The Revenge of Dr. Negative

~~~~~~The Blue Note, One explanation later~~~~~~

"... And that's what brought us to here." Twilight finished, the remainder of her food now nothing more than a buttery memory. Yet the food was the last thing on Twilight's mind. She had often wondered what it might be like to spar wits with somepony she could view as a genuine equal. It had been... absolutely glorious. For the entire explanation, Rosetta had taxed Twilight's every faculty to recall even the most minute of details - about the spell, about the teleport, about the madpony and more. Twilight in turn had managed to coax quite a remarkable amount of information out of Rosetta - especially about the breadth of the threat they were already facing.

In a way, it was almost uncanny the way their fields of knowledge mirrored one another. Twilight was well versed in physical sciences, but her mastery was very firmly in the realms of the arcane. Likewise, Rosetta knew a great deal of arcane lore, but she was well and truly Twilight's superior when it came to the physical world. "This is a fascinating set of developments." Rosetta remarked, a sparkle in her eye at the thought of so many incredible new things to research. "Not the least of which is the knowledge that a Sonic Rainboom is actually possible to achieve."

Rosetta eyeballed Rainbow Dash... who was deep in quiet conversation with Daring at the moment. "I would love to run some tests, but perhaps that is best saved for a quieter time." Twilight nodded her agreement to that statement, as the music they had been speaking to began to subtly change. Scooter - who had taken up a chair outside the booth in order to facilitate better conversation between them - looked up with excitement. "Ah... this is Scooter's favorite song." she remarked dryly, and sipped at her green tea. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but the soft thrum of the double bass and the gentle driving sound of the piano smothered her words...

Sweetie slowly slipped off her wooden stool, the gentle glitter of her dress shimmering across the crowd as her mouth opened and a sensual sound flowed out. Her body swayed gently from side to side as she slowly descended a staircase Twilight had previously not seen, down into the floor of the club as a spotlight followed her.

♪♫"You had plenty money when you were... twenty-two...

You let other fillies make a... fool of you...

Why don't you do right...?

Like some... other colts do...."♪♫

Sweetie gently leaned over to a handsome looking business stallion as she hit the floor, tracing her hoof along his chin as she passed his table with a slow and sensual smile on her face. Twilight wondered when in the name of Celestia she'd learned to do all of these things... and began to wonder if Sweetie had been here even longer than they'd thought.

♪♫"Get outta here...

Get me some money too..."♪♫

Rosetta shook her head at the sight of Scooter staring with wide, vacant eyes at the slinky movements of Sweetie as she strutted slowly around the club floor. "Poor girl's completely besotted." She remarked in a very low voice, and Twilight nodded in agreement. "At any rate." Rosetta continued, keeping her voice pitched low as to not disturb the other patrons. "It's my turn to tell a story. I'll keep it short and to the point... you don't need to know the gory details, just the facts." She sucked in a deep breath, obviously a little distressed at the subject matter. "It all comes back to Manehatten Silver and Doctor Negative." She began, for the first time appearing something other than in total control of her emotions.

♪♫"You're sittin down and wonderin.... what it's all about....

If you ain't got no money, they will.... put you out.

why don't you do right...?

like some other.... colts do...."♪♫

"It all started about six months ago, shortly after Daring finally cornered that madpony and dealt with him. Or so she thought. She and Silver started... going steady." She remarked, the pain in her voice evident even to Twilight - who was never the most emotionally aware pony. Dear Celestia... did she really have a thing for Daring? Twilight thought faintly. "I've never hidden the fact that I dislike Manehatten's methods and his attitude, but Dee... She seemed happy. We had a fight, but.... we made up." She swallowed a lump in her throat and kept going. "About two months after that, I started to hear disturbing rumors that Negative's old operations were getting started up again, but in an entirely new research direction.  Unfortunately, every time I got some kind of intelligence worth a buck, it turned out to be a dud."

♪♫"Get outta here...

Get me some money too..."♪♫

Sweetie Belle was getting closer to their table by the moment, and Twilight began to get a little nervous that she'd see them... and she'd cause a disturbance. The last thing Twilight wanted was to cause some kind of problems with the room - but Rosetta seemed oblivious to this possible problem. "Daring didn't seem to think it could be him, until about a month ago.  Manehatten went missing one day coming home from his office, and Daring panicked. We searched high and low for him, but nopony had seen him leave his office and nopony had seen anypony go into his office either." She looked up for a moment, but it didn't seem that Daring could hear her over the music and her low voice.

♪♫"Now if you hadn't left me all those... years ago...

You wouldn't be a wanderin now from.... door to door....

Why don't you do right...?

like some other colts.... do.... "♪♫

"Ever since then, we've been chasing ghosts." Rosetta remarked softly. "Every time we had a lead, it vanished into nothing, until tonight, apparently... we got a... very high level tipoff that the Doctor was holding some very important ponies in that warehouse. I didn't know Daring was going to go in there tonight, or I might have been there with her." She glanced at Twilight and Dash now, her eyes remarkably sincere. "So I'm forced to question what makes that... high level informant think you two are so important, beyond the obvious fact that you are an absurdly powerful unicorn, and your friend is capable of something no other pegasus in the world can do." Her eyes were boring quietly into Twilight. "I don't suppose you have any theories?"

♪♫"Get outta here...

Get me some money too..."♪♫

Sweetie Belle was there just outside of their table, softly running her hooves down Scooter's shoulders with a slow and sensual kind of smile - and for just a moment, her eyes met Twilight's. There was a flash of recognition, but either Sweetie had become quite the professional, or she didn't believe it could possibly be her. She didn't react visibly in the slightest, slowly slipping away from scooter with an almost imperceptible brush of her lips across the flame-haired pony's cheek.  Twilight took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. "That would depend entirely on who that pony was." Twilight remarked quietly. "But if it is who I think it is, then yes, I would have an idea."

♪♫"Get outta here...

Get me some money too..."♪♫

Rosetta nodded as the music slowly came to its jazzy end all around them, with Sweetie Belle slowly slipping back onto the stage. "We've got to be careful. Once we've spoken to your friend there, we ought to have a more reliable time line for events. Once we have that, we'll go back to the University here and I can consult my data - and perhaps come up with a plan of action." Her eyes scanned the room for a moment. "We ought to get some local intelligence as well... and I know just the pony for it." She nodded to one side of the room - Twilight followed her gaze to a beautiful pink-coated earth pony with an elaborately coiffed mane and an elegant, almost regal sensuality to her stance. She wore a sleek burlesque style dress and mesh stocking hooves ending in heeled boots... and not for the last time today, Twilight felt a sudden and massive surge of recognition flood through her.

♪♫"Why... don't you... do right....

Like... some other colts.... do.....?"♪♫

It couldn't possibly be her. Could it?

~~~~~~The Airship "Liebe Kristall", Somewhere three hundred miles west of Manehatten~~~~~~

"Again." Commanded the smooth, sultry female voice from behind the desk. The nervous unicorn technician fiddled with the machine for a moment before the recorded video once again replayed the scene from just a half hour earlier that evening. "Incredible. Eight centuries, beloved. Eight Centuries since any pegasus was born capable of the Sonic Rainboom. Just look at her..." the mare gestured at the screen as the film zoomed in to the rainbow-maned pegasus as the white streak showed her breaking through the very air itself, detonating it in a display of power. "She is magnificent. That mane, so purely an expression of the power the pegasi command. That sleek form, so honed in its physical beauty. She is..." the mare raised her hooves up, as if in ecstasy. "She is perfect. The perfect pegasus, as I live and breathe."

"Mein Frau Fuhrerin... you will pardon my insolence." replied a black-coated unicorn, his dark eyes burning under the brim of his hat. "But that 'perfect pegasus' thwarted our plans to seize the special warehouse, and destroyed three of our Air Fortresses." He eyeballed the video disdainfully. "It is an impressive display, but she clearly is a threat to us." he growled out, his hooves gripped together behind him as he stood there upright and stiff.

The sultry mare's voice laughed disdainfully. "Are you jealous, Herr Colonel? Do you think she will supplant you in my favor?" A slow and sensual smirk crossed her face, and the unicorn Colonel flushed under her gaze. "She very well may if you continue to show such stupidity. Of course she thwarted us - she knows nothing about our righteous cause. She was led astray by that confounded Daring Do, her ears filled with lies and deceit. It is likely she was told we were a threat to her unicorn friend."

The Fuhrer waved her hoof dismissively. "It does not matter. We must have her for the cause - her perfection will birth untold foals of superior genetics, and in due time they shall all grow to be capable of that momentous feat. With a dozen Sonic Rainbooms to rain destruction upon our foes, even Celestia will have to acknowledge the truth of our belief." Her hoof slammed into the desk.  "Once she is in our hooves, we will be able to bring her around to our way of thinking. Beloved, take the dear Colonel here and... oh, a squad of your finest Stormponies. Capture the unicorn too, if you can, but the capture of that pegasus is paramount to all other goals. You must even ignore that confounded Daring Do if it means succeeding - she will be incapable of stopping us with the power of the Rainboom at our command."

The tall stallion next to her in his own black coated uniform bowed over her hoof, kissing it gently. "Jawohl. Your wish is my command, Beloved. Colonel Stahl." He snapped a moment later, and the other Unicorn snapped to an even stiffer attention. "Inform Lady Butterfly that we have an assignment. I shall meet you down in Bay Six in one hour."

The unicorn snapped his hoof up in salute. "Jawohl, Commandant." He replied, and quickly trotted out of the command room. The other two ponies behind the desk glanced at each other with a smoky smile and the technician pony quickly evacuated the room as the movie clearly showing Rainbow Dash's feat played over and over on the screen on the wall.

He would rather not be in there when the Fuhrerin's lust was up.

~~~~~A dark office, somewhere in Manehatten~~~~~~

"I don't care what they did. I don't care what you saw. I don't care what he offered you. I do. Not. Give. A. Fuck if Celestia herself walked up to you and gave you a discord-damned happy ending!" A pair of hooves slammed into the cheap wooden desk, and the dozen or so huge earth ponies on the other side of it winced away. "You do NOT take jobs from ponies like bucking Doctor Negative without consulting me! You do NOT fuck up said jobs, and then come to me asking what you should do cuz you're afraid he's gonna turn you into zombies!  And worst of all, you DO NOT get Daring Fucking Do involved by not knowing how to keep your damn traps shut!"

One of the earth pony thugs tried to open his mouth and a moment later a pair of iron-shod hoofboots collided with his face and sent him crashing into the wall behind him. "No excuses! Do any of you dirt for brains know what I'm gonna hafta do to smooth this over? How many bits it's gonna cost the family?" The hooves slammed into the desk again. "You realize I'm gonna hafta explain this to Granny, right? I'm gonna hafta explain this to our investors? That I'm gonna hafta call Daring Do into one of my own damned offices and apologize because you cider-addled idiots made me break my word about staying out of her way?"

That got a scared, terrified look on the faces of all the mooks standing across the desk from the Boss, who looked about ready to send them all to the bottom of the river wearing concrete hoofboots. "So this is what yer gonna do. You boys are gonna go find Daring Do and tell her I want a meeting at The Macintosh Club tomorrow for lunch. Tell 'er I am personally guaranteein' her safety from now until midnight tomorrow. An' then you, an every other member of your crew - an' that means goin an' explainin to Caramel why you shitheads aren't gettin any sleep until tomorrow night - are gon' go and make fucking sure that nopony brings so much as a shred of harm onto Daring Do or any of 'er friends heads until I've had a chance to explain the situation. Do I make myself one hundred per'cent fucking clear?"

The goon squad all nodded repeatedly, and then piled out of the small dark office as fast as their hooves could take them... leaving the pony behind the desk and one other, leaning against the wall by the door.  The mare beside the door shoved herself off the wall and walked slowly across the room. "The Doc ain't gonna like this, Sis." She remarked quietly as she rounded the desk to lean onto the chair the other mare was sitting in. "They probably ain't the only crew he's got wrapped around his hoof.  Ain't gonna be terribly obvious who we can trust. Mebbe we ought'a think 'bout helping out old pith helmet with this problem?" She suggested, tilting her head so her deeply colored mane shone in the dim light of the office.

The mare behind the desk blew out a sigh and nodded. "I reckon you might be right." She paused for a moment. "Put a kit together and go see what you can scrounge up about the Doc's movements. We're gonna need a peace offerin' anyway." The mare leaned back into her chair and rubbed at her eyes. "Buck my life. Neighzi's horning in on our territory, the Doc doin some kind of insane experiments and kidnapping fucking nobles and celebrities, a fucking Sonic Rainboom over the bay, and now Daring Do is gonna have me by the little apples for this disaster. What the buck else could go wrong?"

~~~~~~~The Blue Note~~~~~~~

Rainbow Dash needed to force herself to focus on things that had nothing to do with pretty mares before she started blurting out very embarrassing things to Twilight. Luckily, Daring had been extremely eager to engage in conversation regarding their next moves once they'd had a chance to talk to Sweetie Belle. Twilight and Rosetta appeared to be deep in conversation about the mechanics of what had happened, which meant Dash could focus herself entirely on the action. Which was good, because Dash really had no freakin clue about how they'd gotten here, or what the deal with that portal was.

Besides, there were bigger and more important things to deal with. Like trying to get a meeting with Sweetie Belle, and then trying to figure out how to rescue Rarity. Well. First they had to find Rarity, and then they had to rescue her, and then they had to get home. The last part was the only thing Dash was a little sticky on at the moment - She was otherwise confident that they could find and save Rarity from whatever horrible fate the sinister Doctor Negative had her trapped in. Daring was chewing at her lip though, as though she was thinking of something complicated and problematic. "Hey, Dash - can you describe your friend Rarity to me? Like, what does she look like, her cutie mark, personality?" Daring asked, a look of cunning across her face.

Dash blinked and nodded a little. "Sure, Rarity's pretty easy. She's got a white coat and this blueish-purplish mane she always keeps super well styled. She's got a cutie mark of three blue gems and she's a unicorn. Personality... well, she's super girly." She remarked, with a soft kind of chuckle. "And super snobby, but she's not the jerk kind of snobby. She's really into fashion and being all high-brow and stuff like that, but she's also really nice. She makes fancy dresses and clothes for ponies as a job, and she's really good at it. She's not greedy or anything though, even if her special talent is finding gems." Dash finished a little casually, proud of her rather succinct description.

Daring appeared to be deep in thought and nodded slowly, muttering softly under her breath for a moment before speaking. "Yeah, things are starting to make sense now." she replied somewhat cryptically, but before Dash could comment she perked her ears up and sat up a bit straighter. "We're about to have company, Dash. Whatever you do, don't let yourself get talked into signing or doing anything unless I give you the OK."  She said quickly and in a hushed tone of voice, before putting on a lazily confident expression.

Dash blinked at that one, and turned to follow Daring's gaze... which just so happened to bring her face to face with a pair of baby blue eyes and a slow smile. "Well well... what do we have here?" said the mare right in front of her in a whisper-soft voice. Dash found herself unable to move, unable to even breathe for a moment as her mind processed the sudden invasion of her space by this strange pony. A soft, slinky chuckle came from the pony, who backed up a little to show her pink coat and white and pink streaked mane. "Bluebell was right, you really are quite the cutie Miss Rainbow Dash." The pink mare said with a sensual sort of smile.

Dash felt Daring's hoof grabbing her shoulder and dragging her further into the booth. "Go easy on her, Miss Kitty. She's had a rough night." Daring said in a smooth but warning tone of voice, which elicited a slow and sexy sort of chuckle out of the pony she'd called Miss Kitty. "You're not going to be adding her to your little stable, so give over." She said in a lazy way, but Dash could feel the extra-firm grip on her shoulder choking off any objections to the treatment. Obviously, something else was going on here.

Miss Kitty gave off a tittering laugh before leaning lazily against the table, her long pink tail flicking at Scooter's chin and slowly dragging its tip down her neck. "Aw, you're always such a spoilsport Daring. She looks like she really needs to unwind a little, you know?" She winked a little, then shifted her stance and turned her eyes towards Rosetta. "A little bird tells me you girls wanted to talk about something. What can Miss Kitty do for you lovely fillies tonight?" She queried, her eyes ranging slowly over Twilight as she spoke.

Dash, now finally released from that piercing blue gaze, shook away her paralysis and wondered why the buck this mare looked so dang familiar. She rubbed her chin a little and ran her eyes over to the door of the club.... she wasn't quite sure what it was, but something was triggering her flight instincts. She was getting nervous for no obvious reason, and she wasn't quite sure why... worse still, the nervousness was ruffling her feathers a little.

How weird, that never happens to me... am I getting paranoid or something? Dash thought, as Rosetta spoke up in tones of pure business. "We'd like to speak to Sweetie Belle, Kitty. And I'd like to ask you a few questions about the word on the streets tonight." She said smoothly, nodding to Dash and Twilight. "These two are friends of hers from back home." She noted, with a soft smile. "Which you probably already knew, given that she saw them here during her last big number."

Miss Kitty was still smiling, but something about her body language became much more... predatory. "Well I did notice my little Sweetie recognizing these two little ponies here." she said smoothly. Maybe not predatory, Dash thought after a few moments. More like... protective? That was odd. A little encouraging, in that it probably meant she cared about Sweetie Belle, but dangerous since it meant she might not be inclined to let them get close to her. Dash had been hoping they could get Sweetie without a problem and move on to the tougher stuff... but it wasn't looking likely.  "Still, Bluebell seems to like them... But I can hardly let them backstage without a little quid pro quo, Rosie." Kitty said with a little pout on her face.

Rosetta smiled slowly. "How about I tell you that these two mares are helping us try to bring down Doctor Negative once and for all?" She said with a sly sort of confidence, Kitty's tail going suddenly rigid - even though the expression on her face didn't change. "More importantly, how about I tell you that they might just have the lead we need to finally track him down." She continued, tapping her hoof confidently on the table.

Miss Kitty went silent for a few moments, then nodded a little. "You always were a smart cookie, Rosie." She sighed extravagantly. "Come on then, I'll take you to the back room. We gotta discuss a few things before we do this." She swished her tail and slowly sauntered off into the club, the whole group of them piling out of the booth to follow.

~~~~~~~~~~~

They slipped through a discreet door at one side of the club, and slowly walked back through a labyrinth of hallways and rooms into the depths of The Blue Note's backstage. Dash was left with Twilight while Scooter hung out near the back door to the place, and Daring and Rosetta went off to discuss something in a locked office. For the first time since they'd arrived in this strange world, Dash was alone with Twilight.  "Hey Twi..." Dash said softly, looking over to her dearest friend with the ghost of a confident smile. "You holding up okay?" She asked, reaching out with a hoof to her.

Twilight took it almost without thinking, and squeezed firmly. "I think so, Dash. I just..." Twilight began, hesitating for a moment over some thought before continuing. "Dash do you realize how much trouble we could be in?" She whispered softly, her grip on Dash's hoof becoming far stronger. "We've got no idea how we're going to get home.. Rarity could be almost anywhere. We've got no money, no real resources, no home. I don't know what we're going to do when this is over and.. and..." She was slowly coming apart at the seams, and Dash knew that look. Twilight was about to have one of her emotional freak outs.

Dash couldn't let that happen. So she - perhaps bravely, perhaps suicidally, perhaps just... because she was Dash... grabbed Twilight's chin and gently turned it to face her. She moved in quickly to grab Twilight's other hoof and spoke in a quiet, confident tone. "It's gonna be okay, Twi. We'll figure something out." She winked at Twilight, trying to convey some of her strength through her gripping hooves. "So long as we stick together, there isn't anything we can't do." She said with one of her best cheesy grins. "I know that's kinda stupid sounding..." She admitted, and was startled when Twilight's face turned into a slightly tear filled smile.

"Not stupid at all, Dash." She whispered, and the pair of them stood there like that - holding each other’s hooves in that quiet backstage hallway for an amount of time Dash would never be able to fully recall. Twilight bit at her lip and spoke again a moment later. "I'm sorry I was so dismissive of you earlier, Dash. I shouldn't have disrespected something you felt so passionately about." She said softly. "I was... I just... It's hard sometimes, you know?" She said, with that little shy smile of hers. "To figure out all the things I'm feeling, figure out all the things I want to say and how to say them right."

Dash swallowed a thick lump in her throat and forced a gentle kind of smile onto her own face. "Y-yeah, well... you're not the only pony who's got that problem, Twi." She said, her voice unintentionally much softer than it should have been. "Twi... I um... I wanted to ask you something." Dash said in a rush, feeling her heart pounding firmly in her chest over and over again. Twilight looked up curiously at her, wiping the tears in her eyes away with the back of her hoof. "Twi, do you..." Dash began...

Only to be suddenly and very firmly interrupted by the slam of the doorway next to them - sending both her and Twilight leaping up from the shock and then suddenly sprawled out on the floor - with Twilight very conspicuously atop Dash with her hooves awkwardly wrapped around Rainbow Dash's neck - their lips just a hairs breadth away from one another. For a moment, they just stared at one another - with Dash hesitantly moving her head up to close that distance between them... and then Twilight vanished in a poof of purple magic, only to reappear fully upright and leaving Dash sprawled out on the ground.

Miss Kitty sashayed out of her office and gave Dash an amused glance. "Really, dear. You ought to consider letting me find you some... relaxing company for the evening." She said in a soft tone, one that Dash suspected was just meant for her. "Those poor wings could certainly use a massage, don't you think?" She added saucily, and then swayed past Dash in such a way that her tail flicked under Dash's chin.... which was the point at which Dash noticed her wings had fully flared out and were very, very stiff indeed.

It was only through pure force of will that she managed to fold them back down by the time Daring, Scooter and Rosette exited the office. “C’mon kiddo - On your hooves." Daring said quietly. "We've got a meeting with your friend, and we've got some important new information too. Seems like we might still be in for some trouble tonight."