Chapter 2
Rising Tensions
As night fell over the open ocean around the luxury cruise ship Luxe Deluxe, final preparations were underway for the Equestria Girls — alternatively known by their band name of the “Sonic Rainbooms” — to perform a live concert on the outdoor stage on the front deck. Crewmembers worked together to set up the special lighting system for the show, as well as replace parts of the sound system that had been damaged earlier as a result of Spike messing around with the settings. A few volunteers also helped the crew to set up tables with various snacks and refreshments for all the passengers who would attend. It had not escaped everyone’s attention that some storm clouds had begun to gather as dusk gave way to nightfall, but the absence of any thunder or rainfall left many of them convinced that it was unlikely to be of any concern, so the show was allowed to proceed as planned.
Thanks to Twilight’s request a week ahead of their departure for them to pack their instruments, Rarity had thought ahead and created a series of sparkly dresses specifically for such an occasion, which the girls had now changed into in preparation for their concert. Rainbow Dash had horizontal stirpes of all the colors of a rainbow along her torso and skirt, red on her feet, and had styled her hair into a braid that wrapped over the top of her head. Twilight had purple on her torso that faded to magenta at the bottom of her skirt, two rows of white stars along the bottom of her skirt, and purple on her feet. Sunset had magenta on her torso and skirt, black on her feet, and wore her magical geode on a band around the upper part of her left arm. Applejack had white on her torso, red on her skirt, brown on her feet, and a green belt around her waist. Rarity had light blue on her torso that faded to purple on her skirt, purple on her feet, a yellow belt around her waist, a gold headband shaped like a row of diamonds, and her right shoulder was exposed. Fluttershy had turquoise on her torso with large pink leaves, magenta on her skirt that faded to pink at the bottom, and turquoise on her feet. Pinkie Pie had light blue on her torso with spots of various shades of pink and yellow, magenta on her skirt, and light blue on her feet. All these outfits were definitely intended to show off from under a spotlight, and all the girls were in agreement that Rarity had done a fabulous job with designing them.
As many of the passengers began to gather on the front deck, the Rainbooms grabbed their instruments and moved into position. Once they were all in place on stage and gave silent nods of agreement to each other, Twilight briefly turned back and gave a smile and nod of acknowledgement to the backstage crew — which included Spike at the soundboard. Spike nodded back, then turned his cap sideways as he adjusted all the volume dials to their proper settings, precisely specified to him earlier by Twilight. At the same time, two of the ship’s crewmembers flipped on the stage lights and began working the settings to match the pattern that had been requested for this show.
With everything finally ready for the show to go on, the girls began playing the opening notes to the song they had chosen to perform. Rainbow Dash took the lead as she walked up to one of the microphones and began singing the song’s lyrics.
Get in the grove.
You bring your dancing shoes,
I’ll bring the attitude.
You bring the crew so we can move.
The passengers who were on the deck began to gather around the stage. For added effects, some of the lights began projecting white stars onto the deck around the feet of the growing audience.
Light up the floor.
Turn up the bass.
Yeah, let me see that smile on your face.
Rainbow Dash briefly glanced at Applejack, who glanced back with a shaky smile. The farm girl had deliberately skipped supper in hopes that performing on an empty stomach would reduce the risk of her seasickness acting up while in the middle of their performance. Although it seemed to somewhat help, she had also discretely taped a barf bag to the back of her bass for quick access in case of an emergency, which she certainly hoped she would not have to resort to at all for the duration of this concert.
Come on and go with the flow.
Gonna steal the show, yeah.
Twilight stepped toward her microphone and sang the next part of the lyrics.
Let me show you how it goes…
Sunset was the next one to step forward towards her microphone as she enthusiastically called out to the gathered crowd, “Repeat after me!”
As the crowd began dancing to the music, all seven girls on stage sang the chorus together.
‘Cause it’s all, all, all, all good!
I feel abso-absolutely amazing!
‘Cause it’s all, all, all, all good!
I feel abso-absolutely amazing!
The song continued for nearly two more minutes with additional lyrics and two repeats of the chorus. By the time they reached the instrumental portion of the song, Rainbow Dash was feeling completely fired up by the roaring cheers from the crowd. This was the moment she had been waiting for, and she absolutely wanted to go all-out. She turned back to her friends and excitedly asked, “Rainbow lasers?!”
Sunset and Twilight turned to each other with looks of uncertainty on their faces. Since they were currently in the middle of performing a song in front of a crowd of dozens, they couldn’t ponder the question for too long. Twilight decided there was no reason to quash Rainbow’s enthusiasm at a time like this, so she gave a nod of approval. With Twilight making her choice, Sunset turned to Rainbow and also gave a nod approval.
Rainbow Dash was thrilled that she had been permitted to go through with her plan, and almost immediately gained pony ears, longer hair, and feathered wings — the process that Sunset had referred to as “pony up”. Just as the growing magical energy caused her to start rising into the air without even flapping her wings, the rest of her friends also underwent their magical transformations — all of them gained pony ears and longer hair, Fluttershy and Twilight gained feathered wings, and Sunset, Rarity, and Twilight gained a unicorn horn. All of them continued rocking out the instrumental portion of the song, their bodies glowing ever brighter with the continuously rising magical energies within them. When Rainbow hovered to a stop near the top of the stage, all that built-up magical energy was finally released in a spectacular burst of rainbow aurora that illuminated the entire ship, creating an awe-inspiring beacon of light that could be seen from many miles away — even through the storm clouds up into outer space!
The immense burst of magical energy was so powerful, it ended up overloading the ship’s electrical power supply. It started with all the stage lights suddenly bursting into shards in rapid succession. As the music and all the cheering quickly fell silent, the rest of the entire ship finally lost all power, plunging the isolated vessel into darkness as the engines slowed to a complete stop. The sudden turn of events left the crowd muttering worriedly amongst themselves.
Due to the song being abruptly halted, the Equestria Girls quickly lost their magical pony parts. While most of them were just as concerned as everyone else in the crowd, Rainbow actually had a smile on her face as she gradually descended back to the stage floor. Once she was back on the floor, she set aside her guitar and excitedly declared, “Oh, it’s about to go down!”
“The ship’s going down?” asked someone in the crowd.
That suggestion was the only trigger needed to suddenly send the entire crowd into a frenzied panic.
As everyone on the deck began running around and screaming uncontrollably, Rainbow Dash desperately insisted, “Not the ship! The ship’s not going down! Ugh! I meant evil magic! Stop screaming!”
Backstage, Spike facepalmed and grumbled, “What a brick-head…”
TWEEEEEET!!
That loud blow of a whistle from one of the crewmembers caught the attention of everyone on deck, bringing a halt to the crowd’s panic for the moment. The crewman put away his whistle and turned on the flashlight he was holding in his other hand as he spoke up, “No need to be alarmed, everyone! We’ve provided plenty of flashlights for all of you in the unlikely event of something like this happening. I’m afraid we don’t have many immediately available on hand to pass out to all of you, but we do always leave at least a couple in each room, so if you wish, we would be happy to escort you back to your rooms so you may retrieve them.”
As other crewmembers began pulling out and turning on their flashlights, the crowd of passengers began to calm down and muttered in agreement. While some crewmembers guided the passengers back inside the powerless ship, others went elsewhere to check the systems and hopefully figure out how to resolve this unforeseen issue.
Meanwhile, the Equestria Girls on the stage had been left just as clueless as everyone else about what had just occurred.
“W-What happened to the lights?” asked Fluttershy nervously.
“What happened to the engine?” asked Rarity worriedly.
“Aww, I hate seeing a party get shut down before its time,” moaned Pinkie Pie in disappointment.
“The good news is now that it’s dark, maybe mah body won’t know Ah’m on a boat,” remarked Applejack optimistically. But almost right away, her upset stomach quickly quenched that optimism. “Oh no… it heard me…” she groaned as she removed the barf bag from the back of her bass and held that bag over her mouth as she ran off.
“Come on, girls,” assured Twilight with a forced smile on her face. “Let’s not let a little thing like a total electrical and mechanical failure ruin our fun.”
The rest of the girls stared at Twilight with various looks of uncertainty — Sunset seemed concerned, Rainbow Dash was in disbelief, and Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie seemed quite worried to a certain extent.
Spike walked over to Twilight as he readjusted the cap on his head and skeptically noted, “Yeah, I don’t think that can be dismissed as a little thing that wouldn’t ruin a vacation.”
Twilight frowned in concern to see her friends were once again unable to enjoy their time on this cruise. She had gone through all the effort to bring them all here, so she felt that it was her responsibility to make sure they could all have a good time. With that sense of responsibility, she decided to look into the issue herself and see if there was anything she could do about it.
Twilight smiled again as she declared, “Leave it to me! With my engineering expertise, I’m sure I can help the crew get everything on this ship back up and running in no time!” She turned away and began running down the deck back inside the ship.
“She’s wasting her time!” argued Rainbow Dash irritably. “Because this is Equestrian Magic!” She raised her arm up as she dramatically spoke those last two words.
“Stop it!” Sunset firmly demanded as she grabbed Rainbow’s wrist and pulled her arm back down.
“You stop!” argued Rainbow as she yanked her wrist out of Sunset’s grip. “We show off our magic and literally ten seconds later, the power blows? That’s gotta be the work of evil magic!”
“Or maybe there’s still nothing out there, and it was our magic that might’ve overloaded the power,” Sunset pointed out irritably.
Rainbow stubbornly ignored Sunset and continued, “We scared whatever’s out there, and it’s fighting back! We should split up and search the ship! Who’s with me?!” She grinned and triumphantly raised her fist, fully expecting total support from everyone.
However, all of Rainbow’s friends just stared back at her with frowns on their faces — many of whom in contempt at her pesky behavior. Those looks and the tense silence caused Rainbow slowly lower her fist and drop her smile.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say, ‘You’re on your own’,” stated Sunset. She turned back to the rest of her friends and said, “You girls go ahead and make the most of this situation. I’m gonna go see if I could have a word with the captain.” She then walked off the stage and headed across the deck towards the ship’s bridge.
Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike all soon left without any of them saying a word. Sunset had already spoken exactly what they were all thinking, so there was no need to repeat any of it to their stubborn friend.
Again, Rainbow Dash was left completely alone, determined to stop what she believed to be evil magic from Equestria, and no one around who was willing to help her track it down. And just like earlier, she refused to let it slide, so she reluctantly set out to search for evil magic on her own again. As she picked up a flashlight that had been discarded on the deck, she grumbled, “Ugh, that’s the last time I ask ‘who’s with me?’.”
Down in the ship’s engine room, Twilight had accompanied three crewmen — all of whom were wearing hardhats — to inspect the damage. With only their flashlights to provide illumination, it was a little difficult to make a full assessment of what needed to be worked on, but they knew they had to try their best if the ship was to have any chance of resuming its cruise.
With all the display monitors off and all the switches and dials rendered effectively useless, the four minifigs focused their attention on the condition of the huge engine itself. It was a very complex piece of machinery that only an expert at mechanical engineering could hope to fully understand. Fortunately, it was one of many scientific subjects where Twilight was very well-read on.
As Twilight rolled out the dolly that had been set aside, she asked, “I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job, but, uh, may I?”
The three crewmen all glanced at each other before they nodded in approval.
Twilight lied down on her back against the dolly and rolled underneath the engine. Using the flashlight in one hand, she examined the engine’s condition by using her other hand to check the various pieces of pipes and wires that seemed to be jumbled all over the place. She was quickly displeased by what she saw, and got particularly annoyed when one of the smaller pipes came loose and a rat suddenly scurried out from under the engine.
“What a mess!” complained Twilight. She rolled out from under the engine and looked to the three crewmen as she asked, “Did any of you even read the six-hundred-page online emergency handbook?!”
Two of the crewmen glanced at each other and shrugged, while the third scratched the back of his head and asked, “That’s a thing?”
As Twilight rolled the dolly back under the engine, she sighed and grumbled, “The burden of my discipline as a former Shadowbolt agent… Always the only one in the room who even bothers to study these things…”
Sunset had reached the ship’s bridge and now stood outside the door to the wheelhouse. Although she doubted the ship’s captain knew much more about what was going on than everyone else, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to make sure they were all on the same page. She knocked on the door three times and spoke up, “Are you in there, captain? Is it okay if I speak with you for a moment? If you’re busy, I can come back later.”
The door opened, revealing a minifig with yellow skin, a white beard on his face, orange on his torso and arms, dark blue on his legs, a blue and white stripped sweater under the open orange jacket on the front of his torso, and on his head was a white officer’s cap with a gold anchor on the front. “Oh, not at all, miss,” he assured Sunset with a warm smile, speaking with a stereotypical sea captain accent. “With all systems shut down on this vessel, there ain’t much for me do up here at this time.”
Sunset quickly forgot her plan to make a friendly introduction when she suddenly realized she was seeing someone rather familiar. “Hey, I recognize you,” she said in astonishment. “You’re Captain Bluffbeard! You’ve got a reputation in Lego City for having a tendency to sink ships.”
Bluffbeard gave a hearty laugh and remarked, “Arr, guilty as charged! Well, come on in if a li’l chat is all you want.”
Now that she knew who was the captain of this boat, Sunset was suddenly feeling less confident in his ability to handle the situation. Still, she was already here, so she decided that she could at least see if he truly had everything under control — and if not, then perhaps there might be a way she could try to help out. She walked into the wheelhouse and shut the door behind her.
“Yer probably wondering why I’m sailing an oceanic cruise ship rather than the ferries of Lego City, where you may have heard of me,” explained Bluffbeard contently. “You see, after my ferry business didn’t quite pan out as well as I’d hoped, I decided on another change of career. I now captain this here luxury yacht, as I find operating on a cruise line to be a much more fulfilling calling, not to mention a lot more relaxing. Besides, I figured there was little chance of this ship sinking on my watch if the only hazardous points of the voyage were leaving and entering port. Between those two, I can promise nothing but a week’s worth of smooth sailing across the open ocean with calm seas and clear skies.”
“Clear skies…” repeated Sunset flatly with her hands on her hips. She glanced over her shoulder at the dark storm clouds outside the windows, then turned back to Bluffbeard and silently gestured at that window.
“I had charted this course according to the weather forecast to keep my promise of ideal conditions,” noted Bluffbeard, maintaining his optimistic tone. “As you can see, the forecast has changed quite unexpectedly.”
“Would it be too much for me to assume that was the only unexpected thing you noticed?” asked Sunset skeptically. “Did any of the systems or monitors in here show anything weird going on before the power went out?”
“If there was anything of the sort, I’m afraid I didn’t notice,” admitted Bluffbeard. “I was a little preoccupied dancing to the rhythm of that music you girls were playing moments ago. Quite a catchy song, that was!” He then closed his eyes and hummed the tune of that song as he swayed his body back and forth to the rhythm.
Sunset loudly cleared her throat.
Bluffbeard immediately stopped humming and dancing. He chuckled awkwardly and said, “Sorry ‘bout that…”
“Okay, let’s try to stay on topic here…” muttered Sunset. Now that she had Bluffbeard’s attention, she spoke up, “Are you absolutely sure there’s nothing in here that’s working right now?”
“With the main engine offline for inexplicable reasons, everything here on the bridge is no longer functional,” confirmed Bluffbeard. “However, there is an emergency battery pack to provide short-term power in the event of such an occurrence.”
Sunset glanced at the controls, then turned back to Bluffbeard as she raised an eyebrow and asked, “If that’s true, then why do I not see anything apparently working?”
“It can only plug in to one item at a time,” Bluffbeard pointed out.
“And it’s currently plugged into…?” asked Sunset.
“My massage chair!” answered Bluffbeard cheerfully as he gestured to the overly comfortable seat behind the ship’s wheel.
Sunset crossed her arms and glared at the incompetent sea captain as she grumbled, “We’re stranded at sea and the one thing you could provide emergency power for is a massage chair?”
“This is meant to be a luxury cruise ship!” argued Bluffbeard. “Having a means of relaxing at all times should be an essential component!”
Sunset facepalmed, then sighed in frustration and said, “Well, if that battery can only plug into one thing at a time, then I’d first like to check the weather radar.”
Further inside the ship, Pinkie Pie sneaked her way into the buffet room. With all the lights out, she had quickly realized that she now had a perfect opportunity to enter the forbidden room and avoid being caught in the act. She crept her way between the tables, hunched down to keep a low profile as she tip-toed ever-so-subtly through the room. With her eyes adjusted to the darkness, it wasn’t long before she sighted her ultimate target: the bundt cake she had been so desperate to try.
As Pinkie slowly rose up to look closely at the bundt cake resting the table right in front of her, she rubbed her hands together and whispered to herself, “Time to raid the dessert buffet under the cover of darkness. Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cake, here I come…”
“Who said zat?!” called out chef Puffed Pastry aggressively from somewhere across the room.
“No one!” Pinkie reflexively called back in panic. Immediately realizing she just gave herself away, she swiftly covered her mouth and slipped under one of the tables, taking advantage of the surrounding tablecloth to keep herself hidden. She waited a few seconds, listening very carefully to the chef’s footsteps. Once she was at least somewhat sure that she had not completely given away her position, she spoke up, “Shouldn’t you be upstairs with everyone else?”
Puffed Pastry slammed her hands against the table upon which sat the various desserts and sharply responded, “Somebody ‘as to guard ze bundt cakes!”
“I never did anything to ruin that first bundt cake!” argued Pinkie, keeping herself hidden under the table. “It was Rainbow Dash who smooshed it! Why am I being punished for something I had nothing to do with?!”
“Guilt by association!” insisted Puffed Pastry as she kept shifting her gaze around the dark room in her effort to locate the intruder. “She assaulted me because you were nearby, so you deserve just as much blame!”
“That’s totally jumping to conclusions!” argued Pinkie. “Rainbow was the only one being totally reckless! All I wanted was to savor what must be such a delicious bundt cake, so please let me have a second chance!”
“You’re not fooling me, imbécile!” Puffed Pastry firmly declared as she waved her spatula up in the air. “Now stay back! I ‘ave a spatula!”
Pinkie peeked out from under the tablecloth to look at Puffed Pastry making that threat. When the angry chef began to turn towards her, she quickly dropped the tablecloth and rushed over to hide under another nearby table.
Puffed Pastry marched over to the table where she thought she had noticed some movement. She used her spatula to lift the tablecloth, but found nothing underneath. With a piercing glare, she glanced left and then right before she made her way to the left.
Pinkie carefully lifted the tablecloth she was hiding under and saw the angry chef moving away from her new hiding spot. Pinkie barely contained a snicker at this minor victory. A few more advances in this cat-and-mouse game and that bundt cake would soon be hers…
After helping Applejack back to their room, Rarity used one of the provided flashlights to navigate her way through the hallways. With all of her friends off doing their own thing, she figured this would be a good opportunity to hang out a bit more with that charming crewman Ragamuffin. She had last seen him escort some of the nervous passengers back into the lower decks, so she was uncertain where she might find him.
“Hello…” Rarity called out as she aimed her flashlight left and right. “Ragamuffin…”
As Rarity approached the ornate door to the indoor stage, she began to hear some kind of music coming from within. Believing that noise to be an indicator that at least a few people had to be inside, she walked over to the door and knocked on it a few times.
“Ragamuffin?” Rarity called out again. “Are you in there? I was just, uh…” She quickly got rather flustered over the thought of spending some time with the handsome man she had recently fallen for. She cleared her throat to regain her composure and continued, “…in the neighborhood, and, um…” She trailed off as she began to realize that with the kind of noise she was hearing through the door, it was unlikely anyone inside would be able to hear her through the door. Uncertain of what exactly was going on inside, she hesitated for a moment, but soon managed to work up enough courage to open the door and take a peek inside.
What Rarity saw inside the large room left her completely stunned in awe. The room was illuminated only by a few lanterns set up around the stage, and right there on that stage was Ragamuffin himself, doing an Irish stepdance to the beat and rhythm some Irish music being played by a small boom-box near the back of the stage. A few passengers and crewmembers stood around the stage and clapped along to the music. It seemed that Ragamuffin was making a gallant effort to keep everyone entertained in spite of these unfortunate circumstances.
As Rarity continued to watch Ragamuffin’s performance, she swooned and muttered lovingly, “Who needs electricity when you have… uh, well, whatever this is?”
Rainbow Dash had thoroughly searched the entire length of the ship from bow to stern and was left absolutely disappointed that she had failed to find any sign of Equestrian Magic, evil or otherwise. Since none of her friends expressed any interest in joining her efforts, she was left completely alone as she sulked while gazing out across the open ocean behind the ship.
The weather conditions certainly seemed to match Rainbow’s mood at the moment. Not only had the sky had remained completely covered in those dark storm clouds, but now a strong breeze had picked up and was sending small waves rippling across the ocean, albeit not quite intense enough to really have much effect on the ship at all.
Maybe Sunset was right, thought Rainbow Dash with a depressed sigh. Maybe there really is nothing out there, and I’ve just been wasting my time while making myself look like a complete fool…
BOOM! Crack!
Rainbow was startled out of her thoughts by that boom of thunder. She turned her gaze up at the dark storm clouds and saw immense bolts of lightning flash across the sky. This lightning didn’t just come and go like ordinary lightning, but instead seemed to jump back and forth across the sky and between the sky and ocean surface around the ship.
Rainbow continued watching the rapidly moving lightning as it soon began to jump across the ocean surface, eventually settling into some kind of glowing symbol in the water directly in front of her. The best she could describe this symbol would be a mirrored pair of blue lightning bolts that were closer together at the bottom and further apart at the top. There was no way something natural could spontaneously create something like this. It had to be the work of some magical force.
“Whoa!” said Rainbow in awe. She then grinned and proudly declared, “I knew it! There is evil magic out here! I gotta show this to everyone!” She then immediately rushed off in a rainbow motion blur to gather her friends.
Whoosh!
“Thanks for helping me calm all the animals in the petting zoo, Spike,” said Fluttershy as she and Spike walked together down one of the darkened hallways below deck, using one flashlight to help them find their way around.
“Glad I could help,” said Spike with a smile. “I couldn’t think of anything I could do by myself with the power out, and since I was pretty sure the outage might’ve spooked those animals, I figured you could use a helping hand.”
“And I must say, you did quite a wonderful job,” praised Fluttershy. “Where did you learn so much about proper animal care?”
Spike shrugged and replied, “Eh, I’m just good at picking up info on just about anything there is. Sort of comes with being roommates with Twilight.”
Fluttershy giggled and said, “Either way, I’m just glad all those adorable little animals are now able to get some much-needed rest. And I’m very relieved that we haven’t been faced with any further trouble after the power went out.”
Crash!
Two minifigs suddenly slammed into Fluttershy, causing her to be thrown backwards onto the floor as her left arm and right leg fell off while her hip joint detached from her torso. At the same time, those two sudden arrivals tumbled to the floor as they each dropped a large sack full of some stuff.
“Watch where you’re goin’ sissy!” snapped one of the two fallen guys.
“You watch where you’re going!” Spike shot back as he helped Fluttershy reattach all of her body parts. “You’re the ones who were running!”
Once Spike had finished putting Fluttershy back together, he suddenly turned his attention to the two new arrivals. He picked up the flashlight that Fluttershy had dropped and pointed it at those two guys, revealing them to be wearing black and white striped shirts and black beanie hats. He also discovered the sacks they had dropped were full of all kinds of cash, coins, and gems.
“Hey, I know you!” exclaimed Spike accusingly. “You’re those two robbers we keep bumping into! What are you up to this time?!”
“A heist on the high seas!” declared Rocky, the one with a grey jacked over his shirt and speaking with a gravelly gangster voice. “We was gonna wait ‘til nightfall to make our move, but the power goin’ out was too good an opportunity to pass up!”
“We snuck aboard at the port and hid away in the cargo hold,” added Mugsy, the one with the sleeves ripped off his shirt and speaking with a deeper dim-witted voice. “The lights going out made it easy for us to crack open the vault and take whatever we wanted, and now we’re gonna steal a lifeboat and make our getaway.”
Rocky smacked Mugsy upside the head and scolded, “You idiot! You’re not supposed to tell ‘em our whole plan!”
“But you already told them part of it,” Mugsy pointed out. “I thought it would be okay to say the rest.”
“Well, whatever it is you crooks are up to,” Spike boldly declared, “we’re here to put a stop to it! Right, Fluttershy?”
“Why are you even doing all of this, anyway?” asked Fluttershy.
Spike and the two robbers stared at Fluttershy in confusion.
“Why do the two of you always have to commit petty acts of burglary whenever and wherever you can?” continued Fluttershy. “You know it’s a very naughty thing to do, but you still do it anyway. And worse, you’re not even very good at it, because you almost never succeed in escaping with whatever ill-gotten loot you manage to get your hands on.” She suddenly softened her stance and quietly added, “Oh, um, s-sorry if I insulted you.”
“Just what are ya gettin’ at, sissy?!” demanded Rocky impatiently.
“What I’m suggesting is that maybe… maybe you should consider not being robbers anymore,” responded Fluttershy peacefully. “Everyone always has something they’re good at; you just need to figure out what it is. If burglary hasn’t been working out for… however long you’ve been doing it for, then maybe you should try something else instead.”
“Why would we wanna do that?!” asked Rocky dismissively. “We’ve been doin’ this stuff our whole lives, and we ain’t changin’ our ways anytime soon!”
“Uh, I dunno, Rocky,” muttered Mugsy with uncertainty. “I mean, if we’re always losing no matter how hard we try, then… maybe there’s something else we could actually win at?”
“That’s a dumb thing to say,” grumbled Rocky. He then suddenly glanced away and tapped his chin as he quietly added, “Though I have thought about takin’ up auto racin’ as a way to get same thrill I’ve had whenever the cops are after us.”
“Then you should try that,” encouraged Fluttershy with a smile. “You never know just how good at it you might actually be until you try it. What do you say?”
The two crooks didn’t immediately respond as they stared at Fluttershy and then glanced at each other, as if they seemed to be seriously considering her suggestion.
Meanwhile, Spike couldn’t help but smile at Fluttershy. He was quite proud to see her make such a remarkable effort to get through to two guys that so many others — including himself — had been so quick to write off as hopelessly lost causes.
Whoosh!
Rocky and Mugsy were both quickly bowled over as Rainbow Dash suddenly arrived. “No time for that!” was all she urgently said as she grabbed both Fluttershy and Spike and dragged them both behind her as she swiftly ran off.
Whoosh!
“Hey! That was another one of those sissies!” Mugsy spoke up as he and Rocky picked themselves back up. “I think it was the fast one.”
Rocky glanced down the hallway their foes had rushed off to, then snickered and remarked, “What a dummy!”
“Was I supposed to know her name?” asked Mugsy.
“I wasn’t talkin’ about you, moron!” Rocky shot back. “I was talkin’ about that speedy rainbow sissy.” He grinned as he pointed out, “She completely ignored us and took off with the only people who even know we’re here. You know what that means?”
“Uh… we go after her?”
“NO!” snapped Rocky as he smacked Mugsy upside the head. “It means we’re now free to pick up this loot and continue with our getaway!”
“Oh yeah!” realized Mugsy with a smile. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He and his partner in crime quickly gathered up the spilled loot back into their sacks and hauled them up onto their shoulders. “I guess this heist turned out quite well for us!”
“Not so fast!”
The two incompetent crooks were momentarily blinded by a flashlight as it was aimed right at their faces, causing them to again drop their stolen loot. Once they got over the shock of that exposure, they discovered that it was a crewwoman who had spoken to them, and she had a very displeased look on her face. A beam of light from behind them made them turned around to see a crewman had arrived from the opposite end of the hallway, and also had a very displeased look on his face.
“Looks like you two will be spending the rest of this voyage down in the brig!” declared the crewman.
Rocky and Mugsy glanced back and forth between the two crewmembers who had blocked off both directions in the hallway, leaving them trapped with no way out. “Aw, nuts!” grumbled Rocky.
Inside the wheelhouse up on the ship’s bridge, Sunset had removed the cover panel on the floor just in front of the ship’s wheel, revealing the emergency battery pack. She had already removed the plug to the massage chair, and after a bit of searching though the internal wiring of the main console, she finally found what she was looking for.
“That should do it,” said Sunset with a smile as she knelt down and plugged in the cable connecting one of the console’s display screens to the emergency battery pack. “Now we can take a look at that weather radar.”
Sunset stood up again and picked up the display screen she had detached from the console. She stared at the screen and watched it slowly activate, eventually displaying a map of everything within a radius of about fifty miles — which for their current location was nothing but open ocean. According to an indicator in the corner of the screen, the amount of precipitation in the surrounding area was displayed with green as the lightest and going up the color spectrum to red as the heaviest, and a note in another corner stated that the video being displayed was a repeating loop of the most recent six hours of activity.
As Sunset watched the repeating display of recent weather activity, she noticed something didn’t seem quite right. Most weather maps she had seen before often showed storms would drift across the map in a particular direction, sometimes growing or shrinking as they moved along. This radar map, however, seemed to display a storm to the south that had remained virtually stationary as it slowly grew to cover a larger area and with greater intensity in the center. She struggled to comprehend what she was seeing as the video loop played over and over.
“I’m no meteorologist,” Sunset spoke up uneasily, “but there’s something about this storm that doesn’t look quite natural…”
“May I have a look?” asked Captain Bluffbeard.
Whoosh!
Sunset was about to hand over the weather radar display when Rainbow Dash suddenly arrived through the doorway into the wheelhouse and urgently exclaimed, “No time for that!” Without any hesitation, she swiftly grabbed Sunset and ran off with her.
Whoosh!
Sunset yelped as she was dragged away so quickly that the weather radar display had remained in her hand, causing the wire that connected it to the plug in the battery to rip apart.
Bluffbeard stared in confusion at the open doorway those two girls had suddenly left through. His gaze then turned down to the battery pack and the detached wire still plugged into it, and just seconds later, he simply shrugged and remarked, “Oh well.”
With a smile on his face, he removed the now useless plug from the battery and replaced it with the plug to his massage chair. He then hopped into that chair and activated it. He let out a sigh of relaxation as that chair worked its wonders on him.
Down in the engine room, Twilight had been hard at work repairing the shoddy patchwork to the main engine while the three crewmen stood aside and watched. As bad as the repair job was, she had done a remarkable job of not getting any significant messes or stains on her dress, though she had a feeling Rarity would still freak out over where she had been in it, but that wasn’t important right now. What really mattered is that power would soon be restored to the entire ship and this whole catastrophe could be put behind them.
“Just gotta nudge this back into place before tightening the bolt…” muttered Twilight before she used the wrench in her hand to beat the loose pipe back into its proper alignment.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Once that was done, Twilight used that wrench to tighten the bolt to hold it in place. She then rolled out the dolly from under the engine as she tossed the wrench to the floor and asked the crewmen, “Still taking notes?”
“Got ‘em all right here!” one of the crewmen proudly stated as he held up his notepad, revealing the latest page he had scribbled notes on.
“Good,” said Twilight with approval. At least now I can be sure you guys will know how to deal with this yourselves if it ever happens again, she added mentally, not at all ignoring the fact that she had done all of the manual labor herself. “And now for the final and most crucial step of all,” she spoke up as she held up a large electric plug. “All that’s left is to hold this lead wire in place while the auxiliary unit cycles and everything should be back to normal.”
“How long should that take?” asked the crewman as he scribbled down more notes.
“A simple three second countdown should do it,” replied Twilight as she rolled the dolly back under the engine. She inserted the plug and counted, “Three… two…”
Whoosh!
Rainbow Dash suddenly rushed into the room and stood between Twilight and the three crewmen. “No time for that!” she urgently exclaimed as she grabbed Twilight by the leg and swiftly yanked her out from under the engine before running off with her, her hardhat falling off in the process.
Whoosh!
“Did it work?” asked one of the crewmen.
“I don’t think that was the full three seconds,” muttered another of the crewmen as he pointed at the now severed plug that was discarded on the floor.
Almost right away, sparks started jumping across the wires as they short-circuited all over the place, while the pipes groaned until the pressure built up enough to make a valve handle burst off and start venting hot steam through the opening.
“Well that was a big waste of time,” grumbled the third crewman as he tossed his notepad over his shoulder. “Better put on the coffee, boys. Looks like we’re gonna have to work on this overnight.”
In the buffet room, Pinkie Pie and Puffed Pastry had reached a stalemate in their opposing efforts. Puffed Pastry continued to hold her ground in close proximity to the bundt cake, but was unable locate the pesky intruder. Pinkie had done an excellent job of avoiding detection, but was unable to see a way to make that final leap towards the bundt cake without being caught by that grouchy chef.
Looks like I’ll need to use some advanced tactics for that final push to victory, thought Pinkie as she removed her hair piece, reached her hand inside, and pulled out a single piece of candy. She put her hair back on and, with a smirk on her face, she tightened her grip on the piece of candy to make it glow pink from her magical power. She gently lifted the surrounding tablecloth she had taken shelter under and flicked the piece of candy across the room.
Poof!
Puffed Pasty immediately turned to where that minor explosion had occurred. “Zat better not be firecrackers coming from you…” she growled threateningly as she walked over to the site of that small burst.
With the distraction successful, Pinkie knew it was now or never if she was going to taste that bundt cake. She quickly got out from under the table, stood up right in front of the dessert table, and picked up the entire bundt cake. Mission accomplished! she thought as she took a brief moment to admire the barely illuminated sight of that bundt cake in her hands before she prepared to take a huge bite out of it.
Whoosh!
“No time for that!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she suddenly arrived, grabbed Pinkie, and dragged her along as she rushed back out.
Whoosh!
The abduction was so sudden that Pinkie lost her grip on the bundt cake and dropped it to the floor before she ever got a chance to even touch her tongue against it.
Splat!
Puffed Pastry spun around and gasped when she saw that bundt cake was now splattered against the floor. She quickly glanced at the open doorway and caught a brief glimpse of Pinkie Pie being dragged away. “Banned for life!” she hollered furiously as she waved her spatula in the air.
“NOOOOOOOO!!” screamed Pinkie, her shriek of horror echoing through the hallways.
In the indoor stage, Ragamuffin had finished his impromptu dance performance, so all of the few passengers and crew who had watched had now left. However, Rarity had stayed behind, now that she had an opportunity to speak with him in private. They both sat together on the stage with only a tray of snacks from the buffet sitting between them.
“I must confess my complete unfamiliarity with that form of dance you performed,” admitted Rarity, “but I will say that it was one of the most wondrous performances I had ever witnessed.”
Ragamuffin chuckled awkwardly as he looked away and confessed, “Well, it’s an old passion from me youth. Me pa worked in a coal mine, but I always wanted to dance!” He glanced over at Rarity — who continued to stare at him with infatuation — and sadly muttered, “Eh, a fancy girl like you wouldn’t understand…”
Rarity adjusted her hair as she bashfully explained, “Well, actually, back in my junior year in high school, I partook in our production of Bedazzled, where I played a coal miner’s daughter who danced in bedazzled magical boots from her fairy bootmother, so…” she trailed off with a nervous laugh as she saw Ragamuffin smile back at her.
Neither Rarity nor Ragamuffin said another word as they continued to stare into each other’s eyes. There was no need to speak, for their loving gazes expressed all they cared to know in this heartwarming moment. The two lovers soon began to slowly bring their faces closer together…
Whoosh!
“No time for that!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she snatched Rarity and ran off with her without even slowing down, causing the fashionista to yelp in terror.
Meanwhile, Ragamuffin stared at the spot where the woman he loved sat only a split second ago. It seemed fate had conspired to deny them their moment of romance, so he let out a sigh of sadness.
Applejack groaned as she lay in bed in her room. The frequent bouts of seasickness all day long had really taken their toll on her, and she was very thankful for her friend Rarity in helping her reach this room from the forward deck. She hadn’t even bothered to change out of her performance dress, as she felt too dizzy to really do much of anything besides getting some much-needed bedrest.
This day can’t get any worse… thought Applejack miserably as she let out a tired breath.
Whoosh!
“No time for that!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she swiftly arrived right next to Applejack’s bed, hauled her out of bed, and rushed off with her.
Oh boy, here we go again… thought Applejack miserably, not due to her sickness but because of her stubborn friend.
Once she had finally gathered all of her friends together, Rainbow Dash eagerly led them past the swimming pool towards the stern of the ship. “I promise, this is way more important than all of your things combined,” she insisted excitedly without even glancing back at any of her friends.
Behind Rainbow, all of her friends quickly reacted with various words of doubt, skepticism, and even hostility from some of them.
Rainbow Dash ignored their comments, for she was convinced she was about to prove them all wrong. As she finally reached the railing along the stern of the ship, she spread her arms out and held her head high as she declared, “Behold! Evil magic!”
The others all looked out across the open water behind the ship and muttered various words of confusion and bafflement.
Rainbow was not expecting such a dull reaction from her friends, so she turned her gaze down to the water. She gasped when she finally noticed that the glowing symbol she had seen only moments earlier had now completely vanished, and the only thing there was to see was an empty ocean surface. “But… but the whole ocean was glowing just a minute ago!” she desperately explained. “It went all ‘whoosh-whoosh-whoosh’ with— with little ribbon thingies and—!”
“Do you know which sorcerer can conjure the greatest magic of all?” asked Twilight indignantly with her arms crossed. “Mother Nature.”
Rainbow Dash stared blankly at Twilight for a moment and slowly asked, “What?”
“What you saw was probably nothing more than an innate phosphorescent biochemical property of common algae,” explained Twilight irritably.
“Whaaaat?” asked Rainbow again, completely lost.
“She means collections of microscopic sea life that glow in the dark,” clarified Sunset with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. “It’s a well-documented phenomenon.”
Rainbow Dash clenched her fists and furrowed her brow as she sharply responded to Twilight, “If that’s what you think, then let’s get in some of those lifeboats and I’ll prove it!” She pointed out to sea and added, “I saw the magic come from that way! We’ll sail out and find the source!”
“And then?” asked Twilight as she raised an eyebrow.
“Then it’s go time!” answered Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm.
“Which means?” asked Twilight impatiently.
“We take no prisoners!” declared Rainbow Dash as she raised a fist.
“What do you suggest we do instead of capturing them?” asked Twilight flatly.
“Huh?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion as she lowered her fist.
“‘Take no prisoners’?” clarified Twilight irritably. “That phrase implies you wish to eradicate whatever’s out there, regardless of how little association it might have with our issues here.” She facepalmed and shouted, “Are you even listening to yourself?!”
Rainbow Dash growled in frustration, then pointed at Twilight and accusingly exclaimed, “You don’t want me to be right because you’re too scared to be a superhero!”
Twilight slapped Rainbow’s hand away and furiously shot back, “We are not superheroes!”
Rainbow scoffed and dryly retorted, “Oh, excuuuuse me! We’re just ordinary girls who just happen to be members of the heroic LEGO Team with special powers who just happen to have saved the whole world from complete destruction multiple times!”
Twilight pretended to think for a moment before she flatly responded, “Uh, yes. That’s exactly who we are.”
Rainbow’s jaw dropped as she stared at Twilight in disbelief, then clenched her fists as she growled furiously and argued, “You go ahead and keep telling yourself that, but the rest of us aren’t in denial! Right, girls? Let’s get in those lifeboats and do what we do best! Who’s with me?!”
The rest of the group standing behind Twilight did not share Rainbow’s enthusiasm at all. In fact, practically all of them seemed to regard her invitation for heroism with open hostility, either by turning their looks of frustration away or growling furiously and crossing their arms. It was so obvious that not even someone as blinded by ego as Rainbow Dash could possibly deny the reality that she well and truly stood alone in her efforts.
Rainbow slumped as she sighed and grumbled, “Okay, that’s the last time I say that.”
“The fact that just about everything you’ve done to us today has only made our time on this cruise increasingly worse might explain why we find it so hard to trust you right now,” explained Sunset with a frown. “Just because we’ve already saved the world a bunch of times doesn’t mean we want to keep doing it all the time.”
“And dragging us all here against our will just to see absolutely nothing certainly hasn’t done you any favors,” added Spike grumpily. “I mean, if you really wanted to show us something that badly, couldn’t you have just, I dunno, used your phone to take a picture and send it to us?”
Rainbow’s immediate response to that question was nothing more than a blank stare. Clearly, she had not even considered such an idea, and in a poor attempt to avoid embarrassing herself, she glanced away and rubbed the back of her head as she awkwardly responded, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…”
“You are such a brick-head,” grumbled Spike as he shook his head in disappointment. “I’m outta here.” He turned away and began walking towards the nearest door to the interior of the ship.
“I’m with Spike on this,” declared Pinkie with a scowl. “For the second time today, I was literally only one second away from finally tasting that Triple Choco-Berry Blasted Butter Biscuit Bundt Cake, only for you to completely ruin it all! And worse, because of your impatience, I’m now perma-banned from the buffet, which means I’m gonna be left starving for the rest of our time out here! WHAT KIND OF SICK PERSON DOES THAT TO HER OWN FRIEND!?!” She let out a furious sigh and stormed off to the door into the ship.
“I must share Pinkie’s indignant attitude towards you,” added Rarity offensively. “I was in the middle of a romantic moment with that lovely crewmate Ragamuffin, only moments away from sharing our first kiss, when you just had to snatch me away like some sort of barbaric brute! After an interruption like that, I imagine it would be a miracle if he were to even speak to me ever again! Remember this day well, Rainbow Dash, for I swear, I shall find a way to one day make you feel the same heartbreak you have just made me endure!” She turned around with a huff and marched away to follow Pinkie and Spike.
“Don’t even get me started on our engine trouble,” grumbled Twilight. “If it hadn’t been for your impeccably poor timing, I would’ve been able to restore all electrical power to this ship by now. Instead, I wouldn’t be surprised if we wake up tomorrow to see everything still offline due to the damage your disruption caused.” She turned away and made her way back to the ship’s interior.
Sunset pulled out the disabled display screen she had unintentionally brought with her and scolded, “This was the weather radar display from the ship’s bridge, and thanks to you practically kidnapping me with awful timing, we now have no way of knowing just how bad this storm is or how long it might last. For all we know, we could be stranded at sea for weeks before anyone tries to find us. And believe me, I’ll make sure everyone on board knows who to point the blame at.” She tossed the destroyed electronic at Rainbow’s feet, then turned to follow after Twilight.
Applejack simply glared at Rainbow and scornfully muttered, “Do Ah really have to say anythin’?” She turned away and followed after the others.
Fluttershy looked away and hesitated for a moment. With a heavy heart, she eventually said, “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but… it’s like you don’t even care about any of us.” She turned around and shamefully confessed, “I just don’t see any reason why any of us should even trust you right now.” With a sigh of disappointment, she walked to the door into the ship.
Once again, Rainbow Dash found herself standing completely alone. It just didn’t seem fair to her. She was absolutely convinced that she had finally found proof of evil Equestrian Magic, but none of her friends were willing to believe her. Instead, they were blaming her for all of their issues, and she just couldn’t understand why they all thought it was such a big deal. In her mind, nothing could be more important than stopping evil magic from Equestria.
As Rainbow Dash took one last glanced out at the empty rippling ocean surface behind the ship, she couldn’t help but mutter, “But it was evil magic…”
Later that night, Twilight and Sunset were in their room and getting ready for bed. They had already changed out of their dresses and into their pajamas, and were now finishing up in the bathroom. Under the illumination of one of the provided flashlights, Twilight washed her face over the sink while Sunset brushed her teeth off to the side.
As Twilight stepped aside and grabbed a small towel to dry herself off with, she spoke up, “I know Rainbow Dash has been such a stubborn pest today, but now that I’ve had time to cool off and think, I can’t help but wonder if maybe we went a little too far.”
Sunset spat out her toothpaste into the sink and rinsed her toothbrush as she responded, “As far as what was said, I’d say we’ve gone as far as we possibly could. All we can hope for now is that she actually thinks about everything and listens to us.”
“And if she doesn’t?” asked Twilight as she retrieved her glasses and put them back on.
Sunset sighed as she packed away her toothbrush and replied, “Then I guess she’s just one of those people who pretty much need to get punched in the face before she finally learns her lesson. Believe me, I know from personal experience…” She trailed off as she thought back to that time when she was corrupted by Equestrian Magic, turned into a raging she-demon, and got blasted by a friendship rainbow laser before she finally learned to stop being so mean to everyone around her.
The implication left Twilight feeling uneasy. As she grabbed the flashlight to guide herself and Sunset to their separate beds, she asked, “Is this another suggestion that we should let karma do its thing, as you said earlier?”
“At this point,” replied Sunset reluctantly, “we may have to give her the Boy Who Cried Wolf treatment. We’ll completely ignore any more talk of evil magic from her, and in the unlikely event that something evil really is somewhere around, then she’ll have to give us a very heartfelt apology for everything she did to us before we can start taking her seriously again.”
“I sure hope it doesn’t have to come to that,” muttered Twilight.
Thump-thump-thump!
“C’mon, Pinkie! Let me in!” shouted Rainbow Dash from outside the room.
“No!” came Pinkie Pie’s muffled response from another room.
Twilight and Sunset glanced at each other in confusion, then walked to the door and carefully opened it to see what was happening out in the hallway without drawing any attention to themselves.
“You can’t just lock me out!” insisted Rainbow Dash as she pounded on the door to the room that she and Pinkie had agreed to share. “This is my room, too!”
“No!” Pinkie shouted back from the other side of that door. “I refuse to share a room with a big meanie-pants like you!”
“C’mon, Pinkie!” demanded Rainbow as she pounded on the door again. “All my stuff is in there!”
Pinkie didn’t immediately respond. A few seconds later, the door unlocked with a click and opened. But before Rainbow had a chance to do anything, a large trunk was suddenly hurled at her, striking her in the abdomen. That was quickly followed by one suitcase to the chest, another suitcase to the legs, and a third suitcase to the abdomen as she fell over onto her rear. Finally, the last item tossed out was her electric guitar, which struck her in the forehead.
“Ow!” shouted Rainbow as she rubbed the part of her head that was hit.
With all of Rainbow Dash’s luggage now tossed outside, Pinkie immediately slammed the door shut and relocked it with a click. “And since it’s your fault I’ll be starving all week, I took all of your energy bars!” Pinkie hollered back through the shut door.
“Fine!” snapped Rainbow Dash as she hastily gathered up all of her discarded luggage. “I’ll sleep out on the deck! At least that way, when that evil magic shows up, I’ll be ready to face it the moment it arrives!” She turned away and began to drag her luggage behind her as she made her way down the hallway towards the door that would lead outside onto the deck above.
Twilight and Sunset shared a concerned glance, then retreated back into their room and carefully closed their door. Despite Rainbow’s awful behavior all day, the two girls just couldn’t help but think that she didn’t deserve such vengeful treatment from her friends. As much as they wanted to do something about it, they felt that it was probably not a good idea to try talking with her so soon after such a fierce confrontation. Perhaps a good night’s rest would allow everyone to calm down and allow them to resolve their tensions the next morning.