A Dragon's Selection

by CartoonNerd12

Chapter 32

At 11: 45 on the dot, Spike came to Applejack's room and the two set out.

He asked her, "So any ideas of what we should do today?"

Applejack pondered on it, and inquired, "I don't suppose we can go back to the gardens? I mean we do have the leaders of the attacks in custody so there's no more risk, right?"

Spike sadly shook her head, "Not if the other griffons decide to try to break their friends out, so it's still too dangerous to go out."

"But doesn't Discord have powerful magic to protect Canterlot?"

"Yes, but he doesn't stay in Canterlot all the time and he, Celestia, and Luna have an agreement that he uses it in the most extreme of emergencies. Besides, if he did use his magic all the time then the guards would be out of a job. He told me that on the day we were in the Everfree Forest, he was checking on how the Selection was going when the griffons attacked again. That's why he was able to capture Rainbow Dash and Gilda."

Applejack sighed, "I guess I'm gettin' kind-of weary of being coop up inside. The only time we was out was when we were in the forest and I don't need to tell ya how that turned out."

Spike shook his head when his eyes furrowed in thought before they lit up with excitement. He asked, "What was I to tell you I knew a way for you to leave the palace for awhile but in reality you never left it at all."

Applejack lifted her brow in confusion, "How in the hay can you do that?"

Spike merely smiled and motioned her to follow, "You shall soon see."

In mere minutes they were in his guest room where he took out his package of comics that Ember gave him. He rummaged through the box before taking out one comic with the picture of the Mane-iac on it.

Spike asked, "Do you know anything about the 'Power Ponies'?"

"'Power Ponies'? Well yeah, my brother has some issues in his room." she slightly blushed and moved her hoof in a circle as she had admitted, "I actually read a few of them and ended up enjoyin' them."

Spike smiled at this as he turned to the end of the book and said, "I got this comic at the House of Enchanted Comics the last time I was here. I soon found out it can actually take you inside the comic book!"

Applejack gaped, "Seriously?"

"Yup." he replied, "I'll show you." he began to read the fine print, "You can return to the place you started when the Mane-iac is defeated. Take a closer look to join the adventure in this book…"

Suddenly the comic glowed and they soon found themselves getting sucked in!

---

High on one of Maretropolis's skyscrapers, Spike and Applejack now donning superhero outfits overlooked the city.

"Heavens to Betsy!" she exclaimed.

Spike turned to her and slightly chuckled.

"What?" she inquired.

"Your persona. I'm not surprised you would be Mistress Mare-velous."

She looked herself over finding she was wearing a red jumpsuit with black cuffs linked with golden apples on her hooves. She also wore a black saddle with a golden rope hanging on the side and green slips around her mane and tail as well as a black mask to cover her face. She smiled, then when she looked over Spike's attire, she realized who he was, "You're Hum Drum?" she questioned.

He sighed, "Yeah, not my choice either, but when you're in an enchanted comic book, you don't exactly get to pick who you play."

"Hm, I guess that's true."

Suddenly there was a loud BANG! Followed by a loud demented cackle.

They looked down to see the Mane-iac breaking out of a museum with the Electro-Orb in her hooves!

The Mane-iac saw them and addressed, "Well, well… It would seem we only have one of the Power Ponies joining us today and their little sidekick too…" she cackled again, "This will be quite easy…"

Applejack declared, "Oh, I don't think so, Missy!" she grabbed for the rope only for it to move on its own and it wrapped around her and Spike.

Making him joke, "Well, I guess this means you're that tied up to me…"

AJ rolled her eyes, "That's a very bad pun, sugar cube… Now would ya mind tellin' me how we get out of this?"

"I thought you said you read the 'Power Ponies'?"

"I did. But it's been awhile so if you could give me the low down, I'd mighty appreciate it."

"Okay, if you can recall, Mistress Mare-velous is psychically connected to her rope, so you will it where you want it to go, it'll do it."

"Gotcha." she said, and closed her eyes to begin concentrating on the rope to let them go. When it did she started focusing on roping in the villain, but at the last second, Mane-iac got out of the way and the rope caught to a lamppost and pulled Applejack with it causing her to get tied up again!

Spike smacked his forehead and was about to quickly climb down the building when one of Mane-iac's flexible hair strands grab on to him.

"Hey! Let me go!" he demanded while struggling in the mane's grip.

"Aw, sorry, Hum Drum…" Mane-iac said to him, "But you'll be needed to keep the Power Ponies away from my plans, after all they wouldn't dare attack me while I have their "wittle" sidekick by my side!"

Applejack got out of her rope and was about to charge when the Mane-iac held up the captive Spike.

"Ah-ah-ah… I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mistress Mare-velous. Unless of course the Power Ponies' sidekick doesn't mean that much to you?!" she let out another demented laugh.

Applejack barred her teeth, "If you so much as hurt him…"

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it! Don't worry, you'll get him back once I've completed my plans…"

The mare frowned further, "And those would be?"

"Sorry, that would be spoiling the surprise, now wouldn't it?" she cackled as she started to leave.

Spike quickly told Applejack, "You can do it, Apple- Mare-velous! I believe in you!" before he was gone with the Mane-iac.

---

Applejack wandered the streets of Maretropolis as she thought of what her next course of action would be.

She muttered, "Come on, Applejack… Think… you've read those comics, surely you remember where the Mane-iac's hideout is…" she thought long and hard on it until she passed a bath wares store and her eyes lit up, "Of course!" and started galloping away.

---

In an old abandon shampoo factory, Spike was dangling from a cage above a large pot of radioactive shampoo. Spike knew it was the same shampoo that made the Mane-iac who she was now. He could see she was prepping up her doomsday device that looked like a giant hairdryer. He called out to her.

"You know you won't be able to keep me here forever!"

The Mane-iac laughed, "Oh, Hum Drum, of course I can!" she puts the glowing orb in the machine as she explained, "Once the Electro-Orb has powered up this cannon, it will amplify the power of my mane one million times! Expelling an energy blast that will cause everypony in Maretropolis's mane to grow wild!" she cackled for a long time. Then she addressed him, "And as long as I have you here, the Power Ponies wouldn't dare attack me or else they send their sidekick into a vat of my shampoo formula!" pointing to the bubbling substance below him.

It was indeed a sticky situation, literally. As Spike tried to think of a way to get out but nothing was coming up. But then suddenly a golden glowing rope lassoed around the top the cage and pulled it toward the catwalk. Mare-velous then used her back legs to kick open the lock and the cage door went wide open making Spike jump onto the walkway with them both asking, "Are you alright?" making them smile.

Mane-iac yelled out, "Get them!"

Her henchies began to surround the catwalk and Applejack used the rope like a whip to keep them at bay and even used her hoofarangs to stop some of them in their tracks, but she knew she couldn't hold them off forever. Spike saw the dilemma and looked around until he spotted a metal hook hanging above them. He pointed it out to her and she got the gist, making the rope tie around the hook.

"Hold on to me." she told him.

He smirked while saying in a mischievous tone, "Don't have to me twice."

She rolled her eyes as he put his arms around her waist as she swung them away into a nearby window. The window had been attached to the roof of the factory but their getaway was short-lived when the Mane-iac through her skylight pointed the doomsday device at them!

"The charge is almost complete! You two don't have chance against this weapon's power!" she crazily laughed.

Spike yelled, "We need something to plug that thing up!"

Applejack shouted, "Leave that to me!" she charged at the device and then skidded to turn around as she used her hind legs to buck the device at full force!

"NOOO!" The Mane-iac screeched as she toppled over while the device overloaded causing her mane to wrap itself around her, making her release that craze laugh of hers.

Spike proudly said, "And so the day was saved thanks to Mistress Mare-velous and Hum Drum!" and by then they got suck back out of the comic.

---

Once they were out of the comic and back to themselves, Applejack exclaimed, "Hee-haw! Now that was exciting!"

Spike smiled, "I'm glad you enjoyed it, even if it was a little life threatening…"

"True… But I certainly wouldn't mind doing it over again, I really liked that lasso."

They laughed until Applejack tried to walk and she gasped in pain. Spike got concern and asked, "Are you okay?!"

She looked down to see her right leg was bleeding and Spike saw it too making his eyes widen and he began to fret.

"Oh no… this is bad… This is very, very bad!"

"What's so bad about it? It's just a broken hoof…"

"Just a broken hoof?! Just a broken hoof?! Applejack! You got hurt all because I took you in that comic book world! What have I done to you?!" the tears came fast.

"Spike, it's okay, we'll just go to the hospital wing and they can mend it."

"No! We can't do that! If word got out you got a broken leg, my father and cousin are going to assume that you were breaking rules again! After all, no pony has ever gotten injured during a Selection."

"And yet Sunset and I had that fight last month…"

"Yes, but your injuries were minor and the situation was understandable. But this time… your leg has a major break and if I tell my father otherwise how you got it, he'll just think I'm making up excuses to make sure you stay… and I don't need to tell you how hard it was to do that the first time around…"

She nodded then inquired, "So how do we go about this then? I can't exactly hide a broken leg without wearing a cast of some sort."

Spike thought it over until he said, "Twilight. She has to have some kind of spell to help with this sort of thing."

That made her smile, "We'll finally get to see Twilight again?"

"I wish it would be under better circumstances but in this case…" he picked her up bridal style, when realizing this, he smirked, "You know on the plus side this is good practice for us…"

She got what he meant and grinned as well, "Like carrying me over the threshold?"

"Exactly…" they kissed on the lips as he gently carried her out.

Comments

[GrimmWolfDragon]

Great chapter.

[MySisterBroughtMeHere]

You said you were waiting for a particular episode to air before you continued this story any further. Having watched it myself, I suppose I don't really need to guess anymore.

[CartoonNerd12]

8251351
All I can say is, thank you Australia! Yeah, I'm so glad I waited for this episode because it was perfect inspiration!

[GoldenChaos]

8251705
this episode has been out for years XD