Act 1 - Chapter 1

"Case File 0526 - Opening Statement."

"This case is one that I'll never forget anytime soon, not just for what had happened during it, but for what was going on underneath our noses all along, without us being aware of it until it was nearly too late. I should've known something was wrong as soon as I saw the number of ponies that had vanished, but at the time I was still stuck in my old by the book routine of following protocol, I believed I couldn't help those who had reached out to me since they were not under my jurisdiction... what a seriously stupid mistake of mine looking back on it now...
Sunny must've known that it was going to be a bad move on my part in the end, and now here I am finding myself agreeing with her. I was so foolish to not jump onto this case while the trail was hot, and instead I nearly let it go cold, how could I call myself a sheriff if I can't even do my job correctly?
This case that I am about to talk about here turned out to be much bigger than anypony had expected, one that nearly brought ruin to the town of Maretime Bay, and all the effort that me and the others had worked hard for almost thrown away... a case that ended up becaming known as..."

THE CURIOUS CASE OF VANISHING UNICORNS

It was a beautiful morning in the bayside town of Maretime Bay, the sun shown bright in the newborn sky, with not a cloud in sight. The ponies who lived in the town were all getting ready for another busy day downtown, whether it's taking a ride on the local pony drawn carriages, getting on the tram lines, paying a visit to the local vendors at the seafront, or even better, paying a visit to what is growing into the main attraction currently in the town, Mane Melody. Run by the Princess of Zephyr Heights Pipp Petals, the salons' reputation for fine hooficures, makeovers, hairstyles and more have proven to be a hit so far with the towns folk, business is going well for it, and most ponies have come away from it feeling fresh and new, even the notoriously high standard Phyllis Cloverleaf, former head of the now defunct Canterlogic corporation. Sure there may have been a few ponies that felt otherwise about the place, but it has done little to damage its reputation. Other than a few incidents of the different pony races arguing to each other or getting into fights, the town has largely been at peace internally.

It was on this day that Hitch Trailblazer had started his work early at his post at the Maretime Bay Police Station. As the town's local sheriff, and currently it's only active authority after his former deputy was discharged and sentenced to community service for his role in the destruction of his good friend Sunny's lighthouse among other crimes a couple of months ago prior, he found his job growing harder and more stressful by the weeks. Despite repeated attempts by a few ponies and his friends to convince hiring a new deputy or start hiring officers, he's rejected them in favor of continuing to work as he is. Hitch has never shied away from any challenges, something he admired from his father the former sheriff of Maretime Bay, and is determined to not let the pressures that were now on piling up on him crush his resolve.

"Every day is a brand new day yet there are more things to do, and fewer opportunities to relax and recline. But such is the life of a sheriff in this one horse town, being kept busy comes with the job, and honestly I'd take that over a boring day, any day." Hitch said to himself after organizing his desk for the day's work.

He had already made a shortlist on what he planned to do today, most of it was pretty routine; do a morning patrol around the town twice over to check for any littering and suspicious activity, but especially littering, that was Hitch's pet peeve among all others. Next was organizing the complaints, reports and any other letters of interest received today in his mail onto his notice board, which is rarely empty if at all these days. it was always Hitch's least favorite part of his day job, and one that he always usually left to last since it took so long to get all done and organized. Then he would go on his afternoon patrol to again check everything twice over for the above mentioned activities, and the last thing he needed to do before the day was finished was to fill out a daily report on what he did today, any incidents or activities, and file it away in the usual weekly dossier in his filing cabinet, that job was usually the easiest one to do as such he left it for last.

That was pretty much it for the shortlist today, rarely does anything else get added onto it at the last minute. Maretime Bay has been relatively peaceful for the last few weeks, as a result it's allowed Hitch to focus more on the tasks at hoof rather than getting distracted with irrelevant things on the side.

"Right then, first things first, let's see how much post I got in the mail today." Said Hitch as he made his way to the letterbox built into the wall.

Lifting a hoof up to the letterbox, he pulled down on the back hatch causing it open up, out of it came a whole bunch of letters, a pretty decent amount of them today compared to the last few days, making Hitch raise his eyebrow.

"Well then, that is quite a large amount of post that came in today, I think I better skim through a few of these to see who sent what, and why." Said Hitch to himself as he scooped up as many letters as he could into his hoofs, then making his way back to his desk to dump the pile on top of it.

He then sat down in his chair and started skimming through the letters one by one. He saw right away that a bunch of them belonged to Posey Bloom, a local citizen of Maretime Bay who had been very outspoken about the other pony tribes that have been moving into the town and all the problems it's been bringing her and the other Earth ponies.

"She seems to have a new complaint to post almost every day, no surprise there." Said Hitch with a deadpan tone.

Hitch decided to skip ahead and skim the rest of the post since they all seemed to either be more complaints, reports of various incidents and other such redundant matters. Hitch sighed in disappointment, it was just so routine for him now that if he was honest with himself for a moment, it was just boring. Deep down he kind of wished, just for once to have something different, something new and exciting that could lead to a case developing, a mystery that he could investigate as a detective.

Little did he know that his wish for such a thing was about to come true.

He came across a letter that caught his attention right away, the address on it was not from anywhere in Maretime Bay, but instead it seemed to have came from Bridlewood, the home of the Unicorns. It was easy to tell since they used a slightly different kind of writing than what was used in Maretime Bay, that and it was adorned with a strange symbol.
Hitch stared at the letter for a few moments, puzzling over the strange symbol stamped on the front of it, this wasn't the first time that he had gotten a letter like this, in fact he had been getting them quite frequently in recent times.

"Another one, seriously? That's like the third letter from Bridlewood I've gotten in the last week now." Said Hitch, rubbing his temple with his hoof, "I wonder why I keep getting these letters sent to me of all ponies, and what does this weird symbol on the front even mean?"

Even though Hitch was a police sheriff and thus an established authority with the right to enforce, he technically had no legal authority over that area, that belonged solely to the unicorns leader Alphabittle, at least that was to Hitch's own assumption. To Hitch it felt a little odd that the ponies living there would be asking him for help instead of their own leader, and if Alphabittle did need his help, he would've let him know about it instantly, so the fact that he hadn't heard a thing from him was a little perplexing.

"I wonder if there is some kind of trouble going on over there right now, I mean I would love to help them out, but unless Alphabittle says anything, I can't exactly do anything, not unless he gives me permission." Said Hitch, shaking his head as he put the letter on the side with another pile of similar letters.

Whatever seemed to be going on with the Unicorns over in Bridlewood, it sure seemed to be intriguing, and if it lead to a case happening, he would certainly want to investigate it right away regardless.

"I think I'll give this letter a read over later on along with the others when I get back, for now I better get on with my first patrol around the town, I don't want to be late." Said Hitch as he got up from his desk.

He then gave whistled over to his animal pals who had followed him to the station from the Brighthouse, the crab called McSnipps-alot, a Pigeon with a can of sardines on his head named Kenneth, and his fellow deputy pigeon, they all immediately stood up for attention.

"Hey there McSnipps, Kenneth and Deputy, I've got a job for you three to do while I'm out on patrol, I want you all to clean up my notice board of last week's letters, then once you've done that I want you to organize all of the mail i've got today into neat piles, that way I can easily sort them out when I get back from my patrol in around an hours time."

McSnipps-alot and his fellows gave Hitch a salute, then they all went over to the notice board getting straight to work, ripping off the papers from the wall and sorting out the piles.

Hitch was impressed by how quickly his animal pals were working, he admittedly was at first a little put off when months ago all of the animals started to gravitate towards him randomly for unexplained reasons, but now in the present he didn't mind it at all since he learned that he could understand them and even speak to him, strange as that sounds. In fact his new companions have proved useful in helping to organize his workplace, patrolling the town, and intelligence gathering whenever he needed it.

Smiling, Hitch was now free to head out of the door and begin his first of two patrols of the day. He went on over to his clothes rack, grabbing his sheriffs belt with his freshly polished badge proudly on display, a whistle and his trusty log book, then he moved on over to the front door and opened it up, he was instantly greeted by the bright sun shining on his face, and the loud sounds coming from downtown not far away.

"Sounds like it's already going to be another lively day over in downtown Maretime Bay. I'd better go check it out and see what's going on." Said Hitch as he put his sunshades on, then started making his way there down the lane.

Hitch had little idea at the time of just how busy of a day it was going to be for him.

Downtown Maretime Bay was as bustling and packed as ever, all of the ponies were going back and forth around the place. Whether it was to shop at the nearby stores, browsing the various vendors near the seafront, or hanging about with friends to have a catch up on matters along the promenade, there was plenty to do downtown.

As Hitch arrived to start surveying the scene before him, he saw right away that there were long queue lines going towards two shops in particular. The first queue line was at the Mane Melody Saloon which was of no surprise to him since everypony loved to go there for a makeover or karaoke, and the other queue was at the nearby smoothie vendor, ran by his oldest friend, resident hero, and former troublemaker Sunny Starscout. Sunny was very busy working away, serving her customers and brewing up her signature smoothies using the fruitiest fruits she can get her hoofs on, or at least if her usual delivery mare can get there on time without incident. Hitch was impressed that she could serve customers as quickly as she could without issue, he decided to trot on over to the stand to check up on her and see what she was up to.

"There we are little fillies, three Cheering up Cherry smoothies, that'll be 9 bucks in total." Said Sunny to the three fillies in front of her.

"Thank you, Sunny!" Said the middle filly of the three who was an Earth Pony, handing Sunny the money.

"You are welcome little ones! Say, i've been seeing you three around quite a bit recently, what are your names?" Sunny asked them.

The filly on the left who was a Pegasus stepped up first, "My name is Glory, I just moved here from Zephyr Heights!"

The one on the right who was a Unicorn who had floated the smoothies down to her friends spoke up next, "My name is Peach Fizz, I too have just moved here, from Bridlewood."

"Really? That's cool! What about you in the middle there?" Said Sunny.

"My name is Seashell, I grew up here in Maretime Bay, but my mama never let me outside much before because of her crazy superstitions and warnings of danger." Said Seashell, no doubt referring to how Earth ponies used to be afraid of the other pony races, at least until recently when they were unified again.

"That's why I've probably never seen you around much, it was your mother I probably served the smoothies to beforehand." Said Sunny thoughtfully, then she leaned over the counter in curiosity, "So then are you three all good friends then?"

"That's right! The three of us met each other after we found out we all followed the same pony on Clip Trot, we all bonded easily because of how much we love her." Said Glory.

Sunny smiled, she seemed to have a pretty good idea about who they were talking about, so she decided to ask the obvious towards them, "And who is it that you three follow on Clip Trot, may I ask?"

All three of the spoke in unison, "The one and only, Princess Pipp Petals!"

"Huh, I never would've guessed." Said Sunny with a warm smile.

"As her loyal Pippsqueaks, we three do our best to follow her latest clips, photos, trends, and anything else she streams daily! Furthermore we're also-"

"Can you three fillies hurry up!? I'm getting thirsty over here!" Shouted one of the ponies in the queue making the trio jump in surprise. Sunny realized she still had a whole lot of customers still waiting to be served.

"Ooof, sorry girls but I have to get back to work, but we can catch up later okay?" Said Sunny with a reassuring smile.

"Sure, sorry about that Sunny." Said Seashell as she and her fellow Pippsqueaks walked off with their smoothies.

No sooner did they walk off that the next pony in line walked on up to the stand, Sunny recognized the pony as Flare, another Pegasus pony.

"About time, sheesh those three can be such a nuisance sometimes." Said Flare, flicking her hair to the side.

"Aw come on they're harmless Flare, so do you want to have the usual?" Said Sunny with a smile.

"The usual, with extra ice mixed in." She said, flashing a cocky grin.

"Coming right up!" Said Sunny as she got to work.

Hitch who had been watching everything unfold chuckled to himself, "Seems like Pipp has already started taking over the lives of everypony in Maretime Bay, including the little ones, but I can't say I didn't see that coming at all, Pipp has ways of getting everypony's attention." He said to himself as he walked over to the stand.

"There we go Flare, the usual with extra ice!" Said Sunny as she gave her the smoothie. She began taking the next orders when she spotted Hitch standing next to her stand on the right, "Oh hey Hitch, didn't see you there!"

"Good morning Sunny! I see you are being kept super busy as usual." Said Hitch, looking over the establishment and at the queue.

"You know it sheriff, ever since the other pony tribes came together, I've been busier than ever, and raking in more profits too! I might be able to finally afford that new smoothie making machine at this rate, this one here is starting to show it's age a little bit." Said Sunny, as her machine continued to churn away at making smoothies for the customers with a noticeably hard grinding noise.

Hitch let out a chuckle, "That makes two of us Sunny, I've been finding my workload getting heavier for the last few weeks now because of how much traffic we've been getting, I mean I know Maretime Bay always gets busier during the Summer time, but this is still much more than usual."

Sunny looked at him thoughtfully, "Well, me and the girls have been asking you for the last little while if you would consider hiring a new deputy to help ease the workload on you, after what had happened to Sprout-"

"It's fine Sunny don't worry about it. I welcome any challenge head on, just like my Dad did, and his Dad before him. Yes this might be stressful, and I'll admit it is very tiring for me, but I can do this, I have to as Maretime Bays sheriff!" Said Hitch, bringing a hoof up to his chest in pride.

"Are you really sure about it Hitch?" She said to him with raised eyebrow, not sounding convinced.

"Sure as sure can be, just leave it all to me!" He said with a huff.

Sunny rolled her eyes at him, serving a smoothie to a customer, "Whatever you say sheriff, suit yourself."

"Anyway!" Said Hitch, eager to move onto a new topic, "Have you seen the others around today? They were all gone by the time I got out of the bathroom for breakfast."

"Oh Zipp and Pipp have flown off back to Zephyr Heights for a royal meeting with their mother the Queen, they got a phone call from her just before breakfast time, and judging from the look on their faces it sounds like it was something super important since they took off just before I made them food. As for Izzy, she said she was heading to the junkyard to find some 'thingies' for another one of her projects, knowing her she likely won't be back until dinnertime, with a whole lot of junk trailing behind her too." Said Sunny shaking her head.

"I don't doubt that one bit, that Izzy can be so weird sometimes with her projects, yet I don't doubt how they turn out so functional." Said Hitch thoughtfully.

"That's Izzy for you." Said Sunny as she started brewing more smoothies.

"Say, do you know anything about what the meeting they're having is about?" Asked Hitch, now curious about the matter.

"No idea at all, they said nothing about it when they left, but I assume they'll let us know about it when they get back." Said Sunny as she served out another smoothie to a waiting customer.

Hitch was still curious to know what was going on with that meeting, but he knew he wouldn't know about it until later on today. As he looked up at the nearby clock hanging outside the local shop, he realized that he was running behind on his morning patrol and needed to get going.

"Well I'll be sure to ask them all about it when they get back, but anyway I need to get back on my morning patrol, catch you later Sunny." Said Hitch with a salute, who turned around and stared to walk off.

He didn't get very far when a voice rang out from the queue of ponies behind him, "W-w-wait, s-sheriff please!"

Hitch heard it and turned around straight away, he saw a Unicorn mare coming up to him looking very stressed out.

"Yes that's me, what seems to be the trouble miss?" Asked Hitch.

"It's Plum Library sir, but just call me Plum. Listen, a few days ago I sent you a letter to report a pony missing from Maretime Bay, but I haven't heard any reply from you yet at all, you did get the letter, didn't you?" She said to him sternly.

Hitch thought for a moment, he had been getting more letters than normal for the last week or so, perhaps that one got lost in the pile he still hasn't sorted out yet. Hitch shrugged, he can always go check it out when he gets back to the station.

"I believe I have received your letter miss, don't you worry about it, I'll file the missing pony report as soon as I get back to my station." He said to her with a reassuring smile, but the Unicorn in question didn't seem to be impressed.

"You mean you haven't read it yet at all? Sheriff, this is a serious matter! As the authority of Maretime Bay the safety of the ponies, and I do mean all ponies should be your number one priority!" She shouted at him, making him step back a little.

Various ponies in the queue behind her started muttering behind her back.

"What's got her so worked up? Typical Unicorns making trouble around here as usual. So rude, how dare she shout at the sheriff like that!"

Hitch was taken aback by the outburst just how a little bit, but he soon regained his composure and looked at the Unicorn more seriously, "That is correct miss, the safety of everypony here in Maretime Bay, whether they are Pegasus, Unicorns, or Earth ponies, all of their well being and safety is my job, and my absolute number one priority above all overs. As I just said to you, I will look into the missing pony report, file it, and investigate it as soon as I get back to the station, you have my word on it."

Plum signed to herself, she seemed close to tears, "Thanks sheriff, I'm sorry for shouting at you, but I'm really worried sick about them... that Unicorn was a friend of mine from back home, and she hasn't been around for the last few days now. I really hope nothing bad has happened to her, I wouldn't forgive myself if she's been hurt..."

"I'm sure she's fine Miss Plum, say if you do know anything else that might prove helpful to the case, feel free to visit the station, I'll likely need more information about what's going on anyway." Hitch said to her reassuringly.

"I will, thank you sheriff." Said Plum who seemed to feel a little better after the talk.

"Good, well I'll be on my way now, see you later everypony." Said Hitch to the crowd as he took his leave to continue his rounds, the ponies all waved back to him, Plum included.

Sunny however was deep in thought, she had overheard the conversation that just transpired in front of her, it seemed that a pony who was a good friend of Plum's was missing, and that Hitch hadn't gotten around to investigating it. That didn't seem like him at all, normally Hitch was all over a case like that instantly, she wondered if all the workload was slowly getting to him. She shook her head, regardless of what was going on with him, there was a pony missing from the town, and that was a serious matter.

"I hope Hitch can find that missing pony, and hopefully they aren't in any trouble." Sunny said to herself.

Plum herself sighed heavily, she was worried sick over her missing pony friend, she didn't mean to get mad at the sheriff like that at all, but her emotions boiled over and she had to let it out. On the plus side, she hoped now that the Sheriff will start looking into the matter seriously once he got back to the station, the sooner her friend was found, the better for her.

"Excuse me miss." Came a voice from the nearby crowd of ponies.

Plum peaked her ears up and looked to her side to see another pony next to her, she recognized him as Redwood Pine, a local Earth pony around Maretime Bay, he was never seen without his fancy looking straw hat on his head.

"Yes? How can I help you Mr Pine?" Said Plum.

"Pardon me for eavesdropping on the conversation you had just now with the sheriff, but if I heard it correctly, you said that a friend of yours was missing and you sent a letter about it to him?" Said Redwood.

"Yes I did, she hasn't been seen for days now, i'm so worried about her... I hope she'll come back soon?." Plum replied.

"Would your friend happen to also be a Unicorn?" Said Redwood curiously.

"Huh? Well... yes, yes she was a Unicorn, why do you ask?" Said Plum cautiously.

Redwoods expression became serious, with a hint of sadness underneath.

"Well the funny thing is, I also had a friend who has also disappeared, and they were also a Unicorn." Said Redwood.

Plum's eyes went wide, what were the chances of that happening.

"W-what? You also have a missing friend, and they're a Unicorn too??? That's crazy!" Shouted Plum.

"It's not crazy, and I'm afraid I'm not the only one who has lost a Unicorn friend." Said Redwood, turning his head to look behind him.

Plum followed his lead and looked as well, she noticed a few ponies around the square asking about missing friends, and another pony putting up a poster that said 'missing' on it, with a picture of the pony in question also being a Unicorn. Plum felt overwhelmed from the sight of it.

"How many ponies are missing from Maretime Bay!? Why just Unicorns??" She shouted out loud.

"I don't know miss, but one thing is clear, something is going on, and I hope the sheriff will be able to find out and find out what happened to our friends."

"I hope so Redwood, I really hope so..." Said Plum, sitting on her haunches.

As the two ponies looked on silently, a certain yellow pony with pink hair and bow ties had been watching everything unfold in front of her, huffing in annoyance, she then proceeded to walk away from the drama.

"Typical, so typical, it's always Unicorns causing problems around here, always."

Something strange was definitely going on around Maretime Bay, but as everypony would soon find out, this was only just the beginning.

Act 1 - Chapter 2

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It was now close to lunchtime, and Hitch Trailblazer had begun winding down his morning patrol after moving on from the main square of downtown to the neighbourhoods, he then started circling around past what had been the main path that lead to the Canterlogic factory on top of the hill, now abandoned and shut down. Occasionally during his patrols Hitch would sometimes stop in his tracks and look up at the building, what was once the pride and joy of Maretime Bay and Earth pony kind, now just a fallen symbol of their fears and superstition.

No one who ever worked there knows why Phyllis decided to close down the factory and cease all of it's production months ago, but then again after what her son who was the former deputy had done, Hitch couldn't blame her for making that decision. Still, with Canterlogic now out of business, most of it's former workers have now gone on to new jobs elsewhere, some have even made the journey up to Zephyr Heights to help operate the factory's there, which made sense considering how big smartphones had become in Maretime Bay since the union of the tribes, and they likely needed the extra help to meet demand.

"It all feels like a faint memory now, all the times I used to go there with Sprout and Sunny to see all of the latest trends in 'pony protection', even though many of them were pretty silly and didn't actually work, like Sunny's Pegasus gliding kit, I doubt if it was ever capable of flying at all." Hitch said to himself.

Shaking his head, Hitch carried on with his morning patrol, the other side of the neighbourhood was the last area he had to go around before he made it back to the police station. However, he was still thinking about the situation from earlier in the morning when the Unicorn Plum had that outburst towards him. Hitch felt that he had handled it professionally and vowed to look into the matter as soon as he got back to the station. Even so, the whole thing was still bothering him in the back of his mind, and he kept on going back to the letter he saw earlier today from Bridlewood which was asking for his help, he wondered whether that letter was related to Plum's situation, and if the other letters were also the same as well.

"Now i'm wondering if all the letters i've gotten from Bridlewood are all the same, calling me for help, this might turn to be a bigger case than I had expected." He said to himself.

Hitch continued to think the whole thing over and over in his head, he was so lost in his current train of thoughts that he didn't see the fruit cart that was right in front of him.

"Ooof!" Grunted Hitch as he bumped into said cart.

"Aiiiieee!" Came a cry of fright from the pony who was pulling the cart ahead of him, "Oooh what's happened now!?".

"Ohhh, sorry about that" Said Hitch, rubbing his forehead as he refocused his eyes on what was in front of him.

He saw it was a fruit delivery cart that he had bumped into, belonging to one of the Pegasus delivery ponies. The pony in question turned around to look at him with concern on her face.

"Oh it's no problem sheriff, are you okay?" Said the Pegasus pony, who Hitch saw was none other than Fifi, who operated her own flying fruit smoothie smooth fruit delivery service where every delivery was smooth, or so she says.

"I'm fine thank you Fifi, I just wasn't looking where I was going." Said Hitch, chuckling to himself.

"Oh really? That's normally not like you at all Sheriff, is there something wrong?" Said Fifi tilting her head to him in concern.

"No no no no, nothing is wrong at all! As I just said I being a little careless." Said Hitch with a little sheepish grin.

Fifi looked at him still all confused and unsure, but she smiled and saluted at him.

"Well alrighty then, I should get back to work delivering fruits to my waiting clients, don't want to keep them waiting any longer" Said Fifi, who then galloped off down the street and took off into the sky above.

Hitch breathed a sigh of relief, he felt silly having to have bumped into something while in a train of thought. He remembered Fifi back when she was training with other Pegasus ponies at Zipp Storms training camp, it was a lot of hard work but now she and other pegasi were now flying much better than before, of course Hitch had to take a hot bath after that day to wash off all the fruit stains on his coat, even if it was kinda funny looking back on it now.

"Oh well, at least this time I didn't end up getting hit in the face with fruit for no reason." Said Hitch with a proud grin.

No sooner had he said that, a mango fell onto his face from up above out of nowhere.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Said Hitch in exasperation.

"Oops sorry about that Sheriff!" Said a pony calling from upper floor of the nearby house, waving down at him.

Hitch wasn't amused at all, letting off a loud groan he wiped the mess off of his face before getting back to his patrol at a faster pace, much to the aforementioned pony's confusion.

"What a strange day it has been so far today." Hitch said to himself as he continued on the final leg of his patrol before heading back to the station.

Hitch planned to get started on his next task of the day as soon as he reached it, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something big going on under his nose and that he needed to get on it as soon as possible.

"I wonder what the others are up to right now, I hope they are having more fun than me right now." He said to himself as he carried on down the street out of sight.

Meanwhile, in a junkyard not far away, a certain uni-cycling Unicorn was busy digging through the mountains of trash and scrap, looking for anything interesting or curious that she could use in one of her projects. The pony's name was Izzy Moonbow, the first friend that Sunny Starscout had made who was from outside Maretime Bay. She had caused a huge ruckus when she first showed up due to Earth pony superstitions at the time, and often had Canterlogic Unicorn traps left around town to catch them in-case they showed up. Izzy had been prey to such devices twice in her time knowing Sunny, but she always took it all in stride, in fact it was very rare for Izzy to ever get angry at anything at all, she always saw the better side of ponies, even if they were being total jerks to her.

"Wow oh wow, there are so many bits and bobs around here today, right Butterscotch?" Said Izzy to her inanimate friend.

The inanimate Butterscotch simply nodded it's head, with assistance from Izzy's magic.

"I know right? I mean just look at this old camera, might be all busted right now, but with a little bit of magic, cleaning and tinkering it'll be good as new. Oh and this worn out purse bag, just needs some sewing in the seams and patching up to be all brand new!" Said Izzy to her friend.

Carrying the objects in her magic, she carried them over to a wagon that she had brought with her to take back to the Brighthouse once she was finished. To most ponies, trash was just trash, but to Izzy she saw it as potential, a blank canvas to make something brand new, in her own unique way.

"I cannot wait to start putting all of this stuff to use when I get back home. Normally this would be enough for me for one Butterscotch, buuuuut today I'm feeling pretty lucky, that I'll find something really good around here, so I'm gonna keep on searching!" Said Izzy as she dived back into the trash to look around.

Izzy continued to dive into the trash for more treasures, she began to hum a little tune to herself as she did so.

"One pony's trash is another pony's treasure, one pony's treasure is everypony else's trash, but no matter if it's busted, torn, smashed or whatever, just a little bit of glitter and it'll be sparkly in a flash!"

She continued to hum the tune in happiness as she continued to dig around for treasures. That was until she heard a noise not far from her that got her attention. The junkyard was normally a rather quiet place for her to hang around in, allowing her to indulge in her own thoughts and mannerisms, but today it seems that it wasn't as quiet as it was normally. Shifting her ears around to isolate where the noise came from, she heard it coming from the other side of the junkyard, behind a large pile of scrap.

"Huh, I wonder what the noise was, usually this place is pretty quiet when i'm hanging around, what do you think it was, Señor Butterscotch?" Said Izzy to her inanimate friend.

Butterscotch just shook it's head, courtesy of Izzy's magic.

"I thought so, well let's go take a looksie and see what's going on then." Said Izzy as she trotted over to the nearby pile with her companion to see what was going on.

Being as quiet as possible, which is impressive in Izzy's case, she leaned her head forward with her ears at attention to take in any other noises she could hear. Sure enough she picked up more of them going on, and this time Izzy was able to know exactly what was making those noises, and why, it seemed that there was somepony nearby that was talking to somepony or something else.

"Looks like we're not alone in this junkyard Señor Butterscotch, we've got strangers intruding in on our peace." Said Izzy.

Señor Butterscotch nodded his head in agreement.

"Well then, let's hear what they are up to shall we?" Whispered Izzy to her inanimate friend, leaning her ear up to listen in to the conversation that was going on nearby.

"This pile of junk right here looks salvageable, might make for a decent amount of spare parts, and if not then we can always just melt it down again."

A series of distinct beeps went off in a pattern.

"Yes that is true, even though I am more than capable of manufacturing as many parts as I want, at the same time it'd be troublesome if somepony got wise to our scheme, and the last thing I want is for anypony to catch onto us, not when we're to far ahead with the plans."

More beeps went off, it seemed to be coming from some kind of machine, or maybe perhaps a drone.

"Oooh that sounds pretty exciting and mysterious, doesn't it Butterscotch?" Said Izzy.

Butterscotch just lay there all limp on the ground.

"Well then, I think we should take a closer look and see who or what is down there." Said Izzy quietly.

The Unicorn ducked down and slowly crept around the pile, gently peering down to the scene in front of her, what she saw was interesting to her immediately, there was indeed a pony down there, a male Earth pony it looked like, along with what looked like some kind of hovering drone. The pony in question had a pale absinthe green coloured coat with dulled platinum hair that was swept back like a Pegasus pony's mane, his eyes a dull crimson colour with noticeable bags underneath. He was wearing what looked like a dusty old lab coat with a pair of black boots on his forelegs, the left foreleg in particular had some kind of device on it, probably a watch or something, finally he had a goggle like visor on top of his head, not too different from the one Izzy had created for Zipp a while ago, Izzy had a suspicion that this pony was scientist of some kind, but she hadn't anypony like that ever since the Canterlogic factory was shut down.

The drone that was with the pony was interesting to Izzy as well, it had a charcoal black stumpy cone like body with a visor that showed a single red glowing eye, it had a pair of steel coloured propeller like wings on the side to help it hover around and more. For some reason though, the drone seemed to have a subtle mean look to it that Izzy noticed, it certainly looked very different from the drones that Zipp loved to show off.

Izzy continued to stare at the pair with curiosity for what seemed like minutes, however it was interrupted when suddenly, the drone started making loud noises like an alarm, and looked straight up towards Izzy, almost causing her to jump.

"What's that? We have somepony spying on us, here of all places!?" Said the pony, he then looked straight up at Izzy's hiding spot with a glare, "Show yourself right now, you eavesdropper!"

"Blaaahh! We've been caught red hoofed." Said Izzy to Butterscotch as they both slowly came out of their hiding place with their hooves held up.

The pony and the drone both stared up at the two of them, "Well well well, what do we have here? A lonely Unicorn mare with an animate pile of garbage?"

"Hey! He finds that term offensive mister!" Shouted Izzy who levitated Butterscotch upright, then moved him right in front of the pony.

"He? This construct of trash has a name?" Said the pony, looking amused at it.

"The name is Señor Butterscotch thank you very much, curandero!" Said Izzy in her acted Butterscotch voice.

The Pony looked over at Izzy with a raised eyebrow, "What did this hunk of junk just call me?"

"Ahhh nothing, nothing!" Said Izzy sheepishly, moving Butterscotch to the ground nearby out of the way.

"Hmph, so was it you who made this thing, Unicorn?" Said the pony, the drone accompanying him still staring at Izzy.

"That I did stranger! I was feeling pretty lonely one day since all of my friends were busy with other things, so I decided to make myself a new friend, using all the leftover bits and bobs from around the Brighthouse, and lo and behold, Señor Butterscotch was born!" Said Izzy excitedly.

"Interesting... is this the only thing that you have made, or have you invented other things as well?" Asked the pony with intrigue.

"Oh no no no, I've created other things too, like the rad-visor for my friend Zipp which allows her to see the world in different ways, I've also built a robot named Bot-y McBakertons, among other things!" Said Izzy, smiling brightly.

The pony was now very curious about Izzy, after taking a glace up at her horn he decided to ask for her name.

"Hm hm hmm, well now, it sounds like you are quite the inventor Unicorn, what is your name if you don't mind me asking?"

"My name is Izzy Moonbow, Unicorn transplant from Bridlewood and expert uni-cycler at your service! Say,

"Izzy huh, not a bad name at all Unicorn." Said the pony.

Say, what is your name and occupation if you don't mind me asking, stranger?" Asked Izzy, tilting her head to the side curiously.

Me? Well, my name is Wormwood, Doctor Wormwood that is." Said the pony, standing proudly.

"Oooh a doctor!? I'm gonna guess that you are a doctor in some sciency stuff or something like it?" Said Izzy excitedly.

"That is correct Unicorn, science is indeed my forte, specifically robotics, technology, chemistry, engineering, and physics." Said Wormwood.

"Hehe, all of that sounds mighty interesting! I've never met many scientists or engineers from around Maretime Bay or even Bridelwood, most of them usually work elsewhere these days." Said Izzy.

"Yes... ever since the Canterlogic factory shut down some months ago, most of the workers have left for other jobs, largely up in Zephyr Heights since they're always looking for new hires to work there, especially now that everypony and their filly wants to have a smartphone in order to keep up with the latest nonsense on the Canternet." Said Wormwood.

"Huh, well If that's the case, why haven't you joined them in working up there as well?" Asked Izzy curiously.

Wormwood chuckled in response, fiddling around with a piece of scrap on the ground.

"As tempting as it was to go there and potentially work for them, it doesn't really suit me, my home is right here on the ground."

"Ohhhh, well that's understandable, I mean keeping your hooves on the ground is one way to go about in one's life." Said Izzy with a smile.

"Well then, what is your story Unicorn, what made you want to move and live in Maretime Bay, and why are you here in this junkyard of all places?" Asked Wormwood curiously.

"Oooh, well it's kinda a long story actually, this might take a while." Said Izzy, rubbing her head with her hoof.

"Well then go right ahead, I'm listening." Said Wormwood.

Izzy took a deep breath and then started to talk about how she one day found a balloon stuck to a tree in the Bridalwood forest, it had note attached to it telling her that there were friends in Maretime Bay waiting for her, so she decided to make the journey there to find them, and the experience of meeting new ponies there and the whole adventure that followed from it. As she finished by telling how she then moved to living at the Brighthouse with her new friends, Wormwood interrupted her.

"Wait wait hold on a minute there, the Brighthouse?" He said.

"Yes siree, the Brighthouse, it's the home of Sunny and all her other friends, including me." Said Izzy.

"Interesting, so that means you know Sunny Starscout?" Said Wormwood with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes I do, she's only my bestest friend out of all the ponies, not counting Zipp, Pipp and Hitch hehehe, do you know her too?" Asked Izzy.

"Of course I know her, I've seen her a number of times as she was growing up here in Maretime Bay, always cheerful and bright, trying to bring the best out of everypony and promote friendship with the other pony races. Heh heh, it used to get her into so much trouble with the law, she was no different from her late father honestly, they were both looked down upon and mocked by the citizens for their beliefs and ideals, it's a wonder she was able to start up her own business in the first place, instead of finding work at the Canterlogic factory like so many in her class did." Said Wormwood.

"Yeah... Sunny did mention some of that news to me some time ago, not gonna lie I still find it hard to wrap my noggin around the fact that such beliefs were held by all of the pony tribes for so long... tell me, were you the same as all the other ponies here in Maretime Bay beforehoof?" Asked Izzy cautiously.

"Me? Well I was part of the club unfortunately, I had to be as part of my position as one of Maretime Bays leading citizens at Canterlogic back in the day... but truth to be told Unicorn, I was actually always a little curious about the other pony tribes, especially the Unicorn tribe and their ability to cast magic using their horns, the old legends in the dusty old books and tomes that ponies like Argyle always used to keep around them always talked about how important magic was to everypony in ancient Equestria, and that without it, everypony's lives was not only harder, but also miserable and isolated. I mean just think about it, magic to them was as easy as brushing your teeth or taking a walk down the path, it's stupendous thinking about it now." Said Wormwood passionately.

"It is true you know, with a little magic anything can be done, lifting things, combining them, or even casting spells if you know how to do it." Said Izzy excitedly, using magic to lift up her inanimate friend as an example.

Wormwood seemed impressed at Izzy's display of magic, in fact it seemed to trigger a gleam in his eyes.

"It's so incredible to be able to see actual magic being used right here in front of me, it's fascinating to see it work before my very own eyes." Said Wormwood, smiling.

"Hehehe, I guess so, but my focus is on uni-cycling junk into something special, magic is just another tool for me to use it with." Said Izzy humbly.

"You've mentioned that several times now, is that why you hang out around junkyards like this, just to find things to invent?" Asked Wormwood.

"Yeah that's right, this place is like my haven for treasure, why do you do the same thing as I do too?" Asked Izzy curiously.

"Ho ho, well I don't do any 'uni-cycling' per se, but I do certainly do some re-cycling when it comes to scrap to be used for my own purposes, such as inventing." Said Wormwood, picking up the scrap piece next to him on the ground.

"Whoa really, what sort of things do you invent?" Said Izzy leaning her head forward.

"Hahaha, I could waste most of the day telling you what I invent and much more... but I think I've wasted enough time here today, I really need to get back to work." Said Wormwood as he looked at the device on his foreleg, which Izzy saw was some sort of PDA, or maybe a smartwatch.

"What, you're leaving already!? Blaaaaahhh! B-but we've only just met, and there is still sooooo much I need to ask you about!" Whined Izzy, pouting a little.

"Sorry filly, but I have to go, I have very important jobs to do today." Said Wormwood sternly.

"Ohhhhhh, fine..." Said Izzy, looking away sadly.

"Hey now come on, I never said that this would be the last time we meet, Izzy." Said Wormwood reassuringly.

Izzy gasped, hope returning to her face, "Do you mean!?"

"That's right, I'll forward you a message when I am able to meet up with you again, keep an eye out for it." Said Wormwood with a smile, as he turned to walk off.

"Oh I will, see you later new friend!" Said Izzy as she waved to him.

Wormwood nodded to her as he continued to set off on his way, while Izzy went back to digging around in the junkyard, still excited from meeting a brand-new friend, in her favourite place too. As he walked down the path to elsewhere, Wormwood consulted with his drone, which had been silently observing Izzy in the background.

"She sure is an interesting pony isn't she? We should definitely look into recruiting her into our plans as soon as possible, she has a lot of potential, magical potential." Said Wormwood, grinning to himself.

The drone beeped low in return, as it followed the doctor into the nearby woods and out of sight.

Back in Maretime Bay, Hitch Trailblazer had just returned to the police station after completing his morning patrol. He had planned to take a bit of a break before beginning the next part of his daily job which he considered to be the least fun part, sorting out the notice board, filing letters and reports, and deciding which of the cases will be his priority or not, a process that could take anywhere from an hour to several. Hitch never looked forward to this at all, but he sighed, it has to be done no matter what.

"I'll pour myself some coffee to start with, then I can get started on this... chore of a job right away." He said to himself, making his way to the coffee maker.

He got started making his brew, it was nothing special just a double espresso with a dash of milk, he liked his coffee strong and dark, just like his complexion, or so he likes to believe. As he waited for it to be ready, he noticed his companion McSnipps standing nearby at the ready, over on the table was all the letters he had both from this morning and the whole week organized into four neat stacks. Hitch smiled, this will certainly make it much easier for him to sort out what needs to go on the notice board or not, and as soon as he heard the machine pinged that his coffee was ready, he poured it into his #1 Sheriff mug that Sunny got him for Winter Wishday years ago, then sat down at this desk.

"Hey there Mcsnipps, looks like you've done a swell job organizing everything." Hitch said to the crab as he took a sip from his mug.

McSnipps clicked his claws and leaned forward, no doubt nodding to him.

"Right then, let's see what we've got here today." Said Hitch, setting his coffee mug to the side and getting started on the letters in front of him.

Hitch started off with the small pile first since he believed it would get done pretty fast, and it turned out he was right. Most of the letters in this pile were from Posey, the aforementioned Earth pony who hasn't taken too kindly to the other pony tribes moving into the town, she even did little doodles on her letters just to show her expressions while writing them. Hitch signed, then moved them onto the side to put onto the notice board later in the lower priority section, then moved onto the next pile of letters.

The letters in the second pile were fairly standard complaints, chief among them about litter being dropped on the streets, that got Hitch's blood boiling. If there was one thing he hated seeing more than anything, it was litter being dropped onto the ground instead of in the bin, ever since he was a colt he had been determined to keep Maretime Bay as clean and clear as the sea itself at all costs, just as his father the previous Sheriff had done before him. Hitch sorted them all out easily since they were largely short and straight to the point, marking them in varying importance.

With that pile of letters done and dusted, and another sip of his brew, Hitch moved onto the third pile, it was bigger than the last one, but he liked a challenge, plus he was feeling fired up from the last pile. These letters seemed to largely be about missing items, missing pets, and missing ponies, the latter of which made him stop and have a look at closely, remembering the words Plum had said to him earlier during his patrol.

"I said that I would look into these disappearances for Plum’s sake, and I intend to keep that promise, let's see what these missing pony letters say." Hitch said to himself.

As he started reading them one by one, he soon noticed a theme right away, almost every single one of the missing ponies reported in the letters were Unicorns, with only one exception being an Earth Pony from Maretime Bay, not only that but most of them were addressed from Bridlewood, with the same strange stamp on them like the one he had received from this morning.

"What the hay is going on here, how many pony disappearances could there be!?" Hitch shouted out loud.

He immediately began counting all the related letters, including the ones from this week. Once he finished, the end result left him with wide eyes in disbelief, then he threw his forelegs up into the air in frustration.

"...I don't believe this, seventeen ponies have disappeared in the last month, seventeen!? How could I have been so dumb as to not notice it before!? Why oh why did I decide not to do anything about this sooner, am I that big of an idiot!?" Hitch shouted at himself.

The sheriff felt awful right now, a big case like this had been going on for weeks under his nose and he never noticed it happening, all because he believed that the Unicorns of Bridlewood could handle it on their own, but now seeing this many disappearances happening, and that it's starting to affect the ponies living in Maretime Bay too, it's clear that he had to do something now before it's too late.

"Those poor ponies... what could cause them to just disappear like that... did some strange magic they discovered cause them to like turn invisible or something dumb?" Hitch thought to himself, taking a sip from the mug, that's when a thought crossed his mind that made him nearly spit it out, "Wait... was it possible they were... ponynapped!?"

Hitch sat back up upon saying that, he never thought about it that way before, but this many ponies going missing looked very much like a telltale sign of ponynapping, one of the most heinous crimes anypony could commit in Equestria, and a case that Hitch himself hadn't tackled before as Sheriff, but now it seems he now has such a case in his hooves, and what a doozy it's turning out to be, looks like his wish from earlier has just come true.

"It looks like this just became a very hot case indeed, one I intend to solve quick and fair, there is no time to lose!" He said to himself as he put the letters on the side to be made priority on the bulletin board.

Hitch then turned his attention to the last pile, thankfully not as large as the last pile, so he believed it would be quick to sort out. As he started to read the letters, he noticed they all seemed to be addressed to him directly, that piqued his curiosity, so he had a closer look at them wondering what they were all about, were they love letters, death threats, spam? He got plenty of the former from various admirers around town, a few from criminals that he had put away in the past, and unfortunately a bunch of spam letters from who knows where, those he always puts through the shredder and chuck into the bin. However, as Hitch began to read through each of them, he suddenly realized that they weren't any of the aforementioned letters at all, with a frown forming on his face he realized that they were in fact his bills for the month.

"What the hay McSnipps, why didn't you mention that I had bills to sort out today??" Said Hitch as he lifted his head up to look at him, frowning hard.

The crab just shrugged its claws, seems like he didn't have any reason to mention it until now.

"Huh, well fair enough." Said Hitch, moving the bills out of the way onto his side desk to sort out later, then he gently moved all the sorted letters next to the notice board, sighing while doing so.

"Sigh, this is going to be a looooong job I just know it, it's a good thing I put this off before lunch time, hopefully this won't take too long to get through, then after that I can get started on the case at hand." Said Hitch.

With that Hitch began to organize and sort out the notice board, placing all the letters and more up in order of priority, with the disappearing ponies being his top priority at this time. As Hitch had expected, the job took a long time to sort out, in fact when he checked the clock up on the wall when he had finished, it had already been over an hour.

"Sweet Twilight, that took longer than I wanted..." Said Hitch, wiping the sweat off his brow.

The board itself was now completely covered in letters, sticky notes and pins, even Hitch was surprised at how many jobs he now had to do, so much to do in just one day, but he kept to his vow from earlier today to get the jobs done his way, especially with this hot case he now had in his hooves, which he has dubbed "The curious case of disappearing Unicorns Case".

"Right then first things first, I'm gonna get started on the suspected ponynapping case, and for this I'm gonna need to call in the troops, McSnips-a-lot if you please." Said Hitch, giving the crab the signal.

Mcsnips gave a salute, then it crawled on over towards the open window, holding it's claws up high it gave out a distinct but loud clap using them. Almost immediately, two little birds who had heard the noise landed on the window sill giving a salute towards the sheriff, the one who had an open can of sardines on top was named Kenneth, another pet friend of Hitch who he often relied on as his ears and eyes around town, the other bird that was with him was his deputy.

"Good to see you troops, now listen up, we've got a doozy of a case to get through today and I am itching to get it solved before nightfall." Said Hitch to the troops, before pointing his hoof to the notice board, "I'll explain everything about the case at hand as soon as we set off into the town, for now we need to get out there, start looking for clues, check anything suspicious, and if we have time do some of the other jobs we have to do today that I made a note of just in case."

The animals all nodded towards Hitch in turn.

"Now then, are we all ready to go out there and get to work solving this case?" Said Hitch.

They all gave Hitch the salute to show that they were.

"Excellent, let's go troops!" Shouted Hitch as he charged towards the door.

Hitch and his animal pals all set off from the police station and out onto the streets to carry out their investigation of the case, hoping to find clues and information that could help them solve it as fast as possible. However, in his haste to carry out his plan in a hurry without pause, Hitch didn't notice that he and his animal pals were secretly being watched the whole time.

Out of a bush located next to the station came a small hovering drone, making a few beeping noises, it flew up into the sky and out of sight of everypony that could've seen it. It was pretty clear that somepony or something was keeping a close eye on Hitch and his activities, but who, and why?

Act 1 - Chapter 3

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It was by now late afternoon in Maretime bay, the sun was beginning to set over the clear blue sea, the stores in the market and the shops downtown were starting to close up for the day, organizing their stocks and preparing for another working day tomorrow, ponies were hanging out around the downtown promenade either watching the sunset, or enjoying an evening stroll with friends and family before turning in for the coming night.

Yet... in amongst the serene mood that bathed the town, there was a strange and foreboding feeling that was starting to creep in, rumors had begun to spread about ponies disappearing without warning during the night, news that the Unicorns who had moved into town from Bridlewood were the main victims of this strange happening is making some wonder whether the ponies who didn't take kindly to them moving in were the ones responsible for it, which some have dismissed as nonsense, but others are more wary of such thoughts due to the old long held beliefs still existing in the back of their minds. Not helping matters is the efforts of Hitch Trailblazer and his animal friends having been busy most of the day going around town trying to find clues relating to the disappearances, not realizing the consequences of allowing such information to spread amongst the ponies who were worried about their safety.

At this time of day, Hitch and his animals friends had rendezvoused at the town fountain, tired and sweaty after a long days work. They had been busy up and down the town all day searching high and low for clues, hints and anything related to the case at hoof. Despite the extensive search, they have had been having no luck finding any such clues at all, instead during that time they had worked to completing most of the other tasks that Hitch made a note of in his notebook. The sheriff was beginning to think that he had either made a mistake, or that he had overlooked something important.

"I just don't get it at all pals, we've been up and down, right and left in this town all day, we even double checked the usual spots just to be sure we didn't miss anything, but we've found nothing, not a single thing at all." Said Hitch, sighing to himself.

McSnipps clicked his claws in dejection, while Kenneth and his deputy cooed in disappointment.

"I'm starting to wonder if this has been a wild goose chase from the start, but I really don't want to break the bad news to all of the ponies who are worried about their friends being missing, the last thing I want to do is let them down and break their poor little hearts." Said Hitch.

Hitch and his animal friends sat together at the fountain silently, thinking hard about their next move to try and split the case wide open as the sun began to set over the sea. At the same time, Sunny Starscout was busy walking back to her home at the Brighthouse, having finished her work for the say at the smoothie stand, humming a little tune to herself. However upon noticing Hitch and his animal friends sitting at the fountain looking all glum, she stopped and looked at them.

"I wonder what's got them all down I wonder." Sunny Said to herself as she trotted on over to them, "Hey there Hitch, that's where you got to!"

"Hmm? Oh umm hey there Sunny, good to see you too." Said Hitch.

"What's up Sheriff? You're sounding pretty down, is there something up?" Said Sunny, tilting her head in question.

Hitch let out a sigh, he decided to bring Sunny up to speed on what was going on.

"Well you're probably already well aware of what's going on by now, but... As you know i've been investigating the case of disappearing ponies that I discovered to have been going on around here lately under my nose, with over nineteen ponies having disappeared in total so far. As a result me and my animal friends have been busy looking around the town all afternoon trying to find any clues that could help with solving the case at hoof, but... So far we haven't found anything that could help us solve this case, and we've checked all the usual spots too."

Sunny looked at Hitch with wide eyes at what he just said, she had no idea that this case was as serious as it was.

"W-what!? Seventeen ponies have disappeared!? That's crazy! Is that all just in Maretime Bay alone???" Shouted Sunny in disbelief.

"Actually, most of the disappearances have been happening in the Bridlewood Forest, but it's now starting to have an affect on Maretime Bay as well too." Hitch replied.

"That's awful! Is there some sort of widespread ponynapping going on in Equestria, whose behind all of this!?" Said Sunny in a panic.

"Calm down Sunny, I don't know for sure yet, but... I'm willing to bet my badge on it being the case from the way it's all pointing right now, just the feeling I'm getting. Said Hitch, tugging at his sheriffs badge.

"Hmm, you said that you haven't found any clues so far right? Have you been checking thoroughly for anything suspicious at all around town?" Said Sunny.

"We have been doing that Sunny, we've checked every bin, gutter, behind the boxes, and of course in the bushes too to see if we could find anything, but we haven't found a single lead, not even a crumb..." Said Hitch, sighing again.

"Hmmm, it sounds like this case is not as obvious as it looks, like how did these ponies disappear, and why, and the lack of any clues that could lead to the answer." Said Sunny, giving off a sigh of her own.

"I hate to admit it Sunny, but I'm stumped and unsure what to do next." Said Hitch dejectedly.

The group sat there for a few minutes in silence thinking at a loss as to what to do next, Sunny however held a hoof up to her head in deep thought, until she came up with an idea.

"Wait, I got an idea! Why don't we all go back to the station and look over the case again together? Maybe we might find something new to go on that you've overlooked earlier?" Said Sunny.

"Hey now, that's not a bad idea, maybe we could ask the others for help too, especially Zipp, I know she'll be interested the instant we tell her about it." Said Hitch, getting up from his seating on the fountain.

"Oh yeah she will be, then we can all work together to solve this case, the more the better!" Said Sunny determinedly.

"Then it's settled, let's get moving back to the station right away! McSnipps you come with me, as for you Kenneth and co, keep an eye out tonight for anything suspicious, if you do spot anything, send a report to me in the morning." Said Hitch to the troops.

The animals gave Hitch the salute, McSnipps climbed up onto Hitch's back, while Kenneth, his deputy and other animal friends all went their separate ways, to keep a watch out for anything suspicious in the night.

"Excellent, let's get moving!" Said Hitch as he got a running head start towards the station.

"Hey, wait up!" Shouted Sunny as she ran after him, wishing she never left her roller skates at home.

It wasn't long before Hitch and co reached the station, Hitch hadn't been back here all day, and he just remembered the cup of coffee that he never finished before he left, he felt a little silly about wasting it, sometimes his hotblooded nature when it came to police work can lead him to forgetting things. However, just as Hitch reached to open the front door inside, he found something out of the place right away, the door was slightly opened ajar instead of being locked.

"That's odd, I'm pretty sure I closed this door shut before I left with my animal pals earlier today." Said Hitch suspiciously.

"You think somepony else has opened it recently, what if they're still inside?" Said Sunny curiously.

"Only one way to find out, back me up here in case they turn out to be dangerous Sunny." Said Hitch.

"You got it Sheriff." Said Sunny, keeping close to him.

Taking a deep breath, Hitch gently pushed the door open to the station, taking a look inside. What he found surprised him, there standing right in front of his desk, gazing up at the notice board intensely, was not some random pony who had broken into his office, but actually a pony who was one of his closest friends. That pearl white coat, burgundy red mane and tail with a cyan stripe running through it, and those inquisitive blue eyes, yep there was only pony that could be, it was none other than Zipp Storm, the elder Pegasus Princess of Zephyr Heights herself. Seemingly hearing the door to the station open, Zipp shifted her glance towards them quick, greeting them warmly.

"Well well, it was about time you got back here Sheriff, looks like you've got quite the case on your hoofs right here, seventeen ponies going missing over the last month over all of Equestria, and most of them being Unicorns as well, that's a deep mystery that's just itching to be busted open, don't you agree?" Said Zipp excitedly.

"You always like to get involved in my investigations without warning don't you Zipp?" Said Hitch smirking.

"Hey now, it's cool stuff you know, I'm always fascinated by mysteries, especially good ones that keep you guessing until the end." Zipp replied.

Hitch chuckled as he walked on into the station, followed by Sunny and his animal pals.

"Sounds like you've been watching one too many murder mystery films on Canternet Zipp, you know how hokey some of that stuff can get right?" Said Sunny with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh please, you know I only watch the good ones that actually make sense and are more grounded and star a detective, plus not always having a happy ending." Said Zipp waving her hoof dismissively.

"Even though you like to watch the infamous "Stab" movie series where the teen ponies get lost in a remote location and somehow die in the most corny ways possible to an obvious culprit?" Said Sunny with a smirk.

Zipp grow a frown on her face, Sunny had hit a bullseye.

"It's a guilty pleasure, okay?" Zipp replied.

Sunny giggled to herself, Hitch cleared his throat to get back on topic.

"Anyway, so what brings you here to the station Zipp, I thought you and Pipp would be at the Brighthouse by now waiting for everypony else to come home?" Said Hitch.

"That's correct, we both arrived back there around mid afternoon when we finished our meeting at Zephyr Heights, but then we got bored waiting for you, Sunny and Izzy to come home, so Pipp decided to start doing a stream to pass the time with her 'Pippsqueaks', blabbering on about fashion this and trendy that, so much that I couldn't bear to hear it any longer. So I decided instead to go down and visit the station to see if you had gotten back yet from your last patrol of the day, that's when I saw the notice board over there that was overflowing with letters and reports. I got curious and decided to check it out to see what was going on, and I'm glad I did so." Said Zipp.

"Why is that Zipp?" Asked Hitch.

"This case you've been investigating, it sounds like a really big one sheriff, so much that it actually excites me from how there is so much going on, and yet so little to go on." Said Zipp, flashing a smile.

"Little to go on is right." Hitch signed at that last statement.

"Huh? What do you mean by that Hitch?" Asked Zipp.

Hitch looked down at the floor glumly, "It's as I said 'little to go on', me and my animal pals have been up and down in this town all afternoon trying to find clues, but we haven't found anything, nothing that could relate to the case at hoof."

"Is that right, that doesn't sound like you sheriff, normally you'd be all over it like the detective you are, are you sure you've found nothing to go on?" Said Zipp, taking a step closer.

"Sure as sure can be! Sunny can even vouch for me here!" Said Hitch

"He's right, I saw him and his animal pals multiple times today while working, he even stopped at my stand for a smoothie twice just to keep going." Said Sunny.

"Well I can believe that, but it still doesn't help the fact that we have no clues to go on." Said Zipp thoughtfully.

"That's why we've come back here, we're planning to go over the reports again to see if anything has been overlooked, or stands out from the first time I read them." Said Hitch.

"Sounds like a plan, I'd be happy to help out too, I love a good mystery to solve." Said Zipp with a determined look.

"I had a feeling that you would say that Zipp, alright everypony, let's get to work!" Said Hitch in excitement.

The three ponies then made their way to the notice board and got to work going over it once more to see if they had missed anything related to the case as they had suspected.

"Now first things first, what do we know about the missing ponies?" Said Sunny.

"Easy, there are over seventeen missing in total, most of them being Unicorns, with only one being an Earth Pony." Said Hitch.

"Right, now is there anything they have anything in common at all, other than them being Unicorns?" Asked Zipp to Hitch.

"Well... only two of the Unicorns in the reports come from Maretime Bay, they're names are Swirly Whirl and Primrose in order of disappearance, and there is a noticeable gap between the two of them vanishing, I can't see any connection between the two of them other than them both being Unicorns from Bridlewood. As for the Earth Pony, his name is Sawduster, a hard working stallion who used to work for Canterlogic as a builder before it shut down, now he usually does odd jobs around the town." Said Hitch.

"How long was the gap in time between them disappearing?" Said Zipp inquisitively.

"It's about five days long." Said Hitch, looking closer at the notes.

"I see, clever, very clever, the perpetrator spaced out the ponynappings to avoid leaving a trail so easily." Zipp said thoughtfully.

"Hmm... wait, you said the two of them lived in Maretime Bay? What about the rest of the missing Unicorns?" Said Sunny to Hitch.

"The others are all from Bridlewood, most of them i've not met before, but a few of them I have seen before, including Leaf, Onyx, Jasper and Twinkle. Unlike in Maretime Bay, they all seemed to have been disappearing every other day during the last four weeks, all over the Bridlewood forest if I had to guess." Hitch replied.

"I hate to imagine the situation over there right now, with so many ponies having vanished in a space of a few weeks, they must be very on edge... it's no wonder they've been calling for your help, right sheriff?" Said Zipp, looking at him sternly.

"Yes I know... why are you looking at me like that?" Said Hitch with a raised eyebrow.

"What I want to know is, why didn't you jump onto this case right away Hitch? I noticed that you've been getting all of these missing letters from them for the last three weeks, why the hay did you wait until today to get started on it?" Said Zipp, stepping closer to him.

Hitch gulped, he had a sinking feeling since lunch time that this was going to come up sooner or later, and he knew that Zipp would notice it dead away and not let it slide at all. Feeling her stare piercing into him hard, he decided to come clean about it here and there.

"Well... the truth is that I... at the time I was getting these I treated them as low priority since they didn't take place in the Maretime Bay area, after all my legal authority doesn't extend out to the Bridelwood area itself, instead I believed that the leader of the Unicorns, Alphabittle would look into it instead since they are his responsibility, or at least that is what I had believed at the time, but-

He was interrupted by the loud angry stomp of Sunny's hooves right beside of him.

"WHAT!? How can you say that Hitch!? Those are friends that we've met together, Unicorn friends! Why the hay did you consider them being missing to not be an urgent matter at all!?"

"Outside your authority huh? So you would rather let them handle their troubles on their own without even responding to their help? Even though it's plain as sunshine that they have been doing so?" Said Zipp bluntly.

"That's right... I cannot officially investigate the case happening there without Alphabittle's permission, as much as I want to, I need to respect his authority" Said Hitch defensively.

"That didn't stop you from chasing me all the way there in the first place when you put out a warrant for my arrest." Said Sunny sarcastically.

"That was a different matter! When we weren't all together in harmony and still in fear of each other!" Hitch shouted back.

"That maybe, but tell me something, are you still stuck on that point of view now, or do you plan on actually doing something about it?" Snapped Zipp.

"I was getting to that!" Said Hitch exasperating, "After I realized what was going on earlier today, I decided that I needed to head to Bridlewood tomorrow to speak with Alphabittle about it, not just to apologize for not realizing how serious the situation too late, but to also help in finding the missing Unicorns."

"Well... that is much more like it sheriff, I'm glad you've turned a new leaf on this." Said Zipp, showing a slight smile.

"Yes... sorry that I upset you like that Sunny..." Said Hitch sheepishly.

"Apology accepted Hitch, but now we need to think up a new plan of action to try and understand the reason behind the Unicorns disappearance." Said Sunny.

"Actually, that's something I've been curious about, did the letters from Bridlewood mention anything at all?" Said Zipp, shifting her attention back towards the notice board.

"Not exactly no, they all just requested my help, but... There is one thing they all have in common, a strange symbol that I've never seen before." Said Hitch, pointing the symbol out in question.

The ponies all took a look at the strange symbol, it was certainly Unicornish in design, it depicted their trademark horn, along with what looked liked water drops around it, what could it mean?

"Sunny, you know a lot about Unicorns, what do you think this could mean?" Asked Hitch.

"Hmmm... well, I'll be honest Hitch, I have zero clue on what this symbol means." Said Sunny with a shrug.

"What!? You have no idea?" Shouted Hitch in disbelief.

"I'm serious! I may know a lot about Unicorns, but this is a new one on me I'm afraid." Said Sunny shaking her head.

Hitch let out a sigh, "I guess this means we'll need to call in an 'expert' on Unicorns then in order to solve this mystery."

"Hey!" Said Sunny, pouting at Hitch.

"That's right, but not just any expert in Unicorns, but a Unicorn who is an expert on them." Said Zipp.

"Yeah, a Unicorn who we know very well, the one who can explain it all." Said Hitch in a realization.

"Better yet, we already know who to turn to for this problem." Said Sunny, joining in.

"That's right, we need Izzy!" Said the three ponies together.

A voice rang out that made the group jump in surprise, "Did somepony call for me?"

The three ponies turned around to look at the now open doorway, and lo and behold was the very pony they were waiting for, none other than Izzy Moonbow, smiling bright as always.

"Hiya guys, what's up? You all look surprised to see me." Said Izzy.

"Well that's the funny thing Izzy, we were actually just thinking about you when we needed you most, and you just happened to show up at the right time." Said Sunny with a smile.

"Yeah, funny how you can just show up just at the right moment." Said Hitch.

"Aww you guys, I just love being with my friends, and well I like to be there for you when you need it most!" Said Izzy excitedly as she group hugged her friends, who responded in kind.

"Of course Izzy, and we feel the same way, we'll never leave anypony behind." Said Sunny smiling.

After an extended hugging session Izzy stood back, tilting her head in curiosity.

"So what are you guys up to anyway, and why did you need me?" Asked Izzy.

"Well it's this case that Hitch is currently involved in, it's turned out to be quite a doozy." Said Sunny in response.

"Oooh, what kind of doozy are we talking about? Oh is it another conspicuous litterer who keeps dropping litter around the town, or is it another case of pony magic going crazy again randomly? Ooh ooh, what if that graffiti artist is on the loose again?" Izzy asked innocently.

The other ponies shifted eyes at each other in silence, until Hitch cleared his throat and spoke up, "Actually Izzy, it's more serious than that."

"Ohhh, that kind of doozy I see, well spit it out then, how serious is it?" Izzy asked, still smiling.

"Well you see... basically it goes like this, ponies have been disappearing around Equestria, most of them Unicorns, and we don't have any clue as to why they've disappeared, and what's behind it." Said Hitch.

Upon hearing that Izzy's smile faded from her face a little.

"That's why we need your help Izzy, if there is anypony who can tells us about Unicorns, it's you." Said Sunny.

"Ahh, I get it now, well why didn't you say so in the first place?" Said Izzy, who hopped over to the notice board in interest, "I see that they sent letters asking for your help Hitchio, so what is it about them that you need my help with?"

"It's to do with this symbol they stuck on the letters here." Said Hitch who pointed out one such example.

"Oooh, that's one of the stamps that we Unicorns use when sending letters to each other for different events or situations, i've got a bunch of them in my bag right here." Said Izzy, reaching for her handbag.

"Really? Show us what they are, I'm interested to know about them." Said Sunny, her eyes sparkling with interest.

Izzy proceeded to place her handbag on the table, she then took out various different stamps that had different symbols on them, laying them out neatly in front of her friends. She went into explaining what each of them meant, and what they were used for.

"So this first one here with the balloons on it, this is used when a Unicorn is sending out invites for a party, the second one however with the bundle and stick is used when a Unicorn is leaving Bridlewood... I know I had to use this when I moved out to the Brighthouse, though oddly I didn't get very many letters like these in return. Ah well, now this third one here with the smiley face is my favorite of the bunch, it's used when a Unicorn has met new friends!" Said Izzy, explaining a mouthful.

"Well that would explain all of the random smiley faces we saw stamped on the walls back when you first moved in." Said Sunny.

"Hehe sorry about that, I sometimes get a little too carried when I get super excited! Anyway, this next one here is used whenever a Unicorn is in danger or trouble, it's usually used to call for help from fellow Unicorns or other ponies they know about, and this last one I have is used when somepony has 'kicked the flower' so to speak... I'm always sad when it happens." Said Izzy, showing the skull pattern the stamp had, before putting it down gently.

"That's so interesting! Ohhh to learn something new about Unicorns is so cool!" Said Sunny excitedly, her eyes shimmering.

"Whoa hold on, rewind back one moment, what did you say about the second to last stamp?" Said Hitch attentively.

"Oh this? I said this one is used when a Unicorn is in danger or trouble." She said, lifting it up to show them again.

Hitch and Zipp's eyes shot wide open, the symbol on the stamp was an exact match to the ones on the letters.

"That's it Izzy! That's the stamp that the Unicorns used on the letters! It was a call for help from them, all the way from Bridlewood!" Exclaimed Zipp.

"Oh it's nothing guys, I'm glad to have helped out!" Said Izzy smiling brightly.

But then just as quickly, her smile left her face when she realized what was going on, then she leaped forward to the notice board, knocking the table over in the process, spilling all of it's contents, including the cup of coffee from earlier all over the floor.

"BLAAAHHH!! How come I didn't pick up on this earlier!? Unicorns missing from Bridlewood?? That's terrible! Why are they missing, what has happened to them!?" Shouted Izzy, shaking Sunny.

"Whoa c-calm down I-Izzy, we d-don't know-"

"*GASP* What if... have they been ponynapped!?" Izzy shouted, interrupting Sunny.

"Calm down Izzy, clam down, we are all doing our best to find out what happened to them, and we will find them!" Said Hitch reassuringly.

"Yes that's right, we aim to find those missing ponies and bring them back home safe and sound!" Said Sunny bravely.

Izzy brushes away a tear from her eye, "Y-you really promise to do that?"

"Absolutely, and if anypony is behind this, we aim to bring them to justice, you have my word on it, as a friend, and a princess." Said Zipp, standing proud.

Izzy grew a soft smile, then hugged each of her friends in turn, "Thank you, thank you so much!"

"Don't thank us yet Izz, we still need to find a lead on where they could've gone." Said Zipp.

"Hmm, I think in light of the new information about these stamps among other things, we should look into investigating the missing Unicorns in the Bridelwood Forest next, I suspect we'll have better luck finding a lead there, and perhaps the Unicorns living there can tells us more too." Said Sunny thoughtfully.

"Yes we should! Alphabittle would likely help us out too, he must be worried sick about them..." Said Izzy dejectedly.

"I agree, but we'll have to do it tomorrow since it's getting late outside, it'll take too long to get to the Bridlewood Forest before nightfall, and I really don't want to find out what crawls around in the outskirts of Equestria at nighttime." Said Zipp, looking out of the window.

"We should also let Pipp know about this case too, I'm sure she'll lend us a hoof to help out as well" Said Sunny.

"With what? Hosting a livestream about ponies disappearing just so she can get more followers for her socials?" Said Zipp sarcastically.

"Well no, rather she can use her followers and their connections to help us find out if anypony around Equestria knows what happened to them, and if they saw anything." Retorted Sunny.

"Huh, well that's not the worst idea ever, it would certainly give us a larger search range." Said Zipp as she took out her phone to send her sister a quick message.

Hitch suddenly remembered something from this morning that he nearly forgot about.

"You know that reminds me Zipp, how did that meeting you had this morning with Pipp and the Queen go?" Asked Hitch.

Zipp visibly grimaced as soon as she heard that, she then put her phone away and looked at him seriously.

"It's... officially royal business, so I'm strictly not allowed to speak about it outside of my sister, and the Queen."

"What!? How bad can it be, can't you tell us, I mean we are your friends after all." Said Sunny in surprise.

"Sorry Sunny, but the Queen told us strictly not to mention it until further notice, it's to prevent any leaks from happening." Said Zipp sternly.

"Aww, that's lame, but you promise to tell us about it soon won't you Zipp, won't you?" Said Izzy, giving Zipp the puppy dog eyes.

"Sure Izz, I will talk about it when the time is right." Said Zipp with a sigh.

While Izzy seemed to be content with it, Sunny was suspicious, It wasn't like Zipp at all to keep information from them regarding royal business, especially since they were all on good terms with the Queen since the unification of the pony tribes, something was wrong, she was sure of it.

"Anyway, we have a plan for tomorrow, we'll head to the forest to start investigating there for clues about the missing ponies." Said Zipp.

"Is there anything else that we should look into before we head back home Hitch?" Said Sunny to Hitch.

"Nope, that's all of our bases covered for now." Said Hitch, picking up his coffee mug off the floor and putting it in the sink.

"Good, well then, let's head back home everypony, we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Said Zipp as she headed for the door.

"You sure are fired up about this Zipp." Said Sunny who followed her.

"How can I not be? A deep mystery like this doesn't come around often, I plan on splitting this case wide open!" Said Zipp with a confident smile.

"I do hope that the missing ponies are okay..." Said Izzy glumly.

"They're going to be fine Izzy, we'll find them no matter what." Said Sunny.

"And if some no-good ponynapper is behind this, he'll be getting a nice long holiday, behind bars." Said Hitch.

"Not before I sock it to them with a hoof sandwich, straight from royalty!" Said Zipp shaking her hoof up in the air.

"But that doesn't sound like a good holiday being in jail, and having to eat sandwiches like that." Said Izzy innocently.

"It's just a figure of speech Izz!" Said Zipp rolling her eyes.

The four ponies made their way outside of the station, Hitch making sure to lock the door behind them securely, he then signaled to his animal friend McSnipps to start the night watch while he went home, the crab replied in kind and got to work inside. However as Hitch turned around, he saw something that made him realize that the walk back home wasn't going to be such a stroll in the park.

"W-what in the hay... what is all this!?" Yelled Hitch.

"It's all the junk that I collected today from the junkyards, isn't it magnificent?" Said Izzy.

The three friends looked up at the heavy wagon, brimming with trash and junk, almost certainly heavy in load, and at the top lay Senor Butterscotch.

"I umm... hehe, think I'm going to need some help getting this back home." Said Izzy sheepishly.

"This is going to be a loooooong walk back." Said Hitch with a sigh.

As the sun continued to set and the it's fading rays glazed across the coastline, the three pony friends got to work helping Izzy bring her wagon back home to the Brighthouse on top of the cliff. It was a hard job due to the weight of the cargo the wagon was carrying.

"That's a whole lot of junk there today Izzy." Said Sunny.

"Why thank you Sunny, it's a little bit more than I normally get, today though was just a goldmine of trash for me to find and unicycle for better use." Said Izzy, pulling the wagon along the front.

"You know sometimes I wonder how on Earth you can find anything appealing about junk." Said Zipp with a sign.

"It's not about how it looks on the outside Zipp, it's about how it is on the inside, and making every piece fit together like a jigsaw puzzle." Said Izzy.

"If you say so Izz." Said Zipp, as she took off into the air.

"Hah... Sweet Twilight this is heavy...!" Said Hitch, wiping the sweat off his brow.

"No kidding..." Said Sunny, pushing harder on her end.

"Hey no need to over strain yourselves guys, i've pulled heavier loads than this back home." Said Izzy, looking back at them.

"No fooling?" Said Sunny, her eyebrow raised.

"Well then in that case I'll have to push harder and harder, the sooner this is done the better." Said Hitch, putting more power behind the wagon.

"Take your time guys, we'll soon be there." Said Izzy, returning to focusing on pulling the wagon forward.

Sunny and Hitch continued to push hard to get the Wagon up the steep climb towards the Brighthouse, at one point the wagon nearly tipped over and threatened to fall on top of them, but Zipp luckily zipped down to help keep it stable for them, then she lent a hoof in pushing it there.

"Hah... Honestly Izzy, I don't get how you are able to bring back so much of this junk so often, how do you do it?" Said Hitch, sweating beads.

"I don't know Hitch, it just comes to me randomly and out of nowhere sometimes, like inspiration and dreams, hunger, thirst and of course when I need to go to the lavatory to take a du-."

"TMI Izz!" Interrupted Zipp.

"Oops sorry." Said Izzy sheepishly, "But yes, I sometimes I just have so much inspiration that I have to get just as much junk together to make it happen."

"I guess so, but this much in one day? This seems a little excessive even for you Izzy." Said Hitch.

Izzy slowed a little as she grew a warm smile on her face, thinking of a happy thought from earlier today.

"Weeeell I guess it is a little much this time, but that's only because today I met a brand new friend while I was down at the junkyard." Said Izzy.

Both Hitch and Sunny stopped pushing the wagon and looked at Izzy, this was the first that they had both heard of it.

"Wait what, you made a new friend down at the junkyard today?" Said Sunny with confusion.

Izzy stopped pulling the wagon and looked around at them.

"Yeah I did, he was down there on his own with just a little flying robot for company, me and Senor Butterscotch saw him when we were working and decided to introduce ourselves to him, I came up to him in my usual manner and said 'Hi new friend' to him. We then both started talking, I won't lie that he was acting a little cold and distant at first, but he soon warmed up to me, we talked about several things, including how we both use scrap to make something new, how I use it for uni-cycling, and how he uses it for inventing and building things!" Explained Izzy.

"Inventing and building huh? Sounds like someone we know." Said Hitch.

"That's pretty cool honestly, being able to make a new friend like that, especially one that shares the same hobbies as you do Izzy." Said Sunny smiling.

"Yeah, say what is his name if you don't mind me asking." Asked Zipp curiously.

"Oh his name? He said his name was Wormwood, Dr Wormwood." Said Izzy to Zipp.

"Dr Wormwood huh, is he like a scientist or something?" Said Zipp with intrigue.

"Yeah he is, he told me he enjoys inventing new machines and devices, and just like me he likes to uni-cycle, or 'recycle' as he calls it old junk to make them into something new. Oh and guess what? When I asked him how he felt about magic coming back to the land, he told me that he was happy about it and all of the opportunities it will bring, he even told me that he was looking into making use of it to benefit all of ponykind in some way." Said Izzy excitedly.

"That sounds mighty interesting to me, I wonder how he plans to go about doing it." Said Zipp thoughtfully.

"Beats me Zipp, but it's sounds super exciting to me, I be he'll tell me all about it the next time we meet up." Said Izzy.

"Did he say when he would meet you?" Asked Zipp.

"Nope, but he said he would send me a message when he wants to meet up again, however he plans on doing that." Said Izzy with a smile.

Zipp smiled back, then looked on at Sunny and Hitch who had been quiet for the last few moments, they were both deep in thought about something,

"Wormwood... I swear i've heard of that name somewhere..." Said Sunny in thought.

"Hey do you guys want me to sing the song that I made up while I was down in the junkyard?" Said Izzy, breaking them out of their thoughts.

Hitch started shaking his head frantically, "No no no it's fine Izzy we really should get moving-"

"It's no use Hitch, as soon as Izzy starts going into song, there is no stopping her." Said Zipp who was hovering nearby.

Izzy took a deep breath and begun to sing.

"If you go down into the dumps today, you might be in for a big surprise. You never know what you'll find, a broken toaster, or an umbrella in disguise. For there is much buried treasure to be found, like a horseshoe, or shower curtain, because down in the dumps anything is for certain!"

Izzy would continue to sing the song all the way up to the Brighthouse without so much of a pause. By the time they got to the top of the hill where they lived, Sunny and Hitch were glad that it was over with.

"Phew... that was hot work." Said Hitch, panting a little.

"You said it, let's get this heavy load out of the way." Said Sunny.

The four ponies then moved the wagon onto the side out of the building, out of the way, joining the rest of Izzy's ever growing pile of scrap, at this rate it could become yet another junkyard.

"Filly, it feels like ages since i've been back home, I'll be glad to have a rest for tonight."

"I'm relived, after all that running and pushing i've done today, I'm gonna need a good warm shower to wash all this off." Said Hitch, sweating all over.

"Not unless Pipp hogs the shower first, she likes to take her time getting all 'prim and unique' for her fans, bleh." Said Zipp with a slight disgust.

"Hey you are almost as bad Zipp, what with all that flying around every day." said Hitch with a smirk.

Zipp gave him a light kick to he side while rolling her eyes, but she smiled showing that it was in good humor. The four ponies then went to the front door into the Brighthouse, all prepared to rest after a long day. But, just as Sunny opened the door, they were greeted by loud music playing from the living room, along with what sounds like lyrics to a song being sung out, it seems as though Pipp had decided to host a karaoke night with her friends from Mane Melody, and it sounds like she was streaming it all too.

"Hay yeah! Come on everypony! Whoever messes up the lyrics of the next song has to dye their mane with a shade of white for a day!" Shouted Pipp.

"Well that ain't gonna be me sister, I got straight As on my singing, and you'll be the one wearing white tomorrow!" Said a voice that sounded just like Jazz Hooves.

"Oooh why didn't anypony say there was going to be karaoke tonight? Wait for me Pipp, I wanna join in!" Shouted Izzy excitedly as she barged in through the door, almost knocking it off hit's hinges.

Sunny, Hitch and Zipp just shook their heads in defeat.

"Looks like my sister has had other ideas, this might go on into the night." Said Zipp with a deadpan.

"Ah well, at least we'll have a feast to prepare for the big job tomorrow." Said Sunny as she walked on in.

"I guess so, but it sounds like the shower might have to wait, don't want to be taking it when anypony needs to go bad." Said Hitch, giving a loud sigh.

"No worries, i'll let them know so they won't disturb you when you need to use it." Said Zipp.

"Thank you Zipp, still, I hope this doesn't keep me up all night tonight. "Said Hitch as he walked on inside to join in the party, very reluctantly.

Zipp however didn't join him, instead she remained outside the Brighthouse, she turned to stare out over the sea, now dyed a deep orange from the fading sunset. She began to think about everything that had happened today, from the royal meeting with the Queen that she is not allowed to share with anypony else, not even her friends, to the Missing Unicorns case that Hitch was investigating. Then there was the recent revelation about Izzy having a new friend, a scientist named Wormwood who apparently had a drone with him, and had a vested interest in magic, Zipp found this to be very intriguing, perhaps more so than she was letting on.

"Hmmm, Dr Wormwood huh, seems a little strange for a 'scientist' to be hanging out in a junkyard, and if I overheard right from Izzy, it sounds like he had a drone with him, and his interest in using magic to benefit all ponykind... I wonder..." Zipp pondered to himself.

She turned her gaze over to Maretime Bay below her.

"I think I'm gonna need to do a little more digging into things tomorrow, for the case that Hitch is on, and for this mysterious Dr Wormwood that Izzy met, I don't know why... but I can't shake this strange feeling I'm getting from all this."

She continued to stare out towards the town in thought, when she was interrupted by a call from inside the Brighthouse.

"Hey Zipp, are you coming or what?"

"Huh? Yeah I'll be right there." Said Zipp back as she made her way to the door, taking one last look over the sea before shutting the door behind her.

While the party continued to rave on inside the Brighthouse, there was an awful lot to reflect on today for the Mane five. The mystery of the Unicorns vanishing was a deep and troubling one, what could be behind it happening, and if they were being ponynapped as Hitch and Zipp suspect, who is the perpetrator, and why are they doing it?

Then there is Izzy's new friend from the junkyard, while it may seem the two of them might be hitting it off in terms of friendship, at the same time the new friend had told Izzy virtually nothing about who he was nor what he did as a living, not to mention he appears to harbor some hard feelings towards Canterlogic, could he have been one of it's workers from back in the day, and if so, what happened to him? Zipp appears to have some suspicions about him too, for what reason, is currently unclear.

Finally, there was the meeting that Zipp and Pipp had with their mother the Queen of Zephyr Heights, what exactly transpired in that meeting, did something happen to the city while they were away, and why are the sisters keeping quiet about it from even their own close friends in the Mane five? Three mysteries to solve, one bigger than the others, and with very little to go on. Tomorrow promised to be a busy and certainly eventful day for Sunny and her friends, together she and her friends vow to solve the mystery of the Unicorns vanishing before it is too late.

Little did they know however, is that their activities and detective work hasn't gone completely unnoticed by everypony, and whatever is responsible for the case at hand, might be closer than they think.

END OF ACT 1

Act 2 - Chapter 1

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"Dear diary, you won't believe what's been happening!"

"It all started yesterday when I was at the local junkyard looking for anything interesting or odd to use in my uni-cycling, I happened to bump into a new pony friend I had never met before, he was some kind of science pony who had a talent for inventing, re-cycling scrap and other sciency stuff I assume. He did seem rather cold and bitter outwardly at first, but after I did some chatting with him, he gradually warmed up, and we soon hit off right away, sharing our enjoyment of inventing and thinking outside the box, or was it beyond the trees as they called it back home? I was sad when he had to go in order to get back to his job, but before he left, he told me that I would be receiving a message from him when he had time to meet me again, I was so excited about it that I didn't get to ask him how he would do so, but I assume I'll know about it soon enough!"

"Now... I must talk about something more sad and depressing... Unicorns have been vanishing all over the place recently, and nopony knows what's causing it... My hometown of Bridlewood has been hit pretty hard by it. My friends Hitch and Zipp are both hard at work on the case, with Zipp suspecting that it might be a case of serial ponynapping going on, something that Hitch is slowly leaning towards himself...
I haven't spoken my mind about it yet, but between you and me diary... I hope that it's not a case of ponynapping and just simply some magical mishap that's going on like we've seen before. Likewise, I know this might sound silly, but I just cannot picture anypony being nasty enough to do such a thing, even that Deputy who tried to destroy Sunny's lighthouse home a while back wasn't really that bad of a stallion deep down, just simply misguided in his beliefs.

Today however is going to be a big deal for all of us, Sunny, Hitch, Zipp, Pipp and me are all going to be heading to the forest towards Bridlewood today to see if we can find some clues as to what's going on, I'm sure Alphabittle will be happy to lend us a hoof too, he's probably worried sick about his missing customers. To help everypony out, I've prepared a few gizmos from the uni-cycled scrap I gathered yesterday to make our search much easier, I like to call them 'glitter flares', these things work like fireworks, sending a tall shower of glitter upwards into the sky, that way if anypony is ever in trouble, we can all converge to help them out!

Everypony else has their own ideas on how they'll help out too, Zipp will be using her own selection of gadgets, including her little search drone along with the Rad-visor that I made for her a while back to help search for as many clues as possible. Pipp plans on rallying the 'Pippsqueaks' on her social accounts, encouraging them to send in any rumours, information and more to her, she's also bringing a magnification glass with her to use to search for clues too. As for Sunny, she will be scouting up ahead of us on her roller-skates, that way if there is anything dangerous on the path towards the forest, she'll instantly let us know about it quickly with her whistle. Hitch meanwhile is actively communicating with his animal pals around the area, he aims to see if the animals hanging around the forest have been noticing anything off in recent times, hoping that they can point us in the right direction. What I find most curious however is that he's also bringing with him a pair of hoof-cuffs in his satchel, I'm guessing that if there really is somepony behind all this, he'll be ready to arrest them on the spot, but probably not before Alphabittle has had them tied up in the centre of town and subjected to the most terrifying punishment known to all Unicorn kind... The Mayonnaising A truly horrible fate to be bestowed upon, mwahahahaha!!

Oopsie! I've looked at the time and just realized that we'll be setting out in a bit, and I don't wanna be late! Well anyway I can't wait to write you again tomorrow morning with hopefully some good news this time, see you later diary!

Izzy Moonbow

ACT 2

It was a cool crisp late morning on the outskirts of Maretime Bay, the grass was rich in moisture from the mists that formed overnight, and the air was fresh and clear to breathe in. In contrast to yesterday's bright clear sunny weather, today was a mix of grey clouds and a little overcast across the sky, even so, the sun was still shining high up through the layers of cloud, illuminating the lands with warmth and comfort.

For the Mane Five however, there was little time to bask in the sights and the feel of nature, today was a serious matter for all of them. Yesterday Hitch Trailblazer, the Sheriff of Maretime Bay, had discovered a string of pony disappearances happening across Equestria, stretching from Bridlewood all the way to Maretime Bay. Even more disturbingly, almost all the pony's that had been vanishing were Unicorns, and most of them happened in Bridlewood. After a whole day of search turned up little to no clues, Hitch has now enlisted the help of his friends in the Mane five to help him crack open the case at hoof. The group has decided to divide itself into two groups in order to cover as much ground and air as possible, Hitch, Pipp and Izzy will be sticking to doing clue hunting on the ground largely, using their gadgets to assist in the search, while Zipp and Sunny carry out reconnaissance and information gathering on the ground and air respectfully. In the event of any danger or trouble anypony finds themselves in, each of them has been provided with one of Izzy's new "glitter flares" to use as a signal for help, they can also be used in the event of anypony finding an important piece of evidence related to the case, but since they only carry enough cartridges to use it twice before it runs out, they must be used only when necessary.

After a hectic breakfast spent gathering everything they need for the day's long trip to Bridlewood, the Mane Five have now departed in full, their satchel bags full to the brim with items they've taken with them on the journey, in Izzy's and Pipps case, they packed a little too much stuff.

"Seriously sis, why'd you have to bring your cosmetics with you as well? We're only going to be gone for a day at most." Said Zipp.

"Oh please Zipp, you know that I need to look my best as much as possible, especially since my Pippsqueaks are going to be helping us out, the last thing I want is for me to look slightly less 'Pipp and Prim' to them when I do my streams and status updates. "Said Pipp, already gazing up into her phone.

"Heh, why is that, are you afraid of them seeing you looking like you've been through a mud trial instead?" Said Zipp teasingly.

"Wha- Y-yes! I don't want to end up becoming the laughingstock of the whole CanterNet, not with the standing I have!" Said Pipp, looking annoyed.

"You mean like what happened to Silver Streak, the so-called 'shining silver stallion' when he was caught messily eating all those hay burgers at the local restaurant, his 'deluxe white coat' all greasy and messy?" Said Zipp, looking smug.

"Yes exactly! The poor pony never recovered from that humiliation." Said Pipp dejectedly.

"Hey come on, it was funny wasn't it?" Said Zipp reassuringly.

"Well... I guess it is kind of funny now looking back on it, I'm just thankful that my Pippsqueaks haven't been exposed to such a thing from me yet, goodness knows the humiliation I'd get." Said Pipp, feeling more confident.

"It wouldn't be the end of the world Pipp, sometimes you just gotta have a good laugh sometimes, even if it's at your own expense." Said Zipp.

"Pffft, pur-lease Zipp, all you ever do is laugh at my expense at any opportunity you get, but you rarely let me have a chance to do it at all since you all you do is just brush it off like it was nothing, how can I ever work with that?" Said Pipp, pouting a little.

"You do have a habit of being over-dramatic about such a thing, even the littlest thing like a stray hair becoming stuck out is enough to freak you out like you are about to have a heart attack." Said Zipp bluntly.

Pipp gasped, then looked up at her sister, "W-what!? Why you-"

"Alright alright, that's enough you two, we've got a job to do today." Called Hitch from the front.

The two sisters looked on at him, then sheepishly laughed together before moving on from their little quarrel.

"I don't know about you ponies, but I'm feeling super-duper excited to be going back home to Bridlewood today, I haven't been there ever since I moved out months ago, I hope my home is still in one piece, with all my uni-cycled tools and jars of glitter!" Said Izzy, bouncing along the path with joy.

"Izzy, this is a serious matter! Unicorns have been vanishing all across Equestria, and Bridlewood has been hit hard by it most, we have to focus on finding them and bring them back home today!" Said Sunny.

"I know that silly, but I'm also happy to be coming back home as well, I can't wait to see everypony again, especially Alphabittle, I hope he's still hanging in there despite all that's going on." Said Izzy.

"The way things are going right now, there might not be anypony left to welcome you home Izz." Said Zipp.

"Zipp!" Shouted Sunny, Hitch and Pipp together.

"What? I'm not wrong about it, am I?" Said Zipp, looking a little sheepish.

"No, but you could've worded that much better for Izzy's sake." Said Pipp sarcastically.

"Heh, sorry about that Izzy." Said Zipp softly.

"None taken at all Zippy." Said Izzy with a smile.

"Z-z-zippy!?" Said Zipp wide eyed.

The other ponies started chuckling, Pipp audibly louder than the rest.

"Haha, Zippy? Isn't that the nickname our old caretaker used to call you back when we were fillies?" Said Pipp smugly.

Zipp went on the defensive, trying to steer the conversation away that topic.

"M-m-maybe, but you know I much rather be called Zipp, or even Zephyrina instead of that you know!" Said Zipp with a silly grin.

"Really now? So that means you accept being the royal princess and heir to the throne after all?" Said Pipp smugly.

"Yes, I m-mean NO! I mean... ughh!" Said Zipp in disgust.

"Gotcha that time sis." Said Pipp with a wink, before trotting along triumphantly.

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say, lil Pippy." Said Zipp dismissively, but with a hidden smirk.

Pipp looked back at her horrified at what she just said, but Zipp only chuckled, then took off into the air above them. Pipp quietly groaned about her old nickname, then carried on trotting in a huff.

"Anyway! Moving on, how long do you think it's going to take for us to reach Bridlewood Izzy?" Asked Hitch.

Izzy thought for a moment, then she opened up her satchel and took out a map she had brought with her, it was hoof drawn in her own signature art style, complete with doodles, glitter and other Unicorn-esque things.

"Hmmm, well if my information is correct, and sometimes it's not, if we keep on moving along the path that we're on right now, we should be able to reach the forest by this afternoon." Said Izzy, examining the map closely.

"If your information is correct? Wasn't it you who made this map up in the first place?" Said Hitch with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course I did, I took into account all of the measurements and angles from where we would have to go, and the distance from here to there. And as a bonus I also drew us on here too, see Sunny here in Maretime Bay, me over here in Bridlewood, and Zipp and Pipp over here in Zephyr Heights!" Said Izzy, proud of her creation.

"That's uh, adorable Izzy." Said Pipp, shrugging her shoulders with a smile.

"Wait hold on now, who is this supposed to be next to Sunny?" Asked Hitch, pointing to the doodle in question with the tall looking stetson.

"Oh uh, I think that one is meant to be you Hitch, dressed up as a cowpony with hat and all." Said Izzy innocently.

The other ponies let out a laugh, Hitch however was bemused.

"Ha ha ha, very funny Izzy, just because I'm wearing my detective hat today doesn't mean you can make fun of it." Said Hitch with a huff.

"Aww come on Hitchy-poo, it's just a doodle, lighten up and look the brighter side of things." Said Izzy, rolling up her map and tucking it away in her bag.

Hitch just huffed and carried on walking down the path.

"So anyway, you said that if we stick to this path here, we should reach Bridlewood in no time at all?" Asked Sunny.

"That's right! But we should all get a move on, they say some 'nasties' lurk out here in the wilderness." Said Izzy, picking up the pace.

"Huh, what do you mean by 'nasties'?" Asked Pipp cautiously.

"Weeeeell, Alphabittle told me once when I was a filly that outside of Bridelwood in the wilderness around what was once Ancient Equestria, some nasty looking monsters lived out there, with no-pony around to keep things in order they now roamed freely, looking for anything to munch their teeth into, ponies included!" Said Izzy, making loud biting sounds with her jaw.

"Seriously? Are they actually real or not?" Said Pipp, looking worried.

"I've never seen one myself, even during the first time that I left the forest, but as the saying goes, you never know when you'll be somepony else's lunch. That's another reason I made these glitter flares right here, in case one of us ends up in trouble, so we can send up a signal for help." Said Izzy, showing one of the flares off.

"That's not exactly reassuring Izzy, especially if they end up not working." Said Hitch.

"It's better than ending up as a monsters lunch sheriff." Said Zipp hovering next to him.

"Whatever." Said Hitch dismissively.

"Hey everypony, it looks like the road splits along here into two directions." Called Sunny.

"Wait what? I don't remember there being a fork in the road the last time we went to Bridlewood." Said Zipp.

"Oh that's because we took the longer and more rugged route to there from Zephyr Heights remember? This route along here is the fastest way to get to Bridlewood, but we have two choices of where we can go." Said Izzy, pulling her map out again.

"So... Which path is the quickest then?" Asked Zipp.

"Well according to my map, the left path here is the fastest way to get to my hometown, but it's also the most rugged and potentially dangerous since it goes by a nearby open gorge." Said Izzy, pointing with her hoof.

"That sounds right up my alley." Said Zipp with a smile.

"Now the right path here will take a little longer to get there since it goes through the thicket of the forest, but it's also the safer of the two paths." Said Izzy.

"That sounds like the ideal one to take." Said Sunny thoughtfully.

"Hmm, I don't know about you girls, but the sooner we can get to Bridlewood the better, I don't want the trail to go cold." Said Hitch, eying the left path.

"Well I am in no mood to get my mane messed up today, so I think I'll take the leisurely walk to get there." Said Pipp, pointing to the right path.

The Mane Five seemed split on which direction to take, but Izzy came up with an idea to solve it.

"Hey I got an idea, why don't we all split up and take both paths to Bridlewood?" Said Izzy.

"I'm all for that, we can cover way more ground that way." Said Zipp.

"Hmm I don't know everypony, splitting up into different groups might be risky, especially since we have no idea what could be out there, much less if we run into whatever is behind the Unicorns vanishing." Said Sunny, looking a little worried.

"It's no biggie Sunny, we're both going to be meeting up at the same place at the end anyway. That and as Zipp just said, we can cover more ground in our investigation that way too." Said Hitch.

"Yeah, we might even be able to find double the clues that way too." Said Pipp, whipping out her phone to check her updates.

"And if we do end up in trouble, we have the glitter flares that I made right here to signal for help." Said Izzy, folding up her map away.

Sunny looked at her friends, taking in what they just said. Despite still having concerns about the idea, she ultimately decided to give it a try.

"Alright I'm convinced, let's do this! Pipp, Izzy and I will take the right path to Bridlewood, Hitch, you and Zipp can take the left path to there, with all that ground to cover, we're bound to find something related to the case at hoof! Remember to keep your eyes peeled and ears up for anything suspicious you see, and together we will split this whole mystery wide open!

"Hay yeah! Now that's the Sunny Starscout I know!" Said Hitch, giving her a hoof bump.

"I'm gonna go scout out the left path ahead, catch you all later." Said Zipp who took off into the air and flew off.

"We'd better get a move on too, I'm itching to get back to my home as soon as possible." Said Izzy, jumping with excitement.

And with that, the Mane five had split up into two groups, with Sunny's group taking the right path towards Bridlewood, while Hitch's took the left one. Sunny and her group were soon on their merry way down the path, and as Izzy's map had said, it seemed to be the safer of the two paths, the views were more open and clear, very easy to spot any danger that might approach them. Sunny however still seemed to be distracted about something on her mind, she was paying little attention to what was in front of her, instead gazing off far into the distance, something which didn't go unnoticed by her friends.

"Sunny hunny, are you okay?" Asked Pipp hovering nearby.

"Huh? O-oh umm, y-yeah i'm okay, why?" Said Sunny, stuttering a little.

"Well you've been staring off into space for the last few minutes, not that it's weird or anything since I do it all the time, but it's pretty unusual for you to be doing that." Said Izzy.

"I guess I just got lost in my own thoughts for a little bit." Said Sunny, grinning sheepishly.

Pipp didn't seemed convinced, she trotted up close to her and asked her more directly, "Tell me Sunny, are you worried about Izzy's safety?"

"W-well umm..." Said Sunny.

"Are you worried about me vanishing like all the other Unicorns?" Said Izzy curiously.

Sunny looked at the two of them, then signed heavily, "Yes, yes I am worried about her safety, with all these Unicorns going missing... i'd hate for something to happen to her too..."

"Hey, don't over-worry yourself thin Sunny, we'll never let that happen ever, right Izzy?" Said Pipp.

"Right as light, so long as we all stick together, ain't nothing bad going to happen to me, and even if it did, we'd all just vamoose away in safety." Said Izzy smiling at her friends.

"You see Sunny? Our friendship will protect us from any danger that comes our way, isn't that what you always encourage towards us?" Said Pipp, hoof bumping Sunny's chest.

Sunny stood there taking in what they just said, then smiled to herself, they were right, she couldn't let her fears and worries get the better of her now, not when there are ponies to rescue.

"You're right girls, I need to keep my fears down and my focus up, now let's get moving and get to Bridlewood!" Said Sunny, clenching her hoof in confidence.

"Now that's more like it, let's get going!" Said Pipp, taking off into the air.

"Yeah let's get rolling everypony!" Said Izzy, now wearing her helmet and roller blades.

"When did you put them on?" Asked Pipp with a raised eyebrow.

"I've had these with me in my bag ever since we left the Brighthouse." Said Izzy sticking her tongue out, then looking over to Sunny, "Hey Sunny, how about we have a race to Bridlewood? First one to get there gets free tea from Alphabittle!"

"Oh you are so on! Alphabittle makes the best brews of tea." Said Sunny, getting into position.

"Ready, set, GO!" Shouted Izzy, racing down the path with Sunny just behind her.

"Hey, wait up!" Called Pipp as she flew after them as fast as she could.

The three ponies raced down the path towards the distant sea of trees in a race to see who would get there first. All three of them were nervous deep down about what awaited them in the forest, but they were determined to get there as soon as possible. However, they were unaware that the path they were on was being monitored at a distance by a lone drone hovering high above out of sight, and having detected their movements, it was now cautiously following them, tracking where they were going, and why.

Meanwhile, deep inside the Bridlewood forest itself, everything was deathly quiet and still, an unusual sight to witness in the woods itself. The once serene, mysterious yet wondrous location now felt rather sinister and eerie to enter, as an aura of danger now hung in the air around it, the thin rays of sunshine streaming down from the branches above doing little to dispel it.

In amongst the thicket, a pair of Unicorns remained in hiding inside a large hallowed out log that had fallen onto the ground, one of them was an adult stallion Unicorn with a blond mane and tail with white streaks running through each, paired along with his deep tan coat and yellow eyes. The other pony was a young filly with a pale yellow coat, deep blue mane and tail, with deep green eyes hiding behind her glasses. The older of the two had his head held high up, listening out intensely for any noises or disturbances nearby that might alert them to danger.

"Cripes, I don't hear anything out there at the moment little one, it's too quiet."

"I-is it safe now mister umm...?"

"It's Starduster filly, I'll take a quick look around to check, but please stay hidden until I feel it's safe." Said the Unicorn, as he quietly peaked his head out to take a look around.

The surroundings seemed still and quiet, with the distance sound of bird song from far away, and yet Starduster was not dumb, for he knew that looks can be deceiving, and whatever is behind the Unicorns disappearing might not be far away. For now though, it seemed the coast was clear, and they can move on closer towards Bridlewood.

"It seems all clear for now, but we better get moving towards Bridlewood, we'll be safer there than out here." Said Starduster, looking back at the filly.

"That's a good idea... " Said the filly.

"Say what is your name by the way?" Asked Starduster.

"It's Jasmine sir, and thank you." She said, doing a little bow.

"Don't thank me yet Jasmine, not until we're out of this mess we've got ourselves into." Said Starduster seriously.

Jasmine agreed, then the two of them started walking quietly but quickly through the thicket of the forest, keeping their heads down to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. The young filly was thankful to have been found by Starduster who came to help her when she got lost in the woods, looking up at him, she felt safer in his presence. However, she couldn't help but notice that his eyes were distracted, like something on his mind was bothering him.

"Pardon me mister, but is something wrong?" Asked Jasmine.

"Well umm... yes, actually there is something that is bothering me, and it's about you." Said Starduster, looking at her.

The little filly stopped, looking at him in surprise, "W-what do you mean?"

"It's simple, how on earth did you end up wondering way out here in the first place?" Said Starduster.

"Oh umm... it's a little hard to explain but..." Said Jasmine uneasily.

"You do know how dangerous it's become out here right? Alphabittle warned everypony to never go far from Bridlewood because of all the Unicorns disappearing in the woods, and yet you still went wondering around out here on your own without telling anypony!" Said Starduster severely.

Jasmine gulped, she was trying to speak up but Starduster interrupted her.

"It's pointlessly reckless to do such a thing on your own, especially at your age!" He said with a mild shout.

"I-I know that... b-but... I had to come out here... I had to find him...!" Said Jasmine, trying to speak up.

"Is that right? Was it a family member you were looking for, or somepony else?" Asked Starduster.

Jasmine seemed to be on the edge about something, but she took a deep breath and started explaining.

"...It's my dad, I wanted to find my dad. He didn't come home at all yesterday... After my mum passed away he's my only family I have left... I know we were all warned about wondering into the woods, but I wanted to find him..." She said sadly.

Starduster signed, then he gently patted her head to comfort her.

"That was a brave thing to do little one, but again also reckless too, you should never wonder off on your own, it can get you killed you know." He said.

Jasmine nodded silently, Starduster looked into her eyes, he saw that she was struggling to keep herself from breaking down over something, and he had a hunch that he knew what it was too.

"I can see it your eyes Jasmine, you already know the fate of your father, don't you?" Said Starduster slowly.

Jasmine started choking up, tears starting to leak out of her eyes.

"...Y-yes I do... The Metal Monster must've got him... A-and... And then it..."

The poor filly couldn't hold back anymore, the emotion was getting too much, she burst out crying.

"I want my father back...!" Sobbed Jasmine loudly.

"There there little one, i'm sure your father is-"

"The Metal Monster took him away! He's never coming back, he's probably dead by now or worse!" She shouted loudly.

Starduster looked at the poor little pony crying her emotions out, he signed and gently comforted her in a hug. He had heard rumors from around Bridlewood about the so called "Metal Monster" that had been spotted in the forest recently, chasing after Unicorns and taking them away to who knows where, never to be seen again. Whether it was true or not, it's got everypony in Bridlewood on the edge, in fear that it might someday invade their home and attack them too. Poor little Jasmine just had her father taken away by it, and despite the danger, she still wanted to find him. Sniffing a little tear, he couldn't help but be proud of that courage, even if it was reckless of her to do so, he had to cheer her up and encourage her somehow. Showing a warm smile, he lifted her chin up at him.

"Listen Jasmine, you will find your dad again, I know you will." Said Starduster reassuringly.

Jasmine looked up at him, wiping away her tears, "H-huh? D-do you mean it mister?"

Starduster smiled at her, nodding his head, "I do mean it, you can trust me."

"T-thank you..." She sniffed, getting back to her hooves, showing a smile again.

"But first, we need to get back to Bridlewood, it's not safe out here." Said Starduster.

Jasmine nodded, and the two of them set off once again back towards Bridlewood in renewed spirits and determination.
However, it wasn't long before Starduster began to think that there was something off about everything around them, he looked down upon the path they were on and noticed something alarming, stopping Jasmine in her tracks.

"H-hey, what's going on mister?" Asked Jasmine.

"Look down at the tracks on this path, notice anything different about them?" Said Starduster.

Jasmine took a good look at the path, it was well travelled with all sorts of hoof prints left behind by ponies who walked along here on the path to Bridlewood. However, she did notice something different about one set of tracks, taking a closer look at them.

"These sets of tracks are different from the other ones." She said, pointing them out with her hoof.

"A sharp eye you got there little one, tell me, what's different about them?" Asked Starduster.

"Hmmm... oh, they look bigger than a normal ponies, and there is no hoof mark in them... just one big flat print." Said Jasmine.

"That's correct Jasmine, but... Do you realize what this means? Whatever or whoever left tracks like that, it's not from a normal pony." Said Starduster ominously.

Jasmines eyes went wide, she started to look around wildly, her breathing becoming more panicked.

"Oh no! N-no no no no! T-the Metal Monster has been though here!" She shouted out loud.

"Shush! You don't want to attract it's attention do you-"

He was cut off when there came a loud crack of split tree bark from not far away, causing him to look in the direction of where it came from, cold sweat beginning to form on his brow.

"I think we better get galloping and fast, come on, hop onto my back quick!" Said Starduster, lowering himself down for her to jump on.

Jasmine climbed onto his back and held onto him for dear life as Starduster started galloping down the path as fast as he could. After there was another loud crack of tree bark splitting, Jasmine took a gaze behind her against her better judgement, and to her horror, she saw it. There it was, chasing right after them, the so called "Metal Monster", it looked like a large dark silhouette with a single glowing red eye, it was hovering above the ground like an evil spirit, and there was a loud roaring sound, nothing like she had ever heard before that was coming from it, and it seemed to get louder the closer it got to them.

"It's after us, it's after us!" Shouted Jasmine.

"Just hold on tight, we'll try to get away from it!" Said Starduster

Starduster tried to pick up the pace, but he soon found himself tiring out quickly, he was no athlete like an Earth Pony was, and if he ended up collapsing from exhaustion, then the Metal Monster chasing them would catch up to them and do who knows what to them, and that was the last thing he wanted to happen, especially to Jasmine, he couldn't stomach the thought of a little one being taken away by it. Luckily however, he spotted a large fallen tree that he could duck under to escape it's sight, he just had to time the dive just right to make it work.

"Alright, I've got an idea, we're gonna lose that thing, hold on tight now." Said Starduster, making his way to the fallen tree.

Jasmine held on for dear life as Starduster suddenly jolted down and ducked under the fallen tree, it was just low enough for the two of them to dash under it and out to the other side, where they found themselves in a clearing. After that, Starduster slowed his pace down, taking a look back to see that they seemed to have lost the monster.

"Hahh hah... looks like we managed to lose it." He said, trying to catch his breath.

Jasmine however wasn't so sure they had lost it, she could still hear that awful roaring noise coming from nearby, she feared they were not out of danger just yet.

"Umm I don't think we're out of danger yet..."

"Huh, what makes you say that?" Said Starduster in surprise.

"...Look out!" She shouted, pointing a hoof at something aiming at them.

Starduster looked at what she was pointing at, and reacted just a second too late, jumping out of the way as a blast went off right next to him, knocking him and Jasmine onto the ground, with Starduster clutching his side in pain.

"Augh... dang that really hurts." He said, rubbing his side, making sure it wasn't cut.

Both had little time to get themselves up when they heard loud stomps coming their way, both looked up and saw that they were surrounded by a number of pony like figures, staring at the two of them with their single glowing eyes.

"W-what are t-these things, p-ponies!?" Asked Jasmine fearfully.

Starduster however, could tell right away that they were not ponies, they may have had the same general shape, but it was obvious that they were something else entirely.

"Those aren't ponies... and they're not friendly at all." He said, trying to sit up, but the injury on his side made it hard to do so.

The pony like figures all took a step forward towards them, one of them aiming it's hoof at them, Starduster quickly saw that it wasn't a hoof at all, but some sort of weapon in place of one. Not only that, but taking a closer look as it stepped into the ray of sunshine showed that it had metal parts attached to it, and a metal like body with segmented limbs like a robot. That's when it finally sunk in for Starduster, these things weren't monsters at all, they were robots. Now realizing how serious the danger they were in and more, Starduster began making a plan, looking over at Jasmine.

"Jasmine, I want you to listen to me very carefully." He said to her.

Jasmine looked up at him, listening intensely.

"When I give the signal, I want you to jump off my back and run as fast as you can towards Bridlewood, you must warn them of what's really going on out here, this might be our only chance." Said Starduster, lifting her up onto his back."

"B-but what about you mister? How will you escape?" Jasmine asked with concern.

"I won't, I'll hold them off so they'll have to take me away, but it'll buy you enough time for you to escape." He said, looking serious.

"Huh!? B-but I don't want to lose y-you... like I lost my dad... what if they kill you!?" Said Jasmine, tears forming in her eyes again.

Starduster did seem to have a second of doubt in his mind, but his resolve was decided.

"I know, I didn't want it to be this way either... but we have no choice, your safety is more important right now, just trust me." He said.

Jasmine sobbed more, she was still against it, but she could see in his eyes that he was serious about doing this. Gulping hard and wiping her tears away, she nodded in agreement, then she got ready for the plan.

"Ready? Let's do it! Hey you tin pots, take this!" Shouted Starduster, as he levitated a nearby log and tossed it straight towards them.

The robot ponies didn't seemed to have expected him to do that as only a few of them jumped out of the way, the others ended up being smacked down by the log.

"Now Jasmine, GO!" Shouted Starduster, launching her off his back as he ran towards robots to keep them occupied.

Jasmine screamed as she landed behind the bushes, luckily catching her fall just in time, and then proceeding to run as fast as she could away from the clearing. She then heard the sounds of laser blasts and loud shouts behind her, she could only imagine what was going on behind her. Jasmine really wanted to stop and look back to see if Starduster was okay, but she knew that would just make it easier for the robots to catch up and capture her too. Tears flowed out of her eyes and flew behind her as she kept on moving forward faster and faster into the depths of the forest and out of danger.

It seemed like ages since she started running, but eventually she started to see the familiar glow of crystals up ahead, that meant Bridlewood was so close now. Her little hooves were aching and she was short of breath, but she had to make it, she had to warn the rest of the Unicorns living in the village of what was going on.

"A-almost... Hah... T-there... Haahh..." Jasmine panted, as she finally entered the settlement proper.

She immediately spotted a few Unicorns gathered in a group nearby talking about something, one of them having put up a missing Unicorn poster, one of many that had been posted around the whole of Bridlewood. Despite being tired and out of breath, she mustered up whatever strength she could to try and reach them.

"H-hey! E-everypony... Help me...!" She shouted breathlessly as she slowly made her way to them.

One of the unicorns heard her and turned to look at her, "Huh? Jasmine! W-where have you been???"

"I-I tried to help him... b-but... t-they got him...t-they took him away... S-starduster..." She panted out.

"Starduster!? W-who got him, tell us please!"

But poor Jasmine had no breath left to say more, she collapsed onto the ground exhausted and worn out from all the running. The group of Unicorns all panicked upon seeing it and raced over to check on her straight away.

"Oh no! The poor thing has collapsed!"

"What do you think she was trying to say about Starduster? I thought he left earlier today to go find some help at Maretime Bay."

"D-d you think that t-t-the metal monster got him too!?"

"It sounds like it from what she said... but i'm curious about who 'they' are, might they be in league with the Metal Monster?"

"One of them is bad enough, a whole group of them I can do without thank you!"

"Either way we need to get the poor filly to Alphabittle asap, he'll know what to do."

The group all agreed, one of them picking up the fainted filly up onto their back, then carrying her over towards the Crystal Tea House where Alphabittle lived and served customers. They proceeded to knock on the door only to see it open up on it's own like it hadn't even been closed properly. Curious, the group peered inside, and there he was, Alphabittle, the leader of the Unicorns of Bridlewood, sitting around at a table all alone, looking down at the floor in dismay.

"Welcome... please take a seat somewhere and my waiter will be with you... someday." He said dejectedly.

The group looked at each other with concern, but they had to press the issue at hoof, clearing their throat, one of them spoke up.

"Alphabittle sir, we have a situation here!"

"Tell me about it... Unicorns disappearing all the time, a metal monster haunting about our neck of the woods, and now i'm losing customers because of this whole mess... i'm facing ruin..." Said Alphabittle sadly.

"Yes I know sir, but we have a new one on our hooves, it's about Jasmine..."

Alphabittle immediately perked up upon hearing that name, he looked over at the group wide eyed.

"W-what happened to her? Oh no, don't tell me the metal monster got her too!" He shouted in shock.

"Oh n-n-no sir, she's here safe and sound... but she fainted from exhaustion, we think that it was chasing her, but she managed to lose it."

Alphabittle got up right away all fired up, knocking the table over in a hurry, "Bring her here over to the guest room right away, i'll look after her until she comes to."

The Unicorns gave a nod, then followed Alphabittle into one of the guest rooms inside the Crystal Tea House, then very gently he took Jasmine into his hooves very carefully, then he proceeded to tuck her into the provided bed. He examined her forehead and her chest, and smiling a sign of relief, places a nearby cold wet cloth on top of her head.

"Is she going to be okay sir?"

"She'll be just fine, she just needs some rest for now, the poor filly must've ran too hard and worn herself out, she should come to after a few hours." Said Alphabittle.

"I'm glad to hear that, she's the first Unicorn to have escaped from the metal monster."

"Hmm, do you think she has information about it and what it looks like?"

"I'm sure we all have many questions to ask her, but for now we should just leave her be to recover. Until then, we should all return back to our homes and be on guard, who knows if that monster is still lurking around nearby." Said Alphabittle seriously.

The Unicorn group agreed to it, they all left the Crystal Tea house and went back to their homes, looking around to make sure that the coast was clear, leaving Alphabittle alone with Jasmine. He signed deeply, looking up at the small window high up shining sunlight down at him.

"What kind of evil out there has decided to do this to us, what do they want with my fellow Unicorns, and why hasn't anyone in Maretime Bay responded to our letters calling for help? We've even sent a few of our own out there to try to get to the town, but each and every time, the metal monster gets to them before they even leave the woods... it's like we're trapped in here like mice in a cage..." He murmured to himself, frustrated at the situation deep down.

Alphabittle looked over at Jasmine resting in bed one last time, then he quietly left the room, closing the door behind him. Then he began making his way back to the main room of the Crystal Tea House, slumping over at his usual spot in deep thought about the whole thing. He wouldn't have long to himself though, in less than an hour, the door once again burst wide open in surprise.

"Welcome... please take a seat anywhere, and my waiter will be with you... eventually" He said dejectedly.

"Jeez Alphabittle, I haven't seen you this down like ever, your sparkles are looking so dull right now." Said a familiar voice.

Alphabittle knew that voice anywhere, he looked up and in his surprise, there she was, Izzy Moonbow in the flesh.

"Izzy! You finally came back!" Shouted Alphabittle in surprise as he raced over to her.

"Yeah well once we got word of what was going on around here, we all raced to get here as soon as we could." Said Izzy, giving off a big smile.

Alphabittle looked over and saw that she had brought her friends with her too, but he noticed that they all looked a little ragged, like they had just been in a chase, Zipp and Hitch in particular were covered in leaves, twigs and other debris, while Sunny and Pipp had mud caked onto their hair and coats.

"Uggghhh this is just the worst! I can't believe my Pippsqueaks saw all of that... look at them, they're all laughing at me!" Whined Pipp, trying her best to filter out all the laugh emojis her fans were spamming her chat with.

"At least we all managed to escape to safety..." Said Sunny thoughtfully.

"Tell me about it, I don't think i've ever run that fast in my life... how do you do it Zipp?" Said Hitch, still catching his breath.

"Ehh, years of athletics and dare-deviling." Said Zipp with a shrug.

"Umm, what on earth happened to you ponies, did you get lost or something?" Said Alphabittle curiously.

"Ah heh heh heh... it's a bit of a long story actually..." Said Izzy, clapping her hoofs together sheepishly.

"I think you should come in and get cleaned up, then tell me what happened." Said Alphabittle as he lead them all inside.

"Thank Twilight, I need a bath right now!" Shouted Pipp as she eagerly dashed inside in a hurry.

Everypony else in the Mane five just signed before making their way inside as well, closing the door behind them. Little did they know though that their movements have been monitored all along by the same hovering drone from earlier, and having captured enough footage of their location, flew off deep into the woods, disappearing out of sight. Who does the drone belong to, what happened to Sunny and her friends that left them so dishevelled, and just what is the mysterious metal monster that seems to be the culprit behind the Unicorns disappearances?

The mystery at hoof is only getting stranger, and more dangerous.

Act 2 - Chapter 2

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Far away from the trees of Bridlewood forest, in the depths of the Equestrian wilderness, inside a hidden facility, there was a dark-secluded room lit up only by rows and rows of computer screens and the sounds of distant machinery at work in the background, and within that same dark-secluded room, a shadowy figure of a pony lurked within. They were sitting back on their chair watching over footage of a familiar group of ponies seemingly running away from something that was chasing after them, growing amused over their shouts and screams as they were blasted at by unseen enemies.

They were however disappointed when one of the ponies, a familiar Pegasus princess, started to fight back against their attackers, pulling back a big thick branch along with the sheriff, letting it go, smacking into the attackers, sending them reeling back, and in one case, causing one of them to break down in smoke. As the group escaped into the trees towards Bridlewood, the figure turned away deep in thought, pondering their next move.

"So... the sheriff and his merry mares have all managed to escape my robot's have they? Hah, I was hoping that the robots would rough them up a little more before they escaped to the village. There is no doubt now that they will warn the remaining Unicorns about what's going on in the forest, that, and having seen my robots in action against them, they will likely be wary of further attacks against them."

The shadowy pony leaned back on the chair, in deep thought about the circumstances at hoof, silently considering their options and what to do next.

"I could just send in my whole army of robots straight into Bridlewood, they would almost certainly overwhelm them with sheer numbers alone, and lead to the capture of everypony that is there, but... Such a move is too reckless for my liking, and I don't want to play all of my cards so soon, especially since I still need to finish up my master plan."

The shadowy pony turned their chair towards another screen, a big one that showed the progress of some sort of secret project they were working on, a sinister grin growing on their face as the progress was reaching the final stage.

"I only need just a few more days to put the final touches onto it, and then once I have done so, no pony will be able to stand in my way as I achieve my long held ambitions at last!"

Leaning back on the chair to let out a deep hearty laugh, the shadowy pony was then interrupted by an alert that went off on the screen to their right. Swinging around to check it out, they saw that a group of robot ponies were approaching a secret location, bringing along with them a Unicorn that had been captured in a net, a familiar looking Unicorn. Tenting their hooves together in delight, the figure turned around to view another screen to see the Unicorn being taken away to some sort of entrance into a facility built underground.

"Excellent, another Unicorn has been captured, that makes seventeen that have been taken so far. If I can just capture one or two more, that should be more than enough to complete the master plan."

The shadowy pony shifted their chair over to yet another screen, one that showed security footage of every single Unicorn that had been captured by them so far, more than half of them were familiar faces, including the music duo of Onyx and Dapple, Leaf, Dreamy, and even poor Primrose.

"Let's see who we've got this time."

Imputing some commands, the screen changed to footage of the newly captive Unicorn being taken to some sort of holding cell in a secret location. The lead robot with a red spiky mane inputted on a nearby control panel, causing the cell to unlock and open up. The robot ponies then unlocked the net that the Unicorn had been trapped in, and with a heave ho, they threw their captured prey into the cell, closing the door behind him. The Unicorn was none other than Starduster from before, he had sacrificed himself to the robots in order to give Jasmine time to escape back to Bridlewood safely. Starduster had tried to fight back against them, but he was outnumbered and outmatched by their sheer robotic strength and weapons, leading to his capture.

"What a foolish Unicorn, trying to fight off my creations all by himself, the poor fool deserved his injuries if I say so myself. He can just stay lying there for now until I have need of him, heh heh heh."

The figure then leaned forward to shout out orders to the robots on the intercom.

"Leave the Unicorn inside the holding cell for now, do a check to make sure the location is secure, then report back to your posts for further orders!"

The robots obeyed the orders, and carried out as their leader had asked. Leaving Starduster inside the cell alone, they scouted around to check for any breaches or slips in security, scanning around twice over. Satisfied, the robot pony with the red spiky mane, seemingly their commander, motioned to them to leave the facility through the main door, one by one they left, the big heavy steel doors closing behind them, soon silence fell onto the room, as Starduster lay on the floor in the holding cell, still unconscious from his battle. After a few minutes, some voices began to speak up, it was from none other than the Unicorns from Bridlewood that had also been captured by the robots, all locked up inside cages piled up in a corner of the room.

"Is that Starduster? They've captured him too!?"

"It looks like him, I recognize that mane of his anywhere."

"Oh no... no no no no, I can't take this anymore! Just how many more Unicorns does that monster and his minions have to capture before they're satisfied!?"

"Calm down Primrose, we'll think of something..."

"Think of what Leaf!? We stood no chance against those things on our own, what if that fiend has got a whole army of them and worse waiting for us if we tried to make an escape? We'd all be crushed into mush!"

"But we have to think of something, I can't take being stuck in this stupid cage anymore!"

"It's hopeless everypony, I tell you, it's hopeless!"

The Unicorns were growing restless, they had been prisoners for weeks now, with little food and water provided to them, now they were slowly going mad from being locked up for so long. The shouting and arguing carried on until they were silenced by a soft yet loud voice nearby, it was coming from a Unicorn in a lonely cage in the other corner of the room. She leaned forward, showing her wavy mane with blue and teal highlights.

"Settle down everypony, please! There's nothing we can do right now... we're trapped in here with no way to escape, not without our magic... the only thing we can do is hope for the best right now..."

The other Unicorns were silent for a moment, then as the reality sunk in for them, they quietened down.

"I'm sorry about the uproar, but... I just want to go home..."

"I'm sorry too everypony... I'm just worried about my daughter... I fear for her safety... all alone without anypony to hang out with..."

"I'm sure she'll be fine mister, after all, our leader always looks after the little ones with dedication and care, especially in the absence of parents."

The older Unicorn sighed deeply, then slunk into a corner of his cage, thinking about his daughter back in Bridlewood.

"I hope so... just please be safe, my little Jasmine... Daddy will find a way out of this... somehow."

The shadowy pony had been listening in silently on their conversation through the security cameras, they seemed amused at their suffering.

"Poor useless Unicorns, they must be so desperate to be let out of their cages, so sad that they all want to go back home again, I bet they'd do anything for it, perhaps even working for me, hahaha! Such melodrama and emotion, it's worthy of a theatre play in of itself."

Satisfied with his new captured prisoner, the pony then turned their attention back to the big screen, with the Mane Five in its view.

"Still, I cannot just let the sheriff and his band run around and interfere with my plans, that could be a serious problem. Hmmm, as tempting as it is to just launch an attack on Bridlewood itself, I'd rather just wait for them to make the first move instead, and expose themselves out from the villages safety, that way I can deal with them in force and be rid of their meddling hides for good!

After inputting some more commands into the computer, the shadowy pony then stood up and began gloating more openly.

"Then once they're out of the way, I can finally focus on my dream, my ambition, to conquer all of known Equestria! To subject everypony and everything to my superior will and power! All will bow down to me, their future leader, and no pony will stand in my way!"

The pony then gazed sinisterly upon something in the room, a tall glowing cylinder-lantern like device sitting on a desk, pulsing with a familiar rainbow-coloured light, like a prism.

"And it all starts with this, the greatest source of power in the world!"

The pony then let out a loud maniacal laughter that echoed throughout the place as the glowing cylinder pulsed more in the corner, all the while not far away, inside what looked like an old factory, there were scenes of conveyor belts pulling along parts of machinery, lasers cutting sheets of metal to pieces, and assembly lines putting them all together into a new robot for the pony's army. There were also sights of weapons being tested out, missiles, laser cannons and more, all being aimed at crude cut-outs of various ponies as targets.

But, most troubling of all, was the sight of something huge and ominous being worked on in the centre of the whole place, covered in tarps, cables and scaffold, it was hard to describe what it could be, but the size of it leaned into the fear of it being some sort of giant weapon, among many others that were planned to be unleashed upon the whole of Equestria when the time came, which was drawing nearer with each passing hour.

There was no doubt about it, the mysterious villain was planning to conquer all of Equestria using these weapons, the ponies at large had no idea of the danger that was building in the shadows, nor who was behind all of it, and just what is this mysterious "greatest source of power" they speak of, and where did it come from?

The Unicorns that have been captured may hold the answers, if the Mane Five can find them before it's too late.

Elsewhere, back in the Bridlewood settlement, the young Unicorn Jasmine began to stir in the bed, having been asleep for the last little while after running away from the danger in the forest. She gave out a long deep yawn, then opened up her eyes to take a look around. She noticed that she wasn't wearing her glasses, but was able to discern that she was inside a room of some kind, and that she was in a bed.

"Am I safe now?" She said to herself.

Looking around the room again, she then breathed a sigh of relief, next she looked over to the table on her right, she spotted her glasses laying there, along side a cup of water.

"Ah, my lucky glasses, I hope they aren't damaged." Said Jasmine, as she took them into her hooves and gently put them on.

Luckily she saw that they were intact, though they did need a cleaning from all the dust around the edges. However that was the least of her attention right now, she scanned around the room, and realized right away where she was.

"I must be in one of the Crystal Tea House guest rooms. but that must mean..."

After letting the thought sink in for a moment, she held her head in her hooves, shedding a few tears, but also smiling in relief.

"Ohhh thank Twilight... I made it. But still... Poor Starduster, he gave himself up to save me... I fear what those things have done to him... especially the Metal Monster." She said to herself, reaching over to drink from the nearby cup.

The poor filly had a lot on her mind right now, enough that it was giving her a headache just thinking about it all. She wanted to go find Starduster and save him, but she knew that would be dangerous, and foolish after seeing how powerful those "metal looking ponies" looked, she wouldn't stand a chance on her own. She also wanted to warn the Unicorns in Bridlewood about what's really going on in the forest so that they can all be better prepared to deal with the danger that surrounds them. She was still deep in thought when she began to hear voices coming from beyond the door, it sounded like a meeting of some kind was going on in the main hall of the Crystal Tea House. Curious, Jasmine hopped out of bed to hear what was going on, leaning her head onto the door to listen in.

"Wait what? You were all attacked and chased into the forest?"

"That's right, me and everypony else had split up into two groups to cover more ground, but before long we were ambushed and chased about by these drone looking things, we were lucky to escape into the trees and reach Bridlewood safely."

"I'm sorry, but drones? What exactly are those things?"

"They're a kind of remote controlled flying machine with a computer program built in, like a robot if you will, they're mostly used for entertainment purposes around Zephyr Heights, but I also have a few that I use for detective work, as you can see right here."

"Interesting, but if that's the case, how can these 'drones' pose a threat to you ponies?"

"They normally don't, but these ones were all souped up, with armor plating, laser cannons and the works.

"Yeah, the way they all zipped around like 'ZOOM', and then blasting away at us like 'PEW PEW PEW', 'BAM BAM BAM', it was so cool, but also scary, it was scary cool!"

"Izzy! We could've been injured or worse from those attacks!"

"I know that, it's a good thing my glitter flares were able to get us out of that mess right?"

"Yeah they did, I figured they would be just for show, but they really came through for us Izz."

"I know right? I'm amazed that they worked so well too!"

Jasmine studied the voices, she recognized one of them all to well.

"Is that Izzy Moonbow? She's finally back in Bridlewood!" She said, trotting on the spot in excitement.

Lifting up a hoof, the young filly gently turned the door knob, and slowly opened the door to peek outside. She saw that Izzy was here alright, but so were her friends, including Sunny, Pipp, Hitch and Zipp. They had just cleaned themselves of the debris and mud from their escape, and were now sitting at a table with Alphabittle.

"Anyway, onto business as they say, Alphabittle, can you tell us what exactly has been going on round here?" Said Sunny seriously.

Alphabittle however, seemed to be rather cross about something, and instead stood up straight.

"Well hold on, I have my own questions first, what took you all so long to come to our help?" Said Alphabittle sternly.

Hitch was about to say something but he was cut off by Zipp speaking up.

"We're sorry that we didn't come soon enough, but we're here now to help you out-

Alphabittle however lashed out before she could finish.

"Excuse me, sorry!? We've been sending out calls for help to Maretime Bay for the last two weeks now! Letters, e-mails, comments, even some of our own braving the forest to reach there, only to end up vanishing with little trace. I was about to give up hope, and only now you decide to show up here to help us out!? Do you have any idea how bad our situation is right now!?" Shouted Alphabittle.

Zipp was taken aback by the statement, but Sunny tried to defuse the situation.

"I know how upset you are Alphabittle, we've had ponies in Maretime Bay tell us yesterday about the missing Unicorns, we aim to help you find the missing Unicorns by working together-

"Is that supposed to make me feel better!? Foundless optimism and hope isn't going to bring my fellow Unicorns back Sunny! Working together, hah! If we were all working together as you like to champion, none of this would be happening! For somepony who actively promotes friendship, harmony and such ideals, you sure have failed to live up to that standard you set yourself, Sunny Starscout!" Said Alphabittle harshly.

Sunny wanted to say something, but she couldn't find the words to say. Alphabittle was angry yes, but he did have a point in what he said, and it cut her deep like a knife. An unsettling silence filled the room, until Hitch finally cleared his throat and spoke up.

"It's my fault Alphabittle, I'm the one responsible for this whole mess happening... it's all on me and my failure to take it seriously."

"What? You sheriff?" Said Alphabittle, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, i've been receiving the letters for help from Bridlewood as you said, but my lack of knowledge of Unicorn customs, along with the fact that I assumed to have had no permission to assert authority in Bridlewood lead to me pushing them onto the side while I focused on other matters in the town... It wasn't until yesterday when a citizen came up to me and told me about what was going on, and only then did I stumble upon the case that was going on under my snoot all along... I was a fool for nearly letting this case go cold!" Said Hitch, bucking a nearby chair to the ground.

Alphabittle looked on at him, focused on his words.

"I'm sorry for letting this happen Alphabittle, I should've known better, but I listened to my misplaced judgement, and now that I look at this mess I ended up in... maybe it's better if you just turn me away and let me return back to Maretime Bay in disgrace..." Said Hitch, slowly turning away in sadness.

"Hitch, wait you can't-" Said Sunny, before Zipp stopped her, shaking her head at her.

"I let you, and all the Unicorns down... I'm sorry..."

Hitch was prepared to leave, but he felt a hoof stop him, he glanced back to see that it wasn't his friends doing it, but Alphabittle, who still had an angry look on his face, but deeper in his eyes, there was a sign of understanding in them.

"Sheriff, I'll be honest, I am disappointed in you and your friends for not responding to my fellow Unicorns requests for help sooner, that's why I had that outburst just now, it's been hard for the rest of us here in Bridlewood." Said Alphabittle, who then softened his look and started to talk more calmly, "However, that doesn't mean I will reject your offer to help us outright."

Hitch's face brightened as he heard that, turning around to look at Alphabittle fully.

"But tell me, why on earth did you ever think that you'd need my permission to operate here in Bridlewood? Sheriff, I don't think you've ever noticed it, but we don't have an active police force active here." Said Alphabittle bluntly.

"H-huh!? You mean that..." Said Hitch stutteringly.

"That's right, you can operate here as a member of authority under my say so, since you are a trusted and respectful officer Hitch." Said Alphabittle.

Hitch rubbed the back of his head, letting out a sheepish sign, "Well, I feel really stupid now don't I?"

Alphabittle smiled and let out a hearty laugh, "Yeah, but don't sweat on it too much, right now we've got bigger things to discuss."

Sunny smiled, knowing they can finally discuss the case at hoof, "Yes, now back to what we were saying earlier about what was going on."

For the last half hour, Alphabittle and the Mane Five proceeded to talk about the whole situation in detail, Alphabittle explaining about all the Unicorns disappearing around Bridlewood and the mysterious "Metal Monster" that has been sighted in the forest, while Sunny and her friends explained what they know about the case, and the "drone" attack that happened to them on the way to Bridlewood and how they escaped.

"Huh, so they came from the trees and ambushed you is that it?" Said Alphabittle.

"Yeah they did, it was scary, Pipp screamed really loud like 'AHHHHHHH' and then flew off straight ahead like a comet, i've never seen her go that fast before, we struggled to keep up using our roller blades on the rough path." Said Izzy.

"I think I went a little too fast honestly, I ended up smacking into a tree and landing in a mud puddle, all the while doing a brief story for my Ponygram too! Augh, they were laughing at my misery!" Whined Pipp, still looking at her phone to filter out the comments.

"Hmm, then how did you end up covered in mud then?" Alphabittle asked Sunny.

"Oh I was trying to help Pipp out of the mud puddle, but Izzy didn't slow down in time and we both ended up covered in it." Said Sunny, both looking at Izzy unamused.

"Hey I couldn't help it, I like to go fast in the woods!" Said Izzy, missing the point entirely.

"Right, now how about you two?" Asked Alphabittle to Zipp and Hitch.

"We had the same situation in our group too, but when they tried to surround us, we busted our way through using a big tree branch to send them flying, and then we ran as fast as we could, so much that we didn't notice that we had left them behind." Said Hitch.

"What I'm concerned about is why did those drones attack us in the first place, how did they know where we were going?" Said Zipp, deep in thought.

"Yeah, I mean you and me Zipp have been used to drones since we were fillies, but I've never seen ones like them before, especially since drones aren't allowed to be armed with weapons in Zephyr Heights by law." Said Pipp.

"Really? Aww, I would've loved to arm a drone with one of my Glitter Flares." Said Izzy, examining one in her hoof.

Pipp facehoofed at the thought of it.

"Moving on, that means we can rule out Zephyr Heights, but now comes a new question, where did these drones come from, who made them, and why?" Said Zipp, typing down on her phone.

"I don't know, but I'm getting a feeling that it might be related to the Unicorn disappearances." Said Hitch thoughtfully.

"Hmm, we'll need more information in order to know for sure what we're up against." Said Sunny, trotting around deep in thought.

The group were left thinking for a little while before a voice spoke up that spooked them.

"Oh umm, excuse me."

The ponies looked over at Jasmine who had been listening to them by the open door to the guest room, and almost right away, Izzy rushed over to her, knocking over a table in the process.

"AHHH! Hello there Jasmine! How have you been little one? Asked Izzy excitedly, gently patting her head.

"Oh u-umm... I've been better?" Said Jasmine with an awkward grin.

"Oh what's wrong? Did something happen to you?" Izzy asked her, concern on her face.

"Umm... well I was-"

"She was attacked by the Metal Monster in the forest." Alphabittle interrupted, adjusting the table back in place.

All the ponies looked at Alphabittle, then back at Jasmine, Izzy then reacted in horror and looked closely at Jasmine.

"What, a Metal Monster nearly got you!? That's terrible! Can you tell me what happened?" Said Izzy, showing a rare show of seriousness.

"Jasmine, please take a seat and tell us what happened out there." Said Alphabittle, providing said seat for her.

Jasmine agreed, she walked over and sat down on the chair, taking in deep breaths, after a few moments she looked up, with a serious expression.

"Okay, I'll tell you all what happened in the forest."

Jasmine then went into detail about how she went into the forest early in the morning to look for her father who had disappeared trying to get to Maretime Bay, she instead ran across Starduster who had also left for Maretime Bay that same day, she was forced to accompany him on the path back to Bridlewood since she wasn't allowed to be out on her own, when they were chased by the Metal Monster and forced to flee. They thought they had escaped it by entering a secluded groove, when they were surrounded by strange metal ponies armed with weapons in their hooves. They then attacked, but Starduster sacrificed himself to allow her to escape to safety, she ran for her life as fast as she could, not looking back, and managed to reach Bridlewood before long. However, she had collapsed from exhaustion after all that running, and had been asleep until now when she woke up and heard the commotion outside her room.

"That's all I can remember..." Said Jasmine, trying to hold back tears from Starduster's sacrifice.

The Mane Five and Alphabittle had been silently listening to her story, and now were taking in what they just heard. Zipp, Hitch and Sunny seemed to be deep in thought, while Pipp and Alphabittle had blank expressions on their faces, then suddenly, Izzy spoke out loudly.

"WHAT!? Strange metal ponies!? They must be aliens who have come to steal our crops! AHHHHHH!!!" Screamed Izzy.

Zipp donked her on the back of the head, "Knock it off Izzy, this is a serious situation!"

"Ow, and aliens stealing our crops isn't?" Said Izzy to Zipp, rubbing the back of her head.

"They aren't aliens Izz, but still, strange metal ponies is a new one on me, if I didn't know better, I'd say that what she saw was perhaps more drones, that were looked like ponies." Said Zipp, typing all of it down.

"Hmm, they sound too big to be normal drones sis, I think that they are in fact legitimate robots, real robot ponies!" Said Pipp somewhat excitedly.

"Real robot ponies? I don't think i've ever seen such a thing." Said Hitch, who looked at Sunny who shook her head.

"It's been on my personal wish-list for like, ages now, but whenever I bring it up to mother, she always says, 'We shouldn't rob our servants and citizens of their jobs by building robot ponies who could replace them'." Said Pipp, imitating her mother's voice, to Zipp's amusement.

"Hmm...if that is the case, then we're not just dealing with drones, but also robot ponies that are armed just like they are. But if that's correct, then where could they have come from? Zephyr Heights has already been ruled out since they are forbidden by law, but if so, where else could they have been built?" Said Sunny, thinking deeply.

"...Unless, but couldn't it be." Said Hitch, connecting the dots in his head.

"If you are thinking what I think your thinking sheriff, then it has to be it." Said Zipp, realizing it too.

"Oh my gosh, of course, how could I have forgotten all about it!" Said Pipp.

Then the four ponies came together and all shouted, "Canterlogic!"

"Canterlogic!? But I thought Phyllis had shut the company down months ago." Said Alphabittle.

"That she did Alphabittle, but... even though it sits abandoned and all, it still has plenty of equipment, machinery and materials for manufacturing things, perhaps even these 'robot ponies'." Said Hitch, taking these notes down into his book.

"Do you think somepony has started it back up again? If so, why would they make such awful things, and if they are behind the Unicorns vanishing, what could they want with them?" Asked Sunny to Hitch.

"I don't know, but I'm starting to get a bad feeling about all of this." Said Hitch, looking worried.

"Then there is the matter of the Metal Monster that's lurking out in the forest, if that thing too is responsible for the Unicorns vanishing, then I think we need to track it down and stop it before it strikes again." Said Zipp.

"Whaaaat! Are you crazy Zipp!? The Metal Monster sounds scary, it might eat you!" Said Izzy in a panic.

"Actually that reminds me, tell me little filly, what did this so called 'Metal Monster' look like?" Asked Hitch to Jasmine.

"Well... from what I could remember, it looked like a big floating... trash can like thing, with a strange looking head and a single glowing red eye, and what looked like big long arms on its sides. I also remember it making this real scary noise as it was approaching, like a strange howling sound behind it." Jasmine described.

"Hmm... sounds like a very strange looking 'monster' to me." Said Hitch, not sounding convinced.

"I wonder... what if it isn't a monster at all, but actually just another robot as well?" Said Zipp thoughtfully.

"That is a possibility, but we won't know until we see it for ourselves." Said Sunny.

"That's right, and I propose that we do a stake out tonight, to track it down before it strikes again." Said Hitch boldly.

Alphabittle overheard what he just said, and shocked turned to look at him, "Wait, you aren't seriously going to try finding that thing are you??"

"We have to Alphabittle, if we don't do something about it, then it'll attack again and more Unicorns will vanish, we need to nip this whole problem in the bud right here and now." Said Zipp, looking determined.

"But that thing is dangerous! What if it attacks you instead?" Said Alphabittle, concerned for them.

"It's a risk that we will have to take, it's the only way that we'll get a lead on what's happened to the missing Unicorns." Said Sunny, standing next to Hitch.

"Yeah, and if Canterlogic is involved in this, then we'll need to see if these robots were made by them, and if they do then we can hopefully trace it back to whomever did so, then we can arrest the scoundrel and have them face justice for their crimes!" Said Pipp, standing next to Sunny.

Alphabittle looked at the group, they all looked determined to do their part to help out in stopping the Metal Monster, even if it was likely going to be dangerous, especially since it sounded like there was indeed somepony behind all of this, and that the danger is greater than he had imagined. Finally, after letting out a heavy sign, Alphabittle decided to relent.

"Very well then, if you are determined to confront the Metal Monster and save the Unicorns, then i'm coming to help out too, they are not just my friends, they're almost my brothers and sisters too." Said Alphabittle, standing tall.

The group cheered at the response, now all they needed to do was how to organize the stake out, and how to track down the Metal Monster in the forest. However, while Hitch, Zipp and Alphabittle discussed the plan, Sunny by now noticed that Izzy was being unusually quiet, normally she'd be involved and jumping in by now, but instead she was just sitting there deep in thought about something. Curious about her strange behavior, she went over to check on her, gently tapping her.

"Umm Izzy, are you okay?" Said Sunny, tapping on her friend.

This seemed to have caught her off guard as she jumped from the unexpected touch.

"AHHH! Oh umm, sorry about that Sunny, I was just busy thinking about something in my head after overhearing everypony talking about Canterlogic and robots, something about it rang a bell in my head just now" Said Izzy.

"Really? What sort of bell did it ring?" Asked Sunny.

"Well, remember yesterday when I was talking about making a new friend down at the junkyard? I just remembered what he mentioned to me when we were talking, my new friend used to work for Canterlogic too" Said Izzy.

Upon hearing that, the rest of the Mane Five and Alphabittle turned their attention to Izzy, eyes open wide, Zipp in particular leapt on over to her, nosebooping her intensely.

"What!? Izzy that's huge information! Did this friend say anything else to you?" Said Zipp in a serious tone.

"Umm... well he also said that he does a lot of inventing, and that he had a little robot drone with them by his side, and that he was looking to see how to use magic for the benefit of all ponykind." Said Izzy, recalling as much as she could.

"Uh huh, tell me more Izz, I want to know more about this pony!" Said Zipp, bearing down on Izzy hard.

"Sis! Your scaring her!" Shouted Pipp, showing concern for Izzy.

Zipp however just shot a harsh glare over to her sister that shut her up fast, before turning back toward Izzy who by now was looking nervous.

"Tell me Izzy, who is the pony, and what else did he say?" Shouted Zipp, in full interrogation mode.

"Umm... well... the only other things he said to me was his name, that he was part of the 'club' around Maretime Bay before the reunification of all ponies." Said Izzy, who was not used to Zipp being so forceful to her.

"Uh huh, interesting... Wait a minute, is this pony the so called 'Dr Wormwood' you mentioned yesterday?" Said Zipp with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah that's the one." Said Izzy with a nervous grin.

"Interesting, very interesting." Zipp said to herself, deep in thought.

Sunny and Hitch were also now in deep thought, it seemed that the name 'Dr Wormwood' was familiar to them, especially that he was part of the 'club' around Maretime Bay so to speak, but where did they hear about it? Suddenly, Sunny hopped up in shock, it seemed she had finally connected the dots in her head.

"Ah hah! Of course, how could I have forgotten all about him! I know exactly who this Dr Wormwood is!" Sunny exclaimed to Hitch, who seemed to also know what she was talking about.

"Wait you do? Who is he then, and what does he have to do with Canterlogic?" Asked Zipp, turning to look at Sunny and Hitch.

"It's a doozy of a story, Sunny will explain it better than me." Said Hitch who nodded towards Sunny.

Sunny nodded her head back, then she took a seat at a nearby table, doing her best to recall everything she knows about the enigmatic doctor. Alphabittle provided her with some fresh tea to help her relax and talk clearer, then the ponies all gathered round to listen to her.

"Well, from what I can remember, his full name is Doctor Altair Wormwood, he used to work for Canterlogic as it's Chief of R&D, in fact he was there when the company was first founded many moons ago. He was friends with my father Argyle and Phyllis way back in their school days, they used to hang out together in class, even during my fathers games about old Equestria, even though Phyllis and the other ponies looked down on him for that, Wormwood was always interested in his stories, especially about magic and the wonders it can do, in fact, my father told me once as a filly that out of everypony else in his class, he was the only one who ever listened to him. I mean hay, they even went out on journeys together into the wilderness beyond town to explore the old ruins and abandoned places in the land, one time they found a ruined factory that was still intact and could be operational, not far from the Bridlewood forest actually." Said Sunny, who took a drink form her tea.

"Whoa! That's really interesting Sunny, I never knew about that." Said Hitch, sitting there and listening intensely.

"Well I never really told anypony else about it since it hasn't come up until now, but yes, sadly however.... As they got older they started to drift apart as friends, and they all went their own way, my father continuing his studies of old Equestria, Phyllis going on to found Canterlogic, and Wormwood who followed her there. They would sometimes meet each other again a few times when I was a young filly, but even back then I could tell that things were never quite the same between them, especially since he was now part of the 'club' of Maretime Bay." Said Sunny.

"Hmmm, that's been said out loud a few times now, but what exactly is this 'club'?" Asked Pipp.

"It's what the older ponies in our town referred to their united stance against Unicorns and Pegasus ponies, based on their then superstitions regarding them at the time. Of course such things aren't really important anymore with the recent unification, but still, there are a few ponies around that are still partial to it." Hitch explained.

"Yeah... but anyways, it was as I was growing up and after my fathers passing that I started to hear more about what Wormwood was up to at Canterlogic, he was inventing all sorts of things including automated home security cameras, propulsion packs for limited flight, drones for everyday use such as cleaning, but what really put him on the map was his unveiling of the original prototype of what would come to be known as... The Unicorn Traps." Said Sunny, looking down.

"Wait wait wait... You're saying that my new friend was the one who came up with those traps?" Said Izzy curiously.

"Yes, it was Wormwood who invented them, and Canterlogic mass produced them to be placed all over town in order to snare up any Unicorns who invaded the town... I tried to protest their use many times, but it always fell on deaf ears." Said Sunny, taking a sad sip of her teacup.

"Ohhh, well I didn't think they were that bad honestly, after all we did make the most of when I was trapped in one not so long ago, right Hitch?" Said Izzy, recalling the time when she was trapped in a Unicorn Trap.

"Don't remind me." Said Hitch, who wasn't eager to remember his frustrations that day.

"Anyway moving on, so this Doctor Wormwood wasn't just a former Canterlogic employee, he was also something of a genius as well?" Zipp asked Sunny.

"That's right, he was said to have had over a hundred patents at Canterlogic alone at one point, and not just in Engineering, but he also dabbled in Astrophysics, Chemistry, Theoretical Sciences and other subjects, no wonder he recorded an IQ of 277 just a few years ago in a sponsored test." Said Sunny.

"Whoa really? You mean he's like a super genius??? No pony at Zephyr Heights even comes close to that IQ number, not even the royal engineers and science team come anywhere near that level." Said Pipp, who was now actively browsing for information on Wormwood on social media using her phone.

"That's right, and there is nopony in Maretime Bay who hasn't heard of him, and the 'rumours' around him too." Said Hitch.

"Rumours you say?" Said Zipp curiously.

"Wait hold on one moment is this Wormwood still employed at Canterlogic, even though the company was shut down?" Interrupted Alphabittle.

"Well no... Less than a year before the unification happened, he was dismissed from Canterlogic by Phyllis, for supposedly harboring symphony towards Unicorns. That was the official statement that the company put out, but no pony in town knows what really happened between them that lead to him being fired." Said Sunny, who had just finished off her tea.

"They fired him over that? Hmm... That sounds a little suspicious to me." Said Alphabittle, who took the empty cup away.

"Yeah, I mean why would mean old Phyllis sack him for liking Unicorns? I mean yeah at the time they were all 'Unicorns are evil, Pegasi suck, blah blah blah', but still, it sounds rather mysterious, like Canterlogic was hiding something." Said Izzy.

"Hmmm, it is mysterious alright, but where do we go from here?" Said Hitch, looking over his notes again.

"Hmm, I wonder if Wormwood or Phyllis might know anything about those robots that attacked us, and the Metal Monster in the forest, since their both former Canterlogic big wigs, they might know something about them, and that could give us a big lead towards finding the missing Unicorns." Said Zipp openly.

The other ponies turned towards Zipp in surprise, Izzy in particular jumped forward and right up to her face.

"Blahhh!" Zipp! Are you suggesting that my new friend is a suspect in this case!?" Said Izzy, showing a rare sign of anger.

Zipp however kept a cool head and explained, "Izzy, I hate to say it, but right now there is a hunch I have to suggest it, not enough to say he is guilty, but also not enough to find him innocent either."

"What makes you suspect Wormwood of being behind all this Zipp? I mean, yeah he is likely smart enough to be capable of building robots and drones that we've encountered, and he was the one who came up with the Unicorn Capture Devices, but still, he's been out of the public eye for a year now, and if he was dismissed for showing a liking for Unicorns, it doesn't exactly depict him as a suspect to me." Said Sunny, who stood by Izzy.

Pipp came up next beside her sister, "That is a good point Sunny, however, as you said, he is the one who came up with the Unicorn Capture Devices, and from what i've just browsed about him on social media, it seems like he wasn't forced into creating them at all, but instead did it willingly, that and all the talk of 'rumours' surrounding him doesn't exactly paint him as an honest horse in my eyes. That and our own private investigation we've been conducting regarding a-"

"PIPP! That's strictly confidential to us and the Queen!" Shouted Zipp.

"Wait what? What private investigation, and what about the Queen?" Said Alphabittle.

The two Pegasus sisters looked on, they had both been sworn not to talk about the details of their meeting with their mother back in Zephyr Heights, leaving the situation awkward and the tension high between the ponies. It was then that a knock on the entrance door surprised them, and a very familiar voice that rang out behind it.

"Alphie dear, are you home? The Unicorns seemed to be scared of coming outside today, is everything okay?"

Everypony in the room looked towards the main door wide eyed as it opened up, and there, in all her regal glory, was the Royal Highness of Zephyr Heights herself, Queen Haven. Behind her were the two Royal Guards, Thunder and Zoom who both came into the room ahead of her to welcome her in.

"Ohh, girls, I didn't expect you and your friends to be here too, am I interrupting anything?" Said Haven.

All the ponies were too surprised to say anything, Zipp and Pipp most of them all. Eventually, Alphabittle cleared his throat and went over to greet her.

"Well actually Haven, yes you have, but don't worry, we'll tell you all about it, since it is something that's become very personal to me, and it's likely that this could be a bigger problem than we thought." Said Alphabittle.

"Oh no, that's not good at all, what is going on Alphie? Why are you all here, and where are all of the Unicorns, they don't seem to want to come outside on this lovely day, what is going on here?" Said Haven, who was now very curious about what was going on.

"Yeah I mean usually we'd see them hoping about with their dances and magic, but today they just seem all shut up in their homes, no hello or howdy at all." Said Thunder, blurting it out loud.

The ponies looked all around the room awkwardly, but Hitch then stepped forward with Alphabittle to the Queen.

"Well... it's a loooooong story your Highness, I think it's better if you take a seat while we explain what's going on." Said Hitch.

"Oh well I don't mind at all, I got plenty of time on my hooves, Alphie dear would you mind proving tea for all of us? The usual best please." Said Haven, as she took her seat on a nearby large table.

"Coming right up dear." Said Alphabittle, looking happier than he had been all day as he walked to his counter.

Pipp and Zipp seemed confused about the exchange, but brushed it off and went over to join their mother.

"Right then, tell me what's going on, and why do I get the feeling that involves the Unicorns?" Said Haven to Hitch.

The ponies all took their seats around the table, Hitch helped Jasmine up onto a nearby stool, then turned to face the Queen, taking a deep breath.

"Well, let me start from the beginning..."

Act 2 - Chapter 3

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It was now early evening in the Bridlewood forest, the fading sun's rays shown through the thick branches high above onto the village below, the crystals that grew around started to glow brighter, illuminating the surroundings in their light. The scenery was tranquil, yet the shadows in the background hid the danger that was lurking within, as the distant sounds of heavy still hooves clank about.

It was at this time that in the Crystal Tea House in the middle of the village, a meeting had been taking place between the Mane Five, Alphabittle and a young Unicorn named Jasmine, and Queen Haven with her royal guards. They had been talking about everything that had been going on in recent times with her, including the missing Unicorns, the ambush in the forest from drones, and information about the mysterious "Metal Monster" that they suspected to be behind the Unicorns vanishing without a trace. Queen Haven leaned back on the chair, slowly taking in all the information they had told her, rubbing her hoof under her chin, while the guards provided a cloth to cool her forehead down.

"So, let me get this straight my dears, the Unicorns have been vanishing from Bridlewood for unexplained reasons, but most likely ponynapping, and after you received letters calling for help, you've come here to help Alphabittle in finding them, but on the way you were attacked by a swarm of drones that chased you all the way here, and now after speaking to the little filly over here, you've learned that there is some sort of 'Metal Monster' lurking out in the forest. Am I correct so far?" Said Haven slowly.

The Mane Five and Alphabittle all nodded their heads in agreement.

"But from what she tells me, there are also robot ponies moving around as well, and you suspect that they might be linked to the Metal Monster?" Said Haven to the group.

"It's only speculation at this point, but with all the testimony so far, I wouldn't rule it out." Said Hitch.

"But most importantly, you suspect that somepony is behind all of this, and that it could be a former high ranking official of the Canterlogic company too." Said Haven, who seemed concerned about something.

"That's right, we ruled out Zephyr Heights since we know that by law such drones are forbidden to be manufactured." Said Sunny.

"That is correct my dear, still, it does concern me with how all of this has been going on under our noses, that and one other matter we've had to deal with." Said Haven.

"You mean the private meeting that you had with your daughters?" Said Alphabittle.

"So they told you, did they? The matters of the meeting are strictly royal business only, they were not to mention any details of it!" Said Haven, looking at Zipp and Pipp with disappointment.

"B-b-but mother, we didn't say anything about it at all, only that we had a meeting and that was it!" Said Zipp in protest.

"Say I just thought of something, what if what happened at the meeting is also related to the case going on right now?" Said Hitch to Haven.

"Hmm, well from what you have told me so far, I can only say that there is a small amount of overlap with what was discussed in the meeting, but unless you can provide solid evidence to me that will help prove a connection, I'm afraid I cannot tell you any of the details until then." Said Haven with a serious look.

"Huh? But how will we know what evidence to find? So far we haven't found any solid clues to the case at all, not even hoof tracks, photographs, or even a sample of the drones that attacked us..." Said Hitch dejectedly.

Sunny however, thought about the last thing Hitch had mentioned, as good as photographs might be, a sample of one of the drones or even the robot ponies would be much more valuable a clue to provide, especially if it could lead them to who the culprit is.

"Wait a minute Hitch, that's it! We should try finding a sample of one of the drones and bring it back here for study and examination." Said Sunny excitedly.

"Hey that's not a bad idea Sunny, especially if we can find out where they came from, and who made them, it could be what we need to split this whole mess wide open." Said Hitch, extending a hoof for her to bump, which she did in kind.

"Wait hang on one moment, you two do realize the implications of what you have to do to get a sample right?" Said Pipp worryingly.

"Yes we know, it would mean tracking them down and fighting them, and even though there is a risk of us getting hurt or even captured, it's our only chance to get a clue from them." Hitch said to Pipp.

"Does that mean we will have to smash, bash and crash them just to get a sample?" Said Izzy curiously.

"Ah well, the thing is Izzy, as good as it would be to study their remains and parts, it would be much more valuable if we could capture one of the drones intact." Said Zipp.

"Capture one, but how will we go about doing that? We saw how armed those things are with their laser cannons and fast movement, it'll be tricky to get close to one and take it down, enabling us to capture it." Said Sunny.

"Well, if it helps I could always try using my magic to hold one in place if that will help out." Said Izzy with a smile.

The other ponies seemed to be shaking their heads from the suggestion, Sunny herself understood what they were thinking, she knew that she would have to break the news to Izzy later on before nightfall.

"Still, it's our best bet in getting a lead on the case, we have no choice but to take the fight to the robots." Said Hitch, who was now feeling fired up.

"Sounds like a plan, I'm in." Said Zipp.

The others in the Mane Five all agreed to it too, including Izzy, though the others again seemed to be thinking of something else regarding her.

"Excellent, we'll start planning after dinner." Said Hitch.

"Oh goodness, speak of the devil, I had almost forgotten all about it, Alphie, is the dinner still on dear?" Said Haven to Alphabittle.

"It sure is, but we'll likely need more plates for the guests, they are likely hungry after all they've been through today." Said Alphabittle, who went into the kitchen to get started.

"Hmm, sheriff, there is one thing that I am curious about that you mentioned in our conversation." Said Haven, turning to him.

"Yes, what would that be your highness?" Said Hitch.

"You mentioned that you had a few suspects in mind from the case, can you tell who they are, per chance?" Said Haven.

"Umm, I did say that yes." Said Hitch, who pulled out his notebook and flipped to the page, "The two suspects we have right now are Phyllis Cloverleaf, former head of Canterlogic, and the other a former scientist and chief of R&D at Canterlogic, Dr Altair Wormwood."

Queen Haven raised an eyebrow at the mention of the names, but Hitch couldn't gauge if he had said something important to her, or something else.

"Phyllis and Wormwood huh, the former I know from the incident months ago, but the latter is new to me."

"Well he used to work for Canterlogic, until he was let go for supposedly harbouring a like for Unicorns, but no pony knows for sure what really happened." Said Sunny.

"Is that so? Hmm, and do we know what he's been up to recently?" Said Haven.

"Oh oh oh, I saw him yesterday down at the local junkyard, we bumped into each other while there, talked about some things, then he went off on his way to the woods not far from there, and I haven't seen him since then, but he said he would send me a message when he was available again." Said Izzy.

"Hmm, curious, very curious." Said Haven, who then monitored for her daughters to come to her.

"What is it mother?" Asked Pipp.

The Queen leaned forward and whispered to them, "Meet me upstairs in five minutes, we'll do a reconvening about the meeting there, and remember, no pony must know about what we're looking into, not until we have proof of a connection between it and the case the sheriff is investigating."

"Understood." Said Zipp and Pipp.

Queen Haven smiled, then trotted her way upstairs, but not before giving a wink to Alphabittle, who smiled back, to the sister's confusion.

"So what's the next move then everypony?" Said Izzy eagerly.

"Well, we're gonna start planning our next move after dinner, then I plan to start a stake out later in the night to see if the robots make a move on the village while the others sleep." Said Hitch.

"A stake out, on your own? That's dangerous sheriff, are you sure you know what to do?" Said Zipp, looking worried.

"Sure as pie, but I'll need to find a place to hide out in, not too obvious, but offers good enough views of the whole area." Said Hitch.

"Hmm, the only place in Bridlewood that offers that is the home next to the Crystal Tea House, it has an open upper level balcony for the views." Said Alphabittle, who had been listening in from the kitchen.

"Huh? B-but... that's my home..." Said Jasmine in surprise.

"Ohhh yeah, that's right, you don't mind if Hitchio uses your home for his staking out, right Jasmine?" Izzy said to Jasmine.

Jasmine seemed unsure about it, her father always warned her about welcoming strangers into their house, and with him now gone she was even stricter about it. Still though, as she looked on at Hitch, who was a police officer, and a respected member of the Mane Five, she felt safe with him, just like she did with Izzy. The sheriff held out his hoof to the little Unicorn, gesturing for a hoof shake.

"What do you say little filly, will you help me in setting up my stake out later tonight?" Said Hitch.

Jasmine thought for a few moments, then walked forward and shook the sheriffs hoof.

"Yes, yes I will help you, but you will protect me from the monsters out there, won't you?" Said Jasmine.

"Of course little one, as an officer and a gentlecolt, it's my duty to serve and protect anypony, no matter who they are or what they look like." Said Hitch, clapping a hoof to his chest in bravado.

"Gentlecolt? That's rich." Said a voice behind him, along with some giggles, but Hitch rolled his eyes and ignored it.

"Do you want to come to the house right now to take a look around? It's a bit of a mess, but I'm sure you need it ready for whatever you have planned." Said Jasmine thoughtfully.

"That's a good idea, it sounds like dinner will be ready soon though, so we'd better hurry and make it back on time." Said Hitch.

The two of them then took their leave of the Crystal Tea House to Jasmines home nearby. At the same time, Pipp and Zipp had followed their mother upstairs to have a meeting privately between them, locking the door behind them, leaving Izzy and Sunny on their own for the time being. After a little bit, Izzy hummed a tune to herself as she tried to think of something to pass the time, when she noticed Sunny looking away into the distance, it seemed that something was on her mind again.

"Hey Sunny, what's wrong? You troubled by something on your mind again?" Said Izzy curiously.

Sunny however let out a deep sign, then slowly turned to look at Izzy, she had a sad yet serious look on her face, almost as if she had made a decision in her head just now.

"Izzy listen, can we have a serious talk for a few minutes, just me and you?" Said Sunny.

"Umm, sure, what's the matter?" Said Izzy, unsure what is on Sunny's mind.

She no idea that the conversation they were about to have was going to test their friendship like never before.

Upstairs in the Crystal Tea House, inside what was assumed to be Alphabittle's private lounge, the three members of Pegasus royalty were discussing amongst themselves their own little investigation into an incident that had occurred in Zephyr Heights. Up until now, the details of it had remained top secret to everypony else except the royal family, largely to keep details from leaking out. Now however, with mounting suspicion that the incident in Zephyr Heights and the case in Bridlewood could be related to each other, the three Pegasi were divulging the details openly to each other.

"Huh, so we still have no clue as to what caused the break in at the royal archives to happen in the first place?" Said Zipp to her mother.

The Queen shook her head, "Unfortunately no, the investigation on our end back at home has not produced any decisive results so far."

"But there must be something we must've overlooked, I mean, how could they have just slipped in undetected, hacked our system database, and then fled with little traces remaining?" Said Pipp in disbelief.

"That's the big problem we're facing sis, security camera footage of the scene was tampered with while the crime was taking place, for three whole minutes there was nothing but static on the monitor, and the audio was muted too. As a result, we have no idea who or what was there when the hacking happened." Said Zipp bluntly.

"Whomever it was, they were very clever and crafty, and likely knowledgeable about how security systems operate too." Said Haven thoughtfully.

"Do we at least know what the hacker did while they were there, what were they after?" Pipp asked her mother.

"Well, from what we've found in the history files, it seems to largely be information regarding the geography of the land of Equestria today, maps of known towns and cities that we've found since the reunification happened, as well as details of roads and paths to suspected ruins and places of interest, but... There is else something more troubling that we've found out today." Said Haven, showing a rare sign of concern.

"What is it mother, what has been found?" Said Zipp, not liking the sound of her tone.

"The hacker.... has also downloaded blueprints related to our airships, including a prototype that is currently under development at the royal factory on the industrial plateau below Zephyr Heights." Said Haven slowly.

"Wait what? You mean the ZHSS Cirrus? But that's not due to be completed for another two years yet, due to the new jet engines being developed for it that'll give it much greater speed, and allow it to fly at higher altitudes in the skies." Said Zipp out loud.

"And how did you know about all that, Zipp?" Said Pipp inquisitively.

"Hey, you know me sis, I love to learn about new tech all the time, especially if it's to do with going faster." Said Zipp proudly.

"Anyway dears, this is what worries me the most, if the hacker has the blueprints to our airships, including that prototype, there is no telling what they could do with it." Said Haven.

"What do you mean by that mother? I mean, they're just airships after all, even if they were leaked online on the ponynet, I think it's unlikely anypony could but us could build them, they likely won't have the resources to do so, much less get them flying in the first place." Said Pipp, taking a moment to use her phone.

"That is true dear, if they were planning to use them commercially, but... There is also the other side of the coin that we have to worry about too." Said Haven ominously.

Pipp seemed confused by what she was implying, but Zipp quickly figured it out, leaving her wide eyed and in near disbelief.

"W-Wait! Are you saying that they could use our airships as weapons!?" Shouted Zipp.

"Shush Zephyrina, not so loud." Said Haven severely, "But to answer your question, yes, that is my biggest worry about all this, the blueprints they stole could be used for ill in the wrong hoofs."

The room fell silent as the two sisters slowly let the revelation sink into their heads, they couldn't believe that anypony could use their own technology against them, something that they have long taken advantage of, now suddenly a threat to them. However, it wasn't long before the two began to slowly connect the pieces in their heads about what their mother was getting at, and together the two sisters reached a conclusion.

"Ohhh, I get it now, that's why you were interested in the case that Hitch and we were investigating, you suspected that there might be a connection between the hacking incident in Zephyr Heights, and the Unicorns disappearing in Bridlewood." Said Pipp, reared up on the table in excitement.

"That is correct Pipp, but as I have already said, until we have hard evidence that the two cases are connected, it's only speculation at this point." Said Haven firmly.

"Hmm, that is true." Said Pipp as she got down from the table.

Queen Haven then leans forward to her daughters with a serious expression.

"That being said, I am however concerned about the situation here in Bridlewood, and who might be behind the Unicorns vanishing, if they are using drones and robots as part of their plan as the little filly and you have told us, then it's safe to assume that there could be a link right there." Said Haven, showing worry on her face.

"Ah I see, you suspect that the hacker had used a drone of some kind to disrupt our security systems, allowing them to hack our databases without alerting the security." Said Pipp, who was now realizing what it could mean.

"Exactly, now you see why capturing one of the drones is actually much more important now then it was beforehoof." Said Haven seriously.

"Yes mother, if drones were behind the hack, then if we capture one of them that's hiding out in the forest, we just might find the link we need to tie the two together. " Said Zipp who was now brimming with enthusiasm.

"Exactly sis, this could be just what we need to split the whole thing wide open." Said Pipp, hoofbumping her sis.

"Very good girls, furthermore, we should consider researching into the suspects of the Bridlewood incident, we might also find another link right there." Said Haven.

"Oh yeah, I have been meaning to ask, Zipp, do you think that Phyllis could be behind this whole thing?" Said Pipp seriously.

"Honestly Pipp, I am unsure if she is or not. Even though she held much animosity towards us Pegasi and Unicorns, even making devices designed to capture us, she does seemed to have changed for the better, and with Canterlogic itself no longer in operation, it paints her as unlikely to be the culprit." Said Zipp, browsing through her notes.

"That is true, but don't forget that she willingly allowed her son to carry out that harebrained scheme to destroy us, even helping to build that war machine of his that caused a lot of trouble for us." Said Pipp, who hadn't forgotten the carnage it had wrought.

"Again very good point, still though, even if she did have such resources at her disposal, I'm unsure if she would have the knowledge to carry out such a crime like this, she never really struck me as a mastermind who could orchestrate such events like this." Said Zipp thoughtfully.

"Hmm, I'm afraid I would have to agree with Zephyrina my dear, from my brief meeting with her and observing her latent attitude, I don't think she is that ill disposed to us any more." Said Haven.

"That and we can also rule out her son too, Sprout is currently serving sentence and doing community service around town from his recent antics, and I highly doubt that he is capable of such a plan like this, even if he is actually quite cunning and devious." Said Zipp, remembering his attempts to disrupt the upcoming holiday for Maretime Bay.

"But if that's all true, then that leaves us just one suspect, one whom we haven't even seen yet..." Said Pipp knowingly.

"Dr Wormwood, I know." Said Zipp bluntly.

"From what I can understand, this pony is a scientific genius who worked under Phyllis as her chief of R&D at Canterlogic, and was the brains behind the Unicorn capture devices among others, but around a year ago he was dismissed for supposedly harbouring a like for Unicorns, and has been out of the public eye ever since." Said Haven.

"That's right, as far as me and Pipp know, we've never seen him once in town since the reunification, so we have no idea what he looks like, apart from these older photos of him from newspaper clippings." Said Zipp, who showed them to her mother, depicting a younger looking Wormwood with Phyllis outside Canterlogic.

"Hmm, but if that's the case, then it also doesn't paint him as a likely suspect either if he's been out of the public eye, and has been secretly wanting to be friends with the Unicorns all this time." Said Haven to Zipp.

"That's what I've been thinking, he did meet up with Izzy yesterday at the junkyard, and it sounds like the two of them have hit it off really well, they might end up being best friends over their shared interest in inventing." Said Pipp.

Zipp seemed to be a little deflated over her sister and mother dismissing Wormwood as a possible suspect, but she cleared her throat and kept her cool.

"Hm I guess so, but still... I can't shake off this odd feeling I have about him, and the way he was dismissed from Canterlogic is suspicious as well, I can't help but think that there must be more to that story than meets the eye." Said Zipp.

Pipp seemed to just shrug her shoulders, while Haven didn't seemed that convinced about it.

"Hmm I'm afraid that until then, I still don't see this Wormwood character as the prime suspect Zephyrina, you will need to do more digging around and find proper evidence that he is behind this, if he is at all." Said Haven, dismissing Zipp's claims.

Zipp felt as if she had just wasted her time trying to convince her sister and the queen that Wormwood was a suspect, she was about to speak up when a loud bell rang out from downstairs.

"Oh dear, that must be Alphabittle ringing that, sounds like dinner is ready at last." Said Haven, making her way to the door.

"Yeah I could go for something to eat, after all this running, talking and debating, I need me some good food to fill me up, hay maybe I'll even do a story about it, I'd love for my Pippsqueaks to see what Unicorn food is all about." Said Pipp, also making her way to the door.

Zipp however let out a sigh, then followed after them slowly. She began thinking over in her head if she had been off the mark in suspecting Wormwood as being the one behind the Unicorns disappearing. Despite the evidence to the contrary, she couldn't shake off this gut feeling she had about him, and the rather mysterious circumstances of his firing from Canterlogic as well, it feels like there is something missing here, like a missing piece of the puzzle. Her belly rumbling however knocked her out of her thoughts, realizing that she hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast earlier that day.

"Heh heh, maybe some grub will be just what I need to get back on track, can't work on an empty stomach after all." Said Zipp as she trotted off after them down the steps.

She had little idea at the time that she would be back on track sooner than she was expecting, for the shadows that lurked in the background of the forest would soon make their presence known.

A short time later, the ponies were all sat around the big table in the Crystal Tea House, enjoying the food that Alphabittle had made for them, and from the eager sounds of munching, it sounds like it was worth waiting for.

"Hey, this food is pretty good Alphabittle, what is this salad?" Asked Sunny with a mouthful of food.

"It's a little old recipe handed down to me from my father's father through his fathers father, nothing too fancy or over the top, but it does help fill up the bellies of ponies." Said Alphabittle, tucking into his own meal."

"Ohhh, it's still as good as I remember it!" Said Izzy, eagerly digging into the salad.

"I must say I agree to that Alphie, this salad you made is rather good, very rich yet tender." Said Haven.

"Yeah, exactly what ingredients did you use to make this?" Said Pipp out of curiosity.

"Well, if you are curious to know if you wanted to make it yourself, I basically used some ripened mushrooms that grow in the forest, along with some chopped cucumbers, some special wild roots for an earthy taste, mixed in with a homemade vinaigrette that I made myself, topped with some filly tomatoes, and voila." Said Alphabittle, smiling proudly over his creation.

"Ah I see, no wonder it has such a unique taste." Said Zipp, who didn't seem too keen on the roots.

"That's right, it's flavour is to die for!" Said Izzy.

"Heh, you sure liked that didn't you Izzy? You always liked this meal I made for you, ever since you were a young filly." Said Alphabittle with a smile.

"Hehehe, well duh, you always make it so well, I could eat this three times a day every week, and still enjoy it!" Said Izzy, returning the smile.

Zipp looked on, impressed by the mulberry Unicorns appetite, "That Izzy sure does have an impressive appetite, doesn't she sis?"

"She sure does Zipp, but I doubt she could compete with Hitch in terms of appetite, that stallion could put anypony else to shame when it comes to eating I swear." Said Pipp, who didn't seem to be a fan of the dinner as she had barely eaten much.

"That is true, he's won plenty of pie-eating contests, and the annual Maretime Bay Chug-it-Down Showdown we host every year, I could never compete with him over that, even with the fasting method that I tried one time." Said Sunny humbly.

"Sounds like he has quite the hearty appetite, my kind of customer." Said Alphabittle with a chuckle.

The group continued to eat their fill of food whilst chatting amongst themselves, however, Zipp being the most alert and attentive of the group noticed something that was off, she noticed that Izzy and Sunny were sitting noticeably apart from each other, looking away and not even interacting together. Zipp found that very unusual since the two of them have been almost inseparable since they first met each other in Maretime Bay a few months ago just before the reunification.

Zipp knew something was going on, but before she could start speaking up about it, somepony else suddenly spoke up loudly instead.

"Hey wait a minute everypony, where is Hitch?" Said Pipp suddenly.

The ponies looked around the room, and sure enough Pipp was right, Hitch wasn't at the table, and neither was Jasmine, they saw that he wasn't anywhere in the Crystal Tea House at all.

"Hitch is never late for food, something must be wrong." Said Sunny, who got up from her seat.

"Let's go check out the house that they went into, and see if everything is okay." Said Zipp, who followed after her.

The two of them went up to the front door out of the Crystal Tea House, but just before they had a chance to open it, the door swung up all on it's own, to their surprise, and there in the door way, looking scared and sweating with fear, was the Unicorn filly Jasmine, looking as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Jasmine! We were about to come looking for you and Hitch, is everything okay?" Asked Sunny with concern.

"E-everypony... H-hitch... h-h-he..." Said Jasmine, who struggled to get the words out.

"What? Is Hitch okay? Is he in trouble?" Asked Zipp.

Jasmine again tried to speak up, but again she only babbled her words. Alphabittle could see it, and came to her to try and calm her down.

"Hey now, take deep breaths and calm down Jasmine, then tell us what's going on." Said Alphabittle warmly.

Jasmine shut her eyes and took some deep breaths, after a few moments, she opened up her eyes again.

"E-everypony... H-hitch found it... one of the drones, he found one!" Jasmine half shouted.

"What!? One of the drones is here, right now in the village!?" Said Alphabittle in surprise..

"Oh no! Did they follow us all the way here!?" Said Pipp concernedly.

Zipp went close to Jasmine, nearly nosebooping her, "Where is it Jasmine, where is that drone!?"

"H-hitch is chasing after it right now, he j-j-jumped off the balcony and ran after it as soon as he spotted it hovering near the Crystal Tea House upper windows!" Said Jasmine, trying to keep calm.

"Wait, the upper windows!?" Said Haven."

Before Jasmine could say anymore, there came loud sounds not far away of what sounded like an explosion, and the telltale sounds of laser blasts. Sunny, Zipp, Pipp and Izzy knew those sounds all too well, Hitch might be in trouble, and there was no time to lose.

"Come on everypony, Hitch might be trouble, let's go find him!" Shouted Sunny who ran out of the door in a hurry.

With that, most of the ponies at the table dashed out of the door in pursuit of Hitch, Zipp making sure to grab the Rad-visor before she left knowing it'd be helpful in scanning for the drone, leaving Haven, her royal guards, and Alphabittle behind with Jasmine. who sought comfort in his hooves.

"Well then, I guess that just leaves the two of us then, right Alphie." Said Haven with a bit of a purr.

However while her guards let out a silent groan to themselves, Haven noticed that Alphabittle was looking outside of the open door in the direction that Sunny and her friends went, it seemed that he was thinking of joining them in the pursuit, but he was also hesitant about it, knowing he still had a duty to protect the remaining Unicorns in the village.

"Haven... I feel that I need to go with them, to help them out." Said Alphabittle, turning his head slowly to her.

Haven's eyes went wide, "What!? But what if it turns out to be dangerous Alphie, what if you end up getting injured, or worse captured!? I don't know what I'd do if-"

"Listen to me please, I have to do this." Interrupted Alphabittle, who looked at Haven with a serious expression, "As the leader of the Unicorns in Bridlewood it's my duty to look after them, and keep them safe. I've sat by idly moping about the whole situation and doing nothing about it long enough, and believe me when I say, that I am NOT losing another Unicorn to those things out there in the forest!"

Haven stared at Alphabittle silently with her mouth agape, she knew that she didn't want him to get himself hurt out there facing the threats that lurk in the shadows, but at the same time, after seeing the fires lit in his eyes, she knew that he had to do this, as the leader of the Unicorns in Bridlewood.

She let out a sign, then looked at him deeply, "Very well Alphie, do what you need to do, just make sure you don't do anything too reckless, I'll stay here with the guards to protect the town, you go out there and take them down dear."

Alphabittle smiled, then stood up on his legs, "Thank you Haven, I promise that I won't do anything reckless, or get myself into trouble."

"W-wait, do you want me to come along too?" Asked Jasmine curiously.

"No little one, I think it's better if you stay here with me, last thing we want is for you to get hurt out there." Said Haven, who came over to comfort her.

"Yes that would be a wise idea, besides you've already had enough adventure for one day Jasmine." Said Alphabittle, who gently nudged her to Haven's direction, then he took a deep breath, and looked out the open door, "Now then, onto business!"

The rest of the ponies watched as Alphabittle charged out of the door and into the distance, until he was soon out of sight. There were more sounds of a battle going on in the distance, Jasmine gulped her throat in fear of what was going on, but Haven wrapped a wing around her to try and keep her calm.

"Now now little one, we have to keep strong, for their sake." Said the Queen reassuringly.

"B-but your majesty... are you sure will they be okay?" Said Jasmine, who was very worried them.

"Don't you worry Jasmine, they might be heading into danger, but they are brave ponies, they'll make it back, and hopefully with a clue as to what's going on too." Said Haven, who smiled reassuringly.

Jasmine smiled back to the queen, but she was still worried about the ponies as she looked back at the open door, for she knew there were much worse things than simple drones out there in the forest waiting for them, she hoped deep down that they won't run into them in the pursuit.

"Please be safe friends..." She said to herself silently.

Meanwhile, Hitch was in hot pursuit of the target, he thought to himself how lucky he was to have caught sight of it as it was hovering near the upper windows of the Crystal Tea House, likely spying on the conversation going on between Queen Haven and her daughters. He had taken a mighty leap from the balcony of Jasmine's house to try and grab it in mid air, but unfortunately the drone seemed to have detected him at the last moment and moved just before his hooves could connect to it. Luckily he was able to grab onto a nearby overhang on the building, before jumping down to race after the drone itself before it could escape.

"I ain't letting you escape this time, come back here!" Shouted Hitch.

The drone that was ahead of him turned it's camera like eye back at him, letting off what looked like a glare before suddenly turning left and fleeing in another direction, but Hitch wasn't going to be deterred that easily, he made a sharp turn and kept on the drones tail.

"Hah! That's not going to work you dumb drone, once I have my target set, I ain't stopping until I catch it!" Hitch declared as he began to catch up to it.

The drone kept on making sharp turns to try to escape Hitch, but it was no use, Hitch was on it like a predator chasing after it's next meal. Still though, Hitch felt himself beginning to tire out from all the running and turning, for he hadn't fully recovered from the marathon he had done escaping from another group of drones earlier that day, and it seemed like the drone he was after now wasn't slowing down at all.

"Hah hah... I gotta keep on going, but- hah... I can feel my breath getting shorter and my legs tiring out... Dang it!" Said Hitch in frustration.

The drone took another sharp bend behind a tree, and Hitch was just about to make the same turn when he heard a loud shout from nearby.

"There it is everypony! Catch it, don't let it get away!"

Hitch stopped, he knew that voice anywhere, "Sunny, is that you??"

Sure enough, he saw that Sunny was indeed present, along with the royal Pegasus sisters.

"Hey there Hitch, we're here to help out!" Called Sunny with a wave.

"Whoa heads up!" Called Pipp as she dived into Sunny, knocking her down.

The drone had taken the chance at the distraction to open fire at the group of ponies, it narrowly missed hitting sunny, instead the laser blast hit the tree behind her, leaving a big burn hole inside of it.

"Phew, that was way too close, we don't want ya getting toast do we Sunny?" Said Pipp who helped her back up.

"No indeed, thank you for that Pipp-"

"Sunny, Pipp, come on, it's getting away!" Shouted Zipp as she flew after the fleeing drone.

"Shoot, we better get moving before it escapes." Said Sunny as she galloped after Zipp, followed behind by Pipp and Hitch.

The drone was on the run again, flying away as fast as it could, but Zipp was clearly the faster of the two, and was easily catching up to it. The drone's eye looked behind it again to see that Zipp was within grabbing distance of it, letting off another glare, it suddenly aim it's laser cannon upwards and fired at some overhanging branches up ahead of it.

"Whoa, look out!" Shouted Zipp as she dodged the falling debris, still keeping on target.

The other ponies did their best to dodge too, but a large branch fell down on top of Hitch, stopping him in his tracks with a loud thud.

"Ooof! Oww! Ooh that's gonna smart tomorrow." Hitch whined as he tried to get up.

Sunny and Pipp saw what had happened, and turned around to try and move the branch off of him and help him up, Zipp had also stopped to see what had happened.

"Hitch! Are you okay!?" Shouted Zipp, who was worried if he had been injured.

"I'll be fine Zipp, don't worry about me! Just go, don't let that drone get away!" Hitch shouted at her.

Zipp was conflicted by his order, but she grudgingly nodded at him in agreement, then with a burst of speed she dashed back after the drone in hot pursuit. She was right away back on track to capture the drone, who having noticed her chasing it once again, fired off more laser blasts at the branches above to try and lose her, but Zipp powered through the debris, determined to take the drone down before it could escape.

After what seemed like long minutes of cat and mouse chasing, the drone turned sharply right and entered into a large clearing of the forest, a very familiar clearing at that. Zipp wasn't far behind as she flew into the same area, but as she lunged straight at the drone to try and grab it, it suddenly ducked right under her, nearly making her crash into a nearby big tree in the middle of the clearing.

"W-whoa what the hay!?" She shouted as she just managed to land on the tree bark.

Zipp looked behind her, but her face turned to horror as she saw that the drone was now aiming directly at her with it's laser cannon, luckily she managed to react quickly and dodged the initial blast as it scorched the tree's bark, but she had no time to rest as the drone now actively opened fire at her at every position she dashed to, determined to shoot her down.

"Darn it, I had it in my sights, it was within my hooves, and now it's shooting at me!" Shouted Zipp as she continued to dodge the blasts.

Zipp tried to find an opening to strike back, but the drone continued to open fire at her at every chance, leaving no chance for her to even think about it. However, the drone was so focused on trying to shoot down Zipp that both didn't notice that in the nearby in the shadows, another pony was taking aim with a large rock in it's magic.

"Steady, steady, aim... Fire!" Came a loud shout from the shadows.

The drone had detected the loud noise, but it was going too fast for it to stop in time to dodge a large rock that collided with it, sending it flying into a nearby tree trunk, crashing with a loud smack, leaving it a battered smoking heap. Zipp heard the commotion behind her, and stopped to see what was going on, and immediately spotted the broken down drone laying on the ground in front of the big tree it impacted, along with the rock nearby.

"Whoa, the drone's been totally smashed up, but who did that?" Said Zipp looking around.

"It was me!" Said a voice form the shadows nearby who then trotted forward into the light, it was none other than Izzy Moonbow.

"Izzy! Was that you who shot down that drone using that rock over there!?" Asked Zipp.

"Yup, that was me, I ran off ahead when I saw you and everypony else chasing after it, then I wound up getting lost and soon wondered into the clearing, that's when I spotted it trying to shoot you down, so I took that rock in my magic, waited until it was in my sights, and then let it fly like a slingshot, and I scored a bullseye!" Said Izzy, hopping in place excitedly.

"That was so sick Izz, you took that drone down in one shot, and none too soon, it was doing some serious damage around here." Said Zipp, noticing all the damage it had done to the trees.

"Oh yeah for sure, the last thing we want is a forest fire starting around here, they can be very nasty and dangerous, and to us Unicorns in Bridlewood, it's seen as a bad omen." Said Izzy ominously.

"Wait really? That's news to me." Said Zipp who landed next to her.

"Yeah, but luckily it hasn't happened for about two hundred years now according to Elder Flower, so we should be in the clear of any omens happening anytime soon." Said Izzy with a reassuring smile.

Zipp smiled back, then turned around to examine the drone wreckage behind her. She had nearly forgotten about her Rad-Visor on top of her head that she brought with her after they learned that Hitch was chasing after one of the drones. After inspecting the visor in case it got damaged from the chasing and debris, she now she pulled it down over her eyes and got ready to examine the wreckage in detail.

"Now let's see what makes this robot tick." Said Zipp with a smirk as she activated the visor and got to work.

Izzy meanwhile spotted the rest of the gang looking around for them in the forest, she gave out a whistle and waved to them to signal to come here However as they approached, she became concerned when she noticed Sunny and Pipp carrying Hitch with them together with an improvised bandage on his upper shoulder, that meant he had been injured which made her concerned.

"Oh my gosh, Hitch! Are you okay!?" Exclaimed Izzy who galloped over to him.

"Hey Izz... ughh I'll be okay, that drone took a good shot and made a large branch fall on top of me, luckily nothing is broken, but it looks like I'll be bruising for a few days." Said Hitch as he rubbed his injured shoulder.

"It's lucky that Hitch here is built like a brick, otherwise he might've been in a much worse state than he is currently." Said Sunny, helping him to sit down on a nearby stump.

"I can't believe how much hassle it's been dealing with all these drones, even just one on it's own is a significant threat with all the damage that it has doing to the forest, and my mane... UGGHH, all these leaves and debris just won't leave me alone today!" Whined Pipp, looking at herself in the phone mirror.

"Well, I'm glad that you are all safe, and you don't need to worry about the drone anymore, I shot it down with a bullseye, and Zipp is examining it right now." Said Izzy, nudging her head at the scene behind her.

The group all looked at her wide eyed, then looked at Zipp who was busying using her visor to examine the drone wreckage. They then made their way over to her to see what she had discovered, Hitch being the most eager as he half galloped over, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder, to see what she had found.

"So this is the drone that was spying on us, it's certainly a lot different from others I've seen at Zephyr Heights." Said Pipp, using her phone to take pictures of it.

"Indeed sis, this drone is not only bigger than the others, it's also armour plated in solid steel, not hard plastic." Said Zipp, who hit her hoof against the wreckage, making a distant clanging sound.

"Whoa, and there is this thing it's been using to attack us, I'm right in guessing that this is a weapon that shoots lasers?" Said Sunny, gently nudging the cannon laying on the ground.

"Oh yeah, this is the real deal Sunny, I mean we saw what kind of damage it could do earlier when we were chased by a whole swarm of these things, and this lone one." Said Zipp, who gently picked it up to scan it.

"Hmm, but who could've made this, and where did they get such weapons from in the first place?" Said Pipp openly.

"I don't know, but I think it's so cool how it can shoot such deadly rays of light that can ZIPP, and BLAM, just like that!" Said Izzy who had snatched the weapon away to examine it, much to Zipp's bemusement.

"Hmm, what do you think Hitch, do you have any ideas?" Asked Sunny.

Hitch had been busy looking over the wreckage very carefully, there wasn't anything on the drone that seemed to identify a manufacturer or whoever made it like a label or indented name, in fact the only thing that did stood out was a logo on the body top, it looked like a cog with a lightning bolt running through it horizontally, Hitch had never seen a logo like that before, he wondered what that could mean.

"Hmm, I wonder what this logo here could mean-

But, before he could finish, there came a loud bang from behind the group, before they had a chance to turn around to see what it was, there was an explosion right where the wreckage was, sending them all reeling away in fright.

"AAAIIIIEEEEE!" Shouted Sunny, Pipp and Izzy.

Luckily Zipp managed to recover quickly and moved to check if the others were okay.

"Is everypony okay!?" Shouted Zipp in concern.

Sunny and Pipp seemed to be okay, but both of their coats were covered in dirt, and Pipp's phone had been broken by the blast, much to her exasperation. Izzy was laying on the ground with her head down in the ground, but she seemed to be fine with no visible injuries. However, Hitch seemed to have taken the full hit of the explosion, his coat and face was covered in soot, and he struggled to get back up on his hooves.

"Hitch, are you okay?" Said Zipp, looking worried at him.

Hitch groaned as he tried to stand back up, but his shoulder still hurt, making it difficult for him to do so.

"Ugghh, I'll live don't worry Zipp, but what happened?" Asked Hitch, still dazed from the explosion.

"There was an explosion just now, and the drone you took down is now pretty much wrecked beyond recognition, there's nothing we can learn from it now." Said Zipp, dusting the dirt off her body.

"Darn it, I thought we'd finally had a lead for this case, now what do we do..." Said Hitch thoughtfully.

"Umm pony's... I think we've got company!" Said Sunny in fright.

The group all looked in Sunny's direction, and right there was the unmistakable silhouette of a pony in the shadow of the trees, only with a single glowing red eye on it's head, and it's hoof like weapon aimed straight at them.

"Look out, it's gonna attack!" Shouted Sunny.

The pony like figure opened fire, shooting a large laser blast straight at the group, but luckily they all managed to dodge out of the way just in time, as the blast hit the tree behind them, blowing it to pieces.

"What in the hay, what is the meaning of this!? Show yourself you villain!" Shouted Pipp.

The pony like figure soon started to trot towards them, making loud metal stomping noises as it did so. As it stepped out into the fading evening light of the sun, the pony's all looked on in shock, there right there, with it's unmistakable robotic appearance, was one of the robot ponies that Jasmine had spoken of to them. The robot pony was easily as big as Alphabittle himself, it's steel body largely coloured carbon black, though some parts of it like it's re-breather like muzzle and limbs were coloured in a dull silver instead, it had no tail other than a stump like part on it's rear, and on top of it's head, was another logo just like on the drone, a cog with a lightning bolt through the middle horizontally.

"So, this is one of the robot ponies that Jasmine warned us about, huh, it's a little bigger than I was expecting." Said Zipp, who had hunched herself into a fighting pose.

"I don't know if we are lucky to have found one, or unlucky to have run into it." Said Sunny wearily.

"I think that it looks pretty awesome to me, you know, if it wasn't trying to kill us." Said Izzy innocently.

"W-what do we do now? Should we try to escape or something!?" Said Pipp, who was trying to get her busted phone working, to no avail.

The robot pony then aimed it's weapon and opened fire again, nearly hitting Hitch who just barely jumped out of the way.

"I don't think it's gonna give us a chance to leave, not without a fight." Said Hitch, wincing at the pain in his shoulder.

The sheriff was about to get into a fighting pose, when he was stopped by a flick of a wing from Zipp.

"You're right Hitch, but I think your better off hanging back this time, you're injured after all, and the last thing we want is for you to get captured, or worse." Said Zipp, lowering her visor over her face.

"Huh!? But what about you girls!? What if you can't beat it-"

"I agree, you need to rest Hitch, leave this robot pony to us." Said Sunny, putting on her roller blading helmet.

"Zipp is right Hitch, you need to hang back this time, we'll take care of this bucket of bolts no problem." Said Pipp, who looked at the robot, smacking her front hooves together, "Plus, no dumb robot breaks my phone, and gets away with it!"

"Good thing I always come prepared for a battle." Said Izzy who had also put on her helmet, along with painting camo marks along her cheeks, to Hitch's confusion.

"Ready everypony? Attack!" Yelled Sunny as she galloped forward.

Hitch looked on as the rest of the Mane Five charged straight at the robot, who responded by firing off more laser blasts towards them in rapid succession. However, little did the ponies know was that the robot pony was not alone in the forest, for other robots had detected the commotion that was going on, and were now closing in on their position fast.

This battle would soon turn into a big fight for their lives.

Author's Notes:

[EDIT: This chapter has received a bit of a rewrite, I felt the last part of this story with the explosion ended up being a little too violent for the current rating, so i've toned it down and edited it out and replaced it with a new scene. I hope that it still helps sell the danger that I was conveying with the robot pony.]

Here we are folks, I said last time that we are starting to get into the meat of the story now, and now we have our first big fight happening! This is something I've been itching to get into ever since I first started planning out the story late last year, from now on expect more excitement as revelations get revealed, bodies get bruised, and the plot moving faster, as we start to head towards the climax of Act 2, trust me when I say that things are only going to get bigger and more dramatic from here on out!

Act 2 - Chapter 4

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Not far away from the scene of the ongoing battle between the Mane Five and the robots, the Unicorn leader Alphabittle was racing through the trees of Bridlewood forest as fast as he could, hoping that he will be able to catch up to them and hopefully help them out. He believed that he was on the right track having seen the dense track of hooves on the dirt path ahead of him, not to mention the telltale signs of a fight that had been happening along the way. What with all the broken branches and twigs lying around, and the burn marks left behind on the tree barks, there was no doubt about it that their adversary was wielding weapons of such power at their disposal.

"I hope I can get there before it's too late, I fear that the ponies might be a little in over their heads if our foe has an army of these things at their disposal." Alphabittle said to himself as he carried on running.

As Alphabittle continued running faster and faster to try and catch up to the gang, he soon began to hear loud distinct noises not far away, along with screams and yells, almost like battle cries. Alphabittle stopped in his tracks and adjusted the ears on his head, trying to listen into the noises and locate where they were coming from.

"Hmm... It sounds like they are coming from, that way!" He shouted as he pointed the direction out with his hoof.

He then took off in a gallop towards the source of the noises up ahead, which he faintly remembered was in the direction of a large clearing in Bridlewood, where a large mystical tree stood tall above all others, one that brought back memories for Alphabittle, sad deep memories that were personal to him.

The old Unicorn shook his head, burying his feelings deep down while keeping focused the matter at hoof, galloping down the path, until at last he reached edge of the clearing, just as one of the flying drones crashed right in front of him.

"W-w-whoa, what the hay, what is this!?" Alphabittle half shouted out as he looked at the wreckage.

"Heads up everypony! There's more coming in from behind us!" Came a loud voice from nearby.

Alphabittle eyes went wide as he looked towards the direction of the voice, "This is it, they must be close by here."

Sure enough, there they were, Izzy and all her friends spread throughout the clearing, heavily engaged in a fight with all the robots that were around them. Izzy was busy levitating various boulders to protect herself from their attacks, while Pipp and Zipp, the latter having lost her visor which lay on the ground, were taking advantage of their wings to dodge their laser fire to take them down one by one with either rocks, or their own strength. As for Sunny, she was squaring off against the lone robot pony that was aiming straight at her with its blaster, she was able to dodge its attacks, but only barely, and she couldn't seem to be able to get close enough to attack it directly.

"Well now, looks like I'm late to this party, but they seem to have it under control at the moment." Alphabittle said to himself, then he noticed that somepony was missing from the action, "Hang on a minute, where's Hitch?"

Alphabittle looked over by the big tree near the middle of the clearing and saw Hitch laying there, he seemed to be in pain from an injury of some kind as he was clutching his left side with his hoof. He was also trying to apply some band-aid that he had taken out of his satchel, but he was so caught up in it that he didn't seem to notice that one of the drones nearby was quietly taking aim at him, to Alphabittle's alarm.

"He'll be blasted for sure if he doesn't move!" Alphabittle said as he suddenly galloped towards him.

"Augh, blasted graze, I hope this bandage will help out." Whined Hitch as he applied the band-aid to the cut on his left side.

Just as he had finished doing so, he heard the familiar whir of a laser cannon charging near him, he looked behind him just in time to see a drone about to fire at him directly.

"Nooo!" Shouted Hitch as he covered his face to brace himself.

He then heard the loud sound of what sounded like the drone being impaled on something, before it was sent flying to the ground, exploding to pieces. He slowly moved his hooves away from his face to see what was going on, and saw the familiar silhouette of Alphabittle, standing right in front of him.

"Hey there sheriff, how are you holding up?" Said Alphabittle, looking at him concerned.

Hitch, realizing he was safe for now, let out a deep sigh of relief, "Yeah... I've been better, just dealing with some injuries to my shoulder and side at the moment."

Alphabittle looked over at Hitch, he clearly had been run rough in his chase of the drone, and he wasn't in any shape at all to take part in the fight.

"They aren't serious injuries luckily, so I should be fine after a bit of a rest." Said Hitch.

"I understand sheriff, and I take it that you are in no condition to join in the fight against those robots?" Asked Alphabittle, gesturing his head to the ongoing battle.

Hitch just shook his head, "I hate to admit it, but I'm in no shape to fight right now, I'll just get hurt even more than I already am, and get in the way of everypony else too."

Alphabittle nodded his head, then turned to look at the battle going on, "You stay here and get some rest then, I'll take it over from here."

"Please be careful, Alphabittle, these bots mean business." Said Hitch with concern.

Alphabittle just laughed, "Hahaha, it's the robots who need to be careful, they've messed with the wrong ponies this time around!"

Sunny and the robot pony were still engaged in combat, she had managed to tank a hit from it's blaster with her helmet, and then charged forward to headbutt it as hard as she could under it's chin. The attack managed to daze the robot for a bit, making it back away, but at the cost of making Sunny's helmet crack as some bits fell off.

"How's that, you tin pot!?" Shouted Sunny, showing a rare level of aggression.

The robot pony jumped back and fired at her again, Sunny managed to dodge the attack, but she caught her hoof onto a stray branch laying on the ground, causing her to lose her balance, she fell to the ground and landing on her jaw with a hard thud.

"Owww, ooof that's gonna smart." Sunny grunted in pain.

But before she had time to recover, the robot had closed the distance to her, and was just about to blast her at point-blank range, when a thundering of hooves came from behind it.

"Hooves off that young mare, you metal headed bully!" Shouted Alphabittle.

"W-w-what in the hay!?" Shouted Sunny in surprise, as she tried to look up.

Before the robot could see what was going on, Alphabittle lowered his head, and using his sheer strength, smashed right into it's side, sending it crashing a few feet away, landing in disarray. Alphabittle let out a huff, then turned to look at Sunny on the ground.

"Sorry I'm late Sunny, are you okay?" Asked Alphabittle, who helped her up.

"Thank you Alphabittle, and i'm alright, but there seems to be no end of all these drones coming out from the thicket, and this robot pony has proved to be stronger than it looks." Said Sunny, rubbing her jaw with her hoof.

"Then it looks like I got here just in time, now we can deal with them full force." Said Alphabittle.

The two ponies then looked on at the robot pony, which was getting back to its hooves, showing minor dents on its metal body, and a noticeable crack on its glowing core. The pony looked over to them, and with a bright glow of it's single eye, once again aimed it's weapon at them.

"We need to take this thing down quick before it harms anypony else!" Shouted Sunny, getting ready to charge again.

"Leave this one to me, I'll take it down, you go help everypony else!" Said Alphabittle, staring down at the robot pony.

The robot pony then opened fire, shooting a rapid blast of three laser shots at the two ponies.

"Look out!" Shouted Sunny as moved to dodge the attacks.

Alphabittle however ignored the attack and began charging straight towards the robot pony, which kept on firing at him, but none of it's attacks hit him. Just as it was about to step back to potentially retreat Alphabittle lowered his head and rammed his horn straight into the robot's glowing core, causing it to cease attacking.

"Haha, take that!" Yelled Alphabittle, hoisting it up into the air and throwing it to the ground, "You're scrap metal now!"

The robot sparked up more before blowing itself up in an explosion, leaving debris all over the place, but luckily nopony was near it. Dusting off his coat, Alphabittle looked on at the other ponies who were still engaged in fighting off the other drones, despite being outnumbered by a large margin, they were getting the upper hoof in the fight.

"Hey Pipp, heads up!" Shouted Zipp as she launched a rock she had picked up straight at the drone chasing after Pipp, smashing it to pieces.

"Nice shot Zipp, but there are still more coming at us!" Pipp shouted back.

Another drone was about to take a shot at her, when Alphabittle leaped up and stabbed it with his horn.

"Yeaarrgghhh!" He shouted, as he throw the drone into a nearby tree, destroying it.

"Whoa, Alphabittle! I didn't know you showed up." Said Zipp in surprise.

"Hahaha, i'd never miss this, not when my fellow Unicorns are in danger!" Said Alphabittle.

"Aww hay yeah, now we can finish these tin cans off in style!" Said Pipp.

"Yeah, these meany drones keep on shooting at me, they aren't playing nice at all." Said Izzy, still levitating rocks to protect herself.

"Let's all work together to finish them off, then we can start getting to the bottom of this whole case." Said Zipp, charging at another group of drones.

"I agree, let's do it!" Said Alphabittle, following her.

The fight continued on, with Sunny now joining in with her friends and Alphabittle in fending off the drones, the drones seemed to have been getting desperate as they were now actively trying to dodge their attacks.

"Keep it up everypony, we've got them on the ropes now!" Shouted Sunny.

"I so need to post a story about this on my social media." Said Pipp, pulling out a spare phone she had on her to do just that.

Zipp was unamused by the display, "Seriously Pipp? There's no time to be making Clip Trots about this fight-"

"Look out Pipp!" Shouted Izzy in a panic.

Pipp looked around just in time to see a drone shoot a large branch above her head, making it smack into her as she was flying under it, causing her to crash into a heap onto the ground under a pile of debris.

"Pipp!" Panicked Zipp, diving down to the ground to see if her sister was okay.

Before she could do anything, the same drone that fired at the tree branch fired another blast straight at her, Zipp just barely managed to dodge it, the laser blast grazing across her cheek, leaving a small cut across it, zipp, now enraged, glared over at the culprit.

"Y-you, you utter hunk of horse apples!" Zipp shouted out.

Before the drone could fire again, in a blink of an eye, Zipp quickly jumped up and with a might flap of her wings, zoomed straight towards it, smashing it into two halves with her sheer strength alone.

"Hah, not so tough now are you, are you!?" Said Zipp, feeling satisfaction over that display.

With that taken care off, Zipp then turned her attention to helping out her sister from under the heap of debris, but before she could even take a step forward, there was a deep growl of anger that slowly rang throughout the clearing, and with a might heave, Pipp got straight up from under the heap, shaking away all the dirt and debris from her mane and coat, she then let out deep angry huffs, her eyes burning with pure princess rage as she held up her now broken spare phone.

"Uhhh, Pipp, are you okay?" Asked Zipp with a raised eyebrow.

"NO, I, AM, NOT, OKAY!!! I have had it up to here with these haying annoying drones messing up my mane, my phones, and my friends too!" Shouted Pipp, steam venting out of her nostrils.

Zipp could only watch in surprise as Pipp let out what could only be described as a primal Pegasus scream, then she rushed to pick up a nearby boulder and began flying around at fast speeds, chasing after all of the drones around the clearing, smashing them up one after the other, over and over again, much to her friends amazement.
At last, only one was left, which seemed to have realized the danger it was in and was trying to flee, but Pipp was not having it, she chased it down relentlessly, giving it no chance to escape into the thicket of the woods around them, then as soon as she saw an opening appear, she proceeded to throw the boulder with all her strength and momentum, and managed to score a direct hit, causing the drone to explode into bits and pieces. Having accomplished her vengeance against the robots, Pipp landed on the ground nearby, she was short of breath, and her legs and wings hurt from all the strain she had put them under, but she was so full of bravado from her actions that she barely felt it.

"Hah, hah, haha, HA HAHAHAHA!!! Oh yeah, how do you like them feathers!? Nopony or robot ever, and I meant ever messes with me, and gets away with it! Aww yeah, who's the top mare around here? Uh huh, oh yeah, you go pony, go go, uh huh!" Boasted Pipp, celebrating in the air with some dances.

"Haha, i'll say, i've never seen you that angry before sis, nor have I ever seen you move that fast either, you really showed those drones whose the boss." Said Zipp, flying over to check on her.

"Heh heh, well, I can sometimes push it to the limit if such a situation calls for it, even if i'm not as fast as you are Zipp." Said Pipp, posing proudly.

"I mean, you could be as fast as me sis, if you know you stopped lounging around and eating junk most of the time." Said Zipp pointedly.

Upon hearing that, Pipp felt insulted and got right up in her sisters face, "Hey! Are you calling me what I think you've calling me, Zipp!?"

"No Pipp, I haven't said that bad word." Said Zipp with a smirk.

"Bad word!? Zipp, don't go around saying naughty stuff like that!" Said a voice from behind her.

"Augh ffff- Izzy! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Shouted Zipp in suprise, nearly letting out one such bad word.

"Hehehe, sorry about that, but are you girls okay?." Asked Izzy, who was joined by Sunny, Alphabittle and Hitch not far behind.

"Yeah we're totally okay, that was some battle though." Said Pipp, wiping the sweat off her brow.

The ponies looked all around them, the clearing was a mess of broken down drones and debris, they had indeed managed to win this fight, one that proved more thrilling, and more dangerous than they had expected, and not without some injuries too, with Sunny putting a bandage under her jaw which still hurt from her fall earlier, Hitch still rubbing his hurt shoulder and injured side, Zipp dealing with the laser cut on her cheek that she reluctantly plastered up, and Pipp starting to feel the effects of her actions just now with her joints aching. To make matters more pressing, the weather had started to change during the right, and now it was starting to rain, the small droplets falling from the now darkened cloudy sky hitting the ground firmly.

"Phew, I have to say that battle was a little too close for my liking." Said Sunny, taking off her helmet to inspect the damage.

"I'll say, if I hadn't got here on time, you ponies would've been in a world of hurt." Said Alphabittle.

"Yeah, and you totally smashed those mean old robots to pieces Alphabittle, they never stood a chance against you." Said Izzy smiling.

"Hahaha, well you know, nopony ever messes with the Unicorns under my watch, and i'm not letting whoever is behind these robots get away with this, not anymore." Said Alphabittle proudly.

As the rest of the ponies cheered on Alphabittle, Zipp suddenly remembered something that she and the rest of the gang discussed back at the Crystal Tea House, they needed to recover one of the drones so that they could study it.

"Ah shoot I completely forgot, we should look around to see if we can find one of the drones still intact, then hopefully we can get a clue as to who's been sending them after us, and from there find a lead to where the missing Unicorns are hiding." Said Zipp, looking around the clearing.

"No need to worry about that Zipp, I found one already." Said Hitch from behind them, dragging one of the busted drones from the fight, which was still largely intact, only missing one of it's hover units and some dents.

"Oh nice going there Hitch, how are you feeling anyway?" Asked Sunny.

"Honestly, i'm feeling rough and worn down, but I should be better after i've had a good nights rest." Said Hitch, rubbing his shoulder again.

"Haha, you chased that drone down like a tiger hunting it's prey sheriff, but I think next time you should be more careful and vigilant about what you get yourself into, less you get hurt again." Said Zipp, trotting over to check the drone.

"Heh, well you know how headstrong I can get, especially when it comes to protecting my friends and residents in a town." Said Hitch with a chuckle.

"Ah I know, we should have Elder Flower take a look at you Hitch, she knows a lot of treatments to help ponies feel better, she should be able to help you out when we get back to Bridlewood village." Said Alphabittle.

"Elder Flower? I don't think we've met her before." Said Sunny.

"Oh Elder Flower is our resident knowledge keeper, she knows a lot about old Unicorn history, remedies to help us feel better, every path in the Bridlewood Forest, and just about anything else Unicorn related. If there is anything you need to know about Unicorn history, Elder Flower's the one who'll likely know it." Said Izzy glowingly.

Sunny's eyes were full of stars, she no doubt was very much in fangirl mode for learning about it, for her, the chance to learn more about Unicorn history was far too tempting to pass up.

"Ohhh that is so cool! I'd love to meet her and learn more about Unicorns from her!" Said Sunny, squeeing hard.

"Hahaha, I had a feeling you would be interested in that Sunny, well then, what are we waiting around here for? We should head back to the village, it's starting to rain." Said Alphabittle, turning to begin making his way back to Bridlewood.

"Wait a minute ponies, what about this robot over here?" Called Zipp.

The ponies looked over to where she was, she was next to the robot pony that Alphabittle had defeated, despite exploding earlier and the damage inflicted upon it, there was still enough of it left for to be studied.

"Oh that's right, the robot pony, we'll definitely need to give this thing a good look over, I mean just look at it, we certainly don't have anything like this over at Zephyr Heights." Said Pipp.

"I can carry this hunk of junk on my back, but we better make a move on now, no telling if there are more of those things out there in the woods." Said Alphabittle, picking up the wrecked robot pony, then placing it onto his back.

"Not to mention the Metal Monster that eats Unicorns lurking out there! Ohhh i'd hate to run into it!" Said Izzy, looking around wildly in a panic.

"Alright alright, everypony, let's move on out of here, the rains starting to get heavy." Said Sunny, leading head of the group back towards Bridlewood.

The rest of the group followed on behind her, leaving behind all of the destruction that they had wrought onto the robots that had ambushed them, left to rust in the drizzle of the rainfall. However, watching them not far away were a group of robots, they seemed to have been waiting to join in the battle, but they had chosen not to do so. Soon a nearby drone hovered near them, issuing them new orders from their leader.

"Let them go for now, this turn of events is unfortunate, retreat back to base until further notice."

The robots obeyed the orders, then retreated into the darkness of the forest out of sight, it would seem that the Mane Five have scored their first victory against their unknown enemy, and now seemed to be on the right track to learning about who they are, and what they are after. Still, the battle may be over, but the case wasn't over yet, not until they finally find out where the missing Unicorns were and rescue them, and bring the criminal behind all of this to justice.

However, little did they know is that they were not the only ones fighting the robots at this very moment.

Meanwhile, far away from Bridlewood, back in the town of Maretime Bay, the residents had began to settle down for the night, the stalls along the promenade were all locked up and ready for tomorrow, the local shops were closed, restocked and ready for another busy day tomorrow. The rain from earlier had began to fall heavier now, some ponies were running around trying to get home before they got too wet, others though seemed to enjoy the weather, finding it more relaxing and peaceful, from splashing about in the puddles to walking along the promenade with their raincoats on, the sound of the raindrops providing a sense of bliss for them.

It was at this moment that two ponies in particular were out and about in the wet, hurrying around the streets and looking around franticly, as if they were looking for somepony, or something, their raincoat and umbrella becoming soaked with raindrops.

"Have you had any luck yet, Rocky?"

"No luck I'm afraid Jazzy, they weren't at the Brighthouse as you thought, it doesn't look like they've come home since they left this morning. How about you, have you had any better luck than me?"

"I've checked out all the other places they could've been at, the theatre, the promenade, even the old street corner, but there's not a hint of them anywhere."

"I'm starting to get worried, I hope nothing bad has happened to them..."

It was Rocky Riff and Jazz Hooves, Pipp Petals fellow co-workers at the Mane Melody saloon, they had been working hard all day due to Pipp's absence in joining the rest of the Mane Five on the journey towards Bridlewood, but now, after having not heard anything from her or her friends all day through social media or calls, and with no sign of them coming home at all, they had both grown very worried about them.

"This is turning into a right load of horse apples, where the hay could they be!?" Jazz said in frustration.

"Easy on the language there Jazzy, I'm sure they're okay, they are tough group of ponies." Said Rocky, trying to calm her down.

Jazz took a deep huff, then calmly shook her head, "Sorry about that Rocky, but I haven't gotten any texts back from Pipp for hours now, and she won't answer my calls either, the last thing I heard about her was that post she made on her social account this morning, I'm starting to get a bad feeling about all this."

"I'm feeling the same way, I mean, you have been hearing about the talk going around town and on social media today haven't you?" Asked Rocky.

"You mean of all the Unicorns that have been disappearing? Well, now that you mention it, i've heard on my social channels today that apparently it's also been happening over at Bridlewood as well, but on a bigger scale, they say that over fifteen of them have gone missing over there, and nopony knows why." Said Jazz, flipping her phone out to check for any new messages.

"W-w-what, over fifteen Unicorns you say!? But that's insane, why would that many Unicorns simply vanish, it doesn't make any sense..." Said Rocky, thinking to himself.

The two of them stood around for a minute or two trying to figure out what was going on, until a distant rumbling of thunder in the skies above spooked the two of them out of their thoughts.

"I think it'd be wise if we both get out of the wet, is there anywhere we haven't checked yet?" Asked Rocky.

"Hmm... oh I know, how about the police station? If there is one thing I do know, is that Hitch always leaves a note behind if he is to be out of town for a day." Said Jazz.

"Sounds good to me, let's gallop over there right away." Said Rocky.

The two ponies then galloped over to the police station along the downtown area, but by the time they got there, they found that the police station was closed, and it didn't seem to have been opened all day.

"Ah shoot, I should've known that Hitch would lock the place up before leaving with the group, now there is no way we could get in there, not without setting off the alarms." Said Jazz, looking down in disappointment.

"Yeah... and the last thing I want to do is to break one of his many bylaws trying to get in, that pony can sometimes be a right pain in the flank about it." Rocky deadpanned.

"Hmm... I guess we'll have to keep looking elsewhere, it's starting to get late, and I really don't want to be out in this rain any longer than necessary." Said Jazz, turning around and walking off.

Rocky was just about to join her when his ears picked up a noise from not far away, he looked behind him and noticed a moving light in one of the station windows. He crept over to get a close look, but the light seemed to have vanished, though the noise was still happening, quiet as it was.

"Something wrong Rocky?" Asked Jazz, looking behind her.

Rocky looked back at her, "No nothings wrong, I just thought I heard a noise just now, it came from inside the station, and I also saw what looked like a weird light of some kind."

"Really? Hmm it might've been one of the animals that like to follow Hitch around, perhaps one of them is on guard duty and knocked something over by mistake." Said Jazz.

"True, but what about the weird light I just saw?" He asked.

"That could've been one of the alarm lights flickering, or maybe one of the computer screens turning on briefly, at a glance any of them could be weird to see." Jazz answered.

Rocky was thinking of agreeing with her, until there was another noise from inside the station, this time Jazz heard it too.

"There it is again, another noise, and that didn't sound like an animal to me." Said Rocky.

"I heard that too, I think we should check out the station and see if anything is going on." Said Jazz, moving to the door and checking it.

"But how will we get in there without setting off the alarms?" Asked Rocky.

He didn't have to wait for an answer to that, as soon as Jazz poked the door with her hoof, it creaked open by itself.

"Huh? That's weird, Hitch always keeps this place locked up tight while he's away, so why is the front door unlocked?" Said Jazz, suspicious about the circumstances.

Rocky however noticed the burn marks around the door lock, then saw that the lock itself had been cut through cleanly, and pretty recently too.

"Hey check that out, the door lock, it's been cut clean through." Said Rocky, pointing it out.

Jazz looked at the broken lock beside her, "Oh your right, but what could've done that-"

Jazz was interrupted when another noise came about from inside the station, it sounded like something heavy fell onto the floor, Rocky then gestured for the two of them to walk inside quietly so as to not disturb whatever it was making that noise to which she agreed with silently. The two of them stepped inside and looked around quietly, the lights were switched off, and there didn't seemed to be any sigh of any other pony in the place at all, until Jazz caught sight of something lurking on Hitch's desk staring up at his computer, it looked to be another drone of some kind, but it was insect like in appearance with it's six metal legs and a single glowing eye on it's front. Jazz was quietly trying to get closer to it so that she could see what it was up to, when Rocky called out from across the room.

"I'm gonna get the lights quick, it's too dark in here." Said Rocky across the room, flicking the light switch on.

Jazz went wide eyed and turned to stop him, "No no no wait DON-"

It was too late, the sudden light up of the room spooked the drone badly, it jumped from the table and scuttled off past the two ponies, and out into the rainy night.

"W-whoa, what the hay was that thing that just scuttled on past by!?" Said Rocky in surprise.

"Ugh, now you've done it, that thing was some kind of drone, it was looking up something on the sheriffs computer, and you just had to scare it off by turning on the lights!" Jazz said crossly.

"Oh shoot, sorry about that Jazzy... I was being super careless right there." Said Rocky, rubbing the back of his head.

Jazz rolled her eyes, but she couldn't be too cross with him for long, "No worries Rocky, now come on, that drone was up to something on the sheriffs computer, let's check it out."

The two ponies trotted on over to the desk and looked at the computer screen, they saw that various files had been left open, most of them were related to the now defunct Canterlogic company, including numerous ponies living in Maretime Bay who had worked for the company in the past.

"Hey, I recognize a few of the ponies in those files." Said Rocky, looking at the pictures.

"So do I, there's Toots and his partner in crime Sweets, Sparkle Chaser, and of course Phyllis Cloverleaf, the founder and former head of Canterlogic herself, and her son Sprout the former deputy." Said Jazz.

"Hmmm, but why would that drone be looking through these files, what could it want with them?" Asked Rocky.

"I don't know, your guess is as good as mine." Said Jazz.

The two of them looked over the open files again, until one file in particular catches Jazz's attention, she moved the mouse cursor over and clicked on it, bringing up a picture of an older, familiar looking Earth Pony with an absinthe green coat and platinum hair, along with all the information known about him.

"Huh, so this is the scientist who got fired from Canterlogic around a year ago, Dr Wormwood." Said Jazz.

"I've never heard of him before, who is he, and how did he get fired?" Asked Rocky.

"Well, from what I know of from the news, and the word of mouth going around at the time, he was fired by Phyllis for harboring sympathy towards Unicorns, at a time when us Earth Ponies still held them in suspicion and fear. It was a pretty big deal at the time because he was the pony in charge of R&D at Canterlogic, and one of their founders as well if you can believe it." Jazz explained to Rocky.

"I can believe that, still though that's crazy, how could they have fired him over that, especially now with the Pony tribes starting to hang out each other again." Said Rocky.

"I wouldn't know honestly, after that happened security became much stricter over at Canterlogic, and any questions asked about what was going on were pretty much brushed aside or outright ignored. As for Wormwood himself, he pretty much disappeared from the limelight, he very rarely made any appearances if at all around Maretime Bay again, I mean hay, even with the recent reunification of the Pony tribes, there still hasn't been any hint or hair of him anywhere at all." Jazz explained.

"Hmm, I find that kinda strange to me, first with Canterlogic being oddly secretive about him being fired other than what was said publicly, and then this Dr Wormwood character being absent from the unification, you'd think he'd be all over that given his supposed 'sympathy' towards Unicorns." Said Rocky, pondering to himself.

"Yeah it is rather perplexing I have to admit, although... Well, I did know of another rumor that was also going around too, but that one died pretty fast since most ponies didn't even believe it." Said Jazz.

"Really, what kind of rumor was it?" Asked Rocky.

Jazz looked around her, then gestured for Rocky to come closer, to which he did so, then she lifted a hoof up to her face and spoke up.

"The other rumor I heard about on the street was that Wormwood had been working on some kind of machine that was powered by magic itself, the belief he had was that if magic did return to Equestria someday, it could be used as an energy source to power all everyday life, we wouldn't have to rely on mundane fuel sources to power our needs anymore, magic could do all of that for us without any waste at all." Jazz whispered to him.

"Wow really, that sounds kinda cool to me, and it makes sense as well, I mean with magic anything can be possible, even haircuts, make up and beauty treatments." Said Rocky, thinking it over in his head.

However, as he thought about it more, he suddenly started to connect some of the dots in his head, then turned to Jazz wide eyed, "Wait a minute, are you saying that..."

Jazz nodded her head, "Mhm, apparently Phyllis saw the machine and it's purpose as either too expensive for her company to manufacture, or perhaps, that it was too dangerous to be used at all, since for all we know, magic can be useful and helpful, but... it can also be powerful, and destructive in the wrong hooves, as the old stories from Equestria's past tell us."

"If that is true, then what became of that machine, if it was real to begin with?" Asked Rocky, now very curious.

Jazz just shock her head, "I'm afraid that's where the rumor ends, nopony knows the full story about it, nopony except Phyllis and Wormwood, and I highly doubt the both of them will want to talk about it to everypony else, even with Canterlogic now shut down."

Rocky let out a sigh, but he was also rather deep in thought about the whole revelation, but he couldn't figure out how it was all connected.

"Ugghh, I'm trying to think how all of this fits together, but it just isn't working out in my head." Rocky grunted in frustration.

"What isn't working out, what are you talking about?" Asked Jazz with a raised eyebrow.

"All that we've just talked about Jazzy, the mysterious scientist who was fired from Canterlogic for unclear reasons, the conspiracy surrounding the machine he may have invented, and the drone we saw a few minutes ago looking up all the ponies that worked for the company, but the problem is how does it all fit together?" Rocky explained.

"Hmm, that is true, none of those things you mentioned seem to click at all, unless... Unless we're missing something here." Said Jazz.

The two ponies sat on their haunches, thinking about all the information they've just talked about, trying to put all the pieces together, doing so may help them understand the bigger picture that was going on behind the scenes. Minutes seemed to pass, until all of a sudden, Jazz leaped up onto her hooves, it looked like she had just had a stroke of genius.

"Oh my gosh, that's it! That's gotta be it! I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier!" She shouted out loud.

"Whoa whoa Jazz, have you thought of something?" Asked Rocky sitting up.

"Rocky, what if we were to consider the events that have been going on around here as well, you know, the Unicorns that have been vanishing around Maretime Bay and Bridlewood, along with that drone we just saw hacking the computer systems, suddenly everything is starting to make sense to me!" Said Jazz excitedly.

"Huh, umm you might want to explain it clearer to me Jazz, what do you mean?" Said Rocky, trying to process it all in his head.

Jazz went up close to him and spoke slower, "I mean it like this Rocky, the missing Unicorns, Canterlogic, the drones, the mystery surrounding Phyllis and the scientist she fired, and the rumoured machine said scientist was working on to harness the power of magic, if you add all of them together like they were all linked... Do you see what I am getting at?"

Rocky seemed to catch on to what she was talking about, suddenly everything was starting to fall into place, but... It was also leading them both down a dark path, and the questions found along there were rather terrifying to think about, including one that both of them were thinking about out loud.

"Well Rocky, are you thinking what i'm thinking?" Asked Jazz.

"Jazz, you are not suggesting that... That the Unicorns are vanishing not because of a random ponynapping case going on, but because they are... um I mean, they are being used for-"

They were interrupted by a loud noise coming from nearby, the two of them turned around and saw the same insect like drone from before in the doorway.

"Look, it's that drone again, let's grab it!" Shouted Jazz.

The two ponies made their way to the door, only to stop when a pair of sharp metal legs stabbed through the door and ripped it clean off. The drone had not come back alone, it was now accompanied by a pair of large quadruped walking drones with sharp looking spider-like legs with a menacing looking turret with laser cannons on top of their bodies, and they were aiming straight at the two of them.

"W-w-what in the hay is that!" Said Jazz wide eyed.

"Look out!" Shouted Rocky, as he leaped at Jazz to knock her away, just as the two drones opened fire at them.

The blasts missed, but their blasts destroyed the computer screen, and damaged the sheriffs desk too.

"T-t-they're attacking us! Why are they attacking us!?" Said Jazz, panicking a little.

"We must know too much... We've gotta get out of here now!" Said Rocky, helping her up.

There was another loud noise behind them, they saw another of the quad drones breaking through the air vent on the ceiling, it crawled out and opened fire at them with a rapid burst of lasers.

"Shoot, they're trying to surround us!" Rocky shouted, dodging their blasts.

"We have to find a way out of here, we've gotta warn the sheriff and the others about what we've learned!" Said Jazz.

The two ponies kept up the pace of dodging the drones fire, but they were running out of room fast, the quad drones were slowly cornering them, not paying any mind to the damage they were causing to the station around them.

"Ponyfeathers, we're trapped, they'll blast us for sure!" Said Jazz, narrowly dodging another attack.

Rocky however wasn't planning on giving up, he had thought up an idea, a risky one, but one that had the best chance of them escaping.

"Listen up Jazz, I have an idea, it's risky but... It's our one way out of here." Said Rocky, standing his ground.

"I'll take any idea you have over getting blasted to bits here, come on spit it out, what is your idea?" Said Jazz, turning to him.

Rocky looked at her with a serious expression, "I want you to climb onto my back, then on a count of three, i'm gonna run up and jump over the drones, and fly out through the doorway over there as fast as possible."

Jazz looked at him wide eyed, as if he just said a death wish, "W-w-what!? That's crazy Rocky, what if you get hurt!? They'll blast you for sure!"

"I'm aware of the risks, but we've got no other options, it's either we get blasted, get captured, or worse, you'll have to trust me Jazz." Rocky explained, looking determined.

Jazz was still worried about the idea, but she could tell in his eyes that his mind was made up, nothing was going to change it. Giving him a nod of approval, she climbed onto his back, holding on tight as Rocky unfolded his wings, just as the drones began to take aim at them again.

"Hold on tight!" Rocky shouted out, as he charged towards the drones.

The drones seemed to have been taken by surprise as they stepped back a little, then were left dumbfounded as Rocky took to the air, leaping over them and flew straight towards the doorway. It looked like Rocky's idea had worked and that the two of them will escape to safety, that is, until the last second when one of the drones behind them managed to lock onto him fired a shot, hitting Rocky's left wing directly, causing him to yell out in pain and lose control of his flight path.

"Look out!" Jazz shouted out.

But it was no use, Rocky careened out of control and ended up crash landing into one of the market stalls outside in the streets, the stand was smashed to pieces by the impact, sending splinters and debris all over the place, leaving the two ponies in a crumpled heap. Jazz was the first pony to get up to her hooves, dusting off the mess on her coat, and feeling the throbbing pain on her head.

"Oww, oof, that's gonna leave a bump in the morning..." Jazz grunted, rubbing her forehead.

She looked over to Rocky, who was laying under the ruined stall sheet, clutching his left wing in pain.

"Rocky! Speak to me, are you okay!?" Said Jazz as she ran over to check on him.

"Ugh, yeah i'll live, but I think my wing is busted, I took a bad hit from that blast...! Said Rocky, wincing in pain as he furled his wings back up.

Jazz helped him back up onto his hooves,

"You dummy! Risking yourself like that, knowing that you would end up getting hurt, just to keep me safe..." Said Jazz, starting into him.

"I knew the risks Jazz, but it was the only out of that mess, and I saved you as well, didn't I?" Said Rocky, staring back at her.

Jazz didn't say anything, on one hoof she was still cross at him for taking such a risk like that and getting injured, but on the other, he was right in that they had escaped the drones to safety, even if Rocky had gotten himself injured in the process. She let out a sigh, then after letting out a small smile, she gave him a quick hug, much to his surprise.

"Thank you Rocky, now let's take a look at that injury." Said Jazz, moving to take a look at his injured wing.

"Umm, yeah, how bad is it?" He asked.

"That blast did leave a burn on it, we'll have to get this checked out for sure, but how did you learn to do an aerial move like that Rocky?" Asked Jazz, ripping up some of the table cloth used for the stand to use as a makeshift band aid.

"Eh, i'll live, being a former trainee in the royal guard of Zephyr Heights, we learn to live through injuries like this on daily basis." Said Rocky with a shrug.

"Really? That's the first time i've heard of this Rocky, you should tell me more about it sometime." Said Jazz, finishing bandaging up the injured wing.

"Oh I will, but I think we've got bigger problems to deal with at present." Said Rocky, gesturing to the drones coming out of the station.

The drones spotted them quickly, then began to train their weapons at them again.

"Can you still run on those four legs of yours?" Said Jazz, running in place.

"You betcha, now let's get a move on!" Said Rocky.

The two ponies then proceeded to gallop off as fast as they could, down the path that led out of town, and the way towards the Bridlewood Forest. The drones tried to catch up to them, firing off blasts into the distance, but they had gotten a head start and were soon out of sight. By now, the noise and the action outside had gotten the attention of several of the townspony who were at home resting for the night, they had opened their doors and windows to get a good look to see what was going on. They all shrieked when they saw the drones outside opening fire in the distance, retreating back into their houses in safety, apart from one curious pony who decided to take a closer look at the action braving the elements to get a good shot with their camera phone.

As for Rocky and Jazz, they now had only one way to go, to the Bridlewood forest where they hoped to find and warn the Mane Five about what they had discovered, for it may be the clue they need to split the whole case wide open. But it will be dangerous ground to cover, whoever is behind all of this, is almost certainly by now aware of the threat the two of them could pose to their plans, and could already be making plans to ensnare them before they could cause more trouble, as well as deal with the Mane Five who were themselves also closing in bit by bit on the root of the whole mystery.

Tomorrow promised to be a day that nopony would forget anytime soon.

The Curious Case of Vanishing Unicorns

by Virydyan

Act 1 - Chapter 1

THE CURIOUS CASE OF VANISHING UNICORNS

Act 1 - Chapter 2

Act 1 - Chapter 3

END OF ACT 1

Act 2 - Chapter 1

ACT 2

Act 2 - Chapter 2

Act 2 - Chapter 3

Act 2 - Chapter 4