“Zroop! Are you sure this is safe?” Buzzadont asked, eyeing the shimmering portal they’d just built.

“Absolutely,” Artifactron replied, adjusting his mechanical manipulators. “The system is flawless. No room for error.”

“Flawless?” Buzzlet buzzed over the portal. “If something goes wrong, it’ll be fun!”

“Zroop… That’s exactly what worries me,” Buzzadont muttered before stepping in.

The portal ride was pure chaos.

“ZROOOOP!” Buzzadont yelled as he tumbled through blinding flashes of light, his wings flapping uselessly.

When it finally ended, he landed with a loud thud on something soft. “Zroop… That was terrible.” He looked around. The world was strange: giant glowing mushrooms, upside-down trees, and a river flowing… upwards.

“This… isn’t right,” Artifactron said, scanning the area.

“You don’t say!” Buzzadont replied, brushing off glowing dust. “I thought you said no room for error!”

“I did. The system is flawless. The user, however…” Artifactron shot back.

“Zroop! You’re blaming me?” Buzzadont huffed.

Meanwhile, Buzzlet zipped around the bizarre landscape. “This is amazing! Look at those mushrooms! They’re laughing! Do you think I can catch that bubble?!”

“Please don’t,” Artifactron grumbled, as a massive bubble burst nearby, splashing rainbow-colored liquid everywhere.

“Zroop! What kind of place is this?!” Buzzadont exclaimed, dodging the puddle.

“We’re in an unstable modular world,” Artifactron explained. “Some worlds built on Celestia’s modules… malfunction.”

“Malfunction?” Buzzadont scoffed. “Like the upside-down trees or the laughing mushrooms?”

“Exactly.”

Things escalated when one of the mushrooms began to grow—fast. It loomed over them like a building.

“Zroop! What now?!” Buzzadont panicked.

“Back to the portal. Now!” Artifactron commanded, his manipulators activating.

Buzzlet darted to the portal controls. “Got it! Let’s go!”

Buzzadont dove in first, followed by Artifactron. Buzzlet zipped through just as the giant mushroom tried to close in on them.

Back in Celestia, the trio tumbled out of the portal in a heap.

“Zroop… Never again,” Buzzadont groaned.

“It was a successful test,” Artifactron said matter-of-factly.

“Successful?! We almost became mushroom snacks!”

Buzzlet, buzzing happily, grinned. “That was fun! Let’s do it again!”

“Zroop, I’m taking a nap,” Buzzadont muttered, trudging off.