//------------------------------//
// Scope 
// Story: It's Hero Time 
// by PonyPixel 
//------------------------------//

A train was chuffing towards a small village. When it stopped at the platform, a family of hippogriffs. A father, mother, teenage son, and a fledgling daughter. 

“Well, here we are,” the mother said, “Bex Creek.”

“Was this even necessary?” the teenage hippogriff asked.

“Finn, your mother has been dreaming about this,” the father said. “Haven’t you, Reef?” The mother and father nuzzled against each other as the fledgling fluttered around.

“Wow, look at this place,” she said.

“Orca, stay calm,” Reef the mother said. “We’ll get to our new home soon. Let’s go get our luggage.” 

The mother, father, and daughter went to get their bags while their son, Finn, just sighed. He loved living in Seaquestria and was hoping he could move back onto land. However, he never said he wanted to leave Mount Aris. Now, he was far away from all of his friends and he would have to start from scratch.

He kept to himself as he followed his family to their new home. It was a nice little house which had three bedrooms. One for Finn, one for Orca, and one for the parents. 

“See Finn,” Reef said, “We’ll feel just as home in no time.”

“Sure,” Finn sighed, rolling his eyes. 

He headed over to his new room to have a sulk. He sat down and looked out the window and could see a couple of ponies swimming around in a lake. Unfortunately, Finn didn’t have a shard from Queen Novo’s pearl, so he couldn’t turn himself into a seapony. Yet another reason why he didn’t want to leave Mount Aris.

“Sure Finn. Moving will be tons of fun.” He lay his head on the window sill letting out another sigh. Seeing that there was nothing else to do in his bedroom he decided to explore the rest of his new home.

A little while later, Reef heard a knock on the door and answer. Outside, a mare was standing with a stallion. 

“Hello, there,” the mare said. “We were just wanting to welcome you to the neighborhood.”

“Oh, we weren’t expecting a welcome already,” Reef said.

“Well, we haven’t really gotten griffons around here.”

“Actually, we’re hippogriffs. We’re only part griffon. We’re also part pony.”

“Interesting. Anyways, my name’s Olive Tree and this is my husband, Stone Slate.” The stallion gave a simple wave.

“Well, I’m Reef, I’m living with my husband, Gully, and we have two kids. Our son Finn, and our daughter Orca.”

“Ooh, you have children too? Our daughter is quite social. Maybe they could become friends.”

“That’s a good idea, but Finn isn’t too happy with our new home.”

“Ah. Moving can be so hard on the kids. Do you mind if we come in?”

“Be our guest.” Olive and Slate walked into the hippogriff’s new house. “Gully, I’ve met our new neighbors.” Reef’s family walked into the living room to meet Olive and Steel.

“Hello there,” Gully said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same to you,” Slate said. The hippogriff and stallion shook talon and hoof.

“This must be Finn,” Olive commented looking at the teenage hippogriff.

“Hi,” Finn said, clearly lacking interest. He wasn’t interested, but Orca was. She flew up to the visiting ponies.

“Wow,” she said. “You don’t have wings. Or talons. How do you use things?”

“Orca, don’t be rude,” Reef said. “I’m sorry. Orca is just a child.”

“Oh, I totally understand,” Olive replied. “I have a filly like her.”

“Really?” the fledgling asked. “Can I meet her?”

“Well, we need to take care of a couple of things first,” Gully stated, then turned to Stone Slate. “For starters, you know any jobs that are hiring?”

“I know a few,” Slate explained. “You want to take a look around?”

“Sure.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Reef said. “There isn’t much to do around here.”

‘Yeah, let’s find something better to do,” Finn muttered. 

He and his family walked around town with the two ponies, Olive and Slate. They were shown places like the school where Finn and Orca could study, some places where Gully could work, some places where they could eat, all while three of the four hippogriffs were so interested.

Finn was struggling to care. He even tried not to. He wanted to go back to Mount Aris. The only thing he had interested in was the amount of water around this town. There were a lot of large bodies of water that ponies could swim in.

Then they walked past the wooden house. An old stallion was dumping out some broken crystals into a trash can. “Who’s that?” Reef asked.

“That’s Diamond Light,” Olive explained. “He’s the town inventor. Though, only a few ponies take him seriously. He keeps saying he makes new inventions but most ponies call him a clown.”

“That doesn’t sound very nice.”

“It isn’t. He’s actually a nice pony. He’s just got a few crazy ideas.”

“Finally, something interesting,” Finn muttered.





Finn didn’t pay much attention to what happened next. Just his parents doing things like getting a job, enrolling him and Orca at the town’s schoolhouse. Nothing that his parents suggested to him seemed to grab his interest. He started his new school year in two days, so Finn had an extra day to check out the only thing he was interested in, Diamond Light.

After eating breakfast the next day, he left his new home to check out the house of the strange old stallion. The hippogriff knocked on the door. After waiting for a few seconds, Diamond Light opened the door, and saw him standing in front of him.

“Who are you?” the stallion asked.

“My name’s Finn,” the hippogriff answered. “I just moved here and I’m already hating it. Your place was the only thing I’m interested in.”

“Really? Well, come inside. Let me show you some of my technology.” 

He led Finn into his house and took him to a room that had tons of different looking gear. The one that Diamond showed him first was a helmet that had what looked to be a pipe on the area on the forehead. The helmet was connected to a large glass container that was fitted on his back with a saddlebag. 

“What is that?” Finn questioned.

“This is my multi-horn. I made this so non-unicorns could use other kinds of magic. So far, I’ve only got levitation spells to work.”

“What’s powering it?”

“Let’s just say I had a few magical creatures running around my backyard and I decided they could pay me back with some magic to power my gadgets. And before you ask, I release them back into the wild. I’m not a dictator.”

“Right. What this other stuff do?” Finn picked up some boots that had horseshoes on the bottom of them.

“Those are magnetic boots. Perfect for climbing metal walls.” Finn found the boots suddenly stuck together. “Oh, dang.”

“Does this happen often?”

“Sadly, yes. These are a nightmare to get apart.” Diamond tried to pull them apart, even with Finn helping him, they both struggled. “Gah, I’ll fix this later.” 

He set the stuck boots on the shelf as he showed the rest of the gadgets he had.

One was a pair of propellers to allow non-pegasi to fly, similar to his helmet. There was a saddlebag that had tons of different tools, wrenches, blow torch, and even a nail gun. Then they came across a jumpsuit that was hanging on the wall.

“What’s that?” Finn asked.

“That’s my latest project,” Diamond explained. “This suit I’m planning on having the change the size of whoever is wearing it.”

“Have you tested it?”

“I’ve tested a smaller model on my assistant.” Diamond whistled and a Harrier Hound walked into the room. “Meet Patch.” 

Finn held out his talon, which Patch sniffed and allowed the hippogriff to pet him. “So, what do you mean you tested it on him?” Finn asked.

“Well, I made a suit that fits a dog of Patch’s size. Using a separate remote, I’ve shrunk him down to the size of an ant and grew him to the size of a bison.”

“Neat. And have you made one in a pony’s size?”

“I’ve tried using Patch’s suit, however, when we tried to take it off, he’d always revert back to his original size. So, I had to make one in my size in order to test it. Though, looking at this one, I think it might be a little small for me.” Finn flew up to get a look at the suit and could see it was close to his size.

“You know, I might be able to try it on.”

“You sure about that?”

“Hey, nothing else in this town has my interest. You’re pretty much the coolest pony I’ve met so far.”

“Why, thank you. By the way, since you seem to have opposable digits. That might make the suit more effective when needing to be activated.”

“Okay, so what do I need to do?”

“I just need some measurements and I can make some modifications so the suit can fit you.” Using his tool, Diamond got some measurements of Finn’s talons and head. With that, he soon started drawing on his blueprints. 

“Come back tomorrow when I’ve finished my work, okay?”

“But I have school tomorrow.”

“Ooh, that’s rough. Sorry, kid. This will give me some more time.”

The hippogriff let out a disappointed sigh. “Fine, I’ll come back after school.” 

He left the stallion’s home as Diamond got to work.

The stallion stopped when he heard Patch barking at him. The Harrier Hound whimpered as he clearly looked worried. 

“No, I’m not telling him the real reason I’m making this. He’s just a kid.” Patch raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I know I’m making this suit that he’ll be able to use easier, but... Look, just let me work and I’ll give you those juicy treats.” 

Patch started wagging his tail in excitement as he walked over to his bed to wait.

Finn made his way home where his parents were waiting for him. “Where did you go?” Gully asked.

“I was looking around town,” the young hippogriff explained.

“At least tell us where you’re going first,” Reef said.

“I left a note.”

“In the last place we’d look,” Gully stated. “Anyways, Slate managed to help me get a job.”

“What is it?”

“From the description he gave me, I think I’m working as an exterminator. He said we have to get rid of small creatures that have been invading ponies’ homes.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“As for you, you’ll be staying here until tomorrow.”

“Great.” The young hippogriff walked back inside and sat down on his bed. “The first day in this new place and I’m already grounded. Lovely.”





Later that night, Finn was sleeping in his bed when he heard the door open. He woke up and could see Orca trying to get in bed with him. 

“Orca? What are you doing?” the brother questioned.

“There’s a monster in my closet,” Orca replied.

“Seriously? That can’t be real.” Looking at her face, Finn saw his sister was terrified. “Okay, let’s take a look.” 

They walked back to Orca’s bedroom and took a look in the closet. There was nothing out of the ordinary in there. “Welp, I don’t see a monster in here.”

“But I saw one.”

“Okay, look, just so we can sleep well tonight, you can join me in my bed.” Orca smiled as she followed her brother back to his bedroom. What the two didn’t see was some mysterious ooze taking form after hiding in some tight spots.





The next morning, Finn arrived at his new school.

“Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled as he walked inside. 

He took a look at his class schedules and head to where he needed to go. When he got to his first classroom, he was almost the center of attention. He felt fear and worry inside of him, feeling that his first impressions might be bad. He took a deep breath and walked inside.

“Is he a griffon?” one of the students questioned.

“No, he’s got hooves,” another commented.

“What is he?” a third asked.

“I’m a hippogriff,” Finn explained, sitting down on his desk.

“Oh,” many of the students responded.

“I thought he was one of those Monju,” one of the students said.

“...A what?” Finn questioned.

Then a teacher came inside.

“Alright class,” said their teacher, “I’m sure you’ve met our new student. Now, let’s get started with today’s lesson.” 

Finn and the other students listened to what their teacher was saying, though the comment of whatever a Monju was distracting him.

Elsewhere, Gully was following Stone to a building with a title reading “Pest Be Gone.” 

“So, this is the place?” the hippogriff asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not what it seems,” Stone said. The two walked inside and could see some ponies with some gear that looked a little overkill for pest control.

“What’s this stuff?”

“We don’t take care of normal pests like bugs or mice. We have a little bit of a monster problem. We call them Monjus.”

“What kind of Monjus are there?”

“They come in many different shapes and sizes. Some get to the size of houses. Some are even smaller than ants.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. They have different types of hazards.”

“I can already guess what the house-sized ones can do.”

“Yes. Now, if you’re going to be a Monju hunter, you’re going to need the training.”

“’ Kay, where do I start?” 

”Right this way.” 

Stone led his new neighbor to the back of the building, where some targets were standing about a yard away. Stone grabbed a crossbow and aimed at one of the targets. He fired a couple of arrows, which was impressive until the target exploded. 

“JEEZ!”

“I can find another job if you want.”

“...No, this one pays well.”

“Alright. Just let me know when you want out.” He handed the crossbow over to the hippogriff before picking up a more complicated weapon.

“Just, answer me this; how long has this town be having this Monju problem?”

“A little while after it was first discovered. Unicorns stood up to help protect the town, but as time went on these kinds of gadgets so more ponies could help out. Some of these are pretty cool.”

“Yeah. What does that one do?” Stone demonstrated the weapons rapid-fire, slowly destroying the target with each shot. Gully was in shock.

“Does that answer your question?”

He nodded.





At Diamond Light’s house, he just finishing work on the helmet. He took the finished helmet over to the jumpsuit to see what it would look like on Finn. 

“What do you think, Patch?” the stallion asked. The Harrier Hound bark and wagged his tail. “Yep, I think I outdid myself.” 

Diamond walked off to find something for him to eat.

At school, Finn was wanting to get out as soon as possible. He stared at the clock as time seemed to be slowing down. 

“Come on,” he grumbled. “Give me some kind of excuse to get out of here.” Suddenly, the light went out in the school. “That works.”

The teacher sighed. 

“This is been going on for weeks,” she sighed. “Students, you know the drill: gather up the books of what we haven’t gone over today and take them home to study.” 

The students did as their teacher was told, though Finn was a little confused.

“This has happened before?” The hippogriff was confused but was happy that he was let out early. This meant he could go and visit Diamond sooner.

He headed to the stallion’s house and knocked on the door. 

“Diamond, are you here?” he called. Finn waited for a reply, but one never came. Finn waited for about a minute when he heard some ponies run past the house. Some were pulling a cart loaded with some odd-looking weapons.

Before the hippogriff could question what they were for, Diamond opened the door. 

“Finn, you’re here early,” the stallion spoke. Finn jumped.

“Oh, hey, Light,” Finn said. “Is the suit finished?”

“Yes, it is. Why are you here so early?”

“The lights went out at my school. They said that it happens often.” Diamond led the hippogriff inside and took him to the finished suit. “Sweet!”

“Try it on.” Finn didn’t have to be told twice. He zipped himself up in the suit while pacing the helmet, glove, and boots on as well.

“Okay, so how does this work?”

“Well, you see those buttons on your wrists?” Finn looked at his wrists to see each one had a button. “The one on your left will make you smaller while the right one will make you bigger.”

“Sounds easy.”

“Go right ahead and get smaller.” The hippogriff nodded and pressed the left button. Within seconds, he shrank down to Patch’s size. “Incredible.”

“This is... Pretty cool.” Patch walked over to the shrunken hippogriff sniffing him. “Hey, watch it.” Finn looked at his wrist again and decided to make himself smaller. This time, he stopped he got one centimeter tall. “Hold on, why can’t I get smaller?”

“I put a safety lock on this suit so you don’t get to the size of a molecule,” Diamond explained.

“...Okay then.” The stallion held down his hoof so the hippogriff could stand on it as he was carried through the house.

“Now, before you try the right button, we should take this outside. Last time I tried this with Patch, I had to rebuild the ceiling.”

“Got it.” Once they were outside, Finn jumped from Diamond’s hoof and pressed the button on his right wrist. He started getting bigger, surpassing the stallion’s height, and stopped when he got the size of the house. “Awesome!” he cheered.

“Keep it down.” Diamond was able to reach the button on the hippogriff’s left wrist to make him shrink down to his original size. “ I don’t want to draw too much attention.”

“What, I don’t mind a couple of ponies looking.”

“I’m not talking about the ponies. There could be tons of Monjus around.”

“Monjus? What’s that?”

“Let me explain.”

As he did this, Gully was busy investigating the school with Stone. “So, are we sure this is something we should be investigating?” the hippogriff asked.

“This has been happening for a while,” Stone stated. “They’ve checked the power, and it seems like it’s been drained.” He placed a set of goggles on and scanned the area. He spotted some critter crawling around. “Get ready.”

The two prepared their weapons and raced towards where the critters were. The two critters looked like yellow raccoons with lightning-shaped ears. They hissed at the pony and hippogriff, who both launched rubber nets at them. The nets caught one of the lightning raccoons, however, one managed to slip through the window.

“Out the back!” Stone cried. They ran towards the exit to see the raccoon critter running away. “Is that a Monju?” Gully asked.

“Yep. That’s a Rightning. They absorb lightning and use it to boost their speed. We at least caught one.” 

He took a look a the Rightning stuck in the rubber net. “I’m going to take this back to the base. You stay with the others and see if you can learn anything.”

“Roger.” Stone walked away with the captured Monju while Gully was still a little confused.

Back with Finn, he removed his helmet as he listened to Diamond’s explanation of Monjus. “So, how many kinds of creatures are there?” the hippogriff questioned.

“Honestly, I lost track after forty,” Diamond admitted. “I have a journal containing several of them.” Suddenly, they heard Patch growling at the ground. “What is it, boy?” Looking closely at the ground, the could see extremely tiny bipedal creature walking across the ground.

“What are those?”

“Mints. They’re like super ants, they can even team up to make certain shapes. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen.”

“Well... Maybe it’s something that I can investigate.” 

Without warning, Finn placed his helmet back on and shrank himself down to fly after the Mints. Diamond tried to catch him, but Finn was too fast for him to stop. Not to mention, grabbing him would likely crush him.

The hippogriff followed the Mints across the field until they slipped through a crack in the side of the house. Diamond and Patch walked inside to see if they could take care of them.

Finn was amazed that he was able to go to such small places. He followed the Mints through the inside of the wall. They didn’t seem to pay much attention to the tiny hippogriff. Wandering through the wall, they suddenly came across something transparent, green, and slimy.

Some of the Mints sank into the slime, but some stayed back and took the form of a blade to try and slice the slime. This did very little, however, and they were starting to get absorbed. This was a clear sign for Finn to get out of there. However, the slime started surrounding him. Not knowing what to do, Finn just tried flying around until he flew through the wall.

He was surprised at what he just did. Finn wasn’t sure whether it was size or not, but that slime wasn’t giving up that easily. It crawled through the hole that Finn made and seeped into the room.

“Oh dear,” Diamond gasped when he saw the slime. He looked around until he found his blowtorch. He quickly used it on the slime, making it squirm. Finn was in a bit of a panic and flew out a window. A strong gust of wind suddenly hit him, sending the hippogriff flying through the air.

Lucky for Diamond, his blow torch managed to send the slime out of this house. 

“Thank goodness,” he sighed. “Looks like I’m going to have to fix the wall. Now, where’s Finn?”

Finn was having a hard time gaining control. He managed to glide through the air gaining some control, but turning was almost impossible. He managed to keep steady until he smacked into a window. Finn was glad that he finally stopped and he noticed where he was.

This was Orca’s school. He saw his sister was already pretty popular given that she was the only hippogriff in the school. Finn then noticed their teacher was looking a little nervous.

“Okay, children,” she said. “Classes are going to have to end a little earlier than usual.” The kids cheered at this as they were all let out of the school. Orca was walking with a colt who was similar to Olive and Stone.

“So, your dad hunts monsters?” the fledgling questioned.

“Yeah,” the colt questioned. “He does some really cool things.”

“Hmm, this could be interesting,” Finn commented. He managed to fly over to a bush and then returned to his original size. Once he did that, he walked over his sister and her new friend. “Hey, Orca.”

“Finn? Where did you come from?” the fledgling asked.

“I was just wandering around town after my classes were let out early.”

“You too?”

“Yeah. What’s up with this place? Plus, who’s your friend?”

“Slab,” the colt replied. “My dad hunts Monjus.”

“Seriously? Has he ever felt with Mints or slime?”

“You mean those ants? Yeah, my dad’s fought them. I’ve never seen slime before.”

“Well, I’ve dealt with some before. I had a near miss a few minutes ago.”

“Is that why you’re wearing that suit?” Orca asked.

“...Well, kind of. I was helping someone to test this out.”

“Was does it do?” 

Finn smiled as he pressed on the button his left twist. Within seconds, he was the same height as his sister and her friend. The did the opposite and made himself grow to twice his original size.

“How are you doing this?” Slab asked.

“I dunno. Magic? Diamond didn’t really explain how this works.” Finn pressed the button to turn himself back to his original size. “Still, I can think of a lot of ways this could be useful.”

“Like fighting monsters?” Slab asked.

“...Exactly. I could just stomp on them and they’re gone.” Just then, they saw a Rightning scurry around nearby. “is that a Monju?” 

Slab nodded. 

“Okay, perfect for a test run.” Finn made himself grow before walking over to the Rightning. The electric Monju saw the big hippogriff walking over to him.

Naturally, the Monju tried to run away when Finn tried stomping on it. “Hey, sit still,” the hippogriff ordered. 

He kept trying to get the Monju, but it was too fast. Even, Finn stepped one tree, making him lose his footing and fell over. After falling on the ground, he managed to press the button and return to his normal size.

“Are you okay?” Orca asked.

“Yeah,” he wheezed. “That went way better in my head.”

“There you are,” Diamond Light said. He ran up with a cart behind him that Patch riding in it. “I see that you’ve got some used to the first features.”

“First?”

“Well, after I got through the size-shifting, I thought I could also add some other features for offense and defense. By the way, have you been feeling a few side effects?”

“My stomach feels drained.”

“That’s probably a lack of blood sugar. I’d probably get a meal as soon as you can.”

“Got it.”





After giving the suit back, Finn and Orca soon got home along with Slab. Finn walked over the fridge and searched around for some food as Reef walked in.

“Kids, what are you doing home early?” she questioned.

“School was let out,” Orca replied.

“What for?”

“Monjus,” Finn answered taking out the milk. He soon started chugging straight from the carton.

“Finn, we have a guest. I’m sorry, what’s your name little one?”

“My name is Slab,” the colt answered.

“Sorry mom,” Finn apologized, “My blood sugars low.”

“Then you could’ve asked me to cook something. Why is your blood sugar so low anyway.”

“To be honest with you, I was helping Diamond with an experiment.”

“You mean that stallion.”

“He makes a lot of cool stuff. Like some tech that can make earth ponies that do. Flight, telekinesis, stuff like that.”

“What?”

“He’s really doing that?” Slab asked with excitement.

“Finn, I want a sharp explanation.”

“He didn’t do anything I didn’t want him to do. In fact, I asked him to make a new suit that can change my size at will.” The mother just looked at her son, lost for words. “He already made one for his dog.”

“I... I’m starting to see why this town doesn’t really like being around him.”

“Look, it’s not like he’s doing anything illegal.”

“Finn, changing your size could end in disaster.”

“I was fine. The worse thing that happened is that I got too close to some Monjus.”

“Mon... What?”

“There are certain kinds of monsters that roam around here.”

“Monsters? I feel like we should’ve stayed in Seaquestria.” Then Reef gasped. “Gully! He just took up that new job.”

“I think we would’ve been told if something was wrong. Besides, we passed by him on the way here. He was fine.”

“Where is he now?”

“Probably at my school.”

“Oh... Don’t leave this house until I get back.” Reef flew outside and raced towards where her husband was at.

“Okay, I’m going to be grounded for an undetermined amount of time.”

“What do you think you’ll be able to do with your new suit?” Orca asked.

“Maybe something like a shield or something. I could use a greater variety of attacks. I wonder how Diamond is doing right now.”

Diamond was busy making upgrades on Finn’s suit. “Alright, let’s hope the kid can use these responsibly,” he said. 

He pressed one of the new buttons on the new control panel that he installed. He managed to make a forcefield that dissipated when he let go of the button. Another button fired off a laser that hit the wall, making a small hole. “Great, not another one.”

Suddenly, they heard some squishing sounds. They could see some green slime oozing from the wall. Trying not to panic, Diamond picked up the suit and placed it in the cart with the boots, gloves, and helmet. Patch jumped in and they made a run for it.

Reef meanwhile got to school, where Gully was just about to leave. “Reef, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m making sure that you’re okay,” Reef explained. “You’re job is...”

“Hunting Monjus?” Gully showed a Rightning that he had caught in a net. “As long as I don’t bite off more than I can chew, I should be good.”

“...Are you sure?”

“We have tons of gear to fight off tons of them. Still, the only one I understand is the crossbow.” Then the two could hear some squish and gurgling sounds. Not too far away, they could see some green slime crawling over to them. Many of the exterminators started freaking out as they fired energy shots at them.

“Gully, you to help get ponies as far from here as possible,” a stallion ordered.

“Uh, right,” the hippogriff replied. Gully and Reef flew and began warning ponies about the slime, which was effect too much by the exterminators’ energy shots. Instead, it looked like it was heading towards a large body of water, much to the ponies’ worry.





Finn was helping himself to whatever was in the fridge when there was a frantic knocking on the door. With a groan, he placed down his meal and answered the door to find a worried Diamond Light. "Wha...?"

"Listen, Finn, we have a bit of an emergency," Diamond spoke. "Put your suit on and I'll explain." Finn didn't question and started with the boots and gloves. "Now, your first test was a bit of rocky one, but you need to figure out how this works."

"Light, what's the rush?"

"Do you remember fighting a slime?"

"I remember running away from it, yeah."

"That slime is one of the most dangerous Monjus. When it absorbs matter, it gets bigger.”

“Like with those Mints?”

“Think bigger. If it gets to a large body of water like a lake, it could get to the size of a castle.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m not making this up. Hurry up and put the suit on!”

“Okay, you don’t have to shout at me.” Finn quickly started getting himself zipped up as he noticed the new gadgets on the suit’s wrist. “What are these?”

“Some new tools to help with your offense and defense. Though I should warn you, I haven’t had enough time before the Slorb showed up.”

“That’s the slime thing?”

“Yeah, that’s its name.”

Finn picked up his helmet and placed it on. “Are there any weaknesses I should know of?”

“Fire seems to be a fire one or any kind of source that has a high amount of heat.”

“And...”

“And I didn’t have enough time to hook up some heat-based weapons into your gauntlets. You’re going to have to get creative.” 

Before another question could be asked, the hippogriff and stallion heard some screaming. “That’s probably your cue.”

“Right. Just make sure that Orca and Slab are okay.” Diamond nodded. He ran inside and the hippogriff jumped into action. The Slorb was much bigger than before, to counter this Finn made himself bigger to prevent himself from getting absorbed.

He grabbed onto the Slorb and found that having it slip through his talons, instead the Slorb started crawling up his arm. The hippogriff flew upwards to avoid himself getting absorb, but the Slorb wasn’t letting go that easily. He managed to get one of his talons free and he used his beak to activate one of the buttons on his new control panel.

A blade came out of the front of the panel. Thinking fast, Finn used this to cut the Slob off of his arm. The remains that still hung onto the hippogriff eventually let go and fell back to the ground. 

“Okay,” Finn said making his blade retract. “What else did Diamond add?”

He pressed a button the control panel that was on his other wrist. This one fire a beam that struck the Slorb. It made a bit of damage, but the slimy Monju just healed itself. “Okay, that didn’t work. There’s gotta be something that can stop this thing.”

Finn looked around to see if there was anything that could help. He could see some smoke coming from a mountain. Though, mountains didn’t normally do that. That's when it hit Finn. "A volcano. Perfect." Now Finn just had to figure how to get the Slorb to the volcano.

There was a river in between the town and the volcano and in order not to make the Monju bigger, Finn would have to get the Slorb over the river. There was only one thing the hippogriff could think of to get the Slorb over the river. He pressed a button and he made himself bigger.

Now that he towered over the buildings, he scooped up the Slorb and tried carrying it over to the volcano. It didn't take long for Finn to feel tired. The Slorb was having a hard time getting up on the hippogriff's arm as the Monju felt much heavier. Running low on energy, Finn couldn't hold the Slorb up anymore and dropped it.

The hippogriff made himself shrink a little bit to a size that was still big but wasn't draining him in seconds. However, he found the Slorb didn't land too far away from the river and started taking a drink, which was making it bigger.

"Oh, crud," Finn cried. 

He quickly started shooting beam to keep the Slorb away from the river, but it still grew quite a lot. Since growing size wasn't the best option, the hippogriff kept shooting beam to try and herd the slimy Monju towards the mountain. However, the incline to the volcano prevented the Monju from going where the hippogriff wanted it to go.

"Come on, Diamond. You've had to have installed something for problems like this." 

Pressed another button on the panels and suddenly got a shield. This gave the big hippogriff an idea. He was able to make another shield with his other control panel, to his relief, and started using them to scoop the Slorb up the inclined to the top of the volcano.

It was hard work, but the Slorb didn't seem to move very fast thanks to its size. Little by little, he managed to get the Slorb to the top and made it slip over the edge. While it tried to stop itself, the Slorb soon seeped down into the lava. After seeing it fall, Finn decided to fly back to town and take a break.

By the time he got to his home, he made himself his original size right before he passed out. Some ponies saw him land and walked over to him. Diamond Light was the one to help take his helmet off so the ponies could take a look at the worn-out hippogriff.





A couple hours later, Finn woke up in his bedroom, feeling a little sore from his mission. He looked around a little confused on how he got there until his mother walked in.

“Oh, thank goodness, you’re awake,” Reef sighed walking up to her son.

“Mom, what happened?” Finn questioned.

“You passed out after you took care of the Slorb. How are you feeling?”

“Drained and sore.”

“Your blood sugar’s probably low. Let’s get you some food.” The mother helped her son to the kitchen where Gully and Orca were at.

“Finn,” the fledgling cheered. She flew up to hug her brother, who was still a little confused.

“How long was I out?”

“About half a day,” Reef explained.

“Seriously?!”

“Yeah, we were worried about you,” Gully spoke. “Plus, you’re famous around the town.” He pulled out a picture of Finn wearing his jumpsuit and helmet with the word ”Scope,” writing above him.

“Scope. Is that what they’re calling me?”

“Yeah,” Orca confirmed. “You’re like a superhero.”

“...I kind of like the sound of that.”

“Just eat up first before you think about going out,” Reef requested. He placed a plate of food in front of her son, who soon started eating.

After refilling his blood sugar, Finn flew to Diamond’s location. A couple of ponies saw him and gasped when he flew by. The hippogriff stopped outside the stallion’s door and knocked to alert that he was here. After a few seconds, Diamond answered while wearing a welder’s mask.

“Finn, you’re alright,” the stallion spoke. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better,” the young hippogriff replied. “Do you know what happened to the suit? I couldn’t find it.”

“Well, of course, I took it back. I was putting some finishing touches on it. Come take a look.” Diamond led Finn inside and showed him his suit. It looked almost the same, though it had a few features that were noticeable, like the gauntlets.

“So, what’s changed?”

“Well, both gauntlets are hooked up with the same gear. Blades, blasters, and shields. Not to mention, the suit is made to make you much stronger regardless of your size.”

“Sweet. And fatigue?”

“I was unable to find a solution to that. I think it might be something you should watch in the future.”

“Got it.” Wanting to see what his suit could do now, Finn helped himself and put it on. He and Diamond walked outside and the hippogriff soon shrank himself down so he could be picked up by the stallion. Then the hippogriff then decided to do a little test and grabbed Diamond by the tail and lifted him into the air. “Sweet.”

“Good for you. Now please put me down.” Finn listened and after putting Diamond down, he made himself bigger, which grabbed the attention of a couple of ponies.

“Look, there he is!” a mare cried. Ponies started crowing around the giant hippogriff who started liking the attention.

“Hello,” Finn said. “You may call me Scope. I’m hoping you’ll appreciate my stay.” Judging by the cheering ponies, Finn could take this as a yes.





“So, what do you think?” Kelpie asked, finishing his story.

“I like the variety of monsters,” Ocellus commented.

“How does making hippogriff bigger make him tired?” Yona asked.

“Maybe the bigger he is the more energy he needs,” Pate guessed.

“Precisely,” Kelpie remarked.

“His superpowers come from his suit,” Gale commented.

“But Pate’s hero didn’t have any superpowers,” Shimmy Shake reminded.

“Yeah, exactly,” Kelpie said.

“Stop. Let’s not get into a fight,” Sandbar requested. “Discord.”

“On it,” the draconequus said. He pulled his horn again and the chairs of the students who weren’t picked yet. This time, the light landed on Yona. “Ah, what does our school’s first yak have to offer?”

“...Uh,” Yona said. “Yona’s story might be similar to twins’ story.”

“How?” Emerald asked. 

Yona didn’t know what to say as she just showed a picture of a young mare. She had beige fur, a brown braided mane, a sled decorated with flowers for a cutie mark, green eyes, but what was interesting about her was the yak horns on her head.

“I’m already liking the looks of her,” Discord commented.

“Yona asked for our help to make her story,” Smolder added. She and Ocellus showed some drawings of a dragon and a mare. 

The dragon had red scales and a white belly with short matching horns, long orange spikes, yellow wings, and her left arm was covered in crystals.

The mare, on the other hand, wore a green dress that covered most of her body, though her tail was visible. It and her mane were both pink and tied into buns. Her fur and eyes were blue and the most interesting thing about her was her broken horn.

“Who are these characters?” Sulcus asked.

“The mare’s name is Gentle Quill, the dragon’s name is Sanna, and the mare with horns is named Snow Petal,” Ocellus explained.

“That’s the mare’s name?” Moss asked.

“Pony names are weird,” Smolder said, “No offense, Sandbar.”

“None taken,” the colt replied.

“So, you worked together on your story together?” Discord asked. “Tell us more.”

“Alright,” Ocellus replied. She took a look at the paper that had their written down and explained it to her friends. 

“It goes like this……”