Chapter 3
Rescue Mission
The next morning, the situation aboard the Luxe Deluxe had remained unchanged. Despite going through half of their coffee supply to stay up all night long, the crewmen in the engine room had struggled to make much progress with repairing the extensive damage to the ship’s main engine, so the power was still out for everyone on board. In addition, the storm outside showed no signs of passing anytime soon, and in fact seemed to be slowly growing even worse. As a result of being stranded in stormy conditions for an indefinite amount of time, the crew decided to be on the safe side and began asking everyone on the ship to start wearing lifejackets — orange pieces that covered the front and back of the torso and were attached around the neck joint.
Despite the occasional rumble of thunder and distant flash of lightning outside, most of the people on the ship tried to make the most with what they had available. The kitchen was one of the few rooms that had a backup generator, so the kitchen staff were able to provide everyone with a warm breakfast. Among the passengers dining in the buffet room were the Equestria Girls — with the exception of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, for whom their ban was still in effect. They were all now back in the same outfits they had worn the previous afternoon, with the addition of those mandatory lifejackets over their torsos.
Boom!
One lightning strike had come close enough that the accompanying boom of thunder had caused the whole ship to briefly shake — which the passengers noticed had made the chandeliers handing from the ceiling slightly sway.
At the table where the Equestria Girls sat, Applejack was the only one without a tray of food in front of her. Already green in the face from her seasickness, she rested her head against the table as she groaned and miserably muttered, “This storm sure ain’t makin’ me feel any better…”
Rarity was seated beside Applejack and wordlessly comforted her seasick friend by gently rubbing her back.
While Fluttershy, Spike, and Sunset contently ate their breakfast, Twilight barely ate anything on her tray as she had a rather depressed look on her face.
Noticing her friend’s sullen mood, Sunset asked, “What’s wrong, Twilight?”
Twilight kept her eyes down at her tray as she sighed and replied, “I wasn’t very nice to Rainbow Dash last night.”
“It’s not just your fault, Twilight,” assured Fluttershy.
“Yeah,” acknowledged Spike with regret. “We all contributed to chewing her out last night.”
“No one’s blaming you for wanting to give us a normal vacation, Twilight,” assured Sunset. She looked down at her tray as she sadly added, “We’d be having one if it weren’t for me. I brought Equestrian Magic to this world in the first place.”
Hearing those words made Twilight turn her gaze up at Sunset. “I wouldn’t trade you for anything in the world,” stated Twilight as she reached forward and placed her hand atop Sunset’s. “In any world. It’s because of you that I got a chance to have the best friends I could ever ask for.”
Sunset stared at Twilight’s hand atop hers, then smiled as she looked up at Twilight and said, “I wouldn’t trade you for anything, either. You and all our friends mean so much to me. And after what happened yesterday, we should make sure Rainbow Dash feels the same way.”
“I agree,” said Twilight with a smile and a nod. “Like you said last night, she’ll be more likely to listen now that we’ve had some time to cool off. As soon as we’re finished breakfast, we’ll go out onto the deck and find her.”
With the decision made, Twilight and Sunset quickly finished their meals. Within a few minutes, they left the buffet room through the double doors and made their way down the hallway towards the deck above.
Just outside the buffet room, Pinkie Pie sat on the floor beside the doorway. As she watched two of her friends leave, she sighed sadly and gazed down at her feet. Seeing everyone else being able to enjoy their meals without any issues left her feeling absolutely depressed. It just wasn’t fair.
Just a few seconds later, Fluttershy opened the door and looked down at Pinkie with a friendly smile as she stepped out of the buffet room. She knelt down beside Pinkie and held out a tray with all kinds of breakfast food piled on top of it.
The smell of that delicious meal made Pinkie turn her attention towards Fluttershy. When she saw the large meal that had been brought to her, she gasped excitedly and immediately pulled Fluttershy into a big hug as she cheerfully exclaimed, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Fluttershy giggled and remarked, “Did you really think I would just allow you to starve? You know I’m too nice to not help a friend in trouble.”
“Oh, thank you so much, Fluttershy!” exclaimed Pinkie in gratitude as she grabbed the tray and set it down in her lap. “You really are a true friend I can always count on.” Her expression suddenly soured as she grumbled, “Unlike a certain someone who put me out here in the first place.”
“Don’t worry about Rainbow Dash,” assured Fluttershy. “Sunset and Twilight are on their way to have a talk with her. I’m sure they’ll convince her to relax so we can all be on friendly terms again.”
Pinkie didn’t bother responding as she quickly began digging into the large meal that had been so kindly brought to her by one of her best friends.
Outside the ship, the stormy conditions had definitely gotten worse overnight. Small waves were now constantly rolling all around the idle ship, and a strong breeze had forced everyone to take shelter below deck. The fact that Rainbow Dash had spent the night outside and fully exposed to this kind of weather was a rather horrifying thought to Twilight and Sunset, and only deepened the guilt they felt for choosing to wait. With their hair whipping around in the wind, the two girls walked together along the main deck as they searched for their absent friend.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out over the howling wind. “We’re ready to have a do-over!”
A sudden strong gust nearly threw the two girls off their feet, forcing them to hold down their hair pieces to prevent them from blowing away. When the gust calmed down, Sunset stumbled over to the side of the ship, where the lifeboats were stored. As she regained her bearings, she quickly noticed one of those lifeboats was actually missing. “Over here, Twilight!” she called out.
Twilight turned to Sunset and saw the empty space among the lifeboats that she was pointing at. That was all she needed to see to realize there was a high probability that Rainbow Dash had something to do with it.
“You don’t think she went off into the storm, do you?” asked Sunset worriedly as she and Twilight peered over the side of the ship to look down at the choppy sea below.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” cautioned Twilight as she backed away from the railing. “Unlike Rainbow’s methods yesterday, I intend to take a more practical approach right from the start.” She pulled out her phone and smiled. “I’ll just call her and we’ll have our answer right away.”
Twilight pulled up her list of contacts on her phone, then tapped the icon displaying Rainbow Dash. Twilight and Sunset could only wait in tension as they listed to the dial tone. Finally, after half a minute, they heard a prerecorded message from Rainbow Dash that spoke, “What’s up, nerds? It’s Rainbow Dash having way too much fun being awesome to answer your call! So leave a message, if you’re too old to text me!”
As they listened to Rainbow’s voicemail message, Twilight and Sunset slowly turned their worried gazes out towards the stormy sea. It seemed the failed effort to call their missing friend had indeed given them the answer they needed, though it was far from the one they had been hoping for.
Boom!
Another flash of lightning and the accompanying thunder only enhanced the dread the two girls were now feeling.
Sunset kicked the railing in frustration and grumbled, “We shouldn’t have waited… We should’ve spoken to her last night… At the very least, one of us should’ve kept an eye on her! And now she’s gone off and done something so stupid that it could cost her Creation Spark.”
“What do you suggest we do?” asked Twilight worriedly.
Sunset wasn’t sure how to answer that at first as she stared out at the rough seas. Her gaze turned to one of the remaining lifeboats and soon she began to realize there was only one thing they absolutely had to do. She narrowed her eyes and replied with determination, “Call our friends and tell them to meet us here right away. I’ll be right back.” She then quickly ran off down the deck.
Twilight was unsure what Sunset had in mind, but obeyed her request and quickly texted all of the rest of their friends. At the very least, they deserved to see for themselves what was really going on with Rainbow Dash, as far as they knew.
A few minutes later, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike had gathered together with Twilight near the site of the missing lifeboat. Twilight had just finished explaining the situation to them when they saw Sunset return, carrying in her arms a few supplies that included a towel, a life preserver ring, and a first aid kit.
“I just spoke with the captain,” stated Sunset as she tossed the supplies into one of the remaining lifeboats. “He’s given me permission to borrow a lifeboat and some supplies so I can find Rainbow Dash.”
“You’re going after her?” asked Twilight in shock.
“She wouldn’t even be out there if I hadn’t brought Equestrian Magic to the Lego World in the first place,” replied Sunset shamefully, keeping her back to her friends. She turned around to face them and asked, “What about you, Twilight? Are you in?”
“Of course I’m in!” declared Twilight with determination as she stepped forward. “A hundred percent on board!”
Everyone stared at Twilight, the awkward silence broken only by a distant rumble of thunder.
Sunset gestured to the lifeboat and said, “Then get on board.”
“I just said I—” began Twilight, but suddenly stopped as soon as she made a realization. She smiled and slyly added, “Ohhh, ‘on board.’ I see what you did there.” As she walked past Sunset towards the lifeboat, she couldn’t help but nervously think, What have I gotten myself into?
Sunset turned to all of her other friends and asked, “What about the rest of you?”
“In mah condition, there’s no way Ah’ll last more than a few seconds out there,” admitted Applejack, holding one hand against the wall of windows to keep herself upright. “Ah’ll help the crew fix the engine while you’re gone. With any luck, we’ll be ready to go before that storm gets too severe.” She suddenly wobbled and began to fall over backwards, but Pinkie quickly caught her and pulled her friend close to comfort her.
“But you’re seasick,” Sunset pointed out worriedly. “Going below deck is the worst thing you could do.”
Applejack gulped down her seasickness and gave a weak smile as she stated, “Not worse than losin’ Rainbow Dash.”
“I’ll stay here and help keep people calm!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully declared with a salute. She briefly turned away and muttered under her breath, “Get cake.” When she noticed she got weird looks from saying that, she spoke up, “I mean, keep people calm!”
“And I’ll make sure there’s lifejackets for everyone,” assured Fluttershy. She gently petted a grey bunny in her arms as she added, “Even grandchildren.”
“I’ll head up to the bridge,” stated Spike. “If what you’ve said about the captain is true, then he’ll need a number one assistant to keep his head on straight in a crisis like this.”
“And I’ll inform the below-deck crew of these unforeseen events,” declared Rarity dramatically, “even though we’re from two different worlds. One a lonely coal miner, the other a sophisticated beaut—”
Applejack suddenly gagged and held a hand over her mouth while she happened to be facing towards Rarity.
That quickly snapped Rarity out of her fantasy. She blushed in embarrassment as she cleared her throat and awkwardly said, “I mean, I’ll, uh, I’ll, uh, I’ll help Applejack feel better.”
By this point, both Twilight and Sunset had climbed into the lifeboat and secured their supplies. As Twilight waved to their friends staying behind, Sunset stated, “We’ll find Rainbow Dash and be back as soon as possible. Let’s go, Twilight!”
Twilight nodded in acknowledgement and used her telekinetic power to steadily unspool the ropes, gently lowering the lifeboat into the water.
As soon as the lifeboat was afloat in the sea, Sunset untied the rope on her end, while Twilight started up the motor on the back. With the motor revved up, the lifeboat began to speed away from the ship as the two girls riding in it looked ahead with determination.
With the strong breeze whipping their hair around and the rough seas rocking the boat around, it took a little while for Sunset to get the feeling they weren’t actually going very far. She glanced back and noticed that the rope on Twilight’s end of the boat was still tethered to the ship. She turned her gaze towards Twilight and flatly stated, “You forgot to untie the rope.”
Twilight glanced back at the ship and noticed the silly mistake she had made. “Whoops. My bad,” she muttered as she untied the rope. Once they were definitely free from the ship, she steered the lifeboat out into the open ocean.
“Are you sure this is where Rainbow Dash went?” asked Sunset. “From the brief glimpse I saw on the weather radar last night, this would take us right into the worst part of the storm.”
“She was pointing in this general direction when she wanted us to follow her in the lifeboats,” noted Twilight. “Knowing her, she would probably rush head-first into danger without even a second thought, so we have no choice but to do the same.”
Boom!
Another flash of lightning and rumble of thunder startled the two girls. Just seconds later, they began to feel a light drizzle descending upon them.
“This is suicide,” muttered Sunset in disbelief. “We should not be doing something this crazy…”
“I really hope we’ll at least find something,” said Twilight worriedly. “If anything happened to Rainbow Dash out in these conditions, I doubt we would ever find any trace of her.”
“There! Up ahead!” Sunset suddenly cried out as she pointed ahead of the boat.
Twilight looked ahead and saw a small island beginning to emerge through the dark fog. She was momentarily astonished to see they were rapidly approaching such a significant landmass. As far as she could recall, there wasn’t supposed to be any land at all in this part of the ocean. Regardless, if Rainbow Dash was heading this way, then she almost certainly would have landed on that island.
As the lifeboat got closer, the two girls were able to better identify some features on this mysterious island. It was surrounded by jagged rocks, lined with broad beaches, and its interior was covered in dense jungle vegetation. With the rain starting to come down a little more, Twilight carefully navigated around those jagged rocks and gradually slowed down the motor as they approached the nearest beach. Once they made landfall, Twilight and Sunset quickly hopped out of the lifeboat and dragged it further up onto the beach to ensure it wouldn’t get swept out to sea without them.
As soon as the two girls set down their lifeboat, Sunset immediately spotted something resting further down the beach to their left. “Over there! Look!” she exclaimed. She swiftly removed her lifejacket piece and tossed it into their lifeboat as she began running towards the object she has sighted.
Twilight removed her life jacket and dropped it into their lifeboat before she followed after Sunset. As they approached the object on the beach, Twilight gasped and exclaimed, “It’s the missing lifeboat!”
“Along with a lifejacket,” noted Sunset as she picked up the single lifejacket piece that had been discarded within that other lifeboat. She tossed that lifejacket back into the lifeboat as she concluded, “Rainbow Dash has to be somewhere on this island.”
“But where could she have run off to?” asked Twilight.
Not long after that question was asked, both Sunset and Twilight turned their gazes towards the dense jungle inland from the beach. To say its first impression was of darkness and foreboding would be a huge understatement.
“You don’t think she… went in there? Do you?” asked Twilight worriedly.
As obvious as the answer probably was, Sunset would be lying if she said she didn’t dread it as much as her friend did.
Squawk!
Both Sunset and Twilight turned their attention to an upper branch of a nearby palm tree, where they saw a blue and yellow parrot was perched. Sunset sighed and grumbled, “Should’ve asked Fluttershy to come with us.”
The parrot faced the two girls as it squawked again, then spoke, “I’m going in that jungle!”
“I’m going in that jungle?” repeated Sunset in confusion. She glanced back and forth between the spooky jungle and the parrot, and it soon dawned on her that there was no longer any doubt as to where their missing friend had run off to. She turned back to Twilight and spoke up, “That parrot must be repeating what Rainbow said! Let’s go!”
Twilight glanced back at the jungle, then turned to Sunset and hesitantly asked, “In there?” She stared in horror at what little of the edge of that jungle she could see, watching the thick vegetation rustle in the wind, and she could have sworn she saw a few creepy little creatures skittering around along the ground. On top of that, the unrelenting rainfall only made everything even worse. She turned back to Sunset and fearfully insisted, “A-a-anyone could’ve said that.”
The parrot squawked again and spoke, “And I’m gonna improvise Rainbow Dash style!” The parrot finished with another squawk.
With that quote, there was no longer any doubt among anyone. Rainbow Dash had definitely run off into that spooky jungle.
Twilight threw her hands up in defeat and grumbled, “Ugh! Fine, we’ll go in there…”
Sunset led the way into the jungle, with Twilight reluctantly following right behind her. After walking only a few steps into the jungle, Sunset stopped and looked around as she muttered to herself, “Hmm… If I were as dumb and reckless as Rainbow Dash, which way would I go?” It was a legitimate question to ask, for she could not think of any other methods for possibly finding their missing friend in such a wild environment. When her gaze settled on a particularly dark and spooky looking path, she concluded, “Straight into the most obvious looking place for all things dark and evil.” She began walking down that dark path.
Twilight groaned and followed Sunset. As much as she despised that answer, she knew she couldn’t possibly dispute the reasoning Sunset had used.
As the two girls made their way deeper into the dark jungle, Sunset pushed aside a low-hanging vine, but when Twilight did likewise, a few bats suddenly came flying out of the shadows. Twilight yelped and frantically tried to shoo those bats away as she ran after Sunset. Once those bats were gone, Twilight momentarily lost her sense of direction, but the rustling noise Sunset was making through the foliage allowed her to quickly find her way back onto the trail.
A little further up the path, Sunset pushed aside some large leaves as she kept walking. Twilight had just caught up to her friend when one of those giant leaves sprung back and slapped her in the face like a fly swatter. She growled in frustration, then tore the leaf off its stem and tossed it aside. Should’ve brought my plasma blade, thought Twilight sourly.
Further ahead, Sunset emerged from the foliage and saw a clear and straight path up ahead, so she took this opportunity to pick up the pace. Twilight continued to follow her friend, but in her haste to keep up, she failed to watch where she was stepping and ended up tripping on a small rock embedded in the ground. She fell face-first against the dirt path, which the heavy rain had turned to mud. She got back up and groaned in disgust as she tried to smear off as much of the mud from her dress as possible. She removed her glasses and held them up to let the rainwater rinse them off as she used her other hand to wipe her face clean. Once everything on her was as clean as she could possibly get within only a matter of seconds, she put her glasses back on and continued up the trail.
By the end of that straight path, Sunset slowed to a walk and once again pushed aside a large leaf as she continued ahead. This time, Twilight saw the giant leaf coming and was able to dodge it when her friend released it. She smirked triumphantly as she stepped around that leaf, only to suddenly have a spider land right on her face. She shrieked and swiftly removed her glasses, which the spider clung onto. She flicked her glasses around until the spider was finally flung off, landing on its back on the ground near Twilight’s feet. As the spider helplessly wriggled its legs around in the air, she promptly kicked it aside back into the dense jungle.
Sunset glanced back at Twilight, then raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips as she asked, “What happened to all of your Shadowbolt training?”
“I was never fond of any field excursions,” Twilight specified as she put her glasses back on. “I was perfectly content with staying in my hideout and working on my inventions at all times.”
Sunset rolled her eyes and continued forward through the jungle. As the rainfall started getting especially heavy, she growled and grumbled, “I am so gonna make Rainbow Dash pay for forcing us to put up with all of this.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” muttered Twilight under her breath.
After a gradual uphill climb, the two girls immediately stopped when the path suddenly ended at the edge of a cliff. There was another cliff up ahead to form the opposite side of a gorge, the bottom of which descended all the way down towards a passage of seawater. The gap across was not far, but it was enough that there was no way to simply jump across without plunging into the roiling ocean far below.
“There’s no way Rainbow Dash could’ve made it across this,” noted Twilight.
“Help! Help!” cried a faint voice off in the distance.
Sunset’s eyes widened as she gasped and exclaimed, “That sounded like Rainbow Dash!”
“And it sounded like she’s in trouble,” added Twilight worriedly. “Where could she possibly be?”
Sunset shushed Twilight and placed her hand against the side of her head.
“Heeeeeellllllp!” cried Rainbow’s panicked voice again.
Despite the difficulty of identifying a faintly distant voice over the noise of the heavy rainfall, Sunset was able to deduce the direction it came from. “I think it’s coming from over there!” she exclaimed as she pointed directly across the gorge.
“You have got to be kidding me!” shouted Twilight as she gripped her hair in frustration. “How did she even get over there?!”
Sunset glanced back in the direction they came from. After a moment of thought, she noted, “The ground slopes upward leading up to this ledge. Rainbow Dash could’ve used her super speed to simply jump across, like a car at high speed going off a ramp.”
“That’s definitely not gonna be an option for us,” grumbled Twilight. “How are we gonna get across?”
Sunset once again looked around for possible solutions. She suddenly pointed to the right and spoke up, “Twilight! Look!”
Twilight turned to her right and saw what appeared to be the skeletons of two large creatures lying in the narrow clearing between the jungle and the cliff.
“Do you think you could rebuild that into a bridge?” asked Sunset.
Twilight considered Sunset’s idea for a moment, then smiled and nodded to her friend. She tapped her magical geode on her hairclip and then reached both hands out towards the skeletons. Using her telekinetic magic power, she lifted the skeletons off the ground, broke them up into the dozens of white Lego parts they were made of, and slowly levitated them toward the gorge as she quickly rearranged the pieces. In only a matter of seconds, she had fully assembled the structure, which she then carefully lowered down to span the gap while ensuring that both ends of it were firmly secured to each side of the gap.
With her work done, Twilight smiled and proudly remarked, “One bone-built bridge complete!”
“Great work, Twilight,” praised Sunset. “Now let’s go!” She immediately rushed across the bone bridge to the other side of the gorge, with Twilight following right behind her.
Meanwhile, at approximately the center of this small island, Rainbow Dash was quickly starting to regret her recent actions. She had foolishly not watched where she was running after jumping that gorge and ended up stepping right into the middle of a pit filled with quicksand. Her attempts to pull herself out proved futile, and the torrential rainfall saturating the pit only made such an escape even more difficult. It wasn’t until she had sunken down to her waist before she reluctantly began calling for help, but even with resorting to that final hope, she understood how extremely unlikely it was that any help would come.
After about a minute of calling out for help and struggling to pull her legs free, Rainbow Dash sighed and grumbled, “Way to go, Rainbow Dash. You did it again. You had to go off on your own, didn’t you?”
“Rainbow Dash!” cried out Sunset as she and Twilight suddenly burst through the surrounding foliage to arrive at the clearing where Rainbow Dash had gotten stuck.
Rainbow was very relieved that some of her friends had managed to find her. However, her predicament had left her pride so wounded that she refused to express any sign of weakness to anyone, so she just gave a friendly wave and casually spoke up, “Oh! Uh, hey girls! ‘Sup?” She tried to strike a cool pose by resting her forearm on the ground, only for it to start sinking before she remembered where she was and yanked it back out of the muck. She awkwardly continued, “Um, just takin’ a rest in here. Finding evil magic is hard work, y’know.”
Twilight and Sunset shared a skeptical look as they glanced at each other and then turned back to Rainbow as they crossed their arms. “Did you find any?” asked Twilight indignantly.
“Nah, just quicksand,” confessed Rainbow as she sheepishly traced a shape in the surface of the surrounding quicksand.
Sunset sighed and said, “Just try not to struggle. We’ll find something to pull you out.” She turned away and began searching through the surrounding foliage and vegetation.
“Struggle?” asked Rainbow in another poor attempt to act like everything was perfectly fine. “Who’s struggling?” As she expressed her false confidence, she casually rested her head against her hand propped up by her elbow, which then began sinking into the muck and forcing her to yank it out.
Twilight shook her head in contempt, then turned away and began searching through the foliage as she sighed and grumbled, “Typical Rainbow Dash… pride and ego so grossly oversized, they overwhelm even your basic survival instincts…”
With everyone’s disinterested attention turned away from her, Rainbow dropped the act and admitted, “I’ve had a little time to think…”
Twilight and Sunset seemingly paid no attention to Rainbow Dash as they continued searching through the surrounding vegetation, the awkward silence broken only by an air bubble rising up and popping at the surface of the quicksand near Rainbow’s rear end.
“A lot of time, actually,” Rainbow shamefully continued. “And I spent most of wishing I could make it up to you, because… because you were right.”
The blue and yellow parrot from the beach suddenly flew in and perched itself on a nearby branch as Rainbow spoke. As soon as she finished her comment, the parrot squawked and spoke up, “Twilight’s wrong!”
Rainbow Dash chuckled in embarrassment and awkwardly argued, “Uh, a-anyone could’ve said that.”
The parrot squawked again and spoke, “I’m gonna improvise Rainbow Dash style!”
Rainbow sighed and bitterly muttered, “Should’ve known better than to say that with a parrot around…”
Twilight broke off a large tree branch as she scoffed dismissively and grumbled, “I guess not even getting punched in the face would ever teach you a lesson.”
Seeing the indifferent attitude from Twilight in that moment might as well have been that punch to the face for Rainbow Dash. She finally relented to the reality she was faced with and shamefully confessed, “I was a little annoyed at first, but I’ll admit it… I ruined everyone’s vacation for nothing. There’s no magic out here… Nothing magical at all…”
Sunset noticed Twilight grabbing that tree branch, so she walked over to her to discuss a plan to rescue Rainbow Dash. But before she could say anything, she noticed something big starting to rise up on the other side of the quicksand pit. Too terrified to take her eyes off the dark monstrosity, she nudged Twilight and pointed up at what she saw.
Twilight followed Sunset’s gaze and when she caught sight of what was now looming over the entire clearing, she was so shocked in terror that she dropped the tree branch in her hands.
Rainbow Dash failed to notice the terrified looks on her friends’ faces as she continued, “The only villain trying to ruin this whole vacation… was me.”
“And maybe that giant plant monster?” added Sunset fearfully.
“What giant plant monster?” asked Rainbow.
“That giant plant monster!” shouted Twilight as she pointed up at something above and behind Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash turned her head back to gaze straight up. She realized there was no rain falling on her face due to a dark shape — upside down from her current perspective — that she could see against the cloudy sky. A flash of lightning revealed the creature to consist of some thick green vines, with a central stem that ended in a giant gaping jaw full of jagged teeth, like some sort of oversized venus flytrap.
Boom!
Right after the rumble of thunder that accompanied the flash of lightning, the plant monster raised its head and let out a deep and loud roar, then rushed down to reach the trapped girl.
Rainbow Dash let out a terrified scream and helplessly held her arms over her head. She had expected a swift end to her existence, but when she noticed a few seconds pass with seemingly nothing happening to her, she opened her eyes and nervously looked up.
The plant monster has its jaw gaping wide open and surrounding Rainbow Dash, but was barely even budging. It took Rainbow a moment to realize that the head of this plant monster was engulfed in a magenta magical glow — the same magical glow that surrounded Twilight’s hands as she held them out at the oversized plant creature.
With Twilight holding back the immediate threat for now, that left only Sunset able to act. Knowing there was no time to lose, she quickly picked up the tree branch that Twilight had dropped and held it out across the quicksand pit towards Rainbow.
“Get me outta here!” screamed Rainbow Dash.
“We’re trying!” exclaimed Twilight as she struggled to hold back the plant monster’s head. As soon as she noticed the numerous wriggling vines trying to reach towards her, she was quickly forced to extend her magical grasp to them as well.
“Try harder!” Rainbow shot back as she reached for the tree branch with both hands, but couldn’t quite touch it.
Sunset repositioned herself to lay flat against ground right at the very edge of the pit as she reached her arm out as far as possible. Rainbow grunted as she reached her hands out until finally she was able to grasp it. With Rainbow now holding onto that branch, Sunset immediately began tugging on the branch to pull her trapped friend towards the edge of the pit. However, Rainbow suddenly felt her torso start to separate from her hip joint, so she yelped as she removed her left hand from the tree branch and used it to grab her posterior and pull her legs back into the proper connection to her torso.
“What are you doing?!” exclaimed Sunset, astonished to see Rainbow let one hand go from the branch.
“I am not ditching my legs!” Rainbow sharply replied as she held her left hand on her rear end to keep her legs attached.
As much as Sunset wanted to get her friend out of harm’s way immediately, she now had no choice but to pull the branch slowly enough so the quicksand could eventually release Rainbow Dash with all of her pieces still attached. With the persistent threat of the plant monster looming overhead, it was an agonizingly slow process, but she was able to make enough progress to soon grab the branch with both hands and get up into a kneeling position.
Meanwhile, Twilight continued struggling to hold back every part of the giant plant monster. It seemed that just when she thought she had held down every vine that came her way, another one would appear and force her to subdue that one as well. Despite her immense magical power, Twilight still had her limits, and when she exceeded that limit, her magical grip on the plant monster’s head slipped loose. She gasped and shouted, “Look out!”
Sunset and Rainbow glanced up just in time to see the plant monster’s main stem come down right between them. The creature slammed into the quicksand pit — which Sunset noticed briefly gave off a mysterious bright glow as she shielded her face against the spray of sand. As the monstrous creature rose up again, Sunset saw that the tree branch in her hand had been snapped in half, and Rainbow Dash was now buried up to her neck in the quicksand pit.
Refusing to give up, Sunset tossed aside the broken branch and reached her arm forward as she shouted, “Take my hand!”
“Take your hand?” asked Rainbow Dash skeptically. “With what, my mouth?” An air bubble rose up from the quicksand right in front of her face and popped, causing her to sputter and spit sand out of her mouth.
The popping of that bubble briefly exposed the same bright glow that Sunset had glimpsed just seconds earlier. “I’ve seen something like this before,” she noted quietly. She brushed away the top layer of sand from the quicksand pit, exposing a swirling vortex that glowed a bright golden yellow color. She gasped and exclaimed, “This is definitely Equestrian Magic!”
Meanwhile, Twilight was forced to release her hold on some of the vines so she could reestablish her magical grip on the plant monster’s head, thus keeping her friends safe for the moment. Those vines that were released quickly resumed wriggling towards her. She released her grip on some other vines to grasp the vines that were getting closer, but now those other vines were coming closer, and she was forced to keep alternating her limited power between each part of the giant plant monster. “I can’t hold it back much longer!” she cried out desperately.
Sunset glanced up at the plant monster, back to Twilight, then down at the quicksand pit. She knew they were running out of time and options for any hope of escape, but if that Equestrian Magic in the pit was what she thought it was, then that just opened up something that could completely change their luck. Sunset had to admit that this new option was quite a leap of faith, but seeing no other guaranteed way out, she decided to go for it.
Sunset turned to Rainbow Dash and said with determination, “I have a way out of this. Do you trust me?”
“Of course!” Rainbow Dash instantly responded. Not like I have any choice right now, she mentally added.
“Good! See you soon!” Sunset quickly said as she placed her hand atop Rainbow’s head and then promptly shoved her completely down beneath the surface of the quicksand.
Twilight gasped at that sight and cried out in shock, “Did you just—?!”
“I’ll explain later!” Sunset sharply responded. “We jump in after her on three!”
By this point, Twilight had been struggling against the plant monster for so long that exhaustion was starting to set in. With no choice but to trust Sunset, she turned and slowly backed up towards her friend while straining against the enormous creature that threatened to break loose. Just seconds later, her full concentration completely slipped and she began to collapse backwards. Every part of the giant plant monster was now free to resume its attack.
“One-two-three!” Sunset quickly shouted as she caught Twilight and carried her backwards until they both leaped off the edge of the quicksand pit and plunged into the obscured depths, with Twilight screaming the whole way down.
As soon as Sunset and Twilight plunged into the pit, a bright column of golden light suddenly erupted from it, blasting the giant plant monster in the head and driving it back into the shadows it had emerged from. The column of light was so intensely bright that it could be seen as far away as the stranded cruise ship of the Luxe Deluxe.
On the ship’s bridge, Captain Bluffbeard tipped his hat as he watched the distant pillar of light and remarked, “By Neptune’s trident… Never seen a beacon like that before.”
“That’s the same direction Twilight and Sunset went to find Rainbow Dash,” noted Spike in shock. As the pillar of light slowly began to fade, he worriedly added, “I sure hope they’re okay…”
Twilight has expected to sink into a pool of quicksand and swiftly drown. Instead, much to her further shock, she and Sunset tumbled through a strange void until they were ultimately flung backwards out of a glowing yellow vortex on the side of some rocky surface. As the glowing vortex faded to blend in with the rocky surface, Twilight and Sunset continued tumbling backwards until they collided into something. That something make a grunt noise in such a voice that both girls immediately recognized that it was Rainbow Dash who had gone in just ahead of them.
Twilight groaned as she rolled over to rest all four limbs against the ground. She glanced around, but saw nothing but absolute darkness. “Where are we?” she asked.
“Not about to get eaten by a plant monster,” responded Rainbow Dash irritably. “Good enough for me.” As she pushed herself off the ground, she couldn’t help but notice that something about lengths of her arms and legs didn’t seem quite right, for some weird reason.
“It’s… more complicated than that,” confessed Sunset as she stood up in such a way that she was all too familiar with.
“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.
Rather than try to explain everything, Sunset decided the best way to answer that was to simply show them. She mentally focused on a magic spell she was easily familiar with and right away, the unicorn horn on her head glowed with her red-orange magical aura and quickly brightened enough to illuminate their location.
“Whoa…” said Rainbow Dash as she and her two friends looked around to see they were now in some kind of large cavern with an underground waterfall right behind them.
But once the girls turned their attention back to each other, their awe was immediately replaced with shock and confusion. Rather than plastic Lego minifigures with two arms and two legs, the three girls who stood there were now fully organic equine creatures with four legs and a tail. Not only that, but Sunset and Twilight had a horn on their heads, while Rainbow Dash instead had a pair of wings on the sides of her body.
Upon realizing that whatever had just happened had affected all three of them, Twilight and Rainbow immediately began inspecting their own bodies — pony bodies that they had never experienced at all until now.
Twilight quickly reacted to this revelation in the most logical and sensible way she could think of. She pressed her forelegs against the sides of her face and screamed loudly in absolute panic.