As the moon and stars emerging in the night sky above the island, a small purple dragon watches the spectacle from the lip of the massive center volcano. With the red head from the boiling lava pool several hundred metres below providing heat for his reptile body, Spike feels as if he’s at peace with the world. He outlines the shapes of famous constellations with his claws for minutes on end, as well as creating his own in the shape of himself and his friends. However, his stargazing is suddenly interrupted by the earth violently shaking below him for seemingly no reason. The baby dragon yelps in panic as he stumbles to the vibrating ground. Small surrounding rocks and pebbles start to pour down the face of the steep mountain, large boulders start to tumble and roll from their lodge, and even the surrounding hills begin to bend to the will of the tremor.

“What the hay is going on?!” Spike screams as chaos erupts all around him. Crawling along the ground, he looks over the edge of the volcanic crater and sees the pool of lava rapidly rising up the cone to his horror. “This isn’t good.”

Meanwhile, in the midst of the thick jungle, Applejack, Applebloom, and Scootaloo are still recovering their hoofing as the earthquake continues to roar. The large palm trees around them collapse one by one, sending even more panic throughout the unsuspecting ponies, having to now dodge them. The two fillies scream louder and louder as more and more of the towers of wood nearly crush them. As the trio scamper through, one of the larger pine trees ahead of them collapses and plummets directly at them. Applebloom and Scootaloo embrace themselves for the impact. A loud smashing noise bellows across the entire island. However, much to the fillies’ surprise, they find their bodies still intact, realizing that Applejack stopped the falling tree with her body. With her hind legs digging into the snapping wood and her front hooves buried in the fallen vines and bush, Applejack finds herself stuck and slowly losing strength against the mass of the tall tropical pine.

“Oh shoot!” The orange Earth pony declares to her followers, “I’m stuck!”

“Sis’!” Applebloom cries, “You can’t get stuck now, we have to go!”

“You two just have to get to the meadow or the beach. I’ll last.”

The orange pegasus retorts, “We’re not leaving you!”

“Oh yes you twos are. Go!”

“But-”

“Go!”

Applebloom attempts to speak in response, “Please, we can try-”

“Go! Get out! Scat!” Overwhelmed by the elder mare’s screaming, the two foals decide to follow to her command and scatter into the further reaches of the tumbling forest ahead. With her hooves now embedded into the landscape, Applejack continues to stay stuck for a least a minute as the quake still continues. “Move! Move! Move!” As hard as she tries, kicking, punching, and destroying her muscles, her body continues to stay firm. “If only I could use magic to lift this darn thing, then I’d make sure that my lil’ sister’s safe out there instead of worrying back here. If only I was, a unicorn… But what about the others? Twilight? Dash? Flutter? Pinkie? What are they going to think of me?”

A distant voice then screams out from behind the mare, “Help!”

“What the?” Stiffly turning her head, Applejack sees that it’s Spike, running right towards her. “Spike?! What’s going on?”

“Volcano’s erupting!”

“Volcano?!” Applejack’s green eyes immediately dart towards the middle of the island. She sees that the volcano is in fact erupting extremely violently, as pillars of smoke rush from the top and large rivers of molten lava rain down from the cliffside, straight towards her, Spike, and the fillies. In an instant, her body gains a second wind and the small mare immediately launches the fallen tree from her hind legs with a mighty buck. She then yanks out her front hooves with a series of rapid tugs, freeing herself in less than three seconds. She charges towards the fleeing purple dragon now as he runs towards the coastline.

“Don’t look back!” Slightly curious of how close the lava is, Applejack looks back for a split second, only to jump in shock as she sees that a massive wave of flowing molten rock is rapidly speeding right towards her and Spike, incinerating any fallen trees or plants in its way.

“Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot!”

“I told you not to look back!” With Applejack now right behind Spike, the orange mare quickly lifts Spike onto her back with her head as a scoop. “Hot-hot-hot!”

“Wait, don’t you dragon types not burn in lava?”

“Yeah, when static enough, not when it’s just come straight out of the volcano and flowing at rapid speeds,”

“Oh.”

“Your tail’s on fire!”

High above the erupting anarchy of nature, a cyan pegasus looks over the carnage in utter shock. From her high view, Rainbow Dash can see large chunks of the island breaking apart and sinking into the ocean below, sending whatever life and molten rock on it plummeting into the roaring waters. She carefully swoops down to get a better look around the epicenter of the destruction and sees Pinkie Pie standing on top of a stone spire poking from the lava flows.

“Pinkie!” Dash screams at the pink Earth pony from above, “Hold on, I’m coming to get you!”

“Look at the lava, it’s so cool!” Pinkie cheerfully replies, “Look! Look! It’s making red glowing bubbles!”

“Now’s not the time to be goofing around!”

“Aw, but lava’s so fun to look at.” Disregarding the energetic mare’s intrigue, the high speed pegasus soars towards the top of one of the thicker clouds and immediately starts pounding into it, releasing a small shower of rain from it onto the volcano. The pellets of water strike the lava in an endless barrage of liquid missiles, quickly cooling the molten stone and turning it into a thin black bed of obsidian. Pinkie moans at the sight of her entertainment being destroyed and the fact that her mane and tail have turned into a flat mop of hair from the rain. However, before her mild lament lasts for long, Rainbow Dash lands down onto the new rock floor and approaches Pinkie.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m as cool as a cucumber,” Pinkie happily replies, immediately getting over her melancholy.

“This whole island’s about to go under if we don’t get out of here.”

“Aw, that’s a shame. I saw a bunch of really cool stuff in the jungle.”

“We have to find the others and make sure they’re okay.”

“Okey-doke-” An immediate jolt erupts from seemingly nowhere as the two mares are flung to the back of the obsidian platform.

“What was that?”

“Yay! We’re lava-rafting!”

“What?” The stunned pony looks around to find that the large stone sheet she made has split up into smaller slabs and are all being swept down by the still raging flow of lava from the volcano. Looking forward, Dash sees that the platform their on is now approaching the edge of a cliff, about to hurdle over a lava waterfall. “Ahhh! Pinkie!” The blue pony attempts to grab her friend and lift her off of the ground. Rainbow Dash flaps her wings violently as the impromptu raft starts to teeter over the edge. As hard as she tries, Pinkie is too heavy to be lifted even a fair inch for only a second at most. “You s-should r-really start to lay off of the c-cake.”

“Hold on tight, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Please keep your hooves, legs, wings, horns, and head inside the vehicle at all times.”

“It’s dangerous! We got to get off of this thing and find the others!”

“Since when did you start becoming Twilight?”

“What?”

“Don’t you like doing stuff like this? Or maybe you just completely lost your touch as soon as we hit the sea and have become a stick in the mud. Come on, don’t be a stick in the mud.”

“I’m not a stick in the mud.”

“Prove it. Let’s have some fun and turn that worried frown upside down!” Upon hearing those words, a rush of overwhelming pride and adrenaline flares through Rainbow Dash’s body. “No backing out?” Her face scrunches into a determined stance, her mouth slides open into a grin, and her hooves lock into the cracks of the obsidian slab as it begins to accelerate off the cliff and reveal the true height of the drop. “Oh-”

“No backing out.”

“Uh oh.”

“Don’t tell me. You just realized that challenging me was a bad idea?”

“Yep.”

“We’re going to get seriously injured from this?”

“Most likely.”

“Bring it on.” The large slab then falls from the cliff edge and lave waterfall. As it tumbles several tens of meters to the molten jungle below, the whoops of Dash and cries of Pinkie echo across the island.

Meanwhile, on the beach and next to the remaining deck of the SS Raindrop, Fluttershy is running back and forth across the sand, hoping and waiting for her friends to arrive. With the infernal glow of the destruction of the land mass growing larger and closer to the yellow mare, fear and dread overwhelm the timid pony. Fluttershy soon begins to rapidly breathe as glimpses of the rabid lava flows appear in between the quickly decimating trees.

“Can anypony hear me?” The small pegasus yells out as she backs towards the wooden raft.

“We can!” A filly’s voice calls out from the brush. Soon, Applebloom and Scootaloo emerge from the bushes ahead and run towards Fluttershy. “Don’t take off without us!” Scootaloo screams out.

“Hurry! Is anypony else following behind you?”

Applejack’s voice calls out in response. “We are!” Immediately, barreling at rapid speeds, the orange mare and Spike burst from the forest and charge across the beach alongside the two other foals.

“Thank goodness. But what about Rainbow Dash and Pinkie? Have you seen them?” Fluttershy is straightaway responded with a loud howl coming from deep in the jungle. “Was that-” Suddenly, a giant slab of solid obsidian flies out over the falling palm trees and soars over the ponies’ heads before landing into the shallow waters behind them. As the four running ponies and baby dragon join Fluttershy on the raft, they observe the wedged rock. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie eventually reveal themselves from around the side of the cooled lava, looking quite dazed and exhausted as they paddle in the shallow waters to the raft.

Pinkie Pie nauseously moans, “Here and accounted for.”

Rainbow Dash soon also replies as her hoof touches the wooden watercraft, “Can we do it again?” As the final two ponies eventually tumble onto the wooden raft, a loud explosion sounds off behind the mares, on the island. Fluttershy turns around to inspect what caused the noise and is immediately blasted in the face with a warm and sandy shockwave. Her eyes instinctively snap close and reopen a second later to see that a massive chunk of the jungle has been disintegrated into a smoldering crater before being quickly filled with the swift lava.

“What was that?” Applejack yells out before looking back and seeing what’s left of the crater, “Oh… Get us the blue blazes out of here!”

“Oh, right.” Fluttershy stampers as she hops off of the raft and onto what’s left of the beach and attempts to push it forward. “Garr, it’s too heavy.”

“Step aside!” Quickly, the orange mare hops off as well onto the quickly decimating island. She gives a mighty buck to the beached deck piece, only for it to merely move a centimetre forward into the water. Applejack attempts to kick it again, only for it to inch a tiny bit again. With the sea of lava rapidly approaching, the mares see that they’re stuck. “Oh shoot.”

“What now?!”

“Hey! Look over there!” Pinkie pipes up, pointing her hoof along the burning coastline.

Rainbow Dash groans, “We get it Pinkie, lava is cool.”

“Not to mention we’re about to be burnt to a crisp by it!” Applejack adds.

“No!” Pinkie retorts, “Another ship!”

“What?” Fluttershy, Rainbow, Applejack, Spike, Applebloom, and Scootaloo follow the energetic soggy mare’s shaking leg along the beach and see a mysterious sleek sailing boat race around the island towards them. As it rapidly draws closer, the light from the lava reveals that the driver of the ship is Twilight, currently panicking as she’s veering the wheel left and right.

“It’s Twilight!” The long racing ship slows to a stop alongside the raft and slab of obsidian. The purple alicorn on board the thing then peers over the edge to see her companions down below.

“Need a lift?” Twilight pridefully asks. She then carries over a long plank of wood and sets it between her new ship and the tiny raft, creating a ramp.

“We sure do!” Pinkie cheers before bouncing up the ramp and onto the poop deck next to her friend, soon followed by Spike being just as energetic.

“Great to see you again,”

“Where did you even find this?” Applejack asks as she follows in Pinkie’s wake and climbs aboard, soon being followed by her younger sister.

“I found it in the basement of some researcher’s home in the jungle.”

“Wait, somepony else is on the island?” Fluttershy responds as she flies to the main deck, “Shouldn’t we find him?! What if he needs our help?!”

“I’m not sure if he’s still around.”

“The entire island’s already gone,” Dash impatiently calls out as she and Scootaloo follow behind their yellow friend’s flight, “it’s only us and we need to go!” Another large chuck of the island explodes on the beach, causing Lightning Rod to shake in its immediate shockwave. “Now!”

“Right then!”

“Let’s get a breeze going!”

“No need to.”

“What?”

“Rather, you girls stay down, things are about to get hairy.” The purple mare quickly runs back to the wheel, causing a blue glowing glyph to appear on the wooden floor upon being touched.

“Hey, what’s that?” Spike nervously asks.

“Some sort of magic steering spell embedded into the-” Before Twilight can continue, a series of three explosions go off on the lava covered island, sending molten stones and debris flying everywhere around the large ship.

“How about we save the tour and get us out of here!” Applejack screams.

“Right!” With a snap of her head and neck, Twilight aims her horn, still with the anti-magic strap on it, down to the back of the magical glyph. In a second, the bottom section of the marking fades away and the top portion begins to shine even brighter. As that happens, the ship immediately launches itself forward, accelerating to rapid speeds in a few seconds. Everypony on board clutches onto the woodwork, screaming as they fly forward across the water. The black waves below turn into white mist and spray the onboard crew. Twilight then returns to the wheel and turns it counter clock wise. The speeding cruiser obeys and turns right alongside the island. “Okay, so what I figured out, is that this is usually a magic operated control scheme, with the magnitude of magic on the glyph determining the velocity and acceleration of Lightning Rod, this boat. With this anti-magic device on my horn, I realized that I have to use it to push the magic already embedded into the wood to where I want it to go, like a magnet with similar poles aimed at each other”

“Watch out!” The river breaks her attention from Spike and sees that she’s dashing right towards a cliffside. Quickly, she aims her horn down to the left part of the blue markings. The ship immediately veers right and slightly scrapes against the melting rocky wall. Along the cliff, another set of explosions go off, each barely nicking the speeding ship with their spheres of fire and scorching stones. One section blasts right next to the left side of the hull. The ship tilts over from the blast and a large chunk of its wood separates, flying off into the burning mass. “Pull right!”

“Quit backseat driving!”

“I’m passenger seat driving, let me drive.”

“I know what I’m doing.” Twilight then turns the vessel away from the island, sending it hurdling across the sea. However, several larger explosions set off on the sinking island, launching large boulders and clusters of lava at the fleeing ship. As Applejack and Twilight continue to fight, the princess swerves left and right to avoid the incoming projectiles, hurling everything and everypony on board side to side in a chaotic fashion.

“You clearly don’t.”

“Well it’s not easy when you have to drive this thing with your head and hooves because you have no magic!”

“See? Even you know it!”

“Know what?”

“Unicorns and alicorns are superior!”

“Back to this again?!”

“It’s true isn’t it?”

“No!”

“Isn’t it?! Think about what you just said.”

“And let us crash?!”

“Quit avoid it!”

“I’m not avoiding it!”

Spike screams out, “Look out!” The two bickering mares stop and look behind them to see a colossal portion of the isle bursting away from the mainland and flying towards them. As it travels over the speeding boat, a large explosion creates a big hole in the center of the rock mass. Soon, a barrage of giant boulders soon follows in a massive cluster, too many for even the sleek watercraft to dodge. Applejack quickly grabs the wheel in response and steers the speeder directly towards the hole as the huge landmass dives into the sea a hundred metres ahead.

“What are you doing?!”

“Saving our hides!” Applejack answers, only for her focus to be cut off by Twilight’s wing being shoved in her face.

“Are you trying to kill us?”

“Are you?”

“What is that supposed to mean? You’re siding with the villain!”

“The world’s not entirely black and white. I want to protect my family, but apparently I can’t because somepony wants to deny anything somepony with different ideals says despite them being obviously true. Even I can see that.”

“I’ve had enough of this. Get off of the wheel!”

“You get off!”

“I said get off, you double-crosser!”

“I know what I’m doing, you ignorant pain!”

“You traitor!”

“You moron!”

“Villain!”

“Wench!” The two mares immediately then gasp upon hearing each other’s’ final insults, causing both a wave of anger and shave to crash into their minds. For a moment, all of time seems to come to a stop as the two ponies, once best of friends, have now unwillingly turned into the fiercest of enemies.

“Applejack? Twilight?” Spike yells out to the two mares, having been unable to hear what they were saying over the environmental chaos surrounding them, but able to understand they were angrily fighting over the wheel. Now noticing their hooves have backed from the wheel, Spike darts in between Applejack and Twilight and grabs the wheel, holding it steady as the falling land mass splashes into the sea. The vessel barely squeezes through the hole and pops out of the other side into the safety of open water whilst the sinking chunk of land is pelted by molten boulders. Below on the main deck, the pegasi cheer out in joy as well as Pinkie and a half asleep Applebloom who are now down there as well. “Pinkie, how did you and Applebloom get down there?”

“I don’t know,” the pink Earth pony nauseously grumbles, “hey, did all of you take a swim in the Mirror Pool? I’m starting to see two of everypony…”

“You might have just fallen down and Applebloom may have fallen on you.”

“What's that, Papa? No, I don't wanna wear the big lobster costume… Why do you make me wear that anyways?” In an instant, the mare collapses onto the deck and snores can immediately be heard from her still body.

“She’ll be fine.” Dash remarks upon examining the sleeping ponies, “Actually, it’s pretty late. Maybe I should hit the hay as well.”

“Me to,” Fluttershy adds.

“Me three,” Applebloom remarks as she climbs off of Pinkie and follows Dash inside.

“Same here,” Scootaloo yawns at the back of the group.

“Now where are the beds?”

“I think this thing may only have one bed.” With most of the group now below deck and Pinkie fast asleep, the purple and green dragon looks back to see the remaining two ponies awake still staring at each other in shock and disbelief at one another.

“Applejack? Twilight?” Spike timidly calls out to his frozen friends. Slowly, Spike taps Twilight on the shoulder to break her from her freeze, causing her to immediately gasp in surprise and jump into the air. Applejack soon follows suit and snaps from her glance. “Sorry!”

“Oh,” Twilight responds, “it’s you. Sorry.”

“Are you and AJ okay? What were you two fighting about?”

“…We’re…having some difficulties on certain viewpoints. It’s nothing really.”

“Yeah, what she said.” Applejack stiffly replies, “I better, check on the fillies.”

“S-sure, you do that.”

“Y-yeah, yeah.” Slowly, the lone Earth pony walks down the stairs to the main deck and turns to the slanted trapdoor leading down into the quarterdeck.

Spike asks once more, “Are you sure you two are alrigh-”

Twilight immediately snaps, “We’re fine!” However, she quickly recollects herself and talks calmly, “We’re fine.”

“So, what now?”

“…We’re going to save Rarity. I know where Korsan’s going to be going.”

“You do?!”

“I do, we’re heading to the Breach, in the Old World.”

“Wait, you mean,”

“Yes, the Old World.”

“But how? We’re probably thousands of kilometres away from wherever it is, not to mention the legends told about it. And what about when we actually confront Korsan with his giant airship against these tiny cannons.”

“We’ll make it, and we will find a way to stop Korsan once and for all.” Twilight returns to her central position on the glowing glyph and aims her horn at the bottom portion of the blue marking. As the upper potion illuminates even more, the already lightning-fast vessel accelerates even more as it rockets along the night sea, northwest to the Breach.