Higher up in Maretime Bay, Zipp and Pipp were taking a break from the construction sight that was Sunny's house. It had been a long, hard day so far, but they felt they had made considerable progress on repairing the structure so it could be brought back into use later that week. Zipp was looking about for some refreshment. The same could not be said of her sister, who was on social media and communicating with her fans.
"Hey guys! I'm coming to you live from beautiful Maretime Bay! The sun is out, the sky is perfectly blue, and there are no clouds to spoil the view! You could say we got the light!"
Zipp looked over. "So do Zephyr Heights. Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights may be in different time zones, but it's still daytime at the same times."
"I was speaking metaphorically as well as meteorologically. #PartyPooper." Pipp rolled her eyes. "But today, I come to you to show you the latest project of unity between our tribes!" She switched the camera on her phone to the outside one, and pointed it at the lighthouse. "And here we are! This is the home of my best friend, which we are fixing after somebody damaged it!"
"Good morning, my darlings!" called a familiar voice.
Zipp trotted over to her younger sister. "Yo, little sis, you may want to stop streaming. Mom's approaching."
"I'm bigger than you, if only in wingspan!"
"Only in the amount of fluff you've got. Skeletally, we're exactly the same size. And I'm older too. I don't think you want mom bombing the stream."
Pipp looked into the monitor. "Sorry everypony, I gotta go! See you soon! Keep being awesome, and shine on in your own special way!" She then hit the red button, which ended the stream.
"How is this work coming along?" the formerly Queen Haven asked, accompanied by her dog, as she trotted to a stop at the location of her two daughters.
"Currently taking a tea break," Zipp said.
"What is tea?" Haven enquired.
"A liquid beverage that unicorns drink," Zipp answered. "Izzy taught me that phrase. It's quite a handy one!"
"And I was streaming the building work, showing how awesome it is that we are working together rather than living apart and being such meanies as we were before!" Pipp seemed quite excited as she stretched her wings out. "I'm so looking forward to trying out my flying routine from Glowin' up for Realsies!"
Haven responded to the completely contrasting personalities of her daughters with a smile. "That's wonderful to hear. In the meantime, as you probably know, today is Cloudpuff's birthday."
"Awww," Pipp smiled, whereas Zipp simply mouthed 'on no'. It was an open secret that Cloudpuff was a nightmare to handle.
"Anyway, I bought him something for his birthday," Haven continued, fishing out a necklace, or amulet of some sort. "I found this in the market for surprisingly cheap. "Here you go," she said to Cloudpuff.
"No! Don't put it on him!" a voice, that of Sunny, suddenly called from the distance.
Haven looked over her shoulder as Sunny and Izzy skidded to a stop. The unicorn started to speak.
"Thatobjectyouhavethereisareallydangerous-
(here Izzy took a big gulp of breath)- artifactthatcouldspelldoominthewronghands! SorryfortalkingsofastIgallopedallthewayhere!"
"What?" Haven, Zipp, and Pipp all said in unison.
"The quick version; don't give that to Cloudpuff! You saw what shiny magical objects can do when they're activated!" Sunny protested.
"Well, you did turn into an alicorn thingy for a bit," Zipp pointed out. "Mom, this may not be a good idea after all. You know how Cloudpuff can be."
As if to prove her point, the flying pomeranian turned its head and glared at Sunny, clearly having not forgotten the theft of the crystal shard. Haven, however, was hilariously oblivious to this.
"Oh, nonsense! Cloudpuff is nothing but adorable! Here you go darling, happy birthday!" Haven opened the amulet, and popped it round the dog's neck.
There was a brief red flash as the amulet locked into position, the clamp slamming shut. Suddenly, an energy blast pushed the others back, causing the others to quickly vacate the area as something began to happen.
In the place where Cloudpuff had been, there was now a gigantic ball of fluff. It barked at them, but of course it was so massive that the pitch of its voice and the volume were considerably deeper and higher respectively.
"What in Equestria is that thing?" asked a local.
"That," Sunny said, "is the Alicorn Amulet, and precisely why you don't go mucking about with magical artifacts! Hopefully he's just bigger and nothing else has happened."
Suddenly, Cloudpuff shot lasers from his eyes. An abrupt turn of his head dislodged some masonry from the lighthouse.
"Oh, come on!" shouted somebody else. "Why me? I had just finished work on that bit of wall!"
"Run!" Izzy shouted, and the five ponies galloped for their lives as a crazed gigantic dog began to fire upon almost everything in sight, as well as squash things under its paws.
"Oh, I'm such a fool!" Haven said, as they whizzed along. "This is a right mess we're in!"
"And only a day after yesterday's demolition derby!" Pipp added. "What?"
"Not helping!" Zipp snapped.
Sunny had taken the lead. "We need to find some way of getting that thing off him! Dad's records were incomplete, but I think there's a way of solving the problem using some leftover equipment from yesterday!"
Just then, they skidded past the entrance to the Canterlogic factory, and saw Hitch getting security clearance to enter the facility.
"Hitch!" Sunny called. "We need to get in there too! There's a giant rampaging dog out there and we need your help to stop it!"
Hitch turned to the guard. "Let them in too!"
"Understood sir! Once you're through, I'll switch on the kinetic barriers."
There was a look on Sprout's face. "You know, I think I have the solution to this very problem." He stepped forward- only for the door to be smacked into his face. "OW!"
"That's been happening to me all day," Sunny said dryly.
Sprout led the five ponies down the corridors of the vast Canterlogic factory. Brightly lit and well kept, it was the polar opposite of the infamous Rainbow Factory which, according to legend, had operated in Cloudsdale thousands of years ago. Employees rushed up and down with equipment and scientific data, most of them paying no attention to the loud crashes and bangs outside.
"So, what are you taking us to?" Hitch asked, not liking where this was going.
Sprout skidded to a stop, and punched 7669 into one of the door code boxes. There was a hiss, and the doors slid open into a storage room. "This is what I wanted to show you. I had these machines built in case I got backed into a corner and had to employ a rather more aggressive solution to the problem."
"You mean unicorns and pegasi," Zipp said. "You do know we could have kicked your flanks pretty easily, right? Our air force is not to be messed with."
"I get it! It wasn't thought through. Geez, no need to pile it on." Sprout hit a light switch, and the lights came up on five bipedal machines, each with a cockpit in the centre. Each one was bristling with armaments, and each was painted a different colour.
One was orange with purple trim. Another was pink with blue trim. The third was orange with green trim, and the fourth was pink with purple trim. The last, and by the far the smallest, was white with red and blue lining.
"They're colour coded to our colours!" Izzy pointed out. "Cool! Can we take them for a test drive?"
"That's kinda why we're here," Sprout continued. "These should give you enough firepower to see off Cloudzilla out there! I'll be running mission control as these machines need full, real time logistical support."
"How do we know you won't just hit self destruct the moment we get in?" Hitch asked, eyeing his deputy- former deputy, that is, with suspicion.
"Who fits a self destruct module that can only be triggered remotely?" Sprout countered. "Besides, think about it logically. What do we achieve if I blow you up? That thing out there will still be rampaging around Maretime Bay, and we'll all be worse off for it!"
"As much as I'm not sure about this, I think this is our best shot for slowing Cloudpuff down," Zipp noted. "He can get pretty mad when sufficiently provoked, and he seems pretty angry now."
"And that can give Sunny time to think of a plan to save the day, right?" Izzy asked.
"Right?" asked Pipp, seeing Sunny staring off into space."
Sunny shook her head. "Sorry, drifted off for a moment there. Yeah, let's go do it!"
Sprout hopped into a big box nearby and switched on the speakers. "All pilots, to your battlemechs! Let's get this show on the road!"