During following zipp, sunny, Thomas and Izzy followed her to a hidden compartment that led to what looked like a basket of a hot air balloon as zipp made a graceful landing in the basket, before looking up to the others.

"Watch your step." She warned, but sunny and Izzy didn't take that advice very well, as they both made a rather rough landing, ending up on top of each other.

Thomas looked down at the long drop below him, seeing how sunny and Izzy had just land, he didn't want to get hurt. So he take a deep breath and jumped down. Lucky he landed on his four hooves.

"Whoa, Thomas. You really know how to make a landing" zipp remarked.

"Thanks" said Thomas.

As sunny and Izzy got up, zipp then pulled down a nearby switch, making the balloon basket lower down as the group was now looking over what looked like some sort of abandoned and condemned building as sunny, Izzy and Thomas all gawked at the sight before them, but it did look like the place could use l little cleaning.

"Where are we?" Sunny gasped as the basket made the landing.

"It's amazing, right?" Zipp asked rhetorically as the group hopped out and examined the place. "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."

"Bust my buffers, it definitely looks," Thomas then trailed off before clearing his throat. "Rusty."

While zipp was explaining sunny and Izzy both went up towards a framed picture of maretime bay, it seemed like it had been here for a very long time because of all the dust on it. Sunny reached out her hoof and wiped off some of the dust to reveal a familiar looking lighthouse overlooking the city. As she eyed upon it, her face lit up, recognizing that structure. But then, she looked above it and saw another framed, and rather dusty picture of three ponies walking through a forest, one earth pony, one pegasi and one unicorn, the latter carrying a rose with it's magical aurora.

"This is proof! All pony kinds did used to be friends!" Sunny said eagerly. "My dad was right"

"Fuzzing fireboxes, if only the ponies from maretime bay can see this" Thomas said and he turned to zipp. "You know, for a pegasi, it must feel a bit weird being the only pegasi that could fly."

Zipp sighed "the truth is... We can't fly either, we're been faking it."

"Faking it?" Thomas asked shockingly.

"But how?" Sunny wondered as she, Izzy and Thomas towards the Pegasus, demanding answers.

"You'd be surprised what some wires and good lighting will do." Zipp explained as she walked up to a chalkboard with a complicated equation drawn on it. "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. Well... To do this."

With that, zipp ran off, jumped onto a switch that seemed to have activated a nearby fan, with the machine being turned on, zipp leaped over it, causing her to fly up into the air, spreading her wings out gracefully as she did so.

"Wow!" Sunny gawked at the pegasi's flight.

"Whoa! Her sparkle is so bright right now!" Izzy remarked.

"That reminds me of Gordon" Thomas added.

"Who's Gordon?" Izzy asked, not recognizing the name.

"Oh, just a friend of mine" Thomas replied as Izzy nodded in understanding.

After spreading out her wings for a moment, zipp glided back down to the ground and led the trio to a particular part of the abandoned station. "But that's not why I brought you down here. This is what I wanted to show you"

Zipp then gestured over to what appeared to be a stained glass window depicting one unicorn and one pegasi in either sides of the window underneath an picture of the star cutie mark.

"Oh my stars...!" Was all sunny could say, before taking a quick gaze at her journal, which depicted, the exact same symbol on it.

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

"It's beautiful!" Izzy gawked.

"I agree, it's so amazing!" Thomas added, admiring the creation.

As sunny marvelled at the creation itself, her eyes soon lied upon the crystal that was above the pegasi. "What is that?"

"That's the Pegasus crystal". Replied zipp "it's part of my mom's crown."

As she examined the room, she then noticed a piece of curtain on the ground, and she could see a slight lump in it, meaning that something was underneath the curtain. Sunny then walked over to it and pulled away the curtain slowly to reveal none other than the unicorn crystal. Her face lit up once again, having found what she was looking for. Then, she looked at an engraving on the floor of the Pegasi crystal. At the top of it, there was a small gap, it looked like a perfect fit for the unicorn crystal. Curious, Sunny tested out her theory by pushing the crystal into the gap and it turned out, she was right, it was a perfect fit.

"Look!" Sunny called out to the group as they all gathered around.

"They fit?" Izzy asked.

"These two crystals belong together. United." Sunny exclaimed.

"So... what are you saying?" Zipp pondered, confused about what the earth pony was thinking.

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

"So if we put them back together..." Izzy trailed off.

"...magic will return?" Zipp finished.

"And all three pony kinds will get along again!" Sunny said with glee.

"That's actually not that far-fetched, Sunny." Thomas remarked.

"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 replied.

"Then that's where we'll go next." Sunny declared, before remembering something else. "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 them.

As it turns out, Queen Haven really adored that crown, because it never left her head and she wears it everywhere she goes. When she's sleeping, when she was in the shower, she even wore the crown while going swimming, and to prevent it from getting wet, she puts a swimming cap over top of it.

"So, what do we do?" Sunny asked, a little bit stumped.

"I think I might have an idea." Thomas exclaimed. "What if we take the crown while she's sleeping?"

"That's... the worst idea I've ever heard, Thomas." Zipp said. "I don't want to risk waking her up." She then pondered for a moment, trying to think of a plan. "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."

"Oooh, I can craft a decoy!" Izzy beamed. "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."

"I think I'm going to like this." Thomas said intrigued.

"Okay." Zipp began. "Here's the plan."

Soon zipp explained sunny, Izzy and Thomas the plan.

Author's Note

Part 10 coming soon