A New Hero

by Alex The Lone Wolf

Power Ponies

Episode 71 – Power Ponies

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???

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"What do you think it is?" Comet asked me as we carefully examined the meteorite on the ground before us. "Besides a meteorite, of course…"

"I don't know…" I returned, poking my hoof at the lightly glowing rock. "I've never seen any like this. It's weird."

"Hey, um…" Comet began, showing some signs of imbalance. "Do you think…this has something to do with that strange correlation?"

I merely shrugged. "I don't know…" I used my magic to finally pick up the rock and hold it up.

"It's just that…strange things seem to be happening now that relate to the stars and sky." He included.

I faced him, not believing there was any reason to be afraid of this…at least for the time being. "I'm not sure there's anything to be afraid of." I offered. "Sure, there was some weird correlation in the sky, but that could have been due to almost anything. This…" I analyzed the rock. "I don't know…maybe…maybe there's some foreign magic in it…"

"Well, I guess we better take good care of it, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah." I agreed. "We should keep this a secret. I don't want anypony getting an eye for bits once they hear this news. You know how corrupt ponies can get by one little thing."

"Yeah, of course." Comet heavily agreed. "We've gotta find something to put that in back home for safe keeping." He looked around throughout the moon-lit distance. "Come on. We should probably hurry before anypony can see us."

"Alright…" I stared at the rock for a few more seconds and then turned to face Comet to follow him back home. Throughout the walk, I swear I could feel something odd with the discovery I held.

---

Alex

---

"Wakey-wakey. Come on." I heard a voice, leading my eyes to open slowly. "You know you aren't supposed to be sleeping on the job." She stated playfully. Once everything was visible, I was surprised to see Spirit in front of me. "Finally."

"H…huh…?" I looked around to see that I was still in the certain area I was working at, but I had somehow fallen asleep. "How'd I doze off? I don't remember being tired at all…"

Spirit giggled. "Well, you better get moving, you don't want to have any of the others see you sitting out on your part." As I shook my head and stood up to focus back on my task, Spirit took a glance around the hallway we were in. "Still…it's so nice of you all to fix up this place… It'll be just like home…"

I soaked my sponges and scrubs with the bucket full of soap and water and began cleaning the floor and walls. "Hey…" I realized something after she said that. "Isn't that what you said the very first time we met?" I turned my head over to her. "The last time I saw you before you vanished. We stopped in front of these same ruins and you said that you were home. I never got that…"

"Well…" She reacted a little nervously and hesitantly. "I mean…" She released a breath of defeat. "This is…where we…kind of…hang out."

"Huh?" I questioned while I continued to try to clean the hallway.

"In your dream, where we eat ice cream. That's the balcony."

"So, you're saying where we see each other every night…is here…?"

"Yeah…" She picked at the floor with her hoof. "But…being a dream…things may not seem the same as you see here."

"So…" I rolled my eyes around in thought. "…do you actually live here? Not in the dream, but in your real body? Is that why you pretty much know this place?"

"…you could say that…but it's not exactly the way you think…"

I wanted to keep thinking about how that actually would work, especially connecting it with her as a filly. And then I realized about the rapid increase in age. I became confused all over again and just shook my head. I had to focus on my part in the restoration of the castle.

"Hm." I released and then continued cleaning the hallways.

After washing some, I threw the sponges and scrubs back in the bucket and released a breath of rest.

"Tired already?" Spirit smirked teasingly.

I scoffed friendly and grinned at her. "You could help too, you know."

She sat down, placed a hoof over her agape mouth, and yawned loudly. "I don't feel like it." She mentioned jokingly.

"Well, you sure feel lazy, don't you?" I asked, joining her playful manner.

She returned another giggle.

I smiled at her until I heard another voice speak by the side.

"Alex?" I quickly looked to notice Spike as he stared at me weirdly. "…is there somepony else up here with you…?"

I widened my eyes, deeply surprised of his sudden appearance. I quickly glanced over to where Spirit was to notice she wasn't there anymore. "Um…"

"It sounded like you were talking to somepony. But they're all out at the main hallway."

I tried to rapidly think of an excuse. "Sorry…I was just…uh…" I had nothing good to make up, so I tried to do with whatever came to mind. "…remembering a conversation I had with some other pony…I sometimes get so into it that I talk to myself about it…"

"Oh." He appeared to accept it. "Okay." He began walking past me with a comic in his claw.

"Where are you going?" I questioned.

"It seems like the girls have everything under control so…" He shrugged. "I guess no pony needs my help."

"Well…" I looked towards the bucket of water to the side. "If you want, you could help me."

He stopped in his tracks and turned to me. "Really?"

"Yeah… I mean, if you don't mind."

"Cool, okay." He ran over to me. "What can I do?"

"You can help clean the floor and walls in this hallway." I looked towards the bucket and retrieved a couple of sponges. "There are a few more in there." Remembering Spirit, I decided to send him to the end of the hallway so we could be alone. "Why don't you go to the other side of the hallway, I've already almost finished with the one."

"Okay." He grabbed the bucket and then headed over to his designated location.

Once he was out of sight and hearing distance, I looked around for Spirit.

"Boop." Something poked and startled me.

I jumped a little and quickly turned around to see Spirit giggling softly. "How did you—?"

"You could say I'm like…" She prepared herself dramatically. "…a ghost!"

"No kidding…" I mentioned.

She looked around for any more sign of ponies…or dragons. "I better stick back to hiding. It's a little too risky now. I wouldn't want to have another situation like that."

"Oh…okay…" I returned. "…I'll…see you later then…?"

"As usual." She grinned and poked my coat. Afterwards, she turned and jumped out of sight.

I could only stand there, wondering how her personality could fit with her wanting to hide so much and stay a secret from everypony but me.

---

After I finished my side of the hallway, I roamed across to check on Spike.

"Spike?" I called and looked around. There was only silence. I managed to find the pail of water and soap to the side, and the sponges were placed back in there. I turned to the walls and floors to analyze them. They appeared as if they were cleaned…but where was Spike?

I lifted my head and continued on towards the library, as that was the only direction he could have gone without me seeing him. I scanned all over from what I could see for him. I noticed that hidden passageway we had stumbled upon the last time we were here and decided to check inside.

"Mane-iac breaks into the museum... Okay, here we go." I heard inside. "...Ugh, what a surprise! Hum Drum is in the way again while the Power Ponies do all the work! I guess I know what that feels like..."

"Spike?" I called again, walking in. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hey…" He remained lying down on the two pillows below him. "Don't worry about the work…I already finished…"

"Oh…that's great." I returned and looked around. "But…why are you here all by yourself?"

"Eh…" He answered with little effort. "Every other pony has everything in control. They don't need me, so I decided to just finish up my comic…"

"Comic?" I sat by him.

"Yeah. It's about these Power Ponies who fight against their archenemy, the Mane-iac. You know, that good versus evil thing." He explained somewhat of the plot.

"Hm. I was never too into comics…" I responded honestly.

"It's pretty good when you're bored." He focused on the inside of the comic. "I was just about to finish it. Let's see how the Power Ponies deal with the Mane-iac." He narrowed his eyes and then turned the page. However, he immediately gasped in surprise afterwards. "Wait. What?" He questioned at the blank page in front of him. "How can that be the end?!" He then noticed some marking at the very bottom right of the page. "What's... that? 'You can... retr-' What? 'You can... return...' Urgh!" He groaned out loud and placed the comic down on the floor. Then, he placed his claws to his head in frustration. "I know I saw a magnifying glass laying around the last time I was here..." He sat up and began searching.

Wanting to see what exactly was bothering him, I grabbed ahold of the comic and looked at the last page. I tried to read what the words said, but it required a whole lot of attention and focus to barely make it out.

"Spike! Alex! Where are ya?" I heard Applejack call from outside the room.

"We're breaking for tea and biscuits!" Rarity cheerfully exclaimed, sounding as if they were calling from the hallway.

As Spike just found a magnifying glass, I turned towards the door to begin trotting out.

"Guys!" Rainbow Dash called before I found them walking towards me.

"We're over here." I announced, catching their attention.

"Oh, great!" Twilight replied from the group. "We can have our little break in here." She directed towards the room with a smile.

Just as we began entering the room again, a sudden bright and cackling light formed in the center where Spike was standing at.

"Spike! What are you—?"

Twilight didn't have the chance to finish her sentence when, what looked like the comic book Spike had, began sucking him in with great force.

"Heeeeeelp!" He cried out.

"Spike!" Twilight exclaimed before grabbing ahold of his tail tightly and attempted to pull him out to safely.

Rainbow flew after Twilight, who was getting sucked in along with Spike. She grabbed her body and tried to pull her out as well, but it only prolonged whatever what was happening. Applejack raced over to Rainbow and tried pulling on her tail. Fluttershy and Rarity gasped, quickly attending towards Applejack in a line. Seeing the only thing I could do was help, I galloped over to Rarity, who was at the end of the line, and wrapped my hooves around her to try to pull everyone out while flapping my wings. But then there was a sudden tug and we were all forced into the comic.

---

Everything was dark and silent for a moment. I felt the muscles in my face twitch for my eyes to open. As soon as I was able to see, I completely noticed everything was not the way as it seemed. I appeared to be on top of a roof top in a strange city I had never seen before. Everything looked far more advanced, perhaps similar to Manehattan if I had ever been there before.

"…what the…" I mentioned, speechless. "…where am I…?"

I heard a female groan behind me. "How'd I get out here? I didn't do anything…"

I looked back to see an immediately recognizable pony. She was questioning her position as well. "Spirit?"

"Oh!" She jumped lightly from being startled. "Alex!"

"Do you have any idea where we are?" I asked, continuing to look around.

"Oh um…" She seemed to recover from something. She stood up and looked around. "I think this is the world your friend Spike was reading. The last thing I remember is the both of us getting sucked into that comic."

"But…I don't remember you being there with us…" I stated from my memory.

"Oh!" She reacted nervously. "Well… I um...was sucked in at the last second." She laughed nervously and quickly threw out something else after analyzing me. "Oh, look! You look different."

"Huh? Different?" I inquired and then looked down at my hooves to see them covered with something. "How'd I…?"

"Wow...!" Spirit continued to excitedly observe me all around. "You look so cool! You look like a superhero! Oh!" She stopped to notice something around my head. "Someone like you shouldn't have their identity out like that." She grabbed what appeared to be some sort of cloth or handkerchief around my neck and covered the muzzle portion of my head. She moved something from the top of my head to my eyes. "There!" After, she released a quick gasp and stared at her hooves. "…did I just…?"

"What?" I asked concerningly.

"Nothing." She swiftly stated and then changed the subject once again. "What about me?" She positioned herself in a readied and heroic manner. "Am I some kind of awesome superhero too?"

I observed her and didn't see much of a difference. In fact, she only wore goggles on the top of her head and mane. There was also a loose scarf around her neck. Otherwise, that was pretty much it.

"I'm not sure…" I answered. "The only think you have on are those goggles and scarf." I pointed.

She looked at both of them and pouted a bit. "Aw…what's that supposed to do…?"

"No idea." I shrugged. "I've never really read comics."

"Hmph." She reacted a little disappointingly. "What am I supposed to do then?" With her hooves, she grabbed a hold of her goggles and stretched them over her eyes. "Be some sort of distraction and put these stupid things on—?"

As soon as she placed those on her eyes, I immediately fell towards the ground and my eyes closed on their own.

"Alex!" She called out, racing towards my body.

What bothered me more is how I knew this. My eyes were closed. I could see that. But yet I was looking through another pair of eyes… Being already obvious enough, I could tell I was looking through Spirit's eyes.

Spirit, can you hear me?

"…Alex…?" She questioned. "…are you…?"

I have no clue. I can see what you see, Spirit.

"…whoa…" She moved her hooves to place them on her goggles, but then she quickly realized that they weren't there. She couldn't see any part of her body at all! "Where am I!?"

Can you still feel your body? Along with your goggles?

She seemed to struggle with her disappeared hooves. "I…I think so… Yeah…"

Take off the goggles.

When she did, I immediately felt my eyes open in my true body. I checked out my hooves to make sure that I was indeed in my body. Spirit was visible in front of me.

"Now I can see myself…" She looked at her hooves with her goggles back on her head.

"Huh…" I expressed and observed her carefully for a bit. "It seems that…whenever you put on those goggles, I see through your eyes and you turn invisible…"

"Really?" Spirit laughed softly for a bit. "…usually it's the other way around…"

"What do you mean?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing!" She ended once again and changed the subject. "So…if I do that…then what do you do?"

I looked over myself. "I still don't know about that…"

"Try running around for a bit." Spirit directed around me. "See if anything strange happens."

I looked around. "On a building this tall from the ground…?"

"Hey…" She poked my wings. "You still have your wings."

"Yeah… I guess that's true…" I said and then focused towards another building near the one we were on. "I'll try galloping and jumping right over there."

"Go right ahead." Spirit happily encouraged.

I backed away a few steps and focused my attention towards the rooftop in front of me. I took in a deep breath and then sprinted towards my target. As I sprinted, I felt something odd about and in me. However, I continued as planned and leapt towards the other rooftop. The strange feeling increased during this airtime. For some reason, I smoothly seemed to glide over to the other rooftop. It wasn't because of my wings. I didn't even need them for the jump. My vision was weird, but it felt necessary. I didn't know how to explain it. It felt like I had some wild primal instincts within me or something… I galloped over to the rooftop Spirit was back on to endure the same feeling.

"Whoa! That looked so cool!" Spirit commented on the run. "You blended in the night so well, I almost lost track where you were!" I continued observing myself and my hooves to see what exactly I represented. "It's like you're a wolf! A night wolf!" She then gasped upon realizing something. "A natural instinct to protect others whenever possible… You shall now be known as Knight Wolf!"

"Knight Wolf…?" I questioned a little confusingly.

"And me?" She placed a hoof to her chest and closed her eyes in proud thought. She remained still for a moment before she slowly placed her hoof back on the floor and narrowed her eyes in determination. "Call me… GHOST."

"GHOST?" I once again inquired about.

"Yeah…because I'm just like… a ghost…" She referenced.

"Well…" I wasn't too into the name calling. I turned around to notice the streets where several ponies occupied. "We have to find out why we're here and how we get back." I gasped, realizing something else. "And where the others are! They got sucked in here first!"

Spirit joined me by the edge. "Then let's begin our mission, shall we…?" She presented with a smirk. "And we stick together, seeing how our powers clearly are connected."

I nodded. "Yeah. Of course." I looked out and formed an idea. "I'll get a better view up ahead." I spread out my wings and launched off. However, Spirit instantly stopped me.

"Wait!" She called. I looked back at her. "…I can't fly…"

"Oh…" I returned, seeing this true. "…right…" I landed back by her. "I guess we have to do this on hoof then."

"It'll be okay." Spirit comforted me. "We'll be okay as long as we're together."

"Yeah…" I nodded again. "Okay." I lowered myself for Spirit to climb on. "Come on. Let's get down."

"Roger!" She jumped on, causing me to grunt a bit, and then held on tight.

"Here we go…" I hopped off, but before I could spread out my wings, I somehow felt my hooves plant themselves on the side of the building. Immediately after, I appeared to be galloping straight across the side of the building with no problem!

"Woohoo!" I could hear Spirit cheer as we ran straight downwards, which increased our speed significantly more.

After we reached the ground, my hooves hopped off the side of the building and onto the ground. I felt myself wobble a little out of balance, actually almost tripping and falling.

"Whoa…" I expressed after feeling that rush. "I never knew I could do that…"

"Isn't this world amazing?" She asked, fascinated with our new abilities.

"Maybe…" I mentioned. "But that doesn't mean I want to stay here forever."

Suddenly, we heard a loud explosion and felt a huge rumble. Looking at the sky, we could see a cloud of smoke across the town. I gasped lightly and faced Spirit. "Come on! We have to go check that out."

I was about to head towards the street in front of us, but Spirit quickly stopped me. "Wait! We can't go out in plain sight. We need to be stealthy. We need to stick with the shadows. Especially you."

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"If we are superheroes, we wouldn't want the bad guys to see us out in plain sight. Besides, you seem you have more of an advantage in the shadows." She advised.

"And you?" I added.

"Me?" She postured herself in a lightly smug manner. "I'm your advantage as long as we're together."

I sighed, seeing that we had no more time to waste. "Alright. Come on. Let's be quick about it." Taking Spirit's advice, I turned away from the main part of the street and looked around for paths that involved no lights. Usually, this wouldn't be safe…but hey…we're more than average ponies right now…

---

We stopped about halfway in a darkened alley with the only light source being a flickering light. We noticed that a heavy wind began bllowing through the entire city, which was pretty odd.

"I hope Spike and the girls are alright…" I mentioned worriedly.

Spirit placed a hoof on me. "I'm sure they're fine. We should get moving if you want to find them."

"Yeah." I nodded. "You're right."

Just as we raised our hooves, we heard a group of hooves behind us.

"Well look at what we've got here, fellas." A pony spoke. We turned around to see a group of at least five stallions smirking with bad intentions. "You two must be lost. Why don't we introduce you to the dark side of Maretropolis?"

"Maretropolis…?" I questioned under my breath.

"No thanks." Spirit answered, showing no fear. "We're doing fine on our own."

"Ooh." The stallion out front, which looked to be the leader, returned. "How's about you come with me? I could use a queen to rule this city."

I narrowed my eyes angrily, but Spirit didn't seem to be affected at all.

"Ugh." Spirit stuck out her tongue in disgust and wittily replied. "Sorry for the bad news, but you're really not my type."

"Oh, you're really gonna wish you never said that…" He responded with clenched teeth.

Spirit narrowed her eyes and nonetheless smiled valiantly. "Make me."

"Should've kept your mouth shut you little—"

I dashed over to this scum stallion and clenched his coat with my hoof. "Listen. We don't want any trouble. If you want to get out of here in one piece, I recommend you walk. Now." I asserted aggressively.

The stallion shoved me off. "Like hay we will." He faced his acquaintances and motioned his head. "Get em' boys."

The rest of the stallions began angrily walking towards us as they held blunt weapons in their mouths. I back away over to Spirit who readied herself bravely. "Let's show them what the two of us can do!"

I felt my muscles inside my clench angrily. "Right…"

One of them rushed towards me with a wooden plank. Just as he was about to strike me, I dashed like a swift wild animal towards the wall of the alley and bounced off it, pouncing vigorously at the attacker.

"What are you waiting for!?" The leader pointed out aggressively. "Get them!"

Seeing the rest of them begin to swarm in, I used the stallion I attacked to send as a body weight towards them, knocking down at least one of them. Spirit, seeming to be very agile, dodged one of her attackers and jumped over to the dumpster behind her. She kicked it with all of her strength, sending it flying towards not one but two of them, having them crash unconsciously towards a brick wall. Another tried to flank Spirit, but I rapidly ran and reached him in a matter of seconds, knocking him off his hooves. I rather sent him towards the air, leaving me to shoot a few beams of magic towards him and then finally use my magic to have him sent flying who knows where.

This time, Spirit protected me when she climbed up a few obstacles and then severely kicked the leader behind me right in the face. He skidded on the floor and came to stop. While he was trying to recover from that attack, I walked up to him and grabbed his coat aggressively, bringing him up to face me.

"W-what do you want from me?!" He asked, now ironically and extremely fearing us.

I narrowed my eyes seriously at him. "Justice." I answered in a raspy voice and then threw him off to where he was out of our sight.

Spirit giggled, despite our whole fight. "Nice one."

I approached her concerningly. "You okay?"

"Yep. That was so much fun!" She answered gleefully.

I released a sigh of relief. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"Aw." Spirit nudged me with her head and then looked out. "Let's go look for your friends!"

"Right." I agreed and walked with her out of the alley.

---

I began feeling bothered at one point when we were walking by a building that held a sign with a continuous buzzing noise. I looked up to see one of those animated lit signs. In the first frame, it was a mare with what looked like a shampoo bottle on her head. In the second frame, it depicted how apparently gorgeous the mare's hair became after the shampoo was used.

That wasn't what bothered me though. Everything was just too quiet. I felt pretty sure that if the girls were in the area we saw the smoke coming from, they'd probably already be out of there. I wasn't sure if we were on the right track.

Spirit stopped to notice my troubles. "Something bothering you?"

"…I don't know…" I answered. "Just feeling unsure, I guess…"

"If it's about your friends, you don't need to worry. We're bound to come across them sooner or later."

Her statement caused me to think for a moment. "…but I thought you wanted to stay a secret to them?"

"That's why you keep me a secret, silly." She poked my head. "Call me by my codename, and mention nothing but what's happened here."

"Uh…okay…" I returned. Hooves suddenly echoed from a distance before us. "Come on." I whispered, grabbed her hoof, and hid the both us in a slim area where we were out of sight from the ponies that walked.

"Want me to go check it out?" Spirit asked, readying her goggles.

"…sure…" I answered. I sat myself down at the floor to make sure I wouldn't fall roughly. "Okay…do it."

Spirit nodded and placed on her goggles. My eyes closed by themselves, leading to later see my own body unconscious against the wall.

Alright. Let's see what we're up with.

"Okay." She whispered and climbed up the wall of the building we were hiding against. Once she was on the rooftop, she slowly walked towards the edge, where the sounds of hooves grew louder. She placed herself close to the floor and poked her head out to see what was in the alley across the building. "It's…six ponies and a baby dragon…they don't look like bad guys."

Once I was able to get a clear view of them, I could immediately recognize who they were, even while wearing their own costumes.

It's them! It's Spike and the girls! They're safe!

"I'll buy some time for you to meet them."

You sure about that…?

"Yeah. Remember, we've only known each other in this comic."

…yeah…okay…

Afterwards, she slipped her goggles off, having me see through my own eyes again.

"There it is!" I heard Spike point out in a hushed tone.

I shook my head and stood up to recover from the recent transition.

"Is that a... shampoo factory?" Applejack asked.

I began walking towards them to hear Spirit speak.

"Hi." She greeted, startling them as she revealed her face in an upside down manner.

"…who are you?" Twilight questioned, curious about the mysterious mare only I have seen.

"I think you should be asking him." Spirit turned to my direction as I finally revealed myself from within the shadows.

They all turned their heads over to me to be quite surprised of my sudden appearance and even a little worried/scared.

"…and who would you be?" Rarity asked, flinching a bit.

"I'm Knight Wolf." I answered with a raspy voice again, leading me to quickly cough and clear my throat. "Sorry." I returned in my normal voice. I used my magic to pull off the accessories covering my face from clear identification. "It's me. Alex."

"Alex!" Twilight rushed over to me in jubilance. "We were so worried about you when we didn't find you with us!"

"So, you're Knight Wolf!" Spike brought up. "That's why you were separated from us." Spike faced the other girls to explain. "Knight Wolf usually works alone. But he always comes by and helps the Power Ponies when they need him the most. Because he's so secretive, villains don't really usually know about him."

"What about that mare that was up in the rooftop?" Rarity asked, recalling about Spirit. She turned towards me for a question. "Is she with you?"

Before I could answer, Spirit hopped to my side and joined me with a smile. "I sure am. The name's GHOST."

"GHOST?" Spike questioned. "I don't remember anything about you… Did you get sucked in along with us…?" He asked, tapping his claw on his chin.

"Sucked in? What are you talking about?" Spirit asked, pretending as if she belonged to the world.

"She must belong here, Spike." Twilight spoke. "She doesn't know anything about what happened before we got here."

"I guess…" Spike allowed. "But it's still weird… I never read about any pony named GHOST…"

"Don't mind that now, Spike." Applejack included herself. "We've got to focus on getting out of here."

"Oh, right." Spike responded and looked towards me. "Those words I was trying to read at the end of the comic book. It said the only way to return back home was to defeat the Mane-iac." He looked past me and pointed towards the shampoo factory. "She's in there right now building her doomsday device! We have to stop her before she uses it!"

I covered my face in preparation for whatever we needed to endure to get back home. "Then let's get at it."

"All right, Power Ponies, here's the plan." Twilight announced, facing all of us. "Rarity, you, me and—"

"Come on out, Mane-iac! Or the Power Ponies are comin' in!" Rainbow Dash yelled out loud, already flying in front of the building and holding up a lightning necklace that seemed to produce thunder and lightning in the sky instantly. The lightning actually struck the sign, zapping it off, while the thunder continued to boom very loudly.

"So much for 'element of surprise'." Twilight commented in a disgruntled manner.

"Didn't she just learn this lesson a while back?" I asked, referring to Daring Do as Spirit and I walked with the others towards the factory.

Surprisingly, no pony came out after that loud noise.

"You know…" Spirit announced. "If you haven't already alerted the ponies inside, I can just go in there undetected and do some recon…" She shared both sarcastically and seriously.

"Actually…" Fluttershy timidly offered. "I don't think she's home. Maybe we should just come back later."

Immediately after, there was this booming evil laughter that originated from within the factory.

"She's home." Rarity responded to Fluttershy with a fearful tone.

The garage door in front of the building began opening, revealing a large group of ponies that seemed to plainly care a heavily lot of fashion…but were prone to hostile attacks nonetheless.

"Time to Power Pony up!" Applejack announced as we all readied ourselves.

"Ooh! Nice catchphrase!" Pinkie couldn't help but excitedly share as she quickly tapped each of her hooves on the floor.

As the fight begun, the girls began spreading out. On the other hoof, I could hear Spike call out my name. "Alex!" I turned to see him as he was pointing towards the shadows around the block. "Stick to the shadows! You have the best advantage in them!"

Just in time, Spirit defended me from one of the ponies released within the factory. "I've got your back." She smirked confidently.

I nodded and then dash over to the shadows as directed by Spike.

As a power, the shadows seemed to increased my speed dramatically, and of course keep me out of sight. When moving from one shadow to another, it was like I was teleporting, only I was moving so fast you could only see a wisp of air.

Spirit followed behind me and tried to not remain too much in the open. Instead of going immediately on the offensive, I stayed behind and looked around for any pony in need of help. Everypony actually seemed to have it covered, but something seemed strange. I had noticed a lot more ponies than the ones in the street fighting. My eyes scanned across the area to where I saw Rarity tying a bad guy with a thread and needle gracefully. What she didn't notice was the sound of something being struck harshly. At the top of the building, somepony was striking the sign with his back leg.

I noticed the sign was just about to break off, and when it did, it would land on Rarity if I didn't do anything about it. I gasped and focused my attention on Rarity.

"Rarity!" I called, alarming her.

She only looked up in surprise to see what all the commotion was about. I quickly jumped out of the shadows and dashed over to her, grabbing her and bringing her out of the way as the sign crashed in front of us.

Before she could say anything, I narrowed my eyes in anger and quickly hastened to jump between each surface of each building to reach the top where the suspect was at. Before he could see where I had appeared, I shot a few beams of my magic at him, slid and kicked him from underneath, and then whipped up another kick to send him flying off. At the bottom I could see Spirit helping Rarity up with a smile.

She noticed another stallion running behind her towards a Fluttershy who was too busy flinching and unfortunately cowering in fear.

"Not so fast!" She ran towards the stallion and bumped him with her body, sending him flying and crashing towards another building.

I raced over to Fluttershy and grabbed her hoof to pick her up gently.

"Are you alright…?" I asked.

"Honestly… I'm terribly frightened." She answered with shivers.

"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash joined us in flight. "You aren't even just a little angry right now?"

Fluttershy only returned an embarrassed smile with a shrug and shaking head.

"Nice work, Power Ponies!" I heard Twilight behind me, turning to see how quickly the other girls had disposed the attackers. Wow. "Now let's take care of the Mane-iac and get ourselves home!"

"I don't think so!" Another mare crawled around from within the building. She didn't use her hooves… She creepily used her mane which was insanely spread out everywhere. "I have a city to destroy, and I'm not about to let the Power Ponies stop me! Not this time!"

"Just watch us!" Rainbow Dash grabbed a hold of her necklace and flew hurriedly towards the villain.

However, the Mane-iac held up some can of spray, leading Spike to yell out in warning.

"The Hairspray Ray of Doom! It stops you in your tracks and renders your powers useless!"

There was a loud hiss as the cloud of spray touched Rainbow. She suddenly halted in mid-flight and fell to the floor like an ice cube.

"We'll just see about that!" Rarity announced, leading the rest of them to charge straight at the Mane-iac.

"Wait!" I warned, trying to stop them from running towards the mare like that, but something else grabbed ahold of me and dragged me away from the scene. I could only witness the girls utterly fail as the spray affected them as well. The Mane-iac laughed evilly as her henchponies escaped from their restraints and walked towards the girls to take them in. The only two that were missing were Fluttershy and Spike.

"Stop. Don't go." I heard a pony exclaim in a whisper.

I turned to see Spirit looking at me seriously.

"But they're in trouble! I have to go help them!" I desperately returned.

Spirit placed a hoof on my mouth due to my volume and shook her head. "I know they are, but you can just go out there like that. You'll just be sprayed too. You need to stay out of sight and make sure she hasn't seen you."

"Don't spray!" I heard Spike cry out, driving my attention back to the scene to see The Mane-iac retrieving a frozen Fluttershy and pointing the can at Spike.

She cackled right in front of his fearful face. "Oh, Hum Drum, why in all of Maretropolis would I use the Hairspray Ray of Doom on you? Rather pointless, don't you think?" She mocked.

All of the girls released shouts of concern and cries for assistance as they were dragged into the factory. I tried to step forward in attempts to save them but Spirit continued to hold me back. Once the garage door slammed shut, she finally released me. I ran towards the door and placed my hooves on it, but I had no idea what to do.

"Sorry, I had to do that…" Spirit apologized, approaching me. "But if I let you run off like that, you would have been taken hostage too."

I sighed, pummeled with the pressure of figuring out a way to get them back.

"You two are the ones that have to save them…" Spike spoke from behind us. He looked away in sadness. "I'll just have to stay here and be Hum Drum. Otherwise, I'll just mess things up as usual."

"What are you talking about, Spike?" I asked, walking towards him. "You're just as important as we are."

"No, I'm not. All of you didn't really need me back when we were at the castle. You all were fine on your own. You all took place as Power Ponies while I became Hum Drum." He groaned in disgust, looking at his cape. "That proves it."

"Spike. Just because you don't have superpowers, doesn't mean you're not important." I approached in a comforting manner. I removed the cloth covering my face to see him more directly. "Remember when we first saw the Crystal Empire? When we retrieved the Crystal Heart? It was you who ultimately returned the heart. I stuck around with Twilight and even distracted King Sombra a little. Without you, who knows what would have happened?"

"I don't exactly have superpowers." Spirit presented herself. "But that doesn't keep me from going on. You acknowledge your talents and what you can do. As long as you're really helping your friends, then you aren't useless. You're only useless when you ignore what you have, do nothing with it, or take advantage of it for the worse."

Spike took a moment to take all that in. "…you really think so?"

"Yeah." I returned. "I mean…why else would Twilight have you as her number one assistant? You'd have to be pretty useful for that."

"Yeah…you're right." Spike recognized. "They need us now more than ever and we have to help them."

"More importantly, you're the only one who knows this comic book from apparently front to back." I reminded. "You lead the way, and we'll tell you what you can do to help." I patted his back, assuring him with confidence.

"Okay!" He nodded with confidence and looked towards the shampoo factory. After a moment, he pointed and shouted out. "There's a vent on the side of the building! We can use it to sneak in."

Spirit smirked, ready for action as she tapped her goggles. "Perfect plan."

"Let's get to it then!" I announced.

As if it was already a routine, Spirit climbed on me while I grabbed Spike with my magic. Then, I ran straight towards the wall and then directly up onto the top with the vent.

---

After removing the screws, we squeezed into the vents and tried to move. However, there was some difficulty in doing this for Spirit and me.

"Geez…" Spirit mentioned. "Maybe we should have looked for an easier way to get in for us."

"It's good enough…" I returned, struggling with my motion while Spike rather had an easier time in front of us. "We'll be out of here soon enough."

We then began hearing a creaking sound all around us.

"…uh…what's that?" Spike questioned.

Immediately after, Spike fell outside from below.

"Spike!" I exclaimed in a whisper, crawling towards the open hole and hopping out.

After I did, I was immediately tackled to the floor by Spirit, who landed in front of me. She giggled and apologized. "Sorry."

I shook my head and managed to stand up. "It's fine." I faced Spike. "Spike, you okay?"

"I am…but they're not!" He pointed out towards the girls, who were frozen inside a cage.

I noticed Twilight try to move a hoof, and she actually was having some success in doing so. However, a timer rung, leading the pony who was right by it reading the newspaper to shoot out another large mist of spray at the girls. Their paralysis state was once again renewed.

"Congratulations, Power Ponies!" We heard the Mane-iac's demented laughter sound. "You shall live just long enough to see me fire..." A pony by the covered machine revealed it. "…the instrument of your destruction!" She cackled again, proceeding to insert the orb inside. "Once the Electro-Orb has powered it up completely, this cannon will amplify the power of my mane one million times, expelling an energy blast that will cause everypony in Maretropolis's mane to grow wild!" By the sound of her laughter, I could truly tell she was absolutely insane. So insane, I don't even believe she had a true reason to be a villain. "You will be my weapon's first victims, and there is nopony who can save you from this fate!" She resumed her annoying laughter.

"Ahem." Fluttershy cleared her throat. "I don't mean to interrupt, but aren't you forgetting about a few others?"

"Who else?" The Mane-iac questioned ignorantly. "Hum Drum? Little guy? No superpowers whatsoever?" She laughed. "He's utterly useless!" The timer rung again, leading the pony with the newspaper to spray the girls again. "Puh-lease. Everypony knows you just keep him around because you feel sowwy for him." She switched into a condescending tone. "Wah. Wah."

This brought Spike down a bit, but I placed a hoof on him to try to get him to remember who he really was.

"Maybe in your world. But in our world, Spike— uh, Hum Drum always comes through when we need him! Always!" Twilight assured confidently.

As the rest of the girls agreed together, this brought Spike to stand up proudly. "I'm not like Hum Drum! When my friends really need me, I do come through! And they need us now!"

The Mane-iac laughed yet again. "I see dementia must be a side-effect of prolonged exposure to the Hairspray Ray of Doom."

As she continued speaking, Spirit pointed out something.

"Spike!" She pointed her hoof towards the red cover that was originally on the machine that was resting on the floor. "Let's use that to snatch up all the other ponies!"

"How are you going to do that?" I asked.

She tapped her goggles with a smirk. "Remember?"

"Right…" I nodded. "Okay."

She looked towards Spike. "Spike, go sneak down there and attach the curtain to those hanging chains." She directed. "I'll be down there to help you out."

"Got it!" He saluted and then proceeded to start on his task.

Spirit looked towards me in preparation. "Ready to do this?"

"Yeah." I answered. "As soon as you start the fight, take off your goggles so I can join in, okay?"

"You got it, chief." She responded and then wrapped her goggles around her eyes, causing the usual transition.

Once I saw through her eyes, she proceeded to easily hop off the floor we were on, as she was invisible. As Spike began attaching the curtain to the chain, Spirit helped him by doing the other end, all while the Mane-iac still continued to talk. "Tonight, we stand upon the brink of immortality, for we collectively – though, mostly me – have finally defeated our most hated nemeses! We have hurled the brush of badness into the now fearful face of…" She snuck in another wild laugh. "…goodness, and have struck a blow for freedom in the name of oppression! And nothing will stop us!" She laughed for the final time when Spirit and Spike joined me back up in the same level. She removed her goggles to allow me to wake up and help them with pushing off a crate to drag the covering and all the ponies within it as well.

The ringer had rung again, but this time, the stallion was distracted when Spike went ahead and knocked him off, along with the spray. The spray now affected the ponies on the first floor, paralyzing them instantly.

"Way to go!" Twilight praised, noticing the cause of such actions.

Once they were finally able to move, I spread my wings and flew over to the cage to try to help them. However, Rarity formed a huge filler and made an opening herself.

"Get mad!" Rainbow Dash told Fluttershy for some reason.

"I'm trying!" Fluttershy strained to follow her recommendation.

However, the rest of the girls left, preparing to enter battle that would soon commence below. Rarity even formed a staircase to gracefully walk downwards.

"Why does she want you to get mad…?" I asked, holding Fluttershy hoof with mine carefully.

"Well…"

Fluttershy's explanation was interrupted when we heard Pinkie excitedly shouting from below.

"Tag you're it! Tag you're it! Tag you're it! Tag you're it!" She was speedily messing with the ponies below.

"Over there! There! There! Idiots!" The Mane-iac screamed out in frustration.

I could see Spirit was glad to hop in on the fun.

"I'll be back, Fluttershy." I told her with a valiant smile. "I've got a Mane-iac to deal with." Afterwards, I hopped and flew towards where the large cannon and weapon stood. The Mane-iac was too distracted by her failures of henchponies. "You know… A pony like you really shouldn't be out in the streets…" I caught her attention. "It's time we put an end to that."

In order to make sure she didn't have the chance to use her weapon, I continued to annoyingly distract her while she continued to turn away from her maniacal laughter to aggressive anger.

It wasn't until when Spike spoke out loud that I made the mistake of being distracted with my focus on the villain. "Fluttershy, we need you! You have to power up!"

The Mane-iac was able to get me off when she used the tip of her harsh mane to strike me and send me flying towards the garage door. Of course, the door stopped me, but it so happened to hurt…quite a lot… I slid towards the ground and remained there, feeling too much pain to move.

"Oh, goodness! Are you okay?" Fluttershy immediately rushed over to me to ask me. She delicately placed her hooves on me while I could only return a few mumbles. In a short silence, Fluttershy angrily and aggressively turned towards the Mane-iac, despite the huge weapon she had. "Are you kidding me?" She then began walking to approach her personally. "I mean, I know you're evil and everything, but…" I could tell in her tone she was now getting extremely frustrated. "…you dare harm my boyfriend?! Really?!" She began screaming out loud, getting angrier than I had ever seen her get before. "Why, you're just a great, big, meanie!" Immediately after, her voice got shockingly deeper as veins appeared at her neck. "There! I said it! What makes you think you're so special?! Like the rules of common courtesy don't apply to you?!" Her voice even proceeded to grow much deeper as she insanely began growing in size as well, leaving me to snap out of my daze and widen my eyes immensely along with my agape mouth. "Why don't you pick on somepony your own size?!" She roared out loud, leading the Mane-iac to begin working her machine in extreme panic. The laser struck Fluttershy, but it didn't affect her at all. Actually, she sent it straight back to the Mane-iac with another loud roar, sending her flying instead this time. She jumped onto the machine and began pounding it furiously, leaving me with unending widened eyes and an extremely dropped jaw. She literally went on a rampage, leaving the others in extreme shock.

With a piece of the machine still in her mouth, she noticed how speechless we were. She stopped, spat out the piece from her mouth, and tapped her hooves embarrassingly.

On the other hoof, we could hear the Mane-iac crying from across the factory. "My mane!" Her own mane grew and wrapped all around her, preventing and securing her from going anywhere. "My maaaaaane!" She nonetheless continued to cackle insanely.

With a smile, Spirit approached me with an outstretched hoof. "You've got a great girlfriend there." She giggled.

Despite what I had just witnessed of Fluttershy, I managed to shake my head and pull out a smile. "You know it…" I accepted her hoof as she pulled me up.

We regrouped with the others to see Spike proudly standing among them.

"Once again, the day is saved by—"

He was interrupted when we were all sucked out of the world.

---

The next place we found ourselves in a pile was fortunately back in Celestia's former room.

Every pony immediately began excitedly chattering about the amazing adventure they just had and how well they pulled it off.

"Did you see how I was raining down a storm of justice at the end there?!" Rainbow Dash recalled.

"You catch how I was wieldin' that lasso?" Applejack included.

"Cupcakes?" Pinkie Pie surprisingly revealed a plate of cupcakes to us.

"How did you—"

"Eh, we had a good half second before we got sucked back out of the comic, and the Maretropolis bakery was only sixty-five blocks away!" Pinkie answered Rarity, linking towards her former superpower.

"I'm just glad to be back." Spike walked over to the cushion on the floor and planted himself on it with no hesitation.

"We wouldn't have made it without you, Spike." Twilight mentioned and then faced me. "Along with you, Alex." She turned back to Spike. "And I hope you realize that just because we don't always need your help, it doesn't mean that we don't think you're helpful."

I faced Spike and motioned with my forelegs to show how right Twilight was.

"And that you don't have to have superpowers to be a super friend." Spike agreed, leading for the others agree along as well.

"But I do have one question. Where exactly did you get that comic book?" Twilight asked.

"This one I got in Canterlot at the House of Enchanted Comics." Spike explained, leading for the girls to exchange a look and send back a disgruntled one at Spike. "Well, I didn't know it meant they were literally enchanted!" The girls only shook their heads in talk as they began walking out the door of the room. "I thought it just meant, like, the comics they sold there had really enchanting storylines! Hey, wait up! I'm an important part of this team, remember?!" Spike called out, running after them.

I was about to walk after them as well, but then a presence in the room stopped me. I looked back to see Spirit smiling eagerly.

"See you tonight for ice cream."

I smiled as well and nodded. "Of course."

---

"Okay, everypony! That's a wrap for today!" Twilight announced in the center of the main hallway.

All of us gathered together to head out into the forest and back home.

Even though we were pretty much exhausted from the journey in the comic book, we had surprisingly managed to pull off some restoration before returning home.

"Hey…" Twilight walked towards my side. "I meant to ask you something…"

"Yeah?" I answered.

"That mare…" Twilight began, most likely referring to Spirit. "Did you…know her? I don't know why…but I'm starting to feel like she didn't just belong in the comic book. It feels much more than that… But the thing is…nopony else got sucked in along with us… I think… I don't know… It was just weird…"

"Yeah!" Spike popped out from riding on her back. "I get what she means, Alex. The ponies in the comic all seemed to stick to their own script…but her…GHOST…I don't know…she just popped out."

I didn't really get nervous, seeing how I honestly didn't understand exactly how she did what she did either. "To tell you the truth, I can't really explain it at all. I honestly don't really understand either. It's…really a mystery…"

"Hm…" Twilight only returned as we continued to walk back home through the forest.

---

After our goodnights, I decided to spend the night with Fluttershy, really feeling like I just wanted to.

"It was quite a surprise when you asked if you could sleep over…" Fluttershy mentioned as she readied the bed. "…not that I mind it, of course…"

I smiled warmly and responded to her. "I just felt like I wanted to. Maybe it was because how protective you were of me…" I recalled, reminding her of the shocking incident back at the comic world.

Fluttershy's face flushed with red and she had to look away in embarrassment. "Oh dear… I… I never knew I had it in me…"

I chuckled. "Just be glad you don't actually transform like that here."

Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle herself.

We then made ourselves comfortable in her warm bed and cuddled a little when we felt each other's bodies.

"Goodnight, Alex." She spoke softly.

"Goodnight, Fluttershy." I returned in the same manner, leading for the both of us to gently close our eyes.

---

Spirit and I sat together on the balcony once again, staring out into the sunset. I glanced over to her to see her naturally beaming.

"You sure are happy." I commented.

"Today…was just so much fun. Words can't describe it." She answered contently.

"So practically being in danger all the time is the most fun to you?" I half-joked.

"It gives me the most excitement." She gladly responded. "I'm not afraid of danger… At least…under one circumstance…"

"I suppose if I ask you what circumstance that is, you'll tell me it's a secret, right?" I threw out before I actually asked.

"Hehe…" She giggled. "You read my mind."

I exhaled a heavy breath and turned back to the sunset. "Oh boy…"

"Believe me, I don't like keeping secrets from you, but I have to." She confessed.

"Well…I wouldn't want to force something out of you anyway…" I mentioned and took another bite of my ice cream.

"You have to admit…at least for me…spending time together at the end of a day like this is really great. It's just like having our own summer vacation." She said.

"I wouldn't know…" I responded uncomfortably as I looked away.

"Hm?" She turned to me.

"I never really had a summer vacation like the one you're imagining. I've practically been homeschooled…usually on my own." I stared at my treat and paused for a moment. "It sucks…but what can you do? It can't be your fault if you've never really had a childhood you wanted."

"I know where you're getting at…" Spirit replied understandably. "Let's just say…I've never really had a life at all."

"What do you mean?" I asked, intrigued by her answer.

Spirit stood up and pointed at her flank. "Look right here, and you tell me what comes to mind."

My eyes widened lightly when I just barely realized she had no cutie mark… She…just had a blank flank.

"…you never got your cutie mark?"

Spirit sighed and sat back down. "It's a little more complicated than that…"

I turned back to face below us. "Sorry…" I apologized sincerely.

"It's fine." She excused. "The way I think of it…it's what you do now that matters. So what if we didn't have a childhood? We can still make up for it now. In fact, that's what we're doing now, right?" She expressed that last sentence with a bright grin and closed eyes.

"Yeah…" I agreed, nodding my head. "It's you all that makes up for everything that's happened before… And I shouldn't look back…" I took one last bite of the ice cream and hoofed the stick over to Spirit. She accepted it as she added it along with hers. "You want to play a game?" I asked, standing up near her.

"Really?" She asked in surprise. "What game?"

"I don't know…" I tapped a hoof on my chin. "How about…" I quickly poked Spirit and flew off. "Tag! You're it!"

"Hey!" She stood up, disappointed. "No fair. You know I can't fly."

"I guess I win this one then." I laughed in enjoyment.

Spirit couldn't help but laugh along as well. "You cheater."

I returned back to her as the two of us resumed our amusement for the rest of the sunset.

Comments

[ShadowLight96]

That was really funny

[Joeyjambo122]

I'm starting to think that these conversations with Spirit are based off of Xion from Kingdom Hearts.

[Peter20percent]

I see what you did for the hero's, and nice being original. But I did see a missed opportunity for iron man, I mean the chest reactor representing his bright and pure heart, missed opportunity, but nice hero.
(i could make a couple dnd ability notes for knight wolf, but I will let others give me the OK on that one.)

[fluttershyfan3030]

7370250
yes i noticed that too i think spirit is a very big part of who alex is i just hope it ends differently for alex and spirit than it did with roxas and xion. i have a theory that spirit is a purified version of nightmare moon who is attached to alex because luna is his mother so she attached herself to him so she can have a second chance to be good