My legs were soon starting to get tired as Sunny, Izzy and I continued on our trek to Zephyr Heights, where we could hopefully find some answers as to what happened to Izzy's magic and what caused the three tribes to seperate, and more importantly, how I was going to return back to Ponyville. As we walked, we soon found ourselves in the middle of what looked like a huge ravine with mist in every direction.
Even though Sunny had reassured me countless time that this plan of hers was going to work, I was beginning to have second thoughts, causing my walking to gradually become slow and sluggish, which Sunny seemed to take notice of as she stopped and looked over at me.
"Lukas, are you okay?" She asked worriedly. "You've been really quiet."
"Huh." I said, snapping out of my thoughts. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine, Sunny. I'm just worried."
"About what?" Sunny wondered.
"Well, a lot of things, really." I replied. "Like, how am I going to get back without magic? What if I'll be stuck here forever?"
"Trust me, Lukas. We're going to figure out how to get your back." Sunny assured me.
I could only smile in response, appreciating Sunny's seemingly endless determination.
"You know, not to freak you guys out or anything, but you do know Pegasi can steal your luminescence, right?" Izzy asked.
"My lumi-what?" Sunny said confused.
"Luminescence, Sunny." I replied.
"Exactly, you know, like, your sparkle?" Izzy added, before looking at Sunny. "Yours is... lavender."
"Huh?" Sunny said, as if she was trying to process the information given to her.
"Hey Izzy, what's my sparkle?" I asked as Izzy looked at me for a moment before answering.
"Teal." She replied with a thoughtful expression. "And the happier you are, the brighter it shines!"
Suddenly, our conversation was interrupted when we heard the sound of rocks falling from above us. We all looked up in an attempt to figure out what caused that, but since there was mist above us, we were unable to see who or what made that noise.
"Huh, that was weird." I said in an uncomfortable tone as Sunny and Izzy exchanged worried glances.
As we tried to ignore that strange occurrence, we suddenly heard a loud whoosh sound from behind us. We immediately darted our heads around, only to find nothing there.
"Okay, that was even weirder." I pointed out nervously.
Then, the same whoosh noise was heard again, this time coming from above us, making us look up again. Suddenly, through the mist, I could make out a pony-like shadowy figure jumping over us, causing rocks to fall right next to us, giving us the queue to take off running. My legs were straining as we quickly made our way through the ravine. I took a quick glance behind us to see the same figure not too far behind us, which pushed us to run even faster.
"Hurry!" Sunny called out.
"I'm trying!" I called back, before looking ahead and gasping.
We were heading straight for a dead end. Sunny, Izzy and I quickly skidded to a halt. As Izzy started climbing up the rocks, I looked back to see the shadow figure was now right behind us as it swiftly jumped from one rock to another, I swear I could even make out a pair of wings on its back.
Now knowing that the figure was just moments away from catching up to us, Sunny pushed Izzy up the wall of rocks as she started climbing up as well, with me following behind. After a bit of climbing, Izzy and I had both made it to the edge of a cliff, not too long after, Sunny emerged from the mist, jumped up and grabbed onto the ledge. She attempted to climb onto the cliff-side, but her hooves suddenly lost grip as she began falling.
"Sunny!" I exclaimed.
Acting fast, I crouched down and grabbed onto one of Sunny's front hooves. I tried to pull her up, but as you'd expect, Sunny was way too heavy for me. As I struggled, Izzy then grabbed my waist and started pulling as well. Finally, with our combined strength, we were able to pull Sunny onto the ledge, causing us to fall over on our rear ends. I stood up and looked down the edge of the cliff, the shadow figure was nowhere to be seen.
"Phew, looks like we lost it." I said with relief.
I was soon proven wrong when all of a sudden, a Pegasus emerged from the mist and suspended herself in air for a brief moment, allowing me to get a better look at our chaser.
This Pegasus was white with silver hooves. Her wings had light blue and lavender feathers and were quite long. Her mane was hot pink with aqua and pink streaks, almost resembling gelled hair. Her tail was similarly colored and was of average length. She had turquoise blue eyes and pink eyebrows, which were rather thin.
Sunny and Izzy both screamed at the sight of her as they both clung onto each other, the Pegasus then soared over us as she began to jump on various nearby rocks, before she landed right in front of us, putting her wings on full display as Sunny and Izzy gasped in unison.
"A real Pegasus...!" Sunny said, unable to believe what she was seeing.
"Whoa! A unicorn, an Earth pony, and a..." The pegasus exclaimed as she acknowledged Izzy and Sunny respectively, but paused upon looking at me.
Knowing that she had never seen something like me before, I decided to help her out. "A human."
"And a human?" She finished. "Together?! Okay, well, this day just got a whole lot more interesting."
Suddenly, The Pegasus looked over in shock upon hearing what sounded like metal clanking nearby, she then gasped and raced off to the cliff side, before she turned to us with a serious expression.
"Don't tell them you saw me!" She instructed as she did a backwards dive off of the cliff.
"There's no way we cooooould! We don't even know your naaaaame!" Izzy called out. "She seems nice."
"Yeah, but what did she mean by that?" I asked.
I soon had that question answered when we heard a small scream from behind us. Turning over to the source, we saw that there were two Pegasi, who looked to be in silver guard armor. One of the Pegasus guards was spring green with blue eyes while the other Pegasus guard was sky blue with purple eyes.
"Thunder! Get it together!" The blue Pegasus said to the green Pegasus, who was cowering behind her.
"But... But that's an Earth pony!" Thunder protested.
"They're harmless. They have very tiny brains." The blue Pegasus pointed out as Sunny had a frustrated expression on her face.
"What do we do about that?!" Thunder asked, gesturing to Izzy who was beaming at them both.
"Well, did you bring the shield?" The blue Pegasus whispered.
"What shield?" Thunder said confused.
"Didn't you read the guard guide?"
"Yes." Thunder assured her. "Okay, no."
"Ugh, fine! I've got this."
As she said this, the blue Pegasus advanced closer towards us, spreading her wings out in the process.
"That's creative." Izzy pointed out.
We were now in an elevator that led up to Zephyr Heights, during the trip, Izzy gazed up at the tennis ball that was perched on her horn, to prevent her from performing any spells, if only they knew...
"What's it like to fly? Is your wingspan the same as your height?" Sunny asked Thunder.
"Well, I-" Thunder began, but was interrupted when Sunny continued asking questions.
"Do you need a license to fly? How far can you go?"
"Can you fly to the moon?" Izzy added in, before Sunny asked another question.
"Do Pegasi wear horseshoes, or do they just weigh you down?"
"Well, I-I do collect sneakers." Thunder replied with a stutter.
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't answer anything! They could be spies." The blue Pegasus, who had told me her name was Zoom Zephyrwing, butted in.
As the elevator continued making its way up, a ray of sunshine hit the corner of my eye, making me look out the glass window of the elevator to see the one and only Zephyr Heights, with buildings as far as the eye could see, and even a long bridge that crossed through the city. I then looked at one of the many screens and saw that there was some kind of news report going on.
"Good morning, Zephyr Heights! It's another beautiful day in the big city. Looks like warm breezes and clear skies for tonight's royal celebration!" One of the news anchors said.
"Royal celebration?!" Izzy repeated as she laughed in delight. "Talk about great timing!"
Tonight's royal bash for Queen Haven will be stunning, but the real jewel in the crown will be Princess Pipp's performance." The other news anchor added. "Isn't that right, Skye?"
"Oh, my, yes, Dazzle." Skye replied with a chuckle. "And this just in – an exclusive vid from Pipp for all you loyal fans out there in Z.H."
Just then, the screen changed to reveal another Pegasus looking at the screen, judging from what I could see of her, she was a light pink Pegasus. Her wings were fluffy and white and were made of large, soft feathers. Her violet mane and tail were wavy and her mane swept to one side, I noticed that she wore a golden tiara atop of her head. She had kiwi green eyes and violet eyebrows.
"What is up, everypony? Big shout out to all my fans, the Pippsqueaks." Pipp announced.
"Wait, the Pegasi have social media?!" I asked in disbelief. "That's.... interesting."
"So, tonight's the night. I can't wait to debut my new song later." Pipp said excitedly. "It has a very special place in my heart, but not as much as you guys!"
When Pipp said that, it got me thinking; "What did Pipp have in mind for this royal celebration?"
"Okay, guys, I love you lots. Gotta go. Pipp-Pipp-hooray!" Pipp signed off.
"Pipp-Pipp-hooray!" Izzy, Zoom Zephyrwing and Thunder said in unison.
Finally, the elevator had reached the top as its doors slid open, with Zoom Zephyrwing and Thunder ushering us out.
"Move it!" Zoom ordered.
"You betcha." Izzy replied with a wink.
With that, we were led onto a pathway, but as we were walking, I looked over at Sunny, who was looking around with a rather confused look on her face, as if something didn't seem right to her.
"Do you see anypony flying here?" She asked.
Now that I was looking around closer, I realized that Sunny was right, I couldn't see a single Pegasus flying around us or even using their wings at all, which struck me as a bit odd, but I didn't say anything about it.
"They have a castle!" Izzy squealed.
I looked ahead of us, and sure enough, there was indeed a castle in front of us. After going inside of said castle, we were led to two large doors as the magically opened up on their own as we entered what appeared to be a throne room with three thrones at the other side, I noticed that there were multiple Pegasus guards on either side of us, all in a formal line. Izzy was obviously impressed by this.
"Wow!" She said in awe.
"Bow before our queen!" Thunder called out.
On cue, the Pegasus guards began blowing a trumpet fanfare as everyone in the room all bowed, waiting for this queen to make her appearance. But instead of a queen, we were all met with a small, white Pomeranian dog as it sat in front of the throne in the middle, scratching itself with its paw. What I immediately noticed about this dog was that it appeared to have a pair of small wings on its back.
"Your Majesty!" Izzy said in an over-dramatic voice, bowing down also, which I couldn't help but snicker at.
Suddenly, the dog started jumping up and down while barking excitedly, I then heard Sunny gasp as she bumped both me and Izzy.
"What is it, Sunny?" I asked.
She then pointed upwards as she was looking up at something. I looked up as well to see three Pegasi fly in via a hole in the ceiling.
One of them was the white Pegasus that we encountered earlier at the cliff side, who had left in a hurry before she could introduce herself, another Pegasus was Pipp Petals, who was more focused on her phone than anything else, I was still surprised about the fact that the Pegasi had mobile phones now, but the final Pegasus was one I had never seen before.
This Pegasus was light purple with a light blue mane with light purple streaks in them, her large wings were different shades of purple and she wore a dark purple cloak. She also wore a golden necklace with a green jewel in the middle, a golden crown with blue Pegasi wings, and sunglasses on her face. I assumed that she was the queen that Thunder was talking about earlier.
As the three Pegasi landed, Izzy could hardly contain her excitement. "Hi, new friend!" She waved at the white Pegasus.
Upon noticing her, the white Pegasus shook her head silently, as if she didn't want Izzy to talk to her at the moment. Getting the message, Izzy pretended to zip her mouth shut as both her and Sunny nodded quietly.
"Guards, state your business, and please make it quick. We're on a very tight schedule today." Before the celebration, Cloudpuff needs his pedicure, Pipp needs to rehearse, and I need to practice my laugh." She then let out a forced laugh, before she pondered over what she'd done. "Hmmm. Still not right."
"Your Highness, we found these intruders in our territory." Zoom Zephyrwing informed the queen.
"And also." Thunder added, pointing at me. "We found this strange creature called a... human."
The queen then took off her sunglasses and looked directly at us, once she did, she gasped loudly upon registering what was in front of her.
"An Earth pony... a unicorn... and a...human... in Zephyr Heights?!" She said in disbelief.
"We have them under control, your Highness." Zoom assured the queen.
"Oh, oh, a-and we deployed the shield!" Thunder said, gesturing to the tennis ball still perched on Izzy's horn.
"Is this an attack?! On the night of our royal celebration?! Why are you here?! Who sent you?!" The queen asked frantically, before she gasped. "Nopony must know they're here!"
"Check it out, Pippsqueaks!" Pipp suddenly exclaimed as she pointed her phone towards us. "Live from the castle... it's a real unicorn, Earth pony and human! I know, right? This is so not a filter."
Just then, the queen snatched Pipp's phone out of her hoof. "Pipp! There's nothing to fear. Those nasty little ponies and human have been captured. Your queen will protect you."
With that, the queen turned off Pipp's phone, throwing it back to her with a disgruntled groan as Sunny pulled out her journal, flicking through the pages.
"Excuse me, Majesty? Um, we only want to ask you a few questions about magic. We-"
Sunny was then interrupted when the queen shouted; "Guards! Please escort these ponies and human to the dungeon until I can question them properly! And confiscate the book!"
"What? N-No, no!" Sunny begged as Zoom Zephyrwing grabbed Sunny's journal and began reading it. "But-but, your Majesty, I just wanted to ask you a few questions, please!"
But her pleads fell under deaf ears as the queen, the white Pegasus and Pipp soon made their exit through the same hole in the ceiling that they had entered through earlier. Soon, Zoom and Thunder were now ushering me, Sunny and Izzy out of the throne room.
"Did she just say dungeon?" Izzy asked.
"Yes she did, Izzy." I replied.
"What else could go wrong today?" Sunny groaned.
To Be Continued