My Little V/H/S 2: The Dark Foundings

*Footage turns on*

As the magical camera projection screen unravels, it now shows a young grey unicorn with the white mane who is none other than Star Swirl. The moment he faces the camera, Star Swirl writes down his latest log entry while going over his previous trials as the Wizard's apprentice while inside a cabin. As he hears the cabin rock smoothly and the splashing waves coming outside, Star Swirl can presume that he is inside a huge ship that is sailing through the calm oceans.

"For my log date I, Star Swirl, have made my way down to the forest of Redwood to meet up with my new contractor at the request of my master. Over the past 2 years of apprenticeship, I have created about 17 new battle spells to fight off against the dark arts. With it, I have went through 5 trials as I advanced further as my master's apprentice where he and I both faced off various unicorns infamous for their use of forbidden arts of Dark Magic. As of now, this will be my final trial before I move on to a Wizard Initiate."

The moment Star Swirl cleared his throat, he pulls out a map of the Redwood Forest. With the map showing on Star Swirl's footage, it shows a 5 by 5 paper that reveals red trees that surround a small village with a small road leading to a river stream at the southern edge.

"From what my master told me, the village inside Redwood is constantly besieged by an evil Covenant that was kidnapping village ponies, killing any other pony that stands in their way. The village mayor is in desperate need for my aid. At the same time, I will also be meeting up with an accomplice who knows well about the environment of Redwood Forest. This is happens to be my very first trial where I have to take part in without my master for he is trying to catch up on the paperwork dating back 3 weeks ago back at his study. Anyway, I have to get ready for the drop off. The ship will be docking at the Port Zuluberg."

Once Star Swirl finished his speech in front of his camera, he turns it off. While off-screen Star Swirl packs up his bags before leaving the ship's cabin.

The moment Star Swirl's camera turns on, his footage now reveals that he is out on deck along with a large group of passengers facing the starboard side as they are preparing to dock. Once the ship slows down, the crew secures the vessel with their mooring lines before two of them bring out the gangplank. As soon as the ship is held in place, the crew sets up the gangplank as it bridges connects itself from the vessel to the pier, allowing the passengers to disembark from the ship in a single file line.

For Star Swirl, he makes his way down the gangplank before being escorted to the entrance of Port Zuluberg. For his footage, Port Zuluberg is shown to have tall buildings made up of stone masonry with wooden roofs supported by beams stretching out in 45 degree angles from the structure's framework. Looking closely, most of the tall stone buildings are built in different heights with ponies being seen through wide stone mullions.

Since it is not his business on what every pony is doing inside those structure, Star Swirl moved on as he makes his way through the main streets of Zuluberg. Down the cobber stone roads, Star Swirl sees various ponies carrying all sorts of supply carts to and from the pier, which are filled with plants, building materials, food, and water.

Fillies are seen playing near the stone-built houses while being watched by their mothers. Patrols of 4 to 5 town guards are making their way down the road, usually armed with spears and wearing metal helmets and breastplates.

As Star Swirl turns left while navigating further down Zuluberg holding his camera, he makes his way towards a tavern. The moment his footage looks up for a moment, the camera shows a wooden sign above the tavern's double doors is named "Jester's Corner" considering that it is the name of this place.

Before he could be let in, an earth colt who happens to be a bouncer working here stops him at the entrance.

"Hello newbie. What's your name and what business do you have here?" The earth colt bouncer grunted as he is seen in a muscular dark-red skin color with a blue mane.

"M-my name is Star Swirl. I was told to meet up with some pony in Jester's Corner for an important, private meeting." Star Swirl stammered for a bit as he takes out his contract from his sack to show the bouncer.

"Mmmmmm. Let's see!!" The bouncer said, feeling curious about what the contract that Star Swirl gave him.

The moment the bouncer takes the contract from Star Swirl with his right hoof, he skim reads it from top to bottom before facing the young unicorn up front. "Wait for moment!!!"

Just as the bouncer disappeared into the entrance, Star Swirl stood there taking a few deep breaths. He isn't sure if the bouncer is going to let him in or not. Maybe his client isn't at Jester's Corner at all. Maybe he or she is somewhere else in Zuluberg.

In just a few minutes, the bouncer appeared again from the entrance as he gave Star Swirl quite a happy grin on his face.

"Okay young man. Come right this way." The bouncer spoke as he pointed his hoof towards the tavern's entrance.

The moment Star Swirl enters the tavern, he turns off his footage as he passes by the bouncer.

Camera footage turns on.......

Through Star Swirl's camera, he finds that the inside the tavern has all sorts of roughneck ponies both pegasus and earth ponies grunting and chattering towards each other on various round tables.

Star Swirl couldn't help but feel a bit disturbed when several earth pony colts are staring straight at him with hostile look in their eyes. Some of them are holding knives and daggers with their hooves on top of the tables their sitting towards.

While cautiously being escorted by the bouncer, Star Swirl could also see pegasus brutes slumped up against the walls as if they are drunk into a total stupor. On his right, he sees some griffon playing the piano with tense movement coming from his claws as if he is being pressed in doing so by the manager of this tavern. Before Star Swirl could let his curiosity get a hold of him, he felt a light shove coming from behind him. Feeling the push, Star Swirl turns his camera to face the bouncer.

"Hey. Don't try to stop for anything, Star Swirl. This is not a safe place for an underage wizard like you." The bouncer spoke sternly as he made a short glare at the unicorn's camera footage. "Just walk."

With no time to spare at the Tavern of Jester's Corner, Star Swirl continues as he is lead by the bouncer in a small room next to the bar counter.

Once Star Swirl walks next to the bar counter, the bouncer raised his left hoof as if he is telling the unicorn to stop for a moment. As Star Swirl looks at the bouncer again, he sees that he is talking to the bartender at the counter, who happens to be a female pegasus in yellow colors both fur coat and mane.

He didn't know what either of them were saying. But in just one minute, the bouncer turns around to face Star Swirl.

"Okay unicorn, the pony who want to meet is down the hallway to the door on your right." The bouncer told Star Swirl before making his way back to his post. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask the bartender Golden Shinebeer."

As soon as Star Swirl sees the bouncer disappear off-screen of his footage, he takes a deep breath before heading towards the room that the earth pony colt was talking about.

Down the small hallway, Star Swirl reaches to the door on his right. The moment the door opened, he soon comes face-to-face with a white female pegasus with a violet mane wearing a sliver cloak, with the hood falling behind the back of her head, bearing the cutie mark of a breeze of silver wind. She is seen sitting on top of a chair while holding a wine glass with her left wing, taking a light sip from it. On her chest, she is wearing a harness that has several silver stakes strapped to it.

Next to the female pegasus, is an earth pony colt wearing a tall, brown pointy hat, seen in a light-brown skin color with crimson red mane, bearing the cutie mark of a Cedar Tree.

Feeling intimidated by such an appearance, Star Swirl reluctantly sat down on the chair to his right before they make their introduction.

"I take it you must be the Apprentice Star Swirl. My name is Cedar Arbor, mayor of Redwood Village and the pegasus mare sitting next to me is Silver Storm." The light-brown earth pony spoke.

"It's been an honor to meet you as well, apprentice." Silver Storm added in as she tried to greet him with a hoof towards the unicorn. "Hesitant to shake hooves, are we? Well, I happened to be a witch hunter that was also recruited by Mayor Cedar about three days ago. I came down here from the City of Tiamat Star which lies to the far west of Canterlot."

"Well, I can't say I was thrilled to see you both here. Well, do you know what has ever become of your village now, Mayor?" Star Swirl asked.

"From our recent encounters, they call themselves the Covenant of Belial." The mayor announced in a grim tone. "They happened to be a group of hostile unicorns both male and female that have been operating near the borders of Omni Blair Forest, which is ground zero for episodes of witchcraft."

"Last year, there used to be a wall that sealed up the borders between Omni Blair and Redwood. However, the Covenant was somehow able to breach the walls using some very powerful, bombarding dark magic. The garrison unit stationed there was massacred instantly after the walls have been breached." Silver Storm added in. "Worst of all, Cedar's village was 15 miles closer to the walls. In about one day after the breach, the Redwood village became under attack by the Covenant of Belial as the mares and their children were being forced to hide inside their houses. The pony villagers made several attempts to sneak past the Covenant to warn Zuluberg but they all failed; the Covenant had our village completely surrounded and isolated from any chance of seeking help. Therefore, Redwood is currently taken over by the evil Covenant."

"Well, how did you and the mayor get past them?" Star Swirl asked out of concern.

"You see this cloak that I'm wearing, it was given to me by my instructor for it is meant to allow me to get past my enemies as if I was a misty shroud. It's known as the Sliver Ghost Cloak." Sliver Storm said, answering Star Swirl's question briefly. "With it, I was able to rescue the mayor before I brought him here."

"That's pretty impressive. Though, I still have yet to comprehend on the current fate of the trapped villagers." Star Swirl said, feeling impressed before coming up with a dreaded remark.

"Well, most of my villagers were helpless for we are only but a tribe of peaceful earth ponies that have been isolated from civilizations for far too long." The mayor said, feeling guilty. "I was desperate in trying to escape my besieged village to find help but I was threatened constantly. Of course, that was before I met this witch hunter and we both escaped together. Though, I'm still feeling concerned for my children after my wife got killed and taken away."

"Fret not, Mr. Mayor. We'll get your village back by all means." Star Swirl spoke in determination and confidence.

Before Silver Storm or Cedar Arbor could say anymore, they and Star Swirl start to hear a lot of shouts, crashes, and tumbling coming from outside their private room.

"Oh great. Looks like they're having another drunken bar brawl again." Silver Storm muttered in annoyance.

Not a moment too soon, the door leading back to the hallway was forced open as two earth pony colts are wrestling each other on the floor, both grunted and snarling as they both started throwing hoof punches at each.

"Let's get out of here!!" Star Swirl suggested as his horn lit up.

In a flash, he, Cedar, and Silver Storm enrapture themselves inside the unicorn's spell as they made themselves disappear and reappear outside of Jester's Corner, making the footage stop recording at the same time.

As the footage turns itself on again.......

The three ponies now find themselves at the gate leading to the outskirts of Zuluberg as Star Swirl, who is again holding the camera from his chest, sees the mayor approach the gate guards to be let out.

For a few minutes, the guards felt reluctant. But when Star Swirl could see that the mayor is referring his unclear speech towards him and Silver Storm, the one of the guards opens up the gate, allowing all three ponies leave to venture towards Redwood Forest.

Once Star Swirl and his two companions make their way to the east, after walking 5 miles away from Zuluberg, they soon approach a creepy forest filled with bare trees made up of dark-red bark and with branches that are bending over.

On the ground within the forest, it was shown to have light-red mist and with small flames jutting out of the earth. It's as if the forest is cursed by an evil presence.

With a dreadful chill, Star Swirl couldn't help but wonder if this forest is where he would find the village that is being threatened by the Covenant of Belial. Before he could proceed any further, the young apprentice sees that the mayor appeared from his left, as what his camera is currently showing.

"Feeling anxious are we?" Mayor Cedar spoke hesitantly. "Well, I don't blame ya. But the Covenant favors the forests as part of their hunting grounds, their territories. Once they claim part of the forest as their own, the Covenant leaves behind an environmental curse that afflicts the Redwood forest into what you see before you."

"So the hunter becomes the hunted, eh?!" Silver Storm said, feeling disturbed.

As the three ponies get closer to the cursed Redwood Forest, Silver became the first to notice something hanging from one of the creepy, bare tree branches.

"Star Swirl, check this out." The witch hunter said in a whispered voice.

When Star Swirl turns his camera towards Silver's voice, he sees along with the footage of a small, black pony figurine that is revealed to have all four of its hooves stretched out to all directions like an "X" shape, with its tail hanging in between the two small hind hooves stretching downwards. As a matter of fact, several more black pony figurines are also dangling from the branches of the other trees behind the first one.

"What is that supposed to be, Silver Storm?" Star Swirl asked.

"This is how they mark their territory from within the cursed forests." Silver replied. "We need to keep our voices down. They'll be watching and hearing us from within those trees."

*SNAP!!*

"It's them. Time to hide!!!" Silver spoke in a hushed tone as she used her silver cape to drape over both Star Swirl and Mayor Cedar underneath its huge, wide cloth.

As all three ponies hide underneath the stealthy cloak, they go to the ground as Star Swirl's camera is placed on the red-misty dirt.

In a few minutes of silence, the camera sees the hooves of one pony appearing from behind one of the shadowy dark-red trees as it turned around as if this pony is surveying the edge of the forest. Just for a moment, another pony came out from a dark-red tree adjacent to the one where the first pony appeared as the second one is seen to be a unicorn mare wearing a black cape with her chest showing the symbol of the same figurine dangling from the tree branches.

Smirking, the female unicorn flapped out her cape to reveal a earth pony mare completely bound and gagged against her own will while holding the mare with her magic.

"MMMMMMMRRRRRPHHHHH!!! MMMMMMMMRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!" The earth mare grunted in frustration as she struggled helplessly under the bindings of the unicorn's magic.

"Such delightful fresh meat!!!" The female unicorn hissed in delight as she turned towards the first pony, who happens to be a male unicorn wearing the same cape and bearing the same symbol as well. "Is our pet ready to feed?"

"I wouldn't be grateful any other way!!!" The male unicorn ululated as his horn lit up in a black and red hue.

The moment the male unicorn faced the opposite direction of the bound earth mare, he shoots out a beam of dark-red magic as it opens up an orange-flaming portal above the red-misty ground.

While hiding beneath Silver Storm's magical cloak, Star Swirl felt utter horrified that the poor mare is about to met her fate by whatever lies beyond that portal. Before he knew it, through his footage, he could hear a deep bellow coming from the portal as if there is some gargantuan creature growling horrendously.

"GROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLWUUUUUUUUUUUUURRR!!!"

He held his mouth shut while bearing witness to the terrifying outcome unfolding for Star Swirl cannot risk compromising himself and his two accomplices.

Before they knew it, the gagged earth mare started to sweat in fear while making muffled screams as her eyes widened with terror. Instantly, a huge claw made up of black stone skin came out and grabbed the helpless mare.

"MMMMMMMMMMPPPHHHHH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" The earth mare shrieked as she made muffled screaming while being held by the huge black stoned claw.

Once the evil unicorn disengages her magic holding onto the bound, gagged mare, the pony gets pulled back into the vortex. Instantly, a massive wave of blood and guts came out of the orange-flaming portal as it flooded the red-misty ground with the poor mare's remains.

"YES MY MASTER!!! FEED!!! FEED!!!" The two crazed unicorns chanted as they could see two red beams shoot out towards the ponies. "FEED AND MAKE US STRONGER!!!!!"

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!!!"

Once struck by the two red beams, the unicorns started to mutate as Star Swirl's camera sees their skin change color underneath their black capes and with their eyes lighting up in an ominous red-orange color.

They were both laughing to themselves in triumph when all of a sudden, tusks start to jut out from their cheeks and that their tails are scrunching themselves up only to transform into a barbed version. In Star Swirl's confused horror, the unicorns are turning into something more diabolical.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The two unicorns cackled as they both galloped away off-screen, disappearing back into the dead oak trees.

Seeing all this, Star Swirl felt disgusted and frightened at what the Covenant unicorns did to the poor mare as he almost lost his lunch. In a reaction, Star Swirl held his mouth in trying to avoid vomiting while hiding from plain sight. For a few seconds, Star finally gasped for air before hearing the witch hunter call out to him.

"Okay Star Swirl, the coast is clear." Silver Storm spoke as she pulled her cape back, letting Star Swirl and the mayor come out of their hiding spot.

"Was that really what they did to those poor ponies in your village when they abducted them?" Star Swirl asked the mayor. "Offering them as a sacrifice to something terrifying in that vortex and granting them mutating powers in return?!"

"Not quite. This is definitely something new. Before that, the Covenant kidnapped my villagers to serve as their slaves." The mayor replied. "Wait, if they just started doing this then does that mean........?!!"

As Mayor Cedar started to gathering in his thoughts after witnessing such a cannibalizing event, his eyes widened with panicked terror for he just started to mention something before meeting up with Star Swirl and Silver Storm.

"OH FAUST. NO!!! MY CHILDREN!!!!" The mayor freaked out as he started to make in immediate gallop down the Redwood trail leading back to his village.

"Mayor, wait!!! Where are you going??" Star Swirl asked as he started to follow the mayor while having his camera face the back of the galloping Cedar.

"Sorry Star Swirl, I already told my children to wait for me back at the village but if they get kidnapped by the Covenant now.........."

Horrified by what the mayor is imagining, he makes a run for it as he leaves a confused Star Swirl and Silver Storm standing right behind him only for a second.

"MAYOR!!! STOP!!! WAIT!!!" Star Swirl shouted as he tried to gallop after Mayor Cedar, while hearing Silver Storm flapping her wings and following him from behind.

After 10 minutes of running through Redwood, Star Swirl stops as he tries to take a breather the moment he loses track of the frantic village mayor.

"Dammit, mayor. We lost him!!!" Star Swirl huffed in exhaustion as he is taking deep breaths.

For Silver Storm, she landed on the ground next to Star Swirl on all fours while surveying their surroundings.

Just as soon as Star Swirl faces his camera towards the horizon and after regaining his stamina, he and the witch hunter soon find Cedar's village up ahead. However, the moment they got closer, the village is now seen completely in ruins for most of the hovels are already half-burnt, with dried bloodstains on their walls. For the area all around the village, there is all sorts of pony skeletons placed upright as they are being held by tall wooden stakes, with their bony hooves stretched out in an "X." There is also small flames spewing from the ground near several burnt hovels.

While Star Swirl and Silver Storm cautious make their way from the ruined village, they couldn't see any pony anywhere. It's as if it is too late to save the earth pony villagers from meeting the same fate as that poor earth mare earlier.

"This is terrible. With the mayor missing and with no survivors, I don't think were going to have any other choice." Star Swirl spoke with Silver Storm.

"What do you think were going to do then?" Silver Storm asked, feeling curious on where the apprentice is getting at.

"With the frantic mayor running off on his own like that, if something happens to him before we have the chance to act, we'll have to put this entire village out of its misery." Star Swirl suggested, much to Silver's overwhelmed affection.

"You mean destroy this village??" Silver spoke, feeling shocked at where Star Swirl is getting at.

"I have yet to try out a powerful, vindicating spell scroll that I am keeping inside my satchel. It's going to be a huge risk but it will have to be done if we can't save the mayor or what's left of his family." Star Swirl added in.

"What would that be??" Silver asked, feeling paranoid about the apprentice's intentions.

"It's not my place to say. My master gave it to me before I took the ship to Zuluberg. He said that the spell scroll will be used as a last resort to stop the Covenant's evil scourge from spreading outside of Redwood."

"Well, we might as well find the mayor and destroy the Covenant's original power source first."

"You mean the portal that they opened up just now?"

"Yes, but I am sensing a bigger power source that is allowing the Covenant members to open up that vortex here." Star Swirl murmured as he could see on the camera that there is red clouds spreading through skies as they start to rumble with black lighting from within.

Before long, Star Swirl's footage sees black-lighting beams all aiming towards one direction which lies somewhere within the middle of the ruined village.

"We'll seal up that portal once we reach the heart of the Covenant." Star Swirl said in determination to end the terror of the Covenant of Belial.

"Alright then, let's move!!" Silver Storm replied as she flaps out a part of her cloak to reveal a hoof-mounted crossbow.

Once the footage turns off and then back on, Star Swirl and Silver cautiously approach up against the wall of a burned hovel as they are sneaking towards where the black-lighting beams are heading towards. As soon as Star Swirl takes a small peak around the corner of the hovel, his camera sees a large group of unicorns all wearing black capes.

From the back of their capes, they are showing a circular sigil of a demonic face with red glowing eyes and two huge horns protruding upward. The sigil is shown to have a small inscription that says "Belial" on it. Seeing all this closely with the camera footage, Star Swirl glared with anger in his eyes as he can confirm one thing without a doubt.

"There is no mistaking it!!" Star Swirl snarled in a whispered, angry voice. "It looks like the Covenant of Belial is here at the village center."

As the vortex appears in front of the crowd of Covenant unicorns, they are all chanting in an ambiguous black speech that is making the ground shake lightly.

"Where's the mayor??" Silver Storm whispered as she turns on her own small camera footage, which is mounted on the top of her left ear.

"There!! Look!!" Star Swirl whispered as he noticed an angry Mayor Cedar being restrained by two unicorns, this time with their hooves.

In the midst of the gibberish, disturbing chant, the mayor is being dragged and dropped before the huge portal.

As soon as the mayor falls onto the ground, he is completely torn up and beaten brutally as Cedar is seen to have purple bruises and holes on his clothes. Now completely injured, Cedar struggled to look up with his left eye for his right eye is completely swollen with a bloody bruise.

"YOUR CHILDREN BELONG TO ME EARTH PONY!!! NOW YOU SHALL JOIN THEM ALL IN TARTARUS!!!" The huge, bellowing voice boomed as it is heard throughout the whole burned village.

"Y-Y-You!!! YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!!! NONE OF YOU WILL!!!" The mayor shouted as he croaked in anger only to feel a huge black-stone claw holding him up with his chin.

"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" The huge voiced cackled, along with the rest of the Covenant members.

"GO TO TARTARUS YOU MONSTERS!!! ALL OF YOU!!!" The mayor shouted as he is meet with a powerful jab into his jaw, with the claw jutting out from the back of his head.

"GAAG!!! UUUURRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!"

With the sharp jab piercing the mayor by his mouth, Cedar's eyes rolled back as he went limp. Just like that, the huge black claw pulled the mayor into the portal and it disappeared into a roaring fire that aimed upward above the group of covenant ponies.

The Covenant of Belial ponies are all howling and ululating in triumph over the fact that the whole village is now massacred much to their amusement!!!

Seeing all this, Star Swirl felt guilty for not saving the mayor or his family. Nevertheless, he and Silver Storm still have their mission to put an end to the Covenant's scourge. However, before the apprentice or the witch hunter have a chance to act, they heard something collapse behind them.

Just as Silver Storm's camera turned to face the source of the noise, she and Star Swirl spotted a unicorn member of the Covenant staring straight at them, blinking his eyes for a few times. Not a moment too soon, the unicorn starts to react.

"INTERLOP-----!!!" The Covenant member shouted only for his speech to abruptly end by a silver bolt piercing him in the throat.

Next to Star Swirl, Silver fired her hoof-mounted crossbow towards the Covenant member, killing him instantly as he fell to his side with blood seeping from his neck.

It wasn't long before the rest of the Covenant members heard one of their own shouts as they all turned their attention towards Star Swirl and Silver Storm, the moment the apprentice's and the witch hunter's camera started to face them. At the same time, the orange portal reveals a huge ghastly, black-skinned face with glowing red eyes, narrowing with hostility and delight.

"WELL, WHAT HAVE WE HERE?? OUTSIDERS AS FRESH MEAT? I'D BE DELIGHTED FOR A WONDROUS FEAST OF MAYHEM AND CONQUEST!!! SEIZE THEM!!!!"

"They're onto us!!!" Star Swirl shouted as he faces Silver Storm while lighting up his horn, ready for battle. "You think you can keep them busy while I conjure the spell scroll?"

"I'll do my best Star Swirl, but don't take too long!!" Silver Storm spoke as she unfurled her wings. "As soon as I'm on the air, close your eyes for a moment."

"Right!! LET'S GO!!!" Star Swirl shouted as he charged towards the group of Covenant ponies.

Just as the Covenant ponies are about to close into Star Swirl, Silver Blade flew right above him as she hurled a small round device from underneath her cloak.

Upon impact, the round device lets loose a huge blinding flash that is catching most of the Covenant ponies off-guard. Thankfully, Star Swirl was able to cover both of his eyes with his right hoof as the footage fizzled in a temporary light screen.

As for Silver Storm's footage, it shows that the camera is now above a group of disoriented Covenant unicorns for she is on the air.

Unable to see it coming, Silver dives bomb into one unicorn up front as she pivoted to her left and delivered a round-house kick with her hind hoof in his face, knocking the Covenant member off to the side.

Once landed, Silver circles around a rotation to face a female unicorn witch, who is also part of the Covenant. Snarling and blinded by the flash, the Covenant member is unable to see where the witch hunter is at. Regardless, the witch stupidly started to fire a black bolt without looking at where she is aiming.

Not wanting to regain her sights, Silver zeros onto her target as she flew towards the blind witch and struck her with a hoof punch right in-between the eyes.

However, now that two Covenant members are knocked out, the others snarled as they lit up their horns before they all aim at the flying Witch Hunter.

Flying into the air, Silver did a daring climb upward as she dodged several magic black beams coming from the Covenant members. Returning fire, Silver pulled back her cape and aimed her crossbow at her attackers, shooting them at will.

*TWANG!!*

*CHOOM!!*

*PEW!!**

With her crossbow shooting below her ascending position, Silver fires a payload of silver bolts as they struck the Covenant members in the faces or in their necks as blood started to gush out of their injuries.

After shooting down 6 Covenant members, both male and female, Silver did an aerial somersault on top of the 7th Covenant member, who is a unicorn warlock, that attempted to charge at her as he was met with both hind hooves slamming down on his skull.

*SLAM!!! CRACK!!!*

With the warlock's head shattering, the unicorn fell face flat on the ground as blood start to pour down his forehead, unable to get up.

For Star Swirl, as soon as the flashing light faded away from his camera footage, he runs to his right while his horn lit up in a white hue.

The moment three unicorn Covenant members glared at Star Swirl as they fired black flames, magic missiles, and red lighting only to be warded away by the apprentice's powerful shield barrier. Retaliation, Star Swirl swings his head and lets loose a mighty spell of Chain Lighting from his horn, giving all three unicorns a shock to remember in their grave.

*ZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!! BOOM!!!!*

As soon as Star Swirl's Chain Lighting spell struck a home-run on the three unicorns, they all disintegrated in pillars of blood and bones, leaving behind small craters on the dark ground.

The fight between Star Swirl and the group of evil unicorns is just getting started as he is soon approached by another evil unicorn warlock of the Covenant, appearing from the left of the screen.

The warlock jumped forward in trying to pin Star Swirl onto the ground only for the apprentice to teleport himself out of harm's way. As soon as Star Swirl reappear behind the unicorn warlock, he fired a huge blast of magic at the unicorn's face, sending him flying 15 feet towards a nearby burnt hovel before collapsing onto the ground.

Moving on, Star Swirl is trying to head towards the orange portal as he sees a glimpse of his master's spell scroll from his bag before facing back at his direction.

While Silver is flying low off the ground, she did a mid-air punch with her front left hoof at one Convenant witch before she even had the chance to fire one of her insidious spells. However, Silver felt a tug coming from her right, hind hoof as one of the Covenant unicorns was hissing as he is trying to grab her with his magic.

"LET GO!!!" Silver shouted as her right wing pulls out a steel dagger from her chest sling.

Instantly, Silver stabs the unicorn in the skull with her dagger while its being held by her right wing. Once she pulls the dagger out of the unicorn's head, she hurls it at one Covenant member that attempted to jump on Star Swirl from his rear.

*PSHINK!!!*

With the dagger hitting its mark, it struck the sneaky Covenant unicorn in its right temple before falling to his left.

Hearing the whizzing coming from behind, Star Swirl turns his footage to see a dead pony with a dagger lodged into its skull as it bled out.

"Don't look back, Star Swirl just go for it!!!" Silver's voice boomed.

Going back to facing his current direction, Star Swirl gallops closer to the orange, blazing portal as he swung his horn to the left and to the right, letting loose magical cuts that sliced the necks of two Covenant members that tried to close in from both sides.

Grunting and huffing, Star Swirl is putting his stamina to the test as he is greeted by another Covenant unicorn witch only to see that her tusks are showing from her cheeks, considering that it happens to be the same one that sent the poor mare to oblivion earlier.

"DON'T DEFY THE WILL OF OUR LORD BELIAL, UNICORN!!!" The unicorn witch grinned as she started gnashing at Star Swirl up close to his camera footage.

Just as the witch tried to jump forward at Star Swirl, he reacted by launching a huge magic blast from his horn.

*KABOOM!!!*

As soon as Star Swirl's huge magic ball hit the witch, her face blew up into a shower of blood and icky bits that sprayed all over the apprentice's face before the rest of her body was sent flying backwards, disappearing into the blazing portal.

Once Star Swirl reaches the portal, he takes out the spell scroll from his bag and unfolds it. After reading the inscription from top to bottom, Star Swirl uses his magic to put it in front of the portal only to be meet with a frightening sight.

The black, demonic face appears once again from inside the portal as it lunges itself out and towards a startled Star Swirl.

"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!"

Freaking out, Star Swirl yelped as he fell backwards before he had the chance to enact the spell.

"YOU DARE TO CHALLENGE ME UP FRONT?? WHAT A FILLY FOOL YOU ARE!!! COVENANT DISCIPLES, ITS TIME TO USE YOUR REAL POWER!!"

"Yes, Lord Belial!!!" All of the remaining Covenant members replied in deep-voiced unison.

All at once, the Covenant members take off their capes as they all get engulfed by sprouts of green lighting-flames. While inside the lighting-flames, the Covenant ponies started to mutate as their eyes turned red-yellow, their horns transform into three horns instead, all their pony skins starts to burn out only for it to transform into a black-muscular mass as green veins start to flow through their bodies.

In the midst of their mutated transformation, all of the Covenant ponies stood up on two legs as their front hooves melted away to reveal two black arms and razor claws in its place.

"HOLY FUCK!!! They're all mutating!!" Silver exclaimed as she pull out a silver stake from a dead Covenant member.

Once the green lighting-flames all disappeared, an army of two-legged, three horned demons rose in the place of the Covenant members as they all snarled at both Star Swirl and Silver Storm, with their claws being engulfed with green flames. Before they knew it, one of the demons hurled a green fireball at Star Swirl.

Trying to stay sane, Star Swirl conjured a huge white shield barrier as the green fireball exploded into a combustion emerald sparks.

"Silver, get inside my shield. NOW!!!" Star Swirl shouted as he gave out an order to the pegasus witch hunter.

With no time to waste, Silver Storm took flight as she made a flew straight towards Star Swirl's barrier like a speeding bullet.

However, just as soon as Silver reached Star Swirl's barrier, her footage shows a glimpse of one of the demons opening his mouth to have three feelers come out of it, armed with razor pincers as they all zeroed into the pegasus.

Refusing to flinch, Silver aimed and fired her crossbow into the demon's maw.

*TWANG!!*

With just one shot, the silver crossbow bolt entered the demon's mouth as it pierce through the back of its skull, making all three feelers fall limp as the demon screeched in pain. Just like that, the demon fall backwards just as the Pegasus made it inside Star Swirl's barrier.

Without hesitation, Star Swirl makes his shield expand and then lets loose a massive light-screen explosion that sent all of the three-horned, two-legged demons flying in all directions as they hissed in pain.

Now that the entire Covenant of pony-turned demons are completely stunned, Star Swirl seizes his chance to fire his magic at the spell scroll on the ground.

Once Star Swirl's magic beam hits the scroll, a huge pillar of light slams into the red sky above Belial's portal and from above, a solar beam strikes directly on top of the portal as it is slowly sealing itself away from existence.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" The Lord roared in horror, realizing that his gateway to the mortal plane is closing up from the top. "He's trying to seal up my entryway. STOP HIM!!!"

For the demons, it wasn't long before they all see what Star Swirl just did to the portal bridging the world that the Demon Lord is at. In fury and hearing Belial's orders, the three-horned demons all face the two ponies as their claws lit up with green fire.

From Silver's footage, she sees them start hurling green jets of lighting-flames at her and Star Swirl. With a sudden reaction, she leaped at Star Swirl while he was trying to concentrate all of his magic to seal up the portal.

"STAR SWIRL!! GET DOWN!!!" Silver shouted as she flew towards him, tackling the unicorn apprentice as they both hit the dirt.

*SHAZAAAAAAAAM!!!*

*KABLAM!!!*

By a mere hoof, Silver and Star Swirl both dodged the barrage of lighting flames that struck the ground near the disintegrating portal.

From the loud blast, the unicorn start to hear ringings on his ears as he struggled to get back up on his hooves.

As for the witch hunter, she turned towards the advancing grey horned demons before pulling out a white grenade bearing a holy cross.

Just as they tried to charge while raising their claws up high above.

Before then, Silver pulled out the pin from her holy cross grenade and hurled it towards a group of 13 horned demons. Upon impact, the grenade went off with a blast of white flames that set the demons on fire, making them all screech loudly in agony as they disintegrated into grey dust.

"Star Swirl, finish that spell quick. I can't hold them off forever." Silver spoke as she unfurled her wings and descended into the red sky once more.

The moment Silver was in the air, she sees one tri-horned demon ascend into the sky as he let loose his demonic wings protruding from its back, snarling and hissing.

"GIVE UP, PEGASUS. YOU CAN"T ESCAPE FROM US!!!" The demon roared as he zeroed into Silver.

Seeing this on the footage, Silver reacts with a double kick with her hind hooves while on the air, slamming them both into the demon's skull as his teeth shatter before falling straight down.

However, on her left edge of the footage, a flying demonness swiped her claws at Silver, giving her a huge slash mark on her right cheek.

"ARGH!!!" Silver screamed in pain as she used her right wing to take out a flintlock pistol from her holster, strapped to her lower waist.

*BOOM!!*

As her wing makes one pull on the trigger, Silver shoots the flying demonness in the face, blasting off a chunk of flesh from her grey temple as the winged monster falls down second.

Back at Star Swirl's footage, he charged up his horn and aims it at the scroll as the beam bounced up towards the portal, continuing to seal the portal. Before he knew it, a huge clawed hand tried to reach out towards Star Swirl's neck.

However, Star Swirl lead his head downward with the connecting beam intact, hitting the huge claw and dissecting it as it falls in front of the apprentice's hooves.

With the severed claw on the ground, the Demon Lord Belial roared in pain as the portal is halfway closed.

The face of Belial is seen below the portal as he glared at the screen of Star Swirl's footage.

"THIS ISN'T OVER!!! I WILL RETURN ONE DAY!!!"

It was the last thing Belial shouted as the portal disappeared from plain sight.

Once the magic beams all disappeared, Star Swirl takes a breather as he sees that the scroll burned itself away into nothingness. As he looked upwards while turning around, he sees that Silver is struggling to hold back the enraged army of flying monsters.

With the spell's scroll still embedded inside Star Swirl, he shoots out a powerful white lighting bolt up to the sky.

Feeling the slashed wounds bleeding down on her chest and back, Silver is started to lose her strength as 5 more demons are closing in on her while hovering 20 feet above the ground. However, the moment she sees the huge white bolt heading straight into the sky, Silver could see that it will be her cue to pull out.

As Silver makes a nose dive towards Star Swirl, she hears a huge, thunderous lighting effect dancing around in the sky behind her. At the same time, the demons pursuing her from behind all screeched horrendously as their screams all drowned by the lighting in the sky.

Once Silver lands in front of Star Swirl, the entire ground starts to rumble immensely for place where the portal was at started to open up a massive vacuum vortex in its place. With the vortex sucking up everything, all of the ruined hovels and the winged demons started to get pulled away as they all disappeared into the void.

"UGH!!!" Silver grunted as she felt the vacuum trying to pull her, along with Star Swirl.

With her wounds fresh and her stamina dwindling, Silver used her wings to grab onto a nearby tree while Star Swirl teleported himself next to the witch hunter as he held onto the same tree.

The moment Star Swirl sees Silver on his footage, he lights up his horn as he and the witch hunter teleported themselves away from the sucking vortex, making the camera screen flash in static.

After several minutes of static, Star Swirl's footage readjusts itself as he and the witch hunter have reappeared back outside of Redwood Forest.

As Star Swirl regained his breath, he turns to see that the vortex is already gone as if nothing happened to the forest. Though, with the village already sucked away, Star Swirl's treacherous trial is now over.

Afterwards, he turns towards the witch hunter who is sitting in front of a nearby tree, not looking back.

"Silver, are you okay? It's over, isn't it?" Star Swirl said, trying to get the witch hunter his attention.

"Heheheh!!! Hahahaha!!!" A disturbing cackle occurred as Star Swirl tried to approach the witch hunter.

"Silver?? What's wrong??"

"HEHEHEHHEHE!! GYAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"DA HAHAHAHAHAH!!! RAR!! RAAR!! RAAAR!!! GRRRRAAAAAARRRHH!!!"

Just as Star Swirl is 5 feet closer to Silver, she turns around only to reveal on his footage that her eyes turned yellow and set ablaze with small green flames, grinning maliciously at the apprentice.

As his eyes widened with fear and confusion, Star Swirl sees that a crazed Silver flaps out her wings and pounces towards the footage for she is pinning him onto the ground, gnashing her teeth as they became just as sharp as the demons she recently fought.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Silver shrieked as she immediately attacked Star Swirl the moment the possessed witch hunter turns to face him.

"WHAT THE HIGH???!!!" Star Swirl screamed in fright as he held Silver's snapping jaws with both of his hooves. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? GET OFF OF ME!!!!!"

"GARARAR!!! GARAAR!!!" Silver roared while trying to chomp down on the downed Star Swirl.

While struggling to save his neck from the crazed witch hunter, Star Swirl notices the green glowing light coming out from her injuries.

"RAAAAAAARRRRRGHH!!!!"

"GYAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!"

"It can't be!! Somehow, they are actually possessing her while I wasn't looking!!!" Star Swirl thought as he struggled to hold back the bewitched Silver from her advances.

*SNAP!!!*
*SNAP!!**

*GNASH!!! GNASH!!!*

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH!!!!"

"I'm afraid, you'll leave me with no choice then!!" Star Swirl grunted as his horn lights up.

Just as the crazy Silver is about to reach the unicorn's jugular veins with her jaws, Star Swirl fires a widespread ray of magic at Silver, sending her flying backwards into a nearby tree.

*FWASH!!!*

*BAM!!*

Upon impact, Silver slammed up against the tree at the back of her head, knocking her out cold.

For Star Swirl, he gets back on his hooves as he casts another spell at Silver. Instantly, the unconscious Silver is imprisoned inside a purple crystal block, not wanting to get attacked from behind, as he uses it to carry the witch hunter. Once Star Swirl's footage turns to face the road away from Redwood.

"When I get back, I'm going to need help in trying to exorcise Silver before moving on because it is one of the very spells that my master hasn't taught me yet." Star Swirl muttered to himself, feeling shaken by what Silver almost did when being possessed.

After taking a few deep breaths, Star Swirl moves on as he makes his way down the trail leading back to Zuluberg.

*The Footage ends as the screen turns blue!*