The group arrived at Misty Island again in a short time, leaping to the docks from the speed boat. They all looked around carefully, determined to not fall prey to anything on the island that might seek their lives. The land itself was brown and dead, and the Lurkers in sight wore bone armor, made from the bones of massive creatures sealed in the stone.

As they progressed, they caught sight of the sculptor's muse, a glittering green rodent looking not unlike a large squirrel with a tail that wasn't fluffy. Fortunately, Fluttershy was able to serenade the Muse to her side with a few soothing words and a gentle touch.

With the Muse secured, everyone continued to explore, using Blue Eco to ride a platform to a Power Cell atop a pillar of stone amidst the water. Further onward, they found a cluster of Red Eco.

"Alright, SUPER CHARGE!" Ben cheered as he and Jak took the Red Eco into their bodies, flexing his biceps as he felt his strength increase.

Red Eco had a different effect on the Mane 6; Twilight and Rarity's magic was increased while Applejack and Pinkie got more physical strength enhancement like Jak and Ben did and Rainbow and Fluttershy felt the power rush into their wings.

Shortly after, Blue Eco opened the door to a large open area...where the gang immediately came under assault by a large group of Lurkers.

"Everyone!" Twilight called out. "I'm going to try something!"

Focusing her magic through her horn, Twilight concentrated with all her might and, much to everyone else's surprise, formed a sword made from both her magical aura and Red Eco.

"Sweet!" Jak proclaimed, grabbing the sword by its hilt.

"Hey, I want one too!" Ben complained.

Twilight seemed to already be ahead of Ben as she formed two more Red Eco Magic Blades for him to take, which he admired briefly before striking a pose.

"It'll last for about...ten minutes," Twilight stated. "Make good use of it."

"We don't need swords! We're already awesome!" Rainbow smirked.

"En Garde!" Rarity said, picking up Pinkie and using her as a makeshift fencing sword. The pink ponygirl laughed as she somehow sharpened her cotton candy-esque hair into a pointed tip.

"Oh my goodness, I really hate resorting to violence!" Fluttershy said as she and Muse crouched down and hid away from the incoming chaos.

Once the Lurkers were all beaten, a stairway allowed them to make it back to the Dark Eco silo that had transformed Daxter. A Power Cell was available for collection on a wood bridge suspended above it.

"Eeeesh! The less I have to look at that pit the better!" Daxter huffed, still having unpleasant memories of his transformation.

Further exploration led them to a Lurker ship, and from there to Keira's A-Grav Zoomer which she'd teleported in, though minus the heat shield which wasn't complete yet. Seeing numerous Lurkers floating on balloons to patrol the area around the island, Jak decided to take them out.

The Zoomer turned out to be too small for everyone to ride, so while Jak, Ben, and Daxter handled the Lurkers, the Mane 6 continued to explore the island.

"You think they'll be okay?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.

"Our Big Bros are too awesome to be beaten by a couple of lousy Lurkers!" Rainbow proudly said.

"I reckon they've already gotten what they need to do done!" Applejack said in agreement.

Sure enough, they all managed to meet back up, Jak and Ben had recovered all the Precursor Orbs in the basin and grabbed two Power Cells, one that had been floating in midair, and one that was revealed when all the Balloon Lurkers had been taken out.

The Mane 6, meanwhile, had grabbed the Power Cell on the Lurker Ship, one from up by the Lurker cannon after disabling it, and the one held by the Misty Island Scout Flies, along with the rest of the Precursor Orbs on the island.

"Alright! Let's head back to Sandover Village!" Twilight smiled.

Returning to the sculptor's house, Fluttershy managed to get the Muse to return to him.

"My muse!" Dai the Sculptor proclaimed happily, cuddling the little critter. "You saved her! You guys really are the best. Here, take this Power Cell as thanks."

Fluttershy smiled as she gave Muse one last affectionate nuzzle before taking the Power Cell and regrouping with everyone back at Fire Canyon, where Keira was waiting for them.

"I managed to get the other Power Cell the Oracle had," Twilight said.

Keira smiled. "I'm glad you grabbed a few extra Power Cells. I was able to streamline the Zoomer to handle a sidecar big enough for the girls, so all of you can cross together. But it needed extra Power Cells to both expand the Heat Shield and account for the cables that will let Twilight and Rarity amplify it with their own shields, which should save your bacon should the temperature exceed 500 degrees."

"Well, out of the two of us, Twilight has the most magic reserves." Rarity pointed out.

"Just in case, I've released several blue coolant balloons throughout the canyon. Not only that, there are several Precursor structures that dip into the lava of Fire Canyon but aren't melted. You can use those as jumps to get out of the heat for a time." Keira said. "Between the balloons and the jumps, you should be fine."

"As long as Twi and Rares' shields actually do protect against heat," Daxter pointed out.

"That's why these helmets are designed to funnel the energy through the Heat Shield," Keira explained, plopping the helmets on Twilight and Rarity's heads and making the connections to their horns. "Also, once you're there, make sure to activate the teleport gate in the Blue Sage's lab, so Daddy and I can meet you there."

"I guess we're ready as we'll ever be," Jak muttered as the group climbed onto the Zoomer.

"Good luck!" Keira called out. "I know you can do it!"

"We won't let you down!" Pinkie waved.

As Jak steered the Zoomer, they discovered that there were Scout Fly crates scattered throughout the canyon, as well as Orb Crates. They managed to gather all seven Flies and all 50 Orbs within the canyon, as well as the one sitting at the other end of the Canyon atop the Zoomer Warper, which could only safely teleport inorganic material.

As they entered Rock Village, Ben wiped the sweat that had been building on his brow as he disembarked the Zoomer and stretched, having been holding on to Jak for dear life the whole time.

"After this, I'm throwing an ice cream party!" Pinkie said, her tongue lolling out like a dog.

The group proceeded to make their way to the Blue Sage's hut but something was wrong.

"That's odd, the Blue Sage should be here," Twilight said as she looked around.

"Let's turn on the warp gate and let Samos tell us," Jak stated bluntly, stepping on the switch.

Once the warp gate opened, Samos' bird was the first one through, quickly followed by Samos himself, who landed flat on his face.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that teleporter tingling sensation," he grunted as he brushed himself off. Glancing around, he noticed many of the pieces of tech the Blue Sage had recently started experimenting with sparking and damaged. "Hey! It looks like the Blue Sage threw a party...and he didn't bother to invite me?!"

"Oh my!" Keira gasped as she pointed out the window. "Rock Village is on fire!"

"Must have been some party!" Pinkie said. "I don't think even I ever threw a party like this!"

"If the Blue Sage WAS throwing a party, Pinkie...I think you'd know." Applejack dryly said.

"No, nothing like that!" Keira corrected. "I mean Rock Village is being bombarded with flaming boulders!"

"Okay, that is definitely not normal," Jak noted.

"So let's look around and see what we can do," Rainbow declared.

"Try and find some more Power Cells to power that levitation machine over there," Keira pointed out as she looked through the telescope. "If it's working, I can use it to get rid of the flaming boulders."

"For the time being, Keira and I will look through the Blue Sage's notes for anything that can explain what's happened," Samos said. "Everyone, go check on the villagers!"

"Oooh! It's been a while since I talked with the folks at Rock Village!" Pinkie said excitedly.

After a quick exploration of the village, the group gathered back together to discuss their results.

"Alright, we've got...70 fewer Orbs since we found 50, but traded 120 to the Oracle for another Power Cell," Daxter said as he took a tally. "The Oracle has another one for 120 Precursor Orbs, and three people in the village will trade one for 90 Orbs each."

"Orma the Geologist, Unluk the Gambler, and Himcule the Warrior." Rarity counted. "Poor Himcule was in pretty bad shape since he was soundly beaten by that brute throwing the boulders. But Fluttershy was able to tend his wounded soul."

"Pinkie and I also managed to salvage all seven Scout Flies in this area," Ben said. "And we kinda went on a rampage against some moles, which actually helped out Orma, so she gave us a Power Cell as thanks."

"We need Himcule's help to rebuild the bridge," Fluttershy said. "But considering what he went through, he needs 90 Orbs to convince him."

"And I managed to beat Unluk's time race challenge!" Rainbow smirked as she showed a few Power Cells. "Also took out some Lurkers causing trouble and I think I might have purged some Dark Eco causing the plants to wilt with Green Eco."

"Well, looks like you've been busy the most, RD." Ben chuckled.

Rainbow proudly snorted. "Of course! I'm awesome!"

After collecting a few more Orbs, the group traded 120 of them for the Oracle's other Power Cell. Following the only other route presently available, the group headed for the Lost Precursor City, hidden at the bottom of an elevator, beneath the surface of the sea.

The city proved to be a hive of technology and moving platforms, and the water itself was electrified. Thankfully, Twilight and Rarity's magic shields were able to deflect the electricity in the water, allowing them to swim without danger. The Lurkers were also quite strong, often working in pairs to fight, but the combined teamwork of the nine siblings proved more than a match for them.

Their first goal was to fully explore the Precursor City. This involved a lot of going up and down, both for them and the chambers of the city. At one point, activating colored pipes released two Scout Flies and a Power Cell in distant parts of a chamber, which Rarity was able to grab at range with her magic.

"Well, I am a bit of a treasure hunter by trade." The elegant white unicorn girl smiled proudly.

Another Power Cell was suspended over a pool of Dark Eco by platforms that frequently flipped. Rarity, not wanting to go through all that effort, snatched it readily along with the Orbs surrounding it with a little help from Twilight charging her with Blue Eco she kept on hand. Jak then lit up several platforms by jumping on them in sequence, which opened a door to another Power Cell.

Not long after that, they found the last Scout Fly and got another Power Cell. After that, they slid down two long slopes to the bottom of the city, acquiring the last Power Cell.

"Whoooo! Let's do that again!" Pinkie cheered.

After that, they needed to rush upwards to escape the rising Dark Eco. Making it all the way out of the tube upwards, they found another Power Cell. Taking a lift pod out of the city not long after, they were able to grab the Power Cell that rose on top of the pod.

After that, they traded 90 Orbs each to Unluk and Himcule. This opened the path both to the levitation device and the last area they needed to go to; Boggy Swamp.

"Ick! Do we really have to go through here?" Rarity gagged.

"This ain't no problem for me," Applejack said. "Not afraid to get a lil' dirty."

There were only two real points of interest for them as they went through. The first was their first exposure to Yellow Eco, which allowed the group to throw fireballs.

"This is intriguing..." Twilight noted, realizing she could channel the Yellow Eco through her horn, which charged up her magic reserves.

The only other point of interest in the swamp was finding the Flut-Flut, the bird who thought Fluttershy was his mother, on a teleporter, saddled for riding. He seemed very eager to assist them and helped them gather the remainder of the Orbs and Cells in the swamp.

"Awwwwww, aren't you a good boy~?" Fluttershy cooed as she petted Flut.

On the return to the Village, they met Keira at the levitation device. As she started to work on plugging the Power Cells in, Pinkie watched over her shoulder.

"So...how does this thingy work?"

With a smile, Keira began to babble technological terms well above Pinkie's understanding, which made the poor pinky pony girl's eyes rapidly spiral around before she fell backward with a cartoonish thud.

"Yeah, that's us too." Daxter speaking for himself, Ben, Applejack, and Rainbow.

Keira giggled. "Pretty much the same way as Twilight and Rarity can manipulate things with their magic, but it uses the Eco energy of the Power Cells instead."

"But...same principles?" Rarity asked.

"Pretty much."

"So...similar enough you could hook the helmet that channeled my shield spell into the A-Grav Zoomer's Heat Shield into the levitator and channel my magic into that so I could control whatever was being levitated?" Twilight asked as she walked up. "Using this thing as an amplifier?"

"Hmm...maybe," Keira admitted as she pulled out a spare helmet. "Worth a shot! Now just hold still!"

While the actual connection process wasn't entirely pleasant, having the levitator guided by Twilight's extremely potent magic meant that the boulder blocking the path could be set aside rather than just held aloft. Seeing this, Daxter grinned widely.

"Say, Keira...think there's enough juice for another lift?"

"With all the Power Cells you brought, certainly. But what should I be targeting?"

"How about the big fella who threw those boulders in the first place?"

A bit of tinkering later and the giant, Klaww, was dealt with using the levitator. Seizing him in the inverted gravimetric field, Twilight slammed Klaww against boulders, into the ground, and several times into the magma.

"That might have been overkill..." The alicorn girl admitted sheepishly.

With Klaww dealt with, the gang took the Zoomer through the Mountain Pass to the Volcanic Crater. While flying Lurkers tried to blow the place up, Rarity and Twilight shot them down before they could get out of sight.

"Naturally, nothing can get past us as long as we work together!" Rarity proudly huffed.

"You said it, Rares. Let's see what's going on in the Volcanic Crater...assuming we don't get boiled alive first." Ben said.

In the next chapter, as our heroes reach Volcanic Crater, they get some answers as to why the Dark Eco affected Daxter the way it did.