Heroes and Villains
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Pinkie struggled to pull her hooves out of the ice but they were thick. She began to vibrate her leg in an attempt to simply melt it away but a blast of cold shot by her ear and stopped her. Matterhorn stood shakily a few hooves away. “Please, Pinkie, don’t move. It’ll all be over soon. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Why are you doing this, Twilight?”
Matterhorn bit her lip, trying not to look her in the eye. “I have no choice.”
“There’s always a choice!”
“Not here!” She finally locked eyes with her. Pinkie actually was struck back as she saw something in her eyes. Fear. The kind of fear years of being a superhero never gave either of them. “You have no idea how big this all is. WE had no idea. Natural disasters and supervillains are one thing but this is something else. We should have never tried to play on it’s level.”
“You’re making no sense!”
“He’s not just powerful, Pinkie, he’s a god! The power he had, it brought me back. Rewrote my mind, my body.” She began to tremble a little more. “This is more than magic. More than science. It’s something I can’t understand and I don’t want to fight it.”
Pinkie finally frowned at her. “That’s not the Matterhorn I know.”
“Maybe I’m not! Who’s to say? By all rights I should be insane right now but I’ve never thought more clearly. I’m doing this for your own good, Pinkie. You can’t fight him.” She slowed her speech and finally seemed to calm down a little. “He’s just been toying with us this whole time. Damn it, just like I did to you.”
Pinkie blinked at her. “You never used me.”
Twilight gave her a sideways glance and a half hearted smirk. “Really?”
Pinkie shrugged her shoulders. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“I’ve been a terrible friend and a terrible leader. And it scares me that I had to be saved by the thing I’m hunting in order to realize that.”
There was a moment of silence between the two. The fire a couple blocks away had grown and now ponies were beginning to run in fear past them, oddly paying the two superheroes no heed. Pinkie watched them all flee and pointed to them as they passed. “Look, they need help. We need to go do what we do best or this could cost them their lives.”
Matterhorn rubbed her eyes despondently. “Don’t you get it yet? It doesn’t matter anymore. We can save all the ponies in town but it won’t matter in the end when he gets what he wants. And there’s no way to stop him.”
Pinkie watched her friend’s dejected attitude and felt something bubble up in her she hadn’t realized she’d been feeling. She grit her teeth in anger and shouted loud enough that some ponies even stopped running. “You show up again out of blue! Tell me you’re sorry! Freeze me to the ground! Then start going on about everything being hopeless! You know what I think of that?” Matterhorn shook her head slowly as she looked at her in wide eyed apprehension. “I think that’s BULL HONKY!!!”
Several ponies around them gasped, a mother even putting her hooves around her foal’s ears as they continued to run away. Matterhorn stood there motionless. “Pinkie, I-”
“Do you know what hurt me the most when it was just us two? The feeling of worthlessness!” She was still shouting, all her feelings finally pouring out. “You made me feel like I didn’t matter and that’s one of the worst things somepony can do to another! But you know what’s worse? When even you believe that!” Matterhorn didn’t change her expression as she listened on. “I matter! You matter! Everypony here matters! And if you’ve really given up believing that then you’ve stopped being the pony I know you to be!”
Pinkie looked at Matterhorn for a long moment before she hung her head. “I don’t deserve-” Before she could finish Pinkie shouted again and supervibrated her hooves, breaking loose in an instant and running over to her. She grabbed Matterhorn by the sides of the head and drew her own head back, delivering a hard headbutt to the mare. Matterhorn yelped in pain and fell on her haunches. “What was that?!”
“Quit your pity party!” Pinkie shouted decisively. “You can mope after the job is done! Because as long as there’s a single pony in need,” she held out her hoof to her, “we’ll be needed.”
Matterhorn rubbed her forehead tenderly but let a small smile cross her features. She grabbed Pinkie’s hoof and stood up. “I don’t know if it’s all going to matter.”
She chided her tongue at her and wagged her hoof. “It always does, Twilight. It always does.”
---<^^>---
Mare Do-Well followed the source of the smoke to a tall building in town square. It looked like the town hall. Fire erupted from the doors and was beginning to jump to other houses, threatening to spread. A fountain was close by so she began by levitating massive amounts of water and dumping them on the smoldering houses, but this was proving too tiring. In a desperate attempt, she threw her hat to the side and unwrapped her horn, letting it taste the first fresh air she’d had in long time.
Her magic swelled and she managed to lift all the water in the fountain, dividing it and spreading it across the places that had caught fire. With one last shove, she pushed the water into the town hall, finally dousing it. By now the square had been effectively evacuated so she stood by herself, breathing in a sigh of relief. That was until a secondary charge went off inside.
She covered her face in her cape, protecting her from the heat but not the large piece of wood that slammed into the side of her head, ripping her mask. A feminine laugh echoed in the square and she blinked her bleary eyes trying to find the source. A new fire began to spread and she thought she saw a blur of movement on the deck above the entrance to the large building. She rubbed the wound on her head, trying to get any blood out of her eyes. “This time you’re not coming back,” she venomously whispered.
With a burst of light she reappeared on the deck above. A shadowed figure appearing behind her and swinging a bat into the back of her head. But she expected this and spun, blocking the bat with her forehoof and letting the wood snap against it. A bright pink face with an obscenely large smile greeted her. “Ooh, nice reflexes.”
“This ends!” She threw a punch but the Pinkster doubled back, moving her hooves like she was dancing. Mare Do-Well punched and kicked again and again but she kept dodging expertly, humming to herself the entire time.
“You seriously even fight like her,” the Pinkster chuckled. “Up down up down left right left right punch kick throw.” Mare Do-Well attempted to grab her in a bear hug but she somehow ducked it and slid behind her. With a vicious grin Pinkster elbowed her in the back and sent her sprawling, cracking an eye lens on the ground. “You should really consider coming up with some moves of your own.”
Mare Do-Well snapped back to her feet, still a little bit woozy. “You think this is funny? Bringing the fight to a tall building, fire all around. Just like before!”
The Pinkster paused and looked at her surroundings. “Hey, what do you know? It is like before. Sorry, I honestly just wanted to blow up a building. I didn’t think it’d get so ironic up in here.”
Mare Do-Well felt her body shake with anger. “You just don’t care about anything, do you?”
Pinkster gave her a wide eyed look, a smile slowly creeping up her face. “And why should I? You think it all matters in the end? Whether I did the deed or that big blue stud did doesn’t matter. It was a death that was bound to happen. We live, we die. Might as well live it up while we can.” She threw her head back with laughter, flames licking at the floor beneath them.
“I have had enough of you!” Mare Do-Well pulled a crudely hoofmade firework from her suit and tossed it beneath Pinkster. The tall flames lit it and the short fuse exploded beneath her, turning the already weakened deckwood into splinters and sending her tumbling into the flames below. Mare Do-Well stood there breathing heavily for a long moment. Steadily, she walked closer to the hole she’d made. No way it had been that easy. But if she did succeed she needed to find out.
She reached the splintered wood, making sure not to put too much weight on it and fall in herself. She peered down into the roaring flames and felt the breath leave her as she spied a smoldering patch of a pink and purple pinstripe suit in the fire. It burned quickly, turning black and then to ash. Mare Do-Well pulled back and put a hoof over her mouth. She had really done it. She beat… no, she killed her.
She thought she would feel something. Pride, accomplishment, a sense of peace. But there was nothing. That pit in her heart was still there. Not one bit bigger and not one bit smaller. “What was it all for then?” she whispered.
Behind her, a now clothless pink mare crawled up from the side of the deck and lunged at her. She grabbed around her throat, laughing hysterically. “You are seriously no fun! You know that?”
“GET OFF!” Mare Do-Well shouted and tried to throw her off but the mare held her in a way that pinned her arms.
“What did you think was going to happen?” Pinkster hissed in her ear. “A big moment of relief? A tearful goodbye? That maybe killing me would bring some kind of finality to an otherwise pointless story? I’m still here. What does that tell you?”
“I said GET OFF!!” Mare Do-Well’s horn glowed bright and she shot her off with a pulse of magic. The spell tore up the mask even further and finally shattered the lenses in her eyes.
Pinkster was flung into the wall on the other side of the deck. She wobbled to her hooves and stared at the unicorn across from her. “Those eyes. Oh ho ho! Those eyes! Yes! I love it!” Mare Do-Well glared at the mare across from her with her violet eyes. The Pinkster waved her hoof for her to come at her. “Come on!”
Mare Do-Well screamed at the top of her lungs, pulling a makeshift shuriken she’d made in the library. She ran toward the pink mare who watched her approach with wide hungry eyes and open arms. Then she prepared to strike.
---
“Are you sure?” Applejack asked as her Rainbow pulled her along, helping her since she could barely walk. They were almost back to Ponyville, the town just within sight.
“That is the plan he conveyed,” she muttered. “I’m sorry I became a part of it.”
Applejack held her side in pain but her head hurt more. What she’d just heard sounded impossible.
“Applejack!” They both looked up to see a black winged figure fly down to meet them, carrying another Applejack.
“Rarity? Is that you?”
Rarity folded her wings and let her Applejack down. “Yes, we came when we saw the smoke.”
“Us too.”
“Hey!” They turned again to see two other ponies approach. Flutterbat at the head with some version of Rarity in armor trailing her.
“Glad to see you’re all alright,” Applejack stated as they convened around each other.
“I wouldn’t say that in a couple minutes,” her Rainbow murmured.
“What do you mean?” Rarity asked.
“She means we’ve got to get everypony together before its too late.”
They went as quickly as they could into town, thankfully finding their own Rainbow and Pinkie as well as Fluttershy and Matterhorn assisting the mane six of this world in the evacuation.
“What’s up, guys?” Rainbow said as they approached. “Woah, Rarity?”
“Yeah, yeah, we heard it,” Applejack interrupted. “Did you stop that fire?”
Pinkie shook her head. “Citizens needed to be treated first.”
“It’s pretty contained from what I saw,” Rainbow said.
“Where’s Mare Do-Well?” Flutterbat asked making everypony look around.
They all ran to the fire, each working together to quickly extinguish the flames. Several ran inside to check while the flyers flew above to look around. “Is she there?” Applejack shouted to those inside.
“No!” Pinkie shouted back. “At least I hope not! Everything’s burnt to a crisp!”
“I got her!” Rainbow shouted from above. They all looked up and saw her point to a deck right above the entrance of the burnt out building. Rainbow lighted down on the blackened wood and grabbed the mare before the structure collapsed under her weight. She flew her back down to the square and put down a pony wrapped in a large purple cape, everypony gathering around her. “I think she’s fine. Her cape was wrapped around her and it got most of the burns.”
Applejack pushed her way to the front. “Let me see!” She pulled back the cape.
@#$%^&*&^%$#@
Noteworthy looked almost dead. Nearly all of his mane had fallen out and his one eye was now bloodshot beyond belief. His mind had given up long ago but his body kept fighing and Ditzy was at her limits as well.
She fell to her knees as her magic finally gave out, the golden barrier she’d made sputtering and dying. “I can’t… I can’t keep fighting,” she muttered.
Noteworthy walked closer to her, still looking like he was fighing himself. Each step he took seemed to rattle the air around them making the cracks of light grow larger and larger. He screwed his eye shut, stopping his approach as he fought to talk once more. “Just… let it happen. I can protect… you.”
Ditzy looked back at the altar. It too was beginning to show cracks in the façade, light pouring from the spider like fractures. She kept hearing the voice calling for blood, but above it was another voice. One that only she could hear. One that was telling her what her last option was. She looked back to Noteworthy, an expression of unimaginable pain on her face. “No, but I can protect you.”
Ditzy turned and threw herself on the altar. Light erupted from it, blinding the cyclopean stallion and pushing him away. As the light spread, the cracks in the air began to seal themselves. When the light finally dimmed Noteworthy stood alone. He blinked to readjust his sight and looked around for Ditzy, but there was no sign of her. The voice spoke to him but he didn’t feel like he needed to listen anymore.
He saw the altar out in the open and felt a rush of panic. “Oh no. Oh nononono!” He ran to it and slammed his hooves against it. Another brilliant flash of light sent him reeling back, the altar unblemished and untouched. “No! It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”
He ran back to the altar and tried to hit it again and again, a magic more powerful than he could fathom blasting him back. “GIVE! HER! BACK!” His blows became weaker and he began to cry on the altar. “Or at least take me home…” There was the sound of movement from the trees behind him but he didn’t care. “JUST LET ME GO HOME!!”
Somepony laughed behind him. “Really? This is what it’s been about? A stallion with the power to control the cosmos brought to tears because he ‘wants to go home’.”
Noteworthy raised his head slowly and turned to face the mare. She was bright pink with ocean blue eyes and a smile to kill for. She wore no suit anymore, several burn marks over her body, but nonetheless worse for wear. “Leave me alone.”
Pinkster shrugged and sauntered over beside him. “You know what the problem with all this has been? No definite bad guy. Sure most of the mares here are only here for some petty reason. Revenge. Jealousy. Honor.” She blew a raspberry. “All boring! Even you turned out to be a complete wuss.”
Noteworthy gritted his teeth and grabbed the mare by the shoulders. “You don’t know anything about me!” He felt a slight pain in his chest and his eye went wide. The Pinkster’s smile widened.
“I know enough. I know you’re a facsimile of an antagonist. All the pathos is there but none of the flare.” She pushed a little harder on the “M” shaped shuriken in his chest bringing him to his knees and making him gasp. “Since the beginning you’ve done nothing to live up to your name. Mr. 4, huh? As in fourth wall? Yeah, I know stage lingo too. I know it a lot better than you ever could.”
Noteworthy could feel his limbs growing cold. How was this happening? He should be invincible. He looked to the voice to give him answers but it wasn’t there. “Who… are you?” he asked.
The Pinkster leaned in, her smile filling his vision, her breath like peppermints. “I’m the villain. You’re a mistake.” She planted a kiss on his lips and pulled the shuriken from his chest, light and color pouring from the wound. The light bathed her until her body seemed to vanish in it. When it finally disippated she stood proudly in a new suit, her burns and injuries gone.
“Well, how about that?” She spied Noteworthy’s body lying on the ground beside her. “Thanks for the ride, stud.” Her ears twitched and she looked up. “Huh, you’re a new one.” Her ears twitched again. “Get used to it, there’s a lot of voices in there and you’re gonna have to learn to share.” She slapped her hooves together and rubbed them excitedly. “Now, let’s see what we can really do!”
---
Mare Do-Well groaned as she awoke. The first thing she saw was sixteen familiar eyes staring down at her with baffled expressions. They were outside, the smoke gone from the blue sky. “What’s going…” Then she remembered. How she lost… again. Her vision started to become blurry and she rubbed her eyes. She stopped as she realized she was touching her bare face. Her mask! Where had it gone?
Applejack stepped forward holding a torn piece of fabric with two lenses. “Ah guess this is yours.” Mare Do-Well shot up and snatched the mask, but it was worthless. Her eyes darted around to everypony, who still regarded her with confused and worried expressions. “You should have told us the truth.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow stated. “I don’t mind.”
“Neither do I, darling,” said Rarity.
Flutterbat simply looked confused.
Pinkie frowned at her. “You didn’t need to be a part of this, so why?”
Trixie fondled the mask in her hooves, a tear falling and breaking against the cracked lense. “I just wanted to keep her memory alive a little longer.”
“I hate to break this up but what is that?!” One of the Rainbows pointed to the sky and they all followed her gaze. A giant planet seemed to appear in the atmosphere, the wind picking up in accordance. Suddenly another appeared, and another, and another. The wind was becoming unnaturally strong with each planet in the sky.
“What’s going on?” Twilight shouted.
“I… I don’t know!” Matterhorn shouted back.
Then the sky turned pink, or rather, something so impossibly large as to fill the horizon rose from the edge of vision and towered above each of the planets as they continuously arrived. Two massive ocean blue orbs rose as well followed by a set of gleaming white teeth.
“Oh, Faust, please no,” Trixie whispered.
The mouth opened and uttered a laugh that shook the heavens and blew back trees. With two enormous hooves it grabbed the planets at the edge and pushed forward crashing them against each other. They clashed like dominoes coming closer and closer to the planet everypony stood on.
“What do we do?!” One of the Pinkies shouted histerically. What was there to do?
Trixie watched as the end of world quickly approached. One thought rolling through her head. This was all her fault/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t/t…