The Justice League of Equestria Vol. 1: Invasion: Issue #1: Family Matters
A white unicorn mare with black mane was making her way through the empty streets of the suburban area of Manehattan so fast as if her life depended on it. And from a certain point of view, it was.
The jig was up for Bass Coral and now she had no choice but to run. How did things get this far? She had completely lost her mind when she heard that they would remake "Dread Castle", her greatest hit and most renowned performance without her. She was at the end of her career, she would be completely forgotten forever and she just panicked. She had to stop that movie from getting made by any means necessary.
She visited Cherry Rose, the actress who was gonna replace her in the role of the leading mare. She didn't know what that was going to accomplish but she had to try something. She pleaded with her to quit the production but Cherry just laughed at her and mocked her. She called her a has-been and said her time was over.
And then, something inside of her her snapped. She picked up a vase that held some flowers sent to her by a fan and smashed her across the face with it. She then panicked and fled the scene and only learned from the news the next day that Cherry died, bleeding out from the wounds the shards caused her and production of the remake was delayed until the killer was brought to justice and a new actress was found.
At first, she was filled with dread. Surely the police would get to her in no time and she would spend the rest of her life in prison. But as the days passed and nopony came looking for her, she began to calm down. And that was when she was hit by a realisation. If she could get away with killing Cherry, truly she could get away with doing the same to the rest of the cast. And if she did that, the remake would surely be canceled.
But then she got careless. She left too many clues behind and they managed to identify her. More specifically, she managed to identify her. The one who was currently pursuing her. The Batmare was on her trail and nopony ever managed to elude her before. Better ponies have tried before.
But her fear refused to let her surrender. It was a funny thing like that. Even when your body can't go on any longer, even when your mind knows there is no hope, it still makes you go on. And Bass finally reached the point where she couldn't go on any longer. As in literally, because a shadowy figure landed in front of her and caused her to fall back when she bumped into it.
"It's over, Coral." The Batmare growled as she turned to face the other mare. "They have all the necessary evidence to convict you. You are a wanted mare. Your picture hangs at every train station and airship port. You can't get out of the city. Your only choice is to surrender to me."
But Bass wasn't ready to call it quits just yet. She backed away until she bumped into a full thrash can. She picked it up with her magic and threw it at the vigilante. She dodged it with ease, but in doing so, she lost sight of the other mare who managed to sneak away.
"You can't run forever, Coral!" She yelled as she reached to her ear to activate a sound sensor that was sensitive enough to pick up the mare's hoofsteps as she frantically tried to get away. She took off after her and tracked the murderer to an old, rundown warehouse. She was in such a hurry that she didn't even close the gate she entered through.
Batmare followed her inside and shut the gate to prevent her from escaping. She probably believed that she will be able to hide in the darkness but in reality, she just made herself an easier target. After all, bats were great at orienting in the dark.
The lens of her mask turned white as she activated her detective vision and looked around. It didn't take long to find the mare hiding among some barrels, shivering with fear with a heart rate of one hundred and forty that clearly showed she was terrified.
Batmare approach the barrels, but Bass heard her hoofsteps and used her magic to launch the barrels forward and knocking the hero back. To Batmare’s misfortune, these barrels were not empty. They wee filled with a clay like substance that quickly spread across her suit.
'Oh, great!' She groaned in her head. 'Spike will never let me hear the end of this.' Her young dragon assistant was the one who had to clean the suit and she still remembered the fit he threw when she returned from her last unsuccessful hunt for Killer Croc in the sewers two weeks ago. But that was a concern for a later time.
Bass Coral ran to the gate but she found that the vigilante had locked it. She was now trapped with her. Surely this was the end of the road. She had no place left to run and no place to hide. She cowered up against the locked gate as the hero slowly approached her.
"Leave me alone, Batmare!" She whimpered, on the verge of tears. "Please!"
"I can't do that." Batmare replied. "You have killed ponies, Coral. And you must answer for that." Bass still refused to accept that and picked up another barrel with her magic to throw at the vigilante, but this time, Batmare was ready for this.
She threw a batarang at the other mare that knocked her back against the wall. But her spell was already cast the and the knock caused it to go haywire. The barrel in the air was opened and the magic's effect spread onto the clay pouring out of it as it poured down onto Bass Coral.
Batmare could only watch in horror as the magically enhanced clay covered the mare. There was no telling what spell she accidentally cast on it and what effect it would have, but she got that answer soon when she saw Coral's body beginning to absorb the liquid.
Once the process was over, Bass looked at herself and her face contorted in horror when she noticed that parts of her body were beginning to drop off. She raised her hoof in front of her face and screamed as the color faded away from it and it dissolved into clay in front of her eyes.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" She screamed in terror. "No! No! This isn't right! Go back to normal!" She yelled at her hoof frantically as if merely wishing so would rearrange her body. And to her surprise, it did!
The more she desperately wished her body to go back to normal, the liquidated parts of her body flowed back into her and reshaped her into exactly how she was before. The two mares could only stare in utter disbelief at each other. Neither of them could believe what just happened. The magically altered clay had somehow altered Bass Coral into some sort of clay creature.
Bass was the first one to get over her shock and realised that if she could rearrange her body like that, surely she could mold it into something to help her escape. She willed her right hoof to turn into a large hammer and it did. Batmare recovered too late and she paid the price by getting hit in the face and sent flying back several meters.
She quickly got back up though and saw Bass banging on the locked gate with her enlarged appendage. The gate held so far but was beginning to give away so she needed to find a way to contain this newly created super criminal and fast.
She fired her grappling gun at the hammer shaped hoof bashing away at the gate and pulled with all her might. She managed to yank the criminal back from the gate but she quickly escaped by simply dissolving her hoof through the rope.
"This is going to take some time getting used to," Bass said as she stood up. "But I think I'm getting the hang of it." She then transformed her other hoof into an axe and swung it towards Batmare. The vigilante jumped back and threw some smoke bombs towards Bass.
They exploded and covered the mare in smoke who was forced to abandon her assault on Batmare and pull her hooves back to cover her face to prevent herself from inhaling it. Batmare took advantage of this and ran at the other mare, picking her up and before she could escape, she threw her into the same barrel she poured the clay that tranformed her out of. She then quickly sealed the airtight barrel to prevent her from escaping.
Batmare let out a sigh as she finally allowed herself to lie down and rest for a minute. But while her body may have finally been put at ease, her mind was far from it. Because now she'll not only have to explain to Spike how she got her suit so filthy, but she also had no idea how she'll explain to Captain Garden just how did a wanted murder turn into a clay monster who'll need special means of containing.
Spike paced back and forth in front of Twilight's bed as he eagerly awaited his caretaker's return. But this time, his anxiety came from more than his usual worries about the crimefighter making it home unharmed. Something unexpected happened tonight. Something that he felt Twilight won't be very happy about. And something that he should have prevented.
But at the same time, he didn't want to prevent it, because he knew that what was about to happen tonight should have happened a long time ago. He had been encouraging Twilight to make it happen in fact but that mare was stubborn as a mule.
While he's been eager for it to finally happen, he was a little worried about how Twilight is going to react. Okay, he was VERY worried about how she's going to react and with every passing moment his worries only grew. He wanted to finally get this thing over with just to get Twilight's reaction and the inevitable scolding out of the way.
He was about to look up at the clock again when he finally heard the bed covering the secret entrance to the Batcave move out of the way as the purple mare made her way up the staircase. She looked extremely tired which she further demonstrated by letting out a huge yawn.
"Sorry, Spike. I'm way too tired to share the details of my latest mission." She said as she closed the entrance. "All I'm gonna say is I caught the bad guy and she's where she should be right now. I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow, but for now, I need to get into bed. Good night." She was about to crawl into bed, but when she saw that Spike was not moving, she grew concerned. "Is something wrong, Spike?" The young dragon looked down nervously, trying to find the best way to bring the subject up. After a few seconds of trying to form words, he finally spoke.
"Twilight, you have a visitor." Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"A visitor? What visitor would I have this late?" Spike finally overcame his nervousness and gave Twilight a firm look.
"One that you should have had a long time ago." He told her. Twilight just looked at him in confusion. She was too tired for riddles, but suddenly, her eyes snapped wide open as she finally made sense of it. She glared down at her assistant
"Spike... You didn't..." Spike didn't back away and countered her glare with equal fierceness.
"You know I'm right, Twilight. He's waiting for you outside." Twilight turned her head towards the door and was instantly overcome by a sense of trepidation. If what Spike said was true, then she is about to have an encounter that she wasn't sure she ever wanted to have. But no matter how much she didn't want it, deep down she knew Spike was right. She was going to have it sooner or later, might as well have it sooner and get it over with. With a heavy sigh, she got off the bed and headed to the door.
Upon opening it and entering the living area of her library, she was greeted by a face she hasn't seen in years, her brother, Shining Armor. The two ponies stood in front of each other in awkward silence for almost a minute, neither of them certain what they should say to the other. Eventually, it was the white stallion who broke the silence.
"Hi, Twily..." He began nervously. "How are you doing?" Twilight had a hard time looking her brother in the eye. She looked rather irritated about him being here. It was clear that he still harboured some hostility towards him over what happened two years ago. For a moment, Shining thought that she wouldn't even talk to him and he will have to leave without having achieved anything, but when she heard words beginning to form in his sister's mouth, his hopes started to raise.
"I'm... getting by." She replied before the awkward silence returned for several seconds. This time, it was Twilight who broke it. "What about you?" Shining recoiled in surprise, as if he didn't expect this question and now wasn't sure how to answer.
"Um... I'm fine, thank you. Well, more than fine actually." He said as his expression lit up with a happy smile. "I... I came because I wanted to tell you that... I'm getting married." For the first time since he arrived, Twilight actually looked straight at her brother. It was her turn to be surprised. She expected several possible reasons for his visit, but that wasn't one of them.
"Well... Congratulations, I guess." She replied. "I wish you the best. Thanks for dropping by." She said before turning around and heading towards her bedroom, but Shining stopped her.
"And... I thought it this might be a good excuse to get back in touch with you." The stallion confessed. "I want my little sister to be there by my side when I say 'I do' to the love of my life." He said, slowly approaching Twilight and raising a hoof to put it on shoulder. "I... I want her to be there in my life again."
When his hoof connected her shoulder, Twilight stiffened, pushed it away and jumped into a defensive position. When you're a secret vigilante in the night, sudden contact usually meant hostile intention and if you don't learn to react in time, you might pay with your life.
Shining Armor jumped back in surprise. That reflex move was worthy of a royal guard but he never would have expected it from his baby sister. Nevertheless, he tried to laugh it off.
"Well, I'll be... Where did you learn that?" He chuckled. Twilight finally realised what she was doing and looked down in embarrassment.
"Well," She began, trying to sound casual. "In this city, you need to know how to defend yourself." That comment made Shining lose his smile and his expression hardened.
"Yeah, I know. Manehattan isn't exactly one of the safest cities in Equestria. To be honest, I've been worried about you, Twily. I don't know why you settled here of all places." Twilight shrugged.
"After what happened back in Canterlot, I just wanted to get away. I didn't care where." And there it was. Shining knew it was only a matter of time before she brought it up but that didn't mean he was ready for it.
"I know nothing I can say or do will make up for that, Twily. I know it means almost nothing, but I'm sorry. Your life was in danger and my brotherly instincts overcame everything inside me. Even my duties as a royal guard. I never could have imagined the consequences." Tears began to well up in Twilight's eyes as she recalled those events.
"I lost my horn that day. I lost my magic. My whole life that I've been building up until that point was ruined." She lamented as the tears started to escape. She closed her eyes and began to sob until she felt her brother's hooves pulling her into an embrace.
At first, she wanted to fight it. She wanted to give in to her anger and bitterness towards him, but she was quickly overwhelmed by her need for comfort and a shoulder to cry on. In the end, she gave in and returned the hug, burying her face into his chest as she wept.
Shining rubbed her back as he let her cry, waiting for her to finish patiently. When her sobs finally subsided, she pulled away, looking up at Shining Armor with deep sorrow in her eyes.
"I lost everything, including the ponies closest to me. Until I met..." She choked before she could go on. Talking about her late fiance still wasn't easy for her. Shining nodded.
"Yes, I know. Imagine my surprise when I found out from the newspaper that my baby sister was about to get married. And my horror when I found out what happened to the stallion who managed to win her heart. He must have been somepony very special if he could swipe you off your hooves." Twilight's expression changed into a soft smile as she remembered the time she spent with High Culture.
"He was. I was so happy with him. When I fell in love with him, I felt like we would be spending the rest of my life with him, running this library. It may not have been as exciting as being Princess Celestia’s apprentice, but it felt the closest I would get to happiness after what happened."
"I was so scared for you when that murder happened." Shining Armor said. "We all were. Mom was ready to march all the way from Canterlot to Manehattan to drag you home whether you wanted it or not." Twilight actually chuckled upon hearing that.
"Yeah. That sounds like mom alright."
"And I still am scared." Shining continued as his expression hardened. "Now that the mob's gone, there are all of those costumed maniacs running loose. I don't want you to get hurt again. If I failed to protect you for a second time, I don't know how I could live with myself."
"Oh, you don't need to worry about them, Shining." Twilight said, waving dismissively. "The Batmare keeps them at bay." She tried to lighten the mood, but she found that her brother's expression did not change. If anything, he became even angrier.
"Are you kidding me? She is the worst of them all! She pretends to be the hero's saviour when she's just another thug!" Twilight was rather surprised by Shining's outburst. She did not know he resented her superheroine alter ego so much. Or at all.
"Many ponies in the city consider her a hero. Even the police trusts her and works with her from time to time."
"That just proves the law enforcement in this city isn't worth spit!" Shining replied with contempt. "The worst kind of criminal is the one who believes their crimes are justified! What gives her the right to go out there and take justice into her own hooves?!" Shining Armor realised that he was ranting and he took a deep breath to calm himself.
"But that's not the reason I'm here." He said, turning back to Twilight with softened expression. "I'm here because I want you to be at my wedding. I want my little sister to be a part of my life again. Twily, would you be my best mare?"
Twilight's eyes widened. Best mare? That was the most honorable position at a wedding after the bride and the groom. If Shining Armor was offering this to her, he must have been very serious about wanting her back in his life. But the tragedy she had suffered all those years ago was too big to overcome so easily. She didn't know how she should answer to this request.
"I... I don't know, Shining." She said after a few moments of contemplation. Shining recoiled in shock. Obviously he expected an instant approval, but apparently he still didn't break through the walls his sister built for herself. "Could you give me some time to think it over?" Shining let out a defeated sigh as he cast his eyes down.
"Of course. I will be in Manehattan for the rest of the week. But the wedding is next week so don't take too long." He said standing up and walking towards the exit. "It's been good to see you, sis. You too, Spike!"
"Same here, Shining!" The dragon waved back. "See you around!" Once Shining left the library, Spike turned back to Twilight to find her giving him a glare so fierce that he could have sworn it was the same look she used on the criminals she interrogated as Batmare.
"Just so you know, for this, you will be spending all day tomorrow cleaning my suit with your toothbrush." She snarled on her Batmare voice before retreating to her room and slamming the door shut. Spike stared at the door for a while before shrugging and heading off towards his own room.
"Joke's on you. I don't even brush my teeth."
When you're a superhero, even the most mundane looking task can turn into stopping a world ending threat. Especially when you're also one of the most powerful beings on the planet. This was something Applejack learned very early on in her career as Supermare. And while the threat she was currently facing wasn't world ending by any means, the day still started very ordinarily.
She was working on an assignment from her boss at the Daily Sun as her reporter alias, Lark Cent in Baltimare. The power supply to the city has been acting crazy for weeks. Electricity has been going out everywhere, traffic lights have shut down inexplicably, leading to traffic accidents and electric equipment around the city kept malfunctioning. Most alarmingly, in hospitals.
When Applejack heard about this, she immediately wanted to investigate. She brought it to the attention of the Sun's chief editor and managed to convince him to send her to check it out. And good thing too because if an ordinary reporter came here, they wouldn't have been able to handle the situation.
With some investigative work enhanced by her super senses, she was able to track the power surges back to their source at the city's power plant and found the cause of the disturbance. A unicorn mare made of electricity. It was the first encounter between Supermare and Livewire.
Powerful as Supermare was, it worth nothing when all of her attack simply phased through the electrical mare. Livewire had the advantage. While electricity did not hurt Supermare, it stunned her long enough for the unicorn to trap her by wrapping four chains around her limbs and tying her to the plant's main generator upside down. Every time she tried to break the chains, a huge torrent of electricity.
"Keep struggling, Supermare." Livewire chuckled. "Let's see how much electricity your kryptonian physiology can take." She taunted. Supermare glared up at her.
"This is your last warning, you electrical menace!" She warned her. "Stop this madness and surrender!" Livewire laughed again.
"I really don't think you're in any position to give me warnings, Losermare." She taunted as she stood on her front legs to line up with the tied up hero. "I think it's you who should be considering a surrender. If you keep this up, you'll be the second most electrocuted pony in the city after me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a city's power supply to drain." She said before turning away and leaving towards the exit.
"You won't get away with this!" Supermare shouted, causing Livewire to turn back.
"Oh, honey, I already have." She replied before blowing her a kiss and heading to the roof. Supermare looked around for a mean to escape. She saw the windows on the ceiling and got an idea.
She used her heat vision to shoot two laser beams with low intensity so that it wouldn't melt the glass and they reflected back from the windows. Supermare moved her, slowly to avoid triggering the electricity trap and directed the reflected beams onto the chains holding her.
"Come on! Melt!" She muttered, listening to the sizzling sound as the laser slowly cut through the chains. When she heard a snap, she knew that her plan worked. She then redirected the laser beams towards the other chains holding her, eventually melting through all three. She floated to the ground before breaking the shackles on her hooves and cracking her hooves.
She followed Livewire to the roof and saw that the electrical unicorn was busy draining the power of the power plant's towers. Not wasting any time, she flew towards her and used her freeze breath to encase her in ice.
Livewire turned around in shock, clearly not expecting that Supermare could escape, but she managed to recover in time to charge her horn up with enough electricity to blast her away and then break out of the ice she made on her body. With the element of surprise lost, Supermare had to come up with something else. She flew away and reappeared on the other side of the roof but this time Livewire noticed her quickly.
"Oh, no! You won't pull the same trick on me twice!" She snarled before charging herself up and charging at the kryptonian. She was only a few inches away from her and raised her hooves to touch and fry her...
...only for her hooves to crash into something unseen, followed by her entire body doing the same. Taking advantage of her momentary stun, Supermare flew away again and returned in the blink of an eye, slamming a large piece of glass into the ground next to Livewire in standing position.
She repeated this process a few more times until the electrical mare was trapped by glass walls on all sides. She then used her heat vision to fuse the glass walls together, creating an inescapable glass cell for her adversary. Livewire roared in fury as she punched the glass repeatedly, but to no avail. Even her electrical bolts had no effect.
"Good thing electricity has no effect on glass." Supermare chuckled as she tapped the glass. "Also a good thing these are unbreakable. Now to put you to your place."
Supermare picked the glass cube containing the mare up and dropped it off in front of the city's police station. She then dashed to a remote phone booth before taking a look around to make sure nopony was watching. She quickly entered the booth and exited not as Supermare, but Lark Cent, the mild mannered reporter of the Daily Sun.
She took one last picture of the police taking Livewire's glass cell away before picking up all the hidden cameras she set up to take pictures of their encounter and leaving the city without anypony noticing.
Applejack stood in the office of the Daily Sun's chief editor who was a middle aged earth pony stallion named Berry White. She stood in front of his desk as he examined the article she wrote about the fight between Supermare and Livewire. To say that Berry was a stallion hard to impress would be an understatement, but Applejack's articles always blew his mind away. Especially the photographs.
"Star Swirl's ghost, Cent! These are fantastic!" He marveled at the photos with his cigar almost falling out of his mouth. "How did you... No, never mind. I know you asked me to never ask about the sources of your photos, but still it's remarkable how you always show up at the exact same place at the exact same time as she does everytime a disaster strikes or a new villain shows up. And take photos like these." Applejack chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.
"Well, chief, I guess I'm always at the right place at the right time." Berry just looked at her skeptically. He never said it but Applejack always thought he knew more about her reporter exploits than he let on. But he simply gave her a strange half-smile before calling in his assistant.
"Put these on the front page of tomorrow's paper! They'll be eating them up for sure!" He told him before turning back to Applejack. "Lark, my girl, ever since you and that Supermare character showed our paper's been selling better than ever.
I think you deserve a special reward for that and I have just the thing for you."
Applejack became quite excited upon hearing that. She was already making good money with the pictures and articles she was making of Supermare's exploits to support her family and the farm in it's rebuild ever since they got the land back, but if she got a bonus, they could be back in business even sooner than she thought. The editor reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out an envelope.
"Do you know what this is, Cent?"
"A juicy bonus check?" Applejack guessed, nearly breaking character. Berry raised an eyebrow.
"Getting greedy, are we? Well, you might as well consider it that because if the pictures you take and the articles you write about where I'm sending you to are good enough, you'll make a bigger buck than you do with your Supermare stuff. This is a press pass to the Royal Wedding between Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor for a reporter representing the Sun. And I'm picking you to do it." Applejack's enthusiasm immediately broke down. She had no interest in celebrity gossip and she couldn't think of a worse possible assignment she could be sent on.
"Argh, Berry!" She groaned. "You know how much I hate the tabloids! Can't you get Limbo to do it? Maybe that would get him to shut up a little about how sick he is of writing for the sports column!" The editor's eyes narrowed.
"There's no way I'm giving this opportunity to that jerk! This is something that has to be earned and nopony at my paper has done more to earn this more than you." He replied before slipping the envelope to her. "Or should I say, there's nopony at my paper I trust more to handle this assignment."
Applejack sighed and reluctantly took the envelope. This may not have been her cup of cider, but she also didn't want to jeopardize her position at the paper and ruin the good relationship she had with her boss. The money for this assignment will better be good though. As she made her way to the door, Berry said one last thing.
"And who knows? This wedding will be the most important event of the year. Some monster or villain will more than likely try to crash it at some point so Supermare will surely be needed there." Applejack's eyes widened.
"What are you implying, chief?" She asked nervously as she looked back.
"Well, I'm just saying, if she shows up, you'll have two stories on your hooves. The wedding and another Supermare appearance." Applejack sighed in relief.
"Oh, right! Yeah, that would really be something, chief! See you around!" She said quickly as she tumbled her way out of the office, almost knocking over a coat rack in the process. Once she left, Berry just let out a light chuckle as he leaned back in his chair and took another deep breath of his cigar.
The darkness of the room was filled with desperate cries for help from the several exotic birds that were trapped inside tiny cages. Their cries for a savior went unanswered however. The only response they got was the door opening and four ponies walking into the room. They were four pegasi, a stallion, a mare, a colt and a filly. They were all dressed in white jumpsuits with card markings on them and each of them was carrying one more cage with another bird thrashing inside it.
"Finally, we have them all!" The stallion laughed triumphantly.
"I can't wait to finally be rid of these pests." The mare groaned as she put the cage down next to the others. "They're so much noise and trouble. Why would anypony offer so much money for them is beyond me."
"Don't worry, honey." The stallion replied before pulling her into a loving embrace. "Once we sell them to the best buyer, I promise you we'll take a nice long family holiday wherever you want." The two foals were rather grossed by this display of affection.
"Cut it out, you two!" They groaned while the adults chuckled. But their joy was short lived when they heard a crash coming from the door and the room lit up with green light. They all turned to see a hole in the wall and a huge ball of green energy on the other side. The ball moved away from the wall before coming back again and completely breaking through the wall. Through the newly created hole, a glowing green mare floated through and the criminal family inside immediately knew what this meant for them. They have been tracked down by the Green Lantern!
For the past few weeks, a criminal group has been pulling heists in the city of Trottingham. They have been using card based motives and gadgets, calling themselves the Royal Flush Gang. Fluttershy decided to let the local law enforcement handle them until they started kidnapping exotic birds from pet owners, zoos and even her own group of animal friends. She couldn't allow that.
She discussed a plan with a few nice birds she met about them acting as bait for her to track the kidnappers down. And they fell for it without suspecting anything. All those weeks they went unopposed must have left them feeling overconfident. All Fluttershy had to do was follow them to their hideout and bring an end to their reign of terror. Which she had every intention of.
Before the stunned criminal family could do anything, the pegasus lantern used her ring to create a cage construct around the family of four that was tight enough to squeeze them all together.
"Not so fun when it happens to you, is it?" She growled at them. No deed disgusted her more than cruelty to animals. She then went to open the cages and release the birds, but the colt managed to pull out some cards and squeezed his hoof through the bars before throwing them at the hero.
She could have easily blocked them, but since she wasn't looking, she didn't see them coming and the razor edged cards impaled them into her body. Fluttershy yelled out in pain and was forced to break up her construct to tend to her injuries. This gave the family more than enough time to reorganize.
They all pulled out similar cards and threw an entire deck's worth at her, but with her attention fully focused on them at this point, it was very easy to deflect this attack. A giant sponge construct absorbed the cards easily. Once she lowered her construct however, she was dismayed to find that all the criminal pegasi have disappeared from sight.
She quickly summoned an energy bubble around herself to protect herself from the oncoming surprise attacks she expected. And her instincts once again served her well, as just after she activated her energy shield, all four of the criminals flew out of the darkness, riding on giant cards attached to their hooves and threw even more of their deadly decks at Fluttershy, but they merely bounced off her construct.
They realized that they needed to lower her shield in order to get to her and they quickly thought up the best way to do that. They directed their attacks at the bird cages to force her to shift her focus on protecting them instead of herself. It worked just as intended as Fluttershy quickly lowered her shield to create a net over the bird cages that stopped the cards.
In doing so however, she left herself vulnerable and the two youngsters of the gang took full advantage of that. The flew at her and pinned her on the ground before pulling out her right wing and trying to pry her ring off of it. Unfortunately for them, Fluttershy was always prepared for such an eventuality. Kilowog prepared her well in case some creature tried to take her ring.
They left her forelegs unoccupied and that was a big mistake on their part. She swiped the legs out from under them and then created a baseball bat construct to knock them both out. The fact that they were underage brought no remorse to her. She was royally pissed right now and she would make these ponies pay for what they have done to these innocent, defenseless creatures.
"MY BABIES!" The mother of the group cried out and flew at Fluttershy with barely contained rage. The Lantern wasn't fazed though and simply created a brick wall construct. The mare crashed into it at full speed and slid onto the floor unconsciously.
Only the stallion remained standing. Fluttershy created a giant snake and sent it after him to bite him and drag him onto the ground. But the stallion managed align the giant card he was standing on to stop the green jaws from closing in on him before flying away.
Fluttershy gave chase but even with her ring, she was not the fastest flyer Equestria has ever seen. She couldn't keep up with him. Her only chance was firing energy blasts at him from her ring, but the stallion effortlessly dodged them and threw back bladed and explosive cards at the lantern. It seemed like this encounter would go on forever at this rate.
That was until the stallion found his path blocked by a huge flock of birds who were angrily screeching at him before attacking him, biting and pecking him so hard that they tore his suit and began to draw blood from him. They eventually forced him onto the ground where he had no choice but to curl up into a ball in a desperate attempt to protect himself. Fluttershy slowly descended down from above and upon seeing her, all the birds ceased their attack and looked up at her.
"Stop it!" She ordered them gently, yet firmly. "Don't sink to his level." The birds backed away and looked down in shame while Fluttershy went and took the injured stallion into custody before bringing him back to the rest of his family and trapping them inside an energy bubble, ready to bring them to the police. But not before her animal friends flew all over her to celebrate her victory and thank her for saving them.
Fluttershy laughed merrily as the birds swarmed her body. If only more ponies understood that if you treated animals with love and respect instead of trying to force your will on them, they will become your friends and help you whenever you need them. Just like how she freed these birds before giving chase to the stallion, knowing full and well that they would help catch him.
"You are welcome, my friends. Now head back to my house. I will be along shortly." True to her word, Fluttershy delivered the criminal family to the police before returning to the house/clinic that she ran with her friend, Paw Tamer.
"Hey there, space cop." The earth pony mare greeted. "Now that you rounded up the Royal Flush Gang, are you finally ready to go get back to practicing?"
"Nice to see you too, Paw Tamer." Fluttershy replied sarcastically in annoyance. "I'm fine, thank you. And yes, all the kidnapped animals have been freed as well."
"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Flutters." Paw said on an unamused tone. "I had the utmost confidence that you would succeed and I had no worries for your safety. What I do have worries for however, is the bird choir performance you're supposed to be holding at the Royal Wedding next week. Because not only a ton of money, but our reputation depends on it. And so far, I haven't seen much practice from you or those exotic moneymakers.”
“Is that all you see my little friends as?!” Fluttershy asked furiously. “The animals we help to save everyday?! Moneymakers?!” Paw recoiled a little. She realized she may have crossed a line.
“Sorry, Shy.” She apologized, casting her eyes down. ”I may be crankier than usual, but keep in mind that while you will be conducting to your birds, I will have to look after all of your patients at the clinic along with mine.” Fluttershy’s glare softened a little. It was true that both if them have been working extremely hard to make their clinic successful in the past year and Paw often mentioned how she’d like to take a vacation, but with Fluttershy being asked to perform with her famous bird choir at the upcoming royal wedding, she was gonna have to work twice as hard next week.
“I know, Paw. It is hard to keep up such a hard work, but we have been doing great work so far and I’m sure you will be fine next week too.” Paw didn’t exactly look reassured, so Fluttershy added this. “And I promise I’ll take you on a week-long vacation to Las Pegasus after the wedding. My treat entirely.”
“Strength of Hoof Acres and stamina of Air Last, don’t fail me now!” Captain MareVel groaned to herself as she struggled to prevent the jaws of an ursa major from crushing her. Even for somepony possessing the powers of gods, these monsters could prove more than a match. Despite her enormous strength and resilience, the pink alicorn hero felt that the beast’s jaws were beginning to close in on her. She had no other choice. She opened her mouth and let out a scream.
“SHAZAM!”
CRACK!
An enormous lightning strike was called down from the heavens and struck the enormous animal in the head, forcing it to let out a pained roar and allowing the Captain to fly out of its mouth. She landed on the ground and panted in exhaustion. Her fight with the ursa was longer and harder than it should have been and that was because she didn’t want to seriously injure the creature. The atrocities it was currently committing were not its fault. Its mind was being controlled by some psycho earth pony stallion, appropriately calling himself Psycho Pirate.
The Captain would have tracked him down by now if she wasn’t so busy dealing with this raging monstrosity. The ursa was sent by the villain to destroy the town of Neighshville in order to find some ancient buried treasure under it. He was controlling the creature from somewhere afar and she had no idea where. But she had bigger things to worry about right now. Literally.
A deafening roar snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned to see the gargantuan creature approach her. She wasn’t sure if she could keep on fighting - she’s been at it for several minutes now with little success - but she had to try. She flew at the ursa with electrically charged hooves, but this charge yielded the same result. The creature raised one of its enormous paw and swept the mighty hero aside as if she was nothing more than a fly.
The Captain crashed into a house which ended up collapsing on her. Thankfully, the surrounding buildings have been evacuated by the local law enforcement while she was fighting the creature, so there weren't anypony inside who could have been hurt. But this couldn't go on. Every punch and object the Captain threw at the creature, it shrugged off like it was nothing. She'll have to try something else.
She flew up again and gathered as much electricity into her hooves as she could muster up before shooting them at the giant bear. The beast's body was engulfed in electricity and for a moment, the Captain began to raise her hopes that maybe this would stop her, but those hopes were brought crashing down when the creature moved again, the torrent of lightning merely slowing it down.
It kept approaching the Captain who had no choice but to fly back but she also had to focus on keeping up the intensity of her lightning blasts which slowed her down. Eventually, the bear reached her and once again knocked her out of the air, right into the empty town hall. The bear walked up to the building and knocked down the wall to see where the heroic alicorn had landed, yet she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it saw something much more interesting.
Inside a large hole in the ground, the bear saw a huge chest that it immediately deduced to be the buried treasure it was sent to find. The bear let out a large cry into the distance and within a minute, an earth pony stallion came running towards the ruins of the building wearing a strange red and black costume with a golden mask. He chuckled sinisterly as he rubbed his forelegs together before opening the chest in the hopes of claiming the treasure inside it.
However, the only thing he received from inside the chest was a gust of wind and a punch hitting him in the face. When he got up, he felt that the mask was gone from his face. The stallion’s eyes widened in fright as he looked up at the bear he previously enslaved and saw in his eyes that his control was beginning to fade away and the beast slowly returned to its senses. It immediately turned its attention to the pony who took control of its mind and let out a furious roar at him, forcing him to flee.
The Captain watched as the criminal took off with the vengeful animal on his tail. She looked at the mask she took away from him. It was more than certainly magical in nature so she should probably make a quick stop at the Rock of Eternity to drop it off for the wizard to safekeep. And then she will head straight back to Ponyville to take a long nap. Sometimes, she really wished that Pinkie Pie would also have the stamina of Air Last so that she wouldn’t be so tuckered out after every superhero adventure she went on.
The Captain landed on the outskirts of Ponyville after taking Psycho Pirate’s mask to the Rock of Eternity. She looked around to see if the coast was clear before letting out a scream.
“SHAZAM!”
CRACK!
A lightning bolt struck the mighty alicorn and she was turned back into the humble earth pony party planner, Pinkie Pie. The usually energetic mare was so exhausted by her latest battle against evil that she didn’t even have enough strength left in her to bounce back to her residence in Sugarcube Corner. She just slowly walked back to the bakery with her head cast down, earning curious stares from everypony she met on the way, as they were not used to her being so tuckered out.
She finally made her way back to the building where she was living alongside her employees, the Cake family and their foals. As soon as she stepped inside, she was greeted by the bright smiles of Mrs. Cake and her friend, Cheese Sandwich. Pinkie barely had enough strength left in her to keep her eyes open, but she managed to return their smile.
“Pinkie, darling!” The elderly mare greeted. “Finally! I was worried that you might be late from your next party.” Pinkie raised an eyebrow.
“Next party?”
“Don’t tell me you forgot?” Mrs, Cake exclaimed in shock. “You were going to throw a Power Ponies themed party to Pipsqueak at the arcade!” Pinkie wasn’t sure if she remembered. She was so tired that she didn’t even remember what she had for breakfast. But eventually, her memories returned and her eyes widened as she finally remembered.
“You have?!” The elderly mare shouted. “Pinkie Pie, what is happening with you recently? You mix up orders, you miscount the money in the cash register and you keep forgetting and mixing up the parties you have scheduled! You were so precise and reliable in the past! What changed?”
‘Oh, I don’t know, Mrs. Cake. It could be the wizard I met in a dark cave who gave me the power of six gods and turned me into a superhero to fight monsters, demons, villains and other evil things, requiring all my energy, time and focus. Or it could be the hot chocolate I’ve been consuming for the past few months before realizing the powder had expired. It’s definitely one of those two.’ Pinkie thought. Of course, she couldn't say that so she had to come up with something else.
“Well, you know me, Mrs. C!” Pinkie shrugged. “I meet new ponies everyday. Some of them are sad, some angry and they all need somepony to cheer them up. So I throw many spontaneous parties and shows all the time everywhere and I get so caught up in them that I forgot a get a little silly-willy Pinkie.” She giggled, trying to sound like her usual innocent self, but deep down, she was hoping the older mare would buy it. Luckily, she seemed none the wiser.
“Oh, Pinkie…” She sighed, shaking her head. “You look like you can barely stand! How will you be able to host this party?” Pinkie didn’t know how to answer, but luckily, Cheese Sandwich answered for her.
“I can take over for you if you’d like!” He offered eagerly. Pinkie smiled. Ever since she freed Cheese from the influence of the Lust demon that possessed him a few months ago, he has been doing his best to redeem himself and become worthy of her romantic affections. Of course, Pinkie already found him more than worthy, but she would still patiently wait for him to start feeling the same.
“Thanks, Cheese! You’re a total lifesaver! I’ve been helping ponies all around so much recently that I feel like I could sleep for a week!” She was about to go upstairs to her room to do just that, but Mrs. Cake stopped her.
“Oh, Pinkie, wait!” She called out to her as she pulled out an envelope. “Before I forget, this came for you.” Pinkie took it before finally retreating to her room. She took a look at the envelope. She might have put it aside to take a nap before reading it if it wasn’t sealed with a royal sign. That meant it surely was important.
She opened it and when she ran through the letter it contained, she let out a deafening squeal. She actually ran through it several more times to make sure she understood it correctly. But there was no mistaking it. She had been asked to organize a party for the Canterlot wedding at a royal wedding next week. She could hardly believe it. Sleep has been forgotten. This would be the largest event she organized all year. Maybe her whole life. She needed to begin organizing right away.
Shining Armor was about to check out of his hotel room in Manehattan and return to Canterlot to prepare for his wedding to Princess Cadence next week. And to his sorrow, it looked like he would be returning without his sister.
He’s been waiting all weekend for Twilight’s answer to his proposal to become his best mare when he said I do to the mare of his dreams, but to no avail. He sighed sadly. He never blamed Twilight for how she felt about her and Celestia for what happened all those years ago. They both made huge mistakes and she paid the price for it. Shining hoped that he would be able to make amends and redeem himself, but it apparently, those hopes would not be fulfilled.
He gathered his suitcases and checked out of the hotel, leaving the building with a sad sigh. He took one last look in the direction of the park where the library Twilight ran was located. He was contemplating whether or not he should be visiting her for one last time. Because he felt like this would be the last time he ever saw her again.
But in the end, he decided against it. It was obvious that Twilight wanted to completely erase the memories of the past and if he kept bothering her, she wouldn't be able to do that. As much as it hurt him, if that was her sister’s decision, he would honor it. He picked his suitcases up and was about to head off towards the train station when his eyes fell on an unexpected sight.
“Twily?” He asked, not daring to believe his eyes. But indeed. Standing in front of him was none other than his little sister, looking up at him with an unreadable expression that Shining knew all too well. It was the only look she gave him the last time they spoke and he couldn't bear it any longer. Even her unlimited fury and anger would be more bearable than this. He wanted to see emotions on his baby sister’s face again. Anger, confusion, even sorrow would have been better than this blank stare. At least then, he would know where he stood with her.
But suddenly, he got his wish. An emotion started to form on Twilight’s face. One that Shining expected the least but wanted to see the most. It was a soft smile that she showed him when they were having a heartfelt moment and it brought back so many memories. He saw it when they shared the hardships of a difficult day, when they played as foals and soon it would be connected to another memory. The memory when her sister agreed to be his best mare at his wedding.
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Hey there. Thanks very much for getting the first chapter of the final story in the first arc up and running. REALLY liked the work going into the dialogue, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up. REALLY liked the looks at four of the seven heroes in both their heroic identities and their civilian identities (Batmare fighting Clayface [good hybrid of the original Clayface's backstory and the shape-shifting abilities of the later versions] before Shining Armor came to visit, Supermare fighting Livewire before she got the assignment in her Lark Cent identity, Green Lantern taking on the Royal Flush Gang before that meeting with Paw Tamer as Fluttershy and Captain MareVel taking on that Ursa Major AND Psycho Pirate before meeting up with the Cakes and Cheese as Pinkie Pie).
Of course, Blueblood and Rarity (at least in their civilian identities) are most likely going to get their invite from Cadance (as she IS the Alicorn of Love AND Blueblood's "cousin") and Rainbow, being part of the Wonderbolts, would probably get assigned to the wedding for the post-ceremony show, but I'm looking forward to seeing what two villains are going to be used for the fights with Green Arrow, Black Canary and the Flash.
Of course, really looking forward to the rest of this story and the next volume after that.
Goodness you're bad at this Twi. Another long term super villain created by error.
And also you turned her into Clayface. Are we not mentioning that? No? Alright then.
But you could failing once? Interesting.
Oh. So Shining is a dunce. I see.
Mostly a setup chapter so not too much to say. Interesting concept with the wedding being a crucial moment. Does Twilight know Cadance in this universe?
Здравствуйте littleman001 я хочу сказать вам огромное спасибо за то что вы создали новую версия этого рассказа и мне очень сильно понравилось видь именно в этом главе все супергерои которые были одиночками становятся одной целой командой и будут сражается с войсками оборотней во главе Степным волком и так они будут раскрыватся видь они неподозревают а именно Шайниг Армор и Принцесса Селестия что под маской Бэтмер скрывается его младшая сестра и верная и бывшая ученица Сумеречная Искорка и как они отрирогироют на это открытие? littleman001 мне хотелось бы знать когда выйдет новая глава видь я хочу что вы продолжали в том же духе и создание этого нового шедевра и я жду не даждусь продолжения этого главы littleman001 пожалуйста ответьте мне на мой вопрос хорошо я ждать ответа?
Fights in this chapter (SPOILERS):
1) Batmare vs. the recently created pony version of Clayface.
2) Supermare vs the pony version of Livewire
3) Green Lanter vs the pony version of the Naipe Gang.
4) Captain MareVel vs Psycho Pirate and the Ursa Major.
I am especially looking forward to the interactions between Twilight and Applejack, as well as the ones between their respective superhero identities.
11776538
As always, thank you for the comment!
Yeah, it was fun creating ponified versions for all these villains. As well as write their fights with the heroes. I felt like a real golden age comic book writer.
And yeah, i felt like I didn't need to I setup those three arriving to the wedding. Especially since I already did it for Rarity in the last chapter of Canary & Arrow. They're already gonna be there and join in the story later.
Stay tuned for more!
11776595
As always, thank you for the comment.
Yes. Twilight still knows Cadence and she's still gonna find her suspicions and investigate her behaviour as she did in the actual episode, but this time, she won't go crazy and will actually do it subtly and professionally.
Stay tuned for more!
11776808
The what gang?
11777428
Thanks! Stay tuned!
11777438
That's what I call the criminals that you included in this chapter in their duel against Fluttershy (the Royal Flush Gang).
By the way, I came up with a theme song for this story, inspired by the intro music of the Teen Titans animated series, in case you're interested in listening to it.
11777439
Well, I hope they know each other like in the movie "Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice", which for me, that meeting was legendary... until Luthor appeared on the scene, of course.
Nice new chapter, its good to see how the heroes will be tied to the wedding. I look forward to comes next.
In your story information, below the Rarity and Blueblood volume information, you are missing information about the last published volume.
11781221
I knew. I'll do it at some point, I just don't feel like editing it yet.
11781225
Okey
This is the perfect event to get the justice league together
11785044
Glad you think so.
Stay tuned!
Twilight: "Spike? Why is there a pile of ash where my suit is supposed to be?
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Spike: "You told me to use my toothbrush to clean your suit, remember?
Twilight: "Yes, I did!
*Spike bites an apple*
Twilight: "
Spike: "THIS is how I brush my teeth....
*Spike flames through his closed teeth*
Twilight: "
Spike: "So, you can't say I didn't do as you instructed.
Twilight: "
Applejack *slamming down the newspaper*: "Alright, Parker! Ah thought we 'parted amicably despite that mixup battle we had, but then you-YOU-YOU! Go and publish yer pictures 'fore me!? Wha' fer? And HOW did you get the Daily Trumpet publish your story 'fore I could get ta th' Daily Sun!?
"
"
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Pony Parker, aka Spiderpony: "I've been investing in auto-snapping camera for years, Lark Cent--long before you ever started working at the Sun. After all, how else can I get all those photos of Spiderpony fighting my rogues gallery? Speaking of which, would you mind autographing my photo of you changing in that public phone booth?
Applejack: "sigh--How dya want me ta sign it? As 'Lark Cent' or as 'Supermare'?
Pony Parker: "Either works, since it's easy to see you're one and the same.
Fluttershy: "You--YOU--YOU! YOU MONSTER! HARMING THAT DEFENSELESS URSA MINOR WITH YOUR LIGHTNING!!??
"
"
Shazam: "Uh....I can explain?
*both superheroes die killing each other*
*Rainbow Dash looks about in confusion and horror*
Ponyville Confidential: "Rarity Belle was found dead this morning in her home, after having been killed by a starving white cat who had been left to fend for itself while the deceased pony took a weeks' long vacation on an uncharted island...."
littleman001: "Well...Fuck! So much for the team up!
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littleman001: "OTOH, I can now add the 'GRIMDARK' tag to this bloody thing!