Season 10: Dawn of a new generation of Harmony

by xombiekilla


Chapter thirteen: The end of a mighty foe, arrival to Canterlot

"You thinking what I'm thinking right now?"

"Sugarcube. Time to give this varmint a taste of his own bitter medicine." Applejack then used her lasso to grapple his collapsed arm and then used her might to sling it back, then slammed it into its head to knock his body over, revealing his weak point; the armored mouthpiece then fell open to show it was vulnerable.

"Alright then, time to finish this!" Hero said as he ran his blade through its shadowy face; it shrieked as it recoiled back in pain. Hero pulled his sword out and delivered a series of swift upper slashes to his face, diming his left eye. The giant knight's head was steaming like a hot tea kettle as he opened his lid to fire a volley of fireballs to scatter and burn the area around him. "Oh yeah. He's angry now!"

"My turn now!" Smolder said as she charged up her fire breath, and Hero shot a fire spell into her mouth to make it more potent. Her purple fireball then turned darker red as it looked even meaner. She then fired it out, and it caused a huge fire explosion on the side of the massive knight.

Hero then moved in to strike at his head more to deal as much damage as possible. Applejack then rushed over to kick at his head to knock it loose from its place as it rolled away from his body. "W-Woah nelly. That was probably the biggest fireball that I've ever fired in my life. Not too shabby."

"I'll say, Sugarcube. You managed to knock him clean over with that blast." Said Applejack after she kicked his head off and out of its place so Hero could move in to freeze it.

"Deep freeze!" Hero fired a ball of ice to slow it down and stun it. He then remembered that Somnabula had given him a new spell before he left their tower. "Try this one for size, then! Thunder!" A bolt of electricity then swiftly struck his head, paralyzing it. The knight's limbs were flailing around as he panicked, trying to regain his limbs and get back up.

"Nope! Not going to happen, buddy!" Hero struck the giant knight in his face again, taking out his other eye as he began to convulse, shriek out more, and then collapse before his body dissolved into a shadowy black liquid and evaporated into a black mist.

He released a big glistening pink heart from the sigil on his chest. The last remains of the giant knight were trying in vain to reach out for the heart he had stolen from another creature; the sight looked almost pathetic before it vanished altogether.

"Y-Yeah! Take that, you big, metal varmint!" Applejack and Smolder were a bit winded from this encounter along with Hero.

"Yeah, We won. We won cause we're best friends! All of us!" Smolder declared as she hugged Hero, happy with their victory. She then let go as she spoke to him. "I don't usually give those out to just anyone. But you were incredible out there, so you deserved one."

"Holy... You three just vanquished that huge metal thing. That was so-" Starlight said, surprised but amazed at their teamwork.

"Awesome!" Rainbow butted in. "You guys worked together perfectly and kicked that chump's butt!" Everyone cheered at their victory. Then Starlight spoke up.

"Yeah, we all worked together and won in the end. Thanks again, guys, for keeping my shield from breaking. Now we have to, hey, who's that over there?" Starlight saw someone big looking at them from a distance before he cringed and then started running away toward Canterlot.

"I don't think so, Buddy! Come on, guys, we gotta catch him before he reaches Canterlot!" Rainbow declared as everyone saw him summon a dark magic pillar and run into it, disappearing into it and then vanishing. "Crud. That isn't good. He took a shortcut to get there, that lousy cheater!"

"It's okay, Rainbow; we know how to teleport, too. We'll catch up with whoever that was. Besides, I've got some questions I want to ask him. I suspect he has something to do with that attack on Ponyville." Starlight concluded as she summoned a portal; her mental image had shown the front gate of Canterlot Castle.

"Okay then... that took a lot out of me. Phew. Alright, guys, this is just enough magic in this transport for a one-way trip there, but not back here, unfortunately."

"That's fine with me, sugarcube. Come on, everypony! Let's go to Twilight now!" Applejack said as they all agreed and stepped through the portal.


"Oh jeez, that was too close for comfort for me. Why did she have to order me to launch an assault on that place, anyway?" The prominent figure reappeared at the gate of the walled Canterlot Castle—the portal with the heroic convoy behind him as our heroes caught him.

"Hold it right there, Buddy!" He visibly cringed as he heard the slightly raspy voice of Rainbow, "Don't even think about trying to teleport away; we've got you."

"Why don't you turn around so I can ask you a few questions?" Starlight said to the tall figure.

"Look, I'm on a tight schedule here trying to prep an assault for the Highness against this dump. Go bother someone else, why don't you-" He turned around to see the faces of the ponies who had thwarted The Storm King. "Oh. It's you guys!"

"Grubber?!" Both Rainbow and Applejack had said together in mild surprise.

"Who's Grubber, guys?" Hero asked them as Applejack looked over to answer his question.

"Grubber used to work for an evil tyrant named The Storm King. We stopped his plans to take over Equestria with the help of Tempest, who, while she was originally a bad guy, saw the value of friendship and changed her heart. Of course, he was much smaller back then; time does change. Last I checked, he was sent to the Equestrian National Prison by order of the princesses to reform and serve his community service. I wonder how he escaped?"

"Oh, you don't know, eh? Why Chrysalis busted me out, that's how." He proclaimed as he pointed to his chest with his thumb. "Before I sent out those Pawns to Ponyville, I had already released a few of them inside these castle walls. Of course, that Princess Twilight is probably Tainted by now!"

"You what?! Why I ought to." Rainbow said as she was prepping to strike Grubber.

"I'd cool that temper of yours if I were you, Skittles."

"What did you just call me?!"

"You heard me. All I have to do is make the order, and the Tainted inside will launch their attack. So, to give you the incentive to back off while I work." Starlight then grinned as she said.

"Fine, we'll back off. I'm sure you wouldn't mind if we were to mosey in then?"

"Wait- what?! No way! The queen told me not to let anybody in there." Grubber defensively waved his arms to stop them from entering the castle.

"Well then, Grubber. What if you're bluffing, huh? You want to act tough, don't you? We'll go on in, anyways." Starlight couldn't help but have a smug grin as she antagonized Grubber.

"I said stop! Or else you'll force me to take action!" Grubber tried to put up a ruse of confidence, puffing up his chest and readying up his fists.

"We're going to touch the door." Starlight jested as she reached her arm to touch the drawbridge crank connected to the wound-up gate.

"Oh, that's it! Tainted Squad! Roundup!" A small group of Tainted Pawns had shown up all around Grubber as he had his look of confidence back. "There we go; that should even out the odds in my favor. Now attack, Tainted Platoon One!" The shadows then surrounded everyone as Grubber then confronted Starlight. "You, I was told to show no mercy for some reason; the Highness never told me why."

"If it came from Chrysalis, then that explains a lot. Well, come on then, you big oaf. I'm ready for you!" Starlight lit her horn as she didn't have much magic left, but she didn't need much to deal with someone like Grubber.

"Hey, I'll help you beat this loser up, Starlight!" Hero showed up next to her, weapon at the ready.

"What!? Loser, am I? Them's fightin' words, you little punk!" Grubber then readied up his fists and prepped a charge toward them. "I'll show you!" Starlight then blasted Grubber with a slight magic flare to send him sprawling back as he hit the ground and got back up. Hero went in to knock him upwards with an aerial strike.

He was using an upwards combo to juggle his body in the air. Then Hero used a grounding strike to spike him to the ground as he got up and used his arms to crack his back to pop its joints. "Alright then, Tainted! Help me out!"

"You big coward!" Hero ran up to him to attempt another combo as the Tainted Pawns intervened; he had no choice but to fight them off to get to Grubber. Starlight then used her magic to hold down the Tainted, but this left her vulnerable to attack, an opportunity Grubber had taken without hesitation.

"You let your guard down, Missy! That's just sloppy!" He grabbed Starlight by her throat to lift her, placing a magic-sealing ring onto her horn to disable her magic, freeing the pawns pinned by it. "Without your magic, you're about as vulnerable as a newborn. This suits me just fine."

"Why you-" Hero then used a swift combo to slice the once pinned Tainted in half to confront Grubber.

"Let me go, you big oaf!" Starlight was struggling in his iron-clad grip.

"Not another step, or else I'll feed this pony to the Tainted!"

"You're just a big ol' coward, resorting to a hostage tactic just because you can't fight us fairly," Applejack said as she stood up to him.

"Well, I can live with it if it works for me. Maybe I can keep this brat and hand-deliver her over to Chrysalis. Oh ho, she will be pleased to see you." He saw the literal fear in her eyes as he held her.

"No! I don't want to be sent to her. Guys, help me out here." Starlight said as she tried to flail in his grasp. She then sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'll go, but only on one condition."

"Starlight! No!" Hero said as she spoke to the nearby giant.

"Oh shaddup, you little twerp. And let's hear what the lady has to say."

"Only if you promise not to hurt my friends. Then I'll go without any more trouble."

"Hmm... That does sound rather promising. And I'll even look good before the queen, too. Fine, a deal's a deal."

"I'm sorry, Hero. But I can't let my friends get harmed." Grubber snapped his finger as the surrounding Tainted fled into the earth, and he created a portal to escape from. Suddenly, there was a purple flash behind him; as he turned around, he saw the angry face of Twilight Sparkle glaring at him. He gasped in surprise.

"W-What the?! Oh no, not you again."

"Let her go right now, Grubber!" She said in a very stern tone.

"No way, this lady is my meal ticket to a higher rank. So buzz off, why don't you."

"Then you forced me to do this to you." Twilight's horn then blasted him with the force of nearly ten stallions striking all at once. It might not have been her most potent attack, but it was enough to daze Grubber as he released Starlight while twirling around, stuck in a dizzy haze.

"O-Oooh... you lot are... despicable." Grubber then collapsed, knocked out and down for the count.

"Oh yeah! Go, Twilight!" Rainbow Cheered.

"You're in a lot of trouble, Grubber," Twilight said as she was about to lift him, but her magic was blocked as a ring of lime-green flames corralled his body, making him sink into the darkness as the queen retrieved him. "No! Darn, it! So, I can see that Chrysalis has been busy. She wouldn't have recruited him if he wasn't useful to her."

"Well, at least Starlight is saved, Twilight," Applejack told her.

"That's true, Applejack." She then looked to see Hero. "And you must be Hero. I've been expecting you. I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria. It's a pleasure to meet you finally."