Twilight’s Laboratory
Out of all the friends Starlight Glimmer had made in Equestria, few were as close to her as Princess Twilight Sparkle. After all, it was Princess Twilight who had showed her there was a better way, gave her that second chance, and offered to personally teach her the ways of true friendship. Princess Twilight had so far done such a great job of guiding her down the right path, and she would always be grateful to the Princess of Friendship for giving her that chance to make herself a better pony.
When Starlight came to the Lego World, the Twilight Sparkle she met here was quite unlike the pony princess she knew. In a world that was mostly without magic, this Twilight had focused most of her studies on numerous scientific fields. And since she was introduced to her current friends much more recently than her pony counterpart, she was nowhere near the expert on friendship that the pony princess was. Not to mention, she had such a dark past that even Starlight was surprised by just how far she went. In a way, Starlight felt that this Twilight could be a bit more relatable to her, so she was looking forward to what kind of activities Twilight had in mind.
Twilight decided to start the day by bringing Starlight to the apartment she shared with Spike. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable,” said Twilight as she opened the door and led Starlight inside the apartment.
Starlight looked around at the contents of the apartment. While she certainly didn’t expect it to be anywhere near as elaborate as the crystalline tree-shaped castle that Princess Twilight lived it, she was still a little surprised by just how simple and basic everything seemed to be. The kitchen area to the left had a little counter space and some cabinets, along with all of the typical appliances. In the other half of the main room, there was a small table and four chairs near the window, and not far from that was a single sofa facing a large television screen on the wall.
After closing the main door behind her, Twilight pointed at the hallway to the right and explained, “Down the hallway, the first door on the left is the bathroom, the second door is Spike’s room, and the third and final door is my room.”
“You sure have a rather simple way of living,” noted Starlight as she continued glancing around the apartment.
Twilight rubbed the back of her head and admitted, “Well, after spending my years as a Shadowbolt agent frequently moving from one hideout to another, I’ve pretty much gotten used to living with the most basic of essentials.”
As Starlight continued looking around, she smirked and remarked, “Though if there’s one thing that any Twilight Sparkle would consider a ‘basic essential’, it’s tons of books.”
In addition to all of the basic home fixtures, one thing in this apartment that really stood out were the many bookshelves that covered almost every available wall space, and nearly all of those shelves were completely full of countless books.
Twilight giggled awkwardly and noted, “Okay, you’ve got me there.” She then leaned close to Starlight and whispered, “Just between us, some of these books were obtained by some… not quite legal means. Back when I lived in the Castle Region, I was so desperate for more knowledge of the world beyond that region that I ended up depending on a group of smugglers to provide me with any books that I couldn’t obtain by any other means. I’ve actually still got many of those smuggled books, as part of my personal collection that I’ve got on the bookshelves in my room.”
“Wow, smuggling books,” said Starlight. “I never would’ve expected someone like you to do such a thing.” She then grinned and added, “I actually kinda like it.”
“Well, what can I say?” remarked Twilight with a smile and a shrug. “Us former villains can appreciate each other in ways that those who have always been good are unable to understand.”
Knock-knock-knock!
“Package delivery!” called out a voice on the other side of the door into the apartment.
Twilight glanced back at the door, then turned back to Starlight and said, “I’d better take care of this.”
“Sure, go ahead,” acknowledged Starlight. “By the way, is Spike around? Maybe I could see what he’s up to while I wait.”
“Yeah, Spike’s here,” confirmed Twilight. “He’s in his room, most likely either reading a comic book or playing a video game.”
As Twilight opened the door and began speaking with the postal worker outside, Starlight headed down the hallway and stopped at the second door. Feeling curious, she carefully opened the door and peered inside.
In complete contrast to the rest of the apartment, Spike’s room was a complete mess. On the walls were posters of ninjas and aliens and superheroes, many of which weren’t even aligned straight. Various articles of clothing were scattered all over the floor. To the left was a computer on a desk, next to which was a trashcan overflowing with empty soda cans and potato chip bags. Next to the window on the far side of the room was a simple bed with its sheets carelessly tossed aside. To the right was a television screen that was currently displaying something, and sitting in a small chair in front of it was Spike with a video game controller in his hands.
“Uh, hey, Spike,” Starlight spoke up as she slowly stepped into the room. “Am I bothering you?”
Spike kept his eyes straight at the screen as he shrugged and replied, “Eh, depends on what you’re here for. I don’t recognize your voice, so I know you’re not Twilight or one of our friends.”
“I’m actually a new friend,” explained Starlight with a smile. “Starlight Glimmer from Equestria. I’m Princess Twilight’s student, and she’s allowed me to spend a few days here in the Lego World. You know, I was actually with Sunset Shimmer when you called her about Twilight and the others going missing.”
With his focus still on the screen, Spike chuckled and muttered, “I guess that answers that question.”
Realizing that Spike wasn’t even bothering to glance at her, Starlight decided to focus on what had his attention. Displayed on the television screen was a city street setting, and in the middle was some kind of ninja who, with every manipulation of the controller in Spike’s hands, was busy fighting off a swarm of opponents that appeared to be dressed in shark costumes. With every punch and strike that was displayed, various impact sound effects were heard coming from the television’s speakers.
“What’s that you’re looking at?” asked Starlight.
“Just playing the latest Ninjago video game,” answered Spike as he kept his gaze on the screen and continued mashing buttons on the controller. “I’ve been making some good progress today. Oh yeah, check out this combo!” On the screen, Spike’s ninja character began rapidly smacking one of the opponents over and over, with each successive strike causing the ninja and the opponent to rise higher and higher up into the air. After dozens of these rapid-fire strikes, the ninja finished the attack by slamming the opponent straight down, smashing to pieces upon impact with the ground far below. With the attack moves complete, the ninja dropped back down to the ground, and despite the equally long fall, the ninja just landed softly without taking any damage.
Starlight took a step back after watching such excessive content. “Seems a little absurd to me…” she muttered.
“It’s a video game about ninjas!” Spike pointed out as his character continued to fight off the swarm of shark ninjas. “Of course the physics are gonna be ridiculous!”
Starlight wasn’t exactly feeling eager to find out more about Spike’s video game, so she decided to head out and see if Twilight was available. She stepped out into the hallway just in time to see Twilight close the main door while holding a small brown box.
Now with a huge smile on her face, Twilight held up the box as she excitedly exclaimed, “Yes! It’s here! It’s finally here! The final component I need to complete one of my latest inventions!”
Back in his room, Spike immediately paused his video game, then sighed and grumbled, “Here we go…”
“To the secret laboratory!” declared Twilight dramatically, before she rushed down the hallway all the way to the very end of it.
On the wall segment at the end of the hallway, Twilight pulled open a secret panel on the right side to expose a keypad, on which she quickly entered a code. Another panel at the top automatically slid away to expose a row of three red lights, with the left light soon turning green. At the same time, the keypad retracted and a scanner panel was shifted into its place. Twilight placed her hand on the panel, which scanned her hand with a horizontal line of green light that moved up and then down, and the middle light above turned green. The scanner then retracted and a small microphone was shifted into its place. Twilight leaned close to the microphone and spoke into it, “For science!” The final light above turned green as the microphone retracted, then both the top and side cover panels slid back into place. Finally, the secret doorway in this wall segment quickly slid open to the side, exposing a space about the size of a closet and with nothing inside except for a round glowing white pad on the floor.
Starlight and Spike had watched the entire sequence as they walked over to Twilight. Starlight stared at the interior of that secret room, then turned to Twilight and asked, “What’s that?”
“It’s a teleportation pad that leads directly to my secret laboratory!” Twilight proudly replied. She then quickly stepped into the room and stood on the pad as she explained, “To use it, all you have to do is stand in the middle of it and do this.” She stomped down on the pad with her left foot. A bright haze of white light quickly swirled around Twilight with a whoosh noise, and when it faded a few seconds later, Twilight had completely vanished.
“After you,” said Spike as he gestured at the now empty teleportation pad. “And make sure you step off the pad as soon as you arrive. I don’t want us accidentally getting fused together.”
Starlight glanced back and forth between Spike and where Twilight has recently stood, then hesitantly walked towards the teleportation pad. Take it easy, Starlight, she thought to herself in an effort to calm her nerves. You’ve teleported countless times before, only this one is based on science rather than magic. Starlight stepped onto the pad inside the tiny room. After glancing down to make sure she was standing in the center of the pad, she then stomped down with her left foot. The teleportation pad activated and, with a quick whoosh and swirling haze of light, Starlight completely vanished from the apartment.
In an entirely different room elsewhere, another teleportation pad suddenly activated and, with a quick whoosh and swirling haze of light, Starlight Glimmer suddenly appeared standing on that pad. She quickly felt over herself to confirm that she had successfully teleported with nothing missing on her body. Remembering Spike’s advice, she immediately stepped off the pad, then she began to look around at where she had ended up.
The other teleportation pad was in an alcove of a room that was much larger than the entire apartment. There appeared to be no doors or windows leading out of the room, with the only illumination provided by a series of lights along the ceiling. But it was the contents of this room that really caught Starlight’s attention — a huge variety of all kinds of strange machines and computers and other technological devices were spread out all over the massive room, none of which she had any idea of what they could possibly be used for. With a few lights of various colors blinking regularly and the occasional sound of various chirps and beeps, Starlight was well and truly in a place unlike anything she could have possibly imagined.
Starlight was briefly startled by the whoosh and bright flash behind her that signaled Spike’s arrival via the teleportation pad. As Spike walked over to her, she turned her attention back to the room ahead and asked, “Where are we?”
“Welcome to my secret laboratory!” declared Twilight enthusiastically as she suddenly jumped in front of Starlight. She was now wearing a white lab coat over her torso, arms, and skirt, wore blue gloves over her hands, and had a pair of safety goggles over her eyes and glasses. “Well, to answer your question more accurately, we’re still in the same building, except now we’re in one of the lower sub-basements. I made an arrangement with the landlord to allow me full access to this space, and now, just like I did back when I was a Shadowbolt agent, I can use this facility to conduct all kinds of scientific experiments and develop a wide range of useful inventions.”
“Wow…” remarked Starlight breathlessly. “This is… I don’t know how to describe all of this. I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere in Equestria.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow and asked, “Does the other Twilight not even have a laboratory of her own?”
“Well, I’ve occasionally seen one or two machines in storage, but definitely nothing on a scale like this,” replied Starlight. “I guess being an alicorn who can directly channel magic so easily means that all she really needs is a reference of spells in her library to help her do just about anything of interest.”
“I suppose I could see myself being like that in a realm of pure magic,” acknowledged Twilight. “But in this world, magic exists only in a few certain regions, so to expand my range of capabilities, I’ve taken more interest in advanced sciences.”
“In that case, would you be interested in showing me some of the things you’ve got in here?” asked Starlight.
“Sure, but on two conditions,” replied Twilight. “First, don’t touch anything without my permission — the last person who ignored that advice ended up getting blown to pieces. And second, you’ll need to wear the safety attire at all times.”
“And don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of spares,” added Spike as he put on one of the white lab coats hanging on a nearby rack, then grabbed a pair of gloves and safety goggles.
Starlight took a moment to look at the items of clothing she was expected to wear, then shrugged and playfully remarked, “Sure, I’ll dress up like a mad scientist.”
As Spike and Starlight put on their lab coats, gloves, and safety goggles, Twilight turned away and said, “Spike will start you off on the tour. I’m afraid I’ll be a little busy right now with integrating this final component I just received into this invention I’ve been working on for months.” By the time Spike and Starlight were all set, Twilight was already hard at work on her project on one of the workbenches.
Starlight turned to Spike and asked, “So, uh… know of anything particularly interesting in here?”
Spike shrugged and replied, “Eh, not much. Most of what you see around us are computers, scanners, analyzers, processors, and other kinds of techno stuff that I’m sure you’d never be able to understand even half as much as I do.” He then smiled and added, “But I do know of one thing you’d probably not expect to see in a laboratory. It’s right over here.”
Starlight followed Spike and they soon arrived at what appeared to be a large tall box with a display screen on part of the front surface with a few buttons just below it. Starlight noticed that the front and sides of this box displayed vintage graphics of a space theme such as astronauts and spaceships. And at the top of each side was some kind of name. “Hack-Man?” she read aloud in confusion.
“It’s an old school video game,” explained Spike, “said to be from as far back as the early days of the Space Region.”
“Why does Twilight have an old video game in her laboratory?” asked Starlight.
Spike smirked and replied, “You’d be surprised by how many facilities use a version of this old game as part of their security systems. All you have to do in those cases is play through a level and as soon as you beat the game, you’ll suddenly gain access to whatever files they got.”
“Seriously?” asked Starlight skeptically. “It’s that easy?”
“Well, to be fair,” added Spike, “the more secure places use the harder levels, and the more important files can’t be accessed unless you get a high enough score. Just don’t even bother trying to beat Twilight’s high score on this machine. She once pulled an all-nighter to achieve it.”
“No regrets,” Twilight spoke up as she was now tapping some buttons on the side of some kind of small desktop chamber. “With extensive practice on that game, in addition to my advanced experience in information technology, I believe I’m fully capable of hacking into just about any computer system anywhere in the world. Of course, now that I’m one of the good guys, I’m unlikely to ever use such skills for nefarious purposes.” She paused her work and turned to Starlight. “Believe me, in places that are so reliant on advanced technology, a skilled hacker can be a very dangerous threat.”
“Good thing we don’t have to worry about that in Equestria,” quipped Starlight. She glanced over at whatever Twilight was working on and asked, “You done working on that thing already?”
“I’m just waiting for the software to install,” replied Twilight, “but that should give me some time to show you a few other things.” She gestured for Starlight to follow as she walked over to another workbench.
As soon as Starlight and Spike joined her at that workbench, Twilight rolled out a series of cases, then opened one of them and pulled out a pair of glasses. “I call these my special spectacles,” explained Twilight. “Each one of these provides me with a different range of optical observation, such as night vision, infrared vision, x-ray vision, and many others.” She then suddenly glanced away and muttered, “That reminds me, I should resume work on Special Spectacles 2.0 sometime soon.”
“I have been a little curious why you always seem to wear glasses while Princess Twilight doesn’t,” admitted Starlight. “I just didn’t ask earlier because I thought that maybe it was a sensitive subject.”
“You’re right, it is rather sensitive to me,” acknowledged Twilight as she put away her special spectacles. “All I’m willing to share is that my eyesight was permanently damaged in an incident involving a laser beam.”
“Either way, I think it’s great that you were able to create something that could enhance a part of you that was once a limitation,” noted Starlight. She glanced around some of the other workbenches and the various gadgets scattered across them, then turned back to Twilight and asked, “Is there anything here that you would consider a particularly favorite invention of yours?”
“Oh that’s easy!” replied Twilight excitedly before she quickly moved over to a set of shelves on the wall and grabbed what appeared to be a small silver cylinder. “It’s this thing!”
FWISH!
Starlight yelped and flinched as a lavender beam of pure plasma suddenly extended from the silver object to a specific length.
“I call it the plasma blade,” explained Twilight. “Virtually weightless, can easily slice through just about anything, and makes a very cool noise when you wave it around.” Twilight demonstrated the last detail by swinging the blade back and forth, producing a low humming noise with each pass.
Vrrr. Vrrr. Vrrr.
Starlight was speechless for a moment before she responded, “That has got to be… the coolest thing ever!” She grinned excitedly as she spoke that last part. “Do you think you could make one for me?”
“I’m afraid Sunset has already called dibs on the next one I can create,” stated Twilight as she retracted her plasma blade and placed it back up on the shelf. “But I’ll be sure to add you to the waiting list.”
“Fair enough,” said Starlight with a nod.
Beep!
Twilight suddenly turned back to the chamber she had been working on and smiled as she said, “Oh! The installation is complete!” She quickly rushed over to the chamber and began looking over a few things. As Starlight and Spike walked over to join her, she mumbled, “No issues installing the software, compatibility looks promising, all systems appear to be integrating quite well, only one thing left to do… power it up.”
With an excited grin on her face, Twilight rushed over to one of the nearby machines and flipped down a large lever. The machine whirred to life as power began flowing through a series of cables on the floor leading up to the small chamber. Power flowing into the chamber was signified by an arc of electricity between two prongs atop the chamber that consistently kept rising in a series of arcs. After a few seconds, the current of electricity stopped, and Twilight peered through the small window into the chamber.
A few seconds later, Twilight suddenly jumped in the air and turned around as she shouted, “Yes!” Raising her fist up and with an almost maniacal grin on her face, she exclaimed, “It’s alive!”
“Okay, be honest,” grumbled Spike as he folded his arms, “how long have you been waiting for an opportunity to say that?”
Twilight giggled in embarrassment and rubbed the back of her head. “A, uh, very long time,” she confessed. “But trust me, Spike, you’re gonna love this.” She flipped a small switch, causing the chamber’s door to open with a hiss as steam began to billow out of it. “I’m sure you’re well aware by now why I’ve always refused to give you that puppy you keep asking me for, so…” She reached into the chamber and pulled out her latest invention. “I decided to give you the next best thing.”
The creation that Twilight proudly held out in her hands was a white mechanical object that was roughly the shape of a small dog. Among its details were purple ears, glowing blue eyes, a glass dome on its head, and a glowing pink heart on the chest area. In addition, its tail part was waving back and forth while its head kept glancing in various directions.
“You built a robot puppy?” asked Spike in disbelief.
“Isn’t it great?” said Twilight enthusiastically as she handed the small robot over to Spike. “There’s no need to feed it or clean up any various messes — the only maintenance it really needs is to be recharged every night. Plus, thanks to the advanced software algorithms I’ve installed, it should be capable of behaving just like a real puppy.”
Spike looked down at the robot puppy skeptically, but when it suddenly started rubbing its head affectionately under his chin, he smiled and said, “Okay, I guess I could give it a chance. I might be able to get used to this.”
Starlight chuckled in amusement and asked, “Do you often do crazy things like this?”
“That depends on your definition of crazy,” quipped Twilight. “Pushing the boundaries of science just wouldn’t be exciting if I chose not to pursue any silly idea that ever pops into my head.”
Starlight folded her arms as she smirked and remarked, “If this is what Princess Twilight was like before she became a princess… then I really missed out on some fun moments.”
“In that case, I’m proud that I could offer you something that the other Twilight can’t,” responded Twilight. “If you’re ever interested, then please feel free to come back to the Lego World sometime and I’d be more than happy to share with you anything new I’ve created.”
“You know what? I think I’ll take you up on that offer,” said Starlight with a smile. She glanced down at her wristwatch and added, “Eh, I’ve still got plenty of time today. I’d like to see what else you’ve got while I’m still here.”
“Gladly,” replied Twilight. “Believe me, we’ve only scratched the surface in terms of my accomplishments in the laboratory.”
As Twilight began to give her a personal tour of the secluded laboratory, Starlight took a moment to reflect on all she had learned of the Lego World during her stay. There was no doubt in her mind that there was still a whole lot more to learn and experience, and she was certainly looking forward to the next time she would get an opportunity to visit. But even with all the wonders of a world made of Lego, Equestria would always be home for Starlight Glimmer.