The ancient jungles of the Amarezon. Home to some of the powerful, and most otherworldly relics of all ponykind, Deep within the massive amount of jungle, lies a mysterious temple, home to a legendary artifact known as the Otherworldly Opal.
The fortress itself was rather aged, but still sturdy in its' current position, despite the number of vines that overgrew and went to work on this place. And like all Amarezonian temples in this forest, this one was laced with booby traps, left, right, and center.
The Mane-iac was here in the temple, attracted to the gem because of the stories she had heard of it. She was aware that only the chosen could harness the power of the Otherworldly Opal. She was certain that that one gem would be enough to defeat the Power Ponies once and for all.
"Soon it will be mine, the power of the Otherworldly Opal will feel so serene once I take it for myself!" She chuckled as she came to what looked like a corridor with dozens of tiles. "Oh please. This should be child's play."
Manipulating her hair to activate all the traps in the room for her, the Mane-iac made it through the entire corridor unscathed, yet her hair was another story. It was full of arrows and had been split at some areas, there were also some parts of her oversized mane which had been singed, yet the rest of it was fine.
"Uggghhh, my mane looks like a mess." She let out an exasperated huff before remembering her provisions. Opening the bag she had been carrying, she pulled out a can hair-fixing hairspray and applied it to the parts of her mane that had been damaged by the traps.
The damage to her hair now seemed nonexistent as she pulled out the arrows and tossed them to the ground, she then pulled out a hairbrush and used the fixed parts of her hair to take care of the messy parts. "Aah, much better!"
She placed her provisions back in her bag and walked a few seconds more, until she found herself in a giant hall with some oversized vines leaking through some giant holes in the walls and ceiling. These didn't concern her, what did was a gem, on top of the pedestal in the hall's centre.
"There it is, just as the legends foretold..." She marvelled at the gem, shining into her eyes in the sunlight. "The Otherworldly Opal. And now it's mi-"
"Stop right there, Mane-iac!" A voice said from behind her literally the second she raised the gem from its' pedestal. She was then assaulted by a pink blur, causing her to almost drop the gem to the floor. But she picked it back up and turned to face the voice.
"Power Ponies, we meet again." She sniggered as she held up the Otherworldly Opal with her hair, for all of them to see. "But I'm afraid you're all too late. I have already acquired the Otherworldly Opal, and with its' power, I now have the power to rule the world!"
"Oh yeah?" Zap was unconvinced by Mane-iac's words and held up her pendant for battle. "Just what can this Otherworldly Opal do, exactly?"
Before any of them could even speak another word, they found themselves constricted by Mane-iac's freakish follicles, this hair wasn't just for show, as always when they were dealing with the Mane-iac.
"You'll see soon, my dear friends." Laughing evilly, she used the rest of her hair to take her, and the Power Ponies up to the roof of the temple, where the Otherworldly Opal was now giving off a powerful white magic aura due to the increase in sunlight.
"Now then, let's just see what powers this opal has to offer!" She wrapped her open hooves around the Otherworldly Opal, caressing the aura of light it was giving off.
The other Power Ponies tried their best to strike the Mane-iac, but the hair that held them back was strangling them, so they found themselves gasping for air, fighting to get the hair off of them, but to no avail.
Suddenly, the Otherworldly Opal turned black as the Mane-iac pressed it against her spandex covered chest, and a powerful spell started to form around her. It was unlike anything she, or the Power Ponies had even witnessed before. It got powerful, stronger, dangerous.
"Wait, what?! What's going-" Suddenly, the Mane-iac noticed a black hole was forming on her chest, where the opal was meant to be. The black hole absorbed the Mane-iac whole, causing her to shriek in terror as the powerful void pulled her, her hair, and the Power Ponies into it.
As the last of the hair was pulled into the black hole, it dissipated, returning the Otherworldly Opal to its' original state. However, with no pony holding the opal, it merely fell to the roof of the temple and shattered into thousands of pieces of smaller opal.
Spike had just walked out of the Enchanted Comics comic book store, clutching the newest Power Ponies comic: Crystalline Calamity, in his hands. He took it home to Twilight's new castle, for some much deserved R&R.
After a train ride which seemed to last an eternity, Spike finally arrived in Ponyville. However, his curiosity got the better of him, and he just sat down on the nearby bench in the park, opened his comic and read it there.
He saw each and every panel, reading the words out loud, and doing his best (yet bad) impressions of each of the characters. The comic was depicting an opal with bizarre powers, rewarded only to those who can brave the temple in the Amarezonian jungle where it slept.
However, if this gem wasn't kept in the sunlight, unpredictable and dangerous things could happen to the pony holding it. So that really got him pumped up for the story ahead.
Spike eventually got to the panel where the Mane-iac's lust for power and lack of knowledge, led to the opal forming a black hole on her chest. One that pulled the Power Ponies into it, taking them to...
"Is that it?" Spike said as he saw that the rest of the book was completely blank, besides another small footnote. He wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to read it, as he remembered the last time he read a footnote like this one.
"The story you would think is over, but it's only just begun. Both dark and light fought this battle, but neither side has won." Spike was reading the footnote, it was different that the last one, so that was good. "For the opal's power has brought these 7 right into your world, take care of them with all your love, so the story can be unfurled."
A flash of light appeared once Spike had finished, just like last time, only this time, he wasn't pulled into the book. Rather, the light merely blinded him temporarily, and made him stumble backwards onto his scales.
Spike had been out for at least 3 minutes after the flash had hit him. He opened his eyes with great difficulty and had them opened up all the way by a tiny hoof in spandex poking his face.
"Oh man, what happened last night?" He opened his eyes fully now and sat up, looking around at what happened. He saw nothing but the natural Ponyville around him. He looked forward and saw a sweet looking earth pony filly with long green hair, as well as 6 little foals, all dressed in spandex jumpsuits of sorts.
"Hey, wake up." The filly said, walking up to him with a smile on her face. She was quite beautiful up close, and had a nice Cutie Mark depicting some shampoo and hairspray. "Wow, you were out for quite a while there. Was everything ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Spike said as he got a better look on the filly who was talking to him. "Just one question though, who are you?"
"Me?" The earth pony looked confused as she brushed back her extraordinarily long mane so that it wouldn't get in her eyes as she spoke. "My name's Hair Raiser. What's yours?"
"Nice to meet you, Hair Raiser, I'm Spike. Spike The Dragon to be exact." He said, announcing himself to the bunch of children he had just met after that powerful blast of light. "You know, the 7 of you remind me of some ponies I read about a lot of the time. Yet I can't quite place my finger on it..."
It wasn't long after he placed one of his hands on his chin, when he heard one of the spandex dressed foals babbling at his copy of the comic which he'd left on the bench. She obviously looked excited as she glanced at the cover, which depicted 6 mysterious heroes and a villain with freakishly long hair.
"Ah, good to know my book's still there." Spike said as he took the copy and picked it back up. "At least it didn't disappear this time, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" Hair Raiser asked, her head tilted in confusion.
Oh, nothing. You wouldn't understand." Spike said as he put his book away for safe keeping. "It's quite a special and entertaining book for boys and girls my age. And while you'd get it, I'm not sure the foals would."
"Oh, that's fine then." She chuckled, throwing her hair back some more, so that her eyes were clear.
"Hey, I think you 7 could all use some accommodation." Spike said, looking generous today. It wasn't often when he offered someone something. "I bet you're all dying to get snuggled into the comforts of a house."
"That'd be nice." Hair Raiser smiled, her tone of voice very calm, very childish, and most of all, very accepting. "Since I don't remember ever having a mom or dad, it'd be nice to see what it feels like again."
"Alright then, but I'm not sure how I'm gonna get all 6 of these foals back to our place." Spike said, turning his head towards the spandex dressed foals, who were now playing with each other, and speaking in foalish gibberish. He couldn't afford foal transportation on the small budget that Twilight was paying him. "Any ideas?"
"Oh, don't worry about that, I've got this." She then used her hair to pick up all of the foals and rock them gently. Each foal babbled when they were picked up and were reduced to tired coos as Hair Raiser's hair rocked the costumed foals back and forth in her luscious locks.
"That's amazing!" Spike whispered once all the foals were asleep, making no attempt to wake them back up again. "How did you do that?"
"Honestly, not even I know." She said as the two of them began to walk to Twilight's castle, all the while Hair Raiser's hair kept the foals warm, snug, secure, safe, and asleep. "Let's not think too much about it, ok?"
"Oh, alright then." Spike merely smiled back to the filly with the extraordinary hair. "I think I'm going to like you, Hair Raiser."
"Me too, Spike." The two of them shared a laugh as the entered the town. It truly was a sight to see, an adorable filly with 6 cuter foals in her hair, walking next to a dragon who was willing to aid anypony. The townsponies merely shared 'D'aawws' as the two walked towards Twilight's castle.