Of Men and Manes

"What am I supposed to do; I'm useless," Spike groaned as he crawled through the air vent into the ex-shampoo factory.

"No wonder my friends never need me to do anything important. They're the ones with superpowers. They probably already figured out how to escape." Spike said to himself. He stopped crawling, absorbed in low self-esteem, and the vent below him gave way, landing Spike on a catwalk, and revealing the room where his friends were.

"Or not" he said worriedly as he spotted his friends in a cage, still under the effects of the Hairspray Ray of Doom.

A timer rang, and a henchpony sprayed the Mane six with the Hairspray Ray of Doom for at least the tenth time since their capture.

"Congratulations, Power Ponies!" Mane-iac cried out, laughing wildly in between sentences. "You shall live just long enough to see me fire . . . the instrument of your destruction! Once the Electro-Orb has powered it up completely, this cannon will amplify the power of my mane one million times, expelling an energy blast that will cause everypony in maretropolis' mane to grow wild! you will be my weapon's first victims, and there is NOPONY WHO CAN SAVE YOU FROM THIS FATE!"

During Mane-iac's craziest laugh yet, Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Ahem. I don't mean to interrupt, but aren't you forgetting about somepony?" Fluttershy asked with a weak glare.

"Humdrum? Little guy? No superpowers whatsoever? HE'S UTTERLY USELESS!" Mane-iac yelled.

The timer rang again, and the henchpony sprayed the Power Ponies with the Hairspray Ray of Doom again.

"Puh-lease! Everypony knows you just keep him around because you feel sowwy for him, wah wah" Mane-iac said condescendingly.

"Maybe in your world. But in our world, Spike- uhh, Humdrum always comes through when we need him. Always" Twilight retorts. The rest of the mane six yell agreement.

Spike stands up proudly and says to himself, "I'm not like Humdrum! When my friends really need me, I do come through. And they need me now"

Spike looks down and to his right and spots a tarp. He smirks and quietly makes his way to the floor.

"i see dementia must be a side effect of prolonged exposure to the Hairspray Ray of Doom. ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

as Mane-iac monologued, spike snuck  behind the many henchponies, and grabbed a loop of the tarp.

"tonight! we stand upon the brink of immortality, for we collectively, although mostly me, have finally defeated our most hated nemeses. we have hurled the brush of madness into the now-fearful face of, ahaha, goodness, and have struck a blow for freedom in the name of opression. AND NOTHING WILL STOP US AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Spike connected the second loop of the tarp to the chain hook, and pushed a heavy crate connected to the chain off of the catwalk, making the tarp gather up the henchponies on the ground.

The timer rang again, but before that henchpony could do anything, Spike used a suspended sliding hook to give a mean left kick to the henchpony, knocking the henchpony into the Hairspray Ray. The Hairspray Ray promptly fell over, and begain spraying the remaining henchponies on the ground, freezing their coats and manes solid.

"Way to go, Spike!" Twilight called out. She struggled from the opressive grip of the hairspray, and the Mane Six broke loose of the hairspray.

Rarity summoned a gigantic nail file, and sawed the bars from the cage with it.

"Get mad" Rainbow whispered loudly in fluttershy's ear.

"I'm trying." fluttershy said. she then proceeded to strain herself, growling.

The Mane Six escaped the cage, and an epic fight ensued.

(one partial epic fight later)

Spike watched the pandemonium in awe, but noticed something was missing. He looked around and spotted the missing pony when he turned around.

"Fluttershy," Spike called from the catwalk. "Where are you going?"

"You seem to have everything under control" Fluttershy replied.

"Fluttershy, we need you," Spike said. "You have to to power up."

"I'm sorry. It's just that nothing is making me mad" Fluttershy said.

Mane-iac's Doomsday Device aimed at Fluttershy.

"Say goodbye to your mane, Saddle Rager." Mane-iac said, then she laughed maniacally.

Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack all looked over to Fluttershy, who had begun cowering.

"Fluttershy!" The five ponies yelled. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash turned to Mane-iac, as Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity turned to Fluttershy.

Mane-iac slammed her hoof down on the 'Fire' button of the Doomsday Device, which fired a bright blue beam at Fluttershy.

As the beam hit Fluttershy, thick white smoke enveloped everything inside of the building. you couldn't even see your hoof if it was a foot away from your face.