Alola to a New World!

by Tapu Meme

1. Hard to say I'm Sorry

The beginning of the beginning, and the end of the end.
7PM

---

Hippogriff Sargent Paige of the Hilo county police stood guard at her post. She and her colleagues were forming a parameter while yellow tape and reflective roadblocks were set up, blocking off strange, unidentified structures that had appeared close to a residential area.

Paige looked around at the fragments of carved rock and totem idols. Just an hour ago they had received an anonymous tip about rubble in a suburban neighborhood. And sure enough, when the police arrived the whole district looked like an archeological dig site, or at least a very complicated (and heavy) art display.

Pretending to stoically stand her post, Paige strained her ears to eavesdrop on a conversation the forensics team and a local archeology professor were having with the higher ups. Their words drifted over from behind the largest totem, obscured only by the statue. The other police ponies were as silent and sharp eared as she was.

The new deputys must be desparate for something new to gossip about. Paige let herself muse, then focused.

“--unlike anything I've ever seen. They don't resemble anything from the historical record of what these islands totems should look like, and when I get back to my lab I will have to find out just which legends they have been modeled after to even have the faintest clue of where they could have been carved--”

“You don't recognize these?”

“Not this style of totem, no.”

“...so they are not authentic relics.”

Paige humphed and flicked a pebble away with the back of her talon.

“No, these are ancient and weathered artifacts. The tests show they are used to store magical power. But, these are the most unorthodox vessels I’ve ever seen. I've never seen these sorts of creatures carved into totems, and especially not into this type of rock. They might be recent enough to still have magic traces.”

Paige stiffened, glancing at a broken stone face that she could imagine was glaring at her from the ground.

“They could have been left by an artistic vandal, do you think that’s plausible?”

"Oh, please. Something this expensive, and on such a huge scale? Who would have the time or money for this?"

"Then, who do you think put them here?"

"...Uh, well, there's no way to know for sure..."

Their conversation wore on about who could have done it and what sort of tests they would be running on the rocks, and Paige caught a tidbit of talk about setting up an ‘on-site laboratory’ before the flood of magical science jargon discouraged her enough to focus her boredom elsewhere.

She stared around at the rubble. Although it was mainly covering the main street and whichever front lawns were closer to ground zero, there was no property damage that Paige could see. No houses with rocks imbedded in their roofs, no holes in windows, the rubble didn't even reach the flowerbeds by the front porches since the rocks were so close to the road.

It all seemed so deliberately...

Contained.

Paige looked around at her fellow officers. They all looked as bored as she felt, freely chatting and poking the tape that Deputy Contest was still tying into place. Paige let her eyes roam over the scene, and it wandered up the far-away slope of Mauna Kea. The snow hadn't completely melted off the top yet, and if Paige strained her eyes at the clouds wandering by its peak she could just see some stray frost…

Someone was coming. Paige snapped her attention to the sound of a pony galloping towards her.

“Police!” she yelled, glasses askew and mane disheveled as she slowed to a stop to scratch gravel out of her shoeless hooves. “Ugh, ow, hey! Police! There's a gigantic dog in my backyard!”

“A what?”

“Oh come on.”

“DOG?!”

“What seems to be the trouble ma’am?” Paige was closest to her and stepped forward. “Is the dog attacking you?”

“N-no,” the pony glanced over her shoulder. “it’s asleep. But it's big and I’ve never seen it around here before. Please, I'm afraid to go back!”

“It’s alright, ma’am, I’ll come with you--”

“Going somewhere?” Paige froze.

“Ch-Chief,” Paige took a step back as a large earth pony with a baton as a cutie mark leisurely trotted to the hippogriff, pausing only to duck under the yellow tape.

“Well, where were you thinking of going? Away from your post?”

Paige stopped herself from taking another step back. She dragged in a breath of air as quietly as she could and tried to stutter out an answer. “We-well, sir--”

“Please officer,” the pony interrupted. “I was just asking for her help. She wasn’t--”

“Ma’am, ma’am. I am not angry at her, there is no need to come to her defense!”

“I--” but the Chief waved her off.

“I’ll send someone else to assist you, ma’am. It’s just that we’ve been getting reports about strange animals appearing all over the island and our forces are already spread thin as it is. We need to be wary of who is going where and conserve our forces. You understand, I hope.”

“Of course.” the pony looked relieved. The Chief led her away and began to write a description of the case on a notepad. Paige stared after them, slowly relaxing.

Three dogs, Paige heard them say. One kind of old looking, one that looked like a puppy and what seemed to be the pup’s mother. They were all sleeping huddled together. They were bigger than ponies, blue and black fur on all of them, some yellow on the older ones. They had spikes.

Wait, what?

Yes, shiny spikes, not on a collar but sticking out directly from their bodies. The pup only had nubs, but they were growing in. Paige strained to hear more, but they were already out of earshot.

“Ay!” an earth pony named Ruben Void also stood guard just outside of the taped off scene. He must have heard the whole thing. “Ay, bud, what was that?”

Bud. To Ruben, every living thing on Equus was named bud.

“Yeah, I’m good, thanks for asking!”

Ruben was about to retort, but Paige decided to answer his question just instead.

“Another sleeping monster appeared in someone’s backyard. Dogs, and really big ones.”

“How many?”

“Three, why do you care?!”

Paige sighed inwardly as Rubem made an obscene face. This new chief was the strictest in a while, and his very presence was grating on everyone.

Whatever. She turned away. She wasn’t going to be the scapegoat for a fight breaking out in the ranks twice in a row.

“Cutie!”

What.

Paige looked around. That wasn't Ruben’s voice, much too high pitched. The other officers were all about 20 feet away in different directions, and they didn’t seem to have heard anything.

“Cutie!” It had gotten closer, but there were no ponies around who could have said it.

A fluffball landed on Paige’s beak. She jumped and nearly swatted it away, but she had a suspicion about what it was. She had to cross her eyes to get the thing on her nose into perspective.

A beefly. Harmless, nectar feeding insects with all the cuteness of a honeybee and the cuddliness of a stingerless bottom. But Paige had never seen one this big so close to the city.

“Hey there little cousin,” Paige chuckled. “You’re a little far from home, aren'tcha?”

The beefly tilted its head and buzzed it wings a bit and said “Cutiefly!”

Paige let out the ugliest scream and shot herself into the air. That was the voice! But she wasn't expecting it to come from a two centimeter tall insect with a proboscis for a mouth.

“Cuuuuuuu!” the deafened, addled bug rubbed the sides of its head, drifting away and landing on a rock to recover.

Paige let herself fall to the ground, clutching her chest. She was getting a lot of stares now, but Paige hardly noticed.

That bug! Talked!! She hadn't just imagined it, right?

Paige looked around at her colleagues. They were all staring, some laughing.

"I'M OKAY!" Paige tried not to look as spooked as she felt.

“Cuuuuuu….tie?” the beefly shook itself off. It looked up at Paige. “Cutie. Cutiefly.”

Paige noticed it and bent down to listen to its chatter. “You...haha...you can talk!” She whispered.

“Cutie? Cutie!” the beefly jumped up and down in excitement. “Cutiefly!”

“But, you can only say 'Cutie' and 'Cutiefly'…” Paige continued.

“Cutie! Cutiefly! Cu?” it stopped, wings drooping. “Cuuuuuu....” it sat down with a sigh.

Paige blinked. “Hey…” the beefly looked at her. “Can you...understand me?”

“PAIGE! What in Equestria was that?!” Colonel Crackle Licks shouted directly into the hippogriff’s ear.

“Ow, I’m right here, jeez.”

“Paige, this is the last straw.” The bloodred unicorn Colonel growled as she turned to salute him. “You have been acting in this unruly manner all day. You have been trying to rush off from your post against orders and now you are causing confusion and disruption in the middle of a crime scene!”

“What! Alright sir, FIRST of all--”

“SERGEANT!” Crack screeched to interrupt her. “You are dismissed from duty for today. We have no need of this sort of behavior here, and this WILL be coming out of this week’s paycheck!”

Money. He was threatening her with money now, and that was the line she wasn’t willing to cross. “..Yes sir. See you tomorrow.” Paige saluted again, flaring out her wings and launching herself into the air again, but this time flapping up into an updraft and letting herself rise into the sky. She watched as the Colonel glared after her, then turned away to stalk two chatting officers. Paige chuckled as the yelling started up again, bitterly trying to milk some enjoyment from other ponies’ misfortune.

Something was tickling the back of her neck.

“Cuuuuuuu!” the talking beefly had buried itself into Paige’s downy feathers. It clung for dear life, and Paige might not have even heard it if it wasn’t so close to her ear.

“Oh! Little cousin,” Paige evened out her flight and dropped a bit of altitude. “I didn’t see you.”

“Cutie!” the beefly said, determinedly tightening its grip.

“I was just on my way home,” Paige explained, letting herself glide a couple yards above the rooftops. “if that doesn't sound like where you want to be, then just let yourself off if you want.”

“Cutiefly!”

“Whatever you say, cousin.”

“Cutie cutiefly!”

“Yup,” Paige gazed back at the blocked road and the totem rocks catching the sunset’s pink glow before they disappeared behind a shingled roof. “I know.”

At least, that's what she thought that flash of light was.

Author's Note:

*copy pastes Hawaii into ponyland*
Welcome to Pony Five-Oh HiatusxHiatus the fanfiction Alola to a New World! We hope you enjoy your stay!

Comments

[Nitro Indigo]

Why does Mauna Kea have the exact same name as the real volcano?

[Shadowshame]

This is interesting so far at least you have marked your story properly as on hiatus...unlike the writer of the main story