//------------------------------// // Battle of the Bands // Story: LEGO Equestria Girls 2 // by Chronicler06 //------------------------------// Chapter 16 Battle of the Bands At a certain construction site in Lego City, very little had changed within the few hours that had passed since all three of the tall buildings were completely demolished by a spaceship crash. Since the incident had occurred after working hours, there was nobody around who was even aware of what had happened here. Numerous construction vehicles were parked on one side of the worksite, not far from the massive pile of debris that now covered much of the site. There were also some firefighting vehicles parked on the other side of the worksite, though there were no signs of any fires or firefighters nearby. Aside from the faint whistling of a light breeze, this site seemed to be completely devoid of life. Suddenly, a few Lego bricks in the pile began to shift, lightly clacking against each other. Eventually, some of those bricks were quickly pushed away from below. From the small cavity underneath emerged a pair of amber-colored hands, followed by the black sleeves of a jacket, and then a head with a fiery red and yellow hair piece. Sunset Shimmer could hardly believe that she was still alive after such a horrific crash. Despite crash-landing at a very high speed and having three buildings come down on top of her, she had remarkably ended up inside a rather spacious cavity that prevented her from being crushed. Unfortunately, the site of her survival had been at the bottom of the pile, so she had to spend the last few hours carefully digging her way through all of those Lego pieces. Despite a few cave-ins here and there, she had been able to keep going until she finally reached the surface. Sunset coughed a few times before she pulled herself the rest of the way out of the pile. As she slowly stood up, she glanced up at the dark nighttime sky, then down at her body. The background city lights allowed her to see that, despite a few scratches and bruises, she had survived the crash amazingly unscathed. But despite how incredibly lucky she was, she didn’t feel like celebrating at all. “What a mess,” muttered Sunset as she glanced around at the massive pile of Lego parts. She then sat down on a nearby brick and lowered her head as she let out a sad sigh. As far as she was aware, her incredible survival had done little to improve the situation for herself or her friends. The Dazzlings still had total control over the entire Lego world, her friends were now scattered across the city, and she had absolutely no ideas on where to go from here. As much as Sunset wanted to go out and actually do something, she just couldn’t figure out what she should do next. As she slowly turned her attention back to the massive pile she sat upon, she began to recall some of the things her new friends had told her over the last few days. “There’s nothin’ to it. Just build whatever comes to mind.” “You must visualize your creation. The first step to building anything is to see it with your mind.” “Why bother looking for something when you can just build it yourself?” “It’s a piece of cake! Just grab a bunch of parts and throw ‘em all together!” “You did come up with a very good plan. I’m sure you would make a great Master Builder.” “They say the only limit is the imagination, and if you could just open your mind to all the possibilities, then even you can create just about anything.” Sunset let out another sad sigh. She had lost count of how many times she reminded her friends that, unlike them, she had no creative talents at all. It wasn’t for a lack of effort. She really did want to help out just as much as the rest of the team could, but for some reason, she just couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of creativity. In fact, now that she realized it, creativity seemed to elude her just as much as the concept of friendship once did. Sunset thought about the advice that Twilight had given her and slowly began to realize that perhaps both creativity and friendship had the same simple requirement: She just needed to open her mind to the possibilities. For friendship, Sunset felt she was already on the right track. When Twilight’s team wanted her help, she was willing to provide it, despite her limitations. It had all started out by simply sending that message to Princess Twilight in Equestria, but as events continued to unfold and she found herself stuck with the team far longer than she had anticipated, she was still happy to lend them a hand. Even when things took a turn for the worst and she was forced to rely on her old underhanded tactics, she was willing to set aside her personal misgivings and still got it done, all for the sake of helping her friends. If she could already come this far with understanding friendship, would creativity really be any more difficult? Sunset slowly stood up and looked around at the massive pile. At first, she could only see it for what it currently was: just a big pile of Lego bricks. But this time, she tried to go further. As she glanced around at which particular parts were available, she tried to let her mind wander and consider which pieces she could put together. She felt that thinking about a final product would be too overwhelming, so instead she focused only on where she could start. It wasn’t long until something extraordinary happened. Within her imagination, she saw two bricks — a pair of 2x4 bricks, one red and one yellow — float up from the pile and move close to each other. Her eyes widened as she saw the two bricks turn around in the air until they were perfectly parallel with each other. The red brick was now directly over the yellow one, but then she made them stop. Instead of a direct alignment, she decided to offset the two bricks, moving the red brick over two studs so that it was now over only half of the yellow brick. Finally, with an imaginary click, the two bricks came together. Sunset gasped. “The possibilities…” she quietly said in wonder. “I can see them!” She began to visualize many more Lego pieces, and imagined how she could fit them together. It was more than just pairs of bricks! She also saw how plates — with a height of one third of regular bricks — provided an even wider range of creativity, and how tiles would provide smooth surfaces wherever she didn’t want studs sticking out. She saw pegs fitting perfectly into the holes on technic bricks and beams, and plus-shaped axles fitting through not only those same holes but also through gears and wheels. She even saw some special bricks that involved a ball-and-socket connection, providing a huge range of movement between such parts. All of it was so incredible that a big smile slowly began to form on her face. Sunset was so entranced by what she was seeing that she didn’t even realize that she began to slowly levitate up from the pile as a magical glow started surrounding her body. As her imagination continued to run wild, an incredible transformation took place. First, pony-like ears appeared on the top of her hair piece. Then her hair grew much longer in the back so that it resembled a tail. And finally, a unicorn horn materialized on the very front of her hair piece, right over her forehead. Sunset Shimmer had finally earned her magical half-pony half-minifig form. She was now a Master Builder, enhanced by the magic of friendship. When her feet touched down on the large pile again, Sunset finally realized what had just happened. She dropped her smile as she curiously felt her new pony ears and tail, while also noticing that all of the scrapes and bruises all over her body had suddenly vanished. When she then felt the horn on her forehead, her smile immediately returned. “I wonder…” she mumbled. She immediately thought back to her days as a unicorn in Equestria, remembering all of the lessons she had taken on the use of basic magic. She focused her mind on a few pieces in the pile in front of her. Amazingly, a magical aura that was the same aqua color of her eyes surrounded not only her horn, but also appeared around the bunch of Lego pieces she was focusing on. As she then levitated those pieces within her magic, she barely contained her excitement as she chuckled and muttered, “This is gonna be so much fun.” Sunset Shimmer immediately went to work. “Let’s start with some of these…” she said to herself as she rapidly assembled most of the floating pieces. “Add a bit of this…” She levitated a few move pieces up from the pile and added them to those she had already put together. “And a few of those…” She levitated even more pieces up from the pile and moved them around her progress. “Put it all together, and…” Once all of her gathered pieces were together, Sunset continued levitating her creation. “Not bad…” she remarked. Although she had easily used up a few hundred pieces, there was still a massive pile under her feet. She quickly realized this and said, “But why stop there when I can go bigger?” She glanced around at her surroundings and her grin grew even wider. “Much bigger.” Her magic took hold of a huge amount of the pile and, as she thrust both arms up, all of those pieces were quickly hurled from the pile and began to swirl around the unfinished creation. With a yank of her right arm, she magically tore apart all of the construction vehicles and added those pieces to the floating mass. With a yank of her left arm, she magically tore apart all of the firefighting vehicles and also added those pieces to her collection. Then, with her hands quickly moving around in every direction, she began to very rapidly assemble her very first work of creativity. As she magically put all the pieces together, she excitedly said, “Let’s throw on some of this! And this! Can’t go without these! Oh, gotta have these, too! Can’t forget about those! That looks good, but these would make it even better! Oh, I know where to put these! Ah, now there’s something I could use! And this would be awesome! Now let’s throw on even more of these!” As Sunset Shimmer’s creation quickly took shape, she laughed and excitedly shouted, “I LOVE LEGO!!” In front of LEGO Headquarters, a massive crowd had gathered. Thousands of minifigs — men, women, and children — from all over Lego City were standing close together on the flat grassy peninsula. Some people had decided to sit up in the few scattered trees, and a few others had even gone so far as to sit in some homemade rafts so they could watch from the water. People were so desperate for a better view that police officers had to keep watch around the supports of the elevated monorail to ensure no one would be stupid enough to actually climb up there. The focus of everyone’s attention was the massive LEGO logo on the front tower of the building. According to the invitations that were distributed to everyone in the city, that logo would be the site of tonight’s special performance, where an elevated stage would automatically deploy just before the start of the show. For now, all they could see was what the front tower normally looked like at night: brightly illuminated by a pair of floodlights on the ground — around which police officers also had to keep watch to ensure no one would obstruct those lights. As everyone in the crowd muttered amongst themselves, three pairs of eyes were looking outside through a set of tiny windows near the bottom of the giant logo on the tower. Inside the tower, the three sirens — who had just recently changed into those special performance dresses that were made for them earlier — smiled at the massive crowd that had gathered to watch their ultimate performance. Even though these citizens would have the special privilege of watching, the Dazzlings’ newest song would also be broadcasted live to every region in the Lego World so that no one would miss out on their enchanting voices. All they had to do now was wait for just the right moment. “Hey, look over there,” Sonata suddenly said, pointing to the right and slightly up. Adagio and Aria turned their gazes to the right and saw a thick cloud of sickly green mist floating over the city and slowly heading right towards them. “Is that what I think it is?” asked Aria. “Pure Equestrian magic,” confirmed Adagio as she grinned. “I told you it was only a matter of time before those Master Builders would be pushed too far, and now we have everything we need for the final phase of the plan. All we have to do is wait for that magic to arrive, and then… it’s showtime.” As Adagio finished speaking, the Dazzlings heard the whirring noise of the elevator platform behind them, along with some indistinct chatter on a radio. They glanced back and saw Kjeld Playwell on that elevator. When the elevator platform reached the level the Dazzlings were on, he flipped a lever to stop the elevator. He turned to the Dazzlings and said, “I’d hate to interrupt you girls, but I’m receiving reports of a party bus zooming through the streets of the city, and I’m sure you can guess who is responsible.” “Indeed,” acknowledged Adagio with a nod. “But we no longer care what those Master Builders do. As far as we’re concerned, they are already too late to stop us.” More indistinct chatter suddenly came from the radio in Kjeld’s right hand, so he held it up to the side of his head and listened carefully. Once the chatter was finished, Kjeld turned to the Dazzlings and reported, “The party bus has just been destroyed.” The three sirens silently smiled to each other before turning their attention back outside. Behind them, Kjeld started up the elevator again and continued on his way up. The party bus plowed its way through yet another roadblock. Even though the team of friends had yet to encounter anything that could stop them, they were not getting much closer to reaching LEGO Headquarters. Rainbow Dash did her best to navigate through the unfamiliar streets, but since no one on the team had ever been to Lego City, it was all guesswork at best. As the party bus zoomed down yet another empty street, a large boulder suddenly flung up through the air from behind an overturned truck and began hurtling right towards the team. “Look out! Incoming!” shouted Twilight, pointing up at the massive projectile. Rainbow glanced up at the boulder and saw it begin to fall right at where the party bus was going, so she immediately jerked the wheel to one side and slammed on the brakes. The party bus quickly skidded sideways along the road as the tires squealed loudly. Unfortunately, Rainbow’s daring move had caused the bus to lose traction and was unable to control it any further. Finally, as the party bus slid into an intersection, the boulder crashed down right on the big vehicle and smashed it completely to pieces. All six minifigs were flung out from the destruction and tumbled to a stop right in the middle of that intersection. They quickly stood up and saw that overturned truck being pushed aside, revealing a group of skeleton warriors around a catapult. The team quickly glanced around in shock as they saw dozens of skeleton warriors slowly advance on their position from all four surrounding streets. As the six girls gathered close together in the middle of the intersection and stood back-to-back with each other, Twilight spoke up, “Well, girls, I think I speak for all of us when I say… we’re doomed.” All of the skeletons raised their weapons and laughed viciously as they slowly closed in on their opponents. With the Master Builders completely surrounded, there seemed to be no chance of escape. Suddenly, the ground shook a little, causing the skeletons to halt their advance. Just one second later, the ground shook a bit again, making the skeletons glance around in confusion. Another second later, and the ground shook again. “Oh, what now?” groaned Rainbow Dash. Each time the ground shook, a heavy thud could be heard somewhere off in the distance. Everyone glanced around, but with so many tall buildings around, it was difficult to see anything that wasn’t along the surrounding four streets. As the thuds steadily grew louder, they also began to hear some kind of whirring mechanical system. The ground continued to shake intermittently as the pair of strange noises slowly amplified. Whirr-clang. Whirr-clang. Whirr-clang! Whirr-clang! Finally, something appeared around the corner of a distant intersection. Something really big. The best way one could describe it was an enormous mech which walked on two legs, had two arms, and even a head at the very top. This machine was so humongous that it towered nearly as high as many of the surrounding buildings. With each step this monstrous object took, the ground shook with the force of a small earthquake. “Holy macaroni!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie in shock as she and everyone else gawked up at the giant mech, which was now slowly heading right for them. Whirr-clang! Whirr-CLANG! Whirr-CLANG! Whirr-CLANG!! The giant mech finally stopped when it was just one massive stride away from the team and surrounding skeleton army. It then raised both of its arms and quickly deployed a weapon system on each arm, aiming right at the intersection. Finally, a loud voice boomed from the mech’s head. “STEP AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!!” Although Twilight and her team were absolutely terrified of this giant mechanical beast that just came out of nowhere, it was the skeleton army that panicked first. All of the skeleton warriors immediately dropped their weapons and fled down the three other streets. The six Master Builders now stood alone in the intersection. They glanced around in confusion at the retreating skeleton army, then turned their gaze up at the giant mech. Was this thing an opponent… or an ally? Once the skeletons were gone, the huge mech retracted its weapons and lowered its arms. Finally, the front of the mech’s head flipped open like the visor of a helmet, revealing the pilot who simply smiled and waved at them and greeted, “Hi, girls.” “Sunset Shimmer!” exclaimed Twilight with sudden excitement. “You’re alive!” Like Twilight, the rest of her friends were very excited to see that Sunset had survived through incredible odds and had now rejoined the team. But they were also in absolute shock and disbelief at what she had brought along with her. “What is that thing?” asked Fluttershy. “It’s my very first custom creation!” Sunset proudly answered. She manipulated the controls surrounding her, moving the humongous mech into a fighting pose. “I call it ‘The Titan’!” She kept grinning as she then lowered her voice. “You like?” Rainbow Dash continued gawking up at Sunset Shimmer’s Titan as she slowly replied, “That… is… AWESOME!” A huge grin suddenly appeared on her face as she shouted that final word. “I must say, for a very first build, you did an extraordinary job,” remarked Rarity contently. “I especially like how you managed to incorporate all of those construction and firefighting vehicles into your build. The reds and yellows express a rather suitable complement to your person.” Applejack let out a long whistle as she moved her gaze up and down the huge mech. “You sayin’ ya actually built this whole thing all by yourself?” she asked. “I had some time to think about all the advice you girls gave me over the last few days,” replied Sunset. “It turned out to be quite helpful, once I was finally able to open my imagination. And as you can see,” she pointed at the pony ears and unicorn horn on her head, “I’m now a magically-enhanced Master Builder, just like the rest of you.” “Way to go, Sunset!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie cheerfully. “We should throw a party to celebrate!” “I think we’d better save that party for after we’ve saved the Lego World from the sirens,” reminded Twilight. She turned up to Sunset and explained, “Spike contacted me through the walkie-talkie and said that he’s working on something that could help us. Do you think you can give us a ride to LEGO Headquarters?” “Way ahead of ya,” replied Sunset as she moved her Titan to kneel down and lower a giant hand down on the road in front of the team. A pair of big doors then swung open from the mech’s chest area, revealing a passenger space with six empty seats. “Hop in, girls.” The six minifigs on the ground hesitated at first, but as they looked over Sunset’s creation and realized just how much effort she really put into building that thing, they decided to climb onto the mech’s hand. Once everyone was on the palm of that giant mechanical hand, Sunset raised it up to the passenger space. She waited until all of her friends had climbed inside before she pulled the hand away and closed the doors. Sunset switched on a radio system and called down to the passenger space, “Ready, girls?” Twilight sat down in one of the seats, then glanced around at everyone else. Once she was sure that everyone was comfortably seated, she turned to the overhead speaker and replied, “Ready, Sunset.” “Then let’s go,” responded Sunset as she brought her giant mech up to full height, then made it begin to walk forward at the same steady pace at which she had first arrived. Twilight and the rest of her friends watched through the forward windows of those doors as Sunset Shimmer’s Titan advanced. Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the thought that Sunset Shimmer had been able to build this incredible creation all by herself. It seemed that the formerly disgraced student of Princess Celestia was now well on her way on the path towards redemption. The Titan had made it across only one street before some opposition came onto the scene. From around a corner, a bunch of skeletons rolled three catapults out onto the street and aimed them right at the giant mech. As if that wasn’t enough, another squad of robot-piloted space fighters flew over the city and began to turn around towards the site of the mech. Sunset tightly gripped the controls in her hands and muttered, “So this is how it’s going to be, huh?” She grinned. “Fine, then! BRING IT ON!” And with that, she unleashed everything at the enemy. Sunset started by deploying the weapon on the right arm, an air cannon that fired three bundles of dynamite in rapid succession, quickly blowing up all three of those catapults. She retracted that weapon and deployed the one on the left arm, a high-pressure water cannon. As one of the space fighters came close, she fired a jet of water at it with so much force that its pieces were blown apart. She retracted that weapon and quickly noticed more skeletons advancing, this time with a battering ram. She responded by raising the mech’s right foot and stomping it down on the siege engine, crushing the object and even shaking the ground with a brief earthquake. When she turned her attention back up and saw three more space fighters quickly approaching, she knew exactly what to do. She made her Titan reach behind its back and grab a chain with a large wrecking ball on the end of it. She quickly spun the wrecking ball around like a sling and released the chain. The wrecking ball soared through the air and smashed right through all three fighters. As that wrecking ball came down somewhere off in the distance, she glanced around and prepared for any more opposition. Sunset Shimmer smirked, for she was just getting started. Kjeld opened the door and stepped onto the roof of the front tower of LEGO Headquarters as he tried to listen to the voice over the radio in his right hand. “You need to speak up,” he spoke irritably into the radio. “I can’t understand a word you’re saying.” “There’s something big out here!” responded the voice urgently on the radio. “Really big!” Kjeld pulled out a pair of binoculars as he walked over to the railing that marked the edge of the flat roof. Once he stopped, he gazed through the binoculars towards the downtown area of Lego City. Between a few buildings, he could see a giant red and yellow mech as it stomped around, fired a water cannon and bundles of dynamite, and at one point even punched a space fighter right out of the sky. Kjeld lowered his binoculars and furrowed his brow as he muttered, “Hmm… Those girls sure are persistent, I’ll give them that.” His attention was then drawn downwards when he heard a mechanical noise. He knew right away that it was coming from the elevated stage as it extended outwards from along the bottom of the giant LEGO logo on the tower. However, he was barely able to see its silhouette through a thick green fog that was now floating in front of the logo. At the same time, a set of stage lights deployed along the top of the logo, allowing the stage to be brightly illuminated from above. In addition, a massive video screen came on — which was located on the front surface of the tower between the logo and the monorail entrance — to provide the audience with a large close-up view of the stage. Once the stage reached its full extension, silence fell across the gathered crowd as they eagerly waited for the show to begin. Finally, the background music began to play, and three minifigs slowly strutted their way forward as they started vocalizing. At first, they could only be seen as silhouettes through the dense green fog, but then their details began to emerge as they approached the front of the stage. Once they stopped strutting, they began to sway their arms around to the rhythm of the music. All the while, their red gemstone pendants began absorbing the surrounding Equestrian magic. Sunset Shimmer’s Titan shot down a few more space fighters with the dynamite cannon and obliterated yet another skeleton army with the water cannon. As it then backhand-punched another fighter out of the sky, Sunset suddenly noticed what was going on at LEGO Headquarters. As her eyes widened in shock, she flipped a switch and spoke through the radio, “You girls better take a look at this.” Down in the passenger space, a set of monitors deployed and turned on, displaying what was visible from the Titan’s head. It was hard to tell what exactly was going on from such a great distance, but then Sunset zoomed in the video, revealing Dazzlings on the elevated stage surrounded by a certain dense cloud of green mist. The six friends could only watch in horror as the sirens began to sing while absorbing that mist of magic. “That didn’t take long,” mumbled Rainbow Dash. Applejack sighed in defeat and admitted, “Ah’d hate to tell ya this, Sunset, but Ah’m afraid that came from us.” “Yes, we unfortunately had a bit of a falling out moments ago,” added Rarity uneasily. “It wasn’t long until we finally realized the full implications of what had happened, so we quickly reconciled our differences and began working together like a proper team.” “But as you can see,” finished Twilight solemnly, “the damage has already been done.” “Then we don’t have any time to lose!” exclaimed Sunset with determination as she tightened her grip on the mech’s controls. “Hang on, girls! We’re gonna crash their party!” She immediately began moving a pair of levers back and forth rapidly, making the giant mech actually run down the street, stomping loudly with each long stride. Whirr-CLANG-Whirr-CLANG-Whirr-CLANG-Whirr-CLANG! As the humongous mech and its seven passengers quickly approached LEGO Headquarters, Twilight pulled out her walkie-talkie and urgently spoke, “Spike! We’re running out of time! Please tell me you’re done with whatever it is you’re working on!” Inside the front tower of LEGO Headquarters, Spike could hear the sirens sing the first lyric of their song just outside. “Almost…” he grunted as he continued turning a large crank on his creation, lifting it along the toothed rack of where an elevator would normally go. The gears slowly clanked against each other as Spike’s mystery creation slowly lifted up through the interior of the tower. Once he finally reached the desired height, Spike pushed in the shaft of the crank, locking it into place. Spike swiftly picked up his walkie-talkie and responded, “There! All set to go!” He continued speaking through the walkie-talkie as he rushed over to another part of his creation and proudly announced, “Citizens of Lego City, get ready for the greatest show ever! Tonight, we’re gonna start things off with a bang!” Spike then dropped the walkie-talkie and chuckled mischievously as he picked up a bundle of dynamite and muttered, “I’ve always wanted to use one of these.” He swiftly struck a match, lit the fuse, and blew out the match. With the live explosive in his hand, he then ran over to the edge of his creation and let out a loud grunt as he threw it as hard as he could towards his intended target. Outside the tower, the Dazzling had just finished absorbing the last of the cloud of Equestrian magic as they continued their ultimate song. The lyrics they sang indicated very clearly their evil intent for everyone who was listening. With Equestrian magic now under their control, the first thing they unleashed was a massive red soundwave over the gathered crowd. When the wave of dark magic propagated over the thousands of minifigs, their eyes shrank to tiny pinpricks as they were left completely entranced by the sirens. And thanks to the interconnected system of broadcasting towers, similar waves of dark magic quickly spread from every tower across the entire Lego World, leaving no minifig unaffected. As the Dazzlings continued singing, they began to levitate over the stage as the Equestrian magic began to alter their bodies. Their hair pieces gained a pair of pony ears near the top and grew a longer tail-like extension on the back. The final part of their dark transformation was the creation of an additional piece, attached via the neck joint, over their backs: a pair of gossamer wings. As the sirens continued singing, a red magical glow surrounded their levitating forms. Their former powers were now fully restored, and everyone in the entire Lego World was now deeply under their spell. As far they knew, they had just achieved total victory. With the final lyric of the verse, they proudly claimed that nothing could possibly stop them now. BOOM!! A massive explosion suddenly rocked the tower, blowing a huge hole in the front side just left of the LEGO logo. The force of the violent blast threw the Dazzilings down to the stage and instantly knocked them unconscious. But since the gathered audience had fallen so entranced by the sirens, they showed no reaction at all to the sudden interruption. The sole exception to the crowd was Kjeld Playwell, who glanced down at the smoking damage to the building and grumbled, “What in my grandfather’s name was that?” It was right at this moment that Sunset Shimmer’s Titan charged out of the city. The giant mech skidded to a stop — digging a big trench in the ground with its heel — at the corner of the L-shaped peninsula just beyond the edge of the huge crowd and turned left to face LEGO Headquarters. Inside the passenger space, Twilight held up her walkie-talkie and worriedly exclaimed, “Spike! Are you okay?! We just saw an explosion!” She and her friends silently stared at the damage to the building as she waited for a response. When she got none, she desperately shouted, “SPIKE!!” At first, there was still no response, and no sign of anything happening aside from the smoke billowing from the giant hole in the building. After a very long and tense moment of silence, a response finally came through on the walkie-talkie. “That would be me!” announced Spike with pride as a rather peculiar contraption emerged from the smoke. It was a large platform of some kind with four rapidly-spinning rotors on tall shafts — one on each corner — that kept it airborne. As the hovering platform flew closer to the Titan, the seven Master Builders could also see a wall on the back edge with easily over a hundred levers on it, and operating all of those countless levers was a familiar short minifig wearing a red baseball cap. Honk-honk! Spike was rapidly flipping levers all across the wall as he laughed and triumphantly remarked, “Never underestimate the power of imagination and creativity!” Honk-honk! After the weird contraption made that odd noise again, Spike paused and turned back to the giant mech as he smugly stated, “And yes, this thing is exactly as complicated as it looks.” Sunset opened the doors to the passenger space, allowing Spike and the rest of the team to see each other without any obstructions. As the wacky contraption slowed to a stop and hovered close to the opened passenger space, Twilight stared at it and slowly asked, “Is this what you’ve been working on? What did you build?” “It’s a flying performance stage!” replied Spike excitedly. “You’ll need it if you’re gonna save the world with that musical counter-spell.” He swiftly flipped a few more levers and the funky contraption hovered closer until the gap between it and passenger area of the Titan was shorter than a single pace. “Hop on! I’ll give ya a ride to the nearest broadcasting tower!” Sunset opened the visor-like front of her mech’s head and said, “You girls go on ahead with Spike. I’ll catch up to you after I make some modifications.” The six girls in the passenger area glanced at one another with uncertainty. It wasn’t long until Twilight simply smiled and shrugged before she jumped across the gap and stepped onto the flying stage. The others quickly followed. Spike quickly flipped a few levers and cheerfully announced, “Onwards! To victory!” Honk-honk! The flying stage hovered away from the mech, then turned right and began heading towards Lego City. Sunset watched for a few seconds as the flying stage departed, then turned her attention back to LEGO Headquarters, where she could see the three sirens were just starting to recover from that explosion. As they slowly stood up and turned their attention towards her, she decided to simply smile and wave. The three sirens briefly gawked at the giant mech that stood at the edge of the gathered crowd — which remained blissfully unaware of it right behind them. But when Adagio suddenly recognized the operator of that mech, her confusion instantly turned to a fierce glare as she clenched her teeth and growled, “Shimmer.” “Hi, sirens!” Sunset called out cheerfully. “Remember me? Of course you do! But you may have noticed things are a little different now, so allow me to reintroduce myself.” She kept her excited grin as she furrowed her brow. “I am Sunset Shimmer the Master Builder!” Sunset’s unicorn horn glowed as her aqua-colored magic aura surrounded the seat she was sitting in. She removed that seat from her Titan and levitated it out into the open, taking herself with it. As she held herself hovering in front of her massive creation, she now had a smug expression on her face as she turned to the sirens and said, “Ever wanted to see a Master Builder at work? Well here’s your opportunity!” Sunset turned back to her enormous mech and reached her hands forward. A magical glow quickly surrounded the entire structure, which then began to rumble as she reached her energy deep inside it. Finally, she thrust her hands apart, instantly tearing apart her Titan down to all of its separate pieces. “Look at that!” Sunset proudly stated as she made those Lego pieces swirl around in a slowly rotating vortex. “Thousands and thousands of pieces! And yet…” Her smug grin widened. “I can see exactly where each and every one of them is gonna go.” And with that, she immediately went to work. Her hands moved around swiftly in every direction as all of the Lego parts inside her magical aura rapidly came together. Click-clack-click-clack-click-click-clack-clack-click-clack-click-click-clack-clack-click-clack-click-clack-click-clack-click-clack— “I just have one question,” said Fluttershy as Spike’s flying stage carried the team of friends over Lego City. “What kind of musical counter-spell are you going to use, Twilight?” “I think that what I got wrong the first time was that I tried to do it myself,” replied Twilight. “This time, I think we should all sing together, as friends. So I guess it really doesn’t matter which particular song we play.” “Oh! I know which song we can play!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly. She then said the name of a song that she and her friends had played backing during their high school band and claimed, “It was one of my favorites!” “As well as one of mine,” said Rarity in agreement. “Why, I can even still memorize the lyrics after all these years.” “Same here,” added Applejack with a nod. “Yeah, we can sing that song, but I’d rather we had our old instruments to play along with it,” said a slightly crestfallen Rainbow Dash. “Those things are half of what made it so awesome.” “In that case, you’re gonna love this,” remarked Spike before swiftly flipping a few more levers. Cha-ching! With that cash register sound, a large compartment suddenly slid open in the middle of the stage. The six girls gathered around the large box and were astonished by what they saw. Inside that container were a blue electric guitar, a reddish-orange bass guitar, a white keytar, a tambourine, and a complete drum set. Rarity gasped and exclaimed, “It’s our old instruments!” She picked up the keytar and smiled as she glanced at the blue diamonds that were printed on the back. “I remember applying these decals, myself.” Applejack grabbed the bass guitar and also smiled as she remarked, “How ‘bout that! This thing’s even still got mah initials on it!” “Awesome!” shouted Rainbow Dash excitedly as she held up her electric guitar. “Never thought I’d see this bad boy ever again!” As Pinkie Pie quickly gathered up her drum set and arranged it near the rear of the stage, Fluttershy grabbed her tambourine and asked, “Where did you get all of these?” “I found them in a storage locker somewhere inside the building,” replied Spike smugly. “Even I couldn’t believe my luck!” “Wow,” remarked an almost speechless Twilight. “Great work, Spike!” “And that’s not all!” added Spike excitedly. “Go stand on the spots I marked out for all of you and I’ll show ya what else I found!” The six friends glanced around at the floor of the stage and were surprised to find each of their names written on specific tile pieces. They were definitely curious to see what else Spike had for them, so they walked over to stand on the tiles with their respective names on them. Once they were all in place, Spike quickly flipped a few more levers. Rrrring! With that ringing telephone noise, the six tiles suddenly descended under the stage, taking the girls with them as they screamed in shock. They now found themselves inside isolated rooms with only one item for each of them: a set of special clothing. “Oh! I remember making these!” exclaimed Rarity with excitement. “These outfits are from the days of our high school band. I had always intended for us to wear them at our every performance.” Her voice grew bitter as she added, “Although some people kept rejecting my offer every time.” “Okay, guilty as charged,” confessed Applejack. “Ah personally never saw any reason why we needed anythin’ fancy. But seein’ as we’re now in this together, Ah guess Ah’ll admit that practicality ain’t always the only thing worth considerin’.” As she reached for the dress that was in her section, she added, “Since we’re about to save the world here, we might as well do it in style.” “Not even gonna bother arguing with that,” said Rainbow Dash as she quickly began putting on the special outfit for her. “You even made one for me?” asked Twilight in confusion as she carefully looked over the dress that was left for her. “I thought you just said you made these years ago, long before you could’ve known that I even existed.” “I had thought ahead and made a few extras,” admitted Rarity as she started putting on the dress in her section. Twilight began to reach for her outfit when a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Wait! I just realized something!” she exclaimed worriedly. “I don’t know the lyrics to your song!” “That’s okay,” assured Pinkie Pie as she swiftly threw on her dress. “This song tends to use the same words over and over. You’ll figure it out in no time!” “I guess that’ll do,” muttered Twilight as she grabbed her dress. —click-clack-click-clack-click-click-clack-clack-click-clack-click-clack-clack-click-click-clack-click-clack-click-clack-click-clack! After a few minutes of very rapid assembly, Sunset Shimmer quickly finished rebuilding her massive creation into something completely different. This time, its structure was not humanoid, but rather shaped like a pony. The giant mechanical pony stood on four legs, had a short solid tail, a pair of structures shaped like pony ears on the head section, a pair of folded wings on its sides, and a long horn atop its head. With her latest creation complete, Sunset opened the eye visor on the pony mech and levitated her seat into place within the control area inside the head. She grabbed the controls as she smirked at the Dazzlings and said, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go help my friends save the world.” The visor closed as the giant mech’s wings unfurled. The humongous pony crouched down as the noise of jet engines powering up came from the wings. Finally, the enormous pony mech jumped and spread its wings straight outwards, quickly taking to the air like a jet airplane. The three sirens were momentarily left speechless as they watched Sunset Shimmer and her new mech fly off towards downtown Lego City. The awkward silence was eventually broken when a dumbfounded Sonata asked, “Did she really just build that big thing all by herself?” “I thought everyone said that she had no creative talents at all,” said Aria in confusion. “Then it seems there’s been a big change,” stated Adagio. She glanced over at the giant hole in the building just to her right, then turned her attention toward the flying stage off in the distance. She raised an eyebrow and muttered, “What are those Master Builders up to this time?” “Okay, Spike!” Twilight called out. “We’re ready!” “You got it!” responded Spike as he swiftly flipped a few levers. Rrrring! The lowered tiles rose back up onto the stage, carrying with them the six members of the newly-reformed rock band. Now that they were no longer inside those isolated rooms, they could all now see each other’s special outfits. Pinkie Pie had violet on her left leg, magenta on her right leg, a pale blue skirt with balloons of various colors all over it, and a magenta torso with a large blue heart printed on the front. Fluttershy had pink on her left leg, violet on her right leg, a green and black striped skirt with violet butterflies all over it, and a magenta torso with a large green butterfly printed on the front. Rarity had magenta on her left leg, blue on her right leg, a magenta skirt with blue diamonds and black musical notes all over it, and a magenta torso with a blue diamond printed near her right shoulder. Applejack had red on her left leg, green on her right leg, a yellow skirt with red apples all over it, a green torso, and wore a red cowboy hat. Rainbow Dash had yellow on her left leg, green on her right leg, a skirt with broad and jagged vertical stripes of all the colors of the rainbow, and a blue torso with a big yellow lightning bolt printed near her left shoulder. And finally, Twilight Sparkle had blue on her left leg, yellow on her right leg, a magenta skirt with yellow stars all over it, and a blue torso with a yellow eight-pointed star printed on the front. After taking a moment to admire Rarity’s creative work on their outfits, everyone picked up their instruments and briefly tested their tuning. Although the band’s playing abilities were likely a little rusty after a few years, they felt comfortable enough to simply go for it. Twilight held up the microphone that had been conveniently provided for her inside her changing room as she smiled at her friends and asked, “Ready, girls?” “I believe so, darling,” replied Rarity. “Ready to rock!” shouted Pinkie Pie excitedly. “Then let’s give everyone a really awesome show!” declared Rainbow Dash with a grin. “Ah just have one question, first,” Applejack spoke up before suddenly pointing to everyone’s left. “What the heck is that?” Everyone glanced over and were very surprised to see what appeared to be a giant mechanical pony flying towards them. As they noticed that it was made mostly out of red and yellow Lego parts, they had a feeling they knew who was operating it. The flying mech’s visor flipped open, revealing Sunset Shimmer still in her magical Master Builder pony form. “Nice costumes, girls,” she commented over the noise of the massive mechanical wings. She turned to Spike and suggested, “What do ya say we join forces?” “Sounds good to me,” responded Spike as he turned back to the wall and flipped a few more levers. Honk-honk! As Sunset’s titan pony approached, Spike hovered the flying stage over the enormous mech’s back and carefully lowered it down until the whole thing clicked perfectly into place. Ding-dong! With that doorbell noise, the four rotors stopped spinning, leaving Sunset’s giant pony mech in complete control of where they were going. Sunset turned the mech’s head around to face the stage that was now connected to the mech’s back and smiled at all of her friends. Twilight raised an eyebrow as she realized that in addition to the wings, this enormous mech also had a horn on its head. “You built yourself a giant alicorn pony?” she asked. Sunset shrugged as she replied, “Well, seeing as I’ve already forfeited any chance of becoming an alicorn princess myself, I figured I might as well settle for the next best thing.” Twilight briefly glanced around at the massive creation, then smiled and simply said, “Considering how far you’ve come, I actually don’t blame you at all.” With that friendly exchange over, Sunset turned her titan pony’s head forward again and steered the giant flying mech towards the tallest building in the city, atop which stood this region’s dark broadcasting tower. Ding-ding! As Spike flipped a few levers, a large speaker system suddenly rose up out of the floor just in front of the wall of levers. The speaker system consisted mostly of four big subwoofers arranged horizontally with two on each side of the stage. “Get ready to start playing, girls, because your song is about to go global!” Spike called out as he quickly scaled the wall of levers and grabbed onto a grapple gun he had placed at the top. Sunset noticed this and steadily brought their combined creations closer to the broadcasting tower. When they flew close enough, Spike fired the grappling hook, which then struck the tower with a clang and hooked onto the structure. Once they were sure the hook was firmly attached to the tower, Sunset slowed her mech until it was simply hovering near the building, while Spike climbed back down the wall and flipped a few more levers. “A few adjustments…” Woooooo! With that steam whistle noise, Spike shouted, “And we’re live!” The band of Master Builders picked up their instruments and began playing. It was their first performance in years, and they were playing surprisingly well. Through a combination of nostalgia and renewed friendships, the band was very enthusiastic to be playing one of their best songs ever. At first, Twilight simply listened to the others sing, but she quickly figured out the lyrics — about not seeking attention and simply playing music because they liked it — and it wasn’t long until she was practically leading the whole band. As the band played on, they also began to transform into their magical half-pony forms, but since music was a different form of creativity than putting bricks together, their transformations were slightly altered. In addition to the ears, tails, and wings and/or horn, a streak of rainbow color also appeared on their hair pieces, running from the front and top all the way down through the tail. And as the band played their song, the crowd that had gathered in front of LEGO Headquarters slowly broke free of their trance and turned their attention towards the stage on the back of that giant flying pony off in the distance. They had no idea who was performing way over there, but the music that band played sounded incredible, and practically everyone began to smile. Even Kjeld Playwell was broken free from the spell of the sirens, but he wasn’t smiling. Now that he was completely freed for the first time since that meeting in Cloudsdale two days earlier, he suddenly remembered who the real threat was. As he glanced over the edge of the front tower and saw the Dazzlings standing in front of everyone in plain sight, he felt furious. He immediately held up his radio and spoke, “Calling all law enforcement officials! Send everyone you can directly to LEGO Headquarters at once! That’s an order!” Out on the elevated stage on the front tower, the Dazzlings were momentarily shocked to see how the team of Master Builders from Canterlot City had been able turn the tables against them so swiftly. But the sirens weren’t going to give up so easily. “So these girls want a battle of the bands, do they?” said Adagio with a wicked grin. “Fine! We’ll give them a battle!” The Dazzlings immediately resumed their enchanting song, claiming that they would be adored and no one would ever ignore them. Right away, the crowd turned their attention back to the sirens and blank expression returned to their faces. Not even Kjeld could resist. As a blank expression fell over him, he slowly held up his radio and spoke in a monotone voice, “Disregard that order.” The sirens didn’t stop there. They wanted to eliminate the Canterlot City Master Builders, once and for all, so as they finished the final lyric, they unleashed their ultimate weapon. As their eyes glowed bright red, magical projections quickly shot out from their pendants and emerged into a trio of truly horrific shapes. The projections had the head and front legs of a horse-like creature and the tail of a fish and tall fins along their backs. Perhaps what was most startling of all was that, unlike virtually every other creature in the Lego World, these magical projections did not seem to be made out of Lego parts. Instead, they appeared to be completely organic creatures, unlike anything this world was familiar with. The Canterlot City girls immediately stopped their song and stared in absolute shock at what they were seeing. “Is that what I think it is?” asked Spike worriedly. “The Equestrian form of those sirens,” confirmed Twilight breathlessly. Right away, the magical sirens flew over the city and began to swarm around the tall building. The purple, yellow, and blue sirens lined up beside the giant mech pony — which was actually nearly twice as big as they were — and unleashed a sonic vocal attack. The sonic blast was so intense that the flying mech shook and began to come apart. Spike’s eyes widened in shock as he saw the legs of the pony mech begin to fall to pieces. “Oh no no no no!” he shouted as he rushed back to the wall of levers and very swiftly flipped some of them. Bzzzz! Bzzzz! As that buzzer sounded, the stage’s four rotors immediately started spinning again. Right at the moment those rotors were back up to speed, the body of the pony mech underneath collapsed, leaving the stage flying on its own again. Meanwhile, Sunset pulled down a pair of armrests around her seat and then beat her fists on them. As the mech’s head collapsed around her, she was able to remain airborne. Once those shattered pieces fell away, she was revealed to be sitting a large white chair with rockets on the bottom, firing at a constant rate to keep it aloft. She maneuvered the rocket chair around so that it was behind the flying stage and facing the magic projections of the sirens. “Nice try, sirens,” she taunted, “but this house will not be divided against itself!” She pointed down at the stage and shouted, “Hit it, Spike!” “Time to bring out the big dogs!” declared Spike as he swiftly turned his red cap backwards and quickly flipped some levers. He chuckled mischievously and smugly added, “Wait ‘till you hear these things bark.” He flipped some more levers and the pair of large double subwoofers suddenly flipped over so that they now stood upright near the middle of the backstage. Then a pair of even bigger double subwoofers emerged from the sides of the flying stage. The structure actually shook as the massive speakers flipped upright onto opposite sides of the smaller pair. “A few more adjustments, and…” Ding-ding! With the ringing of a boxing bell, Spike finally stopped flipping levers and shouted, “Give ‘em all ya got!” Pinkie banged on her drums and Fluttershy shook her tambourine, pushing back the blue siren of Sonata Dusk with a wave of balloons and butterflies. Rarity swiftly played a lot of notes on her keytar and Applejack strummed her bass, pushing back the purple siren of Aria Blaze with a wave of diamonds and apples. Rainbow Dash unleashed a loud riff on her electric guitar and Twilight Sparkle vocalized a few notes, pushing back the yellow siren of Adagio Dazzle with a wave of rainbow bolts and stars. Back at LEGO Headquarters, the pushback against the Dazzlings was just enough to free Kjeld from their spell again. He immediately became furious again as he held up his radio and shouted, “Disregard that disregard! Get everyone here now!” Realizing that the battle would very likely keep going back and forth, he quickly shut off his radio and threw it off the tower. When Adagio saw that radio fall in front of her, she decided to stop fooling around and unleash her full power. At the broadcasting tower, the yellow siren unleashed another sonic vocal attack on the stage. The attack was intense enough to not only make the Canterlot City girls stop playing again, but also instantly gave Kjeld a headache so fierce that he passed out and collapsed. Aria and Sonata were right behind their leader, and the three magical sirens unleashed the mightiest vocal blast they could. The six members of the band of Master Builders were quickly thrown off their feet. Although most of them managed to hold onto their instruments, Twilight lost her grip on her microphone, which went flying through the air until it remarkably landed right in Sunset’s lap. “No, no, no!” shouted Spike in panic as he rushed over to Rarity to help her up. “You girls can’t give up! We’re so close!” Twilight glanced back and was relieved to see that her microphone had just been picked up by Sunset. She sat up and reached her hand out to her as she desperately called out, “Sunset Shimmer! We need your help!” Sunset stared at the microphone in her hand with uncertainty. She had never really tried singing before in her entire life, but her friends really needed her help. As she reminded herself of her newfound creative talents, she thought to herself, I’ve already come this far. If my friends need me to go another step further… then so be it. Sunset furrowed her brow and placed her arms on the rocket chair’s armrests. She maneuvered her rocket chair under the flying stage and up between it and the siren projections. She glared firmly at the sirens for a few seconds before she guided the chair backwards until the pegs sticking out the back of it clicked into place in the holes of some technic bricks on the front edge of the stage. It was right at this moment that Pinkie Pie finished setting her drum set back up again. Without a second of hesitation, she immediately twirled the drumsticks in her hands and started playing again, providing a background beat for Sunset to sing along to. With no knowledge of any particular song, Sunset decided to simply sing from her heart, firmly declaring that she would not be defeated, especially not with such good friends by her side. With each lyric, she took a step backwards, first onto the chair’s seat, then onto the armrest, then atop the back of the chair, and finally up onto the stage. By the time she reached the end of her verse, she stood next to Twilight and helped her up to her feet. At the same time, Spike had finished helping the rest of the band back up and they all immediately started playing again. The five of them simultaneously sang the next verse of their song, and after listening to the first few lyrics, Twilight and Sunset also joined in. The entire band sang defiantly about how their friendship would never be broken, and were about to use it to put a stop to their enemies. As all seven Master Builders embraced the magic of friendship through their song, the effects of their musical counter-spell quickly reached into the nearby broadcasting tower. From the very top of that tower, a sonic boom echoed across the city as a rainbow-colored shockwave was suddenly unleashed, quickly spreading across the entire region of Lego City and freeing every single minifig from the dark spell of the sirens. At the same time, the bright red glow vanished from the eyes of the Dazzlings. And thanks to the interconnected worldwide system of broadcasting towers, it was a scene that was instantly repeated across every other region of the Lego World. From the Pirate Region to the Old West Region, from the Castle Region to the Space Region, from Ninjago City to Canterlot City, every region witnessed the same rainbow shockwave burst from their broadcasting tower and set everyone free. In Cloudsdale — where the destroyed broadcasting tower had been recently rebuilt — Hum Drum quickly realized the Power People were trapped on his watch, so he immediately unlocked the magic trunk which not only gave them back their superpowers but also freed them from that stasis field. And in the city of Bricklyn, which had been trapped under the dark magic of the sirens for months, the rainbow shockwave was a welcomed relief for everyone as they were finally set free after so long. Atop the front tower of LEGO Headquarters, Kjeld gasped as he suddenly regained consciousness. As he grabbed onto the railing to pull himself up, he was surprised to hear the Canterlot City Master Builders playing so strongly against the sirens. Raising an eyebrow in confusion, he turned his attention towards the distant flying stage as he pulled out his binoculars. As he gazed through those binoculars, he was astonished to see Sunset Shimmer was not only performing right alongside the other girls but also had the same magical pony additions as them. In fact, he had started watching just in time to see a rainbow streak appear on her hair piece, matching the same result as on all the other girls. Kjeld slowly lowered his binoculars and smiled. The song of defiant friendship continued playing across every region of the Lego World, and in celebration on their freedom, everyone danced along to the music, from Cloudsdale to Brickbeard’s Cove, from Appleloosa to the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters, from Prince Shining Armor’s castle to City Park in the middle of Canterlot City, and even across the massive crowd gathered in front of LEGO Headquarters in Lego City. The sirens — and their magical projections — could do nothing but stare in shock as the band of seven Master Builders began to glow and levitate up from the stage. Once the seven girls were a few bricks over the flying stage, a wide column of rainbow light shot straight up into the sky and stopped at a certain point. At that particular spot, the rainbow quickly reshaped itself into a ball, from which a massive pair of glowing feathered wings emerged. The sirens were left gaping as a magical projection of a giant alicorn — more than twice as big as Sunset’s Lego creation had been; over four times bigger than their siren projections combined — slowly emerged from the rainbow ball of magical energy. The bright blue glowing alicorn— a non-Lego organic-looking projection — stood tall atop a large cloud as it turned its head down and pointed its horn directly at the sirens’ projections and the sirens themselves further away. When the band of Master Builders finished the final lyric of their song, the giant alicorn unleashed a blindingly bright ray of light directly at the siren projections, instantly disintegrating them. When that ray hit the Dazzlings themselves, they felt intense pain as the magical pony additions to their bodies were suddenly taken away from them. And to finish it all off, their red gemstone pendants began to slowly fracture until they finally shattered into many fragments. The dark magic of the sirens was no more.