Two weeks had passed ever since the gang left Alola on their journey to find Sarah's real parents, King Doug and Queen Delilah, and find the one who knows of their current whereabouts. So far, their journey was smooth sailing and for the most part, everything was good since they didn't run into any trouble or enemies who wanted to make trouble with. It was also enlightening for everybody to spend time together more easily whenever they take a break from their adventure and it seemed like things would be easy-going for them.
But, it wouldn't be much of a breeze for long as the princess and her family would be sent on a wild misadventure in the wild blue yonder that would reveal something of an unexpected connection between a particular world and her parents.
It all started when everybody was sound asleep one night in a large clearing after much time traveling the world and search for the one who has the answers to their current location. While the others are heavy sleepers and far gone into Dreamland, for Sarah and her family, they all suddenly found themselves in a strange dream realm as they sharply woke up and slowly looked around as they stood up.
Everywhere they looked in the realm, there were clouds all around them, and those that couldn't fly looked to actually be standing on a giant platform of dark clouds below them. Unlike normal clouds made from water vapor, though, these clouds in the dream realm are solid and they didn't appear to fall through them.
"Uh... Guys?" Sarah blinked.
"Yeah, Ponchita?" asked a wary James as they looked around.
"Where are we?"
"Okay, what's the dealio? Why are we here, what's with the dark cloud blanket?" snorted Mienshao.
"I'm wondering how we even got here," remarked Ching Wan. "This is definitely not our campsite since our stuff isn't here and neither are the others."
"I'll say, wish we know who's trapped us here."
"Doesn't look like there's a way out either," put in Mist and Spark, seeing no exit.
"We'll worry about that later. Somehow, we've got to find out who's responsible for bringing us here while we were asleep," replied Totem Luxray, hoping to see the one responsible through his species' unique eyesight.
"But, there's nothing but big cloud in this joint. Where do we start?" pointed out Mai.
"The first thing we need to do is not panic," replied Tsukumaro to everybody. "As long as we stick together, we'll see who is it that brought us to this realm."
Before any of them can make a move, however, a power strike of lightning shot throughout the realm and spooked everyone for a moment. But, out of all of them, Reshiram wasn't even fazed as he seemed to recognize the thunderbolt being fired as several more soon darted across the cloud realm.
"Hey, what gives?! What's with the supernatural light show?" boomed Shaymin's brother (currently in Land Form) as he glared around, looking for the perpetrator that nearly struck them.
"And, who's making it by any chance?" added a startled Saba.
"I may be docile now but even I have a limit as to when and how much of my buttons can be pushed," Salamence snorted, annoyed as he tried to step or fly forward and see who he can smash. "I'm gonna bust out of these clouds and see who's the joker trying to cook us!"
"Salamence, get back!"
"That lightning's too powerful for you to take as Part-Flying Type, you'll be fried before you take your fifth step should one hit you!" barked Zeraora and Kommo-o as Danny and Danielle used Psychic to stop him in his tracks as a few more lightning bolts shot out and nearly struck him.
"Alright, already! I get the message!" the Dragon Pokemon barked in return before he was quickly pulled back.
"Look! Who's the skyscraper coming towards us?" peeped Zorua as she pointed everyone from atop Zeraora's head to reveal the silhouette of a giant, black Pokemon appearing before the group from within the clouds.
The Pokemon looked to be jet black while having more of an upright body that appears to be vaguely humanoid. It also had piercing red eyes and dark gray-black skin that could be mistaken for armor. Like Reshiram, the pokemon also has a large, generator-like tail but it had a long mane that ends in a tip, usually glowing an iridescent blue color. And, to top it all off, it also has a set of small black wings behind its three-clawed arms.
Everyone was stunned to see the new Pokemon before them but Reshiram took one look at the silhouette before his group and he knew exactly who or what Pokemon it belonged to.
"Ah, Zekrom, you're here," he nodded, revealing the Pokemon to be his counterpart, the Dragon of Ideals and the Deep Black Pokemon from Unova - Zekrom.
"ZEKROM/ZEKROM/ZEKROM?!" gasped everybody else in shock.
"No way!"
"That's Zekrom?!"
"Holy Arceus!"
"Impossible!"
"WHAT?!" Wyveon and his friends spluttered along with Ching Wan and Hashimoto, looking between Reshiram and Zekrom and seeing some similarities between them despite the clear differences between them.
"That Pokemon is definitely Zekrom," replied a shocked Star.
"The majestic Deep Black Pokemon who's also part of the Unova Region's Tao Trio?" clarified Calyrex as he and his flabbergasted sons looked towards the Shiny Aura Pokemon who nodded confirmation.
"I never would've thought...I'd ever get to see another living legend here," admitted Sunset.
"Yeah, let alone from the Dragon of Ideals himself," added an equally shocked Flora.
"That's Zekrom, the Dragon of Ideals and Reshiram's counterpart! What's he doing here?!" thought Sarah, trying to wrap her head around the fact that she and her family finally crossed paths with the Deep Black Pokemon.
"So, you're with the Princess since you've reawakened, I'd reckon?" Zekrom asked the Vast White Pokemon.
Reshiram nodded, "I have. I thought I'd recognized those bolts of yours since we were brought here."
He sighed for a moment as he closed his eyes before he looked towards his counterpart again. "I assume you have a reason for summoning all of us here, then?" he questioned knowingly.
Zekrom nodded back, "Yes. There is a disturbance in the multiverse that I've been overseeing for some time and I have a feeling you and the princess deserve the right to know."
He then roared as he exuded his power and opened up a wormhole to show what looked to be like a city on the edge of an ocean filled with ponies living out their lives peacefully but none the wiser about what lied before them outside of their seaside town.
"What's that?" asked Sarah.
"My dear princess, that there is a land known as Equestria, a place where three types of ponies-Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns-once used to live in harmony alongside Pokemon and dragons. What you're seeing here is a small part of that world known as Maretime Bay, the seaside town of the Earth Ponies."
"Used to?" asked Keldeo.
"What do you mean 'Used to'?"
"That can't be right."
"Why aren't there any dragons and Pokemon living with them?" asked Pearl, Diamond, and Amethyst in confusion.
"Dear Zekrom, how can it be possible for those ponies to live by themselves and not alongside Pokemon and dragons in cooperation and harmony?" questioned Magearna worriedly as she stepped forward to meet the Dragon of Ideals.
"I'm afraid total discord, paranoia, and mistrust took hold of them and they all lived separately after an ancient evil once doomed the land many moons ago in their time. This had many ramifications when this evil was thwarted once, the most serious of which being that Pokemon and dragons were forced out of Equestria for a reason they don't know. Friendship and love once reigned there but over time and with the ancient evil's prior assault, Ponies had since taken those qualities for granted and they've begun suspecting one another of treachery and deception before it became what you see now."
Zekrom sighed for the ponies given what they're setting themselves up for, "I worry that if this continues and if the ancient evil were to resurface, without their friendships and love rekindled and if they're not reunited with the Pokemon and dragons they've banished, all of those ponies will die and they'll have no one to blame but themselves for their untimely demise. However, I have hope that you, Princess, will be able to help them and restore than land to what it once was."
The portal closed and opened again but this time, it revealed a female apricot Earth Pony in her early adulthood (her mid-20s, to be precise) with a purple mane and tail who looked down in the dumps and was looking over the sea as she sat down.
"Whoa, who's the rundown sloth?" remarked Jolteon.
"What's up with her?" questioned Vaporeon, looking at how depressed the pony is.
"She looks sad," frowned Flareon sympathetically.
"That pony, my friends, is known as Sunny Starscout. She is a resident of those parts and the only Earth Pony who truly believes that dragons, Pokemon, and all ponies want to become friends again," Zekrom replied to them. "Unfortunately, nobody in Maretime Bay shared her sentiments and dismissed them as well as the old legends she once heard of, thinking they'll be better off by themselves in the long run."
"Oh... Poor Sunny," whimpered Poipole (voice reference: Calumon - Digimon Tamers (English Dub)).
"That's...Pretty harsh on her," admitted Tepig, feeling sorry for Sunny.
"Hardly surprising if the idiots who demeaned and put her down for having hope for friendship and love for all ponies, dragons, and Pokemon are already losing their heads on the truth, honestly," scoffed Venom, wanting to pummel Sunny's detractors.
"Agreed. I'm convinced the new motto those Equestrian Ponies have for strangers and would-be friends these days is, 'Have your red and white flags at the ready'," added an unimpressed Totem Marowak.
"Alright, that's enough! We don't need any thoughts like that on those ponies, I understand your feelings but as we all know, we mustn't let our anger control us!" barked Shadow firmly at the two. "We all feel her pain but there's no need to further antagonize the ponies including her own people, denigrating them won't help their situation any further."
"Indeed. As much as I hate to admit it, they'll need our help. Sunny, most of all," nodded Camo as his children looked at him while he made his answer.
"Daddy/Dad..." they all chirped.
"I can't believe those guys, why would they go so far as to ostracize Sunny for believing in a better future and knowing there's so much more for them out there?" grumbled Hashimoto. "They're not helping themselves by antagonizing their own people, the Pokemon, and the dragons like this!"
"If they keep this up, wouldn't that accelerate the return of whatever ancient evil was sealed away previously?" questioned Dracozolt.
"As far as we know, they'll be signing their own death warrants by pulling such stupid stunts like this," added Hurricane.
"It's just as I said; fear can be a powerful motivator for many people who are purposely misled, told many lies over and over again until they believe them, and who don't know the whole story on anything including getting all the facts in order," replied Tsukumaro grimly.
"Until the paranoia becomes too much for them and they don't know who to trust and what is said to them is the truth or lies," Nikki added, feeling the same.
"That's the danger our current human society is facing given what everybody in America is facing with all of the pointless and deadly propaganda being pushed out by corrupt politicians wanting to do their thing," agreed James darkly.
"Sunny..." sighed Sarah sadly, feeling said for the downcast Earth Pony.
"That is why I'm sending you and your family to deal with the matter personally yourselves, Princess," Zekrom pitched to them.
"Wait, you mean we're going to Equestria?" Sarah blinked.
"We're really going there?!" gasped Skylar in shock, hearing what Zekrom was suggesting to them.
The Deep Black Pokemon nodded again, "Yes. As long as the literal discord between the ponies along with the unknown whereabouts of the dragons and Pokemon that once lived there continues, the ancient evil that threatened Sunny's world will fall into darkness once more and everyone will be doomed to extinction."
"In hindsight, that does not inspire confidence," Goodra quipped.
"It most certainly doesn't," nodded Noctowl in agreement.
"Then, what Sunny is facing right now is much more dangerous than she would initially think and it's something that friendship alone won't solve," added Cresselia.
"But, given what's at stake here and since Equestria's on the verge of a major meltdown and collapse by their own hooves, it'll be stupid of us to see what we can't do," Rosa suggested, wanting to see what they can do to help Sunny.
"Do we have a choice?" Slurpuff shrugged.
"Right. And, Princess Sarah won't be going alone on that," Zekrom continued, turning everyone's attention to him again. "I want you all to join her and help Sunny reunite Equestria and retrieve the Pokemon and dragons as well."
"Hmm?/What?/Huh?" they all questioned in surprise and confusion.
"Okay, Big Black, I get the idea that Pokemon and Dragons were booted out from those big babies' so-called fear of them and that they're on the verge of total decimation without them living alongside them," Zorua quipped, expressing a bit of skepticism on Zekrom's words. "But, why would you have all of us go with her by any chance?"
"You all might not know it, Little Zorua. But, once upon a time, King Doug and Queen Delilah, long before the princess was born, once came to Equestria before it had changed moons later during their previous rule before the Ultra Beast War changed everything for them and our world."
Everyone was shocked by what they had heard; Doug and Delilah once traveled to Equestria during their previous reign, long before Sunny and the world she had come to know took over? All long before Delilah became pregnant with their only child?
"No..."
"That can't be right..."
"Crazy..." gasped the Night Lights, their jaws dropping as they voiced everybody's shocked and surprised thoughts.
"You mean, my parents once crossed over to the Ponies' world before us?" Sarah balked as Zekrom chuckled.
"Indeed. But, the Equestria they once traveled to was nothing like the Equestria you see before you all those moons ago in the Ponies' time and that was long before Sunny Starscout and the ponies she lived with came to be."
"Are you kidding me?!"
"How did they-?"
"*Impossible!"
"I can't believe it!"
"No way!"
"That's wild!"
"That's way too tall for the likes of Thor and Odin!" balked Wyveon and his friends.
"That's so cool!" chirped Mai as she excitedly jumped up and down. "Ponies and Pokemon and dragons living there that they would've seen, oh my!"
"I guess my parents must've made a much bigger first impression than I thought," Sarah commented in blank shock as she tried to wrap her head around that new and untold truth.
"You're absolutely right, Princess. In fact, they ultimately became good friends and allies of Equestria and its citizens after they were called to assist with stopping the ancient evil that once plagued them, long before you were born."
"But, what about Ash and the others? Won't they be worried about us if we go?"
"I'll inform them of your mission. In the meantime, while you're gone, they'll see what they can find regarding your parents until you come back. My trust in Equestria's salvation is now in you."
Sarah gulped but she knew this is what they had to do, for Sunny's sake. Without waiting for her family's answer, she quickly jumped into the portal and made her way to Equestria.
"...Now, what?" asked Mai again, looking towards everybody as they all the same thoughts that Sarah had.
"I guess we got no choice. Might as well take the plunge, come on!" Zorua decided for everyone as they nodded.
Quickly, they all followed Sarah as they made the jump to Equestria, hoping to meet Sunny and help her deal with restoring her broken world and rekindling the friendships and love between Ponies, Pokemon, and the dragons along with finding the two aforementioned creatures. When they were the only ones left, Reshiram nodded to his counterpart, Zekrom nodding back knowingly as the Dragon of Truth followed, the Dragon of Ideals left alone in the dreamscape as he closed his eyes and sighed before he disappeared.
"Good luck, Princess," Zekrom finished before he vanished and Sarah's latest misadventure begins.
(Journey Movie/Special Theme 1 - Pokemon 4Ever/Heroes Movie Title (American))
The first movie/journey arc titles begin with the 'Pikachu Project presents' and the Pokemon titles soon after, appearing amidst a space of black magic, glowing hearts, and sparkles glistening the area from a Pokeball similar to how they appeared in the American movie titles for Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back.
The titles then moved on to show the new Equestria in its beautiful glory but slowly declining as eight silhouettes of three Galarian Rapidash and five unknown ponies (1 Unicorn, 2 Pegasi, and 2 Earth Ponies), joined by Sarah, her own Rapidash, her children, Silvally, and Blitz, emerging from a ball of bright white light while a misty figure of an evil Alicorn mare appeared and looked ready to swallow them in her darkness. The eight figures along with Sarah and her team shown prepare to make a stand for Equestria as the final titles appear and show MLP: A New Generation before they ended.
(Journey Movie/Special Theme end)
When everybody emerged from Zekrom's portal, the four humans with them suddenly started to stumble and wobble as they felt a sudden change in their bodies, all of them continuing to wobble until they fell and hit the ground with startled yelps.
"Guys!" gasped Blitz as the others saw them on the ground.
Star, Blitz, Winter, Totem Luxray, the Lake Guardians, Magearna, Mischief, Persian, Lolita, and Mienshao quickly rushed over and helped them up. But, as they did so, they suddenly realized that something was off about Sarah, Tsukumaro, Nikki, and James when they looked closer at them.
"Uh, Mom, are you guys feeling okay?" Blitz asked awkwardly.
"Yeah, you fellas aren't looking so hot," added Mienshao in agreement.
"What? Of course, we're okay, why'd you ask?" replied Sarah, the four dusting themselves off. "Do we have something on our faces?"
"Well, if you could even call them faces as far as we know," remarked Silvally as he and the others joined them to see the four humans in their new bodies. "Why are you guys on all fours like the rest of us barring those who can still stand on two?"
"What are you talking about, we're human, aren't-?"
"Uh, Mom, you're not 'human' anymore. Not in a traditional sense, anyway," squirmed Star.
"Princess, I think you all might want to take a look at yourselves," put in Magearna, allowing Sarah, Tsukumaro, and her adopted parents to see each other before they stopped and saw that something was indeed wrong with them as their family found out.
Taking careful and slow looks at themselves, they saw that their old human bodies have changed completely to pony bodies and they now had multi-colored horsehair instead of skin all over and they had different mane styles pertaining to their own human characteristics. They saw that their faces had morphed into snouts and they had pointed ears on their heads along with horns and wings (although they had one or two of these depending on what type of pony they all are).
They also had manes and tails in their own styles pertaining to their original human characteristics and by their new looks, their family saw that they looked almost nothing like their original human selves from their world.
Tsukumaro had become a tan-like brown Unicorn and had a black mane and tail, both with a blue streak in the center of both of them. Nikki became more of a cream-like Pegasus and her own mane and tail which, compared to Tsukumaro's, were both longer and brown with blue butterfly clips attached to her mane.
James became a brown Earth Pony with a short black mane and tail while wearing a sash with a Dragonite pin on it around his neck. And, finally, with Sarah, she was a combination of all three Pony types known as an Alicorn, being white all over with a blonde mane and tail with gold and white streaks running down them and rainbow-colored wing feathers. Her royal attire even changed in order to suit her new pony appearance.
The four of them looked at each other in surprise and bewilderment at their new bodies and at each other before...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Sarah, Tsukumaro, Nikki, and James all began to freak out as their panicked screams can be heard for miles while their family, fearing that they might attract any unwanted attention from elsewhere, tried to help them calm down and try to adapt to their new pony bodies. Even the adults' Pokemon teams all emerged from their balls after hearing their screaming to help them adapt to their new bodies despite the fact that they were also aghast and flabbergasted by what they saw.
When they finally calmed down at their Pokemon and the dragons' insistence that everything would be fine as long as they took it easy, the four humans took a deep breath and relaxed as they tried to wrap their heads around the new pony bodies they gained.
"Whoa... Okay, this is not what I was expecting after making that jump," admitted Sarah, startled as she looked at herself.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Oh, oh, my, okay, this is not happening! This is not happening!" spoke a flustered and aghast James, looking over himself as well while his Dragon Types and Dusk and Luna's father tried their best to soothe him. "I never thought we'd be ponies just by crossing over! What happened to our old human bodies, did anything happen to them? Did we lost them?!"
"I sure hope not, I did not sign up to be something like this...this, well, thing with wings! I don't even know how to fly! I can't even walk on four legs!" Nikki also gasped, trying to calm herself down but failing as Sawsbuck and Haxorus' eldest daughter, Lucario, and Dusk and Luna's mother continued to soothe her.
"I assure you, I thought My Lord and Lady were mad when they told me what it felt like for them to walk on all fours. But, with a little practice and some time to get used to these new bodies, as they said, it really isn't all that bad for them to handle," Tsukumaro reassured.
"Unh! Rapidash, Mudsdale! Is-unh, this how-ah, you guys and Ponyta felt when-enh, you first started-unh, walking?" Sarah asked her Draft Horse and Unique Horn Pokemon, trying her best to stand on her new legs as they walked over to her with Solar, Scorch, Ponyta, Wooloo, and Yamper joining them. "I no longer find walking like a lion weird or hard since I was one a couple of times before but this is just ridiculous!"
"Yes. It is a little tricky at first when you're a horse or a pony but it gets better as you keep practicing," smiled Rapidash sheepishly.
"Just make sure to distribute your weight on each hoof and put one hoof in front of the other while doing so including your back hooves. Then, after walking for a few miles on that, it becomes second nature before you start running," Mudsdale agreed, sharing Rapidash's awkward smile.
"Okay, just need to get a bit of practice in before we can be more comfortable with this kind of stuff," Sarah admitted as she tried to do their motions.
"We know how crazy it must be for you to have an extra pair of legs for your and your folks, Sarah," smiled her old babysitter kindly. "Nobody said it would be easy to put two legs in front of another pair, even newborns having those sort of things usually take some time to learn the ropes on just walking alone."
"And, I know this is going to be a stretch but aren't these kinds of creatures also skilled in using magical powers? And, can you still use your magic as we've seen from that MLP show we've been watching?" Tifu asked as Cinder and Zuri nodded in agreement.
Sarah sighed as she admitted, "I don't know, Tifu. I'm not sure if I can, I don't feel some sort of magic from this world to do it."
"Wait, you mean this Equestria doesn't have any magic like the one the girls saw from that weird Kid's TV show?" questioned Hashimoto, raising an eyebrow.
"You don't think Zekrom could've given us a heads-up about that in addition to what he said to us before we jumped in, right?" Vaporeon asked, concerned.
"If that's the case and even if it's possible that if its magic is gone for some reason, then Equestria must be in real trouble," noted Tsukumaro. "More trouble than anybody would dare to admit, no matter how much they try to sugarcoat the seriousness of it all."
"Then, it's best that we focus on our mission to find Sunny Starscout and help her restore this world as well as rekindle the friendships between all ponies, dragons, and Pokemon," informed Reshiram.
"If we can figure out where the dragons and the Pokemon of this world have gotten to after they were banished by those awful ruffians for ponies," added Espeon.
"But, we don't know where we are. Where exactly did Zekrom's portal dump us?" Shaymin's brother questioned.
"Guys, stop me if I'm wrong but I think we just landed outside of Maretime Bay," answered Zeraora, pointing everyone to said pony town in the distance and a nearby sign that said 'Welcome to Maretime Bay'.
"...Yep, we found it," replied Sarah.
"...How convenient and generous of Zekrom to open the portal right in the middle of the outskirts of this place," blinked Nala.
"I would count it being illogical but it's a good thing we did only drop here without being seen by anybody," admitted Azelf.
"So, what'll we do now?" quizzed Curly, stumped on what they should do.
"Since we were brought here, all we have to do is to find Sunny Starscout and ask if we can help her to restore the world and find out what the ancient evil is so we can help stop it," replied Sirius.
"But, everybody in Maretime Bay would be frightened of other ponies as well as Pokemon and dragons roaming around in these parts or so, where do we start?" pondered Donna (both of whom were also brought out to help soothe Nikki and James' panicked feelings over being ponies).
"You never know who could be lurking around waiting to jump us if you're not careful," Hydro replied. "Whatever you do, don't jinx it!"
That was easier said than done given how Hydro would put it because right after she said that, everybody heard rustling in the bushes from nearby. Turning to them and taking on defensive positions, everybody prepared to attack who would be crazy enough to find them and do them harm already. But, what they didn't expect to find was a Unicorn who was completely energetic and extremely optimistic for her own good, popping out of the bushes.
The Unicorn was revealed to be in her mid-20s as well and was lilac all over but with blue hooves. Her cerulean mane and tail were also long but they were wavy and went from blue roots to violet tips. She had magenta eyes along with a long, powder-blue horn with white swirls. But, what really distinguished her as an Equestrian Pony was that she had a cutie mark on her flank that featured a purple heart with a blue button on the center, its anterior side of the heart featuring three sewing pins (two pink and one purple).
"Ooooooh! Hi there, new neighbor! My name's Izzy, Izzy Moonbow! I haven't seen you guys around here, where'd you come from? What's your passion? What do you do for a living?" the unicorn, Izzy Moonbow, greeted ecstatically as she got into a flabbergasted Sarah's face.
"Um... Sarah Tomoe. And, this is my-" Sarah gulped before Izzy took notice of her family, and then...
"EEEEEEEEEEE!" she squealed again, nearly deafening everyone around her before she zipped excitedly over to Sarah's Pokemon and dragons.
"Wow, you got an actual Skitty! I always wanted one of those-AH, and there's an adorable Yampy-Yam Yamper! Ponyta, Ponyta, Ponyta, I love these cuties! EEEEEE! And, you got real live dragons here, too! Oh, it's been so long since I've seen any actual Pokemon and dragons around here! Where did you come from, how did you guys return? What have you been doing? Come on, I gotta know! Tell me, tell me, TELL ME!"
Izzy then got into Keldeo's face, still lost in her excitement as everyone else looked creeped out by her as if she had an absolute fetish for Pokemon and dragons.
"*Uh, Izzy, yeah... Nice to meet you... But, haven't you heard of, oh, I don't know... Uh, personal space?*" Keldeo cringed, gently pushing her back.
But, his response only served to fuel Izzy's excitement even further as she bounced on her hooves, squealing, "EEEEEEEE! Telepathy, you speak through Telepathy! Wicked, WICKED! SO COOL!"
"Man, I haven't seen somebody this energetic and happy since Skitty and Yamper came into the family," blinked Goodra in surprise.
"Is this...Normal, for a unicorn by the likes of her?" quizzed Wyveon awkwardly.
"I think that energy is all hers and nobody else's," replied Apollo.
"Suddenly, I'm starting to regret coming to this world," quipped Mirage.
"Somebody's feeling a little too bright today," James sweatdropped.
"Why do I get the feeling she's a 'Sugar Rush' girly?" Eternatus groaned.
"...Anyway, what are you doing here? And, why are you spying on us?" Sarah asked Izzy, changing the topic.
"Spying? I'm not spying on you guys, I'm just going over to two to see if I can find a new friend to play with! You know how it gets boring every now and then with seeing the same dull faces, and the same dull settings, and doing the same dull things with nothing fun to do all the time. Come on!" Izzy replied, casually walking into Maretime Bay without a care in the world.
"Oh, god, she has a death wish or something if the reactions from those phobic mules she's gonna get will tell us anything," Eternatus grumbled.
"What is she trying to do?" gawked Skystorm in shock at the excessively optimistic Unicorn.
"Whatever it is, I have a bad feeling she doesn't know what she's getting herself into," fretted Mesprit worriedly.
"W-We gotta s-s-stop her before s-she gets h-herself hurt or w-w-worse!" replied Uxie.
"I really, really have a bad feeling about this," Twilight quipped as they hurried after Izzy.
"I just hope she has common sense and learns to stay out of trouble before she antagonizes those paranoid worrywarts in town!" said Dawn to his sister.
"This won't end well," mused Sarah, gravely concerned for Izzy and what she's about to do while she and her entire family followed.
Within Maretime Bay, Sunny was just put down for her continued efforts to continue to promote the old ways of the Magic of Friendship many years ago. The ambitious and yet thick-headed believer in the old Equestria that High Princess Twilight Sparkle once ruled over along with her friends in different parts of the world (despite the five of them leading their own lives at the time) wanted to bring Ponykind, dragons, and Pokemon back together but no matter what she did, everyone would just shut her down and dismiss her claims, thinking she was bonkers. After her recently failed attempt, she was down in the dumps and she didn't know what to do now...
But, her fortunes were to immediately change when she caught sight of everybody screaming and running away from something that they think is threatening them, much to her surprise as she watched their paranoia taking hold.
"What's going on, what's happening?" she asked her fellow citizens.
None of them answered her as the Earth Ponies continued to scream in fear, a few of them bumping into her and knocking her down.
However, when the source of their panic and fear finally came into view as they walked down the street, everybody in the entire town including the critters with them was shocked to see what was passing them. Before long, the source came across the startled Sunny Starscout, the latter gasping in total shock at the sight before he as her vision cleared.
"Hi, new friend!" The newcomer greeted, revealing itself to be Izzy before Sarah. her family, James, Tsukumaro, and Nikki joined them. "My name's Izzy!"
"Hey, you okay?" asked Sarah, extending a hoof as she helped Sunny up, the latter taking her hoof and getting up while continuing to stare at the group before her with nothing to say until...
"U-U-Unicorns, Pegasi, Pokemon, and REAL LIFE DRAGONS!" she blurted out, at last, smiling with absolute joy as she looked at them all.
Her fellow citizens, however, didn't share the same sentiments as she did with all of them flying into a total panic, galloping in different directions, and also being determined to get away from Sarah, her family, and Izzy and avoid her like the plague. They were also desperate to hide themselves from what they saw as a threat doing things from pulling down curtains in their houses and shops to closing down the shops themselves and even diving down manholes.
This left Sarah and her family flabbergasted, shocked, aghast, outraged, angered, and stunned as they weren't expecting the situation with the ponies to be as serious as it was.
"What are they doing?!" gasped Mai.
"Are they that scared of us?" quipped Wyveon.
"Ooooh! Is everypony playing Hide-And-Seek?" Izzy asked, looking around and oblivious to the Earth Ponies running and hiding for their eyes before she saw an Earth Pony stallion. "I see you!"
"ARGH! UNICORN AND PEGASUS ALERT!" shrieked the stallion in a panic before he dived off a cliff and into the sea with a big splash.
"Seriously?" blinked Sarah in bemusement.
"My word!"
"The nerve of some people," snorted Ruby and Sapphire indignantly.
"He wasn't very nice."
"That's a fine 'Hello' and 'How do you do' he gave us," Puff and Big Buff agreed.
"This is worse than we thought; they're acting as if we're a dangerous threat to them and we didn't do anything to pose such a thing to them," Virizion stated, not liking what she and everyone else was seeing.
"Whatever stupid propaganda is being pushed here and whoever's running this stupid media ratings gold mine sure did a good job on those guys," remarked Terrakion in annoyance.
"Hey! What's going on here?!" another Earth Pony named Hitch Trailblazer, the local sheriff, asked as he and his partner, Deputy Sprout, came to check on the disturbance and panic going on.
It didn't take them long to find out what was making his fellow ponies so frantic when he saw Izzy, Tsukumaro, Sarah, and James along with their Pokemon and dragons (their wings and horns clearly giving them away to the two) as he gasped in shock and horror.
"IT CAN'T BE! Unicorn, Pegasi, Dragon, and Pokemon attack!" he freaked.
In his exaggerated panic, Deputy Sprout immediately slammed into the door out of fright, face first. But, Hitch, having trouble at first to try and keep order and do something about what he perceived as a threat, decided to take the opportunity to do something by shattering a nearby glass case and activating an alarm.
"This is not a drill! I repeat: this is not a drill!" he shouted, springing into action while Sprout just ran away.
"A vulnerable young pony!" he cried, seeing a young foal on the ground.
Through a display of ingenious atheleticism he had while growing up, Hitch managed to grab the foal trying to make sense of the madness going on before landing the foal to a random mare. "Your son is safe now, M'am!" he said to her before he left.
"This isn't my baby!" the mare cried after him.
"You're welcome!" he called back, oblivious to the mare's words in his haste as he continued to bark orders and pointed to a pony at a scrap dump. "Man the Splat-a-pults! Activate the Traps! Pick up that litter, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"
While everyone else was continuing to run about in a panic while trying to find a place for each of them to hide, Sarah, her family, and Sunny all watched as tiles covered with red X marks started to appear all around them.
"What's with these big babies?!" groaned Rosethorn.
"We knew Zekrom warned us about discord, fear, and paranoia tearing this land apart but this is taking it a step too far!" Delcatty gawked.
"Something tells me that they'll consider anybody besides their own people monsters or any other threat and would do anything to subdue or destroy them without thinking of the consequences," Boltund replied, seething at the paranoid Earth Ponies and their overreacting.
"This isn't good," added Star, already having a bad feeling about the ponies sans Sunny and Izzy.
"I don't know what it is but it looks like those cowards want to fight!" remarked Dusk.
"I don't know what's going on with them anymore!" groaned Sarah, getting aggravated.
"Wow!" Izzy cooed, trotting towards a railing, obviously oblivious to the trap before her. "Is that the sea? Oh, I've never seen the sea before!"
"Izzy, stop!" Flareon shrieked before Sunny ran over and pushed her away from the trap as it set off another alarm.
"I am so gonna kill these ponies for doing what they did to try and kill us and Izzy!" snarled Talonflame.
"Do that later when we make it out alive, Talonflame, okay?" asked Cinderace, sharing her annoyance.
"I've got to get you all out of here, follow me!" Sunny shouted to the entire group, leading them out of the chaos going on through Maretime Bay with Sarah, Tsukumaro, and her adopted parents trying their best to keep up while running on their new bodies.
"Gee, Earth Ponies sure are serious when it comes to playing games," Izzy commented, still oblivious to the danger around her new friends and herself.
"They're not playing games, they're terrified!"
"Oh no...! ...Of what?"
"All of you! Don't you know, you're Unicorns, Pegasi, and you all have real Pokemon and dragons! Earth Ponies hate Unicorns and Pegasi with a passion and Pokemon and dragons were kicked out of Equestria long ago!"
"We knew that already but thanks for giving us that abridged recap!" Glastrier noted incredulously.
"Yeah, thanks for the heads-up even if it's pointless to us now!" Dracovish added.
"Really, that seems harsh," Izzy quipped as they continued to run.
Just when they think they were safe from harm as they continued to run, everybody screeched to a halt, barely an inch from being hit by what looked like green sticky blobs. The blobs were fired from what are some catapult devices called Splat-a-pults and two ponies were manning each of them along with another Earth Pony named Phyllis, pointing at their targets and underestimating what Sarah and her family could do.
"Oh, come on!" snapped Silvally. "We don't need this crap they're pulling!"
"Why can't they just damn stop?! I'm getting annoyed right now!" barked Eternatus furiously.
"Suicune, give them your Hydro Pump!" shouted Sarah angrily, pointing at the Earth Ponies trying to harm them.
"Right!" nodded Suicune as she fired her upgrade to Water Gun and shattered the machines as she blasted them, forcing the Earth Ponies manning them to run.
"Let's go!" called Sunny, once again leading everybody through the ongoing chaos, she, Sarah, and her family dodging as best they could and Izzy bouncing around them.
"Uh, guys? Is it just me or do we happen to be one happy-go-lucky Unicorn short right now?" asked Zorua, seeing an energetic member of the group was missing.
Everyone skidded to a halt as they realized that Izzy was missing, only to gasp in shock and horror as they saw her looking at a poster at a nearby movie theater, still oblivious to the traps around her including the one dead-set in front of her.
"Oooh, I haven't seen this one yet!" Izzy chirped as she walked up to the theater.
"Izzy, watch out for that-!" screamed Sarah but warning her too late as she soon became stuck in an entrapment box as a flashing alarm went off to signal her capture. "IZZY, NO!"
"IZZY!" snapped an aggravated Haxorus, holding his head in exasperation. "You happy-go-lucky, no-cares-in-the-world troublemaker!"
"What is she doing, for crying out loud?!" Wildfire gawked, sharing Haxorus' exasperation as they and Sandy ran to her.
"I can't believe you would be so careless as to waltz right into that trap!" Star groaned.
"Now, don't worry, dear! We'll have you down in no time, and fast!" reassured Audino.
"It's official, that happy-go-lucky pipsqueak is a literal running gag," Eternatus moaned bitterly.
"I've never known another creature to be so irresponsible for her own safety and oblivious to even the slightest sign of danger," Zeraora deadpanned before he facepalmed and groaned.
"You're proving to be more of a threat to yourself than you'd care to admit, Young Lady!" barked Rapidash incredulously.
Just as Sarah, her family, and Sunny try to figure out how to get Izzy loose, Hitch arrived on the scene and he felt very proud of himself although he ended up being a bit cocky as he soaked in the "praise and cheers" coming from his fellow ponies in their hidings spots after they had captured their "threat". The princess, her family, and Sunny didn't share his sentiments as the Earth Pony cautiously walked over to the box containing Izzy.
In the meantime, while Sunny went to rescue her new friend, the aforementioned group sent offended and distrustful glares at the other Earth Ponies around them including Hitch, realizing that they're being even bigger fools than they realized. They could now see what Zekrom meant about them being filled with paranoia, fear, and mistrust for the other two Pony species, Pokemon, and dragons, and they had a sinking feeling the same can be said of the other Unicorns and Pegasi living in the current Equestria.
Hitch turned to Sunny and gasped in shock as she saw what he was about to do. "Sunny! Don't even think about it!" he snarled, making her flinch but become defiant to his orders.
During their time growing up, Sunny had always been the rebel between the two, and when she had finally been given new hope in her world and what its real future could be, Hitch and Sprout always had to be the ones to stomp them out. But, with Izzy, Sarah, and her entire family, knowing what this could mean, she wasn't going to risk losing that chance and her new friends and continued to extend her hoof towards the cage.
"No, don't you dare touch that box! No, no, no, no, no, no!" Hitch continued, growing more frantic with every second Sunny got closer and closer to it. "Sunny Starscout, I forbid it!"
Sunny turned to her childhood friend as he frantically looked at her, begging her to not go through with her choice. But, eventually, she gave him a hardened glare before she then freed Izzy from the entrapment box containing her without a second thought leaving Hitch horrified by what she had done.
"SUNNY!" he freaked in horror.
Seeing this, Sarah and her family couldn't help but give her a brief but proud smile at the Earth Pony for doing the right thing despite what Hitch and everyone else thought.
"So, your name's Sunny?" Izzy asked her new friend.
But, seeing that Izzy was free again, everybody in the town went into a panic again as they screamed and ran in different directions.
For the Earth Ponies, this turned out to be a bad thing and a worst-case scenario for Hitch (and Sprout, after he managed to join him) as the two saw their fellow ponies accidentally setting off their own traps and finding themselves stuck in their own unicorn entrapment cages. Seeing this and deciding to use the ongoing chaos to her advantage again, Sunny quickly guided everyone out of town and to her home where they would be safe for now.
"Bye! It was nice meeting you all!" Izzy called to the Earth Ponies.
"NOT NOW, IZZY!" berated Sarah, Tsukumaro, and her adopted parents angrily at the happy-go-lucky Unicorn.
"As I said, that happy-go-lucky Unicorn of ours is a living running gag," Eternatus quipped in annoyance at Izzy.
"Deputy Sprout, to the Lighthouse!" growled Hitch, wanting to stop Sunny but seeing Sprout casually walk into one of the last remaining entrapment cages on purpose.
"Oh dear, I appear to be trapped," Sprout retorted in a monotone voice, causing Hitch to give an aggravated sigh at him.
"You have got to be kidding me, " he groaned before he was given a quick calling card by the Night Lights as Dart and her brothers bashed and slapped him hard before they dashed back to their family, leaving him to fall down in pain with an annoyed moan and become knocked out. "I can't believe you, Sunny..."
Meanwhile, after they had managed to lose Hitch and the rest of Maretime Bay, Sunny managed to get Izzy, Nikki, James, Tsukumaro, Sarah, and her family to her lighthouse home. Her home had a large open backyard which was big enough to hold her larger Pokemon and dragons while her smaller Pokemon and the dragon hatchlings along with her medium-sized Pokemon joined them inside her home. After they entered, Sunny quickly closed the door and covered the windows, trying to wrap her head around everything that had happened.
The still-oblivious Izzy, however, continued to smile at Sunny, who looked in awe of her along with Sarah and her entire family.
"Do Earth Ponies also like staring contests?" Izzy asked, proceeding to stare down Sunny until she blinked, still thinking everything was a game. "Agh! You win, I blinked."
"Do you ever think about anything else other than playing games whenever you're in trouble?" remarked Luna incredulously.
"Don't bother trying to talk her out of it, honey," sighed his and Dusk's mother. "She's not going to listen to you no matter how many times you try to convince her of what she's doing otherwise."
"Your mother's right, Son. It's best if we let her find out for herself; experience always seems to be the best teacher on mostly everything," agreed their father.
"I can't believe it, this is so unreal! Three unicorns, a Pegasus, Pokemon, and dragons, all in my house! This is so cool!" Sunny began before she began to notice the gravity of her actions and the ramifications that came from them. "Wait, wait! No, oh no, no! This is bad, very, very, very bad! Oh, man! What have I done?! Okay, okay, come on Sunny. Stay calm, don't panic, don't go wild or anything! Oh, man, what have I done?! What have I done?!"
"...Um, you saved us, Sunny. Thanks," smiled Sarah warmly.
"You really saved our bacons out there," agreed a happy and relieved Cufant while Izzy looked around her home, wide-eyed and as curious as a kitten. "Who's the guy that's antagonizing you when you freed Izzy?"
"Hitch, Hitch Trailblazer. He's the local sheriff in town and he's my childhood friend. Although, he doesn't really care as much about friendship with other ponies as well as finding out what happened to the Pokemon and dragons that used to live in our world as I do."
"Oooh! Wow! Ah, I've never seen another Earth Pony or Pegasus until recently! We look exactly the same, well, except for this and this, of course!" she buzzed excitedly before gesturing to her horn and Nikki's wings. "And, your Pokemon, your dragons, I've never found anything about them until meeting you all!"
"WAH!"
"Watch it!"
"Hey, that's dangerous!"
"Watch where you're pointing that damn thing!"
"You can poke an eye out with that horn!" yelped Tyrunt and Amaura, Beautifly, Echo, Boulder, Flo, dodging Izzy as she casually showed and waved her horn about to the group and Sunny and they ducked.
"Young Lady, these horns of ours are absolutely dangerous to others including your own! Mind what you're doing!" Rapidash snapped, annoyed at Izzy. "Oh, yeah,"
Sunny gulped while chuckling awkwardly, ducking her head as well. "Be careful where you point that thing, okay?"
"Why?"
"Why? You almost poked some of our eyes out with that!" groaned a bemused Glaceon.
"I know Unicorns can sometimes use their horns as swords to fight as exemplified by Rapidash and Ponyta but this is ridiculous the way you're just waving it around like it's your favorite toy," Inferno commented.
"Yeah. And, well, uh... I, um, I just...Don't, want to get zapped by some sort of wayward laser beam," added Sunny, trying to find the right words for Izzy. "But, you know that already, of course. You both have been reading my mind this whole time, he-he."
Sarah, Tsukumaro, and Izzy looked at each other in confusion, the princess admitting, to Sunny's surprise, "Uh, Sunny, about that... We can't do that now, it's not possible. I can't feel anything that'll make us do that, our horns can't do anything."
"What? But, a-aren't they supposed to glow, by the way? Or, do they only glow when you levitate stuff as my Rapidash do? Of course, I know they're technically Unique Horn Pokemon and they're Unicorns by default but-"
"Huh?! Rapidash?" blinked Sarah, Nikki, James, and Tsukumaro in surprise, looking at Sunny (who covered her mouth when she realized she made a mistake).
"You have your own Rapidash?"
"And, you didn't say anything about them?!" gasped Nikki and James.
"You never asked!" Sunny defended before she turned and said, "It's alright, guys. Come on out."
Everyone turned to where Sunny was looking and at her word, from a lift that lead up to another floor upstairs, there came a small family of three Galarian Rapidash (two of them being females and the only male being a Shiny). Izzy was shocked to discover that her new friend has three Pokemon living with her in secret but Sarah and her family were stunned by the bombshell Sunny had dropped on everyone with their first Pokemon sighting in Equestria since coming.
"By Articuno's chilling Blizzard! Those are Galarian Rapidashes!" gasped a shocked Calyrex.
"They look just like you, Mommy!" blinked Ponyta in surprise.
"Really like you!" added Yamper.
"But, wait! Look at them, one of them is a Shiny while the other two are their normal colors!" gawked Wooloo at the Shiny Galarian Rapidash and seeing the clear cosmetic differences between the three Unique Horn Pokemon belonging to Sunny Starscout.
"Yeah, the first two are the same as Mom but the other is in beige and turquoise and even his horn and hooves are all navy blue," Scorch noted as well.
"Thank you," smiled the male Rapidash.
"Greetings," greeted the two female Rapidash, all three bowing to them warmly.
"No way... You have Galarian Rapidash?!" gawked Sarah, shocked as she looked at the Unique Horn Pokemon in Sunny's care. "But, how? I thought all Pokemon and dragons were kicked out by the ponies years ago!"
"They were but when my dad was younger, he came across them as baby Galarian Ponyta and caught them. So, he's had them ever since they were foals. They were so precious to him that when Pokemon and dragons were later banished, he hid them in order to protect them," explained Sunny.
"The only one he confided to about them was me when I was a filly. When he died a few years ago, they became my guardians and I've kept them hidden from everypony else as well. This here's Sugarcoat and Sugarcake, Siren's the only boy here. So, can any of you guys levitate things as they can?"
"Well, actually..." Izzy started to squirm uncomfortably.
"No, no, wait! Don't answer that yet, let me get my notebook!" Sunny replied, stopping her before she galloped to a nearby kitchen island, excitedly clearing some tin cans before whipping out a notebook from one of her saddlebags and slammed it on the island's counter, flipping through its pages. "Okay, let's see, 142 questions for a Unicorn-no! Make that three! Question Number One - where do you live?"
"Bridlewood."
"Huh/Huh/Huh?" everybody in Sarah's family with them blinked in surprise, realizing what this could mean if they spill the beans early.
"Uh, well... Um, we're kinda, uh, f-f-far away, really?" answered Sarah, waving her hooves for emphasis and not wanting her family and herself to be called out on Zekrom's mission for them. "Like, somewhere out of town. We're not normally from these parts, well, if you know what I mean..."
Sunny smiled brightly as she slammed her hoof on the island in excitement and continued her questions, "I KNEW IT! Do unicorns really live in trees?"
"Well..."
"Do they eat pizza? If so, what toppings would they like on them? If not, then why not?"
"I don't know-"
"Can you actually fry pony brains with a single horn zap?" She then gasped, transitioning to another question that ties into her last one, throwing a can of baked beans at the unicorns and Alicorn. "Can you make this float!"
"HEY!" Cinderace screamed incredulously, making her yelp and stop her questions as he grabbed the can before it can hit Tsukumaro, Izzy, and Sarah and she turned to everyone in surprise. "Stop the presses! What the hell are you even talking about, fry pony brains with a single horn zap? What kind of idiotic trash were you being fed from these propaganda towers this town has?"
"Ms. Sunny, um... There's something you should know about us, Izzy, and this magic of yours," replied Tsukumaro, worried.
"We... Haven't tried that yet," added Sarah awkwardly.
"...What?" Sunny blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, that whole 'fry pony brains' crap you're pushing out there, totally busted," retorted Talonflame, slapping a wing on her head and making her yelp again. "I mean, come on! You're telling me our caretaker here's capable of hurting somebody with this weird magic you're projecting? She can't do that and neither can her old man since we got here! It's impossible!"
"There's no way she'd be able to hurt any of your town's panic-happy stooges that just ran from us," added Sonic, nodding with an indignant look.
"Do we really 100% look like we were going to do something dangerous to you, young miss?" asked Nitro. "Also, you'll that it is also 100% possible that Sarah and her godfather are currently incapable of performing magic in this land. And, I think I speak for Izzy, too, since she didn't perform any."
Now, Sunny was even more confused, "You, can't do magic?"
"Nope, but I can do this!" Izzy answered, stomping her hoof and bouncing the can of beans that had been set down in front of her a few times on her horn before dropping it and spilling the beans. "TA-DA~!"
"Wait... You lost your Unicorn magic, Izzy?" quizzed Sarah, she, her family, and Sunny shocked by this and looking concerned for the happy-go-lucky unicorn.
"W-w-w-Wait, hold up? You don't have magic, none of you?" Sunny asked her "guests", startled and thrown off by this new revelation.
"SUNNY STARSCOUT!" bellowed a familiar voice along with some feedback that made everybody jump as they looked around. "Ow, that hurt..."
"What was that?!" Arctozolt shouted in surprise, Sunny gasping as she knew exactly who it was before reaching the door and cracking it enough to see who arrived at her home.
"Nobody would've been able to follow us after we lost them!" Stufful whimpered, snuggling close to Ching Wan.
"Oh no, Hitch!" Sunny fretted, seeing her childhood friend and Sprout outside.
"Not him again," groaned Zorua.
"Sunny Starscout! I know you're in there, you're now a fugitive for harboring Unicorns, a Pegasus, Pokemon, and dragons in there!" shouted Hitch through a microphone, feeling betrayed by someone he considered a friend. "Give them up and hand them over in the name of the law and you'll be spared!"
"Yeah, you're completely surrounded!" added Sprout, neglecting the fact that only he and Hitch were there.
"Will you just let me do my job?!" seethed Hitch quietly to his partner and second childhood friend, who pouted in response. "You are under arrest! Come out with your hooves up, it'll be a lot easier for us if you comply!"
"Oh, oh my, this is bad! Listen, how sneaky are you? Don't get into detail, just tell me!" Sunny asked her guests frantically.
"Um, very, when we needed to be."
"Um, medium sneaky?" Sarah and Izzy answered curiously. "Great, I can work with that. Listen, go through the back and I'll distract them. Take Sugarcoat, Sugarcake, and Siren with you and I'll meet you later when Hitch and Sprout are out of my hair."
"Pfft! Relax, bookwormy, I'll talk to them. They'll come around easily," snorted Izzy amusingly as she went out the door.
"Izzy, what are you doin-ARGH!"
"No, no, no, no, no!" Sunny and Sarah begged, both of them too late as she walked out and started to greet them.
"Hi, guys! Now, I know what you're thinking-"
"ARRRGH! Look at her, Hitch! She's already reading our minds, she's got something evil plotting! AAAHHHH!" Sprout shrieked, giving himself up to the rumors they've heard about Equestria's Unicorns before he ran away with his tail between his legs. "Quick, run away! Before she fries our brains!"
Hitch was shocked as he watched his "partner" and second childhood friend running off in a frightened panic again but while his back was turned, he didn't notice Sunny, Sarah, and her family sneaking off with Zarude quickly grabbing Izzy with his Vine Whip.
"Sprout, what are-where are you going?!" Hitch demanded incredulously.
"TO GET REINFORCEMENTS TO HELP US!" Sprout shouted, already a mile away from both him and Sunny's house.
Hitch suddenly blinked in confusion. "We have reinforcements?" he pondered before he looked back and was dumbstruck to see his "perpetrators" out of sight.
"OH, COME ON! GRR...SUNNY!"
After giving Hitch and Sprout the slip, Sunny, her Rapidash, Izzy, Sarah, and her family all galloped/ran/flew far off into the outskirts, leaving Maretime Bay behind. While they were continuing to make a break for it, Sunny was still trying to wrap her head around the shocking truths that she learned from Izzy, Tsukumaro, and the princess. Unicorns are unable to do magic now besides Sugarcake, Sugarcoat, and Siren, her world is indeed much bigger than she had first known, what was going on?
She was only able to think more on the matter and tried to question them and the others further as they stopped to catch their breath, feeling like they managed to get some distance from Hitch and Sprout.
"Okay, so, you guys don't have any magic?" she quizzed Izzy.
"No, but if it makes you feel any better, we used to have it but that was, like, many, many, many moons ago. And, before we knew it, it just sort of vanished, poof!"
"But, that's impossible! Magic just simply can't vanish into thin air, not without a reason," Star stated to the happy-go-lucky Unicorn.
"Something's wrong, really wrong," mused Kaji.
"And, a really big kind of wrong if Unicorns can't do any magic like Tsukumaro and Sarah can't here," Melody agreed.
"But, who could've done such a thing other than that ancient evil Zekrom mentioned to us before we came here?" Ching Wan questioned.
"Well, we won't know until we look and find any leads to that evil," Zorro replied.
"So, something must've happened to cause her and all unicorns to lose their magic," Kion added in agreement. "That is, sans Sarah and Tsukumaro, until we found out that they also can't perform it here..."
"Yeah, and apart from us even though we don't know how we retained ours," replied Siren, curious as he looked towards a sunflower and plucked it with his magic (a navy blue aura for him) and sighing sadly. "I just don't understand what became of this world and of the ponies living in it besides Sunny and this Izzy fella..."
"You're not the only one, bro," nodded Sugarcake as she joined him. "Even I still wonder about that or why the ponies would do such horrible things to each other, our fellow Pokemon, and the dragons..."
"Pfft, don't we all? Everybody seems to think those pesky Pegasi have something to do with it but-" Izzy continued, before turning and noticing James giving her an offended look but Sunny looked to be conflicted. "Hey, you two look a little woozy and a bit iffy, what's wrong?"
"Sunny, are you okay?" Sugarcoat asked worriedly for her, Sugarcake, and Siren's charge as she approached and nuzzled her.
"Okay, Sunny, keep it together. Keep calm, now, let's recap - I come across Unicorns (one who can't do magic apart from the other two who, unfortunately, don't know how), a Pegasus, some Pokemon, and dragons in the span of one short afternoon, oh, man! What are we gonna do?! I am so dead!"
Sunny didn't know what she was gonna do now that she's stuck between a rock and a hard place. But, before she could panic any further, she and Sarah were suddenly being sniffed out of nowhere by Izzy.
"What are you doing?" they asked blankly.
"You don't smell, neither of you," Izzy answered, making them blink in surprise.
"Thanks... Wait, what?"
"Uh... Was that necessary?"
"GROSS!" groaned Twilight and Dawn's adopted kids.
"Um, pardon me, Ms. Moonbow, but why would you be so compelled as to sniff Sarah and Ms. Starscout?" questioned Magearna.
"I was told that Earth Ponies like you smelled like rotten sardines, but... You two don't smell anything like that," Izzy replied before she was distracted by a butterfly.
"What else do those Unicorns you associate yourself with say about Earth Ponies or Pegasi, Ms. Izzy?" Tsukumaro quizzed curiously.
"Oh, just that you're all lazy and totally not the brightest crystals in the forest," replied Izzy, her eyes still on the butterfly as she tried to catch it.
"Okay, that's just racist, saying that they're lazy and dumb," snorted Keldeo, not impressed with the lies the ponies are saying about each other. "I never thought your ponies and everyone else in this world would suffer from extreme xenophobia."
"That's literally a xenophobic insult to the whole Earth Pony species," moaned an aggravated Sarah.
"Indeed," the three veteran Swords agreed grimly.
"Charming," Sunny replied, her ego now broken from what she heard the Unicorns said about the Earth Ponies.
"Do you have any idea how crazy and egotistical they're being, sounding like that and looking down on others while putting themselves up too high?" Silver argued to Izzy, who just shrugged as she continued to chase the butterfly.
"Nope, just those three."
"And, what about the Pokemon and the dragons that used to live here? What do they say about them after all of the Ponies kicked them out?" asked James.
"Oh, them? Well, just so that they're not the brightest crystals in the forest either, and, that ponies of all sorts will be better off without those 'spawns of the devil', as they would say. Don't know why, they're actually really cool."
"They, said, WHAT?!" screamed Hydro angrily, now infuriated by the Ponies also seeing them as monsters just as the Vikings of Berk once had.
"Uh, are you okay, Miss?" squirmed Sunny, gulping at Hydro losing her cool while the others tried to calm her down.
"Uh, yeah, best not get on her bad side while you still can, Sunny," warned Sarah, also worried for Hydro. "Long story short, she's had a bad experience with being referred to as just a monster when she and her fellow dragons are usually much more than that."
"Noted," Sunny nodded, not wanting to know.
"Sheesh, there always seemed to be a bunch of propaganda hounds and xenophobic maniacs around when you don't need them!"
"I agree, it's terrible how those Ponies tried to depict each other and the Pokemon and dragons they used to live with for so long in such a terrible light these days," James and Nikki winced, not liking the situation they're in, at all.
"If I'm not mistaken, everything that's happening all ties back to this ancient evil Zekrom told us about that's mostly or mainly responsible for making Equestria as broken as it is," Tsukumaro added, recalling what Zekrom told everyone before they entered.
"Ancient evil, what are you talking about?" Sunny blinked in surprise at them.
"Oh, nothing, never mind. We'll tell you later when you're ready," chuckled Sarah, quickly covering up for her adopted parents and Tsukumaro.
Sunny was surprised by this but she had a feeling that there was something strange about Sarah and her family so she decided not to press the princess further on it and instead, turned to Izzy, who was still chasing after and trying to catch the butterfly that distracted her.
"So, what's the plan?" Izzy asked the group and Sunny.
Sunny turned to Sarah before she suddenly discovered an epiphany on what they have to do now. "Wait, I got it!" she exclaimed before she pulled out a notebook she had in her saddlebags. She opened the pages of it to show a map of some sort, pointing its way to a location dubbed simply as "Zephyr Heights".
"Everyone, I've decided, we're going on a quest...to Zephyr Heights," she told them, pointing to their intended destination on the map.
"W-What's Zephyr Heights?" Uxie asked as the Lake Guardians joined her.
"It's where all of Equestrias' Pegasi live, long after the royal monarchy that once ruled over the land was abolished and the Pegasi decided to live there when a city called Cloudsdale crash-landed on the mountains."
"The Pegasi city?" Izzy quizzed.
"Yes. We need to find out what happened to all of your magic and bring it back. They probably have magic, maybe they can give us a hand."
"Hmm... I don't know, Sunny," Sarah replied, looking suspicious at Sunny's theory. "If those Pegasi also gave in to their xenophobia just as Hitch and your fellow Earth Ponies had done earlier, I wouldn't trust them with even one inch of my body or gear."
Izzy shook her head at this, also finding Sunny's idea to be bonkers, "No, no way! But, the Pegasi are all bad news! They don't care about anybody but themselves!"
"But, what if you're all wrong about them?" Sunny argued, wanting them to be hopeful as everyone looked skeptically about her thoughts. "Earth Ponies were wrong about Unicorns and with you and us, Unicorns could be wrong about us Earth Ponies. Maybe they could welcome us with open wings."
"But, what if they don't?"
"Yeah, Sunny, you really should backtrack and think this through for once," Blitz agreed worriedly.
"What you're saying could be nothing more than a pipe dream if the Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth Ponies' xenophobia and racism runs deep, much deeper than you could imagine," Voltage added, not wanting to take any chances.
"You can keep that stupid dream to yourself, missy. If they go aggro and freak out over all of us without giving you a chance to explain and proving my family's worries right, we're bailing," put in Eternatus before he turned to Izzy. "And, if you start singing a musical number on this trip, I'm done!"
Unfortunately, to his chagrin and seeing Izzy smirk slyly at him when she realized he had a certain weakness to what he considered some icky-sticky, goody-two-shoes stuff and fluff (which was never to his liking at the least), she began to sing and become worried for Sunny in the process while he groaned in annoyance.
Even Silvally couldn't help but mutter, "Too late..."
(I'm Looking Out For You (MLP: A New Generation) - Izzy Moonbow)
(Izzy Moonbow)
Up ahead, is the sky growing dark?
Where it leads is a big question mark
And I'm scared that I'll end up a pony gone missing from pegasus-ing
(Sunny Starscout)
But you're not alone
You got a pony or two in your crew
(Izzy Moonbow)
I do? Who?
(Sunny Starscout)
I'm looking out for you
When you're off track
Sarah and Sunny both stopped Izzy, from nearly falling off a cliff, after being distracted by a butterfly.
(Sunny Starscout)
I got your back
You can rely on me
I'm lookin' out for you
"Hey girls, wait up!" Sarah said as they hopped across rocks.
(Sunny Starscout)
Back at home it was earth ponies first
Heard it so many times I could burst
And I fought for a change but it's lonely
Cos, you know, party of uno
(Izzy Moonbow)
Well, if you need a friendly steed like you-know-who
(Sunny Starscout)
I think I do
Sarah and Tsukumaro smiled, watching Sunny and Izzy touching hooves together.
(Both)
I'm lookin' out for you
(Sunny Starscout)
When you're off track
I got your back
(Both)
You can rely on me
I'm lookin' out for you
Both Sunny and Izzy stacked up on each other to get an apple from a tree.
(Sunny Starscout)
Lost in the hills
(Izzy Moonbow)
I've got the skills
Pony let's get going
(Sunny Starscout)
Get going
(Izzy Moonbow)
Get going
"C'mon, Sarah! Join in!" Sunny invited the young Sun Princess rolled her eyes playfully before to join the song to Eternatus and Silvally's chargin.
(All three)
I'm lookin' out
(Chorus)
I'm lookin' out for you
I'll go where you're going to
It's all I ever want to do
I am lookin' out
All three mares, along with Sarah's whole family, adoptive parents and Tsukumaro were galloping across the land, singing their song.
(All three)
For you!
The group reached a rocky mountain area in the dead night and decided it as best to set up camp for the night.
That evening, back at Maretime Bay after he had recovered from the ordeal he had, Hitch was in his office with a clearly disinterested Sprout (focusing more on his pizza as he ate) as he ranted and seethed about Sunny. Despite their being childhood friends, he and Sunny couldn't have been more polar opposites in terms of what they wanted and their professions as well as their dreams. While he was bound by laws and tradition (which led him to eventually being the local sheriff in the first place along with his work), Sunny was much more rebellious and outgoing and once she sets her mind to anything, there's no stopping her.
He couldn't understand why his childhood friend would betray him and risk her own life for a couple of Unicorns, a Pegasus, an Earth Pony who doesn't care about him and his fellow ponies, and a huge cluster of Pokemon and dragons they're with. He didn't think it would've been possible for her to throw him and her own kind away for strangers she barely knew and connected with in a way he couldn't come to grips with.
"Argh, I can't believe it! I told her, Sprout, I told her a million times and yet, she still does the complete opposite and goes beyond my concerns and expectations for her," he ranted. "Why would she even-DARGH! Why can't she just stay out of trouble and listen to me for once?! I was only trying to look out for her..."
"...Fine. If that's the way she wants it... No more, no more favors, no more bailing her out. She made her choice when she sold her lot with them and I've made mine when I became the sheriff, no point and no choice."
He turned to Sprout (who was going through another pizza slice) as he barked, "Alright. Sprout, come on, it's time for us to take drastic action. We need to find Sunny and arrest her, bring her back to face the full force of the law!"
Sprout stopped before he raised an eyebrow at Hitch and questioned, "Question; when you said 'we', you mean...?" Hitch just nodded to him,
"You and I."
Sprout's eyes widened in shock and horror, dropping his pizza slice as he stammered. "Uh, why-I-I-I-I-I'd love to, but, I'd-! I, uh, I just remembered, my workspace needs cleaning and my papers are all scrambled! You know, we've been really busy recently and that business with the Unicorn intruding made things hectic, and what's more-?" he stammered, trying to come up with an excuse to get out of work.
"I see... You know what, I think you're right. This is a job for Hitch, and Hitch only," sighed Hitch in defeat, rolling his eyes at his partner and second childhood friend bailing out on him. "Alright, Sprout. You stay here and hold the fort while I'm out dancing with danger. I don't know when I'll be back but while I'm gone, keep everypony calm, maintain the peace, and be a pillar of strength." But, Hitch shuddered at the last part that he said, not wanting to think what'll happen if Sprout was left to his own devices while he's away. "D'oh, who am I kidding, really? Look, just try not to start a war while I'm off retrieving Sunny, okay?"
With an annoyed and further-betrayed slam of the doors, Hitch was gone, following Sunny and her new friends with the intention of dragging her back.
However, all won't be well for Sprout for not long after his best friend was now gone on his mission, he was now stewing in what looked to be brewing jealously of Hitch and what he had done to become the sheriff. Even at a young age, Sprout and Hitch were also very competitive at anything when they were foals and to him, Sprout didn't like losing and being considered second-best/second rate/second choice compared to Hitch. But now, with what he told her, Sprout was left seething at his friend and his popularity and deep down, he hated every single second of it.
"Oh, great! It's always 'Sheriff Hitch this' & 'Sheriff Hitch that'! Everypony loves Hitch, UGH! What does he have, anyway?" he sulked, looking through photos of their times hanging out together as they always had been.
It was true that he and Hitch seemed to be inseparable for the most part and they got along well like they're born as peas from the same pod. However, they do have their differences and the more he looked at the photos of himself and Hitch (the majority of them with his best friend solo), the more his jealousy fueled him and his popularity enraged him. He hated being inferior and second-best more than anything whenever they're doing stuff together and that sickened him to the point when he could no longer hold it in anymore.
"Sure, he's got a perfect mane, shredded abs, paid-off mortgage, 'OI! So, what? I've got stuff and I can do cool things, too! He's not the only one who can climb up to the top! I can do, um, uh..."
He looked towards the picture on their calendar and in his continued jealous fury, he violently ripped it off, shoved a cabinet drawer violently, kicking another drawer and causing the upper drawer above it to reopen, doing anything he can to sustain his jealously. But, even still, he felt like he was still in Hitch's shadow and he was becoming sick of it.
"Sprouty, are you in there?" called a voice, revealing itself to be Phyllis, his mother, as she entered.
"Where's Hitch, the ponies all over town are absolutely terrified by what had happened this afternoon. They want answers and they need them now!"
"He went after Sunny, another solo Hitch mission," Sprout sulked angrily.
"Oh, Sugarcube, why the Sprout Pout? That's great news, actually, Hitch might've done you a favor."
"It is, Momma?"
"Of course, in fact..." She then picked up Hitch's discarded Sheriff badge and placed it on his strap. "For now, at least, you're Maretime Bay's new sheriff."
Sprout was surprised at this but then he realized that with Hitch's departure, it was time for him to rise above the ranks and finally be the hero he wanted to be.
"Hey, you're right, I am! Hey, there, everypony! The name's Sprout, Sheriff Sprout. What's the problem, filly?" he bragged.
Sprout continued to brag excitedly as he reveled in his temporary position and when he was satisfied with what he had gotten, he nodded with a determined grin that looked unnaturally sick. All the while, a dark presence loomed over Maretime Bay while a plume of dark cloud saw Phyllis and her son through the window on Hitch's office and narrowed its darkened eyes as if it had some plan in mind in tearing apart Equestria and its ponies, starting with Sprout and his mother, before disappearing.
At the same time, while the dark presence started to take shape and Sprout was beginning his temporary position as sheriff for his goal of "safeguarding" Maretown Bay that he had in mind from Hitch, Izzy, Sunny, Sarah, and her family had managed to set up camp, planning to make their way to Zephyr Heights the next morning.
Luckily, and surprisingly (despite having been sent to Equestria by Zekrom from her dream), Sarah had her satchel brought with her when they went through the Deep Black Pokemon's portal (hanging from her right side now according to her new body structure), still holding everything she had packed for her intended journey to find her parents. This included the enchanted tent for the girls and much of her family to sleep in for the night (which threw both Izzy and Sunny into a loop and made them gawk in amazement when they saw the size of the tent's interior despite its two-story appearance).
Once everything was set and they decided to hang around for a bit before going to sleep, they huddled around the campfire to talk about anything and everything, particularly on the subject of magic.
"So, Tsukumaro, Sarah... I've been wondering ever since you confessed to not doing this stuff, but," she began, trying to find the right words again. "...Can you two do any magic, like, real magic?"
"I-I don't know, Ms. Sunny," Tsukumaro answered. "We've never even known about your magic, we've never bothered to try to use it with everything that has happened."
"I'm not sure if we can if no Unicorn really has any and if the magic you mentioned really is gone from this world," Sarah agreed while deciding to humor her new pony friend. "...But, I suppose it won't hurt to try."
"...You sound like you two don't know how to perform magic as well," Sunny replied, not sure of what to make of her answers but eventually smiling again as she had an idea. "But, if you really can do magic, maybe I can help you find out."
Reaching for her saddlebag, she took two pins she had on it and placed them in front of the older Unicorn and the young Alolan Alicorn princess with the others and Izzy watching curiously. "Try and levitate these."
Sarah and Tsukumaro looked at each other as they tried to come to terms with what is being asked of them; the magic that Sunny was asking them to perform was foreign to them and nothing like what they had done and witnessed, the most notable and shared between them being the Patronus Charm. They knew it would take some time to learn a new form of magic or a new spell as was exemplified when they and the rest of their family had been watching from the Harry Potter movie series during movie nights at their house or when Sarah was at any of the others' places when holding or attending sleepovers.
But, the magic Sunny and Izzy mentioned was nothing like what they had practiced and learned in their own times and they were antsy about what would happen if they tried to learn this new magical power. It didn't help that their suspicions and worries were compounded by the fact that Izzy couldn't perform her magic and telling them that Unicorns in her and Sunny's world, as a whole, couldn't perform it.
"Guys, are you okay...?" asked Sunny, feeling worried for them.
That got them to snap out of their trances and look between Sunny and each other before they nodded, deciding that they have to take a chance if they were to have any means of helping her and Izzy with restoring Equestria.
So, knowing what they and the rest of their family came to do and deciding to trust Sunny with her help, they looked to her pins laid down before them (one housing an emblem of Twilight Sparkle's Star Cutie Mark for Sarah and the other with an emblem of Fluttershy's Butterflies Cutie Mark for Tsukumaro) and concentrated, closing their eyes as they tried to focus on the pins.
At first, nothing happened and it looked as though Izzy's prior explanation on Equestria's magic being gone for everyone was proven right. However, while that might be the case for her and her species, that changed when Tsukumaro and Sarah's horns finally lit up and they were coated in their own distinct magical auras (Sarah - rainbow-colored, Tsukumaro - dark brown). Then, their energies focused on the pins still, the pins ultimately floated in the air as they were coated in the same auras.
Tsukumaro was left speechless as he opened his eyes and gasped, seeing the Fluttershy pin floating in his own aura. Even Sarah was also taken aback by the fact that she also had Equestrian magic unlike Izzy and the Unicorns she referred to as she took in the sight of the Twilight Sparkle pin floating in her new magical grasp, her entire family also sharing her and her godfather's shocked sentiments.
"No..." she gasped quietly in total shock.
"B-b-But, how...?" stuttered Sunny, stunned.
Izzy was quiet in shock herself until she finally squealed with excitement. "EEEEEEE! MAGIC, MAGIC, MAGIC! You still have your magic, both of you! YIPPEE!" she cheered, startling the two as they looked at Izzy, both looking flabbergasted at what she said while Sunny took back her pins.
"W-W-What-Ms. Izzy! What are you talking about?!" replied a still-gobsmacked Tsukumaro. "This is our first time using this form of magic, we had no idea about it and we were only just able to use it!"
"Yeah, we don't know about this magic! How were we supposed to know what to do with it?" a still-shocked Sarah agreed.
"Um, well, yes... Moving on, I think it's time to see what else your parents can do now that they're an Earth Pony and a Pegasus before we turn in," put in Phoenix, stopping Izzy and wanting to get some sleep before long.
"You think they would have some form of Equestrian magic along with what Mom and Tsukumaro just demonstrated?" asked Aqua.
"Well, we won't know until we have them try and see for themselves, Sis," replied Milotic, wanting to have Nikki and James give it a go.
"But, I don't know how to even fly with these wings on my body and I don't know anything about this Equestrian Magic business!" Nikki fretted, not fond of the idea of flying in her new Pegasus body.
"And, what else can I do besides trotting and running?" put in James, feeling uneasy about testing his Earth Pony body as well. "I don't know what I'll be doing, I might as well be plowing a field or just grazing in the open sun!"
"But, this is a real breakthrough for all of us! There has to be some form of Equestrian magic that you two can also perform!" Sunny urged excitedly, now rejuvenated with newfound hope for Equestria with Sarah and her family's help. "With your magic to help us along the way, we can get more ponies to help us with our cause to find out what happened to the Unicorns' magic, find out where the Pokemon and dragons had been banished to, and restore Equestria back to its former glory!"
"And, you think everything would be riding on us by the time we get going and see what's about to go down at Zephyr heights at the top of this world's version of Old Smokey?" quipped Silvally.
"Positive! We've got to see if you have your magic as well! Even if there's even a slight chance of it backfiring, it'll prove that you know something about the magic lost around here that we don't!"
"Come on, Ms. Nikki, Mr. James, give it a go for us. Please...?" peeped Mai, trying her best to do the sad puppy face along with her younger siblings and cousins who agreed to the idea.
"I don't know..." James replied. "We're still new to this whole, magic, thing... We don't know anything about it by the looks of it, Sunny, girl."
Sunny did consider his words and was concerned that she should've said something different but she still smiled nonetheless, "That's fine; whatever it is, we'll take what we can get."
"But-" Nikki began, wanting to stay out of what was being suggested of her and her husband but Sarah took it upon herself to join her adopted mother and soothe her.
"Mom, my opinion may not matter because I also don't know how to fly yet and I don't know how to use my wings for other things besides that, either. But, if it means giving us another possible opportunity to find out what happened to Equestria's magic, you and dad have got to try," she encouraged hopefully, getting both of her adopted parents' full attention.
"We may not know exactly why we were able to have Equestrian Magic compared to Izzy and Sunny and those Pegasi if they don't have any or if they do but what other choice do we have? This may be our only chance or so to figure out what those Pegasi know and to see if they have magic left in them as you do along with us. if Tsukumaro and I can use Equestrian magic for some reason, then perhaps you and Dad can use it, too. Just trust yourselves as well as us and Sunny and you'll be able to fly, to take the first step and learn to spread your wings and truly fly, to be free. And, Dad will probably know what kind of magic he has on him as well. You and Dad, we're all here with you, always."
Nikki and James looked at each other as they tried to take in Sarah's words and they did their best to try and ignore the younger Pokemon and the dragon hatchlings' sad puppy faces; they're still opposed to experimenting with an unknown form of magic they have no idea on controlling or knowing what to do with it. But, even so, they knew that they had no choice as Sarah and Tsukumaro haven't and they had to take that chance, too.
Eventually, they nodded in agreement, and with the sad puppy faces from the younger Pokemon and the dragon hatchlings off of them as they cheered in response to their answer, Nikki and James prepared to see what they can do as a Pegasus and an Earth Pony.
Twenty minutes later, things were going about as smoothly as they had hoped but they did have the occasional bumps along the road while experimenting with any possible abilities with any hidden Equestrian Magic in the two.
James, after some particular experimenting with what they have and after being told by Sunny that Earth Ponies back then once had phenomenal strength that surpasses that of a Unicorn or Pegasus, discovered that he did have that sort of unnatural strength. He also discovered that he was much more in tune with the earth around him and could hear the thoughts and feelings of plants and animals. The adult man-turned-Earth Pony was stunned and in awe with his new abilities and he seemed to be amazed that he had something a normal human being wouldn't normally be capable of (even though he'd much rather return to his old self again when this adventure was over).
Nikki, in the meantime, soon discovered that her Pegasi Magic (after some considerable trial and error along with some careful coaching from Sarah's Flying Types) allowed her to walk on clouds naturally and essentially have control of the weather. She was even able to fly despite finding the process terrifying and difficult in the beginning although nobody wanted to take a greater chance at what she can really do with her wing power since she was still getting used to her new body.
It proved to be a success for everybody and they were satisfied with what they had found and accomplished. But, that also left them with a burning question that'll continue to plague them; how was it possible for the four to even have Equestrian Magic? Deciding not to dwell on it further, they all went to sleep, preparing for the trek up to Zephyr Heights.
The next day, everyone was carefully walking through a small ravine together. They had gotten up bright and early in the morning so they were able to get a considerable head-start on their way to Zephyr Heights. As they walked along, Izzy decided that it was a perfect time to strike up a conversation with her new friends.
"You know, not to freak you out or anything but you do happen to know that Pegasi can possibly steal your luminescence, don't you?"
"Wait, my lumi-what?" asked Sunny, stumped.
"Luminescence! You know, like your sparkle. Like, yours is...lavender."
"Don't even start," Eternatus grumbled to Izzy as he, Reshiram, and much of Sarah's dragons and Flying Types flew beside them. "I hate to be a party pooper to you but where'd you get that stupid idea from, anyway?"
"Huh?" Sunny blinked again.
Izzy, however, ignored him as she continued to speak with Sunny. "And, the happier you are, the brighter it shines!"
"Forgive me for being so blunt on that, Little Moonbow. But, I must tell you that what you're saying is ludicrous and downright nonsense," retorted Reshiram skeptically as he looked to the happy-go-lucky unicorn. "No pony species in this world would be capable of doing such a foolish thing and it's never been attempted given what we have seen thus far. And, do you happen to know anything about the Pegasi in person that has done anything as reckless as that?"
Izzy tried to come up with a response to Reshiram's retort as her ears twitched in hard thought (all while coming up with wacky faces while doing so). But, before she could think further, a whooshing sound was heard, attracting everyone's attention.
"Hey, what's that sound?" quizzed Hashimoto, looking around but finding nothing that made the noise as they went along the path to Zephyr Heights.
Everyone kept their eyes and ears open for the sound as they continued on but then, the whooshing sound from before sounded off once more. "There it is again," Sarafina pointed out.
"Who's there?" demanded Sarah, lighting up her horn and preparing to fight despite not knowing how in her new form as she followed a shadow that appeared. "I'll be lenient with you, I'm not afraid to hurt you if you threaten my family, Izzy, and Sunny. Show yourself!"
The whooshing sounds were heard again and in the bright sun, the shadow was making itself clearer despite the mist around them upon their slow but careful ascent up the mountain. The princess squinted as best she could and she could make out the silhouette of another Pegasus just as another whoosh filled the air and the shadow zipped by across the cliffs, startling Izzy and Sunny.
Sarah didn't have time to react as the Pegasus knocked some rocks loose from the cliff above them, sending them tumbling down their way and scaring both Sunny and Izzy into running, surprising Sarah and her family.
"Girls, wait! Don't run, we have to stick together!" cried Sarah, she and her family quickly galloping, running, and flying after the frightened mares.
As they ran ahead, Sunny looked back to see that the Pegasus that scared her and Izzy off was hot on their heels.
"Hurry!" she called to everyone behind her as they soon reached the edge of a cliff that had appeared to have been a landslide at one point.
Seeing the Pegasus catching up to the group, Winter and Shadow cursed and decided to grab the two mares before they flew them over to a rocket edge. Nebby and their dragon friends along with the other powerful reptiles followed their lead as he carried the younger Pokemon, they and the dragon hatchlings following suit, and Cressela, Danny, Danielle using Psychic to help their trainer/human mother's other and larger Pokemon get up the landslide (sans Eternatus and her Flying Types).
James and Tsukumaro managed to scale the landslide along with Sugarcoat, Shortcake, and Siren while Sarah and Nikki were able to flutter over it (the former managing to get some practice in during the previous night as well).
They managed to regroup on the top of the cliff, all of them unknowingly reaching Zephyr Heights at the same time, all of them relieved to be alive from their near-death experience and who nearly killed them.
Seeing Izzy and Sunny safely in Shadow and Winter's grasp, the princess quickly rushed over to them. "You okay, girls?" she asked, looking them all over.
"We're fine, Sarah, thanks," panted Sandy in relief.
The group then looked back over the cliffside after they caught their breath, seeing nothing but a sea of clouds below them before they all exchanged looks, wondering who would be crazy enough to try and kill them all just now. But, the adrenaline rush they were feeling wasn't over as they were soon greeted by the Pegasus that supposedly attacked them, revealing itself from the clouds.
The new Pegasus startled Sunny and Izzy as it approached, the two of them screaming as they hugged each other, sandwiching Sarah in between them. Everyone watched as the Pony swooped down, then over their heads, landed on several nearby rocky ledges, and then perched herself atop a nearby rock, revealing itself in a display of pride and glory found only in an Equestrian Pegasus.
The Pegasus looked to be female and based on her appearance, she was white with silver hooves. In contrast to Nikki and Sarah's wings, her own wings are covered in long and light blue and lavender feathers, and her mane (resembling gelled hair) and tail (at an average length) are both a hot pink with aqua and pink streaks. She is discovered to have turquoise eyes with pink eyebrows and her Cutie Mark on her flank showed a pink lightning bolt with a yellow crown resting on top.
Izzy and Sunny couldn't believe what they were seeing. "Another real Pegasus!" gasped Sunny in awe.
"No way, just like Mistress Nikki?!"
"Now, that's an entrance," Hashimoto admitted.
"If only she didn't try to kill us if she threw those boulders at us," snorted Siren, thinking she nearly killed the entire group.
"What is with that ludicrous hairstyle?" admitted Sarah's Rapidash in surprise.
The Pegasus relaxed herself and then gasped, seeing the entire group before her. "Whoa! Check it out, Pokemon and dragons, after all this time? Two unicorns, a Pegasus, an Earth Pony, and a Pegasus-Unicorn hybrid-an Alicorn, like in the legends?! Together?" the Pegasus commented, impressed.
"Well, now, this day just got a whole lot more interesting..."
Suddenly, before anybody could answer, they all heard the sound of metal clanking and running hooves coming from nearby them along the path to Zephyr Heights, seeing two Pegasus guards coming around the corner. The sight of them frightened the Pegasus before them and prepared to take off before she looked at the two mares and their friends, "Don't tell them that you saw me."
Then, she quickly darted off, disappearing into the clouds as Izzy then called out after her, "There's no way we could!"
"Wow, we didn't even know her name. But, she seems nice. Is she cool or what?" buzzed Izzy excitedly to Sunny and Sarah, nudging them coolly.
"AAAAAHHH!"
A frightened scream called their and everyone else's attention as they turned and saw the two Pegasus guards before them, one of them between looking startled at the giant group before them and looking incredulous at her partner as the latter looked to be cowering behind his fellow guard.
"...Hello there," replied Sarah awkwardly, waving a hoof.
"Oh, Thunder, pull yourself together! Will ya?" groaned the blue female Pegasus guard.
"B-B-B-B-B-But, Zoom! Look at them, there are two Earth Ponies over there!" the green Pegasus guard, Thunder, whimpered.
"Ah, don't worry about them, they're harmless. They probably have peas for brains," snorted Zoom.
"We're standing right here, you know," commented James indignantly as he and Sunny threw offended glares at them.
"A-And, w-w-w-what about that big Pegasus?"
"She's a Pegasus, obviously, 'oi! She's one of us, you know."
"Oh, yeah? Then, how do you explain that ALICORN, THOSE DRAGONS, THAT UNICORN, AND ALL THOSE POKEMON, THOSE DEVILS WAITING TO ATTACK US?!" screamed Thunder, still in his panic as he pointed at Sarah, her family, and Izzy.
"Listen here, you bastard! Nobody makes that comment in front of-!" snarled Hydro impulsively before she was cut off by Winter and Shadow as they raised their wings at her, shocking them. "Winter, Shadow! You-!"
"Enough, we know that it's only natural for the pony to freak out upon seeing all of us here given they've seen our kind in years," pacified Shadow firmly but calmly, startling the two guards as they saw the dragons talking amongst themselves.
"We'd do well to see what they want with us and if we really mean any trouble to them so let's give them the benefit of the doubt first before we react," added Winter in agreement, making Hydro snort in disgust before she backed off and Hurricane soothed his little sister figure.
"I'd normally prefer to be originally called the Darkest Day back then. But, I'll be setting myself up with my pipsqueak as usual," commented Eternatus, startling Thunder again along with Zoom before she shook off the shock and turned to her partner.
"Well, have you brought the shield with you?"
"...Uh, what shield?"
"Didn't you read the guard guide...?"
"YES! Dugh, okay, no..."
"What?! You-! Why didn't-ARGH!" groaned Zoom, exasperated at her partner before she walked up to the confused and incredulous group, watching as they succumb to their xenophobia while she spreads her wings to try and look threatening (but failing). "Oh, very well. I've got this."
Soon, Sarah, Nikki, James, Tsukumaro, Izzy, and Sunny were crowded in an elevator, being escorted by Zoom, Thunder, and a few more Pegasus guards with Izzy, Tsukumaro, and Sarah having tennis balls on top of their horns. The latter two were confused by the use of tennis balls as locks for their magic but they decided not to question it.
"That's creative," commented Izzy about the tennis ball as Sunny just skimmed through her notebook again.
When they were taken to Zephyr Heights, Sunny and Sarah were stripped of much of their belongings their satchels, Sunny's Rapidash Guardians, and the latter's Pokemon half of her family (sans Magearna and her parents' Special Ops Squad (Tomoe Squad)) as they were forced back into their Pokeballs along with Nikki, James, and Tsukumaro's Pokemon (and the advisor's belongings as well) But, they weren't able to confiscate Sarah's heirlooms, her Dragon Blade, and the Dragon Heart Scepter, so they had no choice but to let her keep them.
They also couldn't bother to do anything to her dragon half of her family since they'd be both signing their death warrants by going up against them at any time and they don't have the means to subdue them. As they all couldn't fit in the elevator at once, they were simply ordered to follow the guards and their "prisoners", a task made easier with their ability to talk with them (much to their shock).
"That's right, be smug until we beat the damn snot out of you with Odin's fury, you creeps," snarled Charger.
"Charger, calm down," replied Rosa, trying her best to soothe the annoyed Rumblehorn.
"Man, I can't believe Sarah would be willing to have us all turned in peacefully even if those Pegasi were scared of all of us just as Maretime Bay's Earth Pony fraidy cats are," commented Dawn.
"It's hard for them to take us seriously since we not only dwarf them in terms of power despite their numbers but we dragons and Pokemon like Sunny's guardians and the rest of our family haven't been seen in years ever since they were kicked out until Sarah reasoned with them, Son," replied Melody.
"It would be best for them if we don't give them any more reason to be frightened of us and start antagonizing everyone for one reason or another," suggested Magearna as everyone took in the sights of Zephyr Heights from down below.
Looking down upon the Pegasi town, Sarah and her family with her have discovered that it almost looked like New York City as there were many food shops, alleyways, areas similar to Times Square, Madison Square Garden, and other sights similar to any locales on the real-life city, and theaters for movies and Broadway musicals.
The city even had a large TV billboard screen that depicted a newscast about a royal celebration being held in honor of the Pegasi Queen, Haven, and that the real treat of the celebration would be a performance of one of her two daughters, Princess Pipp Petals.
The screen then showed Pipp herself and everyone could see how she looked by her appearance - a light pink Pegasus with gold hooves (her legs having a slight gradation to a lighter link color on her feathers), fluffy white wings that are made out of soft, white feathers, and a wavy mane being swept up on one side and her average-lengthed tail in a similar wavy manner. She had kiwi-green eyes with violet eyebrows and while her Cutie Mark was obscured on the TV screen, she looked as though she was wearing a golden tiara with a green jewel and golden wheat encrusted on it.
Pipp simply smiled at her cheering fans, telling everybody that she has a brand new song dedicated to them that she was going to perform at the celebration. It meant a lot to her but not as much to her fans before she signed off on her live stream but that didn't matter as she was too excited to care.
Before long, the elevator arrived at the top floor of their current destination as it clicked open. "Move, now," barked Zoom, still uneasy with the dragons as they landed near the others.
"You betcha!" chirped Izzy in compliance.
But, her enthusiasm wasn't shared by Sarah and Sunny as they looked at the Pegasus and her fellow guards suspiciously. Sarah was surprised by what she was seeing; none of the guards could even fly as she and Nikki could and like the Earth Ponies and Unicorns, they didn't have any magic, too.
"Do you see anyone flying here besides Nikki and Sarah?" Sunny asked quietly but her question soon fell on deaf ears.
"They even have a castle!" Izzy exclaimed with a gasp, seeing the castle before them before they walked over.
"Uh, Mom, Dad, Tsukumaro... Did you notice anything strange about these Pegasi the moment we were brought here?" quizzed Sarah, seeing that not a single Pegasus was flying as she and Nikki could prior.
"Yeah, now that you mention it, Ponchita..."
"Yes, something is definitely wrong."
"Indeed, none of these Pegasi we're seeing here knows how to fly. Strange, very strange," pondered her adopted parents and Tsukumaro in surprise.
The walk through the castle took several minutes as they all walked through several hallways but at long last, Sarah, her family with her, Sunny, and Izzy were brought to the throne room with another squadron of non-flying Pegasus guards waiting for them until they took their places.
"Ahem, bow before our queen!" ordered Thunder, a few other guards blowing their trumpets at hand or hoof, sounding off a fanfare.
Magearna, the Tomoe Squad, the dragons, Sarah, Nikki, James, Tsukumaro, Izzy, and Sunny all watched as the guards bowed their heads in respect to their queen, first seeing a small, white, winged female Pomeranian appearing before them, sitting in front of the throne and scratching her head with one of her hind legs.
"Your Majesty," replied Izzy, bowing before the dog while getting a facehoof from Sunny and an amused eye roll from Sarah along with annoyed sighs from everyone else.
But, everyone watched on as spotlights were then shown from the ceiling above them, making the little dog yip in excitement as she watched. Sunny nudged Izzy upright to watch as well and in the background, the sound of upbeat music was soon heard. The group gathered in the throne room saw as three Pegasi soon came swooping down before they landed gently, lowering themselves to the throne as they flapped their wings.
As everyone decided to bow in respect to them, Sarah took a glance at the three Pegasi before them. The oldest one of the three was Queen Haven herself, a pale pink Pegasus with a blue and purple mane and tail, purple hooves, blue and purple wings, and ocean blue eyes while wearing a pair of sunglasses on her, a purple vest with a blue and gold necklace, and a crown of the same coloration.
The second was actually Princess Pipp who was the youngest of the small family of three. But, to Sarah's shock, standing with them was the same mysterious white Pegasus that she and everyone else met at the cliffs leading to the city.
"Wait, that must be the Pegasus we met from earlier today! What's she doing here with them and why is she a princess like me...?" she thought.
"Hi, new friend!" Izzy waved impulsively to the mysterious Pegasus happily, the pony in question shaking her head frantically and quietly pleading with her to not get her involved.
"Guards, state your business, and please make it quick. We're on a very tight schedule today and before the celebration, Cloudpuff needs his pedicure," Queen Haven ordered, wanting to know what's going on. "Pipp needs to rehearse soon and I need to practice my laugh for the celebration. HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Ahem, nope, still not right, oh..."
"Your Highness! We found these intruders scampering around in our territory, one of them having a gigantic amount of Pokemon that we've just confiscated," replied one of the guards as he and the still-antsy Thunder presented the group before her.
Queen Haven lowered her glasses and balked in shock to see Sarah, her family joining her right now, Sunny, and Izzy along with Magearna and Tsukumaro, Nikki, and James' Pokemon (who the guards failed to confiscate), present with them.
"AH, IMPOSSIBLE! Two Unicorns, a hybrid, Earth Ponies, POKEMON, AND, DRAGONS! Here, in Zephyr Heights!" she gawked.
"Hold on! We've got them all under control, your Honor!" reassured Zoom quickly to her.
"And, we've deployed the shields on them before they could do anything, at least until the hybrid made a deal with us peacefully involving this," Thunder added, gesturing to the balls on Izzy, Tsukumaro, and Sarah's horns.
"Is this an attack on the night of our royal celebration? Why are you all here, who sent you fools?" demanded Queen Haven suspiciously before she gasped. "HAH! Nobody must know about their presence, they must not know they're here!"
"Sorry, Mom, forgive me," thought Pipp for she had already started casting a livestream of what had transpired in the throne room with the mysterious Pegasus, showing the group on screen, resulting in her mother to reassure the citizens that they've been captured and she'll protect them and angrily forcing Pipp to cancel the stream.
"Excuse me, Your Majesty?" Sunny asked. "We just wanted to ask you a few questions about magic. You see, we-"
"Guards! Please escort the prisoners to the dungeons until I can question them properly!" snapped Queen Haven, now having also succumbed to her xenophobia.
"And, what about the Pokemon and the Dragons we have from them?" questioned Thunder.
Queen Haven let out a huff as she gestured with a dismissive hoof wave and said, "Put them all in solitary confinement until we exile them for being in our presence and confiscate the book while you're at it!"
"W-What?! NO!" gasped Sunny in horror, the mysterious Pegasus gasped in shock at how far her mother was willing to go to do something to protect their citizens, even if it didn't feel right to her.
"HEY! That's not fair!" Dart spat furiously, she and her brothers snapping at Queen Haven as the Pegasi gasped at hearing her talk before her brothers pitched in, also angry.
"You're a big, fat bully!" agreed Pouncer.
"You're a monster!" snarled Ruffrunner.
"NO! What are you doing?!" Sarah gasped in shock, horror, and utter outrage. "Don't you know that you're just going to kill off my family by kicking them out?!"
"Oh, please! We're all better off without those ugly createns, young lady! You don't seem to realize but you've thrown your lot in with them the moment you and your friends met them and became one of them in the process," scoffed the arrogant Pegasus queen.
"Haven't you known the trouble they've brought to us years ago, the legends that told of their terrifying power and threatening to kill us with their mighty strength and unholy presence? Everything that Ponykind once thought good of them was gone the moment they turned on us and when we finally realized the extent of the power we had on our hooves with them still around! Who knows who would be willing to target us by using those same beasts and what good will it do to us just to consider living alongside those wretched beings with them? Life with those menacing creatures will be a living nightmare for us, that's a fact! Everypony knows that they're all nothing but monsters! Worthless, savage, deadly beasts are what they all are and that will never change! So, let me be the first to say to you and your friend that you're better off without them, it's for your own good!"
Unfortunately, her rant about the dragons and Pokemon and how they were deemed to be nothing but monsters to the Pegasi was a step too far in Sarah's eyes. The little human-turned-alicorn princess couldn't stand to hear Queen Haven continue to demean the two species she saw as friends and the insults that extended to her family as angry tears filled her eyes and her rage built up. Her party was growing worried as they knew she would explode and go on her own extreme tangent on Pipp's mother if she wasn't careful with her emotions.
"Oh, dear, I was hoping this wouldn't happen to her!" squeaked Magearna worriedly as she saw Sarah preparing to blow up in her outrage and her rainbow aura appeared on her horn, giving off a rainbow glow that looked more violent.
"Wh-what's going on?!" Pipp stammered.
"W-w-w-What's she doing?!" Zoom demanded.
"Oh, you've done it now, partners," replied James, looking worried for his adopted daughter. "I think you all might want to cover your ears."
"S-s-s-s- STOP! D-d-d-d-Don't t-t-t-try a-a-a-anything stup-" Thunder began as he pointed his spear at Sarah and trembled with fear before he was cut off by Hydro as she screamed, "Just do it!"
Fearing that this could be big trouble for all of them, Magearna, the dragons, Tsukumaro, Nikki, and James braced themselves while the latter two got Izzy and Sunny to do the same, the mysterious also looking frightened as she followed suit.
Finally, when she couldn't handle it anymore...
"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Sarah finally let her emotions loose as the tennis ball on her horn shot off and ricocheted around the throne room as everyone ducked, screamed, and ran for cover, her rage boiling over as she couldn't take it anymore and her aura exploded, forcing everybody still standing to be knocked down hard. It looked as though that Sarah had finally reached the end of her rope with the ponies' xenophobia (despite not seeing the other Unicorns and how they would react) very early on as her rage-filled screaming can be heard for miles, the Pegasi down below hearing her as they all got shivers running down their spines.
When she had finished, she was breathing heavily, trying her best to calm herself down as the thought of her being permanently separated from her Pokemon and dragon family was too much for her to bear, let alone go through. Everyone else soon managed to pick themselves up and they saw the angered and devastated Sarah focusing her attention on the frightened Queen Haven, her own outrage dwarfed by the pissed-off alicorn's.
"How dare you say that Pokemon and dragons are nothing but monsters...!" she seethed as she took one step forward. "...How dare you demean my family as nothing but creatures when you haven't even seen what they can really do!"
"Stop right there!" shouted Zoom as she and Thunder blocked her off from Queen Haven, as she took two more steps forward and then glowered angrily at them before she continued, her angry tears streaming down her eyes.
"You would knowingly shackle my heart with banishing, killing off my own family, who are all helping me to find two very special people in my life that I wanted to see again after so long? Who would all do anything and everything, risking life and limb, just to ensure my safety and my happiness ever since I started meeting them?!"
Not wanting to look weak, she rubbed her tears off her face and continued glaring at the offending Pegasi (sans the mysterious Pegasus she and her family and new friends met earlier). "You're wrong about them; yes, they're everything you said but they're always so much more!" she continued to spit.
"You're speaking to the queen, Winged Unicorn!" snarled Zoom, getting angry herself. "Stand down right now and respect her or we'll either force you out of our kingdom or kill you now!"
"First of all, I'm actually an Alicorn, not just termed a winged unicorn. And, second, you'd be wise not to get in trouble with me because..."
She took a deep breath and told the Pegasi as she spread her wings, deciding it pointless to keep her true identity a secret anymore, "...I am a princess!"
While her family looked on sorrowfully for the little princess as she was forced into a position she didn't want to be in and thus, expose herself in the process, Izzy, Sunny, and the Pegasi with them all looked on and gasped in utter shock.
"WHAT?!"
"No way!"
"Say, what?!" Queen Haven and her daughters gasped, aghast and flabbergasted as Sarah continued again.
Izzy and Sunny were shocked after the bombshell was dropped; none of them knew that Sarah was a princess when she lied to them about where she and her family had come from and now that they did, along with finding out they didn't belong in Equestria, they didn't know what to say.
"...My name is Sarah, Princess Sarah Tomoe, the only daughter of my real parents - King Doug and Queen Delilah Tomoe. And, for your information, I do not tolerate nor appreciate the fact that you and all of the ponies living in this world besides Izzy and Sunny and a little bird in the room would demean the only family I have anywhere as monsters. You may think of them as such and I understand that I can't change your opinions but trust me when I say again that they're so much more since you haven't seen what they can really do and you only knew what you knew because you didn't even get to know them by taking the first step."
Feeling emotionally drained and wanting to get out of Zephyr Heights now, Sarah took her satchel back along with her Pokemon family and Sunny's Rapidash Guardian friends from the frightened and stunned guards that confiscated them.
"I see now that there's no point in helping ponies who have given in to their fears and pointless xenophobia reconnect with one another if any and all encounters are going to be like this. And, I suspect that the Unicorns, apart from Izzy, won't be as welcoming just as you guys and much of Maretime Bay besides Sunny all aren't. If it helps, we're leaving, goodbye..."
And, with that, she turned away in a drained huff as she led her worried family along with the greatly concerned Izzy and Sunny out of the throne room, leaving the shocked Pegasi behind. All but one, though, as the mysterious white Pegasus felt sorry for Sarah and quickly decided to follow them while grabbing Sunny's book in the process.
Once they were a good distance away from the throne room and in one of the large hallways, Sarah soon released her Pokemon and brought out Sugarcoat, Shortcake, and Siren before returning them to Sunny.
Then, she started to cry heavily as she hugged Blitz in relief and sorrow, her family feeling her pain as they came for a group hug while Sunny and Izzy sadly watched on.
"Oh, Sarah..." whimpered Izzy sorrowfully.
"Tsukumaro... Is Sarah really a princess?" asked Sunny, wondering if she chose the right words to ask.
Tsukumaro sighed solemnly as he faced the two ponies. "Yes, you heard right. What you've heard from my goddaughter is the truth. She's a princess from another world," he confirmed to them.
"Whoa...!" the two ponies gawked in awe and amazement.
"Please forgive us for deceiving you earlier but a friend of ours warned us about what happened to your world and the inhabitants living in including your own kinds and we didn't want to compromise the mission we were given from him by telling you who we are and why we're really here," replied Magearna as she broke from the hug and faced them as well, bowing apologetically.
"Yeah, we're sorry for lying to you about our origins but as Meagerna put in her own way, it was necessary for us to keep you in the dark and ensure that you don't know about our true purpose for your own good," agreed Shadow, coming to face them an also giving the two ponies an apologetic bow. "Above all else, please don't take it too harshly and blame Sarah for lying earlier."
Seeing that Sarah would have no alternative reason to lie to them and neither would her family since they all cared too much for each other and them to do so, Izzy and Sunny nodded warmly and understandably at them.
"We understand, I suppose what happened to her to cause her to break down like that must've been really painful," replied Sunny gently, just as the mysterious Pegasus came from around the corner and quickly hid herself away, deciding to eavesdrop on the conversation and discover why Sarah exploded as she did.
"But, what I don't understand is why, why did Sarah blow up like a giant volcano on a hot stove turned up to eleven?" pondered Izzy in her usual, optimistic way.
"Was she really that scared of losing her family when the Pegasi Queen wanted to banish them?" Sunny asked, her concern taking over.
Blitz wiped Sarah's tears as she tried and failed to pull herself together, still lost in her angst and tearful sorrowful fear of losing her family all over again as most of her Pokemon and dragons in her family continued to hold her to their comforting embrace. Tsukumaro could see that she was too emotionally distraught to tell them calmly herself so Tsukumaro sighed, deciding to tell them everything until Sarah would be ready to confirm his story herself.
Breaking off from the group hug, Nikki and James joined the trio, looking apologetic at the two ponies as they also knew they had to tell the truth. "Look, we're sorry for what had happened earlier and for Sarah exploding as she did but there's a reason why she doesn't want to lose everyone she loves again," said James.
"It's just, our daughter has been through so much throughout her life and she's had a previous life of hers ripped away by someone who's out to kill her after he was shamed and banished from her home for a crime he committed involving her," added Nikki remorsefully.
Sunny, feeling that what she and Izzy are about to listen would be a truly tragic story, wanted to know so that they can give her a hand in pulling through whatever's ailing her behind their backs. Even if it would not be the faint of heart, she wanted to help in any way they can and she could tell that Izzy wanted to off Sarah her support as well.
"Guys, Sarah, whatever it is... We can help, just tell us, please," she gently begged.
But, as the three adults were about to tell them Sarah's story, said princess had finally calmed down and approached them with Blitz, Curly, Silvally, Mai, Zeraora, Zorua, Keldeo, and Totem Luxray, deciding to tell Izzy and Sunny herself.
"Princess," Tsukumaro spoke, only for her to shake her head solemnly.
"I think it's best if they hear it from me," she told him, getting a reluctant nod.
"You really want to know?" she asked her pony friends to which the two of them replied with, "Yes."
Sighing and pushing her sorrow aside, she finally began her tragic story, one that would truly open their eyes to her about what she had to go through before coming to Equestria and see their royal friend in a whole new light. Recalling everything she had seen and was told throughout her time with her family and friends, she did her best to stay strong as she recounted each important detail in her story.
"Alright, I'll tell you... Many years ago, my ex-uncle, Lothor (formerly Donald Tomoe), attempted to have me killed when I was two weeks old so that he can have the throne for himself but my parents' Pokemon partners, the Tomoe Squad, saved my life and he was banished from our kingdom as a result. But, he returned with a vengeance with an evil syndicate he managed to create known as Team Eclipse and attempted to destroy us. My real parents and the Last King and Queen, Doug and Delilah Tomoe, were forced to send me to the future with the help of my godfather, Tsukumaro, to look after me. They gave me to my adopted parents, Nikki and James, for my own safety while they went back and sacrificed themselves to seal them away, or so we thought. Nobody knew what happened to them ever since until my family and friends found out that they're somehow still alive. Right now, we're on a journey to find them, guided by my parents' gift and my personal guardian intended to be given to me for my fifth birthday, Magearna. Until we can find out where they are and bring them back to my home, I can't afford to lose anybody I love, my family most of all..."
Izzy and Sunny were floored by what they heard as they tried to wrap their heads around how tragic and heartbreaking her story is. Even the mysterious Pegasus couldn't help but feel deeply touched from her hiding spot as a few tears welled in her eyes, now realizing that Sarah was going through a lot on her end and she went through painful things her fellow Pegasi, the Unicorns, and the Earth Ponies can only imagine.
"We were sent here to help you restore Equestria to what it once was while making sure to defend this world from an ancient evil that once plagued you all," finished Reshiram, knowing that Sarah is at her limit. "We knew of this world now because the princess' parents supposedly crossed over back then during their previous rule."
"And, as it appears, the Pegasi Queen has compromised everything by foolishly pushing the princess to the breaking point and making her trapped between wanting to help save Equestria as intended or leaving it behind and allowing Ponykind to rot away under its own fear and xenophobia of the unknown after they lost their magic," added Calyrex. "It seems that if we're to have any hope of succeeding, we need your help, now more than ever."
While the Pokemon joining the princess tried to comfort her as she was being overtaken by the painful memories of what she had to go through again along with the same heartwrenching loss she almost suffered through with losing her family, Sugarcoat, Shortcake, and Siren all approached her solemnly. They were also stunned by what Sarah told them, Izzy, and Sunny and they didn't know what to say.
"Sarah, I'm so sorry, I had no idea," began Sugarcoat.
"We all are, none of us knew the kind of pain you're going through, at all," Sugarcake agreed remorsefully. "We felt bad about losing Sunny's father, our old trainer, friend, and father figure before but having your life ripped away from you at such a tender age, we can't even begin to describe what it might be for us!"
"Me too, I can't imagine what'll happen if we were stripped out of Sunny and her father's lives and if he hadn't found and given us to Sunny," added Siren, extremely sympathetic. "But, if you now fully hate Ponykind for all this, even if you haven't yet seen what the Unicorns can do to strangers, Pokemon, and dragons, why would you decide to stay even after everything Queen Haven did just to save her own ponies?"
Sarah didn't know how to answer or what to tell him; she knew that her family came to Equestria in order to find Sunny and help her restore her home and rekindle the friendship and love between ponies, Pokemon, and dragons but after her meltdown and Queen Haven's hate-filled rant about the Pokemon and the dragons, she didn't know what to think anymore.
"Man... Sounds like you had a rough life back then before growing up in the future," replied a voice, making everyone turn to find the mysterious white Pegasus coming towards them and looking sympathetically at Sarah. "But, if you're still willing to help change the world for the better, count me in. I'm sorry for what my mother did to you guys but I hope you understand if you get past her rant about Pokemon and dragons. In the meantime...I have to talk to you."
"Princess?" greeted Sunny Starscout in surprise.
"Your majesticness," Izzy stammered. "Y-Y-Y-Your Graceful Highness, uh-!"
"Zipp, just, calm me Zipp. Zipp Storm," replied the Pegasus princess, Zipp Storm.
Sunny smiled, "Oh, okay, Zipp. Now, I'm Sunny, Sunny Starscout, and these are my friends."
"Izzy Moonbow!" added Izzy, still smiling before she gestured to Sarah and her family as the princess finally recovered. "You already know Princess Sarah and her family from earlier, don't you?"
"Well, now, at least someone in this modern-day death trap knows even a little sliver of kindness towards strangers," Inferno admitted, finding Zipp to be much more mature and kindhearted despite her once-proud exterior from before.
"She's got a lot of spunk and she nearly tried to kill us but I'm seeing that she's not all-in on the flashy, pristine royalty gig going on," Dawn (Midday Lycanroc) pointed out.
"I wonder why she didn't want to be called out by Izzy when she saw her earlier," pondered Beautifly.
"Who cares? At least, we know for sure that she's on our side by the looks of it," Oshawott smiled at Zipp.
"We'll see," Hydro snorted.
"Yeah, I'm more along those lines," Zipp replied before she looked around to see if they're alone before continuing. "Sunny, Izzy, I really need to ask you, Princess Sarah, and everyone else here something important...About magic."
"That's why we're here! Maybe you can tell us how yours works?" Sunny smiled again, speaking on behalf of everyone. "Izzy has no idea how the Unicorns lost their magic. Well, apart from my Galarian Rapidash friends-family, I mean, and Sarah and her family's. So, we thought, maybe-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Hold up, lost theirs? As in, no magic?" Zipp asked in surprise, getting headshakes from both Izzy and Sunny along with mostly everyone and Sugarcake, Siren, and Sugarcoat. "Well, that changes the game a lot."
She then turned to Nikki, curious about her own magic. "So, your name is..."
"Nikki, call me Nikki," replied the human-turned-Pegasus in question.
"Alright, Nikki. So, aside from your Pokemon and the dragon's special attacks and such, can you really fly? Do you still have your magic?"
"Yes, although, I'm not exactly sure how or why I was able to have it. Even Sarah, James, and Tsukumaro were also able to have Equestrian Magic in addition to Sunny's Rapidash outside of you Pegasi, the Earth Ponies, and the Unicorns. And, my daughter and I were barely able to know how to fly. We...honestly, don't know why that is... But, we hoped to find out soon before this world is lost forever. But, why aren't you and your fellow Pegasi able to fly just as we can?"
"I don't know, I've been thinking that a lot ever since I first met you guys hours ago and saw you two flying. Listen, I might have some information that could help. But, first, you need me to tell me about..." Zipp replied, reaching into her wings and pulling out Sunny's journal.
"My journal! Thank you, Zipp!" Sunny exclaimed happily as she reclaimed it. "I thought I'd never see it again."
"Wow, are you like a ninja or something?" asked Tepig in surprise.
"Yeah. And, to answer your question, my little piggy - sometimes, I feel like one. But, honestly, yes and no, I can be pretty sneaky when I want to be even though I don't practice Ninjutsu."
"Nice!" Izzy smiled at her, impressed. "I'm only medium sneaky."
"So, where did that come from and who was that sword and shield you have slung on you made for?"
"It's was my father's," replied Sunny, regarding her journal.
"They're the heirlooms of my birth parents, why?" Sarah added, curious as to why Zipp would be interested in the Sun Sword and the Moon Shield.
Zipp hummed before she replied while pointing to the star on the cover of Sunny's journal, "I think I've seen them before along with that star..."
But, before Zipp could continue, she was cut off by the sound of a robotic fanfare as they turned their attention to a couple of other Pegasus guards, rolling a red carpet along the floor. The Pegasus with them was Princess Pipp who was taking a selfie with her cell phone for her famous PippSqueaks social media account before her performance. As she walked along the red carpet, she was surprised to find her older sister with the group.
"Zipp, what are you doing here?" she asked, shocked to see her hanging around with the Pegasi's so-called "enemies". "Mom said to stay away from them!"
"Right. Then, why are you here, anyway?" Zipp retorted, smirking.
"Hmph, for the content."
She then posed with a duckface for her selfie, prompting Izzy to quickly wrap her hoof around Sunny and bring the surprised Earth Pony mare close for the shot. But, this left the four humans-turned-ponies before them in absolute shock, all of them slack-jawed and dumbstruck that Pipp was able to work a cell phone as a normal human can in their world and even their family was flabbergasted.
"W-W-W... N-No way! Princess Pipp is actually using a cell phone?!" Sarah thought, her eyes twitching. "But, h-th-that's not possible! There's no way she can use it with just her bare hooves!"
"Uh, Princess, can I ask you something?" pitched in Sunny. "Aside from Sarah and Nikki, why isn't anypony here flying?"
Sunny's honest question threw Pipp for a loop as she gasped, trying to reel herself in as she regained her composure but failing to keep up the act in front of the others as she replied with nervous chuckles, "Well, ahem, everypony here knows that only royals can fly, of course."
"WHAT?!" Sunny and Izzy balked in shock while some of Sarah's dragons and Pokemon comically fell with exaggerated and dramatic groans at her rebuttal.
"Seriously?" Sarah asked, even more dumbfounded.
"That can't be right, why would she put down her own fellow Pegasi from below like that? Why lie to us like that?" Tsukumaro questioned quietly, confused by what she's saying to the group. "The Pegasi we've been seeing can't fly given what we've seen since coming here. Why would she say that only Pegasi royals know how to fly when that same problem could ail her and her own family as well?"
"Tsukumaro, it's okay. I can fly, as we found out, and I'm not royalty in one sense but we can't think too much on that now," chirped Nikki gently, shaking her head so as to keep him from questioning anything further, to which he relented with a nod.
"That's a lie!"
"We dragons were flying just fine along with Sarah and her Flying Types earlier!" snapped an offended Latios and Latias as Pipp ignored them (despite clearly hearing their angry retorts) and continued her bragging with Zipp not sharing her enthusiasm.
"I know it's not fair but that's just the way it is. If there was some way we could teach the citizens to fly, you know we would in a wing-beat. Right, Zipp?"
"Yeah, in a wing-beat," snorted Zipp sarcastically.
Before their conversation could go on, Pipp's phone vibrated as she realized what she was about to miss. "Oh, dress rehearsals. Gotta go, and so should you," Pipp replied, gesturing Zipp to leave before she left with her guards, singing as she did so.
Turning her attention back to Sunny and her companions, Zipp decided to speak, feeling that Pipp and their mother really put them down hard with what they said to them. "I'm really sorry about my Mom earlier, guys. Especially you, Sarah, what happened in the past really affected all of Equestria. And, out of all the ponies in the land, as far as I know, she's been taking it pretty hard. Never got over it, really," she said apologetically, getting an understanding nod from the princess.
"So... What did happen?" Sunny quizzed curiously.
"I'll have to show you something. Follow me," Zipp replied, leading the way to a place in the palace that only she knew about as everyone wondered what she had in mind to show them.
At the same time, outside of the borders leading to Zephyr Heights, Hitch had just managed to climb the steep cliffs on the mountains but he was exhausted from his long journey as he had to catch his breath, making not stopped since leaving Maretime Bay to get Sunny. His lackluster arrival startled and caught the attention of the mountain bunnies living in the area and they already took a liking to him as they cuddled him. Even if he's a hardened sheriff despite his own xenophobia towards Unicorns and Pegasi as well as dragons and Pokemon besides Earth Ponies, Hitch Trailblazer did have a caring side to him when Maretime Bay's citizens respect him for his hard work and being a beacon of light for them in safeguarding their home which also garnered him attention from the local critters there.
But, despite their comfort, he remembered his mission involving Sunny and her betrayal so he had to continue before he ended up finding a familiar sticker of some sort on the ground as he picked it up.
"Litter-or, a clue..." he mused as he proceeded to investigate, finding one of Izzy's mane hairs hanging on a branch and a nearby feather, tasting it as his eyes narrowed, all while his bunny fan club grew and followed him. "Hmm, Unicorn hair. Pegasi..."
He then proceeded to move on, placing his ears on the ground to listen for anything, only to confirm, "Track's gone cold..."
Nevertheless, Hitch Trailblazer continued to move on, his optimism undeterred as he shook his head. Admittingly, even though he made his vow the previous night clear, he still didn't want to hurt or punish Sunny given that they're childhood friends and that she was only doing what she feels is right after meeting Izzy, Sarah, and her family. But, Hitch also knew that Sunny had crossed a line with him just as he did with her and for them, there is no turning back. He couldn't let whatever personal feelings get to him since he had a mission to do; Sunny betrayed him and her own people/ponies and now, she's going to pay.
"Sunny, Sunny, Sunny, Sunny... Did you really think you've escaped from me, even after everything we've been through? I thought, like Sprout, you, of all ponies, would understand my feelings and why I had to do what I did! Do what was right for all of us back at Maretime Bay! 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!"
He was soon interrupted by a round of high-pitched chirping that sounded like cheers and applause, making him look down as he saw a whole herd of bunnies, clapping admiration of his vow.
"Oh, thank you! No, no, no, you're too kind!" he chuckled to them modestly before he continued and one of the bunnies urged its companions to quiet down and listen as he said, "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..."
But, he was soon cut off when the bunnies, sounding very surprised, interrupted him and pointed him to Pipp's earlier livestream, showcasing cameos from Sunny, Izzy, Sarah, and her family.
"...Gotcha...!" Hitch sneered, motivated to finish his mission.
Back inside the castle, Zipp continued to lead her new friends to her intended destination, sliding a grated platform they came across which revealed a lift beneath them. Spreading her wings, Zipp glided down gently before she landed on the lift and turned to the group above her.
"Watch your step!" she warned, as everyone else hopped into the lift save for Sarah's dragons and her flying types as they flew down and Cresselia, Danny, and Danielle carried everyone else that the lift couldn't fit with Psychic.
Admittingly, Zipp was glad that her home was big enough to include Eternatus as well given his giant size and if it didn't, she knew it would've been a real headache trying to get him to basically squeeze inside. She then pushed a lever to activate the lift and it took herself and her friends to the floor of a giant room which is revealed to be an ancient ruin of sorts.
"What... What is this place?" Keldeo gasped in awe as they were led inside from the lift by Zipp.
"Where are we?" asked an awestruck Sunny.
"Pretty, NYA!"
"We had no idea this even existed besides you, Zipp," admitted Mulan, surprised as she and Absol looked the ruins all over.
"Looks like we're in some kind of ruins of an old building from an age long past, so to speak," replied Totem Luxray, amazed by what he and his, Kion, and Kiara's pride are seeing.
"This is ancient history before us that most ponies today won't know about, darlings! Beautiful!" gushed Espeon before she brushed against an old poster advertising Bridlewood and sneezed from the dust. "ACHOO! Though, it could use some dusting..."
"It's amazing, right? I'm pretty sure it's some sort of station for when Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pokemon, and dragons used to visit Zephyr Heights," the rebellious princess answered with Sunny looking at a poster advertising a visit to her home with Izzy following her and the others close behind. "It's like everypony just...forgot."
"Nice digs," quipped Eternatus.
"And, after some time when the magic was gone, this was abandoned until you found it recently?" Sarah gasped, stunned as she and everyone else saw proof of what Equestria in this new age used to be like before the three pony tribes separated.
Sunny could hardly believe her eyes as she returned to the Maretime Bay poster and wiped the dust off of a stick-like thing painted on it, revealing what looked to be her lighthouse. In addition, when she looked up, her heart fluttered with happiness and pride to see a large worn-out and shredded billboard above the group and the poster saying, "Visit Bridlewood." But, what further elevated her hopes for Equestria's real future was that it featured a Unicorn, a Pegasus, and an Earth Pony exploring Izzy's woodland home together. If she needed any proof that the ponies deserve to be together and that they can still bring back the Pokemon and dragons somehow, this was that proof she was looking for.
"This is proof, guys! We did it, this is what we're looking for! Our common hope for all of Equestria!" Sunny cheered excitedly, walking up to Zipp's side as everyone looked at a poster depicting Pegasus flying while also advertising Zephyr Heights. "My dad was right, all of Ponykind did use to be friends and live under the same sky at some point in time, TOGETHER!"
"Must be really weird being the only Pegasi that can fly," she then quipped to Zipp, who looked extremely conflicted before sighing regretfully.
With that, she decided to speak with them about something she decided to tell them, sighing with remorse. "Everyone, I have something to say. I want to explain something that you ought to know, especially since Nikki and Sarah are the only ones among us that can really fly," she told them, making them look at her in surprise.
"What's the dealio, Zipp?"
"What's eating you?" Spectrier and Glastrier asked in confusion.
"Zipp, is there something you know that you're not telling us?" Kaji asked her gently but firmly.
Zipp sighed remorsefully again and nodded, knowing that Kaji was right about what he said as she confessed, "You see, the truth is... We can't fly, either, we've been really faking it."
Everyone gasped in surprise and shock while some of the others expressed angered realizations as Zipp confessed to what is essentially the Pegasi's Big Lie. Unlike Sarah and Nikki when they experimented with their Equestrian Magic, Zipp and her fellow Pegasi couldn't find it in themselves to fly since they don't have any magic as well.
"I knew your kind was up to something about that!" gawked Talonflame in angered shock.
"Say, what?!"
"So, that's it!"
"How could your kind-?!"
"Fake flying?! Can you really do that?"
"Of all the-!" spluttered Star, Azelf, Hashimoto, Cufant, and Wyveon.
"Faking it?!" gasped Sunny, shocked by the truth as Izzy, Sarah, Nikki, James, and Tsukumaro were also aghast. "B-But-but, how?!"
"You'd be surprised what some wires and good lighting from the right spots would do," Zipp answered, sulking as she came across a blackboard that had mathematical equations and a diagram of a Pegasus' wing that she did herself which could be her research on a Pegasus' magical flight. "But, honestly, I'm just so sick and tired of living that ridiculous lie, what good did come out of it in the end?"
Sarah and the Swords of Justice frowned sympathetically, seeing how miserable Zipp was feeling by being forced to live in a fantasy and feeling that it's not meant for you if it's really not what one hopes for. For her, it didn't help either that the Pegasi Big Lie was fed into her family's own subjects and she could tell for much of her life growing up that her mother and Pipp have deluded themselves into believing it.
"I can tell; most royals are often like that but even if it's for the greater good or a noble cause, there's no point in lying to everybody about it."
"She's right, the truth is always easier to accept than a well-meant lie."
"Can't say I blame them when it comes to that but they should've known better than to believe that bottom-dwelling trash talk."
"And, you're afraid that if your subjects find out about that horrible lie, they'll turn against you because you've given them a sense of false hope for what they desired most in their lives."
"Which would mean it'll be the end of you and your family once everybody finally knows somehow," they deduced sympathetically to Zipp, who just nodded in confirmation and gratitude to their comfort.
"But, why, Ms. Zipp?" asked Mai worriedly. "Why go through the act with your sister and mother, anyway?"
"It's kinda personal but... Mom usually told us that it's to make our subjects feel safe which she thinks is important since I'm the heir to her throne, being her oldest child and Pipp will be mine years later. But, the thing is, I hate that... I don't want to be queen; all those speeches, that event planning, the royal gatherings, it's... Well, it's just not my dig, it was meant to be hers! I didn't ask to become queen, never have, never will! Pipp has her performance career and her fans but me - I don't really have anything. I'm nothing but one of the royal daughters to everyone, I'm still searching for what'll make me somepony, somepony special for reasons other...For other than the crown."
"You mean, you're searching for something that'll let everybody know the real you and not your royal status?" Camo blinked in surprise.
"So, that's why you were a little rusty with your sister when she lied to us as she did!" Twilight said.
"And, why she flew in those videos of herself," added Nova thoughtfully.
"I get it, you feel like you're not ready or you don't want to take your mother's place and be queen someday," frowned Sarah sadly, feeling sorry for Zipp in her current predicament. "That's a given since you being distant from your family showed that you're no longer willing to go along with the Big Lie, right?"
Zipp just nodded. "Exactly, that's why I come down here – to get away from all of that, and...well, to do this."
To show what she meant to everybody, with a canter and a leap, Zipp did some parkour as she landed on a lever, activating whatever machinery is in the room, turning on a giant fan she found long before meeting the gang to spring to life, blowing a gust of air to carry her up high as she spread her wings. Zipp laughed happily as she did some flips and a few loops as she made use of the current blowing at her; as everyone saw, she felt happier and free from her stringent of a royal lifestyle and living the Big Lie 24/7.
"Wow!"
"Awesome!"
"Phenomenal!"
"Amazing!"
"Impressive!"
"Whoa, her sparkle is so bright now!" Sunny, Sarah, Tsukumaro, Nikki, James, and Izzy cried and squealed in delight as Zipp glided back down to them and out of the fan's air current.
"But, that's not why I brought you all here. This is what I wanted to show you," she explained, turning everyone's attention to what was left of a large stained glass window on the wall that she pointed, showing a familiar pink star on the top.
"Oh, my stars...!" gasped Sunny, looking down on the star on her journal's cover and seeing the stars on it and the window match.
"This was made a long, long time ago. When we still had magic and we all lived happily together along with the Pokemon and dragons of this world..."
"It's beautiful!" Izzy commented ecstatically.
Everyone looked at the other stained glass windows that had been scattered and uncovered by Zipp when she first discovered the area and were in awe of what was depicted in some legends pertaining to them to Ponykind before they were lost. But, one picture on the window caused Sarah to gasp in shock for on the window, there was a picture of two Alicorns (male and female) holding her family's Sun Sword and Moon Shield together in the air.
"Mom, Dad! Tsukumaro, guys, come over here!" she shouted. "Are those Alicorns really-?!"
"What is it, honey?" asked Nikki as she, James, Tsukumaro, Sunny, Zipp, and Izzy joined her.
"Sarah, are you okay?" quizzed Sunny, concerned as Sarah trembled.
"NO! I-It can't be, it's them! It really is!" gasped Tsukumaro as he saw the window picture of King Doug and Queen Delilah as Alicorns and with their heirlooms and also began to tremble. "My Lord and Lady, they're both depicted on that window!"
"No way!" gasped Izzy.
"Boy, there's something that's a sign to their having been here before!" added James, gawking in shock.
"Guys, are you seeing King Doug and Queen Delilah on that picture over there?" replied Zipp as she came alongside and smiled sadly at the two Alicorns depicted on the window. "Legend has it that they were the greatest Allies Equestria had ever known back then, spreading love and friendship all over the land during their time when... They suddenly vanished, without warning."
"Oh yeah, I know that..." replied Sarah, her sorrow taking over as she remembered what happened to her real parents.
Sunny then looked towards a picture of a Pegasus pony with some sort of wing-like crystal to help spread light, love, friendship, and cheer to Equestria alongside Doug and Delilah, the crystal getting her attention. Turning away from the window, however, Sarah decided to look amongst the stained glass pictures that had been scattered around the area for any more hidden leads on her parents.
"What's that?" she questioned.
"That's the Pegasus Crystal known as the Wings of Loyalty," Zipp replied knowingly. "It's part of my mom's crown."
"Hmm, where's the Unicorn Crystal?" Sunny quizzed herself, seeing that the picture of a Unicorn helping to bring peace to the world was missing something, like another crystal to go along with the Wings of Loyalty.
But, just as she found the crystal in the form of a diamond, and showed her new friends how it fits with the Wings while coming up with a plan to bring back magic to Equestria...
"Uh, guys...?" Sarah spoke up, getting everyone's attention as they turned to Sarah as she found a stained glass window that depicted Pokemon and dragons fighting together against a menacing Alicorn mare. "I think you might want to take a look...
Everyone came over and looked at the picture she found, most of them gasping in stunned horror and shock as they saw what she saw.
"No way, those are Pokemon!" gasped Sugarcake, seeing the pokemon on the picture along with the dragons. "And, dragons, too!"
"Is that an Alicorn?" gawked Sugarcoat, seeing the Alicorn mare and what a monster she is. "She sorta looks like you in a way, Sarah."
"But, it's definitely not friendly and I don't think Sarah had anything to do with this," replied Siren as he observed the mare as well. "It looked like that mare was out for something but not just blood."
"Zipp, what is this? What did this window tell you when you found it?" Sarah asked the rebellious princess.
"Oh, that... That window is actually the Legend of Scarlet Nightmare," Zipp replied, looking grim.
"The Legend of Scarlet Nightmare?" echoed Sunny in surprise and confusion. "I've never heard that before."
"It's a legend that Equestria would never forget; it was the catalyst that started the decline of magic until our world is what you see now," Zipp lectured, still looking grim but with a twinge of sorrow as she looked out to the horizon on the open part of the window from before.
"Many moons ago in our world, Pokemon and dragons had once lived together in harmony with us ponies when we were still all united. The dragons were our greatest companions as they brought us rain and peace along with our Pokemon partners, families, friends. It was paradise as they were the protectors of Ponykind. But, everything changed with the appearance of Scarlet Nightmare, an Alicorn of terrifying power most know as the 'Ancient Evil' who's dark magic allowed her to create Shadow Pokemon and Shadow Dragons, creatures of darkness that fed on the fear, hatred, anger, mistrust, xenophobia of everyone around them, multiplying as they turned anything and anypony into stone. The Pokemon and Dragons all came together and fought the best that they could for us but it wasn't enough and we nearly lost all of them to her dark magic..."
Zipp looked down with a heavy sigh as she continued, "That's, believe it or not, when King Doug and Queen Delilah managed to banish her and her creations after a long-fought battle, restoring everypony and all of the dragons and Pokemon to life. But, that peace wasn't to last; after she was defeated, Ponykind feared both dragons and Pokemon and the danger they would pose despite the fact that they've been our loyal friends, family, and so much more... And, as you know, the rest is history."
"So, after they were banished, the magic started to disappear from our world," Sunny realized before she slowly turned to Sarah, her adopted parents, and Tsukumaro in utter surprise. "Their being banished must've tied into the loss of Equestrian Magic with us and since you guys came here together, you've had your own Equestrian magic all along! This, th-this is incredible!"
"Yeah, and what's even crazier, those dragons here in the legend are nothing like the dragons of Berk!" stated Star in shock as she looked at the dragons in the picture. "They looked like those dragons from that Disney movie, Raya and the Last Dragon, that we once saw!"
"And, even those Shadow Pokemon and Dragons sound like the Drunn from that movie!" Skylar added, startled from what she heard.
"Do you know what happened to them after they were kicked out, Ms. Zipp?" Tsukumaro pondered.
"All I know is that they now live in a place called the PokeDragon Isles, just north of Bridlewood," Zipp answered before she solemnly went to a second tapestry on the room's right side and pulled it back. "But, not all of them made it to the Isles..."
Sans Zipp (solemnly smiling at the statues), everyone was left in awe and bewilderment from what they saw behind the tapestry she pulled back; behind it there stood eight stone statues (four Pokemon and four dragons together). With the dragons, they all resembled the dragons from Raya and the Last Dragon in terms of their appearance, all of them having long, spindly bodies along with hair serving as their manes and one or two horns on their heads but shaped differently to differentiate them.
As for the Pokemon statues alongside them, they had some faded color on them in contrast to their grey bodies and they all looked different with their appearances as well. But, their stonified forms made it hard to see the details on their bodies, and the only thing they can point out was that they're all the same size as Umbreon's daughters.
"Everyone, I want you to meet my family's Pokemon and dragon friends. The Pokemon here are as follows - Helioseon:the Solar Eclipse Pokemon; Thundereon: the Thundering Pokemon; Freezeon:the Brain Freeze Pokemon and Seleneon: the Lunar Eclipse Pokemon, Helioseon's sister."
But, the sad frown on Zipp's face prior returned as she looked from the Pokemon statues to the dragon statues as she introduced them, "And, my dragon friends, Tamu, Sefu, Drake..."
She then turned to the final dragon as she tried to keep her emotions in check. "And, Ryu, he's my big brother and the one who understood me the most. I miss them..." she finished, wiping away a tear.
"Incredible! So, besides us with Sarah, Tsukumaro, Nikki, and James, these four dragons and four Pokemon with you in this room are the last ones to ever stand on this land even when in stone," Kurma observed in awe.
"I never knew there were still dragons and Pokemon living in Equestria in some form," breathed Blossom, stunned as she looked at the stonified Seleneon.
"We all didn't, honestly," Sokka admitted, also amazed while he, Persian, and Kurma checked out the statue of Tamu as Zipp smiled softly in response.
"Yeah. See that girl along with Thundereon - that's Tamu, she has the power of Invisibility, my Mom's closest friend, her sister under the skin and feathers. Sefu, she's best at Illumination, always was a great night light for Pipp and I when we were fillies and on dark nights. Drake - a shapeshifter, always had a knack for putting on a show as someone else whenever he can. And, Ryu - he brings the rain."
"And, these guys became statues to save everybody back then?" Izzy quizzed, thunderstruck at the sight of the dragon and Pokemon statues.
"Were they really that special to you, being part of your family?" asked Shadow with a gentle and sympathetic frown.
Zipp nodded again. "I was devastated along with Pipp when we heard the news that Ryu and the others gave themselves up to save everyone with Doug and Delilah's help, even more so when I found them like this when I discovered these ruins. When Scarlet attacked and Tamu was turned to stone, helping to save all of us, Mom lost it. She felt like she lost a part of herself that day, Tamu was everything to her just as we and our subjects were."
Curious as to know what exactly transpired during the last battle between Equestria's final defenders and Scarlet, Zorua and Mischief went over to Ryu's statue form, carefully climbed up his body, and then, gently touched his chest as they tapped into their illusion flashbacks and showed everyone what had happened in the chaotic struggle that ensued.
(Flashback)
It was the tail end of the Legend of Scarlet Nightmare and everywhere in Equestria, her forces of Shadow Dragons and Shadow Pokemon spawned throughout the world and laid waste to everything that crossed her path, turning every last pony of all species including the dragons and Pokemon that swore to defend and protect their friends and families was turned to stone and destroying many buildings in cities and towns and other landmarks until nothing was left.
All except for one tiny spot, a moderate amount of land including a battered castle at the top of a mountain that would eventually form the basis of Zephyr Heights, a storm raging in the background as a group of ten were fighting against Scarlet herself along with whatever of her forces joined her. She looked to be a tall, red Alicorn mare standing at 8'00" with black armor, a flowing red mane coated in a black transparent layer along with bat-like wings and a horn while cackling at the defenders as they were thrown together and surrounded.
The heroes being rag-dolled in the fight were shown as Helioseon, Thundereon, Freezeon, Selenon, Tamu, Sefu, Drake, and Ryu, who were the last dragons and Pokemon still standing. With them are King Doug and Queen Delilah (both of them as alicorns), also being thrown to them after their own scuffle with some of Scarlet's minions.
"Come on, Ryu, you and your friends have lost! Face the truth, I'm the only one in this world who will lead this world to eternal glory," sneered Scarlet, taking delight into the heroes' predicament as they tried to figure out what to do. "Why fight and delay the inevitable, those 'princesses' and their friends foolishly thought they can take on me since they believed that 'friendship is magic' and it can solve all problems, HA! How pathetic...!"
Everyone gathered on the heroes' side looked around as they saw the situation looking more and more hopeless and Delilah and Doug looking hopelessly at their dragon and Pokemon friends.
By the sound of Scarlet's gloating, it seemed as though the original defenders of Equestria were killed by Scarlet and were no match for her evil might which left them and their eight friends as the only ones surviving to end the war against the monstrous Alicorn.
But, rather than accept defeat, Helioseon and Ryu (the latter remembering Zipp and wanting his little sister safe from harm) decided to take the first step in the heroes' last stand against their common enemy. They weren't going to let everyone they know and love die by her mad hooves and since she even hinted that she'll do the same to Zipp and the rest of their family, now it's personal.
"Not in a million years," retorted Ryu quietly.
As he said this and shared a knowing nod with the Solar Eclipse Pokemon, he cupped a nearby puddle of water in a small crater on the floor, clasped them together with Helioseon transferring his power to whatever he's creating, and together, they made three crystals: the Wings of Loyalty, the Unicorn Crystal being the Unicorn's Eye, and the Earth Pony Crystal called the Earth Pony Hope.
Seeing what Ryu did and knowing what this would mean for the Ponies, Pokemon, and dragons that were to be brought back and/or survive Scarlet and her wrath, they knew they had to make the ultimate sacrifice. United in their cause, Ryu's siblings, Thundereon, Freezeon, and Seleneon all transferred their power to the crystals and when they had finished, they turned to Doug and Delilah, trusting them to finish the job for them.
The two thunderstruck Alicorns didn't know what to think as they were about to have a major responsibility thrusted on their shoulders but Ryu and Helioseon just smiled encouragingly at them as the former handed the two the crystals after he combined them.
The group looked at Doug and Delilah one last time as they all gave trusting smiles to them before a Shadow Pokemon came and turned them to stone but not without Ryu saying one last time, "Take care of them..."
This final sacrifice from them and what they left for the two was enough for Sarah's real parents to take action and thus, end Scarlet's wrath in their honor and memory. They then looked at each other and nodded and, harnessing the power of all three crystals left for them along with the Sun Sword and Moon Shield in their magical grasp, they blasted Scarlet and her forces, banishing them from Equestria.
(Flashback ends)
Sunny, Izzy, and the others (sans a sorrowful Zipp still looking at her dragon brother) were left speechless, all of them in awe by what they had witnessed from Ryu's final memories before he, his siblings, and their Pokemon companions were turned to stone and Scarlet was first defeated.
"Zipp, I'm so sorry," Sunny began after a while, now feeling sorry for Zipp and what she, Pipp, and Queen Haven have lost. "I had no idea how much they meant to you all"
"That's really, very sad..." frowned Izzy sadly.
"So, Mama's parents were able to stop that big Alicorn meanie with their sword and shield before they had to do the same with Lothor, Team Eclipse, and Necrozma," gasped a stunned Nebby.
"And, they had to beat her with those crystals that Ryu, his siblings, and your Pokemon friends made to save you all and Equestria, right, Ms. Zipp?" Nebula added, getting another confirming nod from the distraught Pegasus as she approached Ryu's statue and embraced him, starting to cry again.
"He was everything to me along with Pipp before everything that happened now," she said honestly, nuzzling her lost brother.
"They were all great Pokemon and dragons to us, greater than anypony could possibly imagine. Pipp, Mom, and I thought they were the best in the world after everything they did; those buffoons that put those awesome guys down don't even see what we saw in them... Mom became a broken pony after we lost them. If I could bring them back, even for just one day, it would change everything for everypony. Then, we may be a family again..."
Sarah walked over to Zipp and placed a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, deciding to do something for her involving her lost extended family. "We'll get them back, Zipp. If Scarlet somehow managed to break free from whatever magic my parents used to seal her away and is responsible for the magic being gone as well, she'll be sorry she ever messed with us, even you."
Zipp looked towards Sarah and seeing her reassuring smile (her drive and flame to help save Equestria reforged and rekindled by what she had shown and explained to them), nodded warmly and happily, knowing that joining forces with her new friends would surely bring Ryu and her family's friends back.
Sunny felt the same way and turning back to the stained glass window Zipp had shown them, she saw the glass representation of the Unicorn's Eye she found and looked to a reflection of the Wings of Loyalty on the floor. Getting an idea as she saw an opening from the Wings, she slid the Eye into place, showing a perfect fit between them.
"Look," she called, getting everyone's attention as they saw what she did.
"They fit?" blinked Izzy.
"Check it out, these two crystals belonged together, united. It's just like what Ryu and your family did when they made them for King Doug and Queen Delilah to use against Scarlet, Zipp!"
"So, what are you saying?" the confused Pegasus asked her.
"Maybe you lost your magic because the crystals were separated," Sunny theorized. "If we can get the Wings of Loyalty and the Unicorn's Eye, we can put them back together and the magic will be back!"
"I don't know, Ms. Sunny. That sounds way too simple to be true and I have a feeling it's more complex than that," warned Tsukumaro, suspicious in that Sunny's theory has a lot of holes in it and it doesn't make much sense.
"Tsukumaro's right, Sunny. What good would that theory do?" Sarah added, concerned that Sunny's jumping the shark. "Magic is usually very complicated and simply sticking them together just doesn't hold water."
"But, think about it, guys! Maybe it's not as complex as you might think," suggested Izzy, nevertheless getting in with Sunny's theory along with Zipp. "If we can get them and put them back together..."
"Then, the magic will return?" finished Zipp.
"And, not only will all three Ponykinds will get along again but the Pokemon and dragons that have been banished will return again if Scarlet rears her ugly head and flank again!" nodded Sunny. "They'll finally know that we still deserve them and each other as friends and family and will have to come back to help us stop her if she shows up again!"
"Alright!"
"WHOO-HOO-HOO!" hollered Izzy and Zipp.
But, Sarah was worried for Sunny and what she had in mind to save Equestria; thinking back to the flashback of Ryu, his family, their Pokemon friends, and her real parents fighting one last time against Scarlet Nightmare and succeeding, she had a funny feeling that Sunny was way in over her head with her current theory. She and Tsukumaro still think that it's never as simple as it sounds and there was something missing in her reasoning besides the crystals themselves.
"I have a bad feeling about this... Magic has always been complicated and is either not told in great detail or simply unexplainable unless one performs it to get even a basic understanding of it," Sarah thought worriedly as she looked at Sunny.
"Sunny doesn't realize that it's not something like crystals that can make friendships real, it's the people, ponies, Pokemon, dragons, any and all creatures that make them happen when they take the first step. What Sunny's hoping for to happen is nothing but a pipe dream and something out of a literal fairy tale and this problem can't be solved as simply as that. Come on, Sunny, please be realistic. The only way for us to restore your magic and Equestria is to get everyone to trust each other, it's all about trust! You need to understand this if we're going to stop Scarlet and end this madness!"
"But, what about the Unicorn's Eye? How will we know if the Unicorns really have it?" Zipp questioned, wondering how they're going to start.
Izzy smiled to them as she said, "Well, if you're looking for crystals including the Unicorn's Eye, we've got a gazillion of them in Bridlewood. So, even if nopony welcomes you when you get there unless you're a Unicorn, if you want your crystal, you'll get to the right place."
"Then, that's where we're heading next," Sunny declared before she turned to Zipp. "After we find a way to get the Wings of Loyalty from your mom, of course."
"Ugh... Problamo," Zipp cringed in worry and annoyance. "She's never taken it off and she keeps it on her to remind her of Tamu, it's like she's still with her whenever she has it with her at all times even if she's gone from our lives."
"She never takes it off?"
"Even when she sleeps?!" Nikki and James gasped in bewilderment.
"Never, nor when she goes for a shower or a swim in the pool. Even I don't get why she doesn't take it off if it meant for her to be separated from a potential sliver of Tamu; even if she didn't want to admit it, she honestly wanted her back more than anything which is why she clings onto it as much as she can."
"Well, that is a problem," Winter pondered.
"Yeah, she needn't obsess over it just because she desperately wants her best friend back in private and she wants to keep an aura of superiority on her that's under the guise of an intentional lie for whatever greater good she thinks of," Star grumbled, rolling her eyes.
"I don't even want to think about coming across that insolent hag again after what she did to poor Sarah," Ruby rebuffed, Sapphire nodding in agreement with her head-mate.
"Yeah, she made her blow up last time with her previous insults about dragons and Pokemon," agreed Flora.
"How are we going to get the Wings of Loyalty as long as she keeps her hooves on them all day and all night for as long as she lives?" asked Sunset.
Suddenly, Zipp gasped as she remembered the celebration that Pipp would be throwing for their and Queen Haven's subjects in the coming night. "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 by then, so we'll just swap the real crown with a fake," she suggested.
"And, how exactly do you plan to get one at this time of day?" Eternatus quipped skeptically. "If anything, she may be a total jack with what she tried to do with us and with how she broke my pipsqueak but she's no fool. She's bound to know something's amiss, eventually."
"I can craft a decoy!" Izzy added as she bounced excitedly. "But, I'll need a box of macaroni, a tube of luge, 14 gooey bunnies, and three jellybeans! Ooh, and glitter, lots of glitter!"
"Are you guys sure your decoy is going to pass off for the crown when we get the Wings of Loyalty?" Dart questioned, unsure of what to make of the decoy plan.
"What if Pipp figures out what you're planning to do and then rats you out?" added Pouncer as Ruffrunner nodded in agreement.
"It'll work, Dart, Pouncer. Trust me, it'll only be for until we get the Unicorn's Eye and see if Sunny's theory works. In the meantime, I'll go and get the supplies," reassured Zipp Storm as she then laid down the groundwork for their decoy ploy. "First, I'll pass them off to Sarah. Tsukumaro, and Sunny. Then, they will get them to you. Once you produce the decoy, get your flanks back to the palace. Everypony who's anypony will be there so security will be tight. I'll distract them so you guys can sneak in."
"Maximum sneaky!" Izzy stated with a grin as Zipp produced a map.
"Right, but you need to be stealthy, be like the ninja. Carefully make your way to the Grand Hall but watch out for the guards when you get there. I'll open the door to the backstage of the throne room. Here's a map of the entire palace so you don't get lost."
"Alright!" Izzy cheered, already liking Zipp's plan.
"And, once Pipp starts singing, my mom will be so caught up with her performance, swapping the crowns will be easy-breezy."
"Easy-breezy, sure," commented Sunny.
"I don't like this, girls. We've got ourselves a few snags right off the bat with this plan even though it's the only one we have right now," replied Sarah, knowing that it had to be done but feeling doubtful at the same time.
"One of them would be involving my family and since your mom and Pipp were already given a start by them along with the guards, Zipp, they won't hesitate to pick us off. I suggest that they hide somewhere in the city or in the palace where nobody can find them and take them from me. I don't want to run into those Zoom and Thunder guys given how clumsy and crazy they were before and if they ever try to take them from me again."
"I definitely don't think we can take another meltdown like that when those guards and that queen made you go wild, Sarah," agreed Raikou.
"So, that's it? We'll be sitting ducks on this one until the crown swap is finished?" groaned Jolteon. "This is lame, I need action! Let us have a go at it, too!"
"If you want to get yourself somehow beaten to a pulp if you attract unwanted attention during the mission, Jolteon, be our guest," Arcanine retorted, calling out her bluff.
"I can give Zippy a hand with distracting them, they won't know what hit 'em! Besides, I need payback for them humiliating us and Sarah when they took us from her and nearly kicked us out! I heard Queenie's stupid rant from my Pokeball!"
"There's no point in dealing with her, Jolteon. We don't want to cause any trouble and we're here to help restore Equestria, remember that," reminded Umbreon to his Electric Type daughter.
"I think we better sit this one out, too. We don't want to go through a repeat of that as well," suggested Siren to Sunny.
"Okay, but stay close to Sarah's family so you don't somehow get separated behind our backs, Si," Sunny relented.
"There's an alleyway that's just big enough for all of them to lay low until we got the Wings of Loyalty and get out of here," Zipp requested. "It's right down from the palace and it should be perfect for them."
"Right," Sarah nodded.
"We'll make sure to look after them until you're done with the plan and you got the Wings, Ponchita," reassured James.
"If there is any sign of trouble when you do get them or you end up close, we'll regroup and come up with a Plan B or otherwise," Nikki agreed.
"I'm worried about what can go wrong at any time should anybody suspect us but it looks like we'll have to risk it no matter what," mused Azul.
"Yes, since Queen Haven forced Sarah to reveal who she really is, no doubt she'll be sending out arrest warrants and have some of the Pegasi keeping their eyes and ears open for us," Entei agreed grimly.
"I think we got our work cut out for us this time with what we're up against," Nico stated.
"Princess, are you sure you want to do this, after everything you've been through earlier today?" warned Calyrex (in Shadow Rider Form). "There could be a chance for those Pegasi to do you and your friends along with Tsukumaro real harm and we don't want anything to happen to you."
"This may be our only chance to take another step in restoring Equestria and I think Sunny needs a nudge in the right direction, I sensed that she's making it sound too simple with her previous theory," Sarah explained to the High King Pokemon.
"Besides, if this is all the work of Scarlet and if she did somehow break from my parents' seal, with the power of the crystals waning over many moons after everything we saw from Ryu's memories, we don't have a choice. I know I was hit hard by Queen Haven's crazy rant but I know now that she's also suffering after she, Pipp, and Zipp lost their extended family. I have to help them in order to bring back Tamu and Ryu along with their siblings and their Pokemon friends, for their sakes, for Zipp's sake."
"...I understand," Calyrex relented.
"We understand as well, Princess. Promise us you'll all be careful," Cobalion replied, giving her a hardened but relenting look of approval.
Sarah nodded, "I will."
