//------------------------------// // The Lunar Base // Story: LEGO Equestria Girls // by Chronicler06 //------------------------------// Chapter 7 The Lunar Base Twilight Sparkle lifted her helmet over her head and carefully fitted it on, making sure that her hair was completely tucked inside. Once she got it on in a snug fit, she flipped the transparent visor down over her face. As soon as this was done, she heard a faint hissing noise as the helmet automatically made an air-tight seal with the rest of her spacesuit. Twilight turned to the rest of her team, all of whom also now had their helmets on. “Can everyone hear me?” she asked, testing the built-in communication system. “Loud an’ clear, Twilight,” replied Applejack. Since she couldn’t cram her hat inside the helmet, she had decided to leave it behind with her spare change of clothes. “Copy that,” replied Rainbow Dash. “Coming through crystal clear,” replied Rarity. “Yes, I can hear you,” replied Fluttershy. “I can hear all of you just fine,” replied Pinkie Pie. Twilight noticed that everyone’s voices were slightly distorted due to the background static from the communication systems, but she could still hear them clearly enough to understand what they were saying. However, Spike had not said anything, so Twilight turned to see why that was so. With the way his mouth was moving, he was clearly trying to speak up, but there was absolutely no noise coming from him at all. Rainbow sighed in frustration and lightly smacked the side of Spike’s helmet. “Can you hear us now?” she asked. Spike had stumbled a bit from that smack, but once he steadied himself, he answered, “There we go, now it’s working.” “Good,” responded Rainbow Dash. “Now that we’re able to speak to each other, is everyone ready?” asked Twilight. Everyone gave various words of agreement. “Okay… let’s go.” Twilight flipped the lever next to the air-lock door. The door hissed lightly as it opened and lowered down to create a ramp for everyone to walk down to the floor of the landing pad. Once it was fully opened, Twilight led her team out into the airless environment. As Spike reached the end of the ramp, he stopped suddenly and said to himself, “Wow… I’m actually about to set foot on the Moon!” He took a deep breath and, as he took his first step off the ramp, he said, “That’s one small step for me.” “One giant leap for meeee!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she leaped over Spike. “Oof!” She hit the floor of the landing pad hard on her rear. “Hey! I thought the Moon was supposed to be a bouncy place,” she said in confusion. “Artificial gravity is mandatory at all Wonderbolts bases,” explained Rainbow Dash as she walked by with a neutral expression on her face. “You’d have to get pretty far from here if you wanna bounce around like a lunatic.” Pinkie moaned in disappointment before getting back up on her feet. Fluttershy had barely gone more than a few steps before she suddenly stopped and nervously said, “M-m-maybe I should stay here and, um… guard the spaceship.” Twilight turned back to the nervous girl and said, “There is no way we are leaving you here. We all need to stick together. That’s the whole point of this team, after all.” Fluttershy reluctantly nodded in approval and continued walking with the rest of the team. Right at the edge of the landing pad, just a short walk away from the spaceship, was a large air-lock door. “I believe this is our entrance into the base,” Rarity pointed out. There was no control panel to be found anywhere near the door. In the middle of that door was a round indentation with a vertical rod through the middle. Realizing that this must be how to get the door open, Applejack grabbed the rod with both hands and tried to twist it. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t get it open. “Darn thing won’t even budge,” she grumbled. “Now, see here, Applejack, raw power alone is often not the ideal way to solve a problem,” explained Rarity as she started walking around and gathering a few various Lego parts, “Sometimes, you need to take a closer look and consider your options. In this particular case, it would appear that we need to turn a lock in order to open the entrance door. You have already demonstrated one method of accomplishing this, but I see an easier way.” She finished attaching the few parts she had picked up and showed off her creation: a small clamp-like assembly on the end of a long rod. “We just need a little leverage.” She attached the clamp end onto the lock and, with only modest effort, yanked down on the far end of the long rod. This provided enough force to twist the lock open. With the lock open, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash helped Rarity pull the door open. The interior door of the air-lock was only a few feet further back, so there wasn’t much room for everyone. But, since this was the only known way inside, the seven minifigs stepped inside. Once everyone was inside the air-lock, Rainbow Dash pressed a large red button on the wall. This made the overhead light flicker on as the outer door automatically slammed shut, which startled some of the minifigs. “Relax,” assured Rainbow Dash. “We just need to wait for the air-lock to fill with air before we can open the other door.” While they were waiting, Fluttershy pulled out a gadget she was carrying that monitored air quality. At the moment, the red light was blinking, indicating that it was not yet safe to remove their helmets. After only a few seconds, the red light stopped blinking and the green light came on. “The air is now safe to breathe,” she announced. Everyone was understandably uncertain at first. It was Rainbow Dash who decided to go first by flipping up the visor on her helmet. After taking one breath to be sure, she completely removed her helmet and set it down on the floor. Pinkie Pie was the next to remove her helmet, followed by Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and finally Spike. As soon as everyone set their helmets down, the inner door automatically opened. Ahead of them was a long and dimly-lit hallway. Only a few of the overhead lights were on, with one of them noticeably flickering. The seven minifigs looked at one another uncertainly. “I guess this is where we start,” said Twilight uneasily. She started walking forward, leading the team into the deserted lunar base. The clanking of their footsteps against the metallic floor echoed though the empty hallway. There was no telling what kind of dangers could be lurking in such an eerie place, so everyone kept a close eye on their surroundings. As they were walking, Applejack looked over at Spike and noticed that, unlike her, he was still wearing his hat. “You actually wore that thing under your helmet?” she asked. “What?” responded Spike in confusion as he shrugged. “I really like this hat.” “Or is it because you’re trying to hide the fact that you’re bald?” asked Pinkie Pie as she removed Spike’s hat, confirming that he did in fact have no hair at all. Annoyed, Spike snatched his red cap back and put it back on his head. “No, it’s not that,” he grumbled. “I just like this hat.” “Ohh, I get it now,” said Pinkie. “You just like how it was customized.” She leaned in closely and whispered, “Or rather, who customized it.” She couldn’t resist giggling at this. Spike blushed slightly as he realized Pinkie was on to him. “S-s-so what?” he responded. “I should be allowed to like whatever I want.” “Guys, cut it out,” Rainbow Dash called back to them over her shoulder. “This isn’t the time and place to talk about dumb things like that.” The noise of a low growl made everyone suddenly stop in their tracks. Pinkie Pie screamed and leaped into Fluttershy’s arms. “What was that?!” she exclaimed in terror. The growling noise echoed through the hallway again. Pinkie Pie screamed again and tightened her grip on poor Fluttershy. “There it is again!” “Um, Pinkie?” said Fluttershy quietly. Pinkie didn’t even acknowledge her as she continued shouting in panic, “What is it?! Is it some gross evil alien lizard who wants to eat us all?!” “Pinkie?” said Fluttershy, her voice still little more than a whisper. “Or is it a scary robot army that wants to exterminate all living things in the universe?!” “Pinkie?” “Or maybe it’s a big giant weirdo who wants to glue everything together and thus bring an end to all of creativity as we know it!” “Pinkie!” said Fluttershy, finally losing just enough patience to make her only slightly raise her voice, but it was enough to get her message across. “What?” asked Pinkie in confusion. “That’s your stomach,” Fluttershy answered simply. Pinkie looked down at her abdomen and heard the growling noise again. This time, it was clear that Fluttershy was right. Pinkie simply blushed as she giggled in embarrassment and said, “I’m hungry.” She leaped out of Fluttershy’s arms. “I wonder what they’re serving for lunch.” She then began to jog down the hallway while humming happily to herself. “Pinkie, wait! We all need to stick together!” Twilight called after the party girl. Pinkie blissfully ignored Twilight’s warning as she continued down the dim hallway on her own. “Does this mean we have to follow her?” asked Rarity. “Ah don’t think we got a choice,” replied Applejack as she began to chase after Pinkie Pie. She was quickly followed by Twilight and the rest of the team. As the six minifigs ran down the hallway after Pinkie Pie, it soon became clear just how deserted the base really was. They passed rooms with doors left partially open. Many of these various rooms were just as dim as the hallway, with only about half of the overhead lights on and the occasional flickering one. They didn’t bother to check what was inside any of the rooms, as they were too busy chasing after their ignorant teammate. Finally, Pinkie hopped her way into one of the rooms on the left. The others followed her into what appeared to be some kind of cafeteria. At least a dozen rectangular tables were set up in the room with at least four chairs to each of them. At the other end of the room was the door on the left and open counter on the right that led to the kitchen. Pinkie threw open the kitchen door and came running back into the cafeteria, carrying a huge armful of unusual small packs. “Lookie, lookie! Look at what I found!” Pinkie dropped all of the packs on the floor and held up one of them for all to see as she excitedly exclaimed, “Space food!” In one move, she tore off the packaging and tossed it away, revealing in her hand the food that was packaged inside. “Who wants ice cream sandwiches?” Each of the team members looked at one another and said various words of agreement as they walked over to grab some of the space food that Pinkie found. All except for Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was stunned that everyone — including Spike — was so quick to forget what they were here for. She wanted to remind her teammates that they were on an important rescue mission, and that this was no time for snacking. However, the only responses she could think of involved yelling at them, and she was smart enough to realize that wouldn’t get them anywhere. Besides, she was curious about one thing. “What’s so special about space food?” she asked. “It’s freeze-dried,” answered Rainbow Dash as she tossed one of the packs to Twilight. “Makes it a lot lighter, so cargo ships can pack more of it.” Twilight looked at the pack that had just been tossed into her hands. She carefully opened the packaging and removed the item of food inside — in this case, an ice cream sandwich. She had once tried the ordinary kind back in Equestria, and the differences here were easy to see. This one had absolutely no moisture at all, which explained why it was so light. As she took a bite, she discovered that despite the lack of moisture, it still tasted just like the regular kind. While everyone continued to snack away, they failed to notice someone standing in the doorway behind them. The shadowy figure quickly slammed the door shut, causing everyone to suddenly turn their attention to the door. Now they realized they were not alone. Twilight ran back to the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t even budge. “The door’s locked!” she exclaimed. From the other side of the door, a narrow horizontal opening in the middle of the door was slid open. “I was wondering when the rescue team would show up,” said the person on the other side. “Though I have to admit, I was expecting more of a challenge than this.” Although Twilight couldn’t see who was outside and had only the voice to go by, she had a good hunch on who it was. “Lightning Dust, I presume?” she asked. “Who else?” taunted the minifig on the other side. “You idiots are just too easy.” “Hey! Who are you calling idiots?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash in anger. “Oh, I don’t know,” taunted Lightning Dust again. “The people I just locked up inside a room with no other way out? Really, only a bunch of noobs would make a mistake like that.” “I think we all know who to blame for that,” whispered Rarity to Applejack, before both of them turned their gaze to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie quickly noticed some of her teammates glaring at her. “What?” she asked in confusion. Twilight ignored the team issues and continued speaking with Lightning Dust. “Why are you going through all this trouble?” asked Twilight, hoping to maybe talk her out of such madness. “What do you hope to gain by attacking this base and bringing harm to others?” “I asked the Wonderbolts to give me another chance,” explained Lightning Dust, “but they wouldn’t listen! If they can’t appreciate my talents, then I’ll make them regret turning me away like this. What better way to prove my point than to take over their Lunar Headquarters single-handedly?” Twilight looked backed at her team worriedly. Clearly, there was no way they would be able to talk their way out of this trouble. “I’m off to salvage this base for anything useful,” continued Lightning Dust, “but before I go, I’d like to leave you a little present.” A light tap was heard before something flew through the narrow opening in the door and landed near the right wall of the cafeteria. Spike quickly recognized the object’s shape, detailing, and distinctive beeping noise. “AHH! BOMB!” he screamed in panic. “Destructa-brick!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “Take cover!” She immediately dove for one of the tables. As she landed, the table tipped over so that it completely blocked her from the bomb. Rarity and Fluttershy quickly followed Rainbow’s example. They ran to a table as far from the bomb as possible, tipped over the table, and ducked down behind it. Twilight and Spike did likewise at the opposite corner of the room, tipping over their table on its short side. “Where are you going?” asked Pinkie in confusion, completely oblivious to the dire situation. “She said she was going to give us a present.” Annoyed by Pinkie’s behavior, Applejack grabbed her and tossed her over to another far table, which fell over away from the bomb as she landed. Applejack then ran over to take cover behind that table. With no way out, everyone’s best hope was to hunker down behind the tables. The seconds that followed grew more and more tense as the beeping from the destructa-brick accelerated until it finally detonated. The blast pushed everything back a short distance. Remarkably, the tables did a good job as makeshift bomb shelters, although that did little to avoid the ringing in everyone’s ears. As the ringing subsided, Twilight began to notice another ominous noise. It sounded like the rushing noise of a strong breeze. She peered around the table in front of her and gasped as she saw a devastating sight. The destructa-brick had blasted a huge hole in the wall. And worse, that hole opened directly to the outside of the base, causing all of the air to rush out as if a storm was blowing through the room. “That’s not good,” said Spike as he and the others also noticed the damage and new threat. “We’ve gotta get our helmets back on!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “We can’t!” Rarity pointed out fearfully. “We left them back at the air-lock!” “I don’t wanna lose my Creation Spark like this!” exclaimed Fluttershy in fear. Although the rushing air was not strong enough to suck everyone out into the vacuum of space, it was clear there wouldn’t be much time until the air inside became too thin to breathe. They needed to find a way to cover that hole, and fast! Twilight looked frantically around the cafeteria for anything that might be useful. It took her a moment to realize the answer was sitting right in front of her. The table — consisting of a large flat surface — was the perfect object to block up the hole in the wall. However, she quickly noticed the table was not quite big enough to cover the hole, and the only way to stop the threat was to completely cover it. Noticing all of the studs on top of the table, Twilight suddenly remembered that everything in the room around her — including the table — was made of Lego bricks. If one alone wasn’t big enough, then she could simply put two of them together. That would be enough to cover the hole in the wall! But the two tabletops alone still weren’t enough. If she wanted to make sure they would form an air-tight seal, she needed a way to hold the two tables together. Fortunately, the parts that made up the single central leg of each table included something she could use. The base of the leg consisted of two standard twelve-stud plates, assembled in a cross shape for stability. She could remove these plates and attach them to the top of the six-by-ten plates of the tabletops, holding them together to form a single surface large enough to completely cover the gaping hole in the wall. Now with a plan in mind, Twilight immediately went to work. She rushed over to the nearest table and tipped it over on its short side, just like the one she had taken shelter behind. She dragged it over to the other table until they were perfectly against each other. She then removed both of the twelve-stud plates at the bottom of the leg, separated them, and tucked them both under her arm. She removed one of the plates from the other table leg, but it got caught in the rushing air. She lost her grip on the part and it flew out the hole in the wall. There wasn’t much time to lose, so she ignored the loss and removed the final plate. Three would still be enough. As Twilight ran back to behind the tables, Spike — who was holding his hat down on his head to keep it from flying away — asked, “What are you doing?” “Trying to save our lives,” answered Twilight as she attached the first plate to the middle of where the two tables met, locking them together. She quickly added the two remaining plates to the opposite ends of the joint, for added stability. With her solution fully assembled, all that was left to do was get it to block the hole in the wall, but that was easier said than done. One table had been heavy enough, but two of them put together was almost impossible for her to move. She quickly realized she would need some help. “Applejack!” she shouted over the rushing air. “Help me lift this thing!” Applejack, along with the others, had been watching Twilight curiously since she tipped over the second table. Now that she realized what Twilight was trying to do, she immediately ran over to help. While Twilight held one end of the combined tables, Applejack grabbed the opposite end and picked it up off the floor. Twilight was impressed by Applejack’s strength, but was still aware there was no time to hesitate. Barely holding up her end, Twilight guided the tables toward the wall with that massive hole in it. As they got closer, the force of the air rushing out began to pull on the tables. They were only a few feet away from the wall before stopping their advance. The suction force was now so great that they could barely hold back the tables in their hands. With only one thing left to do, Twilight gave a quick nod to Applejack. Applejack returned the nod and they simultaneously tossed the attached tables toward the wall. The suction of the rushing air pulled the combined tables straight at the hole. The immense force caused the tables to slam loudly against the wall. The noise echoed around the room for a second, followed by absolute silence. As Twilight had hoped, the massive surface area of the two tables was able to completely cover the entire hole. Now that no more air was escaping, the lives of everyone in the room were no longer threatened. As the rest of the team gathered around, Applejack breathed a huge sigh of relief and said, “That was a close one! Good thinkin’ Twi.” Before any further congratulations could be made, a sudden reminder of what started this incident made itself clear when another destrusta-brick was tossed into the room. “Ah! Another bomb!” exclaimed Spike, jumping back in terror. “I got it!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she ran over and picked up the beeping device. “What are you doing?!” asked Rainbow Dash, shocked to see Pinkie handling a live bomb like that. Pinkie ran over to the wall with a huge hole in it. She pulled the blocking tables aside just enough to open a small gap, allowing air to rush outside again. She then held the bomb over the gap and let go of it. “Bye-bye!” said Pinkie as the destruscta-brick was sucked out of the room. She then pushed the tables back to completely cover the hole. The only evidence of the bomb going off was a slight vibration through the floor. “That was quite impressive,” remarked Rarity. “I take back everything I said about you.” “Ah! Another one!” shouted Spike as yet another destructa-brick was tossed into the cafeteria. Without a word, Applejack ran over to where the active bomb had landed. She quickly picked it up and tossed it over to Pinkie Pie, who pulled aside the tables again and let the rushing air suck the bomb outside, where it exploded without harming anyone. Before Pinkie could pull the tables back over the hole again, Applejack noticed yet another destructa-brick land at her feet. “Ya gotta be kiddin’ me,” muttered Applejack as she picked up the bomb and tossed it to Pinkie, who then held it in front of the open gap in the wall so it could be harmlessly sucked outside. As soon as that was done, another destructa-brick was tossed into the room through the narrow opening in the door. Applejack picked it up and repeated the disposal process with Pinkie Pie. Applejack turned back to the door and, sure enough, yet another destructa-brick was tossed inside. This time, she caught it before it even hit the floor, before tossing it back to Pinkie to have it sucked outside where the explosion would harm no one. And all of this just kept on going: Lightning Dust would activate a destructa-brick and toss it through the narrow opening in the door to the cafeteria, but Applejack would catch it and toss it to Pinkie Pie, who then held it out over the now small hole in the wall, where the rushing air would suck it outside into an airless environment where the explosion would do little more than put another crater in the ground. They must have gone through at least a dozen destructa-bricks by the time Applejack said, “We can do this all day!” At this statement, the virtually limitless supply of destructa-bricks finally stopped coming. “Fine!” declared Lightning Dust. “I’ve got other ways to tear you apart!” The narrow opening in the middle of the door slid closed, indicating that she was done with them for now. With the crisis finally over, Pinkie Pie pulled the two attached tables back over the hole in the wall, preventing any air from escaping and bringing silence back to the cafeteria. “Wow,” remarked Pinkie. “After all of those bombs, I bet it looks like the surface of the Moon out there.” “Um, we are on the surface of the Moon, actually,” Fluttershy pointed out. Meanwhile, Applejack tried to open the door, but as Twilight had already discovered earlier, it was locked shut. “Darn it,” she muttered under her breath. She sighed in frustration and said, “There’s gotta be another way outta here.” “We could try the air vents,” suggested Rainbow Dash. “As if!” scoffed Rarity as she crossed her arms. “I may have agreed to this mission, but I still have my standards.” “Not to mention, those cramped conditions will make us easy targets,” added Applejack uneasily. “Then I guess that leaves us with only one option,” said Rainbow Dash. “If we can’t get the door open, we’ll just make a new one.” “Make a new door?” asked Spike in confusion. “How do we do that?” “Easy,” replied Rainbow Dash. “We’ll just blow a hole in the wall to another room. We already saw how well that worked.” She gestured to the tables blocking the giant hole in the wall on the right side of the room. “Too bad I threw away all those destructa-bricks,” said Pinkie Pie. “We could really use one of them right now.” Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully as a plan started forming in her mind. But first, she needed to be sure of one more thing. “Is there a way Lightning Dust might be watching us right now?” she asked. “If she’s really taken over the base, she could be watching us through that security camera over there,” replied Rainbow Dash, pointing toward a small camera up in the back left corner of the cafeteria. Twilight needed only a few more seconds to figure out how they could use that to their advantage. “I may have an idea,” she said. “Here’s the plan…” Not far from the cafeteria, Lightning Dust had just finished restocking her personal supply of destructa-bricks, keeping most of them in a backpack. Ever since she had taken control of the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters, she had prepared for the inevitable arrival of a rescue team. She was surprised by how easy it was to lock them all up in one room, which initially made her think that this team was a joke. However, they had not only survived the first blast, but also used the collateral damage to their advantage to get rid of every single bomb before they went off. If she was going to destroy them, she would need to stay one step ahead of them. The best way to do that was to check the security video, which was relatively easy for her to hack into. “Let’s see what those noobs are up to right now,” said Lightning Dust as she walked up to a small console nearby and tapped a key to bring up a live video from the cafeteria on the display screen. Close to the camera were Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, with Twilight Sparkle not far behind. Applejack, Rarity, and Spike stood near the door, while Fluttershy was nowhere to be found. But it was not the quiet girl’s absence that got her attention, but rather the two loudmouths up front who were shouting directly at the camera. “Come on!” taunted Rainbow Dash with a grin on her face. “Is that the best you got?!” “If you can do better, we’d love to see it!” added Pinkie Pie with an even bigger grin on her face. “Are you gonna prove yourself, or are you a big chicken?!” Pinkie Pie began making chicken noises while walking in circles and flapping her arms around. Twilight decided to get in on the taunting by shouting, “Yeah, why don’t come here and show us, you… um…” she struggled to come up with an appropriate insult before finally settling on something she had heard the previous day. “Brick-head!” Rainbow and Pinkie stopped what they were doing and turned back to Twilight in confusion, then to each other. “Yeah!” they both shouted to the camera, with big smiles back on their faces. “Brick-head, brick-head, brick-head!” They jumped and waved their arms around as they repeated the insult. “Brick-head, brick-head, brick-head!” The taunting was far more than Lightning Dust could tolerate. She growled in fury and ran out of the room and rushed back to the cafeteria. Forget about forming a Plan B, she need to get rid of them now! “Brick-head, brick-head, brick-head!” continued Rainbow and Pinkie. “Y’all can cut it out, now!” shouted Applejack, who was listening closely for any movement from the other side of the door. “She’s comin’ back!” Everyone knew what was about to happen, so Applejack and Pinkie Pie got ready while the others stood back. Lightning Dust quickly returned to the cafeteria door and opened the slot in the middle. “You guys think you’re so funny?!” she shouted furiously as she pulled out a destructa-brick. She set it to maximum power before tapping the trigger button. As she did this, she failed to notice a hook on a string lower down, hook onto one of the destructa-bricks in her backpack, and then lift it up through an air vent grate in the ceiling. “Let’s see who’s laughing after I give you this!” She tossed the high-powered bomb into the room and closed the slot in the door before making a run for it. She didn’t know if they would get rid of it like all the others, but she definitely didn’t want to be anywhere near that room to find out. Just as they had done a dozen times already, Applejack caught the beeping device and tossed it to Pinkie Pie, who then pulled aside the tables on the wall just enough to expose enough of the hole to allow the destructa-brick to be sucked outside. Pinkie pushed the tables back over the hole and cheerfully said, “Piece of cake!” When the bomb detonated outside, it was far more powerful than they had expected. The room shook so much that Twilight, Rarity, and Spike were thrown off their feet. In addition, large pieces of lunar debris could be heard pelting the wall. None of them were enough to make any additional holes, though one of them was able to very briefly push the tables off the wall before the interior air pressure pushed them back into place. “Whoa,” remarked Pinkie Pie. “That was a big one!” Spike groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head. “I think we made her mad,” he deadpanned. Once everyone was back on their feet, they heard movement from the air vent. Near the door, the grate had been removed from where the vent opened near the floor. The one making that noise, Fluttershy, crawled backwards out of the vent and stood up. “How’d the fishing trip go?” asked Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy turned around with a small smile on her face, revealing a fishing pole in her hands with an inactive destructa-brick hanging from the hook. “Awesome!” cheered Rainbow as she snatched the destructa-brick. “I never knew you were so good at fishing,” commented Twilight. “It’s the only way I can check on fish in the wild to make sure they’re healthy,” explained Fluttershy. “Of course, I never mean them any harm, so I always release each and every fish that I catch.” Rainbow Dash looked over the inactive bomb in her hand and asked, “So, uh, who knows how to use a destructa-brick?” The only minifig in the room who raised her hand was Applejack. When the others looked at her in confusion, she explained, “Ah once had to clear some big rocks near the edge of the farm.” As Rainbow Dash tossed the destructa-brick to Applejack, Twilight wanted to clarify something important about the next part of her plan. “Since we have only one destructa-brick, we need to make sure we use it in the right place,” explained Twilight. “We don’t want another hole to the outside, and we certainly don’t wanna come face-to-face with Lightning Dust.” She turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “Does your extensive knowledge of the Wonderbolts Space Fleet include a floor plan of the Wonderbolts Lunar Headquarters?” “Absolutely!” replied Rainbow Dash as she started walking towards the back wall near the door to the kitchen. “And lucky for us, there is a way we can avoid both of those problems. We’ll blast a hole in this wall right here.” She tapped the wall halfway between the kitchen door and the left corner of the room. “Sounds good to me,” said Applejack as she walked up to the target wall. “But first thing’s first. Y’all better take cover in the kitchen.” The rest of the team nodded in agreement. Everyone but Applejack quickly entered the kitchen and took cover underneath anything they could find. The last one inside was Fluttershy, who closed the door on her way in before taking shelter herself. Now that everyone was out of harm’s way, Applejack held up the destructa-brick in her hand to look at its settings. She wanted to assure her teammates she knew what she was doing, so she decided to describe her actions as she went along. “Okay, first thing Ah need to do is set the size of the blast,” she explained. “All we want is to blow a hole in the wall, not demolish the whole room.” She lowered the lever to somewhere between small and medium. “Next, Ah gotta set the timer. Ah gotta have enough time to take cover myself, but Ah also don’t wanna make y’all wait too long. Fifteen seconds should do.” She tapped the numbers on the keypad to set the timer to what she had just specified. Once she was confident the destructa-brick was at the right settings, she tapped the detonate button, which started the beeping noise that signaled the bomb was now active. Applejack tossed the active destructa-brick to the floor right in front of the target wall. “Fire in the hole!” she shouted as she ran to the right and dove over the counter into the kitchen. Just seconds after Applejack took shelter behind the counter, the bomb exploded. The blast shook the room with a loud bang, raising a small cloud of dust. Since everyone had prepared ahead this time, they were able to cover themselves to mostly prevent the ringing in their ears. Once silence finally settled across the room, Rainbow Dash got up and stepped outside the kitchen. She looked to the right at where the blast had occurred. It took a moment for the dust to clear, but once it did, she saw many of the Lego bricks from the target wall had come loose and were now scattered across the floor, leaving a big hole in the wall. “Yeah!” cheered Rainbow Dash as she jumped and pumped her fist in excitement. “Score one for the good guys!” Twilight was very proud that her plan had worked, but she knew Lighting Dust would find out about their escape very soon — if she didn’t already know about it from the blast. “Let’s go!” ordered Twilight as she quickly got up and ran for the new hole in the wall. The rest of the team understood why they had to move quickly, so they followed Twilight through the big hole in the wall and into the nearby hallway. Now that they were no longer trapped and had a very good idea of what they were up against, it was finally time to get serious about completing their mission.