-Equus, Airship Mauled, Oleander-
I stretched out my back after staying at the Helping Hoof Inn or Hotel. I sat down at a table with Fred dutifully floating next to me like usual.
“Meep?” I looked up at Paprika as she popped up unexpectedly to hug me and Fred.
“Not yet, but I know she’s out there somewhere.” I just had to find her, also I needed a good home for Gothic Horror Pom. “She’s… I want to say tough, but she’s almost as marshmallow soft as Velvet’s cousin Cashmere.”
“I like Cashmere Ollie, SHE HAS A MAJOR CRUSH ON YOU.” Thank you for stating the obvious Fred. “That and she’s got style. If we’re going to herd, she’ll be on a list of possibly choices for my demonic harem.”
“Would you like breakfast here or are you going to eat at Kuril’s?” Grace was such a lovely cow, though I still couldn’t exactly quite fathom why she was dating the confusion god Veles.
-Earth, Cape Suzette, outside Dr. Axolotl’s base, Bentley-
“Maybe we can hotwire the weapon to…” The mountain the weapon was on exploded and several rumbling explosions carried throughout the base. Then the base of the nearby mountain farted flames for a few seconds as the weapon toppled over into the imploding peak. Needless to say I was flabbergasted that someone can time things so well. “Ah… the wily doctor thought of that, we’re doomed unless I can come up with another plan.”
“Let’s regroup at Kahn Industries and meet up with everyone.” Mopsy looked down and how couldn’t she be down? We failed to stop the city destroying weapon from going off.
For in the sky was a massive amount of metal hurtling towards us, since the magnetic rail gun tugged a huge rock that would survive atmospheric reentry mostly intact and was made of tough enough materials to cause a huge tidal wave.
The only good thing about it hitting Cape Suzette would be that the tidal wave would at least be stopped by the surrounding wall of mountains, aside from Louie’s directly to the south through the entrance into Cape Suzette.
When Dr. Axolotl wanted his machines to destroy Cape Suzette, he even thought of the outliers that were technically in Cape Suzette’s territory.
Evacuation would be a no go and we really should tell people about this gently, the rioting could be awful and some people would currently just be happy not knowing everyone still stuck in the city would die unless we could form a quick plan.
-Kahn Industries, Kahn Tower, twenty minutes later, Pom-
“So we have almost barely an hour to stop it and there’s no evacuating everyone.” Trying to keep the panic out of my voice wasn’t working too well. At least I wasn’t the only one around feeling terror.
“Hmm… yes… that is a problem. I will not abandon this city or its people.” Shere Kahn stated with a calm tone, this made Mowgli look at him as if he had grown three heads and just said he wanted to join the circus. “Is there anything we can do to prepare to stop or at the very least minimize the damage?”
“Well… if you can fund… just about anything really… and get enough people to move stuff.” Bentley started. “Well we can come up with a plan once we know what resources we’re working with here.”
“Granted.” Kahn stated with a no nonsense tone. “If it will save my city, the cost is not a worry.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my father?” It seemed Mowgli didn’t believed Kahn would foot the bill on this one.
Kahn crouched down to meet his son eye to eye.
“Whatever you may think of me, know that I do care as your mother knew when you were born and I held you my little man cub.” He hugged Mowgli close and tenderly. He then stood and dusted himself off as if it hadn’t happened and he was trying to maintain his aloof and calm image. He glanced at everyone else around him. “Tell no one of that.”
I don’t think we would, his voice alone brokered no nonsense and enough threat to make sure of it.
“Okay, now it’s believable.” Mowgli just blinked wide eyed at his father.
“Okay so we have a carte blanche on cost… how do we stop a giant metal meteor?” Bentley looked like he was trying to come up with something in the amount of time we had. “We don’t have the time to build another magnetic railgun and the one in the mountain isn’t destroyed, but it’s toppled over. The infrastructure of the city is shot, everything needs repairs, and most of the power stations wouldn’t be able to give us enough power to shoot some form of death laser at it. We can’t get a magnet big enough. Those robots may not have been big on intelligence, but they really left us with little to work with.”
Bentley was the brains of the Cooper Gang and he was slowly dredging through all the options we had.
I just say with a roughed up Dolly, Shanty, Smolder and Ocellus. We were all in a sorry state, except Dodo, he looked pristine and was still advertising ‘Team Leap Lamb’ blatantly. Wait… we could get another mind to work on this, but… I sighed.
“Dodo.” I stated calmly, Dodo got up moved over to me. I reached into his back and pulled out my bag and took Dormarch out and walked off to the side through the hole in the metal shutter, to see that the dawn of a new day has yet to come. “Dormarch, I know you’re having issues with knowing about your… origins, but I want to discuss something with you face to face.”
“What.” The gloomy Dalmatian on the screen stated.
“The fact that we’re all going to die if you don’t help us come up with an idea.” I stated bluntly.
“What idea can I possible come up with, can’t you just hit it with that bark breaker thing?” That… was almost a good idea Dormarch.
“Despite how long range and powerful my bark breaker is… it still has limitation and at best my bark breaker is made for breaking up rigid or tough materials. There would still be enough of the meteor left to kill everyone even if I shattered it and only half the pieces of the meteor hit the city.” I didn’t know enough to accurately guess that truthfully, but I was estimating the chances of me actually stopping something that big. I had zero chance of it. “I can’t save the city, I’m also not going to look away from people in trouble to save my skin Dormarch. You’d hate me if I ran away from this, but you’d hate it if I died when I could have survived. What do you want me to do Dormarch, dance and sing my heart out on stage about how cruel things really are?”
“… No… but…” Dormarch look up at me with a curious expression. “Calling the fam.”
“Did you say ‘fam’ Dormarch? Are you talking to us again, because I just want to say you’re still my little brother even if we don’t survive this! I got enough room in my heart for more than a hundred you know!” Dolly was on my back looking over my shoulder. Come Tartarus or high water and possibly beyond, she’d stay. Given how she was one of the few that didn’t look depressed and she believe we’d live to see the sunrise. “That and I’ve been meaning to tell you I’ve learned a new trick Pom! Not that it will help in this situation, I mean I learned to do some cool magic and then it’s pointless against something like this. What good is having a new ability, if I can’t use it to defend the city? I’m sure we’ll figure something out, I mean there’s still time right?”
“Yes… oh hello Dormarch! Pom, nice to see you in generally good health. You were amazing out there Dolly, you are doing us Dalmatian’s proud!” Dawkins stopped talking for a second when he noticed that we weren’t happy to see him. “What’s the matter? The news said you beat those robots.”
“About that Dawkins, we… have an issue. A giant metal meteor is going to destroy the city on impact.” I told him. “We need to come up with a plan.”
“And I have one, why do you think I called ‘The Fam’?” Dormarch stated looking a little less depressed. “Okay Dawkins, do some quick calculations because we’re on a time crunch here, sending you the information now. We’re also going to need the family member referred to as DJ, some peppy pop music we can stomp to and a lot of speakers we can overload that people won’t care about.”
The brainy Dalmatian looked over something on the screen and tilted his head while humming and scratching at his chin.
“This could work, but where are you going to get that kind of power from?” Dawkins asked.
“Pom, how powerful is magic, like dancing and singing wise?” Dormarch asked me. “Also I need you to talk to Mopsy and Ocellus. You’re going to need dresses for this and I’m thinking… how about you call yourselves The Ungulates.”
“Huh?” Okay that had lost me, what was Dormarch thinking? “What…”
“You don’t have much time, just… just get your chest checked out and follow my instructions.” Dormarch demanded. “Trust me, this… this idea I have… it can work… it has to! I don’t want to live in a world where I had let you down Pom!”
“Well… okay.” I stated quietly.
-Thirty minutes to destruction, Sly-
What mattered more to me than Clockwerk, at the moment that is, was the city of Cape Suzette. I didn’t want to leave my friends in the lurch, Murray, Shanty and Mopsy refused to leave.
In fact, Mopsy was asked to do a performance and she agreed to it.
Ocellus took a bit more cajoling, she was a shy one despite helping in the fight against the MEL’s. Smolder eventually convinced her to help, because apparently the plan required that we have a singing group.
Bentley, Murray and I were doing stage crew stuff, running back and forth setting everything up at the top of Kahn Tower.
We were connecting it to the stage that was quickly set up by a number of people who were confused as to why we were putting on a performance, especially after being told the city was doomed. The people told there was a plan, but it required everyone to be gathered at the performance for it to work.
Ocellus and Pom were beings of the planet Equus. If you started any musical rhythm and someone from there gets into the groove, then magical things happened. Immediate choreography of the surrounding people, everyone knows the song and it will generate a unifying power depending on the person or people doing the singing.
If this worked, then it will have be a grand miracle in the making. We were told several times we lived in a world where dreams can come true if you worked hard enough for them according to Pom’s group. They came here from a dimension with that criteria specifically in place and the magic of the possum princesses brought them here for a reason.
Well… what would happen if everyone dreamed of saving a doomed city together and had something to unify them all in that one goal? Well we’d all soon see.
Murray heaved a bit of equipment into place and I shifted it about to make sure it was in position and then Bentley started hooking it up. We couldn’t get this wrong, everything was being triple checked.
-Ten minutes until destruction, outdoor stage-
I looked to my left at the green eyed Mopsy and then my right at the red eyed sheep form Ocellus took on, then I looked down at my blue dress. Like me, they were in green and red dresses respectively, our makeup was done and we looked exactly like one another aside from color choice that Dormarch apparently took from Huey, Dewy and Louie Duck.
Makeup was not my thing, but Mopsy said I better make an exception here or else we wouldn’t be able to pull off our professional looks.
I inhaled and sighed, at least I had enough energy to do this. We needed to be strong for this and we need to get this right the first time… as I walked out on to the stage and approached the three microphones.
“Ready DJ?” The dalmatian puppy raised a digit while nodding, with his other paw on his earphones. “If this doesn’t work, then thanks for trying to save everyone with music. Dormarch, thank you for the plan even if it is ridiculous.”
Dormarch didn’t respond on the screen, he went back to being a bit moody I guess, but his fish tails shifted a little as me and my two ‘sisters’ took to the stage and I left him with Dodo.
The music started as three spot lights focused on us, Mopsy didn’t look worried and was ready to perform the show of a lifetime and Ocellus had a look of nervous determination.
-
“Woo hoo… yeah-eah-eah-eah~.” Mopsy sang to get us started as the music started getting us into the mood.
I could feel the heart song form as me and Ocellus were taking part in it, we needed all the extra power we could get… the robots had ruined the various power stations aside from the main one. I was on the left and Ocellus was on the right and we made for three pretty ‘sheep’ at least.
We started stomping our hooves in rhythmic movements, the floor shook underneath us. The three of us were shifting our hips and following the tune with our stomps as we stood together looking up at the sky.
If we were going to die, then we were going out in the most fantastically ridiculous manner possible in the face of imminent death!
The things I’d do to save a city…
“Oh dance fair, are you ready to join us now~?” Mopsy sang as we stomped to the beat.
“Hooves in the air, we will show you how~.” I sang, followed by Ocellus as the three of us gathered together waving our hooves rhythmically to the crowd.
“Come be spry~.” The audience started to get into it as I did my part with a weak smile.
“I’m Mopsy and I will be your guide~.” She winked saucily at the audience, getting some cheers.
“Be your guide~.” Echoed Ocellus expertly with a worried smile as we gathered together.
“So come on move your hips, sing baa-aa-aa~.” We sang out at the same time and the crowd was really started to cheer. “Look at The Ungulates, doing la-la-la~.”
“You and we, can get this melody~!” We sang together our hearts growing firmer in our resolves.
“Baa-wah-wuh-oh~.” We sang together our face next to each other as we held out our hooves to the crowd.
“Dance to the beat, wave your hooves together, come feel the sweet, forever and-ever~.” The crowd was starting to stomp with us and it might actually start working as we sang together.
“Listen and learn, it is time for prancing~.” We pranced in a circle changing which microphones we were on, I was on the right and Mopsy was on the left with Ocellus at the front. “For now we are here, we’re parallel dancing~!”
“Baa-aa-ooa-ahh-… Baa-aa-oo-aa-oh-… Baa-aa-ooa-ahh-… Baa-aa-oo-aa-oh~.” Ocellus sang softly really getting into as we continued to stomp to the tune, nothing like pop music and a good rhythm to feasibly end our lives to. “We’re sweet and okay, we will bring our song~.”
“We’ll all be okay, you’ll see soon before long~.” I sang determinedly trying to raise the mood of the song.
“They have heard, we’re singing this to all the world~.” Mopsy smirked at Ocellus before singing suggestively and waggling her eyebrows in a manner to make the poor changeling blush. “Baa-aa-ah~.”
“So come on move your hips, sing ba-aa-aa~.” We gathered together once more shifting are hips left and right three different personalities showing. Shy, fun and brave as we shook our flanks for the crowd. “Look at The Ungulates, going la-la-la~.”
“Soon you’ll see, we’ll all sing this melody~!” Ocellus sang with a hit of cheer and less shy to the audience and the people of Cape Suzette started cheering.
“So come and~!” We sang together pressing our face together, like three triplets. The truth was much further from that.
“Prance to the beat~.” I sang twirling before holding my left hoof out.
“Wave your hooves together~!” Mopsy shouted twirling and waving her left hoof while holding out her right.
“Come feel this heat, forever and-ever~!” Ocellus was helping us get an idea of the mood of the crowd, she was bright like sunshine as stepped up to the mike while singing.
“Christen and discern, that it is time for prancing~.” We all pranced in a circle changing positions once more and I was at the front looking a bit nervous, but I was fully letting the the beat into my heart as it beat with the music. “For now we are here, we’re parallel dancing~!”
Smolder, Dolly, Launchpad, Drake, Gosalyn, Kit and Molly soon joined us all on the stage. Despite the various injuries they had, they started stomping with us as backup dancers.
We all stomped in a slow clockwise circle and then in a counterclockwise circle and continued to slam the beat out into the world, we could only hope this was working and at least we had the crowd worked up.
Now it was my turn.
“Dance with the beat, wave with us together~.” We all started shifting at the tone of my voice and the slowdown of the peppy song. “Come feel this treat, forever and-ever~.”
I took up the microphone while staring at the sky as everyone stomped at the same time, Ocellus and Mopsy did the same on my left and right.
“With diligence earned, it is time for prancing~” I backed up to stand between Ocellus and Mopsy.
“Now we~.” Mopsy moved forwards taking a pose.
“Are here~.” I moved to the left taking a pose myself.
“Parallel dancing~!” Ocellus moved right to strike her own pose.
We all stomped into standing next to each other and we all started singing as one.
“Baa-aa-aa~.” We sang like the angels we were going to become if this didn’t work, but the thunderous sounds of a thousand limbs striking the ground with rhythmic force almost made me feel like we could pull it off. “Baa-aa-aa-oh, Baa-aa-aa, Ba-aa-aa-oh~.”
“So come and…~!” We sang together and stomped as hard as we could and I looked up at the numerous speakers hooked up to Kahn Tower and the vibrations we were sending out.
“Dance in the heat, wave your hooves together~!” We sang along with the crowd as the fervor grew and the shockwaves of the song carried throughout the city. “Come feel the beat, forever and-ever~!”
“Listen and learn, it is time for prancing~!” We sang loudly together putting our heads next to each other. “We are all still here, we’re parallel dancing~!”
“Dance to the beat, we’ve all joined in together~!” We stomped and shifted our hips as we pranced in a circle continuing the rhythm. “Come feel the sweet, forever and-ever~!”
“Don’t distance and spurn, it is time for prancing~!” We all sang and we all felt the heart song swell for the last line.
“We are all here, we’re parallel dancing~!” With one last stomp, a sudden shockwave erupted into the sky from the final verse made us all look up as the large metal rock was pushed back slightly.
I frowned a bit… then… we didn’t…
The hunk of metal exploded violently into a large cloud of metal dust and most of that dust would fall into the bay and the shockwave we created continued straight on into space.
Well then…
There goes the cities drinking water… at least it’ll be mostly contained by the caldera of mountains.
Small price to pay really, but I’m sure they would get all the metal out of the water eventually.
Also we may have… slightly… possibly… feasibly… might have… overdone it a tiny bit with the heart song.
I seriously hoped that shockwave doesn’t hit anything important.
-In space, ????-
“Yes, soon Scrooge and his family will fear the return of general Lunar…” Suddenly a shockwave slammed into the golden ship and figure went wide eyed as the ship was pushed out of orbit and into the universe. Not only that, it just destroyed the rebuilt thrusters the moonlander had spent a better part of months repairing. “What the… NOOOO!!!”
In space nobody could hear the invader Lunaris scream as his golden spaceship spiraled away never to be seen by Earth again, he’d eventually end up somewhere nice for a disposed tyrant of the Moonlander people that now lived peacefully on earth.
-On the ground, Cape Suzette, Pom-
“We… we did it… hah…. haha… hehe-HAHAHHAHHA, we did it!” I cheered jumping up and down with my hooves raised high in the air.
DJ smiled as he continued to bob his head and play a groove, Dolly looked proud of her younger brother keeping the dance beats going after the song was over.
It took a moment for all the people that had joined us, but most of the city just realized what happened and continued dancing to the music with each other.
We weren’t dancing to our demise. We just literally weaponized a heart song to power a sonic cannon and just saved Cape Suzette.
I sat down and sighed audibly, feeling like my soul was about to exit my body and call it quits. I wouldn’t blame it at this point, it… was probably one of the closest calls we’ve had.
“You okay Pom?” Ocellus said as she sat next to me.
“Uhn….” I groaned and flopped onto my back, Mopsy carefully laid down next to me and pulled me into a hug.
“Hugs!” Dolly shouted and she clamped onto my neck while wagging her tail.
Soon Ocellus joined as well, before we knew it we were all getting our collective ribs crushed by Launchpad who saw the loving hugs in progress.
“Family truly is one of the…!” Launchpad stated, before a portion of Kahn Tower started collapsing. “And I’m completely thankful that that happened well away from us! Everyone saw that I didn’t have anything to do with that right? Right?! Right.”
“Aren’t we all glad Launchpad?” Sly stated as he sauntered up. He, Bentley and Murray warmed the crowd up by joining us in dancing. There was also Mowgli that helped Sly’s gang get everyone started. “Are you still willing to join us at Clockwerk’s lair? I mean after this, I can understand completely if you didn’t want to. You have to be exhausted with trouble.”
“Nope, we’re leaving as soon as we can. I’m not sticking around for the mercenaries that likely saw our performance.” Yeah, that and they might start targeting Mopsy and anyone that looks like me on the principle of it at this point. “Nobody would be expecting a warm weather loving person like me to go to this cold Russia place right?”
“We’re going to a volcano.” Stated Bentley bluntly.
“Even better, I live on a volcano and love having a home in city where it’s always warm weather year round!” I was trying to act overly optimistic, take the hint Bentley.
“AH… Sorry.” Thanks for noticing Bentley.
I lifted up a hoof and pointed out the sun rising on a new day.