“Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do whatever you want! I’ll swab the deck, I’ll walk the plank, I’ll bake you a cake! I’ll do anything you say, JUST LET ME LIVE!!” Violet screamed, her hooves shielding her face in terror.
“You should see your face right now!” An unfamiliar voice laughed.
Violet slowly opened her eyes and removed her hooves from her face to see who or what was talking to her. She saw Tempest Shadow, Starlight Glimmer, and Sunset Shimmer standing before her with concerned looks on their faces, but the others she couldn’t recognize at all.
“Are you okay?” Sunset asked, offering her hoof to Violet.
Violet reluctantly took the hoof as she got back onto her own hooves. She looked around and saw that she was on an airship, not the ship belonging to those ponies that just invaded the town.
“Sunset Shimmer? Starlight Glimmer? What happened? Where am I?” She nervously asked.
“You’re on a ship.” Another voice said.
Violet turned and saw three more creatures that weren’t familiar to her. The one that just spoke to her was an anthropomorphic parrot with magenta eyes, large ears, white and green feathers, and a long green gemstone for a right leg.
“My new ship, to be exact.” The parrot continued.
“Thanks for the assist, Captain Celaeno.” Tempest said, giving the parrot a nod.
“No problem, Tempest.” The parrot calmly replied.
“Wait, Tempest? You know them?” Violet asked.
“Our paths might’ve crossed a few times.” Tempest answered with an embarrassed smirk.
“Whoa, somethin’ real rotten is happening to Ponyville, huh?” An anthropomorphic cat with tan fur and green eyes said as he gazed down at the town below.
“You can say that again, Capper ol’ boy.” A deep unfamiliar voice chimed in.
“Huh? Who said that?” The cat now named Capper asked, nervously looking around him.
“I did.”
Everyone looked up and saw the source of the voice; a sly looking creature called a draconequus. Violet screamed and jumped back in fright.
“Oh, so sorry about that. I do have that effect on ponies.” The creature said before flying down to the deck with everypony else.
“Ugh! What are you doing here, Discord?” Starlight groaned, rolling her eyes.
“Well if you must know, I was about to crash Princess Twilight’s party when that big scary ship came along and crashed it before me.” Discord explained, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting; she shook his head. “Honestly, the nerve of some ponies. Anyway, when that green-scaled siren showed up and started singing, I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t see where Princess Twilight and her friends have gone to; then I saw your ship in the sky and I figured they might be up here. But it looks like I was wrong. None of you would happen to know where Twilight and the girls are, would you?”
“Yeah, where are Princess Twilight and her friends?” Celaeno asked.
“We could really use their help.” Capper added.
Tempest, Starlight, and Sunset looked at each other nervously before looking back up at Discord, Capper, and Celaeno. The three unicorns sighed and hung their heads in shame.
“They’ve been captured.” Tempest admitted.
“WHAT?!” Everyone else on the ship screamed in shock.
“Even Fluttershy?” Discord asked, glaring at Tempest darkly.
“I’m afraid so.” The unicorn replied.
“Who captured her?” The draconequus demanded, bearing his teeth.
“A Pegasus named Jackpot Spade.” Sunset chimed in, trying to separate Discord from Tempest.
“Where is he?! If he even harms a single hair on Fluttershy’s head, I swear I’ll—” Discord started before a pale yellow hippogriff came up and slapped him in the face.
“Get a hold of yourself, you creep!” She yelled in a high-pitched voice.
“Yeah, Discord; you’re not the only one who’s worried about Headmare Twilight and the others.” A younger hippogriff named Silverstream said as she stepped forward. “But there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“We don’t have enough power.” A blue griffon named Gallus said.
“What do you mean?” Violet reluctantly asked.
“I think that siren used a spell to drain most of our magic so we can’t use our powers against her or Captain Spade and his crew.” A pale blue changeling named Ocellus said.
“We’ll see about that. Pfft, amateurs.” Discord said as he snapped his claws.
“No, stop!” A small yak named Yona objected before bits of confetti floated through the air.
“Confetti? I wanted a gigantic cannon that shot exploding pies and cake. Let me try again.” Discord said before snapping his claws again, only for a rubber mallet to appear and gently hit him in the head. “A rubber mallet?! That was supposed to be a grand piano! Is this a joke?”
“I told you, it’s the siren!” Ocellus said, hovering near Discord’s head.
“Andante used some kinda spell to steal everypony’s magic, including yours!” An earth pony named Sandbar added.
“Andante?” Discord repeated, raising an eyebrow and stroking his beard. “How did this Jackpot Spade fellow come across a siren of all creatures? I always thought those things were extinct.”
“If they are, then that is one crazy fossil.” Smolder said. “Look at what she’s done to Ponyville, it’s in shambles already!”
“She’s right.” Gallus said as he gazed down at the town below. “And it looks like Andante has reinforcements.”
Everyone else joined the griffon at the edge of the ship and saw that he was right; ponies were either in cages or shackles and they all looked miserable and terrified at the same time. Andante was in the center of it all with Jackpot Spade’s ship as the centerpiece… and from the looks of it, it looked like a huge pack of Timberwolves showed up. Everyone gasped.
“Are those Timberwolves?!” Starlight shrieked.
“This is terrible!” Violet cried.
“Yak doesn’t like this, not one bit!” Yona said.
“We’ve got to stop them!” The yellow hippogriff exclaimed.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Miss Skystar? That giant pony fish hybrid has just drained us of our power!” Discord said in an exasperated tone.
“Oh yeah…” Skystar said, looking away from the draconequus. “But we can’t just leave Ponyville like this! We need a plan!”
“Skystar is right. Anyone have any suggestions?” Celaeno asked.
“Why don’t we ask for outside help?” Tempest suggested.
“Help? You mean… from outside Equestria?” Ocellus asked.
“That’s not a bad idea, but where from?” Sunset asked.
“Well when I invaded Canterlot under the Storm King’s orders, Princess Twilight and her friends went south to seek help from the hippogriffs.” Tempest said before turning to Skystar. “…But I doubt Queen Novo would be willing to help us after… you know. And I imagine she wouldn’t be too happy to see me of all ponies.”
“Yeah, good point.” Skystar said, scratching her head with her claw.
“So Mt. Aris is out. What to do?” Silverstream said.
“Maybe we could go to the Changeling Kingdom and ask Thorax!” Ocellus suggested.
“Or maybe the Dragon Lands! We’ll be unstoppable with Dragon Lord Ember!” Smolder said.
“What about Griffonstone? With all of the griffons, we’ll be invincible!” Gallus added.
“Yakyakistan! Prince Rutherford and other yaks will help!” Yona exclaimed.
“What about heading over to Canterlot and asking the other Princesses?” Sandbar said.
“Those are all good tries, ya’ll, but I don’t think even all of those creatures combined could stop that.” Capper said, pointing his finger down at the chaos.
“Wait! Twilight headed south so… why don’t we head NORTH?!” Tempest said, pointing her hoof north. “There’s bound to be some other creature powerful enough to stop a siren!”
“North? As in beyond the Crystal Mountains?” Sunset asked.
“Doesn’t that sound a little risky?” Violet hesitantly asked.
“Well… it’s pretty much the only option we have left.” Starlight said. “I agree with Tempest, we should head north.”
“Whoever agrees, raise your right hoof, paw, or claw and say ‘aye’.” Sunset said as she raised her right hoof.
“Aye!”
Violet wanted to say ‘nay’ but she didn’t want to start any major conflicts so she kept quiet.
“North it is!” Celaeno said before she and Capper headed up to the helm.
“Ya’ll ready for an adventure?!” Capper exclaimed.
“Yeah!” Everyone screamed, raising a hoof or fist in the air.
“Uh, sure. What they said.” Violet whispered, reluctantly doing the same thing.
“Then let’s go!” Celaeno commanded.
And before Violet could say or do anything, they were already off.