Slashy

No magic, Twilight just taught him how to speak.

Don't forget Spike, he is often called to save the day too.

Did you even read the story I wrote? Because I am pretty sure you missed the ENTIRE POINT OF MY POST. Okay people, in case you missed the point of my post because you didn't read it. I'm not saying there shouldn't be fantastical elements in the conflict, I'm saying they don't rely on magic to make it work. A story about a self-aware AI that is designed to make CHS students obsessed with studying is NOT MUNDANE, that was what I was proposing as an example.

So create an anti-Tirek villain

1. Some ally builds a giant robot that our heroes need to work together to control. 2. Magical energy can be created, perhaps the villain uses this, our heroes also powerup using it as well. There is like an infinite number of ways this can be done.

Kind of wish more people considered this one.

I realize that and agree, with it being a huge reason why Friendship Games was so boring to me, but I'm not talking about mundane stories, I'm just talking about the fantastical elements not being magic related.

I mostly think of this based on an idea I had earlier when I was trying to think of an EQG story where the portal could not even be mentioned during the entirety of the story, but still being an exciting plot that works within the whole "fantastical forces hijack a teenagers event" formula.

The Wind Wooly After the Cutie Mark Crusaders find a strange egg in the lake near Rarity's/Sweetie Belle's house, they bring it over to Fluttershy to inspect it, wondering why an egg such as that would be in such an odd location as well as expecting her to know what to do with it. Fluttershy is unable to identify the egg, and suggests that they head to the castle to see if Twilight might have a book about it. As they turn to leave the egg hatches revealing a furry ball with wings and a long tail with a ball at its end. The Crusaders begin contemplating the prospect of keeping the creature as a pet. Fluttershy immediately recognizes it as a Wind Wooly, a creature that was thought to only exist in filly tales. With the fear that the creature's legendary status would surely cause Twilight to want to study him further, and possibly even contacting Celestia and wanting to take it away. Fluttershy agrees to keep it a secret as long as the Crucaders agree to keep it out of trouble. After a fun day with their new friend, Sweetie Belle agrees to take it home with her. She wakes up the next morning with her room covered his fur. Scootaloo then takes the creature home for the night only to have its tail banging keep her and her parents up awake at night. Apple Bloom agrees to keep it overnight in the barn, she arrives the next morning that it escaped and began eating bushels of apples after apples. The Crusaders regroup and decide the best course of action is to have Fluttershy teach them how to discipline it. While they are learning the basics of teaching the Wind Wooly how to behave, Applejack comes by looking for Fluttershy's help in figuring out what caused a quarter of her farm's apples to go missing. There she finds out the that the Crusaders have been keeping a potentially dangerous pet hidden from her, and she grounds the Crusaders to Fluttershy's cottage while she goes to Twilight to figure out a way to get rid of this creature Applejack goes to Twilight's castle to see if she can figure out how to get rid of the creature. As soon as she opens it, the creature immediately sends Applejack tumbling as it shows that its tail has impressive strength and flexibility. Twilight notices the creature as a Wind Wooly, stating that they're known for being incredibly hard to capture which is why nopony has ever seen one of them, and that she's also read that capturing one would grant the pony a wish. Twilight tries to grab the Wind Wooly with her magic, but everytime she does so the creature is able to smack himself with his tail to cancel the spell. They chase the Wind Wooly as it makes a mess in Ponyville trying to get away, noticing that it is heading back towards Fluttershy's cottage. as it reaches Fluttershy's cottage AJ and Twilight try to capture him together, with Twilight holding its tail still with her magic and AJ wrapping its body around with another lasso so he can't get away. The Wind Wooly still struggles straining AJ and Twilight as they try to restrain him the Crusaders come out and order him to stop, immediately he listens and stops what he is doing. The Crusaders lament that they were right in needing to keep the creature, lamenting that AJ doesn't trust them to take the responsibility of raising the creature and that Twilight's desire to research such a rare creature lead her to neglect the fact that the Wind Wooly was their friend. Fluttershy also explains that the Crusaders had been coming to her to learn how to responsibly take care of the creature. Twilight and AJ apologize for their actions, the crusaders celebrate and deem the Wind Wooly the mascot of the Cutie Mark Crusaders

What if her brother's special talent is building robots? As silly as it is hear me out. 1. It would make him a unique counterpart to Fluttershy. 2. It would justify why he is worried about failure (his talent makes creations that could terrify or offend others who are not familiar with robots) 3. It would explain why he spends so much time at home 4. It would give him a very useful talent and make him a character we want to see more.

Have a mad scientist who wants to harvest the forest's magical energy in order to build robots.

Rather than some big spell, just launch a net at them or tie them up with one of AJs lassos

I am glad someone likes the fake animatic I made. I would like to specify some things which weren't clearly depicted in it. Spike's armor was meant to make him super tough and strong, he was meant to be careless and slamming through walls. Pinkie was supposed to be lighting balloons which explode into fireworks. Twilight's powerup was meant to give her two floating cutie mark drones that would follow her and copy her spells. It was supposed to be a reference to Gradius' Option/Multiple. I have/had high hopes for the Guardians of Harmony Hero Items to play a big role in the series. I prefer it drastically to the super power laser beams we usually get. The way I imagined them was meant to not only give them more specific utility beyond super laser beams, but it also addressed the issue by removing the entire restriction that only the Element Bearers could use them.

It is rated TV-Y. It would be out of the question! It is the same reason why Sunset Shimmer didn't threaten Twilight/Spike's life in Equestria Girls.

Why not transformation powerups like in Mario? That's what we saw in the "leaked" season 6 animatic.

Uhh it is still the same characters, just rather than having most of them there to power a magical laser beam, we are only picking the two that usually have the time and ability to pull it off.

Rather than Twilight and Spike as it appears to be since Season 3 started. I mean we did have the Cutie Map, but that could have become a Twilight and Spike adventure if Spike tagged along. Me? Heck no, I absolutely love Twilight and Spike and I feel their team dynamic is better than the mane6 where usually two characters get shafted, or it doesn't make sense for some characters to be joining in on the adventure. It just makes sense to have the designated hero of Equestria and the wannabe hero of Equestria teaming up to save the day.

The problem with the comics is these things are usually taken seriously, which makes it painful to read.

Would he team up with the pillow stealing dragon?

It would be a good enough reason for me to stay the heck away from using magic.

It would be better if he was very dedicated to his cause, even if his cause is very stupid.

Why does Flurry Heart need to use magic? Wouldn't it be more amazing if she was an alicorn that didn't care for magic? Heck her name is Flurry (as in a flurry of punches or kicks in this scenario) Heart, maybe she can fit the martial artist archetype and be more like Ryu or Makoto.

Flurry Heart sneaks on the train back to ponyville to stay with Pinkie, Pinkie tries to find a way to get Flurry Heart to stay with her parents.

Well this could be more of a Luna plot, since she could be the one not suffering from restlessness. You want another Luna episode that doesn't deal at all with the events from 1000 years ago? Here you go!

Flurry Heart transforms Celestia into a foal to get a new playmate. Sunburst wants to teach Flurry Heart to be a wizard, but she seems more interested in learning some kind of combat art.