The Journey of Lukas

by MyAwesomePony

A Pipp Trip

Zipp was so confident that the heist would be a success that she thought everything would go perfectly according to plan. How wrong she was...

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The first part of the plan was to get the supplies so Izzy could create a fake replica of Queen Haven's crown, which she did an amazing job in. Next, Zipp distracted the hoard of Pegasi just outside the castle entrance, and while the crowd started throwing any question they could at Zipp, the trio, Lukas, Izzy and Sunny quietly sneaked into the castle, making sure they didn't alert any of the royal guards in the process. As soon as they were inside the theater room, making the crown swap would be easy breezie, right?

"I hear you paid our guests a visit." Queen Haven said while applying her make-up, not even aware of the heist.

"Pipp told you?" Zipp asked her mother.

"Oh, you know she tells me everything." Queen Haven replied, turning over to her daughter. "I wish you would tell me more. You're going to be queen one day. You'll wear this crown. And trust me, it is heavier than it looks."

"Actually, there is something I wanted to tell you. The unicorns don't have any magic." Zipp said as Queen Haven suddenly had a look of frustration. "I-I think it's tied to why we can't fly, and I-"

"Zephyrina!" Queen Haven snapped, interrupting Zipp in the middle of her sentence. "I don't know what silly ideas that unicorn put into your head, but we have a duty to protect our citizens, and don't even get me started on that human, talk about freaky." She cringed a little before continuing. "Pegasi are happy enough knowing that we royals can fly. Why would you want to disrupt things?"

"Because it's a lie!" Zipp exclaimed, her tone getting slightly louder.

"It makes them feel safe." The queen sighed. "One day you'll understand. Your sister does. Oh, and here she is now!" On cue, Pipp came floating in, attached to her wires while singing a wonderful melody. "Showtiiiiiime!"

Meanwhile, Sunny, Izzy and Lukas crept up behind Queen Haven's throne so they could easily make the crown swap, but Lukas was a bit skeptical about this idea.

"Let's just get this over with." He said.

All of a sudden, distant music began to play as the wires lowered down two of the princesses down onto their respective thrones. While Queen Haven loved to make an entrance, Zipp was the exact opposite and just groaned at her mother's compliment to the crowd. Princess Pipp then took center stage with her song, however, while she preformed her musical number, the group of fugitives quickly put the plan into action.

Lukas peeped up from behind Queen Haven's throne, who had just been tasked as the one to make the crown swap, but just when he could grab it, the spotlight then started to go in his direction. To avoid being seen, he quickly ducked down and started to lose his balance as he was standing on both Sunny and Izzy. When the spotlight was focused on Pipp again, Lukas attempted to make the crown swap, successfully this time. The trio then walked away with the crown in hand.

Sunny, Izzy and Lukas made their way over to the exit and thought they were in the clear, but when they opened the doors, they saw a royal guard standing right there. Luckily for them, he didn't hear them since he appeared to be distracted with his phone.

"No, you hang up." The guard said.

Sunny quickly shut the doors, but before they could somehow find another way out of here, they all heard the sound of a whimper from behind them. Looking over, they saw the royal-winged Pomeranian, Cloudpuff, looking at them.

"Um... nice doggie?" Lukas asked nervously.

Cloudpuff responded by giving a low growl as his innocent face suddenly changed into a face that looked like it was ready for war. Sunny, Izzy and Lukas all screamed in unison and ran away from the dog, who quickly chased after them. Cloudpuff continued to chase the trio, the chase led Sunny to another pair of doors. Opening them, she saw none other than...

"Sunny Starscout, you are under arrest." Hitch proclaimed, just before Sunny slammed the door shut.

Seeing his chance, Cloudpuff pounced up on Lukas' head and snatched the crown out of his hand.

"Hey, give that back!" Lukas exclaimed, giving chase to the dog, the others in hot pursuit.

When they were gone, Hitch burst through the doors to find Sunny and Izzy, before looking up and seeing Pipp soaring gracefully, the song was so catchy, that he started shaking his flank a little. He quickly stopped when he noticed and continued his search for the fugitives.

The roles were reversed, now the trio were chasing after Cloudpuff, but right when Lukas was about to catch him, two royal guards walked in the way, mesmerized by Pipp's performance. Quickly, Lukas ducked behind the wall and peered behind it, only to see Cloudpuff darting off to give Queen Haven her crown back, which she didn't even realize was missing. The dog then stopped and jumped up and down to get the queen's attention. But instead got the attention of Zipp. Trying not to be seen by her mother, she slid down and tried to grab the crown from the dog's mouth.

"Give... it... to... me!" She said through clenched teeth.

The two applied so much force to the crown that it completely snapped into two pieces, but Zipp didn't get the crystal part of the crown, the one thing that she needed, so she chased Cloudpuff who still had the crystal in his mouth, shoving a few Pegasi out of the way. Meanwhile, Sunny, Izzy and Lukas was sneaking by, only to see Hitch on the other side of the room, the sheriff suddenly started trotting in their direction. Sunny and Izzy then sneaked backwards and ended up in the tech room of the theater, with the tech operator inside.

"It's the prisoners!" She screamed, running around the room as the duo tried desperately to hush him.

The chase between Cloudpuff and Zipp continued as the dog started to gain some distance from the Pegasi, who got lost in the crowd. But the dog was too distracted looking at the stranded princess, he didn't notice that Hitch was standing in front of him as he bumped into him, dropping the crystal in the process.

"Huh?" Hitch said, looking down as he saw Cloudpuff with wide eyes.

"It's okay, don't be scared!" Sunny ebbed the tech operator.

"I'm not gonna fry your brain, okay?" Izzy added.

But the tech operator was still frightened, so frightened in fact, that he flinched back, pressing one of the buttons displayed. Suddenly, all of the lights in the room began flickering on and off, even the light that was focusing on Pipp, much to her confusion.

"What the?" She asked herself.

Instead of her, the spotlight was now focused on Hitch as he stopped dead in his tracks. The crowd looked at him with confusion.

"Uhhh... Throwin' up, find a glove, fly around, up above." Hitch sung poorly. "Doin' stuff that I love, you're like, "Why?", I'm like, "What?"

"What is happening?" Pipp asked with confusion.

While Hitch continued to sing her poorly executed song, Zipp noticed that Cloudpuff had dropped the crystal and didn't even realize it. Meanwhile back in the tech room, the tech operator was still a bit scared by the presence of an earth pony and a unicorn that he jumped up on the machine cowardly, pulling on one of the levels, which caused Pipp to fly around the room like crazy, screaming at the top of her lungs. With the crowd distracted by Pipp's unexpected flight, Zipp stealthily grabbed the crystal. The tech operator then ran out the tech room screaming.

"I got it!" Zipp exclaimed, handing the crystal over to Sunny.

"Yes!" Sunny declared, grabbing the crystal and putting it in her saddlebag.

"Let's go!" Zipp called back as she, Sunny and Izzy quickly made their way out, followed by Lukas.

"Wait for me, guys!"

"Freeze!" Hitch called out, stopping the group dead in their tracks.

"It's the prisoners!" A Pegasi from the crowd gasped as the group dashed off again.

Then all of a sudden, before Hitch could give chase to the criminals, Pipp flew right behind him, the sudden wind caused the sheriff's cardboard wings to come straight off, revealing his true self.

"Aah! Another Earth pony!"

Now that his cover had been blown, Hitch made a run for the exit, soon to be joined by the others. Pipp continued to flail around the place like she was in a washing machine, until finally, her wild ride came to an end, ending her upside down, revealing to everypony the wires that were holding her up as the crowd let out audible gasps.

"She's a fake!" A Pegasus exclaimed among the crowd as another quickly took a picture of the dangling Pegasi.

"The royals can't fly either?!" Another Pegasus called out as Pipp looked down at the unpleasing crowd, not sure how to handle this situation.

But Zipp took a good look at her sister's predicament before she ran off, and Pipp looked back at her.

"Zipp...?" Pipp whispered.

Zipp was too busy staring at her sister, Sunny ended up bumping into her.

"Zipp, hurry!" She instructed and ran off. Zipp took one last look at Pipp, before running after Sunny, Izzy, Lukas and Hitch."

Unfortunately, due to the sudden impact into Zipp, the Pegasi crystal that Sunny precariously placed in her saddlebag had flown right out, landing on the floor. She didn't have enough time to pick it back up...