The Science of Creative Magic
“I wonder why Sunset Shimmer wanted us to meet her here,” said Fluttershy quietly as she and her friends, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, gathered in front of a small hangar at Canterlot City’s airport.
“Yes, she was rather vague about her intentions,” said Rarity with a nod of agreement.
“I bet she’s planning a big surprise for us!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie enthusiastically. “Who knows what the surprise could be? It could be some big news she got from Equestria, or the instructions for a new creation she built, or even a party!”
“Whatever it is, we won’t find out by just standing out here,” remarked Rainbow Dash as she led her friends to the door into the hangar. She opened the door and walked inside, soon followed by the rest of her friends.
The five friends didn’t go far before they stopped and stared in confusion. Sitting in the middle of the hangar were all kinds of large pieces of high-tech machinery and equipment, humming and beeping with lights of many colors blinking on and off. Standing in the middle of it all was Sunset Shimmer — wearing a white lab coat in place of her usual black leather jacket — and a purple-skinned guy with glasses.
“Thanks for helping me set up all this equipment, Micro Chips,” said Sunset as she glanced up from the clipboard in her hands. “It’s nice to have tech specialists like yourself on the LEGO Team.”
“No problem,” said Micro Chips. “I’m just glad I could help you solve one of the greatest mysteries of our time.” He glanced down at his wristwatch and added, “Anyway, I need to get back to headquarters, so I’ll see you there later.” As he turned away and headed out of the building, he couldn’t help but excitedly add, “I can’t wait to find out what results you’ll get!”
As the tech specialist left the building, the five friends approached Sunset Shimmer. “What’s all this stuff for?” asked Rainbow Dash as she glanced around at all of the surrounding machinery. “Going all mad scientist on us?”
“Not exactly,” replied Sunset as she made a last-minute check on one of the computers. Once that was done, she turned to her friends and explained, “You see, back when I was Princess Celestia’s student, I learned best by going out into the field and actually doing something. Studying ancient books is fine for some people, but I like to solve magical mysteries by rolling up my sleeves and getting my hooves— uh, hands dirty.” She then grabbed a pair of blue gloves nearby and quickly slipped them over her claw-shaped hands.
“Ah can relate to workin’ hard outdoors, but what did ya need us here for?” asked Applejack as she raised an eyebrow.
Sunset connected a large electrical plug on the floor as she replied, “I’m trying to figure out how Equestrian magic works here. Why you grow ears, tails, and wings or horns when you pony-up and what your creative talents as Master Builders have to do with it.”
“Um, are you sure we need to figure it out?” asked Fluttershy quietly with uncertainty.
“It’ll be fun,” assured Sunset as she began strapping some sensors onto Fluttershy’s body. “I left a large pile of Lego bricks over there. All you have to do is build anything you want, and I’ll just stand back and observe. You won’t even know I’m here.”
Fluttershy glanced over at the huge pile of bricks at the other side of the hangar, then glanced back at her friends uneasily. They responded with their own looks of uncertainty.
Once Sunset Shimmer had switched on all the computers and recording sensors, she smiled at Fluttershy and gave a single wave of a hand.
Fluttershy turned back to the pile of Lego bricks. She couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable about being observed so thoroughly, but the fact that it was one of her closest friends who was conducting the experiment help to ease her anxiety. And besides, all she was told to do was to simply get creative and build anything she wanted. It seemed like a simple enough task.
She took a moment to look though the pile and see what kinds of bricks and pieces she had to work with. She eventually smiled as she began to form an idea. She started off by pulling a small chassis out of the pile and setting it down on the floor. She then ran back to the pile, grabbed a small brick, and attached it to the chassis. As she kept running back and forth between the pile and her build site, she began to move faster and faster. As she added more pieces to her build, a yellow magical glow began to appear around her body, and her ears, tail, and wings started to materialize.
Meanwhile, Sunset eagerly observed her monitoring equipment. She felt very excited to start collecting the first of many sets of data… until she started hearing some faint electrical sparking. She immediately started glancing around for any potential problems and was stunned to see tiny bolts of electricity were arcing just about everywhere around her. She observed with an eyebrow raised as she noticed that these frequent sparks were actually colored pink.
Before long, Fluttershy had completely ponied-up as she finished building a simple small car. The instant she attached the final piece to complete her creation, swarms of pink butterflies suddenly burst from the computer screens and fluttered all over the place, startling everyone in the building. Just seconds later, all of the equipment and machinery suddenly shut off. Everyone turned their gazes towards Fluttershy, who simply blushed and smiled uneasily.
Once the magical butterflies had been cleared out of the hangar and all of the computers and machinery were powered up again, Sunset decided to move on to her next test subject: Applejack.
Applejack had decided to build a small tractor in three chunks. By the time she had assembled those three sections separately, an orange magical glow surrounded her and she ponied-up. It wasn’t much longer before she slammed the three sections together and finished her creation. After that, her magic faded and she reverted back to normal.
Meanwhile, Sunset looked between each of the computers in confusion. She had been expecting to record some data, but somehow was getting nothing at all. She quickly grew irritated and smacked one of the monitors, somehow causing a ton of apples to suddenly burst from it and pile up on top of her.
One of the apples rolled over to Applejack, who picked it and glanced back and forth between it and the rest in that pile. She then simply shrugged and took a bite out of the apple she held.
After Sunset removed the magical apples and reset everything, she next moved on to Rarity.
Despite how much the sensors chafed her, Rarity chose not to complain about them and instead focus on doing her part for the experiment. She took a moment to look through the pile of bricks and soon smiled as she got an idea. She immediately began tossing various bricks around, somehow making them all land perfectly into place. As her creation slowly took shape, a purple magical glow enveloped her and she began to pony-up.
As Rarity put the last few pieces on her build — a brick-built statue of a person sitting in a thoughtful pose — Sunset stared at one of the computer monitors and waited patiently for the data to arrive. But then a blue diamond suddenly flung out from the monitor, whizzed right past Sunset’s head, and smashed into one of the other machines. Almost immediately after, the same thing happen from another computer monitor, and then another, and another. Sunset and the rest of her friends were quickly forced to duck and cover as a barrage of diamonds was unleashed over much of the equipment and machines.
Once all the smashing noises finally stopped, Sunset slowly raised her head and glanced over at Rarity, who had by now reverted back to normal. The white fashionista responded with merely an uneasy smile and a shrug.
After Sunset repaired all the damage from the magical diamonds, it was now Pinkie Pie’s turn.
The moment she was cleared to proceed, Pinkie didn’t hesitate to start rapidly putting Lego pieces together. In just a matter of seconds, a pink magical glow surrounded her and she ponied-up, allowing her to literally appear in many places at once as she quickly rebuilt her favorite party bus.
This time, Sunset decided to observe the data in front of a different computer, not only to possibly catch any data she might have previously missed, but also to avoid another incident. However, once Pinkie threw the last brick into place, a large mass of balloons shot out from another monitor, slammed into Sunset, and slammed her against the nearest wall.
Pinkie Pie smiled at her completed creation, but that grin fell when she glanced back at Sunset Shimmer, who was now stuck to the wall and with her hair very messed up.
Once the static electricity from the magical balloons wore off, Sunset was ready to observe Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow did a little bit of digging around in the pile of bricks before she found one that gave her an awesome idea. With a wicked grin, she immediately started running around to gather up all of the pieces she needed. It wasn’t long until a blue magical glow appeared around her and she ponied-up, and she started moving so quickly that she appeared as a rainbow-colored motion blur.
As Rainbow Dash rapidly built a large jetpack, Sunset suddenly noticed something flashing from one of the computers. She quickly rushed over to the monitor, only to suddenly get completely splattered by all the colors of the rainbow. She wiped some of the mess from her eyes and blinked a few times.
After cleaning herself of that magical rainbow splatter, Sunset Shimmer decided it was time to be her own guinea pig for the experiment. She told her friends to wait outside to prevent any interference, so she was now all alone in the hangar as she strapped on the recording sensors and turned toward the pile of Lego bricks.
Sunset knew that she wanted to create something special enough to bring out her Equestrian magic, but it also had to be simple enough to be able to build out of what she had to work with. It wasn’t long until she smiled as she got the perfect idea, causing an amber magical glow to envelop her as her ears, tail, and horn materialized. Once she was fully ponied-up, she used her unicorn magic to levitate a bunch of pieces out of the pile and quickly put them all together, creating a miniaturized version of her very first creation as a Master Builder: her Titan.
Sunset smiled proudly at her creation, but was startled within seconds when alarms suddenly started going off on all of the computers and machinery. She immediately turned back to the equipment and her jaw dropped as she saw everything begin to glow red hot.
Meanwhile, Sunset’s friends waited patiently outside the hangar, wondering what the final result of her experiment would be.
BOOM!!
A loud explosion suddenly rocked the building, blowing out all the windows of the hangar. As bits of shattered glass clattered on the surrounding tarmac, the five friends immediately rushed over to the building. Rainbow Dash pounded a nearby button, triggering the main hangar doors to slowly open automatically.
The main doors were only halfway parted when the girls heard Sunset Shimmer’s voice simply state, “Well, girls, after all this testing, I’ve come to a definitive conclusion.”
The five girls stared silently at their friend inside, who was now covered in soot and had hair wildly sticking out in all directions.
As soon as the hangar doors were completely opened, Sunset coughed up a tiny rainbow before she weakly finished, “I have no idea how Equestrian magic works in the Lego World.” She then fainted and fell forward, landing face-down on the concrete floor.