-Equus, Ponyville, Silver Stream-
“So yeah, Edith needed a checkup and Fluttershy found out what was wrong with her quite quickly.” Animals were very interesting, like Spindle for example. “So what is Spindle exactly? I don’t think we ever got his particular species?”
Very friendly spider, finally became Yona’s familiar after a time. Spindle was the first to reach out to her in friendship and in turn Yona reached back. Now Spindle liked to laze about on Yona’s horns or stays in high up out of the way places, the spider certainly knew Yona could be a bit… clumsy.
“Wolf Pack Spider, slightly territorial, but not overly dangerous unless you hurt them on purpose. They like to move in large numbers.” Yona looked up at Spindle as he waved at me and he made a cute little squeaking noise that sounded almost like a bark. “They just require a bit of fish or a garden to hunt down pests in. Bite like a wolf, fluffy like a dog. Yona is getting good deal on fish jerky from Taste Witch Kuril. How is Gallus feeling?”
“Back to normal mostly, but he does have to deal with Jaded’s antics more than we do. I believe she recently stole from Luna’s hidden moon pie vault… also did you know Luna had a hidden moon pie vault? I sure didn’t until today.” I said as I looked out to see the bright wonderful day going on outside. “Yona, Equestria is pretty awesome isn’t it?”
“Yes, Yona wants to actually live here, so Yona is going to work towards that.” That was nice Yona. “What brought this up?”
“Just missing my brother a little, I’m thinking about how Garble can’t visit his sister and I can still see my brother. It feels… unfair.” Also sad, maybe we can visit Garble or send him a care package to the dragon lands? The gift would have to be something highly heat resistant though. “What kind of gift would you get for a dragon?”
Yak’s and dragons were allies so maybe…
“A mattress.” Yona said instantly. “Sure he will be outgrowing it eventually, but Yona think he will appreciate the years of sleeping in comfort until he grows too big for it.”
“Now how to go about earning money for a fire-proofed mattress…” A clanging sound was heard as a pony jumped onto our table and with a bucket on his head. “Oh no, not again… what song can we sing to fix this?”
“Okay who said ‘mattress’ near Bucket Brain!” Another pony wandering up. “THE E-U-P IS A SAINTLY FOUNTAIN OF WHIMSY, FOR ALL THE MEMBERS ARE FREE TO CHASE A DREAM OF GOLD THAT IS FAIRLY FLIMSY, ON MOUNTAINS OF FOOD BUILT UP HIGH~…”
The pony took the bucket off his head and got down.
“Does anyone know why Bucket Brain does that when someone says mattress?” The second Yona said that Bucket Brain was back on the table with a distinctly different bucket on his head.
“Yona!” I wagged a talon at my friend in disappointment.
“Yona is sorry… ahem…” After Yona cleared her throat she began to belt out a harmonic vocal opera until Bucket Brain came down from the table.
When I asked about it, female yaks were all exceedingly good at opera apparently. They just don’t see the point in a talent that causes avalanches as yaks tended to live in snow heavy regions.
I wonder if I should get Yona to sing like that for a talent show…
-Earth, Basemax, still morning an hour after eating, Dolly-
Okay… we were gathering people together to get up to the lizards and kick some butt, before then we needed to rest and or do some things first.
For me, it was call my family. I think Dylan was going to be jealous that I would be living his dream of going into space. I should put in a good word for him with the McDuck family about getting him his dream job, at least get him closer to Mars. He was certainly smart enough for it, like how Dawkins was smart enough to launch that makeshift rocket powered elevator into orbit… should probably check if it’s still there when we go up.
Okay, deep breathe, smile… try to ease into it gently.
The screen popped up and Dylan was on it answering the call.
“Hey, Dyl…” I started only for him to immediately see right through it.
“Okay, what’s wrong Dolly?” Well if that couldn’t make me frown, I don’t know what would. “Also where’s Dormarch?”
“Yeah… about that… would you believe conquering alien lizards happened barely a day after the whole Saint Canard thing? Dormarch is currently unavailable for comment given his precarious position, I just wanted to let all of you know I’m okay… him… not so much.” The look and raised eyebrow I received let me know that he wasn’t buying the hard to keep smile, so I just dropped it. “Mostly okay. You know I’m tough, despite dealing with things that can clearly snap me in half in an instant. As for Dormarch… he is currently on their huge spaceship. Me and a few heroes are about to go up into space after the aliens to rescue Ocellus.”
“See was it really that hard to… wait you’re going into space?!” It took a moment for it to click with Dylan that he wasn’t going to be the first dog in our family to head to space and that I’d be living his dream, in a limited capacity.
“Yeah, sorry about jacking your dream bro. Dormarch is already up there so… he would technically be the first in the family, and the youngest dog to ever be put in space too come to think of it.” It meant a lot that I was being believed despite how weird this situation sounded.
My step brother knew me so well he could read me when he absolutely knew something was off about how I was acting. It was quite comforting that my brother still knows me so well.
“At least you aren’t going to Mars… well hopefully you’re not. I still want to my paw down there first.” Still looking to be the first dog to set a paw on Mars huh? Apparently in a world where dreams can come true, your dream wasn’t that hard to achieve with a little help. You were always going to be my space case of a brother, like the paleontology interest would have panned out any better given that Scrooge guy already had a monopoly on researching ancient civilizations. You could write a book about all the weird mystical stuff that duck keeps in his mansion. “How are you going to survive up there anyway? They can’t have possibly made a spacesuit for you that fast.”
“Do you know Scrooge McDuck Space Industries? I can actually put in a good word for you… that and they have this horrible tasting gum that allows someone to breath in a vacuum. In fact the duck who stress tested it was stuck on the moon for ten years surviving off it as it apparently staves off hunger too… ugh don’t try and make me figure out how that works bro. It happened and even I find that a little hard to believe if I hadn’t actually met one of the Moonlanders that confirmed it was a thing.” At least the excited look I received from Dylan wasn’t going too far, really didn’t have the heart to tell him we were still trying to figure out the logistics of dealing with the heavily armored machinery with a lot of firepower. Not even my magic was good enough for one of those, what was wind going to do to machines that heavy? If there were at least fifty or more of those things as predicted we were going to have issues, also I couldn’t just wait for one to knock over a light pole in space. The only ones that took a few down were those Mighty Duck guys and I remember them pretty much saying the machines were all recovered to be repaired… the ones they needed to take down with missiles. “I’ll just have Ms. Shuttle send you the information and maybe they can work you into reinvigorating their space exploration program, I know you’ll work for cheap which is how that Scrooge guy likes it. Just have Dawkins look up Gyro Gearloose and Oxy-chew if you want to know more about the gum, I think there was something about a contest and you can earn a ten thousand dollars if you can figure out how to get the taste to be anything other than what it is while still doing whatever it does. Might give Dawkins something to work his brain over in his spare time.”
“So… it’s really happening… I can go into space.” Dylan was looking at me with misty eyes before they sharpened and he shook his head. “How dangerous?”
“Exceedingly, but I’m the only one that can get them there. A lot of alien robots, some with more weapons on them than necessary, also there are four of these alien lizards and a chance that the planet might be invaded if we don’t succeed in taking them down. So no pressure there obviously.” Rolling my eyes here. “They are going to come after the expert they wanted on teleportation and dimensional technology eventually, once they find out they captured Ocellus instead of their actual target. So we really can’t sit on this and are getting things in motion quite fast. We have to hit them while we have the element of surprise if we’re going to save Ocellus and the lizards don’t know that we can find them thanks to Dormarch.”
“Dawkins!” Dylan called out and my brainy brother tilted his head into view with something else. Huh he actually did it, he made a robot dog… one I’m betting has Princess Positron as a name.
“Yes?” Been a while since I’ve heard that eloquent tone.
“Dawkins has some free time… bark, bark.” The feminine sounding robot dog stated.
“Can you contact Sly Cooper after I’m done talking with Dolly and ask him if he knows of a way to send some aid Dolly’s way? She’s about to run face first into a lot of robots again and if you look at her you can see why I’m worried. She’s recovering from the Saint Canard fight and what she isn’t telling me is that they lost a fight to the lizards and robots she told me about that captured Ocellus and Dormarch is somewhere on their ship.” Okay, Dylan picked that up faster than I thought he would. “… We’re never going to be normal anymore are we?”
“That implies that we were ever normal to begin with.” Dawkins muttered dryly. “Also I thought I stopped you from saying ‘bark, bark’ after you speak.”
“I reinstated that programming.” Oh dog, that was hilarious, the robot was what I was expecting when it came to being built by Dawkins. “I will do so with less frequency, but I still enjoy saying it. … Bark, bark.”
I burst out laughing.
“Let me guess, Princess Positron?” My brothers were still as I remember them, if living with a magical zombie chicken and a robot dog now. What next an alien pet?
“Yep.” Flatly responded Dylan to me while gesturing at the robot. “This is our sister Dolly, first Dalmatian super hero in the family who is known as Caper Canine.”
“Princess Posie Tronica, though while I am not a princess in reality I do appreciate Dawkins seeing me as such.” The robot dog stated in a chipper tone.
“She’s- not going to flip out and go evil right?” I ask because I knew my family all too well.
“I am well past that stage of my existence…” Posie stated. “It was… not nice.”
“Well can all of you really blame me? I’m the overworked shut in of the family and having a mechanical assistant has been my dream for quite a while…. also Bentley helped out with the AI problem.” Dawkins was looking away from my grin while blushing. “After I made a few… miscalculations.”
“Show me a robot or artificially generated intelligence that hasn’t gone around the bend…” Posie started only to be cut off by Ms. Shuttle.
“I never went evil, I’m a Big Hero Six’s favorite auxiliary member. My name is Bunny Shuttle, my function is to drive motorized vehicles and offer cheerful supportive words when feasible.” Ever chipper was Ms. Shuttle. “I tend towards naïve optimism though, not that that’s entirely a bad thing when the world needs hopeful tomorrows.”
“Best friends forever!” Posie shouted after a few seconds of silence.
“So… not mad about this?” I asked while trying to figure out how much weirder or dangerous things could get since I started a world tour with Pom.
“Mad? No, of course not Dolly. Jealous? Oh definitely, wish I were you right now!” After a moment Dylan added. “I’m not exactly one for all the dangers of a super hero life though, that’s more your thing now Dolly. A lot of the pups are both excited and worried for you, don’t know how we’re going to break it to mom or dad you’re going into space to fight aliens though. The pups will be excited to hear what you did this time, considering all your previous adventures sound… really ‘out there’.”
“No need, I’ve already heard enough… Dolly… dear… please be careful while out in space.” Mom said as she appeared on the screen from the left.
“Will do mom!” Having a good mother like Delilah always reminded me of my first mother, that wasn’t a bad thing. I had the chance to have a second mother, one who is professional nurse dog, not everyone can be as lucky.
-Akuma Island, off the coast of San Fransokyo, after lunch time-
“Been a while since we’ve been here, I don’t know whether to thank Momakase or not for destroying the lab that was here completely.” Hiro muttered while slouching a bit. “It’s a good gathering place at least, nobody comes here because this island is considered cursed… it’s not. It’s just that bad things have happened here… I was almost one of them.”
“There, there.” Baymax patted him comfortingly on the back. “However with the advent of magic being a known quantity to us, the existences of curses are now more plausible. I do not have the ability to counteract such things, but I can at least handle the physical symptoms of being hit with magical fireballs, lightning bolts and freezing ice should such things occur.”
“Yeah, very comforting when it comes to dealing with that Wraith guy.” Ron certainly had reasons to be worried about running into the lizard wizard, the guy could cancel out his mystical monkey mojo. Could probably negate me too.
“I know why we’re still here, I know why the Mighty Ducks and you Big Hero Six guys are here, but why are Penny and her pets still around?” Kim pointed out the odd ones out.
The Power Pets team wasn’t exactly connected to this further than helping capture Phantom Blot with Wheel Cat. Said guy had escaped from custody an hour ago thanks to his most competent minion ‘Pepper the Egghead’ being the only one of the eggheads not accounted for when they were taken to the police. At least they were said to have fled to the east and out of California so they weren’t our problem anymore until the Phantom Blot can find or somehow make another magic draining gauntlet.
“Hey, we want to help and be involved, besides, I want to spend time with the kids my age and the McDuck Clan kids are said to be some of the safest people to be around. Also Dolly is going and she’s no more resilient to laser fire than Bolt or Mittens are… don’t honestly know about Rhino, he actually took a few blasts from them.” Yeah, but there’s a difference Penny, I actually have a helmet and a board to take hits for me.
Now that I think about it, I could probably nullify momentum impacting my board below a certain weight… hmm. Energy doesn’t have much weight does it? I could technically tank explosions. Wait… could I ‘absorb’ momentum and do something with that? Never tried outright absorbing it.
I’ll think more on that later.
“Yeah, but she had gear that will protect against that stuff, not that it would help her against that Wraith guy. Magic can still damage her gear, otherwise that helmet and skateboard are going to be hard to break… Dolly’s neck would snap from whiplash long before her helmet does.” Thanks for the reminder to not try and tank hits from that old guy in particular Smolder. “Anyway, we got incoming. Is that them?”
-Smolder-
It feels great to be able to walk again, though Baymax said it took some doing to make those small machines strong enough to survive the high temperatures of my body long enough to get my legs and tail working again.
Didn’t care if I have a bit of metal left over inside of me, I can walk again… that and I can go rescue Ocellus, because like Tartarus they were leaving me behind. I still wondered why Baymax bothered warning me that I should avoid blows to the spine exceeding five hundred pounds.
“Yeah, that looks like how the Moonlander ships were described as being.” Tanya was looking at the ships curiously, I mean six aliens ducks with notable specific harmony traits? Ocellus must have been excited meeting three of them. “How good are these ships?”
“Good enough for our needs.” Wildwing answered. “They can get us into space.”
“So… do you think they’ll take on Dolly’s brother Dylan in the McDuck space program?” I was asking this to anyone around me.
“I don’t’ know, but if Dylan is smarter than Dolly is.” Wasabi looked over at Dolly who was lazing about on her skateboard. “I think I can see it happening.”
“Oh totally!” Fredzilla joined in.
The three ships came in for a landing.
One ship was carrying the McDuck family and the only Moonlander warrior in existence. Well at least Penumbra had prided herself in being the only member of her species with an active moral compass and actual combat ability, the rest of the Moonlanders were not as bright or thinkers.
Nice to see them again, Lena and Violet were sitting this out, Lena tired herself on helping Darkwing stabilize Saint Canard and Violet was not liable to get into heavy combat situations without a good enough reason from what I saw. The Gizmo Team was still out, but they did assist with prepping gear for the McDuck family to bring along. Most notably Gyro Gearloose’s Oxy-chew Gum.
“Gyro? You’re here?” I didn’t think the guy would leave his lab.
“A chance to study alien technology up close and personal… of course I’m coming! Also someone won five thousand dollars for creating a half solution to the Oxy-chew ‘flavor problem’ this morning.” He pulled out a pack of gum. “It’s a new flavor and it works… arguably it’s worse than the black licorice, the best flavor ever!”
“I don’t care, I’ll take that over the normal Oxy-chew whatever it is!” Della seemed intent on it. She was here along with Scrooge, Huey, Dewy, Louie, Webby, May and June. There was also Launchpad, he just blends into just about every group everywhere we go.
Della took a stick and stuck it in her beak and chewed it.
“Huh, that’s better, but I can’t quite place the taste… it still tastes halfway like black licorice, but the overpowering flavor is being dented by something else.” As she chewed, Gyro looked a little green. “Say who won the five thousand dollars out of a ten thousand dollar prize?”
“Well they were well informed enough to know I’d have some viable test subjects here, they were some science forum guys named Dawkins and Bentley… as for the flavor denting the black licorice… it’s basically equivalent to dog food.” Gyro watched as Della slowed her chewing to a stop. After a moment of looking upwards in thought… she continued chewing. “Like I said it was a half solution. If they come up with a full solution, then they’ll be paid ten thousand dollars in full. Aside from that no one else can do half solutions anymore.”
“Still better than the original.” Della stated bluntly. “If I’m going into space again, I’m sticking with this.”
“I’ll take the regular black licorice if that’s alright with you.” Huey said after staring at his mother in slight disgust. “Though it’s fairly understandable. For those who don’t know, she spent ten years with that one flavor in her mouth.”
“Eh, Oxy-chew is not that bad, it certainly saved Della’s life.” Scrooge muttered.
“At the cost of my taste buds!” Della quacked angrily.
“You couldn’t make me give up ice cream or regular food for the same amount of money in my bin.” Promptly stated a flatly staring Scrooge.
“Everyone’s a critic.” Muttered Gyro with his arms crossed. “Okay, what animals am I going to be testing this on?”
Dolly went up to him with Bolt, Mittens and Rhino. She pointed at herself and Gyro pulled out a second pack of gum.
“Lucky for you I made and brought enough to spare quite a lot… this is one of my proudest achievements after all, no other gum in the world can keep you alive in a vacuum for more than ten years. Just a reminder, while you can survive in a vacuum with it, it will not let you survive planetary reentry or give you the ability to maneuver in space.” He passed two sticks of gum to each of the animals. “Test the modified Animal Oxy-chew, then the regular and give me some feedback. Also don’t think I haven’t noticed the intelligence in all your eyes, so keep at least one! If you’re going into space with the rest of us, then you’re going to need to line your gums with this gum to survive in space without a suit. Be aware you’re going to be stuck with that in your mouth for quite a while until we get back down to the planet. Also my gum cannot cause tooth decay and it would actually solve world hunger… if only people weren’t so picky. Also don’t swallow it, it needs your saliva to stay activated.”
Watching Dolly, Bolt, Mittens and Rhino test the animal brand they all grimaced at the flavor, they slowly took it out of their mouths onto their paws and then tried the regular black licorice. This time they all perked up and smiled.
“So much for being a brand animals would like, but they have good taste in liking the original.” Gyro nodded as one of the Moonlander ships started to unload something.
“I’ll try some of the animal brand…” Dewey took up a stick of gum and started chewing. “Huh, it is better than the normal Oxy-chew. Sure, it’s got the dog food flavor, but it’s pretty good.”
Pulling out a tape recorder Gyro Gearloose stated something that made me wonder about him.
“Note to self, relabel animal brand as normal improved Oxy-chew and the regular black licorice as the animal intended brand. That might actually sell better this time…” Gyro muttered before looking out at the ocean. “Also look into storing Oxy-chew for aquatic environments in case the lab floods again, would be useful in fire emergencies where suffocation is probable.”
"How about we move this story... to space!" Nosedive pointed straight up.
One ship would be the back up escape plan, the other two were our main offensive.