//------------------------------// // Dungeons And Princesses // Story: The Journey of Lukas // by MyAwesomePony //------------------------------// Things may have been looking bad for Sunny and her friends, but back in Maretime Bay, things were looking even worse. Sprout has now been fully committed to his role as substitute sherrif, replacing a picture of Hitch with his own picture. As he marveled at his creation, he was suddenly interrupted by Phyllis Cloverleaf busting into the office, closing the doors quickly behind her as angry ponies gathered around. "Mom?" Sprout asked, putting the picture down and looking up at her. Phyllis and Sprout both made eye contact. "My, oh, my, aren't you the handsome sheriff!" Phyllis said. "Look at you." "Yes. Yes, I am, Mommy." Sprout laughed giddily while tapping his hooves on the desk. "Well, this is it. It is your time to shine, dear." Phyllis began. "Everypony wants to hear from you." "They do?" Sherrif Sprout asked. "Of course." Phyllis replied. "You are in charge now. It's your destiny." As she said the last part, she moved her face closer to Sprout's, After a moment, Sprout then realised that his mother was right. He went over to the doors and kicked them open. "Citizens!" Sprout proudly declared. However, his introduction was cut short when the doors slammed shut right on his face. "Ow!" He screamed in a muffled voice. The crowd looked confused by what just happened as Sprout opened to doors again, cleared his throat and restarted his introduction. "It is I, Sheriff Sprout!" "Sheriff? Where's Hitch?" Toots asked. "We need a real sheriff!" An earth pony called out from the crowd as everyone began ranting about the absence of Hitch. "Come on now, everypony." Phyllis encouraged. "Let's listen to what our new sheriff has to say." There was a moment of silence. "That's you, sugarcube." She added, nudging her son. "Oh, yeah, it's me." Sprout replied, clearing his throat. "Okay, folks, calm down. There's no need to be scared." "We're scared, and we want to be prepared!" Toots said nervously. "The unicorns are coming! The unicorns are coming!" Called out Sparkle Chaser, who was still wearing his periscope goggles from earlier, before running off, causing a crash sound to be heard as the crowd cringed a bit. Suddenly, the crowd started throwing question after question at Sprout, clearly showing signs of panic. One pony cried out "What if the unicorn comes back?" as Sprout started to ponder over that specific statement. "Actually... what if you're all right? The unicorns could come back." Sprout declared. "They could even bring the Pegasi. We are all in danger!" The crowd gasped at that. "Now is not the time to be complacent! We should do something!" Sprout then led the crowd into a musical number about the dangers of unicorns and Pegasi, mobilizing them into an angry mob in the process. Back in Zephyr Heights, the three fugitives had just been escorted to the castle dungeon for presumably trespassing. Sunny was gazing out a nearby window, in a deep trail of thought. "Something is not right." Sunny whispered. "We haven't seen a single pony flying, except the royal family." She then noticed that there was no response from Izzy or Lukas. Sunny turned back to face them"Izzy, Lukas, are you two listening?" "I read you loud and clear, Sunny." Lukas replied. "But I'm not so sure about Izzy." Lukas then gestured over to the purple unicorn, who was in a massage chair as it hummed quietly, she had two cucumber slices on each of her eyes, and was holding a coconut with a straw and an umbrella. "This isn't dungeon-y at all." She giggled. As it turns out, Izzy was right about the aesthetic of the dungeon, it looked less like a dungeon and more like a luxurious spa resort. The only difference is that you can't leave, which sounded even more pleasing. "Yeah, but we still gotta get out of here." Lukas pointed out, before walking over to talk to a Pegasus guard standing next to their cell. "Hey dude, if you let us out, I'll give you an apple." He pulled out a red, shiny apple from his backpack, but the guard just stared at him silently. "Two apples?" He pulled another apple, but the guard was still not interested. "Two apples and a cupcake?" "Sorry, bub. I don't accept bribes." The guard said bluntly, walking away. "I should've known it would've been that easy." Lukas sighed, feeling defeated. "Hey." Said a familiar voice. "Huh?" Lukas looked over and saw none other than Zipp Storm standing there. "Oh, it's you." "I'm sorry you three got thrown in here, but I have to talk to you." Zipp said, getting to the point. "Princess?" Sunny said in disbelief. "Your Majesticness! Y-Your Graceful Highness!" Izzy stuttered. "Zipp. Just... call me Zipp." She interrupted, preventing Izzy from embarrassing herself even more. "Okay, Zipp. I'm Sunny." She introduced. "And these is my friends." "I'm Lukas." "Izzy Moonbow." "Sunny, Izzy, Lukas, I really need to ask you something important." Zipp then looked both ways to make sure that nopony was around. "...about magic." She continued. "What a coincidence, that's why we're here." Lukas said. "Maybe you can tell us how yours works?" Sunny asked. "Izzy has no idea how the unicorns lost theirs, so we thought maybe-" Before Sunny could continue, she was interjected by Zipp. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. Lost theirs? As in no magic? Well... that changes things." Zipp whispered to herself, before continuing. "Listen, I might have some information that could help, but first, you need to tell me about this." Zipp reached into her wing and presented a familiar looking journal. "My journal!" Sunny gasped, taking the journal, happy to be reunited with it again. "Thank you, Zipp. I-I never thought I'd see it again." "Yeah, I can be pretty sneaky when I want to be." Zipp replied eagerly. "Nice." Izzy remarked. "I'm-I'm only medium sneaky." "Don't mind her, Zipp." Said Lukas. "Personally, I think that you've got the talent on you." "Oh, thanks Lukas." Zipp said gratefully, before turning back to Sunny. "Anyways, So where did that come from?" "It was my father's. Why?" Sunny asked. "That star..." Zipp said quietly, as if she had seen something like it before. As Lukas took a closer look at the journal, he did see a rather familiar symbol on it, but before he could explain to Zipp what it was, they were interrupted by the faint sound of a digital trumpet fanfare nearby. Turning over to the source, they see two pegasi guards rolling out a red carpet, with Princess Pipp Petals following with a strut in her step, before noticing Zipp next to the assumed fugitives. "Zipp, what are you doing here? Mom said to stay away." Pipp said with clenched teeth. "Right. Then why are you here?" Zipp asked with a smirk. "For the content." Pipp scoffed as she pulled out her phone and took a couple of selfies. "Um.. excuse me, Princess, if I may." Lukas stuttered as Izzy brought Sunny in for a hug while Pipp was taking selfies. "Please, just call me Pipp." She said modestly. "Okay then, Pipp. If you don't mind me asking, why isn't anypony flying?" Lukas asked, Pipp then gasped and turned around, giving us a nervous laugh. "Everypony knows that only royals can fly, of course." "What?" Sunny, Izzy and Lukas exclaimed aloud in unison. " I know, it's not fair. But that's just the way it is. If there were some way we could teach the citizens to fly, you know we would in a wing beat." Pipp said while fluttering around, before stopping to look at Zipp to get her approval. "Right, Zipp?" "Yeah. In a wing beat." Zipp groaned sarcastically, before Pipp's phone buzzed. "Oh! Dress rehearsals. Gotta go." She then snapped her head around to her sister. "And so should you." As Pipp walked away, she started doing vocal exercises. "Me-me-meeeee! Red feather, yellow feather, red feather, yellow feather. " "Man, she's like a worse version of Rarity." Lukas thought. "I have to show you something." Zipp declared. With that, Zipp put her hoof on the touch pad next to the luxury dungeon, and almost instantly, the jail bars quickly rise up, officially making the trio free from their dungeon. Sunny, Izzy and Lukas gasp over how easy it was. "Wow, I can't believe it was that easy." Lukas said with disbelief. "You comin' or what?" Zipp called out. "Never mind that now, Lukas." Sunny said as they walked out. "We need answers." But before Izzy could follow behind, she looked back and took an orange from the fruit bowl nearby and replaced it with the tennis ball, giggling to herself, before following the others. But little did they know, a certain sheriff was about to catch up to them... TO BE CONTINUED...