The storm raged on in the distance, blotting out the sun.
"We've managed to keep the crops alive thanks to Earth Pony magic and some clever Canterlogic engineering, but it won't last forever," Phyllis explained as they stood in the endless shade, staring up at the dark clouds looming above them.
"It's bad," Hitch added. "We're keeping the peace for now, but I don't like our chances if word gets out that we have no idea how to break up this storm." This far away, the winds were gentle enough to not drown out their voices, and they could speak at a normal volume. Still, they could all see the roiling mass of clouds and debris at the top of the ridge, swirling around a central tornado that was clearly located at the eye of the storm.
And they could hear the music, too.
It was faint, like catching the notes of a song played from somepony's headphones. "Heavenly" didn't even begin to describe it. Zipp had attended a fair number of concerts in her time, and nothing had come close to the sorrowful yet lively tune that suffused the land, originating from that unnatural maelstrom in the distance.
Looking around, she realized that they were all nodding in time with the music unconsciously, despite the severity of their conversation.
"Weather is more of a pegasus thing, so we were hoping you could help," Phyllis said. "That's why I reached out to Sunny."
"I'm glad you did," Zipp said. "Wouldn't want to lose that new unity between our tribes."
"Can you do something?" Sunny asked, staring worriedly at the storm. "I don't remember reading about anything like this from the time when we still had magic."
Zipp turned to share a glance with her sister. "You think this might be...?"
Pipp nodded. "Can't think of anything else it could be." She held out her phone, her frown temporarily turning into a forced smile. "We should get a good photo to post, so that our subjects see us working together."
There was an unspoken agreement as they all put on brave smiles and Pipp snapped the picture before sending it off. She then turned back to Zipp. "If it is the Storm Siren, then you know there's nothing we can do."
"The what?" Sunny asked, her brows furrowing in concentration. "I don't remember studying that at all."
"It's an old pegasus legend," Zipp said, part of her mind still distracted by the enchanting music that spelled their doom. "I studied it for a bit, but I couldn't find any academic sources. The legends date back to before we lost our flight, and keep going on afterwards. Time and again, there've been stories of pegasi getting lured into some kind of storm by irresistible music."
"No one knows where the Storm Siren comes from or when it leaves, but it always stays in one place for a while, like it's waiting for something," Pipp added.
"How long does it stay?" Hitch asked.
Pipp shook her head. "Nopony knows."
"Some of the legends imply that it's stayed in one place for almost a year," Zipp said. "Other times, it's there one day and gone the next."
"There's no way we can afford to have this go on for a year," Hitch said grimly. "Is there anything we can do about it? If there's music coming out from that thing, maybe it's some creature in the center causing this?"
"In all the stories, nopony's ever managed to get to the eye of the storm," Zipp said. "No one can survive the intensity of the winds inside."
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Sunny asked. "We have magic now, right? Maybe some kind of protection spell could work here?"
Izzy shook her head. "The unicorns are still figuring out all that magic stuff, so I don't think we've got anything strong enough yet, and we don't really want to risk putting those kinds of spells on a pony. I'm sorry." She brightened, her usual smile returning. "Ooh, but if we had one of those giant mech things like Sprout, we could put the protection spell on that."
"Izzy, that's perfect!" Zipp turned to Phyllis. "Could Canterlogic make some kind of pegasus suit that could be reinforced with unicorn magic so that a pegasus could make it through those winds?"
Phyllis considered the question for a moment before replying, "Honestly, I have no idea. We've never built something like that before." She glanced back up at the clouds above as the music punctuated the silence like a clock counting the time down to disaster. Her expression hardened. "But we have to try something. Fine, I'll get my ponies on it."
Zipp's wings flared out. "Alright, I'll get ready for a trip, then."
Pipp immediately reached out to place a hoof on her shoulder. "A word in private, Zipp?" she hissed, her smile never fading.
Zipp nodded. "If you all can get working on the suit as soon as possible, we don't want to lose any more time." With that, she stepped out to the side with her sister, under the cover of one of the stores on the main street of Maretime Bay. "What's up, Pipp?"
"You can't possibly be thinking of flying into that storm." Despite her size, Pipp could project a larger-than-life presence when she wanted to, and right now, it felt like she was looming over Zipp as she spoke. "You know what happens to ponies that try to find the Storm Siren. They always find their corpses after the storm passes."
"I know," Zipp replied, sighing. "But, no other pegasus has as much experience flying as me. I'm the only one who was practicing even before Unity."
"You're also the heir to the throne," Pipp pointed out. "One day, you're going to be the queen, and you can't just throw your life away fighting some legend."
"What kind of queen would I be if I let some other pegasus risk their life when I'm the best pony for the job?" Zipp shook her head. "You remember what mom said. A princess needs to be ready to give up her life for her kingdom. It's supposed to be like that since the start."
"Risking your life is one thing," Pipp replied. "But this is suicide!"
"Don't you trust our new friends?" The brave smile Zipp put on wasn't fooling either of them, judging from Pipp's frown. "It'll be fine, Pipp," she said more softly. "We're living in a world of magic now, and now I have a chance to be like one of those princesses from the old stories."
"I'm coming with you, then." Pride welled up in her heart as she saw Pipp standing strong, determination burning in her eyes.
"We can't send both princesses in," Zipp said reasonably. "One of us still has to become queen."
"You deserve it more." There was no hesitation in Pipp's words.
"Not if I don't do this," Zipp replied with just as much conviction.
For several seconds, Pipp glared at Zipp, but Zipp refused to back down. Finally, the younger pegasus groaned. "Ugh, why do you have to be so stubborn?"
"It's going to be fine." Zipp put a comforting foreleg on Pipp's shoulder. "We've already managed to do so much stuff we thought was impossible, y'know?"
Pipp sighed. "If this doesn't work, I'm so starting a social media campaign to get a holiday named after you."
Zipp rolled her eyes. "You're a princess. You can just ask mom to declare that."
"You've still got a lot to learn about ruling," Pipp replied. Her expression hardened. "And you better still be alive to learn it all."
Zipp smiled. "I'll do my best."
"Are you comfy?" Izzy asked.
Zipp shrugged, wincing as the motion caused a metal plate to dig into her barrel somehow. "It's fine," she said shortly. "The important thing is that I can fly."
"This suit has been tested for Category 4 winds," Phyllis explained. "But we don't know how it'll do against that thing." She pointed to the storm, which had not abated in the two days it had taken to build the suit.
"That's why we have magic, right?" Zipp smiled at Izzy. "You ready to do the thing?"
Izzy snapped off a quick salute. "Aye aye, princess!" Her horn glowed, and Zipp felt the metal plates encasing her tingle with what almost felt like electricity, except that it was making her spirit shiver rather than her coat.
Her fight-or-flight instinct flared up as she struggled to hold still. Even after Unity, it was hard to shake the stories she'd heard of pegasus being shot out of the sky by unicorn magic.
She took a deep breath, reminding herself that Izzy wouldn't hurt a fly. The constant, alluring music playing the background gave her something else to focus on, and she let the otherworldly sound soothe her as she waited for her friend to be done.
Eventually, she saw the glow around her suit fade, leaving it with a sparkling sheen. "All done!" Izzy declared.
Pipp snapped a photo. "That's gonna go viral for sure."
"Well, I think that's everything, then," Sunny said, staring at Zipp in worry. "You ready?"
Zipp nodded, trying to ignore how hard her heart was pounding. "Ready as I'll ever be."
Pipp stepped forward, giving her a hug and nuzzling her as best she could. "Good luck, Zipp," she whispered. "You've got all of Zephyr Heights rooting for you." She showed Zipp her phone, which was filled with uplifting comments from their subjects.
Zipp grinned. "Well, if I've got that, then I definitely can't fail."
After the others had all gotten their hugs in too, it was time to go. Zipp spread out her wings, turned back to call out, "I'll see you all tonight for dinner!" and then took to the skies, towards the storm and the Siren that continued to play her instrument.
The first part of the flight was relatively normal, with the winds slowly growing in intensity, but no worse than some of the storms she'd flown through before. Whatever enchantments Izzy had put on the suit were already beginning to work, allowing her to cut through the air more smoothly than she could ever remember doing before.
Soon enough, however, she reached the edge of the tornado, and things started getting rough. She could feel herself being buffeted by stronger winds, trying to pull her this way and that, and the protection spells on her suit flashed several times as they blocked various pieces of debris from knocking her to the ground. "Thanks, Izzy," Zipp muttered to herself as she kept flying.
The song was getting louder, too, coming through clearly despite the cacophonous maelstrom it was surrounded by. It was actually really helpful, as even when she could barely figure out which way was up, she could still aim herself towards that beautiful melody.
This close, it was almost like it was calling out specifically to her, now. Maybe it was. Nopony had ever gotten this far and lived to tell the tale. Maybe the Storm Siren could already see her, was trying to draw her closer to her demise.
But Zipp was about to show her what the power of friendship could achieve.
A tree branch flew right in front of her face, and Zipp had to pull back to avoid stress-testing the protection spells too much. Unfortunately, this allowed a stray gust of wind to blow her off track, sending her careening into a boulder that had been swept up in the massive tornado.
Zipp felt the impact, even though her suit took the brunt of it. She cried out as she flapped her wings harder, pushing towards that sweet, sweet sound that was playing on despite the storm.
Another boulder hit her, even harder than before, and it knocked the breath from her lungs. If not for the suit, that would surely have been the end of her. Unfortunately, it was definitely the end of the suit, as Zipp felt the plates around her barrel come apart, like scales being shed.
She was so close now. Zipp pushed herself harder, forcing all her flight magic into her wings as she pushed through the winds. She could feel the rest of the suit coming apart as they resisted the winds as best they could, until a stray branch pierced a wing plate and shattered the entire construct.
Zipp screamed as the full force of the storm bore down on her. Everything became chaos and pain and music and motion as she was tossed about like a doll.
And then it stopped, and Zipp fell.
Her vision was already fading, and her body battered to the point where she could barely move her wings, so all she could do was fall. Idly, she thought about Pipp, hoped her younger sister would be able to get over her death. There was no doubt that she'd make a great queen once their mother stepped down.
Something caught her. It wasn't gentle, and Zipp gasped as the impact knocked the last of the breath from her lungs, but it didn't kill her, and she eventually realized that she was being slowly lowered to the ground.
"She's still alive!" she heard somepony yell. There was some cursing, and then Zipp felt... better. The agony had dulled into a soft ache, and some of her energy had returned.
Zipp opened her eyes.
There was a green pegasus with a yellow mane standing over her, a worried look in her eyes. "Oh, thank Celestia," she breathed as she saw Zipp's eyes open.
Celestia? Zipp shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "W-What happened?" she managed to croak out. The music was still playing, still trying to entice her into getting up and moving towards its source.
"You survived the storm," the pegasus replied. With her brain working a little better, Zipp noticed that one of the stranger's wings was see-through, like it was fading out of existence. "Nopony's ever done that before. You must be one hay of a flier."
"I had help." Looking around, Zipp saw the storm still swirling around them, kicking up dust and trees and rocks in a dangerous dance. Somewhere out there were the remains of her suit, caught up in that endless maelstrom. "Earth Pony engineering and Unicorn magic for protection."
The other mare nodded. "Smart." She held out a hoof. "I'm Lightning Dust, by the way."
"Zipp Storm." Zipp grabbed the hoof and used it to help herself up. "Thanks for saving my life, whatever you did."
"It was the least I could do," Lightning replied, smiling sheepishly. "Considering I'm the reason you ended up like that."
Right, this storm hadn't been natural. "You're the Storm Siren?" Zipp asked, her suspicions raised as she entered into a fighting stance. If this mare was the source of the storm...
"Is that what they're callin' me these days?" From the same direction as the music, a new voice pierced through the chaos, with a drawl that Zipp couldn't quite place. "Gotta admit, it's got quite the punch to it, but Lightning's more the type for fancy names."
Zipp looked behind her to see a yellow earth pony stepping out from the windy walls of the tornado, looking completely unscathed as she played a fiddle in one hoof.
"I didn't find nopony else out there," the new mare said as she continued to produce the most beautiful music Zipp had ever heard. "Looks like she came here alone." She smiled at Zipp. "I'm Fiddlesticks. Pleasure to meet ya, ma'am. I'd offer to shake your hoof, but I'm a mite occupied at the moment." Her hoof— and the fiddle— glowed with magic as she played.
Looking back, Zipp also noticed that Lightning's wings were slightly glowing, even the transparent one. "You two are the ones making the storm?"
"Yeah," Lightning replied. "Not that we want to, though. We're kinda stuck doing it."
"Stuck?" Zipp raised an eyebrow. "How can you be stuck doing this?"
"We're cursed." Fiddlesticks held up her fiddle. "By this darn thing. I can't stop playing it, and that means Lightning here can't stop powering the storm."
"Yeah, we were kinda hoping that when pony magic went away it'd take the curse with it, but apparently enchanted artifacts don't count for whatever happened," Lightning added. "Or at least, after a few hundred years, pretty sure it doesn't."
"Magic's back, anyways," Zipp said absently, still taking this all in. She'd expected to have to fight some evil monster to free Maretime Bay, but Lightning Dust and Fiddlesticks seemed like normal ponies who just happened to be immortal and creating a giant magical storm.
"So we heard," Lightning replied. "Sometimes we get bits and pieces of newspapers that blow in from the storm." Her eyes narrowed. "Wait, Zipp Storm. Aren't you the pegasus princess?"
Zipp nodded. "Yeah."
"Huh." Lightning stared at her for a moment. "So what brings a princess here? You on some big quest to prove yourself now that you can fly again?"
"Nah." Glancing around at the storm surrounding them, Zipp asked, "I'm here because the storm is messing up the crops growing in Maretime Bay."
Lightning's eyes widened. "Oh. I thought Maretiime Bay was the Earth Pony place, though." Hope flashed in her expression. "Does that mean..."
"We're united again," Zipp said, and Lightning's face lit up in joy.
"You hear that, Fiddle?" Lightning turned to her companion, a wide grin on her expression. "We don't have to be enemies anymore!"
Fiddlesticks snorted. "Took them long enough to get their heads on right." Her expression softened as she smiled as well. "Good on 'em, though. It was tough to see everypony at each other's throats like that for so long."
"Anyways, sorry about the whole crops dying thing," Lightning said. "We'll move it away."
"Thanks." There was a pause after that. "Okay, that was easier than I expected." Zipp stared at the two cursed ponies. "Is there some kinda catch here?"
Fiddlesticks pawed at the ground awkwardly. "Well, ya see..."
"Nopony's ever made it here alive before," Lightning added. "And, uhh, we're not sure how they're supposed to get out either."
"Oh." Zipp hadn't considered that. If she couldn't stop the storm, then she was stuck in here as well. "Well, that sucks."
Lightning glanced up at the obscured skies. "If you follow us when we move the storm then you won't get torn apart by the winds, but unless you can do whatever it is you did to get in here, I don't know how you can escape this tornado."
"I had to use an enchanted suit to get in," Zipp replied. "Don't think I'll be able to get another one of those in here."
"I'm sorry." Lightning put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
Zipp tried to force a smile. "It's fine," she said, gritting her teeth. "I was ready to die to save Maretime Bay anyways. Just wasn't expecting to go out like this, I guess."
"Hey, I'm sure we'll figure something out. Back in my day, the princesses were always pulling some sort of miracle out of their asses to get out of tight spots." There was a bit of a bite to Lightning's statement, but Zipp ignored it for now. "Looks like you've got their spirit, at least."
"Well, you said you were cursed, right?" Zipp asked. "Don't curses usually have some way to break them?"
Another glance between Lightning and Fiddlesticks. "I'm afraid that ain't gonna happen either, sugarcube," Fiddlesticks said kindly. "It's too late to save us."
"But there is a way to do it," Zipp pressed on.
Lightning sighed and raised up her translucent wing. "See, we're both stuck here because I was a total idiot who couldn't let go of her past."
"I keep tellin' ya, Lightning, I'm the one who decided to come with you," Fiddlesticks chided.
"Still, you wouldn't even be in that position if I'd just been okay with losing my wing." Lightning turned to face Zipp, her expression filled with shame. "I had a real bad accident a really long time ago, and I thought I was okay with it. I had Fiddlesticks, and a beautiful daughter who was doing amazing things. What more could a mare want, y'know?"
"Flying was your life," Fiddlesticks said softly. "I don't think anypony could rightly blame ya for wanting to have it back."
Lightning snorted. "I was jealous of my own kid. How sad is that?" She shook her head. "Anyways, I got it in my head to try to find a way to heal my wing and Fiddle came with me. Ended up finding that damn thing that promised a wish to whoever played it."
"But with a price." Fiddle smirked. "Y'know how these stories go. And being the idiot that I was, I thought it'd just be me paying it."
"I tried to stop Fiddle, but it was too late." Lightning shrugged. "So, here we are. We got healing magic, enough to sort of fix my wing, but the price we paid was having our magic used to fuel a magical prison. In this case, the storm."
"And there's a way to free you two?" Zipp asked again.
"Our daughter," Lightning said. "That's what the fiddle told us when we got cursed. Because we abandoned her to go on this stupid quest, we don't get to know peace or whatever until we find out if she ever forgave us."
"'Course, by the time we figured out how to control this crazy storm, it was way too late," Fiddlesticks said, the sadness of ages weighing in her eyes. "And after so long, there's no way for us to know anymore."
"Wow, that sucks." To not only be trapped here, but also never know if their daughter hated them until the end of her days? Zipp couldn't imagine how hard it must be.
Lightning shrugged. "We've made peace with it. Kinda. Still sucks that we'll never know what happened to Star Dust. Can't believe we left before her first performance as a Bolt."
Zipp froze. "Wait, do you mean Wonderbolt?"
Lightning glanced sharply at her. "You've heard of them?"
"There's some really old stuff in the Royal Archives," Zipp said, her heart racing as she put the pieces together. It couldn't possibly be, and yet... "Do you recognize this?" She drew a symbol in the ground, one that she'd seen long ago in the genealogical records.
Fiddlesticks gasped, though her playing never faltered. "Oh Celestia..."
"That's her cutie mark," Lightning breathed. "How...?"
Zipp grinned. "Star Dust was the captain of the Wonderbolts. Her descendants served the Princess faithfully until things fell apart, and they left to start a new kingdom in Zephyr Heights. The Royal Family traces their ancestry back to her."
"Royal Family..." Lightning glanced back up sharply at Zipp. "Do you mean...?"
"Looks like I'm your great-great-something granddaughter," Zipp replied, her grin widening.
Fiddlesticks laughed. "Would ya look at that, Lightning. Never thought our kids' kids' kids would end up being royalty."
"Should've known they'd do great," Lightning quipped back, a smile on her lips as well.
"There's another funny thing I found in the archives," Zipp continued. "We lost the names of Star Dust's parents, but we do know that she had a statue of them commissioned in their memory in the Wonderbolt Headquarters."
The two cursed ponies were tearing up now. "You mean..." Hope filled Fiddlestick's voice as she stared at Zipp in wonder.
Zipp nodded. "She loved you, in the end. Whatever you might have done, she still loved you."
The fiddle began to glow brighter, a shining white light consuming it as Fiddlesticks gasped and dropped it to the ground, ending the everlasting song. The light grew, forcing Zipp to shut her eyes to block out the burning luminescence, but even that wasn't enough as the entire world became light and pain that burned her eyes and made them tear up.
And then, it stopped, and Zipp realized that they were surrounded by complete silence. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes.
The storm had subsided, and the skies were clear.
In the distance, she could see her friends galloping towards them. And on the ground were two normal-looking ponies, a pegasus and an earth pony who were staring at each other in wonder.
"You two are still around?" Zipp asked, surprised. "I thought, after the curse broke..."
Fiddlesticks shrugged. "We ain't dead, sugarcube. Guess the curse just froze us like we were when we first found that darn fiddle."
"Yeah, looks like we're not ready to move on, yet," Lightning added. She turned to Zipp. "Mind giving your old great-great-whatever grandmothers a place to stay for a bit?"
Zipp smiled. "Sure. I'm sure my sister and my mom would love to meet you too."
"You know, somewhere out there is probably a world where I wasn't an idiot and we got to see Star's debut as a Bolt," Lightning said. "And, no offense, but I'd definitely rather be in that world. But I think getting to know all of you and this new world won't be so bad either." She winked. "Besides, you pegasi could probably use someone who knows how weather stuff works now that you've got your magic back."
"We've got a lot to learn from you," Zipp agreed. "Sunny's gonna be over the moon to have someone from the Age of Princesses to talk to. Did you ever meet the Elements of Harmony?"
Lightning's grin became pained. "Right, about that..."
There was a loud guffaw as Fiddlesticks nearly fell over from laughter. "Oh, this is gonna be fun."