“Come on! My place isn’t, far from here.” Izzy encouraged, Sunny began walking immediately, her excitement was beyond anything she could’ve imagine. She was going into Unicorn territory. The others hesitated before obliging. They all walked through into a dark part of the woods, Izzy and Sunny were ahead while the others followed closely behind.
They eventually look forward to see a house covered by the sun with the colours of the leaves popping brightly, “Welp, here we are guys.” Izzy announced before opening the door. “La Vila Izzy.” Everyone walked in and were in amazement of the sight they saw. From colored glass stained windows, to little figurines.
Sheriff Hitch looked at a portrait of colorful macaronis, and was startled when the eyes turned to look at him. Sunny Starscout cranked the lever of an instrumental object, with colorful glass bottles hanging by strings, that played a familiar tune, courtesy of spatulas and spoons attached to the roller.
Izzy was mesmerized at a colorful butterfly chandelier she made, when Zipp came up to her. "Did you make all this?" Zipp asked.
"Yup!" Izzy nodded. "Unicycling. Isn't it funky?"
“Unicycling?” Argyle asked in curiosity, looking at a strange telescope, “Wouldn’t it just be called Unicorn Recycling?”
“Yeah, but it was kind of a mouthful,” Izzy explains, “So I thought I’d combine the two words together, and ta-da! Unicycling!”
"It is gorgeous~" Pipp sang, flapping her wings.
"I also make friendship bracelets!" Izzy chirped, holding a bowl of bracelets up to her friends, before she exclaimed. "Wait, wait! Watch this! Hold everything!" With an excited yelp, Izzy dashed off to the side, before she wheeled in a large, flower contraption. "I've never gotten to use this with actual friends!"
With an excited giggle, and a touch of button, the flower suddenly sprang open to reveal a tea pot in the center, with tea cups on the edge of every petals.
"Ta-daaaa!" Izzy sang, much to her friends' astonishment.
“Izzy, what was that noise?” A female’s voice asked from the second level, this made everypony freeze in shock, albeit Argyle was just surprised.
“Oh! Uhh,” Izzy looked at the others and whispers to them, “Quick! Hide!” She returns to her calling voice, “N-Nopony important Misty!” The question became for everypony was formed of one: Where?!
“Izzy.” The female, identified as Misty warns her, “What’s going on?” They looked, everyone horrified by what her reaction was going to be, while Izzy had a much nervous reaction.
From atop of the curved staircase was Misty, who is a slender, sky-blue-coated female unicorn, having freckles on her cheeks and her fetlocks, insides of her ears, as well as her chest to her stomach, being colored in a lavender-pink. She possesses mint-green eyes, small yet fluttery-like eyelashes, hale-navy eyebrows, grayish-purple hooves, as well as a two-tone purple and hot pink mane and tail with noticeable tips of coral-orange, with her mane being swooped to her right side with three cornrows on the left side of her scalp. As per her pony type, she possesses a long, bumpy horn with a sky-blue and lavender-pink gradient, complete with a pattern of pink swirls around it. Her cutie mark consists of a butterfly with its body colored in a coral-pink, with its dark purple and magenta-pink wings having magenta and coral-pink spots.
Misty was in shock, but then calmly and collectively asks as she walked down the stairs, “Elizabeth Moonbow… am I seeing three Earth Ponies and two Pegasi. Here. In this house?”
“Uhhhh…” The light purple Unicorn trails off, then said, “Maaaaybe?”
“IZZY! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!” Misty rushes at her and grabbed by shoulders, shaking her in a panic, “WHY ARE THEY HERE?!”
“Misty relax,” Izzy reassured her, “They’re here to help get our magic back.”
“Get our mag- Have you gone crazy?!” Misty asked her, “How can three small brained Earth Ponies, and two brutish Pegasi are going to help?! You know how dangerous they are!”
“Actually,” Argyle explains to her calmly, “You, and the rest of your tribe, and our respective tribes, were fooled for centuries.”
“Fooled?” Misty asked him nervously, “W-what do you mean?”
“Two Alicorns were the ones responsible for the segregation of the tribes,” Sunny added, “One wanted to take the magic of everypony, and the other wanted,” she gulped at the last sentence, not even sure how to tell her, “to hunt down the Prophecy’s child… m-meaning me.”
Misty was incredible shock, she sat on her haunches and shook her head, “No… no, there is no way an Alicorn could be responsible. I-If that were true, then they would’ve have magic on them, which is impossible!”
“Not really.” Pipp tells her, as she pulled out her phone and played a video of Aerovad, threatening her and everypony of his hunt, and his admittance of his role he played.
They also gave the sky blue Unicorn mare an explanation of Twilight’s creation of the Unity Crystals, why Opaline wanted everypony’s magic, why Aerovad wanted Sunny gone, and more. Misty was incredible shock. “So, let me see if I got the whole story right,” Misty recaps, “You’re here because some mad Alicorn is after you, just because you’re trying reform peace with three tribes?” The ponies nodded yes. “And in order to do that, you need the Unicorn Crystal and the tribe itself to unite with the other tribes, so magic can come back?”
“Pretty much our adventure in a nutshell, yes.” Hitch said casually.
There was an awkward silence that lasted for a moment or two, then Misty said, “As much I want to believe it, this whole entire thing sounds crazy.”
“Believe me,” Zipp tells her, “Neither of us wanted to believe it either, yet here we are.”
For the most part, Misty nodded her head a couple of times, there seemed to parts of their story that adds up, but there are some parts that didn’t add up, when she turns to Sunny and asks, “But if that Alicorn, Aerovad, wanted you gone, why doesn’t the other Alicorns just intervene? Y’know, convince him that you’re just trying to live your life at one moment at a time?”
Sunny shook her head and said, “I really don’t know.”
“Well, wherever they are,” the Pegasus Prince said, “They’re doing a poor job of stopping him.”
Argyle then said, “As much as I want to theorize on such a topic, we need to focus on finding the Unicorn Crystal.”
The others, excluding Misty, nodded as Sunny said, “Right. Izzy, you’re good at making things. Does that include disguises?”
Izzy answers cheerfully, “Honey you came to right cottage.”
Later, after the five younger ponies were outfitted with fake unicorn horns, and cloaks for Pipp and Zipp to hide their wings, the seven heroes were back on the road, into a more colorful part of Bridlewoods.
“Y’know, I gotta admit,” Zipp said looking at the cloak Izzy made, “For a pony of creativity, you know how to make an impression.”
“I know, right?” Pipp agreed with her brother, “These cloaks makes us look fabulous~!”
“Alright, enough prattle,” Argyle tells them, “We got a crystal to find.”
“Follow us,” Misty said as they left Izzy’s cottage, but then warns them, “And please try to act casual.”
They all nodded and it was back on the road once more.
A few minutes later they came across a bit of crystals, Izzy began running up to them. “Ta-da Crystals, Crystals, Crystals, Crystals!”
“She does know we’re looking for just the one, right?” Zipp joked. Izzy continued saying crystals until the town was revealed. They all began walking in noticing all of the depressed Unicorns.
One was getting hit in head by apples repeatedly. “Ow. Ow.” A few foals were playing with horseshoes while two other Unicorns spoke in a deadpanned tone. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
There were also three foals on a playground bored out of their minds.
“Well, this is cheerful.” Hitch said concerned, looking around.
“These other unicorns seem so different than you.” Sunny pointed out.
Izzy responded. “Yeah, I get that a lot, my sparkle is a little to sparkly for Bridlewood.”
This made Hitch express a curious look. “How can you tell which ones are magic?” Hitch asked, all of a sudden the foal on the swing perked up and pointed at Hitch.
“Oooh, you said a bad word. Hurry before we get jinxed.” The other two foals stood up before doing a chant. They stretched themselves backwards before making a raspberry noise, and then they jumped around while doing the chant. “Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Bing Bong.” This caused confusion to go amongst the group.
Argyle broke the awkward silence saying, "Did they seriously just said Bing Bong? What am I, a Changeling?"
“Unicorns are very superstitious, if a pony ever says a forbidden word we have to a ritual to ward off the jinxies.” Misty whispered.
“Jinxies?” Pipp questioned.
“Bad luck.” Izzy continued.
"Hah!" Argyle laughed, shaking his head, "Bad luck. Please, if there's one thing that is bad and if anything I'd learned from this adventure, it's bad timing."
"Any, um, 'forbidden words,' we should avoid saying?" Sunny questions.
Misty began to list off, "Magic, wing, feather...
"Oh, and mayonnaise." Izzy whispers.
"May-OOF!" Misty quickly silenced Sunny's mouth.
"What's wrong with may-" Hitch also received the same treatment from Izzy.
"Ah-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!" Izzy shook her head, just as several unicorns stood petrified for a moment, before they continued on their way.
Once the coast was clear, Izzy uncovered Hitch's mouth, "Come on! There's something I want to show you."
"Forbidden words?" Sunny asked the two male Earth Ponies.
"Don't ask me," Argyle said as they continued on walking, "I mean, look at the current state Equestria's in so far: Earth Ponies building machines for pointless defenses, Pegasi on wires made from I'm assuming telephone pole prototypes, and now Unicorns are Bing Bonging everyone who says 'magic' all the time."
"Bing bong!" A random unicorn said.
Slightly annoyed, Argyle said casually, "I'm sorry, but if hay hits the fan, I'm going to hit Saddle Arabia."
After the awkward tension, the heroes at last arrived at a building, with a sign that reads:
"The Crystal Tea Room?" Sunny read.
"There's a pony inside who collects crystals," Izzy explained. "Maybe he could help us."
"That's great, Izzy!" Sunny leaned over towards the sheriff. "Oh, and guys?"
Hitch replies, "We know, we know." he was then joined by Zipp and Argyle, "No forbidden words in the teahouse."
Upon entering inside they saw a bunch of depressed unicorns, with one Unicorn up on a stage singing. They then found a certain, but unusual thin Unicorn on a table by himself, arranging and rearranging the different colored crystals, muttering to himself. His blue and purple streaky mane was untidy and frizzled like a wild flame, grey ashy circles around his amber eyes, along with more ash marks on his candle white pelt and fetlocks. He wore brass goggles on top of his head with three different sizes of magnifying glasses. His cutie mark consists of a waxy crystal with a tear drop flame on top of it.
Izzy caught notice with an excited gasp and whispered, “That’s him! That's the pony I was talking about!”
"Who is he?" Zipp asked.
Their answer was given as the white Unicorn stallion caught sight of the seven ponies and waves at them, urging them to go over the strange stallion's table. Izzy was the first one there and hugs him. "Ahh, my little Izzy Bee," He said joyfully, after the let go of the embrace looked at her, "You were gone for two days my niece, no note, no nothing."
"I left a note in the fridge Uncle Lampwick." Izzy told him shaking her head.
"Oh," He said with a embarrassed blush, "so that's why the lettuce in my daffodil sandwich was so papery yesterday." Both Unicorns giggled, then he took notice of the sky blue Unicorn, "Ah, I see that you've brought Mistina Brightdawn and some other guests! Come come! Have a seat!"
The sky blue mare then tells the him, "J-Just Misty, Mr. Lampwick."
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Lampwick.”
“Ah, the pleasure is all mine.” Lampwick said to Sunny as the others took a seat, “So, what brought you to our humble abode? Assuming that you have rubies to trade for any items of importance?”
“Actually,” Hitch explains to wacky maned stallion, “We’re here on a very important mission.”
“That being?” Lampwick took a sip of his beverage, being tea.
Sunny then whispers to him, “To bring magic back.” Like a geyser, he does a spit-take, aimed at the apricot mare’s face and glasses. To her dismay, she mutters to herself as she took off her glasses, cleaning them, “And I thought that this whole adventure wasn’t going to involve my glasses.”
“Bring-Bring back the M-word back?!” Lampwick whispered back in shock, “But that’s impossible!”
“Not probable,” Izzy corrects him, “We found two of the Unity Crystals, and we gotten the Pegasus tribe to agree to unite the tribes!” Sunny partially opened her bag to show the white Unicorn, and the look on his face was in absolute stunning shock.
“Well, I’ll be Faust darned,” he quietly said, “They truly do exist.” He then turned to his niece and said to her, “Well, it seems that once again your parents had proven me wrong, my Izzy Bee… and I owe your father a hundred bits.”
“Wait,” Zipp said, “Izzy, your dad was studying the Unity Crystals?”
“Uh-huh!” She confirms, “My dad is a Lumi-seer, and he’s been dreaming of leaving Bridlewood and wanting to track those crystals. But, because of little ol’ me, he had to take care of me. He left since when I was seven, he told me that he was placing his trust in my Uncle to watch over me until he comes back.”
Lampwick shook his head as he somberly said, “Haven’t seen him come home since then. Poor Moonarrow, I hope he’s been doing alright.”
They each gave the niece and uncle duo looks of sympathy, Sunny being the one who could mostly relate to her friend. “Your dad sounds a lot like mine,” Sunny tells her light purple Unicorn friend, “My dad was so into Ancient Equestria’s lore, he even made class lessons in our school where I go to. Then he… suddenly just collapsed on the floor due to a heart attack.” Now all eyes were on her, Hitch saddened having to listen this tale again, while the others were either surprised, shocked, or sympathetic as she continues on, “I didn’t understand what was going on. He was perfectly healthy. I still miss him, even to this day.”
Lampwick, feeling the same pit feeling the apricot mare had in her stomach, looked to her and said, “Little missy, I’m sure your father was a great pony in your eyes, and I can see why.” She looked at him as he continues, “You have an amazing gift for learning and how much of a leader you’ve inspired your friends to be.”
The grateful look on the Earth Pony mare’s face was more than enough encouragement to lift her spirits. Suddenly, they heard, “Time's up! Pass it over, Jasper." With a defeated sigh, 'Jasper' handed over the puzzle cube, which the large unicorn quickly solved in the blink of an eye.
This drawers the heroes' attention to a bar table, where they see 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. His cutie mark is a teapot.
"Oh, no," Izzy moaned in horror.
“What’s wrong?” Sunny asked.
Misty explains, “That’s my dad, Alphabittle.”
“You’re dad?" Sunny asked.
The sky blue pony nods as she continues on explaining, “He’s been like this ever since his dad stepped down as the tribe’s chief. He’s also very good at puzzle, and I mean, very good, especially in chess. That’s how he came to win that.” She points at the trophy on a shelf, behind him. There, the six of the seven heroes spotted a beautiful blue crystal, shaped exactly like the one, from the stained glass portrait, back in Zephyr Heights.
"There it is!" Sunny pointed, before she exclaimed.
Pipp wonders in a whisper, “But this Alphabittle guy seems tough. How can we beat this guy?”
Argyle stood up and was about to head to the gray Unicorn’s table, but Sunny asked in a hushed tone, “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to offer a challenge for him to play against one of you.”
Sunny shook her head. "You should let me take a shot at him. I can try and solve that puzzle cube."
“No offense,” He teases her, “But I unfortunately think that your poker face may need some work. I saw it when we were confronting Aerovad.” The Earth Pony mare was clearly not amused by that remark, but then her friend tells her, “Look, just let me set up a game where he could be at his weakest. My plan is absolutely fool proof.”
"Fine,” Sunny sighed, then asks, “but at least let me be in on the action... please?” She gave him the pleading eyes with her head tilted to the side.
The silver pony chuckled while he shook his head, “Aww, how can I say no to a determined face like that?
"Wait," Izzy stopped both Argyle and Sunny, to advise, "Alphabittle can smell fear."
“What?” The silver stallion chuckled in disbelief, “Aerovad showed off devastating powers that could carry you away with strong gusts of wind, and that didn’t bother you, but an old stallion is scary?”
“Argyle if he wins, we lose all of the crystals.” Pipp pointed out.
"I got this," The silver pony replied to Izzy, then he looks at the apricot mare, reminding her, "Be cool, and let me do the talking.” Sunny nods and follows him to the table the tribe’s chief sits at. They both took a seat as Argyle starts the conversation with the gray stallion, “You must be quite the game player, I see."
"It passes the time," Alphabittle shrugged. "Why? Do you play?"
“Played some, won some, lost some, drew some,” Argyle admits, then two little armadillo-mice squeaks at him, he then orders, “Dragon tea, strong.” They hurried along, passing along a porcelain tea cup, a strong scent of Dragon tea lingered, causing the apricot mare’s eyes to water and taking her glasses off.
“Ugh… how can you handle that?” Sunny asked him.
"Is that so?" Alphabittle asked the silver pony.
He nods as he adds, “I also heard you were quite the chessboard hustler.” He chuckles before adding, “You know, I’m something of a chess player myself.”
Alphabittle raised a brow as he asks, “Are you?”
“Quite.” Argyle nods, “Especially Crystal Chess.”
“Ah…” the gray stallion seemed intrigued, “Crystal Chess? Never heard of it.”
The young stallion chuckled with shake of his head, “I thought you haven’t. It was a very old Equestrian chess game,” he paused for a moment to take a sip of his tea, “Ahh… strong… just how I like it.” He looks at the gray stallion as he adds, “I even have somepony who’s creative enough to play it.”
“Really?” Alphabittle asked, “And who would that be?”
“Izzy Moonbow.”
Just as Argyle said that, light purple Unicorn choked and coughed on her tea she was drinking. Even the Champions of Unity, Lampwick, and the rest of the Unicorns in the teahouse in shock, with the music stopping.
“Izzy you say?” Alphabittle asked with a look of suspicion on his face, he looks at the semi-composed Unicorn mare, who gave him a nervous giggled and wave.
“With that in mind,” Argyle continues with a confident smile, “I want Izzy challenge you to a match of Crystal Chess,” pointed to the Unicorn crystal, sitting behind Alphabittle on the shelf, “for that."
"You think Izzy can beat me?" The gray elder stallion scoffed.
With that same cocky smile, the silver pony said, "Only way to find out is to play."
"Big talk for a little pony."
“It’s not about you got or have, it’s what you do with it that makes you the master of the game.”
Sunny pulled him aside as she hurriedly tells Alphabittle, “Uhh, give us a moment, please?” She pulls him over back to their table and slapped him upside to the back of his head and asks in a hushed tone, “Have you gone crazy?!”
“I don’t know any game called Crystal Chess!” Izzy argues in the same tone as Sunny’s.
“Which is why I will explain it to the both of you so you’d understand the game.” He tells them, rubbing the back of his head where the apricot Earth Pony hit him.
“You’re taking a big gamble here,” The Pegasus Prince reminds him, “Are you sure you think this is a good idea?”
“Trust me.” Argyle reassured.
"Izzy," Alphabittle called. "If your friend is finished stalling, do we have a deal?"
The light purple Unicorn looked at silver stallion, who mouthed the same words, Trust me, she looked at Alphabittle, taking a deep breath and said, “Deal.”