“Thank you for your time Ms. Starscout.” The reporter said.
“No problem.” Sunny responded. “Thank you for letting me send out that message.”
“I’m a little baffled as to what the context was behind it, but it sounds like it’s not my business beyond what the message was.” The reporter responded before they walked away to their camera crew.
Sunny smiled. In the weeks following the return of magic, Friendship, and her ascension to Alicornhood, Sunny found that her life had become a lot less quiet than previously. She was now no longer considered an outcast due to her advocacy to become friends with the Unicorns and Pegasi again, quite the opposite actually since now news ponies were regularly contacting her for an interview, one of which she just finished.
“You did awesome Sunny Bunny!” Exclaimed Izzy, before Sunny felt Izzy nuzzle her affectionately.
That was another thing that changed. Last night, Izzy confessed her love for her. And while Sunny didn’t really know if she felt the same way, she did know there was some sort of bond beyond friendship, so she decided to give it a shot.
“Thanks Izzy…Kitty?” Sunny tried to give Izzy a cute nickname like Izzy had immediately done for her.
That resulted in a round of chuckling from Zipp, Hitch. and the time traveling foals.
“Nice try Sunny.” Hitch commented.
“Yeah. Could’ve been worse. Ya coulda said Izzy Sizzy.” Crystal said.
Izzy laughed. “I think Izzy Kitty is perfect.” She said, giving Sunny a kiss on the cheek.
Sunny smiled. “Thanks Izzy.” She said with a blush
Pipp watched Izzy give Sunny a kiss on the cheek, and had to actively beat down her urge to do the same. Not yet. Not yet.
“You ok Pipp?” Zipp asked. She noticed Pipp’s obvious (to her) fake smile.
“I’m fine. Just fine.” Pipp responded. She couldn’t let out her frustration without giving herself away.
At that moment, a piece of tree bark appeared in front of Melody. Silencing everypony except Izzy. “Ooh! More magic tree bark!” She exclaimed.
Melody picked the bark up in her magic, and turned it over to see something written on it. “It’s another tree bark message. From mom!” She exclaimed.
“What does it say?” Pedal, Crystal, and Mystic all said at once.
“It says she saw the broadcast, and she, our brothers, and Spike are gonna double time it here. She also says three thank yous to Sunny for sending the signals and asks that whoever is taking care of us to continue to do so.” Melody said.
Izzy grinned. “As if Sunny and I would do anything else.” She said.
Mystic smiled. “Does it say how far away they are?” She asked.
“Uh…oh yes! They’re in the next town over! Harmony Hollow!” Melody announced happily.
Pedal and her sisters beamed. “That’s close! Right?” Pedal asked.
“It should be close if it’s the next town over.” Zipp responded.
“Yay!” Pedal and her three sisters exclaimed as they all embraced each other. Happy that they were at last going to be reunited with their mother and brothers. Spike too.
“Maybe you should send another signal Sunny. This time with a new message saying we got their message.” Hitch suggested.
“Good idea Hitch.” Sunny said. She closed her eyes, and everypony watched as she lit her horn, and in no time, another golden shockwave covered the skies.
“Wow. That is beautiful.” Izzy commented.
“I know right?” Pipp responded. “It’s…amazing and that was probably the last chance I had to live-stream that. Darn it!” Pipp facehoofed.
“Aww. Don’t worry Pipp. Next time I need to send a message I’ll let you get your phone out.” Sunny responded.
“Thanks Sunny.” Pipp said, smiling.
Hitch nodded, then turned to leave. “I’ll catch you guys later.” He said
“Where’re you going Hitch?” Zipp asked.
“House hunting. Unless Sunny and Izzy expect to fit five more ponies in their house comfortably, they’re gonna need a house to live in until they can find a way back to 1003.” Hitch explained.
Sunny wanted very much to say he didn’t have to do that, but she knew how much room she had at the lighthouse and she didn’t want to have to make Sparkler and most of her kids sleep on the floor. “Ok. And if they can’t afford the house for whatever reason?” Sunny asked.
“I’m pretty sure I can get Town Hall to require no payments of any kind. I’m just gonna need to tell them exactly what’s going on.” Hitch said.
“In that case I’d talk to the mare directly. Ask that they keep it under wraps as much as possible.” Zipp suggested.
“Exactly what I’m going to do.” Hitch said. With that, he left.
“Hey Zipp, shouldn’t you go with him since you're the designated deputy?” Pipp asked.
“No since yesterday when we finally found a permanent deputy.” Zipp responded.
“Ooh. You must be sad to not get to spend as much time with Hitch anymore.” Izzy commented.
“Eh, I’ll deal.” Zipp responded.
About an hour later, Sparkler and her group were flying as fast as they could through the sky. They were just getting ready to take flight towards Maretime Bay when they saw the Golden Shockwave of hope fly over their heads again. Sparkler’s horn tingled, this time her brain had processed a new message. Confirming that the tree bark message was received. This confirmation nearly made her launch before Dark and Light, who were attached to Sparkler Via harnesses so they could keep up, were ready. Once everypony was good and ready to take off, they did. They flapped their wings with all their might. Their desire to reunite with their family giving them strength. Well, most of them. Light and Dark couldn’t exactly have that desire in the way the others did since technically Sparkler wasn’t their mother, just a foster parent, but they didn’t want to slow the family down, and still wanted to meet the girls.
Finally, after about an hour and a half of flying, they could see a town they were certain was Maretime Bay come into visual range. “That must be it! Maretime Bay!” Called out Spike.
Sparkler smiled. “Let’s find someplace to land.” She said.
They eventually chose a large area with a clear view of the ocean as a landing point. All seven of them landed and Dark and Light were detached from Sparkler. Lumber looked around. “Hm. Nice town our sisters landed in.” He commented.
“Hey Sparkler?” Spike asked. “Wanna try Horn Pulsing Melody? We’re probably in range.” He suggested.
Sparkler smiled. “Good idea Spike, Lumber, Lightning, Trail, try to Horn Pulse your sister.” She said as she lit her horn.
Lumber, Trail, and Lightning did the same and they sent Horn Pulses to Melody. After only 20 seconds, they got a response.
Melody: We’re at the Lighthouse! Me, Pedal, Crystal and Mystic! And Flurry too.
Sparkler beamed at that. “Lighthouse! Right.” She glanced around and saw the lighthouse on a hill. “Come on guys!” She said excitedly.
Spike hopped onto Sparkler’s back and all of them started galloping in the direction of the lighthouse.
At the Lighthouse, Melody nearly had tears in her eyes of joy. “They’re in range of a Horn Pulse! They’re here in Maretime Bay!” She exclaimed.
Flurry smiled, lit her horn, and vanished in a puff of smoke. That took away everypony’s smiles and replaced them with groans. “Oh for the love of freaking Faust Flurry! I REALLY hope you teleported to Mom!” Crystal growled as she and her siblings pulled out their PonyPhones and called up the tracker. They immediately saw where Flurry was…and sighed in relief when they saw that her dot was moving towards the Lighthouse, and was close. “She’s probably with Mom.” Melody said as they and Sunny and Izzy dashed out of the house, and there, standing there with a shocked expression on her face because Flurry just teleported right in front of her, was their mother.
For the moment, they just stood there and blinked. Despite the Horn Pulse, they were half afraid she and their brothers would disappear. But they didn’t. After a second, Melody and her sisters sprinted towards their mother. “Mom!” They all called out.
Sparkler, who was surprised by Flurry Teleporting, heard the call and turned her attention to the source, where she saw Melody, Pedal, Crystal, and Mystic all sprinting towards them. “Girls!” She exclaimed as she took off in a sprint towards them.
They crashed into each other and Sparkler immediately wrapped her wings around the four. Her eyes tearing up on the spot in joy, relief, all the good emotions. “Oh thank the stars you’re all ok!” She exclaimed. “I missed you so much!”
“We missed you too mom! We’re so glad you’re finally here!” Pedal responded. All four girls had tears in their eyes as well from finally being reunited with their mother.
After a good minute of them just hugging. Sparkler finally let them go so they could tackle their brothers in hugs. While they were all reuniting and saying they missed each other and all that, Sparkler felt a tap on the shoulder. She turned and noticed a pair of mares had walked up to her.
“Hiya new friend! I’m Izzy and this is Sunny.” Izzy introduced herself.
“Sunny? As in Sunny Starscout?” Sparkler asked. Noticing that the orange Alicorn was the same one as the pony in the broadcast.
“Yep. That’s me. The mare who’s been sending you signals, and together with Izzy, we took your girls in and kept them safe.” Sunny said. “It’s nice to finally meet you Sparkling Medley. Uh, that is your name right?” Sunny asked.
Sparkler giggled and nodded. “Yeah. I’m Sparkling Medley. But just Sparkler will do. It’s nice to meet you two. I can never thank you enough for keeping my kids safe.” She told Izzy and Sunny.
“It was no problem at all!” Izzy responded. “They’ve been absolute angels the whole time. Flurry did have some teleportation problems but nothing beyond popping up in random places, and never for too long. We always find her quickly.” She explained.
“Yeah Flurry does that a lot I’m told.” Sparkler responded, chuckling. So Flurry’s teleport wasn’t affected.
“Whoa! Ok, only one eye and one ear…that’s new.” The three adults heard Melody exclaim.
Sparkler glanced over to her kids and the girls were standing there wide-eyed looking at Dark-Wing and Light-Wing. Probably failing to notice them til that point. Sparkler smiled as she rejoined her kids. “Oh right. Pedal, Melody, Crystal, Mystic. We picked up some new faces along the way.” She said.
Dark-Wing and Light-Wing smiled and waved. “Hey there. I’m Dark-Wing.”
“And I’m Light-Wing.” Dark and Light introduced ourselves.
“Hi there…” Melody responded.
“Nice to meet you.” Pedal said. None of the girls knew what to say.
“We know what you’re thinking. Yes, we’re aware of how we look.” Dark said.
“But we promise we’re not monsters. We’re normal ponies…that just look different.” Light explained.
“…Ok. Mom? How did you meet them?” Crystal asked.
“Long story, but the gist of it is, they ran away because of some bullies, we met them, and in the end I became their foster parent so they could legally travel with us.” Sparkler explained.
“Oh. Ok.” Mystic said, smiling.
“You got a knack for picking up strays off the streets do ya mom.” Melody joked.
At that, Spike straight up laughed. “Oh that she definitely does. Hehehe.”
That got all of them chuckling. Though Dark and Light were confused. “We don’t get it.” They said.
“Long story guys.” Lightning told them.
Off to the side, Izzy and Sunny gave the family space. Izzy smiled. “I’m almost sad. I really liked having them around.” She commented. “Now the house won’t be as full.”
Sunny smiled and wrapped a wing around her marefriend. “Eh, if things go well I reckon the house won’t be childless forever.” She said.
Izzy beamed at that. “Ooh? Are we going to adopt or are we gonna put these horns to use?” She asked.
“Let’s see how far we get first. Ok?” Sunny suggested.
“Deal.” Izzy responded before pulling Sunny in for a kiss, which Sunny returned.
After a few minutes, everypony, Izzy and Sunny as well, we’re in the lighthouse. Inside, Spike asked the elephant in the room. “So everypony’s here except Sky and Sprinkle.” He commented.
“Which means they’re still missing.” Trail said.
“Right. So where do we even start to look for them?” Sparkler asked.
To be continued…