//------------------------------//
// The Challenger 
// Story: Making Hearts Melt 
// by Faith Everlasting 
//------------------------------//

	It was the next morning. After my kiss with Heartburn. I had walked home last night in a haze and had great difficulty falling to sleep. I couldn’t get my mind off of him! I continued to see his face and hear his voice in my head. In fact, I feared that I was beginning to hallucinate when I thought that I saw him outside my bedroom window. Eventually, though, I did manage to fall asleep. But I should have just stayed in bed this morning.
“Is it true?!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she ran into my room, waking me up. I yawned and stretched before acknowledging her.
“Is what true, Sweetie?”
“Did you… kiss Heartburn?!” My heart stopped and I started breathing rapidly.
“Who the hay told you that, Sweetie Belle?!” I leaped out of bed and approached her. Tears were already falling down her face.
“I loved him, Perfect! And you took him away!” She collapsed onto the floor in a pile of matted pink and purple mane and sobbed. I didn’t know what to do. Then Apple Bloom came cantering into the room.
“Did y’all hear? Super Star and Heartburn are gone!”
“Gone?” I repeated. “Where?”
“Nopony knows!” I didn’t even allow her to finish her response before I galloped out of my room and towards the center of town. Unfortunately, Apple Bloom was right. There was no sign of Super Star or Heartburn! Their makeshift stage was lying on the ground in pieces and a few of the town’s stallions rummaged through them, balling their eyes out.
“Super Star, NO!” One shrieked.
I continued searching all over town looking for them… OK, I was only looking for Heartburn, but still. I looked in Sugar Cube Corner where I found Pinkie Pie crying over the disappearance of Heartburn as well as every other mare in town. I continued on, not finding any clue as to where they were. But then, I noticed something on the ground. 
"What the hay?" I mumbled as I picked it up off the ground. It looked like a feather and weighed about the same as a feather, but it was hard. I felt my own feathers and then stroked the smooth, almost metal-like, surface of the item in my hoof. "A synthetic feather? I didn't know that was possible!" I glanced around for more, but failed to find any. "Who knows about these?" I asked aloud.
"Where did ya find that?!" Somepony shouted at me. I quickly turned around to see a large stallion glaring at me from across the street. His mane was in a tangled mess and a small scar protruded from his front leg, most likely from a recent burn. "I said, where did ya find that?!" He then approached me and snatched the feather from my grasp.
"Do you know what this is?" I asked. He didn't respond, but he cautiously observed the strange phenomenon in his hoof. Then he sneered at me.
"It's mine," Then he muttered to himself. "Incompetent mare! She doesn't care about who's really in charge here!" I cocked my head to the side in confusion, but he didn't seem to notice.
"If you please," I began. "I'm looking for somepony named Heartburn. He went missing this morning and nopony's seen him," The strange stallion seemed to freeze in place.
"Heartburn, you say?" He echoed eerily.
"Yes," I replied. He continued to stare at me, but then suddenly started to trot off. "Hey, where are you going?"
"Follow me," He said, rather too happily and since he was going off in such a hurry, I decided to do what he told me. Stupid, I know, but maybe he knew something about what was going on.
As we both trotted along side each other, we came upon a small house. The workmanship was a little off in some places, but otherwise it looked like a rather comfortable place to live.
"Come inside," He told me, opening the door to let me in. I timidly entered, but then he pushed past me and made a break for a large mahogany desk. He opened the top drawer and pulled out a large piece of thin paper containing a design of some kind. He swore under his breath after looking at it for a moment and then placed it back in the desk.
"I only have one?" He questioned himself, stroking his mane with his hoof.
"One what, sir?" I slowly walked towards him, ears pinned back and head down. He sighed once more and then looked at me. 
"I only have one synthetic pegasus wing left," 
"You make synthetic pegasus wings?" I gazed at him in awe. Nopony was ever capable of making something that advanced! He smiled briefly with pride, but then his face turned serious again.
"You'll have to use it to get up to Cloudsdale," He then began to work furiously.
"CLOUDSDALE!" I shouted. "What's in Cloudsdale?"
"Super Star and Heartburn," He answered simply.
"Really? How do you know that?"
"Because Super Star got her wings and horn from me,"
"You mean..."
"That's right! Super Star is no alicorn. She's an earth pony just like me!" This information was all too much for me and I slunk down to the ground.
"Then how was she able to woo all of those stallions?" I questioned.
"When I make synthetic unicorn horns, I add a pinch of magic to them. Of course, only one spell can go on each horn for now, so I gave her one that makes everypony fall in love with somepony in particular,"
"Why?" He paused at my question and stared into oblivion, as if he was wondering whether he should tell me or not.
"Irrelevant," Was his only response. I began to protest, but then thought better. 
"Turns out, she didn't stick to the plan and she herself fell in love with Heartburn," 
I gasped.
"But, unfortunately, the spell didn't work on Heartburn for some reason,"
"But if she's the one with the powers, then how come all of the mares fell in love with Heartburn?" I had so many questions, but he waved his hoof in front of my face and silenced me. Then, without warning, he slapped a synthetic pegasi wing to the left side of my body and tightened it to fit me perfectly. When he was done, he stared at me as if he was waiting for me to take off.
"You want me to go after them?" I stared at the fake wing and then at my real one. "I can't even fly!"
"You've got a better chance than I have!" He shouted, pointing at my other wing.
"But this wing is crippled and I can barely move it!"
"Then I guess Heartburn is dead,"
"Dead?! What is she planning to do to him?" He didn't answer me. He didn't need to. I took off. Galloping down the street, past Fluttershy's cottage, and up the hill to where I had been dropped. I gazed up at the city of Cloudsdale which looked treacherously far away and gazed at my real wing. I didn't know if I could do it, but I had to try.

"Heh, heh, now that that's taken care of," Scorched Shoe muttered to himself. "Time to get back to work!" He fumbled around his desk for a while until he found a spare key hidden inside a manila envelope. Super Star is no longer of any help to us. He thought as he stumbled over to the far corner of his house. She's a weak link. Hopefully her new challenger will take care of her. But if not, I can always come up there myself and finish the job. He slid the key into a small crevice in the wall and turned it until he could hear a small clanking noise. Now that I know my wings work, I can finally put them to real use. Suddenly, the wall shuddered and slid to the side, revealing dozens of pairs of synthetic wings and horns.
"My debt will be repaid!" He shouted triumphantly to the sky. "And I will no longer live in fear!"