Friendship is Failure #27- Love is a Danger Zone

by DakariKingMykan

Act 10: Act of Date

ACT TEN

Everything was set up in meadows outside of town.

The moon was full and bright, and the stars were twinkling. The weather was warm, and the fields looked positively dazzling.

A table was set with a lovely white cloth, and all the trimmings-- candles, dishes, cutlery, and a bottle of sparkling apple cider.

Spike, all dressed up in a cute tuxedo, stood by the table waiting for his date.

Pinkie stood by dressed in a waiter’s suit and announced, “Your date awaits, Mon-soo-ee-er.”

Spike then saw Rarity approaching, escorted in a carriage pulled by Applejack, and she looked every inch of breathtaking to Spike.

She wore the same red dress she wore to the Grand Galloping Gala, without her golden tiara. Her lower mane was lovely curled and slick. Her eyelashes seemed longer than usual, and she smelled of sweet rosebuds thanks to the perfume she was wearing.

Spike did all he could to stop his tongue dropping from his mouth. “Wow!” he muttered his breath.

He had nearly forgotten his role, and he softly approached her. “Um… good evening.” he said, trying to sound professional.

“Hello…” Rarity said while fluttering her lashes at him.

Spike held up the flowers he had ordered. “I got you these.”

Rarity, acting right on character, accepted them. “Oh, how ever so kind.”

Spike then nervously but properly escorted his “date” to the table.

Fluttershy, also dressed as a waitress, welcomed them both. “Um… dinner is served?” she said shyly as she lifted the lids off the dishes revealing two salads-- Spike’s was laced with jewels.

Spike then tenderly led Rarity over to her chair and gestured for her to sit.

Rarity giggled at how cute he looked.

As the two continued with their little play, the rest of the ponies were all hiding about, behind a large tree, or in the tall grass near the set.

“So far, so good…” Twilight said. “No sign of Danger Zone anywhere. Maybe, we need to crank it up.”

She signaled for someone’s que.

As Spike and Rarity clinked their cider glasses, Spike barely found the courage to ask Rarity, “Would you care to dance?”

“Dance?” Rarity said, but just acting, “Well, I would love to, but we haven’t any romantic music playing.”

“Ah, but we do…” Spike said, and gestured behind him.

The moonlight lit up revealing Strings at a piano, and he already began playing and singing a beautiful and romantic song-- “Moonlight Becomes You.”

(0:13)

With romantic music, and that it was all part of the act… Spike and Rarity softly danced under the stary skies.

It all just seemed so loving and romantic, Spike felt his temperature rising. It was almost starting to feel like a real date again.

Rarity smiled lovingly at him and whispered, “Try to control yourself, dear.”

Spike nodded softly as they continued to dance.

The other ponies watching couldn’t help but feel it all was just so lovely, especially Strings, which really hurt him deep down thinking of his sadness again.

Still, there was no sign of Danger Zone.

“Maybe we should try heating things up.” Rarity suggested.

“How?” asked Spike.

Rarity blinked her eyes while smiling once at him, which made Spike’s entire face blush red, and steam shot from his ears.

Rainbow could see from where she spied up in a cloud. “No way! They wouldn’t!”

Pinkie’s eyes lit up with hearts. “Oh, my, goodness!”

Even Twilight and the royal sisters were astounded.

Rarity softly lowered her face towards Spike, and she whispered, “Just do it, remember it’s all for the act.”

Spike gulped hard, still unable to believe this, but he slowly moved forth, his eyes shut, his and Rarity’s lips were just about to brush…

Pinkie looked as if she was going to explode…

Fluttershy and Applejack gawked with their eyes wide open…

…and Strings… Screamed… frightening everyone, even Spike and Rarity causing them to bonk heads hard.

Their pain was slight, but Strings was clutching his head, wailing, and shouting as if he was in a lot more pain.

“Strings!” Twilight cried as she jumped out from hiding.

“Stay back!” Strings shouted at her. “I’ve… gotta… get out of here!”

He tried to make a run for it, but his pain worsened, and he felt himself slipping away as he collapsed. “No! I can’t… I mustn’t!”

Now, all the friends were worried and rushed over to him.

“What’s happening?” cried Fluttershy.

“Strings, what is it?” asked Twilight.

Through his struggling and groaning, Strings managed to wail, “… Danger Zone!”

Everyone gasped, and they all looked high and low, but they still couldn’t see him anywhere.

“…It’s Danger Zone!” Strings shouted.

“What are you talking about?” asked Rainbow.

“I don’t see him anywhere.” said Pinkie.

“Strings, what it is?” Twilight demanded to know. “What’s wrong? Do you feel Danger Zone near?”

“… I… don’t… feel… Danger Zone!” groaned Strings, and that’s when his body was shrouded in a dark yet bright aura, making everyone back away, and they all watched in horror as Strings magically transformed before their eyes.

“…I… AM Danger Zone!”

Rarity felt faint, while the others, especially Twilight, were all wide-eyed with their mouths hanging open.

“So, now you know!” hissed Danger Zone. “And you should also know that I have a plan that will finally bring Equestria, and all the love that’s in it to its knees.”

With that, he vanished while laughing wickedly.

“No!!” cried Twilight, and she was still in total disbelief. “Strings is Danger Zone? I can’t believe it!”

“I can’t believe he was right under our muzzles all the time.” said Applejack.

“I can’t believe we didn’t get to battle him!” complained Rainbow.

“Oh…! We were shocked and distracted, we let him get away.” cried Fluttershy.

“Calmness, everyone!” Celestia said. “Panicking about this will not help one bit.”

“But this whole thing was all for nothing.” said Spike.

“On the contrary,” said Luna. “We now know who Danger Zone is-- despite the devastation shocks. This gives us a slight consolation, and now we must use it to our advantage.”

Celestia agreed, and suggested, “We must return to the castle, now.”

While the mane group returned to the castle, Celestia and Luna immediately soared around making the announcement to all the citizens of Equestria.

“Strings is the notorious Danger Zone!”

“If you spot Strings anywhere, notify the nearest authorities!”

“Do not attempt to approach the suspect!”

“Repeat: Strings is Danger Zone!”

Upon hearing this announcement, you can bet all Equestria was heart-struck to hear of it, that they’re beloved singer and music pony was the very evil threatening the land.

Fan-fillies were crying in devastation, while other fans didn’t know what to believe.

“He wouldn’t!”

“But he’s so gentle and sweet!”

“I knew there was something strange about him.”

The guests and staff at Ponyville arms were positively terrified, knowing that Strings was staying at the hotel, although neither he nor Danger Zone returned, and weren’t likely to now that their identity was known, that didn’t stop them from falling into a panic and running about or hiding under beds and tables, or wishing to just pack up and head for home-- they were stopped by the guards, whom were now tripled around the premises.

Sun, still in her Cadance disguise, could not believe her ears. “Strings…? Danger Zone…? It can’t be!”

Her heart ached and burned with grief upon this realization, but even worse so when there was a knock at the door to the suite.

Was it Strings, or rather Danger Zone returning?!

Poor Sun was totally cornered. Even though she looked like Princess Cadance, her magic was not nearly as powerful as hers.

Either way, she was about to be busted!

“I can’t believe it!” Cadance said when the gang told her what they had learned.

“It’s true.” repeated Twilight “We saw him transform right before our eyes. Strings is Danger Zone.”

Cadance slumped onto her bed in total shock, and at a complete loss for words. She had known Strings for many, many years, and he never once seemed the type to do such horrible things.

“He had the purest of hearts I knew of all my students. How could he do this?”

Applejack suddenly had a theory, “I think he’s the one doing it. Y’all saw how he was behaving-- it’s like he was trying to fight it, stop the evil from breaking out.”

Twilight also realized, “That’s why my magic tracing spell couldn’t find Danger Zone before. He was still Strings.”

“This still does not make any sense!” wailed Rarity “Why would Strings let this happen to him? How did it all start?”

No one had a direct answer to that, except for Cadance, “I remember what Danger Zone told me, that he demands to destroy all love in Equestria because his own romance failed him.

Strings had a failed romance.”

Everyone began to grip what she was saying, but it still made hardly any sense, “That doesn’t explain Danger Zone at all.” said Fluttershy.

Pinkie went off asking a huge barrage of quick questions…

“Who is he?
What is he?
How did he get here?
What makes him what he is?
Why didn’t he appear before?”

All those questions gave everyone else rattling headaches, forcing Twilight to clear her throat loudly to hush Pinkie. “We’ve got to figure this out.”

A long moment of silence followed as everyone thought and thought.

“Maybe something happened to him?” suggested Spike. “Something that he didn’t know of, or couldn’t control? Like maybe a magic spell, or a potion or…”

“Potion?” said Cadance, and a strange thought struck her.

“What is it?” asked Twilight.

Everyone left the bunker and headed upstairs.

Cadance got the bottle of the Calming Potion she and Twilight had made. “We gave this to Strings when we tried to talk to him.”

Twilight was confused, “But it’s a Calming Potion. How could this have affected Strings?”

The others were not too quick to dismiss the possibility.

“Maybe we should test it?” suggested Fluttershy.

Pinkie grabbed the bottle and was about to spray and whiff the fumes when Rarity stopped her by levitating the bottle. “Not that way! We must approach this in a more scientific method.”

Twilight agreed and ran the bottle of potion through the lab’s readout machine, which scanned and isolated every ingredient of the potion and printing it all out on paper.

Twilight levitated the list up and read it aloud.

“Just as I thought…

-Carbonated Water
-Lavender Powder
-Rose Petal Liquid
-Ground Up Cotton roots
-Essence of Demon Aura
-The Deodorizer

See, it’s all there, it’s--” she stopped and gawked in shock. “…Essence of Demon Aura?!”

“What?!” cried Cadance. “How did that get in there?”

The others were all shocked.

“So, it is the potion that did all this!” cried Fluttershy.

“Why in the hayfields would you mix Demon Aura into the Calming Potion?!” scolded Applejack.

“We didn’t.” protested Cadance. “I know we didn’t add it.”

Suddenly, “Wait…!” gasped Twilight, and she rushed to the closet of potions, remembering how she tripped and caused things to fall.

She found the “Essence of Demon Aura” vial on the top shelf, still missing its stopper and its mouth hanging over the edge.

The vial was completely empty.

She placed her hoof by the vials mouth and moved in a straight line down the shelf where the liquid would have fallen... right on the floor… where the open jar of the Deodorizer liquid was.

(0:41-0:45)

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUN…!!!

Twilight fell on her tail in absolute terror. The thud caused the vial to finally roll off the shelf, hit her in the head and land right by her.

“Twilight?” Spike called as he and the others came rushing over.

Twilight slowly turned her head to gawk at Cadance, and her sister-in-law put it all together. “We did this!”

The friends were completely aghast.

Meanwhile, far away in the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor sat up in bed. He was awoken when Celestia and Luna had passed over the kingdom delivering their announcement.

“I can’t believe it.” he said to himself. “Strings was Cadance’s best student. How could he do such a thing?”

He wondered how Cadance was taking this news herself, and it made him worry about and miss his wife even more.

Suddenly, one of the windows burst wide open, letting the winds into the room, and nearly making him jump in fright.

He caught hold of himself and used his magic to shut the latches tight.

Just when all seemed well again, a sinister voice called to him,

“…Hello, Shining Armor.”

Shinign Armor freaked to see Danger Zone standing in his room. “You! How did you get in here?”

Danger Zone snickered, “You work your guards too hard, so I gave them all a little break.”

By “Break” he referred to how outside, all the guards were lying unconscious; having easily been overcome by his might and having their love energy drained.

“And now… it’s time for me to do what I should have done a long time ago!”

Shining Armor foolishly tried to blast the evil creature with everything he had, but it was no use; Danger Zone’s eyes glowed along with his horn, dispelling the magic before it even reached him.

Shining Armor was helpless and trembling fearfully now as the evil creature moved in closer towards him… before everything went black.