ROOTS OF ALL EVIL—PART ONE
Written by Gillian Berrow, Tony Fleecs
Executive producers: Olivier Dumont, Randi Yaffa, Cort Lane
Story editing by Gillian Berrow
Supervising direction by Will Lau
Directed by Randi Rodrigues
Transcribed by Alan Back (ajback@yahoo.com)
Prologue
(Opening shot: a long shot of Zephyr Heights Palace, seen among the clouds during the day, followed by a dissolve to an overhead shot of the garden containing the tree that Sunny Starscout and her friends planted/grew in Misty’s honor during “Cutie Blossom Bash.” Recall that Elderflower identified it as a Together Tree in “Father of the Bridlewood.” Zoom in slowly and cut to a ground-level pan through the verdant space, stopping on one of Opaline Arcana’s steel-encircled forelegs as it stomps into the grass. She aims a malevolent little grin around herself and pivots to the arboreal behemoth, then cranks off a wild laugh and fires a broad beam from her horn into its heart. A lurid purple aura suffuses the bark, and tendrils of blinding violet-white energy whip upward from the ground and lash through the air in all directions. Within seconds, the purple has spread to cover every square inch of the Together Tree.)
(One tendril lashes past the camera in extreme close-up, the view wiping behind it to a stretch of Mane Avenue in the city proper. Yelling, panicking ponies get wings and hooves in gear to avoid being snagged as Thunder and Zoom touch down from above. Close-up of the guard mare on the next line.)
Zoom: Everypony, please stay calm! Do not panic! Everything is under—
Thunder: (now o.s.) Zoom! (She turns toward the voice; pan to frame him.) I forgot my shield! (A tendril zeroes in on his right haunch; close-up.) Do you have one?
(A brief flash from the vicinity of his hindquarters.)
Thunder: Hey, something feels funny.
(An over-shoulder glance informs him that his cutie mark—a knight chess piece—has been removed and encased in a magic bubble. He lets go with an ear-splitting scream as it is whipped away, then dives for cover behind a trash can.)
Thunder: Oh, no!
(With pandemonium taking hold up and down the block, Zoom warily backs up toward her partner and pulls out a tennis ball—the “shield” that was supposed to guard against unicorn magic as deployed in A New Generation.)
(The cackling Opaline continues her assault in close-up, after which the camera cuts to the Wishing Tree in Bridlewood. That unhealthy purple tinge has taken hold of it and sent the locals into a stampeding panic. The up-and-coming tyrant is now here, firing into the gargantuan trunk but cutting the flow after a moment. Dapple, Elderflower, and Onyx watch with clear consternation.)
Elderflower: It can’t be!
(But a longer shot of the mighty growth and a slow zoom out prove her wrong; the magical appendages have sprouted here as well and are hissing through the air wherever they can reach. Opaline just throws a smirk toward the madness she has unleashed, opens a portal on the trunk, and steps through. The instant it closes, a tendril lashes toward…)
Dapple: Elderflower! Look out!
(Cut to a brief extreme close-up of the old mare’s face on these words, eyes widening in purest shock. The ribbon sings past, scoring a glancing strike against Dapple’s cutie mark and causing it to glow for an instant, and all three race behind a crystal outcropping and peek out.)
Dapple: (to Elderflower) Ah! Are you okay? What was that?
Elderflower: (shuddering) I-I don’t know! (A flash from his haunch, which is just o.s.)
Onyx: Dapple! Look!
(The camera pans to frame his rump as he looks back toward it and finds only a patch of unmarked hide.)
Dapple: (shuddering) My…my…
(The heart-shaped bongos float free in a bubble and are snatched away in time with his horrified squawks. Elderflower and Onyx are stripped of their marks next.)
Onyx: Oh, no! What’s happening to us?
(Close-up of the two captive images as she finishes; the heart-tipped quill and trio of blossoms are reeled in to the sound of the o.s. Elderflower’s long gasp. Cut to the trio, then to/from the haywire Wishing Tree during the following exchange.)
Elderflower: Our cutie mark magic—it’s being stolen!
Dapple: Everypony, RUUUNNN!!
(Screams tear the air as they and every equine within earshot bug out. In Maretime Bay, the sky has become overcast with eerie blue clouds, and the same degree of fear and disorder is playing out here. Zoom in slowly and cut to a stretch of Mane Street, then pan to frame Toots jittering in place.)
Toots: Oh, my hoofness! (Jazz Hooves skids to a stop alongside him.) What do we do?
Jazz: (shaking him) RUUUUUUNNNNNN!!
(Both earth ponies peel out just ahead of a group of colossal shadows flitting over the road. The source turns out to be the four dragons who gave Sunny and her friends a ride home in “The Isle of Scaly”—Spike, Blaize, Fountain, Luxxe. They pass over the head of a sunglasses-wearing Sugar Moonlight.)
Sugar: (removing shades) Now dragons?!? What’s next?!?
(The flyers come in for a landing—Fountain on the bridge over Mane Street, Luxxe atop a trolley, Spike and Blaize on the road itself as a terror-stricken Lily watches, wearing her own sunglasses. All four are still wearing the charm bracelets that Izzy Moonbow gave them in the previous episode.)
Lily: (sobbing) Leave us alone! Please!
(She pulls the tinted lenses off and hurls them at the Dragon Lord, scoring an ineffectual hit on his chest that does not faze him one bit.)
Spike: Whoa, what kind of welcome is this? It’s me, Spike! Friend to ponykind since forever? Royal Advisor to—
Sprout Cloverleaf: (from o.s.) DRAGON!!
(Cut to the former deputy, who cranks off a shrill scream and gallops across Mane Street to bound over the railing that overlooks the shoreline. The nearest onlookers go into full freak-out mode even before he hits the water, and Lily chooses this moment to pitch over in a dead faint. Profile close-up of Spike.)
Spike: (sighing heavily) Never mind.
Hitch Trailblazer: (from o.s.) It’s cool, everypony!
(On these words, the camera zooms out slightly and one broad wing shifts to frame the Sheriff standing on Spike’s back, with Sparky Sparkeroni sitting on his own and playing with a leaf.)
Hitch: He’s with us!
Dahlia: (slowing down from her gallop) Hitch? Sheriff Hitch? (Sprout climbs up to the railing, seaweed draped over his head.)
Sprout: Wait. What?
(His former boss jumps down from the scaly violet back. Next Fountain lowers her wing to show Pipp Petals and Zipp Storm as her passengers, and Luxxe does likewise for Izzy and Misty. Lily comes to thanks to Sparky’s energetic fanning with the leaf he holds. Sunny jumps off Blaize’s back. The hullabaloo has quieted down by this point.)
Sunny: (producing/setting down Hope Lantern) Now can somepony please tell us what’s going on here?
Glory: We don’t really know— (She, Peach Fizz, and Seashell emerge from behind an overturned table.) —but it’s bad!
(All three fillies have lost their cutie marks.)
Seashell: (on verge of tears) Our cutie marks are all gone, and—and…the pony who took them all…she was an alicorn!
(Sunny gasps softly, the news hitting her like a ton of bricks. Snap to black.)
OPENING THEME
Act One
(Cut from the title card directly to an overhead shot of the gathering, just outside Mane Melody. Pipp and Zipp are hovering above the rest of the group, who have all dismounted, and Jazz and Rocky Riff have joined the group. Zoom in slowly.)
Rocky: Uh, Jazz, are you seeing what I’m seeing? (Close-up of the pair, their marks gone.)
Jazz: (rattled) Our friends just rode into town on flying dragons?!
Rocky: And Pipp’s hair is still fabulous!
Jazz: (as both cross to the group) Where have you ponies been?
Rocky: Who would do something like this?
Sunny: Her name is Opaline, and she’s—
Izzy: (with sudden recognition) Oh, Opaline! (laughing) Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. You know, I was really racking my mind, like, “Who really would do something like this?” Okay, yeah. Now that makes sense. Continue. (Pan to Pipp on the next line.)
Pipp: Izzy, who else did you think would do this? (Cut to frame both as Izzy speaks.)
Izzy: Honestly, uh… (whipping over to Hitch) …I’ve always been a little suspicious of Hitch’s crab friend, McSnips-a-Lot.
(Pan quickly to the crustacean in question, doing nothing of any importance.)
Izzy: (from o.s.) He’s just so pinchy!
(A couple of innocent blinks later, the pan reverses itself.)
Hitch: (needled) Heeey!
Sunny: Rocky, Jazz, show us what happened.
(The two stylists nod resolutely. Cut to a long shot of the tree at the base of the hill on which Canterlove Studios stands—a Together Tree, as identified by Opaline in “Nightmare on Mane Street.” It is now wreathed in the same queasy purple energy that Opaline exerted in Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood, and Rocky moves into view but stops at a considerable distance.)
Rocky: (pointing) There! They disappeared through there! (Head-on shot of him, Sunny, and Jazz.)
Sunny: But how is Opaline doing this?
Jazz: She had these magical vines that followed her through town, and they stole the cutie marks! (Sunny gasps; Hitch joins them.)
Hitch: And where is she now? (Sound of beating wings.)
Zipp: (from o.s.) The trees!
(On the next line, cut to frame the investigator looping above the others’ heads to survey the Together Tree. Izzy and Misty arrive at this point.)
Zipp: She must be using the trees like portals, just like we did when we went to the Isle of Scaly.
Sunny: But to open a portal…you’d need a key. Right? Without one, Opaline would need so much more than pony magic.
Misty: But she has fire alicorn magic. And she has the Dragon Stone. (Cut to Pipp, now here as well.)
Pipp: And actual dragons!
Jazz: (showing bare haunch) And she has all of our cutie marks!
Zipp: So she found a way into Maretime Bay through the tree. (Gasp.) If she broke through Twilight’s protection spell, that means…she could be back to finish the job at any moment!
Rocky: Everypony and everything could be in real danger!
Sunny: You’re right! Even the Unity Crystals!
(Pan quickly in turn to Izzy/Misty, then to Glory/Peach/Seashell, then to Toots and Sweets. The two unicorn mares gasp in unison, then the three fillies—but Toots stares in mute horror while the gum-chewing Sweets blows and pops a bubble.)
Jazz: (quietly) I’m just gonna say it. (Pause.) WE’RE DOOOOOMED!!
(Her pelting retreat is the cue for the locals to resume their screaming race for shelter in every conceivable direction.)
Hitch: Wait, everypony! Come back! We need all hooves on deck here protecting this tree!
(Toots slams on the brakes during this last, showing in close-up that he has lost his mark.)
Toots: But without our cutie marks, we’re not ourselves! We can’t protect anything! (He collapses with a moan.)
Misty: (from o.s., extending a foreleg toward him) Yes. (Cut to frame both.) You can.
(After a moment’s uncertainty, the heavyset stallion holds a hoof forward and allows her to pull him upright. On the start of the next line, cut from a close-up of the linked appendages to their owners.)
Misty: I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but…you all have something to offer. (Her confidence builds as ponies gather to listen.) Y-You’re all smart, and brave, and kind. I’ve seen you.
(Cut to Posey, Sweets, and a spectator mare.)
Misty: (from o.s.) Any of you would do anything to help your fellow pony— (They smile; back to her.) —even you, Sprout. (He puts his head up from a barrel in which he has hidden.)
Sprout: Really? Awww…
Misty: Look. I know Opaline. She’s awful. She kept me locked in her lair for moons. But…I survived all of it. (Slow pan across the crowd, gradually warming up to her words; she continues o.s.) Even without a cutie mark. Yes, your cutie marks are special, but they’re not the only thing that makes you special. And nopony can take away what makes you special on the inside.
(Her last two sentences are punctuated by a brief cut back to her, then to Glory/Peach/Seashell. Back to her and Izzy once she finishes.)
Izzy: Yeah! You’re powerful ponies! (bucking at air) Any one of you could kick a door off its hinges in two and a half tries! (Pipp touches down.)
Pipp: (a touch puzzled) That is…oddly specific.
Izzy: Thank you very much!
Rocky: We’ll do our part. But…how are you gonna stop Opaline? Do you have a plan?
Sunny: A plan? Uh, of course! Absolutely!
(She utterly fails to notice the poleaxed looks coming her way from Hitch/Zipp/Sparky—the equivalent of “has this mare lost her mind?” Cut to the six ponies’ heads leaning into view for a huddle, the camera aimed straight up at them from the ground.)
Sunny: Okay, who has a plan?
Izzy: Oh, oh! Me! I do! Here’s what we’re gonna need. (Close-up.) Two bathtubs full of glimmerberry jam, a stick of bubble gum, and exactly sixteen cases of assorted craft supplies! This ain’t gonna be easy, but if we time it juuuuust right, then we’re gonna— (All six again on the start of the next line.)
Sunny: (forcing a smile) That is…an option. (Strained laugh.) Any other ideas?
Zipp: We need to figure out how Opaline is stealing the cutie marks. (The huddle breaks on the next line.)
Pipp: And we need to do it before she comes back here and finishes the job! (She glances toward her own mark with a whimper.)
Hitch: What if Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood are in danger too? This is too much! How are we supposed to do this on our own? (Pan to Sunny on the next line.)
Sunny: We’re not on our own. (smiling determinedly) Opaline’s not the only pony with dragons on her side.
Toots: (from o.s., voice raised) So, uh…
(Zoom out to frame him, Sweets, and a couple of other ponies watching from several yards behind her. She swivels to face them.)
Toots: …what’d you come up with?
(Sweets pops another bubble just before Spike abruptly goes flat on his face with a grunt and woozy moan, landing near the Lantern.)
Act Two
(He tries and fails to raise himself, the other dragons watching with heightened worry and the ponies hustling over.)
Sunny: Spike! What happened?
Blaize: He just…collapsed!
Luxxe: (moaning, claws to head) I’m not feeling so great either. (Cut to Fountain.)
Fountain: (weakly) This must be some kind of pony spell. Is this a-a trap?
Misty: (from o.s.) No! (Cut to the ponies.) It’s the Dragon Stone! It has to be! If Opaline has dragons under her control, she’s using the Stone to do it!
Sunny: If she uses up all of the Dragon Stone’s magic, that could—
Spike: (slowly getting up) That could put dragons back to sleep for another thousand moons! We can’t let that happen! (moving forward) Dragons, come with me! That stone doesn’t belong to this Opaline, and if we’re gonna have any chance of stopping her, we’re gonna need all the dragon power we have left!
(Cut briefly to the other three during this line, steeling themselves and following his lead, then to a close-up of him.)
Luxxe: (from o.s.) Spike… (Zoom out to frame her keeping pace.) …what about the One?
(Both stop and look toward Sparky, on Hitch’s back and goofing around with the leaf he brought.)
Luxxe: The hatchling?
(The Sheriff finds himself on the receiving end of their intense attentions in short order.)
Hitch: What?! No! Y-You can’t! He’s just a baby! (Spike leans down to face him.)
Spike: (softly) He is stronger than you know.
Misty: Hitch, he’s right. Sparky’s the one who filled up the Dragon Stone in the first place. He’s why Opaline’s fire alicorn magic is so powerful.
(Cut to the little fellow cooing over his leaf during this last.)
Sunny: And if she got her magic through Sparky… (Spike stands up.)
Spike: …maybe he’s the one who can take it all back! (Sparky chews the greenery.)
Hitch: He is strong, but he’s still my…my little—
Spike: Believe me, he always will be. (holding out a foot) But trust us.
(Hitch reluctantly lowers his head, allowing Sparky to somersault over it and land among the splayed-out claws, then removes his badge and looks the toddler square in the eye.)
Hitch: (softly) You got this, bud.
(Sparky throws aside the leaf he has been playing with and takes the insignia with an overjoyed blub, but the celebratory mood vanishes as quickly as it came. He babbles tenderly to Hitch as the two lean their foreheads into each other, and Spike lifts him away in time with an understanding nod and sad smile from the stallion. The dragons lift off, Sparky riding on Spike’s head.)
Sunny: Spike! Be careful!
Spike: Don’t worry about me, Princess Sunny. This isn’t my first rodeo. (as the group flies away) Protect your ponies! (Cut to Sunny on the next line.)
Sunny: (sputtering a bit) I’m not…I-I’m not a princess!
Spike: (now o.s., chuckling) If you say soooo!
Hitch: (sighing) I’m gonna gather everypony by the tree!
Sunny: We’ll meet you back there as soon as we check on the Crystals. And, Hitch? Promise me you’ll be careful too.
Hitch: (raising a hoof to his chest) Hoof to heart.
(He starts away. Cut to a slow pan across the town square, littered with capsized furniture being used as shelter by more than a few blubbering ponies, and stop on a long shot of the closed front doors of Hitch’s office. He bursts out to the sidewalk, the members of his “squad” scattering around him, and the camera zooms in quickly to a close-up. He is carrying a bullhorn and has donned the red, star-badged cowboy hat he and Sunny shared in “The Cutie Mark Mix-Up.”)
Hitch: (amplified, through bullhorn) Everypony, listen up! (A few peek out from their cover; he walks down Mane Street.) I know you’re scared. (Cut to one risking a glance around a building corner; he continues o.s.) But we’re stronger together. (Back to him.) We’re safer if we’re together. Everypony, to the Together Tree!
(Swallowing hard, Sprout fearfully steps out from behind a gate and starts after him. Several others follow suit, and Hitch leads them toward the Together Tree. Cut from this group, having halted several yards away to face it, to Sunny and the rest of her crew gathered around the Unity Crystals in the lantern room of the Crystal Brighthouse. Everything is quiet on this front, to Sunny’s visible relief.)
Sunny: Phew!
Misty: She must not be able to enter the Brighthouse still. She never could do that.
Sunny: Good. That means the protection spell is still intact— (Zipp thinks a bit.) —at least here. (Brainstorm.)
Zipp: WAIT!! (She gallops away; Sunny follows.)
Pipp: Wait for what? (as Misty follows) Where are we going?!?
(All five gather on the central lift platform.)
Pipp: Zipp… (They are carried down and away.) Zipp…
(The ride ends in the shared bedroom.)
Pipp: (singsong, muffled by the shaft’s closed doors) Equestria to Zi-i-ipp…
(Once the doors open, the athlete is the first one out, beating wings to her desk; the other four pile after her, Pipp also flying.)
Pipp: (laughing nervously, with increasing insistence) Zipp, Zipp, Zi-i-ipp!
(Who is, by this point, rummaging frantically through the items scattered around her laptop.)
Pipp: (touching down) What are you doing, studying?!? (Zipp retrieves a photo.)
Zipp: Showing you…
(Within easy reach is a bulletin board covered with the fruits of her investigation into Opaline’s plans; close-up of one spot as she tacks the image up. It depicts a stylized tree whose roots and branches are equally broad; a spot of golden light gleams at the center of the trunk, and the roots stretch downward and terminate in six large fruits, each containing a miniature pony. Nestled among these are the Crystals, topped by a heart.)
Zipp: (from o.s.) …this! Hah!
(Zoom out on the next line to frame the entire group, and cut briefly to/from Sunny and Misty as she continues.)
Zipp: Ever since Elderflower told us about the connected roots, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this picture!
(The screen flashes white and clears to show her walking through the library of Zephyr Heights Palace during “The Manesquerade Ball.” Wearing the winged lightning-bolt half-mask she has brought for the titular event, she halts her hooves and aims a curious glance upward. During the next line, cut to her perspective of a stained-glass skylight dome overhead; the central panel presents the tree. Tilt slowly along its length.)
Zipp: (voice over) It’s from the library back home in Zephyr Heights! (Snicker.)
(Back to her past self, who pulls out her FlyPad and snaps a photo; the flash whites out the screen and clears to show Sunny and Pipp in the present.)
Pipp: (sighing) So, what am I looking at? (Close-up of the photo, tilting down slowly from top to bottom.)
Zipp: (from o.s.) Underneath the tree. (Zoom in.) Roots that look like they power the ponies’ cutie marks, right? (Cut to Sunny/Misty on the next line.)
Sunny: Oh, I think I see where you’re going.
Zipp: (coaxingly) Three trees…
(Close-up of a sketch of the Together Tree in Maretime Bay.)
Zipp: (from o.s., tapping it) …the Maretime Bay Together Tree… (The same for…) …Misty’s Together Tree in Zephyr Heights… (Once again for…) …and the Wishing Together Tree in Bridlewood! (Zoom out to frame the entire board.) Three trees!
(Overhead view of all but Misty, the camera leaning slowly toward them from the top edge of the board.)
Zipp: (pacing) Somehow she tapped into the connection between the three, but— (Close-up; she scratches her temple.) —I just can’t figure out how—
Misty: (from o.s.) It’s not three trees.
(Cut to the blue unicorn, seen from between Sunny and Pipp, and zoom in slowly.)
Misty: It’s four. (Cut to the others; zoom in quickly.)
Other four: WHAT?!? (Back to Misty, pacing to the board, on the following.)
Misty: There’s a fourth tree. Opaline has her own magic tree in her throne room. But it’s not beautiful like the Together Trees.
(Close-up of a winged-unicorn silhouette drawing affixed to the board, rotating and zooming in slowly.)
Misty: (from o.s.) It’s dark and twisty.
(A flash of white shifts the view to a long shot of Opaline’s castle; the rotation and zoom continue while lightning strikes split the sky. During the next line, cut to the side of the throne room filled by the Together Tree’s growth and tilt down to frame a young Misty sitting glumly by the door built into the wood.)
Misty: (voice over) It’s supposed to feed on unity magic, but... (laughing softly, bitterly) …it never worked because Opaline never found unity with anypony.
(Dissolve to an extreme close-up of Opaline’s wickedly smiling face, then back to the Brighthouse bedroom.)
Misty: She’s never had a friend like—
Zipp: (excitedly) Elderflower!
Izzy: (gasping, shocked) She’s not friends with Elderflower?
Zipp: (caught off guard) Uh, no! (moving to board) Elderflower said they’re all connected. If our cutie mark magic is flowing through the roots of the trees—
Sunny: (moving closer) —then Opaline must be able to reach them through her own tree! (Brief close-up of Zipp’s picture on this line, zooming out quickly to frame the group again.)
Zipp: So she can travel through the trees and she’s using the trees to steal the cutie marks? (Cut to Izzy on the following.)
Izzy: (hooves to temples) Whoa. This is a lot! (suddenly very uneasy) Um, hey, where did Hitch say he was gathering all the ponies again?
(That question hits the other four mares like a two-by-four to the back of the head. Cut to the upper reaches of the afflicted Together Tree at the base of the Canterlove Studios hill and tilt down, bringing Hitch and a knot of spectators into view on the next line.)
Hitch: See? It’s cool. We’re safe here together. Everything is—
(He trails off into a horrified gasp, duplicated by Sprout, at the sight of those ethereal tendrils lashing up from the ground.)
Sprout: (galloping away) Not good! Everything is not good!
(The beet on his haunch glows an instant before it is wrenched away; he cries out and slides to a stop.)
Sprout: My essence!
(He whirls and leaps after the stolen mark, but gets only a hard belly flop for his trouble. More shrieks ring out from the crowd before a cut to an extreme close-up of a hurrying Zipp’s mouth, seen in profile. During the next three lines, the camera shifts to frame all three speakers head-on; Pipp and Zipp are both flying.)
Zipp: It’s not safe!
Izzy: Get away!
Pipp: We were wrong!
Hitch: (to himself, unnerved) Oh, this is not good. (to crowd) Okay, opposite plan. Everypony split up! (They do so, screaming.) Get away from the tree!
Dahlia: But—but you said to go— (Cut to Sprout on the next line.)
Sprout: My cutie mark! (shrilly, leaping onto his mother Phyllis’ back, drumming hooves on her flanks) Mommy! I want it back!
(The mare just rolls her eyes in supreme disgust and gallops away. Cut to Pipp/Zipp on the start of the next line, now both in midair above the thoroughfare. As Zipp speaks, cut from them to the tree and its flailing appendages, then to her visage and the horror slowly dawning on it.)
Zipp: If the tree here in Maretime Bay is doing all this, then what about the one in Zephyr Heights?
(Cut to the empty throne room, or Grand Hall, of Zephyr Heights Palace and zoom in on the dais. Something is visible on Queen Haven’s central seat, propped up against a cushion, and the tinny quality of the following sound and the buzzing vibrations that accompany it pick it out as her cell phone even before the camera shifts to a close-up. Pipp’s winking face is shown on the screen as a notice of an incoming call.)
First verse of Pipp’s song in Chapter One, Act Two
Energetic pop melody with synthesizers/drums and brass accents, fast 4 (D minor)
Pipp: I know you’re feeling like there’s something wrong
But don’t you—
Song ends abruptly with the click of a voice mail system picking up
(On the next words, cut to the Together Tree in the garden, its vines whipping through the air, and zoom out slowly. Haven and her dog Cloudpuff bound madly past to keep clear of one, while Thunder and Zoom hang on to it for dear life. The sky here has gone as dark as in Maretime Bay.)
Haven: (voice over, on phone) You’ve reached Her Royal Majesty Queen Haven of Zephyr Heights’ voice mail. (Other guards and civilians dart every which way before the assault.) Please leave your message after Cloudpuff’s bark.
(She giggles, followed by two yips from the winged pooch and a beep. Back in Maretime Bay, Pipp sighs and stares at her phone, landing in time with Zipp.)
Pipp: No answer!
Zipp: Did you leave a message? (Pipp stashes the gadget.)
Pipp: She doesn’t know how to check her messages! We have—
Hitch: (racing to them) We have to warn Zephyr Heights!
Zipp: We’re on it!
(Before she and Pipp can so much as shift a hoof, a distant squeal of tires cuts in, followed by a crash and a horn honking out the first five notes of the My Little Pony theme/jingle.)
Zipp: Izzy?
(Sure enough, the expert crafter barrels in on her Izzy Does It scooter, wearing a starry orange crash helmet.)
Izzy: (slewing to a stop) Okay, I’ve got Bridlewood. Hitch, you’re in charge of here! (whispering urgently) You listen to me. Can you handle this as a solo Hitch mission?
Hitch: (sputtering, badly unnerved) I don’t know! Uh, I mean, uh…where are Sunny and Misty?
Zipp: They’re at the Brighthouse on the lookout. (looking skyward) At least we know the Crystals are safe.
(During this second sentence, the camera tilts up to follow her gaze, past the rooftops to frame the Pris-Beam shining upward from the Brighthouse hidden behind them. It undergoes a momentary glitch, then another in a closer shot that frames the lantern room.)
Sunny: (voice over) Oh, no, not again!
(Close-up; she races around the balcony.)
Sunny: Not now!
Misty: (circling into view, carrying Lantern in her magic, passing it to Sunny) It…it doesn’t make any sense! The ponies are frightened, but they’re still working together.
Sunny: It’s Opaline! It has to be! (Gasp.) She’s figured out a way inside!
Misty: That’s not possible! She’s not strong enough to break through the protection spell yet!
(That last word trips a lever in the brain under the streaked magenta mane, and Sunny slowly pivots to face Misty.)
Sunny: (levelly) What do you mean, “yet”?
Misty: If Opaline gets enough cutie mark magic, she’ll have enough power to break any spell— (as Sunny sets Lantern down) —and take all the magic.
Sunny: (groaning loudly) That can’t happen! We can’t let Equestria lose their cutie marks and their pony magic too! (The Pris-Beam falters.) What defense would we have then?
(Cut to a long shot of Opaline’s castle, zooming in slowly as four airborne specks approach its tallest tower. Closer shots pick them out as Spike with Sparky on his head, Blaize, Fountain, and Luxxe. The face of the youngest one betrays his clear trepidation as they close in on the structure, and Blaize latches claws onto the stones so she can peer into the windows. She scopes out the ritual chamber that Opaline used to drain Sparky’s power in “Missing the Mark”; cut to within the uninhabited space, the camera rotating to frame the flying squad, then to Blaize.)
Blaize: (softly) Looks like nopony’s home. (Sparky burbles worriedly; Spike takes note with a gasp.)
Spike: (ditto) The Dragon Stone! Do you sense it too?
Luxxe: It’s definitely inside there, but…it…it feels distant. Like she’s keeping it somewhere…below. (Close-up of her as she finishes.)
Fountain: (from o.s., wearily) Oh, no. (Cut to her.) Come on! Not a…
(A rattle of metallic lockworks interrupts; cut to a close-up of her somewhere inside the castle.)
Fountain: …dungeon!
(Longer shot: Spike is leading the group along a passage lined with barred cells.)
Fountain: (groaning) You know I hate dungeons! (to Luxxe) You know what happens to a dragon in a dungeon?
Luxxe: They chain us up?
Fountain: They chain us up! Correct! I’ve been chained up in a dungeon before, Luxxe! Have you? It’s not cool! It’s not cool at all!
Spike: (softly) Shhh! Opaline could return at any moment!
(They continue their exploration, Blaize throwing dirty looks from side to side. Cut to a close-up of the fully charged Dragon Stone, supported by a stand on a pedestal in the center of a large circular chamber. The mosaic on the floor, and the torches/candles at the walls, give it away as the one in which Opaline brought the dragons Jade and Lava to heel in “The Isle of Scaly.” The camera tracks around the pedestal just enough to frame the quintet at an entrance directly behind it.)
Spike: There! (Close-up of it, zooming in slowly; he continues o.s.) It’s just been charged. (Back to him and Blaize.)
Blaize: Oh, no. Lava and Jade. She has them! That means she must have—
Luxxe: —chained them up!
Spike: Once we retrieve the Stone, we can rescue them and set everything right.
(He crosses to the artifact and reaches for it, but a violet force field shimmers briefly into being to block his grasping claws. Its surface curves toward him.)
Spike: It’s got some kind of magic shield around the Stone.
(An aura in that same color wreathes it and whisks it away; cut to a close-up of Opaline with horn aglow. On the next words, zoom out to frame her now in the chamber, flanked by the two dragons-turned-servants. Her wings have lit up as well, and a spot of energy glows on her chest.)
Opaline: Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Spike. (Oily chuckle; she brings the thing to herself.) I didn’t put a spell around my Dragon Stone.
(Cut to Spike and company, who all too quickly find themselves caught within a hemispherical barrier of her power.)
Opaline: (from o.s.) I put a spell around my dragons!
(Back to her on the last word, zooming out as she lets go with a full-throated laugh.)
Act Three
Fountain: (supremely fed up) Aw, come on! I told you guys! (Attempts to bash their way out ensue.)
Spike: (snarling) You can’t keep us in here forever!
Opaline: Oh, hush.
(The magic flares in her eyes; cut to the bubble as it takes hold of Spike first and then the other adults, instantly pacifying them.)
Opaline: (from o.s.) You’d be surprised how long I can keep somedragon in here. You’re mine now.
(She begins to pace the floor, not noticing Sparky huddled on Spike’s back and still in possession of his own faculties.)
Opaline: My own little scaly army. How lovely. See? I can make friends too. (scornfully, setting Dragon Stone on its stand) Friendship. Hah. They used to tell me that was magic. (Chuckle.) You know what I think is magic?
(She lifts a few feet off the floor; Sparky cowers away from the sight of her.)
Opaline: Power! (Blue fire washes out from her wings.) And soon I’ll have all of it. Dragon Stone? Right there. Cutie mark magic? Incoming. Pris-Beam? Soon enough. Together Trees? Did you see my tree upstairs? Poor little thing.
(Cut to the throne room and pivot slowly upward toward the ceiling, picking out the contorted limbs that stretch from the trunk and the multitude of cutie-marked leaves sprouting from these.)
Opaline: (voice over) I tried and tried to make it grow, but you know what feeds a Together Tree, right? Did you guess “unity”?
(Back to her.)
Opaline: That’s correct. It’s always unity. So my little tree would always just wither up and die.
(Dissolve to a flashback of her holding a filly-aged Misty in the throne room and setting her down by the woody structure.)
Opaline: (voice over) Why, even when I found it a real live friend, it wouldn’t grow.
(Dissolve to the young flunky-in-training in her bedroom. During the next line, two dissolves advance her age and add various personal possessions to the floor and walls. As for Misty; she moves from bed to floor and back, cuddling her Madame Taffytail dummy and then regarding the picture of herself and Sunny’s crew that she swiped in “The Jinxie Games.” Her mane shifts from its original blue/green coloration to its current shades during this sequence.)
Opaline: (voice over) No matter. My little fake friend brought some real unity magic back to me whether she meant to or not. (Misty shifts away from the bed, revealing a drawing of Sparky.) And all it took was one tiny spark to activate my tree.
(On these last four words, dissolve to a close-up of Sparky in the present, peeking uneasily out over Spike’s wing. The next shot frames Opaline facing away from the dragons and toward her Together Tree, having landed.)
Opaline: And once my tree woke up—well, it made friends with the tree in Maretime Bay, and another tree in Bridlewood, and then my friend Misty—do you know what she did?
(Cut to a slow pan across the Together Tree in the Zephyr Heights Palace garden. Its phantom vines are harrying Thunder and Zoom, and one has snagged Haven and is holding her aloft as Cloudpuff hurtles to her aid.)
Opaline: (voice over) She grew a brand-new one for us in Zephyr Heights.
(Haven cries out as her mark is ripped away; the dog doubles back to chase after it. On the next line, cut to a slow pan along the length of one limb in Opaline’s throne room and stop on one bare leaf, which glows brightly as the royal crown and wings are imprinted onto it.)
Opaline: (voice over) So maybe my little Misty really has been a true friend after all. (The garden tree again; the vines have grabbed two more.) Now all of the cutie marks come to me…
(Close-up of her in the here and now.)
Opaline: …one by one. Bing-bong. (floating a small pumpkin onto her upturned front hoof) But I’m saving my favorite cutie marks for last.
(It is the Golden Pumpkin that Hitch scrambled to hide in “Nightmare on Mane Street,” and is disappears in a puff of deep blue dust.)
Opaline: And once I have those…
(The cloud drifts toward her chest and, on the next line, dissipates to reveal an ornate gold necklace now clasped around her throat. Worked into its contours are five circular depressions in the rough shape of an upside-down arrow.)
Opaline: …nothing will stop me from total domination!
(Zoom in quickly to an extreme close-up of this new bauble, then out just as quickly to show her, and all of her captured dragons save Spike and Sparky hovering outside the tallest tower of the castle.)
Opaline: Then Equestria is mine!
(She flies off with an exultant laugh, Jade/Lava following and Blaize/Fountain/Luxxe hanging back to stand guard. From here, dissolve to the upper reaches of the chamber in which Opaline got the best of them and tilt down to floor level. Spike has lowered his head to the tiles, with Sparky standing on the bridge of his nose and trying in vain to get any reaction from the unseeing, bewitched eyes. He turns away with a piteous whimper.)
(Cut to Sunny and Misty in the lantern room of the Brighthouse, watching the Pris-Beam get the hiccups all over again.)
Misty: Oh, this is all my fault! I never should’ve come here! If I hadn’t helped Opaline, she never could’ve done all this!
Sunny: You can’t think like that. What were you supposed to do? (smiling, crossing to her) Stay in that creepy lair forever by yourself? (Smile fades.) Besides, I’m the one who made us all leave. We never should’ve gone to the Isle of Scaly. We should’ve stayed here and protected Equestria.
(A fresh hitch in the multicolored magic snaps her out of the self-pity party.)
Misty: But then you wouldn’t have helped the dragons find their courage again. (smiling) You’re a leader, Sunny. You always help everypony.
Sunny: (softly, bitterly) I’m not the leader. I’m just a pony. A pony who can’t ever stop stirring up trouble!
Misty: Sunny, you know that’s not— (A sudden, horrified gasp.) —she’s back! (voice trembling) Opaline’s here!
Sunny: How do you know? (Zoom in slowly on Misty.)
Misty: (raising a hoof) I can feel it in my hooves—see it in my mind.
(That awful laughter rings through her memory as she squeezes her eyes shut and the camera zooms in quickly. Fade to black, then in to the foliage of the Together Tree outside Canterlove Studios. An eerie silence accompanies a zoom out that frames Hitch facing it from several yards off; no other ponies are nearby, but a head-on shot reveals that quite a few have taken shelter behind crates, barrels, whatever they can find.)
Hitch: Everypony, keep away from the tree! This is the Sheriff’s responsibility! I won’t let any more of you be in danger!
(During this line, the view shifts to a couple of stallions gasping softly and pulling themselves out of sight behind a stack of barrels, and to a third ducking behind a crate. His “squad” promptly assembles, Kenneth cheeping out an update.)
Hitch: Kenneth! Guys! No! You can’t be here either!
(A portal opens near the trunk, and three figures hurtle through it to hover in the open air—Opaline with horn/wings lit, then Jade, and finally Lava.)
Opaline: (voice raised, as all three land) Don’t try to hide, ponies! I will find you!
Hitch: Not as long as Sheriff Hitch is around!
(Both front hooves hit the paving stones and send glowing green vines along their surface toward the interlopers. As soon as these reach Opaline, they erupt upward as actual vines that loop across her back, fastening her to the ground. However, she disintegrates them with an almost effortless snapping of wings and a contemptuous little chuckle.)
Opaline: Earth pony magic? Oh, what’ll they think of next? (The “squad” charges her.)
Hitch: Wait! Kenneth! Steven! McSnips-a-Lot!
(The camera cuts to Opaline during this line; the critters’ bum-rush catches her off guard and all four tumble back through the portal, McSnips-a-Lot hanging on by the pincer he has clamped onto her nose. This sequence exposes the large scale on Lava’s haunch—a cluster of flaming rocks. These words establish the name of Kenneth’s bareheaded counterpart for the first time.)
Hitch: No!
(The violet haze in both dragons’ eyes disappears and they cast puzzled looks around themselves.)
Hitch: (weakly) Nooo…
(And here comes the winged unicorn all over again, “squad” and all; she throws them off to scramble for safety wherever they can find it, and she gets Jade and Lava back under her influence as soon as she hits the deck. Jade’s scale can now be seen as a cluster of gems. Two throats project two jets of fire skyward, an infernal counterpoint for the magical vines now snaking up from the tree’s roots. Opaline looks this way and that, her smirk giving way to mild bewilderment—not a pony in sight from here to the town square. Hitch has thrown himself behind a makeshift barricade and is shuddering mightily; he risks a glance over its top edge toward the three.)
Opaline: (singsong, pacing) Come out, come out, wherever you are!
Hitch: (to himself) Not in my town.
(A green-glowing front hoof makes contact with the street and sends up a vine that lashes toward her from behind; she is caught around her midsection and yanked off her hooves with a shout. This assault is neutralized as easily as the last one, and she laughs out her mockery while hovering.)
Opaline: Your weeds are no match for a fire alicorn! (A rattle from o.s. snaps her out of her reverie.) Huh?
(Cut to the source of the disturbance—a few apples falling out of a full barrel, caused by a shift in position of the first two stallions who were trying to hide. She locks eyes with them.)
Opaline: Well… (Cut to them; she continues o.s.) …look at that!
(Zoom in quickly to an extreme close-up of one cutie mark—an ice cream bar on a stick—and cut back to her on the next words.)
Opaline: And I thought I’d collected all of the other cutie marks. (She sends two vines from the three toward the pair.)
Hitch: Not today!
(A seemingly impossible leap brings him squarely into their path, and he is ensnared and dragged away.)
Hitch: Run! Get outta here! (The stallions bolt.)
Opaline: AFTER THEM!! (Jade and Lava lift off to give chase.)
Hitch: No!
(While he struggles to break the hold, the camera zooms in to a close-up of his cutie mark, which begins to glow.)
Opaline: (from o.s.) There it is. (Cut to her.) Ripe for the plucking!
(He manages to clap both front hooves onto stone and conjure two thick vines.)
Hitch: (straining on every word) Not in my town!
(His growths wrest him free of hers, leaving him free to charge at her; she counters by creating a ring of magic and projecting it toward him. The construct scores a direct hit; he and his hat go flying in different directions, and he crashes down to find himself hogtied. Even so, he is still able to channel magic into all four hooves and touch ground, allowing him to grow two more vines. Opaline has to do some fancy dodging and weaving in midair to stay ahead of them, but she successfully burns them away with a ringing laugh of triumph.)
(Cut to the balcony outside the lantern room of the Brighthouse, where Sunny and Misty are watching the free-for-all in terror.)
Misty: She’s got Hitch!
Sunny: We have to help him!
(They hustle inside, where the Pris-Beam is still on the fritz, but Misty’s fear stops her cold at the doorway.)
Misty: (dropping to haunches) Sunny! I…I can’t!
Sunny: Misty, we have to!
Misty: I don’t think I can face her.
Sunny: (gently) You don’t have to. Stay here. Somepony needs to protect the Unity Crystals.
(Down on Mane Street, Hitch wrenches his body this way and that but cannot get any slack in the bindings Opaline has slapped onto him. She lands before him with a savage little grin and pours power into her horn; the glow that had suffused his mark before is now replaced by the unwholesome glare of her magic. A final flash, and the horseshoe-emblazoned shield and its two hearts have been separated from his haunch and caught in a bubble. He can only watch in mute horror as she floats it up to her eye level.)
Hitch: (weakly) Not…in my…town…
(The band dissipates, freeing his legs to flop down; up in the lantern room, Sunny and Misty see one portion of the beam go dark.)
Sunny, Misty: Hitch!
(Opaline laughs exultantly, shifting the mark to float above a front hoof as one of her vines swipes the ice-cream bar mark seen earlier. Jade and Lava fly across the open space and land on either side of her, adding their roars to her jubilation, and the camera tilts up to frame the dark, threatening storm clouds that have begun to gather. The laughter is heard in Bridlewood, where Izzy has arrived to deliver the warning; she and Alphabittle Blossomforth look to the sky, in which bursts of sick yellow light are now flashing among the ominous cloud cover.)
Izzy: Hitch!
(The same terrible weather conditions and light show are playing out in Zephyr Heights, Pipp and Zipp having gathered with Haven and Cloudpuff.)
Pipp: (horrified) No! (All three stare at the clouds.)
Zipp: Hitch…
(The effect has now spread to Maretime Bay; tilt down to frame Jade and Lava standing at attention on Mane Street.)
Jade: (as she and Lava bow) Now, Mistress Opaline, all of the cutie mark magic in Equestria is yours.
Opaline: Not quite.
(Zoom in on her necklace as Hitch’s mark floats toward it. Upon making contact with the circular depression at the point of the downward-oriented arrowhead, it becomes a miniature yellow copy of the image that fills the space. Extreme close-up of this, zooming out slowly.)
Opaline: (from o.s.) Four little ponies to go.
(Thunder rumbles in time with a yellow flash from above. Snap to black.)