In the midst of a dark and technological room, a giant towering computer screen on the wall lit the room with its harsh pale blue light. A stallion, his features hidden in the shadows, waited for something to come through on the computer.
The message came through and the computer screen showed a grass green mare in a brown suit, her pitch black mane tied up in a tight bun, sitting in a sleek modern office with a view of Trottingham in the background. This mare was what you would call prim and proper with her polite yet serious expression, and her front hooves folded nicely before her on the long desk she was working at.
“Greetings Agent Double A,” the green mare said in a posh Trottingham accent.
“Aw, c’mon, Chief,” said the stallion in a rough but rugged southern accent. Smirking, he continued the teasing with, “I thought we agreed on Agent Double Ace from now on.”
The mare rolled her eyes before groaning, “And I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to call me Chief anymore, Double A.”
The stallion chuckled. “Ha, ha, you’re right, Chief. We did, and I apologize for not remembering.”
The mare let out a small frustrated sigh before calmly reporting to the stallion, “Yes, well, enough of your apologies and pleasantries. You have work to do, Agent, and this one is from the ponies upstairs.”
“How far up are we talkin’ here, Chief?”
“Up near the very hooves of Celestia herself, Double A.”
The stallion let out an impressed whistle. “Woah, that high, huh? Well, I better polish up my cowboy boots then.”
“This is serious, Double A. On the Princess’s personal request, she wants one of ours to go and investigate Maretropolis.”
“Personal request, huh? Well, that’s certainly a new color on Celestia.”
“Well, she has every right to be suspicious, Double A. Super magical powered vigilantes running around, and villains attacking the city and its civilians on a daily basis. It’s a miracle that the city still stands.”
Then the computer screen switched over from the live video chat with the Trottingham mare to a grid picture layout of Maretropolis.
“Go to Maretropolis—” said the mare before the screen switched over to a full portrait of the Power Ponies and their sidekick Humdrum. “—and seek out the main vigilantes behind this new activity: The Power Ponies.”
The stallion’s brown eyes widened at the sight of the picture, his gaze particularly focused on Mistress Mare-velous. “Will do, Chief,” he almost awed breathlessly and happily.
“Find out everything about these ponies. Who are they? Where are they from? Where is their lair? And more importantly, how did they get their strange magical abilities. Especially this one.”
The green mare took the picture of the Power Ponies off the screen, much to the stallion’s disappointment, and brought up a picture of the Masked Matterhorn. “The Masked Matterhorn, the leader of the Power Ponies and the supposed possessor of these alicorn-like powers. Our sources need to know if she truly is an artificial alicorn or not. And more importantly, whether she should be considered a threat.”
“Aw, can’t I just investigate the cute blondie in the mask instead?” the stallion jested with a grin.
“Focus Double A,” his superior scolded with an unamused scowl.
“Right, right,” the stallion agreed, trying to calm the mare on the screen. “You got it, Chief. Pay close attention to the Masked Matterhorn. I’m on it.”
“Take this seriously, Double A. This is a mission specifically from the Princess herself. Our very careers are on the line.”
“Aw, c’mon, Chief. Have I ever let you down before?”
“No, but I’m afraid of how you’re going to carry out this mission.”
Meanwhile, at the Maretropolis Memorial Sports Stadium, a great disturbance had interrupted the Equestrian-Wide Rodeo Tour. Somepony, or rather some creature, was chasing the animals out of their cages and stalls like they were prey. The creature was fast, furious, and fierce. So fast, in fact, that it looked like a teleporting blur from the rows in the stadium. The ponies were screaming, galloping out of their stands, and hurrying to the nearest exits they could find.
In the dusty cloud of this chaos settling on the rodeo arena were the Power Ponies.
While examining the whole situation from above, and carrying Humdrum on her back, the Masked Matterhorn told them, “Alright team, first things first: rounding up the civilians to safety. Radiance, do you think you can create more openings and portals in the walls for everypony to escape through?”
“Sure thing, darling!” Radiance agreed before promptly leaving the group on a floating glowing purple metal surf board summoned with the power of her bracelets.
“Zapp! Saddle Rager!” the Masked Matterhorn shouted, “Round up the animals and return them to their owners.”
“Aww, no fair, Matterhorn!” Zapp complained, flying in the air near the Power Ponies’ leader and above Saddle Rager’s head. “Fili-Second got to chase down the bad guy last time! I wanna do it! I can do it! I’m just as fast as she is.”
The Masked Matterhorn arched her right eyebrow. “Really? You sure about that? You can go faster than the speed of light like she can?”
“I can fly at the speed of sound!” Zapp retorted proudly.
“Um, Zapp,” Humdrum added hesitantly. “I don’t think that’s how the speed of sound works.”
“What?! Says who?” Zapp replied angrily.
“Says science, Zappie!” Fili-Second chirped while holding a science textbook in her hooves. “According to this neato book, the speed of sound is 340.29 miles per second, while the speed of light is... Oh wow, 299,792,458 miles per second! Golly, I didn’t know I went THAT fast!”
The Masked Matterhorn gave Zapp an all-knowing but friendly smirk. “Well, there you go, Zappie. That’s settled then.”
“But I...” Zapp tried to protest, then let out a defeated sigh and accepted her fate. “Fine, whatever.”
Saddle Rager flew up to Zapp’s side and patted her shoulder. “There, there, Dashi—I mean Zappie. Maybe after we save all the animals, the rodeo ponies will allow us to play with the baby calves. Oh, you should see them. They’re so cute!”
Zapp flew sluggishly after Saddle Rager and let out a bored, “Yippee.”
After they had left, the Masked Matterhorn, Mistress Mare-velous, and Fili-Second faced their opponent head on with determination in their eyes.
Meanwhile, in the top left corner of the stadium’s stands, there was a small pink piglet trying to escape from the creature that had been chasing after it all afternoon. The scrambling piglet kept digging into the corner desperately, squealing at the top of its lungs. The predatory villain finally found the piglet and shadowed it.
“Why, don’t be scared of me, little piggie,” said the mysterious creature in a surprisingly sugar-sweet feminine voice. “I won’t hurt you.”
Suddenly her sugary tone changed to a much grumpier, more frustrated one. “Not unless you try to cross me.”
The mysterious creature was truly something you had to see to believe. She had the body, front hooves, and face of a pony; but her hind legs, her ears, tail, fur, and features were that of a cheetah’s. She had a shaggy pale buttercream coat, with dark pink and mint green spots covering the coat all over. She had sharp little cat-like fangs in her sinister mouth, narrow light purple-pink eyes with mint green eyeshadow on her eyelids, and a pink and green pony mane styled in a ponytail with bangs. Her cutie mark was that of a small pink and green striped heart being rounded up by an open and swinging rodeo lasso.
The cheetah-like pony positioned herself in a prowling position, ready to pounce on the defenseless piglet with devilish glee.
But the sound of Mistress Mare-velous’s voice stopped her. “Hold it right there, Sour Sweet!”
The piglet escaped when Sour Sweet turned to face Mistress Mare-velous. Her psychotic grin grew when she saw the masked blonde hero. “Ah, would you look at this?! It’s my good friend Mistress Mare-velous!”
Then she grumbled under her breath, “I already told you that my name isn’t Sour Sweet anymore! I’m the Spotted Cheetah now!”
“You know this pony?!” asked a bewildered and confused Masked Matterhorn. “Or cheetah?”
“She sure does,” said the Spotted Cheetah in a prideful and all-knowing tone, as she crawled with cat-like elegance down the steps. “It all started when—”
“Shoots and barrels, Sour Sweet!” Mistress Mare-velous interrupted. “We don’t got time to go into your backstory!”
“How dare you interrupt my backstory monologue, you egotistical limelight hog!” yelled a very insulted Spotted Cheetah, quickly positioning herself to pounce upon the southern-accented hero. “But then again, I should have known that you wanted the attention ALL for yourself, as always!”
Before our heroes knew it, the Spotted Cheetah was high in the air with fangs and claws out towards Mistress Mare-velous. As the cheetah-pony was about to land on her target, Fili-Second shot forward and head-butted the Spotted Cheetah in the stomach. This knocked the hybrid creature all the way across the arena, causing some of the wall to crack and crumble upon her impact.
“Phew! Thanks, Fili,” said Mistress Mare-velous with a small smile.
“No problem, Missy.”
“Uh, guys?” Humdrum said in a nervous tone, pointing his claw towards the other side of the arena. “I don’t think it’s over yet.”
The four heroes turned their attention back to the Spotted Cheetah as she pushed herself back onto her feet. As their gazes met her angry stare, they knew they had to act quickly.
When the Spotted Cheetah sprinted towards them, the Masked Matterhorn activated an ice beam with her horn and froze the dusty ground of the arena. This made the Spotted Cheetah swerve and slide all over, but she was still determined to attack the Power Ponies. Mistress Mare-velous threw her golden hoof cufflets at the Spotted Cheetah, but this just left scratch marks on her foe’s hooves and nothing more.
“Mistress?!” the Masked Matterhorn cried out, “why aren’t you using your lasso?! Now’s the time to use it!”
“My lasso doesn’t work on her!”
“What do you mean it doesn’t work on her?!”
“Again, it’s a long story and I’ll explain later!”
Mistress Mare-velous turned and began to half-slide, half-gallop away when she saw the Spotted Cheetah’s claws digging into the surface of the iced arena. Then the feline pony hybrid was racing after her. The Masked Matterhorn took to the sky and went in the same direction as the Mistress. She tried slowing down the Spotted Cheetah with more ice beams; but with each shot, the Spotted Cheetah dodged and flipped around like an alley cat.
Then the Spotted Cheetah sprang into the air, aiming towards Mistress down below, when Mistress came to a sudden halt. Keeping her back towards her arch-nemesis, she used her ears to listen for the Spotted Cheetah’s approaching growls, then bucked her hind legs into the air, hitting her opponent straight in the face.
This sent the feline pony flying across the arena to land face first on the ice. While the Spotted Cheetah was down for the count, Fili-Second began to gallop around the arena and create her signature pink-and-white striped speed tornado.
Meanwhile, a light brown stallion with a short scruffy black mane, and a long black tail was holding onto the back of the stadium’s stands for dear life. He had a short scruffy black beard around his mouth and wore a black tailored suit, with polished black cowboy boots on his back hooves.
“Ah, ugh!” the stallion grunted, barely clinging onto the pole that held the stands together. “So much for ... being ... conspicuous!”
Suddenly his left hoof lost its grip on the pole, leaving only his right one to hold on. The wind of the tornado was so strong, his body felt like it was already swirling around and around in it, but still, he kept fighting to hold on. Hold on until ... his right hoof slipped off!
“AHHH!” the stallion yelled as the tornado dragged him in mercilessly.
Meanwhile, Mistress Mare-velous and the Masked Matterhorn were clinging to the top of the arena’s walls and rails, trying to push their bodies away from the sheer force of Fili-Second’s tornado.
“FILI!” Masked Matterhorn shouted at the top of her lungs. “STOP! YOU CAN STOP! PLEASE, STOP!”
“WHAT?!” Fili-Second yelled, her voice vibrating within the twirling walls and air of her tornado. Even some of her voice was drowned out by the loud growls and roars of the Spotted Cheetah, who was still caught in the vortex with her.
Mistress’s ears suddenly perked when she heard a scream that wasn’t the Spotted Cheetah’s. It sounded male, and he was in trouble. As she turned her face towards the eye of the storm, her eyes widened when she saw a stallion civilian caught in this destructive gust of wind. Using all the strength in her right hoof, she reached down for her lasso.
With her left hoof squeezed fiercely on top of the wall, she created a loop in her lasso with her right hoof and swung it into the tornado. The loop closed too early and made the masked earth pony curse under her breath, “Grgh!”
With her right hoof and her teeth, she pulled the lasso back in and opened another loop once more. She held the lasso loop above her head and waited for the civilian stallion to whirl by before she threw it a second time. “C’mon Bessie,” she whispered to herself. “You can do it. I know you can. Just nice and...”
Eyes locked on the stallion caught in the storm, she quickly threw her lasso. The lasso glowed brightly in the eye of the storm, and snagged the stallion around his waist.
“Ha ha!” Mistress Mare-velous cheered triumphantly. “Way to go Bessie! That’s my girl!” She hauled on the lasso and brought the barely conscious stallion towards her. Once he was just a few inches away from her, she grabbed him around the waist and brought him to her chest. She looped the lasso around herself as well as the stallion before tying its free end to one of the chairs near the top of the wall. No sooner had she secured the knot then her left hoof lost its grip on the arena wall. She and the stallion were buffeted about wildly but the rope kept them tethered to the wall.
Unfortunately the same could not be said for the Masked Matterhorn and Humdrum, as the alicorn lost her grip on the arena wall and succumbed to the twisting wind. Humdrum hung onto her, digging his claws into her neck as they both screamed and shouted in shock and terror.
“PLEASE FILI! STOP!” the Masked Matterhorn begged.
“WHAT?!” Fili responded back just as loudly, her voice still vibrating in her rapid tornado. “MATTERHORN! HUMDRUM! MISSY! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! BUT I’M STILL TRYING TO SLOW DOWN! HOLD ON!”
And true to her word, the tornado eventually slowed down to a puff of strong wind. And that puff of strong wind briefly kept all the ponies suspended in midair before gravity took them harshly back to the ground. Luckily, thanks to the speed of Fili-Second’s running and the speed of the tornado, the ice in the arena had melted and broken apart. Yes, everypony was now on the ground except for the Spotted Cheetah. She had been at the top of the tornado, and when it ended, she had grabbed the nearest pillar and used it to climb to the top of the stadium. When the pony hybrid regained her sight and bearings, she caught a glimpse of the unconscious Power Ponies on the ground. This made her grin evilly, showing her little fangs with delicious, ferocious glee. She started swinging and climbing towards the ponies down below with malicious blood thirst in her eyes.
Back on the ground, Fili-Second, the Masked Matterhorn, and Humdrum were getting back up slowly and recovering from their sore bodies.
“Uhh ... Pinkie?” the Masked Matterhorn moaned quietly to her comrade. “Let’s agree, for the future, to never do that again.”
“Ditto Twilight,” Fili-Second moaned back softly. “Ditto. Sorry about that, I just wanted to try out my Fili Swirly Twirly.”
“Fili Swirly Twirly? Seriously?” Humdrum groaned, lifting his head away from the alicorn’s mane.
“Uh, you’re right Spike,” Fili-Second replied, placing her hoof to her aching forehead. “Maybe it should be called Fili’s Dizzy Whirly Twirly instead.”
Meanwhile the light brown stallion in the black suit was pushing himself onto all fours. When he and his rescuer had hit the ground, the lasso holding them together had loosened, and now he stood over Mistress Mare-velous. The stallion groaned a little, and placed his left hoof on his throbbing forehead. However, his pain eased slightly when his eyes gazed upon the mare underneath him. His expression softened, and he gave her a small but sweet smirk as she groaned in pain and regained her sight.
When she was able to open her eyes, the stallion standing above her said smoothly, and almost awestruck, “Boy, I thought you were pretty before. But up close you look downright angelic.”
Mistress Mare-velous’s eyes widened for a moment, letting her mind process their situation and what this stallion said to her. But she shook this off, and replied in a confused yet frustrated tone, “I beg your pardon, civilian?”
“Civilian, huh?” he remarked, still as smooth as ever. “Boy, no pony has called me that in a long time.”
“Move.”
“Oh c’mon Angel, don’t be like that. You haven’t even given me a chance yet.”
“No, I mean MOVE.”
Then Mistress Mare-velous grabbed the back of the stallion’s suit jacket and rolled to the side, taking him with her, as the Spotted Cheetah landed right where they had been seconds before.
They came to a stop with Mistress Mare-velous now looking down on the stallion and on top of their particular situation.
The stallion blinked a couple of times over at the Spotted Cheetah. “Oh right, she’s still here. But ... on the bright side...” Suddenly his tone changed to a more positive, but Casanova-like attitude as his gaze returned to Mistress’s wide green-eyed stare. “The view is much better from down here.”
“Let me guess, you’re going to give me nothing but trouble, huh?”
“Afraid so, Angel,” the stallion said with a cheeky wink.
Their conversation was interrupted by the rumble of the Spotted Cheetah’s growl, and they turned their attention back to her, as she slowly started to crawl towards them like a cat about to chase down a small mouse.
Mistress Mare-velous and the stallion quickly got back to their feet with Mistress naturally standing in front of the citizen to protect him.
“Stay behind me,” she ordered him, keeping her narrow gaze on the grinning feline-pony hybrid.
“Heh, heh, no argument there,” the stallion nervously chuckled, just realizing how terrifying this Spotted Cheetah looked up close.
When the Spotted Cheetah sprang into the air to strike Mistress Mare-velous, Mistress swiftly pulled out her gas pellets and threw them in Cheetah’s face. While Cheetah was blinded, Mistress leapt toward her and pinned her down. The two mares began to wrestle each other on the dusty ground like two jaguars battling for dominance.
The stallion let out a soft but impressed whistle and enjoyed the view.
“We have to help her!” gasped the Masked Matterhorn, urging her two fellow teammates into action.
Meanwhile in the intense brawl between Mistress and Cheetah, Cheetah growled in triumph, “Give it up, Mistress! You know you can’t take me one on one!”
“Yeah, well,” Mistress grunted. “I’d like to see you take me down without any dirty shots first!”
This angered the Spotted Cheetah and she slashed at Mistress’s hind legs with her clawed back feet. Mistress Mare-velous shouted in pain and tried to fight through it. Then the mysterious stallion suddenly whirled around and kicked the Spotted Cheetah in the face, sending her flying off of Mistress Mare-velous. Once the Spotted Cheetah was by herself, the Masked Matterhorn encased her paws in huge chunks of ice, Fili-Second grabbed her by the tail and wrapped it around her frozen feet, and Humdrum used his long cape to muzzle her.
However, this imprisonment didn’t last long. First Spotted Cheetah broke through the cape around her muzzle. Then her tail naturally unraveled and whipped back into the air. After that, she reared high into the air and smashed the ice chunks on her front hooves into pieces. The smashing of the ice chunks on her feet came after.
With new found life and energy in her legs, she charged towards Mistress Mare-velous at full speed, looking like a fuzzy bullet shooting through the air. But just before she reached Mistress, the stallion put his foreleg out in front of her at chest height, and clotheslined her with a force similar to what the Saddle Rager can do in her true form.
All the Power Ponies’ jaws dropped when they saw this, especially Mistress’s.
The Spotted Cheetah tumbled backward, and before she could recover, the stallion raced forward and trapped her head and forelimbs in a headlock. Naturally she snarled, struggled in his grip, and tried to claw at him with her back legs, but it was no use. He had managed to get himself positioned just out of reach of her claws and the might of his forelegs seemed to be too much for her. But judging by the sweat dripping from his forehead, he wouldn’t be able to hold her for too much longer.
He turned his head slightly to Mistress Mare-velous and grunted with a smile, “Not to complain, but could you lend me a hoof with this tabby?”
“Huh?” said Mistress, getting out of her awed daze. “Oh, right. Matterhorn! Could you create a long iron chain?”
Mistress’s question took Matterhorn out of her shocked daze as well. Apparently, even she, the Masked Matterhorn, was surprised by this stallion’s strength. “Oh, sure thing.”
Matterhorn used her magic to summon the long chain. Mistress created a loop in it, and swung it over her head like a lasso. The chain loop went over the Spotted Cheetah’s hind legs. Once the mysterious stallion released Cheetah, Mistress galloped around her, wrapped up her front legs, and tied them to the Spotted Cheetah’s back legs.
No matter how much she roared, screamed, and thrashed about, the Spotted Cheetah couldn’t get out of her chained imprisonment.
“Wohoo!” Fili-Second cheered with a skip in her step. “We did it! Thanks mysterious stranger for helping us!”
“I know, seriously! That was amazing!” Humdrum exclaimed with stars in his eyes as he went up to the light brown stallion in the suit. “I mean, how did you even do that?!”
“Yeah,” Mistress Mare-velous remarked with suspicion in her voice, “how did you do that?”
“Well, little lady,” the stallion replied with a charming smile. “let’s just say I picked up on a couple of wrestling moves when I was in the ring with a good friend of mine.”
“Really?! You were a wrestler?!” Humdrum sounded even more excited than before. “Oh, that’s so cool! You think you could teach me a couple of moves?”
“Humdrum,” Mistress Mare-velous scolded.
“It’s all right, Angel,” the stallion replied happily. “I don’t mind.”
He lowered himself down to Humdrum’s level. “I’d be happy to teach ya some of what I know, little dragon.” He punctuated this statement by adding a little wink at the end.
Humdrum smiled as the stallion rose back up to his original height. Just then, Police Chief Spitfire, Zapp, Saddle Rager, and Radiance came in with a crowd of reporters and photographers overly eager to get the inside scoop for their stories. They overwhelmed the Power Ponies in the arena with flashes of light and thousands of questions all happening at once.
“Take that, um, whatever she’s supposed to be, away!” commanded Spitfire, pointing her officers toward the Spotted Cheetah. The officers dragged her outside and loaded her up in the back of an armored police truck to take her off to Balkham Asylum.
Spitfire turned to the Masked Matterhorn and the Power Ponies in the center of the arena. “Nice work, Power Ponies, for defeating that ... well ... whatever in Tartarus she’s supposed to be.”
“Her name is Sour Sweet,” Mistress Mare-velous explained to Spitfire. “But, due to her appearance ... she calls herself the Spotted Cheetah.”
“And you know this Spotted Cheetah?” Spitfire asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at Mistress.
“Sure do,” Mistress replied calmly but with a hint of guilt and sadness in her voice. “For quite some time now. Ever since my whole super hero career began.”
“And is she ... the real deal?”
“Trust me, Chief Spitfire, there’s no costume in Equestria that can scratch and tear a pony up like hers can.”
“Well then, in that case, it’s a good think that we’re taking her to Balkham. That place is practically bulletproof and claw-proof, inside and out. But I take it we have you to specifically thank for the capture of Spotted Cheetah.”
“Actually,” Matterhorn admitted, “it was the brave acts of this civilian standing right beside us.”
“What civilian?” Spitfire asked, cocking her head to the side.
Mistress and Matterhorn, along with Humdrum and Fili-Second, looked to their sides and found no trace of the mysterious stranger that took down the Spotted Cheetah.
“He’s gone!” Humdrum exclaimed.
“Wowie! That guy is just as fast as I am!” Fili-Second cheered.
“But ... but he was here! Just a second ago!” Matterhorn proclaimed in her confusion.
“Well, whoever this pony was,” Spitfire remarked casually, “if he was willing to give his life to save the Power Ponies, then he has all my respect. That’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, the Power Ponies were traveling back to their headquarters over the tops of the Maretropolis buildings. Naturally, the Masked Matterhorn, Zapp, and the Saddle Rager used their wings to fly high into the city skyline, with Matterhorn still carrying Humdrum on her back. Radiance used her bracelets to summon a glowing purple carpet to help her fly over, Fili-Second used her speed to jump and run across, and Mistress Mare-velous was using her strong legs to gallop from building to building.
Humdrum was just telling Radiance, Zapp, and Saddle Rager of all that they had missed during the fight. Especially of the mysterious and tailored stallion. “And then the guy just whammed his foreleg into the Spotted Cheetah’s chest and took her down like she was nothing! Then he put her in a headlock! Just like the wrestlers on TV! And he didn’t even break a sweat while doing it!”
Mistress rolled her eyes and panted out, “Yeah, well, he couldn’t have held her for much longer. He needed US to chain her up, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Humdrum quickly shrugged this off. “But still! Apparently he used to be a wrestler. Can you believe it?!”
“Aww, Spikey Wikey,” Radiance cooed. “You found yourself a new male role model. Oh, I’m so happy for you!”
“Oh yeah, sure. Role model.” Mistress grumbled. “If you like no-good mares’ stallions. Cocky, glory-hogging, son of a timber wolf howler—”
“Oh yeah, that’s right!” Fili-Second piped up. “I forgot! He flirted with Applejack when he landed on the ground.”
“Ah, a gentlecolt caller?!” Radiance squeaked in glee. “Oh, do tell me more darling! Was he charming? Dashing? Romantic? Protective? Sincere? Handsome?!”
“No, no, no, no, no, and definitely no on that last part!” Mistress replied in an annoyed tone.
“Oh come on, darling! Surely there must have been one quality you liked about him.”
“The only thing I’ll ever like about the guy is if I never ever see him again.”
They landed on top of their tall lair, and entered through the staircase door just to the left side of the building. Once the group went through, they were actually in a transparent glass elevator. The elevator took them to their main floor of the Power Ponies' headquarter operations.
When the elevator door opened, Mistress Mare-velous was the first to lead the group out. “Woah Nellie, I can’t wait to get this tight mask off.”
“Me too, Angel. Can’t wait to see that sweet face of yours unmasked.”
Mistress immediately stopped dead in her tracks, and her right eye began to twitch as she saw the stallion from earlier just sitting casually and peacefully on their lair couch.
“Did ya miss me?” said the annoying yet mysterious stallion, his cheeky grin widening at the sight of the mare before him.
Mistress gawked at him for a moment or two, along with the rest of the Power Ponies as they peeked over her shoulder. Then Mistress shook her head and stomped toward him, growling, “Oh, of all the dirtiest, sneakiest things to do. What in the blue blazes are you doing—?!”
“Hey, look everypony, it’s AJ’s, I mean it’s Missy’s coltfriend from the stadium! Hi, Missy’s coltfriend!” Pinkie announced happily, greeting the stallion on the couch with a friendly and energetic wave. The stallion couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath and wave back.
“He ain’t my coltfriend!” Mistress retorted.
“Oh goodness, is this the gentlecolt caller from earlier?” Radiance asked Mistress with curiosity and glee in her tone.
“I told ya Rarit—I mean Radiance, he ain’t that! Certainly not that.”
“Woah, you’re back!” Humdrum cheered, jumping over Mistress’s head and making his way towards the stallion. “I can’t believe it!”
“Seriously?!” Mistress cried out in anger while pulling on the mane at the sides of her head. “Does nopony see what’s wrong with this picture?!” She pointed an accusing hoof at the stallion. “This no-good varmint just snuck into our secret lair! Our lair!”
“Which was pretty easy to do by the way,” he remarked confidently, polishing his hoof by rubbing it against his puffed-out chest. “Oh, and by the way, you might wanna fix some of the bugs in your system. Seriously, who knows who will sneak into your lair next?”
“See, see!” Mistress jabbed her hoof at him again, the desperation in her voice growing. “I told you that there was something wrong with this guy, but y’all wouldn’t listen! But now he’s proven that he’s a downright no-good criminal!”
“So does that mean I get to be the devil to your angel then, Angel?” the stallion added in a flirty tone, sending a wink Mistress Mare-velous’s way.
“That’s it!”
Mistress pulled out her lasso, and flung Bessie’s coils around the stallion, pinning his front legs to his sides. Then she picked him up and smashed his face into the wall. While holding his face and body against the wall, she demanded through gritted teeth, “Who are you and how did you find this place?!”
“Wait, wait! Mistress!” Matterhorn called out. She flew up to Mistress and calmed her with, “Let me handle this.”
Mistress stepped aside and let Matterhorn grab the stallion from behind. Matterhorn gave a calm smile to Mistress before slamming the stallion against the wall once more and demanding, “Who are you and how did you find this place?!”
“Oh dear,” the Saddle Rager fretted from the back of the group, a hoof hovering near the area of her lips.
“So much for the good cop bad cop routine,” Zapp sighed.
The stallion mumbled something incomprehensible against the metal wall.
“Huh?” The Masked Matterhorn pulled the stallion’s face away from the wall, but still kept his body pressed against it.
“I said I’ll talk. Despite the interrogation.”
When the Masked Matterhorn let go of him, the stallion turned to face Mistress Mare-velous and asked, “Now Angel, could you lend me a hoof here?”
“Why are you SO willing to talk?” she returned in a dark wary tone, tightening Bessie’s grip on the stallion’s waist.
“Ah! Again with the rope. Argh, look. At the start, I was going to tell y’all just exactly who I am, how I found you and the Spotted Cheetah at the rodeo, and how I’ve been following you all day.”
“You’ve been following us?!” Mistress yanked on her lasso, almost squeezing all the air out of the poor stallion’s body.
“Ah! Okay! Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that last part. But the point is, Angel, I mean no harm. You and I, you Power Ponies ... and the organization that I work for ... we’re all after the same thing.”
Mistress loosened the lasso’s grip on the stallion and cocked her head to the side. “And ... who are you exactly working for?”
As the lasso’s coils fell away from him, the mysterious stallion panted, rubbing at his middle. “I can’t say.”
“Whadda ya mean ‘you can’t say’?!”
“I mean, I’m not allowed to say, pretty lady. But don’t worry, it’s a pretty easy one to guess.”
The stallion stepped out of the lasso as its loop fell to the ground. As he dusted himself off, the suited stallion walked towards the giant computer screen at the back of the room and asked, “Tell me, what’s the one group, in all of Equestria, closer to Celestia than the royal guards. I’ll give you a hint: it starts with an ‘E’.”
“The EIA!” the Masked Matterhorn gasped.
“Bingo Matterhorn.” the stallion smoothly answered back without turning around.
“The EIA?” Humdrum commented. “Isn’t that a top secret spy group located underneath Celestia’s throne?”
“Actually, they’re agents,” the stallion corrected, turning slightly to face Matterhorn and Humdrum. “But yeah, pretty much. We’re the ‘royal guards’ that nopony, not even Celestia, talks about.”
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it! Princess Celestia, THE princess of all Equestria, knows about us! Investigating us! Soooo, wait ... then you must be...?” Matterhorn implored.
“The name’s Agent Double A, ma’am.” He turned his cheeky gaze to Mistress and whispered with a wink, “But everypony back on base calls me Ace.”
Mistress just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“But that still doesn’t answer the question of why you were spying on us, Ace?” Zapp questioned Agent Double A in a slightly snappy tone.
“Simple,” Agent Double A replied. “How can any organization out there not do so? Think about it: six regular ponies and a baby dragon come to the big city as superheroes. Then, all of a sudden, by coincidence, super villains show up and—”
“We didn’t create our own enemies!” Mistress blurted out of the blue.
Everypony turned to her and became silent. It was an almost personal outburst, her tone suggesting that she almost took the remark to heart. Agent Double A was surprised by this, but felt bad for saying something he shouldn’t. Mistress didn’t look over at the group, especially at the secret agent in the cowboy boots.
In a softer, more understanding tone, Agent Double A said to her, “I never said that you did. Not in the slightest.”
Mistress gave the stallion a death glare. “Then what are ya sayin’?! C’mon, spit it out!”
“ALL that I’M sayin’ is that ... you gotta admit it ... this kind of activity is bizarre. Even by the standards of a pony like Princess Celestia. And when things get bizarre, they become too close for comfort. And well ... when things are too close for comfort...”
“They become dangerous,” Matterhorn uttered sadly and with a hint of guilt, turning her gaze away from Agent Double A.
“Not necessarily, Miss Matterhorn,” said the agent. “There’s still the element of a choice here. Which is why I’m here.”
Agent Double A walked to the masked alicorn and explained, “All of you can either be an asset to Equestria or its enemy. My organization thinks y’all are dangerous. Especially you, Miss Matterhorn.”
“What?! Me?! W-why me?!”
“Because you’re another alicorn. You’re a rare and powerful creature in the land of Equestria, with magic that could out rival Celestia’s. That is, IF dark magic is involved.”
“I know it may seem like it,” Matterhorn tried to explain as rationally as she could, “but I assure you, I am not an alicorn of dark magic. And I am certainly not an alicorn that could out rival Celestia herself.”
With a soft smirk, Agent Double A answered, “That’s good to hear, Matterhorn. I was hoping you would say that, cause I thought so too. You don’t seem to have an agenda to take over the city, let alone all of Equestria. And the same applies to your team.”
“This team doesn’t belong to her,” Mistress argued. “It BELONGS to all of us.”
“Even better,” Double A responded with a soft casual smirk. “That makes it easier for me to offer this.”
He put his hoof out towards Mistress Mare-velous, and opened it, revealing a little black earpiece.
“Uhh, what’s this?” Mistress asked.
“Consider it my peace offering, Angel,” he explained with a bit of joy in his smooth, cool, smart-mouthed tone. “I’m offering y’all the best means of getting on the inside with the EIA.”
“And does your little EIA know about this little offer you’re giving us?” Mistress questioned skeptically.
“Well, that all depends,” he replied, his smirk growing larger by the minute.
“Depends on what?” she asked with her eyebrows arched high on her forehead.
“If you take the offer first,” he answered with his smirk turning into a cocky smolder.
Mistress Mare-velous narrowed her gaze at him before gathering the Power Ponies into a group huddle.
“Mistress,” whispered Zapp. “Are you seriously considering his offer?”
“No offense,” Matterhorn added in the same hushed tone, “but just a few minutes ago, you wanted this guy knocked on his flank and kicked out of the lair.”
“But darling,” Radiance remarked. “So did we all. Especially you.”
Matterhorn began to blush a light shade of pink and chuckled nervously. “Heh heh, point taken.”
“Look,” Mistress replied, bringing in the group’s focus once more. “I am considering his offer, but not for the reasons you think. Something’s telling me that this guy is doing this whole deal without his organization’s consent. If we can find some way for the EIA to know about this anonymously, through the information and access that this agent gives us...”
Fili-Second gasped happily before shouting and leaping into the air. “He’ll get kicked out!”
The group shushed Fili-Second in unison and brought her back to earth in one hard swoop. Then Fili whisper-cheered, “He’ll get kicked out!”
“Exactly,” said Mistress Mare-velous with a victorious smile. “and before you know it, he’ll be out of our hair, and out of our lives, for good!”
“But Mistress,” Matterhorn softly pointed out, “what if ... what if he knows of our secret identities? What if the EIA knows?”
“I don’t think this Ace fellar is smart enough for the task of finding out about our true selves. Besides, if the EIA really knew who we were, why would they send this bozo to spy on us first instead of just a full on attack or confrontation?”
The group broke apart and Mistress stomped over to Agent Double A, who had just the biggest smolder that one could ever imagine.
With a fed-up snort through her nose, she held out her open hoof toward the agent. “Alright, ‘Ace’, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
With a cheeky yet charming grin, Agent Double A placed the earpiece in her hoof and started to walk past her. “I look forward to working with you ladies.” Then he whispered into Mistress’s ear, “And I will certainly be looking forward to workin’ with you ... Angel.”
Mistress could only respond to his weak attempt at flirting with a groaning sigh.
“Let me ... uh, ‘escort’ you out of our lair, Mr. Double A.” Matterhorn offered in a polite, but slightly suspicious tone.
“That’s very kind of you, Miss Matterhorn. But really, there’s no need.”
And with a smile, he pulled out a smoke bomb and escaped the lair without a trace, leaving the Power Ponies coughing and choking in the purple and smelly mist.
The next day, Mistress Mare-velous, as her unmasked and humble alter ego Applejack, was doing her daily routine of selling her homemade apple products out of her Apple cart on the busy streets of Maretropolis.
“Apples!” she shouted happily to potential customers passing by. “Get your fresh Apple Pies, Apple strudels, and Apple Fritters here! Homemade and fresh from the oven!”
Feeling that nopony would approach her cart at the moment, she decided it was a safe time to check on some of her supplies and baked creations to make sure she was prepared and that everything was organized.
“I’ll take two Apple Fritters there ... Angel.”
Applejack was suddenly surprised by an all too familiar masculine voice coming from in front of her cart, and she bonked her head on one of the small drawers. She let out a hissing “ouch!” as she cautiously raised her head to meet the stallion’s gaze.
Sure enough, her suspicions were unfortunately true. It was him. Agent Double A. But in her mind, it was Mr. Agent Ace for Nothing. Instead of his sleek black suit, he was now wearing a black t-shirt and jeans with his cowboy boots.
She quickly shook off her bug-eyed expression and politely told him with a fake smile, “The name’s Applejack, sir.” She struggled to call him “sir,” but despite this struggle, she pushed herself through the pain in order to tell him, “But I appreciate the flattery. Anyway, two Apple Fritters coming right up!”
As she ducked her head back down into the drawers and supplies of her cart, she heard the Agent say, “Well, it’s certainly a pleasure to finally meet you ... Mistress.”
This caught Applejack off guard once again, and in result, made her bump her head again. As she let out a quiet “ouch,” she could hear the little bugger laugh at her pain. This made her growl under her breath.
Despite this, she rose back up with a forced smile and held out the Apple Fritters to him. “You must be mistaken, I’m MISS Applejack. I’m no Mistress or Countess or Duchess of any kind. But even I don’t let strangers call me ‘Miss Applejack’, Mister ... uh...?”
He propped his elbow on the cart and leaned in with a flirty look, trying to pretend he was as cool as could be. “Screwjob, ma’am. At your service ... Mistress Mare-velous.” And he winked at her in a cheeky manner.
“Y-you must be mistaken, Mr. Screwjob!” Applejack quickly yet nervously retorted. “Me?! Mistress Mare-velous?! Boy, the day that ever happens is the day I turn into a horse of a different color! Literally! Ha ha!”
“C’mon Angel,” Screwjob whispered in an all-knowing tone. “Don’t lie to me. I know it’s you. I mean, how could I not, by your voice ... or by your green eyes ... or by your cute little freckles ... or by your golden mane, or even by your...?”
“Alright, alright! I get it! You got me! Sheesh! Rub it in why don’tcha?!” Applejack banged her forehead down on the countertop and let out a muffled, “How is this possible?! My secret identity, my only secret in the world, kept for years under my belt, blown in a matter of seconds by the last pony I ever want to see?!”
“Oh c’mon, Apps, don’t be so hard on yourself.”
Applejack lifted her head away from the countertop and replied in an unamused tone, “Apps? Seriously? Apps?”
Screwjob smiled nervously and shrugged. “What? Apps is a cute nickname. I thought you would like it better than Angel.”
Applejack sighed and gave in. “Well, considering my only two options, Apps seems to be the more tolerable to deal with.”
“Perfect, Apps it is.”
“But seriously, how in Equestria did you know it was me? And where I work for that matter?!”
“Like I told ya before, Apps, as a spy, it’s my job to know everything. I mean, why did ya think I was stalking y’all? I wasn’t just stalking you in your superhero uniform...”
“You were stalking us in our civilian form too. Which means...”
“Yup, I know all the rest of your identities too. Now, Matterhorn’s was pretty easy to figure out right off the bat. Think about it: what pony in this entire city has enough money to have the means to seclude one luxurious building to herself and possibly to some other ponies if she so wishes. I mean, that building that y’all reside in just screams the Sparkle logo. Same with Humdrum. The guy might be small, but I’d have to be as blind as my Aunt Moonshine to not see that the little sprout was a dragon, even with the mask. As for the others, like yourself darlin’, it was a bit trickier I do admit. Even on my level of skill. I first tried just waiting outside the building, just patiently minding my own business while some of you wander out of the building and all that. But then, I realized that Miss Sparkle is too smart to let any of her partners just waltz in and out of the building as they pleased. Nah, Miss Sparkle might have been easy to figure out, but that didn’t mean she was going to make the others easy for me. Especially that Saddle Rager gal. She seemed to be late into the game, and well, that girl is as quiet as a mouse. Tell her that if this superhero business doesn’t work for her, maybe go into the spy work instead. Anyway, based on the, um, ‘records’ that ole Spike had on Radiance, findin’ the trail to her identity came pretty easy. Pretty soon, I discovered that Miss Sparkle had records on all of ya.”
“You snuck into the lair and went through all of our records?!”
“To be fair, Apps, I did try to find information on you first. But as a spy, you go with where you have the most information first.” Screwjob replied with a wink in her direction.
“That ain’t what I meant,” Applejack remarked with a deadpan expression, crossing her front hooves across her chest.
“Hey, do you honestly think this is my first rodeo when it comes to this superhero business?” With an all-knowing smile on his face, he arched an eyebrow. “Why do you think EIA hired me for this job?”
“Wait ... you don’t mean ... that you...?”
“That’s right ma’am, I was able to convince another super horse to help the EIA too. The very same deal I gave y’all.”
“But ... but how?”
“Let’s just say that when your best friend becomes a superhero, it doesn’t go unnoticed. Plus, he’s a bad liar like you fortunately. He couldn’t swindle a Manehattan foal out of his candy if he tried.”
“Well, some best friend you are to him, telling a random stranger all of this important information.”
“But you’re a superhero.”
“That don’t matter! He’s ‘supposedly’ your best friend, and he trusted you with this important secret about his life. Many lives depend on that secret. Doesn’t that mean anything to you at all?!”
Just then Applejack was caught off guard by the sudden serious, almost insulted expression on Screwjob’s face. His eyes were narrowed and a scowl was painted over where his flirty smirk should be.
Well, I’ll be... Applejack reflected to herself.
“High is the best stallion I know,” Screwjob said in a tone that matched his expression. “I would never, and I mean never, let anything happen to him. Not again. Not if I have anything to say about it. Why do you think I gave him the deal with the EIA? Just for some barrel fun at the rodeo? No! I did it to protect him, his identity, and all the lives he tries to protect each day. Now, say what you want about me, but when it comes to my friendship with High, you can bet your hat that I’ll be there for him.”
Applejack blinked a couple of times in shock. She couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. Who knew that he could be capable of sincere genuine emotion, let alone expressing it aloud to a stranger? However, this didn’t last long when she realized with a smirk, “So, his name is High, huh?”
Screwjob’s serious expression quickly faded to be replaced with a red blush as he realized his own quick but embarrassing, well, screw-up. He quickly looked away from Applejack and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Uuuuhhh ... that is ... High is his ... nickname. At least, the nickname I gave him anyway.”
Applejack smiled warmly and shook her head. She couldn’t believe this. The guy was actually embarrassed. Still smirking, she couldn’t resist teasing him with, “My my, is Mr. Screwjob here actually getting red on me?”
Screwjob’s blush faded as he turned his gaze back to hers. He couldn’t help letting out a chuckle and smirking back. “Hey, now little lady, just call me Jobs. Mr. Screwjob is for when I’m in my suit for work.”
Applejack couldn’t help but laugh at Screwjob’s quick remark and he laughed along with her. Luckily for the two of them, Applejack didn’t have too many customers for the rest of the day. They spent the rest of the time just talking about the farms and the countrysides of Equestria, and eating the two Apple Fritters together. Turns out that Screwjob got the second Apple Fritter for Applejack.
Meanwhile, later that night, in the dark halls of the Balkham Asylum, Ahuizotl was sitting miserably but furiously in his magically sealed, glowing pale pink glass cell. Just like the rest of the “patients,” or rather, as they liked to call themselves, prisoners of Balkham. Ahuizotl would have been in prison with ponies like his minion Caballeron, but the facilities and resources at the city’s prison were nothing compared to the unicorn staff and funding at Balkham. And the police knew this. Even if Ahuizotl wasn’t certifiably proven to be insane, but rather greedy and corrupted, he was a strong and powerful creature of non-pony origins, so they had dumped him here in this glass cell. Just until good ole Princess Celestia can pick him up later in the week. He was trapped in an off-white straitjacket and pale blue glowing enchanted iron chains just in case he tried to break through the straitjacket.
Ahuizotl’s dead eyes stared at the brick walls beyond the magical glow of his cell. He let out a huff of air through his nose and blinked. Although his expression was as dead as his eyes, deep in his mind he was plotting his way out of this prison and his revenge against the Power Ponies who brought him to this Tartarus hole.
Ahuizotl’s ears perked up towards the head of the hall. It was the sound of a new inmate coming in. Two dark purple male unicorns with short grey buzz-cut manes were using Ketch-All poles to control the now-muzzled, straitjacketed Spotted Cheetah as they led her to the cell next to Ahuizotl. Her straitjacket didn’t bind or restrict her cheetah hind legs, only her front pony hooves, and as a result, made her almost crawl on the floor. However, despite her position, she was still snarling and writhing about, trying to escape. The two unicorns were holding her back like a rabid wild animal rather than a patient. Clearly, this task was beyond their protocol.
Ahuizotl immediately picked up on the Spotted Cheetah’s growling. He almost thought for a moment that it was his cheetah, escaping from the clutches of animal control or the zoo. But instead his eyes widened with interest when he saw a creature so similar yet so wonderfully different from his own cheetah. So different in fact, appearance-wise, from any pony or creature around her. She looked mismatched and mixed just like him, but she was also slender, elegant, graceful, and soft, though powerful like a jungle cat. He could tell by her eyes, and by the sound of her hissing that she was female which sparked his interest even more.
Ahuizotl got close to the glass and patiently watched her new neighbor, as she fought with every breath in her body not to go into the magical glowing glass cell. The two unicorns demanded and pleaded for her to go in, but she only answered with more feline hissing, and trying to claw at them with her sharp back feet. In response to this, the two unicorns agreed to push her in together by collaboratively putting as much force as they could swinging the Ketch-All poles that controlled the Spotted Cheetah. This plan worked, and before she could try to crawl out of the cell, they pushed the button that activated the magical shield and locked her in. The two unicorns let out a great sigh of relief and walked away from her cell.
Meanwhile the Spotted Cheetah began immediately trying to push and claw at the magically glowing glass wall in front of her, still growling and roaring loudly through her muzzle. Ahuizotl scooted away from the front of his cell and towards the clear see-through wall that separated him and the Spotted Cheetah. He looked at her peacefully and with such tenderness as she scurried about like a wild alley cat.
“Hola,” he purred at her seductively. “Sen~or~it~a~.”
The Spotted Cheetah instantly stopped what she was doing and looked curiously over at Ahuizotl. With wide and confused eyes, she saw him wagging his tail slowly but happily. He gave her a charming, pointy-toothed smile and winked in her direction.
She sat up with ease, like a beanstalk rising from the ground due to her flexible feline-like spine. She flipped around her long now-completely messy ponytail, causing the rubber hair band to snap and release her flowing pink-and-green striped mane. This caused Ahuizotl’s long thin monkey-pawed tail to wag even more and made his grin widen. Then the Spotted Cheetah tried to roll one of her shoulders seductively towards Ahuizotl in her tight straitjacket and fluttered her eyelashes.
“Oh, tehee!” She giggled sweetly like a school filly with her first crush. Then she responded to his purr with a flirty but innocent, “Hola~.”
Issue No. 2: A Spotty Beginning - The Origin Story of The Spotted Cheetah
Long ago, when the gods of legend ruled Equestria; Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and purity, created her ultimate weapon. She went to her beloved moon and began to carve upon its silver surface. From the bright light side of the moon, she carved her bow. From the dark mysterious shadow of the moon, she carved her arrow. After they were carved, Artemis smoothed their rough and dusty surfaces with just two drops of her own immortal essence. With one unbreakable bow and arrow, she had the power to protect or kill any pony and wild beast in her midst.
Legends foretold that any pony who finds and wields Artemis’s bow and arrow will be blessed with Artemis’s great power. However, this blessing will be at a great price. He who wields the bow will be granted wisdom and courage in one’s judgement and aim, but at a price. The bow is rendered powerless and desperate without something to guide. The wielder of the bow will forever search for the arrow. He who wields the arrow will be granted precision, speed, and strength beyond belief, but at a price. Without the bow to guide it, the pony who holds the arrow will be forever lost in the lust of the hunt, endlessly hunting for the wisdom and aim of the bow. Only when the two items are together in the mortal blood of one solitary body can true power be granted. The power of being immortal like Artemis herself.
But, if the two items are separated into two mortal bodies, they will be forced to live the rest of their lives in combat. Their lives can only end at each other’s hooves, so when their physical bodies die, the bow and arrow of Artemis will move on and seek with great hope that one body that can finally unite them.
When the era of the gods came to an end, many of their items fell upon Equestria; including Artemis’s silver bow and arrow. Throughout the ages without Artemis, the silver bow and arrow were always together. Despite the destruction and chaos they caused among the mortal pony race. That is ... until one day ... many centuries later...
Many years ago, when Mistress Mare-velous was just beginning her superhero career, there was a rodeo championship going on at the Corral Stadium in the city of Las Pegasus.
The stadium was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, stadiums in all of Equestria. But in Las Pegasus, you either go big or go home. And when it comes to country folk-centered entertainment, Las Pegasus doesn’t give in short supply. That’s why the big rodeo championship was held at the enormous stadium. Even earth ponies, big or small, wouldn’t mind journeying to the pegasi-centered city in order to enjoy the big fun and excitement of all the city versions of their hoedown activities. In honor of the big rodeo, the floor of the stadium was filled with a specialized mixture of sandstorm clouds and prairie dirt from the wild deserts of Equestria. The stadium was filled with bombastic cheering of earth pony and pegasi fans alike, screaming to their hearts’ content for all the cow ponies competing down below on the dusty floor.
And currently, they were cheering for a familiar competitor speeding around and through an obstacle of barrels for the barrel races. The competitor was a lean teenage, pale buttercream earth pony mare with a long pink-and-green striped mane and tail. The mare had her mane in a high thick ponytail, and was wearing a white cowpony hat with the label “Ponet Fantastique” on the front. The mare even wore a fringed white leather rodeo vest labeled with the same brand as her cowboy hat. Like most country ponies, she had cute little freckles on her cheeks and a rodeo-centered cutie mark: a pink-and-green striped heart being lassoed.
The mare was galloping so fast through the barrel obstacle course that she left a mini blazing dust storm behind her. At the end of the course, the mare skidded to a stop, causing a giant puff of dirt and dust to settle around her, almost misting her form in its brown cloud.
“Time!” shouted the announcer to the crowd in the stadium.
Everypony looked to the electronic screen high above, and waited for the results. The numbers showed the mare finishing the barrel race in 20.5 seconds.
“20.5 seconds, mares and gentlecolts!” the announcer proclaimed to the audience. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a new record and our winner for the barrel races! Clap your hooves together for your Las Pegasus local: Sour Sweet!”
As the dust cloud settled back to the floor of the stadium, Sour Sweet’s form was once again revealed to the crowd. Except now her mane and tail, as well as her hat and vest, were covered in layers upon layers of dust and dirt. With a proud determined smile, she witnessed the whole stadium stomping their hooves happily and cheering her name. She flipped the bangs out of her eyes proudly, winked, waved to the audience, and walked out of the arena with style and ease. Sour Sweet strolled towards the locker rooms in order to prepare for the next event in the competition: the lasso tournament. But before she could get to the lockers, a purple stallion with a tall wavy white mane and tail greeted her in the arena tunnel leading from the stadium floor to the backstage area. The stallion was wearing a sparkling suit, and was known by the locals as the pony who was friends with everypony: Gladmane.
“Sweetie Pie!”
“Daddy!”
Sour Sweet galloped into her father’s open forelegs excitedly and Gladmane held her tightly and proudly.
“Ha ha! That’s my filly! I knew you could do it!”
“Daww, thanks Daddy! You’re just the sweetest!” But then Sour Sweet’s excited tone was swiftly replaced with a grumpy one. “Though I could have done a lot better. Ugh!”
With a nervous chuckle and a fake smile, the southern-accented pony politely told his daughter, “Heh heh, now’s not the time for that kind of talk, sweetie pie. We’ve got our NEW friends here with us today.”
Gladmane stepped to the side, revealing three old, withered, balding stallions in rich and fancy suits. To Sour Sweet, the stallions looked like they were going to die any day now. Their eyes were just dead and completely uninterested. But then again, Sour Sweet was used to this. Usually her father’s “new friends” were always like this. Especially if they were only there because of her father’s money and business.
“Gentlecolts,” Gladmane remarked to the three old stallions, “may I introduce you to my daughter, Sour Sweet. The star of this whole show and the future Equestrian-Wide Rodeo Champ. Sweetie pie, say hello to the Sherhoof Brothers, the owners of the bank not too far from the hotel on Stirrup Way.”
In a sincere sugary tone, Sour Sweet started with, “Aww hello there. It is soooo nice to meet you all.” Then her tone became grumpy and deep once more, “Are you just here for my old man’s business or what?”
Gladmane’s expression became panicked and worried, his eyes widening to their fullest capacity. While the three old stallions, on the other hoof, didn’t blink an eyelash at Sour Sweet’s remark. Gladmane quickly recovered from his terrified state, and put on a happy face as he pushed Sour Sweet off to the side. “If you can excuse us dear gentlecolts.”
While Gladmane was pushing his daughter away, the three old stallions stared at the two ponies with blank expressionless eyes. One of them coughed weakly in the midst of their awkward silence.
Once Gladmane knew that they were at a safe distance where the near-deaf stallions couldn’t hear them, Gladmane took in a deep breath before addressing his daughter with the calmest yet happiest smile. He whispered, “Um, sweetie pie? Sweetie ... darling ... cherry of your ole Dad’s eye ... do we remember what we do when the bad voice wants to pop up in front of Daddy’s new friends?”
Sour Sweet whispered in a sad guilty tone, “I’m sorry Daddy. I tried holding it in. I really did. But ... I can’t help it. Especially when you bring over your friends during the shows. You know how nervous it makes me having them here when I compete.”
“But you shouldn’t be nervous around Daddy’s friends,” Gladmane whispered in a supposedly loving but insincere tone.
“But that’s the problem, Daddy,” Sour Sweet tried to explain. “I get nervous enough just on the day of competition. You know how my bad voice likes to come out when I’m nervous.”
“Sweetie,” Gladmane interrupted quickly but sweetly, “you want Daddy’s hotel to do well? Right?”
“Well, yes I do. More than anything. But it’s just that—”
“Don’t you sass me, filly!” Gladmane harshly whispered with a slight hiss.
“Oh, sorry sir.” Sour Sweet bowed her head.
She continued keeping her head down as her father lectured her. Gladmane mumbled underneath his breath, “It’s bad enough you sass me in your ‘other’ voice.”
“Sorry again sir,” Sour Sweet whispered at a level that Gladmane couldn’t hear.
Gladmane let out a sigh, before continuing in a fake, doting tone, “Now sweetie, you know how Daddy’s business means he has to be a friend to everypony. And if you want the hotel to be successful, you gotta be a GOOD friend to all. Just like Daddy. If you want to be successful yourself, you gotta be real sweet like your dear ole mom. Now what did Mommy always say?”
Memories of her mother, who had passed on years ago, came in like a flood. Sour Sweet remembered her mom being always so sweet and kind to her, even when her “bad” voice came out. She was always so patient and understanding with her. Oh, how Sour Sweet missed her so much as time went by. But right now, as her father forced her to recite her own mother’s words back to her, like he always did in moments like these, Sour Sweet was brought out of her blissful past with her mother and reminded of the reality she faced everyday with her father.
With her head down, she whispered in a sad guilty tone, “A lady’s smile is faster than her talk.”
“That’s right, sweetie. A lady’s smile is faster than her talk. So, just keep smiling and be nice to Daddy’s new friends, huh?” He emphasized in a doting tone more insincere than before.
“Now, let’s get you out of those rags, shall we?” Gladmane quickly switched out Sour Sweet’s dirty white hat and vest for new ones also with the Ponet Fantastique label on them. “There, now don’t you look fine in the summertime. Ha ha! Don’t want that dirt near the Ponet Fantastique name, now do we?”
Sour Sweet did not reply to her father’s remark. She remained silent, and kept her head down in guilt.
Gladmane quickly turned around with a smile and walked towards the three old stallions. “Now, where were we, gentlecolts? Ah, yes. I was just telling you more about my daughter.”
The four stallions accompanied the now-saddened and depressed Sour Sweet down the hall to the locker rooms. Gladmane continued to talk as if nothing had happened, “So sorry for that small delay, but my daughter just LOVES it when I give her a bit of pep talk before each event in the competition. Ain’t that the sweetest thing? I’m telling y’all, my daughter is the sweetest, most perfect thing. She can do no wrong, let me tell you!”
Once Sour Sweet reached the doors to the locker rooms, her dad continued to walk with the three stallions down another hallway, back to the stands. “Bye sweetie pie! We’ll see ya after you win the lasso competition!”
Sour Sweet looked back at her dad sadly, opened the door, and whispered “Bye Daddy.”
Meanwhile, in Las Pegasus’s Bella-Barb Museum of Fine Art...
KABOOM!
One of King Longhorn’s minions had escaped the museum by blowing up the museum’s glass door entrance with an explosive grass dirt clod of Longhorn’s own invention. Strapped loosely over the minion’s back was a long, glittering silver bow with a single arrow to match.
Museum security alarms, bells, and flashing lights created utter chaos for the staff at the museum and for the ponies walking outside the museum. Once everypony on the street heard and witnessed the explosion, they screamed and galloped for their lives, staying as far away as they could from the tall, humanoid, off-white cattle-man.
Following right after him was none other than Mistress Mare-velous herself. Or rather, the tall lean teenage Mistress Mare-velous. “Come back here, you cowardly piece of cow pie!”
The minion looked back at Mistress with a cocky smirk and proclaimed, “Look who’s talking, yearling! You’re no bigger than a piece of cow pie yourself!”
When the off-white cattle-man turned his gaze away from Mistress, he spotted a modest traveling cart labeled “Chips and Pies” just straight ahead. A light tan stallion with a black mane and tail, and black speckles all over his coat was running the cart and happily announcing to potential customers on the streets, “Cow Pies! Get your Cow Pies here!”
“Speaking of...” Longhorn’s minion whispered to himself with a devilish smirk.
As the horned humanoid beast charged head-first towards the unsuspecting cart, the stallion running the “Chips and Pies” business was still announcing, “Cow Pies! Get your delicious, warm, twelve-by-twelve-inch pies here! Homemade and fresh out of the heat! For a limited time only, you can also get a side of our award-winning chocolate chip cookies with your purchase of a cow pie!”
Longhorn’s minion rammed his horns into the side of the cart, lifted it up high in the air, whirled himself and the cart around, and sent it and the stallion flying towards Mistress. The stallion screamed at the top of his lungs as he clung to the flying cart for dear life.
“Take that, yearling!” shouted the tall cattle-man.
Mistress lifted her head at the sound of the stallion’s screams and saw the cart high above her. And it looked like it was going to fall soon. She quickly took out her lasso, and swung its large open loop toward the cart. She pulled on the rope with her front hooves and teeth in order to make the cart fall faster to the ground and towards her. This made the stallion scream even more.
Once the cart was close enough to the ground and Mistress, the masked heroine released her hold on her rope and grabbed onto the cart with her front hooves and teeth. This put her in the position to be the buffer and bumper between the cart and the ground. With the cart gripped tight in her teeth and front hooves, she skidded backward across the concrete street.
Finally she and the cart came to a stop and the stallion atop the cart stopped screaming. Panting heavily, Mistress slowly released the cart, and stretched out her jaw, spitting some saliva out.
“Are you all right?” she asked the stallion, who was still clinging to his cart.
“Uh-huh,” said the stallion in a distant traumatized voice. He then shook his head in order to return to his senses, and looked back at Mistress with a smile. “A Cow Pie for saving my life?”
“Oh, uhhh ... no, no, there’s really no need,” replied Mistress in a polite but hesitant tone, feeling slightly afraid of what he was going to give her. Was he actually going to give her a cow pie?
Then he pulled out a large twelve-by-twelve-inch black-and-white spotted pie. This surprised Mistress Mare-velous. “Oh!”
“I’ll even throw in a cookie,” the stallion added, pulling out a chocolate chip one that was six inches across. Probably one of the biggest cookies Mistress had ever seen.
“Ooooh. A Cow PIE, not an actual ... never mind. Word of advice: you might wanna think of renaming those pies before you sell anymore. Also, maybe focus on those cookies of yours, cause woah nelly! Those things are huge! I’ve never seen anything like them! Maybe call them ‘Cow Chips.’ Has a nice ring to it don’t you think?”
As Mistress Mare-velous ran off to catch Longhorn’s minion, the stallion looked back at the pie and the huge cookie in his hooves. He examined both of them with a confused yet curious expression.
Meanwhile, Mistress’s main target was weaving swiftly through the crowd, but his height made him easy to spot and follow. And the cattle-man knew this. He spun his head around to see if Mistress was still following, and sure enough, she still was. And she was getting close enough to lasso him in.
“Give up, Nickel Head!” Mistress yelled over the crowd. “There’s nowhere for you to run now!”
“That’s what you think Mistress!” Nickel Head shouted back.
Then he charged straight ahead toward the Corral Stadium. Mistress Mare-velous didn’t hesitate to follow after him, and charged forward with no knowledge of what would happen next.
The sound of Nickel Head’s loud clunky cloven hooves made all the ponies standing in lines turn around. As soon as they saw him, they all screamed and ran away from him. Nickel Head charged in with a devilish smile, taking delight in these ponies’ fear of him.
Once inside the building’s main lobby entrance, he quickly began looking for the largest opening he could find. Right before the large staircase leading to the stadium chairs and stands was a magical detector and scanner designed specifically to block the magic of the unicorn guests and participants. It looked like an archway one would find in ponies’ gardens designed to help growing vines climb and spread, except it was painted a cheap shade of gold and glowed with light blue magic.
It wasn’t the largest opening for Nickel Head to fit through, but due to the lack of unicorn guests going through it, he made it his immediate plan. He heard Mistress Mare-velous, as well as the stadium security guards, coming up behind him. The unicorn security staff at the scanner shouted at him as he rammed his large horns through the tall arched device. With his brutal might, he ripped the archway from its electronic platform, causing it to lose its light blue magical glow. With the detector now attached to his horns, he used the archway as a shield to not only push away the ponies in his way, but to cause damage and destruction to anything in his path.
Meanwhile, the security guards quickly went to the unicorn staff who had been near the magical scanner to see if they were all right. They were not hurt, since Nickel Head’s main target was the archway instead of the ponies near it. A dark chocolate unicorn stallion security guard with a poofy black afro, a puffy black mustache to match, and shining aviator shades, noticed the speeding Mistress Mare-velous galloping past them.
“Wait! Miss, stop!” he shouted. “You can’t just come through—!”
But Mistress did not listen. With her powerful legs, she sprang high into the air, and did a somersault in mid-jump. She landed gracefully but powerfully on all four legs at the top of the tall staircase.
All the security guards and unicorn staff at the bottom of the staircase witnessed this miraculous feat with wide eyes and jaws dropped to the ground.
With an unamused frown, the stallion with the afro muttered, “Here.”
Meanwhile, Mistress followed the sound of Nickel Head’s clunky cloven hooves, and the screeching sounds of destruction. She found him going down the stands, letting his new shield tear out all the chairs in the stands. Once he was at the bottom of the stands, he jumped over the railing and landed with a thud in the dusty arena with the rodeo championship competitors.
Once Nickel Head was in the arena, the competitors and the wooly sheep they were assigned to lasso in went scrambling for the exits. That is, except for Sour Sweet. Just as she was going to lasso in a little lamb, she bumped into Nickel Head’s tall leg. Head-on to be precise. Naturally, it knocked her to the ground.
When she opened her weary eyes, she caught a glimpse of the lamb she was assigned to lasso ... escaping out of the arena. Sour Sweet could feel the tears trying to come in because she saw that lamb as her key to victory. Her key to achieve the glory of winning the championship title, honoring the “Ponet Fantastique” name, her way of honoring her father and her mother and their family name...
All that time ... all that effort and practice ... taking less than what she deserved from her father just ... just slipped away. Just like that.
If she messed up just one event for this competition, just one ... her father would be mad at her forever. He might not get the business deal with the Sherhoof brothers and ... everything that Sour Sweet and her father ever did ... would have been for nothing.
Well then, remarked a voice in her head that sounded a lot like her “bad” voice, why don’t you make this brute of a bovine pay? I mean, why not right? He deserves it. It’s the least he could do for stealing your precious limelight. The limelight you rightfully deserved. The limelight that’s yours and yours alone. You need that limelight. You want that limelight. Without that limelight, you and your father are nothing. You would have nothing. You don’t want that for your father, right? Yesss. Let cattle-man pay. Let him pay for all of your pain and suffering by handing his sorry hide over to you.
Sour Sweet got back onto her hooves. She spit out her lassoing rope, and turned her scowling face toward Nickel Head.
“Hey, Ugly!”
The white bull turned his head down slightly to catch a glimpse of the pony yelling at him. It was hard to see anything due to the archway stuck on his horns.
“You just cost me my blue ribbon, you big oaf!” she continued telling him off. Then her smile became a more sinister one.
“Now, looks like you have to pay with your hide. I’m sure that the judges will take a cow like you over a little sheep any day.”
Sour Sweet picked up her rope with her teeth once more and immediately began to swing it over her head. Even with her mouth full, she still had that sinister grin on her face.
“Oi!” Nickel Head yelled, steam flaring out of his nostrils. “What did you just say to me?!”
But instead of a reply, he felt a tight forceful pull on one of his horns. He wasn’t expecting such a force, especially from a teenage mare with a simple country rope. But he had heard some tales from Longhorn about how strong earth ponies were and Mistress Mare-velous proved that to be a fact without a doubt.
Nickel Head stood his ground as the little mare tried to pin him down to the sandy ground. But then he felt the archway slipping slowly off his horns. With a smirk, he pulled his horns back as far as he could and felt her pull weaken. Then he began to spin around to get Sour Sweet off the ground and into the air. He swung her high, just enough to throw her and the archway into the arena wall behind him. His smirk grew when he heard Sour Sweet desperately scream as she flew through the air.
“Sweetie!” cried Gladmane from the stadium suite, fear and concern in his voice. He galloped out of the suite, leaving the three elderly stallions in the dust. “Hold on, sweetie, Daddy’s comin’!”
The rich, suited stallions showed no emotion or expression of liveliness at the dire situation at hoof. One of them only coughed weakly, as if he had gotten dust in his lungs. Then the rich stallions slowly followed after Gladmane.
Meanwhile the gold-painted archway flew towards Mistress Mare-velous, who was standing among the destroyed empty stands. She tried to run out of its way, but was too late. The archway crashed into the stands, leaving an indent the size of a little league hoofball field.
Before the archway crashed into the stands, Sour Sweet fell off it, landing on several broken seats that cushioned her fall. If it weren’t for the chairs, she would have had a busted head and spine. But still, when she came to, her head was aching like there was no tomorrow; her body and spine felt distorted and sore. She slowly got back on her hooves and slowly shifted her dazed gaze to the arena. Once her eyes locked on Nickel Head, anger over came her weariness.
She sprinted down the stairs toward the stand railings, jumped the railing, and landed on the dusty ground, bolting towards Nickel Head.
Meanwhile something was weakly moving underneath the crashed golden archway. It was a bruised but still-persistent Mistress Mare-velous slowly crawling away from the weight of the golden archway. After using almost all the strength that Demeter had given her, Mistress pulled her hind legs free and let out a sigh of relief. While catching her breath, she noticed Sour Sweet running towards Nickel Head.
“Sweet Celestia, what is she doing?! She’s gonna get herself killed!”
Feeling like there was no time to waste, Mistress galloped down the steps of the stands, jumped over the railing, and landed in the arena.
“Hold on, Miss!” she called out to Sour Sweet. “Stop!”
But Sour Sweet did not listen to the faint cries of the hero behind her. Her focus was already locked on her main target of revenge, and she wasn’t going to stop. No matter what.
“She can’t hear me,” Mistress muttered to herself in horror. “Well then, if I can’t stop her, I’ll join her! Legs, don’t fail me now!”
Despite the pain in her front and hind legs, Mistress Mare-velous was still able to run as fast as a rodeo champion. And luckily, she was able to run just as fast as Sour Sweet.
When Mistress was running side-by-side with the mad mare, she yelled “Halt Miss! Turn back! That’s a rampaging bovine monster straight ahead!”
But Sour Sweet still didn’t listen. Instead Mistress’s remarks made her gallop even faster.
“Wait, stop! I’m tryin’ to help ya!” Mistress called out again.
Feeling like she had no choice in the matter, Mistress reached for one of her tight-stitched criminal-catching nets, and swung it towards Sour Sweet. The net expanded out wide like a spider-web before trapping Sour Sweet in its coils. The impact of the net capturing the galloping earth mare made her bounce off the ground and into the stands. The netted pony flew towards an abandoned cotton candy cart and landed with great but sticky impact. Not only did the net stick to the now-melting cotton candy, but so did Sour Sweet. Her once-clean coat was now sticky with pink and blue cotton candy juices. Her mane and tail were now tangled and ensnared into the fibers of the cotton candy. She couldn’t get out, no matter how much she struggled.
“Help!” Sour Sweet cried out, “Somepony, help me!”
“Hold on, sweetie!” Gladmane called back to his daughter, arriving at the scene. “Daddy’s here!”
Following slowly but surely behind Gladmane were the trio of rich but very old stallions from the Bank.
“Daddy?!” Sour Sweet exclaimed, not really able to see her dad or any other pony for that matter. “Daddy, is that you?”
“Yes, it is, sweetie, and I’m gonna get you out of there. Just hang on.”
As Gladmane began to pull on the net that bound Sour Sweet in a ball with his teeth, Sour Sweet realized, “Get me out? Wait, Daddy! Hold on!”
But her protest was in vain. Gladmane pulled her with brute force, causing her to yelp in pain. But even when she came free of the cart, she was still stuck in the net, and the whole net was covered in cotton candy fluff galore.
Once Gladmane spotted a part of the net that was not covered in cotton candy, he began to pull on it with his teeth.
“No, ouch!” Sour Sweet whimpered in pain. “Dad! Stop!”
But her dad did not hear her protests and whimpers. Just like before, he ripped the net off Sour Sweet with so much force that it pulled chunks of her coat and mane out.
Sour Sweet let out a couple of whimpers underneath her breath as her body was freed from the sticky mess. Gladmane soon realized his mistake when trying to help out his daughter in this situation. His eyes widened at all the bald spots that now covered his daughter’s body. She looked like a balding spotted alley cat dyed by a blue and pink fabric factory.
As Sour Sweet’s gaze met her father’s, she immediately saw that something was wrong. “Daddy? What’s wrong?”
She looked down at her hoof and gasped in horror as she witnessed the chunks of hair missing from her leg. In a panic, her eyes scanned all over her body, and saw the same balding pattern on her coat and tail. She gasped at all the horrible, smelly, sticky, blue-and-pink stains that now tinted her once beautiful coat.
Sour Sweet took a long dramatic breath in, before screaming, “AH! LOOK AT ME! MY COAT! MY MANE! MY BEAUTIFUL TAIL! RUINED!”
Her screams immediately stopped when she heard the terrifying sound of laughter. Laughter at her expense. Horrible mocking laughter. Sour Sweet turned her head towards the stallions behind her father and saw the shortest of the old stallions chuckling dryly. His mocking quiet laughter sounded like a dry, squeaky train wheel slowly going across a train track. Soon, the two other old stallions joined in on this mocking, squeaking, dry laughter and it was just torture on Sour Sweet’s ears.
There they were. Just laughing at her. Laughing at her pain, her humiliation, and her downfall without even remembering that, not too long ago, she was going to be the champion of the rodeo. She was nothing more than a clown for their amusement.
But this was not what made her lips quiver. This was not what made tears form in her eyes. Her father stepped in front of her and nervously chuckled at the stallions. “Ha ha, ain’t she just a hoot?! I never told ya gentlecolts this, but my daughter has quite the sense of humor. Oh yes, she does! Now, let’s leave my daughter to gussy up herself again before anypony can see her.”
Gladmane looked over his shoulder slightly and gave her a glaring look. “Right, sweetie pie?”
And there it was. His complete and utter disappointment in her. His embarrassment, his shame, and his anger. With no hope for Sour Sweet to ever redeem herself in his eyes. The possibility of her father to ever be proud of her ... completely eliminated. This accident, this whole mess with her appearance was not her fault. She didn’t bring this onto herself on purpose. She would never in a million years. She would never want to embarrass herself and shame their family name on purpose. All she ever wanted was just his approval. But, despite her tears, her father didn’t believe her. He didn’t give her a chance to explain. He was just ashamed. He just had to cover up her “mistake” before it was too late.
But this wasn’t my fault! Sour Sweet cried inside her mind. This wasn’t my fault!
With the tears now streaming down her face, she quickly galloped away from her dad and the old bank stallions, trying to reach her trailer just outside the stadium before anypony could see her. She tried to clench her mouth shut, so that nopony could hear her pathetic sobbing.
Meanwhile, Mistress Mare-velous and Nickel Head were butting heads. Literally. Then again, Mistress always prided herself on having a hard head, and luckily the strength and power that Demeter gave her also lent strength and power to her head.
“Give it up Miss Cinn-mo-ron!” Nickel Head snorted out, with his massive forehead pressed against Mistress’s forehead, “I’ve gone for thirty years straight without some pony lassoing a rope around my neck!”
“Not cocky, filly, you just got the temporary upper hoof is all.”
Mistress looked up, as much as she could in her state, and saw that Nickel Head was holding a silver arrow above her back, ready to pierce her with it. Mistress quickly reared onto her hind hooves and grabbed Nickel’s horns with her front hooves. Then she smashed his head to the left and forced his face into the dirt. As she brought him down, Nickel Head accidentally threw the silver arrow and it flew through the air like a speeding bullet. It went through one of the arena’s gateway exits, and towards the rodeo competitor’s trailer park just outside the stadium.
Sour Sweet just galloped to her trailer with tears accompanying her along the way. She slammed the trailer door behind her, and as soon as she was inside, the silver arrow struck the trailer door. Then, slowly but subtly, the arrow turned into glittering ash and disappeared into the trailer. It magically traveled through the air in the trailer, and entwined its body into the top border of the vanity mirror stand.
Mistress used her magical rope to tie up Nickel Head by his legs and giant horns, so that she could get the silver bow off his back. Try as he might, Nickel Head couldn’t struggle out of the rope. In fact, the more he struggled, the tighter the rope gripped him.
Mistress looked down at the bow in her hoof before pulling the minion up by his horns, which he instantly responded to with a grunt and a growl.
“Where’s Artemis’s arrow, ya Pinhead?”
“I don’t know.”
Mistress pulled on the rope, which made Nickel Head respond with “Ah! Seriously, I don’t know! One moment it was in my hoof, and then next thing I knew, it was gone. You made me lose the arrow when you took me down, you Pinhead!”
“Dang it,” the masked heroine cursed under her breath. “Demeter is gonna kill me.”
Sour Sweet collapsed into the chair in front of her vanity and sobbed into the surface of its table. On the table was a framed picture of Sour Sweet as a filly with a slightly younger version of her father and mother. The sound of her soft sobbing made Artemis’s silver arrow glow slightly in a shade of light blue, and this glow traveled through the mirror, making it temporarily glow in the same shade.
“Pfft! Pathetic!”
Sour Sweet immediately stopped crying. She knew that voice. It was her bad voice. But...this time...it didn’t sound like it was in her head anymore. It sounded like it was actually in the room with her, right across from her.
When she looked up and stared into the mirror, it wasn’t her reflection staring back at her. It was the reflection of a monster. A half-animal, half-pony, hybrid monster. It had the ears, fangs, and shaggy spotted coat of a predatory feline of sorts, but...it had pony eyes and a pony-shaped head. But, what truly terrified her about this monster was that it had her once beautiful mane on top of its head, and her eye color.
Sour Sweet let out a quick scream at the sight of the creature in her vanity’s mirror, and jumped out of her chair. She crawled on the floor in order to get away from it.
Yet, she still couldn’t look away.
“W-Who are you? W-What are…?” Sour Sweet whispered to the creature softly.
“Daww, don’t tell me that you don’t recognize this beautiful voice of mine?” cooed the creature. “Or should I say...ours?”
“Ours?” asked Sour Sweet, slowly getting back to her hooves. “My voice isn’t yours. I mean, your voice isn’t mine.”
“But that’s why I said ours, my dear,” the creature retorted sweetly. “I’m you, and you are me. Or at least, I’m the better version of you. The you that you could be. The you that you should be.”
“You?! Better?!” Sour Sweet slightly hissed. “How could you possibly be any better than me?! You’re a monster!”
The creature arched its right eyebrow at Sour Sweet, and gave her a sassy all-knowing look, “Oh really? Have you looked into a mirror lately?”
The creature suddenly disappeared, and there staring at Sour Sweet was her own reflection, revealing her horrible new mane-do and the mess she was in; all the ugliness and shame for her to see. She stared at her reflection with terror and took a step back.
Her reflection rapidly disappeared, and the creature unfortunately returned. “If this isn’t a call for help, then I don’t know what is.”
“Please,” Sour Sweet whimpered softly, “don’t show me that again. Ever again. I-I mean...”
“Don’t worry,” the creature replied sinisterly, “I won’t. And you will never have to be her ever again.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re going to be somepony new, sweetie. Or rather, the pony you were always meant to be, but never had the chance to.”
Suddenly the reflection changed, and before Sour Sweet knew it, her beautiful, sweet, kind mother’s image was in the mirror instead of the horrid creature from before.
“Mom?” Her mother hadn’t even aged a day. She was exactly as Sour Sweet remembered her. Long yellow, red, and lime green striped mane and tail tied in loose ponytails. Big bright sky-blue eyes. Her coat color the same as her daughter’s, but much smoother and softer to the touch. And of course, her pie cutie mark which was decorated with little hearts.
The sight of her mother smiling so warmly brought tears to Sour Sweet’s eyes. Her hooves urged her body to move towards the mirror.
“Mom?” Sour Sweet called out with a tear-stained smile. “Is that...is that really you? Have you truly…?”
“It sure is, sweetie,” her mother replied warmly in her southern belle accent, in a tone that could melt butter slowly in the evening of a warm night. “As sure as May time in the summertime. And darling, more importantly, I’m here to help you.”
“R-Really? You are? So...you’re not...ashamed of me? You don’t think...it’s too late for me?”
“Of course not sweetie, it could never be too late for you. After all, you’re my little sugar pie. And once you see what you could be, Daddy will see it too.”
“R-Really?!” Sour Sweet choked out, with more tears pouring down her face and her smile growing wider with each passing minute.
“Do you see that safety pin on the dresser?”
Sour Sweet turned her head towards the small dresser lined up against the wall, and spotted the small silver safety pin on top of it.
“Yeah?” she asked in a confused unsure tone.
“Wonderful, could you be a dear and pick it up, and show it to Mommy?”
“Um, here it is. But Mom, what do you need this safety pin for?” asked Sour Sweet while holding up the safety pin for her mother to see clearly.
“It's not for me sweetie,” her mom replied sweetly and gently, “It’s for you.”
“For me? Why? I don’t quite understand.”
“Prick the very soft tip of your hoof sweetie, and put that pricked hoof onto the mirror. With this, Mommy will promise you that you’ll become the mare that you’ve always wanted to be.”
While looking down at the safety pin in her hoof, Sour Sweet then questioned, “If...If I become this mare I’m supposed to be...will you…?” She looked back up at her mother in the mirror with tears in her eyes. “Will you come back to me?”
Her mother’s eyes became half-lidded and soft, and her smile didn’t falter. “With great power, anything is possible sweetie.”
With more tears streaming down her face, and without removing her gaze from her mother’s eyes, Sour Sweet opened the safety pin and pricked the tip of her hoof with its small sharp needle-like end.
Her mother reached out her hoof toward the surface of the mirror in front of her, and this urged Sour Sweet to reach out her pricked hoof to touch her mother’s hoof. Once her hoof touched the surface of the mirror, light blue glowing swirls of magic with silver sprinkles floating inside them tentacled out of the mirror and slowly warped into the bloody tip of Sour Sweet’s hoof. This magic traveled up into her foreleg, making it glow in the same hue as the magic. Soon, her shoulder glowed..then her ears...then her mane...then her tail...her whole body...and then her eyes.
When the magic reached her eyes, her entire body was struck with immense pain and the glowing light of magic. To Sour Sweet, it felt like her body was struck by lightning itself. The earth pony mare collapsed upon the ground in this new pain, and the reflection of her mother in the mirror transformed into the hybrid monster from earlier. The monster smirked devilishly at Sour Sweet and chuckled darkly in her throat, watching as the pony’s body morphed and expanded into something foreign, strange, and almost unnatural-looking. Sour Sweet’s hind legs started to grow longer and thinner, yet still retaining their former toned physique. Her hind hooves twisted about and grew sharp feline claws. As her coat became coarse and shaggy, it gained colorful new spots, as well as a dingy hue to it. Her ears slowly rounded out and became furrier in the process. Her jaw ached as she felt some teeth in her mouth conform into a pointier sharper shape. Sour Sweet screamed as her tail lost all its horse hairs and transformed into a long cat-like tail.
For a brief moment, she could have sworn something or somepony called out to her. But the voice or sound was only as loud as a whisper and she couldn’t make out what it said.
When the spell was complete, Sour Sweet slowly got back to her feet and her eyes flashed a quick bright neon pink glow. When she turned around to face the vanity mirror, her face matched perfectly with the mirror monster that she was conversing with before. But Sour Sweet did not see that. In fact, when she stared into the eyes of the smirking monster in the mirror, she saw animalistic hunger, darkness, and fearlessness. Sour Sweet growled like a cheetah, showing the mirror monster her new sharp fangs. This made the hybrid’s grin in the mirror widen sinisterly.
“Ah, now doesn’t that feel better? But the transformation isn’t complete. You must complete the hunt. Finish off your prey. That sorry piece of soon-to-be leather ... show him that the sweet limelight belongs to you and your father. But mostly you. YOU deserve it the most.”
Sour Sweet responded with a smile; a smile that matched the gleeful malice of the monster talking to her in the mirror. Then she chuckled darkly in her throat and let out a growl-like purr.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Oh sweetie pie, is everything alright in there?” Gladmane hollered sweetly.
Sour Sweet, in her new form, responded to her father’s question by head-butting into the door, darting out of the trailer, and leaving her father in the dust.
“S-Sour Sweet?! Is that you? Hold on sweetie, Daddy’s coming!”
The Las Pegasus police had arrived at the scene and parked their armored van in the middle of the dusty arena, so that they could load Nickel Head in and hopefully take him into a prison big enough to hold him.
From the corner of her eye, Mistress Mare-velous watched Nickel Head get loaded into the van, but she still politely listened to and talked to the police officer in front of her. The police officer was a grey earth mare with deep purple eyes, black tips on top of her unusually tall ears, and a short tuft of a tail. She even had a light grey, extremely short yet fluffy mane. In all honesty, Mistress couldn’t help but think about how bunny-like this cop was. Like a big, cute, cuddly, bunny cop.
“Thanks for all of your assistance, Miss Orange. However in the future,” the female officer suddenly added with a soft smirk on her face, “I do suggest you call 911 first before you take matters into your own hooves. After all, you are still a civilian and all.” The officer added a little wink after her concluding statement.
Mistress nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck, “I’ll make sure to do that in future, Officer Hopps. Thank you.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, but what’s up with the mask? I thought this was a rodeo.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, it is. You’d be surprised at what you need to do in order to get the judges’ attention these days.”
“Apparently.”
“Um, Carrots?!” a stallion officer called out to Officer Hopps, grunting as he and the rest of the police officers struggled to get Nickel Head into the van due to his great size and reluctance of course. “If you happen to be done interrogating the rodeo hero, do you think you could spare some time and help us out with what we actually came here for?!”
The stallion was an earth pony as well, with bright green eyes, and a coat as bright and orange as a fox’s fur. His dark orange tail almost looked as fluffy and long as a fox’s tail. The guy even had unusually tall, pointed, and tipped ears like a fox too. To Mistress, all that he was missing was a fox’s snout and some paws.
“Comin’ Nick! Sheesh!” Officer Hopps called out.
Then she turned back to ‘Miss Orange’ with a polite yet slightly embarrassed smile. She chuckled slightly, “Thank you for your cooperation. If we have any more questions, we will let you know.”
“Happy to answer them any time.”
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I unfortunately have a very dumb fox to deal with.”
Once Officer Hopps started to walk away from Mistress, she yelled out, “Just hold your fetlocks you guys, I’m comin’!”
Mistress shook her head, and silently chuckled to herself at the entertaining display. As she was about to stroll away and move onto her never-ending journey of finding Longhorn, something crashed on top of the armored van.
Mistress Mare-velous spun around and saw what she could only describe as a true freak of nature. To be more precise, a freak of nature in the feline category.
The creature left a huge dent on top of the van, and prowled around like a feral cat eyeing the mice that were scattering around its feet. The cops pulled out their tranquilizer dart guns, while Mistress prepared herself for battle by placing one hoof on her rope and using the other to protect the bow strapped to her back.
The creature sniffed closely at the van’s roof. She smiled eerily and her eyes glowed as she moved to the back part of the van, chuckling and growling at the scent she picked up.
“Hold it right there!” Officer Hopps called out to the freak, inching herself slightly toward it.
“Carrots!” the officer named Nick hissed out in a hushed tone, “Don’t! You can’t!”
“By the order of the Las Pegasus Police Department, I’m telling you to stand back and put your paws into the air!”
“My, my,” the monster purred evilly, “are you trying to stand between me and my prey?” Then she snarled fiercely, “Big mistake, bunny!”
As quick as her tonal shift, the monster leaped off the van and towards Officer Hopps, claws out and ready to tear into her throat.
“Judy!” Nick shouted.
But this hybrid mash-up wasn’t the only quick creature around. As swift as the wind, Mistress pushed Officer Hopps out of the way and bucked the hybrid in the face.
This sent the enemy flying away from the van and towards the ground just a few feet away. The creature whined and whimpered in pain before slowly getting up. Its gaze gradually met with Mistress’s, and Mistress could tell that her foe was ready to fight again.
However, despite the war-like hunger in the creature’s expression, Mistress had to demand, “What is it you want, uh, cheetah? Or whatever you are?”
“My sweet, sweet limelight,” the predator purred once more, taking in sweet pleasure in the word ‘limelight,’ “and for the moment, you are the only one standing in my way of it!”
Using her long hind legs, she pushed off the ground and raced straight towards Mistress.
As our hero reached for her rope, she noticed that good ole Bessie wasn’t glowing. “Huh? What’s wrong Bessie? Why aren’t you glowing?”
The cheetah-like villain surprised her by swiping for her nose first. Mistress cried out in pain and covered her muzzle. Then the creature took advantage of this opening and pinned her to the ground. Mistress responded to this by struggling and wrestling with her foe with all her strength. She tried pushing her opponent back, but the cheetah scratched at her, creating multiple fairly deep claw marks in her fur. Mistress cursed at all the bleeding she had to endure at this creature’s claws.
But Mistress felt the most pain was when the claws dug into her back. The monster smiled as she took in Mistress’s agonizing yelp. As for the bow strapped to Mistress’s back, it began to glow. The cheetah’s eyes widened at this glow and she stopped attacking her prey.
She slowly let go of Mistress and stepped away. “That glow…”
The cheetah and the cops on the scene witnessed how Mistress Mare-velous cried out in pain as the glow of the bow spread all over her back, legs, and body. Our hero thought she was in pain before, but this...this was far worse than any aftermath injury she had ever endured for this job. She felt something heavy sink into her back and it arched in response to this weight. The weight traveled from her spine to the rest of her body. Mistress felt as heavy as a stone. She couldn’t even lift her head up. All that she could do was stare at the creature and the rest of the ponies, who were dumbfoundedly watching her and her pain.
For a moment, just a moment, Mistress thought she heard something call out to her. The sound was quiet and not entirely clear. It almost sounded like a mare, but Mistress couldn’t make out what she said.
After a brief but bright flash of light, Mistress’s body no longer glowed. All her claw marks were healed and the silver bow of Artemis was gone.
With a moan, Mistress Mare-velous carefully opened her eyes. She no longer felt heavy. Actually, she felt great. Mentally and physically tired, yes; but still great as if she took a really good nap.
“What the hay?” Mistress muttered, as if she were in a haze.
“What in the world?” Officer Hopps whispered aloud in awe.
“At this point Carrots,” Officer Nick remarked, “it’s just too weird to even ask anymore.”
Meanwhile, Sour Sweet’s mind slowly went back to what happened before she stormed out of the trailer. She began to remember the pain. She remembered her mother coming back from the dead and talking to her. She remembered her father’s words when she accidentally humiliated herself in front of the Sherhoof brothers. But above all else, she remembered seeing that nightmarish beast staring at her from the mirror.
With shaky breath, she hesitantly lifted her hoof up and saw that it was no longer her hoof, but something else entirely. She screamed at this. In the midst of her panic, she backed away from Mistress and kept backing away until something behind her touched her flank. Sour Sweet spun around and gasped at her own reflection shining from the police van. She couldn’t believe what she saw...she couldn’t believe at what she had become. She was...the monster from the mirror. As for Mistress Mare-velous, when she was able to focus her gaze and her mind again, able to connect with her tired body, her attention was drawn back to Sour Sweet. She didn’t see a scared, confused, and trembling pony afraid of her own reflection. Mistress only saw a criminal that needed to be stopped before it could hurt anypony else.
The masked earth mare barreled towards Sour Sweet, swung around one of her regular ropes high in the air, and rapidly lassoed the hybrid mare into a tight ball. As soon as Sour Sweet was captured, her animal instincts returned, and she struggled and snarled like a rabid creature.
“There!” Mistress panted out, “That outta keep ya occupied.”
Mistress turned to the cops standing behind the van and called out, “Do any of y’all have a straitjacket or something to restrain this thing?”
The cops let out a collected confused mutter at her request, still processing what just happened and how this seemingly ordinary yet strangely dressed citizen managed to capture the monster like it was nothing. The only cop who was able to snap out of this daze was Officer Hopps, who remembered that she kept a spare straitjacket in the trunk of her cop car. She trotted to the trunk, grabbed the jacket, and hoofed it over to Mistress.
“Thank ya kindly,” said Mistress with a smile.
“Well, once again,” Officer Hopps added with a cordial smile, beginning to pull Sour Sweet towards the back of the van once the crazy mare was strapped into her jacket, “thank you for all your help.”
“Oh, no problem Officer,” Mistress saluted humbly, “once again, happy to help in any way that I can.”
As Officer Nick and the rest of the cops opened the back of the van, and as Officer Hopps hoof-handled the crazy mare, Sour Sweet kept her cat’s eye gaze on Mistress. This almost scared the young heroine for a moment because...she had never felt such a hateful stare from any pony before. It was the same kind of hate that lingered inside her for Longhorn.
“Just you wait,” Sour Sweet threatened Mistress, “one way or another, you and I will face each other in battle again! But next time, I’ll win! I’ll be victorious! I’ll be the one soaking in that precious, precious limelight! Not you! It won’t matter who or what you are! All that will remain will be me! Not that pathetic Sour Sweet, but me! The Spotted Cheetah! Mwhahaha!”
And with that ending evil laugh, the cops closed her into the van with Nickel Head.
Was that this creature’s real name? Sour Sweet? she wondered.
While the cops locked up the back of the van and headed back toward their respective cop cars, somepony shouted, “Wait, stop! That’s my daughter!”
This desperate call came from Gladmane, running towards the van. The stallion was completely disheveled when he arrived at the scene. His poofy mane had lost its poof, and his suit was stained with sweat. His eyes and ears frantically scanned for any sign or sound of his daughter. He could have sworn that he heard her voice.
Then, he ran towards the van, but he was stopped by Officer Hopps and Officer Nick.
“Sir,” Officer Hopps ordered, “We’ll have to ask you to step back. We’re in the process of a very dangerous arrest.”
“Trust us,” Officer Nick added, “You don’t want to be anywhere close to this situation.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Gladmane begged, “That’s my daughter in there!”
He pushed between the two cops, and banged on the van’s back door. “Sour Sweet! Sour Sweet! It’s me, Daddy! Are you in there?!”
Gladmane stopped banging on the door in order to wait for his sweet little filly’s response. All was silent in the arena as Gladmane, as well as everypony else, waited for Sour Sweet to make some kind of noise. Something to break the pure quiet in this moment.
But instead of a vocal response, Sour Sweet banged against the door and scratched on its metal surface with her claws. Gladmane’s eyes widened at what he saw through the barred window. There she was...his precious girl...transformed into something more feline than pony. Gladmane couldn’t believe that this thing was Sour Sweet. After all, her fur was far from the complexion, color, and design of his dearly departed wife. She had the fangs, claws, and ears of an exotic cat. The only thing that reminded Gladmane of his daughter was the eyes. Despite the blind anger in her eyes, Gladmane could recognize his own daughter’s eyes anywhere. They always reminded him of the beauty of his late wife.
His heart slowly shattered inside his chest as he let his hooves and body slide sluggishly off the van. By some miracle, he found his voice and squeaked out, “S-Sweetie pie? No...it can’t be...it just can’t be…”
Meanwhile, Mistress watched the broken father from afar and breathlessly stated in horror, “She...she was a pony?”
My disciple...
A voice called out in the wind for Mistress, and the hero knew this voice all too well. Her heart sank to the bottom of her chest at the sound of this familiar voice. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. Her fear shamelessly took over her in that moment, leaving the mysterious voice and force to magically take her away from the arena.
Before Applejack could process her new discovery about her foe in the arena, she soon found herself in an all-too-familiar, beautiful golden wheat field. A bountiful pasture that could honestly go on and on with no end. Usually, such a place gave great comfort to Applejack. But in this moment, however, she knew that she had disappointed her goddess.
“My soldier…”
The young heroine looked up and saw Demeter standing over her with a stern yet regal expression on her face. Her dress blew in the warm wind, her mane and coat shone in the sweet sunlight, but her cold chestnut eyes were focused into the deepest depths of Applejack’s sad guilty eyes.
“You have failed me, my champion,” Demeter uttered with a soft but impactful echo to her voice, “Tell what happened.”
“L-Lady Demeter,” Applejack explained weakly, “Oh great and gracious Lady Demeter, I...I’m sorry. I lost the arrow. I lost Lady Artemis’s arrow in the midst of my pursuit of one of Longhorn’s minions.”
“And it seems like you have lost the bow as well.”
“What? N-No, I didn’t lose the bow Lady Demeter. It’s right—”
But when Applejack reached over her shoulder to pull out the bow, she couldn’t find it. It was no longer on her back, and nowhere to be found. Her eyes widened in horror and her stomach instantly felt as heavy as stone. She had truly failed her goddess today.
“W-What?! W-Where did it...where did it go?!”
“It is inside you.”
“P-Pardon?”
“It is true my champion, the bow has found a way into your body through your blood.”
“But, how could this be? Why is it in my body? What does my blood have to do with Lady Artemis’s bow?”
“Because Artemis made her beloved bow and arrow with her own blood, the bow and arrow seek out their true wielder through blood as well. Therefore, because you were in battle with that mare, with the bow on your back—”
“The...the scratches. Her claw marks made my body bleed and—Argh! This can’t be! Does this...does this make me…?”
“Artemis’s disciple? Yes, by technicality.”
“But is that...is that even allowed? I mean, has something like this ever happened before?”
“I’m afraid this is an abnormality my soldier; however, you are not the only disciple of Artemis now.”
“What do you mean?”
“You share this title with the wielder of Artemis’s arrow.”
“And who is the wielder of Artemis’s arrow?”
“The mare by name of Sour Sweet, the beast you fought with today.”
“So, that’s why good ole Bessie wasn’t glowing,” Applejack breathlessly exclaimed, placing her front hoof on her forehead, “You didn’t want to hurt a disciple of Lady Artemis. Oh, Lady Demeter, this is crazy! That pony, Sour Sweet, just earlier today she was just like me. Then, all of the sudden, she’s a crazy, rampaging mutant.”
“The arrow somehow found a way into her body through blood, and transformed her into the darkest, animalistic part of herself.”
“But why did Lady Artemis’s magic transform her but not me?”
“Simple, my disciple. I used my own magic to stop the transformation before it was too late. A part of you may belong to Artemis now, but you were still my disciple first. Your body is still loyal to my command before hers.”
“There has to be a way to fix this Lady Demeter. There just has to be a way to get that sweet filly back to normal and get her back to her family.”
“The only way for Artemis’s magic to be undone is through Artemis alone.”
“That’s perfect!” Applejack cheered with great determination, “All we gots to do is talk to Lady Artemis and—”
“I’m afraid it isn’t that simple.”
“What do you mean, my Lady?”
“In order to reverse Artemis’s influence upon your spirits and your bodies, the chains of discipleship must be renounced.”
“But Lady Demeter, rest assured that I would break off my relationship with Lady Artemis for you.”
“It isn’t just you who must renounce the chains of discipleship.”
“Y-You don’t mean…”
“I do, young one. You’ll need this Sour Sweet to not only participate in the ceremony, but you will also need her consent if you are ever to contact Artemis in the first place.”
“I can’t even summon Lady Artemis on my own?!”
“I’m afraid so,” Demeter remarked with soft eyes, “But do not despair my child, I will try to speak to Artemis on your behalf and pursue towards another possible solution. I know her mother well, and Artemis holds her mother in high regard.”
“My Lady, is there…?” Applejack tried to ask, sensing there was more despairing news that her goddess needed to tell her. “Is there something else that I need to know?”
Applejack was surprised to find her goddess’s gaze slightly turned away from hers, bringing herself to a level lower than her position.
Demeter’s silence was soon broken. “My child, being the disciple of Artemis will not be the only obstacle you’ll have to face. For you see...your very mortal life is at stake.”
“My Lady…” Applejack simply stated, taking a step forward towards Demeter.
“If Artemis’s bow and arrow are placed in two separate bodies, then two souls can never die of old age. They can only die if...they kill one another.”
“Oh, my Lady, this is...this is all my fault.” Applejack explained in an apologetic tone. “If I had just been more careful in where I was rounding up Nickel Head...if I had just been more careful in my battle with him...if I had just showed just a tiny bit of mercy to Sour Sweet...none of this would have happened.”
