“Gusty?! What are you doing here?!” Grogar shouted in shock.
“That’s Gusty the Great?! Impossible!!” Chrysalis shrieked.
“So the legends are true! First we have Grogar, and now we have Gusty before our very eyes!” Tirek added.
“I’m sorry but who is she?” Cozy asked, tilting her head in confusion. “I’ve never heard of Dusty the Great.”
“It’s GUSTY, little filly.” Gusty intimidatingly corrected. “Are they new friends of yours, Grogar? It appears that evil breeds evil.”
“Get out of my way, Gusty!!! I will not allow you to waylay our path!” Grogar demanded, fiercely glaring at his old nemesis.
“Never, Grogar! Whatever it is that you are planning, we will stop you!!” Gusty defied, glaring back at him.
“We? Who’s ‘we’?!” Grogar asked.
“WE ARE!!” new voices shouted. As the villains looked around to discover the sources of those voices, three new figures appeared on sight. On Gusty’s right side stood a huge elephant that had the garments of blue and gold all over his body, yellow eyes, two sharp yellow tusks right next to his trunk, and had white hair on top of his head. On Gusty’s left side stood a hyena who was dark pink with violet stripes on both sides of her body, red-orange eyes, and two large bronze javelins on her back. Finally, right above Gusty flew a large falcon colored in dark green with silver wings and tail; it also had a black spot on the tip of its beak. Its eyes were orange with black pupils.
The villains, except Grogar, were intimidated by the newcomers who apparently assisted Gusty. The ram however was quite surprised to see these figures who also death glared at their old enemy. “You...you again? I honestly never thought I would see you again after all these years.” he said.
“Indeed, it has been a long time, Grogar.” The elephant spoke with a gruff voice. “My question is what are YOU doing here? Why are you crossing on forbidden territory?”
“That is none of your concern! Now get out of my way so that we can get out of this place!” Grogar snapped. But right before he and his minions could move one step closer, a huge magical boomerang struck the ground on which they were standing. Their eyes moved toward the source of that blast. The falcon landed on top of a pile of rocks before blowing smoke out of his right wing.
“Make one more step and you will be apprehended.” the falcon threatened.
“I will not be threatened by a mere animal!!” Chrysalis defied. She ignited her horn to shoot the bird, but the ancient bird threw another glowing boomerang out of his left wing and it deflected the green blast away and smote Chrysalis to the ground. She groaned in pain. “AHHH!! What in the name of Equestria was that?!”
“A weapon of comeuppance, changeling.” the bird replied.
“WHO ARE YOU?!” Chrysalis demanded.
“The name is Sharpbeak. The bird of justice and founder of Mt. Everhoof! I’m more than willing to give you a fair fight!” he challenged.
“Fine! I’ll destroy you for this!!” Chrysalis shouted, blasting her magic again. Sharpbeak and Chrysalis flew up in the sky and fought with every resource they had.
“Well then, I suppose that you want to fight as well, young centaur?” the elephant asked.
“I don’t need to fight you! I can just drain you of your magic!” Tirek shouted with an evil smirk. He ran up to the elephant and opened his mouth to absorb his magic. However, to his horror, no magic exited out of the elephant. “WHAT?! What kind of trickery is this?!” Tirek exclaimed.
“Your magic-draining ability has no affect on me, young centaur. For I possess no magic at all but only physical strength that I have worked hard enough to earn. Strength and power cannot be gained; they must be earned. Those who cheat their way to get power are not only weak but are foolish foolhardy souls.” the beast lectured.
“NONSENSE!! I’ll destroy you all with ease!!” Sombra angrily screamed. But before he can attack the ancient heroes, the hyena tackled him and restrained him with its magical chains.
“Oh no you don’t!! You need to chill out and relax! Can’t you at least rest a bit? You baddies must be tired from all the long travel to come down here!” it spoke with a female voice.
“EVERYPONY STOP!!!” Cozy screamed at the top of her lungs. Sharpbeak and Chrysalis paused their battle and turned to Cozy puzzled. Grogar and Gusty also stopped their fight and looked up to the filly; the rest stopped what they were doing and focused their gaze on the young villainess. “Can we just stop fighting and at least introduce ourselves to each other?! Maybe we can help each other for once because apparently we both have a common foe on our hooves!! So please stop fighting and start talking!!” Cozy finished.
The villains and the heroes did what they were told and stood down while still glaring at each other. The hyena released Sombra from the chains and allowed him to stand upright on his hooves. Cozy then flew down beside Grogar and smiled at everypony’s compliance. “Good! I’ll start first! My name is Cozy Glow! It’s a golly great pleasure to meet you creatures!” She then turned to her three allies. “Guys? Your turn!”
“Very well then. I am Chrysalis, former queen of the changelings.” she introduced professionally.
“I am Lord Tirek, the son of...King Vorak from the kingdom of the centaurs.” the magic eater said hesitantly.
“And I am King Sombra, former ruler of the Crystal Empire! The master of fears and king of the shadows!” he proudly introduced himself. The villains rolled their eyes in annoyance at his pride.
“I am Gusty the Great.” the unicorn said.
“You can call me Groundbreak Tusk, the ruler of the grasslands.” he spake.
“I am Sharpbeak, the bird of justice!” he added.
“And I am Joypath!! I love to make parties and celebrations for warriors and heroes who dedicate their lives to protect others!! Anypony wants some vanilla ice cream?!” the hyper hyena asked, holding the said ice cream in the air.
“Oh no, not this again! This is no time for this nonsense, Joypath!” Grogar whined, hoofpalming himself.
“I’ll have some!! I love ice cream!” Cozy giddily replied. She swooped down and started gobbling on the ice cream. Tirek, Sombra, and Chrysalis looked at each other in confusion.
“Why does she remind me of that insufferable pink pony?” Tirek asked.
“Well, Grogar, care to explain why you’re here?” Gusty asked.
“Fine! If you must know, I and my minions were trapped in this dimension because of my...brother who brought us here so that he could take over Equestria for himself.” Grogar explained. Gusty, Groundbreak Tusk, Sharpbeak, and Joypath gasped at the mention of his brother.
“Your brother?! Slash?!” Joypath shouted.
“That is not possible! He was in-prisoned in Tartarus for five hundred years! How did he escape?” Sharpbeak asked.
“I still do not have an answer for that. All I know is that he has returned to complete the task he failed to accomplish five hundred years ago. I and my team need to stop him before he can destroy us all! Once he is out of the way, I will take Equestria for myself!” Grogar said.
“Take back Equestria for yourself?” Gusty asked. “You are one stubborn goat. I’ll give you that. But how will you be able to stop him? He is not an easy adversary to defeat just like you weren’t an easy foe to take down.”
“Well, I have my Bewitching Bell; I used it to take him to Tartarus. But if he grabs hold of any source of power that is more powerful than my bell, it won’t be effective against him. I know this by experience when I fought against your unicorn warriors. I have to admit that was embarrassing.” Grogar said which caused Gusty to giggle in amusement.
“Glad that you remember that, old goat.” Gusty said, smirking.
“So what are we supposed to do now? How can we get ourselves out of this barren wasteland?” Sombra asked.
“Well, as young Cozy suggested, we can talk about this together and see what we can do.” Gusty said.
“Wait...are you proposing an alliance?!” Chrysalis asked. “Why should we put our trust in YOU?”
“I can say the same as well. I don’t take kindly to traitors and backstabbers.” Sharpbeak stated.
“Hmm...since we both have a common enemy, we can both call for a truce...for now. It is true that Slash is too powerful to take on one-on-one because the more power he seeks, the more strong he gets. Once we take him down for good, we will go our separate paths. Nothing more, nothing less!” Grogar commanded.
“I concur!” Tirek agreed.
“Me too!” Cozy said.
“Me three!” Chrysalis concurred.
“Me four!” Sombra also agreed.
“I will gladly accept an alliance. However, there are some things I’ve been needing to tell you ever since we became enemies, Grogar. I’ll tell you more about it once I bring you all to my humble dwelling if you wish.” Gusty said. Grogar raised an eyebrow at her. Once he considered her offer, he nodded his head.
“Fine. Take us there since we have nowhere else to go. Lead the way.” Grogar said. Gusty smiled and led her three friends and the Legion of Doom from the area unto her home. Upon arriving, the villains, except Grogar, gasped in amazement upon seeing the ancient city that seemed unrecognizable.
“What is this place?” Chrysalis asked in wonder.
“This used to be Tambelon. Now, it is a desolate place which we now consider our home.” Groundbreak Tusk replied.
“What creature lives in an abandoned city? That’s just weird.” Cozy muttered to herself.