//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Bridlewood 
// Story: Legacy of the Howlite Howler 
// by JNKing 
//------------------------------//

True to Izzy’s word, though Bridlewood wasn’t exactly the most cheerful of places, it was pouring with crystals.
“See?” Izzy noted to her friends. “Crystals! Crystals! Crystals!” she practically danced between the different quartzes, smiling with glee at the shock on her friends faces. 
Logan followed after her, sniffing at each of the crystals, and even licking them for good measure. “They taste like sugar,” he noted, before taking a bite out of one of them.
“Logan!” Sunny chastised, noticing a few other unicorns. “Don’t draw… attention?”
Sunny took another look at the other unicorns. To say they were different from Izzy would be a monumental understatement: the unicorns’ coats were dull and lifeless, and their eyes sagged as if they hadn’t slept in years. Aimlessly, they wandered, their heads low and their hoofsteps plodding. Three unicorn colts didn’t so much as play on a nearby playground as they did just flop onto the equipment like all of them had suffered some sort of severe breakup. 
“Well,” Hitch summed up. “This is cheerful.” 
“Seriously,” Logan noted. “What happened?”
“Probably the loss of magic,” Sunny offered. But just as she looked to Izzy, one of the colts jumped up with a gasp. 
“You said a bad word!” he shouted at Sunny.
The others blinked. “Huh?”
“Quick, before we get jinxed!” the colt yelled to his friends. And together, they began some sort of strange dance, chanting, “Bing-bong!” over and over. 
Logan blinked. “Okay but why though?” 
“Unicorns are very superstitious,” Izzy explained. “If a pony ever says a forbidden word, we have to do a ritual to ward off the jinxies.” 
“Jinxies?” Pipp asked.
“Bad luck.” 
Logan got a cunning look on his face. “So… can we assume that…” he glanced at a nearby unicorn. “MMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAA…”
“Stop it,” Hitch snapped at him, as the unicorn slowly turned to them with horror, before returning to their depressed state when Logan stopped. Hitch sighed at Logan’s childish giggle, before looking to Izzy. “So… what other forbidden words do we need to worry about?”
Izzy glanced around before leaning in conspiratorially. “Magic, wing, feather… oh, and mayonnaise.” 
Logan snorted. “MAYO…” 
Izzy shut his snout, but Logan still tittered in glee when a unicorn gasped, only to fall back into depression when he failed to complete the word. He grinned at the ponies.
“No,” Sunny warned. 
“Yes,” he insisted. 
“Logan, we do not have the time,” Sunny insisted. “We need to find the Unicorn Crystal.” She leaned closer. “Reunite the world and prove the hate-mongers wrong?”
Logan rolled his eyes. “You’re right - you’re right.” He motioned for Izzy to let him go… only to speed right over to another unicorn the second his friends’ backs were turned. 
“Mayo-waves,” he whispered, causing the unicorn to jump and look around in confusion as he scampered away. 
“Did… was that…?” the unicorn whimpered. 
Tittering to himself, Logan joined Zipp, who was holding back her own grin as she hoof-bumped his paw. Pipp, however, glowered at them in disapproval before rolling her eyes, following Hitch and Sunny as they followed Izzy.
“Come on,” Izzy said. “There’s something I want to show you.” She led them to another tree house similar to her own, only this one was more focused on the crystals. Logan started to drool at the sight of so many quartz-like gems. 
“The Crystal Tea Room?” Sunny read on the sign above the door.
“There’s a pony inside who collects crystals,” Izzy explained. “Maybe he could help us.”
“That’s great,” Sunny said, before pausing, and spinning around. “Logan?!”
“Mahjongg!” Logan barked, sending another unicorn into a confused tizzy. He cackled in delight, before noticing Sunny glaring at him. “I know-I know,” he said, walking back over to them. “No bad words.” He failed to hide his grin. 
Inside, they found several other unicorns, lying about without a single care or speck of joy in the world. Izzy immediately sighted down on one particular unicorn.
“That’s the pony,” she noted to Sunny.
Instantly, Logan was at his side. “FFFFFFFebreeze!” he boomed, sending the crystal collector into another confused tizzy. 
“Logan, for goodness’ sake!” Sunny snapped, shoving him aside before giving the collector a winning smile. “Sorry… so… word in the forest is you collect crystals?”
“Oh, I…” the collector mumbled, coming down from the confusion. “Yes, I did.” He lowered his head in depression. ‘I lost em all in a limbo contest with Alphabittle.” 
Instantly, Izzy winced. “Oh, no.” 
Logan grinned. “A challenge?” He chuckled darkly. “Alright, tell us; who is this Alphabittle?”
They got their answer with the clang of a bell. 
“Times up,” the biggest unicorn in the room declared to a smaller unicorn. “Pass it over Jasper.”
Another unicorn sighed and forked over some kind of rubiks cube. The cube was hopelessly messed up with colors, but the bigger unicorn easily switched it around with a few swipes of his hooves. 
“Guess that makes me the winner,” the unicorn declared happily. “Again. Pay up.”
“Ugh. Fine,” Jasper grumbled, forking over some sort of crystal.
“You could always try winning it back,” the unicorn - Alphabittle - offered. But Jasper just hung his head and wandered. “Alright, suit yourself.” 
As Alphabittle placed the crystal among a stack of other trinkets, Sunny and Logan’s eyes lit up as they beheld one particular crystal that matched with what they had seen in the window.
“There it is,” she whispered. 
“Okay,” Logan whispered. “So, what should we go with?” He grinned. “Oh! I vote we hit them with all four bad words; see what happens!”
Zipp grimaced. “What is it with you and language, Logan?” She glanced at the others. “This is worse than the time I taught him the forbidden words for pegasi.”
Pipp gasped. “That was YOU?!” 
Hitch and Izzy exchanged a look. “Uh, what are…?” 
“Oh, no!” Pipp snapped, shutting Logan’s trap tight. “You almost ruined my last live stream shouting that trash down at the city. You’re not ruining this!” 
“It isn’t a bad backup plan…” Hitch murmured, though he was wise to keep his voice down so the others couldn’t hear. 
Logan squirmed free, almost losing his fake pony muzzle in the process. “Alright-alright,” he growled. “Anyone else got ideas?”
Sunny pondered it for a moment, before her eyes lit up. “I do,” she said. “Maybe I can beat Alphabittle at his own game.” 
Logan tilted his head, but sat back, eager to see what she did. Sunny turned to Alphabittle, only for Izzy to race over.
“Wait,” Izzy said, before spritzing Sunny with some perfume. “Alphabittle can smell fear,” she explained. 
Logan scoffed. “Can he smell determination.” 
Sunny grinned at Logan’s support. “Right… be cool.” 
Like a boss, Sunny sat at the counter, ordering a tea with no milk. “Quite the game player, I see,” she noted to the big unicorn.
“It passes the time,” he replied. “Why? You play?”
“I don’t play,” Sunny replied. “I win.”
From the background, Logan grinned. “Yes,” he hissed. 
“And I challenge you,” Sunny continued, pointing at the unicorn crystal. “For that.” 
Alphabittle laughed. “You think you can beat me?”
“Only one way to find out,” Sunny replied.
“Big talk for a little pony.”
“I think you’ll find I’m average height. Now what do you say?”
“Whatever you’re better,” Alphabittle grinned. “It better be special.” 
Barely missing a beat, Sunny put the Pegasus Crystal in front of him, eliciting a gasp of horror from the rest of the Mane Five. 
“Special enough for you?” Sunny replied. 
Zipp tried to run to Sunny’s side, but Logan held her back. “What are you doing?” she demanded. “That’s…”
“The greatest risks yield the best rewards,” Logan replied with a grin. “Sunny’s got this.” 
“But if he wins, we lost both crystals,” Pipp hissed. 
“Then one of us challenges him, or we use my plan,” Logan replied. “We’ll be okay.” 
With Logan calming the dissenters, the Mane Five watched as Alphabittle and Sunny shook on it.
“Now,” Sunny said. “Give me that cube.” 
But Alphabittle laughed. “Oh, no. A special prize calls for a special competition.” He turned to his fellow unicorns. “Bring the ultimate challenge.”
Sunny’s face fell. “The what?”
The others gasped as the other unicorns brought in an electronic dancing game. 
“A… dancing game?” Sunny stammered. “Seriously?”
“Don’t worry about it, Starscout!” Logan insisted. “You did great with music numbers!” 
“So, both ponies agree?” a beatnik unicorn asked. “Best out of three.”
“Let’s make it more interesting,” Alphabittle replied. “You only need to win one out of three.” 
Despite the added favor, the others' faces couldn’t help but fall as the dancing game began. 
Save for Logan. “You got this, Sunny!” he boomed. “Equestria is counting on you! You gonna let her down? Show this gelding your moves!” 
Though intended to be helpful, Logan’s words only distracted Sunny, keeping her from the buttons. Hitch realized what was going on. 
“Logan,” he hissed. “Shut it.”
“But she’s losing,” Logan insisted. “She needs motivation!”
As the two argued, Sunny glanced back, missing several button prompts. And before she knew it, the song was winding down… and she was hopelessly behind. 
“Yeah,” Alphabittle cheered. “That’s how you do it.”
“Yay,” the other unicorns deadpanned. 
Sunny panted, grimacing in defeat. 
“I-It’s okay,” Izzy insisted. “You’re just warming up.”
“Yeah,” Logan agreed. “You got this, girl. You got this in the bag.” He chuckled, before bursting out of the door. Glancing around for any witnesses, he burrowed into the ground, looking for more crystals. 
Thankfully, with Logan’s booming barks not distracting her, Sunny did slightly better. However, Alphabittle had clearly played the game for much longer. And though Sunny’s second round was close, he still managed to get ahead. 
“Critters,” he declared smugly. “Get my crystal polish ready, would ya?” 
“Round three,” the beatnik unicorn noted. “Who will it be?” 
Sunny struggled to breath. “Here goes nothing…”
But as the third round began, Pipp came up next to her. “You hear that, Sunny?” she encouraged. “Feel the rhythm take you over. Feel it?”
Following her advice, Sunny began to fall into the rhythm of the song. “I’m feeling it,” she whispered with a laugh. “I’m feeling it!”
“Yeah you are!” Pipp encouraged. “You do this, Sunny, Whoo!”
At that moment, Logan came back in, his costume smudged with dirt, and struggling to hold several crystals with his hoof gloves. Wisely, he skidded to a stop, watching as Sunny’s score grew parallel with Alphabittle’s… and passed it. 
“We won!” Sunny gasped in glee. 
Alphabittle could only stare in shock, as the Mane Five cheered. 
Dropping his crystals, Logan let out a howl of victory… that unfortunately knocked his pony snout off. The fake snout flew through the air, and knocked Sunny’s horn off. 
The unicorns gasped in horror. 
“An earth pony?” Alphabittle stammered.
Zipp sighed, before throwing off her cape. “And pegasi.”
Logan stepped up. “And diamond dog,” he added.
“And unicorn!” Izzy agreed, before pausing. “Which… you knew already.”
Sunny sighed. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but we’re here to help.”
“Help?” Alphabittle demanded. “We don’t need help. Especially from ponies like you.” He went for the Pegasus Crystal. “Give me the…”
Logan, however, was faster, his claws snatching the crystal away, and warning Alphabittle off with bared teeth. “Don’t even try,” Logan growled. “Sunny won.” 
“She tricked me!” Alphabittle insisted. He stamped his hooves, and the unicorns reluctantly rose up, all of them eying Logan’s teeth and claws with trepidation. “The crystal,” Alphabittle growled. “Now!” 
Logan simply flashed his claws. “You’ll get claws or teeth. Make your choice.”
Hitch and the others gasped. Though Alphabittle had been a smug unicorn, none of them felt he deserved to get beat up by Logan. But with the unicorns rising up, it was an equally bad idea to try and get Logan to back off. So… Hitch did the next best thing. 
“MAGIC! WING! FEATHER! MAYONNAISE!” 
Logan and Alphabittle paused. Then…
“Bing!” Alphabittle yelped. 
The chant started up. They began to dance. Logan began to smile in glee. 
“Hitch, you’re a genius!” Logan cheered. 
“Yeah-yeah, later,” Hitch insisted, pulling the dog away. “Now run!” 
“Go-go,” Sunny agreed, as the group raced out of the tea shop.
“You’ll play for this!” Alphabittle screamed, trapped in the dance. 
“Sorry about that,” Izzy replied.
“Thanks for the laughs,” Logan added.
And together, the six friends left the unicorns behind.