One morning at Muse's theater, Dustin, Alistair, Drake, Zyphon, Dean, the twins, Aria, Jade, Elroy, and Jethro were conversing with Wild and Muse about how they ended up helping Twilight and the others defeat Tirek.
"So how did you guys come to acquire your keys to the chest of harmony?" Dustin inquired.
Wild began, "Well, I was participating in a card game tournament, and the three time defending champion Ace Spades was my final opponent. I was so confident and caught up in my luck I abused my hope and thought I could win like that. But when I started losing I felt I was done for. And then I heard this sort of voice in my head."
"Voice?" Drake asked.
"Yeah. It sounded like my old mentor Black Jack who previously owned the game shop I run. He told me that my luck should not be taken for granted and exploited. It was then I knew I had to really work hard to come out on top, and by success I did. Though Ace Spades was revealed to have cheated throughout the game using card swaps when no pony noticed. After he lost I went to talk to him about cheating was being an excuse to avoid losing. A true champion or card player would stick to the rules and not rely on false luck. After he changed he gave me a Ace of Spades card as a symbol of our new friendship. I didn't expect that it was actually going to be a key to the chest."
"What a beautiful story." Alice smiled.
"What about you, Muse?" Jade asked.
"Well, I was meeting up with an old colleague of mine from performing arts school. And we were discussing ideas. However I found out my friend took one of my ideas and pretended it was hers. I didn't want her to get better by using an idea of mine so I felt I had to come up with an even better one. Because of that I put in a lot of work time for it, and even pushed my workers to the bone. I was going off path from the light and falling into darkness. So I canceled the one show. When I got a letter from my friend about how the play wasn't going so well was because she didn't understand the true meaning of what the play meant and how the actors were supposed to be. Not wanting to spite her I went over to help properly direct how the play was supposed to be. My friend made sure the credit went to me, and gave me the original script as a symbol of our friendship and an apology." Muse smiled.
"When we found out they were the keys to the chest, we brought them to it and they transformed into actual keys. And well, you know the rest." Wild finished.
"What a wonderful story." Zyphon admitted.
"I'll say." Alistair nodded.
Suddenly the doors opened and Twilight came galloping in, "There you all are."
"What's up, Twilight?" Dustin asked.
"I received a letter from Princess Celestia. She wants us all to meet at Canterlot right away."
"Did she say why?" Drake asked.
"All she said was it was very important."
"No doubt it's got something to do with the Serpentine." Wild guessed.
"Then we better get going." Muse suggested, as they all left the theater to meet up with the others.
The group flew the non flying ponies to Canterlot to save time, and when they entered the castle they saw Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, Cadence, and Discord present.
"Shining Armor, Cadence?" Twilight asked.
"Good to see you made it." Shining greeted her.
"We have a lot to talk about." Cadence said.
"We can imagine, but what is the big emergency?" Jethro asked.
"It concerns the Serpentine." Celestia began.
"I knew it." Wild answered.
"Did you find their location?" Dustin asked hopefully.
"Not exactly." Luna answered feeling a bit guilty.
"Then what?" Alistair asked.
"Oh, you might as well show them." Discord rolled his eyes.
"Show us what?" Drake asked.
The royal ponies cleared some space to reveal Generals Skales, Fangtom, Skalidor, and Acidicus, and Lieutenant Arcturus. There was an awkward pause between both sides, as the ponies and warriors were in shock. Acidicus broke the silence by waving.
"Hey, guys."
Pinkie screamed, "The Serpentine generals!" the five snakes jumped back in shock of her loud reaction.
"What're you doing here, and not in chains and shackles?" Alistair demanded.
"This may come to a surprising shock to you, but we're not here to fight you." Skales explained.
"Oh, right." Drake answered skeptically.
"Do ya think we was born yesterday?" Applejack called his claim a bluff.
"Not me, I was born..." Pinkie was cut of by Rainbow putting a hoof to her mouth.
Twilight turned to her mentor, "Princess Celestia, why are the Serpentine Generals and Lieutenant Arcturus here in the castle and not in the dungeon?!"
"Actually we were kept in the dungeon last night as safety precautions." Skalidor explained.
"I wasn't talking to you!" Twilight silenced the general.
"Twilight, everypony, that's enough." Celestia silenced them, and they ceased their outraged outbursts.
"Princess, why are the snakes here?" Fluttershy inquired.
"I know it's hard to believe but they aren't here to fight us." Luna began.
"Wait a minute..." Dustin began, "Skales must've hypnotized you into thinking they're nice now!" he flew up to the sisters and others snapping his fingers in front of them constantly.
Luna eventually levitated Dustin back over to the others and spoke, "I assure you, Dustin, none of us are under the affect of hypnosis."
"Then explain to us why the Serpentine's generals are here?" Zyphon insisted.
Fangtom answered, with both heads, "Because we need your help... In stopping Pythor."
Suddenly the warriors burst out laughing, until they saw the snakes looked at them seriously, "Oh, you mean it?" Elroy asked.
"And why would you want us to help you stop Pythor?" Twilight inquired.
"Because he's gone mad!" Acidicus answered.
"Uh, yeah. We kinda got that already." Rainbow replied.
"Not like you thought of him before, but as in insanely mad." Skales explained.
"You're not making any sense." Wild said, feeling irritated.
Acrturus spoke up, "It's the Orochi-Sword. It's corrupted his mind and made him power hungry."
"You expect us to believe that?" Alistair asked skeptically.
"Actually, it's true." Shining Armor confirmed.
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
Cadence levitated a book over, as Pinkie noticed it, "Hey, that's the guide to the Crystal Fangs."
Cadence nodded, "Shining Armor and I have kept it close, and have done some further studying upon the weapon," she turned it to a page and showed everyone, "Apparently while the Orochi Sword is said to make any Serpentine holding it stronger, it also eats away at their sanity and corrupts them."
Twilight gasped, "Almost like the Alicorn Amulet."
"If that's true how come you guys didn't act so freakin' corrupted when you became Serpent King?" Domino cawed.
"Because we only used the weapon for half of a day." Skales answered.
"And because Pythor had possession of it for a whole year, that resulted in more time for it to eat away at his mind." Dustin deduced.
"Yes, he was too obsessed with it and refused to let one of us hold it." Acidicus explained.
"Greedy much?" Rarity asked.
"So did you just sneak away from Pythor to warn us?" Wild asked.
"No, he's enslaved our tribes to build a kingdom for us all. But now I think the kingdom is really for himself." Arcturus explained.
"So that's why the tribes were stealing building equipment." Twilight realized.
"You know I kinda find it ironic how you guys worked for a pony who enslaved his own subjects only for one of your fellow generals to suddenly do the same to his own tribe and yours." Alistair noted, as the generals glared at him.
Arcturus spoke in anger, "Pythor is nothing like Sombra!"
"Oh, really?" Applejack asked in skepticism.
"This may sound unlike the Pythor you know, but the one I knew cared about his tribe and the rest of us. That's why he suggested an attempt to overthrow Sombra and take the Crystal Empire from him." the lieutenant said.
"And what would he do with the crystal ponies in return?" Twilight challenged him.
Arcturus wanted to retort but had nothing to back it up, "Well, at least he cared about his own kind, while Sombra did not!"
"He does have a point, Twilight." Fluttershy said meekly.
"You'll have to tell us exactly what happened." Dustin ordered.
"Very well." Skales nodded, as they told the story of what happened the night they confronted Pythor.
Skales and the generals had met with Pythor that night from before
"We need to talk." Skales said seriously.
"About what, Skales?" Pythor inquired in annoyance.
"You've been pushing our tribes around in building this kingdom non stop. There's only so much to what we snakes can do on our own." The Hypnobrai general lectured him.
"Well, it's not like any other creature in Equestria will help us, now will they?" Pythor snarked.
"That's besides the point." Fangtom called.
"You cannot treat our tribes like you are the boss." Skalidor spoke.
"You forget, Skalidor, I wield the Orochi Sword! Therefore I am the boss!"
"You haven't let that sword out of your sight ever since we were separated back into five." Acidicus said.
"So what? You think it'd be better off in your claws?"
"I think it's best you drop that thing and we do things our way now." Skales ordered him.
"I don't think so." Pythor hissed.
"Then we'll fight you for it!" Skalidor called, as the four generals attacked Pythor who fought back.
They fought as hard as they could using their serpent abilities, but Pythor having been juiced up by the power of the Orochi-Sword defeated them. Pythor spat on Skales with no remorse of what he did.
Soon outside Pythor's half formed castle, Pythor stood before all of the five tribes with his fellow generals bound in chains on one side, and on the other side was their tribe staffs. Pythor announced to the tribes.
"Let this be a lesson to all those who go against my orders. And as of this day I am abolishing the rank of generals. From now on you will all answer only to me!" The five tribes were actually in shock to see their own leaders fight, and that Pythor had won and has suddenly turned all dictator-like. Pythor looked at his former fellow generals, and turned to some of his own soldiers, "Take these four to the dungeons."
The Anacondrai soldiers nodded in fright and took the other four away. As they did, Arcturus looked up at Pythor seeing the insanity in his eyes, knowing he really wasn't the same Pythor he knew during Sombra's reign.
That night, as Skales and the other generals were hanging by their wrists from the dungeon ceiling in chains and shackles, they felt miserable.
"I can't believe Pythor turned on us." Skalidor said in disbelief.
"And after all we've been through." Acidicus put in.
"What happened to him?" Fangtom asked.
"He let his own power go to his head," Skales began, "He's become everything we detested in Sombra."
"So is this how it ends for us?" Acidicus inquired.
"Rotting in a dungeon for who knows how long?" Skalidor asked in sorrow.
Suddenly they heard the dungeon door open, and entering was a figure in a cloak, "Who is there?" Skales asked.
"Generals, it's me." the figure removed his hood revealing to be Arcturus.
"Arcturus?" they gasped.
"Shh. I'm getting you all out of here." Arcturus said, as he slunk over and unlocked the shackles around their wrists.
"I don't suppose you got our staffs, did you?" Fangtom asked.
"I'm afraid not, but I did get you each these." He handed them each an Anacondrai blade.
"They'll do." Skales said, as the four took a blade.
"Should we go after Pythor again?" Skalidor asked.
"No, doing it again would be suicide," Arcturus said, "What we need is help."
"Help? Pythor told us who would be willing to help us?" Skales asked.
"I think I know some who might." the lieutenant answered.
The generals were curious until Skales realized, "What? Them?" Arcturus nodded, "Arcturus, you're crazy!"
"I know, but who else can we turn to?" he pointed out the obvious fact.
Skales sighed, "Very well. Let's just get out of here before we get spotted." And the five snuck away.
Sometime later, Pythor was on his way to the dungeon, "Oh, boys. I thought I'd give you a little visit before turning in for the night," he said with a chuckle, before noticing the Anacondrai guard knocked out, "What?" he slunk into the dungeon to see no sign of the four generals, "NO! They escaped!" he growled, before slithering off.
He went to Arcturus' barracks, "Arcturus, the four have escaped from..." he saw Arcturus was nowhere to be found, "Arcturus?" When he put two and two together he realized what happened and screamed to the heavens, "ARCTURUS!"
The flashback ended, as Arcturus spoke, "So we came here to Canterlot begging the assistance of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."
Drake couldn't help but snicker, "You begged?" Dustin shot him a look to knock it off.
"I can't believe Pythor did that to all of you." Fluttershy gasped.
"Somehow I can." Rainbow admitted.
"So don't you see, we desperately need your help." Skalidor pleaded.
"And how can we even trust you let alone help you?" Applejack asked.
"Applejack's right, we thought we could trust you but you still stole the third crystal fang form us after escaping the golem's mine." Rarity reminded them.
"That only happened because we ended our truce." Skales noted.
"And you have to admit we worked well together against fighting the golems, right?" Skalidor asked hopefully.
The ponies, Dustin,Alistair, and Zyphon could not deny that their teamwork was excellent, but Twilight spoke, "What if we were to help you defeat Pythor and free your tribes what would you do after that?"
"We would forget all this fighting and just live in peace and isolation." Arcturus promised.
"You really think we would believe that?" Rainbow crossed her hooves.
"I do," Celestia answered, much to their surprise, "While it's true they had committed horrendous acts in the past, but remember they valued their tribes, while Sombra didn't not value anything other than his power."
"Yes. We do care for our own kind and would never have done to them what Pythor's been doing." Skalidor nodded.
"Please, we have no one else to go to. We beg of you." Skales begged, as tears came in his eyes.
Pinkie looked sad, and hugged Skales, "Oh you poor snakey." she nuzzled him.
"Pinkie!" the group called her out.
"Come on, guys. Put yourselves in their hooves, or scales. And wouldn't you feel the same way as them?"
The group started seeing things form their Point of view and felt torn. Twilight spoke to Arcturus, "Would you really be willing to put all the past issues you have and leave them behind and begin a new?"
"I would want to make an attempt and help my tribe feel the same way."
"As would I." Skales admitted.
"Me too." Skalidor nodded.
"And me." Acidicus hissed.
"Likewise." Fangtom finished.
The rest of the group still feeling skeptical about this whole thing still had to make an attempt to make nice. Dustin spoke, "Very well. We'll help you getting your tribes back and ending Pythor dictatorship."
The five snakes looked up in joy, "You mean it?" Skales asked.
"But..." Alistair continued, "If you five double cross us or get any ideas, well then you'll find yourselves in a place worse than Tartarus. I promise you that."
"We understand." Arcturus said.
"We'll show you that you in fact can trust a snake." Skales extended his claw out.
Dustin shook the Hypnobrai generals claw, followed by Twilight shaking it with her hoof. The others still felt skeptical about this whole idea, but if the snakes really felt they were their last resort than it had to be serious. They only hoped that they were doing the right thing.