• Published 14th Dec 2013
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Dark Spectrum: Public Enemy - Bootsy Slickmane



Everything fell apart for Rainbow Dash after the Mare Do Well incident. Bent on vengeance and driven by her raw emotions, Rainbow Dash becomes a villain that Ponyville won't soon forget.

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Chapter 3: Somepony's Got to Do Something

LOCAL HERO-TURNED-VILLAIN TRASHES MARKET

The headline of the Ponyville Express rested above a pair of photographs of Rainbow Dash: one of the mare posing with a member of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club, looking smug; and one of the mare in her Dark Spectrum costume, standing atop the town hall. It was the third article about the new villain in as many days. The first was simply about the strange "attacks" on ponies during the night, and the second was about the surge of petty thefts throughout Ponyville.

"She's a menace," said the yellow-coated Comet Tail as he put down the newspaper. The other ponies scattered through Sugarcube Corner's dining area nodded in agreement. "First she chases off Mare Do Well and now this? And who does she think she's fooling with that costume? Who else has a mane like that? And that nickname: Dark Spectrum? That is so cheesy!"

"Speaking of food, I've lost twenty pounds of carrots in just the last few days," said the orange-maned Earth pony known as Golden Harvest. "How can I stay in business if all my food gets stolen before I can sell it?

"And somepony broke into my sweet shop two nights ago," said Bon Bon from her seat. "They left a trail of candy all over the floor."

"And my market stall is in—" Rose was cut off by a thunderous booming that shook the entire building, sending a tray of cookies onto the floor. As the noise subsided, the sound of two foals crying drifted in from the kitchen, and Mrs. Cake hurried to calm the twins. The two overworked parents had just gotten the two quiet after Dark Spectrum's last hypersonic flyby. "Why doesn't anypony stop her?"

"You try catching the fastest pegasus in Equestria," was the sour reply from Merry May as she read her newspaper. "I'm a weather pony, not a Wonderbolt."

Comet huffed. "Well, somepony's got to do something! Ponyville is even crazier than it was with all those disasters in the last few weeks."

Rose cut in again. "I heard that Rainbow was the one who caused the dam to break, and that she sabotaged that construction equipment. I heard that she went so crazy for fame and attention that she started making disasters happen just so she could look good when she came to the rescue."

Merry put down her paper. "Well, that plan certainly went swimmingly, didn't it? She couldn't even save half the ponies at the construction site."

Bon Bon nodded. "I know. It's a good thing Mare Do Well came when she did. Where did she go, anyway? We need her more than ever, now."

"Some hero she is," Merry commented, picking her paper up again. "Can't even be bothered to show up when Rainbow goes rogue."

Rose gasped suddenly. "What if... what if Rainbow didn't just chase Mare Do Well away? What if she did something terrible to her?"

Comet shook his head, answering, "Come on, now. This is Rainbow Dash we're talking about. She's a hothead, sure, but I don't know if she would do something like that."

Merry didn't bother moving her paper to reply, "I've worked with her for years, and I wouldn't put it past her."

Comet Tail scoffed, and there was silence in the room for a few minutes before he spoke again. "Hey, Bon Bon, where's Lyra? I thought she would be here today."

Bon Bon shook her head. "I don't know where she is. I woke up yesterday morning and she was gone. She runs off like that sometimes, but she always comes back by the next morning. I'm starting to get worried about her."

"Do you think Rainbow might have anything to do with it? Do you think she might have kidnapped her?" Rose asked.

Comet gave Rose a stern look. "Wait a minute, now; we can't go jumping to conclusions. Rainbow's a vandal and a thief, but has she actually hurt anypony? I'd expect such pessimism from Merry, but not from you girls. What, is it contagious?"

The green pegasus in the corner put her newspaper down again. "In case you haven't noticed," Merry paused as another sonic boom hit the shop, "these aren't exactly the most pleasant of times."

Golden finally spoke up again. "I'm finding it hard to be very cheerful when my carrots keep going missing, and I know that Rainbow Dash is responsible for that. She painted that creepy fake cutie mark that she has on her costume all over one wall of my shop. Besides, Rainbow might've wanted to go after Lyra for starting that fight in the marketplace the other day." The Earth pony turned away from the stallion and toward Bon Bon. "What happened back there, anyway? Bonnie?"

Bon Bon shook her head, putting down her coffee. "I don't know. I've never seen Lyra hit anypony before."

Comet cut back in defensively, "I didn't say that Rainbow wasn't a criminal, I just said we shouldn't assume she's responsible for every bad thing that happens in Ponyville. As I said before: somepony needs to stop her."

* * * *

A bolt of electricity tore through one of the dining tables, splitting it in half as the patrons ran for cover. Dark Spectrum laughed at them as they screamed and fled the restaurant, rain soaking into their coats.

It was her fourth night of causing trouble around Ponyville, and Mare Do Well still hadn't come to stop her. Time to step things up a notch, she had thought, which was why she found herself bouncing up and down on a cloud that night, raining down water and lightning on a café.

A voice called out suddenly from somewhere behind her, "Stop right there!" Spectrum grinned for half a second as she turned to face the source of the command. Her smile dropped as she realized that it sounded like a stallion, and her eyes confirmed that it was not, in fact, Mare Do Well. Nor was it any of her former friends. It was a squad of police ponies with flashlights and shackles at the ready.

Spectrum's frown turned into a smirk. It was four Earth ponies and one unicorn. It wasn't even going to be a challenge. In fact, it could be fun.

"Took you long enough. Well, come and get me," she taunted, leaping up into the air and hovering above the dining tables with her forelegs spread. The lone unicorn fired off a bolt of blue, but Spectrum easily moved out of the way. She laughed, stuck her tongue out at the police, and took off over the rooftops. She rolled to the left, then to the right as another bolt of magic flew past her. Is that all they've got? No wonder everypony loved having a real hero in town.

A bright light suddenly hit her eyes from above. She brought a hoof up to block the blinding glow and tried to see the source. She couldn't see much other than a light-colored mohawk on a black body, barely visible in the dark night sky.

Thunderlane, Spectrum thought. One more of her friends who had turned against her. The dark pegasus twirled a hoof in the air and swung it down toward Spectrum, but he wasn't even close to being within striking distance. She caught just a glimpse of the spinning length of rope before it hit her, the weights on either end wrapping it around her body.

Spectrum tumbled out of the air and crashed to the dirt, her wings tangled and bound painfully against her ribs by the bolas snare. She got to her hooves, struggling to free her wings, but it became clear that she didn't have time as the uniformed police ponies closed in. She turned and galloped down the road, trying to ignore the pain that shot through her wings with each step. She skidded around a corner, leaving four little trenches behind her, and sprang into an alleyway.

She knew she was fast even without her wings. After all, she'd totally won that race through White Tail Woods, even though Applejack totally cheated. Spectrum gritted her teeth at the memory and pushed herself harder as the light of the police pegasi shone down on her again. She had to get out of sight, and fast.

She held her forelegs up to protect her face as she dove through the front window of somepony's house. She rolled across a carpeted living room and got up quickly, lights shining on the house already. Thinking fast, she moved into the kitchen and scanned the counters. It didn't take her long to find what she needed, and she quickly grabbed up the bread knife in her teeth. She curled around sideways, slid the blade under one wing, and started sawing away at the ropes that dug into her feathers.

She could hear a police pony calling to her from outside. "Dark Spectrum, we know you're in there! Come out slowly with your hooves and wings where we can see them! This is your first and last warning!" How cliché. Rainbow sawed at her ropes faster.

Soon, the serrated knife made it through the rope, but her wings remained stuck to her sides. "Come on," she hissed, sawing at another line in the tangled mess of rope and feathers on her body.

Her ears perked up as the sound of a mare gasping reached them. She only caught a glimpse of the blue unicorn as she streaked out of the kitchen. Spectrum heard a door open somewhere, followed by the words, "She's got a knife!"

"Pony feathers," Spectrum said around the wooden handle of the bread knife. She backed away from the doorway leading to the living from as the snare finally fell apart, freeing her wings. She spat the knife out, turned, and headed toward the back of the house. She skidded to a halt as light shined in through a window, and she caught sight of Thunderlane hovering over the backyard before she scampered back to the kitchen.

She paused as the sound of crunching glass came from the living room. She just couldn't catch a break that night.

Thinking fast, Spectrum slapped down the lever on a toaster and slipped into the pantry. She couldn't quite shut the door, as her body was in the way, but she pulled it in as close as it could go.

Soon, light reached her eye through the thin gap between the pantry door and its frame. She could see the Earth pony, dressed in his police uniform, looking down at the scattered bits of severed rope she'd left behind. His eyes moved across the floor to the pantry, and for a moment he just stood there. Then he slowly began to approach her hiding spot.

Spectrum was silent inside, not even breathing as the police pony stopped in front of the door. C'mon, c'mon, hurry up, she thought, the stallion's hoof slowly reaching toward her hiding place.

The police pony whipped around as the toaster unlatched its little bread elevators and sprang up to signal that it was done cooking. It was less than half a second of surprise, and more than Spectrum needed. She flung herself forward, blasting into the stallion's legs and sweeping him off his hooves. She landed against a tiled wall, kicked off, and flew back out through the ruined front window as the downed officer was calling to the others.

Something heavy attached itself to Spectrum's back legs, and a glance over her shoulder informed her that it was Thunderlane. He spat out his flashlight, presumably to say something, but Spectrum didn't give him a chance. She braked hard, flipped both herself and the hitchhiker forward, and bucked Thunderlane straight down. Spectrum was already a block away by the time he hit the dirt road.

* * * *

Rainbow landed inside her cloud house and pulled off her goggles. "That wasn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be," she remarked, flexing her wings and looking over her ruffled feathers. She hadn't anticipated the police trying to stop her. After all, where had they been during all the disasters the week before? She also hadn't anticipated getting snared like that. The law enforcement in Ponyville was craftier than she'd thought. She would just have to be craftier, then. Perhaps it was time to upgrade her equipment.

She undressed and laid her costume out on her dining table, examining its condition. There were a few cuts from the glass window she'd gone through, but it was otherwise fine. She reached a leg up to her face as she noticed a cut in the mask. Her foreleg came back from her face with blood on it. This new career was turning out to be a bit more dangerous than she'd expected, but she wasn't about to give up just yet. She just needed an edge against anypony who would try to stop her. Or maybe two edges.

She rummaged through her kitchen for a while, and at last was able to find a pair of knives that matched one another. She first tried taping them to her forelegs, but that made it very difficult to walk normally. She could have them sheathed somewhere, but she wanted to keep her mouth free to grab other things. How could she attach them without them being in the way?

Something tapped on one of Rainbow's back hooves, and she whipped around in surprise, unintentionally slashing the blades taped to her legs through the air. Tank, startled by the sudden movement and not wanting to be shredded, tucked himself into his shell. Rainbow looked around the room, then to the blades she'd forgotten she was wearing, and finally to the tortoise huddled at her hooves. Upon realizing it was just her pet, she leaned down and tapped on him.

"Take it easy, Tank, it's okay. You just caught me by surprise, that's all. And I definitely need to find some way to keep these things out of the way," she said, giving her makeshift weapons a worried look. Slowly, the tortoise slid his head out and looked up at her. "Hey, that's it!" Rainbow shouted and leapt away suddenly, sending Tank back into his shell. "I can make the knives retractable, yeah! Hmm, what's something that retracts like that? Desk drawers?" She jiggled one of the drawers in her desk. "Nah, not tight enough. Sliding doors? Wait, I don't have any of those. Hmm..."

As Rainbow went around her house in search of something that slid in and out properly, she came to the realization that she didn't really know what she would do with such an object if she found one. She wasn't an engineer, and didn't have any tools other than tape. If only I had a sidekick that could make me cool gadgets and stuff. But I don't have anypony left who would help me. Hmm.... Maybe it's not a pony I need....

* * * *

It was the first time she'd gone out as Dark Spectrum during the day. She felt exposed, even though she was hidden inside the branches of a mighty tree. It had taken her over an hour to reach the Golden Oaks Library, mostly because she hid in a cloud and tried not to move the fluffy mass around too fast so nopony would notice her. She'd also spent about as much time sitting in the tree, waiting for her target to show up.

At last, she heard the front door open and stuck her face out through the leaves. There he was, walking away from the building, completely oblivious. She still wasn't sure how he would react to the idea of being her sidekick, but she figured he was the best choice. After all, Spike was great at being Twilight's assistant, so why wouldn't he be good at being Spectrum's sidekick? Only one problem: how to approach him?

She'd thought about it for a while, and still wasn't quite sure what to do or say. What was she supposed to do, pull him into an alley and go, "Hey, Spike, long time no see. Wanna be my awesome sidekick?"

"Sidekick? For what?" Spike said a few minutes later, looking her up and down. "Oh, I get it! Neato costume. Would I get a cool costume, too?"

Spectrum put a hoof to her chin in thought and then nodded.

Spike looked ecstatic. "Awesome! Yeah, sure, I'll be your sidekick. Twilight hasn't had much for me to do lately, anyway. Do you still want me to be your ghost writer, too?"

Spectrum shrugged, replying, "Sure, why not?"

"Great, lemme just go tell Twilight."

Spectrum stepped on Spike's tail as he turned to leave the alley, though not too hard. "No, Spike, you can't tell her about this. In fact, you can't tell anypony."

"Huh? Why not?" he asked, holding his little claws out. A look of dawning comprehension took over his face a second later. "Oh yeah, of course. Secret identity, right? Don't worry, you can count on me. So, when do we start?"

"Right now," she said, sweeping him up and into the cloud she'd brought with her into the alley. He fell right out, of course. "Oh, right, forgot about that." She tossed him up onto her back instead, burrowed into the cloud, and slowly headed home. Spike fell asleep on the way there, and she really couldn't blame him, since it was such a slow trip.

She still didn't know how he would feel about her plans for Mare Do Well, but she figured he wouldn't like them. Though she wasn't sure exactly what she would do to make them pay for what they'd done to her, she knew it wasn't going to be nice. She tried not to think about the subject as she made her way back home.

Once back at her house, she pulled Spike from her back, rousing him from his nap. He blinked a few times, taking in where he was, and suddenly waved his little arms and legs in a panic as she placed him down. He calmed as soon as he hit the floor, though he did reach out and tap at it a little. Rainbow just rolled her eyes, trotting away briefly and returning to hoof over a cookie to the little dragon. He was the only friend she had left in Ponyville, it seemed, and she wanted to keep him around as long as she could. After all, he hadn't been involved with the whole Mare Do Well thing... right?

"Nope. I was as surprised as you that day. So, what do we do first? I say we get started on my costume. I was thinking purple with green highlights, maybe with some spines along the back."

Rainbow ignored the fact that Spike had effectively described himself. "One more thing before we get started. Promise you won't tell anypony where my house is, or what we're doing." Spike nodded, but Rainbow wanted to be sure. "Pinkie Promise?"

Spike shrugged and went through the motions associated with the promise, reciting, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Good. Now, the first thing I need you to do is figure out how to put these," she pointed to the pair of straight-edged kitchen knives on a table, "into the sleeves of my costume. They need to be retractable, like Tank's head."

"Umm, how do I do that?"

She pointed a hoof at his chest. "That's what you need to figure out."

"Huh. Well, I do help Twilight a lot with her lab experiments and stuff, though it's been a while since she did any. I guess we should start by taking an inventory and then making lists of the goals of the project, figure out what we need to meet those goals..." He kept listing off things to do, counting them on his claws.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Whatever, just get it done." She slipped out of her costume and laid it out on the dining table. "I need to get some sleep. There's food in the kitchen, blah blah blah. See ya later." She cantered away and up to her bedroom to get some rest, particularly for her sore wings. She had another big day of being an awesome supervillain tomorrow, and she needed to be ready. Not to be awesome; she was always ready to be awesome. She wanted to be nice and rested before her next night of villainy. She might want to step things up a notch again if she wanted to bring Mare Do Well out, though.