The Tale of Neon Light

Written by DeffBwade

Chapter 7: Welcome to Maritime Bay

Sunny felt hollow the entire time she and Hitch walked back to Maritime Bay. All her life, Sunny believed that magic could back to Equestria, and that all of the pony tribes could become friends once again.

The moment the crystals were collected and nothing happened? Everything she believed. Everything she held true. It all came falling apart.

As the two earth ponies came to the intersection between Maritime Bay and the lighthouse, the apricot mare began to walk towards the latter.

Hitch wanted to say something. Anything to tell her that everything's going to be okay. Anything cheer up his foalhood friend.

"I'm right here if you need to talk, Sunny," was all he said. The mare looked back at him, but then turned and continued walking without saying anything. Realizing that she needed some space, Hitch sighed in defeat and proceeded to walk towards Maritime Bay, planning on making sure that his deputy didn't cause any trouble while he was away.

Meanwhile, Sunny entered the lighthouse, her home. She then proceeded to pack up old toys, artifacts, and pretty much anything about ancient Equestria. Since magic didn't return, she felt like there was no need to hang on to them. It broke her heart to do considering the fact that she and her father worked on them together before he...moved on to a better place.

Sunny then looked at the wall next to the door and saw a picture of her as a filly and a stallion with light blue fur, a royal blue mane with white and purple streaks, and purple eyes.

"I miss you, Dad," Sunny solemnly thought to herself as she stared at the picture.

Sunny's saddened state only intensified when she went up to the second floor and started to store more memorabilia from Equestria's past. Suddenly, she noticed a symbol under the crystal ball of the lighthouse, which had the shape of the unicorn and pegasus crystals, but with a circle in the middle.

A shaft of sunlight then entered the room, and Sunny suddenly found herself surrounded by shapes of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies dancing and flying around the room.

The apricot mare followed the path of light, and saw a lamp that she instantly recognizes as something her father made for her when she was a filly. As she inspected the lamp, she noticed a circle shaped crystal that was installed into it. She picked it up and stared at it.

After running for what felt like half of Equestria, we eventually reached a sign that read "Welcome to Maritime Bay." We all then stopped and started to catch our breathes from running so far.

"Oh...boy..." I wheezed, "Note to self: next time...we run for such a long distance...bring water bottles...Oh I'm so tired."

"I really need to start working out more. And while I'm at it...lay off the chips."

"Yeah...after almost 2 hours...of running...most of the time," Pipp wheezed as she collapsed onto her haunches.

Zipp, on the hoof, didn't look like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. Can't really be jealous considering that she's a total athlete.

Our small moment of relaxation was interrupted when we suddenly explosions coming from Maritime Bay. We looked up and saw fireworks lighting up the sky.

"Oh! There must be a party going on!" Izzy exclaimed excitedly before she gasped, "You think it's meant to welcome us all to Maritime Bay?!"

"I honestly doubt it. I'm pretty sure there's just some celebratory event going on," I said after finally catching my breathe, "Come on. Let's go find a couple of earth ponies."

We continued to run forward into Maritime Bay, hoping that finding our friends would be a breeze.

"Sunny!" Izzy shouted as she looked out into the distance, causing us all to stop.

Upon looking where the unicorn mare was looking, we all saw Sunny and Hitch running towards us from the horizon. We ran up to the two earth ponies, meeting them halfway.

We all turned our heads and saw my mom running up to us, along with Queen Haven (and a few of her guards) and Alphabittle.

"I know you're upset, darlings, my sweet little darlings," Queen Haven said as Alphabittle and my mom stopped beside her, "But it's time to come home now."

"Izzy Moonbow! You're gonna get us all jinxed!" Alphabittle warned, "Come back to Bridlewood!"

"Excuse me!" Queen Have huffed was sass, "Do you see my mouth still moving? That means I'm still a-talking!"

"Stop it! Both of you!" my mom said before looking at me with a twinge of sadness, "Neon, I understand if you wanna stick with your friends, but—"

Suddenly, a loud horn blared in the air, drawing all of our attention to the source. Driving up to us (and causing dirt to get in my eyes) was some sort of large machine that moved like a vehicle and was shaped like an earth pony. Marching beside said robot was a squad of earth ponies wearing these weird hats with antennas on them.

"Okay? This looks...inviting," I thought glancing back towards the huge machine, "Gotta say, though, the robot is pretty impressive at first glance. It's like something from a videogame."

"Would you look at this? Our enemies delivered themselves to us!" the driver of the machine exclaimed with a bit of smugness. He was red, had a slicked back, blonde mane, and green eyes.

"No, no, no," Queen Haven stepped up, trying to be peaceful, "We're not here to fight, Mr. Big Robot Pony."

"I do not accept your surrender!" the stallion exclaimed with a scoff, "Load the Splat-a-pults!"

None of the other of the other earth ponies listened to him, however, and instead chose to run away.

"Why do I have to do everything myself?!" the robot complained with frustration before an arm extended out from its front.

"We break into the cockpit and take down the stallion head on. Don't fight the armor, but rather the pony inside," I advised, "I learned that from TV."

"Or we use magic!" Sunny said before turning towards Queen Haven and Alphabittle.

"That works too," I commented, but I mostly say that because I really don't wanna fight a giant pony-operated robot.

The two glanced at each other before giving the apricot mare their crystals without any argument.

"There's a third crystal!" Sunny exclaimed, catching us by surprise, "Follow me!"

"Wait, what?" I shouted as Sunny started to run towards some lighthouse in the distance, to which me and the others followed. As we were running, I asked the apricot mare, "Sunny, what do you mean there's a third—"

I feel like that if this was some sort of movie, then this would be a plot point that's highly predictable and that the viewers are just waiting for the characters to discover for themselves.

As we ran to the lighthouse, I heard the sound of an engine from behind us. I looked back and saw the giant machine following us.

"I've gotta reign that thing in!" Hitch exclaimed as decided to face the machine head on.

"Same here!" I said as I turned as well while Sunny, Izzy, and Pipp went into the lighthouse, presumably to look for the third crystal.

"Who the heck is this pony anyway?" I asked as Zipp leapt onto the machine, and then grabbing Hitch and I's hoof one at a time to lift us up.

"Deputy Sprout," Hitch answered, "I left him in charge while I hunted down Sunny. I guess the power went to his head."

"Deputy?!" I shouted in shock, "He works with you?! And you earth pony law enforcers use giant robots?! Because that's actually awesome!"

"Now's not the time to go all fan pony, Neon!" Zipp exclaimed, making me shut up.

Also this feels like I'm fighting the final boss that never shows up until the very end of a videogame.

Before we could do anything, the robot crashed into the lighthouse, making it crumble and shake. Hitch, Zipp, and I jerked forward a bit due to the inertia.

"Whoa! What the heck?! Is this dude crazy?!" I exclaimed due to the fact that our friends were in the building.

"SPROUT! STOP!" Hitch shouted as the robot started to back up slowly, getting ready to attack again. The three us managed to climb up further onto the robot.

Wanting this madness to stop for sake of my friends' safety, I climbed onto the head and hung onto it in front of the visor where I could see the red stallion. Now you know already that I'm not athletic, so saying that I was struggling to hang onto something with just my forehooves would be an understatement. I was hoping that I wouldn't lose my grip.

"What does it look like I'm doing?! I'm trying to stop you pesky pegasi and unicorns from getting back magic!" Sprout shouted back.

"Yeah, ponies that are siding with the enemy!" he countered, "Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your hometown."

That actually almost shut me up. I mean, I couldn't exactly blame him for wanting to protect the town where he grew up.

"But we're not your enemy. We just wanna bring friendship and harmony back. And the first step to doing that is bringing back magic," I explained, "I understand that you were taught to fear us and that you wanna protect your town, but have you actually met a pegasus or a unicorn before all this? I admit, I was also a little wary when I met Sunny, Hitch, and Izzy, but I the more I got to know them, I more I realized that they're not at all what I was taught as a colt. You just have to give us a cha—"

I was interrupted when the robot's suddenly jerked to the side, causing me to fling off and luckily fall back onto the platform that I was just on.

My milli-second long train of thought was interrupted when out of the robot's flanks came these...carousel thingies...that then started to launch these green globs.

"Um...what are—" I was about to ask, but stopped as I saw that they were actual globs that splattered wherever they land, "Well...at least they're not solid hard objects."

"Also does he not realize that one of them is shooting the wrong way?" I thought as I stared at the...Splat-a-pult...that was shooting in the complete opposite direction and therefore at the ponies behind us as they all scrambled around in order to dodge them.

The robot suddenly lurched forward again, causing us to stumble and for Hitch to almost to almost fall into the spinning Splat-a-pult.

"Hitch!" Zipp shouted in alarm as she and I grabbed his hooves and pulled him back.

Meanwhile, on the upper floor of the lighthouse, Sunny, Izzy, and Pipp were trying to put the three crystals together. However, the robot crashing into the lighthouse caused the crystals to launch around the room and for the ponies to lose them.

Sunny luckily kept her grip on the pegasus crystal, and Pipp managed to find the earth pony crystal and toss it to the apricot mare.

"Got it!" Sunny said as she caught the crystal and placed it on the pedastal, "We need the unicorn crystal!"

"I'm looking! I'm looking!" Izzy exclaimed as she looked around the room, but she finally found it in the corner of the room, "Found it!"

Another crash shook the whole room, and Izzy suddenly lost her grip. The crystal bounced across the room and came close to falling off of the balcony.

Meanwhile, Pipp just so happened to be standing on the elevator, which came loose from its hinges due to the crash. The pink pegasus screamed as the elevator suddenly started to fall towards the first floor, but luckily for her, it stopped before it could impact the ground.

"I'm okay!" Pipp called reassuringly as she stepped off the elevator and proceeded to exit the lighthouse.

Knowing that their friend was focus, the two remaining mares continued to focus on their mission.

Izzy turned and hopped to the balcony in order to grab the crystal. However, due to crashes making the platform unstable, Izzy's sudden weight caused it to collapse.

We all turned our heads to the sounds of the building collapsing and a scream. Our eyes widened when we saw Izzy hanging from the balcony on the top floor.

"We need to shut these down!" Zipp exclaimed, referring to the Splat-a-pult that was still shooting those green globs.

My eyes noticed a screw that was most likely keeping the Splat-a-pult connected to the robot.

"Guys, hang on to me!" I said as I laid down on my stomach and reached for the screw. I felt Zipp's and Hitch's hooves hold me down as I started to pull on the screw. After a dozen seconds of heavy pulling, I finally managed to remove the screw...but I immediately regretted it as the Splat-a-pult went flying and crashed into the lighthouse, nearly hitting Izzy.

"Oh my gosh. I almost..." I thought with widened eyes out of extreme guilt. If Izzy, one of the sweetest ponies I've ever met, was hanging just a foot or two to the right, I could've—

"Keep it together, Neon," I thought to myself, despite still feeling the guilt. "She's alright. That's all that matters."

I carefully stood up and peaked over the edge and saw a light peach pink earth pony mare with a golden blonde mane and tail, as well as glasses and a pearl necklace.

"Mommy, please! I'm in the middle of something!" Sprout complained to the mare that was running beside the robot.

"But, Mommy... I'm. In. CHAAAAARGE!" Sprout yelled, while putting his machine at max speed...only for his mom to step in front of it.

Panicking, Sprout immediately swerved the machine out of the way of his mom, which caused Zipp and Hitch to fall off. I, however, managed to keep a steady grip onto the robot's head.

Now you'd think that swerving out of the way for somepony would make a speeding robot fall down, but nope.

It still managed to stay on course of crashing into the lighthouse, but this time at full speed.

You see kids, when a heavy object hits another object while at high velocity, that equals a higher force, resulting in higher destruction.

"Sunny! Izzy!" I yelled as the crash resulted in more cracks to form, and then the top of the lighthouse to start collapsing.

The top of the lighthouse collapsing caused the two mares to fall to the ground and starting sliding towards the open doorway to the balcony.

Using all of her strength, she climbed over to the pedestal where two of the crystals were connected, and added the unicorn crystal, and therefore the last piece of the puzzle.

"It...it didn't work," Izzy said as she and Sunny stared at the connected crystals in sadness.

As the lighthouse continued to collapse, I realized that I should probably get out of the way.

I rolled onto the ground (thankfully it was grass) like one those badass action heroes from movies. The only problem was that I'm not an action hero at all, so my roll wasn't really perfect, but whatever.

As I laid on the ground, I looked up in time to see the lighthouse finally collapse onto the ground, releasing a cloud of dust which prompted to turn my head away and shut my eyes.