We Could Be Heroes

by Quillamore

It's The Endgame Now

Coco Pommel remembered the last time she’d let her hopes run away from her. It had been a year ago almost to the day, the day she’d first run into the mare who called herself Knitpicker.

She’d just left an interview with a famous fashion company, only to receive more of the same treatment as always. “We don’t want your kind here,” the interviewer had told her the minute she trotted in, echoing the constant refrain that ran through Coco’s life. She had been so humiliated by the whole incident, by the way the company had feigned interest in her only to throw her away, that she didn’t even care that it was raining. If nothing else, her needles were her personal umbrella.

Sometimes, she’d wondered if that was the only good thing about her power.

She’d ran as fast as she could go, not paying any mind to where the road was taking her. By the time she’d realized that somepony had been following her from the fashion house, she’d already backed her way into a dead end.

The mare standing before her was slender and pink, an earth pony who didn’t seem to have an ounce of menace in her body. By all means, a member of the typical Manehattan elite. But she held her head high as she strode towards Coco, and with a single touch, the two dumpsters behind her began to fuse together. The brown eyes that had seemed so beautiful and soulful during the interview now gleamed with a devilish glow, and they were turned straight towards her.

Not with fear, but with interest.

“Interviews can be a real drag, can’t they?” the pink mare said with a bubbly voice that didn’t match her expression. “I bet those powers make it even worse. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get rid of things like that for good?”

“What do you want from me?” Coco spat, wanting nothing more than to leave this mare and go back to her shabby home. There was only one thing mares like this wanted from her, and it was never good.

“You’re not really from the fashion house, are you? You’re a villain, and you want to recruit me.”

“I used to be, but that’s not important now, mmkay? The second one’s closer to the mark, but that’s not all I want. I’m not just some scumbag looking for grunts. I saw the way they treated you in the interview, and I’ve seen it too many times. I wanna unite the dregs of Equestria under a common purpose. Dregs like us.”

Only now did Coco notice her designer saddlebag, something somepony like her could only dream of having. With the utmost grace, the pink mare set it down and removed a small object from it--a collar with a tie, the sort of thing a well-off working pony would wear.

“The way I see it is, if you’ll let me borrow your power for awhile, I’ll pay you back with interest. Since I can already fuse things together, I’ve always wondered if I could separate things, too.”

Sure enough, with another touch, Knitpicker was able to undo the bonds that had fused the two dumpsters together.

“I don’t intend to stop there. A lot of ponies have powers they don’t want. Even more have powers they don’t deserve. Once I reach full power, I can make your needles fall off just...like...that.”

Knitpicker tapped on one of Coco’s needles, and unlike all the other times ponies had touched her, it simply fell off like a feather in the wind.

Just like the offer Rarity had made her a year later, Knitpicker’s made all sorts of possibilities move through Coco’s mind. Possibilities that clouded her judgement like nothing else could, ones that had formed a new identity around her before she’d even gotten the chance to blink.

Knitpicker may have been crazy, or idiotic, or any of the other things ponies whispered about her. But her words were as hypnotic as a siren’s. The second Coco found out about the collar that could cancel her powers, she’d jumped on the offer without considering the consequences.

“I’m the only one who can understand you,” Knitpicker had said when Coco first put it on. “Everypony else in this city is only out for themselves. Remember that.”

Was Rarity really the same way? Or had the whole thing been a setup from the start?

Had the collar been her freedom, or just another restraint?

Either way, for the first time, Coco felt as though she couldn’t risk being wrong. Because next time, she knew a pony like Knitpicker or Radiance wouldn’t come along.

By then, her second chance--towards heroism or villainy--would be exhausted for good.

****

Coco had spent the whole morning snagging over the plan, but Rarity was raring to go. It’d been less than twelve hours since Coco had revealed her connection to Thorny Rose, but her marefriend had already collected all sorts of materials from support groups. The ones Coco had been involved in when she was young had been less than sincere, but Rarity assured her that these would be different.

Coco kept a close grip on her collar anyway, not wanting to risk the wind or anything else blowing it away.

The two were heading towards one of Manehattan’s community centers, and while the weather was delightful, the sun had just barely risen in the sky. Apparently, therapy programs for ponies with superpower-related depression couldn’t be scheduled at a decent time, something that almost made Coco resent this whole thing more. Still, if it worked, it would probably be the first time any regular ponies had talked to her without her collar in awhile.

But, on the other hoof, the very possibility of taking it off scared her to her core.

By the time they reached the community center, which was much more modestly decorated than some of the extravagant ones Coco had seen in other parts of Manehattan, only a single pony had even bothered to show up. Coco wasn’t sure what part of this was the least encouraging--the fact that the therapy session was held in a shabby basement, that it was held so early in the morning, or that the other sign of life to be found there was only half of one.

An unattended foal sat on one of the chairs, idly moving her legs back and forth as she waited for other guests to arrive. She already had her cutie mark and her powers, but she likely hadn’t had them for long, Coco deduced. Little bits of baby fat still layered her brown body, and even though she likely had devastating powers, she whistled a little tune as she waited.

At least this kid’s parents figured it out early, Coco thought wistfully.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Rarity said. “‘What kind of therapy group is this, Miss Rarity?’ Well, the answer is that this isn’t the only one. They’re scheduled throughout the day, but some power sets take longer for ponies to get acclimated to--”

“So this is the reject group of the reject group?” replied Coco, barely hiding the resentment in her voice.

“That’s not quite right. Some ponies aren’t as comfortable with showing their powers in front of a crowd, or haven’t learned to control them yet. But that isn’t quite why I brought you to this particular group.”

The filly began to trot towards Rarity, as if on cue. Though it’d never occurred to Coco that Rarity could have been involved with programs like this from the start, it at least helped her make sense of why the unicorn seemed so willing to forgive her. After all, trying to fix a messed-up mare like her was practically every romantic’s fantasy, and there was no way Rarity could be any different.

Right?

“Now, I’m trusting you with this knowledge, maybe a little too much,” Rarity continued. “Whether you go back to Knitpicker or not, I won’t judge. But if you use what I’m about to tell you to put this filly’s family in danger, I certainly will.”

For once, Rarity’s normally gentle gaze was nothing but ferocity, the type Coco always associated with Radiance rather than her counterpart. She almost swore she saw her nostrils flail, even.

“I--I won’t tell,” she said, cursing her sudden wave of fear. “Not even Knitpicker’s in the business of hurting kids.”

The minute she answered, an understanding smile came onto Rarity’s face, as if she’d expected Coco’s reply all along.

“This is Barbara Seed, Mistress Marevelous’ cousin. She was orphaned in an accident a while back, so she’s been staying with my teammate’s family. Needless to say, though, the hero community was speculating about her powerset ever since they found out Mistress Marevelous adopted her.”

Just as Rarity was about to continue her explanation, the brown foal cuffed the hero in the leg. Unlike what Coco might have expected from somepony placed in a program like this, the younger pony’s composure seemed far more playful than malicious.

“I told you, the name’s Babs now! No great superhero has somethin’ like Barbara as their civilian name! C’mon!”

“I know, I know, but are you really sure about how that name sounds? It’s a little too much like--”

“Duh, that’s what makes it sound cool. Everypony will make me out to be a real bad seed with powers like mine, but I’ll really be out savin’ lives as the Jersneigh Angel. It’s a rock solid alibi!”

Babs puffed out her chest in pride before turning to Coco. Coco still wasn’t sure if the foal was in on this whole scheme, but even if she was, she seemed like the type who’d talk her off even if she wasn’t. No wonder she had a hairstylist cutie mark.

“You...already have a hero name planned and everything?” Coco asked, trying her best to play along.

“Of course! I’m gonna stick it to all the ponies who’ve told me I can’t be one with the power I have. And from what I hear, you’ve got a different name, too. I saw it on the sign-up sheet. It’s not too often we get an actual villain here!”

Strangely enough, Babs almost seemed more excited than scared about that fact. Her eyes practically shone with curiosity, as if Coco were just a figure from a comic book instead of a real, and dangerous, pony.

“But I don’t see anything wrong with that. I’m sure I would’ve gone all kinds of crazy if I hadn’t found a group like this early on. Ponies aren’t exactly wild about a hero whose entire power is, well, this.”

When Coco raised an eyebrow, Babs fished a pair of scissors out of what looked to be a miniature junk heap. For some reason or another, somepony had felt the need to store random objects in a pile, many of them in various states of disrepair. Just when Coco started to wonder why such an odd thing was there in the first place, Babs closed her eyes and began to focus. By the time her hooves touched the scissors, they had already begun to move on their own, taking themselves apart into blades and nails. The next object she fished out, a pen, ended up much the same way, separated into parts.

“Even before I got these, I liked taking pens apart. Guess I shoulda known this would be my power, right? Mistress Marevelous took me to get my powers inspected as soon as I got my mark, and I can do this with any non-living thing. Except one time, I saw a dead frog out by a pond, and it still worked. I think you can probably guess why I ended up here.”

“She might seem fine now, but when she first came here, she was terrified,” Rarity explained. “That was how Mistress Marevelous and I ended up working on these sessions. Some of our fellow Power Ponies are still skeptical, but we’re of the belief that everypony’s power can be used for good.”

No matter how much she wanted to believe it, Coco knew that couldn’t possibly be true. Even off the top of her head, she could imagine situations where powers like Babs’ could be used for good, but she couldn’t do the same with her own. However, when she tried voicing it to the other two ponies, they simply continued talking.

It’s almost like they actually believe this bull, she thought to herself. Sure wish I could.

Already, this whole reformation quest was beginning to grate on her nerves, even if she wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea. If there really was method to their madness, she figured, she might actually be tempted to leave Knitpicker behind, but that sure wasn’t how it seemed at the moment.

“Oh, right,” Rarity chipped in. “Coco, what exactly are your powers? I always used mine in our battles, but you always insisted on hoof-to-hoof combat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those needles leave your body once.”

Of course she had to, Coco told herself. They were a weapon with many applications, and taking a cocky hero down a few pegs was just one of them. Any henchmare worth her salt wouldn’t have held back, especially since Radiance always seemed to be the only Power Pony on the scene when Knitpicker attacked.

So why did she? Was it because she knew Knitpicker wanted her alive, so that Coco could play with her heart more? Or was it because Radiance always fought so brilliantly, so gracefully, that sometimes, even Coco couldn’t keep herself from staring?

She could practically imagine the hero summoning weapon after weapon without breaking a sweat, the way she flipped her mane behind her as if battles were photo shoots. The way bantering seemed to come so easy between the two of them, even though Coco struggled for words when she wasn’t in her Thorny Rose form. The way she could practically see sparkles forming around Radiance the first time she’d asked her monstrous form what a beautiful mare was doing in a place like this.

You’re not used to compliments, she’d told herself after that battle. The sparkles are just some dumb superpower Radiance has. It means nothing.

“Um, Coco? I just asked about your powers. There’s no need to freeze up.”

Coco shook herself out of her reverie, only to find that she could practically feel her cheeks heating up. Had she really been fantasizing about Radiance this whole time? Her enemy?

“Oh, right! Um, what’s a beautiful mare like you doing in a place like this?”

Judging by the looks on Rarity and Babs’ faces, she probably had been. And she’d likely made a complete and utter fool of herself on top of that.

“If you’re done acting like a lovesick fool, you can go ahead and answer Rarity’s question,” Babs snarked.

Coco didn’t even dare to dignify that with a response. Instead, she took her tie off and let the needles form on her back. Somehow, for once, even that wasn’t as scary as the thoughts she’d just had.

Reformed or unreformed, Radiance doesn’t deserve somepony like me, she reminded herself. No amount of work will ever change that, so it’s best to just let these feelings go. The charade’s over, so there’s no point in thinking this way anymore.

“Each of these needles has a different effect on ponies,” Thorny began, trying her best to hide the shakiness in her voice. “Most of them are coated in some sort of chemical, though--when they were trying to figure out my powers, my doctors did tests on what they were made of, since they’d never seen anything like it. Anyway, some of them are explosive when shot, others have acid tips, and a few are even poisonous. I mainly use the sedative ones when I’m out on a job, since I’m mostly called out for heists and bodyguard work. Sleeping spells are common enough, so the police are less likely to trace anything back to Knitpicker. Occasionally, I use the acidic ones to create a distraction, but the damage they dish out can give us away real easy. They’re basically a last resort.”

“And what about the explosives and poisons?” Rarity asked, barely even flinching at the display of power.

“Henchmares and assassins tend not to do the same jobs. You want both, you hire both. And we don’t blow up the places we hold up, in case we need to go back for something else.”

As hard as Thorny tried to keep everything as vague as possible, she still couldn’t shake the feeling that Rarity was invested in far more than just helping her with her powers. She knew that Rarity would try to ask more, try to turn this into something it wasn’t. But she stood her ground and said nothing more until the rest of the meeting started.

After all, whether these feelings she had for Rarity were love or not, keeping Knitpicker’s secrets would always be the most important thing.

But she wasn’t so sure anymore about why that was.

****

For the next couple of days, life with Rarity was routine--go to the community center, talk with Babs, try with all your might not to cooperate too much with the questioning, and report back to Knitpicker. But on the fifth day of support group visits, Rarity finally decided to ask the question Coco knew had been trapped in her mind, even as she dreamed.

“Are you sure you want to do all this?” questioned Rarity as the two sat in a cafe booth a few blocks away from the community center. True to Rarity’s wealth and fame, the mare had been able to reserve the entire restaurant for a half hour, to ensure nopony else could hear what she was about to say. “You don’t seem very motivated in your sessions.”

“You mean I don’t tell you everything you want to hear,” Coco replied. “I know you’ve got good intentions, but if all you see in this is a way to beat Knitpicker, then I won’t have it. I actually thought you wanted me to change, but for all I know, you just want me to be your spy!”

Rarity’s eyes went wide with a mix of shock and sadness, and the minute Coco saw her face, she knew she’d misspoke. More than anything, she wanted to run away from this whole situation, to another end of Equestria if need be. Villain or not, all she seemed to do these days was make ponies uncomfortable, and they’d surely be better off without her--

“I’m very sorry if I ever gave you that impression,” Rarity spoke, interrupting Coco’s stream of thoughts. “I absolutely understand why you’d think such things, but I want you to know that you can trust me with anything. There’s no way we can get through any of this if you don’t tell me.”

We. Every once in a while, even after all this betrayal, Rarity still slipped into that word. She should have known better than anypony what Coco had really wanted from her, and yet she refused to accept that possibility. Was it really that obvious that Coco had always, always wanted more from her, even if it was just somepony to fill her flat at night? Or was it just simple, naive denial?

“I can’t believe you can still say that after everything. I mean, I was flat-out sent to spy on you, and here you are, actually talking about us like we’re a real couple.”

“Love is a very difficult thing to fake, darling,” replied Rarity. “And no offense, but I would have known straight away if you trying to do that. You might work for a villain, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you’re a very easy mare to read. You always make your feelings known, like that little slip of the tongue you had a couple days ago.”

Coco could practically feel her temperature rising with every word from Rarity’s mouth. Was she really that terrible at deceiving ponies?

“C-can we please go back to talking about Knitpicker? Even that’s better than, well--”

Even though she was trying to do it under the table, Coco sensed that Rarity could see the way she fidgeted with her front hooves. Sure enough, the white unicorn broke out into laughter--not the elegant chuckles she normally let out, but rather the sort of boisterous racket she’d expect of a burly stallion.

“All right, all right, I’ll stop. It’s just easy to forget how cute you can be while we’re fighting each other. Though I have been wondering why you got involved with somepony like Knitpicker in the first place. What brought you to her, anyway?”

“This,” Coco answered, pointing to her collar. “She gave this to me in exchange for my loyalty. Back then, working with a villain was the last thing I wanted, but I knew the minute I saw it that it was one of a kind. So far, it’s the only thing that’s been able to conceal my powers and the only way I’m able to get by in Equestria without looking like a freak. The only way I’m able to get a job and function as a normal pony. Looking back on it, if Knitpicker would have asked me to kill a pony to get it, I would have.”

Rarity took a single sip of tea, and Coco couldn’t help but wonder if she’d scared her a little with that last statement. However, if she was frightened, she didn’t show it, and instead seemed rather intrigued by the whole matter.

“Well, that sounds simple enough,” she said. “All we have to do is recreate it with my powers, and--”

“Don’t! Knitpicker put a spell on it to keep you from replicating it. It was one of the first things she told me when I accepted the mission with you. The spell will let you examine the material, but if you try to replicate it, Knitpicker will know. Both of us will be in danger.”

Somehow, the fact that her own employer could put her in danger should have shocked her, but it didn’t. That was just the way villains operated, the way things were in Maretropolis. It wouldn’t matter if Rarity had just grabbed the collar without Coco’s permission and tried to duplicate it--she would be implicated no matter what. A good villain could never be too careful.

“That’s...disturbing. So essentially, since ponies like you are cast out from society, she controls you by offering you a way out, only for her to yank it away if you choose to leave. And if you do find your way out, everypony will recognize you as a villain’s accomplice and cast you out even more.”

Coco had never particularly thought about it that way, but she nodded in agreement. Rarity seemed so indignant about the situation that she almost hoped her marefriend was right. That Radiance could beat Knitpicker, figure out how she had created superpower-cancelling clothing, and run off into the sunset with Coco. But, then again, Coco knew better than anypony else what Knitpicker’s real plans were, and why Rarity’s trusting face wounded her more than anything else she could possible imagine.

She and Rarity could never last together after what she’d done. After what she was about to do.

“Knitpicker has something bigger in mind, though. She’s been stealing technology that would allow her to strip powers straight from ponies for good. That’s why she wanted me to get close to you. She wanted me to lure you into her lair so that she could fire up her power-cancelling ray and end Radiance for good. Then, when the other Power Ponies intervened, she’d do the same to them.”

“If you were so concerned with me spying on you, why did you tell me all of this? You surely would have won if--”

“I don’t want to win anymore,” interrupted Coco. “I don’t want to be a hero, or a villain, or anything! And if somepony out in the world actually loves me for who I am, the last thing I’d want to do is keep them from what they love. It just took me a little bit to remember how you really felt about me...that’s all…”

Tears crept down Coco’s face, the one thing about her that wasn’t made of poison. Her needles might have been coated with the stuff, but she could cry like everypony else. Even then, that didn’t mean she had to like it, especially not in a place like this.

Especially with what she was about to do.

“It’ll be all right, Coco. We’ll beat Knitpicker together, and you can finally have peace. You can work in my fashion house, and if anypony has a problem with that, I’ll talk some sense into them! There’s no way I’m losing you to that terrible mare.”

“I’m not losing you to her, either,” Coco whispered. “That’s why I’m going to use the ray on myself before taking it down from the inside. Then I’ll be able to come back to you for good.”

As she expected, Rarity’s entire body froze as she said this. She’d never seen such fear cross the mare’s face, not even in the worst of battles. But no matter how hard Rarity tried to speak, only mumbling came out.

“You can’t. It’s not safe! If you’re the first pony to test it out, then you could--”

“I won’t. Knitpicker always wanted me to be the first. This was the plan from the beginning.”

“Why do you still believe her?! What’s stopping her from killing you and replacing you with somepony else?! Once your powers are gone, you’ll be useless to her!”

Rarity grabbed onto Coco’s leg with every bit of strength she had, but unfortunately for her, that wasn’t much. If it had been another hero, it would have stopped Coco in her tracks, but Radiance’s lack of super strength meant that a few strategic movements were enough to make her let Coco go.

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take for you. If you cross Knitpicker again, she’ll wipe your powers for good!”

With a few final tears, Rarity stared Coco straight in the eye, knowing full well it could be the last time she laid eyes on the mare.

“How can you say that when that’s a risk I’d be willing to take for you? Please, Coco, think about what you’re doing!”

“I have.”

After a single prolonged glance, Coco strode away from the cafe, towards Knitpicker’s lair and the one thing that could end all this for good. The one thing that could even end her and Rarity for good.

“And you can’t save me this time.”

Author's Note:

Writing this part was tough for me, but I feel the payoff was very good near the end. It really is heartwrenching to watch the lengths Coco will go to for Rarity, and it probably would have been even moreso if this was a longer series with more buildup, but as much as it pains me, I've decided from the beginning that this will be a three-part series. Balancing FiMFiction and IRL writing has been tough on me lately, so while this is an ambitious plot, I knew from the beginning that I couldn't make it as long as I would have liked. I still tried my best to make it not seem too rushed, though.

I plan on releasing the last part on Easter Sunday, but if that doesn't work out, I'll probably finish it close to the Avengers release. I managed to get tickets for the Thursday showing, and I'm super pumped~

Comments

[Viper Pit]

Oh damn

[Hearts warming gamer]

Well damn and I am back fim fiction