Chapter 4
Attack at the Police Station
It didn’t take long for Twilight Sparkle and Spike to find their way to Canterlot City’s library. Once there, they had noticed that while the building itself and the shelves within were built out of Lego bricks, most of the books were like real books, containing paper pages. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be surprised by this, but at least she was glad to find something familiar.
Twilight spent the entire afternoon reading everything she could about LEGO, Lego parts, and how to properly assemble them. She quickly went through the beginner’s guides, and managed to get through most of the advanced guides, too. She even took notes on each type of part and all the possible ways to attach them to other parts. She then went on to study the different themes of each region, and the types of buildings and vehicles that were typically built in each region. Some of them were quite familiar to Twilight, while others were simply beyond anything she could have imagined.
After a few hours, Twilight felt confident that she knew enough about this world to no longer risk being seen as crazy, so long as she kept quiet about Equestria.
Spike set down another stack of books at Twilight’s table and asked, “Can we take a break? I’m getting hungry.”
Twilight looked over at Spike and smiled. “Of course, Spike,” she replied as she closed the book she had been reading. “Besides, I’m sure I’ve done enough research to know how to fit in with everyone in this world.” She got up out of her seat and headed for the door out of the library.
“Hey, maybe we can try that pizza place we passed by on the way here,” suggested Spike as he followed Twilight outside. “Didn’t Pinkie mention it as one of the places to check out in this city?”
“I don’t mind, either way,” admitted Twilight as they reached the bottom of the steps down to the sidewalk. “I’m still finding it hard to believe it’s even possible to eat at all when we look like this.”
“Scootaloo!”
Twilight and Spike turned their attention across the street to three young girls who looked very familiar. Two of them, one with yellow skin and the other with white skin, ran over to the third, who had orange skin and was holding some kind of scooter.
“We finished building that wall you wanted to jump your scooter over!” exclaimed the white girl, Sweetie Belle, excitedly.
“Six bricks high, just like you wanted,” added the yellow girl, Applebloom.
“Awesome!” exclaimed the orange girl, Scootaloo. “Let’s go for it!”
The three girls cheered in unison before running back up the sidewalk.
Twilight sighed and simply said, “Some things never change.”
Twilight had barely turned her attention forward when she felt someone suddenly crash into her, sending them both to the ground. Twilight looked down at herself and gasped in shock to see that her right leg and left arm had come off! She could also see her hair nearby, as if it was a wig that had fallen off. She then looked over at the person she had bumped into and saw that he was also missing some parts.
“Sorry about that,” said the other minifig as he reattached his left leg and right arm. He then stood up and put his hat back on. He had orange skin on his head and hands, and was wearing a blue police uniform, which included the hat. He also had spiky blue hair, which was no longer visible now that he had his hat back on. In addition to the gold police badge on the left chest of his uniform, he also had some symbol printed on the right chest pocket that looked like a yellow lightning bolt over a blue shield.
“Here, let me help you,” he offered as he picked up Twilight’s leg and put it back on. He then did the same for her arm and helped her back up to her feet. Finally, he grabbed her hair and put it back on her head. “There, is that better?”
Twilight wasn’t sure what to say. It was definitely a new experience to have parts of her own body just fall off like that. She felt a little sore at the joints that had come loose, but otherwise seemed to be just fine. “Y-yes,” she finally replied. “Thank you.”
The police officer smiled and turned to continue walking. But before he took even one step, he suddenly turned back to Twilight and asked, “Hey, uh, you wouldn’t happen to be Twilight Sparkle, would you?”
Twilight was initially confused that she had been asked such a question, especially from a police officer. Regardless, there was no point in arguing with law enforcement, so she answered, “Uh, yes. That would be my name.”
“In that case, I am pleased to inform you that we have successfully located and retrieved your stolen crown,” continued the police officer. “It is currently stored inside the safety vault back at the police station. I can give you a ride there, if you’re interested.”
Twilight’s confusion quickly turned to excitement as she received such wonderful news. “Really?! That’s great to hear!” she exclaimed excitedly. “I would love to get it back as soon as possible, so yes, I would really appreciate you taking me there.”
“Consider it done,” said the police officer. “My police cruiser is just down the street here.” As he began walking, he turned to Spike and added, “And don’t worry, there’s enough seats for all of us.”
“Good enough for me,” said Spike as he followed Twilight and the police officer.
The cruiser was parked just one block away, so it didn’t take long for the trio to get to it.
As Spike climbed into the backseat, Twilight walked around to the passenger side and said, “Thank you for giving us a ride, officer…” Twilight trailed off as she realized she didn’t even know the officer’s name.
“Flash Sentry, at your service,” he introduced himself with a tip of the hat. He then opened the door of the driver side and got in his seat, while Twilight did likewise on the passenger side. He turned on the cruiser and began to drive forward down the street.
Twilight let out a sigh of relief. This ride was a lot more calm and smooth that her previous ride with Pinkie Pie.
“Are you okay?” asked Flash, having heard her sigh.
Twilight blushed from her embarrassment. “It’s just… this is nothing like how Pinkie Pie drives,” she answered honestly.
“Oh yeah, that crazy girl,” said Flash, nodding in understanding. “Based on what I’ve heard from the other officers, she just can’t go even one week without getting a speeding ticket. You’d think she would learn her lesson by now, but she always just shrugs it off with a smile. At least that’s the only offence she ever commits, unlike Sunset Shimmer.”
“Speaking of Sunset, how did you manage to get my crown back from her?” asked Twilight.
Flash laughed a little before answering, “Please. If she had that thing, we would be chasing her halfway around the world before we could even catch up to her! No, we actually found it in the possession of Rocky and Mugsy, two of the most incompetent crooks you’ll ever meet. I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve had to arrest those brick-heads, and I’m still technically considered a rookie, so that’s saying something.”
“If you’ve been arresting them that much, why do you guys keep letting them go?” asked Spike in confusion. After all, they couldn’t be arrested again if they were still in jail, so they had to get out somehow, and if what Flash said about them was true, they were unlikely to break out on their own.
“We don’t,” replied Flash. “Somebody keeps breaking them out of jail. No idea who or why. What really confuses me is why the culprit would go with them, of all people. Personally, if I wanted to break some crooks out of jail, those two brick-heads would be at the bottom of my list.”
This information was relieving for Twilight, but also worrisome. Although her crown had ended up in bad hands, she was glad that it was a pair of incompetent crooks rather than Sunset Shimmer. They had probably just happened to be in the park at the moment the crown came through, and had decided to take it as simply a piece of treasure for them to loot. The part that did worry her, though, was that someone had been helping to break them out of prison, time and time again. She couldn’t help but get the sense that these “brick-heads” were maybe being used as pawns in some bigger scheme. If so, for what purpose?
There would be time to worry about that later. For now, the important thing was that the local police had recovered her crown, and she would soon have it back where it belonged.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the police station. Twilight was sure of it, due to the word “POLICE” labeled on multiple parts of the blue and white building. Half of it was three floors tall while the other half was only two floors tall. Large windows took up most of the front side of the building. Flash slowed the cruiser as he drove around to the side of the building toward a lever gate. The gate opened as the cruiser pulled up and then continued into the parking space within the building before coming to a stop.
Flash shut off the cruiser and said, “Follow me, please.” He got out and walked up to the nearby door into the building. He held it open as Twilight and Spike followed him inside. “This way,” he said as he led them across the room to another door.
The three of them walked by a desk as they headed for yet another doorway. Spike stopped suddenly when he noticed a box containing a dozen doughnuts resting on the desk. Tempted, he reached over to grab one.
“Hands off the doughnuts!” Flash called back to him while still facing forward as he continued to walk with Twilight. “Chief gets pretty upset if he sees even one of them is missing.”
“Awww,” groaned Spike in disappointment. He didn’t keep following the others, but instead continued to stand next to the box of doughnuts on the desk. He stared at the delicious snack just sitting right there in front of him. His growling stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten anything since visiting the library.
Tempted once more, Spike looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching, then quickly grabbed a doughnut and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. It didn’t take him long to finish chowing down on it. “Mmm, doughnuts,” he muttered in satisfaction. Looking back over at the box of doughnuts, Spike looked over his shoulder again before he grabbed another one and shoved it in his mouth.
Meanwhile, Flash and Twilight walked into the next room. In the back was a large vault door. Flash walked up to the nearby control panel and tapped a few keys in a particular order. He then spun the handle around until a faint click was heard. Finally, he pulled the heavy door open, revealing the interior of the vault.
Twilight could see cash, coins, and other valuable objects stored inside, but what really made her gasp was that, sitting right in the middle of it all, was her crown. She could hardly believe it, but here it was!
“We use this safety vault to store items of value before we can return them to their rightful owners,” explained Flash Sentry as he walked into the vault. He grabbed the crown and held it out to Twilight.
Twilight reached over and gently took back her crown. It was hard to believe that she now had it back, and so easily, too! She had definitely made the right call to seek help from the Lego World’s Celestia.
“I have to say, I’ve never seen anything like that crown, before,” admitted Flash. “It’s so unlike any Lego part that I know of.”
“Let’s just say it doesn’t belong here,” said Twilight, deciding not to mention that it wasn’t even a Lego part at all. “And I’m here to bring it back.”
“Good,” said Flash, nodding in approval. “The last thing we need is an unknown artifact in the hands of some crook.”
“Thank you so much for finding it!” exclaimed Twilight happily, before throwing her arms around the police officer in a big hug.
Flash was momentarily caught off-guard by Twilight’s show of thanks. Figuring that the artifact meant a lot to her, he simply returned the hug. “Just doing an officer’s duty,” he assured her.
Meanwhile, Spike continued to happily munch on the doughnuts. He blindly reached into the box to grab another one. When he felt nothing in the box that he was now holding in his hands, he opened his eyes to see it was empty. He tipped the box upside down to confirm that he had in fact eaten every single doughnut. “Awww,” he moaned in disappointment.
At that particular moment, Spike happened to glance out the window and noticed something peculiar. “Huh?” he muttered before turning to look out the window again. He saw a vehicle parked across the street outside with three doors on the side. He was unable to see who was in the two rear seats, but the door for the driver’s seat up front did have a window just large enough to show a pale orange minifig with long red and yellow hair. There was something uncomfortably familiar about that person.
The mysterious driver turned to look towards the police station and soon found herself locking eyes with the short minifig wearing a red LEGO cap. They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither of them quite able to immediately grasp what they now saw. The driver was the first to break eye contact, as she quickly turned to the passengers in the back and said something.
“Uh oh,” said Spike nervously as he finally realized what was going on. With no time to lose, he quickly turned away from the window and ran to the nearby vault room.
Twilight had just released her hug on Flash Sentry when she heard the rapid clacking of footsteps behind her. She turned to see Spike running into the room with a panicked look on his face.
“I thought I told you to keep your hands off the doughnuts!” scolded Flash.
Spike stopped and realized he was still holding the empty box in his hands. He quickly tossed it aside and said, “That’s not important right now. We have a really serious problem, guys.”
“What is it, Spike?” asked Twilight in concern.
Spike pointed toward the large window at the front of the room and exclaimed, “We’ve got company!”
Twilight and Flash had only enough time to turn to look in the same direction before the vehicle Spike had spotted crashed through the wall, scattering Lego parts all over the floor. The vehicle, which was wide enough for only one seat, came to a stop in the middle of the room.
The driver didn’t waste any time stepping out of the vehicle to reveal herself. Her lower legs were black with a splash of magenta on the front. Wrapped around her upper legs was an orange skirt with a yellow and magenta stripe diagonally across the front. Her arms and most of her torso were also black. On the front of her torso, underneath an open jacket, was magenta, and in the middle of that was a red and yellow sun symbol.
“Sunset Shimmer,” growled Flash Sentry.
Twilight gasped at this revelation. Sunset Shimmer, the unicorn mare who had stolen her crown and was also number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted list, was now standing right in front of her, in the form of a minifig.
Flash continued, “You have a lot of nerve to break into Canterlot City Police Station like this.”
“And with good reason,” said Sunset, smugly. “I really must thank you for finding that crown. I was wondering where I had dropped it.” She then turned her attention to Twilight, who was still holding onto her crown. “You know, I went through a lot of trouble just to cast that fake crown you may have seen. I’m done fooling around! I’m here to take what’s mine!” She held out her hand. “Now hand it over. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”
Twilight looked over at Flash, who quickly shook his head. She didn’t need to be told twice. “Forget it!” she declared. “You are not getting my crown!”
Sunset shrugged and said, “Fine. I guess we’ll just have to do this the hard way.”
At this, the first passenger stepped out of the vehicle. This minifig had light blue skin on her head, hands, and upper legs. Her arms, torso, and lower legs were dark blue. She also wore a violet cape and pointed hat. Barely visible underneath that hat was white and pale blue hair. Finally, wrapped around her lower legs was a violet skirt with a symbol printed on the left side that consisted of a blue scarf and star-shaped wand. In her hand, she held a staff with a five-pointed star on the end, similar to the one printed on her skirt.
It soon became clear this minifig possessed magical abilities, as the end of her staff began to glow. Once it was charged up, she pointed it toward Twilight, firing a bolt of energy.
“NOOOO!” shouted Spike as he jumped in front of Twilight to take the hit. The bolt of energy wrapped around his body and bound his arms to his sides. Once he fell to the floor, Spike squirmed around in a vain attempt to break loose from the magic bonds, but they held tight.
“Spike!” exclaimed Twilight helplessly.
The blue minifig quickly followed that up by levitating many of the various parts that littered the floor. Then, with a wave of her staff, sent them flying towards Twilight.
Twilight could only scream as she tried to jump out of the way, but she was too slow. The parts slammed into her and pinned her against the wall, causing her to drop her crown in the process. She tried to pull herself loose, but like Spike, the magic bonds held her in place.
Sunset smiled in satisfaction as she slowly walked up to the crown that now lay before her on the floor. But then, quick as a flash, Flash Sentry snatched the crown, tossed it into a nearby machine, and yanked down on the lever on the side of it. The machine made a noise that sounded like it was powering down. This was all the rookie police officer could do before he, too, was quickly pinned against the wall by a mass of levitated parts, his hat falling off in the process.
Undaunted, Sunset walked up to the lever and tried to flip it back up, but it wouldn’t budge. She grunted in frustration as she tried, and failed, to reverse whatever Flash had done.
“Did you really think we’d be stupid enough to include a reverse feature on that thing?” taunted Flash. “We know better than that!”
Sunset knew that this was a major setback, but as she looked carefully at the settings on the machine, she realized it would not be an unbearable setback. “Fine!” said Sunset as she open the machine and removed Twilight’s crown. “I can afford to wait forty-eight hours. The portal will still be open by then.”
Twilight looked over helplessly as Sunset Shimmer, once again, took away her crown. However, she noticed something different about her crown. It was drained of all color. She wasn’t sure what it was that Flash did to the magical artifact, but his relatively smug response seemed to indicate that it would hinder Sunset’s efforts.
As this was going on, the second passenger stepped out of the vehicle. She had aqua skin and had yellow and orange hair on her head. She wore what appeared to be a blue and yellow flight suit of some kind that covered everything but her head. The symbol that was printed in the middle of her torso was a white lightning bolt over three yellow stars. She was also currently holding something rectangular in her hand.
Sunset smirked when she noticed the object the aqua minifig was holding. “Good,” she said in approval. “Leave no witnesses.”
The aqua minifig tapped something on the rectangular part, which caused it to start beeping. She then simply tossed the part onto the floor in front of her.
“I got what I came for,” said Sunset to her two companions. “Now let’s get outta here!” The three minifigs quickly got back into their seats in their vehicle. Now back in the driver’s seat, Sunset backed the vehicle out of the building, turned, and accelerated forward down the street. The vehicle revved loudly as it sped away, zooming away from the scene of the crime.
Now that the attackers were gone, the effects of the blue minifig’s magic wore off, freeing the three trapped minifigs. Spike looked over at the beeping object and asked, “Um, what’s that?”
Flash needed no more than a quick glance to realize the purpose of the beeping device. “BOMB!” he shouted in absolute terror, jumping back to his feet. He quickly grabbed Twilight by the wrist and practically dragged her along as the beeping began to speed up. “QUICK! INTO THE VAULT!”
“Hey, wait for me!” exclaimed Spike as he ran into the safety vault behind Flash and Twilight.
Once everyone was inside, Flash quickly pulled the heavy door closed and spun the handle until it locked shut. By now, the bomb was beeping so rapidly that the noise was almost a blur.
The bomb finally detonated, blasting the police station completely apart. As Lego parts began raining down all over the city block, the only part of the building left intact was the safety vault.
Once the last of the Lego parts finally hit the ground, the handle spun open from the inside and the vault door was pushed open. Flash, Twilight, and Spike could now see the devastation unleashed by that bomb. Outside of the safety vault, the entire police station was completely in pieces. Not even two bricks were still together.
Flash Sentry let out a huge sigh of relief and said, “That was a very close call. A blast like that could have extinguished our Creation Sparks.”
“Creation Spark?” asked Twilight, slightly confused.
“It’s what makes you a living minifig,” explained Flash. “Without it… you’re reduced to nothing but a pile of parts.” As he explained this, he managed to find his hat among the debris. He picked it up, dusted off the top of it, and put it back on his head.
Twilight found it quite humbling to hear that the possibility of death — even by a different phrase — was still just as real in this world as it was in Equestria. Although minifigs were capable of doing incredible things, other hazards — like a massive explosion, in this case —were still just as dangerous. It was not something to fear, but rather more like not taking her new form for granted.
Flash sighed again, this time in frustration. “This should not have happened,” he simply said. “We had that artifact stored inside the safety vault, and right at the exact moment we take it out, she barges in and yanks it right out of our hands!”
“By the way, what was that machine you threw my crown in before she took it?” asked Twilight.
“That was a Deactivation Camber,” answered Flash. “It can render any object completely useless for a certain amount of time. Once that amount of time has passed, the effects will wear off and the object in question will regain its power. I didn’t have a chance to set the controls, so I had to go with whatever setting it was already on: forty-eight hours.” He gave another frustrated sigh. “But still, it should not have had to come to that. Why does it always have to be this way with Sunset Shimmer? Every time we think we’ve got a step ahead of her, she throws us back to square one.” He grunted as he kicked away a Lego part in anger. “How can she keep getting away like this?!”
“Well, at least those doughnuts didn’t go to waste,” said Spike, trying to stay optimistic.
A glare from Flash Sentry made it pretty clear he was not sharing in that optimism.
“What should we do now?” asked Twilight. “It is imperative that I get my crown back, and not just so we can bring Sunset Shimmer to justice.”
“We need to inform Ms. Playwell about this latest development right away,” said Flash in determination. “Seeing as the station is in pieces, we’ll need to find another way to contact her.” He started scanning the area around the remains of the police station for anything useful. It didn’t take him long to find just the thing he needed. “There! A pay phone!” he exclaimed, pointing at a fixture on the sidewalk that Twilight did not recognize at all. “We can just call her directly.” He immediately ran over to the fixture, soon followed by Twilight and Spike.
Twilight Sparkle observed carefully how Flash Sentry used the unfamiliar device. The first thing he did was grab a small rectangular part that was somehow attached by a wire to the device and held it against the side of his head. He reached for a pocket on his uniform and a coin appeared in his hand — Lego logic that Twilight still couldn’t quite figure out. He inserted the coin into the device and quickly tapped some of the buttons, each labeled with a different single number. Finally, he stood still and waited.
Twilight and Spike glanced at each other in confusion.
Flash rapidly tapped his foot, showing that he was struggling to keep his patience. Finally, he said, “Ms. Playwell, this is officer Flash Sentry, and I have some unfortunate news to report. I was in the process of returning that stolen artifact back to Twilight Sparkle when Sunset Shimmer came by and stole it from us.” He was silent for a few seconds before he spoke up again. “No, I was unable to see where she went. She and two others caught us completely by surprise. They even destroyed the police station in their escape.” He went silent again for a few seconds. “No, no one was harmed, as far as I know. I was able to take shelter inside the safety vault with Twilight and Spike.” Another brief silence. “Yes, she is actually standing right next to me right now. Do you wish to speak with her?” He kept silent one more time. “Okay.” He then held the part he was talking into out to Twilight.
Twilight stared at the part in confusion for a moment, not quite understanding what this device was supposed to do. Flash had been speaking as if he was having a conversation with someone, but she could not hear the other side of it at all. Perhaps the only way of hearing that other side was to hold that part against the side of her head the same way Flash had done, so she decided to do exactly that. “Hello?” she said hesitantly.
“Twilight Sparkle,” said the voice of Celestia Playwell as it came from the device. “I am terribly sorry to hear about this. I’m just glad you and your friend are both unharmed. We have no time to lose, so I’ll make this quick. I had a feeling Sunset Shimmer might try something like this, so I prepared a backup plan. Please return to the LEGO Team Headquarters as soon as possible, and I’ll assemble a team to assist you. The time has come to bring Sunset Shimmer to justice, once and for all!”
Once she quickly got over the shock of discovering how this “pay phone” worked, Twilight took a moment to think over what Celestia was talking about. It seemed that if she was going to get her crown back, she would have to do it personally. At least she would have a team to assist her in this endeavor, but she had no idea what kind of team to expect.
Twilight smiled a little as she realized that there was a team she knew she could trust to help her at every step. “Actually, I already have a team in mind,” she spoke into the phone.
“Is that so?” said Celestia. “Very well. Just tell me who they are and I’ll send for them right away.”
Twilight’s smile widened at this approval. Looks like my best friends are going to help me, after all, she thought to herself.