As the heroes of Equestria and Amphibia surrounded Gloam Fall, the latter ignited their horn with lustrous flare. Opening their wings, they blasted the floor with a spell—sparking explosions everywhere.
As Discord shielded them from the explosions, Gloam Fall fired more spells at them.
Spike breathed fire whereas Sprig launched his explosive mushrooms with his sling.
All they managed to do was distract the Core; meanwhile, Anne and Sasha brandished their weapons and ran towards them from behind.
The girls struck the tyrant at their sides, forcing a groan of pain. The alicorn pushed them back with their wings.
All the frogs and newts fought against a horde of frobots storming through the palace.
Ivy grabbed her shield and threw it like a frisbee; it sliced through the heads of three frobots, and it flew right back to her hand.
“Ha! Huge score for me!” she boasted.
Wally was surrounded by multiple frobots who were aiming their blasters at him. Before they could fire, he used his concertina and played it casually.
The sound waves of the music shocked their system, making them instantly explode.
“That oughta teach them not to mess with me!”
Polly gleefully watched as Frobo blasted a lot of frobots heading toward his direction. “Woo-hoo! Take ‘em down, Frobo! Just like we’ve done before!”
Gloam Fall growled as they witnessed their forces crumbling down one by one. “ENOUGH!” they screamed, stomping their hooves on the ground. The impact sent the girls, Sprig, Spike, and Discord back against the wall.
“We have become much more powerful than the last time we fought, Anne Boonchuy! And this time, you will fall!” Gloam Fall taunted.
“I beg to differ!” Anne retorted, getting back on her feet.
She raised her hand and slammed it on the wall, generating a magical hand. It punched the alicorn in the face and flicked them unto the other side of the hallway.
“Whoa…that was kinda cool.”
“Told ya,” Discord winked.
Sprig leaped into the air and launched another mushroom grenade. “Hey, metal head! Remember me?!”
Gloam Fall got out of the rubble before it could hit them. Angered, the villain fired a spell toward him which he quickly dodged.
Spike and Sprig stood side by side once the Core hovered in the air. The latter sent another horde of frobots toward them.
Looking at each other and smiling, Spike breathed fire on the mushrooms and allowed Sprig to throw them at the frobots. The grenades detonated, obliterating all the frobots above them in one massive explosion.
“Alright!” both shouted, high-fiving each other.
Discord snapped his fingers, causing four frobots to turn into cotton candy. Then he proceeded to eat them with ketchup on top.
“Mmm, a bit rich but…okay!” he grinned.
As Sunburst closed the doors, all the surviving members of the non-ponies gathered at the main floor of the Canterlot Library. The sympathizing ponies locked all the doors of the library.
“Come on, we need to get out there and fight!!” Smolder yelled.
“We can’t risk losing any of you!” Starlight argued.
“You are all that is left of your respective species. Keeping you safe is our top priority right now,” Sunburst added.
“But we gotta keep you safe too! We need to look after each other, right?” Silverstream reminded.
Suddenly, the doors were torn out of their hinges. Feisty walked in and teleported to where they were. She slowly approached them with a malicious smile and sizzling horn.
“Going somewhere?”
Starlight, Trixie, and Sunburst blocked her path while they ignited their horns as well. “Step away from our friends!”
“Friends? Don’t you mean…our enemies?”
“Face it, Feisty, you and your master will pay for all your crimes against Equestria!” Starlight boldly declared.
“And the great and powerful Trixie will make sure our friends are kept safe from the likes of you!” Trixie added.
Then Feisty angrily growled. “Then die.”
She and the other unicorns blasted their magical beams towards the other at the same time, struggling to achieve dominance.
Wanting to get into the action, Smolder flew behind her and breathed fire at her. Noticing this, Feisty sent a backwards spell at her.
“Uh oh!”
She ducked below the spell, falling on the floor.
Once the beam collision dissipated, all the ponies and non-ponies tackled her to the ground. However, she sent them all flying with her powerful magic.
“Fools, I’ve been beating you for seven years! You think you can stand up against me now?!” she gloated.
As soon as she finished that sentence, she received a kick to the left cheek. She looked and saw Gallus glaring daggers at her. “You mess with my friends, you mess with me.”
“You wanna play dirty, eh? Heh, two can play at that game,” Feisty evilly chuckled.
Feisty blasted him with more spells. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a mirror and deflected all those shots.
Then Gallus jumped on her, tackled her, and repeatedly punched her. Then she swiftly kicked him off her and tried to blast him as he flew around.
“Go, everyone! Get to safety! We’ll handle this!” Ocellus ordered. Nodding, all the survivors escaped through the back door alongside the ponies.
“You can’t fight her alone! She’s too dangerous!” Starlight objected.
“We’ll be okay, Ms. Starlight,” Silverstream replied. “Trust us. We can do this.”
Without another word, Starlight sadly nodded and escaped with the others.
“Be careful,” advised Sunburst, running with Trixie.
Thorax, however, looked back at Feisty and briefly death-glared at her until he ran with everyone else.
Feisty grabbed Gallus with her telekinetic grasp and slammed him hard on the floor. She pressed her hooves on his head, causing him to groan in pain.
“This is where you belong, Gallus. Under. My. HOOVES!” she sneered, grinding her teeth.
Then the griffon bit her left hoof.
“AHHH!”
He knocked her backwards. “You…(coughs blood)…talk too much.”
Gallus then whistled; two seconds later, a battalion of royal guards swarmed the library and surrounded Feisty. The Heroic Six stood side by side in front of them.
“What?! I thought I discharged you idiots already?!” Feisty exclaimed.
“We don’t take orders from tyrants like you,” said the pegasus guard.
“Give it up, Feisty! As a member of the Royal Guard, I advise you to surrender! We outnumber you 100 to 1!” Gallus ordered.
“I’ll never bow before unruly creatures like you!” Feisty defied.
“General, please! You know this can’t go on forever!” Ocellus pleaded. “We did nothing to you. All we ever wanted was to embrace everypony.”
“Shut up….shut up…SHUT UP!!!!!” Feisty screamed, pushing everyone back with her magic.
Smolder again breathed fire at the unicorn, but the latter shielded herself from the flames in a magic bubble.
Once the dragon was finished, Feisty blasted her against the ceiling.
“Smolder!” Gallus cried.
“I will kill every single one of you…before I decorate these walls with your blood,” Feisty growled. Then she uttered battle cries as she fired lethal spells.
Inside the Core’s inner sanctum, Twilight stared at the fireplace inside the study room. Aldrich stood behind her while she sat on the rug.
“This is pathetic. Your moping isn’t going to do you any favors, Twilight. You know there’s nothing you can do to save your friends,” he condescendingly spoke.
She looked up at the picture which displayed her younger self eating at the donut shop with her friends. Thus, she got a flashback of their victory snack after they defeated Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy.
“It’s like the end of an era,” said Fluttershy.
“Or…the beginning of a new awesome era!” Rainbow smiled.
“All I know is that whatever comes next is going to be perfect,” said Twilight.
“How do you know that?” Spike asked.
“With you guys by my side, how could it not?” she replied, laughing with her friends.
As the flashback ended, Twilight lowered her head in shame.
Suddenly, loud voices were heard outside. “Snap out of it, Twilight!”
“You have to fight back!”
“Don’t let the Core control you! Remember who you are!”
“Remember our friendship! Please, Twilight! We need you! I need you!”
This caught her whole attention. “Spike? Discord?”
“Don’t mind them, Sparkle. They are of no importance to us. Now, return back to your studies,” ordered Aldrich.
The moment he grabbed her hoof, she slapped his hand away. This caught him off-guard.
“NO! I’ve had it with you and your evil mind games, you monster! I don’t want to be a part of this anymore!” Twilight yelled.
“You have no power here, child. It is I and I alone who dictates what happens here.”
Then Twilight listened to the voices again and heard them plead with her even more earnestly.
“Fight back, Twilight! Resist their power!”
Twilight noticed Neighsay just a few feet from her; he looked back at her with an expression that seemed like a silent cry for mercy. She instantly knew what he and his colleagues wanted: for their misery to end.
Realizing what she needed to do, she tried to power her horn with all her might. Aldrich though laughed at her efforts.
“Your magic is depleted, young one. Do you really think that—AH!”
Her horn glowed brighter and brighter at each passing moment. She continually grunted as she charged up her energy.
“No! Stop! You’ll destroy this place!”
Her horn still continued charging up despite all the damage the sanctum was taking.
“You think your people will accept you again?! After everything you put them through?! They’ll never love you again!” Aldrich angrily shouted.
Then she death-glared at Aldrich. “It’s better to be hated than to be here…”
Finally, her horn finished charging. With all her magical prowess, Twilight shot her entire magic all across the room. Aldrich screamed in agony from the magic.
As the magic broke down every wall, door, and barrier inside the sanctum, Neighsay and his friends warmly smiled at Twilight.
“Finally, we can rest in peace,” said Neighsay, closing his eyes.
Yona jumped all over the floor while she dodged all of Feisty’s lethal spells. “Yona stop worst pony from hurting friends!”
Sandbar grabbed a rope, threw it around Feisty’s legs, and tried to tie her up. However, she blasted the rope to atoms and bucked Sandbar in the face.
“I pity you the most, Sandbar. You sacrificed your dignity for the sake of your so-called friends,” she said. “But y’know what? I’m gonna show you mercy. You are a pony like me after all.”
“I am nothing like you!” Sandbar retorted.
“Don’t lie to yourself,” Feisty scoffed. “I’ll make you a deal: renounce these monsters, and I will allow you to live. Even better, I can offer you a place within the palace! It’s far better than—,” she got punched in the face, getting her nose bloodied.
“I don’t make deals with murderers,” replied Sandbar.
Wiping off the blood drops from her nose, she glared daggers at him. “Then you will suffer and DIE!!”
But before she could blast him, Gallus threw books at her. She focused her attention on him as he threw more books at her face.
“You want a piece of me?! Come and get me!”
“WATCH OUT!” Silverstream warned, grabbing him from behind. Large spikes of stone fell from the ceiling and impaled the ground.
“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” Feisty sneered.
“As long as my friends are with me, I’ll never quit,” Gallus grinned.
Growling, Feisty prepared another spell. But at that moment, Sandbar dropkicked her and pinned her to the debris-covered floor. Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus, and Smolder joined him in holding her down.
“Ha! That’s it, guys! Keep her immobile!”
Suddenly, Sandbar got stabbed on his right side by a dagger made of blue aurora. Feisty wickedly laughed as she twisted the blade in his flesh wound. Once she slowly withdrew the dagger, Sandbar fell on the floor.
“SANDBAR!!!” his friends exclaimed.
Feisty teleported away from their grasp and stood upon a tall bookshelf. “No one will remember your worthless species, and no one…will remember him.”
Yona stared at Sandbar as the others attended to his wounds. Dropping tears, her pupils shrunk in pure rage. Snorting smoke from her nose, she ran across the room in full speed with her eyes focused on Feisty.
Once Feisty was finished gloating, she noticed at the last minute the enraged yak charging at her. Before she could react, Yona smashed through the bookshelf and trampled the books underneath the rubble.
As the unicorn fell, Yona head-butted her to the ceiling with brute force—causing her to fly right through the roof. Feisty screamed as she was flung from one place to another.
“Nopony hurts….YONA’S PONY!!!!!” Yona bellowed, thunderously stomping. Her raw strength left cracks across the floor.
She turned back to check on her best friend. “Sandbar! Sandbar! Is pony okay?”
Sandbar winced from the pain. “I’m…(cough)…f-fine. I’ll be alright. Ah!”
“Don’t move! It’ll take time for the wound to heal!” Silverstream notified, wrapping up his lower body.
“Don’t scare Yona again! Yona hate losing best pony!”
“Don’t worry, Yona, it’s gonna be alright. We will save Equestria. I…ow…know we will,”replied Sandbar.
Sadly smiling, Yona hugged him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.
“Feisty will hunt down the rest of our friends. We gotta make sure she doesn’t get her hooves on ‘em! Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus, come with me. Yona, you take care of Sandbar,” Smolder directed.
Yona nodded, sitting next to Sandbar who blushed in response.
The others left the library with what remained of the royal guard.
Back in the castle, Discord created a wave of lemonade filled with candy canes and pushed it against Gloam Fall. The latter quickly made an electric wave that nullified the chaotic attack.
Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop leaped into the air with their brandished weapons.
“Hey, Gloam Fall, wanna know what karma tastes like?” Polly taunted.
But Gloam Fall generated a strong bubble around themselves. The trio struck the bubble multiple times until they got tired.
“Aren’t they…woo…aren’t bubbles supposed to…pop?” Sprig asked, catching his breath.
Gloam Fall pushed them off with their magical aurora wave.
Then Olivia and Yunan landed before them in a heroic landing fashion. “Not so fast, fiend! Your villainous machinations won’t save you!”
“And you shall fear the name of General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of—OOF!”
Both newts were blasted against a pillar. Groaning in pain, they helped each other get back up.
“Okay…that really hurt,” Yunan grunted.
The evil villain grabbed everyone via telekinesis, spun them in a circle within rapid speed, and then slammed them down into the ground.
Gloam Fall evilly laughed in triumph. “You simpletons are no match for our superior might! Once we’re finished with you, we’ll use the Unity Crystals to travel back to Earth and Amphibia. We’ll crush those little insects with our bare hooves—especially the traitor Andrias.”
Spike got up and beheld their display of power in horror. “No…”
But just as Gloam Fall kept laughing, they suddenly felt something painful. Their legs began to shake, sweat started to drop from their face, and their eyes began to flicker. Then they screamed in agony.
This gave Spike, Discord, and the others a surprising glimpse of hope.
“Something’s happening!” Sasha noticed.
“Can it be?” Discord grinned.
“My…head…! This…headache is killing me!” The Core groaned. Their horn spat sparks of purple magic.
“(Gasp) Twilight! She’s fighting back!” Spike shouted.
“NOOO! You shall not…escape me!” Gloam Fall yelled. They laid their hooves on the helmet, preventing it from breaking itself apart.
Spike then tackled the alicorn and grabbed hold of the helmet. “I’m. Getting. Her. Back!!”
As Spike pulled the helmet from opposite directions, beams of white light burst through thereof. The Core uttered its screams of defeat until the helmet exploded into puffs of light.
Twilight was unconscious as she was finally free from the Core’s power. Her entire armor likewise vanished from existence. Anne, Sasha, and the whole Amphibian family looked on as the dragon hugged his beloved sister figure.
“Twilight! Can you hear me? Stay with me!”
Twilight could only groan, but she remained asleep.
Discord could hear her heartbeat up-close. “She’s fine. She just needs time to recuperate.”
“So that means…we won! The Core has been defeated once and all!” Anne cheered. Everyone shouted cries of victory and happiness.
“We did it. It’s finally over,” Spike sighed in relief.
However, they heard some sinister giggling inside the throne room. They looked up and saw an injured Feisty sitting on the throne, sarcastically clapping for them.
“Great job, everyone. You totally saved Equestria. Oh, yeah. Friendship definitely rocks, am I right?” she mocked.
“Uhh, who is this chick?” Sasha asked, arching an eyebrow.
Spike and Discord got into fighting positions, glaring at Feisty. “She’s not a friend of ours, I’ll tell you that.”
“This was only a fragment of our power. You truly think that was the end of it? Haha, think again! Because what you’re about to see will blow you away…LITERALLY!” Feisty monologued.
Twilight’s crown crawled on the stairs and stopped in front of the unicorn. It then opened its orange eye, mechanically hissing at its enemies.
This flabbergasted everyone. “WHAT?!”
“Twilight’s crown is the Core?! How?!” Spike questioned.
Feisty grabbed the crown and laid it on her head. The Core unleashed its tentacles unto the throne, connecting its energy into the castle and all its premises.
Without warning, the entire castle lifted itself from the ground with its spider-like legs. Then it thrusted its legs into the mountain it once stood upon.
Once that was complete, the whole mountain transformed into a titan-sized robotic crustacean; it grew giant claws, massive mandibles, and a large mouth with sharp teeth around the belly area.
It spat out Spike, Discord, the unconscious Twilight, the Calamity Girls, and all the frogs and newts outside.
As they crashed into a nearby lake, they witnessed the final monstrous form of the Core; the castle morphed into a rectangular-shaped face, revealing the signature eyes of the hive mind.
Feisty and the Core laughed together as they activated their last resort.
Grime and the toads also saw the crustaceous monster. As it roared thunderously, they shrunk their pupils in absolute shock.
“Welp, we’re all gonna die,” said Grime, gulping.