The Amphibious Hope

by TheClownPrinceofCrime

Chapter 10: Salvation at Hand

As the gang returned to Amphibia, all the frogs, toads, and newts were already gathered together in Wartwood. Anne and Sasha brightly smiled at seeing their beloved frogs once again after so many years.

“Wow…we’re—we’re actually back in Amphibia,” said Anne, wiping off a tear.

“Yeah. I can hardly believe it. I never thought I would see these awesome dorks again,” Sasha agreed.

“It’s been that long, huh?”

“Yeah, Spike, these girls felt so at home they befriended all of us! Heh, I remember the day we first met—ganging up on Anne because we thought she was a monster,” recalled Hop Pop.

“Ohhh, boy, I remember that like it was yesterday!” laughed Polly.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Anne cringed.

At that moment, three familiar faces showed up. Sasha and Anne saw Grime, Olivia, and Yunan approach them. The girls’ lips were quivering at the sight of their old friends.

“Sasha?! Is…is that you?!” Grime shouted.

“GRIME!” Sasha responded, tearing up. They instantly hugged each other before they sobbed their hearts out.

“I really missed you!”

“Not as much I did! I’m s-so happy to see you again! And I see you’ve…(sniff)…grown up. You’re making me feel old!” Grime remarked, blowing his nose with his tissue.

“How’s Braddock and Percy? (Sniff) They’re good?”

“They are. Remember what you told me to tell them before you left?”

“Hm-mm…”

“Well, they said that they’ll—they will miss you too, and they’ll never forget you,” Grime replied.

That made Sasha cry even harder. She fell on her knees and covered her eyes. “If only I didn’t break their hearts. If I had just—,”

“Don’t worry. They already forgave you,” Grime smiled.

Sasha smiled back and hugged him again.

“Anne, Sasha…it’s so good to see you again,” welcomed Olivia.

“I thought the day would never come we would be reunited…to save the universe again,” said Yunan.

“Yeah, I know, it’s becoming a cliché at this point. Still, I’m just glad we can see each other again for one last time,” replied Anne.

“Is Master Marcy doing alright?” Olivia asked.

“She’s good. She couldn’t come with us for personal reasons. You know—after…you know what…”

“Right,” Olivia sadly nodded.

“Well then, now that we’re all accounted for, what’s the big plan?” Yunan asked. All the frogs, toads, and newts turned their attention to Spike and Discord.

“Listen up, everyone! The Core has undoubtedly increased in strength ever since it took over Equestria. I’m sure you’re aware of how dangerous it is, and I know you will once more demonstrate just how strong you really are!”

“What the Core doesn’t have is the power of friendship. United, we will prevail!”

“I’ve heard that one before,” Discord whispered, snickering.

“So here’s the plan: we will divide into three groups. One of the three groups will set up a diversion to draw the attention of our enemies away from the Canterlot Castle,” Spike instructed. “Once that’s done, the rest of us will sneak in from behind, release the prisoners, and then commence the attack against the Core. Any questions?”

A few frogs raised their hands. “Yeah, uh, don’t ya think that stinkin’ robot’s gonna find us out before we know it?”

“Also, how are we supposed to sneak in from behind? I guarantee ya it’s gonna be one heck of a struggle!” Toadstool added.

“Come on, dudes, we’ve been through this before! We were a dominating force of nature when Andrias took over everything, so this should be no different!” Polly reminded.

“But don’t you think the Core has gotten smarter this time? It’ll realize what we’re up to before we could begin our attack,” countered Sprig.

“Hmm, touché.”

“Well, of course, we can’t just barge into their territory without an ace up our sleeve, but we can’t sit around idly by either. There’s gotta be at least something—,” said Hop Pop.

Then a lightbulb popped up on Discord’s head. “Say…ace up our sleeve! That’s it!” He snapped his fingers, creating a massive ace card. It flew down towards our heroes and shook Spike’s and Discord’s hands.

“Huh?”

“That’s right, Spike. Ace here will provide us with a special undercover surprise. Trust me, that know-it-all robot won’t suspect a thing,” Discord assured.

Spike smiled at him. “Knowing you, Discord, it’s gonna be fun.”

“Haha, you got that right,” he agreed, winking.

“So who will volunteer to be the diversion?” Anne asked the groups.

“We will!” said the toads. “Since we enjoy bashing those scrap heaps of junk, we might as well become the bait and take ‘em down!”

“Well, then, let’s not wait any longer. Time to make that monster regret it ever came back alive,” Sasha growled, cracking her knuckles.

“Tell me about it! It’s about time we get some action!” Yunan added, sharpening her blades.

“So am I, hon. So excited to battle side by side with you once more,” said Olivia.

“My pleasure, my lady,” Yunan grinned, holding hands with her.

“I may be missing an arm, but I still got the touch and the power!” Grime boasted.

“It’s now time to save Equestria. We’re coming, Twilight. We’re coming home,” Spike smiled, looking at the sky.

Ace flew around everyone in lightning speed. Once it generated enough magical energy, it teleported everyone out of Amphibia.

---

As the moon was shining through the blood-red sky, all the inhabitants of Equestria were once again gathered in Canterlot. The unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies stood together as they idly murmured.

At that moment, all the dragons hovered above the castle with collars on their necks. Once they were set in place, Gloam Fall and Fesity walked outside the palace and stood before the large audience of ponies.

“Citizens of Equestria, tonight is the night of salvation! You will witness the ultimate destruction of division, fear, and evil! We present to you…the last surviving species of the non-ponies!” Gloam Fall announced.

The platform opened its door and elevated another floor below the surface. As it was raised unto the platform, there stood the yaks, hippogriffs, griffons, changelings, Starlight, Sunburst, Trixie, the Heroic Six, and the rulers—including Queen Novo—all bound in chains. Dozens of ponies were chained up with them too.

“As the Emperor wishes, they will be executed on the spot along with the traitors who harbored them,” added Feisty. Then she evilly grinned at Thorax. “I will enjoy eviscerating what will remain of your crisp carcass.”

“To make this extra entertaining for you all, we’ve decided to coerce the dragons to do the honors. You know…‘cause we love drama!” the Core giggled.

“YOU COWARDS!!!” Ember defied.

“Heathens, prepare for extinction!” Gloam Fall and Feisty simultaneously declared.

The Core ignited its horn to force Ember and the dragons to heat up their breath. Ember, however, used all her strength to resist their magic by closing her mouth tight.

Ares held unto Starlight’s arm as he cried. “I…I don’t wanna die…”

She started to quietly sob as well. “I’m sorry, Ares. I really am.”

“I never imagined we would go out like this. Well, this journey was fun while it lasted,” said Gallus.

“At least we’ll die together! Better than being alone!” Silverstream spoke, her voice shaking.

All the prisoners braced themselves for their incoming death.

Having enough of Ember’s resistance, Gloam Fall forced their magical grip on her which broke whatever strength she had left.

“Once we’re done with them, we’ll incinerate you and all your dragons! Now DO YOUR JOB!!” Gloam Fall commanded.

Finally defeated, Ember and all the other dragons breathed in and spewed their fire towards the prisoners. Feisty’s grin grew bigger and bigger as she gleefully awaited their fiery destruction.

But then…the fire didn’t touch them.

Terramar opened his eyes and saw his skin was completely untouched. “Huh? We’re not burning?”

All the prisoners looked up and saw the fire was frozen solid. All the icicles flew down and pierced through their chains, setting them all free.

The assembly looked at this with confusion.

“WHAT?! What is the meaning of this?!” Gloam Fall demanded.

A giant polar bear with a purple hat and red gloves jumped in front of the crowd. He randomly danced and spat snow balls at the sky.

“What…is…that??” Feisty asked, dumbfounded.

The polar bear then made goofy faces at Gloam Fall and Fesity, making almost everyone laugh.

“Enough of this nonsense!” Gloam Fall angrily shouted, shooting a magical beam at the bear.

The giant creature was struck by the spell, and it fell on the ground. It was that moment in which the bear disappeared, revealing the presence of the toads before the assembly.

The ponies gasped at the sight of them. “What are those things?!”

“They look like giant frogs!”

“Why are they clothed and armed?!”

“Well…that went well…” Captain Beatrix grumbled.

“And they can talk too?!” a unicorn gasped.

“Says the talking horses!” Grime remarked, offended.

Gloam Fall was surprised to see the same toads who fought them before. “It’s impossible…how are they here? Hmm, it doesn’t matter.” They flew to the toads and held them via telekinesis.

“Well, well, you must be the toads from the glorious land of Amphibia. We gotta admit…it’s nice to finally see some familiar faces,” Gloam Fall mocked.

“Too bad we can’t say the same for you, ya bunch of pretentious blowhards!!” Beatrix insulted.

“Ohh, what a comeback!” The Core taunted. “Is that all you fools can come up with?”

“What she means to say is that you looked better when you were floating in space as a pile of scrap metal!” Grime interjected.

“And yet here we are—ruling this extraterrestrial world, snuffing the notion of friendship—you get the idea. Did you seriously come all this way here just to make a fool of yourselves?”

“Actually, we were just trying to distract you…” Beatrix smugly replied. Suddenly, there was an explosion inside the castle.

“…and it worked!”

Gloam Fall and Fesity looked back and saw the damaged and torn frobots flying out of the castle. Flabbergasted, the Core released the toads.

“What’s going on in there?!” Feisty demanded.

“Our—our fellow fro-frobots…attacked us…” a frobot reported before going offline.

Then Grime grabbed his new hammer and struck Gloam Fall in the face with it. The blunt of the strike caused a crack on the helmet.

“That was for my arm,” Grime growled.

“You’ll PAY for that!!” Gloam Fall sneered. Then they directed their attention to the crowd. “Citizens, protect your emperor!”

As ordered, the unicorns blasted their spells at the toads whereas the pegasi attacked them from above.

Grime, Beatrix, and the other toads unsheathed their weapons and deflected the magical blasts effortlessly.

“Wow, these magic-proof swords came in handy!” Beatrix said.

“Maintain your positions and don’t harm these civilians!” Grime ordered.

“Why not? They’re attacking us!” Captain Bufo asked, punching a pony in the face.

“Alright, let me rephrase that: don’t kill them. How’s that?” Grime replied, ducking below a dive-bombing pegasus.

“Eh, I can handle that,” Bufo shrugged, casually knocking out a few unicorns domino effect style.

“How long can we hold ‘em off?!” Bog asked, pushing the earth ponies off him.

“Just long enough until our friends do their thing!”

“Well, that’s reassuring!” Bog sarcastically responded.

As the toads were fighting off the ponies, Gloam Fall and Feisty turned back and noticed the prisoners already escaped. Angrily snarling, Gloam Fall opened their wings and flew up in the sky.

“Find the prisoners and terminate them! We will deal with this insubordination ourselves!” Gloam Fall commanded, flying through the open balcony.

As Fesity was searching, something caught her eye: a few of those escapees quickly entered inside the Canterlot Library. Then she sadistically smiled at the sight. “With pleasure.”

As Gloam Fall burst through one of the windows, they confronted the rogue frobots who were just finished destroying the other frobots. “What is this foolishness?! You dare turn against your lord and master?!”

Then the frobots lifted their heads and revealed themselves to be Spike, Discord, Anne, Sasha, and the Plantars. A giant frobot walked near them and opened up its chest, revealing all the other frogs and newts ready for battle.

“Hello, Core. Missed us?” Anne taunted, brandishing her sword.

“Didn’t expect to see us again, did you?” Sasha added, sharpening her duel swords.

Gloam Fall widened their eyes in shock. “Why…Anne Boonchuy—Sasha Waybright. It—well—we are surprised to see you. Actually, we are very happy you’re here!” Their eyes brightened with glee.

“You just saved us the trouble of hunting you both down! Say, where’s Marcy? Is she still around—given that you are ‘true’ friends and all?” The Core taunted.

“That is NONE of your concern, you disgusting abomination,” Sasha coldly replied.

“Your manipulation tactics won’t work this time!” Anne added.

“Let my sister go! Your reign of horror is OVER!” Spike demanded.

“If you want your precious Twilight Sparkle back, you will have to fight me. But wait, you might end up hurting her! You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

Spike clenched his fists. “I want you to shut up!”

“Don’t let that get to you, Spike. She’ll be alright,” Sprig advised, laying his hand on Spike’s arm.

Spike breathed in and out. “You’re right, Sprig. I know we can do this together.”

“And together, we will put an end to the Core…for good!” Sprig declared, glaring at Gloam Fall.

“Oh, my…such determination! Well, in that case…” Gloam Fall ignited their horn and generated the exact same scythe they used to fight Sasha and Grime.

“Let’s get ready to RUMBLE!”

Spike and Sprig looked at each other with determined grins. “Ready, pal?”

“As always. Let’s finish this…for Amphibia, Equestria, and beyond!”

Author's Note:

And so the final battle begins….

Comments

[OP Omni God-Emperor Doom]

It has finally begun.

[MLPFollower]

I hope the final battle takes some cues from Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: