Baa-Ram-Ewe!

-Petopia, the next day, Paw-tucket portal, ???-

“Ah, finally some time to myself, thankfully the girls haven’t caught on to the magic key I’ve been holding onto yet. Then again many other pets’ magic keys were causing false positives so I’m glad that’s why mine hasn’t been discovered yet.” I stretched out and was about to go on my way into Paw-tucket when I felt four forms slam into me from behind toppling me over, why can’t I ever catch a break or remember not to stand in front of the portal when I here?

They must be new arrivals given they all tumbled through the magical portal as a group. Well this was going to be awkward to explain to them.

“Whoa where are we? What happened?” Yep four new arrivals and they all seemed to be… from the same place given what they were wearing? That usually doesn’t happen, they seemed well equipped with unusual gear.

Whoever they were, they certainly knew how to make an entrance and they did so together. At least three of them ended up on their paws whereas the Dalmatian was rolling onto his paws from his back.

“We’re in Paw-tucket guys!” Stated the Dalmatian. “It’s why I kept asking you to do your best to make Ryder the happiest he’s ever been.”

“Whoa this place is so vibrant and colorful, can’t wait to get some air here!” The puppy in the pink aviator gear stated as she walked forward, looking around. Apparently one of the dogs was aware of where they were so he could keep his group together and help them.

“Hello there, my name is Spike and since the usual greeter isn’t around, let me introduce you to the world made for pets, built by pets. Welcome to Paw-tucket!” I said in a friendly manner. “I don’t want you to be confused for runners, pets who end up here and then get lost while being very confused as they start wandering around on their own. So can you stay here for a bit until the greeter officially arrives to give you a tour?”

“Is that what happened to you the first time you were here Marshall?” The puppy in the policing gear asked with a tilted head and knowing grin.

“Yeah… and we don’t have to worry about the time we spend here, as we’ll come back the very same moment we left.” Marshall blushed and looked away, then he was affectionately toppled over by a puppy in snow gear. “Also I hope we came back quickly enough to help a friend of mine.”

“Well, if you all will excuse me. I’ve got to go hang out with my friends Opal and Winona.” I said as I made my way into Paw-tucket.

-Roxy-

“Hi there, oh hey Marshall, you’re back!” I stated as I welcomed the newcomers, apparently they got here as a group and that require some very good teamwork.

“Is Pom still around?” Marshall asked.

“Yep, from your perspective it might have been a few weeks or months, but for us it’s only been about two days!” My tone as exuberant as ever, I was a great greeter for new animals appearing here. “Time really does get all weird here!”

“I want to introduce you guys to her!” Marshall stated excitedly and it was a good thing I knew where Pom was going to be today.

“Well she’ll be down at the docks today, let’s get your three friends their keys and then I’ll give you a quick rundown of the place and get you over to the docks. Have you had anything to eat yet guys? You’re going to want something in your stomach if you’re going to be out at sea for a while.” I asked as I motioned for Marshall’s group to follow me with a paw. “If not you can get a snack before you head out with Pom, she’s going to be in the ocean for a while today from what I’ve heard of her plans.”

“Poor Zuma, he’s going to be sad he missed being here for this. I’m Chase!” The police dog stated, he clearly had the hat for it.

“I’m Skye!” The dog with the aviator goggles and pink clothing stated as she followed after Chase.

“I’m Everest.” Everest looked like she spent a lot of time having fun in the snow.

“Hello my name is Roxy and I’ll be your guide for Paw-tucket today, I can tell you aren’t just pets or you might have ended up here sooner. My guess is that you’ve been doing more pet related stuff recently?” They looked like they were geared for particular stuff.

“Yeah we haven’t been doing a lot of pet related things, but that’s because we’re part of team of rescue dogs called Paw Patrol.” Chase certainly seemed to be bright and outgoing, he must be the leader of the group.

-Inside the travelers’ tent, Shanty-

I be awake and be hearing Pom mumble to herself about something about the inevitability of a Chrysomallus not being as inevitable as previously thought and her ability to keep herself stable would require her to remain focused constantly. She also be talking about magic and considering her abilities both natural and supernatural, she be thinking out loud as she be cuddling a whimpering Dormarch to herself.

Dormarch hasn’t been doing very good these past few days as he be having nightmares, he’s always being happy to see Pom as soon as he wakes up from them though.

“I hope Shanty will be okay with spending time with me today.” What is Pom being worried about? I would always want to be spending time with her, that and I be snuggling into her. She is being very comfortable, why wouldn’t I be happy to spend time with her?

Is it because she be dying? That just be making me want to spend more time with her, for however much we could be being together and as much as we could even be getting. I really don’t want to be losing her though and neither do the rest of my friends.

“Morning Pom!” I be saying brightly as I be getting up.

I’ll be sending Dodo with Dog Star Patrol, Dolly and Dormarch. Smolder and Ocellus will be helping them too. Dolly is being the only one that hasn’t spent personal time with

“Morning Shanty, want anything particular for breakfast?” Smiling to Pom I quickly answered my affirmative. Gritz, waffles and Sitrus Berries… sure Pom might be being tired of Sitrus Berries, but I wasn’t as they are being very good with rum and waffles!

-Off to the side five minutes later, Dolly-

“So we couldn’t find them, but pinkie pup is on the trail of Agent Del right?” I asked as Tusky dug into breakfast.

“Yes, she is being decent at stealth eh.” Tusky turned to Hot Dog and he had his own two cents.

“Well it’s not like I could go, I’m far too hot headed and when I get angry it’s very noticeable… like from miles away.” Yeah Pyro Dog really cannot stealth very well. “I can do stealth in a pinch and if it was really important, but we’re trying to stop the alien cats from ruining this world, so we need to be on top of them at all times.”

“Any word from Mammoth Mutt about tracking down Agent Del?” Tusky asked.

“She said something about losing Agent Del near the seaside docks.” Oh come on Burn Dog, why?! That’s where Pom is going to be today! “If they have an underwater base, I’m not going to be entirely useless, but when I’m in water or wet my abilities are heavily reduced to working on contact for a while. It’s really annoying!”

“What’s annoying is how often the evil cats have been near Pom like the other day when Agent Del was looking for Ocellus in her gecko form without interacting with her directly.” How many near misses have we had now?

-Thirty minutes later, after breakfast, heading towards Paw-tucket docks, Pom-

“To that end, I want to help you train your Capricornus abilities today, I heard the submarine will allow me to communicate with the aquatic pets while they are in the water through the speakers.” It seemed like Shanty was open to the idea of testing her limits as a literal ‘sea goat’ and her ability to summon Horizon and a metric ton of ‘fresh’ or ‘sea’ water, she could do both and Horizon the dolphin didn’t seem to mind the fresh water either.

At least Shanty could never go thirsty as long as she had enough magic to summon her friend. Hungry was a different thing entirely as she still ate like an extremely hungry hippopotamus that had been on a weight loss diet for three years.

“So how will we be finding who we be looking for?” Shanty looked about, she didn’t bring her cane scythe, because she didn’t want to freak out the local pets.

“Maybe it will be very obvious like that?” I pointed a hoof to a walrus and an octopus holding a sign up. “Are you Luanita and Octavia? We’re looking for Captain Gilturtle.”

“Yeah, and might I say there’s just something about you that I like!” Said the octopus, Octavia Inkhart, in a friendly manner.

“Well that’s nice I guess, but I’ve never heard that said about me by…” I was about to continue my comment on an octopus saying that to me, but I was cut off.

“Not you, her!” Octavia pointed to Shanty and brought her tentacles together while giving Shanty affectionate looks.

Was Horizon technically a familiar? I’ve been interacting with pets on a personal level and that all the pets here were mostly friendly was nice. Arceus really did send us to an impossibly safe world and it would really take something big to ruin all of the peace I’ve been getting these last few days, only a few squabbles among friends have

“Yeah, there’s something about the goat that I really like too Octavia!” The cute walrus stated as she also stared at Shanty affectionately.

“I now be feeling what it is like Pom, it is being a very weird feeling.” Welcome to my world Shanty, hopefully you won’t be followed around by sea creatures all over the place like I have been canines.

Though I’m concerned some people have pet foxes in the world next to our own, given the number of dogs and foxes that followed us to port. I think they were just being protective of me, they were all good pets at the very least.

“Hope you two haven’t been here for too long, do you know where Captain Gilturtle is? Bev’s Uncle?” My question was met with nods.

“Yep, follow us, we’ve only been here about five minutes, so we really weren’t waiting long!” Luanita said as she flopped onto a skateboard and Octavia hopped onto her back. “It’s easier for me to get around like this if you are wondering.”

It didn’t take us long to arrive at the docks where a regular sized submarine was waiting for us, it wouldn’t be uncomfortable for me to fit inside.

“Captain Gilturtle, I presume?” I asked as we approached a turtle that looked similar to the high octane turtle Bev.

“Yep, my niece said you’d be coming by lass.” Captain Gilturtle stated in a friendly manner. “Whether it’s running Paw-tucket’s cruise liner or a submarine, I’m there to help you with any of your aquatic needs.”

The pets of this world really got extravagant with their mimicry of the technology I know of.

“Well we’re here to help Shanty train in her underwater abilities, she’s recently found out she was a Capricornus and I really don’t want her to ignore the ‘literal sea goat’ side of herself.” Not like me ignoring my Chrysomallus side as much as possible, but it’s kind of hard to do that when most of my wool is a glow in the dark bright gold in color. “So she’s going to do some deep sea diving while we watch.”

“Wait for us, we can help with piloting the submarine!” That voice, Marshall?

I turned and saw the plucky Dalmatian from the Paw Patrol team and he wasn’t alone, since apparently he brought some of his teammates back with him.

“Again, Zuma is going to be so upset he missed this opportunity… I wonder if we’ll see mer-pups around here?” Said the Germane Shepherd with the police uniform, how many times have mer-pups been mentioned around me or Dormarch at this point? It’s apparently a thing and Dormarch wouldn’t look too out of place among them apparently… three tails aside. “Anyway, Chase is on the case!”

“Aw, he even has his own little catchphrase and everything!” I said while he, Marhsall and two others showed up.

“Hey, Pom this is Everest, Skye and one of my best friends ever, Chase!” Marshall introduced me to the gaggle of puppies that followed him here. “Hope you don’t mind us joining you and that we’re not bothering you.”

“Well the more the merrier, welcome aboard, but please don’t touch anything if you don’t know how it works!” Captain Gilturtle stated as he motioned for us to get on the submarine.

-A few hours and some underwater testing of Shanty’s abilities later-

“Again, Zuma is going to be so upset to have missed this.” If there was one thing Skye liked, it was all things flying.

Skye’s pup pack equipment included a parachute and a short distance jetpack that can double as a glider in an emergency when she runs out of fuel. Which apparently happens very often from the way Marshall tells it. Skye’s pack can also work underwater decently enough, but she prefers being in the sky and was always up to solve an aerial problem or help in some way with air support.

“He’s the water rescue pup right?” That got me nods from the Paw Patrol heroes.

“Yeah, he would have certainly loved this if he could be here.” Chase stated as he looked outside the submarine.

Chase’s pack was mostly made for sending out alerts and shooting some capture devices, like bolas and nets. It even had a built in taser and some other defensive gear. Plus he had a few other things which were common emergency equipment among the technological packs that the Paw Patrol used, like emergency rebreathers for one. The Paw Patrol team were all rated for deep sea diving thanks to Zuma and knew how to safely surface without getting ‘the bends’.

In particular the taser was something Chase rarely used, but his defensive option has mostly been used to temporarily power a machine where necessary or restarting someone’s heart with a quick shock.

Apparently Marshall was the one to have once used Chase’s pack to get someone’s heart beating again once.

I wasn’t worried that the Paw Patrol members would be caught out or underequipped if something went wrong here at least. They even had emergency plans for their emergency plans if things got worse.

“Okay, first off, did Marshall tell you we were magical beings?” I leapt to the ceiling of the sub and stuck fast there.

“Yes ma’am and that’s really cool!” Hearing Chase confirm it, I dropped to the floor of the submarine gently.

“We’re here to give Shanty some training, she’s a sea goat in the most literal term. She’s a Capricornus, we thought she was a normal island goat of some kind until we learned about this not too long ago.” It wasn’t hard for me to confirm that.

Shanty could breathe underwater and her control of water was a curiosity at best at first and I thought she might be naturally gifted with an elemental affinity towards liquids, but now it makes a whole lot more sense than it previously did. She was a goat that could manipulate any fluid and sea goats were known to be related to beings of sacrifice… for example, me.

We needed to test her capabilities to their fullest extent underwater and above it on land.

What are the chances that Arizona was a Taurus? She was stupidly tough and strong enough for it, probably gets her strength from her father and her resilience from her mother who was way too dynamite happy for my nerves when I met ‘Mad Cow Maggie’ for the first time.

“We’ll be watching you from here Shanty… you can go to the airlock.” I knew that Shanty could handle this.

“Are you sure she’ll be okay lass?” Captain Gilturtle had his concerns after the last few tests, given we’ve being letting Shanty out at ever deeper depths.

“She’ll be perfectly fine.” My trust in Shanty being capable of this was absolute. “She can create a bubble in the water if she’s feeling uncomfortable or like she’s about to be crushed.”

Shanty wasn’t going out alone though, Launita Walton the walrus and Octavia Inkhart the octopus were joining her out on these trips out there to make sure she’d be fine. Shanty’s body could really adapt to any source or depth of water easily.

“Are the speakers working?” I asked as I looked to Captain Gilturtle.

“Yes, they still are. Wouldn’t be sailing under the sea or on top of it without checking my equipment thoroughly before heading out.” Stated Captain Gilturtle in a proud manner.

-Sea-tucket region, Shanty-

It be feeling weird to be in the ocean and so far down, but I can still be seeing the light coming through the water above me in rays of shifting beauty that lit up the surrounding reefs. I be learning a lot about myself today.

This be feeling weird, my mouth wasn’t open, as I hovered near the open airlock and be swimming out, but I didn’t feel like I be drowning.

Luanita and Octavia were a comforting presence every time I be exiting the sub. I moved away from the submarine, swimming out and began looking around again. There was nothing dangerous around here or so Captain Gilturtle be telling us.

“Shanty, you feeling okay? Have you gotten used to the pressure at these depths?” Pom be asking from the submarine and I waved to her as I swam up and smiled, this be feeling really weird, but being in and surrounded by actual water felt nice.

The water inside the Moon Cell Realms be feeling a little… ‘unreal’. If that being the best describing word for it, then that is being what I be going with.

“Can you show us the back of your ears please, I want to check your gills again.” I moved closer to the viewport of the submarined and be showing Pom the back of my ears. “Huh, so gills really do appear faster when you’re submerged for long or deep enough. Well it’s official, you can’t drown Shanty. Now let’s get started…”

Pom be putting me through a lot of tests, mostly pushing myself around in water. Talking with the local sea pets of Sea-tucket, the aquatic neighbors to Paw-tucket, which had their own portal gate and their own keys. Obviously not all pets could be coming out of the Paw-tucket portal safely and it was nice to be knowing there was being more than one.

I be feeling the water around me… for miles, just everything in it. There was all kinds of noise, but it wasn’t being very deafening. I could even be hearing Dolly from… wait… what?!

Concentrating on where I be hearing Pom’s companion for life, I be hearing it at the sea floor in a given direction as Pom and the others were distracted with talking to the local underwater pets. Who be seriously naming a pet shark ‘Sharky’ anyway? The shark is being as shrunk down as all the other pets around here, it is even being adorable too.

Does Pom not be questioning the fact that Dolly was being so far down, or was she ignoring where her bond partner currently was? Dodo was being down here too and he be knowing that I’m not currently in the mess that he’s apparently in.

I be asking Dodo to share his sight with me.

-Evil alien cat undersea base, Dodo-

Happiness wanted to see, so happiness would.

“Oh dog darn it all, how are there so many of these things already!” Friend Dolly be shouting as she ripped the edge of her board through designated target ‘Evil Cat Bot’.

“We told you, Snooky works fast and is dangerously annoying psychopath when it comes to being a threat! You think this is bad, you haven’t even seen him at his worst yet!” Mammoth Mutt shouted as she blew a number of robots down the corridor by taking up the entirety of the corridor for a few seconds with a really fast expansion. “We really need to stop Agent Del, because we really don’t want her to continue helping Snooky with things like this!”

“I could use some energy…” Hot Dog grumbled after becoming tired of firing fireballs from his mouth. “All the water is causing my attacks to be weaker.”

I leaned over and spat a carob treat onto the floor in front of him on a sweet rice paper napkin and Hot Dog gave it a quick sniff.

“Carob?! Thanks, I love carob!” Hot Dog stated cheerfully and I smile at him. “Give me a second to eat this and I’ll be at full strength!”

Friends!

Something just broke and the underwater corridor they were fighting in just sprung a leak.

-Sea-tucket region, Shanty-

Well that is being a thing. I gathered the water leaking into that corridor and started using it to attack the bipedal machines with flying water slashes. I at least be knowing what my range was like while I was in the ocean at the very least.

The machines were all being five to eight feet tall, but they weren’t being hard for me to take down from here and it is being easy for me to help out my friends from a distance while still in the sight of Pom no less.

I could feel Dodo be looking my direction when Dolly be asking him something, but no Pom still be spending time with me and is likely focusing on me giving she wasn’t looking in Dolly’s direction at the moment.

“Everything okay out there Shanty?” Asked a concerned Pom and I swam up the submarine and nodded to her with a cheerful smile, trying to hide the fact that Dolly was in the middle of a harrowing battle with tons of robots.

If Pom had asked is everything alright around here, I would likely be telling her about the underwater base with the evil alien cats and a ton of dangerous robots in it at this moment. Dolly and Dog Star Patrol be fighting quite fiercely in there, but it be looking like they had things under control.

“So is there anything else you wanted to do today aside from training your aquatic capacity?” Yes, Pom, I wanted to be keeping you away from those evil cats… especially the psycho one, he is being a very bad cat and I didn’t want you to be being near him.

“Yes actually, maybe we can get some sea salt ice cream on the docks?” I say and blinked… I can be talking underwater without the water flooding into my mouth?

“Shanty, I want you to know that that was a very exceedingly weird thing to see… and hear.” Pom stated wide eyed.

“It’s just like the mer-pups huh guys?” Marshal stated with a cheerful tone.

“Well it’s almost the same, but that was still quite odd.” Chase be following from inside the submarine, I haven't been trying to talk underwater until now.

“Did someone say mer-pup!” I blinked as what looked like half dog half fish showed up.

“Cousin Coral, what are you doing here?!” Skye asked as she apparently knew the puppy fish that just showed up.

“Oh hey Skye, did you finally make Ryder happy enough as a pet outside of your usual Paw Patrol duties?” Coral the colorful swimming dog asked.

“Uh, you’re someone’s pet, since when?!” Skye asked slightly distressed.

“Someone named Aqua Lad started taking care of me and the other mer-pups when they started hearing about the odd dog fish swimming around Adventure Bay. He’s really nice like Aquadog, the pet to the king of Atlantis. Apparently Puplantis is a crashed alien space ship, who knew?” Then this Coral be turning to me and swimming around me while looking. “There’s just something about you that I really like.”

Okay, now I fully knew how it felt to be like Pom…. it is being very awkward.

“Wait you met Aquadog, I’m jealous, did you get to see any of the other super pets like Comet the Super Horse?!” Did I even want to be knowing what Skye was talking about?

“Comet the Super Horse?” Pom be mirroring my thoughts effectively.

“A long and weird story of some poor innocent centaur, well he used to be one anyway or at least says he was at one point, that was said to come from some magical land called Equ-what-something-or-other banished from the magical world by someone named swirling stars or something. He ended up in Greece or was it the Greek Lands and eventually became the pet of one of the super people in the current day.” Answered Chase who seemed like he was having trouble trying to remember the horse’s backstory.

“Yeah, I think we are being done here.” My bland voice carried through the water.

“Unless happens something in the next five seconds I agree.” Pom matched it, likely she be knowing as well as I do that Super Horse might be being from our home world.

Something exploded in the distance and Pom immediately be wanting to head in that direction, as the water around me rumbled and shifted with the following quake in the wake of that explosion. Luanita, Coral and Octavia clung to me with fright as I was hit with a light shockwave, that I protected them from.

“What was that, you okay Shanty? Good! Let’s go check it out, some poor pets might need help!” Pom wasn’t the only one that said this. Paw Patrol and even Coral mimicked saying it word for word.

“Jinx!” Marshall called out and then motioned for Captain Gilturtle to get us to where that explosion came from.

I quickly be boarding the submarine with Luanita, Octavia and Coral. We be heading in the direction of the evil cats underwater base with me being quite worried about what just happened.

When we be getting there, I am being relieved and horrified to be seeing nothing there, except for the massive gaping hole and what looks like an underwater volcano.

“Huh, must have been a sea floor pocket of gas exploding upwards and sending lots of mineral debris everywhere.” If that’s what you be thinking Pom, then I wouldn’t be correcting you. “Captain Gilturtle can you quickly surface for a moment? Also we’re going to need to tell all the aquatic pets that this area is not safe to swim in for the time being.”

The submarine started to rise as quickly as it could safely and when we be getting to the surface we be finding Dormarch and Dolly on surf boards.

What? How did they? Well at least they were being fine when we be coming up from the hatch.

“Dormarch, Dolly, has anything odd happened in the last few minutes?” Pom asked while looking at her two canine companions, one of which she calls son.

Kind of wanted Pom to be calling me her daughter, but after all the parents I be losing and the time spent growing up taking care of myself. It is being somewhat late, but I’d still take it.

“Yeah, something did happen!” Dolly shouted excitedly and looked to be trying to not let her right eye twitch, how did she be getting out of that underwater base before it exploded?

“Dolly!” Dormarch started to say only for Dolly to blurt something else out.

“We caught the biggest wave ever, it was epic… a lot of animals got wiped out to sea though, but the sea pets helped them all safely back to shore!” Dolly was being honest about that much at least, she glanced at me and shook her head no and motioned to not ask questions as Pom turned to Dormarch with a raised brow.

“Admittedly Dolly could have helped more with the disaster wave that struck the beach.” Dormarch grumbled. “Instead of riding on it…”

“Is everyone okay?” Pom was concerned and seemed like she wanted to be doing something to help.

“Yeah, everything’s completely fine, why wouldn’t it be?” Dolly’s grin showed far too many teeth as she be soon whispering something hastily to Dormarch.

Pom be narrowing her eyes at Dolly in suspicion.

“Yes, mom, everyone is fine, aside from some medical problems given the lack of medical care around here, there are some pets already on it! We were out here looking into anyone else who needs rescuing, the beach has already been evacuate.” Dormarch stated hesitantly.

“Dolly don’t drag your brother into surfing, when he could be helping animals with any medical issues. Even if you do have the alibi of looking for injured animals dragged out to sea and Dormarch is a really good swimmer… this is a little far out don’t you think?” Pom is being highly suspicious of what actually be going on now. “Captain GIlturtle, take us back to the docks, I want to get a look at the beach after this disaster. I’ll see you two after we get off the sub.”

-Several minutes later at the nearby beach, Dolly-

I surfed to shore with Dormarch, he learned how to surf quite quickly from me and it was a nice exercise of my sisterly rights to make my little bro awesome at things.

“Oh dog, oh dog! Guys, clear the robots off the beach fast, Pom’s on to us!” We took out the undersea base, but we didn’t catch Snooky before he got away, we did however catch Agent Del. Who was out cold and tied up and ready for transport and the beach was covered in large cat robots that Dog Star Patrol was cleaning up as quickly as they could.

“Look, Caper Canine, maybe you should just let your partner in on things…” Mutt Mammoth stated.

“No, you don’t know what Pom is like when she’s aware of trouble, she needs her rest!” She was doing so good and happy these past few days, I did not want her fretting over the evil cat aliens.

“Perhaps I can be of assistance with the cleanup?” A fire hydrant shaped drop pod lowered down to the beach and out of it came Brainy Barker, the purple furred leader of the Dog Star Patrol.

“What do you want for making it really quick?” I said in a panic. “I don’t want Pom to get dragged into this at all!”

Which would be hard, because tomorrow Pom was likely going to choose to spend time with me.

“Can you introduce me to that ewe?” Brainy said as he perked up tail wagging fiercely.

“Sure, clear the beach fast enough and I’ll help you get a belly rub included with the introduction!” Which seemed to be a thing that most of the Doggy Messiah cultists dreamed of, it really didn’t seem like much of a big thing to me.

“Done!” Brainy stated immediately and all the robots started gathering together in the air into a large quickly compacting mass as her ears lifted up and her eyes started glowing brightly. Right, she had powerful psychic powers and she knew how to use them.

I watched as Envoy Delirious get levitated into the drop pod and all the destroyed cat bot were quickly flung into the distance in the direction of Paw-tucket’s junkyard.

After quickly removing her cape and tossing it into the drop pod, it promptly shot back into space with the captured criminal and Brainy turned back to me expectantly.

It was a few minutes later that Pom arrived and Brainy was now looking at me pleadingly, silently begging with her eyes.

“Hey Pom, this is Brainy, could you do me a favor and give her a belly rub?” Yeah, that was probably the kind of sigh I would be making too Pom, one of complete exasperation.

-Ten minutes and a very much appreciated belly rub by Brainer Barker later, Pom-

“This sea salt ice cream is pretty good.” I tried to relax, it was probably a natural disaster... yeah who am I kidding. I already knew what was going on.

Dolly was off running around fighting evil alien cats, the alien dogs were a big hint of that at the very least. Not only that everyone knows about it and is trying to keep it a secret from me… and are doing quite poorly at that given Brainy was the big give away. That and the evil looking cat robot that they incidentally missed cleaning up from the beach.

At least I haven’t seen anything worth doing something about or anyone in extreme danger that required me to act. Plus all the pets around here affected by the disaster seemed to be mostly okay, so Dolly was at least trying to keep it under wraps and Dormarch was helping quite a bit.

So we go to the sports stadium or actually seek out and deal with the problem tomorrow?

“It is being really good tasting.” Shanty stated as I had my left hoof wrapped around her back, she had learned a lot about herself today and what she was truly capable of.

Dormarch also had some ice cream, but Dolly just had flavored shaved ice. We sat around and eventually I took Shanty to Paw-tucket’s local park so we could relax for the rest of the day.

Shanty and I practice some martial arts too, with me sitting in one place of course while she moved about, it seemed like Shanty was having a great day and I hoped I did a good enough job to make her happy. Plus we learned how different she was in water and out of it, among a few other things like her hooves becoming more fin like and that was about the amount of her transformation besides the gills that came into existence behind her ears at certain depths or an amount of time spent in water surpassing ten minutes.

Otherwise Shanty was a mostly normal and healthy goat… whose appetite was seemingly unhealthy in the amounts she ate and her fixation with rum bordered on complete and utter insanity. We spent the evening relaxing back at the tent.

I wondered how Dolly was going to explain herself to me tomorrow. At least I knew she genuinely liked Tusky, but that didn’t help with trying to keep the whole evil alien invaders thing concealed from me.

-That evening, near the Travelers Tent, Brainy Barker-

“The prisoner is secure ma’am and we scanned her for any tech and disabled anything she might have had on her that could conceivably let her escape!” Tail Terrier informed me, which is one less thing to worry about. “We’re talking full body internal scan no less after that one time she used a hairball to break out of her cell, that’s not happening this time Brainy.”

Now we just needed to get Snooky.

“So how was the belly rub?” Hot Dog grinned at me with a humorous smile and I blushed, as my entire face turned a vibrant shade of pink. “That good huh?”