By the time Sunny and Sprout came back into town at quick a pace as the deputy could manage, they saw Hitch and the others out on the street staring over at the rainbow beam.
"Are you two okay? What happened?" Hitch asked as Sunny approached.
"Um, hard to explain. Anypony up for a late night walk?" Sunny asked.
There were nods across her friends, and she turned back towards the top of the hill, while Sprout kept heading up the front walk to head back inside.
"Coming, Sprout?" Hitch asked.
The deputy scoffed.
"Whatever happened to 'give your leg time to heal or I'm checking you back in'? I just saw what she's about to show all of you, and I'm not about to pass up the opportunity to have the TV remote all to myself," Sprout said, chuckling as he headed back inside, closing the door.
It was a five minute trot back to the lighthouse site, where a small crowd had gathered at the undoubtedly magical structure.
"Unbelievable!" Izzy said as they approached the front doors.
"Have you taken a look inside?" Hitch asked Sunny.
"I took about a five-second peek in the front doors before I decided to come get all of you," Sunny replied, her somber mood having improved considerably. Stepping forward, she opened the front doors, and stepped inside, her friends right behind her.
Two short steps descended into the foyer, with multi-colored crystal tiles making up the floor. The walls were painted a sky blue. The kitchen on the right side was roughly in the same place it had been originally, with a bit more space this time around.
Instead of stairs off on the left side wall, two spiral ramps made of crystal and polished wood provided access to the second floor. Sunny ascended the curving walkway and her smile widened further when she saw all of the available space on the second floor, where the elevator to the top waited in the center, a rainbow beam shining up out of the glass cylinder.
"This... This is way too much room for just me. This is for all of us, I just know it," Sunny commented, turning around to the two pegasi, unicorn, and earth stallion.
She got smiles and nods from her friends, who were realizing that with that idea, they now all suddenly had a place to stay in Maretime Bay as well. Izzy's grin was the widest as the opportunities for unicycling was expanding in her mind by the millisecond.
Not wanting to get too far ahead of herself, she stepped towards the elevator with her friends, and once they were all on the platform, Sunny pressed her hoof to the glowing touch pad on the wall, and it rose effortlessly up to the top of the lighthouse. There, just above the heads of all of them, in the middle of the rainbow beam, floated the three Unity Crystals. The view from the balcony provided the same spectacular view of both the ocean and Maretime Bay.
"Well, I suppose now you've got something to put all those new profits to use for," Hitch began. "Just leave me out of the floor plan. I'm sure it'll be easier to make sleeping arrangements for four ponies instead of five, and I'm perfectly happy in my house already."
"Fair enough, and yeah, I've certainly got things to think about now. We all do," Sunny said. "It is way too late to go furniture shopping tonight, and ponies are probably expecting my cart to be open tomorrow, so I suppose we'll all cram back into your place for tonight, then try to get this place livable as fast as we can."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's go get some sleep, friends," Hitch agreed.
They all gathered on the elevator again, and everyone was no doubt processing ideas as fast as they could as the platform descended to the second floor. The small crowd outside was either taking pictures, or had dispersed back into town. For her part, Pipp dug out her phone and took a selfie in front of the new lighthouse, to no doubt post to Ponygram.
After a short walk back to Hitch's house, they quietly went in, and saw Sprout sleeping on the couch as the TV played at a low volume.
"Hey, come on, Sprout. If you're going to sleep, then don't leave the TV on," Hitch told him, while he grabbed the remote and shut off the TV.
"I was just resting my eyes, I swear," Sprout said, but nevertheless sauntered over to the recliner, and laid back, giving out another yawn.
Zipp and Pipp went back to the spare bedroom again, Izzy spread out her sleeping bag, and Sunny got the couch. Not that she was going to get any sleep anytime soon, as she dug out a notepad from her saddlebags, put the end table lamp on the dimmest setting, and began making a shopping list for the new lighthouse.
Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Well let's hope you guys can figure it out how to make the house cooler without going crazy
So it looks like sunny and sprout told the other is about the lighthouse but then again they were there and they saw the lighthouse so they check out the place and it is much bigger than the original lighthouse so it looks like the others are going to plan on how the living arrangements and everything and sunny is pretty excited for this hopefully they make over house would be okay well I guess we'll find out next time
This new chapter is so cool! Can't wait to see they will the Crystal Brighthouse into the most coolest house ever.
Absolutely loved the work going into this latest chapter. The reactions to how big the upgraded Brighthouse is compared to the old Lighthouse were beautiful. Glad Sunny and Sprout were that quick to tell the others. And, yeah, makes sense to hold off on trying to buy stuff for seating, bedding and decorations until the morning. And the acknowledgement concerning the possibilities of what could be done with the money that was just saved was another great touch.
Again, splendid work on the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up and I'm definitely looking forward to more of this.
Hey, at least he can sleep with the TV on. I can't. Believe me, I've tried.
Excellent chapter as always, this was good stuff.