• Published 15th Oct 2012
  • 4,576 Views, 276 Comments

The Adventures of Supermare: Side Stories to Mare of Steel - iowaforever



Rainbow Dash grows in her role as Supermare

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Hearth's Warming Eve

Hearth’s Warming Eve

It was getting dark as Rainbow put the last few clouds in place over Ponyville, the lower visibility making it slightly more difficult to see until she adjusted her vision. Normally she and the other weather ponies would have had the snow clouds set up a few days in advance, but the weather factory was still slightly damaged from her fight with Brainiac. So lighter snow was needed, with the weather ponies scraping together what they could.

Maybe I should ask my father if there’s some kind of alien snow device so this doesn’t have to happen again. She set that thought aside for now as she began to head home. It was Hearth’s Warming Eve, and she had to make sure everything was ready for the party Pinkie was throwing at Sugarcube Corner. She slowed down and landed at her house, dusting any residual snowflakes off her back before stepping inside. Tank was asleep in his corner, and near the base of her bed was a small stack of presents: five for her friends and three for the Crusaders. Off to the side was a package for her mom, but she would deliver that tomorrow. Giving a small smile, she walked over and picked up the presents, tucking a few under her wings so she would not have to worry about having to make too many trips.

Hopefully Pinkie didn’t drink all the eggnog already; I don’t want to have to eat dirt again just to get some-

“Mama?” Rainbow Dash’s ear flicked towards Ponyville, picking up the sound of a little filly. In her excitement for the upcoming festivities, she had left her super-hearing active. Curious, she set the presents aside and listened.

“Is something wrong, sweetie?” a mare’s voice responded. Rainbow could tell who it was; it was Sea Swirl, a unicorn from Los Pegasus who had moved to Ponyville with her family to study some of the animals that lived in the nearby lake. They’d spoken a few times, but never long enough to really get to know each other.

“Is Dad home yet?”

“He should be home in the morning.”

“But he said he was gonna be home tonight.” the filly said. “He promised...”

“He’ll be home soon, sweetie. It’s a long way back from Saddle Arabia. He’ll be home soon.”

“He promised.” Rainbow blinked, cutting off her hearing for a moment. She could not remember a time where either of her parents had missed Hearth’s Warming, and could not imagine letting some filly have to suffer through... whatever that was like. Concentrating, she zoomed in her vision towards Sea Swirl’s house, searching for any information as to who her husband was and where he might be.

She did not have to look very far. Off to one side was a model of a ship, a small schooner most likely used for trade. A few other bits of memorabilia were strewn around, including a picture of Sea Swirl and a colt probably a year or two older than her.

Okay, guess he’s in the shipping business... makes sense. Maybe that’s the ship he uses. She turned her attention to the model, scanning it for some kind of identification.

Sea Swirl... the ship’s named after his wife... that’s actually kind of cute. After returning to her normal vision, she walked over to one wall and gave it a small poke. The wall slid away, revealing her suit and cape dressed on a ponyquin Rainbow had borrowed from Rarity.

Guess Santa Hooves isn’t the only pony flying out tonight.

...............

The wind had picked up in Manehattan, causing any ship still in the harbor to anchor or tie up as quickly as possible. Rainbow Dash was strong enough that she was unfazed by the wind, although there was the issue of the wind whipping her cape in her face. She identified what appeared to be an office of some sort and descended, landing with a small bounce as she stepped inside.

“Excuse me?” she said, hoping that there was somepony there to talk to. She heard a noise from the back as an older Earth Pony walked in, clearly surprised to see her standing there.

“S-Supermare?” the pony stammered. “What a surprise! I-is something wrong?”

“Do you have any shipping schedules I can look through? I’m looking for a ship called the Sea Swirl.”

“Oh. Of course. Just a minute.” the pony went into the back room for a moment, and Rainbow could hear the sound of rummaging before he returned with a book and a few maps. The Earth Pony spread the maps out and opened the book, thumbing through a few pages before stopping.

“Here it is.” he said. “Sea Swirl. They were supposed to arrive back from Saddle Arabia yesterday, but with this storm rolling in...”

“I would have assumed that the weather teams would have stopped such storms.” Rainbow said.

“Not when you have one this big. It should swing inland tonight, but if they are caught in that storm then I doubt that they’ll arrive until tomorrow.” Rainbow frowned. That little filly had seemed very broken up at the idea that her father was not going to be home for Hearth’s Warming, and she was not about to give up and risk having a little filly’s hopes crushed.

“Where is their approximate location?”

“Well,” The Earth Pony circled a section of the map with his hoof. “If they’ve kept their speed consistent they should be somewhere in this area. But then this storm-”

“That’ll do.” Rainbow turned to leave, pushing her cape out of her face once she was outside. As she got her bearings, the Earth Pony came up behind her.

“Whatever you do, I hope that it works.” he said. Rainbow grinned and took off, speeding off towards her target.

.................

Sea Strider was uncertain just how far off course they were. With the wind and waves battering them around, and the clouds obscuring his vision quite a bit, it was next to impossible for he and his crew to keep the schooner pointed in what he assumed was the right direction. He ducked just as another wave broke on the side of the boat, making the deck extra slick as he made his way towards the helm.

“I think the waves are starting to die down a little.” the Pegasus at the helm shouted over the wind.

“For a given definition of dying.” Sea Strider took a moment to try and get their bearings. “Can you slow us down a bit?”

“If you stow some of the rigging, maybe, but then we might get knocked off course even further.”

“That’s a risk we’ll have to take.” he turned his attention to the crew on deck. “Finish tying everything down and get to work on those sails. With luck, we won’t get too lost when the storm-”

“Boss!” another pony at the bow called, pointing up towards the sky. “I think I see something.” Sea Strider looked up, scanning the clouds for any sign of whatever it was that the other pony had seen. At first he found nothing, just more black clouds and rain, but then a blue and red streak broke through the clouds, looping around once before climbing into the sky again.

“Is... is that Supermare?” Sea Strider grabbed a spyglass from a nearby crate, focusing on the orbiting superhero. She hung in space for a moment, the wind pulling at her cape, before spreading her forelegs wide and bringing her hooves together.

There was a massive crack as Supermare’s hooves connected. The ship and its occupants were rocked as a massive wave of force washed over them, and Sea Strider was forced to avert his eyes. When he looked back, he saw that the force of Supermare’s “clap” had removed every single cloud from the sky, and the wind had died down to relative calm. Sea Strider and his crew stood in silence for a moment as the Mare of Steel descended, brushing her mane out of her face once she landed.

“Sorry that I didn’t get here sooner,” she said. “I may have superpowers, but a good sense of direction is not one of them.”

“Uh, well...” Sea Strider shuffled around a little before continuing. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. This storm would have blown inland and thus put more ponies in danger, and I didn’t want to risk having you all hurt as well.” Supermare smiled. “But now you can continue on without any serious interruptions.”

“Might take a bit longer than we hoped,” the helmspony said, looking up at the sky. “That storm blew us way off course. It’ll take us a day to get our bearings again.” at this, Sea Strider’s heart sank. Not only would they be very far behind schedule, and thus risk having their contract lost, it would be the third year in a row that he would miss Hearth’s Warming. And I promised I’d be back...

“How strong is your ship?” Supermare asked.

“... I’m sorry?”

“How sturdy is your ship? What kind of forces can it take?”

“Well... we once made a trip to Scandineighvia and we got hit by an iceberg. The ship was alright but the iceberg took a bit of damage.”

“That’ll do.” and with that Supermare leapt over the side of the ship, diving down into the water below. Sea Strider stood in confusion for a moment before the entire boat seemed to lurch upwards, all those on deck hanging on for dear life. When Sea Strider looked out again, he gasped as he saw that they were now quite a ways above the water, flying towards what he assumed was Manehattan.

“We’re... we’re flying?” one of the other sailors asked.

“I guess so.” Sea Strider said after a moment. Looks like I will make it after all.

..............

Ah, I’m running late. Rainbow Dash thought as she hid her suit away and gathered up her gifts. After depositing the ship in Manehattan (and giving Sea Strider a lift to the Ponyville train station), she had hurried home as fast as she could, no small task while trying to remain unseen. Then her clasps had snagged while she was trying to get her cape off, and after twenty minutes of struggling with that she was finally ready to go. She set some food out for Tank, locked up her house, and then made her way towards Ponyville, slowing only to catch a few snowflakes on her tongue.

Sugarcube Corner was lit up with dozens of Hearth’s Warming decorations, a shining beacon amongst the low light of the evening. Rainbow slowed to a stop just outside, fluffing her wings a little before entering. Inside, the Cakes had set up a massive ammount of sweets and other snacks, and were now trying to keep Pound and Pumpkin from getting too grabby with some of the items. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were off in another corner, messing around with something Rainbow could not really see, and her friends were all gathered around the fireplace while Pinkie Pie finished up one of her jokes. Their conversation stopped when Rainbow Dash entered the building, Rainbow giving them a small smile before walking towards them.

“Sorry I’m late, guys,” Rainbow said. “I had some other things to deal with before-” She never finished, because Pinkie Pie had tackled her and began squeezing her as tightly as possible.

“Dashie! You’re here!” the pink mare squealed, finally letting go of Rainbow.

“Good to see you too, Pinkie. Here,” Rainbow passed her the gifts. “Can you take care of these for me? I need to go get some food.”

“Sure thing, Dashie. Ooh, and I saved you a bunch of eggnog because I know you get really grumpy when you don’t get any and dirt doesn’t taste very good, even when you pour yummy stuff on top of it.” Rainbow chuckled as Pinkie bounced off, the mare somehow managing to keep every single one of Rainbow’s gifts balanced on her back.

“Glad you could make it, Rainbow.” Twilight said once she and the others had reached Rainbow. “When you didn’t show up we began worrying that something had happened.”

“Oh, you guys didn’t have to worry; I was just out running a few errands, that all.”

“What kind of errands?” Fluttershy asked before backtracking “I-I mean, i-if you don’t mind sharing, that is...”

“Nah it’s okay, I don’t mind.” Rainbow twitched her ear towards Sea Swirl’s home. She could hear the family reuniting, the happy squeals of a little filly bringing a smile to her face. “I just made sure that a few ponies didn’t have to spend Hearth’s Warming Eve apart from each other.”

Author's Note:

Another little something I wanted to get out; consider it an early Christmas gift.
I do remember hearing about an incident where Superman destroyed a Cass-5 Tornado by flying inside it and clapping his hands, and Dashie's a Pegasus so she has to have some kind of effect on the weather
I don't own Ponies or Superman. Likes and comments are appreciated, and if I screwed something up please let me know.