//------------------------------// // Power // Story: Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic // by Invinsible //------------------------------// Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic Power Granny Smith knocked on the door to announce their presence before she opened it. “Applejack? Yer friends are here to see you.” Rarity smiled and walked into the office. “Good afternoon Applejack. I must say I simply adore your office’s décor!” “That’s nice. Hey, can ya come here and help me fir a sec? Yer more fashion minded than most folks. I’ll be down in a minute or so, Granny.” Granny nodded and walked back to her own office while Rarity joined Applejack, who was frowning at a small collection of business suits, dresses, and scarfs. “What seems to be the problem?” “Well, Ah wanna wear something that’s more comfortable now that Ah don’t gotta hide who I am from the public,” Applejack said. “But at the same time, Ah still need to run a company and most ponies respect a well dressed mare. So Ah’m looking fir something classy but still real casual and comfortable.” “Hmm. Let me take a look here…ooh, this might work! Try this red scarf and this hat.” Applejack did so and examined her reflection in the mirror. “Hmm…the scarf looks okay, and it don’t itch or anything. The hat’s good too; kinda reminds me of the one ya made me fir the Grand Galloping Gala.” Rarity titled her head to the side. “I wasn’t aware that I had designed something you wore for the Gala once.” “Oh. Uh, different Gala with a different Rarity and Applejack. Sorry fir the confusion.” She shook her head and began to walk out of her office with Rarity following her. “Well that’s enough of the frou-frou fashion show. So y’all made it here okay?” “Indeed we did. The others are out and about checking in our rooms and exploring the beautiful Big Apple! Once again I would like to say thank you ever so much for these Hinny of the Hills tickets!” Applejack chuckled. “Shoot, it was no problem Rares. Think of it as me returning the favor.” Rarity blinked in confusion. “What favor might that be?” Applejack smirked. “Sorry, inside joke.” Her face relaxed a little as she asked, “Though those tickets also lead into the next point Ah wanted to talk to ya about. You know the Dazzlings? Turns out they’re pretty good actors on top o’ being good singers and they recently signed up to do a musical…or was it a music video? A movie with music in it?” Applejack scratched her head. “Ah forget the details. That’ll teach me not ta drink too much apple cider ‘fore a meeting. Anyway, Ah told them about how good yer designs were and they asked if you wanted ta do costume designing.” Rarity gasped as her eyes shone with stars. “The chance to design something for the Dazzlings? For a feature length movie? Darling, I would be honoured!” Applejack smiled. “Glad to hear it. Now, this job comes with one condition you should know about. Since there’s so many costumes that need designing, ya can’t just do it all by yerself. Ah’ve got two mares, Suri Polomare and Coco Pommel, who’ll be working with ya.” “Oh, you mean from Polomare’s and Pommel’s Perfections? Sunset Shimmer showed me a few dresses they’ve created. Not quite as good as my own work, but I do like the few dresses I have bought from them.” “Yep. They’re good people and good workers. Course, Suri used to have this annoying verbal tic, and Coco used to have a bit of an attitude problem. But Ah smoothed out those wrinkles when Ah worked with them in the past. Ah’ll introduce y’all to each other on the weekend. In the meantime, maybe ya can ask Trixie or Discord if they’d be interested in doing special effects or if Chrysalis and her changeling buddies could be stunt doubles or something.” Rarity smiled. “I was just about to suggest such an idea! I’m sure our friends would love to help out in any way they can.” “Whoever this mare is, she needs professional help.” The two mares glanced behind them to Smog stomping down the hall. He held up the checklist in his claws and read aloud, “‘Put the hay in the apple and eat the candle?’” He growled and folded the checklist back up. “What is that supposed to mean? What was this list even for? Why is this MY problem?!” “Smog? What are you grumbling about, darling?” Rarity asked. “Oh, hey Rarity, hey Applejack.” Smog sighed and held up the checklist. “Sorry, it’s this weird list of chores that somebody mailed me. Here, listen to some of these.” He held up the list and read, “‘Bring the bubbles to the lyre player. Dust and clean the seashell. Teach the little fillies about winking?’ How do you teach somebody to wink? Why would anyone write half the things on this list?!” Rarity tilted her head to the side in confusion. “But I thought you enjoyed doing things for your friends?” “Yeah, my friends. I’m used to Nightmare having a checklist of things she wants me to do. I’ve even gotten checklists from King Sombra or Princess Twilight. Even then, the things on those lists are easy enough to do.” He pointed at the checklist and said, “This is just a demand for me to do a bunch of nonsense chores for someone I’ve never even met. It could be Rainbow, Gilda, Discord or Pinkie pulling a prank except THEY would actually make this funny. Seriously, do either of you get letters from strangers ordering you to come wash their front doors?” “Well who delivered it to ya?” Applejack asked. He flipped the checklist around and read the letter that had been attached with it. “Let’s see here…Merry Weather. Do either of you know who that is?” “Merry? Sure, Ah know her. She’s an assistant of mine; good hard worker too,” Applejack said with pride. Her smile faded a little as she added, “Although, out of all the ponies Ah got working fir me she does seem the most likely to send ya a random list. Just…Ah dunno, something’s off with her. On top of that, she spooks easily around folks who ain’t ponies but Ah’ve been working with her to make her a little nicer. Ah could lead you to her if ya want.” “Sure. I just want to know what she was thinking when she sent me this thing,” Smog grumbled. “Mind if I tag along? I could help sort out this misunderstanding; I’m sure she only sent you that list by accident, Smog. Even if she is a little ‘off’ as you put it Applejack, I’m sure she can be reasonable,” Rarity said. “Well then, you’re in for a big surprise,” a unicorn mare said as she walked over to them, carrying several books in her green, magical aura. The mare had a very pale, grayish gold coat and chestnut brown hair. She wore a bowtie and a pair of glasses. “Miss Applejack, I’m glad I found you so soon.” “Oh, howdy there…I mean, uh…” Applejack cleared her throat and switched to her Big Apple accent. “Good afternoon, Camellia. I’m guessing you’ve heard of Rarity and Smog. Guys, I’d like to introduce you to one of my best employees. Camellia here is a country bumpkin turned city girl, like myself, except she was born in Germaney. Camellia works in global marketing and translations. She’s got a real good eye for detail too,” Applejack said with a smile. Smog raised an eyebrow. “Hold on a second…Germaney?” Camellia gave him a shrug. “As much as we try to run from it we can’t seem to escape the dreaded pony pun when it comes to naming locations, can we? Oh, before I forget.” She cleared her throat and said, “Drem yol lok, dovah Smog. Aal hin yol neh feim.” Smog blinked a couple of times. “Um…excuse me?” Camellia smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m rather obsessed with languages. I just said ‘Greetings, dragon Smog. May your fire never fade.’ It’s an ancient dragon language, but I use it whenever I meet a dragon for the first time. Just in case someone knows what I’m saying.” Smog’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s…kinda cool. I’ll have to remember to ask Nightmare if we have any books on dragon languages.” Camellia nodded at him before she turned back to Applejack, her smile fading. “I’m sorry to pull you away from your friends Miss Applejack, but Merry Weather is in a really bad mood and she’s taking it out on other ponies. You’re the only one who can get through to her when she’s like this.” Applejack groaned. “I was afraid of that. Good news is, we were looking for her anyway. Rarity, you go on ahead of us. Nightmare and the others are in Guest Room number A-5. Smog, you come with us. Let’s see if we can sort this out.” The three of them made their way through the Apple Pie Incorporated building until they had reached another office with a pink heart on the door. “And don’t let me catch you vermin ever again!” a voice shouted behind the door. The next second, three earth stallions all fled out the door, running for their lives. “What…hey! Logan! Sunbright! Liquid Pride! Where y’all going?” Applejack called to them. Camellia turned to Applejack and said, “Um, shouldn’t we do something?” Applejack winced. “Yeah, I better go calm her down.” The two mares and one dragon stepped into the office and walked towards the angry mare, who was smashing her face into a pillow. “Dear ponies above, why?! Why does my head hurt so much?!” she screamed. “Merry? What’s going on here?” Applejack asked. The mare looked up and smiled as she saw them. Merry Weather was an earth pony mare with a peach-pink coat and blonde hair, with a pink hair bow in her mane. She wore a heart-shaped necklace and a pair of iron boots on her back legs. “Applejack? Miss Applejack! Oh, I’m so happy to see you!” “What happened in here? I saw Logan, Pride, and Sunbright leaving in a hurry. Were you arguing with them again?” Merry giggled. “Okay, maybe I was a little too harsh with them. But you know how boys can be.” “Don’t forget that stallion you just fired and threw a glass of water at,” Camellia pointed out. Merry rolled her eyes. “He had it coming.” “Merry…you’re starting to scare folks,” Applejack said. Merry Weather looked down at herself with some shame. “I understand, Applejack. Maybe it’s a little hypocritical of me but…the one thing I hate more than anything is a bad attitude.” Applejack sighed. “We need to talk about this…but before we do, Smog here has something he wants to ask you.” “It’s about this list you sent me,” Smog said. “You wrote a bunch of strange requests and then ordered me to do the work on it. I don’t even know you!” Merry blinked at Smog and tilted her head. “You’re not Spike.” Smog raised an eyebrow at her. “Um…no, I’m not. Not even close. Have you ever seen the great dragon Spike? I’m red and gold and still pretty small. He’s huge, green and purple, and hangs out with Princess Twilight.” “Oh? That’s disappointing,” Merry mumbled. “At least you’re still a baby dragon. Dragons are such brutes when they turn into adults.” Applejack raised her eyebrow at Merry before she sighed. “Smog, let me handle this. Forget about that list and go back to your friends. I’ll see you just as soon as I’m done talking with Merry.” Camellia cleared her throat. “Um, actually Miss Applejack you do have a few other things that need your attention.” “Oh, right.” Applejack tapped her chin in thought for several seconds before she smiled. “Hey Camellia? Why don’t you show Smog those comics you were working on? I bet he’d appreciate it.” Camellia smiled. “If you say so Miss Applejack. Come with me Smog.” Gilda sighed and glanced up at the clock. “When is Applejack getting here?” Sunset Shimmer looked up from the book she was reading and said, “You have to remember that she’s in charge of a huge corporation. She probably has a dozen meetings she needs to go through before she has any personal time left in her day.” Discord’s gaze lazily drifted back and forth between his five friends before he shrugged. “A dozen meetings or not, it doesn’t excuse the fact that she is late. Which means…” he grinned and raised his talons as he prepared to conjure up something to entertain them. “Hey guys!” Smog shouted as he burst into the room. “You won’t believe what I just got!” Discord lowered his claw and floated over to Smog. “Ooh! I do so enjoy it when my friends are the ones causing chaos instead of me! What do you have there?” Smog grinned as Sunset, Gilda, Princess Nightmare Moon, Trixie, Chrysalis, and Rarity walked over to see him. “It’s an enchanted comic book! See, Apple Pie Incorporated recently bought this new store called the House of Enchanted Comics. This book has a spell in the back of it that literally sucks the reader inside the comic book!” Sunset blinked. “So…we get to become super heroes? With gadgets, costumes, and powers?” At Smog’s nod, she grinned widely. “That sounds awesome! Let me see that spell!” Rarity blushed a little as Sunset levitated the comic book out of Smog’s claws and scanned the back page. “I’m afraid I never really got into comics as a filly. But I do enjoy some of the movies that come out based on those books. It looks like it would be a lot of fun to design a superhero’s costume.” Her smile faded as Gilda gave her a look. “Well…besides the whole Mare Do Well incident…sorry.” Gilda shrugged. “It’s cool.” Sunset finished reading the spell and smiled up at her friends. “Looks pretty safe. The enchantment will draw anyone nearby inside the book and place them in the role of one of the book’s heroes. To return to the real world we can either defeat the villains or use a special escape spell in case we get into trouble.” Chrysalis sighed. “That’s a relief. Could you imagine how long we’d be trapped in that book if the villains were too powerful and we didn’t have an escape spell?” Trixie smirked. “Too powerful for us? Don’t make Trixie laugh.” “You have to remember that not everyone is as powerful as us,” Nightmare said. “Although…if we get the powers of the superheroes in this book, do we lose our own magic?” “It doesn’t say, but if we did I’d imagine that it would only be temporary,” Sunset said. “This book came from a store, right? That means it has to be safe for the general public or else the place would be shut down.” “Still, we should be careful,” Smog said. “I mean, I’m excited to try out this spell but it IS a prototype. Camellia told me this is the first time the House of Enchanted Comics has done something like this.” “Who’s Camellia?” Chrysalis asked. “She’s the pony in charge of translating this book into other languages for international shipping. That’s why she got the first look at it. This book isn’t even in stores yet so she thought I’d be a nice treat for us. She’s pretty nice but she’ll need it back once we’re done.” Nightmare nodded. “Alright then. Shall we get started?” Smog glanced around the room. “Wait, where’s Rainbow and Fluttershy? I’m sure they’d love to join in on the fun.” “Pinkie already invited them to somewhere else,” Nightmare said. “Probably a good thing too; we don’t know how many characters are available for us to possess.” She levitated the book up and began the spell. “You can return to the place you started when the Power Syndicate is defeated. Take a closer look to join the adventure in this book.” “Not much of a rhyme,” Discord commented before the book started glowing. A bright light shot out of the book before a vortex opened up, slowly pulling them all in. “Ooh, but this certainly makes up for it!” Discord’s arms stretched out and pulled his seven friends into a hug before he jumped into the book. “Geronimo!” The City of Megatropolis! A lively, bustling city, filled with happy, hard-working…wait, what? What’s going on? Where the heck am I? “Smog? Where are you?” Sunset moaned as she slowly stood up. “Oh, whoa. Ugh…bad idea to stand up…” She shook her head a little and attempted to regain her balance as she wobbled. “Is everyone okay?” “Trixie is dizzy!” “We’re over here!” “Glurgh…” Sunset turned around and blinked in shock as she saw her friends. Trixie had been transformed from a unicorn into a pegasus with a painted white face and glowing red eyes. She wore a mime costume with a belt that held several vials of differently coloured potions. Chrysalis wore a red outfit with a pink bow, blue high heels, and a blue and red tiara. Discord was dressed in some sort of pharaoh costume with mummy bandages wrapped around his arms and legs. Gilda had been transformed into some kind of red and black slime griffon. Sunset herself was dressed in a black and purple costume with a hood. “Well…this is surprising,” Trixie said as she flapped her new wings. “Trixie admits that although she’s read a few comics, she is not familiar with these characters. Who are we supposed to be?” The Legion of Heroism! Trixie, you’ve been transformed into Long-Face, the master of emotions! You’ve got several magical gases and toxins that can make people feel happy, sad, angry, courageous, or afraid. Chrysalis, you’ve been turned into High Heel, the fashionable and friendly femme fatal! You’ve got a magic purse that contains a huge collection of high heels and shoes-themed gadgets with their own unique abilities. Discord, you’ve been turned into Pharaoh Phetlock, the mighty master of mummies! “Neat!” Discord said as he made the bandages around his claw and paw dance around. Gilda…I’m not sure how you’ll feel about this. You’ve been turned into Sludge, the indestructible slime monster. Gilda looked at her slime covered claws and growled. “Glurgle-glegh!” Yeah…Sludge can only communicate through growls and grumbles. But on the plus side, you still have your wings. That’s not something Sludge usually has. Gilda titled her head to one side and tried flapping her slimy wings. Eventually she was able to lift herself into the air and fly around like how she usually could. She hovered in midair and shrugged. “Glurgh…mograglugh mnuurgh.” Sunset, you’ve been turned into Shadowmane, the masked mystery mare. You don’t have any superpowers but you have the kind of comic book education and martial arts training that gives you enhanced intelligence, strength, speed, agility, and reflexes, plus several throwing knives and other gadgets. Sunset flicked her ears. “I don’t have any powers? That’s disappointing.” She frowned as her ears flicked again. “I don’t suppose I can trade with anyone or…okay, does anyone else hear that? Sounds like an alarm.” Her eyes widened as she listened closer. “Yep, that’s definitely a security alarm. Sounds like the bad guys are only a few streets away! Come on Legion of Heroism!” “Wait, hold on a minute!” Chrysalis ordered. “We can’t just rush off right away! For one thing…where’s Nightmare? Where’s Rarity? Smog, where are you?” What do you mean? I’m right in front of you. “All I can see are some text boxes hovering in the air, saying everything you say,” Chrysalis told him. …You’re kidding me. I’ve been turned into the narrator? My favourite comic book and I can’t even be a character in it? What gives?! Discord smiled and held up his claw and paw. “Okay, calm down everyone. So the spell is not as perfect as we perviously thought it would be. But that could just be because there are so many of us, and the comic only had a handful of character roles for us to play. We can still have fun with this! It’s all about playing the cards you’re dealt, and using the thimble to declare checkmate! Gilda has been turned into a growling sludge monster, but she can still fly. I seem to have lost most of my powers in this comic book but I can still have fun!” With a mischievous grin, he turned to face Trixie and snapped his fingers. The bandages around his arms unwrapped themselves and shot out towards Trixie, rapidly wrapping her up like a cartoonish mummy. “Mm?! Mmm! Mmmm nrmm!” “Sorry Trixie, can’t hear you. Now then…dance my minion!” Discord snapped his fingers again and chuckled as Trixie stood on her back legs and began to dance like she was from ancient Anugypt. “Mmrnmm!” Trixie growled. “Looking good Trixie!” Discord laughed. “Hey Sunset, you’ve read about ancient Anugypt, right? I recall this one story the jackals had about-” Sunset sighed. “Discord, I’ll admit that watching Trixie dance like that is funny, but we still have super villains to stop.” Discord nodded and snapped his fingers again, freeing Trixie from his magic mummy bandages. “Right you are! Sorry about that Trixie.” Trixie’s front hooves touched back down on the ground as she offered him a small smile. “Actually, the dance wasn’t too bad. Just leave Trixie’s mouth uncovered next time.” “Glergh!” Gilda exclaimed before she flapped her wings and flew towards the sound of the alarm. Eh, Gilda’s probably right. Even if talking is a free action in comic books, we REALLY should go and stop the Power Syndicate. Less talky more punching stuff! “Right! Power Ponies Go!” Sunset declared. No, you’re the Legion of Heroism…oh never mind. Seeing that the rest of the Legion of Heroism had caught up with her, Gilda growled and pointed a slime-covered talon at the research laboratory where the alarm was coming from where something or someone had just smashed a giant hole through the wall. The Legion quickly descended to the ground level to confront their foes as terrified Megatropolis citizens fled the streets. “Blast! It’s the Legion!” they heard a voice snarl. Four costumed ponies jumped out of the hole in the wall and onto the street. Their leader was a pink unicorn mare with a purple mane and tail, wearing red and silver armor and goggles. The Masked Matter-horn! The Power Syndicate’s leader! She’s the world’s strongest unicorn, with a talent for ice magic. Trixie snorted. “Strongest unicorn? She can keep telling herself that.” Next to her was a pale brown earth mare with a black mane, wearing a red suit with black hoof bands, green hair ties in her mane and tail, and a black belt with a lasso tied to it. Mistress Mare-velous! She has a magic lasso she’s psychically connected to, plus her deadly hoofarangs. She’s Matter-horn’s right hoof mare. Discord snickered. “Hoofarangs? That’s some Silver Age silliness right there.” In a flash of speed, another costumed mare appeared next to Mare-velous. This mare was a green earth pony with an orange mane and tail, wearing a white suit with purple lightning bolts. Filli-Second! The world’s fastest, most hyperactive thief! “So…she’s Pinkie Pie except still evil and without most of her chaotic powers,” Sunset muttered. Hovering above their heads, a pale electric blue pegasus with purple hair smirked down at them. She wore a lightning bolt necklace and a very dark blue suit with lightning symbols, along with actual lightning dancing across her hooves. Zapp! Her magic necklace amplifies a pegasus pony’s natural ability to control the weather and boosts it’s power to the max! She can summon tornadoes and storms more powerful than anything a pegasus or griffon can create in our world! Chrysalis frowned up at Smog’s text boxes. “Not that it’s bothering me…at least not much…but why are you telling us all?” First of all, it helps you guys defeat them if you know what they’re capable of. Second of all, I’m the narrator now. It’s like I’m compelled to spill out all the necessary exposition for any new readers. Don’t worry, we’re halfway there. With a furious roar, a hulking monster of a pegasus with an amber gray coat and a brown mane and tail made another hole in the wall as she jumped onto the street too. She wore a bright green costume that was ripped in several places due to her humongous muscles. Saddle Rager! She starts off as a normal sized pegasus but whenever she gets angry, she turns into that impossible strong monster! “P-please put m-me down Miss R-Rager! I c-can w-walk the rest of the w-way!” Saddle Rager growled and spat out the colt she had been carrying in her mouth. He had a gray aquamarine coat with a dark olive mane and tail and wore blue boots, a red cape, and a face mask. As he landed on the ground he shivered and hugged the tiny glowing metallic orb he was carrying like a teddy bear. Sunset’s eyes widened with concern, her mask’s eyes widened too. “Um, why do they have a little colt with them?” Oh dear. That’s Humdrum…please don’t hurt him. The only real power he has is breaking the fourth wall, although he doesn’t do that too much these days. The Power Syndicate adopted him after his parents went missing. At first, they treated him well and he was meant to be a morality pet to show off the Power Syndicate’s softer side. Then the comic books became a little darker. Nowadays, they treat him like their personal servant, punching bag, and meat shield. The Legion stared up at Smog’s text box in horror. “That’s awful!” I know. Like I said, please don’t hurt him. The only character left is Radiance and she…Rarity?! Among the Power Syndicate there stood a very confused and nervous Rarity, dressed in a blue facemask and a dark blue costume with blue jewels imbedded in it. Two purple jewel bracelets glowed brightly around her front hooves, and several non-glowing purple jewels were tied into her mane and tail. “What’s Rarity doing over there?” Chrysalis asked. Before anyone could answer her, the Masked Matter-horn barked out an order. “Alright, team! Take them down!” With a mad giggle, Filli-Second leapt into the battle first as she tackled Sunset and began to punch her rapidly. Discord raised his arms over his head, conjuring up a sarcophagus. “Hold on Sunny – I mean Shadowmane! Help is on the way!” With a snap of his fingers the sarcophagus opened up and dozens of mummified ponies leapt out and tackled Filli-Second. With a furious roar, Saddle Rager charged towards Chrysalis. Her eyes widening with horror, the changeling queen jumped away from the rampaging monster…surprising herself when she leapt several stories in the air before bouncing back down. “How did I do that?!” she cried. Anti-Gravity Heels. High Heel always starts every fight with that pair, and it’s never lead her wrong before. “Aw. Those would have been fun to play with…but no matter! The Great and Powerful Long-Face will vanquish this monster!” Trixie declared. She plucked a bluish black vial off her belt and flung it at Saddle Rager. As the gas was released, the rampaging monster began to sniffle and sob. The overwhelming sadness gas turned the hulking behemoth back into a normal sized pegasus mare. Zapp growled as her magic churned up more storm clouds. “Vile twister of emotions! Thou continues to seek the path of the coward when my companion doth battle with thee! But if thou shall not face the rage of the beast than thou shalt tremble before the fury of mine storm!” Lightning bolts shot out from the thunderclouds and scorched the street. Sunset cringed as a lightning bolt raced toward her, before it was blocked by an expanding wave of black and red ooze. “Glergh!” Gilda cheered as she used her new powers to grow larger and larger until she was big enough to shield the Legion. She stretched out her body and chuckled as the lightning bolts simply tickled her indestructible slime. The Masked Matter-horn smirked. “Pitiful fool.” Her horn glowed and shot out an icy blue beam. The spell struck Gilda and began to coat her sludgy body in ice. Once her opponent was completely frozen, she turned to Rarity. “Okay Radiance! Make a hammer and smash this thing to pieces!” Rarity’s eyes widened. “W-what?” Oh no…Rarity, it’s Smog! Can you hear me? Rarity blinked at the tiny text box that appeared next to her ear. Taking the visual hint, she whispered to him. “Smog? What’s going on? Why are you a text box? And why am I one of the villains…again?” Masked Matter-horn frowned, keeping her eyes on Gilda. “Radiance? What are you doing back there?” Listen Rarity, I know you don’t want to do this but you need to play along. Just pretend to be a villain. Use your jewelry to create an attack construct in the shape of a hammer and pretend to attack Gilda. “What? I’m not going to attack her!” Rarity exclaimed loudly. Far too loudly. “What was that?!” Masked Matter-horn barked as she turned around and glared at Rarity. Rarity flinched as the villainous leader stomped towards her. “W-well…must we really settle this disagreement with something so barbaric as smashing our enemy? Rather excessive, don’t you think?” she asked with a sheepish smile. “Have you gone soft? Or soft in the head?!” Masked Matter-horn snarled. Rarity frowned. “There’s no need for insults.” The cold-hearted super villain pointed her glowing horn at Rarity. “How about threats?! If you don’t smash them, I’ll freeze you!” Rarity gulped. “R-right. Well I would l-love to smash them with a giant hammer but I uh…forgot how to do that?” “Are you kidding me? What, is Humdrum’s stupidity contagious now?” “Yay Power Syndicate! Woohoo!” Humdrum cheered. While their enemies were distracted, Chrysalis reached into her magic purse and pulled out a pair of shoes with serrated blades as the heels. She reached up and began to hack a small hole into Gilda’s frozen prison. “Come on Gilda, if we can survive a Windigo attack then you can easily escape this,” she whispered. Sunset, Trixie, and Discord grabbed some high heels from Chrysalis’ bag and worked to make the hole even bigger. Eventually black and red slime began to leak out of the hole and pour back down onto the street as Gilda twisted and reformed her body to escape the block of ice. While this was going on, the rest of the Power Syndicate had joined in to taunt Rarity. “Come on! What’s slowing ya down, ya dumb mook?” Filli-Second asked impatiently. “N-now let’s be reasonable ponies! My powers just aren’t working at the moment, surely this isn’t the first time such a misfortune has befallen us?” Rarity asked with a sheepish, yet hopeful smile. “Cease thy complaining, Radiance! The battle would be ours if thou would recover thine backbone!” Zapp hissed. “Hold on a minute. What if she’s not the real Radiance,” Mistress Mare-velous asked. “What if that rotten High Heel used one of her ‘A Mile in my Shoes’ gadgets?” “What’s that?” Chrysalis asked Smog as Gilda slithered out of the hole in the ice. High Heel is obsessed with shoes and shoe-related jokes, obviously. One of her coolest inventions was a magic pair of heels that allows her to swap bodies with anyone, whether she uses it on herself or not. High Heel, the other members of the Legion, and even members of the police force have used that gadget to spy on the Power Syndicate or other criminal organizations from the inside. Just put one shoe on your head, throw the other shoe at someone’s face and instant body swap. Chrysalis’ eyes widened. “Really?” She reached into her magic purse and pulled out a pair of red heels with a very long ribbon tied between them. “Hey Trixie – uh, I mean Long-Face! Wanna trade powers?” “Yes! I could do SO much more with a literal bag of tricks, even if they are shoe themed. Emotional manipulation is far better suited to you; honestly I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before.” Chrysalis smiled and gave Trixie one of the heels before placing the other one on her head. With a flash of red light, the two friends appeared to switch places and costumes, but not bodies. Trixie smiled as she discovered that she had been turned back into a unicorn and a nicely dressed one at that, while Chrysalis grinned at the vials attached to her belt. The changeling queen picked up one vial full of green gas and licked her lips. “Is this a love potion?” Sure. Long-Face created it back in the Hearts Day comic special. Masked Matter-horn’s eyes widened as she glanced back at the Legion. “Why did they just switch bodies? Blast it all, they must be planning something!” “Okay, enough of this,” Saddle Rager growled as she wiped the last of her tears from her eyes. “Radiance, stop being such an obnoxious, spoiled brat and do your job before I get angry. Honestly, you’re being as useless as Humdrum right now.” Rarity frowned. “Now see here! There’s no need to talk about Humdrum that way and I can’t help it if my powers aren’t working.” Chrysalis frowned. “She’s going to get herself in trouble if she keeps this up.” Gilda – who had finished reforming herself outside the ice a minute ago – patted her friend’s shoulder and smirked. “Glergh.” With a mischievous grin, Gilda quickly slithered her way towards the Power Syndicate and launched herself at Rarity. “AIEE!” Rarity screamed as Gilda covered her whole body in sludge before slithering back off. “My outfit! My hair! My precious hair!” She turned around and glared at Gilda, who she could tell was laughing even if it came out as a series of gurgles. “Oh…it. Is. ON!” Rarity fired several blasts and beams at her friend while Gilda kept on chuckling as she flew, slithered, and dodged out of the way. Masked Matter-horn smirked and nodded. “That’s more like it. Enough distractions! Finish them!” Sunset smirked too. “Glad we cleared all that up. Now let’s have some fun!” And so the two super teams continued to battle each other with a lot less confusion and a lot more enthusiasm. Mare-velous and Sunset traded punches, kicks, throwing knives, and hoofarangs. Discord summoned more mummies for Filli-Second to battle. Chrysalis experimented with her emotion manipulating gases to see how much she could mess with Saddle Rager’s mind. Gilda and Rarity continued to chase each other. Trixie was even able to take on Zapp and Masked Matter-horn at the same time when she discovered some of the more impressive and even explosive shoes in her collection. Meanwhile, Humdrum cheered for his adoptive family on the sidelines. “Yay! You can do it Power Syndicate! Woohoo!” “Humdrum, you useless whelp! Thou must cheer louder for your goddess of thunder and lightning!” Zapp commanded him. “Oh…okay!” Humdrum jumped on top of a mailbox that had somehow survived the super brawl and cheered louder as he raised the glowing orb over his head. “Yeah, Power Syndicate! Woo – whoa!” Mare-velous slapped her face in frustration as Humdrum tripped on his cape and landed face first on the ground, the orb rolling away from him. “Humdrum, you worthless failure! Why do you exist?!” Discord glared at her. “Now that’s just needlessly heartless.” “I got it!” Sunset announced as she ran towards the orb. Unfortunately she was cut off as Filli-Second pushed her to the side and grabbed the orb in a rush of speed. Mare-velous smirked. “Good job Filli-Second! See Humdrum, why can’t you be more like her?” “I…I’m sorry mistress,” Humdrum sniffled, his eyes tearing up. Saddle Rager giggled. “Oh look, the little baby’s crying again. That’s hilarious!” The Masked Matter-horn grabbed the orb from Filli-Second with her telekinesis and smirked. “Well this has been fun, but we really must be going.” Discord crossed his arms. “Leaving so soon? This party isn’t over yet!” “Then we shalt end this party with a big bang indeed!” Zapp declared. She flew up into the sky and raised her necklace. More storm clouds formed in the sky as a mighty tornado descended onto the street. Zapp pointed at the Legion of Heroism and the tornado slowly advanced towards them. “Sludge, Long-Face! Think you can stop it?!” Sunset shouted over the wind. Chrysalis shook her head. “I don’t know if we can! I’m not a fast flyer and Sludge is…well, a sludge creature! She’ll be splattered all over the pavement!” “Pharaoh Phetlock, can you do anything?!” “I’m low on chaos and mummies don’t have a great history with weather! Maybe High Heel’s bag of tricks can help!” Discord zipped over to Trixie, reached into her magic purse, and began to throw shoes at the tornado. “How is a shoe possibly going to stop a tornado?!” Trixie shouted. “Because comic book logic!” Discord answered. Despite his cheerful answer, the tornado wasn’t slowing down. Masked Matter-horn laughed as Saddle Rager tossed Humdrum on her back. “You’d better improve your strategy quickly, legion of losers. When next we meet, the stakes will be much higher. And from the fires of our final battle a new Megatropolis …OUR Megatropolis, shall rise from this city’s ashes.” With that said, the Power Syndicate minus Rarity began to laugh evilly…only to stop as they heard someone else laugh. “Aw, did someone forget to invite me to the party! What’d I tell you all about coming in MY city? Eh, he, he, HE!” Saddle Rager’s eyes widened. “Oh no…oh no, no, no…” Filli-Second gulped. “We need to leave.” “W-what’s the matter? C-chicken? I ain’t s-scared,” Mare-velous whispered. Rarity backed away from them. “What? What’s going on?” Masked Matter-horn’s gaze searched the sky. “Come on, come on…where are you?” Her eyes widened and she immediately leapt back as a car smashed onto the street. Could it be…oh, we are in for a show tonight. “Sorry to keep you all waiting…but now, the mane event has arrived!” Everyone turned around to see Nightmare Moon. She was wearing a purple costume with black and gold boots. Her wings and horn had shrunk a little but her hair had grown quite a lot, her magical mane and tail splitting off into several, rapidly twisting tentacles. Her midnight bluish black hair had gained a very green tinge to it, as if the night sky had been filled with poisonous green gas. Her draconic blue-green eyes had also turned red and green. And lastly, the change that creeped her friends out the most was a crazed grin that Pinkie Pie would have blushed at. Nightmare Moon has become The Mane-iac. She was the optimistic, kind-hearted daughter of the CEO of a hair-care product company. Then the young mare had one bad day when the Masked Matter-horn broke into her family’s factory to steal their wealth and secrets. She blasted her into a vat of unstable chemicals the company was using to create a new type of magical shampoo. Masked Matter-horn’s powers plus the chemicals gave the young mare strange new powers, while the accident and her desire for vengeance against the Power Syndicate drove her completely insane! “That’s quite a backstory. How come you didn’t describe our characters that much?” Trixie asked. Because while her wild hair is powerful, it’s her insanity that makes The Mane-iac such a fearsome hero. Her personality matches her name and everyone in Megatropolis knows that. Masked Matter-horn’s eyes widened in fear as Nightmare grinned at her. “ZAPP!” “I know, I know!” Zapp cried. She steered the tornado under her control and accelerated its speed until it crashed into the Legion of Heroism, causing Nightmare’s friends to scream in shock. Except for Discord, who remembered that it was a comic book and just enjoyed the ride. It appeared that Nightmare had the same idea as him. Rather than dodging away from the tornado she galloped into it, giggling madly as she spun in the air. “Well now, this puts quite a spin on our suspenseful tail, doesn’t it?” Nightmare’s hair stretched higher into the air, the mane tentacles spinning like helicopter blades. Her tail tentacles stretched out and grabbed the ledges of two nearby rooftops. She used her tail to pull herself towards the buildings while she stretched out two mane tentacles to slingshot herself towards Zapp. “Gah! Release me at once, thou deviant!” Zapp cried as Nightmare’s hair tentacles wrapped around her. Nightmare giggled. “Oh sure sweetheart, in just a second! But there’s just a little question that I wanted to…tickle your brain with.” With an evil grin, Nightmare licked one of her mane tentacles and stuck it inside of Zapp’s ear. Zapp was understandably disturbed. “STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!” she screamed. Nightmare giggled again. “There, see! That’s the question I wanted to ask you! Will you pretty please stop the tornado?” “YES! Please I beg of thou, remove your corrupted hair snakes from my brain!” Zapp cried. She grabbed her lightning bolt necklace and made the tornado vanish. Nightmare’s mane stretched out to catch her friends while Gilda stretched her body out to catch Nightmare. “C-coward!” Saddle Rager shouted at Zapp. Zapp landed on the ground and curled herself into a little ball. “If thou think thou can do better than do so!” “Can’t. Too scared from the last time we fought her.” Saddle Rager’s eyes widened in fear as Nightmare stomped her way towards the Power Syndicate, her hair tentacles acting like the legs of a gigantic spider. Mare-velous levitated her lasso and roped it around a mailbox, which she then flung at Nightmare. The mad alicorn simply caught the mailbox with her mane, raised it in the air and sent it smashing back down towards her. “Air mail!” Nightmare giggled. Filli-Second went next, zooming towards Nightmare and rapidly tying her hair into knots. Nightmare smirked as Filli-Second blurred around her and slightly shifted one of her tentacles. The next thing Filli-Second knew, she had tied herself up with Nightmare’s tail. “Well now, someone has been a very knotty filly,” Nightmare giggled. “Bad idea, bad idea!” Filli-Second cried as she quickly worked to untie herself. “Well it’s your own fault, sweetheart. You’re the ones who wanted to get all our tails in a twist! Now, let’s settle down and give yourselves to let our hair down…on the curb!” Nightmare laughed madly as she raised her tail and slammed Filli-Second into the ground with it. But the speedy super villain recovered quickly, and zoomed off into the distance. She returned seconds later with boatloads of bricks, which she used to rapidly build a brick prison around Nightmare. “Okay, I think I got her!” Filli-Second said as she raced back to the Power Syndicate. Sunset raised a hoof. “Should we help her?” She quickly lowered her hoof as a pile of bricks exploded off Nightmare’s brick prison. “Never mind.” “Sky spirits above! The fiend hath grown even stronger!” Zapp cried. “Radiance! Form a pair of scissors and shave her hair off!” Masked Matter-horn ordered. Rarity gasped. “Excuse me? I would never do something as heartless as shave another pony bald! It would be like asking me to shave my own mane off!” Saddle Rager grabbed her. “Please! We’re begging you!” she sobbed. “Forget it! I’ll do it myself!” Masked Matter-horn cried as another pile of bricks was blasted away. She telekinetically ripped off on of Rarity’s power jewelry and placed it on her own off. The bracelet and her horn glowed as she formed a glowing purple pair of scissors. As Nightmare finished demolishing her prison, the scissors flew into action and snipped Nightmare’s mane and tail away. “There! That’s how it’s done! Now get your head together and finish the freak off!” Masked Matter-horn ordered as she shoved Rarity towards Nightmare. Rarity let out an “eep” as Nightmare caught her in her hooves. “Oh dear! Nightmare…I mean, uh Mane-iac. I’m so terribly sorry about your hair!” “What is she doing?!” Mare-velous growled. “Don’t worry guys, Radiance has got this! She’s trying to trick The Mane-iac! Way to go Radiance!” Humdrum cheered. Mare-velous glared at him. “Humdrum, grow a brain.” Nightmare giggled as she held Rarity. “Oh don’t worry about me, marshmallow pony! I can already feel my hair growing back,” she said as strands of green, blue, and midnight black hair slithered out of her head. “So, are you having fun? Huh, huh, HUH?” Rarity squirmed in Nightmare’s grip. “Not exactly darling. Do you think you could loosen your grip just a drop? You’re holding me rather tightly.” Nightmare gasped, her grin growing wider as she dropped Rarity. “Not having fun? Oh no, no, no, we can’t have that! Ooh, I know what can liven up a party! SNACK ATTACK!” Her mane and tail burst out from her once again, the hair tentacles wrapping around a pretzel cart, an empty pizza delivery truck, and a lamppost. She ripped them all out of the ground and hurled them at the Power Syndicate. Masked Matter-horn screamed and used Rarity’s bracelet to create a large bubble around her team. “Filli-Second, get us all out of here!” Filli-Second grabbed Rarity and rushed back inside the bubble. The villainous speedster then pushed the bubble down the street like the world’s largest and fastest hamster ball. “Aw! They don’t wanna play with me anymore! I guess I’ll just have to stalk them!” Nightmare giggled. She turned to her friends and waved to them. “Hey everybody! Are we all having fun?” The rest of her friends were staring at her with dropped jaws. “Nightmare…what was that?” Sunset asked. Nightmare giggled as she tickled her head with her mane, making ‘cuckoo-crazy’ gestures with her tentacles. “If I had to guess I would say my own lunacy has mixed with The Mane-iac’s own mania resulting a beautiful insanity! It’s all quite exciting, really.” “Glergh?” Gilda asked. “No need to hold back Gilda darling, I know I’m crazy. Sure I restrain myself a lot better than Discord, but I still dream of magical sheep, eternal night, and so on. Speaking of crazy ideas…” She stomped her way towards Discord and wrapped several tentacles around him, drawing his body close to her. “Hello, handsome.” Discord blinked and smiled nervously as Nightmare stared at him. “Um, hello. What brought this on?” “Come now Discord, you must have considered the possibility. I know you have certain feelings for my aunt, but sweet little Celestia is quite a bit older than you AND still very confused about what to do with King Sombra. You’ve had the odd thought about Fluttershy but she’s not immortal like you, at least not yet!” Nightmare giggled madly. “Then there’s her own confuzzled feelings about dating to consider. But back to us! We’re both the same age, we’re both immortal, we’re best friends, we love each other’s company, we’re both incredibly powerful and beautifully insane…and you are a rather handsome specimen. What about me, Discord darling? Do you think I’m pretty like a night sky?” Nightmare fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Glurgle,” Gilda grumbled and rolled her eyes. Nightmare smiled and formed one of her tail tentacles into a spike, impaling Gilda’s head with it. “I heard that.” “Glergh!” Gilda exclaimed as she pushed her head away from Nightmare and recomposed herself, shuddering a little. Discord titled his head to the side. “You know…maybe it’s this fun, mad little world…or just madness in general, but you make some GOOD points…” Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Nightmare, you shouldn’t be making a decision like this. You’re not thinking clearly! Even if you were, now’s not the time.” Nightmare grumbled, crossing her hooves and her tentacles. “It’s never the time! No cake for you!” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Um, okay. Don’t know what cake has to do with this but the Power Syndicate took off with Rarity. We need to save her and defeat them!” Nightmare grinned again. “Yay! Fun time again!” Her hair tentacles raised her above them and carried Nightmare as she stomped her way towards the bad guys. “Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!” “Glergh,” Gilda mumbled. Yeah, she’s starting to scare me too. Then again, The Mane-iac is her favourite superhero, so maybe she’s just having a little fun with it. “We need to go after them! But how are we to catch up with them without super speed or magic hair? With some sort of shoe car?” Trixie asked rhetorically. Actually, High Heel owns several cars shaped like shoes. There’s a remote in your purse. “…Seriously?” Trixie fished around in her purse and brought out a red and black remote. She pushed a few buttons on it and several shoe cars came racing down the street, each shoe car matching one of the group’s favourite colour. “…This place is strange.” “That’s why I love it!” Discord chuckled as he leapt into one of the cars. “Wow, it smells awful in here!” he announced cheerfully. Well, Pharaoh Phetlock has a mummy themed car. Maybe…wait, what’s going on where am I going? Meanwhile, at the Power Syndicate’s top secret headquarters…that’s a giant skyscraper. You know it’s not top secret if you’re using it to mock everyone. We all know who lives here, you’ve got PS written on the side of the building for Luna’s sake! Why I am here again? Oh, Rarity! Filli-Second rolled the ball into their headquarters and gasped in relief. “That was way too close! I can’t handle the Legion AND The Mane-iac in the same day!” “Hopefully we won’t have to deal with them ever again,” Masked Matter-horn said as she erased the purple bubble from existence. “Humdrum, get that orb to the lab and then come back here. We need to have a talk with Radiance.” “Sure thing!” Humdrum said cheerfully before he took the orb and skipped off deeper into their lair. Rarity gulped as Mare-velous’ lasso roped itself around her and pulled her towards the Power Syndicate. “Um…what seems to be the problem?” Filli-Second pressed her face up against Rarity’s and frowned. “You’ve been acting weird Radiance! If that’s who you really are! How do we know you’re not some little piggy cop who used one ‘a High Heel’s gadgets to swap bodies with Radiance?” “No, no! I can assure you all that I am Radiance!” Rarity said hurriedly. Masked Matter-horn narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “I don’t know…you’re acting like the same self-obsessed drama queen you always are...but then again you’re acting very disloyal and incompetent!” Rarity growled and finally used her new powers to create a purple umbrella, pushing the villains out of her personal bubble. “We all have our off days! And you ruffians were acting far more incompetent than I was! The instant Night – I mean, The Mane-iac showed up, you panicked and cried like a group of ill-tempered foals! And while we’re on the subject, I do NOT care for the insults you were spewing at Humdrum and I.” Zapp smiled. “Ah, Humdrum! A most wonderful idea! Wait her whilst I go fetch him!” She then flapped her wings and flew off into their lair. Hey Rarity. Are you doing okay? “Not really Smog,” Rarity whispered to the tiny text box next to her head. “Oh, why did I allow myself to get sucked into this?” Yeah, sorry about that. I shouldn’t have used the comic book with so many people in the room. It’s a shame too; if you were on the hero’s side you might be having fun with this. I think you’d make a great High Heel. “I quite agree with you. However, I must admit that being Radiance isn’t so bad. I adore this outfit and I do so love a functional accessory. The problem is the barbaric brutes that I’m being forced to work with. What do you think they plan on doing?” Well if they’re asking Humdrum to come here, they might ask for a loyalty test from you. “What sort of test?” Sigh…just remember you asked for this. And right now the script wants me to show you the answers rather than tell you. Rarity titled her head as a flashback panel appeared before them, showing a glimpse into previous issues. Zapp, Filli-Second, and Saddle Rager were playing a board game. Saddle Rager looked up a them and said, “I’m bored. Do you want to hang out with Humdrum?” “Okay!” Filli-Second answered. Rarity grimaced as the next panel showed the three super villains kicking and beating the snot out of Humdrum. “Take that you useless tub of fat!” The three bad guys laughed at Humdrum before leaving. “Ha, ha! Good one guys! You really got me!” Humdrum groaned cheerfully. “That’s awful!” Rarity hissed. Yeah, it’s a common complaint about the comic book. The rest of the story is amazing but the Humdrum abuse is really getting old. A new panel appeared, showing Humdrum carrying a large stack of paper. “Whelp, I finally finished it! My new novel!” Humdrum announced to the four other ponies in the room. Zapp smirked and conjured up a small lightning cloud in the room, zapping Humdrum’s work and setting it on fire. “Ha! Thy useless scribblings are now aflame!” “What? B-but I’ve been working on that for over a year! Why would you ruin my dream?” Humdrum sobbed. Mare-velous frowned at him. “Humdrum, dreams are for winners.” Humdrum sighed, his ears drooping. “Okay. I guess if I’m not doing anything else I’ll get dinner started.” The Radiance in the flashback – who looked like Rarity but with a yellow coat – nodded as she flipped to the next page of her magazine. “That sounds delightful Humdrum. We love you.” Masked Matter-horn glanced up from the blueprints she was studying. “What? Oh, sure. We love you Humdrum. Hey Radiance, come look at this.” Uh oh, flashback time is over. Here they come. Rarity turned around as Humdrum walked over to them. “Um…you wanted to see me, Radiance?” Saddle Rager and Zapp grinned evilly at her, nodding their heads. “You know what thou must do to prove thy loyalty.” Oh no…they’re asking you to prove you’re evil in the worst way possible. Okay, here’s the plan. I want you to PRETEND to hit Humdrum. Don’t actually do it but make it look believable. Rarity inwardly grimaced at what she was about to do, before she glared coldly at Humdrum. Using her imagination and her power bracelet, she created a spiked glove construct. The construct looked deadly, but Rarity made the palm as soft as a pillow. She made a show of swinging the glove with all her might and smacking Humdrum across the floor. When Humdrum landed, he looked more confused than injured. Fortunately, the rest of the Power Syndicate bought it. Saddle Rager smiled at Rarity before she made her way to Humdrum and helped him up. “I’m sorry we had to do that to you Humdrum, but we had to make sure Radiance was with us. All for the good of the team, remember?” “Uh…yeah!” Humdrum said with a nervous smile. Saddle Rager slowly circled around him. “That’s a good boy. I know we’ve been rather hard on you…but you must remember that it’s all for your own good. When we took you in, you were helpless…yet angry. Angry at what the world did to you…but not angry enough.” Saddle Rager held up her right front leg and flexed it. Her leg grew in size as powerful muscles bulged out on it and yet the rest of Saddle Rager’s body remained untransformed. “I know anger better than anyone. Most importantly, I know its true purpose. When your enemy is strong willed, anger only serves to make you stronger. However, when your enemy is weak…that is when they feel fear. The reason we become angry is so that our tormentor becomes afraid of us.” She lifted Humdrum up by his cape and smirked at him. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” Humdrum gulped and nodded nervously. “I sure do!” Saddle Rager rolled her eyes. “And we’re all so happy for you.” She dropped him on the ground and dismissed him. “Now then, finish cleaning my bedroom. Just because we were on a mission it doesn’t mean you can avoid your chores.” Filli-Second zipped over to them. “Hey! I was gonna use Fax Machine next! He needs to finish the list of chores I gave him!” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Darling, you have super speed! Anything Humdrum can do, I’m sure you can do twice as fast.” Filli-Second rolled her eyes. “Well obviously. But my time is much more important than his.” “None of you are using Fax Machine – I mean Humdrum! He’s helping Radiance complete the weapon!” Masked Matter-horn growled as she gave Rarity her other power bracelet back. “So you two get to work before the Legion gets here!” Good! Rarity, take Humdrum and run! Out of all the super villains, Radiance is the least abusive! It won’t look suspicious if you’re nice to him! “What? Oh um, right away!” Rarity said with a more confident smile. “Come along Humdrum, show me where this weapon is, quickly now!” She breathed a sigh of relief as Humdrum eagerly led her away from the Power Syndicate. Zapp folded her hooves and hovered in the air. “Are you certain the weapon will work?” The Masked Matter-horn smirked. “I’m confident it will. That orb is the final key to The Mane-iac’s destruction. Once the power gun is complete the Legion will be powerless to stop us. All we have to worry about now is Radiance completing the weapon in time.” Filli-Second giggled. “Why are ya being so serious? We got plenty of time! It’s not like The Mane-iac and the Legion are right outside our front door!” And that’s when the lights went out. Mare-velous gulped. “T-that’s…that’s probably just a power failure. There’s n-no way they could have gotten past our high-tech defense system!” One of the windows exploded as a sentry gun crashed through it. The gun had a few throwing knives and spiky heels stuck in it, along with a large indent that looked suspiciously like a giant tentacle had crushed it. “Already?! They’ve never been this fast before!” Filli-Second cried. Masked Matter-horn gulped. “Calm down! T-there’s no need to panic!” The Power Syndicate jumped back as a giant tentacle smashed through another window. “Shoot!” their leader cried as she blasted a sheet of ice over the window. But another mane tentacle punched a hole in the ice shortly afterward. Nightmare peeked her eyes through the hole and smiled at them. “Little pigs, little pigs...let. Me. IN.” She sang as her mane ripped more of the ice apart. “So that my hair can crawl inside of your skin!” Mare-velous patted the frightened Masked Matter-horn on the back, comforting her leader even though they were both shivering with fear. “J-just ignore her. She’s just trying to creep you out. She’s supposed to be a hero! T-there’s no way she would actually…” One of Nightmare’s hair tentacles shot out and grabbed Masked Matter-horn by the waist, pulling her towards Nightmare. A few more mane tentacles reached out, sticking themselves inside her ears and pulling her mouth into a wide grin. “Smile for me, honeycakes!” Masked Matter-horn teleported out of Nightmare’s grasp and down the hall, screaming her lungs out as she ran. “RADIANCE! HELP ME!” “Wait for us!” Filli-Second, Mare-velous, and Saddle Rager screamed as they ran after her. “Begone, thou psychopathic abomination!” Zapp cried as she threw bolts of lightning at Nightmare, before she too flew away. Nightmare simply giggled, the lightning bolts merely making her hair even wilder than before. “This is so much fun!” A sarcophagus appeared next to the window Nightmare had smashed through as she climbed inside the Power Syndicate’s secret lair. The door opened up and Discord entered the room, leading the rest of the Legion with him and making the sarcophagus disappear behind them. “You know, I’m rather surprised at what this Pharaoh Phetlock character can do. For someone whose only gimmick is mummies, he’s a lot more powerful than you’d expect.” His powers got an upgrade about three issues ago. Good to see you guys again. “Hey Smog,” Sunset said. She cringed as she heard Nightmare stomping through the lair, picking up objects and smashing them as she giggled madly. “Um, so once we arrest the Power Syndicate, this will all be over right? Because Nightmare is really starting to creep me out.” Relax guys. Even if The Mane-iac is insane, she’s still a hero. She would never go too far in the pursuit of truth, justice, and making criminals cry. “You say that now, but I’m still concerned. Nightmare, we need you to focus,” Sunset said to her friend. Nightmare smiled cheerfully at them. “Oh Sunset…Nightmare Moon isn’t here right now. Then again, neither is The Mane-iac. I don’t know who’s in charge of my noggin at the moment, but boy is it a lot more fun with HER behind the controls!” Her hair carried her down the hallway as she called for the Power Syndicate. “Oh guys? Where’d you go? I just want to talk! About crushing your bones! With my hair! Which I’m going to do once we’re done talking!” Chrysalis pawed at the ground nervously. “We…should probably go after her. Just to make sure she doesn’t do anything she’ll regret.” “Glerp,” Gilda mumbled in agreement. Rarity blinked in surprise as the rest of the Power Syndicate barged into the room, the Masked Matter-horn slamming the door shut behind them. “Girls? What’s got you all so frazzled? And what happened to the power earlier? I can barely see your faces.” “No time for that! Is the weapon done yet? The Mane-iac and the Legion are right behind us!” Mare-velous exclaimed. “Oh dear. I don’t know about the weapon darling, but Humdrum says it’s halfway finished.” “Humdrum?! You left Humdrum in charge?! He can’t do anything right!” Masked Matter-horn screamed. “Actually, it’s almost done!” Humdrum stepped away from the table he had been working at and lifted the device up for them to see. The metallic orb glowed faintly on the back of the power gun. Zapp sighed in relief. “Thou has finally done something useful!” Rarity blinked. “But Humdrum, earlier you said it would take another hour to complete.” Humdrum chuckled. “Oh, I was just teasing you. Just like you’ve all teased me before. That’s the funny thing about revenge. It’s a dish that takes a lot of patience to prepare properly.” His smile turned cold as he pointed the power gun at Filli-Second and fired, shooting a purple beam towards her. “And I’ve got FAR more patience than you monsters could ever have.” Whoa! Humdrum is finally fighting back? …HA! Called it! Button Mash owes me ten coins now! Filli-Second screamed in pain before she collapsed on the floor, twitching wildly. “Owie, owie, owie!” Rarity gulped as Humdrum pointed the weapon at her next. “Humdrum? What are you doing?” “Taking your revenge and making it my own!” Humdrum snarled as he fired the purple beam at her. Her magical jewelry lifted off her hooves as she screamed and floated over to Humdrum. As Rarity fell on the floor, Humdrum attached the bracelets to his hooves and turned on the others. Oh yeah, I should probably be worried about this. Don’t worry Rarity, help is on the way! “You ungrateful brat! After everything we’ve done for you!” Masked Matter-horn growled. Her horn glowed while Mare-velous grabbed her hoofarangs. “After all the nightmares you’ve put me through, you should have expected this,” Humdrum said as he used Filli-Second’s speed to dodge out of the way of their attacks. He appeared behind them and zapped them with the beam, stealing their powers too. “Thou traitorous whelp!” Zapp shouted as lightning sparked around her hooves. But before she could fly up and unleash her power on him, Humdrum used Mare-velous’ lasso to drag her down to the ground and stole her powers next. “And now for the icing on my cake,” Humdrum said as he turned to the last member of the Power Syndicate. Saddle Rager growled at him, already halfway through her transformation as her body bulged with muscles. “You just made me VERY angry!” Humdrum growled and fired the beam at her. Saddle Rager’s eyes widened in shock as her muscles shrunk, shattering her previous belief that her powers could protect her from anything. Her eyes widened ever further as Humdrum went through his own transformation, changing a lot faster than she had. “NO! The tables are turned now! From now on, I’M the only one allowed to be angry! I’M the only one allowed to dream! And YOU will cower before ME!” Humdrum roared. Outside the room, the Legion had heard the commotion and had come to save the day. The door opened up and the Legion gasped as they all saw Humdrum. The little earth colt had transformed into a raging monster, his muscles bulging, his new wings sparking with lightning, and his new horn glowing. The power gun was floating behind his cape, wrapped up in his magic lasso. With a snap of his fingers, Discord resummoned the sarcophagus and opened it up to reveal more mummies. “Go get him fellas!” Humdrum roared as the mummies charged at him, throwing them off or blasting them with ice and lightning. While he was distracted, the Legion helped the Power Syndicate get back on their hooves. “Well this is certainly a hairy situation you’ve gotten yourself into!” Nightmare said, laughing at the villains. Masked Matter-horn stared at her before she began to turn around. “I’ll take my chances with Humdrum!” “What?! For goodness sake, RUN!” Rarity ordered. They all ran and ran, not stopping until they had fled the Power Syndicate’s lair. Eventually they reached the street outside the lair and gasped for breath. They all jumped as they heard another roar. Behind them, the Power Syndicate’s headquarters was being utterly demolished from the inside and out. Storm clouds gathered above their heads before Humdrum appeared before them in a blur of speed, broken glass and machinery parts strewn about behind him. Mare-velous flung her hoofarangs at Humdrum in a mix of anger and panic, but they just bounced off him. “Someone do something!” she cried. Chrysalis threw a vial of sadness gas at Humdrum. Unfortunately, when the gas cleared he was still a hulking monster. “Nothing’s working!” she cried. Before Nightmare could use her mane against him, Humdrum created a magical chainsaw construct, slicing her mane and tail off. Before Gilda could restrain him, the monstrous colt charged her and flattened her to the ground. Things were looking pretty hopeless. Trixie gulped as she took a step back from the enraged colt. “Any ideas Sunset?” Sunset sighed. “Just one, but I don’t know if it’ll work. Do you think you can ‘walk a mile in his shoes’?” Trixie’s eyes widened. “Brilliant!” She quickly reached into her purse and pulled out the body switching heels. She placed one on her head and quickly flung the other shoe at Humdrum’s face. Both ponies screamed as an intense pain shot through both of them. Fortunately, luck was on their side as Trixie woke up to find herself wearing Humdrum’s costume. Her muscles had grown incredibly huge but without the colt’s fury she slowly shrunk back down to her regular size. Filli-Second giggled as Humdrum found himself in High Heel’s body. “Ha, ha! Nice outfit, loser!” However, the enraged sidekick wasn’t finished yet. The magic lasso had dropped the power stealing power gun and Humdrum had already grabbed it. “You think that matters? As long as I have this weapon I can just steal those powers back!” he growled as he pointed it at Trixie. “I’m finally going to get what I want! No more treating me like garbage! I’m finally going to get payback!” “If payback is what you want, why are you going so easy on them?” Nightmare asked. Everyone turned to face her. Nightmare winked at Discord before she continued, “I mean, the Power Syndicate has been treating you like dirt for YEARS now and to pay them back, you’re just going to beat them up?” Humdrum growled. “I won’t beat them up. I’ll destroy them!” “Then why not do it properly? What if you prolonged their punishement?” Nightmare smiled maliciously, slowly circling him. “What are you planning?” “Planning? My dear Humdrum, do I look like a mare with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a superhero, simple as that. I arrest the bad guy and put them behind bars. What makes me different from the Legion is that I have fun with it.” Discord caught on quickly to her plan and winked back. He turned to the Power Syndicate and said, “I’m impressed at how angry you’ve made this poor colt. Exactly how long have you been tormenting this poor boy?” Zapp snarled at him. “Silence thy tongue, insect! Once we have beaten some sense back into this traitorous whelp, thou shalt be next!” Nightmare smirked at her. “Oh honey, how are you going to do that? You’re powerless right now, remember?” She giggled as one of her mane tentacles grew back, reaching over and tickling Zapp. Zapp cringed and jumped away. “STOP IT! Remove thy snake-like mane from mine ear, you despicable gorgon!” Nightmare turned back to Humdrum. “You see, my little pony? Even after you’ve shown the Power Syndicate your fury, they still don’t respect you. Not the way they fear me.” Humdrum slowly lowered his weapon, looking at her with a sense of awe. “How…how do you do it? Why are they so scared of you?” Nightmare grinned evilly at the Power Syndicate. “Because I am the thing that sends shivers down their spine…the mad maniac that haunts their every nightmare. Me and my friends…we know how to foil their evil plans. Take yourself for example. They took you in, raised you as their lackey, and slowly destroyed your self-confidence. Why would they treat you that way unless it was part of some stupid evil plan? If you truly want revenge you need to destroy that plan.” Humdrum blinked. “How do I do that?” “Become a part of what frightens them the most.” Nightmare stepped closer to Humdrum and cupped his face with her hooves. “Join me. Help me introduce a little confusion. Upset the Syndicate’s established order. Watch as their world turns to chaos. Take Megatropolis back from them and make it your own.” “Atta girl,” Discord whispered. He walked over to Humdrum too. “It gets even better my friend. As a superhero, you’ll have things you could never have as a mere sidekick. Friends who respect you, a city that adores you…perhaps even your real family; the parents who love you.” “But…they told me that my parents were gone,” Humdrum mumbled. “The Power Syndicate told you that? And you believed them?” Sunset asked, a small smirk spreading on her own face. Chrysalis walked over to Humdrum and gave him a little hug. “It’s going to be okay Humdrum. We can help you.” Humdrum was silent for several seconds. He looked at each member of the Legion before he turned to face the Masked Matter-horn. His former leader was shaking her head furiously…but fear was quickly replacing the rage that had been in her eyes. Humdrum sighed and gave the power gun to Chrysalis. “…Can I have my body back?” Trixie nodded and used the ‘Mile in My Shoes’ gadget once more. Humdrum was soon back in his own body; still empowered by his stolen abilities. He looked up at them and smiled. “I…I’ve made my decision. I want to join you.” …Wow. Guys that was incredible! I can’t believe you…wait, what’s going on? Where am I… Humdrum’s body began to glow with a soft red light. When the light faded, Smog was standing there in Humdrum’s place. He grinned and flexed his arms. “Well it’s about time!” “You think this is over?!” Saddle Rager suddenly shouted. “Humdrum, you give us our powers back this instant! You are in a lot of-” But Smog didn’t let her say another word. With a snap of his fingers, glowing chain constructs appeared around the Power Syndicate and restrained them. “Ow! Not so tight Smog…I mean, Humdrum,” Rarity said with a wince. “Oops. Sorry.” Smog turned back to the Legion and grinned. “Well, we did it! The day is saved thanks to...” But the little dragon was interrupted by a white vortex that sucked our heroes out of the comic book. The Elements of Redemption and Rarity slowly woke up back in Guest Room A-5. Waiting for them was Camellia, sitting on a nearby couch with a notebook and a cup of tea levitating in her magic. Camellia blinked in surprise at their sudden arrival, but remained pretty calm beyond that. “Welcome back,” she said. “How long have you been there?” Gilda asked as she stood up. Her eyes widened. “I can talk? I can talk!” She smiled and rubbed her throat affectionately. “Oh vocal cords, I’m sorry I ever took you for granted! Seriously being indestructible was fun but I don’t think I could have lasted much longer!” Discord snapped his fingers, grinning as the floors and ceiling twisted into purple and blue chessboards. “As fun as minions are, there’s nothing quite like my own brand of insanity!” As Discord played with his powers so more, Nightmare rubbed her head in relief. “Ah…speaking of insanity, the voices in my head are gone! I can stop thinking like Pinkie Pie’s long lost twin.” She smiled a little as she watched her mane and tail flow in the air. “At least I got a really cool power to make up for it.” “Well I’m glad you all had fun,” Rarity huffed. “I hardly even got to enjoy my powers once I found out I was on the wrong team! Next time do a little more research before you involve me in a spell such as that,” she sighed. “Goodness, I need a break.” “Tea?” Camellia asked, levitating a cup towards Rarity. “Oh, bless your generosity darling!” Rarity accepted the cup with a happy sigh. “What blend are you having? Oh I don’t care, any kind will do.” “Ooh, I like tea,” Discord said. He snapped his fingers and a few cups floated towards himself, Sunset, Chrysalis, and Nightmare. Camellia smiled. “Well even if it wasn’t what you were expecting, I’m glad you got to experience the comic book’s spell before anyone else. Still, I’d like to have that back now. Still need to come up with the translations for international shipping.” “Sure. Thanks for letting me borrow it,” Smog said as he gave the book to her. He smiled as his friends relaxed. “You know, I think there’s an important lesson to be learned about what happened to Humdrum.” “What’s that?” Gilda asked. “One of the most important lessons you can learn. The Golden Rule,” Smog said. “Treat others with kindness and respect, the way you want to be treated. I mean, the Power Syndicate treated him like garbage and they lost. We won the battle because we treated Humdrum like he was important.” Gilda smirked a little. “Kinda an obvious lesson, isn’t it?” “It’s a lesson a few more people could learn,” Chrysalis mumbled. “She’s right. Think about Eternal Twilight or Pinkie Pie. They grew angry because nobody was nice to them in the past,” Nightmare said. “That’s one reason why it’s so important. If a person is pushed around too much, you never know how long it will be until they push back,” Smog said. Merry Weather unlocked her front door and carried her bags into her house. Once she had put everything away she walked over to the couch and collapsed on it, lightly massaging her head. “Why is this headache still bugging me?” she mumbled. She groaned as someone knocked on her front door. Sighing heavily, she got back up and opened the door. “Hello. Can I help you?” Outside there stood a unicorn mare with a pink mane and a light brown coat. “I believe it’s time that you did, Merry Weather.” Merry frowned at the mare. “How do you know my name?” The mare’s eyes flashed green, causing Merry to growl. “Changeling. You had better get out of here before-” “The Bells of Tambelon shall ring soon,” the mare told her. “And when they do, you had better be prepared for our Queen.” Merry’s eyes widened. “I…y-yes. I understand.” The mare smirked. “That’s a good little pony. Take care Merry Weather. I’ll see you again soon.” Merry closed the door as the other mare left. She walked to her bedroom as if she was in a trance, but as she reached for a box hidden in her closet her face twisted into a frown. “That blasted changeling. Eternal Twilight. Pinkamania. Even the old goat. They think they can push us around? They still have NO idea who they are up against...”