//------------------------------// // Subject 142: A Hairy Battle // Story: Interviews With Equestrians // by Jmaster49 //------------------------------// Mane-iac. Somehow, some way, she was summoned into the real world from her comic book incarnation. But this version of the crazed mare with prehensile hair was quite unique. I could feel her aura. She had been enhanced by unnatural means with the ability to acquire the magic of others through absorption via her hair. In other words, she could steal souls. And that’s likely what happened to Elytra when they first met. “You…” she addressed the lethargically drained bug pony first. Malice and contempt in her eyes, “I thought you were dead. Why would you bother showing your face back here, you fool?” “I had no choice,” Elytra replied, “I have no power, and these ponies wanted to fight you. Not m--” SMACK! With a sharp, heavy whip-like crack, Mane-iac sent Elytra across the room with a strike from one of her hair-limbs. “That’s enough out of you. Now then…” Before we could react, more of her hairs reached out, and pulled Drive, Guts, and myself into the room. Immediately after, she forcibly barricaded the door with a massive stone slab moved into place with another hair. She was stupid strong if she could do all of that in quick succession. “What do you three want?” she asked, with her hairs wrapped tightly around our bodies so we couldn’t escape. “Grrr…” I grumbled and squirmed in her grip. “To know just what...your purpose is. Why are you here? And more importantly, how are you here?” The sadist of a mare leaned back into her hair like a seat as the three limbs that held onto us continued to strangle our bodies ever so slightly. “Hm. I suppose I could indulge you. You see, I was just as confused myself. I was in a new world with no sign of the Power Ponies whatsoever. And that is when I realized that my tales are entirely fictional. As for the one who cast a spell to bring me out of there, well. You’ll just have to find out for yourself…” she said with a low chuckle. Okay, that answered one of my questions. But overall, it still perplexed me. I needed to know more. “Okay then. And I assume that individual also gave you the power to essentially take the magic of others?” I put forth my guess. She put her hooves together, and looked up. “Hm...close. It’d be more accurate to say that I have gained the ability to eat magic,” she gazed at us once more with hunger in those sickly green eyes of hers, “That way, I can gain as much power as I want, and become the strongest pony in the known universe! Fictional or not~” Flash Drive jumped in. “Wait, eat magic? How’s that even possible?!” Guttersnipe looked over at an unconscious Luna in that nearby cage. “And I’m gonna assume you’ve already taken Luna’s magic yeah?” she rolled her eyes, “Tch. How original. You villains can never come up with something other than stealing the magic of others?” Mane-iac burst out in a fit of uncontrolled laughter. “AHAHAH! You fool. That isn’t even close to what I have in store for the likes of ponykind.” Well now this was a shock. Not only was Elytra not the be-all end-all to the situation, but the newly found Mane-iac isn’t either. In essence, somepony else is causing a load of chaos and confusion. And for what? To throw us off the trail of what they truly intend to do while we’re saddled with this nonsense. Admittedly, I had never really read the Power Ponies comics. I knew Cork was into them, but I never could find the time to check them out. As such, I was in a bit of a pickle here. My only guess was that we needed to cut her hair to wrestle her power from her. But with the capacity to take our magic, just how were we going to do that? Given that Luna was currently incapacitated, I could only deduce that her power was increased massively beyond her normal aptitude within the realm of her comic. Okay, bad. I’d have to bank on the ability to talk her down for the moment. “Now hold on a sec,” I spoke up, “Before you just end us like we’re scrap, why don’t you at least let us have a fair fight against you?” When I said that, I could almost feel Drive and Guts’ confused, judgemental gazes bore holes into the back of my head. But I got lucky. The hairy mare decided to take us up on the offer. “Oho? You believe you have a chance against me? Alright then.” She let us go with a smug, devilish grin on her face, “It’ll be more fun for me this way, anyhow. I just adore watching my victims fight battles they know they can’t win. The feeling of watching them fearfully try so hard only to fail miserably gives me such a rush!” Once we were on the stony ground, I checked over my unicorn and pegasus friend. They were both okay. But yeesh. I couldn’t stand these types. Unlike Daybreaker who was a complete nutjob, Mane-iac was built differently. Her mannerisms portrayed that of a cold, yet polite mare who just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar. Yet the moment you turned your back, she’d stab you, and wouldn’t stop stabbing until you bled out. That was the vibe I got, and it wasn’t pleasant. She was unpredictable, puzzling. I had to play my cards effectively in order to resolve this situation as quickly as I possibly could. We couldn’t afford to spend a bunch of time here against this mare in some foolish bout that we had no chance of winning. The real culprit behind all of this was out there at that moment and did god knows what. From the corner of my eye, I shot a look to Flash Drive. He nodded. I did the same to Guttersnipe. She nodded. While this wasn’t my usual team, the synergy I had with my friends wasn’t lost. As cheesy as that sounded. Anyhow, the main objective wasn’t to kill her. We needed to incapacitate her as fast as possible so we could capture her and return her to the comic book where she belonged. And before that, we’d question her for information so we could find out just who ‘employed’ her with the task of destroying the world. And so, we engaged our best tactic. ZAP! With a spark from his horn, Flash Drive set off a blinding white light that disoriented the crazy hair mare. FWOOSH! Followed by Guttersnipe. Enhanced by the speed of the rocket-like boosters in her mechanical wings, she picked me up, and flung me directly towards Mane-iac with the force of a speeding cannonball. “HAAAA!” With one hoof outstretched, I intended to knock the living daylight out of this mare. Unfortunately, it failed. With a swift crack, not unlike the one she used to swat away Elytra earlier, she knocked me away. “GAH!” I was sent for a tumble, and skidded into the nearby wall. Mane-iac simply scoffed as she reclined upon her hair as if it was a seat. “Hmph. Is that your best? I might actually get so bored that I just kill you all outright.” “Ngh...agh…” I slowly stood up, and cricked my neck. Before either of my allies could ask if I was okay. They got the hint, and we’d proceed with our next set of techniques. “AGH!” Fail. “NO!” Fail. “EEK!” Fail. Each time we attempted something new, we failed harder than the last. Drive, Guts, and I were constantly sent into walls, flung into the ceiling, smacked, slapped, and whacked by the mare’s hair. The magic she had absorbed from so many other individuals had made her nigh-invulnerable just as I feared. Was there really no way for us to beat her? All three of us lied down on the cold, stony floor with labored, annoyed huffs of air that left our bodies at a slow pace. “Wow,” she said as she ‘walked’ over to us with two of her hair strands that acted as legs, “And here I thought you were going to put up more of a fight. The pony who summoned me even warned me about you specifically, Pale Vestige.” She leaned down towards me in particular, her face just above mine with a tsk of disappointment. “But you’re not even putting up a fight. I honestly expected better from the pony that defied all natural order just to save one pony who nearly destroyed the world twenty years ago.” I was unable to respond. I was too tired from the battle. The proverbial wind was knocked out of all of us, and we couldn’t fight back. Was this the end? RING-RING! That’s when I noticed Mane-iac stop in her tracks. She stood upright, and reached towards the corner of the room with one of her hairs to grab ahold of a telephone to answer it. “Hm? Oh? You do? They’re here….I should? Oh yes...very nice.” She hung up. “Change of plans, everypony!”