Baa-Ram-Ewe!

-Petopia, early morning the next day, travelers’ tent, after breakfast, Pom-

“So today I’m spending time with Smolder, sorry, but it will be without you Ocellus.” Ocellus gave me a clearly worried look as if she wanted to say something, but simply couldn’t because of the atmosphere of this world was drowning in love and friendship. That someone like Petula made it through was worrying, but I wasn’t going to focus on that too much. “Dormarch you will have to find something to do today, maybe you can hang out with Marshall? Maybe you test out his water cannon or upgrade the coding in his pack. My suggestion is that you have fun today like we did yesterday.”

“Where will you be going?” Something about the way she asked that had me wondering if Shanty was now in on whatever was going on with the alien dogs. That’s not paranoia if I’m right.

“I want to go to the theme park, there’s shows, games and some things I want to do there to relax… hopefully I won’t be mobbed by canines.” I had at least twenty following me back to the tent last night. At least none of them stuck around, but I still woke up covered in dogs… at least they were ones I knew the names of. “Won’t be able to go on any of the rides though.”

Too much vibrations caused my shattered leg quite a bit of pain. I calmly took up a Sitrus Berry and started chomping it down while motioning to Smolder to come with me.

Waiting outside of the tent was Roxy, our peppy tour guide would be showing us the way to the theme park.

-Back at the tent, Dolly-

Again I promised myself to spend some time with Dormarch later, he was off to have fun with Marshall and would hopefully be nowhere near what we were going to be doing today. My little bro is still having nightmares even while cuddled up to Pom and hugging onto her for dear life, he needs to spend time with a friend and get his mind off things.

“Change of plans, we’ll check the ski slopes later for a hidden base in the mountain… wouldn’t be the first time we discovered a villain’s lair burrowed into the landscape. We’re instead going to head to Petopia’s junkyard, Hot Dog got us some satellite views of Snooky being in the area as recently as thirty minutes ago.” Mum’s alien species being inflatable still weirded me out somewhat, but she was fairly talkative once you got to know her. I can see why the little pink pooch was considered one of Dog Star Patrol’s friendlier members and negotiator. “Scoot will be in the area, so we’ll have him around with his expertise in mechanical engineering skills and scrap scrounging… apparently he’s become a deft paw when it comes to fixing machinery.”

“Where is the junkyard being?” Asked Shanty, hey I’m getting better at this, as she cuddled her happily warbling partner’s head.

“… oh… well…” Tusky showed me the pad they were using to communicate with their friends in orbit around Petopia, this world was rather colorful.

The map showed a lot of areas and where our functional god given tent was in comparison, the map marked the location of the junkyard.

“It’s near the theme park Pom is going to…” I said dully before bring my front paws up to my face and slowly sliding them downwards. “Oh my freaking dog, why?!”

“Maybe our capture of Snooky will be quiet eh?” Like the bravado Tusky, but from what you told me… when Snooky goes loud, he really goes stupidly loud in an exceptional manner.

“Come on Tusky, even you know about as well as I do that that is really highly doubtful if we try to run down Snooky.” The small pink dog that could become a parade float didn’t have to sound so ominous about it. “He always has something or always finds a way to slow us down, at most we’ll find out something of what he’s up to.”

We turned to move and spotted Eyespots sitting there looking at us curiously.

“Uh… you won’t tell Pom will you?” The flat look I was getting reminded me that ‘Oh-Sell-Us’ couldn’t currently talk, apparently too much love and friendship in the air makes opening her mouth a risky proposition. “Look I want to at least try and keep this quiet, Pom needs far more than this break and you know it. Even if it kills me she’s getting it dog darn it!”

The shapeshifting bug simply closed her eyes and nodded solemnly, then got up and started to leave. She soon transformed into a nondescript looking gecko and crawled off. Where in the world was she going?

We’ll worry about that later, we have evil cats to bring down, and fast! Mostly before Pom got dragged into any kind of trouble.

-Outside Paw-tucket’s theme park, Pom-

“Pet World Theme Park… really?” I said as looked up at the sign.

“Well this is a world of pets Pom, it’s kind of on brand with all the adorable going on here.” At least Smolder was being cordial even as she twirled her combat ribbon and idly played with it.

“So where would you suggest we start Roxy?” I glanced behind us and all the dogs following me hid behind various objects, at this point the count was up to forty canines and growing. Please let today be quiet like the beach trip. I’m so glad I can push all the grains of sand off my body using my wool, it would be hard to stay clean otherwise

“Well you can go on the… no, wait… bumpy rides like that with that leg? Well the games here don’t require a lot of movement, you’ll certainly enjoy the food court for sure and there’s plenty of shows to see being performed by pets off all kinds.” At least Roxy took the time to consider my current health situation and I did kind of feel like seeing pets doing tricks today. “Ooh, let’s check the itinerary and see who’s on today!”

When Roxy ran off, Smolder turned to me with a flat look and crossed her arms without saying anything.

I considered her quietly, but didn’t say anything as Smolder searched my eyes with hers and then we both turned back to Roxy when she came back with a pamphlet in her mouth. Things were already starting out rocky, how do I talk to a dragon that might resent me as being her caretaker?

“Here’s the pamphlet for today, now have fun!” Roxy then ran off to do her own thing, surprisingly she wasn’t going to hang around and fawn over me like other dogs were doing. “I’ve got other things to do today!”

“Let’s see… Tightrope Turtle Tricks, Tiger Tire Trampolines, The Sensational Sunil Show… maybe we’ll see that one, I’m curious about the guy. We’ve plenty of time to wander around until then.” I looked up and noticed Smolder was looking around and then she eventually turned to me. “Do you want to go on some of the rougher rides Smolder, I’ll wait for you since I… I simply can’t.”

“You know, I didn’t think you had it in you.” Smolder stated idly putting both her arms behind her head, I flicked on of my tied back ears at her to let her know I was listening. “That whole thing with that sheep Petula at the beach yesterday, didn’t think you’d go for a double to make the lesson stick.”

“Lambkin are generally sheep farmers, never had a pet sheep myself… far too many dogs for that. In general misbehaving sheep just tend to get a light flick on the nose with a gentle hoof. One thing is for certain, nobody really liked her and she’s a sad lonely little thing.” Getting side eyed by my dragon companion, I looked at the theme park and all the pets wandering around happily enjoying their day. This was a world made for pets, built by pets and in general it was continuing to be a peaceful paradise of friendly animals I could talk to. “I kind of feel like we went overboard, if it weren’t for the cheers of the many other pets too polite to deal with her. All of us have our ugly sides, even me… I’m sure if you were to hurt what a dragon cares about, it would have been a really stupid thing to do.”

“Yeah, sometimes being direct works… sometimes it doesn’t.” Huffed out Smolder in a noncommittal fashion. She was probably making a point that our current camaraderie was a bit up in the air at the moment. “I would have admittedly done something if she said something like that to Ocellus.”

“So what do you want to do first Smolder?” I passed the pamphlet to her and paid attention to her mood. We’ve tried to hash out our issues and at least Smolder was willing to assist during the whole ‘Counter Invasion’ campaign.

The orange dragon looked at the pamphlet, sighed and actually began looking through it.

“Let’s go play some games I guess.” It seemed Smolder was working through her feelings and I wasn’t trying to rush her, but I really wanted her to let go of her resentment towards me today.

I didn’t “need” her to let go of the resentment, she could feel that all she wants as long as she was okay.

We both made our way into the theme park proper.

-The nearby Paw-tucket Junkyard, Dolly-

Okay, we got here quickly enough so that cat had to be here… how dangerous could someone named ‘Snooky Wookums’ really be?

-Pet World Theme Park, game stands, Smolder-

“Do you… do you hate me taking care of you?” Had been looking at the games until Pom spoke up, I looked at her and felt a mix of emotions.

I feel like it was a little too late to have someone caring for my needs.

“No... If anything I should be apologizing to you for being so grumpy with all you’ve been putting yourself through on our behalf, but…” I trailed off.

“Dragon’s need to be seen as tough, but didn’t you and your brother Garble help with that?” It would be Pom to bring up friendship, which I considered a priceless.

I was a little upset that Ocellus couldn’t currently talk to me and thinking of taking it out on Pom for us ending up here without getting any goodbyes to our friends in the last world. It was likely Arceus’s fault and attack Pom for things out of her control made me feel like I was kicking a puppy and then kicking Fluttershy afterwards in short order.

“Dragon Lord Ember may be able to order us to do things, but she can’t change our personalities or our base natures, much less how we interpret said orders. Wonder how it works on dragons that are deaf? Ember can only do so much, though she really likes Thorax and knows the relationship would be hard to keep up with.” Being dumb, aggressive and generally unpleasant to those with far shorter lives than we have felt like a really bad thing to me now. “The change has to come from our end of things and we’d have to want it.”

“Do you want it though?” Pom patted a spot on the bench next to her as she took a seat and flinched, but no hissing noise or gasp escaped her lips. In how many pieces was her leg shattered? I can’t imagine what broken bones are like given the whole dragon toughness things, “To change that is, I didn’t want to change personally… but now I have fangs, breathe fire and I’m sorely missing my quiet life. I used to be a meek individual… a part of me still is I guess.”

It’ll be like a blink for me, everyone I know with shorter lifespans like Pom’s implied hers to currently be will just be gone one day. Pom might not even make it to Hearth’s Warming, yet she still seemed so very strong to me.

Ocellus will live as long as I keep feeding her powerful enough love. It is a nice thought that I can love someone forever, but dragons are kind of… jerks. So I was even unsure if our relationship would last the test of time itself. I currently feel like a jerk with Pom still being so nice to me.

“How much pain are you in at the moment?” Quick change of topic, my curiosity flared after seeing her wince with a twitch of her hind leg wrapped in a thick mass of wool.

“Yes.” That answered my question and didn’t at the same time Pom, how can you be so infuriatingly caring about others in this state? You’re so much like Fluttershy in caring more about others needs than your own, Fluttershy is everyone’s favorite teacher at the ‘school of friendship’ for a reason. Only Pom was more battered, beaten and yet unbroken with a strong will the beggar’s belief that she was still going. I learned stuff with Fluttershy that you wouldn’t learn anywhere else, Pom also taught us things like how to hold down a job, how to haggle and many other things you wouldn’t expect. Spending time with Pom has been very educational for me on a number of levels, wish I had that kind of strength and I’m not talking physically. Physically was only a matter of time, emotionally, mentally… how does Pom do it? “I don’t want to ruin this whole day by complaining about every small thing Smolder.”

It’s not a small thing Pom, it wasn’t small at all! That you weren’t complaining about it was making me respect you more and I absolutely hated it. I did respect Pom even if I was somewhat grudgingly holding onto feelings about her that weren’t conducive to our continued friendship.

“Do you realize how hard it is to be around you sometimes?” I stated as I sat down next to Pom. “Ocellus comes from a place where she was raised by her family and her community…”

“Whereas you come from a place where you were lucky enough to even know who your biological brother was and…” Having cut me off, Pom was soon to be cut off by me.

“My parents hardly cared for us, dragons are not big on community or family. Still, my brother Garble loves me even before dragons started coming around to the idea of friendship outside our constant, stale and hackneyed jockeying shows of strength or whatever that one dragon named Crackle has going on. Despite how goofy Crackle looks, nobody ever messed with her in the slightest… in fact she even scares larger dragons.” Bringing my legs up to my chest, I tied my combat ribbon to my left horn and wrapped my arms around my legs. “At least we were fed… wonder how dragons make it past being a wingless whelp sometimes when it’s a lonely and brutal existence we live. I’m considering Spike’s history and how he was lucky to have a family that was willing to raise him and care about. Yes, I know we’ve kind of had this conversation before Pom.”

“Couldn’t be any more different than Ocellus huh?” Pom leaned back and put her right hoof around me and pulled me into a hug, I didn’t resist it… but I wasn’t appreciating the gesture as much as I should be.

“I know I helped out a lot, but I still feel kind of useless or left behind while you… you’re like a shooting star Pom. On that’s going to eventually burn out and will do so while shining as brightly as possible. Shanty… no, nobody among us or anyone who would call you a friend would want that to happen to you Pom.” What I’m talking about was Pom’s likely inevitable death, apparently it was something so bad that at one point she wants to die before it actually occurs. “That I can’t stop what’s coming, it makes a dragon feel useless and that was the worst feeling in the world when you were supposed to be something seen as strong and unstoppable.”

“Nobody can stop life Smolder, that which lives has to die eventually and life comes at you fast when you don’t have a very long expectancy. I’ve found it is generally messy, chaotic and downright cruel at times to the unprepared. Don’t know how Lambkin survive with all the mega fauna on Equus running around at times, but the nomadic alpaca sure keep checking up on the lambkin to make sure they are doing somewhat okay. That is to say no matter how powerful, there are simply some things that can’t be stopped without a concerted effort… like with Moon Cell.” Pom just looked at the several games on display that you could win prizes at, probably thinking of something she can win for me. She would be like that, wouldn’t she? “Other times, life is probably one of the most precious gifts we have and we won’t know what we’re missing until it is all completely gone. I can imagine you having forgotten this conversation sleeping on a pile of gold, jewels and treasures you’d fill a hoard with and Ocellus as your beloved hoard centerpiece. I want you to at least have some good memories of me, at least for as long as you will remember them. You’ll likely forget me when I’m gone from your lives, simply out of sight and out of mind after long enough."

“Forget someone like you? That would be pretty hard for me to do, even if I managed to start pushing a thousand. You are completely unforgettable you stupid lambkin.” There was no heat in my words. If there was one thing I would never forget, it was that Pom existed, was a part of my life and that she cared more for me than she really ever should ever have. Even when I could clearly take care of myself. “I’d find a way to carry the memories of you. Even if I came to hate those memories, I would still hold onto them for dear life. Memories of times both good and bad are what makes us who we are, would you really ever want to forget the time you spent with a true friend over some petty little squabble and how long would you bitterly hold onto that grudge for? That’s what Princess Sparkle asked me when I had a falling out with Yona once. I want some true friends that won’t be around me just because I’ll eventually have a big hoard, if I even want one, I want them to be around me for me and not what I have.”

“That’s very mature Smolder, which doesn’t help when the tough girl act is only a part of you and not all of who you are.” This whole years’ worth of carnage we’ve experienced was going to likely haunt my nightmares Pom, especially when you’re gone. “You haven’t spent much time away from Ocellus throughout this whole thing you know, maybe you needed some space to consider things on your own for a while. You don’t have to spend the day with…”

“No, I haven’t spent much time away from Ocellus and yes I do want to spend this day with you. Could spend more time hanging with Shanty, playing with Dolly, talking to Dodo even if he won’t be able to produce many gems for me and I like Dormarch alright so there’s probably stuff I can do with him too. I’ve just been kind of closing myself off from everyone, but for the record… I don’t hate you.” There I said it and I might have wrapped my left claw around Pom’s back and returned the side hug. “Stop smiling about the hug and try to live for as long as you possibly can for all of us Pom. You’re the closest thing Shanty has to a mother at the moment. I think I’m far too old for one, but if I did want one… also I want to try the darts.”

"I may be tired and weary Smolder, but I don't plan on dying anytime soon..." Pom definitely meant that she would try. "I don't want to die as a Chrysomallus, but if I have no other choice... then I'll always choose all of you over my own survival. Just be ready for that to happen if it comes to pass. Now let's go play some darts."

-A minute later, Pom-

I think Smolder and I had something of a breakthrough.

Sticky dart spheres for the requisite dart boards, I can kind of understand why they wouldn’t want the sharp pointier variety of darts for throwing around. The pet at this stand was a mouse and he had some prizes depending on how many points we scored, he was fairly cheesy with his lines.

Three for me and Smolder. We were evenly matched, my left leg acting like a lacrosse stick and Smolder’s claws that can wrap around the squishy little tennis ball like things that stuck to the board we threw them at.

“So what do you two gals want?” The mouse said cheerfully. The prizes were small, but at least they didn’t look cheaply made. This world was basically paradise and relaxation for pets. So while money might be a thing, it wasn’t necessary to enjoy the experience of being in Paw-tucket. A majority of the animals were exceptionally friendly.

“I’ll take the blue ladybug shaped pillow.” It was a plush toy, but Smolder was likely calling it a pillow to save face. Probably wanted it because it reminded her of Ocellus, that or she was going to give it to Ocellus as a gift.

Something dragons don’t do often is give things away. I’d understand not giving away gems or jewels, as they needed to eat after all, but other things they don’t need and weren’t important to them? Well Smolder seemed like a dragon that didn’t gave into her greed very often.

Something exploded nearby and we both looked as a splash of sparks appeared in the air after a loud whistling noise. Oh, it was just fireworks, a little early in the day for them… I wonder who was firing them off or was it an accident and they were meant for the evening?

There was no screaming and running, though a few animals looked confused by the slightly powerful fireworks going off.

We continued to play some of the games peacefully, but I still glanced in that direction worriedly.

-Paw-tucket Junkyard, Tusky-

“How does he already have missiles, there’s no way he could have gotten those ready in such a short amount of time?!” Mammoth Mutt screamed as she ducked behind a pile of junk to avoid an explosion, we were being bombarded with artillery by Snooky who was attacking us with what was a very recently built salvage robot.

“He is being very resourceful eh!” I successfully blocked the next incoming explosion with my fang or tusk.

“Those are just jumped up fireworks, what about the tin can robot he’s piloting?” Dolly screamed from behind her board as she was knocked back slightly by a direct explosive impact. “Where’s my Metal Hound Five when I need it? Oh my dog, I hope Pom isn’t being drawn towards all of this!”

The robot’s body was cylindrical with independently turning upper torso. On said tin can shaped cat robot was two backwards bending chicken legs, two arms with three claws with one opposing claw between the other two and the whole thing was topped with a pair of triangles with what I recognized to be radar, tracking an auxiliary equipment. It had a mechanical tentacle for a tail that looked like it could install a laser, but apparently Snooky had yet to get around to finishing the laser for it. The shoulders had two ‘fireworks’ launching cannons, given enough time Snooky would definitely upgrade it to shooting more destructive actual missiles.

On the robots back we saw a massive rectangular box attached to the upper torso. Said Box looked to house the power source and be storage for the random bits of scrap the machine had picked up, given there was scrap sticking out of it an odd manner. There was a red tinted curved glass window in the upper torso where the things eyes would be and behind it we could see Snooky at the controls piloting the machine.

“Does this means that there’s an actual super villain in Paw-tucket?!” Scoot shouted from where he was cowering from the explosions. “Wow, can’t be safe anywhere these days!”

“Yes, but Dog Star Patrol is already on the case eh!” I called out as I drilled through the next piece of thrown metal apart before it could knock a pile of scrap over onto Scoot.

“You’ll never take me Dog Star Patrol, after the whole Drooly thing, I’m not about to take any of your newest members lightly mahahahahahaha! I hope you like my Mad Cat Machine, it’s a killer!” The robot grabbed a piece of metal with its left claw and threw it at an inflating Mammoth Mutt trying to pry herself out of a junk pile. It flew at my friend like a javelin intending to run her through, only for Dolly to quickly leap in its path and I think I saw a telltale spark of green triangles in her eyes before she grabbed the metal bar by the tip before it skewered her or Mammoth Mutt through. Dolly promptly spun it about and sent it hurtling right back at the machine spinning horizontally, it slammed into the approximation of the chest on the Mad Cat Machine forcing it to stumble backwards and dented its armor somewhat. “Agh… you’ll pay for that, it’s going to take me forever to get that dent out with the limited tools I have at my disposal!”

“When you said Snooky went loud, I didn’t think you meant it this literally!” Another whistling firework caused everyone to cringe at the noise piercing into their skulls and Dolly was blasted off her paws. “Bow-whacka-OW!”

I quickly approached and drew Snooky’s attention by spinning up my tooth to create noise and stop Snooky from trying to hit Dolly with another annoyingly loud whistling firework missile.

As I tried to get close enough to drill my tooth into the machine to tear holes in it, the right claw opened wide and revealed a nozzle… please don’t tell me he managed to successfully install a flamethrower in that thing. Not again, as an ice planet native I don’t like heat!

Really hated it when this Snooky deployed fire, plasma or other hot weapons. Sure my super large tooth was practically an invulnerable shield as much as Dolly’s skateboard, the only problem was that it didn’t protect the gums holding said tooth in place from taking damage.

This was one cat I would never like eh!

-Pet World Theme Park, Pom-

“Well it seems like someone got in trouble, but I don’t see much of a smoke or fire that might need us to help out.” That was a good thing Smolder.

Lots of noise, but no screaming or panicking, just some mild confusion. Probably some pet eager to see the fireworks display a little early.

We had fun with water based games that required us to pick up small floating things with paper paddles, did a strength test with a hammer and more, like whack a can of food with a plush mallet in the shape of a can opener. The strength test one was one Smolder liked in particular.

“Huh, didn’t think I’d see milk bottles after the dart boards. So are they easy to knock over or are they glued together?” My query was met with a scoff from the proprietor.

“Hey, I’m not some scamming carny. Does the young horned lizard want a try?” Said the weasel, not the most common thing I would expect to be a pet. I would correct him that Smolder was a dragon, but it didn’t really seem important.

Smolder managed to knock the bottles down and earned a voucher for a bag of popcorn we can save for the show later. We came to a more sports centered game booth, basketball shooting that was run by a monkey. It made me wonder what people wouldn’t have as a pet in the world these animals came from.

Fun, but no prizes, Smolder enjoyed the challenge to get the most number of throws with me. Maybe I should challenge Smolder more, she seemed to appreciate me not giving her any kid gloves. We tied at basketball shooting, Smolder was more likely to keep score than I was.

We came up a to some games of real skill… ring toss and corn hole. Little bits of fun here and there were making Smolder relax. I easily won the ring toss game, but Smolder was obscenely good at corn hole.

Smolder mentioned something about being a ringer at games like horseshoes and corn hole for her griffon friend Gallus a few times. A griffon could be a good friend for a dragon if they both didn’t greed out of control.

Smolder even got to go on the roller coaster. Though I was a bit wary of a rollercoaster built and run by animals, I apparently had nothing to worry about as I waited for Smolder to get off. As long as Smolder was happy, this day was going perfectly well and she seemed to be enjoying things so far.

I was getting kind of hungry so we stopped for lunch.

The food court here… was exceedingly impressive. I went for the vegetable taco bar with meat substitutes to get over my recently acquired cravings, whereas Smolder tried a smattering of all the things available that didn’t look like outright ‘pet food’. We didn’t exactly have the gems to feed her, which was the other thing that was making Smolder cranky before.

“Nice food court, really good hot sauce.” Dragons like Smolder would definitely appreciate a good batch of nachos, because they were crunchy and you could put extra spicy sauce on them.

Don’t know where the animals around here got ghost peppers from. If they come from all over their world to be here, then it wouldn’t be too hard to bring in a few I guess. I should grab a few from a supplier for Smolder’s meal tonight, also maybe plant a few Sitrus Berry trees while I’m at it for animals later on when we weren’t around anymore.

“Are you enjoying yourself Smolder?” My concerns were met with a bright toothy smile, note to self that crunchy foods improves a dragon’s mood by quite a lot.

“Yeah, but I kind of want to do some sillier or girly stuff.” Girly stuff, well we can do that Smolder!

“Okay, we still have plenty of time before The Sensational Sunil Show.” I looked around and quickly found Jade idling about on a warm bench in the sun. “Hey Jade, do you know where we can find some girly stuff to do around here?”

Jade Catkin’s ears flicked in acknowledgment that she heard me, she stretched out and stood up. She took a moment to think and then the black cat opened her mouth.

-Five minutes later-

Smolder and Jade looked a bit ridiculous playing dress up together, but they were having fun as I watched on quietly. After enough playing around, Smolder finally got herself another large ribbon. One that would be fit for her when she was much older and it came in a nice bright blue color, running theme for smolder as blue looked good on her.

“Can we do that picture booth together Pom?” What… did Smolder just suggest what I thought she did? “A picture tells a thousand words, but it’s also a story and a memory of better times too. I want the biggest prints they’ve got.”

Smolder took some pictures while looking ridiculous and not caring, she even got in a picture with me and Jade Catkin all smiling together.

There wasn’t much time left and I wanted to see Sunil’s show, Jade led us to the theme parks stage where I saw a mongoose named Sunil setting up the stage and Pepper Clark was there helping him looking like a stage hand and assistant.

Cape, top hat and magician’s wand, Sunil certainly had the look going for him.

“Don’t know if he is any good, but this should be interesting at the very least.” Smolder didn’t really expect much from a pet, as she shared some popcorn with me.

The pets here definitely got up to stuff they wouldn’t be able to get away with without someone noticing something being entirely off with them. Basically the leeway by being here gave them time to work on having some unique hidden talents their owners will never know about. Pets had their own dreams too.

“Hello and welcome to my show.” Sunil stated while twirling his wand in his left paw as he places his hat down to swirl his wand around the hat’s brim.

Sunil reached deeply into the hat and sharply pulled at something, then Sunil’s tail seemed to suck up into his cape as he started pulling himself out of his hat backwards while disappeared into his cape.

“What the?” Smolder was as mystified as I was when he came out of the hat his right limb in it and still coming out of the cape.

The audience cheered.

Sunil looked at his tail and very slowly his right arm let go of it and pulled into the cape and came out of his hat the rest of the way.

He stuck his arm back into the hat and saw it coming out from under the cape again and made his arm drag his cape across the stage and away from himself, he gave the audience a curious grin before he pulled his arm out of the hat.

“Heh, well how often do you see a magician pull themselves out of a hat?” Sunil said jovially and got a bunch of chuckling all around.

“Hey, save some of the laughs for my comedy act Sunil!” Whined Pepper with a good nature as she wiggled a rubber chicken at the magician.

“Sorry Pepper, would you like some flowers to cheer you up?” Sunil reached into his left armpit and pulled out a bushels of flowers in a rotating motion as an apology, the thing was that the bouquet was far bigger than he was.

There were traditional tricks for magician and then there was what Sunil was doing. He was a mongoose and not a unicorn who could fundamentally bend and warp reality to his whims. So it was fairly amazing to see him have such an advanced grasp on magic as he does.

Pepper took a whiff of the flowers and then turned around to skunk the stage with a highly positive aroma that started creating a fog. Sunil winked at the audience before he slowly stepped back into it to prepare for his next trick.

When the fog disappeared, Sunil was no longer there on stage.

“Wonder what the Sensational Sunil will do next?” Sunil said from right next to me, wearing his cape, I didn’t even see him pick it up and it had been laying outside the happy smelling fog Pepper created. Quite a number of pets leaped away in shock as nobody had seen him exiting the stage and getting into the crowd. “Huh, oh wait, that’s me!”

“Sunil!” Pepper got a little fake angry again.

With a laugh, Sunil the mongoose climbed back onto stage with Pepper’s help.

“Ahem anyway, now for my next trick, wait… what was my previous one?” Reaching to the underside of his right wrist with his left paw, he seemed to be reminding us that he was only wearing a cape, hat and had his magician’s wand back tucked under his left armpit after having it turned into a bouquet. That said bouquet was still on the stage too was a testament to his skill. “Now let’s see… my grocery list, Pepper’s gag props list, Minka’s paint supplies, Penny’s imported bamboo shoots…”

As he spoke he started pulled out a notebooks worth of cards all linked together in a chain out from under his right paw like he was pulling a lot cars and listing a lot of names and stuff that was actually written on the cards.

Slowly the cards piled up around Sunil’s waist. Slowly the pile reached up to his head and once he got to what was apparently the last card, he final raised it out of the pile of cards covering his entire body.

“Aha here it is!” Said Sunil raising the card high out of the pile of chained cards he was in, quite a few animals stomped in excitement. Really liked his accent, made him sound fancy and quite sophisticated. “No… wait… it’s the dry cleaning bill for my cape, ooh that’s going to hurt me in sunflower seeds to Hamtaro later!”

The normal paw pulled back into the pile of cards, then Sunil started stuffing them all into his hat while extricating himself out of the pile he made. He looked at the audience and flipped the hat over once it was full of the cards, nothing fell out. He turned it sideways and even had a spotlight shined on the inside of it to reveal nothing in his hat and then on him personally… but most of the crowd was started laughing.

Why the laughter? Because Sunil was now wearing a grey rabbit costume he had somehow acquired in the seconds between pulling out the last card and when he started pushing the mass of chained together cards, like tied together scarves, back into his hat.

“Huh, what is it… why is everyone laughing?” Sunil asked confused while rubbing at one of the costumes floppy ears.

“Uh, Sunil, you got a little… well… everything all over you. Let’s just say you went total cotton tail for this magic show.” That just made the laughing worse as Sunil finally realized he was wearing an adorable bunny costume and blushed.

“Oh my goodness gracious… where did this suit come from? At least it is being on brand right?” Sunil smiled at the audience in the full body rabbit costume that covered everything except his face and wiggled his nose. The rabbits in the audience certainly seemed to appreciate that.

The follow up act by Pepper was just as good as Sunil’s, a string laughs every few seconds. Afterwards it was getting late so Smolder and I did a few last things together before setting out for the tent.

“This was actually a pretty good day Pom.” This was said after Smolder promptly finished off the popcorn she shared with me as we watched the fireworks together. It seemed like they weren’t all used up in that accident earlier… I sure hoped Dolly wasn’t the cause of whatever accident happened earlier.

I continued to carry Smolder’s ladybug ‘pillow’ for her on the way back to the tent as she wrapped her new ribbon around her neck with the bow at the back of it.

-Paw-tucket Junkyard, Dolly-

“That cat… is a total psycho!” I said with horror in my wide eyes as I laid there breathing roughly. I was glad I was only lightly scorched or else Pom might have come running if she felt me getting hurt.

I did not want Pom going anywhere near that Snooky guy. His name was silly, but he himself sure as dog wasn't!

“Not only that, he got away eh.” Tusky stated forlornly despite us managed to force Snooky into retreating, he got in quite a few good hits with his tooth.

Giant Dog managed to use her enlargement ability to tank through the flames and slam into the machine few times rattling the thing pretty badly when she could gain some momentum to ram her inflated body into it. She rolled around like a fleshy and bouncy wrecking ball.

Even I got a few good licks in with my triangle thing, launched a blizzard magic forged icicle into one of its leg joints and bashed it in several places with my board.

“Well we warned you Snooky was bad news Caper Canine… might want Hot Dog on the ground team if Snooky is going for more fire based weaponry again. Hot Dog is from a species of alien canine immune to fire, heat, lava, energy beams with an emphasized focused on heat like microwave lasers and just about anything else high temperature like solar plasma. Hot Dog’s home world is constantly volcanic as is his people’s tempers, he’s probably the calmest member of his whole species and that’s really saying something that he actually manages to use his anger in a constructive manner with his pyrokinesis.” There was a pause as the alien pink Chihuahua shuddered. “Snooky is going to be even worse the next time we see him, we just simply caught him flat pawed in a gearing up phase and he still got away with a lot of that scrap!”

-Snooky-

Dog Star Patrol was as annoyingly goody two shoes as ever, still managed to evade them all and made it to the fallback base with my loot. I hopped out of the Mad Cat Machine and made my way to get some sleep and a glass of stolen fresh milk that would be quickly dirtied by my paws.

Milk in a dirty glass with ice, the drink of evil champions.

A shadow of something moved on my machine and I quickly turned to shine a light on what had fell of off and clanged against the floor… no other movement, just a bit of scrap metal. Nothing to worry about.

"Agent 9-L?" Didn’t smell anything like a canine around either, just the general smell of brimstone… my favorite smell that all my workshops have. It really annoyed Dog Star Patrol when they found my hideouts.

-Ocellus-

I opened my left eye and made sure Snooky was gone and the coast was clear before transforming back into a gecko and sneaking out of the place.

Turning into and object like rocks is easy, rocks are the least likely things people would pay attention to. In this case turning into a rusty bit of scrap metal was the better option after making a slight mistake, the thing that would usually give a changeling away while in the form of an object was their eyes and I had kept mine closed until I was sure Snooky left the area.

Hope Smolder doesn’t mind me coming back in a little late, I got some things to tell Dolly’s new friends as I knew what Snooky was doing here and it wasn't good. Snooky had been rambling angrily about it and how those dogs from Dog Star Patrol always kept getting in his way quite openly to himself.