//------------------------------// // Pony Style // Story: LEGO Equestria Girls 8 // by Chronicler06 //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Pony Style While Sunset and Twilight were away to find Rainbow Dash, the rest of their friends had stayed behind on the Luxe Deluxe to help everyone on board cope with the ever worsening storm. Spike, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had already gone off in different directions to see to the tasks they had offered to take care of. Applejack had insisted on helping the crew repair the damaged engine, but due to her persistent seasickness, Rarity had offered to escort her down into the engine room. By the time they reached the engine room, Applejack had managed to recover enough to be capable of standing without any assistance, although her movement still remained slightly sluggish. Rarity was just about to announce their presence to the crew when she spotted a rather familiar face approach them. “Rar-i-ee!” greeted Ragamuffin cheerfully. “This is quite a nice surprise. What’s a fancy girl like you doin’ down in a dank an’ shoddy place as this?” Rarity blushed as she stuttered for a moment before she managed to reply, “Oh, um, I was, er, well, you see, my friend Applejack here wishes to offer her assistance with the ongoing repair work, but because she has been feeling a little under the weather lately, I volunteered to accompany her to ensure she would arrive safely.” “How really thoughtful of ya,” praised Ragamuffin. “Not often do I get to meet someone selfless enough to go outta their comfort zone solely for the sake of a friend.” “Yes, well, I have been known for my gestures of generosity,” remarked Rarity bashfully. “Y’all save that sweet-talkin’ for later,” Applejack spoke up as she began to walk past Ragamuffin towards the engine. “We got work to do.” “Aye,” acknowledged Ragamuffin with a nod. He turned back to Rarity and assured her, “No need to worry ‘bout us, love. We can hold our own. You should head back up an’ see to the safety of the passengers. If it makes ya feel better, I promise to look after your friend as if she were me sister.” “Much appreciated, Ragamuffin,” said Rarity with a smile. “Let us hope for the best that we shall put this ordeal behind us as soon as possible.” Ragamuffin smiled back and handed over a walkie-talkie to Rarity. “This’ll let us keep in contact without either of us havin’ to run up an’ down the whole ship, eh?” he remarked playfully. With that smile still on his face, he then turned around and rejoined the crewmen working on the engine, now with Applejack assisting them as well. Rarity watched Ragamuffin for a moment before she pocketed the walkie-talkie and left the room. Once she reached the hallway of one of the upper decks, she quietly let out a giddy squeal and said to herself, “He called me ‘Love’! There may yet be a chance for us, after all!” Baaaa! Rarity shrieked and jumped aside as a sheep suddenly came charging down the hallway. She watched that sheep rush past her, then turned her gaze to the other direction down the hallway, where she saw Fluttershy chasing after that sheep. “Sorry about that,” apologized Fluttershy as she stopped beside Rarity and held up a lifejacket in her hands. “Some of the animals are being a little, um… difficult with putting on their lifejackets. I know this storm has them feeling uneasy, but they need to understand that this is for their own safety.” “Don’t let me stand in your way, then,” said Rarity contently with a smile. “I was just on my way up to check on our fellow passengers.” “I’ll join you once I’ve got every animal accounted for,” assured Fluttershy before she resumed her pursuit down the hallway. Rarity continued making her way up through the ship on her way to the upper deck. She was just about to pass the entrance to the buffet when the double doors suddenly flew open and Pinkie Pie was thrown out into the hallway. “AND STAY OUT!!” shouted Puffed Pastry before she slammed the doors shut. Pinkie sat up from where she had landed, stared at the shut doors, then sighed sadly. “Another failed attempt to obtain that bundt cake, I presume?” asked Rarity. Pinkie nodded and muttered, “I don’t get it. All I want is to try that one cake, but she keeps reacting as if I flushed her puppy down a toilet — which I would never do for any reason.” “I suppose some people are just too stubborn to listen to reason,” noted Rarity. She held out her hand to Pinkie and offered, “Perhaps assisting me in looking after the well-being of the other passengers will help take your mind off things.” Pinkie smiled and accepted Rarity’s hand to help pull her up to her feet. The two girls then made their way up onto the deck. Meanwhile, Spike was inspecting the emergency battery pack on the bridge. He sighed and muttered, “Just as I thought. This thing’s been completely used up.” “That’s quite a shame,” noted Captain Bluffbeard sadly. “An’ here I was hopin’ it had enough power to run the massage chair fer more than two hours.” “Then I guess we’ll just have to wait for those workers to fix the engine,” grumbled Spike. He glared at Bluffbeard and scolded, “Seriously, though, you need to get your priorities straight. We’re stranded in the middle of the ocean. It’s not like we can just go out to a nearby shop and grab a replacement—” He stopped when a thought suddenly occurred to him. He immediately facepalmed and spoke up, “Of course! The Jump-Gate return device! Twilight always carries one with her in case of emergency situations!” But just as suddenly as his hopes were raised, they quickly fell when another thought occurred to him. “And I saw she had it with her when she and Sunset went to find Rainbow Dash…” “It was a good idea, lad,” assured Bluffbeard. “I certainly never would’ve thought to use such a gadget.” Spike turned to look out the window in the direction where Twilight and Sunset had gone — the same direction where he had briefly witnessed a pillar of light off in the distance just minutes ago. He placed his hand against the window and sadly muttered, “I really hope they can find their way back as soon as possible…” As soon as she discovered what had happened to Sunset, Rainbow Dash, and herself, Twilight had immediately panicked and began running through the dark cavern. She didn’t care where they actually were, all she wanted was to get out in the open right away, so she aimlessly ran off straight ahead in the only direction where the cavern seemed to continue somewhere. She stumbled for a moment as she found herself forced to run on four legs instead of two due to her new physiology, but that only heightened her panicked state. “Twilight! Wait up!” called Sunset as she ran after Twilight. Unlike her two friends, she was already used to this body, so she had no difficulty keeping up. Rainbow Dash also tried to follow, but awkwardly tripped over her own legs. She attempted to get back up, but again she immediately tripped over herself. She growled in frustration at just how complicated it was for her to do something as simple as running in this new body, but when she noticed her outstretched wings on her back, she smiled. With renewed determination, she decided making use of those wings would be much easier to figure out than coordinating four legs into a walking motion. With a mighty flap of those feathered wings, getting off the ground was the easy part, but controlling her direction proved to be a bit more difficult. Despite her wonky flight path, she managed to keep up with the fading glow from Sunset to follow her friends out of the cavern. It wasn’t long until Twilight reached the opening out of the cavern and emerged into a thick forest under clear daylight. A few more four-legged gaits later, she arrived at the edge of a pond, where she was able to get her first look at her reflection in the water’s surface. One brief glimpse at her new face — formerly flat against a cylinder with separate hair on top, now with an elongated muzzle on the front, her glasses resting atop that muzzle, slightly long ears on top, a mane across the top and back that somewhat resembled her hair color and style, and of course that horn on her forehead — was all it took for her to scream again. She then looked down at her hooves where her hands used to be, then lightly pressed them against the sides of her face and felt just how soft and malleable everything under the touch of those hard hooves had become. She flailed her forelegs as she let out an even higher scream than before. She stared in horror at her reflection as she shrieked, “SQUISHY, FUZZY, PONY FACE!!” Sunset took a quick breather once she had caught up to Twilight, then assured her friend, “Twilight! You’re okay! This is supposed to happen!” Twilight showed no signs of listening as she whimpered with every part of herself she inspected, from the horn on her head, to the tail on her rear end, her more rounded body shape, the six-pointed magenta star image of her Creative Mark seemingly printed on the sides of her rump, and of course the hooves at the end of all four of her legs, with her rear legs so awkwardly shaped that it felt like she was sitting on her feet. “All my things are horse things!” she cried out in horror. Sunset couldn’t help but express amusement at her friend’s antics as she clarified, “‘Round here, we call them ‘pony things’.” “Incoming!” shouted Rainbow Dash from somewhere above. Both Sunset and Twilight glanced up and saw Rainbow Dash flying around haphazardly before she suddenly swooped down and narrowly avoided colliding with either of them as she rushed right between them while barely managing to pull up just enough to avoid slamming into the ground. Even after such a close call in multiple ways, she was still incapable of really controlling her flight path and ultimately ended up making the softest landing she could manage by crashing into a bush. Rainbow groaned and muttered, “Just like my first time with any type of aircraft…” While Twilight quickly went back to freaking out over every aspect of her equine body, Sunset rubbed her forehead, then used her magic to levitate Rainbow Dash out of the bushes and back on her hooves right beside them. “That wasn’t quicksand back there,” explained Sunset. “The sand was covering a portal to Equestria.” Rainbow Dash shook off the leaves and twigs that had clung to her body, then turned to Sunset and asked, “Wait, are you saying… we’re in Equestria right now? As in, that magical alternate universe where Princess Twilight is from?” She quickly smiled and cheerfully exclaimed, “Awesome! I’ve always wanted to see what this place was like!” Sunset rubbed her chin and muttered to herself, “I thought there was just that one interdimensional portal between the statue in City Park in Canterlot City and the magic mirror that now lies in Princess Twilight’s castle. If there’s a second one right here, then who knows how many more there might be and where they might lead.” While Sunset was speaking, Rainbow Dash attempted to stand up on her hind legs like she was used to, but even with trying to use her wings to steady her balance, her equine body was simply not meant to stand upright, and one errant flap of her wings was enough to send her toppling over onto her back. Twilight turned to Sunset and calmly stated, “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.” She then suddenly grasped Sunset’s head and pressed their faces together as she shrieked, “BECAUSE WE’RE PONIES!!” Sunset promptly shoved Twilight away and then rubbed her ears. Rainbow Dash rolled over and stood up on all four legs, leaving her wings relaxed so that they hung limply from the sides of her body. “Y’know, Twilight,” she spoke up, “since I kinda messed things up on the boat, maybe this could be our new vacation!” “Huh?” asked Twilight as she raised an eyebrow. “Think about it,” encouraged Rainbow. “We’re here, we’re ponies. Let’s have some fun! Pony style!” She attempted to strike a cool pose on her hind legs, but quickly lost her balance again and fell over forward back onto all four legs. “Uh, that’s not a thing we say here in Equestria,” Sunset pointed out. “Besides, shouldn’t we be getting back to our friends?” “It’s just a little wind and rain,” replied Rainbow Dash dismissively. “I’m sure they’ll be fine for a few more hours. Besides, it’s not like we’re trapped here or there’s some time limit on the portal. We can always go back whenever we want to.” Twilight considered Rainbow’s suggestion, then smiled and remarked, “This would be a fantastic opportunity to study the physical laws of a novel dimension. For example, it’s already obvious that advanced lifeforms such as ourselves are not made of plastic, but rather what appears to be a composite of strange materials.” She gently rubbed one of her hooves along her foreleg — the one without her Jump-Gate return device attached to it — to demonstrate her point. “It appears to be a rather semi-malleable substance with a soft coating to provide some layer of protection and a rigid interior frame for structural stability. And these bodies seem to consist of a single solid mass of this substance with no indicators of any points of detachability.” “I guess that explains why none of my parts fell off when I crashed into that bush,” noted Rainbow Dash. “That’s because these bodies are not supposed to come apart under any circumstances,” Sunset firmly emphasized. “Trust me, you do not want to experience losing a portion of these bodies. I’m talking excruciating pain, and in many cases even lethality.” “Whoa, good thing I chose to keep my legs on when you tried to pull me out of that pit,” remarked Rainbow. Sunset sighed and conceded, “Well, if we’re gonna be here for a short time, then we should at least try to figure out where in Equestria we are.” She turned to Twilight. “You’re a unicorn now, so you can use your horn to channel your magic power. Do you think you could lift me above the canopy so I can take a look around?” “Hey, I got wings now!” Rainbow pointed out as she outstretched her feathered wings. “Why not ask me to just fly up there?” “How familiar are you with Equestrian landmarks?” asked Sunset. Rainbow paused and awkwardly responded, “Uhhh…” “My point exactly,” stated Sunset. She turned back to Twilight. “Just do what you normally would to levitate objects, except the focus is through your horn instead of your hands.” Twilight nodded, then aimed her horn towards Sunset. It took a little more mental concentration, but soon a magenta magical glow enveloped Sunset as the amber unicorn began to rise upwards. It wasn’t a perfect ascent, as Sunset wobbled around here and there, but soon enough, she was hovering over the surrounding trees. Despite wobbling around as if a drunk person was carrying her, Sunset managed to glance around and spot some distinctive landmarks — most notably the very tall mountain where Canterlot was located — then called down to Twilight, “Okay, you can set me down now!” Twilight now had to gently lower Sunset back down to the ground, which turned out to be the most difficult task to accomplish as mental fatigue caused Twilight’s grip to occasionally slip a little, causing Sunset to quickly drop for some brief moments but still descend slowly enough to be safe. Twilight struggled to keep Sunset aloft, and eventually decided to release her magical grip once her friend was only a couple feet off the ground. Sunset stumbled upon hitting the ground, but was otherwise completely fine. “Whew,” gasped Twilight in exhaustion. “That took more concentration than I expected.” “Good thing I made sure to check the directions of those landmarks relative to that pond over there,” remarked Sunset, having understood right from the start that Twilight’s amateur efforts would have caused her to easily lose her sense of direction during the descent. She turned so that the pond was to the front and left of her and explained, “Okay, this world’s version of Canterlot is that way, and since it appears to be on the left side of that mountain, that means it’s to the north of us. Therefore, the nearest town is most likely Ponyville, which happens to be where Princess Twilight lives.” “That’s perfect!” said Rainbow Dash excitedly. “We can go over there and hang out with her for a while before we head back home.” “I have been rather curious about the livelihood of my counterpart from this universe,” confessed Twilight with a smile. “Especially considering that she apparently grew up under an ideal mentor, as opposed to the struggles I’ve had to endure for much of my life.” Sunset turned so that the pond was now to the front and right of her as she continued, “Her castle stands out quite obviously in a town like Ponyville, so it was easy for me to see that we’ll reach it by going this way.” She pointed straight ahead of the direction she was facing. “Then let’s get going!” declared Rainbow. “Lead the way, Sunset,” said Twilight cheerfully as she stood up on all four legs. Sunset nodded in agreement to her two friends and began leading them through the forest towards Ponyville. As they started walking, Rainbow Dash — who ended up walking behind both Sunset and Twilight — couldn’t help but notice something else about their new bodies, or rather, a lack of something, as emphasized when she felt a light breeze over a certain part of her body. “Uh, am I the only one who realizes we’re not wearing any shirts or pants right now?” she spoke up. That question made Twilight immediately stop and look over herself again. When she noticed that Rainbow was actually right, she suddenly yelped in embarrassment and quickly used her forelegs to cover her chest and the area between her hind legs. Sunset facehoofed before she turned back to Twilight and explained, “Okay, two things about that. First…” She shoved aside the foreleg that Twilight was using to cover her chest. “That one’s pointless because we’re ponies. There’s nothing on your chest worth covering up in the first place.” Twilight glanced down at her smooth and featureless chest, then giggled sheepishly and muttered, “I-I-I knew that.” “And secondly,” continued Sunset, “most ponies normally don’t even wear any clothes. As long as you keep your tail down and not draw too much attention to yourself, you should be totally fine.” “If you’re sure about that,” acknowledged Twilight uneasily. It was rather awkward and embarrassing to think about, but she trusted Sunset’s judgement. Only a few seconds later, she spoke up, “Though that does lead to the question of why our Creative Marks seemed to be tattooed onto our butts.” “We called them Cutie Marks in this world,” answered Sunset, “and they’re magical projections that show up after you’ve discovered your special talent. So, in a way, it kinda works like Creative Marks do in the Lego World.” Rainbow Dash suddenly burst out laughing and quipped, “Cutie Marks?! That’s something I’d expect to hear in only a little girl’s fantasy land! I mean, how could the guys around here even keep a straight face if they ever have to talk about those things?” Sunset sighed and grumbled, “And I thought I had a lot to learn about becoming a minifig…” Back in the Lego World, where the Luxe Deluxe remained stranded at sea, the storm had continued to intensify. As a light rainfall began to descend upon them, the passengers that had gathered outside either pulled out umbrellas or took shelter under any overhangs they could reach. The howling wind was strong enough to pull one of those umbrellas out of the grip of the person holding it and send it flying away uncontrollably. A powerful bolt of lightning suddenly struck very close to the ship, with one branch of it actually hitting the front deck, causing one of the brown 1x8 tiles that covered it to be thrown off and land haphazardly nearby. That strike caused the passengers who happened to be standing nearby to scream in terror and immediately run for shelter below deck. Down in the engine room, the crewmen working frantically to repair the engine momentarily paused their efforts as they felt the ship slightly lurch from that lightning strike. Clang! Applejack grunted in pain from underneath the engine. She rolled out the dolly she was resting on and rubbed her head. The oil stains covering her body in various places showed just how hard at work she had been, but the conditions outside were beginning to seriously interfere with their efforts. She held her hand out to Ragamuffin and asked, “Can Ah speak to Rarity for a moment?” As Ragamuffin used one arm to hold a large pipe wrench in place, he used his free hand to pull out his walkie-talkie and tossed it to Applejack. Applejack held up the walkie-talkie to the side of her head and urgently spoke, “Breaker-breaker four-an’-a-half, this is ‘Red Delicious’ requestin’ a storm status update! Over!” At the other walkie-talkie, Rarity was holding it while she, Pinkie, and Fluttershy were huddled under the overhang next to where the lifeboats were stored. After listening to Applejack’s call, Rarity hesitated for a moment before she held the walkie-talkie close to her mouth and awkwardly responded, “Ahoy, uh, matey! Uh, this is Rarity! Please repeat… the words you just said!” Boom! A bolt of lightning struck the deck close to the three girls, causing two more brown 1x8 tiles to be thrown out of place and startling most of the nearby passenger to flee in panic. After that brief scare, Rarity turned her attention back to the walkie-talkie in her hands and worriedly added, “I’m beginning to wonder if—” Crash! Another bolt of lightning struck nearby, this time shattering the large window beside the three girls. The girls screamed as they immediately backed away from the broken window and tried their best to shield themselves against the glass shards flying around in the wind. In her haste, Rarity stumbled towards the edge of the ship and accidentally tossed the walkie-talkie over the nearby lifeboat. As the three girls watched that walkie-talkie plunge into the rough sea below, Rarity worriedly finished, “…if this is no ordinary storm!” Pinkie glanced over at Rarity and noted, “I don’t think she heard that last part.” Boom! Yet another bolt of lightning suddenly struck the lifeboat those girls were looking over, instantly burning through the ropes that held it in place and causing it to tumble down into the water and land upside down. The three girls screamed and quickly retreated to a different part of the ship. Up on the bridge, with power still not yet restored, Bluffbeard and Spike were forced to use a manual crank to swipe the windshield wipers back and forth across the front windows of the wheelhouse. “At this rate, I’ll consider this to be a lucky day if we don’t capsize!” remarked Bluffbeard with a smile. “You’re not exactly good at inspiring much confidence, aren’t ya?” grumbled Spike. In Equestria, ponies were going about their usual business on another fine day in the town of Ponyville. They walked around to get chores done, browse the marketplace, or simply have a friendly chat with their neighbors, all with a generally positive attitude. Just outside of town to the east, a certain trio of ponies emerged from the edge of the woods and stopped to observe the bustling town that stood before them. Sunset sighed and grumbled, “Of course it has to be all the way at the other side of town.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s so bad about that?” “Your pony counterparts live here,” explained Sunset, “so I was hoping that we could just go straight to Princess Twilight’s castle without being seen by anypony who might mistake you for them.” “Yeah, that’s definitely something we should be careful of,” agreed Twilight. “Can’t we just stick to the edge of this forest and bypass the whole town?” Sunset shook her head and replied, “This is the Everfree Forest, and unlike the version you’re familiar with in the Lego World, this one is considered a dangerous place for anypony to be, full of all kinds of hazards and threats. In all honesty, I’m surprised we actually made it through as much as we did without encountering any serious trouble.” “Are you saying the safer option is to go right through the middle of town?” asked Twilight incredulously. “We’ll have to sneak our way around, but yes,” confirmed Sunset reluctantly. “Sounds good to me,” remarked Rainbow Dash with a smile. “I’d like to see what other pony counterparts to people we know live here.” Sunset rolled her eyes and quietly insisted, “Just stay silent and follow my lead. We need a keep a low profile at all costs.” Sunset crouched low and crept her way towards the nearest building, which was one of the many wooden houses with thatched roofs that made up the majority of this town’s structures. Twilight and Rainbow followed her example, though Rainbow was smiling with excitement, while Twilight kept cautiously glancing around with a worried look on her face. Sunset carefully led them to the edge of the house and peered around the corner. Once she was sure nopony was nearby, she rushed over the hide behind the next house up ahead, with Rainbow and Twilight quickly following her. The three minifigs-turned-ponies snuck by two more houses before they ended up hiding behind a bush. They peered over the top and silently watched two ponies walk by; an adult mare with a light blue coat and a white mane and tail, and a young colt with a dark blue coat and a light blue made and tail. The three girls waited until those two townsponies had walked far enough to be facing away from them, then quickly rushed to hide behind the next house over. They then waited and listened to be sure they weren’t spotted. “Come on, junior, we don’t have all day,” said the mare. “But mommy, I just saw some ponies sneaking around,” said the colt. “Do you think they might be spies?” “Don’t be ridiculous. The only creatures who ever bother to spy on us are changelings, and we all know they stopped doing that after they reformed.” “But I swear, there’s something weird about those ponies I just saw.” “This is Ponyville. There’s always something weird going on.” The three girls-turned-mares waited for a moment to be sure those two townsponies were no longer talking about them, then Sunset resumed leading them through town. At the other end of that house they were hiding behind, Sunset saw they next had to cross a rather wide street, but thankfully noticed there were two barrels full of apples that could serve as a halfway point to help maintain their cover. The only problem was a red stallion with an orange mane and tail — who they quickly recognized was Big Mac’s pony counterpart — was looking over those barrels. Fortunately, Big Mac’s attention soon turned away toward some of the other ponies walking around, so Sunset took this opportunity to lead her two friends to rush over to and hide behind the barrels. They remained behind those barrels for a moment, then rushed across the other half of the street to the next house. However, in her haste to get moving, Twilight accidentally bumped one of those barrels, causing a few apples to spill out onto the ground right by Big Mac’s hooves. Big Mac heard that light bump and quickly glanced back at the barrels, where he noticed the apples that had fallen to the ground. He peered over the barrels to look behind them, then glanced to the right, and then to the left, but saw no signs of anypony nearby. He shook his head in dismissal, then reached his mouth down to begin picking up the fallen apples. A couple more houses — and a quick trot across a second-floor bridge — later, Sunset once again led her friends between the densely crowded downtown buildings, but suddenly stopped halfway across when she suddenly noticed two ponies nearby; a medium blue stallion with a blonde mane and tail, and a cyan mare with a rainbow mane and tail — Rainbow Dash’s pony counterpart. Rainbow and Twilight bumped into Sunset and immediately saw those other two ponies as well, though Rainbow didn’t bother to hide her excitement to see an exact duplicate of herself. Thankfully, pony Rainbow Dash was facing away from them as she spoke with the stallion. “Yeah, of course I’m awesome,” bragged pony Rainbow Dash. “I mean, how many other Wonderbolts could possibly pull off all those wicked stunts I know, and I’m not just talking about my signature sonic rainboom.” Unfortunately, that stallion did see the other Rainbow Dash among the three mares sneaking around. His jaw gaped as he pointed past the nearby pegasus and right at them, struggling to say anything until he suddenly passed out. While that happened, Sunset promptly shoved her two friends back behind the building. Pony Rainbow Dash looked over the fainted stallion worriedly and muttered, “Whoa… what was that about?” Figuring he must have been pointing at something behind her back for a reason, she glanced back, but all she saw was her friend Applejack hauling a small cart down the street. “Mornin’ Rainbow!” greeted Applejack with a smile and a wave of a hoof. “Morning to you, too!” Rainbow Dash greeted back with a smile and a wave of her wing. She then glanced back down at the passed out stallion and her smile turned awkward as she muttered, “That guy must be a real lightweight.” Unknown to either of those two mares, the three minifigs-turned-ponies had hidden themselves inside the cart being pulled by Applejack, with the tarp providing enough cover for them. With Sunset carefully keeping an eye out on their surroundings, they rode the cart through the middle of town. A few minutes later, as Applejack hauled her cart across another street, Sunset saw they were now only a short distance away from Princess Twilight’s castle. She gestured to her two hidden friends to follow, then partially removed the tarp and quietly climbed out. However, just as Twilight and Rainbow began to climb out as well, Sunset suddenly noticed another pony walking by. Although that white unicorn with a pink mane and tail was busy reading a book in her magical grasp, Sunset’s didn’t want to take any chances, so she swiftly levitated her two friends out of the cart and shoved them into the nearest bush. When the rustling noise of that bush drew that pony’s attention, Sunset smiled innocently and quickly remarked, “Don’t mind me! Just an unfamiliar out-of-towner trying to find her way around!” The pony walking by stared at Sunset in confusion for a moment, then shook her head and turned her attention back to her book as she muttered, “What a weirdo.” Sunset never took her eyes off the pony walking away as she backed up into the bush to join her two friends. Once all three of them were out of public sight, she whispered, “We can make it the rest of the way if we use this bush for cover.” Moving with only a few brief steps at a time, they carried the surrounding bush with them as they crept closer and closer to the castle. Every pause in their movements allowed Twilight and Rainbow an opportunity to glimpse at the massive structure they were heading towards. The best they could describe it was a massive blue crystal tree with a purple castle resting atop it like some kind of oversized treehouse. In addition, they also noticed to the right of this castle was a rocky hillside with a waterfall that fed into a pond that surrounded the base, but more notable was all the scaffolding and partially built structures that seemed to cover much of that hillside. After a few minutes of careful movement, the three girls and their surrounding bush reached the front door to the castle. Once they arrived at the doorway atop the steps, Sunset turned to Rainbow Dash and quietly requested, “Open the door and check if anyone’s on the other side.” Rainbow nodded, then pushed the door open and glanced around inside. Once she was sure that every hallway she could see was empty, she turned back and reported, “All clear.” With that confirmation, Sunset swiftly shoved Twilight through the doorway after Rainbow, then hastily discarded the bush and stepped inside before finally closing the door. “Okay, we’ve made it into the castle,” noted Twilight as she brushed off some leaves and twigs from that bush. “Now what?” Sunset trotted ahead down the main hallway as she explained, “With any luck, Princess Twilight should be around here somewhere. We’ll hang out with her for a bit, then she can help escort us back to the portal so hopefully we won’t have to do all that sneaking around town again.” “Sounds good to me!” agreed Rainbow Dash excitedly as she and Twilight followed Sunset. “So where is she?” “While I never got to completely explore this castle,” replied Sunset, “I have gotten familiar enough on my previous visits that I think I know where to start looking.” Sunset led her two friends down a few hallways, pausing only to recall which turns to make. Before long, they arrived at a tall set of double doors that were mostly green stained glass with a dark gold border. Sunset pushed the doors open, revealing a large round chamber with a crystal round table in the middle surrounded by six large thrones and one smaller throne. And to the left, they saw a pony who looked almost perfectly identical to Twilight, except this pony also had wings and was not wearing any glasses. This other Twilight was unaware of their entrance as she was currently facing away from them, her attention focused atop a ladder where a small purple dragon with green spines was struggling to adjust a large painting hanging on the wall. “A little higher on the left,” said Princess Twilight as she used her levitation magic to hold up the painting while her dragon assistant made the adjustments. “Now on the right.” At the doorway, Sunset turned back to her two friends and whispered, “Wait here.” She then stepped forward into the room and cleared her throat. Princess Twilight turned to the source of that noise, then gasped and cheerfully greeted, “Sunset Shimmer!” She then ran over and shared a hug with her friend from the Lego World, unaware that she had released her telekinetic grip on the painting, forcing Spike to bear the entire weight of that large object. “Hey, Twilight!” responded Sunset with a smile as she returned the hug. “It’s so wonderful to see you again!” continued Twilight. “What are you doing here?” “It’s a long story,” remarked Sunset cryptically. Twilight suddenly frowned in confusion and asked, “Wait, how are you coming in the front door and not back from where I keep the mirror?” She then immediately gasped and excitedly concluded, “You found another portal between our worlds!” “I guess it wasn’t that long,” quipped Sunset. Crash! Both Twilight and Sunset turned to Spike, who had just dropped the large painting to the floor. Twilight winced and said, “Sorry, Spike. I guess I got so excited that I completely forgot.” “Eh, I’m used to it by now,” he assured dismissively as he began descending the ladder. Sunset rubbed her chin and noted, “Y’know, it’s just occurred to me that, until now, the only creatures we know of who traveled between Equestria and the Lego World have all originated from this side of the portal.” “Until now?” asked Twilight as she raised an eyebrow. “Let’s just say I didn’t come alone this time,” Sunset slyly remarked before she turned back and beckoned to the open doorway. Lego Twilight and Lego Rainbow Dash stepped out from behind the door and entered the room to stand beside their friend. “Rainbow Dash! Other me!” greeted Princess Twilight excitedly. “This is quite a nice surprise! So glad to see you here!” She then frowned as she looked past them and saw nothing else, so she asked, “What about the rest of your friends?” “Oh, they’re all back home waiting for us,” explained Sunset, “but I’m sure they’ll be fine.” “Either way, it’s still nice to see at least the three of you here,” said Princess Twilight contently. “So tell me, Rainbow and Twilight, what do you think of your first visit to Equestria?” “Getting used to these weird bodies is quite a learning experience, I’ll tell you that much,” remarked Lego Twilight as she held up a foreleg and flexed it around. Spike, who had recently joined group, spoke up, “At least it’s a little easy to tell the difference between the two Twilights, and I’m not talking about just the glasses.” He walked over to Lego Twilight and patted the side of her body. “It’s been so long since this world’s Twilight became an alicorn, I sometimes forget what she used to look like without wings.” “Wait, you mean you didn’t always have those wings?” asked Rainbow Dash. Princess Twilight giggled in embarrassment and admitted, “Believe it or not, it actually happened only a week before I made my first visit to the Lego World. Speaking of wings, I can definitely tell you’re the Rainbow Dash from the Lego World. This world’s Rainbow Dash would never allow her wings to just hang limply like that. Pegasus society considers it a sign that you’re physically incapable of flying.” “Hey, just because I’ve crashed a lot of aircraft and spacecraft doesn’t mean I can’t fly!” Rainbow shot back as she extended her wings. She then gave those wings a might flap to propel herself into the air, but quickly lost her balance and fell over backwards to slam her back against the table. “Typical Rainbow Dash,” remarked Lego Twilight teasingly as she shook her head with a smile. “Always crashing on the first try.” “Don’t take it too personally,” assured Princess Twilight as she levitated Rainbow Dash off the table and back onto her hooves on the floor. “I actually lost count of how many times I crashed back when I was still getting used to my new wings.” “We’d love to hear more about it,” said Sunset. “Like I said, we’re not in any rush to go anywhere.” “Gotta hurry, gotta hurry, gotta hurry!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she rushed through the corridors of the Luxe Deluxe. After charging past worried passengers and down a few stairways, she soon reached the engine room. She burst through the door and began gasping for breath as she trudged further into the room. Applejack turned her attention away from the engine when she heard her friend panting as she approached. “Pinkie?” asked Applejack. “What are you doin’ here?” Pinkie loudly inhaled before she rapidly explained, “Rarity lost her walkie-talkie overboard, so I volunteered to be a curry and run back and forth between the deck and the engine room to deliver messages between my friends!” Applejack raised an eyebrow and asked, “Uh, don’t ya mean courier?” “Yes, that’s exactly what I said!” replied Pinkie. Applejack stared at her overly eager friend in confusion for a moment, then muttered, “Okay…” She cleared her throat and spoke up, “Anyway, you can tell the others the engine’s just about fixed up an’ we’ll soon have everythin’ back up an’ runnin’. But in order to make it work, we’re gonna have to open the valve at full throttle, so ya might as well brace yourselves for a sudden jolt for a short while ‘til we get the thrust back under control.” Pinkie gave a salute and stated, “Your message will be delivered!” She then turned away and quietly added, “Right after I give myself an energy boost.” She unzipped her cupcake-shaped fanny-pack, then pulled out and tossed aside a teddy bear, a rubber chicken, and a wrench before she found a chocolate glazed donut. “Ah-ha!” she cheered before she promptly shoved the entire donut into her mouth and quickly gulped the whole thing down. She closed her fanny-pack and rushed out of the engine room. After another short amount of time rushing up some stairways and through some dark hallways, Pinkie arrived back outside onto the deck, where the rainfall from the storm had now become a heavy downpour. She soon arrived at the outdoor lounge deck where, under the cover of a glass roof, Rarity and Fluttershy sat on sofas along with some of the animals from the petting zoo, all of whom were wearing lifejacket pieces. Boom! Another nearby lightning strike and crash of thunder startled Fluttershy. “Oh, I hope there others make it back very soon,” she muttered worriedly. Rarity saw Pinkie Pie arrive and asked, “How are things down in the engine room?” Pinkie took a quick breather before she reported, “Applejack said they’re about to reconnect the engine and we might feel a brief jolt.” “Oh? When?” asked Fluttershy. Pinkie opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly paused before she admitted, “Uh, I actually don’t know for sure. She just said it would be soon.” Just seconds later, everyone and everything on the ship was suddenly thrown backwards as the large yacht began to accelerate very rapidly. Up on the bridge, Spike desperately grasped onto the console while Bluffbeard held tightly to the ship’s steering wheel. “Woo-hoo!” cheered Bluffbeard with an excited grin. “Jet-skiin’ in a cruise ship! Now there’s somethin’ worthy of addin’ to the bucket list!” He then swiftly turned the wheel to the right, causing the ship to lean over and turn hard to starboard. “What are you doing?!” asked Spike fearfully. “Where are you taking us?!” “Off to where yer missing friends went!” declared Bluffbeard as he straightened the wheel. “If they’re not comin’ back to us, then we’ll just go to them!” Passengers and crew all over the ship screamed in terror as the large vessel continued to speed across the rough and stormy sea. “And that’s why Rarity and I are no longer allowed to attend any dragon weddings!” finished Spike with a smile, to which the four ponies in the room all laughed. Seated around the throne room table were Spike and Princess Twilight in their designated thrones, Sunset Shimmer to the left in the throne marked with Applejack’s Cutie Mark, Rainbow Dash in the one left of that marked with Rarity’s Cutie Mark, and Lego Twilight Sparkle in the one to the left of that marked with Pinkie Pie’s Cutie Mark. “I’m quite surprised by how much you and Rarity seem to enjoy each other’s company,” remarked Lego Twilight. “The Spike I know back home absolutely can’t stand being around our Rarity.” “Eh, his loss,” said Spike with a shrug. “He has no idea what he’s missing out on.” Rainbow Dash snickered and retorted, “Oh, I’m sure he knows very well. When he and Twilight joined our team, Rarity came onto him way too hard, and never even realized it until he called her out for treating him like a slave.” Spike gasped and asked in disbelief, “Did he really say that?” “Oh, he sure did,” confirmed Sunset with a smile of amusement. “We were all there to see him totally snap at her, right in her face. But here’s what I find even more amusing. While your friends in this world seem to be aware of your not-so-secret crush on Rarity, my friends and I in our world have seen our Spike seem to have that kind of affection for Fluttershy.” “Fluttershy?” asked Spike in confusion. He looked away in deep thought and muttered, “Well, she does seem pretty nice, but I just don’t really feel it for her the way I do for Rarity.” “Eh, your loss,” remarked Rainbow Dash dismissively. “You have no idea what you’re missing out on.” Everyone in the room immediately burst out laughing at that ironic quip. Once the laughter calmed down, Rainbow asked, “Hey, uh, do you have any snacks around here? I, uh, kinda skipped breakfast this morning.” “I’m sure Spike and I can arrange something special,” assured Princess Twilight. Her expression suddenly brightened as she added, “Oh! While you’re here, you have to try Mrs. Cake’s chocolate fondue, though its prep time is at least twenty minutes.” “Oh, we’ve got plenty of time to spare,” insisted Lego Twilight dismissively. “In that case, I’ll go ahead and place that order,” said Spike as he got out of his seat and ran off out of the room. “While we wait,” Sunset spoke up as she turned to Princess Twilight, “do you know if Starlight Glimmer is around? I’m sure she’d love to hang out with us again.” “I’m sure she would,” agreed Princess Twilight. “Unfortunately, she and her old friend Sunburst were recently summoned by the map to solve a friendship problem, so she’s gonna be out of town for at least the rest of the day.” “Oh yeah, she mentioned your magic map on this table when I first met her,” noted Sunset. “I’m not gonna lie, the LEGO Team could really use something like that.” “To be honest, even I still don’t fully understand how it works,” admitted Twilight as she cast a quick spell to summon the map upon the table, revealing the holographic projection of virtually all of Equestria covering the entire surface. “Whoa…” said Sunset, Rainbow, and Lego Twilight simultaneously in awe. “You’re right, Sunset,” remarked Rainbow Dash. “We have gotta get one of these for the LEGO Team.” “Could you share with us how much you do know about this map?” asked Lego Twilight. “Sure!” agreed Princess Twilight. “It’s kind of a long story, though.” “We’re already waiting on fondue,” Sunset pointed out. “I think we’ve got enough patience to hear the whole thing.” “What are ya waitin’ for?!” demanded Applejack impatiently. “Shut that valve! NOW!!” One of the crewmen in the engine room was struggling to turn a large pipe wrench that was gripped onto the pipe that was causing the ship’s uncontrollable acceleration. He grunted as he tugged on the wrench, but it just wouldn’t even budge at all. “I can’t!” he exclaimed. “It’s stuck!” “Here, let me,” grumbled Applejack as she shoved the crewman aside and grabbed that stuck wrench. That valve remained stuck open, no matter how hard she tried to pull that wrench. With growing frustration, she resorted to use her magical geode power to enhance her strength, then gave a mighty tug on that wrench. Ping! The sudden release of tension caused Applejack to get flung backwards and fall to the floor. She smiled at the conviction that she had successfully shut that valve, but that smile quickly fell when she noticed that what she held in her hand was only the handle from that wrench. She sat up and looked towards the stuck valve, where the now snapped-off head from the wrench was still stuck in place on that pipe. “Well that just happened…” she grumbled as she tossed aside the handle. Outside, as the ship continued speeding through the middle of the storm, a powerful lightning strike suddenly made a direct hit onto the vessel. Crash! Everyone in the engine room was startled when a massive electric shock surged along a shaft that ran along the ceiling, generating a series of small explosions that shattered the shaft. As the large fragments of that shaft fell to the floor, everyone noticed that the breaking points of that shaft wasn’t just where separate Lego parts came together, but some of the particular pieces had snapped apart, rendering an easy reassembly to be completely impossible. “Please don’t tell me that was the rudder shaft,” spoke up Applejack pleadingly. There was a brief awkward silence before one of the crewmen hesitantly answered, “It was.” Up on the bridge, Bluffbeard and Spike looked through the rain-drenched windows and began to see they were rapidly approaching a small island. “Land ho!” cheered Bluffbeard. “But we’re not slowing down!” Spike pointed out fearfully. “Not to worry!” assured Bluffbeard as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “With the skill of an old sea-dog, I’ll navigate a safe course between those rocks an’ bring her in fer a smooth landin’ upon the beach.” He then turned the wheel to the right, but his confident expression fell when he noticed the ship was not turning at all. He looked down at the wheel in his hands, turned it left and right a few times before finally making it spin freely to the right. No matter how much that wheel turned, the ship maintained its perfectly straight course at maximum velocity. Spike stared at the now useless wheel, then turned his gaze outside ahead of the ship and muttered worriedly, “That’s not good…” With the Luxe Deluxe speeding uncontrollably through a fearsome storm, all of the passengers out on the deck — including Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy — were now running around and screaming in panic, for they had no way of knowing what would soon happen to them. “Did you hear that?” asked Sunset. “It sounded like Pinkie Pie yelling.” Everyone else in the throne room turned to Sunset, then stayed silent as they listened closely. After a few seconds, the main doors to the room were thrown open, and they all turned to see pony Pinkie Pie pushing a small cart into the room. “I was yelling, silly!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “I was standing at the front door yelling, ‘Fondue delivery!’” She proudly held up the bowl of chocolate fondue that was atop the cart, then placed that bowl on the table and shoved it toward the middle of the table. “Here, you have to try it! It’s a fresh batch!” “Wow, already?” remarked Sunset. “I guess we’ve been enjoying ourselves so much that we’re starting to lose track of time.” “Eh, don’t be so worried,” assured Pinkie. “As long as you’re having a good time with your best friends, you can never overstay your welcome! By the way, nice to finally meet you, Sunset Shimmer!” Sunset chuckled and noted, “Yeah, I guess it’s kinda weird that I’ve only today finally begun to meet some of the ponies whose Lego World counterparts have been close friends with me for quite a while.” Pinkie waved to the other seated ponies and cheerfully greeted, “Hey, Rainbow Dash! Hey, pony-with-glasses-who-I-don’t-recognize!” The three minifigs-turned-ponies turned to each other and couldn’t help but giggle at Pinkie’s apparent failure to recognize the second Twilight Sparkle in the room due to nothing more than a pair of glasses. “I’d like love to stay and chat,” continued Pinkie, “but I’ve gotta get back to Sugar Cube Corner to prepare for a filly’s birthday party this afternoon. Those cupcakes won’t bake themselves, y’know!” She turned back to the door and pranced away as she always preferred to rather than simply walk. Sunset chuckled again and remarked, “No matter what form she takes, Pinkie will always be Pinkie.” She then used her magic to levitate one of the forks out of the bowl and brought it over to her mouth to try a small bite of the chocolate-dipped marshmallow skewered to the end of it. Rainbow Dash struggled to use her hooves to grip another one of the available forks, but once she got hold of it, she quickly brought it to her mouth and ate the entire marshmallow in one bite. “Ow! Too hot!” she exclaimed through her full mouth as she dropped her fork onto the table. She quickly chewed the marshmallow enough so she could speak somewhat clearly, then remarked, “It needs to be, like… twenty percent cooler.” Spike rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, that catchphrase has been way overused by now.” Rainbow swallowed the marshmallow in her mouth, then retorted with a smile, “Not where I’m from.” Meanwhile, Lego Twilight used her magic to levitate the last available fork toward herself. However, her use of unicorn magic was still sloppy enough that as she attempted to bite that marshmallow, she ended up smearing chocolate sauce on her cheek, her glasses lens, and finally all around her mouth before she finally got it in. Once she was finally able to enjoy the taste of it, she contently said, “Mmm, delicious!” Princess Twilight giggled and said, “Here, let me get that for you.” She levitated a napkin to wipe off the chocolate from Lego Twilight’s face. She then removed those glasses and levitated them closer to herself so she could make sure they were cleaned properly without further smearing the chocolate. Once those glasses were thoroughly cleaned, Princess Twilight was about to return them when she suddenly paused as a curious thought crossed her mind. She brought those glasses up to her own face and looked through the lenses. “Whoa!” she spoke up as she quickly removed those glasses. “You have a really strong prescription. I could barely even see straight with those on.” She levitated the glasses back over to Lego Twilight. “Better than being completely blind, that’s for sure,” muttered Lego Twilight as Sunset helped put her glasses back on her face properly. “Still don’t like talking about that laser beam incident, huh?” asked Princess Twilight tactfully. Lego Twilight shrugged and said, “While still true on that, my friends have been able to help me make peace with that unfortunate event, and now I happily embrace these glasses as part of my identity.” “Good for you!” praised Princess Twilight with a smile. “I’m so glad that you’ve become much better off now that you’ve made some true friends. Believe me, I could say the same for myself, despite our vastly different circumstances.” Rainbow leaned close to Sunset and quietly quipped, “At least they’re much better at talking to each other than the last time they met.” Sunset giggled, remembering just how awkward that first meeting between the two Twilights had been, which had occurred the day after Lego Twilight joined their group of friends after leaving the Shadowbolts. Sunset helped herself to another chocolate-dipped marshmallow from the fondue bowl and contently commented, “Mmm, this is great!” “This is terrible!” shrieked Rarity as she held tightly to a support post to avoid flailing around too much on what had to be the roughest and wildest ride in a cruise ship ever. Fluttershy was wobbling around as she struggled to stand upright, not just from the ship wildly rocking about, but also because she was carrying a pig in her arms. “I don’t think I can take much more of this!” she exclaimed fearfully. Pinkie stumbled and landed against the railing on the side of the ship. As she grabbed that railing and pushed herself up, she was looking over the side of the ship and gasped when she noticed they were rapidly heading directly towards one of the razor sharp rocks that surrounded the island up ahead. “You might not have to!” she cried out in terror. “Rock ho!” The three girls screamed as the cruise ship careened towards that rock. The ship slammed into the rock, the sudden deceleration causing everyone and everything on board to get thrown forward. The point of impact was just off the starboard side, and the ship’s momentum combined with the jagged edge of that rock resulted in a huge gash being torn open through the hull. Down in the engine room, Applejack and the crewmen had definitely felt the sudden jolt from the impact. Once everything stopped shaking around, everyone slowly got up from where they had fallen. When Ragamuffin stood up, he froze on the spot when he began to faintly hear the noise of rushing water. He turned to the open hatch that led towards the front of the ship and slowly walked forward. The red emergency lighting made it difficult to see far down that passageway, but it wasn’t long before he saw a flood of seawater quickly rushing towards them. “We’re takin’ on water!” he cried out to the others. “Let’s get outta here!” shouted Applejack as she started running for the stairway out of the engine room. Ragamuffin and the other crewmen quickly followed after her. Up on the bridge, while Spike looked on in horror as the ship ground to a halt upon striking that rock, Bluffbeard was preoccupied with looking over a couple of maps printed onto 2x2 tiles. “Hmm, that’s odd,” noted Bluffbeard as he held up two of those maps in front of his face. “This island doesn’t seem to appear on any of my navigational charts.” Spike immediately slapped those maps out of Bluffbeard’s hands and furiously shouted, “NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!!” Already, many of the people on board could feel the ship was slowly starting to sink lower, and their screams of fear and panic continued all around. Back at Princess Twilight’s castle in Equestria, Princess Twilight and Spike — who by now had decided to take a nap while seated on his throne — had spent almost all morning sharing stories of their past adventures with a few unexpected guests from the Lego World. There were many items and artifacts spread out across the table, each with a unique story that the three visitors were fascinated to hear all about. “And that was from the time I was rescued by my own pupil!” Princess Twilight excitedly finished with a giggle. “That really gave me some perspective on the importance of mentoring.” “Wow!” remarked Lego Twilight in awe. “You ponies are, like, superheroes!” Princess Twilight blushed and sheepishly said, “Oh, we’re not superheroes.” “Sure,” responded Lego Twilight dismissively. “You’re just ordinary ponies who just happened to have saved the whole world from complete destruction multiple times…” She trailed off at the end of her remark as she slowly realized that what she was talking about was astonishingly similar to the rather heated confrontation she had with Rainbow Dash the previous night. “Sound familiar?” asked Rainbow Dash with a smug smile on her face. Lego Twilight recoiled in embarrassment. Sunset smiled as she turned to Princess Twilight and said with amusement, “I guess your friends and my friends are a lot more alike than either of them might realize.” Hoping to move on from that awkward moment, Princess Twilight looked over the various objects scattered across the table. “Oh! Here’s a good one,” she spoke up as she levitated up a long object wrapped in a long strip of cloth. She unwrapped the cloth to reveal a jagged black staff with two prongs on the end with a blue crystal between the two prongs. “This is from our battle with the Storm King. This staff allowed him to steal the magic of all the alicorns and used it to create the most powerful storm in Equestria. But luckily, my friends and I were able to work together to recover that stolen magic and seal his power into this: the Staff of Sacanas.” “Woah…” said Sunset and Lego Twilight in awe, simultaneously. While Princess Twilight was speaking, Rainbow Dash had noticed something on the discarded cloth wrapping. There was a symbol printed on the end of that cloth, which could be described as a mirror image of two bright blue lightning bolts that were closer together at the bottom and further apart at the top. As she stared at that symbol, she began to realize that it was virtually identical to the glowing image she had seen in the ocean the previous night. “This symbol looks familiar…” she muttered as she held up the strip of cloth. Princess Twilight tilted her head and cautiously asked, “You’ve… seen this before?” As everyone in the room looked to her, Rainbow replied, “It’s just… that symbol… It looks exactly like what I thought I saw in the water when we were back on the boat, but… I was told the magic glow was probably just some work of nature.” Sunset and Lego Twilight shared a concerned look across the table before they turned to Princess Twilight. Princess Twilight levitated the cloth to show the symbol to the others as she nervously asked, “When you saw the thing that looked exactly like this thing, there wasn’t any thunder or lightning accompanying it, right?” Sunset briefly shared another concerned look with Lego Twilight before replying, “Uh, there was definitely thunder and lightning.” “Affirmative on both,” confirmed Lego Twilight, “along with some strong wind and a little rainfall.” Princess Twilight set down the cloth and the staff as she flew across the table to stand between Sunset and Rainbow. “Okay, nopony freak out,” she began calmly but notably agitated, “but considering how you’ve mentioned Equestrian Magic has been occasionally leaking into the Lego World, it’s possible that for the brief period of time when the Storm King possessed all the alicorn magic, some of his magic may have slipped through the interdimensional cracks into your world.” She gradually became increasingly paranoid as she continued, “It could very well be turning into a giant magic storm and threatening your friends as we speak! NOPONY FREAK OUT!!” “Our friends!” exclaimed Sunset fearfully. “We have to go back!” agreed Lego Twilight urgently. “Ladies…” said Rainbow Dash smoothly with a smile. She stood up on the table and struck a heroic pose as she confidently declared, “It’s hero time!” “She’s right,” agreed Sunset with a smile and a nod as she also stood up. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with, it’s time for action!” Lego Twilight turned to Princess Twilight and asked, “I assume this means we’ll have to bring that staff along with us, right?” “Absolutely,” confirmed Princess Twilight as she levitated that staff into the hooves of her Lego counterpart. “Since the three of you already possess some Equestrian Magic, all you’ll have to do is simply hold it up and the enchantment I had placed upon it should absorb that magical storm, essentially finishing the job that, until now, I thought was complete.” “At least that’ll make that part relatively easy,” noted Sunset. She sighed in frustration and added, “Though I’m not looking forward to sneaking our way through town again, especially with the kind of urgency we’re now faced with.” “Not a problem!” assured Princess Twilight. “Just tell me where that other portal is located and I can take you directly there.” “I’m afraid I can’t give you an exact location,” responded Sunset. “All I know is that it’s somewhere in the Everfree Forest beyond the other side of town from here.” “I can work with that,” stated Princess Twilight confidently before her horn began to glow. Only a split second later, she and the three girls from the Lego World instantly vanished from the room. The magical burst of that teleportation spell was enough noise to startle Spike awake. He muttered sleepily and yawned as he stretched his limbs and slowly sat upright in his seat. Once he was awake enough to be aware of his surroundings, he realized he was now completely alone in the throne room. He groaned as he slumped in his seat and grumbled, “I hate it when they go somewhere without telling me…” At the other side of Ponyville, near the edge of the Everfree Forest, the four ponies from the castle throne room suddenly blinked into existence under a burst of magenta magic. “Is this a good enough head-start?” asked Princess Twilight. The three others immediately looked around in confusion at their sudden change of location. Sunset was the first to understand what had just happened, so she turned to Princess Twilight and replied, “Well, at least it’s enough to bypass all that sneaking and hiding we had to do on our way in.” Lego Twilight sputtered momentarily before she finally asked her pony counterpart, “Did you just… teleport us? As in, zero fixed-point teleportation?!” Princess Twilight raised an eyebrow and replied, “I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that, but yes, I just used a basic teleportation spell to instantly bring us all significantly closer to your destination.” “You have got to teach me about it sometime!” begged Lego Twilight excitedly with a huge grin on her face. “Sure, I may have invented the Jump-Gate to provide one fixed-point teleportation to vastly improve upon the old two fixed-point system of teleportation pads, but one invention I would love to someday develop is a zero fixed-point system that would allow people to literally travel from anywhere, to anywhere, virtually instantaneously!” “You nerds can geek out over teleportation later!” Rainbow Dash spoke up irritably. “Right now, we gotta get back to the Lego World and save our friends!” “She’s right,” agreed Sunset as she turned towards the interior of the forest. “The portal’s this way!” she then galloped off into the woods. The rest of the group quickly followed after her, with Lego Twilight forced to carry the staff with her mouth so she could use all four legs. After a few minutes of jumping over logs and dodging low branches, they soon arrived at a rather familiar pond. Not much further up ahead, they saw the entrance to the cavern through which they had arrived into Equestria. “The portal’s in there!” Sunset pointed out as she led the group into the cavern. “I appreciate you letting me know where it’s located,” stated Princess Twilight with a smile as she and Sunset both used illumination spells to light up the dark cavern. “As soon as I get a chance, I’ll make sure to secure this site so you won’t have to worry about anything dangerous passing through to either side without us knowing about it.” Walking right behind the two native Equestrians were Rainbow Dash and Lego Twilight, who decided to use her mediocre control over telekinesis to levitate the staff beside her as they walked. Twilight turned to Rainbow and noted, “I’d just like to say for the record that, had you taken a picture of that symbol in the water like Spike suggested, I would’ve been far more tempted to believe you that Equestrian Magic was behind the storm. A perfectly symmetrical shape with such straight lines and sharp angles is much more difficult to be excused as a purely natural phenomenon.” Rainbow Dash sighed and admitted, “Yeah, even without a picture, I probably should have at least mentioned that it was such an unusual shape.” “And now that I think about it,” Sunset spoke up, “the few seconds I got to see of the weather radar before you carelessly destroyed it did seem to indicate there was something very unnatural about that storm. If I had more time to actually study it, not to mention see a picture of that symbol in the water, I could’ve sent a message to Princess Twilight and she could’ve told us about the Storm King.” “Okay! I get it!” snapped Rainbow Dash. “I messed up! I made a lot of bad choices! I’m an awful communicator! Can we just get going and save our friends?!” Lego Twilight sighed and muttered under her breath, “If only you had cared even half as much about your friends earlier…” She then turned to Rainbow and spoke up, “We’ll discuss your atrocious behavior later. For now, yes, our priority should be to save our friends and everyone else on that ship.” The group soon came around a corner and arrived at the area with an underground waterfall and stream. “The new portal’s right over there,” said Sunset as she pointed at the site of the currently sealed portal along the far wall of the cavern. “The other side is covered by a pit full of sand.” “Then what are we waiting for?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash excitedly as she extended her wings. “Let’s go!” She quickly charged straight towards the portal. “Wait!” Sunset cried out. “We don’t even know if it’s still open!” Rainbow ignored Sunset and leaped directly into the site of the portal, which immediately glowed brightly as she passed right through. “I guess that answers that,” muttered Sunset. “I should probably hold tightly onto this while I pass through,” noted Lego Twilight as she released the staff from her magical grip and grabbed hold of it under both of her forelegs. “Here, allow me,” offered Sunset as she levitated Lego Twilight up off the floor and then flung her directly through the portal. Twilight, not expecting such an unusual means of being tossed around, yelped with each sudden change of movement before she vanished through the portal. With both of her friends now on their way back to the Lego World, Sunset turned to Princess Twilight and said, “I’ll let you know how things go as soon as I get a chance.” “Good luck out there,” encouraged Princess Twilight. Sunset nodded in acknowledgement, then turned and galloped towards the portal. She leaped through the portal and vanished through the bright golden glow it briefly gave off. Now completely alone in the cavern, Princess Twilight smiled before she turned away and began to head back to her castle. As much as she enjoyed the unexpected visit by some of her friends from the Lego World, she understood how vital it was for them to return home to deal with a magical threat they were now aware of. After all, she and her closest friends were certainly no strangers to saving the world, and it seemed her friends from the Lego World were now beginning to realize that perhaps they shared a similar responsibility for their world.