> The Awesome Spider-Dash: Origins
>  by Flufux
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Your Friendly Neighbourhood Rainbow Dash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Beware, this is the new and improved version of the first part of the first chapter. The old version of chapter one is still there if you want to read it, but only this version is considered canon to the rest of the story)

The Awesome Spider-Dash
Origins
By Flufux the Velociraptor




Prologue, Part 1
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Rainbow Dash


Canterlot City.

A vibrant metropolis recognised for its tall buildings, busy streets, and its many, many people. Over nine million of them to be precise...and that was without counting all the tourists that came from all over the world to see the city with their own eyes.

There was no place quite like it, and the town had earned its fame for all sorts of reasons. One of those reasons was the fact that the city was once home to the world's first real superhero: A masked woman with amazing powers, and went by the name of...Captain Jupiter! 

What? Were you expecting someone else? Maybe someone with a bit more...'spidery' name perhaps? Well, hold your horses, I'm coming to that.

Anyway, Captain Jupiter was a woman so wrapped up in mystery that she had practically become a legend. No one knew who she really was, where she came from, or how she got her super-human powers. All they knew was that when the city was in danger, she was always there to save it.

She made her first appearance around the same time an alarming amount of dangerous meta-humans and other supervillains started to show up and wreak havoc all over the city. While it was never confirmed if her arrival had anything to do with them, she was the one who was ultimately responsible for saving Canterlot from their rampage.

Despite that fact that barely anything about Captain Jupiter was known to the public, the citizens of Canterlot both trusted and adored her. 

When the going got tough, they always counted on her to protect them. When a new villain appeared, they knew that she would be able to defeat them, and when the people needed someone to believe in, she was there to serve as their role model.

That was all until one day...20 years ago. 

There was an incident that day...one that Captain Jupiter was solely responsible for. An incident that not only costed the beloved superhero nearly all of the respect she had once had...but also the lives of 37 innocent people. 

While the details of what exactly happened that day was never fully explained, it was not a day anyone in Canterlot was ever going to forget. It was the day when the faith people, not only in the city, but also the entire world, once put in masked heroes...was shattered. 

In the wake of the tragedy, Captain Jupiter disappeared off the face of the earth just as mysteriously as she had appeared, leaving many questions unanswered.  

Still, despite the loss of its hero, Canterlot City had managed to survive for at least twenty more years. Though, the spark that once made the city so great was sadly lost after the incident.

If that spark was ever going to be reignited, the city would need a new hero to prove their worth and show the world that there is still hope for heroism left. Yet, for the last twenty years, no such hero had ever appeared.

However...maybe it was time for that to change...





At the very edge of the city of Canterlot, there was an often overlooked suburban district that most people liked to call 'Ponyville' for its close proximity to the numerous animal ranches and expansive farmlands to the south. 

It was a fairly nice place to live in if you couldn't stand the hectic and stressful environment of Central Canterlot. And it was here...in a perfectly ordinary suburban house...where our heroine began her heroic journey.   

Who was this heroine in question, you ask?

Well, she was a lazy 16-year old girl who was snoring loudly under the covers of her bed while drooling a little on her pillow...and her name was Rainbow Dash. 

What? No one said she had to be perfect.

Also, after having spent nearly all of Friday afternoon trying to get a giant pile of homework and overdue school assignments done, Rainbow was hoping to enjoy every second of proper sleep and relaxation this Saturday morning could give her.   

"...wow, Shy, I never knew you were so...aggressive..." She mumbled in her sleep, making it clear that she was really enjoying the dream she was having...and had no intentions of ever waking from it.

However...the universe had other plans.

Suddenly, a horribly loud noise blared into her ears, instantly making the pleasant dream she had fade away into oblivion.

It took Rainbow a few moments in her groggy state to realise that the sound was coming from the ringing alarm clock sitting on the table next to her bed.  

When it started to become clear that the clock was not gonna stop making the noise any time soon, an arm reached out from under the covers and lazily tried to find the button to turn the infuriating alarm off. However, when she finally found it, she accidentally dragged the irritatingly loud object down to the floor instead, far beyond her reach...and that did not make it stop ringing either.

Eventually deciding that she had heard enough of that infernal sound, Rainbow Dash threw the covers off of her, picked up the clock and finally turned the noisy machine off. The second after it stopped ringing however, she fell back on the bed and let out a loud groan. 

In her sleepy state, only one thought was present in Dash's tired brain.

'I hate that stupid clock...so much.'  

Wearing nothing more than a white tank top and a pair of panties, Rainbow was already missing the warmth that came from her covers. Though...actually she missed that very pleasant dream a bit more. 

She was a hormonal teenager, it's not like she could help it. 

Rainbow Dash had the body of a young athlete, with toned muscles and a sleek frame. She was a bit on the short side though, but that wasn't anything too unusual for a girl her age. However, her messy shoulder-length hair that seemed to have been painted in every colour of the rainbow was a bit more unusual. Strangely enough, it hadn't been dyed to look like that. It was just her natural hair colour.

Make three guesses where she got the name 'Rainbow' from.

With the morning pretty much ruined for her, she gave up on any attempt to go back to sleep and slowly opened her magenta-coloured eyes, taking in the unruly mess that was her bedroom.

Clothes and various other objects were scattered all over the floor, and just about every wall in the room were covered in posters of some kind or another. Most of those posters were of fighter jets or famous pilots throughout history, but a few were also about the fictional heroine Daring Do and her many adventures. 

One poster stuck out from the rest with the simple image of a tortoise on it with the words 'When the going gets tough, the tough don't notice because they have hard shells'. It was actually one she had kept since she was a child, and it had inspired her even to this day.   

In addition to posters, she also had shelves filled with model airplanes and trophies for all sorts of sporting events that all had her name on them. Also, she had reserved one shelf in particular for her huge collection of Daring Do books, making it very clear what her favourite book series was. In fact, the Daring Do series were about the only books she usually enjoyed reading. Nearly every other thing she had tried to read had made her bored out of her mind to the point where she once came to the conclusion that reading was only for, quote on quote, 'eggheads'...and not for someone like Rainbow Dash.

Daring Do had definitively proven her wrong about that.  

After releasing a big yawn, she slowly and reluctantly pulled herself out of her bed, placing her feet on the decidedly far less comfortable cold floor littered with dirty clothes and various other objects. 

'Yeah, I probably should clean this up, but...not today. Got stuff to do today...important stuff...stuff I can't be late for... stuff that has to do with Twilight and that...Celestia-something place. I dunno. I better get some breakfast before I fall asleep again.'

It wasn't really a normal occurrence for Rainbow Dash to get up this early on a Saturday morning, especially if given a choice, but today was a bit different. Today was the day where she and her little circle of friends were finally going to see the interior of the world-famous CelestiaCorp Tower for the very first time. 

Twilight Sparkle, one of Rainbow's friends, had recently started an internship there, and had apparently done such a good contribution that she got permission from the company's president, Celestia herself, to give her friends a tour of the place.  

Not that Rainbow Dash was particularly interested in science or anything, but if Twilight wanted her to come along so much, then she couldn't just stay home and slack off, could she? 

After all, she had to stay loyal to her friends...even if they were into things that bored her half to death.

Besides, her little hobby of taking pictures with her camera wherever she went would probably be something the others would appreciate. Shame none of them cared about photography nearly as much as she did.

With her mind set, she began her trek towards the door...only to immediately trip on something hard and fall face-first into one of the many piles of clothing on the floor. 

For a second time that morning, Dash let out a tired and irked groan. Not only were her toes feeling a bit of pain now, but her face had also been planted right onto one of her discarded bras she had used the other day. 

She must have been working out that day because it still stank of her old sweat...which, mind you, was not a very pleasant aroma to wake up to. 

Slightly annoyed, she then turned her head around to see what exactly it was she had tripped on. 

Her annoyance quickly turned to guilt though when she saw that it had been none other than her pet tortoise Tank that she had accidentally kicked and subsequently woken from his peaceful nap on the floor. 

After realising what just happened, Rainbow awkwardly said, “Eh...Morning, Buddy…” 

Tank pulled his head out of his shell and gave her a slightly grumpy glare...which was apparently something tortoises could do...or at least something that that particular tortoise could do. Tank...well...he was special, let's leave it at that.

“Yeah…sorry about that, Tank.” She apologised with a sheepish smile while rubbing the back of her neck. For a girl, she had a kinda raspy voice, and it cracked a little when she raised her tone.

Her reptilian friend tilted his head to the side, then let out a big yawn, pulled his head back into his shell and went back to sleep.

This wasn't nearly the first time this had happened, and Tank had grown pretty used to it by now. Also, he really didn't have it in him to stay mad at her...or anyone else for that matter...not like a certain small fluffy white bunny could at least.

Rainbow then heard the familiar voice of her mother call out, "Hey, Dashie, breakfast's ready!"

"I'll be right there, mom!" Dash shouted back.

She got back up on her feet and began to look around for something to wear. It didn't take her too long to find a pair of blue jeans lying around in the mess, and it didn't take her long either to put them on. 

However, what did make her take a little longer to leave was the sight of a bundle of home-printed photographs sitting on her desk...or to be more precise, it was the sight of the person in those photos that made her freeze up. 

She walked over to the desk and picked them up, giving each photo a close look. She had taken these as recently as last Sunday, and all were of herself and another girl about her age with spiky white hair and a brown leather jacket with a furred neckline. 

In one picture, the two of them were holding their arms over each other's shoulders while smiling for the camera, another (admittedly blurry) one showed them kissing while Dash was trying to take the photo herself at the same time, and yet another had her lying on her bed with the other girl sitting on her lap with an annoyed expression. The final photograph though had the white-haired girl try to reach for the camera while keeping Dash pinned under her own weight. 

'Gosh, I can't believe this happened just a week ago.' Rainbow noted silently, 'I freaking loved that stupid harpy that night, and now I can barely stand the sight of her. Funny how these things work out.'

Rainbow then threw the whole bundle in the trash and left the room with no further ado, neither wanting nor needing a reminder of her bitter ex-girlfriend right now. 





Downstairs in the kitchen, Rainbow Dash's parents, Rainbow Blaze and Firefly, were currently enjoying their morning while waiting for their daughter to come join them.

Firefly, Dash's mom, wasn't too similar to her daughter in terms of appearance, given that she favoured the colour pink a lot in her wardrobe, had plain blue hair instead of prismatic, as well as dark purple eyes in clear contrast to her daughter's magenta ones. Also, they barely shared any facial similarities whatsoever.

In terms of personality and attitude however, the apple really didn't fall far from the tree. Firefly was just as bold-headed, tomboyish and fierce as Rainbow Dash, and that had served her well in the airforce when she fought in the Yakyakistan War as a member of the elite military flyers known as the Wonderbolts. 

With the world's current peacetime though, Firefly had retired from the front lines and now spent her days teaching as a flight instructor. While not nearly as exciting, the chances of getting shot down was significantly smaller.

However, at this exact moment, she was busy making pancakes that Rainbow Blaze, her husband of nine years, was completely ignoring in favour of reading the latest issue of the Daily Bugle.

Unlike Firefly, Blaze was a bit more laid back and not nearly as hot-blooded as his wife or daughter could be, though he shared his daughter's strange habit of falling asleep at odd places at the drop of a hat. In addition to that, he also had the same rainbow-coloured hair that Dash was born with, albeit with a few slightly grey tones in it due to his more advanced age. He wasn't quite there yet, given that he was only 46, but one could tell that it was slowly but surely loosing colour.   

However, when he was younger, he was actually a very good athlete who could compete with the best of the best in world championships...though he didn't win any. Well, he got a bronze trophy once that he was very proud of and still kept on display in the living room...and never shut up about. 

Nowadays though, he owned the local Ponyville Gym where Rainbow Dash usually trained. It wasn't the most glamorous or exciting job in the world, but it suited him just fine.  

While Firefly was in the process of making yet another pancake for the rest of her family to enjoy, she let out an annoyed sigh when she saw that Blaze hadn't even touched the two that she had already put on his plate.

"Honey...is it too hard for you to at least look at your food?" Firefly chided.

Without tearing his eyes away from his newspaper, Blaze answered, "In a minute, Fly..."

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the pancake currently residing in her frying pan. It looked about finished, so she put it on a plate and began to prepare the next one.

After a few seconds of being ignored, she couldn't help but ask, "Okay, seriously, what's so damn interesting in that paper of yours?"

"Oh, nothing much..." He replied nonchalantly,"...just that we have the first ever confirmation of extra-terrestrial life in recorded history."

Firefly had to do a double take to make sure she heard that right, "Wait, what? Really?"

"Yeah, there was this strange black mud stain in this meteor that turned out to be-"

She snatched his paper right out of his hands to check out the headline herself. It read 'ALIEN LIFE FOUND INSIDE METEOR?!', with a picture of a strange black substance held inside a glass jar. 

After skimming through the article a bit, she just rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Alien life? This is a black splash of paint! I was thinking more in the lines of UFOs piloted by giant bug-eyed monsters with laser-guns that say 'Take me to your leader'! Is this really worth getting excited over?"

Rainbow Blaze reached to get the newspaper back, "Well, it's the principle that matters. Now if I can only finish readi-"

"No! No more reading!" Firefly declared in a frustrated tone while she held the paper well out of his reach, "Now for goodness sake, eat your damn pancakes!"

Blaze grumbled a bit under his breath, but eventually did as he was told. However, he secretly wowed that he would get the paper back one way or another.

Firefly's eyes then lit up a bit when she saw her daughter finally coming down the stairs to join them. 

"That's a bit slow, Dashie," she criticised, "The airforce doesn't tolerate slackers, ya know?”

“But I’m not in the airforce now, am I?” Rainbow quipped back with a yawn.

"Not yet, maybe. But if you ever want to be a pilot, you'll need to have some discipline in the morning. I sure as hell didn't get my certificate by being lazy."

Dash took a seat at the table next to her dad and began to inspect her breakfast, "Sure, sure, but until then I'm going to enjoy my days of free napping as much as humanly possible. Wait, are these supposed to be pancakes? Where's the syrup?"

"Complaining won't get you anywhere either, Cadet."

"Gee, mom, I was just asking. Also, can you please stop acting like a drill sergeant for at least five minutes?" 

Firefly snickered a little at that, making it pretty clear how much she enjoyed making fun of her daughter. 

"Trust me, I'm way nicer than any drill sergeant. As to your question, those are Swedish pancakes. Specifically: Spitfire's grandpa's homemade recipe, and you're supposed to have cream and strawberry jam to that, not syrup."   

"Looks like crepes to me." Blaze commented offhandedly. 

Firefly sighed, "No...those are completely different."

"Different how?" Dash questioned.

"They... they're...they just are, okay!" Firefly snapped, not really knowing the answer to that question herself. "Spitfire just gave me a recipe and said 'Hey, you like my granddad's pancakes? Here, try and make some yourself', and that's what I did. Though, of course, the only way to know if I succeeded or not is to, well, try them out. So go on, have a bite and tell me what you think." 

Rainbow reached out for the strawberry jam jar and took a look at it, shrugged, and poured some over the pancake on her plate. 'When in Rome...I guess.'

She may not have been too big on sugary substances like her food monster of a friend Pinkie Pie, but she could indulge herself with something delicious from time to time, as long as it wasn't too often. One does not become an athlete by gorging themselves on sweeteners after all.

After taking a bite of it, Rainbow savoured the taste a bit, 'Maybe a bit on the sweet side, and not very filling at all, but it's decent enough.' 

Out loud, she didn't say anything, she just gave a wordless thumb's up to her mother instead.

For Firefly though, that was all she needed. "Ha! I had a feeling you would like it."

Blaze chose this as the perfect time to change the subject a little, "So, Dash, excited for that visit to CelestiaCorp today?"

"Not really," Dash answered honestly. "I mean, yeah, it's great that Twilight got her internship there and all...plus, I think Scootaloo got her new leg from there too...but I barely even get half the stuff of what's going on in that place. I'm probably gonna fall asleep within the first minute." 

"Then...why are you going there in the first place?"

"Well, for one, I'm pretty sure the others will want pictures of that place to remember the day by, and that's where my insanely awesome camera skills come into play. Also, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and even Applejack are coming, so if I sit out on this I'm gonna be the jerk of the group...again."

"Rainbow Dash..." Firefly said sternly, "I've said it once, and I'll say it again: you are not a jerk. Don't you dare call yourself that again."

"Sure, because making Fluttershy so terrified she could barely leave her own house for days was because I was a nice person?"

"That was not your fault, Dashie, and you know it."

"But I let it happen! She told me what Gilda said to her behind my back, but instead of listening to her like any good friend would, I just ended up ignoring her!"

Blaze argued, “It was only natural of you to side with your girlfriend-“

But the moment he said that particular word, Rainbow reminded, “Ex-girlfriend!”

"Either way, it is pretty common to not notice anything wrong with the person you're dating. Heck, before I met your mom I went through a similar experience in High School myself." 

"Sure, but Fluttershy and I go back since...gosh I don't even know how long."

"Since first grade actually." Her mom provided.

"Exactly! And I promised that I would never let anyone hurt her if I could help it. Breaking a promise like that is so not cool. Hell, Pinkie keeps saying that's the easiest way to lose a friend."





At that exact moment in a slightly rusty old truck driving not too far from their location, the driver nearly lost control of the car when her passenger suddenly had the urge to shout "FOREVER!" out of the blue for no apparent reason. 





Back in Dash's house, she finished, "I'm just sick of things always ending up being my fault."

"They only are if you keep thinking like that," Firefly assured. "Fluttershy forgave you for what happened. Maybe its time for you to do the same."

“Yeah...maybe I should," Rainbow considered, then let out a small yawn. "Anyway, I'm just way too tired to talk about this stuff." 

"Sooo..." Blaze began while trying to come up with a new subject matter. "...how are you planning to get to the CelestiaCorp Tower?"

Dash took a piece of pancake in her mouth and answered, "Applejack borrowed Big Mac's truck and is..." then she made a small pause to swallow it, "...on her way here. She's picking up Pinkie first though, then me and Fluttershy. Twilight's already there as far as I know, aaaaand...I guess that's it."

"What about Rari-ehhh..." He stopped himself when he remembered what had happened recently. "Oh, right, forgot about that. So...then you'll be with the usual gang for the rest of the day?"

"Yeah, we'll be back at seven or something. Also, I think that girl Twilight's hanging out with all the time, Sunset-something, is gonna be there too." 

“Right, and when are-”

Ding-Dong!

A sudden call at the front door prevented him from finishing that question.

"That's my cue! Gotta go, bye!" Rainbow said rapidly before she got up, put what was left of her pancake in her mouth, and bolted for the door...all in under ten seconds.

"Don't forget your camera, Dashie!" Firefly reminded before her daughter was out of earshot.

Rainbow's response came in the form of a muffled, "I won't!"

Firefly then looked at her husband and commented, "Always in a hurry, that kid."

"She got that from you," he answered with a small chuckle.

She narrowed her eyes at him slightly and reminded, "You know that's not true."

"I suppose not..." he noted in a more sombre tone, "...So...um, can I get my paper back?"

Firefly sighed and gave it back to him.





Rainbow Dash was a textbook example of a tomboy. Brash, athletic, assertive, incredibly competitive and with an ego larger than Mount Everest. So who would you expect to be her oldest and closest friend? Perhaps someone just as tomboyish as herself? Another reckless daredevil who would challenge Dash to her absolute limits?

Well, if that is what you thought, then you would be gravely mistaken. Okay, sure, she did have not one, but two friends just like that, but they...to make a long story short, weren't really her friends anymore.

No, Rainbow's oldest and closest friend was a kindhearted and introverted animal-lover who was given the very fitting name of...Fluttershy.

Despite the fact that they had barely anything in common, not to mention personalities that seemed to be polar opposites of each other, Rainbow had always had a soft spot for Fluttershy, and Fluttershy had always felt safe whenever she was around Rainbow Dash.

What started this odd friendship in the first place was a bit of a story, but the important part was that they had actually known each other ever since first grade of elementary school, and despite all that had happened during that time, they still remained best friends to this day. 

Also, the two of them lived literally across the street from each other, thus making it very easy to stay in touch. 

It also made it easy for Fluttershy to pay Dash a small visit before Applejack was coming to pick them up. 

While she was making her way over there, Fluttershy hummed a soft tune to herself while keeping an eye out for any birds, insects, occasional squirrels or other small animals that might be around in this relatively quiet suburban area. 

Just by looking at her, it was clear that this girl was nothing like Rainbow Dash. Where's Rainbow was built like an athlete, Fluttershy was rather thin and lanky, and actually stood a full head taller than Dash. In contrast with Rainbow's slightly boyish shoulder-length prismatic hair, Fluttershy had long wavy silky hair held away from her eyes with a barrette that looked like a butterfly. Also, it was pink...which was one of the few colours Dash didn't have in her rainbow hair.  

When she came up to the front door of Rainbow's house, she didn't have to wait long after ringing the doorbell before the door was slammed open and a very awake Rainbow Dash greeted, "Hey Fluttershy! You ready to go?!" 

A bit taken back by her friend's sudden appearance and in-your-face demeanour, Fluttershy stuttered, "Um, well, I guess I might be. But-"

"Good! I'll be right out in a sec!" Dash responded before darting back inside.

A few moments later, Rainbow came back out, now wearing a sky-blue jacket and a pair of shoes with her camera bag hung over her shoulder. Having little to no patience to speak of, she didn't wait to listen to what Fluttershy was about to say before she ran out of her house and began to look around for any signs of Applejack's truck. 

"Come on, Shy, let's..." she then noticed something. "...wait, where's our ride?" 

"Oh, it's...not here yet," Fluttershy answered, still standing in the same spot as before. "Applejack called me and said that she would be here any minute now...which was actually...half-an-hour ago...I think."

Rainbow slumped over slightly, "Ah man! And I just got past my last get-up-in-the-morning record for this!"

"I suppose...it might be a little tricky to find your way around here?" Fluttershy suggested.

"Well, she better come soon. I did not wake up this early just to stand here and wait!"

Fluttershy took a seat at the front porch of Rainbow's house and said, "She'll be here, there's no need to worry." then gently patted the spot next to her, inviting Rainbow to come join her.

Dash was about to say something else, but the words died in her throat when she looked into her friend's big, blue eyes. 'Damn, she's adorable. Well, I guess sitting and waiting with her might not be such a bad idea after all. Maybe this will be the perfect opportunity to ask if she's- wait, no, don't go there, Dash. It's not worth it.'

Rainbow shrugged and walked over to sit beside her. "Fine. But if this takes another hour, Applejack's buying me a soda or something." 

"Just a soda?" Fluttershy wondered. "I didn't expect you to settle for anything less than a full barrel of cider."

After having taken a seat at the porch next to her, Dash answered, "Trust me, that is next on my list...right after I convince her to go a whole day without once saying the word 'Sugarcube'."

Fluttershy snickered a little at that, "Hihihi, oh my, then maybe you should go an entire day without saying 'Awesome'...if you're...you know...okay with that."

"Hehe, good point," Rainbow admitted with a small blush. 

For a few minutes, the two of them just sat there in silence. Fluttershy was quietly listening to the bird calls that filled the summer morning's air, all while keeping her eyes peeled on any little critter that might seem fit to show up today. Rainbow Dash on the other hand...she was periodically sneaking in a few glances in Fluttershy's direction every once in awhile, all while trying to make it look like she wasn't staring at her.

'Dammit Rainbow! Get a hold of yourself! I know she's really cute, and has those adorable puppy-dog eyes, and that soft pink silky hair, that sweet smell and that nice rack-' She physically shook her head a little to get those lewd thoughts to leave her alone. 'Oh gosh, now I'm doing it again! What the hell is wrong with me? She's my best friend, I can't keep thinking of her like that. It's just weird.'

Rainbow tried to focus on something, anything, else than her unwanted and most certainly doomed non-platonic feelings she had begun to develop for her oldest friend. However, that turned out to be far easier said than done...especially since there was barely anything around to distract herself with. 

'Maybe I should just tell her? I mean, we've been through a lot, and it doesn't feel right to keep something like this from her, and...who knows, maybe I could score a new girlfriend out of it. But then again...what if she isn't into girls after all...or me for that matter? Wouldn't that just make things really awkward between us? Heck, she might not even want to be friends with me after that. Urgh...why do these things have to be so damn complicated?!'

While Fluttershy obviously couldn't hear Rainbow's internal monologue, she did notice that she was fidgeting an awful lot, and it was making her a bit concerned. "Um...Rainbow Dash, are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, 'course I am, what are you talking about?" Dash replied nervously. 

"Well...you seem to be a bit...uh, jumpy."

"No way, I'm just...ehhh..." She then spotted something familiar come into view. "Oh, hey, there they are!"

Fluttershy followed Rainbow's gaze and saw the red slightly rusty old truck that was pulling over at the house. Recognising it as the one Applejack was going to borrow from her big brother, she decided to save their conversation for later and follow an impatient Rainbow Dash who was now making a beeline for the approaching car.

Once the truck had parked properly, two girls about the same age as Rainbow and Fluttershy stepped out of it. 

The one who was driving the truck was Applejack, and if one were to describe her in one word it would probably be 'Country'. Not only was she wearing an orange plaid shirt, had Western-style boots on her feet and slightly torn worker jeans on her legs, but she was also rarely seen without her trademark stetson on her head. Her sunny blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail as well as her freckled face gave her a certain country flair, and her well-built and slightly heavy-set physique and sunburned skin made it clear that she was used to hard work.

Her passenger, Pinkie Pie, on the other hand was another matter entirely. Everything about her screamed energy, parties, happiness and pink...lots and lots of pink. She was wearing a pink T-shirt with a logo of three balloons on it in addition to a pair of blue shorts with polka-striped leggings to compliment it. Her chaotic curly pink mess of a haircut had a slight resemblance to cotton candy...and may or may not contain its own pocket dimension. Also, one could surmise that she had a bit of a sweet tooth judging by the fact that seemed to be on a constant sugar rush and also because she was a fair bit chubby. 

As soon as Applejack had gotten out of the truck, Rainbow Dash got right up in her face and shouted, "What took you guys so long?!"

With a touch of sarcasm, Applejack replied, "'Howdy, Applejack. I'm mighty glad y'all are here to give me lift today.' Now that, Sugarcube, is what you're supposed to say," in the Southern country accent she had grown up with.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Urrgh...Well, hi, AJ. You happy now?"

"Eeyup!" she answered smugly. "Now as to that question of yours...well, turns out this here area is easier to get lost in than a circle in a corn field."

"Haven't you been here like a million times already?"

"Sure, but I just got my license last month, and it's a heck of lot harder to navigate this place on your own. Also, I'm pretty sure I would have been here a mite bit sooner if someone..." she cast a glare at Pinkie, "...hadn't scared me half to death by screamin' like a banshee when I was trying to concentrate on my drivin'."

"Sorry, Jackie, can't help it!" Pinkie explained in her energetic and high-pitched voice. "Someone somewhere in the world was talking about breaking a Pinkie Promise, and nobody breaks a Pinkie Promise!" 

Applejack crossed her arms, "Plus, her 'advice' on directions were a bit...all over the place."

"Well...DUH!" Pinkie exclaimed. "That's because you said we should take exactly the same way I did last time I went to Rainbow Dash's house, and the last time I went there I got a teensy bit lost looking for some ice cream to eat on the way but the first place I found didn't have any of Mulia Mild's delicious chocolate-strawberry-deluxe-specials, and I really, really, really wanted one of those, so I went around and around and around to every place I could find but no one had it, and that's when I realised-"

Before she could go on any longer, Applejack put a hand over her mouth to shut her up. "Y'all get what I mean?" 

Even with her mouth shut, Pinkie could still be heard mumbling something with the same excitement as before. In fact, she barely even seemed to notice that nobody could properly hear what she was currently saying. 

"I...think I got it," Fluttershy said meekly.

Feeling a bit impatient, Rainbow asked, "So, can we go now or what?"

"Sure thing," Applejack concurred before removing her hand from Pinkie's face. 

However, that lead them all to hear a very strange and out of context comment that sounded something like, "...and then I said 'Cornflakes, are you crazy!?'"

A confused silence reigned among the girls for a moment after she said that...then they all proceeded to put it out of their minds and continue on with their day.

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Rainbow asked impatiently while taking a grip on Fluttershy's hand. "C'mon, Shy, let's get going!"

"Alright, Da-WOAAAAH!" she responded when her much faster and less patient friend pulled her over towards the back seat of Applejack's borrowed vehicle.  

Before the other two could react, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were already in their seats and waiting. Rainbow was even tapping her foot on the floor impatiently as if to say 'we don't have all day'. 

Applejack chuckled a little, "Hehe, always in a hurry that gal, ain't she?"

"She's just excited about this trip...and so am I!" Pinkie declared while making a move to follow them.

However, all of a sudden, she stopped in her tracks while her strange hair started to twitch, then her ears began to flap around on their own, her eyes fluttered a bit followed by an uncontrollable twirl of her fingers. In response to the peculiar reaction her body had, Pinkie's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates while she let out a loud gasp.

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her friend’s unusual antics, “What's it now, Pinkie?”

Pinkie immediately grabbed Applejack by the shoulders and hysterically warned, “I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but my ‘Pinkie Sense’ is telling me that something totally and absolutely unexpected is going to happen to someone in our immediate vicinity within the next twenty-four hours that will change that person’s life…FOREVER!" then her posture abruptly softened a bit "...or I forgot to feed Gummy again. I can never really tell which is which.”

“Suuure, if ya say so…” the confused farmgirl replied...not having the slightest clue what to make of Pinkie's sudden rant.

...Little did anyone know that Pinkie Pie's prediction would most certainly come true...and that this little trip was not only going to change the life of one person...but that of the whole city.

This is the story of how a once normal teenaged girl became Canterlot's newest superhero...and what she had to do to get there... 





(Wait a minute...this wasn't were the old chapter ended, was it? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? Well, except if you're a new reader, then you were probably thinking of something else.

Yes, this is only half the chapter, and I will rewrite the second half too, but this part was starting to get very long, so I decided to split it in two parts to have this out sooner.)
> Celestia's Newest Students
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Beware, this is the new and improved version of the second part of the first chapter. The old version of chapter one is still there if you want to read it, but only this version is considered canon to the rest of the story) 






Prologue, Part 2
Celestia's Newest Students


CelestiaCorp.

That was the name of one of the most successful, famous, and advanced science and development corporations in the country. It was founded right here in Canterlot by a woman named Celestia and her younger sister Luna with the money they inherited from their wealthy mother and father upon their passing.  

Around the time Captain Jupiter appeared, 20 years ago more or less, there was a similar company known as Starswirl Laboratories that amazed pretty much everyone with their innovations...but suffered greatly due to internal corruption and the involvement of the criminal organisation known as 'the Maggia'...which lead to the emergence of many of the super-powered criminals Jupiter once fought.

CelestiaCorp was meant to be different than its predecessor. Better. With a stronger figurehead, tighter security, less shady dealings and more focus on bettering the human race as opposed to just do what is immediately profitable. 

While she was criticised by many, Celestia stood firm in her beliefs, and refused to be swayed by notions of greed or foul play. No matter how often what was left of the Canterlot Maggia, various military organisations, or Rex Storm, the power-hungry owner of the rival research company known as 'Storm Tech', tried to manipulate her into using her science for their selfish purposes, she made sure to never give in. No matter how many threats or lucrative propositions she had received, Celestia had never strayed from her ideals of science only being used to help humanity evolve towards a better future.  

Celestia's infectious optimism and personal strength inspired many to follow in her wake, including some of the greatest minds of this generation. Revered scientists and born prodigies joined the company one after another, and it didn't take long until CelestiaCorp became one of the greatest research companies around. 

However, despite how many people signed up to work for her all the time, Celestia herself periodically travelled to schools all over the city in search of people who showed potential. If she found someone who impressed her, then she would occasionally offer them a choice to become her personal students and study under her guidance. 

The first students she ever took on were a couple of High Schoolers going by the names of Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer, both of which had since graduated with top honours, with the former of the two taking on a career as a teacher while the latter was now in charge of CelestiaCorp's engineering division.

She had taken on a couple students later on, but very few of them impressed her nearly as much as Glimmer and Sunburst did...at least until she made a discrete visit to a science fair hosted at a small suburban High School known only as Canterlot High. 

It was there she met the 18-year old engineer-in-training Sunset Shimmer and the 16-year old math and science-genius Twilight Sparkle. 

While they didn't know each other that well back then, the two of them once joined forces to win the science fair Celestia visited. And when she saw what the two of them had created, Celestia immediately offered to take them both under her wing and let them study at her company. 

Naturally, they accepted, and were now researching at the company as Celestia's newest students. 





CelestiaCorp had many facilities bearing its name...some of which weren't even in Canterlot City. A few of them were even based outside the country. 

However, the most prominent and by far the most well-known building owned by the company was the giant skyscraper in the middle of Canterlot with the words 'CELESTIACORP' written on it in big all-caps letters.  

The CelestiaCorp Tower.

It had 84 floors and stood firm as the second tallest building in the city, with only the Empire Canterlot Building towering over it, and could be spotted no matter where in the general vicinity of Canterlot you happened to be. Truly an impressive piece of architecture beyond any doubt. It was here where most of the company's research was done, and it was here where Celestia herself usually spent her days.

However, while most of the building's floors were comprised of laboratories of some kind or another, there was actually a small cafeteria at the bottom floor that the company's employees could use to relax and have a bite to eat or a cup of coffee to drink.

It was there where Twilight Sparkle was currently enjoying a cup of tea with Sunset Shimmer while waiting for her friends to arrive.

Given CelestiaCorp's extremely high security standards, it was a bit of a hard sell to actually get this little social visit approved in the first place. Celestia herself was fairly easy to convince given her personal trust in Twilight's judgement, as well as her sociable and optimistic demeanour...but the same could not be said for her sister Luna.

While Celestia was clearly the face of the company, given that it was named after her, the younger of the two sisters were the one ultimately in charge of the safety and well-being of CelestiaCorp Tower itself, and she wasn't as close to Twilight as her sister was...so when it was up to her to allow a group of teenage girls, including one with a small criminal record at that, to wander around a place filled with highly sensitive equipment and specimens, Luna obviously said no at first.

Though, with a little extra diplomacy, including an offer of a free cake and breakfast in bed, Luna reluctantly agreed to let Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie gain access to CelestiaCorp Tower for one day...but she wasn't happy about it.

Now all they had to do was to get there.

While they sat there waiting for all of them, Twilight and Sunset used this opportunity to talk for a bit...though the topic of their conversation was perhaps not something that Twilight was all that comfortable discussing.

"So...did you go for it this time?" Sunset asked with a coy smile that simply oozed of confidence. In fact, almost everything about her said the same thing. She had red and yellow hair that flowed over her back like flames, a healthy tan, a cool and collected voice, and even though she was currently wearing a lab coat, she still had black leather boots on her feet.

Her lab partner Twilight on the other hand was clearly a bit more on the nerdy side, with her huge dorky glasses, dark blue hair with noticeable pink stripes in it and was neatly tied up into a bun. And even though she had a noticeable dark skin tone, her cheeks were still obviously blushing out of embarrassment when she awkwardly answered, "Weeeell...no, I didn't. I told him I couldn't."

"Oh, okay..." Sunset said in a slightly disappointed tone, dropping her smile a little, "...any particular reason why?" 

"I guess I just didn't feel like it."

"Hey, Twilight, I get what you mean, but it's not everyday you of all people, no offence, get asked out by someone like him. It's not good for you to let opportunities like that slip all the time."

Twilight took a sip of her tea, "Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered that Flash, or anyone at all for that matter, thought I would make good dating material, but he's...well...maybe not my type or something. Besides, he's your ex, that just makes it a whole ton weirder!"

"Well...technically I only went out with him to get popular back when I was CHS's queen bee," Sunset clarified a bit shamefully. "I didn't really 'like him' like him, you know?"

"Then that's another reason for declining. I mean, if you didn't like him for any reason other than that, then I don't see really why I would."

"Fair enough," Shimmer conceded while tasting a bit of her own tea. "Though seriously, you really should find someone. You could use the distraction."

"Distraction? Why would I need a distraction?"

Sunset sighed, "I've seen how you are when you're focused on an assignment, and it has me a bit worried."

"About what?"

"Look. When you focus on something, you really focus on something. Don't get me wrong, that's good and all, but do you ever just, I don't know, let loose a bit?"

"If by 'let loose' you mean 'get drunk, have wild parties or kiss people I barely know', like the stereotype of my age-group would suggest, then no, I'm not."

Sunset shook her head, "No, what I mean is 'hang out with some friends, go on dates, or at least have a life outside the lab', because you don't really seem to be doing that a lot."

"Hey! I do hang out with my friends!" Twilight insisted. "I mean, aren't we sitting around here waiting for them right now?"

"Yes, to show them the things you're into. When was the last time you took an interest in what any of them wanted to do?"

Twilight was about to respond to that, but then stopped herself when she couldn't come up with anything to say in her defence. 'Well...I guess you could count that visit to the new Canterlot Mall opening...but that must have been a few weeks ago at least. But didn't Pinkie want my help organising Gummy's birthday party? Wait, no, I was too busy trying to map out the symbiote's alien genome that day. And then there was that barn sale that Applejack had the other day...that I was also too busy to help with, or what about that soccer game Rainbow wanted me to see. Oh, yeah, the one that I completely forgot about. Come to think about it...when was the last time I helped any of them out with anything?'

She began to analyse her past behaviour for an answer to that question, but when she eventually found one, her brain immediately went into overdrive.  

"Oh no, no, no, no, this is a disaster!" Twilight suddenly ranted, catching Sunset off-guard. "How could I not noticed it sooner?! I'm a terrible friend! I failed every single one of them because I was too busy with this new internship position, even though I'm supposed to care and make time for them when they need me! They may say they're happy for me, but they probably think I'm just a geeky anti-social nerd who cannot even bring herself to care about anything besides my nerdy research, someone that cannot even bother to show up and help them with their problems or do what they want, what they think is fun!"

Once she was starting to get a bit hysterical, Sunset calmly asked, "Uh, Twilight?"

...But Twilight didn't really seem to have heard her.

"What if they think I'm not worth being their friend, and decide to cut me off from the group?! What if they never want to see me again!?" 

“Twilight,” Sunset tried again.

"...And then I'll be too distracted thinking of what a horrible friend I was to do my work properly and Celestia has to cut me loose, making me lose the one thing that I lost all my-"

“Twilight!” Sunset suddenly shouted.

That immediately shut her up, and also made her realise that she was starting to make a scene. She blushed heavily when she noticed that just about everyone else in the cafeteria was staring at her. 

A bit embarrassed, Twilight muttered a nervous "Sorry", then buried her head in her hands while letting out a frustrated sigh.

"I...had one of my episodes, didn't I?"

"Pretty much...yeah." Shimmer replied before she gently started patting Twilight on the head.

"Arghh...I know I should stop assuming the worst all the time...but...well, its really hard not to."

"Aw...you shouldn't beat yourself up over that, Twilight," Pinkie Pie provided. "It's no shame in having a little problem with your OCD."

"Exactly," Sunset concurred. "And you don't need to worry about your friends either. All you have to do is try to make some time and hang out with them every once in awhile. It's never too late for that."

"Yeah, what she said! Plus, your problems are nothing compared to what me and my sisters have to deal with all the time," Pinkie added.

"See? At least someone..." Sunset suddenly stopped herself when she noticed something...then took a good long look at the pink-haired girl who was currently sitting at their table, loudly drinking a packet of apple juice through a straw. "...hang on a minute...how long have you been there?"

Too focused on not having another anxiety attack, Twilight hadn't given a second thought as to when and how Pinkie Pie showed up at their table, but when that fact was now put into question, she raised her head and looked at the newcomer curiously.

"Oh, around the time Twilight said 'Oh no, no, no, no, this is a disaster!'...though it sounded a lot funnier when she said it," Pinkie answered with a shrug. Then she held out her hand to Sunset and introduced herself, "I'm Pinkamina Diane Pie, but most people just call me Pinkie. That's waaaaaaaaay easier."

Sunset slowly and cautiously took Pinkie's hand, "Nice...to meet you, Pinkie..." only to be surprised when the other girl shook her arm fast enough to create after-images.

"Nice to meet you too! No, wait, it's better then nice, it's absolutely wonderrific! So what might your name be, girl of bacon-coloured hair?"

"Bacon-coloured?!" Sunset sputtered, slightly offended.

Pinkie couldn't help but giggle at that, "Hihihihi! Wow, that's a funny name. Props to me for guessing it though!"

"What?! No, I'm Sunset Shimmer, and what-"

"Ooooooooooh...so you're the Sunset girl Twilight told me so much about!" Pinkie noted, her eyes filling up with glee. "A bit of a shame though because I would love to meet someone who actually is called 'Bacon-coloured'. It'd be even funnier if it's one of those ironic names and that person isn't bacon-coloured at all, hihihihi!"  

Sunset looked at Twilight for an explanation.

"She's...one of my friends," Twilight clarified. "You know, one of those we'd been waiting for?"

Shimmer mouthed an understanding "Oh" in response.

Twilight then turned her attention back to Pinkie, "So...where are the others?"

Pinkie Pie dived under the table, then immediately after, her voice could be heard shouting from across the room near the cafeteria entrance, "They're over heeeeeeere!"

Twilight's eyes quickly set on the entrance, and saw that Pinkie was happily skipping towards them with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack following closely behind.

An eager smile festered on Twilight’s lips upon seeing them finally here, and she promptly made a move to get up to join them...but stopped once she gave Sunset a quick glance and saw her stare blankly at Pinkie Pie with a vacant look on her face.

"Uhm...Sunset...are you okay?"

Sunset stuttered, "How...did she go...from here to there...I can't...eh..."

Twilight let out a little laugh, "Oh, hehe, that's just Pinkie Pie. She does that. I don't know how, but she does that. I tried to figure out how she managed to do all the things she does once before, but all that gave me was a really bad headache...so I decided to just try not to question it."

Shimmer blinked a few times, then said, "...I'll take your word for it."

"You better, pal," Rainbow Dash, who had suddenly taken a seat at their table provided. "The last time Twilight tried to crack the whole Pinkie mystery, she got all mad scientist about it and strapped Pinkie down to an operating table."

"I did not!" Twilight insisted, her face heating up in the process. "I was just trying to measure her brainwaves, not anything invasive!"

Rainbow gave her a sceptical look, "Then why was there a scalpel on your desk?"

"For other research projects."

"And those projects being...?"

"Ahem!" Applejack interrupted. "Gettin' off-topic there, Rainbow." 

Then she spat in her hand and held it out towards Sunset, "Name's Applejack, pleasure makin' your acquaintance!"

Without a beat, Sunset took her hand and shook it, seemingly not bothered by the saliva in the cowgirl's palm. "Sunset Shimmer."

Fluttershy, who, along with the other girls, had taken a seat at their table, spoke up next, "And I'm...I'm...Fluttershy." 

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Sunset asked while she tried to make eye contact with the introverted girl currently hiding her face behind her long pink hair.

"It's Fluttershy!" She squeaked out a little louder...though not exactly loud enough to hear her properly.

Shimmer leaned in a little closer, "Didn't quite catch that."

"Her name's Fluttershy!" Rainbow suddenly answered for her, but with enough energy to make Sunset flinch a little. "She's my best bud, and she's really nice, but she can also be a bit...well...shy...especially around strangers. No offence."

"None...taken. And you are..?"

"I'm the one and only Rainbow Dash; star athlete, ace photographer, future pilot and probably the most awesome girl you're ever gonna meet!" she answered proudly and with a clear sense of bravado. 

Sunset chuckled a little, "Hehe, well you certainly don't lack for confidence."

"I'm just saying it as it is," Rainbow boasted. "It's not bragging if its true, right?"

"Sugarcube," Applejack began, drawing Rainbow's attention. "every time you talk about yourself you end up braggin'... whether it's true or not."

"Hey! I can be humble..!"

Applejack slowly raised an eyebrow.

"...when I feel like it."

Applejack sighed.

Sunset loudly cleared her throat to get the others attention. "So, it's just you four who're coming today? We're not waiting for anyone else?"

"Nah, it's just us," Pinkie answered, having just finished her apple juice pack. "I would have loved to invite lots and lots of more people, but Twilight didn't like that idea very much."

"Well..." Fluttershy voiced loud enough to hear. "...Rarity was supposed to be here today, but...she's...not coming."

Sunset noticed something in Fluttershy's tone when she said that, almost as if she was sad about something. She made sure to make a mental note to herself about that for future reference. ‘Yeah, I figured there was one missing. Now, I think Twilight told me something about this girl before...’

"Rarity huh..." Sunset mused. "That's the one who liked fashion, right?" 

"Eeyup...that she sure do!" Applejack replied with a small smirk that seemed to basically scream out, 'you have no idea...'. 

"Cool. So...did she give a reason for not coming?"

As soon as she asked that, all of the other girls started to look nervous all of a sudden. Clearly there was something interesting currently going on about this 'Rarity' person. Though what exactly, she can only guess.

Eventually, Applejack answered with a vague, "It's...complicated."

"I see..." Sunset replied in a quiet tone. She briefly considered asking them to elaborate, but ultimately chose not to pry into their personal lives until she knew them better. 

So instead, she reached into the pocket of her lab coat and pulled out a couple of plastic cards while explaining, "Anyway, these are your temporary ID cards. As long as you're in the labs, you will need to keep them on you at all times."

The girls picked up their respective cards and noticed that their names were all printed on them, along with the title of 'Visitor'. There was even a small metallic pinch in the corner to make sure it could stick to someone's clothing and not fall off.

"Uhh...why do we need these?" Rainbow questioned while giving her card an inspection. 'Just 'Rainbow Dash'? Seriously? There should be a 'Danger' in there somewhere.'

Twilight was quick to give an explanation, "Well, CelestiaCorp has really tight security, and the research we're doing in the labs here are far too risky for us to allow to fall into the wrong hands."

"Just imagine what would happen if a common street punk got his hands on a functional freeze ray...or if a potentially deadly virus ended up accidentally being released into the atmosphere." Sunset added for example.

Fluttershy shuddered a little at the thought.

Twilight continued, "Therefore must every person who visits the labs be given the approval of either Luna or Celestia, the company's founders, before they're allowed inside. The ID cards represents that approval, and the security personnel will need to see them if you're to be allowed anywhere inside the tower...well, aside from the lobby of course."

"Sooooo...what happens if we lose them or somethin'?" Applejack asked, while also trying to find a way to stick the card on her shirt.

"To put it simply...the security guards will have to throw you out," Sunset answered.

Horrified at the thought, Fluttershy squeaked, "Th-th-throw us...ou-out?!"

In order to prevent her anxiety-ridden friend from having a panic-attack, Twilight softened it to, "Well, more like...eh...politely escort you...out." 

"That still sounds terrifying," Fluttershy quivered. "I don't know if I could handle that!"

Rainbow gave her a few gentle pats on the back to help her calm down. "There, there, Shy, no one is gonna throw you out. And if they try, I'll make them regret it!"

Fluttershy instantly broke out of her anxiety to give Dash a reprimanding look. 

"Not that I would hurt anyone to do that or anything, hehe..." Rainbow nervously clarified.

Fluttershy smiled. 

"Point is: don't lose them," Sunset reminded. "As long as you have them on, there shouldn't be any issues. Though to be sure, I'd suggest not touching anything either."

"Okey dokey lokey!" Pinkie agreed. "No touchy in the labs. Pinkie Promise." 

She then looked at the others sternly, "Right, girls?"

Fluttershy merely nodded silently, Applejack responded with a nervous "Sure thing", and Rainbow Dash didn't seemed to have heard the question, so she answered with a confused "Huh?"

Pinkie Pie got up and looked Rainbow straight in the eyes, "You won't touch anything in the lab and break a Pinkie Promise, would you?"

Dash let out another nervous chuckle, "Hehe, why would I be touching anything? he...hehe-he..." 'It's not like I've been arrested for shoplifting before or anything.' 

Pinkie's eyes lingered on Rainbow's for a second more before she looked away and cheerfully announced, "Alright then, LET'S GET THIS TOUR STARTED!"

"Yes, let's!" Twilight beamed while she sprung up from her chair like a spring. "There's so much I've been wanting to show you girls for so long now, I don't know if we'll even have time for them all! We have the bio-labs, the engineering department, the theoretical physics room, Professor Starswirl's collection, 'special projects', or maybe the old archives, and that's barely scratching the surface! What do you want to see first?!"

Twilight's question was met with a slightly awkward silence while her four friends were trying to come up with a good answer to it. Now, her friends weren't exactly dumb, but they hadn't really kept up that much with Twilight's science career over the years, so they were pretty much clueless as to what any of those alternatives meant. 

Eventually though, Rainbow suggested, "...Maybe the thing that's closest from here or something?"

"That would be the open testing area. One of my personal favourites actually," Twilight confessed. "Follow me!"





While the work going on in CelestiaCorp was very sophisticated and complex, the same could not be said for their choices in names.

For example, the 'Open Testing Area' was precisely what it sounded like: a very large open room with few discernible features in it where it was possible to test out the inventions the company made that were a bit too big to be used anywhere else.

In fact, it was by far the largest room in the building...and yet, none in Twilight's group were allowed to be in it. 

Instead, they had to observe the mostly empty compartment through the thick glass window of a smaller room next to it, with a few computer screens around showing several different angles of the giant room for visual aid. 

Now, when it came to a place called the 'Open Testing Area', then one might be wondering what exactly they were testing in there.

At the moment, the company was currently demonstrating the capabilities of something that looked like a giant mechanised bipedal rhinoceros. A demonstration that the group of six teenage girls just outside were glad they didn't miss out on.

While Twilight and Sunset took turns explaining how the rhino-mech worked, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were all staring at it with different levels of amazement and wonder. 

Rainbow had even brought out her camera to take a couple of photos of the machine...even though they weren't all that good from the angle she was looking from. That said, she still couldn't get over how awesome the machine looked. If only it wasn't so slow and heavy, she would definitively want to pilot the thing given a chance. 

Pinkie was mostly on the same wavelength...and at this point, it was really hard to determine which of the two could have been the worst possible candidate to control one of the powerful behemoths. 

Applejack meanwhile was looking it over with a more practical goal in mind. After all, there were a lot of heavy lifting when working at Sweet Apple Acres...and something this big and powerful would no doubt prove to be very useful when dealing with that. Now, if only she could convince Granny Smith to go along with it... 

Fluttershy on the other hand was slightly intimidated by the walking mechanical monster and even kept a certain distance from the window leading to the testing area...though that was also because of how far up they were compared to the testing area. 

"...And with the new armour plating developed specifically for the Rhinos, they are virtually indestructible," Twilight explained. "This protects the operator inside from all manner of harm that could befall a worker on a construction or demolition site. The machine is even suited to protect them from limited amounts of radiation, as well as extremely high or low temperatures. In addition to that, a Rhino is capable of lifting several metric tonnes of pressure with ease."

When she mentioned that, the test pilot in the Rhino suit decided to use the mech's powerful arms to try to pick up a massive weighted box that even had the words '10 TON' written on it. 

While the impressive weight made the hydraulics in the Rhino create a slightly stressed sound, that didn't stop it from lifting the box several metres into the air with relative ease.

"No way!" Rainbow sounded at the sight, taking as many pictures as she could to make sure that she could treasure this moment a bit more in the future. "That thing's awesome!"

"Can I drive it next!?" Pinkie Pie excitingly asked while getting right up in Twilight's face with the best pleading eyes she could muster. "Can I? Can I?! Can I?! Can I?!"

"Sorry, Pinkie,” Twilight answered, taking step back to regain a little personal space. “You need, well, clearance for that."

“Oooh, can you get me some?”

"I'm afraid not."

Pinkie visibly deflated after hearing that, all while making a disappointed "Aaaaaaaaw..." sound. 

"Soooo what will it take to get to drive one of those then?" Rainbow inquired while she sorted through the photos she had just taken. "I get that we can't right now, but is there a chance we could try it out later?"

"That would be a bit tricky to arrange. These are just early prototypes, and we're still waiting for official approval before they're going into production. Either way, it's going to be some time before anyone other than our certified test pilots get to drive them."

"That sucks," Dash commented as she began to put her camera back in her bag. "You don't suppose we could-"

Already knowing what she was about to suggest, Twilight answered with a stern, "No."

"But-"

"No!"

"...Fine." Rainbow grumbled dejectedly.  

Seeing an opening, Applejack decided to ask, "So...how much would you suppose these doohickeys would cost anyway...when they're on the market, that is?"

Sunset chuckled a little at the question, "Heh, looking to buy one early, Applejack?"

"Ya know, maybe I am. Seriously, the things I could do with one of those on the farm would be worth a heck of a lot."

"I sure hope so. We haven't gotten a price tag yet, but just one Rhino would easily be worth nearly five million dollars at least, so I hope you got the money." 

"FIVE MILLION!?" Applejack spat in disbelief. "That's completely outrageous! No way in Blue Hill we're gonna afford that!"

"Actually, it costed us even more than that just to get the materials to build them," Twilight noted. "Plus, the Rhino is not really designed for farming anyway."

"Still, can't blame a gal for-"

"WHOAH, what's that!?" Rainbow suddenly shouted, cutting Applejack off before she could finish that sentence. 

Immediately, everyone else turned their attention to what she had spotted.

Another test pilot had just entered the Open Testing Area. However, what he was riding on was probably even more impressive than the Rhino-mech. 

It appeared to be some kind of winged flying contraption that the pilot was using to pull off some pretty crazy areal manoeuvres in the spacious but limited testing room. 

Unlike most areal vehicles though, where there was a domed cockpit encasing a flight seat, this pilot was actually standing on top of it with his legs attached to the primary steering system, allowing him to control its directions by tilting his body while also preventing him from falling off. To compensate for the air-resistance and G-forces one would expect from flying around at high speeds, the pilot was wearing a high-tech full-body suit that was electronically connected to the flying machine for added efficiency. 

"Forget the Rhino thing, I want to fly one of those!" Rainbow declared, pressing her whole body at the glass window while her eyes were gleefully tracking the movements of the fast-moving hovercraft.

"ME TOO! ME TOO!" Pinkie agreed.

“I think I’ll pass...” Fluttershy mumbled, still keeping her distance from the others.

"That...is a CelstiaCorp Tech-Flight Glider," Sunset explained. "It's meant to be used by cops and other emergency people to keep trouble in check without having to get bogged down by traffic. And it’s also far more manoeuvrable than a police chopper. While brand new in design, it's actually based on the same tech the Vulture used back when he was a supervillain."

'Yeah, the Vulture...' Rainbow thought bitterly. 'Canterlot's first super-jerk...and also my ex's grandpa. Guess where she got her attitude from?'

"That thing looks way more impressive than those crummy old Vulture-wings though," she commented out loud. "Seriously, did you see how fast the glider could turn in mid-air?! I haven't seen the Vulture in action, but I really doubt he could do that."

"Astute observation, Rainbow," Twilight complimented. "While Gruff Tomb's original invention was pretty impressive for its time, science really has come a long way since then. The glider is also far easier to steer than the Vulture-harness, as well as being a bit more agile, can load more ordnance, and has the ability to effectively hover in mid-air. Plus, the engine is far more advanced, letting it fly longer without running out of power while also being a lot more environmentally friendly."    

"In short: the glider beats the wings every time." Sunset concluded with a proud grin on her face. 

The test pilot now performed a perfect barrel roll followed by a full-on loop as if to prove her point. To an outside viewer, it might look like he was just having fun (and honestly, who could blame him), but in truth, he was actually going over a detailed list of moves he had to test in order to evaluate how the machine held up in tense situations. 





The one who had given him that list, as well as the one who also happened to be the original architect behind both the glider and the Rhino, was also watching the demonstration through a glass window connected to the Open Testing Area. However, she was standing in a room a floor above the one where Twilight's group were at.

At first glance, she would appear to be your average run-of-the-mill researcher, with her neatly combed purple hair and white lab coat...until one saw the four long mechanical octopus-like arms coming out of her back, each with a three-pronged ‘hand’ at its end.

She used one of the arms to pick up her notebook from her coat pocket while she simultaneously used another to reach for a coffee cup sitting on a nearby table. She brought the coffee cup up to her lips and took a sip from it, then used her actual hands to take out a pen and scribble down a few notes on what she had just witnessed. 

"Glider: check, Rhino: check. All systems operational and seems to be working perfectly. Ha-ha, looks like I’m ahead of schedule!” 

Once she was done with that, the scientist used another one of her mechanical arms to press the button to activate a speaker in order to announce, "Alright, that's enough of a demonstration today! Turn the prototypes off for now and report back to my office when you're done!"  

She then let go of the button and said to herself, “Well, that’s two things off my to-do list...now only twenty-seven to go. Shouldn’t be too hard.” 





After hearing that, Twilight looked at her friends and said, "And I guess that's it. Up next, we have the-"

"Wait, wait, wait! Hang on!" Rainbow interrupted while she was frantically trying to take out her camera from her bag. "I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it yet!"

Unfortunately for her, she wasn't fast enough to get it out in time to photograph anything worthy of note due to the fact that the pilot had already flown the glider out of the testing room by the time she had her camera ready. 

She did manage to get one picture though...but that one showed only a portion of the machine's left wing and nothing else. Plus, it was extremely blurry.

Dash groaned and muttered "Aw nuts!" while slumping over a bit in disappointment. 

Applejack put an arm over her neck and said with a chuckle, "Well, hehehe, I guess you should have taken the pictures when you had the chance then, sugarcube."

Rainbow gave Applejack an irritated pout that honestly made her look more adorable than anything else. "Yeah, rub it in, why don't ya?"

"That's what I'm here for, pardner!" The cowgirl joked with a trollish smile. 

"I hate you." Dash muttered under her breath.

“Nah, ya don’t.”

Rainbow sighed, then turned to Twilight and asked, "Okay, so if I couldn't get any pictures of the coolest thing around here, could you show me the, uh, second coolest thing?"

"You thought that was the coolest thing in here?!” Twilight challenged while almost squealing with excitement. “Boy, are you in for something! Come on, up next: the Bio-Labs!"





(Wait, wait, wait, wait! This isn’t the ending to this chapter either, isn’t it?

Well, as it turns out, improving on a rushed chapter tends to make it a fair bit longer than it originally was. So now I have to split what was from the beginning only one chapter into three.

I’ll get the third part out as soon as possible...which, to be honest, I have no idea how fast or slow that would be. 

Just...stay tuned.)
> 1) And Along Came a Spider, Part 1 (New version)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Attention! This is the third and final part of the new and improved version of the first chapter. While the original version is still there if you want to read it, only this version is going to be considered canon to the rest of the story.)


Episode 1
And Along Came a Spider…Part 1
An Eight-legged Stowaway


As the name suggested, the Bio-Labs were working with things very differently than Doctor Glimmer’s engineering division. 

Here, the doctors were studying life itself...and specifically, how to improve upon it.

Fighting deceases, upgrading the human body, or gaining a better understanding of all things living in the world was the goal here...and it was up to the division’s eccentric head scientist Doctor Silk Mane and her crew to see it happen.

As Twilight’s group entered the clinically white labs in the division, they came upon a much more crowded area than they were in last. Unlike the empty observation room the group were using to see into the Open Testing Area, the Bio-Labs were practically bustling with activity as men and women clad in white coats were coming and going from all over the place. 

There were, of course, a few more isolated labs around with fewer people in them, including the cold storage nearby where no sane person generally spent much time in, but the main room was about as crowded as a laboratory that size possibly could be.

On the other hand, there was a certain order to this place, a very professional one, that was very unusual for a gathering of this many people. This was a work ethic that the company’s co-founder Luna was very adamant about implementing to insure a safe work environment relatively devoid of stress. 

A good thing too...at least if Fluttershy had anything to say about it. 

While crowded environments were not really her thing (to say the least), the slightly less chaotic nature of the lab helped keep her anxiety down a notch. Plus, unlike the last place they visited, Fluttershy was now completely in her element, and could barely contain her excitement as she gleefully peeked through the many small glass boxes that seemed to be all over this place. 

The boxes in question contained all manner of strange things, from mutated toads that were climbing the walls of their cages like geckos, to mushrooms that seemed to be glowing and flickering like light bulbs, to what looked like a strange cross between a rat and a lizard, to...whatever the strange black goo-like organism locked in the large dome-like cage in the centre of the lab was.

At first, the thing looked barely any different than a dark splash of paint, but when Fluttershy got closer to the cage in order to get a better look at it, the goo seemingly came to life and tried to reach for her...only to be stopped by the glass wall separating it from the outside world.

The creature's move was quick enough though that it made Fluttershy jump a little and mutter, "Oh my!"

However, after years of handling strange and sometimes dangerous creatures, including big cats and venomous snakes, the normally shy girl didn't freak out or back away in fright too much. Instead, she immediately became fascinated by this bizarre life form and got even closer to it. 

The goo responded in kind, and frantically tried to reach her with its oily tendrils...even though the glass was clearly prevented it from doing so.

"I see you met the guest of honour, Fluttershy," Sunset commented once she and the rest of the girls had caught up with her.

Without looking away from the black slime, Fluttershy asked, "What is it though? I have seen many peculiar creatures before, but never anything like this."

"That's because there isn't anything on earth even remotely like it for as far as we know," Twilight answered while she walked up the cage.

A bit surprised by that, Fluttershy looked at her with wide eyes, "But...how is that possible?"

"Because..." Sunset began in a slightly more dramatic tone. "...it isn't from this planet at all."

Fluttershy gasped, "You mean, it's a...a...an...alien!?"

Before either Twilight or Sunset had time to answer, Pinkie Pie popped up and shouted, "OH. MY. GOSH! THIS IS AMAZING!"...making the others in her group wince at her tone of voice while also drawing the attention of nearly every scientist in the immediate vicinity. 

"What is?" Twilight asked after she had properly recovered from Pinkie's sudden rise in volume.

Pinkie slammed her face straight into the glass dome right next to Fluttershy with the speed of a bullet, nearly pushing her friend out the way in the process. 

In contrast to the reaction the creature had to Fluttershy’s presence though...when confronted by the smiling face of an overly energetic Pinkie Pie, it quickly retreated to the other end of its cage as if it was afraid of her.    

"I've been waiting for this day my whole entire life! I can’t believe I’m finally going to host my ‘Welcome To Earth’ party! That was always the hardest party to plan because I have no idea what food the aliens would like to eat and if something might offend their alien culture or-”

“Uh, I think you will have to postpone on the welcome to earth party, Pinkie,” Twilight advised. “As far as we know, the creature isn’t even sentient, so it would be like...making a party for a...fungus...or something.” 

“I’ll have you know that I’ve hosted parties for Gummy, Boulder, and a bunch of garden gnomes one time!" Pinkie proclaimed with a huff. "Trust me, I can handle making a party for a puddle of alien slime or my name isn't Pinkamina Diane Pie!”

“While I have to admit that all sounds pretty fun and all...” Sunset started while gently putting a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “...there are these, you know, rules, you guys have to follow if you don’t want to get thrown out of here.”

Pinkie scratched her head while showing a confused expression on her face. “...waaaaait...I don’t remember there being a rule against parties...unless I missed something?”

Twilight was about to give her friend a detailed explanation for how exactly Pinkie throwing a party in the bio-labs would be against the company’s strict rulebook...but Sunset silenced her with a knowing look, as if to say ‘trust me on this’, and instead answered, “Well, it was a long list to keep track off, and maybe we forgot to mention that specific rule.”

“Oh...well...if you ever change your mind though, Pinkie is definitively the girl for you!” Pinkie relented, still keeping her enthusiasm up though.

"So let me get this straight..." Applejack started, keeping her eyes on the black puddle while maintaining her distance. "...this here goo thingy is supposed to be the first ever proof that aliens exist?"

"As far as we know, yes," Twilight proudly replied.

"Well sorry to disappoint y'all, but I know for a fact that this ain't the first alien I've seen!"

"What the heck are you talking about, AJ?" Rainbow questioned.

"All I'm sayin' is that we've had UFOs fly over Sweet Apple Acres for years...and they keep stealin' our cows every other summer. Heck, Granny once told me that she was taken aboard one of their spacecrafts when she was about Apple Bloom's age."  

Dash scoffed, "Yeah, right!"

"It's true," Applejack insisted.

"While stories about alien abductions and UFO sightings are definitively fascinating, I still hold that this is the first concrete proof that extraterrestrial life do, in fact, exist," Twilight settled on. "...not that I'm saying you're making things up, Applejack, I just-"

"Don't worry, Twi, I get what ya mean."

"I don't really see what the big deal is," Rainbow Dash said while she took out her camera and approached the cage. "I mean, it's just a stupid puddle."

Curiously, the creature, after having shown an interest in Fluttershy and a severe disinterest in Pinkie Pie, immediately began to reach out for Rainbow the moment she got close enough...even to the point of completely ignoring the other two humans near it.

"A stupid puddle that really seems to like you, it seems," Sunset noted in surprise.

Rainbow stopped and looked at it, seeing it stop as well when she did so, then she took a step to the left...and it did the same, then she stepped to the right, and the creature did that too.

She then backed away and commented, "Okay...that's freaky."

"Yeah...it kinda is," Sunset concurred. "We don't really know why it seeks out some people and not others...though either way, it's probably best we keep it locked up for now."

"You mean to avoid an 'I have seen enough Hentai to know where this is going' situation or something?"  Rainbow joked.

That line made Sunset chuckle a bit...while Fluttershy started to faintly blush a little instead. Thankfully for her, no one noticed that she did so, as that would mean answering a few questions that Fluttershy did not want to answer.

"Well, it's not really like that," Twilight clarified. "Basically, the organism seems to seek out other life forms in order to bond with them."

"What in the hay does that mean?" Applejack questioned, probably being the only one of them who actually kept their distance from the thing. 

"It's hard to explain, but it seems that the creature can merge itself with another organic being and become a single more powerful creature. When the goo fuses with an animal for instance, it seems to increase the animal's natural attributes while giving itself several traits of the animal it fused with. This concept is called 'symbiosis', which in simplest terms means when two different organisms coexist for mutual benefit."

"And that's why we like to call this thing...a ‘symbiote’," Sunset finished off on.

Briefly, everyone took a moment to let this all sink in...until Pinkie Pie decided to ask, "So...you're saying that if it touches me we'll combine to become some kind of Super-Pinkie? THAT SOUNDS AMAZING!"

"Ehh...I don't know if that's a good idea, Pinkie," Twilight answered with a bit of cringe. "It could do that, but right now, we have no way of knowing what else it might do to someone."

Pinkie shuddered at the thought, then took a few steps away from the symbiote. Suddenly, the whole idea didn't sound so appealing anymore.

Fluttershy stayed where she was though, and even mumbled, "...Nature is so fascinating..." to herself as she looked at it.

"Wait a minute!" Applejack voiced. "How in the blooming apples did you find out how this thing worked? Don't tell me y'all let it get on any of you!"

"Oh goodness no!" Twilight immediately rebuked. "We will have to be one-hundred percent sure that it isn't dangerous before we would even attempt to let it come into contact with a human being."

"However..." Sunset started to say. "...there was that one time it got out of its cage and bonded with one of the spiders we were working on. That's when we learned how it worked...and also that, for some reason, if you apply enough high-pitched sound to it, it will force the symbiote to detach itself from its host."

"Wait, so this thing is weak to loud noises?" Rainbow asked incredulously.

"Apparently. To be honest, we have no idea why."

Fluttershy peaked up at that. "Wait...what about the spider? Is it okay after what happened to it?"

The question made Twilight and Sunset look to each other for an answer. Twilight shrugged and Sunset said, “Well...it’s alive. Other than that...I’m not really sure.”

With a hand on her chin and a thoughtful expression on her face, Fluttershy mulled it over for a bit, then suggested, “Maybe I can be the judge of that?”

Knowing how, not only caring, but also knowledgeable, her shy friend was when it came to animals, Twilight was more than happy to let her take a look and promptly motioned for the group to follow her as she walked over to a big selection of small glass boxes at the other end of the lab.

Each one of the small cubes had a spider or two inside them, ranging from all kinds of different species. These included, but were not limited to, species in the orb-weaver, wolf spider, jumping spider and even one or two in the tarantula family. 

However, if one looked a bit closer (and knew enough about spiders to begin with), one could tell that the eight-legged arachnids in the cages were a bit...‘different’...than they were supposed to be. None of them actually looked or behaved exactly as any you would find in the wild.

Fluttershy noticed this as soon as she had taken a good look at them in fact.

“I don’t know if it’s just me, but, um...these don’t look like...well, how do I say this, real spiders. Uh, no offence, spiders.”

“Well, these aren’t naturally occurring spiders, if that’s what you’re asking,” Twilight explained. “You see, the symbiote creature was discovered inside a meteor that crashed somewhere in the Everfree Forest, and that meteor, as it turned out, gave off a strange unidentified form of radiation. The radiation then began to affect the DNA of nearby animals and plants, and gave them strange new properties. In fact, most of this lab is dedicated to studying the bizarre life that we found in the forest after the meteor hit.”

“Hey, Twilight, you ever heard the phrase ‘too much information’?!” Rainbow Dash snarked.

Twilight gave her a dirty look. 

Fluttershy meanwhile was looking through the boxes more closely in an attempt to find the one she came here for. "So...um, which one of these was...uh..?"

She didn't actually have to finish her sentence for Sunset Shimmer to figure out what she was asking about. So she calmly walked up to Fluttershy and pointed at a large red and blue-coloured wolf spider. 

"That's the one you're looking for," she provided.

A bit awkwardly, Fluttershy muttered a timid "Thanks," and then took a good long look at the spider in question in order to determine whether or not it was in good health.

Most people probably wouldn't be able to tell if a creature like a spider was sick or not...but Fluttershy was definitively not most people. 

Not only was she studying to become a veterinarian, but she had also always had this strange ability to understand and communicate with animals on a level that no one else seemed to be able to reach. Heck, she probably understood animals far better than she did people.

That is why when she saw the spider sitting in the corner of its cage with its legs lazily sprawled out on the floor around it, a lot of warning signals began to go off in her head.

"No, this poor little creature is not okay. That alien must have really affected her, because she will need a lot of help as soon as possible!"

"Wait, really?!" Twilight questioned, suddenly sounding a bit alarmed. "What are its symptoms?" 

"Well...it seems like she has been, well...drained of energy somehow. She needs to eat something to restore her strength and feel good again, but...wait, I got just the thing!"

Fluttershy took off her backpack and reached into it to get a can of...something? It wasn't labelled. "I'm sure that if she has a taste of this, then she will be back to health in no time."

"Eh...what's that?" Sunset asked suspiciously.

"Oh, it's just some yummy and nutritious food that I give the spiders back home," Fluttershy explained. "It's easy to digest and always makes them feel better. Now, if any of you could perhaps open the cage a bit, I might-"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on!" Twilight interrupted. "You want me to open the cage of a test subject in a maximum-security lab!?"

"Umm...yes. Is that a problem?"

"Even if we discount the numerous possible dangers of a test subject escaping containment, I'm just an intern, and have no authority over things like this!"

"What if we just, I dunno...just sneak in a little of that food thing in the cage when no one's looking?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "It's only a crime if you get caught, right?"

"You would say somethin' like that..." Applejack mumbled under her breath.

Rainbow heard her loud and clear though. "And what's that supposed to mean?!" she asked while giving Applejack a glare.

"Nothin'," Applejack answered while making a way too obvious attempt to avoid eye-contact with anyone. Lying...wasn't one of her strong suits.

"Actually..." Sunset interjected before that conversation could escalate. "...neither me or Twilight has access to the keys to the cages. Meaning we can't open them even if we were allowed to. Sorry."

"Oh...well...then sorry I asked," Fluttershy muttered dejectedly, her posture now shrunken in disappointment.

"No, you don't have to apologise," Twilight insisted. "You had a perfectly valid concern."

"Then...I'm sorry I said sorry."

Twilight was about to say something, but soon found that she had no idea what to say to that. She then subtly looked at Sunset for help.

Sunset decided to go the easy way out by changing the subject altogether. "Okay! Why don't we, uh...go to the next place? Where was that again, Twilight?"

"Oh, that was the...ehhh...oh, right, the Professor Starswirl Collection! It's just around the corner, so...follow me!" Twilight provided while she started to head for the exit.

At Twilight's insistence, the rest of the group began to follow after her and Sunset in order to continue the extensive tour of the building with the next item on the agenda. 

Well...most of them anyway.

When the others were already starting to leave, Fluttershy remained standing where she was. For her, it just felt wrong to leave a poor suffering animal alone without doing anything to help it...especially when she could help it but wasn't allowed to.

Rainbow Dash soon noticed that her friend wasn't going with the others, and excused herself from the group to go back and fetch her. 

"Hey, Shy, you coming or what?!" she asked once she had run back to her.

Suddenly, Fluttershy grabbed Dash by the shoulders and said "Rainbow Dash, I need your help!" in an urgent tone.

A bit surprised by that reaction, Rainbow awkwardly asked, "...with what exactly?"

"Remember back in eight grade when you snuck into the principal's office to play a prank on her?"

"Yeah...but what-"

"And that time you and Gilda started to go shop-"

Rainbow immediately put a hand over Fluttershy's mouth before she could finish that sentence, a slightly panicked look appearing on her face while she did so. She even proceeded to lower her voice to a whisper, "I thought we agreed not to mention my...you know...shoplifting days in a public place, ya know?"  Then she removed the hand. "Now, can we please not bring that up again and just say what you wanted, okay?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Well...I was thinking that maybe you could, uh...maybe pick the lock on that cage so that I could give the spider a little of...um, this," she stuttered while she held up her can of special spider food. "I'd hate to ask this of you, but could you maybe consider doing this...for me?"

Rainbow scratched the back of her head and looked around nervously. "I dunno, Flutters. I mean, couldn't we get in trouble for...for..."

She was soon however stunned into silence when Fluttershy gave her what Dash could only describe as the single most adorable pair of 'puppy-dog-eyes' she had ever seen. It most certainly didn't help that the one who was giving them to her was the same girl that she just so happened to have a massive crush on.

'Damn you, Fluttershy, and your perfect blue eyes!' Rainbow inwardly cursed before she decided, "Fine! But you owe me for this, got it?"

She quickly grabbed the can of food out of Fluttershy's hands, said "Cover me and while I get this open", took out her secret lock-picking equipment from her pocket and began to work on getting the cage open.

Fluttershy did her part as well. First by deliberately standing in the way of Rainbow's hands so no one could see what she was doing, and secondly by keeping a vigilant eye on anyone approaching.

It didn't take long for the experienced shoplifter and prankster Rainbow Dash to break through the lock though. And when she did, she quickly opened the can and was just about to pour the food in the spider's cage when a woman's voice suddenly asked, "What are you two doing?!"

The unexpected voice made both teenagers freeze up, with Rainbow spilling some of the food on the floor while Fluttershy's eyes immediately fixed on the woman who was swiftly approaching the two of them with an angry frown on her face.

She appeared to be in her late thirties by the looks of it, and could be easily recognised by her purple and dark blue hair that went down her back in waves. The black suit she was wearing, complemented by a purple undershirt and dark blue trousers, hinted at a very business-oriented woman, and her body-language and facial expression clearly spoke of a no-nonsense kind of attitude. This, coupled with the fact that she was strangely tall for a woman, made her a fair bit intimidating already.

Fluttershy gave her the most innocent smile she could muster, though she felt her confidence wane for every step the woman took towards her.

"Oh, uh, we were just, um...looking at the spiders, and-"

"Step aside, young lady!" the woman ordered with a directness that really caught Fluttershy off-guard.

Out of fear of being caught in the act, Rainbow immediately turned around and stood up straight, all while keeping her arms behind her back to hide the food can she was holding onto.

However...in her haste, she may have forgotten to close the cage after opening it.

Too terrified to defy the woman, Fluttershy took a step to the side to reveal a guiltily-looking Rainbow Dash suspiciously holding her arms behind her back. "Hey, wazzup?" she asked in a lame attempt to keep her cool.

The woman studied her carefully for a second, narrowed her eyes suspiciously, and turned back to Fluttershy, "What was your friend doing before I came in?"

Fluttershy blushed, "Well, she was just, um, uh...just...um..."

"Taking pictures of the spiders!" Rainbow provided...though a bit too loud.

The woman gave Rainbow a glance, then looked back at Fluttershy again, "Was that all she was doing?"

Fluttershy nodded.

The lady did not really look like she believed her, but nevertheless, she turned to Rainbow and ordered, "Give me your camera."

"What for?!" Dash questioned.

"Just give it to me!" she insisted a bit more firmly. 

Rainbow groaned but did as she was told. She hid the food can in her back pocket, then opened her camera bag and presented the small digital camera she hid inside. 

The woman took it off her hands, then didn't waste any time before she began to go through the pictures stored on its memory card. The fact that she did so without asking for permission or explain what she was doing was more than enough to seriously irk Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, what're you doing!? Give me back my camera!" she demanded in a confrontational tone. "Hello! I'm talking to you, Lady!" all while repeatedly trying to reach for it.

The woman easily kept it out of Dash's reach though, and continued doing what she was doing without making any eye-contact with her. "You will get it back in a moment. I just need to delete a few photographs that could potentially reveal company secrets to the public."

Rainbow protested, "What!? You can't do that!" 

"Oh, yes, hehe, oh yes I can." she answered with a slightly arrogant chuckle.

"Yeah well...who do you think you are anyway?!"

Suddenly, the woman looked her straight in the eye and bluntly answered, "I am Luna, Vice President of CelestiaCorp, and also head of security in this building. Does that answer your question, Rainbow Dash?"

That response was enough to make Rainbow speechless for a second. Luna's quick and to the point demeanour usually had that effect on people. To say she wasn't big on small talk would probably be a bit of an understatement actually.

After Dash had processed what she just said though, she soon asked, "Wait...how do you know my name?"

Wordlessly, Luna pointed a finger at the visitor's pass Rainbow had attached to her jacket. That was, the one with her name printed on it.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."

"Also...I had the immense pleasure of reading through your criminal record before I allowed you to even be here," Luna added in a somewhat sarcastic tone. "A history of pranks, recklessness, shoplifting and trespassing is what I found. Now, surely you can understand my reluctance to let you have access to CelestiaCorp even for just a day. In fact, the only reason I did was because someone gave me an offer I could not refuse."

She handed the camera back to Dash, then levelled her eyes at her and warned, "Do not make me regret that decision."

Rainbow Dash gave her a glare back that almost matched Luna's intensity. "Or what?"

"Or...I can kick you out of this building."

"You can try," Dash warned while taking on a fighter pose. "But don't think I'm going down easy, pal! Judo, Karate, Kung Fu, I know 'em all li-EAAAHH!"

Before she had a chance to finish that sentence, Luna grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her around and easily immobilised the smaller teenager with a tight arm-lock...all without breaking a sweat. 

"So do I," Luna revealed with a small proud grin on her face. "Though I mastered all three of them over the course of two decades...which is longer than you have even lived, as a matter of fact."

Rainbow struggled and wriggled as best she could, but Luna's grip didn't budge no matter what, so she gave out a frustrated groan and shouted, "Ouch! HEY! let me go! Come on, man!"

"Your bravado is impressive though," Luna started to say, unheeded. "Reminds me of how I used to be when I was your age. Bold, stubborn, arrogant, rebellious. But that kind of behaviour is not called for here, you understand?"

"Screw you!" was the only response she got from her.

Luna sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Um...Miss Luna?" the diminutive voice of Fluttershy asked, drawing Luna's attention while she still held Dash in a tight grip. "We didn't mean to cause any trouble, Rainbow just isn't the best at dealing with...uh...being confronted."

"You don't say..." Luna replied with a touch of sarcasm.

"But, we'll gladly get out of your hair if you want us to," Fluttershy pleaded, sounding as kind and sweet as she could. "Just...um...maybe let Rainbow Dash go now?"

Luna was about to respond, but then her eye caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the glass of the spider-enclosures next to them. It wasn't clear exactly what she saw in it, but whatever it was, it made the woman freeze for a second where she just ended up staring at the glass wordlessly with an unreadable expression on her face.

Then, she suddenly released her grip on Rainbow Dash, who very much appreciated her newly regained freedom of movement. "About time...oooouch, eh..." she commented soon after, still feeling the sting in her shoulder.

"Very well then," Luna decided. "But don't let me catch you two doing anything suspicious again or I will have to call security, you understand?"

"Understood, Miss Luna!" Fluttershy quickly replied, showing a bright smile on her face to prove that she was sincere about that.

Luna gave her a small nod to show that she believed her, but then gave Rainbow a small suspicious stare just in case.

With a groan, Dash assured, "Fine, I'll stay out of trouble. You happy?"

"We'll see..." she replied ominously.

Then Luna simply turned around and left without another word spoken. She...had a habit of doing so on occasion...especially when she had more important things to deal with.

Not wanting to end up in any more trouble than they already were, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy made sure to hurry up and rejoin the others as quickly as they could.





...And from there, the day went about as you would expect...

They continued following Twilight and Sunset around, saw even more labs and testing areas, learned of more science-y stuff and cool inventions, tried out a few of them, and eventually finished the day with a late dinner at the cafe on the bottom floor. 

The little incident with Luna and the spider was not brought up once during all that time...and that was probably for the best.

However, after all was said and done, the sun was about to go down, CelestiaCorp was about to close and Rainbow Dash was about to fall asleep at any moment, the girls eventually decided to head on home for the day.





By the time Rainbow and Fluttershy finally got back to the little suburban district where they lived, Rainbow couldn't stop herself from yawning every ten seconds or so and even had trouble walking straight.

"Finally home..." Dash moaned upon seeing her house in the dead of night. The lights were off, so her parents had likely already gotten to sleep yet. 'Lucky them.'

"Yes...home..." Fluttershy murmured in agreement, not quite as tired as her friend, but still pretty beat. "So...what did you think about that place? I for one was quite fascinated."

"It was fun at first, I guess, but after awhile...well, I kinda stopped listening," Rainbow confessed while delivering another yawn. "Don't tell Twilight, but I kinda do that a lot when she's talking."

"I...do that too actually," Fluttershy admitted a bit guiltily. "It's not to be rude or anything, but sometimes she can get really into it."

Dash snickered, "Heh, glad I wasn't the only one."

Fluttershy smiled a little at that. For a moment, the two of them just ended up silently standing there...alone on the dark suburban street...with nothing but the sound of nightly birds and crickets filling the air around them.  

These kinds of awkward silences were getting more and more common these days, as neither one knew what to say to each other, and neither one would know how the other would react if they did say anything.

'We're alone, right? I mean, wouldn't this be a perfect time to just tell her why I broke up with Gilda...or that I kinda have a thing for her...or that those things are related?' Dash thought while trying to avoid eye-contact with her crush. 'Arghh...I dunno, it's just too damn complicated, and I'm waaaaay too tired right now to think about this anyway.'

Interestingly...unbeknown to Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy was also doing the same thing. She just managed to be more discreet about it on the outside. 'Just tell her, Fluttershy, you can do it! Just like we practised in the mirror: come on, say 'Do you want to go out with me?', no, no, no, say 'I love you, Dashie', no, no, that would come on too strong. What about 'I have a crush on  you, Rainbow'? No, that's just wrong. 

Oh, who am I kidding, she wouldn't want to go out with me in a hundred years. I mean, she didn't notice me for the last twelve years, why would she start now? Face it, Fluttershy, it's hopeless.' 

With a sad sigh, Fluttershy eventually said, "I think...I'm going to go home now."

"Yeah, me too," Rainbow agreed while awkwardly scratching the back of her neck.

"Goodnight, Dashie," Fluttershy parted with before she turned around and began to walk for her parents house across the streets. 

"Night, Flutters!" Rainbow called back before she went ahead and began to do the same. 

Since it appeared that everybody at her place were already asleep, Rainbow didn't bother announcing her arrival and quietly went up to her room instead after having kicked off her shoes and thrown off her jacket unceremoniously on the floor. She knew her parents were probably going to give her a hard time for that, but right now she was simply too tired to give a damn.

Once she reached her bed, she didn't waste a second before she collapsed on it and released an exhausted sigh.

And for a while...she just laid there...looking at the ceiling while she sorted out the feelings that were going through her head.

'I was that close to telling Fluttershy everything...and I totally chickened out...twice today! Great work, Rainbow Dash, you are definitively a beacon of confidence...' she noted sarcastically. 'And here I thought she was the one with the anxiety problems. 

Figures.'

Her eyes then landed on one of her wall posters, specifically, the one with her favourite adventurer Daring Do facing off against the dreaded Ahuizotl himself in an epic stare-down. The title of the poster was 'Daring Do and Ahuizotl's Last Hunt', her undisputed favourite of the Daring Do books.

'Man, would be sweet if I could be as cool and confident as Daring Do. Acting cool is one thing, but being able to take on whole armies of bad guys with your bare fists and escape the deadliest deathtraps of all time with just your wit and cunning is something totally different. Daring could have easily handled that Luna bitch without breaking a sweat, but me? I just end up making a fool of myself right in front of Fluttershy. Smooth, Dash, smooth...'

Her thoughts then turned to those wicked flying machines they showcased at CelestiaCorp and her eyes settled on her collection of model fighter-jets she had stacked on her bookshelf.

'Of course, when it comes to awesomeness, nothing ever beats flying in my book. Just the thought of being up there, moving so fast, feeling the wind in my face, and that awesome feeling you get in your stomach when you take off. One day...one day I'll be up there, and I'll be the best flyer the world has ever seen!"

The thought brought a confident grin to her face...but it soon faded as she realised just how unlikely that dream was of ever coming true.

She let out a tired sigh, then collected herself and began to reach for her camera bag. 'Still, I guess the day was not a total loss, I did get some good pics after all...at least if Luna hasn't deleted all of them.'

However...the moment she blindly put her hand into the small compartment, she unknowingly started a long turn of events that would eventually change her life forever.

As it turned out, back during the visit when she was too busy trying to maintain eye-contact with Luna after she stopped her attempt to feed the mutated spider...she hadn't noticed that the spider had taken the opportunity to climb out of its little cage and slip into her opened camera bag. 

There it had been for the rest of the day, and now when its peaceful slumber had been disturbed by the invading hand, it responded in the only way it knew how...by attacking!



Rainbow gasped as she felt the sudden sting in her hand, and quickly pulled it back out only to drag the spider along with it...which then proceeded to land on the floor and scurry away as fast as its eight legs could take it. 

"What the hell?" Dash questioned out loud while she saw the unexpected arachnid run across her floor.

She had no time to dwell on that though...for soon after, a seriously strange sensation rapidly began to creep into the hand where she was bitten. 

The feeling was not unlike how Dash would imagine a swarm of bugs crawling underneath her skin would be like, and it did not take long before it started to affect more than just her hand or even just her arm...soon, it was starting affect her entire body.

As the spider's venom spread into every single one of her organs one by one at a pace that could only be described as unnatural, more and more symptoms began to flare up at a rapid pace. Before long, Rainbow was sweating profusely, her face turned beat red, and an uncontrollable shiver began to run through her entire body, causing her to convulse and spasm like a stranded fish for several minutes non-stop.

Suddenly and without warning, she eventually just stopped dead in the midst of her crazy spasms, and quickly turned pale and rigid instead. 

In fact, in this state, she couldn't even move at all.

All she could do was stare aimlessly at the ceiling with wide open eyes.

Then...everything went black.





...And that's the end of the rewrites. 

From now on, you will have to read the rest of the story as I originally made it...small alterations aside.
> (Outdated Prologue) (non-canon)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Attention: This is an outdated version of the first three chapters, and is no longer considered canon. Feel free to skip this one if you just want to get on with the story. However, if you, for whatever reason, want to read the original version, or read the comments I got on that version, feel free to do so)




Episode 1
And along came a Spider…Part 1
An eight-legged stowaway


A new dawn was approaching for Canterlot City.

With the opening of the CelestiaCorp Tower, the forward-thinking research company known as CelestiaCorp was on the brink of revolutionising the city...if not the world. While the company had always been one of the greatest pioneers in the scientific community, it had never been as successful as it was now.

As surprising as this may be, the company owed its recent success to a High School student named Twilight Sparkle. Despite being no older than sixteen, she managed to solve an equation that most people would consider to be impossible. And that was just the start of it. After gaining the attention of Miss Celestia, the president of CelestiaCorp, she invited Twilight to work for her for a while. 

During the short amount of time she was there, Twilight came up with so many new ideas and solutions to the table that CelestiaCorp gained a massive boost in its success. And after seeing her potential in action, Celestia recruited Twilight to be her personal protégé at the company while its influence continued to grow.  

As a personal favour for all of her hard work, Celestia had agreed to Twilight’s request that she’d be allowed to bring her best friends to see where she worked. And that…was where our heroine came in.





In a perfectly ordinary suburban house at the edge of the city, Rainbow Dash was having a pretty good dream that Saturday morning, one that she had no intention of ever waking from. However, the universe had other plans and her peaceful sleep was suddenly disturbed by the alarm clock she had next to her bed.

While the girl was completely under her covers, an arm reached out and lazily tried to find the button to turn off the buzzing clock. Those attempts instead resulted in her accidentally dragging the irritatingly loud object down to the floor, far away from her reach, and that did not make it stop ringing either.   

Finally deciding that she had had enough of that horrible noise, Rainbow Dash threw the cover off of her, picked up the clock and finally turned the noisy machine off. The second after it stopped ringing however, she fell back on the bed and let out a loud groan.

With the cover no longer hiding her, one could see that she was a 16-year-old girl with a very athletic frame and well built muscles, and since she, at the moment, wasn't wearing anything more than a tank top and a pair of panties, that was very obvious. She also had messy shoulder-length hair that had almost ever colour of the spectrum, giving it the resemblance of a rainbow (guess where she got her name from). 

With the morning pretty much ruined for her, Rainbow slowly took in the sight of her unruly mess of a room. Clothes and a lot of other various objects were scattered all over the floor and just about every wall in it were covered by posters. Most of those posters were either of the world-famous ace pilots known as the Wonderbolts or the fictional character Daring Do. She had reserved a shelf for her big collection of model airplanes, right above her even bigger collection of Daring Do books.

After letting out a big yawn, Rainbow slowly and reluctantly got out of bed. 

Getting up at eight on a Saturday was not something Rainbow Dash particularly liked, especially if she had to hear that infernal alarm clock on a day where she was supposed to be able to sleep how long she wanted. But…that visit to CelestiaCorp was today, and not on any of the available schooldays that she could easily do without. 

However, as soon as she tried to take a step toward the door out, she tripped on something hard and fell face first into one of the many piles of clothing on the floor. 

After groaning again, she turned around to see what exactly it was she tripped on. It turned out to be her pet tortoise Tank, who was groggily waking up after his owner accidentally kicked him.  

After realising what just happened, Rainbow sheepishly said, “Morning Tank…”

Tank just gave her a deadpan glare, which was apparently something tortoises could do, or…at least Tank could.

“Yeah…sorry about that.”

The sound of someone calling “Dashie, breakfast’s ready!” gave her a convenient escape from the awkward staring contest she was having with her pet. 

After putting on a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, Rainbow headed towards the kitchen downstairs where her parents Firefly and Rainbow Blaze were waiting for her. 

Firefly was the one who most closely resembled her daughter in physical appearance, and had a similarly messy haircut, a similarly well-trained athletic body, and an attitude that she had kept since she served as a Wonderbolt pilot in the airforce. In contrast, her husband, Rainbow Blaze, was a bit older but a lot more down to earth. And while he could quite often show sings of being extremely lazy, he was actually a very good athlete, who, once upon a time, could compete with the best of the best in world championships. He never won any though.

Firefly had spent most of the morning preparing a breakfast of toast and eggs, but Blaze seemed to have found his issue of the Daily Bugle to be too interesting to even notice it, much to his wife’s annoyance. The front page of his paper had the headline ‘STARLIGHT GLIMMER AND CELESTIA DISAGREE OVER CITY'S FUTURE’ with a picture of two women, both in expensive suits, arguing with each other in a rather uncivilised manner.

However, as soon as Firefly caught a glimpse of her daughter coming down the stairs, she criticised, “That’s a bit slow, Dashie. The airforce doesn't tolerate slackers, you know.”

“But I’m not in the airforce now, am I?” Rainbow quipped back.

“I’m just giving you some helpful advice. You do want to join the Wonderbolts one day, right?”

The teenager took a seat at the table while she answered, “Sure, but right now I’m going to enjoy my days of free napping as much as I can, or…unless some lame rule demands that I have to wake up this early…on a Saturday!”

“Complaining won’t get you anywhere either, you know?”

“Mom, can you stop acting like a drill instructor for five minutes?”

Firefly answered that with a witty grin, making it pretty clear how much she enjoyed making fun of her daughter.

Blaze chose this time to get his attention away from his newspaper and ask, “Did you say it was CelestiaCorp you were going to?”

Rainbow answered “Sure, why?” after taking a bite out of a slice of toast.

“It’s just that I’ve heard some interesting things about that company lately. It says here that CelestiaCorp’s next discovery will lead to a new golden age for the city. It's only a matter of time until someone there wins the Nobel Prize I wager.”

“Yeah, whatever. They can make their own version of Jurassic Park for all I care, it’s not like any of that affects me or anything.”

Blaze raised an eyebrow, “Then why did you agree to go?”

“Because all that egghead stuff is something Twilight really cares about…for some reason. Look, Fluttershy, Pinkie and even Applejack decided to go, so that means either I go, or I’m the jerk of the group…again.”

“Rainbow Dash, you are not a jerk. Don’t even think that.” Firefly sternly reminded.

“Sure…and I guess making Fluttershy cry her heart out was because I was a good person?”

“You did no such thing, Dashie. It was Gilda who did that, not you.”

“Yeah, but I let it happen! I should have believed her when Fluttershy told me what Gilda said to her, but, what-do-you-know, I just ignored her instead.”

Blaze started, “It was only natural for you to side with your girlfriend-“

But the moment he said that particular word, Rainbow reminded, “Ex-girlfriend.”

“You know what I mean. Still, if you ever did something wrong, then you simply made a mistake, we all do mistakes.”

“I guess…but I promised that I would never let anyone hurt Fluttershy, and breaking a promise is so not cool. Heck, Pinkie always kept saying that that was the fastest way to lose a friend.”

Immediately after saying that, Rainbow Dash could have sworn she heard a distant voice shout “Forever!” but wrote it off as just her imagination getting the better of her.

Firefly assured, “You know Fluttershy forgave you for that. Maybe you should too.”

“Yeah, maybe I should. Anyway, I’ve just woken up on the wrong side of bed. Can we change the subject?”

Blaze took the opportunity to ask, “Sure thing. So how are you going to get to CelestiaCorp Tower?”

“Applejack got a truck. She’ll pick up Pinkie first, then stop by here and pick up me and Fluttershy. Twilight is already there as far as I know. So…there you have it.”

“Right, and when are-”

The sound of someone ringing the doorbell stopped him from finishing his question. 

Rainbow immediately said, "That's my cue. Gotta go, bye!" before she hastily put the rest of her breakfast in her mouth and began to run for the door. 

Firefly just sighed at her daughter's antics before she turned to her husband and asked, "Why must that girl always be in such a hurry?"

Blaze just shrugged and turned his focus back to his newspaper.

When Rainbow reached the door and opened it, she saw a timid and very skinny girl with long wavy pink hair held away from her eyes by a butterfly-looking hairclip and wearing a white sleeveless shirt and a lime-green skirt decorated with more butterflies waiting patiently in the doorway.

Knowing very well who she was, Rainbow greeted, “Morning, Fluttershy, you ready to go?”

Fluttershy answered, “Oh, um, yes. Applejack texted that she and Pinkie will be here any second and that we should get ready to go. That is…if you don’t mind, that is.” in her usual extremely shy and timid voice.

“Sure thing, just give me a sec.”

After putting on her sky-blue jacket and a pair of shoes, Rainbow followed Fluttershy to the street just outside her house and began to wait for their ride to take them to CelestiaCorp. Only…Applejack seemed to be taking her sweet time before coming over.

Growing slightly impatient, Rainbow turned to Fluttershy and asked, “When did Applejack say she’d come?”

Fluttershy picked up her phone from her pocket and checked the text Applejack sent her before answering, “Um…she said any minute…half-an-hour ago.”

“Ah man! What is taking her so long?”

“I guess it might be a little tricky to find your way in this area.”

“Well, she better come soon. I did not wake up this early just to stand here and wait.”

Fluttershy put a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder and assured, “She’ll be here, don’t worry.”

Rainbow would in any other situation argue that she was not worried, just annoyed, but…the soft touch of timid girl’s hand had a soothing effect on her and stopped the words from coming out. 

For years now had Rainbow seen Fluttershy in a bit of a…different light, so to speak. She really had no idea how or why it happened, but that small change soon turned into a crush that she kept hidden even when she was still dating Gilda. However, she didn't really know what to do with that crush. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had been friends for a long time, and if there was one thing Rainbow could never lose above all else, it was her friendship with Fluttershy. She wasn't really sure if she wanted to risk making it awkward or uncomfortable between them if Fluttershy didn't feel the same.

Groaning for the third time that morning, Rainbow took a few steps back and sat down on the front porch of her house before saying, “I’ll try to be patient then. But if this takes an hour or more, Applejack is buying me a soda or something.”

Fluttershy took a seat next to her and spent a few moments to just...take in her surroundings, look at the sky, or the trees, or the houses. She did that on occasion, especially when there was even the slightest chance that some animal might pop up somewhere.

After sitting there for a few minutes in a comfortable silence, Fluttershy asked, “Dashie…”

Rainbow looked at her, “Yeah?”

“Why are you coming with us? I mean, I thought you hated all these advanced science things.”

“It’s not just the egghead stuff. Going to town with my best friends is pretty fun in itself…right?”

“Oh, sure. To be honest, that’s mostly why I’m going too.”

“Really?”

“That and getting a chance to see those strange and adorable animals Twilight mentioned.”

“Now, that I can believe.”

“Am I really that predictable?”

“Sometimes…but that's mostly me knowing you so well.”

After a few minutes of waiting, the familiar sound of Applejack’s old truck finally made itself known. And when the slightly rusty car pulled over to her house, Rainbow Dash stomped over to it with the intent on getting some answers.

Two other teenaged girls stepped out of the car as soon as it stopped. 

One of them, the driver, had blonde hair that was tied up into a ponytail, with noticeable freckles on her face, a pair of worn out jeans, and her trademark Stetson that she probably never left home without on her head. Her sunburned skin and well-trained body made it pretty obvious she was used to hard work.      

The other one was a slightly pudgy but overly energetic girl with a chaotic mess of pink hair that almost resembled cotton candy. Even though it wasn't cotton candy, her hair did have some very strange properties that completely defied any logical explanation. And that didn’t only apply to her hair. Her white T-shirt with a heart logo and pink skirt decorated with balloons only brought home how much of an out-of-control party animal she was.  

Rainbow Dash quickly got in the Stetson-wearing girl’s face and asked, “What took you guys so long?!”

“Well, howdy to you too, Rainbow.” She answered in her southern country accent with a hint of sarcasm.

“Uhm...hi Applejack. So why did you take so long?”

“I asked…Pinkie for directions.”

The messy-haired girl apparently called Pinkie explained, “Jackie, you said I should tell you the way I used last time I went to Dashie’s house, you never said the fastest way. The last time I was kinda lost and tried to buy some ice cream on the way but the store was closed and I looked for another one but that one didn't have any strawberry-flavoured ice cream and I really wanted strawberry but not a single store in town had my favourite flavour and nobody and I mean nobody could come up with a single explanation why and that was when I realised-”

Applejack put a hand over Pinkie's mouth to stop her from talking, mostly to prevent her from going on forever. Then she looked at Rainbow, “I think you get the idea.”

“Yeah...I guess." Rainbow answered.

“Anyway, we best be goin’ before Twilight wonders where the hay we are.” 

“Way ahead of you!” Rainbow declared before she entered the back seat of Applejack's truck.

Applejack looked at Fluttershy, who was still sitting by the porch, and asked, “Ya coming, sugarcube?”

Fluttershy scrambled to her feet and said “I’m coming!” before entering the car as well.

However, when it was Pinkie’s turn to go back inside, she suddenly froze on the spot while her hair started to twitch, her ears flopped uncontrollably, her eyes fluttered followed by her fingers twirling, and that was followed by an enormous gasp of pure shock. 

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her friend’s unusual antics, “What is it now, Pinkie?”

Pinkie immediately grabbed Applejack’s shoulders and warned, “I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but my ‘Pinkie Sense’ is telling me that something totally and absolutely unexpected is going to happen to someone in our immediate vicinity within the next 24 hours that will change that person’s life…FOREVER!...Or I forgot to feed Gummy again. I can never really tell which is which.”

“Suuure, if you say so…”





Deep in the more central parts of the city was the hard-to-miss skyscraper with the words ‘CelestiaCorp’ written in big all-caps letters. As one might guess, this was the place where most of the work in the company was done. 

However, at the bottom floor of the building, there was a simple cafeteria set up for employees and guests alike to take some time off in case they needed it.

Twilight Sparkle was a dark-skinned girl recognised by her dark blue hair with pink and purple streaks in it that was tied up into a bun, as well as her over-sized glasses and lab coat that she brought to work. 

She was currently sitting at one of the café tables with one of her colleges and close friends, Sunset Shimmer, another girl about her age with flame-looking red and yellow hair who was also wearing a lab coat.

“So why did you turn him down?” Sunset asked.

Twilight took a sip of a cup of coffee before answering, “Don’t get me wrong, I'm flattered that at least someone thought I was dating material, but Flash isn't really my type. Besides, I'm not really looking for boyfriends right now.”

The other girl had a teasing smile when she suggested, “Does that mean you’re looking for girlfriends then?”

Twilight gave her friend a deadpan glare. “Sunset…”

“Well, are you?”

“I am not even going to indulge that question with an answer.”

Sunset’s grin faded at that, and she took on a more serious tone when she asked, “Are you ever going to let loose, Twilight?”

“And if by ‘let loose’, you mean ‘get drunk, have wild parties or smooch people you barely know’ like the stereotype of my age-group would suggest, then no, I'm not.”

“No, what I mean is 'hang out with friends and have a life outside the lab', because you really don’t seem to be doing that a lot.”

“I have friends, and I'm going to show them what I've been working on today.”

“Yeah, show them the things you’re interested in. When was the last time you did something they wanted to do?”

Twilight tried to answer that, but couldn’t come up with anything to say in her defence. She then spent a few seconds thinking it through. When she had reviewed her past behaviour thoroughly, her brain suddenly went into overdrive.

Then she started to rant, “This is a disaster! How could I not have noticed it sooner?! I turned down most of Pinkie’s parties just because I was too busy studying, the same with nearly all of Rainbow Dash’s sport matches, then I didn't help Fluttershy at the animal centre because I was too busy with my research, and I couldn't even spend one day helping Applejack with her family’s apple trade! They must all think I'm a geeky, unsocial nerd who cannot even bring herself to care about anything besides my research, that I cannot even bother to care about what they want, what they think is fun! What if they won’t forgive me?! What if they all decide to…”

Sunset, in an attempt to stop Twilight from rambling on, said, “Twilight.”

“…And then I’ll get too distracted at work thinking about what a terrible friend I am so that Celestia will have to fire me for not doing my job! I cannot…”

“Twilight.”

“…But what if I can’t?! I have to-”

“Twilight!”

That immediately shut her up, and she soon noticed that her rant had gained the attention of just about everybody in the cafeteria. A blush appeared on her cheeks while she nervously faced them and said, “Sorry.”

She then looked back at Sunset and asked, “I…had one of my episodes, right?”

“Pretty much.” 

Twilight sighed, “Sorry, I know I shouldn't overreact like that all the time, but…it’s hard not to at times.”

“It’s just your OCD playing up, no need to make a big deal out of it.”

“Wait, are you saying I shouldn't worry about my unhealthy worrying?”

Sunset just now realised the irony of her advice and awkwardly answered, “Uhmm…something like that.”

“All right, but about my friends…”

Suddenly, Pinkie literary appeared out of nowhere, sat down on an empty chair at their table and asked, “What about us?” All in less than four seconds.

Both Twilight and Sunset jumped at the sudden arrival of the hyperactive girl and let out a simultaneous scream of “Aaaaaaah!”

“‘Aaaaaaah!’ yourself, but that doesn't really answer my question, silly.”

After taking a moment of careful breathing to recover from the unexpected encounter, Twilight answered, “Well…we were just talking…about…things. So are the others here or is it just you?”

Pinkie ran back to the entrance to the cafeteria where Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack were standing before hugging all three of them very tightly while shouting, “WE’RE ALL HERE!”

“Oh, good, I’ll be with you in just a moment.” Twilight said before looking back at Sunset, who could only stare at Pinkie blankly with a slack jaw.

“What…how…what?” Sunset mumbled while trying to comprehend exactly what she just witnessed.

Twilight simply shrugged and explained, “She is just being Pinkie Pie. Don’t even bother trying to understand it. Believe me, I've tried.”

Sunset blinked a few times before finally saying, “I’ll take your word for it.”

Twilight then looked over to the new arrivals, “So you guys want a cup of coffee or something?”

Rainbow answered, “No, I'm good.”

“Sorry, sugarcube, but I'm rightly anxious to get this thing goin’.” Applejack replied.

Fluttershy added, “I…had a cup just this morning.”

Pinkie Pie revealed, “My family forbade me from drinking coffee.”

The others gave her a weird look and Applejack questioned, “Uhmm…and why is that, exactly?”

“They just didn't want a repeat of what happened last time. I don’t really see what the big deal is though…”

Twilight then rose from her chair and walked over to her friends before saying, “All right then, I suppose we should get on with the tour, I guess.”

Sunset followed suite and took a moment or so to inspect the group in front of her with an analytical eye. 

After working out who was who, she greeted, “Welcome to CelestiaCorp. I'm Sunset Shimmer, Twilight’s lab partner. And if I had to guess, you would be Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkamina Diane Pie.”

Pinkie immediately corrected, “It’s just Pinkie, only mom and dad call me Pinkamina.”

“Good to know…Pinkie.”

Rainbow questioned, “How exactly do you know our names?”

“Oh, Twilight has told me all about you guys, and I've been looking forward to meeting you all in person.”

Applejack declared, “Well, it’s rightly nice to meet you too, Sunset. Any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine.” 

“Likewise, Applejack.”

Twilight suggested, “So…should we begin the tour?”

With quick agreements from the guests, Twilight and Sunset began to show the group some of the various labs and operations in the building. 





The first area they visited was the mechanical engineering storage, filled with various state of the art machines that could revolutionise everyday life in a lot of ways. Mechanical prosthetics to replace lost limbs far more flexible and usable than ever before, the ability to fly at high speeds without the need of a plane or helicopter, and even full-body suits capable of increasing the strength of the one wearing it.

Applejack shared some sort of interest in those applications, especially with how they could make working at her farm so much easier, especially for her ageing grandmother. Pinkie was more interested in the potential ‘fun’ one could have by using them, which quickly lead to Twilight making it very clear that the inventions were not to be used carelessly. Fluttershy however, wasn't particularly interested in machines and quietly waited for them to move on. 

Rainbow Dash was a bit interested in knowing how the flight tech could be used, especially since her lifelong dream was to be able to fly…as a pilot or otherwise. However, that was the only thing she found moderately interesting in this place. She honestly just wanted the tour to be over, but she kept that opinion to herself.  





As they moved on to the Bio-labs, Fluttershy very quickly regained her excitement. After Twilight told her about the numerous animals and other life forms CelestiaCorp were studying, Fluttershy couldn't wait to see them up close.

The Bio-labs were filled with glass cages containing everything from mutated animals to unidentified plants to…whatever the mysterious black goo in one of the cages was.

Sunset Shimmer was standing next to the glass dome that contained the odd black organism when she explained, “This strange black slime must be my favourite specimen in this room, I guess that might be because I really cannot explain just what on earth it is. While it lacks all the traits associated with the animal kingdom, it is confirmed to house some sort of direction or even intelligence. Best of what we can tell, it is some form of…symbiote creature. It bonds with another living being and shares traits both to and from the organism it bonds with, and it seems to actively seek out potential hosts.”

Applejack questioned, “Doesn't that mean that the darn thing could try to infect one of them scientist workin’ here?” 

Twilight clarified, “It is a possibility, yes, but we've made sure that the symbiote is kept inside a sealed container at all times. However, there was that one time it escaped into the spider enclosure and came into contact with one of the super-spiders.”

Sunset continued, “We got them separated by using the creature’s apparent weakness to loud noises, but it had already absorbed some of the spider’s DNA. That was also when we realised that it was symbiotic.”

“What about the spider, did that creature hurt it?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

Twilight scratched the back of her neck while answering, “Well…we’re not really sure.”

“Maybe I can be the judge of that.”

“Oh, okay.”

Twilight guided the others over to a large collection of small glass cages containing a spider of some kind in each. Then she pointed at a rather large spider that was coloured brightly red and blue, “That’s the one that was affected. She was one of several spiders to exhibit strange aberrations in their genes due to exposure with an unknown form of radiation.”

Fluttershy took a good long look at the strange spider to see if it was indeed in good health. Being a veterinarian in training, she could read animals on a level few could even come close to, and the way the spider was just sitting in the corner with its legs lazily lying on the floor sent out a lot of warning signals in her head.

“No, this little creature is not okay. She needs some serious help soon. Why don’t I take her home just for one night and she’ll come back as good as new in the morning?”

Twilight’s face dropped when she answered, “I’m sorry, but the rules are very clear that no specimen is allowed to leave the building without permission. I’m afraid I have no choice in this matter.”

Fluttershy looked down at the floor dejectedly while mumbling, “Okay…sorry I asked.”

“Oh no, don’t be sorry. You had a completely valid concern.”

“Sorry for saying sorry.”

Having no idea what to say to that, Twilight tried, “Uhmm…I forgive you?”

“Okay.”

A long and rather awkward silence followed, and Sunset eventually thought that it was her duty to end it by urging, “All right, let’s move on.”

Pinkie Pie exclaimed, “Indeedely! Where are we going next!? Is the next place just as fun as the last ones?!”

“I guess it might be. Follow me.”

Sunset began to lead the group to yet another part of the building, but Fluttershy was frozen on the spot, and she was still staring at the sick spider with a sad look on her face.

Rainbow Dash, who had been too uninterested to listen to the science lecture, became concerned when she saw the expression on Fluttershy’s face. 

Not willing to see her best friend look so miserable, Rainbow asked, “Fluttershy, are you okay?”

Fluttershy suddenly grabbed Rainbow by the shoulders and said, “You have to help me help that spider!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Remember that time when you broke into the principal’s office to play that prank on her?”

“Um, yeah. But what does that have to do with-”

“And the time you broke into that shop to-”

Rainbow suddenly put a hand on Fluttershy’s mouth before whispering, “I thought we agreed not to mention my…you know…shoplifting days.” Then she removed the hand, “So can you please stop reciting my criminal record and get to the point?”

Fluttershy nodded and pointed at the spider’s cage, “All right, I want you to use your lock-picking skills to open that cage so that I can take care of the poor sick spider. That is…if you don’t mind.”

Rainbow looked around nervously, trying to see how many eyewitnesses there were around. Most of the local scientists seemed to be too busy to pay attention to them, and Twilight had started some kind of conversation with Sunset while Applejack was trying to keep Pinkie Pie from disturbing the scientists.

She then turned back to Fluttershy and asked, “Won’t we get into…you know…trouble for this?”

“But we can’t just leave her here and get even sicker. Come on, please…”

Any semblance of hesitation to what Fluttershy was suggesting faded when the pink-haired girl just looked at her with those big adorable puppy dog eyes. Rainbow Dash’s only known weakness.

With a cocky smile forming on her face, Rainbow said, “All right then, cover me while I get this thing open.”

Fluttershy knew what to do and positioned herself with her back to the spider enclosures, simultaneously keeping an eye out for trouble while also standing in the way of Rainbow’s hands while she fished out her secret lock-picking equipment and started to work on getting the lock on the cage open.

Eventually, she broke through the lock and began to slowly open the glass wall keeping the spider from freedom. 

However, just before she could tell Fluttershy that she got it open, a woman’s voice suddenly asked, “What are you two doing?!”

That voice immediately made both of them freeze on the spot out of fear of getting caught in the act. And very slowly, the two of them turned to face the one who asked that.

It turned out to be a fairly tall woman in her late thirties in a black suit with long dark blue, or maybe purple, hair that went down her back in waves. However, the part about her that made Fluttershy and Rainbow most uncomfortable was the disapproving look on her face.

Fluttershy tried to explain, “Well, we were just…looking at the…um…spiders and-”

But the woman quickly interrupted, “Please don’t lie to me, young lady. I know how to tell the difference between truth and lies.”

Fluttershy tried to hide her face behind her hair and was a bit too scared and embarrassed to say a word. Rainbow meanwhile closed the cage and removed the lockpick she used to get it open as quietly and inconspicuously as she possibly could.

The woman took their silence as answer enough and groaned, “Ughh…I don’t even know what my sister was thinking when she allowed a bunch of tourists enter our most secure facilities without anyone keeping any oversight over them. Now tell me what you two were doing to the specimens before I call security.”

Her attitude did not sit well with Rainbow Dash at all, and she soon got right in the woman’s face while asking, “And who the hell do you think you are, huh?!”

Rainbow’s brash questioning did not faze the woman at all, and she calmly answered, “I am Luna, Vice President of CelestiaCorp, and who, might I ask, are you?”

“Listen well, because I’m Rainbow Dash, the one and only, and I don’t appreciate people berating me or my friends!”

“You want some piece of advice, Miss Dash: Subtlety. If you keep shoving your face into every single thing that annoys you, you’re more likely to end up with a punch in the face or worse. Besides, that look of confidence is a lie in itself. Better you put on a mask, that way nobody would be able to tell your true weaknesses.”

“You’re just making that up! I’m not scared of you, and I don’t need a stupid mask!”

“Maybe not a literal mask, but you better learn how to…” she suddenly trailed off when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass of the spider enclosure. Luna could not put her finger on it, but she definitively noticed something off about the person looking back at her. 

However, with no intention of making a fool of herself in front of everybody, Luna abruptly said, “Just move along, you two, but don’t let me catch you doing anything suspicious again. Got it?”  

Neither teen said anything to that and just watched as Luna turned on her heel and left them alone. When Fluttershy gave Rainbow a questioning look, the rainbow-haired girl just shrugged before the two of them went to regroup with the others.

However, what they didn't realise was that the spider was no longer in the cage. In fact, during the time Rainbow was preoccupied paying attention to Luna, the spider had climbed out of its cage and up onto her arm. The arachnid was now sitting on Rainbow's back and she had no idea that it was even there.





Oblivious to the secret stowaway, Rainbow Dash continued the rest of the day as she expected. They went to see a few more labs, listened to more lectures from Twilight and Sunset, and by the end of the tour, Rainbow Dash was on the verge of falling asleep. 

Eventually though, Twilight called it a day and they all decided to get some dinner at a restaurant just across the street from the CelestiaCorp building.

Admittedly, they all had a great time there. With all the science (or egghead stuff as Rainbow called it) out of the way, Rainbow Dash could finally go back to talking about the things that she found interesting. Namely the one thing she actually had in common with Twilight Sparkle: their mutual love of Daring Do.

“No way Ahuizotl could survive that!” Rainbow exclaimed after the news Twilight just told her.

But Twilight simply shrugged and said, “A.K. Yearling announced that he would be the main villain of the new book, so he must have survived somehow.”

“But it makes no sense. I mean, the guy had an entire pyramid crash on top of him. That you don’t walk away from.”

“You wouldn’t expect such an iconic character to just get killed off that easily, did you?”

“I suppose not, but what’s the point in having him die in the first place if he’s supposed to come back in the sequel?” 

The rest of the group was just staring at the two of them while waiting for someone to change the subject. Since none of the others had ever read any of the Daring Do books didn’t they have the faintest idea of what they were on about. Pinkie pretended to understand though…for some reason.

Eventually, Sunset got roped into their conversation and said, “I just don’t see what the big deal is. I mean, isn't Daring Do just an Indiana Jones crossed with Lara Croft who is somehow a talking pony with wings?”

Rainbow argued, “Not when you put it that way! Daring Do is so much more than that. Daring Do is excitement, adventure and awesomeness. And no, the series is not just for kids.”

"I guess you're right about that, but I just can't see why so many adults find that series interesting. I mean, the characters are ponies for crying out loud."

And the debate went on. Rainbow Dash and Twilight defended their interest in adventure stories with 'pony-Indiana jones' while Sunset Shimmer kept a certain degree of scepticism about the whole thing. 

Eventually the subject changed to Applejack's concerns about a pair of business men calling themselves the Flim Flam brothers, who had repeatedly tried to swindle Applejack's family's farm away from them. Apparently, the Flim Flam brothers had been supported by an anonymous benefactor to take over the apple business from the Apple family. While Applejack was sure they were up to something suspicious, she had no evidence to prove anything. 

After that, Pinkie Pie decided to lighten up the mood by bringing up yet another party she was planning. Apparently, it was her pet alligator (long story how she got her hands on one of those) Gummy’s birthday next week, and she wanted to invite all of her friends to his party. However, she assured the others that she wouldn't try to throw any last-minute after-birthday parties that could potentially clash with any surprise birthday parties her friends might or might not have been planning for her. No one wanted a repeat of what happened last year.

After the six of them had spent about two hours at the restaurant, give or take, they all agreed to call it a night and head home. Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer both lived in the more central parts of the city, so they could easily get home on their own. The rest of them had to rely on Applejack's truck to get where they wanted to be. 





By the time the sun had set, Applejack had already gotten Pinkie to her home at the edge of the city and was just now reaching the suburban district where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy lived. Though, without Pinkie Pie's guidance, it actually took even longer for Applejack to find the place where they lived.

When they finally arrived at Rainbow Dash's house, Applejack turned to her two remaining passengers and announced, “Well, it might have taken awhile to find this place, but at least y’all are here now.” 

“Well, thanks for the ride anyway.” Rainbow said while she and Fluttershy stepped out of the car. 

Applejack said “Anytime!” and waited for Fluttershy to close the door before she began to drive home, leaving them at the same place she picked them up that very morning.

After spending a few moments not doing anything but just standing there, Fluttershy noted, “Well, it’s been…nice to get out and see all those things today.”

Rainbow turned to her and said, “Yeah, I suppose. And…I’m sorry I couldn't get that spider for you.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I guess I was a bit wrong in trying to take her away.”

“So…now what?”

Fluttershy let out a big yawn, “I’m feeling a bit tired. I think I’m going to bed.”

“Well, good night then, Flutters.”

“You too, Dashie.” 

With that said, the two of them parted ways for the night. Fluttershy walked over to her mom's house, which happened to be the house across the street, while Rainbow Dash herself returned to her own home. 

Feeling rather exhausted after everything that happened during the day, Rainbow Dash didn't even bother saying hello to her parents and immediately headed to her room and shut the door behind her.  And as soon as she got there, she fell on top of her bed with the intention of getting some much-needed nap time.

While she was lying there, her eyes wandering over the posters on the walls, she thought back on the goals she had set out to reach at some point in her life.

The Wonderbolt posters were there to remind her of her lifelong dream of one day being able to fly. She knew becoming a pilot would be the most realistic way of ever doing that, but in truth, she wanted far more than that. She wanted to be able to soar through the air without a dome of glass separating her from the outside world, to feel the wind slam against her face while she moved faster than the eye could see. But, what were the odds of that ever happening?

Her other posters were of Daring Do, who she admired for being such a fearless and completely unstoppable hero who would go to the ends of the earth to do what she felt was right. That was also something Rainbow wanted, but no matter how ‘awesome’ she claimed to be, she knew she wasn't strong enough to go around being everyone’s hero in the real world.

However, the things Rainbow Dash conceived as reality was about to be tested forever.

After a while, she noticed a strange tingling feeling on her wrist and curiously moved her arm to eye-level to see what it was. But when she saw a fairly big red and blue spider walk on top of her hand like that, she reacted like any other person would have.

She panicked.

She frantically shook her wrist to make the invading arachnid hopefully fall off, but her attempts did little more than annoy it. And when a venomous spider felt threatened, there was always one thing it could do. It sank its fangs right through the skin of her hand and poured its venom directly into her bloodstream.

It didn't take long before Rainbow Dash began to feel the effects. She started to sweat profusely, an uncontrollable shiver ran through her body, causing her to convulse and spasm like crazy until she felt extremely sleepy all of a sudden. No matter how hard she tried, she could not prevent herself from slipping into the state of unconsciousness.

As her forced sleep took hold over her, a massive change was going on inside her very genes, one that was going to change her life forever. 

That was how it all began…that was the event that would give rise to the Awesome Spider-Dash!
> 1) And along came a Spider...Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 1
And along came a Spider...Part 2
Waking up at the Wrong Side of the Bed...literally


If Rainbow Dash had to describe this particular Sunday morning in one word, it would be…‘weird’.

The first thing she noticed when she returned to the waking world was just how completely...wrong everything felt. For some reason, she could feel not just the things that physically touched her skin, but everything around her. She couldn't explain it, but she could sense every single furniture in the room, every single piece of clothing on the floor, every poster on the walls, and even the subtle breathing of her pet tortoise as he slept quietly.

Things only got stranger when she opened her eyes to see what was happening.

'Wait...is the bed...on the ceiling?' Well, that was her first thought as soon as she saw the state of her room. However, after readjusting her eyes a bit more, she noticed that it was not just the bed. The whole room appeared to have been turned upside down.

'Okay…I guess I'm still dreaming…' she briefly considered...until another thought crossed her mind, 'But wait, this isn't what I'm usually dreaming about, is it? There's usually a lot more flying or a lot more Fluttershy. Also, this really doesn't feel like a dream at all really...'

After releasing a yawn and letting that concept sink into her head for a moment, her eyes suddenly shot open and she began to look around frantically.

It was then she noticed something far more disturbing. 

It wasn't the room that was upside down, it was herself who was.

Somehow, Rainbow Dash was clinging onto the surface of the ceiling with nothing but the tips of her fingers, a feat that should not have been physically possible. Even more unbelievable was the fact that she had been sleeping in this position. To top it all off, she had no memory of how she even got up there in the first place.

'Wait, what in the actual fu-'

Though when she tried to regain some control in her (apparently very sticky) hands, whatever holding her glued to the ceiling suddenly vanished...and like some clichéd cartoon gag, she fell face first into the bed below…probably damaging a few springs in the mattress when she landed. 

After letting out a slightly pained groan, Rainbow slowly and steadily sat up straight and thought, 'Well, that was weird...'

Suddenly, she felt a sharp tingle buzz at the back of her head, and for some reason, she instantly knew that whatever that tingle was, it was warning her about something next to her bed.

Without even thinking about what she was doing, she sprang up into the air like a grasshopper and latched onto the nearest wall in less than a second. And just like how she woke up that morning, she was now supporting her entire weight onto the surface with just her feet and the tips of her fingers. 

The next thing she knew, her alarm clock began to ring in the exact location the strange tingle had tried to warn her about. Only…the warning came a full five seconds before it began ringing.

Baffled by all of this, Rainbow Dash just stared at the alarm clock as if it was completely alien to her. 

After all, humans usually couldn't stick to walls like they were made of flypaper, and neither could they react to things before they even happened using strange body sensations. 

Well...Pinkie Pie could do something very similar, but everyone who knew her had agreed that that girl was immune to the laws of physics. 

However, that gave Rainbow a very disturbing idea on what was going on with her.

'Am I…turning into Pinkie Pie?!' 

That thought was quickly discarded though when she heard her father shout, “Dash, are you gonna turn that off anytime soon?!”

Realising that the alarm clock was still ringing, Rainbow jumped from the wall and landed on her feet in the middle of the room with little to no difficulty. She didn't even feel any vertigo from doing something like that.

She walked over to the small table next to her bed and tried to push the button on the alarm clock to turn it off, but instead of doing that, she somehow managed to accidentally smash it into pieces. 

Staring in surprise at the broken remains of her ancient nemesis, the only thing she had to say was an understated, "Wow.”  

Granted, she had no love for that clock, but destroying it was not exactly her intention. Now she probably had to pay for a new one, not to mention explain what happened to the old one. 

'Okay, seriously, what the hell is happening to me?!' she silently asked herself, thoroughly confused about what on earth was going on.

Things did not turn out any better when she attempted to leave the room either. When she tried to pull the door open, she instead ripped the doorknob straight out of the door. Not only that, but the broken off doorknob was now stuck to her hand like superglue. 

Dash tried desperately to use her free hand to pull it off, but it was not budging no matter how hard she tried. 

Then, with no warning whatsoever, the titanium grip she had on the object loosened while she was still trying to pry it off, ultimately resulting in the severed doorknob flying like a projectile out of her hands and right out of her bedroom window, shattering it in the process. 





At that exact moment, Vinyl Scratch, a girl with purple shades and spiky blue hair was passing through the street outside, loud electronic music blaring into her headphones while she bobbed her head obliviously to what was happening around her. 

But when she felt something hit her shoulder at high speed, she winced in pain and began to look around for any signs of what it was. She then saw a strange metal object on the ground next to her, picked it up, shrugged, put it in the pocket of her white hoodie and continued on her path as if nothing happened. 





Rainbow Dash’s parents on the other hand were not so nonchalant about what just happened. 

When Firefly heard the unmistakable sound of glass shattering, she immediately decided to head upstairs and see what the heck was going on. Though when she opened the door, she was met with the sight of her daughter flashing her a nervous smile with a broken window and an even more broken alarm clock in the background. 

Firefly was not amused...and she made that clear by crossing her arms and giving her daughter a stern glare.

After an awkward staring contest that lasted a few more seconds than Rainbow Dash was comfortable with, Firefly asked, “What happened?”

Truthfully, Rainbow was just as confused as her mother was, probably even more so. But…she really felt the need to come up with some kind of excuse, no matter how lame it was.

“Uhmm…I think some kid was playing...uh…baseball and…one of the balls…hit the window...and the alarm clock too.”

“Uh-huh…” Firefly answered, sounding very unconvinced. 

“Yeah, that’s totally what happened. I think it might have been Scootaloo and her friends. You know how those three are.”

Firefly’s eyes narrowed while Rainbow’s forced smile grew, “...And there's nothing you’re trying to hide something from me, is there?” 

“Nope, not hiding anything. Promise!”

“Funny, because that’s exactly what you said when you promised you weren't shoplifting last year.”

Well, there was no way out now, she had no choice but to explain exactly what happe…

“Hey, do you think there's any broccoli left in the fridge? I'm starving!”

…or not.

Rainbow’s completely out of nowhere question caught Firefly off-guard, “Huh, what?”

But Dash didn't explain herself at all, and instead walked past Firefly like she was in a hurry, leaving her mother with a truly puzzled and confused look on her face. 





Downstairs, Rainbow Blaze was once again reading the latest issue of the Daily Bugle in the kitchen. This time though, the headline read, ‘NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL GRUFF TOMB (AKA THE VULTURE) ACCUSES CELESTIACORP OF PLAGIARISM’, with a prison photo of an old man with a scarred eye looking bitterly at the camera. 

The old athlete put down his newspaper when he noticed Rainbow Dash head from her room upstairs and straight for the refrigerator, opening it and frantically starting to look for something inside.

"Good morning, Dash," he greeted. "You're up early, especially for a Sunday. Did you forget to turn off the alarm clock? And what was that ruckus just now?! It sounded like a window broke." 

Rainbow Dash was so focused on whatever it was she was looking for though that she didn't catch a word of what her father just said. Instead, she took out a package of broccoli and one of Blaze's home-made blueberry pies.

Her choice of breakfast though did make Blaze raise a curious eyebrow. Now, in most cases, it would probably seem strange for a teenager like Rainbow Dash to take so much broccoli...but in truth, she had always liked broccoli, even as a child, so that wasn't strange at all. However...if there was one thing everybody and their mother knew about Dash's food preferences, it was that she couldn't stand pies, any kind of pies, under any circumstances. Giving her one was more like a punishment than anything else.

So when he saw his daughter place the blueberry pie he made last night on the kitchen table and start to devour it, along with as much broccoli as she could find, like she hadn't eaten in days...he cautiously asked, "Um, Dash...should I be worried?"

With a mouthful of pie and broccoli in her mouth, Dash casually answered, "What'ya mean?"

"First of all: blueberry pie and broccoli do not go well together...and secondly: when have you ever liked pies?"

She swallowed what she had in her mouth and paused while she considered that. "Ehh...since...this morning, I guess..." she replied, not knowing what her weird cravings were about either.

Blaze's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

She noticed the way he was staring at her almost immediately. "What?"

"Oh, I don't know, is it so wrong for a father to be concerned about his teenage daughter when she's suddenly waking up at peculiar times and having strange food cravings?"

It took her a while to figure out what he was getting at, but when she did, she immediately clarified, "What, no, it's not that!"

"You sure about that?"

"Look, I would know if I ever did...that," Dash clarified awkwardly. "I mean, the only person I've ever done 'it' with is Gilda...and last time I checked, she's a girl! She literally doesn't have the parts required."

"And...you're certain you haven't, ehmm, experimented with someone who does? Like...well, doesn't Fluttershy's brother have a crush on you? I mean, I could understand if you might take pity on him and..." he couldn't actually bring himself to finish that sentence, but he definitively didn't need to for his daughter to understand what he was suggesting. 

"What, no, ewwww, dad! No way would I do that! That's just...ew!" she affirmed, sounding simultaneously disgusted and offended, and her face was beat red at this point.  

Heck, the mental image alone was enough to instantly make lose her appetite and let out a visible gag that told Blaze everything he needed to know about that topic.

A bit embarrassed himself, he defensively held his hands up and said, "Sorry, sorry...just had to make sure."

"Seriously, dad...I'm not pregnant," she pointed out while taking the times to rub her temples. "I am one-hundred and twenty percent sure about that."

"Okay, okay, I believe you. But then...what is going on with you this morning?"

Dash slumped over the table and honestly replied, "I have no idea..."

Rainbow Blaze slowly raised his newspaper to hide his face in an attempt to break the awkward tension between them. It didn't work, and in fact, only made it worse. 

The tension was making Dash just a bit uncomfortable, so she decided to try to break it by changing the subject entirely. "So...uh, anything interesting in the news lately?" 

Blaze, very happy to switch topic, showed his daughter the picture of the old scarred man on the front page and informed, "Apparently, Gilda's grandpa tried to sue CelestiaCorp for stealing his tech."

"Wasn't that the loon who dressed up in that silly bird-costume and robbed a bunch of banks?"

"That's him. I remember back when I was just a young boy and kept hearing stories about the insane bank-robber dressed as a green vulture. Canterlot's very first super-villain...back in the sixties...the good old days. But...I guess that's all in the past since he hasn't been seen in that costume for more than twenty years now."  

"Sure seems like that attitude of his is genetic though," Dash commented with a hint of bitterness. 

Blaze put down the newspaper again and looked her in the eye, "Is this about Gilda again?"

"Yeah, it's about Gilda! She was a total bitch to all of my friends, especially Fluttershy, and then she goes around telling everyone that I'm a selfish jerk and blames me for breaking up with her!"

"Just...please let that go. You can't stay bitter about her forever."

"Well, until the day comes when she falls on her knees and begs Fluttershy for forgiveness, I'm still going to be angry with her."

"You know that's not healthy, Dash. I'm not telling you to forgive her, but-"

"But nothing! Can we just stop talking about this?"

"Not to sound childish, but you brought her up."

"Whatever, I'm going out for some fresh air." 

Dash hastily got up and left her plate and what was left of her unorthodox breakfast on the table before she grabbed her blue jacket, put on her shoes and left through the front door. Rainbow Blaze sighed but decided against reminding his daughter to put away her plate. 





After stepping out of her house, Rainbow Dash decided to put her thoughts of her botched relationship with Gilda and the awkward conversation with her father aside for now by exploring all these strange new powers that she had suddenly woken up with. 

Already, her weird sensory ability made her able to feel just about everything in her surroundings, up to and including the wing beats of the tiny mosquito that was just about to land on her neck. Within the blink of an eye, she managed to squash it with her hand in mid-air behind her back without even looking.   

She slowly opened her hand again to look at the remains of the dead insect. And her immediate reaction was to brush the remains off with her other hand while making a slight disgusted noise. 

'I really should think before I react to that,' she noted for future reference.

Already, her ability to sense things in her surroundings intrigued her, but that was just one of her new abilities. 

'Okay, let's see what else I can do...'

She rubbed her hands together, bent her legs slightly and focused on the roof of the house in front of her. With her destination in sight, she jumped five metres up into the air and landed on the house's roof without breaking a sweat. Her feet's new ability to stick to things made sure she didn't accidentally slip and hurt herself, and it seemed to work even though she was currently wearing shoes. (To be honest, I have no idea how that works) 

With a goofy smile on her face for accomplishing such a feat, Rainbow declared, "Okay, now that was cool!" 

Out of curiosity, she walked over to the edge of the roof, got down on her knees and lowered her head to take a peak through the window below. From there, she could get a perfect upside-down view of...Fluttershy's bedroom? 

The moment she saw the girl she had a crush on brush her long pink hair while staring into her mirror...while only being dressed in a wrapped up towel, Rainbow Dash immediately turned her eyes away and stood back up.

She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, 'I know it's tempting, Dash, but just...don't, just don't, just don't.'

However, her presence did not go unnoticed, as Fluttershy happened to hear a sudden noise by her window that struck her as a bit odd. Curious, she walked over to the window, opened it and asked, "Hello, is anybody there?"

'Oh crap!'

The moment Rainbow Dash heard Fluttershy's voice, she panicked and jumped over to another house as quickly as she could in order to avoid a potentially very awkward situation. 

When she had stayed there for almost a full minute and was sure that Fluttershy hadn't seen her, Rainbow released a breath that she apparently had been holding for all that time. That could definitively have gone a lot worse.

Still, the fact remained that she had effortlessly jumped from one rooftop to another without even thinking, and that was an impressive feat in itself. 

However, Rainbow Dash was an athlete and always prided herself in exceeding her own limits, and with these new super-powers, her limits were completely unknown to her. 

'Time to change that.'

In the suburban district where she lived, the houses were lined up next to each other for quite a long distance, and as Rainbow took in the sight, a smirk formed itself on her face. 

Ordinary athletes would use plain running paths or more realistically doable obstacle courses, but as of this morning, Rainbow Dash was not 'ordinary' any longer.

She started off with a short sprint in order to get enough momentum, and then she jumped off the roof she was on and landed on the next one without any difficulty. But she did not stop there, for as soon as she landed, she started to run and eventually jump to the next one...and the one after that...and the one after that, and then she decided to just keep doing it for a while.

Not only had her jumping distance improved, but also her stamina and especially her speed. And as she got more into the act of jumping from roof to roof, she got a little more daring and tried some things she hadn't even attempted before. Dash could barely believed it when she effortlessly performed a back-flip in mid-air and landed perfectly on her feet on the next roof. It was just too surreal. 

After only 20 minutes of roof-jumping, she felt the need to up her game a bit. After all, she wouldn't be Rainbow Dash if she didn't test her absolute limits on a daily basis, and this time was no exception. 

The ideal place for this came into view when she was beginning to approach the more city-like area of Canterlot where the buildings were starting to get just a little bit taller and were made of concrete. 

She spotted a five story building at the very edge of the suburban district where she lived. The building was remote, with flat even walls, not too tall or too short, and there were not that many people around (not too surprising considering how early in the morning it was).

'Perfect.'

She ran over to an out-of-view wall at the side of the building and sized up the distance from the ground all the way to the top. While certainly not the most impressive building in the city, it would be more than enough for a test run. 

Rainbow began by putting her right hand on the solid surface, then followed it up with left one, and then followed with both of her legs so that she didn't have to touch the ground anymore. That was the easy part. Now she had to do something a little more impressive than just hanging onto a wall. 

She detached one hand from the surface and moved it a step further up, then she did the same with the other while her legs followed suit. Before long, she was actually climbing further and further up the wall. Good thing she wasn't that afraid of heights...anymore at least. Goodness knows she wouldn't have dared to do this as a kid. 

What started out as a calm steady climb gradually turned more into a dash up the building as Rainbow increased her pace. Soon enough, she was practically running up the wall on all fours. The abundance of adrenaline in her blood was higher at that moment than it had probably been in her entire life...and she was already a self-admitted adrenaline junkie. 

'Oh my gosh, of my gosh, oh my gosh, can't believe I'm actually doing this!' she thought while she climbed.

When she finally reached the top, she didn't just climb up, instead she jumped four metres into the air, performed a somersault and landed perfectly on the roof with her hands rather than her feet. And she was now holding her weight up from the ground with just the tips of her finger...but she'd done something like that already, hadn't she? 

Feeling even more daring, Rainbow Dash took two of her fingers from both hands off the ground, then she pulled back the thumbs as well. But she had not quite reached her limit just yet, and she even went so far as to remove her right hand completely, thus proving that she could lift herself up with nothing more than the tips of the two fingers that were still touching the ground. 

'Man, this is unreal...'

After experiencing the world upside-down for a moment, she flipped back to her feet, standing once again like a normal person. 

Though as she stood on top of a building she had literally climbed up on, she felt more like she was on top of the world. From this vantage point, she could see almost the entire city, and with the rising sun in the background, it was truly a sight to behold. 

Filled with a joy she hadn't felt in ages, Rainbow shouted "THIS. IS. AWESOME!" as loud as she possibly could.





In a small apartment in the very same building Rainbow Dash had just climbed, Octavia, a young woman wearing a black suit with a pink bow-tie and straight black hair was playing on her cello in perfect harmony. Her eyes were closed as she allowed the peaceful classical music to calm her senses.

That was until she heard someone shout "THIS. IS. AWESOME!" from what must have been her roof, prompting her to open her eyes and let out an annoyed groan.

If there was one thing Octavia couldn't tolerate, it was distractions. So she calmly put down her cello, walked over to the only open window in the room, closed it, got back to her original position and picked up her instrument once more. 

But before her bow could touch the string of her cello, her peace and quiet was disturbed once again when her roommate and occasional friend with benefit Vinyl Scratch slammed open the front door loud enough to nearly give Octavia a heart attack. 

She sharply turned around to face the blue-haired intruder and gave her a death glare for disturbing her peace and quiet for the millionth time. Vinyl responded to that with a slightly guilty smile. 

Octavia really did love Vinyl, but at the same time, she kept asking herself how a mute girl could possibly be so...noisy?     

Determined to know the answer to that, Octavia questioned, "Vinyl, why can't you ever open the door like an ordinary person?" in her overly posh English accent. 

Using a series of elaborate hand gestures, Vinyl signed, 'It's more fun my way.' 

"More fun for you maybe. I'm not entirely sure if I enjoy it as much."

'I have to be loud somehow' Vinyl signed in addition to pointing at her throat, hinting at her damaged vocal chords.

"I think the chaos that you consider to be music is loud enough."

Vinyl responded to that comment by mockingly sticking out her tongue at her. 

Octavia rolled her eyes, "Oh do grow up. In any event, did anything interesting happen while you were out and about?"

To answer her question, Vinyl fished out Rainbow Dash's doorknob from the pocket of her hoodie and held it up for her to see.  

With a raised eyebrow, Octavia asked, "Is that a...doorknob?"

Vinyl nodded.

"Why are you carrying around a doorknob?"

Vinyl shrugged.
> 1) And along came a Spider...Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 1
And along came a Spider...Part 3
Wait, spiders don't shoot webs?


While Rainbow Dash and most of her close friends lived far away from the more hectic parts of Canterlot City, the same could not be said for Twilight Sparkle, who spent most of her nights in a small apartment downtown.

However, she didn't actually live there as much as she was staying there at her work days whenever she had to be close to her CelestiaCorp internship. Most weekends she still spent back in her family home in the suburban Ponyville district where she grew up. 

This apartment was actually owned by her parents, who mostly used it for the same reason...that is, spending the nights there to be closer to their respective jobs whenever that was required and come back home during the weekends. When Twilight was younger, they usually let a close friend of theirs, Cadence (who was also Twilight's current sister-in-law), take care of her when they were away...but now she'd gotten used to living mostly by herself.   

That was also why, when they left on their all-expense-trip around the world, they had let her stay in their work apartment without any parental supervision.

She did not live there alone however, as her younger brother, Spike, wouldn't leave her side, even if only for the week. Interestingly, even though they shared no blood connection whatsoever, Twilight was actually a lot closer to Spike than to her actual flesh and blood brother Shining Armour. Not that she had a bad relationship with Shining, it was just that the connection was a bit stronger with Spike than with him.

Abandoned at a very young age, Spike had no knowledge whatsoever about his biological family...and neither did anyone else for that matter. So when Twilight's parents decided to adopt him at the age of five, he was more than happy to be a part of their family. He grew especially close to Twilight though, and even volunteered to be her 'number one assistant' whenever she required one, and that meant that even when she had to live in a small apartment downtown to get closer to CelestiaCorp, he was right there with her...even if he had to take the train every morning to get to school. 

Though while the choice to relocate to the city during her internship was the most logically sound one, Twilight still preferred her old home in the suburban district where most of her friends lived. The only friend she lived remotely close to here was Sunset Shimmer, whose apartment was just a few blocks away. 

While the distance to most of her friends was certainly not what she had in mind, Twilight's greatest challenge by far was trying to adjust to the stressful and hectic environment of central Canterlot. The crowds, the rush, the city noise and all those subway stations to keep track of were really starting to get on her nerves after awhile. 

Still, it was a small prize to pay for becoming Celestia's personal protegé and being allowed to study at one of the greatest science companies in the modern world, and she wouldn't trade that opportunity for the world. 

She secretly just wished that the CelestiaCorp building hadn't been positioned in one of the most hectic parts of the city though. 

However, no matter how chaotic things might become outside, Twilight knew that her bedroom was always a peaceful sanctuary. In fact, her room was the complete opposite of the chaotic mess Rainbow Dash lived in, and had everything organised to the extreme. 

The first clue as to how different their rooms were was the fact that the only thing Twilight had on her walls was a map of the periodic table over her bed…and nothing else. The rest of the room also gave a completely different impression. Bookshelves loaded with tons and tons of books made up most of the living space, and if anyone else lived here, that would become quite a mess. However, Twilight had managed to keep every single book in its proper place at all times without exception. First, they had to be put into the proper category, and once there, they had to be placed in perfect alphabetical order unless chronology said otherwise. If a book was not where it belonged, then that could only mean that Twilight was currently reading it or had loaned it to someone else. 

Her desk was also very clean and polished, with the only objects on it being the mouse, keyboard, computer screen and a few somewhat out of place framed photographs. One of those was a family portrait showing herself, her brothers Spike and Shining Armour, their parents Night Light and Twilight Velvet, and even Shining's wife Cadence, all smiling at the camera. 

The second picture was of herself and her circle of friends all dressed up for Halloween, with Pinkie Pie wearing a chicken costume and making a silly face, Rainbow Dash cosplaying as Daring Do while doing an action pose, Applejack garbed as a walking scarecrow while otherwise acting notably more normal than everyone else, and Twilight Sparkle herself was dressed up as a Roman soldier with a goofy grin on her face. However, Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen in the picture and instead there was another girl in her place with expertly curled purple hair who was outfitted in a tight black catsuit outlined by a white furred neckline and also kept a black eye-mask over her face with an expression of mischief in her pretty eyes.

The third and final photo was of Twilight and Sunset Shimmer, receiving a first place award from Celestia for their entries into a science fair a while back, both with very dorky smiles plastered on their overjoyed faces. 

The photos were there to remind her of the people that she cared about...and to make sure she didn't become so absorbed in her research as to completely forget about them...again. Granted, she felt a little guilty for not having a picture of Fluttershy on it, but in her defence, Fluttershy wasn't really comfortable with people taking pictures of her, and she especially didn't feel comfortable leaving her home (or her room for that matter) on Halloween.

Sunset's suggestion yesterday to pay more attention to her friends though was something that had been on her mind, and she was determined to make things up sooner or later.

However, at this very moment, Twilight was fully absorbed into her research on something called the 'Decay-Rate Algorithm' (whatever that was), with her focus being on the screen of her computer...and nothing else. It was how she got her projects done in time, and she wouldn't be caught dead getting stuck procrastinating or letting things distract her (unlike me).

...Which was why she jumped in surprise when a knock came…from her window. Only…she knew that her apartment was on the seventh floor, so how could anyone possibly be knocking on her window? 

Twilight did the most rational thing she thought she could do in this situation: she ignored it and continued focusing on her work. 'Probably just my imagination,' she told herself.

But…when the knocking returned, and a little louder and more impatient this time, she couldn't ignore it any longer. 

'Okay, that was not my imagination. It got to be a bird or someth-'

What she saw when she turned around to look at it though...was definitively not something she expected, and had to actually do a double take to make sure she wasn't just imagining things.

Rainbow Dash was just…there, in her window, looking at her with a slightly impatient stare. How and why she was there, Twilight could not explain, but she could read Rainbow's expression as 'Can you open the window already?', so she decided she might go ahead and do just that.

With a slight hesitation in her moves, Twilight got up from her computer chair, walked over to the window and slowly opened it inwards.

As soon as it was open, Rainbow Dash said, “Took you long enough,” while taking a seat at the edge of the window in a surprisingly carefree manner considering she was at the risk of falling seven stories down and splattering to her death on the pavement below if she leaned back too much. 

Twilight took a few uneasy steps back, “Uhhh...hi Rainbow. Any particular reason why you're coming through…my window?”

“I don’t really like stairs, ” Dash casually replied.

"Understandable, but...how did you even get up there? I mean this is on the seventh floor and I haven't seen any fire escape ladders on this side of the building or..."

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But that’s the thing..." Dash said, not really sure where to start with this. "Look, something strange has happened to me...and when I mean strange, I mean really, really, über-strange.”

Twilight's eyes lit up in concern, “What is it? Are you sick?”

“I don’t know about that, but…I think it will a be a lot easier to just show you.”

“Show me what?"

"Ooh, you'll see..." Rainbow answered ominously, her eyes showing a certain cockiness that Twilight was not sure she liked. 

She stretched her neck muscles a little, rubbed her hands together in preparation, put both of her feet on the window board, and then jumped from the window, flew clear across the room, and latched onto the ceiling directly behind Twilight's head. 

She did it all so fast even that Twilight could barely track her movements, and when she turned around to come face to face with an upside-down Rainbow Dash looking at her with that cocky grin, her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates while she backed away slightly.  

Somehow, the girl in front of her was sitting on her ceiling. An act which, according to Twilight's very science-oriented brain, was completely against the laws of physics...and yet, she was still doing it.  

“How…how…ho…how are you DOING THAT?!” She finally blurted out after a few moments of bewildered staring. 

Rainbow casually answered “Pretty neat, huh?” while she crawled across the ceiling, down to the far wall, and finally back down to the floor, at which point she stood up straight and leaned her back against the wall. "That's how I came up here by the way."

“Since when could you climb walls!?”

“Since this morning, I guess. Get this, I woke up on the ceiling with no clue how I got there in the first place, and that's not even the half of it! I can do way more stuff than just climbing walls now."

“Really?! What else can you do?” Twilight asked excitingly as her curiosity reached brand new levels. 

“I'm super strong, super fast, can jump really far. Seriously, I scaled this building in ten seconds flat! Also, I can kinda 'feel' things in my surroundings, and sometimes I get this weird tingle at the back of my head that warns me about...stuff." 

Twilight's glasses slowly slid down her nose while her mind was slowly trying to process what she had just heard and witnessed. Her mind coming up with at least a billion questions she felt the need to ask Rainbow Dash about. But for now at least, there was really only one question that mattered.

"How exactly...did this happen?"

Rainbow scratched the back of her neck, "Weeeeell...that's kinda why I'm here actually. I figured you'd be the one to ask about this."

After pushing her glasses back up, Twilight sat down at her computer chair and put a hand on her chin as she was trying to figure out an explanation for this. 

"Have you ever experienced any similar abilities before?" she asked first.

"No...can't say I have."

"And you just...woke up like this?"

"Yep!"

"Okay, let's see..." Twilight mused. "Uhmm...sudden exposure to alien radiation? Not likely since you were nowhere near any radiation sources recently. Unusual genetic mutation revealing itself through adolescence? Possible, but way too sudden. Also, the mutant X gene is still just a hypothesis. Or maybe...wait a minute! Maybe that visit to CelestiaCorp yesterday could have something to do with this? But what could you possibly have been into contact with there that could give you these...abilities? I dunno, maybe-" 

Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in Rainbow's head. "The spider! It must have been that weird spider that did this!"

"Spider? What spider?"

"Oh, right, Fluttershy is probably going to use 'the stare' on me for telling you this, but back when you were showing us the Biome-labs...or whatever that place was called, Fluttershy begged me to help her open one of the cages and let her take care of that spider she kept moping about. And of course, me being such a loyal friend, I agreed, and was halfway about to open the thing when-"

"You did WHAT?!" Twilight suddenly shouted. 

Rainbow groaned at the interruption, and repeated, "I said I was just about to open the cage to the..." but trailed off when she noticed that Twilight was angrily glaring at her. 

"Do you have any idea how much trouble the both of you could have ended up in for that?!"

"Sorry, Sparkle, but I can't resist it when Fluttershy uses those adorable puppy dog eyes on me..." Realising what she just said, Dash quickly added, "...and I did not just call her eyes 'adorable'. Just forget I said that!"

A bit confused, Twilight started, "Rainbow, what's so wrong about-"

But before the conversation could potentially get awkward, Dash immediately steered them back on topic. "Anyway, before I could get the spider out, some bossy blue-haired woman in a black suit got in my face and asked me what we were doing. Things got a bit...tense, but it worked out in the end."

"Are you talking about Luna?" Twilight guessed off of Dash's description.

"Yeah...I think that was her name," Rainbow noted in realisation. "You know her?"

"She's my mentor Celestia's younger sister. She owns about half the company and is pretty much in charge when it comes to security. We have worked together a few times on a couple of projects, but I don't know her that much personally."

"Does she always have that stick up her butt?"

"I'll admit she's a bit less jovial than her sister, but from what I've been told...well, she's been through a lot. Neither of them really likes talking about it."

"Touchy subject?"

"I guess so. All I know is that it had something to do with something that happened twenty years ago...and someone named Sombra, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I digress. What happened after the encounter with Luna?"  

"Oh, well, nothing special really. We gave up on getting that spider out and continued the day pretty much as it happened. However...when I got home and was about to check on the pictures I took, the spider had somehow gotten in my camera bag and bit me when I reached into it. I...don't remember anything after that until I woke up this morning."

"So if I got this straight...you got all these abilities from...a spiderbite?"

Dash shrugged, "I must have. It's the only thing I can think of that could have done it at least."

"Hmmm..." Twilight mused while her brow creased in thought. Analysing everything Rainbow had told and showed her, it didn't take her brain all that long until she came up with a theory for how all this made any kind of sense. 

"Alright, I think I may have an idea as to what happened to you."

"Yeah, and..?" Rainbow urged, moving her hand in a 'go on' kind of motion.

"The spiders that we're studying at CelestiaCorp are not exactly...ordinary, to put it mildly. All of them were exposed with a strange form of radiation that emanated from a meteor that crashed into the Everfree Forest about a year ago. It was also from the very same meteor that the 'Symbiote' organism originated from. The radiation mutated the DNA of the spiders and enhanced some of their abilities beyond what normal spiders are physically able to do. And my best guess is that those enhanced abilities must have somehow transferred over to you through the venom of the affected spider. While nothing in our research have ever suggested such a transfer to be possible, if the spider that bit you was the one that came into contact with the symbiote creature, the symbiote could have given the spider the ability to transfer genetic traits from one organism to another, and that is how this particular spider could have given you these abilities."

After Twilight had finished her explanation, Rainbow Dash was left staring blankly at her with a confused, dull expression on her face. "...You lost me."

Twilight rolled her eyes and simplified her long and detailed explanation to, "The spider had super-powers that it somehow gave to you when it bit you."

"Oooooh...now I get it," Rainbow mused in an understanding tone. "Wasn't that easier to say?"

Twilight released a very audible sigh and gave her friend a deadpan look.

"What? It's not my fault this egghead stuff goes over my head," Dash argued.

Twilight silently turned her attention to her computer and Googled after a picture of the species of spider that bit Rainbow Dash. While it was impossible to find a good enough picture of the exact species, she settled for a close relative and enhanced it.

"Look familiar?"



Rainbow Dash took a good look at the picture. It certainly looked similar to the one that bit her, but something was off. "Wait, I remember the spider being red and blue, not brown."

Twilight explained, "This is a picture of an ordinary wolf spider, the one that bit you was not, let's say, 'ordinary'. After being exposed to the radioactive meteor, they changed colour...among other things."

"What other things?"

"A wolf spider is a fast and strong hunter...for a spider at least. Unlike most other spiders though, they don't use elaborate web traps to capture their prey, and prefer to just chase them down instead. They're a very common and diverse group and can be found basically everywhere. However, the 'super-spiders' we're studying are something else entirely. Somehow, the mutation had altered them to be faster, stronger and far more agile than they were before."

"Meaning?"

"They could outrun cockroaches easily, and believe me, cockroaches are fast. They could lift several times their own weight, and if that wasn't impressive enough, they could even jump better than jumping spiders...who can jump really far if the name didn't clue you in. Also, while spiders can climb on solid surfaces, they cannot do so on completely smooth things like glass, the super-spiders could."

"So because the spiders had those powers...I have those powers?" Rainbow surmised, speaking slowly to make sure she herself understood what she was saying.

Twilight nodded.

"That's cool, but...what about the strange tingling thing?"

"Well, all spiders can feel vibrations in the air through the hairs on their bodies. That way they can sense movements or obstacles in their surroundings. The super-spiders have a version of that ability that is even more sensitive than usual, letting them react to multiple objects coming at them at once. That and the fact that their enhanced reflexes made it feel like they could predict the future sometimes. Sunset liked to call this the...'Spider-Sense'."  

"Spider sense, huh? Has a nice ring to it," Rainbow admitted, making sure to remember it.

"And there you have it. Increased speed, strength, agility, reaction time, the ability to climb on solid surfaces and sense objects in your surroundings. I got to say, those are some fascinating changes, almost makes me wish I was the one that got bitten by that spider." 

Twilight then realised something, "Wait...where did that spider go after it bit you?"

Rainbow Dash was about to answer...but stopped herself when she realised that she had no idea.



   

Meanwhile...

Fluttershy was beyond excited when she found the red and blue spider she tried to save at CelestiaCorp just wander around aimlessly on the pavement just outside her house. 

After letting the mutated arachnid climb up into her hand, she gushed, "I am so glad that I found you, you poor, poor thing. My name is Fluttershy, and what might your name be? I think I will call you 'Fuzzy Legs', do you like that name, Fuzzy Legs? I can tell that you do, and I'm sure you will become good friends with the rest of my cute little animals. Now let's take you to your new home and I'll find a nice little snack for you to feed on." 





Back at Twilight's apartment...

"Not a clue," Rainbow Dash finally answered.

Twilight contemplated just what the consequences of what that could mean, and because she was Twilight Sparkle, the results quickly turned dire. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, this isn't good, this could be a potential disaster!"

Rainbow looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "A disaster, really?"

"Just imagine what would happen if the spider bit someone else, or even a bunch of people! And what if every one of them started to have the same powers you have?! Too many variables! TOO MANY VARIABLES!"

When Twilight was beginning to hyperventilate, Rainbow grabbed the other girl by the shoulders and shook her hard enough to shut her up, nearly making her glasses slide off her face in the process. 

Rainbow flashed her a grin and assured, "Relax, egghead. My 'spider-sense' is telling me that there is absolutely nothing to worry about, Hakuna Matata." 

After readjusting her glasses, Twilight gave Rainbow a deadpan look, "You just made that up."

Rainbow winked and confessed, "Guilty as charged."

"Rainbow Dash, can you take things seriously for once?" Twilight grumbled with a frustrated undertone in her voice. 

"Of course I'm taking things seriously...but that doesn't stop me from making jokes about it. It's just how I roll. Get used to it."

"There are times to be funny and there are times to be serious, and the fact that right now, a mutated spider is potentially giving random people super-powers, is not a laughing matter!"

Rainbow crossed her arms and asked, "...And freaking out about it is going to help...how exactly?"

Twilight tried really hard to answer that...but quickly found herself running a bit short. "Well it's, I suppose, but spider, super-powers, have to...FINE, I guess you're right, stressing out about it is not helping anything."

"See? You worry too much."

"Maybe..." Twilight concurred uneasily

An Idea then popped up in Rainbow's head, "Sooo...now I can do all the stuff that spiders can do, huh?"

"More or less actually," Twilight corrected. "You can use the enhanced abilities of the super-spiders, not anything that-"

"Then that means that I can do..." she haughtily interrupted before she dramatically pulled her arm out, aimed it at the far wall and shouted, "...THIS!"

Nothing happened... 

She shook her wrist a little and tried to do the same thing again, "I mean: THIS!" 

...Still, nothing happened... 

"Ah, come on!" 

...Cue crickets chirping. 

Not one to give up easily, Rainbow shook her hands and tried to do it a few more times, each with the same result. The more she tried though, the more she started to shout increasingly odd things, such as "FIRE!", "NOW!", "WEBBING AWAY!", "SPIDER POWERS ACTIVATE!", "SHAZAM!", "HADOKEN!" "RAINBOW OF POWER!" and even "KAME-HAME-HAAA!"

While she kept doing this, Twilight was unsurprisingly left staring at her with a completely baffled and confused look on her face...though she was soon not the only one to do so.

Spike, the other resident of this apartment, heard the strange noises coming from his sister's room and immediately went to investigate...and was very surprised to see Rainbow Dash there pointing her arms all over the place while shouting gibberish. 

The kid was about two years younger than Twilight, was a bit on the short side, had spiky green hair and almost always wore a purple hoodie even when indoors. And at least for the moment had a wide-eyed confused look on his face.    

Wondering what on earth was going on, Spike asked, "Uh, Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here? And...what exactly is it that you're doing?"

"I'm trying to shoot webs, Spike!" she replied while continuing to point her arms around aimlessly.

Of course, that answer only made him even more confused. "Shoot...webs?"

"Yeah, you know, like spiders do."

Twilight facepalmed and clarified, "Urggh! First of all: spiders don't shoot webs, they weave it slowly. Secondly: wolf spiders don't spin webs like other spiders. And thirdly: even if the ability to 'shoot webs' was given to you through the spiderbite, you would not be doing it from your hands."

Rainbow stopped what she was doing and cockily put her hands on her hips, "Oh yeah, and where exactly would I shoot webs from?"

Twilight gave her a serious look, "Do you really want to know?"

Her tone gave Dash a moment of pause, but she said a hesitant "...yes," either way.

"Spiders produce webbing from the dorsal end of their bodies."

"Translation?"

"The web come from their backsides."

That answer immediately made Rainbow's eyes open wide while she became very uncomfortable. "So...you're saying that I have to shoot webs from...my butt?"

"Thankfully no. You can also be glad that you haven't grown additional legs or transformed into human-spider hybrid or something."

"Gee thanks for those nightmares." Rainbow added sarcastically.

"Sorry!" Twilight squeaked, blushing a bit. 

Dash rolled her eyes and muttered, "Still, it would have been cooler if I could shoot webs though."

After having listened to Twilight's and Rainbow's conversation about, well, whatever they were talking about, Spike took this opportunity to ask, "So what exactly is going on here?"

Without missing a beat, Twilight answered, "Rainbow Dash got bitten by one of the mutated spiders I was studying at CelestiaCorp and now she has all sorts of new abilities."

"Abilities? Like what?"

Dash answered that by leaping off the floor and attaching herself to the upper walls in the far corner, keeping herself up with a hand and foot on a wall each. She then crossed her arms and said, "Climbing walls, super-strength, faster reaction speed, faster speed in general, increased agility, aaaaand I'm still as awesome as always!"

Spike's eyes widened in amazement while he exclaimed, "HOLY NEW SUPERPOWERS, BATMAN! You're like a comic book superhero or something!...unless this is another dream." He quickly perished that thought though when he realised, "Nah, Rarity's not here, so it's obviously not a dream."   

Twilight gave her younger brother an unreadable look after hearing that and asked, "Wait, are you seriously dreaming about her every single time you sleep?" 

He blushed and scratched the back of his neck nervously, "Maybe not...every time, but its...eh never mind, forget I said anything."

"Oh, it's nothing to be ashamed of, Spike. Trust me, I know the feeling..." Twilight assured while dreamily staring into nothing.

That look did not go unnoticed by Rainbow, and she didn't hesitate to tease, "Really, and who is that you're always dreaming about, Twilight?"

Twilight silently thanked her dark skin for hiding her blush while she nervously sputtered out, "What?! No! I didn't say I dreamed about someone!"

"You...don't really have to. So who is it?"

"Let's not get sidetracked here!" she said a little too loudly to avoid suspicion. "I believe we were talking about Rainbow Dash's...change."

Spike frowned a bit before he noted, "Hey, you got me to tell you who I secretly had a crush on, now you got to tell me who you have a crush on!"

"Spike, your crush on Rarity was hardly a secret to begin with. Even she knew about it!"

"Twilight, you promised not to say anything!"

"Oh, I knew that already," Rainbow assured. "You're not exactly subtle, Spike."

"No, no...you're right," Twilight relented. "I shouldn't have said anything...and yes, I can't deny that I might have a crush on someone, and you totally deserve to know who it is." 

Now groweing a bit impatient, Dash urged, "Come on then, spill it!"

Twilight gave her a stern look and said, "I said I would tell Spike, not you."

"What?! How's that fair?"

"Well, you refuse to tell who you have a crush on, so why should I?" 

Twilight's logic was irrefutable, and Rainbow Dash didn't like it, so instead of arguing it anymore, she groaned and muttered, "Fine, have it your way."

Spike however, gave his sister a surprised look at that and questioned, "Wait, are you telling me you don't know who Rainbow Dash has a crush on?"

"Um, no. Should I?" Twilight asked, wondering whether or not she missed something.

"Seriously? Isn't it super-obvious at this point? How could you possibly not know?!"

"Hey, I'm not that obvious!" Dash defended.

"Yes, Rainbow...you are." Spike insisted in a deadpan tone.

Twilight finally answered, "I guess I'm not that good at spotting crushes. I have never actually- Wait a minute, Rainbow Dash has just received superpowers and we're talking about CRUSHES!? Aren't there more important things to talk about?" 

Rainbow climbed up on the ceiling and crawled over to the middle of the room where she sat down (up?) and let her head fall down to Twilight's level...only upside down, causing her rainbow-coloured hair to hang down freely. 

Once she had gotten in this position, she gave Twilight an upside down grin and asked, "Really? And what more is there to talk about?"

Twilight then had an idea, "Well, you said you wanted to be able to shoot webs."

"Yeah?"

"While it might not be possible for you to produce natural webbing like a spider, I might be able to give you the next-best thing," Twilight revealed, much to Dash's intrigue.

She then spun her chair around to look at Spike and say, "Spike, can you find me the boxes from CelestiaCorp titled 'Project Arachnid' and bring them to the workroom?"

The boy actually saluted and said, "I'm on it!" before he headed off. Whether he was her brother or her assistant, no one could really tell...though the most likely answer would probably be both.

Twilight stood up and looked back at Rainbow, "Follow me, I think you're gonna like this."

Intrigued, Rainbow dropped down on the floor, even twisting her body in such a way that she landed on her feet while doing so, and proceeded to follow the teen genius to her designated 'workroom' where she usually performed most of her odd science experiments. 

About half of those projects were basically 'homework' from her job at CelestiaCorp, while the other half were just her curiosity and boredom getting the better of her. With the resources of one of the leading research companies in the world backing her up and a very high IQ scale, there was barely anything Twilight Sparkle couldn't create if given the right motivation.

By the time Rainbow Dash and Twilight reached the room, Spike was already there holding a box with the words 'CelestiaCorp' printed on it. After receiving an approving nod from Twilight, Spike put down the box on her work table. She reached into it and picked out a small pistol-looking object that seemed pretty high-tech. 

Then she presented it to Rainbow and explained, "This is called a 'Cobweb High Trajectory Launcher' or 'Webgun', and was designed by me and Sunset Shimmer as a way to harness the remarkable tensile strength and stickiness of a spider's webbing. While the spider that bit you was a wolf spider, the webbing in this device was harvested from a species of orb-weaver spider that was also affected by the meteor radiation. However, this time, the mutation caused the spiders to not only produce far more webbing than usual, but that webbing was also a bit stronger than usual. We eventually found a way to store large quantities of the webbing in very small capsules that could release it with a lot of force at the push of a button. One of those capsules is embedded in this device."

After seeing Rainbow Dash stare at her incomprehensibly, Spike rolled his eyes and simplified his sister's detailed explanation to, "The webgun is loaded with spiderweb and can be used to shoot webbing with."

Now Dash understood exactly what she was talking about and let out a "Ooooh..." in comprehension.

"Anyway," Twilight continued. "The webgun can release very strong threads of cobweb that flies faster than the speed of sound and is strong enough to stop a fighter jet at full speed if enough force is backing it up. A single capsule can also contain enough webbing to go on for months of constant usage."

Rainbow picked up another identical webgun from the same box and toyed around with it a little. She began to toss it around and catch it repeatedly, and eventually even began to juggle with the both of them. She normally wasn't the best at juggling multiple objects at the same time, but with her spider sense and enhanced reflexes, she could probably do this in her sleep.

"Wow, these things don't even weigh anything,"  Dash commented after a while.

Twilight began to explain, "Well, they were designed to be lightweight. Also, with your enhanced strength, your perception of what is-" 

Instead of listening to what Twilight was telling her though, Rainbow Dash aimed one of the guns at the far wall and pulled the trigger with no warning given whatsoever. In under a second, a long thread of condensed webbing shot out of the barrel of the gun and attached itself to the wall like super-glue.    

Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin and sharply turned to face her reckless friend, "What do you think you're-"

But before she had a chance to finish that sentence, Dash began to shoot around with both guns wildly, sending threads of cobweb flying all over the room faster than the eye could track. Twilight and Spike both quickly got behind a nearby desk to avoid getting hit by any of it. While Spike got out okay, a sling of webbing got stuck in Twilight's tied up dark-blue hair.

By the time Rainbow Dash was finished 'testing' the webguns, Twilight's workroom had turned into a complete mess, with almost every available surface covered in sticky webbing, including the walls, objects and even the ceiling. Suffice to say, it would not be fun for Spike and Twilight to clean it up.   

This also made Twilight's barely contained anger very understandable when she stomped from her hiding place, got in Rainbow's face and shouted, "RAINBOW DASH! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Just testing these things out," Rainbow nonchalantly replied.

"Couldn't you have done it somewhere else than my workroom!?"

"Hehe, sorry about that. I guess I got a bit..." she trailed off when she caught a glimpse of her friend's web-covered hair "...phtthe-HAHAHAHA-hahahahahahahaheheheh!"

Twilight was not amused. "Okay, what's the joke this time?"

"Have you looked in a mirror lately? Wait, don't answer that! HEHEHeheheheh! Spike, check out Twilight's new hair, curtsy of yours truly!"

When Spike got up from behind the desk and got a look at it, he too couldn't stop himself from joining in on the laughter. 

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Laugh it up, you two, laugh it up. And perhaps when you're done, you can clean this place up."

That made both Rainbow Dash and Spike immediately stop laughing.

Spike pointed at himself and asked, "Wait, ME?"

Twilight shook her head, "No, not you! Rainbow Dash on the other hand, being the one who made this mess, would feel ever so thankful if she cleaned it up...won't you?" she finished that question with a glare that made it very clear it wasn't a request. 

Dash let out a nervous laugh, "Hehehe...heh...I suppose that's fair. Do you think Ajax works on webbing?"

Twilight sighed, then switched the subject. "So, now that you've given us all a pretty big demonstration, what did you think about the webguns?"

"They're cool, I guess, but they could be cooler."

"Cooler how?"

"Just...cooler."

"Yes, that's very helpful, thank you very much" Twilight noted with heavy sarcasm.  

"Maybe they could be...about...twenty percent cooler."

"What does that even mean?!"

Rainbow tried to think of a way to explain it. "Okay, while the gun is cool, I was thinking of something that looked like I could actually shoot webs from my hands or something. I need something that's also a bit more securely strapped to my arms rather than just something I'm holding. Also, isn't me walking around with something looking like a gun a very bad idea." 

Twilight began to consider Rainbow's request for a moment. Her friend really had a point about that, she had to admit. And it was most certainly doable to modify them to work the way Dash requested. All she really needed was a couple of web-guns, a few extra parts and materials, and an hour or two tops.

However, there was one thing she had to take care of before she could get on with that.

"I think I have an idea about that. But before I get to it, I'm going to wash this web out of my hair, and you are going to clean up this room. Deal?"

"Sure thing, I'll have this place looking as good as new before you know it."

"And I'm holding you to that..." Twilight added before she walked out of the room to take a quick shower, leaving Spike and Rainbow alone.  

After she had left, Rainbow Dash looked around for anything to use to get rid of the cobwebs all over the room, but she couldn't really find anything of use, so she instead grabbed hold of one of the loose threads and simply ripped it off of the wall. Her enhanced strength made it look a lot easier than it actually was...or rather, how it would be for anyone else.

With nothing better to do, Spike considered this to be as good of a time as any to ask something he'd been wondering about.

"Um...Rainbow?"

"Yeah?" she said while still pulling the webs from the walls.

"I've been wondering...what exactly are you planning to do with your new powers?" 

Rainbow turned to him and beamed, "Isn't it obvious?! I may have been awesome before, but now I have super-powers! Think of the possibilities! Lightning Dust can eat her heart out, because now I'm the best athlete in school! I will be so awesome that nobody will ever be able to beat me, and it will only be a matter of time until I get a sports scholarship or something. Who knows, I might even sign up for that wrestling tournament coming up at Gladmane's. I'd probably ace it too. Either way, say goodbye to Rainbow Crash, and hello to Captain Awesome!" 

Hearing Rainbow say that though, made Spike a bit...disappointed, as he had a very another idea on what she could do with her new powers. "...Or you could be a superhero!" 

Dash looked at him and raised an eyebrow,"A superhero, seriously?"

"Of course!" Spike suggested with enthusiasm. "With those new powers, you'd be great at it! Just think how many people you could save, how many bad guys you can put in jail, and just how much people will love you. Everyone loves a hero, and I'll say that you might just be up to the challenge." 

"No offence, Spike, but I'm an athlete, not a superhero from one of your comic books. Besides, superheroes are lame anyway. You won't see me wearing a cape or undies on the outside, and I can think of a lot better things to do with my life than saving cats out of trees."

"It's not just about that. I mean, wouldn't it be awesome to fight supervillains?"

"What 'supervillains' are you talking about? None of those guys have been out of prison for more than twenty years or so. And even if they were still running around, I'd rather let the cops handle them than getting myself killed."

"But, but...ah, fine. It's your choice anyway..." Spike noted with obvious disappointment in his voice.

Seeing his crestfallen expression though, Rainbow said, "Look, that was a good idea, but I'm not really cut out for superhero stuff."

"Yeah I guess. Just, whatever you do...don't go too far with it. I know about that whole shoplifting thing you were doing before, and I don't want something like what happened with Rarity to happen with you."

Rainbow muttered "I'm never gonna live that down am I?" to herself before she assured, "Look, I may have shoplifted a little and played one or two pranks on Spoiled Rich, but I'm not a criminal and I know when to draw the line."

"You know, that's exactly what Rarity said too, and look how that turned out." 

"Just chill out, Spike. I'll be on my best behaviour. What's the worst that could happen?"

Spike groaned, "I really wish you didn't just say that."
> 1) And along came a Spider...Part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 1
And along came a Spider...Part 4
Rainbow's first swing


On the roof of the building Spike and Twilight lived in at the moment, the two of them were now patiently waiting for Rainbow Dash to show up.  

It had been a couple of hours since Twilight finished the new wrist-mounted prototype 'Web-shooters' and tested that they worked in a controlled environment. Now they just needed to test them out for real.

However, just before they could get started, Rainbow decided to run back home and grab something without specifying what it was, leaving the other two there to wait for her until she got back.

With nothing better to do until then, Spike decided to use this opportunity to ask his sister about who she secretly had a crush on. With Dash out of earshot, she could now speak freely about it for the first time since...well ever basically. 

Spike was fairly sure he knew who it was though...until she then told him that it was someone else entirely.

"Wait, really?!" He asked in clear surprise when she finally revealed who she was interested in.

After hesitating a bit, Twilight confirmed, "Yes...really, Spike."

"But...if that's who you have a crush on...then why is everyone so sure you have a thing for that Flash Sentry guy?"

The question made her let out a frustrated groan, "Look, just because I bumped into him more than once does not mean I'm dating him. Okay, I guess he did ask me out that one time, but I said no! I mean, I think he's a nice guy and all, but I just don't see him that way...and he's also Sunset's ex! That just makes it weird."

"Yeah, I see your point," Spike conceded. "Still, I never would have guessed you had a thing for-"

Though just before he could say Twilight's mystery crush's name out loud, Rainbow Dash jumped up on the roof next to them and shouted, "I'm back!", startling both of them in the process.

Spike and Twilight both sharply turned around to look at her...in what was a very interesting get-up. 

It was a skin-tight blue bodysuit decorated with yellow lightning bolts all over it, and even came with a mask that had openings for the eyes, mouth, and Dash's long rainbow hair. Also, a pair of flight goggles rested on her forehead.

Seeing her rather unusual fashion choice, Spike wondered, "Uh...Dash, what's with the get-up?"

"...And wouldn't it be easier to just take the stairs instead of climbing up the wall?" Twilight added. 

"Already told you I don't like stairs," Rainbow reminded. "As for the outfit, well...it's my mom's old flight suit from back when she was one of the Wonderbolts. It's actually a rather out-dated version. With the speed most fighter pilots these days are flying, they needed something to keep their blood from gathering in their legs and instead go back to the brain. The new uniforms can make the pilot take a few more Gs than the old ones, but they don't look as badass. Though since I doubt I'll be breaking the sound barrier today, even though that would be super awesome, I think this will do for now."

"...I'm surprised you knew all that." Twilight confessed, a bit dumbfounded.

"Just because I'm not an egghead doesn't mean I'm an idiot. Contrary to popular belief, sometimes I actually do pay attention in class."

"That's...good to hear, actually. So what exactly was the reason for spending the last few hours running home to get an old Wonderbolt uniform, again?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I'm gonna wear a Wonderbolt uniform for this moment!"

"'This moment'?"

"The first time I get to fly for real, duh!"

"You know we're testing web-shooters, not wings, right?"

"Well, obviously! But with those web-shooters, I can bet I can swing from building to building like Tarzan or something, and it will be super awesome!"

To be frank, Twilight hadn't really thought about what Rainbow would use those web-shooters for, but after hearing that...she honestly wasn't surprised. "I guess they could work that way, but your timing and aim will have be absolutely perfect or else you'll...well..."

Noticing Twilight's hesitation at finishing that sentence, Dash urged, "Well...what?"

Before she could answer, Spike decided to bluntly answer for her, "You'll probably die or at least break every bone in your body."

"Well...basically," Twilight concurred. 

"Huh, that all?" Rainbow noted sarcastically. "And here I thought I might be putting myself in danger or something."

"Rainbow Dash," Twilight said in a steady tone, making sure she looked her friend right in the eye when she reiterated, "This is serious. You can actually die if you don't treat it as such."

Rainbow held her gaze for all of five seconds before she broke the tension with a small chuckle, "Hehe, don't worry, Smarty Pants, I totally got this. I just ran from home to here while jumping from rooftop to rooftop, this..." she blew a raspberry "...will be a piece of cake."

"I sincerely hope you're right about that," Twilight said, still sounding a bit uneasy about this whole thing.

"Of course I'm right!" Rainbow declared, not showing even the slightest bit of fear or even apprehension in her tone, facial expression or body language. "Now let's stop wasting time and hand over those web-shooters already!"

With a sigh, Twilight muttered, "Gee, sorry for caring if you live or die..." while she reached her hand into the pocket of the hoodie she was currently wearing. 

She took out a pair of small devices strapped to a pair of bracelets that looked quite advanced for technically being home-made.

The back-end of the devices could be opened in order to insert a tiny web-capsule into it, and even though there was only room for one at a time, it would take a lot of usage before it ran out. The cobweb was that tightly packed. The front end had an opening that the webbing could be shot out of, as well as an in-built scissor to cut the thread at the push of a button if the user ever needed to. There was also a small extension, also at the front of it, that had a button at the end. Once that button was pressed, the device would fire a sling of webbing similarly to the webgun prototypes it was based on. Depending on how long it was pressed, one could also decide exactly how much web was to come out of it.

Twilight had told Rainbow all this already though, so instead of explaining all of it again, she just handed them over to her.

After a few failed attempts to put them on...including one where the shooter ended up facing the wrong direction, and another when the bracelet wasn't strapped down to her wrist securely enough...she eventually got them just right. Strapped tightly to her wrists, triggers positioned at the palm of her hands, shooters aimed forward; she was ready for the test run. 

"Okay, I think they're good. What now?" Dash wondered, sounding very eager to get started.

"Well, I think all you really have to do is to find a desired target, aim your wrist at it, and press down your middle-fingers on the trigger at the palm of your hand," Twilight explained, step-by-step...though before her friend could get any funny ideas, she soon added. "Oh, and just to be one-hundred-percent crystal clear, I am not a desired target."

Rainbow smirked a bit mischievously at that. "That right?" she asked, sounding like she was up to something. "So you don't want me to be doing..." she then aimed her right web-shooter right in Twilight's face while making a move to pull the trigger. "...THIS!?"

Twilight let out a short high-pitched scream while she held her arms up defensively and ducked under the incoming webbing.

Only...Dash never actually pressed the button.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH! Got ya!" she teased, barely able to contain herself from falling on the floor with laughter.

Not particularly amused, Twilight stood up straight and crossed her arms while giving her friend a very well-deserved glare. "That wasn't funny."

"Heheh, lighten up, egghead! It was kinda funny."

"No it wasn't," Twilight insisted. "And trust me, I know funny."

Spike and Rainbow Dash both rolled their eyes at that statement. The memory of what happened when she attempted to perform stand-up comedy was still very fresh in their minds.  

Twilight's response to their deadpan expressions was a simple confused uttering of "...What?"

Rainbow shook her head a bit, then turned away to look around for something to test her shooters on.

The building she was standing on had to be at least twenty stories tall and was surrounded by buildings that were far bigger than that. Though strangely enough, there weren't that many people out right now...at least not by central Canterlot standards. The reason for that may be the slightly chilly and cloudy weather...or the fact that it was a Sunday morning still.

However, given that it was still in the middle of a metropolis, fewer than average still didn't mean it was exactly empty.  

Rainbow noted this as she was scouting for locations. After all, what's the point in being awesome if no one's there to see it?

Having already picked out several promising places to test her webs out on, Rainbow walked casually along the ledges of the roof as she pondered over which one she would go for, not bothered in the least by how high up she was standing as she did so.

Eventually, she stopped pacing and set her eyes on a pretty tall building across the street from the one she was on...then she looked down at the distance between herself and the ground, as well as the distance between the two buildings, and realised that, spider-powers or no, nobody could survive a fall from that height.

Yet, when she realised that fact, she simply licked her lips and smirked as a single thought went through her head. 'Perfect.'

After slipping the flight goggles over her eyes and carefully aiming her right web-shooter at the highest point of the building in front of her, Rainbow pressed her fingers down on the trigger and released a long thread of sticky cobweb that quickly attached itself to the building's roof. She then took a firm grip on the thread with both hands and prepared herself for what she was about to attempt.

"Wait!" Twilight protested after she realised what Dash was about to do. "Wouldn't it be better to try them out on something a little less...life-threatening?"

Rainbow turned around to look Twilight right in the eye with a confident grin on her face.

"Twilight Sparkle...sometimes you must run before you can even walk."

Then, without a second glance, Rainbow jumped right off the ledge of the building, allowing herself a few seconds of free-falling before the thin (yet still remarkably strong) line of webbing she was holding onto began to halt her descent and swing her towards the structure on the other side of the gap...all while she shouted, "Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh!"

Twilight and Spike both ran over to the ledge to get a closer look, and Spike even pulled out a pair of binoculars from his pocket to get a better view.

However...in truth, Rainbow hadn't actually thought this move through all that much...and she realised a bit too late that her swing was sending her on a collision course with the building. 





Inside her apartment, a very reclusive and studious woman named Moondancer was fully absorbed in her book on Professor Starswirl's theories on cross-species genetics. 

She had spent most of the day having tons of crazy (according to her) people constantly trying to befriend her, and they simply never gave her a break. She didn't need any friends, or parties or...whatever else everyone kept saying she needed. All she needed (still according to her) was some privacy where she could study in peace and not be disturbed...and she knew that nobody would ever disturb her in her own home. 

At least that's what she thought. 

Needing to rest her eyes for just a moment, Moondancer put down her book, took off her thick-rimmed glasses, rubbed the base of her nose a bit and chanced a peak out the window. 

That was when a girl dressed in a skin-tight blue and yellow outfit suddenly slammed straight into her window, nearly making her jump out of her skin as she let out a startled scream.



    

Spike and Twilight winced at the sight.

"That got to hurt," Spike commented while he took his eyes away from his binoculars.



    

Rainbow Dash let out a pained groan in response to her hurting shoulder that had the misfortune of impacting with the surprisingly tough glass of the window. The fact that she hadn't broken anything was a miracle...and probably a result of the increased durability she got from the spider-bite. 

Still, it would be fair to say that things didn't turn out quite how she imagined it.

She dropped the thread she was holding onto and used her hands and feet to attach herself to the window. She then tried her best to ignore the pain and glanced back at the roof where Spike and Twilight had witnessed her failed stunt and gave them both a single thumbs up to let them know she was okay. 

Moondancer then opened the window next to her and gave Rainbow an peeved look while letting out an "Ahem!"

Dash gave the girl an awkward smile and said, "Uh...I can explain."

However, Moondancer really didn't care for whatever explanation Rainbow could cook up, and instead let out an annoyed groan and demanded, "Whatever stunt you're trying to perform, please do it somewhere else. I am trying to study!"     

"Oh, uh...sorry about that. Just give me a second and I'll be out of your hair."

"You better..." Moondancer warned with a bit of venom in her voice before she closed the window rather soundly to emphasise her point. Immediately after she'd done that though, she simply walked back to her comfy chair, picked up her book and started to read it again, no longer paying the strange visitor any mind.

"And I thought only Twilight could get so obsessed with studying..." Rainbow muttered under her breath, then decided to do the same and put the encounter out of her mind while she started to consider what she was going to do next.

While the first try at web-slinging may have not been so successful, Rainbow Dash didn't believe in giving up so soon. 

The second attempt began pretty much the same as the first one: she sent a new line of webbing and attached it to a high point on another building nearby and then detached herself from Moondancer's window, allowing gravity to propel her forward.

This time though, she had learned from her past mistake and just before she was about to receive another painful impact with another wall, she used her left web-shooter to attach a sling to a third building and let go of the thread she was already holding. This way, she narrowly avoided the impact and kept herself in the air. 

Using this method, Rainbow soon managed to swing from building to building almost as if she was flying.

It was exhilarating. 

As Dash soared through the air with each swing, she could feel the winds hit her at high speed, she could feel the adrenaline flow through her blood at a level that she hadn't come close to experiencing before, and most important of all, she felt...free. She felt like she could do literally anything and everything, and there wouldn't be a thing that could stop her...and that was one of the greatest feelings she had ever had.

All her life she had wanted to fly, to soar through the air, to look down upon the world below, and to be freed from the confines of the ground...and this was the closest she had ever gotten to that goal. As she used her swings to launch herself between the massive skyscrapers around her faster than a human would ever normally be able to move, a smile of utter joy formed itself on her lips.

Lost in her euphoria, Rainbow Dash got even more daring and began to perform all sorts of tricks while she was swinging.  

First, she began to hold onto the thread and press down on it until the very end of her swings so that when she eventually let go, she would use her existing momentum to propel herself even further up into the air...and once in the air, she flipped her whole body over and managed to perform several somersaults in quick succession before she suspended her fall with an emergency line. 

Then, with even more bravado, she decided to swing as close to the ground as she dared. With a line of webbing attached to a high enough point on a building in front of her, she swung widely towards the street below, dipping so low that her feet nearly scratched the ground when she zipped right between an ambulance and a delivery truck, leaving the drivers of both cars wondering what the heck just flew past them. 

...And at the end of that swing, she braced herself and landed the wall of the Empire Canterlot Building, the tallest man-made construction in the city. 

'Okay, now for the big one...' she thought as she looked up to see just how high the building was. 'Piece of cake!'

She shot two lines of web as high upon the tower as she could reach...which barely reached a third of its massive height, then stood up straight on the wall and took a couple of steps back to increase the tension in the webbing as much as possible, and then...she detached herself from the wall and allowed the pent up energy to propel her straight up the side of the building like a slingshot. 

Though as gravity eventually began to take effect and slow her ascent, Rainbow grabbed the wall and began to run straight to the top completely undeterred and without so much as a glance towards the ground below.

It took her a while, but she eventually reached the roof of the enormous structure. Though she didn't stop there, as she also felt the need to climb up on top of the huge antenna spire sitting atop of it as well, and thus, giving her a view from the single highest point in the entire city. 

443 meters up into the air, Rainbow could see all of Canterlot and beyond from here. She could see the CelestiaCorp Tower on her left...and the rival Storm Tower (easily visible by its distinctive blue logo at its side) on her right. She could see the coast-line connected to the city a bit further out than that, as well as the prison island charmingly named Tartarus sitting just off its shores...a place that looked a bit too peaceful from here for being the home of some of the worst criminals and supervillains Canterlot's ever seen. Furthermore, from here she could also see the headquarters of the Daily Bugle, as well as that new 'F.E.A.S.T' shelter that just started up...and if she squinted her eyes at just the right spot, she could even see her own house. 

It was a view that she could have only dream about until now...and a part of her was convinced that she was still dreaming.

All of this even: the powers, the experience, everything, was so unreal and out of the ordinary that she had trouble even grasping the fact that any of this was actually happening.

However, while sitting perched on top of the tallest building in the city may seem like a wonderful experience (and for all intents and purposes, it certainly was)...eventually though it was starting to get cold...and windy...and...it was actually a bit hard for her to breathe at this altitude.  

As awesome as being up here was, she couldn't stay up there forever. 

She had to get down sooner or later...the only question was how on earth she would do that?

She could of course climb all the way nice and steady, or find a way inside and take the elevator or something...but for Rainbow Dash, there really was only one option crazy enough for her right now.

'That's all it is, Dash...' she told herself as she peered over the edge and checked just how far down the ground was from here. '...it's just a leap of faith.'

After taking in a deep breath to curb her anxiety and prepare herself for what she was about to do...she jumped straight off the building and let gravity ferry her way back to the ground.

As she fell, her weight and building momentum gradually began to pick up more and more speed on the way down, with her eventually coming close to experiencing G-forces by the time she reached the height of the regular-sized buildings. 

Precisely seven seconds before she would have hit the ground and most certainly died, she used one of the web-shooters to secure herself to a tall enough building and immediately stop her descent just in time. 

Overcome with joy over the fact that she survived that fall, she swung out in a wide arc and shouted, "THIS IS SO AWESO-"

But was suddenly cut off when her unplanned swing trajectory sent her flying straight into the rich entrepreneur Rex Storm's smiling face on a roof-mounted billboard with the slogan 'Storm Tech, for a better future' printed on it. 

At the speed she was travelling at, the impact was, needless to say...painful.  

Rainbow Dash cursed whoever placed the sign at that particular spot, probably as much as she was going to curse the pain in her now bleeding nose.

Oh, and there was also now a sign of Rex Storm with a hole where his face was supposed to be.
> Celestia's Monday
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
Celestia's Monday


There were a lot of things that could be said about Celestia, president and founder of CelestiaCorp. She was either a wise, pleasant and motherly figure who always treated those who worked for her with kindness and respect, or she was a mischievous woman-child who made jokes and pranks at others' expense at inopportune moments...or she's a coldhearted dictator who runs her company with an iron fist...all depending on who you ask. 

The truth of the matter was a bit different though. And if you asked Celestia herself, she would probably answer that she's mostly the first one...with a dash of the second...and nothing of the third. 

Still, there was no doubt that she was one of the most powerful people in all of Canterlot, rivalled only by Mayor Mare, Senator Blueblood, Governor Fancy Pants and the mysterious Kingpin of the city's criminal underworld...and that power did not just come from her impressive wealth, but also from the respect she had earned in the minds of those who knew her. 

Yet, despite all that power, she never really flaunted or abused her influence in any noticeable way. And ironically, that was exactly what made people distrustful of her at times, as she often seemed a bit too perfect in the eyes of many. 

Even that was a misconception though. 

She has made mistakes, many in fact. However, her closet was mostly skeleton free...at least in comparison to some other people with her kind of influence like the owner of Storm Tech and her biggest rival Rex Storm for instance...who could probably fill an entire graveyard (if not a catacomb) with what he had stored in his closet.  

It was no secret that Celestia and Mr Storm did not like each other very much. 

Celestia didn't like Rex mostly due to his complete disregard for ethics in order to get more money, and he didn't like her because of her tendency to call him out and interfere with his work whenever he did something she didn't like. Plus, their companies were in direct competition with each other when it came to the creation and distribution of advanced technology, so their rivalry was only natural.

Still, they were on civil enough terms to not resort to punches, kicks and nosebleeds when they argued...even though that was secretly what both of them wanted.   

The days Celestia used brute force to solve her problems were, alas, long behind her...





Today, Celestia spent this beautiful Monday morning watching the sun rise through the big open window that the far wall of her office was mostly comprised of.

In truth, there were only two things she demanded when it came to her office. One of them was a constant supply of exotic tea and a coffeemaker, the other was a large open window that let a lot of sunlight illuminate the room.

She had the appearance of a woman in her mid-thirties, yet it was often speculated that she was far older than that...if the rumours of her falsified birth-date had any merit. She was also really tall. At 1,9 metres, she towered over most full-grown men she knew. Her height could make her just a tiny bit intimidating to some people in fact. Her most recognisable feature though must have been her vibrant multicoloured hair that reached a bit below her hips in length. Though unlike the prismatic hair of Rainbow Dash, Celestia's only had four colours: green, blue, pink and lavender. Another thing she was recognised by was her yellow semi-formal suit jacket she always wore in public that never failed to bring a certain warm and sunny image to herself in clear contrast to her more darkly-dressed younger sister.

Also in contrast her sister Luna (who mostly lived in the shadows and had a busy night-life), Celestia had always felt a great connection to the sun, and spent at least an hour every day doing nothing but basking in its magnificent radiance, allowing its light and warmth touch her skin and fill her with the energy she would need to get through her days.

Sunbathing was actually one of Celestia's favourite hobbies...which may seem surprising actually considering the fact that her skin was very pale and showed no signs of tanning whatsoever. Some may explain that away as her just using an excessive amount of sunscreen, but the truth was actually quite different.

A glimpse of why that was could briefly be seen when a small swirl of golden energy emanated from her fist as she clenched it ever so slightly.

'I think that's enough sun for today,' she realised as she felt that small spark reveal itself.

After slowly opening her eyes, she turned around and walked over to the coffeemaker at the other end of the room and prepared a mug of what she'd also need to get through her day.

Once she'd filled it with a healthy dose of her favourite coffee type, a knock came at her door.

"Come in!" she answered politely, while she walked over and sat down at her desk.

At her urging, three people came through and stepped inside. One of them being Twilight Sparkle, another Sunset Shimmer, both of which being Celestia's own students...while the third was a woman named Doctor Silk Mane, the slightly eccentric head scientist of the company's Bio-Labs. 

Easily recognised by her long teal-coloured hair and very feminine glasses, Dr Mane carried herself with a certain commanding confidence as she fixed her eyes on Celestia's welcoming smile...a clear contrast to the far more overly excited Twilight and Sunset who looked very eager to have a chance to talk to her.

"Good morning, Twilight, Sunset, doctor!" Celestia greeted when she saw them come in. "Am I right to assume you have some news on your latest project?"

"Hehehe, oh we got some news alright." Dr Mane replied with a small chuckle.  "When you said you would send a pair of teenagers to work on my science team, I honestly expected them to be little more than those intolerable interns you keep throwing my way. What I didn't expect was for those teenagers to be smarter than the rest of my team combined!"  

Celestia smiled proudly, "That was why I enlisted them, doctor. Though do try to be less dismissive of your co-workers. They're all doing their best."

Mane simply scoffed and rolled her eyes at that.

"So...Sunset, Twilight, now that the doctor's vouched for you, why don't you two tell me about your project?" Celestia requested.

Twilight had only just managed to open her mouth to answer that question, but was cut off when Silk decided to answer it for her. "With their help, I have now discovered to key to unlocking the power of cross-species genetics! All it took was to combine Shimmer's work on the Symbiote creature and match it with the decay-rate algorithm Sparkle provi-"

Celestia help up a hand to silence her, "I believe I was asking Twilight and Sunset about this, Doctor Mane."

The reminder instantly made Silk Mane's haughty grin vanish, and was soon replaced with an insulted glare instead while she crossed her arms and bit her tongue for the moment. 

Seeing an opening to speak, Sunset explained, "Well, after an extensive study on the Symbiote, I finally found a way to mimic its ability to transfer genetic traits from on life form to another, so that, in theory, you could take the healing powers of a newt and give it to, say, a man with a missing limb. That way, you could have it grow back in just a day or two."

"But there was a problem," Twilight continued. "The formula didn't work as we expected, and instead it just made things...let's call it...'worse'. The problem was that we hadn't fully grasped how different the symbiote's cells were compared to that of an organism that had originated on this planet."

"That was when we discovered the missing component."

"Yes, something we called the...'decay-rate-algorithm'. It's an equation that could calculate how quickly cells with the new genetic makeup would generate and affect the body. If only a few of the subject's cells were affected, then it could lead to cancers or unstable mismatched mutations. I have spent the last few days trying to find a way to prevent that from happening." 

A bit intrigued over what she was hearing, Celestia asked, "And did it pay off?"

With an extremely dorky smile plastered on her face, Twilight screamed out, "YES! I! DID! Just yesterday I discovered exactly how the decay-rate-algorithm worked and how to implement it with Sunset's research!"

"That's wonderful, Twilight!" Celestia exclaimed with a certain aura of pride in her prized students' accomplishment.

With a bright blush colouring her cheeks, Twilight nervously muttered, "Just doing what you taught me, Celestia." Always getting a bit flustered when the woman she idolised so much gave her a compliment, no matter how small.

However...Twilight may have left out the part where the breakthrough actually came from studying some of Rainbow Dash's mutated DNA that she had...(ahem)...gotten her hands on in a totally-not-creepy-way when she wasn't looking. She figured it would probably be best for everyone involved if she didn't mention that little detail. 

"Well, you have certainly made me proud of your achievements," Celestia said, then gave Sunset a look as well, "...both of you." 

Sunset gave a coy smile at that statement, but didn't say anything.

Dr Mane however, looked even more insulted after hearing that and angrily questioned, "And what about me?!" 

Celestia got up from her chair and gave the geneticist a slightly playful smile, "Now, now, Doctor, you were already a very competent scientist when I hired you, with several doctorates under you belt and many successes to your name. So in comparison, I'd say that the accomplishments of a pair of teenagers coming right out of high school might be a bit more impressive. However, of course I'd be glad to hear of your own contribution as well. So please, lay it on me."

"Contribution!?" Silk sputtered. "I own this project! This whole thing was my idea, and I was the one who spent years of my life developing the Catalyst Factor needed for the formula to even have a chance of working!" 

"There's no need to be so defensive, Doctor Mane," Celestia stated calmly while holding her hands up. "Now please, do calm yourself and why don't you tell me about this...'Catalyst Factor', as it were."

"Very well," the scientist conceded. Then after taking a deep breath to compose herself, she explained, "Now, even with Shimmer's research on the Symbiote and Sparkle's work on the 'decay-rate-algorithm', we need something to speed up the procedure and actually force a rapid genetic change in the subject. Otherwise it would just stay there and do nothing. Which, of course, is why I created a highly reactive chemical formula I choose to call the 'Catalyst Factor', the name is trademarked by the way."

That last statement made Celestia pause for a brief moment, then say, "I'll, uh...I'll see what I can do about that."

"Anyway..." Mane continued undeterred. "The formula has the power to alter every cell in a living body at a genetic level and make them change into a new form. Then, if you combine it with the cross-species genetics formula, the desired traits will appear a lot quicker than it would without it."

"And what happens if you just insert the Catalyst Factor without any additional DNA?" 

For the first time so far, Dr Mane's know-it-all attitude faltered a bit, "Actually, I'm...not entirely sure, but a guess would be that the compound would force a completely random mutation...depending on the dosage."

"How so?"

"Well...let's say you want to transfer the regeneration ability of a newt onto a human, as Shimmer suggested. A small dosage of the factor would adapt only the desired regeneration to affect the subject, but...if you use too much of it, far more traits would pass over. Next thing you know, the subject could be transformed into a human-salamander hybrid or something. But we won't cross that line...I hope."

Celestia slowly sat back down in her chair, a thoughtful expression forming on her face. The notion that something like that could happen unnerved her just a bit...especially when it brought up a few very unpleasant memories.

"Those kinds of risks are not exactly making me feel very comfortable," she said, sounding a bit concerned.

Twilight noticed something in her mentor's expression. "Is...something wrong?"

After letting out a sigh, Celestia replied, "It's just...I know all great advances in science have all had great risks, and I'm not someone to deny anyone progress based on what might happen, but...I formed this company on the basis that nothing like what happened at Starswirl Laboratories ever happens again. We need to be careful with our research, I cannot stress that enough. One mistake with something like this and...well, we could be dealing with another Sandman, and I'd rather not have that on any of your resumes."

"Don't worry, we will be beyond careful," Twilight assured with a proud little grin.

"Definitively!" Sunset agreed. "We know what we're doing, and I can assure you we won't even try human trials until you say the word."  

All eyes then fell upon Dr Mane, who noticeable hesitated before she said, "...Of course."

With all in agreement, Celestia concluded, "Well then, if that is all then I suggest you start working. If you have any results till Friday you may showcase it in our annual presentation. Who knows, it might steal the show this year."

"Oh it definitively will," Sunset confidently assured. "Starlight's Arc Reactor may be cool and all, but this project will help a lot of people out there."

"I don't doubt that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do, and so do you."

Silk Mane put a firm grip on Sunset and Twilight's shoulder each (which were just a bit too tight for either of their comforts) and put a huge smile on her face. "Yes, of course, we'll get on that immediately!" she informed, speaking very quickly, almost as if she was in a hurry to get back to her work.

Then she all but dragged the two teenagers out of the room, leaving Celestia to her own devices. Once outside, the doctor let out a small chuckle. "Heheh, now we can finally get down to business..." she noted with a haughty smirk on her face...then, in an instant, she suddenly switched over to an impatient slightly angry tone as she looked down at her interns and ordered, "What are you two standing around here for, get to work pronto, chop chop!"

"Okay, okay," Sunset responded with, a bit shrunk back by the scientist's rude impatience. "But really, we aren't in that much of a hurry. We still have all wee-"

"You know what they say?" Mane interrupted, levelling her eyes at the intern. "Science waits for nobody...least of all you." 

Sunset flinched a little. That comment sounded just a bit too personal for comfort.

Though before Silk could say anything else, a noise that sounded strangely like a woman letting out a gasp then blowing a raspberry interrupted her, prompting the scientist to reach into her coat and fish out her phone...revealing that the strange sound was actually her phone's messenger signal.

The message she got however was a short declaration of 'I have my tools now. Great work. Now I just need you to finish the project and we'll move on to phase 2'...from someone labelled on Mane's phone as simply 'Nightmare'.

Her reaction to seeing that text though made the doctor pause for a second...then she quickly put the phone away before Sunset or Twilight could see the message and excused herself. "I have some things I need to do, but I'll meet you back in the Bio-Labs in half-an-hour. I expect you to have made at least some progress by then."   

And then...she turned her back to them and left, walking briskly and decisively to...wherever she needed to go, while Twilight and Sunset was left in the dust, not really sure what got their project leader in such a hurry.

When Mane was out of eyesight and probably out of earshot, Sunset looked at Twilight and asked, "Is it just me, or am I getting a bad vibe out of her?"

"Who? Doctor Mane?" Twilight wondered.

"Yeah..." Sunset affirmed while looking deep in thought.

Twilight shrugged, "She seems pretty okay to me. Why?"

"It just feels like...I don't know, like there is something off about her. I can't really place it."

"I admit, she is a bit eccentric, but I don't see why that's a problem."

"It's not just that," Sunset assured, still keeping a suspicious look on her face. "I mean, who does she keep calling or texting all the time, and why is she so hellbent on getting this project ready so fast? Also, she's kinda mean. Yesterday I heard her scream at one of her employees just because he wanted to leave early for a personal matter, and seriously, have you heard that name she keeps calling Doctor Glimmer?"  

"I'm pretty sure that's just a reference to that chest-harness device she's always wearing," Twilight pointed out. "Also, maybe she's calling her friends or family...and we are kinda on a deadline if we want our project to be in the presentation."

"Sure, but come on, 'Doctor Octopus', seriously? That still doesn't sound like a nice thing to call somebody."

"It's just a name. I know I was called a lot of things back in High School. 'Twilight Snarkle', 'Egghead' or 'Dorky Bangs' were the most common."

"Yeah, but it's still..." Sunset trailed off as she realised what her friend just said. "Wait a minute, 'Dorky Bangs'? Who the heck called you that?"

Slightly embarrassed, Twilight answered, "Oh, quite a few actually. I...think it was Lightning Dust who came up with it and then everyone else started saying it. I was hardly the most popular girl at Canterlot High."

"Then it's a shame we didn't meet before Celestia practically shanghaied us here after that science fare. I would have made sure those guys thought twice before saying those things to your face if I'd been around."

Twilight blushed and began to play with her hair a little, "You...would do that for me?"

Sunset put a comforting hand on Twilight's shoulder and assured, "Of course I would. What are friends for?"

That comment drew out a warm smile from her, one that Sunset shared once she reminded, "Anyway, let's head back to the lab before Doctor Mane has an aneurysm or something,"...getting a giggle out of Twilight in the process. 





And with her two most promising students and her top scientist off to work on their latest project, Celestia could return her attention to the cup of coffee that had been waiting for her on the table throughout the whole conversation.

However, after she had picked it up and was just about to bring it up to her lips...a very annoying beeping sound came from the computer embedded in her desk. On the screen past its smooth glass surface, a red blinking light accompanied that beeping with her sister's face and the word 'Luna' written on it. 

Celestia sighed...then forced a smile on her face.

Knowing what this meant, she used the hand not currently holding the cup to press a finger down on the blinking red icon, causing a holographic image of her sister Luna to appear through her needlessly high-tech desk. 

"Hi, Luna. Is there something you need?" Celestia greeted before taking a small sip from her coffee cup.

Luna, who her sister could tell looked quite worried through the digital image, skipped any kind of small talk and answered, "Tia, we have a problem."

"Is it a big problem or a small one?" Celestia wondered, quirking an eyebrow.

"That would be a big one...a very big one."

"Oh my...that sounds ominous," she added with slightly out of place sarcasm.

Luna rolled her eyes at that remark, then revealed, "Last night, someone broke into the building and stole a huge amount of our technology from the engineering labs right under our noses, then left without a trace."  

Celestia's eyes widened a bit after hearing that, "Well, that...can't be good."

"It's worse," Luna enforced direly. "Right before the theft happened, all alarms and security monitors in the tower suddenly just turned off...just like that!" she snapped her fingers for emphasis. "I have no idea how they did it, but it's possible this was an inside job. Though who it might be, I can't even speculate. Since the cameras were off, we don't even have a lead."

"Hmmm..." Celestia mulled over that piece of information for a moment, drinking a bit of her coffee to get her brain working. "So what did they actually steal?"

Luna cringed and noticeably hesitated a little before she answered that question. "Right, I was afraid you were going to ask me that. You might want to brace yourself for this. Ahem, the objects that were stolen are as follow: a huge collection of our advanced smart bombs, the lightning sabre, the adaptive mobility armour, a couple of directed plasma emitters and...our prototype military-grade tech-flight glider."

Unfortunately for the older of the two sisters, she was in the process of downing a large quantity of her coffee when she heard that list, causing her to spit out half of it, then scream out, "WHAT!?"

"Thinking back, it might have been a bad idea for me to suggest building so many weapons..." Luna muttered more to herself than to her sister.

"To say the least," Celestia affirmed with a hint of dread in her voice. "You don't steal that much weaponized hardware just for fun. Whoever stole them must be planning something terrible."

"That's what I fear," Luna admitted guiltily.

"Then I suggest we contact Captain Shining Armour at the precinct and tell him everything we know as soon as possible. The police must know what they're getting into."   

"I'll make the call as soon as possible, but, Tia, do you really think that will be enough to stop someone who not only managed to get past all my security measures, but also now has their hands on some of our most advanced weapons technology?"

"We will have to hope that it is...for all our sake," Celestia decided, leaning back in her chair with a sigh. 

This was not the way she hoped this morning would go.
> 2) A lecture in Heroism, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 2
A lecture in Heroism, Part 1
Coming back to High School


While Rainbow Dash had thoroughly enjoyed her weekend of new discoveries, new superpowers, and the closest she'd ever gotten to being able to fly for real...sadly, the dreaded time of the week known as Monday was upon her and all the other teenagers going to the remarkably cliché suburban high school simply known as Canterlot High...and none of them were too pleased about that fact, Rainbow least of all.

At the very least, the school gave her a convenient excuse to always do her morning jog on her way there. After all, daily exercises was something she really couldn't go without...at least not if she was ever going to pass for a half-decent athlete. 

This time though, as she was running through the neighbourhoods at a steady pace, she held her phone up to her ear and seemed a bit annoyed with what the person on the other end was saying to her.

"Aw come on! Not even our friends?!" she questioned with a groan, making a move to dodge a kid riding past her on a bicycle. 

"Not even them," Twilight's voice insisted. "...at least not in public. If word of your powers gets out, and if people start to figure out that it's you who has them...believe me, you'll never hear the end of it."

Dash chuckled a little, now making a brief stop to let an old woman and her five dogs pass by her first. "Well, hehe, I can certainly think of worse ways to get famous. You sure that's such a bad thing?" 

"It's not that. I'm more worried about what the scientific community would do to you." Twilight clarified, showing a lot of concern in her voice. "I'm your friend, and even I was tempted to run tests on you. Just imagine what someone who doesn't care about your feelings as much as I do would do if they found out about your abilities?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Er...good point, I guess," she conceded. "Okay, fine, I'll try to keep my powers hidden for now and not tell anyone about them, but no promises that I'll do that forever or anything. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough," Twilight affirmed, then got distracted by what sounded very much like Spike's voice in the background, calling out to her about something. "Yes, I'll be there in a second, Spike!" she briefly shouted...then returned to her conversation with Rainbow. "Sorry, but I need to get going. Talk to you later?"

"Sure, bye!" Dash agreed, then hung up and stuffed the phone back in her pocket.

'Well that sucks,' she thought as soon as she had disconnected the call. 'And here I was so very much looking forward to seeing their faces after I jump up on the ceiling in front of everyone. But, oh well. Keeping it secret it is...for now, at least.'

While she made that decision, Rainbow soon saw the familiar image of Canterlot High School coming into view, looking just as plain and ordinary as any other school, with the only thing really making it stand out in terms of appearance being the large rearing horse statue standing tall on a pedestal out in its front yard...even if this time, it didn't contain a portal to a magical land filled with sentient pastel-coloured ponies. 

Now, it certainly wouldn't be hard to believe that Rainbow Dash wasn't too big a fan of going to this school, and one could tell as much by the bored uninterested look she had on her face as she made her way to it...however, it was incidentally where all her friends were right now, so at least there was a silver lining there.

Well, in truth, all her friends were there except for Twilight, who was taking some time off for her CelestiaCorp internship, and also Rarity...who was dealing with an entirely different lifestyle than High School at the moment. 





Speaking of her friends, a couple of them had already gathered in one of the school's hallways, taking the time they got before classes start to talk about their weekend while taking things out or putting in things in their lockers.

"...And then Twilight and Sunset told us all about her cross-species genetics project, then-" Pinkie Pie recounted cheerfully, her mouth moving so fast it started to look blurry...

...at least until Applejack interrupted her with a quick, "Pinkie, we already know about all that! We were all...kinda there, ya know?"

"Of course you were, silly!" Pinkie replied, still keeping her bright smile on her face. "I just told you that. Now, after that, we talked a lot about this Starswirl guy and-"  

"Yes, but could you maybe tell us something that happened...when we weren't there," Fluttershy suggested, taking the time to pick up a snack she'd stored in her locker, that she then put it inside her backpack...where something could soon be heard eating it.

Pinkie looked a bit disappointed about that, and dropped her smile a bit, "Huh? I guess I could, but those things weren't really that fun. Nothing beats the fun I have when I'm with my bestest friends!"

"Oh, I'm sure you can think of something to talk about. Though if you can't, then that's okay too."

Putting her hand on her chin in thought, Pinkie soon remembered at least one odd thing she remembered from this weekend. "Weeeell...yesterday me and my sister Maud were out shopping for a birthday present for Marble when my Pinkie Sense kept telling me that something was gonna fall from the sky! Turned out it was some crazy girl dressed in a funny blue and yellow outfit who swung around from building to building with some kind of web-shooting thingies."

Applejack slowly raised an eyebrow, "...Say what now?" 

Pinkie shrugged, "I don't know who she was or why she was doing that, but it looked like FUN! I guess you had to be there."

"If...ya say so," Applejack relented, sounding a bit confused but also not in the mood to argue with Pinkie about what could have just as well been her slightly cooky friend's imagination running wild again. This was, after all, the same girl who threw a party for a bunch of garden gnomes and was absolutely certain they were all talking back at her.

Applejack then looked at Fluttershy and asked, "By the way, how did your weekend go, Flutters?"

"Oh, it was wonderful!" Fluttershy happily answered. "I found a new animal friend to take care of, and she was one of the most adorable little creatures I've ever seen! I decided to call her Fuzzy Legs."

"Fuzzy Legs? What kind of critter was she?"

Before Fluttershy had time to answer, Pinkie guessed, "Oh, oh, oh, let me guess: a tiger, a mantis, a monkey, crane, panda, snake? Wait, snakes don't have legs, unless that was one of those ironic names. Is it?"

Fluttershy laughed a little and clarified, "Oh no, hehehe, Fuzzy Legs is a spider."

"Ooooooooh, now I get it..."

Applejack held up a hand, "Wait a minute, how exactly is a spider adorable?"

"How could it not be?" Fluttershy replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't really get why everyone thinks spiders are so scary. I think they look cute, with their pretty little eyes and those fuzzy little legs."

"Well, I suppose if anyone could consider a spider to be cute, it'd be you, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy blushed a little at that comment.

Seeing an opening, Pinkie turned the conversation over to Applejack, "What about your weekend, Jackie? Did you do any super-fun stuff that I didn't know about? Because if you did..."

Her friend's mood suddenly turned a bit sour after that question was asked though, and she let out a long sigh before she answered it. "Well...not exactly. In fact, 'fun' would probably be the last word to describe it."

"Oh my," Fluttershy voiced, sounding concerned. "What happened?"

"Y'all know Barnyard Bargains, the company my family and I always sell our products through?" Applejack opened with, earning a nod from her friends each. "Well, some money-hogging weasel named Rex Storm just showed up the heck out nowhere and bought the whole company right out from under our goshdarn noses, and then threatened to run us out of business if we didn't start workin' for him! Now, I'm sure he got some fancy legal what-ya-call-it on his side, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I let that charlatan get his greedy hands on my farm! Heck, we don't even know where he gets all the money to do that from, but I bet your boots it ain't legal."

"That...doesn't sound good," Fluttershy commented, not really knowing what else to say to that.

"That's an understatement. If this keeps up, we'll lose Sweet Apple Acres within a few months unless we can find a way to do somethin' about it!" 

"Why don't you just ask Shining Armour to deal with it?" Pinkie suggested. "I mean you're a friend of his sister, so that would make you his friend too, and friends always help each other out, am I right!?"

"Already tried that, Sugarcube. But the cops won't help unless they have 'evidence'." Applejack answered with the appropriate air-quotes. 

"But there has to be some evidence," Fluttershy insisted. "I mean, no one can just ruin someone else's life and get away with it like that!"

Applejack crossed her arms. "Apparently...you can. I talked to them cops about this whole mess and they found no proof whatsoever that Rex was doin' anythin' illegal, but I ain't buyin' that for a second." 

Pinkie popped up behind Applejack and wrapped her arm over her shoulder. "Hey, don't go all pouty, Applejack! It's only been a weekend, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of time to find a solution to this. And if this storm-guy tries to take your farm, I will unleash cupcakegeddon on him and his no-fun company!"

While she had no idea what on earth she meant by that, the sentiment brought a small smile to Applejack's lips while a small bit of her stress faded away. "Um, thank's, Pinkie."

"That's what I'm here for, cousin!" Pinkie responded before she literally bounced a few steps away to give her friend back her personal space.  

"Hey, guys!" Rainbow Dash's voice then cut in, announcing the arrival of the fourth member in their circle of friends, as the spunky prismatic-haired tomboy herself swiftly made her way through the crowded hallway to meet up with them.

Pinkie Pie's reaction was immediate. Before anyone could blink, the pink blur bolted towards the new arrival at super-sonic speed with her arms spread out in order to give her friend one of her infamous 'Pinkie-hugs'.

Though when Pinkie did so, Rainbow's new spider-sense misinterpreted the action as if she was in immediate danger, and she instinctively stepped out of the way before Pinkie could reach her, resulting in the overly excited party girl to miss her completely and instead run headfirst into a nearby teacher who just happened to be walking by and send them both tumbling down to the floor in a heap.  

Rainbow and her friends all winced at the sight, and Dash herself even let out a nervous chuckle while scratching the back of her head, as it was indeed her actions that inadvertently caused this.

Pinkie Pie was perfectly fine though. She could survive far worse than this. Rainbow even suspected that she was made out of some kind of strange rubbery indestructible material at times, as that would explain how she could so blatantly ignore physics so often...and as such, had no problem bouncing back up on her feet without a scratch while shouting, "I'm okay!"

The same could not be said for the teacher on the other hand, a middle-aged rather lanky man with a grumpy and short-tempered attitude...in fact, his name actually 'Cranky'...which couldn't be more fitting honestly. And, as you could expect from a person with such a name, he did not take it quite as well as Pinkie did. 

"Pinkie!" he shouted, face now red with anger.

A bit embarrassed, Pinkie let out a small nervous laugh and said, "Eh, hehe...oops, sorry about that," while keeping a guilty smile on her face. 

Cranky merely grumbled under his breath, then picked himself up and walked away without uttering another word. 

"One day...I'll make him smile..." Pinkie promised to herself under her breath.

Then her smile spontaneously reappeared as she turned back around and tried to hug Rainbow Dash again. This time though, Rainbow managed to stop her advance simply by keeping a hand on Pinkie's forehead, thus making the overly excited party-animal run in place while holding her arms out in a desperate attempt to deliver the hug that she felt her friend deserved. The fact that she wasn't going anywhere or that Rainbow was intentionally holding her at bay didn't deter her in the least.

"Whoah, Pinkie, take it easy, why don't ya?!" Dash urged, having noticed that people were staring, Pinkie's antics having already made a bit of a scene. Though honestly, they really should have been used to that by now.

"But I have to give all of my friends a super-special hug on Mondays or else they'll just be bitter all day!" Pinkie insisted, still trying to push past Rainbow's defences. "I mean, no one likes Mondays, well, except for Misses Cake for some reason, but you're not her so I'm giving you a hug to cheer you up no matter what!"

Rainbow replied to that with cocky smile and a small chuckle, "Oh, no need for cheering up needed here, trust me. I happen to be in a pretty awesome mood today."

That simply statement made Pinkie Pie turn her attitude on a dime and immediately stop her efforts to invade her friend's personal space with a bright smile and a nod. "Okay dokey lokey!" 

"Oh, that's...good to hear," Fluttershy remarked with a warm smile. "Any particular reason why?"

'Because I just got the most awesome superpowers ever!'...was of course what she wanted to say...and probably what she would have said if it wasn't for what Twilight told her over the phone on the way here just now. She did agree to not mention her new powers to anyone after all...especially in a public setting where people could overhear her, lest she'd be abducted and treated as a test subject in some mad scientist's lab or at the very least become a walking freak show for the whole school. 

As much as she wanted to show off her new abilities to every single person she could show them to, it really wasn't worth all that hassle. Having been very open about her sexuality for most of her life, she knew full well how quick people could be at judging her for being...'different'.

So instead, Rainbow simply shrugged and answered, "I guess it's just one of those days."     

"We all have those every once in a while, Sugarcube," Applejack acknowledged. "So how did your weekend go, Rainbow?"

Rainbow fished out the keys to her locker started to get to work on getting it open. "Not much. I went over to Twilight and Spike's place for a while, tasted broccoli pie for the first time, and...well...the window in my room kinda broke."

"It did?!" Fluttershy wondered, sounding concerned. "What happened?"

"Eh...some kid hit it with a baseball," she lied while opening her locker and tossing her backpack into it. "But it's fine. I'm sure the insurance will handle it...and if it won't, well, that's not my problem anyway."

Pinkie Pie's eyes suddenly fluttered for seemingly no reason, somehow prompting her to look at Rainbow with a very sceptical expression...then she asked, "Soooo...you're telling me that you're in such a good mood that you don't need a super-special Pinkie-hug?"

Rainbow slammed her locker shut and happily replied, "Well duh! Right now, I doubt there's anything that can possibly lower my spirit!"

The legitimacy of that statement was immediately called into question though when an energetic and slightly obnoxious male voice called out, "Well hello there, Rainbows! How's it hanging!?"

Knowing full well who that voice belonged to, Dash sighed and muttered, "...And I stand corrected."

Out of all the people who could get on Rainbow Dash's nerves, there was only one who never failed at making her feel so annoyed and nauseated at the same time as the guy who just called over to her. Heck, even her spider-sense gave off warnings about his presence.

Emerging from the crowded hallway was a tall and lanky young man with messy blonde hair that was tied up into a rather silly-looking 'man-bun'. A cocky smile that somehow made him look even more narcissistic than Rainbow Dash herself was plastered upon his unshaven cheeks...and worst of all, he didn't seem capable of taking his eyes off of Rainbow's body...especially her bottom, much to her annoyance. 

"Alright, Zephyr, what do you want now?" she groaned while crossing her arms and leaned her back against the wall, all while trying to look as repulsed and uninterested as she could possibly be in the hope, however slim, that the guy, who was called Zephyr Breeze by the way...would take the hint and leave her alone.

She had no such luck though, as her very obvious warning signals all went completely under the guy's notice, and continued to approach her anyway. "Oh, I just wanted to grace you with my awesome presence. After all, it has been such a looooong time since we spent much time together, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, can't imagine why that is..." Rainbow noted with heavy sarcasm...which went completely over his head.

"Me neither. I mean, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you're trying to avoid me or something, but we both know that's not true, so it really is a mystery."

She rolled her eyes.

...And yet, Zephyr just kept talking, "Anyway, I heard that you broke up with that Gilda chick, which, to be honest, wasn't that surprising, since we all know who you really has your eye for. Of course I knew that that whole fiasco was just to make me jealous, am I right?"

Dash looked quite offended at that remark, and gave him her best 'are you for real' look while sputtering out, "What?!"

Next he put his hand on the wall Rainbow was leaning on and got uncomfortably close to her in the process, "...And with that sexy phase out of the way, why don't we get together and hang out sometime? You most certainly won't regret it!"

Feeling very creeped out, Rainbow immediately pushed him away from her, her super-strength making the act a bit more painful for him than strictly intended. "Uhhhh...how about no?" she replied once she'd reclaimed her personal space. 

"Whoah, that actually hurt a little," Zephyr noted under his breath, her push having hit him straight in the ribs rather hard. Still, not even that would make him relent in his mission to woo her.

"Well, you don't have to call it a date, but-"

Before he could continue any further, Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed, "Zephyr Breeze!" with a bit more assertiveness than was common for her. She then rushed over to him, grabbed his wrist and physically dragged the boy away from her friends before he could make an even bigger fool of himself than he already was. 

Rainbow Dash even let out a sigh of relief the moment he was out of earshot.

Once she'd gotten some distance from the group, Fluttershy looked Zephyr right in the eye and scolded, "Zephyr, I know you like to flirt with Rainbow Dash whenever you can, but do you really think it's a good idea to do it while she's still recovering from what happened with Gilda?!"

Zephyr freed his hand from her grip and defended, "Oh come on, Sis, don't you think I have waited long enough for her to just go along with those feelings she obviously has for me?"

Fluttershy, the demure shy girl who usually couldn't hurt a fly even if she wanted to...somehow managed to remain firm and uncompromising with Zephyr's obnoxious attitude, and assertively made her displeasure as clear as she could about his behaviour. He was, after all, her baby brother. "And what if she doesn't have feelings for you?! All you're doing is making her uncomfortable with your behaviour!"

"Hey, if she's truly not into 'the Breeze', then she should just go ahead and say so."

"But she has said so...multiple times!" Fluttershy angrily pointed out. 

Zephyr put a hand on his chin and looked confused for a second. "Strange, I don't remember her ever saying that. What I do remember is her super-obvious crush on me. I mean, she's always so flustered whenever she comes to our place, and I can really only think of one reason for that."

"You know she likes girls, don't you?"

"Yeah, so? That's just one more thing we have in common. And who said she was exclusive? I mean, you like both, maybe she does too."

Fluttershy fidgeted a little and looked around uncomfortably at the mention of that, "I thought we agreed to keep that a secret."

Confused, he looked back at her and questioned, "Um, sis, didn't you come out, like, years ago?"

"To mom and dad, yes, but that doesn't mean I want you or anyone else shouting it from a mountain top. I...I really don't want them all to think of me...differently."

"Whatever you say, Flutters," he shrugged off. 





Back with the others, Pinkie Pie looked over to Rainbow and asked, "Do you think he knows you're actually gay?"

"If he does, then he's definitively in denial," Dash responded with a sigh. "Though even if I did like guys that way, I'd still never go out with him. Way too annoying and he kinda creeps me out. Heck, I wouldn't even date him if he was the sexiest girl on the planet. I mean, yuck!"

Pinkie put her hand on her chin in thought while making a "Hmmmmm..." sound, then she asked, "But if you did like guys, who would you go out with? I've been wondering that for a while, and I really wanna know. Though fair warning, if you say Cheese Sandwich, you won't get any mercy from me!"

"Don't worry, Pinkie, the hypothetical straight version of me won't steal your boyfriend," Rainbow assured with a chuckle.

"Oh, he's not my boyfriend..." Pinkie was quick to correct, though she did a second later add an ominous, "...yet anyway," while hiding a surprisingly sinister-looking smile.

However, Rainbow then found answering Pinkie's question to not be the easiest thing in the world, evident by the fact that she spent a good half-minute thinking about it first. 

"Hmm...I don't know actually. Haven't really thought about that. I mean, I guess there are some guys I like; Spike, Big Mac, Soarin, Thunderlane, Quibble Pants, but I really can't imagine any of them being anything more than friends to me...which is still a lot more than I would say for Zephyr Breeze."

"You know, Zeph kinda reminds me of that exchange student we had last year. What's his name, Trenderhoof?" Applejack added, cringing a little as she remembered just how annoying that time was. "I still don't get what he saw in me or why he couldn't go out with all them other girls who kept fawnin' over him like enamoured honeybees instead. Heck, even after he went back to his own high-falutin school, I had to block him on social media because he couldn't stop writin' love poems to me. I guess some guys just can't take no for an answer, huh?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash caught a glimpse of someone entering through the school doors and bitterly muttered, "...that goes for some girls too."

The sheer spite Rainbow put in that comment made Applejack and Pinkie pause for a second, then followed their friend's gaze to see who it was that had gotten her so riled up...though once they did, they instantly knew why.

If there ever was a perfect example of a 'bad girl' at Canterlot High, the heavily built jock in a brown leather bomber jacket with spiky white hair with purple ends on her head and sharp purple eyeliners around her almost predatory yellow eyes would be her. And in case that image alone didn't convince you, the fact that she was angrily stomping through the hallway with a face that screamed 'get lost' and snarled at anyone daring to even come close to her definitively would.

It was Gilda Griffon, Rainbow's not-so-amicable ex...and she was pissed. 

Given her fearsome reputation, short temper and less-than-cheerful mood (that being barely contained anger and hatred that could boil to the surface at any minute), everyone wisely gave her a wide berth as she made her way to her locker at the other end of the corridor. 

It wouldn't even be an exaggeration to say that many of them would rather approach a spitting cobra than risk incurring her wrath at this point.

The very sight of her ignited a flame of bottled down anger in Rainbow's gut, and the good mood she was in that morning had all but vanished in an instant. There was only one person she knew who had such an effect on Rainbow Dash...and that was Gilda.  

When Gilda passed Dash and her friends, she snorted and spitefully asked, "What the hell are you looking at, dweebs?"...yet had no intention of waiting for a reply, so she just kept walking...though not before she'd given her ex a single noticeable glare that was anything but friendly.

Rainbow Dash herself said nothing in response and instead just glared back. After all, there were no words that could really convey how much tension there was between the two that their eyes hadn't already communicated.

In fact, her anger over Gilda was so distracting that she didn't notice her spider-sense ringing when Pinkie suddenly hugged her tightly out of the blue.

"...And what's this for?" Rainbow questioned, having been taken slightly off-guard by her friend's quick affectionate gesture.

"To cheer you up of course!" Pinkie answered with a smile. "When you came here you were so happy that you didn't need a hug, but now you're not that happy anymore so I want to cheer you up with one of my patented Pinkie hugs!"

Though a bit awkwardly, Rainbow Dash did hug her back a little, "Aw...thanks, Pinkie."

...
...
...

"Umm...you can let go now. People are beginning to stare..."





A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash was sitting at her desk waiting for the first class of the day to start along with the rest of her classmates.

In the process, she was finding herself increasingly distracted by the new sensations her spider-sense kept giving her. Especially since she could feel everything that the others in the room were doing.

She could feel Ditzy 'Derpy' Doo trying to devour a muffin as discretely as possible, Minuette showing her friends Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine something on her smartphone, Pinkie Pie impatiently bouncing in her seat waiting for the class to start, Zephyr Breeze snoozing on his desk, Vinyl Scratch bobbing her head while listening to loud music in her headphones, Fluttershy feeding one of the animals that she had sneaked into school in her backpack, Applejack using her table to rest her legs on while leaning back in her chair and eating an apple, and...were Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings seriously making out in the middle of the classroom? So much for being 'best friends'...

Rainbow really wanted to find a way to shut that spider-sense off...and not for lack of trying. Even when she focused on something else entirely, the spider-sense was sort of always there...reminding her that a lot of things were going on around her, whether she cared about that or not. 

However, she did have some measure of control over it. For instance, she could focus the spider-sense on one specific thing or another, and she could switch between trying to read everything or just keeping track of the things that moved, especially things that moves towards her. 

Despite how much she tried, though, she couldn't turn it off completely.

Was it a gift or a curse? Rainbow Dash currently had no answer. So far it had its uses, even thought it could be a little annoying at times. Perhaps she could call it a bit of both?

Eventually, their teacher, a certain pink-haired woman called Miss Cheerilee, stepped into the room and announced, "So sorry I'm late, I got held up a bit." Immediately making the whole class stop whatever it was they were doing and pay attention to her...except Zephyr Breeze who didn't even notice her come in.

Cheerilee certainly lived up to her name with her cheerful smile and supportive upbeat personality that made her so approachable...at least when on the job. In truth, that attitude was actually somewhat of a cover for how stressed, frustrated and lonely she really was. Behind the scenes, you might not even recognise her. 

However, for now at least, she acted very much as the friendly, always smiling teacher that her students expected from her when she asked, "Good morning, students! I trust you all had a wonderful weekend?" in a chipper tone. 

"Not really. Mine sucked," Gilda snappily replied from the corner from where she was sitting.

The teacher was a bit taken back by that harsh response, but kept her mood up regardless. "Well...I'm...sorry to hear that. Anyway, I suppose we should start with today's new project!" 

To make sure everyone was paying attention, she then immediately stepped up to Zephyr's desk and knocked three times on the table where he was resting his head on. "Rise and shine! Class is in session!" she sing-songed. 

The sleepy teenager groaned, looked up and groggily complained, "Aw geez! Can't a guy get a little sleep around here?!"

"I'm afraid not," Cheerilee replied bluntly. "Honestly, Zephyr, do you even sleep at night?"

"You know me...Siesta!" he argued...as if that actually meant anything.

"Then I suggest you 'siesta' at home rather than during school hours."

Zephyr grumbled a little before he leaned back in his seat and began to pretend to pay attention to what Miss Cheerilee was saying.

Satisfied with her efforts, Cheerilee decided to cut to the chase and introduce her class' next assignment. "Today we will be beginning a new project for you to both write an essay about and present to the class!" she revealed, followed by a couple of groans from a number of her students. She chose to ignore them though. "The assignment will be about a very special type of people, ones who are all too rare, but always needed to make our society a better place. They fight for those that need their help the most, they fight for what is right and true, and they never expect anything in return. They may even be willing to risk their own lives to save someone else's, perhaps even someone they don't even know. I am of course talking about heroes and heroines. Now, can any of you give me an example of someone that you'd consider to be heroic?"     

The first one to raise their hand was Ditzy Doo, a blonde girl with permanently crossed eyes and probably the only person alive who considered a nickname like 'Derpy' to be a compliment.

"Yes, Ditzy Doo?" Cheerilee prompted.

"You mean like the Doctor?" 'Derpy' asked.

A bit confused, Cheerilee inquired, "Doctor...who exactly?"

"The Doctor, you know? He doesn't really have a name."

"I'm not sure I know who you're talking about."

"Well, he saved me from the Cybermen and stopped the Slitheen from blowing up the Earth. If that doesn't make you a hero, then nothing does!" The ditzy girl declared with a lot of pride. 

Everybody else in the classroom however, including Miss Cheerilee, were utterly confused over what she was talking about and an awkward silence soon filled the room.

Eventually though, Cheerilee said, "Oooookay...moving on, so can anyone else think of someone with heroic qualities?"

Lyra Heartstrings, a slightly hyperactive musician girl with spiky teal-coloured hair and was always seen alongside her best friend/lover Bon Bon, eagerly raised her hand and exclaimed, "I know one!"

Cheerilee nodded for her to continue.

"How about Captain Jupiter? She wasn't just a hero, she was a superhero! I totally adore her after she stopped a flying car from hitting my dad in the head by smashing it mid-air with a single punch, and in doing so, saved his life. And the best part is: it happened before I was born. Meaning: I wouldn't even exist if she wasn't there!"

Sugarcoat, a girl with orange glasses, pig-tails and probably the most ironic name ever, extremely bluntly replied, "Yes, and then she suddenly turned evil and killed over thirty-seven people before she just disappeared for over twenty years."...all in one breath.

Slightly insulted over that remark, Lyra turned to Sugarcoat and angrily defended, "Hey, that wasn't her! My dad knew Captain Jupiter, and she was not a bad person. The one who killed all those people must have been the Changeling or some other impostor."

"Except the Changeling was already imprisoned when all that happened and she was never able to replicate Jupiter's powers."

Cringing a little for not having a good counter-argument for that piece of logic, Lyra simply remarked, "Okay, maybe she wasn't the Changeling, but she was certainly not herself. She would never just turn evil for no reason!"

Gilda, after rolling her eyes for good measure, grimly stated, "You're the only one who still believes that."...adding her own harsh input to the conversation.  

Lyra took her attention away from Sugarcoat and onto Gilda with a righteous fury, "Yeah, you're one to talk!"

"And what is that supposed to mean, dweeb?!" Gilda shot back, feeling personally insulted by that statement.

Bon Bon, who was sitting between the two, tried to prevent the argument from escalating further by placing a hand on Lyra's shoulder and warning, "Lyra, please just don't enga-"

But her efforts were in vain, as Lyra ignored her completely and accused, "What I mean is that you're probably just sour about the fact that Captain Jupiter kicked your grandpa's old feathered ass about a dozen times!"

"So what?!" Gilda replied, surprising Lyra quite a bit. "My grandpa's an idiot who got what was coming to him, and you're just a sad little fangirl who can't except that her hero isn't as perfect as you thought she was!" 

While to most people it would seem as if that harsh statement was aimed at Lyra, the fact that she gave Rainbow Dash a quick glare right after saying it painted a bigger, and more personal, picture- 

After hearing Gilda's rude an unfair words at her girlfriend though, Bon Bon suddenly sat up and argued, "Hey, that was completely uncalled for! What did Lyra ever-" 

"Bored now!" Gilda interrupted without even giving the girl a second glance.

Whatever Bon Bon was about to say was suddenly lost to her. She knew Gilda could be a bit of a jerk at times, but she was not used to her being this hostile.

However, their little argument did get the attention of Miss Cheerilee, who stood up from her chair and reprimanded, "Gilda! We do not act that way to our fellow classmates!" 

Gilda huffed and muttered, "Whatever."

"...And Lyra, please stop antagonising her," Cheerilee added soon after.

Lyra crossed her arms and gave Gilda a disapproving glare but remained silent.

Rainbow Dash internally sighed after listening to that bit of tension. She knew Gilda was not really angry at Lyra, she cared too little about her classmate to properly hate her. However, there was someone else in that classroom who she certainly was angry with, and that was Rainbow herself. It had only been a few days since they officially broke up, and saying Gilda was still sour about it would be a monumental understatement. At this point, the girl was more than willing to take out her anger on just about anything that annoyed her. It was this aura of hostility that made Rainbow so uncomfortable in her proximity, like her spider-sense could detect her rage from a mile away.

Gilda had always been a bit rough around the edges. But for the most part, she actually wasn't that bad. Rainbow had been friends with her for a long while, ever since they went to elementary school actually. Back then, the two of them really did care for each other, so much so that they even started dating for a few months. However, that all went sideways when Dash was eventually forced to choose between her best friends or her girlfriend after a really messy argument. Rainbow ultimately stayed loyal to her friends and basically told Gilda to 'deal with it or go to hell'. 

Let's just say that Gilda didn't take that very well...

Having been raised in a family of criminals and money-grabbing vultures (pun intended), with a grandpa who was the city's first supervillain to boot, Gilda didn't have the most comfortable of upbringings. She received next to no love from her parents when she grew up, and she was constantly bullied when her sexuality became common knowledge to those around her. Rainbow Dash was just about the only good thing to ever happen in her life, and without her, she quickly turned hostile and pessimistic.

It took Rainbow a while to realise that while she was spacing out, Cheerilee was continuing her lesson. Not wanting to miss more than necessary, she quickly returned her focus to her teacher.

"...while Captain Jupiter may not have left off with such a great reputation, many still remember the days before she turned into a force of destruction. Back then, what the people saw was someone who would go up against the likes of the Changeling and Silvermane if it meant she could save someone else. One who could even convince someone as dangerous as Scorpan to abandon his evil ways and do the right thing. However, she also proved that even someone as selfless and heroic as Captain Jupiter could become cruel..."

After catching a noticeable glare from Lyra when she said that, the teacher added, "...we believe. But, you do not need to have superhuman powers or a mask to be called a hero. Anyone who decided to go out of their way to help someone else could by some definition be called a hero."

Cheerilee loudly clapped her hands together to gain the class' full attention, "So here is your next assignment! You are going to think of someone who you consider to be a hero and present that person's heroic deeds to the class. It doesn't have to be a famous superhero, it could just as well be a hardworking friend or parent who you admire. Anything goes! Any questions?"

Derpy slowly raised her hand and asked, "Sooo...does the Doctor count?"



   

Later that day, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were spending their lunch break hanging out in the small garden just outside the school. 

Since very few students went to that particular garden (aside from a certain rarely noticed girl named Wallflower Blush), Fluttershy liked to spend a lot of her time there away from everybody else. Also, the lush abundance of beautiful plants and the occasional cute little animal made her day worth it. It quickly became her favourite spot on campus. One day, she introduced the place to Rainbow Dash as well...who mostly just used it to take the occasional nap where nobody would think to look for her. 

At the moment, Rainbow was sitting on the ground and leaned her back against the odd fish statue in the middle of the garden while watching Fluttershy lie on the grass communicating with a raven that was sitting on her outstretched hand.

Rainbow Dash could probably watch Fluttershy all day...with the way her long pink hair almost seems to glimmer in the sunlight...the way her slightly yellow-tanned skin looked so soft to touch...so much so that all she really wanted was to just go ahead and touch it. What really got to her were Fluttershy's big light-blue eyes that Rainbow (even thought she denied it if anyone asked her) really thought were completely adorable. Well, at least until she used 'the Stare'...then they're completely terrifying. 

Even when Fluttershy seemed to be involved in an actual conversation with a wild bird, which would make anyone else question that person's sanity, Rainbow couldn't help but be reminded of why she had fallen in love with with the sweet girl in the first place. 

She was so lost in the sight of her that Dash didn't pay any attention to what Fluttershy was actually telling her feathered friend.

"...now I'm sure Loki isn't trying to usurp your master's throne, Huginn," Fluttershy assured the black bird. "I think you might just be overthinking the whole thing."

"Kwak?!" The raven apparently called Huginn 'asked' her.

"From what you've told me, I think all Loki wants is for more people to pay attention to him. Maybe if Odin just decides to spend some time with him and try to bond, this whole mess will fix itself."

The raven seemed to be considering the mortal's wise words.

"Now you should go back to Asgard and tell your master that all he needs to do is to show just a little kindness."

Huginn nodded and flew off to who knows where.

Fluttershy noticed that Rainbow was staring and gave her a cheeky smile, "What are you looking at, Dashie?" showing a bit more sass than one would expect of her.

A bit flustered, Rainbow Dash hastily answered, "Uh, nothing!"

The slightly amused smile on Fluttershy's face made it pretty clear that she didn't buy that. Either way, as she didn't want to make her best friend uncomfortable, she then asked, "So, um, have you figured out who you want to pick for that 'hero assignment' Cheerilee gave us?"

After a second of thought, Rainbow simply shrugged, "Not yet. I mean, maybe I can pick Daring Do, but I don't think she wanted me to pick a fictional character. I dunno. My brain does not think schoolwork right now."

"Well...I'm just asking because...I think I have decided who I will pick."

"Really? And who's that then?"

She looked away slightly and quietly mumbled, "Um...well...you."

Rainbow had to do a double take to make sure she heard that right. "Wait, run that by me again."

A little louder this time, Fluttershy revealed, "I think...I will talk about you for the hero assignment, Dashie."

Rainbow's jaw dropped, "But...why me?"

"Do you...remember when we first met?" Fluttershy asked a bit hesitantly, tilting her head down.

"Of course, how could I forget?" 

Dash was now really curious about where this was going.

"Then you remember those awful bullies who were always making fun of me all the time back in grade school."

Rainbow gritted her teeth, "Yes, I remember..."

"Well, you were the only one who ever stood up to them. You stood up to them...for me. Nobody has ever done anything like that for me before. Sure, my parents always cared and supported me, but they would never dare to stand up to anyone, not even my brother. So while you may not think you're a hero, I think you're my hero."

Rainbow Dash was speechless, the sincerity and pride in Fluttershy's voice was so genuine that she almost believed her. 

"You...really think so?" Dash asked uncertainly.

Fluttershy didn't even hesitate before she replied, "Yes, I do."

That assurance got her thinking. Rainbow Dash had always been rather protective to those she cared about, even so much that she chose to give up on her last girlfriend out of loyalty to them. And when she first met Fluttershy, she got in the face of three boys twice her size with the ferocity of a raging tiger just because they were teasing her. She didn't even back down after she received a black eye and lost one of her primary teeth. It had been a long time since she last showed that kind of tenacity though. She eventually learned not to put herself in danger...too often. However, now that she had superpowers...maybe Spike's idea of becoming a superhero wasn't so far-fetched after all.

For now though, Rainbow shook that thought aside and said, "It's awesome that you're picking me for this, Fluttershy, but..."

She trailed off when she heard the familiar rock-themed ringtone of her cell phone coming from her pocket. She quickly fished it out and asked, "Yeah?"

The familiar country accent of Applejack replied, "Rainbow, it's Applejack! Where the heck are you?"

"Hanging out with Fluttershy. What's the rush, AJ?"

"Practice is 'bout to start and we're goin' up against Lightnin' Dust's team this time. We could really use your help out there, RD."

"Oh crud, I forgot about that!"

"Well get over here then, we're all waiting on ya!"

"I'll be there in a sec!" Rainbow finished before disconnecting the call.

She then stood up and said, "Sorry, Flutters, but I gotta run!"

Fluttershy nodded, "Of course. Good luck out there, Dashie."

With a confident smile, Rainbow assured, "Thanks, but I doubt I'll need it."
> 2) A lecture in Heroism, Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 2
A lecture in Heroism, Part 2
How to not use your powers responsibly


Rainbow Dash had always been a very athletic person. Even as a child she couldn't sit down and relax without falling asleep out of boredom. She needed to move, she needed to run, she needed to make the impossible possible. For a long time, there were none who could even hope to match her speed and determination...until she went to High School.

While Rainbow was still one of the best, there were at least three others who could challenge her there.

While they may be best friends, the rivalry between Applejack and Rainbow Dash was legendary. Having grown up on a farm, Applejack had spent most of her days doing hard labour, often while working in the harsh summer sun. This left her with an excellent physique and a very well-trained body. While she may not be able to run as fast as Dash could, she made up for it in strength and endurance. There was probably not a single student at Canterlot High who had ever beaten her in an arm wrestle. Her determination to win against Rainbow Dash in whatever they competed in was unrelenting, even if they were competing in marathon running, soccer, basketball, swimming contests, martial arts or even video games.

Her other two rivalries were not so friendly though, especially considering one of them just so happened to be Gilda. Rainbow and Gilda used to compete in a similar manner to how Dash did with Applejack, with all of it ultimately being in good fun. Growing up in a pretty bad neighbourhood with a family of gangsters, Gilda had learned long ago to fend for herself. From years of harsh training, she became proficient in all manner of physical activities, including street fighting and many types of sports. Suffice to say, she was not someone to have on your bad side...as a couple unfortunate would-be-muggers found out the hard way. And while her rivalry with Rainbow Dash may have started out friendly, after their breakup, it was anything but.

Rainbow's greatest challenge though was Lightning Dust. A daredevil with an obsession with testing her absolute limits and proving to the world that she was the best at everything it could throw at her with no consideration or empathy for anybody in her way. She was one of the few who could easily outrun Rainbow Dash and didn't get winded nearly as often as she did...curtesy of her slightly longer legs. Her greatest weakness though was that she was extremely reckless and didn't fully grasp the concept of teamwork. During Rainbow's first year at CHS, Lightning reached out to her and they quickly became fast friends. That friendship, however, was short lived. It didn't take Rainbow long before she began to realise how selfish and manipulative Lightning was, especially with how she didn't seem to bat an eye when she tried to win a race by deliberately cutting the other players off...seriously injuring one of them in the process. Even worse: when Rainbow confronted her about that, she simply asked 'so what?' in the most nonchalant manner possible and shrugged it off. After that, Dash chose to never trust Lightning Dust again. 

However, despite all of their strengths and achievements, they were still bound by the limitations of the human body...Rainbow Dash wasn't...not anymore.





The halls of Canterlot High were, as always, filled with people coming and going all over the place. Some moved about in a calm and orderly fashion, and some others...not so much. 

Most students and teachers in those hallways probably would have had a hard time describing the prismatic blur that suddenly zipped past them without any warnings given aside from a few "Coming through!"s, "Sorry!"s or "Move out of the way!"s...which all came by so fast that none of them were really able to react properly anyway.

The blur was, of course, Rainbow Dash in a hurry to get from one end of the school to the other. Since she had lost track of time during her, admittedly relaxing, visit to the garden with Fluttershy, she was running a bit late to soccer practice, and that was something that she couldn't afford considering her reputation as one of CHS's best athletes. So to make up for lost time, she decided to get there by running as fast as she could...which was pretty damn fast (especially with her new abilities). Her spider-sense was also a good help since it warned her of the many obstacles in her path, whether they be people, lockers or opening doors. 

Eventually though, Rainbow reached the girls' locker room. While this might have seemed like a good time to take a quick breather, the fact that nobody else was in here only made it more obvious how late she was. Most likely, the other players had already changed and were out in the field waiting for her...or worse yet, having started without her. 

Not wasting any time, she quickly opened her bag and pulled out her sportswear before she began to remove most of the clothes she was currently wearing.   

After she had slipped off her jacket and t-shirt, leaving her upper body only covered by her bra, she heard a familiar voice behind her remark, "Late again, Dash."

Rainbow didn't need to turn around to know who just spoke to her and continued to unzip her jeans while replying, "Yeah, tell me something I don't know, Gilda."

Close to the door leading to the soccer field, Gilda was casually leaning against the wall while keeping her eyes squarely on Rainbow Dash with her arms crossed...though not in a suggestive way, as one might expect from someone watching another changing clothes, but with clear disdain and anger.

"How about this one? Get your lazy butt over to practice already. We're all waiting on you!" Gilda complained, her patience running thin

While she slipped on a white top with a rainbow lightning bolt printed on it, Rainbow repeated, "Like I said: tell me something I don't know."

Gilda rolled her eyes, "You really want me to go down that road, Dash? Because there's a lot of things your simple brain doesn't seem to know..."

Rainbow suddenly turned around to look Gilda in the eyes and asked, "What the hell is your problem?! Why can't you stop acting like some stupid psycho ex-girlfriend for five minutes and leave me alone?!"

"Oh, you know exactly what my problem is." Gilda rebuked with venom in her tone.

"What? You're still mad because I broke up with you?" Rainbow asked as she put on a pair of blue training shorts.

Gilda answered that by menacingly approaching her former lover with her fists clenched. "Of course I am! Did you think I dated you just because you had a nice ass? No! I loved you! I freaking loved you! You were the only damn thing I had in my life that wasn't a complete mess! You were everything I had! And then you decided to throw all that away, and for what?!"

Rainbow got right in Gilda's face and shouted, "Because you turned into a complete psycho! You know how much my friends means to me, and the way you treated them was so not cool. I could never date someone who is willing to insult and even threaten the people I care about!"

"Trust me, I know how much your 'friends' means to you...especially that one little pink-haired dormouse you keep making goo goo eyes at."

Dash was starting to realise where this was going, and she didn't like it. "Hold on a minute, are you saying this is all because you were a little jealous? Is that it!?"

"Well, how would you feel if the love of your life cared more for some lame hippy who's afraid of her own shadow than you?"

"Fluttershy! Is not! LAME!"

"So you admit it then? You were planning on dumping me anyway, weren't you? To be with your little sweetheart and leave me living miserable and alone in the dumps you found me in? Some perfect girlfriend you were..."

Rainbow's rage was about to explode any second now. "Well, maybe I should have done that! Fluttershy is a much better person than you'll ever be, and this stupid obsession you have just proves it! Do you think I could ever love someone as selfish and possessive as you are?"

"That didn't seem to stop you from being friends with that criminal fashionista." 

"Are you seriously pulling that one on me?! It's not like you haven't done a lot of illegal crap in your life!"

"I did what I had to do to survive in this stinking town, get that through your thick skull already! You don't have any idea what it's like to be me. You don't know what it's like to have a dad who kicked you out onto the streets just because having a gay daughter would 'ruin his image', or having a mom who cares more about whisky than your life, or a grandpa who's a freaking super-villain! No, you, miss Rainbow 'Awesome' Dash, has a mom who's a fighter pilot and a dad who was once a world-class athlete, and they support you and all of your stupid life choices like there's no tomorrow. And you think that you're somehow the victim here?"

For just a moment, Rainbow was almost feeling bad for her. There was a small part of her deep within that still missed Gilda...but she did not let that part of her control her actions, not anymore. 

"Well, boo-ho-ho, that doesn't excuse all the stuff you did, jerk!"

Gilda's eyes narrowed, all common sense, reason or compassion were gone in them, with her sharp black eyebrows only enhancing that effect. All that was left was anger...anger and hatred. Rainbow Dash responded in kind with a similar type of expression, thus showing that she too was beyond reason. 

This argument had only one possible conclusion, one possible outcome, there were no parallel universes were this argument didn't lead to someone ending up with bruises and bandages by the end of the day. Gilda and Rainbow Dash had reached the point where physical violence was the only answer.

However, that confrontation would have to be put on hold.

"Are you two done already?" A third voice interrupted. 

The person who spoke was a girl dressed in sharp black and greens with windswept blonde hair that slightly, if not quite, formed a Mohawk, her lips took the form of a bemused and very smug smile with a glint in her eyes that betrayed a cockiness even worse than Rainbow Dash's. It was Lightning Dust, and she had just come over to see what was taking so long when she ended up paying witness to the argument between the two former girlfriends.

Gilda sharply turned to her and declared, "None of your business, dweeb!"

Lightning rolled her eyes, "Uh, yeah it is! I've been waiting for you slowpokes to get to the field for close to..." she checked her watch"...little more than half-an-hour already, and as entertaining as watching you two bicker like an old married couple is, I have a match to win, and there are no winners without losers, are there?"

With a sliver of her competitive spirit back, Rainbow asked, "Is that a challenge?"

"Absolutely. Now are you two coming or not?"    

Gilda gave Dash one last look before warning, "This isn't over."

With a tense tone in her voice, Rainbow replied, "No...it isn't."





While Dash had quite a few rivals, she also had some fans...

...or at least one.

Over a dozen students had gathered on Canterlot High's soccer field, most of them having already changed into their sportswear. However, none of them were playing at the moment. Instead, most of them were impatiently slouching on the grass or on the bleachers, wondering what on earth was taking their 'star player' so long.   

There was one among the lot though who was practically brimming with excitement. Her name was Scootaloo: a 14 year old girl who was without a doubt Rainbow Dash's biggest fan. In fact, Rainbow had even gone so far as to accept Scootaloo as her honorary little sister.  

One would be forgiven for believing that she was a boy given her short purple hair and tomboyish clothing consisting of a black hoodie and a pair of green cargo pants, but she was actually a girl...even though she didn't always act like one. There was a part of her appearance that stuck out though, and that was that the lower part of her left leg was replaced by a mechanical prosthetic, curtsy of a certain Dr Glimmer of CelestiaCorp. 

Her leg had been amputated about a year ago after an accident involving an ice cream truck and her scooter, but she didn't let that crush her spirit or stop her dream of one day becoming as fast and strong as Rainbow Dash.

She was sitting on the bleachers with her best friends Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, the younger sisters of Rarity and Applejack respectively. Sweetie was the more feminine of the two, as her name might suggest, and could be recognised by her slightly curly pink and lavender hair as well as her pink jacket and yellow skirt. Applebloom was far more rustic in appearance, hailing from the same farm her big sister Applejack came from, and that was evident by her simple green shirt and jeans shorts. However, she had a very feminine bow in her red hair to make up for it. 

While Scootaloo could barely contain her excitement at watching her idol quote on quote 'be awesome', her friends didn't really share the same enthusiasm. 

"So...what are we waiting for again?" Sweetie Belle asked, her voice cracking a little as she spoke.

Scootaloo proudly answered, "Rainbow Dash of course! She has been training for this all summer and she's going to totally rock it!"

"Yeah, but she's sure takin' her sweeeet time..." Applebloom noted, speaking in an accent similar that of her big sister Applejack. "Seriously, what's takin' her so long?"

"Well...I'm not sure, but she promised me she would show up sooner or later."

"Did she say how much later?"

"Not really, but I bet it'll be any second now."

"I hope you're right about that."

Sweetie suggested, "Maybe she's getting prepared or something. You won't believe how much time Rarity spends prettifying herself before she leaves the house."

"Sure, but she's...well...Rarity." Applebloom noted, "I doubt Rainbow would care about that kind of stuff..." then she looked at Scootaloo "Would she?"

Scootaloo grimaced a little and revealed, "Actually...you'd be surprised." making both of her friends look at her curiously.  

Scootaloo lowered her voice to a whisper, "This is kind of a secret, but..." Applebloom and Sweetie Belle leaned in closer to hear her, "...she goes to the spa, like, every week, but not when any of her friends does it, and she likes to wear vanilla perfume all the time...but mostly when she's going to meet Fluttershy. No idea why though. However, she made me 'Pinkie Promise' not to tell it to anyone, so this stays-"

"Ahem!" A voice suddenly announced behind her, causing Scootaloo's eyes to widen in dread before she slowly turned around.

Staring at her with a disapproving glare was none other than Pinkie Pie, and she was not pleased. Scootaloo was so terrified that she didn't even bother noting the strangeness of how she literally appeared out of nowhere and how she was poking her head through the bleachers. "Uh...hi, Pinkie Pie."

"Scootaloo, did you just...break a 'Pinkie Promise'?" 

Scootaloo's eyes darted back and forth nervously for a moment, then she answered, "Actually...well...Rainbow sort of implied that when she said 'tell nobody about it', she meant 'nobody but Sweetie Belle and Applebloom'...I guess."

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie's mood did a complete 180 and she flashed a cheerful smile and conceded with a, "Okey dokey lokey!" before she disappeared in the same mysterious way she appeared. 

The three girls let out a collective sigh of relief after she was gone. While Pinkie Pie might be one of the friendliest girls on the planet, god help you if you ever break a 'Pinkie Promise'. She happened to be very serious about those.

"Phew...good thing you managed to get out of that bag of molasses..." Applebloom noted.

Scootaloo shrugged, "Lucky me. Still, I guess it might actually be true. As long as we don't tell anyone else I suppose we're off the hook for now."

"Who am I supposed to tell anyway?" Sweetie Belle asked with just a dash of bitterness, "Rarity always did like to hear gossip like that, but...well...you know."

Noticing the mood Sweetie was starting to get in, Applebloom put an arm around her shoulders and said, "Come now, Sweetie Belle, she won't be in there forever or anythin'. It's all goin' to be fine."

"Besides, you can visit her any time you want." Scootaloo provided. 

Sweetie looked down at her feet, "Yeah...through a bullet-proof glass window, with those scary guards watching me all the time." she then gave Scootaloo an angry look, "I even have to speak through a phone just to hear her, a PHONE! It just looks silly when she's sitting right in front of me."

Applebloom patted her on the back, "There, there, Sweetie, it's okay. I mean, it could be worse...right? That Storm guy is tryin' to take my family's farm away from us and I'm still in mighty good spirits, yeah...he he he..." However, her tone and nervous laughter at the end hinted that she wasn't in such 'good spirits' as she claimed.

Scootaloo added, "...And I...lost my leg." albeit with a bit more bitterness than she intended, "Yeah, that didn't really help, did it?"

"No, it probably didn't." Applebloom concurred.

Sweetie Belle sombrely noted, "Well...at least you tried."

Before the mood got too depressing for the dynamic trio though, Scootaloo spotted something that immediately got her excited. "Look girls, it's Rainbow Dash!"





After a lot of waiting for everyone involved, Rainbow Dash, along with Gilda and Lightning Dust, finally stepped out onto the soccer field all prepared and ready to start playing. 

The first one to notice them aside from Scootaloo was the PE teacher, Miss Harshwhinny, a stern middle-aged no-nonsense woman with a Brittish accent. And as soon as she saw Dash step out in the field, she scolded, "Miss Dash! How many times do I have to remind you of punctuality? If not for the fact that your team refused to begin until you arrived, we would have already started playing half an hour ago."  

One of the players, a girl with the very fitting name: Sour Sweet, used a sickeningly sweet tone to say, "Yeah, we didn't want you to miss out on anything, honey..." then she suddenly changed her whole demeanour and took on an angry, bordering on hysterical, tone, "...WHEN YOU DIDN'T SHOW UP FOR OVER TWENTY MINUTES!" 

When Rainbow saw the other players' disapproving glares directed at her, as well as Lightning Dust's haughty smile, she clenched her teeth a little and nervously tried to come up with a good enough excuse. However, when she caught a glimpse of Scootaloo looking at her with an expression of joy and anticipation, her heart melted a little and Rainbow managed to gain a small smile. Her honorary younger sister tended to have that effect on her. Just knowing that she had such a devoted fan made her instantly forget how cross she was with Gilda and got her squarely in 'the zone' as it were.    

With her fighting spirit back, Dash said, "Sorry teach, got held up. Now are we gonna play or just stand around talking about how bad it is that I'm late?"

Miss Harshwhinny crossed her arms, "You're not quite off the hook yet, Miss Dash, but you do have a point." then she raised her voice, "Students, you know your teams, get ready!"

Keeping her eyes on Rainbow though, Harshwhinny quietly added, "I'll have some words with you later though..."

With those words said, the players immediately scrambled to their feet and began to get to their respective positions. Some were making an effort to move as much as possible to get back the warm-ups that they lost because of the delay. Still, they were quite eager that something was finally happening.





There were two teams, the Wondercolts and the Shadowbolts, Rainbow's and Lightning's teams respectively. 

The Shadowbolts consisted of Lightning Dust, her sister Indigo Zap, Gilda, Sugarcoat, Sour Sweet and two other girls named Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare.

The Wondercolts (named after the Wonderbolts Squad Dash's mom was once a part of) consisted of Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon and Vinyl Scratch. At one point, Zephyr Breeze wanted to join them (probably in an attempt to impress Rainbow Dash), but got kicked out after a terrible performance. Ditzy Do got his spot on the team instead. 

While Rainbow Dash had a lot of faith in her team, she knew they had little to no chance of beating the Shadowbolts. The members of the rival team were just way more disciplined, with a clear cut goal of winning above all else. Also, with Lightning Dust, Gilda and Indigo Zap, some of the school's best athletes, on their side, they held a clear advantage. The Wondercolts were mostly playing for fun, and some of them joined just because nobody else would take them. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and interestingly enough Pinkie Pie were about the only ones on the team who were even that good at these kinds of sports. They had tried to score a win against the Shadowbolts for close to a year now, but so far, it simply hadn't happened.

However, as Rainbow Dash stared into Lightning Dust's eyes in the middle of the soccer field, she knew that was about to change. While she had promised Twilight that she wouldn't show off her spider-powers in public, she decided that she was going to use at least some of it today. No wall-crawling or web-shooting of course, but that was not all that was new with her. 

With her spider-sense she knew exactly where every single player on the field was, and that was an advantage that none on the opposing team had. And with her increased speed, agility and reflexes, she was pretty sure that not even Lightning Dust would be able to keep up with her. However, the cocky daredevil didn't seem to be aware of that yet.

All her muscles properly warmed up and ready, a small line of sweat coming from her forehead, Rainbow could see that Lightning was prepared to score the next win. The slightly sociopathic grin on her face only made that more apparent. "So, Dash, ready for another defeat?"

Rainbow Dash, by contrast, was far more relaxed. She held a slightly nonchalant pose, and while her grin was just as smug as her rival, her expression was far less aggressive. Her demeanour spoke of someone who knew, not just thought, that she was going to win...even without much effort given. "I don't know...are you?"

"Me? Lose? HA! Don't you remember what happened last year? Because if I remember correctly, your stupid team couldn't get a single point. I mean, I can take losing a match, but that was just embarrassing."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that. I promise you though, this time, things are gonna be different."

"As if."

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Miss Harshwhinny came up between them, a soccer ball in her hands. "Alright then, students. I want to see a clear and fair match. Anybody who is caught breaking the rules or sabotaging for the other players will be immediately sent off their team with a dire warning." with a bitter look directed at Lightning, she added, "That goes double for you, Miss Dust. Understood?"

After letting out a small groan while rolling her eyes, Lightning reluctantly answered, "Yes, ma'am."

Seemingly satisfied with her answer, Miss Harshwhinny placed the ball on the ground between the two star athletes and stepped away from the field. "Alright then, begin on my signal."

Anticipation filled the air as everyone waited for said signal. Scootaloo was sitting at the edge of her seat trying to get the best view possible, Gilda was keeping an eye on her ex-girlfriend like a hawk, Lightning Dust was waiting like a bear trap ready to go off at any moment, Applejack licked her lips once in anticipation, Pinkie Pie was jumping up and down happily (like she always did), Lyra and Vinyl appeared to be communicating something via hand gestures while Bon Bon looked between the two confusingly, Zephyr Breeze turned out to be sitting on the bleachers while trying to get a good view of Rainbow's backside (pervert), and Rainbow Dash herself was sensing all of this with her Spider-sense.

Just before the game started, Rainbow commanded, "Derpy, catch!"

Then the signal came in the form of Miss Harshwhinny's whistle, letting everybody know that the game was officially on.

Lightning Dust reacted as fast as any ordinary human being possibly could when she moved her foot to kick the ball, but Rainbow Dash was way faster than her, and managed to use her foot to send it flying back to her team member Ditzy Doo, who somehow managed to react quickly enough to kick it straight across the field over to where Applejack was waiting for it.  

Once Applejack got the ball, she started to charge towards the opposing team's goal with the determination of a raging bull. Indigo Zap tried to cut her off and take it from her, but Applejack would have none of it, and managed to keep the ball well out of Indigo's reach. However, when Gilda also ran at her, she knew she was about to be outmatched. So as a last ditch resort, she tried to kick the ball over to one of her teammates on the other side of the field...only to severely miss, sending it towards Lightning Dust instead.

Seeing the opportunity, Lightning lined up the next shot perfectly and kicked it with enough force to send it flying directly towards the other team's goal. As usual, she had managed to use her quick thinking to score her team an easy point without much of a hassle at all. Or...at least that was what she thought she had done. 

What she didn't expect was for Rainbow Dash to jump a metre up into the air, intercept the ball, and kick it with enough force to send it straight into the Shadowbolts' goal so fast that their goalie Lemon Zest didn't have a chance of reacting quickly enough to do anything to stop it. 

It had all happened so fast that it took a few seconds for everyone to comprehend what had just transpired. While Rainbow Dash was known for pulling off some very impressive feats, none of the other players had ever seen her do anything quite like that. 

Scootaloo, in fact, was so amazed by the what she had just witnessed that all she could say was, "Wow..."

Lightning Dust was speechless, her jaw was dropped, and she kept frantically looking between her goal and a very smug-looking Rainbow Dash. She wasn't just surprised by Dash's gravity-defying jump kick, but also the fact that she managed to instantly turn what would have been a guaranteed goal for the Shadowbolts into a win for the Wondercolts.    

Seeing her expression, Rainbow put her hands on her hips and boasted, "How's that for never losing, Dusty?!" 

While the outcome was certainly unexpected, it was in the end just one goal, and Dust was not one to give up easily. "Eh, you were lucky, I guess. I doubt you'll get any more than that though."

"Wanna bet?" Rainbow offered with probably the most arrogant smile Lightning had ever seen...when she wasn't looking into a mirror.

With a small chuckle, Lightning assured, "You bet I do."

She would soon come to regret that decision. 

As soon as Lemon Zest had kicked the ball out of her goal and back onto the field, Rainbow was on to it in seconds.

With a velocity unlike anything she had displayed before, it didn't take long before she practically owned the field. While the other players were struggling just to keep up with her, Dash was running circles around them. She knew exactly where the ball was at all times, she knew exactly where all the other players were at all times, she knew just who to pass it to whenever the situation called for it, and she knew just how to stop any and all attempts by the Shadowbolts at getting the ball anywhere near the Wondercolts' goal.  

Whenever anyone on team Shadowbolt tried to pull something off that could give them at least a single point, Rainbow Dash was able to find some miraculous way to turn the whole thing around. With the Shadowbolts nearly spotless track record when it came to winning these kinds of games, they were completely baffled by the fact that a single student was effectively making the whole team look like a bunch of amateurs.

Even the others on Rainbow's team were growing frustrated with her sudden success-rate. While they were happy that the Wondercolts were scoring more points against their biggest rivals than ever before, it was also clear that Dash was outshining all of the other players' efforts. Every single goal had been done by Rainbow Dash, and the most the other players could contribute was merely to stall or pass it around for their team leader to play the whole game for them. 

Applejack in particular was getting increasingly frustrated by how much Rainbow Dash kept showing off. Best friends they may be, but there were few things that could rile her up as much as when Rainbow's ego got out of hand, especially when she didn't even realise that that ego was hurting others. Pinkie, Lyra and Bon Bon were no happier about this either, and Vinyl Scratch, the Wondercolts' goalie, was starting to get seriously bored by the fact that Rainbow kept making sure that no soccer ball was getting anywhere near her, thus making her job essentially pointless. The only one who wasn't particularly angry at Rainbow Dash right now was Ditzy Doo, who was most of the time indifferent about pretty much everything. 

The Shadowbolts though...they were getting more and more infuriated by the minute. Lightning Dust was in complete disbelief. None of this made any sense to her. She had trained for years to be the best athlete in Canterlot, and she could for some reason beyond her understanding suddenly not amount to anything in this match. Lemon Zest was starting to wish she could switch places with Vinyl Scratch right about now, as for every time the ball flew past her, she was worried it would hit her hard enough to hurt. Indigo Zap, who happened to be one of the best runners in the school, was desperately panting for breath while her knees were practically begging her to slow down. Gilda was already angry at Rainbow Dash when the game started, and was by now practically fuming with barely controlled anger.   

After managing to secure nine points for her team, Rainbow Dash was still keeping a firm grasp on the soccer ball. This time, she went one step further and bounced it on her knees while keeping her eyes closed. 



Lightning Dust and Gilda were once again trying to catch up with her, but it was no use. With her spider-sense, super strength, increased speed and reflexes, she had no problem keeping them at bay. A fact she made sure to rub in their faces as much as possible. 

Rainbow knew she could go a bit easier on them, or at least not taunt them with her smile of superiority, but...she really enjoyed showing them up. Having the once unbeatable Lightning Dust drive herself to exhaustion just trying to keep up with her gave Rainbow a small amount of sadistic glee, and after all the things Gilda just said to her, she wanted to make her feel every bit how much that hurt...forgetting the fact that Gilda said those things because her life was already miserable enough. 

Driven to near desperation, Lightning Dust finally had enough with playing fair. Losing now without a single win to her name was a humiliation she could not even stand the thought of. The words spoken to her by her uncle Wind Rider came to mind: "Sometimes you must play dirty to be the best", a lesson she had taken in stride. It was time to take the gloves off.

The one odd ring Lightning had on her right hand was not just for decoration: it was, in fact, her secret weapon. If activated, the ring could discharge a painful electric jolt to anyone she put her hand on. While it may not be strong enough to seriously hurt someone, it had just enough kick to disorient them for short periods of time. 

Gilda was also growing frustrated with how things were going, and the urge to cause Dash physical pain was starting to take over her common sense. Unlike Dust's idea however, Gilda preferred the more blunt approach. 

At that moment, Rainbow's spider-sense went off like crazy, telling her that danger was approaching from two directions at once. She could sense that there was something dangerous about Lightning Dust's approaching hand, and also that Gilda was running straight at her, probably with the intention of tackling her. 

Rainbow's eyes suddenly snapped open, then she twisted her whole body around so that Gilda narrowly missed her, but since she was in full motion, she couldn't stop herself fast enough before she ended up tackling Lightning Dust instead. In a panic, Lightning grabbed onto Gilda for dear life, but as she had already activated her electric ring, she ended up sending a painful buzz of electricity into Gilda's shoulder...while unintentionally dragging both of them down to the ground. 

And with her two biggest rivals down for the count, there was nothing to stop Rainbow Dash from kicking the ball into the net one last time, scoring the last point needed for the Wondercolts' first victory against the Shadowbolts in years.  

After taking a quick look at the scoreboard, Miss Harshwhinny announced, "And the winner is...the Wondercolts!"

Scootaloo immediately stood up on the bleacher and hollered, "That. Was. SO AWESOME! You rock, Rainbow Dash!"

She was not the only one though. Soon enough, everyone else on the bleachers except for Applebloom began to cheer as well. That was...all five of them. Still, that was more than enough for Rainbow Dash though. And with their cheering fuelling her ego to maximum, Rainbow began to perform an extremely silly victory dance to celebrate it.

"This is the best thing ever!" she enthusiastically declared, "I won, I won, I won, because I'm the bestest, and I'm awesome, and they know it, ah-ah ah-ah ah-ah!"

Lightning Dust was at a complete loss for words when she slowly got back on her feet while stealthily hiding her electric ring in her pocket. With not a single point to their name, the Shadowbolts had just suffered the most humiliating defeat in Canterlot High's history. As a team with a reputation for never losing...ever, it struck them hard...and it struck Lightning Dust the hardest. 

In utter disbelief, Lightning sputtered out, "What, what...how? What the hell was that, Rainbow Dash?!"

Still keeping her arrogance, Rainbow gave her a slightly pitiful look, "You said it yourself, Dust, you snooze, you lose."

"But I never lose!	I've faced you and your team many times before and you were never this good back then." She then raised an eyebrow, "There's something fishy going on here, isn't there?"

Rainbow just waved her off, "Heh, puh-lease, as if!"

However, Lightning Dust's concerns caught the attention of Applejack, who approached her and noted, "Like it or not, Rainbow, she's got a point. I have never in my life seen you move like that before."

Pinkie Pie popped up right next to her, "Yeah, what have you've been taking? Chemical X?"

Dash's eyes widened upon hearing that suggestion, "Wait, what?"

"Dash..." Applejack began with a sigh, "...I know you want our team to win and all, and would probably do anythin' to make that happen, but please tell me you didn't resort to doin' anything unsportsmanlike."

"Actually, please do tell us that," Lightning urged, "because if you did, then I can at least have an excuse for losing."

Rainbow only now noticed that nearly everyone was staring at her. Most of those weren't the good kind of stares either. While she was fully expecting the Shadowbolts to glare at her after suffering such a humiliating defeat, she was a bit more surprised to see her own team look at her like she had done something wrong.

Having a suspicion of what they were accusing her of, Rainbow defended, "If you're saying that I would ever cheat just to win a game then you clearly don't know me at all."

"Then why are you suddenly so much better than you usually are?" Pinkie asked while narrowing her eyes suspiciously. 

"Maybe I was just lucky or something."

Lightning Dust didn't buy it, "As if? No one is that lucky! Face it, Dash, you're a cheater, so why don't you just man up and admit it?"

With an accusatory tone in her voice, Rainbow sarcastically answered, "Yeah, just like you did when you gave me food poisoning just to get first place in the Canterlot High Marathon?"

Lightning's eyes suddenly widened and zipped back and forth while she nervously rebuked, "Well...that's...that's...you have no proof that I did that!"

Her response did not exactly help her situation and served to only dig herself deeper. It got even worse when Gilda put a painfully firm grip on her shoulder and whispered, "Or that little joy-buzzer of yours..." into her ear with a menacing tone. "Now do us all a favour and walk away before you make this whole situation even worse. I'll deal with her."

Lightning gave an arrogant snort at that, but ultimately decided to take her advice. She gave Rainbow Dash one last glare before she turned around and began to leave. Though as soon as her back was turned, she quietly muttered, "...I'll get you next time, Rainbow Dash...next time..."

Gilda then looked at Rainbow Dash with a fair bit of tranquil fury in her eyes but didn't say a word. This time, she didn't really need to say anything to get her point across. 

"Look," Rainbow said while looking at Gilda and the other Shadowbolts, "I get that you guys are upset that you lost, but come on, everyone does eventually."

"I guess that is true..." Sour Sweet (who was standing next to Gilda) noted in a sad, sombre tone...then she abruptly changed it to an angry and bitter one, "...for anybody but us!"

"Rainbow..." Applejack said, speaking in a clear and steady voice, "Did you, or did you not cheat to win this match? And I want you to look me in the eye and tell me the absolute truth, nothing more, not a darn thing less."

Rainbow turned to Applejack and looked her friend in the eyes. She saw no anger in them, just determination. So after releasing a meaningful sigh, she answered, "I did not cheat. I just...I wanted us to win. I mean, the Wondercolts have never beaten the Shadowbolts before and...I chose to not hold back anymore."

Seeing that at least most of what Dash was saying seemed to be true, Applejack said, "Alright then, at least that's cleared up. But Rainbow, you may not have realised it, but you made the rest of us feel mighty bad about ourselves. We're supposed to play as a team, but its hard for us to do that when you keep showin' off like that."

"Besides," Pinkie added, "It's not really that fun to play when you're so much better than the rest us. I mean, look at Vinyl, she didn't even get to do anything during the whole game!"

Upon hearing her name being uttered, the blue-haired girl nodded absentmindedly while her magenta eyes were showing a very bored expression. (She weren't wearing her shades during soccer games for safety reasons)

Sugarcoat (who was just standing in background) bluntly commented, "You could have also have been a bit less smug about it and not make the rest of us feel like we were middle-school children." in her usual fast-talking way. 

Rainbow looked at the silver-haired Shadowbolt with a raised eyebrow, "Okay, first off: you guys have no right calling me smug, second:" she turned back to her own team, "Chillax people, I scored our team the first win against the Shadowbolts in years, so...you're welcome!"  

"Thanks...I guess?" Pinkie answered uncertainly.

"Yeah right." Gilda said with quite a bit of venom in her tone, "Like this was about them in any way. You could care less about your little team of losers. This was about you, and you alone! You wanted to win, you wanted to humiliate the rest of us, you wanted to humiliate ME! Well, guess what, girlfriend, I am sick of your crap!"

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at Gilda, a clear and unmistakable expression of fury evident in them. "Funny thing you brought that up, Gilda, because the feeling is mutual."

"Good! Finally we can agree on something. I may have grown up in a family of gangsters, but you're the most evil person I've ever met! At least they didn't pretend to love me before stabbing me in the back! And now that you don't have to play nice for me anymore you showed everyone who you really are: a self-centred braggart who doesn't care who she hurts as long as she's 'cool' while doing it!"

"SHUT UP!" Dash screamed at the top of her lungs, silencing everyone on the soccer field. Gilda's words really struck a cord with her, as was evident with how her face had turned red out of anger. Her cockiness was gone, replaced with her overwhelming hatred for her ex. "You're calling me self-centred, bitch?! I'm not the one who threatened to hurt an innocent girl just because of petty jealousy! I'm not the one who made Fluttershy think you were going to literally murder her on her way home every day! And I'm definitively not the one that would whine about her sad pathetic life to the whole school like a little crybaby!"

That was it, that was the threshold, the point of no return. 

Gilda steeled her facial expression into a cold merciless glare, a sign that she was far beyond reasoning, right now she was an eagle ready to pounce on its prey. She turned around, took a few hasty steps over to where the soccer ball was and picked it up. She hesitated only for a second before she she sharply turned back around and threw the ball as hard as she possibly could directly towards Dash's face.

The sharp buzzing of the spider sense blared like a fire alarm in Rainbow's head, and she reacted fast enough to move her face away from the incoming projectile. However...the one standing behind her did not have a spider sense.

As soon as the argument between Rainbow and Gilda began to escalate, Scootaloo had made her way down from the bleachers in order to try putting a stop to it. Being the supporting sister that she was, she couldn't just sit still and do nothing. Unfortunately, she did not expect the ball flying at her before it was far too late. Scootaloo could barely grasp what was even happening when it hit her in the face so hard that it knocked her off her feet and sent her falling to the ground.

Time seemed to slow down for Rainbow as she shouted, "Scootaloo!" and ran over to her little sister's side. Her concerns only worsened when she saw Scootaloo whimper in pain while her nose was bleeding. She was also not the only one to come to the young girl's aid, as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were at her side in seconds, their faces showing much concern over the well-being of their best friend.

Frantically, Rainbow Dash got on her knees next to the downed Scootaloo and rambled, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, please be okay, please be okay, please be okay..."

Scootaloo sputtered out, "AAaaghhh...it hurts...aaahhh..."

With the authority of a military officer, Dash looked at Pinkie and ordered, "Pinkie, get her to the nurse, NOW!"

Too panicked to object to that, Pinkie ran over to the injured girl and picked her up, fast but gentle. By this point, Scootaloo had begun crying, evident by the tears that were pouring from her eyes. Pinkie didn't waste any time before she carried her away towards the school nurse.

Rainbow Dash could have taken her there herself, but she had something else to do first. After all, it would be a cold day in hell before she would allow someone to hurt her little sister and get away with it. 

Gilda however, was in a state of shock. She had no intention of hurting Scootaloo, or anyone other than Rainbow Dash for that manner, and it was only now she realised that her rage had once again erupted out of control. However, she came to that realisation a bit too late for her sake and before she could snap out of her trance, Rainbow had managed to make it over to her and punch her in the jaw with enough force to nearly dislocate it. Gilda had no time to recover from that impact though, as another punch to the other side of her face was not far behind, making her spit blood out of her mouth in the process. The final impact was a kick to her gut that hit with enough force to send her flying two metres back before crashing onto the ground, making her roll on the rough grass a little before she eventually stopped. 

Rainbow was about to follow up her assault, but was stopped when Applejack stepped between the two and sternly declared, "That's enough!"

Dash stared at Applejack with an angry expression while breathing heavily through her nose. Applejack was not budging though, and managed to keep her cool despite her friend's glare. That determination gave Rainbow pause though, and she soon began to realise just how far things had almost gone. 

She saw everyone around her look at her fearfully, almost like it would only be a matter of time until she attacked them too. However, it was not the sight of their frightened eyes that got to her the most, it was the sight of Gilda lying helplessly on the ground, quivering in agony. The once terrifying girl's face was filled with bruises, she had a black eye, severely damaged lips, and blood was leaking out of her mouth and nose. The sight of Gilda in that state made Rainbow Dash afraid...afraid of what she could do. She hadn't considered just how strong she was now, and how easily she could hurt someone. 

"I'm sorry..." Was all Rainbow Dash could say. Though to who exactly, it wasn't clear.
> 2) A lecture in Heroism, Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 2
A lecture in Heroism, Part 3
A Valuable Lesson


Firefly had been through quite a lot in her 38 year old life. 

She had passed military school and the Wonderbolt Academy, flown fighter jets into hostile territories, survived the Yakyakistan war, and most trying of all: managed to raise a daughter...a daughter that happened to be Rainbow Dash. 

Despite Rainbow's brash attitude and enormous ego, Firefly had more respect and love for her than anyone else in the world. Over the years, she had learned to trust her daughter to make her own decisions on what to do in life. If she wanted to be a top class athlete, then Firefly would do what she could to get her into shape, if Rainbow wanted to become a pilot, then her mother would teach her everything she would need to know to become one, and if Rainbow Dash wanted to start dating a girl, then Firefly would gladly welcome that girl with open arms. 

However, there were some things her daughter did that ended up crossing the line, and this was one such occasion.  

When Principal Cadence called and told her of Rainbow's fight with Gilda, Firefly couldn't decide if she was surprised or not about what had happened. She was most certainly disappointed though. While she had expected her daughter to still be at odds with Gilda, and would probably not forgive her anytime soon, Firefly thought she was at least mature enough to not resort to physical violence because of it. 

Truthfully, she didn't even know what to think when she looked at her daughter staring off into nothingness in the chair next to her. A part of her was undeniably angry, no furious, at what Rainbow had done...while another part of her wanted nothing more than to just give her a big hug and tell her that it's all going to be okay.  

Rainbow Dash herself happened to be just as unsure on how to think about this situation as her mother. She knew when she had overstepped her bounds, and she wasn't dumb enough to not see that she had gone way too far when she attacked Gilda.

However...if there was one thing that Rainbow really hated, it would be to be seen as the villain, the bad guy, the one who did wrong, and the one that caused all the pain to those around her. She knew that none of the things that had just happened would have happened if it wasn't for her actions: it was Rainbow Dash who made the other players mad at her by abusing her superpowers, it was Rainbow Dash who provoked Gilda into accidentally hurting Scootaloo, and it was Rainbow Dash who nearly put someone in the hospital by letting her anger get the better of her. Still, she just could not find it in her to admit that she was the one who did anything wrong, she just couldn't.

And as the irritatingly obnoxious noise of the clock on the wall kept ticking, it only made the extremely uncomfortable silence in the Principal's Office feel a lot worse than it already was. Even if she hadn't gotten her spider-sense, Rainbow still found little things like that annoying...especially when it was so unnervingly quiet.

She tried not to notice the glares that the other people in the room were giving her, but it was not easy. While Gilda's threatening and aggressive nature was not nearly as prominent given the black eye, bruised lips and defeated pose, her hatred for Rainbow Dash could still be felt in the look she gave her from the other corner of the room. The old man sitting next to Gilda was no happier about what happened either, and his glare at Rainbow from his one functioning eye was nearly as terrifying...especially considering the fact that he was once a supervillain. 

Not everyone was looking at her though, and strangely enough, that was also a problem. Her own mother's refusal to look her in the eye made it perfectly clear that she was very disappointed in her, and that made Rainbow feel even more uncomfortable. 

The ones that bothered her the least in the room were actually the ones who's judgement would affect her the most. Principal Cadence was clearly trying to be as diplomatic and neutral about the situation as possible, while the police officer standing next to her (who happened to be Cadence's husband), was trying to be the same. 

For Captain Shining Armour, these kind of assignments were usually way below his pay grade, but as a personal favour to his wife, and the fact that the one involved happened to be a close friend of his younger sister Twilight, he decided to handle the situation anyway. 

At first glance, it would be very hard to guess that he and Twilight were related at all, since they looked nothing alike. Twilight was a short and lanky girl who could barely run ten metres before getting winded, while Shining Armour in comparison was tall, had an excellent build and could run down and tackle any would-be-burglar to the ground with little effort. Strangely enough, Shining didn't even have Twilight's dark skin colour, though that was mostly because of their parents having different skin tones. The one thing they did have in common in terms of appearances were the fact that both of them had dark blue hair with colourful streaks in it...yet in slightly different tones.

Unlike pretty much everyone else in the room, Shining Armour's stink eye was not on Rainbow Dash...or even Gilda, but instead on the man Gilda was sitting next to: Gruff Tomb, AKA the Vulture, AKA Canterlot's very first supervillain. While it was true that he had gone through years of rehabilitation and was released on good behaviour, Shining, being a cop, could easily tell that it wouldn't take much for old Gruff to relapse into becoming the Vulture again. Honestly, the only reason why he was even allowed on school grounds was because he was the only one of Gilda's next of kin who could come. Cadence couldn't reach Gilda's mother no matter how hard she tried, and Gilda's father outright refused to have anything to do with his own daughter anymore, so...they had to settle for her ageing, and possibly still evil, grandpa instead. 

Even out of his costume, Gruff was not really someone you would like to be around. His thick eyebrows were constantly cross, almost as if he had few expressions other than anger, and the scar running down his pale and glassy left eye made him just a bit more scary. However, it was also clear that he was not in his prime: he was mostly bald, he limped a little when he walked and he could spontaneously burst into coughing fits on a dime. Also, as the years went by, he got more and more scatterbrained, and tended to forget things every now and then. 

About the only person in the room who wasn't glaring at someone else (or deliberately avoiding eye-contact in a dismissing way) was the principal herself. It would only take one glance at Principal Cadence to know that she was not really used to her job just yet. After all, until just a few weeks ago, she was just an ordinary teacher at the school, teaching students social studies, philosophy and a few other things...including sex ed. However, when the previous principal Spoiled Rich was fired due to several confirmed reports of verbal child abuse and encouraged bullying, particularly concerning her own daughter Diamond Tiara, Cadence was forced to take over. And all things considered, she had so far been a lot better at making sure her students were treated fairly...even though she was not nearly as good as her predecessor when it came to dealing with finances.

For a principal though, Cadence was fairly young, being only in her early thirties, and few people would deny that she was a beautiful woman. She was a bit taller than most women (but not nearly as tall as Celestia), had very long hair that was toned in several different nuances of pink, yellow and purple, and her clothing made it very clear that her favourite colour was pink, though she preferred the slightly more darker version of the colour.        

After the increasingly uncomfortable silence in her office was beginning to go on for way too long, Cadence eventually decided that it was her duty to end it. 

"So...could someone please tell me what happened at the soccer field earlier today?"  

Neither Rainbow Dash nor Gilda said anything. Rainbow just stared blankly into a wall with a distant look in her eyes while Gilda simply snorted and looked away.

Trying to sound as sympathetic as possible, Cadence added, "If you tell me now, things will be a lot easier for you, I promise."

They were still not responding. 

"Look..." Cadence began with sigh, "...I am not here to put blame on either of you. I just need to know what caused this. I cannot help you if you won't talk to me."

Still...no response. 

That was when Shining stepped up and said, "If you don't want to talk about this here you will have to talk about it at the police station. Your choice."  

While Rainbow was still unresponsive, Gilda rolled her eyes and finally uttered, "Fine, let's just get this lame thing over with."

That answer made the others, including Rainbow Dash, look at her curiously. And after releasing a sigh, she explained her side of what happened. 

"Me and Dash had a...messy breakup...to say the least. The details are none of your business, but we had a fight both before and after the game, and I got a bit...mad at her, and may have thrown a ball at her that accidentally hit that Scootaloo kid in the face. Next thing I know I'm bleeding on the ground while feeling like I was hit by a car."

"So you're saying that what happened to Scootaloo was an accident?" Shining asked.

Gilda nodded.

The blue-haired police officer then looked at Rainbow, "Do you agree about that?"

"Yes, she did not try to hurt Scootaloo..." Rainbow answered in a quiet voice...before accusingly adding, "Instead, she was trying to throw that thing at ME!"

With another roll of her eyes, Gilda stated, "Puh-lease, you could have taken it easily." 

"Hey, getting hit with a soccer ball in the face is really painful!" Dash insisted.

Gilda gave her another angry look, "So is getting manhandled by your ex!"

Gruff, who had been silent until now, spoke up in a strained and raspy voice, "You're lucky she wasn't seriously injured by what you...(cough, cough)...did to her, Rainbow...Smash? Flash? or was it Crash?" 

"It's Dash." Rainbow corrected.  

"Whatever! The point is that Gilda is my favourite granddaughter...only granddaughter I have actually, but that's beside the point! And if you or anyone else do anything to hurt her, the Vulture will be ready for you!"

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that, making it perfectly clear how terrified she was...which was to say 'not at all'.

Cadence had another reaction to that statement however. "Gruff, I do not appreciate death threats to be made at these meetings. So can we all just try to keep this civilised...please?"

Shining Armour leaned in towards his wife's ear and whispered, "Is this a good time to remind him that I'm carrying a loaded weapon?"

The principal whispered back, "I think that will only provoke him, so...better not."

Gruff's bad hearing made it impossible for him to make out what they were saying, but he figured it wasn't anything nice, so he grumbled to himself and tried to avoid eye-contact with them (which was a bit easier to do when you only had one eye that worked). 

Shining Armour then looked at Rainbow Dash, "So...what's your side of the story, Dash?"

The teenager ran her hands through her prismatic hair and let out a deep sigh, "Well...I guess its mostly the same as Gilda's version: We did have a messy breakup, and she was angry with me for dumping her."

"To say the least." Gilda interrupted.

"And we ended up fighting a bit. After a while, I was getting more and more riled up, and...and when she threw that ball at me and hit Scootaloo, I stopped thinking, I just reacted. I was just so...angry, I didn't think about the consequences at all, and I took it out on her. After I saw how hurt she was though, I...well, you know the rest."

Silence filled the room again, as everyone was processing everything that had been said so far. Shining Armour wrote down a few notes on his standard police issue notepad while Cadence kept a hand on her chin and her eyes looked away absentmindedly. It was clear that they were both thinking really hard about what to do about this situation.

Eventually though, the pair of them made eye-contact and seemed to make some kind of silent agreement between each other. Cadence though, was the first to say anything out loud.

"Now, the good news is that nobody is being sent to jail or being expelled, but...I'm afraid that I cannot just let this go. There will be consequences for this."

Gilda and Rainbow Dash didn't really like the sound of that, but they both stayed silent and waited for their inevitable punishment. What that punishment was though...while expected, wasn't something that was easy for Dash to take.

"First of all: you are both off your respective soccer teams."

Upon hearing that, Rainbow exclaimed, "What?! But...I started it! You can't just kick me out of my own team!"

Cadence gave Dash a sympathetic look, "I am sorry about this, Rainbow Dash, but I'm afraid my hands are tied."

"What happened here was not acceptable," Shining added, "and would under most circumstances be taken to court. The two of you can consider yourself lucky that the punishment isn't worse than it is."

Rainbow wanted to say something else, to argue that it wasn't fair, that she couldn't just leave her soccer team, that she practically considered them family and losing them would be kinda the worst thing ever, but...she then came to realise that...she was wrong. Considering what she'd done at the soccer field earlier today, she probably deserved it. 

So, instead of arguing any further, she bit her tongue and looked down on the floor dejectedly. Just because she could come somewhat to terms with understanding the decision, that didn't mean she would have to like it.

Gilda's reaction on the other hand...wasn't nearly that extreme. If she was bothered by the news at all, she didn't show it much.

However, Shining Armour had two more rules that needed to be enforced. "Also, until further notice, you two are not allowed to participate in any joined activity unless you manage to get over your differences. The school's counsellor will decide when that is. Lastly, as per the law, you will both be subjected to at least a month of community service."

Rainbow Dash did not like the sound of that. Community service, being sent to the school counsellor regularly, and what amounted to a restraining order for her ex-girlfriend, all on top of being kicked off the soccer team? This was definitively not her lucky day. Yet, she supposed, it was better than being sent to jail...like Rarity had been. Well, if that happened, she would have at least one friend in there with her.

While she didn't even pretend to be okay with any of this, Rainbow chose not to protest out loud this time either, and grumbled curses under her breath instead. Only Firefly was close enough to her to hear what those curses were, and normally, she wouldn't have let her daughter get away with such language, but this time, such things were the least of her worries.

Gilda had heard enough, and frankly, she couldn't stand being in this room anymore. It had way too many judgemental eyes, disapproving tones and one too many Rainbow Dashes for her liking. She didn't even bother waiting for someone saying she could go before she stood up and said, "Come on, Gramps, we're leaving!"

Gruff looked at his granddaughter with a raised eyebrow but didn't move from his perch. 

Shining began to say, "You can't just-"  

But was cut off when Gilda repeated, "We're. Leaving!" punctuating both words to get her point across. 

The cop kept his eyes on her for a moment, meeting her glare with his own. The similarities her attitude had to several people he had put away were striking, and it made him uneasy. However, he was forced to let her go when Cadence put a hand on his arm to get his attention before giving a trusting nod. 

A bit reluctantly, Shining Armour looked back at Gilda and conceded, "You're free to go."

Gilda nudged her grandpa on the shoulder to get him moving, which he did...eventually. He just needed to glare at everybody in the room one more time for no apparent reason first.

The need to glare at people before leaving appeared to be genetic though, as before she and her grandfather left, Gilda looked at Dash and quietly warned "Don't even think this is over."

Only after she had left the room did Rainbow mutter, "I'm not."





Since this whole meeting took place after school hours were over, the halls of Canterlot High were mostly empty. It could be received as being either very relaxing without the usual noisy chaos around...or it could just be incredibly awkward...or even feel like a spooky ghost town...or possibly all three at once.

While they weren't allowed inside the principal's office during the duration of the meeting, there was nothing to stop a concerned group of girls from waiting just outside it. 

The group consisted of some of Rainbow's closest friends, including Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and even Scootaloo. While the early teen did have a bandage over her nose, she was otherwise in good shape...aside from the amputated leg of course. Her mood on the other hand...was a different story.

None of the girls could come up with anything useful to say, which only served to make the atmosphere a bit more awkward than it had to be. Their sullen expressions certainly didn't help either. Heck, even Pinkie Pie was more glum than normal, as was noticeable by the fact that her hair was a bit less poofy than it usually was.

Eventually, Fluttershy of all people tried to break the silence, "So...what are we supposed to-"

However, before she got to continue that sentence, Gilda stormed out of the door with her grandfather following suit. While Fluttershy and the others looked at her curiously, she ignored them as best she could and just kept on walking. 

When she was far enough away that the only one around was Gruff and herself, she took out her inner rage on the first object she could see...which happened to be a poor defenceless trashcan. With no signs of mercy, she kicked it again, and again, and again, so much so that it was buckled and broken with all of its contents spilled out on the floor by the time she was done with it.

While she assaulted the inanimate object, she screamed, "AAAAARGGHHH! STUPID, STUPID, DASH AND HER STUPID, LAME, AAAAAARGGGHHHHH! What the hell is so freaking wrong with her!? Why does she have to be such an evil bitch to me!? I HATE HER! Next chance I get, I'LL TEAR HER APART!"

After she was finished with her rather loud rant, she just stood on the spot while letting out a couple of slow angry breaths. Gilda had never been good at managing her own rage, and that was mostly because she had way too much of it in her. The fact that she still had feelings for Rainbow Dash made her even more angry at her. There were few words she hadn't already spoken (or rather, shouted) about how betrayed she was feeling at this moment, and how much it felt like Dash had ripped Gilda's heart right out of her chest.  

Her anger turned to curiosity though when Gruff suggested, "That...might actually be possible."

Cautious about what he was on about, Gilda slowly turned around to face him, "Uh, what are you talking about?"

Gruff's facial expression turned into a slightly mischievous smile, "Hehehe...you know back in my days we didn't just let someone get away with hurting us so much, oh no. Instead...we hit them back even harder!"

That suggestion only made her groan, "Yeah right, because that worked out so well for me when I tried it. How did you tell, by the bruises or the black eye?"

Gruff looked positively insulted by that remark and stubbornly declared, "Did I teach you to talk that way to your elders!?"

"Whatever," Gilda muttered while crossing her arms.

"Don't 'whatever' me, because I have something important I need to say...(cough, cough)." After clearing his throat a little, he revealed, "I know of a way for you to become even stronger than you are now. Strong enough to teach your...urggh...ex-girlfriend some manners, teach her what happens when you tick off a member of our great family!"

Gilda was starting to grow suspicious about where this was heading, and narrowed her eyes while asking, "What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying, dear child, is that my nest wasn't reserved for just me. The 'Wings of the Vulture' has been in need for a new bearer for years now, and I think that you might just be the one...(cough, cough)...to, eh, to bear them once more."

"Are you insane!?" Gilda asked incredulously, "Wait, stupid question, of course you are. After all, what sane person would ever dress up like a giant vulture and rob a bunch of banks even though you had all the money you could possibly need! Why the hell would you ever think I would humiliate myself by putting on such a stupid costume anyway? I got better things to do with my life than to throw away what little I got left of it on some old buzzard's delusions!"

"How dare you speak with that tone at me after all I did for you?! I was the one who gave you a roof over your head when your father kicked you out of your own home, and without my money you would have been living on the streets, you ungrateful whelp!"

"Yeah, and who was it that raised dad to be a homophobic asshole in the first place? And could that be the same guy who put the rest of our family's reputation in ruins by becoming some crazy supervillain?!"

Gruff grumbled a little under his breath, but then offered, "No matter. I offered you a way to get back at your ex, and you can take it or leave it if you wish. All I'm saying is that if you want a way to get back at those you're angry with...go to my old tower and set the clock: three, six, eight, in that order, and you'll find exactly what you're looking for."

Gilda quickly ran his insane idea and what good it could possibly give her through her head, and then decided, "No. I'm not going to become your little sidekick or continue your lame supervillain legacy, and I don't need your help either, I don't need ANYONE!"

In an angry huff, she turned away from him and stormed away, not even bothering to look back or listen to what else he had to say. 

However, she did make sure to memorise that code...





Back inside the Principal's Office, Rainbow Dash and Cadence were still discussing the consequences of the situation. With Gilda out of the room, it was actually a lot easier for Rainbow to say anything out loud. She was still not much happier than before though.

"So how long will it be before I can get back on the team?" Dash asked.

The principal paused a little to consider that before replying, "Well, I am not entirely sure. That depends."

"On what exactly?"

"Mostly it has to do with what Zecora, the school counsellor, thinks, but also...well, what your team decides." Seeing Rainbow's perplexed look, she elaborated, "After the way you acted during the game, I have received a lot of requests that you'd be dropped off the team. Some even believe that you were using some kind of substance to...um...'improve' your performance."

"Which is illegal in most cases by the way." Shining Armour added.

"But I didn't take anything!" Rainbow defended, "I have played many games in my life, and some of them I've lost, sure, but I have never in my life resorted to cheating, not once! You've got to believe me!"

"While I want to believe you-"

For the first time during the entire meeting, Firefly spoke up. "She's telling the truth, and I'm not saying that because she's my daughter, I'm saying it because I know her better than anyone else. While she may have had problems with both trespassing and shoplifting in the past, using cheap methods just to win a game goes against everything I know about her. So unless you have any proof that she did such a thing, I will not let you or anyone else continue with these accusations. Are we clear?"

Firefly's voice held no deceit or doubt, making it clear that she meant every word she said. Having spent years in the air-force, and even had a stint as a fully fledged Wonderbolt pilot, Firefly was not someone to take lightly. And when she told you to do something, you would most likely do it.  

Even Shining Armour was a bit intimidated by her, and the tone in his voice betrayed a tiny bit of nervousness. "Okay...um, then I guess that's settled. But about what happened with Gilda-"

"I will have a talk with her about that later. She does not need to hear it from a police officer or the school's principal. No offence."

Cadence and Shining thought about that and once again made eye-contact to communicate something to each other silently. After reaching some kind of agreement, Shining looked back at Firefly and said, "Well...then I suppose my work here is done." 

He tipped his police cap, said, "Good day to you." and walked out the door, leaving only Cadence, Rainbow Dash and Firefly left in the room.





Outside the office, the four girls gathered there peaked up after hearing the door opening, but were then disappointed to see that it was only Shining Armour. They had been waiting for Rainbow to come out of there for close to an hour now and were starting to lose their patience.

However, when Shining Armour saw the group, his attention focused on one of the girls in particular.

"Applejack, glad that you're here. I need to tell you something, but...it's a bit...sensitive."

The country girl raised an eyebrow, "What do ya mean 'sensitive'?"

"The kind that I can only talk about in private. It's about the farm." His tone was serious, so she knew this was important.

While still being a bit apprehensive about what this was all about, she walked up to him and said, "Well...I guess that would be a heck of a good thing to know. Lead the way, officer." 

With a nod, the policeman began to lead her away from the others in search of a place he could be sure neither one of them would be overheard. The way he went about it though showed that it wasn't just for convenience, it was way more serious than that.

After a short search, Shining found a currently unused classroom and did a quick check to see if it was indeed empty. When he was sure that it was, he motioned for Applejack to come inside and closed the door behind her.

Applejack sat down on one of the benches in the room and noted, "Alright then, we're alone. Now what was this here important thing you wanted to tell me about?" 

The policeman paced back and forth a bit before he asked, "You remember when you told me about your family's problems with Rex Storm?"

The mention of that issue peeked Applejack's curiosity, and she had a feeling that she was finally about to get some well-deserved answers. "Yeah...I remember."

"Well, I started an investigation to find out the identity of his anonymous business partner, you know the one who has been sending him all that money to run your family out of business? The thing is, after a bit of scouting and searching I eventually got a name, and that's...where things get a bit complicated." 

Applejack crossed her arms, "'Complicated' how?"

"The name was...'Kingpin'." 

The way he said that name alone made it clear that this was no laughing matter. However, it was not a name Applejack was familiar with.

"And who in tarnation is that?"

"Right, you probably wouldn't have heard of him, but...he's seriously bad news. If there is one person in this city you do not want to piss off, it's him. From what we can tell, he practically owns all organised crime in Canterlot, and has done so for almost twenty years now. We believe he came to power about the same time Captain Jupiter disappeared. After she exposed Tirek 'Silvermane' Manfredi as the leader of the Maggia and had him arrested, it created a power vacuum in the criminal underworld...which the Kingpin decided to fill. He has ruled over the criminal underworld unopposed ever since."

"No offence, but isn't it your job to put people like that behind bars? I mean, shouldn't someone have tried to do somethin' about him durin' all that time?"

"It's not that easy!" Shining insisted. "Believe me, I want nothing more than to see that scumbag locked away for the rest of his life...but I can't."

"Why the heck not?!" Applejack angrily questioned. 

"I tried! I tried to track him down once. I was getting close, closer than anyone else to finding the evidence I needed, but then...he found out I was after him."

"And I take it he didn't appreciate that?"

"No...he didn't," Shining answered with a sigh. "Just as I was about to meet up with an informant who had the last piece of evidence I needed, a woman came to my office and introduced herself as a representative of some kind of law firm. However, I recognised her immediately as Abacus Cinch, the Kingpin's right hand woman. She told me that if I didn't shut down my investigation at once, there would be consequences. I was not intimidated though, and made sure to let her know that. Then...she took out her laptop and showed me a live camera feed of Cadence, in our home, feeding our daughter Flurry with a baby bottle, and said that this would be the last time I saw either of them if I didn't cooperate." In a defeated voice, he finished, "I shut down my investigation that very evening, claiming it was a dead end."

"Oh..." Applejack said understandingly. "...that sounds mighty awful. If my family was threatened like that I would do the same."

"Doesn't make me feel any better about it though. I really want to help you with this, but if he's involved, there's really nothing I can do, not without putting my family at risk. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologise, Shining, I understand plenty of what you're goin' though," she said politely, though under her breath, she swore, "Horseapples."

The situation had just become a lot more complicated...   





Meanwhile, the meeting in the principal's office was about to draw to a close. Though they had covered most of the things they needed to talk about, Rainbow Dash was still trying to argue about her punishment.

"But my team were counting on me to help them win, how are they supposed to make it now?"

"I suppose we will have to hope that they will manage." Cadence offered.

"And what am I supposed to do?! Playing soccer is about the only thing I like about this school!"

"I'm sorry that you feel that way, but that is the punishment. It's not all bad though. Now you can focus more on your other assignments instead."

"How wonderful..." Rainbow sarcastically muttered.

"Yes, I know that doesn't sound very fun. But from what I've heard, you seemed to have a lot of skills with a camera, and it is not too late to sign up for the new photography class before it starts."

"Taking pictures is just a hobby, being an athlete is who I am, and you can't just take that away!"

"You do know that you're just out of the soccer team, right? You still have PE classes like everyone else."

Dash was about to reply to that, but then realised that the principal had a point. "Oh...yeah, I guess that's true."

Cadence sighed, "Look, I really don't like taking away something you love to do, but the rules are what they are. You will just have to accept that."

"Fine..." Rainbow finally conceded through gritted teeth.

Growing just a bit impatient, Firefly asked, "Is there anything else that needs to be discussed here, or can I take my daughter home now?"

Cadence tapped her fingers on her desk a few times, and made eye-contact with both mother and daughter before she gave an affirmative nod, "Yes, for now at least. I will come to you with information about the school counsellor and your required community service later. For now, why don't you head home and get some rest? I'm sure it could do you some good."

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that..." Rainbow Dash agreed, until she spitefully finished that sentence with, "...anything to get out of this stupid meeting!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Her mother scolded.

Dash ignored her and just got up and left the office without another word, her body language showing very clear signs of anger...and the desire to get as far away from here as possible as fast as possible. 

As soon as she was out of the room, Firefly let out a long sigh and then looked at Cadence, "Teenagers. In a few years you'll deal with them too..."

"I already am." the principal answered, "As you can see, I'm apparently in charge of a whole school of them."

"Trust me, its a lot different when they're your own."





After the three girls outside the office had waited patiently for Rainbow Dash to come out of the meeting for over an hour, and were a bit disappointed when apparently everyone else got out before her, they were relieved when Rainbow finally came out through the door. 

However, whatever they were about to say fell flat when they saw just how grumpy Rainbow appeared to be at the moment. 

While Pinkie Pie was an expert at cheering people up when they were sad, she didn't really know what to do with someone who was angry, which she could tell Rainbow was. Scootaloo always liked to cheer for her honorary big sister whenever she could, but she was far more used to Dash comforting Scootaloo than the other way around. Lastly, Fluttershy was...well...Fluttershy. So all three of them were pretty much stumped on how to even begin this conversation.

Rainbow Dash saw their cautious, but inquisitive, looks directed at her, and decided to spare them the indignity of asking by answering for them. 

"I'm kicked off the soccer team, has to go meet the school counsellor from now on, and am currently stuck with a ton of community service. So yeah...it didn't go well."

"That's a bit of a bummer." Pinkie Pie commented.

"Gee, ya think?"

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Fluttershy tried, "I suppose it could be worse...somehow."

"Yeah..." Scootaloo agreed, "...at least I'm okay...mostly."

With a slightly concerned look, Rainbow asked, "How's the nose?"

Scootaloo rubbed her bandaged nose a bit, "It still hurts, but it'll pass. This is nothing compared to what it was like when...you know..." she looked down at her artificial leg, "...this happened."

A glimpse of Dash's sensitive side was shown when she said, "I still don't like seeing you get hurt, Scoots. Especially not because of Gilda."

"But...was it really necessary to...you know, attack her?" Fluttershy questioned apprehensively.

Even if it was Fluttershy asking, Rainbow had just about enough of people criticising her for her mistakes, "Come on, Fluttershy, don't tell me you think I was just going to let her get away with what she said to you!"

"It just seems so...violent. I would never do such a thing, not even to Gilda."

However, even with how frustrated she was feeling, Rainbow could still not bring herself to stay mad at Fluttershy. So she softened her tone just a bit, "Look, I didn't mean to hurt her...that much. I just wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine." 

"Uh, you didn't give her medicine, Dashie," Pinkie helpfully informed, "you punched her in the face."

Rainbow facepalmed, "Pinkie, that was just an expression."

Pinkie almost looked insulted by that remark, "Well duh, of course I know that. I'm just bringing up that it wasn't all that bad."

"And how did you figure that?!" Dash asked with her anger instantly restored.

"Because giving her medicine would be even worse! Seriously, am I the only one who realises how dangerous taking the wrong medicine is!? Those pills the doctor gave me and my sisters when we were younger still gives me nightmares...when I'm not having nightmares about cupcake ingredients, the teacher's garden or a colourful factory. Don't ask. But mostly I just have happy dreams where we're all colourful talking ponies living in a magical land."  

"Yeah, because I'm so in the mood to hear about your weird dreams, Pinkie!"  Rainbow said with a groan, her voice filled with sarcasm.

"I was just trying to cheer you up with some-"

Rainbow got up right in Pinkie's face and shouted, "Well if it wasn't obvious before, I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THIS!"

Pinkie shrunk down from Dash's shouting and uttered a very meek version of her catchphrase, "Okay dokey lokey." in response.

"Rainbow Dash!" a stern voice demanded from behind her. After turning her attention away from her friends she was met with the tranquil fury in her mother's eyes. She was looking at Dash with a narrowed brow and her arms crossed. "A word."

Firefly really didn't need to say anything else to convey her intention. The intensity in her voice was enough to make Rainbow Dash, someone who rarely listened to anyone and preferred to loudly voice her own opinion, to instantly fall silent and follow her mom out to the corridor away from the others. 

Before leaving, Rainbow looked at her friends and said, "I'll see you guys...later."

Just after she left, Fluttershy asked, "Um...weren't we supposed to cheer her up?"

Scootaloo answered, "I tried to."

"Me too!" Pinkie added, "But I guess she's too much of a grumpy-pants to be cheered up right now." 



 

For a few minutes, Rainbow followed her mother to her car in an uncomfortable silence. She could tell that Firefly had something to say, but Dash's fear of what that might be made her a bit hesitant about bringing it up. 

Instead, Rainbow tried to occupy her mind on other things...like...say that one badly beaten trashcan she spotted on the way or the distant echoing voices of Applejack discussing something with what appeared to be Shining Armour. 

Still, no matter how hard she tried, all that she could think about was what happened at the soccer field earlier.

She wondered just how much her spider powers were responsible for what happened, and how much was just her own fault...or Gilda's. Would the fight have still happened? Most likely. Would it have ended up the way it did? Probably not. If Rainbow didn't just happen to get bitten by that spider it might as well have been herself who was beaten and bruised, not Gilda. 

By the time Firefly and her daughter were seated in her car, she decided now would as good a time as any to talk about what happened. She didn't put on her seat belt or even insert the key into the ignition. Instead she just sat there for a moment and tried her best to figure out what to say. 

Eventually, she turned to where her daughter was sitting in the passenger seat and said, "Rainbow...we should probably talk about this."

Rainbow Dash didn't answer, and just stared at the school through the window silently.

"Rainbow?"

She didn't answer.

"Rainbow Dash, talk to me!"

"What is there to talk about?" Dash questioned in a slightly depressed voice while still looking out the window, "What's done is done."  

"While that may be true, that doesn't mean we're supposed to forget it ever happened. Like it or not, what happened today was not something you can just sweep under the rug, not by a long shot. You need to understand that, and more importantly, take responsibility for your actions."

Rainbow Dash looked her mother in the eye, "Maybe I did take it too far, but after all she'd done, she deserved at least something. You can't just expect me to just let her get away with giving Fluttershy death threats and hurting Scootaloo, do you?"

"I get it. I get that you're angry with Gilda. When I was your age I went through exactly the same thing."

"Well, not exactly." Rainbow cryptically pointed out.

Firefly misinterpreted what she meant by that and said, "Okay, I had never dated the guy I was angry with, but he hurt me just as much as Gilda did to you, and I too tried to get back at him. The point is, I made a lot of mistakes back then, and I'm not proud of a single one of them. Sure, I had my reasons, but those reasons were not enough to excuse my actions. It wasn't until after I joined the military that I learned that just because things are understandable, it doesn't mean that they're acceptable."

"So what was I supposed to do, politely tell her that she should be nicer?"

"I don't know. Maybe. But tell me: what good do you think beating the living tar out of her will do in the end?"

Rainbow had fair bit of venom in her voice when she answered, "Maybe it will teach her a lesson about what happens when she messes with my friends."

"So you want to scare her so much she wouldn't dare to do anything against you? Is that what you're saying?!" Firefly asked, clearly appalled by what Rainbow just said. 

"Well, what if I am? That's what she was trying to do to Fluttershy!"

"And that's the problem! You spend most of the time after your breakup complaining about how horrible of a person she was, and now you're starting to become just like her."

"What?!"

"Beating people down to get them to do what you want is a bully's way of dealing with things, and I know you're better than that, Dashie! When I was in the airforce, I saw good people, even friends, get gunned down by our enemies, and for a time I wanted nothing more than to return the favour. But...when I finally had the power to do that, I refused, and instead forced the enemy into a surrender, even though there was no tactical reason for doing so. Why? Because I knew that they didn't deserve it. And if they did, it was not for me to decide. For with great power, there must always be an even greater responsibility to go with it. Always remember that."   

Rainbow Dash thought about those words for a moment. There was no doubt that they held a certain amount of wisdom, and they seemed strangely fitting considering her situation. It was true that she had been given great power, and judging by what happened at the soccer field, she had not been acting very responsibly. Maybe her mother did have the right idea...but damn if Rainbow was gonna let Firefly win yet another argument against her. Also, mentioning that war brought back a lot of painful memories.

"Yeah, and how responsible were you when you left me and dad all alone to fly away and fight a war on the other side of the planet, huh!?"

Firefly did not expect that to come up again, and was a bit confused over what brought this on. Still, the answer to that question had not changed. "I had a duty to my country to fulfil, and I was not happy about having to leave."

"But what about your duty to your own family?" Rainbow questioned, "Shouldn't we be more important than your stupid job!?"

"Rainbow..." Firefly warned.

But Dash didn't want to hear it, and instead revealed, "I couldn't sleep for months because I thought that you...you...weren't coming home! Do you have any idea how worried I was?! I mean, what kind of mom would leave her twelve-year old daughter alone for six months knowing that she might not come back? Didn't you think that it was your responsibility to be there for her instead?!"

"We've been over this-" She began to say, but was immediately cut off.

"Yes, we have, but you have never apologised for leaving me behind! Never! Not for over four years have you taken responsibility for how you made me feel! Not once! I may have gone too far today, but I did it because I give a damn about the people I care about! I would never leave them hanging! So don't you DARE lecture me on responsibility when you don't even know what that word means!"

By the time Rainbow had finished her rant, her face had turned red of rage, and there were signs of tears building at the base of her eyes, revealing over four years of bottled up resentment.

Firefly just stared at her daughter with wide eyes, her emotions very difficult to decipher. She had an expression on her face that either spoke of someone who's heart had been shattered into a million pieces, or someone who was in complete disbelief...or both. It was clear though that she couldn't come up with anything to say, judging by her intense silence.

Dash couldn't stand looking into that face for long though, and angrily got out of the car and slammed the door in her wake, her superhuman strength making the slam even louder. 

For over a minute, Firefly just...sat there...pondering over Rainbow's and even her own actions. She was surprised to hear that Dash was still angry at her for leaving her behind during the war, and that she was still waiting for the apology that Firefly had been too stubborn to give at the time. A trait that seemed to possibly be genetic.

She knew that her daughter needed time to calm down, so she didn't follow after her. For now though, what she could do...was say, "I'm sorry, Dashie."





Rainbow Dash was definitively not sticking around to hear that though. In fact, she didn't feel like talking to anyone right now. What she knew she needed was somewhere she could be alone and sort out her feelings. Somewhere no one would disturb her, or worse, try to talk even more sense into her already very confused mind. 

She knew running into the streets would probably give her a lot of stares, though not because she stood out that much aside from the rainbow hair, but because she was crying, and that always made people look. She couldn't go inside the school either, for she knew there were still a few more people in there, most of them her friends, and she was not in the mood for their pity. 

However, there was one place she could think of that she was certain no one would be able to follow her to. 

After running out of view from her mom's car, Rainbow used her newfound powers to leap up onto the wall of the school house and climb up on the roof. And when she had found a place up there that seemed to be enough out of sight, she sat down and began to sob in peace.



  

What Rainbow Dash didn't even bother to take notice of though was that just by the field next to the school, Gilda was also looking for a secluded spot to wallow in self-pity. However, when she saw Rainbow run past her and then climb up on a solid wall like an insect in under ten seconds flat, Gilda had only one thing to say.

"What the hell?"
> The Nightmare under the Moon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
The Nightmare under the Moon


While most citizens of Canterlot could feel safe under the security of the vibrant metropolis' artificial light when the night set in...there were some places where that light didn't illuminate. One such place were the docks, where workers had to work tirelessly at ungodly hours with only the glow of their flashlights and the shining surface of the full moon above to help them see what they were even doing.

At the moment, a pair of dockworkers were hauling quite a large number of crates with the 'CelestiaCorp' logo printed on them from an open shipping container onto a truck waiting to take the cargo to CelestiaCorp Tower. Neither of them had the faintest idea of what was in the crates, but frankly, they couldn't care less about that. The two of them had been working all night and were both just waiting for their shift to end so they could finally go home and get some sleep. 

One of the workers, Goldengrape, yawned loudly after picking up yet another one of those endless boxes, and in an extremely tired voice asked, "So...Amethyst, is this the last shipment, because I don't think I...(yawn)...can keep going...any longer?" 

His coworker, Amethyst Star, had a hint of relief in her tone when she answered, "Sure thing, but not before those geeks at CelestiaCorp get their delivery of whatever the heck are in these boxes...which will be done a lot faster if you stop moaning and help me get these things loaded up?"  

Even though she tried to sound authoritative, there were signs in her voice that she was just as tired as he was.

Goldengrape groaned, "Fine...I'll do my job, but when I get home I'm gonna sleep for a month and then try to negotiate for something better than the night shift."

"Aw, quit being such a baby!"

"Yes, mom," he sarcastically answered, making Amethyst roll her eyes.

Still, despite their bickering, they did manage to get the job done in the end. While the boxes were not only heavy, but also numerous, the workers' shear stubbornness was enough for them to pull it off. And with yet another productive day of harsh labour about to draw to a close, the only task left was now to get the delivery over to CelestiaCorp...and that job fell to Autumn Leaf, the driver. 

Only...he seemed to have fallen asleep at the wheel while he was waiting for the workers to load the truck with the crates he was supposed to deliver. Not really a good statement to make for a young truck driver.

When Amethyst noticed that he wasn't moving, she shouted, "Autumn Leaf! You're up!"

He didn't respond.

"Come on, Leaf! Wake up already!" 

When he still didn't show any signs of having heard her, Amethyst groaned and began to make her way over to him.

However, she stopped in her tracks when a gruff-sounding male voice called out, "Stop right there!"

Both Amethyst and Goldengrape immediately began to look for the owner of that voice. Neither one of them recognised it, and the poor lighting of the docks made it hard to see who it was. 

That was when three strange figures, two big burly men and one comparatively smaller guy, emerged from the shadows and made themselves known. However, as they all hid their faces behind masks, it was impossible to make out who they actually were.

The two big guys had big muscular arms and black metal masks covering their faces, making them both look intimidating and imposing....though given the fact that they stood one step behind third smaller person who was with them and had positioned themselves on either side of him made it clear they were just his entourage...his main muscle, so to say.

The leader though, while quite a bit smaller in size than his henchmen, was every bit as intimidating in appearance, given that he was dressed in some kind of padded red and black armour and with a helmet that hid his face behind a darkened one-way glass visor with a slightly purplish tint. And while the other two were armed with a handgun and a crowbar respectfully, he opted instead for some rather unusual weaponry. 

Strapped to both of his wrists was a pair of slightly oval-shaped mechanical gauntlets that seemed to be based on some kind of advanced technology. Needless to say, whatever they were, you wouldn't find them in your average gun store. 

After having made their presence known, the strangely-dressed mercenary looked at the dockworkers and commented, "Well, isn't this convenient? Here you have already packaged our goods and prepared a truck for us. Now stay out of the way and we'll take it from here."

Goldengrape, who was a bit too tired to notice that the new arrivals were clearly armed, tiredly asked, "And why should we do that? For that matter, who are you people?"

"My name or who we work for isn't important. Just call me Shocker. And as for why you should do what we say..." he then aimed one of his gauntlet-thingies at a nearby shipping container and pressed a button, sending out a highly concentrated beam of compressed air that hit it with such force that it tore a hole right through the solid metal of the container. "...well, that will be your head if you don't."

While Autumn Leaf had slept through most of the things that were going on around him, Shocker's sonic blast made about as much noise as a gunshot, and woke him up instantly. It took a little bit longer for him to make sense of what on earth was going on though.

Amethyst and Goldengrape were a bit more up to speed on the situation, and if they weren't awake before, they sure were now. Since neither of them were in the mood of getting shot, beaten, or pulverised by Shocker's blasters, they raised their hands in a surrendering motion and slowly backed away from the trio.

With a small chuckle, Shocker noted, "Good choice. I like your survival instincts." 

He then tapped a finger at his ear, activating some kind of communicator in his helmet, and reported, "Kingpin, this is Shocker. I have the cargo. Tell me where you want it and I'll bring it there right away." 

A voice from the other end responded, "Great! Then take it to the parking lot under Mistmane bridge, switch trucks with the one I got waiting for you there, then take the merchandise back here, and please, do me the itty-bitty favour and get it done BEFORE I LOSE MY PATIENCE!"

After wincing a bit from the loud tone his employer used at the end of his sentence, Shocker straightened himself out and replied with, "Right away, sir."

"Fantastic! Now GET ON WITH IT!"

...and then the line went dead.

Shocker took in a deep breath, then addressed the henchman closest to him, "You, take the wheel!" then he looked at the other, "You, make sure every crate is accounted for! If we lose just one, the mission is a bust and the boss will not be happy."

With only a quick remark of, "Right away, sir," they didn't waste a moment before getting on with their respective tasks. Though they looked tough, the two of them followed Shocker's words mostly out of fear rather than loyalty...even if that fear actually didn't come so much from him, but from the person he worked for.   

The henchman with the gun let out a warning shot into the sky, then aimed it at the truck driver, a message that was very clearly spelled out as 'get the hell out or I'll blow your brains out'...while the other one approached the shipping container to see if the workers had missed something, the two workers in question wisely backing away from him as he walked by them.

Suddenly, Goldengrape felt something bump him on the head and then land on the ground next to him. After wincing a bit from the impact, he looked down to see what it was. From his first glance, it looked to be some kind of orange metal ball. 

Curiously, he picked it up to take a closer look. 

From a closer inspection, he got even more confused, as the strange object appeared to be shaped like a Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin and glowed with a faint green light from within. It looked harmless enough, but he did wonder why anyone would throw it at him...and who threw it in the first place. 

However, looks turned out to be very deceiving.

With no warning given whatsoever, the pumpkin-shaped object exploded right in Goldengrape's face, killing him instantly and sending anyone anywhere near him reeling from the powerful shockwave the explosion caused. 

Amethyst Star took the brunt of it, and soon ended up on the ground screaming in agony. Her eardrums were probably permanently damaged, and she had noticeable minor burns on her back and left arm. 

She was lucky to be alive though. 

While the others were not really close enough to the blast to suffer any major injuries, an explosion, unlike what Hollywood would have you believe, was not something safe to be around. The booming noise alone was enough to make even Shocker's ears ring...and he was wearing a suit specifically designed to protect him from harmful vibrations. 

The only one who had some more protection from the blast than that was Autumn Leaf, who was still sitting in the driver's seat of the truck. However, he was in such a state of shock that he couldn't force his body to do anything other than stare wide-eyed with a slack jaw. 

Then...he heard a beeping...and it was coming from inside the truck.

Autumn Leaf slowly turned his head around to look at the source of the beeping noise, and when he saw that it was another pumpkin-shaped explosive just...sitting there in the passenger seat, he could do nothing but stare at it. 

Then the entire truck, along with Autumn Leaf and the truckload, went up like a bonfire while sending shrapnel everywhere. With the bomb connecting to not only the car's gasoline supply, but also whatever advanced technology were in those boxes, the blast was even bigger than the last one.  

The handgun-wielding mook was sent flying off his feet by the explosion. However, being as tough as he was, he managed to get his bearings together surprisingly quickly and had gotten back up on his feet not long after. 

While they had so far survived the attacks without any major injuries, Shocker and his flunkies were pretty rattled by it and all three of them were frantically looking for whoever it was that had attacked them. So far, they couldn't see anyone.

That was until they heard the demented laugh of a madwoman coming from above...

When the three of them looked up to see where the laughter was coming form, they finally caught a glimpse of their attacker. 

She appeared to be standing on some kind of winged mechanical contraption that glowed blue at certain parts, making it easier to distinguish in the dark of the night. Shocker's best guess would be that it was some kind of advanced attack glider, yet it had either been custom-made or heavily modified judging by the fact that the front of it was shaped like the head of a gargoyle. Speaking of which, whoever was piloting the thing appeared to have a thing for Halloween, judging by the fact that she was wearing what amounted to a Halloween costume. She hid most of her appearance underneath a tattered dark purple robe, but her blue glowing eyes were shining through her intimidating hood. And while it was difficult to see in the darkness, she also appeared to wear some kind of armour underneath her cloak. 

Her voice, while being distinctly female, was exceedingly menacing and showed signs of gleeful sadism, "Hahahahahahah...Isn't it beautiful? The glorious orchestra of explosions, Mhmhmhmhmhhaha!"

Shocker was not amused, and both he and the henchman with the handgun aimed their respective weapons at her. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?! Who're you working for!?"

"Working for? Mhmhmhaha, Why, am I not majestic enough for you? And here I thought breaking the law meant that no one had any power over me."

"We work for the Kingpin, and if you try to get in our way...you're as good as dead!"

"Heheheh, the Kingpin? So dear old Rex finally loses it and gives himself a name like that, who would have guessed? Hahahaha! Well then, allow me to pass on a message to him from me. Please tell him that his rule over this city's low-lives is over, that his little empire will soon amount to nothing, and that when I come for him, what is left of him will fit inside a coffee cup! And best of all, when he's gone...there will be new throne, and I will be the one sitting on it! Mhahahahahahahahahaha-HAHAAAHAHAHA!" 

Shocker had heard enough. It was obvious that whoever this person was, she was clearly insane, and was better off dead than alive. Besides, the lunatic had made her intentions perfectly clear, and taking care of one of his boss' problems could score him some extra cash if he was lucky. 

So, without wasting any time, Shocker fired both of his blasters at the interloper. And, as she was a bit too occupied laughing at her own jokes, she didn't have time to react before the blast hit her right in the face and sent her falling off her glider.

However, not only was her armour built to withstand concussive attacks like that, but the glider also had an auto-pilot system that she had personally modified to suit her own needs. And as soon as the glider detected that she had fallen off it, it had swooped down and positioned itself at just the right place for the woman to land back on it with grace. 

Through the shadow cast by her hood, a wicked smile could be seen as she looked upon her opponents. Then she quickly reached into her cloak and pulled out another pumpkin-shaped metal orb and threw it at them. 

This one was different though, as instead of releasing a fiery explosion, it split open to unleash a couple dozen bat-shaped razor-sharp boomerang-like objects that flew straight towards the mercenaries. 

Shocker deflected the ones headed towards him with a blast from his shock-blasters, and one of his minions managed to leap out of the way before it hit him. The other one though was caught completely off guard and was hit by five of them at once. With one of them hitting him straight in the heart, and another catching him in the throat...he was dead before his body hit the floor.

The assailant didn't relent though and swooped down till she flew barely half-a-metre above the ground while heading straight towards Shocker...and he responded to that by trying to blast her in the face again.

However, this time she was ready for him and used some kind of hidden function of the glider to launch herself three metres up into the air while still propelling herself forward, dodging his attack expertly while leaping above his head. Also, as the glider was still in motion even without its owner on it, it moved fast enough to knock Shocker's feet out from under him. Then the madwoman landed back on it as gracefully as before. 

She was not the only one to land on it though, as the remaining mook managed to leap up and hitch a ride on it as well. By holding onto the hem of her cloak, he kept himself from falling while he moved his other hand, which was holding onto his handgun, to score a close-range head-shot. Only, before he could pull the trigger, she grabbed him by the wrist and immediately moved his hand out of the way, making him fire several rounds into a shipping container in the background instead. 

Before he could break out of her grip, she grabbed the back of his head and pulled his neck back so far that it snapped, ending his life in the process. And with him dead, she carelessly threw his body aside while turning her attention back to Shocker.

The seasoned bounty hunter may have been hit in the legs by a metal vehicle moving about as fast as a car, but he was not letting that stop him from getting back up on his feet. He was a stubborn and persistent person to say the least.

Though seeing Shocker struggle a little to stand up straight, the cloaked woman asked, "Oh, you poor thing, did you hurt your little legs?" in probably the most condescendingly childish tone she could muster.

Shocker glared at her and shouted "Just shut up already!", then took another shot with his right blaster at her.

She was prepared for that one too, and responded by pointed her index finger at the mercenary like a child pretending their hands were pistols. A strange response to be sure...if she hadn't installed plasma blasters into her gloves, letting her shoot a concentrated beam of superheated blue plasma out of the tip of her finger. Her aim and timing was perfect, and she managed to hit Shocker straight in the barrel of his shock-blaster the very moment he fired it, causing a chain reaction that made his own weapon blow up in his face. 

With the full force of his own blaster turned against him, Shocker was slammed into a container behind her so hard that it instantly knocked him unconscious. While any other person probably would have died, the mercenary's protective suit managed to save his life.

"Well, that was almost too easy..." the cloaked woman noted in a slightly bored tone. 

Amethyst Star, the only one beside the attacker herself who was still alive and conscious, was trying desperately to limp away from the chaos despite the overwhelming pain she was feeling throughout her whole body. The event had left her scared out of her wits, and all she wanted was to be out of it as soon as was humanly possible.

She had no such luck though, as she was soon yanked off the ground by a powerful hand that grabbed her by the back of her neck. And she soon found herself staring right into the attacker's nightmare-inducing face. 

She had big blue eyes with pupils that were slit like a snake's and accentuated by surprisingly feminine violet eyelashes. Underneath her purple cloak it was now apparent that she was wearing lavender armour, which included a helmet that had a slightly regal theme to it. Her skin, or what looked like her skin, was unnaturally pitch black, and her chin and nose were especially pronounced. Also, her long pointed ears seemed more like something a wild animal would have. The most disturbing part of her appearance though was the extremely unnerving Cheshire grin she had that showed a lot of sharp teeth and pronounced fangs. 

Either she was not entirely human...or she was wearing a very advanced and expressive mask. The latter probably being a bit more likely. 

And seeing those devilish eyes stare right into her soul, Amethyst let tears form in her eyes while she was too frozen to move a muscle.

Then, the mysterious woman asked, "Little child, would you please do me one little favour?"

The hapless dockworker was too terrified to respond, which the attacker took as a 'yes'.

"Give me a name."

The dockworker managed to croak out, "Um...Ama...Amathyst...Star..."

"No, not your name, my name."

"B-Bu-But...I...I d-don't kn-know i-it..."

"Well of course you don't, not even I know that."

"Y-You...d-d-don't?"

"I know the name of the woman hiding under this mask, I know the human who bares it during the sunny days I sleep through. But she is not me, for when the moon rises and the darkness comes out, I wear this mask and turn into a demon of the night. A demon with no name, and who, pray tell, gives names to demons?"

"I...I don't-"

"Those who fear them, such as yourself, of course. Now tell me, what do you fear? What are your nightmares filled with? And what word does my mask speak into your dreams? Tell me."

"Uh..."

"Tell me!"

"I cannot-"

"TELL ME!!!"

Amethyst finally blurted out, "G-Goblins...I fear goblins, and you look...like a goblin!"

The masked woman's smile grew even wider, "Mhmhmhm-hehehehehehahahahaahaha-HAHA! Goblins!? Yes, I like that. Then that shall be the name of the demon. From this moment forth, I am the Goblin of the night, the...Nightmare Goblin! Mhmhmhm-heheheheh-ahhahahahahhaha-HAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAA!!!"


> Orange is the new Rarity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
Orange is the new Rarity


A few years ago, just after a new school year had begun at Canterlot High, six freshmen girls came together and formed a friendship that was meant to last throughout their whole tenure at the school. 

Rainbow Dash was a proud member of that group of friends, and was even the one who started the group in the first place. Well, to be precise, it was actually Pinkie Pie who started it...with Rainbow's help of course. And they did it mostly on Fluttershy's behalf. So, technically, all three of them were responsible...or one could just see it as all six of them coming together. 

Either way, it all started when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy enrolled at the school. 

The two of them had known each other for longer than any of their other friends, and had thus formed a very close bond that had withstood the test of time. And even when they were both suddenly thrust upon the madness of High School for the first time, they did everything they could to not drift away.

However, that was proving to be easier said than done. For while Rainbow could easily impress almost anyone, especially other athletes like Gilda and Lightning Dust, Fluttershy had no such luck. Her shy nature and lack of proper social skills, especially when dealing with strangers, made it very difficult for her to make any new friends at all.

All Fluttershy had was Rainbow Dash, and at the time, Dash spent far more time hanging out with Lightning Dust or making out with Gilda than to be there for her timid and socially awkward best friend. Because of that, Fluttershy was starting to get lonely...especially when she was at school.   

That was until she met Pinkie Pie, the sugar-obsessed party girl who always kept a smile on her face. For according to Pinkie: being lonely and sad was not acceptable, and something that should immediately be replaced with a cheerful smile. So when she picked up on how sad Fluttershy was being, she not only offered her own hand in friendship, but also promised to introduce her to people who she thought would make good friends for her.

While Fluttershy was a bit intimidated by the hyperactive girl who suddenly took an interest in her, she eventually agreed to Pinkie's proposal after getting some encouragement from Rainbow Dash. And with Pinkie's help, Rainbow and Fluttershy went on a mission to find friends who all three of them could bond with.

The first one they found was Twilight Sparkle, who, at the time, was basically a recluse, only caring about her studies while keeping her eyes glued to any interesting book she could find. She had no interest in making friends and generally considered it a waste of time. While that attitude gave her pretty good grades, which she was content with having, it was not something that Pinkie Pie considered acceptable. She didn't want Twilight to be content, she wanted her to be happy. 

While it wasn't easy, Pinkie eventually managed to convince Twilight to leave the library and hang out a bit with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. 

It started out rather awkwardly, especially after Twilight made it perfectly clear that the only reason she was quote on quote 'wasting her time talking to them', was to get Pinkie Pie to leave her alone. Though...after a while, she managed to find some common ground with Fluttershy given that they both found zoology an interesting subject to discuss. However, the differences between herself and Rainbow Dash made it hard for Twilight to truly bond with her...until they found out that they were both massive fans of the Daring Do books.     

After meeting the three of them a couple of times and got to know them better, she apologised for her initial rude behaviour and decided that having at least a few friends wasn't such a bad idea after all. 

However, as one friendship was gained, another was lost. 

When a race Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust participated in basically went to hell because Dust sabotaged it for the other players, Rainbow became fed up with her friend's reckless behaviour and called her out on it. At first, Lightning tried to play it off as if she hadn't done anything wrong, but when Dash still wouldn't let it go, she somehow managed to spin the whole story around as if Rainbow Dash was the one who sabotaged it.

That was when Applejack came in. As one of the racers who got injured when Lightning cut her off, there was no way she would allow her to get away with it. And when she heard Lightning Dust accuse Rainbow Dash of being the one responsible, Applejack stood up to her and told Dust that what she was saying was nothing but 'a load of bull', and that Dash didn't deserve any of her lies.

Unwilling to admit that she was at fault, Lightning Dust just decided to turn her back on them and leave, firmly cementing the fact that whatever friendship she and Rainbow once had was now gone.

Because of the injury Applejack sustained during the race (a sprained ankle to be precise), Rainbow Dash volunteered to help Applejack on her farm as a favour for publicly defending her. While initially reluctant about letting a girl she barely knew handle her responsibilities, she could tell that Rainbow was sincere about it and eventually accepted her help.   

Being a hardened and dependable tomboy just like Rainbow herself, but at the same time being nothing like the reckless opportunist Lightning Dust was, Rainbow Dash grew to like Applejack quite a lot. And while the two of them could always find something to argue about, especially about Dash's laziness or bloated ego, it didn't take long for them to grow as close to each other as two platonic friends could be.  

Together, these girls formed a nearly unbreakable bond that has lasted to this very day...or at least...mostly. See, there was also another member of this circle of friends, and her name was Rarity.

Rarity came into the group when she met Twilight and Fluttershy at a local spa, and once she learned that the two went to the same school she was, she made sure to get in touch with them afterwards. Unlike the brash and athletic Rainbow Dash and the hardworking Applejack, Rarity was a lady in every sense of the word. She always wore makeup, groomed her hair, and dressed in the most fashionable clothes she could afford...or make, since she also happened to be a fashionista in training.   

However, Rarity kept a little secret...or rather...a very big one.

As it turned out, she had a hobby of sneaking out at night dressed in a black catsuit with a mask over her eyes in order to break into hard-to-get places and steal what she could get her clawed gloves on. With an elegance and precision most thieves lacked, Rarity, or rather Black Cat, as she was called by those who didn't know her, became the 'Robin Hood' of Canterlot, stealing from the rich and powerful before anonymously donating it to the poor and suffering. 

No one knew of course. Not her parents, not her sister, not her friends, no one. And she made sure to never leave evidence behind, or let someone see her face, or most importantly: not get caught. 

However, as brilliant as she was, even she made mistakes, and eventually...her luck ran out.





And now Rainbow Dash was looking at Rarity through a bullet-proof glass wall while the former fashionista was dressed in an unflattering orange jump suit and a pair of metal cuffs kept her from moving her arms as much as she would have liked. Her hair, once made in elegant violet curves was now a dishevelled purple mess, and Dash had to admit that she looked very different without all of her makeup, and especially without the fake eyelashes. 

Rarity was beyond grateful that she was allowed visitation hours. Without them she was sure she would have completely lost her sanity by now. However, she was a bit surprised that Rainbow Dash had decided to see her all of a sudden. Mostly it was her parents or Sweetie Belle, or possibly all of her best friends together, who visited her. Dash rarely came to see her alone.

After raising an inquisitive eyebrow, Rarity picked up the phone on her right while Rainbow did the same with the one on her side, and then they spent a few seconds just...staring at each other.

As someone who prided herself on noticing small details others usually miss, Rarity could tell that something was troubling her tomboyish friend. Her first clue was that there were no signs of Rainbow's usual cocky smile or her chipper mood. Yet, at the same time, she didn't look particularly sad…at least not as much as she seemed angry or possibly frustrated. However, that frustration and anger was not directed at Rarity, but at something else completely. Whatever that could be, she could only guess.

After a short while, Rarity asked, "Darling, are you quite alright? It looks like something's troubling you." As was usual for her, she spoke in a very refined and posh mid-Atlantic accent.

"It's...uh...nothing serious." Rainbow answered, sounding rather tired, "I just had a really annoying day."

"Oh, is it something you would like to talk about, perhaps?"

"Not really."

"Well then...um...whatever was it you wanted to speak to me about? Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I just didn't expect you here today."

"Yeah, about that..." Rainbow looked around a bit to see if anyone was listening in, "I sorta, kinda...need a favour from you."

"A favour?"

"Yep."

"Well, I'm not entirely sure what it is I can do for you in here, but let it never be said that Rarity wouldn't help a friend in need. Now, what did you need from me, darling?"

"Actually...I want a new outfit."

Rarity's eyes lit up while a massive smile appeared on her face, "Ooooooh, really?! You finally want me to design an outfit for you?! I didn't think I'd ever see the day!"

Rarity's excitement earned a chuckle from Dash, "Hehehe, calm down, Rares, it isn't that big a deal."

"But it is!" Rarity insisted, "Normally, I have to practically beg you to wear anything of my design, so to see you come all the way here to get me to make something for you is almost like a dream come true. Now what do you want, a new training outfit, something comfortable, something stylish, or...something a little 'special' for dear Fluttershy?"

Dash's eyes snapped open, "How did you-"

"Pish posh, just because I sometimes need reading glasses doesn't mean I'm blind. Anyone with the slightest understanding of romance would be able to tell that you're completely infatuated with her...and I totally approve! You two would make such a cute couple, I can already see it..." Rarity drifted off while dreamily looking up at the ceiling.

Becoming just a bit uncomfortable, Rainbow asked, "Um, Rarity, can you please not start daydreaming about me doing things with Fluttershy? It kinda freaks me out."

"Mmmm...what?" Rarity answered innocently, before she realised what she was doing and abruptly shook her head, "Oh, so sorry, darling. I believe I was swept up in the moment there...as it were. Now what kind of outfit did you want me to make? Something cute, something dapper, or dare I say...something sexy?"

"Yeah...no. The thing is...I want something that's completely aerodynamic, like skintight, easy to move in, but also looking really cool. I think a combination of red and blue might work for the colour, and its supposed to hide my face."

That had got to be strangest order Rarity had ever received...and that's saying a lot. 

"Do I want to know what you plan to use it for?" Rarity questioned.

"It's for a...contest...in school." Rainbow lied, "Anyway, the point is that it needs a…theme, and I decided to have a...spider...theme."

"Spider-theme?! Why ever would you choose an outfit with such a repulsive creature as its main theme?"

Slightly offended by that remark for some reason she couldn't quite place (maybe it was because she had spider-DNA in her blood), Rainbow argued, "Hey, spiders are awesome! And...I've already decided, so can you make it or not!?"

"You don't have to be quite so rude about it, but...yes, I suppose I could. While your instructions are...a little strange, I do think I can create something absolutely smashing out of them."

"A little strange? You're the one who dresses up in a skintight catsuit that leaves absolutely zero to the imagination...and that cleavage, man...that's hot."

Rarity stuck her nose up in the air, "Would you please keep such perverted thoughts to yourself?! The Black Cat suit is both functional and fashionable, and the excellent outfit for a master thief...even though I will admit it can help me keep people, well, distracted, when I need them to be. Although...perhaps I did go a tad bit overboard with the slightly exposed...uh...front section. I think I might have to change that in the future. Maybe make it a bit more modest?"

"Do you have to? I don't mind really." Rainbow noted in an uncomfortably suggestive tone...while almost looking like she was drooling at whatever mental image she had in her head. 

Rarity rolled her eyes and made sure her mouth was away from the phone when she muttered, "Rainbow, I swear, you're starting to remind me of those hormone-obsessed rowdy lesbian teenagers in the showers..."

"What was that?" Dash asked, not really knowing if she should be offended by whatever it was her friend said or not.

Rarity put the phone back to her ear, "Oh, nothing important, dear! Now what were we talking about?"

"So how long will it take you to get that suit done?"

"Hmmm...well, that might be a problem actually. In this forsaken place I cannot find any good fabric whatsoever. Because if I did, I would never wear this orange crime against fabulosity, and have you seen the state of my hair!? I'll tell you that life in this dreadful place is just...just...uh...dreadful!"

"It can't be that bad. At least you got put in the women's section and don't have to deal with a lot of guys staring at your butt."

"Pah, these so-called-women I have to live with are some of the most unladylike women I have ever had the misfortune of meeting! I mean, the girl I have to share a cell with is a complete and utter narcissist, always tries to steal my things, and constantly talks in the third person. I swear if I have to hear her call herself 'the Great and Powerful Trixie' one more time, I'm going to feel the need to introduce her to my 'Great and Powerful' fist! Of course, as a lady, I would never stoop to doing such a thing...but I can definitively feel the temptation."

"Hmm...let's see: a narcissist who sometimes talks in the third person and likes to steal things..." Rainbow surmised, "Are we talking about your cellmate or yourself right now?"

"Very funny. But unlike my dear cellmate Trixie, I at least have some dignity about it." 

"Uh-huh...whatever helps you sleep at night, Rares."

"Anyway...as I said, it would be quite a bother to design your outfit in here, but that does not mean it cannot be done!"

"You mean if I break you out of this place?" Rainbow suggested, though more in a sarcastic way.

Rarity put her hand on her chin in thought, "While that offer is a bit tempting, I'd rather not see you join me in here for my sake. Also, there are alternatives."

"I'm listening. What'ya need?"

"More like who I need, actually. You see, before I got locked up in here I taught our dear friend Spiky wiky a lot of my tricks when it came to sewing, dressmaking and that...cosplaying thing you and Twilight are so into. He has already handled several of my orders since I was incarcerated. However, while I am impressed with his accomplishments in the field thus far, he is...lacking a bit in the creative department unfortunately. But not to worry, for if there is one thing I am allowed to have in this place, its a pen and paper, and I intend to use it."

"So the plan is for you sketch something, send it to me, and then I'll bring it to Spike so he could sew it for me? Sounds easy enough."

"Precisely. Though I'll have to write some instructions as well so he doesn't forget anything important. I'd assume that with how many checklists he handles for Twilight all the time, following a few basic instructions will be a walk in the park for him."    

"No kidding. With how much he helps her I'm not even sure if he qualifies as a brother or a slave to her at this point."

"I think you should give him a tad bit more credit, Rainbow. Spike was stuck in a terrible orphanage when Twilight convinced her parents to adopt him, and I think its only natural for the boy to want to do anything to repay that favour. Also, all the things he does for her, he does willingly. So no, I would never call him a slave. In fact, isn't his relationship with Twilight practically the same thing you have with Scootaloo?"

"In what way?"

"Well...you are both a pair of siblings in anything but blood. Just like Spike needed a family to live with, Scootaloo needed someone to give her the inspiration and encouragement to get back on the horse and run again. You and Twilight were both there for them when they needed you, and now they practically idolise you for it. It is truly a special connection the likes of which I have never seen before. I am quite envious."

"Whoa, Rarity...that's...really sappy. You ever think about becoming a poet?"  

"You know what? I think I might just do that." she then put on the biggest pouty face she could muster, "I mean, it's not like there's much else I can do in here anyway. Not when I'm all alone...in this ghastly prison...eating terrible food...having to use this ridiculous contraption to speak to people sitting just in front of me...not being able to hug my little sister...not-"

"Alright, stop right there, Rarity!" Rainbow interrupted, "I am so not in the mood for you to go all drama queen on me. Come to think of it, you really should be an actor...or a poet, or a fashion designer or whatever. Seriously, I never really got why you decided to become a thief in the first place."

Noticing a bit of bitterness at the end of that sentence, Rarity asked, "Does it...bother you...not knowing?"

"Hell yeah it does!" Rainbow answered in a slightly angry tone, "I mean, we were all best friends once: you, me, Twi, Flutters, Pinkie and AJ. And then all of that suddenly ends because you got arrested for breaking the law! What's up with that!?"

"It's...a long story...and one that I most certainly owe you, but...I'm afraid visitation hours are over."

Rainbow had completely forgot about the time, and only now noticed that a pair of guards were heading towards where Rarity was sitting.

"Wait, already? But I'm not finished talking with you yet!"

"I am truly sorry, but things are well out of my hands. I will remember to design that outfit though. Skin-tight, face-concealing, spider-themed and red and blue, correct?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"Excellent! I'll get on that as soon as I can."

"Rarity!"

But Rarity couldn't hear her, for she had just put the phone back on the wall. And with a reinforced glass wall in the way, there was no way for Dash to get another word in before the guards began to escort her friend back to her cell. 

After letting out a frustrated groan, Rainbow put her phone back as well. 

"Dammit, Rarity. Why can't you ever just give me a straight answer?"
> Girls and Guys Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
Girls and Guys Night


Twilight's apartment wasn't really all that big, but she appreciated what little she had, and when one room was suddenly not available to her anymore, it felt a lot smaller than usual. Ever since Spike began with his 'top-secret' thing that he couldn't tell Twilight about despite the fact that everyone already knew about it, she had found herself missing her access to her living room. 

However, she made due in the kitchen, where she and Sunset Shimmer were having a conversation over a cup of tea. 

Since both of them were off the clock, they had forgone the lab coats for some more relaxed clothing. Sunset was wearing a pair of shorts and a purple sleeveless shirt with an image of stylised sun on it, while Twilight preferred a light blue shirt with purple pants. And while she usually tied her hair up into a bun while working, she was now opting for a loose ponytail instead. 

Having been working under Dr Silk Mane's harsh guidance all day, they were relieved to finally have some time to relax and talk about things that were not related to cross-species genetics. 

Given how completely obsessed and single-minded the good doctor they worked for was in finishing their assignment on time, and by the fact that she didn't seem to care about the feelings of all the people she constantly overworked to do so, Sunset was by now pretty sure that Mane was some kind of psychopath...though she lacked any concrete proof to confirm that.

Still, even after a whole day of working for someone like her, a nice cup of tea was all it took to get Miss Shimmer back in a good mood.

"Wow, is this strawberry?" Sunset asked after taking a sip of the cup she was given.

Twilight nodded, "Hmm-hm."

"I like it. Maybe I should try this stuff more often."

"I'm more partial to Earl Gray myself, but unfortunately...I'm all out."

Sunset put down her cup and looked around a bit, taking in the features of her friend's new apartment. "So...nice place. I'm a bit surprised you could afford it, actually."

"Oh, you can thank my parents for that. It's their place actually...well, um, half the time. I'm just living here while they're on their all-expense trip around the world...and I have my CelestiaCorp internship position."  

"Man, you're lucky your folks are so nice. I mean, giving you their apartment, adopting Spike, not constantly yelling at you all the time. I haven't even met them yet and I can already tell that they're a lot better than the ones I'm stuck with."

"Why do you say that?"

"If you'd met them, you'd know. With how much they shout at each all the time I think I should invest in sound-proofing my room or something. Seriously, I'd love to have my own place."

"Well, it's not nearly as easy as it looks. I'm really lucky to have Spike's help, because otherwise…I'd probably be eating nothing but breakfast cereals and have this room full of unwashed dishes."

With a coy smile, Sunset noted, "So you're not exactly a...kitchen person, then?"

"I can cook, it's just that sometimes...I...well, I...kinda forget to do it. Spike is really good at reminding me though that I still need to eat and sleep every now and then. I'm not sure if I could even survive an entire week without him." 

"I'm sure you could manage." 

"That makes one of us." 

"Hey, cheer up, Tiger, you'll learn eventually." 

"Pff-hihihi, What did you just call me?" Twilight asked with a small giggle.

Sunset raised a teasing eyebrow, "What? You don't like it?" 

"Well...I guess it's a lot better than 'Dorky Bangs' at least." 

"I sure hope so, Tiger, for that's what I'm gonna call you from now on."

They both laughed a little, simply enjoying this time to talk about silly things like that.

Twilight may not have known Sunset Shimmer nearly as long as she had known Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, but there was little to no doubt that she was the one Twilight was closest to. While she loved her other friends as if they were her family, Sunset was the only one she had a lot of common interests with, and also the one who understood Twilight best. Despite the fact that Sunset had once been a bit of a bully herself when she was younger, she was very protective of Twilight, and didn't tolerate anyone trying to make fun of or take advantage of her. 

However, that didn't stop Sunset herself from teasing her.  

"By the way..." Shimmer began in a slightly mischievous tone.

"Hmm?" Twilight hummed curiously.

"...I heard from a little bird that you had taken an...interest in someone."

On cue, Twilight immediately started to blush, "I...don't know what you're talking about."

"...and not in a platonic way."

She blushed even more. "Well, I...I...wouldn't-"

Sunset Shimmer's smile was impossibly smug when she saw her best friend's embarrassed expression. "So...would you be so kind as to maybe tell me who it is that you're so interested in?"

"Uhm...well, it's...uh...HEY! Who told you that?!"

"Actually...no one did. I just made it up." Sunset confessed before she morphed her face into a trollish grin, "However...judging by your reaction, I'd say that I was right on the mark. You do have a little crush on someone, don't you?"

"No I haven't!" Twilight insisted...very unconvincingly.

"Twilight Sparkle, you are a terrible liar. So come one, Tiger, its time to spill the beans."

Twilight's eyes darted around all over the place while her blush grew so big that she couldn't even rely on her dark skin to hide it. She was so flustered that all she could get out of her mouth were a bunch of nervous, "I...I...I don't...uh..."

"Wait, don't tell me! Let me guess." Sunset offered, making it very clear that she was really enjoying this, "Since you obviously wasn't into Flash, it's got to beeeeee...wait, is it Timber Spruce?"

Twilight snapped out of her ramblings and asked, "Um, who?"

Sunset's smiling face immediately turned to confusion, "Well...you know the guy we met in the Everfree forest when we were looking for that meteor the symbiote came from? I really thought there was something between you two."

"Ooooooh, that guy." Twilight answered after she remembered who she was talking about, "No, it's not him. I mean I did agree to go out on a date with him, and he's a really nice boy with a great sense of humour and a lot of things we could talk about, but...halfway through the date I realised that it wasn't going to work out. He took it well enough...though I haven't really met him since. There's nothing really wrong with him, I was just..."

"...in love with someone else?" Sunset finished for her.

Twilight nodded. 

"So who is it? Because if it isn't Flash or Timber, I can't really think of anyone. Is it somebody I know?"

"Well...yes, I guess you do know the person I have...a...crush on." Twilight stuttered, her face as red as a tomato, "Actually...you kinda...know that person very well."

"Really?!"

"Yes." Twilight squeaked out, visibly shrinking in a very Fluttershy-like manner.  

Sunset thought about that for a moment, mentally going through all the people that she knew, and all the people that she knew that Twilight also knew. Yet, after all that thinking all she could answer was, "No, I got nothing. You got to give me a hint."

"Do I? It's kinda...personal."

Sunset Shimmer's mood went from teasing to comforting while she put her hand over Twilight's and assured, "Look, if you don't want to tell me who it is, you don't have to. But know that I'll be here to help you if you need it. I may not be a relationship expert or something like that, but I've had some experience in the dating field. Well, when I say 'experience', I mean two past relationships that went up in flames...one of them almost literary."

Twilight really liked the feel of Sunset's hand on hers, and it made it a bit easier for her to finally say what she had wanted to say for a while. "Look, the thing is...the person that I have a crush on...is..."

However, by some twisted divine prank, at that very moment, the doorbell went off, thus stopping the love-struck girl from finishing that sentence. 

A little awkwardly, Twilight said, "Excuse me for...just a moment."

Sunset groaned a little at the phenomenally bad timing, but kept a smile on her face regardless, "Sure thing."

While Twilight hurried over to her front door, she wondered who it could possibly be that would show up at a time like this. She rarely got visitors in her new apartment, and when she did, they usually gave her a call before coming over. Well, Rainbow Dash didn't usually follow that rule, and as it so happened, when she opened the door she wasn't actually too surprised to see that it was indeed Rainbow Dash waiting on the other side.

What was surprising though was the Rainbow didn't show any signs of her haughty and playful attitude, instead she looked oddly glum for some reason. Also, the fact that she came through the front door instead of climbing through her window told Twilight that she wasn't really in an adventurous mood.

However, being as polite as she was, Twilight greeted, "Um...hello, Rainbow. Did you need something?"

Rainbow made her way into the apartment and answered, "Yeah, sorry for just dropping in like this, I probably should have called first or something." 

Now Twilight knew something was wrong. Rainbow usually didn't sound quite so...humble. "Are you okay? You sound a little down."

Dash leaned her back against a nearby wall, "Let's just say that yesterday kinda sucked, and today was no better."

"What happened?"

"It's a long story. I don't really feel like going into it."

"Oh...I'm sorry. So are you here for a social visit or...?"

Rainbow walked over towards the kitchen, "Actually, I was hoping to talk to-" but stopped herself when she saw Sunset Shimmer drinking a cup of tea at the kitchen table, "Oh hi, Sunset, didn't see ya there."

Sunset looked puzzled for moment before she guessed, "It's...Rainbow Dash, right?"

"Yep, that's my name."

"I figured as much, the hair kinda gives it away. Also, I think I remember you being the captain of the Wondercolt team at Canterlot High when I went there. How's that working out for you?" 

Rainbow scratched the back of her neck, "Can we not talk about that right now?"

"Um...okay. Touchy subject?"

"Yeah."

"Was that what happened at school yesterday?" Twilight asked as she followed Rainbow into the kitchen.

"Like I said, I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh right, sorry I asked. So why did you come here again?"

Rainbow Dash looked around a little, "Actually, I came here to talk with Spike. Is he home?"

Twilight did not expect that answer, "Spike?! What did you need to see him for?"

"I just need his help with something I've been working on. It has to do with..." she subtly pointed at the small, red, but mostly faded, spot on her right hand where the spider had bit her, "...you know?"

Twilight's face lit up in comprehension, "Ah...that. Well, he's here, but...now isn't really the best time."

"Why not?"

"Well, tonight is...'Guy's Night'."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Every once in awhile he and a couple of his male friends come here and take over my living room...while making it sure that absolutely no one without a Y-chromosome is allowed inside. And despite that fact that they're doing this in my own home they still won't tell me whatever it is that they're doing no matter how many times I ask."

"Well, that's guys for ya." Rainbow noted with a shrug, "Lucky for me, though, I'm practically one of the boys, so why don't I go in there and have a chat with him while you more feminine 'girly girls' stay back out here?"

"Hey!" Sunset objected, clearly offended at being referred to as a 'girly girl'. 

"I don't know..." Twilight said uncertainly, "He's awfully persistent about about the whole 'no girls' rule."

Rainbow waved her off, "Ah come on, it can't be anything too embarrassing."

"Are you sure about that?" Sunset asked from where she was sitting.

With an all too familiar cocky grin on her face, Rainbow replied, "Question: What do guys like to do when there are no girls around? Answer: Watch sports or play video games. And as it happens, I happen to do both. Ergo: I fit right in. I guarantee it!"





Meanwhile...in the currently dimly lit living room of Twilight's apartment, Spike and two of his friends were about to embark on a perilous journey to a magical land filled with excitement and adventure.

The only source of light in the room was a flashlight that Spike was using to light up his own face in an attempt to build suspense. He also spoke in a very dramatic voice when he narrated, "In a world where evil reigns supreme, a small band of warriors stands tall against the darkness. This is...Ogres and Oubliettes!"

Suddenly, the light switched on to reveal all three players sitting around the table where the popular role-playing adventure game was laid out on. 

Shining Armour, known for his professional attitude and sharp mindset he had as the captain of the police, was now off-duty and out of his uniform. And when he was off-duty, he was almost like a completely different person. In fact, hidden underneath the mask he put on when he was on the job, he was actually quite a goofball and maybe even a bit of a nerd. He had been playing Ogres and Oubliettes since he was a kid, and even now at the age of 28, he's still completely obsessed with it.   

The third and final player at the table was none other than Big Macintosh...Applejack's older brother.

Big Mac was certainly a man who lived up to the 'big' part of his name. Not only was he tall, but he also had big arms and broad shoulders: a sign that he was used to hard work just like his sister was. His scruffy blonde hair and freckles also made it easy to see that he and Applejack were related. However, unlike his Little Sis, Mac was not really that much of a hat person...his trademark was instead the red plaid jacket he wore most of the time.

Despite appearances though, Big Mac was a bit brighter than one might expect from someone as big and silent as him, and was probably the best Ogres and Oubliettes player in the room.  

How these three got around to having the tradition of playing this game whenever they all had a lot of time on their hands was a rather long story actually. The short version is that the three of them once ended up in a room together for far too long without anything to do...and then Shining Armour had an idea on how to pass the time...and then they all got really into it.

Still keeping his dramatic voice, Spike looked at Shining, who was sitting on the couch on his right, and inquired, "Prince Smarty Pants, are you prepared to enter the world of Ogres and Oubliettes?"

With confidence in his voice, Shining Armour answered, "Hehe, You bet I am."

Spike moved his gaze to the left where Big Mac was sitting in a comfy chair, "Sir McBiggen, are you also prepared to enter the world of Ogres and Oubliettes?"

In a deep and steady voice, Big Mac answered in only one word. "Eeyup."

"Then let's begin!" Spike decided, "Now, as we all remember from last time, the Squizzard was just about to awaken the dreaded Owlbear Demon Princess from her eternal resting place, which could mean the end of all of Spiketopia if we don't do something about it. However, the Legendary Rabbit-foot Arrow, the only thing capable of smiting it, is locked behind a massive stone gate. Now if my memory's right, it was...Prince Smarty Pants' time to choose our next course of action."

"Uhm, wasn't it Sir Mcbiggen's turn?" Shining asked while trying to remember what happened last time they played this game.

"Nope." answered Big Mac.

"Right, let me think. Hmmmm...now that's a tricky one..." 

He took a moment to mull over that conundrum. Somehow, he managed to look completely serious...while at the same time looking like he was the exact opposite. Sure, this was only a game, but he had no intention of losing it...well, not this time at least.

After a short while, Shining had an idea, "Alright, what if I use my high lockpicking skills to pry the gate open?"

"That could work." Spike answered while looking through one of the game's rulebooks, "Given your class and skill points, that would mean...hmmmm...ah-HA, you're in luck! You only need to get a three or higher to succeed."

Feeling a bit cocky, Shining picked up a 20-sided dice and commented, "That all?" before he threw it on the table...only for it land on a...'2'.

He did not see that one coming. "Argh, dammit!"

The odds were 18 to 2, and somehow, Shining Armour had gotten such bad luck that he narrowly lost at that. Karma was clearly not on his side today.

Snickering a little at his adoptive brother's expense, Spike narrated, "The lockpicking...failed, and Prince Smarty Pants begins to feel deeply and personally humiliated."

Shining gave him a slightly grumpy look, "Do you really have to rub it in?" 

"I'm just following the script, and the script demanded it." Spike defended, trying to sound professional. 

"You're the one writing the script."

"And that is exactly how I know what it demands. Now, Sir Macbiggen, you're up!"

To communicate his next move, Big Mac put on his best war face and moved his arm as if he was swinging a sword. 

Needless to say, he was not much of a talker.

Spike understood him for the most part, but he still needed to be sure, "Wait, are you saying you want to...smash through the door...with only your sword?"

"Eeyup."

"I don't know...that's going to be really difficult, you'll need a full twenty to succeed. Are you sure you don't want to try something else?"

"Nope."

"Well, don't say I didn't warn ya." Spike noted while Mac picked up the dice and tossed it. 

Whatever bad luck spell had cursed Shining Armour...had apparently not affected Big Mac in the least...as he somehow managed to score a perfect twenty despite the fact that the odds were sorely stacked against him. 

With vigour, he shouted, "EEYUP!" 

"Seriously?!" Shining asked, clearly surprised at the result.

"Well...that was unexpected." Spike commented, "Alright. Ahem, Sir Macbiggen strikes the door with his massive sword, and he swings it so hard that not even the mighty stone door that once held an entire army at bay could survive. The door crumbled, and our heroes finally found the-"

Suddenly, the door to the living room was slammed open and Rainbow Dash blundered in and asked, "Hey guys! What'ya doing?!"

Because Spike was completely focused on his narration and was sitting with his back to the door, the sudden unexpected visit made him jump a little, "AAARGH! What the!?" 

All three guys soon found themselves staring at new arrival as if she had caught them doing something illegal. After all, what they were doing during 'Guys Night' was only supposed to be between the three of them. If it had been Twilight or Sunset, who Spike had explicitly told not to disturb them, who had entered without knocking, then he would have really been upset. 

Still, Spike really had to ask, "Rainbow Dash?! What are you doing here?"

"I just came to see what's up with you guys." The prismatic-haired teen replied.

"Couldn't you at least knock first? You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Spike, you're fourteen, you're way too young to have a heart attack. And as for your question, well, that's just how I roll. I thought you were used to it by now." 

She then looked at Big Mac and said, "Hi Mac, didn't expect to see you here, and..." though her mood lowered a bit when she saw the third guy in the room, "...hello to you too...Shining Armour."  

The police officer took note of the salty tone she used when she addressed him and nervously replied, "Rainbow Dash, nice...to...see you. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great!" Rainbow answered, her voice completely dripping with sarcasm, "I just had to tell my soccer team I was leaving them for good after having all my lovely community service duties laid out for me for the coming month. Oh, and I'm going to meet Zecora the school counsellor every Tuesday from now on. I bet that will be fun!"

Shining sighed, "Look, Rainbow...I was only doing my job, and I have nothing against you personally. So you think we could bury the hatchet for a bit...at least while I'm out of uniform?"

Rainbow shrugged, "I guess I could. You're a pretty cool guy, Shining, I'm just a bit cranky right now."

"Is it about what happened with Gilda?"

"Yeah, mostly it is...but enough about me, what are you guys doing in here?"

Spike gave her a slightly immature look and declared, "We were having a guys night, and that means that no girls are allowed. So I'm afraid you have to-"

"Sweet! Can I join you?!" Dash asked, clearly missing the point Spike was trying to make.

"No you can't!" the boy insisted, "Do you even know what a guys night is?"

"Well duh...of course I do." 

"Then you should know that only guys are allowed to be at them."

"Yeah, that's why Twilight and Sunset have to wait outside, right?"

Spike facepalmed. He wasn't sure if Rainbow was messing with him or if he actually had to spell it out to get her to understand. Hoping it was the latter, he said, "Yes, and that is exactly why you aren't allowed in here either. You do know you're a girl too, right?"

"So you're saying I can't join because I got boobs? Wow, Spike, I didn't think you were that sexist."

"WHAT?!" Spike spat out in complete disbelief, "I'm not sexist, I just...just..."

To prevent Spike from saying something he would surely regret, Shining offered, "How about we make an exception...just this once?"

"Eeyup." Big Mac agreed.

"Fine!" Spike conceded, "Just shut the door and don't you dare tell Twilight what we're doing in here." 

However, before he sat back in his chair, he looked her straight in the eyes and added, "And don't call me a sexist again either!"

"Jeez, chillax, Spike, learn to take a joke! Oh, and I won't tell Twilight about...wait, what am I not supposed to tell her about?" 

"Well...me, Shining and Big Mac have this thing that we do whenever we have some spare time together. It's called 'Ogres and Obliettes', and its a fantasy role-playing adventure game, and pretty much the best game ever if you ask me."

"Eeyup." Big Mac chimed in.

"Riiiiight..." Rainbow noted sceptically, "That sounds...fun...I guess?"

"So...you want to join us?" Shining asked with a hopeful smile on his face. "With this game, it's definitively 'the more the merrier', but…it's been kinda hard to find someone who's interested in playing with us."

Rainbow considered it for a moment. Save a few, she had never really been into role-playing games, and she had never even heard of 'Ogres and Oubliettes', let alone played it. However, given the amount of stress she was dealing with since that whole Gilda incident, playing a silly fantasy game with a couple of friends wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. 

"I might be up for something like that. I mean, it couldn't hurt to at least try it."

"That's the spirit!" Spike exclaimed, "So let's start with a character for you to play as. There are warriors, mages, rogues and archers. They all have different stats specific to their specific class that allows them to..."

When he started to get into a very complicated explanation of how each character class affected the game, Rainbow Dash found it a bit hard to keep up. And after spending a full minute staring at him with a dumbfounded look, not really comprehending what he was saying at all, she decided, "Uhh…you know what? On second thought, I think I'll pass. The game sounds fun and all, but…it may be a bit complicated for me."

"It's not that complicated." Shining noted, "Trust me, the other version is waaaaay more complicated than this. You just have to play it a bit to get a feel for it."

"Well, sure...but…maybe later." She then remembered something, "By the way…Spike, I need to talk to you about something."

The kid raised an eyebrow and looked at her curiously, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"It's about Rarity, but…I can kinda only talk about it with you."

The simple act of just mentioning her name immediately got Rainbow his full attention, "Rarity!?"

"Yeah…that's what I just said. However, she said I could talk to you, and you alone, about this. So you know any place that isn't occupied right now?"

While Spike really wanted to continue the game without any more interruptions, his very obvious crush on Rarity made him surprisingly easy to motivate. A clever enough manipulator could conceivably make him do almost anything for her...though the one that used that trick the most was ironically Rarity herself. The fashionista-turned-master thief may have been one of the kindest people around inside and out, but she was also really good at charming or manipulating people into doing what she wanted them to do. 

Spike turned back to the others, "I'll be back in a bit. Don't continue without me!"

"Don't worry, we won't." Shining assured.

"Nope." Big Mac added.

With an eager smile on his face, Spike jumped out of his chair and led Rainbow Dash into the one room left in the apartment that he was allowed to be in and wasn't currently occupied: his own bedroom. Twilight's bedroom was out of the question, and she didn't really feel comfortable having people be in her workroom when she wasn't around either. So it would have to do.

Well, it was either that or the bathroom...and that would just be awkward.

Unlike his sister's, Spike's room wasn't quite as mathematically organised, but at the same time, way more tidied up than the mess Rainbow Dash lived in. It was a lot smaller then either of their's though and only had room for a bed, a desk, and a window from which one could actually see the headquarters of the 'Daily Bugle'. 

After the two had made it inside, Spike took a seat at his desk chair and asked, "So what did Rarity say about me?"

Rainbow Dash closed the door and sat down at the end of his bed. "Only that you're the one to talk to in case of fashion emergencies." 

"Yeah, that's right! Wait...since when did you care about fashion?"

"Didn't you know?" Rainbow asked jokingly, "I always dresses in style!" 

"Seriously?" Spike questioned in a deadpan tone.

"Nah, I'm just kidding. But I do actually have a fashion emergency this time."

"That's a first. So what is it?"

Rainbow reached into her back pocket and pulled out an envelope before handing it over to him. "Rarity said that you used to do her orders ever since she ended up in prison. Well, here's the next one for ya."

The letter wasn't sealed, so Spike had no problem opening it and checking out the contents inside. Said contents turned out to be a few folded papers that were written in Rarity's handwriting and were detailing a brand new outfit for Rainbow Dash. And it was no ordinary outfit either.

His eyes lit up when he figured out what the suit was for. "Wait...does this mean you're giving my superhero idea a shot?"

"What, no!" Rainbow immediately denied, "That's a stunt costume. It's just meant to help me web-swing better and look cooler while doing it."

"I don't know...it looks much more like a superhero costume to me."

"So what if it does?!" Dash asked, starting to sound a bit annoyed, "I already told you I'm not doing the superhero thing!"

"Why not? I mean with your powers, you'd be-"

"Look, I already got one annoying lecture in 'responsibility' from my mom yesterday, and I'm so not in the mood to get one from you too."

Spike sighed, "I'm just saying you have a golden opportunity here that you're completely wasting."

"An opportunity to do what? Get killed by some lunatic with a gun, or better yet, end up arrested for taking the law in my own hands? Maybe I can even give Rarity some company in prison. I'm sure she would like that very much. And I suppose you want to be my sidekick or something too, huh? Well, it's not gonna happen, just accept it!"

Spike was a bit taken back by just how quickly Rainbow had gone from being joking and chipper to being downright angry. Guess she woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning, he supposed.

"Uh...sorry. I had no idea you were so sensitive about this."

"I'm not sensitive about..! Actually, never mind, I'm just a bit frustrated at both Gilda and my mom right now."

"Why, what happened?"

Instead of answering that question, she decided to change the subject entirely, "You know what? I just decided what I could use the suit for."

Spike tried to ask, "But what about-" 

But Rainbow just ignored him, "I saw in the paper this morning that there's this brand new amateur wrestling tournament downtown in a week or so, and with my new powers I could get it done in ten seconds flat. And if that suit is finished quickly enough, I could wear it and do the whole thing incognito. That way I could kick some serious butt while saving up some cash for my troubles. It's the perfect idea!"

"But Rainbow-"

She silenced him with a glare and said, "Look, all I need from you is to get that suit done. And what I decide to use it for is my own business. Got it?"

"I suppose. But it may take me some time to make this thing...just so you know."

"How long would that be?"

"About a month."

"A MONTH?! But that tournament is just in two weeks!"

"Hey, I'm no Rarity."

Rainbow sighed, "We'll just have to work something out then..."
> 3) Power and Responsibility, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 3
Power and Responsibility, Part 1
Suiting up for a Challenge


Twilight Sparkle let out a sigh of relief as she stepped out of the CelestiaCorp building's lobby, allowing the warm rays of the summer sun to give her a sense of freedom that she hadn't felt all day.  

While her mind may have the capacity to work almost as efficiently as a super computer, there were still limits to what even she could handle. For instance, working day and night on a massive research project under the guidance of someone as eccentric as Dr Silk Mane while only having a week to finish it was not something that she considered to be particularly easy. 

Twilight Sparkle did have a lot of respect for the good doctor. Silk Mane had devoted years of her life in studying advanced chemicals and how they affected biological systems, and had gathered an impressive understanding of the human genome. And while her scientific career may have started with the development of new forms of shampoo, she had now become the 'go-to-expert' for anything regarding experimental genetics research. There was even a rumour that she had figured out how to successfully clone human beings...though that rumour had never been confirmed.

More to the point, she was also the one who started the cross-species genetics project in the first place. Sunset and Twilight were merely assigned to be her interns. Unlike the numerous other interns Celestia had sent her though, Mane was very impressed by their intelligence and even admitted, albeit very begrudgingly, that she wouldn't have come as far as she had without their help. 

However, Silk wasn't really a...'people person' by any means, and at times seemed to forget that her co-workers were actual human beings instead of soulless automatons. The simple concept that someone working under her needed to take a break every now and then was almost an alien concept to her. In fact, the only reason Twilight and Sunset were allowed to leave early now was because Celestia all-but-ordered Mane to let them go for the day...for which Twilight was very thankful.

Despite her early release however, Twilight had no time to relax at home, for she had a mission to accomplish: 

Rainbow Dash's brand new spider-costume.

When Spike told her about the project and how fast Rainbow wanted it done, Twilight didn't hesitate to offer her own assistance as well, despite her already very busy schedule. While she may not have been a fashionista like Rarity, Twilight more than understood the basics. Rarity's instructions were also deceptively easy to follow, which suited the very organised mind of Twilight Sparkle just fine.

Though it was a difficult task, Twilight considered it a welcome challenge, and even went so far as to make a select few improvements on the design. 

The first thing she added to the suit was a pair of web-shooters she had incorporated into its sleeves. Since Rainbow had some issues putting those things on correctly during their initial testing, Twilight decided that this little addition could save them both a lot of time and patience. 

Also, while it had been proven that Dash could climb on walls in her normal running shoes, the effect was somewhat lessened by the rubber soles in them. While it was barely noticeable, and wasn't exactly an immediate problem, it was still not something to take lightly considering the type of dangerous stunts Rainbow was planning on doing. Just one slip...one single slip at wrong place at the wrong time...and the results could be disastrous.

After some extra work, Twilight eventually discovered a material that not only did not cause this problem, but also was very comfortable to wear.  

She had not, however, changed any of the aesthetics or the overall design from Rarity's original drawing. Rarity was the artist, not Twilight, and she had enough respect for her fashion-forward friend to not mess with her art. Still, as Rarity had not been informed about the true purpose of the outfit, the changes Twilight made were still needed. 

And by working together, Spike and Twilight had managed to finish the suit much faster than they expected...which was probably a good thing considering how many times Rainbow had called to ask how soon it was going to be finished. Apparently, she needed the suit for some kind of wrestling tournament that was going to start in a few hours at some place downtown.

All Twilight had to do now was to bring it over to her. 

A bit easier said than done though, given that she didn't own a car or have a driver's licence, not to mention the fact that Twilight had never even been to that wrestling place before and had no information about its location aside from a vague address.   

While she was standing there, just outside the main entrance to the CelestiaCorp building, she put a hand on her chin and began to plan her route.

'Maybe I can take a cab? No, too expensive, and cab drivers in this city are not to be trusted. I suppose I could use the subway, but that would require sitting in a cramped tube filled with dozens of creepy strangers and visually distracting ads everywhere. The bus is pretty much the same, only less extreme, and I have no idea what bus to take. The 200 travels right next to my destination, but couldn't the 198 get there faster? At least that one doesn't bypass Restaurant Row, but does it even stop at the wrestling area or will it stop at Star Square? Or maybe the-' 

Someone gently tapped her on the shoulder, which took Twilight's focus away from her inner thoughts and over to the person who was trying to get her attention. 

She wasn't very surprised to see that it was Sunset Shimmer, now wearing her rebellious leather jacket instead of the lab coat she had on a few minutes ago, but she was wondering why she was waving a hand over her eyes repeatedly. 

"What?" she asked blankly.

"You were using your 'I am thinking really hard' face, hehe," Sunset answered with a small chuckle. 

Twilight blushed a little, "I was not."

"Of course you weren't," Sunset noted with a hint of sarcasm. "Something on your mind?"

"Um…well, I'm trying to determine the best possible way to reach the, uh, Gladmane Wrestling Emporium I think it was called. I'm supposed to meet Rainbow Dash there in an hour or so. Any ideas on how to get there in time?"

Sunset raised her left eyebrow, "I never really took you for someone who'd be into wrestling."

"I'm not really. It's more of a Rainbow Dash thing. She wanted to see the match, and...you know that time you told me to take an interest in the things my friends like?"

"Sure."

"Well, I decided to give it a go. I don't know, maybe it will be fun."

"You don't sound very sure about that."

Twilight cringed a little, "Yeah, it's just...I don't really see the appeal of watching a lot of overly-muscular, half-naked men throw each other all over the place. But Rainbow seems to enjoy that, so there must be some entertainment value in it, I guess."

Sunset flashed a sly grin, "You sure she's not just there to admire the view? I mean, all those, big and strong guys in those weird outfits, that's a lot of eye-candy for a girl in Dash's age."

"Well... I wouldn't think..." Twilight began a bit hesitantly. "I don't think she would really be interested in that."

"Oh really? How would you know?"

"They're...not exactly her type."

"Oh..." Sunset answered calmly, until she then realised just what Twilight meant by that. "Oooooh...right, now I get what you mean. But hey, there are female wrestlers too, and rather sexy ones at that, so I'm not ruling that possibility out just yet."

Twilight nervously played a little with her hair while casting her eyes down, "So...you're..okay with that?"

A bit confused, Sunset questioned, "Okay with what? Dash being gay?"

"Well...yes, that," Twilight replied while secretly dreading the answer to that question. 'Please say you're okay with it, please say you're okay with it, please say you're okay with it...'

Her fears were put to rest though when Sunset answered, "'Course I am. This isn't the dark ages, you know? Besides, it'd be pretty hypocritical of me to have anything against someone betting for the other team."

Twilight's eyes lit up, 'She is okay with it! then maybe that means there's also a chance she- hang on, did she just say what I think she said?'

"Wait a minute...you're a lesbian?!" Twilight asked in disbelief. "But I thought you dated Flash before."

Sunset chuckled a little, "Hehe, you know there's such a thing as being bisexual, right?"

"Oh...right, of course...I knew that," Twilight said while blushing a little. 'Wow, I feel stupid right now.' "How come you never mentioned this before now?"

"Maybe because you never asked?" Sunset suggested. "Hey, remember those two failed relationships I had? Well, only one of them was with a boy."

"Wow, I had no idea. I guess I'm not always the best at assuming things." 

"It's not that big a deal, really. I didn't realise it myself until that one time I kissed Sunny Flare in a 'Truth or Dare' game...and later got so drunk at a party that I woke up in bed with both Vapour Trail and Sky Stinger."

Twilight stared at Sunset with a baffled expression, her glasses slowly sliding down her nose as she did so.

"I was...a different person back then," Sunset admitted with an embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

Twilight pushed her glasses back and slowly said, "...If you say so."  

"Anyway, I actually started to date Flash around that time...though mostly just because he was popular at CHS. He was...okay, I guess. I mean, he was nice and all, but also, not gonna lie, kinda boring to date. I'm still surprised he was the one who broke up with me rather than the other way around. Guess I had it coming though."

"What do you mean?"

"I was...not exactly the nicest person at the time. You're lucky you never saw me at my worst, believe me."

That peaked Twilight's curiosity. 'She really doesn't like her past self, does she? I have heard from some other students at Canterlot High that she used to be quite the bully during her freshman years, and Sunset herself has never made any attempts to deny that...but I have never seen her act anything like a bully for all the time that I had known her. I wonder what could have happened that could have changed her so much. I suppose I could just ask her what it is, but that could be a sensitive subject, so I better hold it off for now.'

"So..." Sunset continued. "...after Flash dumped me, I was single for about...a year I think before I met this showgirl called Trixie Lulamoon. She was...well...a bit full of herself...to put it mildly. A very good illusionist though. Had dreams of becoming a Bridle Way star if her plans panned out...which they never did. How I ended up dating her is...a long story, but I think she had a thing for 'bad girls'...or something."

"And I assume that relationship went...well?" 

"Pretty much as 'well' as a train crash." 

"Ouch, that sounds...bad."

"She got arrested...after one of her firework pieces crashed into a restaurant and set it on fire."

"Wait, what?! Really?"

"Luckily, nobody was hurt, but the owner of that restaurant was not very happy about what happened. The second he figured out who was responsible for it, he got right up in Trixie's face and began to yell her ears out. What followed was a series of screams, insults, curses, an eventual fist fight, and then the timely intervention of the police. After the whole mess was over, Trixie ended up in jail...and our relationship kinda fell apart after that."  

"I can see why." 

That hit very close to home for Twilight actually, given what happened to Rarity after she got caught. 'Having people close to you ending up in prison is a toll for anyone, no matter how much you try to keep in touch. Come to think of it, didn't Rarity say she had a cellmate named Trixie? Nah, probably just a coincidence.'

"...And that's my messed up love life in a nutshell," Sunset finished. "How about you?"

Twilight blinked, "Huh?"

"What's your story, Tiger, ever dated someone before?"

"Uh...well, not exactly," she confessed in a sullen tone. "I mean, who would ever be interested in asking someone like me out?" 

Her friend gave her a healthy punch to the arm, "Hey, don't beat yourself up over that. You're smart, talented and completely adorable. Anyone with half-a-brain would easily be able to see that. And don't forget that you actually were asked out by both Flash Sentry and Timber Spruce, but you were the one who said no."

Sunset's compliment made Twilight become a little bit flustered. "It's good to know you think so highly of me, and I guess you have a point about that, it's just that...well...I'm more into...somebody else." 

"And that somebody still hasn't noticed you, right?"

"No, not...really. At least, I don't think so."

With a snort, Sunset commented, "That's how it usually goes, Tiger. Even with how blatantly obvious your crush may be for other people, the one you're crushing on is usually the one who finds out last. It's kinda silly actually. I mean, is it really that hard to realise that someone's crushing on you? If someone were crushing on me, I'm pretty sure I would have known about it right away."

Twilight smiled a bit nervously and stuttered, "He he, yeah...I guess you would notice something like that. You're usually very...um...perceptive,"...while secretly thinking, 'Oh, Sunset Shimmer, If you only knew...'

Feeling the need to change the subject, Sunset asked, "So anyway, this wrestling arena Rainbow wanted to meet you at, you said it was Gladmane's place?"

Twilight only now realised that she had gotten a bit sidetracked from the task at hand, and shook her head a little to regain her focus and remember the answer to Sunset's question. "It's...yes, yes it is. Do you know a good way to get there in time? I'm kinda late as it is, and all options I can think of...are...not...uh Sunset...why are you smiling like that?"

As soon as the idea had formed in Sunset Shimmer's mind, her mouth had taken the form of a very mischievous grin...one that made Twilight just a tiny bit uneasy. "Ooh, I do know of something that could get us there in time. Come, I'll show you!"

A little suspicious about what her friend was implying, Twilight cautiously followed her over to CelestiaCorp's parking lot. 'I got a bad feeling about this...' 

"Sunset, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say you didn't have a car?"

Without skipping a beat, she answered, "Yep, and I still don't."

"Then...what exactly are we looking for in here?"

Sunset stopped around a particular corner of parking lot and put her hands on her hips, still keeping her confident grin on her face. "I'm looking for...that."

Twilight's eyes widened in horror when she saw what Sunset was looking at. A cold sense of dread and an internal queasiness built up in her stomach. "This...this is a joke, right? I mean, you cannot seriously expect me to use...that thing, do you?! I don't even have my driving sickness pills with me!"

"It's not a car at least," Sunset pointed out.

"No...no, it isn't...it's WAY WORSE THAN A CAR! Does it even take two passengers!?"

"Of course it does."

"And is that even legal?!"

"Relax, Twilight, you'll be fine."

"No, no, no, no, I will not be fine on that thing! Maybe I'll just take the bus. The bus is always good, right? I don't have to use that thing if don't want to."

"Well...you could take the bus, I guess, but in this traffic that would probably take all day, and Rainbow never struck me as being the patient sort. Trust me, if you want to get there in time, this is the only way."

"...but...it's...it's...a...a..."

"...an amazing vehicle that will get you where you need to go faster and with far more style than anything you have ever sat on before? Yes it is. Now, Tiger, let's take this beauty out for a ride, shall we?"

Twilight gulped.





It had been two weeks since the incident in the soccer field...two weeks since Rainbow Dash was punished for attacking Gilda in her anger...and two weeks since Dash and her mother had their argument. 

Firefly had expected Rainbow to have cooled down and let the matter go by now, but so far...that hadn't happened. Dash may not have been shouting at Firefly anymore, but she wasn't exactly talking to her either.

Sure, she spoke to her from time to time, but she never really talked to her. There's a difference. 

If there was one thing Firefly knew more than anyone else, it was how her daughter handled herself. She was boisterous, lived in the moment, hated to sit still unless she was napping, put passion into whatever hobby she had an interest in, whether that involved rocking her guitar, taking pictures at near impossible angles, compete against her friend Applejack in anything and everything they could think of, or train her body and mind into one day becoming pilot material. She wasn't quiet or mopey...or at least, she usually wasn't quiet and mopey. 

Yet, as she took a peak at her daughter in the passenger seat of her car, all she could see was Rainbow being exactly that: quiet and mopey. She showed no signs of her endless energy and enthusiasm...or even impatient boredom for being stuck in one place for too long. She was just staring at the city outside through the window, trying her best to avoid any and all eye-contact with her mother.

However, this also meant that she didn't have the energy to lash out in anger at the moment...which was a good thing for Firefly. If there ever was a time to resolve the tension that was going on between them, it would probably be now.  

When Rainbow mentioned that she was going to watch some kind of wrestling event downtown, Firefly immediately offered to drive her there herself, despite how much she could see her daughter didn't want her to. She was just lucky that Rainbow Blaze was too busy managing the gym he owned to offer his help instead. It would give Firefly an opportunity to have a proper conversation with her daughter again. 

Now if only she had any idea how to start...

"So...uhm, Dashie?" the older woman began carefully. "What's this thing you wanted to see, a...wrestling tournament?"

Rainbow did not respond.

Firefly flashed a very fake smile, "Got to say, it does sound pretty interesting. I've heard a lot of good things about the guy who's funding it. What's his name, Gladmane?"

Rainbow slowly turned her head to look at her, though her expression was anything but amused at Firefly's awkward attempts at conversation.

"You'd probably not believe it, but I was quite the wrestling fan myself when I was your age. When someone told me most of it was fake I-"

"What are you doing?" Dash asked suspiciously.

Her mother's phoney smile vanished in an instant, "I'm only trying to break the ice, kiddo. You haven't even looked me in the eye since we had that stupid argument, and its starting to get ridiculous now."

Rainbow Dash was looking her in the eyes now though, but she wasn't saying anything.

Firefly had to break that eye-contact momentarily when a car horn behind her reminded her that the traffic light ahead had turned green. After she had turned her eyes back on the road and continued driving, she said, "Look, when you told me about how you felt when I left you behind during that war, it got me thinking. I know I had my reasons for doing what I did, but you're right...I should have at least apologised properly to you. So...here it is: I'm...sorry, Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry for making you feel lonely for so long, and I'm sorry for going somewhere so dangerous when I had you waiting for me back home."

Rainbow Dash looked at Firefly's face for a moment, mainly to see if she was being sincere or not. 'I guess that was a pretty good apology, all things considered. Besides, I can't stay mad at mom forever. I mean, she is my mom after all.'

Rainbow let out a deep sigh and then decided, "Okay, sure, just...can you promise me something first?"

"Anything, Dashie," Firefly answered with utmost sincerity.

"Can you promise me you won't leave me alone again? It's just...when you left, I had to go through the worst six months of my life, and the last thing I want right now is to go through that again."

A bit taken back, she asked, "Was it really that bad?" 

"I was just a kid, you know, and for awhile there I seriously thought...you had...had...well...you know." Rainbow almost shuddered after saying that, "And after what happened to Applejack's parents, I...kinda thought the same thing had happened to you."

Rainbow Dash felt a comforting hand touch her arm soothingly in a very motherly fashion. "Alright then. I promise you, you're not getting rid of me anytime soon, kiddo."

"You are?" Dash asked hopefully.

"'Course I am. Wait, how did it go...uh, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a...something, whatever, you know what I mean. That 'Pinkie Promise' thing you and your friends do all the time."

"That's 'cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye'," Rainbow clarified.

"Ah, yeah...though it doesn't really make any sense."

"Well, neither do Pinkie Pie."

"Touche."

"Then I guess it means you're sticking by that promise then?"

Firefly smiled, "Absolutely."

"So...we're good, you and me, now, right?"

Firefly nodded.

"Good, because gosh this conversation was starting to get sappy," Rainbow commented with her usual bravado. 

They both shared a goodhearted laugh about that, cementing that while neither had completely gotten over their issues, they were at least on good terms...for now.

And for the next few minutes, the silence between them returned...but it wasn't quite as tense as it was before. In fact, Firefly might even go so far as to call it comfortable. 

Despite all the bad things that had been going on with her lately, which happened to be mostly Gilda related, Rainbow did finally feel some sense of happiness after she made up with her mom. Now, all she needed to do was to fess up and tell Fluttershy how she felt about her and Dash's life would be just great from now on. 

If only things were ever that easy... 




While the car passed through the streets of Central Canterlot, Rainbow spent most of the ride just...looking at the city around her. She wasn't really that much of a city girl, but she did admire the view quite a bit.

'Damn, those buildings look so...climbable,' She thought as she looked at the sky scrapers she passed. 'There's got to be a ton of cool swinging locations around here, and I can't wait to try them out! All I need is that spider-suit when Spike and Twilight are done with it. I mean, I can't just go around jumping off rooftops in my normal clothes, because...well, they're not aerodynamic enough I guess. Also, it might be bad if someone I knew saw me doing stuff like that. Must keep superpowers secret and all! And I can't keep stealing, I mean, borrowing mom's old Wonderbolt uniform. She'll kill me if she'd found out.'

Another idea also crossed her mind, 'I bet I can take some cool pics up there too. With my sticky powers, I can get some pretty awesome angles if I wanted to. A city-wide shot of Canterlot from the Empire Canterlot Building? No sweat! Now, if only I had a camera that didn't take stupid blurry pictures all the time, that'd be amazing. I'm way overdue for an upgrade. I can't keep using that cheap piece of junk that can't get a focused shot unless I'm standing right next to the thing I want to photograph, I need one of those high res cameras that could take snapshots of a fighter jet flying at top speed, the ones that are used by real professional photographers...and the ones that I totally can't afford in a million years.'

She then saw Gladmane's Wrestling Emporium come into view...

'Well, if this Gladmane person is as rich as he says he is, then that little money problem will be an easy fix. All I have to do is to make a bunch of wannabe wrestlers taste the Rainbow! And no, that's not becoming my new catchphrase.'

When the car began to slow down to park next to the building, Rainbow took off her seat belt and opened the door. However, before she could leave, Firefly said, "Hey, Dashie?"

Rainbow looked at her, "Yeah?"

"I've been thinking about how much the whole getting kicked off the soccer team must suck for you, and...well, I thought maybe tomorrow after school we could play a game...you and me...just like old times."

Her daughter's cockiness returned with a vengeance after hearing that, "I dunno, don't you think you're a bit too old for that?"

"Oh but I have experience, kid," Firefly quipped back with a smile on her face. "I bet you won't even score a single goal against a seasoned veteran like me."

"What? Just because you can beat dad? He's even older than you."

"But he did win several marathons in a row when he was only five years older than you. Why do you think I stuck around with him for so long?"

"Sure, sure, but I'm literary a combination of you two, so I have the best of both of ya. Plus, I'm also still in my prime!"

"Oh You're going to regret saying that, kiddo," Firefly warned before holding her hand out for a fist bump, which her daughter immediately answered with her own fist.

"I doubt it. But I guess we'll find out tomorrow then."

"Damn right we will! Now, I'll pick you up here at five. Don't be late."

Rainbow Dash mockingly saluted, "Yes, ma'am!"

Firefly rolled her eyes.

Rainbow winked and then stepped out of the car, a cocky smile on her face again.

However, as soon as Firefly knew Rainbow couldn't see her face, her expression turned from 'happy'...to 'concerned'.

While she had done a good job of hiding any obvious distress, when Dash mentioned that she was 'literally a combination of her and Rainbow Blaze', it reminded her of a certain issue that spoke directly to her competence as a parent. A little secret that she had kept from her daughter for almost twelve years now...give or take.

She reached into her pocket and took out a small flash drive with the words 'For RD only' written on it.

'...Maybe it's time she knew the truth,' Firefly considered.





If there was one thing that Sunset Shimmer knew for sure that she loved, then it would be her good old Ducati. For her, it was the single most awesome pile of scrap metal on the face of the earth, and she would be lost without it. 

She considered the bike to be the best thing she had ever gotten from her dad. He was a mechanic, and the one who sparked Sunset's interest in tinkering and engineering. When she was growing up, he regularly gave her pieces of junk and taught her how to turn it into something useful. She eventually became a lot better at it than even he was, and proved that when she fixed a bike that hadn't been working properly since the eighties, and that she eventually began to call her own.

The moment she heard the engine roar for the first time, Sunset knew she had fallen in love, and nothing relaxed her as much as when she was driving her bike through the city.

Twilight on the other hand...did not really have the same reaction. 

She was clinging on to Sunset's waist as if her life depended on it, and Shimmer could feel just how tense Twilight was being. If she wasn't panicking yet, then she was probably about to start any second now. With Twilight's tendency to get driving sickness, coupled with her irrational paranoia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, getting a lift on a motorcycle in the most hectic part of town was the complete opposite of what Twilight considered relaxing.

The irony of the situation was that Sunset was driving much slower and safer then she usually did. She may have been a bit of an adrenaline junkie at times (though not to Rainbow's level), but she respected Twilight's boundaries as much as she could, and she didn't want her to have an early heart attack or anything.

Lucky for Twilight, the ride didn't last all that long, and soon enough, Sunset pulled up at the parking space outside Gladmane's Wrestling Emporium with both her and her terrified passenger in one piece. 

As soon as the vehicle had properly stopped, Twilight immediately tried to climb out of it and nearly tripped over herself in the process. She then pulled the helmet Sunset loaned her off her head and started to hyperventilate while also trying her hardest to not throw up.

After she had turned off the engine and gotten off her bike, Sunset calmly walked up to Twilight and put a hand on each of her shoulders. "Take it easy there, Tiger. Deep breaths, breathe in, breathe out, can you do that?"

Twilight tried the best she could at doing just that. 'Come on, Twilight, remember Cadence's breathing exercises. So, take it easy and stop panicking, stop panicking, STOP PANICKING! Just need to focus on something in particular and forget everything else, BUT WHAT?!'

Her eyes then fell on the face of the woman who was calmly and patiently trying to help her overcome her anxiety. 'Wow, I never realised it before, but...her eyes are really pretty...and that flaming hair looks so beautiful...and those lips are just so inviting that...what the hell are you thinking, Twilight?! Get a hold of yourself!'

She shook her inappropriate thoughts and her building panic attack away with a shake of her head and said, "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm perfectly calm, perfectly...calm."

Sunset couldn't help it, Twilight's dorky bespectacled face was just begging her to rub her cheeks, "Aren't you just adorable!"

After Sunset had let go, Twilight righted her now crooked glasses and blushed while she played with a lock of her hair, 'She thinks I'm adorable! Maybe that means...' She shook her head again in a doomed attempt to get her brain thinking straight, 'There it is again...that feeling. I mean, I have had crushes on people in the past, but I have never felt like this about anyone else before. What if...Sunset really is the one? I don't know. And even if I did, I really doubt the cool and confident Sunset Shimmer would ever be interested in a neurotic and socially-awkward nerd like me? Or...maybe she actually would? I heard some people found geekyness attractive, though I don't know if I've ever met someone who thinks that...aside from Flash and Timber maybe.' 

It went without saying that Twilight had little to no experience dealing with love or dating, and when this crush on her friend began, she had no idea how to tackle it.

The closest situation she had ever been in that came anywhere close to something romantic was either that one date she had with Timber Spruce that didn't lead to anything or that time she and her old study-buddy Moondancer decided to 'pretend' to be each others dates to Canterlot High's Fall Formal dance...since neither of them got asked out by anyone else. 

Turned out, that dance only made things way more awkward than it needed to be. Rumours of them being a lesbian couple started to circulate all over the school after that, even though they really were only friends...and barely even that. Suffice to say, it was probably a bad idea in the first place. Moondancer in particular didn't appreciate those rumours one bit, especially given the fact that she was straight, and suggested that she and Twilight should stop hanging out for a short while until the rumours stopped. Twilight agreed after some convincing, but...she only now realised that she hadn't spoken to her old friend in over a year. 

Still, the whole thing only proved to Twilight how inexperienced she was in the dating field. And while the rumours of her and Moondancer being a couple were false, the rumours that Twilight was a lesbian were...not as exaggerated as one might think.

Twilight honestly had no idea what her sexuality actually was, not that that fact really mattered to her in long run, but she knew that she definitively had a crush on someone. 

Someone...who also happened to be another girl...

...and that girl...was none other than Sunset Shimmer. 

While Twilight Sparkle had once denied the notion of 'love at first sight' as nothing more than a fairy tale concept that held no truth in reality, she honestly couldn't find any other way to explain how her crush on Sunset started. The redheaded girl just had a confidence, a drive, that lured her in like a siren. And at the same time, Sunset also showed signs of a more vulnerable and sensitive side underneath.  

Not to mention, Sunset Shimmer was drop-dead-gorgeous in Twilight's eyes. With the way her hair seemed to be made of flames that cascaded down her back, her perfectly proportioned figure that looked even more fantastic when she was wearing that roguish leather jacket, and finally that confident smile that sent Twilight's heart pumping just thinking about it. 

Unlike her other friends, Sunset could keep up with her technobabbel as if it was second nature to her, and her intelligence was leagues above most people Twilight had ever met. While, admittedly, not as good at mathematics and equations as Twilight, Sunset Shimmer had always been an adventurer at heart and wasn't hesitant to get her hands dirty if it meant she could discover something new.   

Also, she owned a freaking motorcycle! What's not to love? 

Scratch being a lesbian, Twilight had just decided that she was Sunsetsexual! And if she could only ever muster up the confidence to just get her act together and tell her how she felt, she might as well have hit the jackpot...or face a rejection that would most likely spell the end of her self-confidence and leave her a depressed loner yet again.

Yes, she needed to analyse every conceivable scenario as to what would happen if she did that, including even the most pessimistic worst-case-scenarios. Not that she could help it; she was Twilight 'Queen of the Freak-outs' Sparkle after all. 

"Uh, Twilight, you're spacing out again," she could hear Sunset's voice say, prompting her to get her attention back in the moment.

"Sorry! Got distracted thinking about...uh...some things."

"Uh-huh. So anyway, can you find your way to where you need to go from here?"

Twilight looked around a bit. "I guess so. This does look like the place Rainbow talked about...just got to find her first."

Sunset grabbed the helmet she had loaned to Twilight and got back on her bike, "Well, good luck with that. Now, I have a doctor's appointment in a few hours, and I can't be late for that."

"A doctor's appointment? What for?"

She paused for a second before she began to strap on her helmet and answer, "Oh...it's...just a...routine check up thing. Nothing to worry about. I have those all the time."

The way Sunset said that made Twilight a tiny bit suspicious, "You do? You never mentioned that."

"Well...you never asked."

Twilight narrowed her eyes at her flame-haired friend, "Is there anything else about you that I haven't asked about?"

Sunset pondered that question for a second, then revealed, "...I also play guitar."

Before Twilight could respond to that, Sunset revved up the engine and said, "Anyway, see you later, Tiger!" before she began to steer her bike back to the city streets and drive away to where she needed to go.

Twilight, having been left in the dust, scratched the back of her neck while she thought about Sunset's strange excuse. 'Routine medical-check-ups? I remember her telling me that her family couldn't afford to take her to the hospital unless it was an emergency. She is definitively hiding something. I'm not clueless enough to not notice that. I just wonder what it could possibly be that she's hiding.'

A familiar voice brought her attention back to earth. "About time you showed, Twilight!"

That raspy impatient voice that clearly belonged to Rainbow Dash immediately got Twilight's attention and made her turn around to see a certain rainbow-haired teenager push her way through the crowded city street in order to reach her.

Twilight checked her watch, "It's actually about...twenty minutes left until the time we agreed on."

"Yeah, yeah, but at least you're here now," Rainbow shrugged off.

She then sported an enormous smile and got a pleading look in her eyes, "Sooooo...did you bring it?"

"...Yes, I did," Twilight answered while taking off her backpack. "Though it's only the first version and Spike and I had to rush it, I think you will be pleased with the result."

Having no patience for her bookish friend to give it to her in orderly manner, Rainbow simply yanked the backpack from her hands and opened it to take a peek inside.

"Ah man, this looks awesome! Thanks, Twi." Her smile then faded a little, "I owe you, Spike and Rarity something for this, don't I?"

"I don't know about Rarity, but the supplies for that suit took a bit out of my wallet, so if you win any prize money, well...it could help me avoid going bankrupt any time soon."

"Uh...I was kinda hoping to spend it on a new camera actually," Rainbow confessed. "I've been saving up for one for a while now."

Thinking logically, Twilight suggested, "Well...maybe we could split the take. How much money do the winner get?"

"About...three-thousand dollars, I think."

"Wow, that's a lot," Twilight noted, a bit amazed. "A third of that would be enough for me, and then you can spend the rest on the camera."

Rainbow Dash spat in the palm of her hand and held it for a handshake, "Deal!"

Twilight cringed a little as she hesitantly reached out her own hand...then retracted it just before Dash's hand could touch it. "Yes...yes, it's a deal!"

Dash raised an eyebrow, then wiped the spit off her hand on her leg and haughtily said, "Then what are we wasting time here for? We have a tournament to win!"
> 3) Power and Responsibility, Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 3
Power and Responsibility, Part 2
In the Ring with the Minotaur


Twilight Sparkle was a very focused and organised person. She preferred things when they were tidy, made rational sense to her, and didn't cause any unnecessary stress to her delicate mind. 

The world famous Gladmane Wrestling Emporium...was the complete opposite of that.

Unfiltered and unbearably loud noises were booming into her ears from all directions at once, people of all shapes and sizes were pushing and shoving each other all over the place, all while the stench of sweat and the suffocating quenched air nearly made her faint.    

So why on earth would she be here?

Well, mostly because her good friend Rainbow Dash needed someone to hold onto her stuff while she was changing into her new spider-suit in the girls' public restroom. A task that Twilight, with the benefit of hindsight, was not very happy that she had agreed to. 

While she stood there, waiting for Dash to get properly dressed, Twilight was tapping her foot impatiently on the floor with her arms crossed while also trying her best to avoid getting bumped into by anyone...which was definitively easier said than done. She had already been shoved by someone in here eight times already; and yes, she had kept count. 

Beginning to grow impatient, Twilight checked her watch. 'She's been in there now for seven minutes straight. It shouldn't take nearly that much time to put on the suit. What could possibly be taking her so long?'   

When she turned her attention away from the watch and back towards the door, she suddenly found herself only a hair's breath away from a pair of big white pupil-less eyes while the person those eyes belonged to blurted out the word "Boo!" in her face loud enough to nearly nearly make her glasses fly off.

Twilight's response came in the form of a very undignified "AAAARGHH!" while she nearly tripped over her own feet in the process. It took her a few seconds to calm her breathing down enough to comprehend what just happened, and that the strange white eyes were the ones she had made for the spider-suit that Rainbow Dash was currently wearing while laughing her ass off. 

"Rainbow Dash! Will you stop doing that!?" Twilight fumed once she had recovered enough to speak, "One day you're going to give someone a heart attack!"

Dash stifled her laughter a little, "Hey, lighten up, Twilight! I only prank those who can take it, and you have simply the funniest faces when you're spooked, heheheh..." 

"And what exactly qualifies someone as being able to 'take it'?" Twilight questioned with the appropriate air quotes.

"Simple: they're not Fluttershy, preschoolers or as old as Granny Smith."

"Oh, so Fluttershy gets special treatment while you're going all out on me. That seems very fair," she noted with a dash of sarcasm.

"Hey, have you even met her?" Rainbow asked in a slightly more serious tone, "Even the lamest and most harmless prank can turn her into a sobbing mess and lock herself in her room...then stay mad at you for over a week until you decide to get her trust back by helping her out at the animal shelter...and then offering her ice cream. Trust me, it's not worth it."

"That's...an oddly specific example."

"Not one of my proudest moments." Rainbow admitted with a sigh. Then she struck a pose and asked, "Anyhow, what'ya think!?"

"I think you should stop pranking people...period." Twilight answered bluntly.

Rainbow responded to that with an even blunter "Not gonna happen."

Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. 'Rainbow Dash, you can be a complete jerk sometimes.'

"Though I actually meant about the suit." Rainbow clarified. "I mean, just check me out! Do I make this thing look awesome or what?!"  

Twilight adjusted her glasses a bit and took a good long look at Rainbow Dash in her new spider-suit. 



'Hmmm...it looks a little different than it did in Rarity's blueprints, but it seems to fit Rainbow perfectly. The sky-blue primary colour is very appropriate given her love of flying, and the darker blue for the legs and back compliments it very well. The red spider emblem was a bit hard to make, but it works well in giving the whole thing some style...or something like that. I don't really know fashion. And finally those eyes, they're practically perfect. The red bolts at the edges gives her a sharp look, and the white fabric makes her be able to see the world clearly and without any obstructions while also hiding her true identity from curious onlookers.

I got to say, Rarity definitively knows what she's doing. I could never have come up with something like this myself.'

"It...actually looks pretty good...at least that I can see." Twilight commented out loud, "How does it feel though? It's a bit hard to determine how comfortable something is to wear without actually trying it on first."

Rainbow flexed her limbs around and stretched a little to get a feel of it, "Well...it's definitively easy to move in...and the fabric feels...uh, fine, I guess. I got to say though, I'm glad I'm not a guy because this thing goes up in the crotch a bit if you move your leg up too much. And...why couldn't you just try it on yourself?"

"I would, but we don't really have the same measurements."

"'Cause you're a lot scrawnier than me? That's understandable, not everyone could have muscles like these!" Dash boasted while showing off her biceps.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "No, the fabric's elastic enough to compensate for any changes in musculature. What I meant was that I'm actually a bit taller than you."

Even with her mask on, Rainbow managed to give her friend a salty glare after hearing her say that. 

"You're saying I'm short?" She asked slowly and deliberately, almost daring Twilight to be foolish enough to confirm it.

Hearing Dash's tone made Twilight a bit apprehensive, knowing that she was now dealing with a slightly sore topic. "Um...well, technically-"

Rainbow cut her off and declared, "I'm not short! I'm...just...uh...aerodynamic! Yes, that's it! Aerodynamic! So don't you dare say anything else!"

"I didn't mean to upset you. I was just stating a fact."

"Well, you're wrong! Because I'm totally not short. No way, no how!" She stubbornly declared...seemingly though...in denial.

In an attempt to placate her, Twilight assured, "It's nothing really to be ashamed of."

"It isn't?"

"No, I wouldn't think so."

"You sure?"

"Well...at least there's less of a risk of bumping your head into something...and it might make it easier to fit into tight spaces. Not that you're that short, I was just saying that there are a lot of advantages that you might not be considering and that there is no reason to be hostile whenever someone brings it up unless they're deliberately teasing you or have something against people who...I'll just shut up now."

"Probably a good idea." Rainbow agreed, "I suppose you made a pretty good point though, or a few good points...or pointers. Whatever! You know what I mean."

For a moment, the two of them just stood there silently, not really knowing how to follow up their conversation. 

Eventually, Twilight took another look at her watch and got reminded of the schedule at hand, "Oh! I should probably remind you that the sign up booth for the contest closes in about ten minutes, so you might wanna hurry if you want to be in it!"

Dash's eyes widened under her mask, "Ten minutes?! Why didn't you say anything earlier?!"

"I thought we had plenty of time a moment ago. I suppose you changing into that outfit took longer than I anticipated."

"Hehe, I was just giving it a good look in the mirror." Rainbow admitted with a small blush that her mask didn't reveal. "Anyway, gotta dash, while you need to find a good seat to watch me kick some serious butt from the sidelines! Put in a good cheer for me, would ya?!"

Twilight was about to respond to that, asking whether it would be okay if she could go home or do something else than ending up watching a wrestling match in a crowd full of strangers, but Rainbow Dash had ran off before she had time to open her mouth. 

Twilight let out another groan. 'Darn it, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. Now I have no choice but to see the whole thing anyway. Not that it would be awful, because it could actually not be that bad, but sitting completely alone in a crowd of hooligans probably will.'

Out loud, she muttered, "If only there was someone in this place I knew..."

Then, a very familiar and very unexpected cheerful voice shouted, "INCOMING!"

"Wuh-what?"

The confused Twilight Sparkle barely had any time to react before a certain peppy party-planning-person with pink poofy hair came out of nowhere and hugged her so tight that she was lifted a bit off the ground in the process. 

While Twilight was struggling to breathe properly in the newcomer's iron-tight grip, said newcomer started to ramble a bit faster than she could keep up.

"Hey-ya Twilight! I was just on my way to deliver a couple of my newly baked chocolate muffins to your apartment when I saw guess who zipping past the street on her motorcycle! Spoiler alert, it was Sunset Shimmer...and she was really surprised that I recognised her in her biker outfit, even though I never forget what my friends look like, even brand new ones, but then she said you and Dashie were gonna see a wrestling game without inviting me, and I was like 'WHAAAAAAAT?', and then she was all 'Yeah, sure.', and I was like 'This I gotta see!', and that's why I'm here! Oh, and Sunset says 'hi'."

After she had been released from her friend's bone-crushing bear hug, Twilight adjusted her, now crooked, glasses back to their correct position and asked, "Pinkie Pie? Why are you-"

"I just told you that, silly! Where's Dashie? I haven't seen her anywhere, and believe me, I have looked EVERYWHERE! And also, who was that masked girl you were just talking to? She looked really funny. I wish I had a costume like that. Hey, do you think I can ask Rarity to make one for me? Well, do you, do you, do you?!"

Twilight blinked, just staring at the humongous smile on Pinkie's face...while also trying to process what it was she had just said. 

"Umm...I don't know. And that's my answer to...all three questions, actually."

"Huh?" Pinkie voiced while noticeable calming down. "So you don't know where Rainbow Dash is, who that masked girl was or if Rarity can make a costume like the one she wore for me?"

"Basically...yes."

"What a bummer..." Pinkie noted sadly...then did a complete 180 and sported another huge grin, "Well I am certainly not gonna allow any friend of mine to watch the show all alone! No sirree! Come on!"

Before she knew it, Pinkie grabbed Twilight's wrist and ran off with her over to the ticket booth. 

Pinkie was going to have some words with Rainbow Dash about not showing up...later...but for now, Twilight's happiness was her top priority, and she took her unofficial job as the cheering up-girl very seriously. Besides, Pinkie Pie hadn't been to a wrestling match in awhile, and if it was going to be so good that even Twilight Sparkle of all people went to see it, then she just had to see it as well.   





Meanwhile, in a cramped, slightly dark and very sweaty corridor leading up to the main wrestling arena, Rainbow Dash was standing in line with over a dozen strangely dressed and very muscular men about twice her size or even bigger. She just so happened to be strangely dressed herself, but she still stuck out like a sore thumb in this hallway of testosterone...as Dash was temped to call it.

In truth, she wasn't the only female around here, but the other two women she spotted were still much bigger and older than her. While Rainbow Dash certainly was a well-trained and athletic person, those other women had the musculature of bodybuilders and also stood a few heads taller than her. Though to be fair, that wasn't actually too much of an achievement.   

While Rainbow's boisterous and larger than life personality might fool you otherwise, she was actually very much on the short side. Last time she checked, she only measured to be 1, 58 metres tall...which was actually a full head shorter than Fluttershy.  In fact, about the only one in her circle of friends who wasn't taller than her was Pinkie Pie, but she was a bit bigger in...other areas. Heck, even Twilight were a few inches taller than her!

However, while she may have been a teensy bit self-conscious about that fact, she never let it slow her down. For what she lacked in size, she made up for in speed, agility and determination. Granted, her slightly shorter legs might not have the same reach as someone like...say...Lightning Dust, but that only gave her an extra incentive to train hard and give it her all. 

Also, while she didn't have the muscle mass to overpower someone like Applejack, Big Mac or any of wrestlers she was standing in line with, Rainbow could move a lot faster than any of them. Being built like a bodybuilder might make a person look tough, but a body like that was hardly practical, and more often than not just weighted you down and made you slow and bulky. Having a body more like an athlete would definitively give Dash the speed advantage she needed to win.

One might then assume that she was a fragile speedster, who could easily get damaged if her opponent ever managed to score a hit. And usually, one might be correct in that assessment. However...let's not forget that Rainbow Dash had very recently become far stronger than any normal human being usually could as a result of a certain bug-bite.  

Just the other day for instance, Rainbow made a small test to see how strong she had actually gotten since the spider bit her, and even she herself was surprised when she managed to lift an entire car with just her bare hands. Sure, it took a lot out of her and she couldn't hold on to it for long, but damn if it wasn't impressive. Also, she may have set off the car alarm and had to run from a nearby police officer...who luckily enough didn't catch a good glimpse of her appearance. 

Strangely enough though, Rainbow Dash's physique and built had not actually changed at all after she had gotten her powers. So the answer to where her immense strength physically came from was still anyone's guess. 

Still, since she looked a lot weaker than she actually was, she could definitively use that to her advantage. Her opponent would no doubt underestimate her as soon as they saw her, and that would most likely be their downfall as well as her trump card.

Now, all she needed to do was to convince the old man with the moustache and sunglasses sitting at the booth at the end of the line to let her participate in the tournament in the first place.

This turned out to be a bit of a hassle though, for as soon as it was Rainbow's turn to sign up for the competition, the old man raised a sceptical eyebrow and looked at her inquisitively. While her masked appearance made it difficult for him to see how old she was, the fact that she was half the size in both height and body mass to all the others he had let in, made him a bit suspicious. 

"Uhm...how old are you exactly?" He asked cautiously.

Thinking fast, Rainbow answered, "Twenty-one! That's...totally old enough for this thing, right?"

"Riiiiight..." While he remained sceptical, he didn't really have a way to actually prove her age and therefore had no choice but to let the matter slide. "So...what's your name then?"

Rainbow had spent the last week trying to come up with a good name to use in the tournament, and after all that thinking and deliberation, she had eventually settled on one that she was very proud of.

She put her hands on her hips and announced, "I...am the Awesome Spider-Dash!"

However, the old man's reaction to that name was not exactly what she expected. 

"Spider...Dash? That's what you're going with? Oh come on!"

"What's wrong with that?!" Rainbow questioned, feeling a bit insulted.

"That last guy who signed up was called Excelsior, surely you can come up with a better name than Spider-Dash! How about something like...the Amazing Spider-Woman?"

"The Amazing Spider-Woman?! That makes me sound like some kind of sixties comic book superhero! No way I'm calling myself that!"

"Weeeeell...if you put it that way, why don't you call yourself something like...the Spectacular Spider-Girl?!"

"Hummm..." Dash considered it for a second, 'I guess that kinda works. Let's test it! Spider-Girl...Spider-Girl...does whatever a Spider-Girl does... Yeah, rolls off the tongue way better than Spider-Woman at least. Still like Spider-Dash more though, but...eh, whatever, just roll with it.'

She then shrugged and decided, "Sure, that works. Though I'm still keeping the 'Awesome' part in it."

"You sure about that? You know, I think 'Amazing' or 'Spectacular' works a lot better. Or I know, why not the 'Sensational' Spider-Girl?!"

Rainbow gave him a glare though her giant unblinking white eyes.

"...Just sayin'."

Her glare persisted.

"Alright, alright, the Awesome Spider-Girl it is." he conceded while writing the name down on the participant list, "Now, you'd better go to the next room and wait for someone to summon you. And also...good luck out there, true believer!"

"Gee thanks!"

"Alright, 'nuff said. NEXT!"





About an hour or so later, and a bit deeper inside the building, an audience full of wrestling fans, thrill seekers, people aspiring to becoming wrestlers themselves and...well...Twilight Sparkle, were all sitting in attendance, patiently (or impatiently depending on who you asked) waiting for the spectacle that they had paid to see to finally begin.

The gates had opened 40 minutes ago in order to give everyone plenty of time to take their seats and get comfortable in them while waiting. Though for some, that was a bit too much time. 

Twilight herself was honestly just waiting for the whole thing to be over and done with so she could go home. Wrestling was really not her thing, and she felt extremely out of place among all the hardcore wrestling fans she was sitting with. Still, it could have been a lot worse: at least she got Pinkie Pie around to keep her company...even if she never stops talking.

"...and that was how I managed to eat two bags full of sugar-dipped doughnuts in precisely thirty-one seconds! I even timed it! Hey, maybe I can start a doughnut-eating contest now that people are getting bored with my cupcake-eating contests! Does that seem like a good idea? I mean, doughnuts are getting more popular these days, and while they aren't nearly as delectably delicious as the Cakes' homemade cupcakes, they're very goooooood...or at least Donut Joe's is. That place in Appeloosa had only boring doughnuts, and who wants that?! Clearly, Joe's the way it goes!"

"Not to sound rude or anything, Pinkie, but maybe you should consider slowing down on your daily sugar-consumption." Twilight suggested as soon as she got the word in.

Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight with a confused expression on her face and asked "What'you mean by that?" while she had her mouth full of marshmallows, a Pepsi bottle in one hand, and a cotton candy cone in the other. 

"Well...you do eat an awful lot of candy and pastries every day, and that's not exactly a healthy diet."

"Oh Twilight, you worry waaaaaay too much..." Pinkie assured while patting Twilight on the head, "...I brush my teeth every morning and every night forever and haven't missed a single time in over six years, eleven months, and four days! Mom and dad are very strict about that."

"That's...good, but don't you risk diabetes or well...you know...gain weight?" 

"Jeez, now you're sounding like Limestone." Pinkie snorted with a small huff, "She always tries to deny me my cupcake privileges just because I'm a pudgy pie. I mean, RUDE!"

"Sorry! I was just trying to help!" Twilight blurted out. 'What's with me and offending people today?'   

Pinkie Pie however, wasn't actually offended in the least and quickly put a friendly arm over Twilight's shoulders, "Don't you get all panicy on me, Twility-Twilight, I know you didn't mean it like that." Then she looked down at her belly, "Though you may you have a point; maybe I should slow down a little bit..."

"Have you ever actually tried?"

"Oh, a few times. The longest record I've ever had in not eating anything sugar was five days and eleven hours...THEN I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

"Was it really all that bad?"

"WORSE! It was completely impossible! Can you even imagine what's it like to go through five whole long days with no candy whatsoever?!"

"...Yes actually." Twilight answered honestly. "That's pretty much most weeks for me. I only eat candy when its a special occasion or someone offers it." 

Pinkie released a dramatic gasp and then stared her straight in the eye, "Then you have to tell me your secret!"

"What secret!?"

"The secret to resisting...", pause for dramatic effect, "...the temptations of sugar!"

Seeing a hint of desperation in Pinkie's currently unblinking stare, Twilight tried to come up with an answer to that question...but she didn't get a chance to voice it when a mighty fanfare began to blare into the arena and the crowd started to cheer loudly. 

'I guess I'll have to save that question for later...'  Twilight decided while turning her attention to wherever that fanfare was coming from. 

In her defence, Pinkie seemed to have already completely forgotten about that question herself and now seemed far more interested in what currently was going on. 

Several spotlights lit up and began to dance around the hall while the background music got progressively louder and more prominent. Eventually, a voice carrying a very affable and very American accent could be heard coming through a speaker.

"Why hello there, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for comin', thank you very much! Now, some of you may know who I am, uh-huh-huh! But if it so happens that you don't, however unlikely that may be, uh-huh, then I will do y'all the honour of introducing myself right here and now."

Then, a drum roll started to beat. 

"I am the man with the shining smile, the owner and founding father of not only this little arena we're in, but also the grand hotels baring my illustrious name, the fifth wealthiest man in the state and also a proud contributor to helpin' poor children in need. But y'all may know me as the man of the hour...Gladmane!"

Then, the drum roll ended with a spotlight revealing a man standing in the middle of the ring with shining silver hair made in a style that haven't been seen since the seventies, a ridiculously expensive blue suit adorned with all kinds of glitz and glam, and a smile that simply oozed of charm.

This man was either a middle-aged and slightly overweight Elvis Presley who had somehow come back from the grave...or far more likely the aforementioned Mr Gladmane himself.    

The moment he showed his face, the crowd went nuts, with many starting to chant his name over and over at such a loud volume that Twilight could barely hear herself think. It certainly didn't help that one of the loudest people around was also sitting right next to her.

To quiet down his adoring fans, Gladmane tapped a microphone that had been hanging down from the ceiling, and announced, "Now, while I most certainly appreciate all of your endless enthusiasm, fellas, uh-huh-huh, why don't we get right down to business, you hear?"  



"Wow, this guy has an ego alright." Twilight observed from where she was sitting.

Pinkie shrugged, "He sure does, but he's also the owner of one of my favourite amusement parks, so WHOHOO FOR GLADMANE!"

Twilight rolled her eyes...but also smiled a little at her friend's enthusiasm.



"So then..." Gladmane began, "...you folks came to some action, didn't ya?"

The entire audience except for Twilight, which included Pinkie Pie, collectively answered with a big "YES!"

"Then I will not disappoint you, huh-huh!" he assured with his Elvis-like noise added at the end. "So let's begin with today's show: the mighty and grandiose 'Clash of the Titan' event! A contest that pits non-professionals, as I'd hate to call them amateurs, hehe...against our very own Titan of the Ring himself! Whoever, if anyone at all for that matter, bests the Titan in a battle with both feet on the ground and in the confines of the ring itself by the end of it, then that lucky winner will be crowned 'the CHAMPION' and receive a generous prize of three-thousand dollars, curtsy of yours truly! Uh-huh-huh!"



The excitement of the spectators was so high that it could practically be felt in the air itself. Now, Twilight may not have been a fan of wrestling, but even she was starting to look forward to seeing this 'Clash of the Titan' event...though probably not for the same reason as everyone else was. 

'I guess this is where Rainbow Dash comes in.' 



"Huh-huh! Now, folks, the question of the hour must surely be who is gonna be today's Titan, am I right?" When he heard cheers of agreement, Gladmane revealed, "Well then. The first thing I would like to confirm is that the rumours are most certainly true as life...because for this day, and this day only, we have been given the privilege to have the undefeatable...the unflappable...the unstoppable...and the indomitable wrestling legend...Iron Will the Minotaur!"



As soon as his name had been uttered, a new spotlight lit up while an instrumental rendition of 'Eye of the Tiger' began to play in the background. This spotlight however, lit up at one of the two entrances to the arena where the legendary Iron Will himself stepped forth.

Twilight's eyes widened in dread upon the sight of the beast of a man that stood before her. 'I thought Rainbow's opponent would be big, but I didn't expect him to be this big.'

To say the wrestler was just big would be a massive understatement. This guy was huge! 

Standing nearly two metres tall, and with enough muscles to take a bull by the horns with his bare hands, one could immediately determine that this man would not be easy to take down in a fight. He also wore nothing on his waist up aside from a black tie and a nose ring, so his immense musculature and manly physique was very easy to make out. He also had a Mohawk on his head with a small goatee on his chin to accompany it, and wore a golden-coloured wrestling champion's belt with a bull's skull on it over his black shorts.   

Twilight gulped. 'I really hope Rainbow knows what she's doing. Otherwise, this could be...painful.'

When he realised that he was in the spotlight, Iron Will began to make all sorts of poses to show off his muscles to his loyal fans...even going so far as to give both of his biceps a kiss each before sporting a massive haughty grin. 

A chorus of "IRON WILL! IRON WILL! IRON WILL! IRON WILL!" could be heard chanted from every corner of the arena, and many spectators began to wave around signs with his name on them...including one that read IRON WILL OWN YOU. 

Satisfied with the audience's reaction, the wrestler picked up a microphone from...somewhere, and bellowed, "Iron Will's my name, crushing weaklings is my game!" in a very deep, yet very energetic voice. "Now, friends, I want to hear you roar if you want to see some power!"

They roared.

"Roar if you want to see some strength!"

They roared even louder.

"Roar if you want to see me defeated by an amateur!"

Most of them began to roar this time too...but then stopped themselves when they realised what he just said. A few murmurs of confusion spread across the audience until they were replaced by laughter. 



"Hahaha! Wow, he really got me with that one! Heheheheh!" Pinkie laughed in good measure.



But Iron Will managed to silence them all in an instant with a single sharp glare, then explained, "That's no joke, friends, as Iron Will is so confident in his status as champion of the ring that Iron Will has agreed to fight any and all beginners who think they have a chance of victory. That's right: ALL OF THEM! No breaks! No water! No nothing! Iron Will will keep on fighting until he is bested by someone who has the strength, speed and power to stand against the Minotaur in the Arena! But I pity the fool who doubts Iron Will's tenacity!"

He suddenly pointed directly at Twilight Sparkle and asked, "YOU! Girl in the glasses! You don't doubt me, do you?!"

Her heart almost stopped when she got singled out by the wrestler, and her face went beat red when the eyes of all the other people in the audience focused on her. Faced with the sudden unexpected attention, the slightly socially awkward girl could only stutter in response.

"Well, I guess I don't. I mean, maybe-"

"Maybies are for babies! Do you doubt me or not?!" Iron Will demanded in a harsh voice.

A bit intimidated, Twilight squeaked, "Uh...noooo..." 

"That's what I want to hear." He noted in a calmer tone before he took his focus away from Twilight and openly asked, "But what I want to know is: WHO IS READY TO FACE IRON WILL IN THE RING!?" 

"Ha-ha-ha, well, Iron Will, now isn't that somethin' we all wanna know?" Gladmane replied in an amused tone. "Turns out there's a whole line of people just outside, all waitin' for their chance to prove themselves, uh-huh-huh. But...will any, ANY, of them be a match for the Minotaur himself?! Well, let's take a look then, shall we? Uh-huh-huh!"


"...Sooooo exciiiiiiitiiiing..!" Pinkie Pie sing-songed in anticipation...while Twilight was busy trying to make herself as small as possible to avoid being singled out by anyone again. A situation not helped by the fact that Pinkie had gotten them front row seats for this match.

She may not be Fluttershy, or have the same crippling social anxiety issues, but Twilight was still not particularly comfortable doing anything in the spotlight if she hadn't carefully planned out every single detail from start to finish. Unlike Pinkie, spontaneous fourth wall breaks were not really her thing. (yes, fourth wall breaks can work that way as well, look it up)    


"Ladies and gentlemen, be prepared for our first contestant!" Gladmane announced, "For he is no ordinary warrior, oh no. See, when you start somethin', some might suggest doin' baby-steps. You know, begin little, piece by piece? Well I certainly don't agree! I say we start big! And there's none bigger than our first champion of the day! Uh-huh-huh!" 

To set up the mood for this mysterious challenger, an instrumental rendition of 'The Final Countdown' began to play.

"He trains harder than any man or beast has ever done before, he lifts cars and drags trains for breakfast, he has enough muscle on his body to make even the Incredible Hulk himself turn green with envy...hehe, I'm funny...and his roar is loud enough to scare a dinosaur right out of its grave, for he is...SNOWFLAKE!" 

At the mention of the name he had chosen, the contestant stepped out from one of the entrances and into the spotlight, making nearly everyone gasp at the sight of his very...unique appearance. 

While every wrestling fan in the world was used to seeing muscular guys, Snowflake, as he apparently called himself, took muscles to a whole new level. Not only were his arms practically enormous, but his chest, which was only barely covered by a sleeveless shirt, was built almost like a gorilla...on steroids, and his neck muscles looked strong enough to withstand a battering ram to the face, while his hands were...very small, strangely enough. 


However, Twilight actually did recognise this guy. "Wait, isn't that that one really big guy working at the Ponyville Spa?"

"You mean Bulk Biceps?" Pinkie asked while trying to get a closer look at him, "Well, now that you mention it...Yeah, it's totally him! Wow, I had no idea he was so into wrestling."

"It's not that hard to imagine if you ask me. I'm more surprised that he decided to go with that name. 'Snowflake' is really not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of him."

"Hey, at least it's better than 'Snowflame'. Trust me, that guy's a real party-pooper."

Twilight gave Pinkie a look, "Uh...who?"

Pinkie shrugged, "It's a long story."



After seeing who he was up against, Iron Will stepped into the ring with a determined look on his face. He looked Bulk Biceps, or as he was called in this match, Snowflake, right in the eyes and asked him, "YOU! Are you ready to get into the ring with the great Iron Will, battle ME in a battle of strength, endurance and tenacity?! Either lose when I blow my fuse, or try to prove that your pathetic hide is somehow worthy of the title of champion?! ARE YOU?!"

Snowflake's response came in the form of a loud and righteous "YEAH!!!", that he screamed at the top of his lungs, proving to everyone that he had the bravado to challenge the Titan of the Ring. 

"Then stop stalling and let's start brawling!" Iron Will commanded impatiently. 

Snowflake took Iron Will up on that invitation, and fearlessly stepped into the ring to face his opponent head on. The crowd eagerly cheering him on as he did so.

When he finally stood face to face with the Titan of the Ring, Snowflake shouted, "LET'S DO THIS!" while he clenched his fists intimidatingly. 

Snowflake had trained his physical prowess nearly every day of his life since he was a little boy, he could bench press more than anyone else at his gym, and his immense physical size spoke for itself. Surely, he, if any, would be a worthy opponent to the mighty Minotaur himself...

...or so he would have you believe.

In truth, the fight didn't even last a whole minute. 

While Snowflake may have been a very impressive body-builder, and certainly looked like a complete power-house...he unfortunately didn't have any actual fighting experience of any kind...or any idea of what he was getting himself into for that matter. 

As a result, the second after their match started, Iron Will simply grabbed Snowflake and literally threw him out of the ring before he could muster up any type of defence whatsoever. And while his immense bulk softened the impact of hitting the floor straight on his tailbone a little bit, it was still apparently painful enough to make Snowflake whimper in pain and run away like a coward instead of trying to maintain any semblance of dignity. 

To be fair, that fight could have gone down in history...but probably only as the most anticlimactic fight in wrestling history.



Twilight cringed a little at the sight, 'That's...not a good sign. If someone as strong as Bulk Biceps didn't stand a chance against him, what hope does Rainbow have? I'm starting to think this whole thing maybe wasn't a good idea...'

"Well, he didn't last as long as I thought." Pinkie commented out loud, then shrugged and took a bite out of a candy bar, "Well onto the next one then!"

"Yeah...the next one..." Twilight muttered with a bit of dread. 'The way I see it, the only way someone like Rainbow Dash, unless I've severely underestimated her new abilities, would be able to defeat Iron Will in this contest is if he starts getting tired after fighting off so many opponents after another. He did say he wasn't going to take any breaks after all. This means that Rainbow will have to be one of the last people they send in to fight him if we're going to have any chance of gaining any price money at the end of this...and also avoid the possibility of her ending up with any lasting injuries.'



Meanwhile, Iron Will crossed his arms and let out a sigh...then he looked at Gladmane and asked, "Is that it?"

Gladmane chuckled a little, "He-he-he, well that was just the first of what we got to offer! Though I believe that there is a lesson to be learned in all of this, uh-huh-huh! And that lesson is that looks can be very deceivin', you hear? Well, let's hope that holds true for our next contestant! See, up next we have someone very different than what we usually see around here, uh-huh-huh. Not only are we dealin' with a member of the fairer sex this time, but I have doubts that this lady is even human!"

Twilight bit her lip, 'Please tell this isn't going where I think it's going...'

Now, a more orchestrated rendition of what sounded like the 60's Spider-Man theme started to play over the speakers. How that song even exists in this universe is anyone's guess though. 


"That's right, folks, now we are welcomin' the terrifyin', the deadly, and the venomous wall-crawlin' arachnid who can do everythin' a spider can do...the Awesome Spider-Girl!"  

As soon as her new nickname had been uttered, Rainbow Dash, dressed in her equally new Spider-suit, leaped out of the gate, bounced off the floor and landed on top of the ropes around the wrestling ring. 

There was a spotlight meant to illuminate her for the audience, but she had moved way too fast for it to keep track of her. Well, at least until she decided to sit still for a moment. 

Once perched on the rope steadily enough, she cheerfully greeted her new opponent with a casual, "Hey there!"



"Oh no." Twilight quietly muttered from where she was sitting. '...and it is going where I thought it was going. Well...scratch that idea.' 

"Hey, wasn't that the masked girl you were talking to before?!" Pinkie asked her once she had gotten a proper look at the Spider-Girl.

"I guess she is." Twilight replied with a sigh.



Iron Will, once he saw who he was up against, merely crossed his arms and scoffed, "Seriously? This is what the great Iron Will has to face? First cowards, now little girls!? I demanded an actual challenge!"

"You want a challenge, ox boy?!" Spider-Girl teased, then jumped above his head and landed behind him, "I'll give you far more than that!"

Iron Will let out a smile, "Well, at least you seem to have some spirit..." then he turned around to face her and finished that sentence with, "...BUT THAT ONLY MATTERS IF YOU HAVE THE SKILLS TO PROVE IT!"

"Touche," Spider-Girl answered, then took on a battle stance and uttered "Bring it on!" in an attempt to look badass...though internally...her thoughts were more along the lines of...well...'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm going to fight Iron Will the Minotaur! I. Am. Going. To. Fight. Iron Will the Minotaur! One of my favourite wrestlers of all time, and I am going to fight him! This is gonna be so AWESOME!'

Iron Will took on a stance himself, though his was a lot more intimidating given his much bigger size...and also because he wasn't the one wearing what looked like a skin-tight blue onesie. 

Just from looking at them standing next to each other, the size difference between the two was very obvious. Spider-Girl barely reached up to her opponent's chest, and Iron Will had to actually look down to see her properly. Also, judging by his massive frame, big arms and noticeable abs, compared to her thin and light speedster build, the Spider-Girl didn't seem to stand a chance in a physical confrontation...at least at first glance.

However...things rarely are as they seem; and this time, it was Iron Will who had no idea what he was up against.


With a sharp sound of a bell, the match was on, and Iron Will didn't waste a single second before he charged at her like a raging bull, hoping for a quick and effortless victory.

That victory however, proved a bit trickier to achieve...when Spider-Girl's spider-sense kicked in. 

She knew exactly what he was going to do as soon as he started moving, and with her reaction speed, she had more than enough time to expertly jump over him with a somersault added in for good measure. But she did not stop there. With the speed Iron Will was running at, he had no way to stop himself before Spider-Girl sent him flying straight into the ropes with a swift kick to the back, effectively using his own weight and momentum against him. 

While he was lucky enough to not fall out of the ring, Iron Will did end up slamming his belly into one of the ropes at high speed. Needless to say, the impact was a bit painful...even for him.

Still, someone as stubborn as Iron Will would never go down that easily. In fact, all the attack really did was make him a bit annoyed.

The wrestler let out an irked snort through his nose and turned around to continue the fight.

Only...Spider-Girl wasn't there anymore.

"Yo, Willy, up here!"

Iron Will was a bit surprised when he heard her voice come from above him, but he was even more surprised when he saw that the Spider-Girl was hanging on to the metal contraption on the ceiling that the spotlights were attached to.

"You little spider-monkey!" Iron Will cursed, "GET DOWN HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!"

"Why don't you come up here and fight like a spider?" Spider-Girl quipped back.

"Are you trying to mock Iron Will!?"

"Duh, of course I am! Is it working?"

Iron Will could only growl in response.

While she was already hanging up there, and could get a pretty good view of the place, Rainbow made a quick check of her audience to see their reactions.

'Wow, this is quite a crowd! Feels a lot different when you're in the spotlight instead of in the audience. This is way more exciting! Oh, and there is Twilight...and with Pinkie Pie? Wait, when did she get here? Also, is it just me or do some of the other people in there look kinda familiar?'

Something that one would probably never guess just by looking at her, was that Rainbow Dash had something a bit similar to a photographic memory that even she herself was mostly unaware of. This ability always gave her an acute awareness of her surroundings, especially when moving around at high speeds, and it helped her immensely when playing sports like soccer or basketball. Though she had had this ability long before she got her powers, the spider-sense meshed pretty well with it, and only made her more aware of what was going on around her.

However...there was one problem with this. See, for while she could keep a thorough check on her surroundings most of the time, she did have a terrible habit of missing things that were going on right under her nose...such as when Iron Will decided to reach up and grab her by her ankle while she was too distracted checking out the audience for instance.

Distracted as she was, she didn't even notice what was going on before he pulled her away from her perch on the ceiling and slammed her back down onto the floor. She hit it like a bug on a windshield, her chest and left cheek taking the brunt of the impact. Saying that it wasn't the most pleasant landing in the world would probably be a bit of an understatement.  

Rainbow let out an agonising groan, 'Stupid spider-sense, aren't you supposed to warn me about these things?'



"That looked painful," Twilight commented while wincing at the sight.

"Yeah..." Pinkie agreed, "I hope she's okay though. I might have to make some hospital muffins otherwise. Do you think she likes lemon or chocolate?"


Having seemingly already defeated his opponent, Iron Will slammed his foot onto her back to keep her down, and then struck a pose for the audience.

"When someone tries to mock, I'll show them THAT I ROCK!" he loudly announced, earning another cheer from the spectators to fuel his ego. "Remember, kids, this is what happens when you act like a coward before the great Iron Will! I pity the next fool who tries to pull an attempt like this on Iron Will again!"

Pinned under his impressive weight, and still feeling the impact of being slammed down to the floor from such a height, Rainbow Dash was not exactly in a favourable position...to say the least. It didn't help that she was also wearing a full-body spandex outfit that was uncomfortably clinging onto her body when she was starting to get sweaty, with a mask that didn't make it any easier for air circulation either.

'Well, at least I tried.' Rainbow silently conceded, 'I suppose it would be too much to ask to win against someone as awesome as Iron Will the Minotaur on the first try, right?'

Though, just when she was about to give up...she realised something.

'Wait, wait, wait, the fight isn't over yet, is it? Hell no if I got anything to say about it! I'm freaking Rainbow Danger Dash! Since when did I give up this easily?!'

Under her mask, Rainbow's expression turned into a sly grin, 'Besides, no one said webs weren't allowed...' 

Seconds before the match was about to be declared a victory in Iron Will's favour, the wrestler was taken completely off-guard when he suddenly got sprayed with a face-full of cobweb. A bit of a cheap shot, sure, but she had a reputation to maintain, and she wasn't going to let everyone's first impression of the 'Awesome Spider-Girl' be that of a pushover.

With Iron Will temporarily distracted trying to free his face from the sticky and surprisingly tough webbing, Spider-Girl ceased the opportunity to spin out from her position under his foot, quickly take a grip on his leg, then yank it hard enough to make him trip and fall down to the floor.

Now free from her previous predicament, Spider-Girl got up back up on her feet with a surprising spring in her step. And even though her body was still in a bit of pain, she showed no visible signs of any injuries and her outward attitude was just as sharp as it had been when she had first stepped inside the ring...probably even sharper, actually.

With a particularly hard pull, Iron Will finally managed to rip the webbing out of his face. Though...the act of doing that stung quite a bit. Now with his vision cleared, he shook his head and blinked a little in an attempt to make sense of what just happened.

The sound of a very annoying voice that he had very recently been introduced to then got his attention.

"I'm sorry, were you in the middle of something? Tell me what hurts most, your back or your ego?"

Iron Will immediately realised what she had done. 

Just when he was about to win and move on to a hopefully more challenging and less irksome opponent, the little spider had somehow gotten the drop on him and turned the tables in less than ten seconds. In other words: she had decided to embarrass him in front of his fans with a cheap trick, and then rub salt in his wounds by mocking him.

Needless to say, now he was pissed!

Iron Will sprang up like a spring with a very clear look of irritation and barely controlled rage on his face. "Oh, OH, I'd hate to be you right now, for Iron Will is gonna rain down a world of hurt for trying to humiliate Iron Will!"

"Trying?" Spider-Girl scoffed, "Thought I succeeded with that already."

"YOU THOUGHT WRONG!" The wrestler shouted just before he charged at her again, this time with his arms extended in an attempt to catch her with an arm-lock. 

Once again though, her spider-reflexes gave her the advantage, and she easily side-stepped out of the way while simultaneously ducking under the arms that were making a futile effort to stop her escape. It didn't even take her a second before she had ended up behind him again. 

Before he had time to react to the Spider-Girl's quick escape, she proceeded to fire a sling of web at his back and used it to yank him across the ring and throw him straight back into the ropes on the other side.

As cocky as ever, Spider-Girl commented, "Hey, this is a lot easier than I thought, and this isn't even my final form!"

Spider-Girl's boast didn't really make much sense to Iron Will while he was recovering from his second painful impact with the ropes today. "Uh, what?"

"Sorry, been watching too much Dragon Ball lately." Spider-Girl admitted while scratching the back of her neck, "Though come to think of it, anyone ever tell you you sound a lot like that Hercule guy? I can't be the only one who's noticed that, can I?"

"I DID TOO!" Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted from the audience.

Rainbow couldn't help but give out a small chuckle at that, but Iron Will was not nearly as amused by the comparison...even if he had no idea what she was talking about. It didn't help that her next comment happened to be, "Well, I guess it makes sense considering that you're both just as impressive, which is to say...not much at all."

That was it.

Now practically seething with anger, Iron Will made yet another reckless charge at her while letting out a vengeful war cry. While it might have been more successful to learn from his mistakes and try something else, Spider-Girl's excessive taunting and cheap tactics had fuelled his rage to his breaking point.

However, this time, Rainbow decided to changer her tactic. 'Same thing three times in a row? I knew making him mad would be the trick. Now, time for my coup de grace...'

As soon as he came within range, instead of trying to avoid him, she gave him quite a surprise when she suddenly grabbed him by the torso and threw him over her shoulder with an expertly timed judo throw. 

Rainbow Dash had dabbled a little in martial arts in the past, and her spider-strength gave her the edge she needed to perform such a feat. However, neither of those facts were Iron Will aware of, and considering his mood at the time, he likely wouldn't have thought about that even if he was aware of it.

This time though, the ropes didn't catch him, and Iron Will was flung out of the ring entirely with a considerable painful landing on the floor outside. Luckily, he didn't sustain any permanent injuries, but it was pretty clear that he was down for the count.

For a second there, it looked as though he was about to get right back up...but then he fell back down to the floor in exhaustion.

The crowd was shocked into silence by this outcome. Not a single one of them ever expected the great wrestling legend Iron Will the Minotaur himself...to get handily defeated by a little girl in a silly spandex costume who had never stood inside the ring of a wrestling arena before. 

Heck, even Pinkie Pie was speechless! Not an easy feat, mind you. 

Spider-Girl put her hands on her hips and looked around in the audience to see the spectators' very entertaining reactions. 'Man, the looks on their faces are precious!'

"What? Didn't any of you think I had it in me?!" She asked out loud, causing a couple of murmurs to be heard from the crowd. 

"Well, well, well..." The charming voice of Gladmane began, the man himself stepping into the ring to stand next to the victor of the spectacle he had just witnessed from the sidelines. "It seems to me that we have a new winner, uh-huh-huh. Now, folks, let's all hear it for our new champion: THE AWESOME SPIDER-GIRL!"

With his announcement, everyone in the audience began to stand up and cheer as loud as they could, the shear power of their voices quickly filling Rainbow Dash with pride. 

She completely relished in their attention and adoration, and pumped her arms in the air to show off her excitement, and after that even did a silly little victory dance.

It was even better when a chorus of "SPIDER-GIRL, SPIDER-GIRL, SPIDER-GIRL, SPIDER-GIRL, SPIDER-GIRL...!" started to echo across the room.

Even in the midst of this all, there was one voice among the lot who was cheering way louder than everyone else, even so much that Rainbow Dash could easily pick up on who it was.

However, the person who that voice belonged to...was not Pinkie Pie, surprisingly enough. She was cheering too, but Pinkie's cheers were nowhere near as loud as Twilight Sparkle's, who was just bursting with excitement and was practically bouncing in her seat.

"WHOOHOO! YOU GO, SPIDER-GIRL! HOOOHOOO! YEAAAAAAH!" The not so shy, but still nerdy Twilight shouted in an unexpected moment of bravado.

Even though no one could see it, Rainbow Dash was grinning like an idiot under her mask. 'This day has been freaking awesome! First, me and mom got over that stupid Gilda-thing, then I get to look cool while kicking Iron Will's butt, and now I'm gonna collect my reward and a new camera will be mine! Baby, I'm on a roll! Let's just hope my luck holds out.' 
> 3) Power and Responsibility, Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 3
Power and Responsibility, Part 3
A Spider's Wrath


'It's raining...

Like some stupid movie cliche, it's freaking raining...'

These were the thoughts currently going through Rainbow Dash's head while she was staring out her window. 

It was night, and the never-ending sound of raindrops hitting the glass was all that she could hear right now. She had tuned out everything else.

She had tuned out the sound of her friends constantly trying to reach her on her phone, she had tuned out the sound of her dad's crying downstairs, and she had also tuned out the words of comfort Captain Shining Armour was trying to provide him.

She didn't even care about the pain emanating from the newly-bandaged wound on her left forearm.

'Why couldn't it just be sunny, you know?

Rain...why did it have to fucking rain?!'

She didn't move a single muscle.

The only thing she could do was sit in her bed and stare at the recently repaired bedroom window. A window that she once broke, and that her mom had to pay a lot of money to have replaced.

'It's not stopping...it won't stop raining...

Why can't it just go away?'

The only movement she showed were the very few times she allowed herself to blink... 

...the few times she temporarily rested her bloodshot eyes...

...and the few times she forced more tears to pour down her face.

'I know why it won't stop.... 

I know why it won't stop raining...'

The small drops of saltwater that slowly made their way out of her tear ducts and across her cheeks eventually fell down and gathered on something she was holding onto.

It was a framed photograph...and there were many tears currently covering its glass surface.

The picture within...was of herself at the age of four...being carried by Firefly...her mother.

'It's because I made a mistake...'





Seven Hours earlier...

Rainbow Dash was on a roll! 

Not only had she successfully introduced herself to the world as the Awesome Spider-Girl, but she had also managed to defeat the previously undefeated wrestling legend Iron Will the Minotaur himself in an one-on-one confrontation. 

By all accounts, she had more than earned the reward of 3 000 dollars that she had been promised.   

However, Gladmane, the hotshot billionaire who had promised her that reward in the first place, was at the moment a bit preoccupied with a phone call of some kind while Rainbow had to wait in the corridor just outside his office until he would let her in. 

Normally, that wouldn't be a problem...except he was taking forever!   

As someone who had lived with ADHD her entire life, Rainbow was not a fan of waiting...to put it mildly. Even worse, in the quiet and boring hallway she was stuck waiting in, there wasn't even a chair or a bench or anything at all to sit down on, nor really anything worthwhile to do. 

If she had her phone on her, Dash could have watched something on YouTube, or texted her friends, or at least pass the time with some silly phone game. But as it would have it, Twilight was the one who was currently holding onto her cellphone...and that was just because she herself couldn't take it with her into the wrestling arena.

'This suit could really use some pockets...' she silently noted.

Plus, with Twilight and Pinkie Pie waiting for her outside, and the only other person in the room being some shady guy with a golden tooth in his rather unsettling smile who was suspiciously just standing around for some reason, she didn't even have someone to talk to either.  

Still, once she had the money, it would all be worth it...at least as long as she could stay awake long enough to recieve it. 

With nothing better to do, Rainbow ended up listening in on the snippets of conversation she could pick up from Gladmane's conversation on the other end of the door. 

"...While I get the idea, Miss Cinch, I'm still waitin' to hear how this would benefit me in the long run. In case y'all didn't notice, I stand to lose more money than..."

'Urgh, he's talking business. As if this couldn't get any more boring...'

"...Ah, I see, I see. Well then, I will admit that offer sounds mighty temptin'. But first, I want you to put in a good word for me with the Kingpin now, you hear? Nothin' too fancy, but a little recognition from the Big Man himself would be much appreciated."

Dash rolled her eyes, 'Seriously? How long is this conversation gonna take?'

"...He-heh, well I guess that's for me to decide, then. Anyway, now I gotta handle some business, but thank you for callin', thank you very much."

'Wait, is it finally over?'

The door to Gladmane's office promptly opened, and the man himself was quick to offer an apology. "Sorry I had you waitin', Spider-Girl. When you're runnin' as big of a business as I am, you need to make an awful lot of calls every now and then to keep it all afloat."

Rainbow shrugged, "Eh, as long as I get what I came for, it's no biggie." 

"Glad to hear it. Speakin' of which, would you come in one second?" Gladmane requested while he headed back to take a seat at his desk. Once comfortably sitting in his expensive leather chair, he added, "Now, that was some fightin' alright! No offence, but I never expected someone like you to take down the Minotaur that easily." 

After she had followed him in, Dash answered that with, "What? Didn't the 'Awesome' in the 'Awesome Spider-Girl' give you a hint?"

"He-he, well I hear names like that all the time in my line of work, but I've never seen anyone live up to them quite like you did. Colour me impressed!"

"Yeah, yeah, that's nice and all, but about that prize money..." Rainbow urged while rubbing her fingers in a gesture usually translated into 'gimme money'. 

That's however...when Gladmane's affable expression began to turn into something a bit more sinister. The smile on his face may have seemed at first to be that of a friendly guy enjoying a happy life as he went along...but now it started to hint that it more likely belonged to a greedy manipulator seeing an opportunity. 

"Say...what was the prize sum again? Three-thousand dollars, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

Gladmane reached under the table, pulled up a briefcase and placed it on his desk where she could see it. "How would you like over twice that much, right here, right now, with interest?"

"Wait, you serious?" Rainbow voiced in surprise, her eyes lightning up behind her mask. "Are you seriously gonna do that or is this just a joke? Because if you're not joking then that would be super-awesome!"  

"No joke, my friend. I'm dead serious about this," Gladmane assured. "I'll give you the seven-thousand dollars in this briefcase as your reward, and then I'll leave you to decide what you wanna do with 'em."

"AH YEAH! That's what I'm talking about!" Rainbow shouted while giving the air a punch. "That would make this way better than-" however, she then stopped herself when she realised something, "Wait, wait, wait! Hang on a minute...there's gotta be a catch to this, isn't there?"

"Well...I'm afraid there is, but it won't cost you all that much."

Now a slight bit suspicious, Rainbow crossed her arms and gave him a sceptical look. "Then what will it cost me?"

Gladmane positioned himself a bit more comfortably in his chair while clasping his hands together. "Well, your performance in the ring was nothin' short of stellar, uh-huh-huh. However, we both know you didn't win solely because of your wrestlin' skills, did ya?"

"Your point being?"

"Well, forgive me for pryin', but I couldn't help but notice those clever little web-shootin' things on your wrists. Now, if I'm right in sayin', then they're not exactly somethin' you would just find in the store some lucky day, huh?" 

Rainbow looked at the web-shooter on her left wrist and then back at him, "...I guess not. But why do you care?"

Gladmane leaned forward a bit, "Look, I got a few 'friends' out there who would love to get their hands on any kind of advanced tech there is, and those little gizmos you used to create those spectacular webs seems like just the sort of thing I need to make 'em happy. You hand 'em over to me, and in return, I'll pay ya way more than I would have for just winnin' this silly little contest. A fair trade, don't'ya thi-"

"No deal!" Rainbow suddenly declared, leaving Gladmane with a look of surprise on his face. 

"Come again?"

"No. Deal." Rainbow repeated with a bit more emphasis. "Not interested, not wanting to give away my web-shooters, no deal."

Clearly confused over why she would turn away such a tempting offer, Gladmane could only stutter, "But, but...why? That was more than twice the money you thought you'd get for goodness sake!"

"Look, I appreciate the offer and all, but giving away these babies," she pointed at one of her web-shooters, "no way! I'll just take it at the normal prize, thank you very much."

Gladmane gave the masked woman in front of him a frown, making it very clear he wasn't happy about her refusal. After all: he was Gladmane, and nobody said no to Gladmane...especially not when there was an opportunity this big for him within his reach.

"You know what, Spider-Girl, I'm makin' some changes to this deal!" He declared in a tone that lacked his previous charm and now displayed the anger hidden underneath. "Either you hand over one of them web-shooters or you're not gettin' any money at all!"

"What!?" Dash questioned while her eyes widened in disbelief. "You can't do that!"

"Oh really? And why's that?"

Rainbow let out a sharp groan, "Look, you said whoever beats Iron Will in the game wins three-thousand. I won, that means you have to pay me. That's the deal, end of story!"

"Yeah, but its still my money," Gladmane insisted. "And from the way I see it, I don't have any obligation to pay you a single dollar unless I get somethin' for it."

"No obligation?! My ass you don't have any obligation!"

Angered by her attitude and unwillingness to cooperate, Gladmane rose up from his chair and looked her straight in the face. 

"Listen to me, ya little punk! I'm Gladmane, the fifth richest person in the state, and no one is gonna stand in my way to becomin' number one, no matter who it is! Now, I want those web-shooters and I won't give you any of my money until they're mine, you hear?!" 

Rainbow stared him back with equal intensity, "I need that money."

"Yeah, and how exactly is that my problem!? I don't give a damn what you need! What I need are the web-shooters, and you will hand 'em over right now or get the hell out of my office and never even think about participatin' in a wrestling match ever again!"

A more practical person might have taken the deal by now. Twilight could easily make replacements for the shooters she gave away, and both her and Dash would get a lot more money than either were initially expecting. Walking away like this would mean that she ended up coming here for nothing, and would have to find some other way to get her hands on the money she needed. 

Sure, one might argue that Gladmane wasn't exactly trustful, and that he would no doubt have some less than honest use for the web-shooters if she gave them to him...but that thought never actually crossed Rainbow's mind. 

No, the reason she could not agree to his offer was because Rainbow Dash was at her core stubborn, arrogant, and not a fan of losing. She couldn't give in to his demands, he had to give in to her demands. She had to win, damned the consequences! 

So faced with an ultimatum like this, Rainbow really only had one response.

"FINE!" she shouted with contempt, then turned around and stormed out the door without another word...leaving her with no money, and Gladmane with no web-shooter.

After having slammed the door behind her for good measure, she let out a slightly suppressed scream of frustration while she clenched her fists and stomped on the floor a few times.

Even with her mask concealing her face, it was still very easy to guess her mood at the moment...which was exactly what someone else in the hallway actually ended up doing.

Just as Rainbow was about to get out of this place and change back to her regular clothes, that someone ended up asking her, "So that Gladmane fella refused to pay ya, did he?"

She stopped in her tracks, then turned around to see who was talking.

It turned out to be that one creepy guy with the golden tooth who were just standing around there before for some reason or another. 'Is he spying on me or something?'

A bit apprehensive about talking to this shady stranger, Dash urged, "Yeah, what of it?"

The man made a quick look around, as if to make sure no one else were listening in, then said, "Well, I dunno about you, Missy, but I'd want a little payback if he pulled a fast one on me."

"Payback huh?" Dash voiced, now a bit intrigued by what he was offering.

"Exactly. Look, you wanted the money, I get that. But I guess now that you're not getting any, you wouldn't want him keeping it either, right?"

"No...I definitively wouldn't," she agreed with a snarl.

"Lucky for you, I'm gonna go in there and...well...borrow it for a while...if you catch my drift."

Despite the fact that her face was hidden behind a mask, she raised an eyebrow while asking, "So...you're just gonna go and steal it?" 

"Yep," he replied with a grin that really showed off his sparkling golden tooth.

"Huh," Dash started to smile at the sound of that. "Well...I'm not stopping you."

The man gave a small chuckle. "Hehe, Good to know, buuuut...I might need a little of your help."

Rainbow put a hand on her hip, "Help in what way?"

"Nothing much. Just that as soon as I take the money, Gladmane will definitively already have switched on that pesky alarm and the guards will be all over this place. However, I've heard I'm a pretty fast runner, and if you could just keep the elevator doors open when I make my escape, then that will take care of both our problems."

Rainbow took a second to consider his proposal. 

‘Well it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve stolen something...and now it wouldn’t even be me doing the stealing. Besides, that jerk has it coming anyway.’

She then gave him a nod and said, “Consider it done! Just...don’t tell anybody I helped you. I kinda got a reputation to uphold.”

“No problemo," the man said with a grin. "Appreciate the assist.” 

With that settled, Dash started to make her way over to the elevator at a normal, slightly slower pace to avoid seeming suspicious. A trick she learned back in her shoplifting days, in fact.

‘Things were so simple back then. Just me and Gilda against the world. Dash and Griffon, Partners in Crime! Man, she used to be so fun to hang out with...ya know, back before she became a bitch, when we ran about stealing worthless stuff just for the hell of it, or played pranks on the teachers, or spray-tagged about every corner in the block! 

‘Okay, maybe in hindsight she was kind of a bad influence or something, but eh, at least no one was hurt. Well, at least not by me anyway. I mean, it’s not like it’s my responsibility what Gilda does in her free time, right?’

Rainbow then heard the alarm go off and a door being slammed open. 

‘That’s my cue!’ she noted to herself before she did her part of the bargain and clicked the button on the elevator door, opening it to clear a path for the burglar to escape. 

As expected, the golden-toothed guy did come running out of Gladmane’s office with a briefcase in his hands, followed by a distraught Gladmane as well as a couple of security guards who came out of the other doors in the hallway. 

The thief had a head start though, and the guards didn’t have any chance of catching up to him before he ran past the Spider-Girl, even giving her a wink as he did so, and straight into the elevator, clicked the lobby button and smiled at his own fortune when the doors closed before anyone could stop him.

The guard who was closest on his tail practically slammed into the door just after it closed. He grunted in anger, then turned to his fellow guards and ordered, “Dammit! Call the guys downstairs and tell them to catch him before he escapes!”

Unperturbed by the commotion, Rainbow hid a small smile behind her mask and nonchalantly pressed the button to summon another elevator. 

“Hey, you!” she then heard Gladmane call out, with him sounding no happier than she would expect after what just happened. Only this time, he had an air of panic about him as well. “What were ya doin’, just standin’ around there!? You could have taken that guy easily, or at least trip him or somethin’! Now because of you he’s gettin’ away with my money, you hear!?” 

Spider-Girl looked at him...then she echoed, “Yeah, and how exactly is that my problem?”





Rainbow clenched the framed photo a bit tighter, its glass surface now covered almost entirely with her tears.

‘How could I have been such an idiot?!’

If her throat wasn’t completely sore from all the screaming she had already done, then she would have screamed right now. If for nothing else, than it would be to vent the anger and guilt that was boiling underneath her skin.

‘Why couldn’t I have seen it sooner?!’

Her hold on the picture eventually became too hard for the glassed frame to handle...and it broke when she least expected it, spreading sharp shards of glass on the floor and creating a painful cut on her hand.

‘If I had just...just...just not been such a stupid moron!’

Despite the pain and the small amount of blood coming out of her hand, she couldn’t bring herself to care about that. 

The pain she felt inside was just too much...

‘If I had just listened to her when I had the chance...’



  

Six hours earlier...    

"Well that was total bust!" Rainbow Dash commented when she passed Twilight on her way out of the building.

Having been waiting in the lobby for her friend to collect the money and change back into her regular clothes for more than an hour now, she was a bit startled by the sudden comment, and it took her a moment to process what she just said.

Seeing that Rainbow was practically storming out towards the door with a grumpy expression on her face, Twilight ran to catch up with her. "What happened?"

"That jerk didn't pay me anything!" Dash answered with a grumble.

Twilight gave her a puzzled look, "Didn't pay you? But you won the match, right?"

Rainbow stopped. "Yeah, I did. But then that stupid Gladmane guy said he wanted my web-shooters, and wouldn't pay me until I handed 'em over."

"Wait...he wanted the web-shooters I gave you?" Twilight asked, starting to sound a bit worried.

Dash crossed her arms and sighed, "Yep, something about selling it to some people, I dunno." 

A bit more worried, Twilight suddenly grabbed her friend by the shoulders, "Did you give them to him!?"

"Of course not!" she replied before she pushed Twilight away from her. "But I couldn't even get the normal prize unless I-"

Their conversation was cut short when, all of a sudden, the front door was slammed open and a panicking Pinkie Pie came in shouting, "Rainbow Dash! Twilight! Come quick!"

Rainbow pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned, muttering, "Not in the mood, Pinkie." without even bothering to turn around to look at her.

Twilight on the other hand did look at Pinkie as she came in, and she immediately knew that something had happened as soon as she saw her.

Pinkie Pie was probably the happiest person Twilight had ever met, and had many ways to make fun of and enjoy pretty much any situation, no matter how bland or bleak. But right now...she showed none of that. Right now, she wasn't smiling, she wasn't joking around, and she wasn't laughing. Right now, she looked scared, her hair wasn't as puffy as it used to be, and Twilight was sure she could see tears start to form at the base of her eyes.

Seeing her like this, she immediately asked, "Pinkie?! What is it? Are you okay?" 

Pinkie stuttered a lot when she tried to answer, "It's...it's...it's Firefly, I just wanted to say hello to her, but she's been...been...SHOT!"

Rainbow Dash's heart stopped the moment she heard that...and she immediately forgot all about the situation with Gladmane and the money she didn't get. Instead, she sharply looked at Pinkie and screamed "WHAT!?"

Pinkie began to tear up, "She...she...there was this guy who showed up and...and...oh god, it's horrible..."

In a clear tone of voice, Rainbow asked, "Where is she?!"

“She’s...she’s...”

Now raising her voice loud enough to silence the entire lobby, Rainbow repeated, “WHERE IS SHE?!”

To her credit, Pinkie was trying to hold in her sobbing as much as she could...but being as emotional as she was, she really had a difficult time doing that.  

Still, she made an effort to calm herself enough to answer, “I’ll...I’ll show you.”





Rainbow Dash fell down on her bed while she dropped the broken frame on the floor.

‘I wish you were here right now, mom...’

In the position she was currently in, all Dash could do was stare at the boring featureless ceiling. It wasn't as if the stupid pitter-patter of raindrops on the window was any interesting to look at either.

‘I wish you could just come and give me a hug like when I was little...even though I pretended to hated it.’

She thought she had used up all the tears she had by now, but that still didn’t stop her from starting to cry all over again.

‘Mom, please...just...please tell me this is just a nightmare or something...

...please tell me that you’re still alive.’





Rainbow ran as fast as she could...

She could see the commotion that had started at the parking lot, as well as all the police officers, paramedics and curious onlookers who had gathered around to see what was going on.

“Mom?”

Rainbow didn’t care about any of them. She ran right through the crowd as fast and as desperately as she could. She didn’t even care for her two friends who were trying and failing to catch up with her.

“Mom!”

Anyone who stood in her way, she pushed aside without a pardon or apology...and that included the cops who had formed a perimeter around the person she was seeking.

“MOM!”

Rainbow’s heart twisted even further when she finally got through the crowd and her eyes set on the bloody, quivering and frightened face of her mother.

Firefly had been shot with a handgun at very close range in the gut, and her pink sweater was stained in blood...blood that kept leaking from her wound despite the valiant efforts of the paramedics who had arrived far too late to help her. Her body was trembling as she was desperately trying to breathe, and her eyes were opened wide in shock.

Dash fell on her knees before her while frantically shouting, "Mom, mom, mom, please, please, please, tell me you're okay, please!"

Upon hearing the distraught voice of her daughter, Firefly tried the best she could to look her in the eyes. Rainbow assisted her efforts a little by gently lifting her head up a bit.

Firefly tried as hard as she could to stay awake...to stay conscious...to stay alive...but...she knew that it was fruitless. As a trained soldier, she knew when a wound was fatal, and she knew that she was hit in a place that she would not survive unless she had been treated immediately. Faced with such odds, Firefly knew that she was going to die...and in front of her own daughter no less. 

She needed to say something, anything to make this moment count...but she could already feel her vision slipping away from her no matter how hard she tried to push back.

"Da...Dashie..." Firefly managed to croak out.

Rainbow Dash's eyes were watering, slowly but steadily, her composure crumbling with the tears that were building at the frames of her eyes. She would not believe what she was seeing, she could not believe what she was seeing, she couldn't accept that this was happening right in front of her. 

"Mom, I'm here. You're gonna be okay. Stay with me, please stay with me, mom!"

"Dashie, I...urgh, I’m...uhg...uhh...uhhhh..."

But Firefly couldn’t finish that sentence...for she did not have the strength to do so. The image of her daughter, Rainbow Dash, bursting into tears while begging her to stay was the last thing she saw...and then everything went black. 

"Mom, no, don't go...no, no, no, no..."

Rainbow saw her mother's eyes stop moving, she felt her heart stop pumping, she felt her stop breathing, she witnessed her mother die in her own arms. The woman who took care of her, the woman who raised her, protected her, taught her everything she knew, and the family member she loved the most...was dead. 

"Don't leave me..."

Gone...gone forever...never coming back...ever.

"I don't want you to go!"

Rainbow's walls completely broke down, and she began to cry into her mom's shoulder. She knew that this wasn't just some horrible nightmare, or a temporary problem that would be forgotten over time. No, this was a tragedy that would change her life forever, no matter what she did. 

Even with all of her powers, Rainbow Dash was completely and utterly powerless in this situation. She couldn’t go back in time and prevent this from happening, she couldn’t whip up a healing serum to make her bounce back and be her regular self again.

All she could do was accept one simple fact...

Her mother was dead, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

However...that didn’t mean there wasn’t something she could do. 

With her keen perception of her surroundings and her still active spider-sense, Rainbow scanned the crowd around her for the information she needed to know.

The first thing she picked up on was Twilight trying her best not to puke after seeing so much blood. This must have been the first time the poor girl had ever seen something as gruesome and morbid as this in real life. ‘Useless’ 

She also sensed the heartbreaking wailing of Pinkie Pie who couldn’t even bare to watch. ‘Useless again.’

Then she noticed that some jerk was taking a picture of the crime scene on his smartphone. ‘I would kill you right now if I didn’t have someone else on my list first. Also useless.’

However, then she focused on a nearby police officer, and tuned her ears to listen in on his radio.

“...suspect’s heading north-east towards Saddle Row...officer’s DeWolf and Skies in pursuit...”

‘That was just what I needed to know.’

Her eyes focused, switching out sadness for boiling tranquil fury, her mouth straightened to become a single thin line, and she slowly and steadily stood up straight while staring straight ahead.

‘The son of a bitch who did this...’ she clenched her fist in anger, ‘...he is not getting away with this!’





Rainbow Dash stopped her endless stare at the dark ceiling and turned over on her side, letting the tears coming out of her left eye gather on her pillow.

'All those soccer games we had that I always won, all those crazy adventures we shared...they're all gone.'

She clenched her bed sheets in frustration and self-loathing, memories of what happened earlier in the day still haunting her.

'I'm never gonna see you again, am I?

...we're never gonna have that match you promised me...

...because...because you're dead.'





The streets of Canterlot were in turmoil that night, as a heated car chase was in effect.

A stolen vehicle, Firefly's car to be specific, was speeding through the city at maximum velocity, with no intention of stopping or even slowing down for anything. 

Pedestrians crossing the street were shown no mercy and had to leap out of the way if they didn't want to end up as road kill, and drivers who didn't want to get their cars wrecked had to try to stay clear of the maniac as best they could. 

Heck, even the driver of the stolen vehicle himself could be considered to be in mortal danger from his own reckless driving.

In fact, the only reason he was risking his life and the lives of others by driving this fast in the first place was to shake off the three awfully persistent police cars that were tracking his every move.

The sound of their sirens were like annoying flies that he just couldn't get rid off, and the flashing red and blue lights that he could make out in the car's mirrors were stressing him out more and more. 

It was actually a goddamn miracle that no one had as of yet gotten hurt by his frantic driving. Though for every second that passed, the risk of that happening increased exponentially. 

Still, not even the risk of a catastrophic accident would stop him from trying to shake off the cops pursuing him.

Though, when it came down to it, they were not what he should have been worried about. 

Too focused was he on what was pursuing him on the streets...that he had no way of knowing of the masked figure following him on the rooftops above.

Rainbow Dash...or rather...the Spider...was after him. 

All things considered, it wasn't hard for her to track him down. All she really had to do was follow the sirens...and then follow the familiar car that he had stolen.

While she didn’t have the time required to change into her spider-outfit completely, she made sure to strap on her web-shooters as well as her mask to make sure no one recognised her. The last thing she needed in her life right now was Rainbow Dash being accused of the crime she was planning to commit.

With one eye focused on the car at all times, Rainbow meticulously jumped, swung and climbed from rooftop to rooftop, coming closer and closer to him with every passing moment. 

And then...when she felt in her gut that the time was right...she took a running leap from the roof she was on and aimed right for the speeding car on the street below.

For any normal person, a jump like this would no doubt be suicidal. But Rainbow Dash...she didn't care in the least. Not just because her superhuman physiology and reflexes made any potential fall damage mostly a non-issue in many situations, but also because her own safety and well-being were the least of her concerns.

Right now, her body was running on pure rage as well as an endless supply of adrenaline. Any restraint or compassion or even basic logic was out the window. All she wanted, no, needed, was revenge.

He was going to pay, and there was no stopping her from making him do just that.

Or...at least, that was what she thought at the time.

She landed on the hood of her mother's stolen car on all fours so hard that she dented the metal plating underneath her. It was a painful landing, even for her...but her anger made it easy to push past it. 

Rage turned out to be one hell of an anaesthetic when it really came down to it.

Her sudden appearance caught the driver completely off-guard. He had been stressed out enough as it was, but when the masked woman came out of nowhere and dropped down upon him like that...he completely lost it. 

All sense of what he was even doing vanished the moment she showed up, and he desperately tried to turn the vehicle around in a foolish attempt to shake her off...while driving way too fast for such a move to be even remotely safe. 

As a result, the car flipped over entirely, sending both of them crashing towards certain doom.

However, just as that happened, Rainbow's spider-sense kicked in. 

The world around her seemed to slow down to a crawl as her very perception of time itself changed right before her eyes. It was almost like watching a scene in slow motion. Only, when she was doing this, she also could sense the world around her more acutely than she had ever been able to before. 

Dash could even 'feel' that if she didn't do something within the next two seconds (which, to her, was a lot longer than it sounds), she would no doubt be crushed into mush by the one-ton car falling on top of her. If she wanted to survive, she would have to act inhumanly fast. 

However, if there was one thing that Rainbow Dash excelled at, it was speed.  

She quickly attached both of her feet on the roof of the car while spreading them evenly to maintain balance, then she aimed both of her arms to her sides and released a sling of webbing from each one that eventually both found their mark on the wall of a nearby building each. 

This took most of those two seconds. 

Now, to make sure her extremely quick thinking paid off, she grabbed the web-lines and held on as hard as she could, while she used all the strength she had left to push the car back with her legs.  

Miraculously...it actually worked.

While Rainbow was subjected to searing pain in her arms and legs (enough that it felt like they were all going to snap out of their sockets), her superhuman spider-strength, as well as the impressive tensile strength of the webs she was using, turned out to ultimately be enough to stop the car's momentum.

She held that pose for a moment in order to take a deep breath and come to term with the fact that she was, indeed, still among the living. 

Once she had properly done so, Dash gave the vehicle another powerful push with her legs and flipped it back to its proper position. That is, with all four wheels on the ground.

Now, this would seem to be a perfect opportunity for the car thief to start driving again...but he was in no mood for that anymore. 

While it had been brief, the car flipping over was quite the roller coaster for the frail human being trapped inside it. Since he didn't bother putting the seat belt on, he pretty much rolled around along with it. Fortunately for him though, he managed to avoid any fatal injuries. Although that was more dumb luck than anything else. In fact, he probably owed his life to the vehicle's airbag if anything. 

Dazed, frightened and confused, the man deliriously pushed open the door and fell to his knees on the sidewalk. A small stain of blood dripped down a bit from his forehead, likely due to him at some point slamming his head on the car's ceiling some time during his near-crash experience.

His heart was beating faster than it had ever done before, and his breaths were quick and desperate. He didn't even have a clue as to what just happened or what was going on right now.

He was given no time to recover and figure that out though, as a sling of webbing attached itself to his back and forcefully yanked him off the ground. With a pained whelp, his back was slammed into a brick wall, then harshly pulled by the string higher and higher up a building. 

Now on the verge of panicking, the man shouted, "Wha-what's happening'!"

"It's called payback, you creep!" the enraged and unforgiving voice of Rainbow Dash answered from above.

"Who are you!? Let me go! PLEASE!"

"LET YOU GO!?" she nearly screamed. "After what you did to her!?"

"What? No, it was an acci-"

Before he could even hope of finishing that sentence, Rainbow threw him over the edge and made him land on the hard concrete roof of the building they were on. 

"Save your excuses! All I want to hear are your screams!" she threatened while she menacingly started to approach him.

Fearing for his life, the man scrambled to his feet and pulled a gun out of his jacket, then aimed it at Rainbow with his shaking hands.

Dash's eyes narrowed when she saw it. 'That's what he used to kill Mom with!'

An almost painful tingle from her spider-sense then rang out in her head...just before the burglar sent off three badly aimed bullets flying in her direction. With her enhanced reflexes and speed, she barely just managed to move her head out of the first bullet's trajectory in time before it hit her...while the second bullet missed her completely and the third one graced her arm and gave her a painful surface wound on her skin...that she did her best to ignore. 

Had he been a better shot, Rainbow Dash likely wouldn't have survived this encounter. 

To prevent him from shooting her again, Dash quickly sent a sling of webbing into the barrel of his gun, conveniently just in time to block the next bullet's path and stop it from leaving the weapon. With a hard yank on the line connecting her web-shooter with his pistol, she pulled the weapon out of his hands and landed it right into one of her own.

She didn't make an attempt to use it however, and instead took a firm grip with both hands on the infernal metal contraption before she bent it so hard that it literally broke in half.        

The broken pieces of the weapon were thrown away like garbage, and the man was given no opportunity to flee when Rainbow closed the distance between them and lifted him off the ground by the hem of his shirt.

She stared him mask to face and then...she froze.

'Wait...'

Rainbow had been so full of anger that she hadn't even bothered to pay any attention as to who she was actually chasing, but...when she got this close to him, she noticed something.

'That face...'

The terrified mess of a person in front of her...the same man who she knew had been the one to shoot her mother in the gut, and who then tried to do the same to her...had the face of someone she had met before...rather recently in fact.

The part that really caught her attention was when she spotted the shiny reflection of a single golden tooth in his mouth.

"No...it can't be you..." she stuttered in horror. "I let you go...and then you..."

Her eyes widened.

Realisation hit her like a freight train.

"No...no...no, no, no..."

She let go of him and took a few steps back as she realised what she had done.

"No...no, no, no..."

Under her mask, more tears began to form behind her eyes, and she even fell on her knees from the weight of the guilt that was started to overcome her. 

She clasped her skull in her hands and mumbled, "What have I done...what have I done?" then she smashed a hole into the concrete beneath her with her fist, "WHAT HAVE I DONE!?" 

The killer didn't dare to move, and he didn't dare to say anything either. And worst of all, her reaction made him begin to realise just what he had done. 

Rainbow let out a loud and heartbreaking scream filled with anger and despair. One that was so loud even the people on the streets below could hear it.

Then...her guilt turned into pure unfiltered rage.

She got up and grabbed the man by his shirt again, but now she used her strength to lift him up and drag him over to the edge of the roof. 

Once he realised where she was dragging him, he pleaded, "No! Please, don't do this! I'll do anything! Please!"

Just as she reached the ledge, Rainbow pulled him close and said, "I should drop you. After what you did to an innocent woman, to a woman with a loving family, to a woman worth far more than a pathetic piece of trash like you! A quick death is the least you deserve!" 

"Wait, you do-don-don't wanna do this!"

"That's where you're wrong," she pulled him closer, "I do wanna do this!"





Someone was knocking on her door.

It was a gentle knock.

So gentle in fact...that Rainbow could even make a good guess as to who it was.

‘It’s my fault this happened...’

She didn't open the door though, nor did she attempt to lock it or tell the person on the other side to leave...or even to enter.

She just laid where she was, and stared out the window in silence.

‘...they say it was the burglar who was responsible, but they’re wrong...'

Not even when the door eventually opened did she move or even attempt to look at who it was...she just continued staring at the infuriating rain outside.

...it was all my fault.’ 





The truth was that Rainbow Dash very much wanted the man to die.

He had taken her mother away from her...he had shot her dead for no other reason than wanting to get his hands on an escape vehicle...he had killed a good woman just because she was in his way. 

There was no way Rainbow could ever forgive him for what he had done, no way she could ever forget...and no way in hell she was letting him get away with it either!

However...when she looked into the frightened eyes of the man she held dangling off the ledge of an eight-story building and knew that his life was literally in her hands...she somehow knew that what she wanted to do right now...was wrong.

Her mother once told her something...and the memories of what she said that day started to come back to her...

"Beating people down to get them to do what you want is a bully's way of dealing with things, and I know you're better than that, Dashie!..."

'But, mom...he...he killed you. I can't just let him get away with that.'

"When I was in the airforce, I saw good people, even friends, get gunned down by our enemies, and for a time I wanted nothing more than to return the favour. But...when I finally had the power to do that, I refused, and instead forced the enemy into a surrender, even though there was no tactical reason for doing so."

'Why? Why can't I just let this asshole get what he deserves?'

"Why? Because I knew that they didn't deserve it. And if they did, it was not for me to decide. For with great power, there must always be an even greater responsibility to go with it. Always remember that."

Rainbow closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. 'I...guess you're right, Mom. No matter what happens...I'll never be a killer like he is. I'm better than that.'





The person who had just opened the door didn't say anything...they just stood there...watching...waiting...

Then they closed it, and took a few slow steps toward the bed. The steps were light, and were taken with extreme caution. This already ruled out any possibility of it being her father. He was always more quick on his feet, no matter the situation.

Rainbow then felt something weigh down on her bed a bit as the other person had just sat down on it. She could also hear that person's very feminine-sounding breaths softly grace her ears. So far...nothing had gone to contradict her first suspicions about her identity.

The final nail in the coffin came when Dash felt a soft smooth hand gently begin to stroke her shoulder. 

A left hand.

And there was only one lefty she knew who would be here for her at this time and place.

"Fluttershy?" she croaked out from her tired throat.

"I'm here for you, Dashie..." Fluttershy assured in her motherly tone, while she continued to gently stroke Rainbow's arm. "For as long as you need me, I'll be here."

Dash moved her head just enough to catch a glimpse of the face of her oldest and most supportive friend, and the sight of Fluttershy's beautiful, yet sad, blue eyes. 

It was a sight that told her at least one thing.

She was not alone. 

And while she was a long way from being happy, or even remotely okay for that matter...it still made her feel just a tiny bit better.  

Fluttershy laid down on the bed next to her, and then slowly wrapped an arm over Dash's waist while burying her head in Rainbow's neck.

"There, there, Dashie...it's gonna be okay..." she whispered.

After a moment, Rainbow said, "Th-Thanks, 'Shy."

Nothing more needed to be said between them...so the room fell into silence as Rainbow cried herself to sleep in the comfort of Fluttershy's arms.





Earlier that night, the police found the burglar trapped in a silk cocoon hanging off a street lamp...yet he was still very much alive and mostly unharmed. 

While many questions remained as to how he ended up that way or who the mysterious woman who caught him was, the man was ultimately arrested for his crimes, and was now well on his way to spending the next couple of years behind bars.

It was as much of a punishment as Rainbow could inflict upon the man right now.

Justice was served...

...but...it was not going to bring Firefly back. 

Nothing would.
> Luna's Shadow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
Luna's Shadow


While you would have to had been living under a rock your whole life to not know who Celestia was at this point, her younger sister Luna was relatively unknown. That was not to say that she wasn't famous, she just wasn't as famous as Celestia.

While Celestia was the one who the company was named after, it was Luna's idea to start CelestiaCorp in the first place, and by all accounts was its true founder. In general, Luna was actually a slightly better businesswoman, had a greater understanding of finances, as well as a keen ability to judge other people's motives and agendas, and most of time was far more intimidating than her sister if she needed to be.

So why wasn't the company called 'LunaCorp' then? Well, simply put, Luna just didn't have her sister’s charm or cheerful personality, or even the same amount of motherly wisdom, and she was definitively not anywhere near as comfortable at being in the spotlight. Plus, Luna's hair-trigger temper made her a poor candidate when it came to negotiations or public appearances. Beyond that, Celestia was also capable of inspiring people in a way that her sister never could...and that was something Luna secretly hated.

It had always been this way. Ever since they were kids had Celestia been the centre of attention. She got asked out by all the cute boys, made friends with all the popular girls, and managed to impress everyone around her with her radiance and beauty. She was like a sun, providing light and warmth to anyone who set their eyes on her...while casting a shadow, intentionally or not, over her little sister. 

That shadow did not earn Luna any favours. Unlike Celestia, she was rarely approached by anyone, as either a friend or flirt. She was just...in the background. Everyone knew her as just Celestia's sister, and not as her own person. 

However, instead of suffering in the shadows Celestia unknowingly cast over her, she embraced them and made them her own. She became a part of the night, and sought friends and a name for herself in the dark places, where the light never touched. 

It was there she saw a different side of Canterlot. For while the city was advertised as being a successful metropolis where everyone lived in prosperity and was welcome to all...the truth was a lot different. Luna saw first hand how much the people suffered at the bottom of the food chain, how the criminal underworld ruled the city with an iron fist, and how much of what she had been told was a lie. 

Betrayal, loneliness, depression and desperation, she had experienced it all. She had suffered greatly, and was forced to compromise to get her way more often than not. Yet, despite it all, she had managed to survive everything the world had thus far been able to throw at her. And not only that, but she had also succeeded in becoming one of the most influential people in all of Canterlot, owning nearly half of the most successful science corporation in the world.

The founding of CelestiaCorp was not without a great cost however. The money needed to start the company came, in fact, from Celestia and Luna's parents. More specifically, from the inheritance the sisters gained after their passing. 

Their parents were, for lack of a better word, loaded, having been big investors in the now-buried research company called 'Starswirl Laboratories'...and when they died, the considerable funds that they had earned went straight to their daughters.

Luna considered herself lucky though for scoring the greatest inheritance their parents had, at least in her own opinion...and that was the old and expensive apartment she now lived in. 

Located on the top floor of a 40-story building, the old flat had a pretty good view of the Canterlot City skyline. In fact, if one looked out through the kitchen window, you could easily spot the CelestiaCorp logo. 

The apartment itself had a very classy feel to it, and one could even smell how old it was as soon as you stepped through the door. 

Luna's choice of decor however made the whole place feel a bit less warm than it should have. The walls were decorated with many, many masks of all shapes and sizes, all handpicked from many different cultures, with some dating back centuries, or possibly even a millennia or two. In addition, there were quite a lot of paintings around the place depicting things like moons, stars and other wonders in the depths of space. Also, she didn't have too much lighting in the apartment, only a few faintly glowing blueish lamps, a couple of candles and a lit fireplace.

Now what could someone like Luna be doing to pass the time in this old and dark apartment?

Why, play on her X-Box of course!

Lazily draped over her couch and equipped with a headset, Luna had the look of a killer in her eyes as she concentrated on the giant luxurious flat-screen in front of her. 

Being single and living alone, Luna didn't feel the greatest need for looking all that presentable at the moment. Instead of her well-brushed and wavy state she usually kept her lavender hair in, what she had on her head right now was a bit more messy and unkempt. Also, while she usually came to work in her black suit or her purple blouse, she was now wearing little more than her underwear and a dark blue bathrobe.  

She had been playing against this one opponent going by the username 'ButtonMashPotato1' in 'Halo 2 Anniversary' for over two hours now, and Luna was on the verge of driving her opponent mad. 

Just about every move 'ButtonMashPotato1' tried...ultimately failed. He tried to strike Luna's character in the back with an energy sword, but didn't expect Luna to immediately turn around and shoot his character in the face with a shotgun, he tried to snipe her from afar, but Luna managed to snipe him first, he even tried to gun her down with two submachine guns at close range, but then Luna just threw a plasma grenade at him, got out of the way and let it explode.

After hearing the overly dramatic announcer voice say "Killing Spree!" as in to pour salt in 'ButtonMashPotato1's wounds, Luna cheerfully boasted, "HA, HA, the fun has been tripled!" 

A high-pitched and immature male voice came through Luna's headset. "Yeah, fun for you maybe."

"Of course, thy worthy opponent!" Luna responded in a ridiculous version of Shakespearean English. "We rather enjoy this relentless stream of victories over thee." 

"But do you have to talk like that? I can barely understand what you're saying."

"Does thou not likest us to speak in thee accent? We humbly think it brings a certain charm to thy game."

"...you're only talking like that to annoy me, aren't you?"

"Guilty, guilty, and oh so very guilty!"

"I hate you."

Luna giggled a little at that, "Hahaha, that was only to test how true your belief of victory was. After all, with how good you put yourself out to be, I was actually expecting a challenge."

"Oh, I'll give you a challenge alright..." 'ButtonMashPotato1' warned dangerously.

"Well, it's about time in that case. Now please, give me your best sho-"


Ding-Dong!


She was interrupted by the distinct sound of someone ringing her doorbell. 

Luna wasn't expecting any visitors today, especially not in her own home. Most likely it was probably just some salesperson thinking they could persuade her at the door with some brand new product that she had no interest whatsoever in having. However, since Luna couldn't be sure of that until she went over and checked, she unfortunately had to end her little gaming session with 'ButtonMashPotato1'. 

"My apologies, but I'm afraid that challenge will have to wait until next time," Luna said with a sigh.

"What?! But I was just about to beat you!"

"I am sorry, but ‘tis someone ringing at my door at this moment. I must answer it."

"Nooooooooo!"

After pressing a few buttons, Luna terminated the match, even though there were still five minutes left of it. Since it was online, she couldn't just pause the game and continue later...not unless she somehow had the ability to stop time...which she did not. Still, even though video games were fun, the real world was unfortunately a bit more important at the moment.

With a brisk pace in her step, Luna approached the door and checked the identity of her visitor through a monitor she had installed in it. Of course, being a person in a high position of power, Luna made sure that her apartment had all the security it could need, which included door cameras and hidden safe rooms. She was sure she also had a loaded gun stacked away somewhere, but she had forgotten exactly where. 

When Luna saw just who her mysterious visitor was though, she immediately wished she remembered where that gun was...not that such a weapon would be able to even scratch the literally bullet-proof skin of the person she was looking at...but it would be immensely satisfying.  

'Out of all the people in the world who could have paid me a visit today, it just had to be her.' Luna thought with a groan.

Despite how much she really didn't want the woman waiting outside her door to come anywhere near her private sanctuary, she knew she had no choice but to let her in...especially considering who Luna knew that the woman was working for.

Besides, she was admittedly a bit curious about what could possibly bring someone like her here in the first place. 

With a sigh, Luna reluctantly unlocked and opened the door to 'greet' her new guest. 

Standing on the other end of the open doorway with a harsh scowl ever-present on her face was a middle-aged woman dressed in a dark blue suit and skirt. Her curly violet hair was tightly organised into a bun that gave her a certain professional aura while the small red glasses resting on her nose made her at the same time look a bit more frail and old than she actually was. Also, despite the fact that she was of Afro-British ethnicity, her skin was extremely pale and even had a strange teal-like tone to it.    

This was Abacus Cinch, a well-known and respectable businesswoman who owned many, if not all, of Canterlot's law firms. Her reputation as a devoted servant of the people, as well as a firm believer in truth and justice, made her quite popular among the Canterlot elite, and was well sought after in those circles. 

However, Luna knew that all of that, including her name, was merely a front. 

The woman currently standing before her was, in fact, one of the most powerful crime lords in the criminal underworld, second only to the Kingpin himself. In those circles, she was known by another name entirely...one that terrified nearly everyone who heard it...

With a snarl, Luna uttered that name. 

"Tombstone." 

In a condescending and sarcastic voice with a noticeable English accent, Tombstone replied, "Miss Luna, always a pleasure. Though...may I remind you that you are to refer to me as 'Miss Cinch' whenever possible."

Not having the patience for any false pleasantries, Luna went straight to the point. "What are you doing in my home, Miss Cinch?"

"I am here to discuss a certain...issue that has come up as of late," Cinch answered cryptically. "However, all those stairs I had to climb to get here has left me a bit exhausted, so I'd prefer if we could talk about this matter inside your apartment instead of out here. I'm sure you understand."

It didn't even take a full second before Luna answered with a blunt "No." 

Seeing Cinch's perplexed look, she clarified, "This is my home, and it is reserved for me, my friends, and my family. You are neither. And if this is about business, then you can take it to my office at working hours just like everybody else."

Cinch got a dangerous glint in her eyes and coldly clarified, "...That wasn't a request."

Luna met her glare with one of her own, but she stayed silent while she did so.

'Hmmm...so Mister Storm decided to send Abacus 'Tombstone' Cinch of all people to ask me a few questions...even though he could have just given me a call for that. Or alternatively...she's here to kill me where there are no witnesses to implicate him. Still strange that he would send Tombstone for something like that, given how many mercenaries, serial killers and assassins he has in his pocket who are far more suitable to his wetwork and far less valuable to him than Cinch is in the long run. Plus, she wouldn't be caught dead carrying out hits like a common thug, even if Rex told her to. Maybe this is just another one of his foolish attempts to show his respect to me? If so, then I am not amused.'  

Curious about her intentions, Luna eventually agreed. "Very well, then," she said, stepping aside to let her new 'guest' come in.

Cinch entered the apartment without saying a word to her reluctant host. Then, she spared a moment to take in the peculiar intricacies of Luna's flat...and she raised an eyebrow.

"Of course. Another dimly lit place to do business in..." Cinch commented under her breath.  

Luna heard the comment though, and when she walked back over to the couch she had been lounging on before the unwelcome interruption, she quipped, "I have seen your office, Abacus. You have no right to complain."

"Yes...well, at least I have an excuse to avoid the sun. Albinism can be such a bother."

Having already slouched down on the couch, Luna urged, "Cut to the chase! Why did Rex send you?"

Cinch's calm demeanour vanished in an instant at the mention of that name, and she grabbed Luna by the hem of her bathrobe, pulled her close and warned, "We do not use his name! Say it again, and the consequences will be most dire for you!"

Luna said nothing. Instead, she just rolled her eyes and sighed.

Cinch grunted and let go of her, letting Luna fall back on the couch with an annoyed expression on her face. 

Having gotten her message across though, Cinch decided to take a seat at the nearest available chair. While she did so, she once again resumed her stoic and unflappable disposition, turning as cold and lifeless as the type of stone she got her nickname from...metaphorically speaking, that is.

However, in her hubris, Cinch didn't notice that the chair she was just about to sit on was already occupied until after its occupant began to screech at her...thus making the normally very professional businesswoman jump with a panicked screech of her own. 

She didn't have time to compose herself when whatever it was she just sat on jumped out of the chair, climbed up on the couch and perched itself on Luna's shoulder. 

Cinch's first instinct would be that the creature was a cat or possibly a small dog, given its general size and the fact that it lived in Luna's apartment. However, that idea flew out the window as soon as she spotted the slightly rat-like tail it seemed to possess. It was also way too big to be a common house rat for that matter. Only once she saw the animal in the relatively lit place on its owner's shoulder, then she could identify it.

"A possum!?" she snarled in disgust.

Luna was desperately trying to keep herself from keeling over from laughter at the apparently unflappable Tombstone's less than dignified reaction to meeting her little pet marsupial. 

"Hahehehehhahahahahha! Oh, oh, did little Tibbles scare you too much, O-mighty Tombstone? hehe!" Luna taunted in a mocking tone that Cinch did not appreciate in the slightest.

She then scratched the possum a little under his chin to make him calm down while she proceeded to do the same. "In all seriousness though, is it really fitting for someone of your reputation to show fear of a small furry mammal like my dear Tiberius?" 

In an attempt to spare whatever dignity she had left, Cinch clarified, "It is not fear. I simply have a few...allergies."

"Of course you do..." Luna muttered with a smug grin.

Cinch then pulled up another chair, made sure this time that no other animals were sitting on it, then took a seat and gave her host a calculating look. 

She stayed silent for a while...then she asked, "Tell me, Luna...what exactly does the name...'Nightmare Goblin'...mean to you?"

To Luna's credit, the only visible reaction she showed was a small frown and a moment of silence while she processed the question. Eventually, she replied, "Not much aside from the fact that it sounds a lot like an 'Ogres and Oubliettes' monster. However, if you are referring to an incident near the docks recently involving a mad bomber in a goblin costume, as well as the unfortunate deaths of two innocent dockworkers, the hospitalisation of a third, a staggering loss of eight-thousand dollars worth of technology, oh, and then there were those two goons who died there as well...then I would say that it is deeply troubling for me, my sister and our company."

"I'm sure it is..." Cinch mused with a certain amount of sarcasm in her tone. "However, I do feel compelled to ask if you have something more to tell us about this mysterious attacker?"

Luna sighed, then sat up a bit, letting Tiberius curl up in her lap. "I only know what I have been told. I wasn't there...if that was what you were implying."

"Luna, don't you think it's a remarkable coincidence that the same shipment that you tipped us off on was the same exact one that this 'Goblin' attacked? Furthermore, we have also determined that she was using a considerable amount of CelestiaCorp technology. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you had absolutely nothing to do with this?"

"In case you didn't know, CelestiaCorp was raided a couple of weeks ago, and several of our high-tech weapons, including a glider and a couple of smart bombs, were stolen," Luna explained while starting to sound a bit frustrated. "And...as a result of that theft, I have lost the payment and terms of our agreement, as well as the expensive technology in the container that was destroyed, and all our research into the tech-flight gliders have been shelved indefinitely. Now please tell me just what I could possibly hope to gain from any of that?"

Tombstone considered it for a moment while she took the time to clean her glasses with a napkin. Her logical mind suggested that Luna was likely telling the truth, given that her logic was sound and she showed no obvious signs of lying...

...However...there was one little detail left that still brought that into question.

"...There is one other thing. While the official records speak truthfully about what the survivor, Amethyst Star, recounted, she was not our only witness. The mercenary we call 'the Shocker', also survived, and told us a few things about the incident. The most interesting by far being that this 'Goblin' person referred to the Kingpin...by name."

That made Luna's eyes widen in surprise for a second. 

So far, she had remained stone-faced, nonchalant or unflappable since the goblin was mentioned, but that one moment of weakness broke that façade just long enough for the ever-perceptive Cinch to notice. 

Glad to have found a weak spot in Luna's tough exterior, Tombstone pressed on a bit more, "...And, as you so disrespectfully just demonstrated, you are one of the few people alive who are privy to that information. So...how do you suppose she learned of that name?" 

"I, uh...I don't know how she..." Luna stuttered, now on the verge of starting to panic. Her eyes darted back and forward, and a small drop of sweat had begun to form on her forehead. "...I mean...there must be...a..."

Then, all of a sudden, she calmed down...and looked Cinch straight in the eyes without blinking. 

Something in Luna's attitude changed right then and there. It wasn't particularly obvious, but there suddenly was a certain glint in her eyes she just didn't have a second ago. The tone of her voice even changed a little...while the tiniest hint of a smile graced her lips. "Hehe...heha...hahahah...Your arguments would have been funny if they weren't so...pathetic."

"I beg your pardon?!" Cinch questioned in a perplexed tone, obviously confused by Luna's response and rapid change in demeanour.

Luna casually leaned back, any sign of anxiety or distress was no longer noticeable. Instead, she was confident, relaxed, and strangely enough...a bit happy for whatever reason.

Her new attitude was also reflected in her choice of words. "My dear old Tombstone, you are just too adorable when you act like you're in control. Of course, being the control freak that you are, you have to have your delusions about being in control of the criminal network you're managing, right?"

Cinch gave Luna an angry scowl, "What is the meaning of this?! I asked you a question, and you will answer it!"

"No. Hehe...no, I won't be answering any questions from you. I don't talk with walking sock puppets."

Tombstone's face turned red with anger. "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" 

"That's what you are, aren't you?" Luna answered mockingly, not intimidated in the least by the older woman's temper. "You know as well as I that our mutual 'friend' doesn't really have friends...or even equal partners. He only associates with three kinds of people: enemies, slaves and unwitting pawns. So tell me, Cinch, where does that leave you?"

"He is my employer. I only work for him because it benefits myself!"

"So...unwitting pawn then? Figures." Luna noted with a pleased sigh.

Cinch slammed her fist down on the armrest of the chair she was sitting on hard enough to audibly crack it. "Enough of this nonsense! Answer my question or there will be consequences!" 

"Hahahaha-hahahahaaa! As if you could do anything to me!" Luna boasted, now sporting possibly the most psychotic smirk Cinch had ever seen on the normally more stoic woman. "So what if it seems as though I'm in league with this crazy masked terrorist? Which, for the record, I'm not. You have no evidence against me, so you cannot take it to the police. And if you or your master decides to take care of me the old fashioned way, I have...well, let's call it 'life insurance'."

At the mention of that, Cinch calmed down a little. "...And what exactly is this 'life insurance'?"

"Evidence," Luna began while she put Tiberius on the seat next to her and stood up. "...evidence that that will expose Mister Storm's name and accompanying face to the light. While that obviously wouldn't stop him, it would make him very...let's just call it...'upset'. More than that, the same evidence will put you, Toomy, behind bars for the rest of your days."

"How so?" she scoffed.

Luna took a few steps towards her. "I have records of what really happened at Starswirl Laboratories...records that mention you by name back when you served as a puppet for Tirek and the Canterlot Maggia...including your involvement in the abductions and unsanctioned experiments on people like Sombra, Adagio Dazzle, Fizzlepop Berrytwist, Aria Blaze, Scorpan, Sonata Dusk, my sister and ME!"

Luna was practically seething with rage by the time she finished that sentence, and even Cinch was taken back by the force of her words...though the stoic businesswoman made as much of an effort as possible to not show that. 

"Now, if something were to 'happen' to me, I have arranged to have all of that information be leaked to the public...which is why he cannot hurt me without a very good reason."

Cinch thought about that for moment, then pointed out, "If you do indeed have such incriminating evidence, why haven't you already leaked it? Surely, that would have saved you a lot of trouble."

"Of course, I could...but then where would that leave me? That's right, it would be to sign my own death warrant! Not even I am reckless enough to pick a fight with the Kingpin, and he knows it. Whoever this goblin is that you're looking for, it is clearly someone a lot dumber or more insane than I am."

Having heard all that she needed to hear, Cinch stood up and stared Luna face to face. "For your own sake, Luna, I hope you are correct about that." 

She gently pushed Luna aside and took a few steps towards the door out, but then stopped midway and said, "However, if I discover that you are indeed involved with the Goblin, then the Kingpin will have to remind you of what happens to those who disrespect him."

With a smile forming on her face, Luna replied, "In that case, tell him if he truly wants to get rid of me, he will have to come do it himself."  

Without another word, Cinch snorted and then walked out of Luna's apartment, the armoured front door closing behind her.

Tombstone may not have tolerated being disrespected, but Luna was a very personal issue for the Kingpin, and the very last thing she could possibly want right now would be to incur his wrath. With no evidence as of yet, it would probably be a good idea to hold off on any actions right now.



However, after she had left, Luna ended up staring at the closed door for over a minute without really doing anything.

Then...she began to giggle...

"Mhmhmhmhehe..."

...then the giggle turned into a chuckle...

"...hehehheheheh-hahaahahahahahah..."

...and then the chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh. 

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

She just couldn't contain herself...nor could she stop her laugh from turning even more crazed and irrational. 

"HAHAHAAAAHHAHAHAH-HAHAHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Not only was her voice turning more and more mad, but also her eyes as well. 

It was often said that a person's eyes were the windows to their soul. And if that was true, then it would become clear by now given how her pupils started to become slit like a cat's and turn as focused and predatory as a tiger stalking its prey...that it was not Luna's soul that was looking through her hysterical eyes. 

It was someone else...something else...

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAA!"

"Having fun, are you?" A voice suddenly asked her.

The madly cackling 'Luna' calmed her laughter down a tad and turned to look at her nearest reflection, which turned out to be a big, full-body mirror standing just outside her bedroom. 

However, her reflection did not have her crazed eyes or maniacal smile, but instead had Luna's regular eyes, and instead of a smile, the reflection reserved a stern and unamused glare. Her arms were even crossed for added effect.

The Luna outside the mirror sounded very happy with herself when she gleefully answered, "Most definitively! But not nearly as much as when I got under the skin of that stuck-up control freak. That was a privilege!"

Her reflection rolled her eyes.

"My dear sweet little Luna, don't be so glum. Even you had to have enjoyed that."  

"I do not enjoy having my body hijacked, Nightmare!" Luna, now trapped outside her own body, shouted from the mirror.

The Nightmare Goblin, now in control, gave her other half an irritated look. "Nor do I enjoy having my own existence reduced to being nothing but a bad dream! Besides...you were sweating up a storm when Cinch was interrogating you, and I had protect myself just as much as I had to protect you."

Luna snorted, "Please, with the way you were acting, you might as well have just confessed to what you did right then and there! At least then nobody other than you and me had to die."

"Oh, are you still hung up over those poor little dockworkers we blew up?" the Goblin asked in a patronising way. "You know as well as I that Rex won't fear someone who isn't afraid to get her hands a little dirty. Sacrifices will have to be made."

"THOSE. WEREN'T. SACRIFICES! Those were living breathing people who did not deserve to be punished for my personal vendetta! But I suppose a psychopath like you wouldn't know that, would you?"

"My sweet deluded Luna...who is it that succeeds in the business world these days? Is it the friendly and naive little do-gooders who humbly asks permission before doing anything...or is it the ruthless and efficient psychopaths who are prepared to go to any lengths to achieve their goals? Now, I don't know about you, but I think you need a little psychopath inside you to survive in this cruel and unforgiving world."

"I NEVER needed you!"

"Yes you do! If it wasn't for me, CelestiaCorp, the company you built out of your own sweat and blood, would have fallen into the hands of that power-hungry man-child Rex Storm or someone worse! I am the one thing keeping those wolves from taking the things you love away from us!"

"Be that as it may, it still doesn't change the fact that you have turned me into a murderer!"

"Aww...but that is why you have me around to love you...why I am around to do the things your morally-poisoned mind would never think of doing. I'm the you without all that guilt and mercy holding me back. Face it, Luna, you need me...and I need you."

Luna could only look at her hated shadow with contempt. 

"One day, Nightmare...one day I will find a way to get rid of you...even if it is the last thing I do."

"Haahahahahahaha! Well then...good luck! Hahahahahahahhaahha-HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!"
> Rainbow's First Act of Heroism
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
Rainbow's First Act of Heroism


The Sugarcube Corner Bakery was usually a very happy and warm place to be in...where people young and old could get away from their daily worries and talk over a cup of coffee or one of Pinkie Pie's legendary cupcakes. 

The key word in that piece however...was 'usually'.

"I'm never getting that image out of my head..." Twilight groaned while blankly staring into the chocolate milkshake she had just ordered.

Right now, neither she nor any of the other four teenagers sitting at her table felt anything close to being warm or happy. 

"Tell me about it," Pinkie Pie commented in a sour tone that sounded pretty much the opposite of how she was usually like. Heck, even her once poofy hair was hanging straight down as if it had lost all of its energy. It was a depressing sight indeed.

Spike looked between the two uneasily, not really knowing what to say, while Fluttershy looked ready to burst into tears at any moment and Applejack was just silently staring out the window aimlessly. 

"Hey, look on the bright side..." the boy eventually tried, only to be met by the combined glare from everyone else at the table after he had spoken up. He carried on regardless though, even if he suddenly got a bit more nervous about it, "I mean...it could be worse...right?"

"I appreciate the sentiment, Spike, but thinking about how it could be worse isn't making me feel any better right now," Twilight grumbled before resuming her endless stare-down with her milkshake.

"Was that, um...the first time you've ever seen someone...well, um...die before?" Fluttershy asked, a sympathetic tone covering her words.

"No...but it was the first time I've seen that much blood..." Twilight answered, still sounding a bit shell-shocked. "...at least from a real live person."

"You know..." Pinkie started, still sounding uncharacteristically monotone. "...I never plan funerals. I will throw parties, weddings, birthdays and Hearth's Warmings all the time...but I never ever throw funerals." 

As she carried on however, more and more anger became evident in her voice.

"They just feel wrong. There's no laughter, no fun, no joy, no smiles, nothing! They're not about making you feel happy, they're about making you feel sad! And you should never be sad! Not when you could be happy instead! Please tell me no one will throw one of those sad, no fun parties when I die! I never want people to be sad because of me!"

"So...I take it you won't be coming to Firefly's funeral then?" Spike guessed, still sounding a bit nervous as he did so.

Pinkie looked a bit uneasy at the question, her eyes darting all over as she thought about it. "I...I...I don't know! It's not like I don't wanna be there for Dashie, but...but...I HATE FUNERALS!" 

She then proceeded to break down into sobs while a fountain of tears started to flood out of her eyes. Whatever the emotion she had, whether it be happiness, anger, boredom, curiosity, love or sadness, Pinkie always went all or nothing about it. Subtlety was just not something for her...even at the worst of times.

Fluttershy put a comforting hand on Pinkie's back and began to pat her gently to show sympathy for her situation. "Shh...shhh...there, there, Pinkie...we won't force you to be somewhere you don't want to be," she assured, her tone soft and comforting, even by her own standards. 

"But, uh...if you all feel this bad about all this..." Spike spoke up. "...then how is Rainbow Dash handling it?"

"She cried herself to sleep last night," Fluttershy revealed, sounding very sad as remembered the teary eyes and anguished screaming of her oldest friend. "...and now...now she's locked herself in her room and won't come out no matter what. I can't even imagine what she's feeling right now." 

"Me neither," Twilight agreed.

"I can," Applejack stated, finally saying something after having so far been silent and aloof. 

The others, even the sobbing Pinkie Pie, looked at her with looks of sympathy or curiosity depending on who you asked. Applejack however just continued staring out the window with a neutral expression on her face while she took a deep breath and explained. "Rainbow's been cutting herself off from everyone 'cause she got it in her head it will make things easier."

After a pause, she finished, "It was the same for me when Buttercup and Bright Mac passed on."

Before she knew it had a crying Pinkie Pie already buried herself in Applejack's chest while she had her arms wrapped tightly around her. "I'm...I'm, I'm so, so, sorry you had to go through that, Applejack," she cried out between sobs. "It's just so sad..."

"It's alright, Pinkie," Applejack assured while putting an arm over Pinkie's shoulder, "It was a long time ago."

"That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt anymore!" she insisted, now sounding even more distraught. 

"That's true," Applejack agreed in a slightly sullen tone, one that hinted at a lot more pain than she was willing to admit she still had. And even though her face didn't show it, Pinkie knew just how much pain AJ carried on the inside...especially when she thought about her mom and dad.

Applejack then got a glint of determination in her eyes and gently disentangled herself from Pinkie Pie while she hastily got up from her seat.

With her mind set, she said "I gotta go," before she started to head for the exit.

"Go? Go where?!" Twilight asked before she had a chance to leave.

While she was half-way through the door out, Applejack briefly stopped and turned around, "I'm gonna have a talk with Rainbow Dash, whether she likes it or not!"





The state of Rainbow's room was a complete mess...well...even more than it usually was.

Loud, obnoxious rock music blared out from her computer, drowning out the sounds of the world outside. The door was locked and the blinds to her window was shut tight, not letting even the tiniest speck of sunlight lit up the unhealthily dark bedroom. 

From the looks of things, it was clear she didn't want any company. Hell, not even Tank was allowed inside right now, leaving the poor tortoise sitting just outside the door, patiently waiting for his owner and best friend to let him back in.

Rainbow Dash herself was probably even more depressing than her room was though. 

She may not be sobbing anymore, but she was a far cry from being happy in any sense of the word. She had rings around her eyes from a clear lack of sleep, her hair was messy and dishevelled, and she was doing nothing productive with herself other than lie in her bed, stare at the ceiling and occasionally take a sip from a bottle containing a substance that she was not allowed to legally drink until she were a few years older at least.  

For the last day and a half, she had only occasionally been seen outside this room, and even then, she mostly avoided everyone else and refused to even make eye contact with someone she knew.

She was so cut off from the world that she didn't even hear...or possibly care...when someone was slamming on her door to get her attention for the umpteenth time.

However, it was a bit harder to ignore when the person on the other side eventually lost their patience and decided to actually slam the door wide open with a kick so hard that it made Rainbow jump despite the loud music in the background.

"What the fuck, AJ?!" she cursed the moment she saw who it was.

Applejack for that manner didn't waste any time before she ran over to Dash's computer and quickly pressed a button to turn the obnoxious music off, then gave her friend a hard scowl. "Landsakes, Rainbow! Do you wanna get deaf listenin' to that ruckus?!"

Rainbow groaned and looked away, not feeling in the mood to be lectured on good behaviour.

AJ then noticed what was in her hand, "...and please tell me that ain't what I think it is..."

Dash's eyes widened in panic, and she immediately tried to hide the bottle under the cover of her bed. 

It didn't fool Applejack in the least though, who merely glared at her wordlessly with her arms crossed. It wasn't quite a Fluttershy stare, but it did the trick, and Rainbow soon sighed and handed the bottle over to her.   

After having read the label on it, Applejack pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a groan of her own. "Hard cider...where in blue hill did you even get this?"

Rainbow looked away guiltily, giving Applejack a pretty good idea on the answer to that question.

"You better hope Granny never finds out about this..." she grumbled irritably. 

With a clear tone of anger in her voice, Rainbow suddenly sat up straight and asked, "What are you even doing here!?" 

Applejack put down the cider bottle on Rainbow's desk and let out a deep sigh, then gently took a seat at the edge of the bed. She kept her voice calm and sympathetic when she answered, "I'm here because I care about ya, Rainbow."

Dash snorted humorlessly, "Well you sure have a weird way of showing it!"

"But I do care," Applejack insisted. "It's called tough love. You should try it sometime. And I know for a fact that drinking away your problems won't solve a goshdarn thing, and neither is hidin' from them either!"

"THEN WHAT!?" Dash nearly screamed. "What do you think I should do with myself?! Go into therapy, confess all my sins, yoga? She's dead...and it's all my fault! It's all my fucking fault! How do you expect me to live with myself after something like that!?"

Tears that she had kept in all day started to leak from the base of her eyes once more, but she tried her best not to break down into sobs this time...though given how she felt at the moment, that was a steep uphill battle.

"Well...you can start with not beatin' yourself up over it," Applejack suggested. "What happened...happened, and it sucks...it really does...but I promise you...it will get better...at least if you let it."

"And if it doesn't?"

Applejack put a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in the eye. "It will," she assured in probably the most sincere voice Rainbow had ever heard from her.

A moment of silence passed between the two as Dash started to process what her friend just told her.

'That's it? Just...it's gonna be better some day? Sure doesn't feel like it, but hey, what do I know? I'm just the stupid impulsive adrenaline junkie who keep telling herself she's awesome when she's clearly anything but. At least AJ knows how to make something of herself...because I sure don't.'

After thinking about it for awhile, Rainbow eventually decided to ask, "So...um, how did you get through this...you know when..?"

Applejack didn't answer that right away. Instead, she took a moment to think about it, to make sure she said it right, and as honest as possible.

"It...was hard. 

"When we were told what happened to Ma and Pa, I refused to hear a word of it. I lied to myself and to everyone else, pretended to be fine so I would be no bother to anyone. I bottled up my feelins', lashed out at everyone else, even drank some of Granny's hard cider without permission just to make the pain go away...but it didn't help none. In fact, it just made everythin' a whole bunch worse.

"It was only once I came clean and told my family how awful I felt that I could let go of it. That was also when I learned that even with my parents gone...I still had Applebloom, I still had Granny Smith, and I still had Big Mac...and I needed to be there...for them, to make sure they were alright."

"So...it's that easy, huh?" Rainbow asked. "Just...remember that you have people you care about and the pain just magically goes away?"

"No, it ain't easy at all, but that don't mean you shouldn't try. Look, I get that you and your Ma were close and all, and that you feel responsible for what happened to her, but punishin' yourself for it wouldn't be what she would have wanted, would it?"

After a pause, Rainbow replied, "...Probably not."

"Exactly! And, well...you still have Fluttershy...and your Pa...and Scoots...and of course all of us gals, and we need you now too. If you keep punishin' yourself over this, it ain't just you who'd get hurt in the end."

During the time they had been talking, Tank had taken the opportunity to slowly crawl back into the room through the now opened door. And somehow, even though he was a tortoise, he was giving his owner a compassionate smile from his place on the floor.

"...and don't'ya forget about him too," Applejack added after casting a small glance at him.

Rainbow looked at her little pet reptile out of the corner of her eye, and her lips showed a hint of what must have been the closest to a genuine smile she's gotten since Firefly's death.

She looked back at Applejack, then let out a sigh, "Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but...well, I think I need some time on my own...to, you know process all of this."

Applejack wordlessly raised an eyebrow. 

Dash was quick to assure, "No more cider, I get it! I just...I need to be alone right now...please."

After giving herself a moment to think about it, Applejack nodded and stood up, then picked up Rainbow's stolen bottle of alcoholic cider and took a few steps towards the slightly broken door. 

"I'll...fix that later," she assured with a slight cringe. Though it seemed necessary at the time, the whole kicking the door down thing may have been a bit excessive.

Before she could leave though, Rainbow noticed something in Applejack's previous statement, "Wait, hang on! What did you mean when you said I had Fluttershy...as in Fluttershy specifically?"

Applejack turned around and gave Dash a sceptical look. "Are you pulling my leg? That gal's all sorts of crazy about you, she's just too darn shy to admit it!"

"Wha- for real?! Like, for really real?!" Dash gasped incredulously.

"What, you mean y'all didn't know already? And here I thought I was the oblivious one when it came to these things. Heck, me and Rarity used to have this silly little bet on who of you would ask the other out first even!"

Rainbow merely gaped at her with a wide open mouth, looking not entirely unlike a hungry fish as she did so. Applejack smirked a little at the reaction, then tipped her hat and quipped, "Well, at least now you have something else to think about, RD," before she stepped out of her room to give her friend the space she demanded.

Rainbow ended up laying there for quite a while longer...doing nothing other than just thinking about everything that was going on with her.

Without that loud music or an easy access to alcohol, that was a bit easier to do. While the tiny amount she had already drunk still affected her a little, Applejack had luckily taken it away from her before she get particularly wasted.

'So Fluttershy actually is into me? Would have been nice to know that sooner. Right now, I don't even know what to think about that. Arghh...there's just too much, too much stuff in my head right now!'

She clenched her skull as she felt a new headache coming on.

'I mean, how could things go south so damn fast?! First, it's life like normal, then I get bitten by some freaky spider and I wake up with a bunch of weird super-powers, and then my mom gets shot! What's next? Is a giant purple dragon gonna trash the town or something?!'

With a groan, she muttered, "I need some goddamn air..."





If there was one thing that always helped Rainbow Dash calm down, it was the open sky, and the feeling of freedom it always provided her.

Unlike most people, the prospect of being high up didn't frighten her. Instead, it relaxed her, and made it easier to think. Well, at least after she got over her fear of heights she had as a kid. Plus, the spider-powers helped a lot in that regard.

Currently, she was sitting on the ledge of a five-story concrete building at the very edge of the suburban district where she lived. In fact, it happened to be the very same one she climbed up on over two weeks ago back when she first discovered her new powers.

Climbing it now wasn't as fun as the first time though. Back then, she was beyond ecstatic. Heck, euphoric even, to wake up one day and have the most amazing superpower you could imagine. 

Now however...that excitement had faded away.

'What am I supposed to do with myself?' she pondered while she looked over the city from her vantage point.

Before she left the house, she made sure to change into her blue spider-outfit to make it easier for her to swing around. Though once she reached the roof, she took her mask off to make it a little easier to breathe in the fresh air up there. 

For the record, she could breathe just fine with the mask on...but it just didn't feel the same as when she was without it. 

'I have these amazing powers like nothing anyone's ever seen...but every time I try to use them for something, things keeps going wrong.'

Rainbow picked up her discarded mask from the spot next to her and began to stare at it, its big white eyes staring at her back.

'First I try to use them just to win a damn soccer game and Scoots gets hurt, I nearly sent Gilda to the hospital, I got kicked off my own team, and I ended that with yelling at my mom and insulting her when she was only trying to help me. Some daughter I turned out to be.' She closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the mask. 'Then I try to use them to win me a new camera by going into a stupid wrestling game, and what do I get?!'

Dash clenched her teeth in anger. 'I had to watch my own damn mom die right in front of me just because I wanted revenge on some guy who wouldn't pay me! Gilda was right, I am a bitch. I am nothing but a stupid, greedy, not to mention selfish, bitch who thinks she's cool.' 

She slumped over and once again came dangerously close to crying again. 'I don't deserve these powers. Not by a long shot. It should have been someone else who'd got bitten instead of me. Maybe Twilight would be smart enough to not make the same stupid mistakes I did, and Fluttershy wouldn't have been selfish and whiny about it in the first place. Hell, Spike even had the bright idea of becoming a superhero. Why couldn't he have been bitten instead? Anyone else would have used them better than I did.'

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down.

'With great power...comes even greater responsibility. I get it, mom. But what the hell is the responsible thing to do anyway?'

A sudden and unexpected ring of her spider-sense came to her attention shortly after that thought crossed her mind. Though, unlike most times that had happened so far, Dash could tell that it wasn't her own life that was in danger, but someone else's. 

Someone on the street below was running in distress...and three much bigger guys were running after him. The guys were bigger than herself too. So big in fact that just a month ago, she wouldn't have dared to pick a fight with someone like them if she had any plans of seeing tomorrow...

...but now...





"...Or you could be a superhero!"

"A superhero, seriously?"

"Of course! With those new powers, you'd be great at it! Just think how many people you could save, how many bad guys you can put in jail, and just how much people will love you. Everyone loves a hero, and I'll say that you might just be up to the challenge."





'Look, Spike, that sounds like a great idea and all, but...this is insane! Doing this is gonna get myself killed, I know it!'

She started to pace back and forth on the rooftop while she pondered what to do. Her common sense and will to live clashing with the part of her brain that told her that she couldn't just turn her back on an innocent life in danger. 

Then...another memory hit her.





"I was just wondering...do you know who you're going to pick for the 'hero assignment'?"

"Not yet. Maybe I can try Daring Do. She got to count, right? I don't know, my brain does not think schoolwork right now."

"Well...I'm just asking because...I think I have decided who I will pick."

"Really? And who's that then?"

"Um...well...you."

"Wait, what?"

"I think...I will talk about you for the hero assignment, Dashie."

"But...why me, Flutters?"

"Do you...remember when we first met?" 

"Of course, how could I forget?" 

"Then you remember those awful bullies who were always making fun of me all the time back in grade school."

"Yes, I remember..."

"Well, you were the only one who ever stood up to them. You stood up to them...for me. Nobody has ever done anything like that for me before. Sure, my parents always cared and supported me, but they would never dare to stand up to anyone. To me, you're a hero, Dashie, a protector to those in need. I won't deny that to anyone, least of all to you."

"You...really think I'm a hero?" 

"Yes, I do."





Rainbow stopped her pacing and let out a long...refreshing...sigh. 

'You know what, Fluttershy, I am so gonna regret this...but I just can't say no to you. Okay, let's do this thing!'

With her mind set, she slipped the mask over her face and jumped off the building, ready to save the day.





Down on the streets below, a kid, probably no older than 14 or 15, but with short black hair and wearing rugged clothes that had definitively seen better days, was running for dear life. 

The boy was quick on his feet, and his youthful energy kept him one step ahead of his pursuers...but it was a losing battle. He had already started to hyperventilate, and in his panic, he wasn't thinking about where he was going and soon found himself running out of potential escape routes.

It certainly didn't help that his three pursuers were positively relentless. Though they, like the one they were hunting, were all teenagers, these three guys were a bit older and much bigger in size than him. 

While two of them, the big bald guy who was a bit more heavy-set than the others, and the more tall and lanky one with blonde hair practically covering his eyes, were slightly falling behind due to their lack of stamina, the apparent leader of the trio would do no such thing.

His spiky orange hair, sharp eyebrows and noticeable dragon tattoo on his left arm spoke of a rebellious attitude...but his borderline evil smile on his face as well as the flip-knife in his hand made it clear that this kid was a bit worse than your average teenage delinquent. And unlike his partners in crime, he wasn't slowing down one bit. 

Eventually though, the boy they were chasing took a wrong turn and soon came face to face with a solid brick wall at the end of an alley. With the speed he was running at, he practically slammed into it when he did so.

"What's the matter, Thorax?! Nowhere left to run?" the alpha bully asked in a very patronising way.

The boy, apparently named Thorax, quickly turned around, placing his back at the wall while facing his assailants. "L-lo-look Gar-Garble...can't we settle this...ehm...peacefully...please?" he begged with a terrified stutter.

Garble played around a bit with his knife, flipping it back and forth in a subtle show of sadism while his two cronies placed themselves on either side of him to make sure that the kid had no way of escape. 

"I dunno..." he replied before giving the other two a glance and a sinister smile. "...Can we?"  

They both snickered. 

The lanky one of trio, Fume, pulled out a baseball bat from under his black leather jacket and let it menacingly drop in his hand a few times for effect. "Hehehe, sure thing..."

"...If you lay down quietly and let us beat you!" Clump, the big bald guy, finished while strapping on a pair of brass knuckles to his fists and clenching them to show that he was serious about that.

Thorax, understandably terrified, pleaded, "Wait, I'll do anything! Just please don't hurt me!"

"Sorry, kid, but you and your brother better learn to stay out of our turf," Garble answered before he began to steadily approach him with his knife drawn, ready to strike. "...and I know of a perfect way to teach you."

Thorax let out an audible gulp and pressed himself as far back into the wall as he physically could. 

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you..." Garble promised with a smirk...before he narrowed his eyes and finished it with, "I'm just gonna hurt you...really...really...bad."

However, before Garble could take a step closer to his hapless victim, a sling of webbing came down from above and attached itself to his back. Then, barely even a full second later, he was forcefully yanked across the alleyway like a jo-jo and slammed back first into a couple of trash bins with a loud clanking sound...leaving Garble splayed out on the ground, groaning in pain in a pile of newly spilled out garbage.

Fume and Clump were left speechless, and could only stare with their jaws nearly hitting the floor at the mysterious masked person they had to presume was the one responsible. 

Of course, it was none other than Rainbow Dash, or rather...Spider-Girl, who had shown up just in the nick of time. While the three punks had kept their attention on Thorax, she had managed to sneak up on them and was now standing between them and Garble with her arms crossed and a glare that somehow translated through the mask.

"You know, boys, there's being a jerk...and there's being a complete psycho," she commented. "And from what I've seen of you guys, all I have to say is: not cool."

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?!" Clump asked, himself not too sure what to make of this strange masked interloper.

She readied herself in a fighter's pose and confidently answered, "I'm Spider-Girl."

"Spider...Girl? PAH-hahahah!" Fume mocked, nearly barreling over from laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. "What are you trying to be, some kind of superhero wannabe!?" 

To pour salt in the wound, Clump added, "Looks more like someone lost their way to the circus to me! Hahahah!"

'Seriously, guys? That's your A-material?' Rainbow thought with a sigh, then with an unseen smirk on her face she decided to play along for a bit. "Yeah, sure. They called me by the way to pick up their two lost monkeys, and now I'll give you two options. One: walk away and leave the kid alone, or two: you make it difficult and I have to throw you both back in your cages."

That reply made both of them stop laughing and look at her angrily. 

"So what will it be? Your dignity intact or back to the circus?" she offered, sounding a bit more cocky and fearless than she actually was. 

Garble meanwhile had just managed to crawl back to his feet and shook his head to clear his vision a bit. "Huh? What the hell happe-?" then, once he got back to his senses, his mood turned from confusion to rage in an instant and glared down at the Spider-Girl. "You'll pay for that, freak! GET HER!"

Fume and Clump reacted quickly and charged at her without a second thought. Though neither of them were particularly skilled fighters, their weapons were pretty dangerous no matter who wielded them. 

Rainbow's spider-sense was her saving grace though, for it warned her in time to duck under the wild swing of Fume's baseball bat, and immediately after that catch Clump's brass knuckled fist in her hand with little effort. 

Then, before he had a chance to free himself from her grip, she pulled his arm to the side and grabbed his shoulder with her free hand, and then used enough force to literally throw the bigger-than-average thug right at the much lankier Fume, sending both of them sprawling to the ground. 

Any hopes of them getting up from that was immediately dashed when Spider-Girl leapt up on the wall opposite of them and sprayed them shut to the ground with enough webbing to make sure they stayed there.  

There was no time to rest for the new hero though, as Garble, the leader of the terrible trio, was now rushing towards her with his knife drawn, looking no happier than one would expect after she had so effortlessly made a fool of him and his cronies.

Luckily for her, Rainbow had a few more tricks up her sleeve, and proceeded to bounce off the wall and into the one on the opposite side of her, if a bit lower down on it than before, and then finishing her move off with a zig-sack style leap at Garble while keeping her fist ready to deliver a nasty punch at his left cheek, knocking him off-balance and leaving a red mark on the side his face in the process. 

However, through sheer rage and bloodlust, Garble managed to push past the pain far quicker than Dash thought, and suddenly turned back around and slashed her in her upper arm with a swipe of his knife, sending a sharp jolt of pain throughout the whole limb by doing so.

Seeing an opening to attack, Garble tried to stab her again, but this time she jumped back a metre or so from his attack and quickly web his knife-holding hand stuck to the wall nearest to him...then quickly proceeded to do the same to his other hand before he could use it to free himself.

Now mostly immobile and very humiliated, Garble cursed, "You'll pay for this, bitch! Doesn't matter who you are, here, GARBLE RULES! YOU GET ME! HERE, GARBLE RU-"

Thwip!

...and then Rainbow webbed his mouth shut for good measure, leaving him powerless to do anything to her other than aggressively glaring at her.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say..."

She then sighed and took a moment to check the small wound he inflicted on her arm in the fight. 

After spraying a small layer of cobweb over the cut to serve as a temporary bandage, she turned her attention to the person she had just saved. "You...eh, Thorax was it? You okay?"

"Well...I guess I am now," he hesitantly answered, now nearly speechless while staring in awe at his unexpected saviour. "I don't know who you are or where you came from, but thank you!"

Rainbow walked up to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Don't mention it. It's the least I could do."

"It's just...I never thought that anyone would go out of their way to help someone like me," Thorax sadly noted, thought with a hint of optimism thrown in as well.

"Hey, if I see someone who needs my help, I can't just sit by and do nothing," Spider-Girl assured while taking a step away from him. "Now go on now while I find somewhere to put these jerks."

Thorax nodded with a smile and uttered "I will. Uh, thanks again!" before he dashed off to get as far away from his, currently tied up, attackers as possible.

As she looked at him running away...safe and unharmed thanks to her effort alone...a small proud smile graced her lips under her mask.

'I guess this is what my powers were meant for. Spike and Fluttershy saw it all along, but I was too dumb to see it myself...until now at least. If I can use these powers to help others not go through the same thing that happened with mom, then that's what I'm gonna do!'

While she got her powers a few weeks ago, and the suit and web-shooters a bit later than that...it was at this moment that Rainbow Dash truly became...the Awesome Spider-Girl.
> Rainbow's First Supervillain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
Rainbow's First Supervillain


Swinging high and low from one part of the city to the next...was none other than Canterlot's newest superhero: the Awesome Spider-Girl! 

Ever since she saved Thorax from Garble and his little street gang, Rainbow Dash had been all too eager to jump back into the fray and be a hero again. She had decided that she was going to fight crime, save people in need, be a symbol of justice and all that stuff. Probably even save a few cats from trees on the side as well. 

She was going to be a superhero.

It would be the least she could do after what happened with Firefly.

The problem was...well, where to start?

After having spent the last three hours aimlessly swinging around town looking for 'hero opportunities', so to speak, Rainbow soon came to realise that just going around looking for crimes to fight wasn't all that easy when it really came down to it.

Even with her spider-sense on full alert for anything suspicious, it didn't seem like all that many people actually committed felonies in broad daylight for her to conveniently swoop in and put an end to.

So now she really had nothing better to do than find a good spot on the roof of a small building to perch down on while trying to come up with a new idea on what to do with herself. 

'Well...this sucks,' Rainbow noted to herself, now sitting on the building's ledge with her legs dangling down below. However, before she got there, she did buy a tomato sandwich on the way...so she could at least eat that while being bored.

After having taken off her mask for the moment, she took a bite of it...then immediately spat it out once the taste hit her. 

"EWW! Who checks the expiration date on this thing?!" she complained to no one in particular.

'That's great, just great. Three hours swinging around and no crimes, no people in danger, heck, not even a kitten stuck in a tree...and the tomatoes in my sandwich are practically rotten. Man, this superhero thing sure isn't what it cracks up to be.'  

With a sigh, she slumped over a bit and decided, 'I guess I better just go home and try again later or something...' 

Before she had a chance to go ahead and do that though, her spider-sense picked something up, making her hair stand on end and her eyes widening suddenly.

'Wait...what's that?' she wondered as soon as she picked up the peculiar movements of some kind of unidentified flying object...a 'UFO' if you will.

Having had a vested interest in aerial vehicles for most of her life, Rainbow Dash could immediately tell that the object was too small to be a plane or a helicopter, yet at the same time way too big to be a bird. It also seemed to be flying between the buildings on its way through the city...which was not something that was strictly legal for most aircraft to do.

'Hey...that technically is a crime, right?' Rainbow realised, brightening up her spirit a bit. '...just like vigilantism is too, I guess...but whatever. That law is dumb anyway.'

When the object then passed through an opening between two nearby buildings for a second, she briefly caught a small glimpse of it.

'Hey, isn't that one of those glider-thingies they had at CelestiaCorp? And what's up with the wacko flying it? Is there a festival in town nobody told me about or is someone just really excited for Halloween...even though it's not even close to October yet? Well, no use sitting here thinking about it, anyhow!'

Now with finally something to do, Rainbow slipped on her mask and began to chase after the mysterious flyer.





Not too far away on one of the streets below, a truck carrying the distinctive insignia of the Storm Tech corporation (basically, CelestiaCorp's greatest competitor in the science and technology development business) was driving through the city, looking to deliver something in its cargo over to one of their facilities in Canterlot.

While CelestiaCorp got the headlines more often than not, Storm Tech was still nothing to underestimate, and had only grown bigger and bigger the last couple of years, thanks in no small part to the ruthlessness and deviousness of its eccentric founder, Rex Storm...who also happened to be the fourth richest man in Canterlot. And while he came pretty much out of nowhere, and hasn't been much of a big deal until recently, his influence was felt far and wide.

His greatest attribute by far however would have to be his eye for talent, as well as his ability to sweet talk people into starting to work for him. By doing so, he easily got many of the best talents in the industry wrapped around his fingers.  

Evidently, though...not all people working for him were all that impressive...as the driver of this particular truck could attest to.

He was a vertically challenged and slightly over-weight little man with a white Mohawk who seemed to spend as much time driving as he spent eating doughnuts and listening to Songbird Serenade's latest hit over the radio, even bobbing his head to the slow beat of the music. Probably the only thing that could convince anyone that he was anything resembling a professional would be the fact that he had a Storm Tech employee tag on his shirt with his name, 'Grubber', printed on it. 

And despite the immense value of the cargo he was transporting, he didn't really seem all that concerned about anything happening to it, and focused far more on the lyrics of the song he was listening to...even going so far as trying to sing along to it.

"...through the storm...through the clouds...the rain...hmmm, hmmm, hmm, hmm..."

All in all, Grubber was a pretty carefree young man who usually didn't let anything bother him if he could help it. He did his job with a minimum of effort required, but also never complained about doing repetitive or menial tasks. Hell, he barely even knew what his company was doing most of the time. 

...Which was probably also why he didn't notice the sharp object flying straight at his truck with alarming speed before it was too late.

The object in this instance just so happened to be a bat-shaped razor-boomerang that hit the truck straight in the tires, slashing the rubber to ribbons in the process. 

With Grubber completely unprepared for such a thing happening, he didn't have a chance of making the truck stop in an orderly fashion, and it quickly spun out of control and crashed front first into a closed store on the side of the road. 

Miraculously, the little guy survived the crash mostly unscathed, proving that he was a bit tougher than he looked. But even so, he was very much in shock and could only sit where he was while his brain was desperately trying to process what on earth just happened. 

When he heard something approach him on his left though, he slowly turned his head to see what it was.

Swooping down from above was none other than the masked homicidal maniac known only as the Nightmare Goblin flying around on her demonic-looking attack glider. A devilish grin forever plastered on her menacing black mask and glowing blue eyes simply oozing of sadism and savagery.  

"Hmemhhehehehe-hahahah-HAHA! Didn't see that coming, did you?" she taunted once she had descended enough to look at the slightly trembling Grubber through the now broken door window.

"Wha-what do-do y-you want from me?" he asked, his voice wavering in fear.

"Oh, heheheh, I don't want anything from you," the Goblin clarified, sounding needlessly condescending while she did so. "What you have in the back however...well, that's something I could kill for...literally even." 

She hovered a bit closer and leaned in so she could look him straight in the eye, "I appreciate that you went all this way to deliver my Christmas gift for me though." 

"Um...you're welcome," Grubber stuttered with a very forced smile.

With a face of mock compassion on her expressive mask, she put her hands on her heart and complimented, "Aww...thank you so much! That is so thoughtful! Although..." she then reached under her cloak and pulled out one of her pumpkin-shaped explosive devices. "...it's only fair if I give you a gift too now, don't you think?"

"Ehhh...I'm okay, you don't need to do that!" 

"Oh no, I insist! After all, it would be just rude to-"

Thwip!

Her monologue got rather abruptly interrupted however when a sling of webbing latched on to the bomb and quickly yanked it out of her hand. 

"You know, lady, with the way you're dressing up, I was thinking more 'Halloween' rather than 'Christmas'," a voice commented, drawing the Goblin's attention to the, also masked, superhero standing on top of a small building on the other end of the street with one hand heroically on her hip with the other holding onto the pumpkin. 

"Though...come to think of it, aren't you a little early for either of those things?" Spider-Girl finished off on.

The Nightmare Goblin honestly did not expect this...at all...and she ended up spending a moment just staring at this rival freak in a mask, contemplating potential weaknesses and even motives. Knowledge truly is power, no matter how you slice it, and right now she knew absolutely nothing about this interloper...which was definitively not acceptable.

"I can say the same about you," Goblin replied, now slowly elevating her glider to Spider-Girl's level, no longer paying the terrified truckdriver any mind. "Seems I'm not the only one in town playing dress-up."

"Yeah, I guess it's a new trend or something," Spider-Girl suggested while juggling around with the bomb a little bit. "Name's Spider-Girl. Superhero extraordinaire and the one who's gonna kick your butt and throw you in a nice cosy jail cell where you belong!"

Nightmare Goblin blinked a few times, simply staring at the so called superhero in bewilderment...then, all of a sudden, she exploded into fits of uncontrollable laughter.

"Hmm-mmahahaha-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAA-HAHAHAAAAHAAA! You're kidding...you're kidding, right?" she soon asked incredulously, her bemused expression making it perfectly clear that she wasn't taking Spider-Girl very seriously.

In an attempt to keep her dignity, Rainbow took on a martial arts stance...albeit not a too professional one, and responded with a cocky, "You wish I was!"

Now, there were many things Spider-Girl were not considering at this particular moment...that, with the benefit of hindsight...she definitively should have. Firstly, she really had no idea what exactly she was getting herself into by openly antagonising someone as dangerous as the Nightmare Goblin...and secondly, that she was still firmly holding onto an actual explosive with little to no knowledge on what could set it off.

With a smirk, the Goblin said, "Very well, then. Have it your way!" then pressed a button on a small device strapped to her wrist.

Rainbow Dash's spider-sense immediately warned her of the danger posed by the pumpkin bomb as soon as it was pressed. Thinking inhumanly quickly, she threw the bomb straight up into the air just as it received the signal to detonate. 

However, even with her superhuman speed and reaction time, she had no hope of getting the bomb far enough away from herself in time to stay clear of the resulting explosion. And while the fiery blast itself didn't hit her, the immense shockwave caused by it certainly did...and with tremendous force at that.

As a result, Spider-Girl was violently launched off the roof she was on and straight onto the hard concrete ground of the street below, hitting it with her spine head on with no chance of bracing herself before impact. 

Needless to say, it was anything but a soft landing. 

Rainbow's entire body was screaming out in searing pain, making her groan and wriggle in agony. Her vision was blurred and unfocused, and she had completely lost track of what was going on. She tried to get back up, but it was futile. Her arms and legs barely responded to her commands, and her attempts to stand up only led to her falling down on the ground again. 

The Nightmare Goblin paid her no mind, and descended down to the ground next to the crashed truck to retrieve what she came for. 

With a perfectly aimed plasma bolt out of her gloved finger, she easily blasted the lock to the car's trunk into smithereens, then savagely threw open the back doors with one hand, exposing the truckload inside. 

"Ah...there you are," she noted with satisfied glee when she spotted a sealed metal box with the words 'Project Obsidian' printed on it.    

While Nightmare reached into the truck to retrieve it, Rainbow Dash was meanwhile starting to eventually get her bearings together enough to make a slightly more successful attempt to get back up. Though she was still hunched over and limping, it was a bit more than what she showed a moment ago. 

And when she saw the Goblin pull out the peculiar box out of the truck compartment, her stubborn never-give-up attitude and act-before-you-think mindset kicked in, prompting her to make a near suicidal attempt to stop Nightmare by shooting a sling of webbing at the box and try to pull it out of her hands.

With an irritable growl, the Nightmare Goblin simply grabbed the string with her free hand and used it to harshly pull Spider-Girl towards her in order to knock her back down to the ground with a powerful kick to the gut. 

As if she wasn't in enough pain already, Rainbow was now clenching her belly while quivering for air. 

"Okay...that was...so not cool..." she moaned deliriously.

Seeing the cocky self-proclaimed superhero like this however gave the Goblin a moment of pause. Despite herself, she couldn't help but take pity on the girl.  

With a sigh, she put down the box and bent down to grab Spider-Girl by the throat and lift her up to her own level. The height difference between the two now became obvious as Dash's legs didn't even reach the ground after she was lifted.

Once she had taken a moment to look her fellow costumed circus freak mask to mask, Nightmare curiously asked, "Now be honest with me...Spider-Girl, was it? Do you have a death wish?"

Even with her throat firmly held in a tight choke-hold, Rainbow still managed to breathe out, "No...just...not a fan of bullies..."

"And you thought that dressing up in a mask and picking up a few toys would mean you're suddenly strong enough to take on the world, did you?"

"Heh...seemed to work for you," Spider-Girl snarked against her better judgement.

A flash of anger crossed the Goblin's face, and her grip on Rainbow's neck briefly tightened, "Don't assume you know me, child! I spent twenty long years preparing for this! Twenty years of bottling up my anger...twenty years of meticulous planning...twenty years of vigorous training in both body and mind...twenty years to truly become...the Nightmare Goblin! You may be strong and full of energy...but you have a lot to learn if you can even think of calling yourself my equal!"

She pulled Spider-Girl even closer so that the girl could see deeper into the demonic eyes of the Goblin. "Granted, you seem to have some skill, and an attitude to match, even. But you're also playing with fire. So go on then, be a hero, be whatever childish fantasy you want to be...get in my way again though, and all you'll be...is a corpse!"

And with that said, Nightmare threw Rainbow back on the ground and promised, "That is the only warning you'll ever get from me. I'd heed it if I were you." 

Then, without so much as a sideways glance, she picked up the box and got back up on her glider, using it to elevate herself a few metres off the ground.

However, before she left, she idly pulled out another pumpkin bomb from her cloak, activated it with a quick press of a button, and tossed it on the ground next to Spider-Girl and the truck. Only once she had dropped off her little parting gift did she crank the glider's boosters up to maximum and fly away from the crime scene, leaving Spider-Girl to deal with it alone.

After having experienced one of those things exploding in her face once already, Rainbow Dash was in no mood to go through that again, and immediately tried to crawl away from the flashing and beeping pumpkin sitting on the ground just two metres in front of her. 

However, due to all the abuse she had just received by the Goblin's hands, she could barely move her own limbs, let alone force them to get her within a safe distance of the approaching blast. At best, she managed to get herself back on her feet, and through the constant pain in her muscles, she slowly but surely limped away from the bomb...but she was not fast enough, and the bomb's beeping only got louder and louder.

Then, when all hope seemed lost...Grubber, the truckdriver, ran up to her side and grabbed her by the arm, then with surprising strength and energy from such a small guy, he dragged her away from the blast range just in time before it exploded.

The two of them ended up close enough to the bomb to get knocked off their feet by the shockwave, but luckily, they also managed to get far enough away from it that it didn't cause either of them any lasting injuries. 

With her face now slammed into the hard concrete though, a part of Rainbow was beginning to reconsider the whole super-hero thing a bit. 

With a pained groan, Dash rolled over on her back and groggily stared at the pillar of smoke rising up into the sky. The overpowering smell of burning metal and rubber hit her next. Even her spider-sense was a bit wonky, as she got a lot of signals in her head that were only really comparable to static. 

However, at the very least she could take comfort in the fact that, as far as she knew, she was still alive. 

"Hey, crazy superhero person? You okay?" she heard Grubber ask, his face now coming into her line of sight as he ran over to her side.

"Uhh...just...peachy..." she moaned out in a strained voice.

With a great bit of effort, Rainbow forced her body to sit up straight, then clench a hand over her head to stop another headache from coming on. The ringing in her ears was annoying enough as it was. 

Grubber let out a breath he seemed to had been holding. "Good, because for a second there I thought you were dead, but then you were moving and I figure you weren't. You can't blame me though, right? I mean, your costume leaves a lot to the imagination." 

He then looked her over a bit. "Hmm...on second thought...actually it doesn't."

It took her a second to realise exactly what he meant by that. As soon as she did though, she pointed at her face and reminded, "My eyes are up here, thanks."

"Oh, uh...sorry," he said with a blush. 

The two of them then ended up with nothing better to do than staring at what was left of the truck in awkward silence.

As one might expect was the vehicle little more than a smoking pile of ash and scrap metal by now, the exploding pumpkin having effectively blown it to smithereens, leaving the only part of it or its cargo that was still intact in the hands of a masked terrorist who got away scot-free to terrorise someone else in the future.

'First day on the job and I almost died. Great work, Spider-Girl! But seriously, who the hell throws around exploding pumpkins? That's just lame. 

And seriously, that was totally a cheap shot! If she'd played fair I would kick her ass easily...I think. Guess it's too much to ask that costumed nutcases play by the rules, right? But at least I saved this guy...well, sort of, he kinda saved me come to think of it. No offence to him, but that's just embarrassing.'

"Man, now I'm in trouble," Grubber said gloomily. "I mean, that Goblin woman got away with a prototype for a project so top secret not even I was told what it was, probably to commit some evil scheme...then we almost died to an exploding pumpkin...and then my truck got blown up, which probably means the boss's gonna fire me..."

Then he gave her a happy smile while holding up a brown paper bag,"...but I saved the donuts! Want some!?"

Dash thought about it for a second...then shrugged and conceded, "Eh...sure, why not?"
> 4) Cold Blood, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 4
Cold Blood, Part 1
The Catalyst


Over 300 million years ago in the ancient Carboniferous swamps that once covered the earth...not too long after the first primitive amphibians had managed to haul themselves out of the primeval waters and taken their first steps onto dry land...two of their descendants ended up going in two very different directions.

One of them evolved thicker skin and specialised teeth to survive on land. And in time, the ones descended from it began to grow fur, turned warm-blooded, positioned its legs directly underneath to support itself and eventually evolved into the first mammals...in other words: our ancestors. 

The other one however went down a very different path... 

For instead of thick skin, it evolved shiny scales over its body, and instead of warm blood, it kept it cold, relying instead on the power of the sun to gain its energy. With legs splayed out to its sides and long slithering tails trailing behind them...these creatures eventually became the reptiles that still crawl and slither in the warm jungles and deserts of the world today.

Ever since then, these two lineages had been kept separated from each other, evolving independently and never mixing between one another.

Now however, for the first time in three million centuries of evolution...that was about to change. 





Anticipation was high in the Bio-Labs on the 48th floor of the CelestiaCorp Tower.

After countless theories, debates, failed experiments and a fair share of hard work...it was finally time to test the effectiveness of the cross-species-genetics formula that Doctor Silk Mane, with, of course, the help of the interns Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, had created.

The slightly unstable geneticist was beyond ecstatic at the progress she had made, and wasn't even trying to contain her excitement while she watched the little white three-legged mouse in the glass cage in front of her start to breathe in the gas that she had just released into its enclosure. 

"In just a few moments, you will all bare witness the true scope of my intellect and the culmination of decades of work, as I, Doctor Chr-ahem, Silk Mane, have finally unlocked the true potential in genetic research! HAHA!" she dramatically announced...not entirely dissimilar to how a stage magician would present their newest trick. "Now, all we have to do is wait until our little furry friend accepts the newt-DNA and regrows her missing limb."

She even had a small audience around to witness the event. Namely Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer and Celestia herself, who were all curiously keeping their eyes on the test subject to see its reaction to the experiment.

"And I assume you can guarantee that the mouse won't die or turn into an unstable hybrid this time, Doctor?" Celestia questioned with a hint of scepticism.

Animal tests may be a necessary part of this kind of research, but that didn't mean that Celestia had to like it. In fact, she usually took steps to ensure the company's lab mice and other animals were taken well cared for and she even forbid many needlessly painful or horrific tests on them for this very reason. Dr Mane on the other hand...she had no such concerns, and Celestia was well-aware of this, so she had to take many more steps to reel the doctor in whenever she lost sight of the company's strong moral standards.

Mane scoffed though when she did it this time, even keeping an annoyed tone in her voice as she assured, "Yes, yes, of course I have. What do you all take me for, some kind of mad scientist?!"

"Actually...yeah," Sunset Shimmer snarked cheekily, earning a death glare from the doctor and an elbow in the ribs from Twilight immediately after doing so. 

"Ouch...I was just kidding," she then defended...though she did follow it up with a "...kinda," under her breath a moment later.

"So what exactly are we doing differently this time compared to the other experiments?" Twilight asked in a more professional tone.

"Ha, glad you asked," Mane replied with a hint of pride. "This time I have refined the formula to contain a smaller dose of the Catalyst Factor than earlier to prevent unwanted mutations, factored in the decay-rate-algorithm, and changed from inoculation to gas injection. The risk of unwanted side-effects like last week's experiment is pretty much down to zero now. Trust me...this is gonna be spec-tac-ular!"

"I'm pleased to hear that," said Celestia. "However, we both know that side-effects are hard to predict even by the sharpest of minds. I have certainly seen my fair share of experiments go wrong even when being assured there was no chance they would."

"Oh, come now, Celestia, when have I ever failed anything before?" Silk Mane arrogantly boasted.

Interpreting that question a bit too literally though, Twilight gladly answered, "Well, there were all the other mice experiments in this project so far, plus the numerous times you misspelled the words 'symbiosis' and 'metamorphosis' in your weekly reports, or the time you incorrectly classified a scorpion as a member of the insect-"

"SILENCE!" Mane demanded in a sudden snap of rage, her furious eyes locking onto Twilight's face with the intensity of a hissing cobra. "That was a rhetorical question, you mewling grub! And I do not appreciate lip from some second-rate intern who thinks she's smarter than me!"

Twilight visibly shrunk back from the force of Mane's harsh words. "Oh, sorry, doctor...I didn't mean, well..."

"Second-rate!?" Sunset sputtered, taking a few angry steps forward to confront the doctor who dared to insult her best friend to her face. "If it wasn't for Twilight, you wouldn't have gotten close to finishing this project, let alone be here to gloat about it!" 

Silk Mane growled and levelled her eyes at Sunset, who stared back with equal intensity. "Yes, rub it in my face why don't you!? This is my project, not yours! Now, don't think for a second you're gonna get any more credit than-"

"Doctor!" Celestia interrupted with enough authority in her voice to make even the prideful Dr Mane shut up and pay attention to her. "You would do well in not insulting my students...especially when it is unwarranted."

"Unwarranted!? Oh puh-lease! I started this whole project long before you sent them to me, and yet all I hear from your mouth is 'great work, Twilight, you're such a good student' or 'Sunset, what a brilliant idea'. Always 'Sunset this', 'Twilight that', but what do I get? Nothing but scowls and reprimands!"

Celestia let out a sigh, "If I have slighted or insulted you in any way, doctor, then I am truly sorry about that. Your contributions have been invaluable to my company, and your dedication to this project is commendable. However...we aren't doing this for credit or fame. In the end, it shouldn't matter who's name ends up being stamped on this project."

"And what, prey tell, is it that matters so much to you?" 

"What matters is that we all work together to create a better future. Not only for us, but also for our children." 

"Oh, I...don't actually have any children." Mane informed, clearly missing the point Celestia was trying to make.

Celestia began to slowly walk over towards the cage in the middle of the room. "About a month ago I met the sweetest little girl you will ever meet. An energetic, chaotic little thing, but with a good heart and great ambitions. Unfortunately, after a horrific accident, she had lost one of her legs, costing her the ability to run like she always wanted to. However, if this experiment bears fruit, then she, as well as many other people just like her can get their hopes and dreams back." 

She glanced back at the others, "That is what we strive for in this company. Not fame, not money, not recognition, but to help people live the lives they want to live, the lives they deserve to live." Then she looked upon the mouse in the cage and finished her speech, "...and it appears that that future isn't so distant as we once thought," while letting a warm smile cross her face.

Realising the implications of what Celestia had just said, Twilight immediately rushed over to her side to see for herself, and lo and behold, her eyes practically sparkled with excitement when she saw that the once three-legged mouse...was no longer three-legged. 

By the wonders of science, the mouse had successfully regrown a fully functional leg without any obvious side-effects...and in only a minute or so at that. Truly, a monumental breakthrough in the advancement of mankind!

Unable to contain her excitement, Twilight squealed,"I can't believe it...IT WORKED!" with her voice reaching a very girlish high pitch as she did so.  

"High five!" Sunset offered with a raised hand.

However, Twilight wasn't really on the same page, and instead ran up to her to pull her into a tight hug and then proceeded to jump for joy while repeating "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES, YES, YEEES!"

Sunset actually had to physically push her away to regain her ability to properly breathe, gasping out the words "Easy there, Tiger..." when she did so.

Awkwardly, Twilight calmed herself down and took a step away from her, blushing a bit while uttering an embarrassed "Sorry."

Celestia giggled a little at the sight, politely holding a hand over her lips while doing so. "Hehehe, you have both done a tremendous job as my students, and I'm very proud of you!"

Dr Mane crossed her arms and spitefully mumbled, "How sentimental..." under her breath.

"And to you too, doctor, of course," Celestia soon added, giving Mane a respectful smile. "I knew you had what it took to-"

However, she was then interrupted by an overly cheery voice signing "Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows...pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows..." to which she responded with a curious raised eyebrow.

Silk Mane sighed, then reached into a pocket of her lab coat to take out her cellphone, revealing that the annoyingly catchy tune was actually her ringtone. 

She was about to simply dismiss the call out of annoyance for interrupting her boss actually giving her a, in her own opinion, well-deserved compliment...but then she saw the caller ID and immediately decided against that. Instead, she looked at Celestia and excused, "Uh...sorry, but I have to take this."

"Oh, that's quite alright. You're excused," Celestia answered politely.

The doctor then quickly stepped out of the lab and into the mostly empty hallway outside, where she made sure to find a quiet corner where no one would likely overhear her.

Only once she was certain that she was indeed alone and in a secure location did she dare answer the call.

"You couldn't even wait another minute before calling me!?" Mane angrily shouted into the phone as soon as she did though, not even bothering with a hello. "I was just about to have my genius verified by Celestia herself!"

A female voice replied on the other end with an annoyed, "Spare me your ego, doctor. All I want to know is how your little science project is going. How soon can we begin our plan?"

Mane let out a sinister giggle, "Oh, hehehe, you won't believe it, but today's test yielded a one-hundred percent success! We are definitively ready to move forward with no further delay!"

"Finally! I was beginning to think you didn't have it in you...and that I may have released the wrong mad doctor from her cage..." the voice snarked in a pleased yet spiteful tone.

Silk Mane's mood quickly switched to anger at that remark, "Don't you dare call me that again, or I'll-"

"Hahahaha! You'll...what exactly? Heheheh..." she challenged amusingly, as if daring Mane to finish that sentence.

"I'll...eh, never mind!"

"Hahahaheheheh...thought so. Now, as for the next part of your plan, I want...an accident."

Mane took a small break from their conversation to take off her glasses and clean them a bit with the hem of her lab coat, then she put them back on and asked, "Sorry...a what?"

"An accident. A freak of nature, an unknown variable. I want this project to fail in the most spectacular way possible, and I want Celestia and everyone else to know that she is entirely to blame for it."

Dr Mane was almost lost for words, "But...but, but I have spent twenty years on this project, it was my greatest masterpiece...and you expect me to throw all that away just because you say so!"

"Hmm? Yes, that about covers it. What, you have a problem with that?"

"As a matter of fact, I do!" Mane replied, nearly screaming into her phone. "I have my own uses for this project, plans of my own...and I'm not throwing all that away until I've seen it to the end!" 

"I'm so sorry to hear that...because you'll have to do it anyway."

"Give me one good reason why I should!"

"Hahahahahehehehehe...how about if I say 'please'? heheheh..." the voice mocked. "...Or maybe I'll tell you that if you don't do it before the week is over, I'll let everyone know exactly who 'Doctor Silk Mane' really is. Your choice." 

Then the line went dead...conveniently before Mane could give a response to that. 

In a burst of rage, she back-slammed her fist into the nearest wall, creating a loud banging sound in the corridor while leaving a small crack in the concrete in her wake. And for some reason, her eyes seemed to briefly flicker in a faint shade of green when she did so.

"THAT INSUFFERABLE GOBLIN!" she cursed to the empty hallway. "She thinks she can just boss me around like her little flying monkey! The nerve! I'll show her exactly who she's..." 

Then...an idea crossed her mind, and her anger soon began to turn to anticipation while a wicked grin began to form on her lips. "...or maybe I can actually get something good out of this...after all, she didn't say how I should sabotage my work..."





Back in the main lab...

"Heartbeat: check, breathing: check, blood toxicity: check, bone density: check, no side-effects detected. It appears...everybody...that the experiment was a complete success!" Twilight happily noted after having checked a monitor keeping track of the test subject's vitals.

"There you have it, Celestia," Sunset commented, currently leaning against a wall close by with her arms crossed. "Looks like we're off to a good start with changing the history of medicine and all, right?"

Celestia took a peek at the monitor over Twilight's shoulder, her greater than average height making it a very easy thing for her to do. "The great Professor Starswirl tried for years to figure out the secret of cross-species genetics, and he didn't even come close. My best scientists have tried for even longer, and still with no success. But then...you two came along and successfully made it work after less than a month. I haven't had any student with minds quite like yours since Starlight and Sunburst left. I see now why he recommended you two for the internship position in the first place."

A bit confused, Twilight asked, "Uh...who recommended us when?" 

"Sunburst, of course," Celestia replied. "He is a teacher at your school, is he not?"

"Of course! His lessons on theoretical astrophysics are simply the best!"

Celestia pulled up an office chair nearby and gently sat down on it. "Well, what I may have forgotten to mention was that he was also the one who invited me to Canterlot High in the first place. The science fair you both participated in doubled as an acceptance test of sorts to see if you were indeed as clever as he said you were. And now, I have no doubts that you are both just the kind of students I was looking for."

"That's a bit sneaky if you ask me," Sunset noted, though her tone didn't actually show any hint of anger or offence. In fact, she almost sounded a bit impressed.

"I do have my ways," she replied with a mischievous smirk, even leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs while doing so.

"So does this mean we get to study with Doctor Glimmer soon?!" Twilight beamed. "I mean, she was your student too, and her work on robotics is something else! Not to mention-"

"Actually..." Celestia interrupted with a raised finger for emphasis. "...I'm afraid Starlight doesn't take interns...and she is very adamant about that."

"So was Doctor Mane, and she took us on," Sunset pointed out.

"The difference there was that, believe it or not, Silk actually requested help with this project. Though she was reluctant to admit it, she told me that she had hit a roadblock, and I helped her in the best way I knew how."

"So what's up with Glimmer then? She too good for us or something?"

Celestia sighed, then sat up straight and laid her hands in her lap. "I wouldn't exactly put it that way, but she values her privacy and prefers to work alone whenever she can. She tells me it's to help her think without...distractions...and according to her, other people...count as distractions."

There was a slight hint of regret in Celestia's voice when she finished that sentence though, and it was only enforced by the sad look on her face she briefly showed after she said it.

Despite not being the best at reading social cues, Twilight did take notice of her mentor's small change in demeanour. "Celestia? Is something wrong?"

She remained silent for a moment, then let out another sigh. "It's just...I'm worried about her. Ever since Sunburst left CelestiaCorp, Starlight never made any attempts to socialise with anyone else, not even the people she worked with on a daily basis. She sits alone when on her lunch breaks, spends most of her time in her lab, and she doesn't even apply for leave on the holidays. Lately I've seen her go days without going home or even removing her chest harness..."

"And by 'chest harness' I'm assuming you mean the four robot arms coming out of her back, right?" Sunset asked for clarification.

"Um, yes, Sunset," Celestia awkwardly replied. "That is one way of describing them. And while they are efficient tools in her line of work, lately she has been wearing them a lot more than I would consider to be healthy for her." With a hint of aggravation in her tone, she finished her piece with, "...which I also assume is the reason why so many of my staff have decided to call her 'Doctor Octopus' behind her back."

"I never called her that!" Twilight assured, though a bit louder and a bit more nervously than was strictly called for.

"Sure you didn't," Sunset snarked. 

Twilight responded to that by giving her an angry shush.

"It's quite alright," Celestia quickly assured. "I do understand my employees' frustrations with her, even if I don't approve of something as childish as name calling. I have, on occasion, encouraged her to seek out people to socialise with, but...she's made it pretty clear she just isn't interested in making friends."

"That's pretty bad," Sunset realised, doing her best to sound sympathetic. "Any idea why she's acting like that? Because to me, it kinda sounds like there's more to it than just not wanting to get distracted."

"It's...a bit of a long story, but-

Before Celestia could continue, a familiar voice interrupted her over the building's intercom. "Celestia, this is Doctor Glimmer. Would you mind coming over to the tech-labs? I have a couple ideas for the Arc Reactor and need to discuss a few things over with you."

"Speak of the devil, I guess," Shimmer remarked. 

Celestia got up from her seat and took in a deep breath...then flashed her pupils a bright smile. "Well, students, it appears I'm needed elsewhere! Congratulations again on your work! In fact, why don't you both take the rest of the day off? You've more than earned it."

"Sure thing, Celestia!" Twilight replied. "And good luck with whatever Starlight wants from you!"

Celestia gave her a compassionate grin, then turned around and left the room.





If there was one place in CelestiaCorp's Bio-Labs where there were next to no witnesses that could implicate you for doing something fishy, then it was the Cold Storage...which, as the name suggested, was a fairly large storage room that was always cooled down to just below the point of freezing, and where a multitude of biological specimens were safely kept for later use. And, as very few people liked to work in a sub-zero environment most of the time, people rarely went in here unless the visit was rather brief. 

Perfect for the first step in Dr Silk Mane's plan. 

Now, if only she could find what she was looking for in here before freezing to death, then it probably would be even more perfect. 

Unfortunately for her, she had been so excited, not to mention impatient, about getting her brand new plan into action...that she didn't even bother putting on something warmer than her lab coat before she walked into the cold (and also slightly dimly lit) storage room. Which, in hindsight, might not have been the best idea she'd ever had.

The second she stepped foot inside, the cold air hit her like a brick wall, and she immediately wrapped her arms around herself to preserve her precious body heat.

"Gah! What is this place built for? Polar bears?!" she complained shortly after.

Now while most people usually kept their inner monologues silent and...well...on the inside, Dr Silk Mane was not most people. No, she knew that the key to brilliance lay in speaking your thoughts out loud as much as possible...as long as no one could actually hear you that is.

Hey, it seemed to work for her, so don't judge.

"Well, never mind that, for as soon as I find what I'm looking for, I'll let everyone know exactly who the true genius in this place is!" she promised in a voice that simply oozed of pride and arrogance...until she grumbled "...provided my hair doesn't freeze off first!" 

There were rows upon rows of shelves filled to the brim with all kinds of biological specimens in the Cold Storage Room, though thankfully, everything was neatly organised, and Mane knew exactly what she was looking for.

And as she went through the numbers looking for the one she was after, she continued her monologue with gusto.

"For too long it's always been that little 'Doctor Octopus' who's made all the big achievements around here...but not today! She may know how to make an awkward-looking metal replacement for a leg, but I know how to make it grow back as if it was never lost in the first place! Hahahaha! But of course those insufferable interns are the ones who will get the credit no matter how much that two-faced bitch Celestia says otherwise!" 

She even spat on the floor at the mere mention of that name.

"Oh, and that Goblin freak as well. She thinks she can just boss me around like her little errand girl just because she broke me out of prison and set me up here. She didn't even say thank you after I risked my whole cover just to smuggle those stupid weapons out for her! Arghh! I'll show her, I'll show Celestia, and I'll especially show those two little grubs just what happens when you take me for granted!"

After she finished her little rant, her eyes then lit up in excitement when she spotted what she was after.

"...And it seems I don't have far to look, do I?"

She picked up a vial from one of the shelves and played around with it a bit in one of her delicate hands, smiling wickedly as she did so. "Sphenodon punctatus, New Zealand's hidden treasure. The fastest evolving genes I have ever encountered. Such a pity the species is nearly extinct. They are always so fascinating to dissect, hehehe..."

She looked around a bit more. "Hmmm...but I need something else, something more stable but in the same taxonomic class. How about...AHAH!" she picked up another vial. "Eublepharis macularius! Freshest sample here, given their popularity as house pets. Come to think of it, didn't Shimmer own one of these? Eh, whatever. Still...useful, but not fearsome enough for the kind of spectacle I had in mind."

Her smile then turned into one of pure unfiltered sadistic evil when she saw yet another promising vial of sampled DNA. "Mhahahahahahaha...Varanus komodoensis. Huge, aggressive, venomous and an insatiable man-eating carnivore...and even confirmed cannibal. Yes, this will do nicely...very nicely indeed..."

She held up all three vials in one of her hands and licked her lips in anticipation as she stared at them, her mind conjuring up all kinds of nefarious uses for them while she did so.

"With all three DNA samples combined with an intentional overdose of the Catalyst Factor and injected into that of a living human, I'll have a perfect monster to do my bidding! And that's only the beginning. Just imagine what a whole army of hybrids could do for me...ooooooooh, the very thought makes me feel like a schoolgirl again, Hihihi!"

Then, a cold shiver running through her body soon reminded her of where she currently was. "Brrrr! Stupid cold! Now as for who will have the first taste of my little gift...well, the answer to that is obvious now, isn't it? heehe!"





When it came to people Dr Silk Mane didn't like...well, it would probably be easier to name the extremely few people she actually did like...or tolerated for that manner. However, if there were any people who ignited that very special spark of hatred in her heart, then it would be none other than Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer...all because they had repeatedly proven themselves to be smarter than she was.

Mane hated to rely on them to complete her research, she hated to act friendly and respectful to them...and she absolutely loathed that they had to be given the credit for finishing the project that she had been wanting to complete for nearly 20 years now.

So who else would be more suited to play the unfortunate victims of her dastardly plan than one of them? Answer: no one! And that was why she was running to catch up to the two teenagers before they could leave the lobby.

Fortunately for her, the two of them weren't in much of a hurry to leave and even seemed to be in the midst of a particularly interesting conversation by the time the doctor reached them.

"...one good thing about dating Trixie though was that you never had a dull moment when it came to dates," Sunset recounted as they walked, while Twilight gave her friend her full attention. "I mean, with Flash, it was all about catching all these rock concerts or go on romantic bike rides. Trixie on the other hand...well, she saw pretty much everything as a challenge and constantly tried to make every date more...let's call it 'interesting'...than the last one."

"So...would you say that it was a very...eventful relationship?" Twilight asked.

"HA! That's putting it mildly! She took me to Las Pegasus on our second date! The first one was to a Chinese circus, and later we went hang-gliding, road trips, private magic shows, and that's all without mentioning the time we went scuba diving with sharks. With Trixie, you never really knew what she could come up with next. She was always so...mysterious."

"How on earth could you possibly afford all those things?"

"Weeeee...kinda didn't most of the time," Sunset admitted with a small blush and a slightly nervous grin. "You wouldn't believe how many times we got-"

"Miss Sparkle!" Silk Mane's voice called, interrupting Sunset's story before she could finish it.

Both of them stopped in their tracks and turned around to see what she wanted, and were quite surprised to see their, usually extremely arrogant, co-worker approach them with a friendly smile. Although, some might consider it to be a bit too friendly to be genuine...which it definitively was by the way.

"Doctor Mane? What is it?" Twilight inquired.

"I...eh, I just wanted to apologise for my earlier attitude towards you," Mane lied...though well enough to at least make Twilight think she meant it. "I thought about it for a moment, and soon came to realise I wasn't being fair to you."

Twilight's response came in the form of an awkward, "Okay...um, it's fine, you didn't have to-"

"Look," Silk started, running a hand through her long blue hair as she internally had to quench her pride for what she was about to say next. "The truth is...I wouldn't have finished the project without your help, so..."

She quickly reached under her lab coat, took out a small box and held it out for her, "...I brought you this as an apology gift! Pretty nice, huh!?" 

Twilight took a moment to adjust her glasses and inspect the strange little box the doctor offered her. It was just small enough to fit in the palm of her hand and was rather sloppily gift-wrapped in pink present paper with a clashing garishly green ribbon messily tied to it. All in all, she could quite easily deduce that it was wrapped up in a hurry. 

"Oh...well...uhmm...thanks, I guess," Twilight muttered while she hesitantly took the strange gift out of Mane's hands. "I will...definitively open it...later."

"Good!" Mane affirmed, still giving her an uncomfortably wide grin. "Just, uh...don't wait too long! You'll see why when you open it." 

"Hang on," Sunset interrupted, sounding very unconvinced. "What's with the sudden change of heart? And how could you possibly just have that thing ready at a moment's notice?"

The doctor's smile wavered for a split second before she forced herself to keep up her pleasant demeanour. "I...just needed some time alone to think about it, of course! As for the gift...well, that was actually something I had planned in advance to thank you both for your hard work!"

Sunset crossed her arms, "...Then where's mine?"

"Well aren't we being greedy today, Shimmer?" Mane cheekily asked, dodging the question entirely. "Anyway, I have a lot of work to do so...have a nice day and enjoy the gift!" 

Before Sunset could get another word in, Dr Mane just turned around and left, practically jogging over to the elevator, almost as if she was in a hurry. To say that she was acting a bit suspicious wouldn't do it justice. 

"Well...that was interesting, alright," Shimmer commented.

Twilight was bit too busy inspecting the shoddily-wrapped up gift Mane gave her to respond to that though. After all, it wasn't every day someone just gave her packaged gifts out of the blue like that...especially since it wasn't even close to her birthday or Hearth's Warming.

When she made a move to open it however, Sunset cringed a little and warned, "You know, you probably shouldn't open that."

"Huh? Why not?" Twilight asked after briefly taking her eyes off the box.

"Doctor Mane was acting weird...I mean, weirder than usual. I don't know, maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but something's telling me that you don't want to know what she put in that box. Call it a gut feeling."

"But we're never gonna find out unless we open it," Twilight pointed out while giving the package a small shake, hearing that something reasonably heavy rolled around inside it. 

"I guess..." Shimmer muttered sceptically. 

"Hey, at worst it's probably just a prank or something," Twilight reasoned. "Goodness knows I'm used to that after having been friends with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie so long. You won't believe what those two get up to when they're on a pranking spree!"  

Sunset let out a chuckle, "Hehe, oh I think I have a pretty good idea. Just...even if it is just a prank, you got to tell me if it's a cruel one, okay?"

"Oh, of course," Twilight assured with a smile...that soon after turned a bit mischievous, "...and then you and I are gonna think of the perfect way to prank her back!"

Sunset pointed a pair of finger guns at her and clicked her tongue, "Right with you, Tiger!"





Later that evening...

As it turned out, Twilight didn't actually bothered to open the mysterious present by the time she got home, and instead just placed it on the living room table while she began to make some tea for the evening instead.

Tea always did have an uncanny ability to calm her down whenever she was feeling overly stressed, and with all the things that had been going on with her lately, she really did need a good stress reliever. 

And as she filled the kettle with water and turned the stove on, Twilight let her mind wander through all the things that had been bothering her lately. 

'It's been little more than a week, but I still can't get that image out of my head. I know I didn't know Firefly all that well, but it still didn't feel right to see her bleed out right in front of me. What was it? Two, no, three times I threw up that day. Uggh...I should have just looked away or something. It's good to know Rainbow Dash seem to be doing better at least, but it still can't be easy for her. I mean, if it had been Velvet who got shot, then...well, actually, I don't want to think about that. And with the project deadline coming up directly after and Doctor Mane being her usual self on top of that...it's certainly not been doing any favours for my stress levels.' 

Another thought then made a dreamy look cross her face, and she let herself smile despite all the stress she had yet to get out of her system.

'Thank goodness for Sunset Shimmer though. If it wasn't for her, I don't know if I'd be able to make it through all this. She's just so...nice, and friendly and cool and gorgeous, and...well, she's perfect. And she's been nothing but supportive to me ever since this whole mess started. I mean, standing up to Mane just to defend my honour, I don't know if I'd ever had a friend quite like her.'

As she poured the water she'd just heated into a cup and inserted a teabag, she let out a happy sigh.

'Though of course would it be even better if we could be something even more than friends...' A blush started to lightly paint her cheeks when her thoughts started to carry on from there.

'...just imagine me and her going on all those crazy adventures she used to go with Trixie, or what if we could spend a romantic moment in the lab. Just us...working alone on trying to save the world together. Or maybe she could just come over here and we could kiss...maybe make out...or...maybe we could go even furthe-'

Her increasingly intimate thoughts then got rapidly interrupted when she heard Spike's voice ask, "Hey, Twilight, what's up with the wrapped present in the living room?!"

A bit flustered, Twilight made a quick effort to collect herself and ask, "What do you mean?! What present?"

Spike walked into the kitchen holding the little package in his hand while eyeing it curiously. "Uhh...this thing. I found it on the table, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't there this morning."

Somehow, Twilight had actually forgotten all about that gift already, and it only came back to her after he brought it up. "Oh that? A doctor I'm working with at the CelestiaCorp internship gave it to me as a thank you gift."

"And you haven't opened it yet?" Spike questioned in disbelief.

"I guess I never got around to it. Sunset thought it might be a prank or something though...so I don't know if I should open it."

Spike put an ear to the box and gave it a small shake. "Well...there is something inside it at least. Sure you don't wanna find out what?"

"Well...I guess I am a bit curious," she admitted against her better judgement.

A burst of excitement flashed through Spike's eyes. 

"Then what are we waiting for?!" he asked before he immediately started to tear right through the shoddily-wrapped gift paper and uncovered a small cardboard box with a lid on inside. 

Right then and there, Twilight got something of a bad omen about this whole thing. She couldn't tell exactly what it was, but something in her gut told her that this wasn't going to end well. Acting quickly, she shouted "Spike, wait!"

However, that warning ultimately came a bit too late...for by the time Spike could process what she just said, he had already taken the lid off and exposed the box's mysterious contents to the outside world. 

As it turned out were the contents in question a strange mechanical canister of some kind, that, when the box it was held in opened, promptly sprayed a small cloud of green gas right into Spike's unsuspecting face.

The smell hit him first.

If you would have asked Spike what the worst smell he'd ever encountered was before this incident, then he would probably need some time to think of a proper answer...but now he knew that whatever that was, it would not even come close to the horrific odour he was subjected to after he opened the present. 

In a panic, he dropped the box on the floor and tried to cover up his mouth and nose with his hands in a futile attempt to get rid of the smell. 

It was so horrible that it left him in a bit of a coughing fit afterwards while his eyes even started to turn bloodshot.

Out of concern for his safety, Twilight got over to his side in seconds while rapidly asking, "SPIKE! Are you okay!? Does it hurt?! Can you breathe!? Do I need to get the first aid kit?! Or a doctor?! Or an ambulance!? Please tell me!" even going so far as to hysterically shake him by the end of it.

After the poor boy finally managed to clear his throat and regain the ability to speak properly, he was quick to assure, "I'm fine! I'm fine...just...have to get rid of the smell."

"Oh thank goodness!" Twilight exclaimed, sounding relieved. She then took the cup she filled with tea earlier and quickly handed it over to him. "Here, take this!"

Without hesitation, Spike took a hearty gulp of it, then snarked, "Wow, that smell was so bad it even made Earl Gray taste good!"

"Hey, that's my favourite tea!" Twilight objected, allowing a moment of levity to break the tension for a second. 

"...And I'm complimenting it...well, kinda."

Still a bit concerned, she asked again, "But really, are you one-hundred-percent okay?"

Spike, as carefree as he ever was, shrugged it off, "Relax, sis, I'm fine. That wasn't even my first stink bomb encounter...though definitively the worst."

"I guess it was a prank then after all..." Twilight surmised with a sigh. 'Note to self: never accept gifts from Silk Mane ever again.'

"Seems so," Spike agreed, taking another sip of the tea to get rid of the smell. "Good thing it wasn't anything worse though."
> 4) Cold Blood, Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 4
Cold Blood, Part 2
Metamorphosis


When it came to heavy sleepers, Spike considered himself among the best of them, and most of the time slept like a rock no matter what happened. Tonight however, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage to relax for even a second...let alone have any hope of falling asleep anytime soon. 

The covers had flown off his bed pretty soon after an unbearable itch started to break out all over his body. It left him twitching and spasming like crazy, and his arms went out to desperately scratch every part of his skin he could reach. To him, it felt like he was on fire...or possibly being stung by a thousand wasps at the same time. Either way, it was far from a pleasant experience.

"Ergggh...eh, MAKE IT STOP!" he screamed into the empty room, now on the verge of tears. 

Not being able to take it anymore, Spike jumped out of bed and made a run for the bathroom, unceremoniously slamming open any door in his way. He didn't really have a plan for what he was going to do when he got there, but it was the only thing he could think of doing.  

In retrospect however, he probably should have just stayed in bed. 

Like most bathrooms, the one in Twilight and Spike's apartment of course had a mirror over the sink. That was nothing special. What he saw in that mirror on the other hand...definitively was. 

So far Spike had assumed that he was just experiencing some major growing pains or maybe having caught the flu or something, but when he caught sight of his own face in the mirror...he immediately knew that this was something much, much more serious.

Scales...shiny, green, and distinctively reptilian scales was growing out of his skin. It was particularly bad on the left side of his face, but all over his body he could feel them forming slowly but steadily.

Even worse, his entire left eye had changed. It now had a slit snake-like pupil and his retina had turned from white to a bizarre brownish yellow hue. More than that, he soon came to notice that from his changed eye, the world around him looked remarkably different. Colours that he had never seen before, and that he couldn't describe even if he wanted to, were everywhere around him. Stranger still, he could clearly see those colours very well despite not having turned on a single light bulb in the dark apartment he was in. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he could tell whether it was light or dark anymore.

Seeing that face staring back at him though the mirror, Spike couldn't help but scream, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGHHH! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!?" 

Reflexively, he brought his hands up to his face when he did so...but that only made him realise that the situation was even worse than he thought it was.

In horror, he soon saw that his entire left hand was now completely covered in shiny scales, and at the tips of his fingers, where he was used to seeing his usual simian nails and soft fingertips, sharp lizard-like claws were starting to emerge instead. 

'This must be a nightmare! I mean, this can't be real!' he desperately thought, now on the verge of panic. ' Maybe I just got to...pinch myself! Yes! That's it, I'll pinch myself and prove this is all just a dream!'

Unfortunately, Spike tried to pinch his right hand, specifically the one that was still decidedly human...with his left reptilian hand covered in razor-sharp claws. Needless to say, the small pinch ended up being a bit more painful than he bargained for. 

"Ouuuugh! Son of a-" he shouted in response, his teeth clenched and his eyes closed to quell the pain.

He also realised exactly what that meant a moment later.

'But wait...if I felt pain, then that means...'

His eyes snapped wide open.

'THIS IS REAL!' 





In clear contrast to her adoptive brother's situation, Twilight Sparkle was actually sleeping quite comfortably under the covers of her own bed that night.

After a long and exhausting day, she had been looking forward to a good night's sleep, and now she was out like a log. The only signs of life in her dark bedroom being the soft and harmonic sound of her gentle breaths, along with the occasional twist and turn she made in her slumber.

She was truly at peace...

...
...
...

...At least until Spike abruptly slammed open the door and ran into her room screaming bloody murder.

"TWILIGHT, WAKE UP! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

With no time given for her brain to start up properly and process what on earth was going on, Twilight let out a distressed scream of her own and accidentally rolled out of her bed in the process.  

She slammed into the floor shoulder-first, and let out a tired groan as well as a pained "ouuuw..." a moment later. 

Spike however was in too much of a panic to wake her up in a respectful manner, and instead ran up to her and urged, "Come on, Twilight! WAKE UP!"

Twilight squinted her eyes in his general direction, but saw only blurry shapes in her dimly lit room. She did definitively recognise his voice however, and hearing it prompted her to ask, "Spike? Ughh...what time is it?" sounding half-asleep while she did so.

"Twilight! Something's happening to me, and I have no idea what it is, BUT PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME!"

"What do you mean?" Twilight questioned, having only been able to process about half the words he just said.

Spike grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her up to look him face to face. "JUST LOOK AT ME!"

Twilight used her left hand to rub her eyes a bit, then tried to focus them on Spike's face. After squinting a fair bit, and using all the concentration she could muster...the most she could make out was "Is that a...green...uh...something on your left side? Or is that just the lighting? Spike, have seen my-"

Now realising what the problem was, Spike reached over to her nightstand to pick up her glasses and quickly slammed them on her face in a not so graceful manner.

After taking a second to readjust them, Twilight then took a good long look at Spike's now far less blurry face...and then...it was her turn to panic.

Almost as if someone had suddenly turned on a light switch, Twilight woke up in an instant with all apparent signs of sleepiness in her demeanour vanishing just as quickly. Her eyes opened wide, her brain started to go into overdrive, and she even grabbed Spike's face and turned it around at several different angles to get a better idea of what was going on. 

"Oh my gosh! How did this happen?! When did it start?! Did you touch one of my experiments, or possibly eat something you weren't supposed to?!" she asked at a rapid pace.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Spike answered hysterically. "I just woke up like this! Please, make it stop!"

Twilight stared at him with a focus that was almost unsettling, showing no emotion on her face or even so much as blinking while she did so. That didn't mean she didn't have some strong emotions about this, she just refused to show them. 

In truth, this was by far the most alarming situation she had ever found herself in. 

Spike, the closest family member she had for all intents and purposes, was transforming. His face had reptilian scales growing out of it, and at least one of his eyes looked far more like that of a gecko than the familiar gentle eyes she was used to seeing from him. And worst of all, it was clear to her that the situation was going to get far worse before it got better.

By all rights, Twilight had every reason to freak out, scream or run around in a panic...but she didn't. She couldn't afford to. 

Spike was in trouble, real serious trouble, and she knew that the best way to help him was to remain calm and rational as long as she possibly could. It was one of the most important lessons Celestia had ever taught her, and if there was one thing Twilight was good at, it was learning. 

Now, being as rational as she could possibly be in this situation, Twilight quickly surmised that the first step in helping Spike was to determine what caused his current...'condition'.

'This is clearly no normal illness, that much is certain. And I highly doubt any genetic defect or abnormality would result in symptoms like these. On the other hand is Spike's genetic history practically unknown due to a lack of blood relatives. But even so, why would it suddenly spring up now all of a sudden?

Come on, Twilight, think! There must be a reason for this! I mean, people don't just grow reptile parts overnight, do they?'

Clenching her hands on her skull in thought, she practically ripped her hair out while her overly-stressed mind went over every single thing she knew about science...and then compared it to what she was seeing in front of her. 

While she at first only succeeded in giving herself a headache...eventually an idea just clicked, and she was finally able to connect the dots to the answers she sought.

"THE BOX!" Twilight suddenly shouted, making Spike look at her with a confused expression. 

"What are you talking about?!"

Instead of answering, she quickly sprang up on her feet and ran out of the room, then headed straight over to her designated workroom (A fairly small room in their apartment where she kept most of her CelestiaCorp homework and other experiments in...which also doubled as both a workshop and a laboratory).

Spike, desperate for answers, promptly followed after her, eagerly waiting for her to give them to him.

At one of her work benches, Twilight picked up the object she was looking for. Which in this case turned out to be a small mechanical canister. The same one, in fact, that Doctor Silk Mane had stuffed inside her shoddily wrapped up 'gift' to Twilight. She had planned to make a more thorough analysis of it later on, possibly after catching a few hours of sleep at least, but now she had no time for that.

Once she had grabbed the suspicious object, she didn't waste a second before she dropped it inside a fairly large machine of Twilight's own design: the Twi-Scanner! 

And before you ask: no, Twilight did not name it after herself...Sunset Shimmer did. 

Basically, it was a very advanced scanning tool that could identify objects, and even traces of objects, at a molecular level with an accuracy beyond anything you would find on the market. The only problem was that she needed to install a computer just as advanced, if not even more so, to it in order to make it work at all...and that set her budget back a fair bit more than she liked.

She was not regretting it now though, given that it gave her the means to conclusively figure out what on earth was going on with her poor younger brother.

After switching it on and plugging in a nearby laptop to it, she impatiently tapped her fingers on the desk while she waited for the results to show. 

"Come on, come on..."

When they eventually did however, Twilight's concerned expression soon turned to one of dread, "Oh no, this...this is even worse than I thought."

"WORSE!?" Spike sputtered out in disbelief, wondering how anything could possibly be worse than his current situation.

Twilight closed her eyes and took in a deep breath to collect herself. Then she looked at Spike and said, "Okay, I know what's happening to you, but...um, it's bad. I mean, really, really bad."

Spike gulped, but nevertheless decided, "Please just tell me what's going on."

After a moment's hesitation, Twilight explained, "At CelestiaCorp, Sunset and I were working on a project which involved taking the traits of one living organism and transfer it over to another. For example, taking the regenerative properties of a newt and then giving it to an amputee person so they could grow their arm or leg back. However, in order to keep the subject from transforming more than we wanted to, we had to be extremely careful with the dosage of a certain substance called the 'Catalyst Factor'. Now, remember that present I got yesterday that sprayed a cloud of gas in your face?"

"The stink bomb thing?"

"That wasn't just a stink bomb. It was an unstable version of the formula combined with the DNA of what appears to be leopard gecko, tuatara, and...a fair bit of Komodo dragon mixed in. In addition to that, this dose also contains way more of the Catalyst Factor than a human body can take. We need to reverse this process as soon as possible, or...eh, or..." 

Twilight hesitated again. She knew telling him would do nothing to make him feel any better about it, but at the same time, she also knew not telling him wouldn't be all that good either.

"Or...what?" Spike asked, his panicked expression making it very clear he dreaded what the answer would be.

"Well..." she started, taking in a breath and steeling herself. "...if we don't find a way to get rid of the substance from your body soon, your human side will be completely overridden by the formula and...and you will transform into something...not human."

Understandably, Spike's jaw dropped when he heard that, leaving him blankly staring at her with his currently asymmetrical eyes. His opened mouth also unfortunately gave Twilight a close observation of his teeth...which by now had turned sharp and inhuman in nature.

In a state of shock, he carefully asked, "So...let me get this straight. You're telling me...that if you don't whip up a cure for this soon...I'M GONNA TURN INTO A LIZARD!?"

"Unfortunately...yes," Twilight answered. "But it's not gonna come to that, I promise! In fact, I have actually developed a countermeasure for the formula in case something like this happened. It should cure you!"

"Then what are we waiting for!?" Spike hysterically questioned, grabbing her by the shoulders when he did so. "Give me a doze of that thing right away, and I won't have to-"

"I don't have it here!" she interrupted. "It's in my lab at CelestiaCorp. Our only hope is too get there before it's too late, come on!"





Around the same time but in another part of Canterlot, Rainbow Dash was also having trouble sleeping that night. Though, of course, her problems weren't nearly as severe as Spike's. 

Despite it being more than an hour after midnight, Rainbow couldn't sleep, and instead just laid in her bed, staring aimlessly at the ceiling. The only movement she showed was an erratic twitch in her fingers as well as her left foot every now and then.

It was no secret that Dash had a pretty erratic and unpredictable sleep schedule, mostly caused by her tendency to fall asleep at random places and random times at a drop of a hat, likely as a symptom of her ADHD or just a result of her lifestyle. 

Either way, this problem had nothing to do with that...at least not primarily.

No, the reason she couldn't sleep was that her own thoughts were keeping her awake. Specifically, she was having an internal battle with herself over what she was supposed to do with her life. 

'I mean, I guess I could just forget about the whole superhero thing and try to go about my life just the, you know, normal way. But wouldn't that just mean that mom died for nothing, and that her whole responsibility thing didn't mean anything either? 

On the other hand, I could try superheroing again. I mean, it would be the right thing to do, and I guess I did save that Thorax kid and the truck driver. Plus, it would be pretty nice to be admired for being a hero for once. 

The problem with that is if I run into that Goblin-weirdo again...or end up meeting someone even worse. I nearly died last time, and if I did, then...well, dad has already gone through enough already, and what about my friends...or Scootaloo, hell the girl looks up to me! What would she do if I just dropped dead all of a sudden? Also, not to sound selfish, but I'm not in the mood of dying either.'

Having already given up any hopes of falling asleep anytime soon, Rainbow let out a frustrated sigh, then sat up straight in her bed. 

Since Dash was currently only wearing a sleeveless top and some underwear, it would be pretty easy to see if she had any injuries on her body. Amazingly though, despite having recently taken a bullet and a knife slash to her arm and wrist respectively, as well as having experienced the shockwave of two explosions at close range, she didn't even have as much as a scar on her body.

As it turned out, she apparently had one more superpower at her disposal than she previously knew about. She healed from injuries a lot faster than the average woman. While she wasn't sure yet if it could do anything about broken bones or a serious head trauma, the ability did make all of her scars disappear only a day or so after getting them.

It was a convenient power, and one that would help her immensely if she decided to continue putting herself in dangerous situations often...but even Rainbow knew she wasn't invincible by any means.

'So is it selfish to put my life in danger...or not? Damn, this whole thing is confusing! I mean, of course I want to do the right thing, but right now, what the hell is that even?!'

She let out a groan while she pinched the bridge of her nose, then took in a deep breath and turned her attention to a certain poster on the wall. 

"What would Daring do?" she asked herself as she considered her dilemma.

After she had sat there for little more than a minute just thinking about it, eventually, she decided to get out of bed and say, "Screw it, Spider-Girl it is."  





Back in the more active part of the city, Twilight and Spike were moving as fast as they could through the crowded streets in the hope of reaching CelestiaCorp before it was too late. 

In order to hide his rapidly mutating appearance from prying eyes, Spike made sure to grab his hoodie on the way out, and in spite of the present danger, made sure to keep the hood up as much as possible. Unfortunately, this also had the unfortunate consequence of making it harder for him to see where he was going. 

Even with Twilight making sure to keep a firm grip on his currently unmutated right hand as she pulled him to where they needed to go, the constant influx of people coming and going from all over, with many even pushing and shoving the two out of their way to get to their various destinations, made it harder and harder for him to keep up with her.

"Uh, Twilight? I don't feel so good. Think you can slow down a bit?!" Spike requested after he nearly tripped over his own shoes.

But Twilight wasn't having any of it, she kept her eyes forward and focused, and pushed her way through the crowds while running as fast as they would allow her. "We have no time for that! We're almost there!"

Given that she could actually see the CelestiaCorp Tower from where they were right now, she was correct about that. However, her single-minded determination to get there as fast as possible made her blind to what was going on around her...which proved problematic when a very stressed man ran right into her.

The impact knocked her off her feet, and she soon found herself falling down to the ground, her glasses flying off her face in the process. 

The person who ran into her made no effort to help her up or apologise, and instead got up and left before Twilight could make sense of what happened, leaving the poor near-sighted teenager on the pavement fumbling around for her missing glasses once she realised they were off. 

And with so many people running to and fro from every direction, her already blurry vision became even blurrier, making it even harder to find her missing spectacles.

Eventually though, by a stroke of luck, her hand finally touched the familiar shape of her glasses, which thankfully nobody had stepped on yet, and quickly put them back on her face so she could make sense of what was going on. 

But as she took in her surroundings with her newly regained vision, a cold dread took hold in her once she noticed something.

Spike was gone!

"Spike? Spike!? SPIKE?!" 





Not too far away from all this, a masked figure in a tight blue outfit was making her way throughout the city, using her nifty web-shooting devices on her wrists to swing from building to building in search of wrongs to right.

The Awesome Spider-Girl was back in business!

Though Rainbow still didn't have a clue as to where to find any problems in need of a superhero to intervene, she still felt a lot better being out here keeping a watch over the neighbourhood than staying back home doing nothing.

And if she just so happened to run into the Nightmare Goblin again, well...this time, she was ready for her. 

However, by mere chance, she ended up picking a very good time to be out doing this, as her spider-sense soon told her of some kind of commotion going on nearby. So naturally, she decided to go and investigate.





Down below, Twilight took note of the commotion as well.

Though she, of course, didn't have a spider-sense like Rainbow did, she did notice that a fair amount of people were gathering around somewhere nearby, with many of them talking in hushed voices or calling over others to come and see what they were looking at.  

Hoping, and simultaneously dreading, that the commotion had anything to do with Spike, she nevertheless made her way over there to see for herself. 

When she got through the mass of people blocking her view though, she saw to her horror that she was right about that assumption...and that it was even worse than she imagined.

Surrounded by people curiously looking at him from every angle, with some even taking pictures of him with their smartphones, Spike lay curled up into a ball, clenching his own skull in pain while he was spasming and sweating profusely. 

His erratic behaviour had little to do with the nearby crowd though. It was rather his rapidly changing biology that affected him so.

Now both of his hands had turned reptilian, a tail had started to grow out of his back, his arms and legs were becoming longer and lankier, with his clothes ripping open in many areas, and all along his backbone, long spines began to emerge, tearing holes in his hoodie in the process. Even the constant pants that he gave out started to sound way more like animalistic hisses than normal human breaths. 

Seeing him in this state, Twilight immediately ran over to his side while shouting his name.

However...his response to her presence was definitively not what she was hoping for.

Instead of looking at her with hope, give her a relieved hug or at the very least do something reasonable, Spike instead rose up and swiped her clear across her chest with his claws while letting out a primal growl that didn't sound anything like the Spike she knew. 

Twilight ended up with her back on the ground and a bleeding slash in her torso, shocked and confused by his reaction. Though she didn't lose her glasses this time, she almost wished she had considering what she ended up seeing when looking up to face him.

While releasing a bone-chillingly creepy hiss to the surrounding people, exposing his sharp teeth and forked tongue to them while doing so, Spike started to transform even further, rapidly growing about twice his original size in only a few seconds, his face morphing into something that resembled a relatively short-snouted lizard while a very long tail slithered out from behind him.

Worst of all, what Twilight saw when she looking into his inhuman eyes...was not that of her cheerful little brother...but that of a monster! All traces of the innocent human boy he was before was now gone, right down to his mind and personality...and all that remained was that of a rabid animal surrounded by people that were effectively blocking all of his exits.

Feeling trapped and seeing no easy way out, Spike...or rather 'the Lizard', went on the attack!

Making a sharp twist, the Lizard used his newly grown tail as a weapon and swung it at the people closest to him, knocking many of them down to the ground in the process while sending the rest panicking and screaming.





That also happened to be around the time Rainbow Dash stumbled upon the scene, landing on the wall of a nearby building from her latest swing. 

Behind her mask, her eyes widened in amazement. 'Holy guacamole! What the hell is that!? I mean, I've heard about alligators in the sewers, but this is something else!'

Then her eyes turned to the pile of injured people next to the creature and she decided to save her questions for later. 'Whatever it is, those people are in danger, and I have to do something.'





After having effectively created an opening in the crowd around him, the Lizard charged through it running on all fours like a wild animal. Anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way or ended up otherwise too close to him were either pushed aside or knocked down to the ground.

In the creature's dust was one Twilight Sparkle, still lying on the ground but now holding her arms over her head to protect herself from all the panicking bystanders that were running and kicking all around her. Though currently hidden, if one looked closely, you would see tears leaking out of her eyes.

Now operating entirely on animal instincts and having no idea that he was once a human, the Lizard left her behind without a second glance as he ran around searching for shelter from the people around him.

The problem was that those people ended up being pretty much everywhere, and when equipped with sharp teeth and claws, as well as a surprisingly dangerous tail weapon, it was only a matter of time before he would attempt to use them on some innocent bystander.

However, before he had a chance to do anything like that, a certain masked superhero decided to get involved, swinging down from above feet first and on a trajectory course right into the monster's face. With the speed she was moving at and the force she put into her kick, the Lizard was sent flying back-first into a parked car on the sidewalk, crushing two of its windows and leaving a huge buckle in its side.

Basically, whoever owned that car would probably not be so happy finding it in its current state. But hey, if you had to choose between sparing a parked vehicle or potentially saving human lives, which would you choose? 

After having made her dynamic entrance, the Spider-Girl dropped down on the ground in front of the Lizard and shouted, "Hey lizard-dude, take a chill pill, would ya?!" sounding surprisingly jovial considering the situation.

The Lizard got back on his claws and let out a deep growl while menacingly fixing his eyes on Spider-Girl. It would be a pretty reasonable assumption to make that he was pissed off...and now saw the costumed hero as a threat.

"Come on, no need to be like that!" she urged while taking a few steps back. "If you just calm down, this will be so much easi-"

Having no intention of talking it out, the Lizard lunged at her mid-sentence, grabbing her lithe frame with his enlarged monster hands and using his superior weight to pin her down to the ground. Then he tried to bite her face off with his sharp (and also coincidentally venomous) teeth, but she quickly reached her hands up and grabbed his skull before he had a chance to do so. 

While she used her impressive superhuman strength to keep his face away from her own as he repeatedly tried to snap at her, she quipped, "Hey! Hey! HEY! NO KISSES!" 

Then, with a strong enough kick to the Lizard's abdomen, she pushed him away from her long enough to roll out from his shadow and get back on her feet.

Before he had a chance to attack her again though, Spider-Girl quickly shot a wad of webbing in his face, temporarily blinding the creature. 

Naturally, the Lizard's response to that was to desperately try to rip the web off his face with his claws. Given his strength, it wouldn't take very long to get rid of it...but even so...that was all the distraction Spider-Girl needed to go on the offensive.

In an attempt to subdue the rampaging reptile, Spider-Girl went ahead and leapt up on his back while throwing an arm around his throat in an attempt to choke him out. 

The protruding spikes coming out of his spine of course made this a very uncomfortable position to be in, but she didn't let that stop her...nor did she let the Lizard's erratic movements get the better of her either. 

No matter what, she was squeezing her arm tightly around the reptile's throat...and she was gonna keep it there until he eventually passed out. No sooner, no later. It didn't matter how much he ran around in circles or scratched at her trying to get her off, Rainbow was not giving up. 

"There there, big guy...go to sleep..." she said in as soothing of a tone as she could muster...until he responded to that with a particularly uncomfortable scratch at her left leg that immediately made her lose her patience. "I SAID GO TO SLEEP, DAMMIT!"

Her persistence paid off though, and after awhile, it actually seemed as though the Lizard was finally slowing down and succumbing to the Spider-Girl's grip. He fell down on all fours, closed his eyes and seemed all but ready to fall down to the ground in exhaustion.

And then...just when it seemed as though this would all be over, a hysterical voice screamed, "NO, STOP! DON'T HURT HIM!"

Rainbow recognised the voice and turned to see her good friend Twilight Sparkle running towards them with an alarmed expression on her face and slightly ripped shirt.

That distraction proved however to be very badly timed, as Rainbow subconsciously loosened her grip on the Lizard's throat when her attention was directed at Twilight, giving the creature a chance to catch his breath.

As soon as that precious gulp of fresh oxygen came into his lungs, the Lizard's eyes snapped open and he swung up his tail and wrapped it around Spider-Girl's neck like a boa constrictor, choking her air out of her throat as form of karmic revenge. 

Naturally, her reaction was to immediately grab the tail and try prying it off of her, but by doing so, she was also forced to let go of his neck too. And as soon as she did, the Lizard used his tight grip on her to pull her off his back and hold her in the air. 



After releasing a fierce growl to her face, he swung his tail around and threw her straight into a nearby wall.

Rather than attacking her any further though, the Lizard instead made a mad dash for the nearest alleyway and quickly disappeared from sight.

Having witnessed all this go down, Twilight Sparkle ran over to the dazed, but still mostly unharmed, Spider-Girl trying to get her bearings together. 

"Rainbow, are you okay?!" she asked while trying to help her up.

Once back on her feet again, Rainbow rudely pushed her friend away and angrily replied, "No thanks to you, Twilight! I mean, what the hell was that?!"

"You could have hurt him!" Twilight insisted, sounding rather distraught.

Dash got up in her face and argued, "HE'S A GIANT LIZARD-MAN ATTACKING PEOPLE ON THE STREET! What was I supposed to do, leave him to it!?"

"But he's-"

"And I could have stopped him there! But then you just had to show up and throw me off my game! WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

"BECAUSE HE'S SPIKE!" Twilight suddenly blurted out.

Rainbow shut up immediately and was left staring at Twilight with a baffled expression...that nobody could see of course, but it was still there. 

"Excuse me...WHAT?!" Dash eventually questioned, her mind still trying to process whether she heard her correctly or not.

Twilight took in a deep breath, then calmly clarified, "That creature...the one you just tried to strangle...was Spike."

Rainbow Dash turned away and rubbed her temples while letting out a groan...then looked back at Twilight and asked, "Okay, fine, I believe you. But would you mind telling me WHY SPIKE IS A GIANT LIZARD-MONSTER?!"

"It's a long story," Twilight began. "The important thing is that I think I know a way to turn him back, but the equipment I need is in CelestiaCorp. I was just about to take him there when he turned into...well, you saw."

"Then there's no time to waste!" Rainbow advised, momentarily putting aside her own confusion to focus on the task at hand. "Here's how we handle this: you get to CelestiaCorp and get a cure ready while I make sure 'Spike from the Black Lagoon' doesn't hurt anyone else. Got it?!"

Twilight hesitated only for a second, but then gave Rainbow a nod. "Alright. Just make sure Spike doesn't get hurt either. If anything happens to him, then it's my fault, and he doesn't deserve that."

"I'll try my best," was all Rainbow had to say about that before she turned around and leapt up on the nearest wall, then bounced off of it and began to swing towards the general area the Lizard ran off to.

After taking in a deep breath, Twilight looked over at the CelestiaCorp Tower in the distance and began to make her way over to it. 

This was going to be a long night...
> 4) Cold Blood, Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 4
Cold Blood, Part 3
Reptile Rampage!


The cross-species genetics project that Twilight, Sunset and Dr Silk Mane had been working on for the last month was anything but flawless or risk-free...even when used in its proper way.

While the project had finally managed to find success in its intended application with the most recent test subject (the three-legged mouse that regrew its lost limb in a previous chapter), there were many more far less successful tests that had been done before that happened. 

Some mice just fell apart and died, others mutated into horrible mismatched hybrids that turned rabid and insane out of sheer confusion about what was happening to them, and a few even straight up turned into another animal entirely, while the rest...well, they just stayed the way they were with no noticeable changes whatsoever. However, that last possibility was the clear exception to the norm and didn't happen often.

Either way, this was clearly a problem that could not be ignored, especially if the practice would be used on a larger scale. Therefore had Celestia immediately ordered the creation of a second formula to effectively counteract the original one and restore the test subjects to their former selves. The result was something of a...'gene-cleanser'...if you will. A powerful mutagen that could knock out any foreign DNA in the organism's body and recover the parts of them that the cross-species formula had overridden.

While Twilight and the others had focused far more on making the initial cross-species serum work properly in the first place rather than take too much time developing its counteragent, she was still fairly confident there was still one sample left in CelestiaCorp's bio-labs...which of course was where she was currently heading.

Despite how relatively close she was to her destination, she ended up taking a fair bit longer to get there than she wanted. Mostly that was because of how terribly exhausting this whole ordeal had turned out to be...not helped by the fact that she hadn't gotten much of anything resembling of a good night's sleep before Spike woke her up earlier. Also, the wound he inflicted on her chest right before he fully transformed into the Lizard was still taking quite a toll on her as well. 

The bloodied t-shirt she wore gave her a lot of odd looks from a number of people on the street, most of who weren't even aware of the Lizard's rampage in the first place. But even so, that still wasn't nearly as bad as the stinging pain she felt every time a gust of wind touched her chest.

The experience was excruciating. 

Eventually, even if she knew she had no time to do so, she just had to slow down for a bit. Otherwise, she'd risk tiring herself out to the point of collapse...and that wouldn't help Spike's situation one bit. 

Putting a hand over her open wound to quell the pain a bit, she leaned up against the wall of a nearby building and tried to catch her breath. 

'I can't do this,' she gloomily thought. 'At this rate I'll never make it to the cure and back to wherever Spike is in time. If I can't think of another way to get it to him, he's gonna stay that way forever, and it's all gonna to be my fault. Come on, Twilight, think! There must be a way to get this done faster, there must be!'

Suddenly, she remembered something that she couldn't believe she hadn't thought about sooner. Too tired and stressed out to think clearly most likely why. 

'Wait a minute, Sunset said she was gonna work late tonight. It might be a long shot, but maybe she's still there.'

With that idea in mind, Twilight reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone, then immediately went to click on Sunset's name in her friends list to make the call.

She could hear the signals going out, but it took quite a while longer than she hoped it would before the call was eventually answered...so much so that for a second or two, Twilight was really worried it wasn't going to happen.

Her fears were soon put to rest though when she heard the always familiar confident voice of Sunset Shimmer say, "Hey, Sparkle! What's up?"

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. "Sunset, thank goodness you picked up! I need your help."

"Okaaay...with what?" her friend asked in a confused tone. 

First things first. "Are you at CelestiaCorp right now?!"

"Uh...yeah, why?"

Twilight felt a small ray of hope in her heart upon hearing that. That meant that her idea might just work. Feeling a bit more optimistic than she was a moment ago, she immediately went about explaining the situation to her.

"You were right about that box Doctor Mane gave me! But it wasn't just a prank, it was an unstable version of the cross-species genetics formula! Spike opened it, and now he's turned into a human/lizard hybrid!"

"Spike!?" Sunset asked, sounding strangely more surprised over the fact that it had happened to him rather than the fact that it had happened at all.

If she was in a more lucid state of mind, Twilight might even have questioned that, but right now, her priorities were elsewhere.

"Yes, and he needs our help. Do you remember where we kept the Gene-cleanser?"

"Of course."

"Well, what I need you to do is to retrieve it and give it to me. I'm on my way to CelestiaCorp right now."

There was a distinct pause on the other end. Twilight noticed it, but didn't think much of it. Though in hindsight, she probably should have.

"Hmmm...you know, it might be easier if you wait in the lobby. I'll be coming down there with the Gene-cleanser in a minute or two tops. That sound good?"

"Uh, well, sure. I'll be there soon."

"Good to hear. Bye!"

Then the line went dead. Twilight put her phone back in her pocket and took in a deep breath, calming her mind and body.

Relieved that she could count on her best friend (and secret crush) at a time like this, Twilight began to make her way over to her destination. Though this time, she knew she wasn't in as much of a hurry as she was before and could content herself with a steady walking speed rather than trying and failing to run as fast as possible. 

However, after this whole experience was over and done with, Twilight was sure to put in a vow to hit the gym and work on her endurance somewhere along the line. 





Around the same time, but in a complete different part of the city, Captain Shining Armour of the Canterlot City Police Department was fully prepared to go home and catch at least a few hours of sleep tonight, his massive pile of overdue paper work on his desk having already kept him busy to well over midnight.

Combine that with his frankly hopeless investigation into the annoyingly elusive 'Carnage Killer' he had been busy with all week and Chief Neighsay's constant complaints about how he did his job, and one could easily excuse him for wanting nothing more than to go home, kiss Flurry goodnight and cuddle up in bed with Cadence...and then probably dream of his upcoming promotion he hoped would be in his future.

Instead, he and every single officer in his precinct who were still awake were now forced to head over to the city mall to quell a situation so utterly bizarre and unbelievable that Shining initially assumed it had to be an elaborate hoax of some kind.

Apparently, an alarming amount of people had reported that a giant lizard-monster of some kind was wreaking havoc in the middle of the city...which, by the way, was definitively not the kind of assignments that Captain Armour was used to...to say the least. 

Still, he was professional enough to do his job despite the strangeness of the situation or the inconvenient timing. And even if he wasn't, he also knew disobeying direct orders from Chief Neighsay was pretty much the same as handing in his resignation.  

So now, despite how much he would rather do pretty much anything else, he was nonetheless driving at full speed through the busy city streets in his squad car, lights and sirens turned on to highlight the seriousness of the situation and get people out of the way. He was joined by four more cars following closely behind, and alongside him was Officer Spearhead, Shining's partner and best friend on the force. 

"So Shining, think this is a real giant lizard or just some dude in a costume?" Spearhead took the time to ask while they were approaching their destination. 

He was a slightly bigger than Captain Armour and had a bit of a deeper voice, but that didn't make him any more intimidating in the least. In fact, given his slightly more laid back demeanour and upbeat attitude, even in dire situations like these, he was actually the more approachable of the two when on duty.

By contrast, Shining Armour was currently too focused on his driving to indulge his friend's question, and merely replied with an impersonal, "Stay focused. We'll see when we get there."

"Okay...but I was asking because, like, should we call the zoo for an open spot or something or just tell some crazy cosplayer to knock it off?"

"I don't know, Spearhead," he replied. "Just be ready for anything."

"Always am, sir," Spearhead assured while loading a fresh magazine of bullets into his standard-issue handgun. "Though if it is a guy in a costume I'd rather not use this." 

Shining pulled over, having just reached the entrance to the mall. Then he unbuckled his seat-belt and suggested, "Then why don't we go in and find out?"

"You're the boss."





Meanwhile, inside the building they were about to enter...there was quite a situation going on.

'You know, if someone told me a few months ago that I'd be chasing down a giant lizard-version of Spike in a blue spider-themed spandex costume...then I'd probably ask if you were on drugs, but just look at me now!' 

These were the thoughts that rang through Rainbow Dash's head while Spike the Lizard sent her flying straight into a clothes racket in a department store with a fairly powerful tail-whip to the face.

As it turned out, trying to subdue a rampaging reptile-monster without seriously hurting it may have been a bit harder than she thought it would be. 

Heck, even finding him had proved to be quite a challenge given that he was both very fast and hellbent on finding a place to hide. She had lost his trail no less than five times already. 

However, even so, the sight of a giant lizard-man running around the streets was still hardly something that would go unnoticed. In the end, all Dash had to do to find him was to follow the screams...and that eventually led her to the Canterlot City Mall, where the two were currently engaged in a rather violent confrontation. 

Luckily for her, a pile of soft shirts was far from the worst thing she could had been sent flying into, and it didn't take her long at all to get back on her feet and continue the fight.

This time, she used a quick sling of webbing to pull a nearby mannequin towards her, then leapt up, spun around and kicked it hard enough to send it flying right into the Lizard's torso.

Turns out that, given enough force, even a flimsy plastic imitation of a human body could be a serviceable projectile to use in a heated battle. In this instance, it proved enough at least to knock the creature over for a moment. 

And being led completely by animal instincts with no human intelligence to speak of, the Lizard actually assumed that the mannequin itself was the one that had attacked him, and viciously retaliated against it. 

He started by pinning it down to the floor, then used his powerful jaws to pull one of its arms off before he started to rip it apart piece by piece with a fierce flurry of his sharp claws.

Though when he was preoccupied with his feral evisceration of the defenceless mannequin, Spider-Girl jumped up on the ceiling and shot a web-line each at the floor on both sides of him, then pulled back on them as hard as she could, creating a lot of tension in the strings...and when there was enough of it, she let go, sending herself flying towards him like a slingshot with her feet first.

She hit him with enough force to slam him belly-first into the floor, knocking the wind out of him and sending the pieces of the mangled mannequin underneath him flying in all directions. 

And before he had a chance to recover, Spider-Girl wasted no time before she webbed up his hands, legs and tail to the floor. In addition to that, she also put one foot on his back and pressed down on it while she used her sticky spider-powers to anchor the other to floor next to him. 

He growled and hissed in protest, struggling like a stranded fish in an attempt to break free of his new position.

With him temporarily incapacitated though, Spider-Girl took a second to catch her breath. "Okay, Spike, fun's over," she said in a slightly exhausted tone. "Now would you please just stay put until-"

Her spider-sense rang off, leaving her only a second or so to brace herself before the Lizard's muscular tail suddenly ripped right through the webbing keeping it contained and swung around to swat her aside like a bug. 

Unlike the last time she had been sent flying by a whip of that tail though, she now ended up falling on the cold hard floor rather than a soft pile of clothes...which was probably a lot less comfortable all things considered.

And without her on top of him pinning him down, it didn't take the Lizard long to break out of his restraints and scamper off yet again.

Having landed right on her shoulder, Rainbow let out a pained groan while she made an effort to push herself back up on her feet. 

After she had at least managed to sit up straight, she muttered, "That tail is really starting to get annoying..."





Just outside the fashion store where that battle took place, little more than half a dozen police officers were currently approaching with their weapons drawn. 

Captain Armour took point, his shoulders tense and the grip on his gun as steady as can be. He may not have any idea what he was getting into, but he was prepared to handle whatever it was he had been sent do deal with.

At his left was Spearhead, who, while also having his pistol out, wasn't quite as tense as his partner and seemed curious about what was going on more than anything. 

In contrast, the female officer on Shining's right, a certain Spitfire DeWolff, somehow looked even more intense, with a borderline aggressive glint in her eyes. Not surprising really given that she had served in the military long before she became a police officer...and as such had a hard time to shake off that special military attitude. 

Next to her was her boyfriend Soarin Skies, who, having served alongside Spitfire in the war, had a similar military aura about him...which actually was a clear contrast to how laid back and carefree he was when off-duty.

There were three other officers there as well: the newly recruited Thunderlane, the slightly cocky Fleetfoot, and the older and more experienced Wind Rider...but we won't spend too much time on them right now. They're not all that important in the story just yet.

"Everyone, be ready," Shining urged as he moved up on the door to the shop.

They could clearly hear the commotion going on inside, and they caught glimpses of the battle through the shop windows...but that still didn't mean they knew what was going on. 

And just as he was about to kick open the door and say something along the lines of 'Freeze!', 'Hands where I can see them!' or 'Down on the floor now!', the Lizard came bursting through it on all fours and forced himself past the group, knocking down Shining Armour, Spearhead and Fleetfoot to the floor in the process. Spitfire got hit in the face by a slap of the creature's tail but managed to regain her balance quickly. 

The others didn't have much time to react to the encounter until after the Lizard had already disappeared around the corner, leaving them just standing there trying to make sense of what just happened. 

"What the hell was that?" Spearhead mumbled as he, Shining and Fleetfoot were trying to get their bearings together. 

"...I think...that was the lizard we're here to catch," Wind Rider answered, sounding a bit stunned.

Soarin turned on his radio and reported, "Officer Skies here! Giant lizard presence confirmed, going to need-"

Then the Spider-Girl jumped out of that same door, shouting, "Sorry, coming through!" 

The cops only caught a brief glimpse of her appearance before she too got out of sight and swung around the corner, her determination to catch the Lizard not leaving any time for explanations to be given.

"...backup. Also, someone in a blue morph suit just flew past us. Got any intel on that?"



  

'Wait, was that Twilight's brother...and Spitfire and Soarin?'' Spider-Girl thought as she swung through the wide hallways of the city mall in hopes of catching up to the rampaging reptile she was chasing. 'Must have been sent to take care of Spike, I guess. But they don't know who he is, and they have guns, and if they use them on Spike, then...well, I'm not letting another person die on my watch, so it won't come to that. I just have to to get to him before they do!' 

Luckily for her, it didn't take her all that long before she found the creature on the run, now heading towards a local cafe, probably drawn in by the smell of food. 

At the end of her next swing, Spider-Girl let go of the line, performed a quick somersault and landed with both of her feet on top of the Lizard's head, kicking him down to the floor and stopping him in his tracks. 

After pulling off the manoeuvre, she landed on a nearby cafe table and took on a combat stance. "Come on, Spike, don't leave me yet! The party's barely started!" 

Having just got his face slammed right into the cold hard floor, the Lizard quickly got back up on all fours and fixed the Spider-Girl with a hateful glare, letting out a low hiss while doing so. 

Seeing that expression on the monster's uncannily human (yet still creepily inhuman) face made Rainbow pause for a second and mutter, "Uh-oh."

The Lizard's next move was to try to slash at her with two swipes of his claws. Spider-Girl dodged them both and jumped back a step, landing on the floor behind the table. 

Not deterred, the Lizard pushed on his attack by trying to climb over the table to reach her, but then Spider-Girl had the bright idea of grabbing it with both of her hands and push it up, preventing him from getting to her so easily. 

Now holding the public furniture as a makeshift shield against the attacking reptile, she pushed him back with all her might, thus literally turning the tables on the battle. With the large flat surface pressing into his belly with great force, the Lizard tried desperately to slice her with his claws...but to no avail. She was just too small for his arms to reach over the table.   

It didn't take long for the Lizard to trip over his feet and fall on his back. And as soon as he did, she placed herself above him and pressed the table down as hard as she could to pin him to the floor. 

Their battle soon turned to a contest of strength as the Lizard desperately tried to pry the Spider-Girl off of him by pushing the table up as hard as he could while she pushed the same object down with equal ferocity. 

The only question left was who was the strongest of the two. Would the Lizard's feral monster brawn overwhelm the smaller teenage girl...or would Rainbow Dash's superhuman strength and stubbornness get the best of the overgrown gecko she was tangling with? 

Unfortunately, the answer to that question would probably never be revealed, as an unexpected third party chose this of all times to get themselves involved. 

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! Hands where we can see 'em!" the distinctive raspy voice of Spitfire DeWolff shouted with as much authority as she could muster. 

Spider-Girl followed the source of the voice and saw that Shining Armour, Spitfire, Spearhead, Soarin and three more officers were all aiming their guns at her from the other end of the hallway. 

The momentary distraction their presence provided proved to be enough for Spider-Girl to unintentionally let up on her power struggle with the Lizard for a brief moment...giving him the opportunity he needed to push her off of him with enough force to send both her and the table flying across the room and onto the floor a few metres away from him.

And with the Lizard no longer restrained, he bolted up on his back legs and let out a savage shriek. It sent shivers down the spines of most of the officers...and that feeling only worsened when he turned his slitted eyes on them, all while hissing menacingly. 

Shining Armour only had a split second to make a decision about what to do in this situation. Nothing in his training had prepared him for this, and he had no idea what was even going on, why there was a giant lizard running around, or why it was attacking people...and he most certainly didn't know that the lizard in question just so happened to be his adopted younger brother.

The only thing he did know about it was that this creature had attacked innocent people and was currently looking at him and his men with the clear intention to attack. With that in mind, he did the only sensible thing he thought he could do.

He ordered, "OPEN FIRE!"

Still a bit disoriented from having been thrown across the room and only gotten enough time to get up on her knees, Rainbow immediately felt a cold dread in her heart when she heard that order be given. 

'No, they can't! she thought in a panic. 'Spike's tough, but he's definitively not bulletproof! I gotta do something!'

With the aid of her spider-sense, time seemingly slowed down to a crawl around her while Dash assessed the situation. 

'Seven cops, all armed and ready to fire on Spike in the next second. Okay, Spider-Dash, you got this!'

The first thing she did was to turn to the Lizard and connect two strings of webbing to his side, one hitting him in his upper right arm and the other on the right side of his face, and then pulled him out of the line of fire as hard and as fast as she could.

The next second, all seven of the police officers fired their guns in the Lizard's direction, but fortunately for Spike, not a single one of their bullets managed to hit him before Spider-Girl got him out of their crosshairs. 

However, it was still far from over, as Rainbow Dash now had to deal with the cops themselves if she didn't want them to have another chance to try and shoot him again.   

With the benefit of hindsight, Rainbow probably could have used her words to attempt to explain the situation to them and resolve this whole thing in a more peaceful and civilised way...but she didn't, not because it was a bad idea, but because it was still Rainbow Dash who had to make that choice, and she was a woman of action, not words. Plus, in a situation as dire as this one, she couldn't take any chances.

Immediately, she started by sending a sling of webbing right into the faces of Spearhead and Fleetfoot respectively, temporarily leaving them both confused and disoriented, with the action even causing Fleetfoot to slip and fall on her back. 

Then she rushed at the officers so fast that not one of them had time to react before she knocked Spitfire down to the floor with an open palm strike to the chest. Right after that, she dropped down and used a low kick to knock Wind Rider and Spearhead's legs out from under them. 

Now with only three left, Spider-Girl positioned herself in between Soarin and Thunderlane and connected a sling of webbing to them each, then jumped back a metre or so and pulled them together so hard that the two of them ended up slamming into each other and fall to the floor in a heap. 

This all happened in about six and a half seconds. Much too fast for any of the cops to keep up with when she ended up right in their faces and didn't give them a second to do anything about it. However, despite all that, there was still only one of her and seven of them, and in those few short seconds she had been busy taking out the rest of them had Shining Armour managed to aim his gun at her and subsequently pull the trigger. 

Rainbow could almost feel the air part around the bullet as it loudly passed by her ear after he had fired, just barely missing her face by a single centimetre. 

If he had gotten just a second longer to steady his aim before took the shot, she likely wouldn't have survived the encounter.

She wouldn't give him another opportunity to try again though, as her next move involved immediately snatching the gun out of his hands and throw it over her shoulder, then send him flying with a kick to gut. 

A tad bit more aggressive than what she did to the others for sure, but he did nearly just kill her and she was mostly acting upon instinct anyway. 

And with all seven policemen currently lying on the ground around her, Spider-Girl didn't spare a second before she webbed them all shut to the floor to stop them from getting back up. 

Only once every single one of them was properly contained and out of the way did she take a moment to catch her breath. Sure, she didn't have to exert herself for all that long, just about twelve seconds or so give or take, but moving as incredibly fast as she just did took quite a lot out of her.

"You won't get away with this!" Spitfire angrily declared while defiantly struggling against the webbing.

Spider-Girl gave her a sympathetic glance and said, "Sorry about that, guys, but I just can't have you going around shooting an innocent person."

"What are, ughh, you talking about?" Captain Armour asked, sounding a bit pained from the powerful kick to the stomach he just sustained. She might have overdone it a bit with that one.

"Long story and I don't even know most of it, but the bottom line is that that lizard monster you almost killed was a human being not-so-long ago," Spider-Girl quickly informed. "So I'd appreciate it if you guys could stop try to shoot him for a minute and let me get him back to normal."

"...then why're you letting him get away?" Soarin asked from where he was lying, all the while trying to pry himself away from Thunderlane...who was currently webbed up with him.  

A sudden and immediate wave of realisation hit Rainbow Dash when he said that, and she quickly showed a panicked expression under her mask once she noticed that she hadn't been paying any attention to where the Lizard had ended up while she had been busy fighting the cops.

Just in time she spotted a glimpse of the creature disappear around the corner further inside the mall, which prompted her to mutter, "Urggh, not again..." 

With a running leap, she jumped up into the air and began to swing her way after the Lizard, shouting "Sorry, gotta dash!" to the restrained officers she had to leave behind to do so.

...

...

...

"So uh...do any of you know how to get out of this stuff?" Spearhead eventually asked. 

No one had a good answer to that question.





Given that the mall had closed several hours ago, and there were pretty much no one other than Rainbow, the Lizard and those cops she just webbed up around, it shouldn't by all means be that hard to track where the Lizard had run off to. 

There were, however, quite a lot of places for him to hide in here, and this game of hide and seek she had been playing with him was proving to be quite infuriating by now.

She was lucky though to spot a glimpse of what looked to be the Lizard's tail disappear into the entrance to the local bowling alley. Acting fast, she swooped down after him. 

After swinging through the doorway, she landed on her feet inside the closed bowling alley. 

Most of the lights were turned off, with only a select few switched on to keep this place from being cast in complete darkness. And of course was it also eerily quiet...too quiet in fact. Gone were the noises of people talking or screaming...or the sounds of heavy bowling balls being thrown across the wooden floor...or the loud music that usually played in the background. 

Now there was only silence...the soft hum of the ventilation system notwithstanding...and it was putting Rainbow Dash on edge. 

'I could have sworn I saw him come in here, but where did he go?' 

She moved silently and carefully into the room, always keeping an eye out for the the creature she was hunting. After all, he could just as easily be the one hunting her.

Spider-Girl first checked behind the empty counter. 

No one was there.    

She then checked the area where the bowling shoes were stored.

No one was there either.

After that, she dropped down over by the bowling lanes to see if he was hiding around there.

And yet...she still didn't find him.

'Maybe...he didn't come in here after all,' she considered, letting out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding and allowed herself to relax for a second. 

However, that was when the Lizard decided to attack. With a shrill hiss erupting from the darkness, the monster leapt out of the shadows and pounced on his unsuspecting prey like a panther on the prowl, coming from behind her with his teeth and claws drawn out.

Rainbow Dash only had a split second to react...but luckily for her, that was all she really needed. Just as she felt a very painful jolt from her spider-sense go off in the back of her head, her perception of time slowed down long enough for her to come up with the idea of dropping down to the ground on all fours, and therefore letting the giant lizard leap right over her. 

Not being a particularly intelligent creature, the Lizard didn't realise that his failed surprise attack landed him right on top of the very slippery floor of one of the bowling lanes, making him trip over his own claws and clumsily fall on his belly in a very undignified fashion. 

Spider-Girl observed the Lizard repeatedly try and fail to stand up straight only to fall down again, and gained a small smirk under her mask as a result. 

"Gotcha!" she taunted.

Then, with a sudden burst of confidence, she seized the opportunity to counterattack. 

She took a running jump and flipped over him, using her massively increased reaction time to pepper him with webbing as she did so. And when she was done she elegantly landed on the floor behind him. 

Though while the Lizard could barely stand on the oiled surface of the bowling lane without falling on his face several times in a row, the Spider-Girl had no such problems. After all, her ability to stick to walls and ceilings with barely any difficulty made slippery floors a complete cake walk in comparison. 

Even though the Lizard did have gecko DNA in him, that was fortunately from a species which didn't have suction cups for fingers. If Doctor Mane had just so happened to have chosen another species to the mix instead, this might have been a very different scenario.

And with a solid footing where her foe did not, Rainbow held the clear advantage this time, as the Lizard was too busy fumbling and rolling around just in order to get back on his claws to fighting back. 

In addition to that, the webbing that she had just covered him in made the situation even worse for the creature given that his panicked and uncoordinated movements only resulted in him tangling himself up in it. 

Not willing to let this chance to catch him slip away, Spider-Girl unleashed even more webbing on her opponent, keeping her distance while she started to leap around and shoot him from as many angles as she could with her web-shooters to make sure he was as restrained as possible. 

It didn't take her long until the Lizard was stuck in a tight silky cocoon, with all of his limbs and tail thoroughly restrained, leaving him with nothing to do but helplessly wriggle around and growl in frustration. 

After several failed attempts, Rainbow Dash could now take pride in the fact that she had finally managed to successfully restrain and capture her opponent...though it certainly wasn't easy. 

"And that's a strike, folks!" Rainbow joked after having finished wrapping him up. "Now to get you back to CelestiaCorp..." she later added while putting her hand on her chin in thought.

Of course, there was always that to consider...





While all this had been going on had the thoroughly exhausted Twilight Sparkle finally managed to get herself over to the entrance to the CelestiaCorp Tower...though that wasn't easy either. 

Her lack of sleep combined with her injury and general tiredness made it beyond tedious just to walk a longer distance, but through sheer force of will and concern for the well-being of her little brother, she had pushed herself to at least make it this far.

For the first time this night, she let a relieved smile form on her lips when she spotted Sunset Shimmer through the glass doors of the building, casually leaning against a wall and giving Twilight a friendly smile in return. 

Thankful that her best friend just so happened to be around, Twilight picked up the pace and made her way through the doors to greet her...blissfully unaware that she was walking straight into a trap.

If Twilight had bothered to check her surroundings before she entered, she might have spotted the masked figure tracking her every move with her glowing blue eyes from the vantage point of her glider, silently hovering in place above the unsuspecting girl's location. 

The Nightmare Goblin had her prey in her sights.
> 4) Cold Blood, Part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 4
Cold Blood, Part 4
The Doctor of Many Faces


In Doctor Silk Mane's office, the mad geneticist herself was watching the news coverage of the Lizard attack on her office computer with a happy (bordering on manic) smile on her face.

"Well, well, well..." she began in a sinister voice, periodically tapping her slender fingers on her desk while casually leaning back in her chair. "...it seems as though Miss Sparkle's curiosity got the better of her after all. Silly little girl. Now she's nothing more than a rabid animal running around in the city with none of that precious intelligence to help her. I'm sure it won't be long until someone has the balls to put her down like the monster she is."

She picked up a glass vial sitting on her desk and gave off a small chuckle as she toyed around with it. "Hehehe...and of course, only I have the cure! Ahahahaha! But then again...what's the fun in using it, really? I think Sparkle's better like this, don't you?"

"Hmmm-Mh!" a muffled voice cursed behind her.

Mane spun her chair around and asked, "Oh come now, Shimmer, what could you possibly do about it?! I mean, you already tried breaking into my office when you thought I wasn't around...and look where that got you."

On the floor at the other end of the room, Sunset Shimmer was angrily glaring at her with a look of utter disdain in her eyes.

Unfortunately though, no matter how much she desperately wanted to, Sunset couldn't act on those vengeful feelings for her as all four of her limbs and even her mouth were currently restrained under several layers of sticky spider-silk...the exact same kind of spider-silk in fact that Rainbow Dash was currently using to swing around with.

Now, if you remember, the webbing that was stored in Spider-Girl's web-shooters came from CelestiaCorp's bio-labs...and before Twilight created the wrist-mounted versions for Rainbow, the company had already developed a few prototype web-guns that they kept in storage...one of which was currently sitting on Silk Mane's desk, making it pretty easy to figure out how she managed to restrain Sunset so easily.

"Of course, leading you here was all part of the plan," she explained. "All I had to do was to get you paranoid enough and you'll fly into my trap like a moth to a flame. Any sensible person would take it up with Celestia of course, but not you. No you, the prideful Sunset Shimmer...want to do things all by yourself. I swear, you're easier to manipulate than my old college professors, and that's saying something! Hehehe!" 

After hearing a few angry mumbles and grumbles coming from her captive, Silk Mane turned her ear to her and mischievously asked, "Oh what's that? You want to congratulate me on my expertly crafted plan? Awwww...that's adorable."

Sunset groaned and rolled her eyes.

Dr Mane turned back to her computer and took a moment to giggle at her own joke. Simply calling her a narcissist would probably not do it justice. 

"And that's only the beginning, of course! Once my business partner finishes her part of the bargain, there will be quite a few changes around here." 

Her smile briefly turned to an expression of anger. "First and foremost, I think a change in management is in order. Celestia's bleeding heart has done nothing but hold progress in this place back! I could have revolutionised the whole world by now if that self-righteous bitch hadn't moaned about ethics and gotten in my way! With my formula, I can alter the very definition of being human...and yet all she wants to do with it is to help injured fools grow their missing parts back!" 

Silk let out a disgusted gag at the end of that sentence, almost as if the mere mention of Celestia's name, even by her own mouth, made her physically sick.

Her arrogant smirk then found its way back on her lips. "After this day is over however, things will be different. Soon, I will run this company, and the true experiments can begin again! Everyone will love me! Everyone will adore me! And the world will be all the better for it! This day will be just perfect...one I have dreamed about since I was small! Ahahahahahaha-wha-WAIT WHAT!?"

Something she briefly spotted in the live news feed on her monitor caught her attention and immediately made her stop laughing. While so far the images released to the press had been out of focus or too far away to make out much of what was happening, one lucky cameraman eventually caught the Lizard in a detailed close-up for a moment or two...long enough for her to notice something that she couldn't believe she didn't notice sooner. 

"Hang on a minute!" she muttered as she stared closely at her computer screen. "That isn't Twilight Sparkle! That creature is...male? But who could-"

The doctor looked back at Sunset, deliberated on her choices for all of two seconds, then got out of her chair and bent down to her level. "If you reenact the cliche of spitting in my face the second your mouth is free, I will break your fingers one by one, got it?!"

Shimmer sighed but gave a small nod anyway.

Silk ripped off the piece of webbing keeping the teenager's mouth shut, then asked, "Who the hell is that!?" while she pointed at the computer screen.

To her credit, Sunset didn't spit Silk Mane in the face, even if she was tempted to do so. Instead she asked, "Now first off: why the hell would I know?! And secondly: even if I did, why would I tell you?"

Silk Mane groaned. "Well, I assume you know miss Sparkle enough to tell me if she was living together with, or meeting with, someone with a Y chromosome, boyfriend perhaps, who could have stupidly opened the package I gave to her. And as for why you should tell me...well...I guess the offer to break your fingers is still on the table if you refuse."

"You're just gonna kill me anyway when you're done gloating," Sunset predicted. "You think I'm afraid of a few broken fingers?"

"Kill you?!" Mane echoed, sounding rather insulted at her assumption. "Who the hell do you think I am?! No, I'm not going to kill you...well...okay, I will kill if you don't fall in line sooner or later, but honestly, you're more useful to me alive."

"Really?" Shimmer questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, with Celestia gone, you'll inevitably end up working for me, and I could use someone with your...intellect."

Sunset responded to that with a humourless laugh, "Hahahaha...after all the crap you've pulled today? I don't think so."

Silk grabbed her by the chin and forced her captive to look her straight in the eye. "You think I'm giving you a choice?!" she warned dangerously.

Sunset didn't answer.

Mane let go of her and argued, "Besides, nothing I've done today even comes close to the crimes your current mentor has committed! Seriously, do you have any idea what Celestia's done!?"

"Well she hasn't tied me up against my will and tried to turn my best friend into a crazy lizard-monster if that's what you're asking. So...I don't really care."

Silk practically growled at that reply, and responded by forcing Sunset yet again to look her in the face, this time by painfully grabbing her by the hair and yanking it up. 

"SHE DID THIS TO ME!" she screamed while her familiar reasonably attractive face shimmered away in a bright green flash, almost like emerald flames washing over her body, tearing away the convenient lies and revealing what was hidden underneath.

For a precious few seconds, Sunset came face to face with pair of multi-toned green eyes with snake-like pupils belonging to a face covered in blackish grey chitinous insectoid armour with a select few sickly green soft parts. Long, vampire-like fangs stuck out of her mouth where a long forked tongue briefly showed itself. Her hair, which was previously neat and organised, now hung limp over her face in a rough chaotic pattern, and somehow, not only was it covered in big visible holes, but it also had a far more silk-like substance to it than normal human hair. 

And then, just as swiftly as that grotesque face had appeared, another ring of green flames soon covered it up behind the Doctor Silk Mane façade she had been using up until now.

What she just saw left Sunset nearly speechless with a wide-eyed expression of surprise on her face.

"....What...the...hell...are you?!"  

'Dr Mane' angrily slapped the girl clear across the cheek hard enough to leave a visible red mark in her wake, then answered, "I'm the most beautiful woman you'll ever meet, and don't you forget it!" her voice reeking of pride and resentment. "Oh...and the name is Chrysalis."

After wincing a little to push herself past the stinging pain in her face, Sunset asked a little more quietly, "Touchy subject, huh?"

"You have no idea," the shapeshifter apparently named 'Chrysalis' affirmed, starting to strangely enough sound almost a bit sad. "It should have been me! I was the one who would propel humanity into the future, ME! I was the smartest, prettiest and most lovable scientist this city had ever known back in the day. I had plans to make a name for myself, to start a company just like this one, and gain the respect my genius deserved!"

She clenched her fist in anger. "But then that obnoxious little ray of sunshine got into the picture...the great Celestia! She made me look like a complete idiot at every turn, always upstaged me at everything, and everybody and their mother just loved her to bits! She even became the student of Professor Starswirl himself for goodness sake while I was stuck in mediocrity! She forced me to up my game, she forced me to ignore the risks! And when it came time for me to test my one and only chance of getting some recognition for myself, the same little experiment I had you two help me with, it turned me into a walking freakshow!" 

Chrysalis' face flickered a little, briefly alternating between Silk Mane's face and her real face, almost as if whatever she was using to mask herself was somehow tied to her mood.

"I now have to wear the faces of others just to not have everyone running and screaming at the mere sight of me. And, as I was, the only ones who wanted anything to do with me was criminals and madmen, forcing me into questionable alliances. And then...that little miss perfect Celestia had the gall to exposed me, sending me to rot in jail for twenty excruciatingly long years while she moved up in the world!" 

At the end of her story, the doctor slumped back in her chair and let out a sigh. "'CelestiaCorp'...what a laugh."

"Soooo...what? You expect me to feel sorry for you or something?" Sunset asked after awhile, sounding very unimpressed by her captor's backstory. "I mean, if that's all true, then god you're pathetic."

Chrysalis' gave her an evil glare.

Sunset just smirked, displaying an arrogance and bravado that she hadn't shown in quite a while. "Heh, I mean, having to look like you do every day sucks, sure, but from where I'm sitting, that was all your own damn fault. No need to blame Celestia for everything just because she's better than you. And yes, she is better than you, and so am I, and so is Twilight. In fact, I think everyone with half-a-brain is better than you. You know that, don't you? You're just too much of a whiny kid to accept it."

Chrysalis took a moment to absorb those words, her left eye twitching a bit, her teeth clenched, and a rhythmic heavy breathing could be heard coming through her nose as she was trying to contain the bubbling unfiltered rage that was was laying hidden just beneath the surface. 

"What? You gonna cry now?" Shimmer mocked, pouring more fuel on the fire. "I mean-"

"You know what, you little brat!?" Chrysalis interrupted while she silenced her captive by clenching the girl's throat with a remarkably tight grip, then squeezed it so hard that Sunset couldn't breathe, making her desperately gasp for air while her body was starting to panic. "I was really hoping you would take me up on the offer to join me, but now I don't even want you!"

Sunset struggled as much as she could, but restrained as she was, she couldn't even so much as budge Chrysalis' violent hold on her throat, and the villain only squeezed tighter as a result.

"Last chance, Shimmer, tell me who the Lizard is or I'll leave you dead on the floor!"

Sunset tried to speak, but soon found that to be impossible while being chocked half to death. By now, the colour from her face was even starting to fade.

Chrysalis transformed back into her terrifying real form and stared Sunset straight in the eyes with her unsettling inhuman pupils and whispered, "That's right, I'll fucking murder you right here...right now. And I'll enjoy it! I'll love it, and I won't feel bad about it for even a second...because that's the kind of woman I am, got it?"

She finally let go of Sunset's neck after finishing that sentence, leaving the poor girl wheezing and gasping for air while her colour slowly but steadily started to return to her face.

"Now talk!" Chrysalis demanded.

After having been left coughing and panting on the floor for a while, Sunset eventually regained the ability to respond in proper words.

"I don't-" (cough) "-I don't know, okay! I just don't know!" she answered, sounding more weak and distraught than she had ever been before.

"Not the answer I was looking for..." Chrysalis warned, twirling her long black fingers that Sunset now saw were both clawed and covered in chitinous armour in front of her face.

Sunset whimpered, knowing full well what her captor was gonna do next. 

Wherein in the beginning, she held nothing but contempt and defiance to Chrysalis and her fake identity, now for the first time in ages, Sunset Shimmer was actually genuinely terrified at the very real possibility that she might die today. 

It was only by sheer dumb luck that at that very moment...her cellphone started ringing.

The unexpected appearance of Sunset's Hard Rock-esque ringtone made Chrysalis pause ever so slightly, but she then smirked as an idea crossed her mind. 

She curiously followed the source of the noise and snuck her hand into one of Sunset's jeans pockets, which Sunset herself of course couldn't reach in her current position, and checked the caller ID to see who was trying to reach out to her prisoner.

It was Twilight Sparkle. 

Chrysalis' devious smile widened even further. When life gives you lemons, right?

Though before she pressed the answer button, there were two things she had to quickly take care of first.

She started by picking up the web-gun from her desk and covered Sunset's mouth shut again with a single well-aimed spray of cobweb so she couldn't interfere. Once she was done with that, another bright green flash washed over her body and transformed her into the spitting image of Sunset Shimmer herself, right down to her voice. 

Once those two things were out of the way, she answered the phone.

"Hey, Sparkle! What's up?" Chrysalis greeted, trying her best to mimic Sunset's speech mannerisms.

A very distraught-sounding Twilight responded, "Sunset, thank goodness you picked up! I need your help."

"Okaaay...with what?" Chrysalis asked cautiously, trying her best not to tip Twilight off about who the girl was really talking to. 

"Are you at CelestiaCorp right now?!"

She debated for a second whether she would tell the truth about that or not, but ultimately decided it was safer to do so. "Uh...yeah, why?"

"You were right about that box Doctor Mane gave me! But it wasn't just a prank, it was an unstable version of the cross-species genetics formula! Spike opened it, and now he's turned into a giant lizard-monster!"

And there it was, the answer to the question she had been trying to get out of Sunset for about half-an-hour at this point. The only problem she had now was...well...who the hell was Spike? 

"Spike!?" Chrysalis echoed, hoping Twilight would give some glimmer of info on who he was. It wasn't as if she had ever made an effort to ask Twilight about her personal life or anything.

However, no such answers were given, as Twilight instead said, "Yes, and he needs our help. Do you remember where we kept the Gene-cleanser?"

Casting a glance at the object in question sitting on her desk, she smirked, "Of course."

"Well, what I need you to do is to retrieve it and give it to me. I'm on my way to CelestiaCorp right now."

That could be a problem in Chrysalis' plan, she soon realised. The plan in question hinged on the fact that Twilight was to be the one transformed into a lizard, not this Spike person, whoever he was...and now the little teen genius had an alarming amount of knowledge about this whole conspiracy...knowledge that could put the whole plan into jeopardy if she talked to the wrong people. 

On the other hand...if she played her cards right, that problem might actually turn into an opportunity. One that could, if she was lucky, kill two birds with one stone.

"Hmmm...you know, it might be easier if you wait in the lobby," she suggested, just barely hiding the arrogant smirk she had on her face while she did so. "I'll be coming down there with the Gene-cleanser in a minute or two tops. That sound good?" 

"Uh, well, sure. I'll be there soon."

"Good to hear. Bye!"

Immediately after she hung up, Chrysalis crushed Sunset's phone in her grip like it was made of tissue paper, then idly tossed it into a trashcan sitting by her desk. 

"I suppose that could have gone worse..." she muttered while she replaced it with her own phone, punched in a number, and turned back into her rather hideous-looking real form.

After a few seconds of waiting, the call was answered and Chrysalis started the conversation with a simple, "It's me."

"Ah Chrysalis...I was just thinking about you," the distinctive sinister voice of the Nightmare Goblin replied from the other end. "Now when I told you to cause an 'accident', I didn't think you had it in you to do something quite as spectacular as a giant lizard running loose in the middle of the city...but I guess I was wrong. Now we have more than enough to get Celestia out of the picture for good!"

"Ehhh...about that..." Chrysalis began a bit uneasily. "There's a problem."

"...oh. And what's that!?" the Goblin asked, starting to sound a bit angry.

"You see, I hid the serum in a package I gave to Twilight Sparkle, hoping the little grub would open it and become infected herself. That way we could use the cure as leverage to get Celestia to do whatever we want...or at the very least get rid of one little annoyance that the world could certainly do without. But now I found out that some random guy named Spike got it instead!"

"Twilight's little brother?"

"She has a brother?"

"Actually, she has two...one of which is a cop! If she can trace this whole thing back to us, the whole plan has FAILED!" 

The Goblin shouted the last part of that sentence so loud that it made Chrysalis flinch from the phone at the shear volume of it. 

"Not if we stop her first," she suggested after putting the phone back to her ear. "She's coming here to CelestiaCorp to get the cure...and she expects Sunset Shimmer to wait for her in the lobby with it. That will be our chance to remove her from the equation."

"Hmmmm...than that's what we have to do. If you can turn into Sunset and go down and wait for her, I'll keep a bird's eye on her to make sure she doesn't get away. Goblin...out!"        

Without waiting for her co-conspirator to reply, the Nightmare Goblin terminated the call...leaving Chrysalis to follow through with her part of the plan on her own. 

With a sigh, the shapeshifting villain transformed her likeness back to that of Sunset Shimmer's and put the phone back in her coat. 

And speaking of Sunset Shimmer...Chrysalis was now left with one massive issue she had to take care of before she could leave...as her eyes then set on the real Sunset still sitting on the floor with her mouth and limbs restrained while glaring daggers at her.

"Now what to do about little old you?" she wondered aloud, tapping a finger on her chin while she started to pace back and forth a bit. 

"I suppose I could just kill you and be done with it..." she suggested with a smirk, making Sunset's eyes widen in dread. Though luckily for her, another thought quickly shut down that idea. "...though on the other hand, I could probably do without a disgusting dead body in my office. Believe me, the smell alone is too revolting for words," Chrysalis added with a shiver.

After thinking about it a bit more, the villain eventually conceded, "Well...I guess I have no choice but let you stay here for the time being. Now be a dear and don't go anywhere...please?"

Sunset replied with a small nod, hoping it would get her off the hook for the time being.

Chrysalis' eyes narrowed, and given that she was using Sunset's face to do it, the girl knew that that meant she didn't believe her one bit.

In the blink of an eye, Chrysalis delivered a swift and precise kick to the side of Sunset's head, knocking her out cold in an instance and letting her gently fall to the floor on her side. 

"That'll slow you down for awhile," she nonchalantly noted. "Right now, I have more important things to take care of." 

She snatched the gene-cleanser from her desk and put it in her coat, then she picked up a small mechanical canister that looked identical to the one she hid inside the 'gift' she gave to Twilight earlier from a box sitting in the corner.

And with both objects on her person, she gave the unconscious Sunset a small glance and said, "I'll be back for you soon enough," before she took her leave and closed the door behind her, effectively leaving the girl trapped inside. 

Chrysalis would have to deal with her properly at a later date. Perhaps as a test subject if nothing else. Goodness knows she was gonna need a lot of them when this was over. 

However, before she left, Chrysalis made sure to lock her door down as securely as she could. She couldn't very well have someone come in and find Sunset in that state...or any of the other incriminating evidence hidden there either, so she had gone out of her way to reprogram the door mechanism to not even allow Celestia herself to gain access to it.

And given how tough the door and its locking mechanism was, as per Luna's tight security standards, one would need a powerful battering ram or a blowtorch to force their way through it. 

In conclusion: no one was getting in or out of that office.

Now all she had left to do was to find Twilight Sparkle and finish the job she set out to do. After that, she only needed the Goblin to do her part of the bargain and Celestia would be out of the picture for good. 

Still hiding in the guise of Sunset Shimmer, Chrysalis smiled evilly as she made her way down to the lobby where she told Twilight to be, the thought of what she was about to do to her making her more excited than she'd been in years.

The revenge of Chrysalis, the notorious Changeling herself...was close at hand.
> 4) Cold Blood, Part 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 4
Cold Blood, Part 5
The Cure


If there was one thing about being Spider-Girl that Rainbow Dash had truly enjoyed so far, then it would definitively have to be the ability to swing around from place to place. 

It was fun, exhilarating, freeing, and most important of all, the closest she had ever come in her life to being able to fly. When she was up there, jumping off buildings or launching herself into the air only to catch herself and swing back up, she felt truly relaxed and way happier than recent events had allowed her to be.

However...the same could not be said for swinging around the city...while also carrying around a big cocooned lizard who was constantly trying to wriggle his way out of her grip like some slippery eel. Not only was he also heavy, but the no small amount of obnoxious hissing and growling he subjected her to didn't help the matter either.

She could only imagine what any passersby who happened to see her right now would think was going on.

Still, even while holding an ill-tempered reptile under her arm, she had made great progress so far. By now, she could even see the CelestiaCorp Tower peak out amongst the buildings around her, and it was coming closer and closer by every swing she took.

'Let's just hope Twilight got that cure ready. I've had just about enough of giant lizards for one day' Rainbow thought as she landed on a nearby building and then launched herself off of it. 

The Lizard responded to the accompanied vertigo by wriggling around even more. This time, he was also making some kind of distressed squeaking noise while he was at it.

"You know, Spike? You're making this way harder than it needs to be," Dash commented mid-swing. "If I'd known you were this heavy, I wouldn't have let you run away in the first place. Seriously, you need to loose weight. How about we take a swing over to my dad's gym and get you on a program or something?"

After hearing nothing but more angry reptile noises come out of him, she conceded, "...Or we could just get your sister and shrink you down with a little Miracle Lizard-tonic. That works too, I guess. Still, after all is said and done, can you please do us all a huge favour and try not get yourself turned into a lizard again? That would be great!"

He answered that with another angry growl.

"Good to hear. Wow, you're a great listener, ya know that?"  





Meanwhile, inside the building she was heading towards yet completely unaware that she was coming at all, the notorious supervillain known to most only as the Changeling (but preferring to refer to herself by the name 'Chrysalis'), was waiting in the lobby of the CelestiaCorp Tower for the imminent arrival of a certain nerdy teenager while taking on the appearance of said teenager's best friend: Sunset Shimmer.

It was a trap, of course...and a damn well perfect one if Chrysalis had anything to say about it.

Twilight Sparkle was the one loose end she had left to deal with if she had any hopes of getting away with her actions scot-free, and also the person she had intended to test her new lizard formula on in the first place. Spike contracting it and transforming into a monster instead was just an accident...and one that needed correcting.

Good thing Twilight was on her way to where Chrysalis was waiting right now, expecting her good friend 'Sunset Shimmer' to hand over the cure. It gave the villain another chance to accomplish her original plan. 

Hidden underneath her lab coat, Chrysalis kept a small mechanical canister loaded with an even more potent version of the cross-species genetics formula than the one Spike ended up inhaling, and was ready to whip it out and spray it in Twilight's face as soon as the oblivious girl got within range. The added potency of the serum was to make the resulting transformation come about a lot quicker than it did for Spike...since she didn't exactly have the same time schedule to work with this time around. 

Of course, using it in such close proximity without wearing a gas mask or anything of the sort was risky. If she made a mistake, she might accidentally inhale the formula herself, and with how twisted her genetics were already, she didn't even want to guess what would happen. That's why she made sure to also bring a vial of gene-cleanser with her as well. You could never be too careful.

Now all that was needed was for Twilight to actually show up.

In an attempt to mimic the laid back and rebellious Sunset Shimmer, Chrysalis leaned up against a wall and kept her arms crossed. She heard somewhere that people who were trying to be 'cool' leaned against things that way...not that she could actually describe the person who told her that as being all that 'cool' himself...but that's beside the point.

The point was that her disguise was good enough to hopefully fool Twilight long enough to spring her trap...and to also make it look like Sunset was the culprit in the eyes of the security cameras. A little framing could do a lot of good if you were an evil shapeshifter.

However, her target seemed to be taking her sweet time before getting there, and Chrysalis did not generally consider herself a very patient woman. Rotting in prison for twenty years was hard enough, but then being forced to work under Celestia (the person who put her in that prison in the first place) while pretending to be Dr Silk Mane on top of that didn't help matters either. 

So...in order to alleviate her growing boredom, she started doing the same thing she did to pass the time when she was cooped up all alone in her cell back at the Tartarus Institute... 

She started talking to herself.

"Eghh...what's taking that maggot so long?!" she cursed in a hushed tone. "Always so much waiting...and waiting...and waiting!

"I could have taken care of Celestia months ago and worn her smug little face like a new hat, but noooooo, that stupid Goblin didn't like that...said it would 'ruin her perfect little plan'," she noted with air-quotes. 

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, "Yes, I know she was the one who broke me out of that infernal prison, but since when did that mean I had to do every little thing she told me to do like some sycophantic servant?" ...acting almost like someone else was actually talking to her.

Her sanity had always been rather questionable.

"You know what? This is the last straw! Next chance I get, I'll spring something horrific on that costumed weirdo, and then I'll take over CelestiaCorp all by myself! She will never see me coming..."

A wicked grin once again showed itself on her face as her scheming mind started to come up with a new plan to get rid of her 'business partner' as soon as she got the opportunity.   





It was around this time that Twilight finally managed to make it over to the CelestiaCorp Tower entrance. 

It had been a long and very stressful night for the poor teenager...and it was only going to get worse from here.

Even though she didn't know it, she was currently stuck between a rock and a hard place. The rock in this instance would be the Changeling in the lobby taking the shape of her best friend Sunset Shimmer, who was planning to unleash a horrible fate on her if she got within reach...while the hard place would be the costumed supervillain tracking her every move from high above on top of her flying death machine, ready to swoop down and snatch her up at a moment's notice.

The only consolation she had was that neither of them had decided to attack yet, but that was only a matter of time.

The Nightmare Goblin could take care of her easily without breaking a sweat...but she didn't, and the only reason why was because she was curious to see what Chrysalis' plan actually was, and if she could manage to pull it off.

However, the second that plan failed, all patience for the Changeling's antics was out the window and she would take the reigns on this entire operation. It's not as if their alliance was meant to last or anything...it all just came down to whoever of the two stabbed the other in the back first. 

For now though, the Goblin kept herself out of sight and made due with just watching whatever was going to happen from the safety of her elevated vantage point.

"Now if only I had some popcorn..." she quietly muttered to herself. 





Down below, Twilight pushed open the double doors of the lobby entrance and stormed in shouting, "Sunset, you got the gene-cleanser!?"

The fake Sunset gave her a cocky grin and reached into her lab coat to take out and present the object in question. Another reason why she brought the gene-cleanser with her. It made it easier to lure her unwary victim into her trap. 

And upon seeing the familiar glass vial in her hand, Twilight's eyes lit up with hope and she predictably started to run over to her with no clue of the danger she was in.

This was going easy as pie.

Chrysalis' excitement grew for every step Twilight took. And she only needed to take a few more until she could unleash her secret weapon. Only a few more steps...and...





Outside, the Nightmare Goblin spotted something in her peripheral vision approach at an alarming speed. She focused her glowing blue eyes on it as best she could, but it was still hard to make out what it could be from this distance.

Whatever it was though...it was...swinging to get around...and it almost looked like a person...or maybe two at a closer inspection.

Only once the object got close enough did that sudden spark of recognition lit up in her head enough to tell her just who exactly this mysterious interloper was.

"Spider-Girl?" she whispered in surprise.

The same wannabe superhero she ran into the other day had decided to involve herself again...and by the looks of it, she was actually carrying around the Lizard that she and Chrysalis had created. 

Not really knowing what to do about Spider-Girl's unexpected appearance just yet, the Goblin backed away and kept her distance...choosing rather to wait and see what happened before getting involved with whatever was going on herself.  





Twilight was just one step away from being gassed in the face by Chrysalis' reptile cocktail when Rainbow Dash, dressed in her superhero outfit and carrying a large cocooned lizard under her arm, swooped down from her latest swing and kicked open the doors of the CelestiaCorp building so audaciously that it made both Twilight and Chrysalis freeze up and look upon her in surprised awe...while she unceremoniously tripped up her landing and fell down on her back while the Lizard flew out of her arms and rolled over on the floor a few metres away from her.

Tired, battered and disoriented, Rainbow Dash groaned and slowly pushed herself up to sit straight, then turned her head to look at the stunned Twilight Sparkle and moaned out, "Please tell me you got that cure..." in an exhausted tone while she rubbed the back of her neck with a pained wince.       

Chrysalis was...confused, to say the least. 

As good as one could be as a schemer, there was always one thing that could always derail any plan, no matter how thought out or brilliant it was: 

An unexpected element. 

She had no idea who this weirdly dressed person was, why she decided to show up now all of a sudden, or how on earth she was able to wrangle up the ferocious Lizard that she had unleashed...and with what looked like a spider's webbing no less. In other words; she was an unknown...and Chrysalis hated the unknown. 

"Who the hell are you?!" Chrysalis exclaimed, not momentarily caring whether she was breaking character or not.

"Oh, me? I'm just your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Girl," Dash nonchalantly replied while getting back up on her feet, still sounding a bit tired. 

While Rainbow Dash could drop the act and reveal who she was to the girl she thought was Sunset Shimmer, she decided not to. Strangely enough, given her boastful and extroverted nature, Rainbow had made a decision when she first chose to start helping people as the Awesome Spider-Girl...and that decision was to never show her face or reveal her true identity to anyone.

At first it was just to avoid getting into trouble when she tried to pursue a secret career as a masked wrestler, but after what happened to Firefly, she kept the mask on to not risk putting any more of her friends and family in danger. No amount of glory or fame was worth that. 

And in this particular instance, she was lucky she had decided to do so given who the 'Sunset Shimmer' in the room just so happened to be.  

Twilight, who had just managed to piece together everything that was going on, gave the disguised Changeling an awkward look and said, "It's...a long story. I'll tell you later." 

Chrysalis silently groaned, annoyed that Twilight's reply didn't give so much as a hint as to who she was dealing with. Either way, she decided to stay back and keep a weary eye on the mysterious new arrival.

Meanwhile, Twilight turned back to Spider-Girl and answered, "Yes, we got it right here."

Rainbow spotted the vial in 'Sunset's' hands and immediately put two and two together. Then, she didn't waste a second before she connected a sling of cobweb to the object and pulled it out of Chrysalis' grip before she had a chance to respond to this absurd situation.

After the glass container had landed in her hand, Spider-Girl looked down at the Lizard and asked, "So what's the play, Smarty Pants? Do we just pour it on him, or..?"

Having just been rather painfully dropped down face-first onto the cold hard floor while still wrapped up in enough webbing to stop him from using his limbs get back up or out of this mess, the Lizard was beyond pissed at this moment, and started hissing and wriggling even more than normal. 

Twilight gulped nervously when she heard...or rather felt the creepy inhuman growl coming from the ferocious creature she had to remind herself was actually her brother. "No, that won't do anything," she explained. "If we want the gene-cleanser to work, he needs to drink it."

Rainbow looked at her friend with an 'are you for real?' kind of expression and asked, "Seriously?"

Twilight nodded. "It's either that or going all the way up to the bio-labs to get us a syringe or a gas canister, and we don't have time for that. If we wait too long, Spike's...'condition' may become irreversible."

"Then there's no time to waste!" Dash urged, taking a firm grip on the vial of gene-cleanser and ran over to where she dropped him. 

Chrysalis meanwhile was at a loss for what to do. Her plan had worked perfectly until this...Spider-Girl person, whoever she was...decided to show up out of the blue, effectively derailing the whole operation. She needed to get her out of the equation if she had any hopes of getting away with any of the crimes she had recently committed. But the question was...how? How could she get rid of some strange costumed weirdo she knew barely anything about?

An idea began to form when she noticed Twilight, despite her better judgement, start to approach the Lizard as well, putting the two of them in relatively close proximity. The villain reached her hand into her coat and wrapped her delicate fingers on the lizard gas canister she had hidden there and quietly muttered, "Two birds...one stone..." under her breath before she began to approach them with sinister intentions. 

Oblivious to the threat Chrysalis posed, Spider-Girl got down to the Lizard's level and turned him over so he ended up on his back. An act that should have been quick and easy if the beast wasn't aggressively fighting back against her efforts. 

She then sat down on his chest and looked him face to face. Seeing nothing but rage and savage animal instinct look back at her made the next part all the less appealing...but she wasn't going to back out now.

Despite logically knowing with all reason that Spike wouldn't understand her in his current state, Twilight nevertheless sat down next to him and said, "I don't know if you're still in there, Spike, but please just...calm down. I know you feel confused about what is happening to you, but I promise you'll feel better if you just relax. Please, can you do that for me, little brother?" Her voice wavered a bit as she spoke, and at the end she looked almost ready to burst into tears. 

The Lizard however showed no signs of having understood or even heard her, with his attention firmly being directed at Spider-Girl, with 'anger' being the only noticeable emotion he was showing.

Rainbow gave her friend a sympathetic look...or at least as sympathetic as she could look while wearing a mask. "He'll be fine, Twilight. I promise," she assured her.

Twilight nodded but stayed where she was. 

'Okay, Dash, it's all or nothing,' Rainbow thought before she reached a hand over to the webbing covering the Lizard's face and took a tight grip on it. 

Then...in the blink of an eye, she ripped it open, popped open the cork on the vial and prepared herself for his next move. Unsurprisingly, the Lizard opened his mouth in an attempt to bite at her as soon as he was free to do so, and that was what Spider-Girl had counted on...because as soon as he did, she immediately jammed the vial straight into his gullet so that the liquid went right down his throat.

Mission accomplished!

However, the gene-cleanser did not work instantaneously, so she had to quickly pull her arm out of there as soon as she could...unless of course she wanted him to bite her hand off. And even after that, she then had to throw away the now empty bottle and use both of her hands to hold him down to the floor as long as it would take for the cure to take effect.

He hissed, growled and spat saliva in Spider-Girl's face as much as he could, but she kept him down no matter what. She was just too close to give up now.

However, as per usual when she was stuck in a situation such as this, an outside element once again decided that now was the perfect time to get involved. 

Chrysalis, who had now made her way over to them, pulled out the canister containing the reptile gas and aimed it at such an angle that the resulting spray would hit Twilight, Spider-Girl and the Lizard right in their faces (likely cancelling the effects of the gene-cleanser in the process while transforming the other two into brand new lizards to terrorise the city as well), and moved her finger to press a button on the device that would unleash the serum.

Fortunately though, there was one thing she hadn't accounted for...

Rainbow Dash's spider-sense!

The second she made her move, Dash felt a great reaction spike at the back of her head, and she immediately dropped what she was doing, leapt up on her feet and punched Chrysalis square in the jaw with enough force to knock her off her feet and fall on her back so hard that the canister she was holding flew out of her grip and landed on the floor over on the other side of the room.

However, while Rainbow's quick and violent response did save Twilight's, Spike's, and her own life...from Twilight's perspective, it looked like her friend had just gotten up and clocked Sunset Shimmer in the face for no apparent reason. So she would be forgiven for reacting to the situation by staring at Rainbow with a shocked expression and screaming, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" 

Rainbow Dash had acted entirely on instinct though and at the moment couldn't even manage to give a straight answer to that question. "Uhhh...I'm not sure," she replied lamely, seemingly just as surprised as Twilight was about what she just did.

"You...miserable...BITCH!" a voice that decidedly did not sound at all like Sunset Shimmer's cursed a few metres away from them.

Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash gave a surprised look at the recently punched Chrysalis, who was currently climbing back up on her feet while glaring daggers at them...all while her disguise flickered back and forth between Sunset's face, her real face, and even Dr Silk Mane's face like a broken light bulb. 

Twilight stood up and took a few steps back while Spider-Girl clenched her fists and took on a combat pose, meeting the impostor's glare with one of her own.

"Who the heck are you!?" Dash asked defensively. "And don't say Sunset Shimmer, because you sure don't look like her!"

After giving her head a good shake, Chrysalis finally stopped switching between her various faces and ended up looking like Dr Mane for the moment. "Oh me? I'm just the woman who's going to claw your eyes off for that!"

"Doctor Silk Mane?" Twilight questioned in an uncertain tone. 

Chrysalis chuckled, then shed her disguise completely to show off her rather hideously mutated real appearance. "How dense are you, Sparkle? Does this look like the face of Doctor Silk Mane to you?!" she asked while pointing at her own face.

"Well, when you keep changing it like that, it's kinda hard to tell," Spider-Girl pointed out.

"That's the idea, dofus!" Chrysalis responded with a snarl.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at her and asked, "Where's the real Sunset Shimmer?" with a hint of contempt in her voice.

"Hehe, wouldn't you like to know?" Chrysalis mocked. "Now let's make this very simple. I'm walking out of here, you two are going to pretend you never saw me, and then maybe...just maybe...I'll give you a hint as to where I put her."

"After what you did to my brother, you honestly think we're just gonna let you go?!" Twilight angrily declared, trying to approach her but then being stopped half-way there when Spider-Girl defensively put her arm in the way.

Chrysalis' smirk turned unbelievably smug at that question. "Yes I do. Because it's the only way I'll ever tell you where your little girlfriend is. Take it or leav-"

"GRAAAAAAGHHHHH!"

Suddenly, the sound of a roar and something being ripped apart interrupted her proposal and made all three of them turn around and see that, during the time they've been busy dealing with Chrysalis, the Lizard had managed to claw his way out of his cocoon and was now back on his claws and staring at the nearby humans with unrestrained animalistic fury.

With an angry hiss, the creature leapt towards the Spider-Girl with his claws and teeth bared, ready to slash her to pieces. Thinking quickly, Rainbow first pushed Twilight out of range of his attack, then immediately after jumped aside herself, effectively dodging his attack by the skin of her teeth.

However, Chrysalis wasn't nearly as lucky, as the Lizard ended up landing right on top of her, slamming her down to the floor under his impressive weight and painfully knocking the wind out of her. Then he proceeded to pick her up by the tail and throw the supervillain clear across the room and straight through one of the glass walls so hard that it shattered on impact. 

While Chrysalis' superhuman physiology made her more resilient than most, and that was likely the only reason her defenestration didn't kill her outright...as it was, it still knocked her out cold and left her lying bloody and bruised on the ground outside surrounded by shards of broken glass. A rather karmic way for her to end at the end of the night, wouldn't you say?

Having just successfully created a way out of there though, the Lizard didn't waste a second before he made a run for it, bolting over on all fours and easily stepping over the broken glass and Chrysalis' unconscious body as he did so.

Spider-Girl immediately gave chase, and so did Twilight...though not nearly as quickly. 

As soon as she stepped one foot outside the building, Rainbow attached a web-line to the Lizard's back and pulled back on it as hard as she could in order to stop him in his tracks. Determined to escape at all costs though, the Lizard pushed himself forward harder and harder, not letting up even for a second.  

Their battle soon turned into a relentless game of tug of war, and even though she tried her best, it soon became clear that Spider-Girl was fighting a losing battle. She was losing ground rapidly, and by now the Lizard had even managed to physically drag her away from her original position by a few metres despite the fact that she was trying to use her spider-powers to anchor herself to the ground. 

Rainbow was just too tired to keep it up.

However...everything changed when Twilight managed to catch up to them and scream out a single word that instantly changed the Lizard's feral and savage demeanour.

"Spike!"

Something deep inside the creature awakened right then and there...and it made him slow down for a second, enough for Rainbow to gain the upper hand and drag him back a metre or so. Though instead of trying to reclaim that distance or resorting to attacking someone, he turned strangely docile and unfocused. 

The voice that just spoke to him was simply too distracting to focus on anything else right now.

He sharply turned his head around and fixed his reptilian eyes on the person who said his name, letting out a low growl as he saw her standing a few metres away from him.

Temporarily putting aside her fears and uncertainty, and instead letting her courage and the love she had for her brother guide her, Twilight took a few slow steps towards the Lizard and said, "Spike, just...calm down. It's me...Twilight." 

"Twilight, get back here!" Dash demanded from where she was standing.

Twilight held up a hand to her and said, "Stay back, Rainbow...I...I got this," and continued her approach undeterred, though she did sound pretty nervous about doing so.

While keeping her arms up and speaking in the calmest voice as she could muster, she pleaded, "Please, Spike. Just...relax. You know me...don't you?"

The Lizard...or rather, Spike, turned away with a hiss, almost as if he couldn't bring himself to look at her. Probably a sign that she was getting through to him, but she couldn't be sure. 

Then, he suddenly began to start clawing himself in the face repeatedly, all while refusing to make eye-contact with her. 

"Spike, what're you doing?! You'll hurt yourself!" She cried out in concern. 

He wasn't listening to her though, instead he just kept doing it even more frantically...at least until he eventually ended up clenching his skull while curling up into a ball. He was soon shivering uncontrollably while making strange noises that almost sounded like...sobbing, if Twilight had to guess.

She also noticed something else while he was doing this. Some of his scales seemed to break apart and fall off, the sharp claws at the end of his fingers started to shrink back into something that far more resembled human fingernails, and his tail seemed to break down completely in several areas. 

He wasn't there yet...but it was starting.

Not able to contain herself any longer, Twilight got down and gave him a hug despite the danger he posed, making Rainbow tense up anxiously in the process.

"It's gonna be okay, Spike. It's gonna be okay..." she whispered into his ear.

Suddenly, Spike uncurled himself, stood up and stared her right in the eyes. Twilight backed away a step and Dash was getting ready to pry them apart if something happened. After what he just did to Chrysalis, she shuddered to think what he could do to Twilight.

However, her fears were soon quelled when Spike opened his mouth and said, "Twi...light?" in a voice that didn't quite sound like his usual one, but at least was it an improvement over his usual growls and hisses.

"Spike! You do know me!" Twilight happily noted, small tears of joy beginning to build up in her eyes while she did so.

Spike just stood there...staring...recognising who he was looking at...and starting to remember who he himself really was, until...he suddenly got some kind of intense reaction and started to convulse and spasm very sporadically as his arms and legs started to grow back to their original sizes, his tail crumbled to dust and fell off completely, his scales fell off his skin like autumn leaves and his face reformed into one vastly more familiar and human-like. 

A moment later, Spike fell into his sister's comforting arms out of sheer exhaustion of the transformation itself. Though by the time she caught him, he had gone back to being a perfectly ordinary teenage boy with only his tattered and ruined clothing being the only visible cues that he had ever been a giant reptile to begin with. 

And with him finally back to his former self, Twilight cried out, "Thank goodness you're back, Spike!" into his shoulder as she was starting to shed tears of joy.

"Good...to be back..." he tiredly moaned out. 

Rainbow let out a sigh of relief and slumped her shoulders in exhaustion. "Good, because I'm so done chasing lizards!" she commented in response.

Spike let out a small chuckle, "Hehe...and I'm definitively done being one."

Twilight broke the hug and looked him in the eye. "Now be honest with me, Spike. How are you feeling?"

He massaged his temples a bit and answered, "A bit queasy...and I got a bit of a headache, and...it's kinda cold...but mostly I'm good. Way better than I felt a moment ago. Man, who knew being a lizard would taste so weird?"

"Wait, you remember what happened when you were...well...you know?"

Spike shrugged, "Eh, only bits and pieces, really," he revealed while cupping his chin in thought. "I...recall something about being choked near the beginning, then...I think I got really angry at a mannequin for some reason, then I slipped on something, and after that all I really remember is being stuck in a weird sticky place for a really long time. It all just kinda blurs together for the most part though."

Feeling a little guilty, Rainbow scratched the back of her neck and confessed, "Oh, the first one was me trying to choke you out, eh, non-lethally of course, then I threw a mannequin at you, and later I tricked you into jumping onto a bowling lane. The last part has got to be when I webbed you up and carried you all the way here. Also, I may have had to kick your brother Shining Armor in the chest at one point. Sorry about all that, by the way."

"You did WHAT?!" Twilight sputtered.

Dash raised her hands and clarified, "Hey, it was either that or let him and his squad shoot Spike in the face! Besides, I'm pretty sure he's fine."

"It's okay, Rainbow, you did just save my life, so who am I to complain?" Spike pointed out...even though Twilight still looked a bit sceptical. Then he looked Dash over and realised something. "Wait...are you doing the superhero thing...for real now?!"

Blushing a bit under her mask, Rainbow admitted, "Yeah...I guess I am." Though at the same time, she did feel a little bit of pride for doing so.

While he was still a bit weak in his arms and legs, Spike made an effort to stand up straight and take in his newly restored human mobility which he'd sorely missed. Though the cold cemented ground underneath his bare feet did make him cringe a little. "Uh...have either of seen my shoes, because this ground is really not all that comfortable to stand on barefoot."

"Sorry, too busy focusing on more important stuff at the time," Dash replied. "I figured saving your life was a bit more important, but I can give you a lift home if...you...want..."

She trailed off as she picked up something approaching on her spider-sense...something a bit...familiar.

Curiously, she looked up in the direction of the object she sensed and saw a small orange metal ball fall from the sky and land on the ground next to the three of them with a small metal clanking noise. 

Though as soon as it landed, and Rainbow had gotten a good look at it, a sudden feeling of dread hit her all at once as she instantly recognised it as the same kind of explosive pumpkin that nearly blew her to smithereens the last time she saw it.

In a futile attempt to avoid the resulting explosion she knew was coming, Rainbow quickly grabbed Spike and Twilight and tried to pull them out of the line of fire...but she wasn't fast enough.

With a loud and sudden bang, the tiny metal pumpkin released a massive shockwave that hit the three of them in the face with enough force to knock them all off their feet while also flashing them with a powerful bright light that left them all temporarily blinded as they each landed painfully on the hard cemented ground. 

It was a flashbang grenade...which probably meant that the assailant wanted them alive for whatever reason.

Dazed, wounded and confused, Rainbow fumbled around on the ground while trying to make sense of what just happened. Her senses were all in a mess, but she was getting them back slowly and steadily. 

Twilight wasn't as lucky, as she was curled up and crying out in unbearable pain while she kept her eyes closed, her glasses having flown away to who knows where...while Spike, being weakened enough as he was, had been knocked completely unconscious. 

Rainbow's eyes soon recovered enough to see glimpses of a blurry shape coming down from the sky...while her ringing ears began to pick up on a sinister laugh that was all too familiar.

"Hahahahaha-HAHAHAHA...well, well, well..."

It didn't take long before the horrifying face of the demented Nightmare Goblin appeared right before her, the villain smiling with sadistic glee at the hero's predicament. 

"I thought I told you to stay out of my way, Spider," she recounted. "I guess some people never learn."

"You!" Spider-Girl said with a snarl.

Then the Goblin bent down and taunted, "Yes...me. Now...sweet dreams, little insect," before she delivered a quick and decisive punch to the face...and everything went black.
> Celestia's Secret
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Minisode
Celestia's Secret


Celestia was most certainly not a night owl by any definition of the term.

She hated to work in the dark, she despised the empty silence of the after work hours, and she absolutely loathed having to stay up to well over midnight. That was her sister's territory, not hers. 

So then what possible reason could she have for still being awake and working at her office at this extremely late hour? 

Well, simply put, Luna (who pretty much lived in the shadows and exposed herself to about as much sunlight as a vampire)...had called in sick, leaving Celestia to deal with her workload for the night. 

Though between Starlight Glimmer's insistence that working on her current project was more important than going home for the day, the frankly ridiculous amount of late night shipments coming in from Everfree that she had to micromanage, a few obligatory routine security checks, a trade dispute between her company and Storm Tech that seemed to be going nowhere, and even a ton of suicide-inducing fan-mail to go through, there were no shortage of things to deal with even this late. 

Slumping over her desk while going through Starlight's most recent dissertation on 'Arc Reactor' technology on her computer, Celestia looked bored beyond belief. Sure, it was an interesting topic to read about, and she applauded her former student for having the ingenuity to come up with such a thing...but even after three full cups of coffee, she was just too tired to really care.

With most of her staff, including her secretary Raven Inkwell, having already gone home for the night, she couldn't even rely on them for help...or have someone to talk to either. It was at times like these that she wished she had just stayed an ordinary school teacher instead of becoming the owner of a massive science corporation. 

Life was so much simpler back then.

Of course, what she really wanted to do when she was growing up was to become nothing less than an acclaimed actress...but that career didn't really go anywhere...for a number of reasons.  

At the very least, taking over Luna's duties for the night gave Celestia a bit more of an appreciation for the hard work her sister did all the time...even if it was boring her half to death by this point.

With a sigh...she got out of her chair and took a few steps towards the coffeemaker sitting on a bench at the other end of the room...because apparently, she wasn't caffeinated enough. 

"Oh, how I wish something interesting would happen..." Celestia mumbled to herself.

Unfortunately for her though, she really should have been more careful with what she wished for...as her night was indeed about to take an extremely unexpected turn.





Refuge in audacity.

That was a concept that Luna, and by extension her other half, firmly believed in when it all came down to it. 

If you didn't already know, the phrase in question basically means when you try to get away with something by not being cautious, discreet or sensible...but instead by ramping up the absurdity of what you're doing to such an amazing level that you leave everyone else completely blindsided and confused by your actions and therefore get away with them.

However, to be successful in doing so, one would need a certain amount of boldness to your character...and Luna was as bold as they came. 

The Nightmare Goblin was, in actuality, that boldness given life. 

When she took on that persona, all of Luna's inhibitions were gone entirely, and she could do whatever it was she wanted whenever, and however, she wanted to do it.

In truth, her plan was actually rather simple and petty when you really broke it down to its core. 

She wanted power and respect. Nothing more and nothing less. 

All her life had she had felt powerless and overshadowed by those around her...especially by her sister. Celestia always got the glory and attention, was loved by all who set their eyes on her, and worst of all...she had the gall to act modest about that adoration. 

Being the kind of person that she was, Luna could never outshine her by just being herself...and certainly not for lack of trying. So she tried instead to make a name for herself in the dark and unnoticed parts of the city...where the light never touched. Make them better, more welcoming, so that people could embrace the night rather than fear it.

However, even there...she was outshone yet again by someone else. Though this time not by her sister, but by the infamous Kingpin of Crime...also known as Rex Storm: the corrupt founder of the rival Storm Tech company. Through his vast criminal empire he extorted and ruled over the seedy underbelly of Canterlot with an iron fist and most certainly did not take kindly to potential enemies or rivals.

With those two standing in her way, Luna could never reach her full potential and always had to resort to playing second fiddle to whichever side she wanted to be on. Now, being the responsible and morally sound person that she was, Luna had made herself content with just staying where she was and let her ambitions rest...but whenever she happened to take on the persona of the Nightmare Goblin, nothing was out of reach for her.

However, the Goblin didn't deal in subtleties, instead she was bold and outrageous. 

Want to hide your identity? How about working through proxies or choose a practical and inconspicuous disguise? Not a chance in hell! No, she decided to dress up in a full on Nightmare Night costume and send horrors into the dreams of any who saw her. 

Need a vehicle to get around? How about an armoured car or at least an inconspicuous one? No, she went flying in on an experimental military-grade attack glider the likes of which the world had never seen! 

Need a weapon on hand? Well, a gun or two wouldn't be unreasonable would it? For her, it most certainly would! She went into combat armed with nothing less than an arsenal worth of pumpkin-shaped grenades, bat-shaped throwing knives, plasma-shooting gloves and even an electrified sabre on hand.  

And that was only scratching the surface. 

In fact, the whole scheme she came up with when she released Chrysalis from prison, got her hired by Celestia as 'Doctor Silk Mane' and then told her to make sure the cross-species genetics project failed in the most spectacular way possible, that...was for no other reason than to undermine Celestia's authority and give Luna a shot at taking the company off her hands. 

Plus, Chrysalis made a pretty decent scapegoat for when the question of how the Goblin got her hands on her advanced tech would eventually be asked. After all, nobody would suspect that someone who was already on the inside would need someone on the inside. Come to think of it, that was probably the only reason why she even bothered to recruit her in the first place rather than do it all by herself.

However, the sad truth of it all was that, at the end of the day, their partnership was never meant to last. They both knew that. The two of them were just too prideful, too power-hungry, and too untrustworthy for any alliance between the diabolic duo to be anything but brief. Good thing then for the Goblin that the Spider-Girl took care of the Changeling before she would need to do so herself.

Her plans didn't stop there though.

Once Celestia was gone and the company was left in her care, the next item on the agenda would be to kick Rex Storm off of his throne and declare herself the new Kingpin of Crime, giving CelestiaCorp to Luna and the criminal underworld to the Nightmare Goblin. A win-win scenario for both if she could pull it off...at least in the way the Goblin's saw it.

Refuge in audacity was the key...

...
...
...

...and also the reason why she was trying to gain Celestia's attention by launching a military-grade missile at her office window!





Celestia had just brewed herself a fresh cup of coffee and taken a brief satisfying sip of it when...out of nowhere, a very loud and very bright explosion tore right through her window and violently blasted smoke, flames and shards of broken glass into the room. 

Even though she was standing quite a bit away from the blast, she was still close enough to feel the intense heat and powerful shockwave caused by it. Far more dangerous than that though were the sharp shards of glass flying at her at terminal velocity. Two of which hit her in her right arm while a third flew right into her forehead.

If that had happened to just about anyone else, they would most certainly be dead by now...but for some reason, Celestia had barely even flinched.

When the glass shards made contact with her delicate-looking skin, they did not tear right through her as you would expect them to do...instead, they bounced harmlessly off her as if her body was made of solid diamond. The ones hitting her arm did rip a hole in her sleeve though...but that hardly seemed to matter when the skin behind it didn't receive as much as a paper cut.

Furthermore, the shockwave itself, while powerful enough to send her desk flying across the room and into the wall on the other side, the most it did to Celestia was to startle her enough to drop her coffee mug on the floor. Her feet were still planted firmly where they were and hadn't budge an inch.

About the only part of her that visibly reacted to the attack at all were her long flowing hair that flickered around her head as it was hit by the wave of compressed air the explosion caused. 

After it was over, Celestia was just standing there in her ruined office with a spilled cup of coffee on the floor, her yellow suit jacket damaged beyond repair, a new layer of dust covering her from head to toe, and her hair in a messy and chaotic state...but otherwise without a scratch.

She was still surprised as all hell though, and one could tell that by the baffled expression that was stuck on her face while her brain was slowly trying to make sense of what just happened. To say that she hadn't expected this to happen would definitively be a massive understatement.

...Then, a voice that somehow sounded both strangely familiar and yet also very unfamiliar to Celestia's ears broke her out of her trance and made her eyes set on a costumed figure with glowing blue eyes gently gliding over to her broken window. 

"Ha-ha-ha-HAhahahahahahahahahaha! The queen of the sun sitting in her tower of lies and broken bones...casting shadows over all beneath you. You may not see those shadows, but I was born in them, and soon...they'll be mine to command. But for that to happen, the day will have to switch to night...and cast nightmares everlasting! Hahahahahahahaah!"

While Celestia didn't know that this masked menace reciting poetry to her was actually her very own little sister, it didn't take her long at all to figure out who she was dealing with...or at least the persona that person was using.

"The Nightmare Goblin, I presume?" she asked surprisingly calmly while she idly used her hands to dust off the ash from her jacket. 

After parking her glider at the edge of the hole she just made, the Goblin stepped into the room like she owned the place. "In the flesh! I see you've been keeping tabs on me. Enjoy my work at the docks?"

Celestia clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes, yet otherwise remained motionless. "You mean when you murdered innocent people?" she asked sternly, yet still quite calmly. 

"Why yes. How else am I supposed to get your attention?" Nightmare asked while picking up her sister's downed office chair, placed it back on its wheels, and sat down on it. "After all, if I'm going to take on the great Celestia herself, she'll need to take me seriously."

"Oh, I'll take you seriously alright..." Celestia warned dangerously. "You might regret that I do."

"Ha-ha! Is that a threat?" Goblin asked mockingly.

"Yes," she bluntly responded. 

Then, in the blink of eye, Celestia had moved clear across the room and grabbed the villain by the neck with one hand and then dragged her off the chair and slammed her straight into the nearest wall, leaving a visible dent in it. 

Now, Luna probably weighed about 76 kg, and with the heavy goblin armour, fabrics, and rather sizeable arsenal of weapons weighing her down even more, it would seem like lifting her off the ground would probably take some effort, but for Celestia...she only needed one hand on her throat to pin her against the wall and hold her dangling above the floor.

Clearly, she was a lot stronger than she looked.

While giving the intruder a very stern and harsh glare, Celestia said, "Listen to me, Goblin! I'll give you one chance to surrender peacefully and willingly turn yourself in for the crimes you've committed. Otherwise, I will have to make you do so by my strength alone, and trust me when I say that you'll wish you've picked the first option if I do."

Despite the immense pressure keeping her restrained under her titanium grip, the Nightmare Goblin didn't look concerned in the least. In fact, she was smiling. Despite her obvious disadvantage, it was clear that she definitively had some kind of trick up her sleeve. 

"Hehehe...such a righteous flame you have," Goblin noted smugly, her voice a bit raspier than normal due to her wind pipe being rather harshly squeezed through her neck armour. However, even so, she showed no signs of distress. "Your grip is rather strong for a lanky middle aged woman, don't you think? And I don't know about you, but most people who take an explosion to the face don't usually look as pretty as you do. Seems I'm not the only one with secrets here."

A look of alarm briefly crossed Celestia's face when she realised what the villain was getting at, though she didn't say anything and just continued to stare her down.  

As her arrogant smirk grew even wider, the Goblin looked her right in the eye and asked, "Isn't that right...Captain Jupiter?"

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!" Celestia demanded to know in loud booming voice while she slammed the Goblin into the wall a second time, her eyes literally starting to glow with righteous fury as she did so.   

Coughing a bit to regain her breath, Nightmare still didn't stop smiling. "Heghh...I know many secrets. I've been... heh...collecting them for quite some time. Tell me, Celestia...do you miss being the big strong hero...gah...fighting criminals down on the streets...or are your powers just a painful reminder of all the lives you've hurt?"

Celestia took in a deep breath and calmed herself down a bit, loosening the grip she had on the Goblin just enough to let her breathe properly. "Is that your plan? Make me do whatever you want or else you'll tell everyone I used to be Captain Jupiter? Is that it?"

"Close...but no," Goblin answered, sounding a bit amused. "If I did that, then no one would believe me. Besides, you were never so selfish as to bow over to threats against yourself. That goes physically as well considering how tough your skin is."

She then got a dangerous glint in her eye. "However...the cunning warrior attacks neither body nor mind...nor anything fleeting or replaceable. Instead, she attacks the one thing you could never sacrifice...the one thing you could never bear to lose..."

"And what could that be?" Celestia asked in an angry tone.

"Heheh, the heart, Celestia!" she answered with a manic expression on her face. "She attacks your heart!"

A sudden feeling of dread hit her like a ton of bricks. "What do you mean by that?!" 

The Nightmare Goblin quickly grabbed her sister's wrist and activated her plasma, sending a painful jolt through her arm that was powerful enough to make even the nearly invincible Celestia flinch long enough to lose her grip on her. 

Once freed, she immediately followed that up with a spray of webbing that came from a very familiar-looking device on the Goblin's wrist that hit Celestia right in the eyes...leaving her distracted long enough for Nightmare to jump back on her parked glider.

By the time Celestia had managed to successfully rip the web out of her eyes, the Nightmare Goblin had flown the glider back far enough in the air that her sister couldn't reach her...at least not without making a very risky jump. 

"Hahahahahahah-HAHAHAAH! If you want to know that, come to the roof! I have prepared quite the surprise for you," she challenged, not even bothering to hide the sinister undertones in that statement. "Just don't keep me waiting...trust me, that is something you'll regret."

Celestia snarled with rage as her eyes glowed brightly and golden rays of energy started to envelope her body. "You won't prevail, Goblin," she assured dangerously.

"We'll see..." was all Nightmare had to say to that before she boosted her thrusters up to maximum and began her ascent towards the roof of the CelestiaCorp Tower, cackling like a madwoman the whole way up.

Left behind in the ruins of her office, Celestia just stood there staring at her retreating enemy while a cold tranquil rage burned through her. She was no fool, she knew what the Goblin meant when she said that she would strike at her heart, and she did not like it one bit. 

It was one thing to threaten her own life or her livelihood, but to threaten someone else...someone she cared deeply about...that was something that she would not stand for. 

However, as her temper gradually became more intense, so did her appearance. Her hair almost seemed to have a life of its own as it flowed around wildly in a non-existent breeze, her skin started to glow brightly, and her pupils were pretty much invisible under the sun-like orange light emanating from her eyes.

This was the power that she had kept hidden for over 20 years...the power of Captain Jupiter...Canterlot's first superhero.

Though, impressive as she might look right now, after taking in a deep calming breath, Celestia's glow faded, her hair stilled, and soon enough, she looked no different than she normally did.

"Deep breaths...deep breaths...deep...breaths..." she repeated as a mantra while she closed her eyes and tried to regulate her breathing. 

Though she was by far the most physically powerful meta-human Professor Starswirl had ever created back in the old days, her powers had eventually turned out to come with one heck of a drawback.

When used in moderation, her immense strength, speed and durability made her better able than anyone else to save people in need and defeat all sorts of dangerous supervillains...but the more she used them, the more addicted she became, and if she had them on for too long, her powers would eventually affect her mind, her temper, her inhibitions and her sanity. 

She lost control once...and after that, she had made a promise to never use her powers ever again unless in self-defence.

However, if the Nightmare Goblin truly planned what Celestia feared she had planned...then she might just have to break that promise.
> 5) Face the Nightmare, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 5
Face the Nightmare, Part 1
Some Lunatic with a Sadistic Choice


Darkness...that was all Rainbow Dash could see right now...

The first thing she noticed, aside from a nasty headache that is...was the feeling of cold violent gusts of wind making her sway back and forth as if she was dangling on a thread. She could hear the sounds of the city all around her...but the sounds were distant and also mostly drowned out by the overpowering noise of the strong winds blowing in her ear. 

She tried to move, but soon found herself incapable of doing so. There was something keeping her limbs restrained...something sticky, stretchy, and very familiar.

Slowly but steadily her eyes opened to take in her surroundings, and the first thing she saw was the majestic sight of Canterlot City...as grand and majestic as it could ever be with its many lights brightening it up in the dark hour of the night. 

However...there was a problem.

The whole city was far below her!

All at once, her spider-sense flooded her brain with all the information she would need to tell exactly what kind of situation she was currently in while her eyes and ears filled her in on the rest.

With the exception of her exposed head (which still was not that exposed give that she was still wearing her mask), every part of her body was wrapped up tightly in a cocoon of spider silk, with only a single long thread connecting it to the operating arm of a crane sitting at the very top of the CelestiaCorp Tower, which was now currently extended far over the edge. 

This meant that, if the flimsy-looking thin line of silk keeping her suspended to the crane arm were to snap, there would be an over 390 metre long drop straight down towards the cold hard pavement below waiting for her.

Sure, the jump she made from the Empire Canterlot Building was even higher than that, but this time she had all four of her limbs restrained and thus was presented with no feasible way to halt her descent in time. In other words: if she fell down now...she would never come back up again.

When that fact sunk into her head, she realised, 'Well...this sucks.'

Rainbow wasn't the only one there though, as a distressed voice on her right was quick to remind her of. "Urghhh! I can't move! HELP! Can anyone hear me!? Hello!" 

Dash immediately recognised it, and turned her head around to see that Twilight Sparkle was also stuck in a cocoon hanging onto the crane arm by a single line of webbing...though she was taking the predicament a lot worse then Rainbow did.

Also, her glasses were missing, which meant that she could barely make out what was going on around her, which...might actually be for the best considering her situation.

In an attempt to calm her down, Rainbow called out, "Twilight, chill."

"Rainbo-"

"Spider-Girl," she immediately corrected before her friend might have accidentally spilled out her identity to whoever might be listening. "And yeah, it's me."

Twilight caught herself, but still sounded rather anxious. "Well...uh, Spider-Girl, what's going on!? I'm stuck, and without my glasses, I can't tell..."

In her confusion, the distressed teenager made a monumental mistake while she was trying to figure out where she was...

...she looked down. 

Now, despite how impaired her vision might be, there was still a lot that she could still make out without her glasses...such as how far down the ground was from where she was hanging. 

After releasing a very high-pitched scream, Twilight started to panic, wriggling and tussling against the sticky webbing that contained her as much as she could. Of course, doing so wasn't in any shape or form going to help her situation, but right now, she was finding it very hard remain rational and level-headed.

However, her scream was loud and sharp enough to not only make Rainbow sorely miss the ability to cover her ears, but also to wake up someone else nearby.

"Urghhhh...what, where...what's going on?" another voice mumbled on Rainbow's left, followed by a groan.   

Deciding to ignore it for a second, Rainbow Dash instead kept her focus on Twilight and tried her best to get her to stop panicking (which was paramount given that her excess movements might actually put her in more danger than she was already in). 

"Stop moving, Twilight! You're just making it worse!" she loudly reasoned.

"HOW CAN I BE CALM WHEN I'M HANGING OFF THE SIDE OF A BUILDING!?" Twilight questioned hysterically, her eyes glued to the ground below while hyperventilating like crazy.

"Twilight...is that you?" the third mysterious person asked groggily. Twilight recognised who it was though.

"Sunset? You're here too?!" she asked while trying to catch a glimpse of her...though that was rather difficult without her glasses and with Rainbow Dash hanging in the way. 

Rainbow herself cast a glance over her shoulder to see that Sunset Shimmer was stuck in their predicament too...and so was also Spike a bit further out, but he didn't seem to have woken up yet.  

Though upon seeing the strange masked face of Spider-Girl looking right at her, Sunset briefly gave her a weird look in response...but that was soon replaced by an expression of shock once she too looked down to see where she was. To her credit though, she did not start to panic like Twilight did, and instead just ended up staring wide-eyed down while muttering out a subdued, "...Whoah."

With a quick shake of her head, Shimmer looked back up and took in a deep calming breath...then decided to put her own issues aside for now and focus on what was most important...which, at this exact moment, was to help Twilight get over her anxiety before she could hurt herself.

"Twilight, listen to me," she urged, making Twilight stop squirming for a second. "Close your eyes...take a deep breath...and let it out sloooooowly."

Despite every fibre of her body telling her not to, Twilight trusted Sunset's advice, and did just what she said. She clenched her eyes shut, took in a healthy gulp of air, and then let it out in a calm and orderly manner. 

Even though it didn't make her any less terrified over the situation...it did make her calm down just enough for her to think rational thoughts once again. 

After a moment of biting her lip and trying her best not to look down again, she eventually said, "I...I think...I'm okay now," though she didn't sound too sure about that.

Still, it was an improvement.

"Good," Sunset commented with a smile...before fixing the Spider-Girl with a suspicious glare and asking, "Now, first things first: who the hell are you and why are you wearing a luchador mask?"

"Me? Uh...just call me Spider-Girl. All my friends do," Dash replied a bit awkwardly. "And well...I'm wearing a mask because...I'm kind of a superhero...ish. And it does not look anything like a luchador!"

Sunset raised a sceptical eyebrow, "A superhero? Seriously?"

"Yep! I mean, I got the costume, I got the powers, so basically...yeah. I'm a superhero."

"Riiiiiight..." Shimmer voiced, not sounding all that convinced. "Well, I guess this night wasn't weird enough as it was."

Rainbow tested the strength of the webs keeping her restrained by trying to stretch her arms out...only for the strong elastic material to keep her stuck firmly in place. 'This is definitively the webbing I always use, but how did...wait a minute!

She moved her fingers around her wrists to feel if the familiar shape of her web-shooters were still there, and soon came to realise...they weren't.  

'Ah nuts, no webs! How did this even happen?'

"Speaking of which..." Rainbow began. "...Do either of you have any idea what the hell is going on!?" she asked slightly hysterically. "All I know is that that Spike kid somehow turned into a giant lizard, and then when we try to turn him back, we got jumped by some weirdo disguising herself as this chick," she said while looking at Sunset. "...And then we got knocked out and here we are. An explanation would be really appreciated right about now!"

Both Twilight and Sunset flinched a bit from the sheer volume of Rainbow's voice at the end of that sentence. Though after hearing it, the two of them went silent for a second as they each tried to find a place to start explaining all the outlandish events that had happened tonight.

"Well..." Twilight eventually began. "You see, Sunset and I were working on this cross-species genetics project..."

"Cross-speci-what-now?" Dash voiced in confusion. 

Sunset rolled her eyes, then clarified, "We were trying to take the abilities of one animal and give it to another. Like say, salamanders can regrow lost limbs, so why don't we try giving that ability to a human?"

"Ooooh...got it. So wait, does that mean you used Spike as a guinea pig? That's messed up, man!"

"No!" Twilight was quick to refute. "We weren't ready for human trials yet! It was way too early for that. And even so...I would never do that to Spike. He's my brother!"

"Then how did he-" 

Sunset cut her off and explained, "It was Doctor Silk Mane, the head scientist on the project. She was the one who tried to poison Twilight with a messed up version of the formula. Only...she was actually some crazy shapeshifting criminal calling herself Chrysalis who was trying to depose Celestia and take over the company. Go figure."

"But if she was after Twilight-"

"She hid the poison in a package she gave to me, but then Spike opened it first," Twilight clarified before Dash could get a word in edgewise. 

"I knew something was off about her from the start, so I tried to search her office for clues," Sunset continued. "But then she caught me, tied me up, talked my ear off for an hour about her master plan and then knocked me out. Next thing I know, I woke up here. Did she get you too?"

"Actually...no," Twilight answered, trying to remember what happened before she ended up here.

"She tried to attack us in the lobby while being disguised as you," Dash continued. "Probably with that 'turn people into lizards' poison, but she never accounted for my trusty spider-sense. I saw her lame sneak attack coming a mile away and punched her out before she got the chance!"

"Spider-sense? Where have I..." Sunset wondered aloud, sounding slightly suspicious. "Wait, hang on! If you took down Chrysalis, then how did you all get here!? Did someone else-"

Before she could finish asking that question, it was promptly answered when a dark, sinister, and slightly deranged laugher started to echo all around them...followed by the sound of a glider flying ever closer and closer.

"Hehehehehehehe-Hahahaha-Hahahahahahahahah-HAHAHAAAAHAAHA!"

Rainbow recognised it immediately, and it instantly made her body tensed up. Looking down, she saw the familiar unwelcome sight of the Nightmare Goblin ascending towards her from down below, having apparently just concluded her little talk with Celestia. 

'...And then there's this bitch,' Rainbow thought as the costumed lunatic approached them.

Once the villain reached their altitude, she flew circles around her helpless captives and started to...well...sing apparently.

"The itsy bitsy spider...went up the water spout...down came the Goblin...and knocked the spider out! HAHAHAHAHAHAAH!"

When she was done with that, she swooped down and hovered in place in front of the bound Spider-Girl, giving her a haughty smirk as she did so. "A pleasure to see you again, Spider. I was looking forward to meeting you mask to mask again."

"Oh look, it's the Wicked Witch of the West," Spider-Girl commented with equal parts snark and disdain in her voice. "Now get me out of this stuff so I can kick your butt like I should have done last time we met!"

Nightmare patronisingly wagged a finger at her, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, now don't be rude...I thought we could use this opportunity to have a lovely chat." 

"Who are you!?" Twilight suddenly asked, trying to be kept in the loop...which was only more difficult when she could barely make out what her captor looked like.

The Goblin looked at her with a grin and answered, "Oh dear Twilight Sparkle, you may know me as the Nightmare Goblin. A bit pretentious, I know, but I have always had a thing for theatrics. Call me old-fashioned."

"You! You're the one Chrysalis was working with, aren't you?" Sunset suddenly realised, having pieced together the story as best she could from what she heard. "Her...'business partner'?" 

Nightmare gave Sunset a cocky smirk, then hovered over to her so she was looking the teenager face to face. "Well, aren't you a smart cookie, Sunset Shimmer?" she complimented...and strangely enough, she actually sounded somewhat sincere about it. "Yes, I was the one who broke that maniac out of prison and put her in this place."

Leaning in to Sunset's ear and getting uncomfortably close in the process, the Goblin whispered, "I even took care of the real Doctor Silk Mane for her..." before giving her a smile so disturbing that Sunset didn't even want to think about the implications of that confession. 

Flying back a metre or so, the Goblin turned her attention to the whole group and continued her monologue. "However, Chrysalis was merely a puppet. I only used her shapeshifting abilities to gain access to CelestiaCorp and all its wonderful toys...and you for that matter," she noted while keeping her eyes squarely on Sunset. "How kind of her to leave you gift wrapped for me, wasn't it?"

"So you mean to tell me that poising Spike, trying to poison me, was all your doing?!" Twilight questioned in a burst of rage.

"Hahahahahah! Well, I never said that. I just told her to make sure the project failed in a spectacular way that left a lot of collateral damage. The whole turning people into lizards-thing and trying to use it on you specifically...well, that was her plan, not mine. Still, it would have worked out quite well for me in the end if not for..."

She trailed off when her blue cat-like eyes landed on Spike...who still hadn't woken up yet, even with everything going on around him. Nightmare flew over to him and tapped her finger on his head a few times to wake him up...but he still didn't react to it other than looking slightly agitated for a second.

The Goblin rolled her eyes and sighed, "Children..." 

Then she flew back a bit to continue her evil monologue, "Now, as I was saying...Chrysalis' plan would have worked out quite well for me had you..." she pointed a finger at Twilight, "...been the one who was infected rather than him," she motioned over to Spike. "Then all I had to for Celestia to follow my demands was to bargain for the cure to turn you back."

She then flew right up in Twilight's face and gently grabbed her cheeks with her gloved hands. "After all...there's nothing Celestia wouldn't do for her faithful student...is there?" she asked while caressing her face in a very unsettling way. 

Twilight shuddered in response.

"Hey!" Spider-Girl called over to her. "Get your hands off her, you creep!"

Nightmare proceeded to do just that, but only so that she could fly up in Spider-Girl's face instead and grab her by the chin a lot less gently. "But then you just had to get in the way! My plan was like fine poetry: delicate and perfected...but you forced me to go the more direct approach. Which, in this case, means 'comply or I'll drop the whole lot of you down to your deaths!'"

However, even while hanging on nothing more than a delicate line of silk several hundred metres into the air with a psychopath in a Halloween costume staring her dead in the eye while threatening to kill her...Rainbow Dash didn't show even a speck of fear and confidently boasted, "Hah, is that supposed to scare me?! I've jumped off far higher buildings than this, and I took it like a champ."

The Goblin chuckled, "Hehehe...because you had these to break your fall?" she asked while holding her wrist in front of Rainbow's face, and in the process showing a very familiar-looking device now strapped to it.

Dash immediately knew what it was. 'Wait, is that my web-shooter? And...she's got the other one on her other wrist too? So that's how we ended up like this? What a rip-off!'

"Hey! That's mine!" she shouted in a flash of anger. "Give them back or I swear I'll...!"

The Nightmare Goblin got very close to her and shouted, "You'll do what?!"...shutting her up in an instant. "This is the second time we meet, and you have yet to even so much as lay a finger on me! You were nothing to me then...and you're no better now! The only reason you're even still alive is because of a sickening sense of pity I had when I saw your pathetic attempt to play hero. Face it, spider, you're out of your depth!"

"Well at least I'm not a coward!" Spider-Girl pointed out undeterred, making Nightmare's eyes widen for a second. "If you had any guts, you would face me fair and square, spider to goblin...but no, all you do is to hit me with a lame cheap shot, act like you've actually done something impressive (which you haven't), and then start monologuing like some stupid over-the-stop comic book villain! I mean, give me a break. If you were really all that, you'd cowboy up and untie me right now so we can have a real fight."

The Goblin fell silent for a moment while she gave the masked hero a dangerous glare...and then...she laughed.

"Mmhmhmhm-hahahahahahahahah-HAAHAHAHAA! You have quite a mouth on you, little hero! I LOVE IT!" the villain complimented with a massive grin on her face (er, mask). 

"Though if you're so brave..." she began with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Why don't you show me your beautiful face?" she asked while grabbing Spider-Girl by the hem of her mask and slowly pulled it up. 

Immediately, Rainbow started to internally panic at what the Goblin was about to do. 'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. I can't let this psycho see my real face. Come on, Rainbow, do something! Anything!'

By the time Nightmare had pulled the mask up just enough to show her chin and mouth, Rainbow did the only thing she could think off to stop her nemesis from exposing her. 

She lunged out and bit the Goblin right in her finger with as much force she could muster. 

The Nightmare Goblin screamed out in pain and retracted her hand as fast as she could. Cringing in agony, the humiliated supervillain clenched her injured finger tightly while her previous smug expression changed to one of extreme irritation.

Turns out, with great superhuman strength...comes one heck of a bite! After all, who's to say that her jaw muscles hadn't improved just as much as the rest of her body? 

In this case, it turned out to be enough to force through even the sturdy gloves protecting the Goblin's surprisingly delicate hands enough to probably leave a bruise afterwards. 

"Don't touch the mask, creep," Spider-Girl said with an improved sense of confidence.

With a growl, the Nightmare Goblin reached into her cloak and pulled out what was unmistakably a sword, a metre-long sabre to be precise, from an unseen scabbard hidden in her suit and immediately used it to slice the thread keeping Spider-Girl's cocoon attached to the crane arm clean off.

Of course the Goblin saw the value in having as many hostages at her disposal as possible, and sure she really wanted to know the face behind Spider-Girl's mask, but...well, right now she was just too pissed off to really care. Better to just be done with her once and for all. 

It's not as though her identity would matter all that much after she's dead anyway.

Rainbow only had a split second to react with a quick "Oh gosh," before she promptly began to fall straight down the building at an alarming speed. 

She saw the silhouettes of the Nightmare Goblin and her bound friends shrink before her eyes as she quickly flew further and further away from them. The harsh winds that she'd been subjected to before while hanging up there were suddenly accelerated to a much greater degree as she started to come dangerously close to reaching terminal velocity on the way down.

After casting a glance downwards to her destination, she saw the hard merciless ground coming closer and closer second by second. 

With her current fall speed and momentum, added to the distance she had to drop from the roof to the pavement...she knew that the second she touched the ground, she would be dead. Not even her superpowers could save her from that.

Faced with the fact that she had no web-shooters currently on her person and all of her limbs were indeed still restrained under the layer of sticky cobweb covering her body...Rainbow had every excuse in the world to scream and panic, flail around aimlessly, or resign herself to her inevitable fate.

...But she didn't.

Instead, the world around her began to slow down to a crawl as her spider-sense kicked in. 

She closed her eyes, relaxed...and let her mind think of a way out.

'This...can't be it, right?' she wondered. 'This can't be the way I go out...can it? The great Rainbow Dash splattered on the sidewalk after being dropped off a tall building by some costumed wacko?

... 

... 

...

'No...it's not.

'If I give up now, Twilight, Spike and Sunset are all as good as dead, and that maniac gets away with everything she's done. I can't let that happen! I have to do something! For my friends! For mom! FOR ME!'

With nothing left to lose, Rainbow pushed against her restraints with all the strength she could muster...and more! 

She didn't care that it was seemingly impossible to get through it, she didn't care that the webbing seemed almost tougher than titanium...and she most certainly didn't care that she'd already tried and failed at doing the exact same thing she was doing now.

Her friends were in danger, and she was going to save them no matter what.

And eventually, just in the nick of time, the Spider-Girl's efforts prevailed, and she ripped right through the webbing, finally freeing her arms and legs from their prison, and giving her the opportunity to grab onto the nearest surface (in this case, the wall of the nearby CelestiaCorp Building) with the sticky fingers at the end of her right hand. 

Though she almost got her arm completely dislocated by the sudden change in momentum, she managed to push past the pain and hold onto it regardless. 

Pure determination was a powerful force indeed. 

And after attaching her other hand and both of her feet onto the wall as well, Rainbow looked up at her foe high above her and steeled herself for what was to come...then she began to climb back up, determined to stop the Nightmare Goblin once and for all. 

'Last chance, Spider-Girl. Now it's all or nothing.'





Meanwhile up above, the Goblin looked rather pleased with herself as she inspected her remaining hostages while taking the time to remove a piece of webbing that got stuck on her sword when she sliced Dash's line off with it. In her amusement, the lunatic even started to hum a merry tune to herself while doing so.  

The other hostages though (aside from Spike of course...who was still sleeping), were not nearly as happy about what she just did, and glared daggers at her as best they could.

"Why are you doing this, you...you monster!?" Twilight shouted in a tone that betrayed all the anger and distress she felt in this moment. After all, in her point of view, she just witnessed the Goblin straight up murder one of her best friends in cold blood. It didn't matter what happened after this, Twilight was never going to forgive her for what she just did.

"And do you really think you're gonna get away with it?!" Sunset added to that, appearing to be just as angry as Twilight was...albeit for slightly different reasons, since she didn't even know who the Spider-Girl was to begin with. 

Nightmare on the other hand still remained nonchalant about the whole thing, despite their angry words, and just gave the two teenagers a quick glance and a shrug, not even bothering to open her mouth to reply to them.

However, her nonchalance vanished the second another voice shouted, "Stand down, Goblin!"

The Goblin smirked, then turned around to look into the eyes of none other than her own sister, who had by now finally managed to get up on the roof as instructed and was currently levelling a glare of her own at the villain. In contrast though to the glares of Sunset and Twilight, Celestia's lacked their flame and rampancy...but instead held a cold, understated and merciless fury...which, in truth, was actually way more terrifying. 

"Took you long enough," Nightmare idly commented. "I was beginning to think you weren't coming."

Celestia didn't say anything to her at first. Instead, she looked straight past her and set her eyes on the hostages (two of which she immediately recognised as her own students...and the third as one as their brothers) and gave them a concerned look. 

"Twilight, Sunset, Spike, are you okay? Did she hurt you?" she asked, completely ignoring her demon-possessed sister as she did so. 

"We're alive," Sunset replied. "At least, the three of us are. Spike's just unconscious."

"There was someone else here, but she..." Twilight started to say, but couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence, as her emotions got the better of her. Even so, she didn't need to, for Celestia saw the one odd web-line that wasn't connected to a person anymore and figured out the rest herself.

"Yes, yes...and the same-" the Goblin was about to say, but couldn't get the word in edgewise when Celestia interrupted her by continuing to address the hostages rather than giving the hostage-taker herself any attention.

"Then stay calm, my students," she said in a protective motherly tone. "I promise I will get you all out of this before anyone else gets hurt."

A bit peeved, the Nightmare Goblin screamed out, "STOP IGNORING ME, YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUS HAG!" with an air of entitlement in her voice. 

If there was one thing a narcissistic terrorist like her hated above all else...then it would be to be dismissed or ignored, and the Goblin would have none of it if she had any say in the matter! It was bad enough to be ignored as Luna...but being ignored as the Nightmare Goblin too was not something she would take lightly.

Though when she actually did get the attention of her sister, it was one of anger and disappointment, and not one of dread or resignation as she hoped. "And you! I am giving you one more chance to stop hiding behind your human shields and release them at once! Otherwise...you'll leave me no choice..." she threatened ominously while her eyes were starting to glow. 

"You don't give me orders, Tia!" Nightmare declared while she swung her sword over to the thread keeping Twilight hanging and held it there. "Take one more step and your precious Twilight is nothing but a red stain on the pavement!"

Celestia flinched a little in surprise upon hearing that. Not because of the threat though, that just made her colder and angrier...but because of something small and barely noticeable that the masked villain just said...that frankly Celestia might have misheard all things considered. But if she really did say what she thought she said...

However, now was not the time to ponder about things like that, so she pushed the thought aside for the moment.

"What do you want, Goblin?" she asked instead.

"First: your attention..." Nightmare answered while she pressed a few buttons on her wrist device.

A moment later, a holographic display of scattered news reports and video footage of the Lizard's attack earlier tonight popped up all around Celestia for her to see, giving her a pretty detailed (yet still kinda vague) idea of what just happened.

While she scanned them over and took in the information she could gather from the various flashes of news that the Goblin threw right in her face, Celestia wore an expression that seemed to be a mix between curiosity and concern.

After motioning over to the bound Spike with her free hand, Goblin explained, "Earlier tonight, this poor innocent little boy was horrifically transformed into a terrible beast and wreaked quite a lot of havoc all over Canterlot. Multiple eye-witnesses, verified by the police, several wounded pedestrians and a heck of a lot of property damage was left in his wake...and all those people are gonna wonder where this monster came from..."

And after pressing another button, the holographic news reports were replaced with details about the Cross-Species Genetics project from CelestiaCorp's database. "...And I have proof that it all happened because of a project that you, Celestia, had officially sanctioned."  

"What?!" Celestia sputtered, sounding reasonably horrified over what the Goblin was implying. "I never approved that project for human trials! How did you even get your hands on it?"

The Goblin smirked deviously. "Heheheh...I did nothing. It was all the work of one of your employees...a certain...Doctor Silk Mane, to be precise."

"Doctor Mane..." Celestia mused under her breath, going through the facts she knew about the good doctor in her head while piecing together how she fit into all this. It didn't take her long before she figured it out though. 

"She was working for you the whole time, wasn't she?" she guessed, disappointment evident in her tone. "I should have known..."

"Hmhmm-hahahahah-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, she worked for you!" the villain reminded while pointing a finger at her sister. "You hired her, remember? Who's to say that this little field test wasn't done on your behalf after all?"

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Twilight suddenly asked, rather bravely considering her precarious position. Despite what her common sense was telling her, she just found the Nightmare Goblin's lies to be too infuriating to keep listening to at this point. "Celestia is the nicest, most compassionate person I've ever met! Don't you dare bring her down to your level, you rotten psychopath!"

As soon as the bold words left her mouth however, Nightmare quickly retaliated by pressing a button on the handle of her sabre, making it sparkle with electrical power. And, as she was pressing that blade against the web-line holding Twilight aloft, it instantly sent an agonising jolt of electricity throughout her body and made her scream out in pain.

Though she only experienced it for probably a second or two, the sensation of having about a hundred volts flowing through her body was one of the most unpleasant things she had ever felt in her life...if not the most unpleasant thing. And considering all the hardships she'd have to go through tonight, that really said a lot.

Though for future reference, what Twilight felt in that moment...was the lowest possible setting for the lightning sabre!

"STOP!" Celestia commanded in a loud booming voice, even using her superhuman power to boost it to levels that would be physically impossible for a normal human being to produce without a microphone.

To her credit, the Goblin did turn it off...though it still left Twilight shocked and panting for breath while signs of smoke came out of her.

And while she was in that sorry state, Nightmare put her face right up next to Twilight's ear and whispered, "Don't you dare think she has any less blood on her hands than I have..."

Then she looked back at Celestia and laid out, "So now that we've established that I won't hesitate to torture or even kill your precious students if you don't cooperate...I want you, dear Celestia, to head on over to the nearest police station and confess to being the one to blame for creating that terrible Lizard and unleashing it on the unsuspecting people of this town."  

Meanwhile, Sunset gave Twilight an empathetic look and quietly asked, "You okay, Twilight?"

Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. This was probably as far away from okay as she could be.

"So let me see if I got this straight," Celestia said in a steady tone. "You want me to confess to a crime I haven't even committed. Why?"

"Because...you'll be in jail then. Do I really need to elaborate?" she answered in a deadpan tone.

"But why go after me?" Celestia pleaded with a hint of desperation in her voice. "What did I ever do to you that would justify the lengths you have gone to to see me punished? Who are you under that mask?"

Those questions had a strange effect on the Nightmare Goblin. She fell silent and looked away for a second as a strangely sad and conflicted expression briefly revealed itself on her masked face, all while her cat-like eyes turned more normal...and then she grunted and shook her head before she could go too far in that direction...before Luna could get the upper hand...and her eyes remained as demented and cat-like as they were before.

She then turned back at her sister and ranted, "You! I can't even begin to tell you how much I have suffered because of you, how much the one person I love has suffered because of you! I have hopes, dreams, and aspirations...that your destructive self-righteous attitude always crushes into dust whenever I try to achieve them! You're everything that's wrong with my life! And I will tear you and everything you've built to shreds if you won't. stop! GETTING! IN MY WAY!"

Under her mask, Nightmare's real face had turned red with anger...though her manic and infuriated expression was communicated quite well anyway through her demonic mask. After all, she had designed it that way.

Though after she had made her little outburst, the Goblin took a second to calm herself before she once again put a smile on her face and asked, "Now...what will it be? Your freedom and your reputation...or the lives of your precious students and little Spike here? The choice is yours."

Celestia tensed, but said nothing.

On paper, it seemed like an easy decision. The hostages' lives were right now the only thing she cared about, and she would do anything to make sure they all got home in one piece after this whole ordeal was over and done with.

However, Celestia didn't trust the villain to honour her part of the deal and keep them safe if she complied, and...if she went to prison, the Goblin would still be free to hurt countless more innocent people, and not to mention might her company fall into the hands of someone like Rex Storm, who would likely abuse and weaponize her work for their own selfish benefit and potentially hurt even more. 

No matter what she did, someone would get hurt... 

...At least unless she was fast enough to grab Twilight and the others before the Goblin could cut them lose. It was risky, but she knew that if she got close enough, she could overpower her adversary and save the hostages without much difficulty.

Unfortunately, the Goblin was one step ahead of her this time, and could guess what her big sister was thinking. 

"One more thing to help you decide..." she added while raising a finger for emphasis...then pointed it at a large antenna spire just behind Celestia. "You see that pumpkin?"

Celestia gave a quick glance at where she was pointing, and indeed saw a small metal pumpkin webbed up to the top of the antenna. And, having heard what the Goblin did at the docks, she knew that those pumpkins were bad news.

"At my command, that thing will blow up and unleash a massive cloud of gas," she revealed, much to Celestia's dread. "The same gas in fact that poor little Spike breathed in...and you saw what happened to him. Just imagine what it will do to all the people down there just minding their own business."

A look of distress passed Celestia's features when she realised just how outplayed she was. The Nightmare Goblin's plan was perfect. There was now nothing she could do without someone paying the prize. Nothing!

"You can stop the bomb or save your students...or fail at both...or just comply with my demands. That way everyone but you will walk away from this with a smile on their face. The choice is-"

"MINE!" a new voice suddenly shouted, much to everyone's surprise. 

The Goblin barely had time to recognise just who that voice belonged to and turn around to look at them when a foot flew straight into her jaw with enough force to make her briefly lose control of her glider and spin around wildly while she tried desperately to maintain her balance. 

The surprise kick had come from none other than the Spider-Girl of course...and now she was ready for round two!

While the Goblin had spent her time talking, Rainbow had spent that time climbing all the way back up to the roof. Once there, she had stayed out of sight, planned it out and waited for the perfect moment to spring her attack. 

And now...in an interesting twist of irony...it was the Nightmare Goblin who was the one that got hit in the face with a devious sneak attack. Karma really was a cruel mistress tonight, wasn't it?

After she had delivered her powerful face-kick though, Spider-Girl used its momentum to fall back with a back flip and elegantly land on top of the crane arm where her friends were hanging. 

"Now how do you like that, bitch!" Rainbow shouted victoriously while giving a double thumbs down in the currently disoriented Goblin's direction.

"Spider-Girl!" Twilight shouted, sounding beyond relieved to know that her friend was still alive...but still remembering not to spoil her identity. She owed her that at least.

"How are you still alive?!" Sunset questioned.

A bit confused, Celestia meanwhile asked a simple, "Who?"

But now was no time for explanations. She only had a few precious moments to spare before the Nightmare Goblin could recover and retaliate, so Rainbow's one and only priority was to save her friends and stop the lizard bomb from going off before her enemy could do so. A nearly impossible task to be sure, but she did have help this time around if the strange sensation she got from Celestia on her spider-sense was any indication, and if she just acted quick enough...she just might pull it off.

The first thing she did was to look right at Celestia with an urgent glint in her eyes (or visors technically) and say, "You take care of the bomb! I got the hostages!" in as serious of a tone as she could muster.

Now, to be fair, Celestia had literally no idea who this mysterious person was, and would have every reason in the world to distrust and question her...but, for reasons that she would have a hard time explaining, she just didn't. 

There was something in her voice, her costume, and her recent actions that reminded Celestia all too much of how she was back in her Captain Jupiter days...almost as if she could see her own younger self under that strange blue mask the Spider-Girl hid her face behind.

Besides, with so many lives in imminent danger, she didn't have the time to question anything right now...so she immediately gave the Spider-Girl a nod and did as she was told.

With a bright flash of light enveloping her, Celestia activated her hidden powers; making her hair flow on its own, her eyes become bright as the sun and her skin start to glow in a powerful radiance. Once she was powered up enough, she focused her attention on the small metal pumpkin sitting at the top of building's tall antenna spire and leapt up to grab it in a single bound.

Meanwhile, the Spider-Girl had already gotten to work on her own plan.

She dropped down from her perch on top of the crane to a position where she was using one of her arms to hang off of it, then used her free hand to grab hold of the thread keeping Twilight's cocoon stuck to it and asked, "Do you trust me?"

"I guess I do," Twilight answered a bit uncertainly. "Why?"

Then Rainbow pulled the whole thing off of the operating arm and held Twilight's cocoon dangling in her grip. And, as you might expect from her by now, the action immediately made Twilight start to panic again.

"No reason," Dash replied rather cheerfully considering the situation, now using her legs to keep herself attached while she reached over to do the same with Spike's cocoon as well. 

By now though, the Nightmare Goblin had recovered from Rainbow's kick and regained control of her glider...and it didn't take her long at all to see what was happening...and she did not like it one bit.

The first thing she noticed was that Celestia, now completely enveloped in her signature Captain Jupiter glow (which made her very easy to make it out in the darkness of the night), was using her remarkably strong grip and climbing speed to scale the tall antenna on top of the building and come closer and closer to the lizard bomb the Goblin had placed there. 

Immediately, the Goblin reached over to a button on her wrist device that would detonate the bomb...but she was a second too late. 

Just as she tried to activate it, Celestia came up to its level, yanked it out and crushed it in the palm of her hand a split second before it could receive the signal to explode.

However, despite how ridiculously strong she was when fully powered up, Celestia did show some restraint when she crushed it. After all, she only needed to destroy the inbuilt receiver, not accidentally set it off herself. And since, at the end of the day, despite whatever modifications the Goblin had made to it, the device was still based on CelestiaCorp technology, and thus Celestia knew just how much pressure she would need to use to successfully disarm it.

Though seeing as that plan failed spectacularly, the Nightmare Goblin growled irritably and set her eyes instead on the crane and Spider-Girl's attempt to save the people hanging off of it. 

Speaking of which...by now had the young heroine successfully pulled up both Spike and Twilight from their previous positions and held onto them both in one arm each. Though try as she might though, she could only carry two people at a time...so Sunset Shimmer would have to hang in there just a little longer. 

With no time to spare, Rainbow jumped clear across the gap between the crane arm and the roof while keeping a firm tight grip on the two hostages...even if the sudden vertigo caused by the action made Twilight even more disoriented than she already was and also actually made Spike wake up...finally.

When she landed at her destination with the two of them, Spike groggily asked, "Wha-what's going on?" while Twilight was too busy trying to contain yet another panic attack to answer him in proper words.

"Sit tight, I'll be right back!" was all Rainbow had to say to them though before she turned back to the crane and set out to help the third and final hostage.

With another leap, she landed right back on the operating arm, and was just about to reach down to get Sunset Shimmer out of her precarious situation as well, when...the Goblin flew past them at immense speed and grabbed her first, using her own enhanced strength to rip the human cocoon right off of its thread. 

The Goblin flew in a wide arc and circled back so she ended up hovering above the Spider-Girl with Sunset still wrapped up in her cocoon and dangling off her clenched hand. 

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" she shouted loud enough to get everyone's attention, her smug facade having crumbled away into one of rage and resentment. "Stand down or I will drop Sunset Shimmer right here, right now!"

Like before, when she first woke up in this position, Sunset actually managed to refrain from screaming or panicking...but the distressed look on her face made it very clear that she was very close to doing so this time.

Spider-Girl got up on her feet and clenched her fists as she stared the villain down, assessing the situation. 

Celestia dropped down from the antenna to the roof with loud thud, her incredibly dense body when powered up even making the hard surface beneath her crack in the process. And after she landed, she too set her eyes on the Goblin and waited for her to make the next move.

"Valiant efforts on both your parts, but once again I hold all the cards," the Nightmare Goblin commented after composing herself a bit. She was still noticeably pissed off, but she showed it a bit more subtly now as opposed to screaming at the top of her lungs. "Now the terms have changed. If either of you want Sunset Shimmer to be alive by the end of the day, you will both have to reveal your secrets!"

While looking at Celestia she said, "You will now not only tell the police you created the lizard, but you will also reveal to them, to EVERYONE, that you are also Captain Jupiter!"

"Huh?!" Sunset voiced upon hearing that. Twilight too looked at Celestia with a surprised expression as well from where she was lying, still stuck in her cocoon.

The Goblin ignored her and then pointed a gloved finger at the Spider-Girl, "...And you will take off your silly little mask and show me exactly who you are!"

Rainbow flinched. This was one ultimatum more than what she was prepared to deal with tonight. Nevertheless, she quickly went through her options. 'No way will I reveal who I am to this psycho...but I can't let Sunset get hurt either. Damnit Dash, why couldn't you just be one second faster?!'

"Do that, and she will live...refuse, and she will die!" the Goblin declared as clear and to the point as she could.

Celestia hesitated, almost looking for a second as if she was about to do something...but then, with a resounding sigh, she reluctantly powered down and slumped her shoulders in resignation. 

She had no choice, she saw no way to refuse the Goblin and save Sunset's life...so she did the one thing she swore she would never ever do... 

...she gave in.

"Alright, Goblin...you win," she said in a defeated tone.

A smile formed on the Nightmare Goblin's masked face upon hearing that. "Oh, hehehehahaha...good! I knew you'd come around. You're so predicta-"

"No!" 

Rainbow Dash declared in a clear and decisive tone, making Celestia's, the Nightmare Goblin's and especially Sunset's eyes widen in surprise.

She stood firm and looked at the Goblin with a determined, unwavering stare...one that made it pretty clear she was 100% confident in the decision she just made, and was not backing out.

Though only time would tell if what she just made was the right choice or not.
> 5) Face the Nightmare, Part 2 (April fools)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 5
Face the Nightmare, Part 2
A Clash of Spiders and Goblins!


"No!"

That was all she said.

A simple, short, two-letter declaration of decline. A word uttered so often that you barely even think about it when you use it. That one simple word was all Rainbow Dash had to say to the Nightmare Goblin's face when the masked villain made her ultimatum. 

In spite of the fact that she literally held Sunset Shimmer's life in her gloved hand, and could drop the innocent girl to her imminent demise at a moment's notice...the Spider-Girl was not giving in to the Goblin's demands.

Not now, not ever.

A more pragmatic or careful hero, who used their minds to strategically think through every possible outcome of such a scenario, would probably not have made such a decision, and would far more likely accept that there was nothing they could do and give up.

...But not Rainbow Dash. 

Unlike Twilight (or even Celestia at times), Rainbow's decisions were never made from cold hard logic. As a woman of swift immediate action rather than thinking things through, Dash always let her feelings have the final say on the matter...and complying to a crazy terrorist's demands at a time like this, it, to put it simply...just didn't feel right.

While she had no evidence to base it on, she knew she could save Sunset's life...and she knew that she could do it without giving in. Despite everything saying otherwise, she just knew it.  

...And the reason she knew it was because she really didn't have any other choice.

There had to be a way...and as long as she knew that was the case, the more likely she would actually find it. 

In hindsight, Rainbow probably also knew she was acting recklessly by gambling with an innocent person's life, but the alternative was not something she could ever, would ever, choose, not even if her own life depended on it...which, in this case, it might as well be.

At the very least her decision did leave everyone around her, especially the Nightmare Goblin, very confused...and now they were all staring at her, hoping for the masked hero to give some semblance of reason to her madness.

"What did you just say?!" the Goblin wondered, sounding somewhat insulted over the fact that this strange girl had the audacity to say no to her face.

Celestia gave her a sideways glance, herself looking very lost over what the younger superhero was doing...and probably debating with herself internally on whether she should trust the Spider-Girl's judgement on this or not.

Twilight Sparkle on the other hand stared at her as if she'd suddenly grown a second head. "What are you doing!?" she asked hysterically.

Rainbow held up a hand to silence her, but kept her eyes firmly on the Goblin. 

"I said no," Spider-Girl repeated, still sounding as uncompromising and defiant as the last time she said it. 

Thoroughly baffled, Nightmare reiterated after a brief pause, "I don't know if I made myself clear...if you don't comply, I will kill this girl. She will die a horrible, gruesome death...she will be nothing but a gory mess of blood and broken bones on the sidewalk, she will never live to see her nineteenth birthday...and it will be all your fault," she explained as menacingly as she could manage, hoping that the message would get across this time.

But, to everyone's continued surprise, Dash just casually crossed her arms and replied with, "Then what're you waiting for?"

The Goblin's eye twitched, "...what?"

Taking a few calm steps across the extended crane arm to get closer to her, Spider-Girl simply remarked, "Threats are only good if you go through with them, right? So go ahead, do it. At least then we know you're serious."

The Nightmare Goblin paused for second...then she conceded, "Fair enough!" and idly threw Sunset Shimmer away to fall to her death.

Spider-Girl was about to swoop in and save her...but before she even had a chance of doing so, the Goblin decided to unleash an entire barrage of missiles from the Gargoyle at the front of her glider's mouth that hit the roof like an inferno.

Everyone that was there, including Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Celestia and even Rainbow Dash, the Awesome Spider-Girl herself...were all consumed by the explosion and died instantly as a result, leaving them nothing but burning bodies.

"Well...that was easy," the Goblin commented in surprise while watching the fire she just unleashed at the top of the building. "I would have thought that at least my annoying sister would have survived, but I guess not."

That was when Celestia, now having completely transformed into her vengeful evil alter ego with flaming hair, Daybreaker...flew out of the fire, unleashing a spine-chilling war cry that made even the Nightmare Goblin freeze up in terror...and all she could do was stare in horror as the relentless demon that had taken hold of her sister closed in.

With a powerful punch reaching magnitudes above both the legendary Falcon Punch and a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick combined, Daybreaker knocked the Goblin straight off her glider and right up into the stratosphere!

And thus...the story comes to a close...
















...except not really, because that is not what happened.

April Fools everybody!
> 5) Face the Nightmare, Part 2 (real one!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 5
Face the Nightmare, Part 2
A Clash of Spiders and Goblins!


"No!"

That was all she said.

A simple, short, two-letter declaration of decline. A word uttered so often that you barely even think about it when you use it. That one simple word was all Rainbow Dash had to say to the Nightmare Goblin's face when the masked villain made her ultimatum. 

In spite of the fact that the Goblin literally held Sunset Shimmer's life in her gloved hand, and could drop the innocent girl to her imminent demise at a moment's notice...the Spider-Girl was not giving in to her demands.

Not now, not ever.

A more pragmatic or careful hero, who used their mind to strategically think through every possible outcome of such a scenario, would probably not have made such a decision, and would far more likely accept that there was nothing they could do and give up.

...But that did not apply to Rainbow Dash. 

Unlike Twilight (or even Celestia at times), Rainbow's decisions were never made from cold hard logic. As a woman of swift immediate action rather than thinking things through, Dash always let her feelings have the final say on the matter...and complying to a crazy terrorist's demands at a time like this, it, to put it simply...just didn't feel right.

While she had no evidence to base it on, she knew she could save Sunset's life...and she knew that she could do it without giving in. Despite everything saying otherwise, she just knew it.  

...And the reason she knew it was simply because she really didn't have any other choice.

There just had to be a way...and as long as she knew that that was the case, the more likely she would actually find it. 

In hindsight, Rainbow probably also knew that she was acting recklessly by gambling with an innocent person's life, but the alternative was not something she could ever, would ever, choose, not even if her own life depended on it...which, in this case, it might as well be.

At the very least her decision did leave everyone around her, especially the Nightmare Goblin, very confused...and now they were all staring at her, hoping for the masked hero to give some semblance of reason to her madness.

"What did you just say?!" the Goblin questioned, sounding somewhat insulted over the fact that this obnoxious girl had the sheer audacity to say no to her face.

Celestia gave her a sideways glance, herself looking very lost over what the younger superhero was doing...and probably debating with herself internally on whether she should trust the Spider-Girl's judgement on this or not.

Twilight Sparkle on the other hand stared at her as if she'd suddenly grown a second head. "What are you doing!?" she asked somewhat hysterically.

Rainbow held up a hand to silence her, but kept her eyes firmly on the Goblin. 

"I said no," Spider-Girl repeated, still sounding as uncompromising and defiant as the last time she said it. 

Thoroughly baffled, Nightmare paused for a second...then she reiterated, "I don't know if I made myself clear...if you don't comply, I will kill this girl. She will die a horrible, gruesome death...she will be nothing but a gory mess of blood and broken bones on the sidewalk, she will never live to see her nineteenth birthday...and it will be all...your...fault," she explained as menacingly as she could manage, hoping that the message would come across this time.

However...to everyone's continued surprise, Rainbow Dash instead just casually crossed her arms and replied with, "Then what're you waiting for?"

The Goblin's eye twitched, "...what?"

Taking a few calm steps across the extended crane arm to get closer to her, Spider-Girl simply remarked, "Threats are only good if you go through with them, right? So go ahead, do it. At least then we know you're serious."

"Um, excuse me. This is my life we're talking about here!" Sunset reminded, feeling very disturbed over what this so-called-superhero was deciding for her. "...And I really don't want to die, thank you very much!"

"Err...Spider-Girl, was it? I don't think she's bluffing," Celestia quietly cautioned.

The Goblin was quick to reinforce that point by adding, "Oh, I'm definitively not bluffing. I'll toss this little daisy down to her death in a heartbeat!"

"Could've fooled me," Rainbow chipperly noted in a tone that gave everyone the impression that she was hiding a massive smirk under her mask. "I mean, it's pretty clear you haven't got any balls to begin with, what with this whole half-assed hostage plan you're trying to pull instead of, oh I dunno...literally anything else! Seriously, what're ya gonna do next? Stroke a cat, twirl a stupid-looking moustache and then lower her into a pool of piranhas?!"

"Oh you're one to talk!" she spat back, giving the Spider-Girl a very peeved glare. "You call that blue spandex fashion disaster a costume?! I disguise myself with the face of the nightmares of old to inspire irrational fear in my enemies. You? You look like a Teletubby on diet pills with bug eyes! How could that possibly inspire trust or intimidation? All you're telegraphing is that you're exactly the kind of lost child with a hopeless hero complex I took you for!"

"Ooooooh, what an insult," Rainbow noted sarcastically while briefly putting her hands on her cheeks to slightly emulate the famous 'scream' painting by Edvard Munch, still leaving everyone else completely blindsided by her petulant attitude in such a dire situation. "Let me know when you got something creative to call me, troll-face."

"That wasn't even remotely creative!" Nightmare shot back.

"Still more creative than your evil plan!"  

Now practically seething with rage, the Nightmare Goblin drew her blade from its scabbard and snapped, "ALRIGHT, LAST CHANCE! Take off that ridiculous thing you call a mask or I will kill Sunset and you! In fact, I think I will blow up the whole roof if you refuse this time!"

"Spider-Girl..." Celestia warned in a low tone, not really liking where this was going.

Twilight, despite still being stuck in a cocoon, managed to angle herself to sit slightly more upright to better see what was going on, and from that position give Rainbow a concerned look as she pleaded, "Please, Spider-Girl...think about what you're doing. She's my friend. I can't bear to lose her, not like this."

Sunset herself was staring at the Spider-Girl with her teeth clenched and her eyes locked and unblinking. At this point, she knew her life depended on what this costumed stranger would do or say next, and given what she had said and done already...she had every reason in the world to be worried.

Rainbow did indeed most certainly hear their pleas, and she well understood the risks she were undertaking right at this moment...but at the same time, she knew, she just knew...that she could pull this off. 

Internally, she told herself, 'Okay, Spider-Dash...you got this, you got this,'...but externally...she instead simply uttered...

"Bring it on...bitch!"

That one simple line of continued defiance was just enough to pass the final threshold on what little remained of the Nightmare Goblin's patience and sanity. 

Sure, Luna could be clever and charismatic when she was in her Goblin persona...but at its core, that whole personality was still just an unstable mess of her repressed urges and dark thoughts, and, as such, couldn't even attempt to remain rational and levelheaded when faced with such an infuriating annoyance as the Spider-Girl.

However, when that murderous rage finally did hit its peak and took complete control of her actions...it did not manifest in a screaming exclamation of aggression...but was instead cold, understated and left with nothing even resembling empathy or mercy in the Goblin's inhuman eyes.

"Fine...have it your way," she said while taking a firm grip on her sword and activated its electrical properties. 

Then...she reached the hand holding onto Sunset Shimmer's cocoon as far outwards as she could...and then let go of it, sending the teenager plummeting to the streets below.

Unfortunately for the villain, that was just what Spider-Girl had been waiting for. Provoking her was just a way to make her mad enough to take the bait.    

In a remarkable show of speed, Rainbow instantly leapt up like a coiled spring straight up into the air in the Goblin's direction, not giving her opponent even a second to react before she was right up in her face.

On instinct, Nightmare defensively slashed her sword in a wide arc when she came too close. Though in her haste, she lacked the precision she would need to score a killing blow, and, as such, only managed to chop off the tip of one of Spider-Girl's red bolt-looking things around her eyes (the one around her left eye to be specific).

However, since the material those were made of wasn't all that conductive, plus the fact that she only touched it for less than a second, Rainbow barely felt the ensuing bolt that connecting with that sword would normally give her. 

Though once the Spider-Girl had actually managed to get past the her enemy's defences and was in a prime position to deal a crippling blow with a well aimed punch or kick to the Goblin's exposed side...she instead reached out for something on her right wrist and flew straight past her as soon as she grabbed it.

Confused by the seemingly faint attack, Nightmare quickly looked down at her lower arm to see what her foe was after...and immediately noticed that one of the web-shooters she had nicked from the hero was now missing.

And as Dash had leapt straight out into the open air to reach the flying villain as quickly as she possibly could and made no attempt to latch on to either her or her glider, Rainbow soon found herself once again falling straight down to her inevitable doom just like Sunset was currently doing...or at least she would have if she hadn't just reclaimed one of her nifty little web-shooting devices in the split second she was close enough to the Goblin to do so. 

Strapping the object to her right wrist as quickly as she could, she started looking for the falling Sunset Shimmer and soon enough spotted her just a bit below her own position...now having lost all her cool and was screaming in terror as she spun around wildly in the wind. 

After her eyes set firmly on the falling person, Rainbow straightened out her body as much as she could and bent herself at such an angle that she was flying straight towards her and at a much greater speed than Sunset herself was descending at. 

It was a technique skydivers often used to build momentum while high up in the air. Good thing that Rainbow Dash just so happened to have a vested interest in skydiving and was raised by a former fighter pilot. Responsibility wasn't the only thing Firefly taught her.

And when she finally reached Sunset's tumbling cocoon, Dash immediately put her left arm around her and held the panicking woman as tight as she could, then aimed her right arm (specifically the one that now had a web-shooter strapped to it) towards the wall of the nearby CelestiaCorp Tower and anchored herself to it with a sling of webbing, stopping both of their descents with a single move.

The stretchy elastic nature of the silk Spider-Girl was using in her web-shooters also made the sudden stop relatively smooth and pleasant given how fast they were falling, kinda like how a bungee line works...and as such, saved them from any kind of sudden whiplash that would otherwise be just as deadly as hitting the ground. 

However...that did not save Rainbow from the sudden painful impact of slamming her shoulder into a window when her saving throw pulled her towards the side of the building, drawing a quick "Ouch!" out of her when that happened. Luckily, Sunset was facing the other way, so she was perfectly fine...at least physically.

Mentally on the other hand...she was, to put it simply...a complete mess right now, as you could probably tell by the wide-eyed panicked expression she displayed on her now remarkably pale face. She was also sweating, breathing heavily, trembled a bit...and she may also have to change her underwear when this was done.

At the very least she'd stopped screaming.

Keeping her left arm tightly around Sunset's abdomen with all the strength she could muster while the other held onto the web-line that was keeping them hanging, Rainbow Dash looked around a bit to see where they had ended up, then let out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding and allowed herself to smile under her mask for a moment as she realised that her admittedly reckless plan actually worked. 

"See? Hehe, knew I could catch you in time," Spider-Girl cockily boasted, sounding rather proud of herself...or maybe that was just the adrenaline talking.

Sunset slowly and dramatically turned her head around to look her costumed 'saviour' in the eye with an expression that made it look as if she was literally about to commit murder. "Are...you...fucking KIDDING ME!?" she shouted with enough rage in her voice to turn her face from pale as a sheet to beet red in an instant. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!"

Taken aback a bit by that rather...'emotional' response...Dash stuttered nervously a bit before she eventually replied with, "Uhh...well...it worked, didn't it?"

Sunset responded to that not with words...but instead with a simple twitch of her right eye. 





Up above, Celestia ran forth and leaned over the edge of the roof to see what was going on down there, then let out a relieved sigh as soon as she saw that Sunset and the Spider-Girl had actually survived.

Though when the Nightmare Goblin too leaned over the side of her glider to see what was happening, her reaction was anything but relief. With a growl, she cursed, "Oh, for goodness sake!"

Turning her head back up to look at her sister, she soon found herself at a disadvantage when said sister stood up straight, clenched her hands into fists and began to glow with the power of the nearly indestructible Captain Jupiter. 

"Don't try it," Celestia warned in a dangerous tone, as if her pose and obvious display of power wasn't convincing enough that picking a fight with her now without any leverage would be a very bad idea. 

Of course, the Goblin could always regain that leverage if she was just stubborn enough to get it back...though now it was clear that doing so would require killing a certain petulant spider first.

With a defiant look on her demonic-looking plastic face, she pointed her finger at Celestia and promised, "This isn't over, Tia!" before she then proceeded to descend from the roof with all speed. 

Celestia had a strange reaction once again though when she heard her say that, and furrowed her brow in thought. 

There was something about this mysterious costumed lunatic that sounded unnervingly familiar to her. She had felt it all night, but now...hearing that voice say that one specific word...and in a way that only one person she knew said it...it made the cogs in her head turn ever so slightly. 

"No...it can't be..." she whispered to herself in dread.

She prayed on all that was good in the world that her suspicion wasn't true, that she had simply misjudged the clues she had been given, and that she was seeing things that just wasn't there...but deep inside, Celestia knew who's face was under that monster's mask...even if she didn't want to believe it.  

The sound of Spike and Twilight struggling against the webbing that bound them brought her thoughts back to the present though. "Ughh...some help here, please?" Spike demanded in a distressed voice.

Getting her focus back on the task at hand, Celestia turned her attention to the two of them and proceeded to use her impressive physical strength get them out of their silky cocoons...and then probably get away from this roof as soon as possible after she was done with that.





Down below, Spider-Girl and Sunset were still hanging by the side of the tower on a single thread of webbing attached to a point just a bit further up the same building, but now Rainbow had taken a new better grip on Shimmer's cocooned form and planted both of her feet on the window she'd just crashed into.

The only problem now was how on earth she was supposed to get them both down to the ground safely...

"Okay, Sunset, hold on tight and I'll climb down slowly," Rainbow assured as she began to descend as carefully as she could, step by step, using the webbing like a safety line to keep them from falling. There was still a long way down and it was really awkward to hold onto Sunset's cocoon with her left arm while doing it.

Still, she had all the time in the...wait, screw that, she actually had no time for that at all, as a rapidly approaching object she noticed on her spider-sense was quick to remind her of.

"...Or we could get the hell out of here as soon as humanly possible!" she decided instead.

Thinking quickly, Dash took a firm grip on the girl in her arms and suddenly used her legs to push herself away from the wall as fast as she could just as a beeping metallic pumpkin flew straight into it at high speed and detonated upon impact, blowing a huge hole in the wall where she and Sunset were just at in the process.

The two teenagers only survived the blast with seconds to spare, and they were both lucky that no stray piece of glass or shrapnel managed to hit them. 

Still, that didn't mean they were out of the woods by a long shot...as the Nightmare Goblin was now rapidly descending towards them with intent to kill.

However, since Dash hadn't let go of the web-line yet, instead having used it keep herself aloft while pushing herself out of the way...she soon found herself being dragged back towards the building by the resulting momentum...though instead of a solid glass wall to slam into this time, there was a big gaping hole there now.

'Thanks for the way out, Goblin,' she noted to herself with a touch of irony.

Yanking on the line to increase her speed and preparing herself accordingly, Spider-Girl swung down straight into the new opening and launched herself off at just the right time so that she and the woman in her arm could get inside the building safely...or safely enough, at least. No one could rationally say that anything they were doing right now was even remotely safe.

They both tumbled to the floor as soon as they touched down, so it was hardly a perfect landing, but hey, at least they were inside the building now.

The place they ended up in seemed to be what remained of someone's office...which was thankfully empty at the time of the explosion. Whoever owned the office though would probably be a bit shocked to find out what happened to it in the morning.

Still, that was definitively not one of Rainbow's current concerns, as her botched landing made her end up with her back on the floor while letting out a groan caused by of a mix of pain and exhaustion...and Sunset had ended up right next to her with her face planted onto the hard surface.

All things considered, it didn't take Dash all that long to shake the impact off, leap up on her feet, then lean down and gently flip Sunset around so she didn't have to stay in that uncomfortable position any longer. 

Once Sunset's face was revealed to her though, Rainbow noticed two things. One: Sunset now had a nosebleed. Two: she somehow looked even more pissed off than she looked before.

"You're the Worst. Superhero. Ever." the battered girl noted in a cold tone, and one that was masking a lot of anger and frustration hidden behind it. 

While she grabbed hold of the thick webbing keeping Sunset restrained, Spider-Girl defended, "Hey, I'm just starting out, okay! Would you mind cutting me some slack?"

Then with a distinct 'RIPP!' sound, the young superhuman pulled apart Shimmer's cocoon with the strength of her arms alone, proving herself to be more than a match for even the incredible tensile strength of a spider's cobweb...while also finally giving Sunset Shimmer a chance to move her arms and legs freely again and even sit up straight for the first time since Chrysalis caught and restrained her.

While she could of course have been grateful for that, and promptly thanked the brave hero who just risked her life to save hers, she instead bitterly pointed out, "I would have...if you didn't just gamble with my life just to show off!"

Taken aback a bit by that statement, Rainbow tried to plead, "I wasn't trying to-"

But was immediately interrupted when Sunset angrily asked, "I mean how hard would it be to just take off that stupid mask!? The only reason we survived that reckless stunt was because of pure luck, and you know it!"

Then, after pointing an accusatory finger in the Spider-Girl's masked face, she finished her tirade off with, "I don't know who you are, but from what I've seen of you...you're definitively no hero."

Hearing Sunset say that about her left Rainbow Dash stunned. She didn't know how to respond to it. What she just did seemed so right at the time, but now, after hearing Sunset Shimmer, the girl she just saved, lay it out like this with such a desperate anger in her voice...it made her doubt herself a little more than she would admit. 

However, that little moment of weakness also made her momentarily forget to pay attention to her spider-sense when suddenly a sling of webbing attached itself to her back and pulled her straight out of the broken window she had come in through...leaving a dazed and infuriated Sunset Shimmer alone in the ruins of wherever inside the building she had ended up in.

Spider-Girl for her part wasn't exactly in any better predicament though, as she soon found herself dangling wildly through the air as the Nightmare Goblin dragged her by the sling through several loops around the building...all while making sure the hero slammed into as many walls as possible when she did so.

'Dammit!' thought Dash as she slammed her back into another window, 'Forgot she-' next her left arm knocked into a piece of the concrete, '...still had that other...' then Nightmare took hold of the sling and swung her around in a wide arc, '...web-shooter!'  and threw her straight into a window, leaving Rainbow with only a second to brace herself before she smashed right through it.

The glass ripped open several noticeable gashes all over her suit and skin, and left her sprawled out on the floor of another office space surrounded by broken glass. 

Needless to say, it was probably not the most comfortable landing she'd ever done. In fact, this time she was even drawing blood at several parts of her body...though fortunately, they were only flesh wounds at worst.

"Hmmhehahahahahaha...so much for all that bravado, Spider-Girl," the Goblin taunted as she slowly descended towards the broken window she just tossed Rainbow through. "Tell me, how long do expect to-"

Her villainous monologue was cut short though when the Spider-Girl unexpectedly turned her whole torso around in a split second and webbed the Goblin's eyes shut before she had a chance to react...all while shouting, "Peekaboo!"

Temporarily blinded, Nightmare let out an alarmed gasp and then tried to use her gloved hands to pull the webbing off her mask, only to find the stuff a bit tougher to get off than she anticipated.

However, with her foe temporarily distracted, Rainbow pulled herself back up on her feet as fast as she could manage. Once up, her eyes then locked on her second web-shooter, still strapped around one of the Goblin's wrists, and aimed the shooter she actually had on her person at it. 

"Hey, Gobby!" she called out as she attached a sling of web to the Goblin's left arm. "I believe this is mine," she reminded before she yanked her stolen shooter off the villain's wrist and back into her own hands. After that, it barely took her a second to get it attached back to the arm it belonged to.

"Nicely played, Spider," Nightmare complimented, still struggling to get the webbing out of her eyes. "But you're not the only one with a trick up her sleeve!"

Reaching into her purple cloak, the Goblin pulled out another small metal pumpkin and pressed a button on it, letting a pair of metallic bat wing-shaped knives fold out at its sides. Then, in one fluid motion, she used the new weapon to slice right through the sticky substance blinding her, and in turn giving herself her sight back.

However, the first thing she ended up seeing once her eyes were freed was the Spider-Girl leaping straight towards her at blinding speed, her fist pulled back and prepared to deliver a wicked right hook as soon as she got within range.

This time though, the Nightmare Goblin's quick reflexes gave her the advantage, and she immediately twisted her whole body around to make Spider-Girl overshoot her completely and give the Goblin a chance to wrap her arm around the superhero's neck, locking her in place.



(if you're wondering why Spider-Girl's suit isn't as damaged as I described, it's because I drew this picture before writing this chapter, and these stories have a way of writing themselves)

Spider-Girl tried to pull the arm pressing down on her neck off of her, but soon found herself at a disadvantage in this position and couldn't properly muster the strength to do so.

Smiling at this new favourable position for her, Nightmare spun her glider around and flew it away from the building into the open air while she moved her other arm, which was the one still holding onto the pumpkin boomerang-knife-thing, into a position where she'd be able to use it to stab the Spider-Girl in the chest. 

Before she had a chance do that though, Rainbow reached out her free arm and attached a web-line to the side of the CelestiaCorp Tower, then pulled down on it to give her the strength required to slink herself right out of the Goblin's tight grip...and then spin around and deliver a powerful spinning kick straight into the villain's masked face.



Saliva flew out of the Goblin's mouth as her elastic mask was briefly deformed beyond recognition, and even though the costume came with a protective helmet strapped to her skull, the impact it made with Rainbow's red shoe hitting it at superhuman level left a fairly impressive black eye on Luna's face underneath. It also made her lose her grip on the bat-boomerang, sending it falling towards the ground below...though thankfully, it didn't hit someone in the head on the way down.

Another consequence of the kick was that it sent the Goblin tumbling around in the air for a moment while the Spider-Girl instead swung over and landed on the side of the building she had attached her line to.

It took the Nightmare Goblin but a moment to get her glider stabilised, and then a moment more to drag her mask back to a position where the eye-holes actually were lined up with her eyes properly. And when she did, she set those eyes squarely on the Spider-Girl, who was staring back at her from the tower's wall with those big blank eyes, a clear contrast to her own far more expressive and creepy ones. 

And as they sized each other up, the Spider-Girl was filled with confidence and determination as she waited for her enemy to make the next move...while the Goblin had nothing but scorn and anger in her face as she prepared to make that move.

"Oh, It. Is. ON!" the Goblin declared while she squared her hips and prepared her glider for a full-frontal assault.

A bit cocky, Dash called back "Bring it!" while removing one of her hands from the wall to make a 'come at me' move towards her.

...And then...the fight was on!

The Nightmare Goblin opened up by unleashing two heat-seeking missiles out of the mouth of the gargoyle-head mounted at the front of her vehicle, which were both locked on to Rainbow's specific heat signature.

Spider-Girl responded by leaping off the wall and ensnaring one of the missiles with a sling of her webbing, pulled it out of its trajectory, spun it around in a wide arc...and then finally threw it right back in the path of its twin, making them both explode harmlessly in the empty air between her and the Goblin.

Dash smirked at the fact that she had managed to pull that off in the split second she stayed in the air before gravity started to take over. 'Wow, I did not think I would be able to pull that off.' she silently noted to herself. 'I really am awesome, aren't I?'

Her tune changed rather drastically though when, through the heated air, smoke, and lingering sparks of fire left in the explosion's wake, the Nightmare Goblin suddenly appeared, flying straight towards her with a devilish smirk on her face.

Even though her spider-sense could warn her about these kinds of threats in time for her to do something about them, this time, given that she was stuck in the air without anything solid to grab onto or push herself off of...nor enough time to web herself to anything, there really wasn't much she could do except to brace herself for what was to come...

...which in this case turned out to be a very hard and very painful punch to the chest, amplified not only by the Goblin's strength-enhancing suit, but also by the shear velocity she was travelling at when she hit her.

The punch sent Rainbow flying straight back into the wall of the building she had just leapt away from, knocking the wind right out of her lungs as she slammed her back into it.  

Though before she could fall down for any length of distance, she managed to secure herself to the surface by quickly sticking her hand to it. Once secured, she then took a moment to wince as the pain lingered in her ribs and her spine. 'That's...gonna leave a mark.'

"Fun fact about spiders," the Nightmare Goblin called out as she flew down and positioned her glider at Dash's level. "Whenever the male peacock spider sees a female of his own kind, he's forced to perform his elaborate mating dance for her...or else she will kill and devour him."

Confused over what brought this on, Rainbow turned her head up to look at her with an unsure, "Ooookay..."

With a wicked smile, the Goblin pointed a pair of finger guns at her and asked, "Are you ready to dance for me, little spider?"

Now a bit weirded out, Dash awkwardly asked, "...Are you coming onto me?"

...only to then immediately get her answer when the Goblin started to blast directed beams of super-heated plasma out of her fingers in Rainbow's direction.

Though with her spider-sense on high-alert, the Spider-Girl managed to relatively easily dodge the first beam sent her way by quickly jumping to the side, letting it hit and leave a noticeable burn in the wall instead. 

Of course, that was far from the end of it, as the Nightmare Goblin immediately followed that up with an entire barrage of plasma shots coming out of her gloved finger guns, making it progressively harder and harder for the hero to dodge them effectively...and the Goblin did it all while cackling like a maniac. 

It was close, and at least one of the beams managed to burn a small part of her suit off, but with her incredible speed, dexterity and lightning-fast reflexes, Rainbow managed to just barely avoid them all and come out of it very much alive...even though she was quite winded and kept her body very tense as she stared at the Goblin, awaiting her next move.

Smoke and the smell of burnt rubber emanated from the tips of Nightmare's overheated fingers as she slowly moved one of them to her lips so she could blow it out like a Cowboy with his smoking revolver. Having used them to their limit, she'd now need to avoid using her plasma for the time being and let the machinery in her gloves cool down unless she'd prefer to have her fingers burned off.

"Well, well, well..." she said, sounding mildly impressed. "I suppose you really can dance, little spider."

"You wanna dance, bitch?" Spider-Girl challenged, preparing her next move. "...then prepare for a tango!"

She started by shooting a web-sling at the Goblin that attached to her chest, then, before the villain could do anything about it, Rainbow leapt off the wall, pulled down on the thread as hard as she could, and slammed both of her feet down on her enemy's armoured torso.

The impact knocked the Goblin straight off of her glider and sent them both tumbling down towards the ground below, now with a thread keeping them close together on the way down. Unsurprisingly, as they fell, the two of them took every opportunity they could to punch, kick, grab or grapple with each other on the way down, their mutual hatred for each other making it easy for them both to not even care about the height from which they were falling from.

Though, after sensing that its pilot had been unintentionally separated from her glider, the aerial vehicle responded by having its blue Tron-like lights flash red while making a loud beeping sound, then it immediately locked down on the homing signal embedded in the Nightmare Goblin's suit and automatically began to fly down after her, its incredible speed making it fairly easy for it to catch up to them.  

Once it'd gotten close enough, the Goblin took note of its presence, then grabbed hold of the Spider-Girl's shoulders and pushed her away from her...giving her the opening she needed to allow the glider to position itself directly below her so she could plant her boots down on it and soar away.

...Only, as the line between the two of them was still very much intact (and Rainbow was still keeping a tight grip on her end of it), the rookie superhero soon found herself being dragged around through the air in the glider's wake as her adversary was trying to boost away from her.

Noticing the increased weight almost instantly, the Goblin looked over her shoulder to see the Spider-Girl start to climb up the thread she was attached to, bringing her closer and closer by the second. 

"Why can't you leave me alone, you little pest?!" she wondered out loud in anger. Then she shook her head and pulled out a pumpkin bomb from her cloak. "Very well then, if you want to stay, then HAVE SOME CANDY!" she shouted as she primed it and threw the object at her unwanted passenger.

Rainbow's eyes widened for a second as her spider-sense noticed the increased danger of the ticking time tomb flying at her, and she responded as quick as she could when she used her free arm to slap it out of her way just in time for the object to be lodged far enough away that the resulting explosion didn't hit her...even if the shockwave caused by it sent her into a wild spin and had her dangling around wildly on the thread so fast and chaotically that it was making her feel a bit nauseous.

"Sorry, no...candy for...me!" she still managed to quip out in spite of her awkward position. "I'm...on...a...diet!"

A bit amused by that statement in spite of her boiling rage, Nightmare put her hand on her elongated chin and noted, "Yes, you do seem to be a bit heavy. Why don't we..." then she pulled out her sword, "...trim you down a peg?!" and turned her glider around so she could slice the line off with a swift swing of the weapon.

Quickly stopping her fall by connecting another silky lifeline to the nearby building, Rainbow then swung low enough to build momentum, and after that used that momentum to launch herself straight up into the air, now even managing to fly a full three metres above the Goblin's head.

And then, with her opportunity in sight, she attached two threads to each of the Goblin's shoulders and pulled herself down upon her, planting both of her feet on the villain's back hard enough to make her curse out in pain. Then, with a quick remark of "Light's out!" she reached over and pulled Nightmare's hood down over her face and held it there.

"GET OFF ME, YOU LEECH!" the Goblin screamed as she tried to shake the Spider-Girl off of her with more and more erratic movements, even making a full barrel roll to make her lose her grip...but all to no avail as Spider-Girl's grip was just that tight (and remember, spider-powers).

However, making all those wild movement while blindfolded was perhaps not the smartest thing in the world to do when you're flying around in a crazy death machine this high up...as the Goblin was soon about to learn the hard way.

Rainbow's spider-sense alerted her as soon as it became clear that the Goblin's glider was headed straight for the nearby building, and immediately jumped off her back to avoid the incoming impact.

Though with Spider-Girl no longer holding Nightmare's hood down, she quickly pulled it up to see what was going on...except the only thing she really had time to spot was a window coming closer and closer until she crashed right into it at full speed.

The window shattered on impact, and the Goblin was hit with a couple dozen shards of glass that tore at her suit in multiple locations at once...and after that, she flew through several office cubicles in a row, trashing them one by one until a hit with a pillar knocked her off her glider while the machine flew straight through a nearby wall, creating a large hole in it in the process.

Though her armour protected her from any life-threatening damage she would receive after crashing as hard as she did, it still hurt like all hell and left her panting and groaning while being curled up on the floor. 

Suffice to say, tonight hadn't gone quite as well as she hoped it would.

The Spider-Girl soon swung into the room through the hole the glider left in its wake, and it didn't take her long to find the Nightmare Goblin lying down rather unflatteringly in the middle of the room.

"Alright, Gobby, playtime's over!" Spider-Girl called out, beginning to make her way over to her. "Now, if you know what's best for you, you'll stay down and I'll find a nice cosy jail cell to put you in."

Nightmare pushed herself up on her elbow to look at the hero and drily comment, "You know, Spider...you're really starting to piss me off."

"It's a gift," Dash quipped back without skipping a beat, confidently approaching her nemesis with a fearless and unwavering attitude evident in her body language. "...And the feeling's mutual by the way."

Managing to crack a smile despite her constant state of rage at the Spider-Girl's interference, the Goblin replied, "Then let's do something about that, shall we?"

She suddenly reached into her cloak and pulled out another pumpkin bomb (though a variation she hadn't used thus far), then activated it and slammed it straight into the floor. 

Rainbow flinched, but this bomb didn't explode into a ball of fire like many of the others the mad bomber had tossed around like candy earlier. Instead, it unleashed a rapidly-growing cloud of dark blue smoke that very quickly began to smother the room and make it way harder for her to see what was in front of her.

Not letting that stop her though, Dash ran through the fog to where the Goblin had just been...and found nothing.

"Hahahahahah...welcome to the darkness I call home...'hero'!" Nightmare's voice called out to her from somewhere nearby, the thick smoke (as well as the slightly echoing nature of the room they were in) making it hard for her to tell where it came from.

"Seriously, Gobby...aren't you a bit too old for hide and seek?!" Rainbow asked, trying her best to avoid sounding too 'on edge' as she was looking around frantically to find where the Goblin was hiding. "And here I thought I was the childish one."

"Children are cruel, Spider-Girl," the voice from the fog replied, now suddenly sounding like it was coming from the other side of the room, making Dash a bit more jumpy and uneasy than she was before. "Things like morality, empathy or conscience...those are just things children learn as they grow older. At heart, they're pure, pristine little monsters who never think twice about what they're doing, as long as they get what they want...and I? I am very much in touch with my inner child!"    

Rainbow's spider-sense went off, prompting her to immediately drop down to her knees and avoid three bat-shaped boomerang-looking objects that came flying through the smog and probably would have hit her in the face or throat area if she hadn't ducked down in time.

Having survived that surprise attack only with the help of her lightning fast reflexes, Spider-Girl popped up a second later and shot a sling of webbing in the direction the weapons had been thrown away from...and hit nothing.

"Okay, now you're the one pissing me off!" she remarked with a groan. 

Another ring from her spider-sense made her quickly turn around to see the Nightmare Goblin emerge from the blue smoke with her sword drawn and a crazed expression on her masked face, now charging straight at her with reckless abandon and murder in her eyes.

Dash turned her whole body to the side to avoid a wide swing from the Goblin's blade that would have more than likely cleaved the girl's head clean off if she hadn't been quick enough to avoid it. 

Though before the Goblin could get the opportunity to try again, Spider-Girl proved to be just as quick in retaliating as she was in dodging, and delivered a swift punch to the villain's plastic face, stunning her for a second, then followed that up with a powerful kick to her armoured chest, knocking Nightmare off her feet and making her lose her balance completely and by mere chance managing to trip and fall straight through the large opening in the wall where her glider tore through as it crashed earlier.

The Goblin ended up dropping her lighting sabre on the floor before she fell down there though...where Spider-Girl immediately after dragged it up with a quick pull of a short web-line so that she could take a firm grip on the weapon herself.

With a proud smirk hidden under her mask, Dash followed her opponent through the hole, where she soon had to drop down a level since the room on the other side was a fair bit bigger on a vertical level than the office space they were fighting in previously.

From what she could tell as entered it though, this appeared to be a lab of some kind. 

Machines like computers and consoles littered the room, along with wires, coils, mechanical tools. Basically, everything you'd expect to find in an engineering laboratory. However, if there was one thing that really caught her eye in the brief second she used to scan the room's layout, it was a huge very complex-looking machine sitting in the middle of the room that seemed to be generating bright pulses of electricity through its large glass containers...and in the process being the only source of light in an otherwise darkened room.

Then she noticed the Nightmare Goblin's discarded glider, now engulfed in smoke after it flew right into a rather big computer console of some kind...and after that, she spotted the Goblin herself, now lying down on her back as she was recovering from falling from the height of half-a-floor and landing on her spine.

In order to make sure she couldn't get back up, Dash put her foot down on Nightmare's torso and pushed down on it to keep her pinned, then pointed the tip of the blade at her throat and said, "Yield!" in the same manner a merciful medieval knight would do to his fallen opponent after a heated tournament. 

The Goblin looked up at her apparent conqueror with a wide-eyed slightly surprised expression, her slit pupils fixed on the sharp electrified tip pointing her straight in the face. Surprised as she was, she could only respond to that with a short comment.

"Well played," she said, sounding somewhat impressed by her opponent's quick thinking. 

Feeling confident in herself, Rainbow pressed down her foot a bit harder and bent down to look the Goblin in the eye. "Yeah, well, I guess I am pretty spectacular."

Nightmare smiled and let out a small amused chuckle...then she reached over and grabbed the Spider-Girl by the wrist of the arm holding the blade and pushed the broad side of the weapon into Dash's chest, sending a couple hundred volts flowing through her small teenage body for a second or two. 

While her superhuman durability made her able to take it a lot better than Twilight did, it was still painful enough to make her freeze up and cry out in agony. The Goblin herself was protected by her thick protective body-suit and didn't feel a thing...which also gave her the opportunity to turn the tables around even more. 

And now for probably the most sadistic and devious move she had ever pulled off, even by her standards...the Nightmare Goblin repositioned her legs a bit and then brought her armoured knee straight up and hit Spider-Girl right in the groin.

Ever since Rainbow first decided to go fight crime on this surprisingly eventful night, she had been nearly choked to death by a giant lizard-tail, she'd been tossed around like a rag doll, taken a flashbang grenade to the face, been thrown through a window, punched, kicked and just now electrocuted...but none of that, not one of those things came even close to the intense searing pain she felt right now.

Under her mask, her face had turned red out of pure agonising pain and her mouth was wide opened as she released a silent scream. She even fell over on her shoulder and held both of her hands over her wounded private region as she tried to recover from that nasty hit.

"FUCK! SON OF A-" she cursed, the situation calling for the vulgar language now more than ever. 

Now don't let Hollywood fool you, getting hit in the crotch can be just as painful for a woman as it would be for a man. You just need slightly better aim.

Though with her enemy temporarily distracted by her vicious tactic, the Goblin rolled away and got back up on her feet in no time. She then took a quick look at the Spider-Girl, now rolling around on the floor and moaning in pain while holding her own privates...and used this window of opportunity to go for the kill. 

Moving quickly, she dropped down and pinned the Spider-Girl to the floor under her own weight, placing herself right on top of the smaller girl's chest, using her legs to lock down her opponent's arms while also making sure to keep herself so far ahead that the spider wouldn't be able to pull the same dirty trick she herself just did.

And with her prey stuck in this helpless state, the Goblin looked her straight in the eye and taunted, "Bye, bye, Spider..." with a sadistic sense of finality. She knew the Spider-Girl couldn't get out of this...not on her own.

Rainbow Dash tried to move, she tried to push the crazed lunatic off of her with her stubborn and erratic movements, she tried to summon all the strength she had to overpower her foe...but it was no use. The Goblin's strength-enhancing armour wouldn't relent, and Dash was growing tired...and in her current state of intense pain, she couldn't muster all of her potential strength if she tried.

Realising this, she really could do nothing but look into Nightmare's demonic eyes as the demon herself slowly moved her gloved hands closer and closer to her exposed neck.

Utterly consumed by anger and what could only be described as pure evil, the Nightmare Goblin began to laugh uncontrollably when she took a firm grip on the teenager's throat and started to squeeze...the would-be-hero's desperate gasps for air being music to her ears.

Rainbow wasn't thinking, she wasn't analysing, she didn't know what to do, she didn't even know if there was anything to do. Despite how much she played herself up to be anything else, at the end of the day...she was still only human...and humans were fragile.

'Must...do...something!' her desperate mind pleaded as she felt her wind pipe being crushed under the Goblin's titanium grip.

It was hopeless. She had lost. There was nothing she could do.

She was about to die...for real this time...

...or at least so she thought at the time.

All of a sudden...she felt something on her spider-sense...something that wasn't the Nightmare Goblin, but it was big, it was fast, and it was coming straight towards them.

Just as the Goblin thought she had finally won, and Dash was on the verge of passing out, something reached out and grabbed the villain by the back of her neck. 

It wasn't a human hand...nor anything else that would be easy to explain. It was made of...metal, and the grip from the three finger-like prongs that enclosed over her back and shoulders was so strong that it actually buckled the armour she was wearing...and it then had no difficulties when it physically dragged her off the Spider-Girl and slammed her straight into a wall and held her there.

Rainbow Dash herself was a bit too busy trying to regain her breath to pay much attention to what was going on, but when she had managed to push herself up on her knees...whatever interrupted and restrained the Goblin soon came for her next, and although she sensed the approaching object coming with her spider-sense, there was still nothing she could do to stop a long metallic coil from slithering around her and wrapping tightly around her torso like a boa constrictor...or more accurately, like the grasping tentacles of an octopus catching its prey.

Next thing she knew, she was lifted off the floor and held up in mid-air by whatever it was that had grabbed her, and she found, much to her dismay, that she was just as immobile right now as she was when the Goblin was pinning her down.

'At least I'm not being strangled this time,' she noted to herself though, trying to find the silver lining in this situation.

It was then she saw exactly what it was that had saved (then restrained) her just as the Goblin had been ready to kill her for good...or rather who it was...and the answer surprised her quite a big deal.

It turned out to be a rather unassuming young woman with a short stature who was just a bit more chubby than average, with neatly combed bangs of purple hair with light blue stripes in them...and she was wearing a white lab coat and had a pair of round blackened glasses covering her eyes. Still, none of that was anywhere near as noticeable as the four long robotic grasping tentacle-arms coming out of her back, one of which was keeping the Nightmare Goblin pinned to the wall, another coiled around Rainbow's body and lifting her into the air, a third was anchored to the floor in order to bear the weight of lifting them both, as the pressure on her legs would be too great for her bones to handle otherwise, and the fourth and last of them...was holding onto a cup of coffee that the woman in the middle of it all gently took a sip from. 

"Well...isn't this quite the surprise?" the woman noted in a pleasant tone...that sounded somewhat forced and insincere. "Now I have questions, and number one is this: What are you two doing in my lab!?"
> 5) Face the Nightmare, Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Episode 5
Face the Nightmare, Part 3
A Spider, a Goblin and an Octopus


A duel is test of skill between two opponents, to see which one would reign supreme in a battle...to the death or otherwise. 

...And for the last hour or so, a particularly fierce duel between two near-superhuman women who both hid their faces behind funny-looking masks had taken place at the CelestiaCorp Tower.

At one end of this conflict was the brave new superhero going by the moniker of the Awesome Spider-Girl, a young but tenacious fighter who wouldn't let her lack of experience deter her from doing what she could to keep people safe...while on the other was the dangerous costumed lunatic known to the outside world as the Nightmare Goblin, who, despite her lack of actual superpowers, more than made up for it with her deadly arsenal of Halloween-themed weapons, as well as her devious and clever tactics.

So far, they had shown themselves to be on an almost equal level, with one of them occasionally getting the upper hand over the other, only for that one to take their advantage back through some quick thinking or shear determination...making their fight drag on for quite a while.

In the end though, the Goblin got the upper hand, trapping her opponent under her own weight, and by all accounts was about to win their little feud once and for all.

However, it was at that point that their duel...stopped being a duel.

A third party, one who was mostly unrelated to their conflict, had chosen this moment to step in and take them both out of the fight, and were now holding the two restrained in a way so that neither of them could hurt the other without having to deal with this interloper first.

Said interloper turned out to be yet another woman with superhuman capabilities, this one a scientist though who was wearing a mechanical harness of her own design around her torso that gave her complete control over four long robotic octopus-like tentacles springing from her back with a powerful grasping hand at each end.

One of those arms was currently keeping the Nightmare Goblin pinned to the nearest wall, the villain's attempts to struggle, even with her strength-enhancing suit, barely doing anything to even budge the power of the titanium grip that held her there...while another had coiled up around the Spider-Girl and held her body aloft and all of her limbs restrained...while yet another was anchored heavily into the floor to support the weight of lifting two people simultaneously (otherwise her legs would need to withstand the same pressure as if she was trying to lift them both over her head with just her normal human arms instead, and really, she would need to be a body builder to accomplish that)...and finally, the fourth and final arm was holding onto a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee that the woman gently brought to her lips and took a small sip out of.

"Well...isn't this quite the surprise?" she commented in a pleasant tone...which was definitely forced and insincere. In fact, she was actually quite furious right now. "Now I have questions, and number one is this: What are you two doing in my lab!?" she asked, only allowing her anger to show at the very end of that sentence.

Spider-Girl and the Nightmare Goblin both met her question with surprised stares, as neither of them really had any clue as to where to even begin answering that query...or if they even should bother for that matter.

'Okay, first a lizard guy, then a creepy shapeshifter, then a wacko in a Halloween-costume, and now...a woman with robo-tentacles? Where do all these guys come from?!' Rainbow justifiably wondered.

Out loud though, all she could say at this point was, "It's...a long story, and...who are you supposed to be?"

The scientist responded to that question with an indignant chuckle, "Heheh, you're asking me who I am? I work here, this is my workspace, and I was just stepping out to get myself a cup of coffee when I see two strangers dressed in carnival costumes blow a hole in my wall, destroy one of my computers, and try to strangle each other to death on my floor. If anyone's earned the right to ask questions here, it's me, not...well...whoever you two are supposed to be."

Despite having the front part of her body tightly pressed up against a wall, the Nightmare Goblin managed to turn her head around to look at the eight-limbed interloper in order to comment, "Oh great, it's Doctor Octopus! Couldn't you have just kept your slimy tentacles out of this one?"

The doctor replied to that remark by tightening the grip her extendable metal hand had on the Goblin, sending a jolt of pain throughout the villain's body. "That's Doctor Starlight Glimmer to you!" she corrected, somehow managing to keep a smile on her face while sounding annoyed. "...and I would appreciate it if you'd answer my question instead of throwing meaningless insults in my face. It's really very counterproductive."

"Grrrrgh...well, if you must know...people call me the Nightmare Goblin, and unless you take these infernal things off of me right now so that I can squash this annoying insect of a person...I will show you exactly why they call me that," she replied, the implied threat very apparent in her tone as well as the look in her eye.

Starlight showed no obvious signs of being intimidated, but she did make sure the grip she had on the Goblin was as tight as it could be...without crushing her spine that is. You could never be too careful with nigh-indestructible titanium arms after all.

"...or you can keep her pinned while you let me go," Spider-Girl was quick to suggest in a hopeful tone. "That way I can make sure this crazy psycho is put in jail where she belongs, and you never have to see us again. Sounds good? Oh, and I'm Spider-Girl by the way."

Starlight gave her a curious look. 

Her argument was by most accounts perfectly sound, especially since compared to the far more noticeably unhinged Nightmare Goblin, this Spider-Girl seemed to be a bit less dangerous, so Doctor Glimmer did at least consider it for a second while taking a quick sip of coffee to keep her brain energised. Sleep wasn't really high on her list of priorities at the moment, and this situation was doing nothing to alleviate her dangerously high stress levels. 

"Yeah...no, but nice try," Starlight eventually decided however, making sure the grip she had on the Spider-Girl was just as tight as the one she had on the Goblin. 

"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash loudly complained, grunting a bit at the increased pressure on her restraints. 

"I'm sorry, but I don't trust you anymore than I trust her, so that's definitely off the table. No, I'm keeping you both right here until you properly explain yourselves."

Being as stubborn as she was though, Dash was certainly not taking 'no' for an answer. "Oh yeah, watch me!" she challenged as she started making a massive effort to push against the robotic tentacle that had ensnared her...but ultimately to no avail.

"Gah! The heck are these things?!" she wondered aloud as she realised that not even her superhuman spider-strength was enough to make the mechanical arm budge enough for her to break free of its grip. 

"Hydraulic grasping robotic appendages created by yours truly," Starlight explained matter of factly. "They're made out of solid titanium and are powered by a battery so advanced that explaining how it works would be a colossal waste of time for everybody in this room, so don't even try to overpower them. It won't work. Trust me on this."

An intrigued look briefly showed itself on Starlight's face though as she noticed something interesting about her captive. "Though I do have to admit, the power I have to use to keep you restrained is way more than a person your size should be able to produce. Are you wearing some kind of strength enhancing suit?"

"Nope! Just that buff!" Rainbow replied, not really feeling in the mood to explain the spider-bite that gave her her powers to a complete stranger with the Nightmare Goblin also in the room.

"That's fascinating! I mean...I see..." Starlight mused while taking another sip of coffee, her curiosity piqued, as evidenced by the rather peculiar expression she had on her face for a few seconds afterwards as she considered the possibilities. 'I can't feel any mechanical or hydraulic processes in this... what was her name, Spider-Girl? Yes, this Spider-Girl's suit that could account for the unusually high strength output that she's emitting...meaning her strength must come from somewhere else. She's not even all that muscular by the looks of it, so...wait a minute! If I didn't know better, I'd say I'm dealing with a meta-human of some kind...maybe even one of those that the Maggia created two decades ago? Or at least something similar? Either way, very intriguing.'

Her intrigue over the enigma that was the Spider-Girl very quickly switched to one of suspicion and anger though when she soon after turned her attention back to the Nightmare Goblin. "You on the other hand...you are definitely using a strength enhancing suit, and a very familiar one at that. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say that's one of my designs!"

Despite her rather...uncomfortable position, Nightmare couldn't help but let out a small laugh at that observation. "Hehehaha...I do like to take other people's toys...and you're one of the best toymakers around."

Her ominous statement gave Starlight pause...then she slowly turned her head around to look at the Goblin's crashed glider, recognising it for what it was despite its currently less than impressive state. 

'That's a modified version of the military-grade attack glider that Luna commissioned me to build,' she realised, having been rather concerned about its whereabouts ever since it was reported stolen a few weeks ago.  

After that, she looked down at the floor where the electrical sword the Goblin had brought into battle had been dropped in her struggle with the Spider-Girl. 

'...And that's the non-lethal stun-baton I made...now having been turned into some kind of bladed weapon...also something Luna commissioned me to build.'

In a fit of rage as she realised what all this meant, Doctor Glimmer pushed the villain even further into the wall while suddenly shouting, "You're the one who broke into my lab and stole all my advanced weapon prototypes, aren't you?!"

"Oh no, of course not, that was someone else entirely," the Goblin replied in a very sarcastic tone, her insanity making it easy for her to keep her humour intact while she was currently subjected to immense physical pain. "Let's see, I think their last name was 'shit Sherlock', first name 'no', hehehehahah!" 

Starlight narrowed her eyes at her dangerously, "...And what exactly did you use them for?"

"For THIS!" Nightmare exclaimed while she freed one of her arms from the doctor's grip and aimed a finger gun at her.

Rainbow immediately knew what the Goblin was about to do, but being restrained as she currently was, there was nothing she could do to stop it...while Doctor Glimmer was caught completely by surprise when a bright blue beam of plasma shot out of the tip of the Goblin's finger and hit the back of her neck with immense power.

It was anything but a blind shot though, as the Nightmare Goblin had aimed precisely at a small and hardly noticeable piece of machinery that connected the chest harness directly to Starlight's spinal cord, thus allowing her to effortlessly control the four arms with the power of her mind alone. 

However, that also made it an obvious weak spot, and when the beam of super-heated plasma connected with it, a surge of immense physical and mental pain shot through Starlight's body like a lightning strike.

The experience could only be described as if her entire nervous system had spontaneously combusted, making her scream at the top of her lungs from shear agony while the arms she was controlling started to flail around wildly in all directions. She fell to her knees and helplessly clasped her hands over the wounded area in a desperate attempt to quell the indescribable pain that was raging through her nerves. 

And without any control over her arms, Spider-Girl, the Nightmare Goblin, and even that one cup of coffee she was just drinking from were all tossed away in different directions as the grip she had kept on them were lost to the chaos.

The coffee cup flew into one of the computers, shattered on impact, and splashed steaming hot coffee all over it, making that particular computer sizzle up and crash as the machinery inside began to short-circuit.  

Spider-Girl was sent flying into a wall, though with her quick thinking and even quicker reflexes, she managed to grab onto it and attach herself to the surface immediately after she made impact with it.

The Nightmare Goblin was simply dropped on the floor though, landing on her hands and knees, a noticeable buckle now denting the armour around her shoulder where Glimmer had previously grabbed her. She didn't stay that way for long though, and very quickly got back up on her feet and locked eyes with the Spider-Girl over on the other side of the room.

Rainbow tried to run after her and stop her from doing anything else, but soon found herself stuck in her place as Starlight's metal tentacles were still flying around wildly in the space between her and the Goblin, violently slamming into and knocking aside computers, desks or anything else in their reach.

Nightmare noticed this too of course, and promptly used the situation to her own benefit, smirking deviously as she pulled out a pumpkin bomb, activated it, and tossed the object towards the big plasma-generating machine in the middle of the room.

'Oh no you don't!'

Realising how bad it would be if that bomb exploded anywhere near that crazy-looking contraption despite not being too sure what it actually was, Dash immediately leapt after it, hoping to be fast enough to defuse it or at least knock it out of the way before it went off.

Whether or not she was actually fast enough to do so would likely never be answered, for right as she made that jump, one of Glimmer's arms slammed straight into her shoulder so hard that it sent her flying clear across the room and into a corner, now far away from the imminently exploding pumpkin.

The Nightmare Goblin gave her one last glance, let out a quick chuckle and then bolted out of the lab through the nearest exit. 

What happened next was nothing short of catastrophe.

When the metal pumpkin detonated, the resulting explosion tore through the glass keeping the generated streams of bright blue energy contained inside the powerful Arc Reactor, releasing it all in a single powerful blast of super-heated plasma and electricity...which, while thankfully not having a big enough blast radius to reach the Spider-Girl in the far corner of the room, instead hit Starlight Glimmer head on.

If she was already in immense pain when the Goblin's plasma blast hit the connector at the back of her neck, then this was somehow even worse than that. The plasma burned and bruised her skin all over her body and tore much of her clothing to shreds, bolts of electricity coursed through her metal arms, feeding back directly into the neural link keeping them attached to her, melting the machinery so that it fused directly to her spine while sending harmful streams of electrical energy throughout her entire nervous system.

It was a truly horrific and traumatic experience...one that likely would affect her for the rest of her life...even though it barely lasted for more than five seconds, after which she collapsed on the floor covered in smoke, with numerous burns all over her body, her clothes all but destroyed, her chest harness now permanently fused to her spine...and on top of it all, the whole experience had also rendered her unconscious...which might have been a mercy, all things considered. 

As terrible as all that may seem though...Starlight was still incredibly lucky to have survived all that. If she had stood just a little bit closer to the blast, or if she suffered the electric currents burning through her nerves for a few seconds longer than she did...she would have most likely ended up either burnt to a crisp or completely brain-dead...or both. Either way, fortune clearly smiled on her that day.

Unfortunately, given how much damage the event did to her, both mentally and physically, it was very likely that when, or even if, she wakes up after this...she won't wake up as the same woman she was before it happened to her.

Safe in her own little corner of the ruined lab, Spider-Girl soon enough popped right back up on her feet once the danger had passed, ready to give chase. The Goblin was now attempting to escape and had already gotten a head start, meaning if Rainbow didn't act immediately, her enemy would no doubt escape.

Determined to stop that from happening, she began to run for the door Nightmare had escaped through. 

'Okay, that's it, Gobby! You're going down, or so help me my name isn't...'

However...before she could get very far in her chase, something compelled her to stop in her tracks right as she neared the open doorway. It wasn't something physical, but rather a feeling that made her freeze up and abandon the hunt for the Nightmare Goblin. 

'But wait...what about..?'

She turned around to look at the fried and electrocuted unconscious body of Starlight Glimmer lying face-first onto the cold metal floor of the heavily damaged room. There was even a small electrical fire caused by the explosion just half a metre or so from the woman's head that seemed to be dangerously close to setting her messy and sizzled hair aflame.

'Right...her. She's hurt...pretty bad...and it's kinda my fault. She needs to go to a hospital, but if I call an ambulance it'd take ages before they get to her...and even longer until she actually reached the hospital...and longer still until she's given proper medical care.'

Rainbow bit her lip and began to pace in place. 'But if I waste time taking her to the hospital, that Goblin will escape and continue doing gosh-knows what. Urgghhh...why does being a hero have to be so complicated?!'

With a sigh, Rainbow Dash made up her mind. 

Saving Starlight Glimmer's life was ultimately more important than catching the Nightmare Goblin, she decided. She'd already done quite enough to ruin the villain's evil scheme, and it'd probably take awhile before she tried anything new...and by then, the Spider-Girl would be ready for her. Also, and far more importantly, if she didn't go and help Starlight now, the poor woman could die...and that was something Rainbow couldn't take back.

'With great power, right, mom?'

With a quick spray of webbing, Dash smothered the flame burning next to Glimmer's head, then bent down, pulled the unconscious woman into her arms, and began the long and arduous journey of getting her to the nearest hospital...the doctor's four long and surprisingly heavy metal arms trailing behind her as she went.

Those were definitely going to make the trip way harder than it needed to be. Still, as there was no feasible way to remove them right now, Rainbow just had to live with that. 

'Oh boy. Well, at least you're not as heavy as Spike as a lizard was.' she commented to herself as she left the room with the unconscious woman in her grip.

...If only she knew the consequences of what saving this particular person would eventually lead to.





In the meantime, though at another level of the same building, Sunset Shimmer was feeling rather miserable.

In truth, she never really considered herself to be a particularly happy person. While she most of the time managed to hide it under a cool and collected 'tough girl' facade, after what she just went through tonight, the anger and resentment that she'd kept hidden underneath had very quickly boiled up to the surface. 

And now...she was angry. Angry at everyone: Chrysalis, the Nightmare Goblin, her toxic parents and their constant petty arguments, even Celestia, and especially at the Spider-Girl. Though mostly...she was angry at herself.

Not really knowing what to do with herself right now, she found refuge in the main hall of the Bio-Labs where she took the first office chair she could find and sat down on it, then opted to let her eyes stare off into nothing while her dark thoughts swirled back and forth in her head.

She sat there motionless for well over an hour, doing nothing but thinking about how much she hated everything and everyone, while also feeling very unmotivated to do anything else. Though she could faintly hear the noises of Spider-Girl's fight with the Nightmare Goblin, as well as the sound of Starlight's Glimmer's experiment going up in smoke awhile later, she didn't pay them any mind.

The outside world didn't really matter to her right now.

...at least until a familiar voice called out to her.

"Sunset!? Thank goodness you're alright!" Twilight Sparkle shouted from the other end of the room, having just entered the premises. 

Sunset broke out of her trance ever so slightly to look at her, yet was completely unprepared for Twilight to pull her into a very aggressive and incredibly tight hug as soon as she got within range. Sunset didn't return the hug though, partly because of her bad mood, and partly because her brain hadn't really caught up with what was happening yet.

"When I saw the Goblin drop you, I..." Twilight frantically babbled, sounding very distraught. 

"Don't worry, Twilight, I'm fine," Sunset assured...though she really didn't sound like she meant it. "No thanks to that Spider-Girl though..." she then bitterly added under her breath.

A bit surprised to hear her say that, Twilight cocked her head to the side and questioned, "No thanks to...wait, didn't she save you from the fall?" 

"Yes..." Sunset replied with barely contained disdain in her voice. "...after that glory-hounding jerk decided to put my life in danger in the first place just to show-off!"

"What?!" Twilight gasped, backing off a step while looking surprised. "How can you say that?"

"I saw how that so-called 'superhero' operated," she answered with the appropriate air-quotes. "We were in real danger back there, and she treated the whole thing like a thrill ride: cracking jokes, acting like she was the greatest thing in the world, and not taking anything seriously! She didn't care about my life, she just wanted to look like a hero."

Twilight didn't know how to respond.

While she of course wanted to be on Spider-Girl's side on this, given that Rainbow Dash was one of her best friends, and one she knew with certainty cared more about saving lives than showing off, the truth of the matter was...she had no way to defend her without revealing her friend's identity and betray her trust, and if she owed Rainbow anything for saving Spike and Sunset's lives, as well as her own, then she couldn't do that...not even for Sunset Shimmer.

So instead, she tried to more objectively argue, "Even if that's the case, she did save you, and me, and Spike...so you got to be grateful for that, right?"

Sunset pulled at her hair and groaned. "You don't get it!" she suddenly snapped, standing up and levelling her eyes at Twilight. "I've seen that attitude before! Sure, she may seem nice and heroic now, but trust me, it's all an act! I know, because that was me!"

"What do you mean 'you'? You never act-"

"You never saw me when I was at my worst!" she interrupted, her voice full of self-loathing. "I was a grade-A bully before I met you; shoving kids into lockers, stealing their lunch money, laughing at every perceived superficial flaw they had, blackmailed, cheated, all of the above! And I did it all while pretending to either be this cool laid-back biker chick for the other 'cool' kids or the sweetest, most studious student ever for the teachers. But it was all a lie. I was never cool, I was never sweet, and I was definitely not half as studious as I pretended to be. Mainly just bullying smarter kids to do my homework for me. The truth is, back then I was nothing more than a pathetic little girl taking out her mommy and daddy issues out on everyone else just to make myself feel better. Every word I said, every single thing I did...it always ended up hurting someone else...almost like I was just spewing venom out my mouth whenever I talked to people."

Twilight could practically feel the rage boiling off of Sunset Shimmer as she spoke. It was a side she'd never seen from her friend before, and it made her uncomfortable. Either way, she still felt a degree of sympathy for what Sunset had gone through and how terrible she obviously felt about it, so Twilight decided to approach her and gently lay a hand on her shoulder.

"Sunset...it's okay. You're not that person anymore."

Sunset replied to that statement with a short humourless laugh. "Heheh...no...I guess I'm not," she agreed, taking a few steps away from Twilight. 

Then she turned back to give her friend one last look and reveal, "...But I did see her today. I saw her in that Spider-Girl. I saw the same cocky arrogance, the same smug little tone in her voice, the same...falseness, the same...venom...and that is a reminder I did not want to have." 

Then, without another word spoken, and without even so much as another glance in Twilight's direction, Sunset simply left, heading straight for the elevator while keeping a calm yet angry expression on her face.

Twilight let out a sigh and looked down at the floor dejectedly, but decided against trying to argue anymore with her. 'Better to let her cool off first, right?' she thought.

However...what neither of them noticed was that when Sunset Shimmer passed by the large spherical glass cage in the middle of the room, the mysterious black goo-like alien creature inside of it sensed the troubling emotions the girl was dealing with and reached out to touch her...only to be stopped by the glass before it could do so.





While this was going on, the Nightmare Goblin was running as fast as she could towards the nearest exit, not willing to take any chances on whether or not her distraction would keep the Spider-Girl occupied forever.

Additionally, her drawn-out fight with that hero around the building would have no doubt caught someone's attention by now given how many explosions went off during it, so it was only really a matter of time before the police show up to investigate the situation...assuming Celestia hadn't already called them here herself.

What's more, with her glider now being little more than a smoking pile of rubble, her original plan to just fly away if the situation got out of hand was no longer an option, so she'd have to make her escape on foot...from the 78th floor of one of the tallest buildings in the city, which...might be somewhat of an issue.    

While she could of course have used this opportunity to try to kill the Spider-Girl or continue their fight, even someone like her knew when to throw in the towel and run to fight another day. 

She may have been crazy, but she wasn't stupid.

However, as she desperately ran through the various labs and corridors of the company she and her sister had started, something began to happen to her that gradually slowed down her pace. 

It wasn't exhaustion. With as much adrenaline as her body was currently pumping, she could probably run a whole marathon before slowing down...but even still, it was nevertheless becoming harder and harder to keep up her pace and make her escape.

The problem was more psychological than physical. While her body was working fine, something was affecting her brain so much that it was becoming harder and harder for her to stay focused on the task at hand.

Thoughts, feelings and memories were beginning to swirl around in her head like a twister, given her a nauseating feeling of vertigo like nothing she'd ever felt before. The feeling was roughly comparable to having your brain crinkled down and rearranged, your personality torn away from your mind, while someone else brutally forced their will inside your head.  

Eventually, it proved too much for her, and she fell to her knees while clenching her gloved hands on her helmeted skull.

"No, no, no, no, not now!" she cursed, her voice conveying as much anger as it conveyed fear.

In truth, there was a very fine line where the Goblin ended and Luna began. And sometimes, no matter how much both sides hated each other and constantly battled for control over their shared body, either one of them could easily switch to the other and back again with little to no warning.

Unfortunately for the Nightmare Goblin, that switch just so happened to come now with a vengeance right at this very inopportune moment, making her scream to the room in defiance at her other half for inconveniencing her like this.

"No, no! Don't you dare! Don't you fucking dare, Luna!" she shouted, all while clawing at her mask in a desperate attempt to rip it off her face. "Leave me alone! I don't need you! I don't want you! This is my body, not yours! No! No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Then finally, with one decisive pull, the mask was ripped off, and the dreaded Nightmare Goblin was once again banished to furthest recesses of her shattered mind...leaving only the comparatively more innocent Luna behind. 

Though as far as awakenings go...this was certainly not the most pleasant. 

Without her freaky mask hiding her appearance anymore, the amount of bruising and hardship she'd endured was quite noticeable, with her blue and purple hair having been reduced to a chaotic and unruly mess covered in sweat and blood, a big very visible black eye marred her normally rather fair and pristine skin after the Spider-Girl had kicked her there earlier...and she had a bleeding nose.   

The expression on her face was one of horror and guilt, and she couldn't really bring herself to do anything else than just sitting there on her knees in the middle of the corridor with a vacant lifeless stare gazing into the cold hard floor. 

It was all over.

She had managed to regain control of her own flesh and blood...but she was far too late. 

Under the Nightmare's control, she had not only hurt a lot of people, innocent people who did nothing to deserve her personal scorn, but she had also exposed herself as a murderous psychopath, a monster, to the world. Forever and ever now, everyone would know her as nothing more than an insane lunatic, one who betrayed her own sister for some mad scheme for power, not as the compassionate woman who cared for those in need and went above and beyond to keep corruption out of the company she built.

There was no point in running. 

She would not escape, and quite frankly...she really didn't want to. 

The Nightmare Goblin may be gone for now, but she would return sooner or later, and when that happens, she'd stain Luna's hands with more blood than what was already on them...and that...was a risk she was not willing to take.

She could hear the angry desperate words of the Goblin whisper in her ears, begging her to let her back in...but Luna wouldn't let her. Nothing was worth letting that demon control her again.

Tears started to well up in her eyes as the haunted memories of what the Nightmare had done with her body began to flood her mind. Every single person she'd killed, every threat she'd made, and all the misery that she'd brought to numerous people. It was all just too much for her to handle.

...and it only got worse when a very familiar voice sternly called out, "Luna!"

At the mention of her name, Luna's blood instantly ran cold, her heart nearly stopped beating, and all of her muscles seized up in fright as she was helpless to do anything but slowly turn her head around to look the person who addressed her by name, no matter how much she'd rather do anything else.

Of course, the voice belonged to none other than her big sister Celestia, now standing at the other end of the room with a harsh scowl in her disappointed eyes while her arms were crossed  and unwelcoming. 

"Tia?" Luna croaked out, sounding on the verge of breaking into sobs at any moment. 

Celestia stared back at her defiantly, not willing to let her love for her sister lessen the severity of this situation. If, at any other time or circumstance, she would have seen Luna in such a sorry state, she would have undoubtedly already run up to her and given her little sister the tightest warmest hug she could manage...but right now, Luna had gone way too far, and Celestia was not ready to forgive her for her crimes quite so easily.

After taking a deep breath to defuse the anger and disappointment that was smouldering inside her, Celestia said, "I was hoping it wouldn't be you under that mask."

"Sister, I-" Luna was about to say, but didn't get a word in before her sibling cut her off with a single raised finger.

"When I heard your voice, I knew I recognised it from somewhere, and when you called me Tia, like we used to do all the time, I was afraid, terrified, of what it would mean...but to see the face of my beloved sister in the clothes of a criminal who killed innocent people, threatened and hurt my students, while also using the very technology we developed to help people in a selfish and immoral quest for power...there are no words for how disappointed I am in you, Luna."

Those words cut into Luna like a knife to the heart, and for every step Celestia took to approach her after saying them, she could feel any ounce of happiness in her life fade away into oblivion. 

"Now what do you have to say for yourself?" 

At this point, Luna couldn't hold it in anymore. With tears now bursting from her eyes, she fell to the floor and broke down into an incoherent crying mess, not daring to even look her sister in the eye anymore. "I'm sorry, sister! I'm so, so sorry..." she blubbered out between sobs. "I didn't want to hurt them...I really didn't...but she's too strong. I tried to stop her, believe me, I tried so hard to stop her...but I couldn't. Please, Tia...please don't let that demon take me again! Please! I don't want to be a monster!"

Celestia slowly got down on her knees, taking in the bawling pitiful mess that Luna had turned into, and felt a rollercoaster of conflicting feelings of how to proceed in this impossibly complicated situation she had now been forced into. While she should naturally be weary of the words of a confirmed murderer...at the same time, she could tell that Luna wasn't faking the emotions that she was displaying. She had seen crocodile tears before, many times in fact, and this...this was genuine.

Despite her better judgement, Celestia couldn't help but reach her hand out to try and comfort Luna by stroking her hair or some other kind gesture, but stopped herself from doing so at the last second. Instead, she leaned back and asked, "Who's this 'she' you're referring to?"

Luna hesitated, then she slowly turned around and looked up into her sister's harsh eyes with her face filled with shame. "It...all started...twenty years ago..." she began, trying her best to keep her composure this time instead of breaking down into unintelligible sobs once again.

Despite how angry and disappointed she was right now, and justifiably so, Celestia remained silent in order to give her sister her full attention. 

"You remember that day he had me kidnapped?" Luna asked, shuddering at the mere mention of that event, as well as the confessions that were about to follow.

Celestia nodded, remembering many sleepless nights as she almost turned the city upside down tirelessly looking for her missing sister.

"Well...there was a lot more that happened that week than I've told you..."
> My Dear Readers...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Look, I know you guys have been waiting forever for another chapter of this story to come out, and yeah, it stopped at a really stupid place. I mean, I only had about two chapters left until this story was finished, so why not just finish them?

Well...I explain part of the reason in this blog post, and that was what caused the hiatus in the first place, but there's more to it than just that.

You see, during my absence, I've come to reevaluate the whole story, and what was going to come out of it, and honestly...it felt like I was on a sinking ship. The story never really did all that well even on the best of days, and I think a lot of that had to do with how inexperienced and out of my depth I was when I started it.

I got stuck on the origin story for waaaaaaay too long, which made even me bored of having to write it to get to the good stuff, but then when I actually got to it, there were so many choices I made earlier in the story that I really started to regret. 

Probably the biggest one was the Nightmare Goblin. I swear, this character was a mess for me to handle. I introduced her way too early, and was thus forced to include her in an extremely convoluted plot which needed to involve Celestia, Twilight, Sunset, Spike/Lizard, Dr Silk Mane/Chrysalis (who actually originally was supposed to be the Mane-iac, not Chrysalis), and even Starlight/Doc Ock. I was stuck on the next chapter for so long, even before the whole downvote fiasco, because I couldn't resolve the whole mess in a way that made any kind of sense and trying to think of a solution just gave me several consecutive headaches. 

...and then there was the fact that the show ended, and I just so happen to move on to other fandoms. While I still love Spider-Man and My Little Pony...and even enjoy the new generation quite a bit, I want to move on to something else, something different. 

I am on my way to making a grand comeback to actually writing and posting stuff, but unfortunately for my fellow bronies and pegasisters, it won't be based on My Little Pony anymore...and as such, won't be posted here on Fimfiction. Instead, I'm planning on going back to the fandom I first started to write fanfiction for: The Legend of Zelda.

For anyone who really wanted to see more Spider-Dash, or even more pony fanfics from me, then I am deeply sorry...but for any Zelda fans, or just people who happen to enjoy my writing, you may feel free to check out my new story here...or here.