The friends stood still as they tried to figure out what their cutie marks meant.

“They obviously have to do with our abilities.” Jake said after a minute of thought.

“No dur, Sherlock. However, I’m pretty sure your special talent isn’t creating water tornados. Same thing with me and Cameron. My special talent isn’t duplicating things. I can do a lot more than that.” Mike said.

“Wait, I have an idea.” Cameron said all of a sudden.

“That’s a first, Cam.” Mike joked.

Cameron ignored the insult and continued. “We all did something impossible today. For example, Mike cloned things today. I mean it’s cool, but it’s impossible. And with Jake, he made a tornado by himself.”

“I think I see what you’re getting at Cam, but that doesn’t help us much.” Jake said.

“I wasn’t finished. This is what I think they mean. Mike’s special ability or whatever is that he can do impossible things with magic. Jake can do impossible things with speed and I can do impossible things with strength.”

Mike nodded in agreement. “Makes sense.”

“I still don’t get why they’re different colored circles.” Jake said.

Cameron shrugged. “I don’t know either.”

The friends simply sat down and sighed.

After a minute of silence, Mike’s face lit up.

“Forget about the cutie marks, I think I can get us home!” he exclaimed.

Cameron and Jake looked at him in surprise.

“Here, I’ll explain. Our original plan was to wait until after the Summer Sun Celebration to ask Twilight Sparkle to get the princess to send us back. Now that you guys have me, I can get us into the Canterlot and speak to Celestia directly.” Mike seemed proud of his plan. Jake and Cameron were impressed as well.

“It’s defiantly worth a shot. Let’s do this.” Jake said as he got up.

“Hell, sooner we get back home the better.” Cameron agreed.

“All right, we’ll be there in ten seconds flat. Give me a moment.” Mike said as he started focusing on teleporting the trio to Canterlot.

He focused on the princess’s castle. After a few moments, he opened his eyes. They weren’t anywhere near the castle, or Canterlot for that matter.

At the Castle…

Princess Celestia was immediately alerted the instant somepony tried to teleport into her Castle. She had placed a protective spell that caused a pony to land at a completely different location should they try to teleport directly into her chambers.

The main reason she had put the spell into effect was to keep out the ponies that had no respect for her personal space. They simply did not have permission to come and go as they pleased. It was her home after all.

She returned to reading the latest report from her pupil, Twilight Sparkle.

The Everfree Forest…

“What the hell did you do?” Jake asked Mike.

“Hey, don’t look at me! I was doing everything right. I think we were redirected here.” Mike said.

“We’re in some kind of forest. Some creepy, dark forest.” Cameron said.

“Thanks for the information, Captain Obvious.” Mike scolded.

“Anytime, Sergeant Sarcasm.” Cameron retorted.

“Will you two shut up?” Jake exclaimed.

“Right, sorry.” Cameron said.

“Mike, get us out of here.” Jake ordered.

“Why? We weren’t exactly doing anything back at the apartment. Let’s explore a bit.” Mike said with a grin.

“You do realize this is the Everfree Forest, right?” Jake asked.

“Stop being such a wuss. If anything goes wrong, I’ll just teleport us home.” Mike said confidently.

Jake sighed. “Lead the way Mr. Tour Guide. “

In mere minutes, Cameron was complaining about how bored he was. It ranged from him saying how boring the forest was to how boring waling was. Mike was about to lose it when Cameron spotted the ruins of an old castle.

“Wow, let’s head over there.” Cameron said as he pointed at the ruins.

“No way in hell.” Jake said quickly.

“I have to agree with Jake on this one. That place doesn’t look all that friendly.” Mike added.

“Oh, come on. Let’s just spend the night there. It’ll be fun.” Cameron persisted.

“There is no chance that I will ever spend the night anywhere with you, Cam. Remember when you hung me upside down while I was asleep?” Mike said.

“Ah, yes.” Cameron smiled as he reminisced. “Good times. Good times.”

“Shut up, I’ll never trust you to behave while I’m asleep.” Mike scorned.

“Whatever. I’m heading up.” Cameron said as he started walking.

“Fine. Don’t come crying to me when you get possessed by some weird spirit or die.” Mike said as he walked in the opposite direction of the ruins. Jake quickly smacked him on the head.

“We need to stick together, idiot. We won’t be able to get home without you.” Jake said.

Mike rubbed the lump forming on his head. “Right, sorry.”

They walked behind Cameron up some stairs up to a balcony that overlooked the entire forest. However, as they reached the top, they heard a voice. Upon closer examination, Jake and Mike realized that it was Nightmare Moon. Cameron continued walking and was about to say something when Mike covered his mouth and Jake pulled him back. Cameron realized this to be the universal “Shut the Hell Up” signal. The trio stared at the villain who was talking to herself in an unintelligible manner.

Suddenly, Mike went into troll mode. He levitated a loose stone slab and chucked it down the stairs. The sound of the stone hitting every step possible made Jake cringe.

Yep, it’s official. We are horribly screwed. Jake thought. Just as Nightmare began to turn around, Mike realized the crap he just got the friends into.

Mike had always been both impulsive and random. Jake had learned this when years ago when Mike had thrown a chunk of ice the size of a baseball at someone’s window. When Jake asked why he had done it, Mike had simply replied that he didn’t really think about it until after it was too late. Jake had resolved to stay far away whenever Mike got into one of his random moods.

Nightmare simply frowned at them. Then, all of a sudden, she smiled.

“Are you three lost?” she said with mock concern. “No matter. You should not have come here. Prepare to feel my wrath!”

The next thing Jake knew, he was thrown clear across the room into a stone wall. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Shit just got real.

Mike watched as Cameron sped up to give Nightmare a fierce kick. Nightmare moved to the side to dodge the blow, causing Cameron to obliterate the wall that had been behind her. Nightmare looked astonished at what the pony’s strength. Nopony should have been able to have that much strength.

Mike used this time to rush over to Jake and make sure he wasn’t dead.

“You okay?” Mike asked, concerned.

He was answered by a smack in the face.

“Idiot!” Jake scolded. He looked behind Mike to see the collapsed wall. He shook his head and looked back at Mike. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Jake flew towards Nightmare at full speed. She was caught off guard as a hoof came out of nowhere and hit her muzzle with incredible force. She quickly recovered and dodged another uppercut from Cameron. She had underestimated these ponies.

Mike stood, thinking about what to do. Neither of his two friends were landing any solid hits and they couldn’t hold out forever. He watched as Jake tried once again to hit Nightmare at high speed. He suddenly stopped as he was about to make contact with Nightmare’s faceplate and was then thrown out of the gaping hole in the room. After a few seconds,
Nightmare did the same with Cameron. He managed to grab the ledge with a single hoof and held on.

Crap! I’m next!

Mike concentrated as much as could on his magic. There had to be something he could do.

Jake flew back towards the castle ruins and saw that Cameron was on the ledge, struggling to get back up. Jake helped him back up, wincing at the pain that he had received from hitting the stone wall. He was then blinded by an intense white light. Although he had shut them, his eyes still hurt. When the brightness finally subsided, Jake saw that Mike was slumped on the floor and Cameron was already beside him.

“You’re okay, dude. Come on, up and at ‘em.” Cameron said as he nudged Mike.

“Easy for you to say. I feel like crap.” Mike responded as he got up.

“And you look like it to. What the hell did you do?”

“I can honestly say that I have no idea.” Mike said.

The trio walked to the Smoking crater where Nightmare Moon had been. They all jumped when they heard a moan. As the smoke started to clear, they saw something that shocked both Mike and Jake.

Instead of a wounded Nightmare, they saw an unconscious Princess Luna.

“Oooooh shit.” Mike and Jake said in unison.

Next Chapter: Yet another plan? Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 59 Minutes