3-1: Long Live The Queen
Princess Skystar, being the helpful and nosy little hippogriff she was, took it upon herself to give Silver Night a lift with Aris’s treasure before it was blown to smithereens with the rest of the island. Glancing behind her, she saw droves of hippogriffs and their families fly away to a safe distance. With a huff, the princess lifted the last box on the deck of the boat the pony and her friends sailed on. “Is this everything, Silver?”
Despite the dangers surrounding her, Silver’s only concern was that of her reward. With the terrifying rate the island was rapidly being decommissioned, she put her ass into high gear. Now that the boat had reached its capacity and then some, she thought “Damn, the boat’s loaded and ready to go but there’s still some treasure left”. “Skystar, do you think we can sail in time with this load?” She asked aloud.
With a worried look on her face, the young royal said “Maybe, but I don’t want to leave yet! Mom is still leading the evacuation! I don’t know if she’s got every creature out yet!” She glanced toward the island as more of its inhabitants lifted off from Mt. Aris, carrying whatever they could take. A violent tremble shook off Silver and Skystar, who tried to regain their footing.
“Aah! What was that?” Skystar exclaimed before remembering her two friends who were way down below, under the dastardly clutches of Whirlwind. “Silver! Do you think Coral and Cornfield are able to stop that creep from getting that super important gem?” she queried with shaking fright.
The unicorn thief gave it consideration, and the possibility of their failure did cause chills to run throughout her body. “Aaaah... Let’s just get out of here before any nasty surprises stop us. Bits are worthless if you die, Skystar!” Then she saw the ocean glisten under the descending sun, letting out a prayer to those underneath. “Please, just buy us enough time to escape.”
Skystar rejected the notion of Silver simply being in it for the money. She was a brazen thief, but knew she did have a good heart deep down. “But-but what about our friends? Do you really think a few bits will make you happy without them?”
“Whaddya mean a few bits? We have loads of treasure, Skystar! More than enough to risk our lives over!” responded Silver with her forelegs stretched outwards and above.
“Wha-? Don’t you care about their lives? Why they’re out there figh-”
KABOOM!
A shockwave shot through the tranquil skies over Mt. Aris while a bright shining ball of flame erupted along the high mountainous cliffs. It created an avalanche of heavy boulders and debris collapsing down where the city was founded. The scene reflected in Skystar’s eyes as her beak slowly uttered “Oh…no…” and she shied away with a foreleg. Yet she could not stop the screams that belonged to the many now deceased fulfilling her sense of sound. It was enough to fill her eyes with tears. Then she burst out at the nearby mare, her face beginning to turn red. “SILVER! They are going off!”
For her pleading of dire assistance, Silver returned by cowardly hopping into the boat, skipping any proper procedure for sending the boat adrift and shouting “I’M OUTTA HERE! EVERY MARE FOR HERSELF!”
Skystar’s first instinct was to run with her, but when another bomb exploded, followed by several more. The audible chaos running rampant throughout her home forced the hippogriff to turn toward where the carnage was unfolding.
“MOM! MOM, HOLD ON!” She cried out as loud as she could.
Onboard a boat heavy with the treasure of Mt. Aris, Silver set off for the horizon where she could find shelter on uncompromised land. For all she knew, the next bomb could spell the end of Mt. Aris and the hippogriffs.
Dashing forward, Skystar heard her mother’s voice as she passed the townsfolk at the gate who were flowing out of the city. Among the survivors were a convoy of guards exercising their utmost authority in ensuring their endangered species would live to fight another day. The hardships would take its toll, evident by the many injuries they carried on with.
“This way everyone!” Queen Novo commanded. We don’t know when the next one will go off! Move!”
With her mother still alive, Skystar smiled as a weight was lifted off her shoulders.
“Mom! Thank goodness you are all right!” She yelled across the crowd.
Without time for Novo to identify her only daughter, another explosion bursted off and shaved a cliff off the mountain above. The crowd dispersed like ants, leaving Skystar who just arrived to witness a grand white boulder hurtling towards her! In a moment of life or death, she felt petrified with fear when something forcefully tossed her over. In mid-air, she helplessly analyzed what was even going on before hitting the sand painfully. A grim moment passed, and she opened her eyes. There were sounds of shrieks and horrified gasps as the young hippogriff shook off the grainy sand in her feathers, some of them bent by her weight. Then, upon the site where the danger settled, laid a memory to stain her for all of eternity.
Setting hoof on the barren rock hard foundation, Silver finally arrived at Basalt Beach with a boatload of treasure. Now that she was safe from the disaster that was Mt. Aris, her thoughts wandered as she beared witness of the smoky remains of a once beautiful island floating over the horizon.
“Hmmm… Am I to wait here or will they know where I am?” The idea provoked Silver into considering abandoning this place. “... But how will I get all this treasure out?” Looking at her own mountain on the boat, it would have been nice to gain some means of bringing it home. “...Buck!” she muttered helplessly.
Near the coast of Mt. Aris, the rippling surface of the ocean shook with waves ricocheting one after another. At the same time, some wholly object underneath became darker and darker. Suddenly, a purple seapony broke forth and looked on to the ruins she once thought of her home. Cornfield followed suit, in a sloppy display of poor adaptation to his seapony form. His friend remained silent and watchful. Seeing the island’s once pristine skyline concentrated with smoke did nothing to invoke courage.
Breaking the silence just as he did the ocean surface, Cornfield asked “Ahhhhh… So… You think we’re too late?”
Cobalt Coral eyed him with sadness in her heart. “... I just really hope the losses are not as dire as Aqua may have led on...”
Dismayed, she sluggishly waved her fins until reaching the shallows at the shoreline. Although they had survived and saved themselves some time, the scale of devastation had to be seen for itself. She was none too excited to confirm the deaths and depression of her fellow griffs. Following behind with crippling sea navigation, as he could not find some comfort about his fins, Cornfield desperately tried keeping up. It wasn’t helped by Coral’s hasty swimming earlier.
Her pony friend tried to assess the situation as they understood it. “What about Silver and Skystar? Do you think they left already?” he queried.
“I’m not worried too much about Silver. She’s the type of pony to run from danger.” She squinted her eyes to focus over where the pier sat. “Yeah, the boat is gone... And there’s...” Something else caught her particular attention. “There are a lot of hippogriffs on the shoreline.”
His ears perked up, excited to hear the news of survivors. “Hey! If they are evacuating, maybe we can help out!”
“You’re right, Cornfield. Let’s pick up the pace. Wait until the Queen gets a look at your forehead. I bet seeing a pony wielding a hippogriff treasure will completely flatten her ego!”
“OK, Soo…” He pulled out his half of the magic pearl out of the water, scratching his head and asking “How do I use this to turn back into a pony again?”
“Just think about being a pony again while holding it and the rest will take care of itself. Easy stuff. By the way, I notice that you aren’t used to having fins. Go ahead and turn yourself back, climb on, and we’ll get going!” She gestured with her fins to her scaly back.
“Ok!” After restoring his colt frame and form, the earth pony paddled over to Coral and climbed on top of her.
“Hold on!” As he clenched his forelegs around her, Coral’s seapony form dashed through the outer watery layers on the ocean. Even as her concern grew substantially over those going unaccounted for or worse. Getting closer to the scene, they discovered a flock of hippogriffs crowding around something unseen to them. It was looking rather grim, and she braced her stomach for bad news.
Making contact with the shoreline, Cornfield leapt off and trotted where everyone had gathered.
“Hey! What’s going on?” He spouted, pushing through the grief stricken hippogriffs as courteous as possible in his urgency before coming to a complete halt.
Princess Skystar laid with her mother in a clinch as she stroked her head, while her own face was a broken river of tears, swimming in her own ocean of shattered emotions. The queen’s body was a cold crumpled shell of its former glory, obliterated by the inertia of the heavy boulder meant for her daughter. Queen Novo, the leader of the hippogriffs, became the latest statistic to the Storm Creatures’ body count.
In the wake of tragedy, Cornfield’s motor functions temporarily seized as he took in all the horror. His enthusiasm and courage all dissipated as he became entirely motionless. The earth pony visitor stayed with a gaping soundless mouth and eyes serving nary a blink.
When she found even her friend was stymied from moving at all, Coral gripped the pearl fragment in her mouth and jumped onto land as her hippogriff form. Breaching through the crowd, she slowed herself with steps that trembled enough to shake the sand off her legs until she was right next to Cornfield. The discovery would sow nightmares waiting to be unleashed through slumber. Despite her loudmouth personality and overall distaste for the queen, she felt it was not her place to speak up in the princess’s time of despair.
Coral made a shaky attempt to call for her. “S-Skystar...”.
This reeled in the young orphan’s attention to Coral, met with a deep sadness. Any attempt at talking had her nearly choking on the tears being produced, but through the stutter she did relay her Mother’s final wish.
“She…” A hiccup strained her throat. ”...She said that... if you make it back... for me to say...” She sniffed. “S-She’s sorry...”
Cornfield glanced at Coral with the same frozen expression retained since he discovered the tragedy.
“I-I...” The devastating loss disarmed Coral of her speech. instead opting to gingerly step over to her and place her sorrowful talons upon Skystar’s shoulder. The young princess’s crying eyes dashed up to look at Coral’s own tears projecting from her eyes, and hugged her in deep sadness.
Skystar cried even further. “It’s my fault! I got so worried about my mom that I didn’t leave like she told me to. If I had just gone... IF I HAD JUST...GONE!”
Her face made a nosedive as she clinched her even harder out of remorse. Then, Cornfield got his senses together as he shook his head furiously.
“Hey!” He started to ask around, “Is this everyone? All the bombs gone off, right? There’s no more surprises?”
A hippogriff guard edged over by Cornfield as he chimed in. “The consensus is that Whirlwind’s act of terror has, indeed, concluded…” The soldier spoke solemnly. “But, many citizens have gone unaccounted for. We’re still trying to assemble everyone as we speak.”
Amongst the crowd of hippogriffs squawked another. “How can you say that? They nearly drove our race to extinction! We need someone to guide us to safety!”
Then Cornfield asked “Where are we gathering everyone?”
A hysterical lady piped up. “This place isn’t safe! How can you be so sure he’s not going to come back to hunt the rest of us down!”
Another soldier retorted. “Calm down everyone! We saw the plans at the palace! We know for sure the danger is no longer present!”
One more screams out. “The Queen said we’d all make it out! And now look at her! You can’t sit there and tell us we’re safe!”
Finally, one screamed “I don’t want to go back in the ocean!”
As the situation got more and more chaotic, the colt hoped his friend knew what to do.
“...Coral?”
Coral turned her head to Cornfield, hearing the unruly group of birdbrains surrounding them panicking like chickens with their heads cut off. After trying to bring peace to Skystar and save her home, witnessing everyone act rather selfishly made her steam.
“QUIIIIEEEET!” she commanded with a boom.
The loud murmuring skidded to a sudden halt, even Skystar had stopped crying if only a little.
Gingerly letting go of the princess, she took a stand over her fellow creatures to make one thing very clear. “It’s not up to ANY of you what we are doing now. We are still a kingdom, and I’ll be damned to the boiler room of Tartarus if we let those primates divide us again. Before you forget, we still have a queen!”
Reducing the lineage in simple arithmetic, Cornfield deduced the new Queen. “Skystar?” Although it was the logical direction, he felt pity for her young naive age being thrusted into the throne of the hippogriffs so fast. Then Coral kept pushing for order amongst the chaotic survivors.
“We aren’t asking anything from you right away. What you suffered was a heavy loss, and I think a proper burial at sea is needed not only for her, but also her followers that couldn’t make it. It’s not just you that has lost loved ones this day...”
Cornfield looks around at the vulnerable hippogriffs around him, seeing their feathers ruffled, some being edged with soot. Among them were a few holding their wounds like they were on the verge of falling apart. They looked not only lost, but in despair. The gem on his mind started to light a little.
“Hey, everyone!” He called out among them. “I have an idea! Would you trust Skystar to be your new leader? I know she’s small, and may not act like one, but I think she got what it takes! Queen Novo, rest her soul, was mature enough to take action when needed, and negotiate peace between tribes! That can seem heavy for one as young as her daughter, but maybe this is a turning point! Things seem bad now, sure, but we can’t lose hope. We can’t lose what is precious to us. Our homes, our families, our very livelihoods are at stake! With your support, I believe in Queen Skystar!”
He stood on his hindlegs to further drum up enthusiasm for his feathered friends. “So whaddya say, guys? Do you think her light could shine the way out of your worst nightmares? Say it with me! I believe in Queen Skystar!”
With his hoof raised in the air, he was hoping something would resonate with one enough to spark confidence in the crowd. Instead, they all stared blankly at him. In collective thought, they wondered why an outsider, a pony no less, who had lived his life in comfort under Celestia’s rule all this time, was inserting himself into their disaster. They viewed his need to make light of a catastrophic disaster a premature notion that rapidly spoiled into an insult.
“YOU’RE A DISGRACE!” screamed a hippogriff.
“Why don’t you just go play with the sharks, small fry!” commented another. “I hope Whirlwind goes after your town next to know how we’re truly feeling.”
Soon, the crowd grew more and more agitated by this display of public incompetence, as they murmured with hostility. A seashell hit him on the cheek, and the earth pony quickly backed down. The crowd did not let up, throwing various items and insults his way.
“You suck, kid!” said a chick.
“What kind of idiot is he to put himself in charge?” cawed one citizen.
“Dumb boy should have stayed back in Equestria and put his head in the sand for all the good he does!” complained a fatter bird.
While her partner backed down, covered his face and taking cover behind some of the rubble nearby, Coral was further angered by the behavior of the hippogriffs. If this was what Whirlwind wanted, sowing discord and disdain among her fellow creatures to make them weaker willed as a result, he was winning.
She was not going to let him win. The next rock came flying at Cornfield before she got in its way and took the brunt of its force with her chest. She fanned her wings out to further cover him as she yelled out. “STOP! I get you think he has no right to be a part of this, but listen to him. He knows his history better than the rest of you do. When the Storm King invaded Equestria, who was the only hippogriff to help the fabled Elements of Harmony win the war?” Switching off her anger for the sake of the grieving, she smiled sweetly at the poor cream-colored princess. “What was the message you brought back from your adventure when you dared to leave the ocean and free your people?”
Skystar eyes fell into contemplation as they dripped endlessly, yet a small glimmer of determination soon welled within.
“One small thing... can make a big difference...” She muttered. Those were the words that mattered to her the most. She was going to be that small thing to make that difference that her citizens needed most. She gave one final goodbye hug to her mother, and laid her broken body peacefully to rest. “I’m so sorry, mom... I’m going to miss you so much. You were always there for me, and I’ll never forget you and your lessons.” As Skystar sniffled and slowly looked up to Coral, she was slightly disturbed by Cornfield’s sudden absence, and inquired Coral with a curious face.“H-hey! What happened to Cornfield?”
“Him? Oh, he must have ran over to that rock over…there…” She pointed to his last known position, detecting hoofprints leading away from it. “Aw, dammit, Cornfield.” Then she tried showing the distraught royalty some respect in his wake. “You’ll have to excuse him,” she said. “He’s very naive to think that he could just insert himself like this and magically make it all better. For what it’s worth, he’s pretty funny that way.” Coral chuckled, feeling a bit helpless, yet Skystar stared at her, neither sparing nor dignifying her attempt at excusing her friend’s failure to fit in.
“Coooooooraaaaal…” The princess whined. “He’s your friend. You just… let him get heckled like that?”
“What?! Come on, Skystar! I defended him, didn’t I? He just needs to learn not to speak his mind at every given moment…” A word from that sentence jolted an idea she had completely missed. “Hey, wait!” The purple hippogriff soon exhumed with confidence. “That’s it!”
“What-what’s ‘it’?”
“The Mind of Water! Skystar, he has a new power that’ll save everyone! He can heal those that are wounded and barely alive with it!”
Skystar hesitated, knowing that it would be a lot to ask after having what’s left of her country go against him. “...Well if he’s okay with that… Go check on him first and, if he’s ready, bring him here; we’ll all welcome him with open wings. Right, everybody?”
She swung around to the crowd, expecting them to rejoice at the opportunity to recover. Instead they all just grumbled. As if their pride was more important than their bodies. Rarely ever in her life could Skystar display disgust at anything, let alone anyone, but after losing her Mother to the betrayal of an old haunting enemy, her energetic positive personality switched to backup mode. She then stomped the ground, as hard as she ever felt before, so hard the sand threw up almost to her face, but she would not relent.
“As my Mother goes to sleep for the rest of our lives, it is now my job to hold up that position,” Skystar decreed in her newfound role. “I may not seem ready yet, but this moment will mark the first time in history your new Queen has made her command! Line up one by one, in order of who needs aid the most. When Cornfield gets back, you will each apologize, you will thank him for healing you, and you will be grateful he came all this way to help! Got it?”
Coral was stunned. Although Skystar lacked any real punch behind her tone, it was her stern determination that resonated with her, like she would make what was right even if it wasn’t for her own good. The rest of the crowd seemed to also back down, almost embarrassed to be chastised by a child that knew better than the rest of them. Then she turned to Coral, who feared the sharp sight of the new Queen.
“Coral!”
The gem thief gulped. “Y-y-yes, ma’am!”
“Go find him. Talk to him.” She bared an eyeball to her face. “See eye-to-eye with him. When he is ready, tell him I would appreciate it if he would come back and heal us. Ok?”
“...You’re right Skystar, I’m sorry. I’ll go find him right away!” Coral then made haste for the search, leaving Skystar to her subjects. Eventually, the trail of hoofprints did lead to Cornfield as he was wandering further and further away, walking alone by the shore.
“Cornfield! Wait!” She called out from behind, chasing after him. “Please wait! I know that what they did was wrong but you have to be patient with them! They’re all scared and desperate!”
As the waves receded in an ongoing loop, Cornfield spun around, still visibly upset.
“How… How’d you find me, Coral?”
“It’s not hard to follow hoofprints left in the sand, I mean, you have four of those!”
“We can’t waste time, Coral! Right now, Whirlwind is still out, probably already being bedfellows with another species’ leader! By the time we get off this island of ruins, he’ll have the Eye of Fire! And Celestia knows what newfound power he gets from that!”
He faced the ocean and walked his hindlegs into a sitting position, as his mind drifted endlessly as the sea itself. His hair falling short of his face and covering his eyes gazing at the sand, feeling rather conflicted.
“I understand that, but this is my home! Our former queen is dead and Skystar needs our support for all she’s done to be on our side.”
She took a seat by him, shifting closer trying to comfort him.
“Besides, I think that Silver may have left us here... I have not seen her at all since we got here and we have no boat to sail out. We need to see if any of Aris’s navy vessels have survived the explosions and work with them to get us a crew to go back home.”
Cornfield scoffed. “Hmph! Skystar…Suddenly, she has acquired the power to rule her kingdom, regardless of how tender her age is…” He got up briskly, walking to the ocean’s edge of the beach. “...I can relate...”
Some of the bodies of dead birds native to the hippogriffs’ home are lifelessly drifting near the beach, like the many citizens who have passed already. Seeing the bumpy carcasses made Coral very uneasy, coming to terms with her dear friend’s burdens. “Cornfield... I’m sorry. I dragged you into all of this and now, well... You inherited something you had no say of... I didn’t think things would go this way.”
The colt hung his head. “Seeing Skystar cry like that over her mom, I wished so hard I could do something.” Then he suddenly screamed out at the oceanic horizon! “HOW COULD I LET THIS HAPPEN?! All this supernatural power, and I can’t even bring back the dead! Just what good is this stupid Mind of Water anyway?!” His gem has completely dimmed as his mind raced while he thought about these developing events.
The words of a deeply concerned companion resonated with her. It was the first time she understood that she was blessed by a fabled holy gem of untold power. Yet on its own, it barely served to go beyond protecting herself and her friends. Even Whirlwind had neutralized her without much effort. “Trust me, I feel just as hopeless as you do about this. Whirlwind has an army and we barely scraped by with just the two of us.”
While navigating troubled emotions like a canoe down wild rivers, a seagull had landed beside her without raising suspicion of a seed in its beak. Then, Cornfield turned to speak face to face with Coral.
“I’m sorry, Coral. I feel so tired, after everything we’ve been through, I’d appreciate a nap right about now...”
“Same, let’s just- Ow, what the?” She felt a peck on her flank. The seagull dropped the seed and took off into the distance. Watching the rat with wings fly off, she pinched its tiny fallen cargo and held it up to her view. Examining the odd specimen closely, Coral became a bit absorbed by its unique swirling shape. “Huh...”.
Hearing her curiosity pique, the green colt paused to wonder what she’s so fixated on. “What is it, Coral?”
“Nothing, just... A gull decided to peck my ass and then leave this...?” A thorough inspection spurred an idea to pop in her head. She dug it back into the ground as fast as she could, setting her talons gingerly on the buried mound. Channeling her positive emotions and memories, Coral allowed the Heart of Nature to work its magic before sitting back to watch. The seed had instantly become a full fledged healthy flower with a megaphone-like shape.
“What are you doing?” Cornfield asked, surprised to see her perform a trick he hasn’t seen in a while.
Coral was staring at it, having no explicit expectations of what it was for, until a familiar voice resonated within the flower. “Coral and Cornfield, I hope you’re both well. Times are strange here as far as I can tell.”
The colt tilted his head in curiosity. “Huh?”
“When you two left Ponyville, I heard a knock on my door. Then I was greeted by someone not seen before. She said she was looking for the one with the Heart, but I told her about the journey you’d start.”
Identifying the rhyming lyrics clued Coral in on who was speaking telepathically through the flower. “...Zecora?”
“Zecora! Maybe she can help!” Cornfield barked.
“So, this stranger, a god, if I may, allowed me to make this message to send away. If it reaches you safely, please come see me soon. This stranger promises you a powerful boon.”
Coral scratched the underside of her beak in thought. “A god? Like Aqua?”
As the revelation set in, her little blonde-haired friend jumped up ready for action. “Ok, Coral! Let’s grab a vessel and get out of here!” He began celebrating a new direction to help them further and doing a little jig along with it. “We’re gonna see Zecora! We’re gonna see Zecora!” He chanted before Coral scratched the metaphorical record on him.
“Not yet we aren’t. First, I think we owe someone a favor, then we can ask for a vessel. I plan to help Skystar set up some shelters. Your power is needed to help the hippogriffs recover their injuries.” The stress of their previous situation behind them, the purple hippogriff stood back up. “Skystar is worried about you, and you don’t want to keep her waiting.”
“Set up shelter? Are you a carpenter, Coral?”
“Oh, yeah, you should see how I handle a hammer.” She rolled her eyes at him in retort. “Of course not! I have another plan on how we can grow more houses. We need to give these creatures shelter. We can’t all sleep on the beach.”
“I don’t really understand, but I can’t sleep on the beach either. Is there something I can do now?”
“There is if you’re willing. Right now we need to rebuild to give my people a new start and some newfound hope.”
Cornfield looked at his hoof, turning it into a watery limb and considered what he could accomplish through this mess. “...Ok, I’ll do what I can. I just hope they don’t start throwing anything at me again.”
“Don’t you worry, corny baby. Show some life-saving generosity to those in need, and I won’t hesitate flinging anyone miles into the ocean who tries to heckle you again. Say the word and I’ll give them a whippin’!”
He paused and thought about what had transpired prior. With their knee jerk reaction, he didn’t want to be subject to another public shaming. “I see. Then it’s a deal! Sign me up, Coral!”
His big hippogriff friend nodded and walked side by side with him, soon returning to Skystar and her band of surviving subjects. As Coral watched over them, acting in place of bouncer and friend, Cornfield stood and grabbed their attention. “Everyone! I know that right now you all hate me for sticking my nose into your business, but please let me help.” The crowd of weary bird-horse hybrids eyed him with ill intent. “I have the Mind of Water, the treasure of the hippogriffs, and I can use it to heal you instantly. I can’t help with all of your aches and pains, as this power comes with a cost, but bring me your wounded survivors, and I can patch them up!”
An eruption of displeased murmuring emitted from the mob, but the chattering died down as the first mortally wounded hippogriff limped his way to the outsider. He was a male hippogriff, hobbling over in crutches with bloodied bandages around his stomach.
“P-Please… If you can… Help me,” the hippogriff struggled to keep himself as the rest of his kind stood in silent judgment, wondering if the pony was spitting out nonsense.
“Let’s heal major wounds first,” proclaimed the new queen as she took Cornfield’s message to heart. “The rest can share their side of medical supplies in the meantime. We just need to tend to the more dangerous ones, at least!” Skystar was near pleading as she inched closer. “Please help my subjects, Cornfield.”
With the hippogriff kingdom at the end of its rope, Cornfield nodded in understanding. “Don’t worry, Skystar. I won’t run away this time!”
She bowed gracefully in gratitude. “Thank you. You’ll be saving lives and a hero to the hippogriffs.”
“Your grace, if I may?” The infamous gem thief asked.
“Coral, it’s ok, you don’t need to be formal with me.” Skystar cheerily replied.
“Regardless, I want to help look for survivors. My vines are stronger than they look in lifting debris and I can even grow new tree houses in seconds for our refugees.”
Hearing that queer phrase made Cornfield speak out. “Wait… Did you say tree… Houses?”
His friend turned back at him. “Right, let me explain. We have special kinds of tree seeds that can grow into actual houses. Windows, doors, the works.”
“I see,” responded Cornfield.
“I’m sorry… To disturb your dialogue,” interrupted the hippogriff who was still awaiting relief. He then staggered and coughed a bit of blood. “But please… If you can help, please ease my body... I’m in so much pain.”
“Oh shit, I’m sorry!” Realizing he was holding up the much needed recovery for the ill, he took his hoof, making it flood and leak with the special healing water, then rubbed it around the hippogriff’s abdomen. The hippogriff winces as the colt’s hoof caresses his sore body. “Ah… feels like you’re really… Used to doing that. Maybe too much!” he laughed through the pain, embarrassing Cornfield.
“Hey! Do you really have to say that aloud?!” the colt said in frustrated surprise as Coral chuckled. Then the victimized hippogriff noticed an odd sensation over himself. Very quickly the crutches collapsed and the bandages shed off, revealing his body back to picture perfect health. The male hippogriff beamed with a loud voice.
“It works…” After a moment of silent disbelief, he publicly displayed his renewed energy, pride, and joy. “It ACTUALLY works! I’m cured!” He then grasped the pony’s hooves and shook them vigorously. “Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Earth pony! I’m sorry I ever doubted you. Now I can search for the rest of my family!”
Cornfield looked back at the queen and the thief right beside her. Coral flashed a wry smile at him, only to glance at the soldiers covering up their previously departed ruler to be sanctified in a proper burial. The smile dropped from her beak as the reality crashed on her that history was repeating itself. The destruction and bodies of her species laid about was Lord Whirlwind’s latest tragedy, perhaps even worse than what his father sowed. She promised herself, now that she was not the small chick she used to be, that she was going to make sure the Storm Creatures pay for their crimes.