The morning had arrived once again arrived for the group. Cyre, as per usual, was the first to awaken. When they made camp last night, they made it halfway up the mountain. Bear in mind that Cyre didn't know how it was possible to breathe as much as they were at the heights they were getting to, but it really didn't matter in the long run. So long as they could breathe at all. The (Earth) time on his scouter read 9:30 AM, so he was rather glad the others got up soon after. It wasn't much farther to the top, as they all walked through a narrow tunnel. Izzy, who was surprisingly silent for most of the trek, had decided to speak up now.

"You know, not to freak you out or anything, but you do know Pegasi can steal your luminescence, right?"

"My lumi-what?" Cyre and Sunny both replied in kind.

"Luminescence. You know, like, your sparkle? Yours is... lavender. And Cyre? yours... is White!"

"Huh?"

"And the happier you are, the brighter it shines!" Not another word was said before Cyre's scouter started to go off. something or someone else was approaching their position. Case in point when they saw an unknown being jumping off each side of the rock face. Some of the rocks slid off, almost hitting Izzy. Cyre wasted no time grabbing the two mares and running up the makeshift rock ramp that lead out of the open tunnel. Cyre set both of them down as he kept his eyes on the opening. Just as Izzy and Sunny sighed in relief, A pegasus had broken through the cloud cover, causing them to scream in shock. Cyre held firm, choosing not to strike unless necessary. The pegasus then swooped down onto the rocks, before doing some parkour and landing, flaring her wings open as she stared down at them. Sunny was in awe of the whole thing, as was Izzy.

Cyre took a good look at the pegasus himself. What he saw was a white pegasus with silver hooves. Her wings had light blue and lavender feathers. Her mane was hot pink with aqua and pink streaks, and it resembles gelled hair... or ice cream, either one worked. Her tail was similarly colored and her eyes were turquoise blue, with pink eyebrows. Whoever this pegasus was, she had to do a double-take when saw actually gave a decent stare.

"Whoa! A unicorn? And an Earth pony? Along with some weird, two-legged creature? Together?! Okay, well, this day just got a whole lot more interesting." The pegasus then gasp as she heard the metallic clanging of guard armor coming in her direction. She then quickly jumped off the side of the mountain, telling the trio to not let the guards know that they saw her.

"There's no way we cooooould! We don't even know your naaaaame! She seems nice." Izzy said that to the others as they turned to the guards. One who was whimpering, and the other who was barely able to keep the other one from collapsing under fear and pressure.

"Thunder! Get it together!"

"But... But that's an Earth pony!"

"They're harmless. They have very tiny brains."

The blue pegasus' comment made all the happiness in Sunny's face disappear as she frowned. Thunder then gestured to both Izzy and Cyre. "What do we do about that?!"

"Well, did you bring the shield? And as for that weird hairless ape-looking thing..."

"What shield?"

"Didn't you read the guard guide?"

"Yes! ...Okay, no."

"Ugh, fine! I've got this."

After a rather uneventful capture, the three of them were headed up an elevator to see the rulers of Zephyr Heights. All three of them weren’t really hurt. All that happened was that Izzy ended up having a tennis ball on her horn, which in her own words was “creative”. Sunny, being her usual self again, started asking the pegasi questions from her notebook.

“What's it like to fly? Is your wingspan the same as your height?”

“Well, I—“

“Do you need a license to fly? How far can you go?”

“Can you fly to the moon?”

“Do Pegasi wear horseshoes, or do they just weigh you down?”

“Well, I-I do collect sneakers.”

“Hey, hey, hey! Don't answer anything! They could be spies.”

Cyre, Sunny, and Izzy took the time to look out the window and see the sights on Zephyr Heights from afar. Most of these products sounded pretty similar to things back on earth… but they’re all just horse puns basically. It made the two mares look in awe, but it just made Cyre roll his eyes before looking at the mega screen, where the news was on. Two pegasi were there, a mare and a stallion.

“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!”

“Tonight's royal bash for Queen Haven will be stunning, but the real jewel in the crown will be Princess Pipp's performance. Isn't that right, Skye?”

“Oh, my, yes, Dazzle. And this just in – an exclusive vid from Pipp for all you loyal fans out there in Z.H.”

The screen suddenly switched to show another pegasus mare. This one was different though, as apparently, she was a celebrity and princess. Not a good combo in most cases. She was a light pink pegasus with golden hooves. Her wings were fluffy, unlike all the other pegasi Cyre had seen so far. they were white and are made of large, soft feathers. Her violet mane was wavy, swept to one side, and her tail is of average length. She has kiwi green eyes and violet eyebrows. She had a gold tiara on with a green jewel and golden wheat, likely representing her crown.

“What is up, everypony? Big shout out to all my fans, the Pippsqueaks! So, tonight's the night. I can't wait to debut my new song later. It has a very special place in my heart, but not as much as you guys! Okay, guys, I love you lots. Gotta go. Pipp-Pipp-hooray!”

As the trio was walked out onto the street that headed towards the castle, Sunny looked around at the surrounding area, only to find not one pegasus flying. It piqued her as odd. She’d have to worry about it later though, as they were brought to the throne room to meet the Queen.

“Bow before our queen!”

After a rather exquisite trumpet fanfare, a small, white, and fluffy dog sat in front of the throne. Cyre didn’t think that was the ruler, seeing as there was more than one seat, along with seeing one of the princesses earlier. Izzy of course, being Izzy, bowed and spoke over-dramatically.

“Your Majesty!”

The three then heard flapping above them. The true rulers had begun to lower themselves down. As he guessed, Pipp was one of the rulers. The pegasus mare from the mountains that he saw earlier was also here, which explains why she didn’t want them telling anybody that they saw her. She likely is a princess as well, can't be seen coordinating with enemies after all. Izzy made a move to try to say hi, but that was met with a face of disapproval from the weird-maned pony, to which Izzy kept her mouth shut from there. It was then that the Queen started to speak. Now, Cyre wasn't exactly in love with ponies or anything, but he will admit when somebody looks nice. The queen had a pale pink fur coat, periwinkle hair with lilac streaks, gray hooves, blue-and-purple wings, and icy blue eyes with lavender eyeshadow. She also wore a dark purple vest, and a gold-and-aquamarine necklace and crown.

"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. Ha, ha, ha....... Hmmm. Still not right."

"Your Highness, we found these intruders in our territory."

Queen Haven had to lower her shades before she noticed who they were referring to. Once her eyes set onto Cyre though, she couldn't help but stutter. Sure, his body was unlike anything she'd ever seen and it was honestly freaky somewhat... but this creature was ripped beyond belief! before she could get to memorize with him further, she shook it off and immediately became professional once more, as a queen should. "An Earth pony... and a unicorn... in Zephyr Heights?! And what looks like... a hairless ape wearing clothes and strange pair of sunglasses?"

"We have them under control, your Highness."

"Oh, oh, a-and we deployed the shield!"

"Is this an attack?! On the night of our royal celebration?! Why are you here?! Who sent you?! Nopony must know they're here!"

Pipp Petals, being a grade-A idiot, shared the whole thing live to everyone in Zephyr height with a phone in the hoof. It was bad enough Sunny and Izzy was being shown, but Cyre as well... Queen Haven would ultimately have to step in to save the whole thing from becoming mass hysteria and panic.

"Check it out, Pippsqueaks! Live from the castle... it's a real unicorn and Earth pony!
know, right? This is so not a filter."

"Pipp! There's nothing to fear. Those nasty little ponies and this dreadful biped have been captured. Your queen will protect you. Shut it off!"

Sunny Starscout started to ask questions, but the queen would have none of that.

"Excuse me, Majesty? Um, we only want to ask you a few questions about magic. We—"

"Guards! Please escort these ponies and that unknown creature to the dungeons until I can question them properly! And confiscate the book, and whatever that thing is wearing on his face!"

The guards did end up taking Sunny's book, but they backed off from Cyre, who glared when they tried to get anywhere close to his scouter. To that, the two guards settled for taking the three to the dungeons, moving rather quickly to get away from the somewhat hostile Saiyan.

"What? N-No, no! But-but, your Majesty, I just wanted to ask you a few questions, please!"

"Did she just say "dungeons"?"

Sunny Starscout sighs in dejection. "What else could go wrong today?"

"Careful what you wish for Sunny, you're tempting fate with that sort of deal. If something can get worse, it usually WILL get worse, before getting better." Cyre added to Sunny's statement.

As Sunny, Izzy, and Cyre were carted off to the dungeons of Zephyr Heights, back in Maretime Bay, Sprout was taking in the position of Sherrif as well as one would expect him to... and by that, we mean he was terrible at it and nopony took him seriously at first. Phyllis was the one doing most of Sprout's work at first, providing encouragement. But The citizens were having none of it.

"We need a real sheriff!"

"Tell us what's going on!"

"Hitch would know what to do!"

"Come on now, everypony. Let's listen to what our new sheriff has to say. That's you, sugarcube."

"Oh, yeah, it's me."

"Everything's gone wrong! What do we do?!"

"Okay, folks, calm down. There's no need to be scared."

"We're scared, and we want to be prepared!"

"The unicorns are coming! The unicorns are coming!"

"What do we do?"

"What's your plan, sheriff?"

"What if the unicorn comes back?"

"Actually... what if you're all right? The unicorns could come back. They could even bring the Pegasi. We are all in danger!"

ZEPHYR HEIGHTS

“You know, I’d find this place much more bearable if I didn’t have to hear those stupid commercials every five minutes! It’s getting on my nerves!”

Cyre was standing up against a wall. They’d been thrown into this cell about an hour ago. To be honest, this place didn’t feel like a dungeon. The bed was rather nice, as sparing as it was. They even had a massage chair, one Izzy was making good use of as Cyre and Sunny spoke to each other.

“Something is not right. We haven't seen a single pony flying, except the royal family. Izzy, are you listening?”

“This isn't dungeon-y at all. Uh-h-h-h...”

Cyre could only wish he had a tenth of the optimism that Izzy seemed to have. At that moment though, his scouter went off again, as did his own senses. It was the more down-to-Equestria princess, the one called Zipp. Cyre started to sit at the front of the bars as Zipp walked into view, which surprised both Izzy and Sunny.

“I'm sorry you three got thrown in here, but I have to talk to you.”

“Princess?”

“Your Majesticness! Y-Your Graceful Highness!”

“Zipp. Just... call me Zipp.”

“Ah, seems a certain somepony doesn’t like the fact she’s a princess, huh? I imagine so since your family likely didn’t know about your stunts in the mountains? I can’t imagine your relationship with your sister is going well, not that I blame you…”

“Don’t mind him… Okay, Zipp. I'm Sunny. And these are my friends.

Izzy Said her name with a slur to her voice. “Izzy Moonbow.”

Cyre put a fist to his chest before putting to fingers up in a peace gesture. “Cyre the Saiyan warrior, pleased to meet you.”

“…What kind of name is Cyre?”

“I don’t know, what kinda name is Zipp? Do you really wanna claim a name is weird when yours is, I can guarantee, a shortened version of a much more embarrassing name?”

Zipp Storm simply ignored Cyre the best she could, getting on to business. “Sunny, Izzy, I really need to ask you something important... about magic.

“That's why we're here. Maybe you can tell us how yours works? Izzy has no idea how the unicorns lost theirs, so we thought maybe—“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. Lost theirs? As in no magic? Well... that changes things. Listen, I might have some information that could help, but first, you need to tell me about this.”

Sunny Starscout saw that Zipp had her journal with her, which she took with very clear satisfaction. “My journal! Thank you, Zipp. I-I never thought I'd see it again.”

“Yeah, I can be pretty sneaky when I want to be.”

“Nice. I'm-I'm only medium sneaky.” Izzy replied with a smile.

“So where did that come from?” Zipp asked sunny before the mare in question answered.

“It was my father's. Why?”

“That star...”

Before any other questions or answers could be said, the sound of digital trumpet fanfare could be heard. This was no doubt Pipp who had arrived, who had an entourage of guards with her who rolled out a red carpet for her to walk on as she spoke to her sister, Zipp.

“Zipp, what are you doing here? Mom said to stay away.”

“Right. Then why are you here?”

Pipp scoffed at her sister's comment before pulling out her phone for a selfie, to which Izzy pulled both Cyre and Sunny into as she snapped them. “For the content.”

Sunny Starscout was able to ask Pipp a question through gritted teeth, which made Pipp gasp as she laughed nervously.

“Princess, why isn't anypony flying?”

“Everypony knows that only royals can fly, of course.”

Sunny and Izzy both replied with varying degrees of “What?”

Pipp Petals did a little dance with her wings before gesturing to her sister.

“I know, it's not fair. But that's just the way it is. If there were some way we could teach the citizens to fly, you know we would in a wing beat. Right, Zipp?”

“Yeah. In a wing beat.”

Zipp Storm looked and sounded completely uninterested in what her sister said. A moment later Pipp had her phone vibrating her whole body, to which she had to check her messages which made Zipp roll her eyes.

“Oh! Dress rehearsals. Gotta go. And so should you. Me-me-meeeee! Red feather, yellow feather, red feather, yellow feather.”

Zipp watched as her sister left the hall, a sad longing in her eyes before turning her gaze back to the other three.

“I have to show you something.”

Zipp quickly pressed a hood to a nearby panel, which scanned it and allowed the three of the prisoners their freedom. All three of them quickly left after Zipp, but not before Izzy replaced one of the fruits with the tennis ball on her horn from earlier.

Hitch had been climbing the mountain up to Zephyr heights for a few days prior. How he knew where Sunny, Izzy, and Cyre went... well, we don't really know, but don't worry about that! Worry about the fact that some bunnies are cuddling with Hitch, much to his annoyance. also the fact that he saw a piece of the book that Sunny had, which made him gasp.

"Litter! I mean, a clue. Hmmm... Unicorn hair. [licks] Pegasi. Track's gone cold. Sunny, Sunny, Sunny, Sunny. You think you've escaped? Well, think again. I will not eat! I will not sleep! Well, maybe a quick nap and snack if I can't find you in the next few hours, BUT! After that, nothing will stop me!"

The bunnies around him cheered for him, which caused Hitch to chuckle in approval.

"Oh. Thank you. Thank you. No, no, you're too kind. ALSO! I'll follow you wherever you go! Whether harshest deserts, the coldest tundras, no trail too dangerous, no clue too small! The past matters not! It's justice— What? What?"

The bunnies squeaked a bunch, before finally getting his attention and making him turn around to see the rather large screens behind him, which showed him the wanted posters for both Izzy and Sunny, causing him to smile triumphantly.

"Gotcha."

Izzy, Sunny, and Zipp were going down some sort of elevator into some sort of abandoned port from Zephyr Heights past. Most of the equipment was worn down and mostly unusable, a sign of how long ago large amounts of creatures had roamed the halls. There were even some locations on the time board along with the times the departures were. Soon enough they reached the ground

"Where are we?"

"It's amazing, right? 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."

Sunny Starscout was now happier than ever, her thoughts and feelings validated. "This is proof! All pony kinds did used to be friends! My dad was right... Wait, where's Cyre? he didn't get lost, did he?"

"It would be pretty hard for anybody to lose sight of that big guy..."

"You're right. It would be pretty difficult, wouldn't it?"

Once they all heard his voice, they looked up to see him floating around, moving throughout the room to look at things a bit more closely before hovering back down. The three ponies were dumbfounded, as they couldn't believe the fact that he was essentially flying without wings, something completely unheard of.

"What? how did you... you don't even have wings! How did-"

"There's a lot of things I can do that you don't know about. All in due time my friends. Now isn't the time for me to do too much showboating..." Cyre cut Zipp off from whatever she was going to say as she spoke up again after Cyre stopped speaking, a large smirk on his face.

"You... have GOT to teach me how to do that! After we get magic back, I will not let this go until you do. You got that?" Zipp pointed a hoof in Cyre's direction as he raised an eyebrow in thought. Sunny of course, didn't quite see why she wanted to though.

"Not saying that what Cyre just did wasn't cool, but why would you wanna learn to do what he does? Aren't you one of the only pegasi that can fly?"

Zipp Storm sighs at her words and turns to face her. "The truth is we can't fly either. We've been faking it."

"Faking it?! But... but how?"

"You'd be surprised what some wires and good lighting will do. But I'm just so tired of living that ridiculous lie. That's why I come down here – to get away from all of that. And, well... to do this."

Zipp then hopped onto and pushed down a lever before jumping onto an airlift generator, floating upwards and doing flips as she simulated flight, a content smile on her face. Izzy made a note that her sparkle was incredibly bright before Zipp glided down and led the others to a damaged stain glass window. A large symbol was on the middle top part of the stained glass: a pink six-pointed starburst with five smaller white stars.

"This was made a long, long time ago when we still had magic."

"It's beautiful!"

After looking at the stained glass, Sunny spotted that the pegasus stained glass looked an awful lot like the crystal that the Queen was wearing earlier.

"What is that?"

"That's the Pegasus Crystal. It's part of my mom's crown."

"Hmmm. Where's the Unicorn Crystal? Look!" Sunny found the unicorn crystal glass hidden underneath a tarp, before sliding it in between the top of the opening of the pegasus crystal.

"They fit?"

"These two crystals belong together. United."

"So... what are you saying?"

"Maybe you lost your magic because the crystals were separated."

"It stands to reason that these two crystals were made specifically for these tribes. So it would stand to reason that the Ear-" Cyre was cut off by Izzy, but said nothing and just sighed.

"if we put them back together..."

"...magic will return?"

"And all three pony kinds will get along again!"

"Yeah... whatever she said," Cyre said with a grimace as both Izzy and Zipp cheered, before remembering that they didn't really know where the unicorn crystal was. Izzy managed to reassure her though.

"Well, if you're looking for crystals, we've got, like, a gazillion of them back in Bridlewood."

Sunny Starscout nodded in approval. "Then that's where we'll go next. After we get the Pegasus Crystal from your mom, of course."

Zipp Storm grimaced at this fact. "Ooh... That'll be tricky. She, uh, never takes her crown off."

"So, what do we do?" Sunny asked Zipp.

"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."

Izzy Moonbow spoke up next. "Oooh, I can craft a decoy! 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."

"A gem heist, eh? well then, you've piqued my interests, Zipp and Izzy. Count me in on this plan of yours." Cyre said rather seriously. If they were gonna do this, he was gonna do his best to be professional. Now all they needed to do is make the plan.

Author's Note

Hey guys! I hope you're doing well on this beautiful Saturday! I meant to have this finished yesterday, but I had to do a test for one of my college classes. See you next chapter!

Pony Power Levels
Zipp Storm: 50
Pipp Petals: 20
Queen Haven: 25
Average pegasi guards: 20-30