Laser Light Cannon

~Ellie/Spinel's POV~

*Exhales* Sunsets... The time of day that makes you feel small compared to the stars appearing in the sky.

Not this time however. There was another sun-like object in the sky. A couple of nights ago, it started out as a normal star. But it got bigger and bigger as the nights passed. Now we know it's not getting bigger. It was coming for us.

Pearl, Garnet and I were outside the Temple, looking at the star. Amethyst and Quartzite were elsewhere.

"This is bad." Garnet spoke up.

"Look at the size of it!" Pearl gasped, looking through a telescope, "I had no idea these things were so big!"

Then we heard Amethyst call, "Garnet! Nellie! Pearl!"

Garnet, Pearl and I turned and saw Amethyst arriving, carrying Quartzite over her head.

"We saw!" Pear answered, then pointed out, "Some of us are trying to protect ponykind!" Then she asked, "Where were you?"

Amethyst put Quartzite down and answered casually, "Eating fry bits."

Pearl face-palmed and sighed, "Ugh."

"Can I see?" Quartzite asked.

Pearl stepped aside and Quartzite looked through the telescope. The star opened to reveal to be an eye. A Red-Eye.

Quartzite smiled, "Whoa. It's a giant eyeball! Awesome!"

Pearl shook her head, "Not awesome, it's a Red-Eye!"

"A Red-Eye?" Quartzite repeated, then stepped away in panic, "It's going to infect us all!"

"That's pinkeye, Quartzite." Garnet corrected. Amethyst giggled.

"It's going to crash into Beach City, and crush us, along with a bunch of oblivious, innocent people!" Pearl explained, "We have to stop it!"

"What are we going to do?" Quartzite asked.

"The only thing powerful enough to destroy it is a light cannon, that belonged to Rose Quartz." Garnet answered, adjusting her shades.

"My mum?" Quartzite asked.

Pearl nodded with a forlorn look. I hugged myself to stop myself from feeling bad about Rose Quartz's passing. If it wasn't for Rose Quartz, I would've been stuck in the Garden, still waiting for Pink Diamond... Oh, I miss her...

Amethyst sighed, "If Rose were here, this would be so easy."

Pearl hugged herself, "I know, but she's not, and the cannon is missing." Then rubbed her chin in thought, "We'll have to find another solution."

Quartzite smiled and raised his hand, "If it belonged to my mum, I bet my dad knows where it is. He can help us save the day!"

I rubbed my chin in thought then smiled, "That's... Actually not a bad idea, Quartzite."

The other Gems looked concerned and uneasy.

"Graphite is nice, Quartzite." Pearl assured, but admitted, "But I doubt Rose would entrust someone like him with such a powerful weapon."

Amethyst put her hand over Quartzite's shoulder, "Your dad is kind of a mess, Quartzite."

"Amethyst!" Pearl glared at the purple Quartz.

Amethyst shrugged her shoulders, "I'm just saying! Even if she did leave it with him, he probably broke it, or lost it, or dropped it in the ocean by now."

Garnet nodded, "True..."

Quartzite shook his head, "No way! I'm sure he is just keeping it somewhere safe." Then volunteered, "Ellie and I'll go ask him."

Quartzite grabbed my hand and we were about to leave, but Garnet interjected, "We can handle this." She turned to Amethyst, "Ready?"

Amethyst nodded and Garnet picked her up. She leaped into the air and threw Amethyst toward the Red-Eye. Amethyst hit the eye, but fell into the water. The eye had no sign of damage. This is gonna take a while.

"Uh... W-We're gonna go." I spoke up, taking hold of Quartzite's hand.

Pearl waved us off, "Okay, good luck."

Quartzite and I ran to the other side of the Temple, to the local car wash. Graphite Universe, Quartzite's father, decided to open it with the money he made selling cds of his old music. Some of it is not half bad.

We found a closed van on the driveway and Quartzite started knocking on the back doors, "Dad, it's me! Daaad? Are you in there?" He rammed his shoulder into the doors, "Wake up! We have to save the world!"

Out of options and getting impatient, Quartzite climbed to the roof of the van and jumped on it, "Dad!"

He slipped and fell. Still no response. I sighed and walked up to the back of the van. I knocked on the door, "Graphite?"

The car alarm went off, causing me to squeak in startle.

Graphite exit the van and ran toward me with a waffle iron, "What do you want? I have a waffle iron!"

Graphite Universe was an Earth Pony stallion in his late 30s to early 40s. Long mane, like Amethyst's, but balding and a dark brown color. A matching beard. His fur was a light beige color and he wore a white tank top and sweatpants.

I grabbed his wrists, "Graphite, calm down. It was just me and your son."

Graphite looked at me and Quartzite with tired eyes, then switched off the alarm, "Nellie? Quartzite?"

Quartzite hopped off the roof and hugged his father. Graphite released the hug and looked at me, "I almost waffled your face!"

I giggled and waved my wand, "You were still waking up."

"What are you two doing up so late?" He asked Quartzite and I.

"What do you mean?" Quartzite asked, "The sun just went down an hour ago."

"Oh..." Graphite muttered, then rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish chuckle, "It was a slow day at the car wash." Then he asked, "Anyway, what's up? Just needed to see your old man, pal around, learn some lessons about life?"

Quartzite shook his head, "No. I need the light cannon that belonged to Mum."

I nodded in agreement, "We need it to destroy the Red-Eye coming toward the beach."

"Red-Eye?" Graphite repeated.

"That!" Quartzite answered, pointing at the Red-Eye.

Graphite looked at it, as Amethyst was thrown at it for the fourth time. Again, she hit and fell into the water. The eye was untouched.

"Wait. Is that a magical thing?" Graphite asked, then pointed out, "The Gems told me not to get involved with magic stuff. I-it could be dangerous or interfere with what's left of my hair."

"But they need Mum's cannon. You've got to know where it is!" Quartzite argued, "Like a cave dungeon or a cloud fortress or in a clam at the bottom of the ocean."

Graphite picked his waffle iron and put it back in his van.

"You and Rose were very close." I explained.

Graphite turned to us, "Well, I don't know about all that, but I have an idea where it might be."

We hopped into his van and Graphite drove us down the road to the storage place, 'U-Stor'.

"A magical storage unit!" Quartzite gasped with stars in his eyes.

Graphite shrugged, "Not exactly. But some would say there's magic inside." He grabbed a key and unlocked the door, "It's just a shed I use to keep things that don't fit in the van." Then he opened the storage unit, "If it's anywhere, it'll be in here."

The storage unit was filled to the brim with boxes and other stuff. And I thought Amethyst was a hoarder.

No offence...

Quartzite entered and tried to move some boxed. The boxes collapsed, giving a cave-like entrance.

I put my hand over his shoulder, "Let me, Quartzite. I'm skinnier and a little faster."

Quartzite nodded in agreement, "Alright." Then pointed out, "But if you're going in there, you're gonna need some gear."

With that, he tied a flashlight on top of my head with a sock, and tied an electrical cord around my waist.

Quartzite smiled, "All set."

Graphite gave me a thumbs up, "Good luck!"

I switched the flashlight on and entered the storage unit by crawling through the boxes.

Inside, the place was full of stuff and a few bits and pieces of junk. Watching my step, I journeyed deeper into the unit, squeezing through a sandwich of mattresses. I saw something and grabbed it. It was a golf kit with three clubs.

"Do you golf?" I asked Graphite.

Graphite shrugged, "Ah, I like to think of myself as someone who would golf... Eventually."

I continued deeper into the storage unit. I found a bongo drum. Tennis balls and a t-shirt cannon. Then I found a box full of cds. They all had Graphite's face on them, when he was younger, so they must be his.

"I found a box of your old cds!" I called.

Graphite sighed with a smile of nostalgia, "Oh, man. I couldn't give those things away." Then he explained, "You know, before I ran the car wash, when I was a band, we traveled the whole country."

I continued through the unit, "I remember that."

"When I came to play a concert here in Beach City, no one showed up except-" "An alligator!" Quartzite cut into his father's story.

Graphite shook his head and chuckled, "No, it was your mother."

"Interesting..." I muttered to myself in thought.

"And we were always together after that." Graphite continued his story, "Until she gave up her physical form to bring you into the world, Quartzite. I don't know what a magic lady like her ever saw in a plain old dope like me."

I heard a crack and I saw my knee leaning on a cracked photo of Graphite, with a hot dog in his mouth, and a smiling mare. A tall Earth Pony mare with voluminous, curly pink mane, white fur and wore a white, layered dress. Rose Quartz! They looked so happy.

"Oh, no." I squeaked, then called, "Graphite, I think I broke a photo."

"It's okay, Nellie." He assured me, "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs."

As if by response, a light glowed before me. A large cannon was resting, undisturbed in the back of the unit. I gasped and smiled, "The light cannon!" Then I shouted to Quartzite and his father, "Quartzite, Graphite, I found it!"

"Really?" The two asked, as I untied the cords around my waist and tied them around the cannon.

"Get the van!" I shouted.

It was quiet for a few moments, then the sound of an engine reached my ears. The cannon moved into the mattresses and exit the unit.

Quartzite exit the van and took a look at the cannon, "This thing could save the city! We've got to get it to the beach!"

"How? It's too big for the van." Graphite asked.

A cart rolled past us. Quartzite and his father carried the cannon into the cart. However the cannon was heavier than it looked and crashed through the cart. Quartzite, Graphite and I looked at each other and entered the van. Graphite drove the van down to the beach, dragging the cannon behind us.

"Is it gonna be okay?" I asked, referring to the cannon.

Graphite shrugged and said, "If every pork chop were perfect-"

"We wouldn't have hot dogs!" Quartzite finished with a sigh.

We saw the Red-Eye. It was larger than when I entered the unit. How long was I in there for?

"That thing's getting huge!" Graphite shivered, "It's freaking me out!"

"Can't the van go any faster?" Quartzite asked in a small panic.

Graphite put his hoof down and the van reached 50 mph, "This is faster!"

"Don't worry." Quartzite assured, then grabbed a cd case from the glove compartment, "Come on. Let's put on your cd."

"Huh, really?" Graphite asked with a blush, "Uh, come on, you've heard it."

Quartzite smiled and opened the case, "You come on."

He inserted the cd into the cd player and an electric guitar solo played, followed by Graphite's voice.

We arrived to the beach. Everything started turning red under the presence of the Red-Eye. Amethyst was washed up from the tide.

"Hey, guys!" Quartzite called, as we exit the van.

"He really had it." Pearl gasped.

"We're saved!" Amethyst cheered.

Then the Red-Eye started sucking everything into its pupil.

"We have to use it now." Garnet instructed.

She, Pearl and Amethyst ran toward the cannon.

Peal tried to find the switch, "I don't know how it works! It was Rose's!"

Quartzite turned to his father, "Dad, how do we use it?"

Graphite just shrugged his shoulders.

Pearl grabbed Quartzite, "Quartzite, this is serious." Then something hit her, "The gem. You have Rose's gem!"

"That's it!" Amethyst smiled. She picked Quartzite up and pressed him against the cannon, rubbing his gem against the surface of the cannon, "Ugh! Come on!"

"Stop that!" I told Amethyst.

Pearl sighed, "It's no use!"

Amethyst nodded, "Fine! Forget it!" Then told Garnet, "Throw me again!"

She leaped into Garnet's arms and Peal shouted, "That's not going to work!"

Then Graphite's van got caught in the gravitational pull of the Red-Eye, dragging the cannon with it. Graphite quickly untied the cord, "I got this!" Then started getting dragged toward the eye, "No! Wait! No, maybe I don't!"

"Please, work." Quartzite begged the cannon, "Unlock. Activate. Go. Please? Everyone's counting on you! You can't just be useless! I know you can help!"

"It's okay, Quartzite!" Graphite assured his son, "We'll figure out something else! Something even better!"

I nodded in agreement and whispered, "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs..."

Then the cannon started humming. It opened into the form of a blooming white rose.

"It's working!" Pearl gasped.

The cannon fell, but I tried to pick it up and aim it at the eye. It was really heavy. I felt it getting lighter on my shoulder. I saw and it was Pearl, Quartzite, Garnet and Amethyst helping me.

"This is it." Amethyst shouted, as the cannon glowed.

"Brace yourselves!" Garnet shouted.

The cannon fired a blast of light energy, in the form of rose blooming into a silhouette of Rose Quartz. Direct hit into the pupil. The Red-Eye exploded, shattering into pieces.

The debris of large rocks fell all around the beach. Even the stores close-by. Mr. Fryman's car flipped on top of a rock and the alarm went off. Oops...

"Nellie, you just saved most of Beach City!" Amethyst smiled, once everything calmed down.

"Sorry, Mr. Fryman!" I shouted.

"What?" Mr. Fryman asked.

"How did you get it to work?" Pearl asked me.

"I just said what Graphite says to shrug things off." I answered.

"That thing about pork rinds?" She asked.

Garnet put her hand over Pearl's shoulder and spoke up, "Hot dogs."

"Rose..." Graphite sobbed, wiping a tear from his eyes.

Then the tide came in. Everyone started laughing, until Graphite's van drifted past us, making it way deeper into the current of the ocean.

"My van!" Graphite cried.

"It's okay, Dad." Quartzite assured, "If every pork chop were perfect-"

I quickly covered his mouth, "Quartzite, no!"

"I live in there!" Graphite shouted, chasing after his van.

Quartzite followed after his father, "Wait up!"

I lightheartedly giggled. Everything is back to normal.

For now...