//------------------------------// // Season 1, Episode 2: Animal Harm // Story: The Omnitrix Hero // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// Canterlot City was certainly a place many people would call strange, given the amount of strange events that seemed to go on in and around the metropolis. But recently, those strange things were occurring each and every day now. Over the last week, strange and unusual creatures were appearing wherever a situation required them. So far, seven of these strange creatures had appeared and many were wondering how many more were going to show up. But whilst many feared what these aliens, some people had actually heard them call themselves that, were after, many believed they were there to help since they only ever appeared in times of crisis. One such crisis was happening at this very moment, as a large apartment building had suddenly caught fire in the early morning. The firefighters were doing their best to put out the blaze, but many feared the flames would soon spread. Amongst the crowd watching were Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, the two girls staring up at the building looking worried. "I hope they managed to get everyone out of there," Fluttershy whimpered. Just then, an explosion occurred on one of the higher floors that made the people scream and jump away from the building. "Everybody back!" The fire chief yelled, "this building could collapse at any moment." "There's someone else up there!" One of the crowd yelled, everyone looking up to see a woman at the flaming window holding a small child. "Help!" She screamed, as the firefighters tried to think of a way to get to her. But as that happened, the window began to fall apart and the woman was forced back inside. "We need a ladder!" A firefighter yelled, but they all knew the structure was too badly damaged to support a ladder. "What do we do?" One of the civilians looked away, not wanting to see this. And when he did, he spotted something in the sky. "Look!" He pointed at it and everyone turned to see a strange looking creature flying towards them. This creature was a black insectoid being wearing red armor that covered everything except its neck, upper arms and shoulders, ears and lower legs. The armour had yellow and red flame patterns around the edges and from its back a pair of flame patterned butterfly wings could be seen. Its red mask had an opening where its mouth, which was a pair of sideways jaws, could be seen and two triangular holes for his blue eyes. The ends of its arms were covered in red armour that opened up to show holes whilst a strange badge could be seen on its chest armor. "It's another one of those aliens!" A firefighter yelled as the alien flew in close to the building and spotted the woman inside. As he did, he let out several strange sounds before spitting a strange white goop at the window. That goop struck the sides and struck the window together, preventing it from falling apart as it flew inside. "Hey!" He cried in a clicking voice, "are you in here?" "Help us!" The woman's voice yelled out, the insect flying through the flames without a care in the world. Eventually, he found the mother and child, the woman seeing him and looking rather scared. That was until the ceiling caved in and the alien flew in to catch it before it could come crashing down on top of them. "You okay?" He asked, the woman nodding despite her fear. The alien quickly spat several blobs of goop onto the ceiling, holding it in place before turning to them. He brought his hands up and spat out more of the white thread, his hands moulding it until he completed a white blanket-like construct. "Here!" He threw it at them, "keep that over your head to avoid getting burnt!" The woman did as he instructed whilst they turned back to the window, only for more debris to fall down and block it. "We're trapped!" "Oh no we're not!" The alien thrust his arms forward and unleashed a burst of fire from the holes in the front of his hand armor, which struck the debris and caused it to explode and burn away. "Hurry!" He flew forward and the mother followed, the alien being sure to confirm the ceiling and floor wouldn't give way in front of them. When they got to the window, the insect grabbed the mother and daughter before lifting them into the air. Everyone was amazed to see the alien return with the pair, flying them safely away from the house. He then used more of that sticky fireproof thread to slowly winch them both down, letting it go once they were on the ground. "Well if that's everyone safe, I'll be on my way!" With that, he flew off behind the buildings before anyone could try and talk to him. "Wow!" Pinkie smiled, "those aliens are amazing!" Fluttershy nodded with a smile. "I wish they would stay long enough for use to thank them properly. I wonder why they always run off after everything's okay." If only Fluttershy knew the truth, that the aliens were trying to get away before they ran out of time. Sure enough, the firefly alien flew as fast as he could to an unpopulated area. There, he dived into an alleyway as the symbol on his chest started beeping and glowing red. It then exploded with red light, which quickly faded to reveal Flash Sentry with a smirk on his face. The teen pulled his jacket forward and headed over to where he had parked his car when he first spotted the fire, getting in and driving off to school. When he got there, he smiled when he heard someone talk about one of his alien alter-egos. "I heard this super fast alien pushed a woman out of the way of a car that ran a red light." "Well I heard there was this electric lizard alien that powered up a nearby hospital when the power went out." "My dad told me about this weird plant alien that somehow controlled a bunch of trees and used them to stop a baby carriage when it rolled towards the road." Flash smiled as he heard about all the good he had spent the last week doing, stepping into the school and spotted Trixie by his locker. "Hey!" He told her. "Hey," she smirked whilst showing him her phone. "I heard another one of those aliens showed up today," she gave him a knowing look. "Apparently, it saved a mother and her child from burning to death." "Guess we're lucky those aliens are around," Flash told her as he closed his locker before the pair headed to class. Along the way, they spotted Twilight and Sunset. "Hey girls," they turned to smile at him. "How's Rainbow doing?" "See for yourself," Sunset pointed further down the hall and Flash saw Rainbow Dash leaning against her locker as Applejack got her books out of here. She had a pair of crutches besides her and her leg was in a cast. "Hey Rainbow," Flash told her as they reached her. "How's the leg feeling?" "Super itchy," Rainbow moaned. "But it's fine. Doc says the cast should be off in about two weeks." "That's good," Twilight nodded. "I guess we should be happy that alien showed up when he did, or your injuries might have been more severe." "Yeah," Rainbow nodded, "I hope I get to meet him soon so I can thank him. What's his name again?" "I think I heard someone say they heard him call himself Diamondhead," Trixie explained. Flash smirked at this. He had chosen to name each of his aliens, to give them more of an identity and to help make explaining which one he was talking about easier in conversation. He had made sure to announce his many names whenever he could and they were quickly spreading and becoming their official names. "Well I hope I get to meet Diamondhead again," Rainbow stated. "So that I can give him a proper thank you." "I wanna meet him too," Twilight smiled. "I wanna meet all the aliens, so that I can learn more about them. Just imagine what amazing technology they could show our world." "A'h bet they could become super famous," Applejack nodded. "Probably why they don't stick around to talk. Tryin' ta keep things on the down low." "Maybe," Twilight nodded, "I just wish I could get a look at just one piece of their alien technology. I bet their communication devices make smartphones look like carrier pigeons." They all laughed at this and headed towards their first class, though they had to go slow for Rainbow's sake, looking forward to a long day of school whilst continuing to talk about the aliens Over at a nearby science company, in one of the many labs that were working to find new ways to better mankind, one man was hard at work. He was a middle aged man with blue skin, frizzy greying yellow hair and an short shaggy beard that had many of the tips looking like they had been burnt. He had a pair of goggles on and was busy welding something, the sound annoying a pigeon that was in a cage next to a snake's tank. Then, suddenly, the door of his lab flew open. "Animac!" A man in a suit rushed in, "where are you?" The man named Animac sighed and stopped welding before turning to him, "what is it? I've almost completed my masterpiece. An invention that will be the key to the next stage of human evolution." "I've just gone over the accounts and found you've maxed out not just your spending account, but the accounts of three other members of staff. Did you really think I wouldn't realise you've hacked into their accounts." "BAH!" Animac didn't look concerned as he started welding again, "they were simply wasting the money. Their research will never amount to anything. But mine will change the future of mankind." "Yeah right," the man frowned. "You've been saying that for the last five years and still haven't gotten anything to show for it." "Well that's all about to change." "Yes, it is." The man rushed off and unplugged the welder. "You're out of here Animac." The scientist looked at him in shock, "I've had it with you constantly causing problems for the company. I want you out of here by the end of the day. And don't think of taking any of your research, because it's the official property of the company." Animac looked outraged, "you can't do this!" "I just did." Animac growled, then smiled and turned around. "Fine. But before I go, I wish to show you the fruits of my efforts." The man looked at him in confusion, as Animac spun back around. He was now wearing a strange looking helmet with a pair of long pointed horns on the front. He also wore a strange looking vest with multiple pieces of machinery on it along with wires connected to the helmet and pair of gloves he was wearing that had gun barrels on the back of them. "What is that?" "My perfected experiment. The animal recombinator!" He turned towards the cages and held up his gloves, as the gun barrels on them glowed before both unleashing a burst of energy. One struck the bird and the other struck the snake, making them both cry out as their bodies were disintegrated. The energy flew back into the guns and travelled throughout his body, eventually reaching his helmet and flying up the antenna before shooting out of it. The man was horrified to see the two energies merge together, eventually forming a new shape before fading away. Now, a giant snake was inside the lab. It was almost five meters long and had a pair of large feathered wings and a long sharp beak where its mouth should, that beak snapping open and shut. "Impossible." "Apparently not," Animac chuckled before turning to the beast. "Punish him for his ignorance." The antenna beeped and the winged-snake suddenly swung his tail around and slammed it into the man. He flew backwards and crashed into the back wall, falling to the ground unconscious and Animac laughed. "Excellent," he jumped up onto the snake's neck. "Now I require more parts to finish my ultimate creation. Unfortunately, I'm not likely to find them here. Fortunately, I know the perfect place to get them." The snake shot into the air and smashed through a window, flying above the city in order to find what Animac was looking for. With school over, Flash was driving home. As he did, he couldn't help but remember what Twilight had said and was curious what might happen if he actually told the world he was all those aliens. But the idea of revealing himself to the public scared him, the thought of becoming famous because of something like this was a thought that sent a chill down his spine. "No," he told himself, "better to keep this a secret. At least until I learn more about this thing." His eyes drifted to the watch and as it did, he also noticed a nearby superstore. And seeing that made the teen peckish. Turning into the store's lot, he parked up and headed inside. The place was massive, with aisles for everything a person would want. This included snacks, the teen heading over to the candy aisle and looking through the selection. "What to pick?" "You can't go wrong with gummy worms if you ask me." Flash turned towards the voice and spotted a white skinned man with blue hair. "Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop." "It's fine," Flash told him. "Don't worry about it." He picked up the candy the man had suggested, "you saying these are good." "Definitely," he nodded as he grabbed his own bag. "I've never had a complaint. Shining Armor by the way." "Flash Sentry," the teen saluted. As he did, he notice a woman pushing a shopping cart down the aisle. "Dean Cadance?" Shining and the woman looked confused as she stepped up besides him. "Do I know you?" She asked, Flash smirking. "Flash Sentry. I was on CHS's Friendship Game team." "Oh that's right. You're the boy who baked the loaf of bread instead of the cake." Flash blushed at this, Cadance and Shining both laughing. "Well it's nice to see you again. And it's Principal Cadance now." Flash nodded at this as he grabbed another bag of gummy worms. "So how have things been at school? Twilight talks about it a lot but I fear she might be abridging certain things to make us happy." "Everything's great there. There's been a few incidents, but nothing you need to worry about." "Well you can never be too careful," Shining told him. "Our world's getting crazier and crazier by the minute. If it's not weird magical stuff, it's those alien invaders that have started showing up." Those words caught Flash by surprise, the teen turning to him. "Invaders? The aliens have done nothing but help people." "Maybe," Shining frowned, "or maybe that's what they want us to believe. If we start seeing them as heroes, we'll lower our guard and the next thing we know we're suddenly getting sucked up by UFOs and sent to their planets to be used as their version of pigs." Flash and Cadance just gave him a look that told him they were disturbed. "Trust me, those things are nothing but trouble." "Well I think you're wrong," Flash told him. "I think those aliens just wanna help and hopefully, you'll see that one day too." Shining frowned and looked like he was about to argue. But as he did, a nearby wall exploded and sent debris flying everywhere. Flash and Shining both saw this and their instincts kicked in, Shining leaping at Cadance and knocking her to the ground as Flash leapt back to avoid a piece of the wall, that instead crashed into the shelf behind him. "What just happened?" Cadance asked, as Shining stood up and looked over at the wall. When he did, his eyes went wide. "Hello there!" Animac smiled as he rode his winged-serpent into the store, "sorry for busting down the wall. Your doors were ill equipped to fit my little pet." As he said that, a shop clerk ran up to him. "See here. There are no unleashed pets allowed in this store. Especially giant snakes with wings." He pointed at Animac, "you and your friend will have to LEEEEEEEAVE!" He screamed the last part as the snake had flicked its tail around and knocked him flying, crashing into a nearby shelf. Shining had seen enough and turned to Cadance, "get out of here. GO!" She nodded and ran off, Shining looking over at Flash and seeing the teen run as well. He quickly checked the rest of the store and spotted several shoppers all frozen in place by fear, in danger of being crushed by falling debris or swallowed by a giant snake. Reaching into his belt, he pulled his gun out of its holster before rushing over to point it at Animac. "Freeze!" He yelled, getting the madman's attention. "I don't know what's going on, but you're under arrest!" "Oh, I don't think so!" Animac turned towards the pet aisle, spotting a hamster and a frog inside a cage. He pointed his gloves at them both and unleashed the lightning, which struck the pair and disintegrated them. The energies flew back towards him and up to his helmet, then fired out the antenna. The two energies merged together and began to take shape, Shining's eyes going wide. Flash had managed to get away from the chaos zone and had safely gotten into the store's bathroom. "Okay Doctor Dolittle, it's time to face the power of Riot-Horn." He activated the watch and started cycling through his alien forms, trying to find the one he wanted. Shining watched as the energy finally formed the new creation, that being a giant hamster creature with the legs of a frog that was the size of an elephant. The hybrid fell towards the ground and the impact was so great, it caused the entire room to shake and made Shining trip over. The man cried out as he hit the ground, his gun falling from his hands. He tried to recover and looked up at the creature, who let out a strange noise that was a mix of a croak and a squeak. "Take him!" Animac yelled as his winged-snake moved over to the electronics area. The creature opened its mouth and from it, a long tongue shot out towards Shining. "Yikes!" He rolled away and jumped up to run for his life, the hybrid leaping into the air. Shining barely managed to dodge before the creature crashed into the ground, shaking the entire building. This included the bathroom, which vibrated so hard Flash lost his balance. "WOW!" He cried as he fell over, accidently pushing the dial down before he found the right alien. In a flash, the teen was replaced by a strange brown humanoid rodent creature standing at about two foot. He was wearing a black and white body suit that covered everything except its face and arms. It was wearing a pair of white gloves and on its rodent face, it had a yellow moustache under its nose and the watch symbol on his white belt. "I say," Flash spoke with a British accent as he looked himself over. "Molestache. Well this is certainly an unfortunate turn of events." The ground shook again and Flash realised he couldn't let this stop him, "I must stop that accursed vagabond before he causes anyone a serious injury." With that, he rushed for the door and tried to leap up and grab the handle. Alas, he couldn't reach. As such, instead his moustache suddenly came to life and grew in such a way that it mirrored the appearance of a pair of muscular arms. He reached up and turned the handle, trying to pull the door open only to accidently pull it of its hinges. "Oops." He put the door down and ran outside, where he spotted the hamster frog chasing Shining. "Tally-ho!" He charged forward and as the frog leapt into the air, he did the same and reached up with his moustache hand. Grabbed the hybrid by the ear, he pulled himself up and landed on its back as it landed. Shining glanced back and was surprised when he saw the alien, who started punching at the hybrid's head with both his actual fists and his hair fists. "One of those things!" Molestache looked up at him and smiled as he kept punching. "What ho detective," he stated as the hamster frog tried to throw him off. "I say, you're a lively one are you not!" He looked ahead and saw several people frozen in fear right in front of the hybrid, Molestache quickly extending his nose hair and coiling it around the creatures neck. "Keep away from them, you rapscallion!" He pulled at the neck as hard as he could, making the hybrid stagger backwards. Through his grunts, he turned to Shining. "Please give aid to their escape!" Shining didn't like working with an alien, but he knew he had to get those people to safety. So he quickly rushed over to the shoppers. "Come on!" He yelled, pulling some of them up and pushing them towards the exit. As he did, the hybrid stared swinging its head around and around. Molestache tried to hold on as best he could, but slowly he was losing his grip. "I say!" He cried when his moustache finally snapped and he was sent flying over to the electronics section. He ended up crashing into a shelf of calculators and knocking it over, getting buried in the equipment. Further down the aisle, Animac was looking at all the pieces of technology he had available to him without cost. "Truly a bargain!" He smiled as he picked up several camcorders and other pieces of equipment, "now I have everything I need to complete my perfect creation." But before he could make his escape, the calculator pile exploded with Molestache jumping out of it. He then raised both his real and hair fists like a boxer. "Good sir, I kindly ask you to put down what you plan to pilfer or I shall have to give you a jolly good thrashing!" Animac looked at him strangely, then pointed at him. "Attack!" The winged-serpent flew forward, mouth open wide ready to swallow him down. But Molestache charged forward and used his moustache to hoist himself up above the beast before diving down and landing on top of its head. He then rushed down its back and used his stache to wrap around the wings. The beast suddenly found itself unable to fly and crashed down to the ground, sliding forward before stopping as Molestache smiled. He then felt something hit him in the back and grunt, the rodent looking back to see it was the hamster frog's tongue. "Get him!" Animac yelled as his latest creation retracted its tongue and tried to pull Molestache towards him, but a loud banging sound quickly filled the air and the creature cried out in pain as Molestache fell to the floor. Animac looked around and spotted Shining, gun out pointed at the beast. He growled, but knew he was just wasting time. As Molestache picked himself up, Animac grabbed the last of the equipment he needed. He then sent a mental command to his serpent and the beast flew up and smashed its head into the ceiling. Molestache and Shining saw this and both watched as the roof began to cave in, whilst Animac leapt onto his hamster frog. Shining began to run around to avoid the debris, Molestache easily deflecting it with a punch from his stache fists. As they did, the hamster leapt up through the hole the snake made and out into the streets. People screamed their heads off seeing this and ran for their lives, whilst the frog and serpent kept on their escape route with Animac leaping onto his snake to fly away. "Shining!" Cadance cried, watching more of the stone collapse. "Wow!" Shining cried as he leapt out of the way of a falling piece of rubble, whilst Molestache ran up to him. As he did, a nearby support column crumbled apart and was about to fall on the detective. "Look out!" Molestache used his stache to push Shining out of the way, but this caused it to get crushed by the column. Molestache was so busy trying to pull himself free, that he didn't notice another piece of debris fall down until it slammed him in the head. "Ahhh!" He cried as he fell to the ground, completely unconscious. Shining remained where he was as the building continued to shake, but eventually settled around him with the last of the debris falling but not hitting him. He sighed in relief once the building was secure, then turned towards the alien. Despite what had just happened, Shining knew he needed to take this chance to get one of these things under lock and key and figure out what their scheme was. He moved over to the alien and rolled him over, the moustache pinning him twisting as he did so. "Alright E.T," he told him. "What are you up to?" But before he could think of what to do with him, a beeping sound caught his attention and he looked down to see the symbol on his belt flashing. Within seconds, the device unleashed a blinding light that Shining had to look away from. When it died down, he looked back and was in for the shock of a lifetime when he saw who was laying in the mole's place. "Flash?" He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Why was Flash there instead of the alien? It was then he noticed the watch on the kid's arm, which had the same symbol as the aliens. Slowly, Shining was putting the pieces together. He remembered how defensive Flash was of the aliens, so could it be he was connected to them. "What have you gotten yourself into kid?" From atop his winged serpent, Animac chuckled as he took apart the different pieces of tech he had stolen. But before he could try and put them together, a gunshot filled and something zoomed passed his snake's wing. He looked down and spotted a bunch of police cruisers racing down the road towards him. He growled and ordered his serpent higher into the air. "Deal with them!" He told the hamster frog, who stopped leaping after him and spun around to leap at the police cars. The officers managed to avoid the beast and come to a stop, the police getting out of the cars and beginning to shoot at it and allowed Animac to escape. But as he flew around another corner, more sirens filled the air as several more cruisers appeared. "Oh, come on!" Flash's head was killing him as he came around, the teen feeling it pulse with pain as his eyes flickered open. As his brain slowly cleared, he realised something. He was laying on a very uncomfortable mattress and his arms were up above his head, apparently locked in place by something. "Wha?" He looked up as his vision solidified, allowing him to see that he was laying on an old metal bed. His hands were handcuffed to different sections of the headboard, making it impossible for him to reach the watch. "What's going on?" "You and I are going to have a little talk." Flash looked towards the voice, surprised when he saw Shining Armor sitting on a chair at the end of the bed. He looked around the room and found it was a dank and dirty place, that appeared to not have been lived in for some time. "We're in an abandoned apartment building," Shining explained. "It's set to be demolished soon. But until then, it'll hold you long enough for me to get some answers." "Answers about what?" Shining stepped over and grabbed Flash's left wrist, turning to show him the watch. "I saw that mole creature turn into you and noticed this watch, which won't come off your wrist. Okay kid, if you are a kid, what's the story. You part of some body snatcher alien plan. Did you get rid of the real Flash Sentry and take his place hoping to complete some kind of alien human crossbreeding invasion plan." "What?" Flash looked at him like he was crazy, "I'm not an alien. I can just...turn into some." "Some?" Flash sighed, knowing this was gonna be a long explanation. Animac hissed in annoyance as he flew above the city, the police cars continuing to chase after him. They had been chasing him now for over forty minutes and his winged-snake was starting to get tired. It wouldn't be able to stay airborne much longer. "Isn't there some place where a genius can work without being distracted?" But then he noticed a nearby sign, which made him smirk. "Perfect." His mutant flew around a building and began to head towards the one place a man with his powers was unstoppable. Canterlot City Zoo. "And that's the story," Flash finally finished as Shining stared at the watch. "I'm not part of an alien invasion. I just wanna help people." Shining looked the watch over, trying for the third time to remove it. "So you had this dangerous weapon, which a bunch of robots blew up downtown to get, and you decided to just keep it to yourself so you could play hero." "Well what else was I supposed to do?" Flash asked, "it won't come off. For all I know, if I told the world about this watch I could end up on some mad scientist's lab table getting dissected. Or locked up for no reason. And I'm not playing hero. I'm actually helping those in need. I've had this thing a week and I've already saved a butt ton of people, including your ungrateful ass!" "This thing is far too dangerous to let some reckless kid have," Shining told him. "I'm taking you into custody and we're gonna find a way to get that thing off of you." Flash frowned, fearing what he just theorised might actually happen. But before Shining could come up with a way to move him without the kid hitting the watch, Shining's phone went off. "This is Armor?" He answered and listened for a few seconds. "Are you sure?" He sighed, "I'm on my way." He hung up and turned to Flash, "you're booking's gonna have to wait. That Animac guy's back and he's causing problems at the zoo." Flash's eyes went wide. "Shining, you've gotta free me." "As if." "You saw that that nutcase could do. If he's at the zoo, he probably has an entire army of mutant animal fusion. You really think the police have a chance of beating something like that?" Shining stopped and thought about this, "let me go and I can help. Some of my aliens have amazing abilities. Animac won't stand a chance against them." "No way," Shining told him. "There's no way I'm letting some reckless kid use a dangerous weapon." "It's not like I'll be unsupervised," Flash pointed out. "You'll be there with me. You'll see the good I can do." "The answer is no," Shining headed for the door. "You'll stay here until this mess is cleaned up and then I'm taking you down to the police precinct." With that, he was gone and Flash let out a frustrated groaned. All he could do was lay their and wait to be arrested, doing so for a few minutes until he got bored. "To heck with this," he tried to reach the watch with his other hand but the two were just out of reach. "Dang handcuffs. There has to be a way to get out of this." At the Canterlot City Zoo, Animac and his winged serpent stood atop a large building and laughed at what was below him. When he had arrived at the zoo, he quickly got to work and now he had an entire army. Multiple different animal fusions ran around the place, attacking anything and anyone that got too close. This included the police, who had tried multiple times to charge in. But nothing they did allowed them to even get close to Animac before a fusion of a lion and an owl tried to eat them. "Finally," he looked away from the carnage, "I can complete my work." But as he walked over to the pieces of technology that he had stolen, something new happened. A police officer had rushed in firing wildly at the animals. But what he hit ended up being a fusion of a turtle and an alligator. The beast's shell and hide protected it, allowing it to charge forward and bite at his leg. He screamed and fell back, the mutant letting him go as he pulled himself backwards. It then tried to bite into him again. But before it could, a diamond-shaped shield appeared. "Are you okay?" He looked around and saw six girls running towards him, one of them holding up her hand as it glowed. Twilight, Rarity, Sunset, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie had been enjoying themselves with Rainbow when they heard about the insanity that was going on. Thinking it could be Equestrian Magic, they rushed off though Rainbow wasn't happy she had to stay behind. "Get out of here," the officer told them. "It's not safe." "Don't worry," Pinkie pulled a cupcake from her hair. "We got this!" She threw the cupcake and it hit the turtle-gator in the face, exploding and making it stagger backwards. But there were a lot more animals all around them, each one a crazy amalgam of two of even three animals. They all screamed, roared or made a strange mixture of their different natural sounds, Fluttershy gasping. "The poor things." The others turned to her, "they hate what's happened to them. But they can't control themselves. Whatever that man tells them to do, they can't refuse." "So they'll stop attacking if we take that guy down?" Sunset asked, Fluttershy nodding. "That...could be tricky." They looked around at all the animals now surrounding them, glaring at them and showing their teeth. If they wanted to get to Animac, they needed to get past all these creatures first. And that wasn't gonna be easy. Back with Flash, he was still attempting to free himself using the watch. "Come on," he moaned as he pressed the side of the watch against one of the headboard's bars. "Come on." Then he felt the bar push something on the watch in and heard the clicking of the watch's dial going up. "YES!" He couldn't see what alien was dialled up, but knew any of them could get him out of the handcuffs and pushed the dial down. A bright green light filled the room and when it faded, Flash was no long on the bed. In his place was a giant puddle of green slime. A strange UFO-like device appeared above it and as it floated over the puddle, the mass began to morph into a more humanoid shape. Said shape had a pair of blue eyes surrounded by a black boarder and the watch symbol where its chest would be. "Alright," a gargling voice cheered before turning to the window, "Goop to the rescue!" The UFO flew forward and smashed through the boards keeping the window shut, pulling the green slime along with it. Shining Armor had finally arrived at the zoo and was shocked by what he saw. Each and every police officer was fighting against a certain animal hybrid and not having much luck against them. Getting out of his car, he ran forward as a Gorilla with bat wings and ears flew passed carrying an officer in his hand like feet. He pulled out his gun and fired several shots, not hitting the beast by managing to scratch its leg and make it drop the officer. "WOW!" He heard a girl's voice and looked over, seeing Applejack being pushed backwards as she tried to stop a hybrid that had the head and legs of a lion and the shell of an armadillo. She had the creature by the jaws and was keeping them from snapping shut, but still couldn't overpower it. He then spotted Twilight run forward and use her magic to grab the creature and lift it away from Applejack. "Twilight!" Shining cried, rushing to his sister. As he did, he spotted the rest of her friends were also trying to stop the hybrids. Pinkie was throwing deserts that caused low-level explosions at them, just enough to daze and not hurt them, whilst Rarity was protecting herself, Sunset and Fluttershy in a dome of crystals. "You have to get out of here!" "We can't!" Twilight told him as a police officer yelled, the three turning to see him being chased by a leopard with the legs and horns of a gazelle. Twilight quickly grabbed it in her magic and pulled it away, allowing him to escape. "Our magic's the only thing keeping these creatures at bay. We can't just leave." "Though we're barely holdin'em off," Applejack stated. "We could really use some alien help right now." Shining frowned as he remembered what he did to Flash. "We don't need those aliens." He looked around, trying to find Animac. "If we can just find the guy responsible for this." He ran off, much to Twilight's cry that he stay where it was safe. He ran as fast as he could to avoid the animals, getting attacked by wolves that had wings, centipedes with lizard heads and a giant scorpion with a king cobra for a tail. Eventually, he managed to avoid them all as he arrived at the centre of the zoo. And there he spotted Animac, sitting at a table surrounded by pieces of tech and other hardware. "FREEZE!" He pointed his gun at the man, who didn't even look shocked he was there. "Ahh, the police officer from before. Survived the little burying I gave, did we?" "You...are gonna turn those animals back to normal and surrender, or else." But Animac didn't seem to take his threat seriously, instead continuing to work on the device. "Hey!" Before he could say anything else, something shot out from hiding and flew straight at him. "WOW!" He cried as it slammed into him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him with a large paw. Shining's eyes spun and when they righted, he looked up to see a giant tiger glaring down at him. Only it wasn't just a tiger. Its back legs were replaced by goat hooves and on its left shoulder was that goat's head. Instead of a tail, it had a long snake that hissed as it flicked around. The creature both growled, barred and hissed at him, whilst Animac laughed. "My little pet should deal with you. Too bad you didn't think to stay away long enough to survive." He picked up the device he was working on and held it up for all to see. "If you did, you would have gotten to experience the joys of my ultimate masterpiece. Once I attach my new device to the strongest signal booster in Canterlot, it'll unleash an energy wave designed to fuse any human it touches with the closest animal. Mankind will finally have reached its next stage of evolution!" "You're insane," Shining grunted as he tried to push the chimera's paw off of him. "No, I'm ingenious. Just watch. Once everyone sees how much better they are combined with animals, I'll win the nobel prize for sure!" He ran off, as Shining looked back at the chimera with terror in his eyes. Both heads leaned down, ready to bite a chunk out of him. But before they could, a green slimy whip slammed into the goat head and made it cry out and stagger off of Shining. The tiger head turned to where the whip had come from, only to get its own whipping that made it's entire body jump away from Shining. The cop spun around and was shocked to see Goop standing there, the badge on his chest making him realise it was Flash. "Sentry?" He picked himself up as Goop's UFO flew towards the chimera and pulled him along. The beast roared and charged, but Goop stayed close to the ground and slid under it before the chimera could try and attack him. As he did, he covered the bottom of its feet and hooves with his slime and flew off it. When he did, the chimera's feet found themselves sticking to the ground as the slime on them hardened. "That'll hold ya'h for a while," Goop announced as Shining rushed up to him. "I didn't need your help." "Right," he replied sarcastically before the pair headed off in the direction Animac ran. "Any idea what his next plan is?" "He said he was gonna detonate some kind of device that'll fuse people to animals." "That's nuts," Goop stopped when he saw several police officers being cornered by alligator turtle hybrids. "Hold on a moment." He shot forward and slid around the feet of the hybrids, sticking them to the ground and allowing the police officers the chance to escape. As he did, the badge on his chest started beeping. "Oh no!" As quick as he could, he flew between a pair of buildings seconds before that space was filled with light. A moment later, Flash ran out and rejoined Shining. "So where is he gonna detonate that thing?" "Nowhere you need to know," Shining told him. "You're not a part of this situation, especially now that you're human again." "Come on!" Flash groaned, "you'd be tiger, goat and snake food if it wasn't for me. Just wait. When this watch times back in, I'll be ready to go and take that psycho down." As he said that, Twilight and Applejack ran up to them. "Shining!" His sister yelled, then noticed the teen. "And...Flash?" "What are you doing here?" Applejack asked, Flash suddenly finding himself without a good answer. But before he could try and come up with one, a nearby building suddenly exploded. The reason for the sudden blow was made obvious when a giant elephant stamped out of the wreckage. But to their horror, the elephant didn't have traditional legs. Instead, eight large arachnid legs could be seen coming out of its sides and its head had eight eyes instead of two. "Ew," Twilight looked grossed out by the creature. But then they noticed Animac riding atop of it. "There he is!" "Twilight!" Shining yelled, "use your magic and grab that device he's wearing!" Twilight nodded and held up her hands, the device Animac was wearing beginning to glow. The man noticed this and quickly held it tighter to him, he and Twilight struggling to pull it. "Stop!" He yelled, "you'll break it!" But Twilight wasn't listening, so he turned to the elephant spider. "Get them!" The creature turned towards them and held up its trunk, which it swung around to try and knock them all down. The lot scream as they leapt out of the way, Twilight forced to stop using her magic. "Good. Now take them down!" The elephant spider let out a traditional elephant sound and in doing so, unleashed a strange white substance from its trunk. Applejack was struck by the substance and knocked down, the white gunk gluing her to the ground. "HEY!" She yelled, trying to use her super strength to pull herself free. But whatever this stuff was, it was strong. "Applejack!" Twilight yelled, rushing to her side. "Twilight, stay back!" But it was too late. The elephant spider fired another blast of webbing and struck Twilight, knocking her to the ground and tying her up so only her head and feet were visible. "Twilight!" Shining yelled, but he and Flash were forced to jump back to avoid getting hit by the webbing. This allowed Animac's monster to grab Twilight in its trunk and lift her up, Twilight crying out at this. "I'll take this little girl with me. I'm sure once I've proven my brilliance with my evolution bomb, I'll be allowed to run any experiments I want." He looked down at Twilight, "I look forward to seeing what evolutionary potential you represent once I cut you open." Twilight looked ready to start crying, as the elephant spider leapt into the air and landed atop a nearby building. It then shot a bunch of webbing behind it that covered the entire area, blocking Flash and Shining from going straight after them. "TWILIGHT!" Shining yelled, growling as he took out his phone and started running. "What are you doing?" Flash asked, Shining typing away at it. "I have tracking software on Twilight's phone," he looked at Flash and frowned. "Don't give me that look. You have no idea how often Twilight loses her phone. She's the one that installed this!" He finally tracked down Twilight's phone, "there she is." He turned around a corner and Flash followed, the pair heading for the zoo's exit. "What's your plan?" He asked the detective as they left the zoo. "Let's face it, you're not exactly much of a match against Animac's hybrids. Twilight was beaten and she has magic." Shining frowned, clearly thinking the same thing. He then looked down at Flash's wrist, as the watch's dial turned green. "Can you save her? If you use that thing?" Flash looked at the watch, "I'm not sure." He then gave Shining a serious look, "but I'm gonna try." Shining nodded as they reached the exit and headed for his car, both getting in and driving off to follow Twilight's signal. The girl continued to be terrified, as the spider-phant leapt from building to building and scuttling along it. "Where are we going?" She asked, as Animac smirked down at her. "I need a strong signal boost in order for my energy wave to blanket the entire city. And what better booster, then Canterlot's main cellphone tower." He pointed ahead of him, Twilight looking around and seeing the phone tower in question. Twilight gulped as she once again try to escape, but the webbing was just too strong. She couldn't even use her magic in this state. They reached the tower and the spider-phant dropped Twilight at the base of the tower, then fired another blast of webbing to stick her to it. She struggled against it, but still couldn't escape as the spider-phant lifted Animac up as high as its trunk would go. He started climbing the ladder, Twilight hoping someone or something would show up to stop this madman. "There she is," Flash stated as he saw Twilight's signal stop moving on Shining's phone. "She's at the base of the city's cell tower." "Of course," Shining nodded. "Animac said he needed a signal booster, so of course he would use that." He turned a corner and as they did, they found many people running in the opposite direction screaming their heads off. "I think we're getting close." Flash saw they were just around the corner from Twilight's location. "Let me out here!" Shining nodded and stopped the car, Flash jumping out and looking around. Nobody was in sight, so he activated the watch and cycled through his alien choices. "I hope you've got something strong enough to take that mutant down," Shining told him as Flash smirked. "Oh, I got just the thing." With that, he slapped the dial down and the watch unleashed a flash of light. Shining flinched at said light, but it quickly faded and he looked back at Flash. In his place was a ten foot giant brown humanoid rhino creature, whose upper body was covered large spikes. A large horn spike was sticking out of its nose with a smaller one just behind it, whilst a large straight spike was sticking out of each arm just below the shoulder. Its ears were long and pointed, like an elf's, whilst its blue eyes were quite small. On its head between its ears was a streak of blue hair and it was wearing a grey bodysuit that was covered in light armor that was black, including a chest plate, knee and elbow pads and armoured boots. Around each wrist was a ring made of the same material as its horns, whilst the watch symbol was on the centre of his chest armor. "Wow," Shining said as Flash smirked. "Let's go!" He said in a gruff voice before charging forward, Shining Armor not far behind. Twilight watched Animac fiddle around at the top of the tower, attaching his bomb to the circuitry. The spider-phant continued to be on guard, as Animac cheered. "Yes. Now the evolution bomb is all hooked up. Once it reaches full charge, it'll fire and my greatest dream will finally be realised." "I don't think so!" They all heard, looking down the street and seeing a giant rhino-man hybrid running towards them. Twilight was amazed, whilst Animac looked shocked. "Another of those weird creatures. I'd call you a beautiful merging of two species, but it's clear you weren't made by my experiments so you are obviously a flawed creation." "Yeah, I'm not one of yours. I'm Riot-Horn, the alien hero that will stop you!" With that, he charged forward as fast as he could run. The spider-phant charged as well, swinging its massive trunk in Riot-Horn's direction. But the rhino alien slid to a stop and actually caught the trunk, gripping it in both hands before spinning on the spot. "RAAAAH!" He yelled as he pulled the spider-phant into the air and then slammed him downwards. The mutant screamed as it smashed into the pavement, the impact causing the ground to shake as Riot-Horn let go and leapt away before it could try to retaliate. As he did, Twilight noticed the horns on his body were slowly starting to glow. "What's that about?" "Twilight!" She looked around saw her brother, who ran up to the cell tower and pulled out his gun. He fired it up towards Animac, but the man jumped away and the bullet struck a piece of metal instead. "Let's get you out of here!" "Shining!" Twilight cried, "where did that alien come from?" Shining wanted to tell her it was actually Flash, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to say it. "I don't know. But...I think we can trust him." As Shining pulled at the webbing, the spider-phant picked itself up and charged at Riot-Horn. But the alien stood his ground. "Bring it!" He roared, as the mutant tried to stab him with its tusk. But he grabbed that tusk and stopped it in its tracks, then grabbed the other one. He managed to hold the mutant in place, but as he did the creature raised its trunk and pointed it at him. "Uh oh." The webbing shot out of the trunk and Riot-Horn was forced to leap back to avoid getting stuck, hitting the ground again and causing it to shake. "Not cool." Twilight kept watching the fight as her brother managed to get more and more of the webbing off of her, allowing her more movement. But she was too focused on the alien, whose horns and spikes were getting brighter and brighter. It was only when the light of the sun reflected off one into her face that she realised what must be happening. "Is he...collecting solar energy?" "Come Twilight!" Shining told her, "try and wiggle free!" Twilight did so, the webbing giving way and slowly allowing her to move more. At the same time, Animac watched the fight and turned to his evolution bomb. "Soon," he told himself, "soon." The bomb was almost fully charged. Once that happened, there would be no stopping it. This caused him to laugh, catching Riot-Horn's attention and making him realise he was running out of time. "I've gotta end this!" He glanced back at the others and saw that Twilight was finally free, Shining pulling the last of the webbing off of her as the pair ran away. "Perfect!" As the spider-phant charged, Riot-Horn leapt into the air and slammed both feet down into its back. "Now I don't have to hold back!" The creature cried out as it was plastered to the ground, whilst Riot-Horn leapt off of it and landed on the ground behind him. As he did, the glow from his horns suddenly started to dim. Shining and Twilight saw this and noticed the veins on his body started glowing as well, as if the energy was flying through his body. And all of it seemed to be heading down to the rings around his fists. "Here we go!" He yelled as he raised his fists, whilst the rings started growing upwards and forming a pair of glowing sphere around his fists that had all the solar energy he had collected. As this was happening, the spider-phant pushed itself back up and turned towards Riot-Horn. It let out a trunk cry before charging forward, the alien rhino doing the same. Both creatures shook the ground as they ran and everyone watched with bated breath, until Riot-Horn suddenly leapt up and then thrust his left fist into the ground so hard it cause a large shockwave. This knocked everyone on the ground back, including the spider-phant. And this allowed Riot-Horn to leap off the spot he was on and fly towards it whilst bringing his other fist around. "Take...THIS!" He thrust the sphere covered fist into the spider-phant's face and struck it with such force, that the creature was sent flying backwards with another shockwave. Animac was horrified to see this, then even more horrified when he saw where the spider-phant was going to land. "NOOOO!" He yelled as the mutant slammed into the cell tower with such force, the whole thing to ripped out of the ground and began to fall. Animac screamed as he grabbed onto the tower, whilst Riot-Horn ran forward and leapt over to where the tower was falling. And before it could hit the ground, he caught it as the sphere around his fists retracted. He grabbed the tower and stopped it from hitting the ground, but the suddenly movement caused Animac to fall to the ground. Shining Armor and Twilight rushed over to him, Shining tackling him as he tried to pick himself up whilst Twilight rushed to the tower's top. She spotted the bomb was almost fully charged and, using her magic, pulled it towards her with all her might. Doing so ripped the connections out, causing the bomb to shut down seconds before it went off. "NOOOO!" Animac yelled, seeing his greatest creation destroyed. Shining then punched him in the face, knocking him out as the cop grabbed all his tech and threw it to the ground. The machine broke apart and as it did, a shockwave exploded outwards. All over the city, Animac's creations were struck by the shockwave and exploded into energy. That energy then split apart and reshaped itself, reforming the animals that had been originally fused together. This included the spider-phant, which split back into the elephant and tarantula that Animac had original fused at the zoo. Riot-Horn carefully put the cell tower down and moved over to the downed elephant, seeing it was okay. He patted it on the head and then turned to leave. "Wait!" Twilight called out, making him stop. "Where did you come from?" He alien turned to her, "why are you here?" Riot-Horn stared at her and smiled, "we're here to help. Nothing more to say." Before Twilight could ask anything else, Riot-Horn leapt into the air and landed on top of a nearby building before leaping off and disappearing. Twilight frowned, "there has to be more to this." She turned to Shining, "right?" Shining, who had just cuffed Animac, looked over at where Riot-Horn had vanished. "Who knows. But...I think we can trust these aliens." Canterlot's news feeds were abuzz, telling the story of the strange animal fusions that had appeared earlier that day. Shining had had an interview when he had booked Animac, many people calling him a hero for stopping the mad scientist. But Shining had told them all that he never would have caught Animac if the aliens hadn't helped him. Once he had finally escaped the paparazzi, made sure Twilight and her friends were all safely home and called Cadance to keep her from panicking, he drove back towards the abandoned apartment he had trapped Flash in. And much to his surprise, though a part of him knew he would be there, Flash was sitting on its front step. Shining pulled up to the curve and got out of the car, Flash standing up and looking scared. "Wasn't expecting to see you here." "Well...I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on the run," Flash explained before holding up his hands as if expecting to be handcuffed. "I'm ready. Take me to jail." Shining stared at him, looking almost surprised. "You saved my sister, not to mention a lot of other people. You didn't do it for profit, or for recognition. You did it because it was the right thing to do." "Yeah," Flash nodded, scratching his head. "Plus...I really didn't want to play DNA roulette with whatever animal I would have been fused with." Shining laughed at this. "So...what do we do now?" "Now...you're gonna tell me about each and every alien you can turn into." Flash held up an eyebrow at this, "and I'm gonna try and help you learn to master each of their abilities." "Why?" "Because you've shown me you really do just want to help. And I've decided you're worth taking a chance on. As long as you promise to do things the right way and not use these powers selfishly, I'll agree to keep your secret and help you in whatever way I can." Flash's eyes went wide, the teen smiling at him. "Thank you." He held out his hand and Shining shook it, the pair sealing the deal. "I promise, I'll be the best alien hero you've ever seen." Shining nodded back. And so it was that Flash Sentry and Shining Armor became partners in crime. Well...partners in preventing crime. And this would be a partnership that would change their lives for the better, in more ways than one.