It was still thundering as Aladar, the lemurs, the old dinosaurs and the Equestrians were trying to find and catch up with the herd since Eeme, Baylene and Url were old and can barely run.

Smolder was holding Lightning close to her chest so he couldn’t get scared of the thunder. However, he was getting tired and cold as he was shaking a bit.

Capper noticed this first, while trying to cover himself with his coat, as he said, “We best find the herd soon. I’m not sure how long Lightning and the children can put up with the cold.”

“I’m with Capper on this,” said Oliver as he looked at his little sister hugging his neck and trying to keep warm with his mane.

Shining and Cadence saw their daughter was getting cold. Cadence went over to her children and gently stroked Flurry while softly saying, “Shh…hang in there, baby. We’ll find somewhere that’s warm and where we can rest for the night.”

Eema started to sniff the ground to try and track down the herd. Aladar, Twilight and Sunny came over to her as Sunny asked, “Any luck, Eema? Are you able to track where they’re going?”

Eema looked straight forward as she let out a sigh and said, “What’s the use? I’ve lost them.”

“How do you lose a whole herd?” Yar asked sarcastically. That made Eema very cross. “Well, it ain’t easy. And if you think you can do a better job, go do it!” Eema turned away and laid flat on the ground.

“Eema, what are you doing?” Spike asked.

“Well, if I’m gonna die, I like to at least choose a spot. And this looks as good as any.”

Aladar sighed in annoyance as he looked at his grandfather and said, “Nice going, Yar.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot, monkey brain!” Smolder said crossly while hugging her boyfriend to keep him from being afraid of the thunder and the dark.

“What? What did I do?”

“Dad, you apologise,” said Plio crossly as she crossed her arms.

“Why should I apologise? She’s the one who got us lost,” said Yar.

“A gentleman would apologise,” said Baylene as she stared crossly at the old lemur.

“Keep your long neck out of my business!” Yar shouted crossly which made Baylene stammer in shock.

“Don’t talk to Baylene like that! You have no right to speak to her like that!” Flurry said crossly.

“And you have no right to get into anyone’s business, young girl!”

“Don’t you dare talk to my daughter like that!” Shining said crossly, “She was just sticking up for Baylene!”

“And I appreciate what your daughter did,” said Baylene.

“Look, guys, we can’t stay here. Those Carnotaurs are out there,” said Hitch.

Oliver sighed, “If we keep this up, we can kiss the herd goodbye.”

“You don’t need to be push my old carcass around, you go on ahead,” said Eema.

“Sounds good to m…” Yar was cut off by an elbow punch by Plio before she said, “Forget it, we’re not leaving without you.”

“Yeah! No one gets left behind!” Izzy said.

“Then pull up a rock and make yourself comfortable,” said Eema as Url dropped a rock near her. Pinkie chuckled at this before saying, “Well, she did say pull up a rock, and Url did.”

“Now’s not the time for joking around, Pinkie,” said Starlight.

“Oh please, Eema,” begged Baylene.

“Nope.”

“What shall we do?” Rarity asked.

“Hmmm…” Aladar tried to think of a way to get Eema to get up. He then thought of something and said, “Okay then, I guess we’ll just have to go on without her.” He walked away which made Eema surprised by this.

“Have you lost your senses?” Baylene asked in shock.

“Work with me,” whispered Aladar to get Baylene to understand what he was actually doing, and she understood and decided to tag along. “Ah, yes, quite right. I’ve enjoyed your acquaintance, Eema. Good day.”

“Yep. Really gonna miss you,” said Twilight.

“Twilight, you can’t be serious,” said Applejack in shock until Twilight moved her head signal Applejack to play along as this was Aladar’s plan on getting Eema to get back up again. And she understood what was going on, including the others. “Ah, now I understand,” whispered Applejack before speaking to Eema, “It’s a shame you’re giving up now, sugarcube. Good day to you.” The Equestrians went to Aladar.

“All right, listen up, we’re gonna have to pick a new guide,” said Aladar as he looked at Eema who was grinning at them, “I know it’s gonna be hard to replace Eema, but at least there’s plenty to choose from.”

“Look no further, I’ll do it,” said Zini.

“I need you to take little Suri and be lookouts really,” said Aladar, much to Zini’s disappointment, but not to Suri as she said, “Okay! Well, then Url can be the guide.”

Aladar looked at Url as he had a rock in his mouth and shook his head as Aladar said, “Uh…I don’t know. He…he might be a little overqualified. I was thinking of something older. A little experience in life’s little dilemmas.” Aladar pretended to think of who it could be. “Who could that be? What about Yar?”

“Huh?” Eema was surprised by that choice. But not to Yar as he was happy that Aladar chose him, well, pretend really. “Excellent choice,” he said gladly.

“Yeah! Yar will make a great guide to help us get back to the herd!” Flurry said.

“I appreciate that, kiddo,” said Yar.

“Yar couldn’t find his shadow, on a sunny day,” said Eema as she started to get back up again, “I think I’m getting my second win.”

“Good, cuz I would have pushed you up.”

“In your dreams, grandpa.”

The dinosaurs, lemurs and Equestrians continue on their journey through the stormy night to find the herd. Thunder crashed again which made Smolder hug Lightning as tight as she could so he wouldn’t get scared but making sure she wasn’t hurting him.

“Oh, joy. Blisters,” said Baylene.

“I’ve got blisters on my blisters,” said Eema.

“We don’t need to know that!” Gallus said.

“You don’t wanna know where I got blisters,” said Yar.

“No, we don’t,” said Sunburst.

Just then, they all heard a bellow from a dinosaur echoing which made them stop.

“What was that?” Eema asked.

“It came from up ahead,” said Baylene.

“Okay, what’s the worst thing it could be?” Zini asked. “A carnotaur,” said Suri in fear as she hugged Zini tightly while he asked, “Okay, what’s the second-worst thing it could be?”

“Two carnotaurs! Oh!” Baylene said in fear, “Oh, my goodness!”

“That’s it. I’m gone,” said Eema as she turned to walk away.

“Hang on, shouldn’t they behind us as they were way behind before showing up?” Sandbar asked.

“Who cares?! If there’s more up ahead, we’re done for!” Rarity said in a dramatic tone.

“Everybody, we don’t know for sure. It could be the herd,” said Aladar, making everyone stop panicking, “Let’s check it out.”

“Oh, my goodness. Goodness gracious,” said Baylene after removing her head from behind Aladar as they all followed the dinosaur.

“If it’s not the herd, I will never forgive Aladar for this,” said Rarity.

“Oh, stop fussing already. You’re doing my heading,” said Rainbow in annoyance.

Aladar slowly peeked from a boulder as he heard a dinosaur growling. He moved a bit further and saw it was Bruton who was grunting and struggling to get up. Everyone else peeked next to Aladar and saw it wasn’t the herd or any of the two Carnotaurs.

Eema gasped before saying, “Oh, it’s Bruton.”

“It appears we weren’t the only ones left behind,” said Baylene.

Bruton groaned while trying to lay on his side. Aladar was the first one to approach him with Twilight following behind. Bruton exhaled deeply as they all saw the nasty cuts on him. Some cuts had blood on them still.

Pipp gasped in shock.

“Look at the nasty cuts on him.”

“What happened?” Aladar asked while looking at the cuts in surprise.

“Carnotaurs. We should keep moving,” said Eema as she began to walk away.

“We can’t just leave him here,” said Plio.

“She’s right. We can’t just leave him to defend for himself,” said Misty.

“We can if we move fast enough,” said Eema while continuing to walk away.

Aladar went over to Bruton and said, “Hey, you don’t look so good. Let me help you.”

“Save your pity. I just need some rest. Now, get away from me.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Yeah. He was just trying to help,” said Shining crossly.

Another thunder clapped, which made Smolder hug Lightning tight again, as Aladar looked up and saw a storm was about to come. He then heard an object drop near him.

“Hmm?” Aladar looked down and saw Url panting at him before pushing the twig a bit with his snort, like he was trying to point Aladar to where they hide from the storm. He snorted before walking off. Aladar looked at the twig and then at where it was pointing at as he saw Url walking towards a cave.

Aladar figured that the cave would make a good spot to hide from the storm and rest for the night. He looked at Bruton and said, “If you change your mind, we’ll be in those caves.”

“Caves?! What do you mean we’ll be in those caves?! Don’t you know what kind of things could be in those caves at this time at night?!” Rarity asked in shock.

“Well, it’s either that or we get wet and put ourselves in danger during the night. And I pick caves,” said Applejack as she approached the cave.

“Hm…fair point,” said Rarity before following the others.

Bruton was about to say something, but decided not to and just laid his head down.

The group entered the cave. It was very dark, but dry enough for them to rest until morning.

“It’s dark, but at least it’s dry,” said Aladar.

“I like dry. It’s the dark part I’m having trouble with,” said Eema. She then accidentally stepped on Url as she gasped before saying, “Ouch! Ooh. Sorry, Url. Sturdy little thing, ain’t he?”

Aladar chuckled.

Sandbar was walking and looking around the cave until he bumped into Yona’s rump. He backed up a bit as Yona looked at him with a smile on her face. Sandbar blushed while saying, “Sorry, Yona. Cave’s so dark, I can’t see where I’m going.”

“Yona not mad. Yona can’t see in dark, too,” said Yona.

“Ahem. We appear to have a visitor,” said Baylene.

“Huh?” Sunny, Aladar and Baylene turned to the entrance of the cave as Sunny said, “Oh, I see.” There they saw Bruton struggling to walk as it was now raining. Thunder clapped once more as Bruton looked at them while breathing heavily. He continued to try and walk on, but he groaned and then collapsed flat on the wet ground.

Aladar can tell he was struggling and went back out to try and help him again as Plio watched him. Bruton was gasping before see Aladar standing in front of him.

“You coming in or what?” He asked.

“What is it with you?” Bruton asked.

“At least I know enough to get in out of the rain. Now, come on. On your feet.” Aladar stood next to Bruton as he grunted and slowly started to stand back up. He grunted before nearly collapsing again. Aladar tried to help him, but Bruton growled and pushed him away.

The two entered the cave as everyone watched Bruton coming in with Aladar next to him.

“Uh, you can lie down with us. It’s warmer,” said Aladar. But Bruton grunted and walked off to find somewhere to rest that was away from them Plio watched him go before seeing a bunch of plants in the cave. She knew what kind of plants they are and knew they can help heal Bruton’s wounds as she leaped towards them.

“May I remind you that he’s one of them?” Baylene asked, trying to tell Aladar that Bruton works for Kron.

“Well, looks like he’s one of us now,” said Aladar as they watched Bruton resting on a mini mountain that he picked to rest as he grunted.

“Well, if you believe change, Aladar, then I believe he is one of us now,” said Sunset.

Plio looked at one of the plants and took one off from being stuck to the ground while the Equestrians and the dinosaurs picked a spot in the cave to rest for the night.

“Ahh. Who booked this trip, anyway?” Eema asked.

“Ah, you’ll be at the nesting grounds soon enough,” said Aladar.

“Well, when I get there, I’m gonna give Kron a piece of my mind.”

“Same here. I’m still not happy with him after calling my daughter a freak two days back,” huffed Shining.

“You both tell him,” said Aladar, before hearing Zini and Suri giggling. He turned and saw they were giggling at Url yawning and the way he was resting on his back. Shining saw Flurry giggling at Url as well. That made him smile as he was glad his brother was feeling happy again, even after telling him what Kron called her.

“If I could sleep that deep, I’d be in paradise,” said Yar.

“If you could sleep that deep, honey, you’d be dead,” said Eema.

“Oh shut up and get some rest, already,” said Smolder as she rested her head on Silverstream’s side while Lightning was resting underneath the hippogriff’s talon arm with her wing covering his body.

The others shared a laughter before resting their heads down and falling asleep. Bruton watched while grunting before seeing Plio leaping towards him with a plant in her hands.

“This plant grew on our island. It will make you feel better,” said Plio as she took some stuff out of it and carefully placed it on one of his wounds. Bruton grunted as the stuff touching the wounds hurt him. “Ahh,” he sighed as it was slowly starting to feel less painful.

Plio placed the plant next to him, as she believes it was enough to help heal the wounds, and was about to leap back to her family when she was stopped by Bruton asking, “Why is he doing this? Pushing them on with false hope?”

“It’s hope that’s gotten us this far,” answered Plio.

“But why doesn’t he let them accept their fate? I’ve accepted mine.”

“And what is your fate?”

“To die here. It’s the way things are.”

“Only if you give up, Bruton. It’s your choice, not your fate.” Bruton just looked away as Plio said, “Well, the plant will help.” Plio leaped back to her family as Bruton watched her go. He started to let her words sink, and thought that maybe she’s right. It is his choice and not his fate to decide to die.

Bruton looked at the plant and used his foot to pull it close to him, so he can use it to heal his wounds.

It was still raining outside during the night as a thunder clapped.

The two Carnotaurs were both growling and wandering about as they saw the cave before approaching it.

Back inside the cave, everyone was still asleep. Footsteps can be heard as it woke Aladar up and made him look at the rocks moving from the loud footsteps.

He looked at the cave sentence and gasped in shock before Bruton came over and whispered, “Shh. Carnotaurs.”

The two Carnotaurs growled while looking around the place as they weren’t bothered entering the cave.

“What do we do?”

“Wake the others.”

The Carnotaurs hissed while still looking around the outside of the entrance.

Aladar and Bruton managed to wake everyone up quickly but quietly as they got up and made a bee line further into the cave. Aladar shook Url to wake him up as he saw the Carnotaurs and bleated. Aladar quickly closed Url’s mouth, hoping the Carnotaurs didn’t hear that.

The Carnotaurs growled and looked as they thought they heard something. Thinking that they were just hearing things, they went back to sniffing around the wet ground.

The dinosaurs, lemurs and the Equestrians were on their way further into the cave to get away from the Carnotaurs. Baylene moved her neck up a bit too high as she hit the ceiling.

“Oh,” she said.

Suddenly, a piece of rock started to fall from the ceiling as it hit the ground and flew past Eema. “Ooh,” she said in surprised while watching it go. Flurry gasped and quickly used her magic to stop the rock from reaching the outside.

Everyone sighed in relief. But then, dust from the ceiling flew into the filly’s nose as she was about to sneeze.

“Oh, that’s not good,” said Zipp worriedly.

“Achoo!” Flurry sneezed as the grasp let go of the rock and it went towards the entrance. “Oh, no,” said Flurry worried.

Aladar gasped before trying to stop the rock, but it was too late. The rock had rolled outside in the rain. The Carnotaur snarled as it believed that dinner was inside the cave. Aladar backed up a bit as the Carnotaur peeked its head through the rainy entrance and sniffed in search for who was inside.

Plio whimpered while Yar had his hand on her for comfort. Sparky was whimpering too as he hid in his father’s mane.

The Carnotaur growled while looking around. Suddenly, a thunder clapped and lightened the cave up a bit to show Aladar in the cave. The Carnotaur hissed and charged into the cave as Aladar ran towards the others.

“Run!” Oliver shouted as they all ran just before the other Carnotaur entered.

“Go! Go! Hurry!” Aladar shouted while running with the Carnotaur chasing him.

Eema was unable to run due to struggling to walk up the cave steps. Aladar ran up to her and pushed her up. “Move it, Eema!”

The Carnotaur grabbed Aladar by his tail, with its mouth, and pulled him down as Aladar yelled.

“Aladar!” Plio cried, “Aladar! Oh, no!”

While running very far into the cave, Bruton heard Plio’s cry and can tell Aladar was in trouble. He knew he couldn’t leave them to get killed by the Carnotaurs, so he went back to help them.

After pulling Aladar down, giving him wounds on the tail, the two Carnotaurs snarled and started fighting to who gets to eat Aladar. Then, out of nowhere, Bruton came and hit the Carnotaurs with his tail. Aladar breathed heavily while watching Bruton and moving away.

“I’ll hold them off! You help the others!” He called. Aladar ran off to help the others as Bruton and the Carnotaurs roared, ready to fight.

While running towards the others, Aladar heard Bruton bellowing and stopped. He knew he can’t let him hold them off by himself. Oliver and Flurry saw this as they stopped while hearing Bruton bellow again.

“We have to help him! He can’t fight two of them by himself!” Flurry said.

Oliver looked at the direction where they left, and knew Flurry was right. He looked at his sister and said, “Stay here. I’ll go help him.” Oliver ran off with Aladar to help Bruton.

Bruton roared at the Carnotaurs. The female one charged at him, but he smacked her with his tail which made her fall towards a pillar and break it. Bruton saw it made a boulder fall from the ceiling and got an idea to defeat them. He charged at the Carnotaur and made it bump into another pillar which made the ceiling collapse and more rocks rain down.

Aladar and Oliver came and saw the raining rocks as they tried to reach Bruton.

“Bruton!” Aladar cried before grunting from the rocks hitting him.

Rocks was hitting on Bruton as he tried to run towards Aladar and Oliver. But he was struggling from all the rocks falling on top of him. Aladar was grunting while to reach to Bruton.

Bruton was unsure he was gonna make it, until he felt something grabbing his foot. He looked and saw it was Oliver who was grabbing his foot as he said, “Come on!” He pulled Bruton forward as the three made out of the raining rocks as a big flat ceiling rock fell to the ground and broke before the last rocks fell.

Smoke from the raining rocks fell everywhere as the three coughed. Once that was done, Bruton looked at Oliver, who was breathing heavily, as he said, “You saved me. Why? Why would you do that?”

Oliver finished breathing before answering, “I don’t know. But my heart was telling me that someone, like you, didn’t deserve to die from those falling rocks, even after helping us escape from the Carnotaurs.”

Oliver walked back to the others as Bruton watched him in shock. He still couldn’t believe someone, like him and Aladar, would help him, even after the way he treated them. He started to believe that Plio was right. His fate wasn’t to die.

Once they were back to the others, Twilight asked, “Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, we’re okay,” said Aladar.

“Phew. That was close,” said Sunburst.

Flurry saw Shining approaching her. She started to get scared as she thought he was gonna tell her off and yell at her for letting that rock go and let the Carnotaurs find them, even though she didn’t mean to sneeze and let the rock go.

She quickly ran away from her father just as he was close to her and hid behind her auntie’s hooves.

“Flurry, where are you going? Flurry?” Shining was about to go after her, but was stopped by Cadence’s hoof. He looked at his wife as she said, “Don’t. She thinks you’re gonna yell at her after she accidentally let that rock go.”

“Huh? Why, though? I was just gonna ask if she was alright. Why would she think that?”

“Remember the avalanche back at the Tree of Life?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, the way you yelled at her made her feel like it was her fault it happened,” explained Cadence, “And after she accidentally sneeze, from that smoke, she thought she might yell at her again when she didn’t mean to let the Carnotaurs find us.”

Shining gasped in shock, he knew she was right. He did made his daughter think it was her fault the avalanche happened. And she thought he was gonna yell at her again when it was just an accident.

“And all I did, on that day, was made her thought she wasn’t helping at all,” he said sadly before looking down in shame, “I wish I haven’t done that. She didn’t knew that was gonna happen, and she didn’t mean to let those monsters find us.” He looked at his wife, “I’ll…I’ll talk to her in the morning. Right now, it’s best not to try and talk to her now in case it will make things worse.”

Cadence gave her husband a nod in understood and agreement.

They all heard a Carnotaur hissing from the giant pile of rocks. They looked back and saw some rocks moving a bit, but no Carnotaur bursting out.

“You think that’ll keep them away from us?” Ocellus asked worriedly.

“Let’s hope so,” answered Bruton, “Come on, it’s best we rest.” Everyone agreed with Bruton as they all led down and fell back to sleep.

But unknown to them, the big Carnotaur bursted from the pile on the other side and growled. It saw that the small Carnotaur was now dead from the rock rain.

It wanted to go after its meal, but decided not to. It went towards the entrance of the cave, let out an angry roar and went thundering off into the rainy night.

Author's Note

Okay, I know I’ve added a deleted scene and I know Bruton died in the film, but I wanted to change the film a bit and added in what some of the facts on Bruton’s wiki page if he have survived in the film.

A bit like how the two live action Scooby Doo films were done with Scrappy Doo being a good guy and rejoining the gang instead of being the main bad guy in the first film.