Crystal Brighthouse: Outside
The Blue Hedgehog had run off down the path, towards the town of Maretime Bay. Leaving Zipp behind, who was thinking about what she should do.
Eventually she decided to go inside of the Brighthouse, and see what was happening.
Crystal Brighthouse
Inside of the Brighthouse were Sunny, Izzy and Pipp who were all standing by some cardboard boxes, filled with decorations.
Sunny was holding one of them, which was known as a Ribbon Wreath. “Ribbon wreaths are the traditional decoration of Maretime Bay Day. We hang them on our front doors, on Mane Street... Everywhere!” Sunny exclaimed with excitement.
Pipp picked up one from the box in front of her, as dust came out. “Cuuuute!” She then coughed from all of the dust that went up into her face. “A little dusty, but cute.”
Izzy came over in front of them with her magic alight. “I once made a wreath out of old teaspoons!” A teaspoon that was held in her magic grasp, came over.
Pipp smiled at her. “Loving that idea, Izzy. Maybe we can add some unicorn and Pegasus flair to these ones, too.” Pipp suggested.
Izzy then gasped and ran over, to where a bunch of teaspoons were kept. And grabbed a lot of them, causing some to fly over and just miss Sunny and Pipp who dodged them.
Izzy came back over with some spoons in her magic hold, some in her mouth and mane. “Now... where did I leave my suitcase full of glitter?” She walked away looking for her box of glitter.
Sunny then realised there were two members missing. “Uh, anypony seen Zipp or Sonic?”
The door to entrance of the Brighthouse opened and closed, with Zipp walking in. “Oh he went for a run. And what's with all the spoons?” She asked.
Izzy was sitting with her box of glitter smiled. “Oh, we're uni-cycling these old decorations.” Izzy who was holding four spoons, dipped them into the glitter. To which when they came out, they were sparkling. “Do you want to try?”
Zipp stared with a nervous expression. “Uh, decorating things isn't really my strong point.” She turned around and began walking away.
Sunny walked beside her Pegasus friend. “We could do something else. What about baking Bay Day treats?” She suggested.
“I’m not very good with baking either.” Zipp answered. Sunny then thought of something else.
“Or write a song for the big concert!” Pipp then flew over next to her sister excited. “Ooh! Zipp, you used to love writing song lyrics with me!”
Zipp became nervous. “I-I don't think so.” She continued walking towards the door. Sunny held her hoof out. “Wait! I'm sure we can find something that you'd like to do.”
Zipp looked back at her friend still nervous. “Uh, maybe later. Bye!” She ran out the door and closed it behind her.
Sunny frowned a little bit, sad seeing Zipp not being interested. She then thought about Sonic, who seemed to be less like himself.
He seemed like he didn’t have as much fun in the past few weeks, like something had put him off.
But she put that to the side and continued to focus, on preparing for Maretime Bay day.
Sheriff Station
Hitch was by himself, and was walking towards the doors of the Sheriff Station. “Good morning, station! Sheriff Hitch here, reporting for duty!” After opening the doors, he walked behind the desk and landed in his chair.
He moved a few objects on his desk into place, and looked down at his animal friends who saluted to him. And he began to sing and rhyme, at the same time. “At ease, deputies. So what do you say? Which Sheriff-y things should we do today in Maretime Bay? Hey, hey, heeeey!”
After he spun around in his chair, somepony else made their presence known. “Oof. Are you trying to rhyme?” Zipp asked walking in.
Hitch turned to face her. “Oh, hey, Zipp. Yeah, what did you think?” He asked for her opinion.
“Way too much.” Zipp replied with a bored look.
“Cool, cool. Just trying something out. Didn't work. Good feedback.” He then cleared his throat. “So what can I do for you?” He asked.
“I came by because... well... Have you seen anything... strange lately?” She asked seeming to be incredibly nervous.
“Strange? What do you mean?” Hitch asked, while writing on a notepad.
“Well, I was on the balcony earlier when... Y-You know what? It was probably nothing. Forget it.” She laughed nervously, and began to make her way out.
Hitch stopped her. “Wait. I know what this is about.” Zipp perked at that.
“You do.” Did he really know?
Hitch walked up next to her. “Yup. Mm-hmm. You're... bored. ” Zipp's ears flattened as she frowned.
“But you don't have to be shy. We're pals! We can totally hang out! I know. Let's order fries from three different diners and then decide which ones are the best! Or maybe a puzzle!” He suggested, n while she looked extra nervous.
Then the phone rang. “A call?” He ran over and answered. “Sheriff station. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I see. Really? How strange. At the beach? Well, I'll be right there.” He put the phone down.
“It appears we have a code eight-eighteen at the beach. Want to come on a trot-along with me, Zipp?” He turned to see his friend only to discover she was already gone.
“Aaaand I'm talking to nopony.” He sat down with his ears flattened. The crab clicked its claws together, as Hitch stood up and went out the door towards the beach.
Maretime Bay: Beach
Hitch who had arrived was trying to figure out why, a Unicorn and Earth Pony were arguing. But Zipp was watching from above on the cliff, observing to see how it would unfold.
Her phone then buzzed loudly, as a ring tone blade itself known. She was startled and quickly grabbed her phone, to see her mom was calling. She groaned loudly and ended the call.
Sitting down on her belly, and she proceeded to tap her phone screen and start recording. “Thursday, noon, beach. Second magical mishap. Levitation glitch. Unicorn drops umbrella. Lots of upset ponies. Very strange. Must investigate further.” She crawled away stealthily, from the cliffside.
She stood up and smiled confidently, flaring her wings she took off into the air. Only for her wings to glitch, causing her to fall back down onto the ground.
She became worried. “Oh, no! Please, no!” She tried it again and failed once more, she turned to face the Brighthouse and saw the Pris-beam glitch as well.
This caused her to gasp and quickly start flying again, this time with success. She laughed and flew as fast as she could back to the Brighthouse.
Crystal Brighthouse
Upon her arrival, Sunny opened the door and saw her Pegasus friend. “Zipp! There you are!” Izzy then poked her head around the door as well, with Pipp watching from the back.
“Oh, hey! Coming to town with us to gather more supplies for the new-and-improved Maretime Bay Day?” Izzy asked.
Zipp who had walked inside became nervous. “Oh. Wish I could, but—” She was interrupted by her sister.
“Why can’t you exactly?” Pipp asked with suspicion.
“Because... I'm working on my surprise thing for Maretime Bay Day! Yeah! H-Have fun!” She ran upstairs leaving behind her friends, who frowned.
Except for Izzy who smiled and waved to her friend.
Crystal Brighthouse: Balcony
She arrived at the balcony and watched the crystals closely, not taking her eyes off them. She pulled out her phone, and began recording once more. “Thursday, 12:15. Crystals – normal. Pris-beam energy – intact.”
She tucked her phone, back under her wing and walked away from the crystals. She looked out the window and sighed heavily, she hated lying to her friends but losing magic forever would be the price, if she didn’t.
Then the elevator activated catching her off guard, she quickly hid on the outer edges of the balcony.
After a few seconds it came back up to reveal, Sonic who was standing on the platform. “Man talk about them, questioning what I was doing. It seems I can’t go five minutes without, someone getting upset with me.”
Zipp sighed in relief, and came back into the room. “Hey “Needlemouse” why are you up here?” She asked with a smirk.
The Hedgehog faced her and smirked back. “Oh nothing “Sneaky Detective” cause your doing a terrible job.” He retorted.
“Okay you got me.” She responded. Sonic nodded, but lost his smile and looked at her with a serious look. “What’s bothering you?” He asked.
Zipp became nervous, but knew he would understand and believe her. “Okay so it seems that the crystal are glitching, and I don’t know why.” Sonic put his right fist onto his hip.
“Strange but it makes sense, I was at the beach not too long ago and a Unicorn said she lost her magic for no reason.” He added.
Zipp nodded. “Yeah I heard about that too!” Sonic then raised a brow at her, and smirked playfully. “Were you at the beach, secretly without anyone knowing?” He asked.
Zipp became nervous and sweated heavily. “What?! N-no! I-I wasn’t at the beach!” She saw Sonic’s smirk grow.
She had been caught. “Okay I was there… but I was doing it for a reason.” The Hedgehog chuckled.
“Very much so.” He looked down at the ground and frowned, Zipp took notice. “What’s bothering you? Let me guess Posey.”
He nodded. “Yep at the Sheriff Station no less, she seemed angrier than usual. Like she had been violated by someone, who walked in while she was using the can.”
Zipp chuckled at the joke. “Very mature.” She sarcastically said.
Both of them stayed silent, until it was broken by the Hedgehog. “You know what? I’ll just take a nap up here, and keep you company. So if you need me I’ll be right here.”
Zipp raised her brow. “Are you sure you want to stay here, while I just wait for something to happen?”
Sonic smiled at her. “I have nothing better to do anyway, plus this whole event thing I have no context about. Because every time I do try and understand it, we get interrupted by something else.” He explained.
“Fair enough.” Zipp replied.
And so Sonic sat against the wall and proceeded to sleep, while Zipp walked around watching the crystals closely making sure that nothing suspicious happened.
But they were gonna be in for a treat soon enough.