The Frozen Outpost
Chapter 7
The Frozen Outpost
The six girls of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team couldn’t believe what had just happened. After recovering the treasure of Atlantis, they tried to return to the Deep Sea Explorer, only to discover that the Shadowbolts had taken over the vessel and, not surprisingly, refused to bring their submarine back aboard. But perhaps the most shocking part of all was that, of all the Shadowbolts agents, it was Twilight Sparkle who smugly informed them of this over the radio. And now, as the Deep Sea Explorer sailed back to Baltimare without them, they were at a loss on what to do next.
“So what now?” asked Applejack. “Can’t we just follow ‘em all the way back to port?”
“I doubt we’ve got enough fuel,” replied Rainbow Dash sadly. “Submarines like this just aren’t meant to cross oceans.”
“Does that really leave us with no alternative than to drift aimlessly over the open ocean for days on end?” asked Rarity worriedly.
Silence fell across everyone inside the sub as the reality of their situation really began to sink in.
Sunset Shimmer, however, refused to give up so easily. She tried to think of any possible alternatives. Not only did they not have enough fuel to go very far, but also the sub’s radio had a very limited range, so calling for help wasn’t possible. However, that thought did give her an idea.
“There’s only one person who can help us now,” stated Sunset as she headed back to where they had stored their supplies. She dug through a few bags until she found the messaging tablet. She then sat down and quickly began typing a new message.
To the Informant.
You and your fellow Shadowbolts agents have just left us stranded in the middle of the ocean with not enough fuel to reach shore and a radio that’s not powerful enough to call for help. What do you suggest we do next?
From, Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset then set down the tablet on her lap and began waiting for a response. Even though she had not spoken aloud any part of her message, the rest of her friends could easily assume what she was trying.
“Do you really think the Informant can help us?” asked Fluttershy.
“She’s one of those Shadowbolt agents working with Twilight,” replied Sunset. “She should be totally aware of the situation they’ve just put us in, so if anyone can think of a way to get us out of here, it’s the Informant.”
For the next few minutes, everyone just waited in silence. With very few options available, they could only hope that the Informant would be able to help them in any way possible.
It wasn’t much longer before a new reply came up on the messaging tablet. Sunset immediately opened the message and read it aloud to her friends.
To the LEGO Team of Canterlot City.
Your best chance will be to ride the ocean current until you arrive at these coordinates. You will find an abandoned outpost at that location where you might be able to call for help and safely wait for a rescue team to come get you. It’s a long shot, but I can’t think of any other course to take with odds as good as this. Good luck to all of you.
From, The Informant.
As Sunset read the provided coordinates, Rainbow Dash entered them into a search feature on her phone. As soon as she saw the location of that site, her eyes widened. “Whoa,” she said in astonishment. “That’ll put us all the way up in the Arctic Region.”
That revelation certainly made most of the team rather uncomfortable. “Do we really need to go there of all places?” asked Applejack as she scratched the back of her head.
“If that’s where the current will take us, then I’m afraid so,” replied Sunset. “The ocean current will act like a tailwind, pushing us forward and allowing us to use as little fuel as possible.”
“Why can’t we just ride the current partway and then hop off at some other port?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“The current is too far from shore,” explained Fluttershy. “We would slow down too much before we could even see the coast.”
“And if we tried that, we would just end up wasting fuel,” continued Rainbow Dash. “We might not be left with enough to continue up the current. Heck, we might not be left with enough to even get back onto the current!”
“Then I suppose there really is no alternative,” concluded Rarity.
“Eeyup,” agreed Applejack reluctantly. “Looks like it’s the Arctic Region or bust for us.”
“Then let’s get going,” said Sunset as she sat down in the pilot’s seat and began working the controls again. “Any idea where we’ll find the fastest part of the current?”
After a quick search on her phone, Rainbow Dash answered, “It should be about a mile to the west from here and almost fifty meters below the surface.”
“Well, then I guess it’s a good thing we’re already inside a submarine,” remarked Pinkie Pie.
With a definitive destination in mind, there was nothing left for the Canterlot girls to do but to enter the current and hope it would be enough to take them there.
Up in the Arctic Region, a blizzard was blowing through in the early morning hours. With strong winds howling loudly and thick snowfall creating whiteout conditions, it was hard to imagine anyone would last long out in the open of such a bleak and desolate area.
Out in seemingly the middle of nowhere was a large outpost built atop the pack ice. It was built mostly out of light grey Lego bricks with a few dark grey pipes stretching across numerous sides of the old facility. The large accumulation of snow on the roof and along the bottom of the walls was a clear indication that this base had not been in use for at least a few years.
Just a short distance away from the abandoned outpost, the ice suddenly began to split apart. The ice fractured over a small area and lifted upwards before sliding away, revealing a small submarine resurfacing. The voyage along the ocean current had lasted through the entire night, but at least the LEGO Team of Canterlot City had safely made it to their destination.
Within a few minutes, the hatch was opened and the six girls — all of them now wearing bright orange parkas with their hoods up — climbed out into the blistering cold blizzard. None of them bothered to talk, as the howling winds made that virtually impossible, but as soon as they saw the facility looming in front of them, they all knew exactly where to go.
The six girls struggled against the strong winds as they trudged over to the nearest wall of the large building and then began searching for a way inside. They eventually managed to find a door, but snow that went up to their knees had piled up against it, leaving them with no choice but to kick away all of that snow. It took them over a minute, but they eventually managed to clear away enough of the doorway to open the door and step inside.
The inside of the abandoned facility was just as frigid as the outside, but the surrounding walls and roof did provide shelter against the loud winds and blowing snow. This permitted the six girls to lower the hoods on their parkas.
“Ugh, what a way to spend a Wednesday mornin’,” grumbled Applejack as she pulled her hat out of her parka’s hood and placed it back on her head.
As Rarity smoothed out her hair, she said, “At least I had the foresight to pack us these cozy and fabulous parkas.” She then cast a knowing look at Applejack and smugly added, “And to think you actually accused me of overpacking.”
Applejack sighed and rolled her eyes. “You’re never gonna let me live that down, ain’t ya?”
“I’m just glad we actually made it here,” said Fluttershy. “After what happened yesterday, it really is the best we could’ve hoped for.”
Rainbow Dash finished brushing snow off of her parka and asked, “Okay, so now that we’re here, what’s next?”
“Now we need to find some way to contact someone who can get us home,” answered Sunset. “Spread out and search the building, everyone. There’s gotta be some kind of communications room around here somewhere.”
“Um, wouldn’t it be better if we all just stayed together?” Fluttershy nervously asked. “I-I just think it would be much safer.”
“Oh, relax, silly!” assured Pinkie Pie. “This place looks like it’s been totally empty for a really long time, so there’s no way there’s anything in here that would want to attack you because if there was then they’d already be frozen solid by now, although it would still look scary to suddenly open up a closet somewhere and find something scary frozen solid in a block of ice, like a yeti or a caveman or a—”
Rainbow Dash cut off her hyperactive friend with a hand over her mouth. She gave the pink party girl a disapproving look and muttered, “Pinkie, not helping.”
Pinkie glanced back at Fluttershy and saw the shy yellow girl was shivering, though she couldn’t tell if it was from fear or just the cold.
“Still, Pinkie’s right about one thing,” noted Applejack. “This place sure hasn’t been used in a while, so y’all better watch where you’re steppin’ in case somethin’ gives out.”
“Besides, we’re only splitting up so we can cover more ground,” assured Sunset as she began passing out flashlights to all of her friends. “Once we’ve found a proper communication system, we’ll get back together and stay that way until rescue arrives.”
Fluttershy glanced down at the flashlight in her hand and hesitantly said, “Well… I guess that makes sense.”
The six girls switched on their flashlights and began exploring different areas of the abandoned outpost. Even though they were optimistic they would be able to find a way home, there was no telling what else they might find.
At Twilight’s home base, she and her fellow Shadowbolt agents were seated together at the kitchen table as they ate their breakfast. Lemon Zest and Sour Sweet were helping themselves to some eggs and bacon, Sunny Flare and Twilight each had a small stack of pancakes with syrup, Sugarcoat settled for a couple of waffles, and Indigo Zap enjoyed some sausages.
While most of her new teammates shared a little casual conversation, Twilight remained silent. She was still thinking about the call she had received from Cinch the previous night regarding their most recent mission. Cinch was obviously very disappointed in their failure to retrieve the treasure of Atlantis — especially regarding the fact that it had been Twilight’s decision to dump it — but at least she appreciated the effort made to keep track of where those Canterlot girls would be.
Most notably in Cinch’s call, she understood very well the fact that this mission even happened at all was troubling, because it had definitively confirmed that one of Twilight’s new teammates was secretly supplying information to the LEGO Team. Even though the question of who it was in particular remained an absolute mystery, there was now no doubt at all that there was a traitor on the team.
As she glanced around at her fellow Shadowbolt agents, Twilight couldn’t help but consider the possible reasons why each of them would want to betray all the others. Her thoughts decided to work clockwise around the table, starting with the girl sitting to her left. Let’s see… Sunny Flare has a reputation of being very persuasive, so if it’s her, I’m sure she would do an excellent job of denying any involvement. Indigo Zap doesn’t seem like an obvious possibility, but with how ruthless she can be to get what she wants, I wouldn’t put it past her to resort to treachery. Sugarcoat is highly intelligent and always tells things as they are, so if she was convinced the LEGO Team had the more rightful cause, then she might view treachery of this group as simply a net positive. Sour Sweet is practically a toss-up, depending on which face is in control, and since I can’t determine which of her two faces is the more dominant, it’s really difficult to say for sure. And Lemon Zest is a bit of a wild card, since she only seems to care about having fun and playing loud rock music, so I can’t really think of any legitimate reasons why she either would or would not betray us.
Twilight stared down at the last pancake on her plate and sighed. At this point, it really is anyone’s guess as to who the traitor might be, she thought to herself.
SLAM!
“MAIL CALL!!” shouted Spike excitedly as he suddenly kicked open the kitchen door and stepped inside while carrying a small stack of objects in his arms.
That sudden shout had startled everyone in the kitchen, with Sunny Flare spilling her orange juice, Lemon Zest dropping her fork onto the floor, and Indigo Zap losing her balance while leaning back in her chair and ultimately falling backwards onto the floor.
Sour Sweet turned to the young boy as she spun her head around to her sour face and furiously exclaimed, “Don’t do that again!”
Spike chuckled nervously and said, “Sorry. It’s just that I’ve always wanted to do that, except it was never any fun when Twilight was the only one around.”
While Twilight simply rolled her eyes before resuming her breakfast, the others just glared at Spike without saying a word.
Spike kept his smile up, though it had become forced due to the angry looks directed at him. After an uneasy moment of silence, he cleared his throat and said, “Anyway…” He then began walking around the table. “I’ve got this week’s Fashion & Gossip magazine for Sunny Flare…” From the top of his stack, he handed over that magazine.
“Thank you,” said Sunny as she took the magazine and set it aside.
“A letter for Sour Sweet…” Spiked walked over to Sour Sweet and handed her a white envelope.
Sour Sweet switched to her sweet face and pleasantly remarked, “Wow, I hardly ever get a letter.” She opened the letter, then immediately switched back to her sour face and exclaimed, “Jury duty?!” She blew a loud raspberry as she tore that letter in half and tossed it behind her back.
“This month’s Swords & Lasers weaponry catalogue for Indigo Zap…” Spike handed the catalogue over to Indigo Zap just as she sat back down in her chair after turning it upright again.
“Sweet!” said Indigo excitedly as she quickly snatched that catalogue and immediately began flipping through it.
“A package for Lemon Zest…” Spiked walked around to Lemon Zest and handed her a small brown box.
“Oh! This must be that boom box I ordered last week!” said Lemon excitedly as she quickly tore off the wrapping and opened the box. She had a huge grin on her face as she pulled a pink boom box out of that package. “Yes! I can’t wait to take this thing out on the road!”
“And finally, the morning paper for Sugarcoat.” Spike walked around the table and handed over the white 2x2 tile, the last item he had been carrying.
“Thanks,” said Sugarcoat as she took the paper and began flipping through the pages.
Indigo Zap raised an eyebrow as she glanced over at Sugarcoat and asked, “You read the newspaper?”
Once she reached her desired page, Sugarcoat pulled out a pencil and stated, “What can I say? I’m a sucker for the crossword puzzles.”
“Personally, I prefer sudokus,” remarked Twilight as she got up out of her chair and carried her now empty plate over to the sink. After rinsing off that plate, she then picked up a pen and a scroll on the counter and unrolled that scroll. “Eat breakfast: Check,” she said as she checked that item off the list.
The five other Shadowbolts glanced over at Twilight in confusion. “You made a checklist for everyday tasks?” asked Sunny Flare.
“Of course I did,” replied Twilight contently. “I always make one at the start of every day so I know what needs to get done it a specific sequence.”
“Have you been living in Bricksburg under Lord Business?” asked Sugarcoat incredulously.
Twilight rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t taunt me and my lifestyle choices. The way I see it, checklists help me keep things neat and orderly on a day-to-day basis.”
Indigo Zap threw down her catalogue and got up out of her seat as she retorted, “Well the way I see it, checklists are like instruction books. If you’re smart enough to put two bricks together, then you don’t need ‘em.” She then snatched the checklist out of Twilight’s hands and quickly tore it to shreds. “There! Problem solved!” she boasted as she tossed away the shreds of parchment.
Twilight was indeed shocked at first, but then she smirked at Indigo. “You know,” quipped Twilight, “one thing I certainly don’t miss about the Castle Region is that I no longer have to be completely dependent on parchment.” She pulled out her phone and opened an app before showing the screen to her fellow teammate. “I made a digital copy of that checklist.”
Indigo smacked herself in the forehead and groaned as she flopped backwards into her seat.
Twilight giggled lightly before turning her attention down to her daily checklist app. “Let’s see, next item on the list is to… check the tracking system for the current location of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team.”
As Twilight switched to a different app on her phone, Sunny Flare noted, “Yes, I suppose that’s one task worthy of placing on a checklist.”
“Barring some sort of miracle, they’re probably still drifting in the middle of the ocean,” stated Sugarcoat as she filled in another word on her crossword.
“I’m kinda hoping they got captured by pirates,” quipped Indigo Zap as she rested her feet on the table.
“Oh no,” muttered Twilight as a look of panic suddenly appeared on her face. “Oh no no no no no no no!” She began frantically pacing around the room as her breathing rate increased. “This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!”
Sour Sweet switched to her sweet face and asked, “What? What’s wrong?”
“They’ve found one of my old secret hideouts!” answered Twilight in panic. “I don’t know how, but the tracking device clearly indicates that they are precisely on that site!” She hyperventilated for a few seconds before she eventually managed to calm herself down, or at least as calm as she could be in such a frightening situation. “I’ve gotta find out what they’re up to.” She immediately put away her phone and rushed out the door.
The five remaining Shadowbolts silently glanced at one another in confusion. No words were spoken as everyone set aside everything on the table and walked over to the doorway.
As soon as everyone was out in the hallway, Twilight suddenly burst out of her research lab with her special device hanging around her neck. “Spike! Build me a snowmobile! Pronto!” she requested urgently as she rushed down the hallway towards the gateway room.
“Uh, okay,” responded Spike with uncertainty. Despite his confusion, he quickly gathered up a bunch of Lego parts from the storage room and brought them out into the gateway room.
At the same time, Twilight quickly started entering a set of coordinates into the Jump-Gate.
“Do you mind telling us what’s going on?” asked Indigo Zap irritably as she and the rest of the group entered the gateway room.
“That old facility of mine is literally out in the middle of nowhere,” Twilight hastily explained, “so I wasn’t exactly as thorough with clearing it out as I was with most of my other previous secret bases.” She finished entering the coordinates, but did not open the Jump-Gate. Instead, she immediately rushed into the nearest changing room. “There’s no telling what kind of Shadowbolt secrets those Canterlot girls might uncover!”
As Twilight rummaged around inside the changing room, Sunny Flare asked, “And I assume this means we must accompany you, correct?”
“Not this time,” responded Twilight. “I’m going there alone. The rest of you will stay here.”
The five girls muttered words of confusion at that statement.
“Do you even realize that’s a direct violation of Miss Cinch’s personal orders to us?” asked Sugarcoat.
“I’m pretty sure that only applies to major missions officially assigned to us by Miss Cinch herself,” argued Twilight. “This is going to be just a minor scouting expedition, and the fewer agents involved the better, so it doesn’t get any better than just a single agent — namely me.”
It was only a few seconds later when Spike attached the final piece to the snowmobile. “There! All done!” he proudly stated.
“Perfect timing!” remarked Twilight as she stepped out of the changing room, now wearing a dark blue parka. “Open the Jump-Gate!” she requested and she rushed over to the snowmobile.
Spike ran over to the Jump-Gate’s control panel and hit the green “Open” button. The Jump-Gate made its low whooshing noise for a few seconds before the doors parted, opening up to a fierce blizzard. Twilight immediately flipped her hood up and began pushing the snowmobile through the Jump-Gate.
“Miss Cinch is going to be very furious when she finds out about this,” warned Sunny Flare, needing to raise her voice so she could be heard over the howling winds outside.
“She won’t find out,” rebuffed Twilight. “Like I said, this is only a minor scouting expedition. I’ll be back before you know it.” Once she had pushed her snowmobile completely through the Jump-Gate, she tapped a red button on her wrist-mounted device, which quickly closed the gateway’s doors and made them vanish on her side.
Twilight was now completely alone in the middle of the Arctic Region. After a quick check to make sure everything was in place — including her research project’s key device stuffed under her parka — she hopped onto the snowmobile and started it up. With little time to lose, she sped off across the frozen wasteland and towards the abandoned facility she once resided in for a short time.
Fluttershy moved carefully through the dark corridors of the abandoned outpost. She made sure to aim her flashlight in every direction with each step she took, ensuring that nothing would ever catch her by surprise. So far, she had seen very little besides empty rooms and hallways. Whoever once occupied this facility had clearly packed up nearly everything that may have once been here before leaving.
But of all the directions Fluttershy was watching, the one she neglected to observe was down on the floor around her feet. Due to this oversight, she ended up slipping on a patch of ice on the floor. As she yelped and fell to the floor, she accidentally tossed her flashlight away, knocking over an empty filing cabinet that came crashing to the floor.
Fluttershy slowly sat up and rubbed the sore spot on her back where she had hit the floor on, then crawled over to where her flashlight had ended up. She picked up her flashlight and rested a hand on the fallen filing cabinet as she stood back up. As she was getting back up, she caught a glimpse of something when the light of her flashlight passed over the spot on the floor where the filing cabinet had once stood. She pointed the flashlight at the spot again and saw what appeared to be a small index card on the floor. The side that was facing up was blank, so she walked over, picked it up, and turned it over to reveal a short phrase printed on the other side: “Pick-A-Brick”.
I wonder what that means, thought Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash called out.
Fluttershy quickly turned back to the hallway she had come down, where she had heard her friend calling from. She glanced back down at the card in her hand, then stuffed it into her parka before turning around and heading back down that hallway. She went around the corner and soon met up with Rainbow Dash and Rarity.
“Are you alright, darling?” asked Rarity in concern. “We heard you cry out, followed by a crash.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” assured Fluttershy. “I just slipped on some ice and knocked over an empty cabinet.”
Rarity placed a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder and said, “I’m glad you’re okay, dear, but please do try to watch where you are stepping.”
“Yeah, there’s a reason AJ warned us about that,” added Rainbow Dash. She then frowned as she continued, “At least you’re having better luck than me. Everyone single room I’ve looked through is completely empty. I think whoever last used this place decided to take everything that wasn’t nailed down.”
“Not according to what I discovered in the kitchen,” Rarity pointed out. “Not only were all the appliances and fixtures still in place, as one might expect, but there was also a table and set of chairs sitting in the middle of the room. If this had been my former residence, I would have ensured that nothing at all would be left behind when the time came to move out.”
“Maybe they left in a hurry and took only the important stuff?” suggested Rainbow Dash.
“Perhaps,” acknowledged Rarity with a shrug.
“Good news, girls,” said Sunset Shimmer as she suddenly came around another corner and walked over to the others. “I found an antique radio system and managed to contact the nearest branch of the LEGO Team. They’re already preparing to send out a rescue plane as we speak to not only bring us home but also collect the Atlantis treasure that’s still with the sub. They’ll arrive as soon as there’s a clear enough break in the weather, which they estimate may be a few hours from now.”
“That’s wonderful news, darling,” said Rarity happily.
“Awesome! Now it’s only a matter of time before we’re finally out of this mess,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Nice work, Sunset,” added Fluttershy.
Sunset nodded and said, “Now we just have to find Applejack and Pinkie Pie and tell them about this.”
A sudden noise of rushing water through one of the pipes startled the four girls. They briefly looked around in confusion before Sunset led them down another corridor, trying to follow that noise until they soon arrived at a closed door.
Just seconds after the girls arrived, the door suddenly opened and out stepped Applejack as she let out a sigh of relief. She left the room and only made it a few steps before she stopped as she noticed the looks of confusion on her friends. She returned the confused expression and simply said, “What? The toilet still works.”
As Applejack walked over to the others, Rarity suddenly started waving her hand in front of her face and asked, “And what about the air vent?”
“Eh… not so much,” admitted Applejack uneasily.
As the others reacted in disgust, Rarity quickly pulled out her can of air freshener and began to liberally apply it along the way to the bathroom door in a continuous spray. As soon as she reached the door, she quickly closed it, put away her air freshener, and slapped a large biohazard sticker onto the door.
Sunset stared blankly at Rarity’s actions for a moment before eventually saying, “Well, uh… I guess now we just have to find Pinkie Pie.”
“There you girls are!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly came skidding around another corner. She waved for them to follow as she added, “C’mon! I wanna show you something fun!” Without waiting for any of them, she then ran back the way she came.
The others looked at one another in confusion and then silently shrugged and followed after the pink party girl.
The girls soon arrived in a large empty room. The first thing that immediately caught everyone’s attention was the huge stacks of pizzas — which were actually yellow 2x2 round tiles with printed detailing on the top surface that looked like pizza toppings — piled up in one corner. Pinkie grabbed two of those pizzas and explained, “I found the pantry was packed full of these frozen pizzas, but it’s so cold in here that there’s no way we can eat them.” She proved her point by rubbing the two pizzas together, which sounded more like grinding two rocks together. “But then I realized that even if we do manage to call in for a rescue, it might take a really long time for them to get here, so instead of spending all that time just sitting around and doing nothing, I figured it would be a great idea to use these pizzas to play a game so we can all have lots of fun!” She tossed the two pizzas over to Rainbow Dash and Applejack and then spread her arms out wide as she excitedly announced, “I call it: The Pizza Toss!”
Pinkie pointed at the far half of the room, which was covered in a layer of ice and had what appeared to be a large bullseye target painted on it, along with a line separating the target half from the other half of the room. “All you have to do is toss one of these frozen pizzas like a frisbee so that it’s sliding across the ice by the time it crosses that line, and whoever gets their pizza closest to the center of that target wins!”
“Oh, so it’s like curling, except without using those sweepers?” asked Rarity.
“No brooms here! Couldn’t find any!” answered Pinkie cheerfully. “Oh! And while we’re playing, how about a little music to go with it?” She ran over to a record player nearby and pulled out a record. “This one’s a little retro, but I think it fits the ice theme pretty well.” She placed the record on the player and started it up.
As the music started, Rainbow Dash quickly smiled and said, “Hey, I recognize this! They played this tune at the Ice Planet Pathway track during the old LEGO Racers competition.” She let out a nostalgic sigh. “I loved watching all those races when I was a kid.”
Pinkie rushed back to her friends and held up two more frozen pizzas as she grinned and excitedly asked, “Who wants to go first?”
When none of the others immediately responded, Sunset shrugged and replied, “I guess I’ll take it.” She grabbed one of the pizzas Pinkie held out and then turned to face the target. She held her arm steady and narrowed her eyes on the target. After a few seconds, she tossed her frozen pizza forward and it slid on the ice across the line, into the target zone, and just past the center, stopping halfway between the center and the edge of the target zone.
“Nice toss, Sunset!” cheered Pinkie. “Okay, my turn!” She picked up another frozen pizza and quickly tossed it, sending it sliding across the icy floor, past the line, past the target, and eventually hitting the far wall. “Whoopsie! Too much. Oh well! Who’s next?”
Fluttershy picked up a frozen pizza from the pile and said, “It does look kind of fun, so I guess it’s worth a try.” She walked over to stand beside her friends, held the pizza at just the right angle, and tossed it forward. The pizza slid across the ice, but barely made it across the line.
Rarity placed a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder and assuredly said, “It was a nice effort, darling.” A frozen pizza was suddenly tossed to her by Pinkie Pie and she barely managed to catch it. “I suppose this means it’s my turn now.” She moved into a proper stance, held the pizza low near the floor and at just the right angle, and then tossed it while giving it a good amount of spin. The pizza slid to right and curved forward a bit, but not enough to bring it into the target area.
“That was a pretty good one, Rarity,” remarked Pinkie Pie happily. “Who’s next?”
“I know how these kinds of games work,” bragged Rainbow Dash confidently. She turned to Applejack and said, “You can go next.”
Applejack was a little surprised by Rainbow’s offer, but then smirked and said, “Well, if ya say so.” She already had a frozen pizza in her hands, so all she had to do was toss it towards the target. Unfortunately, she tossed her pizza at a poor angle and it ended up bouncing off the floor once before rolling away on its edge.
Rainbow Dash immediately burst out laughing. “I think you put a little too much muscle into that one!” she remarked before resuming her hysterical laughter. Within seconds, everyone else also joined in the laughter, even Applejack.
As the six friends really enjoyed participating in this new game, Pinkie Pie suddenly began to glow and levitate off the floor as she ponied up. She gained pony ears on her head and a tail-like extension to her hair piece. “Oooh, floaty!” she remarked cheerfully.
The others looked up in awe and wonder at Pinkie’s sudden magical transformation. “Of course that happened,” muttered Sunset as she just smiled and rolled her eyes.
Eventually, Rarity turned her gaze away from their hovering friend and handed a frozen pizza to Applejack. “Here, darling. You deserve another chance,” she said.
Applejack smiled and nodded as she took the pizza and prepared to toss it properly this time. It took her a moment to be sure she was in a good stance before she made her toss. The pizza slid across the ice and came to a stop almost right over the center bullseye. “Nice!” she remarked. She turned to Rainbow Dash and smugly added, “Let’s see ya top that!”
“I don’t have to,” bragged Rainbow as she prepared to toss her frozen pizza. “All I’ve gotta do is knock you off your perch.” Once she was certain she was at just the right angle, she tossed her pizza, which slid across the ice and smacked right into Applejack’s pizza, knocking them both out of the target zone. “Yea— Ohhh!” She was thrilled that she knocked Applejack off the target zone, but then was crushed to see that she has also knocked herself off the target zone, leaving only one pizza left in that area.
“Huh? Looks like I win,” remarked Sunset with a smirk.
While everyone else’s attention was focused on the results of the pizza toss game, Pinkie Pie suddenly felt her Equestrian magic begin to drain out of her, causing her to slowly drop back to the floor as her pony parts vanished.
“Eh, that was just a bad toss,” argued Rainbow Dash. She picked up another frozen pizza and offered, “Best two out of three!”
Crash!
Everyone immediately turn to Pinkie Pie and saw that she had fallen onto the record player — shutting off the music in the process.
Fluttershy quickly ran over to Pinkie while Rarity asked with concern, “Pinkie, dear? Are you all right?”
Pinkie groaned tiredly as Fluttershy helped her up. “I am party pooped,” she mumbled.
With Pinkie Pie suddenly exhausted after spontaneously ponying up, it didn’t take long for Sunset Shimmer to realize what was going on. She furrowed her brow as she turned to Applejack and Rainbow Dash as she firmly said, “I think we all know what that means.”
Elsewhere in the abandoned outpost, Twilight Sparkle had only recently arrived when her special device started acting up again. Since it would lead her to one of the Canterlot girls, she decided to follow it in hopes of finding out what those girls were doing here. Unfortunately, she failed to foresee the device opening on its own again and was now absorbing some pink glowing energy coming from a nearby room. “Ugh! Not this again,” she grumbled as she struggled to force the device shut after absorbing the last of that strange energy.
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!” hollered the voice of Sunset Shimmer throughout virtually the entire facility.
That shout startled Twilight, causing her to yelp and lose her grip on the device. With that device now left wide open, sparks of energy shot out all over the place and began to open up rifts in space all around her. “Oh, not good,” she muttered worriedly as she glanced back and forth between each and every hole in space that opened up. “This is not good at all.”
One of the mysterious portals suddenly opened up right in front of Twilight. After the initial shock of seeing it appear, she looked through it and realized that, aside from some night sky around the edges, it led to a slightly different location right inside this very facility. In fact, as she cautiously moved her arms around, she confirmed the she even saw herself from a distance. She glanced up and to the left and, sure enough, saw the other end of that portal near a walkway up there.
Curious, Twilight picked up a light grey 1x2 plate that happened to be on the ground near her feet and tossed it through the portal in front of her. Little more than a second later, that piece flew out the other portal and tumbled along the walkway until it went over the edge and fell to the floor below. “Dare I take my chances?” she muttered.
To Twilight’s right, Rainbow Dash suddenly came around the corner and stopped for only a brief second. “There she is!” she shouted before charging towards the Shadowbolt agent.
After only a brief glance at Rainbow, Twilight immediately made up her mind. “Heck yes!” shrieked Twilight as she ran straight towards the portal in front of her and jumped in feet-first. Just a second later, she flew out of the other portal and landed on her feet up on the walkway. Panting as she took a moment to regain her bearings, she realized that she had in fact successfully jumped from one of these portals to another. When her eyes fell on a dumbstruck Rainbow Dash down on the floor, she immediately ran off along the walkway.
“Oh, so that’s how we’re gonna play, huh?” remarked Rainbow with a cocky grin. “Game on!” she shouted as she dove head-first through the same portal Twilight took. She came flying out the other portal, only to slam her head against the walkway and then tumble a short distance until she landed on her belly. She groaned in pain as she put a hand on her head and grumbled, “So that’s why she went in feet-first.”
Meanwhile, Twilight continued to flee along the walkway. She quickly came to a stop as she saw Applejack climb up a ladder and block off the route ahead.
“Ah got her!” Applejack called out as she charged towards the Shadowbolt agent.
Twilight glanced over the railing to her right and saw another portal. She climbed over the railing and twisted her body around as she jumped, allowing her to pass through the portal face-down, parallel to the walkway, and with her head pointing in the direction she had come from. Applejack quickly followed by simply hopping over the railing and falling in feet-first.
In another corner of the facility, Twilight flew out of the portal in an upright position and hit the walkway on her feet, allowing her to continue running right away. Applejack flew out the portal feet-first and hit the walkway flat on her face. She got up and stumbled around a bit before she turned around and resumed the chase.
After going around a turn, Twilight stopped as she encountered another portal right in the middle of the walkway. After a quick observation of what was on the other side, she jumped through while turning her upper body sideways to the right and slightly forward. Right behind her, Applejack simply dove through head-first.
In yet another corner of the facility, Twilight once again flew out of the portal in an upright position and hit the walkway on her feet, allowing her to continue running right away. But when Applejack flew out of the portal, she flailed her limbs around as she tumbled uncontrollably. Once she finally came to a stop face-down, she grabbed onto the railing and struggled to get back up.
“Whoa, nelly,” mumbled Applejack as her eyes spun around in dizziness. “This is highly disorientin’.”
Meanwhile, Twilight jumped over the railing and landed on a lower walkway that ran perpendicular to the upper one. Twilight continued to run, only to stop as Fluttershy reached the top of a stairway and blocked Twilight’s escape route.
Fluttershy hesitated for a moment before she mustered what little courage she could and firmly said, “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.” She clenched her fist and moved to punch Twilight in the face.
But before the blow could land, Twilight simply caught the fist and held it back. As the shy yellow girl looked at her in shock, Twilight simply smirked and remarked, “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.” She then spun around and threw Fluttershy over her shoulder, tossing her over the railing and into another portal.
Fluttershy screamed as she fell through the portal. That scream resumed as she flew up out another portal at the opposite end of the hallway and then down through that portal. She then came flying back out of the first portal, fell down into it, flew up out the second portal, fell back down into it, and the cycle just kept on repeating.
“That should keep her occupied for a while,” noted Twilight before she continued down the walkway.
Twilight eventually made her way down a set of stairs to reach the ground floor again. She only made it a few steps before she encountered two portals on opposite sides of the hallway. But what made her momentarily pause was Pinkie Pie flying out of one portal and diving straight into the other one, all while squealing excitedly with a huge grin, completely oblivious of the Shadowbolt agent she had just passed right by. Twilight was left dumbstruck for a few seconds before she eventually remarked, “I guess that takes care of that one.”
“And just what do you think you are doing, darling?”
Twilight immediately glanced back and saw Rarity standing behind her, arms folded and with a disapproving frown on her face. Twilight wasn’t sure how to respond, so she quickly checked her parka for anything potentially useful. The only thing she managed to pull out of her pocket was a can of soda. Against most opponents, this wouldn’t be effective at all, but if used properly against someone like Rarity, it was exactly the kind of thing that could work. A perfect case of using the right tool for the right job.
“Oh, let’s just say…” said Twilight as she began to vigorously shake the can around. As she finished shaking the can, she pointed it at Rarity and smirked. “It’s a science experiment.” She then popped the top of the can, spraying soda all over Rarity’s face and hair.
Rarity immediately shrieked as she started flailing her arms around while hopping from one foot to the other. “Gah! Soda in my hair! Soda in my hair!” she cried out desperately. “I must go wash it off before it gets all sticky!” She quickly turned away and rushed to the nearest washroom, screaming all the way.
Twilight couldn’t help but giggle and remark, “This is too easy!” She sipped what little remained of that beverage and tossed the empty can away. “You were wrong, Cinch!” She proudly declared to no one in particular. “I do work best alone!”
“Then prove it!”
Twilight spun around again and saw Sunset Shimmer was now standing in her way. Out of all the members on Canterlot City’s LEGO Team, she was by far the toughest, most brilliant, and most talented. She was definitely not a minifig one would want to mess around with.
Sunset raised both fists as she firmly declared. “Let’s settle this, Twilight. Mono a mono.”
“Actually, the correct translation would be ‘niña a niña’, since we’re both girls, not men,” Twilight quickly pointed out.
“Whatever!” shot back Sunset as she rolled her eyes. “My point is, you’re going down, even if I have to do it myself!” She then lunged at Twilight.
Twilight ducked and Sunset just flew right over her head. She glanced back to where Sunset landed, then glanced ahead and saw another one of the strange portals opening up. Unlike all the others, this one led right outside the facility, if the complete whiteness and bits of snow coming through were any indication.
As Sunset got back up, Twilight made her decision and bolted for that portal. All I need to do is jump through, shut off this silly thing, and then grab my snowmobile and leave, she thought to herself. It was a rather simple plan that mostly depended on timing, and she was confident she would get it right.
As Twilight raced for the portal with Sunset Shimmer in hot pursuit, Rainbow Dash arrived down a side corridor just in time to witness the Shadowbolt’s attempt to escape. “Hey! Twilight’s getting away!” she shouted. Uncertain of whether any of her friends were able to heed the alert, she decided to join Sunset in chasing after the fleeing Shadowbolt agent.
Unlike all the other portals Twilight had previously jumped through, this one had the exact same orientation on both sides, so there was no need to twist her body into an awkward direction as she jumped through. Once she was outside, she ignored the harsh blizzard that was suddenly blasting against her face. Her first priority was to shut her device — which had been left wide open the whole time — and thus close up all those portals and leave the LEGO Team stuck inside.
As soon as Twilight forced her device shut, all the portals all over the abandoned facility began to shrink and vanish. Sunset barely managed to dive through the one leading outside to Twilight, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t quite quick enough and ended up slamming into a solid wall before falling to her rear.
The closing of those portals also put an end to Fluttershy’s endless falling. With the portals gone, she no longer fell through to the other side and instead simply dropped straight down to floor, smashing to pieces on impact. “Ow,” she muttered weakly as all of her pieces scattered across the area.
Rainbow Dash rubbed the sore spot on her head from the impact for a brief moment before she quickly got back up. She moved her hands all across where the portal had once been, but felt only a solid wall. She pounded that wall and growled in frustration.
Just seconds later, Rainbow glanced over to the right and saw Applejack arrive. The apple farmer opened her mouth to speak, but Rainbow immediately cut her off.
“AJ, go find and help the others! I’ll go after Twilight and Sunset!” Rainbow hastily demanded as she began to quickly tear apart any Lego object she could find and rebuild them into something useful. As the blue athlete began to pony up from getting creative, Applejack silently nodded and ran off to find the rest of their friends.
It wasn’t long until Applejack found Fluttershy in pieces on the floor. She immediately rushed over to her shattered friend and asked, “You alright, Fluttershy?”
“Um… I think so,” Fluttershy quietly replied. “Um… maybe if you could… help me out a bit…?”
There was no need for anything else to be said as Applejack right away began to gather up all of Fluttershy’s scattered pieces.
“Whoa, what happened to you?”
Applejack and Fluttershy glanced over and saw that Pinkie Pie had now joined them. However, she also happened to be holding a red balloon in her left hand, a blue pennant with the Wonderbolts logo in her right hand, wore a white cap with a blue horseshoe printed on the front, and instead of her parka was now wearing a white T-shirt with “I walked between worlds and all I got was this silly T-shirt” printed on the front.
“An’ where have you been?!” asked Applejack irritably.
“Oh, y’know, here, there, anywhere, everywhere!” replied Pinkie Pie excitedly. She tossed aside the pennant and pulled a tray of cupcakes out from behind her back and offered, “What a cupcake? They’re grass flavored!” With a flick of the wrist, she tossed one of those green cupcakes into her mouth, but the more she chewed, the more her facial expression gradually changed from delight to disgust. When she finally managed to swallow the poorly-flavored treat, she stuck out her tongue and hesitantly added, “Then again, maybe I should just throw these away.”
Just outside the facility, Twilight had just barely enough time to stuff her device under her parka and pull her hood up before she was forced to run away from Sunset Shimmer again. Despite the freezing gusts blasting snow in their faces, neither of the two girls relented in the chase.
With Sunset staying hot on her tail, Twilight continued around the perimeter of the building until she finally found her snowmobile. Without any hesitation, she quickly hopped on and started it up. She then revved up the snowmobile at full gear, kicking up a ton of snow behind her and rapidly burying Sunset under a large pile. Once that was accomplished, she eased on the accelerator to regain traction and began to speed off.
Sunset popped her head out of the pile of snow and watched helplessly as Twilight made her getaway. But just seconds later, something burst out though a nearby doorway from inside the facility. She glanced over and saw it was a ponied up Rainbow Dash on a snowmobile of her own.
Rainbow slowed down as she passed by Sunset and, with a determined look on her face, remarked, “Quit playing around in the snow! Come on!” She yanked Sunset out of the pile of snow and tossed her into the rear seat as she hit the accelerator and zoomed off after Twilight.
Twilight made her way across the desolate wasteland of the Arctic Region as rapidly as she could. She glanced back to make sure she was in the clear, but her eyes widened as she saw Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer giving chase on their own snowmobile.
Fully aware there was nothing but flat empty ground for miles around, Twilight knew that she had to make her ultimate escape right now. Keeping her right hand on the handlebars, she entered the code on her portable Jump-Gate device. Then, needing to take both hands off for just a brief moment, she aimed her right arm far ahead and hit the final button. Off in the distance, the Jump-Gate materialized and the doors parted open to her home base.
Twilight zoomed across the icy landscape at full speed. Once she came very close to her Jump-Gate, she immediately jerked the handlebars to the left, causing the snowmobile to slide sideways across the snow, slowing herself down just enough that she passed through the Jump-Gate without slamming into the wall at the opposite end of the room. Without even a second to lose, she hopped off her snowmobile, rushed over to the control panel, and slammed her hand on the red “Emergency Close” button. The door of the Jump-Gate slammed shut and the gateway dematerialized from the Arctic Region.
Rainbow Dash’s snowmobile zoomed right through the site of the Jump-Gate not even a full second after it had vanished, but it was still just too slow to catch Twilight. With the chase over, Rainbow had no choice but to bring her snowmobile to a stop out in the middle of nowhere.
Rainbow Dash roared out in rage and shouted, “She got away!”
Crack cr-crack-crack!
Both Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer immediately held still and glanced around. Those low cracking noises slowly continued, and worse, seemed to be coming from literally every direction. The ultimate evidence of their fate came when visible cracks began to appear in the icy ground all around them.
Sunset sighed and mumbled, “Of course.”
Finally, the ice gave way, sending the snowmobile and its two passengers plunging into the abyss.
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Well, this confirms the informant can't be any of the Shadowbolt agents assigned to Twilight. Unless they've been spying on her, they would have no way of knowing about her secret arctic base. That means the informant is either Twilight herself and she's a very good actress, or Spike.
You've been playing Portal, have you? By the way, the cupcakes were a lie!
7159356 I'm pretty sure it's Spike. The segments focusing on the Shadowbolts seem to be written in third-person limited from Twilight's viewpoint, so I don't think it's Twilight.
7159859 At this point, it could very well be Spike. Or it's possible that it's one of Sour Sweet's two faces, and the other face has no memory of the treachery.
7160143 She is literally two-faced.
Do you have any explanations for how she could have known about the secret base?
7160184 It's way out there, but it's speculated she had some training before she disappeared for a long time. It's possible the arctic base belonged to someone else before Twilight obtained it. But more than likely it's Spike, or possibly even a well planted double agent that's managed to keep their existence secret this whole time (that last one's probably not true but you never know).
7160193 Okay, this comment thread is getting crazy long
, and I've got a feeling that I REALLY shouldn't be making it any longer 
, but I just realized a few things about the Informant 
. The Informant doesn't seem to actually be physically present with the others. If "she" had been, wouldn't "she" have known about the plan to ditch the LEGO Team and about the tracking device and warned the LEGO Team about those? Additionally, if the Informant had been present with the other agents, "she" would have had to sneak away from the rest of the group in order to send that response. Since Twilight had orders to look out for potential traitors, wouldn't she have noticed one of her teammates sneaking away or something?
Looks like all information points to Spike. I mean, he gets all the mails!
For those of you wondering what that "retro ice theme" music was that Pinkie Pie played, it's this (also explaining Rainbow Dash's reference to LEGO Racers):
7159356 Since Twilight is a Shadowbolt agent herself, then the locations of all of her former secret bases are known by all other agents, mostly to as a record of where the organization has been over the years. It's possible the Informant had no idea that this Arctic base once belonged to Twilight and probably only intended to help the Canterlot girls out with a site they already knew existed. It's also possible the Informant might've wanted to give the Canterlot girls a chance to discover some Shadowbolt secrets in an abandoned Shadowbolt base, in which case Twilight's fears would've been legitimate. In other words, it's still possibly one of Twilight's five teammates.
7159394 No, I have never played that game, though I have been watching a lot of videos of people playing LEGO Dimensions, and one of the 14 themes featured in that game happens to be Portal. Also, keep in mind which part of the story I'm at relative to Friendship Games; Twilight has just taken the fourth of six parts of Equestrian magic and a whole bunch of portals open up all around as a result. I just decided to add a bit of a twist to that scene, mostly for the sake of added humor.