//------------------------------// // Trouble In The Tea Room // Story: The Journey of Lukas // by MyAwesomePony //------------------------------// The next day, the group woke up and continued their journey to Bridlewood, but as it turns out, it didn't look as magical and candy coated as they had anticipated, with crooked branches hanging from trees and multiple signs with red crosses over unicorn silhouettes posted at the entrance. "Come on! My house isn't far from here!" Izzy encouraged, trotting into the creepy forest, humming to herself as she did so. Everyone was resistant at first to think about what unspeakable horrors lie within that forest, but magic wasn't going to restore itself, so they had no choice but to follow Izzy into the forest. There was fog everywhere, making it hard to spot any potential wildlife. Everyone looked around with worry in their expressions, while Izzy lead the group with a smile on her face. Then, they made into a clearing of the forest as all the fog around them suddenly dissapeared as they were approaching Izzy's house, which was a purple tree. "Well, here we are, guys." Izzy declared as she opened the door for the group. "La villa Izzy!" The inside of Izzy's house was like walking into an art museum because there were multiple art pieces scattered around the place. Lukas marveled at a painting of a pony, then suddenly, it mysteriously blinked at him, which startled Lukas. Sunny was operating what seemed to be a music instrument. As she cranked the lever, glass bottles clanked together in a beautiful melody. "Did you make all of this?" Zipp asked in disbelief as she stared at a mobile. "Yup!" Izzy replied. "Uni-cycling! Isn't it funky?" "It is gorgeoooous!" Pipp said in a singsong voice. "I also make friendship bracelets!" Izzy exclaimed as she pulled out a small bowl of bracelets. "Ah, cool." Zipp remarked. "Wait, wait! Watch this! Hold everything! Aah! I've never gotten to use this with actual friends!" Izzy then pushed out a mechanism that was in the shape of a flower, and when she pressed a button on the top, the petals then spread wide, balancing teapots and teacups on them. "Ta-Daaa!" "Whoa!" Zipp gawked. "I so wish I had live-streamed that!" Pipp gasped." "Wow Izzy." Was all Lukas could say. "I can tell you have a lot of spare time on your hooves." "We don't have time for that right now." Sunny called out. "If we're gonna get the information we need on the Unicorn Crystal, we can't stick out like sore hooves. We need to look like unicorns." "Yay, makeovers! I love makeovers!" Pipp squealed as Zipp didn't look too interested at that idea. "No. No, this is not... This is not what I signed up for. No." She said, while laughing nervously. "So, Izzy, can you do it?" Sunny wondered. "A glow-up?" Izzy asked as she slurped from the teacup, before slamming it down. "Honey, you came to the right cottage." Izzy then proceeded to lead the group into a musical number about fitting in with unicorns. During the song, Izzy took everyone's measurements and got fake horns for the group, as well as cloaks to cover up Pipp and Zipp's wings. When the musical number ended, Lukas then came to a realization. "Wait a minute, I don't look anything like a pony to begin with." He thought as Izzy pondered for a moment, before running off to the other room. A few moments later, she came back with a blue potion. "What is that?" "It's a pony transformation potion." Izzy explained, giving the potion bottle to Lukas. "It can turn anything and anyone into a pony." "Really? That's cool." Lukas remarked "Wait, why do you even have one of those?" Hitch asked. "Oh, I sometimes use it on my teddy bears so that I can have friends for my tea parties." Izzy replied with a smile. Lukas looked at the potion for a brief moment, before he eventually took off the cork and downed the contents of the potion in one gulp, it had a pretty weird taste, but Lukas managed to swallow it. For a moment, nothing happened, then suddenly, he was engulfed in a bright light as he was slowly lifted of the ground. Lukas could feel his body morphing and twisting. Then all of a sudden, he was thrown to the ground. "Ugh, my head!" Lukas groaned. "Well guys, how do I look?" Everyone gasped as Izzy ran off to get a mirror for Lukas to look at his reflection, when Izzy came back with the mirror, Lukas looked at his reflection and saw that he was no longer a human being, but rather, a blue unicorn with a brown mane and tail and freckles on his cheeks. "Wow, I look cool as a pony." Lukas awed at himself, but when he got up, he found it difficult to the stand on all fours, but after stumbling around the room for a while, he finally was starting to get used to it. "Oh, it's going to be a bit hard walking on all fours." "Now that that's out of the way, let's go into Bridlewood." Izzy announced. "Lead the way, Izzy." Lukas remarked. As the group of "unicorns" walked through Bridlewood, they quickly found out that the forest seemed to be a lot more welcoming than what they saw at the entrance. What was once an dark forest was now a bright and vibrant looking forest as the sun shone through the leaves of the trees, and as Izzy pointed out, there were multiple crystal statues scattered around the forest. "Ta-daaaaa! Crystals! Crystals! Crystals!" Izzy said as she went from crystal to crystal. "She does know we're just looking for the one, right?" Zipp asked. "Oh let her have fun, Zipp." Lukas replied. "Crystals! Crystals! Crystals!" Izzy continued as she showed everyone what Bridlewood has to offer. The group then continued their walk, but the further they walked through the forest, the quicker they started to realize that the unicorns weren't exactly all that cheerful. They all slumped around with bored expressions on their faces. An elderly unicorn was nearby, getting hit in the head by numerous apples from a tree, each time letting out an audible "ow!" "Hey." A deadpanned unicorn said to another. "Hey." The other replied in the same deadpanned voice. Lukas then looked over to see three miserable looking foals on a nearby playground, one was on the slide, one was on the swing and the other one was on one side of the sea-saw. Needless to say, Bridlewood wasn't exactly the best place to stay. "Well, this is... cheerful." Hitch whispered awkwardly. "These other unicorns seem so different from you." Sunny said to Izzy. "Yeah, I get that a lot." Izzy replied, not at all offended. "My sparkle is a bit too sparkly for Bridlewood." Lukas then approached the foals on the playground. "Wow, the unicorns look so miserable without their magic." "Oooooh! You said a bad word!" The foal on the swing pointed sharply at Lukas. "What?" Lukas said confusingly. "Hurry! Before we get jinxed!" Then, all of the foals proceeded to dive to the ground and do some kind of weird ritual while chanting "Bing bong, bing bong" in unison. Lukas was understandably freaked out about this as he backed slowly away. Zipp, having also seen the foals strange behavior, was confused as well. "Ooooookay... I'm gonna need some context." She said. "Unicorns are very superstitious." Izzy explained in a whisper. "If a pony ever says a forbidden word, we have to do a ritual to ward off the jinxies." "Jinxies?" Pipp asked. "Bad luck." Izzy continued. "Forbidden words?" Hitch asked. "What kind of words would they forbid in a unicorn forest?" Lukas wondered, also interested in this. ""Magic", "wing", "feather"... Oh, and "mayonnaise". Izzy added. "What's wrong with may-" Before Hitch could get his question out, Izzy went up to him and quickly covered his mouth with her hoof to stop him from saying the forbidden word as multiple nearby unicorns suddenly perked up, but after a while, they went back to doing their regular, bored activities. When Izzy saw that the unicorns were no longer listening, she released her hoof from the sheriff's mouth. "Come on! There's something I want to show you." Izzy said as she led the group towards a building with a teapot sign over it that read... "The Crystal Tea Room?" Sunny asked, reading the sign. There's a pony inside who collects crystals. Maybe he could help us." That's great, Izzy! Oh, and Hitch?" Sunny added, turning over to Hitch. "I know, I know. No forbidden words." Hitch replied, knowing what Sunny was about to say. The crystal tea room seemed to be some kind of cafe as unicorns sat at nearby tables drinking tea. There was even a beatnik unicorn who was making a speech on the stage, with bongo sounds in the background. "Earth pony jinx. Something stinks. Pegasus neighs..." The beatnik unicorn said as the group found the unicorn that collected crystals, according to Izzy. "That's the pony I was talking about." Izzy whispered loudly as Sunny seated on the seat in front of him. "So word in the forest is you collect crystals." Sunny assumed as the rest of the group gathered around the unicorn. "Yes, I do. Well, I mean, I did. I lost 'em all in a limbo contest with... Alphabittle!" The unicorn exclaimed. "Oh, no." Was all Izzy could say. "Wait, who's Alphabittle?" Lukas asked. Then at that moment, there was a sound of a clanging bell. Everyone looked over to see none other than Alphabittle, who was at the bar observing a unicorn trying to solve a cube puzzle, Alphabittle was a large, heavyset unicorn with a medium gray coat and dark gray hooves. He has a wispy white mane and tail, bushy eyebrows, sideburns, and a beard. He has freckles on his cheeks, and brown eyes. "Time's up! Pass it over, Jasper." He declared as Jasper hesitantly handed him the cube puzzle, which was incomplete, but Alphabittle quickly solved it in a matter of seconds. "Guess that makes me the winner. Again. Pay up." "Ugh. Fine." Jasper groaned as he handed a mug to Alphabittle and then sat up and walked off. "You could always try winning it back!" Alphabittle encouraged, but Jasper wasn't interested. "All right, suit yourself." He then put the mug on a shelf, which was also filled with other valuable items, including the unicorn crystal. "There it is!" Sunny exclaimed. "But how are we gonna get it?" Lukas thought for a moment. "I've got an idea. Maybe I could win the crystal by playing Alphabittle's game." "Wait. Alphabittle can smell fear." Izzy pointed out. "Got it." Lukas replied, before taking a big breath. "Okay. Be cool." Izzy cringed as Lukas went up towards the bar while stumbling, still trying to get used to walking on all fours. He then sloppily sat on one of the stools, Alphabittle looked over at him as he was wiping down the tabletop. "Can I help you?" He asked. "Why yes you can." Lukas replied, sitting upright. "Could you get me some tea please, I'm so thirsty?" He said in an over-dramatic voice as one of Alphabittle's armadillos got Lukas his tea. "Quite the game player, I see." "It passes the time. Why? Do you play?" Alphabittle asked. "I don't just play. I win!" Lukas said in an over-confident voice. "Is that so?" "Yeah, it is. And I challenge you... for that!" Lukas then pointed at the unicorn crystal. "You think you can beat me?" "Keep talking like that and you'll find out." Lukas threatened. "Big talk for a little pony." Alphabittle taunted. "I think you'll find I'm average height." Lukas taunted back, there was a moment of silence between the two. "Tick-tock. What do you say?" "Whatever you're bettin', it better be special." Alphabittle teased. Lukas looked around nervously, he didn't really think this through. "Um, excuse me for a moment." Lukas then walked off while scanning the cafe for anything valuable. He then spotted a crystal necklace on a table nearby. Quickly, he grabbed it and went back to the bar, slamming the necklace onto the counter. 'Special enough for ya?" Lukas asked hopefully. "Yeah, that will do nicely." Alphabittle replied with glee. "Great." Lukas said as an armadillo was carrying the same cube puzzle that Jasper was trying to solve. "Now gimme that cube." He snatched the puzzle cube off the armadillo's back. "Okay, here's how it's gonna go down." Alphabittle began. "I'll give you a minute to solve that cube puzzle, and if you fail, you walk away with nothing. "And if I win, I'm walking away with that crystal." Lukas added. "So are you thinking about backing out?" Alphabitle asked. "Oh no, not at all." Lukas said with confidence. "Whatever you say. Alright, begin!" Alphabittle stated as he rang the bell. Without another word, Lukas started to solve the cube puzzle. The rest of the group looked on in anticipation, hoping that Lukas was able to solve it. Sweat was pouring down Lukas' face as he fiddled away with the cube. Then suddenly, before anyone could say anything else, the bell rang again, signaling the end of the time. "Time's up!" Alphabittle exclaimed proudly. "Ha, I knew you couldn't do it, I guess I'm just too goo-" Before Alphabittle could finish gloating, he then realized that there was now a full solved cube puzzle in front of him as Lukas looked at him with a confident face. "What do you call that then?" Lukas asked with a smirk. Alphabittle couldn't believe his eyes. "But..but.. how did." "I guess I am good after all." Lukas teased as the group cheered for him. "Way to go, Lukas!" Sunny exclaimed. "You really showed him!" Hitch declared with excitement. But unfortunately, their celebration didn't last very long, because immediately after Alphabittle reluctantly gave Lukas the crystal, Lukas was suddenly engulfed in a bright light as all eyes were on him. When he hit the ground, he was no longer a unicorn anymore, but was now... "A human!" Alphabittle cried out. As Lukas got up, rubbing his head, he quickly realized what had happened. "Ah! why am I a human again?" "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, the potion wears off after an hour. " Izzy pointed out. Lukas was about to lash out at Izzy, but he knew that now wasn't the appropriate time for that. "Look, I know it doesn't look like it, but we're here to help." "Help?" Alphabittle whispered. "We don't need help. Especially from a human like you. Give me the crystal." "But I won." Lukas stuttered. "You tricked me. The crystal." Lukas backed away. "Now!" Lukas' scared expression quickly turned into anger. "No!" Everypony gasped in unison as Alphabittle couldn't believe what he had heard. "What did you say!" "You heard me, I said no!" Lukas cried. "I won this crystal fair and square, and I'm not going to let your grubby little hooves take it. Now back away, or else!" "Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do about it, you're nothing but a weak and pathetic human!" Alphabittle laughed triumphantly as the rest of the unicorns laughed as well. Lukas was getting more frustrated, his face was slowly starting to turn red and his blood pressure boiled up. "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Lukas then charged at Alphabittle, sending him to the ground as everypony gasped. "Oh, you asked for it, pal!" Alphabittle then socked Lukas square in the eye, giving him a black eye in the process, and then chucked him over the bar as he slid on the ground. "Lukas!" Izzy cried out. "Don't worry about me. Just go, I'll hold them off." Lukas assured the group as they all made a b-line for the exit, while Sunny grabbed the unicorn crystal. "Sorry about that! Uh, thanks for the tea!" Izzy called out as her and the rest of the group ran away into the forest. To Be Continued...