Those of the group who couldn't fly raced to Big Ben as fast as they could while the pegasus ponies gave pursuit to the horrible monster bird that captured Happy and was now flying away at top speed.
Pipp was currently ahead of her older sister and Island, all three pegasi flying above Big Ben, who could swim almost fast as Aeon and the pegasi could fly... keyword, almost.
Each time that the pegasi managed to get close, one flap from Aeon's wings pushed them back a great distance before they got to the chase once more.
Borealis anxiously watched the events with her friends, unsure of how this chase would end... in their favor? In Aeon's? Maybe in neither. “They’re getting away from us! And Island, Pipp and Zipp can't keep chasing him like this!”
“She’s right,” Hitch agreed. “The wind from Aeon's wings keeps pushing them back!”
“Ben!” Rudolph cried. “DO SOMETHING!!”
“You bet your boots I will,” Big Ben reassured the group. “Watch out now! Watch your heads!”
Through his blowhole, he sent a large jetstream of water into the air, and upon seeing it, the pegasi dove out of the way to avoid it. The water jet hit Aeon straight in the chest, causing him to cough and gag from the impact, but unfortunately, this also caused Happy to fall right off Aeon's back! “Oh!” Rudolph gasped. “He fell off!”
“I got this!” Pipp dove down to catch the child, but before she could, Happy made a makeshift parachute with his top hat, causing the group to cheer for the baby's safety. “Way to unicycle that hat of yours, little fella!” Izzy encouraged. “I'll float you closer to Ben so we can take you home!”
But the second her aura closed onto Happy, a strong wind began to blow from the south, dragging Happy forward and causing Izzy to scream as she was almost pushed into the water, only for Island and Zipp to catch her before she did. But unfortunately, she lost her grip on Happy and the wind blew him out of sight. “Oh, he's lost again!” Borealis groaned. “And we only have two days left!”
Aeon laughed and flew off into the fog, causing Zipp to almost fly after him, but she herself was worried about getting lost into the fog, so she descended with her sister and Island onto Big Ben's back. “I’m sorry, Rudolph… I tried to pull him closer to me,” Izzy apologized regretfully, “but the wind was so strong, I had to let go!”
“Don’t blame yourself, Izzy. We’ll find him again,” Rudolph reassured with a heavy sigh. “I’m just… not sure how.”
“I know how,” Sunny declared. “Big Ben, head in the direction Happy went in, and we’ll see if we can follow the wind to his next location!”
XXXXXXXX
“Ugh, Sunny! We’ve been following the wind’s direction for hours, and still no sign of Happy!” Zipp groaned as they scoured the ocean. “Well, the wind couldn’t have just carried him in a different direction,” Sunny pointed out. “We gotta keep looking until we find a sign.”
Borealis looked out at the horizon while on Rudolph's back until she spotted something ahead of them that made her eyes widen. “Hey, guys? Who do you think that island belongs to?”
Everyone looked ahead to see a snowy island ahead of them, and Zipp checked the enchanted compass for any info, but to her confusion, it didn't show any information. “I don't know, Bori... it doesn’t gives any names of the owner or anything!”
“Do any of you recognize it?” Sunny turned to their friends from years’ past. “Yep! No, wait… nope,” O.M shook his head, causing the others to give him a deadpanned look. “Doesn’t look familiar to me.”
“Me neither,” Island agreed. “I’ve flown through the fog a bunch of times to deliver messages to Father Time, but… I’ve never seen that before.”
“Do you think the tiny babe might have washed up there?” Story Heart wondered. “There’s only one way to find out!” Hitch said. “Big Ben, can you get us over there super quick?”
“You bet your horseshoes I can, sheriff! Hold on!”
Everyone yelped as Big Ben swam off toward the island at a rapid pace, eventually stopping at it's shores. Rudolph and Borealis hopped off first, amazed at how similar this place seemed to their North Pole home.
Almost identical, now that they looked at it. “Wow… this place is beautiful!” Borealis smiled as the Mane 6, O.M, Sir 1023 and their Equestrian friends hopped off the whale and onto the snow. But once they did, magic swirls began to envelope Story Heart and Island Grove for a few moments, much to the shock of the others.
Before long, the magic faded away, revealing looks that matched the Mane 6's looks they got from their Christmas adventure. Island now had some new blue hoof polish and purple glitter gradient on her legs, along with her seashell pendant, while Story Heart had new blue glitter gradient and blue hooficure, along with her storybook-shaped pendant.
“Whoa... check out our looks!” Island squealed, gesturing to her new look. “I have it too!” Story Heart said, twirling to see all of her new look. “It's sort of like the island... gave them to you. And come to think of it…” Hitch spoke in thought, “this place looks a lot like the North Pole!”
“You think it’s some sort of hidden region of the North Pole nopony knew about?” Misty asked. “I’m not too sure. The snow here feels different than the snow at the North Pole,” Zipp said. “But if Happy is here, we better find somepony that we can ask, just in case.”
“Look there!” Story Heart pointed to a glow at the top of the nearby hill. “It may seem like this island is eluding me, but… I do believe that there might be a town up there!”
“Maybe someone up there will know where Happy is!” Borealis said. “Come on, you guys! Last one to the top of the hill is a rotten jingle bell!”
The little fox began to scurry up the hill as fast as her paws and the snow would allow her to, while the others merely walked behind. “Aren’t we gonna race too?” Izzy asked the others quietly. “Let’s wait a minute before we get moving at a quicker speed,” Rudolph whispered. “Bori did say that we have longer legs than her, so I don’t wanna make her feel bad.”
“Ohhhh… good point, Rudy!”
XXXXXXXX
By the time they finally reached the top of the hill, Borealis was completely out of breath, falling to the snow-covered ground in exhaustion. “That... was... IMPOSSIBLE!!”
“But this town... eek!! It's to die for!” Pipp squealed as they glanced the beautiful scene around them. The entire town seemed to sparkle under the glow of the stars, but there was one thing that seemed off... there was no one around. “Where is everypony?” Misty wondered. “It’s like this whole place is practically deserted,” Hitch observed, leaving Misty to hum in thought. “But it can’t be because of Mom or Opaline this time…”
The group then walked through the deserted streets, hoping to find someone who could explain things, but were having no luck. “Why would anypony abandon a fabulous place like this?” Pipp wondered, leaving Rudolph to hum in thought before his ears picked up a sound… almost like a rhythmic beat. “What is that?”
Curious, the group moved toward the largest building in the village, the sounds getting louder every time they got closer to it, and this caused Story Heart to glance toward it. “It sounds like it’s coming from in there.”
Misty sighed worriedly when the others began to move toward the building to check it out. “Why is everypony trotting towards the scary noises when there’s perfectly good silence in the other direction?”
“Don’t worry, Misty,” Sunny reassured. “We’re all going together.”
“Yeah!” Borealis barked. “We’ve got your back!”
Misty let out a sigh of relief at that. “Oh… right,” she said with a smile. “I keep forgetting.”
“Yes, sirree!” O.M agreed. “It’s all for one, and two for ten! Or was it… all for three and six for thirty? Anyway, we’re all going together!”
Slowly, the group walked toward the building and opened the doors to look inside, only to give amazed responses as a result.
Inside were unicorns who were different shades of blue, purple and green with crystal-like horns, crystally cutie marks and the same kind of pendants and glitter gradients that the ponies had, banging hooves and cups of hot cocoa to the beat.
In the middle was a fountain that created hot cocoa and approaching it with a flute in her magical aura was a purple unicorn with a blue glitter gradient and hooves that had a blue, crystally hooficure, a white mane and tail and a crystal cutie mark of a flute. Her bluish-green eyes seemed to radiate with a look of leadership, smiling among her fellow ponies.
Suddenly, that unicorn began to play the flute before singing a cheerful tune that even got the travelers bobbing their heads and swaying to the beat.
Violet Frost: (Everypony, come on!)
(Time to shine now!)
(You gotta shine now!)
Hey, put those workin' hooves away
It's time to hit the beat (Hit the beat)
The sun is down, the stars are shooting
Far as the eye can see (Whoo!)
Come on over, join the party
Just have fun with me (With me)
There ain't nopony here that's watchin'
Use your magic to believe
Ohhhh-oh-ohhhh
The stars align, the moon is shinin'
Ohhhh-oh-ohhhh (It's shinin', yes, it's shinin')
And can't you feel the night sky hummin'?
Ohhhh-oh-ohhhh
It's like it's up there callin' out to me
(It's callin' out to me)
To me
Starshine Time
We're only gettin' brighter
We're glowin' up together
We shine, shine, shine (We shine!)
Starshine Time
We're only gettin' brighter
We're glowin' up together
We shine, shine, shine
Da, da, da, da-da
Da, da, da, da, da-da
Da-da-da, da, da, da, da-da, da-da
We shine, shine, shine (We shine)
By the time the strange unicorns finished their song and dance, the others began to cheer excitedly for how amazing the performance was.
“WHOO-HOO!!”
“That was pawsome!”
“Exquisite!”
“That was SO good!”
“Encore, encore!”
But, to their confusion, as soon as these new unicorns saw them, they screamed and darted into hiding, once again leaving the new land deserted. After a moment of silence, O.M decided to break it with a question in his mind. “Was it something we said?”
“I don’t know… but they sure were scared,” Misty spoke with a frown. “Where did everypony go?”
“Uh… we’re really sorry!” Sunny apologized. “We didn’t mean to frighten you ponies!”
“We’re friendly!” Izzy added. “Honest!”
“Please come out!” Rudolph called. “We have something we wanna ask you!”
Hitch nodded in agreement. “Yeah, and we’re only here on a mission! We don’t even know where we are…”
“Fear not, rare creatures!” Sir 1023 cried. “I give you my knight's word that we will not bid you no harm! Please reveal yourselves!”
After a moment, the purple unicorn came out of hiding. “Hello... sorry for the sudden disappearance,” she said in a friendly tone, earning the others' attention. “We usually don't panic like that.”
Borealis barked a little bit and blinked up at her with shimmering eyes, causing the purple unicorn to giggle. “We’re just not used to new faces around here. You know, it's kinda hard to know who to trust or what is real, because of the trance.”
Sunny and Hitch quickly spared each other a confused glance, causing Sunny to speak up. “Trance?”
The purple unicorn seemed to panic upon realizing what she said. “Trance? Heh heh... I didn’t say... who said that? Not me.”
Story Heart, O.M, Sir 1023 and Island seemed to spare confused glances at each other for a moment, feeling as if something was wrong. “Anyway, we're very glad to meet you,” the purple unicorn said, bringing out her flute again. “Right, everypony?”
The purple unicorn then blew into her flute, signaling all the other unicorns like her out of hiding, but it seemed evident that they were still nervous.
One of those unicorns was a blue color with a white mane and tail with a purple gradient, magenta eyes, glasses and a crystal cutie mark of a comet blazing across the sky, along with a blue crystal hooficure and a blue glitter gradient on his legs.
This particular unicorn stumbled over to the group, slipping on the sparkly snow beneath them. “Our mistake-- whoa!” he shouted as he regained his footing. “We love visitors! Not that we’ve really ever had any… but I think we love visitors! I mean, at least I do? We just can’t really invite anypony here because of--”
The purple unicorn quickly cleared her throat as the others glanced at the two in confusion…
…Zipp especially. “What was that about?”
“Uh…” the purple unicorn stammered. “What Comet is trying to say is… welcome to Starlight Ridge!”
“I’m sorry, Violet,” the blue unicorn, now known as Comet, apologized in a loud whisper. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
Now, it was Island’s turn to be confused. “Say what?”
Instead of answering the pegasus’ question, the purple unicorn merely held out her hoof in greeting. “I’m Violet Frost!”
“I’m Sunny,” Sunny eagerly shook Violet Frost’s hoof. “To my left is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and next to me on the right is--”
“Izzy!” the creative unicorn of the group shook Violet’s hoof also. “Izzy Moonbow!”
Zipp offered her hoof for Violet to shake. “I'm Zipp, and that's O.M and Island Grove.”
“I'm Story Heart,” the pink earth pony introduced, “and this is Sir 1023 and Pipp. It's a pleasure to meet you.”
“I'm Hitch,” the stallion of the group introduced, shaking Comet’s hoof. “Hi!” Misty shook Comet's other hoof with a smile. “I'm Misty.”
Borealis then hopped in front of Rudolph, Izzy and Sunny, an eager smile on her face. “And I'm Borealis! And I have to say, you guys are some of the prettiest unicorns I've ever seen!”
“Awww, thank you!” Violet smiled. “I gotta say, I've never met many creatures that aren't auroricorns before.”
“And we've never met any that are!” Sunny spoke. “We’re so lucky we came here! Even if it is for another vital mission.”
“I've never seen anypony flute jam like that before!” Izzy said, and hearing this made Violet chuckle a bit nervously. “Yeah, I got a bit carried away. Still... gotta have fun while we can!”
Realizing what she just said caused the others to glance at her strangely, Violet quickly cleared her throat. “Anywho... you all are in luck, because today is Starshine Time!”
“YES!! WHOO-HOO!!” Izzy cheered out of the blue. “Starshine Time is my favorite time! It's my favorite-- but, uh... just one question-- what is it?”
“Starshine Time is our special time of fun!” Comet explained. “Something that definitely shouldn’t be missed!”
“But... do we even have time for fun right now?” Zipp tried to reason. “We do still have a Baby New Year to find.”
“By the way... have you guys seen him? His name is Happy,” Island said. “A bit taller than Bori, with a huge top hat and even bigger ears that are super adorable that they make anyone who sees them burst into laughter?”
“No, I'm sorry,” Violet frowned. “You're the first visitors we've seen here in a long time. Not since that fox a couple months ago.”
Borealis felt her entire world stop at that. “Did... did they say fox...?”
However, no one heard the fox's question and continued with their discussion. “Time passes differently on this island,” Comet said, “so it still should be December 29th out in the rest of the Archipelago. So maybe you can take a break and have some fun with us?”
Hitch turned over to Rudolph for advice. “I think I already know what the others are gonna ask, but... what do you think?”
Rudolph hummed at that. “On one hoof, this could give us the chance to get even more help for the search party, but... on the other...”
But when he looked back at the others looking at him with huge puppy dog eyes, he realized that they could always use a short break.
Especially Borealis and himself.
So, taking a deep breath, he turned back toward Violet Frost and Comet. “I think we will join you for Starshine Time. Just show us the way!”