LEGO Equestria Girls 8

Chapters

Prologue
The Rainbow Menace
Rising Tensions
Rescue Mission
Pony Style
Heroes at Sea
The Backdoor to Equestria
Epilogue

Prologue

Prologue

The end of the summer season was now only a few weeks away. Across the City Regions of the Lego World, friends and families made the most of what little time they had left to enjoy some time off together before cooler weather would arrive and children would have to go back to school. One option for a relaxing vacation was to ride on a luxury cruise ship, and it was in city of Baltimare where most of the more popular cruise lines set off from to begin their voyages across the vast ocean.

It was for that reason that the Equestria Girls of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team were now walking along the harbor of Baltimare with their rolling luggage in tow. After taking an overnight train ride from Canterlot City, they took the earliest shuttle bus to the docks to ensure they would arrive with plenty of time to spare before their luxury yacht was due to depart at noon. As they walked, they all shared some small talk relating to the relaxing voyage they would soon embark on.

“I’ve gotta hand it to you, Twilight,” remarked Sunset with a smile on her face, “even when it comes to planning a vacation on a cruise ship, you really know how to do your research.”

“What can I say?” quipped Twilight with a shrug. “It’s like a natural talent for me.”

“We can’t all be experts at everythin’, that’s for sure,” noted Applejack. “It’s nice that we can count on ya to plan out a vacation like this for all of us.”

“Indeed,” agreed Rarity. “I am most certainly looking forward to not only being able to relax out in a balmy maritime atmosphere, but also the opportunity to purchase a few souvenirs from the gift shop that will almost certainly be on board.”

“I think it’s a lovely idea for a vacation,” said Fluttershy contently. “Thank you very much for arranging this for us, Twilight.”

Pinkie Pie squealed and cheerfully exclaimed, “I’m so excited! I can’t wait to get this cruise going!”

“You said it, Pinkie,” agreed Rainbow Dash. “This is gonna be awesome!”

“Well, here we are, girls,” Twilight spoke up as she stopped walking at one particular dock. “Pier Nineteen.” She smiled as she then gestured to the luxury yacht docked at that pier. “And there it is… the Luxe Deluxe!”

“Of course there has to be a joke in the name,” muttered Spike as he followed closely behind the group of girls while hauling some of the heavier bags on a small cart for them.

Docked at that pier was a large luxury yacht. It was very long, but had only three floors between the main deck and the waterline. The central structure that was another two floors above the deck was surrounded by large windows, while the lower floors had portholes along the hull of the ship. The forward deck was mostly a large empty space with a performance stage near the front that was shaped like an open clamshell. The back of the ship consisted of two lower decks below the main deck, with the middle one the site of an outdoor lounge and the lower one consisting mostly of a large swimming pool. The outside of the hull was mostly white with a magenta wavy stripe along the sides and a bit of green and yellow close to the waterline. And of course, there were a total of a dozen lifeboats — enough for the over one hundred passengers and crew expected to be aboard this ship — that were orange inflatable rafts with a small motor on the back.

Applejack let out a long whistle. “Wow, Twilight…” She turned to the intelligent lavender girl and asked, “You sure you can afford somethin’ like this for all of us?”

“I’ve been smart enough to patent a lot of my inventions,” Twilight pointed out with a hint of pride in her voice. “With the income I’ve been earning from all those royalties lately, I’ll practically become a millionaire in only a matter of months.”

Everyone turned to Twilight with various looks of surprise on their faces, while Twilight responded with only a slight smirk.

After taking a second to get over the shock of that bit of news, Rarity smiled and remarked, “I suppose that if you must splurge a substantial wealth on something, it might as well be on something that all of us can enjoy. And I must say, a luxury cruise such as this shall be well worth the expense.”

“If you’re really sure about spending that kind of money, Twilight, then I think it’s good that you’re using it to provide something nice for all of us,” assured Fluttershy.

“Not to mention, having a super huge budget means that we could count on you to help out in case if any of us suddenly find ourselves in need of some quick cash for whatever reason,” remarked Rainbow Dash.

“Thank you, girls,” responded Twilight in gratitude. “Believe me, I’m looking forward to this vacation just as much as the rest you.”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie cheerfully. “Let’s hop aboard that yacht so we can get this party at sea started!”

The girls — and Spike — all grabbed their luggage and walked onto the pier towards the docked ship.

“And since we’re here early enough,” Sunset pointed out, “we should have enough time to check into our rooms and change into some more appropriate outfits before we can step out onto the deck to watch the ship leave port.”

“Sounds like a plan!” agreed Rainbow Dash.

The group climbed up the ramp onto the ship and each of them presented their tickets to the sailor who was standing guard there. Once all eight of them were permitted aboard, they immediately headed below deck to drop off their luggage in their rooms. Much like with their previous vacation to Lego City, they had agreed to share four rooms between the eight of them; Sunset and Twilight got the first room, Rarity and Applejack got the second room, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie got the third room, and Fluttershy and Spike got the fourth and final room. Once they had arrived at their rooms, they also took the opportunity to change into outfits that would be more appropriate for a relaxing cruise out at sea.

With the itinerary Twilight had thoroughly planned out for this cruise, it seemed like everyone would have the opportunity to relax in ways that would be most suitable for all of them. And best of all, since they would be out in the middle of the ocean for most of this trip, chances were unlikely that they would encounter any Equestrian Magic to disrupt their vacation.

What could possibly go wrong?

Author's Note

Where my Lego adaptions of Forgotten Friendship was mostly original while Rollercoaster of Friendship was mostly similar, this one for Spring Breakdown will fall somewhere between the two. Although I'll mostly follow a similar series of events, I'll also be throwing in a bunch of original scenes throughout the story, not to mention the usual bits of Lego-style quirky humor (though I must say the official version of Spring Breakdown had quite a fair share of quirky humor, so it might be a challenge to do much better on that point). As usual, please be sure to point out any issues or errors I might have missed so I can correct them immediately.

The Rainbow Menace

Chapter 1
The Rainbow Menace

The luxury cruise ship Luxe Deluxe had left the port of Baltimare on schedule at noon. Within only an hour, the massive yacht had traveled far enough out to sea that the land behind it could no longer be seen. The week-long cruise across the open ocean was now underway.

The Equestria Girls had already changed into a completely different set of outfits they felt would be more appropriate for the climate of a voyage across a tropical ocean, with many of them even deciding to wear their magical geodes in an alternate way from the standard necklace. Sunset Shimmer had magenta on her torso and the skirt around her upper legs, black on her feet, her red and yellow sun symbol on the front of her torso, wore her hair down a little straighter than usual, and wore her magical geode on a belt around her waist. Rainbow Dash had medium blue on her legs, horizontal stripes on her torso in a rainbow pattern with red at the top and blue at the bottom along an exposed midriff, a magenta cap on her head with the front displaying a rainbow and cloud on a white background, had her hair tied in a ponytail to stick out the back of her cap, and wore her magical geode on a band around her left wrist. Applejack had red on her torso and the skirt around her upper legs with a green border, green on her feet, was without her recognizable western hat, and wore her magical geode on a headband partially obscured by her hair. Rarity had pale blue on her torso and the skirt around her upper legs with a pattern of purple diamonds, purple on her feet, a yellow belt around her waist, yellow rimmed sunglasses over her eyes with blue tinted lenses, her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and wore her magical geode as a necklace around her neck. Fluttershy had white on her torso with a pattern of pink butterflies and green leaves while her right shoulder was exposed, light blue on her upper legs, pink on her feet, and wore her magical geode as a hair clip. Pinkie Pie had pink on her torso and the skirt around her upper legs with slightly darker pink spots, blue on her feet, a cupcake-shaped fanny-pack that was attached by her hip joint, heart-shaped sunglasses over her eyes with pink rims and pink tinted lenses, her hair was tied back in two pigtails, and wore her magical geode as part of her hairband. Twilight Sparkle had magenta on the front and back with indigo on the sides of her torso and the skirt around her upper legs with stars of the opposing colors all over, purple on her feet, and wore her magical geode as part of her star-shaped hair clip. And finally, Spike had blue on his upper legs, white on his torso and upper arms, a silhouette of a tropical island on the front of his torso, and standard black sunglasses over his eyes, along with his usual red cap on his head.

With the first day of the cruise now underway, the girls had gathered together on the lounge deck, overlooking the swimming pool one deck lower towards the ship’s stern. While Twilight and Sunset stood next to each other as they read over a pamphlet in Twilight’s hands, Pinkie was grabbing smoothies from one of the nearby stands to share with her friends, Rarity took a few selfies, Spike was relaxing in one of the nearby deck chairs, Rainbow Dash wandered around the deck while glancing around in various directions, and Applejack was leaning forward against the railing due to feeling awfully queasy, with Fluttershy doing her best to comfort her seasick friend.

“I think this is arguably going to be one of the best vacation trips we’ve ever had,” Twilight spoke up. “I made sure to put us on a cruise that could offer something for each of us to enjoy.”

“As long as they’ve got a hot tub available, I’m all set,” stated Spike as he remained lying on his back on the deck chair with his arms resting behind his head.

Twilight giggled and responded, “Oh, they’ve got much more to offer than just a hot tub. Allow me to start off from the beginning of this pamphlet.” As Rarity and Rainbow turned their attention to Twilight and gathered nearby, Twilight read off the pamphlet’s first page. “Welcome aboard the Luxe Deluxe, where you’ll set sail for a full week of luxurious luxuriating on our most deluxe luxury liner!”

“Ooh, sounds… luxurious,” remarked Fluttershy with a smile as she turned her attention to Twilight.

Twilight smirked and noted, “Puns and alliteration aside, this cruise definitely has a lot to offer. For example, I think you’ll be most interested in the onboard petting zoo.” She pointed to said feature on the pamphlet as she held it out towards Fluttershy.

“I think that’s wonderful!” agreed Fluttershy. “I’ve always wondered what various adorable animals feel about riding on a boat over the ocean. It’s not exactly something they do in the wild very often, after all.”

Twilight next turned to Rarity and continued, “For you, Rarity, with how much you always love to go on a shopping spree, I’m sure you’ll be excited by the wide selection available at the onboard gift shop. Not to mention, much of the inventory for the duration of this cruise happens to be available at a remarkable discount.”

“You know me so well, Twilight,” remarked Rarity contently. “I am no mere shopaholic, but rather a savvy shopper who is always on the lookout for high-quality items when they become available at reasonably reduced prices. It is why, for example, I always purchase supplies for my boutique’s winter inventory during the summer months, and vice versa.”

“Fruit smoothies for everyone!” declared Pinkie Pie cheerfully as she rejoined the group with an armful of smoothie drinks and started passing them around to everyone. Applejack held up her hand to decline, to which Pinkie simply shrugged and started slurping on both of her remaining smoothies at the same time.

“And I know what you would like, Pinkie,” added Twilight with a smile as she accepted her smoothie. She turned the pamphlet to Pinkie and pointed at another particular portion of it. “An all-you-can-eat dessert buffet, where you can… eat all you… can eat at?” She grinned in embarrassment from failing to come up with some appropriate non-repeating words.

Pinkie didn’t seem to care at all, as she squealed excitedly and exclaimed, “This cruise has everything! It even comes with a moving floor!”

As the gently rolling ocean waves caused the ship to ever so slightly rock back and forth, Applejack momentarily grew queasier, then barely managed to gulp down the contents of her upset stomach and miserably muttered, “After all the other times we’ve been at sea, the one time Ah actually forgot to pack mah seasickness medication, an’ it’s for a cruise we had been plannin’ for weeks…”

“I’m so sorry, Applejack,” said Twilight sympathetically. “I swear, if I had known about your, uh, condition, I would’ve thought ahead and brought a spare supply, just in case something like this happened.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Twilight,” assured Sunset. “You can’t expect everything to go perfectly according to plan. Even so, what you’ve done for us here is incredible. Thank you so much for organizing this trip.”

“Yeah, I’ve gotta hand it to ya,” agreed Rainbow Dash. “You really have an eye for climatic battle settings!”

Everyone else in the group turned to Rainbow Dash and stared at her with looks of confusion.

“Imagine going head to head with a sea monster by the pool!” continued Rainbow Dash excitedly as she began swiftly moving around as if to imitate some kind of action sequence. “Ka-chow! Evil Equestrian Magic flows up the diving pool! BOOM! The Boat’s sinking! Everyone’s screaming!” She then finished off her wild gestures with a heroic pose. “And then we save the day!”

The rest of the girls stared at Rainbow in stunned disbelief. After a moment of silence, Fluttershy spoke up, “Um… is the sea monster okay in this story?”

“Better than okay!” answered Rainbow before quickly slurping the remainder of her smoothie. “She becomes our newest friend!”

Rainbow then casually tossed the empty glass behind her back, which then bounced off a crewwoman’s head and landed upright on the empty serving tray she was carrying. Although the incident didn’t result in any damage or mess, the crewwoman briefly glared at Rainbow before moving along.

Completely oblivious to the minor incident that had just occurred behind her, Rainbow raised her fists and proudly declared, “Best ocean cruise ever!” She looked to her friends, expecting them to be just as thrilled by the idea as she was.

However, everyone else continued to just stare at Rainbow with various looks of concern and disbelief. When Sunset noticed the slightly worried look on Twilight’s face, she turned back to Rainbow Dash and smiled as she calmly remarked, “Or, we could do… not that.”

That comment quickly received words of approval from everyone else in the group except for Rainbow Dash, whose expression and enthusiasm quickly dropped as a result of that reaction.

Twilight stepped forward towards Rainbow and calmly explained, “I was hoping we could do something… without having to battle Equestrian Magic for a change?”

“Ah hear ya,” agreed Applejack, now relaxed enough from her seasickness that she was resting only one hand against the railing. “We couldn’t even spend the day at Equestria Land without causin’ a calamity.”

“Which we then uncalaminated, like literal awesome superheroes!” argued Rainbow with renewed enthusiasm.

Spike scoffed and grumbled, “Even superheroes deserve a little vacation every now and then. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve yet to hear anyone refer to us as, quote-unquote, superheroes.”

Rainbow Dash’s enthusiasm was again quickly deflated by the immense lack of encouragement from her friends.

Rarity stepped forward and placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder as she sighed contently and assured her friend, “Twilight, this is a most deserved respite. We’re all very thankful for the chance to relax and do absolutely nothing.”

Again, the rest of the group said various words of agreement to simply enjoy the relaxing cruise. While Twilight smiled at them, Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and scowled as she turned away from them.

Rarity suddenly felt her phone vibrate and heard it buzz, so she quickly pulled it out. When she read the alert she had just received, she immediately gasped and started hyperventilating.

Rainbow Dash instantly perked back up at the sound of panic from one of her friends. “What is it?” she asked desperately. “Evil magic?!”

“A GPS alert!” replied Rarity urgently. “We’ve just crossed into neutral waters, beyond the boundaries of any designated region!”

Rainbow Dash gasped in shock, but once it eventually occurred to her that she lacked any context to understand the severity of that information, she awkwardly asked, “Uh, what does that mean?”

Rarity simply smiled and excitedly replied, “Tax-free shopping! My window of opportunity at the gift shop has just opened! Now, if you’ll excuse me…” She felt no need to say any more as she walked away.

“I dunno about you girls,” said Spike as he got up out of the deck chair he was on and began walking away, “but I’m gonna go change into my swim trunks and check out that hot tub.”

“Dessert buffet, here I come!” declared Pinkie Pie cheerfully as she rushed off.

“You go ahead an’ enjoy that petting zoo, Fluttershy,” said Applejack with a weak smile as she began to slowly walk away. “Ah’ll be fine on mah own for a while, an’ you deserve a chance to get your own enjoyment outta this cruise.”

“If you’re really sure about that, then thank you,” replied Fluttershy with a smile and a nod before she also walked away.

“So what do you have in mind?” asked Twilight as she and Sunset both began to walk away together.

Sunset replied, “Well, this is gonna sound crazy, but…”

Rainbow Dash didn’t bother listening to the rest of that conversation. Noticing that she had quite literally been left completely on her own, she crossed her arms and huffed in frustration. “Why don’t they understand?” she grumbled to herself. “Everywhere we go, we always end up faced with evil Equestrian Magic, and we always stop them to save the day. What could be more awesome than that?” She then growled and began marching off across the deck. “Whatever… They’re fools to think we can let down our guard just because we’re in the middle of the ocean, but I’m not falling for it. I know there’s evil magic somewhere on this ship, and I’ll put a stop to it before it can cause any big trouble…”

After asking for directions from one of the ship’s staff, Pinkie Pie quickly made her way directly to the buffet room. Once she reached the double doors to that room, she threw them open and was ecstatic by what she saw. Every table in the room had a wide assortment of various foods available, from the standard bread and salads, to sides of fruit and cheese, and all the steaming hot entrées kept within covered pots to keep them warm and fresh. But what really drew Pinkie’s attention was the dessert table, which had over a dozen trays covered with cookies, candied apples, cupcakes, big cakes, and even a chocolate fountain.

With her eyes focused straight at that dessert table, Pinkie excitedly noted, “Ooh, honey walnut crisp… candy-coated cupcakes… banana sorbet delight…” She suddenly gasped as she zeroed in on one particular tray that was currently under a cover. “A Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cake?!” She squealed in absolute delight. “I’ve waited my whole life to taste a cake like this!”

With immense anticipation, Pinkie removed the cover, and… was suddenly devastated to discover the tray was completely empty. “NOOOOO!” she cried out in horror.

“Excusez moi, mademoiselle,” spoke up someone with a French accent.

Pinkie Pie spun around and saw that voice came from a minifig with pink skin and short red hair, wearing a chef’s outfit and holding a covered food tray in one hand.

“If you would like to try zis masterpiece of moi, Puffed Pastry,” continued the chef with a smile, “zen how about one fresh from ze oven?” She then removed the cover from the tray in her hand, revealing a freshly-baked bundt cake.

Pinkie immediately gasped in absolute delight as her eyes widened at the sight of that cake and her mouth began to water. She reached out and attempted to grab the whole thing, but Puffed Pastry quickly pulled it back.

Puffed Pastry laughed and said, “Patience. Allow me…” She set down the tray cover and pulled out a spatula. She brought the spatula forward and prepared to start cutting a slice from the cake…

But then, the rainbow motion blur that was Rainbow Dash suddenly rammed directly into Puffed Pastry, tackling the chef to the floor and causing her to fling the cake up into the air.

“CAKE OVERBOARD!!” hollered Pinkie in horror as she helplessly watched that cake arc high across the room and meet a splattering demise upon the head of a boy with glasses.

The boy was momentarily stunned by the impact that left his head and face covered in the splattered remains of that bundt cake. He then reached up and grabbed the chunk of cake that covered his face and took a bite out it. “Mmm, chocolate,” he remarked. “Can’t go wrong with that.”

Puffed Pastry shoved Rainbow Dash off her, then once she saw the confectionary devastation, she gasped and exclaimed, “Mon gâteau!” She then began to growl as her face stared turning red with rage.

Pinkie turned to Rainbow Dash and put her hands on her hips as she frowned and scolded, “Rainbow, what was that for?!”

Before Rainbow got a chance to come up with an answer, Puffed Pastry suddenly grabbed her and Pinkie Pie, dragged them towards the open doorway out into the hallway, and tossed them out of the room. With a furious look on her face, she dusted off her hands as she firmly declared, “Consider yourselves banned!” She then grabbed the double doors and slammed them shut.

With both girls now sitting on the floor in front of the shut doors to the buffet, Pinkie turned to Rainbow with a furious look on her own face as she crossed her arms.

Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously and responded, “You saw it. She had a, uh… spatula! Yeah! An evil spatula, for, uh… hacking people to turn them into baked goods! That means I just saved your life, didn’t I? So, uh… you’re welcome!” She quickly stood up and rushed off.

Pinkie continued to glare in the direction Rainbow ran off to. At this moment, she was very tempted to do to her friend what she stupidly claimed that chef was going to do to her, but she knew better than to actually try such a threat because she wasn’t a psychopath like that. At the very least, she was going to make sure her rainbow-haired roommate would not be getting a good night’s sleep tonight.

Fluttershy was quite pleasantly surprised when she saw for herself that there really was a petting zoo aboard this ship. True, it was a rather small indoor room that could easily fit within the pet shop she owned in Canterlot City, but it was the novelty of having it aboard a ship that was sailing across a vast ocean that really piqued her interest. Within this room was a fenced-in area to the left holding baby sheep and baby goats, a fenced-in area to the right holding rabbits and chickens, and a large glass box in the middle holding various birds. There were also a few kids present who were very happy to be close to such adorable critters.

“A goat on a boat?” quipped Fluttershy was a giggle as she gently picked up one of the baby goats. “Now I’ve seen everything.” She petted that baby goat for a moment, then gently set it back down and walked over to the bunnies. When one of those bunnies called out happily to her, she knelt down and petted that bunny as she cooed, “Aw, aren’t you just the softest thing?”

The bunny responded with some more cheerful squeaks.

“You have forty-two grandchildren?” responded Fluttershy with a smile. “Wow, Mister Bouncy, that is impressive! I’d love to meet them.”

Bouncy the bunny turned to the nearby coop and waved at it. At least a dozen smaller bunnies peeked their heads out through the coop’s opening.

However, before those baby bunnies had a chance to venture outside, Rainbow Dash suddenly rushed into the room. “Not today!” she declared before she shoved Fluttershy away from the bunnies and stood firmly between them.

“Um, Rainbow Dash?” asked Fluttershy in confusion.

“Sure, he seems cute and cuddly, now,” argued Rainbow Dash, “but have you seen what a magic-infused evil rabbit can do?”

That glaring accusation quickly caught the attention of everyone and every critter inside the petting zoo.

Completely baffled by her friend’s accusation, Fluttershy suggested with uncertainty, “Um… eat carrots?”

Though she wouldn’t admit it, Rainbow Dash was completely improvising her reasoning to strike down what she perceived to be evil magic anywhere it might be, so with Fluttershy’s half-hearted suggestion, she pointed at the bunnies and firmly stated, “Yeah, evil carrots!”

That vicious accusation immediately startled all the animals in the petting zoo, causing them all to suddenly flee and huddle inside their shelters. With the whole room now seemingly void of any critters, all the kids turned to Rainbow with sad looks on their faces.

Rainbow Dash didn’t even seem to care as she proudly claimed, “Aha! See? They were evil! And now that I called them out, they’ve all run away back to their evil lairs! My work here is done.” She then zoomed off as a rainbow motion blur.

Fluttershy glanced around the room and saw nothing but some sad kids, some of whom were already starting to sob. She let out a tired sigh and rubbed her forehead as she bitterly thought, If I was capable of hating people, I’d probably be doing that against Rainbow Dash right now…

Spike hummed contently as he made his way towards the spa room, wearing his green swim trunks and carrying a bright green towel over his shoulder. Once he opened the door into the room, he glanced around and saw all the traditional fixtures of a spa such as massage tables, lounge chairs where patrons in mud masks were relaxing, and of course there was the hot tub in the far corner. He smiled when he saw that the hot tub was currently unoccupied.

Spike turned to the lady behind the reception desk and asked, “How long is that hot tub gonna be available?”

The receptionist glanced over one of the sheets of paper on a clipboard and replied, “The earliest reservation we have doesn’t begin until three hours from now.”

“Then I’d like to reserve it from now until then,” requested Spike with a sly grin, “exclusively for me.”

The receptionist scribbled on that sheet of paper, then turned it over to Spike and said, “Just sign here and you’re all set.”

Spike grabbed the clipboard, signed his name on the designated line, and handed it back over to the receptionist.

“Thank you,” said the receptionist as she set the papers back on her desk. “Relax and enjoy your stay.”

“Gladly,” responded Spike with a smile as he made his way over to the hot tub. He set his towel down on the nearby lounge chair and checked the tub’s settings. Since it was not currently in use, it didn’t surprise him that everything was switched off, so he did not hesitate to crank up the temperature to the max. For reasons he could never quite explain, he always seemed to prefer taking baths and showers with very hot water, which of course often resulted in complaints from Twilight over the years, either from using up all the hot water to leave her with a cold shower or not turning back the settings and causing her to suffer scalding hot water at the start of her shower.

Once the underwater jets started pumping hot water into the tub, Spike dipped his foot into the water and confirmed that it was still a little cold after having been idle for quite a while. He remained standing at the edge of the tub and idly glanced around the room while he waited for the water to warm up. The only people he could see in the spa room were either staff or patrons, and none of them seemed to mind his presence at all. As far as he could tell, he would be able to relax in peace and quiet for quite a while.

After about a minute, Spike dipped his foot into the water again. It was only lukewarm, but he knew it was only going to get hotter, so he decided now was a good enough time to get settled in. He knelt down, held his hands onto the edge of the hot tub, and slowly eased himself into the water. He let out a sigh of relief as he submerged himself up to his neck. He could already feel the surrounding bubbling water was warming up even further, and he knew right away that this was exactly the kind of relaxation he needed to start off this week-long cruise.

However, just seconds after climbing into the hot tub, Spike was suddenly yanked out of it. He quickly stumbled to his feet and when he saw that it was Rainbow Dash who had come out of nowhere and done that, he frowned and complained, “Hey! What’s the big idea?”

“Evil magic could be hiding anywhere,” argued Rainbow Dash. “It could even be inside that hot tub, lying in wait to snatch away any unsuspecting victims!”

While all the staff and patrons stopped what they were doing and stared at Rainbow, Spike crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow as he doubtfully asked, “Oh yeah? What kind of things could an evil hot tub possibly do to me?”

“It could turn the water to lava and burn you alive!” Rainbow Dash wildly claimed. “Or it could take possession of you and turn you into a zombie slave! It might even be hiding a swirling vortex at the bottom that would suck you down and send you hurtling back in time!”

Spike stared hard at Rainbow Dash as he skeptically responded, “A hot tub time machine… Riiiiiight…” He then began to walk past Rainbow back towards the hot tub. “I just got this thing reserved for the next three hours, so I’ll take my chances.”

Before Spike could even dip his foot back into the water, Rainbow swiftly shoved him away from the hot tub, then knelt down and reached her arm into the water. She blindly searched the bottom of the tub and her expression brightened when her hand managed to grasp onto something. “Aha! There is something weird at the bottom of this tub!” she proudly declared. “Now let’s see what kind of evil magic it is…” She yanked the mystery object out of the water, revealing it to be… a small chain attached to a white 1x1 round plate. And when that object was removed, the water level in the hot tub quickly dropped until it revealed an open drain in the middle of the bottom.

As the last of the water gurgled down the drain, Spike sat up from where he had fallen on the floor and flatly stated, “That would be the plug for the hot tub’s drain.”

Rainbow Dash stared at the plug for a moment. Internally, she was quite embarrassed that she just made such a silly mistake, but her immense ego drove her to not show that embarrassment at any cost. She chuckled awkwardly and explained, “Yeah, well… that water felt super hot when I reached my hand in, so I guess it really was turning into lava, just like I said it would, which means I just saved your life!” She then struck a heroic pose as she proudly finished, “No thank-yous are necessary.”

“Good,” grumbled Spike as he grabbed his towel and began to leave the spa, “‘cause I had no plans to give you one, anyway.”

Applejack slowly trudged her way across the deck along one side of the ship. She was still feeling slightly nauseous from her seasickness, but for the last couple hours, she had managed to keep a hold of herself. Her struggle was soon worsened when two guys snacking on some skewered shrimp happened to walk by, the scent of which only added to her nausea and making her face turn green. Just seconds later, further ever-so-subtle rocking of the ship threatened to push her queasiness over the limit as she rushed to the side of the ship and leaned over the edge.

It was at this moment that Rainbow Dash noticed Applejack, so she ran over to her friend and greeted, “What’s up, AJ?”

Despite her awful condition, Applejack was a little too stubborn to allow her friend to see her in such a sorry state, so she turned to Rainbow Dash and tried to act casual by resting only one hand against the railing. Unfortunately, her queasiness had by now gotten so bad that she couldn’t even risk opening her mouth, so she was only able to make muffled noises as she slowly slouched over.

Rainbow Dash was baffled by Applejack’s behavior, so she asked, “You can’t talk?”

Still too sick to risk opening her mouth, Applejack mumbled incoherently as she shook her hands and head, then gestured at her lower torso.

Without a clear answer, Rainbow Dash jumped to conclusions and asked in horror, “Evil magic stole your voice?!”

Still unable to voice her feelings beyond some incoherent muffled noises, Applejack furrowed her brow as she again shook her hands and head in denial.

Rainbow Dash didn’t quite take the hint and quickly jumped into action. “Out, evil spirits! Out!” she shouted desperately as she grabbed Applejack by her shoulders and started roughly shaking her back and forth.

That violent back and forth movement only amplified Applejack’s queasiness, so in a desperate effort to prevent a bad situation from becoming worse, she shoved Rainbow Dash off her and quickly leaned her head over the railing. Miraculously, just when she was sure she was about to lose it, she managed to gulp down the contents of her stomach, then took a few seconds to gasp for breath. As she noticed her friend stand back up from where she had fallen onto the deck, she turned to Rainbow Dash and held up her hand, but just when she opened her mouth to say something, her nausea suddenly came roaring back with a vengeance. She had barely enough time to once again lean her head over the side of the ship before she finally retched loudly.

Rainbow Dash cringed at the awful noise from her unfortunate friend and noticed a small flock of seagulls cawing as they flew down to the water beside the ship, directly beneath them. “Or you’re seasick…” concluded Rainbow before she chuckled in embarrassment as she rubbed the back of her head. However, she wasn’t quite ready to give up her initial search, so she suddenly asked in panic, “Because of evil magic?!”

Now that her nausea had finally abated for the moment and her face was no longer discolored, Applejack turned to glare furiously at Rainbow Dash. She didn’t even bother saying a word as she wiped her arm across her mouth while maintaining that hard stare.

“Uh, or not?” added Rainbow Dash weakly before she again chuckled in embarrassment.

Figuring that her dense friend needed a direct message, Applejack held her furious stare as she grumbled, “Dash… Ah swear… the next time Ah’m about to lose mah lunch… Ah’ll make sure it’s directed at you.” She then turned away and began to slowly walk across the deck along the side of the ship.

Rainbow Dash watched Applejack walk away, then peered over the side of the ship to see the floating mess the seagulls had gathered around, then cringed and muttered, “Gross…”

After a few hours, Rainbow Dash had search almost every part of the ship she could think of, and still she had found no traces of anything that could realistically be considered evil magic from Equestria. She honestly didn’t even care that she had inconvenienced some of her friends in the process, but as far as she was concerned, they were necessary sacrifices in order to ensure she and her friends could find and defeat the real magical threat that she was convinced just had to be somewhere aboard this ship. She eventually found herself back at the swimming pool where her search had begun, where many fellow passengers were relaxing and having a good time.

Finally fed up with her complete lack of success, Rainbow Dash furiously shouted, “Has anyone seen bad magic on board?!”

That shout quickly caught the attention of everyone around the pool, but after they turned to look at Rainbow, most of them simply turned away and went back to whatever they were doing.

One guy sitting in a chair beside a table nearby shrugged and replied, “I dunno why you think it’s such a big deal, but if you’re looking for bad magic, then ya might wanna check out the indoor stage.” He gestured at the nearby door to the deck interior. “Down at the end of the hallway, can’t miss it.”

With that new lead to follow, Rainbow grinned and stated, “Perfect.” She adjusted the cap on her head and marched towards the glass double doors. She pushed one of the doors open and saw at the end of the hallway ahead was a purple door surrounded by an elaborate entryway. She had not yet checked that part of the ship, so she was filled with confidence as she marched down the hallway and reached that door.

Rainbow Dash opened the door and almost immediately encountered some strange purple fog. The room inside was dimly lit, so it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She was quickly able to identify features such as rows of seats on the floor, spotlights on the ceiling, and a large open curtain at the far side of the room, confirming that this was indeed the indoor stage. As the mysterious fog slowly began to settle near the floor, she discovered two elderly guys sitting among the many seats and appeared to be asleep.

Believing the fog must’ve had some kind of sleep-inducing effect on those old guys, Rainbow Dash gasped in shock, then glared over to the stage area on the opposite side of the room, where she could already see the silhouette of someone standing upon that stage.

“Prepare yourself…” declared the shadowy figure, pointing out to the audience.

Rainbow Dash swiftly got into a fighting pose and raised her fists as she firmly stated with a grin, “I’m ready for anything!”

The shadowy figure stepped forward to the front of the stage and a spotlight shone upon them, revealing… Trixie. “…for the Great and Powerful Trixie of the High Seas!” she finished dramatically. She then quickly added, “Two shows daily, tip your waitresses.”

As the last of the fog cleared away, Rainbow Dash slumped and muttered in disappointment, “Okay, wasn’t ready for that…”

Trixie looked out across the room and smiled when she spotted a familiar face. “Why, hello, Rainbow Dash,” she greeted as she smugly put her hands on her hips. “Surprised to see me?”

“Uh, yeah?” responded Rainbow as she made her way down the aisle towards the stage. “Why are you here? I thought your probation forbid you from going anywhere outside of Canterlot City.”

“Normally, that would be true,” Trixie slyly explained, “but Trixie decided to put in a special request to join you and your friends on this voyage, so Sunset Shimmer was able to pull a few strings to grant Trixie this one-off exception.” She then lowered her voice and more shamefully added, “Though it mostly involved dragging Trixie’s parole officer along with me.”

Off to the side of the stage just behind the curtain, police officer Flash Sentry stared firmly at Trixie. Without saying a word, he pointed at his eyes and then at Trixie.

“By the way,” continued Trixie more contently, “do you like Trixie’s new look? It’s all part of a rebranding campaign to show my audiences the stage magician I wish to become, and not the evil sorceress I used to be.” Trixie’s new outfit consisted of medium blue on her torso and arms, dark blue on the skirt around her upper legs and the middle of the front of her torso under an open jacket, purple on her lower legs, yellow epaulets over her shoulders, and a dark blue top hat with purple feathers on her head. “Anyway, if you’re hoping for a glimpse of the ultimate power in the universe, you’ll have to wait ‘til tonight’s show.”

By this point, Rainbow Dash had reached the stage and now stood close to Trixie. “Nah, just looking for bad magic,” said Rainbow dismissively as she glanced around the large room.

Trixie glared at Rainbow while she wasn’t looking at her, then removed her hat and wiped off some dust as she stated, “Sorry to disappoint you, but the bad magic of others always follows the amazing magic of moi.” She put her hat back on and smiled smugly.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “What do you mean?”

Trixie growled in frustration and irritably explained, “I’m talking about the old grandpas in the audience who see my show and then try to impress their grandkids with a disappearing quarter trick on their way home!”

While Trixie was talking, the two elderly guys — apparently now awake from their nap — were attempting to do that very trick she mentioned. The bald one with glasses tried to demonstrate the trick to the guy with white hair and without glasses, but accidentally flung the coin out of his hand in the middle of the demonstration, which then clattered along the floor somewhere. “Oh, drat!” grumbled the bald guy as he started searching down on the floor. “That was a commemorative coin!”

Back on the stage, Rainbow Dash considered Trixie’s words for a moment. As a realization slowly occurred to her, she spoke up, “Their magic only shows up in response to your magic! Trixie, you’re a genius!”

Trixie was momentarily baffled by what Rainbow was talking about and ended up stuttering as she attempted to respond, but quickly regained her composure and smugly replied, “Well, obviously! Thank you for noticing.” She then picked up a prop lying on the stage floor and requested, “Now then, could you be a good friend and help me shove this ten-foot chain of handkerchiefs up my sleeve?”

Rainbow Dash completely ignored the request as she was already off the stage and quickly ran out the door.

As she watch Rainbow Dash leave, Trixie scoffed and grumbled, “Element of Loyalty, my foot!” She removed her right hand and struggled to cram the chain of handkerchiefs into the opening in her arm, but she didn’t quite get even half of it in before her grip slipped and the whole thing suddenly sprung back out. She groaned in frustration, then turned to her parole office and held up her handless right arm as she asked, “Could you lend me a hand?”

Flash Sentry remained silent again with his arms folded as he responded simply by shaking his head in disapproval.

Trixie sighed and muttered, “Of course you won’t.” She retrieved her right hand and reattached it to her arm as she quietly added, “Note to self: consider hiring a full-time assistant.”

While Rainbow Dash was busy pestering everyone without even realizing it, Rarity had gone straight to the onboard gift shop. When she arrived, she was absolutely delighted by the wide selection of items available for purchase — especially all the clothing and accessories. She knew almost right away that this was going to be a very good day for her.

“Reserve some space for me, please,” Rarity informed the cashier as she passed by the counter in the center of the room. “I intend to make a lot of purchases today.”

“Oh great, it’s one of those shoppers,” muttered the cashier as she pulled out her phone to find something to occupy her time while she waited for her latest customer to gather everything of interest — which was sure to be a large pile.

Rarity began with a quick glance around at the available inventory, which included shirts, dresses, hats, tote bags, novelty sunglasses, and much more. With a smile on her face, she tried out everything of interest in front of a large mirror on the wall. There was so much that fascinated her that virtually every time she passed by the counter, she always had something picked out that she would drop off to her ever growing pile on the counter. In addition to all the various kinds of clothing and accessories, she also picked up a few souvenirs, such as a starfish-shaped pillow, ocean-themed keychains, and even decorated seashells. After nearly two hours of shopping around, she was finally satisfied that she had gathered everything she wanted, so she returned to the counter and waited for the cashier to total up her purchases.

“That’ll be nine ninety-nine,” stated the board cashier.

Rarity giggled and cheerfully remarked, “My savvy shopping smarts strike again!” She reached into her purse and pulled out a green 1x2 tile with a white number “10” printed on it. “Here’s ten,” she said contently as she handed it over to the cashier.

The cashier took the ten dollar bill, placed it inside the cash register, then took out a brown coin stamped with a number “1” on it and casually tossed it over to Rarity.

Rarity reached out to catch the coin, but it slipped out of her grasp. She flailed her hands around as she attempted to grab it, but ultimately caused it to fling out of her reach and clatter to the floor. She quickly knelt down and reached out to grab the fallen coin, only for someone else’s hand to reach it only an instant before she could.

This guy was a member of the ship’s staff — as indicated by his white uniform with a black star and ocean wave symbol on the upper right part of the shirt — who had light orange skin, short messy blond hair on his head, freckles on his face, and green eyes. With a smile on his face, he picked up the coin from the floor and bit down on it. “By golly! That’s real copper, it is!” he remarked, speaking in a thick Cockney accent. “Bloomin’ delightful!”

Rarity was rendered completely speechless and unmoving as she stared at this particular crewman. Whether it was his charming attitude, his dashing good looks, or even his lovely foreign accent, there was something about this guy that left her feeling quite smitten. And of course, there was little she could do to hide the blush forming on her face.

As he stood back up, the crewman noticed Rarity staring at him with a blush on her face, so he held the coin out to her and asked, “Uh… penny for your thoughts, miss?”

Rarity finally snapped out of her love-struck trance and awkwardly stammered for a moment before she eventually giggled and quipped, “Oh, you can’t afford my thoughts, darling.”

The crewman chuckled and remarked, “Quite right. Lovable scamp like meself.” He held out both hands and helped Rarity back up to her feet while placing the coin into her hands. “Ol’ Ragamuffin, that’s me name, innit?” he formally greeted with a wink. When he noticed the large pile of bagged items on the nearby counter, he offered, “Uh, need a ‘and?”

Rarity turned to her recent purchases, then smiled and replied, “Oh, most certainly, Ragamuffin.” As she began passing the bags into Ragamuffin’s arms, she added, “I’m Rarity.”

While he grabbed the first few bags being passed to him, Ragamuffin carefully said, “Uh, Raar-i-ee?” He awkwardly cleared his throat as he immediately recognized that his thick accent made it difficult for him to pronounce her name the way she had.

“Oh, no-no-no-no-no, Rare-i-tee,” enunciated Rarity as she passed the last of her purchases over to Ragamuffin.

“Rarr-i-ee?” spoke Ragamuffin slowly, again awkwardly struggling to properly pronounce her name through his thick accent.

Rarity sighed and muttered, “Close enough, I suppose.” She wasn’t about to let such a minor flaw ruin the mood, so she kept her smile up as she turned to the door out of the gift shop. “Come along, now.”

Ragamuffin followed after Rarity, but after only a few steps, the pile of full bags in his arms suddenly shifted around, forcing him to stumble a little as he tried to regain his balance. Thankfully, he was quickly able to stabilize the pile of bags, with the only thing to fall over being the starfish pillow with a smiley face on it, which now obscured his face. “No worries!” he assured happily. “I got it!”

Rarity couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of his head seemingly being replaced by that smiling starfish. Even though she had literally just met the guy, she knew she was madly in love with him, and she was completely okay with it.

Sunset had made a plan with Twilight to make use of the outdoor stage on the forward deck for their band to perform for everyone aboard the ship. Twilight had anticipated such an idea, which was why she had asked her friends to pack their instruments back when they were getting ready for this cruise, so all they really needed was permission to use the proper venue for their performance. The two girls discussed the idea with the ship’s staff, and once they got word that the captain had given his approval, they immediately called their friends to retrieve their instruments and gather at the stage to begin preparations for the show they would be putting on later tonight.

While Twilight waited at the stage, Sunset left to retrieve her guitar in their room. By the time she returned, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Spike had all arrived. Yet, none of those four seemed to express any enthusiasm at all. Pinkie was slumped over with a bored expression as she sat behind her drum set, Fluttershy had virtually no emotion at all as she barely tapped her tambourine at all, Applejack had set aside her bass guitar as her seasickness forced her to sit down beside one of the amps for the moment, and Spike had a grumpy look on his face as he sat behind the backstage soundboard with his head propped on his left hand while his right hand tapped against the soundboard.

Sunset shared a worried glance with Twilight. Just hours ago, everyone had seemed so enthusiastic to be on this cruise, but now at least half of the entire group were behaving as if they were enduring the most miserable day of their lives. This was supposed to be their best vacation yet, but somehow, things were already going terribly wrong.

Whatever the case, Twilight saw it as her obligation to help lighten the mood, so after thinking for a moment, she smiled as she turned to her gathered friends and cheerfully spoke up, “Look at us! Getting ready to play at a pool party! Who knows what hijinks will ensue, am I right? Maybe I’ll fall in the pool fully clothed! And everyone will laugh!” She finished off with some forced laughter.

While Applejack remained too sick to move much, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Spike all stared at Twilight as she spoke. When Twilight finished, Spike rolled his eyes, Fluttershy sadly glanced away, and Pinkie let her head drop to bang against one of her drums.

Seeing no positive reaction out of any of her friends, Twilight dropped her forced smile and worriedly asked, “Are you not having fun?”

Pinkie let out a sad sigh and sullenly explained, “My whole life, I’ve been taught that you could only berry blast a butter biscuit on a bundt cake with two layers of chocolate. But this afternoon, I saw the truth. The buffet has a Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cake.”

“How was it?” asked Twilight with a smile, hoping to keep things positive.

“I don’t know!” snapped Pinkie Pie as she suddenly beat her fists against two of her drums. “‘Cause Rainbow Dash tackled the chef for no reason and got me banned from the buffet!”

“What?!” asked Twilight in shock.

“She also scared all the animals in the petting zoo,” Fluttershy sadly added. “Now they don’t want pets… it’s just a zoo…”

“I got a chance to reserve that hot tub all to myself for three hours,” Spike grumpily added, “but I only got to enjoy it for three seconds before she yanked me out and drained it, all because she thought it was somehow hiding some kind of evil magic. I mean, where does she come up with these crazy ideas?!”

Applejack groaned as she forced herself to stand up and muttered, “She sure wasn’t helpin’ me not get sick off the side of the boat.”

Twilight just couldn’t believe that their own friend Rainbow Dash had caused so many problems for so many of them so quickly. Growing increasingly concerned, she asked, “But you’re still having fun, right?”

“Oh, o-of course!” Fluttershy shakily responded.

“Yeaaahhh…” Pinkie flatly responded while raising one of her drumsticks up in the air.

“Super-duper…” grumbled Spike as his head remained propped on his left arm.

Applejack didn’t have a chance to say anything before her nausea acted up again, forcing her to run away.

Twilight folded her arms and glanced down at her feet as she shamefully said, “I’m sorry, everyone.”

Sunset set aside her guitar and placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault,” she assured her friend.

Twilight responded with a small smile, but before she got a chance to say something, they noticed Rainbow Dash running over to them.

“Hey, gang!” Rainbow called out excitedly as she rushed towards the stage and swiftly climbed up to join her friends. “Sorry I’m late! So, listen, I’ve got an idea for our show tonight! We unleash some awesomeness on the crowd! I’m talkin’ rainbow lasers!”

Rainbow’s enthusiasm was met only with confused silence. It was Sunset who eventually asked, “Is that a thing?”

Rainbow laughed and replied, “Yeah! When we—”

“Do you mean when we turn into pony people,” asked Pinkie in confusion, “or do you mean—?”

“No! The other thing!” insisted Rainbow Dash.

“I always called it ‘pony up’,” noted Sunset as she raised an eyebrow.

Rainbow scoffed in frustration and again excitedly insisted, “The rainbow lasers!”

“I don’t think that’s a thing…” said Fluttershy uneasily as she slowly shook her head in disagreement.

“It will be after we do it tonight!” declared Rainbow with a huge smile on her face. “Who’s with me?!”

No one else in the group immediately responded, and even then, none of them expressed any enthusiasm at all.

“Seriously?” grumbled Spike incredulously. “You’re actually asking us that? After everything you did to us over the last few hours?”

Sensing there were now tensions that had a real possibility of quickly escalating, Sunset decided to step in and try to resolve this situation without anyone getting hurt. “Rainbow Dash, can I talk to you for a second?” she asked as she gestured over to the side of the stage.

Rainbow was confused by the absolute lack of excitement from her friends, but she respected Sunset, so she agreed with a shrug and followed her off to the side of the stage. “It’s about my awesome idea, isn’t it?” she asked with a grin.

“No, Rainbow,” replied Sunset. Once they were a good distance away from the others, the two girls stopped walking and turned to face each other. “Look…” began Sunset uneasily. She pressed her hands together as she took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Once she was relatively relaxed, she continued, “Twilight worked really hard to plan this trip for all of us, and…” She turned away as she hesitated. “Oh, how can I say this without being mean?”

“Just say it!” argued Rainbow Dash impatiently. “I can take it!”

With that demand, Sunset impulsively decided to forgo any politeness or subtlety, so she firmly responded, “You’re ruining it for everyone!”

“Ouch!” said Rainbow Dash in stunned disbelief. “Your words just… punched my feelings…”

“You said you could take it!” Sunset pointed out in frustration. She took another deep breath to calm herself before she added, “Just… stop looking for a problem when there isn’t one. How’s that?”

“But what if there is a problem that we don’t know about?!” insisted Rainbow Dash. “We’ve gotta be ready for anything!”

“And what if there really isn’t such a problem after all?” Sunset shot back. She sighed and facepalmed. “Look, Rainbow, I get it. I used to worry a lot about these evil magical incidents, too. About when and where the next one might strike. But I learned my lesson back when Starlight Glimmer visited. She helped me realized that I shouldn’t waste my time worrying about any bad things that might happen, because then I would miss out on all the good things that are happening. And right now, this cruise is supposed to be one of those good things.” She turned away and began walking back to the others on the stage. “I would strongly recommend you learn this lesson, yourself, before you make things even worse.”

Rainbow crossed her arms and frowned as she reluctantly grumbled, “Fine…” As she followed Sunset back to the rest of their friends, she added, “But I still wanna do the rainbow lasers, just ‘cause it’s awesome!”

“We’ll see about that…” muttered Sunset.

“Hello, darlings!” greeted Rarity giddily as she walked across the deck towards the stage. Following behind her was Ragamuffin, his face still obscured by the piles of shopping bags in his arms.

“Rarity?” asked Twilight as she and her friends turned to see the last missing member of their group finally arrive. “Where have you been? Please don’t tell me you’ve been browsing the gift shop this whole time.”

Rarity lifted her sunglasses onto her forehead as she giggled sheepishly and replied, “While I confess I certainly took my time at the gift shop, I can assure you I was fashionably late for a perfectly good reason.”

Once the two minifigs arrived at the stage, Ragamuffin set down all those shopping bags and remarked in a chipper tone, “Just ‘avin’ a li’l chat with ol’ Ragamuffin, she was!”

It was right at this moment when Applejack returned after having… relieved herself of her nausea. As she stepped onto the stage, she ended up standing right next to Ragamuffin. This caused everyone else — except for Rarity — to suddenly do a double-take when they noticed how astonishingly similar the two of them were in terms of appearances, right down to the color of their hair, skin, eyes, and even the freckles on their faces.

Believing the awkward silence to indicate that he wasn’t exactly welcome by at least some of the girls, Ragamuffin kept smiling as he said, “All right, all right, I geddit. I got other duties to take care of elsewhere, so I’ll leave ya to it. Thanks for ev’rythin’, Rari-ee.” He gave a friendly salute as he said his parting words to Rarity.

Rarity swooned with a smile and blush on her face.

“I can see you lot are preparin’ a concert of some sort, so good luck with all that music an’ whatnot,” added Ragamuffin as he shook Applejack’s hand.

Unfortunately, Applejack’s seasickness had left her so sensitive that the vigorous handshake caused her queasiness to suddenly act up yet again, forcing her to run off once more.

Ragamuffin was briefly caught off-guard, but maintained his positive attitude as he apologized, “Sorry ‘bout that, mate.” He quickly regained his chipper smile as he waved to Rarity and said, “Cheers!” He then turned and walked away.

Rarity waved back at Ragamuffin as he departed. She let out a love-struck sigh and lovingly remarked, “It’s like he fell out of a historical romance novel…” As she kept staring in the direction her new crush had walked off to, she was blissfully unaware of the perplexed looks on the faces of her friends behind her back.

“Is that how romance sounds?” asked Fluttershy in confusion.

“Who cares?” replied Rainbow Dash dismissively. “We got more important things to worry about, like getting ready for tonight’s awesome show!” She quickly retrieved her guitar and plugged it into one of the large amps nearby.

Spike turned his gaze back towards Rarity and grumbled, “At least someone’s day hasn’t been ruined by a certain rainbow menace…”

Rarity overheard Spike’s complaint, so she turned back to him and asked curiously, “Oh? Has Rainbow Dash been causing issues today?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Spike bitterly replied.

“C’mon, everyone!” Rainbow Dash excitedly called out to her friends on the stage, seemingly without any concern for their feelings regarding her. “We’re gonna make tonight’s show the best one this ship has ever seen!” She then began shredding a few tunes out on her guitar with enthusiasm.

Spike rolled his eyes as his posture had remained unchanged at the seat behind the soundboard. As his free hand tapped against the soundboard, one particular setting on that board caught his attention. He glanced back at Rainbow Dash, then reached over to that dial and turned it all the way down to zero.

Rainbow Dash immediately stopped playing when she noticed that the amp her guitar was plugged into was suddenly no longer producing any noise at all. “Hey, what gives?” she complained as she strummed her guitar and heard nothing more than the barely-audible unamplified strings. She turned to Spike and asked “Why am I not getting any sound?”

With a bored frown still on his face and his head propped on his left hand, Spike just shrugged and replied, “Beats me.”

Unlike Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy were well aware of what really happened, as they had both witnessed Spike mess with the soundboard. They both turned to each other, silently debating whether or not they should speak up.

Rainbow was quickly losing patience as she turned to stand directly in front of the large and currently silent amp. “C’mon!” she complained as she wildly shredded her guitar. “Gimme something awesome!”

Spike let Rainbow suffer a few more seconds of near-silence. Then, as Rainbow raised her hand up high, Spike swiftly turned that dial from zero all the way up to eleven.

When Rainbow Dash brought down her hand for a single hard shred, the resulting audio blast from the amp was so powerful that it literally blew her into the air and threw her clear across the stage. And of course, the suddenness of that extremely loud noise caused everyone else on stage to swiftly cover their ears.

Spike quickly turned the dial back down before the audio feedback could get seriously bad. As he glanced over at where Rainbow Dash had fallen in a heap, he smirked and remarked, “Yeah… that was awesome.”

Sunset and Twilight glanced at Rainbow Dash, then at Spike, then to each other. “Does he do this a lot?” asked Sunset with concern in her voice.

“Usually only in cases where he feels he’s been treated unfairly,” answered Twilight, “such as having something taken away without good reason.”

Sunset looked again at Rainbow Dash — who groaned as she slowly began to push herself off the deck — then turned back to Twilight and stated, “Normally, I wouldn’t approve of behavior like that, but for this case…” She maintained her frown as she retrieved her guitar and slung it over her shoulder. “Sometimes, you gotta let karma do its thing.”

Author's Note

One of the major issues I've seen fans complain about Spring Breakdown is how the first half seemed to go by rather slowly, so I guess the fact that I managed to cover half of that slow first half in just the first chapter might be sign of truthfulness to that perception. You may recall in some of my previous stories that Applejack (along with the rest of her friends) had been on a number of boats before and never displayed any signs of seasickness, so for the sake of retaining that running gag in this story, I came up with a reason for why she was never previously affected. While non-Equestrian Spike didn't make any appearances in Spring Breakdown, he did show up in that music video set on the same boat, so I'll call that enough of an excuse to let Lego Spike join the girls in this version (which naturally opens up availability for additional bits of humor at various points throughout the story). I also wanted to include Trixie like the official version did, so I had to come up with an excuse for why her presence aboard that ship wasn't in violation of her probation.

Rising Tensions

Chapter 2
Rising Tensions

As night fell over the open ocean around the luxury cruise ship Luxe Deluxe, final preparations were underway for the Equestria Girls — alternatively known by their band name of the “Sonic Rainbooms” — to perform a live concert on the outdoor stage on the front deck. Crewmembers worked together to set up the special lighting system for the show, as well as replace parts of the sound system that had been damaged earlier as a result of Spike messing around with the settings. A few volunteers also helped the crew to set up tables with various snacks and refreshments for all the passengers who would attend. It had not escaped everyone’s attention that some storm clouds had begun to gather as dusk gave way to nightfall, but the absence of any thunder or rainfall left many of them convinced that it was unlikely to be of any concern, so the show was allowed to proceed as planned.

Thanks to Twilight’s request a week ahead of their departure for them to pack their instruments, Rarity had thought ahead and created a series of sparkly dresses specifically for such an occasion, which the girls had now changed into in preparation for their concert. Rainbow Dash had horizontal stirpes of all the colors of a rainbow along her torso and skirt, red on her feet, and had styled her hair into a braid that wrapped over the top of her head. Twilight had purple on her torso that faded to magenta at the bottom of her skirt, two rows of white stars along the bottom of her skirt, and purple on her feet. Sunset had magenta on her torso and skirt, black on her feet, and wore her magical geode on a band around the upper part of her left arm. Applejack had white on her torso, red on her skirt, brown on her feet, and a green belt around her waist. Rarity had light blue on her torso that faded to purple on her skirt, purple on her feet, a yellow belt around her waist, a gold headband shaped like a row of diamonds, and her right shoulder was exposed. Fluttershy had turquoise on her torso with large pink leaves, magenta on her skirt that faded to pink at the bottom, and turquoise on her feet. Pinkie Pie had light blue on her torso with spots of various shades of pink and yellow, magenta on her skirt, and light blue on her feet. All these outfits were definitely intended to show off from under a spotlight, and all the girls were in agreement that Rarity had done a fabulous job with designing them.

As many of the passengers began to gather on the front deck, the Rainbooms grabbed their instruments and moved into position. Once they were all in place on stage and gave silent nods of agreement to each other, Twilight briefly turned back and gave a smile and nod of acknowledgement to the backstage crew — which included Spike at the soundboard. Spike nodded back, then turned his cap sideways as he adjusted all the volume dials to their proper settings, precisely specified to him earlier by Twilight. At the same time, two of the ship’s crewmembers flipped on the stage lights and began working the settings to match the pattern that had been requested for this show.

With everything finally ready for the show to go on, the girls began playing the opening notes to the song they had chosen to perform. Rainbow Dash took the lead as she walked up to one of the microphones and began singing the song’s lyrics.

Get in the grove.
You bring your dancing shoes,
I’ll bring the attitude.
You bring the crew so we can move.

The passengers who were on the deck began to gather around the stage. For added effects, some of the lights began projecting white stars onto the deck around the feet of the growing audience.

Light up the floor.
Turn up the bass.
Yeah, let me see that smile on your face.

Rainbow Dash briefly glanced at Applejack, who glanced back with a shaky smile. The farm girl had deliberately skipped supper in hopes that performing on an empty stomach would reduce the risk of her seasickness acting up while in the middle of their performance. Although it seemed to somewhat help, she had also discretely taped a barf bag to the back of her bass for quick access in case of an emergency, which she certainly hoped she would not have to resort to at all for the duration of this concert.

Come on and go with the flow.
Gonna steal the show, yeah.

Twilight stepped toward her microphone and sang the next part of the lyrics.

Let me show you how it goes…

Sunset was the next one to step forward towards her microphone as she enthusiastically called out to the gathered crowd, “Repeat after me!”

As the crowd began dancing to the music, all seven girls on stage sang the chorus together.

‘Cause it’s all, all, all, all good!
I feel abso-absolutely amazing!
‘Cause it’s all, all, all, all good!
I feel abso-absolutely amazing!

The song continued for nearly two more minutes with additional lyrics and two repeats of the chorus. By the time they reached the instrumental portion of the song, Rainbow Dash was feeling completely fired up by the roaring cheers from the crowd. This was the moment she had been waiting for, and she absolutely wanted to go all-out. She turned back to her friends and excitedly asked, “Rainbow lasers?!”

Sunset and Twilight turned to each other with looks of uncertainty on their faces. Since they were currently in the middle of performing a song in front of a crowd of dozens, they couldn’t ponder the question for too long. Twilight decided there was no reason to quash Rainbow’s enthusiasm at a time like this, so she gave a nod of approval. With Twilight making her choice, Sunset turned to Rainbow and also gave a nod approval.

Rainbow Dash was thrilled that she had been permitted to go through with her plan, and almost immediately gained pony ears, longer hair, and feathered wings — the process that Sunset had referred to as “pony up”. Just as the growing magical energy caused her to start rising into the air without even flapping her wings, the rest of her friends also underwent their magical transformations — all of them gained pony ears and longer hair, Fluttershy and Twilight gained feathered wings, and Sunset, Rarity, and Twilight gained a unicorn horn. All of them continued rocking out the instrumental portion of the song, their bodies glowing ever brighter with the continuously rising magical energies within them. When Rainbow hovered to a stop near the top of the stage, all that built-up magical energy was finally released in a spectacular burst of rainbow aurora that illuminated the entire ship, creating an awe-inspiring beacon of light that could be seen from many miles away — even through the storm clouds up into outer space!

The immense burst of magical energy was so powerful, it ended up overloading the ship’s electrical power supply. It started with all the stage lights suddenly bursting into shards in rapid succession. As the music and all the cheering quickly fell silent, the rest of the entire ship finally lost all power, plunging the isolated vessel into darkness as the engines slowed to a complete stop. The sudden turn of events left the crowd muttering worriedly amongst themselves.

Due to the song being abruptly halted, the Equestria Girls quickly lost their magical pony parts. While most of them were just as concerned as everyone else in the crowd, Rainbow actually had a smile on her face as she gradually descended back to the stage floor. Once she was back on the floor, she set aside her guitar and excitedly declared, “Oh, it’s about to go down!”

“The ship’s going down?” asked someone in the crowd.

That suggestion was the only trigger needed to suddenly send the entire crowd into a frenzied panic.

As everyone on the deck began running around and screaming uncontrollably, Rainbow Dash desperately insisted, “Not the ship! The ship’s not going down! Ugh! I meant evil magic! Stop screaming!”

Backstage, Spike facepalmed and grumbled, “What a brick-head…”

TWEEEEEET!!

That loud blow of a whistle from one of the crewmembers caught the attention of everyone on deck, bringing a halt to the crowd’s panic for the moment. The crewman put away his whistle and turned on the flashlight he was holding in his other hand as he spoke up, “No need to be alarmed, everyone! We’ve provided plenty of flashlights for all of you in the unlikely event of something like this happening. I’m afraid we don’t have many immediately available on hand to pass out to all of you, but we do always leave at least a couple in each room, so if you wish, we would be happy to escort you back to your rooms so you may retrieve them.”

As other crewmembers began pulling out and turning on their flashlights, the crowd of passengers began to calm down and muttered in agreement. While some crewmembers guided the passengers back inside the powerless ship, others went elsewhere to check the systems and hopefully figure out how to resolve this unforeseen issue.

Meanwhile, the Equestria Girls on the stage had been left just as clueless as everyone else about what had just occurred.

“W-What happened to the lights?” asked Fluttershy nervously.

“What happened to the engine?” asked Rarity worriedly.

“Aww, I hate seeing a party get shut down before its time,” moaned Pinkie Pie in disappointment.

“The good news is now that it’s dark, maybe mah body won’t know Ah’m on a boat,” remarked Applejack optimistically. But almost right away, her upset stomach quickly quenched that optimism. “Oh no… it heard me…” she groaned as she removed the barf bag from the back of her bass and held that bag over her mouth as she ran off.

“Come on, girls,” assured Twilight with a forced smile on her face. “Let’s not let a little thing like a total electrical and mechanical failure ruin our fun.”

The rest of the girls stared at Twilight with various looks of uncertainty — Sunset seemed concerned, Rainbow Dash was in disbelief, and Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie seemed quite worried to a certain extent.

Spike walked over to Twilight as he readjusted the cap on his head and skeptically noted, “Yeah, I don’t think that can be dismissed as a little thing that wouldn’t ruin a vacation.”

Twilight frowned in concern to see her friends were once again unable to enjoy their time on this cruise. She had gone through all the effort to bring them all here, so she felt that it was her responsibility to make sure they could all have a good time. With that sense of responsibility, she decided to look into the issue herself and see if there was anything she could do about it.

Twilight smiled again as she declared, “Leave it to me! With my engineering expertise, I’m sure I can help the crew get everything on this ship back up and running in no time!” She turned away and began running down the deck back inside the ship.

“She’s wasting her time!” argued Rainbow Dash irritably. “Because this is Equestrian Magic!” She raised her arm up as she dramatically spoke those last two words.

“Stop it!” Sunset firmly demanded as she grabbed Rainbow’s wrist and pulled her arm back down.

“You stop!” argued Rainbow as she yanked her wrist out of Sunset’s grip. “We show off our magic and literally ten seconds later, the power blows? That’s gotta be the work of evil magic!”

“Or maybe there’s still nothing out there, and it was our magic that might’ve overloaded the power,” Sunset pointed out irritably.

Rainbow stubbornly ignored Sunset and continued, “We scared whatever’s out there, and it’s fighting back! We should split up and search the ship! Who’s with me?!” She grinned and triumphantly raised her fist, fully expecting total support from everyone.

However, all of Rainbow’s friends just stared back at her with frowns on their faces — many of whom in contempt at her pesky behavior. Those looks and the tense silence caused Rainbow slowly lower her fist and drop her smile.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say, ‘You’re on your own’,” stated Sunset. She turned back to the rest of her friends and said, “You girls go ahead and make the most of this situation. I’m gonna go see if I could have a word with the captain.” She then walked off the stage and headed across the deck towards the ship’s bridge.

Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike all soon left without any of them saying a word. Sunset had already spoken exactly what they were all thinking, so there was no need to repeat any of it to their stubborn friend.

Again, Rainbow Dash was left completely alone, determined to stop what she believed to be evil magic from Equestria, and no one around who was willing to help her track it down. And just like earlier, she refused to let it slide, so she reluctantly set out to search for evil magic on her own again. As she picked up a flashlight that had been discarded on the deck, she grumbled, “Ugh, that’s the last time I ask ‘who’s with me?’.”

Down in the ship’s engine room, Twilight had accompanied three crewmen — all of whom were wearing hardhats — to inspect the damage. With only their flashlights to provide illumination, it was a little difficult to make a full assessment of what needed to be worked on, but they knew they had to try their best if the ship was to have any chance of resuming its cruise.

With all the display monitors off and all the switches and dials rendered effectively useless, the four minifigs focused their attention on the condition of the huge engine itself. It was a very complex piece of machinery that only an expert at mechanical engineering could hope to fully understand. Fortunately, it was one of many scientific subjects where Twilight was very well-read on.

As Twilight rolled out the dolly that had been set aside, she asked, “I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job, but, uh, may I?”

The three crewmen all glanced at each other before they nodded in approval.

Twilight lied down on her back against the dolly and rolled underneath the engine. Using the flashlight in one hand, she examined the engine’s condition by using her other hand to check the various pieces of pipes and wires that seemed to be jumbled all over the place. She was quickly displeased by what she saw, and got particularly annoyed when one of the smaller pipes came loose and a rat suddenly scurried out from under the engine.

“What a mess!” complained Twilight. She rolled out from under the engine and looked to the three crewmen as she asked, “Did any of you even read the six-hundred-page online emergency handbook?!”

Two of the crewmen glanced at each other and shrugged, while the third scratched the back of his head and asked, “That’s a thing?”

As Twilight rolled the dolly back under the engine, she sighed and grumbled, “The burden of my discipline as a former Shadowbolt agent… Always the only one in the room who even bothers to study these things…”

Sunset had reached the ship’s bridge and now stood outside the door to the wheelhouse. Although she doubted the ship’s captain knew much more about what was going on than everyone else, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to make sure they were all on the same page. She knocked on the door three times and spoke up, “Are you in there, captain? Is it okay if I speak with you for a moment? If you’re busy, I can come back later.”

The door opened, revealing a minifig with yellow skin, a white beard on his face, orange on his torso and arms, dark blue on his legs, a blue and white stripped sweater under the open orange jacket on the front of his torso, and on his head was a white officer’s cap with a gold anchor on the front. “Oh, not at all, miss,” he assured Sunset with a warm smile, speaking with a stereotypical sea captain accent. “With all systems shut down on this vessel, there ain’t much for me do up here at this time.”

Sunset quickly forgot her plan to make a friendly introduction when she suddenly realized she was seeing someone rather familiar. “Hey, I recognize you,” she said in astonishment. “You’re Captain Bluffbeard! You’ve got a reputation in Lego City for having a tendency to sink ships.”

Bluffbeard gave a hearty laugh and remarked, “Arr, guilty as charged! Well, come on in if a li’l chat is all you want.”

Now that she knew who was the captain of this boat, Sunset was suddenly feeling less confident in his ability to handle the situation. Still, she was already here, so she decided that she could at least see if he truly had everything under control — and if not, then perhaps there might be a way she could try to help out. She walked into the wheelhouse and shut the door behind her.

“Yer probably wondering why I’m sailing an oceanic cruise ship rather than the ferries of Lego City, where you may have heard of me,” explained Bluffbeard contently. “You see, after my ferry business didn’t quite pan out as well as I’d hoped, I decided on another change of career. I now captain this here luxury yacht, as I find operating on a cruise line to be a much more fulfilling calling, not to mention a lot more relaxing. Besides, I figured there was little chance of this ship sinking on my watch if the only hazardous points of the voyage were leaving and entering port. Between those two, I can promise nothing but a week’s worth of smooth sailing across the open ocean with calm seas and clear skies.”

“Clear skies…” repeated Sunset flatly with her hands on her hips. She glanced over her shoulder at the dark storm clouds outside the windows, then turned back to Bluffbeard and silently gestured at that window.

“I had charted this course according to the weather forecast to keep my promise of ideal conditions,” noted Bluffbeard, maintaining his optimistic tone. “As you can see, the forecast has changed quite unexpectedly.”

“Would it be too much for me to assume that was the only unexpected thing you noticed?” asked Sunset skeptically. “Did any of the systems or monitors in here show anything weird going on before the power went out?”

“If there was anything of the sort, I’m afraid I didn’t notice,” admitted Bluffbeard. “I was a little preoccupied dancing to the rhythm of that music you girls were playing moments ago. Quite a catchy song, that was!” He then closed his eyes and hummed the tune of that song as he swayed his body back and forth to the rhythm.

Sunset loudly cleared her throat.

Bluffbeard immediately stopped humming and dancing. He chuckled awkwardly and said, “Sorry ‘bout that…”

“Okay, let’s try to stay on topic here…” muttered Sunset. Now that she had Bluffbeard’s attention, she spoke up, “Are you absolutely sure there’s nothing in here that’s working right now?”

“With the main engine offline for inexplicable reasons, everything here on the bridge is no longer functional,” confirmed Bluffbeard. “However, there is an emergency battery pack to provide short-term power in the event of such an occurrence.”

Sunset glanced at the controls, then turned back to Bluffbeard as she raised an eyebrow and asked, “If that’s true, then why do I not see anything apparently working?”

“It can only plug in to one item at a time,” Bluffbeard pointed out.

“And it’s currently plugged into…?” asked Sunset.

“My massage chair!” answered Bluffbeard cheerfully as he gestured to the overly comfortable seat behind the ship’s wheel.

Sunset crossed her arms and glared at the incompetent sea captain as she grumbled, “We’re stranded at sea and the one thing you could provide emergency power for is a massage chair?”

“This is meant to be a luxury cruise ship!” argued Bluffbeard. “Having a means of relaxing at all times should be an essential component!”

Sunset facepalmed, then sighed in frustration and said, “Well, if that battery can only plug into one thing at a time, then I’d first like to check the weather radar.”

Further inside the ship, Pinkie Pie sneaked her way into the buffet room. With all the lights out, she had quickly realized that she now had a perfect opportunity to enter the forbidden room and avoid being caught in the act. She crept her way between the tables, hunched down to keep a low profile as she tip-toed ever-so-subtly through the room. With her eyes adjusted to the darkness, it wasn’t long before she sighted her ultimate target: the bundt cake she had been so desperate to try.

As Pinkie slowly rose up to look closely at the bundt cake resting the table right in front of her, she rubbed her hands together and whispered to herself, “Time to raid the dessert buffet under the cover of darkness. Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cake, here I come…”

“Who said zat?!” called out chef Puffed Pastry aggressively from somewhere across the room.

“No one!” Pinkie reflexively called back in panic. Immediately realizing she just gave herself away, she swiftly covered her mouth and slipped under one of the tables, taking advantage of the surrounding tablecloth to keep herself hidden. She waited a few seconds, listening very carefully to the chef’s footsteps. Once she was at least somewhat sure that she had not completely given away her position, she spoke up, “Shouldn’t you be upstairs with everyone else?”

Puffed Pastry slammed her hands against the table upon which sat the various desserts and sharply responded, “Somebody ‘as to guard ze bundt cakes!”

“I never did anything to ruin that first bundt cake!” argued Pinkie, keeping herself hidden under the table. “It was Rainbow Dash who smooshed it! Why am I being punished for something I had nothing to do with?!”

“Guilt by association!” insisted Puffed Pastry as she kept shifting her gaze around the dark room in her effort to locate the intruder. “She assaulted me because you were nearby, so you deserve just as much blame!”

“That’s totally jumping to conclusions!” argued Pinkie. “Rainbow was the only one being totally reckless! All I wanted was to savor what must be such a delicious bundt cake, so please let me have a second chance!”

“You’re not fooling me, imbécile!” Puffed Pastry firmly declared as she waved her spatula up in the air. “Now stay back! I ‘ave a spatula!”

Pinkie peeked out from under the tablecloth to look at Puffed Pastry making that threat. When the angry chef began to turn towards her, she quickly dropped the tablecloth and rushed over to hide under another nearby table.

Puffed Pastry marched over to the table where she thought she had noticed some movement. She used her spatula to lift the tablecloth, but found nothing underneath. With a piercing glare, she glanced left and then right before she made her way to the left.

Pinkie carefully lifted the tablecloth she was hiding under and saw the angry chef moving away from her new hiding spot. Pinkie barely contained a snicker at this minor victory. A few more advances in this cat-and-mouse game and that bundt cake would soon be hers…

After helping Applejack back to their room, Rarity used one of the provided flashlights to navigate her way through the hallways. With all of her friends off doing their own thing, she figured this would be a good opportunity to hang out a bit more with that charming crewman Ragamuffin. She had last seen him escort some of the nervous passengers back into the lower decks, so she was uncertain where she might find him.

“Hello…” Rarity called out as she aimed her flashlight left and right. “Ragamuffin…”

As Rarity approached the ornate door to the indoor stage, she began to hear some kind of music coming from within. Believing that noise to be an indicator that at least a few people had to be inside, she walked over to the door and knocked on it a few times.

“Ragamuffin?” Rarity called out again. “Are you in there? I was just, uh…” She quickly got rather flustered over the thought of spending some time with the handsome man she had recently fallen for. She cleared her throat to regain her composure and continued, “…in the neighborhood, and, um…” She trailed off as she began to realize that with the kind of noise she was hearing through the door, it was unlikely anyone inside would be able to hear her through the door. Uncertain of what exactly was going on inside, she hesitated for a moment, but soon managed to work up enough courage to open the door and take a peek inside.

What Rarity saw inside the large room left her completely stunned in awe. The room was illuminated only by a few lanterns set up around the stage, and right there on that stage was Ragamuffin himself, doing an Irish stepdance to the beat and rhythm some Irish music being played by a small boom-box near the back of the stage. A few passengers and crewmembers stood around the stage and clapped along to the music. It seemed that Ragamuffin was making a gallant effort to keep everyone entertained in spite of these unfortunate circumstances.

As Rarity continued to watch Ragamuffin’s performance, she swooned and muttered lovingly, “Who needs electricity when you have… uh, well, whatever this is?”

Rainbow Dash had thoroughly searched the entire length of the ship from bow to stern and was left absolutely disappointed that she had failed to find any sign of Equestrian Magic, evil or otherwise. Since none of her friends expressed any interest in joining her efforts, she was left completely alone as she sulked while gazing out across the open ocean behind the ship.

The weather conditions certainly seemed to match Rainbow’s mood at the moment. Not only had the sky had remained completely covered in those dark storm clouds, but now a strong breeze had picked up and was sending small waves rippling across the ocean, albeit not quite intense enough to really have much effect on the ship at all.

Maybe Sunset was right, thought Rainbow Dash with a depressed sigh. Maybe there really is nothing out there, and I’ve just been wasting my time while making myself look like a complete fool…

BOOM! Crack!

Rainbow was startled out of her thoughts by that boom of thunder. She turned her gaze up at the dark storm clouds and saw immense bolts of lightning flash across the sky. This lightning didn’t just come and go like ordinary lightning, but instead seemed to jump back and forth across the sky and between the sky and ocean surface around the ship.

Rainbow continued watching the rapidly moving lightning as it soon began to jump across the ocean surface, eventually settling into some kind of glowing symbol in the water directly in front of her. The best she could describe this symbol would be a mirrored pair of blue lightning bolts that were closer together at the bottom and further apart at the top. There was no way something natural could spontaneously create something like this. It had to be the work of some magical force.

“Whoa!” said Rainbow in awe. She then grinned and proudly declared, “I knew it! There is evil magic out here! I gotta show this to everyone!” She then immediately rushed off in a rainbow motion blur to gather her friends.

Whoosh!

“Thanks for helping me calm all the animals in the petting zoo, Spike,” said Fluttershy as she and Spike walked together down one of the darkened hallways below deck, using one flashlight to help them find their way around.

“Glad I could help,” said Spike with a smile. “I couldn’t think of anything I could do by myself with the power out, and since I was pretty sure the outage might’ve spooked those animals, I figured you could use a helping hand.”

“And I must say, you did quite a wonderful job,” praised Fluttershy. “Where did you learn so much about proper animal care?”

Spike shrugged and replied, “Eh, I’m just good at picking up info on just about anything there is. Sort of comes with being roommates with Twilight.”

Fluttershy giggled and said, “Either way, I’m just glad all those adorable little animals are now able to get some much-needed rest. And I’m very relieved that we haven’t been faced with any further trouble after the power went out.”

Crash!

Two minifigs suddenly slammed into Fluttershy, causing her to be thrown backwards onto the floor as her left arm and right leg fell off while her hip joint detached from her torso. At the same time, those two sudden arrivals tumbled to the floor as they each dropped a large sack full of some stuff.

“Watch where you’re goin’ sissy!” snapped one of the two fallen guys.

“You watch where you’re going!” Spike shot back as he helped Fluttershy reattach all of her body parts. “You’re the ones who were running!”

Once Spike had finished putting Fluttershy back together, he suddenly turned his attention to the two new arrivals. He picked up the flashlight that Fluttershy had dropped and pointed it at those two guys, revealing them to be wearing black and white striped shirts and black beanie hats. He also discovered the sacks they had dropped were full of all kinds of cash, coins, and gems.

“Hey, I know you!” exclaimed Spike accusingly. “You’re those two robbers we keep bumping into! What are you up to this time?!”

“A heist on the high seas!” declared Rocky, the one with a grey jacked over his shirt and speaking with a gravelly gangster voice. “We was gonna wait ‘til nightfall to make our move, but the power goin’ out was too good an opportunity to pass up!”

“We snuck aboard at the port and hid away in the cargo hold,” added Mugsy, the one with the sleeves ripped off his shirt and speaking with a deeper dim-witted voice. “The lights going out made it easy for us to crack open the vault and take whatever we wanted, and now we’re gonna steal a lifeboat and make our getaway.”

Rocky smacked Mugsy upside the head and scolded, “You idiot! You’re not supposed to tell ‘em our whole plan!”

“But you already told them part of it,” Mugsy pointed out. “I thought it would be okay to say the rest.”

“Well, whatever it is you crooks are up to,” Spike boldly declared, “we’re here to put a stop to it! Right, Fluttershy?”

“Why are you even doing all of this, anyway?” asked Fluttershy.

Spike and the two robbers stared at Fluttershy in confusion.

“Why do the two of you always have to commit petty acts of burglary whenever and wherever you can?” continued Fluttershy. “You know it’s a very naughty thing to do, but you still do it anyway. And worse, you’re not even very good at it, because you almost never succeed in escaping with whatever ill-gotten loot you manage to get your hands on.” She suddenly softened her stance and quietly added, “Oh, um, s-sorry if I insulted you.”

“Just what are ya gettin’ at, sissy?!” demanded Rocky impatiently.

“What I’m suggesting is that maybe… maybe you should consider not being robbers anymore,” responded Fluttershy peacefully. “Everyone always has something they’re good at; you just need to figure out what it is. If burglary hasn’t been working out for… however long you’ve been doing it for, then maybe you should try something else instead.”

“Why would we wanna do that?!” asked Rocky dismissively. “We’ve been doin’ this stuff our whole lives, and we ain’t changin’ our ways anytime soon!”

“Uh, I dunno, Rocky,” muttered Mugsy with uncertainty. “I mean, if we’re always losing no matter how hard we try, then… maybe there’s something else we could actually win at?”

“That’s a dumb thing to say,” grumbled Rocky. He then suddenly glanced away and tapped his chin as he quietly added, “Though I have thought about takin’ up auto racin’ as a way to get same thrill I’ve had whenever the cops are after us.”

“Then you should try that,” encouraged Fluttershy with a smile. “You never know just how good at it you might actually be until you try it. What do you say?”

The two crooks didn’t immediately respond as they stared at Fluttershy and then glanced at each other, as if they seemed to be seriously considering her suggestion.

Meanwhile, Spike couldn’t help but smile at Fluttershy. He was quite proud to see her make such a remarkable effort to get through to two guys that so many others — including himself — had been so quick to write off as hopelessly lost causes.

Whoosh!

Rocky and Mugsy were both quickly bowled over as Rainbow Dash suddenly arrived. “No time for that!” was all she urgently said as she grabbed both Fluttershy and Spike and dragged them both behind her as she swiftly ran off.

Whoosh!

“Hey! That was another one of those sissies!” Mugsy spoke up as he and Rocky picked themselves back up. “I think it was the fast one.”

Rocky glanced down the hallway their foes had rushed off to, then snickered and remarked, “What a dummy!”

“Was I supposed to know her name?” asked Mugsy.

“I wasn’t talkin’ about you, moron!” Rocky shot back. “I was talkin’ about that speedy rainbow sissy.” He grinned as he pointed out, “She completely ignored us and took off with the only people who even know we’re here. You know what that means?”

“Uh… we go after her?”

“NO!” snapped Rocky as he smacked Mugsy upside the head. “It means we’re now free to pick up this loot and continue with our getaway!”

“Oh yeah!” realized Mugsy with a smile. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He and his partner in crime quickly gathered up the spilled loot back into their sacks and hauled them up onto their shoulders. “I guess this heist turned out quite well for us!”

“Not so fast!”

The two incompetent crooks were momentarily blinded by a flashlight as it was aimed right at their faces, causing them to again drop their stolen loot. Once they got over the shock of that exposure, they discovered that it was a crewwoman who had spoken to them, and she had a very displeased look on her face. A beam of light from behind them made them turned around to see a crewman had arrived from the opposite end of the hallway, and also had a very displeased look on his face.

“Looks like you two will be spending the rest of this voyage down in the brig!” declared the crewman.

Rocky and Mugsy glanced back and forth between the two crewmembers who had blocked off both directions in the hallway, leaving them trapped with no way out. “Aw, nuts!” grumbled Rocky.

Inside the wheelhouse up on the ship’s bridge, Sunset had removed the cover panel on the floor just in front of the ship’s wheel, revealing the emergency battery pack. She had already removed the plug to the massage chair, and after a bit of searching though the internal wiring of the main console, she finally found what she was looking for.

“That should do it,” said Sunset with a smile as she knelt down and plugged in the cable connecting one of the console’s display screens to the emergency battery pack. “Now we can take a look at that weather radar.”

Sunset stood up again and picked up the display screen she had detached from the console. She stared at the screen and watched it slowly activate, eventually displaying a map of everything within a radius of about fifty miles — which for their current location was nothing but open ocean. According to an indicator in the corner of the screen, the amount of precipitation in the surrounding area was displayed with green as the lightest and going up the color spectrum to red as the heaviest, and a note in another corner stated that the video being displayed was a repeating loop of the most recent six hours of activity.

As Sunset watched the repeating display of recent weather activity, she noticed something didn’t seem quite right. Most weather maps she had seen before often showed storms would drift across the map in a particular direction, sometimes growing or shrinking as they moved along. This radar map, however, seemed to display a storm to the south that had remained virtually stationary as it slowly grew to cover a larger area and with greater intensity in the center. She struggled to comprehend what she was seeing as the video loop played over and over.

“I’m no meteorologist,” Sunset spoke up uneasily, “but there’s something about this storm that doesn’t look quite natural…”

“May I have a look?” asked Captain Bluffbeard.

Whoosh!

Sunset was about to hand over the weather radar display when Rainbow Dash suddenly arrived through the doorway into the wheelhouse and urgently exclaimed, “No time for that!” Without any hesitation, she swiftly grabbed Sunset and ran off with her.

Whoosh!

Sunset yelped as she was dragged away so quickly that the weather radar display had remained in her hand, causing the wire that connected it to the plug in the battery to rip apart.

Bluffbeard stared in confusion at the open doorway those two girls had suddenly left through. His gaze then turned down to the battery pack and the detached wire still plugged into it, and just seconds later, he simply shrugged and remarked, “Oh well.”

With a smile on his face, he removed the now useless plug from the battery and replaced it with the plug to his massage chair. He then hopped into that chair and activated it. He let out a sigh of relaxation as that chair worked its wonders on him.

Down in the engine room, Twilight had been hard at work repairing the shoddy patchwork to the main engine while the three crewmen stood aside and watched. As bad as the repair job was, she had done a remarkable job of not getting any significant messes or stains on her dress, though she had a feeling Rarity would still freak out over where she had been in it, but that wasn’t important right now. What really mattered is that power would soon be restored to the entire ship and this whole catastrophe could be put behind them.

“Just gotta nudge this back into place before tightening the bolt…” muttered Twilight before she used the wrench in her hand to beat the loose pipe back into its proper alignment.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Once that was done, Twilight used that wrench to tighten the bolt to hold it in place. She then rolled out the dolly from under the engine as she tossed the wrench to the floor and asked the crewmen, “Still taking notes?”

“Got ‘em all right here!” one of the crewmen proudly stated as he held up his notepad, revealing the latest page he had scribbled notes on.

“Good,” said Twilight with approval. At least now I can be sure you guys will know how to deal with this yourselves if it ever happens again, she added mentally, not at all ignoring the fact that she had done all of the manual labor herself. “And now for the final and most crucial step of all,” she spoke up as she held up a large electric plug. “All that’s left is to hold this lead wire in place while the auxiliary unit cycles and everything should be back to normal.”

“How long should that take?” asked the crewman as he scribbled down more notes.

“A simple three second countdown should do it,” replied Twilight as she rolled the dolly back under the engine. She inserted the plug and counted, “Three… two…”

Whoosh!

Rainbow Dash suddenly rushed into the room and stood between Twilight and the three crewmen. “No time for that!” she urgently exclaimed as she grabbed Twilight by the leg and swiftly yanked her out from under the engine before running off with her, her hardhat falling off in the process.

Whoosh!

“Did it work?” asked one of the crewmen.

“I don’t think that was the full three seconds,” muttered another of the crewmen as he pointed at the now severed plug that was discarded on the floor.

Almost right away, sparks started jumping across the wires as they short-circuited all over the place, while the pipes groaned until the pressure built up enough to make a valve handle burst off and start venting hot steam through the opening.

“Well that was a big waste of time,” grumbled the third crewman as he tossed his notepad over his shoulder. “Better put on the coffee, boys. Looks like we’re gonna have to work on this overnight.”

In the buffet room, Pinkie Pie and Puffed Pastry had reached a stalemate in their opposing efforts. Puffed Pastry continued to hold her ground in close proximity to the bundt cake, but was unable locate the pesky intruder. Pinkie had done an excellent job of avoiding detection, but was unable to see a way to make that final leap towards the bundt cake without being caught by that grouchy chef.

Looks like I’ll need to use some advanced tactics for that final push to victory, thought Pinkie as she removed her hair piece, reached her hand inside, and pulled out a single piece of candy. She put her hair back on and, with a smirk on her face, she tightened her grip on the piece of candy to make it glow pink from her magical power. She gently lifted the surrounding tablecloth she had taken shelter under and flicked the piece of candy across the room.

Poof!

Puffed Pasty immediately turned to where that minor explosion had occurred. “Zat better not be firecrackers coming from you…” she growled threateningly as she walked over to the site of that small burst.

With the distraction successful, Pinkie knew it was now or never if she was going to taste that bundt cake. She quickly got out from under the table, stood up right in front of the dessert table, and picked up the entire bundt cake. Mission accomplished! she thought as she took a brief moment to admire the barely illuminated sight of that bundt cake in her hands before she prepared to take a huge bite out of it.

Whoosh!

“No time for that!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she suddenly arrived, grabbed Pinkie, and dragged her along as she rushed back out.

Whoosh!

The abduction was so sudden that Pinkie lost her grip on the bundt cake and dropped it to the floor before she ever got a chance to even touch her tongue against it.

Splat!

Puffed Pastry spun around and gasped when she saw that bundt cake was now splattered against the floor. She quickly glanced at the open doorway and caught a brief glimpse of Pinkie Pie being dragged away. “Banned for life!” she hollered furiously as she waved her spatula in the air.

“NOOOOOOOO!!” screamed Pinkie, her shriek of horror echoing through the hallways.

In the indoor stage, Ragamuffin had finished his impromptu dance performance, so all of the few passengers and crew who had watched had now left. However, Rarity had stayed behind, now that she had an opportunity to speak with him in private. They both sat together on the stage with only a tray of snacks from the buffet sitting between them.

“I must confess my complete unfamiliarity with that form of dance you performed,” admitted Rarity, “but I will say that it was one of the most wondrous performances I had ever witnessed.”

Ragamuffin chuckled awkwardly as he looked away and confessed, “Well, it’s an old passion from me youth. Me pa worked in a coal mine, but I always wanted to dance!” He glanced over at Rarity — who continued to stare at him with infatuation — and sadly muttered, “Eh, a fancy girl like you wouldn’t understand…”

Rarity adjusted her hair as she bashfully explained, “Well, actually, back in my junior year in high school, I partook in our production of Bedazzled, where I played a coal miner’s daughter who danced in bedazzled magical boots from her fairy bootmother, so…” she trailed off with a nervous laugh as she saw Ragamuffin smile back at her.

Neither Rarity nor Ragamuffin said another word as they continued to stare into each other’s eyes. There was no need to speak, for their loving gazes expressed all they cared to know in this heartwarming moment. The two lovers soon began to slowly bring their faces closer together…

Whoosh!

“No time for that!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she snatched Rarity and ran off with her without even slowing down, causing the fashionista to yelp in terror.

Meanwhile, Ragamuffin stared at the spot where the woman he loved sat only a split second ago. It seemed fate had conspired to deny them their moment of romance, so he let out a sigh of sadness.

Applejack groaned as she lay in bed in her room. The frequent bouts of seasickness all day long had really taken their toll on her, and she was very thankful for her friend Rarity in helping her reach this room from the forward deck. She hadn’t even bothered to change out of her performance dress, as she felt too dizzy to really do much of anything besides getting some much-needed bedrest.

This day can’t get any worse… thought Applejack miserably as she let out a tired breath.

Whoosh!

“No time for that!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she swiftly arrived right next to Applejack’s bed, hauled her out of bed, and rushed off with her.

Oh boy, here we go again… thought Applejack miserably, not due to her sickness but because of her stubborn friend.

Once she had finally gathered all of her friends together, Rainbow Dash eagerly led them past the swimming pool towards the stern of the ship. “I promise, this is way more important than all of your things combined,” she insisted excitedly without even glancing back at any of her friends.

Behind Rainbow, all of her friends quickly reacted with various words of doubt, skepticism, and even hostility from some of them.

Rainbow Dash ignored their comments, for she was convinced she was about to prove them all wrong. As she finally reached the railing along the stern of the ship, she spread her arms out and held her head high as she declared, “Behold! Evil magic!”

The others all looked out across the open water behind the ship and muttered various words of confusion and bafflement.

Rainbow was not expecting such a dull reaction from her friends, so she turned her gaze down to the water. She gasped when she finally noticed that the glowing symbol she had seen only moments earlier had now completely vanished, and the only thing there was to see was an empty ocean surface. “But… but the whole ocean was glowing just a minute ago!” she desperately explained. “It went all ‘whoosh-whoosh-whoosh’ with— with little ribbon thingies and—!”

“Do you know which sorcerer can conjure the greatest magic of all?” asked Twilight indignantly with her arms crossed. “Mother Nature.”

Rainbow Dash stared blankly at Twilight for a moment and slowly asked, “What?”

“What you saw was probably nothing more than an innate phosphorescent biochemical property of common algae,” explained Twilight irritably.

“Whaaaat?” asked Rainbow again, completely lost.

“She means collections of microscopic sea life that glow in the dark,” clarified Sunset with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. “It’s a well-documented phenomenon.”

Rainbow Dash clenched her fists and furrowed her brow as she sharply responded to Twilight, “If that’s what you think, then let’s get in some of those lifeboats and I’ll prove it!” She pointed out to sea and added, “I saw the magic come from that way! We’ll sail out and find the source!”

“And then?” asked Twilight as she raised an eyebrow.

“Then it’s go time!” answered Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm.

“Which means?” asked Twilight impatiently.

“We take no prisoners!” declared Rainbow Dash as she raised a fist.

“What do you suggest we do instead of capturing them?” asked Twilight flatly.

“Huh?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion as she lowered her fist.

“‘Take no prisoners’?” clarified Twilight irritably. “That phrase implies you wish to eradicate whatever’s out there, regardless of how little association it might have with our issues here.” She facepalmed and shouted, “Are you even listening to yourself?!”

Rainbow Dash growled in frustration, then pointed at Twilight and accusingly exclaimed, “You don’t want me to be right because you’re too scared to be a superhero!”

Twilight slapped Rainbow’s hand away and furiously shot back, “We are not superheroes!”

Rainbow scoffed and dryly retorted, “Oh, excuuuuse me! We’re just ordinary girls who just happen to be members of the heroic LEGO Team with special powers who just happen to have saved the whole world from complete destruction multiple times!”

Twilight pretended to think for a moment before she flatly responded, “Uh, yes. That’s exactly who we are.”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped as she stared at Twilight in disbelief, then clenched her fists as she growled furiously and argued, “You go ahead and keep telling yourself that, but the rest of us aren’t in denial! Right, girls? Let’s get in those lifeboats and do what we do best! Who’s with me?!”

The rest of the group standing behind Twilight did not share Rainbow’s enthusiasm at all. In fact, practically all of them seemed to regard her invitation for heroism with open hostility, either by turning their looks of frustration away or growling furiously and crossing their arms. It was so obvious that not even someone as blinded by ego as Rainbow Dash could possibly deny the reality that she well and truly stood alone in her efforts.

Rainbow slumped as she sighed and grumbled, “Okay, that’s the last time I say that.”

“The fact that just about everything you’ve done to us today has only made our time on this cruise increasingly worse might explain why we find it so hard to trust you right now,” explained Sunset with a frown. “Just because we’ve already saved the world a bunch of times doesn’t mean we want to keep doing it all the time.”

“And dragging us all here against our will just to see absolutely nothing certainly hasn’t done you any favors,” added Spike grumpily. “I mean, if you really wanted to show us something that badly, couldn’t you have just, I dunno, used your phone to take a picture and send it to us?”

Rainbow’s immediate response to that question was nothing more than a blank stare. Clearly, she had not even considered such an idea, and in a poor attempt to avoid embarrassing herself, she glanced away and rubbed the back of her head as she awkwardly responded, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…”

“You are such a brick-head,” grumbled Spike as he shook his head in disappointment. “I’m outta here.” He turned away and began walking towards the nearest door to the interior of the ship.

“I’m with Spike on this,” declared Pinkie with a scowl. “For the second time today, I was literally only one second away from finally tasting that Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cake, only for you to completely ruin it all! And worse, because of your impatience, I’m now perma-banned from the buffet, which means I’m gonna be left starving for the rest of our time out here! WHAT KIND OF SICK PERSON DOES THAT TO HER OWN FRIEND!?!” She let out a furious sigh and stormed off to the door into the ship.

“I must share Pinkie’s indignant attitude towards you,” added Rarity offensively. “I was in the middle of a romantic moment with that lovely crewmate Ragamuffin, only moments away from sharing our first kiss, when you just had to snatch me away like some sort of barbaric brute! After an interruption like that, I imagine it would be a miracle if he were to even speak to me ever again! Remember this day well, Rainbow Dash, for I swear, I shall find a way to one day make you feel the same heartbreak you have just made me endure!” She turned around with a huff and marched away to follow Pinkie and Spike.

“Don’t even get me started on our engine trouble,” grumbled Twilight. “If it hadn’t been for your impeccably poor timing, I would’ve been able to restore all electrical power to this ship by now. Instead, I wouldn’t be surprised if we wake up tomorrow to see everything still offline due to the damage your disruption caused.” She turned away and made her way back to the ship’s interior.

Sunset pulled out the disabled display screen she had unintentionally brought with her and scolded, “This was the weather radar display from the ship’s bridge, and thanks to you practically kidnapping me with awful timing, we now have no way of knowing just how bad this storm is or how long it might last. For all we know, we could be stranded at sea for weeks before anyone tries to find us. And believe me, I’ll make sure everyone on board knows who to point the blame at.” She tossed the destroyed electronic at Rainbow’s feet, then turned to follow after Twilight.

Applejack simply glared at Rainbow and scornfully muttered, “Do Ah really have to say anythin’?” She turned away and followed after the others.

Fluttershy looked away and hesitated for a moment. With a heavy heart, she eventually said, “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but… it’s like you don’t even care about any of us.” She turned around and shamefully confessed, “I just don’t see any reason why any of us should even trust you right now.” With a sigh of disappointment, she walked to the door into the ship.

Once again, Rainbow Dash found herself standing completely alone. It just didn’t seem fair to her. She was absolutely convinced that she had finally found proof of evil Equestrian Magic, but none of her friends were willing to believe her. Instead, they were blaming her for all of their issues, and she just couldn’t understand why they all thought it was such a big deal. In her mind, nothing could be more important than stopping evil magic from Equestria.

As Rainbow Dash took one last glanced out at the empty rippling ocean surface behind the ship, she couldn’t help but mutter, “But it was evil magic…”

Later that night, Twilight and Sunset were in their room and getting ready for bed. They had already changed out of their dresses and into their pajamas, and were now finishing up in the bathroom. Under the illumination of one of the provided flashlights, Twilight washed her face over the sink while Sunset brushed her teeth off to the side.

As Twilight stepped aside and grabbed a small towel to dry herself off with, she spoke up, “I know Rainbow Dash has been such a stubborn pest today, but now that I’ve had time to cool off and think, I can’t help but wonder if maybe we went a little too far.”

Sunset spat out her toothpaste into the sink and rinsed her toothbrush as she responded, “As far as what was said, I’d say we’ve gone as far as we possibly could. All we can hope for now is that she actually thinks about everything and listens to us.”

“And if she doesn’t?” asked Twilight as she retrieved her glasses and put them back on.

Sunset sighed as she packed away her toothbrush and replied, “Then I guess she’s just one of those people who pretty much need to get punched in the face before she finally learns her lesson. Believe me, I know from personal experience…” She trailed off as she thought back to that time when she was corrupted by Equestrian Magic, turned into a raging she-demon, and got blasted by a friendship rainbow laser before she finally learned to stop being so mean to everyone around her.

The implication left Twilight feeling uneasy. As she grabbed the flashlight to guide herself and Sunset to their separate beds, she asked, “Is this another suggestion that we should let karma do its thing, as you said earlier?”

“At this point,” replied Sunset reluctantly, “we may have to give her the Boy Who Cried Wolf treatment. We’ll completely ignore any more talk of evil magic from her, and in the unlikely event that something evil really is somewhere around, then she’ll have to give us a very heartfelt apology for everything she did to us before we can start taking her seriously again.”

“I sure hope it doesn’t have to come to that,” muttered Twilight.

Thump-thump-thump!

“C’mon, Pinkie! Let me in!” shouted Rainbow Dash from outside the room.

“No!” came Pinkie Pie’s muffled response from another room.

Twilight and Sunset glanced at each other in confusion, then walked to the door and carefully opened it to see what was happening out in the hallway without drawing any attention to themselves.

“You can’t just lock me out!” insisted Rainbow Dash as she pounded on the door to the room that she and Pinkie had agreed to share. “This is my room, too!”

“No!” Pinkie shouted back from the other side of that door. “I refuse to share a room with a big meanie-pants like you!”

“C’mon, Pinkie!” demanded Rainbow as she pounded on the door again. “All my stuff is in there!”

Pinkie didn’t immediately respond. A few seconds later, the door unlocked with a click and opened. But before Rainbow had a chance to do anything, a large trunk was suddenly hurled at her, striking her in the abdomen. That was quickly followed by one suitcase to the chest, another suitcase to the legs, and a third suitcase to the abdomen as she fell over onto her rear. Finally, the last item tossed out was her electric guitar, which struck her in the forehead.

“Ow!” shouted Rainbow as she rubbed the part of her head that was hit.

With all of Rainbow Dash’s luggage now tossed outside, Pinkie immediately slammed the door shut and relocked it with a click. “And since it’s your fault I’ll be starving all week, I took all of your energy bars!” Pinkie hollered back through the shut door.

“Fine!” snapped Rainbow Dash as she hastily gathered up all of her discarded luggage. “I’ll sleep out on the deck! At least that way, when that evil magic shows up, I’ll be ready to face it the moment it arrives!” She turned away and began to drag her luggage behind her as she made her way down the hallway towards the door that would lead outside onto the deck above.

Twilight and Sunset shared a concerned glance, then retreated back into their room and carefully closed their door. Despite Rainbow’s awful behavior all day, the two girls just couldn’t help but think that she didn’t deserve such vengeful treatment from her friends. As much as they wanted to do something about it, they felt that it was probably not a good idea to try talking with her so soon after such a fierce confrontation. Perhaps a good night’s rest would allow everyone to calm down and allow them to resolve their tensions the next morning.

Author's Note

For the second update in a row, I was just barely able to finish this chapter only a couple days before my scheduled deadline, but hopefully now that some of my other hobbies have become less time-consuming for now, I might be able to avoid cutting it so close for the remaining chapters of this story. Anyway, as I often like to do, I added on to a few scenes in an effort to help make sense of some things, such as why Pinkie was banned from the buffet for apparently unfair reasons. Also, Bluffbeard, a sea captain with seemingly no shame for his incompetence, is a character from the video game Lego City Undercover (a game which over the past month I've finally been able to actually play, and can now say it's definitely my favorite video game of all). And of course, we just can't have a LEGO Equestria Girls story without a brief appearance of those two robbers, Rocky and Mugsy.

Rescue Mission

Chapter 3
Rescue Mission

The next morning, the situation aboard the Luxe Deluxe had remained unchanged. Despite going through half of their coffee supply to stay up all night long, the crewmen in the engine room had struggled to make much progress with repairing the extensive damage to the ship’s main engine, so the power was still out for everyone on board. In addition, the storm outside showed no signs of passing anytime soon, and in fact seemed to be slowly growing even worse. As a result of being stranded in stormy conditions for an indefinite amount of time, the crew decided to be on the safe side and began asking everyone on the ship to start wearing lifejackets — orange pieces that covered the front and back of the torso and were attached around the neck joint.

Despite the occasional rumble of thunder and distant flash of lightning outside, most of the people on the ship tried to make the most with what they had available. The kitchen was one of the few rooms that had a backup generator, so the kitchen staff were able to provide everyone with a warm breakfast. Among the passengers dining in the buffet room were the Equestria Girls — with the exception of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, for whom their ban was still in effect. They were all now back in the same outfits they had worn the previous afternoon, with the addition of those mandatory lifejackets over their torsos.

Boom!

One lightning strike had come close enough that the accompanying boom of thunder had caused the whole ship to briefly shake — which the passengers noticed had made the chandeliers handing from the ceiling slightly sway.

At the table where the Equestria Girls sat, Applejack was the only one without a tray of food in front of her. Already green in the face from her seasickness, she rested her head against the table as she groaned and miserably muttered, “This storm sure ain’t makin’ me feel any better…”

Rarity was seated beside Applejack and wordlessly comforted her seasick friend by gently rubbing her back.

While Fluttershy, Spike, and Sunset contently ate their breakfast, Twilight barely ate anything on her tray as she had a rather depressed look on her face.

Noticing her friend’s sullen mood, Sunset asked, “What’s wrong, Twilight?”

Twilight kept her eyes down at her tray as she sighed and replied, “I wasn’t very nice to Rainbow Dash last night.”

“It’s not just your fault, Twilight,” assured Fluttershy.

“Yeah,” acknowledged Spike with regret. “We all contributed to chewing her out last night.”

“No one’s blaming you for wanting to give us a normal vacation, Twilight,” assured Sunset. She looked down at her tray as she sadly added, “We’d be having one if it weren’t for me. I brought Equestrian Magic to this world in the first place.”

Hearing those words made Twilight turn her gaze up at Sunset. “I wouldn’t trade you for anything in the world,” stated Twilight as she reached forward and placed her hand atop Sunset’s. “In any world. It’s because of you that I got a chance to have the best friends I could ever ask for.”

Sunset stared at Twilight’s hand atop hers, then smiled as she looked up at Twilight and said, “I wouldn’t trade you for anything, either. You and all our friends mean so much to me. And after what happened yesterday, we should make sure Rainbow Dash feels the same way.”

“I agree,” said Twilight with a smile and a nod. “Like you said last night, she’ll be more likely to listen now that we’ve had some time to cool off. As soon as we’re finished breakfast, we’ll go out onto the deck and find her.”

With the decision made, Twilight and Sunset quickly finished their meals. Within a few minutes, they left the buffet room through the double doors and made their way down the hallway towards the deck above.

Just outside the buffet room, Pinkie Pie sat on the floor beside the doorway. As she watched two of her friends leave, she sighed sadly and gazed down at her feet. Seeing everyone else being able to enjoy their meals without any issues left her feeling absolutely depressed. It just wasn’t fair.

Just a few seconds later, Fluttershy opened the door and looked down at Pinkie with a friendly smile as she stepped out of the buffet room. She knelt down beside Pinkie and held out a tray with all kinds of breakfast food piled on top of it.

The smell of that delicious meal made Pinkie turn her attention towards Fluttershy. When she saw the large meal that had been brought to her, she gasped excitedly and immediately pulled Fluttershy into a big hug as she cheerfully exclaimed, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Fluttershy giggled and remarked, “Did you really think I would just allow you to starve? You know I’m too nice to not help a friend in trouble.”

“Oh, thank you so much, Fluttershy!” exclaimed Pinkie in gratitude as she grabbed the tray and set it down in her lap. “You really are a true friend I can always count on.” Her expression suddenly soured as she grumbled, “Unlike a certain someone who put me out here in the first place.”

“Don’t worry about Rainbow Dash,” assured Fluttershy. “Sunset and Twilight are on their way to have a talk with her. I’m sure they’ll convince her to relax so we can all be on friendly terms again.”

Pinkie didn’t bother responding as she quickly began digging into the large meal that had been so kindly brought to her by one of her best friends.

Outside the ship, the stormy conditions had definitely gotten worse overnight. Small waves were now constantly rolling all around the idle ship, and a strong breeze had forced everyone to take shelter below deck. The fact that Rainbow Dash had spent the night outside and fully exposed to this kind of weather was a rather horrifying thought to Twilight and Sunset, and only deepened the guilt they felt for choosing to wait. With their hair whipping around in the wind, the two girls walked together along the main deck as they searched for their absent friend.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out over the howling wind. “We’re ready to have a do-over!”

A sudden strong gust nearly threw the two girls off their feet, forcing them to hold down their hair pieces to prevent them from blowing away. When the gust calmed down, Sunset stumbled over to the side of the ship, where the lifeboats were stored. As she regained her bearings, she quickly noticed one of those lifeboats was actually missing. “Over here, Twilight!” she called out.

Twilight turned to Sunset and saw the empty space among the lifeboats that she was pointing at. That was all she needed to see to realize there was a high probability that Rainbow Dash had something to do with it.

“You don’t think she went off into the storm, do you?” asked Sunset worriedly as she and Twilight peered over the side of the ship to look down at the choppy sea below.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” cautioned Twilight as she backed away from the railing. “Unlike Rainbow’s methods yesterday, I intend to take a more practical approach right from the start.” She pulled out her phone and smiled. “I’ll just call her and we’ll have our answer right away.”

Twilight pulled up her list of contacts on her phone, then tapped the icon displaying Rainbow Dash. Twilight and Sunset could only wait in tension as they listed to the dial tone. Finally, after half a minute, they heard a prerecorded message from Rainbow Dash that spoke, “What’s up, nerds? It’s Rainbow Dash having way too much fun being awesome to answer your call! So leave a message, if you’re too old to text me!”

As they listened to Rainbow’s voicemail message, Twilight and Sunset slowly turned their worried gazes out towards the stormy sea. It seemed the failed effort to call their missing friend had indeed given them the answer they needed, though it was far from the one they had been hoping for.

Boom!

Another flash of lightning and the accompanying thunder only enhanced the dread the two girls were now feeling.

Sunset kicked the railing in frustration and grumbled, “We shouldn’t have waited… We should’ve spoken to her last night… At the very least, one of us should’ve kept an eye on her! And now she’s gone off and done something so stupid that it could cost her Creation Spark.”

“What do you suggest we do?” asked Twilight worriedly.

Sunset wasn’t sure how to answer that at first as she stared out at the rough seas. Her gaze turned to one of the remaining lifeboats and soon she began to realize there was only one thing they absolutely had to do. She narrowed her eyes and replied with determination, “Call our friends and tell them to meet us here right away. I’ll be right back.” She then quickly ran off down the deck.

Twilight was unsure what Sunset had in mind, but obeyed her request and quickly texted all of the rest of their friends. At the very least, they deserved to see for themselves what was really going on with Rainbow Dash, as far as they knew.

A few minutes later, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike had gathered together with Twilight near the site of the missing lifeboat. Twilight had just finished explaining the situation to them when they saw Sunset return, carrying in her arms a few supplies that included a towel, a life preserver ring, and a first aid kit.

“I just spoke with the captain,” stated Sunset as she tossed the supplies into one of the remaining lifeboats. “He’s given me permission to borrow a lifeboat and some supplies so I can find Rainbow Dash.”

“You’re going after her?” asked Twilight in shock.

“She wouldn’t even be out there if I hadn’t brought Equestrian Magic to the Lego World in the first place,” replied Sunset shamefully, keeping her back to her friends. She turned around to face them and asked, “What about you, Twilight? Are you in?”

“Of course I’m in!” declared Twilight with determination as she stepped forward. “A hundred percent on board!”

Everyone stared at Twilight, the awkward silence broken only by a distant rumble of thunder.

Sunset gestured to the lifeboat and said, “Then get on board.”

“I just said I—” began Twilight, but suddenly stopped as soon as she made a realization. She smiled and slyly added, “Ohhh, ‘on board.’ I see what you did there.” As she walked past Sunset towards the lifeboat, she couldn’t help but nervously think, What have I gotten myself into?

Sunset turned to all of her other friends and asked, “What about the rest of you?”

“In mah condition, there’s no way Ah’ll last more than a few seconds out there,” admitted Applejack, holding one hand against the wall of windows to keep herself upright. “Ah’ll help the crew fix the engine while you’re gone. With any luck, we’ll be ready to go before that storm gets too severe.” She suddenly wobbled and began to fall over backwards, but Pinkie quickly caught her and pulled her friend close to comfort her.

“But you’re seasick,” Sunset pointed out worriedly. “Going below deck is the worst thing you could do.”

Applejack gulped down her seasickness and gave a weak smile as she stated, “Not worse than losin’ Rainbow Dash.”

“I’ll stay here and help keep people calm!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully declared with a salute. She briefly turned away and muttered under her breath, “Get cake.” When she noticed she got weird looks from saying that, she spoke up, “I mean, keep people calm!”

“And I’ll make sure there’s lifejackets for everyone,” assured Fluttershy. She gently petted a grey bunny in her arms as she added, “Even grandchildren.”

“I’ll head up to the bridge,” stated Spike. “If what you’ve said about the captain is true, then he’ll need a number one assistant to keep his head on straight in a crisis like this.”

“And I’ll inform the below-deck crew of these unforeseen events,” declared Rarity dramatically, “even though we’re from two different worlds. One a lonely coal miner, the other a sophisticated beaut—”

Applejack suddenly gagged and held a hand over her mouth while she happened to be facing towards Rarity.

That quickly snapped Rarity out of her fantasy. She blushed in embarrassment as she cleared her throat and awkwardly said, “I mean, I’ll, uh, I’ll, uh, I’ll help Applejack feel better.”

By this point, both Twilight and Sunset had climbed into the lifeboat and secured their supplies. As Twilight waved to their friends staying behind, Sunset stated, “We’ll find Rainbow Dash and be back as soon as possible. Let’s go, Twilight!”

Twilight nodded in acknowledgement and used her telekinetic power to steadily unspool the ropes, gently lowering the lifeboat into the water.

As soon as the lifeboat was afloat in the sea, Sunset untied the rope on her end, while Twilight started up the motor on the back. With the motor revved up, the lifeboat began to speed away from the ship as the two girls riding in it looked ahead with determination.

With the strong breeze whipping their hair around and the rough seas rocking the boat around, it took a little while for Sunset to get the feeling they weren’t actually going very far. She glanced back and noticed that the rope on Twilight’s end of the boat was still tethered to the ship. She turned her gaze towards Twilight and flatly stated, “You forgot to untie the rope.”

Twilight glanced back at the ship and noticed the silly mistake she had made. “Whoops. My bad,” she muttered as she untied the rope. Once they were definitely free from the ship, she steered the lifeboat out into the open ocean.

“Are you sure this is where Rainbow Dash went?” asked Sunset. “From the brief glimpse I saw on the weather radar last night, this would take us right into the worst part of the storm.”

“She was pointing in this general direction when she wanted us to follow her in the lifeboats,” noted Twilight. “Knowing her, she would probably rush head-first into danger without even a second thought, so we have no choice but to do the same.”

Boom!

Another flash of lightning and rumble of thunder startled the two girls. Just seconds later, they began to feel a light drizzle descending upon them.

“This is suicide,” muttered Sunset in disbelief. “We should not be doing something this crazy…”

“I really hope we’ll at least find something,” said Twilight worriedly. “If anything happened to Rainbow Dash out in these conditions, I doubt we would ever find any trace of her.”

“There! Up ahead!” Sunset suddenly cried out as she pointed ahead of the boat.

Twilight looked ahead and saw a small island beginning to emerge through the dark fog. She was momentarily astonished to see they were rapidly approaching such a significant landmass. As far as she could recall, there wasn’t supposed to be any land at all in this part of the ocean. Regardless, if Rainbow Dash was heading this way, then she almost certainly would have landed on that island.

As the lifeboat got closer, the two girls were able to better identify some features on this mysterious island. It was surrounded by jagged rocks, lined with broad beaches, and its interior was covered in dense jungle vegetation. With the rain starting to come down a little more, Twilight carefully navigated around those jagged rocks and gradually slowed down the motor as they approached the nearest beach. Once they made landfall, Twilight and Sunset quickly hopped out of the lifeboat and dragged it further up onto the beach to ensure it wouldn’t get swept out to sea without them.

As soon as the two girls set down their lifeboat, Sunset immediately spotted something resting further down the beach to their left. “Over there! Look!” she exclaimed. She swiftly removed her lifejacket piece and tossed it into their lifeboat as she began running towards the object she has sighted.

Twilight removed her life jacket and dropped it into their lifeboat before she followed after Sunset. As they approached the object on the beach, Twilight gasped and exclaimed, “It’s the missing lifeboat!”

“Along with a lifejacket,” noted Sunset as she picked up the single lifejacket piece that had been discarded within that other lifeboat. She tossed that lifejacket back into the lifeboat as she concluded, “Rainbow Dash has to be somewhere on this island.”

“But where could she have run off to?” asked Twilight.

Not long after that question was asked, both Sunset and Twilight turned their gazes towards the dense jungle inland from the beach. To say its first impression was of darkness and foreboding would be a huge understatement.

“You don’t think she… went in there? Do you?” asked Twilight worriedly.

As obvious as the answer probably was, Sunset would be lying if she said she didn’t dread it as much as her friend did.

Squawk!

Both Sunset and Twilight turned their attention to an upper branch of a nearby palm tree, where they saw a blue and yellow parrot was perched. Sunset sighed and grumbled, “Should’ve asked Fluttershy to come with us.”

The parrot faced the two girls as it squawked again, then spoke, “I’m going in that jungle!”

“I’m going in that jungle?” repeated Sunset in confusion. She glanced back and forth between the spooky jungle and the parrot, and it soon dawned on her that there was no longer any doubt as to where their missing friend had run off to. She turned back to Twilight and spoke up, “That parrot must be repeating what Rainbow said! Let’s go!”

Twilight glanced back at the jungle, then turned to Sunset and hesitantly asked, “In there?” She stared in horror at what little of the edge of that jungle she could see, watching the thick vegetation rustle in the wind, and she could have sworn she saw a few creepy little creatures skittering around along the ground. On top of that, the unrelenting rainfall only made everything even worse. She turned back to Sunset and fearfully insisted, “A-a-anyone could’ve said that.”

The parrot squawked again and spoke, “And I’m gonna improvise Rainbow Dash style!” The parrot finished with another squawk.

With that quote, there was no longer any doubt among anyone. Rainbow Dash had definitely run off into that spooky jungle.

Twilight threw her hands up in defeat and grumbled, “Ugh! Fine, we’ll go in there…”

Sunset led the way into the jungle, with Twilight reluctantly following right behind her. After walking only a few steps into the jungle, Sunset stopped and looked around as she muttered to herself, “Hmm… If I were as dumb and reckless as Rainbow Dash, which way would I go?” It was a legitimate question to ask, for she could not think of any other methods for possibly finding their missing friend in such a wild environment. When her gaze settled on a particularly dark and spooky looking path, she concluded, “Straight into the most obvious looking place for all things dark and evil.” She began walking down that dark path.

Twilight groaned and followed Sunset. As much as she despised that answer, she knew she couldn’t possibly dispute the reasoning Sunset had used.

As the two girls made their way deeper into the dark jungle, Sunset pushed aside a low-hanging vine, but when Twilight did likewise, a few bats suddenly came flying out of the shadows. Twilight yelped and frantically tried to shoo those bats away as she ran after Sunset. Once those bats were gone, Twilight momentarily lost her sense of direction, but the rustling noise Sunset was making through the foliage allowed her to quickly find her way back onto the trail.

A little further up the path, Sunset pushed aside some large leaves as she kept walking. Twilight had just caught up to her friend when one of those giant leaves sprung back and slapped her in the face like a fly swatter. She growled in frustration, then tore the leaf off its stem and tossed it aside. Should’ve brought my plasma blade, thought Twilight sourly.

Further ahead, Sunset emerged from the foliage and saw a clear and straight path up ahead, so she took this opportunity to pick up the pace. Twilight continued to follow her friend, but in her haste to keep up, she failed to watch where she was stepping and ended up tripping on a small rock embedded in the ground. She fell face-first against the dirt path, which the heavy rain had turned to mud. She got back up and groaned in disgust as she tried to smear off as much of the mud from her dress as possible. She removed her glasses and held them up to let the rainwater rinse them off as she used her other hand to wipe her face clean. Once everything on her was as clean as she could possibly get within only a matter of seconds, she put her glasses back on and continued up the trail.

By the end of that straight path, Sunset slowed to a walk and once again pushed aside a large leaf as she continued ahead. This time, Twilight saw the giant leaf coming and was able to dodge it when her friend released it. She smirked triumphantly as she stepped around that leaf, only to suddenly have a spider land right on her face. She shrieked and swiftly removed her glasses, which the spider clung onto. She flicked her glasses around until the spider was finally flung off, landing on its back on the ground near Twilight’s feet. As the spider helplessly wriggled its legs around in the air, she promptly kicked it aside back into the dense jungle.

Sunset glanced back at Twilight, then raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips as she asked, “What happened to all of your Shadowbolt training?”

“I was never fond of any field excursions,” Twilight specified as she put her glasses back on. “I was perfectly content with staying in my hideout and working on my inventions at all times.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and continued forward through the jungle. As the rainfall started getting especially heavy, she growled and grumbled, “I am so gonna make Rainbow Dash pay for forcing us to put up with all of this.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” muttered Twilight under her breath.

After a gradual uphill climb, the two girls immediately stopped when the path suddenly ended at the edge of a cliff. There was another cliff up ahead to form the opposite side of a gorge, the bottom of which descended all the way down towards a passage of seawater. The gap across was not far, but it was enough that there was no way to simply jump across without plunging into the roiling ocean far below.

“There’s no way Rainbow Dash could’ve made it across this,” noted Twilight.

“Help! Help!” cried a faint voice off in the distance.

Sunset’s eyes widened as she gasped and exclaimed, “That sounded like Rainbow Dash!”

“And it sounded like she’s in trouble,” added Twilight worriedly. “Where could she possibly be?”

Sunset shushed Twilight and placed her hand against the side of her head.

“Heeeeeellllllp!” cried Rainbow’s panicked voice again.

Despite the difficulty of identifying a faintly distant voice over the noise of the heavy rainfall, Sunset was able to deduce the direction it came from. “I think it’s coming from over there!” she exclaimed as she pointed directly across the gorge.

“You have got to be kidding me!” shouted Twilight as she gripped her hair in frustration. “How did she even get over there?!”

Sunset glanced back in the direction they came from. After a moment of thought, she noted, “The ground slopes upward leading up to this ledge. Rainbow Dash could’ve used her super speed to simply jump across, like a car at high speed going off a ramp.”

“That’s definitely not gonna be an option for us,” grumbled Twilight. “How are we gonna get across?”

Sunset once again looked around for possible solutions. She suddenly pointed to the right and spoke up, “Twilight! Look!”

Twilight turned to her right and saw what appeared to be the skeletons of two large creatures lying in the narrow clearing between the jungle and the cliff.

“Do you think you could rebuild that into a bridge?” asked Sunset.

Twilight considered Sunset’s idea for a moment, then smiled and nodded to her friend. She tapped her magical geode on her hairclip and then reached both hands out towards the skeletons. Using her telekinetic magic power, she lifted the skeletons off the ground, broke them up into the dozens of white Lego parts they were made of, and slowly levitated them toward the gorge as she quickly rearranged the pieces. In only a matter of seconds, she had fully assembled the structure, which she then carefully lowered down to span the gap while ensuring that both ends of it were firmly secured to each side of the gap.

With her work done, Twilight smiled and proudly remarked, “One bone-built bridge complete!”

“Great work, Twilight,” praised Sunset. “Now let’s go!” She immediately rushed across the bone bridge to the other side of the gorge, with Twilight following right behind her.

Meanwhile, at approximately the center of this small island, Rainbow Dash was quickly starting to regret her recent actions. She had foolishly not watched where she was running after jumping that gorge and ended up stepping right into the middle of a pit filled with quicksand. Her attempts to pull herself out proved futile, and the torrential rainfall saturating the pit only made such an escape even more difficult. It wasn’t until she had sunken down to her waist before she reluctantly began calling for help, but even with resorting to that final hope, she understood how extremely unlikely it was that any help would come.

After about a minute of calling out for help and struggling to pull her legs free, Rainbow Dash sighed and grumbled, “Way to go, Rainbow Dash. You did it again. You had to go off on your own, didn’t you?”

“Rainbow Dash!” cried out Sunset as she and Twilight suddenly burst through the surrounding foliage to arrive at the clearing where Rainbow Dash had gotten stuck.

Rainbow was very relieved that some of her friends had managed to find her. However, her predicament had left her pride so wounded that she refused to express any sign of weakness to anyone, so she just gave a friendly wave and casually spoke up, “Oh! Uh, hey girls! ‘Sup?” She tried to strike a cool pose by resting her forearm on the ground, only for it to start sinking before she remembered where she was and yanked it back out of the muck. She awkwardly continued, “Um, just takin’ a rest in here. Finding evil magic is hard work, y’know.”

Twilight and Sunset shared a skeptical look as they glanced at each other and then turned back to Rainbow as they crossed their arms. “Did you find any?” asked Twilight indignantly.

“Nah, just quicksand,” confessed Rainbow as she sheepishly traced a shape in the surface of the surrounding quicksand.

Sunset sighed and said, “Just try not to struggle. We’ll find something to pull you out.” She turned away and began searching through the surrounding foliage and vegetation.

“Struggle?” asked Rainbow in another poor attempt to act like everything was perfectly fine. “Who’s struggling?” As she expressed her false confidence, she casually rested her head against her hand propped up by her elbow, which then began sinking into the muck and forcing her to yank it out.

Twilight shook her head in contempt, then turned away and began searching through the foliage as she sighed and grumbled, “Typical Rainbow Dash… pride and ego so grossly oversized, they overwhelm even your basic survival instincts…”

With everyone’s disinterested attention turned away from her, Rainbow dropped the act and admitted, “I’ve had a little time to think…”

Twilight and Sunset seemingly paid no attention to Rainbow Dash as they continued searching through the surrounding vegetation, the awkward silence broken only by an air bubble rising up and popping at the surface of the quicksand near Rainbow’s rear end.

“A lot of time, actually,” Rainbow shamefully continued. “And I spent most of wishing I could make it up to you, because… because you were right.”

The blue and yellow parrot from the beach suddenly flew in and perched itself on a nearby branch as Rainbow spoke. As soon as she finished her comment, the parrot squawked and spoke up, “Twilight’s wrong!”

Rainbow Dash chuckled in embarrassment and awkwardly argued, “Uh, a-anyone could’ve said that.”

The parrot squawked again and spoke, “I’m gonna improvise Rainbow Dash style!”

Rainbow sighed and bitterly muttered, “Should’ve known better than to say that with a parrot around…”

Twilight broke off a large tree branch as she scoffed dismissively and grumbled, “I guess not even getting punched in the face would ever teach you a lesson.”

Seeing the indifferent attitude from Twilight in that moment might as well have been that punch to the face for Rainbow Dash. She finally relented to the reality she was faced with and shamefully confessed, “I was a little annoyed at first, but I’ll admit it… I ruined everyone’s vacation for nothing. There’s no magic out here… Nothing magical at all…”

Sunset noticed Twilight grabbing that tree branch, so she walked over to her to discuss a plan to rescue Rainbow Dash. But before she could say anything, she noticed something big starting to rise up on the other side of the quicksand pit. Too terrified to take her eyes off the dark monstrosity, she nudged Twilight and pointed up at what she saw.

Twilight followed Sunset’s gaze and when she caught sight of what was now looming over the entire clearing, she was so shocked in terror that she dropped the tree branch in her hands.

Rainbow Dash failed to notice the terrified looks on her friends’ faces as she continued, “The only villain trying to ruin this whole vacation… was me.”

“And maybe that giant plant monster?” added Sunset fearfully.

“What giant plant monster?” asked Rainbow.

“That giant plant monster!” shouted Twilight as she pointed up at something above and behind Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash turned her head back to gaze straight up. She realized there was no rain falling on her face due to a dark shape — upside down from her current perspective — that she could see against the cloudy sky. A flash of lightning revealed the creature to consist of some thick green vines, with a central stem that ended in a giant gaping jaw full of jagged teeth, like some sort of oversized venus flytrap.

Boom!

Right after the rumble of thunder that accompanied the flash of lightning, the plant monster raised its head and let out a deep and loud roar, then rushed down to reach the trapped girl.

Rainbow Dash let out a terrified scream and helplessly held her arms over her head. She had expected a swift end to her existence, but when she noticed a few seconds pass with seemingly nothing happening to her, she opened her eyes and nervously looked up.

The plant monster has its jaw gaping wide open and surrounding Rainbow Dash, but was barely even budging. It took Rainbow a moment to realize that the head of this plant monster was engulfed in a magenta magical glow — the same magical glow that surrounded Twilight’s hands as she held them out at the oversized plant creature.

With Twilight holding back the immediate threat for now, that left only Sunset able to act. Knowing there was no time to lose, she quickly picked up the tree branch that Twilight had dropped and held it out across the quicksand pit towards Rainbow.

“Get me outta here!” screamed Rainbow Dash.

“We’re trying!” exclaimed Twilight as she struggled to hold back the plant monster’s head. As soon as she noticed the numerous wriggling vines trying to reach towards her, she was quickly forced to extend her magical grasp to them as well.

“Try harder!” Rainbow shot back as she reached for the tree branch with both hands, but couldn’t quite touch it.

Sunset repositioned herself to lay flat against ground right at the very edge of the pit as she reached her arm out as far as possible. Rainbow grunted as she reached her hands out until finally she was able to grasp it. With Rainbow now holding onto that branch, Sunset immediately began tugging on the branch to pull her trapped friend towards the edge of the pit. However, Rainbow suddenly felt her torso start to separate from her hip joint, so she yelped as she removed her left hand from the tree branch and used it to grab her posterior and pull her legs back into the proper connection to her torso.

“What are you doing?!” exclaimed Sunset, astonished to see Rainbow let one hand go from the branch.

“I am not ditching my legs!” Rainbow sharply replied as she held her left hand on her rear end to keep her legs attached.

As much as Sunset wanted to get her friend out of harm’s way immediately, she now had no choice but to pull the branch slowly enough so the quicksand could eventually release Rainbow Dash with all of her pieces still attached. With the persistent threat of the plant monster looming overhead, it was an agonizingly slow process, but she was able to make enough progress to soon grab the branch with both hands and get up into a kneeling position.

Meanwhile, Twilight continued struggling to hold back every part of the giant plant monster. It seemed that just when she thought she had held down every vine that came her way, another one would appear and force her to subdue that one as well. Despite her immense magical power, Twilight still had her limits, and when she exceeded that limit, her magical grip on the plant monster’s head slipped loose. She gasped and shouted, “Look out!”

Sunset and Rainbow glanced up just in time to see the plant monster’s main stem come down right between them. The creature slammed into the quicksand pit — which Sunset noticed briefly gave off a mysterious bright glow as she shielded her face against the spray of sand. As the monstrous creature rose up again, Sunset saw that the tree branch in her hand had been snapped in half, and Rainbow Dash was now buried up to her neck in the quicksand pit.

Refusing to give up, Sunset tossed aside the broken branch and reached her arm forward as she shouted, “Take my hand!”

“Take your hand?” asked Rainbow Dash skeptically. “With what, my mouth?” An air bubble rose up from the quicksand right in front of her face and popped, causing her to sputter and spit sand out of her mouth.

The popping of that bubble briefly exposed the same bright glow that Sunset had glimpsed just seconds earlier. “I’ve seen something like this before,” she noted quietly. She brushed away the top layer of sand from the quicksand pit, exposing a swirling vortex that glowed a bright golden yellow color. She gasped and exclaimed, “This is definitely Equestrian Magic!”

Meanwhile, Twilight was forced to release her hold on some of the vines so she could reestablish her magical grip on the plant monster’s head, thus keeping her friends safe for the moment. Those vines that were released quickly resumed wriggling towards her. She released her grip on some other vines to grasp the vines that were getting closer, but now those other vines were coming closer, and she was forced to keep alternating her limited power between each part of the giant plant monster. “I can’t hold it back much longer!” she cried out desperately.

Sunset glanced up at the plant monster, back to Twilight, then down at the quicksand pit. She knew they were running out of time and options for any hope of escape, but if that Equestrian Magic in the pit was what she thought it was, then that just opened up something that could completely change their luck. Sunset had to admit that this new option was quite a leap of faith, but seeing no other guaranteed way out, she decided to go for it.

Sunset turned to Rainbow Dash and said with determination, “I have a way out of this. Do you trust me?”

“Of course!” Rainbow Dash instantly responded. Not like I have any choice right now, she mentally added.

“Good! See you soon!” Sunset quickly said as she placed her hand atop Rainbow’s head and then promptly shoved her completely down beneath the surface of the quicksand.

Twilight gasped at that sight and cried out in shock, “Did you just—?!”

“I’ll explain later!” Sunset sharply responded. “We jump in after her on three!”

By this point, Twilight had been struggling against the plant monster for so long that exhaustion was starting to set in. With no choice but to trust Sunset, she turned and slowly backed up towards her friend while straining against the enormous creature that threatened to break loose. Just seconds later, her full concentration completely slipped and she began to collapse backwards. Every part of the giant plant monster was now free to resume its attack.

“One-two-three!” Sunset quickly shouted as she caught Twilight and carried her backwards until they both leaped off the edge of the quicksand pit and plunged into the obscured depths, with Twilight screaming the whole way down.

As soon as Sunset and Twilight plunged into the pit, a bright column of golden light suddenly erupted from it, blasting the giant plant monster in the head and driving it back into the shadows it had emerged from. The column of light was so intensely bright that it could be seen as far away as the stranded cruise ship of the Luxe Deluxe.

On the ship’s bridge, Captain Bluffbeard tipped his hat as he watched the distant pillar of light and remarked, “By Neptune’s trident… Never seen a beacon like that before.”

“That’s the same direction Twilight and Sunset went to find Rainbow Dash,” noted Spike in shock. As the pillar of light slowly began to fade, he worriedly added, “I sure hope they’re okay…”

Twilight has expected to sink into a pool of quicksand and swiftly drown. Instead, much to her further shock, she and Sunset tumbled through a strange void until they were ultimately flung backwards out of a glowing yellow vortex on the side of some rocky surface. As the glowing vortex faded to blend in with the rocky surface, Twilight and Sunset continued tumbling backwards until they collided into something. That something make a grunt noise in such a voice that both girls immediately recognized that it was Rainbow Dash who had gone in just ahead of them.

Twilight groaned as she rolled over to rest all four limbs against the ground. She glanced around, but saw nothing but absolute darkness. “Where are we?” she asked.

“Not about to get eaten by a plant monster,” responded Rainbow Dash irritably. “Good enough for me.” As she pushed herself off the ground, she couldn’t help but notice that something about lengths of her arms and legs didn’t seem quite right, for some weird reason.

“It’s… more complicated than that,” confessed Sunset as she stood up in such a way that she was all too familiar with.

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

Rather than try to explain everything, Sunset decided the best way to answer that was to simply show them. She mentally focused on a magic spell she was easily familiar with and right away, the unicorn horn on her head glowed with her red-orange magical aura and quickly brightened enough to illuminate their location.

“Whoa…” said Rainbow Dash as she and her two friends looked around to see they were now in some kind of large cavern with an underground waterfall right behind them.

But once the girls turned their attention back to each other, their awe was immediately replaced with shock and confusion. Rather than plastic Lego minifigures with two arms and two legs, the three girls who stood there were now fully organic equine creatures with four legs and a tail. Not only that, but Sunset and Twilight had a horn on their heads, while Rainbow Dash instead had a pair of wings on the sides of her body.

Upon realizing that whatever had just happened had affected all three of them, Twilight and Rainbow immediately began inspecting their own bodies — pony bodies that they had never experienced at all until now.

Twilight quickly reacted to this revelation in the most logical and sensible way she could think of. She pressed her forelegs against the sides of her face and screamed loudly in absolute panic.

Author's Note

While it was somewhat difficult to come up with moments of quirky humor when it seemed the official version already had plenty of them (such as Twilight forgetting to untie the rope on the lifeboat), I was able to throw in a reminder that this is a world made of Lego by having Twilight quickly build that bridge. One significant change I decided to make was the presence of rain in the more intense part of the storm, as I did find it rather odd how the official version never seemed to show any rainfall at all, even when one of the characters actually mentioned it was raining. Another smaller change I also made was to have that parrot repeat a certain catchphrase I gave to Rainbow Dash back in the earlier stories in this fanfiction series.

Pony Style

Chapter 4
Pony Style

While Sunset and Twilight were away to find Rainbow Dash, the rest of their friends had stayed behind on the Luxe Deluxe to help everyone on board cope with the ever worsening storm. Spike, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had already gone off in different directions to see to the tasks they had offered to take care of. Applejack had insisted on helping the crew repair the damaged engine, but due to her persistent seasickness, Rarity had offered to escort her down into the engine room.

By the time they reached the engine room, Applejack had managed to recover enough to be capable of standing without any assistance, although her movement still remained slightly sluggish. Rarity was just about to announce their presence to the crew when she spotted a rather familiar face approach them.

“Rar-i-ee!” greeted Ragamuffin cheerfully. “This is quite a nice surprise. What’s a fancy girl like you doin’ down in a dank an’ shoddy place as this?”

Rarity blushed as she stuttered for a moment before she managed to reply, “Oh, um, I was, er, well, you see, my friend Applejack here wishes to offer her assistance with the ongoing repair work, but because she has been feeling a little under the weather lately, I volunteered to accompany her to ensure she would arrive safely.”

“How really thoughtful of ya,” praised Ragamuffin. “Not often do I get to meet someone selfless enough to go outta their comfort zone solely for the sake of a friend.”

“Yes, well, I have been known for my gestures of generosity,” remarked Rarity bashfully.

“Y’all save that sweet-talkin’ for later,” Applejack spoke up as she began to walk past Ragamuffin towards the engine. “We got work to do.”

“Aye,” acknowledged Ragamuffin with a nod. He turned back to Rarity and assured her, “No need to worry ‘bout us, love. We can hold our own. You should head back up an’ see to the safety of the passengers. If it makes ya feel better, I promise to look after your friend as if she were me sister.”

“Much appreciated, Ragamuffin,” said Rarity with a smile. “Let us hope for the best that we shall put this ordeal behind us as soon as possible.”

Ragamuffin smiled back and handed over a walkie-talkie to Rarity. “This’ll let us keep in contact without either of us havin’ to run up an’ down the whole ship, eh?” he remarked playfully. With that smile still on his face, he then turned around and rejoined the crewmen working on the engine, now with Applejack assisting them as well.

Rarity watched Ragamuffin for a moment before she pocketed the walkie-talkie and left the room. Once she reached the hallway of one of the upper decks, she quietly let out a giddy squeal and said to herself, “He called me ‘Love’! There may yet be a chance for us, after all!”

Baaaa!

Rarity shrieked and jumped aside as a sheep suddenly came charging down the hallway. She watched that sheep rush past her, then turned her gaze to the other direction down the hallway, where she saw Fluttershy chasing after that sheep.

“Sorry about that,” apologized Fluttershy as she stopped beside Rarity and held up a lifejacket in her hands. “Some of the animals are being a little, um… difficult with putting on their lifejackets. I know this storm has them feeling uneasy, but they need to understand that this is for their own safety.”

“Don’t let me stand in your way, then,” said Rarity contently with a smile. “I was just on my way up to check on our fellow passengers.”

“I’ll join you once I’ve got every animal accounted for,” assured Fluttershy before she resumed her pursuit down the hallway.

Rarity continued making her way up through the ship on her way to the upper deck. She was just about to pass the entrance to the buffet when the double doors suddenly flew open and Pinkie Pie was thrown out into the hallway.

“AND STAY OUT!!” shouted Puffed Pastry before she slammed the doors shut.

Pinkie sat up from where she had landed, stared at the shut doors, then sighed sadly.

“Another failed attempt to obtain that bundt cake, I presume?” asked Rarity.

Pinkie nodded and muttered, “I don’t get it. All I want is to try that one cake, but she keeps reacting as if I flushed her puppy down a toilet — which I would never do for any reason.”

“I suppose some people are just too stubborn to listen to reason,” noted Rarity. She held out her hand to Pinkie and offered, “Perhaps assisting me in looking after the well-being of the other passengers will help take your mind off things.”

Pinkie smiled and accepted Rarity’s hand to help pull her up to her feet. The two girls then made their way up onto the deck.

Meanwhile, Spike was inspecting the emergency battery pack on the bridge. He sighed and muttered, “Just as I thought. This thing’s been completely used up.”

“That’s quite a shame,” noted Captain Bluffbeard sadly. “An’ here I was hopin’ it had enough power to run the massage chair fer more than two hours.”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to wait for those workers to fix the engine,” grumbled Spike. He glared at Bluffbeard and scolded, “Seriously, though, you need to get your priorities straight. We’re stranded in the middle of the ocean. It’s not like we can just go out to a nearby shop and grab a replacement—” He stopped when a thought suddenly occurred to him. He immediately facepalmed and spoke up, “Of course! The Jump-Gate return device! Twilight always carries one with her in case of emergency situations!” But just as suddenly as his hopes were raised, they quickly fell when another thought occurred to him. “And I saw she had it with her when she and Sunset went to find Rainbow Dash…”

“It was a good idea, lad,” assured Bluffbeard. “I certainly never would’ve thought to use such a gadget.”

Spike turned to look out the window in the direction where Twilight and Sunset had gone — the same direction where he had briefly witnessed a pillar of light off in the distance just minutes ago. He placed his hand against the window and sadly muttered, “I really hope they can find their way back as soon as possible…”

As soon as she discovered what had happened to Sunset, Rainbow Dash, and herself, Twilight had immediately panicked and began running through the dark cavern. She didn’t care where they actually were, all she wanted was to get out in the open right away, so she aimlessly ran off straight ahead in the only direction where the cavern seemed to continue somewhere. She stumbled for a moment as she found herself forced to run on four legs instead of two due to her new physiology, but that only heightened her panicked state.

“Twilight! Wait up!” called Sunset as she ran after Twilight. Unlike her two friends, she was already used to this body, so she had no difficulty keeping up.

Rainbow Dash also tried to follow, but awkwardly tripped over her own legs. She attempted to get back up, but again she immediately tripped over herself. She growled in frustration at just how complicated it was for her to do something as simple as running in this new body, but when she noticed her outstretched wings on her back, she smiled. With renewed determination, she decided making use of those wings would be much easier to figure out than coordinating four legs into a walking motion. With a mighty flap of those feathered wings, getting off the ground was the easy part, but controlling her direction proved to be a bit more difficult. Despite her wonky flight path, she managed to keep up with the fading glow from Sunset to follow her friends out of the cavern.

It wasn’t long until Twilight reached the opening out of the cavern and emerged into a thick forest under clear daylight. A few more four-legged gaits later, she arrived at the edge of a pond, where she was able to get her first look at her reflection in the water’s surface. One brief glimpse at her new face — formerly flat against a cylinder with separate hair on top, now with an elongated muzzle on the front, her glasses resting atop that muzzle, slightly long ears on top, a mane across the top and back that somewhat resembled her hair color and style, and of course that horn on her forehead — was all it took for her to scream again. She then looked down at her hooves where her hands used to be, then lightly pressed them against the sides of her face and felt just how soft and malleable everything under the touch of those hard hooves had become. She flailed her forelegs as she let out an even higher scream than before. She stared in horror at her reflection as she shrieked, “SQUISHY, FUZZY, PONY FACE!!”

Sunset took a quick breather once she had caught up to Twilight, then assured her friend, “Twilight! You’re okay! This is supposed to happen!”

Twilight showed no signs of listening as she whimpered with every part of herself she inspected, from the horn on her head, to the tail on her rear end, her more rounded body shape, the six-pointed magenta star image of her Creative Mark seemingly printed on the sides of her rump, and of course the hooves at the end of all four of her legs, with her rear legs so awkwardly shaped that it felt like she was sitting on her feet. “All my things are horse things!” she cried out in horror.

Sunset couldn’t help but express amusement at her friend’s antics as she clarified, “‘Round here, we call them ‘pony things’.”

“Incoming!” shouted Rainbow Dash from somewhere above.

Both Sunset and Twilight glanced up and saw Rainbow Dash flying around haphazardly before she suddenly swooped down and narrowly avoided colliding with either of them as she rushed right between them while barely managing to pull up just enough to avoid slamming into the ground. Even after such a close call in multiple ways, she was still incapable of really controlling her flight path and ultimately ended up making the softest landing she could manage by crashing into a bush.

Rainbow groaned and muttered, “Just like my first time with any type of aircraft…”

While Twilight quickly went back to freaking out over every aspect of her equine body, Sunset rubbed her forehead, then used her magic to levitate Rainbow Dash out of the bushes and back on her hooves right beside them. “That wasn’t quicksand back there,” explained Sunset. “The sand was covering a portal to Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash shook off the leaves and twigs that had clung to her body, then turned to Sunset and asked, “Wait, are you saying… we’re in Equestria right now? As in, that magical alternate universe where Princess Twilight is from?” She quickly smiled and cheerfully exclaimed, “Awesome! I’ve always wanted to see what this place was like!”

Sunset rubbed her chin and muttered to herself, “I thought there was just that one interdimensional portal between the statue in City Park in Canterlot City and the magic mirror that now lies in Princess Twilight’s castle. If there’s a second one right here, then who knows how many more there might be and where they might lead.”

While Sunset was speaking, Rainbow Dash attempted to stand up on her hind legs like she was used to, but even with trying to use her wings to steady her balance, her equine body was simply not meant to stand upright, and one errant flap of her wings was enough to send her toppling over onto her back.

Twilight turned to Sunset and calmly stated, “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.” She then suddenly grasped Sunset’s head and pressed their faces together as she shrieked, “BECAUSE WE’RE PONIES!!”

Sunset promptly shoved Twilight away and then rubbed her ears.

Rainbow Dash rolled over and stood up on all four legs, leaving her wings relaxed so that they hung limply from the sides of her body. “Y’know, Twilight,” she spoke up, “since I kinda messed things up on the boat, maybe this could be our new vacation!”

“Huh?” asked Twilight as she raised an eyebrow.

“Think about it,” encouraged Rainbow. “We’re here, we’re ponies. Let’s have some fun! Pony style!” She attempted to strike a cool pose on her hind legs, but quickly lost her balance again and fell over forward back onto all four legs.

“Uh, that’s not a thing we say here in Equestria,” Sunset pointed out. “Besides, shouldn’t we be getting back to our friends?”

“It’s just a little wind and rain,” replied Rainbow Dash dismissively. “I’m sure they’ll be fine for a few more hours. Besides, it’s not like we’re trapped here or there’s some time limit on the portal. We can always go back whenever we want to.”

Twilight considered Rainbow’s suggestion, then smiled and remarked, “This would be a fantastic opportunity to study the physical laws of a novel dimension. For example, it’s already obvious that advanced lifeforms such as ourselves are not made of plastic, but rather what appears to be a composite of strange materials.” She gently rubbed one of her hooves along her foreleg — the one without her Jump-Gate return device attached to it — to demonstrate her point. “It appears to be a rather semi-malleable substance with a soft coating to provide some layer of protection and a rigid interior frame for structural stability. And these bodies seem to consist of a single solid mass of this substance with no indicators of any points of detachability.”

“I guess that explains why none of my parts fell off when I crashed into that bush,” noted Rainbow Dash.

“That’s because these bodies are not supposed to come apart under any circumstances,” Sunset firmly emphasized. “Trust me, you do not want to experience losing a portion of these bodies. I’m talking excruciating pain, and in many cases even lethality.”

“Whoa, good thing I chose to keep my legs on when you tried to pull me out of that pit,” remarked Rainbow.

Sunset sighed and conceded, “Well, if we’re gonna be here for a short time, then we should at least try to figure out where in Equestria we are.” She turned to Twilight. “You’re a unicorn now, so you can use your horn to channel your magic power. Do you think you could lift me above the canopy so I can take a look around?”

“Hey, I got wings now!” Rainbow pointed out as she outstretched her feathered wings. “Why not ask me to just fly up there?”

“How familiar are you with Equestrian landmarks?” asked Sunset.

Rainbow paused and awkwardly responded, “Uhhh…”

“My point exactly,” stated Sunset. She turned back to Twilight. “Just do what you normally would to levitate objects, except the focus is through your horn instead of your hands.”

Twilight nodded, then aimed her horn towards Sunset. It took a little more mental concentration, but soon a magenta magical glow enveloped Sunset as the amber unicorn began to rise upwards. It wasn’t a perfect ascent, as Sunset wobbled around here and there, but soon enough, she was hovering over the surrounding trees.

Despite wobbling around as if a drunk person was carrying her, Sunset managed to glance around and spot some distinctive landmarks — most notably the very tall mountain where Canterlot was located — then called down to Twilight, “Okay, you can set me down now!”

Twilight now had to gently lower Sunset back down to the ground, which turned out to be the most difficult task to accomplish as mental fatigue caused Twilight’s grip to occasionally slip a little, causing Sunset to quickly drop for some brief moments but still descend slowly enough to be safe. Twilight struggled to keep Sunset aloft, and eventually decided to release her magical grip once her friend was only a couple feet off the ground. Sunset stumbled upon hitting the ground, but was otherwise completely fine.

“Whew,” gasped Twilight in exhaustion. “That took more concentration than I expected.”

“Good thing I made sure to check the directions of those landmarks relative to that pond over there,” remarked Sunset, having understood right from the start that Twilight’s amateur efforts would have caused her to easily lose her sense of direction during the descent. She turned so that the pond was to the front and left of her and explained, “Okay, this world’s version of Canterlot is that way, and since it appears to be on the left side of that mountain, that means it’s to the north of us. Therefore, the nearest town is most likely Ponyville, which happens to be where Princess Twilight lives.”

“That’s perfect!” said Rainbow Dash excitedly. “We can go over there and hang out with her for a while before we head back home.”

“I have been rather curious about the livelihood of my counterpart from this universe,” confessed Twilight with a smile. “Especially considering that she apparently grew up under an ideal mentor, as opposed to the struggles I’ve had to endure for much of my life.”

Sunset turned so that the pond was now to the front and right of her as she continued, “Her castle stands out quite obviously in a town like Ponyville, so it was easy for me to see that we’ll reach it by going this way.” She pointed straight ahead of the direction she was facing.

“Then let’s get going!” declared Rainbow.

“Lead the way, Sunset,” said Twilight cheerfully as she stood up on all four legs.

Sunset nodded in agreement to her two friends and began leading them through the forest towards Ponyville.

As they started walking, Rainbow Dash — who ended up walking behind both Sunset and Twilight — couldn’t help but notice something else about their new bodies, or rather, a lack of something, as emphasized when she felt a light breeze over a certain part of her body. “Uh, am I the only one who realizes we’re not wearing any shirts or pants right now?” she spoke up.

That question made Twilight immediately stop and look over herself again. When she noticed that Rainbow was actually right, she suddenly yelped in embarrassment and quickly used her forelegs to cover her chest and the area between her hind legs.

Sunset facehoofed before she turned back to Twilight and explained, “Okay, two things about that. First…” She shoved aside the foreleg that Twilight was using to cover her chest. “That one’s pointless because we’re ponies. There’s nothing on your chest worth covering up in the first place.”

Twilight glanced down at her smooth and featureless chest, then giggled sheepishly and muttered, “I-I-I knew that.”

“And secondly,” continued Sunset, “most ponies normally don’t even wear any clothes. As long as you keep your tail down and not draw too much attention to yourself, you should be totally fine.”

“If you’re sure about that,” acknowledged Twilight uneasily. It was rather awkward and embarrassing to think about, but she trusted Sunset’s judgement. Only a few seconds later, she spoke up, “Though that does lead to the question of why our Creative Marks seemed to be tattooed onto our butts.”

“We called them Cutie Marks in this world,” answered Sunset, “and they’re magical projections that show up after you’ve discovered your special talent. So, in a way, it kinda works like Creative Marks do in the Lego World.”

Rainbow Dash suddenly burst out laughing and quipped, “Cutie Marks?! That’s something I’d expect to hear in only a little girl’s fantasy land! I mean, how could the guys around here even keep a straight face if they ever have to talk about those things?”

Sunset sighed and grumbled, “And I thought I had a lot to learn about becoming a minifig…”

Back in the Lego World, where the Luxe Deluxe remained stranded at sea, the storm had continued to intensify. As a light rainfall began to descend upon them, the passengers that had gathered outside either pulled out umbrellas or took shelter under any overhangs they could reach. The howling wind was strong enough to pull one of those umbrellas out of the grip of the person holding it and send it flying away uncontrollably.

A powerful bolt of lightning suddenly struck very close to the ship, with one branch of it actually hitting the front deck, causing one of the brown 1x8 tiles that covered it to be thrown off and land haphazardly nearby. That strike caused the passengers who happened to be standing nearby to scream in terror and immediately run for shelter below deck.

Down in the engine room, the crewmen working frantically to repair the engine momentarily paused their efforts as they felt the ship slightly lurch from that lightning strike.

Clang!

Applejack grunted in pain from underneath the engine. She rolled out the dolly she was resting on and rubbed her head. The oil stains covering her body in various places showed just how hard at work she had been, but the conditions outside were beginning to seriously interfere with their efforts. She held her hand out to Ragamuffin and asked, “Can Ah speak to Rarity for a moment?”

As Ragamuffin used one arm to hold a large pipe wrench in place, he used his free hand to pull out his walkie-talkie and tossed it to Applejack.

Applejack held up the walkie-talkie to the side of her head and urgently spoke, “Breaker-breaker four-an’-a-half, this is ‘Red Delicious’ requestin’ a storm status update! Over!”

At the other walkie-talkie, Rarity was holding it while she, Pinkie, and Fluttershy were huddled under the overhang next to where the lifeboats were stored. After listening to Applejack’s call, Rarity hesitated for a moment before she held the walkie-talkie close to her mouth and awkwardly responded, “Ahoy, uh, matey! Uh, this is Rarity! Please repeat… the words you just said!”

Boom!

A bolt of lightning struck the deck close to the three girls, causing two more brown 1x8 tiles to be thrown out of place and startling most of the nearby passenger to flee in panic.

After that brief scare, Rarity turned her attention back to the walkie-talkie in her hands and worriedly added, “I’m beginning to wonder if—”

Crash!

Another bolt of lightning struck nearby, this time shattering the large window beside the three girls. The girls screamed as they immediately backed away from the broken window and tried their best to shield themselves against the glass shards flying around in the wind. In her haste, Rarity stumbled towards the edge of the ship and accidentally tossed the walkie-talkie over the nearby lifeboat.

As the three girls watched that walkie-talkie plunge into the rough sea below, Rarity worriedly finished, “…if this is no ordinary storm!”

Pinkie glanced over at Rarity and noted, “I don’t think she heard that last part.”

Boom!

Yet another bolt of lightning suddenly struck the lifeboat those girls were looking over, instantly burning through the ropes that held it in place and causing it to tumble down into the water and land upside down. The three girls screamed and quickly retreated to a different part of the ship.

Up on the bridge, with power still not yet restored, Bluffbeard and Spike were forced to use a manual crank to swipe the windshield wipers back and forth across the front windows of the wheelhouse. “At this rate, I’ll consider this to be a lucky day if we don’t capsize!” remarked Bluffbeard with a smile.

“You’re not exactly good at inspiring much confidence, aren’t ya?” grumbled Spike.

In Equestria, ponies were going about their usual business on another fine day in the town of Ponyville. They walked around to get chores done, browse the marketplace, or simply have a friendly chat with their neighbors, all with a generally positive attitude.

Just outside of town to the east, a certain trio of ponies emerged from the edge of the woods and stopped to observe the bustling town that stood before them. Sunset sighed and grumbled, “Of course it has to be all the way at the other side of town.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s so bad about that?”

“Your pony counterparts live here,” explained Sunset, “so I was hoping that we could just go straight to Princess Twilight’s castle without being seen by anypony who might mistake you for them.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely something we should be careful of,” agreed Twilight. “Can’t we just stick to the edge of this forest and bypass the whole town?”

Sunset shook her head and replied, “This is the Everfree Forest, and unlike the version you’re familiar with in the Lego World, this one is considered a dangerous place for anypony to be, full of all kinds of hazards and threats. In all honesty, I’m surprised we actually made it through as much as we did without encountering any serious trouble.”

“Are you saying the safer option is to go right through the middle of town?” asked Twilight incredulously.

“We’ll have to sneak our way around, but yes,” confirmed Sunset reluctantly.

“Sounds good to me,” remarked Rainbow Dash with a smile. “I’d like to see what other pony counterparts to people we know live here.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and quietly insisted, “Just stay silent and follow my lead. We need a keep a low profile at all costs.”

Sunset crouched low and crept her way towards the nearest building, which was one of the many wooden houses with thatched roofs that made up the majority of this town’s structures. Twilight and Rainbow followed her example, though Rainbow was smiling with excitement, while Twilight kept cautiously glancing around with a worried look on her face. Sunset carefully led them to the edge of the house and peered around the corner. Once she was sure nopony was nearby, she rushed over the hide behind the next house up ahead, with Rainbow and Twilight quickly following her.

The three minifigs-turned-ponies snuck by two more houses before they ended up hiding behind a bush. They peered over the top and silently watched two ponies walk by; an adult mare with a light blue coat and a white mane and tail, and a young colt with a dark blue coat and a light blue made and tail. The three girls waited until those two townsponies had walked far enough to be facing away from them, then quickly rushed to hide behind the next house over. They then waited and listened to be sure they weren’t spotted.

“Come on, junior, we don’t have all day,” said the mare.

“But mommy, I just saw some ponies sneaking around,” said the colt. “Do you think they might be spies?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. The only creatures who ever bother to spy on us are changelings, and we all know they stopped doing that after they reformed.”

“But I swear, there’s something weird about those ponies I just saw.”

“This is Ponyville. There’s always something weird going on.”

The three girls-turned-mares waited for a moment to be sure those two townsponies were no longer talking about them, then Sunset resumed leading them through town.

At the other end of that house they were hiding behind, Sunset saw they next had to cross a rather wide street, but thankfully noticed there were two barrels full of apples that could serve as a halfway point to help maintain their cover. The only problem was a red stallion with an orange mane and tail — who they quickly recognized was Big Mac’s pony counterpart — was looking over those barrels.

Fortunately, Big Mac’s attention soon turned away toward some of the other ponies walking around, so Sunset took this opportunity to lead her two friends to rush over to and hide behind the barrels. They remained behind those barrels for a moment, then rushed across the other half of the street to the next house. However, in her haste to get moving, Twilight accidentally bumped one of those barrels, causing a few apples to spill out onto the ground right by Big Mac’s hooves.

Big Mac heard that light bump and quickly glanced back at the barrels, where he noticed the apples that had fallen to the ground. He peered over the barrels to look behind them, then glanced to the right, and then to the left, but saw no signs of anypony nearby. He shook his head in dismissal, then reached his mouth down to begin picking up the fallen apples.

A couple more houses — and a quick trot across a second-floor bridge — later, Sunset once again led her friends between the densely crowded downtown buildings, but suddenly stopped halfway across when she suddenly noticed two ponies nearby; a medium blue stallion with a blonde mane and tail, and a cyan mare with a rainbow mane and tail — Rainbow Dash’s pony counterpart.

Rainbow and Twilight bumped into Sunset and immediately saw those other two ponies as well, though Rainbow didn’t bother to hide her excitement to see an exact duplicate of herself. Thankfully, pony Rainbow Dash was facing away from them as she spoke with the stallion.

“Yeah, of course I’m awesome,” bragged pony Rainbow Dash. “I mean, how many other Wonderbolts could possibly pull off all those wicked stunts I know, and I’m not just talking about my signature sonic rainboom.”

Unfortunately, that stallion did see the other Rainbow Dash among the three mares sneaking around. His jaw gaped as he pointed past the nearby pegasus and right at them, struggling to say anything until he suddenly passed out. While that happened, Sunset promptly shoved her two friends back behind the building.

Pony Rainbow Dash looked over the fainted stallion worriedly and muttered, “Whoa… what was that about?” Figuring he must have been pointing at something behind her back for a reason, she glanced back, but all she saw was her friend Applejack hauling a small cart down the street.

“Mornin’ Rainbow!” greeted Applejack with a smile and a wave of a hoof.

“Morning to you, too!” Rainbow Dash greeted back with a smile and a wave of her wing. She then glanced back down at the passed out stallion and her smile turned awkward as she muttered, “That guy must be a real lightweight.”

Unknown to either of those two mares, the three minifigs-turned-ponies had hidden themselves inside the cart being pulled by Applejack, with the tarp providing enough cover for them. With Sunset carefully keeping an eye out on their surroundings, they rode the cart through the middle of town.

A few minutes later, as Applejack hauled her cart across another street, Sunset saw they were now only a short distance away from Princess Twilight’s castle. She gestured to her two hidden friends to follow, then partially removed the tarp and quietly climbed out.

However, just as Twilight and Rainbow began to climb out as well, Sunset suddenly noticed another pony walking by. Although that white unicorn with a pink mane and tail was busy reading a book in her magical grasp, Sunset’s didn’t want to take any chances, so she swiftly levitated her two friends out of the cart and shoved them into the nearest bush. When the rustling noise of that bush drew that pony’s attention, Sunset smiled innocently and quickly remarked, “Don’t mind me! Just an unfamiliar out-of-towner trying to find her way around!”

The pony walking by stared at Sunset in confusion for a moment, then shook her head and turned her attention back to her book as she muttered, “What a weirdo.”

Sunset never took her eyes off the pony walking away as she backed up into the bush to join her two friends. Once all three of them were out of public sight, she whispered, “We can make it the rest of the way if we use this bush for cover.”

Moving with only a few brief steps at a time, they carried the surrounding bush with them as they crept closer and closer to the castle. Every pause in their movements allowed Twilight and Rainbow an opportunity to glimpse at the massive structure they were heading towards. The best they could describe it was a massive blue crystal tree with a purple castle resting atop it like some kind of oversized treehouse. In addition, they also noticed to the right of this castle was a rocky hillside with a waterfall that fed into a pond that surrounded the base, but more notable was all the scaffolding and partially built structures that seemed to cover much of that hillside.

After a few minutes of careful movement, the three girls and their surrounding bush reached the front door to the castle. Once they arrived at the doorway atop the steps, Sunset turned to Rainbow Dash and quietly requested, “Open the door and check if anyone’s on the other side.”

Rainbow nodded, then pushed the door open and glanced around inside. Once she was sure that every hallway she could see was empty, she turned back and reported, “All clear.”

With that confirmation, Sunset swiftly shoved Twilight through the doorway after Rainbow, then hastily discarded the bush and stepped inside before finally closing the door.

“Okay, we’ve made it into the castle,” noted Twilight as she brushed off some leaves and twigs from that bush. “Now what?”

Sunset trotted ahead down the main hallway as she explained, “With any luck, Princess Twilight should be around here somewhere. We’ll hang out with her for a bit, then she can help escort us back to the portal so hopefully we won’t have to do all that sneaking around town again.”

“Sounds good to me!” agreed Rainbow Dash excitedly as she and Twilight followed Sunset. “So where is she?”

“While I never got to completely explore this castle,” replied Sunset, “I have gotten familiar enough on my previous visits that I think I know where to start looking.”

Sunset led her two friends down a few hallways, pausing only to recall which turns to make. Before long, they arrived at a tall set of double doors that were mostly green stained glass with a dark gold border. Sunset pushed the doors open, revealing a large round chamber with a crystal round table in the middle surrounded by six large thrones and one smaller throne. And to the left, they saw a pony who looked almost perfectly identical to Twilight, except this pony also had wings and was not wearing any glasses. This other Twilight was unaware of their entrance as she was currently facing away from them, her attention focused atop a ladder where a small purple dragon with green spines was struggling to adjust a large painting hanging on the wall.

“A little higher on the left,” said Princess Twilight as she used her levitation magic to hold up the painting while her dragon assistant made the adjustments. “Now on the right.”

At the doorway, Sunset turned back to her two friends and whispered, “Wait here.” She then stepped forward into the room and cleared her throat.

Princess Twilight turned to the source of that noise, then gasped and cheerfully greeted, “Sunset Shimmer!” She then ran over and shared a hug with her friend from the Lego World, unaware that she had released her telekinetic grip on the painting, forcing Spike to bear the entire weight of that large object.

“Hey, Twilight!” responded Sunset with a smile as she returned the hug.

“It’s so wonderful to see you again!” continued Twilight. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” remarked Sunset cryptically.

Twilight suddenly frowned in confusion and asked, “Wait, how are you coming in the front door and not back from where I keep the mirror?” She then immediately gasped and excitedly concluded, “You found another portal between our worlds!”

“I guess it wasn’t that long,” quipped Sunset.

Crash!

Both Twilight and Sunset turned to Spike, who had just dropped the large painting to the floor. Twilight winced and said, “Sorry, Spike. I guess I got so excited that I completely forgot.”

“Eh, I’m used to it by now,” he assured dismissively as he began descending the ladder.

Sunset rubbed her chin and noted, “Y’know, it’s just occurred to me that, until now, the only creatures we know of who traveled between Equestria and the Lego World have all originated from this side of the portal.”

“Until now?” asked Twilight as she raised an eyebrow.

“Let’s just say I didn’t come alone this time,” Sunset slyly remarked before she turned back and beckoned to the open doorway. Lego Twilight and Lego Rainbow Dash stepped out from behind the door and entered the room to stand beside their friend.

“Rainbow Dash! Other me!” greeted Princess Twilight excitedly. “This is quite a nice surprise! So glad to see you here!” She then frowned as she looked past them and saw nothing else, so she asked, “What about the rest of your friends?”

“Oh, they’re all back home waiting for us,” explained Sunset, “but I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“Either way, it’s still nice to see at least the three of you here,” said Princess Twilight contently. “So tell me, Rainbow and Twilight, what do you think of your first visit to Equestria?”

“Getting used to these weird bodies is quite a learning experience, I’ll tell you that much,” remarked Lego Twilight as she held up a foreleg and flexed it around.

Spike, who had recently joined group, spoke up, “At least it’s a little easy to tell the difference between the two Twilights, and I’m not talking about just the glasses.” He walked over to Lego Twilight and patted the side of her body. “It’s been so long since this world’s Twilight became an alicorn, I sometimes forget what she used to look like without wings.”

“Wait, you mean you didn’t always have those wings?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Princess Twilight giggled in embarrassment and admitted, “Believe it or not, it actually happened only a week before I made my first visit to the Lego World. Speaking of wings, I can definitely tell you’re the Rainbow Dash from the Lego World. This world’s Rainbow Dash would never allow her wings to just hang limply like that. Pegasus society considers it a sign that you’re physically incapable of flying.”

“Hey, just because I’ve crashed a lot of aircraft and spacecraft doesn’t mean I can’t fly!” Rainbow shot back as she extended her wings. She then gave those wings a might flap to propel herself into the air, but quickly lost her balance and fell over backwards to slam her back against the table.

“Typical Rainbow Dash,” remarked Lego Twilight teasingly as she shook her head with a smile. “Always crashing on the first try.”

“Don’t take it too personally,” assured Princess Twilight as she levitated Rainbow Dash off the table and back onto her hooves on the floor. “I actually lost count of how many times I crashed back when I was still getting used to my new wings.”

“We’d love to hear more about it,” said Sunset. “Like I said, we’re not in any rush to go anywhere.”

“Gotta hurry, gotta hurry, gotta hurry!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she rushed through the corridors of the Luxe Deluxe. After charging past worried passengers and down a few stairways, she soon reached the engine room. She burst through the door and began gasping for breath as she trudged further into the room.

Applejack turned her attention away from the engine when she heard her friend panting as she approached. “Pinkie?” asked Applejack. “What are you doin’ here?”

Pinkie loudly inhaled before she rapidly explained, “Rarity lost her walkie-talkie overboard, so I volunteered to be a curry and run back and forth between the deck and the engine room to deliver messages between my friends!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow and asked, “Uh, don’t ya mean courier?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I said!” replied Pinkie.

Applejack stared at her overly eager friend in confusion for a moment, then muttered, “Okay…” She cleared her throat and spoke up, “Anyway, you can tell the others the engine’s just about fixed up an’ we’ll soon have everythin’ back up an’ runnin’. But in order to make it work, we’re gonna have to open the valve at full throttle, so ya might as well brace yourselves for a sudden jolt for a short while ‘til we get the thrust back under control.”

Pinkie gave a salute and stated, “Your message will be delivered!” She then turned away and quietly added, “Right after I give myself an energy boost.” She unzipped her cupcake-shaped fanny-pack, then pulled out and tossed aside a teddy bear, a rubber chicken, and a wrench before she found a chocolate glazed donut. “Ah-ha!” she cheered before she promptly shoved the entire donut into her mouth and quickly gulped the whole thing down. She closed her fanny-pack and rushed out of the engine room.

After another short amount of time rushing up some stairways and through some dark hallways, Pinkie arrived back outside onto the deck, where the rainfall from the storm had now become a heavy downpour. She soon arrived at the outdoor lounge deck where, under the cover of a glass roof, Rarity and Fluttershy sat on sofas along with some of the animals from the petting zoo, all of whom were wearing lifejacket pieces.

Boom!

Another nearby lightning strike and crash of thunder startled Fluttershy. “Oh, I hope there others make it back very soon,” she muttered worriedly.

Rarity saw Pinkie Pie arrive and asked, “How are things down in the engine room?”

Pinkie took a quick breather before she reported, “Applejack said they’re about to reconnect the engine and we might feel a brief jolt.”

“Oh? When?” asked Fluttershy.

Pinkie opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly paused before she admitted, “Uh, I actually don’t know for sure. She just said it would be soon.”

Just seconds later, everyone and everything on the ship was suddenly thrown backwards as the large yacht began to accelerate very rapidly. Up on the bridge, Spike desperately grasped onto the console while Bluffbeard held tightly to the ship’s steering wheel.

“Woo-hoo!” cheered Bluffbeard with an excited grin. “Jet-skiin’ in a cruise ship! Now there’s somethin’ worthy of addin’ to the bucket list!” He then swiftly turned the wheel to the right, causing the ship to lean over and turn hard to starboard.

“What are you doing?!” asked Spike fearfully. “Where are you taking us?!”

“Off to where yer missing friends went!” declared Bluffbeard as he straightened the wheel. “If they’re not comin’ back to us, then we’ll just go to them!”

Passengers and crew all over the ship screamed in terror as the large vessel continued to speed across the rough and stormy sea.

“And that’s why Rarity and I are no longer allowed to attend any dragon weddings!” finished Spike with a smile, to which the four ponies in the room all laughed.

Seated around the throne room table were Spike and Princess Twilight in their designated thrones, Sunset Shimmer to the left in the throne marked with Applejack’s Cutie Mark, Rainbow Dash in the one left of that marked with Rarity’s Cutie Mark, and Lego Twilight Sparkle in the one to the left of that marked with Pinkie Pie’s Cutie Mark.

“I’m quite surprised by how much you and Rarity seem to enjoy each other’s company,” remarked Lego Twilight. “The Spike I know back home absolutely can’t stand being around our Rarity.”

“Eh, his loss,” said Spike with a shrug. “He has no idea what he’s missing out on.”

Rainbow Dash snickered and retorted, “Oh, I’m sure he knows very well. When he and Twilight joined our team, Rarity came onto him way too hard, and never even realized it until he called her out for treating him like a slave.”

Spike gasped and asked in disbelief, “Did he really say that?”

“Oh, he sure did,” confirmed Sunset with a smile of amusement. “We were all there to see him totally snap at her, right in her face. But here’s what I find even more amusing. While your friends in this world seem to be aware of your not-so-secret crush on Rarity, my friends and I in our world have seen our Spike seem to have that kind of affection for Fluttershy.”

“Fluttershy?” asked Spike in confusion. He looked away in deep thought and muttered, “Well, she does seem pretty nice, but I just don’t really feel it for her the way I do for Rarity.”

“Eh, your loss,” remarked Rainbow Dash dismissively. “You have no idea what you’re missing out on.”

Everyone in the room immediately burst out laughing at that ironic quip.

Once the laughter calmed down, Rainbow asked, “Hey, uh, do you have any snacks around here? I, uh, kinda skipped breakfast this morning.”

“I’m sure Spike and I can arrange something special,” assured Princess Twilight. Her expression suddenly brightened as she added, “Oh! While you’re here, you have to try Mrs. Cake’s chocolate fondue, though its prep time is at least twenty minutes.”

“Oh, we’ve got plenty of time to spare,” insisted Lego Twilight dismissively.

“In that case, I’ll go ahead and place that order,” said Spike as he got out of his seat and ran off out of the room.

“While we wait,” Sunset spoke up as she turned to Princess Twilight, “do you know if Starlight Glimmer is around? I’m sure she’d love to hang out with us again.”

“I’m sure she would,” agreed Princess Twilight. “Unfortunately, she and her old friend Sunburst were recently summoned by the map to solve a friendship problem, so she’s gonna be out of town for at least the rest of the day.”

“Oh yeah, she mentioned your magic map on this table when I first met her,” noted Sunset. “I’m not gonna lie, the LEGO Team could really use something like that.”

“To be honest, even I still don’t fully understand how it works,” admitted Twilight as she cast a quick spell to summon the map upon the table, revealing the holographic projection of virtually all of Equestria covering the entire surface.

“Whoa…” said Sunset, Rainbow, and Lego Twilight simultaneously in awe.

“You’re right, Sunset,” remarked Rainbow Dash. “We have gotta get one of these for the LEGO Team.”

“Could you share with us how much you do know about this map?” asked Lego Twilight.

“Sure!” agreed Princess Twilight. “It’s kind of a long story, though.”

“We’re already waiting on fondue,” Sunset pointed out. “I think we’ve got enough patience to hear the whole thing.”

“What are ya waitin’ for?!” demanded Applejack impatiently. “Shut that valve! NOW!!”

One of the crewmen in the engine room was struggling to turn a large pipe wrench that was gripped onto the pipe that was causing the ship’s uncontrollable acceleration. He grunted as he tugged on the wrench, but it just wouldn’t even budge at all. “I can’t!” he exclaimed. “It’s stuck!”

“Here, let me,” grumbled Applejack as she shoved the crewman aside and grabbed that stuck wrench. That valve remained stuck open, no matter how hard she tried to pull that wrench. With growing frustration, she resorted to use her magical geode power to enhance her strength, then gave a mighty tug on that wrench.

Ping!

The sudden release of tension caused Applejack to get flung backwards and fall to the floor. She smiled at the conviction that she had successfully shut that valve, but that smile quickly fell when she noticed that what she held in her hand was only the handle from that wrench. She sat up and looked towards the stuck valve, where the now snapped-off head from the wrench was still stuck in place on that pipe. “Well that just happened…” she grumbled as she tossed aside the handle.

Outside, as the ship continued speeding through the middle of the storm, a powerful lightning strike suddenly made a direct hit onto the vessel.

Crash!

Everyone in the engine room was startled when a massive electric shock surged along a shaft that ran along the ceiling, generating a series of small explosions that shattered the shaft. As the large fragments of that shaft fell to the floor, everyone noticed that the breaking points of that shaft wasn’t just where separate Lego parts came together, but some of the particular pieces had snapped apart, rendering an easy reassembly to be completely impossible.

“Please don’t tell me that was the rudder shaft,” spoke up Applejack pleadingly.

There was a brief awkward silence before one of the crewmen hesitantly answered, “It was.”

Up on the bridge, Bluffbeard and Spike looked through the rain-drenched windows and began to see they were rapidly approaching a small island. “Land ho!” cheered Bluffbeard.

“But we’re not slowing down!” Spike pointed out fearfully.

“Not to worry!” assured Bluffbeard as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “With the skill of an old sea-dog, I’ll navigate a safe course between those rocks an’ bring her in fer a smooth landin’ upon the beach.” He then turned the wheel to the right, but his confident expression fell when he noticed the ship was not turning at all. He looked down at the wheel in his hands, turned it left and right a few times before finally making it spin freely to the right. No matter how much that wheel turned, the ship maintained its perfectly straight course at maximum velocity.

Spike stared at the now useless wheel, then turned his gaze outside ahead of the ship and muttered worriedly, “That’s not good…”

With the Luxe Deluxe speeding uncontrollably through a fearsome storm, all of the passengers out on the deck — including Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy — were now running around and screaming in panic, for they had no way of knowing what would soon happen to them.

“Did you hear that?” asked Sunset. “It sounded like Pinkie Pie yelling.”

Everyone else in the throne room turned to Sunset, then stayed silent as they listened closely. After a few seconds, the main doors to the room were thrown open, and they all turned to see pony Pinkie Pie pushing a small cart into the room.

“I was yelling, silly!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “I was standing at the front door yelling, ‘Fondue delivery!’” She proudly held up the bowl of chocolate fondue that was atop the cart, then placed that bowl on the table and shoved it toward the middle of the table. “Here, you have to try it! It’s a fresh batch!”

“Wow, already?” remarked Sunset. “I guess we’ve been enjoying ourselves so much that we’re starting to lose track of time.”

“Eh, don’t be so worried,” assured Pinkie. “As long as you’re having a good time with your best friends, you can never overstay your welcome! By the way, nice to finally meet you, Sunset Shimmer!”

Sunset chuckled and noted, “Yeah, I guess it’s kinda weird that I’ve only today finally begun to meet some of the ponies whose Lego World counterparts have been close friends with me for quite a while.”

Pinkie waved to the other seated ponies and cheerfully greeted, “Hey, Rainbow Dash! Hey, pony-with-glasses-who-I-don’t-recognize!”

The three minifigs-turned-ponies turned to each other and couldn’t help but giggle at Pinkie’s apparent failure to recognize the second Twilight Sparkle in the room due to nothing more than a pair of glasses.

“I’d like love to stay and chat,” continued Pinkie, “but I’ve gotta get back to Sugar Cube Corner to prepare for a filly’s birthday party this afternoon. Those cupcakes won’t bake themselves, y’know!” She turned back to the door and pranced away as she always preferred to rather than simply walk.

Sunset chuckled again and remarked, “No matter what form she takes, Pinkie will always be Pinkie.” She then used her magic to levitate one of the forks out of the bowl and brought it over to her mouth to try a small bite of the chocolate-dipped marshmallow skewered to the end of it.

Rainbow Dash struggled to use her hooves to grip another one of the available forks, but once she got hold of it, she quickly brought it to her mouth and ate the entire marshmallow in one bite. “Ow! Too hot!” she exclaimed through her full mouth as she dropped her fork onto the table. She quickly chewed the marshmallow enough so she could speak somewhat clearly, then remarked, “It needs to be, like… twenty percent cooler.”

Spike rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, that catchphrase has been way overused by now.”

Rainbow swallowed the marshmallow in her mouth, then retorted with a smile, “Not where I’m from.”

Meanwhile, Lego Twilight used her magic to levitate the last available fork toward herself. However, her use of unicorn magic was still sloppy enough that as she attempted to bite that marshmallow, she ended up smearing chocolate sauce on her cheek, her glasses lens, and finally all around her mouth before she finally got it in. Once she was finally able to enjoy the taste of it, she contently said, “Mmm, delicious!”

Princess Twilight giggled and said, “Here, let me get that for you.” She levitated a napkin to wipe off the chocolate from Lego Twilight’s face. She then removed those glasses and levitated them closer to herself so she could make sure they were cleaned properly without further smearing the chocolate.

Once those glasses were thoroughly cleaned, Princess Twilight was about to return them when she suddenly paused as a curious thought crossed her mind. She brought those glasses up to her own face and looked through the lenses. “Whoa!” she spoke up as she quickly removed those glasses. “You have a really strong prescription. I could barely even see straight with those on.” She levitated the glasses back over to Lego Twilight.

“Better than being completely blind, that’s for sure,” muttered Lego Twilight as Sunset helped put her glasses back on her face properly.

“Still don’t like talking about that laser beam incident, huh?” asked Princess Twilight tactfully.

Lego Twilight shrugged and said, “While still true on that, my friends have been able to help me make peace with that unfortunate event, and now I happily embrace these glasses as part of my identity.”

“Good for you!” praised Princess Twilight with a smile. “I’m so glad that you’ve become much better off now that you’ve made some true friends. Believe me, I could say the same for myself, despite our vastly different circumstances.”

Rainbow leaned close to Sunset and quietly quipped, “At least they’re much better at talking to each other than the last time they met.”

Sunset giggled, remembering just how awkward that first meeting between the two Twilights had been, which had occurred the day after Lego Twilight joined their group of friends after leaving the Shadowbolts.

Sunset helped herself to another chocolate-dipped marshmallow from the fondue bowl and contently commented, “Mmm, this is great!”

“This is terrible!” shrieked Rarity as she held tightly to a support post to avoid flailing around too much on what had to be the roughest and wildest ride in a cruise ship ever.

Fluttershy was wobbling around as she struggled to stand upright, not just from the ship wildly rocking about, but also because she was carrying a pig in her arms. “I don’t think I can take much more of this!” she exclaimed fearfully.

Pinkie stumbled and landed against the railing on the side of the ship. As she grabbed that railing and pushed herself up, she was looking over the side of the ship and gasped when she noticed they were rapidly heading directly towards one of the razor sharp rocks that surrounded the island up ahead. “You might not have to!” she cried out in terror. “Rock ho!”

The three girls screamed as the cruise ship careened towards that rock. The ship slammed into the rock, the sudden deceleration causing everyone and everything on board to get thrown forward. The point of impact was just off the starboard side, and the ship’s momentum combined with the jagged edge of that rock resulted in a huge gash being torn open through the hull.

Down in the engine room, Applejack and the crewmen had definitely felt the sudden jolt from the impact. Once everything stopped shaking around, everyone slowly got up from where they had fallen.

When Ragamuffin stood up, he froze on the spot when he began to faintly hear the noise of rushing water. He turned to the open hatch that led towards the front of the ship and slowly walked forward. The red emergency lighting made it difficult to see far down that passageway, but it wasn’t long before he saw a flood of seawater quickly rushing towards them. “We’re takin’ on water!” he cried out to the others.

“Let’s get outta here!” shouted Applejack as she started running for the stairway out of the engine room. Ragamuffin and the other crewmen quickly followed after her.

Up on the bridge, while Spike looked on in horror as the ship ground to a halt upon striking that rock, Bluffbeard was preoccupied with looking over a couple of maps printed onto 2x2 tiles. “Hmm, that’s odd,” noted Bluffbeard as he held up two of those maps in front of his face. “This island doesn’t seem to appear on any of my navigational charts.”

Spike immediately slapped those maps out of Bluffbeard’s hands and furiously shouted, “NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!!”

Already, many of the people on board could feel the ship was slowly starting to sink lower, and their screams of fear and panic continued all around.

Back at Princess Twilight’s castle in Equestria, Princess Twilight and Spike — who by now had decided to take a nap while seated on his throne — had spent almost all morning sharing stories of their past adventures with a few unexpected guests from the Lego World. There were many items and artifacts spread out across the table, each with a unique story that the three visitors were fascinated to hear all about.

“And that was from the time I was rescued by my own pupil!” Princess Twilight excitedly finished with a giggle. “That really gave me some perspective on the importance of mentoring.”

“Wow!” remarked Lego Twilight in awe. “You ponies are, like, superheroes!”

Princess Twilight blushed and sheepishly said, “Oh, we’re not superheroes.”

“Sure,” responded Lego Twilight dismissively. “You’re just ordinary ponies who just happened to have saved the whole world from complete destruction multiple times…” She trailed off at the end of her remark as she slowly realized that what she was talking about was astonishingly similar to the rather heated confrontation she had with Rainbow Dash the previous night.

“Sound familiar?” asked Rainbow Dash with a smug smile on her face.

Lego Twilight recoiled in embarrassment.

Sunset smiled as she turned to Princess Twilight and said with amusement, “I guess your friends and my friends are a lot more alike than either of them might realize.”

Hoping to move on from that awkward moment, Princess Twilight looked over the various objects scattered across the table. “Oh! Here’s a good one,” she spoke up as she levitated up a long object wrapped in a long strip of cloth. She unwrapped the cloth to reveal a jagged black staff with two prongs on the end with a blue crystal between the two prongs. “This is from our battle with the Storm King. This staff allowed him to steal the magic of all the alicorns and used it to create the most powerful storm in Equestria. But luckily, my friends and I were able to work together to recover that stolen magic and seal his power into this: the Staff of Sacanas.”

“Woah…” said Sunset and Lego Twilight in awe, simultaneously.

While Princess Twilight was speaking, Rainbow Dash had noticed something on the discarded cloth wrapping. There was a symbol printed on the end of that cloth, which could be described as a mirror image of two bright blue lightning bolts that were closer together at the bottom and further apart at the top. As she stared at that symbol, she began to realize that it was virtually identical to the glowing image she had seen in the ocean the previous night. “This symbol looks familiar…” she muttered as she held up the strip of cloth.

Princess Twilight tilted her head and cautiously asked, “You’ve… seen this before?”

As everyone in the room looked to her, Rainbow replied, “It’s just… that symbol… It looks exactly like what I thought I saw in the water when we were back on the boat, but… I was told the magic glow was probably just some work of nature.”

Sunset and Lego Twilight shared a concerned look across the table before they turned to Princess Twilight.

Princess Twilight levitated the cloth to show the symbol to the others as she nervously asked, “When you saw the thing that looked exactly like this thing, there wasn’t any thunder or lightning accompanying it, right?”

Sunset briefly shared another concerned look with Lego Twilight before replying, “Uh, there was definitely thunder and lightning.”

“Affirmative on both,” confirmed Lego Twilight, “along with some strong wind and a little rainfall.”

Princess Twilight set down the cloth and the staff as she flew across the table to stand between Sunset and Rainbow. “Okay, nopony freak out,” she began calmly but notably agitated, “but considering how you’ve mentioned Equestrian Magic has been occasionally leaking into the Lego World, it’s possible that for the brief period of time when the Storm King possessed all the alicorn magic, some of his magic may have slipped through the interdimensional cracks into your world.” She gradually became increasingly paranoid as she continued, “It could very well be turning into a giant magic storm and threatening your friends as we speak! NOPONY FREAK OUT!!”

“Our friends!” exclaimed Sunset fearfully.

“We have to go back!” agreed Lego Twilight urgently.

“Ladies…” said Rainbow Dash smoothly with a smile. She stood up on the table and struck a heroic pose as she confidently declared, “It’s hero time!”

“She’s right,” agreed Sunset with a smile and a nod as she also stood up. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with, it’s time for action!”

Lego Twilight turned to Princess Twilight and asked, “I assume this means we’ll have to bring that staff along with us, right?”

“Absolutely,” confirmed Princess Twilight as she levitated that staff into the hooves of her Lego counterpart. “Since the three of you already possess some Equestrian Magic, all you’ll have to do is simply hold it up and the enchantment I had placed upon it should absorb that magical storm, essentially finishing the job that, until now, I thought was complete.”

“At least that’ll make that part relatively easy,” noted Sunset. She sighed in frustration and added, “Though I’m not looking forward to sneaking our way through town again, especially with the kind of urgency we’re now faced with.”

“Not a problem!” assured Princess Twilight. “Just tell me where that other portal is located and I can take you directly there.”

“I’m afraid I can’t give you an exact location,” responded Sunset. “All I know is that it’s somewhere in the Everfree Forest beyond the other side of town from here.”

“I can work with that,” stated Princess Twilight confidently before her horn began to glow. Only a split second later, she and the three girls from the Lego World instantly vanished from the room.

The magical burst of that teleportation spell was enough noise to startle Spike awake. He muttered sleepily and yawned as he stretched his limbs and slowly sat upright in his seat. Once he was awake enough to be aware of his surroundings, he realized he was now completely alone in the throne room. He groaned as he slumped in his seat and grumbled, “I hate it when they go somewhere without telling me…”

At the other side of Ponyville, near the edge of the Everfree Forest, the four ponies from the castle throne room suddenly blinked into existence under a burst of magenta magic.

“Is this a good enough head-start?” asked Princess Twilight.

The three others immediately looked around in confusion at their sudden change of location. Sunset was the first to understand what had just happened, so she turned to Princess Twilight and replied, “Well, at least it’s enough to bypass all that sneaking and hiding we had to do on our way in.”

Lego Twilight sputtered momentarily before she finally asked her pony counterpart, “Did you just… teleport us? As in, zero fixed-point teleportation?!”

Princess Twilight raised an eyebrow and replied, “I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that, but yes, I just used a basic teleportation spell to instantly bring us all significantly closer to your destination.”

“You have got to teach me about it sometime!” begged Lego Twilight excitedly with a huge grin on her face. “Sure, I may have invented the Jump-Gate to provide one fixed-point teleportation to vastly improve upon the old two fixed-point system of teleportation pads, but one invention I would love to someday develop is a zero fixed-point system that would allow people to literally travel from anywhere, to anywhere, virtually instantaneously!”

“You nerds can geek out over teleportation later!” Rainbow Dash spoke up irritably. “Right now, we gotta get back to the Lego World and save our friends!”

“She’s right,” agreed Sunset as she turned towards the interior of the forest. “The portal’s this way!” she then galloped off into the woods. The rest of the group quickly followed after her, with Lego Twilight forced to carry the staff with her mouth so she could use all four legs.

After a few minutes of jumping over logs and dodging low branches, they soon arrived at a rather familiar pond. Not much further up ahead, they saw the entrance to the cavern through which they had arrived into Equestria.

“The portal’s in there!” Sunset pointed out as she led the group into the cavern.

“I appreciate you letting me know where it’s located,” stated Princess Twilight with a smile as she and Sunset both used illumination spells to light up the dark cavern. “As soon as I get a chance, I’ll make sure to secure this site so you won’t have to worry about anything dangerous passing through to either side without us knowing about it.”

Walking right behind the two native Equestrians were Rainbow Dash and Lego Twilight, who decided to use her mediocre control over telekinesis to levitate the staff beside her as they walked. Twilight turned to Rainbow and noted, “I’d just like to say for the record that, had you taken a picture of that symbol in the water like Spike suggested, I would’ve been far more tempted to believe you that Equestrian Magic was behind the storm. A perfectly symmetrical shape with such straight lines and sharp angles is much more difficult to be excused as a purely natural phenomenon.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and admitted, “Yeah, even without a picture, I probably should have at least mentioned that it was such an unusual shape.”

“And now that I think about it,” Sunset spoke up, “the few seconds I got to see of the weather radar before you carelessly destroyed it did seem to indicate there was something very unnatural about that storm. If I had more time to actually study it, not to mention see a picture of that symbol in the water, I could’ve sent a message to Princess Twilight and she could’ve told us about the Storm King.”

“Okay! I get it!” snapped Rainbow Dash. “I messed up! I made a lot of bad choices! I’m an awful communicator! Can we just get going and save our friends?!”

Lego Twilight sighed and muttered under her breath, “If only you had cared even half as much about your friends earlier…” She then turned to Rainbow and spoke up, “We’ll discuss your atrocious behavior later. For now, yes, our priority should be to save our friends and everyone else on that ship.”

The group soon came around a corner and arrived at the area with an underground waterfall and stream. “The new portal’s right over there,” said Sunset as she pointed at the site of the currently sealed portal along the far wall of the cavern. “The other side is covered by a pit full of sand.”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash excitedly as she extended her wings. “Let’s go!” She quickly charged straight towards the portal.

“Wait!” Sunset cried out. “We don’t even know if it’s still open!”

Rainbow ignored Sunset and leaped directly into the site of the portal, which immediately glowed brightly as she passed right through.

“I guess that answers that,” muttered Sunset.

“I should probably hold tightly onto this while I pass through,” noted Lego Twilight as she released the staff from her magical grip and grabbed hold of it under both of her forelegs.

“Here, allow me,” offered Sunset as she levitated Lego Twilight up off the floor and then flung her directly through the portal. Twilight, not expecting such an unusual means of being tossed around, yelped with each sudden change of movement before she vanished through the portal.

With both of her friends now on their way back to the Lego World, Sunset turned to Princess Twilight and said, “I’ll let you know how things go as soon as I get a chance.”

“Good luck out there,” encouraged Princess Twilight.

Sunset nodded in acknowledgement, then turned and galloped towards the portal. She leaped through the portal and vanished through the bright golden glow it briefly gave off.

Now completely alone in the cavern, Princess Twilight smiled before she turned away and began to head back to her castle. As much as she enjoyed the unexpected visit by some of her friends from the Lego World, she understood how vital it was for them to return home to deal with a magical threat they were now aware of. After all, she and her closest friends were certainly no strangers to saving the world, and it seemed her friends from the Lego World were now beginning to realize that perhaps they shared a similar responsibility for their world.

Author's Note

I cut it really close this time, finishing this chapter literally only just last night, but I got it done. Anyway, among all the additional details I wrote in this chapter, I also wanted to specify when in the main pony series the events of Spring Breakdown were likely to have occurred. (It was definitely after the Movie, but before Spike got his wings, so that's somewhere in early Season 8. Starlight being called away on a map mission around that time (in that episode where she and Sunburst went to Sire's Hollow) made it convenient to explain why she wasn't around for this visit, but I also decided to bend the canon events by showing that the School of Friendship is currently under construction to suggest this visit happened quite a while before that school first opened.)

Heroes at Sea

Chapter 5
Heroes at Sea

Back in the Lego World, on the uncharted island that was the epicenter of a powerful storm unleashed by Equestrian Magic, a seemingly ordinary sandpit suddenly erupted in a bright golden light as a minifig was flung out from within. That minifig — Rainbow Dash — tumbled uncontrollably through the air and then landed awkwardly upon the muddy ground at the edge of the surrounding jungle.

Rainbow Dash groaned as she rolled over onto her back and immediately felt her face and body quickly get soaked in the heavy downpour. “Ugh, forgot about the rain…” she grumbled as she pushed against the ground and stood up.

As soon as Rainbow was on her feet, the sandpit erupted again in a bright light as another minifig was flung out. Twilight Sparkle, with the staff of Sacanas in her grasp, screamed as she tumbled through the air and then landed directly onto Rainbow, causing both of them to slam into the muddy ground.

“Ow,” Rainbow flatly muttered.

Once Twilight quickly regained her bearings, she smiled to see her familiar claw-shaped hands. As she grasped the staff with her hands and got up off her friend, she sighed in relief and remarked, “So glad to be back in my regular body.” As she turned and helped Rainbow up, she added, “And we got our clothes back, too, so that’s a huge relief.”

The sandpit once again erupted in a bright light as the last of their friends, Sunset Shimmer, was flung out. Rainbow responded by immediately sidestepping away from the impact site in the mud, only for her friend tumbling through the air to land on top of her anyway. “Oh, come on! Seriously?!” she exclaimed furiously.

Twilight used her free hand to help Sunset up, then did the same for Rainbow Dash.

As Sunset began to feel the heavy rainfall and strong wind, she turned to her two friends and worriedly spoke up, “This storm’s getting really bad now! Should we deal with it right here and now?”

“I’m not sure about that,” argued Twilight cautiously. “We don’t know how exactly this staff will work, and with all this dense vegetation surrounding us, I don’t wanna take any chances. I’d recommend that we find some open ground before we attempt to clear this storm.”

“Then let’s get back to the beach where we landed!” suggested Rainbow Dash with a smile of determination. “C’mon, let’s go!” She turned towards the path she had seen Twilight and Sunset arrive from earlier and began running down that path. Her two friends quickly followed after her.

The three girls ran for less than a minute before they reached the gorge they had crossed earlier that day. Rainbow had crossed it before her friends by simply using her super speed to jump across, so she was surprised to see there was now a white bridge spanning the gap.

“Whoa. Where’d this bridge come from?” asked Rainbow Dash as she came to a stop right in front of that bridge.

“I built it out of a few skeletons I found nearby,” answered Twilight with a hint of pride in her voice. “And thanks to the utilization of my magic power, the entire assembly and placement process literally took only a matter of seconds.”

“Nice!” praised Rainbow. As she stepped onto that bridge and quickly led her friends across the gorge, she remarked, “Even with our awesome superpowers, it’s good to see that we can still call ourselves Master Builders!”

The three girls soon made it to the other side of the gorge, but they still had a lot of jungle terrain to cross before they reached the beach, so they continued to rush onwards.

At the Luxe Deluxe, a few passengers had gathered at the indoor performance stage to watch one of Trixie’s magic shows — albeit not because they were interested, but rather there was simply not much else for them to do on a ship without any power. Of course, the show was interrupted when the ship had suddenly accelerated forward, and after a few minutes of violently rocking around, the ship suddenly ground to a halt. Since none of these people were aware of what was going on outside, they chose to simply return to their seats and continued watching the show.

“Thank goodness that wild ride is over with,” grumbled Trixie as she hastily picked up her fallen props and set them back in their proper places on the stage. Like everyone else onboard, she was wearing a lifejacket over her performance outfit. She had initially refused to wear it on stage, but a little “persuasion” from her parole officer — Flash Sentry, who continued to watch her every move from backstage — had convinced her that she would be better off wearing that lifejacket.

Once everything on the stage was reorganized, Trixie stood beside a small table with an empty vase on it as she spoke up, “Now then, to proceed from where I left off…” She picked up the vase and turned it upside down to demonstrate that it really was empty. “As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, the vase is empty. Now watch and be amazed as the Great and Powerful Trixie shall magically re-summon the water that once filled this vase!” She began waving her hands around in a fanciful style over to empty vase.

Almost right away, everyone began to hear a faint rumble. Just seconds later, seawater suddenly began flooding into the backstage area, then rushed across the stage floor and flowed out into the seating area. The few people in the audience immediately got up and rushed towards the exit to escape from the room as it began to flood.

As the tons of water rushed around her ankles, Trixie stared at the surrounding water and fearfully exclaimed, “I’m too powerful… I’M TOO POWERFUL!! This is even worse than when I blew up that neon sign!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Flash Sentry in confusion.

Trixie turned to the police officer, then giggled in embarrassment and weakly replied, “Uh, did I forget to mention that little incident from a few weeks ago?”

Flash glanced down at the seawater that was now up to his knees, then turned back to Trixie and firmly stated, “We’ll discuss this later. Right now, we gotta get outta here!”

“Agreed!” responded Trixie worriedly as she and Flash hastily made their way to the exit. “Nothing takes a higher priority than escaping from a sinking ship!”

Out on the deck, while the storm continued to unleash strong winds and heavy rainfall, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie watched in horror with all the other people outside as the ship began to slowly descend into the water. Although the damage caused by that impact with a rock was towards the bow of the ship, it was the stern that was noticeably sinking more rapidly, with the pool area of the lower deck already dropping below the waterline.

“We’re sinking!” exclaimed Fluttershy fearfully.

“To the lifeboats!” shouted Pinkie in panic.

BOOM!!

Multiple lightning strikes all at once suddenly struck every single lifeboat attached to the ship, not only instantly burning away the ropes that held them in place, but also puncturing numerous holes into all of them. The passengers and crew watched helplessly as every single one of those lifeboats dropped away from the ship and quickly sank out of sight.

“And… there go the lifeboats,” noted Pinkie uneasily. “That was a very specific lightning strike.”

Up on the bridge, Captain Bluffbeard and Spike had witnessed the unexpected loss of those lifeboats. “Y’know, lad,” remarked Bluffbeard with concern, “I’ve sunk a lotta ships in all kinds of crazy ways over the years, but that right there was a first, even fer me.”

“And somehow, I wish it wasn’t…” muttered Spike under his breath.

Meanwhile, Applejack had just made it outside and rushed over to her friends gathered on the deck. “We couldn’t stand a chance against that much floodin’!” she urgently reported. “We’ve already lost the engine room! We gotta abandon ship now!”

“Yes, that would be the appropriate course of action at this very moment,” explained Rarity uneasily. “Unfortunately, it seems the storm has swiftly eradicated every single available lifeboat.”

Applejack leaded over the side of the ship and saw that all the spaces where she expected to see lifeboats were now completely empty. “How the brick is that even possible?!” she asked in disbelief.

BOOM!!

Multiple flashes of lightning suddenly surged in the dark sky all around the doomed ship, with each accompanying boom of thunder startling everyone on board. All the lightning eventually coalesced into an intensely bight ball of light in the sky, and that light soon faded to reveal a bright blue symbol — the symbol of the Storm King.

Pinkie Pie gasped and exclaimed, “Holy salami! There was evil magic behind this storm all along!”

Back on the island, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Sunset arrived back at the beach where they had previously landed. They looked out to sea and gasped in horror when they saw not only the cruise ship had gotten much closer to the island since they left, but also the symbol of the Storm King was now looming ominously over the ship.

“There’s no time to lose!” shouted Rainbow Dash urgently. “Let’s do this!”

Twilight held out the Staff of Sacanas and exclaimed, “Everybody, grab on!”

“Right!” agreed Sunset with determination as she grasped the staff below Twilight’s hands, followed by Rainbow grasping the staff above Twilight’s hands.

As all three girls held tightly to that staff, their Equestrian Magic caused it to surge with power. The blue crystal atop the staff glowed brightly, followed by a pillar of bright golden light bursting up into the sky. Almost immediately, that pillar of magic began sucking in all the surrounding lightning and dark clouds like a giant vacuum cleaner.

Out on the stricken ship, everyone outside braced themselves as a series of intense lightning bolts began to arc down directly towards them. But right at the last second, those lightning bolts were suddenly pulled away, along with the Storm King’s symbol and all the dark clouds in the sky. As the fearsome storm was swiftly pulled away, all the wind and rain also suddenly ceased. Everyone now watched in astonishment as all evidence of that storm was quickly pulled into a single focal point somewhere on the beach of the nearby island.

Twilight, Sunset, and Rainbow maintained their hold on the staff as it continued to absorb more and more of that magical storm. Due to how widespread the storm had gotten by the time they arrived, it took a couple minutes before every last trace of that storm was finally sealed within that magical staff. Once that storm was finally cleared away, the true weather for the area was revealed to be a bright sunny day with no wind and absolutely no clouds at all in the sky.

Rainbow and Sunset released their grip on the staff — which, now that they had a chance to really look at it, had notably not turned into a Lego part upon passing through the interdimensional portal — and the three girls smiled in accomplishment. Twilight stuck the end of the staff into the sand and proclaimed, “Weather update: sunny!”

“With a chance of awesome!” added Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm.

“I can’t believe how easy that was!” remarked Sunset.

“I think we all learned a valuable lesson today,” noted Twilight.

“Totally,” acknowledged Rainbow Dash. “I learned we don’t have to go looking for trouble — that’s something a bad guy would do. Instead, we just have to be there for each other whenever it finds us.”

“And although your actions were atrocious, I suppose there was at least one positive aspect to result from all of that,” admitted Twilight. “If you hadn’t run off and found this island, it would’ve been much more difficult for us to resolve this. Even under a best case scenario, we might’ve been able to escape aboard the ship with all systems fully restored, but there’s no telling how much more powerful that storm could’ve gotten before we eventually figured out its true nature.”

“See?” quipped Rainbow Dash smugly. “Even when I mess up, I still find an awesome way to save the day!”

While the girls were busy talking, their attention was turned away from the ship that was still sinking off in the distance. They failed to hear the faint screams of terror, and even a set of fireworks that spelled out “SOS” went completely unnoticed by them.

Squawk!

The three girls turned to see a familiar blue and yellow parrot perched atop a nearby palm tree. That parrot extended a wing out to the ocean as it spoke, “The ship is still sinking.”

Sunset glanced out to sea, then gasped and exclaimed, “Girls! The ship is sinking!”

Twilight and Rainbow looked out to sea and also gasped in shock. “Oh, no!” exclaimed Twilight fearfully. “They must’ve struck one of those rocks out there!”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” exclaimed Rainbow. “We gotta help them!”

Sunset prepared to start running, but suddenly paused and muttered, “Wait… none of us ever said anything about a sinking ship.” All three girls turned their gaze up and stared suspiciously at the parrot perched atop the palm tree.

The parrot stood perfectly still upon being faced with such a glare. Its gaze quickly shifted left and right, then it squawked again and quickly spoke, “I’m gonna improvise Rainbow Dash style!” The parrot then leaped off the branch and flew away.

“Ugh, you say it once in front of a parrot and they say it forever,” grumbled Rainbow.

“Forget the parrot,” Sunset spoke up urgently. “We still gotta save our friends!” She rushed over to the lifeboat she and Twilight had used, grabbed her discarded lifejacket and put it back on.

Twilight rushed over, put on her lifejacket, and then helped Sunset lift their lifeboat and began carrying down to the shore. However, after only a few steps, she suddenly cried out, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait! Stop!” She set down her side of the lifeboat and pointed to the motor on the rear of it. “We can’t use this! The propeller is damaged!”

Sunset set down her side of the lifeboat and quickly inspected the motor. She quickly discovered that two of the three blades on the propeller piece had snapped off, rendering it completely useless. She groaned in frustration and grumbled, “Great. Now what?”

“Good thing we got a spare!” Rainbow Dash pointed out as she put on her lifejacket from the lifeboat she had used to reach this island.

Sunset and Twilight silently nodded in agreement and rushed over to Rainbow Dash’s lifeboat. The three girls then carried the lifeboat out into the water and hopped in.

Sunset grabbed the pull-cord to start the motor and yanked it, but the cord snapped right off. She growled in frustration and shouted, “You have got to be kidding me!”

“Don’t worry!” assured Twilight. “We can figure this out.” She took a brief moment to assess everything before she explained, “That motor has a broken propeller and this one has a broken starter, so let’s just remove the propeller from this motor and swap out the broken one on the other motor.”

“I got a better idea!” Rainbow Dash spoke up excitedly as she held up her magical geode and touched it to activate its power. “It’s hero time!” She hopped out the back of the lifeboat and began using her super speed to run across the surface of the water, all while pushing the lifeboat ahead of her. This idea quickly turned out to be remarkably successful, as she managed to keep running fast enough to stay above the water’s surface, all while pushing the lifeboat ahead at a speed that actually exceeded what the motor had been capable of.

Sunset and Twilight held on tight as Rainbow Dash pushed them directly towards the sinking cruise ship. It took them less than a minute to reach the doomed vessel, and with a mighty kick against the water, Rainbow launched the lifeboat up onto the deck.

Among the people on that deck were Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack. The four of them had been desperately trying to figure out a way to help everyone around them when they saw that lifeboat land on the deck. When they noticed who was in that lifeboat, Pinkie gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “You’re back!” She then rushed over to the lifeboat, followed quickly by the rest of her friends.

“Are you girls okay?” asked Twilight as she, Sunset, and Rainbow got up and climbed out of the lifeboat.

Pinkie immediately gave Twilight a tight hug, then released her and quickly explained, “While you were gone, we fixed the boat, but then we crashed into a rock, and now we’re sinking, so—” She inhaled and then sobbed, “We totally ruined your vacation plans!”

Twilight placed her hands on Pinkie’s shoulders and calmly explained, “It’s not your fault. That storm was the result of Equestrian Magic. Rainbow Dash may have looked in all the wrong places and made a lot of bad choices, but her actions ultimately allowed us to eliminate the threat much more quickly than we otherwise might have.” She released her hold on Pinkie and turned to the rest of her friends as she continued, “Whatever the seven of us are facing, however our lives are changing, we’re going through it together. So let’s get everyone off this boat, like the superheroes we are!” She turned back to Rainbow Dash and winked.

Rainbow responded with a smile and a nod.

Twilight turned to everyone else and raised her fist as she declared, “Who’s with me?!”

“We are!” cheered the rest of the girls excitedly.

Rainbow then groaned and complained, “See how easy that was?”

“Kinda helps when everyone actually agrees with ya,” quipped Applejack with a smile, “rather than you tryin’ to cram nonsense down our throats.”

“Ah, so good to see the three of ya have returned!” greeted Bluffbeard as he and Spike walked over to the seven girls on the deck. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this here ship is now sinkin’, fer which I have some good news an’ some bad news.”

Spike raised an eyebrow and skeptically asked, “How could there possibly be any good news about a sinking ship?”

Bluffbeard gave a hearty laugh and explained, “Oh, it all comes down to how the ship is sinkin’! An’ thanks to how often I’ve had the misfortune to sink a ship, let’s just say I’ve learned a thing or two! In this case, the damage to the hull is at the bow, yet it’s the stern that has sunk further, which can only mean one thing. The bow of this ship has run aground, meaning it can’t possibly sink any further than it already has!”

“Huh. I guess that is good news,” remarked Rainbow Dash.

“And the bad news?” asked Spike, somewhat hesitantly.

Bluffbeard pulled out a stethoscope and placed the resonator end against the outer hull over the side of the ship and listened closely to the subtle groans being made by the large structure. After a few seconds of listening in a few places, he removed the stethoscope and explained, “As I suspected. The stern is hangin’ precariously over an undersea cliff. Worse still, the bow ran aground at low tide, which means that in a matter of hours when the tide comes in, this ship will eventually slip loose an’ begin its final plunge into the abyss.”

“Then we don’t have much time to lose!” concluded Sunset urgently.

Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash with a smile and asked, “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Rainbow lasers?!” responded Rainbow Dash excitedly.

“Pony up!” declared Twilight simultaneously.

Sunset glanced at the two and asked, “I thought we were calling it—?”

“No,” argued Rainbow, “we agreed on—!”

“Light it up, ladies!” Pinkie suddenly declared with enthusiasm.

Sunset shrugged and said with a smile, “Sure, let’s go with that.”

The seven girls stood together side by side and grasped each other’s hands. Twilight stood in the middle, to her right were Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy, and to her left were Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Sunset. Once all seven of them were joined together, their magical geodes began to glow. They hovered up into the air as that glow quickly covered their entire bodies. After a few seconds, that bright glow faded to reveal the seven girls now in their familiar ponied up forms, along with the magical outfits that had been given to them on the most recent times they had done this. Conveniently, not only were they now completely dried off after being soaked by the storm’s heavy rainfall, they were also allowed to keep those lifejackets on over their magical outfits.

“I’ll get the animals!” said Fluttershy with determination.

“AJ, Dash, Pinkie, and I will make sure all the decks are clear!” stated Sunset firmly.

“You got it!” agreed Rainbow.

“I’ll fashion a new lifeboat!” declared Rarity.

“And I’ll help everyone climb into it!” finished Twilight with a smile.

With their tasks assigned, the seven girls lowered down back onto the deck and quickly went to work.

Rarity immediately walked over to the side of the ship and began conjuring a large diamond construct at the surface of the water down below. In only a matter of seconds, she had crafted a massive flat-bottomed boat with several rows of wide benches for seating. She turned to Twilight and explained, “I’m uncertain about the number of people aboard this luxury vessel, but with the estimate I have heard being over a hundred, I decided to err on the side of caution by overestimating a new lifeboat large enough to comfortably support that many people with some breathing room to spare.”

“Not to mention, Fluttershy is also gathering up all the animals from the petting zoo,” Twilight pointed out.

“Ah, yes, I had momentarily forgotten about that,” confessed Rarity. “Still, I remain confident my overestimation shall suffice to hold everyone and every creature, albeit perhaps not quite as comfortably as I had hoped for.”

“It’s just gonna be a short trip to that island over there,” noted Spike. “I’m sure we’d be okay with being packed like sardines if it means getting outta here to safety.”

As some of the concerned passengers began gathering on the deck, Twilight addressed them, “I understand you’re all anxious to evacuate, but we need to ensure we don’t leave anyone behind, so I’ll be asking each of you to briefly identify yourselves before Rarity and I help you climb into the new lifeboat.” She turned to Bluffbeard and asked, “Do you have a manifest?”

“It’s in my quarters,” confirmed Bluffbeard. “I’ll go fetch it, along with some other essential paperwork.”

As Bluffbeard walked away, Spike pulled out a notepad and pencil as he said, “Until he gets back, I’ll help you girls keep track of everyone.” Spike pointed his pencil at the nearest passenger — an old man with glasses and no hair — and stated, “Name, please.”

“Mister Waddle,” replied the old guy.

Spike quickly scribbled the name on his notepad, then turned to Twilight and smiled as he stated, “Got it!”

Twilight then used her magic to levitate Mister Waddle up into the air and gently over towards the oversized diamond lifeboat.

“Whoa! Easy!” called out Mister Waddle. “I just had my hip joint replaced.”

Meanwhile, over at the other side of that deck, Fluttershy was also making an effort to account for all the animals. She had already fastened lifejackets to all of them hours earlier, so it was just a matter of double-checking that each and every critter would be safe. “Single file, everyone!” she called out to the gathered animals who were chattering worriedly in their various noises. “Please, single file! I need to make sure that all of you are here so we don’t accidentally leave anyone behind!”

A grey rabbit suddenly hopped towards Fluttershy and squeaked frantically as he waved his forelegs around desperately.

Fluttershy recognized this rabbit as Mister Bouncy, and when she heard what he had to say, she gasped and worriedly exclaimed, “Oh no! Wait here, everyone! I have to—!”

Whoosh!

Rainbow Dash suddenly arrived through her usual rainbow motion blur and stopped right in front of Fluttershy. She had two small grey rabbits in her arms as she looked down at Mister Bouncy. “Are these yours?” she asked casually with a smile as she gently set down those two rabbits. “I found them under an overturned trashcan.”

While Mister Bouncy embraced those smaller rabbits, Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief and replied, “Thank goodness! I was just about to go rescue them. Thank you so much!”

“Leave no bricks unturned!” quipped Rainbow Dash confidently. “AJ and Pinkie are checking below deck, so I’ll do a quick sweep right behind them.”

“Good idea,” agreed Fluttershy with a nod.

Without another word, Rainbow Dash zoomed off.

Meanwhile, Sunset had quickly made her way towards the stern of the ship, where worried passengers watched helplessly as the waterline slowly crept up along the lower pool deck. “Head to the front deck!” she urgently called out to everyone. “We got a new lifeboat set up over there!”

The worried passengers heard Sunset’s alert and quickly began to make their way up towards the front of the ship. Once the crowd had cleared the area, the only person left behind was a little girl who was sobbing as she held tightly to a stuffed turtle.

Sunset knelt down in front of the little girl and gently placed her hand on the crying girl’s shoulder, which allowed her to see the little girl’s memory. The girl and her mother had been holding hands as they tried to escape from below deck when she dropped her stuffed turtle. Desperate to retrieve that beloved toy, the girl released her hold on her mother and rushed back to pick it up. The little girl was momentarily happy as she hugged that stuffed turtle, but that happiness quickly faded when she looked around and was unable to find her mother anywhere in the surrounding crowd of panicky minifigs.

Once Sunset finished her glimpse into the little girl’s memory, she gently hugged the girl and calmly assured, “Hey, it’s okay. I’ll help you find your mommy. Do you trust me?”

The little girl quieted down and wiped her tears away, then smiled and nodded.

Sunset stood up and glanced up ahead, but saw the deck on both sides of the central structure were too crowded to pass through. She glanced up at the central structure, then looked around at whatever surrounding objects she had to work with. She gently picked up the girl and set her down off to the side, then said, “Wait here.”

Sunset started by grabbing one of the umbrellas and used it to knock away part of the glass roof over the deck along the backside of the central structure. Once that obstruction was cleared away, she then removed the large plate pieces from the tables and used a few other parts she removed from some chairs to connect them together lengthwise. She then hauled the length of large plates upright and placed it against the side of the central structure, providing a complete surface of studs all the way up to the roof. She then finished her build by attaching a few other various parts to lock those plates against the wall.

With that creative build complete, Sunset picked up the little girl and placed her on her back so that she could wrapped her arms around her neck. “Hold on tight,” advised Sunset.

The little girl responded by tightly hugging the stuffed turtle in her hands against Sunset’s front.

Sunset ran straight at that wall of studs, then ran right up it until she landed up on the roof — her parkour talent of SNOT walking in action. She then ran straight across the roof to the front, then slid down the sloped front windows on her feet before making a final leap out onto the front deck. Once she had landed, she reached back and gently carried the little girl off her back.

The little girl looked around and her gaze soon fell on one particular woman in the crowd who was speaking frantically with one of the crewwomen. “Mommy!” she cried out and she reached her arms out.

The worried woman turned to them and suddenly smiled as she rushed over. As Sunset handed the little girl over to her, the mother let out a sigh of relief and praised, “Thank you so much!”

“Just doing what all heroes do, ma’am,” assured Sunset with a smile.

Inside the ship, the buffet room had flooded with seawater up to just below the height of a minifig’s waist. By now, the only minifig who had remained behind was the chef, Puffed Pastry, and not for a lack of effort. The rapid acceleration of the ship followed by its sudden stop had thrown the contents of the buffet into complete disarray, severe enough that she had been knocked unconscious when something hit her head in the sudden stop. By the time she recovered, the room was already partially flooded, and her attempts to escape were hindered by something below the water’s surface that left her stuck in place. No matter how hard she tried to pull herself free, she was unable to move her left leg, and the lack of light made it virtually impossible to see what was holding her down.

Puffed Pastry was starting to lose hope when she noticed a familiar pink girl wading through the flooded hallway and into the room through the open doorway. She immediately scowled and grumbled, “I zought I told you to never come in ‘ere ever again.”

Pinkie Pie smirked and playfully remarked, “Good thing I’m too stubborn to listen.”

Puffed Pastry wanted to argue, but she understood that a situation where her life was on the line was not an appropriate time to maintain a grudge. She reluctantly softened her expression and confessed, “I’m trapped. My foot is caught on something. I fear I may ‘ave to detach my leg and leave it behind.”

Pinkie initially looked skeptically at Puffed Pastry, but then smiled and held out her hand. With no time to lose, the chef grabbed the party girl’s hand and they both pulled, but even with that assistance, Puffed Pasty remained trapped.

Pinkie released her grip and seriously remarked, “Yup, you’re stuck alright. I’ll need a visual on what we’re dealing with here.” She took a huge breath and completely submerged herself into the water. As soon a she laid eyes on Puffed Pastry’s trapped leg, she couldn’t believe her luck. Wrapped around that leg and a table leg was a bundt cake — the very specific type of bundt cake she had been so desperately craving for the entire voyage. She didn’t need a second thought to take immediate advantage of this opportunity to finally try it. She did not hesitate to take the biggest bites she possibly could, all while she had remained completely submerged on a single breath of air. It took three huge bites to break the ring shape, freeing the trapped leg.

Puffed Pastry let out a sigh of relief as she felt her left leg was released. She looked over in the direction of where she had been trapped and began to grow concerned when she did not see Pinkie resurface.

A few more seconds passed before Pinkie finally breached the surface of the water and took a gasp of air. She had a huge smile on her face and a partially eaten bundt cake in her hand. “Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cake!” she squealed excitedly. “So worth it!” She then took another huge bite out of that cake.

Puffed Pastry recoiled in disgust and asked, “‘ow could you possibly savor zat? It is ruined by all ze saltwater!”

Pinkie glared at the chef and sharply responded, “After how desperate you’ve made me to even so much as taste this divine work of culinary perfection, I’ll take it!” She then promptly took another huge bite out of that soaked bundt cake.

Puffed Pastry couldn’t help but feel remorse for Pinkie in that moment. She was about to say something, but the low groaning noise of the ship’s hull quickly reminded her of their current predicament. “We must leave at once!” she declared urgently as she began wading towards the doorway.

“Right behind ya!” agreed Pinkie, speaking with her mouth full. The two girls waded through the waist-high water out of the buffet room and towards the exit up onto the deck.

Further down in the ship, Applejack boldly waded through water that was already up to her chest. She knew that certain areas like the engine room were already completely lost, while other areas — such as the crew’s quarters where she was currently searching through — were on the verge of being completely submerged, so she knew she had to search those areas first if anyone still down here were to have any hope of escape.

Clang-clang-clang!

“Get us outta here!” cried out a guy with a gravelly gangster voice.

“We don’t wanna drown down here!” cried out a guy with a deeper dim-witted voice.

Applejack waded her way down the hallway and around a corner before she found herself at the barred door to the ship’s brig, behind which were a certain pair of incompetent robbers. “Seriously?!” asked Applejack in disbelief. “You brick-heads followed us even all the way out here?!”

“We didn’t follow you, sissy!” Rocky shot back. “We was plannin’ to rob this ship long before we found out you sissies were aboard!”

“Though you gotta admit, it’s kinda weird how we always seem to keep bumping into each other,” noted Mugsy.

Applejack sighed and spoke up, “Normally, Ah’d never do somethin’ like this, but Ah say that even a couple of brick-heads like yourselves don’t deserve to drown.” She then grabbed the barred door and, with the use of her magically enhanced strength, easily ripped it out of its frame and tossed it aside.

The two pathetic crooks were momentarily stunned to see one of the good guys was actually letting them go, but then decided to immediately take advantage of the opening. Rocky promptly shove Applejack aside and exclaimed, “C’mon, Mugsy! Let’s scram!”

“So long, sissy!” taunted Mugsy as he and his partner in crime escaped down the hallway as quickly as they could… which, considering they were chest-deep in seawater, was little more than a slow wading pace. Naturally, they didn’t make it far before a rope suddenly looped around them both and quickly tightened to hold them together back-to-back.

Holding the other end of that rope was Applejack, who smirked and remarked, “Good thing Ah always carry a lasso around with me.”

The two captured robbers groaned in frustration and disappointment.

Up on the deck, Twilight and most of her friends continued to help load the passengers into the large diamond lifeboat. Sunset and Pinkie were able to join in after they had finished their search efforts, while Fluttershy continued to keep track of all the animals being loaded aboard. In addition, Captain Bluffbeard was now using the ship’s manifest to simply check off the names of every passenger — and the number of different animals from the cargo list — as they were loaded aboard, allowing the process to proceed much more quickly than it initially had. Since Rarity had to focus her effort on maintaining the structural integrity of the diamond lifeboat, Twilight had decided to levitate her over onto that boat to make it a little easier for her to hold it together.

But while the crowd of people and animals on the deck gradually shrank, there was now a pile of luggage that was quickly growing on the deck, courtesy of Rainbow Dash zooming back and forth between the rooms below deck.

Whoosh!

As Rainbow returned and tossed two large suitcases atop the pile, Sunset turned to her and asked, “What’s with all this luggage?”

“It’s to help me keep track of which rooms I’ve already checked,” explained Rainbow before she zoomed off again through her rainbow motion blur.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Rainbow swiftly returned again and tossed some more bags and cases atop the pile as she continued, “Besides, the boat’s sinking so slowly that I figured we’ve got plenty of time to salvage everyone’s possessions as well.”

A particularly loud groan from the ship’s hull caused everyone still aboard to momentarily pause whatever they were doing. When the noise subsided, Bluffbeard glanced up to identify the sun’s position in the sky and noted, “I reckon the tide’s startin’ to come in right about now. We’d best pick up the pace of this here rescue operation.”

“Challenge accepted!” declared Rainbow Dash confidently before she resumed rushing back and forth between the rooms below deck and dumping more luggage onto the deck.

Only a minute later, Twilight levitated a few more passengers over to the lifeboat. She looked over toward Sunset and Spike, who were helping Bluffbeard keep track of everyone, and noticed the only remaining passengers still on board nearby were Trixie and Flash Sentry.

Bluffbeard checked off those last two names on the manifest, then smiled and stated, “An’ that’s the last of ‘em! Every passenger has now been accounted for!”

As Twilight levitated those last two passengers over to the lifeboat — leaving only the crew left to be transferred over — Spike asked, “What about the animals?”

Bluffbeard flipped to another page on the manifest and noted, “Only one pig has yet to be accounted for.”

“Got him right here!” stated Fluttershy as she carried that heavy pig in her arms, struggling to keep her balance as she walked towards the remaining group of people still aboard the ship. “I caught Wilfred trying to sneak into the buffet for some leftovers.”

Pinkie giggled and playfully scolded, “You naughty little piggy!”

Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes before she levitated Fluttershy and that pig over into the lifeboat.

Bluffbeard flipped to another page in the manifest as he stated, “Now all that’s left is to account fer all the crewmates.”

“Don’t forget a couple of stowaways,” added Applejack as she arrived and dumped the now fully tied-up Rocky and Mugsy onto the deck.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about those two,” muttered Spike.

Sunset turned to Twilight and requested, “Send me over with them, so I can keep an eye on them.”

Twilight nodded in agreement and levitated Sunset and the two bound robbers over into the lifeboat.

While Bluffbeard and Spike checked off the names of crew members, Applejack turned her attention to the pile of luggage on the deck that Rainbow Dash continued to rapidly add more to. “What’s all this for?” asked Applejack in confusion.

“I think she’s trying to make up for all the awful things she did to us earlier,” spoke up Pinkie Pie, who was also watching Rainbow Dash rush back and forth. “Even I know that collecting our possessions is usually not recommended when we need to make an emergency escape, but seeing her do this anyway is something I think everyone can totally appreciate.”

Applejack turned back to lean over the side of the ship and look down at the diamond lifeboat where almost everyone from the ship was now crowded on. She sighed and said, “Too bad it’s all for naught. There’s no way all that stuff is gonna fit into that lifeboat Rarity made.”

“Who says it all has to fit into that one particular lifeboat?” asked Pinkie slyly.

Applejack considered Pinkie’s subtle suggestion as she turned her gaze towards the central structure of the sinking cruise ship. She soon smiled and replied, “Y’know what, Pinkie… you’re right!” She then approached Bluffbeard and asked, “Captain! May Ah have your permission to dismantle your ship for parts Ah could use to build somethin’?”

“This ship’s already destined fer Davy Jones’ Locker,” replied Bluffbeard with a smile, “so feel free to tear it up as much as ya want! So long as it don’t make us sink any faster, o’ course.”

“Sounds good to me!” acknowledged Applejack as she rushed over towards the large clam-shaped performance stage on the front part of the deck and quickly began tearing it apart and tossing the pieces over towards where Pinkie stood beside the pile of luggage — which Rainbow Dash continued to swiftly add more to. Once that outdoor stage was gone, Applejack then moved on to the central structure and walked along the sloped front windows to reach the roof, from where she began to gather even more parts. She had collected nearly everything from the entire top floor before she felt satisfied she had enough Lego pieces to start building. She swiftly attached and connected the parts together and in almost no time at all, she had assembled two large outriggers that were hollowed out for storage space.

Applejack used her magically enhanced strength to effortlessly lift one of those outriggers over her head, then carried it over to the side of the ship and called out, “Sunset! Fluttershy! Heads up!” She then tossed the outrigger over to the far side of the diamond lifeboat. As that outrigger splashed into the water, she picked up the other one and tossed it into the water on the opposite side of the lifeboat.

Noticing the attachment booms on those outriggers, Sunset and Fluttershy reached over on opposite sides of the lifeboat to pull those attachment points up and onto the boat, where Rarity then threw on a few smaller diamond constructs to securely fasten them to the sides of the boat.

It was right at this moment when Rainbow Dash, upon arriving and once more tossing some more luggage onto the pile, finally stopped and stated, “That’s everything I could find. If I missed anything, then it’s probably already submerged.”

“Great work, girls!” praised Pinkie. She then frowned and asked, “So how are we supposed to get all that stuff over there? Do we just toss it all overboard?”

“Leave it to me!” declared Twilight as she used her telekinetic magic to lift the entire pile of luggage, smoothly separated it into two collections of roughly equal size and weight, then levitated them into the two large outriggers.

“Now that was some mighty fine teamwork!” declared Applejack proudly.

Meanwhile, Bluffbeard and Spike continued to check off the names of crew members from the manifest. Within less than a minute, Bluffbeard smiled and spoke up, “An’ that’s every crewmate accounted for! Nothin’ left to do now except fer the rest of us to finally abandon ship, an’ then shove off in that fancy new lifeboat!”

Twilight levitated the last of the crew over into the lifeboat, then did the same for Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Bluffbeard. Finally, she and Rainbow Dash used their feathered wings to simply fly over to the lifeboat. It turned out to be very good timing, because just seconds after their feet left the deck, the ship groaned loudly again, then began to slowly slide backwards into the sea.

With everyone and practically everything safely loaded up, Twilight landed inside the lifeboat with everyone else, while Rainbow Dash touched down directly behind it and, just like she did with the smaller lifeboat, used her super speed of running against the water’s surface to quickly propel the lifeboat towards the nearby island.

As the diamond lifeboat sped off, many of the people riding in it looked back and watched as the bow of the luxury yacht began to rise upwards — presumably because the whole ship was now teetering over the ledge of that undersea cliff. Everyone could only stare in stunned disbelief as they soon saw the bow finally descend into the water and slip beneath the calm waves of the sea. The Luxe Deluxe was now gone.

It took over a full minute for the large diamond lifeboat and its two cargo outriggers to finally reach the shore of that small island. The momentum that Rainbow Dash had provided was enough for the makeshift boat to slide far enough up the beach to land completely out of the water. Once they were safely ashore, Rarity dispersed of her diamond construct, leaving behind the crowd of passengers and crew between the two outriggers filled with their luggage. Now that the rescue mission was complete, the seven Equestria Girls reverted from their magically enhanced ponied up forms back into regular minifigs.

While Rainbow Dash laid down in the sand to rest after all that running around the ship she had done, the rest of her friends pitched in to help out with the aftermath of their rescue. Rarity and Applejack helped the crew gather the lifejackets from everyone, Fluttershy helped all the petting zoo animals out of their life jackets, Sunset and Twilight helped pass out all of the luggage to everyone, and Spike helped Captain Bluffbeard organize all the other paperwork he had gathered from his quarters.

Pinkie Pie noticed Puffed Pastry was sitting on a log while staring out to sea with a sad look on her face. Naturally, Pinkie sat down next to the buffet chef, pulled a cupcake out of her fanny pack, and offered it to her.

Puffed Pastry took the gifted dessert, stared at it for a moment, then sighed and muttered, “It was foolish of me to presume you ever ‘ad any malicious intent. As soon as we get back to civilization, I shall bake you a fresh bundt cake, so zat you can enjoy it ze way it was meant to be.”

Pinkie smiled and sweetly said, “Aww, thank you so much.” She then embraced Puffed Pastry and gave her a big hug.

Puffed Pastry was initially stunned by the display of affection, but then smiled and used her free hand to gently pat Pinkie on her back.

Meanwhile, Rarity was stacking lifejackets when she saw Ragamuffin walk over to her. She left out a sigh of relief and said, “I am truly relieved to see you make it out of this disaster seemingly unscathed.”

Ragamuffin chuckled and remarked, “Nothin’ like havin’ some good ol’ luck on your side, ain’t that right?” He then frowned as he let out a sigh and solemnly added, “Well, I s’pose this is goodbye.”

Rarity smiled and stated, “Take care of yourself.”

“You, too, Rar-i-ee,” responded Ragamuffin with an embarrassed smile.

As Ragamuffin turned and was about to walk away, Rarity suddenly spoke up, “Ragamuffin…” When he turned back to her, she continued, “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be a dancer.” She then dramatically added, “For all coal turns to diamonds!”

“That’s the best advice I’ve ever heard!” remarked Ragamuffin contently, suddenly speaking without any accent at all.

“Thank yo— Wait, what?!” responded Rarity, suddenly in shock. She then accusingly asked, “Y-you mean… that charming accent of yours was fake this whole time?!”

Ragamuffin chuckled awkwardly and hesitantly replied, “Can’t blame a guy for trying to impress a girl.”

Rarity glared at the exposed fraud of a man and firmly argued, “Hardly impressive if it all happens to be based entirely on a lie!”

Smack!

Rarity slapped Ragamuffin in the face, then let out an indignant huff as she turned away and walked off. Once she reached the other end of the stacks of lifejackets, she stopped and let out a sigh of disappointment.

Applejack walked over and placed an arm around Rarity’s shoulders. “Well, ya know what they say, Rarity,” assured Applejack. “Easy come, easy go.”

Rarity let out another sigh and acknowledged, “Yes, I suppose you are right. I should’ve known it was too good to be true.” She then smiled at Applejack. “At least I still have dependable friends I know I can count on.”

“An’ don’t ya ever forget it!” Applejack proudly remarked.

A few minutes later, after everyone had a moment to relax after their recent ordeal at sea, the Equestria Girls gathered together on the beach and stared out at the open ocean where their cruise ship used to be.

“Well, I’m glad to see everyone made it out okay,” remarked Spike contently as he joined the girls on the shore. He then less enthusiastically added, “Of course, now we’re stranded on this island and the only ride we had to reach the mainland is now at the bottom of the ocean.”

“I’ll have to agree with you on that,” noted Rainbow Dash. “As awesome as I was for pushing that lifeboat to shore, I don’t think I could do that for hundreds of miles across open ocean.”

“So… now what?” asked Fluttershy.

Twilight giggled and proudly answered, “Worry not, girls! Situations like this are precisely the reason why I always carry around one of these with me.” She held up her right forearm, attached to which was her Jump-Gate return device. “All I have to do is enter the code for the Jump-Gate back in Baltimare, step right through the open gateway, and we’re all home free!”

“Good ol’ Jump-Gates!” remarked Pinkie Pie cheerfully. “Gotta love that conveniently simple solution!”

Twilight began tapping the buttons on her device, but frowned when nothing seemed to happen. After repeatedly tapping those buttons uselessly a few more times, she opened a small compartment and pulled out a small and rather dull crystal. She let out a huff of frustration and grumbled, “Figures. The Power Crystal is completely drained.” She casually tossed the now worthless crystal over her shoulder, which then lightly splashed into the sea. “Note to self: always remember to pack a spare Power Crystal.”

“So much for a super simple solution,” grumbled Rainbow Dash.

As Sunset glanced around aimlessly, her gaze soon fell on the Staff of Sacanas that she, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash had left behind when they went off to help their friends save everyone on the ship. As she walked over to retrieve that staff, she spoke up, “We might have another way home. But it’s… kinda weird.”

When Twilight noticed Sunset grab that staff she had left stuck upright in the sand, she incredulously asked, “You’re not seriously considering…?”

“What other options do we have?” Sunset pointed out. “With your Jump-Gate device powerless and Rainbow Dash acknowledging that a trans-oceanic run is beyond her capabilities, this is literally the only alternative we have available. Besides, we need to return this staff, anyway, so we might as well go for it.”

“Well I personally don’t mind having another go at it,” Rainbow Dash arrogantly remarked, then more seriously added, “but I’m not so sure if we can pull it off with over a hundred people all at once.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Spike.

Sunset sighed and carefully explained, “When Twilight and I came here to find Rainbow Dash, the three of us stumbled across… another interdimensional portal to Equestria.”

Pinkie let out a huge gasp and loudly exclaimed, “Another interdimensional portal to Equestria?! You mean there’s more than one way for us to visit that alternate world of magical ponies?!”

Pinkie’s excited outburst quickly caught the attention of everyone on the beach. As everyone started muttering among themselves about this sudden revelation, Bluffbeard stepped forward and asked, “What be the reason fer bringin’ this to our attention?”

“I’m afraid it could be the only way for us to get off this island,” replied Sunset uneasily. “Without a boat or access to a Jump-Gate, the only other option I can think of is that second interdimensional portal that we recently found on this island. The only other such portal I know of leads to Canterlot City, and I know where in Equestria to find that portal, so if everyone is willing to follow me, I can take all of you to that City region, via Equestria. The only downside is that, well… we would all turn into fully organic ponies while passing through Equestria.”

The chatter among the passengers and crew quickly grew more concerned upon hearing that last bit of information.

Bluffbeard looked down at himself and stated, “Much as I enjoy a good change of pace every now an’ then, I don’t think I’d be up fer somethin’ quite so, er… out there.”

“There is no way I’m letting my children go through something like that!” objected a mother with two young kids by her side.

“I-I’m allergic to horses,” one crewman nervously pointed out. “If I have to go through a world full of ‘em, I could swell up like a blimp.”

“Does it really have to be ponies?” asked a young man among the passengers. “Why can’t it be something more awesome, like griffins?”

“What about the animals?” asked Fluttershy. “We already know that us minifigs will turn into ponies, but what would they turn into?”

“Okay! I get it!” exclaimed Sunset irritably. “Most of you don’t like the idea at all, but what other options do we have?”

Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully, then smiled and spoke up, “Actually, we may not have to take any of them with us.”

Sunset turned to Twilight and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?” asked Sunset.

“You said the other interdimensional portal you know of leads directly back to Canterlot City, correct?” explained Twilight. “And technically speaking, my Jump-Gate return device is still fully functional — it just needs a new Power Crystal to actually power the device. I’ve got plenty of them back in my apartment, so all we have to do is go through Equestria back to Canterlot City, then I can just run over to my apartment, grab the Power Crystal, and then we come right back here so I can use the Jump-Gate to take everyone directly back to their respective homes.”

Sunset took a moment to consider Twilight’s suggestion. After a short while, she smiled and replied, “You know what, Twilight? That’s actually a really brilliant idea!” She chuckled to herself and continued, “What was I thinking? If just three of us struggled to get around without being noticed, how could I possibly hope to do the same with over a hundred minifigs-turned-ponies?”

“Nothing short of an absolute miracle, by my scientific estimate,” quipped Twilight.

Sunset turned back to the crowd and announced, “Okay, listen up, everyone! None of you will have to come with me to Equestria! Instead, Twilight and I will go there to reach Canterlot City, where Twilight can grab a replacement crystal to power her Jump-Gate device. We will then come back here and use the Jump-Gate to take all of you directly back home.”

Everyone in the crowd was now muttering more contently in agreement and also smiled for the most part.

Bluffbeard smiled and nodded as he stated, “I suppose we’re alright with that.”

“So I guess that settles it!” declared Sunset happily. “C’mon, Twilight. Let’s get going.”

“Can I tag along?” asked Rainbow Dash eagerly. “Like I said, I don’t mind having another go at it!”

Twilight and Sunset glanced at each other, then smiled and shrugged. “I think we can be okay with that,” acknowledged Twilight.

“Sweet!” cheered Rainbow Dash with a fist pump. “Another adventure in Equestria! Let’s go!”

Sunset carried the Staff of Sacanas with her as she, Twilight, and Rainbow began to walk toward the inland jungle. The same three girls who had only recently visited Equestria once before were now about to begin another journey through that alternate world.

“Not so fast!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she suddenly jumped in front of those three to block their path ahead. “An opportunity to see us get turned into ponies?! There is no way I’m missing out!”

“I would love to see what we would look like as ponies,” agreed Fluttershy as she walked over to stand beside Pinkie.

“Ah reckon it can’t be all that bad,” added Applejack as she walked over to join with the others.

“I must confess, you have my curiosity piqued as well,” admitted Rarity as she also joined the group.

When the seven girls then turned back to look at Spike, he took a moment to consider the unspoken question, then shrugged and said, “Eh, why not? I heard my counterpart is supposed to be a dragon. How cool is that?”

“Then I guess it’s official,” stated Sunset. “All eight of us will visit Equestria, use the other portal to get a replacement Power Crystal for the Jump-Gate return device, then come back here and send everyone back home.”

“Sounds like a plan!” agreed Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm. As she led the way into the jungle, she beckoned to her friends and excitedly declared, “C’mon, girls! Let’s go have some fun! Pony style!”

“Again, Rainbow, that’s not something we say in Equestria,” muttered Sunset as she and Twilight followed after Rainbow Dash. The three of them were then closely followed by the rest of their group of best friends.

The threat of evil Equestrian Magic may have been dealt with and everyone was saved, but with everyone now stranded on that isolated island, there was still one more task left for the Equestria Girls to accomplish, and it seemed they were all going to visit the alternate world of Equestria to make it happen.

Author's Note

Once again, I finished writing the chapter just barely within my self-imposed deadline, this time I wrote literally half of it in just this past weekend alone. I should've had a whole two weeks to get it done, so clearly I need to better manage my time. Anyway, I always found it odd how the ship was torn open at the front and yet sank more towards the back, so I decided to come up with a reason for why it sank like that, as well as make it happen slow enough that the girls had plenty of time to save everyone. And yes, unlike the official version, I'm not going to abruptly end the story right after the the ship sinks, so expect to see one more chapter and then the epilogue before this story will be complete.

The Backdoor to Equestria

Chapter 6
The Backdoor to Equestria

After a short walk through the jungle and over the bridge that Twilight had built across a gorge, the Equestria Girls arrived at a small clearing with a pit full of sand. But just before any of them stepped forward into the clearing, Sunset held out her arm to block the path. “The first time we were here,” cautioned Sunset, “we barely survived being attacked by a giant plant monster before we stumbled across the portal to Equestria. We’d better deal with it for good so we don’t have to worry about it when we come back.”

Fluttershy immediately took a few steps back and whimpered fearfully.

“Did that plant monster attack when you came back as well?” asked Spike.

“Actually, we never really saw it on our return trip,” noted Twilight, “though that might’ve been because we were in such a rush to save all of you on the ship.”

“Either way,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “let’s spread out and search the area. If any of you find that plant monster, let us know so we can get rid of it.”

The girls all cautiously began searching in different directions, watching carefully for any suspicious activity in the surrounding vegetation. For a few minutes, nothing seemed out of the ordinary for a jungle environment.

“Hey!” Applejack suddenly spoke up. “Ah think Ah found your plant monster! Or at least, what’s left of it…”

Sunset quickly walked over to where Applejack was and pushed aside some foliage. There on the jungle ground was what appeared to be the shriveled up remains of a rather enormous flower-like plant with a bunch of dried vines spread out in all directions. As the rest of her friends began to gather around, Sunset noted, “Well, looks like we won’t have to worry about that plant monster, after all.”

Twilight stepped forward and inspected the remains herself for a moment, then glanced at the Staff of Sacanas in Sunset’s hand. “This is only a hypothesis,” explained Twilight, “but if that monstrous lifeform was fueled by the same dark magic that was behind the storm, then it’s possible that when this staff absorbed the entire storm, it might have also drained that magic from this plant, rendering it effectively powerless.”

“Whatever happened, I’m just glad we now won’t have that obstacle in our way,” remarked Rainbow Dash.

“So I guess now we just have to find that portal,” noted Spike. He glanced back at the small clearing, then turned to Sunset and asked, “Where is it?”

Sunset led her friends back out into the clearing and replied, “It’s inside that pit, hidden under all that sand.”

As everyone turned to stare at the pit of sand, Fluttershy asked, “Um… do we just dive right in, or…?”

Before Sunset had a chance to reply, Pinkie Pie suddenly leaped into the air and cheerfully screamed, “Cannonball!” She grabbed her legs and held them close to her body before she plummeted into the middle of the sandpit. As she plunged through the sand, not only did it send sand spraying all over the place, but also a bright golden light briefly flashed from within the pit. When the light faded and the sand settled — in some cases, landing atop the other girls in a big mess — Pinkie was nowhere to be found.

Rainbow chuckled as she quickly brushed off the sand from atop her head and arms and remarked, “I guess that’s one way to do it.” She more quietly added, “Totally much better than thinking you’re about to drown in quicksand.” As she then glanced around and saw the others just standing around and brushing sand off themselves, she excitedly spoke up, “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” She then dove into the sandpit like it was a swimming hole and, just like Pinkie, vanished within a burst of golden light.

Applejack turned to Sunset and asked, “Is it really that easy?”

Sunset just smiled and gestured to proceed towards the hidden portal.

Applejack stared at the sandpit with uncertainty for a moment, then simply shrugged and jumped right in.

“All right, who’s next?” asked Spike.

Rarity and Fluttershy glanced at each other briefly, then Fluttershy hesitantly said, “Well… I did volunteer for this, so…” She took a deep breath, then ran towards the sandpit and jumped into the hidden portal.

Rarity turned to the others and asked, “Was it really too much trouble to sweep away all that sand in there?”

Sunset, Twilight, and Spike all gave Rarity incredulous glares.

Rarity sighed and reluctantly grumbled, “Fine, if you insist.” She stepped over to the edge of the pit, looked down at the sandy surface as she nervously gulped, and then finally jumped into the portal hidden within that sand.

“Well, see ya on the other side,” remarked Spike before he ran over to the pit and quickly jumped in as well.

“After you, Twilight,” offered Sunset with a smile.

Twilight smiled back and stated, “At least this time, we know what to expect.” She then walked over to the sandpit and, without any hesitation, jumped in through the hidden portal.

Sunset glanced down at the staff in her hands and — well aware of what would happen after passing through — decided to instead hold it against her chest with her forearms. She then ran toward the sandpit and jumped into the hidden interdimensional portal, which briefly gave off one final golden glow as the last of the group passed through it.

Inside a certain dark cave within the Everfree Forest of Equestria, the interdimensional portal on the cavern wall suddenly gave off a bright golden light as the first of the group of travelers arrived.

Pinkie Pie flew out of the portal and tumbled along the ground until she eventually came to rest down on her front. She groaned at the slight headache she had received and muttered, “Maybe I shouldn’t do that for anything that’s not water.”

Another bright flash of golden light signaled the next arrival. Rainbow Dash immediately tried flapping her wings to stay airborne, but without any visual references in this dark cave, she quickly lost balance and fell to the rocky ground. She grunted as she stood up on all four legs and grumbled, “I could’ve totally stuck that landing if I could actually see where I was going.”

Just seconds later, Applejack was flung out of the portal, who then tumbled a little along the ground and quickly came to rest on her front. A few more seconds later, Fluttershy was the next to arrive, who tumbled along the ground and came to rest on her back right beside Applejack.

Next through the portal was Rarity, who wailed as she was flung out, then tumbled along the ground and landed atop both Fluttershy and Applejack. “I sure hope there isn’t any sand in my hair,” muttered Rarity as she used her right hand to feel through her hair, only to quickly realize through touch that it was now a hoof instead of a hand.

Spike was the next one to come tumbling out of the portal. He was brought to a stop beside Fluttershy by accidentally head-butting Rarity’s rear end.

Rarity immediately yelped in pain as she reflexively leaped off of Fluttershy and Applejack. Once she hit the ground, she rubbed her rear end and complained, “Goodness! That felt like I just got struck in the posterior with a knife!”

Spike stood up and rubbed his head. This made him quickly discover the spines along his dragon cranium, to which he muttered in confusion, “Huh? Did I just suddenly get a razor-sharp mohawk?”

As Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity all struggled to stand up, the portal glowed brightly again as Twilight was flung out. She tumbled along the ground and ended up knocking over Spike, starting a domino reaction that also sent Fluttershy, then Applejack, then Rarity, then Rainbow Dash, and then finally Pinkie Pie all collapsing to the ground.

A bright golden light briefly flashed from the interdimensional portal one last time as Sunset was flung out and landed directly atop Twilight. She released her hold of the Staff of Sacanas so she could get off her friend. “Why do these portals always have to fling us out on the first few uses?” she grumbled as she stood up on her hooves and finally used her unicorn magic to illuminate the large cavern.

“Whoa. Talk about putting on the red light,” remarked Spike as he and the girls saw everything around them illuminated in the reddish-orange glow of Sunset’s magical aura. With the exception of Sunset, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash, they all looked at each other in astonishment at their new fully organic equine forms, then began to more closely examine themselves.

Pinkie looked back at her tail as she flailed it around. She then giggled and excitedly exclaimed, “Look at me! I’ve got a big poofy tail!” She then flipped around and started bouncing atop that tail like a coiled spring. “Boingy, boingy, boingy!”

As soon as Rarity got a good look at herself, she immediately shrieked and swiftly used her forelegs to cover her chest and the area between her rear legs. “The least you could’ve done was warn us about our sudden state of undress upon crossing over!” she shouted furiously at Sunset.

“Least Ah got to keep mah hat,” remarked Applejack with a smile. She then frowned as she quietly added, “Though Ah could’ve sworn Ah left it packed in mah bags…”

“Can we at least find a way out of this cave?” asked Fluttershy worriedly. “I-I don’t like dark places…”

“No problem!” assured Rainbow Dash. “Just follow me!” she began to run towards where she remembered the way out was located, but quickly tripped over herself. “Right, should probably take it a little more slowly for now,” she muttered under her breath as she got back up and proceeded at an easier to control walking pace.

While Sunset — levitating the staff along beside her — and Twilight were quick to keep up with Rainbow, the rest of the girls struggled in various ways to get up and walk around on all four legs.

Spike chuckled and smugly remarked, “Good thing I’m still able to use two legs on this side of the portal.”

“No need to rub it in,” grumbled Applejack before she tripped over herself and fell flat on her face.

After some more hobbling around on their hooves, the four novice girls-turned-mares gradually began to move around more smoothly. Pinkie Pie was very quick to figure out the four-legged walk, with Fluttershy also soon getting the hang of it after only a few tries. Applejack fell over the most before she finally got used to it, while Rarity was more distracted by other features — mostly the lack of clothes on everyone — that caused her to struggle for a while. By the time everyone in the group was walking together rather comfortably, they began to see daylight coming from the exit out of the cave.

Sunset shut off her illumination spell as she and her friends approached the cave entrance. Once they came around the final corner, they saw the thick forest landscape that surrounded the cave entrance, but what really caught everyone’s attention was that a certain someone — or rather, somepony — was standing right in front of the entrance, as if she had been expecting them to arrive.

“Welcome back, Sunset!” greeted Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. With an amused smile on her face, she glanced at the others in the group and added, “And if I’m not mistaken, it seems you decided to bring along all of your friends this time.”

“Yeah, well, they all got curious for an opportunity to see this world for themselves,” explained Sunset contently.

“How did you know we would even be here at this specific time?” asked Lego Twilight.

“I knew you would have to return the Staff of Sacanas,” explained Princess Twilight, “but I couldn’t be sure which portal you would ultimately use, so I decided to place an enchantment upon this cave so that if anything ever travels in or out of it, I would be immediately alerted so I could come over as quickly as possible.”

“Yeah, that’s one reason why we’re here,” acknowledged Sunset as she levitated the staff over to Princess Twilight, who then grasped it with her own magical aura. “The other reason requires using the other portal — the one we’ve already known about for years now.”

“And it’s a good thing you’re here,” added Rainbow Dash excitedly, “because now we don’t have to worry about sneaking through the middle of town all over again. You can just teleport us directly to the other portal!”

“I’d be more than happy to help,” agreed Princess Twilight with a smile and a nod.

“Wait, did she just say ‘teleport’?” asked Spike.

Before anyone had a chance to answer Spike’s question, Princess Twilight’s horn glowed and with sharp burst of magenta magic, she and the entire group from the Lego World suddenly vanished from the forest.

In the throne room of Princess Twilight’s castle, native Spike had finally finished setting up that large painting on the wall and was now climbing down from atop the ladder he had used to reach it. As soon as he reached the floor, the sudden pop and crackle of a teleportation spell startled him into accidentally knocking over the ladder, which in turn knocked the painting off the wall and sent it crashing to the floor.

Most of the group from the Lego World was astonished to find themselves suddenly transported to a completely different location in practically the blink of an eye. After shaking off the brief disorientation from the teleportation, many of them glanced around the room in awe — with the exception of Sunset, Rainbow, and both Twilights, who were previously all together in this room only hours ago.

“Really, Twilight?” grumbled native Spike as he frowned and crossed his arms. “You just had to do that right at that exact moment?”

Twilight glanced over to her world’s Spike and noticed the painting down on the floor. “Sorry about that,” she responded calmly. “In my defense, I had no way of knowing.”

“Whoa…” muttered Lego Spike as he stared at his interdimensional counterpart just a few feet away. “Is that what I really look like right now?”

“Whoa…” responded dragon Spike in just as much surprise and wonder as his virtually identical counterpart. “It’s like looking in the mirror… which, I guess would answer your question.”

“Wow,” remarked Lego Spike in astonishment. “When I was told you were a dragon, I expected something that wasn’t quite so… round.”

Dragon Spike glared at his counterpart and sharply responded, “Really? That’s the first thing you have to say about us?”

Before the two Spikes could potentially start an argument, Princess Twilight awkwardly smiled as she immediately spoke up, “So anyway, girls, you said you came here to access the other portal between our worlds, so how about I take you over to it right now?”

“Sounds good to me,” agreed Sunset.

Princess Twilight used her magic to open the doors out of the throne room towards the back part of the castle and began to walk towards it, but suddenly stopped after just a few steps and said, “Oh! But first…” With the Staff of Sacanas still within her magical grasp, she levitated it over towards the table in the middle of the room and wrapped it up in its cloth wrapping as she explained, “I’ll just set this down right here and put it back into its proper storage later.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?” asked Lego Twilight with concern.

“Very sure of it,” assured Princess Twilight as she set down the wrapped staff on the table. “While I acknowledge there’s an immense amount of power stored within that staff, only alicorn magic is capable of releasing that power, and in case you haven’t noticed, you happen to be looking at the only alicorn in all of Ponyville right now.”

As Princess Twilight led the group of ponies — and two identical dragons — down the hallway, Rarity spoke up, “Now that you mention it, Princess Twilight, while both you and our Twilight possessed wings whenever we ponied up in the Lego World, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of such wings on our Twilight on this side of the interdimensional portal.”

“As I already shared with Twilight, Sunset, and Rainbow,” explained Princess Twilight, “I was actually born as a unicorn and later was granted these wings after I completed an ancient magic spell, so it makes sense that the other Twilight would by default be a unicorn while visiting Equestria.” She frowned as she continued, “What does confuse me is why her so-called ‘ponied up’ form in the Lego World would even possess such wings. Is it possible that the residual magic from the Elements of Harmony brought to your world by me and Sunset would express the Element of Magic in exclusively the form of an alicorn?”

“I’m not sure if it’s related,” Lego Twilight spoke up, “but I’ve also noticed that we seem to lack our magical geodes on this side of the interdimensional portal. Does this mean we can’t access our special magical abilities while we’re in Equestria?”

“From what I’ve heard about Princess Twilight’s friends,” noted Sunset, “it’s possible at least some of those abilities are more of a natural part of them rather than some special superpower, so maybe it’s a little redundant to have such magic in a world that’s already full of magic.”

“So you’re saying the other me might find my super speed to be something she could easily do without anything to help her?” asked Rainbow Dash in disappointment.

“She’s capable of flying at supersonic speed, so I’d say yes,” replied Princess Twilight. She kept her gaze ahead as she thought aloud, “I’ll have to do some research on what this could mean.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” stated Sunset. “Remember, I mentioned months ago in our journal messages about how I seem to possess a seventh Element of Harmony.”

“The one you call Empathy,” noted Princess Twilight. “I still haven’t been able to figure out how it fits in with the Elements of Harmony as I know them here in Equestria.”

“Sunset once mentioned to me that Equestrian Magic doesn’t seem to obey the same laws as it does in Equestria,” Lego Twilight pointed out. “Perhaps you just need to look at things from a different point of view.”

“Perhaps…” acknowledged Princess Twilight. Before she could continue that thought, she realized they had now reached a certain point in a certain hallway, so she stopped and said, “Anyway, here’s where I keep the portal to your world.”

Most of the group looked around in confusion. “Uh, where?” asked Rainbow Dash as she raised an eyebrow.

Sunset giggled and asked Princess Twilight, “May I? I know the secret knock.”

Princess Twilight slightly pushed in a certain block in the wall and smiled as she stepped aside and replied, “Go right ahead.”

Sunset walked over to that block and then tapped her hoof against the surrounding blocks in a specific order — top left, top middle, top right, a brief pause, bottom right, bottom middle, and bottom left. Once that secret knock was completed, the stone blocks that made up the wall began to magically move on their own, grinding against each other as they shifted around. It took only seconds for the wall to completely part aside like a curtain, exposing a hidden room on the other side that contained nothing more than a large mirror with all kinds of mystical machinery connected to it.

“This is the Crystal Mirror,” stated Princess Twilight proudly, “the original interdimensional portal between Equestria and the Lego World. I’m sure you’re already familiar with what the portal looks like on your side, but this is what we have on Equestria’s side of the portal.”

“Wow…” muttered Lego Twilight in awe as she approached the complex machinery surrounding the mirror. “I’ve never seen any technology quite like this.” She turned back to her Equestrian counterpart and asked, “Did you build this yourself?”

“I actually called in a mechanical expert to assemble that,” admitted Princess Twilight, “but the scientific and magical concepts that make it all function were entirely my idea.”

“How does it work?” asked Rarity.

“I understand most of you aren’t interested in all the technical operations behind this apparatus,” began Princess Twilight.

“Obviously,” grumbled Rainbow Dash as she rolled her eyes.

“So I’ll just briefly summarize the key aspect,” continued Princess Twilight, before she pointed at the top of the mirror. “See that book mounted on top of the mirror? That’s the other magic journal connected to Sunset’s first magic journal. Because those two journals are permanently linked regardless of how far apart they are, I’m able to use that magic link to force this portal open, permitting access between our worlds at any time rather than the natural restriction of only a single three-day period every thirty moons.”

“Could you turn it on?” asked Pinkie Pie as she hopped in place excitedly. “I wanna see what it looks like!”

Princess Twilight giggled and replied, “Sure thing. All I have to do is provide some magical energy to get it started.” She quickly charged up magical energy in her horn and released it onto the magic journal. Everyone watched in awe as that magenta magical energy was first absorbed by a pair of coils on either side of the journal, then flowed through a series of wires, forced into a box with a pair of pistons that pumped up and down alternatingly, flattened out and weaved through a loom, and built up in the pair of rods on either side of the mirror until it finally discharged directly into the mirror itself. A bright flash of light briefly erupted from the mirror, then faded to reveal the glass was now replaced with a swirling vortex.

Applejack let out a long whistle and remarked, “Now that there’s mighty impressive.”

“So if we step through that, we would end up in front of that statue pedestal in City Park in Canterlot City?” asked Fluttershy.

“And turn back into Lego minifigs, as well,” confirmed Sunset.

“Now, if you don’t mind me asking,” Princess Twilight spoke up, “is there any particular reason why you girls came to Equestria to access this portal?”

“Oh! Right, I guess we didn’t get a chance to explain everything,” responded Lego Twilight.

Sunset stepped forward and explained, “Long story short, although we cleared the magic storm with that staff, the ship got damaged and was sinking by the time we reached it, so we all worked together to rescue everyone on board and bring them to shore on the island where that other portal is located. Everyone is safe, but that island is completely isolated, and apparently very little-known, so we’re now essentially stranded there.”

“With no way to call in a rescue team,” continued Lego Twilight, “that left us with only two options on how to get everyone home. One is that we take advantage of the other portal on that island to bring them all here and send them all through there.” She gestured at the portal in the Crystal Mirror. “But let’s face it, getting over a hundred minifigs to go through a portal that turns them all into ponies, then bring them all discretely across town to this place so we can send them all home is practically too absurd to realistically pull off.”

“I have to agree with your assessment on that,” said Princess Twilight. “Even with my offer to teleport you to avoid wandering through Ponyville, casting all those teleportation spells for so many minifigs-turned-ponies would be too exhausting for me.” She then raised an eyebrow and asked, “And the other option?”

Lego Twilight held up her right foreleg — to which her Jump-Gate return device was still attached — and proudly answered, “Jump-Gate!” Then her expression fell as she continued, “Unfortunately, the Power Crystal that powers it needs to be replaced. I happen to have a few spares back at my apartment, but in order to reach it…”

“You have to resort to the first option, anyway,” concluded Princess Twilight.

“But as you can see, we didn’t bring anyone else with us,” Sunset pointed out. “The plan we’ve agreed upon is for just our group to retrieve the replacement Power Crystal, then go back to the island and proceed with the second option.”

“Aww, do we really have to leave already?” asked Pinkie sadly. “I really wanted to see more of what Equestria is like!”

“We don’t all have to leave right now,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “That portal leads to Canterlot City, our home town that we’re all familiar with. We could send just one of us to get that Power Crystal, while the rest of us can stay here and have more fun!”

Sunset smiled and replied, “That’s actually not a bad idea.”

“Though that does beg the question,” Rarity spoke up. “Which one of us shall make that journey?”

Everyone in the room considered that thought for a moment, but then the seven Equestria Girls all turned to the two Spikes standing next to each other.

“What?” asked dragon Spike in confusion.

Lego Spike, on the other hand, immediately understood the unspoken suggestion. “Oh, come on!” he complained. “Why do I have to be the errand boy?”

“Because it just wouldn’t be fair to ask any of my friends to miss out on whatever the rest of us would do while we wait,” explained Lego Twilight.

“But Twilight—!” protested Lego Spike.

“Just do it,” scolded Lego Twilight, “or I’m revoking your video game privileges for the next two weeks.”

“Aww, no fair!” whined Lego Spike as he stomped his foot, then marched towards the mirror portal as he grumbled furiously under his breath.

After Lego Spike passed through the portal to Canterlot City in the Lego World, dragon Spike scratched the side of his head in confusion and asked, “Video game?”

Lego Twilight turned to her Equestrian counterpart and remarked with a smile, “If that’s not a thing in this world, then consider yourself very lucky.”

Princess Twilight laughed awkwardly for a few seconds, then cleared her throat and spoke up, “So anyway, other me, I know you’re excited to learn more about teleportation as I know it, but I’m equally curious about this Jump-Gate device you claim to have invented.” She grasped Lego Twilight’s foreleg to more closely examine the device attached to it. “I don’t think anything quite like it even exists anywhere in Equestria.”

“Oh, this is just the return device,” explained Lego Twilight with enthusiasm. “The really interesting part is the gateway itself, which…” She glanced over at the Crystal Mirror and its surrounding mechanical apparatus. “Well, come to think of it, kinda works a lot like the mirror portal you’ve got set up here, except the destination on the other side is not a permanently fixed point. All you have to do is enter a set of coordinates into the control panel — or alternatively you could quickly select from a list of saved coordinates — and in only a matter of seconds, it’ll grant you instant access to practically any location in the universe.”

“How versatile!” remarked Princess Twilight. “Though considering you’ve specified ‘universe’, I take it locations in Equestria might be beyond its maximum reach?”

Lego Twilight nodded and acknowledged, “It’s a little unrealistic to expect something so dependent on a specific set of physical laws to somehow be capable of transcending dimensional boundaries.”

“Then perhaps I could try developing a version that would work for this universe,” suggested Princess Twilight excitedly. “I mean, we’re interdimensional counterparts, so if you could do it, then theoretically, so can I.”

Lego Twilight scoffed and playfully argued, “Good luck with that! Rocket science is child’s play compared to Jump-Gate technology. The user’s manual I wrote for it is over six hundred pages long.”

“Sounds like my kind of reading material,” retorted Princess Twilight in a tone that implied she was eager to accept the challenge.

Rainbow Dash loudly cleared her throat. Once she had the attention of both Twilights, she irritably said, “As much as I’m sure you two would love to spend all day talking science stuff, the rest of us would rather do something much more exciting than just listen to the two of you go on and on about it.”

The rest of the Equestria girls muttered in agreement, though they tried to be more tactful of how they spoke.

The two Twilights looked to each other, then simultaneously giggled in embarrassment.

Hoping to discuss something a little more interesting for everyone, Sunset spoke up, “By the way, Princess Twilight, when Rainbow, Twilight, and I first came here, I noticed there was some construction work going on practically right next door to your castle. Any idea what that’s all about?”

Princess Twilight smiled and replied, “That’s going to be the School of Friendship, which I’m planning to have open within a few months.”

“A school of friendship?” asked Rainbow Dash as she tilted her head in confusion.

“Never heard of somethin’ like that before,” muttered Applejack.

“Would you care to elaborate for us, darling?” asked Rarity.

“I know it sounds a little unorthodox at first glance,” acknowledged Princess Twilight, “but I can assure you there is a strong practical reason behind my decision to establish such an institute. You see, when Canterlot was invaded by the Storm King — he’s the one whose residual magic created that storm you girls were recently faced with, by the way — my friends and I were forced to seek help from beyond the borders of Equestria. Although we were eventually successful in making some new friends who helped us defeat the Storm King, the process was not easy by any means. That experience really opened my eyes to the fact that while friendship and harmony is plentiful here in Equestria, the creatures who inhabit the other realms of this world seem to significantly lack any understanding of such concepts. It is my hope that by teaching these values to students from all over Equestria and the lands beyond, it will be much easier to establish friendly relationships between these realms, which would not only reduce the number of potential adversaries, but also make us all more resilient against any would-be enemies who might still be out there.”

“Wow,” remarked Sunset with a smile. “That idea actually kinda reminds me of what we already do as members of the LEGO Team.”

“We do a lot more than just go out and fight as a team to defeat any major threats,” explained Lego Twilight. “We also work on establishing good relations, maintaining trust between the regions, and helping each other to realize the full potential of our various talents.”

“We build on each other!” declared Pinkie Pie excitedly. “That’s the team’s slogan!”

“Interesting…” muttered Princess Twilight with an intrigued look on her face. “I wonder if I could incorporate some aspects of the LEGO Team into my school’s curriculum…”

“Do you have any potential teachers in mind for your upcoming establishment?” asked Rarity.

“Absolutely!” confirmed Princess Twilight. “My friends and I will be teaching these students all the friendship lessons that we’ve learned on our own over the last few years.”

“Seriously?” asked Rainbow Dash skeptically. “If the other me is anywhere nearly as awesome as I am, there’s no way she would agree to take on a teaching job.”

“I’ll admit, some of my friends have been a little reluctant about that specific aspect of my idea,” acknowledged Princess Twilight, “but I’m confident there’s nopony else I would trust more to teach these lessons to the students who are eager to learn all they can about friendship.”

“If you’re so sure about that…” muttered Applejack doubtfully.

“By the way,” Sunset spoke up, “since you said this school of yours will be open to creatures from beyond Equestria, I have to ask: Would you accept any possible students from the Lego World?”

Princess Twilight looked up and away as she pondered that thought. After thinking it over for a moment, she turned back to Sunset and replied, “Probably not the very first year, due to the fact that there are still very few in this world who are aware that the Lego World even exists, but once I can think of a way to sensibly inform others about the presence of the Lego World, I think it would be worth considering the possibility of accepting students from there as well.”

“I suppose that’s a fair assessment,” noted Rarity.

“I’m not yet sure how exactly I should reveal the Lego World to all of Equestria,” continued Princess Twilight as she began to smile, “but I do have something related that you girls might be interested in taking a look at.”

The seven Equestria Girls all simultaneously said various words of agreement.

Princess Twilight giggled at that enthusiasm and said, “All right, then. Come with me and I’ll show you.”

Princess Twilight began to lead the minifigs-turned-ponies down the hallways when Spike — the dragon version who was still with the group — spoke up, “Hey! Wait!” Once everyone stopped and turned to him, he gestured at the still-open interdimensional portal to the Lego World and asked, “What about the mirror portal right here?”

“Oh! Right!” noted Princess Twilight as she turned back to look at the Crystal Mirror. “I forgot about that.” She paused as she reminded herself that the other Spike would eventually return through this portal, so shutting it off was not an option at this time. She turned to the Spike she was familiar with and asked, “Could you wait here until the other Spike returns, and then bring him over to us?”

“Aw, c’mon, Twilight,” whined Spike. “It’s bad enough the other you sent the other me to go fetch something, and now you’re asking me to miss out on stuff, too?”

“You’ve already seen what I’m about to show them,” Princess Twilight pointed out. “Trust me, you won’t be missing out on much.”

Spike sighed and reluctantly said, “Fine, I’ll wait here…”

Princess Twilight smiled and thanked Spike, then turned and began to lead the others down the hallway. As she began walking, she called back, “And don’t forget to shut off the portal and close the secret door after the other Spike arrives.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it,” grumbled Spike.

Princess Twilight smiled in satisfaction and led her friends from the Lego World through the hallways of her castle. After a few minutes, she arrived at what appeared to be just another of the many doors along the confusing hallways, but she knew this particular room was very special. As she opened the door, she proudly stated, “I call this the Gallery of Creativity.” She then walked inside and beckoned the seven Equestria Girls to follow her.

The visitors from the Lego World muttered words of awe and wonder as they entered the room and looked around. This room was filled with numerous large display cases, and contained within each of these glass cases with crystal bases were all kinds of landscapes built out of very small Lego bricks and pieces. Some cases contained small sections of a city skyline, while others were of places that were more out in the wilderness. But one thing that all of these Lego models had in common was the presence of minifigs in various poses to portray some kind of dynamic scene.

“What you see here are small-scale models depicting all kinds of moments you girls have had on your numerous adventures in the Lego World,” explained Princess Twilight. “I was inspired by the stained glass windows in Canterlot Castle that represent major events in Equestria, including some of the more notable heroic deeds my friends and I have accomplished. After playing a significant role in your first two major adventures, I was convinced that you girls also deserved some kind of display to represent the significant events you were involved in. Since everything in your world is built out of plastic parts that perfectly fit together, I felt that assembling these small-scale models would be the most appropriate way to depict all these events.”

“Wow…” said Sunset in awe. “Starlight once mentioned this project of yours to me, but to actually see it all completely assembled like this… I’m really impressed, Twilight.”

“I bet this must’ve taken you hundreds of hours over a few months to build all of this,” remarked Lego Twilight.

“Believe me, the hard part was creating all those little plastic pieces in the first place,” noted Princess Twilight. “Equestria doesn’t exactly have the industrial capability to manufacture so much plastic, but thanks to all those books I had brought home with me at the end of my second visit to the Lego World — along with a little help from Starlight — I was able to figure out a way to reliably mass-produce the thousands of Lego parts in all the shapes, sizes, and colors that I needed to pull this off. From there, it was simply a matter of getting creative with putting all the pieces together.”

“I must say, Princess Twilight, you did a remarkably outstanding job with these display models,” complimented Rarity as she looked over one display that resembled the Dark Forest encampment they had once spent a few days and nights at. “Especially impressive, considering you weren’t around to personally witness the vast majority of these depicted events.”

“You’ve said it!” agreed Pinkie cheerfully as she hopped over to another one of the displayed models. “Look at this one! It has Sunset, Trixie, and Wallflower during their epic car chase through the streets of Lego City!”

“And this one shows that time we fought against the Shadowbolts on Dinosaur Island,” Fluttershy pointed out. “I always loved that place.”

Applejack looked over another model as she chuckled and remarked, “You even did a good job of recreating that moment we stopped Vignette Valencia at that amusement park.”

“You should see the one with Starlight Glimmer in it,” Rainbow Dash spoke up as she pointed at the model she was looking at. “It even shows her flying away on that giant kite she built!”

Sunset browsed through some of the displays and eventually stopped at one that especially caught her attention. This model displayed Canterlot City under attack by Midnight Sparkle and all the citizens were fighting back with whatever crazy vehicles they had created. Seeing that particular event displayed in that particular way bought back certain memories to her. Certain troubling memories that she had been trying to suppress over the months and years since that event. After all… this wasn’t the first time she had seen this specific moment from this kind of perspective…

“Sunset?” asked Princess Twilight with concern as she walked over to stand beside her.

Sunset snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Princess Twilight. “Sorry, Twilight,” responded Sunset. “It’s just…” She turned her attention back to the cityscape with Midnight Sparkle in it. “This one in particular brought back certain memories. Not exactly bad memories, but… let’s just say it was an experience that I hope no one else from either of our worlds will ever witness.”

Lego Twilight overheard the conversation, so she walked over to join them and asked, “This is about what you saw on the other side of the Infinite Abyss of Nothingness, isn’t it?”

Sunset sighed and nodded in response.

“The Infinite Abyss of Nothingness?” asked Princess Twilight as she tilted her head in confusion.

“It’s a mysterious place I stumbled across not long after I invented the Jump-Gate,” explained Lego Twilight. “I speculated that it was some kind of portal to another realm of existence, but was never able to obtain any conclusive evidence. But during that, um… Midnight Sparkle incident, she was forced to jump through it to retrieve something very important. She recovered the object and safely returned, but what she experienced over there… well, all she ever told me is that it brought about a rather severe existential crisis.”

“Oh, Sunset,” said Princess Twilight softly as she hugged Sunset. “I had no idea you were suffering so much.”

“I never wanted any of you to worry,” insisted Sunset. “The only reason the other Twilight even knows that much is because we were once trapped in a cave and got into a rather heated argument.”

“But I’m your friend,” assured Princess Twilight. “If there’s ever anything bothering you, you can count on me to listen to everything.”

Sunset chuckled and dryly remarked, “Believe me, this is the kind of knowledge that, once you learn it, you’ll wish you never knew about it. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, it’s for the best that I never share that experience with anyone.” She then smiled and added, “Besides, I’m the one who can read minds. If anyone is capable of handling this kind of burden, it’s me.”

“If you’re sure about that,” said Princess Twilight uneasily. “Just remember, I’ll always be here for you if you ever need a friend to help you out.” She then gave Sunset another hug.

“Of that, I have no doubts at all,” assured Sunset as she returned the hug.

Once Sunset and Princess Twilight released their embrace, Lego Twilight glanced around and asked, “So which one of these displays would you consider to be your favorite?”

“Oh, that’s an easy one,” replied Princess Twilight as she walked over to another cityscape model, within which was a depiction of a large red and yellow mech stomping around through the streets. “I’m especially fond of this one, not because of what it is, but rather for the fact that it was Sunset’s very first custom creation, and therefore symbolizing just how much she had improved herself after everything she had previously been through.”

“Oh yeah, the Titan,” noted Sunset contently with a chuckle as she followed the two Twilights to the model of that giant mech she had built to help defeat the Dazzlings. “I remember that.”

Princess Twilight and her friends from the Lego World continued to browse the gallery for nearly an hour. After a while, they noticed the two Spikes arrive and enter the room, one of whom seemed to have some kind of red fanny pack around his waist, and the other was wearing a red cap on his head with the word “LEGO” in its familiar shape and color embroidered on the front.

“Whoa…” said the Spike with a fanny pack in awe. “So this is the Gallery of Creativity…”

“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” remarked the Spike with a cap smugly. “Believe me, a lot of late nights went into putting all of this together, but you can’t deny how awesome the results are.”

Lego Twilight walked over to the two Spikes and, recognizing the fanny pack being worn by the one on the right, approached that Spike and said, “Glad to see you made it back, Spike. Do you have that Power Crystal?”

“Yup. Got it right here,” replied right Spike as he unzipped his fanny pack and pulled out the small glowing crystal.

Lego Twilight already understood there was no way her bulky hooves would be able to handle such a small object, so she reached out with her magic to levitate it out of Spike’s claw and towards herself, albeit not quite in a straight path.

“Here, let me,” offered Sunset as she took hold of the crystal with her own magic.

Lego Twilight silently accepted the assistance as she sat down and held out her right foreleg where her Jump-Gate return device was located. She briefly struggled to use her magic to open the cover of a small compartment, then said, “Just insert it in here.”

Sunset levitated the Power Crystal into the compartment and flipped the cover closed.

Carefully using the edge of the hoof on her left foreleg, Lego Twilight tapped the device a few times, then smiled and confirmed, “Everything seems to be fully functional. Now we can return to that island and bring everyone home.”

“I’ve never seen any crystals like that before,” noted Princess Twilight. “I wish I could have a chance to study it.”

Right Spike chuckled and remarked, “If I know one Twilight, I know the other, so I decided to bring a spare, just for you.” He pulled another small Power Crystal out of his fanny pack and tossed it to Princess Twilight.

As Princess Twilight caught the crystal in her magical grasp and then gently set it down off to the side, Lego Twilight stated, “I’ll see if I can make a special arrangement with the Power Miners about sending you a few more Power Crystals, if you’re interested.”

“Sweet!” remarked left Spike excitedly. “I can’t wait to try some!”

“Dragons in this world eat crystals?” asked right Spike in confusion.

“Well, mostly gemstones, but crystals are pretty much the same thing,” answered left Spike.

“I don’t know,” said right Spike skeptically. “We’ve got creatures in the Lego World called rock monsters, and they’ve been known to cause earthquakes whenever they eat these crystals.”

“C’mon,” said left Spike dismissively, “what could possibly go wrong?”

Lego Twilight furrowed her brow as she stared suspiciously at the two Spikes. She then simply stated, “The blue ninja controls water.”

Right Spike — the one wearing the fanny pack — raised an eyebrow in confusion and asked, “Huh?”

Left Spike — the one wearing the cap — immediately corrected, “That’s Nya who controls water! The blue ninja is Jay, who controls lightning!”

Lego Twilight smiled slyly at the two Spikes as they glanced at each other, then looked back at her with guilty looks on their faces. “Nice try, Spike,” she remarked teasingly, “but you’re not swapping places with your interdimensional counterpart that easily.”

Dragon Spike on the right sighed as he took his hat back from the other Spike and asked, “How did she figure it out?”

“I’m a huge fan of Ninjago,” confessed Lego Spike on the left as he unclipped and removed his fanny pack from the other Spike. “She knew I wouldn’t resist correcting her on something so simple that anyone familiar with them should know about.”

“I guess that explains the fanny pack,” noted dragon Spike as he looked closely at the unfamiliar white markings printed on the red fanny pack. “Is that supposed to be some kind of writing?”

“It’s the type of written language they use in the Ninjago Region,” confirmed Lego Spike as he strapped his fanny pack on his waist.

“Do you think you could teach it to me?” asked dragon Spike with a smile. “I could use it like a secret code.”

“Sorry to break this up,” Lego Twilight spoke up, “but we really need to get going. Now that I’ve got my return device working, there’s no reason for us to overstay our welcome.”

“Aww, do we really have to?” asked Pinkie Pie in disappointment. “There’s still so much of this world that I wanna see!”

“There’s over a hundred people waiting for us to provide them with a way home,” Lego Twilight shamefully reminded her friends. “It’s bad enough that Rainbow, Sunset, and I spent our previous visit just casually hanging out with the other me while the rest of you were suffering on a sinking ship in the middle of a violent storm.”

Rarity glanced away uneasily as she admitted, “Yes, I suppose we would have greatly appreciated if you had simply thought to return much sooner than you ultimately did.”

“Then let’s not repeat that mistake on the same day,” declared Sunset. She turned to Princess Twilight and requested, “Whenever you’re ready, Twilight, teleport us directly back to the second portal.”

Princess Twilight nodded in agreement, then turned to dragon Spike and said, “Meet me back in the throne room in a few minutes and I’ll help you rehang that painting.”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” acknowledged Spike with a smile and a tip of his hat before he turned away and walked out of the room.

Everyone else in the room gathered close together with Princess Twilight as her horn glowed. Only a split second later, she cast the spell and all of them suddenly vanished from the Gallery of Creativity room.

Back on the beach of that uncharted island in the Lego World, all the people and animals who had been rescued were doing whatever activities they could to pass the time. Although the Equestria Girls had promised to return soon with the ability to take them all back home, they had no way of knowing how long that would take. As they waited, the crew made the effort to distribute all of the collected luggage back to their respective owners, while the passengers either relaxed on the beach, played games with each other, or tended to the petting zoo animals.

A few hours had passed by the time the Equestria Girls made their way out of the jungle and arrived back on the beach. “We’re back!” declared Rarity in a sing-song tone.

As everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to the girls, Twilight held up her right arm and announced, “Good news! My Jump-Gate return device is now functioning properly! Since the cruise was originally scheduled to return to Baltimare, I’ll open the gateway to the Jump-Gate in that city’s LEGO Team Headquarters. From there, you can all make your originally planned methods of returning home, albeit a few days earlier than anticipated. Now, I don’t want to leave the gateway open for too long and risk draining the Power Crystal, so I’ll wait until everyone has gathered their things and are ready to go, then I’ll open the gateway.”

“You heard her, everyone!” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Pack your stuff and get ready to head home!”

“Captain Bluffbeard!” Sunset called out. “Bring out that manifest again, so we can make sure we don’t leave anyone behind on this island.”

Bluffbeard nodded in acknowledgement and began searching through his paperwork for the manifest.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Applejack suddenly alerted everyone. “What happened to the stowaways?”

Everyone stopped and looked towards where the two robbers had been left on the beach, but all they saw was a loose coil of rope and two pairs of square footprints that trailed off into the jungle…

Back in Equestria, at the edge of the Everfree Forest, a pair of earth ponies pushed aside the foliage and looked out at the nearby town of Ponyville. Both of these earth ponies had a yellow coat, a short and messy black mane and tail, and wore black beanie hats on their heads. The one on left wore a grey jacket over a striped prison shirt and had a Cutie Mark of a red crowbar smashing open a glass case containing precious jewels, and the one on the right wore a striped prison shirt with the sleeves torn off and had a Cutie Mark of a red crowbar smashing open a safe with a pile of cash inside.

“Check it out, Mugsy,” whispered the left pony. “There’s a whole town over there.”

“Bet they never had to deal with guys like us, eh, Rocky?” the right pony quietly responded.

“Just think of what kind of riches we could find here,” remarked Rocky sinisterly. “It’s practically ours for the takin’.”

“This is gonna be so easy,” agreed Mugsy with a grin.

“I was wondering when you two might show up.”

Both robber ponies yelped and looked back to see a very displeased Princess Twilight Sparkle standing right behind them. Realizing they’ve been discovered, they immediately tried to flee, but quickly found themselves caught in a field of glowing magenta magic and hovering above the ground.

With both of the incompetent crooks from the Lego World now in her magical grasp, Princess Twilight teleported them with her back to her castle — specifically right in front of the secret door to the Crystal Mirror. She then slammed their faces against the opposite wall so they couldn’t watch her do the secret knock to open the door. Once the hidden room was exposed, she released a quick burst of magic to activate the machinery that soon managed to open the original interdimensional portal to the Lego World.

Now that the portal was open, Twilight levitated the two robbers so their faces were close to hers and she fiercely scolded, “Consider this your only warning. Stay out of Equestria.” She then flung the two minifigs-turned-ponies straight through the portal, back to the world where they belonged.

After waiting a few seconds to account to the amount of time she estimated it took to travel through the interdimensional portal, Twilight shut off the apparatus, then tapped her hoof twice against the thick black line on the floor that marked where the wall would normally be. As she stepped out into the hallway and walked off, the stone blocks that made up the secret door magically shifted around until they soon reformed the seemingly featureless wall that most visitors would never give even so much as a second glance.

Author's Note

Once again, I cut it very close and barely managed to finish this chapter in time. Obviously, this is more of an exposition chapter rather than an action chapter, but many of the earlier stories in this series tended to end that way, so I'm not concerned at all. If you're confused by that part where the two Spikes attempted to swap places, they had practiced their lines before entering the room as part of a prank to get back at the Twilights for excluding them, but Lego Twilight saw right through their act. Finally, I intend to have the epilogue posted in one week instead of two (as I always have with all of my previous main stories), so hopefully it'll turn out short enough that I can actually have it finished in time.

Epilogue

Epilogue

Baltimare, like every other City Region, had its own LEGO Team Headquarters building, each uniquely designed to reflect its appropriate theme and setting. In the case of a port city like Baltimare, the building’s massive main room of operations was an indoor docking area with three large docks, each with a large door that could be retracted to gain access into or out of the building. At the moment, two of these ports were empty, while the third was occupied by a police patrol boat. And as is the case for the massive main room of any LEGO Team Headquarters building, there was a Jump-Gate located in a secluded corner of the room.

And on this late afternoon, the head of Baltimare’s branch of the LEGO Team watched from the sidelines as over a hundred passengers and crewmembers from a luxury cruise ship passed through the opened Jump-Gate from some deserted island. Although weird things were not unheard of throughout the LEGO Team, this was definitely a first for this particular branch of the worldwide organization.

As the last of the petting zoo animals passed through the Jump-Gate, Captain Bluffbeard checked them off the manifest and smiled as he announced, “Alright, that’s the last of ‘em! Everyone’s accounted for! Shut the gate!”

“I don’t need to hit the emergency close button,” Twilight pointed out as she and her friends stood beside the Jump-Gate’s console. “It’ll close on its own if no one else passes through after a few seconds.”

Sure enough, just after Twilight finished speaking, the Jump-Gate doors slowly came together and gently closed shut, followed by the machinery automatically powering down.

As Bluffbeard placed the manifest back into his trunk full of papers, he spoke up, “Well, now that we’re all safely back in civilization, I’ve got some good news fer all of ya!” He had a smile on his face as he pulled out a rather tall stack of papers. “I was able to recover all of the paperwork from my quarters, which means I’ll be able to honor my money-back guarantee to all the passengers.” As he started passing out those sheets of paper to everyone, he explained, “Just fill these out an’ mail ‘em in, then the insurance policy should take care of the rest.”

The Equestria Girls were among the first people to receive their compensation papers. Applejack glanced over the contents printed on that white 1x2 tile and remarked, “At least it’s good to know he’s a man of his word.”

“Indeed,” agreed Rarity as she packed away her paper to fill out later. “But while the compensation for lost luggage is rather favorable, I am simply relieved that we were able to recover all of our belongings before the ship went down.”

“You mean I recovered all of our stuff,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “It was my idea to grab all that luggage while the rest of you were busy saving everyone else. I wanted to do something nice to make up for all the dumb things I did to ruin your vacation.”

“When you put it that way, that does seem like a nice act of goodwill,” noted Twilight. She then sheepishly admitted, “That, and getting the opportunity to personally explore an alternate universe is enough for me to forgive you.” Her expression turned serious as she added, “But I’m not the only one who was affected by your dismal behavior. You’ll have to speak with each of the others to find out if they’re just as willing to forgive you.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and sadly acknowledged, “You’re right…” She turned first to Sunset.

“I personally wasn’t affected that much,” admitted Sunset with a shrug. “I was more concerned for the rest of our friends as a group. Seeing as everything turned out okay in the end, I’d say we’re cool now.” She smiled as she held up a fist.

Rainbow Dash smiled and exchanged a fist-bump with Sunset. She then turned to Pinkie Pie.

“It’s your fault that two perfectly good Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bunt Cakes went completely to waste,” said Pinkie sourly, “not to mention getting me unfairly kicked out of the buffet for the rest of our time on that yacht.” She thought for a brief moment before she stated, “I want you to purchase two of those cakes and deliver them to me to make up for the ones that were lost.”

Rainbow Dash was initially apprehensive, but knowing that this was to make up for her stupid actions, she conceded, “All right, I’ll get you those cakes.” After a brief pause, she hesitantly asked, “And the part where you got kicked out?”

Pinkie shrugged and replied, “Puffed Pastry took responsibility for that bit of poor judgement. She even offered to bake me a fresh bundt cake to thank me for saving her life.” She then suddenly gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “I just realized this means I’ll be getting triple the Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cakes!” She squealed loudly. “All that hurtful suffering has been totally worth it!”

Rainbow Dash awkwardly chuckled in response before she turned to Applejack.

Applejack crossed her arms and simply requested, “Next time we go out on a boat, you’re payin’ for mah seasickness medication.”

“Done,” agreed Rainbow Dash with a smile. She next turned to Fluttershy.

“Those poor petting zoo animals were so terrified for a long time after what you said to them,” stated Fluttershy in disappointment. “It took me so many hours to assure them they could trust me. Any longer than that, and I could’ve had a lot of difficulty trying to help them escape the sinking ship.” She paused for a moment before she continued, “You need to learn to respect the sensitive feelings of such small critters, so I’d like for you to do some volunteer work at my pet shop. I’ll let you decide however many hours over however many days, but I’ll be expecting an overall total of at least twenty-four hours.”

“I’ll check my schedule at the airport and we’ll make arrangements,” assured Rainbow Dash, even though she wasn’t looking forward to that kind of work. She next turned to Spike.

“That three hours of solo hot tub time you robbed me of was a rare opportunity,” grumbled Spike. “To make up for that, I’d like you to find me a spa that offers a hot tub, and I want two three-hour solo sessions. And yes, I expect you to pay for them.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and reluctantly agreed, “All right, I’ll get you your hot tub time.” She finally turned to Rarity, dreading what kind of immense compensation that diva might demand.

“I was upset that you so rudely cut short my time with Ragamuffin, and thus I swore vengeance against you,” scolded Rarity.

Rainbow Dash winced, preparing for the worst.

“However,” continued Rarity more softly, “I have since come to realize that Ragamuffin was not the charming young lad with a lovely accent that he had led me to believe he was, so there is no longer any point in being upset over some lost time with him.” She then smiled. “Therefore, I hereby take back my threat of future vengeance against you. We are now what you might call… even.”

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh of relief and replied, “Thanks, Rarity.” She smiled as she turned to the rest of her friends and continued, “All of you, thanks for forgiving me. I’m really sorry I messed up like that, and believe me, I’ve totally learned my lesson. From now on, let the bad guys try and strike the first blow against us, and when they do, we’ll be ready to strike back even harder!”

Twilight smiled and remarked, “Now there’s the Rainbow Dash I can be proud to call a good friend of mine.”

“Yup!” agreed Pinkie as she suddenly pulled out a chocolate pudding pie with whipped cream from seemingly out of nowhere. “Looks like you’ve finally earned your humble pie!” She then suddenly threw the pie at Rainbow, causing it to splatter all over her face.

Spike couldn’t help but snicker at that slapstick moment, but stopped when he saw Twilight glare at him, to which he shamefully looked down at his feet.

Rainbow Dash removed the pie tin from her face and wiped away the filling from her eyes. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she suddenly burst out laughing and happily responded, “Good one, Pinkie!”

With Rainbow taking the joke in stride, the rest of the girls quickly joined in the laughter. While their vacation on a cruise ship out at sea may have been cut short by yet another magical threat from Equestria, they were all happy to still have each other and their shared bond of friendship. Although they would continue to hope that someday they could enjoy some relaxing time off from always saving the day from magical threats, they were no longer so hesitant to embrace their role as one of the greatest teams of heroes the Lego World had ever seen.

Author's Note

And that concludes another story in my LEGO Equestria Girls series. One thing I couldn't figure out how to include in this epilogue is that Princess Twilight knew to go after Rocky and Mugsy because Sunset had alerted her via the magic journal, with Flash Sentry confirming their return to Canterlot City by receiving a call from his fellow police officers. Anyway, I'm very relieved to have this particular story done, mostly due to how much I've struggled to stick to my schedule after losing half of my available time right from the start. Although I'll begin writing the next story in only a couple weeks, I won't be posting the first chapter until the beginning of June, so hopefully this much-needed reset will allow me to better manage my time spent writing that next story.