''Well, this is just great!'' Twilight said out loud to herself as they were getting closer to their airship, ''First we come all this way here just to find nothing, and now creatures all across Equestria have been disappearing right under our noses! Can't I do anything right?!''
''Calm down, Twilight. This isn't your fault.'' Fluttershy said worriedly as they all reached their airship.
''So?!'' Twilight said agressively, ''We have no idea what's going on and we still don't know where Princess Skystar could be!''
''Well maybe we will if ya would just calm down for a moment, Twi!'' Applejack said sternly to Twilight, ''Ya really wanna find Skystar and those other creatures?! Then you gotta stop putting yourself down like this! Understand?!''
Everyone could see the conflicted look on Twilight's face as Applejack's words slowly started to sink into the purple alicorn's mind.
Applejack sighed and showed a worried look, ''Sorry about that, Sugarcube. But I just hate seeing ya act like this.''
''We all do.'' Spike added.
Twilight sighed deeply, ''I'm sorry. But it's just......I promised Queen Novo that we will bring Princess Skystar back. What will she think of us if we fail?''
''Relax, Twilight,'' Rainbow Dash reassured, ''We've faced far bigger dangers than this."
''Yeah! We just gotta keep doing what we always do and everything will be fine.'' Pinkie Pie said with a positive attitude.
''And remember that you always have your friends to help you out.'' Spike said determinedly.
Twilight's somber expression disappeared from her face, ''You're right. Thanks, everypony,'' She said as her face slowly became more determined looking, ''We're going to find Skystar and those other creatures. Together.''
''That's the spirit!'' Rainbow Dash said with an overjoyed smile.
''But still, finding Skystar and those creatures will be like trying to find needles in a planet-sized haystack,'' Twilight said to her friends while rubbing her chin, ''Anypony got an idea on where we should look next?''
Suddenly Applejack rememberd the world map that Capper had given her. She lifted up her hat with one hoof and grabbed the folded map from her mane with the other hoof. The orange earth pony looked on the map until she found the marking of a black skull.
"What is it, darling?" Rarity asked Applejack curiously.
''Hold on.'' Applejack said as she thought back to their visit at Capper's house.
''Hold on to what?'' Pinkie Pie asked while tilting her head to the side.
''I think I might have an idea of where Skystar could be.'' Applejack answered.
''You do?!'' Twilight said. She immediately got next to Applejack and started looking at the map.
''Where?'' Rarity asked curiously.
Applejack answered the question by pointing her hoof on the black skull marked on the south-east side on the map.
''Right here on Black Skull Island,'' Applejack said, ''I have a feeling that's where we should look.''
''Black Skull Island?'' Fluttershy said, looking a bit frightened at the scary looking black skull on the map.
''Why do you think she would be there?'' Rarity asked.
''Rainbow Dash. Remember that book you read back at Capper's house?'' Applejack asked the rainbow pegasus.
''You mean the one called 'The Myth of Black Skull Island'?'' Rainbow Dash responded.
''That's the one!'' Applejack said confidently.
''What about it?'' Fluttershy asked.
''I think that book just might hold the information we need to know what happened to Princess Skystar.'' Applejack explained.
''That seems a little bit far-fetched if you ask me.'' Rarity said, ''I mean, it's just a book based on some myth.''
''I guess we'll know once we get back to Capper's house and read that book,'' Applejack replied before placing the map back under her hat, ''Let's go on board and wait for Tempest.''
''I'm back!''
They all turned around to see Tempest heading their way, who was looking rather annoyed.
''Talk about good timing.'' Spike said.
''Why the long face, Fizzy?'' Pinkie Pie asked the purple unicorn.
''How did things go with Grubber?'' Fluttershy asked.
Tempest reached the others and sighed, ''Not well. I don't think I'll ever be able to get through to that little rascal.''
''What is the deal between you two anyway?'' Rainbow Dash asked curiously.
''Every since I was taken in by the Storm King, he's always tried very hard to be like me,'' Tempest explained, ''Or at least, the 'me' that existed before I got betrayed by the Storm King.''
''Awwww, so he's like a big fan of yours.'' Pinkie Pie said.
''I guess you could put it that way,'' Tempest replied as she glanced back at the Storm King's castle, ''Anyway, what's our next move?''
''We're going back to Capper's house,'' Twilight replied, ''Applejack says she might have an idea on where Skystar could be.''
''Then let's go.'' Tempest said before she boarded the ship via the rope ladder that was still hanging from the deck. Twilight and her friends quickly followed suit and went on board the airship.
Queen Novo stood right in front of the gate of her kingdom, watching the sun rise from behind the bars with a somber look on her face. Many hours had passed since the disappearance of Skystar, but to her it felt like it's been days. She kept on pondering about who could've taken her away and why, but she just couldn't think of any logical answer.
''Are you okay, your majesty?''
Queen Novo looked to her right and saw that Skybeak stood a few meters away from him.
''Forgive me if I'm disturbing you,'' Sky Beak said when noticing the queen's somber look, ''I just wanted to see how you were doing. You've been standing there ever since Twilight Sparkle and the others left.''
Queen Novo sighed, ''I appreciate your concern, Sky Beak. But I don't think I'll ever feel okay until I see my dear Skystar again.''
''You're not the only one who feels that way, your majesty.'' Sky Beak replied. He looked back into the kingdom and saw the many somber looking Hippogriffs going about their day. Some of them being so lost in thought that a few even kept bumping into each other by accident.
''Do you suppose that it's all my fault?'' Queen Novo asked while still looking through the bars of the gate, ''That maybe I'm just not a good queen anymore.''
''What?! Why would you think that?'' Skybeak asked in a somewhat surprised manner.
''I've just been thinking about a few things I've done lately,'' Queen Novo explained, ''Some things I wish I could take back and fix.''
''I see,'' Skybeak said. He went over to the queen and placed his claw on her shoulder, ''Well, I think you are a great queen, your majesty. And I know that everygriff here would agree with that.''
''Are you sure?'' Queen Novo asked.
''Of course,'' Sky Beak responded in a friendly manner, ''Not everygriff here can say that they traveled across the world when they were young. And then found a magic pearl that has helped to protect our kingdom ever since. Am I right?''
Queen Novo finally turned her head away from the gate and looked Sky beak in the eye. He was relieved when he saw the little smile on the queen's face.
''Thank you.'' Queen Novo replied.
Their conversation got interrupted when Queen Novo heard footsteps coming from the stairs of the mountain. Her head turned back to the gate. Through the bars she saw a dark cloaked creature slowly walking up the last few steps of the stairs. The cloak covered his whole body, with the only thing visible being a small grey beak that stuck out of the hood and his claws coming out of his sleeves. The two hippogriffs watched cautiously as he made his way towards the gate. An uneasy feeling went through Queen Novo as the cloaked figure got closer. Skybeak quickly pointed his spear at the mysterious figure the moment he reached the gate.
''Who are you?'' Sky Beak asked in a somewhat threatening manner.
''I'm just a mere traveler. You can call me Grey,'' The cloaked creature answered in a huskey voice, ''I've been hearing words going around lately about your missing daughter, Princess Skystar.''
''Have you found her?!'' Queen Novo said with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
Grey nodded slowly, ''I have.''
''Where?! Please, tell me!'' Queen Novo said in a desperate manner before Grey has the chance to explain further.
''Don't worry, I will,'' Grey responded calmly, ''But first, I hope you won't mind if I stay here for a while. It's been a long and exhausthing journey getting up on this mountain.''
''Of course, you can rest here for as long as you need to,'' Queen Novo immediately suggested, ''Just promise that you'll tell me where my daughter is.''
Grey stayed quiet for a few seconds before making a small bow, ''You have my word, your majesty.''
Queen Novo was about to open the gate, but stopped when she began to remember a familiar situation many days ago. Something about the cloaked creature still gave her an uneasy and familiar feeling. Her thoughts quickly shifted back to her missing daughter and realized that this could be her only chance. The queen had a doubtful look on her face, but eventually she reached her claw to one side of the gate while Sky Beak held on to the other. Together they slowly pulled the gate open, allowing Grey to enter their kingdom.
With the help of Tempest, Twilight and the others finally reached Capper's home after making their way through the grim streets of Klugetown. Tempest was the first one to enter through the front door and climbed up the ladder that led to his main room. The purple unicorn slowly opened the hatch and peeked into the room. Much to her suprise, Capper was nowhere to be seen.
''Hello?'' Tempest said quietly. After not getting a response for a few seconds, she decided to climb into the room and have a look around.
She found nothing inside the room besides unusual emptiness and silence. Tempest searched every corner for the tall cat, but all she could find were a few golden buttons laying in front of the door.
''Strange.'' Tempest said to herself.
''What's strange?'' Twilight asked as she climbed through the hatch along with her friends.
''No one is here.'' Tempest answered.
''Say what?!'' Rarity said out loud.
The rest of Twilight's friends all climbed into the room as well and started to have a look around.
''Maybe he went out to go shopping,'' Pinkie Pie said, to which she immediately got confused looks from her friends, ''What? Just a thought.''
''Something tells me that's not the case,'' Tempest said as she showed Capper's buttons to everypony, ''Look at this.''
Rarity looked surprised, ''Capper's buttons?! Where did you find those?''
''Over at the door.'' Tempest answered.
''I gave those to him for his red vest when we first met,'' Rarity explained, ''After we defeated the Storm King, the big ol charmer told me that he sees them as a sign of our friendship.''
''So what? He probably just dropped them by accident.'' Spike said, rolling his eyes after hearing Rarity calling Capper a big ol charmer.
''Perish the thought, Spikey Wikey!'' Rarity exclaimed to the small purple dragon, ''Capper would NEVER drop these buttons without him noticing it. He told me so himself.''
''Okay okay, I get it. But if that's the case, then someone or something really must've taken him away.'' Spike explained.
''So I guess the book's myth being real wasn't that far-fetched after all, huh?'' Applejack remarked to Rarity with a playful smirk.
Rarity giggled a bit, ''Point taken.''
Applejack then walked over to the large book shelf in the back of the room, filled with at least a hundred books.
''Rainbow Dash, think ya can find that book for me?'' Applejack asked.
''You got it.'' Rainbow Dash responded.
Rainbow Dash flew over to the shelf and searched every book until she found the one with the right cover. The blue pegasus flew back to Applejack and handed her the book. The orange earth pony open the piece of literature and searched for the same words Rainbow Dash read during their last visit in Capper's home.
''What does it say?'' Fluttershy asked curiously.
''Aha, here it is,'' Applejack said as she began to read the words from the book out loud, ''Turn creatures of six kinds into stone, and the path to power shall be free. But don't lose control, or else all life will cease to be.''
''Creatures of six into stone,'' Twilight said to herself as she slowly started to figure out what Applejack was implying, ''Wait a minute, are you saying that...''
Applejack nodded, ''Think about it. We had just received a letter from the princesses that many different creatures have been disappearing across Equestria. And now Capper is suddenly gone too. Don't y'all think that maybe it all could have something to do with this myth?''
''She does make a good point.'' Tempest said.
''But if that were true, who would be the one doing such a thing?'' Fluttershy asked, ''It can't be the Storm King, right?''
''No way. That lunatic is resting in pieces.'' Rainbow Dash responded with a smirk.
''But wait, that would mean.....'' Twilight said to herself as she thought about a certain sentence from the book.
''Mean what, Twilight?'' Spike asked when he noticed the abrupt pause in Twilight's sentence.
Twilight's eyes widened, ''We have to get to Black Skull Island. Now!'' She was the first one to run over to the hatch and exit the room without saying another word.
''Hey! Wait for us!'' Rainbow Dash exclaimed right before flying through the open hatch. Applejack and the others immediately followed the two ponies.
Queen Novo led Grey through her kingdom. Many of the hippogriffs they walked past looked over at the mysterious cloaked figure walking with their queen and Sky Beak. A few of the guards took notice of them and cautiously kept their eyes on Grey.
''Is it okay if you can show us your face? It might stop everygriff around here from staring at us, they still have to get used to the idea of strangers visiting our kingdom.'' Queen Novo explained to Grey in a joking manner.
''I'd rather keep my hood on,'' Grey replied, ''I'm not really used to hanging around with strangers myself, I hope you understand.''
''Of course I do,'' Queen Novo said with a friendly smile, ''You do something for me, and I do something for you. So we're even.''
Grey stayed quiet for a moment, ''May I ask you something, your majesty?''
''What is it?'' Queen Novo asked curiously.
''Have you ever done something you regret?'' Grey asked.
Queen Novo stopped walking for a moment and looked suprised for a bit after she heard his question.
''Yes.....I have.'' Queen Novo replied while her eyes were looking down at the ground.
''Can you tell me what it is?'' Grey asked as he stopped walking as well.
Queen Novo sighed to herself, ''Well, a few days ago, there was someone who needed our help. But I refused to listen.''
Grey turned around and looked at Queen Novo, ''Who was it?''
''Princess Twilight Sparkle.'' Queen Novo answered while looking guilty.
Grey stayed quiet again for a moment and looked away from the hippogriff queen, ''Take me to your home.'' He replied, sounding a bit annoyed as he continued walking throgugh the kingdom.
Queen Novo was surprised by the tone in Grey's voice, but chose to not pay much attention to it. All that was on her mind at the moment was that Grey would tell her where Princess Skystar is. They walked through the kingdom for another minute before finally reaching the queen's home. Queen Novo gave Sky Beak a little nod. He understood her immediately and positioned himself close to the doorway of her home, staying on guard as Grey entered along with Queen Novo.
Once they were inside, Queen Novo had showed Grey a stone bench in the middle of the house. The tall hippogriff sat down on the bench before Grey joined her.
''I'm surprised,'' Grey said as his head looked around the house, ''I was expecting your home to be a little more....you know, royal looking.''
''We're working on that,'' Queen Novo explained, ''Cleaning up our kingdom has been quite a lot of hard work ever since the Storm King's defeat.''
''I see.'' Grey responded.
''Alright. Now, tell me everything.'' Queen Novo said eagerly.
Grey looked around the room for a moment, ''I found her on Black Skull Island.'' He replied calmly.
''Black Skull Island?'' Queen Novo said with a surprised look, ''But if you know that, then why didn't you bring her here?''
''Because.....'' Grey said before staying silent for a moment, ''She's been turned to stone.''
''WHAT?!'' Queen Novo said out loud.
''But fear not, I already know how to change her back to normal.'' Grey reassured the queen.
''How?!'' Queen Novo asked urgently.
''We're gonna need something that holds a lot of power,'' Grey explained to her, ''Some kind of magical object, perhaps.''
Queen Novo thought about the words he just said for a few seconds before she rememberd something that would fit his description.
''Well, we do have something that might help.'' Queen Novo said.
''What is it?'' Grey asked, sounding a bit intrigued.
Queen Novo showed a conflicted look on her face before she got up from the bench, ''Stay here, I'll go get it for us.''
Grey's hood watched Queen Novo walking out of the house. A sly little smirk began to form on his beak after she was gone.
While riding the airship, a particular little island in the middle of the ocean came into their sight. On the island was a gigantic black skull, shaped like as if it used to belong to a crocodile. Its empty eye holes were glowing red like fire, black smoke was coming out of the nostrils and its mouth looking like the entrance to a cave.
''Over there!'' Rainbow Dash shouted as she stood at the top of the mast. Twilight and the others ran to the side of the ship and looked at the big black skull on the island.
''That has to be it!'' Twilight Sparkle announced, ''Applejack, lower the airship!''
''Aye aye, Captain Sparkle!'' Applejack said before steering the airship down towards the island.
Once the airship was close enough to Black Skull Island, Rainbow Dash threw the anchor off the airship. The heavy piece of metal fell down until it crashed on the beach of the island. Fluttershy, Twilight and Rainbow Dash flew down from the ship. The rest climbed down via the long chain of the anchor while Tempest stayed on the ship.
''I'll stay here and guard the airship!'' Tempest exclaimed to the others.
''Okay! We'll be back as soon as we can!'' Applejack said, loud enough for Tempest to be able to hear her all the way down on the island.
Everypony walked closer towards the giant black skull on the other side of the island. Fluttershy gulped when they finally got up close enough to see the entrance of the cave.
''Do we have to go in there?'' Fluttershy asked with a scared look on her face.
''I'm afraid so, darling.'' Rarity replied, standing next to Fluttershy while taking it the size of the skull.
The upper half of its mouth looked even larger up close than they had anticipated. It was about ten times wider than a single pony. Underneath it were many black spikes sticking out of the sand, most likely to represent its teeth. Inside the mouth was an entrance to a cave that was heading underground. The path into the cave was shrouded in almost complete darkness.
Spike gulped at the sight of the big black skull, ''I got a bad feeling about this.''
''Come on. We're not gonna let some spooky looking skull stop us, are we?'' Rainbow Dash said confidently.
''Certainly not me. Let's go.'' Tempest added as she was about to walk into the cave.
Pinkie Pie's eyes widened in shock when she saw something familiar looking laying right in front of the cave's entrance. The pink pony rushed towards it, reached her hoof down and pulled a necklace with multiple colored seashells out of the sand.
''Look, everypony!'' Pinkie Pie said to her friends. She showed the necklace to everypony as soon as she got their attention.
''Pinkie. This is not the time to be collecting seashells.'' Tempest said while looking unamused, thinking the pink pony was just being silly again.
''What? No, I mean this is Princess Skystar's seashell necklace,'' Pinkie Pie explained, talking in a more serious tone than usual, ''I made it for her as a token of our friendship when we first arrived in Seaquestria.''
''Then there's no doubt about it. She must be in there,'' Twilight said as before running to the entrance of the black skulll, ''Come on, everypony!'' The purple alicorn slowly disappeared into the cave's darkness.
''Twilight, wait for us!'' Spike said as he ran after her. The other ponies immediately gave chase.
Twilight tried to make her way through the seemingly endless ongoing tunnel, ignoring all the unnerving things that she came across. Not even the creepy skulls carved on the walls, which could only be seen thanks to the illumination by some torches hanging on the walls, weren't enough to stop her from venturing further into the cave.
''If something bad happened to her, I'll never forgive myself.'' Twilight said to herself.
Eventually Twilight could see a brighter light shining at the end of the tunnel. After a few seconds of running towards the light, she finally got out of the dark tunnel and stepped into a large round area. The first thing that caught her attention shocked her to the core and made her heart sink. All Twilight could do at the moment was continue to stare in denial.
Twilight's friends had finally caught up to Twilight and immediately noticed the look of terror on her face.
''You alright, Twi?'' Applejack asked worriedly. Her question was almost immediately answered when she turned her head over to where Twilight was looking.
There she stood, on top of a symbol carved on the floor amongst three other statues of different creatures that were all positioned next to each other. Her body was completely made of stone, her face looking scared and confused. It was the last thing that Twilight would've ever wanted to see. Her friends all looked just as horrified at what they were seeing in front of them.
''No.....this can't be....'' Twilight said to herself.
Neither Twilight or any of her friends wanted to believe what they were seeing, but there was no denying it. The statue that they were looking at was indeed......Princess Skystar.