Super Pony Roomies

by TheManehattanite

Slight Learning Sensation (8)

27

The lights were still on in the castle.

Canterlot wasn’t Manehattan: the districts were mostly dark apart from the night hotspots. The Cauldron never stopped moving but most of the city was so quiet at night that, if you found the right kind of alley and stood stock still for long enough, you could hear the bustle of the undercity, which also kept its own time.

The lights of the three major airship docks blinked on and off, with the last of the days airliners glacially landing and leaving. Only the perimeter train station was still fully lit, in expectation of a few express sleepers rocketing between the cities and supply convoys that would need rerouting to the undercity yards. The storefronts and tower windows of Aqua Fortis Avenue and the Magic Quarter were shrouded in thick blackout curtains, as laid down by law from decades of complaints about all the light pollution.

Sassy Saddles glanced over the castle balcony at the little patches of dinner parties and all-night takeaways, of theatre performances and the occasional Unicorn burning the magical midnight oil, all freckling the shadowy curves of the streets. She’d ridden through them to get here and was trying to enjoy a slight buzz from all the ponies still out and about that she couldn’t see all the way up here, because accepting Blueblood’s redirection was turning out to be bloody tedious and bloody freezing!

It was probably this annoyance that meant she missed the fact that, while the city hummed along on its night time routine, the castle thrummed with tension like a generator under pressure. Then again, she did have a target to focus on.

“I mean, I hate pulling this card,” she lied, “but you do know who we are, yes?”

“Of course, Miss Saddles,” the nervous guard assured, trying not to fumble her spear too much. “But there’s been a bit of a situation and I’m not sure if--”

“How bad can the situation be if you won’t tell me what it is?”

“…you’re not from here originally, are you ma’am?”

“My friend’s a national hero, you know!”

“Oh yes, ma’am!” the guard agreed with a hasty grin. “That’s why we let her up fir—Um…”

“Can I at least sit somewhere warm?” Sassy huffed, trying to pull her gown around her shoulders without throwing off the design. “If I’d known there was going to be all this faffing about I’d’ve stayed in the coach! It’s like being shaved up here!”

“Yeah, mountain air,” the guard said. “You get used to it. And sorry to keep you standing about out here but we’re kinda sorta…locking the place down?”

Sassy paused mid-shoulder rub. “Is this supposed to be romantic?”

“I’ve no idea,” the guard said mostly to herself. Her head almost recoiled all the way inside her helmet as the Unicorn whipped a champagne coloured invitation way too close to her eyes.

“My princy project sent me this. To come here instead of his place. It took ages! I’ve had to pay for three coaches! We’re supposed to be having dinner!”

“Then he must’ve sent it before the lockdown. We’re not even sure there’s going to be a dinner at this rate. I am sorry, ma’am, I’d get you some coco or something, but I can’t leave my post! We’re not even sure what to do with you now you’re here but my friend’ll be back with somepony in a bit--”

“Are you even going to do anything for those poor coach ponies? All those turns!”

“Well, they wanna stick with their coach, obviously, so somepony’s got to check if there’s room in the royal stables and if the waiting room’s secure, that kinda thing. We’d have you in there too if it was but you sort of, uh, you came up with--”

“Sassy Saddles?” asked a combo of transatlantic and southern accents.

“The one and only!” Sassy tossed her mane, keeping up appearances even in the face of relief. “Applejack, Princess Twilight! So good to see you!”

“Oh, just Twilight please!” the mage assured, completely oblivious to the fact Sassy loved that insistence which is why she kept opening their every conversation with the title. “Agh, that’s right, Blueblood mentioned you were coming. Sorry, it’s been like the Grand Galloping Gala in here today. Are you alright?”

“This nice guard has been keeping me company,” Sassy smirked, patting the other mare’s armoured shoulders, which had gone rigid with attention when the youngest princess snuck up on them. “Apparently they don’t know whether to let me in or toss me out. Must admit, that’s a new one. Normally the latter doesn’t happen until a few drinks after the other...are those butterfly nets?”

“They ain’t for butterflies,” Applejack smirked wryly, shouldering hers for now. “We’re huntin’ shapeshiftin’ aliens ‘cause Equestria is broken.”

“A shapeshifting alien,” Twilight clarified then glanced at Sassy, still feeling weird to be the nerd in the presence of somepony like her.

A lot of it was that, outside of old money like Blueblood, she’d never really had to worry about bullies and there was now this itchy feeling that being Celestia’s personal student had protected her from a lot of things her complete lack of social skills should’ve brought down on her like righteous thunder.

Also, she’d just leaked potentially classified information. “Um.”

“Rarity said ya used to waste time with Johnnycake Storm,” Applejack cut in, having grown up with Rarity in various stages of Is-This-How-You-Posh-Right? Some things were just better done head on.

“That sounds like how I’d put it,” Sassy agreed. “Oh bloomers and britches, he’s not here is he?”

“Eeyup,” Applejack sighed. “He told ya about Skrulls, right?”

“Bragged, but yes. One of them jumped out of the bushes at us on a river ride, got caught in a swan attack. They’re not very good, are they?”

“Some of ‘em are,” Applejack muttered sullenly. “We’d tell ya to hunker down someplace safe but you’re probably better off stickin’ with us.”

“Probably,” Twilight qualified as they exchanged looks. “What did Blueblood want to talk to you about?”

“No idea!” Sassy trilled happily.

“Might be a bit of a wait, is what we’re sayin’,” Applejack explained. “This Skrull nut’s the one sendin’ folks after ‘im, and she coulda gotten to every guard in the joint with her mojo!”

“Every guard…?” Twilight mused to herself, gazing with unfocused eyes at the Unicorn mare in uniform, who was trying not to sweat insubordinately at the attention. “Or only…? Hmm.”

“Oh dear.” Sassy was trying not to laugh. “I feel silly now. Me and Johnny in the same place is bad enough, but Blueblood and Rarity? Talk about tension!”

Applejack blinked. “Sorry, what?”

“You were there weren’t you, darling? She went into a lot of detail. Perhaps too much. But you were there when Blueblood--”

“Yeah, yeah, jackassery, cake, hatred for a thousand years.” Applejack waved an impatient hoof. “Rarity’s here?”

“Yes?” Sassy blinked. “Caught me as I was getting the last coach up. Jumped out of the bushes, actually, almost got run over! Wouldn’t tell me why she’s here, just that it’s important and oh why are we running?”

28

“So good to see you!” Spike said again as they took the last spiral of the dungeon’s staircase. “It’s been like Twilight’s midterms around here!”

“Oh dear,” Rarity said on general principle.

“He’s, ah, right through here, just don’t get too close, okay?” Spike stood up on tippy toe to mess with the imposing metal door’s lock.

“Mmm, no fear of that,” Rarity smirked. “I can do better.”

“Yeah…?” Spike asked in a pitch almost higher than the metallic screech of the door swinging open.

The cells carved out the cave walls glowed with blue-green runes and the enraged flickering of the horned Horseshoe Torch, whipping angrily back and forth behind a crystal barrier spread across the rune cell he’d been thrown in.

“Oh heavens!” Rarity put a hoof to her mouth then fanned herself, swaying. “It’s worse than I imagined! I may faint! Oooh, look over there, an empty cell.”

“Where?” Spike blinked, freezing halfway through turning in place. “Aww nuts.”

“Quite,” the thing with Rarity’s face smiled, primly shoving him inside.

Spike staggered to his feet just in time for the clang of the bars being slammed shut. Faux-Rarity placed a glowing hoof against the lock, filling the dungeon with even more strange light and an unsettling hiss as she welded it into a black lump.

“Hush now! The grownups need to talk.”

Her eyes glowed with purple malevolence, reflected in the crystal as she approached and almost making it look like the Torch had three eyes. She bowed before it. “Greetings dread one. I represent a…let’s say foreign interest, which--”

“THE SKRULL ARE KNOW TO ME, REPTILE.” The burning eye narrowed. “SPEAK PLAINLY.”

“…right.” Rarity’s throat gulped a nervous lump that didn’t belong to it. “Um, w-well obviously the Empire has plans for this planet. Plans we would be willing to modify for a noted entity such as yourself! Since the pony you currently inhabit is an enemy of ours, we would even be prepared to offer or procure a more desirable host. Ah, as a token of our respect, of course! Not to suggest you couldn’t do such a thing yourself!”

“YOU KNOW OF MY PLANS FOR THIS WORLD, YOUR VERY UNIVERSE…” The cyclopean eye flickered as if raising an eyebrow. “AND WOULD RELEASE ME ANYWAY?”

“…yes,” the false Rarity managed, glowing eyes locked on the floor in a sort of half bow.

“Wait, why?!” Spike asked, gripping his bars. “Don’t you guys wanna take over? You think you can stab the Dread freakin’ Dormammu in the back?! What’re you gonna do, hope he sets off the sprinklers? Sings in the rain without his umbrella?”

“Cram it, kid!”

The voice didn’t belong to Rarity. Neither did the blast of laser vision that missed Spike’s head by inches, drilling a smoking hole in the wall behind him.

She turned back to the blazing light of the crystal cell, smirking as sparks danced around her eyes, still speaking in her real voice. “As you can see, mighty one, Skrulls like me could be useful for matters that would be beneath your notice. If you still desire a mortal form I can even lead you to a Skrull like me, but with all the powers of the Fantastic Family!”

“LET ME THINK ABOUT IT.” She blinked as the tyrant of the Dark Dimension stroked his burning chin. “MMMM…NAH, YA BORING.”

He causally rapped on the crystal. The Not-Rarity flinched back as it rumbled open like parting flower petals. And again, as a flick of the hoof sent an arc of sparks straight towards her. They whipped around her as if pirouetting, growing into the bars of a spiralling flame cage. For every spark, a bit of the epidermal mask peeled away.

“Hi Lyja,” the Torch smirked, glowing eyes narrowed. “Looks like--”

“What?” The Skrull held up a hoof to one of her lengthening ears as green streaks shot through the purple of her assumed mane. “That door thingy’s really loud! I can’t...What?”

“Oh for—!” Johnny leaned in then shot back as the glow in her eyes intensified. “Nope! Ha-HA! Did you seriously thi--”

Lyja’s eye beams finished dancing around the crystal petals and bounced backwards into him. Spike watched nonplussed as the Torch dissolved back into Johnny, pinwheeling through the air and crashing into Applejack and Twilight just as they got the door open.

“Yep!” Lyja-ity smirked as her cage winked out like the middle of a bomb defusal guide.

She galloped and sprang over the limp tangle of Equestrian champions, her ears and chin now on display as her hair began to rearrange itself into its ponytail. “Sorry fillies and dragons! I’m afraid as always Johnny’s made things too hot to handle! Although believe it or not, I’m really here to just talk!”

A golden glow wiped the self-confident expression off her face as it lifted her off the floor. Lyja yelped in shock as it burrowed into her, turning her fully back to her green skinned and purple jump-suited self. She spun in mid-air, eyes glowing furiously…and wilted as she found herself looking into a pair of narrowing magenta eyes through the golden aura.

“Talk to me,” Princess Celestia said.

Luna and Sassy Saddles exchanged glances as they peered around her.

“Lyja, Princess Celestia,” Johnny groaned as Applejack pushed him off her. “Princess Celestia, Lyja. She’s the worst.”

Lyja’s mouth twitched to deliver a comeback, but the mere inches between her and the horn that raised the sun itself kept it locked like a burial casket.

“This is the pony who’s been siccing all those weirdos on my Princey Pie?” Sassy blinked. “Oh Great Pony, please don’t tell me she’s been Rarity this whole time! I feel sick.”

“Nah,” Applejack said as she pulled herself to all fours. “She just used ya to hitch a ride into the castle.”

“She likes using people like that,” Johnny muttered. He sat back on his haunches, forelegs folded as Twilight teleported Spike out of his cell. “And now she’s gonna spend the rest of her life in…mmmm, let’s see…how about that cell over there? It looks nice and depressing!”

“Slow down there, hot shot!” Applejack snapped. “First, nopony’s okay with what ya pulled to bag…Lyja, was it?”

The Skrull waved uncertainly. “Hi?”

“Yeah?” Johnny smirked. “Because not gonna lie, I’m pretty okay with how much it worked.”

“Second of all,” Applejack snarled, “no it didn’t.”

“Oh c’mon! I was hoping you’d be a poor looser but even Rainbow Dash could deal with being this blatantly wrong!”

“Purple,” Twilight said distantly. There was a group pause.

“…gazoontite?” Spike said because someone had to.

“No, AJ’s right. This…pony? Anyway, her eyes, powers, whatever are purple. The one we’re after, her powers glow pink. I saw it this afternoon.” Twilight looked from Lyja, now unable to repress a smirk, and Celestia, too in the moment to be nervous about looking her simmering former mentor in the eye. “We’ve got the wrong Skrull!”

Lyja was admiring her gloved hoof, violet sparks dancing around it just to rub it in. “Little bit.”

“Are you telling me…” Luna took a single stomp forward, the shadows of the cells around her starting to lengthen and fume at the edges like lit fuses. “That this…boy invoked the name of the Ancient One’s greatest enemy in our home for nothing?!”

“I know!” Lyja simpered. “Isn’t he sweet?”

She found herself caught between a rock and an asteroid, which is to say both sisters were glaring at her.

“My office,” Celestia said eventually. “Luna, if you’ll carry Ms. Saddles?”

Luna nodded, horn glowing.

***

The protests in Johnny’s throat flicked with it, as the world cracked a whip and the existence of somewhere else flooded in around them. He was too duckfooted to gain much satisfaction from Lyja being held in golden shimmering place by one of the office chairs, or that while Spike had been braced for Twilight’s teleport, Applejack had not.

“Now.” Celestia leaned over Lyja like a tyrannosaurus head through a drive in’s window. “Speak.”

“Objection!” Johnny barked, jumping up and down in place. “Or something! I don’t know! But you can’t listen to her, your highness! Look at that sneer! Her mouth? It’s like a soap opera wedding trailer: nothing but disappointment and lies!”

“Johnnycake,” Celestia said, the patience steadily leaving her voice, “you are not the only one in this room who has dealt with these people. And as Applejack has said, while you caught her, your plan was pure gambling and brinksmanship. Sit. Down.”

Johnny’s hindquarters took over before his inner delinquent could say something ornery. Twilight, who’d been raised by the Daymare to be as intellectually honest as possible, frantically tried to delete the treacherous sub-routine currently running in her brain that wondered if Celestia was one to talk, given her pupil's post-graduate career so far.

“I’m serious,” Johnny tried, forcefully keeping his voice down. “I knew it was her, that’s why I played it the way I did. Lyja lives to mess with me. It’s literally her job! She wouldn’t be able to sit back and let somepony else do it!”

“Well, yeah,” Lyja chuckled almost incredulously. “Can’t let something happen to my favourite meal ticket, now can I?”

Johnny blinked at her.

“Are you working with the other one?” Celesita cut in sharply. “Have you also been targeting my family?”

“No, your highness!” Lyja squeaked. She must have meant it Johnny thought, because he was sure she was using her shifting to make herself a little smaller. Or maybe Celestia’s holding spell was getting tighter. “In fact, that’s why the Empire sent me. There’s a warrant in my glove. May I?”

Celestia nodded, the golden field expanding slightly. Lyja pulled a scroll of glass-like material Johnny had seen the more hoity toity extra-terrestrials use from the lining of her left glove. It smoothed itself out in her pad and lit Celestia and Luna’s faces with glowing sigils near the bottom.

“Four systems,” Luna murmured urgently to her poker-faced sister.

“You’re hunting a fugitive?” Twilight asked.

“Yes.” Lyja glanced at her uncertainly. Clearly dealing with a junior and an amateur, but it was important to her mission and survival in Celestia’s presence to appear official. “You’ve seen her powers in action? Then you know the threat she poses, not just to you but to the Skrull Empire. Our neighbours agreed, which is why I have authorisation to be here at all.”

“Then why use me to sneak inside?” Sassy asked, completely baffled.

“Habit.” Lyja shrugged, neither proud nor ashamed.

“And they’d probably fry ya an‘ throw ya to Cerberus even if they thought you were tellin’ the truth,” Applejack said. “The only reason I haven’t asked to be the one to take ya out behind the royal shed is I already figured out who your target’s wearin’ right now. That an‘ Princess Luna called dibs.”

“I can always share,” Luna smiled grimly. “But yes, Applejack, Agent Lyja is telling the truth. The Skrulls couldn’t afford the kind of trouble it would take to forge these sigils. I suggest we keep her close and resume our search pattern.”

“Your warrant say this De’Lila has been here before?” Celestia asked, levitating it around for Lyja.

“Oh road apples,” Johnny said before he could register he was swearing in the heart of Equestrian politics.

“Yeeeeah…” Lyja moaned half apologetically, as everyone who wasn’t over a thousand years old stared at him in shock.

“The empath?” The air around Johnny was starting to waver and the flames in Celestia’s hearth were slowly growing larger. This was his cosmically irradiated equivalent of sweat. “The terrorist? But we sent her packing! We handed her over to that Skrull platoon! You got the paperwork, right Princess?”

“Yes,” Celestia said, finally releasing Lyja and telekinetically holding the door open for Luna. “Some sort of dissident from the Super Skrull program. Why is she after Prince Blueblood, agent?”

“I swear if I knew I’d tell you,” Lyja almost pleaded, climbing out of the chair as everypony followed in Celestia’s wake. “We didn’t even know she’d escaped until we logged a missing capsule breaching your airspace. The Empire would have assigned me sooner but your atmosphere delayed triangulation until three days ago.”

“Oh, so that’s why you haven’t been stalking me!” Johnny grinned venomously. “Or taking other ponies hostage!”

“Self-defence,” Lyja said sweetly, though she was eying the Ponyville trio’s glares with due caution. “The Fantastic Family is wanted in questioning with oodles of intergalactic incidents, and you were on fire at the time. Really, it’s more that I’ve been put on the trail of a different perp, though if you’d like to come back to Tarnax with me…?”

“You’re hearing this, right?!” Johnny snapped, head shooting back and forth between each princess.

“Unfortunately,” Luna sighed. “Galactic law is complicated. The closest concept we have is Manehattan custom and immigration control.”

“Great Pony in the Sky…” Twilight whispered.

“So it’s, like, space legal for this weirdo to come down here an’ hunt this weirdo?” Applejack squinted, pointing at Johnny. “But it’s wrong for ‘em to just invade us? Like they do all the time?”

“Not all the time…” Lyja huffed under her breath.

“Trial by combat.” Luna rolled her eyes. “The real bugger is, see, by law the other galactic charter members aren’t allowed to, oh I don’t know, cure the common cold or something. To be eligible a planet must reach a certain techno-sociological level, and helping us would be tampering with that development. On the other hoof, since we’re not there it doesn’t count as an act of war, like it would with the other systems, if they drop out of the sky and pick a fight for the land. Which is ridiculous because Equestria does not own the entire world. Not especially advanced of you lot, I must say.”

“Just following orders, Princess,” Lyja stated, staring dead ahead.

“Then you’ll follow ours.” Celestia glared down at her. “As Princess Luna suggested, we shall resume our search. You are coming with me.”

Her expression softened as she looked over her shoulder at the uncertain Sassy. “Ms. Saddles, I really must apologise for how your night is turning out. Spike, would you please lead her to one of the tower rooms and stay with her? I would post a guard presence but--”

“Oh, about that!” Twilight hastily jogged up alongside, pinning Lyja between the two of them. “De’Lila’s powers! Can they affect female creatures?”

“Eventually.” Lyja blinked. “She has to focus harder, which is why she tends to go after males.”

“So potentially we now know which guards are and aren’t compromised.” Twilight looked up at Celestia. “And if we tell the female guards to be on the look out for her we might be able to head her off even sooner.”

“How?” Johnny asked. “De’Lila managed to be such a legit Sue she conned a whole new FF into existence, and that was only after studying her for five minutes. She could be anypony! Any creature!”

“Nah, one specific one,” Applejack smirked, not even remotely hiding her satisfaction. “She’s usin’ tourism to set all this up. An’ all her victims had ties back to the head of castle tours, Force Majeure. You’d know that if ya hadn’t got yourself locked up to catch the wrong Skrull!”

“Wait.” Lyja glanced over her shoulder. “Being obsessed with me makes sense--”

“Bwugh?!” Johnny sputtered indignantly. “Wh—? N—! You! You are obsessed with me!”

“I’m assigned to you, sweetie.” Lyja’s delighted smile could have been used to peel fruit. “But are you saying you completely forgot Del’s M.O until just now?!”

“Spidey and Timberwolf team up a lot, okay?! It all blurs together!”

“They do team up a lot…” Twilight mumbled half heartedly, because she felt somepony should be on his side.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever!” Applejack snapped. “Point is, we’re on the right track!” She sighed. “An’ a big part of that…is that your plan worked. Kinda.”

The group paused to look at her. Spike and Sassy blinked, frozen halfway up a free stairwell.

“No, don’t get me wrong ladies, it was a terrible idea.” Applejack adjusted her hat awkwardly and forced herself to look at Johnny. “But I hit on the tour lead by sheer dumb luck, an’ at least now we really know what we’re gettin’ into. Maybe we were gonna wind up here anyway, but it feels like we’d have gotten there sooner if you’d just talked to us!”

She sighed out through her nose.

“And I ain’t apologizin’ for nothin’ but, ah…maybe ya woulda if I hadn’t given ya such a hard time. Ya called it back in Old Town. Team coordination is important.”

Johnny’s eyes flicked around the group, deliberately not to Lyja, who was trying hard not to laugh.

“Yeah. Okay.” He tried a smile. “Wanna partner up then?”

Applejack smiled back. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Then Princess Twilight is with me,” Luna sighed, opening the door ahead of them to a rattle of guard’s straightening up. “Now all we have to do is spread word among the mare guards, find De’Lila and hopefully the real Force Majeure, and make sure none of the stallion guards clap eyes on Blu--”

“There you are!”

They all looked up at the twin voices, one dripping with evil honeyed satisfaction, the other booming with the carelessness only the very rich can afford.

The guards looked up too, right into Force Majeure’s blazing pink eyes and just as Blueblood threw back his black hood.
“Sassy, me old no questions asked list of exotic ingredients! This nice mare told me she’d lead me right to what I deserved! Look! I got a present for you! Me, your one and only pony!”

“Thanks, sweetie,” Sassy mumbled.

She flinched slightly but look relived as Twilight cast a forcefield across the entrance she and Spike were standing in. Johnny flamed on to try and draw the guards’ attention but every stallion’s eye that did turn towards them was fully pink.

“I’ve got a present for everypony too,” Force Majeure trilled. Blueblood yelped as she punted him down the stairs into the middle of the guards, her tour uniform rippling into a green long coat as her true shape asserted itself. The only part of her that remained was De’Lila’s manic grin. “It’s called DEATH!”

“After you, Princess,” Applejack sighed, popping her neck.

“Cheers,” Luna said and headbutted the nearest guard before he was halfway through the DES--. “Alright, my little ponies! Here’s how this is going to work!”

To be Continued

Author's Note:

GLOSSARY

Comments

[Crack-Fic Casey]

“They ain’t for butterflies,” Applejack smirked wryly. “We’re huntin’ shapeshiftin’ aliens ‘cause Equestria is broken.”

I love Applejack. I need to find a story for her.

Lyja’s mouth twitched to deliver a comeback but the mere inches between her and the horn that raised the sun itself kept it locked like a burial casket.

You need to use Celestia more, I haven't enjoyed this much in years. She's baddass, we see her teaching as opposed to offering cryptic hints to get someone to teach themselves, she's personable, and she really cares.

“Eventually,” Lyja blinked. “She has to focus harder, which is why she tends to go after males.”

I'm assuming that's because she's straight and has to push against her own impulses? Otherwise I'd assume it's effectiveness would be based on her targets own sexuality.

Johnny's plan was stupid, and not informing his team leader was borderline suicidal, but on paper I've bought worse. I love how convoluted the retro Worlds Finest team ups got, I think Superman and Batman were competing for most convoluted way to catch criminal.

[TheManehattanite]

9923722

You need to use Celestia more, I haven't enjoyed this much in years. She's baddass, we see her teaching as opposed to offering cryptic hints to get someone to teach themselves, she's personable, and she really cares.

Thanks, but it's really the advantage of a slightly more dramatic setting. Celestia just wasn't built to be a lead character and honestly other than visual gags I can't imagine magic class would've been that interesting to watch. Then again my favourite take on her has always been that she's just this all powerful absent minded aunt, and fandom always tries to make any character with power into David Xanatos which so boring.

EDIT: Actually, I take that back, they try and make them into what they think David Xanatos is. Because Xanatos is smart but all the stories about his as a person are about how he always loses and the unbeatable genius thing was always just a very telling power fantasy for nerds.

I'm assuming that's because she's straight and has to push against her own impulses? Otherwise I'd assume it's effectiveness would be based on her targets own sexuality.

That works but it was also because it hit me halfway through that she could just brainwash Celestia or the two Elements into doing it. Only solid rule from the comics is she has to make direct eye contact.

Johnny's plan was stupid, and not informing his team leader was borderline suicidal, but on paper I've bought worse.

Also AJ's obligated to admit she did nothing to help by giving him someone to rebel against, which I always saw as their thing, what Johnny and Sue would be without unconditional love or life long understanding.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

9924496
What bothers me personally is when most of the people writing Xanatos aren't actally geniuses, so we get a lot of "all proceeds as I have forseen" moments that couldn't have possibly be predicted given what the charator knows. Which come to think of it, might be a part of Celestia's problem in the show.