12. JUST WHO THE HAY DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!

The sky filled with dark clouds, as the titan ram continued its rampage throughout Ponyville 3. As explosions appeared across the cityscape, a bright light shone by some bushes in a park. Cozy Glow appeared out of it and fell a few feet onto the grass. She shook her head about and then realized this world was drawn differently. Since this was her first time experiencing the astral plane effects, she was very surprised.

“What the hay? What happened to me? And where am I? Flurry? Anyone?!” she yelped.

As Cozy just noticed smoke and fire billowing from the high-rise buildings, she looked back to see the ram walking in. More helicopters flew by and the ram swiped at them with its arms. They fell to the ground and exploded a few hundred yards from Cozy. She diverted her eyes from the intense heat and quickly spread her wings to fly to safety.

“This can’t be the right place! Why would I be sent here? And what is that thing?!”

The ram then noticed the little filly and reached for her with its giant sharp claws. It grabbed her just before she could escape.

“AGH! HELP!!”

Just as the ram lifted her high, a glowing blast hit the side of its head. Cozy looked over to see Stormy with his hoof facing the monster with an orb of energy in front of it.

“Let her go, Count Rascal Aries Vombalon Whatever-Your-Name-Is-Here!” he shouted.

The ram looked at Stormy and its eyes began to glow. Stormy forgot about its eye beam attack and just barely avoided it, as a building behind him exploded. Pound then came in and did a flying kick to the monster’s arm, allowing Cozy to escape from its clutches.

“Pound? What is going on? And what’s with Stormy all of a sudden?” she asked.

“Stormy’s kinda figured out how to tap into his inner anime geek,” Pound replied.

“Oh…an anime cartoon. Is that what this place is supposed to look like?”

“Yeah. This place is kinda weird. Wait a second…you’re here now! How did you get in here?!”

“Well I saw you guys all sleeping downstairs and you had this weird red aura glowing around you. I had to go get help from the others. Even Discord was puzzled by it.”

“We were asleep back in the real world? So then we are dreaming.”

“Well, not exactly. Discord said this world was like an alternate universe or something. Your bodies are in the real world but your minds are in here. It’s kinda hard to explain.”

“Did you find out who put us in here?”

“No. We didn’t see anyone else in the clubhouse.”

“Well that thing you see there has been giving us trouble in every single world we’ve been in so far. It always takes on a ram-like appearance. He said he put us in here to have fun after seeing us all fight.”

“Then this thing must really be like one of those ancient sorcerers or spirits that liked to torment ponies back in the day by sending them to these worlds.”

“How do you know about that?”

“I read it in a book while you guys were sleeping. Well in any case, we gotta get out of here and work together. Have you guys made up yet?”

“We did,” said Flurry behind her.

“Flurry! Where’s everypony else?”

“Trying their best to implement these weird anime powers to fight that thing. It’s not going so smoothly.”

Cozy looked to see Chip, Annie and Pumpkin helping Stormy. Chip was using the same fighting moves as Stormy, while Annie and Pumpkin were dressed like magical girls, wearing skirts and carrying wands. Their hair was done up in two buns and had long flowing ribbons tied in them.

“In the name of friendship, we will vanquish you!” Pumpkin said, posing in the air.

“Pumpkin, do we really need to use catch-phrases?” Annie asked, wearing a bored anime face.

“Hey, it works in Mariner Moon!”

The ram opened the red octahedron gem on its chest. The gem charged up and screamed before firing at Stormy. Stormy flew out of its way, but was still singed by the blast. He fell to the ground and was caught in midair by Pound and Flurry. Despite how capable the beam was at destroying the helicopters and mountains, Stormy was still alive and well, albeit dizzy.

“Stormy, are you okay?” Flurry asked.

“Im…fine…ugh,” he mumbled.

“Alright, we might as well get out of here. I knew we wouldn’t be able to fight it like this.”

“Flurry, we have to fight it back in order to get out of here! This guy said it would be the final world!” Pound said, angrily.

“Pound, Stormy almost got himself killed just now! I can’t let that happen to anymore of you guys!”

“Stormy’s fine! We can fight it, we just have to-”

An explosion suddenly knocked all three of them back. They had temporary hearing loss and slowly blacked out. When they woke up, the rest of their friends were hovering over them as their vision slowly faded in.

“Bro? You all right?” asked Pumpkin, nudging her brother.

“Pump? What happened?” he asked.

“You guys blacked out for a few minutes. We had to get you somewhere safe,” said Chip.

All three of them got up and looked out to see the ram still in the city as they stood on a faraway cliff. Tons of tanks and fighter jets were firing at it, but it did no good, as it kept using its shield for protection. The red gem in its chest kept morphing into various shapes and firing lasers at them in retaliation.

“That thing is still out there!” Stormy said.

“Yeah, but we’re not getting any further with beating it,” Annie added.

“What’s the point?” Flurry asked forlornly, as she turned away from her friends and sat alone.

“Flurry, what kind of attitude is that?” asked Pound.

“We’ve already tried so many times against this thing. He didn’t go down in all the other worlds. It won’t be any different here. We can’t stop it.”

“Flurry, yes you can! You have to!” said Cozy. “Look, I read a book earlier that said these things like to torment ponies that are quarreling with each other, so it transfers your mind into a world like this in your sleep. You’re meant to go through challenges till you and your friends all learn to work together.”

“Flurry, don’t you see what’s happening to us?” asked Pound, sitting next to her. “He said he wanted to have fun with us earlier after seeing us all fight in the clubhouse. This guy wants to prove we can’t do it just because we all had one disagreement, but we have to prove him wrong. We have to fight back.”

“But how? We’ve tried using these anime abilities and they just don’t add up to the magnitude of that thing’s firepower. We can’t even put a dent in it thanks to its shield. It’s probably got a power level as good as Discord’s or even bigger.”

“Don’t worry about the numbers or the science, Flurr. This world doesn’t really follow physics anyway. Plus look at everything Twilight and the others accomplished in our world without thinking about any of that. All we need is confidence and we’ll beat this thing.”

“Hey, that reminds me!” Stormy chimed in. “Flurry, there’s this awesome anime show called Robo-Link Combiners where they fight in giant robots called gunpons, but the robots don’t run on energy and stuff, they run on confidence and courage! If we have enough of that, we could fight it in giant robots too!”

“Stormy’s right. That show’s all about fighting spirit.”

“And it’s pretty uplifting too!” Pumpkin added.

“We can do it Flurry. We’ll beat that thing if we work together,” said Chip.

“I may not know much about anime, but I’ve seen some of that show, and it is pretty encouraging,” Annie added.

“That’s the spirit guys,” said Cozy, joining them in a huddle. “That’s what we need to take on this thing. Together!”

Flurry smiled and wiped her tears away. She looked at all her friends before her and put her arms around Pound and Pumpkin as everyone else did the same.

“Thanks, guys. I know I’ve been a fool, but I’m ready to show this blasted ram who we really are. Let’s do this. Let’s kick reality to the curb and do the impossible!”

“YEAH!” they all shouted in unison.

Several loud crashes suddenly sounded on the side of the mountain opposite of the city. They all turned and looked to see giant mechs standing before each of them. Before even thinking anything up, their confidence had already caused giant robots to materialize. Their colors made it easy to figure out which ones were meant for each pony, but they all had unique shapes as well.

Pound’s mech was mostly brown with some beige highlights. It had a round center, which served as both the face and body, with its left eye being the cockpit hatch. Down the middle it had a circular saw-blade. Its legs were somewhat short and stubby but its arms were longer and thicker, giving it a simian appearance. It had three fingers on each hand and a shield on its right shoulder. This mech was clearly a bare-knuckle fighting unit.

Pumpkin’s mech was round and had the appearance of a jack-o-lantern. It was orange with two big, blue eyes. Below its eyes was a zigzag line for its mouth, which would open to reveal the hatch. On top was a long green sniper cannon that could extend and pivot to point forward. It had short, stubby arms and legs, but they appeared to be able to retract to allow the mech to roll into a ball.

Chip’s mech was green with yellow highlights and was boxy and rectilinear. It had spikes all over its head and rump and a spikey ball on the end of its tail. It stood on four legs and had four digits on its front legs. The front and rear ends of the machine were connected by a thinner abdominal region, making it appear as if this mech could pivot itself and stand up on its hind legs. It had a chin that jutted out and a mouth with a zigzag pattern like Pumpkin’s mech. This mech had more of a scowl and ferocious look to it, which contrasted heavily to his sister’s.

Annie’s red and white mech had more circular, organic features. It resembled a cat or a young pony. It had pointy ears and an innocent face with large eyes on the side. It also stood on four dainty legs but could stand on two if it wanted. Its tail was shorter than Chip’s mech’s tail and had a sharp spear-like object at the end. On its back was a large missile rack. It was as cute as Pumpkin’s mech, possessing less of a sharp and ferocious look as the boys’, but it was clearly just as capable.

Stormy’s mech was a blue jet adorned with yellow lightning bolts. It had a triangular front end and eyes in place of a traditional oval cockpit. It had a face just like all the others and twin jet boosters on the back, but a careful look showed this mech was capable of transforming into a bipedal mode like the others. The jet boosters and rear portion resembled legs folded up and the wings appeared to have the arms making up the front part with long fingers visible. The nosecone would undoubtedly fold down to become the head, while the rest of the fuselage was the body.

Flurry’s pink and purple mech stood the tallest and had a rather elegant humanoid design. Its head had no facial features, but it wore a helmet with a unicorn horn. On the back of the helmet was a teal, x-shaped object that was probably meant to represent the bow she wore. It was sharp and could probably double as a shuriken. The face of the mech was actually in the chest and appeared skull-like. Unbeknownst to her, it had two jet thrusters on its back to give it boosts in midair.

Cozy’s mech was the most peculiar. It was the tiniest one and just big enough to fit a pony or two inside. It resembled a pony head but the upper half of its cranium was folded away with a small area inside for the pilot to sit at the controls. Underneath were several equine legs and it had two robotic pegasus wings and pointy ears above them. Behind it was a large silver drill that served as a tail.

The kids all stared in amazement at their mechs until Stormy finally spoke with exuberance.

“AAAGH! THESE ARE SO COOL!” he screamed.

“Whoa! Did these things just appear because of our confidence?!” asked Chip.

“I guess so!” said Pumpkin. “I’m guessing the fat orange one with the gun head is mine! Hehe, it looks just like a pumpkin!”

“Aw, mine’s kind of cute! I just might have fun riding in it!” said Annie.

“Mine’s kinda small, but it looks like it could really pack a punch!” Cozy added.

“Gosh. You guys really were right about the confidence thing after all! They’re amazing!” Flurry said as she flew up to her mech, which it opened its mouth in the abdominal region to allow her to enter the cockpit.

“Alright, gang, let’s get in these machines and kick some flank!” Pound said as he entered his mech.

Everyone else entered their mechs through the opened mouths or circular entry ports. The hatches closed behind them. Cozy sat inside her tiny mech and two semicircular segments that resembled brain caps folded over to protect her inside. Each mech had a seat inside with some control levers, designed to operate with their hooves. In front was a console with a circular monitor that turned on as soon as they sat down and grabbed the handles. It showed a spiral graphic being filled up with green until the machines were fully powered. The mechs had no glass cockpits to view through, but monitors suddenly turned on around them with a graphic resembling their faces and a loading meter underneath. Once the meters had finished moving all the way to the right, they could then see all around them on the outside as if the walls of the cockpits were invisible. It enabled them uncompromised vision, so they could have the optimal fighting experience. As they put their hooves in the control levers, the mechs began to move. Even when they spoke, the mechs’ jaws would move in sync.

“This is so awesome! Look! Mine can even transform!” Stormy shouted as his mech hovered in the air, converted into its bipedal form and did a fist pump.

“YAY! Pound, check me out!” Pumpkin said as her mech hopped around on its tiny legs.

“Hehe! Check THIS out!” Pound said, pushing his mech’s right fist into its left palm.

“Whoa…this is kinda tough to balance,” Flurry said as her mech stumbled a bit before finally standing.

“Good job, Flurr! Alright, gang, are we all ready?”

“READY!”

“LET’S DO IT!!”

The mechs all jumped down the side of the cliff, while Stormy’s mech transformed and took flight with Cozy close behind. Flurry, Pound and Pumpkin surfed down the steep incline while Chip and Annie ran on all fours as fast as they could. Once they got to the bottom, they all ran alongside each other through the forest, doing their best to avoid hitting any trees and buildings.

Over in the center of the city, things were still looking bleak as the ram continued its destruction. Almost all of the helicopters and fighter jets had retreated and the tanks had stopped firing at them. The female captain of the Wonderbolts spoke as they withdrew.

“All units fall back! We’re done here!” she said.

“Captain Spitfire, should we request a bomb be dropped?” asked one of her soldiers.

“That may be the only option. We’ll have to lure it away from the city first.”

“That won’t be necessary, Wonderbolts,” said Flurry as her face appeared on the monitors and the audio from her mech had already connected to their comm system.

“Who was that? That sounded like a child!”

“Don’t worry about our age. We’ve got his!” said Pound.

“Yeah, these mechs can take him down!” Stormy added.

The mechs all landed in an area where some buildings had moved downward into the earth and created a level battlefield.

“We’re here to help you guys!” Chip said.

“What?! But you’re all just kids!” said another soldier.

“And where did you get those…um…robot costumes?” asked another.

“It’s kinda hard to explain,” said Annie.

“It’s okay though. We should have the necessary firepower to take him down!”

“Captain, I don’t see how any of this is going to work. I mean look at how ridiculous those things are. I can’t take them seriously,” said one soldier.

“Kids, I really don’t think this is a good id-”

“Hey Ramael!” shouted Pound.

The massive fallen angel turned around to see the seven colorful mechs before it.

“You think you can just go around terrorizing this city? Well we’re in charge now!”

“Yeah! When they talk about their awesome leaders, they’re talking about us!” Pumpkin backed him up.

“Uh…guys?” Flurry asked before Stormy jumped into the heroic monologue.

“That’s right! We believe me who believes in ourselves! Er…we believe in ourselves who believes in …wait, what’s the phrase again?”

The ram then blasted them with an eye beam attack and the mechs all scattered about, flailing their arms and having comical anime expressions on their faces just like the ponies piloting them.

“AAAAGGGHHH!!!” they all screamed, tumbling around and falling down.

“Guys, I think we can save the crazy speeches for later, don’t you think?” asked Flurry.

“That’s how this anime works though!” said Stormy.

“Okay, but lets not get too distracted is all.”

Flurry’s mech stood up and ran towards the ram. It tried firing another eye beam at her, but this time she punched at it with her mech’s fists and it reflected the blast. She tried to punch the ram, but its ‘IT field’ went up and she was unable to get to him. The mech’s fingers pierced through the shield as it slowly began to pry it apart. Finally the shield was weakened and Flurry had a window of opportunity, but was blasted back by the eye beam attack. Pound came up behind her and folded his mech’s legs back, while the arms went erect and pointed out. The saw blade in the center began to spin around and acted as a wheel. The mech rode up the monster’s leg, splitting it in half until he had climbed up to the top and started pummeling its face. The ram then grabbed Pound’s mech by one of its fists, but was shot by a powerful blast. Pumpkin had angled her mech’s sniper canon towards the ram and fired right at him.

“You leave my brother alone, Rammy Boy!” she taunted.

The ram’s leg mended itself back together. Pumpkin’s mech retracted its arms, legs and cannon before rolling into a ball towards the ram. Both of the ram’s arms went limp and then moved up with great force. They now behaved like powerful tentacles and he whipped them forward in attempt to stop Pumpkin. A large chunk of cement had moved up, giving Pumpkin the chance to use it as a ramp. She rolled off of it and slammed into the ram’s head. The ram stumbled backwards but showed no signs of pain, until it was barraged by a volley of missiles. After the explosions died down, it looked skyward to see Stormy’s mech in its jet mode. The mech transformed into its more versatile bipedal form and flew toward him with its right fist aimed at the ram’s head. The ram stood still and allowed Stormy to punch it. The punches had no effect and the ram wrapped both its arms around Stormy’s mech. Chip and Annie’s mechs then ran at full tilt into the ram’s legs until it fell over. This caused it to loosen its grip on Stormy’s mech, which then flew away.

“You leave Stormy alone!” shouted Cozy as she flew over the ram and shot drill missiles out of the circular port on her mech’s forehead.

Chip’s mech stood bipedal and removed its tail to use as a spiky flail, bludgeoning the ram’s legs over and over again. The ram tried to reach for him, but Annie stretched her mech’s tail out and wrapped it around the ram’s arm. The ram tried to pound her into the ground with its other arm, but her mech went airborne and launched missiles at it. Stormy, Chip, and Pumpkin’s mechs joined in. The ram was surrounded in explosions and could not be seen. Everyone rested for a moment as the dust and smoke settled. Suddenly they saw the silhouette of the ram still standing, barely swayed by the attack. Its eyes glowed and sent everyone flying back from an explosion. Only Flurry managed to dodge the explosion and shot forward to fight the ram again. She did a flying kick to its face, causing it to bend backwards but not fall completely off of its feet. She then flipped back a few hundred yards and charged the beast again. It bent forward and put up several IT fields, making it very difficult for Flurry to break through like last time. The rest of the mechs then did their own attacks and managed to break through on the other side. Pound and Stormy grabbed the ram by its arms while Annie wrapped her tail around its left leg and got it to fall down. Chip stomped on the ram with Pumpkin helping him out. The ram’s arms turned into tendrils again and slipped through Pound and Stormy’s grip. It wrapped its arms around them and threw them off to the side.

“UGH!” Pound grunted.

“Pound, you okay?” asked Stormy.

“I’ve felt better.”

The ram aimed for Annie next until Chip dove in the way and was thrown instead. The ram stood up and grabbed Pumpkin’s mech by its cannon with its other arm as Flurry and Annie began punching it. Pumpkin retracted her cannon to escape the grip and rolled around in ball form to escape and tend to the others. Cozy flew in and flipped her mech’s drill-shaped tail down while retracting its legs. It now had the appearance of a head with a drill for its neck. It tried to use its new drill form to attack, but the ram swatted at it with its arms and sent it flying away into a nearby building. Something spun through the air and sliced off the ram’s arm. It came back around like a boomerang and Flurry’s mech caught it. The object that was thrown was the x-shaped boomerang that came from the back of the mech’s helmet. She put it back on and it shrunk down to a more appropriate size. The ram quickly regenerated its arm and charged up the red gem in its chest while screaming. Flurry looked in shock. She had no time to run, so she quickly shielded herself with her arms, but was too late. The ram blasted her mech right through its head, causing the helmet to fall off. The head shattered into hundreds of pieces and the mech fell back.

“FLURRY!” shouted Pound.

“Flurry! She’s…” Pumpkin began to say with tears in her eyes.

“Guys, I’m all right!” Flurry called back as her mech stood on its feet again.

“Flurry, we thought you were a goner!” Chip said.

“How are you still alive?” asked Cozy.

“I’m in the chest, not the head,” she replied, pointing to the mech’s actual face.

Everyone was relieved to know she was all right, but her mech lost its entire head and could not store its boomerang bow anymore.

“Guys, how much longer till this thing gives up?” asked Annie.

“Not much longer. I have an idea,” Pound replied. “Stormy, you ready to do the you-know-what?”

“You mean we’re gonna combine?” asked Stormy with excitement.

“Combine?” everyone else asked one by one.

“Hay yes we are!”

Pound’s mech then jumped high in the air and began to transform. It folded its legs up and used its right arm to pop off its left one. It then swung it underneath and the left arm joined with the right arm to combine and make a stronger right arm. The biceps and forearms magnetized and opened up to allow the combination to work while the hands joined together to create a larger hand with two thumbs. The circular port remaining on the left side was open for combining with another mech, acting as the body.

“Good thinking, bro!” Pumpkin shouted.

Her mech then transformed its entire lower half into a bicep, forearm and hand while a combining port appeared on its right side. It had transformed into a left arm to compliment Pound’s mech.

As this happened, Chip and Annie’s mechs transformed into the left and right lower legs respectively. Chip’s mech pivoted its inner joint so that the head was on the bottom and its chin acted as a foot. The rear end bent upward and the spike on its back pointed up to combine with the thigh of another mech. It folded its arms and legs up on the side and the tail was left dangling on the back. Annie’s mech did the same but used its front legs as heels and its tail as a combining peg for the right thigh.

Stormy’s mech half-transformed into jet mode with its three-pronged wings still protruding. The arms stayed out to become shoulder straps. The jet engines were still capable and he was now the jetpack of a larger mech.

Flurry saw what was happening and questioned how any of this was possible. Pound, Pumpkin and Stormy’s mech remained hovering, while they waited for her mech to become the body.

“Guys…wait…how did you do that?” she asked.

“Just use your imagination, silly!” shouted Pumpkin.

“Don’t worry, Flurry! It all comes naturally!” Chip told her.

“Yeah, I barely had to think to get it to do this!” Annie added.

“You can do it, Flurry!” Stormy cheered on.

“Come on, Flurr. We’re here for ya!” Pound said as his mech moved its arm and gave thumbs up to Flurry.

“Go ahead, Flurry. You be the body. I’ll be the head,” Cozy said, landing her mech right next to Flurry’s.

“Alright…LETS GO!”

Flurry’s mech then jumped in the air and moved its arms downward to bulk up the abdominal area. Its forelegs folded up on the side to reveal holes in the shins to combine with Chip and Annie’s mechs. The two jet boosters on the back folded to the side to combine with the shoulders of Pound and Pumpkin’s mechs. Stormy’s mech then flew forward and magnetized onto the back of Flurry’s mech and wrapped its arms around her to secure itself.

“Alright, now the finishing touch!” Pound added.

“Ready when you are, Cozy!” shouted Stormy.

Cozy’s mech transformed into its drill form and drilled itself into the neck area of Flurry’s mech. It magically healed all the damaged metal and the drill went through the roof of the cockpit, safely behind Flurry’s head. Even the metal on the rest of the robot morphed to look more muscular and humanoid. Absolutely no one could explain what was going on, but it was working. They had now formed a combined giant robot out of seven mechs. The screens on everyone’s dashboard showed a graphic of a larger robot with pulsing lines showing that the combination was underway. The robot was now fully powered with all its parts. It put both its arms up in the air and then brought them back down with both fists clenched. Kanji symbols appeared behind it and bright rays of light shone everywhere.

“Alright! Good job, guys!” Pound added.

“Now let’s get this weirdo!” Pumpkin shouted.

“YEAH! TEAM FRIENDSHIP GO!” everyone else said in unison.

The robot landed on the ground and quickly charged the ram. The ram put up its IT field again, but the robot punched right through and shattered it.

“TAKE THIS!!” Stormy hollered excitedly.

It then punched the ram in the head repeatedly until they all heard a screaming sound. The gem fired at the robot, sending it sliding back a couple hundred feet, but it did not lose its footing in the process. It had its arms crossed to shield itself from the blast. The gem finally stopped firing and there was a brief pause.

“That was a close one. You guys all still with me?” asked Pound.

“YEAH!” they responded.

“Alright, let’s make this next one count! We’re gonna use the drill move from that anime!”

“I have no idea what that’s referencing, but my confidence is already doing all the work for me!” Flurry said back.

“Then let’s do it together!” Annie shouted.

“Yeah! We’ll show this creep!” Chip added.

The mech stood tall and pointed at the ram as Flurry spoke.

“Alright, whoever you are! You’ve given us quite a challenge here, but it’s over!” she said.

“We may all just be a bunch of kids that aren’t perfect and may get into fights with each other sometimes…” said Pound.

“But it doesn’t mean we can’t learn to put aside our differences and fight back!” said Pumpkin.

“And we’ll keep getting back up and trying again!” said Stormy.

“Because that’s what friends do!” said Chip.

“And no one’s taking that away from us!” said Annie.

“Not even you!” said Cozy.

As they spoke, the robot reached down and picked up the helmet that had fallen off earlier. It put it on the newly acquired head and it morphed to allow the ears and wings of Cozy’s mech to burst through. Inside the cockpit of her mech, Flurry went airborne and crossed her arms. A red cape magically appeared, wrapped around her neck. In front of her eyes was a heart-shaped pair of shades with a triangular cut at the bottom for her nose bridge. She placed the shades over her eyes and stayed suspended over the seat, not needing to even touch the controls anymore to pilot her mech.

“Just who the hay do you think we are?! We’re Team Friendship! And we’re gonna pierce you with our drill!” she shouted.

The ram retaliated with more eye beam attacks. The left arm on the robot moved its canon down and fired back, breaking through the IT field easily. The ram was blasted several times and became momentarily dizzy. With the opportunity now open, the robot launched the bow off of its helmet and it split in half. It grabbed both of the bladed boomerangs and threw them at the ram. Both boomerangs stabbed right into the creature’s ankles and wrists so it could no longer move its limbs or try to run away. It was suspended in air, allowing the kids to make their final move. The robot lifted its right arm skyward and pointed to the heavens.

“YOU GUYS READY?!” Flurry asked.

“READY!” they shouted back.

The fist then transformed into an enormous drill and pointed it forward as it began to spin at blinding speeds.

“FRIENDSHIP…IS…MAGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC!!!!!!”

Everyone shouted to the top of their lungs and swung their right hooves forward. The energy from their confidence powered the machine and launched it toward the ram. The drill hit the gem in the center and began chiseling away at it. The ram tried one more eye beam attack, but the mech used its left hand to push the ram’s head back. The gem finally shattered and the drill created a huge open hole in the upper body of the ram. The mech zoomed through and landed on the other side. The drill transformed back into a fist and both of the boomerangs returned to the helmet. The ram turned into thousands of sharp crystal shards pointing outward. It made one final unearthly screech that echoed across the land and exploded. A beam of light shot upward from the explosion and parted to create a six-sided star in the shape of the Element of Magic. The mech didn’t flinch at all from the explosion but slowly stood up. Tons of rain began to fall from the sky and created a rainbow behind the bright six-sided star. The sun finally broke through the dark clouds and shone on the mech. Ponies on the outskirts of the city erupted in thunderous applause.

“We…we did it…WE DID IT!” Flurry said, panting.

“YES WE DID!” Pumpkin replied.

“YEAH! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!” Stormy shouted, jumping out of his seat.

Everyone else took a moment to cheer and rest themselves after a battle well fought.

“Man, that’s more action than I bargained for, but at least it’s finally over! You guys did awesome!” Cozy told all her friends.

“See, Flurr?” said Pound. “Nothing to it. All it takes is a little confidence and a whole lotta friend-whoa…”

Suddenly everyone felt themselves being sucked away into a portal behind them. The giant robot dematerialized and all the kids found themselves being sucked back into the vortex as they heard the voice of their mysterious captor once again.

“Well done, children. I knew you could do it; I just wanted to be sure…”

“AAAAAGGGGH!” everyone screamed as their bodies flew through the strange abstract world until everything turned to black.

A moment later, they all felt themselves lying down on a rug and immediately woke up with a jump. They were breathing fast and sweating.

“Flurry?! FLURRY, YOU’RE ALL RIGHT!” said a familiar voice.

Flurry turned to see Spike reach down and pick her up in his arms. He squeezed her tightly against his warm body. She noticed that Starlight Glimmer, Discord, and all of Spike’s siblings were in there, including two Eastern Drakes she had not yet met. The only one missing was Scorch. She also remembered hearing that Billow would be visiting them at the castle, but she too was missing. Her six friends were all there and they were back in the clubhouse. She wondered how she Chip and Annie had woken up in the living room on the first floor, but all that mattered was that they were finally out of that crazy dreamlike realm and back to their real lives.

“Flurry, I was so worried!” Spike cried, holding her close.

“I’m all right, Spike,” she replied. “Cozy came in and helped us out.”

Cozy blushed and rubbed one of her front legs. Discord put his lion paw on her head and petted her tenderly.

“Well done, Cozy,” he said. “I knew you had it in you,”

“Thanks,” she replied.

“You guys should’ve seen it!” Stormy started up. “First we were in this old cartoon world and then this video game world, and then we looked like monkeys or something, and then we were sock puppets and clay ponies and a bunch of other weird things, and then we fought his crazy ram thing in an anime world and piloted giant mechs, and then-”

Pound flew in next to Stormy and used his hoof to cover Stormy’s mouth to get him to shut up.

“What Stormy means to say is we had a grand adventure,” he said.

“More like ten grand adventures, but yeah, we had quite a trip!” Pumpkin added as she gave Buttercream a hug.

“Gosh, you guys really gave us a scare! You were all asleep and we couldn’t wake you up!” Buttercream said.

“We never thought we’d have to deal with someone being sent into the astral plane like that,” said Starlight.

“Is that where we were?” asked Flurry.

“Most likely. Nobody’s been sent there in quite a while though.”

“What exactly did you do to enter the astral plane, might I ask?” said Aster before realizing they hadn’t been introduced. “Oh, sorry, where are my manners. I’m Aster and this is my sister Lily.”

“Oh, so you guys are the Eastern Drakes Butter was talking about?” asked Flurry as she flew in to meet them.

“Sure are! It’s great to finally meet you, Princess!” Lily said, shaking Flurry’s hand.

“Whoa cool! You guys look just like the Leviathan ride from last week!” Stormy said, examining Aster.

“Oh, well we’re not exactly leviathans, but it’s flattering that you see us that way,” said Aster.

“I don’t mean to sour the mood here, but can you children explain exactly what being was in there putting you through the astral plane? And what is this ram Stormy speaks of?” asked Discord.

Before anyone could give him an answer, the lamps in the room began to flicker until they turned off and the only source of light was the moonlight coming in from the windows. The black smoky Apparition materialized in front of everyone. This was their first time seeing it with a ram’s head. Cozy felt like she had met this creature before. It began laughing again as everyone looked in horror.

“Great. Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” said Pound.

Author's Note

Recommended listening:

Angel of Doom (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Pierce the Heavens with your Drill! (Gurren Lagann)