Meanwhile, the witch was watching the group and scowled in disgust.
"As if I would ever let some… squires defeat me!"
She waved her wand once more, and magic sprung up around the group. Suddenly, large enchanted vines sprout out from the ground and reach out to grab them.
"Woah!" the group jumped out of the way.
"Enchanted vines!" Orange cried out as a vine grabbed him by the tire. "AHH! Help!"
"I got you, Orange!" AJ exclaimed.
He took out his sword and slashed the vine, freeing the unicorn before they rushed to the others. Pickle gulped at the sight of the enchanted vines.
"How are we gonna get past this?!"
"We'll have to slash our way through!" Blaze cried, taking out his own sword. "Come on, everyone!"
They all took out their swords and proceeded to slash the vines little by little. Some of them withered as they were destroyed while others grew larger and grabbed their swords from their tires, breaking them with it's thorns.
"Uh oh..." Pickle gulped and cowered. "What do we do now?!"
"RUN!" Blaze yelled before they all dashed off to get away from the enchanted vines.
Meanwhile, the witch watched the scene in amusement.
"What a pathetic sight," she chuckled as someone leapt behind her. "Bruno, my child, go on and meet your destiny,"
"Yes, mother," Bruno smirked and used his witch's broom to fly over the enchanted vines and towards the tower.
Meanwhile, the group had gotten surrounded by the enchanted vines. The unicorns all cowered behind them.
"You guys better get out of here before you all get hurt," Blaze suggested. "We'll try to find a way to the tower,"
"Okay, Blaze," Violet nodded as they activated their horns in attempt to escape. "be careful!"
"We will," With that, the group watched the unicorns disappear in a flash of light, leaving the group behind.
"How do we get past the vines without any swords, Blaze?" Sparkle asked.
"Maybe we can fight magic WITH magic," Blaze suggested. "Pickle, do you have your wand?"
"I never leave home without it!"
Pickle raised his wand and waved it around. "Abra-Ka-Pickle!"
A blast of white came, and little by little, the vines began to shrivel up.
"It's working!" AJ exclaimed
"Wa-hoo!" Pickle cheered as the last of the vines shriveled up and vanished. "Now we can save Crusher!"
"Come on, everyone!" Blaze grinned and took the lead. "This way!"
Meanwhile, Bruno was flying over towards the tower when he heard a horn from nearby.
"What in the...?"
He turned around and snarled at the sight of the monster machines heading the same way as he was.
"Drat! I guess Mother needs me to take matters into my own hands..." He took out his wand and waved it towards the group. "HEX!"
An icy blue magic reached the ground, and an icy, raging river appeared. He cackled.
"Try to get through this, squires!" With that, flew off, just as the group approached the river.
"Whoa! Hold up everyone!"
Blaze skidded to a stop. Everyone followed after him, and Pickle glanced down at the river.
"Huh, this doesn't look too bad…" he placed a tire in the water before taking out and shivering. "COLD!! VERY COLD!!!"
"How do we get past this one, Blaze?" Sparkle asked.
"Hmm…" Blaze looked around but found no bridge. "I'm not sure…"
"Ooh! What if we use this to cross?" Phoenix suggested, dragging a huge rock from nearby.
"Good thinking, Mom!" Sparkle said.
They helped her set the huge rock on the raging river and hopped on it. They gasped, however, as the river began to take them away.
"Oh no! The river's too strong!" AJ exclaimed. "We have to jump for it!"
"On the count of three!" Blaze instructed. "One, two, three!"
The group all leapt across the river and landed on the other side.
"We made it!" Pickle cheered.
"Yeah!" Sparkle cheered. "But that was weird. I didn't see the river earlier…"
"You think the witch did this?" AJ asked.
"Maybe," Blaze frowned. "but we won't let the witch stop us from saving Crusher! Let's keep going!"
Meanwhile, Bruno was almost at the tower, but his broom was slowing down because of exhaustion.
"Come on, you hunk of wood! Keep flying!"
He smacked it to obey his demands, but he hit it too hard, and the broom deactivated, causing him to fall onto the ground with a thud.
"Ugh…" he hissed as he picked himself up from the ground. "Well... I guess I'm walking..."
Just as he strutted forward, more horns came from behind him, and he turned to see the monster machine knights approaching him at top speed.
"Great, they managed to get past the river…" he grumbled. "Things can't POSSIBLY get worse than this—"
"Woah!"
Bruno looked up to see the group stop in front of him. AJ dismounted from the driver seat and approached him.
"Who are you?"
"Who am I?" Bruno smirked and did a bow. "I am Bruno, son of the Wicked Witch of all the kingdom. Happy to make your acquaintance, you pesky squires,"
"Should have known with that outfit..." Sparkle muttered. "So Middle Ages."
"Excuse ME, but this outfit is fabulous!" Bruno huffed, showing off his clothes. "But anyway, do you really think I will let you rescue the prince from my clutches that's easily?"
'Prince?' Pickle was taken back by the wording. 'What?'
"Sorry, Bruno, it's either you get out of the way, or we force our way through," Blaze said, drawing his sword.
"Oh, is that so?" Bruno grinned evilly and raised his wand. "Well, I like the hard way better, in my opinion,"
He waved his wand, and jaguars appeared out of nowhere, glaring at the group hungrily.
"Eek!" Sparkle dove behind her dad, quivering.
"Oh, and let's make it more fun, shall we?" Bruno cackled, waving his wand more. "The hungrier these jaguars get, the more they… multiply!"
As he spoke, the jaguars began to multiply as they surround the group.
"Now what do we do, Sir Blaze?" AJ asked.
"Better give up, before you're nothing but scraps!" Bruno taunted as he turned to leave. "Bye-bye, now!"
Pickle watched him leave, a confused expression on his face. "Wait, did he just say prince? Why would we be rescuing a prince? I thought we were rescuing Crusher,"
"I don't know, but we've got to take down these jaguars and get to the tower before Bruno does," Blaze declared.
"But how?" AJ asked.
"Hmm…" Blaze thought. "Bruno said that the hungrier these jaguars, the more they multiply… so let's feed them to stop them from multiplying!"
"Good idea! But... what can we feed them?"
"Maybe we can help!"
The group looked up to see the unicorns flying down towards them.
"Guys! You're here!" Blaze exclaimed.
"We came to help!" Violet beamed.
"Here!" Blue used his horn to create a special kind of meat. "These jaguars are enchanted. If you feed them magical meat, not only will they stop multiplying but they'll also disappear!"
"Well, it's worth a shot!"
Blaze took the meat into his tires and used his sword to cut it into pieces. The others took some meat chunks before turning to face the jaguars. AJ took the first step and threw his chunk towards four jaguars, whom took a sniff of the meat before munching into it. After a while, the the four jaguars began to disappear.
"It's working!" AJ exclaimed. "Keep it up, guys!"
"Yeah!" Sparkle and Pickle began tossing the meat chunks to the other jaguars while Phoenix and Flame tossed their's to the rest.
Soon, all the jaguars were fed, and they soon disappeared from their path.
"We did it!"
"Now all we need is to get up there," Phoenix said.
"And rescue Crusher!" Pickle added.
"Come on! Let's go!" They then sped off towards the tower.