next rooftop, she stood up and continued running.

Suddenly, every television screen on Sunshine Plaza came on and started playing the Dance Magic music video once again. Starlight stopped halfway across the rooftop and looked across the street, curious by what she was seeing and hearing.

From down at the bottom of the alleyway, Juniper loudly groaned and grumbled, “Why must they torture me so?!”

Starlight heard Juniper’s complaint, then as she turned her attention back to those TV screens, she smiled and said, “I could use that as I diversion!” She then turned around and looked across at all the various objects up on the rooftop she stood on. There were a few crates, some loose cables, a blank billboard, and an exposed section of air ducts. Once she took note of what she had to work with, she added, “And I think I know just how to do that.”

As Starlight went to work tearing apart the rooftop structures, Juniper dug herself out of the pile of trash and junk that she had fallen into. After shoving aside the shattered crates and dented trashcans, she then brushed off some food wrappers and newspaper pages from herself. She then removed her hair piece, brushed off every scrap of litter from it, then placed it back on her head. Once she was finished cleaning herself off, she gazed up the side of the two story building and furrowed her brow. She focused her attention on the lower part of that wall right in front of her, then slammed her opened hand against it. Her immense strength had allowed her to open a gap between two rows of bricks just wide enough to fit half of her claw-shaped hand and thus provide a good solid grip. Juniper smiled at this, then slammed her other hand against a higher point on the wall, opening another gap between the bricks for her to grab onto. She then removed her first hand from the wall, pulled herself up with the second hand, and slammed the first hand against a higher point on the wall, opening yet another gap between the bricks for her to hold. She repeated this process and slowly climbed her way up the wall and towards the roof of the building.

Meanwhile, Starlight had already dismantled all the rooftop structures around her and was moving quickly to assemble all those loose pieces into the new creation she had in mind. She grunted as she threw piece after piece into place, working as quickly as she could to get the whole thing done.

Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Click! Click! Clack! Clack! Click! Clack!

As Starlight continued frantically assembling those various Lego parts, remarked to herself, “Y’know, considering I’ve been in this world for only a few hours, I’m remarkably good at building stuff.” She chuckled. “I guess what Princess Twilight once told me is true. Master Building is for the Lego World what magic is for Equestria. And in Equestria…” She slapped the final piece of her latest creation into place and smiled. “…I happen to be a natural at magic.”

With her creation completed, Starlight jumped up and stomped down onto a long platform, flipping the whole structure upright against the ledge facing back towards the shorter building. The completed object was revealed to be an enormous television screen with a massive set of speakers attached to both its left and right sides. Behind that giant screen, Starlight grabbed an oversized electrical plug and pulled it away, unspooling the cable that connected the plug to the rest of the massive electronic system. After carrying that plug to the other side of the roof, she then disconnected another oversized plug, which caused all the other television screens on the street to suddenly shut off.

“Showtime!” announced Starlight as she connected the plug she was carrying into the oversized outlet. She then picked up the slightly cracked magic mirror — which she had set down for the duration of the build — and jumped over the ledge onto the next rooftop. As she ran off, the enormous television screen took a few seconds to fully power up, then suddenly started playing the Dance Magic music video with the volume cranked up ridiculously high.

IT’S DANCE MAGIC, ONCE YOU HAVE IT
LET YOUR BODY MOVE, STEP INTO THE MUSIC

As the whole building shook with each beat of the tune, Juniper climbed up onto the ledge of the shorter adjacent building, only to see right in front of her was a massively oversized television set displaying the video of those girls she so vehemently despised. As she finally pulled herself onto the rooftop, she furiously hollered, “Leave me alone, LEAVE ME ALONE!!”

IT’S DANCE MAGIC, AND IT’S ELECTRIC
LET YOUR BODY MOVE TO THE MUSIC

By the time the final lyric of the chorus was finished, Juniper had marched across the lower rooftop, stepped onto the large crate in front of the ledge of the upper rooftop, and smashed her fist against the display screen, disabling the enormous television set and punching a huge hole through the screen. With her arm still in that hole she had punched through, she then used her other arm to rip the entire massive electronic system off its mount on the rooftop. She lifted it over her head, then chucked the whole thing off the roof. The giant destroyed television system crashed onto the street below, followed by the rapid warbling of a car alarm.

“Hey, that’s my car!” shouted one random civilian down on the street.

With the annoying giant screen out of the way, Juniper jumped up onto the upper rooftop. She gazed straight ahead and growled as she saw Starlight running away, then ran ahead to chase after her again.

Starlight had not once stopped running since activating her diversion. After climbing over yet another ledge onto the next rooftop, she glanced back and muttered, “Okay, maybe that was just a big waste of time.”

She ran across the rooftop, jumped over the ledge onto the next rooftop, then ran halfway across before she slowed down and turned her gaze upwards. The next building up ahead was four stories taller, and there was no obvious way she was going to be able to reach the roof of that building. She frantically glanced around and saw among the various objects on the rooftop she stood on were a few TV antennas. The peculiar shape of those objects in particular gave her the inspiration for just the kind of quick solution she desperately needed.

“Ladder!” exclaimed Starlight. “I need a ladder!”

Starlight set down the mirror atop a small crate near the taller building, then quickly tore down all four TV antennas on the rooftop. Knowing that Juniper would catch up to her any second now, she worked quickly and efficiently by not completely tearing apart the antennas, but instead by taking advantage how they were already assembled and combining them together to form a very tall ladder that consisted of a single central beam that held all the rungs along its entire length. It was such a long ladder that, once it was completed, Starlight struggled to pull it upright, but she eventually managed to set it up against the side of the taller building. Most importantly, it was just barely long enough to reach the roof of the taller building. With no time to lose, she grabbed the magical mirror again and started quickly climbing that ladder.

Starlight made it about halfway up the ladder when she suddenly felt something grab onto her leg and tried to pull her down. Holding the mirror with her right hand, she had to rely on her left hand to hold tightly to one of the ladder rungs. As she desperately held onto the ladder, she looked down and saw Juniper Montage had climbed up the ladder after her and managed to grab onto her left leg.

“Hand it over!” demanded Juniper.

“No!” Starlight shot back as she used her free right leg to kick Juniper right in the face.

That kick sent Juniper’s head swiftly around so that it was now facing backwards. Only a second later, Juniper rotated her head back around in the same direction — making it complete a full rotation all the way around — to face Starlight again with a furious expression.

“Okay, that was a little disturbing,” muttered Starlight.

Juniper tightened her grip on Starlight’s leg and tried to pull her down again.

Starlight still held tightly onto the ladder with her left hand, but Juniper was now tugging with so much force that Starlight noticed her hip joint was starting to separate from her torso. In desperation, she once again used her right leg to kick Juniper in the face.

The second kick was so much stronger that Juniper’s head was knocked completely off her neck joint. She screamed as her head flew through the air, then she grunted each time her head bounced on the lower rooftop below, eventually coming to rest on the opposite side from the base of the ladder. As her headless body began climbing down the ladder, her head growled and spat, “You pest!”

Starlight stared silently at the very unexpected turn of events before she eventually muttered, “That was even more disturbing.”

With Juniper now preoccupied, Starlight knew she couldn’t afford to hesitate any further. She had to keep going. First, she planted both feet on one ladder rung and pushed her hands against a higher rung, applying compressive force on her body until her hip joint was fully reattached to her torso. She let out a sigh of relief, then resumed climbing the ladder.

Once Starlight finally reached the roof of the taller building, the next thing she had to do was get rid of the ladder. She couldn’t simply push it off, as that would leave it down on the lower roof with Juniper, who could then simply lift it back into place. Instead, to prevent the magically corrupted minifig from following her, Starlight decided to haul the ladder up onto the higher rooftop. To do this, she set down the mirror on the ledge and used both hands to toss the ladder up, grab a lower rung, toss it up again, and repeat the process until she eventually reached the bottom of the ladder, which she then tossed backwards over her head. As that ladder was tossed higher and higher, it eventually got top-heavy and tipped over sideways, but thanks to that final toss backwards, the ladder landed entirely atop the taller building.

Starlight let out a winded sigh as she picked up the mirror again and began running across the higher rooftop. She was panting with every breath she took, her exhaustion beginning to take its toll on her. Once she reached the other side of the rooftop, she stopped at the ledge and looked down as she was gasping for breath.

The next building ahead was all the way across a city street, with vehicle traffic moving back and forth on the street seven stories below. This building marked the northern end of Sunshine Plaza, and it was here that Celestia Avenue transitioned from the brick red tiles of the plaza into a standard city street at the intersection with that other street that Starlight was staring down at.

Suddenly finding herself with nowhere else to run, Starlight desperately asked, “Now where do I go from here?”

A sudden gust of wind blew across the top of the building, forcing Starlight to hold onto her hat and hair piece to prevent it from flying away.

“Whoa. Strong breeze, today,” remarked Starlight. Just a split second later, she had an epiphany. “That’s it!” Starlight turned around and quickly took note of the objects on this rooftop — the ladder she had just hauled up, a few more TV antennas, a few crates, and some exposed sections of air ducts. It was a rather crazy idea, but she felt confident she could make it work. Noticing that some of the Lego bricks that made up the ledge had holes into the studs on top, she stuck the handle of the magical mirror into one of those holes, then immediately started harvesting all the Lego parts she was going to need.

Meanwhile, down on the lower rooftop, Juniper was struggling to guide her body towards retrieving her head. “Hey, I’m over here!” She called out, but her body walked further away. “No, no, no! Over here!” Her body turned around and began walking towards her head. “Yes! Right!” Her body turned right and continued walking. “No, don’t go right! I mean correct!” Her body turned around and walked towards her head, but took one step too many and kicked her head further away. “Ow! This isn’t a soccer game! Use your head! Oh, right. I, uh… guess that would be me.”

Up on the higher rooftop, Starlight made quick work of her next creation and fitted the final piece into place. She had just built a very large box kite, and she was planning to use it for her very crazy next move, but there was one problem. “How am I gonna get this thing up in the air?” she asked herself.

Starlight glanced down and suddenly remembered that she was still carrying Sunset’s shoulder bag. She also remembered a certain item Sunset had in this bag, and with a little bit of creativity, she was convinced that it could accomplish what she needed. She quickly reached into the bag and pulled out a carrot. “No,” she muttered as she tossed the carrot away, then reached into the bag again and pulled out a bottle of orange soda. “No.” She tossed the bottle of soda away — which then hit the building’s ledge, causing the cap to burst off and sending the bottle rocketing away as the pressurized soda escaped — then reached into the bag again and pulled out an apple. “No.” She tossed the apple away, then reached into the bag again and pulled out a can of spray paint. “No.” She tossed the can of spray paint away, then reached into the bag yet again and pulled out a grapple gun. “Yes!”

With the grapple gun in hand, she ran over to the kite and, using some pieces of string she had managed to find earlier, began tying the grappling hook onto the kite.

Meanwhile, down on the lower rooftop, Juniper finally managed to get her body to pick up her head and stick it back onto her neck joint. Now that she was fully assembled again, she turned towards the taller building and, not surprisingly, saw the ladder was gone. She wasn’t going to let that stop her that easily, so once again, she slammed her hands against the side of the building, opening gaps between the bricks for her to grab onto. She pulled herself up, slammed one hand into the building, pulled herself up, slammed the other hand into the building, and repeated the process, allowing her to slowly climb up the side of the building.

Up on the roof of that building, Starlight finished tying the strings onto her kite made of Lego parts. She picked it up and carried it over to the ledge overlooking the city street, then took a few steps backwards as she used her right hand to grasp the handle of the grapple gun while holding the kite at an upward angle. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and muttered, “Well… here goes nothing.” She rushed forward, then stopped right at the ledge as she thrust her kite outward and squeezed the grapple gun’s handle, firing the grappling hook.

The grappling hook, and the kite it was tied to, shot out into the air over the street. The kite began to descend, but then another gust of wind caught it and began to pull it higher and towards the left along the street. Starlight smiled as she watched the kite take off, so she turned around, grabbed the magical mirror with her left hand, and pulled it out of the brick she had temporarily mounted it on.

It was right at this moment that Juniper Montage pulled herself up over the ledge and locked eyes with Starlight Glimmer. They stared at each other for only a brief moment.

Without saying a word, Starlight smiled, used the mirror to give a salute, then turned around, took one step onto the ledge, and jumped off the building.

As Starlight made her leap of faith high above a busy city street, she squeezed the handle of the grapple gun in her right hand. It took a second for the cable between Starlight and the kite to be pulled taut, but once that happened, she yelped as she was suddenly yanked upwards. She glanced up and saw that her kite was still airborne on strong winds, and she was miraculously being carried along with it.

“Wow!” exclaimed Starlight in astonishment as she smiled. “I can’t believe this is actually working!” She then laughed and let out a triumphant cheer. “WOOOOOHOOOOO!! Who’d’ve thought that my obsession with kites would one day— Whoa!”

Starlight’s victory celebration was cut short when another gust of wind suddenly pushed the kite in a different direction, with Starlight still being helplessly carried along behind it.

“Ahh! How do I steer this thing?!” Starlight cried out desperately, even though she knew very well that in her currently aloft state, she had no way of controlling the kite’s direction, and thus was left completely at the mercy of the wind.

As the strong wind carried the kite and Starlight along another city street, she soon found herself flying between some much taller buildings. It wasn’t long before she slammed against the side of one of those buildings to her right and bounced right off it. “Ow…” she groaned quietly as she drifted away from the buildings to the right, only to realize she was now drifting towards the buildings to her left. “Oh no, not again!” she cried out before slamming against the side of a building to her left and also bounced right off it. She grunted in pain as she drifted back towards the right side of the street.

Despite those hard impacts, Starlight continued to hold tightly to the objects she held in both hands. Due to how far above the ground she was, she couldn’t afford to lose her grip in either of her hands. If she let go of the grapple gun, she would plummet to certain doom. If she dropped the mirror, it would definitely end up completely shattered, and there was no telling what kind of fate that would leave for Sunset and her friends still trapped inside.

As Starlight continued drifting towards the right, there wasn’t a building tall enough for her to slam against, but that was the only good news. Up ahead was another tall building, and on one side of it was a giant billboard that advertised an upcoming boxing match, with one of the featured boxers aiming his gloved fist out towards the viewers. And Starlight Glimmer was heading right for it.

Resigned to the fact that there was simply nothing she could do, Starlight cried out, “Oh, this is gonna hurt!”

Just a few seconds later, Starlight slammed face-first against the billboard, right in the middle of the outstretched gloved fist. Despite the very hard impact, she had managed to keep the magical mirror in her left hand, though she did lose her grip on the grapple gun. As the kite continued to drift away, the grapple gun dangling from it clattered twice against the upper frame of the billboard before going over the building, creating a sound almost identical to the ringing of a bell at a boxing match.

Ding-Ding!

The pocket dimension behind the mirror hadn’t suffered much more damage since the initial fracturing, but due to the impact with the billboard, that quickly changed. The cracks rapidly spread so much that the solid ground began splitting into separate chunks, leaving the seven Equestria Girls trapped in this realm scrambling around as they screamed in panic.

Sunset, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy had ended up on the largest chunk. Fluttershy nearly slipped off the edge of the chunk, but Sunset and Rarity caught her and pulled her back.

Applejack had ended up on a smaller chunk that was drifting away. She decided to use her super strength to help her jump across the ever widening gap towards her friends. She barely made it onto the edge of the large chunk, and although she nearly lost her balance and fell off, Rainbow and Pinkie were there to grab her and pull her safely away from the edge.

Twilight had ended up on another smaller chunk, though it was rapidly crumbling away under her feet, and she was obviously not going to be able to make the same kind of jump that Applejack had just done. She could only whimper helplessly as the small chunk soon broke apart, leaving her plummeting into the surrounding abyss.

“Twilight!” Sunset cried out.

Suddenly, an inverted dome of diamonds materialized under Twilight and caught her. “Not to worry, girls,” assured Rarity as she moved the diamonds to carry Twilight up towards her and the others. “I’ve got her.” Once the giant diamond bowl was over the large chunk, she dispersed the diamonds, thus reuniting Twilight with the rest of the team.

As the seven girls watched helplessly as the large chunk began to slowly crumble away around them, Fluttershy whimpered and muttered, “I really hope Starlight can get us out of here very soon.”

“I’m sure she’s doing fine,” assured Pinkie Pie. “I mean, it’s not like she just slammed face-first into a giant billboard or something silly like that, right?”

Starlight Glimmer had stayed face-first against that billboard for a few seconds before she finally slipped loose and began to fall. She was so dazed from that hard impact that she was unable to do anything as she plummeted straight down.

Starlight reached the ground after a few seconds, and of all the places she could have possibly landed, she ended up falling squarely inside an open dumpster. Various bits of rubbish was thrown all around from her trash landing, and by the time all of it had settled down, Starlight was finally able to regain her senses. She coughed a few times, then let out a groan of disgust as she removed a banana peel from atop her head. She sat up and, upon realizing the magical mirror had miraculously stayed firmly in her left hand, held up that mirror. She sighed sadly when she saw that the glass had shattered so extensively that at least half of it was now completely gone.

Starlight slowly stood up and looked around over the side of the dumpster. Though it didn’t show on her face, she was absolutely shocked to discover that not only was she incredibly lucky to land inside this dumpster, but it also happened to be the only thing in this alleyway that could have possibly offered such a soft enough landing.

Starlight let out another sigh and quietly remarked, “Well… could’ve been much worse.” She slowly climbed over the side of the dumpster and carefully dropped down onto the ground. After checking the mirror again to make sure there were still some intact bits of glass in it, she then brushed off as much dust and crud from her body as she possibly could.

“Well, well, what do have here?”

Starlight gasped and quickly turned around. Standing behind her were two guys wearing black and white stripped prison shirts, black beanie hats, and each armed with a red crowbar. The two guys had malicious grins on their faces and tightly clutched their crowbars, as if ready to deliver a serious beating to a helpless victim.

“Looks like we got ourselves a sissy in a dumpster, eh, Mugsy?” said the guy who had previously spoken, speaking with a gravelly gangster voice.

“You said it, Rocky!” responded the other guy, who spoke in a deeper dim-witted voice. “You think she’s got anything valuable on her?”

Starlight glanced down at the mirror in her hand, then held it close to her chest as she stuttered incoherently, struggling to think something to say.

“That looks like somethin’ good!” remarked Rocky before he suddenly swiped the mirror right out of Starlight’s hands.

“Hey!” protested Starlight as she tried to reach for the mirror, only to be shoved back as Rocky stuck his crowbar out at her.

“Uh-uh-uh!” taunted Rocky. “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, sissy!”

“Yeah, sissy!” added Mugsy as he also stuck his crowbar out at Starlight. “We got you cornered real good!”

Rocky chuckled as he looked at the backside of the mirror. “This thing’s gotta be worth a fortune!” he remarked excitedly. “All these jewels and the craftsmanship on this crystal, ya just don’t see fancy stuff like this very often!”

“Do you think we just scored big today?” asked Musgy, just as excited as his partner in crime.

“Sure looks like it!” replied Rocky. But as soon as he turned the mirror around to see the shattered glass, he immediately lost all of his enthusiasm. “Aw, man! The mirror’s busted! This thing’s probably already lost more than half its value!”

Starlight had listened carefully to the conversation between the two crooks, and now that she feared they might completely destroy the mirror for being “worthless”, she knew she had to do something.

“Which still makes it very valuable!” argued Starlight, completely improvising her response to the crooks on the fly. “I should know, because this mirror isn’t even mine.” Now she started to grin. “That’s right, fellow robbers! I stole this mirror!”

“Really?” asked Mugsy in confusion.

“Sure did!” replied Starlight proudly, keeping her act going. “And don’t dismiss it as worthless just because the reflecting surface is broken. That’s just a piece of glass that can easily be replaced. In fact, I was just on my way to replace the glass, so I could sell it at full value. Not one to brag, but I’m actually pretty good at forging objects that seem valuable and then tricking potential buyers into believing they’re getting the real deal.”

Rocky and Mugsy turned to each other and grinned again, then turned back to Starlight and lowered their crowbars.

“I guess you ain’t so bad, sissy!” remarked Rocky. “We could always use a little extra help.”

“So, uh, who’d you steal it from?” asked Mugsy.

“She stole it from me!”

Starlight and the two incompetent crooks immediately turned towards the street at the nearby end of the alleyway. Stomping across the street towards them was none other than the magically corrupted Juniper Montage. As she crossed the street, one car honked its horn and screeched its tires as it tried to stop, but before it could hit the tall minifig, she slammed her fist down on its hood, sending the vehicle flipping through the air over her head before it crashed to the street on the other side of her.

The three minifigs in the alleyway stared at the approaching magical monster for a moment, then Rocky suddenly shoved the mirror back into Starlight’s hands and began to run off. “You’re on yer own, sissy!” he called back with panic in his voice. “We don’t want nothin’ to do with any crazy magic!”

“Yeah, sissy!” added Mugsy, just as terrified as his partner in crime. “Bye-bye!” He gave a quick wave to Starlight, then ran off after Rocky.

Starlight watched the two robbers flee for their lives, glanced down at the magical mirror in her hands, then looked up just as Juniper stepped onto the sidewalk right in front of her.

“Give it back to me!” demanded Juniper.

“But my friends are trapped in here!” argued Starlight as she held the mirror close to her chest.

“Your friends stole my one chance at being famous!” spat Juniper. She then growled as she picked up a nearby parked car and easily lifted it over her head.

Starlight took a few nervous steps back, only to stop when her back bumped into the side of the dumpster. Quickly running low on options, she decided to take a rather risky gamble. She looked Juniper in the eyes and asked, “Is fame really what you’re after, or are you looking for something else?”

“Like what?!” asked Juniper dismissively as she held the car over her head.

“Like… a friend?” suggested Starlight as she tried to give a friendly smile.

Juniper raised an eyebrow and asked, “Who would wanna be my friend?”

“I would,” replied Starlight as she took a step forward.

“Why?” asked Juniper, her voice starting to express some doubt in herself.

“Because I understand you, Juniper,” explained Starlight. “You think getting revenge is going to make you feel better, but it’s not. Please, don’t make a mistake that you’ll end up regretting for the rest of your life.”

Juniper began to relax as she considered Starlight’s words. “I’ve already made too many mistakes,” admitted Juniper shamefully. “What I’ve done is… is… unforgivable!” As she cried out that final word, she slammed the car down on its front end beside her, causing its car alarm to go off.

“No, Juniper,” assured Starlight. “I know these girls will forgive you, but first—”

“Hold that thought,” Juniper interrupted as she held up her hand. She turned to the wrecked car — the loud warbling of its alarm still blaring nonstop — and gave it a single strong kick, sending the car flying down the street. When the wrecked vehicle crashed down further down the street, the alarm slowed and fell silent. Once that was done, she turned back to Starlight and asked, “You were saying?”

“I said,” continued Starlight, “I know these girls will forgive you, but first, you have to set them free!” She stepped forward and held the mirror out towards Juniper.

Juniper focused her gaze on the magical mirror. She hesitated for a moment before she reached over and gently took it from Starlight. She turned away and took a couple steps forward, but stopped and stared at the mirror she clutched with both hands. She had a guilty expression on her face as she turned back to Starlight.

Starlight didn’t say anything as she smiled and gave a single nod.

Juniper slowly held out her mirror as she hesitantly said, “I… I wish I could… make up for my mistakes!”

Inside the pocket dimension, the last remaining chunk of existence had crumbled away to such a small area that only one person could stand on it, so Applejack was forced to use the super strength from her magical geode to carry all six of her friends. As that final chunk began to fracture, the seven girls were suddenly pulled out of the pocket dimension and brought back into their home world.

The seven Equestria Girls collapsed into a pile on the pavement between Starlight Glimmer and Juniper Montage — who was now transformed back to her normal self, along with the hand mirror she held. The seven girls glanced around to see they were finally back home, and they all let out a collective sigh of relief.

“An’ not a moment too soon!” remarked Applejack as she and her friends helped each other up.

Starlight helped Sunset up to her feet. As soon as Sunset noticed her new friend standing before her, she immediately smiled and hugged her. “Starlight, you did it!” she exclaimed excitedly.

Starlight hugged back as she chuckled and remarked, “Yeah, I guess I did, didn’t I?”

Just seconds later, Sunset suddenly removed herself from Starlight and, struggling to keep her smile, asked, “Though, uh, no offence, but why do you smell worse than when we last saw each other?”

Starlight chuckled nervously and admitted, “I, uh, may have fallen into a dumpster at one point.” Before anyone could further question her, she removed the shoulder bag she had been carrying and handed it back to Sunset. “Here you go. Sorry I lost your grapple gun. I used it as part of a giant kite I built for a quick escape.”

“That’s okay,” assured Sunset with a smile as she slung the shoulder bag back over her shoulder. “I can always get another one. They’re actually pretty easy to come by in certain City Regions.”

Rarity turned to Starlight and asked, “Did you just say you built a giant kite?”

“Yeah,” replied Starlight. “I’ll admit, it was a super crazy idea to build a kite that could literally carry me away on the wind, but it actually worked!” She then glanced down and rubbed the back of her head as she added, “Well, for a little while at least.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and remarked, “With crazy ideas like that, I’d say you’ve got what it takes to be a Master Builder!”

Sunset placed a hand on Starlight’s shoulder and quipped, “Looks like those pointers I gave you earlier really paid off, didn’t they?”

“Definitely!” confirmed Starlight confidently. Her smiled fell as she gazed past Sunset and focused her attention on Juniper Montage.

The rest of the group followed Starlight’s gaze and stared silently at the girl who had caused all of their recent troubles.

Juniper saw the girls look at her. She glanced down the now ordinary hand mirror she held and watched as the final glass fragment slipped loose and shattered on the ground. She sighed, then tossed the ruined mirror over the girls and into the nearby dumpster. As she looked down in shame, she noticed she still had Fluttershy’s hairclip on her torso, so she removed it and held it out to the shy girl. “Here,” she muttered remorsefully. “I believe this is yours.”

“Thank you,” Fluttershy quietly responded as she took back her hairclip and stuck it back where it belonged on her hair piece.

Juniper sighed and muttered, “I am so sorry for everything I did to you.”

“It’s okay,” assured Sunset with a smile, “We’ve all been there.”

“Really?” asked Juniper skeptically.

Before anyone could answer, the sound of an approaching police siren caught everyone’s attention. They watched as a police cruiser arrived on the scene and pulled over to the side of the road. Once the car was parked, police officer Flash Sentry stepped out of the driver’s seat and walked over to the group. He glanced around at everyone in the area with a professional expression and stated, “All right, start talking, girls. I’m sure you can convince me to go easy on whoever was responsible for all of this.”

Starlight turned to Sunset with an uneasy grin and remarked, “So much for laying low, huh?”

Sunset smiled and said, “I’m sure even Princess Twilight would understand.”

Juniper turned to Flash and hesitantly asked, “Does this mean I have to go to jail?”

Flash replied, “If you’re truly sorry for what you did… then no.”

Juniper raised an eyebrow and incredulously asked, “Seriously?”

“You’re still going to face consequences for your actions,” explained Flash. “But I see no reason to send you to prison just because you made a stupid mistake. Just ask the girls who came before you.” He gestured towards the rest of the group.

Starlight Glimmer was the first to raise her hand as she flatly stated, “Manipulated an entire town into giving up their talents so they wouldn’t think they were special.”

Twilight Sparkle went next as she flatly stated, “Overpowered by a magic I couldn’t control and created a rift between two worlds, almost destroying both of them in the process.”

Sunset Shimmer finished by flatly stating, “Turned an entire city into my own personal zombie army in hopes of conquering a distant pony world.”

Juniper was in so much shock that the only movement she made was blinking her eyes just once.

“Wow!” remarked Pinkie Pie. “We are a really forgiving group!”

All ten minifigs couldn’t help but laugh at that remark. Their joy was soon interrupted by a brief flash of light. Everyone turned to see that Photo Finish had suddenly arrived and was still taking pictures with her camera.

Starlight stepped forward and called out, “Whoa! The threat’s over! I don’t need your diversion anymore!”

Photo Finish stopped snapping pictures and firmly stated. “Fine. I go!” She quickly turned away and ran off.

Everyone turned to look at Starlight, who simply shrugged and remarked, “What can I say? I had to get really creative with some of my ideas.”

Once again, the ten minifigs in the area couldn’t help but laugh together.

Author's Note

Of all the chapters in this story, this was the one I was most excited to write. In fact, I've been planning this part ever since I first saw the Mirror Magic special, about a year ago, so I'm very glad that I can now finally share it with all of you. As with all my previous stories, I had lots of ideas on how to not only extend the final battle, but also incorporate to use of building Lego models to help the heroes. Additionally, the part where Starlight slams into that billboard was inspired by a certain moment in the game Lego City Undercover (not to mention, it provided an excellent opportunity to reference Starlight's obsession with kites). And of course, I just couldn't resist giving the incompetent crooks Rocky and Mugsy an obligatory cameo appearance in this story. Well, just the epilogue left to go, and as with the previous stories, expect to see it in just one week instead of two.

Epilogue

Epilogue

Later that afternoon, the Equestria Girls — Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle — were gathered in City Park near the site of the interdimensional portal to Equestria. Joining them were their new friend from Equestria, Starlight Glimmer, and even their most recent adversary, Juniper Montage.

Juniper lowered her head as she sighed sadly and muttered, “Four months of community service…” She looked up at the surrounding older girls and slightly smiled as she added, “I suppose it could’ve been much worse.”

“Trust me, Juniper,” assured Sunset, “you don’t deserve a worse punishment because you recognized that what you did was wrong and you actually felt sorry for your actions.”

“How can you be so sure?” asked Juniper skeptically. “Didn’t you end up spending some time in jail?”

“Six months in LEGO Maximum Security Prison,” admitted Sunset shamefully as she rubbed the back of her head. “I prefer to think that it’s because I was simply the very first case of being a truly reformed villain. My original sentence was supposed to be for five years at that place, but I was let out early when I was able to prove to everyone that, yes, a former villain really can be reformed and go on to do good things.”

“Believe me, darling,” added Rarity as she turned her attention to Juniper, “there have since been quite a few examples of people who avoided a prison sentence due to expressing remorse in the aftermath of their heinous misdeeds. For example, the most recent adversary we faced prior to you, Juniper, was Gloriosa Daisy — a fellow member of the LEGO Team and the owner of Camp Everfree. Although she later apologized for what she did, she still made some rather poor choices, so she was given a one-year suspension from the LEGO Team.”

“And of course,” added Twilight, “when the Shadowbolts were disbanded, all former agents — myself included — were cleared of all potential charges, and all they had to do to earn it was to simply submit a full confessional of all the crimes they had committed while serving within that organization.”

Juniper raised an eyebrow and asked, “So they were all just allowed to get away with everything they’ve done? Why would the authorities do such a thing?”

“It was done to discourage any former agents from tryin’ to seek vengeance,” explained Applejack. “Their old leader, Abacus Cinch, not only wanted revenge at all costs, but even after she was beaten, she still refused to believe she had ever done anythin’ wrong. That’s why she’s the only one who ended up goin’ to jail after that incident.”

“And then there’s the Dazzlings,” added Rainbow Dash. “Not only did they obviously try to take over the whole Lego World, but they also tried to keep on fighting, even after they lost their magical powers. They sure weren’t sorry for what they did, so now they’re spending the rest of their rotten lives in jail.”

“So you see, Juniper?” added Fluttershy. “The key difference between a mild punishment and a long time in prison is to simply acknowledge that you did something terrible and to promise that you won’t do such awful things ever again.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing I am sorry for what I did to you girls,” remarked Juniper with a smile, though also with a tone of sadness. She turned her gaze down at her feet as she sadly muttered, “I just wish I could’ve learned my lesson before I turned into a giant magical monster.”

“Who wouldn’t?” quipped Pinkie Pie.

The nine girls in the area couldn’t help but giggle at that remark.

As the laughter calmed down, Starlight sighed and said, “I’m so sad that I have to leave soon. I haven’t really had the chance to get to know all of you.”

Sunset suddenly felt her shoulder bag vibrating, so she pulled out her new magic journal, which was vibrating and glowing, and spoke up, “Oh, look! Princess Twilight wrote back!”

Shortly after the incident with Juniper Montage had been dealt with, Sunset had written a message to Princess Twilight explaining that Starlight Glimmer was visiting the Lego World and what she had accomplished.

“What did she say?” asked Starlight, both excited and nervous, as she and the other girls gathered around to hear the message.

Sunset opened the journal to the page with the new message and read aloud, “Dear Sunset Shimmer, some lessons are better learned in action, and you girls are great teachers. Starlight should stay for a few more days. Enjoy tonight’s movie premiere! Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

All the girls in the area immediately cheered at the wonderful news regarding Starlight’s stay in the Lego World.

“Hooray!” cheered Pinkie Pie with a leap of excitement. “You’ve now got more time to get to know all of us! This is so exciting!”

“I’ll say!” agreed Rainbow Dash excitedly. “I could show you some awesome things about the Space Region, like how to fly spaceships and shoot laser pistols!”

“Better leave the firearms training to someone more responsible, like mahself,” argued Applejack. She then smiled and conceded, “Though Ah’ll let ya have the spaceship trainin’, seein’ as that’s more your specialty.”

Rarity suddenly gasped excitedly and remarked, “I could design a whole series of outfits just for you, to complement all the themed outfits I’ve already made for the rest of the team.”

“If you’re interested, I could even show you around my pet shop,” added Fluttershy with a smile.

“And I’m sure you’ll find some of my inventions to be quite fascinating,” added Twilight.

“Wow, that all sounds very exciting,” remarked Starlight contently. “I’ll definitely look forward to spending some time with each of you doing all those things.” She then glanced over at Juniper, who had stayed back and was looking away shamefully, and asked, “What about you, Juniper?”

“I wish I could hang out with you,” replied Juniper, “but I’m afraid I can’t. My community service work begins tomorrow, and I’ll be busy cleaning up some of the damages from our big fight.”

“Maybe I could help out?” offered Starlight. “I did break a few things for many of my builds, so I guess I should be partially responsible for that mess.”

“Really?!” asked Juniper in astonishment. “You’d do that for me?”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” replied Starlight.

Juniper smiled and tears started forming in her eyes as she said, “Thank you… thank you so much.”

Starlight returned the smile, then turned to Sunset and slyly asked, “So… think you can focus on the positives?”

Sunset shrugged and replied, “Whatever happens is gonna happen. I’ve just gotta live in the moment, right?” She finished her remark by lightly punching Starlight on the shoulder.

“Right!” confirmed Starlight. She then grinned and returned the gesture of lightly punching Sunset on the shoulder.

With that exchange, the group of girls couldn’t help but laugh together. After the horrific events earlier that day, they were all glad that everything worked out in the end, and new friendships were made. And now that Starlight Glimmer had been given permission to stay in the Lego World for a few days, she and her new friends were definitely looking forward to get to know each other through all kinds of fascinating activities.

Author's Note

And that brings an end to yet another story in this series. But as hinted in this chapter, I will next be writing a group of short stories featuring Starlight Glimmer spending time with each of the seven Equestria Girls, so expect to see that in a few months. And for those of you who are wondering what else is next for this series, I'll post a blog about it next week.

Prologue

LEGO Equestria Girls 5

Prologue

It was early afternoon in Canterlot City. With only a few clouds in the sky and with a rather warm temperature, it was a nice day for outdoor activities.

Sunset Shimmer and most of her friends were gathered at a parking lot and had brought with them sponges, buckets of soapy water, a garden hose connected to a nearby water spigot, and — courtesy of Rarity — a brick-built oversized hair dryer. Sitting in front of them was their next objective — a dirty pickup truck owned by Big Macintosh.

Sunset — without her jacket due to today’s weather and activity — and Applejack smiled and nodded to each other, then they each quickly grabbed a large sponge, soaked it into a bucket of soapy water, and began swiftly scrubbing all over the truck.

“To the right! To the right!” sang Pinkie Pie as she waved around a pair of rags in her hands while her friends continued scrubbing. “To the left! To the left! Now up! Now up! Bring it down! Spin it around! Wash that car like you mean it! Come on!”

By the time Pinkie finished her little cheer, the truck was completely covered in suds. As Fluttershy raised the nozzle of the hose, Sunset and Applejack ran back towards the others and dropped their sponges back into the buckets. Fluttershy opened the nozzle with a wide spray setting, allowing her to quickly rinse off the entire truck.

Once all of the soap was rinsed off, Fluttershy shut off the hose and Rarity set up her custom-built giant hair dryer on a stand in front of the truck. When it was properly secured, Rarity switched it on, unleashing a gust of air that not only quickly dried the truck but also caused it to slowly roll backwards a short distance.

Rarity shut off the giant hair dryer after a few seconds and then began to dismantle the stand. Meanwhile, Pinkie rushed over to the truck and used her rags to wipe away any remaining damp spots on the truck. Once she was satisfied that the entire truck was now sparkling clean, she grinned and waved at the others.

With a smile of satisfaction, Big Mac pulled out his wallet and handed a few dollars over to Rainbow Dash standing beside him.

Rainbow grabbed the dollars — 1x2 green tiles with white detailing and the number 1 printed on top — and said, “Thanks, Big Mac.”

Big Mac nodded in approval, then walked over to his truck, hopped inside, started up the engine, and then drove off.

As her friends gathered around, Rainbow excitedly exclaimed, “Sweet! More cash to add to the stash!”

“Woohoo!” cheered Pinkie Pie with a jump of excitement.

Rarity wiped her brow as she sighed and suggested, “How about a little break? All of this sunshine and suds are doing a number on my hair.”

The rest of the group said various words of agreement as they began to walk over to a cooler where Spike was sitting.

Noticing that the girls were coming over, Spike set down the comic book he was reading, then opened the cooler and passed out bottles of orange soda to everyone.

After everyone had taken at least one sip of their soda, Rainbow Dash asked, “Hey, anybody seen Twilight lately?”

“I’m here!” Twilight called out as she ran over to the rest of the group while carrying a small box in her arms. “I was just going over the numbers again,” she explained as she stopped in front of them and adjusted her glasses.

“Have we raised enough to pay off Camp Everfree’s debts?” asked Sunset.

“I counted the money four times just to be sure, and I’ve got good news and bad news,” replied Twilight. “The good news is, after taking into account today’s revenue…” She reached into Rainbow Dash’s jacket pocket, pulled out all the dollars they had earned today, and tossed them into the box in her arms. “We now have just barely enough to afford the upcoming minimum payment due next week to prevent the property from being repossessed.”

The rest of the group cheered.

“The bad news,” continued Twilight, “is that we’re still far short of paying off all the other debts we promised to cover.”

The rest of the group moaned in disappointment.

“It’s all right,” assured Applejack. “We can just wash more cars. There’s gotta be some we missed.”

Everyone looked out across the parking lot, but were crestfallen to see that it was now completely empty with nothing but a rolling tumbleweed to be found across the entire area.

“I, uh, think we’re gonna have to come up with a new plan,” noted Sunset.

“But what else can we do? We’re running out of ideas!” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “Pinkie Pie held multiple bake sales, Twilight and Fluttershy had that doggy day care, Spike and AJ have been mowing lawns, Sunset and I planned this car wash…”

“Not to worry, darlings,” Rarity suddenly spoke up. “It’s my turn to devise a plan, and I already have something amazing in mind. It will be the most profitable of all of our fundraising events — the pièce de résistance!”

“Hee-yoo! Now we’re talkin’!” cheered Applejack. “What’s your idea?”

“Meet me in my shop later this afternoon and I will explain everything,” replied Rarity.

The other girls all said various words of excitement and agreement as they all picked up their car wash supplies and walked away.

Rarity smiled and waved at her friends as they departed. But as soon as they had moved out of sight, she slumped and her smile fell.

Spike had remained standing behind Rarity and, upon seeing her gestures, snidely remarked, “You’ve got nothing, huh?”

Rarity gasped as she quickly spun around and fearfully exclaimed, “How did you know?!”

“It wasn’t really that difficult to figure out,” replied Spike.

“Am I really that obvious?” asked Rarity in a saddened tone.

The young boy shrugged and remarked, “Well, I did once read the Complete Encyclopedia of Tropes, so, uh… I’m kind of an expert at seeing these things anywhere.” As he began to walk away, he dismissively added, “Eh, I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

Once Rarity was left completely alone in the parking lot, she let out a groan of disappointment.

Author's Note

With the way I've got this story planned out, it will definitely be shorter than the previous main stories, both in word count and in number of chapters. Even so, I'm sure everyone who enjoyed the previous stories will like this one too (especially once I eventually get to the part where Starlight Glimmer is brought in). And as usual, please be sure to point out any issues or errors I might have missed so I can correct them immediately.

Entering the Contest

Chapter 1
Entering the Contest

A few hours later, Rarity was walking along the street in Sunshine Plaza, Canterlot City’s entertainment district. Unlike most streets in the city, the portion of Celestia Avenue that went through the plaza had a surface consisting of 2x4 tiles that were of the color officially known as “brick red” and were arranged in such a way that resembled the side of a brick wall. This portion of the street was also largely intended for pedestrian traffic, so there were very few vehicles parked along the side of the road. As for the buildings along this street, there were cinemas, arcades, concert halls, and various shops that sold all kinds of things.

Rarity stopped walking and pulled out her phone to check the time. “Oh, rats,” she pouted as she put away her phone and resumed walking. “Three hours and still no ideas for a lucrative last-minute fundraiser. Usually, window-shopping inspires me.”

“Are you a musician?”

“Hmm?” mumbled Rarity as she glanced over to her left and saw that the question came from an advertisement that was playing on a television screen mounted on the front wall of an electronics shop.

“Do you and your friends love to dance?” continued the ad.

“Yes?” responded Rarity with uncertainty.

“Are you unique, cool, stylish?” continued the ad.

“Yes, yes, yes, and… obviously,” responded Rarity with a smile and much more confidence.

“Do you want to win a cash prize?” continued the ad.

“Yes!” exclaimed Rarity with sudden excitement.

“Then enter the Canterlot City’s Chance to Prance Competition!” continued the ad. “All you need is a music video of your own original song and dance, then you could be prancing your way to first prize! Sign up now at the booth near the Aunt Orange smoothie kiosk.”

Rarity turned forward to look further down the street and soon found the kiosk in question. She started running towards it, but suddenly stopped as she passed by the very next store on her left when something in the display window caught her eye. It was a spectacular red dress — in the shape of an armless torso atop a 2x2x2 slopped brick — covered in sequins that made it shimmer in the daylight. As she continued to stare at the dress, her smile widened and she was struck with a flash of inspiration. “Oh, we’re certain to win!” she declared before turning away and resuming her run towards the sign-up booth for the contest.

Once Rarity arrived at the booth, she grabbed one of the sign-up tickets, picked up one of the available pens, and began filling out the ticket. As she finished filling out the ticket, she was unaware of a certain group of girls arriving right behind her — four of the former Shadowbolt agents who used to be teammates with Twilight.

“Rarity!” greeted Sour Sweet pleasantly, catching Rarity’s attention as she and the others walked over to her. “What a nice surprise!” Her head then suddenly spun around to expose her sour face, who then grumbled under her breath, “Not.”

“Sour Sweet! Sunny Flare!” greeted Rarity with a smile. “Why, it’s been ages.”

“It’s been only a few months since the Shadowbolts were disbanded,” Sugarcoat pointed out.

“Is that all? Wow!” remarked Rarity with a giggle. “Anyway, how have you girls been?”

“Oh, things for us have never been better,” replied Sunny Flare with a pleasant smile. “After we traveled around for a few weeks, Princess Cadance was kind enough to let us stay with her in the Crystal Castle.”

“She’s been giving us tasks to help out in few places,” continued Lemon Zest. “She says that if we do good enough, she might even let us officially join the LEGO Team, just like you and your friends!”

“That is wonderful news, indeed!” agreed Rarity in excitement. “I’m sure my friends and I would look forward to the possibility of us working together again. Not to mention, I am quite pleased to see your new wardrobes are reflecting your individuality, rather than the conformity of your Shadowbolt days.”

Unlike back when they were Shadowbolt agents, the girls were no longer wearing the exact same outfits. Sour Sweet had pale green on her torso with some skin showing along the shoulders and neck, light blue around her feet, and had an orange skirt wrapped around her upper legs with a symbol — a purple heart within the outline of a blue heart and the outline of a light blue diamond in front of it all — printed on the left side. Sunny Flare had magenta on her torso and upper arms, purple on her lower legs, silver bands on her wrists, and had a dark blue skirt with a symbol — a purple sun with pink rays that was partially obscured by a cloud with raindrops — printed on the right side. Sugarcoat had beige on her torso and arms, dark blue on her legs, light grey around her feet, and printed on the front of her torso was a line of buttons and a symbol — a stick of dynamite with purple and yellow stripes — on the left chest area. Lemon Zest, in addition to those pink headphones she still wore, had dark grey on her torso and upper arms, dark purple on her lower legs, a pale yellow skirt wrapped around her upper legs, and printed on the front of her torso detailing of an open jacket over a bright green shirt with a symbol — a slice of lemon surrounded by three yellow fireworks bursts — in the middle.

“By the way, I can’t help but notice that one of you is missing,” added Rarity as her smile fell while she glanced back and forth between the four girls. “Where is Indigo Zap?”

The expressions on all four girls fell at that question. “Ah, yes, quite unfortunate what happened to her,” replied Sunny Flare as she rubbed the back of her head. “You see, during one of our recent excursions, she contracted a particularly nasty virus.”

“The doctors assured us that she would make a full recovery after the treatment they gave her,” explained Sugarcoat, “but they had to place her under extreme quarantine for the next few weeks.”

“Trust me, you do not wanna know what kind of awful symptoms she’s had to suffer through,” Lemon Zest firmly added. She then shuddered and muttered under her breath, “Some things can never be unseen…”

“Oh,” said Rarity with concern. “Well, in that case, I sincerely hope she recovers soon.”

“I’m sure she will,” assured Sour Sweet with her sweet face. “She’s recovering over at Canterlot Hospital under the care of some of the best doctors they have.” She then switched to her sour face and continued, “That’s kinda why we’re in town, in case you were wondering.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s makes sense,” acknowledged Rarity with a nod. “So what brings you to this part of the city? Are you interested in entering the Chance to Prance contest?”

“We definitely aren’t here because we like standing in lines,” Sugarcoat flatly stated.

“Are you signing up for the Chance to Prance contest, too?” asked Lemon Zest.

“I am!” replied Rarity with a giggle as she dropped her completed sign-up ticket into the entry box.

“I assume you already have a video concept figured out,” remarked Sour Sweet’s sweet face. “The competition is going to be pretty fierce.”

“Yes,” confirmed Rarity. “It came to me as soon as I saw that gorgeous red ruffled ensemble on the way over here.”

Sour Sweet glanced back at her companions and gave them a sly smile. After the three other girls quickly returned the expression, she turned back to Rarity and said, “Tell me more.”

Rarity proudly flicked her hair as she responded, “Well, each member of the Rainbooms — that’s the name of our band, by the way — is going to dance in a different style — like flamenco, hip-hop, or street ballet — and we’ll wear costumes to match each genre. Designed by yours truly, of course.” She couldn’t suppress a proud giggle at that last remark.

While the other girls stared at Rarity, Sugarcoat simply stated, “That sounds like a very good concept.”

Sour Sweet glanced over to the side for a moment, then turned her gaze back towards Rarity and remarked, “Yeah, I guess it’s okay.” Her head spun around to her sour face and added, “If you’re going for way too over-the-top.”

“Thanks!” said Rarity with a smile. “So, what’s your concept?”

“Nothing,” Sugarcoat immediately replied. “We don’t have one yet.”

Sour Sweet quickly responded by smacking the back of her hand against Sugarcoat’s face, who yelped in pain and caught her small red-framed glasses as they fell off.

“What she means is…” growled Sour Sweet’s sour face, then she switched to her sweet face and continued, “It’s a surprise! But it’s amazing. So original.”

“Oh, well, I can’t wait to see it,” remarked Rarity. She pulled out her phone and checked the time, then quickly put it away again as she said, “Oh my, look at the time! I’d better get going.” As she turned and began walking away, she called back, “Good luck!”

“You, too!” responded Sour Sweet, who couldn’t resist a sinister smile.

Once Sugarcoat had placed her glasses properly back on her face, she bitterly remarked, “Y’know, you don’t always have to resort to physical violence to shut me up.”

Sour Sweet switched to her sour face and grumbled, “Shut up, shutting up.”

Sunny Flare rolled her eyes and walked over to the booth as she muttered, “While you two are busy arguing, I’m going to fill out our sign-up ticket.”

By the time Rarity had arrived at her shop, she was pleased to see all of her friends were already there. Since many of them mentioned they had been waiting for some time, she wasted no time explaining her idea to them, and she had made it no secret how excited she was to make it a reality.

“See? It’s a wonderful plan,” finished Rarity. “We’ll write some lyrics for our new song and we’ll choreograph some dance moves, then our video will win the cash prize and voilà!”

“You make it sound as simple as pie,” said Applejack skeptically.

“That’s because it is!” remarked Rarity gleefully. “The former Shadowbolts we once teamed up with even agree. They’re making a video, too.”

“They are?” asked Twilight in sudden surprise.

Seeing the look of shock on Twilight’s face, Rarity asked with concern, “Is that a problem, darling?”

“Oh, no, it’s not,” assured Twilight somewhat uneasily. “Just haven’t heard much about them or any other former agents since the Shadowbolts were disbanded.”

“Not like we ever had much reason to keep track of them,” remarked Spike. “We were never as close to any of them as we are with you girls.”

Fluttershy helped to prove Spike’s point by giving him a hug, to which the young boy responded with a rather affectionate chuckle.

Rarity stared at the two with a slight smile, then spoke up to everyone, “Okay, before we get started with the choreographing of our dance moves and…” she mumbled random nonsense as she waved her hands around a little, then nervously continued, “there’s just one tiny, teeny-weensey, little thing I forgot to mention.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s that?”

“Uhhh…” mumbled Rarity nervously as she held her clenched fists close to her chest. She then closed her eyes and quickly responded, “I would need to use our fundraiser money to buy costume materials for the video!” She then opened one eye, anxious for how her friends would react.

Nobody in the room said anything for a moment as they considered Rarity’s request. “Hmm…” mumbled Sunset as she stared at the floor. She then turned her gaze back to Rarity and asked, “How much is the grand prize worth?”

“More than double what we need to completely pay off all of Camp Everfree’s debts!” answered Rarity with a smile.

Rainbow Dash immediately stepped forward and excitedly exclaimed, “Then of course you can use the money for costumes!”

Applejack sighed, then shrugged and smiled as she said, “Oh, what the hay? Why not?”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash both cheered in agreement as most of the girls in the room gathered around Rarity.

Twilight was carrying the box containing the money in question as she explained, “So far, we only have enough to afford the upcoming minimum payment, and if the cash prize really is as much as you say it is, then if we lend you this money and win the contest, we won’t have to worry about making any further payments for Camp Everfree.”

Everyone cheered excitedly.

“But if we lose the video contest,” Twilight continued more cautiously, “We’ll be right back at square one with no way to afford the upcoming payment next week. Anyone else think this is an awfully risky endeavor?” She glanced around the room and saw the worried looks on everyone’s faces. “Y-yeah, me neither!” she quickly added with a nervous chuckle. “You know what they say. No guts, no glory.”

“Twilight’s right,” agreed Sunset. “Barely affording minimum payments is what got Camp Everfree into this mess, and we all saw how that turned out for everyone involved. If we wanna avoid falling into the same trap, then we might as well take the risk and go big.”

“Then I suppose we are all in agreement,” said Rarity. “Who’s ready to shoot our winning dance music video?”

Everyone in the room cheered excitedly once more as Twilight handed the box over to Rarity.

Rarity giggled excitedly and remarked, “Looks like I have some fabric shopping to do!”

The next day, once Rarity had acquired all of the fabric she needed, she and her friends agreed that they would film their music video inside the abandoned warehouse near the edge of town, where Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had occasionally trained themselves for any potential obstacles during LEGO Team missions. It was a relatively clear and open space, providing plenty of room for whatever scenes they would need to film.

Preparations for the music video were well and truly a team effort. Rarity had provided a few sketches of how she envisioned what the stage and backdrop would be like, so Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash gathered as many Lego bricks and parts as they could and assembled them in a way that closely resembled Rarity’s sketches. Sunset and Pinkie went across town to request some additional assistance. Photo Finish, a professional photographer, agreed to operate the video camera, and DJ Pon-3, who worked at the local radio broadcasting studio, agreed to assist with the music. Fluttershy had come up with an idea for the song they would use for the video, and although she was still working on the lyrics by the time everyone else had completed their respective tasks, the melody was largely complete, allowing them to record an instrumental version that they would practice their dance moves with. Finally, while everyone else completed their tasks, Rarity worked on the costumes that they would all wear for the video.

Sunset’s costume consisted of yellow on her lower torso and the lower half of her skirt, red on her upper torso and the upper half of her skirt, black on her shoulders and around her waist, gold on her lower arms and feet, and a magenta flower in her hair, which was tied back. Twilight’s costume consisted of yellow on her feet, upper arms, and torso with the exception of her left shoulder, a pink skirt around her upper legs, a magenta six-pointed star on the front of the waist, and glasses with pink tinted lenses. Fluttershy’s costume consisted of dark purple on the upper torso, light green on her lower legs, dark blue on her upper legs and lower torso, a dark grey skirt around her upper legs, and a green butterfly with pink wings in her hair. Rainbow Dash’s costume consisted of dark blue on her torso and arms, magenta on her legs and the cap worn backwards on her head, medium blue on her feet and the front of her torso under an open jacket, and a band of rainbow around her upper arms. Applejack’s costume consisted of black on her torso, white on her upper arms and the front of her torso under an open vest, a blue skirt around her upper legs, and medium brown on her lower legs and the western hat on her head. Pinkie Pie’s costume consisted of yellow on the front of her torso and the skirt around her upper legs, light purple on her shoulders and the back of her torso, light blue on her legs, magenta on her feet, bands of many different colors on her wrists, and her Creative Mark printed on the front of her skirt. Rarity’s costume consisted of light blue on her torso and the skirt around her upper legs, yellow on her feet, the front of her torso, and around her waist, pale yellow on the front of her skirt with purple stars, and gold on her wrists and the headband over her hair.

A makeshift changing room had been set up in one of the old supply closets of the warehouse, so everyone was able to the change into their costumes and be ready for their music video. Since they were doing only a rehearsal first, Rarity chose not to wear her costume so she wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally ruining it while she was busy guiding her friends through their choreography.

Once Rarity was sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do, she sat down in a chair facing the main stage — which largely consisted of a raised platform with a rainbow backdrop and faux classical pillars along the sides. To her left, Spike was once again sitting on a cooler while he read one of his comic books.

“Let’s take it from the top one more time,” Rarity called out to her friends gathered on the sides of the stage. “Rainbow Dash, don’t forget your cue. It’s when Fluttershy does her triple pirouette, okay?” She glanced over at Photo Finish to her right, who switched on the video camera and nodded to her, then glanced over at DJ Pon-3 in the makeshift DJ booth, who placed a record on the turntable and nodded to her.

With everything all set to go, Rarity raised her arm and called out, “And… action!”

As soon as the music started playing, Sunset started off by walking onto the stage. As she started tapping her feet around, Fluttershy leaped onto the stage and attempted to spin around, but she had ended up so close to Sunset that her outstretched leg hit Sunset in the back. Sunset stumbled forward, but managed to stay on her feet, so she awkwardly took a step back to make sure she was out of Fluttershy’s way.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had frozen on the spot after accidentally kicking Sunset, but once she noticed that Sunset had put a little distance between them, she made another attempt at her pirouette. She was so careful to avoid another mistake that it took her a few seconds to spin just once, at which point Rainbow Dash swiftly slid onto the stage and began her part of the dance.

“Cut!” Rarity suddenly shouted furiously.

The music immediately stopped and the three girls turned to Rarity with confused expressions. “Hey! What happened to the music?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Despite her visible frustration, Rarity took a moment to calm herself down before she got up and walked over to the stage as she explained, “Fluttershy, it’s supposed to be a triple pirouette.”

“I know,” acknowledged Fluttershy quietly. “It’s just that… um… uh, I-I don’t think I can do one of those.”

“Darling, of course you can, darling,” assured Rarity as she adjusted Fluttershy’s hair and gave her a hug. “I believe in you.”

Spike set down his comic book and suggested, “How about you try ‘jazz claws’ instead?” He rotated his claw hands back and forth rapidly to demonstrate.

Sunset chuckled as she adjusted the flower in her hair and responded, “Thanks, Spike, but all these moves are pretty hard.”

“Oh, I know,” admitted Rarity. She then confidently added, “But if we want to win, we have to bring our A-game!”

“The former Shadowbolts certainly will,” noted Twilight. “They’ve been conditioned to achieve victory by any means. Not to mention, their athletic training will almost certainly make them excellent dancers.”

Applejack walked over to Rarity and suggested, “How ‘bout we forget the other teams an’ get back to dancin’?”

“Great idea, Applejack!” agreed Pinkie Pie. Everyone glanced over and saw she was apparently moonwalking in place while beatboxing. “It’s really fun!” She beatboxed a few more notes before she added, “I haven’t stopped this whole time!”

Rarity facepalmed, then walked off the stage as she said, “Let’s take it from Rainbow’s entrance.”

The girls onstage glanced at each other with uncertain looks, then moved back into their positions. Sunset and Fluttershy stood on the stage with a fair distance between them, while Rainbow Dash was ready to slide onto the stage.

Rarity sat back down in her chair and let out a heavy sigh. She glanced over at Photo Finish and DJ Pon-3 and, once they silently acknowledged they were ready again, she raised her arm and called out, “And… action!”

Rainbow Dash immediately slid onto the stage and started dancing in her specific style, while Fluttershy and Sunset continued dancing in their respective styles. However, they were so poorly coordinated that once again two of them got a little too close. This time, Sunset brought her leg up and failed to notice how close it got to Rainbow Dash, who was just as oblivious to their proximity, and Sunset’s foot ended up tearing a huge hole in Rainbow’s jacket.

Rarity immediately gasped in shock and jumped onto the stage. She closely inspected the damage to Rainbow’s outfit and gasped again. “This is a disaster!” she shouted in devastation.

“Whoops. Sorry, Rarity,” apologized Sunset as she slowly backed away.

Rarity continued staring at the damaged piece of clothing as she muttered, “Well, I can fix it, but I’ll have to run to the fabric store before it closes.” She swiftly removed the jacket — leaving Rainbow with medium blue on her entire torso and her arms bare — and then ran off as she exclaimed, “Keep practicing while I’m gone!”

As Rarity rushed out of the building, Applejack sighed and grumbled, “If this doesn’t pan out, we might as well try robbin’ a bank as the only sure-fire way to pay off those debts.”

“I’m sure it won’t come to that,” assured Sunset. “We just need to keep practicing like Rarity said.” She briefly hesitated before she added, “Though maybe we should all try to keep our distance from each other to avoid any more accidents.”

Everyone nodded and mumbled in agreement.

Over at Sunshine Plaza, it wasn’t long before Rarity rushed out of the fabric shop with a shopping bag in hand. “Oh, thank goodness I budgeted for backup fabric,” she remarked with a smile.

However, Rarity’s relief was short-lived when she heard some music not far up ahead. She looked towards a fountain in the middle of the street and saw the four former Shadowbolt girls she had encountered the previous day were dancing in front of the fountain with a video camera recording them.

The four girls were also wearing new costumes. Sour Sweet had pink on her lower torso, turquoise on her lower arms, sparkling light blue on the lower half of her skirt, and gold on her upper torso, feet, and the upper half of her skirt. Sunny Flare had magenta on her torso and sparkling light purple on her lower legs and the skirt around her upper legs. Sugarcoat had dark grey on her torso, white on her lower legs, bright red on her feet, sparkling pale red on her upper legs and the front of her torso under an open vest, and a violet skirt around her upper legs. Lemon Zest had magenta on her torso and shoulders, dark purple on her lower legs, sparkling purple on her upper legs, and a skirt that was yellow on the left half and pale violet on the right half.

Most astonishingly of all was that the four girls were dancing in distinctly different styles, much like the costumes they were wearing.

Rarity gasped and mumbled, “Is that a disco-inspired look? And a street ballet tutu?!” As she turned around and slowly walked away, she muttered in shock, “I don’t believe it… They stole my brilliant idea!”

Author's Note

Even though I'm largely following the events of the three specials from last year, I'm including as much original content as I can. For example, I decided to actually provide a reason for why Indigo Zap was not among the rest of the Shadowbolts group. In addition, since these girls are no longer Shadowbolt agents, I wanted to give then unique outfits, and since there's none seen in canon and I didn't want to use someone else's fanart, I had to come up with my own (I'm not even sure if the symbols on their outfits are their true Cutie/Creative Marks, since I only had the MLP Wikia to use for reference on that particular detail). And of course, with this being Lego, I just had to include some additional funny moments here and there.