A Terrifying Escape
Chapter 14
A Terrifying Escape
“Sneaking around the corner,” Spike quietly sang as he slowly crept his way through the air ducts with his back against one side. He was approaching a four-way intersection and was preparing to take the path on the left.
Unfortunately, Spike failed to take the third dimension into account, and when he set his foot out into the intersection, he quickly plunged straight down the vertical air duct. He screamed loudly as he fell, and after a few seconds, he crashed through a vent cover and slammed into the floor of the room beyond it.
Spike groaned as he slowly sat up, then winced and rubbed his sore back. “Ow,” he muttered with a strained voice. “That hurt.”
Once the pain had dulled enough for him to think straight, Spike glanced around at the room he had ended up in. He quickly noticed a table to his left with all kinds of papers — both small pages and large rolled-up sheets — scattered around on it. “Hello,” he muttered curiously. “What do we have here?”
Spike slowly stood up — wincing again from his back pain — and carefully walked up to the table. As he eyed the rolled-up sheets, he quietly noted, “Looks kinda like… blueprints.” He quickly glanced over his right shoulder, then his left shoulder, and once he confirmed that he was the only person in this room, he reached for the nearest blueprint and unrolled it.
Spike suddenly gasped and whispered, “The broadcasting towers.” Drawn on that blueprint was a design for those certain tall and narrow structures that had supposedly gone up all over the Lego World. He carefully set the blueprint aside and glanced around at the rest of the papers on the table. Each of them displayed a different set of details, but overall seemed to describe how the entire worldwide system really worked. Whatever this room was, Spike knew he had just stumbled upon a goldmine of knowledge.
“Hey, uh, what do you wanna do after work today?”
That faint voice made Spike lightly gasp and snap his attention back towards the only door out of this room.
“Eh, I dunno. What do you wanna do?” asked a second guy.
As the two guys continued their casual conversation, Spike realized that they were approaching the door. Although he was completely unaware of how the rest of the team was doing, he knew very well that the last thing he wanted to happen was to be discovered snooping around inside LEGO Headquarters. With quick thinking, he immediately ran over to the door and turned the lock.
Just one second later, the door shuddered as someone on the other side tried to open it, but the lock kept it firmly shut. “Oh great,” grumbled the first guy. “You got the key?”
“I thought you had the key,” replied the second guy in confusion.
“Don’t tell me you lost the key.”
“I just told ya, I thought you had it.”
“Well that’s just great! Now we’re gonna have to go all the way to the other side of the building just to get the spare!”
“So much for gettin’ outta work early,” grumbled the second guy as Spike listened to their clacking footsteps move away from the door.
Once the coast was clear again, Spike removed his cap and wiped his brow as he let out a sigh of relief. He put his cap back on as he glanced over at all the papers on the table in the middle of the room. “I’d better get all this stuff outta here and bring it to a safe place,” he quietly told himself.
With little time to lose, he grabbed a pair of empty crates and quickly started shoving all of the papers into them. Once he had packed up everything of value, he removed an air vent grate at the bottom of a wall, pushed the stuffed crates into the large air duct, and then crawled into the duct and pulled the grate back into place. Now that he was safely out of the room with the loot, he began pushing the two crates through the air ducts. He had a lot of material to study, and he wanted to be sure he was in a safe location with no risk of being found.
Police officer Flash Sentry locked in the sixth and final set of restraints for the captured Master Builders, binding them by their wrists and ankles against the wall of the interrogation chamber down in the sub-basement of LEGO Headquarters. Restrained against the wall from left to right were Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. To Fluttershy’s left was one of the two main doors into this room. To Twilight’s right was the other doorway, but between that and her and just past her line of sight in an alcove was a table surrounded by various kinds of machinery. On the opposite wall was a workbench that stretched the entire length of the room and had all kinds of tools and weapons resting on it.
Rarity and Fluttershy had been stripped of their disguises and were now back in their standard wardrobes. Pinkie Pie had a rather blank expression on her face, while Applejack’s had kept a stoic grimace since the moment she was brought into this room. And while Twilight was hanging her head in sadness, Rainbow Dash was desperately tugging at her restraints in a futile hope of freeing herself.
“Don’t bother trying to escape,” warned Flash Sentry firmly. “These restraints have electrical locks, so as long as the lights stay on, you crooks aren’t going anywhere.”
Rainbow stopped tugging at her restraints and defiantly shouted, “Don’t count on it! We’ll find a way outta here! Us good guys never stay down!”
“Wrong!” Flash shot back furiously. “By committing the felony of breaking and entering at LEGO Headquarters of all places, you have proven yourselves to be nothing more than a bunch of no good dirty crooks! And as soon as LEGO Maximum Security Prison has been rebuilt, not only will you all be sent there, but each of you will be separately placed in solitary confinement for the rest of your miserable lives.”
As the disgruntled police officer began to storm off, Twilight raised her head and weakly asked, “How can you be so heartless? I thought we were friends.”
Flash immediately stopped and took a deep breath. He then swiftly kicked a nearby chair with a loud grunt, sending it flying across the room.
All six prisoners flinched at this sudden and violent reaction.
Flash turned to Twilight and scolded, “You had your chance. But not only did you assist with this massive incident, but also supported Sunset Shimmer in violating her parole. You of all people don’t deserve any second chances!” He turned away. “I don’t know whose idea it was to make you a princess in your world, but if you ask me… they made a terrible mistake.” He then began marching across the room to the door at the other end.
As she watch Flash storm off, Twilight felt tears in her eyes again. There were very few moments in her life when her feelings had been hurt so badly. She had worked so hard to reach the point of becoming the Princess of Friendship, and to have it all so viciously attacked by Flash Sentry in particular just broke her heart.
Flash Sentry opened the far door, stepped out of the room, and slammed the door shut. Just two seconds later, he suddenly rushed back into the room and ran over to the chair he had kicked. He kicked it against the nearest wall once, twice, three times, then turned around and punted it clear across the room. Finally, he stormed out of the interrogation room for real and slammed the door shut on his way out.
The six Master Builders stared silently to their left over at the far door. The silence was soon broken by some light chuckling and a smug voice remarking, “Now that was quite a performance.”
In the alcove to Twilight’s right, all three of the Dazzlings were gathered around the table. They had changed out of their custom-designed performance dresses and were now back in their standard wardrobes.
Adagio stepped out of the alcove and slowly marched in front of the captured Master Builders with a smug smile as she continued, “I have to admit, you girls made a very bold attempt to stop us. I’m honestly surprised by just how far you were able to go, in spite of a few setbacks. But in the end, what matters is not how close you were to success, but rather the simple fact that you failed.” Aria and Sonata stepped out of the alcove as Adagio returned to that side of the room. “I knew your little operation was doomed right from the start, especially after that patrol boat came back with this.” She held up a vinyl record with the words “My Awesome Song — Rainbow Dash” printed on it.
“Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity.
“What?!” Rainbow shot back. “I made that thing years ago! How was I supposed to know it would ever end up in the hands of some bad guy?!”
Aria snatched the record out of Adagio’s hand and raised an eyebrow as she asked, “Let me guess, you made this in freshman year?”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow in confusion. “How did you know?” she asked.
“It wasn’t hard to figure out,” replied Aria bitterly, “considering that this is the worst song I’ve ever heard.”
“Yay!” cheered Sonata with an excited jump. “Another thing I’m not the worst at!”
Aria responded by smashing the record against the top of Sonata’s head.
Sonata yelped as the record shattered over her head. Once all the fragments fell to the floor, she rubbed the sore spot on her head and whined, “That really hurt.”
Aria walked back to the table and picked up a pair of objects that were resting on it. “Though I gotta admit, you have a nice choice of weaponry,” she said as she walked back into view of the captured Master Builders, revealing that she was now holding the pair of laser pistols — now without those silencers — that Rainbow Dash had been using. She then stuck a combative pose, aiming one laser pistol forward and the other upwards, and smirked at the prisoners. “What do ya think?”
None of the six Master Builders said anything, though Rainbow Dash did glare at the thief of one of her favorite weapons.
“Are you trying to look like one of those space aliens?” asked Sonata.
Aria slumped and grumbled, “Ugh. You’re just the worst.” She then carelessly tossed the laser pistols back onto the table.
The near door suddenly opened and in walked three minifigs. Two of them were a certain pair of crooks, each of them wearing black and white striped prison shirts, black beanie hats, and armed with a red crowbar. The third person was their captive, who walked reluctantly between the two crooks with her hands bound behind her back by a pair of handcuffs and her head hanging in shame.
“We found this one down in the storage room,” reported Rocky as he and Mugsy kept a firm grip on the seventh prisoner’s arms and guided her over to the Dazzlings.
“Ah, Sunset Shimmer,” greeted Adagio. “The ring leader of this operation, I presume?”
Sunset simply sulked, refusing to say anything or even turn her gaze up to the sirens.
“I’m sure you recognize those two robbers by your side,” Adagio continued. “Ironic, isn’t it? A pair of worthless crooks arresting a mastermind, and unless I’m mistaken, these two also happened to have once been your favorite minions.”
Sunset continued to give her captors the silent treatment.
Adagio relished in seeing the Sunset Shimmer in such a humbled state. She walked up to stand right in front of her captive and smugly continued, “If it’s any consolation, I will concede that you trained these girls well in the art of breaking and entering. Two of them even made it all the way to the recording studio. Too bad that’s where Flash Sentry caught them in the act.”
Sunset finally turned her gaze up at the mention of that familiar police officer.
Adagio grinned as she finally got Sunset’s attention. She opened her mouth to continue her monologue, but was suddenly interrupted by a certain loudmouth.
“Yeah, can you believe that?” said Pinkie Pie quickly. “I mean, Twilight was just about to start the counter-spell when all of a sudden, BOOM! Flash Sentry barges into the room and sets off the alarms all over the place! At least, that’s what Rainbow Dash told me what happened. Anyway, next thing we know, we’re all locked up against this torture wall with no hope of escape! Twilight tried reasoning with Flash, but he was all like ‘Grrrrg!’ and kicking chairs across the room before storming off to do whatever it is that bad cops do all day. Can you believe that he actually made poor Twilight cry? The nerve of that—” Pinkie’s rambling was cut off when an electric jolt suddenly started coursing through her body, making her twitch and stutter uncontrollably. The shocking lasted for only a few seconds before it stopped just as suddenly. Pinkie hung limply from her restraints and, with a silly smile on her face, mumbled, “Tingly.”
Adagio removed her hand from one of the six levers on one of the machines around the table. “And next time, I’ll deliver far more than just minimum power,” she growled threateningly as she walked away from the machine and stood beside her fellow sirens.
“It’s not like it would’ve mattered, anyway,” muttered Twilight sadly. “I doubt any of my ideas would’ve made an effective counter-spell.”
“Oh, I’m sure it would have worked out just fine, darling,” assured Rarity. She then glared as she added, “Assuming a certain someone hadn’t ruined your efforts by sinking the submarine.”
“Hey! That was a total accident and you know it!” Rainbow Dash shot back. “And while you were busy playing dress-up with the bad guys, Twilight and I were getting the real action done!”
Fluttershy quietly mumbled, “I just wish I could’ve done more than just stand around and do nothing.”
“Y’all think you’ve got it rough?!” argued Applejack. “Ah’m practically havin’ the worst day of mah life right here! First robot butts, then stubborn computers, an’ now this! An’ y’know what? Ah reckon we all could’ve avoided a whole heap of trouble if somebody hadn’t gotten her head stuck inside a trashcan!”
“How was I supposed to know that would happen?” argued Pinkie Pie. “It did seem like a good hiding place at the time. And besides, you’re the one who insisted on taking over the hacking job when all I had to do was say the right words, which I was totally capable of doing from inside that trashcan!”
Meanwhile, Sunset started to get worried as she listened to the series of arguments beginning to break out among the Master Builders. She glanced to her right over at the sirens and saw wicked grins on all of their faces. She then glanced to her left and saw a nearby tool rack with a few basic tools hanging from it. With all of these factors in mind, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she formulated a new plan.
“Stop it!” shouted Sunset desperately as she suddenly started thrashing around. “Stop! Stop it, girls! STOP!” Rocky and Mugsy barely managed to hold her back, but one final thrash made her bump into the tool rack, causing all of the tools fall off and clatter to the floor.
But behind Sunset’s back, one tool landed right in her hands. She quickly felt over it and was delighted to find that it was a skinny screwdriver. Right away, she turned the screwdriver around and started using it to pick one of the locks on her handcuffs. Of course, she didn’t want anyone noticing what she was up to, so she maintained a facial expression of fear and worry.
Sunset’s sudden outburst had made the six Master Builders immediately stop their arguing and turn their attention towards her. Likewise, the three sirens also turned to her. Their smiles fell due to their confusion, but then Adagio smirked. “I didn’t know you cared so much about them,” she mockingly said. “Didn’t you always used to work alone?”
“I’ve changed my ways,” rebuffed Sunset as she continued lock picking inconspicuously behind her back. “I’ve done everything I could to prove that I’m a much better person now. I even refused to participate in a massive jailbreak.”
“I was wondering why we couldn’t find her that night,” Sonata spoke up.
Although Aria glared at her companion, Adagio didn’t bother to glance back or even drop her smug expression. “That’s right, Shimmer,” gloated Adagio, enjoying the look of shock on Sunset’s face. “We were the ones behind those three prison breaks. We already had control over all of Bricklyn for quite a while, so ‘volunteers’ were easy to come by. And since we obviously couldn’t be at all three places at once, we decided to take it as an opportunity to see if our magic could work through a recording. As you may have already figured out, that little experiment turned out to be a complete success. We were able to place Lightning Dust, the Great and Powerful Trixie, these two robbers, and even police officer Flash Sentry under our spell.”
Sunset glanced to Rocky on her left and Mugsy on her right and saw both pairs of eyes briefly flash a sickly green glow. She then suddenly heard a faint click behind her back. Realizing that she had successfully opened the lock on half of her handcuffs, she quickly shuffled her feet around, hoping that the clacking noise of her footsteps would hide the true source of the first sound. She paused for a few seconds, watching carefully for any signs of suspiciousness from the Dazzlings. When she saw no apparent change in their expressions, she carefully passed the skinny screwdriver to her other hand and started picking the other lock.
“Quite a shame that you refused my offer for you to join us,” continued Adagio. “You could’ve had all the power you ever wanted. You could’ve been unstoppable. Instead, you decided to side with the losers, and look at where that’s taken you: right back to jail. And while you get to spend the rest of your miserable life rotting away in solitary confinement, the three of us shall enjoy an eternity at the top while being adored by every living thing beneath us.”
“I’d be careful if I were you,” warned Sunset. “Arrogance is always the first stage of one’s downfall.” She glanced downward and muttered, “Believe me, I know.”
“And why should that concern us?” rebuked Adagio. “We’ve already won. The entire Lego World is already under our spell. And the only people who can stop us have been captured and are now locked up with no chance of escape.”
Sunset heard another faint click behind her back, and quickly shuffled her feet around again.
Adagio raised an eyebrow. “Though that doesn’t seem to stop you from trying,” she added.
Sunset furrowed her brow and frowned as she said, “You’re forgetting who you’re talking to. I’m Sunset Shimmer, and there’s a reason the old me was able to remain number one of LEGO’s Most Wanted for five years straight. It’s not just because I did a lot of illegal actions, but also because I always knew how to make a clean getaway. I’ve taught myself practically every exit strategy in the book, and even though I’m no longer a bad guy, I haven’t forgotten any of those techniques.”
Adagio relaxed her eyes and gloated, “I doubt that’ll do you any good in this case. It’s one thing to think of a strategy, but putting it into practice takes a lot of proper talent.”
Now it was Sunset Shimmer’s turn to smile. “Then how about a demonstration?”
Adagio frowned and raised an eyebrow.
Sunset dropped the screwdriver and threw her arms apart, causing the unlocked handcuffs to simply drop to the floor. Before anyone could react, she grabbed Rocky and Mugsy by their heads, jumped backwards, and slammed them together, knocking both robbers out cold.
Adagio immediately snapped her attention to her fellow sirens and shouted, “Call security!”
Sonata quickly ran over to one of the machines around the table, lifted open a glass panel, and slammed the big red button underneath. An alarm bell started ringing as a buzzer and a blinking red light went off three times. Immediately after the brief alarm stopped, the near door burst open and four security guards rushed in and aimed their weapons at the escaped prisoner.
“Oh boy, just like old times,” grumbled Sunset with a bored expression as she picked up one of the red crowbars the incompetent robbers had dropped. She lightly tossed it up in the air and caught it by the straight end of it. “Here we go again.”
Sunset spun around and threw the crowbar at an overhanging walkway over the door. The tool struck one of the support struts, causing the walkway to completely collapse and send all of its Lego pieces landing right on top of the guards.
“Ow, my head,” groaned one of the guards before he joined the others in unconsciousness.
Right after that, the far door opened and four robotic guards rushed into the room.
“Robots!” alerted Rarity.
Sunset glanced back and her eyes widened.
“Target acquired,” said one robot as they all raised their laser rifles.
“Commence firing,” said another robot before they all started shooting at the escaped prisoner.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
Sunset swiftly grabbed the biggest piece of the destroyed walkway — a 4x8 plate — and held it up in front of her. The large Lego piece was able to block every laser bolt that came at her, so she slowly advanced towards them while also moving closer to the workbench. As soon as she reached the workbench, she quickly grabbed a large box that was resting on it and pulled it down to the floor near her feet. Inside that box were a lot of horseshoe magnets, which she immediately started tossing at the robots.
One by one, each magnet managed to hit and stick onto a robot’s head, causing each of the robots to twitch and jerk uncontrollably while repeatedly stuttering, “Error,” as their circuitry was being messed up. After a few seconds, all four magnetized robots suddenly froze and after a two-second delayed reaction, all of their pieces suddenly came apart, collapsing into nothing more than a pile of body parts.
The near door opened again, only this time, four skeleton warriors armed with curved swords charged into the room with a loud battle cry.
“Skeletons!” alerted Rainbow Dash.
Sunset turned back, spun around her oversized shield so that it now covered a large width, and charged right at the skeletons with an equally loud battle cry. When the two sides collided, the skeletons were no match for the big Lego part and quickly shattered to pieces.
Right after that, three figures suddenly dropped down from the gantry above and landed right in the middle of the room. They were shaped like skeletons, but had the silvery metallic color of robots.
“Robot skeletons!” alerted Pinkie Pie.
Sunset dropped the 4x8 plate as she spun around and saw the three skeletrons turn their heads towards her as their red eyes began to glow brighter. But before they could fire their laser eyebeams at her, she swiftly retrieved the crowbar from the wreckage of the walkway and tossed it right at them. The crowbar struck one skeletron in the head, deflected towards another skeletron’s head, and deflected again towards the third and final skeletron head. All three heads flew off with each impact, and once the crowbar clattered to the floor, the decapitated skeletrons collapsed into a heap.
Frustrated at the latest failure of the guards, Aria decided to take matters into her own hands. She immediately picked up the pair of laser pistols on the table and aimed them at Sunset. “Hasta la vista, loser!” she shouted before rapidly firing those laser pistols.
Pew! Pew-Pew! Pew Pew Pew! Pew! Pew-Pew!
Sunset quickly started to run, duck, leap, and roll around to avoid every laser bolt. At times, she even picked up a random Lego part and tossed it into the air to block a laser bolt.
After dozens of shots and misses, Aria growled in frustration and shouted, “Stand still so I can hit ya!”
Sunset dodged a few more shots before she dove behind the pile of debris that used to be a walkway. Aria didn’t hesitate to blast away all of the Lego pieces in that pile with those lasers as quickly as possible. But shockingly, once the pile was eventually gone, Sunset Shimmer was nowhere to be found.
Aria lowered the laser pistols and raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Where’d she go?” she asked.
Suddenly, one of the machines began to move forward on its wheeled base, heading directly for Sonata. “Look out!” she shouted as she immediately began to run away from it.
“No! Wait! Don’t!” Aria shouted desperately as she quickly dropped the laser pistols and waved her hands around in front of herself.
Sonata had been looking back over her shoulder at the pursuing machine as she ran, so she had no idea she was running towards Aria until she crashed right into her. Before they could even fall over, the moving machine slammed into them and carried them ahead with it. Once the rolling machine and its unwilling passengers passed the middle of the room, Sunset Shimmer stopped pushing the machine and skidded to a halt. The machine continued ahead under its own momentum until it finally slammed into the opposite wall, smashing itself, parts of the workbench, and Aria and Sonata completely to pieces.
Aria’s head had landed in its side. When she found Sonata’s head on the floor not far away, Aria furrowed her brow, growled furiously, and grumbled, “Of all the worst moments you’ve had, this is BY FAR THE WORST!!” After shouting that last part, Aria’s head rolled over until her face was against the floor, causing her to let out a muffled grunt.
All six of the imprisoned Master Builders began cheering excitedly for their friend. Sunset turned around and was pleasantly surprised by how proud they were of her. All of the skills she had just utilized for this fight had once helped her to pull off all kinds of evil misdeeds, and made her believe that she shouldn’t be proud of any of that. But now that she was seeing and hearing the excitement from her friends, she realized that they didn’t care about that little detail. What really mattered was that she was now using these skills to help a greater good.
Everyone’s excitement was quenched by some solitary clapping from Adagio Dazzle. Sunset glanced back at the lone standing siren, who had a rather unamused expression on her face.
Adagio finished her mock applause and flatly said, “Not bad, Shimmer, but that was just Round One.” She lifted open another glass panel on the wall and pounded the big red button underneath. Once again, an alarm bell started ringing as a buzzer and a blinking red light went off three times. Right away, four more security guards burst through the near door and rushed into the room and aimed their weapons at Sunset.
Sunset Shimmer quickly glanced around, and when she saw a few plate pieces placed vertically along the walls, she smirked. She turned to Adagio and boasted, “If you thought all of that was impressive, then watch this!” She quickly ran toward the opposite wall, stepped onto one of those plates on the wall, and then started running along the studs right up that wall!
“Whoa!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as the eyes of all six Master Builders widened in shock. “She can run up walls?!”
When Sunset reached the top of the wall, she jumped off, grabbed onto a shaft on the bottom of the gantry structure, swung from it once before letting go, flipped around through the air, and landed right on her feet on the gantry.
The guards responded by stepping onto an elevator platform. One guard flipped the lever on it, which made a small gear start turning against a toothed rack along the wall, causing the elevator to start rising.
Sunset ran around along the gantry until she was fortunate enough to find a wrench lying around. She swiftly picked up that wrench and threw it at the elevator. With remarkable aim, the wrench jammed right between the gear and the rack, making the elevator grind to a sudden halt.
“Get that thing outta there!” ordered one of the guards.
Another guard grabbed the wrench and tried to yank it out, but it was stuck between the teeth of the gear and rack. “I can’t,” he said. “It’s jammed in there real good.”
“Then let’s try backing it out,” suggested a third guard as he flipped the lever to make the elevator go down. However, the elevator merely shuddered around in place as the noise of grinding gears could be heard.
Meanwhile, Sunset ran along the gantry and onto the ledge atop the walls. She quickly glanced around for anything useful and smiled when she found a giant bag of sand. She pushed the sandbag along the ledge until it was right above the elevator. She then glanced down over the ledge and taunted, “Say goodnight!” She pushed the sandbag over the ledge, which then slammed into the stuck elevator and smashed it to pieces. The guards were thrown off and knocked out as they hit the floor below.
With those guards taken out, four more robotic guards charged in through the far door, aimed their laser rifles up at Sunset, and started firing.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
Sunset barely managed to dodge every laser bolt as she ran along the ledge. She quickly grabbed a round mirror that was attached to a corner of the room and held it up in front of herself. One by one, she was able to reflect a laser bolt right back at the robot guards. Each shot made each of the robots burst into pieces and say, “Ow.”
Then came four more skeleton warriors from the near door. This time, they also had grappling hooks, which they hurled up onto the railing along the gantry and then started climbing up the ropes.
Sunset rolled her eyes before she casually walked along the gantry. When the skeletons were halfway up, she simply kicked over the railing pieces that the grappling hooks were on, sending the skeletons plummeting to the floor below, where they smashed to pieces upon impact.
Finally, three more skeletrons entered the room. This time, Sunset was up on the gantry and was able to see them enter through a hidden compartment behind a wall atop the ledge. The three skeletrons stepped forward onto the ledge, turned their heads toward Sunset, and began firing their laser eyebeams at her.
It took a few seconds for the eyebeams to power up, so Sunset used that opportunity to hold up the circular mirror again. This time, she reflected the lasers not at the robot skeletons, but rather at the ceiling right above them. She carefully tilted the mirror around, making the continuous lasers cut a hole in the ceiling. As soon as the hole was finished, the section of ceiling, the floor above it, and even a vending machine on that floor crashed down on top of the skeletrons. All the debris and the skeletron pieces tumbled off the ledge and crashed to the floor below.
Meanwhile, Aria and Sonata were almost done putting themselves back together. Sonata smiled as she completed the final step and helped Aria’s head and torso onto her legs.
Aria frowned as she glanced down at her legs and saw the backside of them were facing forward. She glanced back up at Sonata and growled. “You idiot! You put my legs on backwards!” she shouted before smacking Sonata across the face. As Sonata cried out while her head spun around rapidly, Aria pushed her torso off her legs, twisted around in midair, and landed back on her legs in the correct direction.
Sunset glanced around at all the carnage in the room and couldn’t help but smirk and boastfully remark, “Go ahead and bring on Round Three, ‘cause I can do this all day!”
“I don’t think so!” countered Adagio.
Sunset turned around and her eyes widened when she saw the lead siren with her hand on a rather large lever.
“One more move and I’ll zap your friends!” threatened Adagio.
Sunset glanced over at her teammates locked up against the wall and noticed they were all whimpering. They knew there was nothing they could do to save themselves, and that Sunset was their only hope of survival right now.
A shameful expression slowly fell on Sunset as she realized that in the heat of battle, she had completely forgotten about them. Even worse, this kind of combat was stuff that her old self used to do a lot, and made her worry that she might have been having a relapse. Even though she certainly had the skills and talents to fight off any opposition against herself, she didn’t want to do anything to put her new friends at risk. She glanced around the room for anything that could get her out of this situation, but found very few options.
Finally, after a tense moment of silence, Sunset Shimmer dropped the mirror and muttered, “Fine. You win.”
All nine conscious minifigs in the room watched silently as Sunset walked along the gantry towards the hole in the ceiling, where she grabbed a loose cable and slid down it all the way back to the floor. While the Dazzlings smiled as this little victory, Twilight Sparkle and her Lego friends were crestfallen to see their confident and highly skilled friend simply give up for their sake.
Once again, the near door opened and a few more security guards entered the room. This time, however, there was no need for them to rush, for they knew that the escaped prisoner had now surrendered. As the guards walked over to Sunset, one of them pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
“I’ve got a special place on the wall for you, Shimmer,” Adagio smugly remarked.
As soon as the guards were just two steps away, Sunset suddenly dove forward, tumbled along the floor, and then stood up as she quickly snatched up the other red crowbar by the unconscious forms of Rocky and Mugsy.
The guards quickly raised their weapons, while Adagio rushed back to the machines and placed her hand back on the big lever. “Don’t push your luck any further!” she shouted threateningly. “You’re already on very thin ice!” She then lowered her voice. “All I have to do is pull this lever.”
“And all I have to do is say two words,” retorted Sunset. “Just two words.”
A very tense and silent stand-off fell across the room. No one dared to move a muscle or utter a peep. It was as if time itself had stopped for everyone in the room.
After a full minute of nothing happening, Sonata suddenly asked, “Well, what are those two words?”
Sunset glanced back at to other two sirens and grinned. “Lights out!” she shouted as she suddenly threw the crowbar across the room towards the electrical box next to the far door. Everyone watched the crowbar rapidly twirl through the air until its hooked end smashed right into the electrical box, sending sparks flying everywhere as it zapped loudly. All of the lights flickered a few times before they eventually shut off, plunging the room into complete darkness. The sudden loss of power also caused all of the gently humming machinery to fall silent.
“What the?!”
“How’d she do that?!”
“Um, lights, please!”
“What the heck is going on?!”
“I can’t see a thing!”
“Can somebody get the lights?”
“Shut it, Sonata! We can all see that the lights are out!”
“Both of you, shut it! I got this.”
After a few softly pounding noises, Adagio eventually managed to flip a switch, turning on the emergency lights. The room was now much dimmer than it had been before, but at least it was just barely bright enough for everyone to see where everything was. Right away, the first thing that everyone noticed was that Sunset Shimmer had completely vanished.
Adagio gasped in shock. She immediately ran around to face the wall of prisoners, and saw that all six of them had also completely vanished. The fact that all of the restraints were now wide open proved that the loss of power had allowed them to escape. But to where?
Adagio heard a faint squeak to her right and snapped her attention to the far door just in time to see it slowly close. She clenched her teeth and fists as she growled furiously. “After them!” she shouted as she immediately pointed at the far door.
The security guards didn’t hesitate to rush for the far door and begin pursuing the escaped team.
Sunset Shimmer led her six friends through the hallways of the sub-basement of LEGO Headquarters. Alarms were already ringing out across the entire facility, so they knew they had to keep running as fast as possible. However, at almost every other turn, a few security guards would show up and stand in their way, forcing them to quickly backtrack and take another direction.
“We gotta get outta here!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie fearfully as everyone kept running.
“But the guards are blockin’ off every darn exit we can find!” Applejack pointed out.
“What about the service corridors?” suggested Rainbow Dash. “We could use those to go just about anywhere for a quick escape!”
“It’s worth a shot,” replied Sunset. Almost immediately after that, she quickly pointed at a door up ahead and shouted, “Look! There’s our exit!” She skidded to a stop right in front of the “Authorized Personnel Only” security lock next to that door. Since the always incompetent Rocky and Mugsy had not considered checking her for suspicious objects, she still had her fake ID card, which she quickly pulled out and inserted into the security lock. As soon as the panel beeped once and a green light came on, Sunset immediately put away her fake ID, threw the door open, and rushed into the dimly-lit corridors.
The rest of the team didn’t hesitate to follow right after Sunset. The last one through the doorway was Fluttershy, who glanced back and saw one security guard quickly advancing right behind them, so she promptly shut the door and ran after her friends.
The security guard didn’t have time to stop as the door was practically slammed right in his face. He stumbled around a bit, then shook his head and grumbled, “Darn it.” He set down his weapon, pulled out his ID card, and inserted it into the security lock. Once the door was unlocked, he put away his ID card, picked up his weapon, and charged inside. “They’re in the service corridors!” he reported on his radio as he kept running. “Cut off every exit!”
As the team ran along the metallic walkway, Twilight asked, “Which way should we go?”
“We won’t find any exits in that basement, that’s for sure,” Sunset quickly replied. “So our only option is to go up.” She soon led the team to a ladder, which she immediately grabbed onto and started scaling up it, with the rest of the team following close behind.
After that ladder, the team continued to run along more walkways and climbing up any sets of stairs they came across. They began to grow worried as they started seeing a few security guards within the service corridors, forcing them to pick up the pace. Eventually, they reached a point where they were mostly climbing up a single stairwell instead of along a level walkway.
“How much higher up do we have to go?” asked Fluttershy as everyone continued running up the stairs.
“As long as it takes for us to find an exit,” replied Sunset.
“But Sunset, dear,” Rarity pointed out, “based on how long we’ve ascending this particular stairwell, I have a feeling that we must be inside the front tower, which means we may not find an exit until we reach all the way up to the roof!”
“Who says we have to go to the roof?” responded Sunset with a smile as she pointed up at a doorway that was now just one more floor above them.
But when the team reached the final set of stairs in front of that door, it suddenly opened and a guard rushed inside. He promptly shut the door and raised his weapon at the approaching team. “Freeze!” he shouted.
“Nope!” rebuffed Sunset as she ran up to the guard and delivered a swift sucker punch to his face. The guard was immediately knocked out and collapsed to the walkway.
“Was that really necessary?” asked Twilight in shock as she and the rest of the team gathered around the door.
“The old me would’ve said yes without any second thoughts,” replied Sunset as she immediately pulled out her fake ID card and inserted it into the security lock. “But the new me…” The panel beeped and a green light came on. “Well, beggars can’t be choosers.” She put away her fake ID and swiftly kicked the door open before charging outside.
The team of friends followed Sunset out the doorway and found themselves on another metallic walkway, except this one was out in a large open space, high up inside the spaceship hangar. A quick glance at the transparent walls on either side of the massive room revealed an orange sky, indicating that the sun outside was already setting. But what really caught everyone’s attention was the large spaceship that was parked right at the end of the walkway, built out of black and white Lego bricks and had the words “SPACE POLICE” labeled on its side.
“Are we gonna highjack that spaceship?” asked Applejack uneasily.
“Of course we are!” snapped Sunset as she pounded a red button on a panel along the railing. This caused the retractable roof to start opening as a gap opened across the middle and the two separated ends slowly moved further apart. As she ran up to the parked spaceship and used her fake ID to open the side hatch, she continued, “We don’t have any other options, so either get in or get left behind!”
The six Master Builders glanced uneasily at each other before they quickly followed Sunset into the spaceship. Rainbow Dash immediately jumped into the pilot’s seat and said, “I got this.”
With only four seats available, half of the group was forced to remain standing. As Sunset sat down next to Rainbow, and Twilight and Rarity took the remaining seats, Rainbow quickly flipped a few switches and tapped a few buttons. As the spaceship’s engines powered up, the walkway automatically detached and pulled away.
By the time the security guards burst through the door into the hangar, the police spaceship was already hovering over the landing pad and was now turning towards the opened roof. “They’re getting away!” shouted one of the guards.
Without a moment to lose, Rainbow Dash pushed forward on the flight controls, and the spaceship blasted out of the hangar and away from LEGO Headquarters.
Right at that moment, police officer Flash Sentry suddenly charged out onto the walkway and furiously shouted, “Darn, darn, darn, darny, darn!” He shoved one of the security guards out of his way as he ran over to the nearest chair and gave it a hard kick. The chair soared across the massive room and fell all the way down to the floor below, slamming into the head of an unfortunate scientist with a white lab coat and messy light blue hair.
Down on the floor of that spaceship hangar, a doorway slid open and the three Dazzlings walked into the room. When they glanced up at the opened roof and the absence of that Space Police spaceship, they knew right away where the Master Builders had gone.
Aria groaned and facepalmed. “If there’s one thing that never seems to ever go right for us, it’s capturing those Master Builders,” she grumbled.
Sonata turned to Adagio and asked, “Hey, Adagio. Didn’t you say we needed those girls for something, like, really important?”
“Indeed,” replied Adagio with a grin. “But it seems that capturing them may no longer be necessary.”
Aria raised an eyebrow as she placed her hands on her hips and impatiently asked, “What are you talking about? I thought that was supposed to be part of our plan since phase two.”
“Didn’t you see how much they were fighting each other in the interrogation room?” Adagio pointed out. “They may be special Master Builders, but they are still just as capable of falling apart like anyone else. And with how high tensions seem to be between them right now, all they need is a slight push and their little friendship will just fall to pieces. And when that happens, their Equestrian magic will be ours.” Once she finished her explanation, her wicked grin slowly grew wider.
The highjacked Space Police spaceship soared over downtown Lego City, carrying the team of seven minifigs away from LEGO Headquarters. Although they had just barely managed to get away, they had still failed to free everyone in the Lego World from the spell of the sirens, and as far as they were aware, there was no backup plan at all.
The team of friends had been airborne for no more than one minute when Twilight suddenly gasped and exclaimed, “Oh no! We forgot Spike!”
“Then I’m afraid he’s on his own,” Sunset responded sharply, “‘cause there’s no way we can go back in there.”
Rarity moaned and worriedly said, “I do hope the poor dear is alright. Who knows what kinds of horrid things he might encounter in there?”
“Ah’m sure he’s doin’ just fine,” assured Applejack. “If he’d been captured, he would’ve been stuck up on that wall with the rest of us. Whatever’s goin’ on, Ah have a feelin’ the lil’ feller knows what he’s doin’.”
“I just hope we live long enough to find out,” said Fluttershy worriedly as she watched outside through a side window. “Look!”
Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer glanced left and right and saw they were being flanked by a pair of robot-piloted space fighters — just like the ones they had encountered in Cloudsdale. Rainbow groaned and grumbled, “Not those things again.”
“And there’s more right behind us,” said Fluttershy as she kept looking out the window with a terrified expression on her face, watching as the fighters began firing their laser cannons.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Boom!
Everyone was startled when one of the shots struck their spaceship and shook the entire structure. Rainbow quickly leveled out the spaceship and tightened her grip on the flight controls. “Hang on, everyone!” she exclaimed as she began turning the controls left and right to evade the attacking fighters.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Boom! Pew! Pew! Boom!
Despite Rainbow’s best efforts, the spaceship soon took two more hits, violently rocking from each impact and nearly throwing Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie off their feet.
“If this keeps up, we might very well be shot down!” exclaimed Rarity as she gripped tightly to her seat.
“Then we gotta fight back!” declared Rainbow. She quickly started glancing around over the console as she muttered, “Let’s see, what kind of weapons does this thing have?”
Boom!
Another hit from a laser blast shook the spaceship again. This time, the impact managed to blast a large hole in the side of the ship.
“I don’t think we have much longer until they blow us up!” shouted Twilight in panic.
Boom!
Another laser blast shook the spaceship so violently that Pinkie Pie was thrown across the room and slammed head-first into the cover of a storage compartment. She sat up and rubbed her sore head, then suddenly smiled when she saw that the cover was gone and the contents of that compartment had spilled out. “Look! Parachutes!” she exclaimed excitedly. “We can use these to get away before they can blast us completely to pieces!”
Pinkie and Applejack didn’t hesitate to grab a parachute for themselves and toss two more over to Rarity and Twilight. Fluttershy also picked up one for herself, but gasped when she saw there was now only one left on the floor. “Oh no!” she exclaimed worriedly. “We only have six of them! One of us isn’t going to make it!”
As the rest of the team glanced around worriedly, Sunset Shimmer just stared ahead silently. All the sights and sounds around her became muted as a rather troubling thought occurred to her. Could she really do what she was actually thinking of doing? Her old self had been very selfish and never would’ve even considered doing something so crazy. But her new self knew the true value of friendship, and had already proven more than once that she was willing to do anything to help and protect her friends.
Even if it meant giving up her Creation Spark.
With a hardened resolve, Sunset firmly stated, “I volunteer.” She then promptly shoved Rainbow Dash out of the pilot’s seat and took control of the spaceship.
“Sunset, what are you doing?” asked Twilight.
“One of us won’t have a parachute,” Sunset explained solemnly. “That person will have to stay on this ship and draw the fighters away so the rest of us can safely escape.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “And I’m choosing to stay.”
All six of the other girls gasped in shock. “Are you nuts?!” argued Rainbow Dash. “You can’t just sacrifice yourself like that!” As Fluttershy walked over to hand her the last remaining parachute, Rainbow immediately snatched it and handed it out to Sunset.
Sunset merely pushed the parachute back to Rainbow and said, “No, Rainbow. The team needs you. The team needs all of you girls. You all have people back home who would miss you, but I’m just a nobody who’s seen as worthless to everyone else in the world.”
“We would seriously beg to disagree, darling,” argued Rarity as she and the others hesitantly put on their parachute packs. “You have been of tremendous value to us throughout this whole endeavor.”
“That may be true, but you’re missing the key factor here,” said Sunset. “You’re all Master Builders with the magic of friendship. I have neither of those! If this team can afford to lose any one of us… it’s me.”
Boom!
Another laser blast from the space fighters managed to significantly widen the large hole on the left side and completely tore off the entire roof of the spaceship. With time quickly running out, Sunset waved her arm back at the others and shouted, “Go! Get outta here! Now’s your chance!”
Most of the team glanced at one another and, with grim resolve, nodded in acceptance. With their hair flapping in the wind and their parachute packs firmly secured to their backs, the Master Builders ran over to the massive hole. Rainbow Dash was the first to jump out, followed by Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. All of them tumbled out of the ailing Space Police spaceship and waited until they were halfway to the ground before they all safely deployed their parachutes. By that time, the fighters had already passed over them, allowing them to slowly and safely descend the rest of the way down to the city below.
Twilight had hesitated to follow the rest of the team. She turned back to Sunset and desperately said, “Sunset, you don’t have to do this!”
“It’s too late for that,” stated Sunset.
“Why can’t we just share this parachute?!” argued Twilight. “You could just hold onto me while I—”
“No!” exclaimed Sunset. “That’s too dangerous! I need to keep those fighters away so you can escape in one piece!”
“Sunset, I will not let you make such a needless sacrifice!”
“You’re missing the big picture, princess! You have a lot more to lose than I do, and you need to save yourself while you have the chance!”
Boom!
The fighters scored another hit on the spaceship, which made it suddenly lurch to the right. One of the engines on that side had been disabled and was now leaving a trail of thick black smoke in its wake.
After glancing over at the severe damage, Twilight sighed and reluctantly said, “I guess you’re right.” She turned around and began to slowly walk towards that hole on the left side.
“Before you go, I should tell you something,” Sunset suddenly spoke up.
Twilight stopped and turned her head back to Sunset.
“Ever since the moment I teamed up with your friends,” continued Sunset, “I’ve been noticing that they don’t seem to get along very often. They all have different ideas on how to get things done, and many times seem to disregard the ideas of others. There’s a lot of disagreement going on within the team… and I fear the Dazzlings may try to take advantage of that.” She paused, then firmly added, “No matter what happens, Twilight… keep the team together at all costs. Can you do that for me?”
Twilight silently thought about everything that Sunset had just told her. It had never really occurred to her that she should even question the strength of the friendships between her Lego friends. Regardless, Sunset Shimmer was requesting a promise from her, and she was determined to not let her down.
Twilight smiled and replied, “I will.”
Sunset responded with a friendly smile.
Twilight’s smile turned bittersweet as she turned her body towards the giant hole in the wall while keeping her head turned to Sunset. “Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer,” she said.
“Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle,” said Sunset.
With those parting words spoken, Twilight finally turned away, took a deep breath, and leaped away from the damaged spaceship. She screamed as she rapidly fell, but once the space fighters passed by with seemingly no signs of them noticing her, she pulled the cord on her pack to deploy the parachute. The parachute fully opened within a few seconds and quickly slowed her decent to the city below.
With the last of her friends now out of harm’s way, there was nothing else left for Sunset but to turn her attention back to the flight controls. “Come and get me!” she shouted as she piloted the failing spaceship towards the setting sun on the horizon.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Boom!
The spaceship shook violently as the fighters took out another engine, leaving two trails of thick black smoke in its wake. Sunset knew her time was limited, but she pressed on. She never cared about what terrible fate would soon await her. All that mattered to her was that the few friends she had were now relatively safe, all thanks to her actions. She had no regrets.
Pew! Pew! Boom! BOOM!!
One final laser blast struck the ship’s power core, triggering a massive explosion that tore apart half of the entire spaceship. Sunset had managed to survive the blast, but all that was left of the highjacked Space Police spaceship was the roofless cockpit and less than half of the fuselage.
An eerie silence fell as the powerless remnant of the spaceship slowly began to drop out of the sky. Sunset stared ahead and her eyes widened as she saw that she was heading directly towards three incomplete skyscrapers at a construction site.
“This is gonna hurt,” mumbled Sunset.
The spaceship remnant crashed through the top on the first tower, smashed through the middle of the second tower, and finally slammed into the bottom of the third tower. With its base compromised, the third tower then slowly toppled over right into the second tower, which then slowly toppled over towards where the third tower had been. Some debris from the second tower’s collapse also compromised the base of the first tower, causing it to topple over onto the massive pile of Lego pieces that used to be the second and third towers, raising a huge cloud of dust.
When the dust eventually settled across the demolished construction site, all was still and silent.
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Sunset Shimmer just achieved a LEGO ascension, didn't she?
6278747
Maybe?
I didn't think Sunset Shimmer would end up dead. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those "Nobody could've survived that" moments, and then it turns out the one who made the scarifice managed to escape with their life at the last minute.
*In sarcasm.* Oh gee, Sunset crashed at a construction site. I wonder what will happen next?
Sunset Shimmer knows parkour!? Nice.
I forgot to mention a few things in the author's note. First, the part where Aria poses with the laser pistols, I had originally wanted to have her say, "How badass do I look?" But then I thought it might be too much for an E-rated story, so I changed it. Also, when Aria and Sonata are smashed to pieces and Aria's head rolls over face-down, that was actually inspired by my experience with real Lego sets. You see, every time I try to arrange the pieces before putting them together, the minifigure heads often have a tendency to roll over so that I could never see their faces. This happened to me frequently enough that I figured it would make for a nice gag, so I decided to put it here in this chapter.
6278974 Then I guess that kind of moment is well-known enough that I may not have even needed to worry about Sunset's survival being much of a spoiler. But still, like I said, her actual fate won't be revealed in the next chapter but rather the one that will come after it, so you'll just have to wait and see.
6279304 Not exactly. Take note of a certain detail on that wall she ran up. I will eventually get around to explaining what exactly she did (probably not until almost the final chapter), and let's just say that I've got a rather interesting name in mind for that special technique.
6279161 *In sarcasm.* maybe she'll be in the real world like in "The Lego Movie"...
*in real voice* or maybe she'll be in ponyville... hmm...
*in interest* this interests me...
6293759
Sunset will survive, alright?! we can only hope that sunset's okay... please be okay sunset....
Here's a Little Vehicle I've Design, You Don't Have to Build it, just bring it to life in the fanfic!!!
t13.deviantart.net/UlilMOTumgstbm7WzNXz2p38CcQ=/300x200/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre05/fc9f/th/pre/i/2015/189/0/0/army_forklift_truck_by_cartoonfan22-d90ho4b.png