//------------------------------// // Cutting to the Chase // Story: LEGO Equestria Girls 5 // by Chronicler06 //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Cutting to the Chase Everyone had followed Rainbow Dash back to the Marapore set and, just as she had said, the three relics were now missing from the display cart. “I wanted to check them out again up close, and they weren’t there!” explained Rainbow Dash. “This can’t be happening!” exclaimed Canter Zoom as he gripped his hair. “What are we gonna do?!” “Couldn’t you just get some new ones made?” suggested Sunset. “It’s not that easy, I’m afraid,” explained Canter Zoom. “You can’t just order new ones from the factory like any ordinary parts. These pieces have to be cast with special molds that require special permission from certain individuals. In the case of these relics, we need approval from either A. K. Yearling or Daring Do herself, and I’m afraid it’s really difficult to get in contact with either of them.” He then rubbed his chin as he quietly muttered, “Though come to think of it, I do find it kinda odd that I’ve never seen both of them in the same room at the same time. It’s always just one or the other.” “I-it’ll be okay, though, right?” asked Rainbow Dash nervously. Canter Zoom sighed and stressfully explained, “Chestnut’s contract with us is almost up, and with Mount Vehoovius collapsing, and now this, I fear we’ll have to stop production altogether!” “But-but you have to finish the movie!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash worriedly. “Think of all the Daring Do fans who’ll be so disappointed if you don’t!” Twilight stepped forward and asked, “Are you sure there’s nothing you can do to—?” Crash! Everyone immediately turned towards the source of that noise, but didn’t see anything in that direction, suggesting that the problem had likely happened in the neighboring room. Canter Zoom’s eye twitched as he held up a hand towards the girls and stressfully said, “I’m so sorry. Please excuse me.” He then began to walk off towards the neighboring room. Juniper Montage smiled awkwardly at the others and said, “Sorry you had to see him like that. My uncle Canter Zoom is usually a very easy-going guy. I’d better go with him to make sure he’ll be all right.” She then turned away and followed after her uncle. The remaining people in the room — all eight members of the Equestria Girls team — looked at each other with various expressions of concern. “Hmm…” mumbled Twilight as she tapped her chin. She folded her arms and began pacing around as she pointed out, “There was trouble with one of the costumes when we first arrived, a set that was fine yesterday just collapsed, and now the most important props in the movie have been stolen. I don’t think these are just coincidences.” “Me neither,” agreed Sunset as she looked suspiciously at the empty display cart. “All the things that have gone wrong on set have put production on hold. It seems to me like someone is going to a lot of trouble to make sure this movie doesn’t get made.” Spike asked, “Who would want to—?” Fluttershy suddenly gasped and asked, “Oh dear, you don’t think—?” Rarity immediately responded, “Oh no-no-no-no, certainly not!” Rarity and Fluttershy quickly noticed everyone else was giving them questioning looks. Sunset spun her hand around, silently requesting that they explain further. Fluttershy and Rarity glanced at each other, then turned back to the others as Fluttershy explained, “When Rarity and I followed Chestnut Magnifico to her trailer, we overheard her saying something about shutting down the movie—” “Yes, but she said she wanted something shut down,” Rarity immediately clarified. “We don’t know whether or not she was talking about the movie.” Pinkie Pie stepped forward and suggested, “Maybe she’s just really mad that they’re always running out of her imported peanut butter praline crunch bars.” Sunset and Applejack glanced at each other, then turned back to the others as Sunset pulled a candy wrapper out of her pocket and asked, “Bon Mot peanut butter praline crunch bars?” “Those are the ones!” confirmed Pinkie. Spike rubbed the back of his head and remarked, “We, uh, may have tried a few ourselves.” He then chuckled nervously. “We found this on the Mount Vehoovius set right before it collapsed,” Sunset pointed out. “It sure seems like all signs are pointing to Chestnut Magnifico as the one causing all the problems around here,” noted Twilight. “I don’t know who’s behind this or what’s going on,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “but the first thing we need to do is find those relics.” “I agree,” said Twilight with a nod. “The relics were here earlier, and if Chestnut is behind this, then they must still be around here somewhere.” “Chestnut Magnifico is an acclaimed actress!” Rarity firmly argued. “She’d never do something so dramatic!” Sunset smirked and quipped, “An actress? Dramatic? Never.” “Well, she might do somethin’ like this if she was tryin’ to get outta workin’ on a movie she didn’t wanna do,” Applejack point out. Sunset thought for a brief moment before she suggested, “Fluttershy, Pinkie, Spike, come with me. Let’s try to find Chestnut Magnifico and see if we can find anything out.” She then began to walk away from the set. “Let’s do it!” agreed Pinkie excitedly as she, Fluttershy, and Spike all followed Sunset out of the room. Once Sunset’s group had left, Twilight suggested, “In the meantime, we should look for the relics.” “Where do we even start?” asked Applejack. “It’s not like there’s some mysterious, thievin’, cloaked figure we can chase after an’ say, ‘Hey, tell us where you’re keepin’ the relics!’” “You mean like that one?” asked Rarity as she pointed at a space between two buildings on the set. Sure enough, standing right there was a mysterious figure covered in a black hooded cloak. The figure turned to them, then immediately ran off behind the set building to the right. “Hey!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “Stop right there!” “I’ll handle this,” said Twilight as she removed her hair tie — a purple six-pointed star — and with a good flick of a wrist, she sent it rapidly spinning through the air. The spinning hair tie soared above the surrounding buildings and sliced through a rope, sending a massive sandbag plummeting to the floor behind the buildings in the direction the cloaked figure had gone. As the four girls began running towards that fallen sandbag, Twilight jumped up and caught her hair tie as it came back around. Once they arrived behind the buildings, they saw that the sandbag had fallen right in front of the cloaked figure, leaving them trapped between it and the girls. “What was that all about, Twilight?” asked Applejack in confusion. As Twilight pulled her hair back and put her hair tie back in its usual place, she replied, “Let’s just say it’s a remnant from my Shadowbolts training. To quote the rulebook, ‘If you desire to give yourself an accessory, then you’d better make sure it can also do something useful.’” “So that hair tie of yours also works as one of those ninja throwing stars?” asked Applejack. “Nice!” remarked Rainbow Dash with a grin. “Impressive, yes, but I’m afraid our perpetrator won’t be halted that easily,” said Rarity as she pointed ahead. Everyone looked ahead just in time to see the cloaked figure manage to shove the fallen sandbag out of the way. The figure quickly glanced back, then resumed running away. “Good thing I decided to bring this,” remarked Rainbow Dash as she held up her magical geode hanging around her neck. She tightly grasped the geode and, with a bright flash of light, her magical ability was activated. She then immediately zoomed after the fleeing figure, appearing as little more than a rainbow motion blur. Rainbow Dash ran off so fast that the resulting rush of air caused the hair pieces on the three other girls to quickly spin around until they eventually stopped at various awkward angles. Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight all glanced at each other, then readjusted their hair pieces and followed after Rainbow. Rainbow Dash went in the direction she had seen the cloaked figure go, which led her back to the ruined Mount Vehoovius set, where the crew of set builders were already hard at work gathering up all of the scattered pieces. As soon as Rainbow had arrived, she had already lost sight of the cloaked figure. Knowing that each second she hesitated meant another second where the mysterious figure got further away, she made her choice and decided to go right, unaware that just moments earlier, the figure had instead gone straight ahead. In a neighboring room, the cloaked figure ran by along the side of a desert landscape set. Just seconds after they had left, Rainbow Dash rushed across that set, stopped briefly to look around, then continued ahead, unaware that she was still not following the mysterious figure. It wasn’t long before Rainbow Dash gave up trying to follow her target and started searching every area she could think of as rapidly as possible. At one point, she had even gone outside and checked near Chestnut Magnifico’s trailer. However, just seconds after Rainbow had zoomed off to the next area, the cloaked figure ran past that trailer in the opposite direction. Finally, Rainbow Dash came to a stop in a backstage area. After so much rapid searching around, she had failed to find even another glimpse of the mysterious cloaked figure. It wasn’t long before she heard some people running over to her from behind, so she turned around and saw that it was her friends Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight. Once those three girls stopped in front of Rainbow, they hunched over and panted from exhaustion. “I can’t believe I lost them!” grumbled Rainbow Dash in frustration. “My geode gives me super speed, but I guess being awesomely fast doesn’t help when the person you’re chasing knows their way around better than you do.” At the other end of the backstage area, Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike all arrived right at that moment. “Hey, girls,” greeted Sunset and she and the rest of her group walked over to rejoin with the other group. “Any luck findin’ Chestnut?” asked Applejack. “We couldn’t find her,” replied Sunset with a shrug. “But we did find a cupcake fountain!” added Pinkie cheerfully as she removed her hair piece, pulled a blue frosted cupcake out from underneath, then put her hair back on her head before she chomped down on the cupcake in one bite. “Then we got lost and somehow ended up here,” continued Sunset. “What have you girls been doing?” “We spotted this super-suspicious cloaked figure, but they got away,” replied Rainbow Dash. She folded her arms as she sighed and grumbled, “They’re here somewhere…” “There you are!” The Equestria Girls turned around and saw an assistant who seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with his hands tightly gripping his blue hair and his voice having a very worried tone. “W-where are your costumes?” he asked the girls. He suddenly rushed over to them as he continued, “We’ve gotta hurry! I-I-I’m so gonna be fired if you aren’t ready! The director wants to shoot in three minutes!” He moved so swiftly to shove the girls ahead that none of them ever got a chance to voice any objections. Just a few minutes later, the Equestria Girls found themselves being shoved onto the set of a city street while wearing costumes and hairstyles similar to the outfits worn by the superhero team the Power People — who most of the girls had previously met at Cloudsdale back when the sirens had attempted to take over the Lego World. Twilight Sparkle’s costume was based on the outfit worn by Masked Matterhorn — dark magenta on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; silver on her lower arms, lower legs, around the waist, and upper part of her torso; and a pair of goggles and a silver artificial horn attached to her hair piece, which was swept back on the front. Rainbow Dash’s costume was based on Zapp — dark blue on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; white on her lower arms, lower legs, and around her waist; white lightning bolts along the sides of her upper legs; a yellow lightning bolt on the front of her torso; and her hair piece was swept back with a border of dark blue with white lightning bolts. Applejack’s costume was based on Mistress Mare-velous — red on most of her body; black on most of her face and in a band around her elbows and knees; green wrapped around the back of her hair piece and a little on the front of her torso; and had a lasso and pair of horseshoes hanging from the black belt piece attached between her torso and hip joint. Rarity’s costume was based on Radiance — medium blue on most of her body and the mask around her eyes; gold around her waist, collar, and knees; pink gemstone bracelets attached to her wrists; and her hair piece was restyled into large curls with some pink gemstones. Pinkie Pie’s costume was based on Fili-Second — white on most of her body, including parts of her head that left most of her hair sticking out the back with a little on the front; and had light purple arrows on the sides of her legs, the front of her torso, and across the top of her head. Fluttershy’s costume was based on Saddle Rager — turquoise on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; purple on her lower arms, lower legs, and the mask around her eyes; and her hair piece was swept back. Spike’s costume was based on Hum Drum — light blue on his torso, upper arms, and upper legs; medium blue on his lower arms and lower legs; a red cape; a black mask around his eyes; and on his bald head was a messy brown hair piece. And Sunset Shimmer’s costume was based on the outfit worn by the Power People’s arch nemesis Mane-iac — purple on her torso, upper arms, and upper legs; black on her lower arms and lower legs; a band of yellow around her waist, elbows, knees, and collar; and in place of her usual hair piece was a wig of wild green hair. The Equestria Girls turned back and saw all the cameras and other film equipment were already focused on them and ready for action. Needless to say, they were very confused by the situation they now found themselves in. “Uh, Ah think there’s been some kind of mistake,” Applejack spoke up. “Wait, wait…” called out the director — who had an orange beard and wore a red baseball cap with an image of a film reel on a white background printed on the front. The director looked closely at the girls in costume on the set, then turned to the nervous assistant who had brought them in and asked, “Who are these girls?” “They’re the Power People!” answered the assistant as proudly as he could, though the nervous grin on his face did little to hide his true emotions. The director sighed and facepalmed. The awkward silenced lasted for only a few seconds before the assistant finally slumped and mumbled, “I’m fired, aren’t I?” “So fired,” confirmed the director in a grumpy tone. He stood up out of his chair and called out to the girls, “Sorry about the mix-up. Just go ahead and change out of those costumes. I need to go find the real actresses for this movie. And find myself a new assistant who actually knows what the brick he’s doing!” As the director walked off the set, Spike removed the hair piece from his head and tossed it aside as he remarked, “As much as I wouldn’t mind having hair, this one just isn’t my color.” The girls turned around and were about to return to the changing rooms when Applejack suddenly pointed at a gap between two nearby buildings on the set and exclaimed, “Hey! There’s that figure!” The others followed Applejack’s gaze and, sure enough, they all saw the cloaked figure between those two buildings for just a brief moment before that individual ran off again. Rainbow Dash immediately ran after the figure, with the rest of the team following not far behind. It wasn’t long before the chase reached a hallway of six doors — three on each side. The cloaked figure ran down the hall, opened the door on the far left, and went into the room beyond. Rainbow Dash immediately went through the far left door. Sunset was about to do the same, but stopped when she noticed the cloaked figure emerge from the near left door, cross the hallway, and enter the near right door, so Sunset turned around and went through the near right door. Applejack arrived next, just in time to see the cloaked figure leave the far right door and go through the middle left door, which Applejack also took. Twilight and Spike saw the cloaked figure next leave the middle right door and go through the near left door, so they both also took that door. Rarity and Fluttershy arrived next and saw the cloaked figure leave the middle left door and go through the far right door, so they both went for that door as well. Finally, Pinkie saw the cloaked figure leave the far left door and go through middle right door, so she also went through that door. The Equestria Girls then started going back and forth between the six doorways in a desperate effort to follow the mysterious figure. Many times, they would emerge from the rooms they had not previously entered, and although many such passes occurred uneventfully, there were a few slapstick moments. Twilight and Rarity emerged from opposite sides at the same time and ended up slamming into each other, causing them both to stumble backwards into the rooms they came from. Rainbow Dash and Applejack tried going through one doorway at the same time and ended up wedging themselves into the frame. They struggled for a few seconds to free themselves, then Fluttershy suddenly left another room while screaming in terror and ended up slamming into Rainbow and Applejack, sending all three of them crashing into the room and causing a loose wheel to roll out into the hallway and go into the room Fluttershy had just left. Soon after, Pinkie Pie left another room while running atop that wheel, only to end up running over Spike and sending them both tumbling into the next room. And at one point, Sunset was riding a segway from one doorway to another. Finally, all eight members of the team ran out into the hallway at the same time, stopped right in the middle, and glanced around in confusion. Suddenly, the cloaked figure left the doorway on the far left and ran away from the hallway. Rainbow Dash saw the figure escape and immediately resumed the chase, with the rest of the team following right behind. As the pursuit continued, they ended up running through various other film sets throughout the studio. First, they ran across an old city set that had virtually no colors aside from various shades of grey. Next, they ran across a castle chamber set, complete with a throne on a higher platform. Next, they ran across a modern city set with two street racing cars parked in the middle, where Pinkie Pie just couldn’t resist sliding across the hood of one of those cars, which ended up setting off its car alarm. Next, they ran across a space station interior set with the backdrop of stars visible through the windows. By this point, most of the girls were beginning to show signs of exhaustion. Finally, the Equestria Girls opened the door into yet another room and paused for a moment while they all hunched over and panted as they tried to catch their breaths. After a few seconds, they stood up straight again and glanced around to see they were now on a film set of a city street with all the buildings apparently drenched in some kind of brown slop. “Uh, what’s this place supposed to be?” asked Applejack. “And where did that cloaked figure go?” asked Rainbow Dash. “They must be around here somewhere,” noted Twilight. “Wherever here is.” While the others were talking, Pinkie’s expression gradually grew more excited as she glanced around the set they had ended up on. Eventually, with an excited jump and a gasp, she turned to her friends and exclaimed, “Are you kidding?! This is the set of Stormy with a Side of Pudding!” “Stormy with a side of what, now?” asked Applejack as she raised an eyebrow. Pinkie scoffed and replied with slight annoyance, “It’s only my all-time favorite movie!” No one said anything in response. Applejack continued to stare at Pinkie in confusion, Twilight and Sunset glanced at each other and shrugged, and Rarity simply face-palmed. “I’ve tried to get you all to watch it, like, a kazillion-billion times!” added Pinkie in exasperation. She then smiled and remarked, “I’ve heard they use real pudding!” She then rushed over to the nearest wall of the set, scooped up a handful of the brown slop dripping along it, then licked it. She then shuddered in delight and whispered, “They do!” She then scarfed down the rest of the pudding in her hand. Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration and exclaimed, “We’re running out of time! We’re supposed to be hunting down the missing relics and catching the bad guy! Not eating pudding!” “We’re trying,” assured Twilight. “Maybe we should make our way back to the Daring Do sets. There might’ve been some clues we missed.” While the girls were talking, they were unaware that the mysterious cloaked figure had appeared right behind them in the doorway they had just come through. The figure grinned as they picked up a large net and then tossed it at the girls. Due to where everyone was standing at that particular moment, Rainbow Dash was the only one in the group to not get caught under that net. When she suddenly heard all of her friends scream in shock, she quickly turned back to them and not only saw them down on the floor and tangled under the net, but also saw the cloaked figure just before said figure ran off again. Without any hesitation, Rainbow grasped her magical geode, once again activating her super speed, and exclaimed, “Don’t worry! I’ve got this!” She sped off after the figure, only to suddenly trip over a bucket of pudding on the floor just halfway to the door. She struggled for a moment to get her feet out of that bucket, but was soon able to free herself and get back up on her feet. “Like I said, I’ve got this,” she muttered before she zoomed after the fleeing figure, this time without tripping over anything. It wasn’t long before Rainbow Dash arrived in a dimly lit storage room. She glanced around and began to slowly walk further into the room. “I saw you come in here,” she muttered quietly. “Where are you?” Clunk. Rainbow immediately turned to the source of that noise and saw part of the figure’s black cloak disappear behind the open door to a nearby supply closet. She took a deep breath and carefully walked towards the closet. You can do this, Rainbow, she thought to herself in an effort to calm herself. You’ve fought against magical monsters, so a shady thief should be no big deal. Once she reached the closet, she carefully pulled the door open a little further, then began to tip-toe her way inside. The closet was much more dimly lit, with only a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. She looked around and saw various movie props such as tribal spears, a gong, medieval armor, and even a cracked space helmet. When she suddenly saw what appeared to be some kind of swamp monster, she yelped and took a few steps back, but when she noticed that it didn’t move at all, she walked up to it and lightly shook it, causing the head of what turned out to be just a costume to fall off. Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief, then glanced to her left and noticed something inside an open locker to her left. She opened the locker door all the way and pulled out what turned out to be a dress. The dress’s torso part was red on the right side and gold on the left side with the division running diagonally from the left shoulder to the right hip, and the lower part — a 2x2x2 sloped brick— was gold with the same wavy red design as on the left half of the torso. As Rainbow held up the dress, she quickly recognized it. “Hey! This is just like the outfit Daring Do wears in the nightclub scene,” she remarked. She then scratched her head and muttered, “What’s it doing in here?” Creak. Rainbow Dash immediately looked back and saw the mysterious cloaked figure was not only standing just outside the closet door, but was also closing that door. Rainbow dropped the dress and rushed for the door, but it was too late. After slamming into the now closed door, she tried to push it open, but discovered that it was locked. She pushed and pulled on the door’s handle as much as she possibly could, but it just wouldn’t budge. “Hey!” shouted Rainbow Dash desperately as she began pounding on the door. “Let me outta here! Let me outta here!” Unfortunately for her, there was no one in the storage room outside. She was trapped inside the supply closet, and no one had any idea she was in there.