After picking up a few things and a short taxi ride from the toy store, the Winslows, ponies and Smurfs arrived back at the apartment to find the sleeping baby dragon right where Hitch left him. Thank goodness Elway had been keeping an eye on him.
Now, it was time for them to get to work.
As the sun began to set, the ponies and Sparky gathered around on the couch while the Smurfs, Grace and Patrick were in the other rooms. “All right, everypony,” Zipp said firmly, “this is getting really intense for everyone, and we need to cover all the facts.”
“Right,” Hitch nodded. “We can't let Gargamel hurt the Smurfs and we can't get home until we find the cutie mark crystal.”
“But where is the crystal?” Misty wondered. “Zipp, you said you checked all over the village and there was no sign of it. Where else could it be?”
That's when Pipp's eyes widened from an alarming thought. “What if the crystal isn't in Smurf Village... but it's in New York somewhere?”
“Pipp, I can't believe I'm saying this,” said Zipp in total surprise, “but you may have just hit the nail on the head!”
“I did?”
“That does make a lot of sense,” Sunny pondered. “The portal sent the Smurfs and us to New York, and we didn't find the crystal in the village. It being somewhere in New York seems like our best option.”
“But how can we find the crystal,” Izzy wondered, “in such a big whack-a-doodle city?”
Sunny was about to answer when she checked her phone. “Papa Smurf should be out on the roof checking the alignment of the stars right about now. I better go up and see if he needs anything.”
“Want some help?” Misty asked as Sunny shifted into her alicorn form. “No, it's okay,” Sunny said with a smile. “I wanna spend some time with him anyway. See if he can tell me more stories about my dad. I'll see you guys in a little bit.”
And just like that, she flew out the window and into the night.
XXXXXXXX
Papa swiveled the telescope around to look at the stars around the moon before writing some stuff down on some parchment. As he did, Sunny flew up, changing back to earth pony form as she landed. “Hey, Papa. Need any help up here?”
Papa chuckled. “Of course. If you could write down what I tell you to, that would be wonderful.”
Sunny nodded and moved closer to the telescope, but after a moment, she frowned. “Dad and I used to study the stars together all the time.”
“He was always such a studious pony... another way he reminds me of myself,” Papa said with a smile. “You... said he has been gone since you were a filly?”
“Yeah. About 3 months after my 10th birthday,” Sunny nodded. “That's when he gave me my saddlebag-- made it all himself while I was asleep every night.”
Tears began to fill Sunny’s eyes as she tried to wipe them away. “I just... I just wish he was still here. So much has happened after he passed, good and bad, and... I want him here for it all.”
Papa placed a gentle hand on the mare's shoulder as an act of comfort. “It's hard to comprehend sometimes, Sunny, but your father, however he passed, is in a better place. And if I'm right, he would be incredibly proud of the young mare you've become.”
“You think so?”
“I do. Come... we better get back to work before it gets too late to see anything else.”
XXXXXXXX
After Sunny left the meeting, Misty had been invited by Smurfette for a makeover session, so she could see Smurfette try on her new dresses. While Misty laid out the dresses for Smurfette to try, Grace brushed her blonde hair and decide to ask her a question. “How can you be the only girl in the village?”
“Well, see, I wasn't brought by a stork like the others,” Smurfette said with some slight hesitancy. “I was... created by Gargamel to trap the other Smurfs.”
“Really? Wow...” Misty was amazed at how similar Smurfette’s previous trials was to hers. “Then what happened?”
“Papa saved me,” Smurfette said with a smile. “He cast a special spell and then helped me become the Smurf I was meant to be.”
“...that kinda reminds me of me, honestly,” Misty admitted. “Of… well… how I used to be.”
“When you were still serving that fire alicorn?” Smurfette asked gently. “Yeah,” Misty shrugged. “But… there was more to it than that. Opaline was the only pony I ever knew for a long time… the only family I thought I had. Then… a few weeks ago, I met Alphabittle, my biological dad. I met my mom a few weeks ago too, but… it turns out, she was raised by the same alicorn I was raised by, but she succumbed to Opaline’s teachings and is just as evil as her, if not more. Nearly tried to… kill me during the final fight.”
“Oh my goodness…” Grace said softly. “That must’ve been so horrible for you.”
“It was,” Misty nodded. “But, Sunny and the others are gonna try and help me get through to her while we collect the other crystals. And even if we can’t get through to her, I still have Dad and the others. Because a family isn’t just by blood…”
“...but by love,” Smurfette finished. “Papa told me that once, and it’s always in my mind whenever I have doubts.”
“Smurfette… we may have a lot more in common than we thought,” Misty said with a smile. “So… which dress do you wanna try on first?”
XXXXXXXX
Patrick was hard at work in his office, trying to figure out the perfect ad to put in for Odile, because it was due the next day. He thought about going with the blue moon ad he created that morning, tilting his head at it.
Somehow… it just spoke to him.
Eventually, doubts filled his mind, and he switched to another ad he made, attaching it to an email before typing. “Odile,” he wrote, “pending your approval, it's ready to go to the billboard agency.”
And once it was all wrote out, Patrick sighed to himself. “Well… here goes nothing.”
With just one tap, the email was sent, and now the waiting would begin.
XXXXXXXX
Izzy, Pipp, Zipp, Sparky and Hitch were waiting outside with the other Smurfs, anxiously waiting for one of their leaders to get the results of their studies. “Isn’t it getting late?” Hitch frowned. “I thought Sunny and Papa would have been done by now.”
“Yeah, enough with the suspense,” Grouchy agreed. “I wanna go home.”
“Me too…” Clumsy nodded.
“Now that that wily wizard's got our scent,” said Gutsy with a downtrodden look, “it's a whole new wager. Without that blue moon, our giblets are gravy.”
At that moment, Patrick emerged from his office. “Well, it’s off. Time to either celebrate or file for unemployment,” he said, just before he noticed their tiny downtrodden faces. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I’m… I’m sure we’ll be fine!” Pipp tried to keep herself from crying. “Everything works out for everypony… r-r-right?”
“That one’s hypersmurfilating,” Gutsy said as Pipp dried her eyes and Clumsy hugged her for comfort. “Yeah,” Zipp sighed. “It’s all this waiting that’s killing us. Not knowing where the crystal is or how to get the Smurfs home is driving us crazy!”
“I know the feeling…” Patrick nodded, and after a moment of pondering, he got a good idea. “Better yet… I know the cure.”
“Huh?” the ponies chorused. What in the world could that mean?
XXXXXXXX
Everyone followed Patrick back into the living room, where he picked out a video game, put it in, picked up a guitar to go with it and began to play, pushing buttons at the top as the game corresponded. “You just match the colors with the buttons!”
“Wow!” Izzy said with awe.
As Patrick continued to strum, Clumsy found an electronic drumset and began to bounce on it, having the time of his life. That’s when Patrick lowered his guitar to Grouchy. “You try!”
Grouchy immediately hopped on the guitar and started to strum to the rhythm of the music. “Go, Grouchy!” cried Izzy. “Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!!” Grouchy cheered, having fun for the first time since they got to New York. “Hey, look around me, guys! I'm shredding!”
“Walk this way!” Patrick sang before he turned to the others. “You try!”
Smurfs and Ponies: Talk this way
Just gimme a kiss
During a fancy guitar solo, Patrick stuck out his tongue, prompting the others to do the same. “Rock face. Gene Simmons, he’s a…” he began to explain before shaking off the thought. “Never mind.”
All: Like this!
Clumsy then found a pair of drumsticks and began to tap out a rhythm as Gutsy and Grouchy, soon followed by Pipp and Brainy began to rap their hearts out.
Grouchy: Smurfette sweetie is a classy kind of sassy
Gutsy: Little skirts climbing way up her knee
Grouchy, Pipp and Gutsy: Not another single girl in the whole smurfin' world
And I can't believe she's lookin' at--
Brainy: Me!
It's a complete--
Gutsy and Grouchy: Surrender
Brainy: To the power of her--
Grouchy and Gutsy: Gender
Pipp: So I close my eyes and make a wish
Gutsy and Grouchy: I just want to--
Brainy: Savor
Gutsy and Grouchy: All her smurfberry--
Brainy: Flavor
Gutsy, Brainy and Grouchy: So I smurfed her just a little kiss
Like this
Patrick continued an awesome solo on guitar, and Elway kept stomping his paw on the bass drums while Clumsy played a drum solo on his own-- the one thing he couldn’t goof! “Whoa-ho, Clumsy!” Zipp said with an impressed smirk. “You found your niche!”
“Oh yeah!” Pipp said, doing a little flip in the air. “Go, Clumsy! Do the Clumsy!”
“Come on, Gutsy!” Patrick invited, and Gutsy began to dance merrily on the guitar, even jumping up in the air a few times. “Yay, Gutsy! Get down with your bad smurf!” Hitch said. “Just, whoa! Careful!”
“Yeah!”
“Get your smurf on!”
“Go, Gutsy!”
“Nice!”
“Thank you,” Gutsy said, hopping down from the guitar. “That was rare.”
It was then that with the beat of the drums and the strumming of the guitar, that the Smurfs and ponies all decided to sing as one.
All: La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la--
Suddenly, all the music came to a stand-still as Grace entered the room with Misty and Smurfette, the female Smurf wearing one of the new dresses that they bought earlier. “Hey, guys,” Smurfette greeted. “How do you like my new dress? Misty helped pick it out.”
“Eh,” Misty shrugged. “I only gave a suggestion.”
Suddenly, the air vent below Smurfette came on, and she tried to push down her dress against the wind. “Whoa,” Smurfette chuckled, “is there a draft in here.”
“Whoa!” Misty said, using her magic to pull the dress down further. “Oh, okay, that's not what I had in mind to happen. We are so sorry about this, boys!”
Suddenly, Smurfette and Misty let out a scream as soon as they saw Gutsy on the vent with them, letting his kilt be lifted up with them. “Oh, yeah! That cools my giblets,” sighed Gutsy. “Nothin' like a cool breeze through my Enchanted Forest.”
Everyone let out a laugh at that, and just then, Patrick got a notification from Odile, and he ran over to check it. “Aha!” he shouted in delight. “It’s approved!”
“What?” Grace asked. “She approved it!” Patrick said. “She approved the ad!”
“She loved it?”
“Well, she said ‘approved’, so coming from her… that’s love!”
Everyone began to cheer in celebration as Clumsy stepped up to the computer, accidentally selecting the blue moon ad Patrick created earlier, no one noticing it right away as Patrick spoke up again. “No jumping, no jumping, no jumping. No jumping, no jumping. Should I send it? I’m not going to.”
“Yes! Do it!”
“Do it right now!”
With the urging of the others, Patrick then hit the send button. “Tomorrow this'll be on every billboard in New York City…!!”
And at that moment, it sent off, sending the group into cheers as Sunny and Papa entered the room, the latter clapping. “Well done, Master Winslow!”
“Look, everypony!” Izzy cheered. “Sunny and Papa are back!”
“Papa, are your calculations done?” Brainy asked. “Yeah!” Zipp asked. “Are we gonna be able to get you Smurfs home or not?”
“Well,” Papa said, “it’s proving more difficult than I had hoped, even with Sunny’s help.”
“But…” Clumsy asked hesitantly, “...we are going home… right?”
“Of course,” Sunny reassured. “Just… not tonight.”
The others sighed depressingly… this was what they DIDN’T want to happen. But, Sunny was there to flash a reassuring smile. “Come on, let’s get to bed. We have a big day tomorrow… and a bunch of answers and crystals to find.”