Friendship is Failure #27- Love is a Danger Zone

by DakariKingMykan

Act 8: How? Why? Who?

ACT EIGHT

Once back at the castle, the invalids were taking to the bunker, where there was plenty of room for Cadance to privately heal them with her natural love magic.

The invalids lay on four of the beds while Cadance stood behind them, casting her magic to slowly heal them all back to normal.

“It’s working!” cried Fluttershy as she noticed their colors were returning.

“Oh, thank goodness!” sighed Rarity.

Twilight began to awaken, and the first thing she saw was her sister-in-law looking down at her.

“Hi, welcome back to the land of the living.”

“What happened?” Twilight groaned.

“Danger Zone!” Rainbow yelped as she stirred about. Applejack and Pinkie held her down.

“Take it easy. He’s gone.” Applejack said.

Rainbow suddenly remembered in the battle. “You mean he got away?”

“It would seem so.” said Celestia. She sat upright flexing her long neck. “That was good thinking, to bring us all here.” she said to Spike.

Spike blushed, and just the same, he approached Twilight and said, “I’m glad you’re okay. I though you were a goner out there.”

Flattered, Twilight wrapped her limb around him in embrace.

“Uh, hate to break this up,” said Rainbow. “But what are we supposed to do now? Danger Zone is still out there.”

“I’m afraid it is far worse,” said Luna “It seems that Danger Zone can come and go wherever is least expected.

Who knows where could be lurking from now.”

Fluttershy squawked with worry, while Rarity nibbled on her hoof.

“He could be anywhere!” shuddered Pinkie. “He could be watching us right now! He could be…!”

Applejack gave her a look, telling her to “Calm down, and cool it!”

“What?” said Pinkie, “Our friends were nearly killed tonight, and the Royal Sisters.”

Cadance confirmed this by adding, “…If he had sapped you enough energy, he very well would have killed you all.”

Rainbow gulped while clutching her throat, finally realizing the danger she was in.

Twilight was more confused than concerned, “Well then, why didn’t he just do it? He could have finished any of us off any time he wanted to, but he didn’t.”

The others thought back to when Danger Zone was struggling and wailing. If hadn’t been for, whatever that was about, the friends would have been done for.

Then again, there were all the guards, and the victims before.

“…He only drained them enough to weaken them, but not kill them.” Twilight muttered to herself.

“I’m more concerned with his strength.” said Rarity. “It’s bad enough that our Friendship Power barely stood up to him, but even Celestia and Luna proved to be hardly a match.”

Celestia sighed, “This confirms our deepest fears.”

Everyone turned to face her and Luna, and Celestia continued to explain.

“Danger Zone is obviously empowered by a force that is stronger than friendship. We have thought of this ever since his appearance.”

Luna nodded and added, “His resentment of love and his wish to do battle with it proves that he is empowered by the forces of Love and Hate.

He steals the energy of love from the life force of his victims and converts it into energy to feed his own strength and power.”

Everyone agreed with this theory, especially Cadance. “When it comes to Love and Hate, there really aren’t many other forces to match them.”

She recalled how the Changelings nearly ruined her wedding with Shining Armor by feeding on their love, but the combined power of her love and her husband’s sent the evil creatures far, far away.

Twilight’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Maybe that’s the answer. That’s what we need to take Danger Zone down. More love energy!”

Everyone pondered the idea.

“It just may… in theory, mind you.” said Celestia.

Luna agreed, “This is no Changeling we are dealing with. The effects may not be as effective as the last time.”

“We could still try.” suggested Fluttershy, and she recalled what Danger Zone had said; that he was denied the love he desired.

“Are you actually feeling sorry for him?” asked Spike.

Fluttershy couldn’t figure it out herself, but she couldn’t ignore, “He’s obviously a very heart-broken pony, which is why he hates love so much and wants to get rid of it.”

“Whether this be true or not,” said Rarity “He is in no right to do what he does-- torturing innocent ponies due to one failed relationship.”

Many of the others agreed.

Twilight felt frustrated, “If only there were someway of finding Danger Zone before he strikes. We could keep one step ahead of him.”

Spike then realized, “…You just may be able to.” and he dashed out of the bunker, and he came back with a small jar containing a few threads of glowing black hairs from a pony’s mane.

Twilight’s eyes lit up, “Is that what I think it is?”

It was Danger Zone’s hairs, covered in bits of magical residue from him. Spike explained, “While we were taking you back to the castle, I notice these threads clinging onto your wing, and I remember why you and I were out at night in the first place.”

Twilight took the sample, and hugged Spike so hard she practically choked him.

“Yes!! YES!! This is perfect!!”

She let Spike down, and he gasped for air.

Twilight gawked at the sample in the jar, “With this, I can analyze more of Danger Zone’s power, and we just might be able to track him down.”

She teleported away before anyone could say a thing to her.

“Um… I think we should all come up with something else.” suggested Applejack.

“Indeed…” agreed Celestia.

Strings was stirring in bed in his hotel room as an evil song kept playing through his mind, the Danger Zone song.

He also kept seeing horrible images-- Twilight and her pony friends being thrashed about before from his very perspective, as if he, personally, was doing the attacking!

The ponies screaming, the music blaring, and the sounds of evil laughter in the shadows…!

He woke up in a frightful gasp.

He sat up in bed, hot, sweaty, and panting heavily. “I’ve got to get some air!”

He hopped out of bed and made his way to the sliding doors to the balcony, but as he gazed at his reflection in the transparent glass, he thought he saw something that wasn’t his reflection.

“Whoa!” he yelped as he fell on his tail in shock. He got up and looked again; his reflection seemed normal, which was a relief, but he still couldn’t get the song out of his head.

He had never heard it before, and yet it felt so familiar to him as well.

“What’s happening to me?” he wondered miserably. “On top of all this, I keep blacking out.

And my dreams… they just feel so real.”

He began to have more flashes of the ponies being attacked from his viewpoint…

Followed by the sound of a sinister laugh softly echoing in the air of his room. “Who do you think you’re kidding? You can’t run from the truth any longer.”

Strings, now shaking with fear, gazed around his big empty suite. “Who’s there?” he whimpered, and the voice called to him. “Look harder. You know where I am.”

Nervously grabbing a candlestick holder to use as a weapon, Strings nervously moved around the room, until he saw his reflection in a mirror on the wall causing him to drop the stick in horror.

He moved in closer shaking his head. “No! It’s not possible! It can’t be…!”

Then, like magic, his reflection changed into Danger Zone. “Yes, it could.”

Strings was at a loss for words and felt faint.

“Oh, don’t look so confused.” hissed Danger Zone. “I’ve always been a part of you, and you’ve always felt me… every time you felt anguish, misery, or feelings of jealousy and rage… all because of your pathetic heartbreak.”

Strings couldn’t deny the feelings, but he still refused to believe this creep. “I would never do anything like that. I’m not like you, you hear me?!”

Danger Zone snickered, “Don’t flatter yourself. You may have been able to suppress me, but nothing is forever.”

“You mean… all those attacks, all the chaos happening-- that was you.”

Danger Zone said nothing; his evil expression was more than enough.

“You can’t do this! All those innocent ponies…!”

“No pony is innocent. They’re all the same-- always lucky in love and with that special some-pony, while I had nothing!

Well, I’ll show them all what it’s like to be out of love soon enough.”

“You won’t!” snapped Strings. “I won’t let you!”

Danger Zone laughed, “You can’t be serious? How can you possibly stop me.”

Strings began to head for the door, “I’ll tell everyone. I’ll turn myself in, I’ll… I--” but he was suddenly held back by some magical force. “You’ll do no such thing.”

Strings struggled all he could, but he couldn’t seem to move or say anything.

“Remember, I’m deep within your subconscious. I’m also growing stronger. I may not have complete control of you yet, but… well, I think you can figure it out.

You can try all you will, but you’ll never be able to confess a thing, while I continue to gain power.

Now do you understand your fate?”

Strings felt tears coming to his eyes. “No…!!” he peeped softly, for Danger Zone prevented him from screaming or alerting anyone.

“Rest well…” hissed Danger Zone “We’ll have lots of work to do the next time I come round.”

He said no more, and Strings just passed out on the floor.

Meanwhile, he wasn’t the only one having a hard night…

Sun had been sitting up in her home. She looked really beat, having stayed up well after her usual bedtime, but she was busy with the next part of her plan to make Strings become hers.

She had ordered ingredients and supplies from different drugstores around Equestria to mix a very special potion she remembered.

“Good thing I remembered my magic studies from Canterlot.” she said to herself as she poured, mixed, and cooked the liquid.

The potion was a bright pink, fizzy liquid, and nearly complete… but it was missing one final ingredient that Sun didn’t have, nor could she just order from any store. The potion wouldn’t work without it.

“I’ve got to get it.” Sun said to herself. “It’s my only ticket into Strings’ heart.

But how!”

Suddenly, she remembered something, and she dashed to her closet where she pulled out a box of old papers and accomplishments from her school days in Canterlot, including her diploma from Princess Cadance’s class.

The diploma had all the usual things-- congratulatory message, ribbon, dates. It also had a lipstick smear on it where someone had personally kissed the paper.

The smear was old and dark from age, but Sun’s eyes lit up like a maniac. “Yes!!” she cried. “YES!! This is great!”

She got straight to work, mixing teensy bits of the lip-gloss into her potion, causing the liquid to ignite.

“That’s it! It’s all done!” she cried. “Now I can become the pony Strings will love and want to have.”

She went to her closet, and took out a box marked, “Nightmare Night Accessories.”

She then looked out the window, at the hotel in the distance. “Soon, Strings… Soon it’ll be just you and me. Together… forever…”

Meanwhile, Twilight was fuming in the Map Room! “I can’t believe it! How is this possible?!”

She angrily pounded the table with her hooves and then slumped into her chair.

“Um… Twilight?” Spike called.

Twilight turned and saw everyone, except for Cadance, standing in the doorway.

“How long have you all been standing there?” she asked with red cheeks.

“Are you kidding?” replied Rainbow “You were louder than Rarity when she has a tantrum.”

“Ah!” scoffed Rarity. She felt most insulted.

Twilight explained what she had been up to.

“I tried a new spell I’ve been working on.” she motioned at the map. “The map is able to locate ponies anywhere in Equestria, so I cast a spell to feed the sample of Danger Zone.”

The map remained silent and still.

“Nothing’s happening.” said Pinkie.

“Exactly!” groaned Twilight. “I don’t get it. It should show us exactly where Danger Zone is hiding!”

Celestia and Luna observed the map themselves and exchanged head shakes of dismay.

“There can be only one explanation,” said Celestia. “Either Danger Zone is able from shielding himself from the map’s locating powers, or he is simply not anywhere in Equestria.”

Luna sighed, “Danger Zone is unlike anything we have ever seen.”

“Ugh!!” Twilight growled.

“Easy now, Twilight. It ain’t over yet.” said Applejack. “We thought of another way.”

The group explained to Twilight their idea.

“…Lure him out?” Twilight asked.

“It just may work.” said Fluttershy. “We know that Danger Zone is after Cadance, and he knows he’ll only get the information from any of us.”

“So, we feel we can set up a trap to make him come to us.” added Rarity.

The plan was simple: To lure Danger Zone out into the open fields, away from the open town so that no buildings or other civilians would be in the way.

“We can set up a little romantic scene.” said Spike “And when Danger Zone appears, we’ll all be ready for him-- or… uh… rather all of you will.”

He was feeling a bit down that he could really partake in the battle himself, but Rarity comforted him. “Oh, Spike… don’t take it so hard. There is a way that you’re going to be helpful.”

The other ponies began to chuckle and snicker.

“What?” Spike asked.

Rarity fluttered her eyes at him in a teasing way.

“What?!” Spike repeated.

“Ooh-Ooh… I wanna tell! I wanna tell!” chirped Pinkie. “Please, let me tell! Please!”

Seeing how hyper she was, the others let her say it.

“Well…” she took in a huge breath and began to go off on one of her fast-paced explanations. “We thought that you and Rarity could pose as a potential couple out on a date in the open fields, so that we could lure Danger Zone out because he’ll think you two are in love and he won’t be able to resist, and then we’ll be able to catch him.”

Spike barely hung in to all that, but he swore he heard something that made his temperature rise. “I have to what?”

Rarity giggled, “Oh, Spike, it will be the perfect plan. Just imagine it… the two of us, pretending to be madly in love, under the moonlit sky, gazing into each other’s eyes.

Oh, it almost sounds romantic, even though it won’t really be.”

Spike’s mind was going in spinning circles with hearts all around at the very idea, and he fell over backwards leaving a trail of hearts behind him.

“Oh, Spike!” cried Rarity. “Are you alright, dear?”

Spike only giggled in a daze showing he was going to be just fine.

“But wait…” said Twilight “We need to be ready to battle Danger Zone. We’re going to need vast amounts of love energy.”

“We have already thought of that.” said Celestia.

“In the meantime, you all best get some rest.” suggested Luna. “You have all had a long and hard night, and it will be best if we all rested up for tomorrow to put our plan into effect.”

Twilight protested, “We can’t rest now. What if Danger Zone attacks again?”

Rainbow motioned outside, “Those alarms alerted us from miles away. If they can wake up the whole town, they can wake up us if there’s any more trouble.”

Twilight still felt restless, like she wouldn’t be able to get any sleep at all.

Spike felt a little restless himself; excited at the idea of posing on a date with Rarity.

“Why don’t you try some of the calming potion you made?” suggested Fluttershy.

“I’ll get it.” said Pinkie, and she zipped off and came back with the flask of spray-- unaware of the extra evil ingredient inside of it.

She was about to give it a spray when Applejack stopped her. “I’m sure that won’t be necessary, sugar-cube.”

“Besides, it only calms you, not make you sleepy.” added Twilight.

Defeated, Pinkie simply set the potion down on the map table.

Everyone then adjourned off to bed.