Princess Skystar stood in the Mount Aris train station next to a crowd of hippogriffs, waiting for the Friendship Express to arrive and take her to Ponyville. She had a blue saddlebag on with as many of her belongings as she could pack. She could barely contain her excitement.
At long last, after begging her mother Queen Novo to let her go, she was finally going to the School of Friendship to study with her cousin Silverstream. She still could not believe that this was really happening. She was practically bouncing up and down, ignoring the curious stares from the other hippogriffs as she eagerly anticipated the arrival of the train.
Her ears perked up as she began to hear the sound of a whistle in the distance. Sure enough, the Friendship Express was speeding along the tracks towards the station. It finally stopped and the doors opened to let the ponies and hippogriffs out.
As Skystar began to take a step forward to board the train and start the next stage of her journey, a departing passenger on the train caught her eye and she stopped dead in her tracks. This pony looked familiar and she knew that she had seen her before.
The pony was a unicorn mare and she sported a purple coat with a blue mane and tail. Her horn was silver colored. She had a concerned expression on her face as she departed the train and stepped onto the brown platform.
All at once, Skystar instantly recognized this pony. “Izzy Moonbow…?”
“It’s good to see you too,” Izzy spoke calmly, “I’m sorry for coming here on such short notice and it’s not even our multiversary.”
“No no, it’s alright,” Skystar assured her, “I’m happy to see you. I assume Pinkie Pie sent you through one of her fourth wall portals. I can tell something’s wrong though. What is it? You know you can tell me.”
Izzy sighed deeply, staring at her friend directly in the eyes. “I assume you haven’t heard. We have a crisis back in Maretime Bay. I’ve already warned the others.”
“Discord?”
Izzy shook her head. “No. Not Discord. It’s somepony far worse. I need to see your mother now. But first…Skystar, we should talk.”
Skystar blinked in confusion. “Okay? What’s been happening?”
Izzy motioned with her hoof to the inside of the train. “Come on out, Misty. It’s okay.”
A blue coated unicorn mare came out of the train. She had stringy hair and no cutie mark, which Skystar found to be particularly odd.
“My name is Misty,” Misty introduced herself. “Misty Brightdawn. We’re from the future and we need to talk to your mother. Is she Queen Novo?”
Skystar nodded. “How do I know I can trust you? I mean, I can trust you, Izzy, but as for your friend, I don’t know her. And you know how my Mom is with outsiders.”
“I understand,” Izzy stated, “But there is a crisis where I’m from. An evil alicorn named Opaline is attempting to destroy Equestria. She’s kidnapped Sparky and Sunny! My friends and I aren’t enough. We need reinforcements. We need you to tell Novo what is happening, have her come and meet us, so that we may deliver a special message and she will believe it.”
“Okay okay okay,” Skystar tried to make sense of this. “So this message you need passed down through generations, so that upon your arrival here where you’re from, my great great great great great great granddaughter will send troops to your aid?”
“Precisely,” Misty confirmed, “Look, contact between ponies and other creatures is practically nonexistent where we’re from. We’re attempting to change that. A secret call to arms that only your family will know, no one else. You can’t tell anyone but your Mom until we arrive. But Queen Novo must know this, so that you guys can prepare, so that you will recognize us.”
Skystar shook her head in confusion. “All this wish washy timey wimey stuff is confusing! Well, I understand this is serious, sooooooo…I’ll be back.”
———————————————————————————————————————————
Skystar swam through the ocean once again as fast as she could, passing by all the fishes and whales she normally saw. They were normally a source of comfort, the embodiment of solace and tranquility that came with the sea itself.
This time though, she didn’t have time to talk, not even when the kind and gentle sea turtle came swimming by for a chat. She stopped briefly and motioned with her fins in sign language: Not now, this is important.
The turtle understood instantly. Go now, Skystar. I will be here.
Skystar swam through the rock wall opening to the beautiful kingdom of Seaquestria where she saw her mother talking with some of her advisors over by the castle.
“…and that’s why we will now extend our underwater borders to those in need,” Queen Novo finished. “This is a change of plans, yes, but I do believe my daughter has made an excellent point. We cannot change the future by being closed off, we-“
“Mother!!” Skystar called frantically, swimming over to them and leaving a trail of bubbles in her wake.
Novo turned her head and smiled. “Oh! Speaking of which, right on time. Skystar, please explain to our stubborn advisors right here why this new policy I came up with is good as they keep telling me that it’s a bad idea.”
“Mother, we have no time!” Skystar said hurriedly, “We have to talk in private right now, this is serious.”
Novo saw the fear on her daughter’s face and nodded quickly, motioning for her advisors to leave at once. They swam away and she turned her attention to Skystar. “Alright, what is it? Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to be on the train?”
“Mom, the future is in danger!” Skystar took a deep breath. “Okay, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but…” She cleared her throat and told her mother everything from the first time she met Izzy a year ago in Discord’s dimension to the present.
Novo could not believe what she was hearing. It all sounded so…fantastical and hard to take seriously, yet she knew Skystar would never lie to her. It had to be true, yet she wanted to make sure of it before taking any action.
Are you sure?! Absolutely sure of this, Skystar?!” Novo demanded, terror in her voice. “Are you certain of this?!”
Skystar nodded. “Izzy asked me to relay this to you. It’s a distress message. Should a great evil arise and threaten Equestria, we all must stand and fight! Please, Mother. We have to do this.”
“Why would I risk the safety of my kingdom for a future that doesn’t even affect us? For all you know, this message could be a lie.”
“Has Izzy ever led me astray, Mother?”
“…No, but I don’t trust her. She’s not from the Equestria we know.”
“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help her. Please, Mother. If I have you meet her, will you consider answering the call?” Skystar pleaded.
Novo nodded back. “If you can prove to me that she’s genuine, then we shall pass this message down to our successors.”
It took a couple of minutes, but Skystar managed to bring Izzy and Misty down to Seaquestria where a skeptical, yet alert Queen Novo was waiting for them. She stared at them with an unflinching gaze that spelled ‘authority’ right in their faces. Upon seeing the hardened and resolute figure before them, Misty began to tremble as the look that Novo was giving her gave her flashbacks of Opaline and her wrath.
The graceful seapony monarch wasted no time in interrogating the both of them, starting with three harsh words: “Speak, time travelers.”
Izzy swam up a couple of inches. “Queen Novo, daughter of Empress Eternalia, ruler of the hipppgriffs and seaponies…I’ve come asking for your help. Equestria is under attack where I am and I need the help of the hippogriffs. I need your help, your majesty.” She bowed.
Misty admired Izzy’s use of proper courtesy and was relieved that she was doing the talking instead of her. She knew deep down that if she tried to do it, she would mess up spectacularly.
“Skystar has told me you have a secret message that only Skystar and me may know,” Novo stated, “Tell me what it is if the message is true.”
“That was it,” Izzy replied, “That was the message. Equestria has cut contact with the other creatures where we’re from. They will not listen, nor will they recognize us, unless you have seen us face to face.”
“You can pass down this message from generation to generation,” Misty spoke up, “A secret call to arms that can only be activated when the time is right, so that we can hopefully reestablish connections with the other kingdoms, wherever they are now.”
“Can we help them, Mother?” Skystar pleaded. “I know you don’t know them, but they’re as much worthy as our help as Twilight and her friends were back during the battle against those three villains.”
Novo stared at the two ponies from the distant future in deep thought. She knew they weren’t lying as they had no reason to. This was all too much to comprehend. Yet…this was her chance. This was her chance to right a previous wrong, something Skystar had rightfully called her out for. She had failed Princess Twilight when she kicked them out of Seaquestria without giving them a chance to explain. Even when she had sent troops to save Equestria from Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis, and Lord Tirek, she had never fully forgiven Twilight for what she did. It was only during that fateful conversation with her own daughter practically sobbing, begging her to let her go did she finally understand the ramifications of her actions.
She had an opportunity to help Equestria now, to save the future from a potentially even worse threat than the Storm King. She had once tried to solve her problems by running. Now she knew that wasn’t the answer. This was where she had to make her stand.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to, your majesty…” Misty said, sensing the conflict within her, “It was just a suggestion…”
Izzy glared at her. “We came all this way, Misty.”
“So what?!” Misty snapped at her. “We can’t do force her to help if she doesn’t want to. We’ll find another solution if she doesn’t agree.”
“Please, Mom…?” Skystar stared at her mother with sad, pleading eyes. She knew how hard it was for Novo to agree to help a future she didn’t even know, but she hoped that she could find it in her heart to agree.
After much pondering, Novo finally took a deep breath. “Like it or not, you ponies still are close allies of Hippogriffia and I would be doing a disservice to your future if I did not help. I will not run from my problems as I did years ago.”
Izzy immediately perked up upon hearing this. “So you’ll actually help us?!”
Novo nodded. “Yes, I will. I shall carry your message through our family for generations to come until the time comes for our successor to officially reveal it to the rest of the kingdom. It’s time we stand and fight together as we used to. It’s time we stand as allies, as friends, as neighbors. Whatever your future has become and wherever we are, there are ponies like you carrying on the legacy of your ancestors, which is enough to get us involved as well. Let your final stand be one of victory, not of defeat. And when you come here once more, years from now, you girls let our successor know that QUEEN NOVO AND PRINCESS SKYSTAR GIVE THEIR OFFICIAL APPROVAL TO FIGHT!!!!”
Upon hearing this news, Misty and Izzy both cheered and shouted for joy as Skystar swam up and hugged her mother again. Izzy couldn’t believe her own eyes. They had secured an ally all by themselves! She couldn’t wait to tell their friends back home.
Although they couldn’t tell exactly what was to come, they knew now that their future was in good shape.
———————————————————————————————————————————
Many thousand years later….
The Kingdom of Hippogriffia stood largely unchanged by the passage of time. The realm that was said to be home to the mythical hippogriffs and the elusive seaponies still operated the way it usually did on a remote southern island off the coast of the raging ocean.
On land, these majestic beings of flight continued to inhabit and embrace their terrain, which was known as Mount Aris. It was a fairly agricultural-based nation, although some of the technology from Equestria had been stolen in recent past and integrated into the culture. Despite this, the hippogriffs had no use for it. They were largely rigid in their ways and preferred to stick to their traditional ways, a mindset that was bred into them since the very day they were founded.
The kingdom had been founded four billion years ago when the first hippogriffs broke off from the land that would eventually become Equestria to form their own country. Led by Queen Aris, they created their culture and their own way of life. This was so monumental that the mountain from where they had first gathered together was named after her.
For over a thousand generations, the hippogriffs grew their empire and expanded their influence across the seas. As the reigns passed from Queen to Queen, Hippogriffia became a major world power. No foreign country ever dared to invade it and everycreature across the world loved Queen Eternalia, a resolute, but compassionate leader who led a revolution in domestic policy, improving the hippogriffs’ home life.
But all that changed when Queen Eternalia passed away, leaving her daughter Princess Novo the Queenship. Queen Novo was not like her mother. While she was a respected and resolute leader, she was far too focused on maintaining harmony between her subjects, and building the Harmonizing Heights for leisure activities while abandoning the kingdom’s borders.
This came to a head when the Storm Kingdom set their sights on finally capturing Hippogriffia. The leader of the invaders was a being called the Storm King, a name cursed and feared in every universe. While the Storm King was never able to conquer Hippogriffia, he had posed a visible threat to the other kingdoms, conquering them for a brief time and then moving on after mass murdering the majority of the population.
Finally, the Storm King made his move on Hippogriffia, attacking and utterly destroying the populace, forcing the hippogriffs underwater, leaving their former capital of Mount Aris abandoned. However, despite her failure to protect her kingdom, Queen Novo vowed to not let her mother’s legacy collapse, calling upon all the powers of the sea to craft a magical Pearl of Transformation that would allow the hippogriffs to live new lives underwater as seaponies.
From there, Queen Novo and the seaponies used their ambition and resourcefulness to build a new kingdom called Seaquestria, hidden away in the darkest depths of the sea, where the Storm King could never go. Following the Storm King’s defeat by the ponies, the kingdom was divided into two depending on where they wanted to go. The hippogriffs could choose to be seaponies and vice versa.
Although it was once allies with Equestria, however, that was no longer the case in present day. This was because the rise of the evil alicorn Opaline had sown so much distrust amongst the general population that creatures who were not ponies were no longer welcome and those who refused to return to their own countries would be slaughtered. This resulted in the hippogriffs and seaponies officially declaring their allegiance to the kingdom of ponies over.
It was in this state of isolationism that Hippogriffia stayed for a thousand years and many grew distrustful of ponykind. Some even considered them to be myths in turn. But all that was about to change one stormy night as a centuries-old prophecy was finally going to come true.
It all started way below the ocean’s surface in the underwater Kingdom of Seaquestria, a beautiful city made up of pink houses that glowed brightly and lit up the dark water surrounding it in a fabulous light. To all who visited it, it was known as a place of peace and sanctuary. There was no war or any form of recorded armed conflict as no potential invader could possibly know where they were.
Not much was happening on this day. While their land brethren dealt with the harsh climate above, the seaponies were leisurely swimming along, their fins flapping against the smooth current and propelling them forward. They talked with one another and integrated with various marine life that passed by them.
The seaponies lived in blissful ignorance as they went about their day to day lives, unaware of the danger they were about to get themselves involved in. On the very top of their fantastical city was a building much larger and more luminous than the others. This was the Queen’s Castle and home to the currently reigning monarch Queen Skygrace.
She sat on her throne in deep contemplation, remembering the last message from her mother Reefstream bestowed upon her before passing the title of queen to her. It was a sad night many months prior that her mother passed away and she still was not over it. She was only 18 years old and much of the populace thought her far too inexperienced to be the ruler of the two kingdoms, yet they still respected her regardless.
She was their queen and by law, she was to be obeyed.
She remembered laying by her mother’s bedside, crying and sobbing, begging her not to die like this. Reefstream told her though that death was natural and was only a chapter of the endless story that was the way of water, the cycle of life. And it was on that very night, the Sacred Message was bestowed upon her.
“Remember,” Reefstream had said on her deathbed, diagnosed with terminal cancer, “Remember…the secret message those ponies gave us a long time ago. ‘Queen Novo, daughter of Empress Eternalia, ruler of the hipppgriffs and seaponies…I’ve come asking for your help. Equestria is under attack where I am and I need the help of the hippogriffs. I need your help, your majesty.’ This was given to us by our great ancestor Queen Novo…”
“And you want me to carry this message?” Skygrace had asked, fear on every inch of her body, not just of the enormous responsibility bestowed upon her, but about the nature of the message itself.
“Yes,” Reefstream coughed out blood. “They will come…those very ponies…in a time of great sorrow. They will bring us back out into the world. Until then, we must hide. Do…not…forget…”
With that, she had passed on and the funeral had been held the following day. Skygrace remembered being inconsolable for months, yet she held onto that message and never forgot it. It was her mother’s last words. She kept the memory close to her no matter how much it hurt her to constantly relive it.
As she began to lay down and fall asleep, a seapony guard swam into the throne room faster than a rocket, seemingly with urgent news.
“Your majesty!!” the guard spoke frantically. “Our scouts are detecting an unidentified flying aircraft in the sky! It’s headed right towards us!”
Skygrace was instantly on high alert. No creature had ever found them in ages as it was presumed to any outsider that their existence was a myth. If the guard was telling the truth, then that meant that someone knew of their existence.
“Are you certain of this?!” she demanded. “What does this aircraft look like to you?! Describe to me in detail.”
“They say that it is an unusual looking craft,” explained the guard cautiously. “It is purple and white, large window for the cockpit. They’re saying that they have spotted some ponies inside. What should we do?”
Skygrace froze. She knew what this meant. It was the message that her mother had told her to keep in the back of her mind. She had been right. Although the story seemed so fake to her as a child, she could not deny its existence and it terrified her. What could these ponies want that required their help? Didn’t they know that the hippogriffs and ponies were no longer allies?
She knew that she could not refuse them, even if she wanted to. It was her duty as a ruler to answer the call and she knew her mother would have wanted her to. Despite her better judgement, she knew what she had to do.
She stood up from her throne in an instant and swam over to him. “Send out all of our military and army personnel to meet them.”
“Pardon, my grace?”
“You heard what I said.”
“But why? They carry no weapons.”
“That’s just it,” Skygrace said fearfully, “This is the prophecy my mother warned me about. It’s coming true. Send out all army personnel to greet them on the shore. Let them know that we see their cursed beacon in the sky. It’s those ponies…they’ve come for us.”
The Marestream slowly descended from the air, landing on the beach that connected Mount Aris and Seaquestria. The sky was obscured by a sea of storm clouds and rain poured down on the shores. The wind howled violently and the sea raged as waves bashed against the shoreline in a thunderous display of nature’s fury.
As the ship touched down on the wet sand, an army of about five thousand hippogriffs emerged from the sea and the distance, marching in quick formation towards the landing site. Leading them was Queen Skygrace, decked out in full battle armor. She had a solemn and serious expression on her face as she approached the vehicle.
The doors opened to reveal none other than Izzy Moonbow and Misty Brightdawn, the ponies of the prophecy, stepping out to meet the army in front of them.
Skygrace was the first to speak to the newcomers. “Greetings, ponies of Maretime Bay. Have you come to bring your war here as you foretold many years ago?!”
Izzy shook her head. “No. We instead need you to help us. We have no intention of bringing this war to your soil. Equestria is in danger and our friends too. Several thousand years ago, Misty and I told you guys about the time of great sorrow, about the rise of Opaline, and why we need your help. Your great great great great great great great great great great grandmother Queen Novo gave you all permission to fight alongside us.”
“That was then, this is now.” Skygrace’s voice reverberated across the vicinity. She might’ve only been a teenager, but the authority in her tone was clearly present and no soldier dared to step out of line unless told to do so. “Why should we trust you?”
“Your ancestors and Equestria were once allies,” Misty continued. “You fought together and you fought many victories on the field of battle. When the Storm King arrived, you guys fled underwater. You swam away from your problems instead of facing them head on, and Queen Novo vowed to never do that again. If you don’t help, Opaline will take our war back to your shores, to your children’s children. You will never be safe unless we stop her together. It’s time for you all to rise again, born again as our allies. We will help you if you help us. We will supply you with whatever you need, armies, ammunition, communication, knowledge.”
“It’s time we make our stand together!” Izzy declared. “Today is a privilege to call our own, a story that will be told for a thousand years!! Let our final stand be recorded to the histories!! And let it be shown THAT WE CHOSE TO DIE AS COMRADES IN BATTLE RATHER THAN AS SLAVES TO TYRANNY!!!!!”
The hippogriff soldiers all cheered in unison, applauding in one massive standing ovation, and Skygrace gave a small bow of respect to the two ponies before turning towards her army. “You heard them!! MOVE OUT!! I shall follow you all!!”
The hippogriffs all shouted battle cries and took to the skies, their powerful wings beating against the storm that threatened their lives. The soldiers didn’t care about death, however. Their lives were made on the field of battle. Their legacies would be one of victory and comradeship, not defeat and cowardice.
Lightning struck the ground and thunder sounded across the sky as Izzy and Misty got back into the Marestream, which took off into the sky. It was the symbol of harmony, the symbol of friendship, the triumph of light against darkness, and the beacon that signaled the fulfillment of the ages-old prophecy.
Finally, Skygrace took flight after her soldiers, but not before whispering one last prayer into the heavens as her future became one of uncertainty.
“This is for you, Mother…”