//------------------------------// // Of Mares and Men // Story: Equestria Girls: Secrets Beyond the Stars // by GoldenGoomba900 //------------------------------// Inside the cinema, the group of students took a break, sitting in the theater as they watched some old horror movies the theater had lying out, likely in preparation for the town's Nightmare Night ceremony. They all watched in stunned silence, all the films running as they greedily devoured popcorn and soda. Perhaps it was the end of the world, perhaps it was the fact they'd worked for hours and hours, or perhaps they just wanted to reward themselves for actually cleaning up the filthy theater in one day. Whatever the case, teens and children watched the graphic violence and left the concession stands and projection rooms untended. Outside, Trixie was running out of distractions. "Is this your card?" She asked the officer, who'd sat through the entire deck of cards. The officer tossed the card on the stage and left, leaving the magician to read the card. "How to play Texas Hold 'Em..." She groaned and crumpled the card, tossing it to the ground. "Is that smoke?" One of the officers asked the other. "I... think it is?" Before either officer could say anything, the sprinkler system went off inside the building, sending dozens and dozens of teens out in front of them, and holding onto tubs of moist popcorn and soggy 3D glasses. At the fair ground, Scootaloo had her group had their hands full. The funhouse was an absolute dump. Everything from tossed away cigars to rotted corn dogs had ended up underneath and between the twisting hallways and warped walkways. Doors and doors distracting and taking away workers who grew more and more lost and frightened. Sweetie Belle had a terrible time. Imagine the problems of the funhouse, add unsavory bodily fluids, multiplied by dangerous equipment and faulty security measures, and divided by the looming threat of death. Really as the students worked, more problems just became apparent. By noon, the CSIs had moved in to investigate, so the students had to alternate between cleaning, hiding, and covering their tracks. With the long arm of the law dangling menacingly overhead, the only group to have gotten any work done were Apple Bloom's. Shockingly, those who worked with the carnival food had kept their workplaces and restaurants neat and tidy and, apart from a few discarded containers, and the food court was actually a breeze. It was then the group had made the mistake of going to the funhouse and falling victim of the same issues Scootaloo had encountered, in addition to trying to find even more people and having a difficult time finding the fire exits. Finally, Lyra and Bon-bon had settled their debate. "Alright, so it's settled. We clean from the roof, down to the basement, and then double check the parking lot." Lyra said, smiling. "Then from there we go through the library, the hallways, the offices, and finish in the classrooms." Bon-bon agreed. They both looked up to find that the students had long since finished the jobs the two were arguing about, barring the stain-glass window, and moved onto cleaning the scorch marks in the second story hallways and fixing the door to the roof. The two girls smiled and looked at one-another, deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth as they joined in the work, and to the annoyance of the others. "And done!" Rarity cheerily announced, entering the room with bundles of clothing. "I tried to keep them color coordinated, and tried to keep with the style of the piece!" "It's only been three hours. How on earth do you do these things so fast?" Applejack asked. "It's really easy when we all have the same measurements." as the fashionista handed out the clothing, the group went their separate ways to try them on. Sunset Shimmer's costume was a formfitting latex suit, covered with leather padding. The red suit had a large, flowing cape that attached to her arms, and orange boots that reached her upper thighs. She put on a yellow belt that broke up the red, and noticed she wore a yellow S on her chest. Yes, she looked like a superhero alright. Rainbow's light blue suit had a white diamond pattern across her chest and a blue diamond pattern on her white leather gloves and boots. She too had a belt, with all the colors of the rainbow adorning themselves into some kind of insignia. Twilight's gear was a lot heavier and bulkier than most of the others'. It was a purple metallic suit of armor built of plastic and brought to a vibrant sheen, with silver highlights accentuating her joints. She could have sworn there was a holster on it as well, but she couldn't seem to find anything in it. Pinkie wore the polar opposite of that, one large, pink cloak drooped over her body and combat boots thumped upon the floor. Applejack emerged from behind her curtain with orange and yellow camo, black gloves, and boots similar to the ones Pinkie wore. Before the groups could comment on their unusual uniforms, Rarity emerged wearing a white leather uniform, accentuated with purple studs, gloves, and boots. As they looked at one another it became painfully clear why the entire process of making these costumes was so easy. "Rarity, I'm worried about you sometimes..." Twilight confessed. "Wait, where's Fluttershy?" Pinkie asked, looking about. "I'm over here." She said softly and stepped out from behind the room's folding screen. She had steel-toed rubber boots that stuck out from underneath her dark tan jeans that lead up to a hot pink tee-shirt depicting the egg-shaped head of a stereotypical grey alien. We wore a long, deep-yellow trenchcoat, and whose coat-tails ran almost to the ground. A butterfly pin was attached to the collar. "Y-you probably think it's not a nice costume..." She said, pulling up the sleeves so her hands could come out. The girls looked at one another, up and down. Spike had stayed his tongue, not wishing to be the unfortunate messenger in this fashion disaster. "Well, we certainly..." Twilight began. "I'm sure it's big thing in... Japan." Sunset Shimmer cut her off. "I like it!" Pinkie said, smiling. "Well, I like mine." She put on the mask and giggled. "Oooh, it tickled this time!" The mask seemed to glow very slightly on her face. The group stared at her, not saying anything as the glow of the mask drew them in. Their sense dulled and they approached Pinkie, staring deeply into it. "What're you guys doing?" She asked, taking off the glowing mask. The girls immediately snapped back to attention, realizing what was happening. "Huh? What were we... I... don't remember." Applejack asked, looking at her own mask. "It was kinda weird." Spike butt in. "Yer eyes went all wonky and you started looking at her like you were-" "Oooh, hypnotized!" Pinkie gasped, looking at the mask. "Do me next, do me next!" She said, hoping the mask would do so, to no avail. "Lemme try mine." Applejack said, putting on her gas-mask. Nothing seemed to happen, she didn't feel different, nor did she seem to make the others do anything differently, although they did seem to stare at her, worriedly. "Shoot, of course mine's the lemon." She sighed crossed her arms, tapping her foot as the group stared. "What're you lookin' at?" She asked. "Uh, Applejack..." Rainbow began as the cowgirl swat at a fly. "Your arms are still crossed." "Of course they are." Applejack said, rapping her fingers on the nearby dresser. "I don't see what the deal is." "Well... maybe you should look in the mirror, see how your new mask looks, yes?" Rarity suggested, offering a hand-mirror. The orange girl took it and realized what was happening. One arm swatting at a fly, one arm rapping on a desk, two arms crossed, and one arm holding the mirror. She had five arms sticking out of her body now. Excited by the potential of powers, Rainbow didn't even have the courtesy to wait for the others before putting her mask on. There was a pause as she waited for her powers to become apparent. "Uh... Rainbow." Applejack said, testing her dexterity by juggling a few of Rarity's beauty products. "It ain't doing nothing." She said, cracking a pair of her knuckles. "Maybe it just takes a while." Rainbow answered, unhappily as Rarity was about to put on her mask. Before they could see her powers, Sunset's's phone rang. "You know, I'm noticing a pattern..." Spike said, the girl picking up her phone. "Trixie? How'd you get this number? From jail!? How di- massive fire?" She took a deep breath. "We'll be right over." Twilight hung up and looked at the group. "Bad news, the movie theater burned down." "What?!" The group asked, mortified. "Well, apparently only one person was running twelve projectors, and none of them knew that film was flammable." She shook her head. "I really hope Flash can talk us out of that, and that Diamond Tiara holds good on her father's promise, because Trixie and Microchips are facing jail-time." "Oh, that's terrible!" Rarity said. "I feel so guilty! If we were there we'd have probably done something!" "We would'a burned too." Applejack pointed out. "I doubt we'd have been much help." "But we're down a location, Inapan will destroy us if we don't find a way to bring back that theater!" Sunset countered. "And most repairs like this would take months, years tops!" The group breathed a hefty sigh. "We could fake it, like in the movies." Pinkie suggested. "Come again?" Twilight asked. "Oh, I saw this movie once. Where these cowboys built a model of a town so that the villain would destroy it instead of the real one." Fluttershy chimed in. "Wasn't that a comedy that went on to end in a pie fight?" Applejack countered. "It's hopeless." Twilight sighed. "We've failed."