As Discord slammed his hand down onto Spike, the latter got up on his hind legs, prepared his wing-sheathed talons, and waited for a hit. After the former slammed his hand down on Spike, Discord proceeded to apply pressure to his arm and squash the dragon. But focusing his newfound might and strength, Spike prevented Discord from squashing him like a bug. However, Discord continued to apply pressure and continue to crush Spike. The latter used his talons to repeatedly pierce Discord while the creature helped with pushing his hand off him. After a few minutes, Spike managed to prevent Discord from squashing him.

"Oh, don't worry. This was just a prelude to what you're really gonna go through." Discord said, summoning multiple duplicates.

Getting a good look at the duplicates, they were the three alicorn princesses that Spike remembered. He remembered their strengths and weaknesses, but he knew that he was finished if didn't come up with a plan of attack. Just then, Torch appeared out of nowhere and tackled Discord.

"Torch?" Spike said in an act of surprise.

"Don't worry, boyo! We've got the freakshow! You just worry 'bout getting those copycats off ya!" Torch shouted as he held down Discord.

"You can't hurt me. I'm the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony! I'd make off if I were you, big boy!" Discord jeered.

"Perhaps, but I can sure as hell try!"

Torch proceeded to claw at Discord's face along with the other huge dragons that swarmed him while Spike proceeded to run from the duplicates. As he continued to run, he tried concocting a plan that could eliminate the alicorn duplicates. The only problem was trying to separate them. From what he could tell, they were exactly like the real thing.

'So what do we do?"

"I dunno. The only thing we can hope to do is separate them and see if we can stand a chance against these copycats."

"I see... I have an idea. Follow my lead!"

"Huh?"

The creature lead Spike to a deep cavern where the alicorns followed suit. After entering the cavern, the creature proceeded to cloak Spike in darkness to the point where the alicorns had a hard time finding him. They lit up their horns and went to search for him. Every inch and corner they checked, the alicorns couldn't find him anywhere in sight. They decided to split up and cover more ground to find him.

***

Meanwhile, the huge dragons were having trouble keeping Discord at bay. Even with all their might, Discord was still powerful and could handle the lot of them.

"You dragons really think you can hold me down? You'd be better off picking daisies with Fluttershy!" Discord shouted as he held down Torch before being pounced on by another dragon.

"You have no idea how many battles I fought back in my days, you wacko! I have fought Flash Magnus so many times that I can barely keep count anymore! And you, my chum, will be no different!" Torch roared as he proceeded to chew on Discord's neck.

***

Back in the caverns, the Cadence duplicate was searching for Spike somewhere. She checked the field of stalagmites and the the crystal tunnels, but he was nowhere in sight. He was a complete specter at this point now. Before she could give up on her search, Spike jumped on her back with a large stalactite and stabbed her in the abdomen with it. She fell onto the ground and Spike continued to stab her until she was coming close to blood loss. Then he had his right-winged talon stab her through the brain, effectively killing her and turning her back into a Discord duplicate.

"One down. Two to go." Spike said as he vanished.

Luna covered almost the entire area, but she had no luck in finding Spike anywhere in the cavern. Upon looking further, she found the duplicate's dead body on the ground. Knowing it to be the handiwork of Spike, she continued her investigation even further until she could find the dragon. Flying deeper into the cavern, she found a lava pit that was underneath a volcano. Just then, she heard a noise. She turned around very quickly and saw that nothing was there. But before she could calm down, Spike pounced on her and tried to get her into the lava. Unfortunately, she kicked him off and proceeded to blast beams of magic at him as she gave chase. But before she could get her hooves on him, Spike got out of the way and Luna flew straight into a pile of falling lava. Knowing that this would happen, she prepared a magic shield to protect her.

"You're smarter than you look." Spike said.

Chuckling at his statement, Luna fired different types of spells, luring the Celestia duplicate over to their position. He already had his hands full enough with fighting Discord, but now he was fighting two doppelgangers of the Royal Sisters. They were effective as a team and were facing Spike head-on with every spell and attack they had. But knowing Luna, she was the most volatile of the two and Spike decided to use it to his advantage. He turned towards the lava and suddenly had an idea.

"Hey, Blue Jay! Why not come down from your perch and fight me?! Unless you still wanna continue to live in your sister's shadow..."

Angered at his statement, she rushed towards Spike to hurt him. Unbeknownst to her, a sharp stalactite pierced her from above and hit her, making her plummet into the lava. Panicking and trying to get out of the lava, Luna screamed in agony as she turned back into the Discord duplicate and started to melt like wax.

"Only one more left..." Spike said, looking directly at Celestia.

Enraged at this tactic, Celestia unleash a huge beam of magic and fired it at Spike. Dodging it, Spike decided to run from her and think of a plan while trying to figure out how to kill the duplicate. After running from her for about twenty minutes, they made it out of the cavern where the dragons were on the ground.

"Torch...?" Spike said, looking at the dragon.

"Sorry, my lad. It seems I bit off more than I could chew with the freakshow." he said, looking at Discord.

Spike looked forward and saw the rest of the huge dragons on the ground, exhausted from their battle with Discord.

"Well, it seems that I'm not the only one who's been getting warmed up!" Discord said, looking down at Spike.

"Don't worry. I softened him up a bit for you. He's all yours, my son..." Torch said before he passed out.

Spike turned towards Discord and asked,

"So why didn't you save me? If you really were reformed and you watched me, why didn't you save me back when this thing came onto me?"

"Why, you ask? Simple. I just wanted to see you suffer at everypony's expense. You always were the butt of the joke, after all."

Hearing this made Spike all the more angry. He said,

"When I get my hands on you, you're gonna wish you did save me."

"I'm sure I will. But right now, it's time to give the devil his due." Discord said with a menacing grin.

The Celestia duplicate charged at him with full force behind Discord.

"Let's go!" Spike roared as he charged towards the Celestia duplicate.