Two Flare (1)
“♫Money, money, money, money…♫” Rainbow Dash murmured along with the tinny classic on a radio in the courtyard below. She scrutinized a cluster of clouds she’d been working on, then hip checked one to let in more sunlight. “♫Mo-neigh!♫”
“That the best choice to be singin’ ’round a shelter?” Applejack asked, emerging from a hedge she’d been pruning.
“Hey, trip to Griffon Stone does things to a gal.” Dash shrugged nonchalantly and wafted down to admire their handywork. “♫Makes ponies wanna do things, do things, do bad things…♫”
“♫With it!♫” AJ smiled, rolling her eyes.
“There ya go.” Dash nodded to herself, satisfied with how this repurposed gym was gradually transforming into the Upper East Side’s latest F.E.A.S.T. shelter. “Rain for their garden and showers, sparkling windows and clean gutters…man, I’m good.”
“Wow Pete,” a voice said over the rattle of a cart, “you weren’t kidding.”
Dash spun to glare and hesitated. Peter Trotter was pulling in a cart loaded with fresh supplies, doing most of the work in spite of genuine help from a lanky goat wearing shades and a beret.
“Rainbow Dash has to be experienced to be believed,” Trotter grunted, mostly for show given he could have easily picked up and hurled the cart almost half a block.
“An’ what am I, chopped lettuce?” Applejack mock demanded. She strode over to start unloading and shake the stranger’s hoof. “Howdy! Name’s Applejack. You’d be Hardy, right?”
“Friends call me Harry,” the goat agreed, smiling. He took Dash’s offered hoof and while there was definite weight and enthusiasm there, she felt like she had to be careful not to accidentally shake his leg out of its socket.
“As in Harry Osthorn?” she asked. “As in—?”
“As in that Osthorn, yeah.” Harry’s smile became wider and more tired, like watching a fissure as an earthquake gave up halfway through.
His beret made a sudden kind of sense, probably to hide his family’s infamous red-brown hair. His coat was a creamy colour Dash couldn’t quite place, which was weird because, while no Rarity, she was usually good with colours. She also wasn’t sure if there was a smattering of beige in there and whether that was natural or just, like, a vibe the guy was giving off.
She could make out a cute set of freckles just under Harry’s shades, along with his pleasant but tired looking eyes. Something was nagging her about those too, and it suddenly dawned on her that his shades might not just be for light sensitivity or style points. (Though the dude pulled it off through lack of pretension.)
It wasn’t Harry’s freckles that looked off, it was how they stood out against his coat…or rather against a slight, mustardy discolouration just under his eyes.
She’d heard a few rumours and Trotter and his pals always told the Elements to tread lightly because of them, but what exactly had this toast rack of a goat gone through?
Other than being the Goat Goblin’s son.
She felt AJ glaring at her and noticed Peter’s quietly pleading look.
“Uh…nice hat,” she settled.
“Yeah!” AJ agreed with dorky haberdasher appreciation.
“Thanks,” Harry smiled. “Present from MJ. Wow, garden looks straight out of a brochure!”
“I need to be experienced to be believed,” Dash smirked. AJ nudged her sharply. “But I like to give back to the lil’ ponies, make ‘em feel useful.” AJ nudged her even more sharply.
“Speakin’ of useful, you fellas need any help?”
“If you’re offering,” Harry agreed, picking up a box.
“I can get those,” Peter said quickly.
“I got it, man,” Harry assured, not harshly but definitely.
The Elements exchanged glances and then got busy.
***
“Seriously, thanks,” Harry told them as they all headed inside with their cargo. “A garden’s gonna make a huge difference, especially with the right conditions to grow our own food.”
“Looks like you’ll have enough bakin’ to tide ya over in the meantime,” Applejack observed. She looked around the shelter’s remodelled lobby, volunteers wandering in and out of the facilities. “Stroke o’ luck, Mr. Leaf pickin’ this place up! Looks like it’ll have most everythin’ ya’ll need.”
“Yeah, the fight didn’t wreck it too badly,” Peter said. He flinched, realising they’d been passing some ponies repairing a wall. “Uh, or so I heard. Read. In The Bugle.”
AJ blinked. “Fight?”
“Spider-Pony,” Harry said simply, shrugging carefully so as not to dislodge the box on his back.
“And the Inner Demons,” Peter added.
“Them too.”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged glances again.
Both had been more than happy to join Twilight on this little jaunt. The Cutie Map had struck conflicting chords with both their professional egos, eliciting some initial resentment at the Tree of Harmony (if that was even what was in charge of the Map) simply summoning them, but they were also a pair of Equestria forged adventures with, y’know, egos.
Now being on destiny’s speed dial had considerable appeal and keeping themselves busy stopped them hanging around Castle Friendship waiting for their hips to light up, like the mystical equivalent of bumbing around in your slippers.
On the other hoof, good old Harry blatantly didn’t know his best friend’s greatest secret and AJ didn’t appreciate being dropped into a lie of omission any more than Dash appreciated having to exercise extra tact.
At least Ponyville-Awkward was familiar and not as eye roll inducing as Spider-Awkward.
***
“Boys!” May Reilly said happily as they set the supplies down by her workstation, a remodelled juice bar that would act as a kitchen. She gave them both maternal hugs. “Oh, and girls. Is this everything?”
“Most of it,” Peter agreed.
“Extra hooves,” Harry smiled.
“Yes, we really must thank your girls for swinging by today,” May beamed.
“Our pleasure, ma’am,” Applejack said with a tip of her hat.
“Just May, Applejack, I’ve told you there’s no need for formalities. Is something funny, Rainbow Dash?”
“No, ma’am,” the Pegasus squeaked hastily.
“Need any help bringing everything in?” Fluttershy asked, emerging from under a counter she’d been cleaning. “I could get some snails to help with the garden, it wouldn’t be any…trouble.”
She’d locked eyes with Harry. May smiled. Dash rolled her own eyes at Peter’s total obliviousness.
“Got some blankets to take upstairs,” Harry said, equally oblivious. “If that’d be okay?”
“Hello,” Fluttershy said, too caught off guard to hide behind her fringe. That got Peter’s attention.
“Oh, right, where’re those Manehattan manners?” Harry held out his hoof. “Harry. Nice to meet you.”
“Same here,” Fluttershy smiled, trying to take it without touching him in case she quivered too much. “Oh! You must be Peter’s friend?”
“Wouldn’t have gotten through ESU without each other,” Peter smirked, putting a foreleg around Harry’s neck in a gesture more bro than brotherly. Dash’s eyes narrowed at this lukewarm attempt at match making.
“It’s just—Well, it’s none of my business, um, but, ah, I heard…”
“Harry will be staying at the shelter, yes,” Aunt May mercifully supplied.
“Yeah,” Harry said, trying to smile assuringly. He’d have rubbed the back of his neck but Fluttershy was still holding his hoof. “Mr. Leaf promoted me to management a while ago, and, hey, Manehattan property prices, y’know?”
“Not really,” Fluttershy said, blushing at this ignorance and the prolonged contact she now had the sense to break.
“Hold up,” Dash cut in, “aren’t you loaded?”
“Dash!” Applejack hissed.
“My dad is,” Harry said simply before Peter or May could say anything. “Well. Was. Got enough to get by, but I like to feel useful, so…”
“And you’d be welcome, regardless,” declared a soothing voice.
The group turned to see Twilight Sparkle trotting into the room, alongside an Eastern Pegasus in a crisp black business suit: Mr. Maple Leaf, founder of the Food,-Emergency-Aid,-Shelter-and Training charity.
“Everypony has a place here,” he continued. “Why, if not for your connections to the Trotter family we might not’ve been lucky enough to make contact with Princess Twilight! And her friends, of course! We’re big admires of your work.”
“The feelings mutual, Mr. Leaf,” Twilight beamed. “And, once Princess Celestia’s cleared it with the city council, we’ll be more than happy to help in Canterlot’s own F.E.A.S.T.”
“For real,” Dash agreed. “You folks do awesome work yourselves. I mean, not literally saving all of Equestria but it’s almost the same thing, if ya think about it.”
Aunt May smiled to herself as the other three Elements tried not to wither away from embarrassment, or in Applejack’s case burst with What-In-The-Hay-Am-I-Gonna-Do-With-You umbrage.
“Quite the compliment,” Mr. Leaf chuckled, unphased, and flapped up to the hovering mare’s level to offer a hoof shake.
Dash looked at the businessman’s perfectly manicured hoof as if one of the Everfree horrors had knocked on her door and introduced itself with a nice bottle of wine instead of trying to pop her head off like a champagne cork. The other Elements now looked equally uncomfortable, which surprised Harry and the Trotters. Mr. Leaf was pleasantly oblivious to all of it.
“…no prob, m’man!” Dash decided hurriedly, dude-slapping the older Pegasus’ pad so fast the air rippled, achieving an absolute bare minimum of contact. “Blankets upstairs y’said, Harry?”
“Yeah…” the goat agreed, blinking as a rainbow contrail blurred out the door before he’d finished speaking.
Twilight quickly levitated some cleaning supplies off May’s workstation, conveniently filling Applejack and Fluttershy’s hooves while she hastily covered one of her own with a rag. “Rainbow Dash likes to work fast,” she told Mr. Leaf, smiling a little too broadly. “And knows you’re a busy pony.”
“One who’s got to be on the move myself,” Mr. Leaf agreed, shaking the princess’ covered hoof, again seeming not to notice a need to avoid actual contact. “My apologies. Thank you so much for looking over our books and that list of ponies in Canterlot.”
“They’ll be delighted to help, I’m sure,” Twilight smiled, more genuinely.
“Is everything alright, Maple?” Aunt May asked.
“Oh, just business,” Mr. Leaf assured, though his wings seemed to droop with uncharacteristic regret. “A firm I’d merged with was attacked last week. It’s taken this long to schedule a meeting.”
“Oh dear, they’re not thinking of breaking it off?” May asked, at almost the same instant Peter asked, “Anypony hurt?”
“No, I’m sure we can come to some agreement, and mercifully no, thanks to Spider-Pony. Luckily, he was on the scene.”
“Luckily,” Harry echoed coldly. Twilight tried to keep her face neutral as she noticed Peter’s ears almost imperceptibly droop.
Mr. Leaf retrieved a watch from his suit pocket. “Ah, sorry to run out on everypony, but I’ve some personal errands to run before that meeting.”
“Need a hoof?” May and Peter asked in sync.
“Oh, it’ll be fine, fine!” Mr. Leaf assured, flapping towards a corridor. “Everypony’s doing more than enough. Besides, I understand you’ve some errands of your own, Peter, so if you wanted to take off early…”
“My roommate’s handling it,” Peter smirked, leaving just enough of a beat to lend gravitas to his eventual, “for better and worse.”
“I shan’t pry,” Mr. Leaf chuckled. He said a general goodbye to the group and left, leaving them to start organising supplies.
***
Eventually a moving pile of more supplies floated in from the hall. “He gone?” Rainbow Dash asked, poking her head around her makeshift shield.
“Yeah,” Applejack sighed.
“You girls don’t like Mr. Maple Leaf?” Aunt May asked, surprised.
“Oh, he’s fine!” Twilight hastily assured from where she was helping Peter and Harry stock shelves. “In fact, he’s inspiring. It’s just…well…uh…”
“His hooves are weird,” Dash supplied.
“Daniella Sacharissa Rainbow!” Applejack snapped, outraged.
“What?! They are!”
“That’s as may be, but ya don’t say things like that!”
“Weird how?” Peter asked, squinting. Harry and May looked between each Element as the two tomboys glared at each other and Twilight and Fluttershy tried to find some cupboards or sacks big enough to hide in.
“Yeah, AJ,” Dash simpered venomously, “weird how?”
Applejack froze up as all eyes fell on her, creating too much of a spotlight for her to exact her own vengeance, then gave up on even struggling to find a polite way to put it and gave them a full country gal performance.
“Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Leaf’s a saint, but pluck one of his own feathers an’ knock me over with it if his hooves ain’t so cold they’d freeze Moorella’s own milk!”
Twilight winced as Peter turned to her with no idea how to respond to that. May and Harry looked equally flummoxed. She supposed she should be grateful they were all native Manehattanite’s and the exact nature of AJ’s analogy hadn’t sunk in yet.
“And kinda staticy!” Dash agreed, nodding vehemently, one-ups-mareship forgotten. “Y’know, like when there’s a storm comin’ but its way out and the back of your neck just gets all…? No?”
“Might be a Pegasus thing,” Fluttershy suggested.
“It’s not unpleasant,” Twilight assured. “It can happen sometimes with creatures from different magical backgrounds. Sometimes your bio-thalamic fields just…” She shrugged, uncertain what exactly she was trying to articulate.
“I don’t believe I’ve felt anything like that,” Aunt May said carefully, trying to be fair to them.
“Yeah,” Harry agreed, “hay sometimes after a hoofshake things feel…perkier! Then again, like you said, he is kind of inspiring.”
“No doubt,” Dash agreed. “But his hooves are weird.”
Twilight gave Peter a questioning expression while May and Harry weren’t looking at them, the sort she’d given him across team ups as they learned to rely on each other, particularly Peter’s Spider-Sense. Peter searched his memory for any odd vibes from the philanthropist and gave her a quick headshake.
“Well, weird or not those hooves helped build these shelters and people need them,” Harry decided diplomatically. “And that garden’s not gonna set itself up. Did you say something about snails, Ms...?”
“Fluttershy,” the Pegasus managed, then cleared her throat. “Um, yes, yes I did! There’s some under that old shed, I’m sure they’ll be happy to leave your crops alone and even help clear up some dead plants if we explain the situation to them!”
“Explain the situation to them?” Harry repeated, blinking.
“Fluttershy needs to be experienced to be believed,” Applejack chuckled. “We’ll get this stuff upstairs while you two get started outside.”
She’d missed the looks Fluttershy had been giving the goat and wondered why Dash was giving her a chagrined “Dude!” expression.
***
“So what’s his deal?” Dash asked a few seconds later, trying to glare down onto the garden through an upstairs window.
“Who?” Peter said, icily. “My best friend?”
“Who doesn’t know you’re you-know-who,” Dash retorted.
Twilight looked up from where she and Applejack were assembling a bunkbed, one of several to fill this floor.
“Harry needs normal,” Peter said eventually, without looking up from the duvet he was adjusting.
“Really?” Dash deadpanned.
“Dash--” AJ warned.
“’Cause it sounds an awful lot like you-know-who needs it more.”
“Yeah, and who asked you?” Peter snapped, spinning around.
“Rainbow Dash is just being protective of Fluttershy,” Twilight said, quickly stepping between them.
“She’s bein’ a jerk about it,” Applejack agreed with an eyeroll, “but that’s sure what she’s doin’.”
Dash folded her forelegs as she and Peter glared at opposite ends of the room, then her head bowed slightly as that darned empathy made her consider how much worse she’d have taken a crack like that. “Look, I know he’s your bud and everything, but…”
“He’s not his father,” Peter assured.
“If you say so, but those shades aren’t just for show. On the other hoof, you tell me—”
“Us,” Applejack amended sharply.
“—whatever! Just say he’s not into whatever that is anymore, and I’ll back off.”
“It’s not our business--” Twilight began but Peter put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.
“It’s…complicated,” he decided, “but no, Harry’s good people. F.E.A.S.T.’s been good for him. And yeah, there’s a lot of reasons I haven’t let him in on my secret yet and those are between me and him.”
“Fine,” Dash allowed.
“Thanks ever so,” Peter muttered.
“Come on you two,” Twilight half whined.
“Could ya at least help us finishes these beds before ya start breakin’ stuff over each other’s heads?” Applejack grumbled.
“Yeah, yeah,” Dash shot back, flapping over to scoop up some fresh bedding. She looked at Peter as he smoothed down his meticulously made bed and decided to extend her own version of an olive branch. “Bet I can get more done faster than you!”
“Why?” Peter squinted. “It’s not a race.”
“Great Pony in the Sky, you’re boring,” Dash muttered, giving Twilight a hopeless headshake.
“Yeah? So how come we’re--”
Peter clamped his mouth shut so hard it almost rattled the windows, which was one of several things that instantly drew the three Elements attention. There’d been an unmistakable hint of Spider-Pony defiance in Peter’s voice, and one of Manehattan’s self-appointed wisecracking heroes trying to shut up was as hard to miss as a meteor landing on you.
A beat as Peter’s eyes desperately shot from Magic to Honesty to Loyalty and back again, managing each twice between heartbeats.
“We’re…?” Applejack prompted eventually.
“Uh…” Peter stalled.
“You and Osthorn?” Dash asked, brow raised. Her eyes narrowed. “Nah, this is a you and Johnny thing.”
“I…didn’t…not say…that,” Peter conceded, speaking as if her glare was dragging the words up out of his throat.
“Are you throwing some kind of party?” Twilight asked. “You were asking after Pinkie Pie earlier today.”
“Johnny said he’d handle it,” Peter said quickly, inferring that there was an appropriate target for any wrath so subtly it could have been used for a Las Pegasus billboard.
“Handle what?” Applejack asked and Dash insisted, in sync.
“It’s not an emergency is it?” Twilight asked urgently. Peter cracked up which didn’t set her mind at all at ease.
Dash gave him a second to get the snickering under control, timing it just right so that he was almost but not quite done so she could play her ace. “Could always ask your aunt.”
“Yeesh you’re cold today!”
“As Mr. Leaf’s hooves. Spill.”
“Alright, alright! Just don’t be upset, okay?”
“An’ why exactly would we get upset?” Applejack asked, folding her forelegs to stop herself from pawing the carpet in an irritated wind up.
“Johnny and I might be kind of, sort of, possibly, in a near future state, if the weather holds up and the stars align--”
“Peter,” Twilight said, her own patience now worn down to the size of one of Spike’s talon clippings.
Another beat, which was all the time Peter Glean Trotter was going to be allowed to compose his last will and testament.
“You guys ever hear of Super Pony Poker Night?” he asked, defeated.
The three Elements looked at each other, trying to process that word order and whether or not it was some kind of video game or tacky movie, and if they’d want to watch it.
“Oh!” Twilight realised. “You’ve mentioned! Sometimes your, uh, the term’s the business, right? You ponies get together!”
“Ya’ll have a poker night?” Applejack asked, wanting to establish at least one certainty in what felt like it was going to be a long string of answers raising further questions.
“Sometimes,” Peter agreed with a nod.
“Wait,” Dash realised, eyes bugging. “Wait, wait, wait. Are we talking about the Thing’s floating poker game?!”
“We don’t really have a name for it,” Peter said gingerly, backing up slightly.
Dash shot forward, almost driving him into the lower sheets of his completed bunkbed and hovering over him like an avalanche stopping mid-cataclysm to ask about your intentions with its daughter.
“You’re hosting it,” she hissed, eyes silently shrieking as they drilled into his to uncover his secrets.
“Co-hosting,” Peter corrected with a squeak.
“And we’re not invited,” Dash realised, deduction, shock and outrage combining to peel her lips over her clenched teeth in a crocodilian grin.
“Oh,” Twilight said, unsure if she should be hurt or not. “Um. Okay.”
“Huh,” Applejack mused, scratching an ear as if probing for her own reaction. “Well, guess it would been nice to be asked but we ain’t gonna take it personally.”
“Oh yes we are,” Dash italicised, winding up a hoof.
“Is everything alright in there,” Aunt May’s voice called from the corridor.
“Fiiiiine!” all three Elements trilled.
“I’ve got my rope,” Applejack warned Dash.
“Cool, I’ve got my teeth.”
“Oh, for… Willya stop talkin’ that way? Gonna mess up your throat.”
“Fine,” Dash snapped, flouncing to the floor and letting Peter cautiously sit up. “Man, I can’t believe you two!”
“It’s his place as well--” Peter began.
“Don’t want me showing you up or Twilight cramping your style, is that it?”
“No!”
“Yeah, fair,” Dash realised, nodding to herself, “you don’t have any style to cramp. Man, I’d be so much madder if this wasn’t such a Johnnycake-tier move!”
“There’s always next year,” Twilight said, attempting to mediate.
“Wait...” Peter blinked. “You guys want to come?”
Twilight blinked back. “Why wouldn’t we?”
“We run into you folks often enough,” Applajack agreed, “an’ it ain’t just you costume types what run in these circles either, from what I remember.”
“Point,” Peter agreed. “But Grim Skies started it, so it’s always been a big thing in that side of the business. Plus, that map and everything, kinda figured you guys’d be busy.”
“We have been rushing off a lot more since it sprang up,” Twilight admitted.
“It’s not a problem!” Peter assured.
“No,” Dash cut in, “you and Johnny leaving us out in the cold, that’s the problem!”
Peter seemed to wrestle with himself for a beat.
“I can talk to him?” he said eventually.
“Ya don’t sound too hopeful,” Applejack pointed out, looking up from some pillowcases she’d resumed filling. “Sounds like it was his idea to keep it in the family, as it were.”
“Kinda,” Peter admitted.
Applejack and Twilight looked at each other because Dash was too busy fuming and stuffing a duvet.
“Is he mad at us or something?” Twilight asked.
“No! Nonono, why would…?” Peter trailed off as he realised he might be sailing out of the eye of this particular storm. “Well, it’s not you girls specifically.”
“But he doesn’t want any Elements of Harmony there,” Dash said sharply.
A beat.
“He doesn’t want Rarity there,” Applejack said leadenly.
Another beat.
“What?” Twilight asked. She looked between Applejack and Peter as her coltfriend gave a single nod. “What? Did he do something? Rarity can’t have done something; it would be all over Ponyville! But then if Johnnycake had done something he’d be all over Equestria…”
“He’s not over her yet, is he?” Applejack muttered.
“Ask again later,” Peter suggested with a weary sigh. “What I do know is…it’s probably about Aurora.”
“Who?” Dash asked.
“Oh, that filly he’s seeing?” Twilight asked. “Did she do something?”
“They’re pretty tame together, honestly,” Peter said simply. He repressed another sigh and started work on a bunk. “But if I know ol’ Flame Brain it’s probably that right after it occurred to him our place would make the perfect spot for this year’s game, it also occurred to him that he…neglected to mention Aurora’s existence. To Rarity.”
“Who’s over him, though, right?” Applejack asked, looking sharply up at Rainbow Dash, as she quickly considered certain group interactions that now made sense outside of her best friend’s usual Leap-Into-Convo, Find-Out-What-It’s-About-Later approach.
Dash sighed and threw a duvet down a little harder than necessary.
“Ask again later.”
“Back, you wretched bagatelle! Back, I said! I shan’t tell you again!”
H.E.R.B.I.E. beep booped cheerfully, extending more brushes from his waldos. Rarity ducked, shielding her mane.
“My hair is fine, blast your eyes!”
This scene was taking place in the Baxter Building’s lobby. Passing tourists, fresh off the Fantastic Family tour, slowed to take in the sight of Rarity Belle, up and coming designer, ducking the attentions of what almost looked like a futuristic vacuum cleaner, wondering if it was some kind of warm up act. Office workers from Fantastic Inc.’s various businesses simply passed through, only bothering to roll their eyes at somepony making the rookie mistake of asking H.E.R.B.I.E. for help.
Rarity charged then ducked, shooting under the little automaton and galloping for the gift shop. She’d only approached the hovering thing because it had looked like something Mr. Fantastic would make. She wasn’t sure one of the building proprietors’ (ugh) ‘rogues’ hadn’t made it, but there was certainly something Mephistophelian about how it kept trying to foist odds and sods on her!
She tried hiding behind an inflatable version of the Thing and surveyed her new terrain. The FF’s gift shop was almost as large as the executive lounge across the floor, likely two offices with a wall knocked through to make room for the sheer amount of merchandise if she was any judge.
She’d thought the layout was a tad sloppy at first glance, but she wasn’t going to complain now; the various islands of merchandise (which really ought to be sorted according to each Family member!) provided plenty of cover if a filly rolled quickly enough between them. She could get out of the building, loose that infernal contraption and wait for Johnny in one of the cafés across the street.
“C’mon Herb, not now!” whined an adolescent voice up front.
Rarity stuck her muzzle around the Clobber ‘N’ Wobble Action Thing’s™ slightly swaying shoulders. The vacuum cleaner was hovering around one of the checkouts, much to the annoyance of the worker stationed there, its beautician arsenal now joined by several disinfectant bottles. It was trying, pleasantly but persistently, to give the unit a thorough cleaning.
That was the thing about it, if this was what Johnny had told her about: Dr. Rivers had created it as some kind of assistant and it just sort of…went on assisting, whether you wanted it to or not. Somehow one of the most intelligent ponies in Equestria had neglected to include an on/off switch.
As the thing began to simultaneously clean the checkout and ring up various customers’ purchases, resulting in it wrestling to yank said purchases out of their hooves so it could clean those too, Rarity reared up on tippy-hooves and snuck behind a rack of Family plushies and a revolving display of Propeller Propelled Fantasti-Chariots™.
She turned and suppressed a yelp as she came face to face with the sneers of a wall of action figure villains and gripped the string of a loose Phantasmal Pony balloon, letting it float her across the store. H.E.R.B.I.E. was now trying to offer an increasingly irate line of customers compensatory beverages and translate a guidebook for a Saddle Arabian couple, oblivious to her progress.
Satisfied, Rarity daintily lowered a hoof onto a plastic representation of the Panther Prince, adorned with a sign asking for donations to wildlife preservation, deposited a bit into the slot in its head, and merrily skipped off and towards the entrance.
“Oh wow, I love your mane,” a passing Pegasus said.
“Why thank you, darling!” Rarity told her, then froze mid-preen. She’d said that just a bit louder than her admirer’s compliment and now most of the store was turned towards her…including the beep booping bugger from Discord’s own workshop!
Rarity whined as she took off, H.E.R.B.I.E. merrily pursuing her with a hot towel and a phonebook waving amidst his seemingly endless waldos.
She skidded on the waxed faux-marble floor to avoid colliding with a mail cart, turning into her skid and using its momentum to lunge to the safety of the reception desk where she’d made the mistake of approaching the confounded thing.
“Now look,” she huffed, swatting away each inquisitive waldo. “It’s quite simple. I don’t need grooming tips or a massage…or at least I didn’t until you began foisting yourself upon me. Put that sorbet away! Away, I said! I don’t need any of this! I simply wish to know where Johnnycake Storm is. No, not that kind of cake, blast you! JOH-nee-caaaay-k'h. Don’t make me say his silly nom de guerre.”
H.E.R.B.I.E. keened a beeeeeeeeeep-boop of apprehension and sprouted an A1 sized map of Manehattan, almost knocking her backwards into the swivel chair.
A flaming minotaur hand materialised between them and snapped its fingers to turn them towards…
“Oh garçon,” Johnnycake smirked.
He rolled his eyes as H.E.R.B.I.E. shot towards him, beeping, booping and using a free waldo to wave between his fine self and the map.
“Yeah, yeah Sputnik, the filly’s got eyes,” he assured, then cocked his head to one side. “Uh oh, know that look…”
“Then you should have known better than to earn it,” Rarity huffed, hoping off the desk. “Where have you been anyway? I called in at Yancy Street but you were…”
“On my way here.” Johnny shrugged. “There was a thing with a mad alchemist and a living cauldron. Weirdly? Not supervillains. Swear to sun I dunno what this town’s coming to. Off! Like I need it.”
This was to H.E.R.B.I.E., who was now trying to lift Johnny’s hind legs with two waldos and wield a series of Psycho strings inducing farrier implements.
“I could fill every shelf in Twilight’s library with volumes of what you need,” Rarity huffed, throwing her nose into the air so it caught the glimmer of a space age chandelier above them just right.
“I may not have been around so much,” Johnny admitted, then delivered a smart rap of a hoof to H.E.R.B.I.E’s midsection. Rarity blinked as a hatch swung open. Despite this kinda-sorta-evisceration the automaton beep-booped merrily, sending waldos into himself to probe for anything useful.
“Only really here to pick up my laundry,” Johnny explained, then rounded on H.E.R.B.I.E. “You hear that? My laundry. Not a box, not a fox, not a house, not a mouse!”
“Your block’s lousy with laundrettes,” Rarity pointed out.
“Yeah,” Johnny said as H.E.R.B.I.E. rummaged himself, “but it’s free here.”
Rarity raised a perfect brow. “You are struggling for money?”
“You are peeved at me for some reason.”
“Indeed!” Rarity spun with balletic grace and military aggression, almost swatting him to the floor with her tail. “And now I can take great pleasure in not telling you why!”
“Oh come on!” Johnny pleaded.
Rarity didn’t so much as hmph, keeping her back to him as she folded her forelegs.
“You seriously came all the way out here just to not speak to me?”
A single, prim nod.
“Because you think I haven’t been speaking to you…?” Johnny tried.
A beat. Nothing but distant sounds of traffic and the almost airport bustle of the Baxter Building trying to flow around these three weirdos and go about its day.
Had Rarity’s shoulders slumped ever so slightly or was she just settling into her sulk?
“Fine, fine,” Johnny smiled, warming up to wheedle, “but you’re gonna miss out on some prime comedy when H.E.R.B.I.E. finally finds my—No, no, no you bargain basement Warhol exhibit, not in here!”
Rarity could no more have resisted those sounds than the planet could its own rotation. Her eyes, belonging to a tribe that had evolved in one of the most magical lands on the planet and which had spent a few years learning to interpret Pinkie Pie movements, managed to process the sudden burst of activity.
H.E.R.B.I.E. had pulled out a package she instinctively recognised as a row of professional grade garment bags, obviously using mass shifting magic to store them and all his other gadgets. Obviously, he’d also forgotten one of the rules of that sort of magic was to handle large items slowly.
Magic could conveniently alter the natural order of things, but the natural order could sort of…feel when that was happening. Move too fast and it would get excited and rush to return to what felt right, which in the case of something big being reduced to something small meant…ah, yes, there it went.
Garment bags mushroomed into the air between them, swelling to twice their normal volume as spells and nature fought to course correct. Kinetic energy woke up a few seconds after they hit the floor, worried it had missed its cue and leapt down the path of least resistance. Zippers unzipped and a torrent of expertly pressed and cleaned fabrics fountained into Johnny’s face.
Rarity blinked at him as H.E.R.B.I.E. made frantic, apologetic beeps and boops.
Johnny gave her a sanguine smile from between the Istallion swimming trunks draping majestically over his head.
It became more relieved and enthusiastic when Rarity stopped fighting it and burst out laughing.
***
Despite all of that happening in full view of the lobby, and most passers-by being Manehattanites and not caring, they surreptitiously procured a side room to sort things out.
“There we go,” Rarity sighed as she finished telekinetically grouping the last of Johnny’s summer wear.
She stepped aside as H.E.R.B.I.E. flew to it, happily folding and arranging it with those infernal waldos of his. She was starting to see why Johnny kvetched about the little droid so much. She’d been aware of it’s existence for almost ten minutes now and it was so…there, all the bloody time, she wanted to catch Equestrian Express' fastest redline special back to that glorious state of ignorant bliss.
“Yeah,” Johnny smirked, reading her blank expression perfectly, “the Herbster is the biggest pain in my tail for several reasons, most of them to do with being him and the rest that you can’t find a finer Pranceisian folding technique in the whole city. Seriously, opening the closest after he’s done is like walking in on a symphony.”
H.E.R.B.I.E.’s little screen briefly flashed pink at the compliment.
“Is that a challenge?” Rarity asked, offering the quip more to show she was perhaps predisposed towards a conversation.
“No. Why’re you mad at me?”
“Who said I was mad? I was not talking to you, if you’ll recall, and then you went and spoiled everything.”
“Is this about money?”
“You beg my pardon?”
“Just checking. Taking something your sister did out on me?”
“You’re four months older than me.”
“And since when did that stop you?”
Rarity fumed then conjured a neatly folded article clipping. (Though not as neatly folded as his precious Heeeeeerbie’s!) Johnny took it and scrutinised a photo of himself and an excited looking Dutch White mare with a rainbow mane stepping out of a theme park. He was carrying a giant stuffed teddy bear on his back for her.
“Well?” Rarity prompted. She rolled her eyes as Johnny simply raised an eyebrow at her. “You have a new girlfriend, you buffoon!”
“And what, you’re jealous?”
“Don’t make me seal you inside one of these bags and mail you to a landfill.”
Johnny held up his free hoof placatingly, keeping quiet in case anything he said came off as a quip and kept...whatever this was going. Rarity’s expression softened.
They both side-eyed the hovering H.E.R.B.I.E. He opened his hatch and began digging around for whatever he felt would be appropriate for this situation. “Mail room,” Johnny said, indicating the door with his head. H.E.R.B.I.E. saluted and shot off. “Hey, and I mean my mail from the room! Do not try to bring the whole thing in here, not again! Was that a ‘got it’ beep or a ‘yes’ boop? Ugh.”
Rarity shook head, smiling but not chuckling, and tapped the article with a hoof. “Why didn’t you tell me about Olive Green?” she asked.
“Aurora Sheen,” Johnny said automatically.
“Aha! Now I have a name!”
“Could hook you up with her address too, if you’d like. Not like we’re hiding anything.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me about her?”
“We’re trying to keep things low-key.”
She stared at him. He shrugged. She kept staring.
“Stop that,” Johnny said eventually.
“Stop what?”
“Giving me…y’know! The detective look! There’s nothing to figure out! Aurora and I just wanna keep it on the downlow.”
“Johnny, is there something about this pony I should know?”
“If there was dont’cha think it’d be all over the news by now?”
“Fair enough,” Rarity allowed. She sighed, sitting on the edge of the workbench they’d been using to gather his laundry, still scrutinising him. “It’s just…Johnny, last we talked your flyer’s licence was, shall we say, indeterminate because you were after that extra-terrestrial ex of yours. Then not only do you vanish on me for weeks, I have to find out about your new filly from Empire!”
She waited expectantly through a slight pause, daring him to say something silly.
“You read Empire?” he said eventually, genuinely concerned.
“No, you great goon! Sweetie Belle and the other Crusaders do, and I read over their shoulders. I’d write to them and complain if I were you two, though. They didn’t do a very good job of invading your privacy. I had to trick her actual name out of you, even.”
“Aurora’s cool with staying on the side lines. You’re the one always telling me I need more normal ponies in my life!”
“Well…” He had her there, curse him. “Well, yes, but I’m one of those ponies and you should have told me about her!”
“You?” Johnny smirked. “Normal?”
“Don’t you try and logic your way out of this! You left me fretting over your situation and then vanished on me for weeks. And not introducing me to Aurora Dream,—”
“Sheen,” Johnny corrected, secure and amused.
“—me! Do you have any idea what you’ve deprived the poor filly of? Oh, the dresses she could have had. The experience. What’s the point in saving the best for last when you have so little to save up to it? And then there’s the Rainbow Dash situation.”
“Which one? She gets around.”
“Tell me about it, but don’t tell me you failed to notice Aurora’s magnificent mane.”
“I am not Deerdevil,” Johnny deadpanned, holding up one hoof and placing another on a nearby catalogue. Rarity looked blank. “I’m not blind, is what I’m saying. Yeah, I noticed, no, this is not some kinda sad attempt to relive flight school. They aren’t even alike. Aurora actually digs just curling up in front of a movie…well, okay, Dash does too, but this rainbow pony isn’t bugging me to take ’em along when Ego the Living Planet pokes his head in through the atmosphere.”
“The living what now?” Rarity blinked then held up a hoof. “No, don’t bother. If you want to make it up to me, promise you’ll keep me in the loop. I’m that friend! You know I need juicy details to get the old blood pumping and half the conversation would be about you anyway. You love talking about you, and I assume you wouldn’t mind describing your feelings about the dashing Ms. Sheen?”
Johnny smirked some more and spread his forelegs for a hug.
“Bup-bup-bup!” Rarity chided, waving a warning hoof. “You have debts to pay first. So, what’s she like? What’s she into? What is her ‘deal’, as the foals say?”
Johnny considered.
“She’s nice to be around,” he decided. “It feels like she loves the city and it’s hard not to join in, y’know?”
“Oh, yes, that’s not like Rainbow Dash at all.”
“Fair. I dunno, it’s…like she’s got nothing to prove so I don’t either. I like taking her places, which surprised me.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, just…goin’ around the city. Give me a really bad hat and I could’ve been a tourist. And I don’t care! She’s just really, really happy that she gets to live in the greatest city on Earth.”
“That isn’t Canterlot,” Rarity smiled. “Does she find similar satisfaction in her job, or…?”
“Oh totally! She lives with her family. They make wicked awesome ice cream and stuff.”
Rarity gaaaaasped at him. Had he been on fire she’d have put him out. “You’re dating an ice cream pony and you didn’t think to introduce us?!”
“She prefers the term confectioner.”
“You’re learning new words? Without me?! That settles it. I must meet your mystery mare. It is destiny. Don’t try to stop it.”
“We’ll see if we can pencil you in,” Johnny smiled.
“Hmph! Tell me you’ve at least introduced her to your sister.”
Speak of the devil wearing Prada: the door swung itself open. Johnny and Rarity looked at each other. Sand Sousaphone Storm, wearing her business suit and an expression like her namesake, shimmered into existence and almost sent them leaping into each other’s forelegs. H.E.R.B.I.E. floating over Sue’s shoulder and the boxes she was levitating did nothing to help with the image.
“Hi Rarity,” Sue said, not taking her eyes off her little brother. “Stop sending us your crud.”
“The post office sends you my crud,” Johnny countered.
“They don’t send us your laundry.”
“…you, uh, you and Reed coming over tonight?” Johnny quavered, trying to keep his dignity while looking too pathetic to be worth destroying.
“Maybe,” Sue said, rolling her eyes as she levitated his package into his hooves.
“Tonight?” Rarity asked.
“Poker night,” Sue smiled. She took in Rarity’s blank stare and turned to Johnny. “You haven’t invited Rarity and the girls? I’d’ve though Pinkie Pie at least--”
“Hey,” Johnny scowled, “did you open this?!” He held it out for both mares to see the slightly flapping cardboard tabs. A freezer bag was nestled inside, its zip almost deliberately askew to make the crime abundantly clear.
“Grim did,” Sue said, smiling in a way that had something of her brother’s smirk in it. “And I happened to be passing.”
“You ate my ice cream,” Johnny said accusingly.
“The post office sent us your ice cream,” Sue simpered back. “So, you girls won’t come to poker night, Rarity?”
“If we’re invited, I suppose,” the Element smiled. “I’m sure Applejack and Rainbow Dash would find some trouble to get into. A chance to rub elbows, is it?”
“Without having to throw hooves.”
“Ah, thought so. Don’t mind choking the odd chicken myself! What’re the stakes?”
“We give the pot to charity,” Sue said with gentle firmness.
“Very big of you,” Rarity agreed hastily, trying to pretend there hadn’t been a gleam in her eye.
“It’s more about hanging out without the fate of the world at stake,” Sue continued. “Are you sure you girls won’t come? It feels like you’re in and out of the boys’ place almost every third week as it is.”
“Hmm, who’s on the list?”
“Oh, some of the Plucky’s crowd. Grim started it so he’s always there, Peter of course…you, ah, do know…?”
“I know who Spider-Pony is, yes.”
“Right, right, it’s hard to keep track sometimes, he’s so touchy about it.”
“Oh, I know!”
“Anyway, him, us, some of the Befrienders, of course.”
“They still make those?” Rarity asked, then shut her eyes at such a lack of tact. “What I mean is, what with their current, um, situation…”
“The team’s still not in a good place,” Sue agreed. “Which just makes get togethers like this all the more important.”
“I’ll give you important,” Johnny said, inserting himself between them and holding out a hoof. “Gimme a pen. I’m fixing this post office stuff right now.”
“And all you needed was the proper motivation,” Sue smirked, passing him a pen.
“Yeah yeah, you guys got any more packages for me?”
Sue changed her expression to a more pleasant one, timing it perfectly to coincide with making a small cloud of packages she’d been hiding visible and to stop levitating them. Johnny’s mail cascaded over him, leaving only his pen clutching hoof visible.
“Anyway, some of the Hex-Ponies, the Daughters of the Dragon...you made a face.”
“No, no, uh, it’s just Misty Night is our, uh, the word ponies keep throwing around is liaison?”
“Oh, I remember when we had one of those. You know what helped? A box of chocolates at Hearth’s Warming!”
“Hmmm. What about a homemade card?”
“You want to make sure they’re on your side, hon.”
“True, true…”
***
As this went on, H.E.R.B.I.E. surreptitiously held out a waldo to Johnny’s package. A few quick flicks and a glowing rune appeared on its tip, flying to merge with the box. Johnny checked to make sure the girls hadn’t seen anything, then gave the droid a rare nod of respect.
***
“—and then Pinkie starts trying to dance upside down on the table and you just know there’s no hope but to smile and start edging towards the stairwell,” Rarity was concluding. “So it’s a tempting offer, but perhaps next year. I shall ask, though.”
“Great,” Sue smiled, turning to the door, “say hi to Rainbow and the others for me.”
“Ah, not to sound like I’m demanding you return the favour,” Rarity said quickly, “but would you likewise pass on my compliments to Aurora Sheen?”
“I would if Johnny ever bought her around here.”
“What’s that?!” the hothead in question blurted, bolting out of his pile to throw a companionable foreleg around a startled Rarity’s neck. “A musical number about the importance of Super Pony Poker Night? Well, hay, why not?!”
“I can think of a few rea--” Rarity began but was dragged off her hooves.
“H.E.R.B.I.E., hit it!”
“When he’s done, tell him to use his own detergent,” Sue called, pulling the door closed after her as she fled.
3
Rarity had better things to do, so Peter suited up and subbed in. They also had to write it up first. This wasn't Ponyville, after all. Manehattan took (non-union) musical numbers seriously.
“Arighty!“ Spider-Pony declared, whipping a last sheet out of a typewriter. 616B Yancy Street's living room slid away with a blast of trumpets to reveal a casino backdrop as he threw his head back. “♫A-one, a-two, a-one, two thr--♫“
“Oooh, wait, wait, wait,” Johnny cut in, digging into his utility collar. He pulled out his compact, which had started beeping, though it hadn’t been overwhelming until he’d actually pulled it out.
The casino set whined down into shadows. Spidey stared at his partner as the Torch flipped it open, scanning its screen.
Eventually the Web-Slinger began pointedly tapping his hoof. “What, you got a hot date or something?”
“Yep!” Johnny said cheerfully, snapping the compact closed.
“What? Seriously?”
“Yeah, mad scheduling mix up, sorry bud, super cool of you to cover for me, they should name a street after you, big ups, peace.”
“But!” Spidey cried as Johnny flamed on, hovering off the floor of this void they were just montaging in. “B-biggest event of the hero year…a personality powder keg!”
“Yeah, but Aurora’s always wanted to go to the top of the Statue of Destiny,” Johnny breezed, conjuring a flaming umbrella construct.
“You’re seriously leaving me to handle this…”
“Not seriously! Look! Look how widely I’m smiling. Look how perfect my teeth are.”
“Johnny! Most of the community's counting on today! We have enough grudges and turf disputes as it is, this could tip all of that over! With our apartment as ground zero! Agh! I just realised I don’t even remember who knows my real identity and who doesn’t!”
“Oh wow,” Johnny grinned, “maybe I should stay…eh, you were a jurno, you can photo the whole thing.”
“I’ve never hosted a party in my life! You can’t leave me without a plan!”
“Awright, awright. Listen.”
Spidey leaned in desperately as the Torch beckoned him closer, then began to fiddle with his blazing umbrella.
“Here’s the vital elements to a good party: good liquor, good music and…” He snapped the ‘brella open, waving down as it swept him up and out of shot. “Goooooood luuuuuuuuck!”
“You SUUUUUUCK!” Spidey shrieked after him, waving clenched hooves.
He trotted in place for a few seconds, moaning, then blinked in realisation. “Elements….”
He fired a web-line, hauling tail off screen.
After a beat Discord, dressed as a janitor, walked by with a broom, sweeping up and whistling.
4
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Twilight Sparkle said, the Cutie Map glowing ethereally behind her. “You want all of us to set up a poker party—”
“Which ya didn’t invite us to,” Applejack cut in, mostly to prevent Rainbow Dash from doing so more colourfully, although the Pegasus was being worryingly quiet.
“—for ponies we barely know,” Twilight continued, her own temper flaring with incredulity, “and we have, what, about three hours to pull this off?!”
A beat.
“Huuuuuuh?!” Spider-Pony cajoled, throwing his forelegs wide, his lenses in happy emoji mode.
Another beat.
Applejack and Rarity were unphased. Pinkie Pie looked intrigued if not excited. Twilight was staring open mouthed at him, and Fluttershy was looking around at everypony else for a reaction and wondering why, since this sounded like a nightmare she’d have.
Spike glanced between the staring couple then contemplated the image of Manehattan on the map. And the amount of space in his autograph book.
“I mean,” he tried, “it is for charity…”
“An’ it sounds like it means a lot to these folks,” Applejack sighed.
“And I’ll owe all of you for basically ever,” Spidey said quickly.
“More importantly, Johnnycake shall owe me,” Rarity grinned.
“Twi?” Applejack asked, trying to maintain some kind of free will in the face of inevitability.
The Element of Magic was still staring at her boyfriend. Everypony felt their gazes being dragged away from her to Rainbow Dash, lounging in her own throne, hooves behind her head. And smiling. Like a catastrophe curve.
“Pinkie?” Twilight asked eventually, never taking her eyes off a wilting Spidey.
“Half an hour if everypony including Spike helps,” the party pony responded instantly. “Some hors d'oeuvre from your pantry, Sugar Cube Corners’ backlog and a spare keg of Sweet Apple Acres’ juice with a lil’ of Rarity’s rum to spice things up. Pete, what’s the average age range?”
“Bwuh?”
“For the music, colt, geez!”
“Uh, the Thing’s like over 40, Cap’s…Celestia knows, but everypony else is about a year older than me and Johnny?”
“We got this,” Pinkie said, nodding at Twilight.
“One last thing,” Twilight cut in. “Who does and doesn’t know how to play?”
Fluttershy instantly put her hoof up, then coughed when she realised Twilight still wasn’t turning around. “Um…”
“And I’ll be hosting,” Pinkie supplied.
“Don’t even think about it, Spike,” Twilight said, instantly crushing any thought of protest.
Spidey blinked at her. “You guys are gonna play?”
He took a step backwards as Twilight took one forward.
“We’re getting dragged back to your city to throw together a party, rife with tension and set to go on Celestia and Luna knows how sun blasted long, for ponies powerful enough to wipe the whole place out by sneezing too hard. And not only do you expect us to put our lives on hold to deal with this, knowing full well we could be called away to sort out somepony else’s problems at any second, this is only happening because your self-satisfied roommate knew we’d do it.”
Her eyes glowed with seething violet radiance.
“You’re darn right we’re playing!”
“Me,” Rainbow Dash said, showing a death’s-head grin, “I just wanna watch you squirm. Let’s party.”
To Be Continued
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Your narration has a really casually charming way about it that's not super common. I really like it.
Also like making Harry a goat instead of another pony.
Wow, she's speaking of her own volition at a level another person can hear.
I actually thought about asking if I could write a story about Fluttershy on that Wakandian trip, but I never got a better idea than Shy and T'Challa agreeing that, while they're interested in each other, neither one would ever give up the lives they have to move somewhere else. And something about Fluttershy using her talent for animals to tame the Panther God. And maybe T'challa punches Discord in the face.
NOT A FUTURE VILLIAN NOT A FUTURE VILLIAN SUPER TRUSTWORTHY
It kinda sucks, he's in that same spot all adaptations of Norman Osborn has to deal with. The most interesting thing about him is that he turns evil so the build-up to his evil-ness has a huge shadow over it. It's not as bad as Sinsestro, who has to be the best cop ever despite looking like Satan.
Poor Harry. I wish he could catch a break somewhere.
The Elements of Harmony have a "detect evil" setting. I dig it.
“Yeah,” Harry agreed, “hay sometimes after a hoofshake things feel…perkier!”
That's probably also significant.
I wonder which of those two has thrown the other under the bus more— Nah, it's Johnny.
One, that metaphor at the end is amazing and you should feel proud.
Two, it's always dangerous to get between Rainbow and her Senpai.
“You’re hosting it,” she hissed, eyes silently shrieking as they drilled into his to uncover his secrets.
He probably also doesn't want Rainbow to call her a copy-cat. I know she's not, but Rainbow would do something with it.
On-off switches are so simple that every genius thinks about putting one in first and then gets distracted by the weirder challenges of building a robot and then just assumes they did it.
You are on fire today.
Johnny's rare bursts of subtly are all the more powerful through their unexpectedness.
pbs.twimg.com/media/EBFoSaQWsAEGxIv.jpg
Though I have to complain about him swinging "off-screen" because there aren't screens in books. Pet peeve.
Spike the Ever-Avarice! Good for him though.
I'm actually a huge fan of Triptych where, because Fluttershys' reaction to everything is some flavor of nervousness, is actually hard to read and she wins every game. And Rainbow loses almost immediately because the idea of not bragging about something is a concept her brain rejected years ago.
10737765
Glad you liked this cause I'm officially back at work so next chapter's gonna be a while!
Wow. Thank you so much. If you want something similar but way better, try Edgar Cantero's books Meddling Kids and This Body's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us.
Fun headcanon fact: Norman based his Goblin identity off legends of Grokar. He did not pretend to be Grokar himself because a) Celestia would probably spot a fake if they ever met, and b) the father of all monsters might turn out to be real and come looking for him.
Dude, go for it. Nobody said it had to be romantic.
Hahaha. Creates a zone of pure silence so Discord can't snap his fingers or something.
Fair, but also here's Norman's first appearance before we knew he was the Goblin.
2.bp.blogspot.com/CMPPFbNvi6KjZXY5pit8eGzGinmuLT2nW7ATq1CHTbz77yeuUzaMjmUQw2Nl5c8pkRkzrJl9m7Uh=s1600
2.bp.blogspot.com/MsObzg9NtjCCivl9zwgNhpUN4TB56K5P29DAZPJnqHHiY3eL1RLmWglyfYKa0fjsUYpGFRSWKd6q=s1600
2.bp.blogspot.com/cKI0Y3h-I2jQxJlD3lzylB5aQNnlaI9TNJQ3-A-276jS7bKHrkxIsmFY8rEewvR4RJbhZ6KQlZLu=s1600
Nice guy!
Convoluted as it is, one of the things I like about the comic version of Negative is that "Martin Li" technically isn't real, just an alternate personality he projects, so the Elements are picking up on that. Not EVIL exactly, just...weird.
It is absolutely Johnny.
This isn't a book. Checkmate!
Pffft.