Applejack wanted to take a break from the life of working with superheroes; with her little sister and big brother away for the next week, she decided to take this time to be herself.
The barnyard house on Country Road was a fine looking house; made to look like a farm. The garage was a stable, the backyard was home to the animals; the ones owned by the people who lived on this farm.
The house was owned by a lovely couple, Bright Mac and Pear Butter; the two of them had been married for over ten years now, and they had something to show for it.
As the married couple came down the stairs, they looked at their three beautiful children playing around the room. Big Macintosh, their oldest child and only son; named after his father, but everyone just calls him Big Mac. Applejack, their oldest daughter; inherited her country accent from her mother.
And finally, in the arms of her grandmother; Granny Smith, Bright Mac’s mother, was little baby Applebloom.
“How’s my sonny-boy doing tonight?” Granny asked her son.
To which he replied, “Couldn’t be better, Ma.”
Bright Mac then walked over to the coat hanger, where he found his lucky cowboy hat; he took that hat everywhere with him, he’s had since he was old enough for it to fit. When he put it on his head, his wife came up behind him and hugged him.
“You ready, darling?” Pear Butter asked.
To which he replied, “Yep, I just need to tell the kids something.” He sat in his favourite armchair, and said to his kids, “Big Mac, Applejack; come here a sec would you.”
Applejack replied, “Yes, Pa.”
“Eeyu.”
When his son and daughter sat on the couch in front of him, Bright said what he wanted to say, “Now, your Ma and I are going out for a night on the town, which means your Granny Smith is going to be looking after you and your little sister. I want you to behave for her, and do as you’re told.”
Both the children nodded at his statement, he said to them, “Good, because what do I always say?”
Applejack and Big Mac said in unison, “The most important thing in the world is family.”
The father then opened his arms, inviting them into a loving hug; he said to them, “That’s right; family. You have a wonderful family, don’t ever forget that.”
Granny Smith put Applebloom in her cot and then said, “Alright; if you two don’t go now, you may never leave. I’ve got this.”
The two kids then hugged their mother, she said to them, “I love ma babies, so much.”
When the hug ended, the two parents said goodbye to their baby in the cot; before waving goodbye to their other kids. After that, they put their coats on and went out for their night on the town.
A few hours later; the couple had enjoyed a nice dinner, gone dancing at a night club and now were just walking down the street. They were trying to find a coffee or ice cream shop; however, their walk took them down an alleyway.
As they entered the opening, some standing on the side of the street watched them enter; thinking they were easy prey, he followed them.
Pear Butter stayed close to her husband, the look of this place was one that she didn’t like. But this seemed better, they could see the other end of the alley, they were almost out; when…
“Hey!” the couple turned around, and saw the man who had been following them.
Bright Mac asked, “Can we help you, sir?”
“Wallets and jewellery.” He demanded, pulling a revolver gun out of his pocket. “Now!”
Now Pear Butter was truly frightened, and she had every right to be; Bright Mac took his wallet out of his pocket and handed it to the mugger. But then something caught his eye; Pear Butter had a necklace around her neck, a gold chain with a little gold heart hanging in the centre, Bright Mac’s first wedding anniversary present to her.
The mugger said, “Come on, “I said jewellery to.” He pointed his gun at Pear Butter, which made Bright Mac mad; he wasn’t just going to let this guy get away with this.
Not even thinking, Bright Mac grabbed the gun; but the crook wouldn’t let go of it. The two of them struggled over it, until the barrel was pointed at Bright Mac’s chest; when he knocked into the mugger, he accidently pulled the trigger.
The sound of a gunshot could be heard, and then all was quiet; Bright Mac fell to the ground, the air escaping his lungs. Pear Butter looked down at her husband, and then back at the mugger; he couldn’t believe this had happened, he’d never shot someone before.
Knowing what he had to do, he pointed the gun at Pear Butter again; he muttered, “No witnesses.” Without hesitation, he shot her down. She fell right beside her husband as the mugger ran away; the quietly breathed heavily, right until….
…all was quiet.
Later that night, someone was ringing doorbell at the farm house; Granny Smith was putting her night gown on as she walked to the door. She was muttering to herself, “What’s the big idea, don’t they know that children and old folks are trying to sleep here.” But when she opened the front door, about to give out to whoever it was; she was greeted by two police officers.
“Good evening, Miss Smith.” The first officer said. “I’m afraid we have some bad news.” The second officer took something out of his back and handed it to Granny Smith; it was Bright Mac’s lucky hat. “It’s about your son and daughter-in-law.”
Granny Smith took the hat off the officer, she began to cry; this could only mean one thing.
Little did everyone know, but sitting at the top of the stairs; was little Applejack, she’d heard everything. She then concluded one thing, her parents, weren’t coming home.
17 years later
Canterlot High was still surrounded by police and hazardous waste removers; the school was still cover and infected with giant black webs.
Two people in hazmat-suits were just entering the gym; the first guy said, “This was apparently where the source of all this was; some creature that call itself, ‘Venom’.”
It had only been two hours since the event with Spiderman fighting Venom in the gym of Canterlot High; the day that Venom and his host were destroyed by the bomb Twilight Sparkle had built. The bomb was only meant to destroy the symbiote, not the host; but it wasn’t ready in time, Spiderman had to use it anyway.
The second guy in a hazmat-suit walked over to what looked like a clear patch, not black slime on this small patch of floor; but instead, was a large scorch mark. This was the exact spot where Venom was destroyed, the bomb left nothing; or so they thought.
“We were told that fire can burn this stuff away; so should we just get started with the flame-thrower or…” before he could finish, the other guy silenced him when he noticed something where the scorch mark was.
The guy said, “Hand me a test-tube.” The one holding the flame-thrower reached into his bag and pulled out a test-tube, he handed it to his friend; who got down on his knees to get a better look at something.
It wasn’t possible, but there was a small piece of the Venom symbiote, trying to crawl away; the guy caught it in the tube and put a cork in.
“We need to get this back to the lab, this could be the breakthrough we’ve been looking for; I mean we already have permission from the police to take that other creature to our facility.” The two of them left to go to their vehicles, the police had loaded the ‘creature’ onto the truck; they were returning to the company they worked for, the Life Foundation.
Present Day
The Life Foundation was one of Roxxon’s other companies; so while Roxxon worked with robotics, this company would work with biological projects. And the one project that this company had been most proud of once the one headed up but Professor Warren Davis; Project Symbiote.
Those two workers had brought back samples of the venom symbiote remains; also, some scientists were able to bring back samples of the carnage-symbiote from the train station. Some government and military representatives had seen how powerful those creatures were, and were hoping that they could use something like that.
But Professor Davis was most proud of one thing in particular, his living specimen.
Sitting in the middle of a lab, was a large containment chamber; and sitting in the chamber, was Babs Seed. The last living host of a symbiote on this Earth; the alien has been lying dormant inside her for the past year.
The chamber was soundproof, so Warren had to speak into a microphone to speak with her; he said into the mic, “Good morning Babs, did you sleep well?” the chamber’s floor was meant to be soft, so she was at least comfortable.
All Babs could do was nod her head, as no one could hear her.
No one was worried about Babs not being around, the Life Foundation had told her family that she had been giving some kind of infection from the symbiotes, and was being treated for it.
Professor Davis was about to run his tests, when someone stormed into the lab; it was the CEO of Roxxon, Phyllis Cloverleaf. “Warren, we need to talk; about the project.”
The two of them were talking in Warren’s office, she wasn’t happy about the results that she was getting from this project.
“You said you’d have a fresh batch of super-soldiers; my big presentation is next week, and I have nothing to show. I promised the police force a powerful arsenal of symbiote-soldiers.” Cloverleaf explained.
Professor Davis replied with, “I understand, Phyllis; but you can’t rush science. These things just take time.”
Cloverleaf walked towards the door, intending to leave; but before she left, she turned to Warren and said, “You have two days; two days to give me some results, or I’m pulling your funding and firing you and all your staff.”
“But…” before Warren could get a word in, Phyllis left the office. Professor Davis sat down in his chair, and began thinking; just as his lab assistant walked in to talk to him. “What are we going to do? We need some kind of results if we want to keep our jobs.”
His assistant was hesitant, but she did have an idea; she explained, “Well sir, we do still have the living specimen. The creature is lying dormant, if we draw it out; then we might be able to work with it.”
Warren was nervous, but that sounded like their only idea; he said to his assistant, “We know that sound agitates them, ready the sonic speakers.”
The young girl nodded at his request and left the office to carry out his orders.
That evening, scientists started working, setting up the sonic speakers around the lab and aiming them at the chamber Babs Seed was contained in; she was watching them, not really understanding what they were doing.
She was starting to worry, but her bad thoughts went away when she saw Professor Davis enter the lab; she trusted him, she knew him.
However, he didn’t look happy; when she saw his face, she saw he looked mad. When he spoke into the microphone, her thoughts were confirmed; he said, “Babs Seed, I am very disappointed in you. We have worked together for a year, and I have nothing to show for it; and it’s all your fault, you little brat.” She didn’t know it, but he was purposely trying to get her angry.
“And now you’ve forced my hand.” He put headphones on, as did all the other scientists; once he was sure that they were all safe, he pushed the red button on the computer console.
The sonic speakers suddenly blasted the chamber with high volume sounds, sounds that were even able to penetrate the sound proof glass; Babs put her hands over her ear to try and block it out, but it was too much.
She could feel a growing pain inside herself all of a sudden; from her back, the scientists could see small yellow tentacles growing. Warren stepped closer to the glass and muttered, “It’s working.”
The all of a sudden, Babs let out a large scream; before yellow slime exploded from her body, smashed the glass and sending fragments all over the lab. The blast was so great, that Warren and his assistant were thrown out the door of the lab.
All was quiet for the moment, until footsteps could be heard; Warren looked at the door to the lab, one of the scientists was trying to run away from something, but a yellow tentacle grabbed him from behind and pulled him back in.
Grabbing hold of the frame of the door, Professor Davis saw large hands, with sharp claws and red veins. The lab was full of smoke from the blast; but, emerging from the mist, came….
“Babs isn’t here right now.” The symbiote replied. “There is only Scream!”
Scream grabbed Warren’s assistant and lift her by the neck, into the air; Warren ran away before he could see what happened, all he heard was a large ‘chomp’ sound, before the creature started chasing him threw the lab.
Security had been called, the symbiote chased Professor Davis into the lobby of the lab; when it walked into the room, it released another bone-chilling roar. The security guards began shooting their guns at Scream, but the bullets were just bouncing off her; her symbiote hair attacked like tentacles, grabbed the guards and throwing them around.
He jump up onto the ceiling, trying to get away from the gun fire; she saw one guard in particular shooting his pistol at her, so she jumped down to grabbed him.
As she held him by the by the neck, he looked completely terrified; he managed to mutter, “Please, I gotta family.”
Half of Scream’s symbiote face dissolved away, revealing half of Babs Seed’s face; she replied, with a combination of Scream’s and Babs’ voices, “I had a family once, it didn’t work out.” Scream’s face came all the way back; and without warning, she opened her mouth and a large tentacle shot out of her mouth and down the guards throat, it was drain the life out of him.
When she was done, she threw the body at Davis, who was running for the door; the body knocked him down, allowing Scream to shoot a tentacle from her hand and drag Warren back to her.
Scream’s mouth opened, revealing Babs’ face underneath; in her voice she asked, “Any last words, Professor.”
All he could reply was, “No… please.”
But Scream didn’t listen, she just opened her jaw and…
Scream blasted out of the wall of the building, she roared (roar link) one last time as she had gained her freedom. As she began to walk down the road, the symbiote went away, returning to Babs Seed.
The teenage girl began talking to herself, speaking in rhythms, “That’s for the lesson’s dad, but I don’t need any man; and Professor, you tasted just like ham.”
The sun rose up into the sky, the light from the large star began to enter the bedroom of Canterlot City’s favourite farm girl, Applejack. As the light hit her eyes, they began to flutter open; she sat up in her bed and began to stretch.
Once she was fully awake, she needed to start her morning routine; she got up and got dressed. Before she left her bedroom, she almost forgot her trademark fashion choice; the old fashion cowboy hat her father left her.
Applejack put her hat on and looked in her mirror; her eyes were fixed on the hat, she muttered to herself, “Miss ya, Pa.” She left her bedroom and went out into the hallway, that’s when she had a thought.
What better way to start this morning, than with a song. Applejack began slowly walking down the hall as she began singing to herself.
She began thinking about all fond memories she had of working with her family.
“We head to work,
We catch a lift;
Walk through the smoke,
Can we start this shift?”
Applejack then reached the stairs; before she went down, she kept singing.
“We open up, we start to wake,
Maybe it's gonna be our day.”
“And suddenly we start to smile,
The sun is out for a while
And you may see this place in final worth;
But it's a little piece of heaven here on Earth.”
The farm girl then imagined she was on a stage, like how she would be with her friends; in her imagination, she began singing for the crowd.
“Yeah we always have a good time;
Whether it's hail, rain or in sunshine.”
“Yeah we're all living the good life;
Whether it's hail, rain or in sunshine.”
She snapped out of her fantasy, went down stairs and found her family already eating breakfast; she kept singing her song as she danced past them.
“We miss the tap,
We took the fall,
But we laughed through it all.”
She waved to her family and went outside to begin her worked.
“'Cause we're dreaming of the better days,
It's always been a way in,”
Applejack kept singing as she began sweeping the porch.
“You may see my friends in final worth,
But no I'd never go and change them for the world.”
She imagined she was back on the stage, this time her family was there with her, playing the instruments while she sang.
“Yeah we always have a good time,
Whether it's hail, rain or it's sunshine.”
“Yeah we're all living the good life,
Whether it's hail, rain or it's sunshine.”
Imaginary Big Mac was banging on the pots and pans like they were drums, Applebloom was tapping a spoon and pan together; while good old Granny Smith tapped her foot in her rocking chair.
The loud music then stopped and all was calm, Applejack sang…
“Yeah we always have a good time,
Whether it's hail, rain or in sunshine.”
After that, the loud music came back.
“We always have a good time,
Whether it's hail, rain or in sunshine.”
“Yeah we're all living the good life,
Whether it's hail, rain or in sunshine.”
The Apple Family then started rodeo dancing together, all the way up until the song ended.
Applejack was deep in her thoughts, so deep, she didn’t hear her granny yelling for her.
The old woman yelled, “Applejack! Applejack! Snap out of it, young lady!” That did it, Applejack snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see Granny Smith watching her from the back door to their house. “Will you stop singing to yourself and get in the van; Applebloom’s little friends are here, you promised to take them to the airport.
It had completely slipped her mind, she agreed to drive the Cutie Mark Crusaders to the airport today. She dropped what she was doing and ran for the farm van parked out front.
Applejack drove down the dirt road, on her way to the airport; as she had promised to take her little sister and her friends to catch their plane.
Ever since the Battle of the Bands at Canterlot High all those years ago, the Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted to be a part of rock band, and this was their chance to make it to the top.
“Did you remember to pack everything, Sugarcube.” Applejack asked, calling her sister the cute nickname she gives everyone.
Scootaloo then said, “It’s a good thing Rarity had all our instruments mailed to the hotel we’re staying at. It means fewer luggage to carry.”
“Speak for yourself.” Applebloom then said, pointing at the back of the truck. The back was filled with Sweetie Bell’s suitcases, only a few of them carrying actual clothes.
The pink and white haired girl replied, “What? Rarity taught me to go big or go home.”
“There’s a surprise.” Applejack said.
Everyone in the truck then burst out laughing; they told more funny stories and jokes as they made their way to their destination.
Right up until they arrived at the airport, the Cutie Mark Crusaders got out of the truck, grabbed their bags and began to walk towards the entrance. “Are ya sure ya don’t want me to come in with ya, Sugarcube?” Applejack offered.
But Applebloom just shook her head and replied, “No, it’s cool, Applejack; we’re all sixteen now, practically adults.” She laughed with her friends before saying, “We’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Okay, but be careful and have fun.” Applejack said before the three girl walked away, waving as they left. With nothing left to do here, the farm girl turned the ignition key and drove off.
Meanwhile, the police had made their way to the Life Foundation; Captain Gilda was on the scene, drinking her morning coffee and walking around the lobby of the building. She then looked at the hole in the wall, no longer surprised that things like this can happen in this town.
She turned to Spear Head who was walking beside her, Gilda said to him, “I don’t believe this, sergeant. I mean what, is this town over run with animals?”
Two paramedics were wheeling a stretcher out the door, they stopped beside the captain to show her something. “Captain Gilda, you might want to see this.” One of the paramedics lifted up the sheet that was covering the body; both Gilda and Spear Head were disgusted at the fact this person’s head had been bitten off.
“Cover that up and get it out of here!” the captain ordered. The medics did as ordered and covered the corpse back up, they then wheeled it away. The captain turned back to her sergeant and asked, “Were we able to recover the samples?”
Spear Head nodded, he then showed her the four containment capsules they had; each one containing a symbiote sample. He opened the outer hatch so she could see inside and explained, “After last night’s little accident, we were able to recover all four of the samples. The black one, the white one, the purple one and the…”
His expression changed to a shock of horror when he noticed the last capsule was empty; there was a small crack on the side, it must have been slightly damaged last night; just enough that a little blob could slip out and escape.
“The red one is gone.” Spear Head stated, everyone surrounding them heard that, they all began panicking and looked on the ground, trying to find it; even Gilda was a little scared.
Outside, the police were diverting the traffic; Applejack drove past the lab and saw all the police there. Normally, she’d wonder what was going on, but this was her time off, time away from super-hero stuff. So the farm girl just kept driving; totally unaware that she had just picked up a little hitchhiker.
The afternoon came quite quickly, Applejack was sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper when there was a phone call to the house phone. Before the farm girl could get up and answer it, her granny walked in and answered the call.
“Hello…” she greeted with.
As the person on the line talked, her smiled went away; when the called ended, Granny Smith turned to her granddaughter.
Applejack asked, “What’s wrong, granny?”
Granny Smith replied, “We gotta go to the police station; they have some information for us."
At the police station, Spear Head had returned from the Life Foundation and was told to sit down with the Apple Family; Applejack, Big Mac and Granny Smith all sat at the officer’s desk. Spear Head took a picture out of a folder and held it in his hand, not showing the family yet.
“I’m sorry this took so long to find, especially given the importance of this case; we’ve finally identified your son and his wife’s killer, Miss Smith.”
“What?” Granny Smith asked him.
The sergeant showed them the picture of the criminal, “His name is Switch Blade; in and out of prison since he was thirteen; wanted for armed robbery twelve times and one account of murder, you son and daughter-in-law.”
Big Mac picked up the picture, trying to see if he recognised the man in the photo; Applejack then took the picture off her brother to look at it herself. “I don’t believe this.” She muttered to herself. All of a sudden, she remembered the night she overheard her granny talking to the police at the door; the night she knew her parents weren’t coming home.
And it was all because of this man in the picture.
“I understand, can you put these photos away now?” she asked.
Spear Head explained, “You have understand, now that we’ve identified him, we’ll be able to find. Please be patient, we’re doing our jobs.”
“No you’re not doing your jobs…”
The sergeant turned to Applejack and listen to what she had to say; her eye began to fill with tears as she said, “I had to grow up without my parents, and you’ve now only just found out who did. What have you been doing all this time?”
Officer Spear Head said to her, “Settle down, miss…”
But Applejack cut him off, “No I have no intention of settling down; this man killed my parents, and he’s still out there!” the farm girl put the picture in her pocket and stormed out of the office.
That night, Applejack was lying in bed, she hadn’t bothered to get changed into her nightwear; she just fell asleep on her bed. Little did she suspect, she wasn’t alone in her room; the hitchhiker she’d picked up today had crawled its way from the truck up to her room.
As the farm girl slept, she kept having the same night; it was her, standing and watching this Switch Blade guy gun down her parents.
Crawling across her floor, was small clump of red goo; a symbiote. The red blob crawled up her blanket and onto the bed; the shadow of this creature could be made out as some kind of monster. This thing could’ve had anyone in this house, but it sensed a strange connection with Applejack, it had chosen her to be its host.
It began crawling up her hand and up her arm; all while Applejack kept squirming in her sleep.
The red slime made its way across her chest and to her other arm; it even crawled down her legs. It wrapped itself out around her hand as she gripped the bed sheet in anger.
Just as the symbiote was finishing the job, it made its way to her face; just as she woke up, too late to stop this thing from taking her over.
Applejack came out of her deep sleep, and when her eyes opened, she got a real shock. She could feel the blood rushing to her head, indicating she was upside-down; she looked at her hands and saw she was holding onto a rope of some kind, she thought it was wise not to let go of it.
But when she turned her head, she was right beside a building with reflective windows; giving her a good look at herself.
She couldn’t believe her eyes, Applejack was wearing a full on spider-suit, black and red, with a large red spider emblem on its chest. “What happened to me?” Seeing what she was holding onto, and what she was wearing; Applejack decided to tempt fate a little.
The farm girl let go of the rope and dropped down to the side of the building, without even thinking, she pressed her hands and feet against the glass; and to her surprise, she was sticking to the building.
Applejack looked at her reflection, “What is this?” she took her hands of the glass, she was now just holding on with her feet. Applejack clenched her fists, she muttered, “Wow, this feels good.” A thought then came to her; ever since she learned that spider-people could do stuff like this, there was something she always wanted to try.
The new spider-hero crawled up the wall, before spring-flipping forward and pushing herself away from the wall, throwing herself off the building. She cheered like crazy as she fell towards the streets of Canterlot; she then knew what she had to do next, and it worked. Applejack aimed her hand and shot a red-web-line from her wrist; allowing her to swing through the buildings.
Applejack let go of the web she was winging on and landed on the side of a tower; she latched onto its wall and took a moment to get her breath back. She took off the mask she was wearing; while holding it in her hands, she muttered, “Where have ya been all my life?”
Meanwhile, in an alleyway, somewhere in the city; something horrible had just happened.
Lying on the ground was a body, a headless body; standing next to what used to be a teenage girl, was Babs Seed. She had killed someone and stolen her clothes; a pair of black boots, ripped jeans, yellow crop-top and black leather jacket.
Babs’ old outfit was covering the stump that used to be a head, and slithering its way back to Babs was a yellow symbiote tentacle. As the yellow slime went back into the Babs Seed, she looked down at the body, “Thanks for the new look.” She muttered.
She then walked out to the streets; as she walked down the road, she spotted something. It was a car, a roofless car that she had seen in magazines, she asked herself, “Am I old enough to drive.” She was almost seventeen. “Don’t care, got to have it.”
She jumped into the driver’s seat, she pointed her finger at the ignition key slot; and yellow symbiote claw grew from her pointing finger. Working as a makeshift key, Babs started the car and drove off; as she did this, the owner of the car saw his car getting stolen, he chased them down the street until she got away.
Whilst driving, Babs looked in the mirror, instead of her reflection, she saw Scream instead. “Oh, I’ve missed you.” She muttered.
The symbiote replied, “I missed you too; and once we kill the one who imprisoned us, we’ll be unstoppable.”
“I here that, and I think I know just how to draw our little spider-friend out.” Babs Seed replied.
Suddenly, without warning, a giant yellow tentacle grew out of Babs’ back; the tentacle grabbed hold of a car that was driving next to them and threw it at the coffee shop they were driving past. Both the symbiote and its host laughed at the destruction they were causing.
Applejack was having some much fun with her new superpowers, she spent the whole evening swinging around the city; right up until she landed on a roof top. “Wow.” She muttered. “No wonder Adam and Twilight do this so much.”
Without warning, a strange tingling feeling was felt in her head, she looked around to find out what was causing it; then she noticed something.
Four masked men, with guns, were seen walking into a small bank on the side of the street; Applejack knew what she had to do, so she jumped off the roof and swung down after them.
One of the masked men was attaching something to one of the ATMs, he turned to the guy next to him and said, “Okay, blow it.” The guy pushed a button and there was a tiny explosion, the ATMs slid out of the wall; this gave the crooks access to the money behind them.
“We can hit like five more places tonight; what with the spiders distracted by this Underground group, guys like us have nothing to worry about.” One of the criminals said.
None of them noticed Applejack walk into the room; she thought about it and said to herself, “What would Adam or Twilight do?” She then thought of something, she leaned against the side of the door and tried to look cool; then in a disguised voice, she said, “Howdy guys, did you forget your pin number?”
The four masked men stopped stuffing their bags with money and looked at the spider-hero standing by the door. The crook that seemed like the leader said to his men, “There’s a third one?”
The crook holding the shot-gun replied, “Not for much longer.” He pumped the gun and aimed it at Applejack.
Just before the gunman could shoot her, Applejack jumped up and stuck to the ceiling; she grabbed the gun and hit the crook in the side of head with it. This knocked him to floor and caused his fellow criminals to get up and try and get her themselves.
While Applejack was sticking to the ceiling, one of the other crooks tried punching her; but she just moved her head out of the way of his punches. She then shot a web into his face, causing him to stumble back; he tripped over the money backs and fell to the ground.
AJ jumped back down to the floor and was confronted by the other two crooks; she made short work of them, jumped between them, hitting one with her foot and the other with her fist. The both fell to the floor, however, the first guy got back up; he pulled one of the explosives out of his pocket and lit it.
The crook threw the little bomb at the spider-hero; but she simply kicked the item away. It was flung threw the window, but it was a powerful kick; the explosive went all the way across the street to the corner store on the other side of the road.
When the bomb went through the window of the store, it exploded; Applejack saw this happen and was shocked at what she had done. “Oh no.” she muttered. Forgetting about the bank robbers, she left the bank and ran across the street.
Once she made it to the store, she went inside and called out, “Hello, anybody in here.” Not long after saying that, she found the store owner and helped him outside. Luckily for her, there was no one else in there; but she then looked across the street and saw the bank robbers had gotten away.
With nothing left for her to do here, she shot a web to the rooftops and began swinging away.
Applejack was just sitting on the roof of an apartment building, thinking about what she had done; sure no one was hurt, but that guy lost his business and the four criminals got away. “All these years, Adam and Twilight made it look so easy.” AJ muttered.
Suddenly, something caught her attention; a police car was parked below her. The police officer wasn’t around, but the radio in the car was making noises; Applejack jumped down and listening to what it was saying.
“Attention all units, police pursuit in progress on Walter Street; suspect is male, blonde hair at shoulder length and sunglasses.” Applejack then reached into her pocket under her suit and pulled out the photo of the man that killed her parents, the description of the suspect match the photograph one-hundred percent. This was confirmed when the radio continued, “Suspect is believed to be known fugitive, Switch Blade.”
Applejack muttered, “Switch Blade.” She scrunched up the photo and began swinging away, she made her way to where the police chase was happening.
At the location of the police pursuit, the car that was being chased was driving all over the road; it was crashing past other cars in order to keep a distance between him and the police. The criminal rolled the window down and threw something out at the police cars; it was a mini-grenade, it exploded and popped the tires, causing the cop cars to stop.
The crook laughed at his victory, only for the laughing to stop when he heard something land on his roof; thinking it could only be the Spiderman, he picked up his pistol and began shooting through the roof of his car.
However, it wasn’t Spiderman; Applejack avoided the gun shots and jumped onto the car’s hood, before the criminal could shoot at her, AJ punched through the windshield and grabbed his arm. Trying to knock her off, the crook steered his car to the left and crashed it into some trash cans; Applejack was thrown off the car, allowing the crook to escape and run into the abandoned building beside them.
As the police stopped their cars and formed a barricade around the building, Applejack snuck inside, through the air vents.
Inside, the crook held his gun in his hand; he felt like he was being watched by someone, little did he know, he was right.
Applejack had made it inside, she was hiding in the dark and crawling around the ceiling; after she made sudden movement, the criminal noticed her presence. “Who’s there?!” he shouted. He saw AJ’s shadow and began firing at her.
The thug ran for the door, he figured he’d take his chances with the cops; but he was stopped at the door when someone grabbed him by the back of his shirt and slammed him against the window in the door, smashing the glass.
He cried out in pain, only for Applejack to show no mercy and smash him against the other door; she then threw him away. This allowed the crook to pull out a pocket knife, he tried to slice at Applejack; but she was quick, she kicked the knife out of his hand and kicked him away.
He was right next to the window, Applejack could get a good look at him; this confirmed it, it was him, Switch Blade. AJ did the unthinkable, she took off her mask and threw it to the side; Switch Blade was backed against the large window.
“Don’t hurt me, just give me a chance. Just give me a chance!” he pleaded.
Applejack said back, “What about my parents, did you give them a chance? Did you?!”
The spider-hero grabbed him by the neck, she was about to do something unthinkable; when something flew through her mind.
It was a memory of her when she was a child, back when her parents were still alive; she was playing in the park with her brother, she remembered at that time, her mother was pregnant with Applebloom. Applejack thought to herself, ‘Is this what they would have wanted?’
AJ let go of him and backed away, but Switch Blade caught her attention when her pointed his gun at her forehead; he chuckled slightly before saying, “See ya.”
But he never got the chance to fire, Applejack grabbed his wrist and twisted it, causing him to drop the gun; Switch Blade was scared for his life now, he back away from her. But the crook wasn’t watching his footing; he tripped on a pipe and smashed through the old window, he then fell to the ground, no chance of surviving the fall.
The police watched their suspect fall to his demise, he landed right in front of them; they pointed a spotlight at the window he fell from, there they saw Applejack, luckily the light masked who she was. “Freeze! We’ve got the building completely surrounded!” an officer said into a megaphone.
The police got inside and ran up to where Switch Blade fell from, only to find that Applejack had already got her mask back and escaped.
Applejack sat on top of a roof somewhere, she was thinking about what had just happened; she had mixed feelings about this.
She was happy that man couldn’t hurt anyone else, or their family; but AJ felt just that little bit guilty, he fell because of her, because he was scared of her. Applejack put her mask back on and decided to go home.
The farm girl was ready to call it a night, she’d had enough of this for now.
Not far away, on a bridge that cross a river that ran through the city an out to the bay; a family sized car was stuck in traffic. Inside that car, was father and his daughter; the little girl was sat in the back of the car, reading her book.
The father looked in the mirror and asked his daughter, “Are you okay back there, sweetie?”
“Yes, daddy.” She replied.
Suddenly, one of the cars behind them slightly rammed into them, causing the father to say, “What the heck…” he undid his seat belt and opened his door. “Stay here, I’m just going to see what’s going on.”
The little girl nodded, obeying what her father said.
At the other end of the bridge, people were getting out of their cars and running away; this was because of the person who had just got out of her car and threw it into the water. Babs Seed chuckled as she watched the scared people run for their lives.
One person didn’t run however, this person was a police officer; he took his gun out of his pocket and pointed it at Babs’. He ordered, “Put your hands and on your head and get down on the ground!”
But Babs’ acted like she was confused, “Um, which hands?” she asked. Suddenly, yellow slime began to consume her body, right up until the slime formed a body, Scream.
Once the symbiote monster had been formed, the officer started shooting her; but the bullets were bounce off her like nothing. The monster’s hand morphed into a blade and she sliced the cop out of her way; once he was out of the way, she began running in-between the cars, scaring all the people away.
Swinging close by, Applejack noticed the commotion on the bridge; she couldn’t just leave and do nothing, so she jumped off her web and landed on one of the cars.
Applejack saw the monster that was attacking the people, she recognised it to the letter, “Babs Seed?” she said to herself. Scream was picking up empty cars and throwing them into the water; right up until she reached a car that wasn’t empty.
Babs’ picked up the family sized vehicle, and threw it away; the strange tingling feeling came back, warning Applejack that she needed to stop that car from falling. The spider-hero jumped after it, shooting a web-line and sticking it to the bridge; once it was holding, she ran for the one that threw it.
Scream roared at the people who were running away, no noticing Applejack run up behind her; the symbiote turned around at the last minute and received a powerful kick to the stomach, causing her to stumble back. Applejack then delivered a powerful upper-cut, knocking the monster away.
Just as AJ was about to go after her, she heard someone calling out for help. “Help! Someone help! My daughter, she’s trapped down there!” he was gesturing to the car Applejack had dangled over the side of the bridge.
AJ watched as Scream crawled away, but she had other things to worry about; Applejack jumped off the bridge and tried to gently land on the dangling car. She ripped the trunk door open with her strength and saw the little girl in her seat.
“Help me!” she screamed.
The spider-hero said to her, “It’s okay, I’m here to help you.”
But the little girl didn’t recognise this spider like the others, she was scared this one wasn’t friendly; so once again, Applejack did something she probably shouldn’t have done. She took off her mask and showed her face to the little girl.
“It’s okay, Sugarcube. I a normal person, just like you.” When the girl saw AJ’s face, she began to calm down. “You wanna hold my mask, go on take it.” Applejack gave the little girl the mask. The hero crawled through the car to the little girl, she began to undo he seat belt and gently lit her out of the car; however, Applejack didn’t notice the car’s fuel leaking down the side of the vehicle; one spark from the damaged engine caused the fuel to ignite.
The car was set ablaze, the little girl fell out of Applejack’s arms and landing in the front of the car; the vehicle broke free from the web, but Applejack was able to catch it and shoot another web to the bridge. AJ was now using all of her strength to hold up the car; she looked at the scared girl, she needed to get her out of there.
“What’s your name?” the spider-hero asked.
The little girl replied, “Lily Bell.”
“Okay Lily Bell, I need you to climb out of there.” Applejack explained.
“I can’t.” Lily Bell replied.
“Yes you can.”
She wanted to try, but Lily Bell was too scared to move; so Applejack told her, “The mask, put on it on. Put on my mask, it’ll make you strong.” Not seeing anything else she could do, Lily Bell took the mask and put it on. “That’s good, now climb.”
Lily Bell began climbing up through the car, but she had to hurry, Applejack was losing her grip.
Just as the little girl was about to make it, the piece AJ was holding onto broke off, causing her to drop the car; just before the girl and the car could drop into the river, Applejack shot a quick web at Lily Bell and pulled her up into her arms, she was safe.
After AJ had gotten her mask back, she lifted Lily Bell up onto the bridge and put her in the arms of her father; the crying dad hugged his daughter with all the love he could give her. The father muttered, “Oh my daughter, thank goodness you’re alright.”
Whilst still hugging his daughter, the father turned to the one who saved her; he said to AJ, “Thank you; who are you?”
Applejack just thought of the first thing that came into her head, “I’m Spider-Woman.”
Police cars were rolling up to the bridge, AJ decided to get out of here before they put her under arrest for something she didn’t do. So she waved goodbye to the father and daughter and jumped off the bridge she began swinging home.
That night, she made a promise to herself; the next time they all gathered, Applejack would tell her friends everything.
Meanwhile, down in the sewers; Babs Seed was reverting back to normal.
The teenage girl began giving out to her symbiote, “That wasn’t Spiderman; it wasn’t even Spider-Girl, that was someone new.” Suddenly, a tentacle grew out of Babs’ back, this one had Scream’s face on the end of it.
“Relax, we can use this to our advantage.”
Babs Seed asked her, “What are you talking about?”
Scream explained, “Whilst on that bridge with that knew spider, I sensed something; something familiar. She’s one of us; she has a symbiote.” Scream slithered back into Babs’ body, then came out completely, consuming the girl’s body in yellow slime.
“I sensed the presence of one of my brothers.” The symbiote stated.
The monster smashed through a man hole in the street and crawled up to a building; she quickly crawled up the wall to the highest point she could, once she had reached the top, she said something to the city.
“Soon Canterlot City; he will return, and when he does….” All Scream could do was laugh before she said the next bit, “Let…. There…. Be….. CARNAGE!!!”
Applejack had just finished telling the others about what she’d been up to for the last few weeks, all the other girls, including Adam, were more surprised than ever.
“So yeah, I did a little more digging during my time off; turns out this suit is made from a synthetic symbiote. It’s not alive, so it won’t take control of my mind, but I can use its powers to help the team.” Applejack explained.
Twilight asked her, “And you’re one hundred percent sure, you can control it?”
AJ said back, “Yep, no doubt about it.”
Adam then stepped forward, with his arm around Fluttershy, he said to the farm girl, “Well then, I think I speak for all of us, when I say, welcome to the Equestria’s Heroes.” He then thought about what he’d just said, “I mean, you were part of the team already, but now you have powers and you’re….”
Fluttershy put her hand over her husband’s mouth, “Just say ‘Well Done’, honey.”
“Yeah.” Adam replied. “What she said.”
Rainbow Dash said, “Cool, we got another super-hero on the team.” It was cool; Soarin and Pinkie Pie agreed with her statement.
Sunset then turned to Rarity, “Okay, your turn Rarity; why is you’re suit all banged up?”
The fashion girl started her story with, “Would you all believe me if I said I met a ghost on my trip?”
