“ ‘Dear Zipp and Pipp,’ ” Sprout read aloud, “ ‘I hope this reaches you. I had Alphabittle send it for me, but to be honest, I don’t fully trust his magical capabilities as much as he does.’ Don’t we all.”
“Alphabittle’s getting really good at magic,” Izzy protested. “And he did manage to send it to us, which is good.”
Sprout kept reading. “ ‘We have seen several more sightings of these strange troublemakers and have recorded their presences on the map, and we believe that we may have enough evidence to form a pattern as to where they appear, though we are by no means the experts, and that is why I am asking you to please return home. Alphabittle and Phyllis Cloverleaf are here with me in Zephyr Heights, and we are going to hold a summit to decide what to do about this as soon as you get back. Please hurry. Phyllis says that the three unity crystals that you worked so hard to find and put together have disappeared-’ ”
Everypony gasped and turned to Sunny. “I had them in my lighthouse under a magical enchantment to protect them!” she protested. “Whoever took them must have known a decent bit of magic, and not many unicorns in this time do…” A new idea struck her, and she turned to Flurry. “You don’t think it could have been… them?”
The red earth pony cleared his throat, and everypony fell silent. “ ‘-have disappeared, which is greatly troubling-’ ”
“She can say that again,” Sunny muttered. “Sorry, sorry, I won’t interrupt again,” she amended as Sprout glared at her. “Go on.”
“ ‘-so we would appreciate it if you found a faster mode of transport than walking through the freezing arctic tundra. I miss you, I love you, and I hope to see you soon. Signed, Her Majesty Queen Haven of Zephyr Heights.’ ” He looked at the others. “I really hope you do have a faster mode of transportation in mind, because it sounds kind of urgent.”
“Uh, we do!” Sunny leaped to her feet and geasturing to the group to follow. “Get your stuff, everypony, because we’re going back to Zephyr Heights!”
It didn’t take long for them all to assemble in front of the bookcase, ad although Pipp was looking very annoyed that they were going though the very place that she had been denied access to, the high tempers that had ignited between the sisters seemed to have calmed down at least enough for them to work together for a while, so Sunny decided to count her blessings. She twisted the horseshoe, and the bookshelf slid to one side, revealing the dark tunnel behind it. Flurry walked in first, and Sunny put out a hoof to keep the shelf from sliding closed. After everypony had gone through, she slipped in herself and let it close behind her.
Once inside, Zipp took the lead, bringing them to the large chamber that had all the passages to different places around the land, which was dark once again. The pegasus stepped on the circle, and her cutie mark appeared as the room lit up, causing everypony to gasp in wonder. Even Pipp forgot her anger and resentment as Zipp passed through her own window and disappeared, everypony following in pursuit.
They emerged in the airstation in Zephyr Heights, which made Sunny a little disoriented. She wobbled a little as she stepped out, as did most everypony else, but she wasted no time in regaining her balance and galloping to the elevator that would take them up and out. A few guards looked startled when they burst out of the grate in the floor, as they had thought that nopony was down there, but they didn’t ask any questions as the seven ponies raced through the halls, just exchanged a few strange looks. Sunny personally felt sorry for them. She had a feeling that she and her friends were going to get into a lot of magical calamities that involved reconsidering how they viewed reality.
Queen Haven was in the throne room with Zoom at her side, as always, though also accompanied by Phyllis Cloverleaf and Alphabittle. When she saw the group of ponies burst into the room, Haven let out a sigh of relief and rose off her throne to hug her little fillies.
“Thank hoofness you’re alright,” she said as she wrapped her wings around Zipp and Pipp. “I was beginning to get worried that something terrible had happened to you.”
“We’re fine, Mom, honestly,” Zipp protested, struggling to break out of her mother’s grip. “Besides, if anything terrible would happen, we would handle it.”
“That doesn’t stop me worrying one bit,” Haven whispered, squeezing tighter before finally letting go. “Did you get my letter?” Pipp nodded, and, by the throne, Alphabittle cleared his throat, which caused Haven to roll her eyes.
“I told you I could do it right,” he announced, standing tall and tossing his head. “And you thought I couldn’t.”
“I said that you had never done something like that before, and it would likely prove to be a challenge,” Haven corrected, a bit of flush creeping into her cheeks. “I had complete confidence in your powers.”
Zipp and Pipp looked back and forth between the pegasus queen and the large gray unicorn with wide eyes before meeting each other’s gazes.
Phyllis took this opportunity to strangle her own son in hugs and drown him in guilt of how he had worried her so and how she was so very glad to have him back and to not ever do something like that again without telling her and so on. Sprout was looking like he was tiering of this very quickly and, after a while, just held his mom at an arm’s length so he could breathe.
“Uh… who’s this?” Alphabittle asked, noticing Flurry Heart for the first time.
“This is Flurry Heart,” Izzy explained. “She’s a princess from the Crystal Empire. She’s not exactly from around here…”
Sunny giggled at the confused face Alphabittle was making. He then decided that these ponies were just too far ahead of him for him to properly understand what they were saying, and he should just go along with it.
“So, what’s the problem?” Sunny asked, wanting to get down to business. “Your letter said that the crystals were stolen…”
Haven nodded and turned to Phyllis, who now wore an extremely worried expression. “Not just the crystals, Sunny… whoever it was stole those magical gems that are tied to you and your friends - the ones you got when magic returned again.” She lowered her head shamefully. “I’m sorry.”
Everypony gasped, and Sunny fought down her panic. “It’s not your fault, Phyllis,” she consoled her. “If anything, it was mine for leaving them unattended while we went on quests and such. We’ll get them back, don’t worry,” she told her friends.
“That’s not the only troubling news,” Alphabittle added, jumping at a pause in the conversation. “There have been some unicorns who reportedly have lost their magic.”
“The same’s going on here,” Haven fretted. “Some ponies can’t fly anymore, and everypony’s freaking out, thinking that magic’s going to disappear again.” She turned to Sunny with a desperate look in her eyes. “Please tell me it’s not that.”
It was Flurry who answered. “No, magic’s here to stay,” she told the three leaders, who breathed a collective sigh of relief. “This is something different. Magic isn’t vanishing, it’s being stolen.”
“Didn’t you say that one of those creatures could steal magic?” Hitch remembered, talking over Haven, Phyllis, and Alphabittle’s gasps of horror. “Tirek or something?”
Flurry nodded sadly. “And let’s hope they haven’t got their hooves on… something else.”
“Where have they been seen?” Sunny asked, stepping forward. Haven gestured to one of her guards, and they rolled out the map that Pipp had set up. Except that now there were several dozen thumbtacks in the map, showing where these strange creatures had been sighted.
“That’s… a lot of places,” Zipp said in a small voice.
“It doesn’t seem like they’re being very careful,” Flurry noticed in a cautious tone. “Like they want to be seen, they want us to find them.” She shook herself. “No, it couldn’t be that. They wouldn’t want us to find them unless…” The alicorn froze as a horrible idea struck her. “Unless it’s a trap.”
“Maybe they’re just unaccustomed to this world?” Pipp suggested in a falsely hopeful voice. “Or they’re a little disoriented from being turned to stone for several years?”
“I feel like I’m missing something,” Alphabittle commented, and Phyllis nodded in agreement.
“These new creatures are from Flurry’s time - it’s a long story,” Izzy said vaguely.
“Pipp,” Sunny said slowly, an idea growing on her, “where do you think they’ll appear next? Can you find any pattern at all?”
The younger pegasus stepped forward and studied the map, her hazel eyes sweeping the paper and noting the location of each thumbtack. “Right there,” she decided, planting her hoof right in the center of the map. “They’re going there next.”
“How’d you figure that out?” Zipp asked, looking impressed.
“It’s obvious,” Pipp said, withdrawing her hoof. “They appear in places where there was something bad going on - you know, when we were all separated. Those signs outside of Bridlewood, Canterlogic, the place on the cliffs where Sunny and Izzy met Thunder and Zoom - and it all goes in a spiral inward. So they’ll appear right there next.”
Sunny took a closer look at where Pipp was referring to. “Hey… that’s the place where the Tree of Harmony is,” she noticed. “And where war almost broke out.” She turned to her friends. “I hope it’s not an omen that this place is a lot worse than all the others.”
“Do we have any idea when?” Sprout interjected. “Is there, like, a specific time that they’re most active or something?”
“Maybe when-” Pipp started, but Phyllis interrupted.
“There doesn’t seem to be any sort of pattern or correlation between times,” she admitted. “One day it’ll be noon, the next? Half past two in the morning.” She shook her head. “I think our best bet is to just be there and wait until these… creatures show up.”
“Yes, but the question is, what do we do about them?” Haven asked. “I don’t think our dungeons are very secure anymore.”
“You could-” tried Pipp, but she was once again spoken over.
“I say we zap ‘em,” Alphabittle volunteered, lighting up his horn and causing Sunny to wince.
“How about we don’t do that,” she said, and the large gray unicorn doused his horn with a pouty look on his face.
“Turning them to stone never works for long,” Flurry mused, “but it does work for a little bit. Maybe we do that until we have a better idea for what to do… though I hate the idea of returning them to stone after they were stuck like that for Celestia knows how long.”
“They’re vil-lains,” Hitch said slowly as if she didn’t get it. “They kind of deserve it.”
“Hey!” Sprout cried indignantly.
“Oops. Sorry. Well, not you, Sprout. You’re okay now,” Hitch amended, nudging the stallion and grinning. Sprout glared at him, and Hitch dropped it. “Sorry. I’ve just got this whole good-guy bad-guy way of thinking.”
“Guys-”
“Is there really a way to turn ponies to stone?” Sunny asked Flurry, looking frightened at the very concept, as if Flurry wanted to turn her to stone.
The alicorn nodded. “It was only reserved for very - very special circumstances, when literally everything else failed, or there it was the only way that Equestria could be ensured safety for a couple years.”
“Do you know this spell?” Haven asked Flurry, who flinched before nodding.
“My mom taught me it in case… well, she hoped I would never have to use it, but… I guess there’s not much else to do.”
“I’ll stage some guards around this area,” Haven announced, turning to Zoom, who stood at rigid attention. “Once these villains have appeared, send word as quickly as you can. Perhaps we should send a unicorn with you…” She turned to Alphabittle.
He nodded. “I’ll go find somepony to-”
“No,” Haven interrupted. “I want you to go with them.”
Alphabittle froze. “Me?”
“You’re just about the only pony who knows how to send messages with magic other than Flurry Heart, and no offense, but she’s somepony I don’t want to spare. Do it for Equestria.” She took one of his hooves. “Do it for me.”
Behind them, Zipp made a face like she was about to puke, but Haven didn’t notice, and neither did Alphabittle. He sighed and shrugged. “I mean… why not.”
Zipp turned around, saying, “Pipp, are you-” She froze. “Pipp?”
The youngest of the group was nowhere to be seen. Zipp spun around in a circle to see if she was anywhere else in the room, saw that she wasn’t, and was immediately flattened by a crushing wall of guilt. “This is my fault. Pipp…” Spreading her wings, Zipp flew out of the throne room, flying throughout the palace, calling, “Pipp? Pipp?”