The collection of fools were walking towards a city known as Whiplash. The hike had been a long one for all of them especially for the ponies since they weren't much used to the high amount of pollution that filled the air. The lowering suns did not make it easier since all three of them shined closely towards each other creating a feeling of permanent heatwave.
"Are you sure this is the right way to the city?" Twilight asked showing a mixture of tired and annoyed. "We've been walking for... hours!"
"Yes," Razor replied as she pulled out some strange tracker, "Suns crest just over the fifth perpendicular so we're heading the right way."
Twilight looked up, noticing the three hanging orbs shining down on the party. Everything about this world was... wrong. Shaking her head, she picked up the pace again, not much else she could do other than follow.
"Need... bath...." Rarity said. The white unicorn was covered in sweat and grime from the hike. They all were, really but of course she had to be the one to remind all of them.
"One hoof in front of the other, we'll get to wherever it is we're going... I hope," Applejack commented. She adjusted her Stetson, pulling it over her more. What she wouldn't give to be under the shade of an apple tree in Sweet Apple Acres.
Dice unfortunately was having a hard time readjusting himself, so he was completely disorientated, "I'm going the right way, right?"
"Right." the group replied to him only making the sense of direction worse.
The blind platypus picked his head up. "Wait, you mean I'm heading in the right direction or I should turn right?"
"I can fix this," Kooker said; using his tail he tied a leash around Dice's around his wrist. "There we go, now you can just follow me."
The sightless samurai smiled. "Thanks."
At last, the city came into sight. The road they were walking on leading into a sprawling collection of buildings, some developed and some in development. In fact, the entire town followed this pattern as if the eastern half of the city had been ripped from the future while the western half looked like it was in a state of ruin.
A large bat swooped down from a perch on a building to the side, diving at the company. But instead of taking a bite out of any of the travelers, he stopped in midair and said, "Hello all and welcome to Whiplash!" the bat said with glee as if he was the world's equivalent of Pinkie Pie. "We don't often get new visitors! I wish I could do something to make it a bit more... festive!" he said enthusiastically after a pause. He was a larger creature, not unlike a bat, but up to the height of Scalor. His lanky frame and hands/ wings went about as he was just blathering on and on about being part of a 'City wide Welcoming committee'.
"OOooh, you should get a wagon for welcoming people! I have one back home and I use it all the time to-" Pinkie was interrupted when Twilight shoved a hoof in her mouth.
"I'm sure we'll have time for festivities later," The purple pony said. A party was not something they needed when they were all about to collapse.
Rarity crawled along the ground up to the stranger. "Please... shower!"
"We've all been traveling for quite a while," Celestia said. The alicorn's own visage was a tad weathered. "Is there any place we could recuperate?"
The bat thought for a moment. "Well, I'm not really sure. Normally I just hang out at night," he smirked. "Get it? Hang out? Cuz Ima bat!"
An awkward pause fell over the crowd of exhausted travelers. "I get it!" Outlook shouted happily from the back of the formation just to break the silence much to the others dismay of the slow witted owl.
"Please..." Twilight asked. "Is there any place we can stay?"
The bat thought for a moment. "Well, I think the hotel down the street is reopened, I can show you where it is," he offered.
"We would be most grateful if you would," Celestia said. In the grips of three suns, it was even getting a bit difficult for the princess who could move a sun to keep her composure.
"Right! This way!" the bat said dutifully. He lead the group through the mismatched town. A tumbleweed made from gray wires rolled by while a traditional tumbleweed made from tumbleweed rolled in the opposite direction. The equine visitors seemed too confused for their own good; they needed answers to make this trip less confusing as possible.
"Hey Batty," Pinkie asked.
"Batty's actually my mothers name," the bat replied. "My name's Nightbeat."
"Nice to meet ya Nightbeat," Pinkie continued. "Why is your city so... mismatched?"
"Ah, city planning commission only had enough cash to renovate half the town, we didn't know that when we started so... we only made it halfway before we ran out of funds," the bat replied.
"Oh." Pinkie said.
"Yeah," the bat said, sounding regretful, "Turns out, putting most of our money into snail farms lead to... slow investment increases," he replied grinning, almost laughing at his corny pun. Some of the group laughed, but the others were too tired to actually put up with it until they reached the hotel; or at the very least what they knew as the whole building "Well... turns out I was half-right," Nightbeat said.
"Why is that?" Twilight asked, looking at the building past him.
"The renovations I mentioned? It looks like this is where they stopped, right with the only hotel in town within decent walking distance. It's only part remodeled and part unfinished."
The building behind him appeared to be okay. "Well, I'm certain it will suit our needs," Rarity said, stepping forward. She trotted eagerly up to the entrance, the sign 'Inn and Out' hung above the front door. Rarity opened the entrance door to notice something odd behind it: nothing. The others gathered around her to peer through the doorway. Past the entrance was quite literally nothing but the bare foundation of the building, a large, nothing but wood and power tools between the entrance and the vacant foundation of the building.
"The part they remodeled was just the entrance," Nightbeat said, blushingly admitting.
An expression of defeat and disappointment crossed Rarity's face. Slowly, she shut the door.
"You guys can stay at my place though. It's just on the other side of the street, come on!" The over eager bat shouted. Once again, the group turned and followed the bat. Eventually the gang were within a quaint little home; inside of it was filled to the brim with various comedic posters scattered around. "Thank you for your hospitality good sir." Celestia said as she sipped a glass of herbal tea Nightbeat had gave to everyone.
"Well my job to make any one feel welcome in the event someone visits." The bat said as he noticed that the seven other Terra-Glacians infront of him and the poster behind him; it took a while for the wheels to start turning, but they finally churned out a thought, "Wait a second...You guys are the Lightning Seven aren't ya?!"
"Yes we are, but why is that important right now?" Circuit Breaker asked, "What do you need some issue fixed?"
"Well my washer is on the fritz, but that's besides the point!" Nightbeat said as he pulled out a flyer, "Mayor Clucks wants to throw you guys a party at the Criminology Museum for the help against the rivaling cities you helped him with."
"Wait you guys are heroes?!" Twilight asked surprised.
"Not really, I mean in the Mercenary community on this rock maybe..." Scalor thought, "We only helped because he offered some political favors we couldn't refuse. We may do good things, but we are far from heroes."
"Scalor's right." Slash added, "We take jobs that seem good for us, half of the time they praise us but we cant fully accept it."
"But why don't you indulge in your popularity." Rarity said as she started to think about the fame and fortune the squad could've accumulated over their years of working, "I mean if I was in your...line of work I'd try to have some fun with my popularity."
"The farthest we go is the checks they write out and then we head back home." Razor confessed, "Like we really have time to deal with parties, and other things"
"What?!" Pinkie shouted in disbelief, "How could you guys just ignore something like a party?" Suddenly a thought came through her head, "Come one everyone, we got a wrong to right!" She soon zipped out of the door not knowing where she was going, "Uh...where exactly is that museum?" She asked coming back to the door.
Eventually at the party
The party was in fact a huge blowout as it seemed many of the cities most upper class was there. Nightbeat was greeting the guests as they came in with an ever so growing grin. The L7 and ponies were the only ones not dressed as fancy as the other party goers; sure they may not have had any means to getting clothes as nice as them but no one seemed to care.
The museum was filled with statues and holograms of Terra-Glacies most infamous inhabitants such as the large electrical bird Thunder Blast; others such as the gelatinous bioweapon Proto-gel, the walking virus spreader Corrupter, and even the leader of the Sidewinder Desperadoes Diamond Fang. They were all posed to show the threat that they were, oddly there were plaques showing their status of whether they were incarcerated or still roaming free.
Mayor Clucks was seen talking to many of his supporters until he saw Scalor, he ran over to thank him for what they've done for him personally, "Thanks Mayor Clucks." Scalor said accepting the praise, "Though is this really the best place you could think of throwing a party, couldn't we just do it in a park?"
"Nonsense, only the finest for the best mercenary team that helped me keep me in office for a few more years." The rooster said, as he soon grabbed a pile of index cards, "Excuse me I need to start my speech." The mayor said as he headed towards the podium on the stage. "My fellow citizens I have a special announcement to make on behalf on the special team before us here." As the speech was going the skylight above the building had collapsed in showing a large hawk with electrical sparks flowing around her landing near the mayor only to literally kick him off his pedestal.
Kooker knew this bird all to well right down to her deep blue eyes, "Thunder Blast!?"
"Why yes my dear little lizard its me, like fleas on a dog I just keep coming back!" Thunder Blast said as she just causing panic by her presence alone.
"Why are you here? I thought you were stuck in the frozen wastelands" Slash said knowing they had not have seen her for years.
"You fools just left me to freeze!" The hawk yelled causing more sparks to fly, "For fives years I was alone in that over grown freezer! Despite all that I missed you all so much I organized this little gathering to be like a birthday party." The hawk said in a disturbingly sweet like voice.
"Ooooooh I just love parties!" Pinkie said with joy.
"Except this one is the exact opposite." Thunder Blast quickly added, "Let's skip all the formalities and start handing out the gifts." she said as she flew up and began to shoot electric bolts from her very wings.
"Everyone run!" Outlook shouted causing everyone in the building to run off from the danger. Pretty soon the ponies ran for cover by hiding under a table, Celestia casted a shield spell protecting them for the oncoming assault. The team dodged the bolts with a few striking them down causing their fur and feathers to stand on end.
Slash began to think of a way to send the bird down, "Kooker, Outlook, Paddleball routine!" The three began to form a crude rendition of a paddleball; Slash was the ball, Kooker the rubber band and Outlook holding the whole attack together. The only downside was they may be more vulnerable since they were in the air. After swinging and rebounding across the room they landed a hit on Thunder Blast sending her crashing down.
"That's it!" Thunder shouted, "I didn't think I would have to pull this trick out, but who knew stealing a robot be useful; So Scalor meet your brand new hydraulically operated twin brother... Mecha-Barracuda!" With that a fifty foot robot crashed through the walls landing before the group and giving off a growl that could send even the bravest man to cry for help.
"Cool paint job on him but I'm not really crazy on his design." Scalor sasid a he looked at his so called 'brother'. The robot started to swing his weapons as the cyborg ran towards the robot trying to find a weak spot and the chainsaw and missile launcher fired on all cylinders. He suddenly remembered an idea he saw in a movie and began to run towards the legs tying a tow cable onto him, "Just one more...pass around!" Scalor said as his running had confused the robot. The rope then went towards the other side of the area causing the momentum and science to take over and cause the mechanical menace to fall down.
Thunder Blast knew her options were running low so the next best choice was to retreat, "You've might've won this time, but I'll be back sooner than you know Lightnings!" The hawk shouted as she flew off leaving the museum in shambles.
An evening meaning to bring praise only lead to more of an unwanted fight that no one ever wanted. Scalor looked amongst the wreckage and saw everyone was evacuated, "Guys...let's just head home." He said in a defeated tone, "We got something to fix."