//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Keys To Victory 
// by RevvEmUp 
//------------------------------//

It's the day after Winter Wishday, and the ponies of Maretime Bay are packing up their decorations, recycling wreaths, boxing lights, and seasonal drinks are taken off menus in every café, restaurant, and food cart. Meanwhile in the Crystal Brighthouse, Sunny Starscout is rummaging through a box in storage. "Oh, where is it? Where could it be?"

"Hey, Sunny." Enter Zipp Storm, crown princess of Zephyr Heights and aspiring private eye. "What're you looking for?"

"The other day, I thought I saw a certain book in my dad's research materials." Sunny explained as she removes an unrelated book. "He used to read it to me, telling stories about creatures ponies used to mingle with."

"What was it called?" Zipp asked.

"I forgot what, but seeing it again made me curious." Sunny puts down a splintered, fork-shaped staff. "Dragons, maybe."

"A book like that'd totally help us understand Sparky!" Zipp perked up as she comes to Sunny's side.

"I found it!" Sunny takes from the box a dusty purple book; its illustration and title replaced by a crumbling picture of vague animalistic shapes. She opens the book, and is met by a foreword. "To the School of Friendship: thank you for being the best the lands beyond Equestria has to offer."

"School of Friendship? There was a school in ancient Equestria that taught just friendship?" Zipp questioned.

"I think it sounds like a lovely school." Sunny smiled before flicking through the book, stopping at the first image she stumbles upon: a fairy-like pony with lacy wings and thin legs. "Breezies: the rarest, tiniest, most adorable creatures in all of Equestria." Sunny read the subtitle. "I've heard of them in all sorts of fairy tales! They're as real as the ancient ponies!"

"I've heard of them, too. It's said that they carry pollen from all over Equestria to their home deep in western Equestria." Zipp corroborated.

"I wonder what other adorable creatures lived with ponies." Sunny was ecstatic when her hoof touched the edge of the page to see the next chapter, but her wide smile suddenly turned into a fearful grimace.

"What in Equestria is that thing?!" Zipp jumped in surprise at the next entry: a hideous, insectoid pony-shaped creature with sharp mandibles and holes strewn across their body.

"Changelings: shapeshifting creatures from hostile lands beyond. Surprisingly friendly and welcoming to ponies." Sunny read unsurely. "Doesn't look like it."

"Pre-Thorax?" Zipp read the subtitle beneath the text. On the next page they flip to, the Changeling illustrated and captioned "Post-Thorax" lacks their fearsome image, looking more ladybug-like with vibrant colours and less orifices.

"It says here, Thorax is their first benevolent ruler after the tyrannical Chrysalis, and were all changed from love-sucking vampires to friendly lovebugs." Sunny read the next passages.

"Shapeshifting? Makes me wonder if there are Changelings among us. You could be a Changeling. I could be a changeling. Bot-Y McBakertons could be a Changeling." Zipp pondered, turning her head to the inactive baking robot in the corner.

"Zipp, if I were a Changeling, I'd tell you." Sunny giggled before flicking through tens of pages.

"Are you looking for a specific creature?" Zipp wondered.

"There was one that stood out to me: the Orthinians." Sunny then lands on a page depicting anthropomorphic birds much larger than ponies. "The Orthinians. First contact with them was when the Guardians of Friendship were captured by Orthinian pirates during one of their many adventures, later befriending them like they always do."

Zipp flips to the next page, seeing sketches of pirate ships flying through clouds, propelled by massive balloons. "They had airships! So cool!"

"Ancient Equestrians used airships, too, but they were never as cool as the ones from Orthinia. They were real pirate ships, with cannons and planks and all the cool pirate stuff!" Sunny got so excited talking about it, she started trotting in place. "I could only imagine how exciting a life like that could be: living so high in the clouds, adventure at every mountain peak, and all the sword-fighting against pillaging scallywags!"

"Sounds dangerous, but when has danger ever been boring?" Zipp shrugged.

Sunny flips through the rest of the book, but something felt odd. Where there should be passages on passages instead are torn paper frills in the book's spine. She flips through back and forth, even checking the index on what's missing. "Almost a third of the book's missing! Even the dragon chapter!"

"Time does that to old books, especially if they're from ancient times." Zipp commented, just as disappointed. "When we get the chance, I'll check the Zephyr Heights archives. I'm sure we have an intact copy."

Suddenly, Izzy Moonbow frantically rushes into the room, panting and sweating. "Sunny! Zipp! You gotta see this!" she blabbered anxiously. "A ship! It's… it's flying in the sky!"





The ponies rush outside to the front yard, joining the concerned Hitch Trailblazer and Pipp Petals pointing her pretty pink phone to the sky. "Izzy said there's a floating ship! Where is it?" Sunny asked them.

"Up there." Hitch hoofs her a pair of binoculars.

Sunny puts the binoculars to her eyes and scans the sky, so far seeing nothing but clouds. "I can't see it."

"It was spotted a few hours ago. I didn't believe it at first, but when the clouds parted, there it was!" Hitch explained.

"I heard those rumours, and, well, you all know how much I looove rumours! They're potential content waiting to happen." Pipp added.

"We saw it here just now! Keep your eyes peeled like a potato." Izzy told Sunny.

Sunny glues her eyes to the binoculars, soon picking up a blurry red shape behind a cloud. Her mouth was agape when she sees the unmistakable bow of a red galleon parting clouds with a sword-shaped figurehead. "A… a ship! A pirate ship!"

Zipp takes the binoculars, and was surprised to see it too. "An airship like in that book…"

"What book?" Hitch asked curiously.

"We read a book that mentioned a race of bird people called Orthinians that lived with ancient ponies. Maybe they've come to visit us!" Sunny giddily answered.

Zipp looks back at the ship again, and sees a plume of smoke trailing from the vessel's aft, and red sails torn to shreds; remains fluttering in the wind. "Or they're in danger and are about to crash!"

"We have to evacuate the coastal district!" Hitch hurried off towards town with a megaphone. "Attention, everypony! There's a flying ship about to crash!"

"C'mon, Pipp. Let's help!" Zipp hurried her sister.

"But I gotta record this!"

"You're an influencer, so influence everyone to run from the crashing sky ship!" Zipp drags Pipp along, following not far behind Hitch and Sparky.

"Izzy, let's combine our magic to minimize the crash! When it's close enough, we'll grab it out of the sky and set it down somewhere." Sunny suggested.

"Aye-aye!" Izzy saluted affirmatively.

Sunny takes a deep breath, then magic aura bursts from her body, granting her a unicorn horn and Pegasus wings. She and Izzy point their horns at the incoming red ship, sparkles flying off their horn tips, followed by magical aura beaming towards the descending ship, shooting their magic at the blade-shaped figurehead. They concentrate to grip the ship, but they severely underestimated its weight, struggling to lift it with their combined power. "Can't… hold… on!" Sunny strained as her face reddens from the effort.

"It's… too… heavy!" Izzy grits her teeth as she uses more magic than ever before.

Both tried their hardest to lift the ship, and with the rest of their strength they toss it to their right, away from the Crystal Brighthouse. Sunny and Izzy watch as the ship hurtles into the land between the Crystal Brighthouse and the town, digging a trench as deep as its hull, stopping a foot or two shy of the Community Garden of Magic. They stare in awe at the ship, relieved it didn't hit anything or anyone, just when their three friends, plus a crying Sparky on Hitch's back, return.

"Sunny, Izzy, are you okay?" Pipp asked them.

"We're fine, Pipp. We managed to redirect it." Sunny assured, panting tiredly.

"You *PANT* wouldn't believe *PANT* how heavy it is!" Izzy exhaled even harder than Sunny, due to her lesser magical strength. "I gotta hit the gym!"

"What was a pirate ship doing in the sky?" Pipp wondered.

"Like Zipp said before: in ancient times, ponies and Orthinians used airships for air travel. This might be one of them." Sunny explained.

"It looks like the ship's balloon is gone. No wonder it was sent crashing down." Zipp noted the ship's condition.

"Nice job slowing it down, you two. If you hadn't done anything, we'd have to move into another lighthouse." Hitch thanked as he puts a pacifier in Sparky's mouth, silencing and calming him down.

"Let's go inside, see if anyone's home." Zipp suggested.

"If there are any survivors. They'll need medical help." Hitch added as he trots towards the ship.





Climbing the deck, they descend a stairwell to the dark lower decks where once-rustic décor is reduced to a wreck; a wooden dining setting crushed to splinters, and a leather couch split open, cotton filling spilling like clouds. "Hellooo! Anypony or anycreature here? We're here to help!" Sunny announced their entrance.

"There must've been an epic battle! If not a couple scallywags or more sword-fighting like in the movies, what else could've caused this?" Zipp noted as she trots around the room.

Izzy zips all over the room, nosily inspecting every nook and cranny when she finds behind the mast column a small wooden treasure chest beside a fallen leather chair. "Yarr! Treasure!"

"Izzy, it's not nice to peek into things that aren't yours. That could belong to the crew." Sunny advised.

"Not even a little peep?"

"Where's the light switch?" Pipp wondered, holding up her recording phone whilst feeling the walls. Her hoof feels a click, and the room is illuminated by fluorescent lights on the ceiling.

Seeing much clearer now, they notice at the other end of the room, mounted above stairs leading deeper into the ship, a cracked monitor sandwiched between two servers, controlled by a standing console in front of said stairs. "I don't recall pirates using computers as advanced as these." Hitch noted.

"Can we be even sure this is even from Orthinia?" Zipp turns to Sunny.

"A lot has changed in Equestria. Maybe they have, too." Sunny shrugged.

"Maybe there's something in here that could clue us in on what went down." Zipp trots to the console and starts pushing buttons, hoping to activate the system.

"You sure you wanna do that? We don't wanna deal with whatever security systems this place has." Hitch cautioned her.

"I think I know what I'm doing." Zipp confidently responded when the console's radar turns on. "Yes!" The rest of the computers come to life, and the main monitor boots up, displaying a strange jolly roger featuring a stylized skull and crossed cutlasses visible for split seconds between static. "Now let's see if I can't…" Zipp types at the console, just when static sound floods their ears.

The sheer volume causes the ponies to cover their ears, and Sparky to drop his pacifier and add his own cries to the noise. "Zipp, what'd you do?! Shut it off!" Pipp demanded.

"I didn't do anything!" Zipp shouted when the immense screech ceased.

They turn to the monitor when it started shifting from the flickering screensaver to a flickering, low-resolution video, similarly distorted by static and data corruption. Whatever was visible in the picture are polished wood floors and yellow wallpaper of the very room the ponies are standing in, and a figure obscured by corruption and static is in focus. "Ahoy! Can ya hear me? Can ya see me?" asked a gruff voice, distorted by audio crackle. "Me name's Cap'n—" the message was interrupted by static. "-If yer seein' this message…" the figure announced before a crispy exhale. "That mean me crew'n I are gone. *STATIC* Got us."

"They didn't make it…" Sunny muttered solemnly, drooping her ears in mourning.

"That don't mean tha end o' this fine vessel! If ye found me ship, then that means there's still hope!" continued the pirate, sounding more confident. "Once, it was tha duty of me crew ta *STATIC* help *STATIC*, an' protect *STATIC* home! Now, it's yer turn!"

Then, the treasure chest Izzy found started to shake and clank, just before five gilded flip phones pop out and fly into the ponies' hooves. "Phones?" Zipp raised her eyebrow.

"I haven't had phones like these since I was a filly." Pipp noted with a similar confused look.

"That there's a *STATIC* it's what we use ta *STATIC* get powered up!" the more video advances, the more it corrupts and glitches. "All ya need ta do is open it up, take—" following this was a long static, longer than the short bursts before. "An' boom! A shiny new suit fer kickin' behind!"

"Did he say shiny new suits?" Pipp looked at her friends in confusion.

Again, the treasure chest besides Izzy rattles. "Duck!" Izzy slams herself to the floor when five multicoloured lights zip from the trunk and into the ponies' hooves.

A green light lands atop Izzy's hoof, which dissipates to reveal a figurine of a muscular bipedal creature with a black butterfly-shaped marking on its face. "A doll?"

To Zipp, a blue light gently drifts onto her wing to reveal a similar trinket. She examines it closely, finding a key pattern at the back. "Dolls with keys?"

Pipp too receives a pink figurine in her hoof; its facial marking resembling a heart. "Aw, these are totes cute! But I still dunno what they are."

Hitch is granted a figurine as yellow as his coat, which Sparky almost puts in his mouth. "No, Sparky, it's not for you." Hitch re-takes the trinket, his confused eyes locked on it. "I guess it's for me."

Finally, a red light orbits around Sunny before resting atop her new phone as a red figurine. "This must be new magic we've never seen before!" Sunny realized before turning to the screen.

"I trust ye can do yer best with me powers. Only tha most noblest o' hearts can wield 'em."

"We won't let you down, captain!" Sunny saluted to the screen.

"And please… take care of the bird, will ya? Cap'n out." And with that, the message ends, rather violently as the screen explodes.

"We've got an entire pirate ship!" Izzy celebrated. "Bit of a fixer-upper, but nothing good-ol' unicycling can fix!"

"The captain mentioned someone defeated his crew. They might still be around to finish the job." Hitch added.

"It's up to us to avenge him, then." Sunny declared before looking at the mysterious phone and trinket given to her. "If only we knew how."

"I'll try to restore the databanks. Maybe then—" Zipp suggested when the boat rocks from an explosion outside.





They rush outside to find ponies fleeing from the Houvre, red lasers flying out windows and doors, and the east wing just blew up. “We’re under attack!” Hitch screamed before they rush into the building. As fleeing ponies pass them by, the team notices something is wrong with the exhibits. Many of the still life and landscape art remained intact, but the ones with ponies on them, their subjects are replaced by tall, bipedal, flat-faced creatures alien to ponykind.

“What happened to the art? Did somepony replace them?” Izzy worriedly looked back-and-forth at the halls.

“What are they?” Pipp added.

Wanting some explanation, Zipp picks out a random pony from the fleeing crowd with her wing. “Hey, Rufus, right? What happened here? What did you see?”

"R-r-r-robots!"

"Robots?"

They're all thrown back into focus when a single laser blasts the ground, allowing Rufus to continue fleeing. From the smoke and dust, square lights approach the ponies, moving like soldiers in an army before revealing themselves as silver bipedal robots; heads like glowing computer screens and armed with plug-tipped staves. They stand in attention and split formation, making way for a pair of glowing green eyes within the smoke.

"Get ready, everypony. We don't know what we're up against." Sunny advised her team as they get into a defensive position.

The green blips steps closer to the edge of the smoke; each step a quake shaking the ground beneath, whittling at the ponies' confidence. What emerges is a bipedal robot of similar design to its minions that it towers over, only with bulkier armour; copper gears embedded in every plate, and a massive cylindrical head vaguely resembling one of the creatures depicted in the replaced paintings, painted beige with green dreadlock-shaped cables, covered with a metal beanie, a light-up smile, and ivy-green eyes peering at the ponies. "'Sup, man! I'm new in town, so I decided to drop by and meet the neighbours, man!" the robot greeted them with a friendly laid-back manner betraying its menacing construction.

"Do you greet all your neighbours by blowing up everything you see?" Pipp confronts the robot.

"As sheriff of Maretime Bay, I won't let anything threaten our home. Especially not robot invaders." Hitch stepped forward.

"Same goes for us!" Izzy skipped beside Hitch.

"Maretime Bay's a home to all, but not those who won't play nice with others." Zipp declared.

"I don't know who you are, or what you want, but this is your only warning: turn around or else." Sunny threatened.

"Or what, man? You're just little ponies, man."

"Or we'll use these!" Izzy flashes her new phone into the robot's face. The moment the light hits the golden plating, the minions are taken aback.

Their leader clenches its fist and slightly closes its shutter-eyelids, as if sneering. "Guess my job isn't done yet, man." The robot spoke with a less-jovial, more serious tone. "Attack, man!"

The minions swing their plug-staves at the ponies, but they scramble out of the way; Hitch taking extra care to get Sparky to safety by curling his body around the baby dragon. Zipp was the first to throw hooves at the minions' faces, knocking out their keyboard-teeth. Izzy charges the minions horn-first, repelling them with her levitation magic like they were opposite magnetic charges, throwing them into surrounding brickwork. Despite not being a fighter, Pipp did her best to combat the robots by flying above their heads to goad them into bumping into each other.

Hitch, meanwhile, is dodging the minions' attacks in an effort to get Sparky to a safe place when he trips and knocks the side of a trash bin from which his old deputy Sprout stumbles out of. "Hey, get your own hiding place!" Sprout growled.

"Sprout, great to see ya! Can you do me a favour and take Sparky as far away from danger as possible?" Hitch hurriedly hands Sparky to Sprout before galloping back into the fray.

"Hey, what—?!" Sprout shouted back before a plug-staff flies past his face and embeds into a wall, crackling with electricity. "Okay, green baby, let's go somewhere safe!" Sprout immediately picks up the slack and escapes.

Still wanting to figure out the phones, Sunny opens her new phone, seeing the standard cell phone layout and a wallpaper of two swords. "He said open it up, and take something. Take what? Maybe if I punch in numbers…"

When a minion comes up behind her, Hitch bucks it through a window. "Sunny, focus on the fight!"

"If we can figure these things out, we might have a better chance!" Sunny responded, slamming her hooves on the numpad, but getting no output.

"We're doing fine on our own! Nothing can beat our—!" Hitch confidently declared before Pipp crashes into him. "Ow."

The leader steps up towards Hitch and dusts off his claws. "Whaddya know, man? Pigs really do fly in this world, man!"

"Hey, that's my sister you're talking about!" Zipp screamed as she throttles towards the robot leader like a missile. The robot leader catches her by the muzzle and smashes her down into the pavement.

"Stay down, girl, man."

"What the heck does 'man' even mean?!" Zipp growls as she struggles to free herself from the robot's grip.

As the leader forces her down, Izzy swats him away with an undressed Wishday tree, pinning it against the giftshop. "No, you stay down!"

The tree violently explodes into flaming splinters, and the robot leader emerges covered in fire, which it simply wipes off as if it was mud on clothes. "That all you got, man? I've trimmed bushes hardier than that, man."

"Sunny, did you find how to unlock the phones' powers yet? I don't think we can take on laser vision!" Izzy asked her.

"Nothing! The furthest I got was opening some snake game!" Sunny answered, showing her a simple game of a black, pixelated snake chasing pixellated dots.

"Unlock…?" Zipp mumbled as she looks at the key behind her figurine. She opens her gilded phone and finds instead of a direction pad is a key slot. From there, everything clicks into place. "Those figurines from the chest, they're the literal key to the phones!" Zipp demonstrated by flipping the figure's legs onto the upper body, transforming it into a large key.

The rest of her friends turn their figurines into keys, amazed at this feature. "And then they go in here…" Sunny figured out as she gazes at the keyhole.

"Oh no, you don't, man!" the robot leader shouted as he sprints towards the heroes.

"Let's not waste time! Let's go, everypony!" Sunny declared before everypony lines up in the robot's path; keys extended to their foe. They open their phones and insert the keys, unfolding the screen into a Jolly Roger and unleashing colourful, magical crosses that slice through the robot minions and trip the leader over before flying back towards the ponies. "Ah!" Pipp squeaked when everyone ducks and the crosses hit them, covering them in multicoloured lights.

Instantaneously, tight black spandex suits manifest on their bodies marked with the stylized Jolly Roger on the chest and flank, followed by jackets matching their keys’ colours, golden sashes with rectangular buckles, and finally colour-matching helmets resembling those on the figurine-keys, sculpted to resemble pirate hats marked with their Jolly Roger. Sunny was the first to notice this wardrobe change, feeling her smooth, hard helmet and pulling on her jacket collar. “Whaaa…?!”

"Shiny suits! Just like the computer pirate said!" Izzy hops in place giddily, now wearing a green jacket and helmet.

With her powder compact, Pipp looks at herself and inspects the smallest details of her pretty pink jacket. "Oooh, is that real gold trim? Whoever these pirates were, they had it good!"

"Hm. Snazzy and practical. Just how I like it." Hitch pops his yellow collar and pats the top of his helmet.

"This has gotta be some form of magic we don't know yet! When we survive this battle, I'll need to pop these things open!" Zipp looked at her blue self in amazement.

The minions and their leader recover from the flash, and stare at the ponies in disbelief. "I thought I destroyed those powers, man! Now these ponies have them, man? Aw, man!"

"I seriously don't know what you're doing here, but we won't stand by and let you do whatever you're doing! With these powers, we'll avenge the pirates and carry on their mission of protecting our home!" Sunset Shimmer declared to the robots in defiance.

At that moment, red-gripped cutlasses manifest before the ponies. "Real pirate swords! Awesome!" Izzy cheered as she telekinetically grabs her sword.

"Yeah, I can work with this." Zipp said as she grabs hers with her wing feathers.

"Everypony, chaaarge!" Sunny rallies her friends as they take their new powers into battle against the machines.

As they gallop towards their foes, a bird-shaped shadow watches the brawl with glowing yellow eyes from atop a marble statue bathed in dust and smoke. "Amateurs."

To be continued…