My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Storm of Friendship

by SuperPinkBrony12

The Abandoned Kingdom

"Hey, Shining Armor! Anytime you wanna light up your horn is fine by me! But I much prefer NOT plummeting to my death, thank you!" Fancy Pants half yelled/half screamed, as he and the rest of the stallions (along with Spike) hurtled through the air at a speed that would've made Rainbow Dash jealous!

"Hold on, I'm working on it!" Shining shouted back. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a floating basket with his magic, tied the tarp around it and pulled all his friends into it. Then he held Spike up and instructed. "Give me your best flame breath, we'll use it to power this balloon!"

Spike obliged and in seconds a dragon fire propelled hot air balloon was floating through the sky. All aboard breathed a deep sigh of relief. "That was too close." Big Macintosh commented. No one else dared to say a word on the subject.

Thunderlane's roving eyes soon caught sight of the pirate ship, as what was left of it fell out of the sky. "Oh no! Guys, look!" He glumly declared.

The stallions' hearts all filled with dread as they watched the massive zeppelin fall apart piece by piece, a smoldering wreck and a shadow of its former glory.

"You think Captain Celeano and her crew survived?" Soarin asked.

"And Capper too?" Fancy Pants added.

Shining only shook his head. "Captain Celeano and the pirates could probably fly away, but Capper would need a parachute at the very least. Even if they survived, they'll probably go into hiding so as not to give Tempest a reason to hunt them down as well. I'm afraid we're on our own again."

"Then I guess it's on to Mount Aris for us," Braeburn glumly commented. "This trip sure stopped bein' fun real fast. What's the point of makin' new friends if they're just gonna disappear on us, or worse?"

The prince simply replied. "What happened to Capper and Celeano is unfortunate, but we didn't set off on this journey to recruit them. They were helpful for the brief time we were with them, but for all we know they may not have been willing to rise up against the Storm King," Then he firmly added. "All that matters now is that we reach Mount Aris and find Queen Novo. With a little luck, she'll have what we need."

"And if she doesn't?" Fancy Pants nervously asked.

The alicorn firmly protested. "She has to! Princess Celestia wouldn't have told Princess Luna to seek out her help otherwise! Queen Novo has to have dealt with the Storm King before, which means she's the best qualified to tell us what he's like and what kind of weaknesses we can exploit."

---

The balloon eventually reached Mount Aris and landed at the bottom of a huge flight of stairs that led up to the gates of the kingdom proper.

"Do we seriously have to stop here? Why can't we just go straight to the top?" Soarin protested.

"Sorry guys, but a dragon has to catch his breath sooner or later," Spike panted as he leaped out of the basket. "Would you rather I ran out of hot air and we all crashed?"

Shining quickly stood up for the little dragon and broke up any potential arguments. "You did good, Spike. I knew I could count on you. Hope you're not too winded, because it looks like we're in for a long climb."

Spike let out a groan. "I haven't seen this many stairs since we were hunting for the Crystal Heart. Wonder if this is where King Sombra got his inspiration for that never ending staircase."

All seven group members began their trek up the staircase (except for Soarin and Thunderlane who opted to flap their wings. Shining was still getting over his airsickness, so he decided it best to walk). It seemed to stretch on and on with no end in sight.

Eventually, Fancy Pants began to complain. "I'm all for walking but this is ridiculous. How can they expect anyone to make their way up this many stairs?" He folded his hooves and declared. "That's it, I'm not moving another step! You'll have to go on without me!"

"But Fancy Pants, we're almost there." Soarin protested as he swooped down to the unicorn's location.

"Soarin, you're just saying that to trick me. I won't fall for it." Fancy Pants retorted.

"No, I'm serious, we're literally almost there! Look!" Soarin declared as he pointed a hoof upward. The stairs did indeed end and the gates of the Hippogriff Kingdom could be seen from the ledge.

At last, after what felt like hours of stair climbing, the group reached the gates. They'd finally reached their destination after over a day spent outside the boundries of Equestria.

---

However a new problem soon presented itself to the group, namely a lack of civilization. The whole kingdom seemed void of any and all life. All that remained were tattered and worn traces of some kind of dwellings, but there was not a clue as to what had happened to them or where their occupants might have gone.

"So this is where the hippogryffs make their home? Frankly I'm underwhelmed." Fancy Pants observed as he adjusted his glass monocle.

"Something's wrong, where is everyone? This place is looking like a ghost town." Shining wondered.

"I don't know but it's really startin' to give me the creeps," Big Macintosh remarked. "I get the feelin' somethin' happened here. Somethin' really bad."

The prince felt his heart sink. "But... but... this can't be! To come all this way for nothing?! After all that we've endured, all we've scarificed! This is what we have to show for it?!"

"I guess Princess Celestia never learned of... whatever it is that went down here," Thunderlane declared. "But I don't think we're gonna be finding any sort of hippogryffs here, especially not a queen."

Braeburn nodded. "Yeah. I've already been over this whole place and found nothin'. This place is empty with a capital E."

But just then a faint sound pierced the silence. It sounded like singing and whoever it was that was singing appeared to have the most beautiful voice ever to grace an individual's ears.

"Hey, you guys hear that, right?" Shining asked his friends, all of whom nodded in agreement. He immediately turned his attention to the source of the singing, which appeared to be originating from a nearby cave.

Even as Shining crept forward, Spike nervously asked him. "You don't think it could be a siren, could you? Starswirl the Bearded banished a trio of them, but who's to say there aren't more where the Dazzlings came from?"

The prince shook his head. "Even if it was a siren what would it be doing all the way out here? There's no one to cause conflict with and no love or discontent to feed on. If a siren were to come here it would starve to death." Then he crept closer, making his way through the cave.

At last a small opening greeted the prince's eyes along with a small pond. And in the middle of, obscured by a tall pink plant, was a glowing yellow ball of energy. The singing appeared to coming from inside of said ball.

Braeburn suddenly leaped forward, splashing into the water! The singing stopped and the figure appeared to let out a gasp!

"Don't be alarmed!" Shining protested. "We're not here to hurt you! Please, don't go away! I want to ask you something."

But the figure didn't acknowledge the request, it just suddenly disappeared in the blink of an eye. Then all of a sudden, a whirlpool sprung up in the middle of the pond! Without warning, Shining Armor and Braeburn found themselves swept up inside it, as did the others (for they had wandered into the water with Shining).

In a matter of moments they were pulled beneath the surface and everything went dark!

Author's Note:

Not much to talk about here, the only thing to really cover is a comment TheFireyJoker made in his review of the movie. Due to the timeline it takes place in, sirens are canonized, and he mentioned how none of the ponies seemed to consider that the singing might be a siren.

So I wanted to address that by bringing up a possible argument as to why it couldn't be a siren.

Comments

[Comickook]

Thanks immensely for getting this next chapter up. Once more, the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are quite well done in all the right places. I certainly enjoyed the way the group handled the fall and remaining distance to their destination. And, yeah, I DID like the fact that at least a couple of them DID actually mention the Sirens in this chapter, if only to dismiss the possibility.

I'll certainly be looking forward to the next chapter.