> The Ram Strikes Back > by Robert Emerald Fountain > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three years ago . . . Flurry Heart united Equestria and the Crystal Empire into a single nation after the war against Grogar to protect friendship in all of its forms. Little does anybody know that only Grogar's body was destroyed. His soul has secluded itself in a faraway cave and mutated to get stronger. Can Flurry Heart stop this threat when Grogar's soul comes out of hiding, or is the world doomed to lose all knowledge of friendship? > New Missions and First Sightings > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After uniting Equestria with the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart had approved scientific missions for the Wonderbolts to explore the moon and for the Young Six to chart areas of deep space. The missions involved building a new version of the E S S Harmony, which was capable of landing on planets, and several smaller ships with which to land on the moon. These missions were successful to begin with, but some of the deep space missions ended with the Young Six being either captured, or severely injured by the aliens they encountered. However, they persevered and got away from the aliens before too much time passed. This did not mean that Equus was not attacked though. During the first three years that the land was united, the world was at war against aliens up to six times. Luckily, they prevented the aliens from invading or striking the capitol. One day in Canterlot, Flurry Heart had just gotten word of the results from a recent project to construct an armored space station. The purpose of this space station was to protect Equus from alien attackers before they got too close. Little did anyone know that the aliens were about to be the least of their worries. ** Six months after the space station was finished, the rotating workers started reporting unusual sightings to Flurry. They all said that prior to launching for their shift they would see a mass of blue light with what looked like horns and bright green eyes. Flurry was startled by this and began to send searchers to look for this mass of energy. Sadly, none of the searches came back positive for locating the energy mass, which left Flurry very worried. All of this was about to change, as the energy mass had hidden itself on board the rocket for the next space station crew. > !!ALERT!! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two months after the next space station crew had launched, Commander Ursa called out to Sandbar at Mission Control with an urgent emergency. The report was so frightening that Sandbar contacted Flurry Heart. "Mission Control to Canterlot. Commander Ursa has called in an urgent emergency on-board the space station.", he said. "Patch me through.", replied Flurry Heart. "Yes your highness.", said Sandbar as he relayed the call to the palace. When Ursa came up on the screen in the throne room, she was held in restraint by the mass of blue energy. "What's going on up there?", Flurry asked in shock. "This thing has captured all of my crew members, and it has a message for you.", said Ursa before the mass knocked her out with a nasty zap. "Did you really think you destroyed me, three years ago?", growled the mass as its eyes appeared along with a mouth. "Grogar!", snarled Flurry. "You only destroyed my body. I am Grogar's soul, and I am about to exact my revenge on Equus. If I can't destroy friendship, I'll just wipe Equus off of the space map.", said Grogar before terminating the call. In a flash, Flurry sounded the alarm to gather the Young Six. They rushed to Canterlot and got together in a meeting with Flurry Heart. "Have you figured out what that mass of energy is?", asked Gallus. "It's Grogar.", said Flurry. Silverstream did a spit-take in shock. "WHAT?", asked Smolder. "I thought he was dead after we defeated him.", said Ocellus. "So did I, but it turns out that his soul has returned for revenge.", replied Flurry. "OH MY GRACIOUS!", cried Silverstream. "Sounds like we have one more battle with him.", growled Sandbar. "You would be right. Get your space suits on and board the Harmony.", instructed Flurry. The Young Six gave her a salute and rushed to suit up. They were on the train to the launchpad three hours later. After boarding the Harmony; they took off and flew for the space station to both defeat Grogar and rescue the crew members. > The Last Battle > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After landing in a hangar on the space station and donning their weapons, the Young Six charged off of their ship to confront Grogar. They quickly found the space station's crew and placed them in the medical bay on the Harmony before turning their trackers on. Grogar was on a scaffold above the station's main core and was not about to surrender easily. When the Young Six entered the room, he snarled at them. "This time, I WILL WIN!", he hissed. "I think NOT!", growled Smolder as she shot a blast to break one of Grogar's horns. The blast hit its mark and sent the horn flying 800 feet down to the bottom of the chamber. This angered Grogar and he lunged forward at Smolder, but she flew over his head and grabbed his tail to restrain him. Seizing an opportunity, Ocellus fired a blast from her horns to blind Grogar, and it worked. Gallus used his talons to break a chain off of the scaffold and used it to tie Grogar down. Grogar retaliated by whipping his hoof in a way that he broke Gallus' left wing. Silverstream became livid and faced Grogar with rage in her eyes. "We will destroy you, even if it means we have to destroy the space station in the process.", she screeched as Yona tied heavy weights to Grogar's hooves so he could not move his limbs. Sandbar drew an enchanted blade and plunged it into Grogar's back to give the final blow and destroy Grogar's soul. Grogar let out an ear-piercing scream as the energy burned through him until his presence was reduced to an orb, which quickly became unstable and exploded, sending all of the Young Six flying backwards into the access hallway. The weights that Yona had tied to Grogar's hooves fell free until they struck a protrusion on the wall inside the power chamber and ricocheted into the core's structure. Before hearing the weights clang on the wall, Gallus had quickly healed his wing with an instant heal serum that had been formulated during the last war against Grogar. When the weights struck the core, it became unstable and the safety doors began to shut with hydraulics. As the door mechanisms kicked on, an alarm sounded over the station's intercom that the core was damaged and the station was going to self-destruct in six minutes. Knowing that time was of the essence, everyone took off running for five minutes through the station's passageways until they reached the Harmony and fastened their seatbelts. As the core's integrity continued to decrease, the airlocks began closing and the Young Six fired their engines to get away. They barely made it through the hatch as it grazed the Harmony's wings. The station finally gave out and exploded when the Harmony was 60 feet away from the exterior. > Return From Space > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unknown to the Young Six; the space station's explosion had damaged their heat shield without them knowing. As they began reentering the atmosphere, the warning came up on their display and Flurry became nervous that they were not going to make it. Just then, Gallus had an idea. "We have a backup tank of coolant. If we vent it, we can freeze the Harmony long enough to get through reentry.", he said. "Worth a shot.", said Smolder. "Better do it now if you think it will work.", said Flurry. Gallus rushed to the cargo bay and hooked the backup tank's hose to an emergency dump valve in order to vent the fluid. "Coolant is pumping.", he said once the valve was opened. "Then you'd better wrap up warm. It's going to become frigid in there very fast.", replied Flurry. Gallus rushed back to the bridge and everyone closed their helmets in order to engage their suits' heaters and keep warm. Knowing that reentry was always a bumpy ride, they fastened their seatbelts. Unfortunately, Gallus hadn't acted fast enough to freeze the ship before their landing gear became welded in place by the intense heat. Once they had passed through the hottest phase, he relayed this to Flurry Heart and they adjusted their course to land with a splash instead of a gentle glide onto the water. "PREPARE FOR SPLASHDOWN!", cried Sandbar as the ship dived for the Celestial Sea. The Young Six shut their eyes and braced for the hard impact until they were thrust forward in their seats as the Harmony splashed into the water at terminal velocity. Once they had slowed to a stop in the water, Ocellus deployed the safety floats so the ship would not sink before they could be extracted. Soon, the recovery ship arrived to extract them from the ocean and take them home. > Peace At Last > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the Harmony was craned out of the water and the Young Six were taken back to land, Flurry Heart arranged a ceremony in Canterlot for them to receive medals of honor for their actions in taking down Grogar's soul. After the medals were awarded to the Young Six, the plans to build a new armored space station were laid out. The Young Six personally oversaw the construction until the new space station was finished and all of its weapons were primed for use. The future saw occasional alien attacks, but the invaders soon gave up and went on to form peace treaties with Flurry Heart. Soon, any alien race she had knowledge of was friendly and even willing to protect Equus from other aliens. In the end, Equus and its new neighbors became a peaceful armada of planets that worked to protect each other until the end of time.