Chapter 7

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I narrow my eyes as I see a town in the distance, the hoof and claw prints I’d been following leading in that direction.

After The Storm King was defeated, his minions surrendered pretty fast.

Seeing your entire platoon of war balloons being destroyed in a blazing inferno and your leader being knocked out by a creature less than half his size kinda kills any hope you’d have of overcoming a nation that was already starting to regain their footing.

Of course, soon as the battle was over, I realized there’s a major downside to how I was using my Warp Drive so rapidly.

Killed my energy reserves and passed out.

When I came to, it was a couple hours later… and starving doesn’t even begin to begin to explain how I was feeling.

I pretty much ate what Luna equated to twice that of an endurance racing Pegasus, though Misty pointed out that Rainbow Dash would eat around the same after practicing her Sonic Rainbooms and doing several in quick succession, though still less than what I was eating.

So, I can use my Warp Drive in different ways, but, at the cost of more calories. Makes sense, though it means I’ll need to be wary of when I use it like that.

As I’d been eating, Luna and Misty had filled me in on everything that happened after I’d passed out.

After The Storm King’s forces surrendered and were imprisoned, Luna went into Fizzlepop/Tempest/whatever she wants to call herself’s dreams and figure out why the unicorn had been willing to help the yeti-like creature enslave her own kind.

When she was a filly, her horn had been broken by an Ursa Minor after those she’d thought of as her friends had insisted she go into a cave their ball had rolled into and, when her horn reacted badly due to her not having been trained how to use her magic like when it wasn’t broken, her so called friends had outright abandoned her.

I could kind of see why she’d think a land that talks about friendship is worth subjugating when those she’d considered friends ditched her the moment she seemed the least bit inconvenient to have around… though that didn’t make what she did justifiable either, since those ponies should’ve been the only ones to be punished, not the entire population of Equestria.

The reason she’d served The Storm King is because he told her, with the magic of all four Alicorns, he would have to the power to restore her horn… which was clearly a big ass lie, but, she was clearly desperate enough to get to horn back and unaware that, with proper training, she could cast spells like normal, that she agreed to serve him.

Of course, even with The Storm King no longer a threat, things aren’t fixed yet.

Despite her disapproval, Luna choose to send me after Twilight and the others, as, upon reflection, Twilight had probably been listening when Celestia had told Luna to go get help from the hippogriffs, but, due to being cut off by being turned to stone, Twilight likely misunderstood and thinks Celestia wanted help from the Queen of the Hippos, nor Hippogriffs and, as I’m the fastest, I’ve the best chance of catching up to the seven before they go too far.

Plus, Luna was curious what had happened to the hippogriffs, as she had yet to learn how affairs between their kingdoms had gone since her banishment over a thousand years ago.

Far as she could find out from the records in the castle, there hadn’t been any contact from their current queen, Queen Novo, for over a year now.

So, as I near the really unpleasant looking town, I keep in mind that I’ve two missions: 1. Get Twilight and the others and get them back on track and 2. Go to the Hippogrifs and find out what’s been going on with them.

I land a bit out from the town and fold my wings in, hiding them.

Even from a distance, the anthropometric animals I’ve seen in this town don’t look friendly and my wings might make me stand out too much.

Without them out, I look less intimidating, I mean, I be around six years old, but I’m the height of a ten to twelve year old human, but, then again glancing around, I’m about the size of most the creatures in this grungy town.

I do get glances from those I pass by… though they’re not what I was expecting, honestly.

There’s confusion and intrigue, those I expected to see, but I also see fear.

Hmm. It could be my body shape is similar enough to The Storm King’s that they might fear I’m connected to him.

I do hear murmurs that suggest he is in control of this place, well, was, but they don’t know that yet, so maybe I should use that to my advantage.

I pause, rubbing my chin.

I’m trying to remember if Honey Senpai’s VA ever played a villain. Since I have her voice, if I channel my memory of how that character speaks, I might be able to get some information.

I blink, before smirking. Medusa from Soul Eater. That should work.

Clearly my throat, I practice a bit, before looking around.

“Hey, I’m looking for a little purple pony? She had five other ponies and a dragon with her. Anyone know where I might find them?”

“You think we’re going to fall for this again?” a blue fish creature says, walking towards me, looking down.

Good. Normally, looking down would make me less intimidating to another being, but, playing the role of Medusa, it should work better this way.

Though his choice of words confuses me slightly. Ah, I’ll roll with it.

The fish continues. “I dunno what kind of scam you’re working with Capper and the rest of your friends, but—”

Capper? The name doesn’t ring a bell, but this dolt just gave me something to work with.

“Poison or no poison,” the fish growls, “You’re. Gonna. Pay!”

He thrusts a fist at me… but it’s so slow I easily dodge it and uppercut him in the jaw, then, using the momentum, whirl around and slam my food down on his head, pressing him hard into the ground.

Everyone quickly backs away as I step onto the fish, ignoring his grunts before pressing down on his back right below the neck, flaring my wings.

The fish guy comes out of his stupor and glancing back at me in terror as I curl my fist, leering maniacally down at him. “Now, about this Capper?”

___________________________________________________________

Please tell me they weren’t really that dumb to fall for this? I can’t help thinking as I land by a wagon with a large cage.

It’s parked in front of a house by what I think is a windmill or sorts.

It’s being pulled by some type of creature I don’t think I ever saw in the show, but it’s clearly used like humans use horses.

Standing in the doorway of the windmill house is what I can best describe as a naked mole rat wearing a black suit and a top hat, both rather ratty looking.

The fish had told me where to find this Capper the ponies and Spike are with and, by the looks of it, I got here just in time before he’d sell them to pay off whatever debt it is he owns the rat, who goes by the name Verko.

“Brought the big… cage?” Verko says, turning to indicate the cage and seeing me, confusion clear on his face even with his eyes covered by those think lenses.

“Max?” Twilight looks quite confused.

“Look here, Verko, is it?” I ask, still talking like Medusa instead of myself and moving my body in a firm I’m In Charge kind of manner, “whatever your deal is with this cat and these ponies, I’ve a greater interest. So, whatever debt he owes, they’re paid, now.”

The confusion on Verko’s face turns to anger. “Oh, you think so, you… whatever you are?” He points at the anthro cat wearing nothing but a red jacket that goes down to below his waist, a styled mop of purple hair on his head, wide green eyes and a bandage around his tail’s begining. “His debt is long in need of payment and I want these ponies for my show.”

He walks up to me and glares up, him only reaching up to my chest.

“What makes you think you can just say the debt’s paid and that’s that?” he demands, shoving a plump finger into my chest. “Maybe I should cage you too. Hmm? What do you think of that?”

I just stare down at him. “You wanna know what lets me say the debt’s paid and that’s that?” I ask, my voice cool and the shiver I see from Capper telling me the tone I used worked.

Verko sneers up at me. “Uh huh.”

“This,” I say, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and shooting into the air, Verko screaming all the way.

I get a thousand feet in the air, then hold him out, making sure he sees I actually am having trouble holding him up like this.

“The debt’s paid in full and those ponies go free, or I might just lose my grip,” I say coolly. “We clear?”

“Y-you— You wouldn’t drop me!” Verko practically squeals.

“My arm’s getting tired,” I say. “Not sure how long I can keep my grip. We got a deal or…?”

Verko looks from my blank expression, to the very distant ground and back several times, his face a mask of pure terror.

I let my grip slacken the tiniest bit.

“Okay! Okay! The debt’s paid!” Verko screams, staring at me with pleading eyes. “Please, just take me back down! Please!”

I land a few moments later, tossing Verko down.

He scampers to his wagon and they hightail it out of here.

As the dust settles from Verko’s sudden departure, Twilight approaches me. “Max, how’re you here? Did you escape The Storm King too?”

I snort, folding my arms and dropping the Medusa voice. “Escaped. Twilight, we beat him.”

There’s blank stares from all eight present.

“Um… can you repeat that, little… urm, Max?” the cat asks.

I cock an eyebrow at him. “Exactly as I said, we beat him. He and his soldiers are in prison waiting on trial. And you, Capper, are going to help us get a ship that will take us to the Hippogriffs.”

“Wait, how do you know that’s where we’re going?” Rainbow asks, confused.

I sigh. “Luna filled me in, obviously.”

Twilight blinks. “Luna? But, wasn’t she turned to stone like Celestia and Cadance?”

I shake my head. “I got her out of the way in time and she made and illusion to fool The Storm King’s forces. I’ll explain in full on the way. Now,” I turn to Capper, “about travel to the Hippogriffs?”

The cat fiddles with his fingers. “Well, see, about that. Grateful as I am you cleared my debt with Verko, little missy, I… don’t have a ship you can use.”

I smirk. “That’s alright. I’m sure the Ex-Storm King won’t mind us using one of his delivery ships?”

Capper looks from to the ponies giving him stern glares, before sighing and points to the docks, where one ship I can see that’s getting ready to leave is. “Though, getting there before it leaves may prove quite the challenge.”

I roll my eyes. “Everyone, bundle together. Twilight, grab everyone in a magical hold and you hold onto me too.”

Twilight looks uncertain, but does as told.

The moment I feel her magic holding onto me tightly, I flare my wings and go Warp Drive.

We rocket through the air, everypony, even Dash, screaming (though for Dash it’s likely just the shock).

Doesn’t help, I guess, that Twilight loses her magical grip almost instantly, though that was part of my plan.

The momentum from how fast I was going sends them all flying and they all land haphazardly on the back of the airship’s deck.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly gather us all behind some crates as two silhouettes with beaks can be seen just beyond.

“You hear somethin’?” a male voice asks.

The other silhouette replies with a squawking sound.

The first one growls. “Probably just the rats. If we find ’em, we’ll eat ’em.”

“Rats?” Rarity whispers in disgust.

I can’t help deadpanning at her. We’ve bigger things to worry about than rats right now, Rarity.

We sit and quietly discus current events and our plans.

According to Capper, this is one of the transport ships The Storm King uses… well, used to use to transport goods based on himself.

Dude really has a massive ego, selling merchandise of himself to those he enslaves as if they want that kind of stuff.

The crew seems to be just five, all of them anthro parrots.

We’re able to get names for the crewmen, the male with an eyepatch is called Mullet and he’s the first mate, the rotund female bird is called Lix Spittle who looks like she might be the ship’s cook, the tough looking male with a missing hand is called Boyle and the other male is a seemingly mentally challenged guy named Squawk and, while we don’t see her, we learn their captain is a female named Celano.

We’ve barely made a plan when one of the boxes hiding us is moved, Boyle being the one having lifted it up.

He chuckles upon seeing us as crouched. “Hey, guys, come check this out.”

“Looks like a pack of stowaways,” Mullet says as he comes over, leaning in.

“What’re we s’pposed to do with ’em?” Lix says, fork in hand.

I jump when Squawk pops his head in right above me, doing his name sake.

“I think we tie ’em up,” Boyle says and Applejack gasps… for some reason.

“Nah,” Lix says, “we clip their wings.”

“Nah!” Mullet says. “We scar ’em,” Rarity cries at that, “emotionally.”

Fluttershy whimpers.

I glance at Capper, who shrugs. This feels… weird. Do these parrots not know Alicorns have powerful magic? They’re talking as if they can just do whatever and we couldn’t fight back.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Mullet sneers, turning to look behind him. “What say the book, Captain Celano?”

It is now we get a look at the captain. She’s tall, though not much taller than me and has a peg leg.

She’s carrying a book with The Storm King’s symbol on it, which she opens. “Storm King’s rulebook says…” she sneers “throw them overboard.”

I loudly scoff, which does not go unnoticed.

“You think tossing you overboard in the air is funny… whatever you are?” Mullet asks.

I’m about to extend my wings to make a point when a loud whistle goes off and Captain Celano yells gleefully, “Alright! That’s lunch!”

I… genuinely don’t know how what happens after that happened.

We’re quickly led, not forcefully either, mind, to what is clearly the galley, where we’re all served some kind of gloopy birdseed based food, kinda like runny porridge.

“Whoa, whoa whoa,” Dash says, holding up her hooves. “So, you were about to toss us overboard—”

Which wouldn’t have even worked, since four out of the nine of us can fly.

“—and you stopped for a lunch break?”

Twilight leans forward, giving Rainbow a very “shut up” look, which, since Dash did just remind them of something they’d stopped doing, I can kind of understand.

“The Storm King only allows one break a day for meals, then it’s back to hauling goods,” Boyle says dejectedly, taking a spoonful of seed goop.

“So, you’re delivery guys?” Spike asks.

“And gals,” Captain Celano says. “These uniforms aren’t exactly doing us any favours.”

“Then, can you deliver us to Mount Aris?” Twilight asks a little eagerly, levitating up a map.

“Sorry,” Celano shakes her head, holding up the book from earlier. “We do as The Storm King orders or suffer his wrath.”

I blink, before snickering, folding my arms. “Well then, speaking of favours, how about you get us to Mount Aris in exchange for the favour I did for you?”

That has all heads turn to look at me in confusion.

I laugh. “Thanks to him foolishly thinking he could take our kingdom, The Storm King has been dethroned.”

There’s a very long silence.

“You’re… you’re being serious,” Celano stares at me with bewilderment. “Why would you say something so… unlikely?”

To demonstrate, I simply leap up and use Warp Drive to be right in front of her face.

“Dude never saw it coming.”

“That’s right!” Dash says excitedly. “Our Princess, Luna, sent Max to get us to tell us our kingdom stopped The Storm King.”

“But… but how could you manage that?” Boyle is staring around in bewilderment the same as his captain. “Even ignoring his army, he has multiple war balloons. How in the world could you have beaten all of those?”

I put my hands behind my head, snickering. “Those balloons popped pretty easily once we had them crash into each other.”

“So… so, you’re saying, The Storm King’s army is beaten… just like that?” Mullet is just staring, his brain clearly not processing what he’s being told.

“Max is a totally trustworthy gal,” Rainbow flies up and hovers by me. “If she says The Storm King’s been beaten, you can trust that he’s been beaten. So, you don’t have to serve him anymore and can go back to…”

Celano looks a little uncertain, before she pulls back a picture of The Storm King to reveal a skull and crossbones.

“Ooh, I met that guy in the desert,” Pinkie says eagerly.

…

Nope.

I am not even going to ask.

“Whoa,” Dash is shocked. “You used to be pirates?”

“Um, we prefer the term swash buckling treasures hunters,” Mullet says a little uncertainly.

“So… pirates,” Dash deadpans.

I narrow my eyes. “What kind? Did you pillage villages or what?”

Mullet scoffs. “Nothing like that. We went after other pirates mostly and only if they came after us first and, even places we docked were having issues with criminals, we’d deal with the criminals and take their ill-gotten gains so long as it didn’t inconvenience the villages.”

I can’t help just staring at him. Wow. So, like the Straw-hat Pirates from One Piece, who were pirates in the sense of adventure only.

Have to admit, I did not see that coming.

“Still, even if you’re telling the truth and The Storm King is finished…” Celano looks longingly at the pirate flag.

___________________________________________________________

“We’ll wait here til your return, friends,” Captain Celano calls, her, her crew and Cappter waving to us as we head through the gates that look like a pair of Hippogriffs facing each other.

After I’d fully explained The Storm King’s downfall and why we needed to get to Mount Aris, Dash sang a long that got the pirates to embrace their past and be pirates again and, as thanks for Dash helping them get their drive back and myself for making it possible for them to get it back without fear of The Storm King’s wrath, Captain Celano agreed to bring us to Mount Aris and then take us back to Canterlot when we’re done.

Walking through the gates, however… that might be sooner than she expected.

You know those abandoned towns in scary movies where it’s revealed either a mass murderer or monster caused everyone to leave or vanish overnight?

That’s what it’s like walking through this place.

Houses are in disrepair, moss and other planet have overgrown areas.

Whoever had lived here before, they’d left a very long time ago.

“Luna’s gonna be pretty disappointed when we tell her this place is basically abandoned,” Dash says, flying down from yet another rundown house. “What could’ve done this?”

“Something bad happened here,” Spike says, standing by a moss covered hippogriff statue. “Something that turned this whole place into a ghost town.”

“A G-g-g-ghost town?” Fluttershy hides behind her mane.

I’m about to tell her he doesn’t mean actual ghosts… when a voice comes from somewhere, making us all look around.

We head for what looks like it used to be the entrance to some kind of hall, maybe an entertainment building, like a theatre?

As we enter (Twilight having to teleport me in because I’m too big for the only opening we could find), the sound becomes clearer. It sounds like… singing?

As we look over the edge of what could’ve been a hallway, we see a large room with a pair of hippogriff head statues, water trailing down from the front of each into a pool below.

In the centre of that pool is a large pink flower like crystal, with something glowing yellow inside.

At once, alarm bells start going off in my head.

Water, singing and glowing crystals? Anyone else getting Siren vibes?

Before I can warn the others not to get closer, Twilight accidentally dislodges a loose bit of gravel on the stairs.

The glowing thing in the crystal moves, gasping. “What was that?”

Before we can react it moves, diving into the water and going out of sight.

“Hey, wait up!” Pinkie calls, bouncing down the stairs and plopping into the water, calling out, “Cannonball.”

We all rush down, only for Pinkie to surface and tell us whatever we saw is gone.

“Now what?” Twilight facehoofs.

Pinkie starts blowing bubbles into the water, before she’s suddenly yanked back, all of us being pulled along with her as the water in the pool starts swirling and the crystal folds into itself, revealing itself to actually be a flower on a stem them goes down.

We’re all pulled down the spiraling water vortex, being dumped out into an underwater cavern, the hole we’d come from closing up.

I quickly look around at everyone. I can breathe underwater, but they can’t.

What do I do? I need to find an exit and get them all out of here, but where do I start?

I need to move fast before they all drown and…

I find myself confused as bubbles magically appear around each of the others’ heads… and my own? I mean, I clearly can breathe underwater without it, but talking might have proven a challenge, so I’ll go with it for now, I guess.

“Way to leave it… to the last minute, Twilight,” Pinkie gasps.

Twilight shakes her head. “I didn’t make these bubbles.”

“Then… who did?” Fluttershy asks.

A few minutes later, we’re traveling through the underwater tunnels with a Seapony named Skystar.

At first she hadn’t trusted us, but after Twilight mentioned The Storm King invaded our land and we’d been sent to find the Queen of the Hippogriffs, she’d perked right up.

She takes us to a large underwater cavern, where a huge glowing city seemingly carved into the stone from the ceiling down is revealed.

Skystar leads us into what is clearly the royal building, what with how extravagant it is, where we see another Seapony sitting on a throne.

“Mother!” Skystar says excitedly, swimming up to the Seapony on the throne, saying in a singsong voice, “Look what I found.”

“Is it another shell?” her mother asks, sounding a little exasperated.

“Mm-mm,” Skystar shakes her head.

“Because I am telling you, if it’s another shell, I am—” she gasps loudly upon seeing us, then rounds on her daughter. “Princess Skystar, whata you done?! You know outsiders are forbidden here! Guards!”

Four Seapony guards with spears swim forward quickly, surrounding us.

“N-no-no-no! Mom, please!” Skystar swims in front of her mother, putting her fins together pleadingly. “It is so not like that! The Storm King is trying to destroy their home too.”

“Actually, he already tried and failed,” Spike points out.

The queen narrows her eyes. “What?”

“Okay, so, long story short, The Storm King invaded during our Friendship Festival and turned two of our princesses to stone, but we stopped him by crashing one of his war balloons into another, causing a domino effect, destroying all of them and we beat him,” I say quickly.

The queen looks questioningly at me. “And what exactly are you?”

I bow… as best one can in water, anyway. “My name is Max, your highness. I, along with the Princess of Friendship, her son and friends, were sent here to try to figure out why we haven’t heard from hippogriffs kingdom for over a year now and hope to find their ruler, Queen Novo.”

“Son?” Spikes sputters.

Confusion enters her eyes. “What are you talking about? I sent word to your Princess, Celestia, back in Spring. Are you telling me you only just got the message?”

“Uh, message?” Spike asks, all of us looking at each other and shrugging.

“Urm, beggin’ yer pardon, yer highness, but, why would you send word for the queen of the hippogriffs?”

“And, do you know what happened to them?” Twilight asks anxiously.

“Well, of course I know, I’m the queen. I know everything,” she says, before frowning. “So, The Storm King’s really been defeated?”

We all nod.

She seems to think it over, before nodding.

It’s then we are given yet another surprise. The queen is Queen Novo.

The Hipogrifs have a magic pearl that allows them to take on the Seapony forms we’ve been seeing this whole time.

As for the confusion of the message she mentioned… that’s an uncomfortable subject.

It turns out that The Storm King attacked Mount Aris and the Hipogrifs fled down here, to what they call Seaqustria, where they used to go between, Queen Novo using The Pearl to turn them all into Seaponies and they’ve been living down here ever since.

She’d had one guard sent to Canterlot to get aid from Princess Celestia… but it turns out that happened during the days leading up to Shining Armour and Cadance’s wedding and, since the guards didn’t report a hippogriff being detained… the Changelings must have gotten to him first, since their Queen had already taken Cadance’s place.

Poor bloke. Hope he didn’t have to suffer long.

So, thanks to Queen Cheese Legs, Equestria had no clue about The Storm King’s invasion of Mount Aris.

After we finish all the talks, we agree that Queen Novo, Princess Skystar and a small group of guards will accompany us back to Equestria so we can get relations between the kingdoms back up again.

Hopefully, either Luna will have figured out how to free Celestia, Cadance and Derpy from their stone prisons or Discord will finally get off his ass and help out.

Man, this has been exhausting. Maybe, once the Friendship Festival is over, I’ll go pay Sunset Shimmer a visit and chill in that world for a while.

The Friendship Games should be starting soon and Id love to stop any of Cinch’s douchbagery before she mentally scars Sci-Twi.

Author's Note

And that's the movie done.

Next up, Friendship Games... though Max won't be stopping most of it due to travel time.

Not really sure I like the ending, but i didn't really see much else i could do with it without just quoting the end of the movie.

better to sum it up at the beginning of next chapter.

So, did you like how Max Curb stomped Verko and got him to piss off and leave Capper alone?

Do you like how Max handled meeting with Queen Novo?

And, yes, if it isn't obvious, I used the idea i had for A Canterlot Wedding's events being the reason the ponies didn't know about the Storm King's invasion of Mount Aris in my Dora story for this one too.

it's kinda my own headcanon now as it makes much more sense, really.

Also, i know that dumb member of Celano's crew wasn't actually called Sqwak, but Google's beign an annoying pain and not letting me find out his real name. i barely got the names of the rest of the crew as is.

So, let me know his real name in the comments and i'll fix that when i can.

Anyway, that's all for now. I need to have a shower before the it gets to dark as the bathroom light is broken and we're waiting to get the replacement.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter (And i'll hopefully be able to work on Bloom's fic more tomorrow, we'll see) and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody