In the midst of a dark and technological room, a giant towering computer screen on the wall lit the room with its harsh pale blue light. A stallion, his features hidden in the shadows, waited for something to come through on the computer.
The message came through and the computer screen showed a grass green mare in a brown suit, her pitch black mane tied up in a tight bun, sitting in a sleek modern office with a view of Trottingham in the background. This mare was what you would call prim and proper with her polite yet serious expression, and her front hooves folded nicely before her on the long desk she was working at.
“Greetings Agent Double A,” the green mare said in a posh Trottingham accent.
“Aw, c’mon, Chief,” said the stallion in a rough but rugged southern accent. Smirking, he continued the teasing with, “I thought we agreed on Agent Double Ace from now on.”
The mare rolled her eyes before groaning, “And I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to call me Chief anymore, Double A.”
The stallion chuckled. “Ha, ha, you’re right, Chief. We did, and I apologize for not remembering.”
The mare let out a small frustrated sigh before calmly reporting to the stallion, “Yes, well, enough of your apologies and pleasantries. You have work to do, Agent, and this one is from the ponies upstairs.”
“How far up are we talkin’ here, Chief?”
“Up near the very hooves of Celestia herself, Double A.”
The stallion let out an impressed whistle. “Woah, that high, huh? Well, I better polish up my cowboy boots then.”
“This is serious, Double A. On the Princess’s personal request, she wants one of ours to go and investigate Maretropolis.”
“Personal request, huh? Well, that’s certainly a new color on Celestia.”
“Well, she has every right to be suspicious, Double A. Super magical powered vigilantes running around, and villains attacking the city and its civilians on a daily basis. It’s a miracle that the city still stands.”
Then the computer screen switched over from the live video chat with the Trottingham mare to a grid picture layout of Maretropolis.
“Go to Maretropolis—” said the mare before the screen switched over to a full portrait of the Power Ponies and their sidekick Humdrum. “—and seek out the main vigilantes behind this new activity: The Power Ponies.”
The stallion’s brown eyes widened at the sight of the picture, his gaze particularly focused on Mistress Mare-velous. “Will do, Chief,” he almost awed breathlessly and happily.
“Find out everything about these ponies. Who are they? Where are they from? Where is their lair? And more importantly, how did they get their strange magical abilities. Especially this one.”
The green mare took the picture of the Power Ponies off the screen, much to the stallion’s disappointment, and brought up a picture of the Masked Matterhorn. “The Masked Matterhorn, the leader of the Power Ponies and the supposed possessor of these alicorn-like powers. Our sources need to know if she truly is an artificial alicorn or not. And more importantly, whether she should be considered a threat.”
“Aw, can’t I just investigate the cute blondie in the mask instead?” the stallion jested with a grin.
“Focus Double A,” his superior scolded with an unamused scowl.
“Right, right,” the stallion agreed, trying to calm the mare on the screen. “You got it, Chief. Pay close attention to the Masked Matterhorn. I’m on it.”
“Take this seriously, Double A. This is a mission specifically from the Princess herself. Our very careers are on the line.”
“Aw, c’mon, Chief. Have I ever let you down before?”
“No, but I’m afraid of how you’re going to carry out this mission.”
Meanwhile, at the Maretropolis Memorial Sports Stadium, a great disturbance had interrupted the Equestrian-Wide Rodeo Tour. Somepony, or rather some creature, was chasing the animals out of their cages and stalls like they were prey. The creature was fast, furious, and fierce. So fast, in fact, that it looked like a teleporting blur from the rows in the stadium. The ponies were screaming, galloping out of their stands, and hurrying to the nearest exits they could find.
In the dusty cloud of this chaos settling on the rodeo arena were the Power Ponies.
While examining the whole situation from above, and carrying Humdrum on her back, the Masked Matterhorn told them, “Alright team, first things first: rounding up the civilians to safety. Radiance, do you think you can create more openings and portals in the walls for everypony to escape through?”
“Sure thing, darling!” Radiance agreed before promptly leaving the group on a floating glowing purple metal surf board summoned with the power of her bracelets.
“Zapp! Saddle Rager!” the Masked Matterhorn shouted, “Round up the animals and return them to their owners.”
“Aww, no fair, Matterhorn!” Zapp complained, flying in the air near the Power Ponies’ leader and above Saddle Rager’s head. “Fili-Second got to chase down the bad guy last time! I wanna do it! I can do it! I’m just as fast as she is.”
The Masked Matterhorn arched her right eyebrow. “Really? You sure about that? You can go faster than the speed of light like she can?”
“I can fly at the speed of sound!” Zapp retorted proudly.
“Um, Zapp,” Humdrum added hesitantly. “I don’t think that’s how the speed of sound works.”
“What?! Says who?” Zapp replied angrily.
“Says science, Zappie!” Fili-Second chirped while holding a science textbook in her hooves. “According to this neato book, the speed of sound is 340.29 miles per second, while the speed of light is... Oh wow, 299,792,458 miles per second! Golly, I didn’t know I went THAT fast!”
The Masked Matterhorn gave Zapp an all-knowing but friendly smirk. “Well, there you go, Zappie. That’s settled then.”
“But I...” Zapp tried to protest, then let out a defeated sigh and accepted her fate. “Fine, whatever.”
Saddle Rager flew up to Zapp’s side and patted her shoulder. “There, there, Dashi—I mean Zappie. Maybe after we save all the animals, the rodeo ponies will allow us to play with the baby calves. Oh, you should see them. They’re so cute!”
Zapp flew sluggishly after Saddle Rager and let out a bored, “Yippee.”
After they had left, the Masked Matterhorn, Mistress Mare-velous, and Fili-Second faced their opponent head on with determination in their eyes.
Meanwhile, in the top left corner of the stadium’s stands, there was a small pink piglet trying to escape from the creature that had been chasing after it all afternoon. The scrambling piglet kept digging into the corner desperately, squealing at the top of its lungs. The predatory villain finally found the piglet and shadowed it.
“Why, don’t be scared of me, little piggie,” said the mysterious creature in a surprisingly sugar-sweet feminine voice. “I won’t hurt you.”
Suddenly her sugary tone changed to a much grumpier, more frustrated one. “Not unless you try to cross me.”
The mysterious creature was truly something you had to see to believe. She had the body, front hooves, and face of a pony; but her hind legs, her ears, tail, fur, and features were that of a cheetah’s. She had a shaggy pale buttercream coat, with dark pink and mint green spots covering the coat all over. She had sharp little cat-like fangs in her sinister mouth, narrow light purple-pink eyes with mint green eyeshadow on her eyelids, and a pink and green pony mane styled in a ponytail with bangs. Her cutie mark was that of a small pink and green striped heart being rounded up by an open and swinging rodeo lasso.
The cheetah-like pony positioned herself in a prowling position, ready to pounce on the defenseless piglet with devilish glee.
But the sound of Mistress Mare-velous’s voice stopped her. “Hold it right there, Sour Sweet!”
The piglet escaped when Sour Sweet turned to face Mistress Mare-velous. Her psychotic grin grew when she saw the masked blonde hero. “Ah, would you look at this?! It’s my good friend Mistress Mare-velous!”
Then she grumbled under her breath, “I already told you that my name isn’t Sour Sweet anymore! I’m the Spotted Cheetah now!”
“You know this pony?!” asked a bewildered and confused Masked Matterhorn. “Or cheetah?”
“She sure does,” said the Spotted Cheetah in a prideful and all-knowing tone, as she crawled with cat-like elegance down the steps. “It all started when—”
“Shoots and barrels, Sour Sweet!” Mistress Mare-velous interrupted. “We don’t got time to go into your backstory!”
“How dare you interrupt my backstory monologue, you egotistical limelight hog!” yelled a very insulted Spotted Cheetah, quickly positioning herself to pounce upon the southern-accented hero. “But then again, I should have known that you wanted the attention ALL for yourself, as always!”
Before our heroes knew it, the Spotted Cheetah was high in the air with fangs and claws out towards Mistress Mare-velous. As the cheetah-pony was about to land on her target, Fili-Second shot forward and head-butted the Spotted Cheetah in the stomach. This knocked the hybrid creature all the way across the arena, causing some of the wall to crack and crumble upon her impact.
“Phew! Thanks, Fili,” said Mistress Mare-velous with a small smile.
“No problem, Missy.”
“Uh, guys?” Humdrum said in a nervous tone, pointing his claw towards the other side of the arena. “I don’t think it’s over yet.”
The four heroes turned their attention back to the Spotted Cheetah as she pushed herself back onto her feet. As their gazes met her angry stare, they knew they had to act quickly.
When the Spotted Cheetah sprinted towards them, the Masked Matterhorn activated an ice beam with her horn and froze the dusty ground of the arena. This made the Spotted Cheetah swerve and slide all over, but she was still determined to attack the Power Ponies. Mistress Mare-velous threw her golden hoof cufflets at the Spotted Cheetah, but this just left scratch marks on her foe’s hooves and nothing more.
“Mistress?!” the Masked Matterhorn cried out, “why aren’t you using your lasso?! Now’s the time to use it!”
“My lasso doesn’t work on her!”
“What do you mean it doesn’t work on her?!”
“Again, it’s a long story and I’ll explain later!”
Mistress Mare-velous turned and began to half-slide, half-gallop away when she saw the Spotted Cheetah’s claws digging into the surface of the iced arena. Then the feline pony hybrid was racing after her. The Masked Matterhorn took to the sky and went in the same direction as the Mistress. She tried slowing down the Spotted Cheetah with more ice beams; but with each shot, the Spotted Cheetah dodged and flipped around like an alley cat.
Then the Spotted Cheetah sprang into the air, aiming towards Mistress down below, when Mistress came to a sudden halt. Keeping her back towards her arch-nemesis, she used her ears to listen for the Spotted Cheetah’s approaching growls, then bucked her hind legs into the air, hitting her opponent straight in the face.
This sent the feline pony flying across the arena to land face first on the ice. While the Spotted Cheetah was down for the count, Fili-Second began to gallop around the arena and create her signature pink-and-white striped speed tornado.
Meanwhile, a light brown stallion with a short scruffy black mane, and a long black tail was holding onto the back of the stadium’s stands for dear life. He had a short scruffy black beard around his mouth and wore a black tailored suit, with polished black cowboy boots on his back hooves.
“Ah, ugh!” the stallion grunted, barely clinging onto the pole that held the stands together. “So much for ... being ... conspicuous!”
Suddenly his left hoof lost its grip on the pole, leaving only his right one to hold on. The wind of the tornado was so strong, his body felt like it was already swirling around and around in it, but still, he kept fighting to hold on. Hold on until ... his right hoof slipped off!
“AHHH!” the stallion yelled as the tornado dragged him in mercilessly.
Meanwhile, Mistress Mare-velous and the Masked Matterhorn were clinging to the top of the arena’s walls and rails, trying to push their bodies away from the sheer force of Fili-Second’s tornado.
“FILI!” Masked Matterhorn shouted at the top of her lungs. “STOP! YOU CAN STOP! PLEASE, STOP!”
“WHAT?!” Fili-Second yelled, her voice vibrating within the twirling walls and air of her tornado. Even some of her voice was drowned out by the loud growls and roars of the Spotted Cheetah, who was still caught in the vortex with her.
Mistress’s ears suddenly perked when she heard a scream that wasn’t the Spotted Cheetah’s. It sounded male, and he was in trouble. As she turned her face towards the eye of the storm, her eyes widened when she saw a stallion civilian caught in this destructive gust of wind. Using all the strength in her right hoof, she reached down for her lasso.
With her left hoof squeezed fiercely on top of the wall, she created a loop in her lasso with her right hoof and swung it into the tornado. The loop closed too early and made the masked earth pony curse under her breath, “Grgh!”
With her right hoof and her teeth, she pulled the lasso back in and opened another loop once more. She held the lasso loop above her head and waited for the civilian stallion to whirl by before she threw it a second time. “C’mon Bessie,” she whispered to herself. “You can do it. I know you can. Just nice and...”
Eyes locked on the stallion caught in the storm, she quickly threw her lasso. The lasso glowed brightly in the eye of the storm, and snagged the stallion around his waist.
“Ha ha!” Mistress Mare-velous cheered triumphantly. “Way to go Bessie! That’s my girl!” She hauled on the lasso and brought the barely conscious stallion towards her. Once he was just a few inches away from her, she grabbed him around the waist and brought him to her chest. She looped the lasso around herself as well as the stallion before tying its free end to one of the chairs near the top of the wall. No sooner had she secured the knot then her left hoof lost its grip on the arena wall. She and the stallion were buffeted about wildly but the rope kept them tethered to the wall.
Unfortunately the same could not be said for the Masked Matterhorn and Humdrum, as the alicorn lost her grip on the arena wall and succumbed to the twisting wind. Humdrum hung onto her, digging his claws into her neck as they both screamed and shouted in shock and terror.
“PLEASE FILI! STOP!” the Masked Matterhorn begged.
“WHAT?!” Fili responded back just as loudly, her voice still vibrating in her rapid tornado. “MATTERHORN! HUMDRUM! MISSY! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! BUT I’M STILL TRYING TO SLOW DOWN! HOLD ON!”
And true to her word, the tornado eventually slowed down to a puff of strong wind. And that puff of strong wind briefly kept all the ponies suspended in midair before gravity took them harshly back to the ground. Luckily, thanks to the speed of Fili-Second’s running and the speed of the tornado, the ice in the arena had melted and broken apart. Yes, everypony was now on the ground except for the Spotted Cheetah. She had been at the top of the tornado, and when it ended, she had grabbed the nearest pillar and used it to climb to the top of the stadium. When the pony hybrid regained her sight and bearings, she caught a glimpse of the unconscious Power Ponies on the ground. This made her grin evilly, showing her little fangs with delicious, ferocious glee. She started swinging and climbing towards the ponies down below with malicious blood thirst in her eyes.
Back on the ground, Fili-Second, the Masked Matterhorn, and Humdrum were getting back up slowly and recovering from their sore bodies.
“Uhh ... Pinkie?” the Masked Matterhorn moaned quietly to her comrade. “Let’s agree, for the future, to never do that again.”
“Ditto Twilight,” Fili-Second moaned back softly. “Ditto. Sorry about that, I just wanted to try out my Fili Swirly Twirly.”
“Fili Swirly Twirly? Seriously?” Humdrum groaned, lifting his head away from the alicorn’s mane.
“Uh, you’re right Spike,” Fili-Second replied, placing her hoof to her aching forehead. “Maybe it should be called Fili’s Dizzy Whirly Twirly instead.”
Meanwhile the light brown stallion in the black suit was pushing himself onto all fours. When he and his rescuer had hit the ground, the lasso holding them together had loosened, and now he stood over Mistress Mare-velous. The stallion groaned a little, and placed his left hoof on his throbbing forehead. However, his pain eased slightly when his eyes gazed upon the mare underneath him. His expression softened, and he gave her a small but sweet smirk as she groaned in pain and regained her sight.
When she was able to open her eyes, the stallion standing above her said smoothly, and almost awestruck, “Boy, I thought you were pretty before. But up close you look downright angelic.”
Mistress Mare-velous’s eyes widened for a moment, letting her mind process their situation and what this stallion said to her. But she shook this off, and replied in a confused yet frustrated tone, “I beg your pardon, civilian?”
“Civilian, huh?” he remarked, still as smooth as ever. “Boy, no pony has called me that in a long time.”
“Move.”
“Oh c’mon Angel, don’t be like that. You haven’t even given me a chance yet.”
“No, I mean MOVE.”
Then Mistress Mare-velous grabbed the back of the stallion’s suit jacket and rolled to the side, taking him with her, as the Spotted Cheetah landed right where they had been seconds before.
They came to a stop with Mistress Mare-velous now looking down on the stallion and on top of their particular situation.
The stallion blinked a couple of times over at the Spotted Cheetah. “Oh right, she’s still here. But ... on the bright side...” Suddenly his tone changed to a more positive, but Casanova-like attitude as his gaze returned to Mistress’s wide green-eyed stare. “The view is much better from down here.”
“Let me guess, you’re going to give me nothing but trouble, huh?”
“Afraid so, Angel,” the stallion said with a cheeky wink.
Their conversation was interrupted by the rumble of the Spotted Cheetah’s growl, and they turned their attention back to her, as she slowly started to crawl towards them like a cat about to chase down a small mouse.
Mistress Mare-velous and the stallion quickly got back to their feet with Mistress naturally standing in front of the citizen to protect him.
“Stay behind me,” she ordered him, keeping her narrow gaze on the grinning feline-pony hybrid.
“Heh, heh, no argument there,” the stallion nervously chuckled, just realizing how terrifying this Spotted Cheetah looked up close.
When the Spotted Cheetah sprang into the air to strike Mistress Mare-velous, Mistress swiftly pulled out her gas pellets and threw them in Cheetah’s face. While Cheetah was blinded, Mistress leapt toward her and pinned her down. The two mares began to wrestle each other on the dusty ground like two jaguars battling for dominance.
The stallion let out a soft but impressed whistle and enjoyed the view.
“We have to help her!” gasped the Masked Matterhorn, urging her two fellow teammates into action.
Meanwhile in the intense brawl between Mistress and Cheetah, Cheetah growled in triumph, “Give it up, Mistress! You know you can’t take me one on one!”
“Yeah, well,” Mistress grunted. “I’d like to see you take me down without any dirty shots first!”
This angered the Spotted Cheetah and she slashed at Mistress’s hind legs with her clawed back feet. Mistress Mare-velous shouted in pain and tried to fight through it. Then the mysterious stallion suddenly whirled around and kicked the Spotted Cheetah in the face, sending her flying off of Mistress Mare-velous. Once the Spotted Cheetah was by herself, the Masked Matterhorn encased her paws in huge chunks of ice, Fili-Second grabbed her by the tail and wrapped it around her frozen feet, and Humdrum used his long cape to muzzle her.
However, this imprisonment didn’t last long. First Spotted Cheetah broke through the cape around her muzzle. Then her tail naturally unraveled and whipped back into the air. After that, she reared high into the air and smashed the ice chunks on her front hooves into pieces. The smashing of the ice chunks on her feet came after.
With new found life and energy in her legs, she charged towards Mistress Mare-velous at full speed, looking like a fuzzy bullet shooting through the air. But just before she reached Mistress, the stallion put his foreleg out in front of her at chest height, and clotheslined her with a force similar to what the Saddle Rager can do in her true form.
All the Power Ponies’ jaws dropped when they saw this, especially Mistress’s.
The Spotted Cheetah tumbled backward, and before she could recover, the stallion raced forward and trapped her head and forelimbs in a headlock. Naturally she snarled, struggled in his grip, and tried to claw at him with her back legs, but it was no use. He had managed to get himself positioned just out of reach of her claws and the might of his forelegs seemed to be too much for her. But judging by the sweat dripping from his forehead, he wouldn’t be able to hold her for too much longer.
He turned his head slightly to Mistress Mare-velous and grunted with a smile, “Not to complain, but could you lend me a hoof with this tabby?”
“Huh?” said Mistress, getting out of her awed daze. “Oh, right. Matterhorn! Could you create a long iron chain?”
Mistress’s question took Matterhorn out of her shocked daze as well. Apparently, even she, the Masked Matterhorn, was surprised by this stallion’s strength. “Oh, sure thing.”
Matterhorn used her magic to summon the long chain. Mistress created a loop in it, and swung it over her head like a lasso. The chain loop went over the Spotted Cheetah’s hind legs. Once the mysterious stallion released Cheetah, Mistress galloped around her, wrapped up her front legs, and tied them to the Spotted Cheetah’s back legs.
No matter how much she roared, screamed, and thrashed about, the Spotted Cheetah couldn’t get out of her chained imprisonment.
“Wohoo!” Fili-Second cheered with a skip in her step. “We did it! Thanks mysterious stranger for helping us!”
“I know, seriously! That was amazing!” Humdrum exclaimed with stars in his eyes as he went up to the light brown stallion in the suit. “I mean, how did you even do that?!”
“Yeah,” Mistress Mare-velous remarked with suspicion in her voice, “how did you do that?”
“Well, little lady,” the stallion replied with a charming smile. “let’s just say I picked up on a couple of wrestling moves when I was in the ring with a good friend of mine.”
“Really?! You were a wrestler?!” Humdrum sounded even more excited than before. “Oh, that’s so cool! You think you could teach me a couple of moves?”
“Humdrum,” Mistress Mare-velous scolded.
“It’s all right, Angel,” the stallion replied happily. “I don’t mind.”
He lowered himself down to Humdrum’s level. “I’d be happy to teach ya some of what I know, little dragon.” He punctuated this statement by adding a little wink at the end.
Humdrum smiled as the stallion rose back up to his original height. Just then, Police Chief Spitfire, Zapp, Saddle Rager, and Radiance came in with a crowd of reporters and photographers overly eager to get the inside scoop for their stories. They overwhelmed the Power Ponies in the arena with flashes of light and thousands of questions all happening at once.
“Take that, um, whatever she’s supposed to be, away!” commanded Spitfire, pointing her officers toward the Spotted Cheetah. The officers dragged her outside and loaded her up in the back of an armored police truck to take her off to Balkham Asylum.
Spitfire turned to the Masked Matterhorn and the Power Ponies in the center of the arena. “Nice work, Power Ponies, for defeating that ... well ... whatever in Tartarus she’s supposed to be.”
“Her name is Sour Sweet,” Mistress Mare-velous explained to Spitfire. “But, due to her appearance ... she calls herself the Spotted Cheetah.”
“And you know this Spotted Cheetah?” Spitfire asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at Mistress.
“Sure do,” Mistress replied calmly but with a hint of guilt and sadness in her voice. “For quite some time now. Ever since my whole super hero career began.”
“And is she ... the real deal?”
“Trust me, Chief Spitfire, there’s no costume in Equestria that can scratch and tear a pony up like hers can.”
“Well then, in that case, it’s a good think that we’re taking her to Balkham. That place is practically bulletproof and claw-proof, inside and out. But I take it we have you to specifically thank for the capture of Spotted Cheetah.”
“Actually,” Matterhorn admitted, “it was the brave acts of this civilian standing right beside us.”
“What civilian?” Spitfire asked, cocking her head to the side.
Mistress and Matterhorn, along with Humdrum and Fili-Second, looked to their sides and found no trace of the mysterious stranger that took down the Spotted Cheetah.
“He’s gone!” Humdrum exclaimed.
“Wowie! That guy is just as fast as I am!” Fili-Second cheered.
“But ... but he was here! Just a second ago!” Matterhorn proclaimed in her confusion.
“Well, whoever this pony was,” Spitfire remarked casually, “if he was willing to give his life to save the Power Ponies, then he has all my respect. That’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, the Power Ponies were traveling back to their headquarters over the tops of the Maretropolis buildings. Naturally, the Masked Matterhorn, Zapp, and the Saddle Rager used their wings to fly high into the city skyline, with Matterhorn still carrying Humdrum on her back. Radiance used her bracelets to summon a glowing purple carpet to help her fly over, Fili-Second used her speed to jump and run across, and Mistress Mare-velous was using her strong legs to gallop from building to building.
Humdrum was just telling Radiance, Zapp, and Saddle Rager of all that they had missed during the fight. Especially of the mysterious and tailored stallion. “And then the guy just whammed his foreleg into the Spotted Cheetah’s chest and took her down like she was nothing! Then he put her in a headlock! Just like the wrestlers on TV! And he didn’t even break a sweat while doing it!”
Mistress rolled her eyes and panted out, “Yeah, well, he couldn’t have held her for much longer. He needed US to chain her up, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Humdrum quickly shrugged this off. “But still! Apparently he used to be a wrestler. Can you believe it?!”
“Aww, Spikey Wikey,” Radiance cooed. “You found yourself a new male role model. Oh, I’m so happy for you!”
“Oh yeah, sure. Role model.” Mistress grumbled. “If you like no-good mares’ stallions. Cocky, glory-hogging, son of a timber wolf howler—”
“Oh yeah, that’s right!” Fili-Second piped up. “I forgot! He flirted with Applejack when he landed on the ground.”
“Ah, a gentlecolt caller?!” Radiance squeaked in glee. “Oh, do tell me more darling! Was he charming? Dashing? Romantic? Protective? Sincere? Handsome?!”
“No, no, no, no, no, and definitely no on that last part!” Mistress replied in an annoyed tone.
“Oh come on, darling! Surely there must have been one quality you liked about him.”
“The only thing I’ll ever like about the guy is if I never ever see him again.”
They landed on top of their tall lair, and entered through the staircase door just to the left side of the building. Once the group went through, they were actually in a transparent glass elevator. The elevator took them to their main floor of the Power Ponies' headquarter operations.
When the elevator door opened, Mistress Mare-velous was the first to lead the group out. “Woah Nellie, I can’t wait to get this tight mask off.”
“Me too, Angel. Can’t wait to see that sweet face of yours unmasked.”
Mistress immediately stopped dead in her tracks, and her right eye began to twitch as she saw the stallion from earlier just sitting casually and peacefully on their lair couch.
“Did ya miss me?” said the annoying yet mysterious stallion, his cheeky grin widening at the sight of the mare before him.
Mistress gawked at him for a moment or two, along with the rest of the Power Ponies as they peeked over her shoulder. Then Mistress shook her head and stomped toward him, growling, “Oh, of all the dirtiest, sneakiest things to do. What in the blue blazes are you doing—?!”
“Hey, look everypony, it’s AJ’s, I mean it’s Missy’s coltfriend from the stadium! Hi, Missy’s coltfriend!” Pinkie announced happily, greeting the stallion on the couch with a friendly and energetic wave. The stallion couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath and wave back.
“He ain’t my coltfriend!” Mistress retorted.
“Oh goodness, is this the gentlecolt caller from earlier?” Radiance asked Mistress with curiosity and glee in her tone.
“I told ya Rarit—I mean Radiance, he ain’t that! Certainly not that.”
“Woah, you’re back!” Humdrum cheered, jumping over Mistress’s head and making his way towards the stallion. “I can’t believe it!”
“Seriously?!” Mistress cried out in anger while pulling on the mane at the sides of her head. “Does nopony see what’s wrong with this picture?!” She pointed an accusing hoof at the stallion. “This no-good varmint just snuck into our secret lair! Our lair!”
“Which was pretty easy to do by the way,” he remarked confidently, polishing his hoof by rubbing it against his puffed-out chest. “Oh, and by the way, you might wanna fix some of the bugs in your system. Seriously, who knows who will sneak into your lair next?”
“See, see!” Mistress jabbed her hoof at him again, the desperation in her voice growing. “I told you that there was something wrong with this guy, but y’all wouldn’t listen! But now he’s proven that he’s a downright no-good criminal!”
“So does that mean I get to be the devil to your angel then, Angel?” the stallion added in a flirty tone, sending a wink Mistress Mare-velous’s way.
“That’s it!”
Mistress pulled out her lasso, and flung Bessie’s coils around the stallion, pinning his front legs to his sides. Then she picked him up and smashed his face into the wall. While holding his face and body against the wall, she demanded through gritted teeth, “Who are you and how did you find this place?!”
“Wait, wait! Mistress!” Matterhorn called out. She flew up to Mistress and calmed her with, “Let me handle this.”
Mistress stepped aside and let Matterhorn grab the stallion from behind. Matterhorn gave a calm smile to Mistress before slamming the stallion against the wall once more and demanding, “Who are you and how did you find this place?!”
“Oh dear,” the Saddle Rager fretted from the back of the group, a hoof hovering near the area of her lips.
“So much for the good cop bad cop routine,” Zapp sighed.
The stallion mumbled something incomprehensible against the metal wall.
“Huh?” The Masked Matterhorn pulled the stallion’s face away from the wall, but still kept his body pressed against it.
“I said I’ll talk. Despite the interrogation.”
When the Masked Matterhorn let go of him, the stallion turned to face Mistress Mare-velous and asked, “Now Angel, could you lend me a hoof here?”
“Why are you SO willing to talk?” she returned in a dark wary tone, tightening Bessie’s grip on the stallion’s waist.
“Ah! Again with the rope. Argh, look. At the start, I was going to tell y’all just exactly who I am, how I found you and the Spotted Cheetah at the rodeo, and how I’ve been following you all day.”
“You’ve been following us?!” Mistress yanked on her lasso, almost squeezing all the air out of the poor stallion’s body.
“Ah! Okay! Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that last part. But the point is, Angel, I mean no harm. You and I, you Power Ponies ... and the organization that I work for ... we’re all after the same thing.”
Mistress loosened the lasso’s grip on the stallion and cocked her head to the side. “And ... who are you exactly working for?”
As the lasso’s coils fell away from him, the mysterious stallion panted, rubbing at his middle. “I can’t say.”
“Whadda ya mean ‘you can’t say’?!”
“I mean, I’m not allowed to say, pretty lady. But don’t worry, it’s a pretty easy one to guess.”
The stallion stepped out of the lasso as its loop fell to the ground. As he dusted himself off, the suited stallion walked towards the giant computer screen at the back of the room and asked, “Tell me, what’s the one group, in all of Equestria, closer to Celestia than the royal guards. I’ll give you a hint: it starts with an ‘E’.”
“The EIA!” the Masked Matterhorn gasped.
“Bingo Matterhorn.” the stallion smoothly answered back without turning around.
“The EIA?” Humdrum commented. “Isn’t that a top secret spy group located underneath Celestia’s throne?”
“Actually, they’re agents,” the stallion corrected, turning slightly to face Matterhorn and Humdrum. “But yeah, pretty much. We’re the ‘royal guards’ that nopony, not even Celestia, talks about.”
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it! Princess Celestia, THE princess of all Equestria, knows about us! Investigating us! Soooo, wait ... then you must be...?” Matterhorn implored.
“The name’s Agent Double A, ma’am.” He turned his cheeky gaze to Mistress and whispered with a wink, “But everypony back on base calls me Ace.”
Mistress just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“But that still doesn’t answer the question of why you were spying on us, Ace?” Zapp questioned Agent Double A in a slightly snappy tone.
“Simple,” Agent Double A replied. “How can any organization out there not do so? Think about it: six regular ponies and a baby dragon come to the big city as superheroes. Then, all of a sudden, by coincidence, super villains show up and—”
“We didn’t create our own enemies!” Mistress blurted out of the blue.
Everypony turned to her and became silent. It was an almost personal outburst, her tone suggesting that she almost took the remark to heart. Agent Double A was surprised by this, but felt bad for saying something he shouldn’t. Mistress didn’t look over at the group, especially at the secret agent in the cowboy boots.
In a softer, more understanding tone, Agent Double A said to her, “I never said that you did. Not in the slightest.”
Mistress gave the stallion a death glare. “Then what are ya sayin’?! C’mon, spit it out!”
“ALL that I’M sayin’ is that ... you gotta admit it ... this kind of activity is bizarre. Even by the standards of a pony like Princess Celestia. And when things get bizarre, they become too close for comfort. And well ... when things are too close for comfort...”
“They become dangerous,” Matterhorn uttered sadly and with a hint of guilt, turning her gaze away from Agent Double A.
“Not necessarily, Miss Matterhorn,” said the agent. “There’s still the element of a choice here. Which is why I’m here.”
Agent Double A walked to the masked alicorn and explained, “All of you can either be an asset to Equestria or its enemy. My organization thinks y’all are dangerous. Especially you, Miss Matterhorn.”
“What?! Me?! W-why me?!”
“Because you’re another alicorn. You’re a rare and powerful creature in the land of Equestria, with magic that could out rival Celestia’s. That is, IF dark magic is involved.”
“I know it may seem like it,” Matterhorn tried to explain as rationally as she could, “but I assure you, I am not an alicorn of dark magic. And I am certainly not an alicorn that could out rival Celestia herself.”
With a soft smirk, Agent Double A answered, “That’s good to hear, Matterhorn. I was hoping you would say that, cause I thought so too. You don’t seem to have an agenda to take over the city, let alone all of Equestria. And the same applies to your team.”
“This team doesn’t belong to her,” Mistress argued. “It BELONGS to all of us.”
“Even better,” Double A responded with a soft casual smirk. “That makes it easier for me to offer this.”
He put his hoof out towards Mistress Mare-velous, and opened it, revealing a little black earpiece.
“Uhh, what’s this?” Mistress asked.
“Consider it my peace offering, Angel,” he explained with a bit of joy in his smooth, cool, smart-mouthed tone. “I’m offering y’all the best means of getting on the inside with the EIA.”
“And does your little EIA know about this little offer you’re giving us?” Mistress questioned skeptically.
“Well, that all depends,” he replied, his smirk growing larger by the minute.
“Depends on what?” she asked with her eyebrows arched high on her forehead.
“If you take the offer first,” he answered with his smirk turning into a cocky smolder.
Mistress Mare-velous narrowed her gaze at him before gathering the Power Ponies into a group huddle.
“Mistress,” whispered Zapp. “Are you seriously considering his offer?”
“No offense,” Matterhorn added in the same hushed tone, “but just a few minutes ago, you wanted this guy knocked on his flank and kicked out of the lair.”
“But darling,” Radiance remarked. “So did we all. Especially you.”
Matterhorn began to blush a light shade of pink and chuckled nervously. “Heh heh, point taken.”
“Look,” Mistress replied, bringing in the group’s focus once more. “I am considering his offer, but not for the reasons you think. Something’s telling me that this guy is doing this whole deal without his organization’s consent. If we can find some way for the EIA to know about this anonymously, through the information and access that this agent gives us...”
Fili-Second gasped happily before shouting and leaping into the air. “He’ll get kicked out!”
The group shushed Fili-Second in unison and brought her back to earth in one hard swoop. Then Fili whisper-cheered, “He’ll get kicked out!”
“Exactly,” said Mistress Mare-velous with a victorious smile. “and before you know it, he’ll be out of our hair, and out of our lives, for good!”
“But Mistress,” Matterhorn softly pointed out, “what if ... what if he knows of our secret identities? What if the EIA knows?”
“I don’t think this Ace fellar is smart enough for the task of finding out about our true selves. Besides, if the EIA really knew who we were, why would they send this bozo to spy on us first instead of just a full on attack or confrontation?”
“So,” Saddle Rager whispered softly, “it’s settled then?”
Mistress nodded. “It’s settled.”
The group broke apart and Mistress stomped over to Agent Double A, who had just the biggest smolder that one could ever imagine.
With a fed-up snort through her nose, she held out her open hoof toward the agent. “Alright, ‘Ace’, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
With a cheeky yet charming grin, Agent Double A placed the earpiece in her hoof and started to walk past her. “I look forward to working with you ladies.” Then he whispered into Mistress’s ear, “And I will certainly be looking forward to workin’ with you ... Angel.”
Mistress could only respond to his weak attempt at flirting with a groaning sigh.
“Let me ... uh, ‘escort’ you out of our lair, Mr. Double A.” Matterhorn offered in a polite, but slightly suspicious tone.
“That’s very kind of you, Miss Matterhorn. But really, there’s no need.”
And with a smile, he pulled out a smoke bomb and escaped the lair without a trace, leaving the Power Ponies coughing and choking in the purple and smelly mist.
“Ugh! Smoke bombs?!” Matterhorn yelled out, “Seriously!”
The next day, Mistress Mare-velous, as her unmasked and humble alter ego Applejack, was doing her daily routine of selling her homemade apple products out of her Apple cart on the busy streets of Maretropolis.
“Apples!” she shouted happily to potential customers passing by. “Get your fresh Apple Pies, Apple strudels, and Apple Fritters here! Homemade and fresh from the oven!”
Feeling that nopony would approach her cart at the moment, she decided it was a safe time to check on some of her supplies and baked creations to make sure she was prepared and that everything was organized.
“I’ll take two Apple Fritters there ... Angel.”
Applejack was suddenly surprised by an all too familiar masculine voice coming from in front of her cart, and she bonked her head on one of the small drawers. She let out a hissing “ouch!” as she cautiously raised her head to meet the stallion’s gaze.
Sure enough, her suspicions were unfortunately true. It was him. Agent Double A. But in her mind, it was Mr. Agent Ace for Nothing. Instead of his sleek black suit, he was now wearing a black t-shirt and jeans with his cowboy boots.
She quickly shook off her bug-eyed expression and politely told him with a fake smile, “The name’s Applejack, sir.” She struggled to call him “sir,” but despite this struggle, she pushed herself through the pain in order to tell him, “But I appreciate the flattery. Anyway, two Apple Fritters coming right up!”
As she ducked her head back down into the drawers and supplies of her cart, she heard the Agent say, “Well, it’s certainly a pleasure to finally meet you ... Mistress.”
This caught Applejack off guard once again, and in result, made her bump her head again. As she let out a quiet “ouch,” she could hear the little bugger laugh at her pain. This made her growl under her breath.
Despite this, she rose back up with a forced smile and held out the Apple Fritters to him. “You must be mistaken, I’m MISS Applejack. I’m no Mistress or Countess or Duchess of any kind. But even I don’t let strangers call me ‘Miss Applejack’, Mister ... uh...?”
He propped his elbow on the cart and leaned in with a flirty look, trying to pretend he was as cool as could be. “Screwjob, ma’am. At your service ... Mistress Mare-velous.” And he winked at her in a cheeky manner.
“Y-you must be mistaken, Mr. Screwjob!” Applejack quickly yet nervously retorted. “Me?! Mistress Mare-velous?! Boy, the day that ever happens is the day I turn into a horse of a different color! Literally! Ha ha!”
“C’mon Angel,” Screwjob whispered in an all-knowing tone. “Don’t lie to me. I know it’s you. I mean, how could I not, by your voice ... or by your green eyes ... or by your cute little freckles ... or by your golden mane, or even by your...?”
“Alright, alright! I get it! You got me! Sheesh! Rub it in why don’tcha?!” Applejack banged her forehead down on the countertop and let out a muffled, “How is this possible?! My secret identity, my only secret in the world, kept for years under my belt, blown in a matter of seconds by the last pony I ever want to see?!”
“Oh c’mon, Apps, don’t be so hard on yourself.”
Applejack lifted her head away from the countertop and replied in an unamused tone, “Apps? Seriously? Apps?”
Screwjob smiled nervously and shrugged. “What? Apps is a cute nickname. I thought you would like it better than Angel.”
Applejack sighed and gave in. “Well, considering my only two options, Apps seems to be the more tolerable to deal with.”
“Perfect, Apps it is.”
“But seriously, how in Equestria did you know it was me? And where I work for that matter?!”
“Like I told ya before, Apps, as a spy, it’s my job to know everything. I mean, why did ya think I was stalking y’all? I wasn’t just stalking you in your superhero uniform...”
“You were stalking us in our civilian form too. Which means...”
“Yup, I know all the rest of your identities too. Now, Matterhorn’s was pretty easy to figure out right off the bat. Think about it: what pony in this entire city has enough money to have the means to seclude one luxurious building to herself and possibly to some other ponies if she so wishes. I mean, that building that y’all reside in just screams the Sparkle logo. Same with Humdrum. The guy might be small, but I’d have to be as blind as my Aunt Moonshine to not see that the little sprout was a dragon, even with the mask. As for the others, like yourself darlin’, it was a bit trickier I do admit. Even on my level of skill. I first tried just waiting outside the building, just patiently minding my own business while some of you wander out of the building and all that. But then, I realized that Miss Sparkle is too smart to let any of her partners just waltz in and out of the building as they pleased. Nah, Miss Sparkle might have been easy to figure out, but that didn’t mean she was going to make the others easy for me. Especially that Saddle Rager gal. She seemed to be late into the game, and well, that girl is as quiet as a mouse. Tell her that if this superhero business doesn’t work for her, maybe go into the spy work instead. Anyway, based on the, um, ‘records’ that ole Spike had on Radiance, findin’ the trail to her identity came pretty easy. Pretty soon, I discovered that Miss Sparkle had records on all of ya.”
“You snuck into the lair and went through all of our records?!”
“To be fair, Apps, I did try to find information on you first. But as a spy, you go with where you have the most information first.” Screwjob replied with a wink in her direction.
“That ain’t what I meant,” Applejack remarked with a deadpan expression, crossing her front hooves across her chest.
“Hey, do you honestly think this is my first rodeo when it comes to this superhero business?” With an all-knowing smile on his face, he arched an eyebrow. “Why do you think EIA hired me for this job?”
“Wait ... you don’t mean ... that you...?”
“That’s right ma’am, I was able to convince another super horse to help the EIA too. The very same deal I gave y’all.”
“But ... but how?”
“Let’s just say that when your best friend becomes a superhero, it doesn’t go unnoticed. Plus, he’s a bad liar like you fortunately. He couldn’t swindle a Manehattan foal out of his candy if he tried.”
“Well, some best friend you are to him, telling a random stranger all of this important information.”
“But you’re a superhero.”
“That don’t matter! He’s ‘supposedly’ your best friend, and he trusted you with this important secret about his life. Many lives depend on that secret. Doesn’t that mean anything to you at all?!”
Just then Applejack was caught off guard by the sudden serious, almost insulted expression on Screwjob’s face. His eyes were narrowed and a scowl was painted over where his flirty smirk should be.
Well, I’ll be... Applejack reflected to herself.
“High is the best stallion I know,” Screwjob said in a tone that matched his expression. “I would never, and I mean never, let anything happen to him. Not again. Not if I have anything to say about it. Why do you think I gave him the deal with the EIA? Just for some barrel fun at the rodeo? No! I did it to protect him, his identity, and all the lives he tries to protect each day. Now, say what you want about me, but when it comes to my friendship with High, you can bet your hat that I’ll be there for him.”
Applejack blinked a couple of times in shock. She couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. Who knew that he could be capable of sincere genuine emotion, let alone expressing it aloud to a stranger? However, this didn’t last long when she realized with a smirk, “So, his name is High, huh?”
Screwjob’s serious expression quickly faded to be replaced with a red blush as he realized his own quick but embarrassing, well, screw-up. He quickly looked away from Applejack and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Uuuuhhh ... that is ... High is his ... nickname. At least, the nickname I gave him anyway.”
Applejack smiled warmly and shook her head. She couldn’t believe this. The guy was actually embarrassed. Still smirking, she couldn’t resist teasing him with, “My my, is Mr. Screwjob here actually getting red on me?”
Screwjob’s blush faded as he turned his gaze back to hers. He couldn’t help letting out a chuckle and smirking back. “Hey, now little lady, just call me Jobs. Mr. Screwjob is for when I’m in my suit for work.”
Applejack couldn’t help but laugh at Screwjob’s quick remark and he laughed along with her. Luckily for the two of them, Applejack didn’t have too many customers for the rest of the day. They spent the rest of the time just talking about the farms and the countrysides of Equestria, and eating the two Apple Fritters together. Turns out that Screwjob got the second Apple Fritter for Applejack.
Meanwhile, later that night, in the dark halls of the Balkham Asylum, Ahuizotl was sitting miserably but furiously in his magically sealed, glowing pale pink glass cell. Just like the rest of the “patients,” or rather, as they liked to call themselves, prisoners of Balkham. Ahuizotl would have been in prison with ponies like his minion Caballeron, but the facilities and resources at the city’s prison were nothing compared to the unicorn staff and funding at Balkham. And the police knew this. Even if Ahuizotl wasn’t certifiably proven to be insane, but rather greedy and corrupted, he was a strong and powerful creature of non-pony origins, so they had dumped him here in this glass cell. Just until good ole Princess Celestia can pick him up later in the week. He was trapped in an off-white straitjacket and pale blue glowing enchanted iron chains just in case he tried to break through the straitjacket.
Ahuizotl’s dead eyes stared at the brick walls beyond the magical glow of his cell. He let out a huff of air through his nose and blinked. Although his expression was as dead as his eyes, deep in his mind he was plotting his way out of this prison and his revenge against the Power Ponies who brought him to this Tartarus hole.
Ahuizotl’s ears perked up towards the head of the hall. It was the sound of a new inmate coming in. Two dark purple male unicorns with short grey buzz-cut manes were using Ketch-All poles to control the now-muzzled, straitjacketed Spotted Cheetah as they led her to the cell next to Ahuizotl. Her straitjacket didn’t bind or restrict her cheetah hind legs, only her front pony hooves, and as a result, made her almost crawl on the floor. However, despite her position, she was still snarling and writhing about, trying to escape. The two unicorns were holding her back like a rabid wild animal rather than a patient. Clearly, this task was beyond their protocol.
Ahuizotl immediately picked up on the Spotted Cheetah’s growling. He almost thought for a moment that it was his cheetah, escaping from the clutches of animal control or the zoo. But instead his eyes widened with interest when he saw a creature so similar yet so wonderfully different from his own cheetah. So different in fact, appearance-wise, from any pony or creature around her. She looked mismatched and mixed just like him, but she was also slender, elegant, graceful, and soft, though powerful like a jungle cat. He could tell by her eyes, and by the sound of her hissing that she was female which sparked his interest even more.
Ahuizotl got close to the glass and patiently watched her new neighbor, as she fought with every breath in her body not to go into the magical glowing glass cell. The two unicorns demanded and pleaded for her to go in, but she only answered with more feline hissing, and trying to claw at them with her sharp back feet. In response to this, the two unicorns agreed to push her in together by collaboratively putting as much force as they could swinging the Ketch-All poles that controlled the Spotted Cheetah. This plan worked, and before she could try to crawl out of the cell, they pushed the button that activated the magical shield and locked her in. The two unicorns let out a great sigh of relief and walked away from her cell.
Meanwhile the Spotted Cheetah began immediately trying to push and claw at the magically glowing glass wall in front of her, still growling and roaring loudly through her muzzle. Ahuizotl scooted away from the front of his cell and towards the clear see-through wall that separated him and the Spotted Cheetah. He looked at her peacefully and with such tenderness as she scurried about like a wild alley cat.
“Hola,” he purred at her seductively. “Sen~or~it~a~.”
The Spotted Cheetah instantly stopped what she was doing and looked curiously over at Ahuizotl. With wide and confused eyes, she saw him wagging his tail slowly but happily. He gave her a charming, pointy-toothed smile and winked in her direction.
She sat up with ease, like a beanstalk rising from the ground due to her flexible feline-like spine. She flipped around her long now-completely messy ponytail, causing the rubber hair band to snap and release her flowing pink-and-green striped mane. This caused Ahuizotl’s long thin monkey-pawed tail to wag even more and made his grin widen. Then the Spotted Cheetah tried to roll one of her shoulders seductively towards Ahuizotl in her tight straitjacket and fluttered her eyelashes.
“Oh, tehee!” She giggled sweetly like a school filly with her first crush. Then she responded to his purr with a flirty but innocent, “Hola~.”