It didn't take long for word of the miracle above Ponyville to spread like wildfire. The surviors, though they had no definitive answer as to who had saved them, wouldn't stop talking about it.
Within days of the rescue, papers all across Equestria were printing off wild stories and mass speculations about Equestria's mysterious new protector.
But no one knew who (or what) was responsible for the heroic deed, so it was of little surprise when papers began to put out advertisements promising to pay huge sums of money to anyone who could get a good picture of the unknown superhero.
"I can't keep doing this, Spike," Twilight panted, as she lit up her horn to once again make the costume disappear "I only have so much magic."
"But I need to have some sort of costume to hide my identity," Spike insisted "You said it yourself, that fire ruby could be dangerous in the wrong hooves, claws, or talons."
"There's got to be a more efficent solution to that problem," Twilight pondered, as she wearily sat down to regain her strength "If this keeps up, I'm not going to be able to maintain the costume at all, and then we'll really be in trouble," she then let out a sigh "If only there was a way to order a new costume, without drawing attention to yourself."
Spike pondered that dilemma for a little bit, and put a claw to his chin. He'd gone to great lengths to keep his identity a secret from everyone, not even Pinkie Pie or Applejack suspected the mysterious superhero was him, and they were usually good at detecting hidden secrets.
At last, a light bulb went off inside Spike's mind, as an idea came to him "Of course, that's it!" he thought to himself "Why didn't I think of it before?"
"I'm sure Rarity could easily design a new costume for me," Spike told Twilight "And as luck would have it, I already have a terrific idea in mind for one."
"But what about your secret, Spike?" Twilight asked "If you place an order, Rarity is sure to put two and two together, and find out who you are."
"Not if I place the order anonymously," Spike replied, and explained "I'll use an alias to mail the design to Rarity, and put down instructions on where she can send it once it's complete. Then, you can just head to the desginated location and pick it up. Nopony except you will know it was me who placed the order."
"Are you sure that will work, Spike?" Twilight asked nervously, she did not like the idea of lying to one of her friends "Couldn't you just meet Rarity in secret and ask her not to tell anyone who you are? I'm sure she wouldn't blab."
"Maybe, but I'd rather not take the chance," Spike said seriously "The fewer ponies that have to know about my secret, the better. I still don't know who or what my parents were trying to hide me from, but the more ponies who know about my secret identity, the greater the chance becomes of that information reaching someone who will hurt them just to get to me. And if that happens, I'd never forgive myself."
"But Spike-" Twilight pleaded.
"No buts, my decision has been made!" Spike insisted "Maybe, once I have a better understanding of why my parents sent me here, and I know who to watch out for, I'll tell Rarity. But for right now, it's best if she doesn't know. The attention she'd recieve if word got out would put the whole town, and possibly even all of Equestria at risk."
Twilight just sighed, try as she might, she couldn't convince Spike to change his mind. And so, reluctantly, she agreed to help out with his new costume order.
About a week passed before Spike obtained his new costume. And when he did, he could hardly contain his excitement. His new costume was radically different from the one he'd been wearing thanks to Twilight's spell.
Spike still had a red cape, but this one was not quite as long. This would ensure that he wouldn't accidentally trip over it at any point. As for the rest of his costume, he now wore a skin tight suit that was dark blue in color, the fire ruby necklace hung in pretty much the same place it had resided in his previous costume. Just below the necklace, was a diamond shape logo that had a yellow background, and printed in dark red inside of said background was an upper case "D". The only other thing he had kept from his old costume, was the mask for his face.
"I've got to give props to Rarity," Spike said, as he admired himself in the mirror "This costume turned out even better than I could've ever imagined. And it's given me the perfect idea for a superhero name."
"Really? And what would that be?" Twilight asked, out of curiousity and concern.
"Super Dragon of course!" Spike declared boldly "And now, I think it's time all of Equestria got to meet him."
"What?! I thought you said you didn't want ponies to find out about your secret?!" Twilight gasped in confusion "And now you're telling me, that you want to go and announce to all of Equestria who you are?!"
"No, not like that," Spike explained, calming Twilight down "I'm not going to just reveal my secret to the whole town. I'm simply going to visit one of the papers, and see if they can spare a reporter for a one on one interview."
Sweetie Belle sighed, as she sat on one of the benches outside of Ponyville Elementary. A stack of balled up pieces of note paper rested off to her left side, and a pencil off to her right.
"I never would've thought Featherweight could as demanding as Diamond Tiara," Sweetie Belle complained with a sigh "It's not my fault there's nothing to report on! All anypony talks about is that mysterious superhero who rescued that airship about two and a half weeks ago, and who he, she, or it might be. Other than that, nothing really exciting has been happening around here, and it's not as if a story is just going to drop out of the sky!"
But Sweetie Belle had no sooner said those words, when a story did come dropping out of the sky. Descending right in front of Sweetie Belle, was a somewhat tall figure dressed in what appeared to be a red cape, and a dark blue suit. As the figure got closer, Sweetie Belle could spot a necklace hanging around said figure's neck, as well as a yellow diamond logo with a red capital "D" printed into the center.
"Hello," the figure greeted, his voice sounding oddly familiar to Sweetie Belle "I understand you're looking for a news story."
Sweetie Belle took one look at the figure, and quickly realized who it was. "What's Spike doing dressed up like that?" she thought to herself "Could he really be the same superhero that everypony in town has been talking about?"
Deciding to humor Spike, Sweetie Belle did not address him by name. She simply said "Yes. And you are?"
The figure that Sweetie Belle assumed was Spike cleared his throat and said "You can call me Super Dragon, or The Dragon of Steel if you think that sounds better."
"I like Super Dragon better," Sweetie Belle replied, and retrieved her notepad and pencil "So, would you be interested in sticking around, while I ask you a couple of questions?"
Super Dragon nodded, and responded with "Of course, go right ahead. May I ask what the name of the paper you're writing for is?"
"It's called The Foal Free Press," Sweetie Belle explained "We used to be run by a filly called Diamond Tiara, but after a particularly nasty gossip incident involving a colum with 'Gabby Gums', she was replaced by Featherweight. He's been running the paper ever since."
"I see," Super Dragon said, apparently sounding surprised (though Sweetie Belle suspected it was just an act) "The Foal Free Press sounds like a wonderful paper. So, go ahead and ask me any questions you want. But I'll warn you in advance, there may be some questions I don't feel like answering."
"Why not?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Because there might be those out there, who wish to do me harm," Super Dragon explained "And I don't want to give them any sort of advantages, by exposing any sort of weaknesses, or things or ponies that I care about."
"Fair enough, you make a good point," Sweetie Belle smiled, turning her attention to the necklace that hung around Super Dragon's neck "Say, why do you wear that thing? Can I look at it?" she asked, reaching a hoof out to try and touch it.
Much to Sweetie Belle's surprise, Super Dragon gently reached a claw out and stopped her. He quickly apologized, and explained "That necklace is very important to me, and I'd rather you not touch it."
"And why is that?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"If I tell you, you have to promise you not to say a word to anyone else, and that you won't publish it in the paper!" Super Dragon insisted "Because what I'm about to tell you, is something that could very easily be exploited by my enemies, if they found out about it!"
"Don't worry, I'm good at keeping secrets," Sweetie Belle insisted, smiling innocently "So, tell me. Why is that necklace so important to you?"
Super Dragon carefully looked all around to make sure that no one could overhear his conversation with Sweetie Belle. When he was convinced that the cost was clear, he carefully leaned towards Sweetie Belle, and whispered into her ear "That necklace is the source of my powers. Without it, I couldn't do the things I did when I was rescuing that distressed airship."
"Oh, I see," Sweetie Belle replied, a bit louder than Super Dragon would've liked "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Now, about that interview."