Prologue, Escape
To say things went extremely wrong extremely fast would be very accurate. Twilight was preparing for the first ever Friendship Festival, with all of her friends backing her up. The main problem was that the Storm Empire, something Twilight and all of Equestria had never heard of, had invaded and had captured Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadence. Twilight managed to escape with her friends as they had been told to find something that Celestia was unable to get out before being petrified. Something about 'go south beyond the Badlands and finding the hippos' or something. She figured that it had been incomplete, but right now, Twilight figured that she had to have her and her friends away from the Equestrian capital to avoid capture and figure out a way to defeat the Storm King. They had escaped through a secret passage where it had lead down into a small pool under the mountain that Canterlot was set upon. They had managed to get out of the tunnels and into open air, with all of them catching their breath, Applejack eventually spoke up. "Everypony okay?" She asked as she looked over the group, all of them cold, wet and miserable from the whole ordeal, some more than others.
"I think my bottom's on backward." Rarity said dizzily from the long trek and from being out of breath. Pinkie Pie spoke next.
"We just got our cupcakes handed to us by the worst party crasher ever!" She stated as Rainbow Dash snorted and looked back up to where Canterlot was with a scowl.
"We gotta go back there and fight!" She said bravely. While it was a valiant cause, it wasn't without its problems.
"Well, you saw the size of those goons. You seriously wanna go back?" Spike asked as Rainbow Dash sighed and set herself down near the exit of the cave they were currently at. Applejack spoke up after a long bout of silence.
"So now what? We can't hide here forever." She said as she then looked back up at Canterlot, an unnerved expression on her face. "And let's be honest, we can't go back. Look at what they did to the Princesses. We gotta keep them from Twilight." She added as Twilight seemingly had a revelation.
"The Queen." Pinkie Pie seemed to get excited as she jumped up with a smile.
"Yeah, the Queen!" She then stopped as her smile faded as she got a bit confused. "Uh, what queen?" She asked as Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Celestia told Luna to find the Queen of the... "Hippos". Luna can't, so I have to." She said, a determined look in her eyes that she had when she had one thing set in her mind. Rainbow Dash, as much as she trusted Twilight, didn't understand as to how hippos were supposed to help at all.
"Uh, hippos? Seriously?" She asked in disbelief.
"I've heard they're surprisingly graceful for their size. Huh, but they're always hungry." Pinkie spoke, going a bit off tangent with those random facts.
"Hungry?" Spike asked in his confusion, seemingly joined by Applejack.
"Hippos?" Twilight just decided to roll with it.
"They're somewhere south, past the Badlands." She stated as Fluttershy's eyes widened.
"That means we'll have to... leave Equestria." She said in realization as she then began to shake. "Oh!" She whimpered as she was more frightened than she had ever been in her life. She never once considered the possibility that she might one day leave her own home country in order to save Equestria itself. All the other times she had left were due to the map telling her to go there because of a problem she had to help resolve, not to save the entirety of their existence. Rarity wasn't helping in the slightest.
"I'm not even packed!" She wined as everyone else rolled their eyes at her being such a drama queen at the wrong time. Twilight just decided to ignore that sentence.
"I understand you're scared, and nopony else has to go. But I have to find this queen. She might be our only hope." Twilight assured as everyone looked at each other, unsure of what they should do.
Rainbow soon smirked as she placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Well, you're not getting all the glory. We're in this together." She stated. Applejack nodded.
"We got your back." She confirmed.
"Indeedy!" Pinkie Pie added, bouncing in place.
"I am ready to save Equestria!" Rarity said with a small, yet confident smile. Fluttershy raised a hoof herself.
"Yay." She called out quietly, her version of raising her voice.
"We're all behind you, Twilight." Spike assured as he stood beside Twilight.
"Let's go find this hippo!" Pinkie Pie added as she leaped into the air, confetti and streamers coming from somewhere, being launched into the air along with Pinkie herself.
"Uh, south?" Spike asked, not sure if it was the right direction. Pinkie Pie just giggled as she and the entire group went off south to find the queen of the Hippos, or whatever Celestia was trying to say.
"Anypony up for a game of 'I Spy'?" Pinkie asked as everyone but her groaned. If this was going to be like they thought it would, then this was going to be a long trip. "No, really! Come on! I spy with my little eye something that is orange." Nopony replied to that at all. "No takers?" Pinkie asked as they trudged along. "It's you, Applejack!" Pinkie said with a giggle as the other ponies weren't sure if having Pinkie along would be such a good idea. Pinkie would play all sorts of things like this with them as they continued on to try and find the way to the Queen of the Hippos, however, they didn't notice something above the treeline, something big. A huge shape was tearing through the skies above, the loud boom of the sound barrier breaking easily heard and startling the mares and dragon, leaving them wondering what it could possibly have been. What they didn't know was that this was no meteorite, and it wasn't anything natural. This is something from far beyond the stars...