It's time to enter the stage

by FanOfSun

The second encounter

The sun was rising above the Maretime Bay. Not even the birds were awake yet. In fact, the whole town was still asleep.

Well, most of it at least.

Hitch was wide awake, and moving towards the Lighthouse. He sure COULD try to find those things and negotiate with them. But extra help would be nice. After all, you can't be too careful when it comes to...Something like that! Hitch approached the door and knocked at it. After there was no answer, he repeated the move.

When he was about to do it for the third time, Sunny opened the door, seemingly tired "..Hitch..It's 5 in the morning..."

Hitch smiled "Exactly! It's the best time to deal with any problem! Including..." he moved his hoof in a circular motion.

Sunny face hoofed "Look...Don't you think that it's too early?"

Hitch shook his head "Not at all! In fact, I'm pretty sure that this way, we will show them that we take this matter seriously!"

Sunny opened her mouth, but then thought for a second "..What if we confuse them this way?" she decided to play by his rules.

Hitch raised his eyebrow, still smiling "What do you mean?"

Sunny averted her eyes "Well, what if they think that we want to...Hurt them? You wouldn't want that, right?" she didn't really think about the answer since she wasn't fully awake.

Hitch chuckled "Oh Sunny! How possibly could they missunderstand an extremely early visit for..." his smile slowly faded away "..they will probably think that we want to set up an ambush...And..!" his eyes widened "OH APPLES! How didn't I think about that?!" he started to panic.

Sunny sighed "There we go..."

---

The Not-So-Abandoned-House was quiet...As it should be. Micheal's fire flickered, as he started to move again. Spirit raised his head and seemed to stretch.

Micheal exhaled and raised his body "Woah! I could get used to this...Sleeping!" He then looked around in order to find W...Who was asleep on the shelf nearby to the flower.

Micheal managed to levitate to his level "Daww, silly W! That's not how you are supposed to sleep!" he then started to think "I can't leave you like that...You just won't get all that good sleep! What can I do..." he raised his head and hummed.

"Hold on...Yesterday I threw some sand into him..." he then gasped "Waaaaait! I also touched the pony!" he quickly moved behind W and rubbed his hands "Alright, let's try it!" he started to push W...Successfully! "Oh yeah, one point for Micheal!" however, while spirit was cheering, he didn't see where he was pushing his friend...Which lead to W falling down on the floor. Some sparks appeared and quickly dissapeared around his almost flame less body.

Micheal felt that he wasn't pushing anything and looked down, grabbing his head "Oh shhhh..." he quickly descended and (with troubles) managed to put him on the sofa. Micheal exhaled loudly and shook his head "Well that's MUCH better, right?" he then looked at his hands "Huh, why are they so...Gloom all of the sudden? Ans why do I feel this...Thing?" he noticed that it was harder for him to levitate.

Suddenly, Micheal felt something...Pleasant. Like the air suddenly started to smell delicious? He didn't even notice how he flew out of the window and headed in the direction of the smell.

Whatever it was, Micheal WANTED it...

---

Darkness...

That's all that W could feel, see and hear...

Suddenly, his eyes opened.

All he could see, was the extremely bright white orb. W was shouting something...But he couldn't hear anything. Micheal was here as well, facing the sphere. Suddenly a bright flash blinded W.

And he screamed.

W quickly raised on the sofa. His breathing was chaotic, and flames big. W managed to steady himself and exhaled. His flames calmed down after some time too.

"What the fuck was that?!" he then raised his eyebrow "..fuck? What is 'fuck'?" W shook his head "No, I will deal with it later...Micheal, we gotta-" he looked around "..Micheal?"

W levitated up and scanned the whole place "Micheal where are you hiding?! It's not the time to play your idiotic games!"

However, as he flew around the house, inspected every single corner ..And came to the conclusion.

"This idiot...WHERE DID HE GO?!"

W was worried sick. He didn't know what those ponies could do to him...Sure, W couldn't assume that they were evil just yet, but they had to be more careful. Without hesitation, spirit flew out of the broken window.

"Why would you go NOW?!"

---

Izzy and Pipp were sitting outside the cafe, eating donuts. They chose this place because it was on the edge of town, which meant it was quieter.

Izzy finished one of the donuts "Hey, where is Zipp by the way?"

Pipp was on her phone "Well, Hitch called her and Sunny to discuss what they are going to do with those things from yesterday"

Izzy hummed "Well, I'm pretty sure that we can easily become friends!" she then giggled "I mean, don't you think they are cute?"

Pipp raised her head "Now that you mention it...Yeah, they are! It would be nice to take some pics with them!" she smiled at the thought.

Izzy jumped up "Oh, I can't wait!"

Pipp nodded "Yeah, but first, let me try those.." she looked at the empty dish "..donuts?"

Izzy rubbed her chin "But I'm sure I left at least one.." she then gasped "Oh no! I left my friend without a treat! I go-"

Pipp interrupted her "Oh it's ok Izzy, really! Besides, I can-"

Now Pipp was interrupted by a weird noice. It was like fire crackling with chumping, but quieter and sounded...Awkwardly hungry? Pipp and Izzy looked towards the source of the noice. To be more precise, towards the alley between cafe and a nearby building.

---

Micheal was watching at two ponies from behind the tree. They seemed awfully familiar...But his focus was on round objects on the table. For some reason, he wanted at least one of those. Micheal watched as the unicorn ate one of them, leaving the last one.

He became tense "This is it Micheal...Your last chance! Think, think!" spirit stated to hit his head with the arm. He then noticed that unicorn got distracted. Micheal's heart(?) started to beat slower, as he focused on the plate.

'This is it!'

Micheal pulled his hands towards the donut. Sudden 'ZAP' The next thing he knows, is that he is somewhere else...But after looking around for a bit, Micheal noticed something awesome in his hands.

Spirit seemed to open his mouth in amazement. He was holding the thing ponies were eating. Without any hesitation, spirit brought the donut to his face. He didn't know what he was doing, it just seemed right. Micheal was consuming the dough and the cream with so much pleasure, that he couldn't notice anything around him. Not even the two figures that were peeking at him from behind the corner.

Micheal exhaled, satisfied "Well, that definitely was something!"

A sudden flash from behind made him yelp. Spirit panicked and started to rapidly fly in the alleyway, bumping into walls and throwing small boxes down. Two gaps were heard from behind, as Micheal bumped into a wall too hard and fell down.

Everething went dark. Again...

---

Pipp and Izzy looked shocked. The creature from yesterday was there, lying on the floor. The flash from Pipp's phone made it panic. It seemed to lose consciousness due to the hit. Izzy and Pipp exchanged glances.

Unicorn started to approach the creature. Pipp stopped her friend "Wait!"

Izzy looked at her "What? Are we supposed to leave this little guy here?"

Pipp hesitated "I..." she then sighed "You are right..."

Izzy looked back at the creature. It's flames were a little weaker now, but they were there. Unicorn approached it and kneeled down a little "Hey, he is not hot at all!" she poked it with her hoof.

Pipp approached it as well "Hold on, where will we take it to?"

Izzy hummed and rubbed her chin "Weeeeell...Oh! I have an idea!" she turned towards her friend with a smile "What about we bring him to the bright house?"

Pipp looked up I'm thoughts "This sounds...Hold on" she looked back with raised eyebrow "How do you know if it is a he?"

Izzy giggled "I heard him talking yesterday!"

Pipp's eyes widened "Whaaaaa?" she looked at the creature "But that's- OH SWEET CLOUDS IZZY!" she quickly moved towards her friend "Do you understand what will happen to this poor thing if we bring him to Sunny?!"

Izzy tilted her head "No?"

Pipp's face became over dramatic "She will go full Sundora..."

Izzy opened her mouth "Oh gosh! How did I forget?" she then hummed "But wait, what do we do then?"

Pipp put a hoof on her chin. Her mouth turned into a smirk, as an idea popped in her head.

---

Sunny, Zipp and Hitch were in the bright house. They collected samples of the sand from the place where they met creatures yesterday to examine them. Sunny was examining the pile using some instruments upstairs. In fact, she was doing it for a while now.

Zipp groaned as she shifted her position on the sofa "Sunny, why did you even need me?"

A voice from upstairs answered "You were the one I the air, remember? If it wasn't for you and your sharp eye, we couldn't have found the place!"

Zipp snorted and layed her head on the cushion "Sure sure..."

Hitch called out from the kitchen "Well, look on the bright side! We managed to get a trail of those creatures. Who knows what secrets they hide" ge then came out with a plate in his hoof that contained cinnamon buns "Besides, I'm pretty sure that those will make it up to you" Hitch placed it on the table.

Zipp smirked "You know how to make deals"

When she was about to grab one of the buns, door opened. There stood Izzy and Pipp. However, something was off. Pipp didn't hold her phone as usual, and Izzy was awkwardly quiet.

Hitch smiled at them "Ah, hello girls! How were the donuts?"

Pipp answered "Oh, they were uh...Fine!"

Zipp glanced at her sister, but said nothing. She simply reached for the bun and started to eat it. Pipp and Izzy cake inside. Pegasus sat near to her sister, and unicorn relaxed at the bean bag. The tension was starting to grow.

Izzy then smiled and tried to set up a conversation "Sooo~ How are you all doing with this research?"

Hitch shrugged as he started to clear the kitchen "No idea. She didn't tell us a thing about it. I don't really want to distract her either" he then came back from the kitchen "How are the bu-"

A sudden 'Finally!' from the second floor cut Hitch's sentence. Everypony looked at the stairs. Soon enough, Sunny started to come down in a hurry, carrying some kind of a lense.

Earth pony pumped her fist up "I finally made a breakthrough!" she looked really happy.

Hitch looked at her curiously "And what did you manage to find?"

Sunny smiled "Not just find. I managed to create a devise to find those creatures!" she placed the lense on the table.

Zipp narrowed her eyes at it "Yeeah...And what does it do?"

Sunny took the lense again "Well, remember how you asked why we were collecting sand?" after her friend nodded, she continued "We were doing it to collect ad much magical essence as possible. There were a lot of records about magic in the old books about Equestria, and I managed to get some of those" Sunny motioned her head to the second floor "The creatures we met yesterday are, obviously, magical. So what I did was collect magical essence from the sand, and transfer it into this lense! As easy as that!" she proudly smiled and closed her eyes.

Everypony looked at her confused. Hitch awkwardly rubbed back of his head "I think that...Nopony here quite got it"

Sunny opened her eyes un disbelief. Everypony nodded awkwardly at Hitch's comment. She sighed and picked up the lense "OK, I will try to make it easier for you. Spirits left the magical trail after they dissapeared" now everypony started to understand where she was going. Sunny smiled and raised her hoof "Wait a second, I have a handle for it" she galloped upstairs.

Zipp sighed "Sometimes she surprises me more than Izzy..."

Named unicorn objected "Hey!"

Hitch chuckled "Well, you know how she can be when it comes to magic or science"

Pipp nodded "I know, she is just ONSESSED with it!"

Zipp snorted "Who says!"

Before Pipp could say anything, Sunny came down with a magnifying glass. Everypony looked at it with curiosity.

Sunny raised the glass "So, it's very easy. It will show fresh trails of those creatures of there are any"

Hitch approached her "Can I try it?"

Sunny giggled "Sure but it's not like they vere or will be here" she gave the glass to Hitch.

Sheriff hummed and pulled it closer to his eye. He looked around. Hitch then clipped with his eyes, confused.

Sunny tilted her head "Is something wrong?"

Hitch looked at the magnifying glass with raised eyebrow "Well uh...There is this weird blue transparent mist around here...Is it ok?"

Sunny froze in place "Wait...Are you serious?"

Hitch nodded "Yeah, like-"

Sunny snatched glass out of Hitch's hoof and started to look around chaotically. Zipp flew to her and put hooves on her shoulders "Hey there, calm down! What is wrong?" Hitch approached her too.

Sunny inhaled some air and slowly exhaled it "Alright...So the trail I meant is this mist" she carefully inspected surroundings and noticed the trail coming out of the door.

Everypony followed her glaze and realized what that meant. Hitch gulped a bit "W-Wait...Does it mean..."

Sunny slowly turned to the group "There might be something else among us..."

Zipp moved with her hoof "Wait let's not get crazy yet. Maybe there is something wrong with the glass, or uh..." she knew really well that everething was alright with the device. Zipp sighed and dropped her head. Pipp and Izzy however, became really quiet.

Hitch looked at the group "OK, let's just find it and...Act as good as possible, alright?" he turned back to Sunny, nodding.

Sunny returned the gesture and approached the doorway "OK...It went through the door" she slowly looked after the trail. It let towards the table and sofa. Sunny clipped her eyes, confused "Wait, how did it manage to slip through the whole living room without us noticing?"

Pipp slightly sweated "Well uh...Maybe he- IT, was too small?"

Zipp put a hoof to her chin "Well, I would definitely notice it then"

Hitch nodded "Yeah, besides, I'm pretty sure I would hear it"

Sunny continued, her eyes grew wider "That- That doesn't make any sence!" she looked at the sofa, Pipp and...

Everypony froze in place as their eyes fell on Izzy (Except for Pipp, she played it). Unicorn clipped her eyes, confused "Is there something in my mane?"

Hitch, with shaking hoof, pointed at her head and nodded "T-There...I-Is.."

Izzy slowly moved her eyes up. There, sticking out of her mane was the creature. It was aggressively consuming the cinnamon bun. After the silence went for some time, it raised it's head and looked around to find our why ot became so quiet. Creature looked at the ponies and froze.

Micheal gulped down the piece he was eating. He awkwardly raised it's fiery part. It's concerning could be heard clearly.

"Heyo?"

Author's Note:

Yaaaay I didn't abandon this story!