//------------------------------//
// The Revengers Initiative 
// Story: Playing Hero 
// by ArtieStroke 
//------------------------------//

"So, we've obviously gotta invite him in, right?" Wiz said, his little brother nodding along. Celestia frowned.

"It certainly would be a good idea to have this team compromised of more adults- no offense to the ability you two have shown."

"None taken."

"Maybe a little taken."

Celestia chuckled. Featherweight's snarkiness reminded her of Luna when she was that age. 

"I just mean I still don't feel quite too comfortable putting other minors in danger." She got up from the desk in the empty classroom that seemed to be their base of operations now. 

"Have either of you heard from Minuette?"

Featherweight shook his head, "Not since you showed that video."

Celestia nodded, "Well, that's her choice. I'll see about paying Mr. Pants a visit- at the very least, maybe we can stop meeting in a classroom."

Wiz beamed, "An actual secret lair! Dude, could you even imagine?!"

As Wiz started shaking his little brother in excitement, Celestia laughed again. The more things change, the more they stayed the same it seemed.





Celestia hummed to herself as she looked over the Fancy Industries building in downtown Canterlot. She was fairly certain this was the same building she leaped over when testing the newfound strength a few scant months ago. It felt like so much longer to her.

Brushing that thought aside, she hooked a right and headed down the alley beside it. Out of sight, and out of the way- perfect. With dizzying speed, Celestia changed out of her normal clothes to reveal the Sunny Days outfit beneath it, slipping the mask over her face and pulling her hair up and under the pink wig. No witnesses- check. 

Breathing out, Celestia crouched down, the muscles in her legs coiling with more force than a locomotive. And with a single "hup!", she jumped.

The wind roared past her ears as she easily sailed over the few dozen stories of the building, landing with a roll on the roof. Her memory served her well once more, thankful as she spotted the door leading to the roof access. She walked over, jiggling the handle

Locked.

"Oh, come on- please?" She asked, jiggling the knob once more as the door clicked and swung open. Celestia stood for a moment, blinking in surprise before carefully stepping in and shutting the door behind her.

"Er... thank you?"

She might also have to tell Fancy Pants about how easily the doors to his building were swayed. Descending the stairs she eventually made it to a door leading to the top floor.

Peek left, peek right- nothing. Good. Celestia slipped out from the door, crouching low and quickly making it to the office across the hallway. An all glass door, with a frosted image of Fancy Industries' insignia on it- the triple crown. From both the size of it and the mahogany desk inside, there was no doubt about it being Fancy's office. Now, all she had to do was wait.

As Celestia tried to lean against the wall in a casual position, a thought crossed her mind- she didn't exactly know Fancy's schedule. 

She could be in here for a while.

"Oh dear."





Fancy did his best to suppress a sigh. This board meeting certainly was dragging on- probably in no thanks to his extended recuperation and cessation of weapons development. Who knew left-field corporate wide decisions would have CONSEQUENCES for him?

It was only when his watch beeped with an alert that he shook himself out of his doldrums- an unauthorized entrance into his office? Well.

"Gentlemen of the board, I do hate to interrupt, but I've got a momentary emergency that needs taking care of," Fancy said, standing from his seat, "Mrs. Spice, if you could schedule a continuation for this meeting something this week? I believe I have an hour on Thursday we can wrap this up on."

Mrs. Spice nodded as Fancy escaped, just barely outpacing the indignant cries of investors and shareholders. A brisk walk to the elevator, and he was alone with his thoughts and his advanced technology for a few scant moments.

He tapped the face of the watch, pulling up the feed from the security camera in his office, nearly having a double take as he recognized the figure pacing about. Sunny Skies- in his office. Fiddling around with- was that his Noble Prize?

And she just accidentally snapped it in twain. Aaaaaaand is now proceeding to stuff it into a waste bin, well this certainly was going to be an episode. 

The elevator dinged as Fancy stepped through the doors, calmly making his way down the hall to his office. He took a moment to compose himself at the door, before reaching for the knob.

"I do hope you plan on replacing-"

"Well, if it isn't Iron-"

The both stopped mid-interrupt, Fancy clearing his throat.

"Oh, I apologize- did you have a whole thing planned-"

"No, no, please- you go first."

"Oh, no I insist."

They both stood silent for a few seconds, before Sunny started laughing.

"Honestly, I don't know why I thought I'd even try to have a flair for the dramatic with this. I've been reveling in the tropes too much."

She cleared her throat, standing from her carefully chosen 'lean-sitting on the edge of the desk' pose she quickly adopted after disposing of the let's say evidence, and taking a stride towards Fancy.

"So, I know you're Iron Suit."

Fancy blinked.

"Oh. Well, I suppose I can ignore the destruction of a rather proud achievement of mine if you can ignore that bit of information."

About then was Sunny's turn to have the tables flipped on her.

"Ah, well I probably should have guessed you'd have a camera or five in here."

She shook her head, "But, I'm not here in some kind of confrontation. I... actually need your help."

"... Go on?"

"I'm forming a... proof of concept, of sorts. A team." Celestia looked away from Fancy, gazing over the breathtaking view of the city's skyline they had from Fancy's office. 

"The vigilante stuff won't fly for long, I can be sure of that- but I think I know a few people who, if I can prove we all work well together, might be able to make this all more... legitimate."

Fancy nodded.

"I see... now, is this more of a mutually beneficial merger or a hostile takeover?"

"The former, hopefully," Sunny said, turning back to Fancy, "And as a sign of goodwill, I'll let you in on something only a few people know."

Sunny reached up to her face, taking the domino mask off and pulling away the pink wig.

"Celestia Empyris. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance in much calmer circumstances."

Fancy shook her extended hand with an exceptional amount of vigor.

"Well then, Miss Empyris- I think I speak for both of us when I say I work forward to our continued partnership."





A teenager's cellphone camera. While Fancy didn't begrudge the opportunity him slipping up with his secret identity gave him, he was still slightly disappointed in how easy it was to foil. They definitely needed something more than just masks to conceal their identities. 

Fancy Pants, Celestia, Wiz and Featherweight stood in the foyer of Fancy's home- he had already been keeping his hero work off the record at his actual company with his personal computers, so might as well turn his house into a hangout for teenagers with a death wish. Why not. 

The older one- Wiz, he remembered seeing his face at the seminar- was sitting ramrod straight on Fancy's sofa. He wasn't quite sure whether the boy was simply overloaded by being in his presence or so scared of accidentally tipping over some priceless antiquity he'd have to spend multiple lifetimes earning off the debt. 

His brother, on the other hand, was zipping about with glee, utterly fascinated by the sheer immensity of the household.

"So, first thing's first," Fancy said, walking towards the sofa pit and tapping once on the center of the coffee table. A holographic display of his original schematics flared to life- edited, of course, to disclude the mentions of the thaum reactor.

"As far as I can tell, only one of us here is immune to bullets, so I'd like to have a look at the young Featherweight's suit if you don't mind?"

Featherweight zipped over, pulling his backpack off his shoulders, "Actually, Wiz was working on a prototype for something new- my brother's great at this superhero tech stuff, though I haven't really had a chance to test it out yet."

With a zip, Featherweight pulled out a long, onesie-like garment, dark navy with a pullover hood and large, iridescent orange eyes- a far cry from the Halloween costume Feather was messing around in at the start. 

At that thought, Feather frowned- how the heck did that even make sense? It was the middle of spring- the Friendship Games were in like a week, yet he very distinctly remembered being grateful that it was close to Halloween, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to easily get the first suit.

He shook his head- stupid comic book time. He sure was glad he didn't have to deal with the same kind of temporal headaches that Minuette girl probably had to deal with

Turning his attention back to the present, Feather tried to suppress a snort as Wiz somehow managed to sit up even straighter while Fancy looked over the suit.

"Are these optical displays on the inside of the goggles?"

Wiz nodded stiffly, as Fancy continued to tut and examine every inch.

"A-and the wrist mounted cables are attached to a kind of, uh, prototype unpowered exoskeleton- before, Feather was more using his lightbow to glide with the ziplines instead of doing any true swinging; it was more useful for gaining stealthy vantage points and-"

"Utterly remarkable," Fancy turned to Wiz with a grin, "And you built all of this in a garage? With a box of scraps?"

Wiz gulped, but managed a nervous grin. Fancy clamped a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Truly, some excellent work. Though I think you and I together can drastically improve the design," He looked over at Celestia, "I've said my piece. Miss Empyris?"

Celestia nodded, "Yes. There's one thing I need to tell you all before we should decide to proceed with this."

She looked over at Fancy, "I can only imagine the sort of brutality you witnessed in Tauros, so I feel like the stakes of something like this are already clear to you."

Fancy nodded slightly, while Wiz and Featherweight shared a worried glance as Celestia's gaze turned towards them.

"I think it's about time I told the both of you the truth- about who I was before I became a teacher, and the people who I hope will help us make this idea a reality. Back when I worked with Luna in an agency known as 'Specialized Mediation, Intelligence, Logistics and Equipment'."

There was a beat, as Wiz started silently mouthing letters.

"Wait a second, their acronym was S.M.I.L.E.?!"