Tahlia was laughing at the wonderful darkness she was creating, almost half of the lights were out, she quickly destroyed each one so the seazites could move forward to the next one.
"The lights are too bright for me!" One seazite complained.
"Yeah, can we go to the castle and eat the mertrolls?" Another one asked.
"We go back when each light is destroyed plus, you are faster than me so I can get to each crystallite quicker" Tahlia explained.
"Ughhh fine" The seazite grumbled.
As Tahlia turned to her right, she noticed something in the distance swimming towards her, it was a bunch of land trolls? But what were they doing down in the ocean, curiosity got the best of her and she decided to investigate.
"What are a bunch of land trolls doing down here- gah! " Tahlia asked when she suddenly got glitter in her eyes.
"Take that you witch!" Guy exclaimed.
"Bet you can't catch us!" Satin teased while her sister stuck her tongue out.
"You're gonna pay for that you brats!" Tahlia yelled.
"You're gonna find us super annoying after this" Cooper laughed
They suddenly started to swim around in different directions
"Seazites! Get them!" Tahlia ordered.
The seazites started to charge towards them, Guy glittered one in the eyes while Holly kicked another with her hooves.
"Woohoo! I've never felt more alive!" Holly exclaimed.
Another one was about to attack Biggie but he remained calm.
"You seem tense, do you want to talk about it?" He asked kindly.
The seazite looked at him confused but nodded.
Fuzzbert was surrounded by seazites but Tiny came out of his hair and air horned them in their ears.
"That's how it's done yo!" Tiny crossed his arms proudly
"Tiny I told you to stay home!" Guy exclaimed.
"No daddy I wanted to help" Tiny said air horning another seazite
"Fine just stay close ok?" Guy glittered another seazite.
"Got it!" Tiny hopped back into his father's hair.
~Meanwhile at the castle~
Branch and Poppy quietly opened the door and saw a seazite that was supposed to guard the mertrolls was asleep, Branch saw his family and the other mertroll leaders trapped in a coral cage.
"Mom? Dad? Grandma?" Branch whispered.
"Son, I'm so glad you're alright" King Aquatis exclaimed quietly.
"We're here too you know" Barb rolled her eyes.
"They locked us in these magic cages yo" Trollex whispered.
"We've tried breaking them but it's impossible " Trollzart said quietly.
"Why is the land troll with you? And who are they?" Queen Alyssa asked looking over at Delta, R and B.
"It's ok, they're here to help" Branch explained trying to move the cage but it wouldn't budge.
"It's no use, it's magic coral there's no way out" Rosiepuff explained.
Poppy thought for a moment, she looked at the cage lock but she couldn't find any keys, Tahlia must've held onto them just in case, she checked her hair and grabbed her scrapbook scissors.
"What are those?" Barb's eyes lit up in excitement seeing the sharp object.
"Scissors, I can-" Poppy tried explaining.
"Absolutely not, we don't need help from land trolls ok?!" King Aquatis exclaimed forgetting to keep his voice down.
"Dad!" Branch whisper shouted.
Unfortunately it was too late, the seazite was waking up to the sudden noise and growled spotting the land trolls.
"Oh no!" R and B exclaimed.
The seazites eyes opened and it growled in anger, but suddenly Delta kicked it so hard it felt dizzy and passed out.
"Who knew my back legs were strong underwater?" Delta said surprised with herself.
King Aquatic was shocked, a land troll risking her life to help her enemy? the more he thought about what his son said the more he thought about Poppy was just trying to help, maybe land trolls weren't as bad as he thought.
"You saved us... why?" King Aquatis asked.
"Because even if y'all are scared and don't trust us" Delta began.
"We want to help all of you despite our differences in the past" R and B continued.
"And we will help protect your home cause if someone messes with one of us, they mess with all of us" Poppy said.
King Aquatis and Queen Alyssa looked at the other leaders smiling and then at each other and smiled.
"Ok we trust you, but how are we going to use that thing to get out of here?" Queen Alyssa asked gesturing to the scissors.
"I can use these to picklock you out" Poppy said.
Poppy put the scissors in the lock and twisted them, she heard the lock unlock and pulled on it which made the lock shatter, Branch's family was able to escape but her scissors were badly damaged.
"Guess scissors are only good for one lock at a time" Poppy sighed.
Branch placed his hand on Poppy's shoulder "It's ok, we'll find another way to free the others" Branch said.
"Is there a plan to beat Tahlia or?" Barb asked.
"Ok the plan is we'll set up the beat coral around the ballroom, we'll perform a song to light the coral enough to scare the seazites away" Poppy explained.
"What about Tahlia?" Queen Alyssa asked.
"She'll be unguarded so we can grab her staff and we can break it, then she'll be powerless" Branch explained.
Suddenly they heard Smidge dropping a stack of the beat coral "Do you think this is enough?" Smidge asked as the others put down their gatherings of the coral.
"Let's hope so, everyone grabbed some coral and spread it around the castle" Branch said grabbing some of the coral.
Everyone started to grab the coral and placed it around the castle, they had enough to protect all of them in the ballroom and all they needed now was to drive the Seazites and Tahlia away from the village. Poppy and her friends set up some instruments they found nearby. Poppy gave Branch a microphone and he was slightly surprised.
"What's this for?" He asked.
"For your awesome singing skills of course" Poppy smiled.
"What?! No way I-I can't!" Branch exclaimed.
"What are you talking about? Of course you can! I saw you at the music shell pod" Poppy said.
Branch looked at his microphone nervously, yes he was able to perform back the music shell pod but this was different the fate of the world relied on their voices, everyone was gonna be watching, the thought of it got his stomach in a twist.
"This is different though, everyone will be watching" Branch argued.
"I know but you're not alone anymore, you have friends and family with you and I promise we'll be there to help" Poppy said.
Branch looked down sadly unsure if he was able to do this then Poppy gently guided his face towards hers, smiling at him. "I promise I'll be there to help you." Poppy reassured him.
Branch smiled finally getting the confidence to begin the song, Poppy's reassurance gave him strength but suddenly they heard yelling from their friends who were swimming away from Tahlia.
"We're sorry Poppy! We held her off for as long as she could!" Guy said out of breath.
"It's ok, we're ready to begin the final step" Poppy said.
They saw Tahlia charging with the seazites in the distance Poppy looked at Branch and gave him a nod, Trollex played some beats on his turntables. The coral slowly began to light up at the beat, Branch took a deep breath and began to sing.
🎶 You're never gonna bring me down 🎶
🎶 You're never gonna break this part of me 🎶
🎶 My friends are here to bring me 'round 🎶 Branch looked at the snack pack and leaders.
🎶 Not singing just for popularity 🎶 Poppy went next to him and planned her hand on his shoulder and began to sing with him, the coral started to get brighter.
🎶🎵We're here to let you know🎶🎵
🎶🎵That we won't let it go🎶🎵
🎶🎵Our music is a bomb and it's about to blow🎶🎵
Poppy and Branch smiled at each other and held hands.
🎶🎵 And you can try to fight🎶🎵
🎶🎵But we have got the light of friendship on our side! 🎶🎵
Their friends, the leaders and even Branch's family started to join in.
🌈Got the music in our hearts,
we're here to blow this thing apart🌈
The rest mertrolls looked at them all singing together, not sharing hate towards each other and smiled.
🌈And together,
we will never be afraid of the dark🌈
🌈Here to sing our song out loud,
get you dancing with the crowd🌈
🌈As the music of our friendship
survives, survives!🌈
Everyone started to join in singing from the top of their lungs in joy, making the coral shine bright, the seazites started to panic as they were getting closer to the light.
Got the music in our hearts, we're here to blow this thing apart
And together, we will never be afraid of the dark
"Get away from the light!" One seazite yelled.
"It's too bright!" Another one exclaimed.
Here to sing our song out loud, get you dancing with the crowd
As the music of our friendship
"Let's get out of here!" they all started to flee from the light that shone brightly.
"Get back here you fools!" Tahlia hollered but they swam away before she could do anything.
Survives, survives, survives!
The light from the coral shone so bright it practically blinded Tahlia, Poppy quickly used this advantage to grab the staff and snapped it in half.
"No!" Tahlia yelled.
The coral began to fade, Tahlia's spells were broken and the music ended and they all cheered in celebration, what they didn't see was Tahlia in pure rage she noticed there was one seazite left, the leader, in anger she grabbed the leader seazite and started to charge at Poppy at top speed, everyone panicked, especially Branch.
"Poppy look out!!" Branch yelled immediately swimming towards her not caring what might happen.
She shut her eyes tight but felt nothing, she opened her eyes and gasped, Branch had been hit with the venom spike, Branch felt dizzy and immediately fell to the ground.