Dawn approaching in stormy weather, the Storm Leader, a torch in hand, continues his onslaught. Behind him, Tempest Shadow, with a battalion of tanks behind her. And there's Grubber, with a few of Pinkie’s cupcakes and a few infantrymen behind him. They hear the crashing of trees. Roars are heard and the Hewie’s propellers end, it’s remaining payload exploding and revealing the giant ape.
Kong crashes through to the campsite, a helicopter in his hand. It’s been years, but the gorilla still recognizes the man from those years before. The Storm Leader furrows his brow and tightens his grip on his torch. And Kong, now twice as large from when he escaped, pounds his chest several times then lets out a howl.
It’s payback time!
“Fire!” shouts one of the troops before two tanks fired at Kong from both sides. Kong howls again before he grabs the tank on his left and smashes it at the tank on his right. The troopers fire their automatics. It’s a cruel sense of the world’s way of becoming balanced. Kong becomes bigger and stronger, and the enemy becomes dangerous. Automatics on armored jeeps quickly fire at the gorilla, who shields himself with his arm. With a puff, Kong grabs both of the wrecked tanks and tosses them at the assailants.
He howls again and charges at one of his former captors, splashing into the lake. Right where the Storm Leader wants him. He slings the torch into the water and ignites the napalm. Kong tries shielding himself from the flames, but it’s no use when the heat torches his backside. Surrounded by fire, the gorilla’s painful howl echoes the forest as he. The storm leader curls a cruel smile; his white whale is hunted.
Or so it seems… Kong erupts from the flames with roar, a spectacle that causes Grubber to lose his cupcakes. With a wave of his great arm, the gorilla splashes napalm on a few troops, getting them to scream. One such troop applies the old stop drop and roll and stands back to his feet only to get crushed by Kong. The beast turns over to the Storm Leader, ready for one last push. But in his rage, Kong inhaled too much smoke and collapses like a mighty oak. The Lightning Strike Coalition surrounds the ape.
“Men! Place your charges!” The Storm Leader commands, not turning his vengeful gaze away, “Let me show you what happens if you ever cross the King!”
Immediately, the troopers place explosive charges around Kong.
“Arm one!”
“Arm two!”
“Arm three!”
With a wave of her hands, Tempest Shadow orders the battalion to give Kong a wide berth. Given the remote, The Storm Leader clicks the button and turns it on. A soft whirring sound emits from the remote before becoming a beeping noise. The Storm Leader readies his thumb, ready to end the life of the white whale once again.
“Hold it!”
The commander and his troops turn around and see Rainbow Dash holding Grubber in a headlock. The shock troops turn their guns towards her. Applejack and Bulk Biceps burst out of the trees, the former knocking out one of them, grabs his gun and aims it Tempest Shadow and a couple of others. One of the troops inches his trigger finger when a wall of diamonds sprout in front of him and a few others. Rarity kept her hand up as she, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, and the rest of the student body walk out of the forest.
“Did anyone teach you any etiquette?” Chided Rarity, “No one wants a fight!”
“You don’t know the whole story like I do!” The Storm Leader argued, “He killed my men! He humiliated me!”
“He’s just an innocent creature defending for his life!” Cried Fluttershy
“We are soldiers! We do the dirty work so you and families can be safe!” The Storm Leader points at Kong, “You shouldn’t even know a thing like this exists!”
Rainbow Dash shakes her head, “I’ve seen crazy, and you fit the definition more than the Dazzlings.”
That thought got even the most stone cold of the troops to question themselves, turning away to their leader before looking at their target. Storm Leader approaches the group while raising the detonator.
“The world is bigger than this, you know.” Pinkie adds, getting him to lower the remote.
“Bitch please!” He turns to Tempest Shadow and orders, “Get them out of here!”
Tempest shifts her eyes to her commanding officer before returning to Applejack.
“You know it’s the wrong thing to do, sugar cube.”
Soldier against innocent civilian, gunfire vs magic, an army vs a band of teenage girls. The soldiers question whether to act upon their leader’s command or not. The Storm Leader places his thumb on the trigger, the point of no return.
“Stand down!”
The Storm Leader raises a brow. He turns to his second in command pointing her gun at him. Pinkie notices him reaching for his pistol and quickly lets out a sample of explosive confetti. Upon contact, the clutter explodes, destroying and bloodying his hand. He groans as the rest of his troops aim their weapons at him. Rainbow Dash releases Grubber, Rarity cancels her spell, and Applejack snaps the rifle on her knee like a twig.
Relief…
“Come on,” Applejack motions her head to the left, “Let’s find Sun-”
A loud wail echoes the burning forest. The ground shook so violently that the armored troopers lose balance. Erupting through the ground are a bunch of whiplike vines that stab into the armored tanks. Some of the vines have venus flytrap-like mouths that bite into the armored cars and toss them aside. Erupting fully from the ground was the center of it all. A giant plant monster supporting itself on six “legs” flexes its crocodilian head and lets out a trumpeting roar.
“Oh, my goodness!” Rarity shrieked.
“It’s Gaia Everfree!” Screamed Trixie
“She’s real!” Exclaims Flash
“Aah!” Both classmate and soldier turn to the hulking Bulk Biceps screaming again like a little girl, “We’re doomed!”
“Fall back, now!” Tempest orders. Most of them don’t even think twice. The one who did, Fluttershy, stayed in a futile effort to get the former Storm Leader to move before Rainbow Dash runs back and picks her up.
Ridiculed, the former Storm Leader watches the giant plant stalked both him… and Kong catching his attention. The gorilla woke up with a growl. The man picks up the detonator again. Kong quickly catches on and sneers.
“Die you mother-!”
Kong smashes the general and turns his attention to this newfound foe twice his size. But he was still weak from the military attack and outgunned. The monster wraps her vines around the gorilla’s arms and legs. One of the small venus flytrap heads spray a concoction of sap at Kong’s face, he is lifted up, slammed to the ground, and wrapped. Kong squirms as best he could to no avail, unaware of the giant, head rising up for the final killing bite.
But her tiny eyes are assaulted by a series of flashes. She spins her massive head and she sees the small bits of flashing. Photo Finish continues to take pictures before she is picked up by Applejack.
“Career’s not worth your life, let’s go!” The farmer exclaims.
Whatever creature Gloriosa turned into caused the quarry to cave in. Fortunately, Spike gnaws his vines and finish up chewing down Twilight’s binds. A few more canine bites and two mostly hairless bipeds giving their all and Sunset is free. They wasted no more time scooping down several small rocks. The larger rocks proved too much for womanpower alone. Something clicks into Sunset’s mind once again.
“Twilight, you have to use your magic again!”
Sci-Twi looks at the massive boulder and with a shaky finger replies, “I don't think I can lift something that big.”
Sunset pushes the boulder again, “It's our only chance of getting out of here and helping our friends!”
With a gulp, Sci-Twi raises her hand as a Jedi Knight would. The violet aura wraps around her hand once again before the same aura wraps around the rock. With a little more effort, they move the boulder. Shocked at the sight of the burning forest, the girls and the dog feared the worst and rush to the forest.
Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were the last ones to arrive at the sight where Kong fell. The latter stepped even closer and touches the beast's nose. He opens his eyes. Though blurry, Kong recognized the familiar color scheme of the girl he saw all those years ago. Lightning crashes the sky, followed by the thunder. The gorilla applies all his strength, snaps one of his bonds and raises his hand to the clouds. The heavens rumble again before striking the gorilla on the finger.
“Provide suppressing fire!” Tempest orders. The shock troops spin around and unleash the onslaught of lead and gunpowder. Though armor-piercing, the bullets bounce off the wooden hide. The monster sprouts a few more vines from her “neck,” sticks them to the ground, and cuts off the campers escape.
“Get back!” Timber shouts as he rushes forth with a woodcutter’s ax. He strikes the vines with all his might. but they regenerate as swiftly as they are cleaved; not even a scar on them. More vines erupt and trap some of the students on the patio.
“Oh,” Fluttershy whimpers, “why do these kinds of things always happen to us?”
“What are we going to do?” Rarity screams. Rainbow Dash looks up at the monster plant turning her head and letting out another wail. She turns to her friends.
“What we always do!” Rainbow stretches her hand, “Save the day!”
Muttering in agreement, the rest of the Rainbooms place their hands on Rainbows. With her newfound strength, Applejack tosses some boulders at the flytrap mouths. Pinkie Pie musters enough of her explosive confetti to free her those from the patio. Lyra and Bon Bon race for an opening on the briars when a venus flytrap vine cuts them off. Rarity casts her diamond shield and saves the two from getting sprayed by corrosive sap. Fluttershy knocks on the ground awakening a few groundhogs.
“Um, hi. Do you think you can give us a hand— um, er, paw? We could really use a way out.”
The small mammals gather their friends and begin work gnawing the vines. While Tempest Shadow’s forces continue their fight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash join in. But the farmer could only move the vines a bit. Rainbow Dash fared little better, running so fast that she dug herself to her waist. Pinky Pie conjures up another batch, but the explosion is shaken off like a snake-skin.
Sunset, Sci-Twi, and Spike reach the wall of brambles and as expected, have nary a chance of getting them to budge… At least not on their own.
“Twilight,” Sunset turns to Twilight while straining herself, “do you think you can use your magic again?”
Sci-Twi raises her hand
“I can’t.” She curls away from the brambles “Midnight Sparkle could take over.”
“Twilight,” Sunset cups Sci-Twi’s hands, “our friends are in there!”
Hearing the roar of a monster and the screams of her classmates, Sci-Twi gathers some courage, nods, and tries again. The briars finally pull apart and allow the two girls and dog to enter. What they see is utmost horrifying.
“Sunset! Twilight!” The Rainbooms shout as they join them.
“Just what the hell is that thing?!” Shouted Rainbow Dash.
“It’s Gloriosa!” Sci-Twi shouted.
“That overgrown weed’s Gloriosa?” Applejack turns to the monster for a moment, then turns back to them, “You sure ya haven’t got heat stroke?!”
“You’re right,” Sunset adds, “Gloriosa is a clone of someone else.”
“A clone!?” Shouted most of the girls.
“Freaky-deaky!” Pinkie adds.
From afar, Timber Spruce was watching everything, appalled by this sudden news before looking at his sister, the monster. Sunset motions everyone to the vines.
“Gloriosa!” The girls look to the camp leader running towards the beast, waving his arms.
“Is he out of his mind!” Shouts Rarity.
“Please, Gloriosa! What you're doing is crazy!” The beast turns her rage to the lonely human; the beady eyes gave her a blurry vision of blue and white, but she can see Timber’s silhouette. “You have to listen to me!”
Most of the girls prepared a counterattack, but Timber Spruce turns his head at the girls and waves his finger at them. With all those thorns, flytrap vines, and teeth, the beast doesn’t attack and gets her snout just an arm's length away from him.
“Please, Gloriosa, come back! You’re better than this!” In perhaps the riskiest move he’s ever done, Timber hugs the tip of the snout, and starts weeping, “You're better than this…”
Sci-Twi notices a stalk growing behind him, grows a mouth, and prepares to strike like a cobra.
“I need you, Gloriosa!” He mutters again as Rainbow Dash swipes Timber away. “What are you doing!? I almost had her!”
“She almost had you!” Rainbow remarked before a vine smacked the both of them to the ground. The rest of them regrouped as the shadow of the monster looms over them. She arches back and digs her jaws at the very spot they stand on. She lifts her heavy head high in the air before swinging side by side. In the lick of time, Rarity conjured up a shield of diamonds that wrapped the Rainbooms, Spike, and Timber Spruce in a tight sphere. Safe… Until the monster applies more force. It felt as if the fashionista was holding up an elephant.
Then, a massive boulder hurdled forth and crashed on the monster’s back. She turns around; Kong is back, holding a tree like someone would a knife. After “Gloriosa” summons up a few Venus flytraps, the gorilla pounds his chest, bellows, and charges. One of the vines lunges forth and is punched by an electric fist. Kong spins around and backhands the next one. A few hops then he jumps at the rose mutation, gets a firm grip, then shoves the tree into the monster’s eye. The monster howls and frees the diamond sphere, which is then gripped by Kong’s right foot. The gorilla constantly slams his fist on her head, each time sending several electric charges. Two venus flytraps rise up, bite Kong on shoulders and add enough corrosive sap to get the gorilla off their mistress.
The monster holds the gorilla down and pulls the sphere away from his foot and back to her main mouth. Rarity feels the strain once again.
“I can't keep this up forever!” She whines, tears flowing from her eyes.
In the madness, Sunset notices something in the monster’s mouth, something sparkly, something that could save them. She turns to a scared Twilight Sparkle.
“It's up to you.” Sci-Twi turns to Sunset, “You have to use your magic to save us”
Outside, Kong is able to stand up, but couldn’t move.
"No, it’s too much.” Sci-Twi curls up, “It would take too much magic. I can't!”
“It's the only way! You have to embrace the magic inside you!”
Outside again, the vines continue to wrap around the great ape. Kong tears a few vines apart, but one starts wrapping around his throat.
"What if she takes over?” Cutting back to our heroines, Sci-Twi spreads her arms, “What if instead of saving everyone, I turn into Midnight Sparkle and only make things worse?”
"That won't happen!” The shield cracks like glass, Sunset cups Twilight’s hands, “We won't let it.”
With more pressure, Rarity gives and faints, causing the shield to crack under the ceiling and floor of spiky teeth. Whether not wanting to be mashed to a pulp or something else, Sci-Twi closes her eyes and strains herself. She hears a familiar cackle and opens her eyes; the monster she became at the Island of Monsters stood in front of her.
"You will never control me!” Midnight reaches out and holds her calmer doppelganger by the throat, “I will always be a part of you!”
"Noooo!” Twilight cries as she held her demon’s hands.
"Twilight, listen to me!” Sci-Twi forced one eye open; Sunset Shimmer, or at least a red, glowing apparition of her, appears at her left, “You are in charge!”
"You are a light, darling!” Rarity’s apparition appears next to Sunset’s “A force for good!”
"Yeah!” Rainbow Dash appears at Twilight’s right “You can kick her ass!”
"We're here for you, Twilight!” Pinkie appears next to Rainbow
"And we'll be here,” Applejack appears next to Rarity, “no matter what!”
"We believe in you!” Fluttershy Appears next to Pinkie Pie.
Midnight Sparkle gives each apparition a glare; she flips her wing at one of them, but to no avail.
"You... are not... Midnight Sparkle!” Sunset starts repeating before also being swiped away by a feather.
“Shut up!” Screamed Midnight.
"No! I... am... Twilight Sparkle!” In the real world, Sci-Twi straightens herself, the flaming visor is gone, and the crooked horn straightened out. Her fists start to glow, “The “And the magic I carry inside me is... the Magic of Friendship!”
The inside of the monster’s mouth glows brightly before a purple energy wave explodes and shatters the front of her snout in several pieces. Without the shield, the girls scream as three of them fell faster than the others. But salvation was quick as several auras slow their fall and land on the soft grass.
“You did it, Twilight!” Spike barked, licking at his fallen mistress. The girls look up at the monster howling at the clouds. Her snout starts growing back at a tremendous pace. Kong notices the vines losing their grip on his throat and so with enough force tears them aside before roaring at the monster. Sci-Twi’s eyes pick up something shiny, the purple glowing gem she saw in the cave. Sunset’s orange gem floats to her as do the remaining gems to their rightful owners.
The job isn’t over yet. Each one of them enters the girl's bodies and trigger another transformation. This time, the girls were given armor; Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy have crystal wings in place of their usual, feathered ones. The ponytails were also adorned with braids, and their boots reached halfway up their lower legs. They ready themselves.
“Let’s finish this!” Sunset exclaims.
“It’s on like-!”
“Don’t push it, Pinkie!” Rainbow interrupts as she takes to the air and lands a few punches on the monster before being chased by the venus flytraps.
While Kong grapples with the vines and tears them apart, Fluttershy lifts up Pinkie towards the monster. Applejack grapples with the vines as well; ripping them apart before they got too close to the injured and the cornered. The massive gorilla jumps at the plant monster again and pries open her jaws. Reaching out from her tent, Sunset pulls out her bow and arrow and aims it at the monster’s mouth. Her eyes spot Pinkie conjuring up a concoction as big as her head.
“Have yourself a spicy meatball!” Pinkie spoke in a fake Italian accent before tossing her mixture. At the right moment, Sunset fires the arrow. It, along with the explosive confetti, packed enough of a punch to blow off the back of the monster’s head. And yet she’s still going at it, and bites down at Kong’s hands and tosses him over once again.
“Even with all that, we got,” Rainbow Dash land before the girls, “we can’t even make a scratch!”
“Oh,” Rarity whined, “if only that giant moth was here!”
“We haven’t used everything,” Sunset closes her hands, “and it doesn’t require Mothra.”
The plant monster makes its final approach. Kong stands up again and curls his fingers. He looks down at the girls looking at him. He understands them… And it’s not gonna be pretty. The plant monster bellows again and is answered by Kong’s roar. The gorilla leaps again at her front and starts pounding his electric fists at her head. The Rainbooms ignite the magic inside them and start ascending.
Sensing a great deal of power, the plant monster’s “belly” starts glowing orange and starts siphoning up the great head. Kong feels this and wraps his arms around her great mouth. Corrosive sap seeps between her teeth and starts burning the primates hands. But Kong doesn’t let go; he must continue buying them time. Holding hands, the girls form a ring before opening their glowing eyes and shooting out a bright rainbow at both of them. Kong continues holding on as best he could with the breeze tickling a few wounds. Locals outside of the camp notice a quick flash of light but assume it’s just lightning.
The rainbow fades away, and the Rainbooms gently land. All that was standing is Kong; the plant monster is nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Gloriosa?” Asks Timber Spruce. As the clouds part ways, Kong kneels down, brings out his right hand and unfurl his fingers just as the clouds clear away. Timber picks up his sister and starts shaking her. “Gloriosa! Gloriosa!”
Timber presses his fingers against her throat for a few seconds and continues shaking her around again… to no avail. He lowers his head and weeps. Sci-Twi approaches Timber.
“I’m-” Her equine ears pick up guns cocking and turn around. Tempest Shadow, Grubber, and the Lightning Coalition force have their guns loaded and aimed at Kong.
“Still not enough,” - Sunset is the last one who turns around - “isn’t it?”
Once again, everyone pitches in, crossing their arms. Tempest eyeballs everyone and the smoke from the damages wrought by the monstrous Gloriosa, Kong, and themselves. With a deep, frustrated, breath, she lowers her rifle.
“Stand down.” She orders before walking over to Sunset, “But answer me this, how many lives will it take before the world finds out?” Tempest turns around and walks away, “Move out.”
Such a question fumbles Sunset’s great mind; so much damage has been done by magic and beast. They were lucky enough that these were contained, but if there’s one little slip... And what did Tempest mean by a “bigger threat?” For now, there is much to be done. Kong turns around and walks back to the forest. Tempest and Grubber board a convoy and drive off. Grubber pulls out his next snack: sunflower seeds.
“So, Boss,” Grubber sputters out dozens of sunflower seeds, “what’s the next plan?”
Tempest kept her silence as the convoy makes their way to the interstate. With a deep breath, Tempest answers,
“First, a memorial service. Then,” Tempest reaches into her pocket and pulls out a worn piece of newspaper. “Lucky Dragon goes in Flames” the headlines reads, showing the picture of a burning yacht, “the hunt continues.”