A pony's jealousy and a powered creature. What can go wrong?
Sugar Moonlight is jealous of Cloudpuff, for reasons best known to herself. However, her jealously brings to light a very real danger, one that will cause Maretime Bay to descend into chaos once it, and the efforts to contain it, are unleashed.
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?"
"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.
Sunny, after travelling for a few minutes through Maretime Bay and the surrounding countryside, pulled up outside her home, which as previously stated was currently undergoing stabilisation work on the lighthouse tower after Sprout badly damaged the structure. Sunny glanced up to the pegasus overseeing the repair works, none other than her friend Zipp Storm, and tried to get her attention. "Hello?"
Zipp quickly glanced down. "Oh! Hey Sunny! Here to see how construction is coming along?"
"Not really," Sunny replied. "I need to get access to my archives. Has the east wing been stabilised yet?"
"Yeah, that should be safe to go in," Zipp answered. "Will you be needing to move documents or is this a digital transfer?"
"Luckily, I digitised the entire archive, so I only need to get my memory stick and all should be good," Sunny noted. "Thanks for the help Zipp!"
"Sure thing! Come on ponies! Let's speed this- Pipp, why are you filming this?"
"I'm posting it on Hoofnote to showcase how ponies are all getting along these days!"
"Did you ask for their permission under the Pony Data Protection Regulation?"
"Did I need to?"
"Yes, as well as the Pegasus cinematograph process and recording act."
"I don't think that applies in Earth pony territory."
Sunny quickly stepped in through her door and trotted over to the desk, and pulled open a drawer, rummaging around. "Come on, come on! Where is it?"
She moved stuff about for a few seconds, before finally finding an orange memory stick and pulling it out. "Gotcha! Now I'll be able to access the data I need, and hopefully put it on my dropbox whilst I'm here."
She exited through the door, remembering to hold it this time and ensure it did not slam in her face. "Alright guys, I've got what I need! You can resume work now!"
"You heard the lady!" Zipp called. "Let's get stuck in! That includes you, Rob!"
"I can't see any corn on the cob," said a confused voice.
Sunny quickly continued with roller blading down the road, flying with great speed towards Hitch's house. With luck, she would be able to use either a laptop or Pipp's SkyPad in order to read the files in detail. As the sun continued to glow in the sky, she turned through the door. "Is anypony in he- OW! Not again!"
Sunny had forgotten that the door had a dual hinge to allow it to be opened both ways, and it had smacked into her face again. She trudged indoors, dropping her bag off, and grabbed the memory stick in readiness for her research. Whilst there, she grabbed her phone and dialled a familiar number. "Hey, Izzy? Can I ask you something?"
"Tada!" Izzy called, suddenly appearing right alongside Sunny. "These teleportation spells are great! I can't imagine what we did without them!"
"Well, a little warning would be nice," Sunny answered. "Could you be getting these devices booted up? I need a warm drink."
"I think I'll make a herbal tea for me too!"
After a few minutes spent preparing hot drinks for the pair, Izzy levitated a tray through the door and lay it down on the table. "I'd forgotten how efficient this was!"
Sunny, on the other hand, had layed out two separate devices, one for each of them. As manually pouring over every bit of text was going to take too long, Sunny instead decided to make use of the search function. She took out her notes on Sugar Moonlight's description of the object, and proceeded to type it in. "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."
The device slowly began to search through the different pages to try and find a match for the object. However, it seemed as though the search would take a while, so Sunny and Izzy took to idly chatting whilst they waited. "So," Sunny started, "how are things in Bridlewood?"
"Oh, they're better than they were," Izzy grinned. "We've really gotten our energy back along with our magic, which has considerably reduced the number of things we need rituals against. After all, if we can control it we don't need protection, huh?"
Sunny laughed. "Sounds great! I caught up with Zipp and Pipp, and getting their magic back has really helped them. Being able to move stuff by pegasus is so much quicker than crane."
"Oh, that's why the repairs on your lighthouse are proceeding so fast!" Izzy realised. "Yeah, that's handy. No need for wires anymore, or anything else?"
Sunny paused. "Oh, one more thing. What was it that caused unicorns to consider mayonnaise a bad thing?"
Izzy froze. "Bing... bong!" She then laughed. "I'm just messin' with ya! I don't actually know. Alphabittle would probably have a clue, but-"
Suddenly, their devices beeped, indicating that they were done with their search. Sunny took a closer look after a quick sip of hot coffee. "The object has been identified. According to this document, this device can dramatically amplify the wearer's magical abilities, but gradually corrupts the user, and cannot allow them to perform spells that are impossible. The wearer also can be the only one who can remove it. What?"
"That sentence is a little wonky," Izzy noted.
"Remember that dad was transcribing out of Middle Ponish. That stuff was weird sometimes, and can be quite hard to understand. If my understanding is correct, this is none other than the Alicorn Amulet, which was once used by an ancient mage to try and defeat Twilight Sparkle, the last Princess of Imperial Equestria, albeit before she became princess. I have no idea how it survived, but we need to get out there and ensure that it is recovered, pronto!"
Sunny and Izzy dashed out of the door and headed off to find the pegasus sisters. Neither of them noticed that Izzy had not even touched her tea.
Having seen off the blue hedgehog (informing him that he would see him in Green Hills), Hitch turned his entire attention to his deputy, Sprout. Safe to say, this was not going to be pretty. "Well then, Sprout. Seems you made quite the mess whilst I was away; not a good record for a deputy sheriff. Do you have any idea of the charges that could be placed against you?"
"Well, technically, given that I made the laws whilst I was running things, none, since nothing I did could be declared a criminal act in that regard."
"Wrong." Hitch's face was cold and unusually devoid of emotion. "Usurpation of town charter, repeated violations of national rights, inciting and forming a mob, starting a riot, inducing said mob into disorderly behaviour, seizing assets belonging to private individuals for state purposes without a compulsory purchase order, using said assets for manufacture of machinery and compenents prohibited under the law, massive property damage, taking away a locomotive of war without owner's permission, driving an unlicensed vehicle, careless driving, ignoring pedestrian crossing, failing to observe traffic sign, causing ashes and/or sparks to be emitted on highway, driving on the wrong side of the road, failing to report accident, malicious damage, excessive noise, defective tyres, unauthorised discharge of weapons, destruction of assets of great national value, loss of property to residents. Need I go on?"
Sprout's face said it all as he looked at the floor. There was little chance of wriggling his way out of this one, even if his mother's firm supplied the bulk of the police department's equipment and technology. He said nothing, initially.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Hitch asked, after a very awkward silence.
Sprout's response was unintelligible.
"You know I can't hear you when you speak that quietly."
"It seemed like a good idea at the time."
Hitch sighed loudly. "Well, it wasn't. Even if you had succeeded, consider what would have happened. The pegasi have a far bigger military machine than we do, and can field far heavier weaponry than we have the capability to manufacture or deploy. How would it have helped if they'd dumped a megaspell on Maretime Bay? Everything would have been gone in a flash?"
"Well, when you put it that way it does seem rather poorly thought out. But I only had the best intentions of the town at mind!"
Hitch ignored that remark. "You only deployed a single war engine, and yet the factory records show that more machines were built than Sproutus Maximus (a stupid name if ever there was one). Whatever happened to those?"
"Well, they should still be at the factory, as I can't think of any reason to move them anywhere other than the factory. I had no intention of selling them to anybody, or something like that."
Hitch indicated to the door. "We're heading down to the factory," he said. "And we're going to resolve this matter. Permanently."
Higher up in Maretime Bay, Zipp and Pipp were taking a break from the construction sight that was Sunny's house. It had been a long, hard day so far, but they felt they had made considerable progress on repairing the structure so it could be brought back into use later that week. Zipp was looking about for some refreshment. The same could not be said of her sister, who was on social media and communicating with her fans.
"Hey guys! I'm coming to you live from beautiful Maretime Bay! The sun is out, the sky is perfectly blue, and there are no clouds to spoil the view! You could say we got the light!"
Zipp looked over. "So do Zephyr Heights. Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights may be in different time zones, but it's still daytime at the same times."
"I was speaking metaphorically as well as meteorologically. #PartyPooper." Pipp rolled her eyes. "But today, I come to you to show you the latest project of unity between our tribes!" She switched the camera on her phone to the outside one, and pointed it at the lighthouse. "And here we are! This is the home of my best friend, which we are fixing after somebody damaged it!"
"Good morning, my darlings!" called a familiar voice.
Zipp trotted over to her younger sister. "Yo, little sis, you may want to stop streaming. Mom's approaching."
"I'm bigger than you, if only in wingspan!"
"Only in the amount of fluff you've got. Skeletally, we're exactly the same size. And I'm older too. I don't think you want mom bombing the stream."
Pipp looked into the monitor. "Sorry everypony, I gotta go! See you soon! Keep being awesome, and shine on in your own special way!" She then hit the red button, which ended the stream.
"How is this work coming along?" the formerly Queen Haven asked, accompanied by her dog, as she trotted to a stop at the location of her two daughters.
"Currently taking a tea break," Zipp said.
"What is tea?" Haven enquired.
"A liquid beverage that unicorns drink," Zipp answered. "Izzy taught me that phrase. It's quite a handy one!"
"And I was streaming the building work, showing how awesome it is that we are working together rather than living apart and being such meanies as we were before!" Pipp seemed quite excited as she stretched her wings out. "I'm so looking forward to trying out my flying routine from Glowin' up for Realsies!"
Haven responded to the completely contrasting personalities of her daughters with a smile. "That's wonderful to hear. In the meantime, as you probably know, today is Cloudpuff's birthday."
"Awww," Pipp smiled, whereas Zipp simply mouthed 'on no'. It was an open secret that Cloudpuff was a nightmare to handle.
"Anyway, I bought him something for his birthday," Haven continued, fishing out a necklace, or amulet of some sort. "I found this in the market for surprisingly cheap. "Here you go," she said to Cloudpuff.
"No! Don't put it on him!" a voice, that of Sunny, suddenly called from the distance.
Haven looked over her shoulder as Sunny and Izzy skidded to a stop. The unicorn started to speak.
"Thatobjectyouhavethereisareallydangerous- (here Izzy took a big gulp of breath)- artifactthatcouldspelldoominthewronghands! SorryfortalkingsofastIgallopedallthewayhere!"
"What?" Haven, Zipp, and Pipp all said in unison.
"The quick version; don't give that to Cloudpuff! You saw what shiny magical objects can do when they're activated!" Sunny protested.
"Well, you did turn into an alicorn thingy for a bit," Zipp pointed out. "Mom, this may not be a good idea after all. You know how Cloudpuff can be."
As if to prove her point, the flying pomeranian turned its head and glared at Sunny, clearly having not forgotten the theft of the crystal shard. Haven, however, was hilariously oblivious to this.
"Oh, nonsense! Cloudpuff is nothing but adorable! Here you go darling, happy birthday!" Haven opened the amulet, and popped it round the dog's neck.
There was a brief red flash as the amulet locked into position, the clamp slamming shut. Suddenly, an energy blast pushed the others back, causing the others to quickly vacate the area as something began to happen.
In the place where Cloudpuff had been, there was now a gigantic ball of fluff. It barked at them, but of course it was so massive that the pitch of its voice and the volume were considerably deeper and higher respectively.
"What in Equestria is that thing?" asked a local.
"That," Sunny said, "is the Alicorn Amulet, and precisely why you don't go mucking about with magical artifacts! Hopefully he's just bigger and nothing else has happened."
Suddenly, Cloudpuff shot lasers from his eyes. An abrupt turn of his head dislodged some masonry from the lighthouse.
"Oh, come on!" shouted somebody else. "Why me? I had just finished work on that bit of wall!"
"Run!" Izzy shouted, and the five ponies galloped for their lives as a crazed gigantic dog began to fire upon almost everything in sight, as well as squash things under its paws.
"Oh, I'm such a fool!" Haven said, as they whizzed along. "This is a right mess we're in!"
"And only a day after yesterday's demolition derby!" Pipp added. "What?"
"Not helping!" Zipp snapped.
Sunny had taken the lead. "We need to find some way of getting that thing off him! Dad's records were incomplete, but I think there's a way of solving the problem using some leftover equipment from yesterday!"
Just then, they skidded past the entrance to the Canterlogic factory, and saw Hitch getting security clearance to enter the facility.
"Hitch!" Sunny called. "We need to get in there too! There's a giant rampaging dog out there and we need your help to stop it!"
Hitch turned to the guard. "Let them in too!"
"Understood sir! Once you're through, I'll switch on the kinetic barriers."
There was a look on Sprout's face. "You know, I think I have the solution to this very problem." He stepped forward- only for the door to be smacked into his face. "OW!"
"That's been happening to me all day," Sunny said dryly.
Sprout led the five ponies down the corridors of the vast Canterlogic factory. Brightly lit and well kept, it was the polar opposite of the infamous Rainbow Factory which, according to legend, had operated in Cloudsdale thousands of years ago. Employees rushed up and down with equipment and scientific data, most of them paying no attention to the loud crashes and bangs outside.
"So, what are you taking us to?" Hitch asked, not liking where this was going.
Sprout skidded to a stop, and punched 7669 into one of the door code boxes. There was a hiss, and the doors slid open into a storage room. "This is what I wanted to show you. I had these machines built in case I got backed into a corner and had to employ a rather more aggressive solution to the problem."
"You mean unicorns and pegasi," Zipp said. "You do know we could have kicked your flanks pretty easily, right? Our air force is not to be messed with."
"I get it! It wasn't thought through. Geez, no need to pile it on." Sprout hit a light switch, and the lights came up on five bipedal machines, each with a cockpit in the centre. Each one was bristling with armaments, and each was painted a different colour.
One was orange with purple trim. Another was pink with blue trim. The third was orange with green trim, and the fourth was pink with purple trim. The last, and by the far the smallest, was white with red and blue lining.
"They're colour coded to our colours!" Izzy pointed out. "Cool! Can we take them for a test drive?"
"That's kinda why we're here," Sprout continued. "These should give you enough firepower to see off Cloudzilla out there! I'll be running mission control as these machines need full, real time logistical support."
"How do we know you won't just hit self destruct the moment we get in?" Hitch asked, eyeing his deputy- former deputy, that is, with suspicion.
"Who fits a self destruct module that can only be triggered remotely?" Sprout countered. "Besides, think about it logically. What do we achieve if I blow you up? That thing out there will still be rampaging around Maretime Bay, and we'll all be worse off for it!"
"As much as I'm not sure about this, I think this is our best shot for slowing Cloudpuff down," Zipp noted. "He can get pretty mad when sufficiently provoked, and he seems pretty angry now."
"And that can give Sunny time to think of a plan to save the day, right?" Izzy asked.
"Right?" asked Pipp, seeing Sunny staring off into space."
Sunny shook her head. "Sorry, drifted off for a moment there. Yeah, let's go do it!"
Sprout hopped into a big box nearby and switched on the speakers. "All pilots, to your battlemechs! Let's get this show on the road!"
Upon that order being given, Hitch, Sunny, Pipp, Zipp, and Izzy all climbed into their respective, colour coded machines, all of which stood idle and inert at the moment. Upon finishing climbing in and checking over the controls, ready to get moving, each of them hit a lever that brought the onboard engines rumbling into life, causing the cockpit to start to bounce.
"It's like a bouncy castle in here!" Izzy radioed.
"Yeah, how are we supposed to operate these things without getting motion sick?" Zipp asked.
"Engage the gyroscopic stabiliser," Sprout radioed. "That's the red button next to the control column."
All five pilots reached for said button and hit it. Immediately, the wobbling stopped, and the cockpit was now completely level.
"Does this machine have a phone charging port? Mine's getting a bit low," Pipp asked.
"I didn't have time to install them," Sprout replied. "Alright, I'll run you through the controls. The stick on the left is the throttle, and that's currently in neutral position. Push it forward to go forward. The more you push it forward, the faster you go. Move it backward from the neutral position to move backwards. The stick on the right controls turning with the legs, and the buttons on top of it allow you to rotate the torso. This will allow you to keep operating the weapon systems and make a flank move."
"We've got it so far!" Sunny radioed. "I think..."
"Right, next set of controls. On the joystick is another-"
"Which joystick?" Hitch called, as he wanted this to be clarified.
"Right hand joystick." There was another pause as Sprout checked his control manual. "Right then, away we go. Press that to fire your weapons. The onboard targeting computer will automatically lock the nearest target so you don't need to worry about manual aiming. Just be aware the torso can only pivot up and down about 60 degrees, and be careful not to exhaust your ammunition supplies."
"How do we switch between weapons?" Zipp radioed.
"Is anybody keeping notes on this?" Izzy added. "This could get very confusing."
"You switch between weapon banks using the green buttons in front of you. Here's how weapons are allocated." Sprout paused, so he could be certain they were paying attention. "Group 1 consists of conventional kinetic weapons, like machine guns and autocannons. Group 2 is lasers and energy weapons. Group three is missiles. Make sure to check whether yours require a target lock or are dumb fire before you fit the trigger. Don't fire every weapon at once or else your mech will overheat."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Sunny noted. "Are we ready to go? I don't think Maretime Bay could withstand much more of this carnage out there."
"Deployment to commence immediately," Sprout radioed. "Doors to the hanger are being opened imminently. Best of luck ponies, I think you'll need it."
Izzy switched to internal comms. "You do have a plan, Sunny, right?"
"Nearly!" Sunny replied, trying to cover up the fact she actually did not.
With a bang the doors to the factory slid open, and each pilot slid their control columns forward. "Go, go, go!"
With a whirr and a roar of engines, the five mechs stomped forward and out into the streets of Maretime Bay. It did not take them very long to find their target. Cloudpuff was absolutely enormous. He was so big now that he blotted out the sky, and the frequent laser blasts and stomps that flew forth from him were wreaking absolute havoc on the ground.
"We need to draw him away from Maretime Bay!" Sunny called. "Find some way of distracting him!"
Izzy lumbered forward, and hit the second green button along, firing off a short burst of laser fire. "Hey! Over here, you big puffball!"
She rotated the stick to turn the other way, but had to dodge when Cloudpuff's foot came down in her movement path. She tripped, crashed through a railing, and fell off the cliff.
"Izzy!" Pipp called. "Guys, Izzy's mech just fell over the edge!"
Seconds later, it landed in a new location. "These things can fly!" Izzy called. "Whoohoo!"
"Oh," Sprout suddenly interrupted. "I forgot to mention these units have jetpacks. However, you only have limited fuel, which can be seen on the gauge to the right."
Zipp lined up her shot, and let forth a barrage of autocannon rounds at Cloudpuff's nose. Normally, these shells would have demolished anything in front of them. However, as Cloudpuff was so large they merely tickled his nose. It did, however, get his attention, and he growled at the strange metal machines walking round him.
"I think we've got his attention!" Zipp notified the others, as she narrowly avoided walking into a building.
"We need to ensure he doesn't fly away!" Hitch called across the radio. "I think some missiles will do the trick!"
"Switch to dumb fire rounds!" Sunny added.
"It's a bit mean to call the missiles dumb!" Izzy retorted.
"It means they don't need a target lock in order to fire," Sunny replied. "Put some into the air! That'll prevent Cloudpuff from flying away!"
Sure enough, all five mechs aimed for the skies, and put up several barrages of missiles. These flew over the gigantic flying pomeranian's head, preventing him from taking off for fear of being shot down. He barked at the mechs, the noise incredibly loud and causing the ground the shake.
"Lead him this way!" Sunny called, and the machines began to march towards an empty field.
"Guys? He's not following!" Hitch called.
"Stick a couple of rockets up his butt! That ought to do the trick!" Zipp replied.
"And make him even madder than he already is? That sounds like a really bad idea!" Izzy commented over the radio.
"I just wonder what's drawing him in to that part of town!" Pipp commented, noticing a rather curious pattern to all of Cloudpuff's movements.
"He's going after the sweet shop!" Sunny realised. "We can't let him eat any of the chocolate!"
"Oh yeah! Good idea! I don't think it'd agree with his stomach!" Pipp called.
"And not only that it'd be incredibly hard to move him at that size," Zipp noted.
"I have an idea!" Hitch said down the radio. "How about we utilise our firepower to get rid of that particular problem?"
"You mean blow up the sweet shop?" Sunny asked. "Isn't that illegal?"
"It's that or the entire town gets flattened by a gigantic flying dog," Zipp pointed out. "I say we do it."
There were numerous shouts of agreement across the board as the team heard the idea. "Right then. Missiles away!"
All five mechs locked their target, and with a single hit of the trigger fired off their firepower. Several homing rockets flew out off the various weapon ports on the mechs and screamed through the air. Time seemed to slow down as their fuel supplies dropped off, and the engines stopped seconds before impact. They whistled underneath the gigantic form of Cloudpuff, and smashed into the sweet shop with the force of a thunderbolt. The chained series of explosions severely weakened the building, and it collapsed onto the ground, the contents of the store being flattened in the process.
"My shop!" shouted a pony nearby.
"Sorry!" Sunny called over the loud hailer. "I shall see to it that you are fully reimbursed for your losses."
With nothing else to attract him away from the gigantic walking, beeping machines, Cloudpuff decided to swing back around and continue his attack. He barked extremely loudly and began to chase the column of robots into another location, the noise of weapon fire continuing to attract him even if the weapons were proving to be largely innefective at damaging him in any way.
"This is Sprout to squadron. How's it going out there, over?"
"Target is being drawn out of town. We should be able to employ countermeasures to undo the problem soon, over?"
"And how precisely do you plan to stop that thing, over?"
Sunny had formulated her plan, and with great speed began to explain it. "Cloudpuff is wearing the Alicorn Amulet, a very powerful and incredibly powerful magical device that grants the wearer great power in return for gradually corrupting them. This is what must have caused him to grow to such incredible size and be able to inflict so much damage!"
"So, how does that help us, over?"
"The Alicorn Amulet can only be depowered when it is removed from the wearer, but the problem is it can't be forcibly removed- the wearer has to willingly remove it. This is where Queen Haven comes in."
"I'm listening!"
"You know Cloudpuff better than anypony else around here. We need your help to pursuade him to remove the Alicorn Amulet of his own accord, and then we can return him to normal and get this artefact to a safe place."
"Whatever you do, hurry!" Izzy called over the radio. "I have a coolant leak!"
"Izzy, back up to the safe zone! If you've got heat problems you'll need to stay away from Cloudpuff as much as possible!"
The remaining four machines all formed a cordon around the area as Cloudpuff was brought to a succesful stop in the middle of a field far, far away from the town. He still seemed annoyed, though, and this needed to be solved pretty promptly in order to prevent the situation from getting any worse than it already was.
"Have you got the target in place?" Sprout radioed. "I need confirmation on whether we are go for phase three."
"We are go for phase 3, Sprout," Hitch radioed back, still bemused at the idea of taking instructions from his deputy, whom he might just keep in this role based on his role in saving the day today. "We can safely initiate phase three of the plan, over?"
"Finally, they sign off their radio messages correctly," Sprout said, presumably fully aware that the pilots of the mechs could all hear him. "Alright then. Keep tight and make sure to keep him in place until the contact arrives. In the meantime, you should probably fire off the odd warning shot to ensure he doesn't move or try to fly away into the darkness, got it?"
"We're good on that front," Sunny noted, and looked up as the gigantic dog woofed at them repeatedly, trying to blow them away with sustained barking. This, however, would prove to be of little utility as the mechs had braces deployed into the ground to hold them steady.
As suggested, they fired off the odd warning shot to try and keep Cloudpuff on the ground, but eventually Haven arrived, riding on the pallet arm of a crane that had been requisitioned to help her talk with the gigantic object.
"Darling, how are you?" Haven asked, looking directly into Cloudpuff's eyes. He at least seemed a bit more docile now, and looked at her with pleading eyes.
"You're not supposed to be this big," Haven continued, looking sad. "I'm sorry. I had no idea the jewellery would do this to you. I'm going to give you your favourite treat when we get back to Zephyr Heights."
Cloudpuff's face lit up like a Hearth's Warming ornament, and he barked in approval.
"But you'll only get it if you take that amulet off and give it to me," Haven continued onwards. She extended her hoof. "Now who's a good doggy?"
Cloudpuff eventually relented, and reached behind his neck. He succesfully disconnected the amulet, and passed it to Haven. Seconds later, there was another bright flash, and everypony either covered their eyes or adjusted the light filtering gear in their mech cockpits to protect them from the glare, specifically their eyes, which were rather vital for seeing what one was doing.
Once it had cleared, Cloudpuff was back to normal, and floated up to his owner's arms.
Zipp broke the silence. "I had to break up the party, but who's going to clean up the mess?"
As the sun set over Maretime Bay, the world was finally coming to something that vaguely resembled normal. With Cloudpuff returned to his previous annoying, albeit much safer state, the citizens of Maretime Bay could finally relax and return to work repairing the damage. The sweet shop had been fixed in a few hours with everypony pulling together to get it fixed, and the glorious sight of union and cooperation was one that warmed the hearts of all who saw it.
Sunny looked out from the top of the lighthouse, now fully stabilised and repaired, and down upon the water, watching as the gigantic flaming orange that was the sun descended below the edge of the horizon and eventually began to fide, turning the skies spectacular shades of orange and red.
"Great, isn't it?" she suddenly heard Hitch ask, as he trotted up the stairs to join her. "These sunsets are one of many reasons I enjoy living here. You can't get enough of nature's beauty."
"Legend has it that one of the princesses used to move the sun," Sunny replied. "After they vanished and there was no magic, physics took over and kept it and the moon on the move. A most convenient solution."
"I could hardly imagine you sitting there all day moving them around!" Hitch joked. "You'd already be off on another adventure before the sun had a chance to rise!"
A machine at the back of the cabin beeped, indicating the next batch of smoothies were ready. "Ah! Perfect! I also need to turn on the light, just in case any ships need to navigate. You never know these days!"
Sunny trotted to the back wall and pulled down a switch, which in turn caused the light to turn on, swinging round and round in a glorious beam that could be seen for miles and miles.
"Maybe with the magic restored and longer distance travel possible once again, more creatures will arrive here," Hitch noted. "Still, I'm amazed the one who caused the problem in the first place was the one who helped us fix it in the second place."
"Truly ironic," Sunny smiled, as she and Hitch took the lift down to the main room, specifically to avoid being caught in the beam of the lighthouse. "What I do know for certain is that we probably still have plenty of adventures ahead of us. My old map notes so many old places we could find and explore!"
"One step at a time, Sunny," Hitch replied. "Let's learn to trot before we try to gallop." He trotted towards the door, and pushed it open. "Onwards to adven- OW!"
Sunny laughed at Hitch's predicament. "Clearly my doors dislike you as much as your doors dislike mine!"
Hitch shook his head and trotted away, as the last traces of the sun faded into nothingness. Another chaotic day was over, and as Sunny watched her pegasus friends fly back towards Zephyr Heights, she felt proud to have helped in keeping the world a better place.
