Sunny wished she'd asked her dad more questions while she could.

There were so many papers in her dad's collection that he'd never explained to her. She was kinda regretting that she'd insisted on hearing the same Twilight Sparkle stories a million times. She could have asked for new ones more often. Every time she went through her dad's stuff, mysteries stared her in the face, taunting her.

Sunny glumly picked up a laminated old newspaper clipping. It was only a piece, the jagged edges of torn paper and some faded words hid the full article from her.

'…tensions continue to rise, and hippogriff-pony relations continue to deteriora… hreatening to pull out of Equestria entirely if the orb shard thieves are not caught soon. The hippogriffs are already suffering a shortage so the continued… seapony trapped in a lake. Authorities believe that it cannot be the work of only one creature. But there is no evidence that ponies are the thieves. Due to the crimes taking place in Equestria however, responsibility falls to… en Concordia and Princess Wysteria's attempts to find the thieves have made little progress. It is unclear if these are individuals working independently or if it is a coordinated effort. Ponies are asked t…'

What did all that mean? It sounded important. Sunny did have some idea of what a hippogriff was, she'd seen a few photos and paintings her dad had managed to hunt down. Hippogriffs were like tall Pegasus with talons instead of front hooves and a beak instead of a muzzle. They were a very mysterious species and hadn't been seen in Equestria in a long, long time. It seemed like this article might have clues as to why the hippogriffs had left, but it was too little to go on. If only it explained what orb shards were and why they were important.

Sunny spun in a slow circle as she looked around her dad's study, the rows and rows of books, papers, and trinkets. So many stories of the past had been lost and Sunny longed to know them all. As a filly, she'd dreamed of traveling Equestria, collecting relics and piecing together stories like her dad once had. Then, when she had the artefacts and their stories, she'd open a museum and share them with everypony. Those dreams had faded when her dad disappeared, the outside world suddenly becoming a much scarier place. Her goals had shifted to at least getting the ponies of Maretime Bay to reach out a hoof to the other tribes. She'd done that now. Maybe she could go back to that fillyhood dream. It was such a massive undertaking, but it filled her with excitement.

Canterlot, Ponyville, Constellation City, the Weird Wood, Ponhenge, the possibly only mythical Crystal Empire, Twilight's Castle, Aromatic Gardens, Lumina Wood, the Castle of the Two Sisters, Mist Rise, Rainbow Falls, Hollow Shade, Cloudsdale, the Tree of Harmony, there were so many places she wanted to see with her own eyes. She'd probably never see them all, but she wanted to try.

Sunny was startled out of her daydreaming when Izzy burst through the door, a stack of papers in her hooves.

"They're donnnnne!" Izzy sang, plopping the stack down, a few of the top papers fluttering to the floor.

"Wow, let me see!" Sunny said eagerly, trotting over and picking up one of the fallen flyers. Silhouettes of ponies of the three tribes pranced happily around the page among waves, sand, and seashells. Big, colorful, eye-catching letters invited ponies to the friendship beach party. The time, location, and date were all clearly visible. She was grateful to Hitch for taking care of the paperwork to reserve the beach for them. "These are great, Izzy!"

"Yep, I think they turned out pre-tty good," Izzy bragged. "Ponies will definitely want to come. Even if they're still iffy about hanging out with the other tribes-" she pointed to the big words at the bottom of the page. "-free cake! Nopony can resist free cake. Bribery for the win."

"I hope so," Sunny agreed. A part of her was terrified of the party not going well. Ponies had rejected her so many times in the past… But things were improving now. It was going to be amazing, she'd make sure of it. "We'll need to figure out where we'll get all that cake though. I don't think we'll have enough time to do it ourselves with all the other work we have to do. And my cakes aren't anything fancy."

Izzy held up a hoof. "Already handled it." Really? "Misty's earth pony friend offered us a great deal to provide the cakes. She said it was good advertising." The unicorn licked her lips. "She's really good, she gave me a free sample."

"That's so nice of her!" Sunny gasped. Zipp had told her about Sugar Spice. Sunny was so incredibly impressed. She'd never met an earth pony comfortable with unicorns, not without Sunny prodding them into it. Sugar Spice had independently decided to be friends with the other tribes, even willing to hire a unicorn for her business. It gave her so much hope. "I'm so excited to meet her. There's so much I want to talk to her about."

"Oh, she's super nice," Izzy beamed. "And she didn't even flinch when I magicked my satchel open."

"Ponies will get used to it," Sunny assured her. "Sugar Spice is proof of that." Grabbing her phone, she texted Hitch, Pipp, and Zipp that the flyers were done. Pipp immediately responded with a bunch of emoji. Hitch and Zipp would probably take longer to respond.

"I'll take some of these and put them up in Bridlewood," Izzy promised, scooping up roughly a third of the flyers.

"Thanks." Sunny split what remained of the pile in half. "I'll start putting these up in Maretime Bay."

Izzy saluted. "I'll get these up lickety split then be back to help with decorations. I'm gonna grab some crafting supplies from my house too while I'm there."

"Sounds like a plan," Sunny nodded.

As Izzy left the room, there was a bing sound from Sunny's phone. Hitch had texted her back.

Badgemaster: 'That's great, Sunny. Be careful putting them up.'

Sunny tilted her head.

Sunny: 'Be careful?'

Badgemaster: 'Yeah, y'know, don't damage anything when putting them up. And put them up in good spots. Don't tack one onto Posey's gate or anything like that.'

Sunny rolled her eyes. 'I'm not stupid Hitch.'

Badgemaster: 'Your poster hanging campaigns haven't always been super successful.' Ponies had torn down her posters a lot.

Sunny: 'That was different. I'll be fine. Where are you now?' Hitch could put up posters along his patrol route.

Badgemaster: 'I'm by the arcade, tracking down a witness.' That wasn't too far.

Sunny: 'Will you still be in that area in fifteen minutes? I can give you some posters to hang up along your route'

The reply came back a few seconds later.

Badgemaster: 'Probably, yeah. I think I'm close now.'

Sunny: 'Great! I'll be there soon'

Throwing on her roller-skates and helmet, Sunny headed out into the city. She hung a poster every once and a while as she went. It was lovely out. She really hoped the weather ponies were right about the weather being nice on the day of the party. They did get the predictions wrong more often than ponies liked. Not that anypony really blamed them. The weather acted erratically sometimes, it was incredibly hard to predict. There had been an incident last summer where it had randomly snowed for a few hours. Weird weather anomalies had always been blamed on the pegasi, but that was obviously impossible since the pegasi hadn't had their magic. So who knew why it happened. Maybe that was just how non-pegasus weather was.

Oh, the pegasus! Excitement bubbled up at the realization. That's right, they were friends with the pegasus now. They could change the weather if they needed to. Zipp was able to burst clouds. Wow, having pegasus friends was amazing!

Hitch was talking to Starstruck, a colt from Ruby's class with a blue and yellow mane and a camera cutie mark, in front of the arcade as she approached. Not wanting to interrupt Hitch, Sunny didn't call out to them. Starstruck looked a bit nervous.

"Are you sure you didn't see anything?" Hitch was asking the colt.

"Um, no, I didn't see anypony else nearby," Starstruck replied, shuffling on his hooves.

Huh, Sunny wasn't sure what was going on, but Starstruck did look guilty about something… He was a good kid, he came by her stall for smoothies all the time. She couldn't see him having done anything criminal. Maybe he was protecting a friend? Or there had been some kind of accident?

Now seemed like a good time to step in. "Hi, Starstruck. Hey, Hitch," she greeted, rolling up to the pair. "What's up?"

"Somepony knocked over Dahlia's flower rack," Hitch explained. "Starstruck here was there when it happened. I just want to know if he saw anything."

Hm, that was a big rack. It was hard to believe it could be knocked over so quickly that nopony had seen who did it. And a colt Starstruck's age wouldn't be able to knock over that rack without really trying and even then…

"I wasn't really paying attention," Starstruck claimed, eyes darting to the ground. "I was going to pick up cosmos flowers for Rosey Cheeks and Scribbleheart's photo for the school paper and I was leaning in real close to try and find the perfect shade. I wasn't looking around." That didn't seem like a lie. But then why did he sound so nervous?

"Did you hear anything then maybe?" Hitch pressed. He clearly believed Starstruck knew more than he was letting on and was giving soft questions. Once Starstruck let a little info slip, the rest might come more easily. Or Hitch would at least know how to tailor the questioning.

"Y'know, Dahlia isn't the type to get upset," Sunny encouraged. "Whatever happened and whoever it was, she'll understand."

Hitch nodded. "She just wants an apology and to know what happened."

Starstruck bit his lip.

"You don't want an innocent pony to be blamed, do you?" Sunny prodded gently. "And Dahlia's only going to get sadder if she doesn't know what happened. She might think somepony doesn't like her or that it might happen again."

The colt's eyes widened. There was a moment of pause, then he broke. "It was me, okay! I did it!"

"You did it?!" Sunny and Hitch gasped simultaneously. That was the vibe Sunny had been getting, but it still didn't make sense. Had the cart already been damaged in some way? A wobbly leg maybe?

"How?" Hitch asked, bewildered. "What happened?"

"It was an accident." The words spilled out of Starstruck like a bursting dam. "The cosmos were in a basket on the top rack so I was leaning on it to reach up and see them better and I didn't think I was putting that much weight on it and then it fell and I freaked out and Dahlia freaked out and I hadn't processed what happened yet so when Dahlia asked if I saw anything I said no and then I realized it was me but I'd already said no and I felt bad so I just left and I'm really, really sorry.!"

"Accidents happen," Hitch assured, trying to comfort the colt. Starstruck was practically shaking with guilt. "But you do need to own up to it when they do. How about I go with you to help explain to Dahlia what happened and you can apologize?"

"Okay," Starstruck nodded gloomily. "Am I getting arrested?"

Both Hitch and Sunny burst into laughter. "What? No," Hitch promised, amused. "You just need to apologize. And maybe help Dahlia pick some new flowers if she needs any."

"Oh," Sunny remembered. "Here, Hitch. Take some flyers before you go." She handed him about half of her flyers.

"Oh, these do look good," Hitch noted.

"What are the flyers for?" Starstruck asked curiously.

"We're throwing a beach party," Hitch explained briefly, not wanting to get too offtrack. "Feel free to come if your parents say it's okay. Now, let's go see Dahlia. See you later, Sunny."

Sunny waved the two off. She was glad that had resolved so quickly. Now, she had posters to hang.