Mining Madness
Chapter 4
Mining Madness
With a faint boom, the spaceship of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team suddenly appeared in the skies over the barren mountainous terrain of the Mining Region. It wasn’t long until the spaceship slowed to a hover over a suitable landing site and slowly descended down to the ground.
A few minutes later, the six teammates disembarked from the parked spaceship and began to make their way up a small ridge. Instead of their usual clothes, they were all wearing blue pants, bright orange vests with silvery reflective strips, and red hardhats with headlamps.
“Didn’t I tell you girls I would one day make us some outfits in official safety orange?” remarked Rarity with pride.
“You definitely did a nice job,” complimented Fluttershy.
“Ah’m just surprised ya made us somethin’ that’s actually practical with no fancy add-ons,” noted Applejack.
“Oh please, darling,” responded Rarity. “Even I know there is a time and place where it is better to just keep things simple, and a dark and dusty underground mine is definitely one of them.”
“Let’s just get this over with,” grumbled Rainbow Dash. “I’m really not looking forward to this mission.”
“What’s the matter?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Are you scared of small dark places?”
“I’m not scared!” Rainbow replied sharply. “I just don’t like going underground, that’s all.”
“It’s okay, Rainbow,” assured Fluttershy as she put a hand on her longtime friend’s shoulder. “I’m sure we won’t need to spend much time in that mine to complete our mission.”
Rainbow smiled and remarked, “Yeah, you’re right. All we gotta do is go in there, kick some butts, grab the Power Crystals, and then leave. Sounds easy enough.”
As soon as the team reached the top of the ridge, they all immediately stopped and their eyes widened in shock. “Or, maybe not,” muttered Sunset Shimmer.
In the valley below, at the site of the mine entrance, they saw a bunch of mining vehicles parked around a tunnel entrance that was completely filled in with rubble. Even though there were a few miners standing around the vehicles, there didn’t seem to be much happening at this site.
After a moment of stunned silence, Applejack eventually suggested, “Well, let’s go down there an’ find out what’s goin’ on ‘round here.”
Everyone nodded in agreement and made their way down into the valley. They had a good feeling that they would get some answers rather easily. The orange and lime green colors on all those various mining vehicles indicated that they belonged to the Power Miners, whom the team was told could help them navigate the tunnels below to find Twilight and her group of Shadowbolt agents. But the fact that there was currently very little activity at this site made them feel a little worried about what kind of answers they might get.
As the team arrived on the site, Sunset called out, “Hey, uh, sorry if we’re bothering you guys, but we’re here on a mission from the LEGO Team. Can we talk to the mine boss?”
“Right here!” spoke up one of the miners as he raised his hand and walked over to the team.
As the mine boss stopped in front of the team, Sunset explained, “We could really use your help. You see, there’s a group of Shadowbolt agents somewhere inside this mine who are busy stealing Power Crystals as we speak, and we’ve been told that you guys could help us reach them.”
“Shadowbolts, huh?” said the mine boss uneasily as he removed his hardhat and scratched the back of his head as he looked away. He turned back to the team and put his hardhat back on as he muttered, “Well, I guess that might explain a few things.”
“Like what?” asked Fluttershy.
“When we got here this morning, not only did we find the mine entrance sealed up,” explained the mine boss, gesturing first at the rubble-filled entrance, then at all the surrounding vehicles, “but also all of our equipment has been rendered inoperable — no doubt the result of sabotage if the Shadowbolts were involved. Since then, we’ve been working hard to get everything back up and running.”
Everyone glanced around at all the disabled mining vehicles and were disappointed to see only various efforts being done by the other miners. One guy was asleep in a wheelbarrow, another was glancing back and forth in confusion between his vehicle and an instruction page in his hand, and another guy repeatedly banged his wrench against his vehicle while grunting in frustration.
Applejack raised an eyebrow as she gazed back at the mine boss and asked, “Is there anythin’ ya got that can help us right now?”
“Well, that Thunder Driller over there should be good to go,” answered the mine boss while gesturing at a big lime green vehicle with a massive drill on the front. “But I’m afraid that’s all we got for now.”
The team stared at the massive driller for a moment, then silently glanced at one another.
Rarity shrugged and said, “I suppose that should suffice.”
“Sweet!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash with a big smile on her face. “I’ll drive!” Since the team was looking at the driller at an angle from the rear, they couldn’t easily see where the driver would sit, but Rainbow had a good idea of where it was. She ran over to the driller and hopped through the open canopy into the driver’s seat, only to suddenly get booted out and land on the hard ground beside the vehicle.
“Already taken.”
Pinkie suddenly gasped and muttered, “Could it be?” She ran over to the driller and as soon as she saw the vehicle’s operator, she immediately displayed a huge grin. “Maud!” she exclaimed cheerfully as she pulled her sister out of the seat and into a big hug. “It’s so good to see you again!”
“It’s good to see you too, Pinkie,” responded Maud, speaking with a dull monotone voice.
As the rest of the team gathered around, Pinkie broke off the hug and cheerfully said, “Everyone, this is my big sister, Maud Pie! Maud, these are my friends and fellow LEGO Teammates: Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Sunset Shimmer!” She gestured to each of her friends as she introduced them, but a low groan from the ground reminded her she had forgotten someone. “Oh, and Rainbow Dash, too.”
“Pleased to meet you,” greeted Maud. She had grey skin, a short pale violet hair piece, turquoise eyes, and had a facial expression that seemed perpetually frozen in boredom. She was also wearing blue overalls and a white T-shirt like most of the other miners.
The others glanced at one another uneasily, hardly believing that these seemingly polar opposite minifigs could actually be sisters. Eventually, Sunset cleared her throat and asked, “So, uh… you know how to operate this thing?”
“Of course,” replied Maud. “I actually built it myself.”
“Then perhaps you could be of assistance,” said Rarity as she pulled out the sheet of parchment with not only the coordinates of the now-collapsed mine entrance, but now also the coordinates provided by the Informant. “We were told that the Shadowbolts are operating at this precise location. If it isn’t too much trouble, do you suppose you could take us there?”
Maud studied the coordinates for a brief moment, then handed back the parchment and replied, “No problem. This driller can chew through that rubble like a diamond-tipped saw. Hop in.”
“Alright!” exclaimed Applejack in excitement as she climbed aboard. “Now we’re gettin’ somewhere!”
Once everyone — including a reluctant Rainbow Dash — was seated in the empty space in the back of the vehicle, Maud put on her blue miner’s helmet and said, “You girls might wanna hang on tight. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.” She flipped down the helmet’s built-in goggles and started up the driller.
The Thunder Driller rumbled to life and the massive drill on the front began rotating. Once the drill was spinning very rapidly, the driller slowly rolled forward on its huge knobby wheels. Finally, the mighty drill hit the rubble and immediately made quick work of it, pulverizing the rock into dust and pebbles that flew away in all directions.
With the six passengers holding onto their ride underground, the vehicle shook and rattled as it made its descent, clearing away all the debris through entrance tunnel. All the while, Maud barely even blinked or flinched in any way. She just kept on drilling.
Finally, after a few minutes, the Thunder Driller burst into a massive cavern deep underground. As Maud brought the vehicle to a stop and shut off the drill, the others quickly realized just how dark it was down here, so they all switched on the headlamps on their hardhats. Maud also switched on the headlamp on her miner’s helmet as she climbed out of the vehicle and walked away. With little idea on where to go, the team silently decided to simply follow her.
With a quick sweep of her light, Maud soon found an electrical switch, so she walked over to it and flipped the switch. The cavern was instantly illuminated by dozens of lights scattered around the subterranean space, revealing numerous piles of Lego bricks and parts arranged in such ways to suggest they had once been complete structures that had since been destroyed.
“Well, at least the lights still work,” said Maud as she flipped her helmet’s goggles back up.
“What a mess,” Rarity quietly muttered.
Sunset glanced around the cavern as she put her hands on her hips and stated, “Looks like the Shadowbolts decided to demolish your entire mining operation.”
“Actually, this seems more likely the work of rock monsters,” noted Maud.
Fluttershy immediately turned to Maud and nervously asked, “R-rock monsters?”
“They’ve been a real pest in these tunnels lately,” explained Maud. “We mine for Power Crystals because those rock monsters always cause tremors whenever they consume these crystals. Normally, we ship these crystals off to serve civilian purposes, such as providing electric power. If the Shadowbolts want lots of Power Crystals, then I think it’s obvious they’re planning something big.”
“All the more reason for us to stop ‘em,” said Applejack with determination. “So where are they at?”
“The site you’re looking for is down that tunnel,” replied Maud as she pointed at a tunnel on the right side of the cavern. “We were actually scheduled to mine that section today, so there’s no telling how many Power Crystals they already have. Good luck.” And with that, she began to walk away.
Everyone on the team quickly turned to Maud with surprised looks on their faces. “Wait… You’re not gonna help us?” asked Sunset.
“I need to stay here and salvage what I can,” explained Maud as she began picking up some of the Lego parts scattered across the cavern floor. “Besides, you can still count on me to give you a ride back to the surface. Until then, just be careful, and watch out for rock monsters.”
“Duly noted,” acknowledged Pinkie. She then waved her arm towards the tunnel and excitedly told her friends and fellow teammates, “C’mon, everyone! It’s time for our first face-off against the Shadowbolts!”
The five other team members watched Pinkie rush into the tunnel. They glanced back at Maud, who resumed scavenging the surrounding Lego pieces, then glanced back toward Pinkie. Without a word, they all shrugged and followed their pink friend.
After less than a minute of walking down the dark tunnel, Rarity spoke up. “Um, Pinkie, dear, if I may be candid for a moment? I must say, your sister is rather… peculiar.”
“I was just gonna say that she’s weird,” added Rainbow Dash, which quickly earned her a glare from Rarity.
“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” remarked Pinkie Pie blissfully as she led the team through the tunnel. “She and I are practically the same. She just expresses herself in a very slightly different way than I do. Kinda like my two other sisters, Limestone and Marble! You should meet them sometime. They also work somewhere in the Mining Region.”
A few minutes later, as the team approached a turn in the tunnel, Sunset Shimmer took the lead. She peeked around the turn, then immediately stepped back and held her back against the wall, prompting the others to also stop. Sunset firmly gestured for everyone to be silent as she switched off her headlamp and peeked around the corner again.
Sunset had spotted someone around the corner, but now that she took more than a brief glance, she realized something peculiar about this individual. The minifig in the tunnel ahead wore a dark blue jumpsuit and a silver hardhat. But what really surprised Sunset was that this girl with pink skin and bright green hair was also wearing headphones and appeared to be thrashing around as if she was rocking out to some kind of music. She was even holding a shovel and pretending to play it as if it was a guitar.
“DARK-NESS!!” shouted Lemon Zest as she listened to yet another one of her favorite songs. “NO PARENTS!!” She then shook her head around so much that everything on her head — hardhat, headphones, and even her hair piece — did a full rotation around. As she rocked out, she had a huge wild grin on her face and kept her eyes tightly shut the whole time.
Sunset Shimmer could hardly believe what she was seeing. They were now so close to where the Shadowbolts were supposedly working that the girl ahead had to be one of them. Yet, if she was supposed to be guarding the tunnel… then she was clearly doing a very poor job. In fact, the guard was playing her heavy metal rock music so loudly on her headphones, even Sunset could barely hear it from where she stood behind the corner. Not to mention, the guard had now completely turned her back towards the very tunnel she was likely supposed to be guarding.
Sunset glanced back at her friends and silently gestured for them to stay quiet and shut off their headlamps. Once their lights were out, Sunset began to tiptoe her way towards the guard with the others following suit not far behind. Along the way, Sunset picked up a red crowbar that was lying on the ground. As she came within only a few steps of the guard, Sunset tightened her grip on the crowbar and raised it above her head.
“SUPER RICH!!” shouted Lemon Zest, blissfully and completely unaware of her surroundings. “KINDA MAKES IT BETTER!!”
Finally, as Sunset stood right behind the unaware guard, she struck. She swung the crowbar across and smacked Lemon right in the back of her head, instantly knocking her out cold — and shutting off her music too. The unconscious Shadowbolt agent then fell forward and landed face down on the ground.
“I’ve dealt with pathetic guards before,” muttered Sunset, “but this one really takes the cake.”
“What?!” exclaimed Pinkie in shock. “She stole a cake?!”
Applejack facepalmed and grumbled, “It’s just an expression, Pinkie. Golly, how many times do we have to tell ya these things?”
Pinkie’s only response was an embarrassed smile as she blushed.
Everyone’s attention was then quickly drawn further down the tunnel when they began to hear the unmistakable noise of drilling. Even though they had to go around another corner, they knew they were getting very close.
Sunset smirked and said, “Seems like we just found the Shadowbolts mining operation.” Maintaining a firm grip on her crowbar, she led her friends further down the tunnel.
Once the team came around the final corner, they found themselves at the entrance to another large cavern. To the left were stacks of countless wooden crates and steel barrels, along with a few floodlights to illuminate the cavern. To the right, the entire cavern wall was covered in a large system of scaffolding. At the far side of the cavern was a rail line that led out of the cavern through a different tunnel. And in the middle of the cavern was a large drill that was currently powering its way through the cavern wall behind the scaffolding.
There were also a total of five minifigs working in this cavern, all of them dressed similarly to the guard they had just taken out — dark blue jumpsuits and silver hardhats. Two minifigs — one with light nougat skin and blue hair, and one with light violet skin and white hair — were operating the drill. At first, only dust and pebbles were being thrown off by the drill, but then the drill suddenly jerked forward and caused a large amount of rubble to come loose. Scattered among the rubble were glowing crystals in many different translucent colors. Two minifigs — one with turquoise skin and violet hair, and one with pale yellow skin and rose hair — gathered up all the loosened crystals and tossed them into a mine cart on the rail line. There were actually three mine carts linked together on the rail line, and two of them were already completely full of Power Crystals. And standing next to those mine carts, seemingly keeping count of what they were gathering, was a certain lavender minifig with glasses: Twilight Sparkle of the Lego World.
Eventually, the drill operators shut off the heavy machine and waited until it had stopped spinning before they rolled it back and began helping the others collect the recently loosened Power Crystals.
Finally, Sunset Shimmer, followed closely by her five friends and teammates, stepped forward into the cavern and called out, “Far enough, Shadowbolts!”
All five Shadobolt agents in the cavern immediately froze and turned their attention toward the entrance tunnel, where they saw all six members of Canterlot City’s primary LEGO Team had gathered.
“How did they get past the guard?” asked Sunny Flare.
“Let’s just say she’s taking a little nap,” replied Sunset with a smirk as she lightly smacked the crowbar into her open hand.
Sugarcoat glared at Twilight and grumbled, “I told you it was a really bad idea to put Lemon Zest on guard duty.”
“I was only trying to be fair to all of my teammates,” argued Twilight. “I set all of you up on a rotating shift, so you could all prove how capable you are of handling any task.”
“Yeah!” agreed Indigo Zap with a grin as she turned to the Canterlot team and clenched her fists. “Why couldn’t you losers have waited just ten minutes for my shift to start? I can totally kick your butts any day of the week!”
“Well, today’s Tuesday, so would that include Tuesdays?” asked Pinkie.
Indigo’s grin widened. “Especially Tuesdays!”
Rainbow Dash smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?” she taunted. “Then let’s see you try.”
“You asked for it!” declared Indigo. She let loose a loud battle cry as she quickly charged straight towards Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow’s smile never faltered as she held her ground until the very last moment. When the Shadowbolt agent was only a split second away from tackling her, she simply stepped aside to the left and held out her right leg.
With no time to react, Indigo tripped over Rainbow’s outstretched leg and quickly tumbled head over heels until she crashed into a pile of crates. The crate on top of the stack teetered and fell over right on top of where Indigo had ended up.
One down, thought Rainbow as she chuckled. She turned back to the remaining Shadowbolts and smugly asked, “Who’s next?”
Sugarcoat sighed and grumbled to her remaining teammates, “Allow me to properly handle this situation.” She then just simply walked over to the area between the Shadowbolt agents and the Canterlot girls, then stopped and folded her arms.
Both sides remained still and silent, waiting for the next move. But Sugarcoat just continued to stand there, motionlessly staring at her opponents. As seconds turned to minutes, Rainbow’s smug grin slowly fell to an impatient frown. Eventually, Rainbow exclaimed, “Well, c’mon! Make your move!”
“Making the first move usually doesn’t result in a good scenario, as Indigo Zap has clearly demonstrated,” explained Sugarcoat. “I’m simply waiting for one of you to make the first move before I make mine.”
Before Rainbow could say anything, Applejack held her arm out in front of her friend and looked at her with a smug grin of her own as she said, “Ah’ll handle this one.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, but nevertheless smiled and gave a nod of approval.
Applejack took a few steps forward and smugly said, “Y’all shoulda known better than to mess with us! ‘Cause we’re members of the LEGO Team, an’ that means we got talents ya won’t find anywhere else. An’ that’s the creative talents of a true Master Builder!” As she spoke, she also glanced around the cavern to take mental note of any Lego parts and pieces she could use, and just as she had finished talking, she already had an excellent idea.
Applejack quickly went to work, rushing around one of the piles of crates and quickly putting pieces together in large chunks. As always happened whenever she or her friends got creative, she also began to pony up. Not long ago, Applejack had discovered that — unlike the rest of her friends — whenever she ponied up, her strength was incredibly enhanced, so she took advantage of that by smashing open some of the crates, providing her with even more parts to add to her build. Once she finally completed each of the chunks, she quickly threw them all together, creating a larger version of the Power Miners’ Mine Mech, which had a claw on its left arm and a buzz saw on its right arm. With her creation complete, Applejack hopped into the pilot’s seat and powered up her mech.
All the while, Sugarcoat’s seemingly bored expression hadn’t even changed a bit. “Not bad,” she said. “But you’ve failed to account for one crucial factor.”
Applejack’s smile fell and she raised an eyebrow.
Suddenly, Sugarcoat rushed back to the drill and quickly started to dismantle it. “All Shadowbolt agents are also Master Builders,” she explained as she quickly put together all of the parts from the drill and some other objects lying around in the cavern. “And unlike you noble LEGO Team types, we don’t allow anything to get in the way of completing our missions. Therefore, anything you can build…” She placed the last piece on an even bigger mine mech, with the drill on its left arm and a large chainsaw on its right arm. She hopped into the pilot’s seat and started up the mech. “…we can build better.”
Applejack gawked at the unexpected display of the creative talents of a Shadowbolt agent. But then she quickly shook off her shock and resumed her smug smile. “In that case, ya still shoulda known better than to pick a fight with me, ‘cause Ah ain’t the type who backs down from a challenge,” she boasted. With a few swift movements of the controls, she positioned her mech into a fighting stance. “Bring it on!”
“As you wish,” said Sugarcoat as she began to move her controls around, directing her mech to march forward and swing its drill arm down against her opponent.
Applejack deflected the blow with the claw arm and used the flat side of the saw arm to shove Sugarcoat’s mech back enough to make it stumble. But Sugarcoat quickly recovered and raised her mech’s chainsaw arm, ready for the next move.
As the two mechs began to battle, the rest of the Canterlot girls cheered on their friend as they watched from the sidelines. However, Rarity — thanks to her always careful attention to detail — quickly noticed that the other Shadowbolts were not showing any support for their teammate. In fact, they were completely ignoring her and taking advantage of the distraction to finish loading up the rest of the Power Crystals!
Rarity immediately nudged Sunset Shimmer and discreetly gestured toward the mine carts. Sunset silently nodded in acknowledgement and the two of them quietly crept around the cavern towards the scaffolding. As much as they hated having to make a move without bringing the rest of their friends, they also knew their sneak attack would only work if the Shadowbolts were convinced that the diversion was working.
Sunset grabbed onto the ladder on the end of the scaffolding, but before she began climbing, she turned back to Rarity and quietly said, “You’d better find something to arm yourself with. This could very easily become a real fight.”
Rarity hesitated for a moment, completely appalled at the notion of having to resort to personal combat. But she also understood how quickly tensions were rising, so she reluctantly nodded and began searching around for potentially useful tools.
At the same time, Sunset climbed up onto the first level of the scaffolding. Although Twilight and Sour Sweet were on the ground, Sunny Flare happened to be up on this level of the scaffolding. As a result, Sunset’s cover was blown the moment Sunny glanced over in her direction, so the amber girl decided to just raise her crowbar and charge right at the Shadowbolt agent.
Sunny Flare quickly glanced at her nearby surroundings and was pleased to find another red crowbar that just happened to be lying on the scaffolding. She picked up the crowbar and held it up just in time to block Sunset’s attempted strike. They both pushed against each other for a moment, then they both backed off slightly to break off the contact.
The two armed girls glared silently at each other for a moment. Sunset then smirked and stood up straight into a fencing pose, right leg in front of the left, left hand on her hip, and right hand holding her weapon down low.
“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be, is it?” quipped Sunny with a smirk of her own. She then struck a similar pose. Both girls held their poses perfectly for a tense moment. Finally, it was Sunny Flare who made the first move. “En garde!” she shouted, and the two girls immediately started swinging and banging their crowbars against each other. The clanging noise of each strike ringed out across the cavern as Sunset and Sunny commenced their match of crowbar fencing.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Meanwhile, down on the cavern floor not far away, Sour Sweet tossed the last of the loose Power Crystals into the mine cart as Twilight climbed up onto the pushcart connected to all three mine carts. “There, that’s all of them,” stated Twilight as she gripped the lever. “I’ll complete the delivery myself. The rest of you, keep holding them off.” Without another glance at anyone else in the cavern, Twilight began to push and pull on the lever. It took a bit of effort to get it started, but gradually became easier as she began to move forward, hauling all three fully loaded mine carts right in front of her.
However, Twilight’s attempt to escape with the Power Crystals did not go completely unnoticed. While still cheering on Applejack with Pinkie and Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash suddenly caught sight of Twilight slowly making her way along the rail line out of the cavern. “Hey! Twilight’s getting away!” she shouted, then immediately ran towards her.
Just as Twilight had begun to build up some momentum as she entered the rail line tunnel, she glanced back and gasped as she saw Rainbow charging right for her. Rainbow tried to jump up onto the pushcart, but since the lever was moving up, Twilight decided to take advantage of the momentum to raise both of her legs and kick Rainbow back off the cart.
Rainbow grunted in pain as she hit the ground. As she watched Twilight make her escape, she couldn’t help but bitterly think, That is definitely not Princess Twilight.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie rushed over to where the mine carts had just been resting — shoving aside Sour Sweet along the way. Pinkie yanked a long lever on the ground, and another mine cart suddenly dropped in from above and landed perfectly on the rails. Without a second to lose, she began to quickly push the empty cart forward along the tracks. It wasn’t long before she caught up to where Rainbow Dash had landed. “C’mon, Dash, let’s go!” she exclaimed cheerfully as she grabbed Rainbow and tossed her into the empty mine cart.
Back at the cavern, Sour Sweet glanced around at everything that was going on. With two of the Canterlot City girls going after Twilight and three others already occupied, that left her with only one target to pursue: Fluttershy. Sour rolled her eyes as she sighed and grumbled, “And of course, they leave me to deal with the weakling.” She picked up the closest thing she could find — a large black wrench — and marched over to the meek and shy girl.
Quickly realizing the danger she was suddenly in, Fluttershy whimpered and backed off until she found herself caught between some crates and some barrels. She rapidly shifted her gaze back and forth, but couldn’t think of a way to escape the wrath of this particular Shadowbolt agent.
Sour Sweet maintained a furious look on her face as she approached Fluttershy. But once she stopped within striking distance, her head spun around to expose her sweet face, who calmly said, “Aww, don’t worry. This won’t hurt a bit.”
Fluttershy stopped quivering in fear, but still remained frozen on the spot. “I-i-it won’t?” she asked with uncertainty.
“Of course not,” assured Sour Sweet with a smile. But then her head spun around to expose her sour face, who savagely added, “It’s gonna hurt a whole lot!” She roared out as she swung the wrench down on Fluttershy’s head, but the shy girl barely dodged and the wrench just banged against empty ground. Sour swung the wrench sideways, but Fluttershy ducked and the wrench ended up smashing one of the wooden crates. Sour swung again, but also missed again and instead pounded a huge dent into one of the steel barrels.
Fluttershy scampered away and quickly found herself crouched down next to one of the floodlights.
“Stand still so I can hit ya!” growled Sour as she rushed over to Fluttershy and swung the wrench again. Once again, Fluttershy barely dodged the wrench. This time, the wrench smashed into the floodlight’s fuse box, sending a large current of electricity up the wrench and through Sour Sweet’s body. Sour rapidly twitched and stuttered uncontrollably from the electrocution for a few seconds before she finally broke free of the current, sending her flying backwards into the middle of the cavern. She hit the ground, then grunted as the wrench came down a second later right on her abdomen.
Twilight continued to push and pull the lever on the pushcart, building up more and more speed to hasten her escape. Unfortunately, she was no longer the only one riding these rails.
“You’re not getting away from us!”
Twilight glanced back and gasped in shock as she saw a determined Rainbow Dash riding in an empty mine cart that was being pushed along the tracks by Pinkie Pie, and they were quickly catching up. Twilight quickly put all the effort she could muster into pumping that lever up and down, faster and faster.
After a few seconds, Twilight was starting to tire out, yet her mini train of fully-loaded mine carts continued to accelerate. This confused Twilight at first, but then she realized that the additional momentum was being provided not by her, but by gravity. Her carts were starting to roll down a slope. Twilight peered around the mine carts in front of her and — thanks to the light from her hardhat’s headlamp — saw the downward slope just ahead was much steeper.
“Uh oh,” whimpered Twilight before letting out a scream of terror as her mine carts went over the steep slope and rapidly accelerated.
“Let’s go get her!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly. Now that they were close to the downward slope, she no longer had to keep pushing the empty mine cart, so she hopped in to sit right behind Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, did not share her friend’s enthusiasm. “No! Wait! Pinkie! Stop!” she shouted fearfully. “I-I-I don’t think I’m tall enough for this ride!”
As the single mine cart plummeted over the slope, Rainbow Dash screamed in panic while Pinkie Pie squealed with joy.
Back at the cavern, Applejack and Sugarcoat continued to battle each other with their mechs. Applejack powered up the circular saw on her mech’s right arm, while Sugarcoat powered up the chainsaw on her mech’s right arm. Both of these weapons soon clashed, grinding loudly against each other as a huge shower of sparks flew off in all directions. However, it wasn’t long until the stresses became too much and both weapons suddenly shattered. The two combatants paused for a brief moment as they both glanced at their respective mech’s right arm, both of whom now lacking a weapon. Despite that minor setback, they were still evenly matched, and quickly resumed their duel.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Meanwhile, another duel was taking place over on the scaffolding as Sunset Shimmer and Sunny Flare continued their round of fencing with crowbars. The two red crowbars clanged against each other with every strike, neither of them ever able to land a blow on the opponent.
Eventually, Sunset saw an opening as she deflected another blow. Sunny could recover from that deflection after only a second, but that was all Sunset needed to raise her leg and kick Sunny back a short distance. Although Sunny managed to quickly jump back to her feet, Sunset took advantage of that brief diversion to turn around, jump and grab onto a horizontal bar on the scaffolding, and smoothly swing from it across the gap for the elevator and up onto the second level of the scaffolding.
Sunset turned back and grinned smugly at her opponent down below. “Face it, Shadowbolt! You’ll find me to be a very tough opponent,” she proudly boasted. “I’ve got five years of self-taught experience from avoiding every form of law enforcement imaginable! What have you got?”
Sunny Flare responded with a confident smile of her own. In a truly remarkable acrobatic feat, she leaped high into the air, backflipped once, and landed up on the second level just across the elevator gap from Sunset. “Ten years of professional training as a Shadowbolt agent!” Sunny responded with pride. “Prattle on all you want, dearie, but there’s no denying that even you won’t stand a chance against someone like me.”
Even though Sunset was genuinely astonished by what she just witnessed, she didn’t let it show, and instead responded with a smirk and said, “We’ll see about that.”
Sunny Flare leaped across the gap, did a single forward flip in midair, and landed on the opposite side of Sunset from the gap. She quickly spun around and the two girls immediately resumed their duel.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Down on the cavern floor, Indigo Zap had just recovered and now shoved aside the crate that had landed on top of her. She glanced around to figure out what was going on in the cavern and quickly saw Sunset and Sunny fighting with crowbars up on the scaffolding. With a quick glance to the right, she also noticed that Rarity had also picked up a crowbar and had just started to climb the ladder. Indigo glanced down at one of the smashed crates and saw that, among various others objects, was yet another red crowbar. With a wicked grin, she swiftly grabbed that crowbar and rushed over to the scaffolding.
Indigo headed straight for the elevator and immediately flipped the lever up, making the elevator start to rise up. It moved rather slowly, but Rarity wasn’t exactly rushing up the ladder anyway. Once she reached the first level, Indigo ran along the scaffolding and used her crowbar to smack away the ladder.
Rarity let out a startled yelp as the ladder in her grip began to fall away, but was quickly able to let go and grab onto the frame of the scaffolding. Once she was safe from going down with the ladder, she let go and gently landed on the first level… right in front of a maliciously grinning Indigo Zap.
“Ready to fight?” asked Indigo eagerly as she smacked her crowbar into her open hand.
Rarity sighed, but nevertheless tightened her grip on her crowbar. “I suppose I must,” she muttered.
Indigo immediately raised her crowbar and swung it down, but Rarity simply stepped aside and smacked Indigo’s exposed backside, knocking her face-down onto the walkway.
“Honestly, darling, must you make this so easy for me?” taunted Rarity.
“Shut it!” shouted Indigo as she quickly got back to her feet and spun around to face off against her opponent.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
When Indigo had left the elevator, she hadn’t bothered to even touch the lever, so that elevator just continued going up. As it approached the second level, Sunset noticed that elevator and decided to use it to her advantage.
Right at the moment that elevator reached the second level, Sunset casually took one step backwards onto the rising platform, then held her ground as she continued to clash with Sunny. As a result, the Canterlot girl was carried upwards, while the Shadowbolt was left behind. It wasn’t long until they were so far apart that they stopped swinging their crowbars, and Sunset simply smirked and waved her free hand as she ascended onto the third level of the scaffolding.
Sunny Flare wasn’t going to be deterred that easily. Once the elevator rose above the third level, she somersaulted across the gap and up onto the third level, then backflipped onto the elevator as it was only halfway up to the next level, kicking Sunset off the platform in the process. She then jumped to her feet and flipped the lever, reversing the elevator’s course.
Sunset got back to her feet and saw Sunny smirking from the now slowly descending platform. But Sunset immediately dove right under that elevator and landed across the gap onto the second level, landing with a tuck and roll. She then quickly ran all the way to the end of the scaffolding overlooking the rail line, grasped a horizontal bar above her head, and swung around and up onto the third level, just as the elevator began to descend from that level.
Sunny didn’t waste any time stepping off the still moving elevator and rushing towards her opponent, but when Sunset met her in the middle, she crouched down and swiped her crowbar across, striking Sunny over her ankles and flipping her onto her back.
In the brief second it took for Sunny to recover, Sunset ran back to the elevator and flipped the lever, bringing it back up again. As soon as Sunny was back on her feet, she immediately ran and then dove towards the rising platform. But by now, the elevator was high enough to allow Sunset to leap over Sunny and up onto the fourth and highest level of the scaffolding.
While Sunset waited for the duel to resume on the high ground, Sunny had other ideas. As the two opponents glared at each other, Sunny flipped the lever again and remained standing on the platform as it carried her down. While Sunset raised an eyebrow in confusion, Sunny simply smirked. Once the elevator descended past the third level, she leaped high into the air, somersaulted over Sunset, and landed perfectly on her feet up on the fourth level. She then swiftly spun around and resumed the crowbar clashing with the Canterlot girl.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
It didn’t take much for Sunset to suddenly find herself teetering on the edge of the walkway. On reflex, her arms briefly flailed before she lost her balance and fell off. Fortunately, she quickly regained control of herself and managed to catch the hooked end of her crowbar onto one of the support bars and swing herself backwards onto the third level. By the time Sunset skidded to a stop and stood up, Sunny had leaped down onto the same walkway and they immediately resumed their duel.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
At the same time, Rarity was busy with her own crowbar fencing duel with Indigo Zap. Although the Canterlot girl did well to block every offensive move, the Shadobolt agent fought fiercely and managed to gradually push her opponent back towards the elevator gap. But the whirring noise of that elevator going up and down had not escaped Rarity’s attention, and as it finally came back down to the second level, she decided it was her turn to make use of it.
Rarity allowed herself to be pushed back the rest of the way towards the elevator gap, which inevitably gave Indigo a false sense of confidence. When that elevator reached the second level, Rarity stepped backwards onto the platform and flipped the lever, making it rise up again. All Rarity had to do now was block just a few more strikes before she ascended out of reach of her opponent.
“Hey! Get back here!” shouted Indigo as she grasped onto the edge of the rising platform.
Realizing she didn’t have much time to lose, Rarity waited until the elevator was just high enough for her to jump up onto the third level, but not before flipping the lever down, sending the platform back down.
But Indigo was able to move quickly as she hauled herself up onto the platform and then leaped up onto the third level before the elevator was even halfway between the second and third levels. She and Rarity quickly resumed their duel, the Shadowbolt still able to gradually push the Canterlot girl back.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Incidentally, both dueling pairs were now fighting on the exact same walkway, so it wasn’t long until teammates Rarity and Sunset bumped into each other, back to back. They both glanced over each other’s shoulders and it didn’t take long for them to come up with the same idea.
“Care to trade?” asked Rarity.
“Over-under,” Sunset quickly responded.
As Rarity turned away from the cavern wall and crouched down, Sunset turned towards the cavern wall and rolled herself over her teammate’s back. Now the dueling pairs were Rarity against Sunny Flare and Sunset Shimmer against Indigo Zap. As Rarity and Sunny quickly came to a steady stalemate, Sunset and Indigo unleashed everything they had.
Indigo tried a wide swing across towards Sunset’s head, but Sunset ducked and took the opportunity to shoulder ram Indigo across the elevator gap and down to the second level. Sunset then jumped across the gap and landed on the other side while remaining on the third level. She then turned back and began to back away from the gap, waiting for her opponent to come to her.
Sunset was nearly caught off guard when Indigo leaped up onto the third level, not from the elevator gap in front of her, but from the other end near the rail line behind her. Sunset turned back and barely had just enough time to jump up to avoid another swing from Indigo’s crowbar.
Rather than land back on the walkway, Sunset instead stuck her feet onto the studs of a large plate piece that was resting sideways against the cavern wall. As she now stood sideways along the wall, she smirked and asked her new dueling opponent, “Does your Shadowbolts training program include SNOT walking?”
Indigo responded with a wicked grin and simply said, “As a matter of fact…” She jumped and stuck her feet onto the wall of studs. “…it does!”
Sunset was briefly surprised, but quickly regained her confident grin and remarked, “Then this fight just got very interesting.” And with that, the two opponents resumed their crowbar fencing duel while standing sideways on a wall.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Meanwhile, back on the cavern floor, Sour Sweet held a tight grip on her large wrench as her fierce gaze slowly went left and right around the cavern. By the time she had recovered from her mishap with the floodlight, Fluttershy was nowhere to be found, and she was determined to find her.
“Achoo!”
That sneeze was very faint, but it was enough for Sour Sweet’s attention to immediately snap towards the source it, which turned out to be a collection of over a dozen steel barrels sitting upright on the ground. Her head swiftly spun around to expose her sweet face and she remarked, “Oh, you’re hiding in one of these barrels. That’s really clever.” Her head quickly spun back to reveal her sour face again and maliciously said, “Too bad it won’t save you now.”
Sour used the wedge on the end of the wrench’s handle to pry open the lid on one of the barrels. She glanced inside, but found nothing, so she tossed the barrel aside and pried open another lid. She found nothing in that barrel either, so she also tossed that one aside and moved on to the next barrel. But just as she was about to peer inside, she caught some minor movement on the edge of her vision, making her immediately stop and glance up. With her focus now on all the other barrels, she saw no movement at all… though she had a feeling one of the barrels had slightly moved.
Sour slowly returned her attention towards the nearest barrels. After finding nothing in the third barrel, she tossed it aside and pried open a fourth barrel, then a fifth, but still found nothing. She was just about to move on to the sixth barrel when she once again caught some minor movement on the edge of her vision. Again, everything remained perfectly still as she refocused on the other barrels. This time, it was only a little bit more obvious that one of the barrels had moved. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make her suspicious.
Sour keep her focus on that one odd barrel on the other side of the collection as she resumed prying open lids and tossing empty barrels aside. As her noisy search resumed, she saw that odd barrel lift very slightly and slowly creep away. With a wicked grin now on her face, Sour stopped prying off lids and instead simply knocked away all the other barrels until she was left with just that one odd barrel trying to sneak away.
“I got ya now!” shouted Sour Sweet triumphantly as she raised her wrench and smashed it against the side of the barrel, sending it tumbling end over end across the ground until Fluttershy came flying right out of it.
Fluttershy and the barrel she had been hiding in came to rest right next to each other, not far from the base of the scaffolding. She was dazed from that impact and tumble, but soon managed to shake her head clear. She glanced back and saw Sour Sweet rushing towards her while holding that wrench high above her head. Fluttershy immediately panicked and placed her hands over her head as she huddled face down against the ground, unknowingly nudging the barrel to roll towards Sour Sweet.
Sour Sweet tried to jump over that barrel, but mistimed her steps and ended up landing a foot right onto that rolling surface, causing her to immediately topple forward and tumble head over heels until she finally slammed face-first against the cavern wall. Not only did she drop her wrench along the way, but she also quickly discovered that she had ended up right underneath the scaffolding elevator, and it was now descending to the ground floor. She had only one second to let out a scream of terror before that platform came down right on top of her.
“Oh no!” Fluttershy quietly said in shock. As much as she didn’t like seeing bad guys win, she especially didn’t like to see anyone get hurt. She immediately rushed over to the elevator and flipped the lever up. As the platform began to rise again, she hopped off and checked on the unfortunate Shadowbolt.
Sour groaned lightly and barely moved. She was still alive, but definitely wasn’t in any condition to be a threat at the moment.
Fluttershy pulled the defeated Shadowbolt out of the minifig-shaped depression her body had made in the ground and dragged her over to a nearby boulder. As she propped up Sour so that she was sitting upright with her back resting on the boulder, Fluttershy quietly said, “Why don’t you rest here for a moment and, um…” She nervously picked up the discarded wrench. “I-I-I’ll just hold onto this for safekeeping.” Fluttershy glanced around the cavern uneasily before she quickly ran away with the wrench in her hands.
Twilight Sparkle was screaming in terror as her small train of a pushcart behind three mine carts fully loaded with Power Crystals zoomed along the underground rail line. The carts rumbled loudly along the tracks as they sped downhill, uphill, then downhill again.
Not far behind was another mine cart, carrying LEGO Team members Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Although Rainbow was just as terrified as Twilight, Pinkie was hollering excitedly as if she was on an amusement park ride.
When the track finally leveled off, Twilight let out a sigh of relief, despite still moving very quickly from all that momentum. She was quickly back on full alert when she looked ahead and saw a junction in the tracks. She glanced back at the two Canterlot girls still in hot pursuit and soon got an idea.
As her carts rapidly approached the junction, Twilight reached into the nearest mine cart and grabbed a pink Power Crystal. She turned back, held up the Power Crystal, and waited for just the right moment. As soon as her carts passed the junction, she immediately threw the pink crystal at the switch and successfully knocked it into the other setting.
As Twilight continued down the left track, Rainbow and Pinkie ended up going down the right track. The two opposing sides were now rapidly rolling along separate tracks, but the wild mine ride had only just begun.
Rainbow and Pinkie headed right around a banked turn, down a steep hill, up a hill that was only half as high as the one they just went down, left around a banked turn in a half circle, and down a shallower hill before leveling off again. Then they found themselves going around to the right in a downward helix, completing four and a half revolutions before going down a hill that also curved to the left. All the while, Rainbow Dash hollered fearfully and kept a very firm grip on the sides of the mine cart, while Pinkie Pie simply squealed with joy on every twist and turn they went around.
Meanwhile, the tunnels echoed with Twilight’s terrified screams as she and her cargo of Power Crystals rolled up and down hill after hill in the tracks. Some slopes went straight ahead, others curved to the left or right, and one particularly steep downward slope actually twisted all the way around in a full revolution. Twilight held desperately onto the handle of the pushcart as she continued down the insane mine ride. Needless to say, Twilight would have never tried to make her escape on the rail line had she known about where it really led.
At one point, the two rail lines came close together, but did not merge together. Instead, Rainbow and Pinkie’s track went down a steep decline followed by an equally steep incline. And right at the bottom of this dip, Twilight’s track actually made a vertical loop all the way around the other track. As the two sides rushed along the tracks, Rainbow and Pinkie’s cart hit the base of the dip right at the exact moment that Twilight’s carts reached the peak of the loop.
“Why is there a loop-de-loop inside a mining tunnel!?!” shrieked Twilight after leaving that loop. Remarkably, hardly any Power Crystals had spilled out of her mine carts throughout the entire ride, though she was now willing to give up all of them if it meant an immediate end to this madness.
As Rainbow and Pinkie zoomed off through another separate tunnel, Twilight finally reached a nice stretch of straight and level track, but she had a feeling that she shouldn’t relax just yet. She cautiously peered around her mine carts and paled as she was confronted by what could best be described as the worst case scenario. Up ahead, there was a yellow barricade on the tracks that was labeled “End of the Line”, and Twilight’s carts were speeding right towards it!
With little time to lose, Twilight immediately grasped the brake handle on her pushcart and yanked back on it as hard as she could. The wheels grinded horribly as tons of sparks flew away from where they contacted the rails, but the small train of carts did begin to slow down. Twilight had no idea whether or not she had enough track left to reach a complete stop, but she was not going to let up on that brake until she could be absolutely certain.
Finally, Twilight’s carts came to a screeching halt. There was no more lurching around violently, and all noise in the area had now silenced to little more than a faint echo. Twilight, who had kept her eyes tightly shut during the entire braking procedure, finally released the brake and opened her eyes. Astonishingly, she had stopped with the first mine cart just one stud away from the barrier.
Now that the crazy mine ride was over for her, Twilight finally allowed herself to slouch forward and release a much needed sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, back in the cavern, Applejack and Sugarcoat were still going at it with their mine mechs. They continued to trade blows with each other, neither one ever managing to gain the upper hand. With both mechs lacking a weapon on the right arm and unable to find a good opportunity to use the weapon on the left arm, it seemed this mighty duel would continue for quite a while.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
At the same time, there were still two pairs of opponents trying to strike each other with crowbars. Sunset Shimmer and Indigo Zap continued to fight sideways on a wall of studs, while Rarity and Sunny Flare seemed to be engaged in a rather fierce round of fencing.
Rarity managed to expertly block every single strike against her, but could never find that perfect opening with which to attempt a strike of her own. Before long, she found herself pushed back to the elevator gap, so to buy herself just a little more time, she stepped back off the edge, grasped the horizontal support bar underneath the walkway, and swung over onto the second level. She then turned back and awaited the inevitable arrival of her opponent.
Sunny Flare somersaulted across the gap and down onto the second level, then turned around and did another big somersault across the gap to land right in front of Rarity. She continued to keep a confident smile on her face as she raised her crowbar and resumed the duel.
“You are remarkably acrobatic, I shall give you that,” said Rarity as she blocked a few more blows.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Of course I am,” said Sunny smugly. “Only the best of the best get to become Shadowbolt agents, like myself. You, on the other hand, have only mediocre talents, at best.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“On the contrary, Shadowbolt,” countered Rarity, “I believe I have a rather spectacular talent that no one else on either of our teams possesses.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sunny raised an eyebrow and asked with amusement, “Oh really? And what talent is that?”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“An eye for detail!” Rarity proudly remarked as she took a step back. “Observe.”
Rarity stomped on one of the plates she stood on, catapulting an empty bucket from the end of the walkway. The bucket knocked over what remained of the scaffolding’s ladder, which toppled over onto a steel barrel lying sideways on the ground. That pushed the barrel to roll across the cavern until it bumped into a tall and narrow crate. That crate fell over onto another similar crate, which then hit another one, and another one, like a set of dominos. The final crate smacked into one of the floodlights, spinning it around until its light now focused through a magnifying glass onto a rope. The intensely focused light quickly burned through the rope, snapping it and releasing a hanging drill down onto a long plate piece that pivoted over another barrel on its side. That catapulted an anvil onto another long plate over a barrel, which then catapulted a pair of 2x4 bricks stacked together onto yet another long plate over a barrel. That catapulted an empty bucket high up in an arc towards the scaffolding and ultimately landed right over the head of a dumbstruck Sunny Flare.
Now that Rarity finally had the opening she was seeking, she immediately took advantage of it and swiftly smacked her crowbar against the bucket over Sunny’s head. Sunny wobbled a bit from the sudden impact, then slumped back against the cavern wall.
“Quite impressive, if I do say so myself,” Rarity said smugly.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Meanwhile, as Sunset and Indigo continued their duel, it was gradually becoming clear that Indigo had the upper hand as she relentlessly continued to push Sunset back along the wall. Before long, Sunset found herself only a couple of studs away from the end of the sideways plate, marking the boundary of this battleground.
“You’re running out of studs!” boasted Indigo with a triumphant grin. “I’m gonna beat you!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Don’t celebrate before you win,” cautioned Sunset. “The way I see it, you’re not thinking three dimensionally.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Three dimensions?” questioned Indigo skeptically. “We’re fighting sideways on a wall!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Then you clearly don’t know how to think outside the box,” continued Sunset. “I can come up with ideas you would never even consider.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Like what?” asked Indigo impatiently as she continued striking with everything she had.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Advice from my friends,” replied Sunset. “Take Rainbow Dash, for example. If she was watching me right now, she would remind me of one of her favorite words.”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“And what word would that be?” asked Indigo.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
As the two opponents held their crowbars against each other, Sunset smirked and simply said, “Improvise.” With a swift motion of her arm, she flung Indigo’s crowbar out of her hand and hooked her own crowbar onto one of the vertical bars supporting the scaffolding. She pushed off from the wall, spun all the way around the bar, and kicked Indigo in the back on her return, sending the Shadowbolt agent flying across the elevator gap and down towards the second level.
Rarity immediately saw the incoming Shadowbolt and swiftly swung her crowbar to the left, smacking the airborne Indigo off the scaffolding and into another pile of crates.
“Nice hit, Rarity,” remarked Sunset with a smile. “You should consider taking up baseball.”
Rarity responded to her friend with a smile of her own, but it was quickly wiped away as the downed Sunny Flare next to her began to stir.
Sunny Flare removed the bucket over her head and glared at the opposing LEGO Team member. She then smiled and confidently said, “Not bad, but I’m ready for round two.”
Sunset jumped across the elevator gap and landed on the same walkway, leaving Sunny Flare trapped between two enemies. “It’s two against one, Shadowbolt,” noted Sunset. “The odds are now stacked against you.”
Sunny Flare didn’t drop her confident grin. “Actually, when you consider my skill level, I would say we are now evenly matched.”
Both Rarity and Sunset tightened their grips on their crowbars. The fight inside the mine was still on.
“There! All done,” said Spike with satisfaction as he attached the final piece to a short length of rail lines within the home base’s gateway room.
Twilight had open the Jump-Gate right in front of the barrier she had ended up near and had then asked Spike to quickly assemble a set of tracks, which would allow her to bring the loaded mine carts into the base without having to unload them by hand through the open gateway. Not only would that have been very time consuming, but it also came with the risk of an opponent or two trying to sneak their way into her home base.
“Good work, Spike,” said Twilight from the pushcart. “Now I can bring it all in.” She carefully pumped the lever up and down to slowly roll the three mine carts through the gateway. She had managed to push them ahead slowly enough that once the carts had passed through the gateway, they were able to come to a stop without needing the brake.
With a content smile, she hopped off the pushcart and said with satisfaction, “Now all that’s left to do is dismantle the track, shut the gate, and that’s another mission accomplished!”
As Twilight began tearing apart the tracks over where they crossed through the gateway, Spike asked, “Uh, Twilight? Aren’t you forgetting something? Or rather, five someones?”
Twilight sighed in frustration and rolled her eyes as she continued to dismantle the track and asked, “Do I really need to go back for them?”
Spike folded his arms and glared at Twilight as he simply replied, “Cinch’s orders.”
Twilight let out another frustrated sigh and grumbled, “If I had a dollar for every time you told me those two specific words, then I could easily afford to purchase every region in the Lego World.” Once she removed the last of the track pieces, she then walked over to the nearby control panel for the Jump-Gate and hit the red button that was labeled “Emergency Close”, triggering the doors to quickly slam shut and shut off the gateway.
Back in the tunnels, just as the Jump-Gate closed and faded away, the area began to echo with the rumbling noise of an approaching mine cart.
“Wow, who knew that other track would eventually lead us right onto the one Twilight went on?” remarked Pinkie Pie.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Rainbow Dash dismissively. “All I care about is catching up to her before she can get away.”
Finally, the single mine cart quickly rushed onto the stretch of straight and level track. The two occupants found nothing ahead of them, except for a certain “End of the Line” yellow barrier.
With eyes suddenly wide in shock, Rainbow immediately exclaimed, “Pinkie! Hit the brake!”
Pinkie quickly glanced around all sides of their mine cart, but struggled to find anything that stood out to her as a brake. “Um, does this thing even have a brake?” she asked.
Rainbow’s eyes immediately shrank and she tightened her grip on the sides of the cart as they continued to rapidly approach the barrier. Just seconds later, the cart smashed through the barrier and plunged through the empty darkness, with the panicked screams of both passengers echoing throughout the tunnels.
It wasn’t long before the mine cart miraculously landed directly on another set of rails and continued rolling along. Rainbow and Pinkie glanced around, both of them very relieved by their incredible stroke of fortune.
“Huh. That wasn’t so bad,” remarked Pinkie.
The two girls were then thrown off balance as the mine cart suddenly lurched. As they began to hear the clacking noise of a chain, Rainbow glanced ahead and realized they were now being pulled uphill. “Really?” she asked in disbelief. She switched on her hardhat’s headlamp and turned her gaze further ahead. Beyond the incline was a series of tracks that could best be described as absolute chaos. There were countless peaks and dips, twists and turns, and even loops and corkscrews.
“Really?” whimpered Rainbow.
“Yay! I love roller coasters!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly.
As the mine cart slowly approached the crest of the chain lift incline, Rainbow weakly asked, “Uh, Pinkie?”
“Yes?” asked Pinkie innocently.
Rainbow gulped before nervously replying, “I really hope you’ve got some barf bags.”
Finally, the cart reached the top of the hill and began a very steep downward plunge. All the way down, Rainbow kept an extremely tight grip on the sides of the cart as she let loose a massive scream of terror, while Pinkie held her arms up high and released a mighty squeal of excitement.
Back in the mining cavern, Applejack and Sugarcoat were still battling each other with the mine mechs they had each built. They had been locked in a stalemate for quite some time, but both of them knew it was only a matter of time before something finally gave in.
That moment arrived when Applejack clamped the claw on her mech’s left arm firmly onto the drill on the left arm of Sugarcoat’s mech, and Sugarcoat then powered up that drill. Since Applejack failed to release that claw, her entire mech was suddenly flipped over by the spinning drill and smashed to pieces upon hitting the ground.
But Applejack wasn’t going to give up that easily. As she remained ponied up, she quickly reassembled all of the scattered pieces of her mech into something new. After only a matter of seconds, she had completed a new mine mech with a stocky frame and more solid arms. This model more than made up for its short stature with massively increased strength, allowing her to grasp one of the legs of Sugarcoat’s mech and easily flip it though the air before smashing it to pieces on the ground.
Sugarcoat also remained just as determined to win, so she quickly gathered a few pieces of her mech and threw them all together. The resulting model appeared to be little more than the drill mounted on some kind of turret. Sugarcoat didn’t hesitate to power up that drill, rapidly increasing its spin to the max. Once it was spinning fast enough, she flipped a lever that released it, allowing the drill to shoot forward like a missile right through Applejack’s mech and smashing it to pieces.
Despite the heavy carnage, Applejack remained unscathed — as well as stayed ponied up. As she and her Shadowbolt opponent stood atop the mess of Lego pieces, they both narrowed their eyes, silently glaring at each other.
Both girls immediately went back to work, throwing together pieces left and right. Neither of them ever spared even a fleeting glimpse of what the other was doing. All they cared about was building the biggest and most powerful mine mech they could out of what they had available. When their respective models were completed, they simultaneously hopped into their respective pilot’s seats and tightly gripped their controls, ready to battle again.
But their eyes quickly went from narrowed in determination to widened in shock. Neither of them were facing their opponent. In fact, both of them were now standing back to back… on the same single mech!
Both Applejack and Sugarcoat tried to manipulate their respective controls and found they each had control over one arm, the right one from their perspectives. Even though neither of them could see each other, they both simultaneously smirked as they turned their controllable arm backwards. Then, as one, they both swung their arms back and made direct hits on each of their opponents.
Smash!
The self-inflicted punches shattered the two-in-one mine mech, sending all of its pieces collapsing into a pile in the middle of the cavern. The first to emerge from under the pile was Applejack, who had lost her left arm and both of her legs — not to mention, was also now no longer ponied up. As she began searching for her missing body parts in the pile, she grumbled, “Okay, now that was just dumb.”
Sugarcoat, who was now lacking her hair piece, quickly pulled herself out of the pile and simply said, “I am one hundred percent in agreement with that statement.”
Meanwhile, not far away, Indigo Zap found herself recovering from within a pile of crates for the second time today. Once again, she took note of her surroundings to determine where she would much rather fight, and found that all the action was still going on up on the scaffolding. But rather than go back up there and continue where she left off, she wanted to try something more effective. She wanted to take out both Sunset Shimmer and Rarity in one swift move, and she figured there was no better way to ensure that than by simply tearing down the scaffolding — despite the fact that her teammate Sunny Flare was also up there.
Indigo soon spotted the weak point in the support structure, and smirked as she immediately knew which tool to use. She climbed over the pile of crates and ran over to where she knew she would find what she was looking for. But just as her eyes fell on what she was after, she was suddenly confronted by another member of the opposing team.
Fluttershy nervously stepped in front of Indigo Zap and shakily held up the large black wrench as she hesitantly threatened, “D-d-don’t make me have to use this!”
“Don’t bother,” Indigo said casually as she simply shoved the timid girl out of her way. “All I want is this thing!” She picked up a jackhammer on the ground and then cackled madly as she rushed over towards the scaffolding.
At the same time, Sour Sweet was starting to recover after being briefly crushed by the elevator. She groaned lightly as she struggled to regain her focus, but was then startled as Indigo Zap suddenly rushed by with a jackhammer in her hands.
“Jackhammer time!” shouted Indigo as she thrust her jackhammer up and stuck it right onto the main support beam of the scaffolding and then immediately started hammering away.
The crowbar fight between Sunny Flare, Rarity, and Sunset Shimmer — which by now had moved up onto the third level — came to an abrupt halt. All three of them stumbled around and struggled to keep their balance as the entire structure started to shake and rumble.
Back at the pile of parts on the cavern floor, Sugarcoat had just found her hair piece and placed it back on her head just as she heard the hammering noise begin. She glanced over at Indigo Zap using the jackhammer, then up at the now violently wobbling scaffolding, and her eyes quickly widened in shock. “No! Stop!” she shouted at Indigo. “You’re gonna bring the whole thing down—”
Smash! Crash!
The jackhammer demolished the main support beam, causing all the rest of the supports under the first level to give out, bringing the entire structure down so that the first level was right on the ground. Indigo grinned in satisfaction, but that grin quickly fell as the entire structure then began to tilt over, away from the wall and right into the middle of the cavern. It all happened so quickly that nobody in the way had any time to avoid it. The structure groaned as the entire thing toppled over and came smashing down into the middle of the cavern.
CRASH!!
Pieces and debris from what used to be all of the scaffolding had now buried Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Sunny Flare, Indigo Zap, Sour Sweet, Applejack, and Sugarcoat.
Sugarcoat coughed a few times from some of the dust that had been raised, then grumbled with a slightly muffled voice, “…on all of us.”
“C’mon, Twilight!” exclaimed Spike impatiently near the closed Jump-Gate. “What could be so important that you can’t go back to help the rest of your team right away?”
Twilight came back into the gateway room from the hallway, holding onto a certain device of hers. “My latest research project, that’s what,” explained Twilight as she finished tying a loop of string onto it, allowing her to wear it around her neck and keep said device within easy reach at all times. As she put on the device like it was a large pendant, she added, “The LEGO Team girls from Canterlot City followed us into the mine, and I’m not going to pass up any opportunities to collect as much data as possible.”
With that priority now accounted for, Twilight returned to the Jump-Gate’s control panel and entered the coordinates of the power mine. In case if certain destinations were never consistent, such as a constantly expanding mine, the Jump-Gate also came with the option of entering specific coordinates. In fact, that’s how Twilight had designed Jump-Gates to function, and the list of common destinations was merely a way to help quickly reach most destinations without having to memorize hundreds of sets of coordinates.
Once Twilight had entered the proper coordinates, she hit the green “Enter” button. The Jump-Gate made that low whooshing noise, then the doors parted to reveal a dark mine tunnel. Twilight walked through the gateway, then the doors automatically closed behind her and phased out of existence.
Twilight hadn’t gone very far through the tunnel before she came across the unconscious form of Lemon Zest on the ground. Twilight paused for a moment to consider her options, and decided to just leave her fallen teammate there and retrieve her on the way back, after she had gathered the others.
Another moment later, Twilight arrived back at the mining cavern, but what she saw made her jaw drop in shock. The entire scaffolding had completely collapsed, and there was no sign of anyone in the area. Either everyone had already left — which she would’ve noticed by her teammates using their own portable Jump-Gates to return to home base — or they were all buried underneath all of that debris. Once she realized that, she immediately went to work clearing away the debris.
It didn’t take long for Twilight to find the first of her trapped teammates. After pulling aside some large Lego parts, Sugarcoat was able to pull herself out from under the pile. Once her fellow Shadowbolt agent was freed, Twilight told her, “Go back up the entry tunnel and wait for the rest of us. I’ve already completed the delivery, so now we just need to get out of here.”
Sugarcoat silently nodded in agreement and turned towards the tunnel. She ended up arriving at that entrance at the same time that another certain Shadowbolt agent finally arrived on the scene.
Lemon Zest rubbed the back of her sore head as she entered the cavern, then immediately paused as she caught sight of all the carnage and devastation in front of her. “Aww man!” she groaned in disappointment. “Did I miss out on the big fight?”
“Yes,” stated Sugarcoat without any hesitation or pity. “Yes, you did.” She then forcefully turned Lemon Zest around and shoved her back out of the cavern.
Meanwhile, Twilight resumed her search, but was suddenly startled by some shifting debris on the other side of the pile. Based on the way it sounded — slowly and practically one piece at a time — she realized that someone else was digging through the pile. She quickly climbed over the top of the pile saw that it was Fluttershy who was shifting through the debris. She initially thought the shy girl was searching for her own teammates, but was surprised seconds later to see her help Sour Sweet out of the pile.
“Go with your teammates,” Fluttershy quietly told the freed Shadowbolt agent. “I won’t stop you.”
Despite her confusion, Sour Sweet silently nodded and slowly made her way out of the cavern.
As Fluttershy gazed back at the departing Shadowbolt, she also noticed Twilight standing atop the pile. With little hesitation, the yellow shy girl pointed slightly to her left and told Twilight, “I saw one of your teammates end up over there. I’ll help another one for you.”
As Fluttershy immediately made her way towards another part of the pile, Twilight decided to trust this girl — if only just this once — and started digging through the area that had been pointed out to her. Sure enough, she ended up finding Sunny Flare under some debris. She pulled her teammate out of the pile and told her the same thing she had just told Sugarcoat.
At the same time, Fluttershy was able to quickly clear away some other debris and free Indigo Zap, who lightly shoved her out of the way and left without saying a word.
After Sunny Flare and Indigo Zap left the cavern, Twilight turned to Fluttershy and asked, “Why did you just help us out like that? I thought we were supposed to be fighting on opposite sides.”
“I just don’t like seeing anybody get hurt,” Fluttershy quietly explained. “It sure wouldn’t be very nice if I just left them there.” As soon as those words left her mouth, Fluttershy suddenly began to glow and levitate as she ponied up. She gained pony ears on her head, a tail-like extension to the back of her hair, and a pair of feathered wings appeared over her back. She smiled as she took a brief moment to appreciate such a remarkable transformation — especially for such a time and place as this — then turned away from Twilight and muttered, “Now I just need to help my friends.”
Twilight couldn’t help but gasp in awe. Although she had seen the “pony up” phenomenon from these special girls before, they had all been from a distance and through the golden tint of her astronaut helmet. To see it happen literally right in front of her eyes like this was a completely different experience.
But Twilight’s awe and wonder was quickly cut off by the faint humming noise of her device activating. She glanced down to see it not only lighting up in the direction of Fluttershy, but also seeming to levitate a bit. I’m pretty sure I didn’t design this thing to do that, thought Twilight, before the device suddenly opened on its own. She glanced back up to Fluttershy and was surprised to see the yellow glow surrounding her was now being drawn towards the device, like matter to a black hole.
Due to keeping her back turned to Twilight, Fluttershy had no idea what was happening until she suddenly felt herself grow very weak. Before she could even try to look around, she collapsed onto the pile of debris and her pony parts faded away, leaving her too weak to even stand up.
Twilight saw the last of Fluttershy’s magic swirl into her device and emit a few sparks of energy. She wondered what was behind those sparks of strange energy, but she also didn’t want to risk losing the new sample she had unintentionally just collected, so she quickly closed the device. She was surprised to find that it was noticeably harder to shut her device than it was the previous time, but she chose to set aside that observation for now.
With the issue with her research project now settled, Twilight glanced around the cavern and realized that she was now the only minifig standing and alert, and with all of her new teammates now accounted for, she saw no reason to stick around and decided to simply leave. So, without even bothering to check on the four LEGO Team girls still in the cavern, she turned away and left through the entrance tunnel.
After a short walk, Twilight reached all five of her gathered teammates. Once she stood beside them, she entered her home base’s Jump-Gate code into her portable Jump-Gate and said, “Our objectives have been met and everyone is present without any opposition in sight, so now is as good a time as any to return home.” She held her arm out into the tunnel ahead and activated the Jump-Gate, which materialized and opened.
Everyone slowly and silently walked through the gateway. Although their mission was a success, it was clear on everyone’s faces that things could have gone much better. Once everyone was back inside the home base and the Jump-Gate closed, Twilight asked, “Is everyone alright?”
“Don’t worry,” assured Sour Sweet weakly through her sweet face. “We’re fine.” Her head swiftly spun around to expose her sour face as she suddenly pointed at Indigo Zap and growled, “No thanks to you! I mean, what the brick were you thinking?! Do you even have a brain inside that empty space you call a head?!” She immediately started knocking on Indigo’s forehead.
“Ow! Ow! Hey!” exclaimed Indigo, before she yanked off Sour Sweet’s arm. “Hand’s off!” She then threw the detached arm across the room.
“Just for that…” grumbled Sour Sweet as she used her remaining arm to yank on Indigo’s goggles, then let them snap back against her face.
Indigo yelped in pain and fell to her back.
After witnessing that display of temperament, Twilight sighed and rubbed a hand over her face as she mumbled, “This is why I work alone.”
Many minutes passed within the mining cavern with everything remaining still and silent. The silence was eventually broken by a faint rumble coming from the tunnel with the rail line. It wasn’t long until a single mine cart slowly rolled up the rail line into the cavern, carrying nothing more than two passengers. The cart finally came to a complete stop when it lightly bumped into a piece of debris on the tracks.
In the rear half of the cart, Pinkie Pie had a huge grin on her face as she jumped for joy and excitedly exclaimed, “Yay! That was fun! Let’s do that again!”
In the front half of the cart, a very pale and terrified Rainbow Dash was faintly whimpering as she continued to hold an iron grip on the sides of the cart.
Now that the ride was over, Pinkie glanced around to see where they had ended up and realized they were now back in the cavern where they had started, but it was now a lot different than she had remembered. “Whoa. What happened here?” she asked. “Looks like a bomb went off.”
Rainbow shook her head clear and her skin tone returned to normal. She was just as shocked as Pinkie by what was left inside the cavern. She glanced over the big pile of debris and her eyes soon fell on someone lying face-down atop the pile. “Fluttershy!” she exclaimed, finally releasing her grip on the mine cart as she hopped out and rushed over to her fallen friend. As she helped up the yellow shy girl, she was relieved to see that although she was noticeably weak, she was still conscious. “What happened? Where’s everyone else?” asked Rainbow.
Fluttershy weakly replied, “The rest of our friends are still trapped under this pile.”
As Pinkie Pie immediately began to quickly clear away all of the fallen debris, Rainbow Dash helped Fluttershy off the pile and asked, “What about the Shadowbolts?”
Once they stopped next to the pile, Fluttershy replied, “They already got away.”
It was at that moment that Pinkie Pie managed to pull Sunset Shimmer out of the pile, who was not happy with what she just heard. “What?!” she exclaimed as she quickly brushed off Pinkie and ran over to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “What do you mean they got away?!”
Before Fluttershy could answer, some nearby pieces of debris were quickly shoved aside as Applejack pulled herself out of the pile. “Dagnabbit!” she grumbled. “Ah can’t believe we let that happen! Ah thought we were done with makin’ dumb mistakes.”
At the same time, Pinkie managed to pull Rarity out of the pile, who quietly thanked her and they walked over to join the others.
“Is anyone gonna tell me what happened in here?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash impatiently.
“One of them Shadowbolts brought down the whole scaffolding on top of us,” explained Applejack. She was silently thankful that she had managed to reattach all of her body parts before that scaffolding had come down on her and the others.
Sunset turned to Rainbow and asked, “What happened to Twilight? I saw you and Pinkie go after her.”
Rainbow sighed in frustration and begrudgingly replied, “We lost sight of her in the tunnels.”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak, but before she could even get a single word out, the entire cavern began to shake. The tremor lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to make all six girls concerned.
“What was that?” asked Rarity worriedly.
A few seconds of silence passed. Then a few odd creatures emerged from the rail line tunnel. These creatures appeared to be boulders with arms, stubby legs, glowing eyes, and a huge mouth. These creatures growled as they entered the cavern.
“What are those things?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I think those are rock monsters,” replied Sunset. “They must be after Power Crystals.”
“Except there ain’t none in here,” noted Applejack. “The Shadowbolts took ‘em all away!”
“Does anyone know how dangerous a hungry rock monster is?” asked Pinkie.
No one had an answer to that, and they feared they were all about to get one as the rock monsters, after tossing away some of the debris, set their sights on the six girls.
However, just as the rock monsters began their approach, some bright lights began to emerge from the entrance tunnel, followed by the low rumble of a large engine. Just seconds later, a large vehicle with big knobby wheels and a large drill on the front charged into the cavern, drove through the rock monsters — sending them flying away like a set of bowling pins — and then came to a screeching halt next to the girls.
Despite the glare from the bright lights, Pinkie was able to see who was operating that vehicle. “It’s Maud!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“I told you to watch out for rock monsters,” said Maud Pie.
“What are you doing here?” asked Sunset.
“I did say I would give you a ride back,” replied Maud. “Now hop in.”
None of the six girls hesitated to hop into the rear empty space of the Thunder Driller. As soon as everyone was ready to go, not only had the present rock monsters gotten back on their feet, but also a few more had charged into the cavern through the rail line tunnel.
“Oh look, more rock monsters,” muttered Maud. She powered up the drill and started driving around the cavern, flinging away every rock monster in her path with the rapidly spinning drill.
Once all of the rock monsters in the cavern were down, Maud drove back to the entrance tunnel. She stopped the vehicle just within the tunnel and pulled out a destructa-brick. She set the timer and blast size, activated the bomb, then tossed it behind the vehicle and immediately drove up through the tunnel.
Seconds later, the explosive detonated, blasting the tunnel entrance and causing it to collapse. The resulting cave-in cascaded through the entire tunnel, but Maud was able to drive the driller faster than the rate of collapse.
Finally, the Thunder Driller zoomed out of the tunnel and quickly stopped back inside the central mining cavern, just as the last portion of the tunnel collapsed. As the end of the tunnel caved-in, a plume of dust was suddenly blasted right at the parked vehicle, causing the unfortunate passengers to start coughing.
Once the cloud of dust eventually cleared, everyone looked at each other and saw that, despite being totally coated in dust, they were all safe.
Rarity removed her hands from her face — ensuring that it was the only part of her body with no dust on it — and remarked, “And that is precisely why I designed these uniforms to be strictly utilitarian. What’s the point of making something fabulous when it will inevitably end up completely covered in dust?”
Rainbow Dash glanced back at the collapsed tunnel, then turned to Maud and asked, “Why did you do that?”
“To keep the rock monsters from getting into this mine and destroying it again,” replied Maud while gesturing to all of the newly rebuilt mining structures in the cavern. “I can always drill a new tunnel to that site, once the other miners are ready to deal with the rock monsters.”
“Just as well,” stated Sunset Shimmer with disappointment as she stared at the collapsed tunnel. “I’m afraid the Shadowbolts got away with the Powers Crystals, and since we’re all back together and relatively okay, there’s nothing left for us to do here.” She turned to Maud. “Take us back up to the surface. Our mission is over.”
Maud nodded and drove the Thunder Driller up through the mine entrance tunnel. The members of the Canterlot City LEGO Team were ashamed that their first confrontation with a group of Shadowbolt agents had ended in failure. The fact that one of those agents was Twilight Sparkle of the Lego World only made them feel even worse.
Even after everything they had just been through here in the Mining Region, the Canterlot girls had a feeling that their confrontations against Twilight’s group of Shadowbolt agents were only just beginning.
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It's impressive how fortunate The Shadowbolts were to succeed, despite the blunder of putting Lemon Zest on guard duty. I doubt they'll make that mistake again.
;)
Going instense here.
I know this is probably going to sound stupid but is the Elves theme going to appear? I know you tend to avoid licensed themes and stick to Lego original, but even though Elves and Friends are original I was wondering as to their status. I know you said you wouldn't be including Bionicle or other technic themes because of scale with the minfigs. Will that apply to Minidolls, which form the Friends, Elves and Disney lines? I can see Sunset and her friends enjoying the environment of the Friends theme and I myself am a fan of the Elves theme.
I guess that this question can extend to Duplo as well, I guess?
Anyway, nice chapter. I never got any of the Power Miners sets, but I did enjoy the story and the sets looked nice and fun. I especially liked the colors! I'm a real sucker for the lime green/ light grey combo.
Since nobody seems willing to point it out, here's the song that Lemon Zest was listening to:
7030379 Not to mention Indigo Zap demolishing the scaffolding on top of everyone. And let's not forget Fluttershy being too kind for her own good. And this is only the first encounter, so expect plenty more problems to happen to both sides.
7033925 Like I said, I'm acknowledging the existence of all the other themes, but I'm not going to directly include them in any of my stories. In this Lego universe, the status of minidoll themes (Friends and Elves) is pretty much similar to the constraction themes (Bionicle and Hero Factory). They exist and are doing fine, but are kept isolated in their own far off galaxy. (Same for Duplo too, I suppose: they exist and are fine, but kept separate in a different far away galaxy.) If other people want to write their own stories in which the main cast visit these other themes, then they are more than free to do so, but in my stories, I'm sticking exclusively to standard Lego themes.
You know... you seem to be very familiar with a number of Lego themes. Would you be interested in helping me write some other Lego crossover stories? I've got a few ideas, but no time to write any of them on my own. Heck, I've barely got enough time to even write just this story right here.
7042722
So, I guess the only question now is Ninjago or Chima? They were shown to exist in different dimensions in Ninjago, but I think it more likely that Ninjaago exists in the Lego World. Also, I didn't comment about The Lego Movie references because I thought everyone would get them, apparently I was wrong.
As for my knowledge of Lego, yes, I possess something of a passing familiarity. I pretty good back to 2000 (and mainly focused on Bionicle), but after that it gets a little sketchy. My family usually got the large assorted bucket because me and my siblings argued what theme we wanted and we only had enough money for a couple of sets every once in awhile. I can remember things like Mars Mission, Johnny Thunder (only got into those sets after watching Indiana Jones... which was after they disappeared from store shelves), Knights Kingdom, early Spider-Man. Our first Lego sets from a theme (not a bucket or Duplo (I remember that I despised Duplo in my youth because I wanted the "cooler" bricks)) was in the 90s, my A-Wing (I don't care that it looks like a red and grey cheese wedge) Fighter and my brother's Naboo Starfighter.
A lot of my knowledge of older sets comes from BrickSet and Brickipedia. And they have their own charm. Seriously, if I was one of the big shots at Lego, I'd take the older sets and themes and build them using modern building techniques (sort of like what they did with Benny's Spaceship). Like Roboforce, since most themes find a way to stick a handful of mechs into the line anyway (not that that's a bad thing
).
As for helping to write crossovers, I would say that I am inclined to the idea (I actually have a Lego story idea myself), but I don't use GoogleDocs and I'm not sure how I would help write or edit a story short of you emailing a Word doc. I'm sure if this site would allow me to edit another author's story, but then again, I myself am inexperienced when it comes to editing my own stories on this site. My usual method is to do it in a Word doc and then copy and paste to the doc here on the site. It's a time consuming process, especially for longer stories, but my computer and internet aren't the best and it might close on its own or freeze and then I'd lose my work. It could still happen in Word, and sometimes does, but it happens less often. Though I do have Docs on my smartphone and have been meaning to try it out.
7042722 To be fair, the only one who wouldn't have made that mistake is Sugarcoat. In fact, I suspect she's secretly in the same boat as Twilight right now. She doesn't personally believe in the "Everyone for themselves" mentality of the Shadowbolts and would like to quit, but until then she's going to act as friendly as possible so they don't start to have reason to suspect her. Sunny Flare also needs to work on her temper a little, otherwise I sense it's only a matter of time until it becomes something that can be exploited to leave her vulnerable.