THE ENDING OF THE END—PART TWO
Written by Michael Vogel
Produced by Devon Cody
Story editing by Josh Haber
Supervising direction by Jim Miller
Directed by Denny Lu, Mike Myhre
Transcribed by Alan Back (ajback@yahoo.com)
Note: See note at start of Part One.
Prologue
(Opening shot: fade in to a “Previously on My Little Pony” title card, then to black, then snap to an overhead shot of the Canterlot Castle courtyard—Part One, Act One: preparations underway for Twilight Sparkle’s coronation as ruler of Equestria.)
Spike: (voice over) It’s not every day the Princesses pass all their responsibilities on to you and your friends.
(During this line, cut briefly to him measuring her head size as she sits on her new single throne, then to a slow pan across him, her warmly smiling friends, and Discord gathered before the dais in the throne room. Spike offers a thumbs-up, while Discord looks very much on edge. From, here, the view shifts to Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and Lord Tirek in Grogar’s lair in the prologue; the goat’s bewitching bell rings and pours power to charge them all up.)
Princess Luna: (voice over) You wanted to boost Twilight’s confidence— (They drain Grogar’s magic, exposing him as Discord.) —so you brought back Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and Tirek to attack her? (Cut to Cozy on the next line.)
Cozy: Discord was Grogar? (The throne room.)
Twilight: (to Discord) You’ve been setting up challenges for us the whole time, haven’t you? (He addresses the group in the courtyard.)
Discord: My bad.
(Cut from one Act Three battle to another: Tirek inhaling the magic from four knocked-out Pillars of Equestria, Starlight Glimmer being thrown back by Chrysalis’s explosive excavation from an avalanche in the snowy mountains, Cozy blasting a spell toward Twilight in the throne room and having it blocked just in time.)
Twilight: (voice over) The ultimate battle for the fate of Equestria is coming!
(Most of Canterlot Castle gets blown to pieces by the combined magical might of Chrysalis, Cozy, and Tirek. Inside the ruined throne room, Rarity shifts a hunk of debris to block another triple decker.)
Applejack: (voice over) We’ll hold ’em ’til you get back!
(Twilight’s five friends brace the rock, as do Luna and Princess Celestia—their motionless manes/tails speaking to the loss of their magic to the three assailants. Head-on close-up of Twilight, zooming in slowly on her teary eyes and blazing horn until she teleports out of the battle zone.)
Discord: (voice over) Fly, you foal!
(Behind her, he has joined the effort to hold the line. The stone begins to crack, and the glare from the mingled spells grows to engulf the defenders and fill the screen. Snap to black.)
OPENING THEME
Act One
(Opening shot: fade in to a long shot of Canterlot, the sky now choked with a mixture of black clouds and the smoke wafting up from the razed castle. Zoom in slowly.)
Cozy: (voice over) And now for your complete destruction!
(Cut to a screenful of translucent green strands that have been stretched every which way in a crystalline cavern. The crazed filly hovers up into view beyond these.)
Cozy: Won’t that be fun?
Chrysalis: (from o.s.) Patience, Cozy.
(Cut to the cavern as she steps up to her partner in regime change. The strands—made of the same slime she uses in her cocoons—have been placed across an opening in a wall to pen in Twilight’s friends and Spike.)
Chrysalis: Destruction is so…permanent. We need to show the rest of Equestria that we’ve broken their heroes first. Besides…
(Long shot and slow pan across the space, which proves to be immense in all three dimensions. The walls are studded with more of these makeshift cells, and a few stone enclosures hang by cables from the ceiling. All are sealed with the green gunk, and Starlight and all six Pillars have been individually confined within some of them. Starlight has been released from the cocoon in which Chrysalis bound her during their Part One fight, and Rockhoof is still as scrawny as Tirek left him after the Pillars went down. Tirek enters, the bell already floating above the center of the floor and charged up for use.)
Chrysalis: …we should have fun with our guests.
Tirek: No! We should hunt down Twilight Sparkle! As long as she’s out there, she’s dangerous!
Chrysalis: (mockingly) Is that big strong minotaur that scared of one little pony?
[Note: Although modern interpretations of Greek mythology would classify Tirek as a centaur, some depictions from the Middle Ages did represent a minotaur as having four legs.]
Chrysalis: Relax. It’s not like her friends are going anywhere.
(Cut here and there among the Pillars during this line, ending on Starswirl the Bearded; he tries to get a spell going, only to have it fizzle out on his horn. Next, Chrysalis launches herself up to grab the side of Starlight’s suspended cage and set it swinging.)
Chrysalis: (climbing to the top) The fools brought the remains of my throne to Canterlot to protect themselves.
(Referring to the destruction of her magic-absorbing throne within the changeling hive during “To Where and Back Again.” She laughs, leaning close to cast her reflection in a gleaming fragment set in the roof.)
Chrysalis: Those shards block their magic.
(Cozy advances on the Ponyville prisoners, but Chrysalis yanks her back. Now other bits can be seen worked into the walls.)
Chrysalis: Careful. Too close, and the shards cancel even our powers. (She scratches a line in the dirt.) But on this side of the cavern, we’re the most powerful beings in Equestria! (All gather around the bell.) Thanks to Grogar’s bell.
(She addresses herself o.s., levitating a length of chain from the floor.)
Chrysalis: Isn’t that right…
(Cut to a defeated Discord standing in a near-lightless niche, the free end wrapped around his midsection.)
Chrysalis: (from o.s.) …“Grogar”?
(A solid yank topples him onto his face, and she and Tirek move slowly toward him, savoring the idea of getting a little payback. Cozy, on the other hand, takes advantage of their distracted attentions by turning the bell’s open end toward herself. Before she can ring it, though, Tirek leans hard into her face; she gasps in fright and lets go of the artifact.)
Tirek: What are you doing?! (backing her up slowly; camera follows) You saw what happened when you tried to take Discord’s chaos magic.
Cozy: (petulantly) Yeah, but there’s alicorn princess magic in there now too. (reaching for bell) I could be sooo much more powerful if I just could have—
Chrysalis: (from o.s.) What do you mean, you could be?
(The pint-size megalomaniac backs off at these words; cut to frame all three on their end, Chrysalis hovering to stare Cozy down.)
Cozy: Um, hello? I’m the best one out of all of us. (A rising growl from Tirek.) Nobody sees me—
Tirek: (drowning her out) WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?
Chrysalis: The best at what?
(During these last two lines and the lively argument that follows them, the camera slowly zooms out through a curtain of slime strands and stops in the Ponyville squad’s cell.)
Fluttershy: (to Rarity) This is really bad!
Applejack: (hushed) We gotta find Twilight! She’s probably already figured out some way to defeat those monsters!
Rainbow Dash: Any idea how we get out of here to do that?
(As the farming expert mulls this one over, Spike flies to the doorway and gives an experimental tug to tone strand; it takes some effort to pull free.)
Spike: (hushed) Too sticky. There’s no way anypony could get through this.
Discord: (from o.s.) I’m so sorry.
(Pan slightly to frame him standing outside the cell with head bowed in contrition.)
Discord: It made so much sense in my head. Twilight defeats her worst enemies and is filled with confidence. I truly did have the best intentions. I swear I’ll make it up to you.
(Not only does this reassurance completely fail to assuage the borderline-murderous looks from Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, and Spike, it actually brings Fluttershy to the verge of tears.)
Rainbow: That’s gonna need to be a pretty epic make-up.
Tirek: (from o.s.) Stay away from the bell, you pest!
(Cut to the three wardens on the end of this; Cozy has made another move for it, but dives away when he fires a spell at her.)
Tirek: (grabbing it) None of us can use the alicorns’ magic until we figure out how to handle that fool’s ridiculous chaos magic!
Discord: (from o.s., casually) I could always tell you how.
(All the horns warm up as their wearers pivot toward his voice; cut to him, idly tossing a loose gem.)
Discord: It would give you power over all reality, but you’d have to ask nicely—and spare my friends. (Pan/zoom out to the cell on the next line.)
Spike: No, Discord! This isn’t the way to help!
Cozy: (sweetly) Discord, could you pweeeease— (Chrysalis’s aura shoves her back.)
Chrysalis: Threats are more my speed. SPEAK!!
Tirek: He’s lying! He won’t tell us! (Slow pan across the cavern.)
Discord: (affronted) I certainly won’t tell you, after the way you lied to me last time we teamed up, you muscle-bound cretin.
(Referring to the bargain they struck in “Twilight’s Kingdom” and Tirek’s decision to go back on his word.)
Tirek: (socking fist into palm) This cretin could destroy you before you blink, so choose your words carefully!
Discord: You’re right. “Cretin” is too polite. (pacing, tossing stone back and forth overhead) How about “pathetic centaur who uses magic to compensate for the fact that deep down, he’s afraid he’ll never be enough to please dear old Dad”? (Lean tauntingly into Tirek’s face.) King Vorak?
(Badly stung, Tirek gives him both barrels from his horns and sends him crashing into a pile of crystal shards. The spell ricochets off the gem he has been toying with and bounces crazily off walls, floor, and ceiling; Tirek gets one horn slightly singed, Chrysalis very nearly loses a hoof, and Cozy comes within an ace of being a blank flank. Once the energy has dissipated and the dust has cleared, the pegasus directs a gale of nasty laughter in the trickster’s direction.)
Cozy: You missed!
Starlight: (from o.s.) Did he, though?
(Cut to the upper portion of her cage. The gleaming piece set in the stone—a fragment of Chrysalis’s shattered throne—has taken the hit and broken to slivers that fall away one by one. Tilt down to frame the pinkish-violet horn going straight up to top gear; in a longer shot, Starlight swings it in the widest arc her head and neck will allow. Stone and slime alike part like wet tissue paper, and the entire bottom half of the cage falls away while she stays up with a bit of self-levitation.)
Chrysalis: GET HER!!
(The attackers begin launching spell after spell, but Starlight easily teleports away from each, adding a mocking wave or blown raspberry every now and then to rub it in. She fetches up next to Discord and the Ponyville cell.)
Applejack: Get Twilight!
Starlight: No way! She’s always needed you guys!
(Channeling full power into her horn, she floats a foot or two off the ground and uncorks a shock wave that radiates out in all directions to disintegrate the slime sealing the cells and cages. Almost as soon as she settles down to all fours, though, she takes one from Chrysalis in the back and ends up face-down on the floor. The power-mad threesome close in, ready to finish the job, but Celestia drops into view and plants all four hooves protectively around Starlight. Luna touches down a moment later—and if they were angry with Discord when he revealed his deception in Part One, they are now ready to eat these three alive. The Ponyville six emerge from their cell.)
Celestia: Find Twilight! We may not have our magic, but we aren’t completely helpless! We’ll hold them off as long as we can.
(The two sides charge at one another—Celestia/Luna/Starlight against Grogar’s all-stars—as the others back off with great trepidation.)
Rainbow: (to Discord, awestruck) That was a pretty epic make-up!
Discord: Just save Equestria! (calling after them, as they peel out) And keep Fluttershy safe!
(With the Pillars joining the free-for-all, he starts gathering up the shiny bits from where he fell and scattering them around the floor. Wipe to an extreme close-up of a brick wall, a healthy portion of which flies apart under the impact of Applejack’s rear hooves from the other side, and zoom out. She pushes a few more blocks aside, their mortar loosened by the hit, and the whole gang pours out into what remains of the daylight. The wall is one that Shining Armor ordered built to seal off the entrances to the tunnels beneath Canterlot Castle, as part of the security upgrade in “Sparkle’s Seven.” A jittery unicorn stallion leans into view in the foreground to face them.)
Stallion: Why are you out in the open? (A longer shot frames a bulging sack on his back.) Hide!
(The mares and dragon approach, slowly and cautiously.)
Rarity: Where is everypony?
Stallion: (pointing off to one side) The unicorns have been gathering in Celestia’s School of Magic ever since the attack. That’s where I was headed when I saw you.
Rainbow: What about the earth ponies and pegasi?
Stallion: It’s everypony for themselves.
Applejack: That ain’t right.
Stallion: Well, you can all stand out here and debate. I’m going where I’m safe.
(He gallops away toward the educational facility in question, also known as Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, whose windows have all been boarded up.)
Spike: Chrysalis was telling the truth. They really have turned ponies against each other! (Fluttershy huddles behind Pinkie Pie.)
Applejack: Everypony’s scared, that’s all. We just need to get to Ponyville and find Twilight, pronto. (Stomp for emphasis.) She’ll know how to set things right.
(They race for the city gate, Rainbow and Spike flying—and none of them noticing a single snowflake that has begun its leisurely journey from sky to grass. Dissolve to a long overhead shot of the Ponyville town square, zooming in slowly. A significant crowd has gathered in front of the town hall, on whose second-story balcony Mayor Mare can just be discerned at this distance.)
Mayor Mare: Please, stay calm! (Closer shot from ground level.) I know it seems bad, but there’s no need to panic!
(Cut to just behind her on the balcony; now one more detail becomes apparent—every single member of the crowd is an earth pony.)
Mare 1: GIVE US ONE GOOD REASON NOT TO!!
(Her outburst touches off a steady stream of angry yells and waving hooves, leaving the elected official looking wildly about herself for any way to escape the crowd’s wrath. She calms down with a sigh upon looking off to one side, and her next smiling words go far to lower the hostility level.)
Mayor Mare: (pointing that way) Because Ponyville’s own heroes of Equestria are here to save us!
(Eyes turn to follow her hoof and are rewarded with the sight of the six escapees making their way onto the scene. Applejack steps in among Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, Sugar Belle—his new wife, as of “The Big Mac Question”—and Granny Smith.)
Applejack: Where’d all these ponies come from?
Granny: Earth ponies been pourin’ in, lookin’ for somewhere safe.
Mare 1: We don’t have unicorn magic to protect us, or a city in the sky to hide in like those cowardly pegasi! (Rainbow swoops down to get in her face.)
Rainbow: Cowardly?!
(Any further words go unspoken for the moment as a shadow casts itself over the entire town square, caused by a steady thickening in the cloud cover. Cloudsdale can be seen floating above it, visible through a shrinking gap.)
Mare 1: They’re blocking Cloudsdale! Said they didn’t want any grounded ponies up in their business.
Rainbow: (jabbing her in the chest) Listen up, buddy! (Fluttershy shoves them apart.)
Fluttershy: Don’t! That’s exactly what Chrysalis and the others want—more fighting. (Overhead shot.) We know you’re scared. (Rainbow backs off.) We’re here to help!
(Ground level; a second, incensed mare rises to her hind legs among the throng.)
Mare 2: Oh, you better fix this!
(There follows a cacophony of angry words directed at the group as Fluttershy backs up worriedly to the others.)
Applejack: (to the group) Twilight’s probably as worried as everypony else and tryin’ to find somewhere safe. That’s why I was sure she’d be waitin’ for us in Ponyville. Where else could she be?
(Equine brains process this puzzler silently, but the one with wings and scales is first to hit on something promising.)
Spike: (gasping, snapping fingers) I know where Twilight is!
(Wipe to a pair of closed doors, which open under magic control to frame the throne room of the Crystal Castle, in the Crystal Empire. Royal Guard stallions are lined up stoically on either side of the carpet leading to the dais, on which Princess Cadence and Shining are standing before the throne. Cadence holds Flurry Heart in a foreleg, and Shining has donned his armor, but no helmet. Applejack and company enter.)
Cadence: Oh, thank Celestia you’re all all right. (glancing toward ceiling) She’s upstairs. It’s…not good.
(Close-up of another door, which bursts open to admit the gang as the camera zooms out quickly. They are standing/hovering inside a small room cluttered with books, notes, and scrolls; a blackboard covered with formulas and notes, both chalked and tacked on, is off to one side on a movable stand. Twelve eyes go very, very wide in brain-locking confusion, and the camera cuts to just behind them, framing a distraught Twilight sitting on her haunches in the middle of the floor and studying several pages held in her aura.)
Twilight: You’re here?
(The documents have barely hit the floor before she finds herself enveloped in a massive group hug.)
Twilight: I was so worried! Where are the Princesses?
Pinkie: They put up a crazy fight so we could escape and find you. (saluting) Mission accomplished! (Twilight stands and backs off slowly.) Now let’s save Equestria!
(A banner unrolls itself from the ceiling amid its hanging models and a shower of confetti and streamers. It displays two images of Twilight’s grinning visage, one of them winking, along with a horseshoe, star, heart, and a copy of her cutie mark.)
Pinkie: Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah!
Twilight: (softly) They made a terrible mistake. You all did. (levitating/opening a book, floating a scroll and paper away) From the second I got away, I’ve been searching every book, scroll, and spell for a way to rescue you and stop Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy, but I haven’t found anything!
(Her field slams the covers together and dashes the reference to the floor.)
Twilight: I failed. (She sits facing away from them; Spike hurries across.)
Spike: You’ll come up with something. We can’t save Equestria without you.
Twilight: (bitterly, standing/pacing) You all escaped without my help. You didn’t need me then, so why would anypony need me now? (She sulks at a table.)
Rainbow: We know things look bad, but we’ve been in tough spots before and we always—
Twilight: Look around. Nothing we’ve ever done has mattered.
(She crosses to a group of photographs tacked up on a wall: one each of King Sombra, Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy, all connected by strings to a higher-placed one of Discord. On the next line, her field removes and crumples the images of the named villains, then lets them fall.)
Twilight: Sombra? Returned and destroyed the Tree of Harmony. Chrysalis, Tirek, Cozy Glow? Returned and more powerful than ever. The School of Friendship? Shut down. Everypony in Equestria is so blinded by fear, they can’t remember what friendship is! Nothing we do makes any difference!
(Having reached the apex of her frustration, she thumps her face into a nearby book stand. Long pause.)
Pinkie: (smiling) But we’re still free and together.
Rainbow: And it’s not like things could get any worse.
(A screeching roar scares the whole lot of them into a glance across the room. Cut to just outside one window as they open it, the camera zooming out quickly to a longer shot. The wind has already begun to howl through a sky streaked with foreboding gray clouds, one of which forms into a thickening spiral to serve as a backdrop for the appearance of three spectral, circling windigos.)
Spike: (dryly) Haven’t we learned never to say that by now?
(All gaze skyward, minds paralyzed with fear. Fade to black.)
Act Two
(Opening shot: fade in to the screaming windigos in a sky rapidly filling with snow flurries. Zoom out to frame a freaked-out earth pony mare pointing at them from ground level.)
Mare 3: The windigos!
(Overhead shot of the Ponyville town square; she is among those gathered here, and Mayor Mare is down at the front steps of the town hall rather than on the second-story balcony.)
Mare 1: Pfft! That’s just a Hearth’s Warming Eve story.
Mare 3: Creatures made of wind that spread cold and misery across the land to punish ponies? (Cut to them; she continues o.s., jabbing a hoof toward their circle.) Seems pretty real to me!
(Ground level; she gallops up onto the porch and leans over its railing.)
Mare 3: Let the pegasi deal with this! There’s nothing we can do except hide!
(There follows a jabbering flight in all directions, leaving the square empty except for one—Sandbar, whose bafflement gives way to grim resolve as he holds his position. Cut to a long shot of Cloudsdale and zoom in slowly, the view partly obscured by pegasi straining to push clouds into place against the high wind. One stallion goes tumbling, his cloud flying apart.)
Mare voice: That’s enchanted wind!
(Cut to the speaker, standing on a crate and addressing a crowd in a street. She and they, naturally, all have wings.)
Mare 4: We can’t control it, and we can’t rely on those snooty unicorns for any help. Build up the cloud bank! We’ll try to block it!
(She receives a round of solemn nods from her listeners, all of whom lift off to get on the job except for one colt.)
Pegasus colt: What about everypony down below?
Mare 4: They’re on their own. We all are.
(She gets flapping to join the effort, leaving him alone to begin thinking carefully. Wipe to the windigos in fine voice—relatively speaking—and zoom out to frame their image in the objective lens of a spyglass held in a unicorn’s field. It protrudes through the boards covering one window of Celestia’s School, as seen in Act One, and a cut to inside frames the user as Chancellor Neighsay in one of the classrooms. He pulls back with a fearful grimace, but gets himself under control in time to set the glass down and direct a stoic nod to the unicorn who left the Ponyville six to fend for themselves. This one turns to the horned ponies who have taken shelter here.)
Stallion: Fortify the shields around the School of Magic! We need to protect ourselves! It’s all we can do.
(The refugees disperse to follow his orders—all except for one very worried filly. A mass of snowflakes blows past the camera, the view shifting to just outside the open window in the Crystal Castle room that Twilight commandeered for her emergency study session. She and the rest of the bunch are staring out, at a loss for how to proceed.)
Rainbow: We have to do something! (Inside, Twilight sullenly paces the floor.)
Twilight: I’ve already done enough.
(She rests her head on a table, face down, and Applejack crosses to her as Rarity magically shuts the window. Pinkie’s celebratory banner has been taken down from the ceiling.)
Applejack: You want the truth, Twilight? Bad things happen. No matter what you do, there’s never gonna be a time when everything’s perfect. But that don’t mean you quit tryin’! (Twilight lifts her head and rounds on the earth pony.)
Twilight: What if I make things worse?! (despondently, standing; slow pan) Ever since Celestia told me I was taking over, I’d been gaining confidence. Then I find out it’s all a lie. Equestria’s been falling apart around us and I didn’t even notice! What kind of princess does that make me? (crying) I’m scared.
(None of the other six can think up any appropriate way to respond to this expression of her self-doubt and fear for a few unbearably long seconds. Fluttershy is first to move, stepping across to Twilight; close-up of the violet face being lifted gently by a yellow hoof. Fluttershy’s own features are reflected in the teary purple eyes.)
Fluttershy: I probably know more about being scared than anypony. (Cut to her; she backs off while continuing.) But thanks to all of you, I’ve learned I’m always less scared when I’m with my friends.
(The others are all smiling by the time she finishes; now Rainbow darts forward.)
Rainbow: If we’re facing impossible odds, we’re facing them together!
Rarity: It’s what we always do, darling. (Twilight stands up.)
Twilight: But we’re on our own, and we have no idea what to do. (Pinkie slides across the floor on her back, head propped on a foreleg.)
Pinkie: That’s true pretty much every time something terrible is about to happen.
Twilight: (stepping over her) We don’t have the Elements of Harmony anymore. How can you all be so calm about this? (Spike flies to her side.)
Spike: Because even if you don’t believe you can do this… (patting her shoulder) …we do.
(Cut to her perspective and pan slowly across four of the five mares who have, singly and in combination, seen just about every type of craziness Equestria can throw at a pony. Pinkie is the only one missing.)
Spike: (from o.s.) We believe in you— (leaning into view) —and us.
(The pink nut pops up with a dazzling grin; back to Twilight.)
Applejack: (crossing to her) The truth is, all our lives wouldn’t be the same if we hadn’t met. (poking Twilight’s chest) We’re better off because of our friendship with you. (backing up) So when you say you haven’t made a difference, that’s just not true. You’ve made a big difference—to us.
(Tears start to collect in the purple eyes again, this time over a grateful smile.)
Twilight: Thank you. (She floats a handkerchief over to dab them away.) Sometimes even the Princess of Friendship needs a reminder that there’s more to the magic of friendship than rainbow lasers. (Spike drifts over to her, hovering on his back.)
Spike: Although that part is pretty cool.
(The two share a wink as she pulls him into a hug and the other five waste no time joining in.)
Twilight: We still need a plan.
(The door swings open to frame a determined Cadence and Shining on the threshold, the Princess carrying Flurry.)
Cadence: That sounds like the pony I used to foal-sit for. (All turn to her.) Count us in.
Twilight: (crossing to her) No. You need to stay here and protect Flurry Heart. If we don’t—i-if things don’t work out, she’s Equestria’s last hope.
(Her BBBFF’s eyes tear up as the full import of her words sinks in.)
Twilight: (pacing) Okay. Three of our worst villains have taken over, powered up by ancient magic. Everypony in Equestria is so scared and divided that the windigos re circling, and it’s up to us to fix it all.
Pinkie: What are we gonna do, Twilight? (Twilight gazes out at the frigid airborne menaces.)
Twilight: The same thing we do every time, Pinkie… (pivoting to her with a mad grin) …try to save the world.
(Dissolve to the remains of the Canterlot Castle throne room. Framed from behind in a long shot, Tirek paces the dais, staring at the windigos and the nightmarish winter they have unleashed.)
Tirek: Every prisoner is safely in their cells.
(His movement exposes the presence of Chrysalis and Cozy on the end of this. Cut to an overhead close-up of all three, the youngest having wrapped herself in a blanket for warmth.)
Tirek: (socking fist into palm) Now we can hunt down the rest of the… (puzzled, shading eyes to peer ahead) …windigos?
Cozy: (shivering) I’m not hunting anypony d-d-d-d-d-down in this weather. Can’t we magically get rid of them and w-w-w-warm things up?
Chrysalis: I don’t think we should. (Close-up; she rubs her front hooves together calculatingly.) This could work out quite well for me.
Tirek: (from o.s.) You mean “us”!
(Zoom out on the end of this to frame the massive centaur glaring down at her and jerking a thumb toward himself.)
Chrysalis: The harsh weather is the final blow to break the ponies’ spirits. (pacing dais) Once Equestria is a frozen wasteland, we’ll use our magic to destroy those windy beasts. (Cozy rises to a hover, blanket and all.) Ponies will be so grateful, they’ll do whatever I want.
(One armored hoof clinks against the marble surface as she finishes this bit of monologuing.)
Tirek: The windigos are ancient magic. It would be unwise to leave them unchecked. (Profile close-up.) Best we deal with them now.
(Chrysalis responds by leaning into his face with a growling hiss; zoom out to frame Cozy on the start of the next line.)
Cozy: (shivering, but not as badly as before) We probably should deal with Twilight and her friends before anything else.
Tirek: I thought it was too cold for you to hunt anypony down.
Cozy: (needled) We don’t need to. (She points at a distant speck in the countryside.) They’re right there!
(Zoom in quickly on the speck, which resolves into a small dark blotch, and cut to Twilight and company on their grim advance across the windswept plain.)
Spike: (to Twilight) You think they know we’re here?
(All halt, popeyed and poleaxed, as a vortex opens in their path to disgorge the three schemers and the bell.)
Applejack: I’d say they have an idea.
(Snap to black.)
Act Three
(Opening shot: fade in to the windigos and tilt down to a long shot of the face-off. In close-up, the unholy trinity advances slowly across the plain, Tirek socking one fist into his other palm in sadistic anticipation. Zoom in quickly on the bell keeping pace with them, then cut to Twilight and company on the start of the next line.)
Twilight: That bell has Discord, Celestia, and Luna’s magic inside. If they use it against us—
Fluttershy: Discord’s magic is so chaotic, he’s the only one who can use it. (Back to the villains on the next line.)
Chrysalis: You just can’t accept that you were beaten before you even realized there was a fight, can you? (To Twilight’s faction.)
Twilight: You can’t beat us if we never give up! As long as I have my friends by my side, I’ll put my faith in friend—
Cozy: (from o.s.) Ugh! (The trio again.) Can we get on with this, please?
(She goes into a slow, rotating ascent, power trailing from her horn, and uncorks a humdinger of a spell toward the septet. Its sheer force turns the spot where they are standing in to a smoking crater and leaves no trace of them. However, a zoom out into a patch of bushes several yards away is accompanied by the flash of Twilight’s magic and her reappearance on the far side of the greenery—she made it out just in time. She peeks through to see the aspiring conquerors move toward the blast site.)
Twilight: We need to get that bell and get Discord and the Princesses their magic back.
(Cut to frame her addressing the others, also safe and sound thanks to a group teleport.)
Twilight: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, you’re with me. (Close-up of Rainbow.)
Rainbow: Sweet! I’ll grab that bell in ten seconds—
Twilight: (from o.s.) No… (Back to her.) …we’re the distraction. (Her perspective, pointing at Applejack/Fluttershy/Rarity/Spike.) They’re gonna get the bell.
(Genuine surprise steals across all four faces at this pronouncement. Now Chrysalis blows apart a stand of trees, while Tirek hefts/throws a boulder knocked loose by the explosion and Cozy peers into the crater.)
Chrysalis: Come out, come out, wherever you are.
Cozy: (pointing) There!
(Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow break into the open with a feral yell, hooves and wings working overtime, and the villains race to meet them. Beams from Cozy rip up the meadow in a vain attempt to wipe out the nimble pegasus, who cuts a hairpin turn around her tight enough to leave her spinning in its wake.)
Cozy: Whoa!
(Tirek makes a move to assist, but Twilight zaps herself into his path and lights her horn. He just smirks and jerks his head from side to side in order to loosen up his neck, then floats up a scatter of boulders and projects them her way. Bounding easily from one to the next, she hurls herself and a spell toward him with a scream; the shot finds its mark on his face, dumping him onto his belly and knocking out a tooth. Tirek works his lower jaw back and forth to make sure nothing else is broken, gets to his hooves, and rushes at the winged unicorn—too slow, though, as she has more than enough time to teleport out of the way. Chrysalis has hung back with the bell throughout the fracas, but gets an up-close visit from Pinkie in a red/white-striped vest, red bow tie, straw boater hat, and black mustache.)
Pinkie: Step right up, evil fillies and gentle-villains!
(In an instant, she has produced a carnival wheel divided into six sections, each marked with the face of a different mare. A pointer extends from the center to brush against the pegs set in the outer edge.)
Pinkie: Try your luck!
(Chrysalis instead chooses to try blasting her into powder, but Pinkie jumps away and plasters herself across the wheel. It breaks loose from its mounting and rolls away through the meadow, away from her growling second shot; a third scores a direct hit and burns the thing to ashes. Pinkie sticks her head out from a nearby bush, having somehow bailed out before the incineration, and manages to shift from one hiding place to another as the spells keep coming. First up after the bush is a hole in the ground, covered by a rock that she lifts above herself.)
Pinkie: Missed me! (Another bush.) Close, but no cherry chimichanga! (Chrysalis’s shoulder, with a laugh and holding up a doll in the changeling’s image.) Thanks for playing!
(It is promptly burned to cinders on her hoof; she offers a big goofy grin and makes a break for it with Chrysalis hot on her tail. The bell is left unattended as all three miscreants slug it out with their respective adversaries, giving Applejack’s squad ample opportunity to gallop toward it.)
Cozy: Do they have to be so annoying?! (A thought occurs to Chrysalis.)
Chrysalis: Not annoying… (pointing toward bell; zoom out quickly to frame it) …distracting!
(Rarity has risen to her hind legs and lifted her front hooves so Applejack can balance on them, one end of her trusty rope in her teeth. The lasso loop on the other end is held by a hovering Fluttershy and Spike, who are getting into position to drop it over the bell. A beam from Chrysalis very nearly gets all four at once and sends them into a hasty retreat. Spike takes one in the back and hits the turf hard; Rarity pivots to face Chrysalis and conjures up a small shield to stop the next assault, but it shatters after a few seconds. The maddened changeling zeroes in, ready to finish her off, but Spike gets up and exhales a jet of flame to counteract her beam. Their two attacks cancel out partway between them, with the point shifting first toward Spike and then Chrysalis as they strain to overwhelm one another. Spike eventually wins, forcing her backwards into the air, but she quickly recovers and fires again, throwing him and Rarity in opposite directions and carving a deep divot in the grass.)
(Elsewhere, Applejack still has her rope in her teeth and is galloping at full speed to stay ahead of Tirek and his spell rampage. She lassos the bell and slides to a stop, pulling with all her might; it does not budge, though, and the centaur is quick to break the rope and sling the blond mare away. Here comes Fluttershy, wings pumping as she closes in on the prize, but a cruelly smiling Cozy drops in next to her.)
Cozy: Now, now, Professor. We all know you’re not the fast one.
(Pulling ahead, she lets one rip at point-blank range. The screen fills with its blood-red glare and snaps to an overhead shot of the other five mares; the semi-conscious sixth tumbles from the sky and is caught by Rainbow. Pinkie has now shed her carnival getup.)
Chrysalis: (from o.s.) Enough!
(All three foes gather facing them, Cozy holding the bell. During the next line, Chrysalis floats Spike out from behind herself, his wings magically stretched out to either side.)
Chrysalis: Or the dragon’s wings get plucked!
(A jerk pulls them out even farther and elicits a yell of pain from the little guy.)
Twilight: Please! Don’t hurt him!
Spike: Don’t worry about me! Just save—
(He trails off into another yell, and Rainbow sets Fluttershy down. Five equine heads sag in defeat, the only exception being that of the ace aviator, who shoots Twilight a look that might translate as “what are you, nuts?” The terrible team closes the gap slowly, Chrysalis tossing Spike across to be caught in Twilight’s aura; cut to these two on the start of the next line.)
Tirek: Turns out that the magic of friendship is your biggest weakness! (Back to the three, all horns warming up.) A fitting end to your pathetic story.
Rainbow: (to the others) No matter what, we face it together!
(They huddle in, facing front with assorted degrees of fear and defiance, and the camera cuts to a long shot of the two sides under the whirling, screeching windigos. The spells fire as one, the camera shifting to ride with them toward the unmoving targets, and the view fades to white as they rip toward Twilight’s eyes.)
Voice of Spike: What happened? Can I open my eyes?
Voice of Applejack: You sure can!
(Fade in slowly to the group, still in one piece and surrounded by a sparkling domed shield. They open their eyes, flabbergasted to find themselves alive and thus protected from the malevolent energy coming their way. Neither Twilight’s nor Rarity’s horn is lit, leaving the source of this barrier a mystery.)
Applejack: Way to go, Twilight! (The bombardment stops.)
Twilight: It’s not me.
(The sound of hooves pounding against ground—dozens, hundreds, more—draws their attention toward the mountain peaks, and a long shot frames a small army of black specks gaining one summit. They are suffused with the same glow as the shield, and a close-up picks out the new arrivals. The unicorns who took cover in Celestia’s School, every horn aglow to mark them as the ones casting the shield; the Wonderbolts, griffons, hippogriffs, changelings; dragons, yaks; buffalo; kirin; earth ponies; pegasi; even Zecora. Neighsay and Tempest Shadow are on the front lines, the latter having traded the armor she wore in My Little Pony: The Movie for a dark cloak and scarf. The sky and land are soon thick with defenders of all shapes, sizes, and species, and Macintosh leads a ground-based charge while Spitfire gives a signal for the air crews to back him up. As the reinforcements pour down the mountain, the pegasi make pass after pass near the three villains, stirring up dust and fog to obscure their vision. Changelings at full gallop transform into duplicates of Twilight and her friends, and yaks bring up the rear as the real ponies find themselves being lifted clear of the ground within their shield.)
Tirek: DON’T LET THEM ESCAPE!! (Cozy climbs onto his head for a better look.)
Cozy: Which ones?
(Chrysalis fires blindly into the haze, but stops short when the ground begins to tremble—caused by the yaks’ rhythmic stomping. She loses her balance and winds up on her haunches; meanwhile, Tirek swats fruitlessly at the airborne figures darting this way and that and Cozy, now off his head, finds herself spinning in place.)
Cozy: Whoa!
(Total mayhem reigns on the field, with the trio unable to score any hits. Twilight and her crew are lowered onto the mountaintop with those who have hung back—including Sandbar and his friends—and the shield expands to cover all of them.)
Thorax: (to Twilight) The changelings won’t fool them forever, and I don’t know how long the unicorns’ shield will hold! (She turns to survey the brawl.)
Twilight: I don’t understand. How are you all here?
Gallus: (from o.s.) That’s kinda our fault.
(Cut to the circle of student friends.)
Smolder: You know those long lectures about friendship you give at school?
(Wavering dissolve to the windigos, then cut to the Act Two panic in the Ponyville town square. Sandbar holds his ground among the tumult for some moments, then throws a crate onto the turf and stands atop it. The pell-mell scramble stops at his words.)
Sandbar: We all know the story of Hearth’s Warming Eve! We can defeat the windigos together!
Berry Punch: You really think if we all sing a couple songs, everything will be fine?
Sandbar: (pushing her back) It’s not just singing that saved the founders of Equestria! It’s what it represented!
(Dissolve to the unicorn filly who seemed a bit discomfited at the situation in Celestia’s School and zoom out slowly. She is standing on the classroom’s front desk for the height boost needed to look this bunch straight on.)
Unicorn filly: Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi becoming friends. We learned at Twilight’s school that friendship is the most powerful magic there is.
(Pan quickly to the pegasus colt who had trouble accepting the order to barricade Cloudsdale. He hovers above one of its streets to address his fellow citizens.)
Pegasus colt: Focusing on our differences keeps us divided! (Zoom out slowly.) Villains and creatures like the windigos use that division against us!
(Tilt down quickly to a close-up of Yona.)
Yona: (holding up one front hoof at a time) Yaks strong! Ponies strong! (clapping them against each other) But yaks and ponies stronger together!
(Longer shot: she is in Yakyakistan, seated at a table to address an outdoor meeting of her elders.)
Yona: (pounding table) Yaks must be loyal to pony friends!
(A massive, stony outcropping passes the camera; behind it, wipe to a gathering in the Dragon Lands. At this distance, two colored specks can be discerned on the natural throne: a blue one as Dragon Lord Ember with the Bloodstone Scepter in hand, and an orange one as Smolder. Zoom in slowly.)
Smolder: I know helping other creatures by being kind and generous sounds lame. (Close-up; she hovers just off the edge as she continues.) But I’ve seen how powerful it can be!
Gallus: (swooping past in extreme close-up) Playing together!
(His passage wipes the view to the upper reaches of Griffonstone, and he pulls into a hover.)
Gallus: Singing together, even laughing together! (Long shot; he is speaking to locals gathered in the street.) That’s what real heroes look like!
(Pan quickly to a close-up of Silverstream, underwater as a sea pony.)
Silverstream: Were we really happy by ourselves at the bottom of the ocean?
(A long shot puts her in Seaquestria, speaking to a crowd that includes Queen Novo and Princess Skystar.)
Silverstream: Be honest! It’s the ponies that showed us a better way!
(Ocellus rises into view in extreme close-up. She hovers away from the camera as she speaks, revealing that the scene has shifted to the changeling hive.)
Ocellus: They’ve taught us how powerful love and the magic of friendship truly is!
(Longer shot: she addresses a gathering in Thorax’s open-air throne room, with him on the seat of power.)
Ocellus: We can’t let them stand alone! We’re their friends! They need us!
(Wavering dissolve to the six star students in the present, zooming out slowly.)
Applejack: (from o.s.) How ‘bout that.
(Cut to Twilight and company, the former headmare’s eyes shining with proud tears.)
Applejack: (to her) It’s just like you said the day we opened that school.
Spike: The more creatures who know about friendship, the safer we’ll be.
Pinkie: We told you you had it all figured out.
(Twilight basks in her friends’ gentle encouragement for as long as it takes a changeling to hit the shield spreadeagle and slide slowly down. Soarin’ is next to wipe out in this manner, followed by the shattering of the entire barrier. Through the dense fog stirred up by the pegasi, the three invaders have begun to get the upper hand, tossing and shooting their harassers with relative impunity. Tirek puts an end to it by leaping high and slamming one huge fist into the ground, sending out a shock wave that clears the air and sends all the resistance tumbling. He, Chrysalis, and Cozy regroup with unbridled fury in all six eyes and charge the mountain, only to be brought up short by a blinding beam that rips a furrow into the sod at their hooves.)
Twilight: (from o.s.) ENOUGH!! (Cut to her, hovering near the peak.) Because of you, I almost lost my way. (gesturing to the massed forces) But everycreature here has reminded me of the true power of friendship. (The downed troops ascend.) There will always be darkness in the world, but there will also always be those who find the light.
(Her entire body begins to glow a brilliant violet; cut to Flash Magnus, Rockhoof, and Somnambula within one of the slime-coated underground cells. White energy wreathes them and they too vanish.)
Twilight: (voice over) The Pillars knew this.
(Celestia, Luna, and Starlight exit their shared cell in this way; now prisoners start vanishing all over the cavern, to Discord’s joy.)
Twilight: (voice over) That’s why they created the Elements of Harmony.
(He is a little sad at finding himself all alone, but his spirits rise again as he too gets a dose of the mystic energy as his ticket out. Celestia/Luna/Starlight fade in on the mountaintop; the still-glowing Pillars float alongside Twilight and Rockhoof regains his king-size stature.)
Twilight: The Elements showed me and my friends how strong our friendship could be. (Cut to her friends and Spike; she continues o.s.) Together we work to bring harmony to Equestria! (The white aura surrounds and lifts them.) But there will always be more to do— (Cut to Sandbar and his crew.) —which is why we teach others about the magic of friendship. (They too are raised up.) Others who will continue our mission after we are gone.
(The last two groups float up to her and the Pillars—those who protected Equestria in past times, who have the job now, and who stand to take up the mantle in the future.)
Twilight: Now I truly understand. The Elements were just symbols. The real magic has always been right here. (Cut to some of the unicorns; she continues o.s.) And the more who understand how powerful friendship is— (To Celestia/Luna/Discord and several of the non-pony leaders.) —the stronger we will all be.
(Close-up of her, eyes glowing pure white.)
Twilight: Together!
(A broad rainbow shoots into the sky from each of the three hexads, converging on the Princess. She raises her head and fires a blisteringly intense white beam into the black clouds; rainbows spiral their way up its length toward the windigos, and the whole thing detonates in a multicolored shock wave to obliterate them and blast through the overcast gloom. The beam becomes a solid doubled rainbow shooting high into the clear blue sky beyond, to the utter disbelief of Chrysalis, Cozy, and Tirek.)
Cozy: This is bad, isn’t it?
(And now, as a single spectrum, that rainbow does the mother of all U-turns and bears down on their position. Their figures are initially lost under the glare when it connects, the ground shaking as if the entire planet might tear itself apart to dirt clods at any second. When their silhouettes do finally become visible through the polychromatic haymaker, their added features rapidly shrink away; the bell’s glowing inscriptions and clapper go out as well, and it clanks dully to the grass.)
(It takes nearly eight full seconds for all the rainbows to shrink away and extinguish themselves, leaving the sky clear and blue. Cozy is first to hit the ground, uttering a pained grunt as she feels for the horn that is no longer there. Tirek stands up, shivering and horrified at the sight of a physique as spindly as when he escaped from Tartarus five seasons earlier. Finally Chrysalis gets to her hooves, tongue lolling out, and boggles as all nineteen heroes settle to the meadow, the glow fading from them and from Twilight’s eyes. Cozy and Tirek back away, scared out of their wits, but Chrysalis voices a soft, furious growl through clenched teeth.)
Chrysalis: You think friendship will save you? We will always return! Nothing will ever stop—
(This is as far as she gets before the biggest cupcake in the history of Equestria—or probably any other civilization, for that matter—drops out of the sky and lands squarely on the trio. Including the frosting, it measures at least five times her height in every direction. This in itself is weird enough for Twilight, but the brown rain that immediately begins to fall really dumps a bucket of sand into her mental gears. Spike catches a few drops on his palm and licks; cut to a longer shot, framing him and all the mares save Pinkie.)
Spike: Chocolate rain?
(Pan from them to a hovering Celestia and Luna, who touch down as Starlight and then Discord teleport in, the latter free of his binding chains at last. Finding himself on the receiving end of their quizzical stares, the anatomical grab bag throws his lion paw and taloned forelimb up in a gesture of innocence.)
Discord: Don’t look at me!
(The missing pink pony rises slowly into view behind Twilight and Spike, holding the now-reactivated bell and wearing a huge, slightly disturbing smile under fixed blue eyes. Energy snaps and spits over every last fiber of her quivering form.)
Twilight: Pinkie! You took Discord’s magic from the bell? How do you feel?
Pinkie: Hmm! (twitching an ear) Tingly, itchy, also like…
(Before any of the others can react, she has grown so large that the cupcake she conjured up might serve as a midnight snack for her. The curly mane now juts crazily in every conceivable direction, and the tail has fluffed up out of all measure. Behind her, the landscape takes on a decidedly surreal violet tint and balloons, sweets, confetti, and streamers drift past as the rain ceases.)
Pinkie: (deep voice, echoing weirdly) …I COULD TRANSFORM THE COSMOS SO EVERYTHING IS MADE OF ICING!!
(She finishes by standing on her hind legs and letting her irises/pupils turn into cupcakes.)
Discord: Perhaps maybe I should…
(He finishes the thought by flying up, plucking the bell from her grip, and ringing it at her. In much less time than it takes to say “that ain’t funny, man,” the magic has flowed from her to it in a black/yellow torrent, she has returned to her normal size, and the environment is its usual peaceful self again. Pinkie drops like a rock and is caught by Twilight, but her eyes are filled with hypnotic spirals.)
Pinkie: (woozily) Waiter, there’s some chaos in my soup.
(She passes out; now Discord rings the bell at himself and smiles broadly upon being able to snap a crazed, chomping pineapple into existence—one of Cozy’s mistakes when she tried to commandeer his magic in Part One. By the time he poofs down to Celestia, Luna and Starlight, the fruit is gone; he rings the bell in the winged unicorns’ faces, bringing their manes/tails back to life and allowing them to reignite their horns. Only now do the not-so-big three manage to dig themselves partway out from under the colossal cupcake, the camera set to frame them at ground level. One gold-shod white hoof slams to the grass just in front of them; on the next line, cut to two royal sisters who have absolutely had all they can stand of this nonsense.)
Celestia: There isn’t a punishment worthy of all you’ve done!
(Two Discords lean into view from opposite sides, each whispering into a different princess’s ear; and devilish smiles come over the white and blue-violet faces as a result.)
Luna: Oh! That does seem fitting.
Luna’s Discord: May I help? (All four red eyes go big and shiny.)
Celestia’s Discord: (beseechingly) Please?
(All three gather their power, Discord back to just one of himself; horns blaze, paw and talons crackle, and the magics thunder toward the hapless, half-embedded hooligans. The cupcake is blown apart on impact and all three are dragged upright—standing for Chrysalis and Tirek, hovering for Cozy—with energy crackling up and down every inch of their bodies and slowly petrifying them. Faces twist in sudden, horrified realization as the features become set in stone, Chrysalis trying to throw herself into one last screeching lunge before she can move no more. Cut to a close-up of one splotch of cupcake icing on the ground; the edge of a pedestal’s base slams down here, and the camera zooms out quickly to frame the new statue it supports—the three in their final poses. Celestia, Luna and Discord approach slowly.)
Discord: Together forever. I can’t think of anything that they would want less.
(He delivers a mocking little flick to the tip of Chrysalis’s horn, and cheers erupt from mountainside and plain alike. Pinkie is awake, and her eyes have returned to normal.)
Celestia: (turning to Twilight) When I sent you to Ponyville, I had high hopes. When you became Princess of Friendship, I knew I’d made the right choice. (pulling her gently in with a wing) But nothing could prepare me for how proud I am right now. (backing away) Equestria is definitely in the right hooves. (She stands with Luna and Discord.) You are ready.
(They bow to the one-time faithful student as a show of deepest respect—even Discord, whose obeisance catches her just a little off guard.)
Twilight: You know what? I think I am. (The others gather around her.)
Applejack: Thank goodness! Uh, first question, Your Highness— (gesturing toward mountaintop) —what do we do with all these creatures?
Pinkie: We’re gonna need a lot more chairs for the coronation. (Twilight glances that way.)
Twilight: Actually, as ruler of Equestria, I’d like to postpone the coronation for a while—at least until the castle’s rebuilt. Besides, there’s something we need to do first.
(Dissolve to a close-up of a plate piled high with donuts on a table inside a restaurant. Rarity is seated here, visible from chin to chest with one of them on her plate, and the camera tilts up to frame all of her as she levitates it toward her mouth.)
Rarity: The…post-apocalyptic donuts!
(Longer shot: the magnificent seven are all sitting around a table in the shop run by Pony Joe, or Donut Joe. He runs a field-held cloth over the glass of his display case as they chow down, Pinkie with a stack of sinkers on her plate as tall as she is.)
Rarity: Interesting choice.
Twilight: I know. (Close-up of her, Applejack, and Spike.) But there’s gonna be plenty of time for all the challenges and struggles and adventures to come. (hovering her donut up) For now, I just want to spend a quiet moment with the six best friends I’ve ever had. (She takes a bite.)
Applejack: (glancing away knowingly) Well, mostly quiet.
(Cut to frame her watching Pinkie gobble down every donut in that belly-busting tower except the last one, which gets snagged by a blue feather.)
Fluttershy: It’s like the end of an era.
Rainbow: Or the beginning of an even more awesome era! (One gulp dispatches the purloined treat; cut to Twilight and zoom out slowly.)
Twilight: All I know is, whatever comes next is going to be perfect.
Spike: How do you know that?
Twilight: (chuckling softly) With you guys by my side, how could it not?
(Laughs all around the table as the view fades to black.)
CHANGES BETWEEN iTUNES VERSION AND DISCOVERY FAMILY PREMIERE
Prologue Deleted
Opening theme Deleted
Closing credits Deleted