Fire over Maretime

by The Blue EM2

Incursion

Another day dawned in Equestria, and as days go it was a pretty good one. After the cataclysmic Battle of Maretime Bay, in which five unlikely heroes had succeeded in uniting the lost shards of the three tribes and restoring the magic to Equestria despite the best efforts of Sprout, the world had become an altogether much more cheerful and optimistic place, with ponies looking forward to a much brighter future of working together and solving problems with one another, instead of being at loggerheads and living separate from one another. Nopony particularly wanted to go back to that, after all.

One who was cheerful was one Sunny Starscout, one of the aforementioned five heroes. Reuniting the tribes had always been her dream, and had been carrying on the work her father had started decades ago. She'd even briefly gained an alicorn transformation out of it, which was pretty cool. Although she currently had nowhere formal to live, the lighthouse that formed her house having been severely damaged by Sprout's war machine, the citizens of the town had rallied together to start repairing the building, and having unicorns who could levitate things and pegasi who could fly bits and pieces about certainly helped to speed up repairs.

Sunny was currently staying with Hitch until the repairs were completed, and so she emerged from his house, looking out into the sun, a large, flaming orange ball rising into the sky. She smiled at such a beautiful sight. She may have enjoyed travelling, but she would always call Maretime Bay home. "Good morning sun!" she called. "No time to talk I gotta ru-"

Suddenly, something collided with her muzzle, and she was knocked back into the house as the door slammed in front of her. "Ow!"

Sunny slowly pushed the door back open, rubbing the end of her muzzle with her hoof. "Ouch, that smarts."

"Sunny!" called the voice of Hitch, who ran over. "I'm so sorry. I keep the door on an automatic spring so that it closes after I enter. As Sheriff, I do need to set a good impression when it comes to security arrangements in the town."

Sunny looked over. "It's OK. I've had plenty of doors slammed in my face. I used to be regarded as the village idiot par excellence!"

"Par what?" Hitch asked.

"Without a rival," Sunny replied. "Izzy taught me that one. It's a unicorn expression."

"Oh." Hitch rubbed his own forehead in confusion. "Well, your persistance certainly paid off! Our world is at peace now, and it's all thanks to you."

"I can't take all the credit!" Sunny said, a smile on her face. "We'd never have gotten the unicorn shard if it weren't for you shouting mayonnaise! I must ask Izzy why that word causes them to do that."

"Oh well." Hitch stepped through the door, holding it open with his rear hoof to make a point. "I've gotta get down to the station. I've got a deputy to discipline."

Sunny followed him out, into the bright morning sun.

---

Sunny certainly enjoyed trekking down the gentle streets of Maretime Bay. The road from Hitch's house gently curved downwards to the cliff face that the town fronted onto, near the access road to a small harbour. In ancient times, this had received cargo and goods from places far, far away, but nowadays the harbour was so badly silted up that it would be a miracle if any boats could get into the harbour at all. And the lack of international trade, with the vanishing of the other races hinted at in ancient texts, rather put paid to the need for a harbour.

Sunny rolled to one side as the streetcar rattled past, the first (and only) in Maretime Bay's streetcar fleet. This small line ran back and forth, carrying passengers and goods about from one side of town to another. Whilst it had for a long time been powered by a rechargable battery, spare parts for this were running out and the charge was getting shorter and shorter. Luckily, the town council had recently approved the construction of a hydroelectric dam over a nearby waterfall, with electric generation equipment derived from pegasus technology. This meant they could be even more eco friendly than before and finally see off their reliance on fossil fuel power, with the CanterLogic factory being the first facility in town to promise to go fully eco clean.

Sunny skated down the road, grinning as the wind breezed through her mane and the sun illuminated the path in front of her. The scene was so cheerful, and the environment so nice, that for some reason she felt something quite familiar. "Hitch?"

"Yes, Sunny?" Hitch called, ducking under the rear deck of the streetcar.

"I feel a song coming on!"

"Oh no. Well, please refrain from bursting into song until we're in town proper, which should be pretty soon. Ah, here we are!"

Hitch took his turning to the police station and pushed his way through the door, getting through before the door slammed closed behind him. "Wait a second, what is this blue hedgehog doing here?"

Sunny laughed. "A blue hedgehog? Whatever next? A monkey eating mushrooms on a planet of nothing but mushrooms?"

She pulled up at a table and took a quick glance at the local clientele. It was awesome to see members of all the races interacting with one another after so many years apart. Although they could have done without the vapid pop song playing over the speakers. She'd last heard that one when she had been in Bridlewood, taking on Alphabittle in Prance Prance Revolution.

She glanced about to suddenly see another earth pony dashing over to her position. She had seen this particular earth pony several times before, but she seemed to be in a foul mood as she covered the ground to this location. saying something incomprensible from Sunny's position. Eventually, the pony stopped and glanced over at Sunny. "Oh, hey Sunny. Can we talk?"

"Sure!" Sunny smiled. "What's bothering you, erm..."

"Sugar Moonlight," the pony replied.

"Oh, I know you!" Sunny grinned. "Sorry for taking so long to remember your name. So, what's bothering you, Sugar Moonlight?"

"This will sound completely ridiculous, but I have a bit of a problem. Not that kind of problem," she hastily added, seeing the look of shock on Sunny's face. "It's a problem with another creature."

"I see. But whom?"

"You know that annoying flying dog that the Haven pony brought with her? You know, the one who helped you destroy Sprout's war machine?"

"Oh, I know her. And the flying dog, cloudpuff. He's quite a handful." Sunny shuddered at the memory of how he had derailed their attempts to recover one of the lost shards that had remagicked the land. "Very much a handful."

"Well, I'm jealous of them."

Sunny was not quite sure what she had just heard. "Sorry, could you repeat that? I think I misheard you."

"The dog, not Haven. Earlier today, I was in line at the jewellers to purchase something to give to a friend for her birthday, only for those two to sweep into the line and purchase the very item I wanted to buy! She got it for her dog, of all things! Why should a pet get everything for free, when we ponies have to work and save up?"

Sunny nodded. "Well, that was rather rude of them. I'll have a word with Haven and ask her about it. By the way, what was the object you were planning on buying? I may be able to source another example of it for you."

Sugar Moonlight focused her mind to recall what the object she had wanted to buy was. "Oh, sure. It was mostly silver in design, with a red jem set into the centre. Set atop the body of the object was a depiction of a unicorn head with wings coming off the side, also coloured in silver and red. It looked seriously pretty, and my friend is pretty interested in shiny things."

Sunny froze when she heard that description.

"Sunny? Sunny? Sunny, you there?"

Sunny registered that Sugar Moonlight was still talking to her. "Oh, sorry. Must have snapped out of it for a moment. That does sound pretty. I'll ask around and see if there is another around."

"Thanks!" Sugar Moonlight said. "I'll see you around, OK?"

"See ya!" Sunny said, setting off from the table and back towards her home. Based on that description, she was pretty certain she had heard about this object in the past. Her archives were, luckily, still in existance and were largely intact, barring the odd missing page from water damage, and she was certain more information was required to establish precisely what she was dealing with here. But if the object in question was what she thought it was, why would a dog, a flying dog no less, have any use for it? It was time to engage detective mode.

Author's Note:

Hello, everypony! This is the dawn of a new era, both for the fandom and personally. With the recent arrival of G5 and the effect it has had on reinvigorating the fandom, I have decided to throw my hat into the ring and try writing G5 fics myself. This story is based on a prompt from the G5 Bingo Contest (you'll be able to see what my prompt was in the final chapter).

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why isn't there a sci-fi tag?

[The Blue EM2]

11034421
Not yet, at least. Tags added as needed.

[PrincessEnchanteDream]

A very interesting start. Excited to find out what's next!!

Liked, added to G5 folder, and tracked!

[The Blue EM2]

11034865
Thank you so much!

[PrincessEnchanteDream]

11034866
My pleasure.

[The Blue EM2]

11034879
Don't forget to hit the track button so you don't miss any updates,

[PrincessEnchanteDream]

11034882
Already done!!

[The Blue EM2]

11034883
Awesome!

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Suddenly, something collided with her muzzle, and she was knocked back into the house as the door slammed in front of her. "Ow!"

There goes her morning starting off good.

"Sunny!" called the voice of Hitch, who ran over. "I'm so sorry. I keep the door on an automatic spring so that it closes after I enter. As Sheriff, I do need to set a good impression when it comes to security arrangements in the town."

Really Hitch, just really.

Sunny rolled to one side as the streetcar rattled past, the first (and only) in Maretime Bay's streetcar fleet. This small line ran back and forth, carrying passengers and goods about from one side of town to another. Whilst it had for a long time been powered by a rechargable battery, spare parts for this were running out and the charge was getting shorter and shorter. Luckily, the town council had recently approved the construction of a hydroelectric dam over a nearby waterfall, with electric generation equipment derived from pegasus technology. This meant they could be even more eco friendly than before and finally see off their reliance on fossil fuel power, with the CanterLogic factory being the first facility in town to promise to go fully eco clean.

Glad to see some good coming out of CL after the original stuff they made.

Hitch took his turning to the police station and pushed his way through the door, getting through before the door slammed closed behind him. "Wait a second, what is this blue hedgehog doing here?"

I'm guessing that's supposed to be a sonic the hedgehog reference?

[The Blue EM2]

11441327
More or less. Removing the toxic elements was a key cvhange.