Chapters Zipp arrived on scene as soon as Hitch contacted her. She put on her special visor and began examining the smoothie stand.
“Please explain what happened.” Zipp said.
“It was so weird.” Sunny replied. “The smoothie stand became overrun with raccoon-acorns out of nowhere.”
“Hitch, you said you talked to one of the raccoon-acorns?” Zipp asked.
“That’s right. He said that a strange rabbit told him and the others to help themselves to all the smoothies. He also said that the rabbit wanted them to make as big a commotion as they could.”
Zipp tapped her chin with her hoof. “Hmm.” She continued examining the smoothie stand. With her visor, Zipp saw numerous raccoon-acorn prints. But when she looked on the roof, she saw a different set of prints. Ones that appeared to be feline in origin.
“Zipp, have you found anything?” Sunny asked.
Zipp removed her visor. “There are a strange set of prints on top of your smoothie stand that do not belong to raccoon-acorns. They seem to have been left by a large cat.”
“Allura!” Izzy shouted out loud.
“And that rabbit must have been Twitch!” Hitch said.
“But what would Allura want with my smoothie stand?”
Zipp flew down to the ground to be with the others. “I don’t know. But I have a feeling that something serious is up.”
Later that day Pipp was working at Mane Melody as usual. She was testing out a new shampoo that made ponies manes sparkle with glitter. It turned out to be a huge hit. Pipp had just finished up with another client when she found out that she was all out of the shampoo.
“Wow! I did not think I would go through so many bottles so fast!” Pipp then looked over at Jazz. “Jazz, can you get some more shampoo from the back please?”
“Sorry, but I’m with a customer right now.” Jazz replied.
“That’s okay, I’ll get them myself.” Pipp then flew into the back room and looked for a box of the shampoo.
While Pipp was looking, Allura watched her through a back window. Allura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She then concentrated on the words Alterro told her to say.
“Kepto, Verada, Nicto.”
A black then swirled around Pipp. Before she could say or do anything, the mist entered her body. Pipp’s eyes briefly glossed, and she stood motionless. Pipp then turned around and walked out of the backroom.
Pipp walked through Mane Melody. Jazz looked over at her.
“Hey Pipp, did you find any more of that shampoo?”
Pipp just kept on walking. “Can’t talk. Busy.” She said with an empty voice.
Jazz just shook his head and sighed. “I’ll never understand social media influencers.”
Author's Note
The magic words that Allura say are actually a famous line from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. The words were re-used for the horror comedy Army of Darkness.
Allura was asleep in her ice cave, curled up in a tight ball. Her days were always the same. She and her minion turned companion Twitch would sneak around Maretime Bay, looking for food. Allura would then spend most of her time hiding out in her ice cave.
Allura was growing depressed. She had been trapped in Maretime Bay for months. Allura’s one chance to return to the land of the ice ponies, and home from there, had been destroyed when the crystal she needed was smashed to pieces and its magic was used to create an amusement park.
With every passing day Allura lost what little bit of hope that she had left. She couldn’t stand being in Maretime Bay. Allura couldn’t stand being seen as a monster by the ponies of this land. She just wanted to go home.
“Allura.”
Allura woke up and looked around the cave. She thought that she had someone or something calling out her name. Allura shook it off as just a dream and tried to go back to sleep.
“Allura.”
Allura sat up. The sound was much more clear and louder this time. “Who’s there?” She called out into the darkness.
“It’s me Allura. Alterro.”
Allura shook her head. Either this was a weird dream or she was going crazy. “Show yourself!” Allura shouted.
Suddenly, there was a bright light. A glowing orb then appeared in the cave, and in the center of it was an image of Allura’s brother Alterro.
Allura placed her paws over her eyes. “No, No, No!” I’ve gone mad! This has to be an illusion!
“I assure you that this is not an illusion.” Alterro said. “It really is me.”
Allura put down her paws. “Then how are you speaking to me?”
“I have found what is called a Seeing Stone. It allows whoever uses it to communicate with anyone no matter where they are in the world.” Altero explained.
Allura began to cry, but then held back the tears. She instantly remembered that fateful day when she found the crystal when she and Alterro were cubs. The day that she sucked into the portal and was taken away from her brother.
Alterro could not stand to see his sister cry. “Please don’t cry, Allura. I come to you with good news.”
Allura wiped away her tears. “And what might that be?”
“I have been researching at an old library that I recently discovered. It’s the same place where I found this Seeing Stone. I have found a way for you to come home.”
Allura was in denial when she heard what her brother had to say. “No! I will not be fooled again! I am tired of the lies!”
Alterro put up his paws. “This is no lie, I swear! There is indeed a way for you to come home.”
Allura took a deep breath. “Okay, tell me what you have found.”
“I was going through an ancient book that revealed if the crystal is combined with another crystal of equal or greater magic, it will open up a portal back to our world.”
Allura lowered her head. “The crystal was destroyed. A bunch of ponies used its magic to create an amusement park. It shattered into pieces after that.”
Alterro thought for a few moments. “Perhaps all is not lost. Maybe if just a shard of the crystal is found, you can still use its magic.”
“Even if I do find a working shard Alterro, where am I supposed to find another crystal of greater or equal power?”
Twitch had been standing by, listening to the conversation between Allura and Alterro. When the subject of where to find a more powerful crystal came up, Twitch immediately jumped up and whispered into Allura’s ear.
“What’s he saying?” Alterro asked.
A smile came over Allura’s face when Twitch was done talking. “I think I know just where to get a more powerful crystal.”
The next day Sunny was at her smoothie stand tending to customers. Hitch came by with Sparky on his back to check up on her.
“Hey Sunny! How’s business?”
“It’s going great! Ponies are really enjoying my new pomegranate blueberry mix.”
"Mind if I have a taste?”
“It’s on the house.” Sunny then whipped up a smoothie and gave it to Hitch. He took a sip and his eyes went wide.
“Sunny, this is amazing!”
Sunny let out a giggle. “I knew you would like it.
Izzy then popped up out of nowhere. “Hello friends!”
“Hey Izzy. What’s up?” Sunny asked.
“The sky! But enough about that. I have a great idea for a new ride at the amusement park!”
Sunny and Hitch became interested. “Alright, tell us about it.” Hitch said.
“It’s a combination of a roller coaster, a ferris wheel, a merry go round, and a log ride! I call it The Whoopie Super Duper Amazing Thrill Ride!”
Izzy then took out a blueprint for the ride that she had drawn up. It was so big that it covered Sunny, Hitch, and Sparky like a blanket.
Sunny crawled out from under the blueprints and looked them over. “Izzy, I know that you put a lot of thought into this ride, but may I make some suggestions?”
Hitch also looked over the blueprints. “Yeah, as the sheriff of Maretime Bay I have to look this over to make sure that there are no safety violations.”
“Great! Let’s talk about this!” Izzy said with a big smile.
While Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch were talking, Sparky crawled out from under the blueprints. The baby dragon then noticed something moving along the edge of the amusement park. Curious, he walked over to investigate.
Sparky walked in between and under all of the ponies who were out enjoying the amusement park. When he made it to the edge, he saw a strange looking rabbit routing through the garbage, as well as cracks in the floorboards and the spaces underneath rides. It was as if the rabbit was looking for something.
The rabbit crawled underneath the Tilt a Whirl. Sparky was about to follow after when suddenly he was scooped up by Hitch.
“Sparky! You had me worried sick!” Hitch said in a panicked voice. “You know better than to wander off alone. Now come on, let’s go back to the others.”
Hitch placed Sparky on his back and walked away. Sparky looked back over at the Tilt a Whirl, Trying to find the rabbit. Instead he thought he saw a pair of glowing eyes looking at him from the shadows.
Allura emerged from the shadows and snuck over to the Tilt a Whirl. Twitch crawled out from under it.
“Well? Were you able to find a shard of the original crystal?”
Twitch shook his head.
Allura pounded the ground angrily with her paw. “Curses! How am I supposed to open the portal back home if I can’t find a piece of the original crystal?”
A gleam of light then caught Allura’s attention. She looked over at Sunny’s smoothie stand and noticed something shiny on the roof. It was a shard of the original crystal.
Allura’s eyes went wide. “A shard! But how am I supposed to get to it? That stand is surrounded by ponies.”
Twitch then jumped up on Allura’s shoulder and whispered into her ear.
“Are you sure that will work?”
Twitch smiled and nodded his head.
“Alright. Let’s do this.” Allura and Twitch then put their plan into motion.
Twitch snuck over to the garbage cans that were behind the back of the amusement park. There were raccoon-acorns all over them, looking for food. Twitch whistled and got their attention. Twitch then proceeded to speak to the raccoon-acorns. The raccoon-acorns became excited, and followed Twitch as he led them into the amusement park.
Back at Sunny’s smoothie stand, Sunny was having an important conversation with Izzy.
“Izzy, your ride looks really, um, great. But it might be just a little too much for ponies visiting the park.”
Izzy was confused. “What do you mean?”
As Sunny was about to softly and kindly tell Izzy that her ride was basically a death trap, They were suddenly swarmed by dozens of raccoon-acorns. They tore up Sunny’s stand, gorging themselves on all of the ingredients for smoothies and drinking all of the smoothies Sunny had made.
Hitch rushed over as soon as he saw the commotion. “Sunny, what’s going on?!”
“I don’t know! The raccoon-acorns just started overrunning the stand for some reason!”
Izzy looked over at a raccoon-acorn who was drinking a smoothie. “Hey! You have to pay for that!”
With everypony distracted, Allura made her move. She snuck onto the top of the stand and grabbed the crystal shard. She then left as quickly as she had appeared.
Hitch drove away the raccoon-acorns, but made one of them stay behind. He then asked why they were attacking the stand. The raccoon-acorn chittered back.
“What did he say?” Sunny asked.
“He said that there was tons of food to be found at your smoothie stand by a strange looking rabbit.”
Sunny, Hitch, and Izzy were all puzzled.
Meanwhile, Allura made her way back to the shadows of the amusement park where Twitch was waiting for her. She held up the crystal shard in front of him.
“Mission accomplished, Twitch! Now that we have a shard of the original crystal, we can move on to phase two of the plan!”
Pipp then walked out of Mane Melody and down the alley beside the salon. Allura was waiting for her.
“Pipp petals, who is your master?” Allura asked.
“You are Allura.” Pipp replied.
“Excellent! Now that the mind control spell has worked, getting the Friendship crystal will be easy!”
Allura then gave Pipp orders to go to the Brighthouse and retrieve the Friendship crystal, and to not let anything stop her. Pipp then began making her way to the Brighthouse.
At the same time, Misty came out of Mane Melody. She wasn’t in there for long, she only stopped in to get her mane straightened out. Misty then noticed Pipp walking by.
“Het Pipp! Do you like my new mane style? I decided to try something new. I would have loved for you to straighten my mane, but Jazz said you had walked out for some reason.”
Pipp kept on walking, completely ignoring Misty.
Misty was very confused. “Uh, hello? Can you hear me, Pipp?”
“Busy.” Pipp once again said with an empty voice.
Misty then stood and tried to figure out what was up with Pipp. “It must be some kind of new online trend.” Misty thought to herself.
Sunny, Izzy, Hitch, Zipp, and Sparky all followed Allura’s paw prints down to the beach. Sure enough, they led right to Allura’s ice cave.
“Are you sure we should be looking around?” Hitch asked.
“Allura is up to something. I can feel it.” Zipp said.
They all looked around the cave, trying to find anything that might indicate what Allura was up to. Izzy slid around on ice for fun.
“WEEEEE!!!!!” She shouted. Izzy then crashed into a pile of ice and rocks.
“Izzy! This is serious!” Zipp said with an upset voice.
Izzy stood up and steadied herself. “Sorry.”
Sparky looked over towards the entrance of the cave. He then saw the shadows of Allura and Twitch approaching. Sparky tugged on Hitch’s mane to get his attention.
“What is it, Sparky?” Hitch turned his head to also see the shadows. “Sunny, Zipp, Izzy! Hide!”
They all took cover as Allura and Twitch entered the ice cave. Allura walked to the center of the cave where a ring of light emerged and Alterro’s face appeared.
“Did it work?” Alterro asked.
“The spell worked, Alterro.” Allura said with a smile.
“Excellent!” Alterro proclaimed. “With one of those ponies under your mind control, the Friendship crystal will soon be yours.”
“Mind control?” Sunny whispered.
Twitch’s ears picked up on the low sound of Sunny’s voice. He then jumped up on Allura and whispered into her ear.
“Who’s in here?! Show yourself!” Allura roared.
Izzy poked her head up. “Hi!!!” She said as she smiled and waved her hoof.
Sunny, Hitch, Zipp, and Sparky then came out of hiding.
“What are you up to, Allura?!” Zipp yelled.
“That is none of your business!”
“It is when you have a pony under mind control!” Hitch yelled.
“And what do you want with the Friendship crystal?” Sunny asked.
“Shut up!” Allura then used her ice powers to launch large, sharp icicles at them.
Sunny, Zipp, Izzy, and Sparky all ducked for cover. Hitch pounded his hoof on the ground to activate his Earth pony magic to raise giant flowers that swatted away the icicles.
Allura then and Twitch then turned and fled. Before she left, Allura blocked off the entrance to the cave with a wall of ice.
“Great, now how are we supposed to get out?” Sunny said.
“Um, I do have a fire breathing dragon.” Hitch said. He then picked up Sparky and patted him on the back. Sparky then burped up a stream of fire that melted away the wall of ice.
After they all exited the cave, they looked around but could not find Allura anywhere.
“What was it that Allura said? Something about a pony being under mind control?” Izzy asked.
“You’re right!” Zipp said. “If we can figure out who it is, then we can stop them from stealing the Friendship crystal.”
“But how are we going to find out which pony is under mind control?” Sunny asked.
“We’ll ask around town.” Hitch said. “Somepony under mind control are sure to not be acting like their normal self.”
Author's Note
Misty getting a mane change is a shout out to Andy Price. He is the artist for the MLP comics. In the G5 comic "The Storm of Zephyr Heights." He was unfairly attacked by SJWs for making Misty's hair flat. Andy Price did nothing wrong.
They all split up and began asking every pony that they encountered various questions to see if they were under mind control or not. This caused them to get a lot of weird looks, especially from Posey.
Sunny then ran into Misty. “Misty, is that you? Is that REALLY you?”
“Of course it’s me.” Misty replied with a confused look. “Why wouldn’t it be me?”
Sunny let out a sigh. “It’s a long, strange story.”
“You want to talk about strange? Try talking to Pipp.”
“Why?”
“I tried talking to her earlier, but she just completely blew me off. In fact, it seemed like she was in a trance or something.”
Sunny’s eyes went wide. “Misty, where did you see Pipp going?”
“Towards the Brighthouse. Why do you ask?”
“There’s no time to explain! I’ll go find Izzy and Hitch. You go find Zipp, then meet us at the Brighthouse!” Sunny and Misty then took off running to find their friends.
Meanwhile, Allura and Twitch snuck into the Brighthouse. They followed Pipp up the stairs to the top where the Friendship crystal was.
“Good. Now fly up and retrieve the crystal.” Allura commanded.
“Yes mistress.” Pipp replied while still in a state of mind control. Pipp then flew up and grabbed the Friendship crystal. She then gave it to Allura.
After the Friendship crystal was removed from the Brighthouse, a shockwave was sent throughout Equestria. All of the magic in Maretime Bay, Bridlewood, and Zephyr Heights disappeared. Pegasi fell to the ground, Earth ponies were unable to summon plants, and Unicorns found that their horns were now useless.
Pipp snapped out of her mind control spell. “Wha..what happened? What’s going on?”
“You have given me just what I need.” Allura said. She then gave the Friendship crystal to Twitch for him to hold onto. Twitch then jumped onto Allura’s back, and she raced down the stairs and out of the Brighthouse. As soon as she was outside however, Allura found herself blocked by Sunny and her friends.
“We won’t let you get away with this, Allura!” Zipp shouted.
“Yeah! We won’t let you conquer Equestria!” Said Hitch.
Allura had had enough. “SHUT UP!!! I don’t want to conquer Equestria or destroy it! I want to go home!”
“HOME?!” Everypony said in unison.
Pipp came running out of the Brighthouse. “OH! You have to tell your story! It will be great for my podcast!” Pipp then took out her phone.
Allura sighed and smacked her paw against her face. “Fine. I was born in a land very far from here. It was a snow filled land. Everyday I would go out and play with my brother, Alterro. One day, we came across a strange crystal in the snow. I touched it, and a portal opened up. I tried to get away, but I was sucked in. That was the last time that I saw Alterro.”
Izzy broke out crying. “That is SO sad!”
“Anyway, I arrived in a land filled with crystal ponies, but the crystal that brought me there was gone. I was alone and scared. The only friend that I was able to make was Twitch. I then discovered a gem that allowed me to control the crystal ponies. I ordered them to find the crystal that had brought me there. And then you all showed up.”
“You were enslaving ponies!” Zipp shouted. “We had to stop you!”
“I was going to let them go when the crystal was found!” Allura said defensively. “It was only after you freed them and took away the mind control gem that I figured out it was actually the crystal I needed to get home! I am such a fool!” Allura then put her paw on top of her head and sighed.
“So that’s why you followed us back to Maretime Bay.” Sunny said.
“Exactly. I needed that crystal to get home, and I was going to stop at nothing to get it. But you ponies destroyed it when you used its magic to create your amusement park!”
Sunny and her friends all stared at each other. They had no idea that they had caused so much trouble for Allura.
“So, what do you intend to do with the Friendship Crystal?” Sunny asked.
Allura held up a crystal shard. “This is the last remaining piece of the crystal that took me away from my home. By combining it with the power of the Friendship crystal, I should be able to open a portal back home.”
“That’s it?” Zipp asked.
Allura nodded her head. “That’s it.”
“Will magic return to Equestria once you are done using the Friendship crystal?” Misty asked.
Allura shook her head. “I do not know. But please, my intention was never to cause harm. And I have no interest in even being in Equestria. I just want to go home.”
A moment of silence followed. Sunny then looked at Allura.
“You may use the friendship crystal.”
All of her friends gasped. Hitch confronted her. “Sunny, what are you doing?!”
“Allura just wants to go home and be with her family. I know how she feels. I have lost my mother and my father. I can be reunited with them, but Allura can be reunited with her brother.”
Allura then connected the shard to the Friendship crystal. Both of them lit up, then a beam of light shot out of the shard. The light turned into a portal that led to a snow filled land. Sanding just on the other side of the portal was another winged panther.
“Hello Allura.”
Allura’s eyes went wide. “Alterro? Is that really you?”
Alterro Smiled. “Yes, Allura. It’s been a long time.”
Allura reached through the portal and hugged Alterro tightly. Alterro hugged Allura tightly as well.
“I never gave up hope that I would see you again!” Allura said with tears streaming down her face.
“This is so heartwarming!” Izzy said.
Allura let go of Alterro and looked over at Sunny. “Farewell, Sunny.” Allura then looked over at Twitch. “Come on Twitch. Let’s go home.”
Twitch jumped onto Allura’s back. Allura then walked through the portal, and it sealed shut.
The Friendship crystal then fell to the ground. Sunny picked it up and returned it to the top of the Brighthouse. The crystal reactivated, and magic once again returned to Equestria.
“I guess we were wrong about Allura.” Hitch said.
“All she wanted was to be reunited with her family. I know how that feels.” Said Misty.
“We all make mistakes. The best we can do is learn from them and improve ourselves.” Sunny said with a smile.
In the distance, a star sparkled in the sky.
