> Lukas: A New Generation
>  by MyAwesomePony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 - A Spell Gone Wrong
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My name is Lukas Hart, and I've been living in the magical land of Equestria for a long time now, probably about two years or so. You're probably thinking to yourself, how did I, a regular eighteen-year-old, find myself in a world populated with magical talking ponies and other creatures that you'd only see in fairy tales? Well to tell you the truth, I don't even know how it happened. I couldn't even remember what my life was like back on Earth, all I could remember was waking up in this strange, colorful world, and soon enough, I found myself getting accustomed to my new life in the magical land of Equestria.





The day started off as you'd expect, the sun shining down on the small town of Ponyville, birds were racing across the clear blue sky as Pegasi flew about clearing away all the clouds, allowing the bright yellow rays of sunlight to envelop the village in a golden light. 

Today was a big day for me however, for today, The Princess of Friendship herself Twilight Sparkle had just sent me a letter, telling me that I was needed at her castle at once, she didn't specify why I was needed, only telling me that she wanted to show me something. After a little walking, I soon found myself in front of The Castle of Friendship as its purple crystals sparkled in the sun. I approached the two big golden doors and gave a polite knock.

"Coming" I heard a voice inside call out, but it definitely wasn't Twilight. After a while, the door opened revealing a certain small purple dragon. "Oh hey Lukas, Twilight's waiting for you in the library."

"Thanks Spike." I replied as the small drake allowed me to enter.

"Twilight?" I called out.

POOF!

Suddenly, a big flash of purple light appeared, making me shield my eyes. I looked at where the flash of light came from to see none other than Twilight Sparkle staring at me with a huge grin.

"Right here, Lukas." She exclaimed.

"Geez Twi, you nearly gave me a heart attack." I said, before I gathered my composure. "Anyways, you said you wanted to show me something?"

"Yes, follow me." Twilight replied, before she walked off, with me following behind.





"Okay Lukas." Twilight began as we both entered the library. "Since you're still unfamiliar with Equestrian magic, I figured that I would show you some of my spells to give you a better understanding." Twilight explained.

"Oh, what kind of spells?" I asked, intrigued.

"You know, teleportation, levitation. That kind of thing." Twilight answered, receiving a nod from me. "First up, teleportation."

To demonstrate her teleportation abilities, Twilight proceeded to teleport herself in different places in the library. I watched as she appeared and disappeared from one place to another and I was impressed with her speed in doing so. When she was finished, she suddenly appeared in front of me, I even noticed a little bit of smoke coming out of her horn from how much she had used her magic just now.

"Wow, pretty impressive." I admitted.

"If you think that's impressive, watch this."

Twilight then levitated a book out of the bookshelves with her magic as the book was engulfed in her magenta aurora. At first, I didn't think it was really that impressive, but then she began levitating every single book on the shelves as she spun them around the room, making me feel like I was in the middle of a book tornado. Suddenly, in a flash of light, all the books were soon back on the shelves, exactly where they were last.

"What did you think of that?" Twilight asked, waiting for my feedback.

"That truly was something." I replied, at a loss for words.

"But that's not all." Twilight announced.

Before I could ask what else she could possibly do, Twilight sat in the middle of the library as she closed her eyes, seemingly concentrating hard on her next spell. At that moment, purple swirls began circling around the princess as another white light flashed in my eyes as I watched Twilight intently, wondering what spell she had planned. All of a sudden, I heard the door to the library burst open.

"Hey Twilight!"

I turned over to the source of the voice, it was Pinkie Pie, she was standing there happily, but due to the loudness of Pinkie's voice, Twilight began to lose concentration in her spell as the whole room started to shake. Pinkie, realizing the trouble she had just caused, frowned.

"Is this a bad time?" She asked innocently.

I didn't even get the chance to answer before I heard the sound of a magic blast, I looked over to see a giant purple beam heading straight towards me and my reflexes weren't quick enough to jump out of the way of the trajectory, and it made contact with me, I felt a bright wave of hot energy as everything around me was white, if I had to compare it to something, it would be getting struck by lightning.

My body was thrown across the room as my ears began ringing and my vision started getting blurry. My ears then picked up the sounds of two high pitched screams, I then looked to only see a pink and purple blur coming into view, I could tell they were saying something, but all I heard was a heap of incoherent mumbling. Eventually, my eyelids were starting to get heavy as my entire body was stiff.

And finally, I blacked out...





"Are you okay?"

That was the first thing I heard when I came to consciousness, the voice that had just spoken sounded like a female. My eyes were still closed, but I was still able to hear the sounds around me. Slowly, I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the grass, and I wasn't alone. Staring down at me with a worried expression was a mare.

This mare appeared to be an orange Earth pony with emerald green eyes, and dark magenta eyebrows. She had a magenta-and-purple colored mane and it was tied back in a braid with aquamarine elastics, and she wore a blue helmet on her head. Her tail had no braiding and was of average length and she also wore a blue saddlebag around her body, with some oddly familiar looking buttons on the strap. Looking down at her hooves, I realized that she was wearing roller skates.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I've been worse." I said, replying to her question earlier.

"You know, I don't believe I've seen a creature like you before." The mare commented, observing me closely. "What are you exactly?"

"I'm a human." I replied.

"A human?" The mare said confusingly.

I nodded in response, before lifting my body up and examining my seemingly new surroundings. "Hey, this doesn't look like Ponyville."

"Oh, no, you're in Maretime Bay. I was just heading down there when I suddenly saw a purple flash of light and the next thing I knew, you arrived here." The mare explained. "How did you end up here anyways?"

I groaned as I rubbed my throbbing head, trying my best to recall the events that led up to me waking up.

"Uh... I think I was watching Twilight perform one of her spells and..."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" The mare called out, interrupting me in the middle of my explanation. "Did you just say Twilight?"

"Yeah?" I said puzzled, wondering why she interrupted me. 

"Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yeah?"

"The Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh my gosh, this is amazing!" She exclaimed happily. "I'm meeting someone who is friends with Twilight Sparkle."

As she rambled on about how exciting this information was, I stared at her in pure confusion, wondering to myself why she was making such a big deal about the fact that I was acquainted with the purple Alicorn. I decided to express my confusion.

"Why are you so excited?" I asked.

"You see, Twilight Sparkle was a pony from the past, and her and her friends worked together to keep Equestria at peace and harmony."

Twilight Sparkle? A pony from the past? What was she talking about? 

So many questions were circling around my mind. Had I somehow been transported to the future? How was I going to go back?. As hard as I tried, I couldn't think of a single logical answer for any of these questions. I started breathing frantically as I was beginning to freak out. The thought of being sent to the future, with possibly no way back, is a thought that no one ever wants to think of.

"Whoa, calm down." The orange mare said worriedly.

"Is this a dream? Am I in the future?" I asked frantically. "This can't be happening."

"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay." The mare tried to reassure me. "Just take deep breaths."

Following her instructions, I slowly inhaled and exhaled multiple times, trying my best to gather my composure. I looked back at the mare, who had a small smile on her face.

"Thanks." I replied.

"Don't mention it."

Suddenly, the mare gasped loudly. "Oh my gosh, I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Sunny Starscout, but you can just call me Sunny."

"Nice to meet you, Sunny. I'm Lukas." I said, returning the greeting. I then attempted to stand up, but I struggled a bit as I groaned and grunted in pain, making Sunny worried again.

"You sure you're okay, Lukas?" She asked nervously.

"Yeah really, I'm fine." I reassured her.

"Okay, if you say so." Sunny said in an unsure tone. "Well don't worry, we're going to find a way to get you back."

I smiled, before deciding to change the subject. "So, you said you were heading to this Maretime Bay?" I asked, recalling what she said earlier.

Sunny eagerly nodded. "Uh huh, and I have a plan for today."

"A plan? What kind of plan?"

"Come with me, I'll show you." Sunny exclaimed, motioning me to jump on her back.

I was hesitant to go with her, after all, we had only just met, but if I was going to find a way back, I might as well have to trust her for now. With that, I hopped onto her back as she skated off towards a huge town in the distance.






To Be Continued...

> Chapter 2 - Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Sunny and I zoomed down to Maretime Bay as it's called, I decided I would gather some more information as to what the future was like, that was, if I was actually somehow in the future. No, that has to be what had happened to me, it's not like I was in another alternate universe, what other universe would be inhabited with talking colorful equines. 

"Hey Sunny." I said, getting her attention.

"Yeah?" Sunny replied, not even looking at me as she was too focused on skating.

"What's the future like?" I asked.

Sunny's smile soon faded as it dawned on her what I had asked, as if she knew something that I didn't.

"Oh, well it's not great." Sunny replied sadly. "You see, all the Earth ponies, unicorns and Pegasi have separated."

"What!?" I exclaimed, obviously not expecting that response.

"But don't worry." She assured me. "My plan is going to fix that."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Surer than sure." She replied. 

At that point, we had finally arrived at the entrance of Maretime Bay, and the first thing that I noticed when I took a look around the town, was that it was way bigger than Ponyville. I even saw a small tram going through the town.

"Here we are, Maretime Bay." Sunny announced proudly.

"Whoa." That was all I could say.

But as I took a closer look, I quickly noticed that every single pony living here was Earth ponies, no unicorns, no Pegasi, not even any other creatures I could see besides birds. I was confused at first, but I then remembered what Sunny had explained to me earlier, and it all made sense. The Earth ponies, unicorns and Pegasi had, for some reason, separated from one another, whether they wanted to or not is something I didn't know at the moment.

Eventually, a few nearby ponies started noticing my presence in the village, I was expecting all of them to scream as loud as they could and run around the town like a group of unleashed wild animals, but instead, the ponies around me just looked at me curiously, as I saw a few ponies whispering to one another.

It was then I noticed a banner nearby. "Canterlogic" I read out the name on the banner. "What's that?"

Sunny's face lit up, as if she had just remembered something. "Oh, I almost forgot, it's the annual presentation at Canterlogic. Come on, Lukas, we don't want to be late." I then jumped on her back as she sped off again.

At some point, Sunny passed by a smoothie shop, stopped in front of a smoothie cart and attached it to herself, before she continued on her way.

"Oh, you deliver smoothies?" I assumed.

"Yep, and I'm proud of it." Sunny replied confidently.

As Sunny delivered smoothies to ponies sitting at tables, I then heard the sound of hooves running coming from behind me. I turned around to see another Earth pony, angrily chasing after us, although it looked like he was mostly chasing after Sunny.

This pony appeared to be a stallion, he had a red colored coat, a blonde mane and a wavy blonde tail. He also wore a belt with what looked like a police badge on it around his body. When he noticed me, he suddenly stopped chasing us as he gasped loudly. I was about to ask Sunny who that was, when she suddenly skidded to a halt as I looked at the building we had stopped in front of and saw a statue of a pair of pink glasses on the top of it. I assumed that this was Canterlogic.

"Phew, it looks like it hasn't started yet." Sunny said with relief as I followed her to the entrance. "So Lukas, what do you think of Maretime Bay so far?"

"Aha! There you are, Sunny. Just the pony I was expecting."

Just before I could respond to Sunny's question, we were suddenly stopped by another stallion, who had just popped out from behind a banner. He was a yellow colored stallion who had various white markings - white socks on his legs, a white belly, and a white blaze. He had a short, aqua green mane and an average length tail and light brown eyebrows.

Hearing the faint sound of chirping and pinching, I looked down to see that this stallion was accompanied by three small animals. One of them was a crab while the other two were white birds with aqua green wings, one of the birds was wearing a tin can on its head.

"Whoa!" The stallion exclaimed, looking at me with wide eyes. "What are you supposed to be?"

"Calm down, Sheriff Hitch." Sunny assured the stallion, who I now knew was named Hitch. "This is Lukas, he supposedly came from the past."

"The past?!" Hitch exclaimed in disbelief. I nodded to confirm. "Well, that explains it."

Just then, Sunny addressed the small animals that Hitch was accompanied by. "I see you brought the whole squad along again."

The two birds squeaked while giving a small salute as the crab just pinched its claws in a seemingly happy way.

"What is it with me and critters? I'm like a magnet to them." Hitch sighed, before lowering his head down to the animals' level. "Guys, come on. Give Hitch a little space."

As if on command, the birds and the crab took a small step back, frustrating Hitch. I was shocked.

"Wait, you can talk to animals?" I asked.

"Of course I can, you half naked monkey." Hitch replied.

"Actually, I'm a human." I corrected him.

"Eh, close enough." Hitch said while waving his hoof dismissively.

"So, what's up?" Sunny asked, getting Hitch's attention.

"Oh, please. Like you don't know." Hitch said as he raised his eyebrows suspiciously. "Today is the annual presentation at Canterlogic." He explained, pointing towards the banner he had come from earlier.

"Hey, Lukas and I are heading there right now." Sunny said as she was about to go up towards the entrance, but was quickly stopped when Hitch put his hoof in front of her.

"Uh, no, you're not. Listen, I know that you have come up with some harebrained scheme to sabotage it, and if you think I'm just gonna let you walk in there-"

"Hey, Hitch..." Sunny said in a sing song voice, the smoothie cart detaching from her.

"No." Hitch replied blankly, as if Sunny was planning something that he didn't want to happen.

"Come on." Sunny encouraged as I looked on in confusion, wondering where Sunny was going.

"Good morning, Sheriff Hitch." A mare called out as her and another mare walked by.

Hitch turned towards the two mares with a smile. "Morning, Mayflower, Dahlia." He chuckled, before he looked at Sunny with a stern expression.

"Sunny, I'm on duty." He whispered loudly.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two ponies as Sunny waved her hoof in front of Hitch's face, as he groaned, before they proceeded to do some type of secret handshake.

"Up high, down low, hitch it to a post! Flip it sunny-side up and on a piece of toast!" They sang in unison, I even noticed that the birds were doing the same thing.

Honestly, I found their secret handshake to be really cute, they must've been friends for a really long time. At that moment, the same red stallion that was chasing us earlier approached us, he seemed to be out of breath and was wheezing.

"I did what you asked for, Hitch. She never left my side, not even once." He managed to say.

"Oh, hey, Sprout. You okay?" Sunny asked. "You seem kinda wheezy."

"That's Deputy Sprout to you." Sprout corrected her.

"Anyways, Sprout. I'd like you to meet Lukas." Sunny then gestured over to me.

"Wait a minute." Sprout exclaimed. "You're that creature I saw riding on Sunny's back.

"Yeah, that's me." I replied. "I'm actually a human."

"Well, human!" Sprout said angrily, before getting in my face. "You better not try any funny business on me!"

"Noted." I said, before Sunny started to approach the entrance of Canterlogic.

"Come on, Lukas." Sunny called out as I followed, but we didn't get very far, because we were stopped by Hitch once again.

"Hey! W-Wait up! I'm not finished! Sunny!" I heard him exclaim as he ran up in front of the orange pony, quickly followed by his animal companions. "Sunny, we both know how this goes. Every year you try to sneak in, and every year I stop you."

"Look, you have nothing to worry about." Sunny said reassuringly. "I'll just go into the factory, deliver my smoothies-"

"Uh-uh!" Sprout interjected, getting in front of Sunny also. "You can't even step a hoof in there! My mom had you banned!"

"Banned!?" I exclaimed, wondering what she did to result in her being banned.

"But I..." Sunny tried to protest, but was interrupted by Hitch.

"I'm asking you as your friend, Sunny, not as sheriff. Just please try not to pull any stunts today." He said gently.

"Okay, okay. I'll try." Sunny replied, seemingly coming to terms with him.

"Thank you. Now, give your delivery to Sprout and go home." Hitch demanded.

He was then distracted by a nearby pony who had dropped a paper ball on the ground, which seemed to get on his nerves.

"Hey, hey! That's a violation of Code 33!" Hitch yelled out as he chased after the pony with the three animals following after him.

Sprout, who was now attached to the smoothie cart, decided to tease us. "Buh-bye." He said, before he laughed and made his way towards the building entrance. 

"Sunny, you're not really going home, are you?" I asked, remembering that she had told me she had some sort of plan.

Instead of responding, Sunny just looked back at the building with a smug grin on her face, telling me exactly what she was thinking.






To Be Continued...

> Chapter 3 - Presentation Disaster
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Canterlogic factory, I saw ponies of all sizes and colors going about the establishment, some of them were workers as seen by their ties and collars, while others were ponies who had come for the annual presentation that was apparently going on. In fact, the ponies were so focused on preparing for the presentation, that only a few ponies seem to take notice of me, the ponies that did notice me would just give me an unsure glance, before going back to what they were doing, at least it was better than them screaming for their lives.

As I continued wandering aimlessly around, I then heard a small gasp of surprise, I looked down to see a small filly looking up at me with wide eyes, not saying anything. I was just about to introduce myself, when suddenly, a nearby mare, who I assumed was the filly's mother, pulled him closer to her in a protective way.

"Don't get too close to that, sweetie." The mare said cautiously. "It could be just as dangerous as unicorns and Pegasi."

The filly and his mother then walked away, while the mother gave me a judgmental glance.

"So what's this plan of yours, Sunny?" I asked, but I didn't get a response from the pony. "Sunny?" 

I turned around, only to find out that Sunny was nowhere to be seen. I examined the surroundings in confusion, where did Sunny wander off to? She was just behind me a moment ago, so how could she have disappeared without alerting me of anything?

I then shrugged it off, assuming that Sunny had just gone off to put her supposed plan into action. After walking around the factory some more, I eventually saw Hitch and Sprout nearby, they seemed to be talking to each other, so I decided to approach them to figure out what their conversation was about.

"You know what, Sprout? I think I finally got through to Sunny." Hitch said with certainty.

"Oh, he has no idea." I thought to myself with a smug smile.

At that moment, the whole room went dark as everyone fell silent. I then saw a crowd of ponies all gathering around the stage. Suddenly, I heard a pony on a speaker system as he seemed to be announcing the beginning of the presentation.

"It's the moment you've all been waiting for. As the founder of Canterlogic, she's been keeping us safe and stylish for the last twenty moons. Please go wild for the one and only... Phyllis Cloverleaf!"

The crowd soon erupted into cheers as a mare, seemingly the one in charge of this presentation, rushed onto the stage while a spotlight shone on her. 

The mare in question had a light peach pink coat, slightly lighter fetlocks, reddish hooves, and pale blue eyes. Her eyebrows, tail, and mane were all golden blonde, the latter of which consisted of large curls bundled atop her head. She wore hot pink glasses with eyelash silhouettes attached via silver screws, as well as a pearl necklace and earrings. She had a subtle lavender eye shadow and also wears a brown lanyard with her ID tag on it.

"Thank you! Thank you! Oh, hey, how are ya? Thank you so much." Phyllis said, before beginning her speech. "We here at Canterlogic are so thrilled to create perfect products that protect ponies like you... from ponies like that!"

She then pointed a sharp hoof towards two posters nearby, while the crowd booed, I took a look at what the posters displayed. One of them displayed a white silhouette of an Earth pony looking up at an evil looking silhouette of a Pegasus with red eyes, the other poster depicted another white Earth pony silhouette, but this time looking up at three unicorn silhouettes with red eyes and sharp horns. Phyllis then continued.

"And, like I always say, "To be scared is..."

"...to be prepared!" The crowd finished.

"Oh, I love it! That's right!" Phyllis exclaimed. "So, let's start the show!"

Suddenly, music started to play that sounded like it was from a fashion show as a spotlight focused on a nearby pony who was wearing what looked like a tin hat with a red antenna on it, I heard camera clicks as the crowd began taking pictures as the pony began making her way down the stage, while striking a few poses.

"Up first, we have Sugar Moonlight looking absolutely stunning in our high-tech Anti-Mind-Reading Hat. All those psychic unicorns out there are gonna be out of luck when you wear this little number." Phyllis announced.

The pony started walking back and another pony entered the stage that looked like it was wearing binoculars on his eyes, they were pointed up at the sky, which I thought was a major flaw.

"Now let's welcome Sparkle Chaser in his Pega-Periscope Goggles, the easy way to keep your eye on the sky!"

But because this pony's vision was restricted to just the sky, he ended up falling off the stage and landing on the ground with a thud.

"Oh! It's all part of the show!" Phyllis chuckled nervously.

The last pony to come on stage had some kind of box attached to his body. 

"Next up, the Earth Pony Balloon Escape Pack!" Phyllis announced.

The pony then pulled on a string, thus causing a bunch of balloons to come out from inside the box, and soon enough, the pony floated away while striking a dramatic pose, but he quickly realized his mistake as he suddenly flailed around and yelling for help as he all of a sudden floated right out an open window.

"Yikes. That's gonna be a lot of paperwork." I heard Hitch say, the fact that he was worried about that, and not the fact that the pony could potentially get hurt really made me wonder what kind of sheriff he really was.

"We take great care here at Canterlogic to ensure the safety of you, our loyal customers." Phyllis said kindly.

The crowd then let out an audible "Awww" as I just rolled my eyes.

"Now please stand back." Phyllis instructed as the crowd did just that. "This product testing demonstration is fully automated."

The stage lit up to reveal a crash dummy that resembled a pony standing on a podium behind a wall of glass, but suddenly, Sunny jumped up behind the dummy and pushed it out of the way, she was now wearing a fake unicorn horn with cardboard wings on her back. The crowd gasped upon seeing this, I even saw Sprout do a spit take while he was drinking a smoothie. 

Sunny then pulled out a sign with a unicorn horn at the top, Pegasus wings in the middle and a horseshoe at the bottom, which I assumed was to represent all the three pony kind reuniting.

"Earth ponies of Maretime Bay! Fear is not your friend! But the unicorns and Pegasi can be! Let's extend the hoof of friendship!"

Sunny's inspiring speech was soon interrupted when her hooves suddenly went through an open part of the podium, before quickly coming back up to reveal four steel boots where her hooves were, with the exception of one hoof that she was using to hold up the sign.

"That is not what I meant." Sunny said while looking down.

"Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!" Phyllis repeated through gritted teeth, before addressing the audience with a nervous laugh. "So... Now you can prevent an aerial abduction with a set of our new Anti-Pega-Lift Boots!"

As if on cue, a part of the ceiling opened as a pony robot descended from above and snatched off Sunny's cardboard wings via a claw, while a similar looking robot snatched off Sunny's fake unicorn horn. Sunny tried to stop it by hitting it with her sign, but another pony robot ended up taking her sign as it, along with the other one, went back up into the ceiling. All the while, Sunny was trying to protest.

"Hey! Gimme that back!" She shouted out, before the sign dropped on her head. "Ow!"

"Sunny." Hitch groaned as he promptly made his way towards the stage while Sprout continued to drink his smoothie without a care in the world.

At that moment, a claw came down and picked up Sunny as the podium she was standing on suddenly turned upside down to reveal a grey square with a red x on it.

"Uh, e-e-everypony, take a look at our Unicorn Entrapment Device!" Phyllis continued.

Sunny was then given a yellow helmet with a yellow unicorn horn protruding out of it, then the claw dropped Sunny as she landed on the grey square with the red x on it, and the next thing I knew, she was soon encased in a metal box with a siren blaring.

I looked over and saw Hitch running towards two other ponies, who seemed to be the ones controlling the presentation. "Toots! Sweets! Shut her down! Sheriff's orders!"

"We're trying!" Toots replied as him and Sweets frantically tried to follow the sheriff's demand.

"Fully automated" means it has to go through the whole cycle!" Sweets explained.

As the madness continued to unfold, I was just standing there, unsure of what to do. But as I was thinking of how to intervene, the metal box that trapped Sunny then went away, but Sunny wasn't off the hook for long as  a pair of metal wings were attached to her back and the metal square took a sharp turn towards the right wall as a section of it opened to reveal some kind of catapult filled with a green substance.

"Oh, no." Sunny said as her ears drooped low.

Sunny was then whisked off into the air while the catapult began firing the green substances at Sunny, she flew in circles at a rather fast pace. green slime splattered all over the walls and some of it even ended up on Sunny. Despite her predicament, Sunny was still going about her speech.

"Peace with Pegasi! Unity with unicorns!"

"Uh, a-a-and this is the Splat-a-pult!" Phyllis stuttered.

"CEASE FIRE!" Sunny yelled, before some green slime hit her in the face as the crowd cringed.

It was at that point where I knew I had to do something, because the worker ponies sure as heck weren't going to do anything to resolve this issue. Acting quick, I ran up on the stage where Hitch and the two worker ponies were, and sure enough, I saw a plug plugged into an outlet, which I assumed was plugged into the controls. So knowing that, I picked up the cord and pulled on it as hard as I could, until eventually, it was unplugged. 

The machinery soon started powering down as the catapult stopped spinning and Sunny was dropped as she slid on the floor of the stage, down the runway, and in front of the crowd, who let out an audible gasp.

"You okay, Sunny?" I asked as I walked up to her, but I received no response. "Sunny?"

Ignoring me, Sunny decided to address the crowd properly. "Aren't you tired of being scared all the time? The truth is we're not in danger. It's all a lie. We don't need any of this Canterlogic junk."

"Oh, we don't, do we? How do you suggest that we defend ourselves? With hugs and cupcakes?" Phyllis mocked as the crowd laughed.

"Just imagine if you had a friend who could fly." Sunny said.  "Or a friend who could-"

"Fry your brains with a single horn zap?" Phyllis interrupted Sunny in the middle of her sentence. "Or swoop down and snatch you away?"

As the crowd gasped again, I needed to think of something to say, something that would convince these ponies that they have nothing to worry about.

"That's not true." I spoke out. "Unicorns and Pegasi aren't like that at all."

"Spare me your nonsense, strange creature." Phyllis scoffed.

This got me really mad, I approached her angrily. "No, you spare me your nonsense, you're over here spreading false information about ponies, and I've pretty much had it up to here with that!"

"You don't scare me." Phyllis then turned over to Hitch. "Sheriff, do your job."

"All right, Sunny. Let's go." Hitch said sternly.

However, Sunny still persisted. "No! Everypony needs to hear this! Everything you believe about Pegasi and unicorns is wrong! They used to be our friends and can be again!"

"Yeah." I added. "I'm friends with unicorns and Pegasi, they're nothing to be scared about."

"Hey, we don't need any of them around here!" A pony from the crowd called out.

With that, the crowd began booing and throwing out rude remarks at us. Sunny looked at the crowd with pure disappointment etched on her face.

"Come on, let's go. Show's over, guys." Hitch said as he motioned for us to follow him.

Knowing that we were unable to convince everyone, Sunny and I followed Hitch off the stage, Sunny had her head low in distraught as I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"It's quite sad, really. Now, where were we?" Phyllis giggled nervously.

"God, how much I want to slap her right now." I thought angrily to myself.
> Chapter 4 - The First Unicorn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After what had just happened in the Canterlogic factory, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Sunny, she had just made a fool out of herself, and on top of that, she was unable to convince the Earth ponies that unicorns and Pegasi weren't harmful at all. 

As Sunny, Hitch and I walked out of the factory and out onto the streets of Maretime Bay, the sheriff turned to face Sunny with a stern look on his face.

"Do you have any idea how many bylaws you broke in there?!" He asked. 

"I’m sure you’re about to tell me." Sunny replied in a snarky way.

"Actually, for once I can’t, ’cause there’s so many!" Hitch protested. "I tried to warn you. I can’t keep associating with somepony who breaks every rule and causes chaos wherever she goes. I’m the Sheriff!"

"Exactly! Other ponies look up to you! You could help!" Sunny claimed.

Hitch let out a heavy sigh. "The law is the law, Sunny, and I’m here to uphold it and keep everypony safe."

"Aha! You just said "everypony."" Sunny pointed out. "That includes Pegasi and unicorns." 

"Come on, Sunny, what did you think was gonna happen?" Hitch asked."You give a little speech and what? Everypony just magically welcomes unicorns and Pegasi into Maretime Bay? You keep saying there's nothing to be afraid of. Well, then, prove it."

There was a brief moment of silence between the two ponies, until Hitch let out another heavy sigh, before talking in a more quiet voice.

"All of that pony unity stuff was just a foal's bedtime story made up by your dad. Like it or not, this is the way it is and always will be." Hitch paused for a moment before continuing. "I'm the last real friend you got in this town. You really want to lose me, too?"

At that, Sunny fell silent as her ears drooped down and she let out a sad sigh. Hitch didn't even bother to wait for her to reply before he started walking away at a slow pace. Sunny and I watched as Hitch slowly walked away from us. I turned towards Sunny, who had a look of sorrow on her face.

"Sunny, are you alright?" I asked nervously.

Suddenly, my ears picked up the faint sound of laughing. Sunny and I both looked over and saw two fillies running around nearby and laughing, until they stopped in front of another one of those anti-unicorn posters. After staring at it for some time, one of the fillies let out a playful growl at the other one as they started running again, passing both Sunny and I until they were no longer in hearing range.

I then watched as Sunny started walking towards a nearby bench, she plopped herself onto the bench as she looked more disappointed than before. 

Eventually, Sunny uttered something that almost broke my heart.

"I wish you were here, Dad."

As Sunny stared out at the ocean in silence, I had no idea what to do in this situation. I didn't know whether I should leave her so she could have more time to herself, or try to comfort her. After much consideration, I found myself walking towards the bench that Sunny was on and sitting next to her. In an attempt to make her feel better, I wrapped an arm around her body in a comforting way.

"Sunny, listen to me." I said quietly. "I know things aren't looking good for you right now, but things will get better."

"How do you know?" Sunny asked.

"Well, I don't." I replied honestly. "But you just got to stay positive, you'd be surprised how far that could take you."

"But didn't you see what happened back there? I'm never going to convince them." Sunny moaned. "I've been trying for a long time, and yet I still can't seem to do it. It's pointless."

"Oh Sunny, don't be like that." I encouraged. "You'll get there someday."

Sunny opened her mouth, as if she was about to say something, but she quickly stopped herself as her mouth hung open, her expression more thoughtful as she was processing what I had just said to her.

"I guess you're right." She spoke out, before wrapping her front hooves around my body in a soft embrace. "Thank you, Lukas. I'm so glad we met."

"I'm glad we met too." I replied, returning the embrace.

However, our moment was cut short when we began to hear the sounds of distant screaming of horror.

"What the...?" Sunny said, clearly confused.

Sunny and I both looked over to see half the population of Maretime Bay running in our direction, they screamed as they raced past us, it was like something or someone was chasing them.

"Whoa what's going on?" I asked, looking around at the crowd of screaming ponies. "Why is everybody running?"

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a gasp coming from right next to me. Looking over, I saw that Sunny was looking at something in the distance with a shocked look on her face. I was confused at first, until I noticed what Sunny was looking at, or to be more accurate, who she was looking at. 

"Hi, new friends! My name's Izzy!"

Standing right in front of us with a huge grin on her face, was a mare. This mare had a purple colored coat, a long blue mane and tail, and purple eyes. But what made Sunny and I stare at her in disbelief was the fact that there was a long light purple horn coming out of her mane, which could only mean one thing...

"U... U... Unicorn!" Sunny exclaimed.

As it turned out, Sunny and I weren't the only ones shocked about the presence of a unicorn, because nearby ponies began screaming and running away from the unicorn. I even saw one pony jump down a manhole, I'm surprised they didn't react like this when I first came to Maretime Bay. 

"Ooh, is everypony playing hide-and-seek?" The unicorn, who had introduced herself as Izzy, asked, seemingly unaware that she had just caused a town-wide panic. "I see you!" She called out to a pony who was hiding behind what looked like a smoothie cart.

"It's a unicorn!" The stallion screamed as he proceeded to jump off the railing and into the ocean below.

Izzy then took notice of me as she stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me closely. "Wow, you're a weird looking pony."

"Oh I'm not a pony, I'm a..."

"Unicorn attaaaaaaaack!"

I was suddenly cut off when I heard the distant sound of Hitch screaming, before I heard what sounded like an alarm.

"This is not a drill! I repeat – this is not! A! Drill!" I heard Hitch cry out.

"So they've been practicing for this?" I thought to myself.

I didn't have to wait that long to get my answer, as at that moment, metal squares with a red 'x' on them began appearing all over the floor. I assumed that these were the unicorn traps that Sunny unknowingly demonstrated back at the Canterlogic factory. 

"Wow! Is that the sea? I've never seen the sea!"

I looked over to see Izzy walking towards the railing that overlooked the ocean, but unbeknownst to her, she was about to walk right onto a unicorn trap.

"Izzy, look out!" I exclaimed, before I ran up to her and pushed her away, just as the unicorn trap activated. 

"I've gotta get you out of here!" Sunny said frantically as her and Izzy both ran off, with me not too far behind.

"Earth ponies are serious about games." Izzy pointed out.

"They're not playing! They're terrified!" Sunny replied.

"Oh, no! Of what?" Izzy asked, her voice now sounding worried.

"You! You're a unicorn! Earth ponies hate unicorns!" Sunny explained.

"Really? That seems a little harsh." Izzy thought.

"Yeah, tell me about it." I panted, trying my best to keep up with them. "Plus, you haven't even done anything."

As Sunny, Izzy and I ran out of an alleyway and into town square, green slime splattered around us, we looked to see that Phyllis had set up two of those slime catapults and was aiming them at us, but mostly Izzy.

"Let's go!" Sunny called out.

With that, we made our way out of the alleyway as we took cover behind a tram. It was total chaos, ponies continued running amuck and green slime was still splattering everywhere, and all of this because Izzy just walked into the town. We then ran out from behind the tram and back out onto the street. Even though they were aiming at Izzy, some of the slime still ended up on me.

After a while of running, I looked back to see that Izzy was no longer running behind us. I stopped for a moment as I scanned the area for the unicorn. I eventually found her walking towards a movie theater, but as she walked up to it, I saw that there was another unicorn trap in front of her.

"Ooh, I haven't seen this one yet." 

"Izzy, wait!" I yelled out.

But it was too late, Izzy ended up walking right on the unicorn trap, causing her to be encased in the metal box with the red siren on top flashing. Sunny and I both gasped in unison as Hitch then came into view.

"All right, citizens, calm down. The threat has been neutralized. The unicorn has been captured. You may now cheer."

At that moment, the ponies who were hiding nearby began cheering. But while they were cheering, Sunny began to walk towards the metal box, getting the attention of Hitch.

"Sunny!" He called out, stopping her in her tracks as the ponies stopped cheering. "What are you doing? Don't even think about it. No, don't you dare. No, no, no, no!"

Despite Hitch's warning, Sunny ignored him and pushed a button that was on the side of the box.

"Sunny!" Hitch moaned.

Soon enough, Izzy was free from her metal box, not even remotely affected by it. "So, your name's Sunny?" She asked with that same massive grin.

Suddenly, the ponies went back to running around and screaming, some of them even getting trapped in the various unicorn traps that surrounded the area. Seeing our chance to escape, Sunny, Izzy and I took off running again.

"Bye! It was nice to meet you all!" I heard Izzy call out.

"Well, that could've gone better." I thought to myself.
> Chapter 5 - No Magic?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The whole world was a blur as Sunny, Izzy and I raced out of the town of Maretime Bay. As you'd probably expect, the two equines were both way faster than me as I struggled to keep up with them. Eventually, we ended up at what looked like a lighthouse, I assumed this is where Sunny lived. As we rushed inside, I allowed myself a moment to breathe as I took a look around, I was right, Sunny did seem to live here.

It looked like a rather nice place to live, and far away from where everyone else lives, which, being an introvert myself, would be perfect for me. But as I looked around, I noticed a picture on a nearby table with a pair of glasses next to it. 

The picture was of a light blue colored Earth pony, with a royal blue mane and tail with white and purple streaks, cornflower-blue hooves, and purple eyes. His eyebrows and sideburns were dark violet. He wore dark maroon-rimmed glasses and a wooden pendant hollowed out with an outline similar to Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark. Was this Sunny's dad she mentioned earlier? If that was the case, where was he? Was he not here, or was he...

"Do Earth ponies also like staring contests?"

My train of thought was interrupted by the innocent voice of Izzy. I looked over and saw Izzy getting closer to Sunny while staring at her intently until the unicorn then blinked.

"Ah! You win! I blinked!"

I let out a small chuckle, Izzy seemed to be a very energetic and really adorable unicorn. Imagine if her and Pinkie Pie met?

"There's... a unicorn... in my house..." Sunny stuttered, like she was unable to believe what was happening. "This is so cool!"

Sunny's smile soon faded away as her facial expression looked more worried. "Wait, no, it's bad. Very, very bad. What have I done?"

"How is this bad, Sunny?" I asked her. "You haven't seen a unicorn for probably your whole life, I thought you'd be excited about this."

"Well yeah, I am excited." Sunny clarified. "But..."

"Wow! I've never seen an Earth pony before." Izzy interjected as she stared through a nearby telescope.

"Not much use for a telescope indoors." I thought to myself.

"We look exactly the same! Except for this, of course." Izzy then pointed towards her horn, before she jumped closer to Sunny and I, getting a little too close for comfort.

"Whoa, Izzy. Careful where you point that thing." I said cautiously.

"Why?" Izzy asked.

"Well, unicorn horns are usually really sharp." I explained. "You could accidentally poke someone's eye with that thing."

"Oh." Izzy replied in understanding. "Okay, I'll be careful. Sometimes my horn just has a mind of its own."

Just then, Sunny looked at Izzy's horn, as if she had noticed something off about it. "Isn't it supposed to glow, by the way? Or does that only happen when you levitate stuff?"

"Well actually, Sunny." I began. "Unicorn horns only glow when..."

"Wait! Don't answer that yet." Sunny called out, throwing me off in the middle of my sentence. "Let me get my notebook!"

"Notebook?" I said puzzled.

But before I could ask, Sunny had run off towards the kitchen counter, pushing a few items out of the way, before she brought out a book from her saddlebag and put it on the counter. She exhaled as she opened the book up to the first page.

"A hundred forty-two questions for a unicorn". Question number one - where do you live?"

"Bridlewood." Izzy replied with a smile.

"I knew it." Sunny exclaimed, before she started asking questions at a rapid pace, not even giving Izzy enough time to answer them. It was then she gazed at a can of beans on the counter. "Can you make this float?"

Sunny pushed the can of beans off the counter as it landed right next to Izzy's hooves, she looked at the can in confusion, before looking up at Sunny and replying with a saddened. "No." Then, her face lit up. "But I can do this."

I watched as Izzy proceeded to bring her hoof down on the can of beans, sending it flying up in the air, before it promptly landed on Izzy's horn. She then began bouncing the can up and down on her horn, like she was bouncing a basketball. Then for her final move, she flipped the can with her horn, opening it in the process as a lump of beans splattered onto the floor, before the empty can landed in the beans.

"Ta-daaaaa!" Izzy exclaimed, as if she had just preformed a magic trick.

"Wait. You don't have any magic?" Sunny asked, now looking disappointed.

Izzy didn't get the chance to respond before a sudden noise coming from outside caught the attention of both Sunny and I.

"Sunny Starscout!" An amplified voice, that sounded like Hitch, called out.

Sunny and I both looked out of a nearby window and, sure enough, there was Hitch, along with Sprout. They were both just outside Sunny's house, and while Sprout was cowering behind Hitch wearing one of those anti-unicorn mind reading hats, Hitch was speaking into a megaphone, which explained his amplified voice.

"Sunny Starscout, I know you're in there with that unicorn! Come out with your hooves up and surrender!"

"Yeah, you're completely surrounded!" Sprout added, I internally laughed at that since there was in fact no one surrounding us.

"Will you let me do my job?" Hitch whispered to Sprout, before turning around to speak into the megaphone again. "You are under arrest!"

"This is bad." Sunny said nervously.

"Yeah, no kidding." I added.

"How sneaky are you two?" Sunny asked Izzy and I.

"Uh, medium sneaky?" Izzy replied.

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm the worst at sneaking." I replied honestly.

"I can work with that." Sunny said, before looking back out the window. "Okay, I'll distract them."

"Oh, pffft. Relax. I'll talk to them." Izzy said nonchalantly.

"Uh, Izzy. I don't think that's such a good idea." I inquired.

But it was too late, Izzy made her way outside, and was now trying to reason with the two ponies that could very well arrest her right then and there.

"Hi, guys!" She greeted casually. "Now, I know what you're thinking."

Suddenly, Sprout let out a small yelp in surprise as he grabbed Hitch's face. "Aah! She's already reading our minds! Quick, before she fries our brains!" And just like that, Sprout was off, much to the confusion of Hitch.

"W-What are you doing? Where are you going?" Hitch called out, turning away from us.

Seeing this as our chance to escape again, Sunny then pushed Izzy away as I quickly followed behind. But just before he was out of hearing range, I heard Hitch yell out:

"Oh come on!"





The whole world became a blur once more as Sunny, Izzy and I were back to running through the vast meadows of Maretime Bay. As we continued running, Sunny turned to Izzy, who was running next to her.

"You don't have any magic?" She panted out.

"Nope." Izzy replied.

Coming to a sudden halt, Sunny and I both gasped in surprise upon hearing what Izzy had just told us, Sunny then sat down on the dirt path. "No magic?" She said, clearly confused, as was I.

"Wait a minute, if you don't have magic, then how am I supposed to get back?" I asked, now feeling worried again about not being able to return back to my timeline. I thought that Izzy could just cast me with another time travel spell, sending me back, but now, that didn't seem to be a possibility.

"Oh, but if it makes you two feel any better, we did have it, but that was many, many, many moons ago. It just – poof – disappeared. Everypony thinks the pesky Pegasi had something to do with it, but.."

Izzy's explanation fell when she noticed Sunny's expression. "O-Oh. Hey, you look kinda woozy. Are you okay?"

Sunny stood up as she paced around worriedly. "Huh. I am on the run with a unicorn who has no magic. What are we gonna do?"

"And how am I going to get back?" I added, throwing in a question of my own.

What Izzy did next was really strange, she went up to Sunny and proceeded to smell her, much to her confusion. "What are you doing?"

"You don't smell." Izzy replied.

"Thanks." Sunny said warmly, before she realized what she just said. "Wait, what?"

"I was told all you Earth ponies smell like rotten sardines, but you do not. Hmm." Izzy shrugged.

"Hey Izzy, do I smell like rotten sardines?" I asked out of utter curiosity.

After immediately realizing how weird that question was, I didn't think she'd actually do it, but Izzy didn't seem to mind as she went up to me and promptly smelt me as well. Once she did, she had a thoughtful look on her face, like she was trying to process the smell.

"No." Izzy soon replied. "Not even a little."

"What else do unicorns say about Earth ponies?" Sunny wondered.

"Oh, just that you're lazy and not the brightest crystals in the forest." Izzy answered.

"Charming." Sunny said sarcastically.

"Nope, just those three. So, what's the plan?" Izzy asked.

"Wait. I've got it!" Sunny's face lit up.

"What is it, Sunny?" I asked, curious as to what Sunny had planned.

"Izzy, Lukas, we're going on a quest... to Zephyr Heights."

Right as she said that, she pulled out a book from her saddlebag and threw it on the ground in front of us. The pages the book was opened to appeared to be a map, Sunny then pointed towards this "Zephyr Heights" which looked to be a city in the sky, similar to Las Pegasus or Cloudsdale.

"The Pegasus city?" Izzy inquired.

"Yes. We need to find out what happened to your magic and bring it back. They have magic. Maybe they can help." Sunny thought.

"Great idea, Sunny." I commented, but Izzy didn't seem too sure about this plan of Sunny's.

"Uh, but the Pegasi are bad news." She said worriedly.

"What if you're wrong about them? Earth ponies were wrong about unicorns. They could welcome us with open wings." Sunny replied.

"But what if they don't?" Izzy asked with concern in her voice.

"Come on, Izzy." I encouraged. "We never know until we try, and besides, once you get your magic back, you might be able to send me back."

Izzy then pondered for a moment, before she asked with a smile. "When do we start?"






To Be Continued...

> Chapter 6 - Zephyr Heights, Here We Come
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

> Chapter 7 - Secrets Revealed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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...

> Chapter 8 - The Crystal Heist
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that night, Zipp, Sunny, Izzy and I were putting our plan into action, we started off the plan by creating a replica of Queen Haven's crown so we could effortlessly swap it for the real crown, which I might add, Izzy did a really good job in making the crown look as accurate as possible, the second part of the plan however, was a lot more difficult to pull off. Zipp was to distract the huge amount of Pegasi all awaiting her entrance, taking pictures of her and bombarding her with question after question.

While Zipp was doing that, Me, Sunny and Izzy were to stealthily make our way into the castle. After navigating through the seemingly endless amount of hallways of the castle, we found ourselves in the throne room, where Pipp will be performing her royal celebration she mentioned earlier. As we snuck in and hid behind Queen Haven's throne, I was beginning to have second thoughts about this. 

"Uh guys, I'm not sure about this." I whispered nervously, knowing that this plan could easily backfire in a number of ways.

"Don't worry, Lukas." Sunny assured me. "Zipp seemed really confident in this plan, so it's gotta work."

"Yeah." Izzy added. "Besides, Lukas. This plan will be a slice of cake."

"I sure hope you girls are right." I said, still with slight nervousness in my voice.

Just then, the lights dimmed as everypony looked up, seeing Queen Haven and Zipp slowly fly down on their respective thrones, now that I knew that they couldn't fly and were in fact using wires, I couldn't understand why no one had noticed their secret yet.

Little did I know, I was soon about to jinx myself...

"Remember to smile." Queen Haven announced as Zipp rolled her eyes.

Once Haven and Zipp landed on their thrones, Sunny gave me and Izzy a stern nod, knowing exactly what we needed to do next. So while Pipp took centre stage with her musical performance, I was given the task to do the honours of swapping the crowns around, but just when I was about to, a spotlight was heading towards my direction. To avoid being seen, I ducked down, but since I was standing on Izzy's back, I almost fell off, but I managed to keep my balance.

As I held the fake crown in my hand, I readied my hand to make the swap easily, I literally felt like I was Indiana Jones at that moment. Deciding to just get this over and done with, I quickly grabbed the real crown, before putting the fake crown on Queen Haven's head, and somehow, no one noticed. I looked at Zipp, who seemed to have been watching me make the swap as we both had a smug look on our faces.

I quietly jumped down from Izzy as we started to make our way out. "Huh, that was surprisingly easy. I guess you girls were right after all."

"Of course we were right." Izzy replied.

Sunny, Izzy and I made our way towards a pair of doors, but when Sunny pressed the button to open the doors, we were soon met with a Pegasus guard who was currently on a call with someone over the phone.

"No, you hang up." The guard said in a sweet voice.

Sunny quickly closed the doors to avoid getting caught. Just then, we all heard the sound of a dog whimpering, we looked behind us to see Queen Haven's royal dog, Cloudpuff, staring at us with a curious expression.

"Aww." I cooed. "Who's a good doggie?"

Suddenly, Cloudpuff growled at us as his teeth grinded, making us all scream.

"Not you!" I screamed as me, Sunny and Izzy made a run for it, with Cloudpuff quickly following behind us.

As we were running, I looked behind me and saw that Cloudpuff was right behind us, determined to return the crystal back to its rightful owner. I turned back over to see Sunny opening a door, only to be met with Hitch, who was wearing cardboard wings and a fake moustache. Sunny screamed upon seeing him.

"Sunny Starscout, you are under arrest—!"

Sunny then promptly shut the door behind her. It was at that moment when Cloudpuff caught up to us, Izzy yelped as the small dog jumped up on her, then onto Sunny, then snatched the crystal right out of the Earth pony's saddlebag, before he ran off with the crystal in his mouth.

"No!" Sunny exclaimed.

"Get back here, you little mutt!" I called out in anger as Sunny and Izzy gave chase to Cloudpuff, with me not too far behind.

While we were running after Cloudpuff, I managed to hear a bit of Pipp's performance, and I had to say, it was surprisingly catchy. Suddenly, we caught sight of two Pegasus guards in front of us as they were in awe of Pipp's performance. To avoid being spotted, Sunny and Izzy hid behind a nearby wall.

"Get it, Lukas!" Sunny whispered loudly to me.

"Don't worry, Sunny. I got this!" I assured her, before I ran off after Cloudpuff.

The dog then ran up to the front of the three thrones, he then started jumping up and down, trying to get the attention of Queen Haven, but I wasn't going to let that happen. So I jumped out and tackled the dog as me and him got into a fight over the crystal. Suddenly...

"WHAT IS THAT!"

I immediately froze upon hearing that, I looked up and saw that all the Pegasus were all looking at me with curious and scared expressions. Just then, Queen Haven, who seemed to have spotted me as well, got off her throne and approached me with an enraged look on her face, and since I was currently in the middle of a fight with her pet, I couldn't look worse.

"What do you think you're doing to my sweet, little Cloudpuff?" Queen Haven exclaimed in anger. "You... you... BEAST!"

Unable to come up with an explanation, I was just silent. At that moment, Pipp suddenly started flying around the room like crazy as she screamed, the wires that were holding her up seemed to have malfunctioned. The Pegasus then looked up and gasped, with them distracted, I snuck away and followed Cloudpuff, I had an idea to get the crystal back.

"Cloudpuff, what are you doing here?" I asked as I approached the dog, who looked up at me confused. "Don't you have a pedicure right now?"

Cloudpuff gave a small yelp in surprise, before he raced off, dropping the crystal in the process. I picked it up and ran off as well. I saw Sunny and Izzy emerging from behind a curtain as I gave the crystal to the Earth pony.

"I got it!" I exclaimed.

"Yes!" Sunny cheered as she placed it back in her saddlebag.

"Let's go!" I said frantically as Sunny, Izzy and I ran off once again, soon followed by Zipp.

"FREEZE!" A familiar voice called out.

We all looked over to the source of the voice to see Hitch staring at us, thus getting the attention of all the other Pegasi who looked at us too.

"It's the prisoners!" A Pegasus from the crowd gasped as we tried to make a run for it.

As we were running, I could still hear Pipp screaming before she suddenly stopped. I stopped and looked back and saw that Pipp had stopped flying around and was now hanging upside down from her wires, revealing to everyone that...

"She's a fake!" A Pegasus called out in disbelief.

Soon, all the Pegasi were murmuring and taking pictures of this shocking discovery. I looked over and saw that Zipp was also looking up at Pipp with an apologetic look on her face. Just then, Sunny bumped into Zipp while she and Izzy were running away.

"Zipp, Lukas, hurry!" She exclaimed to us.

Zipp and I began running after Sunny, Izzy and Hitch, or in Zipp's case, galloping. As we ran out of the room. I caught up to Sunny and Izzy, who both looked at me.

"Lukas, you were amazing!" Sunny said.

"Yeah." Izzy agreed. "If it weren't for you, we probably would've been captured."

"Oh, it was nothing, really." I replied modestly. "Now let's get out of here!"






TO BE CONTINUED...

> Chapter 9 - Arguments In The Alleyway
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sirens were blaring as we were racing down the streets of Zephyr Heights. As you already know by now, the ponies were way faster than me, so it was difficult for me to not fall behind.

"Guys, wait up!" I called out to them, but they were too focused on escaping to take notice of me. 

Suddenly, Izzy stopped after noticing that I was starting to fall behind, she then ran over towards me and proceeded to throw me onto her back as she sped over to catch up with the others.

"Thanks, Izzy." I said, out of breath.

"No human left behind, Lukas." Izzy replied as I laughed weakly.

"Quick, this way!" Zipp called out to us as we all followed her into a nearby alleyway.

As we came to a stop, I finally allowed myself a moment to catch my breath as I climbed off Izzy's back. I was starting to get tired of trying to match the ponies' unbelievable speeds.

"Okay. I think we lost 'em." Hitch said as he too was trying to catch his breath. I then looked down and saw that a rat with wings was hugging Hitch's hoof, he really was a magnet to animals.

"Hitch, what are you even doing here?" Sunny asked.

"Arresting you." Hitch replied as he shook the rat off his hoof. "And saving you. So, you know, a little of both actually. You're welcome!"

"Oh-ho-ho, gee, thanks." Zipp said sarcastically. "But we don't need any saving, okay?"

"And you are?" Hitch asked, obviously not recognizing her.

"Her mom is the queen!" Izzy replied abruptly. 

"Wait a minute. So that means... you're a princess?" Hitch deducted.

"Huh. Look at that. The sheriff just became a detective." Zipp said with a smug grin.

"What?" Hitch asked, confused.

Just then, the sound of a news jingle caught our attention, we all looked over towards the screen to see Dazzle, the news reporter from earlier. On the left, there was a picture of Pipp hanging from her wires while looking at the camera with a shocked expression.

"Breaking story – Zephyr Heights is in turmoil tonight after the shocking revelation that the royals cannot fly."

The news report then showed various interviews from different Pegasi, some were fans of Pipp, or as they called themselves "Pippsqueaks" while some Pegasi were outraged by the discovery, one Pegasus even blamed the unicorns and the Earth ponies for this since they quote on quote "ruin everything"

Dazzle then continued. "This just in – Queen Haven has been arrested for being a phony pony full of baloney."

Zipp gasped at this as the news showed footage of Queen Haven being escorted out of the castle by Zoom and Thunder, while numerous Pegasi took pictures of her.

"No comment! And no photos!" She paused for a moment. "Okay, one photo." She then struck a pose as someone took her photo.

Hitch then turned to us, demanding answers. "Anypony care to explain?"

"Whoa, Hitch. Don't try and make it sound like this was our fault!" I responded.

"But it was your fault!" Hitch emphasized.

"But we had to get the Pegasus crystal from Queen Haven's crown." I protested. "Which may sound bad, but trust me, it's for a good reason."

"Oh really." Hitch retorted. "And, pray tell, what may this "good reason" be?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain, but basically, we need the crystals from all the different tribes, because we think it will bring everyone back together again and also bring me back to my timeline."

Hitch laughed at this, obviously not believing anything I had said. "You really expect me to believe that?.

Before I could retort however, Sunny walked up to me, coming to my defense. "Lukas is right, Hitch, look." She then began to rummage around in her saddlebag for the crystal, but suddenly, she realized something. "Oh, no, no, no, no! It's not here!"

"What?" I exclaimed.

"Seriously?!" Zipp asked with a mixture of confusion and anger.

"On the bright side, we had so much fun losing it." Izzy added, trying to remain positive.

"We have to go back!" Sunny cried out.

"But it could be anywhere!" Zipp protested.

Suddenly, we all heard what sounded like an empty can clattering on the ground, which made us all look over towards the end of the alleyway to see Pipp slowly approaching us with a stern look on her face, how she managed to get herself down without getting arrested was beyond me.

"Somepony seriously needs to explain why this thing was so important that you had to ruin my whole show over it!" Pipp then pulled out the Pegasus crystal as Zipp ran up to her.

"Trust me. It was." Zipp answered as she went to grab the crystal out of Pipp's hoof, but Pipp pulled her hoof back in anger.

"You left me hanging there! In the spotlight! Now everypony knows we can't fly."

"Look Pipp, I'm sorry that your performance got ruined, but we can make it up to you." I assured her.

"How!?" Pipp asked me angrily. "I was adored by so many, and you took it all away! How could you possibly make up for that!?"

I was just about to answer, when Pipp suddenly pulled out her phone from her wing and looked at it.

"A warrant is out for the arrest of the princesses." I heard Dazzle say formally.

"Pipp! Zipp! Save yourselves!" Queen Haven exclaimed.

"What?! This is not happening! This is so not happening!" Pipp said frantically.

"Pipp! Forget about all that. We think we can bring back magic, but we need that crystal." Zipp pleaded.

"Have you lost your mind?" Pipp asked honestly.

"No we haven't, Pipp." I replied. "Just trust us on this. If we don't get magic back soon, I might be stuck in this timeline forever."

Finally giving in, Pipp reluctantly agreed to help us. "Ugh! Fine! I know a way out. Come on."

Pipp then led us out of the alleyway as I heard Hitch from behind us call out; "What? Wait! You can't just... But I'm a sheriff!"

"Sorry, Hitch." I said to him." But I'm pretty sure Pipp knows her way around Zephyr Heights better than you do."

Hitch only groaned in response.





To Be Continued...
> Chapter 10 - First Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That's the tree from the map." Sunny exclaimed as we stopped in front of a pink tree in the middle of a daisy field. She then glanced down at the map in her book. "That means... it's this way." She pointed her hoof in the direction we needed to go.

As I followed Sunny, Izzy and Zipp, I looked back and saw Hitch and Pipp following behind, both of whom had disgruntled looks on their faces, clearly not interested in our journey.

"What am I even doing here?" Hitch asked himself. "Hoofing it across daisy fields, looking for a magical crystal that doesn't even exist!"

"It was supposed to be my best show ever." Pipp added. "And now it's all over. I'm a criminal! And it's all because of..."

"Them!" Hitch and Pipp both said in unison.

"Come on, you two. Don't be like that." I said to them. "This can be fun."

"Yeah." Pipp agreed sarcastically. "Being a fugitive in my own kingdom and having my own mom arrested is so much fun."

"Oh, Pipp. I didn't mean it like that, it's just that..." I began, worried that I might've offended her, but Pipp cut me off by holding her hoof up.

"Just... stop talking." Pipp said rather rudely as I sighed, realizing that there was no reasoning with her.

Just then, Izzy approached me with a curious look on her face. "Hey Lukas, can I ask you something real quick?"

"Sure, Izzy." I replied. "What is it?"

"Well, I've been wondering, how did you get here exactly?" Izzy asked.

"Oh.. well... I was watching Twilight Sparkle perform magic, and some of the magic ended up hitting me, and the next thing I knew, I ended up at Maretime Bay, Sunny found me, and that's pretty much how I got here." I replied, earning an intrigued "Ooooh" from Izzy, before her face slowly went into a look of confusion.

"Wait, who's Twilight Sparkle?"

"YOU!"

Before I could reply to Izzy's other question, a familiar voice stopped me from doing so. Izzy and I both looked up to see Hitch pointing an accusing hoof at the unicorn. 

"Hmm?" Izzy asked innocently.

"I know unicorns like shiny things!" Hitch remarked.

"Hitch, what are you talking about?" I asked, before noticing something off about Hitch. "And where's your badge?"

"That's just it, Lukas! My badge was obviously taken... by her!" He turned his gaze back at Izzy.

"Oh, come on, Hitch. You can't possibly blame Izzy for taking it." I said, trying to stand up for Izzy.

"Well, who else could've taken it?" Hitch asked rhetorically.

"Oh, you know, I think I did see a shiny badge-y thing on the ground a few hours ago." Izzy answered.

"What?! Hours?!" Hitch exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well, maybe it's for the best." Izzy replied, before she leaned in towards me. "Between you and me, Lukas, that badge was creating an unhealthy power dynamic."

I chuckled a little at Izzy's remark. "Ha, good one, Izzy."

But suddenly, as we approached a big canyon, we were soon met with a problem. There was a bridge going over the canyon, but it was broken, and there was no possible way to get across.

"What are we gonna do?" Sunny asked as Pipp turned to her sister for suggestions.

"Any ideas, Zipp?"

"You know what would be great right now? Let me think. Maybe something like... THE ABILITY TO FLY!" Zipp shouted.

"You know what would be even better?" Pipp retorted. "Not being stuck in the middle of nowhere as OUTCASTS FROM OUR OWN KINGDOM!"

In an attempt to cool off the argument, I approached them. "Woah, you two, just calm down."

Pipp then turned to me and got right in my face. "DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!"

"Geez, what is with you, Pipp?" I asked genuinely. "I mean, this whole journey, you've been doing nothing but whine and complain. "Oh, I'm Pipp, I lost my fans over being exposed as a lying little cry-baby!" 

Pipp gasped, but that shock soon turned into anger. "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"

"Make me!" I replied.

"Everybody, stop!" Sunny shouted, getting our attention. "We're gonna get to the other side, find the crystal, and bring back magic! And once we do, you'll get to fly, you'll get your fans back, you'll be able to go back to your timeline, and you'll have me in custody! Everybody happy now?!"

"I guess so." I replied, a bit taken aback by Sunny's shouting. "Sorry, Sunny, I didn't mean to contribute to the argument, I really did try to calm them down."

Sunny sighed as she put a hoof to her face. "It's fine, Lukas. I know you meant well. Now, how are we going to get across?"

Just then, we heard the sound of a tree being knocked down, we all turned around to see Izzy, who had somehow managed to cut down a nearby tree, which was long enough to reach the other side of the canyon.

"That's.... actually very impressive, Izzy." I commented as Izzy giggled in response.

"Come on, everybody!" Sunny exclaimed.

As we all proceeded to make our way across the fallen tree, I heard a faint cry for help coming from somewhere above us. I looked up and could make out something, or rather someone, in the sky. It was the pony from the Canterlogic presentation that got lifted into the air by balloons.

"How is he even still alive?" I asked myself.





The sky was starting to get dark, so we decided that it would be best for us to camp out for the night. I was able to make a campfire by rubbing two sticks together.

"Wow, Lukas, that's really impressive." Sunny commented.

"Yeah, Lukas, very impressive, indeed." Izzy added as she winked at me, hinting to me of what I had said to her earlier.

"Heh, thanks." I replied, flattered by their compliments.

As we laughed, I noticed that Hitch was off to the side, seemingly attempting to start a campfire of his own, clearly not wanting to associate with us.

"Come on, stupid stick." Hitch complained as he rubbed a stick with his hoof.

"You need some backup, sheriff?" Zipp asked.

"No! Thank you. I've got it." Hitch assured her. "Come on... If only I had a match..."

Suddenly, a small fire ignited as Hitch was rather proud about it, but immediately after, the small fire fizzled out, much to the sheriff's frustration.

"Oh, well, that was sad to watch. Come on, don't be a hero, dude. Come get warm." Zipp chuckled.

I watched as Hitch continued struggling with his mini campfire, refusing to come over and join us. I decided to go over to him and hopefully convince him not to be so stubborn. Approaching him, he looked up at me with a rather confused look on his face.

"Hitch." I said quietly, sitting next to him. "What's up with you?"

Hitch turned to face me. "What's up with me?" He asked, with slight offence. "What's up with that unicorn? I definitely don't trust her. She totally has some... crazy, evil... unicorn things planned up her sleeve."

"Look, what I'm trying to say is, why have you been in such a bad mood lately?" I asked.

"Uhh, let's see." Hitch replied sarcastically. "Maybe it's because... this whole journey is pointless!"

"Come on, Hitch." I said defensively. "Sunny seems pretty confident in this plan, it's gotta be worth it."

"Oh yeah, giving magic back to our enemies. Sooo worth it!" Hitch replied sarcastically again.

I was starting to get tired of Hitch's annoyed and sarcastic personality he had, I tried my best to remain calm and not lash out at him like I did with Pipp back at the canyon.

"You know, Hitch, for a sheriff, you could stand to be a little more trustworthy." I admitted, earning a surprised expression from him.

"Wh- I- Wh." Hitch stammered, unable to think of a sarcastic comeback this time

"Now, come on." I encouraged him as I gave him a playful bump on the shoulder.

I then stood up and made my way over to the others and sat down, I then signalled for Hitch to come join us. Reluctantly, Hitch snorted as he slowly made his way over to us, before sitting down, the annoyed expression never leaving his face. I looked over at Sunny, who winked at me, so I winked back.

"So I think we should set off at first light. Last stop – Bridlewood." Sunny declared.

Just then, I couldn't help but notice Izzy, she looked really sad as she stared at the ground silently. This wasn't like her, so I was a bit concerned.

"Hey Izzy, is something wrong?" I asked worriedly.

"Huh?" Izzy looked up at me, then back at the ground. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just that... being with you ponies, and human, has been the best thing that's ever happened to me. I guess... I just don't want our adventure to end."

"But, Izzy, you'll get your magic." Sunny said, trying to make her feel better.

"Yeah." I added. "And if you get your magic back, you might be able to bring me back to my timeline."

Izzy smiled at this, which warmed my heart so much.

"Can I ask you a question?" Hitch asked as Izzy turned to him. "Why did you come to Maretime Bay?"

"I always wanted to visit. When I was a filly, I found this pretty lantern. It had a message inside. It said I had friends in Maretime Bay."

Izzy then reached into her mane as she pulled out a folded up piece of paper. Once it was unfolded, it revealed what looked like a child's drawing, or filly or colt's in this case. From what I could make of it, there was an Earth pony, a unicorn and a Pegasus all enjoying a nice picnic of cupcakes. The picture also had a note reading: 'Dear unicorns and pegasi, You have friends in Maretime Bay. Come visit us!' I looked over at Sunny, and she looked like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

After a moment of silence, Izzy seemed to catch onto something. "It... It was you!"

"Wait, Sunny. You drew that?" I asked as Sunny nodded in response, a small smile spread across her muzzle.

"I made it with my dad." Sunny replied as Hitch handed her the drawing. "We always promised each other that someday we would prove that all ponies were meant to be friends. We'll do our part. Hoof to heart."

As she held the drawing close to her, I couldn't help but feel a little teary-eyed at that, and it made me proud to see Sunny honor her father with their promise.

"Hey, um..." Hitch said, catching our attention. "I want to do my part. What have we got to lose, right?"

At that, we all cheered, now knowing that everyone was officially on board with this mission. I looked up at the sky and saw how late it was getting.

"Well, we should be getting to bed." I said, everyone agreed.





When I woke up, I had no idea how many hours had passed, but when I saw the rest of the group still asleep and the fire no longer burning, I assumed it had been a couple hours or something. Not really feeling like I could fall back asleep, I got up and looked around, I have to admit, with no one around, and without the light from the campfire, it was a little scary being awake in the dark.

So I made my way over to the cliffside as I gazed at the amazing view, despite the fact that it was dark, the stars provided a good enough light source for me to really take in the scenery. 

"You're still up, huh?"

I was caught off-guard by a familiar sounding voice from behind me, I quickly turned around and saw Pipp not too far from me.

"I could ask you the same thing." I replied back.

"Oh, you know, just the thought of my own mother being put in jail, no biggie." She replied sarcastically.

I sighed heavily, remembering the argument we had not that long ago. "Look Pipp." I began. "I never got the chance to apologize for insulting you, I didn't mean to, I just got so frustrated, can you forgive me?"

Pipp looked at me skeptically. "That's going to be a really epic makeup."

I continued. "I get it, Pipp, I understand why you're so miffed. You were exposed as a fake in front of everyone, you lost your fans, and even your own mom got thrown in jail."

"Your point is?" Pipp asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What I'm trying to say is, you've been through a lot, and I understand." I replied.

Pipp absorbed everything I said as her skeptical face soon turned into one more sincere as she slowly approached me and sat down next to me. There was a moment of silence between the two of us, until eventually, the silence was broken when I suddenly heard the faint sound of sniffling, I looked over and what I saw, almost broke my heart, Pipp had started crying as I saw a small tear escape her eye.

Concerned, I asked; "Pipp? Are you crying?"

"Wha.. no... I just... have something in my eyes." Pipp replied, trying to play it off, but I could tell something had upset her, and she seemed to realize that I wasn't buying her excuse. "Ugh, okay fine, I am crying. It's just that... I not only lost my adoring fans, but my own mom is in jail, and now I'm on the run with you guys, you all literally ruined my life! If you never showed up in Zephyr Heights! I would still have my fans. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!"

I was shocked about Pipp's outburst, but I honestly couldn't blame her for feeling this way. So without a second thought, I wrapped my arms around her in a soft embrace, she was still crying, but it seemed to slow down once I embraced her.

"It's okay, Pipp, we're gonna get through this together." I assured her.

Pipp, taken aback by the unexpected embrace, was silent, and as I released her, she wiped away her tears, while her mascara trailed down as well, and looked at me.

"T-Thanks Lukas. I guess.. you're right." She said between sniffles.

"So... does that mean... you forgive me?" I asked hopefully.

"Of course I do." Pipp replied, before she got up and walked over towards the others. "Now, come on, Lukas, let's get back to bed."

I grinned. "Okay, Pipp, we have a big day ahead of us." I replied, following her to the others, who were still fast asleep, as we were to soon follow them in their deep slumber.





To Be Continued...