I was surprised when I saw the so-called dungeon that me, Sunny and Izzy had been escorted to, it didn't look like a dungeon at all, but rather, a luxurious spa resort with a massage chair, a bowl of fruit, a fountain in the middle, and even a large bed. While Izzy wasted no time getting a massage, Sunny meanwhile, was looking out of a nearby cell window with a rather dejected look on her face, like something was on her mind. Curious, I approached her carefully as she began venting out her worries.
"Something is not right, Lukas." She said to me. "We haven't seen a single pony flying."
"Well, except for the princesses." I pointed out, before Sunny turned over to her unicorn companion.
"Izzy, are you listening?" She asked her.
"This isn't dungeon-y at all." Izzy giggled, her voice vibrating from the massage chair.
"Hey!" A voice called out, getting our attention.
We looked over to see the white pegasus, who had still not yet told us her name, standing right in front of our dungeon/spa with a concerned expression.
"I'm sorry you three got thrown in here, but I have to talk to you." She explained.
"Princess?" Sunny said in disbelief as Izzy got off of the massage chair, removing the cucumber slices from her eyes.
"Your Majesticness! Y-Your Graceful Highness!" Izzy stuttered, not knowing what to refer to her as.
"Zipp." The pegasus replied, finally telling us her name. "Just call me Zipp."
"Okay, Zipp. I'm Sunny. And these are my friends." Sunny said, gesturing to both me and Izzy.
"Izzy Moonbow." The unicorn greeted.
"Lukas." I added.
"Sunny, Izzy, Lukas, I really need to ask you something important." Zipp paused for a moment, before whispering; "About magic."
"That's why we're here. Maybe you can tell us how yours works?" Sunny asked hopefully. "Izzy has no idea how the unicorns lost theirs, and Lukas needs magic in order to get back to his timeline, so we thought maybe-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait." Zipp interjected. "Lost theirs? As in no magic?"
Sunny, Izzy and I slowly shook our heads in unison.
"Well... that changes things. Listen, I might have some information that could help, but first, you need to tell me about this." Zipp then reached into her wing and pulled out Sunny's journal that Thunder confiscated from her earlier.
"My journal!" Sunny gasped excitedly as she took it from Zipp's hoof. "Thank you, Zipp. I-I never thought I'd see it again."
"Wow Zipp, how did you even manage to get it?" I asked her.
"I can be pretty sneaky when I want to be." Zipp replied with a smug grin.
"Nice." Izzy added. "I'm-I'm only medium sneaky." I rolled my eyes at that.
"So where did that come from?" Zipp asked Sunny
"It was my father's." Sunny replied, before asking a question of her own. "Why?"
"That star." Zipp answered.
I looked closely at Sunny's journal and saw instantly what Zipp was referring to, the star on the cover looked oddly familiar, like I had seen it somewhere else before, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"Huh, I've seen that star before too." I explained, Zipp then turned over to me.
"Wait, Lukas. Do you recognize it too?" She asked astonished.
"Yeah, but I can't remember where." I answered.
As I was trying to remember where I had seen that star before, my thoughts were interrupted when I suddenly heard what sounded like a digital trumpet fanfare. We all looked over to see two pegasus guards holding out their phones, which were playing the aforementioned fanfare. Standing in between the guards, was Pipp, she was holding her phone up to her face, presumably taking a selfie.
While the two guards rolled out a red carpet for her, Pipp put her phone away in her wing and walked up towards our cell with a stride in her step, but her expression soon changed when she noticed Zipp.
"Zipp, what are you doing here? Mom said to stay away." She said in a hushed voice.
"Right. Then why are you here?" Zipp asked smugly as Pipp took out her phone again.
"For the content." Pipp scoffed.
As Pipp took another selfie, Izzy brought both me and Sunny in with her hoof as she smiled, assuming that Pipp was taking a picture of us.
"Princess, why isn't anypony flying?" Sunny asked through gritted teeth.
Upon hearing this, Pipp gasped, before putting her phone back in her wing and turning to us with a nervous laugh. "Everypony knows that only royals can fly, of course."
"What?" Sunny, Izzy and I all exclaimed in unison.
"Well, that doesn't seem very fair." I pointed out.
"I know, it isn't. But that's just the way it is." Pipp explained, walking closer to our cell. "If there were some way we could teach the citizens to fly, you know we would in a wing beat." While she said this, she fluttered her wigs for emphasis, before she turned over to Zipp to get her approval. "Right, Zipp?"
Zipp then looked at us with an annoyed look on her face. "Yeah. In a wing beat."
As Sunny and Izzy gave each other confused glances, Pipp's phone suddenly began vibrating in her wing, causing her to take it out. "Oh! Dress rehearsals. Gotta go." She then leaned closer to Zipp. "And so should you.Me-me-meeeee! Red feather, yellow feather, red feather, yellow feather."
While Pipp walked away doing what I could only assume were vocal exercises, the two guards rolled up the red carpet, Zipp looked over to where Pipp had made her leave and waited until she was out of hearing range, before she turned to us.
"I have to show you something." She said to us.
"But how are we going to get out?" I asked her.
Zipp didn't respond. Instead, she just walked over to some kind of touch pad which was on the wall just beside our cell, and gently placed her hoof on it, the touch pad scanned her hoof. All of a sudden, the bars to our cell were gone and we were now free.
"Oh, that's how." I said, answering my own question.
"You comin' or what?" Zipp called out to us.
With that, Sunny, Izzy and I quickly rushed out of the cell and began following Zipp to wherever this thing was that she wanted to show us. But I stopped in my tracks upon hearing Izzy giggling cutely, I looked over to see her removing the tennis ball on her horn, taking an orange out of the fruit bowl and replacing the orange for the tennis ball.
Izzy was just too adorable sometimes...
It must've been at least five minutes later when me, Sunny and Izzy had finally reached the place that Zipp wanted to show us. She pushed away some kind of vent and jumped inside the hole, I looked down the said hole to see that Zipp was now inside of what looked like a hot air balloon basket. Zipp then looked up and called out to us.
"Watch your step." She said cautiously as we soon found ourselves falling into the basket.
"Thanks for the heads-up." I groaned at Zipp.
Zipp just rolled her eyes, before she pulled on a lever that was next to her. Slowly, the hot air balloon basket began to descend. Getting up on our hooves and feet, Sunny, Izzy and I were soon met with what appeared to be the interior of an huge, abandoned building that must've been some sort of station or something along those lines. Sunny and Izzy could only gasp in amazement as the hot air balloon basket made a landing.
"Where are we?" Sunny asked in awe as Zipp jumped out, soon followed by us.
"I don't know." I replied, just as amazed as she and Izzy were. "But it looks amazing."
"I know, right." Zipp agreed. "I'm pretty sure it was some sort of station for when Earth ponies and unicorns used to visit Zephyr Heights. It's like everypony just... forgot."
I was about to say something, but before I could, I noticed that Sunny and Izzy were looking at a picture nearby, given the fact that it was in a condemned building, there was dust all over it, but I could still make out the picture to be a lighthouse on top of a small slope. There were also words on the top center of the picture which read "Explore Maretime Bay"
Sunny then wiped some of the dust off to see the lighthouse better. Now that I could see it better, it actually looked fairly similar to Sunny's lighthouse. The young Earth pony then looked up to see another picture above us, this time, the picture was of three ponies, one Earth pony, one unicorn and one pegasus as they ran through a forest with crystals surrounding them.
"This is proof! All pony kinds did used to be friends!" She said excitedly. "My dad was right."
"Yeah." I added. "I guess he was."
It was at that moment when I looked over and saw that Zipp was looking up at something above her with a rather sad expression. Curious, I walked over to her and glanced up to see what she was looking at, and my jaw dropped at what I saw. Hanging up on a pillar above us, was a poster of The Wonderbolts, the iconic flying team, which made me wonder how much time had really passed.
Suddenly, a thought came to my mind, a thought that was going to say out loud to Pipp and Zipp when we were in the dungeon, but Pipp's sudden departure stopped me from doing so.
"You know, Zipp, Pipp told us that only you royals are able to fly. Doesn't it feel a little weird being the only pegasi to do that whilst everyone else is on the ground?" I asked, eager to know.
Zipp then let out a sigh as she looked down at the ground, like she wanted to get something off of her chest. "The truth is we can't fly either." Zipp replied, before turning to me. "We've been faking it."
I was shocked by this truth bomb, and so were Sunny and Izzy.
"Faking it?!" Sunny exclaimed in disbelief.
"But how?" I asked. "I mean, we saw you and the other princesses flying earlier when you came into the throne room."
"You'd be surprised what some wires and good lighting will do. But I'm just so tired of living that ridiculous lie." Zipp groaned, venting out her frustrations as I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. "That's why I come down here, to get away from all of that. And, well... to do this."
Before I could question her, she then ran off and jumped up, landing on a lever, causing a nearby fan to activate as Zipp then landed on top of it, which made her start hovering in the air, doing a backflip in the process. All me, Sunny and Izzy could do was watch in amazement as Zipp suspended herself in mid air, with a huge smile across her face.
"Whoa! Her sparkle is so bright right now!" Izzy said in awe.
After a while, Zipp then landed back down on the ground as she looked back at us. "But that's not why I brought you down here. This is what I wanted to show you."
Zipp pointed towards what looked like a huge stained glass window showcasing a purple star at the top, which looked oddly familiar. On the right side of the window was a pegasus looking up at a bluish green crystal shaped like pegasus wings, and on the left side of the window was a unicorn.
"Oh, my stars...!" Was all Sunny could say.
"This was made a long, long time ago, when we still had magic." Zipp explained.
"It's beautiful." Izzy added.
Sunny then noticed the bluish green crystal shaped like pegasus wings. "What is that?"
"That's the Pegasus Crystal. It's part of my mom's crown." Zipp replied.
As we continued to marvel at the sight, I noticed something rather odd with the window, it depicted a unicorn looking up at something, but nothing was up there. It was at that moment when I noticed that the space above the unicorn was broken as pieces of the broken section still remained.
"Huh, that's strange." I said out loud.
"What is it, Lukas?" Sunny asked.
"The unicorn crystal isn't there." I replied, expressing my confusion.
After looking around the dilapidated area, Sunny eyed upon a huge tarp nearby. Sunny and I both walked over to it as Sunny pulled back the huge tarp, revealing a blue crystal made out of glass.
"Oh, there it is." I said. "But what's it doing here?"
Sunny and I then looked over and saw that the stained glass window was casting a colorful shadow on the ground. Sunny then proceeded to push the crystal in the space between the wings of the crystal, which turned out to almost be a perfect fit.
"Look!" She exclaimed as Izzy and Zipp walked up.
"They fit?" Izzy said in disbelief.
"These two crystals belong together. United." Sunny explained.
"So... what are you saying?" Zipp asked, not sure where this was going.
"Maybe you lost your magic because the crystals were separated." Sunny thought.
"So if we put them back together..." Izzy began.
"...magic will return?" Zipp finished.
"And all three pony kinds will get along again!" Sunny said excitedly.
"That's actually a good plan, Sunny." I commented as Izzy and Zipp seemed to agree.
"Aw, but what about the Unicorn Crystal?" Zipp asked.
"Well, if you're looking for crystals, we've got, like, a gazillion of them back in Bridlewood." Izzy added.
"Then that's where we'll go next." Sunny said proudly. "After we get the Pegasus Crystal from your mom, of course."
"Ooh... That'll be tricky. She, uh, never takes her crown off." Zipp informed us.
"Wait, really?" I asked.
"Yeah, even when she's sleeping." Zipp replied.
"So, what do we do?" Sunny wondered.
"I got it! Pipp's performing at tonight's royal celebration. All eyes will be on her, especially my mom's. She'll be distracted. So we just need to swap the real crown with a fake." Zipp explained as she used her wings to emphasize.
"Huh, that's not the worst idea." I said unsure.
"Oooh, I can craft a decoy!" Izzy exclaimed happily. "But I will need a box of macaroni, a tube of glue, fourteen gooey bunnies, and three jelly beans. Oh. And glitter. Lots of glitter."
But little did we know, this plan was going to be a lot more difficult to pull off than we initially thought.
TO BE CONTINUED...