“What cannon?” Stone Mane looked around the deserted warehouse confused in my Equestria dreamscape. “There’s no cannon here?”

“Oh yes there is!” Exclaimed Applebloom. “Come on I see it behind this big boiler thing!”

Coaxing the little colt to his hoofs she led him over to a dark corner of the warehouse. There was a gigantic object covered by a dingy tarp. Of course Applebloom knew there was a cannon there because she’d just created it in Stone Mane’s dream fabric. We need a plan She grabbed a corner of the tarp with her teeth and gave it a dramatic tug. In one, smooth motion the tarp tumbled off the object.

“So Stone Mane.” Applebloom turned around and looked back at the colt with a smile on her face. “Do ya think this here is a big enough cannon fer ya?”

Stone Mane stood silent with his face scrunched up as he examined Applebloom’s created artifact. He tilted his head to one side and then to the other. Finally he spoke.

“Um, well. It’s a cannon, and it’s huge, but uh, er, it looks weird?”

“Weird?” Applebloom glared at the colt. “What ya mean by weird?”

The little brown colt scuffed a back hoof on the warehouse floor. “Well it’s definitely bigger than any cannon I’ve ever seen or read about.” Stone Mane began pacing around it. “

Applebloom gritted her teeth. “But it’s a gigantic cannon that we could a blast a dragon with. Right?”

Stone Mane was now scrambling onto the gun carriage. “Well, maybe, but this doesn’t look like any cannon I’ve seen in any of the manuals my Dad let me read.”

He started running a front hoof along its barrel. All the while examining Applebloom’s masterpiece with a critical eye, finally Stone Mane looked back at the little filly.

“It kind of looks like a enormous version of the toy cannon my dad bought me a couple years ago?”

“Yes, yes.” Applebloom was trying to not to yell at the colt. “But it’ll blow that dragon ta smithereens? Right?”

Applebloom was starting to get exacerbated with the situation. Of course it looked like a toy cannon because that was only cannon she could think of at the moment. Years ago when she’d been a real little filly one her relatives had gotten Big Mac a toy cannon for his birthday. You could even load with powder and then when you pulled the string it went bang! Apparently it didn’t take long for Big Mac and Applejack to figure out you could stuff cherry pits in the barrel and shoot them out to. Then one day. Applebloom was unsure what had possessed her big brother to do it; Big Mac had stuffed one of his marbles in the cannon and as Big Sis was walking away he’d….

Well, past that point Applebloom was uncertain about the chain of events. All she could remember now was that AJ gave Big Mac a black eye; Granny Smith took the cannon away and it was never seen again, and her big sister had trouble sitting down for several days.

Great! Thought the little filly. I get him ginormous cannon and now all of the sudden he’s getting picky!

“Besides, how do we load it?” Stone Mane’s comment caught Applebloom off guard.

“Load it? What ya mean load it?”

“Yeah, how do we get the powder charge and projectile into the barrel?” The little colt was looking at the back of the barrel. “It’s not a breechloader so we’ll need a rammer for the powder charges and this thing must have at least a 24 inch bore. How are we going get a shell into a barrel without a hoist?”

Sun and Moon! Thought Luna’s pupil. If every pony gives Princess Luna this much trouble every time she tries ta help them in their dreams its no surprise she turned into Nightmare Moon!

“We don’t have ta worry about that cuz it’s already loaded!” As Applebloom made this declaration she frantically started to mentally create the load in the cannon.

“It’s already loaded? Really?” Stone Mane scrambled down to the front gun carriage then he jumped up and grabbed the bottom edge of the barrel with his front hoofs. Doing a pull up he peered into the cannon’s bore. For several seconds he was silent.

“Why is there a giant marble in it?”

 “LOOK! IT’S A REALLY BIG, MAGICAL BULLET THING YA CAN USE TA BLAST THAT DRAGON TA SMITHEREENS! WHO CARES IF IT LOOKS LIKE A MARBLE?” Roared the little filly. Maintaining this magical artifact was starting to put a real strain on her. What she needed was for Stone Mane to accept this construct of hers as being part of his dream fabric. However every time he questioned its existence it meant Applebloom had to keep it from fading. She was already starting to feel the warehouse wanting to slip away.

Applebloom closed her eyes. “Look yer having a dream right now, ya know that right? I came along and was able fly off with ya in ta sky and I’m no feather flapper. This cannon here might look like some giant toy. However what’s more important is that you can use it blast that nightmare dragon away and free yerself from its power, but fer that ta happen ya first have ta believe in yerself!”

She strolled over to the gun carriage and looked up Stone Mane. “Yer the only one who can make this nightmare go away fer good. Only if ya believe in yer self will it stop. I believe ya can do this Stone Mane. Will ya believe in yerself this one time?”   

For several seconds the colt stared Applebloom. Then slowly he lowered himself back down on the gun carriage. He walked to the edge of carriage and looked down at Applebloom. He stared at her as if trying judge the merit of her words. Finally he closed his eyes and nodded his head. When he opened his eyes again there was fire in them. After a moment he spoke.

“Okay. Let’s do this!”