//------------------------------// // 7 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Twilight walked into the factory, it was still obviously operational by the barest of her observations. She saw a giant device sitting in the middle of the factory; Humdrum was currently being given a tour by the minions who were also giving him helpful tips on how to possibly set up the huge battle. From the looks of it, Humdrum was so confused by the thoroughly helpful minions who were giving him advice on how to use his head. The Power Ponies were being held in a cage with a minion that was keeping them constantly paralyzed; he looked really bored with the job. He was busy reading a mane magazine and resetting an egg timer. Shaking her head, the pony that was currently known as Radiance walked up to one of the minions and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. He jumped and freaked out for a moment before he realized he hadn’t been struck or attacked. “Excuse me, but what’s that?” Twilight pointed out the large pink hairdryer like structure. She knew what it looked like, but not exactly what it did. “Oh, that’s Mane-iac’s doomsday weapon you guys were supposed to thwart, I don’t think she’s going to use it now since you just had to go and upset her like that.” The minion glared angrily at Radiance and then dropped it with a sad frown. “To think that we went to all that trouble to build it, it’s basically a giant heat ray. She was going to use it to somehow increase her powers and possibly cause wild mane growth amongst the population.” “What! Doesn’t she know that too much heat can damage a pony’s mane?” Twilight was glowing with righteous anger now. Would the Mane-iac seriously have destroyed her own mane like that? She was going to set this right. A salon chair with only a very low heat and or regular air blow drying without any heat at all options was much better. She’d not only be giving other ponies a bad mane day if the ray didn’t outright kill them, but she’d do it to herself too? At least now Twilight knew why she named herself Mane-iac. “This is completely inexcusable! Where is she currently?” The minion cowered at the visible purple glow of an angry Radiance and the dark tone and turn her voice took. Slowly the minion, still shivering like he was freezing cold, lifted a hoof and pointed it towards the office space of the factory. The glowing pyre of imminent pain and suffering stomped off in that direction and all the minions immediately had their backs to the walls as she passed. Even Humdrum was cowering at the energy she was giving off. Twilight walked up to the door while stowing away her honey festival stuff into her bags and was about to blast it off its hinges with a construct, only to stop cold. She inhaled deeply and counted to ten, she finally exhaled slowly. She couldn’t face Mane-iac angry, Twilight knew that the she’d end up beating herself up for it later if she did. She opened the door and the last vestiges of her anger fled her body. Mane-iac was sobbing. She was still rather upset, wondering why that one hero in particular didn’t want to thwart her. Was her plan really as dumb as it sounded now that she thought of it? Did her appearance offend in some way? Did she forget to bathe? Maybe Radiance was just being lazy… yeah maybe that’s it; she’ll soon realize how silly she’s being. Radiance will just bust down that door and rush in declaring her intents to fight and then they will. “Mane-iac… can we talk.” The sound of Twilights voice caused Mane-iac to curl up into a green cocoon made of hair. “Go away.” Mane-iac didn’t want to acknowledge that Radiance was now there, since it still seemed like she did not want to fight. She really didn’t want to face the reality of the unaggressive Power Pony. “No, I will not. One of your minions told me of your plans for the electro orb. Why would you make a plan that ends up with you hurting yourself in some way?” Twilight’s slightly increased aggressive tone caught some of Mane-iac’s attention and she uncurled slightly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about; you Power Ponies were supposed to defeat me before I even got to that point! I wouldn’t have gone through with it anyway, so I have no clue why you think I’m self destructive. I don’t have self destructive tendencies and I’m not being defensive! Why won’t you fight me, am I not good enough for your attention? What’s so wrong with me that you don’t want to see me as the villain that I am!” Mane-iac was now screaming at Radiance with tears in her eyes, her mane sectioned itself into six defensive tentacles that were wiggling aggressively at the hero. Her tail hair was telling different story as it split into two tentacles that wrapped protectively around her body in a comforting hug. “Is that why…” Twilight said after a moment, a small sparkle appeared in Twilights eyes as she had just had an epiphany. Mane-iac was rather defensive about the self destructive thing, when Twilight never made mention of her being self destructive. Noting that Mane-iac seemed so starved for attention, Twilight decided to start a gentle verbal assault keeping her voice soft. “What makes you think you’re a villain?” Well that was an armor piercing question of severe magnitudes, Mane-iac’s mane was still in a defensive position but it was less active as if it was just on autopilot. Her tail hair pulled tighter around her body as if she was trying to keep Radiance from attacking her with words. Her eyes became rather glazed as she ducked her head behind her tail hair. “Mane-iac… have you ever had a friend before?” Twilight knew that look on the mares face; she knew why Mane-iac was always so aggressive and angry at the world. If Twilight were left to her own devices and didn’t have the support of her family or even Barb, she could see herself needing a reason to go on when no pony would be there for you. “I’ve got plenty of friends.” It was a weak tone that Mane-iac tried to imply she wasn’t as lonely as she sounded, especially not to Radiance. “Your company employee’s, some of which act as your minions, don’t count. They are acquaintances and are willing to be near you, but none of them have ever tried to spend any personal time with you to get to know you have they? You order them around and they do what you say, but you never let any of them be your friend.” This was going to provide an opening for Twilight, she wanted to Mane-iac to open up to her. Thus she moved slightly closer to the villain. “Do you even know their names? You care for them, but I bet that you don’t know any of them personally.” “No they didn’t and I don’t. None of them would ever approach a monster like me.” Mane-iac tilted her head towards the floor and her mane covered the right side of her face as it went limp, her tail hair was still hugging her. “Why do you think you’re a monster?” Receiving an incredulous look from the villain of the comic, Twilight felt that she was on to something. “You know… you still haven’t answered my question about why you think you’re a villain.” “Have you even looked at me, I’m a freak.” The bitter tone that spit those words from her mouth seemed to have shocked Radiance, which was good to Mane-iac. Maybe the hero will agree and finally attack her. “You’re dodging the question Mane-iac. Besides you’re mane is really beautiful like you are and you’re coat looks really soft. I truly doubt some pony would ever call you ugly unless they were jealous of how you look.” Twilight could swear she heard explosions going on outside the door to the rather empty office, it sounded like they were having quite a party now and apparently the Power Ponies were free. She could hear Saddle Rager trashing something. She trotted a few steps towards the villain a little more only to recoil and lift a hoof off the floor as Mane-iac lashed out a tentacle at it. Mane-iac didn’t say anything. Being called beautiful, especially her mane, made her heart jump up her throat and she couldn’t talk because she was too stunned. She reacted poorly to Radiance trying to approach her, despite her acting out Radiance didn’t retreat. Maybe she should actually tell Radiance why she should be hated. “I stole a mare’s life.” Her voice was filled with so much dark intent; Mane-iac knew that no pony could possibly... “Whose, your own, yeah that’s got to be pretty hard to do considering you’re still alive.” Twilight retorted simply, Mane-iac certainly had a sudden look of indescribable pain and shock across her face. Twilight decided to sadly point out what she already knew; she thought there was something odd about the Mane-iac’s origin story when she read it. None of Mane-iac’s story mentioned her slipping, how she ended up falling into the vat or how a snapped lightning cable ended up following her. “The accident that gave you your powers wasn’t really an accident was it.” Mane-iac’s mind went back to that night at the factory, things had been going poorly for the mare who owned a shampoo company and some salons. Business wasn’t the problem; it was her personal life that was horribly stalled. She was checking on the most recent concoction that was supposed to give ponies some extra lift to their manes. The pony that had yet to become Mane-iac was walking along the walkway, she didn’t slip on anything and she didn’t fall by accident. She looked over the edge and decided to throw herself from the walkway. She was going to let fate decide for her as her life was completely empty. She was comparatively well off, but she wasn’t happy. No family, no love, no pony was interested in her and she was all alone. Her life was all harsh business and she had no hobbies. Throwing herself from the walkway, her hoof snagged on a lightning cable spinning her so that she was free falling back first towards the vat. Her eyes went wide as the snapped lightning cable followed her down. This was the end of her life as she knew it. What crawled out of the electrically twisted concoction was the Mane-iac, on the inside she still the same mare she was before. Only her mind had been slightly muddled by the electrical currents that went through her body. After she found a mirror, she was horrified to find out what was happened to her mane and tail. Eventually she slowly started to accept what she had become. Then she decided to become a super villain, just because her coat color was darker and her mane was now acting according to her will. “I succeeded so easily… at taking it.” Mane-iac said quietly her tail uncurling from her body some. Soon she felt something slide into her mane and suddenly her right eye was uncovered by a construct in the form of a comb gently teasing her mane aside. She didn’t resist the constructs efforts. In front of Mane-iac was Radiance and she certainly looked radiant with that dazzling small sad smile, slowly the hero brought her into a hug. “You didn’t take anything from her, she’s still here. She’s just lost, confused and lonely. She also really needs a friend and if you’ll let me, can I be yours? In fact I have a fun idea if you’re willing to accept me.” Twilight wondered when Mane-iac would notice that she started brushing her mane; she was still combing it too. It seemed as if Mane-iac had shut down and held her tight. “Your coat really is soft… so have you been to the all weekend honey festival yet Miss Mane-iac? If you haven’t then may I escort you there? It’s the last chance I’ll… we’ll get to see it.” Mane-iac blushed at affirmation that her coat was soft and then she realized that at some point Radiance had removed her suit, she also realized that she had a comb and brush going through her vibrant green mane. She didn’t feel like doing anything about it though, it felt nice. “I guess if I’m not too busy with my plans.” Mane-iac said softly after hesitating and deliberating on it for a minute. At the end of the festival Twilight stood with Mane-iac watching the fireworks, while the Power Ponies were doing who knew what at this point. Twilight had defeated the Mane-iac through befriending her; she felt the pull that was going to drag her away from her friend. As the super powers evacuated her body, Twilight just wrapped her hooves around Mane-iac. The mare with the prehensile hair reciprocated the friendly hug and then the tug became incredibly strong. Twilight knew she couldn’t hold on to the friend she had earned herself, but she tightly held on to her for as long as she could even as everything went white. “Mom your back, I’m so glad you’re okay! Um… who’s that with you?” Hearing her daughters’ voice made Twilight Sparkle’s heart soar. Then what Twilight heard Barb say finally caught up to her and a comical wide eyed look crossed Twilights face.