The Revolutionary Six

Sandbar was questioning everything right now. How was each and every one of his friends just magically enhanced? It wasn’t really fair. Not to him. Turns out Silverstream wasn’t being a lunatic, and the whole hammer artifact thing was real. The suit of armor she was wearing literally all the time wasn’t... pointless. It probably just appeared out of nowhere without any context at all behind it.

That's exactly what happened to all his friends. The powers just appeared out of nowhere. With no context. How was he supposed to respond to that? The only really magical thing that happened to each of them was the Elements of Harmony. What was tethered to them before the tree of harmony even died. Once it did, the only thing they really had was that treehouse. Even if they've really only been there altogether once, they were still all happy the way they were.

Then, came these abilities that popped up out of the blue. Suddenly, Smolder could latch and stick onto stuff, Ocellus was a robot, Gallus turned into Robin-hoof, Silverstream was a hammer-wielding maniac clad in armor, and Yona could turn into a muscly freak. It was all so incredibly difficult to take in. If only... if only he had something he could contribute to the whole affair. If he could be chosen for the special abilities all his friends had.

Sandbar wasn't the type for jealousy, but still. Something had to be done about this mess. Not only are all his friends capable of doing otherworldly things beyond even his understanding, but they'd probably have to face some other terrible feats not meant to be faced without help. Without him. He wanted to be by his friends' sides all the time, but, how could he do that if- if he wasn't special?

He frowned. Special. That word clicked and echoed in his mind a couple thousand times. What wasn’t special about him? Sure, he might’ve been a pony, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t special. He was an awesome, top-notch, super-magical, kind of regular, ordinary, average earth pony.

At that point, he saw where he was going. “Damn,” He muttered. “If only my friends could slow down a bit. They’re out of their minds,” he said. Pausing to think some more, he sighed. “I’m out of my mind.”

Sandbar was in the treehouse that morning, and Yona left after some much needed sleep. Sure, she had a few vessels showing up on her temples, but she insisted so very many times that she was fine.

“Sandbar no need to worry. Yak rested very well. Yona feel ready to apologize to friends today.”

Now, today was the weekend, so there was no reason to worry about how early or late he was to his classes. There were no classes, mostly because of the destruction of the library, which Twilight said she supposedly had covered.

Hang on a minute, he had the day free, right? Maybe he could get his friends to train him. After all, that is how Gallus got his powers. Maybe... maybe he could try and get a superpower tutor.

This plan was perfect. The one thing he had to do was find the perfect candidate. The only problem was: Who?

Yona was resting on her bed peacefully, like she should have the morning before. Thanks to that pesky gemstone floor, she had a kink in her spine that she just couldn’t get rid of.

Yaks were big boned, and usually they weren’t capable of getting kinks in their bones or anything. Or, at least, it was really rare.
Yona supposed she just had a rough night, which she did.

All of her friends did, what with her getting angry and all that. After she apologized, however, not all her friends forgave her. Or at least, one If them. Smolder. Even with her apology, Smolder persisted to stay distant and withdrawn as if she wasn’t listening at all.

Yona couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe the wounds she’d inflicted on Smolder couldn’t be healed. Maybe she cut too deep, both physically and emotionally. She sighed, getting up and trotting over to the mirror.

She gazed at her reflection and checked for anymore vessels that might have been bulging out of her head. “Yona don’t get it,” She said to herself. “Why Smolder so angry? All Yona’s other friends seem fi—“

‘knock, knock, knock’

Somecreature rapped on her door three times over. She cantered over to the door to open it. On the other side stood a slightly disheveled Sandbar. “Woah. What got in friend Sandbar’s hair?”

“Hey Yona! Sorry to bother you this early—“

“It’s afternoon.”

“—this late in the afternoon.” He smiled as if he finished that sentence completely with absolutely no help whatsoever. “I was just wondering. How did you...?”

“Yona knows what Sandbar talking about. Yak has no idea how she grew. Just angry.”

“Oh,” Sandbar frowned and lowered his head dejectedly. After awhile, he sprung back up again. “Wait! Maybe you could help me out a little! Train me. I wanna be worthy, just like you are, Yona.”

Yona blushed, reconsidering her options. Giving Sandbar a few tips wouldn’t hurt, right? If anything, she’d be able to help him grow stronger, just like her.

“Yona change her mind,” She stated, wrapping her foreleg around Sandbar’s neck and squeezing tightly. Sandbar’s cheeks flushed red, and Yona continued to squeeze. “Yona and Sandbar good friends, and good friends help each other.”

She beamed, and so did Sandbar. Although she was smiling for a time, the grin soon faded into a frown of consideration. Sandbar’s smile soon faltered as well. Yona thought for a second. The moment she gained those powers, she ended up hurting most of her friends, especially Smolder.

The powers she gained was something she couldn’t control. If there were another unstable member of the group, then, who knows what would happen. She thought even more, as a small smile came back up.

Sandbar lit up at this, beaming from ear to ear.
Yona took into consideration that: It wouldn’t be like Sandbar to just automatically go crazy. Everything would be fine. It’s not like he’d end up hurting their friends even more than Yona did. Right?

There was about an eighty-five percent chance of everything going wrong, but, hey! Sandbar was somepony that could be trusted, and Yona trusted Sandbar.

“Alright! Yona’s up to the challenge! Sandbar will prepare himself, because yak about to change his pony mind!” She exclaimed, quivering with excitement as she grasped Sandbar’s face with her hooves. Sandbar blushed and grinned in reply, hooting and hollering in agreement.

“Yeah! We can do this!”

“Are you sure we can do this?” Sandbar stood in front of a huge tree that was bound by piles of overgrown flora. Yona nodded eagerly and proceeded to pick up Sandbar in her arms.

“Earth ponies already strong! Like yak!” When Sandbar gave her a skeptical look, she tried to explain her reasoning. “Yona read in history books.”

“Ooooh.” He replied, and Yona set him down on the dirt ground. “So, you’re saying you want me to lift this?” He lifted up his hoof and gestured toward the tree, but Yona only shook her head and smiled.

“No. Yona want pony to watch her lift this.” In time with her words, she looked at Sandbar with a warm smile. He smiled back, but frowned as Yona's happy, blissful, knowing expression turned into a stone-cold, serious, stern one. "Now make Yona angry."

"Um... excuse me?" The turtle boy backed up in confusion and smiled nervously. "The last time I recall you being angry, you almost killed all our friends."

"Yak going to kill Sandbar next if he doesn't hurry up." She threatened with a scowl. Sandbar had his rump pressed against a tree trunk.

"Uh.. o-okay." He replied with a nervous smile.

"Sandbar. answered. too. quickly!" She barked, swatting her hoof at Sandbar as she grew bigger. With a nervous shout, he was rocketed against a nearby tree. The bark sank into his pony hide like it was butter. He groaned in pain, watching Yona rampage around the vicinity.

"Yona... SMASH!!!!" She shouted, beating down on the fallen tree trunk. She crushed it like it was nothing. Pieces of bark flecked and scattered across the ground and adorned the dirt of the nature-made floor. Yona heaved and panted as she calmed herself down and shrunk back to the small(and less green) yak she used to be. "S-Sandbar.. s-saw that...?" She panted.

"U-Uh-huh..." He replied. "A-Actually, Yona, I-I don't think this training's work-"

"Yona didn't think so either." The bedeviled bovidae blanched. "Training might be too much for Sandbar. Maybe ask another friend for help?"

Sandbar groaned, hiding his face in his hooves. Who was he supposed to consult about the current situation at hoof? Yona was perfect.

He stopped in his tracks with a blush. The perfect candidate, he meant. To tutor him. Other than her, the second best creature he could potentially go to was Ocellus. She had all that knowledge of that science stuff she was always gushing about. Why not ask her?

Ocellus sat on the desk in the room her and Smolder shared. Ever since ARI, she wanted to tap into her scientific creativity, so, she started to build. Smolder lie on her bed snoring loudly, ignoring the heavy mechanical whirring that was emitting from her partner's "work area." Ocellus giggled at this to herself, and continued working.

It had been nagging her for a while to get to making something other than swear-jars and acronyms. This time, she was designing another suit of robotic armor, and she'd name it RAVEN. "Robotic Altered Variable Engineered Nanotech." She hummed to herself, tweaking the wires and code of the machinery in front of her.

The suit was light blue, like her, and it carried a cyan hue from the inside. While Ocellus was working on it, the suit was split in the middle and exposing all the electrical wires. They sparked and spritzed, the light sparks of electricity dancing around as Ocellus worked through it.

She was operating blowtorch with a protective metal mask on her face to shield her from all the electricity emitting from the wires.

'knock, knock, knock!' A loud knocking noise came from the other side of the room. Someone was a the door.

Ocellus stumbled a little and dropped the blowtorch. A firm "FWOOSH" was heard from the torch soon after. Ocellus looked around in panic to see that the tool she was using was still on. Luckily, she could encase it with her magical aura and put an end to the ongoing fuel usage.

She opened the door reluctantly and cast a frustrated and much more dissatisfied look at the pony on the other side. Sandbar grinned sheepishly with a small blush. "S-Sorry to disturb you, Ocellus, but I was kind of wondering if you could help me?"

"Hold on a second." Ocellus backed into the dorm and shut the door for a while. The pony on the other side, Sandbar, stood there confusedly and awaited Ocellus' return. Just when he was about to knock again, the door opened abruptly. The familiar changeling stood on the other side, a little less sour than when she first opened the door to him.

Her cheeks were charred slightly and almost overtaken by the blush on her face. Sandbar tilted his head.

"Are.... You okay?"

"Smolder and I were... doing something, and she accidentally blew smoke in my face- I-It doesn't matter. Let's go." She swatted the smoke off her cheeks and exited the dorm, shutting the door behind her. The two walked through the hallways while Sandbar talked.

Ocellus always nodded her head surely whilst he addressed his situation and traded back a few suggestions.

"I think I might know what you need." She turned to smile at him and sat down at one of the tables in the library. He sat across form her while she skimmed through her book. "It's called the Powerful Pony Potion." She hummed.

Sandbar jumped and scurried over to where she was sitting. Peering over her book, he started to scan for the information she was seeing. "What!?" He exclaimed in vigor. Ocellus smiled happily at the taste, but her muzzle scrunched up at the slightest hint of nervousness.

"It's supposed to enhance basic abilities. For you, that would mean increased strength, like Yona or Smolder, increased farming abilities, like I read in the books, and, you could probably run faster. Your durability would be increased also," She answered. Looking over to him with a stern look, she continued.

"....But?" Sandbar backed down from the table he currently had his forehooves planted on. His ears flopped, and he looked unsure.

"I'm... I'm just not sure about this. You sure this is something we can do?"

"Of course! The recipe is listed here. I could go back to my dorm to try and mix it up for you, but it'll take me a while. It's a long process, so you might wanna wait here."

Sandbar nodded quickly, his head bobbing up and down so rigorously. Ocellus beamed as her eyes sparkled. The two were now giggling happily in sync, and the student around them were wondering what was going on as they looked at them with sketch. They both stopped giggling once they noticed the looks they were given.

"S-So, I'll see you later!" Ocellus rushed, zipping off to her dorm with speed. Sandbar, in exchange, darted under the table in embarrassment.

Besides the evident looks of contempt and confusion, Sandbar knew: Today was going to be a good day.

“I’ve got it!” Ocellus shouted with excitement, bolting into the library and earning her fair share of looks from the students in there.

Sandbar was sitting at the same table they were sitting at earlier with his head on the hard wood. He perked up immediately, however, when the sudden burst of excitement from his changeling friend knocked him out of his daze.

“Really?!” He replied giddily with a grin.

“Really!” She squealed. The two danced and pranced on their hooves together in a frivolous manner. Sandbar hugged Ocellus tightly and she hugged him back. “Alright! Try it!”

He pulled back from the hug and took the potion from Ocellus. Before he gulped it down, he took the time to examine it for a while. It was a glass container that glowed royal blue.

The liquid inside sloshed around as he turned it observingly. Sandbar gave a puzzled and unsure look at Ocellus.

“It’s fine. I added a little flavor to it so it doesn’t taste too unpleasant. If I did it right, it should taste like blueberries.”

The puzzled and perplexed pony soon nodded, uncapping the vile and giving it a taste. He hummed in delight soon after. Casting another look at Ocellus, he downed the whole thing, gulp after gulp.

Ocellus grinned as he drank it, visibly eager to see the results. After a while, Sandbar dropped the vile. The changeling’s smile faded slowly as it appeared the potion didn’t effect him at all.

Sandbar quirked a brow and returned his much more unsure gaze to the confused bug in front of him. “It should’ve worked, right? D-Did you follow the right recipe?”

“Um... I dunno. I-It could’ve been the blueberry additive. I might need to make you another o—“

‘THUD!’

Sandbar hit the floor. He seemed to be unconscious, and his breathing pattern was irregular.

“S-Sandbar!” Ocellus gasped, rushing to his side and shaking him roughly. “Are you okay?!”

Sandbar groaned and rolled over. His body bulked up slightly, and Ocellus jumped back in surprise. He snorted and coughed and spurted uncontrollably.

After a while, it was silent, and Ocellus almost thought about getting help. The serum was probably working, but if it was, it was definitely bad.

He finally opened his eyes after a long time of silence, and stood up slowly in from of Ocellus. His fore and hind legs were slightly bulky and toned, and by the looks of it, he was just as surprised as Ocellus was.

“I-I think it might have worked—“ he coughed. “—But that taste was not the best.”

Ocellus giggled and inspected his body some more. His legs were probably a little lighter in weight, and when he turned around to look at himself, he always stumbled and fell.

“Okay, Sandbar,” She added. “Maybe we should try and test out your new abilities. They should be slightly enhanced, now.” Ocellus was now holding a clipboard that she somehow pulled out of nowhere.

Sandbar nodded happily and smiled. With that, the two headed outside and partook in some field activities for the sake of experimental purposes.

First, Sandbar started with farming. “Okay, so,”-Ocellus levitated her clipboard and a pencil to document Sandbar’s progress. -“for this activity, you’re going to help Professor Applejack and her brother Big Mac with apples.”

The two stood in the fields of Sweet Apple Acres accompanied by Applejack, as mentioned, and her brother, Big Macintosh. They both smiled when addressed, and Applejack crossed her forelegs proudly when her name was mentioned.

“Right. So, what do we start with?” Sandbar asked. As soon as his question was posed, AJ walked up to him and proceeded to explain the assignment Ocellus set up.

“Right now, we’re gonna start with the apple-buckin’. Strength testin’ should be first in line, or so, Ocellus said.” She put a hoof to her chin, but continued on nonetheless. “Ah’ reckon’ after that, you should try plowin’ the fields. There’s a lot of strength used in doin’ that.”

Ocellus beamed, but Sandbar was still unsure. “Don’t worry, Sandbar,” she reassured. “I bet if I did the serum right, you should have about twice the strength of Big Mac.”

The pony in question replied with a firm “Eeyup.” But then bit his tongue in realization. “Wait, What?”

Ocellus pressed on. “So, all in all, you should have about half the strength of Yona when she gets angry, which should be twice the strength of a full grown yak.”

“You’re starting to confuse me with all this math,” said Sandbar, who was more unsure than he already was.

“Oh, it’ll be alright, Sandy. Besides, I think I followed the recipe correctly.”

“Well, if y’all would stop talkin’,” interjected Applejack. “Lets get this show on the road!”

With an excited whinny, Sandbar followed his professor into the forest of apple trees to buck.

Ocellus followed them to document his new attributes. Surely, Sandbar would understand the upcoming impact he’d have on Equestria. After all, they’d all save the world one day.

Fast forward to later on, and the two arrived back at the school after a long day. Sandbar was sweaty and dirty, whilst Ocellus remained pristine and untouched.

“Thanks, Ocellus!” He mused, hoof-bumping his friend as he smiled. “You’ve done so much for me today.”

“Aw, it’s no problem. Besides, you’re my friend. Friends help each other, right?”

Sandbar nodded. “Right. Anyway, I’ll see you later.” It was getting dark, and he decided maybe it was time they parted for the night. “It’s getting kinda late.”

Ocellus nodded as she opened the double doors to the school. Before she entered, though, she looked back at Sandbar. “Wait, aren’t you going to bed? I’m sure it’s been a long day for you.”

“Yeah, but...” Sandbar paused, looking off into the distance. “I’ve got someone I should see first.” He, of course, was referring to Yona, who was now spending most her nights at the treehouse.

She felt bad for hurting her friends, and especially Smolder. It was sad to see her so alone, and therefore, he wanted to go cheer her up. Now that he was stronger, he could possibly challenge her to some wrestling.

He began to walk to the crystal structure and thought about what he’d do next. Yona was probably sitting there, alone, isolated. It was time to see what had her down.