The next day, after breakfast and while Thomas finished up his nap, the Mane 8 went outside to check on the preparations for the Friendship Festival.
“Okay, so we’ve got the stage set up, all the fun and games, the contests, the buffet, which are from Sweet Apple Acres, Sugarcube Corner, and the chefs at Canterlot, and some cake,” Starlight said, checking the list for everything. “Looks like we’re good to go,” Sunset said. “Are you sure you got this, Twilight?”
“I’m not sure. But I really needed the princesses’s favor, but I don’t know if they’ll accept it or not,” Twilight said. “Twilight? We’ve been thinking,” Princess Cadance said. “Since you’ve been working so hard on setting up this festival for us, and that your plan was pretty interesting...”
“We’d be honored to help,” Princess Celestia said. “Agreed, sister,” Princess Luna said. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Twilight said excitedly.
They suddenly heard a sound of thunder coming from afar, until they looked up with murmurs and gasps of shock, fear, and worry. Twilight gasped, “Storm clouds? I ordered perfect weather! Rainbow Dash?!”
“Uh... I... don't think those are storm clouds,” Rainbow Dash said. Thomas then saw what was happening, until he got scared and quickly hid underneath his Auntie Sunset and hugged her leg after seeing her and his Auntie Starlight behind the Mane 6 and Spike. When a huge deep humming noise appeared, it almost sounded like a propeller. “Ooh! I bet those are the clowns I ordered!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, until they got a closer look and saw an airship with dark gray wood plank, and a pale orchid blimp with armor on the front and a blue glowing symbol on the front.
“Or definitely not the clowns I ordered,” Pinkie Pie said. Thomas got more scared, as Starlight and Sunset looked down at him, and then Sunset placed her hoof towards him to hug with, and then Starlight placed her hoof onto his shoulder for comfort.
Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance came over to see what was happening, until the airship landed in the balcony and made some pillars crumble, causing ponies to run and scream from them.
“Everypony get back!” Twilight said. The door opened and then lowered, until they saw a small pug-faced hedgehog with dark grayish cobalt blue fur, light grayish sapphire bluish gray quills on the back of his head, brilliant opal eyes, and he had an apron with the Storm symbol. He was breathing and grunting while carrying a blue metal box until he carefully placed it on the ground and it transformed into a megaphone speaker with a radio microphone.
Grubber cleared his throat, and then spoke. “Ponieth of Equethtria, we come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the almighty...Thtorm King!”
The ponies started cowering and whispering. “This is terrible!” Thomas said. “Shhhhhh...” Starlight said. The Mane 6 looked at each other with confusion.
Grubber then continued, “And now, to deliver the evil, evil methage, put your hooveth together for the one... the only... Commander Tempeeeetht Thadooooooow!”
When they looked closely, they saw a supermodel sized unicorn mare with dark orchid fur, a dark rose mohawk combed mane and tail with lighter edges, and moderate opal eyes. She had a broken horn sparkling blue electricity and a scar on her right eye, and she was wearing a black short sleeve top with black armor all over and had two on her flank showing the Storm King symbol, and black armored shoes on all four hooves.
“Is that a... unicorn?” Twilight asked. “I think so, but what happened to her horn?” Spike asked. “I don’t know,” Thomas said, as he got scared of Tempest. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadance went up to deal with Tempest. “Tempest, is it? How may we help you?” Princess Celestia asked.
“Oh, I'm so glad you asked. How about we start with your complete and total surrender?” Tempest asked evilly.
Twilight walked over to Tempest. “Hi there. Princess of Friendship. Not exactly sure what's going on, but I know we can talk things out,” Twilight said. “Perfect. All four Princesses,” Tempest said. “Here's the deal, ladies. I need your magic. Give it up nicely, please, or we make it difficult for everypony! It’s your choice, so take your pick.”
“And why should we cower before you? There's one of you and hundreds of us,” Princess Luna said. “Yeah! You take them on, or one of us, you take on all of us!” Rainbow Dash said. “Agreed, darling,” Rarity said. “So unless you have a problem, you better get before thing get out of hoof,” Applejack said.
Tempest Shadow then chuckled evilly, “I was hoping you'd choose "difficult".” Suddenly, a couple of Storm Creatures appeared, and they had dark grayish cobalt blue fur with light grayish sapphire blue mane, and they wore dark gray masks with brilliant opal eye visors and carried spears and shields.
More airships came, and more Storm Creatures jumped out of them. Twilight gasped, and then Princess Cadance gasped. “Get them all!” Tempest said. The Storm Creatures made roaring noises and the ponies started to panic and run for their lives.
The princesses ordered the guards to assist, but some of them were taken down by the Storm Creatures and then captured while others fought back. “How predictable of you, Princess. Still wanting to fight back,” Tempest said, until she zapped blue electricity with her horn at the three princesses, but Cadance used her crystal magic against the attack.
The Mane 8 fought back by using their special talents and friendship magic. Fluttershy saw that her son wasn’t with him, “THOMAS?! THOMAS, WHERE ARE YOU?!”
Thomas hid underneath a table to be safe, and out of danger. When a Storm Creature was slammed onto the table as it broke down, Thomas moved out, but he suddenly saw Tempest Shadow appearing with a evil confused look on her face. “What do we have here? A little human here in Equestria, I see,” she said. Thomas then grabbed a knife and pointed it at them, until he saw two Storm Creatures behind of him and and in front of him while standing behind their commander. Thomas then start whimpering as the Storm Creatures growled at him.
Tempest suddenly had no interest in killing him, “Bring him with the others.” Thomas then started to cry, “MOMMA!!!” As the Storm Creatures were about to grab the little boy, a blast of a recognizable dark pink magic laser blasted them away, and he saw that it was Twilight that saved him, until he saw his mother with him, “GET AWAY FROM MY BABY!!” Rainbow Dash zoomed in and grabbed Thomas in a cradle against her chest, “I gotcha, sport!” After she flew down, Thomas ran over to Fluttershy for a hug, and the she held him on one hold in shoulder and chest hug position.
“Twilight! They’re going to kill you! Get out of here!” Cadance said. Princess Celestia looked at Twilight and her friends, “Twilight, quick! Go somewhere south beyond the Badlands! Seek help from the Queen of the Hippogriffs! Whatever you do or wherever you go, don’t stop hiding or Equestria is lost forever! Now, go!”
“Over here, y’all! This way!” Applejack said. “Come on, sweetheart!” Fluttershy said, as she quickly leaned down to let Thomas climb onto her back. Princess Luna looked back at the Mane 8 as they began running before they looked back while running, “Good luck, little ponies! We’ll buy you some time!”
“Grubber, get her now!” Tempest said. “Guyth, we gotta get the Princess!” Grubber said. Tempest suddenly made a mischievous grin, “Easy as pie.”
While the Mane 8 kept running over to the bridge as it crumbled, they stopped Thomas started to panic. “No! I don’t wanna leave them!” Thomas said, struggling for the princesses. “Sweetheart, we have to go!” Twilight said, calming him down with her hooves. “There’s no time!” She suddenly saw Tempest Shadow jumping in the air and kicking a canister with a black glass orb glowing with a dark brownish green crystal inside and black tendrils with her hind hoof, turning out to be a grenade. “Cadance! Celestia! Luna, look above you!” The three princesses saw the coming towards them as Cadance placed a force field around them with her magic. “RUN!!”
The ponies started running as the orb inside the grenade cracked open and made a small bombardment on the ground, causing the ground to be covered in obsidian, and then petrified some of the ponies into obsidian, including the Princesses. Thomas saw them petrified, “NOOOO!!!”
When they saw the Storm Creatures coming for them, the Mane 8 jumped over the destroyed bridge and into the water. They gasped for air after popping out from underwater until Fluttershy saw Thomas drowning and yelling for help. She swam over to her son, and then helped him onto her neck to grab onto so he can breathe.
“Grab onto the log, and don’t let go!” Twilight said, and then they all grabbed onto the log one at a time and then catched their breaths. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting all “funned” out,” Pinkie Pie said. “Yeah, me too,” Rainbow Dash said.
Applejack suddenly saw something up ahead, “Uh oh.”
“Oh, dear,” Rarity said. Rainbow Dash then sighed, “Don’t tell me. We’re about to go over a huge waterfall.”
“Eeyup.”
“Sharp rocks at the bottom, and no safer landing for us?”
“Most likely, but yeah.”
“Well... bring it on.”
They all fell into the waterfall while holding onto the log. “Wheeeeee!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed as they landed into the mist.
“Uhh... Thith ith not gonna be good. The both ithn’t gonna be happy about thith,” Grubber said. “Then it’s best we report to him immediately, with a couple of trophies for him,” Tempest said, looking at the obsidian petrified princesses. “Bring them to the throne room. And put the prisoners in their cages, but put the petrified next to the cages.” The Storm Creatures and Grubber brought the princesses’s statues with them, while some of them put the captured ponies in chains and shackles and then locked them up into separate cages with the petrified ponies next to them.
Meanwhile, after the waterfall ride, the Mane 8 popped out from the water and swam over shore and away from the castle to catch their breaths, and then Rarity placed a towel sided blanket onto Thomas to keep him warm, and then Fluttershy held him with both hooves wrapped around him while he sat on her lap.
“Everypony okay?” Applejack asked. “I think my bottom's on backward,” Rarity said. “We just got our cupcakes handed to us by the worst party crasher ever!” Pinkie Pie said. “We gotta go back there and fight!” Rainbow Dash said, as Applejack tugged on her tail with her teeth.
“Well, you saw the size of those goons. You seriously wanna go back?” Spike said. “So now what? We can't hide here forever,” Applejack said. “And let's be honest, we can't go back. Look at what they did to the Princesses. We gotta keep them from Twilight.”
They suddenly heard Thomas crying while he was looking down in shame while Fluttershy hugged him, until he broke down and then hugged her neck and buried himself into her chest fur tightly. “Hey, hey, hey, easy, easy,” Fluttershy said, as he was shaking with fear and broke down with tears of sadness in a broken heart. “T-T-T... Th-Th-... The-They... They’re all... gone,” Thomas whimpered. “Shhhhhh shhhhhh... I’m here, baby. I’m here,” Fluttershy said softly.
Twilight then remembered something, “The Queen...”
“Yeah, the Queen! Uh, what queen?” Pinkie Pie asked. Twilight then tried to remember what Princess Celestia told her, “Princess Celestia told me to find the Queen of the... "Hippo...? Hippo...gruffs? No, Hippo... Hippo... Hippo...gramps? Hippogriffs... " WAIT! THE HIPPOGRIFFS!!”
“Hippogriffs?” Thomas asked, as Fluttershy stood up holding her son as he was sitting on her hoof curled up in fetal position and hugging her fur and laid against her chest. “I’ve read about them! They're somewhere south, past the Badlands,” Twilight said.
“That means we'll have to... leave Equestria. Oh!” Fluttershy said. “I'm not even packed!” Rarity said, until she saw Starlight and Sunset come back with their saddlebags. “Oh, thank you, darlings,” Rarity said, as they put on their saddlebags for the journey.
“Momma? Are we gonna die?” Thomas asked. “No, no, sweetheart, no. We’re just fine,” Fluttershy said. “Oh, sweetie. I understand you're scared. We all are, and nopony else has to go. But I have to find this queen. She might be our only hope,” Twilight said.
“Well, you're not getting all the glory. We're in this together,” Rainbow Dash said.
“We got your back,” Applejack said.
“Indeedy!” Pinkie Pie said.
“I am ready to save Equestria!” Rarity said.
“Yay,” Fluttershy said, as Thomas climbed onto her back.
“We're all behind you, Twilight,” Spike said. “We’re coming with,” Starlight said. “Besides, you could use some extra help with unicorn magic,” Sunset said.
“Let's go find this hippo... whatchamacallits!” Pinkie Pie said. “Uh, it’s hippogriff,” Twilight said. “Meh, close enough,” Pinkie Pie said.
“Uh, south?” Thomas asked.
“Hehe! Whee!” Pinkie Pie giggled while bouncing, as they all started to journey ahead. “Whee! Boingy-boingy-boingy-boingy-boingy! Anypony up for a game of "I Spy"?” All but Pinkie Pie groaned. “No, really! Come on! I spy with my little eye something that is orange. No takers? It's you, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie giggled.