Friendship is SHOWTIME!!

by MangaKamen

Intermission 6 - Hope and Imagination!!

It was a foggy morning at Ponyville Station, with only a few figures who stood on the platform waiting for the train to arrive. There was a rather odd and awkward silence between the two mares and dragon, with Haru who stood afar from Twilight and Dryad.

Haru sighed under his breath when he turned to see Dryad, her face stained with tears – And who could blame her? After what she experienced yesterday, she was more than allowed to spend the previous evening crying – but things had to continue onwards, that’s how life works.

That didn’t mean anyone had to like it.

But, to be a bit respectful, Haru kept his distance from the in pain Phantom – He couldn’t save Harpie and the other Phantoms.

‘I’ll just have to make sure no harm comes to her,’ The dragon thought to himself as he yawned.

Last night, Spike had burped up the letter from Princess Celestia which requested Twilight and Haru to escort Dryad to Canterlot via the train. Haru would’ve used Connect, but the distance was too much for living creatures – So, train it was.

And with Kosuke promising to keep an eye on the town while Haru was gone, there wasn’t anything for Haru to worry about while he escorted Dryad. Save for what might happen on the train, but then again, what’s the worst that could happen on a train?

The sound of the oncoming engine drew closer on the train tracks, which drew the attention of all who were on the platform, and watched as the train slowed down at the station.

“Haru, you ready?” Twilight called out.

The red dragon merely nodded in response.

“ALL ABOARD!” The conductor called out from the train.

Meanwhile a few yards away atop of a cloud, a certain mint green pegasus hummed to himself as he watched Twilight, Dryad and Haru board the train. And while he watched he began to sing a cheery little tune, “♪Train, Train, Take us away. Take Us Away Far Away. To the Future We Will go. Where it leads, no one knows!♪”

“Oi! Gremlin!”

Sora stopped his singing when he realized that a certain red Pegasus floated down upon the same cloud he was on, “Oh! Good morning Feenie! I didn’t expect to see you roaming the skies for another few hours, has something happened?”

“What’s happened is that I’m surprised that you pulled that stunt that you did,” Phoenix spat back with his eyes narrowed down at the fellow pegasus. “You slayed three Phantoms, and I wanna know why.”

“Aren’t you known as the Dreaded Enforcer?” Sora questioned with a smirk. “Not only was Dryad going to convince them to defect, but I saw them exiting the cave of the Akumizer – If I recall, only a select few of us Phantoms are allowed to grace those cursed grounds.”

“Yeah, well, shouldn’t you destroy Dryad then?” Phoenix retorted as he stood up alongside Sora.

“There’s no need,” Sora answered back as he playfully wagged his front hooves off of the clouds. “She doesn’t even know what we higher Phantoms look like – And all she knows is the basis of our plans, using despair to awaken Phantoms from ponies and other creatures.

“I highly doubt that is enough information to go off of – Unless of course somepony did something stupid, like say, try to transform in front of her.”

Phoenix gritted his teeth.

“Of course, you’d have to be a total idiot to do that,” Sora sighed with a shrug of his shoulders. “Wouldn’t you agree, Feenie?”

“Watch yourself, Gremlin,” Phoenix warned as his scowl morphed into a cocky smirk. “I can feel myself getting my strength back, soon I’ll be back to bringing…”

“Oh, don’t worry yourself, Feenie,” Sora chuckled as he tipped his fedora over his eyes. “I was just talking ‘what-ifs’. Besides, I’ve done more damage to the mage than any physical attack could ever do.”

“Huh?” Phoenix questioned. “What the Tartarus are you going on about?”

“You like having fun with using terror and force to see what your prey will do, correct?” Sora suggested with a large smile on his face.

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak but closed it. He was pretty axe-crazy at times, and he’d be lying if he didn’t enjoy it at times.

“Well, I myself enjoy seeing reactions,” Sora continued, not bothering to wait for Phoenix to answer. “The only difference is that I prefer more subtle tactics.”

“And killing three Phantoms is considered subtle in your book?” Phoenix stated flatly.

“You misunderstand the situation,” Sora sighed as he lowered his head. “While it is true that I removed three Phantoms from this world, that in there lies the rut. Not only did I state my ‘reasons’ for why I took their lives, but thanks to Dryad down there, there’s something planted within our little mage…

“The seeds of doubt.”

The smile on Sora’s face curled up and the gleam in his eyes slowly disappeared, “Not only are there Phantoms that regret being Phantoms, not only are there Phantoms that actually wish to help, and not only are there Phantoms that are willing to destroy other Phantoms to save ponies… All these fact are now planted within the little dragon’s head.

“Now, whenever he puts on one of those rings to fight a Phantom…”

“Those thoughts will echo through his mind,” Sora cackled before he stuck his tongue out. “Everything that he fought for, he’ll question. And while protecting his friends and the innocent is a worthy cause of course, but is it worth it if your opponent doesn’t have a choice in attacking those friends and innocent?”

Phoenix took a deep breath and then sighed. “Gremlin… What are you really after?”

“♪Train, Train, Take us away. Take Us Away Far Away,♪” Sora sang out loud with his head moving in rhythm. “♪To the Future We Will go. Where it leads, no one knows!♪”

Phoenix sighed loudly with a shake of his head, “For the love of… I don’t know why I bother even talking to you. I should just spend my free time reading at the library…”

“You know that librarian is getting aboard that train, right?” Sora snickered, taking note that Phoenix’s face lit up slightly.

“And what the Tartarus does that mean to me?” Phoenix spat as he turned his head away.

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Sora snickered with his hooves brought up to his mouth. “For somepony who tried to kill the dragon she’s friends with, you sure spend a lot of time at said library – one could assume that you might fancy the book worm type…”

“… Moment I get my full strength back,” Phoenix growled bluntly. “First thing I’m going to do, I’m kicking your flank.”

“♪Train, Train, Take us away. Take Us Away Far Away,♪” Sora sang out loud with his head moving in rhythm. “♪To the Future We Will go. Where it leads, no one knows!♪”

“Damn that’s annoying,” Phoenix grumbled.

“ALL ABOARD!”

Both Phoenix and Sora turned to see that the train was about to leave the station. Phoenix chuckled, “Ya sure you want to let them go just like that?”

“There’s nothing to lose or gain by going after them,” Sora answered before he lowered his head to the cloud once more, his eyes closed in order for him to sleep. “Besides, today’s perfect for a lazy day to sleep.”

“Whatever,” Phoenix sighed under his breath before he looked to the train again. “Say… Doesn’t that train look weird?”

Sora opened his eyes and looked over at the train that slowly pulled away from the station. “I think all the trains in Equestria look weird. Too colorful for my taste.”

“… That’s weird hearing that from you,” Phoenix replied. “And I won’t disagree that the trains are weird, but at least the train cars aren’t all a single color – That steam locomotion in the front is all red, the second one’s all blue and looks like those bullet trains I hear are in development, the yellow one seems to be an underground train that’s also supposed to be in the works and…”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were an aficionado of trains,” Sora chuckled.

“Shut up, I read the stuff in a book,” Phoenix growled as he shook a hoof at Sora. “You should try it once in a while, you might be able to get some actual jokes besides pop culture references.”

“I find it amazing that you’re able to read,” Sora cackled as he pulled his hat down over his eyes. “Especially if you’re around that cute little librariAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!”

Phoenix chuckled, he always wanted to kick Sora off his high cloud – He didn’t expect it to be literal though.

TTT – TTT

Inside the colorful trains, Haru had to stop and take a look around the train’s car. Unlike the last time he was on a train with Spike to Canterlot, this train was completely different – The interior was white with red plush seats and there were silver rails around to help anypony who needed to grip onto something.

There was even a fancy table that was bolted into floor with a few seats next to it, and that’s where Haru took his seat while Twilight and Dryad sat at a booth a little ways away. “Huh, they really upped the train’s interior design.”

“Perhaps the train company received more funding?” Twilight offered as she patted the seat a few times. “It’s comfortable, but I preferred the older version… What about you, Dryad? Have you ever been on this train before?”

“Um, n-not really,” Dryad replied with a shake of her head.

“Well, not like it matters,” Haru sighed, his arms thrown behind his head. “Whether you like it or not, we’ll only be on this thing for a few hours. Then we’ll take the train back from Canterlot… Might as well enjoy the ride.”

“True, but…” Twilight started to say.

“Have an intense morning!”

Everypony in the train car turned towards the back to see who had said that, and immediately they all reeled back at the sight of the mare who slowly walked through the train car, pulling on a cart that had several drinks and snacks on it. The mare herself… Well…

She was something that Twilight or Haru had never seen before. The mare seemed to wear a black and dark violet jumpsuit with white and black armor with a heart shape emblem on her chest and a violet cravat around her neck. Her face was covered with a white helmet with a handle bar at the back of it and a black visor that obscured her face, but had a pair of red lips where her muzzle would be. “Wagon is here to deliver delicious breakfast boxes! Only three bits each and you get a complimentary drink!”

Wagon approached Haru and bowed slightly, “Ooh, a dragon? A~ha! Don’t see many of those on a train – Would you like a breakfast box?”

“Uh, got any donuts?” Haru asked with a sheepish smile.

“Oh, sorry, Draggy,” Wagon muttered as her metallic ears dropped slightly. “But we’ve got A-Class breakfast boxes…”

Haru sighed as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out three small golden coins, “Three bits, right?”

“Yes sir!” Wagon stated as she gestured to her head to one side of the cart she pulled. With a quick kick, a small slot opened up and she gestured towards it once more. “Exact amount please.”

Blinking a few times, Haru slipped the coins into slot as a couple beeps echoed from the cart. Wagon bowed slightly, “Thank you for your patronage! Please enjoy your meal!”

With a second kick, Wagon had one of the boxed lunches pop up from the cart and then have it land on the table where Haru was seated. Haru looked at the plastic covered breakfast and gulped at it, “This… This looks…”

The next moment, the plastic covering was torn off and Haru was scarfing down the breakfast.

Twilight sighed at the sight of Haru devouring lunch like a wild animal, “Yeesh Haru, was that really necessary? You act like you haven’t had a meal in…”

“Yeah, but it’s delicious!” Haru replied after he gulped down the mouthful of food he had. “I would even say that this is on par with the breakfasts at AJ’s.”

A large pink glow appeared on Wagon’s visor and she wagged her flank about. “Oooh, what a compliment! Thank you Draggy!”

“… Draggy?” Haru questioned, hesitating to get back to his boxed breakfast.

Wagon didn’t have time to explain the nickname, but she trotted over to Twilight and Dryad instead, “And how about you two? Would you like something tasty to eat?”

“Well, that sounds rather good,” Twilight replied as her horn glowed brightly and six bits flew from her saddlebags. “One for each of us please!”

“Hai, hai!” Wagon cheered.

Meanwhile, several yards from the train tracks a single, single figure watched the tracks while being seated at a portable table that had an odd device that he held to his right ear. The ebony skin and black armor of this individual gleamed in the light as he listened patiently while his other hand rested on the rose emblem adorned chest plate he wore. “… Hmm, so, there are other passengers on the Rainbow Line.

“This is an opportunity that I cannot pass up. Kurous!”

With his oddly white gloved hand raised up into the air, the ebony individual snapped his fingers. From his shadow, several odd bipedal creatures dressed in black overcoats, porcelain masks, white cravats and black top hats that had odd gray markings on them. Gripped with in the hands of the odd creatures were axe-Tommy gun combinations that they spun about.

The creatures spun about and then tipped their hats towards the one who summoned them all, “Kuro!”

“Prepare my personal Kurainer,” the shadowed figure stated simply as he lowered his head, his military hat lowered over his glowing yellow eyes. “We shall use these new passengers as a means. Failure shall not be tolerated.”

“Kuro!” all of the fancily dressed Kurous replied before they galloped away.

The general dressed individual sighed as he pushed his hat up a little bit. “The sun is a bit too bright today. I had hoped that the whole eternal night event was nothing more than a fleeting dream, a shame though.”

The sound of a steam engine drew the general’s attention back to the tracks as the red steam engine appeared in the distance. The general sighed as he rubbed his rugged chin, “… Those trains shall become mine.”

“Whew, not bad for a boxed breakfast,” Haru chuckled as he tapped his claws against his stomach.

“Weren’t you saying that they were better than AJ’s breakfast?” Twilight pointed out as she used her magic to lift up a napkin to her muzzle.

“N-No, you must’ve heard that wrong,” Haru coughed a few times while keeping his attention away from Twilight’s gaze. “I never said that… And if you say otherwise, I’ll deny it up and down.”

Twilight snickered slightly at that, and turned back to Dryad, noticing that her boxed breakfast only had a few nibbles in it. “Dryad, shouldn’t you eat more?”

“It’s alright,” Dryad sighed with her hooves held up defensively. “P-Phantoms don’t need as much to eat as regular ponies do…”

Twilight furrowed her brow slightly and opened her mouth to speak once more…

“WHOA! Wagon was right! It really is a dragon!”

Much to the surprise of everyone else in the train car, a tan pegasus with an orange-brown mane that was styled to curve about his eyes now stood next to Haru. The pegasus was dressed in a red jersey that had his wings stuck out of the sides and there was an embroidered, yellow ‘R’ on the back of it. Adorned on his flank was a white and black segmented circle that had a red ‘1’ in the middle of it.

The stallion’s short tail whipped about playfully as he observed Haru greatly (although, he didn’t seem to notice the nervous look on the dragon’s face). “I’ve never seen one so up close before! Aren’t you guys supposed to be the size of mountains or something? Or are you special?”

Haru cleared his throat turned towards Twilight and Dryad, hoping to get some help from either of the mares. But unfortunately, there was no hope here for this dragon today, as the two mares snickered, Haru narrowed his eyes and sighed towards the stallion, “Uh, yeah, I’m a special case – After all, if I was the size of a mountain, I wouldn’t fit in this train, now would I?”

“Hmm, true,” The stallion muttered as he tilted his head slightly. “Although, it must be neat to be a dragon! You can breathe fire…”

“More like smoke,” Twilight pointed out, earning herself a glare from the red dragon.

“You’ve got those claws,” The stallion continued as he trotted to Haru’s side. “And you’re red! That’s just awesome!”

“Is me being red all that awesome?” Haru muttered under his breath before he shook his head. “From the way you’re talking, it sounds like you want to be a dragon…”

“Why not?” the stallion retorted with a large grin. “Can you imagine all the things a dragon can do that a pony can’t? You guys can even swim in lava!”

Haru stared at the stallion for a few seconds before he chuckled. “Indeed we can. So, who exactly are you?”

The pegasus smirked as he leapt back and pumped one of his front hooves towards his chest, “Me? They call me Right!”

“Huh, well, that’s a rather unique name,” Haru stated with a shrug of his shoulders. “Then again, I go by Haruto, so, I’m not one to point out unique names…”

“Haruto?” Right mused, his hoof up against his chin. “Hmm, would you happen to be from Neighpon? Hey, hey! Are ya?”

“Well, maybe,” Haru muttered under his breath. “I actually live in Ponyville currently…”

“Huh, I guess they must be used to seeing dragons around,” Right chuckled with a goofy smile. “So, what ya doing on the…”

It was at that moment that the lights in the train car flashed brightly before they dimmed greatly and the rather calm ride began to shake violently, which had forced everyone from their seats to the floor.

“UGH!”

“W-What’s going on?!”

Right bit his lower lip as he quickly dashed to the nearby window, and grimaced at the sight of it. “Heh, they really have bad timing – Just when I was finally meeting a dragon!”

A little curious, Twilight herself quickly ran to the window that was closest to Right and her eyes widened, “Where did that other train come from?!”

Both Haru and Dryad joined the other ponies at the window just in time to see the large black, devilish train ride up alongside the Rainbow Line, the tracks just materializing before the mysterious train allowing it to slam into the multicolored train once more and flung the passengers from the window once more.

And just like the announcement from the speakers said, the train came to a stop. Haru got back to his clawed feet and went back to the window to see that the black train had stopped several yards away. ‘Could they be Phantoms after Dryad?’

“Well, you three heard the announcement,” Right sighed as he stood up straight. “Leave this to the professionals!”

“You work on the train, Right?” Twilight asked as the pegasus began to search his pockets.

“You could say that,” Right answered, looking a little nervous when he realized he wasn’t finding what he was looking for. “Uh… Excuse me, but have you seen a little model of the front steam engine of this train on the ground somewhere? I kind of need it…”

Reaching into his own jacket, Haru produced his usual pair of rings, “Twilight, I’m gonna go see what this is about.”

“Huh?” Right yelped before he jumped to Haru’s side. “W-Wait a second! There’s no need for you to go out there! Please let us…”

“Sorry, but when another train rams into another on tracks that come out of nowhere,” Haru pointed out as he walked past the tan stallion. “And slams into the train I’m on… Sorry, I just realized how weird the situation is. In any case, something this weird kind of deserves my attention.”

“Ah, mou!” Right groaned as he lowered his head slightly, at the same time, the door of the train car opened up and allowed the dragon to hop out of the train. “Conductor and Ticket are gonna kill me for losing the Red Ressha!”

Right then turned his attention back towards Twilight and lowered his head, “Miss! C-Can you please help me find it?”

“Uh, sure, but from what it sounds like,” Twilight mused as she looked under the seat she and Dryad were on a few moment ago. “This ‘Red Ressha’ is just a model of this train – Is it that important?”

“Are you kidding? It’s one of greatest treasures of this world!” Right replied with a large grin on his face. “Fueled with the greatest source of power this world has to offer!”

“You mean magic?” Twilight guessed.

“Well, that’s strong,” Right stated looking under the table that Haru was seated at. “But magic would be just dull without what I’m talking about.

“Imagination!”

When Haru leapt from train and landed on the ground between the two trains, the red dragon looked about to see that where they were happened to be an old abandoned train yard that had a large amount of crates, stones, and ruined train traffic signs all strewn about.

DRIVER – ON!

With his belt activated, Haru prepared his rings for whatever was about to happen.

“Oh ho, a dragon? Quite the brave lizard, aren’t you?”

One of the side doors of the black train opened up to allow a ebony skinned creature to step out onto the ground across from Haru. This bi-pedal being was dressed like a war general with roses on his chest plate, chains on his shoulder pads, metal bands over his metallic face, and had a sheathed sword at his waist. In his white gloved hands was an oddly beautiful, red rose. “I commend you for stepping out on your own accord.”

“And I have to commend you for attacking with a train,” Haru stated with a shrug of his shoulders. “In the long list of things I’ve experienced, I was not expecting to be attacked with a train.”

“Humph, it is only a taste of what I have planned,” the ebony general replied, his yellow eyes gleamed brightly. “And you shall help me with that.”

“Oh?” Haru questioned as he pointed a talon towards the ebony general. “I didn’t think I was that famous of a character to get noticed by someone like you…”

“I know not who you are,” The ebony general stated, using his fingers to turn twist the rose in his hands a few times. “Nor do I care to understand where that ego of yours comes from – I am only interested in you as an item to acquire the Rainbow Line. A mere bargaining chip if you will.”

“You sure it’s wise to assume that my use is limited to that of a hostage?” Haru retorted. “After all, I’m just a passenger on a train. But I’m not just any passenger…”

“And you do not know who you speak to,” the ebony general replied as he used his free hand to caress the handle of his sword. “I am General Schwarz of the Shadow Line – You are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and I have no interest in you other than using you as a bargaining chip. So the choice is yours…

“You can surrender and I can guarantee your safety, or…”

Schwarz snapped his fingers, and all of the black adorned Kurous leapt from the train, almost as if they poured out of the vehicle and stood behind Schwarz. “I shall have no choice but to strongly request your assistance in this matter. Using force if I must.”

Haru sighed and lifted his left claw up to show the ring, “Straight to the point – I find that rather refreshing actually. So how about we…”

“Doors opening!”

Haru turned to the side that the train behind him started showing movement, with one of the side doors opening up.

“The Toqgers are exiting…
So please be careful if you’re near the door.”

When the door slid open, there stood a blue jumpsuit adorned figure – This one seemed to have a body structure akin to that a of a diamond dog, what with the fact that he stood on hind legs, had paw-like hands and a short tail. But Haru was more surprised at the outfit the Diamond Dog wore. A light blue jumpsuit that had a white belt, white gloves and boots, and a checkered circle that had four lines racing from it on his chest with a ‘2’ emblem in the middle of it. The helmet that the Diamond dog had was a rather odd design – It looked like the second train car of the Rainbow Line with train tracks racing over the black visor.

The diamond dog chuckled before he took his first step off the train…

“WAH!”

… And promptly slipped off and onto his face. “OW!”

Haru blinked a few times. “Okay…”

General Schwarz lowered his hat down slightly and sighed loudly, “… Toqgers…”

“Come on! It said to watch your step!”

Haru turned back to the door to see another figure leap from the train, this one dressed in an exact same manner as the Diamond Dog before her, only this one was yellow, had a skirt over her hind legs and had a three on her chest. From the tail, the fact she had talons and yellow covered wings, she looked to be a Griffon.

The third figure who leapt off the train had a familiar style as the last two, but with green coloring and a ‘4’ in the middle of the circle on his chest. This was the biggest of the colorful bunch so far, mainly because he was a minotaur – his muscular upper body with horns that stuck out of the side of his helmet. He swung his arms and picked up a random rock off of the ground and tossed it up and down in his hand.

The yellow griffon lifted a talon up to the door and a white gloved hoof took the talon. The griffon then helped down a unicorn that was dressed in a pink version of the uniform that the previous three wore, with a five on her chest and a single horn that was covered with black material. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“Good day, Toqgers,” General Schwarz greeted with a slight bow.

“Wha! It’s General Schwarz!” the blue diamond dog yelped as he struggled to get to his hind paws.

“Today shall be the day that the Rainbow Line shall be added to my arsenal,” General Schwarz stated, tossing the rose up into the air. “Either surrender it peacefully, or blood will be spilled.”

The minotaur sighed, keeping his attention on the rock in his hands. “You certainly have a way with words, ya know.”

“Yeah! We already beat you once, remember?” The griffon spouted as she wagged a claw at General Schwarz, with the pink uniformed mare hid behind her. “What’s the point of coming after us again when all you’ve got is a bunch of Kurous?”

“As I recall, none of you alone could scratch me,” General Schwarz replied bluntly. “And that was when I didn’t have my trump card.”

General Schwarz then turned towards Haru, which in turn garnered the Toqgers’ attention towards him. The dragon blinked a few times before he waved, “Hello.”

“Wait, didn’t Wagon say that there was a dragon passenger?” The yellow griffon questioned. “That must be him!”

“Do you see any other dragons?” Haru asked with a shrug.

“Yeah, and Right’s not here,” The blue diamond dog muttered. “Did he sabotage Right?”

“Huh?” Haru questioned as he tilted his head. “Excuse me?”

“Relax, if he was part of Shadow Line, we would’ve been alerted,” the green minotaur sighed, throwing the rock over his shoulder. “Besides, he’s not as ridiculous looking as the Shadows we’ve seen.”

Haru’s eyes went flat and he slumped forward slightly, “Yeesh.”

“Besides, how could such a cute dragon be evil?” the pink clothed unicorn proposed.

That caused a small blush to appear on Haru’s face. It was rare for anypony to call him cute…

“Enough,” General Schwarz growled as he lifted one of his hands up into the air. “Your stale comedy routine is getting on my nerves. Kurous, attack!”

The Kurous cackled before they aimed their tommy guns. The Toqgers and Haru leapt at the last second before the onslaught of ammunition crashed into the ground where they stood.

Thankfully, the crate remains, rusted barrels and traffic signs were there and provided a good enough cover from the bullet fire. Haru sighed as he leaned against the crates he hid behind, “Damn it, can’t I have one day where my friends or I aren’t under attack by some evil force?”

“Sorry about that.”

Haru realized that the pink, helmeted mare and the blue dressed Diamond Dog had dove behind the same cover he had. In the Diamond Dog’s paws was an odd gun that held tightly and he shook, while the mare’s horn glowed and lifted up an identical weapon. The mare was the one who spoke up and bowed her head slightly, “I hope we didn’t cause any inconvenience – We don’t usually have passengers on the Rainbow Line…”

“Nah, I’m used this sort of thing,” Haru replied as he looked at the ring on his claws. “Truth be told, I think I was starting to get bored.”

“Yes, well, you may want to retreat back to Rainbow Line,” The diamond dog commented before he peeked over the cover, and pulled back when more bullets were focused where he was. “Gah! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

“Sorry, but it’s not really my style to let others do work that I can easily do,” Haru replied, a smirk appeared on his face when he heard the shots cease. “HENSHIN!”

Using his tail, Haru propelled himself to the air, much to the shock of the diamond dog and unicorn mare. The Kurous watched in awe as the red dragon flipped through the air, and General Schwarz narrowed his brow, “What is this?”

FLAME – PLEASE!

Hii Hii – Hii Hii Hii!

With several embers around him, Wizard landed on the ground between the two trains, the rubies on his armor gleamed in the light. When he stood up straight, Wizard showed off the large red ring on his claws, “It’s… Showtime.”

“Oh, so this is where that confidence came from,” General Schwarz stated as he ran a finger on the hilt of his blade. “Interesting. So, what are you? You’re no Toqger…”

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Wizard stated as he slipped a different ring over his right claws. “I’m just a passing through Wizard.”

CONNECT – PLEASE!

The moment that the glowing red circle appeared, Wizard reached in and pulled out his silver gun. Without a moment of hesitation, Wizard unleashed a volley of red covered ammunition right towards General Schwarz.

In a flash, General Schwarz drew his sword and knocked the shots to the sides, which consequently slammed into a couple of the Kurous and made them shatter into sparks and puffs of smoke. The ebony general cackled as he held his sword before his face, “I did not anticipate facing a being like you on the battlefield, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t intrigued.

“It will make turning you into a bargaining chip all the more satisfying.”

“Tough words, Schwarz,” Wizard replied, unfolding his gun into its blade form. “Let’s see if you’re more than just that.”

The Kurous charged past General Schwarz and towards Wizard, only for a number of them to get blasted back by several shots. Wizard and Schwarz turned to see the Toqgers with their own guns aimed, with the Minotaur quickly spinning the main portion of it and turn it into a blade.

SLASHING!

“We’re not ones to just sit by either,” the minotaur stated as he tapped the blade on his shoulder a few times before he stepped up next to Wizard. “Wizard, eh? Feel free to call me Toq Four.”

Wizard let out a slight chuckle, “Inventive name.”

Some of the Kurous shifted the guns in their tails into axes and charged at the two masked bipeds. However, before they could take even a single step, several blue charges crashed into them and the Diamond Dog poked his head out from behind the crates, “Toq Two… And if you’d like, I can give a supplementary explanation and…”

“We don’t have time for that!” The griffon spouted as she waved her own sword with her tail through the air. “Look, Dragon… Wizard… Whatever you call yourself. I’m Toq Three, and the mare behind me is Toq Five.”

“Hello!” Toq Five greeted as she waved a hoof towards Wizard.

“And together we are…” All four said at the same time, each with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

“Although, we’re technically missing one member at the moment,” Toq Two admitted as he used his paws to push up the rails over his visor. “So, we’re not a complete sentai… We don’t have our Red member out here…”

“What are you talking about?” Toq Three scoffed as she patted Wizard’s shoulder. “He’s red! And he’s a dragon – That’ll give us not only a balance of colors, but a nice balance of species too!”

“Wait, what?!” Wizard questioned.

“Ooh, now that you mention it, he does meet the qualifications,” Toq Two agreed as he looked Wizard up and down. “The only thing that’s missing is the aesthetic design here.”

“He’s also got a ring on his head,” Toq Five pointed out as she gestured with her hoof towards Wizard’s head. “Then again, we’ve got tracks around ours…”

“You all do realize that the enemy’s still right in front of us, right?” Toq Four stated as he kicked a random rock off to the side.

Everyone else turned back to the enemy, seeing that General Schwarz was polishing the sword he had with a rose adorned cloth. Even the Kurous were busy doing other things – Some were playing cards, others took naps, even one seemed to selling some chocolate bars to other Kurous.

“Wow, they… They aren’t attacking,” Wizard muttered as he slumped over slightly. “I can hardly believe that. Are they that confident that they can win so easily that they can leave openings alone?”

“It’s a preference actually,” General Schwarz stated as he lifted the sword into the air to reflect the sunlight off of it. “Victory is like a rose – if not handled the right way, the rose will wilt. There is no honor in claiming victory if I do not seize it correctly, overpowering the Toqgers and this Wizard with my strength is the only way to properly achieve it.”

General Schwarz aimed his sword towards the group of five masked characters before him, “Let the battle commence! Kurous!”

The Kurous all stood attention to General Schwarz’s command, and readied their weapons.

“Alright temporary Toq Red,” Toq Two stated as he patted Wizard’s shoulder guard a few times. “Let’s do this!”

“Huh?” Wizard questioned. “Since when was I drafted into this? And how come my name isn’t in the same theme as yours?!”

“No need to question it,” Toq Four replied before he dashed off to the right. “Time to get going!”

Wizard shook his head as the rest of the Toqgers dashed forward. “Dear Ishimori, what have I gotten myself into?”

One of the axe wielding Kurous leapt up and spun about to bring its axe down on Wizard, only to have the armored dragon side step and slam his tail into the poor masked mook. That didn’t stop the other Kurous from charging at the dragon. With a quick turn, Wizard brought his sword down on one of the charging Kurous, which sent it flying back with his tail whipped about to slap down another one that came up his right.

Unbeknownst to the magical dragon, another Kuro slowly tip toed towards Wizard who had his back to it.

“Oi!”

The sneaky Kuro stood up straight and noticed that Toq Three was standing right next to him, her own blade held tightly in her griffon tail. “That’s cowardly!”

The Kuro lowered his head as the yellow clad griffon wagged a talon at him, “It’s not a good example of being strong, you know!”

All of a sudden, Toq Three lifted her tail up and used the blade she had coiled in it to block another Kuro’s sneaky attack. The original Kuro shook as Toq Three slowly turned her head back, “What did I just say?!

“UNFORGIVABLE!”

WHAM!

With a powerful kick, the yellow clad griffon sent the cowardly Kuro flying through the air. The first Kuro still shook in place before she delivered a swift punch to his masked face and knocked him down, “You too!”

Wizard saw all that and shook his head slightly, “Dear Ishimori, why can’t I fight against goofballs like this?”

“They may be goofballs,” Toq Three said before she slashed another Kuro that tried a more direct approach. “But even they can get dangerous when they gather like roaches.”

“Nice analogy,” Wizard muttered.

“Aaaah! Stay away!”

Both turned to see Toq Five was running away from a large amount of Kurous, almost tripping over her hooves in the processs. Wizard started to follow after them, but was stopped by Toq Three’s tail. “Huh?”

“It’s better you stay back,” Toq Three warned. “For your safety.”

“Huh?” Wizard stated.

Toq Five continued running till she realized that she was running into a large wall of debris. She yelped and skidded to a stop but realized that all of the Kurous now loomed in front of her, “No no no!”

The mare lowered her head down as the Kurous slowly descended upon her, “I think I can… I think I can… I think I can!”

Just as the Kurous were about to bring down their weapons on the poor mare…

“SUPER MARE!!!”

Toq Five flew up into the air with one of her front hooves held up and had used it to slam into a number of Kurous, which sent them flying back into their fellow well-dressed mooks. When Toq Five landed on the ground, two of the Kurous charged at her from behind, only to receive two well-placed hind hooves right smack dab in the middle of their chests.

For a moment, the two Kurous stood still before they were propelled through the air with such force that it sent skyrocketing over the trains.

If his face was visible, Wizard’s jaw would be slacked. “Wow…”

“Yeah, when she gets like that,” Toq Three chuckled, watching as some of the Kurous flung against the nearby black train. “She’s pretty hard to stop.”

Meanwhile at the farther end of the train yard, Toq Two held his own gun up towards an oncoming group of Kuous. “Hold with both paws, take aim, and then…”

The blue clothed diamond dog then dropped to the ground and rolled on the ground, but didn’t fire a single shot at the surprised enemy. “Huh?”

The Kurous, however simply took aim and unleashed their own volley of bullets towards the surprised Diamond Dog. “AHH!”

As quickly as his paws could, Toq Two ran as fast as he could to get behind cover of some nearby barrels. “Why? Why does it always end this way!?!”

“HA!!”

That’s when Toq Four leapt in between the firing Kurous and using his minotaur arms and strength, he slammed the Kurous off to the side. This was all that Toq Two needed, and leapt from the crates to fire several streams of blue energy into the Kurous and forced them to the ground, “Thanks!”

Toq Four waved his hand slightly before he threw his arm to the side which rammed the back of his fist into another Kuro’s face, making it spin about in pain. “No need for that.”

Wizard flipped through the air, able to dodge a Kuro’s attack, and when he landed he spun about and slashed one of the finely-dressed grunts with his sword. When the masked mage looked about though, yelled out, “Oi! You… Tokkyugers or whatever you’re called, do any of you see that General Schwarz guy?”

Almost immediately, the fighting ceased with the Toqgers looking at each other while the Kurous all whistled innocently on the subject.

“EH!?!”

However, the answer for that question drew a resolution as a bright purple light erupted from the Rainbow Line and in a surge of purple energy, General Schwarz flew out from one of the opened doors, several rose petals followed him through the air. “GARGH!”

The Kurous all scrambled together and managed to catch the ebony general, and immediately placed him on the ground gently. “Humph, I wasn’t expecting this either…”

From the opened door, Twilight and Right stood, with Twilight’s horn glowing brightly as Right smiled brightly, “Amazing! You’re amazing!”

“Well, just because I can’t transform into a bright costume,” Twilight replied with a slight blush on her face. “That doesn’t mean I’m helpless…”

“Ah! Right!” Toq Five gasped as she waved her hoof up towards the pegasus stallion. “Where were you?”

“Ah, s-sorry, but I had a little trouble,” Right chuckled nervously before he used his wing to lift up a smaller version of the front part of the Rainbow Line. “But we’re all good now!”

“Humph, Toq One,” General Schwarz growled as he rested his hand on the hilt of his blade. “We meet once more…”

“Ah! You’re that one guy!” Right announced as he leapt from the train and stood between the Toqgers and Wizard. “General… General Shorts!”

“Schwarz,” the ebony general corrected.

“Yeah, well in a few minutes, you’re gonna be nothing but black and blue in a few minutes!” Right roared as he pumped his hoof up. “We Toqgers and…”

That’s when Right actually got a good look at Wizard and tilted his head slightly. “WHOA! Where did you come from?! Who are you?! You’ve got a Ring on your head!”

Wizard sighed as he tapped the side of his helmet, “Apparently, I’ve been dubbed Toq Red – Dunno why, I don’t have any connection to trains.”

“Awe! You guys replaced me?!” Right questioned as his ears and wings drooped down. “That’s no fair!”

“It was a temporary solution,” Toq Three replied as she threw her talons behind her helmet. “No harm, no foul.”

“Yeah, but there is harm and foul!” Right huffed before he laughed out loud. “Just kidding! So, who are you exactly?”

“I’m that dragon,” Wizard answered bluntly.

Right was almost at a loss of words. “Wha… WHAT!?!”

Almost being the key word there.

“That… Is… AWESOME!” Right cheered as he leapt up into the air, flying for a few seconds before he landed on his hind legs. “But you’re not the only one who can transform!”

That was when Wizard noticed that there was a black band wrapped around Right’s right front hoof that he had lifted up. The yellow and black bar on the band lifted up as Right held the small train in his left wing.

Out of nowhere, a broken up white line appeared between General Schwarz’s forces and the rest, which made most of the Kurous fold their hands patiently in front of their chests. General Schwarz sighed, “I suppose now I have no choice but to go all out. I would’ve preferred this not get messy…”

“Toq Change!” Right announced as he slid the train into the band.

A white and black lined circle appeared in front of Right, with four lines extending from it. The circle turned and crashed into his chest, making a red jumpsuit appear over his body and a similar helmet to the rest of the Toqgers’, only this one resembled the steam engine with a large ‘1’ in the black lens over the visor.

TOQ ONE! TOQ ONE!

The other four Toqgers lined up behind Toq One with the sound of a train whistle echoing in the background. “THE VICTORIOUS IMAGINATION!

It was then that all five of the brightly colored characters struck a pose with several burst of colored smoke (most notably it was their own colors) behind him.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head, “Wow, there are some weird kinds of magic in this world…”

“Not magic!” Toq One announced as his wings spun. “Imagination! Departing now! FULL SPEED AHEAD!!!”

And with that all five of the Toqgers charged towards the small army, all in a straight light to break up the forces.

“Well, this has been a fun little trip,” Wizard chuckled as he rested his sword on his shoulder before he turned towards Twilight. “What do you think?”

“HOME TRIGGER!”

Twilight watched as Toq Two leapt through the air, with an odd shaped, dual barreled blaster in his paws. When he took aim at the Kurous, a blue and white rectangle shot out from it and paralyzed the small group. “I… I don’t know what to think…”

With a laugh, Toq Two dropped to the ground and rolled around, firing blast after blast of blue energy that crashed into all of the Kurous before him. With success, the diamond dog pushed up the rails that over his visor, “Whew…”

However, a familiar dark shadow appeared behind Toq Two with his sword held up. “Celebrating before the full victory? How foolish…”

Toq Two slowly turned around to see General Schwarz was behind him, and the Diamond Dog yelped as the general’s blade was brought down on him…

CLANK!

However, the steel of the General’s sword never connected – At least with Toq Two. It was blocked by a familiar sword with a hand-like symbol on it. General Schwarz’s yellow eyes narrowed at Wizard who had dashed in at the last second. “Impressive reflexes.”

Toq Two stood to the side and nodded towards Wizard, “T-Thanks!”

“Heh, no worries, I’m used to saving tails,” Wizard replied, not taking his gaze off of General Schwarz. “Hope you don’t mind, but I’ll be your opponent, Schwarz.”

“Humph, just don’t disappoint,” Schwarz growled before both warriors, with their blades crossed, dashed off towards the side.

Toq Two shrugged his shoulders and turned back to fire his weapon some more.

“SIGNAL HAMMER!”

From above, Toq Three fell with a large yellow mallet in her talons, the mallet’s metal part was shaped to be a signal light, with only two lights – One blue and one red. When yellow clothed griffon slammed the mallet into the ground in the midst of a large group of Kurous, the light turned red and a large shockwave rocked all of the nearby Kurous and sent them flying through the air before they exploded.

Nearby, the green clothed minotaur lifted up a large green axe that resembled that of a shovel and rammed it into the torso of a nearby Kuro. “Tunnel Axe!”

As the Kurous all charged towards him, Toq Four spun around, unleashing a powerful burst of green air that flew the Kurous up into the air. And as the black suited gangsters fell back to the ground, the minotaur spun around once more and sent a powerful burst of green wind that propelled the Kurous through the air. “Hmm, good distance.”

Elsewhere, the pink adorned unicorn ducked down from an axe slash and spun about before her horn glowed a bright pale pink. “Railway Bridge Claw!”

In a flash of light a dual bladed claw popped onto Toq Five’s right from hoof and with a flip she slashed it across one Kurous’ chest. But when she did, Toq Five quickly lifted her right hoof up and blocked an attack that forced her to spin to the ground, landing on her back.

A bunch of Kurous charged towards her but she lifted her Bridge Claw up, “GO!”

In a pink light, the small claws grew to immense size and the Kurous accidentally stepped through it. When they did, they fell through the other side…

… But were shrunken to the size of small figurines.

“Aw… Even they look cute at this size!” Toq Five squealed as she scooped up the mini Kurous in her hooves and hugged them close to her torso.

Unfortunately, when she did that, they all popped into tiny little sparks.

“… Oh…” Toq Five groaned as she slumped forward.

Twilight watched as the colorful dressed group continued to fight, “And here I thought Haru’s magic was weird.”

“Ah mou! How many times do I have to say it?!”

Twilight turned to see Toq One right in front of her, a large red saber with train tracks embedded on the blade wrapped in his tail. “It isn’t magic – It’s IMAGINATION! Rail Slasher!”

Several Kurous charged towards Toq One, who turned around and pointed his sword towards them. The rail on the blade flowed from the sword and wrapped around the Kurous in a rail-like binding and bound them into a cluster.

“Alright!” Toq One announced before he galloped towards the group and slashed his sword across them. The Kurous yelped before they exploded.

With his sword now in the ground, Toq One turned back to Twilight, “So, what ya think? Still think this is magic?”

“Of course,” Twilight replied with a nod. “What you did was a simple binding spell, your sword is probably infused with magic and allowed you to do that.”

With a huff, Toq One noticed that his griffon companion wasn’t too far from him, “Oh yeah?! Well, let’s see if your magic can do this! Mio!”

Toq Three turned back just in time for the red dressed pegasus to gallop next to her, “What?”

Without warning, Toq One lifted up the griffon’s right talon and messed with the black pad on it, “Let me borrow this!”

“WHAT?!”

Ignoring her please, Toq One lifted pulled the yellow train car from the black wrist band with one of his wings and with his other wing, pulled out his own.

And with a blink of an eye, the pegasus swapped the trains and clicked them in.

In a flash of light, the two Toqgers had swapped places – But something was odd. The yellow griffon was much taller with a more muscular physique and the skirt was no more, and rather it was on the pegasus that was much leaner now. Interestingly enough, the symbols on their chests were different – With the ‘1’ on the griffon’s chest, and the ‘3’ was on the pegasus’.

However, the now-pegasus Toq Three stomped her front hooves against the ground, “Damn it, Right! You know I don’t like it when you do that! I hate having hooves!”

With his new talons, Toq One lifted the signal hammer up and flew through the air. “Sorry! But I had to make a point!”

Toq Three growled before she used the Rail Slasher to attack an oncoming Kurous.

Twilight blinked a few times before she shook her head, “No… No, it’s not possible… Did they actually just swap species?!”

Toq Four hummed to himself before he grabbed the blue clothed diamond dog next to him, “Hey, Tokacchi, swap with me.”

“Huh? Toq Two questioned before the minotaur quickly swapped the trains in their bands. “W-Wait a second!”

When the light around the two disappeared, a more muscular diamond dog stood strong with the Home Trigger in his paws that he immediately shot off. “HA!”

However, the green minotaur seemed to be much scrawnier than before and struggled to just lift the Tunnel Axe, “H-Hikari! I can barely lift this heavy thing! S-Switch back with me!”

“Don’t worry Tokacchi,” Toq Five stated as she carefully trotted up next to the struggling minotaur. Her horn glowed brightly and immediately, the small trains in their black bands switched. “I don’t mind switching…”

The two faded in a bright light.

And in their place was a female minotaur dressed in the green uniform, plus a skirt. She cheered as she easily lifted the Tunnel Axe over her head, “Kairiki GIRL!”

With a mighty swing, Toq Five slammed the axe into a few surprised Kurous, and knocked them away while Toq Two used the Railway Claws to block another attack.

All the while Twilight’s jaw had gone slack as she watched the species swapped Toqgers duke it out with the remaining Kurous. “I… I don’t know what to say to this! They’re able to change species like it was nothing!

“The only creatures that have an ability similar are those Changelings that I read about – But even then… This is…”

“This is the power of Imagination!” Toq One laughed out as he slammed the Signal Hammer into a Kurous. The transformed griffon turned to Twilight and chuckled. “The victorious imagination! Magic may be cool, but Imagination is awesome!”

‘I get the feeling that Pinkie would love to be a part of this team,’ Twilight thought to herself. “Although, I can’t tell who’s who anymore.”

Steel clashed against steel, with Wizard using his sword to block one of General Schwarz’s powerful slashes, but was forced back due to the ‘This guy… He’s strong.’

General Schwarz narrowed his eyes and leaned in to put more weight into his attack, “Humph, you are strong, but why do you only defend?”

Wizard didn’t say a word and leapt back to break away from the ebony fiend.

“It seems as though you are hesitant to use your power,” General Schwarz stated as he placed a finger on the steel of his blade. “Why is that? What is holding you back?”

“Heh, didn’t think an enemy would ask that,” Wizard replied, not lowering his sword down. ‘Then again, this is an enemy who wouldn’t attack when his opponents were squabbling.’

Wizard stood up slightly, “There’s no need to fight. This is a pointless battle, and there’s no need to…”

“Heh, Wizard, was it?” General Schwarz cackled as he lifted his blade up. “There is no such thing as a pointless battle – Whether the battle involves swords or words every conflict has a purpose. Each side has their own goals and morals, and my goal is simple.”

General Schwarz dashed forward and quickly brought down the sword onto Wizard with so much force, that even when Wizard could block it, he was forced back and could barely hold back the ebony general. “If you cannot muster your own goals and morals, then you only have one fate! To be nothing more than a footnote in my victory!”

Wizard growled as he tried to push back with his own sword, but the General had much more strength…

“That doesn’t matter!”

That’s when Wizard felt something at his waist, and when he turned his head slightly, he saw that Toq One, back in his pegasus form had appeared behind him with his hooves on the masked dragon. But that wasn’t all, the other multicolored group was following suit, with Toq Two’s paws on the pegasus’ back, Toq Three’s talons on the diamond dog’s waist, and etc.

“No matter what, everypony,” Toq One shouted before he shook his head. “Or every-dragon, or every-whatever, they have a right to not fight! But, when against some jerk like you… Some-whatever needs to stand up against you!

“FULL-SPEED AHEAD!”

“Wait, what?” Wizard questioned before he felt more pressure put on his back.

It was then that the Toqgers pushed Wizard forward and allowed him to actually make General Schwarz skid back from the combined attack.

“Here we go!” Toq Five announced playfully as the group forced General Schwarz to run backwards so he wouldn’t get steamrolled or slashed.

Twilight had followed the group by running across the top of the Rainbow Line and watched the odd scene playing out in front of her. “… I… What? Is that even considered fighting?”

General Schwarz snarled before he slammed his foot to the ground, “Enough of this!”

Then by side stepping, General Schwarz forced Wizard and most of the Toqgers to stumble forward. The only one who didn’t stumble past the ebony fiend was Toq Five, who chuckled sheepishly and then pulled her hoof back, “PUNCH!”

Once more, General Schwarz side stepped and dodged the attack. With his eyes narrowed down, General Schwarz quickly brought down his blade onto the unicorn mare.

However, before his steel could connect, two familiar feet slammed into the general’s shoulder and propelled him away from the mare. Then Wizard landed on his feet and nodded towards Toq Five, “You okay?”

The mare nodded back as the rest of the Toqgers ran up to Wizard, with Toq One standing alongside the dragon. “Yo! Nice moves out there!”

Wizard rubbed the back of his head, “… I guess…”

“Don’t let that jerk’s words get to ya,” Toq One replied as he tapped his hoof against Wizard’s chest plate. “But, sometimes, you have to fight – Even if you don’t want to, you’ve got your reasons to fight. If you got something to protect, then you can only believe in what you can protect – Let it guide you!”

“I don’t know if that was a pep-talk or not,” Wizard stated as he lifted his sword up. “But… It’s definitely showtime!”

“GAH! Such a cool catch phrase!” Toq Two sighed as he pushed up the rails.

“Alright!” Toq One cheered as he lifted up his Rail Slasher with his tail. “Think you can do me a favor?”

“And what’s that?” Wizard asked.

“One, I want you to imagine what we’re about to do,” the pegasus suggested.

“Imagine?” Wizard questioned, and then he lowered his head slightly. “Sure, why not?”

“Just imagine it – Imagine our glorious victory!” Toq One announced as he pumped his hoof up into the air. “Can you see it?”

After a few moments Wizard lifted his head up along with his sword. “I do!”

“Good! So lead the charge!” Toq Three suggested before she pushed the dragon towards General Schwarz.

Taking a moment to look back at the Toqgers, Wizard noted that most of them were gesturing him to continue his assault, the only one that didn’t was Toq Four (he was trying to balance the Tunnel Axe by the handle in the palm of one of his hands). With a shake of his head, Wizard charged towards General Schwarz and immediately brought his sword down on the general.

The ebony fiend brought his own sword up and caught the attack, “So, you do have a fire of battle in you.”

“More than just a flame, Schwarz!” Wizard growled as he pulled back, spun around and delivered a another slash, which was unfortunately blocked.

As the two traded slashes, the Toqgers nodded to each other before Toq One stepped forward, “Alright! Let’s do this!”

All of the Toqgers threw their weapons up into the air and watched as they merged into one, multicolored weapon. The bazooka lowered between the group, with Toq Five near the front to use her magic to hold up the end, while Toqgers Four through Two were at the right and Toq One was at the back, holding up a weird train-like bullet that had yellow energy flowing from it.

And immediately, he loaded it into the cannon.

“Rainbow Rush!” Toq One announced as the bullet traveled down the bazooka. “Dragon’s Fire!”

A powerful burst of energy erupted from the cannon and flew towards both Wizard and General Schwarz. However, the ebony fiend narrowed his eyes and immediately kicked Wizard back… Which unfortunately had him be struck by the powerful energy.

And promptly exploded in a burst of red flames.

Twilight’s jaw dropped once more, “You shot the wrong target!”

General Schwarz chuckled as he lifted his sword up, “Obviously you’re more foolish than I thought.”

“Oh? You think we were aiming for you?” Toq One stated. “Nope!”

That’s when a loud roar echoed through the air, which made General Schwarz turn towards the flames just in time to see a large, silver figure step from it – A large dragon with skin made of steel and covered with golden armor with a red jewel in its forehead. “What?!”

The dragon roared once more before it spun around and slammed its tail into General Schwarz, the ebony fiend just barely able to lift his sword up to block that powerful assault. But it was too much and sent him skidding backwards with sparks erupting from between his feet and the concrete. “URK!”

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Twilight muttered at the sight of the dragon.

With its mighty wings unfolded, the dragon flew towards General Schwarz before it spun about, flames covering its body. The general didn’t get a chance to try to block this attack, for when the dragon connected with him, it exploded into a powerful explosion with a familiar, red runic circle appearing in front of it.

And a few feet away, Wizard landed on his back. “OW!”

When the flames resided, General Schwarz was on his knees, using his sword to prop himself up. “Ugh… Such power…”

That’s when a few Kurous leapt from the black train, a few of them stood before him while two helped him to his feet. “This… This is not over Toqgers. And I shall not forgive this Dragon… No, Wizard, this shall not be the end of this!”

The Kurous that guarded General Schwarz aimed their guns and fired their weapons at the Toqgers’ feet and hooves, trying to get them to back off. While the colorful group struggled to not get shot, General Schwarz was escorted back on the black train.

And then, as quickly as it came, the black train chugged off at an amazing speed, the remaining Kurous leapt onto the end of the train before disappeared into the distance.

“Yeah! You better run!” Toq Three shouted as she waved her free talon through the air. “Wish I could’ve socked that yellow eyed freak…”

“We just sicked a dragon on him,” Toq Four stated as he crossed his arms. “Do you think that your fists could do more damage?”

“Yes!” Toq Three barked back.

“Hey! Shouldn’t you help him?” Twilight yelled at the group as she gestured towards Wizard, who was still on the ground – Probably dazed at what happened with him.

“Oh,” Toq Two chuckled sheepishly. “Sorry about that! We’ll get right on that!”

A few hours later at the Canterlot Train Station the Rainbow Line slowly pulled up to the station with steam flowing from the front train’s stack. While a few ponies were confused at the odd design, three particular figures exited the train a little more confused at riding on the fancily colored train.

“Once again, sorry about that!” Right chuckled sheepishly as he leapt out from the train behind Haru, Twilight and Dryad.

“Nothing broken,” Haru replied with a wave of his claws. “It was more… Unexpected than anything else.”

“I guess our images of victory were slightly off,” Right suggested with a goofy face. “But still – We won!”

“I’m still confused on how you were all able to swap species,” Twilight sighed with a leer aimed at the goofy pegasus. “That’s breaking a basic principle of magic, and only one of you is a unicorn!”

“Ah, don’t worry about that,” Right replied, waving his hoof a few times. “I keep telling you, it’s not magic, it’s IMAGINATION. Two separate powers.

“But I’ve got my own question for you three… How were you able to get on the Rainbow Line?”

Haru reached into his pocket and produced three small card-like devices that had ‘TOQ’ written on them with either red, purple or dark green coloring to them. “Well, when we were buying tickets for the train, there was this weird stallion in a gray coat and hat who gave us these.

“Which is weird, since I’ve bought train tickets before, and they didn’t look like these…”

“WHA?! Those are Rainbow Passes!” Right yelped as he jumped back. “I didn’t know you could buy those!”

“Apparently, you can,” Twilight replied as she cleared her throat. “And although I would like to stay onboard and observe you five, we have something we need to do.”

“That’s fine,” Right replied, slightly calmed down. “But if you’re ever onboard again, we’ll be glad to treat you with the greatest of services – Without the whole fighting against the forces of darkness thing.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Haru chuckled as he lifted his claws up.

Right smiled as he lifted his hoof onto the dragon’s claws and the two shook.

“Well, looks like it’s time to go,” Right stated before he pulled his hoof back. “Till the next time! Later!”

And with that, Right stepped back onto the colorful train with the engine roaring loudly. However, as the train began to pull away from the station, several windows opened up and Right’s head popped out of one of them.

From the other windows – a blue Diamond dog with glasses, a griffon with combed down feathers, a rather bored looking, green minotaur, and a pink unicorn with a long black mane done in tails followed suit and waved towards the three. “BYE!”

As the train began to fade into the distance, Dryad turned towards Twilight, “Does this sort of thing happen all the time?”

“More often than you think,” Twilight admitted with a sheepish grin. “Now then, the royal guard should be right outside the station… Haru, could you get our tickets for the next train to Ponyville?”

“Sure,” Haru answered as he watched the two mares walk off. After a moment, the red dragon sighed and threw his arms over his head. “… I wonder, is that change of theirs permanent?”

“Who knows?”

Wizard turned around just in time to see a white, older stallion dressed in a gray raincoat and hat with a pair of glasses on his face. He had a smile on his face as he used his hooves to push up his glasses, “Hello.”

“Hey… Aren’t you the ticket stallion back at Ponyville?” Haru questioned with his head tilted. “How’d you get here?”

“That doesn’t matter,” the stallion replied as he shook his head, allowing two small pass-like items to fall into his hoof. “What matters is that you paid for return tickets, and I’m here to give them to you.”

Haru took the tickets and then looked at one of the Rainbow Passes that he had. There was a clear difference to them, but then he looked towards this weird stallion. “Who… Who are you?”

The stallion smiled as a gray field of energy appeared behind him. “… I am Narutaki. The ally of all Riders. Prepare yourself – Haruto Souma, Wizard.”

Haru’s eyes narrowed slightly at the stallion who turned around. “The destroyer of worlds shall soon appear before you – The fate of this world will depend on what you do.”

And with that, Narutaki faded into the field of energy behind him and disappeared.

Haru just blinked a few times, “… Huh?”

“Haru!”

The dragon shook his head as he turned back to see Twilight trot back to him. “Well, Dryad’s in good hooves now.”

“Great to hear,” Haru stated as he lifted up the weird train passes. “Well, we’ve got the tickets, and all we need to do is wait for the train…”

The moment that Haru finished speaking, a loud train whistle echoed through the air garnering the two’s attention to the tracks.

Coming down the same way that the Rainbow Line went, a new train slowed down at the station – this one a bright silver, bullet train with the front that had two red screens that reflected the light.

Haru and Twilight turned towards each other before they stared at the odd train…