Chapter 25:
David Vs The Grand Duke
While the fighting was going on, David looks around for The Grand Duke. Then lightning shines on The Grand Duke and David sees him trying to get away from the fighting scene. Then David chased after his uncle as The Grand Duke runs for his life. The Grand Duke runs to the high roof of The Great Red Barn. But as The Duke reached the top, he ran to the edge only to see it leads to a sheer drop. As The Grand Duke looks back, David jumps through the wall of flames and slowly approaches. The Grand Duke is very apprehensive, seeing that he's cornered and at David's mercy. " Murderer," said David quietly and severely, " David, David. Please. Please have mercy. I beg you," said The Duke, " You don't deserve to live here," said David, The Duke was unsure of his tactics. " But David, I am...ah...family," said The Duke, then The Duke regains his composure and said " It's the Strays who are the real enemy. It was their fault. It was their idea,".
Unfortunately for The Grand Duke, Belladonna, Carface, and Killer were on the other side of the flames and overheard what he said. The Three Stray CanineGriffs backed up growling at their Boss's betrayal.
" Why should I believe you? Everything you ever told me was a lie," said David, as he looks down at The Grand Duke, " What are you going to do? You wouldn't kill your old " Uncle Dukey"...?" said The Duke with an ingratiating grin, " No, Duke. I'm not like you," said David, " Oh, David, thank you. You truly are noble. I'll make it up to you, I promise. How can I prove myself to you? Tell me. I mean anything," said The Duke feeling greatly relieved, " Run. Run away, Duke. And never return," said David gravely in deep anger, The Grand Duke remembers that it was the same thing that he told David when he was a colt. " Yes, Of course. As you wish…," said The Duke as he looks down and sees a pile of hot coal, " ...your leaderness!" said The Duke as he throws the coal into David's face.
David whinnies in surprise and pain as The Grand Duke attacks him. The Grand Duke jumped on David and knocks him to the ground. As David struggles to get up, The Duke bites down on David's mane. Then the two MammaGriffs tussled around as The Grand Duke pins David on his back at the edge of the roof and bit him at the neck. But when The Duke was about to strike again, David fights back and kicks The Duke off of him. Quickly, David gets up on his feet and charges towards The Duke. The Duke reaches out his arms for David as David pushes The Duke back with his hooves and slashes him. The two MammaGriffs then raised on their hind legs as The Grand Duke raises his paw and slams it on David's shoulder. David whinnies in pain as the Grand Duke pushes him back a little and nearly slashed David. David raises his left hoofed hand and smacks The Duke who roars in pain. The Grand Duke slams his forepaw into David's face and the HippoGriff Stallion whinnies in pain.
The Grand Duke smacks David to the ground and slowly approaches him. " You shouldn't have returned David. Now my reign will last forever," said The Duke, just when The Grand Duke was about to finish David off, he heard a whinny and turned to see Summer jumping through the walls of flames and heading straight towards him. David was surprised and amazed to see his best friend coming to his rescue. " LEAVE...HIM...ALONE!" yelled Summer, The Grand Duke looked and gasped in surprise as Summer lands on him and bit him on the back. The Grand Duke roars in pain and begins shaking violently to get the HippoGriff Mare off of him. Summer tries to hold on but The Duke was shaking roughly until she lost her grip and was thrown off The Duke and hits the ground hard.
" Summer. Noooo!" said David, The Grand Duke chuckled and said " Did you really think you could stop me? You're just the main desert,". The Duke approached Summer's unconscious body and just when he was about to eat her, " GET...AWAY...FROM HER!" yelled David as he jumps on The Grand Dukes back and bit him on the neck, but The Grand Duke lands a heavy blow with a swing of his forepaw and knocks David to the other side of the wall of flames and onto his back. David looks and sees The Grand Duke jumping through the wall of flames ad heading right towards him roaring. Then David gathers courage and uses The Duke momentum in a " throw" similar to Summer's fighting tactics to send The Duke over the edge. The Duke falls down to the bottom until he hits a rock formation and lands in a pool of water with a big hard splash. David looked down at his uncle but only sees water.
David struggles to get up on his feet and heads to Summer's unconscious body. Then with a nudge from David, the same way he did his mother earlier, Summer wakes up and turns to David. " David?" asked Summer, " The one and only," said David, " David, you did it," said Summer, " No...We did it...Together," said David as he and Summer rubbed their heads together passionately.
Meanwhile, in the pool of water, The Grand Duke weakly comes out of the water, soaked and wet. Then he sees Belladonna, Carface, and Killer approaching him with angry looks on their faces and smiles. " Oh, my friends," said The Duke smiling, " Fri-he-ends? I thought he said we were the enemy!" said Belladonna, " Yeah! That's what I heard," said Carface, then Belladonna and Carface turned to Killer and asked " Killer?". " I say we should enjoy the traitor," said Killer as he laughs evilly, then more Strays approached The Duke angrily. The Grand Duke's face was filled with horror by what he has done. Then The Grand Duke tries to yodel to hypnotized the Strays. But for some reason, The Duke's voice sounded like a bell and it's not affecting the Strays. The Duke keeps trying to yodel as The Strays got closer and closer.
Then we see only the shadows as the hordes of Strays closed in and devoured The Grand Duke.