When lightning strikes...

by FrostTheWolf


Strike 33- Knockout

When Lightning Strikes- Knockout


Power Pony HQ

        It was some time after he had met Roach and now, Lance had a lead on how to defeat the Purple Mare. However, there was only one problem. It required magic, one thing that Lance could not do. He knew how to control his Septima and his energy thanks to Majin Buu’s visit sometime ago, but magic was one thing that he did not know about. He had previously tried to ask Twilight and Sunset about it, but the process just seemed too complex for him to understand. Still though, Roach told him that a spell needed to be cast on him if he had any chance of defeating the Purple Mare.

        Right now, he was right now conducting research with Iris. The Supercomputer that was inside Power Pony HQ’s archives. Twilight was occupied with the rest of the power ponies on trying to track down the whereabouts of Blaster and her team of clones based off the superhero squad. Ash was right now getting some rest and he let Aurora get some much needed sleep. The poor filly had been through enough traumatic experiences after the Purple Mare had almost killed him, so it was safe to say that she needed a chance to ease her mind a little.

        “Iris, can you run a search on all spiritual related spells that can be cast by a magic user?”

        “Processing…” While the machine was going through it’s network and databases, Lumen soon emerged from Lance’s haircut and floated over to him.

        “You sure that you are going to find what you are looking for here?” Lumen asked, “We could just as easily wait for Twilight to get back.”

        “She has her hands full with the Copycat Crew,” the Adept explained. “Plus, the only thing that Roach gave me in regards to this spell is the information on it. Not a name.”

        “You are really trusting this guy?” The Breezie questioned. “He’s the bucking reason why Time Spinner is banished.”

        “I know. But he’s the one who knows about all the ponies in the Zero Zone that got out. In a way, he reminds me of Raymond Reddington.” Lance told her. Noticing her confusion, he began to explain about him. “He’s a character on a TV show back in my world called ‘The Blacklist’. A criminal who was number four on the FBI’s most wanted list and has been in hiding for twenty years. Until he turns himself in one day out of nowhere. Why? Because he has information on the most dangerous of criminals that are invisible to the naked eye.”

        “I see where you’re going with this. Just be careful around him Lance. I don’t want you getting banished the same way he did.” Lumen deadpanned. Soon, Iris had finished her search and was ready to tell the results that she had uncovered to the two of them. The Supercomputer had uncovered multiple results in the search and had narrowed it down to twenty different results. But as the computer named each one of them off, one name seemed to have caught his attention.

        Soul Force Trap. Where souls would be forced to try and possess a body, only to not be able to escape. This must have been the spell that Roach was talking about earlier. When he heard Iris explain everything in precise details, it accurately matched the Voidborn’s description. Now all he needed to do was ask Twilight about the spell and he could have her cast it on him.

        Though, as he was finishing up, he was beginning to hear some racket coming from upstairs. Or more specifically, the roof. Lumen herself thought that an earthquake was going on and tried to hide inside Lance’s hair again. But the Adept just moved back to the elevator and went to the roof. If it was coming from outside, then it was possible that he could see what was going on from the rooftop of HQ. However, what Lance found though… surprised him.

        It was Derpy Hooves. Just this time in a strange yellow and red suit with Red gloves on and a white cape. “What the heck-? Derpy? Are you okay?”

        Derpy had a goofy smile on her face, but what she said next surprised the Adept. “Yes I’m fine, strange hairless ape. Wait, how do you know my name?”

        “Well, this is quite odd. Did she lose her memories?” Lance thought, before speaking. “Derpy, you work at the Maretropolis Police Department and I’ve met you a couple of times before. It’s me… Lance?”

        “Um… I never met you before, mister Lance. Wait there’s another pony of me?”

        “Another pony of you?” That soon had the Adept begin to think a little as he soon thought about asking her about her costume. “Hey, what are you doing in that costume anyways?”

        “I don’t know really. All I remember was buying some materials for Dinky’s Nightmare Night costume from a salemare, when all of a sudden when I bought a pair of gloves I found myself here in this city.”

        “You mean Maretropolis?” All the Mare did was look at him with a confused glare.

        “Maretropolis? What kind of city is that? I never heard of it before.”

        Now was when Lance was finally starting to piece together all the details. She wasn’t from here, got a pair of gloves from a salesmare and soon woke up here? Holy crap, this Derpy is a Displaced!

        “Um… are you okay?” She asked him, before he cleared his throat and redirected his focus.

        “Derpy… are you familiar with the power ponies?” He asked her. All she did was tilt her head a little before speaking again.

        “No, but Dinky has been asking me to get the comic book series of them. Why you ask?”

        “... Derpy, my friends are the power ponies… You are in another world. Displaced…”

        “What’s a Displaced?” Derpy asked. “Is it some kind of place where ponies get free muffins?”

        Lance shook his head a little, chuckling internally. “Not quite. Maybe we should talk about this inside. I have a couple of muffins in the kitchen if you want one.” The Mare happily nodded her head, happily bouncing around on her hooves.

        “Okay! Lead the way hairless ape name Lance.”

        He chuckled a little, looking back at the mare. “Just call me Lance. I’m an Adept, not a hairless ape.” Before they went inside though, he held his hand out in a fist and held it in front of him. “Hoof bump?”

        “I never tired a hoof bump before, but okay!” Derpy raised her hoof towards Lance’s hand, only for her to send Lance flying into a wall when her hoof made contact with the human’s hand. Nevertheless, that shocked him. A lot.

        “O-okay… Not… what I was expecting…” He coughed out, spitting out a small bit of blood. Derpy though, was personally freaking out.

        “AH! I’m so, so, so, so sorry! I didn’t know I had that much strength in me to do something like that!”

        “I-it’s okay. Really… My body heals faster than normal,” He told her, trying to emphasize to the mare that he wasn’t extremely hurt, even though he felt like he was bulldozed by a freight train. “So don’t stress yourself out… How about we get you that muffin?”

        “R-Right, let’s go get some muffins.” Soon, the Adept had the mare follow her to the kitchen, where there were a few fresh Blueberry muffins that were left out there for her to have. Once he put them on a plate and warmed them up for her, she was ready to start munching away.

        “Enjoying them, Ms. Derpy?” Lance asked, watching as she ate to her heart's content.

        “Yay!” Derpy cheered as she was devouring the muffins in joy.

        “So… About what I was saying before…” Lance started to speak, only for Derpy to cut him off.

        “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know a way to get me back home do you? There’s a sale this weekend for free muffin, and I was hoping to get some for Dinky and Sparkler.”

        “Y-yeah…… about that… I’m in the same situation as you.” Lance explained to her, “Are you familiar with the existence of other worlds besides Equestria?” Derpy’s immediate answer was no. Meaning that it would take some time to explain this. Seeing a pomegranate on the counter, the Adept grinned as he walked over to grab it along with a kitchen knife.

        “Well, maybe some visual assistance can help. Say, this for example, is Equestria. It may look like one place or world on the outside… but on the inside…” He told her, using the knife to cut the pomegranate in half and reveal all the seeds inside. “There are multiple other versions of Equestria that either are similar to the one that you are from or not… the problem is that it’s almost next to impossible to travel between them freely… I want to help you Derpy, but right now… I just don’t know how to start.”

        “Y-You mean I’m stuck here? B-But what about my home?” Derpy asked as she began to freak out a bit at the sudden realization. But not in the way Lance had expected. “What about the free muffin sale?!”

        “I don’t know… But I’ll do everything I can to help you. You’re welcome to stay here at Power Pony HQ… and I can have Pinkie make a LOT of future muffins for you.” Lance told her, coming over to sit right next to her. “Why buy muffins when you can get as many as you want here for free?”

        “I’m not allowed to use the oven at home again.” Derpy answered, lowering her head in shame. “I accidentally burned my house down… twice.”

        “Leave the baking to Pinkie Pie…” The Adept chuckled, trying to comfort her. “She has an emergency stash for when anything goes wrong.”

        “Okay, so what do I do know?” the mare asked as she flew over to Lance.

        “Well, you ended up in my world… normally for a Displaced, they end up with the powers of whoever they are Displaced as… Do you recognize the costume that you are wearing?”

        “No, I don’t really read that much comic books.” That, got Lance thinking. The only way for her to find out about her powers… would be to run a few tests.

        “Hmm… I got an idea… Follow me.” He told her, getting up from his seat and having the mare follow him. Soon, he entered the training room and within ten minutes, had set up three separate tests for Derpy. One being a stack of crates. The second being a training dummy. The last one being a dummy with full on tactical combat gear. “Okay, Derpy. Remember when you hoof bumped me earlier and threw me into the wall?”

        “Yeah, what about it?”

        “I want you to try the same thing to each one. I would like to observe what happens when you punch them.”

        “You sure you want me to do that? I don’t want to destroy this place if I accidentally send one flying off.”

        The Adept sighed, chuckling a little. “This training room is designed so members of the power ponies like myself can handle anything under any circumstances. Watch.” To show an example, the Adept took out a gun that he had in his holster and shoot at the nearby window, only for the glass to keep the bolt he fired inside and have it stop dead in his tracks. “Whatever happens in here, this room is designed to keep it in here. So please, feel free to punch to your hearts content.”

        “O-Okay.” Derpy said as she walked over to one of the practice dummies. “So I just punch it like this?” she asked as she punched the dummy wearing tactical combat gear in the chest, only for it to be sent flying out of the training room. “Um… I hope I don’t get blamed for that giant hole over there.” she said, pointing a hoof to the hole she made.

        “O… kay. Continue.”

        “Alright!” Derpy took a charging stance as she charged at the other dummy. She immediately stopped as she turned around and bucked the other dummy out of the room, only this time the pegasus sent it flying towards the ceiling. “This is kinda fun actually. Is there anything else you want me to hit Lance?”

        “Did you hit the crates?” Lance asked, pointing at them.

        “Oh, I forgot they were there.” Derpy said as she troted over to them. When she appeared in front of one of the crates, she raised a hoof and slammed it into the crate causing a hole to appeared in front of her. “You sure you want me to keep punch-.”

        The noise caused by the previous attacks however, had soon attracted the attention of a wandering pony that was shocked by the amount of noise. That pony… was Ash. “What the hay is going on in here!?”

        “GAH!” Surprised that somepony yelled from behind herself, Derpy accidentally bucked the poor pony that was behind her and sent her flying out of the room. Just like with the dummies, only this time Ash was flown out of one of the holes. “Oops.”

        Lance sighed, facepalming himself. “Looks like Ash is going to have a long trot back by the time she lands.”

        “You think she’ll be angry that I hit her on accident?”

        “Probably…” Lance deadpanned with a deep sigh. “But once I explain it to her, she might calm down. She’s actually my partner and student.”

        “Oh...so are you a teacher for a school or something?”

        “Not exactly. Let me put it this way… I’m a hero… she’s my sidekick.”

        “Oh, so you’re like Batmare and Robin?” The Mare wondered, asking Lance.

        “... Something like that yes.”

        “Oh okay. So what happens now?” She asked.

        “Now we should introduce you to Twilight,” The Adept told her. “Or as her secret is, the Masked Matterhorn.”

        “Wait, Twilight’s a superhero?”

        “In this world, many ponies are heroes. And now… you are one too. We should come up with a name for you, just to be safe.”

        “Sorry, but not really a full time hero per say. I’ll just do it because it’ll be a hobby of mine.”

        “That may be the case, but with great power comes great responsibility. Heck, you can take out anything with a single punch… Oh, I got a good name. One Punch Mare?” He said, the only idea that came to his mind.

        “But, I like my original name. I don’t want to change it.”

        “No, I didn’t mean actually changing your name. I mean it as a hero name. A secret Identity. Mines Gunvolt since my powers are electricity and my weapons are my guns,” The Adept explained. “I was just suggesting it as a secret identity.”

        “Why keep your name a secret?”

        “So that way villains don’t know who you really are. If a villain knew who you were, they would go after the people you know and care for. You wouldn’t want that right?”

        “I guess you’re right...Oh I have the perfect name for myself.” Derpy said, as she struck a funny yet an adorable pose. “The Muffin Mare.”

        Lance chuckled at hearing that. “Well, follow me. My Twilight would probably love to be able to talk to you.”

        “Okay, lead the way Lance.” The Adept chuckled, letting the mare follow him to the control room, where the Masked Matterhorn had just returned recently. He greeted her calmly and she was going to respond back. Until she noticed Derpy trot into the room as well.

        “Lance, what is Ms. Hooves doing here?”

        “Actually, this Derpy is a Displaced. She now has powers.” Lance explained. “If she punches anything once, the force of the punch will demolish anything in front of it. Sent me flying into the wall on accident by trying to give me a fist bump.”

        “Hi!” Derpy said as she waved at Twilight.

        Hello. You must have quite some amazing abilities based on what Lance had said,” The Alicorn explained. “I’m curious though as to how you ended up in our world though.” Lance had told her about how the Displaced worked and tried to explain it to Derpy the best he could. However, the one thing that confused the Alicorn was how exactly Derpy got here in the first place.

        “I don’t know really. One minute I’m buying some materials for Dinky’s Nightmare Night from a salemare, then the next thing I know I find myself free falling from the sky and crash land into an office building’s window.”

        “I found her on the roof earlier today after trying to look some information on some spells,” Lance told Twilight. “Afterwards, I learned about the powers she was capable of and also found out she was a Displaced. Something tells me that she might get along well with Filli-Second.”

        “Um Lance, who’s the pony wearing the 80’s outfit?”

        “Oh my apologies,” The Masked Matterhorn replied, taking off her mask as soon as she realized that she was still wearing it. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Hooves.”

        “So you really are a hero, just like Lance said. But why do you look like you’re wearing an outfit that i would wear in the 80’s?”

        “This wasn’t technically my first choice for an outfit,” Twilight replied. “Radiance was the one who designed them.”

        “So she dressed you up as a pony from the 80’s as a joke?”

        “No, these are our actual suits. Radiance is… well… our Rarity.” Twilight pointed out.

        “....She really need to make a better outfit for you, because your outfit is… well kinda lame.”

        “Well, it’s what they got for right now…” Lance sighed. “Rarity refuses to make any new suits that have capes like yours because of the amount of incidents involving heroes and capes getting snagged by something.”

        “Okay… so what happens now?” Derpy then asked.

        “Right now… We should let you get some sleep. You’re going to need to get some rest before meeting the rest of the team.”

        “But I don’t feel tired, plus it’s still morning.” Derpy said as she pointed outside.

        “Derpy… It’s almost Sundown.” Lance told her, just as the sun was beginning to set and the moon was beginning to rise. “Still though… Where’s Ash? Has anypony seen her?”

        A cloud of smoke appeared and Ash materialised, a black eye evident. “Right… Here… And who said I was like Robin!?”

        “You okay there Ash?”

        “Do I… Look okay!?” Her right eye twitched, “The tartarus just happened!?”

        “I accidentally punched you across town.” Derpy answered, while hiding behind Lance. “You kinda startled me from behind by yelling, sorry about that.”

        “Derpy here, basically has the power to demolish anything or send people flying with one punch. That’s why I would call her One-Punch Mare. However, I only see one problem. Since this Derpy is a Displaced… we might get her confused with the Derpy Hooves back at the Police Department.” Lance pointed out. “Derpy, do you have any nicknames that we can call you?”

        “Nope, I’m just gonna stick with my original name.”

        “O...kay then. I’m going to check on Aurora. See you guys in a little bit.” With that, the Adept used that as his cue to leave the room for a brief moment.

        “Okay, bye Lance!” Derpy said while waving goodbye to Lance. The Adept waved back as he turned around the corner and went down the hall. He went to walk back into his room to check on Aurora and see if she was doing better after the fiasco with the Purple Mare. By the time he was in his room and putting his communicator back on, he was beginning to receive a phone call. Checking the caller ID, he saw that it was Psycho and soon answered.

        “Lance? We got a problem here. Not a bad guy, just… A lost mare.”

        “A lost mare?” He replied. “Could you care to be a little more… specific?”

        “Another me… She calls herself Amethyst Star, and she’s a cyborg.” He heard her reply. “Not a clone, I checked.”

        “That must be Derpy’s daughter… Well, one of them anyways.” Lance realized. Looking back, he then sighed. “I… see. Ironically, I found myself in a similar situation earlier. Bring her to the roof of Power Pony HQ. Earlier, I found a mare who was looking for her daughter. I’ll explain once you get here.”

        “Okay, Psycho ou- wait, I need a new codename. Psycho sounds too villainy… Sparkler Hooves out.” With that, the call ended and Lance ran up the stairwell, arriving on top of the roof once again. The night sky and the lights of the city made the place look… amazing. But he knew that he wasn’t suppose to be taking in the sights and instead, looking out for Sparkler and this… Amethyst.

        Soon though, both mares arrived on the rooftop while he was waiting. If you consider arriving landing on top of them. “O-oww…”

        “I think this is the place, good thing we landed on something soft.” Amethyst said.

        “G-girls… You’re choking me…” Lance breathed out.

        “Hey Sparkler, who’s the hairless ape we’re sitting on?”

        “Mr. Walker,” Lance heard Sparkler groan a little.

        “Oh…I think I broke him.”


End Strike 33