//------------------------------// // Lost Hope // Story: The Journey of Lukas // by MyAwesomePony //------------------------------// As the group ran away from the Crystal Team Room, Lukas was left all alone to deal with all of the unicorns. Lukas didn't want to admit it out loud, but he was starting to lose his courage and was now scared for his life now knowing what Alphabittle could do to him. The human wasn't that badly injured, he just sustained a few minor bruisers. The unicorns glared at Lukas with anger as they cornered him. "Well, well, well, looks like you're cornered." Alphabittle taunted. "What are you gonna do now?" "I..." Lukas paused, pointing sharply behind the unicorns. "Oh my gosh, is that another Earth pony over there?" "Where?" Alphabittle and the other unicorns looked behind them, this giving Lukas enough time to escape, but was quickly caught before he even reached the exit. "Hey, get back here!" As Lukas ran out the building, he looked around frantically for anything he could use to slow down the unicorns, and saw a nearby tree branch, he then looked up at the sign over the door. Quickly, he grabbed the tree branch and threw it at the sign, thus making it fall to the ground, blocking the exit. "Phew." Lukas said with relief, wiping sweat from his brow. "That should slow them down for a while." He then ran off to find the others. Lukas ran and ran through Bridlewood, until his legs were starting to get tired. He looked behind him and saw that the unicorns were not behind him yet, meaning that they were still probably trying to get out of the tea room. So Lukas allowed himself a moment to breathe, before he had ran into a problem, he was completely lost. "Oh man, I have no idea where I'm going, everywhere in this forest looks the same." Lukas panted. Suddenly, before Lukas could continue talking to himself, he heard a rustle coming from the bushes in front of him, Lukas looked on nervously, mentally preparing himself for who or what was about to step out of those bushes. Turns out, he didn't really need to prepare to fight because a small Pomeranian winged dog leapt out of the bushes. "Cloudpuff?" Lukas asked. "What are you doing out here?" Lukas looked closely at Cloudpuff and saw that he had something in his mouth. "Hey, it's Hitch's badge, he wouldn't stop complaining about that thing. Speaking of which, could you please help me find everyone else?" Cloudpuff then nodded in response, before running off, gesturing for Lukas to follow him. "Good boy, Cloudpuff." Lukas whispered as he followed the Pomeranian. Back with the ponies, they too were galloping through the forest of Bridlewood as fast as they little hooves could go. Suddenly, all of them came to a screeching halt when they saw a pony moving out of the bushes, they were moving backwards, so they couldn't see his or her face, but then, the pony turned around to reveal that it was Queen Haven, she had somehow escaped prison and came all the way to Bridlewood, and from the looks of it, she had a rather hard time getting here since they were dirt marks all over her and her mane was unkempt. "Mom?!" Zipp and Pipp exclaimed in unison. "Oh, my darlings! Thank hoofness!" Queen Haven said with relief. "You escaped!" Zipp said in disbelief. "How did you find us?" Pipp asked. Just then, Cloudpuff came running out of the bushes, along with Lukas. The little Pomeranian jumped on Hitch, sending the sheriff to the ground and presenting him in his mouth... "Ah! My badge! Yes!" Hitch exclaimed, proudly taking his badge back. "Lukas, you look awful!" Sunny moaned, inspecting Lukas' injuries. "Don't worry, it'll heal soon." Lukas assured her. "Oh, I'm so glad I found my little fillies." Queen Haven said to her two daughters. "Now, I know that if you just come back with me, we can explain everything. Spin the story, and they'll love us again. R-Right?" Before Queen Haven could finish talking, all the unicorns and Alphabittle had somehow escaped the crystal tea room after Lukas had blocked the entrance, and they did not look pleased. "Let us explain!" Sunny cried out. But before she could, she was interrupted by a voice from behind her. "There she is!" Everyone turned around to see a group of Pegasi guards walking up, they had apparently come to arrest the queen. "Your Criminal Highness, you're coming with us!" "Aah! Unicorns!" Thunder exclaimed as he threw a tennis ball at Alphabittle which hit him on the forehead, not affecting him at all. "Give me back my crystals and leave Bridlewood!" Alphabittle demanded. "Your crystals? That crystal belongs to me!" Queen Haven protested. "Not anymore, it doesn't! I won it fair and square!" Alphabittle clarified. "What!? No you didn't!" Lukas added. "You stay out of this!" Alphabittle shouted. "I did win that crystal!" "Hah! I certainly doubt it!" Queen Haven chuckled as she and Alphabittle walked closer to each other. "Unicorns are known to be cheaters!" "You Pegasi always thought you were better than us!" "Hey, that's our queen you're talking to!" Zoom added in. Soon enough, the unicorns and Pegasi were having a heated argument against one another, throwing insults at each other. Lukas and the rest of the ponies watched this whole thing unfold until Lukas finally put their fighting to a close. "Oh for crying out loud! NOPONY HAS MAGIC!" Lukas shouted as everyone looked at him as a unicorn among the crowd quickly said "Bing bong." "But we're here to bring it back." Lukas went on. "Is it possible?" Asked a unicorn. "Did he just say "magic"?" Thunder pondered. "This is a trick." Zoom said skeptical. "I know it sounds a bit unbelievable, and heck, even I have my doubts, but please, just let us try." "Please, Mom." Pipp begged. "Trust us." Pipp added. "Wha... You two..." Queen Haven stuttered, at a loss for words. "Fine." "You're wasting your time, kid." Alphabittle remarked. But the group were too focused to listen to Alphabittle's remark. Sunny and Izzy stood at the front of the group, with both the unicorn crystal and the Pegasi crystals in hoof, Sunny took a good look at Izzy, being proud of her, her friends and even herself for making it this far. "Ready, Izyy?" She asked the unicorn. "Ready!" Izzy replied. With that, Sunny and Izzy drew the crystals closer and closer together. Everyone looked on in anticipation, Lukas had his fingers crossed, praying that this would work and everything would go back to normal again. Pipp even fluffed out her wings, preparing herself to fly the moment magic was restored. Even Hitch, the pony who was skeptical from the beginning, claiming it to be a waste of time was generally concerned that this wasn't gonna work. As for Sunny and Izzy, they both looked at the crystals with wide eyes, finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, the crystals were reunited together once and for all, but unfortunately, nothing happened. No bright lights, no lasers, no nothing, it was just silence. Everyone's happy expressions soon turned into looks of confusion. "It... It..." Sunny stuttered, unable to believe what had happened. "Why didn't it work, Daddy?" A unicorn filly asked her dad. "'Cause it was all just make-believe." Her dad replied sadly. “We could try again.” Sunny spoke out, finally finding the right words. “Maybe.. Maybe… we did it wrong somehow.” But it was too late to try again as the unicorns and the Pegasi were beginning to leave in sorrow. “Wait, wait, don’t go.” Sunny begged, but she couldn’t stop them. She then took both crystals and frantically put them together, hoping for at least something to happen. “Oh come on, work.” The group glared at Sunny as she continued to put the crystals together again and again, and then they glared at each other, unsure how to handle this situation. Finally, Hitch stepped up and walked towards Sunny. “Sunny, it’s okay.” Hitch assured her. “You did everything you could.” “I.. I thought it would work.” Sunny replied, looking up at Hitch. “I was so, so sure of it.” Izzy walked up towards Sunny as well, but didn’t say anything. Sunny then got up and slowly walked away from the group with her head lowered in shame. “What do we do now, Sunny?” Zipp asked, feeling just as remorseful as everyone else. Sunny then proceeded to give Alphabittle and Queen Haven their respective crystals back as they both looked unsure how to react to this. “I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused you.” Sunny said with pain in her voice as she gave Queen Haven her crown crystal back. "Sunny! We can't give up!" Pipp encouraged, but it wasn't working. "I thought that I could make a difference." Sunny then looked over at the unicorn filly and his dad walk away as the filly looked back at Sunny with a disappointed expression, thus breaking the earth pony's heart even more. "But everywhere I go, I just make things worse." "That's not true. We're all in this together." Izzy assured before she turned over to the rest of the group. "Right?" "Yeah." Pipp agreed. "Of course." Zipp added. "Come on, Sunny, It can't hurt to try again." Lukas said, wrapping his hand around the distraught pony, trying his best to comfort her, but instead, she just looked up at him sadly. "I'm so sorry I let you all down." That was the very last thing she said before slowly walking out of the forest and on her way back home, disappointed for herself over what she had caused. She was trying to reunite ponykind once and for all, but if anything, she made them want to separate even more. Izzy and the rest of the group watched a very sad Sunny walking off to who-knows-where and they felt just as much pain as she did at that moment. "Sunny." Lukas whispered quietly. After a while of nobody doing or saying anything, Hitch started to walk slowly in Sunny's direction, as if he was following her back home to Maretime Bay, but before he left, he glanced back and said... "I guess this is goodbye... friends." "Better hurry... sheriff." Replied Zipp. With that in mind, Hitch then walked off and followed Sunny on the way back to Maretime Bay, Lukas watched the two leave in disbelief. Finally, after a brief moment of pondering. Lukas started to walk away from the group as well. "I.. I should follow them to make sure they get home safely." He stuttered as he went to do just that... To be continued...