Caught in the Act
Chapter 6
Caught in the Act
“Hello?!” Rainbow Dash called out desperately from within the supply closet. “Anybody out there?!” She had already given up on trying to push and pull the door open, as it was already clear to her that it was locked.
When she got no response outside, Rainbow sighed in frustration and leaned her back against the door. She then smiled and snapped her hand when she got an idea. “No problem!” she remarked to herself. “I’ll just call my friends and let them know—” Before she could even finish that thought, she groaned and facepalmed, then grumbled, “Except I can’t, because security had to take our phones when we got here. And even if that wasn’t the case, I probably wouldn’t even have it on me right now anyway thanks to this superhero costume.”
With that hope dashed, Rainbow was left with only one option — continue pounding on the door and hope that someone would eventually come into the storage room and hear her calls for help. “Help!” she called out desperately as she resumed pounding on the locked door. “I’m trapped in here!”
Back at the set of “Stormy with a Side of Pudding”, the rest of the Equestria Girls were still down on the street and struggling to free themselves from the net that had been tossed onto them. All of them were grunting and groaning as they tugged on the net.
“Wait, wait, wait! Stop! STOP!!” Twilight suddenly shouted. Everyone immediately stopped tugging on the net and looked over to her. “This is ridiculous! Look, the only reason we’re not getting outta here is because we’re all pulling the net in different directions and it’s getting us nowhere, so let’s just agree on one particular direction to toss the net.”
“Let’s throw it towards the building,” suggested Sunset. “That should be an obvious reference point for everyone.”
“Fine by me,” agreed Rarity.
This time, rather than trying to pull the net away in some random direction, all seven of them tossed the net towards the nearest pudding-drenched building, and the net simply flew right off the group.
“Huh… that was surprisingly easy,” remarked Pinkie Pie as she and the others stood up.
“We really need to learn to work together more often,” noted Fluttershy shamefully.
“Enough foolin’ around,” Applejack spoke up. “We have to find Rainbow Dash.”
“I don’t see how,” said Rarity. “She moves so fast, she could be anywhere on the lot by now. Why she felt it necessary to wear the geode that gives her super-speed to a movie set, I’ll never know.”
“I wish I’d brought mine,” thought Sunset aloud. “One touch and I’d be able to see Chestnut’s memories and get to the bottom of this whole thing.”
“I know how to find Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie spoke up excitedly as she held up her hand with some pudding on it. “Follow the pudding!”
Everyone gave Pinkie looks of confusion as she licked the pudding from her hand.
“See?” Pinkie pointed out as she gestured at the bucket of pudding on the floor that Rainbow Dash had tripped over on her way out. Leading away from the bucket and out the door was a trail of square-shaped puddles of pudding.
“Huh. Pudding footprints. How convenient,” remarked Spike.
“You’re a genius, Pinkie Pie!” praised Twilight.
Pinkie smiled and shrugged as she simply replied, “I know.”
“C’mon, this way!” Sunset called out as she began to follow after the trail. Spike, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack soon followed after her.
Twilight was about to follow when she glanced back and saw Pinkie remove her hair piece, place the bucket of pudding on top of her head, and then place her hair piece back on her head, leaving the bucket of pudding to virtually disappear underneath like it wasn’t even there.
When Pinkie saw the questioning look from her friend, she just shrugged and remarked, “Eh, for the road.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled as she shook her head, then followed after the rest of her friends.
Before following after her friends, Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled out her clapperboard and excitedly shouted, “Scene transition!” She then snapped the clapperboard shut.
The Equestria Girls followed the trail of pudding footprints and eventually arrived at a storage room.
“There’s no more pudding,” noted Pinkie, “which means she must be here somewhere.”
As everyone began to spread out and search the room, Twilight called out, “Hello? Is anyone here?”
“Rainbow Dash! Where are ya?” Applejack called out.
As Fluttershy wandered close to a closed door, she suddenly heard some pounding on that door, followed by a muffled cry, “Help! Somebody! I’m trapped in here!”
“Hello?” Fluttershy called out to the door. “Rainbow Dash? Are you in there?”
“Yes!” responded the muffled voice on the other side of the door. “Help! I’m locked in!”
“It’s okay, Dashie,” responded Fluttershy while her friends gathered around. “We’re here.” She grasped the door handle and pulled as hard as she could, but the door stayed firmly shut. She turned back to her friends and said, “Oh dear. It really is locked.”
“Don’t worry, I can deal with this,” assured Sunset as she began to approach the door.
“No, wait,” Twilight spoke up as she held her arm out in front of Sunset. “Let me try something.” Like Rainbow, she had also decided to bring her magical geode necklace with her, so she grasped it to activate her magical ability. As her left hand glowed with magenta magical energy, she placed it over the door lock, which then rattled for a few seconds until an audible click was heard. She then grasped the handle and easily pulled the door open.
“Boy, am I happy to see you!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed quickly as she suddenly jumped out of the closet, unintentionally tackling Twilight in the process.
“Did you just make that lock unlock itself?” asked Rarity in astonishment.
“Nice!” remarked Sunset with a smile. “Glad to know I’m no longer the only go-to person if we ever have to deal with a lock without a key.”
“Ah’m thinkin’ maybe we should all start wearin’ our geodes around,” stated Applejack. “Never know when our new magic might come in handy.”
Rainbow Dash stood up and helped Twilight up, then asked, “How did you find me? I thought I’d be trapped in there all day!”
“Pudding never lies,” Pinkie slyly remarked as she removed her hair piece to expose the bucket of pudding on top of her head.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why do you always have to put weird things on your head?”
“Because I can!” Pinkie cheerfully replied as she grabbed the bucket of pudding, put her hair piece back on her head, then started chugging pudding from the bucket.
Sunset noticed Rainbow was holding a dress in her arms and asked, “Hey, is that the costume that went missing when we first got here?”
Rainbow Dash held up the dress and replied, “Yeah, but I didn’t see the person who locked me in, and there’s still no sign of the relics.”
“Ah say we head back to the scene of the crime,” suggested Applejack. “Maybe there’s somethin’ there that could lead us to the relics.”
“Or…” Twilight spoke up with a sly smile, “we could let the culprit lead us to them.”
“How?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I just told you I didn’t see who locked me in here.”
“I’ve got a pretty good idea who our thief is,” replied Twilight. “But we’re gonna need Canter Zoom’s help to catch her.”
“But first thing’s first,” Rarity spoke up, “we really need to change out of these costumes. We were never supposed to wear them in the first place, and I’m almost certain that the wardrobe department of that Power People movie will not be pleased to have these returned with sweat stains and dust stains…” She narrowed her eyes at Pinkie. “…and pudding stains.”
“Hey, how could I possibly resist something so delicious?!” argued Pinkie.
“Seriously, though, do ya have any idea where that stuff’s been?” asked Applejack.
“Nope!” Pinkie cheerfully responded before she began to chug more pudding from that bucket.
The rest of the group silently glanced at each other with looks of disgust.
After the Equestria Girls changed back into their standard clothes, they returned to the Marapore set for the Daring Do movie and, with a little assistance from a few interns, were able to gather Canter Zoom, Juniper Montage, and Chestnut Magnifico together to share their recent findings.
“You found this in a supply closet?” asked Center Zoom as he held up the dress that had gone missing.
“We didn’t find the relics,” explained Twilight, “but we don’t think the thief has had a chance to take them off the lot yet. We wanted your permission to search this set from top to bottom. Maybe we’ll find a clue that would lead us to where they’re hidden.”
While Twilight was speaking, Pinkie Pie was holding a magnifying glass up to her eye as she kept popping out of various places in the background such as behind a crate, beside the side of a building, within a barrel, out an upper floor window of another building, over the roof of yet another building, and in front of one of the cameras set up around the set.
“Of course,” agreed Canter Zoom with a nod of approval.
“‘Scuse me, Mister Zoom,” spoke up one of the set builders as he walked over to the group with a clipboard in his hands. He had light nougat skin and wore blue overalls, an orange shirt, and a yellow hardhat. “Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to give ya the latest update on the Mount Vehoovius set. We just completed a full parts inventory, and it turns out there’s actually a few pieces missing.”
Canter Zoom handed the dress over to Juniper Montage so he could grab the clipboard as the set builder handed it to him.
“And I’m not talking about some random pieces that could’ve been flung away when the whole thing collapsed,” continued the set builder. “Look, these particular pieces are in such specific locations that their absence would’ve almost certainly made the whole structure unstable.”
“Are you suggesting that someone deliberately sabotaged the set?” asked Canter Zoom.
“Can’t say for sure,” replied the set builder with a shrug, “but if ya ask me, I think that’s the most likely possibility.”
“In that case, head on back and tell the other builders to do their best to rebuild the set,” said Canter Zoom. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and find those missing pieces without having to order any replacements.”
The set builder silently nodded in agreement and began walking back to the Mount Vehoovius set.
Canter Zoom turned to Chestnut Magnifico and said, “Chestnut, I need you to get into hair and makeup. As soon as we get the relics, we’re gonna start shooting again.”
“Hmph. We’ll see,” grumbled Chestnut as she began walking away.
Meanwhile, Juniper Montage was glancing around with an uneasy expression on her face. She nearly jumped when her uncle suddenly called out to her.
“Juniper, can you do a smoothie run?” asked Canter Zoom. “I’m sure all this sleuthing is gonna make everyone thirsty.”
“Oh, yes, absolutely!” agreed Juniper with a quick salute. She then held up the dress and added, “Oh, and I’ll be sure to drop this off at the wardrobe department on my way out.”
“Good idea,” acknowledged Canter Zoom with a smile and a nod.
Juniper turned away and ran off towards the wardrobe area.
A few minutes later, the mysterious cloaked figure was on the move once again. The figure ran over to another one of the storage rooms, went around a parked forklift, and stopped in front of a crate against the wall. The figure removed the lid of the crate, reached inside, and pulled out the three missing relics. As the figure stood straight up again, the hood fell off and exposed the figure’s identity: Juniper Montage.
“I told you all it wasn’t Chestnut!” Rarity immediately spoke up proudly.
That sudden voice startled Juniper, causing her to drop the relics and turn around. Standing right behind her were the Equestria Girls and her uncle Canter Zoom.
“Holy pepperoni!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie in shock. “It was Juniper Montage!”
Juniper was momentarily speechless as she glanced around at everyone present. She eventually decided to pick up the relics and tried to sound innocent as she gasped and exclaimed, “Look! I found the missing relics!”
“Because you’re the one who stole them!” accused Sunset.
“She… she wouldn’t,” said Canter Zoom in disbelief.
“She would,” responded Twilight. “And she did.” She then began pacing around as she explained, “What she didn’t expect was for Rainbow Dash to come back to the Marapore Village set before she was able to sneak them off to a safer hiding place. So she was forced to hide them in the first place she could find — no doubt, behind one of the buildings on that set. But she knew she couldn’t leave them there, so the first chance she got, she tried to sneak them away. Unfortunately for her, we spotted her! But Juniper knows ‘every inch of this place like the back of her hand,’ and was able to trap us and lose Rainbow Dash… for a while. But when Rainbow Dash managed to figure out where she’d run of to, she locked her in a closet with a set of keys that gives her access to ‘just about every door in this place,’ which gave her the time she needed to hide the relics here.”
“When did you figure out it was her?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I started to piece things together when I unlocked the door to get you out of the supply closet,” answered Twilight. “But I knew Juniper would never admit she was the one who had taken the relics.”
By this point, the rest of the Equestria Girls were starting to smile as they understood where Twilight was going.
Sunset snatched the relics out of Juniper’s grasp as she added, “Unless, of course, she was caught in the act of trying to move them again.”
Twilight nodded in confirmation, then turned to Canter Zoom and smugly continued, “Which is why I told you to send her on that smoothie run. That way, she’d think she had the opportunity to get the relics off the lot where we’d never find them. And as an added bonus, dropping off that dress at wardrobe would give her the chance to once again don that disguise, hoping that we still wouldn’t recognize her, even if she was spotted again.”
“But instead of searching the Marapore set, you all were secretly following me here,” Juniper sadly concluded.
“Why would you do this?” asked Canter Zoom in disbelief.
“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, I just can’t stand Chestnut!” snapped Juniper.
Canter Zoom was speechless and took a step back from his niece’s sudden outburst.
“She’s always eating all the peanut butter praline crunch bars, which are the only candy bars I like!” continued Juniper. She paused when she heard a light crunching noise, then turned to see Spike was busy munching on one of those candy bars in question.
Spike immediately stopped chewing once he realized Juniper was staring at him. He silently stared back, glanced down at the half-eaten candy bar in his hand, glanced back at Juniper, then swiftly hid the candy bar behind his back as he looked away and whistled innocently.
Canter Zoom argued, “That’s hardly a reason to go—”
“And I was mad at you for casting her as Daring Do!” continued Juniper furiously. “I mean, I have told you over and over again how badly I wanted to play Daring Do, and you just ignored me!”
“But Juniper, we’ve been over this before!” argued Canter Zoom. “You’re too young! You don’t have any experience!”
Juniper sighed and continued, “I know. But I thought if enough things went wrong, Chestnut would maybe back out of the movie and then…” She smiled desperately. “…you would give me a chance. I-I promise I never meant to hurt anyone, and I was going to return all the props, just as soon as Chestnut quit. That would include the missing pieces from the Mount Vehoovius set, which are inside that crate over there.” She pointed at the crate that Applejack happened to be standing next to.
Applejack glanced over at that crate, then pulled the top off and looked inside. “Huh… well what do ya know…?”she remarked as she pulled out a blue three-length Technic connector peg.
Canter Zoom turned back to Juniper and facepalmed before he sharply responded, “Forgive me for being so blunt, but that is some of the most highly flawed logic I’ve ever heard come out of anyone’s mouth! Not only did you jeopardize the production, endanger the safety of the actors and the film crew, but you also lied to me and took advantage of my trust! And even in spite of all of that, by the time things reached the point you were hoping for, the whole production would’ve already been completely canceled with no chance of revival!” He took a deep breath and more calmly added, “I’m sorry, Juniper, but you have to understand, you’ve placed yourself in a lose-lose situation.”
“I guess so…” Juniper sadly replied as she turned her gaze down at the floor. “I’m really sorry. I hope you can forgive me.”
After a moment of silence, Canter Zoom placed a hand on Juniper’s shoulder and calmly stated, “You’re my niece, Juniper, so of course I can forgive you.”
Juniper glanced up at her uncle and began to lightly smile.
“But I’m sorry to say you’re no longer welcome on this set,” continued Canter Zoom with a raised voice as he snapped his hand.
A security guard — with light grey skin, black on his torso and shoulders, dark grey on his legs, nothing on his head, and sunglasses and a blue goatee on his face — immediately walked over to Juniper, who now had a very worried expression on her face.
“And it’ll be a long time before I even consider allowing you back here!” Canter Zoom firmly finished. He then held out his hand and added, “Now turn in your keys!”
Juniper sighed and reluctantly handed over the set of keys. Once that was done, the security guard escorted her to the exit out of the building. She stopped at the doorway and glared back at the Equestria Girls. If looks could convey a message, the one she sent was very clear: “This isn’t over.”
Naturally, the girls were left uneasy by such a fierce glare, but thankfully for them, it lasted for only a few seconds before the guard shoved her out the door.
Almost immediately after that was over, Chestnut Magnifico walked into the room and smiled as she remarked with a light laugh, “Canter, there you are! So sorry I’m not in makeup, but I’ve just gotten a call from my agent. I no longer have to work on that ridiculous documentary about nests next month. I swear, when Juniper brought the offer to my attention, I was told that they wanted to do a documentary about my organization for homeless animals, not on various ‘nests’ around the world. Now, I’m not necessarily blaming your lovely niece, but somewhere along the line, there was definitely a failure of communication. But no matter! That’s all behind us!”
“Does this mean…?” asked Canter Zoom in a hopeful tone.
“No more scheduling conflict!” confirmed Chestnut cheerfully. “I can extend my contract and continue filming Daring Do.” She quickly noticed the relics that Sunset was still holding and asked, “Hey, are those the missing relics?”
“They sure are!” Canter Zoom excitedly confirmed. “And I don’t think we’ll have to worry about them disappearing again.” He turned his attention to the Equestria Girls. “And it’s all thanks to our visitors from the LEGO Team. First you save Camp Everfree, now the Daring Do movie, you girls are certainly on a roll!”
The entire team was practically beaming with excitement from the high praise they were receiving. Rainbow giggled briefly, then slyly asked, “Uh, speaking of roles, don’t suppose you’ve got any extra parts my friends and I could play? You know, as a reward for saving the day?”
Canter Zoom took a moment to give each of the eight minifigs a hard stare, then smiled and replied, “I think we could figure something out…”
All eight members of the team now had huge smiles on their faces, eager to find out what they would get to do with this incredible opportunity.
“Scene transition!” Pinkie suddenly shouted as she pulled out her clapperboard and snapped it shut.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why do you keep doing that?”
Pinkie simply shrugged and replied, “I have my reasons.”
Later that afternoon, the cameras were rolling on the Marapore Village set. All of the minor actors and actresses were walking around the set, behaving like regular villagers going about a typical day.
But while some of the cameras made sure to get a few shots of the village, the primary focus of the other cameras was on one individual, who was currently running through the village. It was Chestnut Magnifico, now fully dressed up for the role of Daring Do — olive green on her torso and shoulders, beige on her legs, brown on her feet, and on her head was a long hair piece of many shades of grey with a pith helmet on top. As she ran, one of the cameras focused on one of the relics, the Sword of Altoriosa, which was attached to her belt.
As the lead actress ran across the set, a few familiar faces began to show up among the villagers — all of whom were wearing appropriate costumes for the scene of a desert village. First, there was Rarity selling some decorative fabric at the bazaar, with Sunset Shimmer holding up one that she was interested in. Nearby, Applejack was carrying a basket full of apples across the street, narrowly avoiding bumping into “Daring Do” as she ran by. Not much further away, Pinkie Pie and Spike were entertaining a small crowd with their juggling talents, and as “Daring Do” ran by, her hat fell off, but she quickly caught it and put it back on her head. A little further down the street, Twilight Sparkle was carrying a tall stack of books, and as she narrowly avoided bumping into “Daring Do” as she ran by, the stack wobbled and the book on top fell off, but “Daring Do” caught it and quickly tossed it back onto the stack as she continued running. Finally, “Daring Do” skidded to a stop right in front of Fluttershy and glared up ahead. Fluttershy and the other nearby villagers glanced ahead of “Daring Do”, and immediately ran for cover.
Standing ahead of “Daring Do” in the middle of a small clearing in the street was “Stalwart Stallion” with the Staff of Altoriosa clutched in his hand. “You will give me the Sword of Altroiosa!” he boasted.
“Daring Do” glanced down at the sword she was carrying, then glared at “Stalwart Stallion” and firmly responded, “I don’t think so, Stalwart!”
“Have it your way!” boasted “Stalwart Stallion”. He then raised the staff and began speaking an enchantment, causing the staff to start unleashing a small whirlwind of light around him with occasional flashes of lightning. Once the enchantment was complete, he pointed the staff at “Daring Do” and declared, “Give up, Daring Do! The sword shall be mine!”
The sword suddenly detached itself from “Daring Do’s” belt and was flung towards “Stalwart Stallion” before she could even react. Just then, she heard a sharp whistle to her left.
Rainbow Dash ran out onto the street and tossed a whip towards “Daring Do”.
“Daring Do” caught the whip, quickly unfurled it, and lashed it towards “Stalwart Stallion”. With incredible accuracy, the crack of that whip smacked the staff out of his hands, cutting off the enchantment and causing both the staff and the sword to fall to the ground.
“This is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed excitedly.
“CUT!!”
The actor playing Stalwart Stallion immediately slumped.
Behind the cameras and sitting in his chair, Canter Zoom facepalmed and shouted, “Seriously?! Again?!”
Rainbow Dash was so giddy with excitement that she failed to immediately notice everyone glaring at her. Once she finally came to her senses, she glanced at all of her friends gathered around her as she giggled with embarrassment and said, “Sorry. I guess I just can’t help myself.”
Her friends simply smiled in amusement at Rainbow Dash’s recent display of excessive enthusiasm.
One more time, Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled out her movie clapperboard. “And that’s a wrap on Act Two!” she exclaimed excitedly and snapped the clapperboard shut.
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A nice conclusion to the Movie Magic story arc.
Now, onto the Mirror Magic adaptation. XD
Seeing Starlight adapt to being a minifig ought to be pretty amusing.
just thinking of Pinkie putting a Marge Simpson stack of stuff on her head then putting her hair back on as normal.
Not much to say. It's pretty similar to the canon version of this scene. Other than Pinkie and the pudding, not a ton of LEGO humor.
You missed the obvious Scooby-Doo reference of "Meddling Kids".
Well that finishes up Movie Magic which was very nicely done. Look forward to Mirror Magic. Now its Starlight's to go into the crazy fun world of Lego.
8868906 8869161 Believe me, bringing Starlight Glimmer into the Lego World is the part of this story that I've been looking forward to the most.
8868962 Lego Pinkie has put weird things on her head before, such as a gear in the first story or a wagon wheel in the second story, but for some reason, it took me this long to finally get one of her friends to comment on that habit.
8869104 I did add in a few things not seen in the official version, like the set builder identifying how the set was sabotaged (done in such a way that could only be done in a world of Lego), and even the possibility that Juniper may have had a part in trying to convince Chestnut to get into a different project.
8869129 I did consider it, but the fact is that such a reference would have worked much better in the official Equestria Girls version rather than this story. The simple reason is that while the Main 7 in the official Equestria Girls are teenagers (and thus can be called kids), the Main 7 of this fanfiction series is at the same adult age as their pony counterparts, so such a reference would've actually been too forced here. (Not to mention, Spike is a puppy in the official Equestria Girls, while he's a young boy in this series, so that's another reason why the "meddling kids and dumb dog" reference just wouldn't work in this story, and would've been much better suited for the official Equestria Girls.)