“Chief, what the hell is this!?” Ink Slinger fumed. He slammed the paper down on the desk, the multiple bobble heads seeming to nod in agreement. Sunlight poured in through the large office window, illuminating everything and everyone in the spacious room. Ink sat down in the chair before the large desk while continuing his rant. “I spent weeks trudging through those grimy, disease-breeding sewers uncovering one of the largest drug rings in years, and this is what makes the front page? Some ‘blue angel’ crap?”
Silvermane, the Editor-in-Chief of the most famous paper to come out of Ponyville, swiveled his chair from the breathtaking view of the cityscape to give Ink a small grin. The stout, older stallion placed a hoof on the front picture and said, “Listen Ink, I’ve been in this business for more than thirty years, I think I can spot a good story when I see it. But I’m glad you came in here actually. I have a new reporter from the countryside, and I want you to show her the ropes. I’ve read some of her stuff. She’s quite good, and with the right influence, could prove to be a fairly decent reporter.”
Ink Slinger rapped his hooves on the desk before saying, “Chief, I don’t have time to babysit some country bumpkin. TrixCorps is showing off their newest weapon platform today, and I can’t have some new girl pissing off Trix with stupid questions.”
“You bring Lens Flare with you on all of your stories, and she was new only a few months ago,” Silvermane pointed out. “Besides, every new reporter needs a veteran to guide them at first, and who better than one of the best reporters the Daily Sun has?”
He pondered it over for a few moments, hoof tapping against the desk all the while. He finally gave in and replied, “Fine, so long as she stays out of my way. Where is she anyway?”
“Right he-oof! Sorry ‘bout that,” a slightly accented voice called out behind him. Turning around, Ink saw a blonde mare with an orange coat and thick glasses trot into the room and bump into a garbage can, spilling balled wads of paper and empty paper cups all over the floor. He looked back at Silverman, eyebrow raised in apprehension.
Silvermane ignored his look and said, “Ink, this is Applejack. She just recently moved here after going to college in Canterlot. She’s from a small town just a few miles south of here, where her grandmother owns an apple orchard.”
Ink gave a curt nod before addressing her, “Just stick close and don’t get in the way, okay Smallfry?”
The orange mare nodded, long mane bouncing into her eyes. Brushing it away, her eyes widened slightly as she asked, “Uh, do you mind if Ah’ go back to my desk and grab my suitcase before we go? It’ll just take a second, Ah’ swear.”
“Whatever country girl, I need to go find my photographer anyway. If you’re not by the car in five minutes, we’re leaving without you.” Bidding Silvermane a quick goodbye, he left the office before Applejack had a chance to answer, looking for Lens Flare. The clacking of keyboards mixed with the clicking of mice to create one of the most annoying sounds he ever heard, and he quickly passed through on his way to the one place he knew she’d be at this time of day. Ignoring the shrieks and stares he received from entering the mare’s bathroom, he grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and pulled her out.
“Oh come on Ink, just two more minutes and-”
He rolled his eyes before interrupting, “Cut the crap Lens. We have a story at the airport and Chief’s making me babysit the new girl. She’s working with us now, so try not to fight with her over my ravishing good looks, will you?.”
Lens smirked before replying, “Sure thing ‘handsome.’ Where is this new girl anyway?”
“With any luck, heading downstairs by now. If not, we go without her,” Ink answered as they entered the elevator.
“I don’t know Ink, shouldn’t we wait? She is supposed to be your new partner isn’t she?”
“I don’t care if she’s the President, I’m not letting some backwoods apple-farmer slow me down.”
Lens didn’t answer, as she was fumbling around with the lens on her camera. Ink Slinger briefly checked his yellow coat for dirt spots before hearing the ding of the elevator reaching the parking garage. To his surprise, Applejack was already down there waiting for them, suitcase, notepad, and pencil in hoof. Her enthusiastic smile elicited a giggle from the younger mare, earning them both an eye roll from Ink.
“Alright Smallfry, this is Lens Flare. Don’t let the giggly school-filly persona fool ya’, she’s actually a pretty good photographer. Try not to fight with her too much, alright?” he asked, smirking slightly at the look of confusion spreading on Applejack’s face.
“Why would I-you know what, never mind. Let’s go,” she said. While they followed Ink to the car, he noticed the two mares had their heads close together, feverish whispers coming from their secret counsel. An occasional giggle would escape from Lens, which Ink could only attribute to humourous backwoods stories about cow tipping or something like it. Hopping into his red sportscar, he waited for AJ and Lens to get in before pulling out of the parking garage as fast as he could go, causing them to jolt backwards and forwards as they tried to regain their sense of balance.
“Jeez Ink, slow down will ya’, I don’t think you gave me enough bruises,” Lens complained as she rubbed her right hoof, which had been slammed into the door.
Ink rolled his eyes and kept driving, occasionally adjusting the volume on the radio. After fiddling with the dial, he eventually settled on a rock station and did his best to ignore his two passengers, who were eagerly chatting about….whatever it is mares chat about, he guessed. The traffic in this part of town wasn’t too bad today, and he made it to the Ponyville Airport without getting stuck in traffic for more than a half-hour. Driving up to the gate, he flashed his press badge at the guards and waited until Applejack and Lens did the same. Parking next to a large white news van, he gathered his notebook and pencil and headed to the area reserved for the press.
Pushing his way through the crowd, he noticed the hangar had been equipped with a large curtained stage right next to it, making him shake his head and wonder just how much she had actually changed, if at all. He took a seat by the front and waited for the show to begin.
“So, what exactly are we waiting for? Is this how new weapons are usually shown off?”
“This is how Trixie always does things,” he answered, not even taking his eyes of the sage to address Applejack. “I should know, I dated her.”
The orange mare raised an eyebrow at that and asked, “‘That so?”
“Ancient history Smallfry. It never turned into anything; Trixie was concerned about one thing and one thing only, and that was Trixie. Besides, it gets sickening after a while to constantly hear someone refer to themselves in the third person.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen!,” an unseen announcer boomed from the gigantic set of speakers on the side of the stage, “please give a warm welcome to the Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon, owner and CEO of TrixCorp!”
The assembled crowd stood up and clapped enthusiastically, all except Ink and his newest partner. He snorted at the obvious ego-boost this was supposed to give Trixie and blinked at the multiple camera flashes. A fog machine started spewing a thick grey smoke, before a blue unicorn strode out of it, fore legs outstretched as she took in the applause as a plant takes in sunlight.
I gotta’ admit, Trixie always did know how to put on a show. Whatever happens, I have a feeling it’s definitely going to be interesting.
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Applejack watched the show with a calm look on her face, waiting for the actual presentation to start. Fireworks streamed into the sky as she wrote down a few initial notes, and after a few more airbursts, the cacophony winded down until all was quiet again. The star of the show stepped up to the microphone and began her spiel
“Ladies and gentlecolts, Trixie would like to thank you all for coming here today. She hopes you enjoyed the little pregame show, as they say in sports, and she sincerely hopes you’ll find the real show just as entertaining. Behold, the TrixSuit XJ9!”
The purple star-embroidered curtain pulled back to reveal a pony-sized exosuit. It was light blue with a deep purple T-shaped visor, with a mouthpiece almost resembling insect mandibles. After letting the audience cheer and clap for a few seconds, Trixie quieted them down and continued.
“What you are witnessing now is the next evolution in warfare! With this suit, our military will be able to go into dangerous combat situations and suffer almost no casualties. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound, the TrixSuit is virtually indestructible to all but the heaviest of rounds! To demonstrate this, my assistant will fire nine .45 caliber rounds into the weakest part of the armor, the neck region. Take it away Clemency!”
A beefy stallion stepped out from behind the curtain and fired the large pistol into the neck area of the armor with uncanny accuracy, the newsponies gasping at the way every bullet bounced off its intended target without even a scratch on the suit. Applejack scribbled down a few notes while this was going on, almost missing the whine of a missile heading straight for them.
Jumping up, she said, “Sorry guys, I have to use the little cowgirl’s room. Ah’ll be right back!” Pushing past the reporters, she took her briefcase with her and, ignoring the quizzical look from Ink, ducked behind an old hangar. There, she quickly changed into the red and blue outfit and flew towards the missile as fast as she could. By the time she reached it, it was less than 300 yards from the demonstration, the roar of its engine loud enough to catch the attention of the crowd. Panicking, they scattered, with Trixie and her assistant retreating to the safety of their long black limo.
Quickly scanning over the missile with her X-ray vision, she used her heat vision to disable the warhead and grabbed the now-deactivated rocket from underneath, guiding it into an empty field behind the hanger. Just as soon as that was over, however, several unmarked helicopters flew overhead, six armed ponies rappelling down onto the hanger. Hooking large chains onto the suit, they quickly moved to establish control over the area, herding the confused reporters into a hanger.
“Taking hostages? Not on my watch, ya’ varmints.” Taking off for the nearest thug, she slammed her fist onto the side of his head, being careful to not use her full strength. Seeing their comrade fly into a pile of wooden crates, two of the other goons opened fire on her, only to have their jaws drop at the sight of them bouncing harmlessly off of her.
“Sorry boys, that’s not going to work,” she said. Her eyes started glowing red, the gun barrels melting under the intense heat. Dropping the guns, they tried to run to their teammates before bumping right into her.
“Wha-what are you!?” one of them shrieked, stumbling back.
“The mare that’s going to take you in. So are you going to come quietly, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?”
The two thugs shared a quick look of terror before bolting in the opposite direction. Sighing, Applejack quickly dispatched them as well as the rest of their team, dropping their unconscious bodies in front of the newly-arrived police. Ignoring their shouts, she flew off to chase after the helicopters.
After a few seconds of searching, she spotted them heading west and moved to head them off, drawing the attention of the two pilots in the process. Their jaws were hanging open at the sight of a flying pony, before they regained their senses and fired their machine guns as her. Stalling a bit as the force of the bullets pushed her back, she forged ahead and landed on the glass cockpit of the lead one, breaking the glass in a single punch. The pilots quickly ejected, their seats flying up and soon floating into the crowd of police waiting below. Applejack set her sights on the next helicopter just as one of their missiles slammed into her. Dazed, she tried to regain her balance before the launched another one.
Waiting at just the right moment, she dodged it and was about to take off after the helicopter again before hearing screams of terror. Turning around, she saw to her horror that the missile had hit a commercial airliner, which was now heading straight for a crowded area of the city. Ignoring the helicopter she flew towards the airliner, wondering how she was going to stop it. Smoke streamed out from the engine while she grabbed on of the wings. She pulled with all her strength, only to have the wing snap off and cause the plane to start spinning out of control.
“Stupid! Ah’m definitely not doin’ that again,” she berated herself. Flying in front of the plane, she pushed her body up against the nose, denting it while trying to fly against the direction the plane was heading in. Noticing a slight decrease in the plane’s speed, she kept it up, steering it a bit to avoid hitting any skyscrapers as she tried to navigate it towards the park while it continued to sink lower and lower. After a while, she was able to gain control of the plane just before it hit a statue and held it high above her head.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she set it down and jumped slightly as she noticed the large crowd surrounding her, taking pictures and videos of the event with their camera phones. She flashed them an uneasy smile before flying back to the airport to change.
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“So, anyone wanna’ tell me what this is?”
Silvermane was pointing at an enlarged photo on a projector. It depicted an orange mare in a blue suit, red cape twirling behind her. A large red S-shield was prominent on her chest, its yellow background gleaming in the light.
The middle-aged stallion continued pacing in front of the projector while he went on, “This paper has a responsibility to the people of this city, and they’re practically lighting a fire under my ass for answers. Who is she? Where did she come from? Why is she here, what does she want? Can anyone tell me?”
Lens Flare leaned back in her chair and replied, “Honestly, we don’t know Chief. She just suddenly appeared, saved everyone, and left. We didn’t even get her name.”
“Nice ‘S’.”
The assembled reporters all turned to stare at Ink, who began blushing and said, “Well it’s true. That is a pretty decent logo. Fitting for a supermare.”
“Supermare huh? I like the sound of that,” Silvermane stroked his chin. “Ink, I’m giving that TrixCorp story to Applejack. Your new assignment is to find this ‘Supermare’ and get and interview outta’ her. Don’t argue, this isn’t up for debate.”
Ink shut his mouth, not in the mood for arguing with his editor. He studied the picture of his new target a little more, thinking there was something about her that was vaguely familiar. Taking his leave, he walked out of the office and headed down to his car to call it a day, Lens following after.
“Hey Lens. Have you seen Smallfry anywhere? I lost track of her after we got back,” he said as he glanced at her.
“AJ?” Lens asked. “I think she said something about visiting her grandma or something. Any ideas on how you’re going to interview this ‘Supermare?’”
“A few,” he lied. Truth be told, he had no clue how he was going to catch someone who could fly faster than a helicopter and catch a falling plane. “I’ll let you know as soon as I’m ready to carry ‘em out.”
“Maybe we could talk about it over dinner?” she asked, the slightly hopeful tone in her voice escaping Ink’s attention.
“I’d love to, but I have a few bills to pay. Electricity ain’t free, especially in this town. Have a good one Lens.”
“See ya’ later Ink,” Lens replied. Sighing as she watched the stallion leave, she gathered her things and left.