"Well, have you figured anything out?" Sunny asked eagerly.
Zipp had been running various tests on the Unity Crystals for the last couple hours. All kinds of gadgets and machines were strewn around the room. This was one of the new rooms the Unity Crystals had created and they hadn't really been using it for anything so it had been a perfect spot to set up their makeshift lab. Zipp had scanned the crystals with beepy things, run them through machines with lots of knobs and blinking lights, placed under X-ray like screens, hooked them up to graph generating machines with needles that danced across paper scrolls, and more. Sunny didn't really understand any of it, but it all looked very scientific. They'd learned something about the crystals for sure!
The crystals were currently on a stand with several wires suction cupped to them. Zipp was closely examining the screen of the machine the wires were attached to. The pegasus flicked a switch, and the crystals began to glow faintly. The zig-zaggy line graph on the screen suddenly twisted into a heart shape. Zipp's eyes narrowed seriously. "I have discovered…"
"Yeah?" Sunny and Hitch encouraged in unison, both earth ponies leaning forward in anticipation.
"-that I have no idea how magic works," Zipp finished.
"Oh…" Sunny and Hitch deflated.
"Even after all that?" Hitch questioned, surprised. Then he let out a groan. "Ugh, I can't believe I lugged all this equipment up here and we didn't even learn anything." He gestured at the machine closest to him. "A lot of these things are huge! Although…" he adjusted his badge and puffed out his chest proudly. "it wasn't as hard as I had been expecting. My time at the gym is paying off." His ears flattened. "Still not easy though."
"Thanks again for doing that, Hitch," Sunny said. She was very disappointed with the results of the tests, but it had still been worth trying. They'd made progress by better knowing what wouldn't work. And surely Zipp must have discovered something even if she didn't know what it meant yet. Studies like these took time.
"You're welcome," Hitch replied grumpily. "Couldn't we have just brought the crystals to your lab at home, Zipp? Would have been way more convenient."
"Security risk," Zipp answered clinically. "We shouldn't be moving around the crystals unless we absolutely have to. The magic of all ponykind is inside them. Or comes from them. Or something like that. The tests were inconclusive. But we can't risk anything happening to them."
"We do need to be careful with them," Sunny agreed. She understood Zipp's concern, but she was being a bit overcautious. The crystals weren't super delicate, they'd dropped them when they were first gathering them several times and they hadn't so much as scratched. "But I don't think moving them is that risky. We could just put them in a protective case and be super careful not to lose them."
Zipp shook her head, pacing in front of the crystals. "It isn't that simple. What if something unexpected happens along the way? A storm or something else out of our control? Or what if we accidentally bump them too hard and the crystals separate? You know what happens to a pegasus flying in the sky and magic suddenly disappears on them?! It isn't good! What if somepony tries to steal the crystals? There are just so many variables- it isn't worth the risk."
"You worry too much, Zipp," Sunny remarked brightly. Zipp tended to jump to the worse case scenarios on things. A bit paranoid really. Sunny wasn't really she why. She thought maybe Zipp just wanted things to be more exciting than they really were. "We're plenty responsible, we wouldn't let anything happen to them. And who would want to steal the Unity Crystals? What would they even do with them? Messing with them just puts all the tribes magic at risk and nopony wants that." It was incredible what unicorns and pegasi magic was capable of. Every day Sunny was left in awe of some new magical feat. Even if some ponies were still nervous around the other tribes, they must realize how amazing magic was by now. How could you not get excited at seeing a pegasus flying overhead or a unicorn's horn glow?
Hitch gave Sunny a look, raising an eyebrow. "C'mon, Sunny, even as overpositive as you are, you have to know that there are ponies out there who would be happy to see magic gone again." Sunny frowned. Sure, some ponies were still adjusting… "And even ignoring that, the Unity Crystals are sparkly, fancy gems, ponies could want them just for that. I've dealt with a jewel heist or two on the job. The criminal element are always out there. Just waiting to be dealt the swift hoof of justice. Buuuuttttt-" He turned back to Zipp. "I still don't think there is that big of a risk. Especially if we don't tell anypony else we're moving them." He shook his head. "But whatever. At least we have a lab here at the Brighthouse now. We were probably going to want to add one eventually anyways." He walked forward to peer closer at the Unity Crystals. "Do you think you'll be able to figure something out eventually? I mean, you must have learned something about them after all those experiments."
"Well," Zipp sighed heavily. "I'm getting data, I just don't know what the data means. Like, why does this light turn blue when I subject the crystals to this specific frequency? How does it even make charts like this?" She flicked frustratedly at the heart shaped chart that had printed from another machine. "Ugh, this shouldn't even be possible. Charts don't do that." She sank into a sitting position, slumping in defeat. "These probably aren't even the right tools for something like this. We might need magical tools to analyze something magical. And I doubt even the unicorns have anything like that at this point. I wouldn't know how to make them myself either." She paused, tilting her head in thought, feathers fluttering. "Did you and Izzy ever track down that Starry Dawn pony, Sunny? A magical expert, or even somepony with just a rudimentary knowledge of magic, would be very helpful right about now."
A wave of disappointment washed over Sunny at the reminder of their failed attempts to find the mysterious unicorn that she so so wanted to meet. A unicorn who had kept all the unicorns' old spellbooks and magical knowledge? There were so many questions Sunny wanted to ask, and Sunny couldn't even use magic. Well, maybe she could, if she could figure out how this alicorn form thing worked but that was a whole other can of worms.
"No," Sunny informed Zipp sadly. "We haven't found a single lead yet. We haven't even been able to figure out where she moved to after leaving Bridlewood." She perked up. "But we haven't really spent a lot of time trying yet. We were busy settling in and then with the party. But finding her can be one of our top priorities now. She'd really be able to help us."
"Pipp could probably help with that," Zipp suggested. "Her fans are good at digging things up." Her brows furrowed. "Her fans are almost entirely pegasi though. So they might not be able to track down a unicorn… still might be worth a shot."
Hitch frowned. "I don't know if we want to publicly announce we are looking for her like that. A bunch of pegasi, even if they are well meaning, stampeding into Bridlewood demanding information from the locals and stirring up trouble would not be good for anypony. Could lead to a lot of harassment situations. I think we'd be better keeping the search to a smaller group, ponies we really know."
Sunny shrugged. Hitch did have a point, but there must be some way to leverage Pipp's huge social media reach. "We could figure out how to word it. Maybe not even ask about her directly and just ask if anypony knows anypony who knows about magic. They might even have suggestions other than Starry Dawn. But Starry Dawn is our best option right now. Finding her is really important."
"Seems like she would have stepped forward by now if she wanted to be found," Zipp remarked, appearing to be deep in thought. "Don't know why she'd be keeping a low profile. Magic is back. This is, like, her moment. You'd think a pony who has been collecting magical knowledge her whole life would be hyped to share it now that ponies are willing to listen."
"It is weird," Sunny agreed, anxiety twisting her stomach. "I don't think she was super old or anything, so she should still be alive." Was she somewhere super remote? Had she become bitter after having to leave Bridlewood and now she didn't want to share her hard earned knowledge? Had she changed her name to get ponies to stop bullying her? No, Sunny couldn't think so negatively. They would find her and when they did they could solve whatever problem there might be then. "Izzy said we could pull some old yearbooks to try to find a picture of her. We aren't even sure what she looks like right now." Sunny envisioned her as a female Starswirl the Bearded in her head.
"Well, we can dive into that mystery later," Zipp shrugged. "For now, I'll file away the data we got from these tests." She began gathering the various papers and notes and organizing them into piles.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Sunny checked. She wanted to be doing something, but she wasn't confident that she'd know how to sort through all this science stuff.
Zipp shook her head. "I've got it," she stated confidently.
"Alright," Sunny nodded. But she needed to be doing something. She trotted over to the desk she'd put her dad's journal down on when they were setting up the lab. Flipping through its pages, she was aware she probably wouldn't find anything. She'd already read through it a hundred times; she practically had the whole thing memorized. But maybe after watching all these tests, something would hit her in a new light. It was better than doing nothing at least.
Her gaze scanned the familiar script, sketches, and photos, but nothing leapt out at her. Her dad really hadn't much information on the Unity Crystals. He'd been sure the earth pony crystal was something important and had suspected there were crystals for the other tribes, but he'd never been able to confirm anything. Just a lot of theories and what-ifs. If only he was still here…
Sunny drifted away from the sparse entries on the Unity Crystals, turning instead to the more personal passages. The ones where her dad wrote about his dreams for friendship between the tribes. A bittersweet smile crossed Sunny's face. He'd be so happy with the progress they'd made.
The word 'dream' passing through her mind sparked a memory of her dream from last night. She'd dreamed of Queen Stella again. The alicorn had been at a much further distance than last time, a figure at standing on the other side of a field of grass. Sunny wasn't sure why she'd been having so many Stella dreams recently. It wasn't unusual for her to dream about meeting the alicorns of old, but usually she saw Twilight Sparkle more. And Stella was so clear and detailed, even after she woke up. Her dad's collection of drawings and old photos of the alicorn were definitely the reason she could imagine Stella so vividly in her dreams. Without much thought, Sunny turned to the alicorn section of her dad's journal.
Huh, weird, how had she missed it? She- wait, no, this was the right spot. The pages weren't numbered, but this was the right section. She flipped backwards, then forwards, but still no alicorn pages. Sunny's unease was quickly inching into full blown panic. Where were they? They couldn't just be gone!
She began to go through the book page by page, mind racing. This made no sense! What could have happened to them? Had they got caught on something and ripped out without anypony noticing? No, that didn't make sense. There would be torn bits left behind and what were the odds of all of the alicorn pages being missing? Was anything else missing?
"They can't just be gone," she mumbled aloud. Nothing else was missing at least. That was a relief. But how could that have possibly happened? Only her and her friends had access to the book and they would have told her if they'd accidentally ripped some pages. Maybe they hadn't realized? But that was a fairly large chunk of pages, surely anypony would have noticed them falling out. But what else-?
"Something wrong, Sunny?" Hitch questioned, coming up beside her, having noticed her frantic movements. Her hooves were trembling slightly now as she turned the pages.
"Pages are missing!" Sunny exclaimed with bewildered frustration. "From my dad's journal! The alicorn section- it's gone!"
Hitch's eyes widened. "Missing?" he repeated incredulously. "But- how is that even possible?!" He leaned forward to look at the journal himself. "You're sure?"
"Yes!" Sunny nearly wailed, voice cracking. She'd- it felt like she'd let her dad down. She'd somehow lost a part of his life's work. How had she let this happen? How had it happened?
Hitch took the journal. "Where should the pages be?"
Sunny flipped to the spot. "Here. Between the entries on the Autumn Expanse and cutie marks. But they aren't there. The pages are just gone."
Humming, Hitch grabbed a magnifying glass off the nearby table. His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the binding. "Huh, there does seem to be some pages torn out," he observed, baffled. "Very cleanly. There's a little bit of exposed binding where a chunk of pages were removed." He shook his head and traced the line with his hoof. "But how could that have happened?" He looked back up at Sunny. "When was the last time you saw the pages, Sunny?"
"What's going on?" Zipp broke in, having noticed the commotion. The pegasus took in Sunny's distraught expression and Hitch's focused examination of the journal. "Did something happen to your journal, Sunny?" she asked, concerned.
"The alicorn pages are missing," Sunny explained miserably. To Hitch, she answered, "I haven't looked at that section in a while. I think the last time I for sure saw them was a little after we got magic back. I read through the whole thing to try to learn anything I could, and they were definitely still there then."
Zipp flapped closer. "Somepony stole the pages?!" she asked sharply, bending down to study the book for herself.
"What?!" Sunny startled. "No, no- I'm sure that's not what happened. The only ponies who had access to it were us five, I never take it out of the Brighthouse. And I know none of you would do something like that." She was certain of that much.
"I mean, yeah…" Hitch agreed, but his expression was unsettled. "It's weird that a whole, specific section and nothing else is gone though. It seems deliberate."
"It is weird," Zipp nodded, eyes narrowing. "Suspicious." Then she deflated. "But if nopony else could have done it…"
"They weren't stolen," Sunny stated confidently, even though she didn't have any alternative explanation. She just knew her friends wouldn't have done that. "Nopony would have a reason for wanting those pages anyways. Alicorns are cool, sure, but it wasn't anything crazy enough to be worth stealing. Maybe... maybe it got caught on something sharp and..." Okay, that wouldn't have torn them so cleanly but- "there is some other explanation."
"It would be a weird thing to steal," Hitch considered. "And there isn't anypony else who could have maybe had the book besides us?"
Sunny nodded. Zipp, however, hesitated, mouth opening as if to voice a thought before she seemed to reconsider and merely nodded instead. "Was there anything important in that section, Sunny?" Zipp asked. "Your dad couldn't have learned much more about alicorns than anypony else, right? I know we have books on alicorns at Zephyr Heights."
"Ooooooh, alicorns?" Izzy chirped, skipping into the room with Sparky riding on her back. Pipp trailed closely behind. "Why are we talking about alicorns? I love alicorns! I was Celestia for Nightmare Night one year, y'know. My hair had soooooo much glitter in it."
"Sunny's pages on alicorns have gone missing from her dad's journal," Hitch explained, gesturing to the open book. "We're trying to gauge how replaceable that information is." Sunny knew at least some of the information wasn't stuff that would be found in your average library. A lot of the Twilight Sparkle parts especially, information on the Golden Age alicorn of friendship was very limited. Like ponies had deliberately tried to forget or rewrite her story. And Sunnycouldn't really guess about the rest. Some of the photos were probably irreplaceable, they'd been the actual old photos laminated and stuck into the book.
Both Izzy and Pipp's eyes widened in dismayed shock. "What?! Oh no!" Pipp gasped. "How did that happen?!"
"We aren't sure," Zipp admitted. "When the journal got misplaced and you found it, Pipp, you didn't leave it lying anywhere alone did you? Even for just a moment? Or did you notice any damage at the time? Loose pages, tears, anything out of the ordinary?"
"What? No," Pipp denied, sounding offended. Her wings twitched slightly in indignation. "I kept it on me the whole time. I knew how important it was to Sunny. And there was nothing wrong with it that I noticed. I didn't really look in it though. I glanced at the first couple pages just to make sure it really was Sunny's journal, but I didn't read through the whole thing or anything. But it seemed fine. Did you just notice the pages are missing?"
"Yes," Sunny confirmed. "I haven't really looked at that section recently. I didn't remember anything that seemed related to the Unity Crystals in that section, and that's been my big focus lately."
"It does seem like the alicorns should have had something to do with the crystals though," Zipp mused, and Sunny could almost see the gears spinning in her mind. "Unless the crystals weren't created until after they disappeared." She sighed. "We don't have a good timeline on any of this."
"I don't know if they had anything to do with the Unity Crystals," Sunny remarked. "Dad was never able to find a link, but barely anything ever even mentioned the crystals at all so-" she shrugged. "But even if they weren't involved with the Unity Crystals, the alicorns are still important. I'm sure their disappearance is tied to why Equestria became the way it did, why the tribes stopped being friends." The tribes wouldn't have had their falling out if the alicorn had still been around, Sunny was sure of it. Alicorns were incredible. "My dad always wanted to know what had happened to them." And now she'd lost all that research...
Izzy's horn glowed lavender as she used her magic to float Sparky to the floor. The baby dragon immediately began crawling towards Hitch.
"Hey, be careful, Izzy!" Hitch exclaimed, trotting up to look over Sparky fretfully. "Do you really have to use magic to pick up the baby?" Sunny understood his concern, but Izzy had been practicing a lot. She was really good at it now.
"No worries, Hitch," Izzy assured cheerfully. "It's totally safe. My levitation skills have leveled up, big time! I'm pre-tty much a pro now. And Sparky's a teensy-weensy wittle baby. I lift heavier stuff than him almost every day no problem."
"You really have gotten good, Izzy," Pipp praised. "She's right Hitch, it's totally fine. I let her carry my sound equipment for me yesterday, which I would totally freak if something bad happened to them, and she was fine. And that stuff was a lot heavier than little Sparkly. I'm sure unicorns used to hold their own babies with magic all the time back in the day. Perfectly safe."
Sunny took a deep, calming breath. Okay, the pages were missing. Maybe they'd find them somewhere around the Brighthouse, maybe they wouldn't. Either way, they should be trying to grow their knowledge on alicorns. Now that they had access to the unicorn and pegasi sources, they would likely be able to find out things even her dad hadn't. This realization sparked a burst of excitement within Sunny.
"Okay," she declared, brimming with newfound enthusiasm. "We'll keep an eye out for the pages, but even if we do find them, we should be doing our own research into alicorns anyways. My dad focused on mainly the Golden Age alicorns and the final alicorns of Equestria. He tried to trace the line of succession too, but really the most important ones for us are probably going to be the last alicorns. We need to understand how we got to where we were- How magic disappeared. Why the tribes separated. Why the alicorns disappeared one day. So Stella, Concordia Glow, Wysteria, Azure Gleam, and Aegis should be our primary focus." She'd love to learn more about other alicorns as well, but those five should be their main focus.
Zipp's eyes narrowed in thought. "I've seen stuff on Stella, obviously. Concordia Glow too, she's a distant ancestor of the royal family. And Aegis has a lot of super cool epics, I read a ton of him. But Wysteria or Azure Gleam don't ring any bells for me. But alicorns aren't something I've ever deep dived."
"Hmm," Pipp hummed thoughtfully, tapping a manicured hoof to her chin. "Me neither. I mostly only read the storybook type stuff, so I guess Wysteria and Azure Gleam weren't in those. I read a lot of Flurry Heart stories though. Loved those as a filly."
"I've definitely seen books on Wysteria before," Hitch spoke up. "I never really read them in depth, but I know where we could find them now." His brow furrowed. "I don't really remember seeing anything on Concordia or Azure Gleam though. Only time I've ever heard of them was from Sunny."
"Hmmmmmmmmm," Izzy considered, bobbing in place. "I don't think I've heard of Concordia before. Haven't heard of Azure Gleam either. I think I've seen a few things with Wysteria in it, but way less than what there are for Stella or Aegis."
"Huh," Sunny mused. "I guess certain alicorns were more popular in some tribes than others? Concordia was originally a pegasus, so it makes sense the pegasi probably remember her best. Everypony knows Stella of course. And Aegis was such a big hero, fighting off the ancient curse, everypony remembers him. I'm not sure what Wysteria and Azure Gleam were born as. But Azure Gleam was the last alicorn to ascend and the alicorns disappeared shortly after, so I guess it makes sense none of the tribes had much on her." Digging some of this stuff up wouldn't be easy. But Sunny was sure they could do it. With all three tribes working together and pooling their knowledge, they were unstoppable!
"We'll figure it out," Zipp stated confidently, eyes gleaming eagerly. She pumped her hoof. "An ancient historical mystery? One of the best types of mysteries there is! I'll start looking through the royal library when I get home."
"Ooh, ooh, I'll look in Bridlewood," Izzy volunteered, hoof shooting into the air. "Most of the unicorn royal library is open for all unicorns to peruse, but there are some restricted sections. I might even be able to ask my uncle, he's a royal advisor, if he could get us access to the super-duper secret sections too though. We are the ponies who brought back magic after all, I think if we explain our noble quest to the king, he'll be cool with letting us look." The unicorn royal family! That would be so incredible! And a bit scary. Like, she knew Pipp and Zipp and their mom already but those had been very different circumstance. There had been so much chaos back then it hadn't even fully clicked that they were royalty until after they'd already known each other for a bit. Meeting the unicorn royalty would probably be a lot more formal. Sunny wasn't sure if she knew enough about manners to interact properly with strange royalty.
"The Neightional Library is the biggest library for us earth ponies," Hitch added. "There's probably something in there." He shuddered. "So many books... It's like a maze in there."
Sunny nodded, standing up. "Those all sound great! We've got this. Operation 'Learn About the Alicorns' is officially a go." 'Quest for the Crowned'? 'Alicorn Expedition'? They'd workshop the name later. For now, they knew what they were going to do next.