Izzy, Zipp, Pipp and Misty dashed towards the Brighthouse. They had received a call from Windy who said she was flying past the building and heard what sounded like a rampaging centaur inside. Though she did also say it was more likely Sunny, since the sounds were accompanied by the mare screaming “Where is he? Where is he?”
Zipp reached the front doors first and threw them open to reveal that the place was indeed trashed. The furniture was all turned over, the cushions were thrown every which way and all the kitchen cabinets had been emptied with their contents spilled across the floor.
“Sweet glitter,” Pipp gasped as she surveyed the carnage. “Sunny did all this?”
“Apparently.” Zipp muttered as the four moved inside.
Izzy picked the couch up with her magic and flipped it back up the right way, then put it back in place and returned the cushions to their rightful places. Zipp and Pipp started picking up plates and cutlery while Misty walked over to the ramp up to the second floor.
“Maybe she was looking for something?” Pipp suggested as she put the cutlery back in its drawer.
“Maybe, but I highly doubt she would make a mess in the process.” Zipp said as she put a stack of plates back into one of the cabinets.
“Or maybe she was looking for someone,” Izzy pointed out as she joined them. “Windy did say she heard Sunny yell ‘where is he?’ Maybe Sparky is missing again and Sunny was helping Hitch look for him here.”
“But both times Sparky went missing before it was because of Misty,” Pipp countered. “Aside from the fact that she wouldn’t do that anymore, she was with us the whole time.”
“I think you’re both barking up the wrong tree,” Zipp said. “One, Sparky could have just gone missing without Misty having anything to do with it. And two, if he actually had gone missing, we’d certainly have heard about it by now.”
Suddenly Misty held up a hoof and shushed them. “Quite.” She whispered, her ears pricked. The others joined her at the foot of the ramp and then they heard it too. Muffled crying, coming from the second floor.
“Sunny.” They all said together before heading up. Sure enough, the orange Earth Pony was lying in her bed, crying into her pillow. The four gathered around her bed.
“Sunny?” Izzy gently tapped Sunny’s shoulder to get her attention. Sunny raised her head, and they gasped. Izzy and Zipp had seen Sunny cry before when they came to show her the community garden. Compared to then, Sunny looked like she was trying to cry up a river.
“Sunny! What’s wrong?” Pipp asked, concerned.
“M-myyy lantern’s go-gone missing again.” Sunny sobbed out. Izzy, Zipp and Pipp turned to face Misty, who held her hooves up in defence.
“Wasn’t me this time. Honest.” She said.
“I’ve looked everywhere,” Sunny explained. “But I can’t find him.” She grabbed her rainbow pillow and hugged it tight. “Oh lantern, where are you?”
“Okay gang,” Zipp took charge. “We need to find Sunny’s lantern.” Taking a sideways glance at the still crying Earth Pony she added “One of us should probably stay with Sunny though.”
“I’ll stay.” Misty volunteered.
Zipp nodded. “Then let’s go.”
Since Sunny had searched the whole Brighthouse and not found a trace of the lantern Izzy, Zipp and Pipp decided to head into town to continue the search. Zipp was walking around examining everything through her detective visor with her drone following her, Pipp was asking ponies if they’d seen the lantern and Izzy was hanging up posters all over the place to get ponies’ attention.
“Have you seen my lantern?” Pipp read out as she came over to look at the posters while Izzy was hanging one up. Below the text was a drawing of Sunny hugging the lantern and below that was a description. “Details: magical aura, golden decorations, rainbow inside, amazing, adorable, forgiving, comforting, I miss him so much.” Pipp raised an eyebrow and gave Izzy a questioning glance.
“It wasn’t me,” the Unicorn shrugged. “I found these posters in my workshop right after Sunny’s lantern went missing the first time. I think Sunny made them”.
Pipp looked at the poster again. “That lantern is a living being to her. Then again, when I found the lantern half buried in the garden that time Misty tried to steal it I talked to it like it was alive.”
“Him, Pipp.” Izzy tapped the bottom line of the poster. “Not it.”
Pipp laughed. “Right. My bad.”
“Um, okay…” the two turned around to see Hitch examining the posters. “You two better have a good reason for performing what could be seen as an act of vandalism.”
“Sunny’s lantern has gone missing again.” Izzy explained.
“Again?” Hitch asked. “Please tell me it wasn’t Misty this time.”
Pipp shook her head. “No. She was with us the whole time.”
Hitch nodded. “And how’s Sunny taking it?”
“She’s a crying mess.” Zipp answered, removing her visor as she joined the group.
The stallion sighed. “Yeah, that sounds more like it.” The three looked at him with a questioning gaze, so he elaborated. “That lantern is far more than just a lantern to Sunny. It’s her most treasured possession and a memento of her father. I was honestly surprised she kept herself so well composed when it went missing the first time.”
“It really means that much to her, huh?” Pipp asked.
“Yeah,” Hitch responded. “That lantern is emotionally linked to her father, and Sunny loved her father more than anything else. When she told me she was putting it in storage because she couldn’t fix it for a second I thought she had gone mad, until I noticed how heartbroken she was when she said it.”
Hitch took his sheriff’s badge off his strap and stared at it. “I know what it’s like to have a memento of a family member that you love dearly,” he explained. “This badge has been in my family for five generations, passed from parent to child. My dad had it before me. I don’t know how I’d react if it ever went missing.”
The three mares shared a worried look.
Misty sat on the edge of Sunny’s bed, gently rubbing her back as the Earth Pony continued to cry into her pillow.
“There, there.” Misty whispered. “It’ll be okay, the others will find your lantern.”
“I miss him.” Sunny muttered into her pillow.
Misty hesitated. Talking about the lantern might make Sunny worse, but she wouldn’t refer to the lantern the way she did for no reason.
“Opaline wanted me to steal the lantern because of it’s magical power,” Misty began. “But that’s not why it’s important to you, is it?”
Sunny lifted herself up and began rooting around in her bedside drawer. Eventually she pulled out a small framed photo and handed it to Misty. The photo depicted a young Sunny clutching the lantern happily, though the lantern looked completely different to how Misty knew it.
“Woah. I didn’t know your lantern used to look like that.”
“Yeah,” Sunny said, and Misty was happy to see the ghost of a smile on her face, even if there were still tears in her eyes. “My dad built it so that when light shone through the crystal it reflected images of the three pony kinds around the room. It was a representation of our dream to reunite all pony kind. The lantern survived the destruction of my old lighthouse mostly intact, but without the Earth Pony crystal it would never work the same again, so I put it in storage. Then when Izzy repaired it, even though it was different it still felt like my lantern.”
“I really made your day when I repaired it, didn’t I?” Izzy said as she returned with the Pegasi sisters.
“More than you could ever know.” Sunny responded.
“So did you find it?” Misty asked.
“Not yet,” Zipp shook her head. “But Hitch is still out there looking.”
Misty looked around the room, trying to think of a way to distract Sunny from her missing lantern. Her eyes landed on her own bed, and she got an idea.
“Be right back.” she said, running over to her bed and returning with what appeared to be a Unicorn made out of junk being carried in her magic.
“Who’s this?” Sunny asked as Misty rejoined them.
“This is Madame Taffytail,” Misty explained as she levitated the fake Unicorn into her hooves and hugged her. “Back when I was conflicted as to whether I should follow Opaline’s orders or be loyal to you guys I needed someone to vent my feelings to, but I couldn’t talk to you guys or Opaline so I made someone to talk to. Even though I can talk to you guys now I still keep her around because of how much she helped me back then.”
Izzy’s eyes widened. “One second,” she said cheerfully before dashing off and returning with a figure instantly familiar to the group. “You guys remember Senior Butterscotch, right? My best friend from before I had friends. Even though I have you guys as friends now there’s no way I’d ever get rid of him.” She said as she gave him a sideways hug.
Pipp gasped. “Oh, I know. I know.” She flew off and returned holding a golden microphone in her hooves.
“Your lucky microphone?” Sunny asked, recognising it.
Pipp nodded. “Yeah, it was a gift from Zipp and mom for my first ever concert. I’ve kept it ever since, using it for special occasions. It’s broken five times over the years but I’ve always repaired it, keeping as many of the original pieces as I could.”
Everyone looked at Zipp expectingly. She smiled slightly. “All right, all right. I do have something.” She flew over to her bed and removed something from under her pillow, bringing them back to show the others.
“Your sunglasses?” Izzy asked, confused.
“They were a birthday present from dad shortly before he passed away. That’s the reason I went ballistic when I thought someone had stolen them.”
The four looked at Sunny.
“We know what it’s like to have an object that’s very special to you…” Misty began.
“So special that it starts to have its own personality and becomes more like a pony than an object…” Izzy continued.
“We know how much more it means to you then…” Pipp carried on.
“And how much it can hurt when it goes missing.” Zipp finished.
For the first time since her lantern went missing, Sunny smiled again. “Thank you, girls.” She said.
Suddenly they heard the front doors open and heard Hitch’s voice echo through the Brighthouse. “Sunny. Sunny. I found it.” Hitch came running upstairs, carrying Sunny’s lantern.
“My lantern,” Sunny cried happily, leaping from her bed and running over to Hitch, taking the lantern and hugging it tightly. “There you are.” She said softly as the others gathered around her.
“Wow. Where was it?” Zipp asked.
“In Sparky’s bed,” Hitch replied. “I think he accidentally teleported it there with his dragon fire when we were at the Brighthouse this morning.”
“Oh, Sparky.” The girls all said together, except for Sunny, who smiled brightly as she happily clutched her newly returned lantern.
“Oh lantern, it’s so good to have you back.” Sunny said as she sat back on her bed, holding her lantern.
“Before you put it back in its place,” Misty began as she sat on Sunny’s right, still holding Madame Taffytail.
“We thought we’d take a group photo with our prized possessions.” Izzy finished as she sat on Misty’s other side, clutching Senior Butterscotch.
Pipp sat on Sunny’s left, holding her lucky microphone in one hoof and her phone in the other. “Come on, Zipp.” She called, gesturing for her sister to join them with a nod of her head.
Zipp reluctantly walked over and sat next to Pipp, holding her sunglasses. “Do we have to do this?” She asked.
“Yes,” Pipp insisted. “We had this amazing group bonding moment, now we need a photo to go with it.” She held up her phone to take the picture. “Smile.”
The group all smiled, holding up their precious objects for the camera to see as the photo clicked.
Author's Note
I’m a sentimental person. I saw the image that I’m using for the cover, and inspiration struck. Hope you all enjoy.
