//------------------------------// // Going to Mt. Aris, Part 2 // Story: My Little Pony: An Epic Adventure // by CJ Esmerio //------------------------------// With Mt. Aris only a few feet away from them, Twilight slowly started to relax. All we have to do now is safely lower this balloon so that- “You know, there’s something I don’t get, Twilight,” said a confused Pinkie, and the purple alicorn turned to look at her friend. “What is that, Pinkie?” The pink Earth Pony pointed a hoof at Starlight, and replied, “How is she still able to stay in here? I mean, her hind legs must weigh a ton right now.” Starlight frowned at what Pinkie had said, but before she could deliver a comeback, everyone in the crate heard a creaking noise, which was swiftly followed by the young pony falling through a newly-created hole. “Star - whoa!” cried Casey, grabbing onto the frozen part of her body, but he found himself falling after her, and the same happened to Twilight when she grabbed one of his hind legs, which soon led to everypony else doing the same. To make matters worse, once everyone had landed onto the sandy surface, Pinkie said, “Well, at least, once we finish, we can still use the balloon to… oops.” CRASH! As she watched her creation tumble to the ground in utter destruction, a sad Twilight moaned while Rainbow said, “Nice going there, Starlight.” “Hey, I didn’t ask to be half-frozen today, okay?” replied a glaring Starlight. “At least I didn’t do something that basically spelled out ‘hey, come and find us, we’re over here’, Miss I-can-do-a-sonic-rainboom.” “Why, you-” Rainbow started to say, but then, Applejack stood in between the pair, and started to shake her head. “Alright, simmer down, you two… let’s just focus on findin’ the hippogriff queen so that we can find a way to save Equestria.” Rarity nodded, in agreement, and she replied, “Absolutely! We’ve come this far, and I’m not ready to give up just yet!” Ten minutes later “That is it! I simply cannot even!” whined an exhausted Rarity. “I have nothing… the bad guys have won!” She then collapsed to the ground in dramatic fashion, followed by a squeal after finishing her sentence. “I’m so sorry!” The reason why she was like was because earlier, they had found some stone stairs that would lead them to the top of Mt. Aris, as well as to the queen of the hippogriffs. However, like what happened in the desert, they didn’t realize that they would be walking for so long, and almost everyone was exhausted. “You… are so damn lucky to have a valid reason for using magic,” muttered Casey, referring to Starlight, who was currently levitating herself over the steps since she was unable to walk at a regular pace because of her frozen bottom half. “Doesn’t hide the fact that I take pleasure in doing so,” replied the pink unicorn, sounding bored out of her mind. “How much longer until we reach this hippogriff city?” Her answer came from Rainbow, who cried out, “We’re almost there!” Lifting her head up from the ground, Rarity scowled at the pegasus she envied for having wings, and exclaimed, “Ooh, will you stop saying that?” “No, seriously - we’re actually here!” replied Rainbow, flying over to the city’s entrance that was at the end of the stone-built stairway, and everyone else quickly used whatever energy they had left inside of themselves to climb the last set of stairs that soon led them to the top. For a moment, the group of friends quietly admired the sight in front of them. The gates to the home of the hippogriffs were beautiful - two ancient stone columns carved into the winged creatures - and a sense of accomplishment soared throughout Twilight’s body. “This is it!” One by one, they all walked through the mysterious gates, with a relieved Rarity saying, “Finally! A place where I can rest my hooves…” However, after she saw what the city was like, a look of uncertainty appeared on the white unicorn’s face. “Um, are you sure that we’re in the right place?” For some reason, the city was completely deserted - save for them, of course - along with cracked statues, toppled pillars, and untreated weeds that had grown pretty much everywhere. Even all the doors to the beautiful dome-shaped dwellings had been left ajar. “Hello? Anypony home?” called out Applejack, but no one gave her an answer. “Where in the hay did they all go?” As for Pinkie, she began to bounce around the entire area, in search of the flying animals. “No hippogriffies here! Or here, or here… or here, or here, or here!” Then, she stood in front of Twilight, and searched underneath a small pebble. “Wait… nope! This place is emp-ty!” “But… Celestia… and the map…” said Twilight, who couldn’t believe what was going on. They didn’t come all this way from Equestria for it to just end like this. “This just doesn’t make any sense!” Spike did a little gulp out of fear, and shuddered as he looked around the deserted city. “Something bad must have happened here… something that turned this place into a ghost town!” “G-g-g-ghost town?” Fluttershy was not very pleased to hear that, and the pegasus started to whimper quietly. “Wait!” Everyone turned their attention over to a levitating Starlight, who pointed at a structure several feet away from them. Although it was damaged, it looked like it had once been an amazing castle.  “Did you hear that? It sounded like someone was singing, and it’s coming from over there.” Ahhhhhh, ahhhhh, ahhhhh… Rarity nodded, in agreement, and said, “It sounds gorgeous.” So, they all started to head in the direction of where the singing was coming from, and on the way, a curious Pinkie asked, “Hey, Starlight, how does it feel with all of this [tap, tap, tap] being frozen solid?” “Without this bubble, you mean?” replied Starlight, referring to what she was using to keep her above the ground. “Like I’m carrying a cart filled with some of those stuffed barrel things that Sunburst found Starswirl’s journal in.” As they continued to make their way into the building where the singing was coming from, Pinkie tried to give the pink unicorn some positivity. “At least you know how I must’ve probably felt when Rowan turned me into a statue.” “Thanks, Pinkie,” replied an amused Starlight. “Hopefully I can find a way to fix this.” Pinkie happily nodded her head, and was about to say more when she noticed what was now in front of them. “I hope you don’t got to use a bathroom anytime soon.” They were now standing in front of a grand water fountain that was placed in the center of the room, and in the middle of a small pound was a large pink lotus flower. “Oh, I’m definitely going to need a spa treatment by the end of all this,” said Rarity. Ahhhhhh, ahhhhh, ahhhhh… Taking a closer look, Pinkie saw that there was some kind of bright shadow-like figure sitting in the flower, and said, “That must be the one who’s been singing this whole time!” The pink pony started to head down the steps, but accidentally caused a few broken-off pieces to tumble down and drop into the water, causing the mysterious figure to gasp in surprise. “What was that?” Then, it quickly jumped into the water before any of the ponies could say anything. “Hey, wait up!” called out Pinkie, and without having a second thought, she took a large leap into the water. “Cannonball!” SPLASH! “Pinkie!” Twilight hurried down the steps, followed by everyone else, and made her way into the pond, but before she could call out her friend’s name again, Pinkie returned to the surface, spitting out a stream of water that fell onto Twilight. “She’s gone!” Pinkie gave a shrug, not knowing what to do next. WHOOSH! “Oh, now what?” groaned Twilight. For some reason, the water was now starting to swirl around, creating a whirpool that was quickly being sucked down into some kind of drain, and it was taking whatever was in the water with it, which included all of them! “I hate epic adventures!” cried Rarity, followed by joining her friends in screaming as they found themselves spinning around in a circle, and soon enough, they were all submerged into deep water. No, no, no, this can’t be it! Twilight tried desperately to swim around for something that she could grab, but the deepness of the water was making everything for her feel clouded and fuzzy. Got to… use my magic… POOF! “Ahhhhhh!” gasped the alicorn, taking a deep breath of air, and to her relief, an air bubble had appeared around her head. Lighting up her horn, Twilight saw that everyone else had air bubbles of their own, and she looked over at Starlight, who was inside of a body-sized bubble that wasn’t even created by her. “Somepony else beat me to it.” Twilight was about to ask another question when she suddenly felt something swim beside her, causing her to gulp. “I hope that wasn’t a shark.” “M-maybe it was a friendly shark?” suggested Spike, as he swam over to Twilight so that he could grab onto her right fore leg. Whatever it was, Twilight decided to try and talk to it. “Hello? Maybe you can help us - we’re looking for the hippogriffs!” Her answer came from a bright and glowing yellow orb that was floating just a few feet away, but close enough to light up the whole area. “How do I know I can trust you?” A pleading look appeared on Twilight’s face as she cried, “Please! The Storm King invaded our land, and we need to find the queen of the hippogriffs-” “The Storm King?!” The glowing orb was now only inches away from the group of friends, and to their surprise, it transformed into something that Twilight never would’ve thought she would ever see: a living, breathing seapony! Wow, she’s pretty, thought Casey, also surprised at what they were all looking at. “I’m so glad that I saved you guys!” squealed the pale yellow seapony, with aqua fins replacing what would have been her mane, and on the side of her forehead was a small pink flower-like hairclip. “I’m totally taking all of you to see my mom!” And I thought Pinkie was the only one filled with a bunch of happiness, thought Casey. The seapony grabbed onto Twilight’s hoof, and everyone formed a chain as they were led down into the watery unknown, swimming past various rocks and schools of fish, before entering a sea cave tunnel that soon led to... “Aaaaand, we’re here!” sang the beautiful seapony, proudly using one of her fins to present what they were now looking at, and almost all of their mouths dropped. It’s like a sparkling wonderland, thought Twilight, noticing several other seaponies that swam all around, with a few of them politely waving at the newcomers, and her eyes widened after the yellow seapony brought them over to what appeared to be a palace in the shape of an upside-down flower, which opened up to allow them inside. “This… is so… awesome!” whispered a wide-smiling Rainbow, with a nearby Pinkie nodding in agreement. Then, once everyone was inside of the palace, the seapony swam over to a purple throne that was occupied by an older pearly-white seapony, who was also wearing a golden crown. “Mom! Mother! Look what I fouuunndd!” “Is it another shell?” groaned the royal seapony, as if this had happened several times before in the past. “Because I’m telling you, if it is another shell, I am-” However, once she noticed Twilight and co., with a smiling Pinkie giving her a wave, the royal seapony gasped in shock before glaring at her daughter. “Princess Skystar, what have you done? You know that surface dwellers are forbidden down here. Guards!” In a swift amount of time, several royal seapony guards surrounded the group of friends, and once again, Twilight’s happiness turned into fear. Would things ever go their way?