Joey and the six turned and fled down the street, past scenes of carnage, only to be cut off by more storm beasts on bridge at the edge of the city. Twilight ignited her horn and fired a bolt of magic at the one which had blocked their path, the monster deflected it off his gauntlet, destroying the marble bridge beneath their feet , and sending all 8 of them crashing into the river below. Only to go flying of the edge of a waterfall moments later. All the while, on the other side of the city, William slipped away, using the bush's and trees for cover, making his way back down the mountain. Searching for his friend.
about an hour later...
Joey and the six pulled themselves out of the river.
"Evreypony ok?" Asked Applejack, fishing her hat out of the river.
"Do I look ok to you!?" Asked Joey in a sarcastic tone.
"Uhhh..."
"Well for starters, none of you ever bothered teaching me how to swim with hooves!"
"We just got our cupcakes handed to us by the worst party crashers ever!" Cried Pinke.
"We gotta go back there and fight!" Shouted Rainbow dash.
"Hold on , William's still back there, I agree with Rainbow, we've got to go back for him."
"You saw the size of those goons." Said Spike.
"Joey, they probably already got him. You seriously want to go back?" Asked Applejack. They all looked over at Twilight.
"What do we do Twi?" She turned back to face them.
"The Queen..."
"The what?"
"Celestia asked Luna to find the queen of the hippo's, she can't, so I have to." Joey burst out laughing from disbelief.
"What the hell are hippo's going to do!?"
"She said its somewhere south, I know you're scared. Nopony else has to go. But I have to find this queen-"
"Ok. Bye." Joey turned and began trotting away.
"Well you're not getting all the glory." Rainbow flew over to Twilight. They came over to her side. Until Joey was the only one left. He looked back at them.
"What? I was joking, of course I'll come with you." They began walking south. Rainbow heard rustling coming from a nearby bush.
"Who's there!?"
"Calm down, it's me." William emerged from the bushes, clad in a guile suit and clutching an m4 rifle in his hands. The 8 of them looked at him, momentarily confused. Joey on the other hand, recognized the antics of his friend as soon as he had emerged from the bushes.
"William!" He ran over to him.
"I thought you were dead!"
"It'll take a lot more than some ####ing monsters to get rid of me. Y'all going somewhere?"
"We're going south, to find the queen of the hippos!" Pinkie shouted out.
"Hippos?"
"Yes."
"Hippos, did I hear that correctly?"
"Yes William, you did."
"Well...This world gets stranger every day. Eh, I can complain later. We go south!" He switched back over to his regular fatigues, and began walking down the dirt road. The rest of them just shrugged, and followed him. William motioned for Joey to walk beside him. Only to backhand him over the muzzle with a hard knuckle glove. He winced in pain.
"That, was for leaving me behind." Joey looked up at him.
"Sorry."
"Well, I forgive you, but not them." He pointed back at the six, and Spike, who was following them close behind.
"Keep an eye on them. They're a troublesome bunch. " He let himself fall behind, back to the six.
"Sure they are, mister unstoppable moron." He said under his breath. They snickered.
"I don't need pony ears to hear what you guys are talking about back there!" They looked at him with confusion.
"You know what? Nevermind, I took that as a complement by the way!" He continued walking ahead of the group. Still angry.
"I got something that'll cheer you up, how about a game of I spy?"
"I spy with my little eye, something grumpy and brown." William raised his gloved hand up, and slowly extended his middle finger.
"I don't think he wants to play, pinkie." Said Joey.
"Ohhh..."
Meanwhile back in Canterlot...
By this point, the storm king and his army had already taken the city, the population was not captive, the royal gaur blown to smithereens, and the princesses, turned to stone. Tempest looked out over the city.
"All this power... Wasted on parties..." She turned and walked back inside the throne room. Walking right past Celestia.
"...When there are far greater uses?" A pair of storm beast came running up, holding a jar filled with a blue glowing essence. It was ringing.
"Well, answer it!" The Storm beasts tipped the jars contents out into a large metal pot, it began crackle with lightning, forming a blue flame, the Storm beasts backed away. From it emerged the form of the storm king.
"Where am I supposed to be looking? I never understood how this spell works, Tempest!"
"Down here, your Excellency."
"Were?"
"Down here." The form of the Storm king looked down.
"Ah, there you are. Here' the deal, I'm in the middle of a big rebrand here. The Storm king is tracking, as intensely intimidating, but I need to back it up, you know what I need to back it up with? A storm! That would be great! You promised me magic that could control the element and right now, I'm holding what? A branch, a twig, a bleh...Although, now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't have wasted all its power on blowing up trees for fun, but whatever!"
"That would be the staff of secundis, your majesty. That will channel the magic of the 4 rulers of this land, you'll soon have the power of a hundred armies'."
"Yes, and you got the for pegacornicussss...Whatever you call them!"
"Give me 3 days, I'll have everything ready for your arrival."
"Remember Tempest, only I have the power to make you whole again. Make this twig work...Again, and I'll give you your reward. Fail me, and your horn won't be the only thing that's broken."
Oh, one more thing, during our initial invasion, only one put up a fight, he wasn't a pony, and referred to himself as "The unstoppable moron" we didn't catch any other name, he got away. But I'm sure he won't be a problem."
"Grea-" The message melted away, replaced by cauldron of glowing blue liquid.
"Sorry, bad spell service. You want me to call him back?"
"Do you have the princess?"
"Well funny story actually, she uh... She got away. But I got one word for you, sponge cake!" Grubber stuffed a slice of cake in his mouth, only to be fried by a bolt of magic from Tempest's broken horn.
"I need all 4 for the spell to work!"
"I know, I know."
"That princess is not going to stop me from getting my horn back! Prepare my ship!"
"What about the Unstoppable moron, what if we come across him again?"
"Then we'll find a way to deal with him when the time comes. Now go!"