//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Pieces // Story: The Never-Ending Ending // by 5u0myn0n4 //------------------------------// Opaline paced in circles around the Unity Crystal. To her, this was a lifetime of work finally paying off. "You really went so far as to seal away all the magic just to keep magic away from me. I'm flattered you feared me so much. But now that magic is back, there won't be anything else getting in the way of what was rightfully mine to begin with!" Opaline tapped the Crystal with her hoof, and her horn, but it remained dormant. "Assuming... I'm able to activate it, and use your magic power. Seems it only responds to Sunny Starscout's alicorn magic. Pah. Hide all you want, but once Misty returns with that baby dragon, we'll see exactly how much heat you can take. Soon your magic, and the rest of Equestria's magic will be mine. All mine! Bwahahaha... haha... ha..." Meanwhile, Zipp had turned the second story of the Crystal Bright House into her investigation room. Hitch was there to provide another perspective, and Sunny was downstairs gathering something important. "So, where do we start?" Hitch asked. "Let's look at the big picture. The Unity Crystal was stolen, and we gotta get it back. We don't know much about that shadowy alicorn, where she is, or what exactly she wants from the Crystal. But she's definitely up to no good." Zipp replied. "Most definitely. What have you got, Sunny? Sunny?" Hitch asked. Zipp and Hitch looked over, and saw Sunny struggling to lug a few heavy boxes up the stairs. "A little help here?" Sunny asked. Hitch and Zipp ran down the stairs to help move the boxes up the stairs for Sunny. In fact, they were able to easily carry all of them themselves. "Why'd we set up the investigation room upstairs?" Sunny asked. But Sunny's rhetorical questions went unnoticed. She saw Zipp and Hitch were already taking a look inside, and they were awestruck. They opened the boxes and saw the huge assortment of relics from Equestria's past. Sunny was pleasantly surprised to see Zipp and Hitch so impressed by her dad's collection of stuff. "Wow, Sunny, your dad's got a wicked cool collection of old stuff." Zipp said. "Thanks." Sunny replied. "I haven't had time to unpack everything since moving everything to the Crystal Bright House. Not to mention, some stuff might be out of chronological order. Or plain gone missing after the old house was destroyed." Hitch and Zipp were amazed at Argyle's collection of Equestria pieces. A complete map of old Equestria! Artifacts. Scripts of past events. Even sketches and descriptions of ponies from the old Equestria. Hitch looked over and saw Sunny was getting teary eyed looking back on her dad's old stuff. "Your dad really cared about all of this." Hitch said. *sniff* "This stuff meant everything to him. He was all about carrying out Twilight Sparkle's wish of having earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi living together in harmony. Just looking at this stuff brings back so many childhood memories..." "Oh, Sunny..." Zipp said. Hitch and Zipp hugged Sunny for comfort. Inside Mane Melody, Pipp was helping Cozy Glow to set up her new cell phone. "So now I tap this icon to open the app... and just create an... usher account?" Cozy asked. "Yep. Now you create a handle, and a password, and you're up and trotting!" Pipp said. Cozy Glow attempted to heed Pipp's advice. Even with the ring on the back of the phone to hold it with her hoof, she found it very difficult to hold, let alone use. "Show me what you've got so far, Cozy Glow." Pipp said. "Oh, I don't know, it's not that great." Cozy said, anxiously. "Maybe I should've gotten the folding phone." "Hah, it's fine. It's totes you." Pipp said. Cozy Glow showed her screen to Pipp. Her Ponygram username was @Empress_of_Friendship_826. "Huh. Interesting name. Pretty blunt. I like it though!" Pipp said, cheerfully. "I can see it now. You'll be gaining so many followers soon." "Shouldn't I keep a low profile?" Cozy Glow asked. "After all, I'm not really from here." "I thought you wanted to show off and be an influencer." Pipp said. "Oh, right. I do." Cozy said. "Now that your "usher" account is made(I swear, now you've got it in my head), time to start posting content! We'll start with a little introductory movie." Pipp said. "Jazz and Rocky here will help you film." Cozy Glow stood on the mane stage of Mane Melody, while Jazz and Rocky pointed the phone camera at Cozy. "And... action!" Pipp exclaimed. Jazz Hooves and Rocky Riff started filming Cozy, and she began to speak. "Um, hi, everypony. My name is Cozy Glow. I'm from... far away. And this whole routine you ponies have sure is strange. Um, but I sure hope to make lots of friends with everypony inside of Ponygram." Cozy said, smiling. "Hmm? Oh! Aaand cut!" Pipp said. "How'd I do?" Cozy asked. Pipp looked at her phone, and saw Cozy gained two hooftaps in the first minute of her video being uploaded. "Modest. You really gotta do something extraordinary in order to stand out these days." Pipp said. "Not to mention you didn't put any editing flourishes in your vid." "How do I do that?" Cozy asked. "Well first we should... hang on, that's my phone ringing. Jazzy and Rocky will point you." Suddenly, Pipp's wing started to vibrate. It was her cell phone ringing. Pipp answered the phone while Cozy continued to struggle. "What is it, mom?" Pipp asked. "Pipp! Where are you and your sister?!" Queen Haven asked. "Relax, mom. I'm at Mane Melody, and Zipp's at the Crystal Bright House with Sunny." Pipp replied. "Okay, good. Well stay safe. Right now, me, Cloud Puff, and everypony in Zephyr Heights is hiding in the castle's bunker for safety. Hopefully we aren't discovered by that rampaging beast. I heard he's already been through Bridlewood." Queen Haven explained. "In fact, I think it'd be wise if you and your friends evacuated everyone from Maretime Bay. It isn't safe out there." "But mom. I..." Pipp looked back over to Cozy Glow who was intently setting up her phone. "I'll make sure everypony is safe." Pipp said. "That's my girl. As a ruler, the safety of your subjects is so important. And I think you understand that well. Love you both." Queen Haven said. The phone hang up. "What was that about?" Cozy asked. "I think we should go. What with that big red guy wandering through Equestria, he could be here at any moment. Come on, the tour's over, let's meet back with the others." Pipp said. But Cozy wept, and didn't want to leave so soon. "But you haven't yet shown me the main thing that makes Mane Melody so special." Cozy said. "Hmm... Say, even though we're not technically open, want to show Cozy Glow what Mane Melody is all about?" Zipp's text wrote Give us a few. I think we have some time, and we're still on the case. "Alright, Cozy Glow. Ready to become Mane Melody's new main attraction?" Pipp said. "I'm gonna what?" Cozy asked. Misty and Izzy were putting the finishing touches on Misty's invention. Izzy helped attach an opening and closing piece, controlled by a lever on the other end. It was also capable of telescoping, but maximum reach. "It's nearly finished! So, what are you gonna call it?" Izzy asked. "I call it, the extendy-hoof!" Misty exclaimed. "When I pull here, the grabber reaches out, and then grabs my target and I reel it in and shove it in this sack!!" "That's the spirit! Nice work. Let's test it out!" Izzy helped Misty test her extending arm grabber. She used a sack of potatoes as a test subject. "Izzy does it. I mean, easy does it. Izzy's not here." Izzy said. Misty managed to put a grip on the potato sack, but after she applied too much force, tension in the device snapped and it fell apart quite spectacularly. Misty was greatly disappointed, but Izzy only giggled. "What's so funny? My invention fell apart, and I'm likely to fail." Misty said. "Don't work yourself up. Failure is part of the process!" Izzy said. "Really? That's weird. So um... is success a part of the process too?" Misty asked. "Uh... actually, I don't know." Izzy replied. "You don't know?" Misty asked. "Nope! Success is anything BUT guaranteed!" Izzy said. "That sounds terrible. How can you live knowing when or if you'll succeed?" Misty asked. "I don't know what you mean. Not knowing is what it's all about!" Izzy said. "Huh?" Misty asked, confused. "Not knowing stuff, means there's new stuff to learn. The real joy in life is learning new things!" Izzy said. "Wow. I haven't thought of that." Misty said, surprised. "Now what I do know, is if you want the rod to extend, you're going to a spring with more tension." Izzy said. Misty took Izzy's suggestion, and finally, her invention started to click, and come together. Inside the Crystal Bright House, Zipp was going over all the evidence and observations with Sunny and Hitch. Zipp had a huge cork board set up. In the center was a composite sketch of Opaline. Below her was Twilight Sparkle, along with separate photos of Cozy Glow, Lord Tirek, and Queen Chrysalis. Zipp knew that all of these pieces fit into a big puzzle, but she didn't quite know how just yet. Sunny Starscout was still rummaging through her dad's box of stuff, in search of clues, or of any mention of Cozy Glow, Tirek, or Chrysalis. "So, what do we have so far, deputy?" Hitch asked. "I've been thinking a lot about Misty's version of the history of Twilight Sparkle. She explicitly mentioned an evil alicorn who all the magic allegedly belonged to. We saw Misty with the alicorn who stole the Unity Crystal, that's probably who she was talking about." "And Twilight Sparkle's message warned of something. Is Opaline what she was warning us of?" Sunny asked. "She's definitely the one who Twilight Sparkle tried to warn us about! Because if we assume that, things all of the sudden start to make a whole lot more sense." Zipp said. "Guys, think back as far as you can remember personally. Nopony could do magic until we united the Crystals together. Not long after the magic returned, who all of the sudden appears, and what do they steal?" Hitch raised his hoof to speak. "I know this! That Misty, and eventually Opaline suddenly appeared, and they've been after anything magic since. And the Crystal is their crown achievement." he said. "They're Twilight's crystal which means..." Sunny said. *gasp* "Twilight didn't create a "barrier" to keep out Opaline. She created the Crystals and sealed the magic so she couldn't have it!" Zipp exclaimed. "Yes! Exactly what I was leading on about." Hitch said. "But now that Opaline has the crystals, it's only a matter of time before she unlocks the magic inside!" Zipp said. "So if she just wants all the magic, why'd she go out of her way to free those three from stone?" Hitch asked. "I got this, Hitch. It's because she thinks they'll be helpful to her cause. That centaur can absorb all the magic from Equestria, likely so he could bring it to her and have it all for herself." Zipp said. "She got tired of trying to take my little Sparky's dragon fire. She wants the big stuff now." Hitch said. "And she may still get it. If Tirek ends up taking the magic from everypony, and then Opaline gets ahold of him, and unlocks the crystal, she'll have all the magic and be unstoppable. She simply won't stop until she has it all." Zipp said. "So we know the what and why. But we don't know who exactly those three are, or why they were in stone in the first place. Anything, Sunny?" Hitch asked. "Not yet. I haven't had a chance to organize dad's stuff since my old home was destroyed, so I apologize that it's taking this long." Sunny said. "While you do that, we can still speculate. Like I said earlier, they were likely frozen at the same time, which would imply it was for the same reason." Zipp said. "So if Lord Tirek was sealed away because he was evil, then so was the changeling queen, and by extension..." "Are you saying you think she's evil?" Hitch asked. "Cozy Glow was sealed away with those two. I-I don't know what other conclusion to come to. I've had a hunch this whole time, but she refuses to give any obvious indicator." Zipp said. "I think I found what we've been looking for." Sunny said. Sunny Starscout held out a page from Argyle's journal, and Zipp read it aloud. "Twilight Sparkle's coronation. The single most important day in Equestria. The day that power of leadership was handed down from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to Princess Twilight Sparkle. After recently united with all of Equestria, defeated the likes of the evil centaur Lord Tirek, the dastardly changeling queen, Queen Chrysalis, and the conniving sinister pegasus filly Cozy Glow, Equestria enjoyed a long prosperous many years." Everypony put down what they were doing, and they all came to the realization. The one quite clearly spelled out in front of them. "So that's it then! She's no darling! She's downright evil!" Zipp said. "And Pipp and Izzy are with her at Maretime Bay which means-" Hitch started. Everypony looked at each other and gasped. "Pipp's in danger!" Zipp said. "We gotta stop Cozy before she does something bad!" Zipp stormed out of the Crystal Brighthouse, and Hitch quickly followed. As soon as Sunny stepped outside of the Brighthouse, she felt something. It was her mirror glowing and ringing. It'd been some time since she had spoken to her little mirror self, but she was in too much of a hurry to stop and speak with them. Misty was just about finished rebuilding her dragon grabbing contraption. She put the last piece in place, and held it up in excitement. "Behold! The Extendy-Hoof 2.0!(Patent Pending)" Misty exclaimed. "Excellent! I knew you could do it, Misty! Err... I'm sorry, I never got your name. You are?" Izzy asked. Misty looked at Izzy nervously, and decided she couldn't carry on this fib any longer. "Look, neither of us are fooling each other." Misty said, removing her shades. "I know who you are! You're friends with Sunny Starscout! Alicorn do-gooder extraordinaire! And I'm Misty... just Misty!" "So we're done playing pretend? Okay then! I'm Izzy Moonbow, even though we've already met and you know my name. I just thought since you were so nervous it'd be best if we-" Izzy said. "Shut up! Why are you helping me?" Misty asked, interrupting. "Because you needed help, and I wanted to help you." Izzy answered. Izzy's baffling behavior only served to infuriate Misty more. "No! I don't deserve your help! I serve Opaline! Your arch nemesis! You saw me with her! The alicorn who wants to take your special magic away! I'm evil!" Misty exclaimed. "No you're not. You're my friend." Izzy said. Misty paused, as Izzy's words hit her in the gut. "You stayed with us at our traditional unicorn sleepover. And we just built some wicked cool contraptions with some of my junk." Izzy added.. "I-I'm you're... f-f-f-f-friend?" Misty asked. "Y-y-y-y-y-yes." Izzy said, smiling. "Well I'm a-a-a-" Misty had trouble finishing her sentence, and then her necklace started to ring. "Hold on, I gotta take this." Misty held it up, and saw Opaline's head appear as a projection in a puff of smoke. "Misty, what are you doing? You've been gone all day!" Opaline exclaimed. "I-I'm working on getting that baby dragon for you!" Misty said in a frantic worried tone. "In fact, that's what I was going to do next! At this very moment!" "Well hurry it up! Lord Tirek is on his way to Maretime Bay! And if he or anyone else gets to that dragon before us, then that complicates our plans considerably! Don't let me down again, Misty!" Opaline said. The signal dropped out as Opaline hung up, and she disappeared. "I'm sorry. I gotta go. " Misty said. "I get it. Mom troubles." Izzy said, winking. "She is not my mom!" Misty shouted, embarrassed. "She's just a pony who found me when I was very little... and raised me... and has been with me through every step of development." "Mmm hmm. You're not going to steal little Sparky Sparkeroni, are you?" Izzy asked. "I have to. It's what she wants. I just can't let her down." Misty said. "But what does Misty Bright Dawn want?" Izzy asked. "I-... I I..." Misty didn't know what words to say. Suddenly, Izzy and Misty felt the ground shake, and heard loud thunderous steps in the distance. "I gotta run!" Misty took her contraption and ran. "Misty, wait!" Izzy chased after her.