When Thanor and Chrysalis resume their fight, the dragon spirit throws his hammer back and forth again and again at Chrysalis, yet she dodges these moves really well. When the hammer comes back to his hand often, he strikes it against Chrysalis’ sword, then does another attack with attempting blow just as she tires to strike. He then lets Starswirl fly in to take her by surprise, and blast her to chest to send her backward. By then, she is not happy.
“GRRRRR! YOU….” she growls.
“You can’t win this fight.” Starswirl said firmly.
Meanwhile, below Starswirl and Chrysalis’ fighting round, Garble, Fizzle, and Spear fight against at least five hundred appearing changelings with their other dragon friends. Garble has his metal sword cut through the hearts of the villainous creature. Fizzle throws hardcore punches at the changelings’ jaws. Spear uses his mallet to crush the changelings and turn them into ash, while jumping away from their sword attacks.
Behind the dragons fighting these demons, Volucris resumes her confrontation while the five defenders fight more changelings to guard the cave entrance. Blade uses his swords to chop through the changelings like a hibachi chef. Gilda flies through the air to pick up the changelings, and drop their heavy gravity bodies with such force that it crushes other soldiers. Storm then uses his blade to swing in circular movements, cutting away against the vines that are appearing in front of him. Trixie then uses her powerful magic to turn the vines into flowers, killing them peacefully. Sunset Shimmer then uses her fire magic to push back the changelings with her flame aura. The manipulated six then use their powers to blow the fighters back. The defenders moan, as Volucris laughs at their losing streak so far.
“HAHAHAHAHA! This is hilarious.” Volucris laughs, “All of my servants, against you five…”
“Make that all of you against eight.” a heroic voice suddenly erupts.
Everypony turns to look at the newcomers. The defenders smile, while Volucris and her manipulated ponies scowl. The FLIM FLAM BROTHERS and BIG MAC step in front of them, with swords carried behind their backs.
“We may be con-ponies, but hurting another pony is not a good price!” Flim sneers.
“We’ll do anything to save Applejack as well.” Flam adds.
Big Mac nods at what they just said. He even looks helplessly at Applejack and Apple Bloom, at their new evil look. He shakes in fear, thinking of a way to help them snap out of it. How can a changeling do that to them? HIS OWN SISTERS!
“GUYS! Granny and I miss you so much!” Big Mac pleads, “Don’t you see what you’re doing? We love you! Please come home!”
“IN YOUR DREAMS!” Appleplant laughs, “Hey, why don’t you join us? After all, you don’t want to hurt your sisters. HAHAHAHA!”
The darkness spell of manipulation then strikes toward Big Mac. Big Mac cries in fear when he’s about to get struck. Then…
“MAC! WATCH OUT!” a voice yells.
Braeburn, and Little Strongheart has also came together with Flim, Flam, and Mac. And right now, to protect Big Mac, Braeburn pushes the muscular red pony aside, and gets hit by the spell in his place.
“BRAEBURN!” Little Strongheart yells in fear when she sees him being struck.
She runs to him, trying to help him up. The defenders and villains then notice more newcomers for the battle. Fighting against thousands of changelings and vines are the Buffalo Tribe, Cheese Sandwich, Coco, and the Wonderbolts. Rainbow Briar and Fireburn then strike down Splitfire as they hit her in the air. Smashing to the ground, the two manipulated ponies come on top of her to try and force her to meet her demise.
“Guys! This is not you! You must fight this! THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING!” Splitfire tries to talk sense.
“THAT’S RAINBOW BRIAR AND FIRBURN TO YOU!” Rainbow Briar shouts, “AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT OUR LEADR IS QUEEN VOLUCRIS FROM NOW ON!”
“HAHAHAHA!” Volucris chuckles, “You’re so stupid Splitfire, they’re deep under my control!”
Little Strongheart snarls at the queen, then she sees something wrong with Braeburn.
“B..Brae…” Little Strongheart stammers.
The darkness is now coming around him. The spell is manipulating him.
“Ah, how unexpected.” Appleplant said in a pleased tone, “Do you still want to fight me now, Braeburn?”
The Braeburn’s eyes glow.
“No.” the manipulated Braeburn simply said, “I would never fight you. I work for you.”
Braeburn smiles evilly as he’s now too, under Volucris’ spell.
“Great of you to join us.” Appleplant said.
“Yes…” Apple Vine agrees.
Then Braeburn’s eyes were dragon like, as his clothes transform into armor while his hat turns dark black. He then pushes Little Strongheart hard to ground, hurting her. The young buffalo looks up in fear at the changed pony.
“Let’s call you Fearburn.” Appleplant said to the new manipulated pony, “You will put fear into anypony who gets in our way.”
“Right cousin.” Fearburn nods.
He then turns to Big Mac, who looks horrified.
“See, that’s why you should join us!” Fearburn yells, “BECAUSE THEY’RE YOUR SISTERS! LOOK AT YOU NOW! YOU’RE SCARED, AREN’T YOU? STUPID WUSS!”
Having new dark magic, Fearburn makes a barrier between Big Mac and his trustworthy friends. He has the red pony sink into a grim prison where he completely hallucinates his worst fears. Big Mac’s scene is a torture chamber on what Fearburn is forcing him to witness. He sees his cousins and sisters, now evil and abusing him. He even sees Granny Smith having an eating disorder, with her suffering in pain and wheezing. He screams for help, as he’s trapped in the small nightmare orb being held by Fearburn.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?” Little Strongheart yells.
“We just want him to hang tight for a while.” Fearburn giggles.
Appleplant then steps in, getting close to Flim and Flam while holding a razor sharp whip on her left hoof.
“I’ll deal with you CON ARTISTS now! Time to pay back!” Appleplant snaps.
“Our machines can beat you!” the brothers said.
They then pull out apple guns, that shoot magical apples they found somewhere in the Everfree Forest.
“This gadget will fight off your black magic!” Flim said.
“HA! No machines can beat me!” Appleplant taunts, “I’m going to show you my real powers!”
The fight then initiates between the Flim Flam brothers, and Appleplant. The brothers keep shooting as many magical apples as they can, while Appleplant dodges side to side, trying to strike painful whips at the ponies.
Flutterbrute was then going to join Appleplant in the fight, but then a brown wing hits her from behind!
“WHO DID THAT?” the yellow pegasi shrieked.
Gilda was behind her.
“I did.” the griffon said while smiling, “I normally didn’t want to hit a pony despite them being dweebs, but YOU! You gonna have to fight me before you fight anypony else!”
“HA! Cry baby!” Flutterbrute grinds, “I’m going to tear you to pieces!”
The fight with Flutterbrute and Gilda then initiates. Gilda swipes her claws against Flutterbrute’s upcoming attacks, having her scratch the pegasi by her cheek. Flutterbrute then roars and charges at Gilda by giving deadly kicks toward her, which the griffon fortunately dodges.
Darkness Scootaloo then grows bigger with her magic, to take care of Blade, Trixie, Sunset Shimmer, and Storm. They look up at her, clutching onto their weapons. Then, a rock hits Darkness Scootaloo from behind as she was growing.
“WHAT THE HELL?” Darkness Scootaloo shouts, turning her head to see who did that.
Snips, Snails, and Pipsqueak appear from the battle crowd, holding their own swords.
“We threw that rock you know.” Snips confesses.
“You should be the good guys.” Snails said.
“Why would you do this to Celestia and Luna?” Pipsqueak trembles, “Please let them go.”
“Well, you three shouldn’t be alive at all.” Apple Vine sneers when eyeing them.
“Since we’ll kill everyone else, you’ll be the perfect warm up victims for us.” Spice Belle said casually.
“Along with those brats Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.” said Darkness Scootaloo.
The Dark Cutie Mark Crusaders then focus on attacking Snips, Snails, and Pipsqueak. The male fillies battle against the crusaders’ magic auras while dodging their deadly rays.
Rainbow Briar and Fireburn in the meantime battles against Splitfire and the Wonderbolts. The whooshing and swooshing through the air collides with banging and fist punches as Splitfire comes against Rainbow Briar. Fireburn than uses his deadly fire powers to try and knock back three of the Wonderbolt soldiers. At the surface, Shadow Armor and Dark Vine Cadenza plan their moves.
“My love, let’s help Rainbow and Fireburn beat those Wonderbolts and show them their true place.” Shadow Armor peeped.
“Right my husband.” Dark Vine Cadenza agrees, “And they will be the death of me.”
“I’ll be taking care of Blade and Storm.” Shadow Armor plans out, “You’ll deal with Trixie and Sunset.”
“I heard your request.” Blade said, as Storm steps along by him, “Let’s fight.”
“Good.” Shadow Armor yodels.
With that, Storm uses his circular sword to block Shadow Armor’s deadly spear attack that almost strikes him. Blade then pushes Shadow Armor back, and grabs out his custom made shield. Shadow Armor than comes forth to Blade, and keeps attempting to hit and hit him with his spear, only to be blocked several times by the hero’s defense strategies.
Dark Vine Cadenza than starts her fight with Trixie and Sunset Shimmer. Trixie pulls out an amulet wand, and zaps karate blankets to come at the villainess to surround and attack. However, they were no match, and die instantly when being struck and chopped by Vine Cadenza’s aura spirit blades. Sunset Shimmer then protects Trixie from one of the villainess’ attacks, just as Dark Vine Cadenza makes a fast rotating razor ball that’s colored blood red. Sunset Shimmer then pushes back one of her other attacks, as soon as the villainess came closer to try and punch her.
Queen Volucris then interferes with Blade working together with Storm. Pushing the griffon aside, she forces Storm to resume the fight along with Shadow Armor, while she lifts the sword up against Blade to decree a challenge. And so, Volucris and Blade slash and slash together with their swords.
Meanwhile in the caves Tails, TJ, Discord, William, Spike, Mokuba, Kaiba, Diamond Tiara, Sliver Spoon, Ian, Leo, Skull, Doctor Whooves and Derpy heading to the first part of the test.
“I’m thinking we partner up different guys for each test.” Discord arranges, “Okay, Tails and TJ will go through COURAGE, Doctor Whooves will do WISDOM, William and I will do FEAR, Derpy and Ian will do Bravery, Kaiba and Mokuba will do the test of strength, and then we’ll fight with the twelve guardians, simple as that.”
“Discord, I should let you know that I’m going to fight Flutterbrute.” Skull said, “Since twelve of you guys will get the swords, and there won’t be two extra. But the least thing you can do is let me try to face our brainwashed friends. If I fail too, well… you’ll face me for all I know…”
“You love Fluttershy, do you my ex-pupil?” Discord grins.
“Well, yes…” Skull admits blushing, “I want to face her because of that, not like how much you love Celestia.”
“WHAT? Discord loves Celestia?” Tails, TJ, and William said all at once.
“YES! I do!” Discord admits in frustration, “Now can we change the subject?”
“Oh! How about how Tails loves Twilight?” William suggests.
Tails eyes William as if he just embarrassed him. William feels ashamed a tad bit for bringing it up.
“We’ll talk about it later.” Tails said, “Once we free them, I still wonder how Twilight will react overall.”
“They all might take it pretty hard in disbelief.” Discord sighs, “And Fluttershy, I can forgive her actions like she forgave mine. She’s my friend after all, she reformed me. And, well Skull, she did actually admit she heard about you. She likes you.”
“Right….” TJ says in an awkward tone.
Spike then notices a deep gash on Skull. The cut is snug deep on the left of his cheek. It bleed out yellow blood.
“Skull? What happened to you?” Spike asks in shock.
“I’ll explain once we free your friends.” Skull answers, “But now is not the time to go into a flashback.”
“That’s right.” Discord agrees, “However I hope you participate in the tests when we really need you.”
“Thanks Discord.” Skull smiles, “But I can’t.”
Skull than stops in place.
“I have to go back.” Skull finally decides.
“WHAT? NO!” Discord protests.
“WHY?” William asks.
“Because that scar on my cheek show’s the black magic of manipulation isn’t working on me. However the strength of it’s power is coming to be dangerous.” Skull explains, “It will be an ironic benefit to hold the changelings off, in case they break the law of magic when entering this cave. One pony like me is nothing to worry about besides thousands of others. I can handle being defender.”
Spike shudders, but then nods.
“I also have to fight off the brainwash ponies in case they come after you.” Skull continues, “This could buy you more time.”
“You’re right again.” Spike understands.
“Just don’t die.” Leo begs.
“There’s a chance I might. But in case I do…” Skull said before heading out, “I’ll be dying to protect you.”
Then he flew outside.
“Okay, let’s hurry.” Tails said to the gang.
Then they rush to the test of COURAGE!
Outside the cave, Flutterbrute was kicking Gilda really hard, and rips of her feathers inch by inch, making Gilda roar in pain and anger.
“YOU’RE CRAZY!” Gilda screams.
“AM I?” Flutterbrute retorts, “Well then… IT’S TIME TO GIVE YOU A…”
“FLUTTERBRUTE!” a voice calls behind her.
Skull steps out of the cave, with the background music “From Heads Unworthy” by Rise Against playing in his head. He stands there, glowing with darkness around him. Glowing with black energy.
“Well hello Skull. Happy to see me?” Flutterbrute slurps, “I was planning to turn you into one of us, since Discord resisted my magic.”
“You can try, Flutterbrute. But deep down, Fluttershy will forgive me for what I’m about to do to you.” Skull gnaws out with his teeth.
“HA! Once I kick your butt, then we’ll see!” Flutterbrute laughs hysterically.
“Okay. Let me introduce you to my other side.” Skull coos.
“HUMPH! Fine by me.” Flutterbrute whines, “BUT THIS WILL BE THE END!”
Then she charges at him, and forces him to slam against and into the rock wall. She laughs manically, but then…
She felt a dark energy glowing around him, just before she let go.
“I WILL SAY IT AGAIN!” Skull shouts, “SAY HELLO TO DARKNESS!”
Then Skull was cover in the darkest energy possible, as it came out of him slowly and powerfully. Then he was a very dark pony with red eyes, but he was glowing with dark magic too.
“Flutterbrute!” Darkness roars, “LET ME SHOW YOU AND QUEEN VOLUCRIS THE TRUE MEANING OF DARKNESS!”
Queen Volucris kept fighting Blade, up to the point when she notices that Skull became Darkness. Blade notices that too as he keeps fighting. The fact he learned that about Skull is very new to him. As for Volucris, she smiles when thinking of her prediction.
“SO, that’s Skull’s true form since Discord did give some of his magic to him. Well, I will send a message to one of my Changelings to attack him from behind. When he is not looking and Flutterbrute, we will knock him out, and turn him one of us…” she thought.