Chapter 1 A lone wolf or was it a pony
Celestia and Luna turned their heads to the sound of glass breaking.
“Oops…sorry.”
The two sighed in relief when it was discovered to be just a little purple lizard with green scales running down his back, dressed up in a little superhero outfit.
“I'll clean it up, I promise. I was only trying to bring a snack to Twilight.” The little lizard pleaded.
Celestia giggled at the sight, but Luna glared at the broken glass and vanilla milkshake splattered all across the hallway floor.
She yelled at the top of her lungs.
“HOW MANY MORE TIMES MUST I TELL YOU TO WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING? IF YOU CAN'T THEN AT THE VERY LEAST DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS. Plastics are far better for the likes of clumsy oafs.” She mumbled after her rant.
Spike was frightened by Luna, and hurt by her words. It showed as small tears started to build in his eyes, his claws beginning to shake in fear…
“LUNA!!” reprimanded Celestia, “How dare you talk to him like that!”
Luna jumped at her sister’s tone. “Oh, no, no no, I-I didn't mean to…” she sighed.
“I’m sorry, Spike. Look I just bought those dishes and now they're broken. Please in the future get the plastic ones instead, okay? Now come here.” Luna hugged him and then began to clean up the mess herself.
“Go and make Twilight another one.” Spike nodded and headed back to the kitchen.
Celestia shook her head. “And that's another thing I have to add to my list. The fear of other creatures has been rising ever since these chimera incidents. Lizards, ponies, dogs, and cats. Ever since the war, it's been so hard to get everyone on the right track again.”
Luna turned to her sister. “I didn't mean to- I swear I-…”
“Spike is just a little guy. Let him be.” Celestia gave a small chuckle. ”After all, it was you who adopted him, right?” Luna nodded and continued cleaning up the mess.
”Now, I just wonder how my goddaughter is doing.”
“Our goddaughter,” Luna corrected her.
“Yes, our goddaughter.”
In a bedroom that looked very similar to a science lab than it did a room, sat a purple pony. Surrounding her were vials and beakers of liquids, some boiling. Others were filled with strange ingredients.
She opened a freezer and pulled out several more cold, colorful liquids. She singled out a green one and eyed it carefully. Taking a needle syringe and carefully drawing out the liquid, she set the rest of the vials back in the freezer and walked over to the other side of the desk, near a microscope. Taking a seat, she put on a pair of glasses and carefully let out a drop of the green liquid onto a plate under the microscope.
Right then the door slammed open.
“Twilight, I'm back.”
The sound of the door made Twilight jump and the green liquid splattered onto the table. It quickly burned through the surface of her desk and began to seep through the wood.
“Spike!” She yelled and quickly grabbed a glass pan, catching the green liquid as it dropped from a hole it burned.
“Oh, sorry. uhh, is that acid?” He looked at it, feeling squeamish.
Twilight shrugged. “It wasn't supposed to be, but it does seem to have acid-like qualities.”
She rolled her chair over to one of her three computers and began typing. “Vial number 14, acid-like qualities, volatile, extremely dangerous if not lethal. Attempt 5568: Failure.” She finished in a monotone tone.
“Oh gee…I'm sorry, Twilight. Uh, I have a shake for you, though.” Spike gave a timid smile and offered it to her.
She looked over at him, unamused yet she reluctantly took the shake and sipped it quietly, staring at the computer. Thinking.
“Is there any way I can help you with this?” he asked nervously.
She shook her head as she continued to drink her shake. Spike then sat down on his little bed in the corner of the room. He began to lie down but heard a sound right then.
“Umm Twilight, did you hear that?”
Twilight shook her head again but didn't look away from her research.
“Hmm, I wonder.” The lizard spoke as he stuck his head out the window. It was too dark to see anything.
Suddenly, something flew out of the dark and tried to bite Spike.
“Ahhhh,” he yelled, making Twilight look up just in time to see Spike being dragged out of the window. She frowned. “Ok, Spike I get it, it's almost Halloween. What have you been attacked by this time?” She asked unimpressed as she headed to the window expecting him to be standing on the ledge just outside.
She looked out and saw something actually carrying him off high in the air. Her eyes widened, and quickly she jumped away from the window ledge and over to a large chest sitting by her bed.
She tore it open and put on a dark purple uniform. With black boots, a matching belt, a mask, and what looked to be a witch hat. As she donned her costume and sped out the window, blending into the shadows of the night. Her eyes glowed yellow, and her irises turned crimson as a blue horn emerged from her head. With a flip of her cape, she took off after her lizard friend and whatever was the creature that took him.
Twilight, now Shadow Star, followed them to a dark, old, and musty building on the north side of town and hid on a large tree nearby.
On her belt, she had several gadgets attached, along with a gun and a pair of binoculars. She pulled out the binoculars and tried to see if she could find any sign of her friend.
Nothing at first, but then she saw something in the corner of the building. She knelt down, hoping to not be spotted as she saw the glowing yellow and red eyes.
“Oh, great.” She muttered to herself, “Another mutant.”
This one she observed, seemed to have a wild lion-like mane and a scorpion tail, yet had hooves like a pony.
“Well, this is just great, two mutants after my cousin.” She grimaced.
Out of the blue, another creature flew over the trees.
“Wait, another one?” She surveyed quietly at the creature above her, which could only be described as a griffin.
The griffin then swiftly flew down till it landed next to the other creature.
“Did you track her down?” the new creature questioned.
“Will ya hush up?” the creature spoke in a country accent, “If we scare her again, she’ll take off.”
“Okay okay, so what do we do?”
“Ah don' know, but she has a lizard kid in there.”
“You don't think she's gonna eat that kid, do you?”
Hearing that, Twilight knew what she had to do. Jumping down from the tree, she tried to be as quiet as she could as she sped over to the spooky house and slid in through the door.
The building itself could only be described with one word: creepy. The only noise that could be heard was a few scurrying rats in the walls and spiders crawling around.
Thankfully, due to her own strange mutant powers, Twilight could see in the dark almost as well as she could during the day. She crept around, only hearing the sound of her steady footsteps. But soon enough, she heard a large crash upstairs and took off toward it.
“Ahhh, no, no! Please don't turn me into a vampire, please! I-I eat a lot of fast food and my blood wouldn't taste that good!”
The vampiric creature kept to the shadows, eyes glowing the exact same as the other mutants. However, there was no malice in those terrifying eyes, they only shone with curiosity and excitement.
“Uhh, vampire?” Spike called out anxiously and a little confused. He expected the creature to devour him, instead the vampire started sniffing him.
“Umm…are you gonna eat me?” Spike asked, less sure of what was happening.
The vampire mutant’s eyes narrowed as it continued to act less like a vampire with a mission to kill and more like a curious animal trying to figure out if the thing in front of it is a friend or foe.
Spike didn't know what to do anymore so he decided to tentatively stand up, “H-hey, my name is Spike.”
“Help me,” squeaked the vampire, almost sounding like a cry.
“Help you? Help you with wha…”
The door split open. Twilight in her costume rolled in and shot a net launcher at the creature.
The vampire was immediately caught in its trap and hissed as she tried to break free.
“W-wait! Twi it's…”
“It's okay Spike, I just saved you.” She said, putting away the net launcher and pulling out another gun. Raised and pointed at the creature in the net, Twilight took careful aim.
“Twi listen-”
“You can thank me later, Spike. It's just a tranquilizer, no need to worry. He's just gonna take a nice little nap.” But just before she could pull the trigger, something crashed into the window beside her. The glass shattered on impact, and the griffin creature from before came smashing in, kicking the tranquilizer gun out of Twilight’s hoof.
“No one’s gonna hurt my friend!” shouted the angry griffin.
Suddenly, the creature in the net grew three times its normal size and strength as it ripped through the net. Bat-like wings stretched as it took flight. Swooping down it attacked the griffin, breaking through a wall, and went out onto the streets.
“NO WAIT! Flutters, wait!” yelled the griffin and took off after her.
Twilight got up and shook off her hat, revealing her strange twisted blue horn. Spike clutched her by the cape. “That creature, s-she’s just like you.”
“And so was the griffin, Spike. I don't know what's going on, but I have to stop them.”
“She asked for my help, like she was scared, Twilight.”
The purple pony sighed. “She's still a mutant, Spike.”
“So are you.”
Twilight, pulled out her phone. With a serious face, she started typing something on it.
“What are you doing now?” Spike tried to look at the phone.
“Investigating. That griffin mutant had a soccer uniform on for…” Twilight quickly scoured the internet for the school insignia.
“Canterlot College. Wait! Is this the same Canterlot you got accepted into?”
Twilight blinked slowly. “Canterlot is on the north side of Ponyville just up the mountain roads. It is part of the pristine and wealthy side of the city and has many insignias that represent different parts of the school.” Twilight started typing on her phone again.
“Canterlot College is one of the hardest schools in the world to get into. I barely passed the entrance exams.”
“So what are you doing now?” Spike was curious as he settled over her shoulder.
“Looking up student profiles.”
“You're hacking in?”
“Technically no. I mean…I could and have to fight endless firewalls, taking me days to get the info I need,” Twilight smirked “Or I could just use the mayor's passwords and clearance codes. Things are so much easier when your godmother is the mayor of the city.”
Spike slapped himself in the forehead. “Of course”
Twilight ignored his antics and continued her work.
“There.” She took her hooves off the phone.
Spike read the page.
“Dash Rainbow, age 20. Daughter of Hothoof Rainbow, a top WonderBolt in the Air Force. From Cloudsdale. She applied into Canterlot on sports scholarships for…”
Twilight scrolled down the page. “Huh, looks like all of them,” Spike muttered. “When not busy in sports, she's studying to be a pilot like her dad in the WonderBolts.”
Twilight went over the file herself. “Hmmm looks like she didn't enter alone. She and her two childhood friends from the same town”.
Twilight clicked on another personnel file.
“Jacky Apple, age 20”
Spike gasped. “Apple as in the Apple family?! She's from Sweet Apples, the largest apple brand in history! Her family is famous for their apple cider.”
Twilight speed-read through the file. “Looks like she was studying apple genetics. Trying to make the sweetest-tasting apple that ever existed. Not a surprise honestly, The Apple family keeps their recipes locked tight, not uncharacteristic for them to be fiddling with apple DNA to make it taste even better. Applejack must have been that country pony with the scorpion tail that I saw before.”
“As for the third…” Twilight clicked on the third file.
Spiked gaped, “The mutant vampire that kidnapped me and is terrorizing the city right now.”
Twilight nodded with a frown.
“Fluttershy Breeze, age 21. There's not much to tell here. She is studying to be a veterinarian and got into Canterlot on two scholarships, one for her singing talents and the other for modeling.”
Twilight and Spike looked at her photo. Fluttershy had a nervous smile and her pink mane covered half her face letting out only one teal eye. “Hmm quite a pretty girl,” Spike said. Twilight nodded in agreement and closed the personnel files.
“Canterlot College is technically not in session yet, but many students still attend summer classes to get ahead. However, these three,” Twilight tapped on the college attendance records, “Haven't attended class for a whole month. People thought they just went home for summer break. And since they're all friends, no one thought twice about their disappearance.”
Twilight pocketed her phone, “So somehow in the last month, these three have become transformed into mutants.”
She sighed, closing her purple eyes and when she reopened them they were a bright glowing yellow with red pupils. “Just like me…which means they were probably turned against their will by the same maniac that turned me. If that's the case then it's up to me to bring them to justice. And find a cure for all of this someday…”
“All the mutants seem to have a few things in common, right?” pondered Spike. Twilight turned back to Spike. “Well, we all have glowing yellow eyes with red irises, unique powers that are unexplainable by science, and an uncontrollable anger that is not our own.” Twilight grabbed a syringe from somewhere on her belt and placed it on a vial, extracting the contents within it via the needle.
“Every mutant that has been captured and studied seems to have this strange anger. Those who stay in that state the longest go crazy from it. As if the powers and the anger take control of the victim's entire being.”
Twilight injected the syringe into her arm. “But it seems, while not a cure, those who were captured can be calmed down and returned to their senses with some simple sedatives.”
“If I get these to those three then I might be able to convince them to turn themselves in. It seemed like two of them hadn't given into the madness yet, and maybe if I can give it to that Fluttershy girl surely she'll come too as well.” Twilight's face steeled in determination, she kept her back to Spike as he uttered her name in worry. “Make sure you get home safely, Spike”
“No, please don't go without me,” he pleaded to her.
“Sorry Spike, I work alone,” she replied coldly. “You have to go back and help me make sure my cover isn't blown for my godmothers,” and with that, she took off into the night air, after the other mutants.
Shadow Star arrived at the scene and ducked behind a building to blend into the shadows as she observed the chaos around her. Crowds of creatures of all shapes and sizes were fleeing in fear. A young little kitten was running away when the monster threw a lamp post over its head, which soared past only inches away from hitting the child. Twilight saw this and in the nick of time, was able to blast an ice ray from her horn, making a wall of ice and snow strong enough to stop the lamp from hitting the kid.
Another cat grabbed the younger one and ran off, seeming more terrified of the shadow in the corner rather than the monster that threw the lamp.
“No need to thank me, I guess.” Shadow Star’s deadpanned comment was interrupted by the monster's roar.
“GRAAAHHH,”
Now under the city lights it was easier to see the beast, a quite pale yellow pony, with long messy pink hair. She had two sharp fang-like teeth and bat wings the color of her skin spread out from her back. Her black dress was ripped slightly, despite previously being a demure mare, she was extremely strong, breaking apart walls with a single punch.
The mutant jumped and took flight. Twilight shot a ray of fire from her horn at her to stop her path. It stopped dead in its tracks and turned around to face its attacker.
Twilight's eyes widened when they made eye contact. The mutant roared and catapulted itself mid-flight with a large flap of its bat wings and aimed straight toward Twilight, who barely dodged its oncoming punch.
"For a creature your size, you're pretty quick on your feet, miss." Twilight huffed as she backflipped and tried to drop-kick the monster. When her foot made contact, it didn't even phase the beast.
“O-okay? This could be a problem,” Twilight realized nervously as the monster once again roared at her viciously. She tried to punch at it with all her might but it showed no sign that it was working. She had no choice but to jump back and try her powers once more. Shooting a blast of fire to stun the creature only seemed to irritate it.
The mutant swung at her, flinging her away like a ragdoll and onto a wall. "Ugh…yeah that's gonna hurt in the morning." She groaned as she rolled her shoulder, grimacing.
Right after, the creature seemingly grew bigger. Twilight stared with her mouth hanging open, frightened yet amazed. The beast roared at her with saliva hanging from its mouth. Teeth bared, which somehow looked sharper. The creature seemed less like a pony and more like a wild animal. It threw a car at Twilight, who used her freezing powers so that it dropped down midair. She jumped up on the car and tried blasting some more stun blasts at the creature with no luck each time.
A flash of rainbow light came out of nowhere and kicked Twilight right in the gut, flinging her back a second time. Twilight spat up a splotch of blood from the damage the hit gave her. She felt sure that one of her ribs must have been broken.
Looking up, she saw the griffin from before hovering midair above her. In the light, her pale blue coat and rainbow-like hair could be seen with clarity.
Still dressed in the soccer team uniform that Twilight used to identify her, the griffin’s red eyes narrowed down on Twilight.
“Oh, great you again,” grumbled Twilight.
“Hey, you! stay away from our friend.” The griffin yelled.
Twilight blinked in confusion. “Friend? Our?” She questioned. Behind the griffin, an orange pony in a cowboy hat appeared and flung a rope around the creature and tied it up. With a closer look, it was none other than the second mutant of the night. She had a lion-like mane and a scorpion tail.
“Yee haw!” Applejack exclaimed, pulling tightly on the rope.
Twilight did not know how to respond to all this. She observed blankly as the monster struggled to break free.
“Hush now, Sugar cube, it's me AJ, Remember me?” The beast still struggled as the orange pony approached cautiously. “It's alright, it's okay. We're here now hun.” The griffin flew over to her as well. “It's all going to be okay.” She reassured calmly.
“No! you’ll never get it done that way” Twilight shouted as the monster finally broke free of the rope, and grabbed another car.
Shadow Star got back to the scene just when a car was thrown directly at her. She ducked the projectile only for her ribs to start aching again. “Aghh” Twilight groaned. “This is not gonna be easy.” She took out the tranquilizer gun from her belt.
“Okay, Twilight focus. All you need is one shot.” Twilight focused on her target. She breathed in and out. In the blink of an eye, she was ready to pull the trigger on the raging beast in front of her when…
“WOAH!”
She was pulled back by a rope and tossed over to the side.
“Ah don' think so.” The country pony’s eyes glowed amber and red as she warned the costumed mare with her scorpion tail.
“No Jacky, I'm here to help!” Applejack's eyes widened in disbelief. “How the hay do ya know mah name?”
A rush of powerful winds caught both their attention as a tornado tossed the monster aside. “Sorry, Flutters. But you have got to calm down.” Dash smirked. Creating a thunderstorm, she tried to zap Fluttershy unconscious using lightning.
The monster roared out in pain and grew, and as she grew larger, Dash’s smirking face turned into one of pure terror as a giant fist punched her away.
Twilight continued her struggle to free herself from the rope, “That won't work, she's only going to get madder and bigger if you keep this up”
Jacky pulled her up by the front of her costume roughly. “Whaddya mean? Ya seem to know ah thing or two ‘bout whatever happened to our friend, so spill.” She demanded through gritted teeth, her eyes began to glow brighter.
“Okay okay, calm down,” Jacky growled back instead. “No! Seriously, if you don't you'll just end up like her.” Twilight was panicking now.
“Explain!”
Twilight held up her forelegs in a show of surrender. “I'm a mutant too. Someone turned me into this. I don't know who but someone out there is turning creatures into raging monsters like your friend. While there's no cure yet, taking certain medicines can stop the descent into pure madness. I know because it's how I stay sane.”
“Ah-” Applejack shook her head. “Ah don' believe ya.” Her face settled in a harsh glare. “You. You want to hurt mah friend.”
“No! Jacky.” Twilight shook her head. “I want to help.”
“Ya tried to shoot her!”
“With a tranquilizer. Inside these darts are relaxants, They're not heavy enough to knock out someone out, just enough to calm them. I use the same medicine on myself to deal with the anger.”
Applejack shook her head and growled deeper than before. “A-ah can't.” She let go of Twilight. “...Ah can't!” Her hoofs punched a hole into the side of a car. “Ah can’t calm down!” Her eyes burned amber, blood-red fire burning inside her irises.
Twilight didn't hesitate and shot her with a dart.
As the relaxant flowed into Applejack’s system, the chimera in front of Twilight slowly began to come back to her senses. Twilight stepped forward and caught her as Applejack’s knees buckled and she began to collapse.
“Breathe. Breathe in, hold, and breathe out.”
The orange pony nodded. “Thanks, who are ya anyway?”
“Some call me Shadow Star. I personally think it's a ridiculous name but I'm not about to reveal my identity to you.”
“Aw, shucks.” The pony sighed.
“It's alright, Jacky”
“Applejack”
“What?”
“You can call me Applejack or AJ. Ah prefer it that way. You're a real friend for doing this, ya know?”
“Okay, Applejack. Tell me, how did you end up like this?”
AJ breathed out another sigh. “We were all at our college. There’s a lot of students studying there to be scientists and doctors. Fluttershy was researchin’ a new way to heal wounded animals through lizards. We don' know who, but someone had ah sample of mutant DNA in the labs. Ever since the first outbreak of mutants, everyone’s been lookin’ for ways to cure it, even if they’re not in that field. They even had me studyin’ it, and Ah was just researching genes for applesauce. Me and Dash were there helping out Fluttershy as much as we could when the experiments got mixed up...An explosion happened, and it caused Fluttershy to turn into that! She was studyin’ fruit bat behavior when it happened,”
“Well that explains why she turned into a bat pony.”
“We tried tah stop her, but she was too darn strong for us. That's when Dash decided that the only way we could catch up and stop her was to become like her too. Ah was reluctant at first but when Ah saw the mayhem Fluttershy was creatin’…Ah had to agree with Dash. So we took it together, not thinkin’ of the consequences.”
Twilight sighed and her shoulders sagged. “Well, while Fluttershy couldn't have avoided this, you two could have.” She reloaded her gun. “You should turn yourselves in and get some help.”
Shadow Star stood up and began to walk away.
“Wait, ya can't do this on yer own, and Dash ain’t gonna let you shoot her. Let me talk to Dash first and we’ll work together to-”
“No…I work alone.” Twilight looked over her shoulder to make eye contact with AJ. Seeing her eyes turn back to their normal green state, Twilight felt a sense of relief. “Here.” Twilight turned back and handed her a dart. “Look I'll let you deal with your friend Dash. But leave Fluttershy to me.”
“How in the world did ya know my name?”
“I read your file,” Twilight smirked and ran, leaving a confused AJ behind. She jumped up in front of the hissing bat pony. It’s eyes narrowed down on her form.
“Oh god, maybe I should have thought this through.” She muttered.
Dash was about to throw another lightning bolt, now at Twilight but was stopped by the sound of AJ calling her. “Dash! Stop! please.” Applejack pleaded.
“Gimme a sec, I have to stop that mare from hurting our friend.”
“No, Dash! Just listen to me will ya!”
Dash stopped confused. “What?”
After AJ explained to Dash what was going on, Dash hesitantly drank the liquid from the dart.
“Alright, even if this works, what are we going to do about Fluttershy?”
“We just need to get one of these here tranquilizers in her.” AJ reasoned.
Meanwhile, Shadow Star was jumping from car to car, barely evading hits from the roaring giant.
“Oh come on,” Twilight growled frustrated as she gripped her tranquilizer gun.
Too late as the monster kicked Twilight in the gut, sending her flying a third time today.
“Yeah, there’s no way she can do this on her own, we’ve got to help her,” Dash yelled.
“Yeah, Ah reckon you might be right about that.” Applejack used her tail to grab her rope and flung it towards Twilight, catching her around the waist. She and Dash pulled the purple pony to safety just in time before the beast could crush her under her foot.
“Uhhuggh…thanks for the save.” Shadow Star murmured gratefully.
“Thank us later, now run!” Shouted Dash. The three mares bolted as the monster started chasing them. Twilight tripped, “My gun!” she shouted as the tranquilizer gun flew out of her hoof.
“Not the time,” Dash grabbed her by the arm.
After a few more moments of running, the three escaped behind a wall. “Alright, anypony got any bright ideas? Anyone?” AJ questioned through huffs of labored breathing.
“Without that gun, I can't shoot the tranquilizer.” Twilight looked like she was about to start hyperventilating
Fluttershy roared, the ground shaking as she stomped around in her fury. She flung out her bat wings.
Dash dared to look over the wall. ”Oh no, guys! she's opening her wings. If she takes off now, there's no chance of us catching her.”
“Well, what in tarnation are we supposed to do?!” AJ shot back.
“I wish I knew”. Twilight whined.
A gunshot cracked through the air like a whip. The monster hissed again, turning around.
Standing there, dressed in possibly the worst Halloween costume ever made, was none other than a little purple lizard. “Nighty, night vampire.” Spike grinned. Holding Twilight's tranquilizer gun in his claw, he slowly brought it up to his lips and pretended to blow smoke away from the muzzle.
“And who’s that?” Dash asked, puzzled over the change of events.
“Our hero,” AJ muttered in relief.
Twilight slapped her forehead with a heavy sigh. “Oh no.” She got up and headed over to him. “I told you that I work alone, didn't I? And what about uhh…” Twilight paused, remembering the other two behind her.
They slipped out from behind the wall and ran over to Fluttershy.
“Well, Ah say it's ah darn good thing the boy didn't listen,” Applejack called out.
“Yeah, you just saved our lives, squirt”. Dash continued.
Fluttershy began to shrink back to her normal size.
““They” don't know about this. I promise,” Spike told Twilight. “I didn't want to see you get hurt, so I followed you but stayed out of it. Well except when I saw that you dropped your gun, I decided to take the opportunity and well, I'm glad I did. Because what do you know, I saved the day!” Spike set his claws on his hips proudly.
Twilight rolled her eyes fondly, “Yes. yes, you did.” She hugged the little guy with a smile.
“So he ah mutant too?” AJ tilted her head at Spike.
“Nope, just a plain lizard. Glad I got to save the day. Though, but uh by the way, I wasn't the only one following you guys, there were these two on a bike that…”
A soft noise of pain silenced everyone as Fluttershy slowly stirred awake. “Oh…wha…what happened?” She grimaced as she held her head in between her forelegs.
Exhausted eyes opened and its owner let out a tiny gasped. “Oh, look a baby lizard.” She ran over and hugged him. “I've never gotten to meet any lizards before.”
“I'm not a baby.” Spike complained, “But I enjoy hugs,” and hugged her back.
“Seriously though, can someone fill me in?” Fluttershy glanced around. “Where are we? and why does it look like we're in the middle of a war zone?” She asked the last part a bit scared and started to shake nervously.
“Yeah, well…that's a long story, but you see…” Dash started from the beginning.
One explanation later.
“Oh dear, I’m so so sorry! I'm so sorry…I-I-” Fluttershy began to weep. Dash embraced her tightly.
“Doesn't matter, you're all mutants and as such you need to turn yourselves in to the authorities and get medical help.” Twilight scoffed.
“Uh-huh says the mutant hero,” Dash raised her eyebrow. “I'm not gonna be some test subject! I have school and things to do.”
“B-but you can't just run around like this?! Unwatched, with your mutant powers.”
“Now hold on Shadow Star, we know how to control them.” AJ stood strong. “Hell, we even know how to use our abilities in a fight. We all could stick together and-”
“No no, no! I work alone. For safety reasons, I can't let any random civilian get in my way. Especially those who are mutated.”
“Oh really?” Spike chimed in. “Because you were doing oh so great on your own tonight,”
Twilight growled at him.
“He’s right,” Fluttershy said softly.
Everyone turned to her.
“All of you are right. You all make good points. Speaking from my own experience, I…” She hid behind her mane. ”I don't ever want to be in that state again. And I don't want others to be like that either. They’re only hurt a-and angry. And I don't want to be locked away in a cage or experimented on either. Especially when we have the ability to help those like us. Mutated….suffering. But Shadow Star, you are right as well. We can't just run around willy-nilly. Perhaps if we all team up…Shadow Star can keep an eye on us, and we could help those who need us.” Fluttershy finished with a small nervous smile.
The others finally nodded, surprised it was Fluttershy who made the most sense. Twilight sighed in defeat. “Oh well, then this is what's happening I guess. My name is Twilight Sparkle. But, we should all go by aliases”
“Allice what now?” Rainbow asked.
“Hero names,” Spike told her.
“Ohhh,” they all nodded in agreement.
“But hey….” AJ nervously turned to Twilight, “there's still one question that remains, right?”
Twilight nodded slowly. “Who's turning creatures into mutants? It seems our best lead is at Canterlot College.”
“You don't think someone at the college is behind all this, do you?” Dash asked, perplexed.
Twilight closed her eyes, “I don't know Dash. I really don't know.”