Prologue: Everything You Ever
Dr. Adorable: The Nightmare's Real
By Asmaria Moon
Prologue
Everything You Ever
Here lies everything...
Fluttershy stood facing her camera. She hadn't even bothered to put on her Dr. Adorable outfit beforehand, she was so out of sorts. As she stared at the camera, memories came flooding into her mind, and she lost herself in them. Right now, it was better than being in the present.
The world I wanted at my feet...
She had been dressed in the white labcoat and boots that made up her Dr. Adorable outfit. The camera she had just finished making seemed to be working perfectly She had decided to create what she called a "Bio-log", or blog for short, and this camera would help her in that endeavor. The camera looked a lot like the one Photo Finish had used to take her pictures when Rarity had begged her to model some of her dresses, and it had catapulted her into a modeling career she was horribly uncomfortable with. Except this one didn't fold out of a suitcase. It was also much larger in the back, with two reels on the side through which a large roll of film was wound. Also, this one didn't just take one picture, it took dozens each second, which was why she needed such a huge roll of film. If the roll was projected at a high enough speed, the pictures would seem to move on their own, thus she called it a moving picture camera.
There was also an audio recording device, which she also had made herself, with a little bit of help in the design from Twilight. She had set up a wax record on a player under the tripod, and the player had a needle that moved when it detected sound waves. The louder the sound, the more the needle would move from side to side, and the bigger the groove would be on the wax record as it spun. As she stared at the camera, she remembered her short-lived modeling career, and thought about how the world seemed to love making her uncomfortable. Well, no longer! From that day forward, everypony would know what happens when you push a mare too far. She hit the record button and let out her best evil laugh just thinking about some of the things she had planned for the town of Ponyville.
"So that's, you know, coming along. I'm working with a vocal coach, strengthening the..." She let out another laugh, this one going up and down a scale. "A lot of ponies ignore the laugh, and that's about standards! I mean, if you're going to get into the Evil League of Evil, you have to have a memorable laugh. What, do you think Bad Horse didn't work on his whinny? His terrible death whinny?" Dr. Adorable asked the camera. "No response, by the way, from the League yet, but my application is strong this year. A Letter Of Condemnation from the Deputy Mayor. That's gotta have some weight, so... hooves crossed." she said, crossing her forehooves in front of herself. "Letters!" she said, reaching over to her side to grab a stack of papers.
My victory's complete...
"So, Trans-matter is 75%, and more importantly, the Freeze Ray is almost up. This is the one. Stops time. Freeze Ray. Tell your friends." Dr. Adorable shuffled through her letters, looking for a good one to read. "We have... oh!" she said as she stopped on a particular letter. "Here's one from our good friend, Snowcatcher." she said, giving an almost-bored look at the camera. "'Dr. Adorable, I see you were once again afraid to do battle with your nemesis. I waited in Ponyville Park for 45 minutes...'" she read, then turned back to the camera. "Okay, dude... you're not my nemesis. My nemesis is Captain Clamor. Captain Clamor, Corporate Fool. She nearly yelled my ear off... again... last week. Look, I'm just trying to change the world, okay? I don't have time for a grudge match with every poseur in a parka. Besides, there's foals in that park, so..." Dr. Adorable said.
So hail to the queen...
"Hey, Doc." Drippy said as she came through the front door, carrying a stack of mail.
"Drippy! My evil... dripping... buddy. What's going on?" Dr. Adorable asked after turning off the camera and setting down her Freeze Ray.
"Life of crime. I got your mail!." Drippy said, pointing a hoof to the stack of envelopes she was holding in her teeth. The doctor looked at the sopping wet letters in the grey pegasus' mouth, and held out a hoof, which Drippy deposited the mail on. She felt sorry for Drippy, she must have gotten teased a lot when she was a filly, with her crossed eyes and her lack of ability to hold anything in her mouth without getting drool all over it.
Dr. Adorable decided not to bring it up, instead asking, "Hey, didn't you go on a date last night? Sparkler told me you were doubling with Bait and Switch."
"Yeah..." Drippy admitted.
"Yeah?" Dr. Adorable asked, pressing for further information.
"It was all right. I kinda thought I was supposed to end up with Bait, but..." Drippy said, sighing as she flopped down on the couch.
"I hear you." the doctor said. "I saw Rainbow today."
"Did you talk to her?" Drippy asked.
"So close. I'm just a few weeks away from a real, audible connection. I'm gonna ask..." Adorable said before shuffling through her mail and stopping on one particular envelope. "Oh, my Celestia!" she said as she looked at it.
"Is that from the League?" Drippy asked, getting up again.
"It's from him! That's his seal, isn't it?" Dr. Adorable asked, holding up the letter and showing Drippy the seal shaped like an apple half.
"The leader? Oh, my Celestia!" Drippy said.
"I got a letter from Bad Horse!"
"That's so hardcore! Bad Horse is legend, he rules the League with an iron hoof!" Drippy said.
Arise and sing!
"She talked to me!" Fluttershy said, looking over her shoulder at the delivery carriage that was currently being loaded with Wonderflonium. "Why did she talk to me now?" she asked. "Maybe I should..." she started, wondering if she should try to find Rainbow Dash and try to talk some more. However, she decided against it, looking from the courier carriage with her controller attached to it to the remote in her forehoof and back again as she began to sing.
"A mare's gotta do what a mare's gotta do.
Don't plan the plan if you can't follow through.
All that matters, taking matters into your own hooves."
Fluttershy ducked down into a stairwell as she sang, and came back up wearing her Dr. Adorable garb. She pressed the forward button on her remote, and the magic that was supposed to only keep the carriage afloat behind the pegasi pulling it caused it to instead rush forward, leaving a bewildered security pony wondering how the carriage was going without a driver and shouting at it to come back, as if that would have helped.
"Soon, I'll control everything, and it'll be me you love!"
Suddenly, there was a loud thump as a gryphon landed on the top of the carriage. Dr. Adorable glared as she recognized the gryphon and her suit, which bore the image of a megaphone on the front of her neckpiece.
"Stand back, everyone, nothing here to see!
Just imminent danger, in the middle of it, me!
Yes, Captain Clamor's here, feathers blowing in the breeze!
The day needs my saving expertise!"
Captain Clamor knelt down on top of the carriage and drove a clawed fist through Dr. Adorable's controller, causing magical sparks to fly from the device as it began to malfunction. Dr. Adorable tried to get the carriage to stop with her remote, but the device wasn't responding.
"A gryphon's gotta do what a gryphon's gotta do!
It seems destiny ends with me saving you!"
Captain Clamor jumped off the carriage, pausing to flirt with one of the bystanders.
"The only doom that's looming is you loving me to death!"
Dr. Adorable began to panic as she saw the out-of-control carriage swerving towards Rainbow Dash. She mashed her hoof against the brake button on the remote as fast as she could, praying the device would receive the signal and stop the carriage.
"So I'll give you a sec to catch your breath!"
Captain Clamor flew to Rainbow Dash's side and pushed her out of the way of the carriage and into a large pile of garbage bags. Dr. Adorable tried once more to stop the carriage, and the device finally responded, stopping mere inches from Captain Clamor's outstretched talons. The gryphon knocked on the front of the carriage twice with a fist..
"You idiot!" Dr. Adorable said, coming out from the stairwell she was hiding in.
"Dr. Adorable, I should have known you were behind this." Captain Clamor said, noticing the mare.
"You almost killed her!" Dr. Adorable exclaimed.
"I remember it differently." Captain Clamor said.
"Is she..." Dr. Adorable started, but was cut off when Captain Clamor grasped her neck in her clawed hand.
"It's curtains for you, Dr. Adorable. Lacy, gently wafting curtains." Captain Clamor said.
"What?" Dr. Adorable managed to breathe.
So your world's benign...
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sat down on the grass outside Carousel Boutique, the frozen yogurt Fluttershy had just purchased from Sugarcube Corner in front of them. Their clothes were hung on the line to dry, and Fluttershy decided to strike up a conversation. "So, how was your weekend? Did you spend the whole time hunting wild signatures?" she asked.
"Ummm... actually, I went on a date." Rainbow said.
"Get right out of town! How was that?" Fluttershy asked, feigning ignorance. She had, of course, been spying on Rainbow's date with Captain Clamor.
"She's a really good-looking girl, and I thought she was kinda cheesy at first..." Rainbow started.
"Trust your instincts." Fluttershy muttered.
"...But, she turned out to be totally sweet." Rainbow Dash finished, taking another bite of her frozen yogurt via the spork balanced on her hoof. "Sometimes ponies are layered like that. There's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface."
"And sometimes there's a third, even deeper level, and that one's the same as the top surface level." Fluttershy said.
"Huh?" Rainbow asked, confused.
"Like with pie." Fluttershy said. "So, you gonna see her again?" she asked.
"I think I will." Rainbow replied after a few seconds, smiling.
"Oh." Fluttershy said, putting on a fake smile.
"Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked, concerned.
"Yeah?" Fluttershy replied.
"You're driving a spork into your leg." Rainbow stated. Fluttershy looked down, to where her front hoof was subconsciously pushing the rounded ends of the spork into her back leg. Of course, the utensil couldn't actually break the skin, but Fluttershy was feeling the first signs of pain start to creep into her mind.
"So I am." Fluttershy said, her faux smile still plastered on her face. "Hilarious."
So you think justice has a voice...
Dr. Adorable, clearly hurt, wobbled from side to side, letting out a small groan. "The Freeze Ray needs work. I also need to be a little bit more careful what I say on this blog, apparently the Ponyville section of Celestia's Royal Guards and Captain Clamor are among our viewers. They were waiting for me at the Mayor's dedication of the Superhero Memorial Bridge. The Freeze Ray takes a few seconds to warm up, and I wasn't... Captain Clamor threw a cart at my head."
And we all have a choice...
"Kill somepony?" Drippy asked, trying to twist a jar of jelly open using her mouth and her hoof.
"Would you do it?" Dr. Adorable asked. "To get into the Evil League of Evil?"
Drippy stopped working on the jar, and looked up at the doctor. "Look at me, Doc. I'm Drippy. I mean, at my most badflank, I make ponies feel like they want to take a shower. I'm not ELE material." she said.
"Killing's not elegant or creative. It's not my style." Dr. Adorable said.
"You've got more than enough evil hours to get into the Henchpony's Union." Drippy responded.
"Pssssh! I'm not a henchpony! I'm Dr. Adorable! I've got a PhD in Adorableness." the doctor answered.
"Is that the new catch phrase?" Drippy asked.
"I deserve to get in. You know I do. But killing?" Dr. Adorable said, frowning.
"Doctor Whooves says he knows a foal in Hoofington who grows up to be on Celestia's advisory council. That'd be... big." Drippy said.
"I'm not gonna kill a little foal." Dr. Adorable said.
"Smother an old mare?" Drippy asked.
"Do I even know you?" Dr. Adorable asked, giving her henchpony a horrified look.
Well, now your world is mine...
"Well, this is great, I wish I could stay and chit-chat. Ta." Fluttershy said, trying to push past Captain Clamor, who had come to see Rainbow Dash at Carousel Boutique. Captain Clamor held out her clawed arm, catching Fluttershy before she could escape.
"Well, it sure was nice to meet you, Doctor." Captain Clamor said, smiling as she saw the look on Fluttershy's face as the mare realized that her arch-nemesis knew her alter-ego. "You got a little crush, don't you, Doc?" Captain Clamor asked. Fluttershy tried to say something, but the gryphon interrupted her. "Well, that's gonna make this hard to hear. See, later, I'm gonna take little Dashie back to my place, show her the command center, the Clamor Chariot, maybe even the Clamcloud. You think she likes me now? I'm gonna give Dash the night of her life, just because you want her, and I get what you want. See, Dash is giving it up, she's giving it up hard. Cause she's with Captain Clamor now. And these..." Captain Clamor said, balling her talons into fists, "Are not the Clamor." she said, beginning to walk away, then turning around and walking back to Fluttershy. "The Clamor is my strap-on." she added.
And I am fine.
Dr. Adorable set to work on preparing her latest plan. If the Evil League of Evil wanted her to kill somepony, she knew the perfect candidate. Captain Clamor had tormented her long enough. It was time to put an end to the gryphon's superhero antics and take her rightful place at Bad Horse's side. She had worked out the equation on her blackboard, even checked her work twice. The only step that was left was to turn her Stun Ray, which had been infused with lightning from a cloud, into a full-fledged Death Ray. Dr. Adorable was no weather pony, but she knew the sciences behind weather control, and she was still a pegasus, so she could still manipulate weather in ways other ponies couldn't.
Now the nightmare's real...
Mayor Mare stood at her podium in front of Ponyville Town Hall, before an audience of ponies, who stomped their hooves against the ground in applause. "Justice has a name, and the name that it has, besides Justice, is Captain Clamor. Fillies and gentlecolts, your hero!" she exclaimed, as Captain Clamor stepped up to the podium. "Thank you! Thank you, Mayor, for those kind words." Captain Clamor said as she pulled out a set of small cue cards from under her neckpiece. "I hate the homeless..." she began, before she had to go to the next card. "...ness problem that plagues our village. Everypony should have the basic... you know what, I don't need tiny cue cards." Captain Clamor said, tossing the cards aside.
Dr. Adorable is here...
Dr. Adorable stifled back a groan. She almost wanted to burst out of her hiding spot under the cloth that was supposed to hide the statue of Captain Clamor right now and put her plan into action, but the Freeze Ray still needed a few minutes to warm up. Besides, to have stealth, a pony must have patience, and if she wasn't stealthy, Captain Clamor would see her coming and ruin her plans, and this was her last chance. If she screwed this up, there would be no seat for her in the Evil League of Evil, at least, not one outside of either the torture chambers or the catacombs. So Dr. Adorable was forced to listen as Captain Clamor broke into a horrifyingly gut-wrenching song with so many slip-ups that showed just how much he cared about the people gathered there that the doctor had to cover her mouth with a hoof in order to hold back another groan. Just as Captain Clamor was reaching the end of his song, a light on the Freeze Ray started blinking softly, signalling to Dr. Adorable that it was done charging. It was now or never. Dr. Adorable threw off the red curtain covering her, and fired directly at Captain Clamor, who was frozen mid-note. The mare gave a malevolent laugh as she realized that she had done it. She had succeeded, and all she needed to do was fire her Death Ray at Captain Clamor. However, the Freeze Ray was sure to hold Captain Clamor for a while, so she had all the time she needed to gloat with a song of her own.
To make you quake with fear...
Dr. Adorable fired her Death Ray into the air to frighten the moronic ponies that had actually bought into Clamor's speech and song.
"Go ahead, run away! Say it's Adorable!
Spread the word, tell a friend! Say it was I!
Get a pic, do a blog! Heroes are over with!
Look at her, not a word! Clamor, meet Shy!
Then I win, then I get everything I ever...
All the cash, all the fame, and social change!
Anarchy that I run! It's Dr. Adorable's turn!
You ponies all have to learn!
This world is going to burn! Burn!"
Dr. Adorable looked over to one reporter, who was scribbling in a notepad using her unicorn magic. "Yeah, it's one R, A-D-O-R... right." she corrected.
"Burn!
No sign of Rainbow, good, I would give anything not to have her see!
It's gonna be bloody, head up Flutter-buddy, there's no time for mercy!
Here goes no mercy!"
Dr. Adorable approached the podium where Captain Clamor stood frozen, Death Ray pointed straight at the gryphon, ready to fire. Suddenly, there was a loud droning sound that shakily dropped in pitch coming from the Freeze Ray. "That's not a good sound!" Dr. Adorable said, turning back towards the device and lowering her Death Ray. Just then, a taloned fist connected with her face.
To make the whole world kneel...
"A Death Ray!" Captain Clamor said, reading the tape label on the device she took from the mare who was now trapped under her right lion paw. "Looks like Dr. Adorable's moving up. Let's see if this one works any better than your others." she said, pointing the Death Ray down at Dr. Adorable.
"Don't..." Dr. Adorable began, seeing the circular end of the device pointed at her spark with lightning. It wasn't supposed to do that, the lightning was supposed to be contained within until the trigger was pulled. The Death Ray must have destabilized when it hit the ground after Captain Clamor had punched her.
"I don't have time for your warnings. You give my regards to Golden Gates, or whoever has his job, but in pony hell." Captain Clamor said. She pulled the trigger, but instead of firing, the device exploded, sending a shockwave of red lightning out in a circular pattern. Captain Clamor screamed as she was flung towards the podium by the blast. She whimpered as she tried to get up. "Oh, I'm in pain! I think this is what pain feels like!" the gryphon exclaimed. "Oh, Mama! Someone maternal!" she cried, finally standing up. "Get out of my way!" she exclaimed as she pushed an unfortunate pony who was blocking her exit to the ground and ran away from Town Hall.
And I won't feel...
Dr. Adorable suddenly noticed Rainbow Dash laying on her back, a large piece of shrapnel from the Death Ray's explosion stuck in her chest. It was clear that she was having trouble breathing. "Rainbow? Rainbow!" Dr. Adorable exclaimed, rushing to her side.
"Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked, hardly believing that the pony in the labcoat and goggles in front of her was actually her friend. "Is that you?" she asked.
"Rainbow! Hold on! Oh, no! Oh, no no no no no!" Dr. Adorable said, beginning to panic.
"Fluttershy, are you all right?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Hold on!" Dr. Adorable said.
"It's okay. It's okay." Rainbow said quietly. "Captain Clamor will save us." she said, just before her life ended.
Fluttershy continued to stare at the camera, barely holding back the tears in her eyes. The blame for Rainbow's death had fallen on her, even though it had been Captain Clamor who had driven her to threaten the gryphon's life, Captain Clamor who had ignored her warnings about the Death Ray's instability, and Captain Clamor who had pulled the trigger. Fluttershy had even more to be sad about, since it was Rainbow's death that had gotten her into the Evil League of Evil. Then again, she was Dr. Adorable. She didn't have the convenience of getting all emotional about this. So she decided that she wouldn't feel...
"A thing."
Author's Notes: I've been working on this for a while now. I was originally going to have Twist in Moist's role, but that was before I saw this. I'm trying to follow the Ask-Along Blog's role replacements, so yeah. But Twist and the power I thought up for her will definitely be in later chapters, even though I'll probably hate myself for it later because of the difficulty of writing her lisp.
Also, have a now-rejected line due to the fact that Twist is no longer playing Moist.
"I mean, at my moth badflank, I make ponieth feel like they juth walked into an M.C. Ether painting. I'm not ELE material."
Dr. Adorable: The Nightmare's Real
By Asmaria Moon
Chapter 1
Brand New Day
Six months had passed since the day of Rainbow's death, and still, not a day went by that Fluttershy didn't wake up in tears. She tried to feel nothing, she really did, but emotions still managed to sneak past her cold facade. She had "obtained" Rainbow's corpse from the morgue months ago, and now it was under a time-locked state via the new and improved Freeze Ray. It would stay that way until her latest and possibly greatest plan was completed. Fluttershy thought it all over in her head once more as she strolled through the town square. No labcoat and goggles this time, after all, she didn't want Dr. Adorable to be seen buying a box of cupcakes and suddenly lose her reputation as a villain. And without Captain Clamor, who had been seeing a therapist ever since the incident that had earned Dr. Adorable a seat in the Evil League of Evil, there was no one who could stop her from executing her masterful plan. No one who could stand in her way, no one who could make her look like a fool, no one who could throw a chariot at her hea...
Fluttershy barely ducked in time as a chariot sailed straight through the air where her head had been just a fraction of a second earlier. She looked over to where the vehicle had come from, and saw... "Captain Clamor?"
"That's right, dweeb." Captain Clamor said, striking a heroic pose. "I'd like to thank you, Doctor. These last six months have been really eye-opening for me. I realize now that I was being much too lax with my poundings of you, I was doing it just for the hell of it, not for any sort of justice or world peace. Well, no more!" Captain Clamor said, flying over to Fluttershy and grabbing her in a headlock. "Now, when I pound you, it's not just because I like doing it - which I do, but that's not the only reason - it's because I'm devoted to making the world a better place for ponies to live in. Nice, good, Celestia-fearing citizens don't deserve to be terrorized by the likes of you." Captain Clamor said, drawing a taloned fist back in preparation for a punch. Fluttershy was prepared for this, though, and sank a little into Clamor's hold so that she could bite down on the arm wrapped around her neck. Captain Clamor let out a scream and her grip weakened, and Fluttershy easily slipped free of her headlock.
"So you want these ponies to only worry about being terrorized by the likes of you, huh? Well, too bad, because I've got some new tricks up my sleeve, and I'm not gonna let you make a fool of me any more, Captain Clamor!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"Yeah? Well, you're not the only one with new tricks. Catch you later, dweeb." Captain Clamor said, flying off. Fluttershy continued toward Sugarcube Corner, her head held high. Captain Clamor was apparently done with her therapy, and was even more high-and-mighty than before, but Fluttershy wasn't going to let that ruin her day, and she definitely wouldn't let it ruin her plans. She would succeed. She had sworn it on Rainbow's headstone.
"Hi, Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as Fluttershy walked into Sugarcube Corner. The bouncy pink pony was currently working the register of the sweets shop, but she didn't have any customers to serve right now. "What can I get for you?" she asked as Fluttershy took a place on the other side of the counter.
"Hello, Pinkie. I'd like a box of your cupcakes, please, the ones with the delicious pink frosting." Fluttershy said, smiling.
"One box of the Sugarcube Special, coming right up!" Pinkie said as she opened the register. "That'll be 10 bits." she said. Fluttershy reached back toward her saddlebags with her mouth, and pulled out a sack of bits, placing it on the counter. Pinkie took the sack by the bottom and poured the bits inside into the register, counting them to herself as they fell out, then tossed the sack back to Fluttershy, who caught it and put it back in her saddlebags. "Oh, Fluttershy, did you hear? The Element Of Loyalty was passed on to another pony this morning." Pinkie said. Loyalty. That was Rainbow's Element. Even the strongest magic known to ponykind was working against her, transferring to another pony before she had time to put her plan into action. A small tear formed at the very edge of Fluttershy's eye.
"Really? Who?" Fluttershy asked, trying to hide her emotions behind conversation.
"Scootaloo! She always wanted to follow in Dashie's footsteps, well, now she can!" Pinkie said excitedly, before looking over to see that Fluttershy was unable to stop the tears falling from her eyes. "Oh, I'm really sorry, Fluttershy, I so didn't mean to make you all sad and stuff. You're still upset about what happened to Dashie, aren't you?" Pinkie asked. Fluttershy only nodded her head in response, trying to stop sniffling and dry her tears with a hoof. "Don't worry, Fluttershy, you'll get that mean old meanie pants Gilda. After all, you're Dr. Adorable! There's nothing that can stop you once you get going, not even Captain Clamor." Pinkie whispered, coming over to the customer side of the counter and patting Fluttershy's shoulder softly. Fluttershy began to calm down thanks to Pinkie's kind words. Then she realized something.
"Wait... what makes you think I'm Dr. Adorable? What makes you think Gilda is Captain Clamor?" Fluttershy asked in a hushed voice, afraid someone would overhear her.
"I have my sources." Pinkie stated plainly. "Besides, it's not like it's that hard to figure out. Like, duh, there's only one pony with your pretty mane in all of Ponyville, and that's you! And there's only one gryphon that's even visited Ponyville before, and that's Gilda!" Pinkie said, a little too loud for Fluttershy's liking. The yellow pegasus looked around the sweets shop to see if anypony had overheard them, but apparently they were all too busy with their various snacks to bother watching the two friends talking.
"Pinkie, I know it may be obvious to you, but do you think you can keep it a secret from everypony else? If ponies knew that I was actually Dr. Adorable, then Celestia's Royal Guards would have me in their custody before I could say Wonderflonium." Fluttershy whispered.
"Of course I can keep it a secret, Fluttershy. I Pinkie Promise." Pinkie whispered back, drawing an X over her heart with one forehoof, then flapping both forehooves at her sides, and lastly, placing one hoof over a closed eye.
"Thank you, Pinkie." Fluttershy whispered. Mrs. Cake stepped out of the kitchen, carrying a plain white box by a piece of string wrapped around it. "Fluttershy, your cupcakes are done." she said, placing the box on the counter.
"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Cake. I'll see you later, Pinkie." Fluttershy said before grabbing the box in her mouth by the same piece of string, and making her way to the door.
Later, Dr. Adorable stood at her chalkboard, going over the things she'd need in order to make her plan work. The one thing she didn't have was the most important ingredient, and the one that would be hardest to get. It was a rare kind of orange topaz. But not just any topaz. She needed one that resonated at a very specific frequency of 1.21 gigahertz, and there was only one type of topaz known to do so, the Dawn Topaz. And Dawn Topaz was extremely rare, so rare in fact, that there were only ten of them that had been found in all of Equestria. And all ten had been used to make the same horribly gaudy necklace for Princess Celestia. And that necklace was currently locked away in a safe, which was protected by at least three Wonderbolts at all times. That's why you never saw all of the Wonderbolts at a single event, because there were always three to six that stayed behind to guard the safe.
"Hey, Doc." Drippy said as she entered the laboratory, carrying a rather large package which seemed to have small air holes poked in it near the top.
"Oh, hello, Drippy. What's that?" Dr. Adorable asked, pointing a hoof at the large box.
"Dunno. Something from the ELE." Drippy said, dropping the package softly on the ground. She had learned the importance of being careful with packages after she had accidentally broken an entire box of motherboards Dr. Adorable had ordered a few months back.
Dr. Adorable looked at the package and found a letter attached to the top, which was sopping wet with Drippy's drool. She shrugged and opened the letter.
"Bad Horse! Bad Horse! Bad Horse! Bad Horse!" the three cowponies that rarely showed up unless Dr. Adorable received a message from the ELE sang.
"Your performance in the League so far has been beyond compare.
We must say that you have been an outstanding mare.
So it's with our fondest regards that we send this to your care.
A henchpony, all brand and new, to add to Drippy serving you.
Bad Horse! Bad Horse! Bad Horse! He's bad!
This filly's name is Twist, and we're sure why will become clear.
Her talents include twisting things to what ponies fear.
And thus, we feel that you will be glad just to have her near.
That's all for now, we've run our course, enjoy your filly, signed, Bad Horse!" the cowponies sang before disappearing off to... wherever they went when they weren't singing Bad Horse's messages.
"A... filly?" Dr. Adorable asked, looking curiously at the package in front of her. She pulled the string tying the box closed loose, and opened the box to see a pale cream-colored filly with a curly red mane and a large pair of purple glasses. Her cutie mark was a pair of candy canes in the shape of a heart.
As soon as the box was open, the filly hopped out and into Dr. Adorable's lab. "Hi!" she exclaimed. "I'm Twith! You muth be Dr. Adorable! I'll be your neweth henthpony!" Twist said,
"Ummm... hello, Twith..." Dr. Adorable started before she was cut off.
"It's Twith! Tee-doubleyou-eye-eth-tee! I thwear, thometimeth I hate my lithp." Twist said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Twist. I didn't know." Dr. Adorable said.
"Well maybe you need to pay more attenthion! It wath in the letter!" Twist responded, turning her rather round nose up.
"Hey, I thought you were supposed to be my henchpony. Real henchponies don't talk back to their bosses, do they, Drippy?" Dr. Adorable asked.
"They sure don't, Doc." Drippy responded.
"I'm sorry... umm... both. I've never been a henthpony before. It won't happen again." Twist said.
"Please, call me Dr. Adorable, or Miss Fluttershy when I'm not dressed like this. Can't have ponies knowing my secret identity." Dr. Adorable said.
"Okay, Dr. Adorable." Twist said.
"Allow me to introduce you to Rainbow Dash." Dr. Adorable said, pointing a booted hoof at the holding tank that Rainbow currently took up residence in.
"The Rainbow Dath? The one that Captain Clamor killed? Ithn't the, like, dead?" Twist asked.
"Not for long, my little henchpony. Soon, my plan will be complete, and she will live again." Dr. Adorable said, smiling. "And when she does, we will be unstoppable!" she added.
"Bringing ponieth back from the dead? Ithn't that necromanthy? That'th not pothible!" Twist exclaimed.
"It's not necromancy when it's not magic. I like to call what I'm doing necrology. The science of the dead. Not everything in this world is run by magic, Twist. There are a great many developments that we have made, completely without the use of magic. Phonographs, cameras, moving pictures, all created without any magic at all. A new age is coming. The age of the scientific revolution. Every day. ponies gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. Every day, we learn new things about not just how the world works, but why it works that specific way. We understand more about the pony body than we ever have before, and I plan to use all the things we've learned and catapult us into this new age, where we won't have to suffer and hurt because those closest to us no longer live." Dr. Adorable said.
"Wow!" Twist said, staring up at the yellow mare with wide eyes.
"I only need one last piece of the puzzle before my device will be ready." Dr. Adorable said, yanking a white sheet off the blackboard it was covering. Twist looked at the drawings on the board quizzically.
"Ith that..." the filly began.
"Yes. The Necklace Of Dawn. The only 10 known Dawn Topaz stones were all used to create this horrid thing. I only need one to bring dead bodies back to life, but with more, we can modify the Life Ray to do more to the corpses than just that." Dr. Adorable said.
"Like what?" Twist asked.
"Oh, no. I barely even trust myself with all the details." Dr. Adorable said, shaking a forehoof at the filly.
"But how are you going to get it? It'th guarded conthantly by the Wonderbolth. Everypony knowth that." Twist said.
"Yes, well, it's a good thing that I just happen to know not just any Wonderbolt, but their captain, Spitfire. And Rainbow was one of her biggest fans." Dr. Adorable explained.
"Tho what ekthactly is our plan?" Twist asked.
"Well, Spitfire was a great friend of Rainbow's. So all we need to do is tell her about our plan, she's certain to go along with it. Once we have her on our side, getting into the vault should be simple." Dr. Adorable answered.
"And what if the doethn't agree?" Twist asked.
"I have other ways of convincing her." Dr. Adorable said, pulling out her repaired and redesigned Death Ray from beneath her red labcoat.
Meanwhile, in a building built into the tops of a cluster of trees in the Whitetail Wood on the opposite side of Ponyville from Fluttershy's cottage and the basement she'd turned into Dr. Adorable's laboratory, a single gryphon paced back and forth in her own secret base. "Dr. Adorable got the best of me in town today. She had the element of surprise, but that's not going to happen again." Captain Clamor said. She flew across the room and grabbed the pony standing there, the blue mare struggling in the gryphon's tight grip around her neck. "Is it, my sidekick?"
The mare gasped for breath as Clamor finally released her. "Of course not, Captain Clamor. The Great and Pow..." she started before Captain Clamor clenched her claws around the mare's neck again.
"What did I tell you about that?" Captain Clamor asked.
"Sorry, Captain." the mare said, and the gryphon released her again. "The Trickster will not let Dr. Adorable take advantage of your weaknesses again." the mare finished.
"Weaknesses? I have no weaknesses." Captain Clamor said, holding her head high.
"Of course not." The Trickster said, trying to hold back her sarcasm.
Author's note: Well, here it is, the first chapter. Sorry for the long wait, I was kind of stuck for a bit. So here we catch our first glimpses of Dr. Adorable's plan. We also catch the slightest of looks into Captain Clamor's base. Hmmm... I wonder who in Equestria this mysterious Trix... I mean, Trickster mare could be. It most certainly couldn't be a certain magical showmare... could it?
