User:Mega Sean 45/Sandbox/Caving In - Part 2

Caving In - Part 2 is the second episode of the alternate seventh season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the one hundred forty-forth overall. It is the second part of a two-part season premiere.

The Mane Six must complete the cave trials to find the secret within the caves.

Production
Credit of the idea of Patrick Warburton being the voice of Scorpan by Guildmaster Grovyle!

Summary
After splitting up with Starlight Glimmer and Spike, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity all stand before a giant door with the Tree of Harmony painted on it, as the voice being heard by the Mane Six introduces himself as the Guardian of Star Swirl’s Den. Twilight tells the guardian that she’s not doing anything until she knows what happened to Starlight and Spike. The Guardian mentions that they’re fine. They’re just going to be out of the way until the end of the trials. Twilight becomes excited over the fact she’s doing a test, and that she hasn’t done one since being Princess Celestia’s student. After the Mane Six keep asking questions about what’s going on, the Guardian promises that all their questions be answered after the trials. But to prove that they have the Elements of Harmony within them, they must use their Rainbow power to open the door. The Mane Six gladly accept, especially Rarity who is excited for looking like her fabulous Rainbow power-self. The Mane Six activate their Rainbow power taken from all the way back to the Castle of Friendship, where the ponies in Ponyville witness the Rainbow power blasting off from the top of the castle. The rainbow hits the Mane Six, and the Mane Six combine their elements within them and they shoot another rainbow blast towards the door to open it. The Guardian, being impressed to witness the event, he allows them through and begins the trials.

Down in the catacombs of Star Swirl’s Den, Starlight saves herself and Spike from falling using her magic. Starlight being concerned to why Spike, as a dragon, doesn’t have any wings yet, Spike tells her that not even Twilight could find the answer to why his wings haven’t sprung yet. Lost and confused to where they fell, Starlight says that the only way to find out what’s going on is to just keep moving and to find the answer. Spike, being afraid to go into the cave, Starlight reminds him that he’s “Spike the Brave and Glorious”, and that makes him semi-brave enough to go through with it, but he stays pretty close to Starlight during the stroll.

As the Mane Six walk through the giant door, Twilight excitedly tries to guess what the tests are going to be about, and Pinkie joins along but not making any sense to what the trials might be about. Applejack asks them both to calm down and that will find out in a second. The Mane Six reach a vault of some sort, and the Guardian tells them that what they seek is inside this vault; but the Mane Six will have to go in one at a time to each pass a trial alone. The Guardian starts to scan each of the Mane Six (while Pinkie starts chasing the scanning beams until they disappear), and the Guardian first requests the Element of Honesty to go inside to pass her test first. Applejack hesitantly walks inside and mysteriously finds herself in Apple Bloom’s bedroom in Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack finds strange notes around the room; one of them involved the Cutie Mark Crusaders all taking shelter in Carousel Boutique during a rain storm, but Rarity mentions that all her glitter was stolen by somepony, but much to Applejack’s curiosity, she finds a whole sack of glitter mysteriously appearing on Apple Bloom’s bed. Applejack finds another note containing more stolen items like Fluttershy’s brush, Rainbow Dash’s signed photo of Spitfire, Spike’s collection of gems, and all of Cheerilee’s pencils, and all of the stolen items mysteriously appear around Apple Bloom’s room. She then hears Apple Bloom crying out for her innocence from downstairs. When Applejack gets downstairs, she finds Big McIntosh and Granny Smith feeling ashamed for Apple Bloom as she starts to get interrogated by police officers. The officers start explaining to Applejack that Apple Bloom has stolen items around Ponyville and will be arrested for it, but Apple Bloom keeps begging to believe her innocence. Then the officers ask Applejack, as the Element of Honesty, that if she’s saying is true. Applejack then lies to the officers and tells them that she stole the items, and not Apple Bloom. This surprises the Apple family, and the officers begin to arrest Applejack, but as the officers begin to arrest her and Apple Bloom begs for Applejack not to go, she wakes up just outside the vault finding out it was just her trial. The Guardian tells Applejack that she passed the trial, and that sometimes lying to save others makes a big difference. He asks for the Element of Generosity next.

Rarity walks inside the vault and finds herself in her boutique. She started serving customers from Canterlot who ask for the biggest order Rarity has ever had, which made Rarity feel very excited, knowing she can open a fourth boutique in Las Pegasus that’s bigger than all three of her boutiques combined. Just then, Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops burst inside the boutique looking dusty and tired. They were begging Rarity for some food, which starts to question Rarity’s curiosity. Rarity looks outside in Ponyville and sees the town in terrible shape of disrepair, and ponies in the streets fighting for food, and stealing their supplies. The Canterlot delegates remind Rarity of the biggest order ever, but the ponies in Ponyville beg for Rarity’s help, saying she’s the only pony in Ponyville who could afford anything. Rarity then forces to decline the delegates and to use every single gem that she has in the boutique to save the town. The ponies in Ponyville such as Mayor Mare and Cheerilee all thank Rarity for her help in saving the town, and Rarity suddenly wakes up outside of the vault, explaining her story to her friends. The Guardian then asks for the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy, next to go into the vault to perform her trial.

Back down at the catacombs, Starlight continues walking through the cave along with Spike holding onto her leg as he walks with her. Starlight starts to question Spike’s bravery, but Spike keeps telling her that he isn’t afraid of anything. Starlight has a hard time believing it, but she just goes through with it. They start to hear something creeping through the caves, and that’s when Spike admits he’s scared. As Starlight was thrilled to hear him say that, she starts to admit that she’s scared too. Starlight and Spike both see a shadow in the distance walking slowing towards them. Out of the shadows, Starlight sees Queen Chrysalis approach her, and Starlight and Spike nervously start to back up. Chrysalis tells Starlight that she’s back for revenge, and she won’t be able to stop her. All of Starlight’s friends, including the Mane Six and Trixie are trapped in prison bubbles surrounding Chrysalis. Chrysalis then levitates Spike towards her and traps him in a prison bubble. Chrysalis laughs as Starlight starts to feel defeated.

During Pinkie Pie’s trial, the stage manager tells Pinkie that she’ll be coming on to perform her comedy show in 2 minutes. Pinkie gets excited knowing that all of Equestria will be there tonight to smile and laugh at her jokes, and the manager thanks Pinkie for cancelling her sister’s birthday party for it. However, this causes Pinkie to question her decision, and she suddenly changes her mind, and runs out of the building. Pinkie starts running through the streets of Manehattan, and the location fades and suddenly merges into the Pie family rock farm. Pinkie runs inside the farmhouse and apologizes to her family, and tells them that missing a sister’s birthday party isn’t worth all the smiles in Equestria. Pinkie then asks which of her sisters’ birthday it is. Pinkie suddenly wakes up outside of the vault, and tells her friends what has happened. Fluttershy tells Pinkie that her trial sounded far more difficult than her own – she had to show aggression to another group of animals that were bullying her own animal friends. Rainbow Dash tells them that hers was easy; she had to trade in her status as a Wonderbolt to save her friends. Applejack asks if everypony had a chance to go yet, but Twilight says that she was the only one who hasn’t been given a test yet. The Guardian tells the Mane Six that all of them will be required for Twilight to pass her test.

The vault opens, and the six ponies walk inside. Once the Mane Six walk inside, they find themselves in a dark abyss, with nothing around them but pure darkness. Just then, cages suddenly appear around Twilight’s friends. The Guardian welcomes Twilight to the final trial, and tells her that she’ll be able to continue on with only one friend of her choice. Every other will have to stay behind forever. Twilight’s friends all become nervous over Twilight having to choose, and Twilight herself has been given the biggest challenge of her life yet.

Back down in the catacombs, Starlight continues to feel nervous about Chrysalis having her friends held captive. Chrysalis continues to taunt Starlight telling her that she’ll never able to stop her, and that all of Equestria will be hers, and that everypony will blame Starlight for her failure. Afterwards, Starlight starts to regain her confidence, and Starlight tells Chrysalis that she isn’t afraid of her, and since she was able to stop her once, she can do it again, and that she’ll be ready for anything she can throw at her. This causes Chrysalis and all of the prison bubbles containing her friends to suddenly fade away and disappear. Afterwards, Starlight wakes up in the middle of the floor, confused to what just happened. Starlight then finds Spike lying on the ground, whimpering and struggling. Starlight walks over to him and tries to wake him up.

Once Spike wakes up, he gives Starlight a big hug and begs for her to never abandon him. Starlight gets confused to why he’s acting like that, and then Spike suddenly admits that he doesn’t always dream about Rarity, and that some of his dreams are actually nightmares that involve him being abandoned by his friends, mostly Twilight. He claims to fear that his inner greedy dragon nature might suddenly come back and it would force all of his friends to release him, and ask him to never come back. Starlight feels touched to hear Spike finally admit his inner feelings, and not bragging or making jokes like he normally does. Starlight admits that she sometimes feels the same way about her past coming back to take control of her again, and that her friends won’t accept her anymore. It makes them both feel a lot better that they let out their feelings they were holding in. Starlight then claims that she is no longer afraid of Chrysalis and says that she will come back, and that she will be ready for her with her friends by her side. Just then, Spike and Starlight hear a voice coming from deeper in the cave that sounded like the Guardian’s voice. Spike hops on Starlight’s back, and she starts running towards the noise, hoping to get an answer to what’s going on.

Back in Twilight’s trial, her friends begin to tell Twilight to save somepony else instead of themselves, but after all the suggestions, Twilight demands quiet so she can make her choice. Just then, Pinkie reminds Twilight about the gala tickets, and that gives Twilight an idea. Twilight tells the Guardian that she doesn’t want any of her friends free, and neither herself, because if not all of them gets to go, then none of them get to go. Twilight’s friends feel touched of Twilight’s choice, but Rainbow asks her if that was worth it. Turns out to be worth it, because the Guardian tells the Mane Six that they all passed the trials, and removes the cages from Twilight’s friends. The Mane Six all share a hug as they all wake up outside of the vault, which has been opened, showing a case of stairs that leads down into the catacombs. The Mane Six all run downstairs and meet up with Starlight and Spike, who they were all relieved to see one another. When the Mane Six all get concerned to what the secret of the cave is, they find something big lurking in the shadows that shares the same voice as the Guardian.

The Guardian reveals itself to be Lord Tirek’s brother Scorpan, who Twilight recognizes him right away. Everypony gets confused to why he set up the tests for them, and why he’s down there. Scorpan explains that after his brother got arrested and got sent to Tartaraus, he was about to return back to his homeland of Cethans, but on the way home, he started to feel full of regret within him knowing that he’s returning home, and that he abandoned his brother in Equestria. He didn’t have the courage to return home all alone, so he asked his friend Star Swirl the Bearded that if he could just stay in his cave with him, and they’ve been hanging together ever since. Starlight asks how it is possible for Scorpan and Star Swirl to be in touch after all these years, and Scorpan explains that they talk through mentation between Equestria and the spirit realm, and that it’s the only thing that doesn’t keep him bored in that cave. Twilight starts to excitedly ask questions about Star Swirl, but Scorpan tells her that not all of Star Swirl’s secrets can be revealed at once, but he tells her that he knows all about what Twilight is done and that he is impressed with her. It causes Twilight to faint, but not without Rarity levitating a pillow towards her. Scorpan tells the Mane Six, Spike, and Starlight that he’s been watching all of them, and about all they’ve done, like freeing Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon, Twilight reforming both Trixie and Starlight, Fluttershy reforming Discord, and Spike being able to have Equestria share an alliance with the dragons and the changelings, and if they can do all that, he thinks that they’ll be able to teach him how to reform Tirek so they can reunite and be able to return home, and Scorpan would finally find peace. The eight friends explain to Scorpan that reforming villains isn’t easy, and it sometimes doesn’t always work, but they promise that they will do all they can to help him, and it pleases Scorpan.

The nine of them leave the cave and return to Ponyville. Inside the Castle of Friendship, Princesses Celestia and Luna meet Scorpan and greet him as an old friend. When Twilight and Starlight explain to the sisters of Scorpan’s situation, the princesses gladly accept them to have Scorpan remain in Equestria to learn how he can reform Tirek; even though having him fit in would be difficult to do, and with Twilight already having a friendship student of her own, it would be tough for her to have a second student. Spike then offers to look after Scorpan, and to help him fit in with the rest of the ponies again, and each of their friends would be able to teach Scorpan everything they know. Twilight gets worried that Spike might not be ready for such a responsibility, but Starlight tells her that it is okay to be worried about things going wrong, but just have confidence, and anypony would be able to accomplish anything – especially with the help of their friends.

Credits

 * Tara Strong as Twilight Sparkle
 * Patrick Warburton as The Guardian/Scorpan
 * Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity, Princess Luna, Granny Smith, Police Officer 1
 * Ashleigh Ball as Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Lyra Heartstrings
 * Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Bon Bon
 * Kelly Sheridan as Starlight Glimmer
 * Cathy Weseluck as Spike, Mayor Mare
 * Nicole Oliver as Princess Celestia, Cheerilee, Lyrica Lilac
 * Kathleen Barr as Queen Chrysalis, Stage Manager
 * Peter New as Big Mac, Perfect Pace, Police Officer 2
 * Michelle Creber as Apple Bloom

Quotes

 * The Guardian: Relax, they’re going to be just fine! They’re just out of the way until the end of the trials.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Trials, like… you mean… a test?!
 * Rainbow Dash: There she goes again.


 * Starlight Glimmer: I thought you were Spike the Brave and Glorious?
 * Spike: I... am Spike the Brave and Gl-glorious! What’s this about me being afraid of going into a very spooky and dangerous looking cave? Pfft! I never said anything like that!


 * Twilight Sparkle: This is so exciting! I wonder what kind of tests we’re going to get?! Trivia on Star Swirl? Magic tests? Friendship tests? Tests about Celestia and Luna’s backstory?
 * Pinkie Pie: Tests that involve scribbling on the walls? Tests that involve the difference between hayburgers and oatburgers?


 * Applejack: Don’t worry, Twilight. Ah’ll be fine. Ah’ve dealt with many situations by mahself before. It shouldn’t be too hard.
 * Pinkie Pie: Oooo, don’t jinx it!


 * Police Officer 2: Yeah! Imprisonment, or banishment! Or imprisonment where you get banished!


 * Lyrica Lilac: I’m sorry, but isn’t your policy ‘the customer is always right’?
 * Rarity: No. Rarity’s policy has always been, and always will be, ‘the needy is always right’!


 * Spike: I’m not afraid of anything, Starlight! I’m Spike the Brave and Glorious!
 * Starlight Glimmer: So why are you holding on to my leg?
 * Spike: Umm... to keep it warm.


 * Manager: Pinkie Pie, 2 minutes until you go on.
 * Pinkie Pie: Woo hoo! This is going to be the best magic show ever!
 * Manager: Comedy show.
 * Pinkie Pie: Right! Comedy show!


 * Pinkie Pie: I am so sorry that I’m late! I wouldn’t miss any of your birthday parties for all the smiles in Equestria! So… which one of my sister’s birthday is it?


 * Rainbow Dash: Are you kidding?! All of yours sounded much harder than mine! I had to trade in my Wonderbolt status to make sure all of you were safe! It really wasn’t hard, I did that test before with the Shadowbolts.


 * Rainbow Dash: Say what now? You mean we all had to go in alone, but Twilight gets to have all of us?!
 * Applejack: Problem, Rainbow?
 * Rainbow Dash: Pfft! NO! I can take care of myself! I just find it, you know, unfair.


 * Rarity: With me gone, my name shall live on as my boutiques shall become more popular when their owner goes down in history, and goes down a hero!
 * Applejack: Wow, Rarity. That’s deep!
 * Rarity: Oh thank you! I’m really trying to improve my drama!


 * Scorpan: There, there, Twilight Sparkle. Star Swirl doesn’t reveal all his secrets at once. Not even you are ready for some of his more complicated spells. However, he does tell me how impressed he is of you of how far you’ve gone in finishing some of his projects for him.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Star Swirl... is... impressed with... me?! [jibberish]
 * Rarity: Relax, darling. I know what it’s like.


 * Scorpan: If all of you are able to reform these villains, then perhaps you can help me out. Teach me how to reform my brother, Tirek, and we can therefore be reunited, and we’ll be able to return home, and I can finally find peace!