The Power Ponies are coming again.
Another escape from custody, another scheme to take over Maretropolis, and another chance for the Power Ponies to defeat her. Such is the cycle that Mane-iac has endured for as long as she can remember.
And she's sick of it. She's sick of all of it. Now on the cusp of one more battle with her nemeses, she can only think of how much she has sacrificed for the city in her battles against the Power Ponies, and how much more she can take.
Find this story and more in a print copy! Just click these words here!
First place winner of the Everfree Northwest Fanfic Competition!
Thank you to Prak for editing help!
Featured on Equestria Daily 4/27/14
Chapters (1)
Well, that was an interesting take on this sort of situation, and a good one at that. I'd ask for more, but it doesn't really need more.
I wonder if this is how other villains feel
;_; beautiful
3960586 Glad you think so.
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I like that it makes her something of a hero without trying to make her sympathetic--even she genuinely knows that she's doing wrong, but feels that she has to do it. And the story isn't skewed in a way that attempts to justify that. It's all morally ambiguous.
Oh come on! I was going to use the Mane-iac!
Nice story, though.
You are a very talented author, you know that? My feels has been broken
Wow, that's depressing...
Think what would happen though if there was a sequel and they got immunity to the gas?
Really wish there could be a good ending, but still good story.
This was really well done. Heroes mean nothing without villains, after all.
You did a terrific job of making the Mane-iac into a likeable, respectable character, without being cliche about it.
Wow.
Just wow. That was really good.
STOP WRITING SUCH SAD STORIES!!!
I can't say anything in this story tugged at my heartstrings, but it was a good read.
This could be the perfect setup to the Power Ponies and the Mane-iac wroking together to fight off some bigger threat. That sort of thing happens in comic books all the time, right? So why not?
"Nemeses" is the plural of "nemesis".
I'm pretty sure this story is about as deep as the Marianas Trench. It makes it even more enjoyable. It makes you think how many times people have done 'bad' things to a person or small group for the overall betterment of mankind. If more than one like could be given I'd probably be here for hours. A favorite and like will have to do.
Typo - Mane-iac: what are you telling us all this? (also mane-ia at the very start)
Very good. And depressing. She's so sane it hurts, and the "heroes" are utterly blind to this.
Almost feared she would off herself in front of them. The heroes really don't realize Mane is doing a huge service to the city, she doesnt just give them hope, she also make sure criminal elements are off the streets and set to jail/rehab (once captured) too. She create jobs for repair work and all the supplies that she buys and burns through, plus all the other things she have going..
Ain't gonna be pretty when she decide she's had enough.
Nemeses*
Dang. Just... Dang. This makes a scary amount of sense.
This is some deep sh*t.
Damn, we need a sequel now.
3961359 Why? The story flat out says that this is not the first time Mane-iac and the Power Ponies have had this conversation. Not even close. A sequel would just be the same thing as this one, but Mane-iac would be that much more fractured.
Why is it that the greatest stories, or the simplest, always make me tear up?
This was brilliantly written and the concept... amazing. I'd just love to see a multi-chapter story using said idea, but... Perhaps its best to leave it as is.
I loved the story but hated the ending. I mean the was great but I just wish that Mane-iac would just, well, help them and make ita happy ending. Yo should write an alternate ending to this story.
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I suppose it's just that people would like to see what would happen if she didn't use the potion.
I do understand, however, that the story you've created here does not require such. It is excellent by itself.
3962024 I agree. Lovely ending, but I need a happier one.
I wonder what being defeated by the Mane-iac would be like. What is she going to do, give you a bad hair day?
That was pretty much her plan for Maretropolis from what I gather.
wasnt a huge fan of the ending but the idea is an interesting one that i have not seen before.
3962024
I agree. I don't think a sequel would be fitting, but I would certainly like to see an alternate ending. Maybe just one where the Power Ponies somehow (note to themselves, recorder) realize what's going on after the mind-wipe.
3960656 Or at least started to build up a resistance to it and slowly over time see all the Pieces fall into place and the truth is revealed.
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Yeah, I'd find it really interesting to see what would happen.
This reminds me of Doctor Mobius's plan in the Old world Blues Fallout New Vegas DLC. Be evil for the sake of the Greater good.
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3962330 What? I'm not sure if you get the point. The point isn't a happy ending. At least not for Mane-iac. The point is a happy ending for everybody else. She's sacrificing her happy ending so that everybody else can get theirs. You can't have super-heroes without villains to match, and when there was no villain, Mane-iac knew that everything the Power Ponies symbolized was fading away. That's why she fights them and lets them win. When the Power Ponies win, Maretropolis is happy and they feel hope. If Mane-iac switched sides there would be nothing for the Power Ponies to do. No big battles to fight. They cleaned the streets after 18 months.
So in short, I ended it as happily as possible. Mane-iac is unhappy, and it's implied that she's slowly mentally fracturing, but millions of other ponies are because of what she's doing.
3962652 Actually, thanks for clearing the story up. I didn't get it at first.
3962652 yeah I get it. Just because I said I wasnt a huge fan of it dose not nesicarily mean I did not like it. Look at your other works: You have rarity become a serial killer and get executed. Just because I don't like how it ends dose not mean I dont actually like it, if that makes sense.
I guess the best way I can put it into words is that I appreciate it for what it is and I understand the point that is being made but I still wish it could have ended differently even though we all know that this is the way things are supposed to be. I hope that makes sense.
My gods this is awesome stuff! So deep and well deep. Fave and like from me!
I love this story!
3962956 I guess, but I guess what I'm saying is that all of the different endings that I could have realistically put would have been worse.
Clean, well written and strangely melancholy, I hope to read any of your future fics in the future.
Crazy thing though I could see Discord doing the same thing. You know allow princess turn him to stone for balance and then the second time they somehow find out about him doing it and you know the rest.
3960585
This reminds me so much of Batman and The Joker... "You Complete Me" could be an alternate title.
Makes one feel kind of sad, almost pity, for Maneiac. Then again, didn't we all go through this with Chrysalis?
...and thus begins the wait for a Maneiac group here.
Because she's the hero Maretropolis deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt her. Because she can take it. Because she's not our hero. She's a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.
Oh wow. This was.
Aaaaaa. I loved it. So sad and hopeless and infinitely messed up. And honestly, it makes more sense than the typical insane, meaningless villain she was prior. Amazing job.
The most dangerous villeins are the ones who know they are the hero
But how can she remember?!
She just re-sets every time somepony new reads the comic book!
Maybe it's like that time loop thing the Doctor and Romana got stuck in when that super alien cactus (the idea for which re-appeared in one episode of "Outlaw Star") created a chronic histeresis and they could only remember they were stuck in it during the short span of the loop where time was returning to the beginning of the loop.
>>>"During that hiatus before I rose to 'power,' you were meaningless, and so too were the virtues you extolled in the minds of the ponies you protected. I knew what you meant to the ponies in your heyday, so I knew what had to be done." >>>
"Well, ta be honest, " The hero that was Applejack whose name I don't really care about responded. "We alll just hung out in the Stable of Justice and played ping-pong. It was a nice peaceful time. In fact, the only really useless one of us is Aqua Mare..."
*cut to Aqua Mare* "I can talk to fish! And Sea Ponies! That... that's a useful power!!... Right?"
>>>Mane-Iac rolled her eyes. "And how many times have I actually hurt ponies? When was the last time you, or any pony really, received more than a few scratches from me?">>>
"Last time, a filly died from asthma when she got caught in a cloud of your hairspray." said Masked Matterhorn.
"By the way, what exactly would have happened if we 'lost' during one of these battles. You do realize we barely escaped what were clear death traps quite a few times.. or was that face-melting gel that dissolved half a wall just an illusion?" frowned Radiance.
"Frankly, sounds ta me like yer just making up some kinda weird psychological Xanatos Gambit that we'd have ta be as stupid as all them other comic book characters to fall for," Zapp noted, hocking a tobacco-stained loogy into a conveniently-placed spitoon.
"Er..." nervously muttered Maniac, hair tugging upon her collar. "Oh look! A distraction!"
The Power Ponies were distracted a few vital seconds during which Maniac escaped.
3964442 Well, it doesn't actually work for those who care to think, or who've actually dealt with people as deluded as the Maniac, who think they're doing good by being serial killers of hookers.
*smirks* Kinda shines a new light on it, eh?
It's by sheer good fortune no one is killed by Maniac's schemes. She can't possibly control all the variables of what she unleashes.
She's a delusional fool, and a dangerous one at that.
The REAL clever 'good' supervillains are the ones who hire others to do their dirty work and then play the hero cleaning up after it... and who can tarnish even the most spotless of heroes with their clever schemes: Lex Luthor.
3963000 When one has never delved further down than the roots of a lawn before, I suppose a pothole seems like a bottomless pit.
We has looked deep beneath the roots of the mountainses, we has! Yes, Precious!
A demonstration of the false dichotomy. Good and evil are not balanced opposites, and good does NOT need evil to exist--- no more than the sun in the sky needs the existence of your shadow. She IS insane, if she thinks that her city "needs" a villain.
Your new story was awesome, as they all are.
Kind of reminded me of Watchmen.
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This reminds me of the Joker's 'killing joke' monologue... except more benevolent, I s'pose.