Found You!

by Sketchy Changeling

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Original Character, Mane-iac, Power Ponies, Anthro, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 8536

After being separated for a month, two old friends reunite in the most unexpected of ways.

Everyone has that one friend that they've known since childhood, that one friend that they'd do anything for, that one friend that means the world to them. For me, that friend was Luxurious Locks, the mare that runs the most prominent hair-care product company in Maretropolis. We were the best of friends since childhood, and whenever one of us was down, the other would be there to help out.

But I guess some things don't last forever.

Luxi has disappeared, and she's been missing for over a month. To make matters worse, a deranged mare named the Mane-iac has been attacking the city with no clear motive.

Little did I know that she was looking for someone, too...

This is an HiE Anthro one-shot taking place in the Power Ponies universe, so the Mane 6 are not the Power Ponies. It also goes without saying that this is not related to any of my previous stories.

Now with an Act 3.5 written by Naughty_Ranko! LINK
Pre-reader/Creatve Consultant: Zamairiac

Cover art by me.

The deleted comments were made by me and Zam during the story's development stage, so don't worry about it.

Featured on 5/28/14! SQUEE!

Published 2014-05-28 14:00:04 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-28 14:00:04 UTC

Found You!

Act I: I Miss You

I sat in my dimly lit living room as I watched the news on TV.

“Another attack by the deranged mare, dubbed by authorities as ‘The Mane-iac’, occurred earlier this afternoon at an apartment complex at 2nd Avenue and 45th Street. According to police records, this has been the tenth attack that Mane-iac has attempted since her sudden arrival into the city last month, but she was once again foiled by the Power Ponies, the masked vigilantes of Maretropolis, and as usual, the mysterious mares could not be reached for comment.”

That Mane-iac lady... Her appearance was so sudden. No one knew where she came from or what she wanted. All her attacks on the city thus far had been just random, unmotivated destruction sprees. Did I feel unsafe? Of course I did, but I couldn’t just up and leave like that.

I had responsibilities.

“In other news, authorities are still searching for Luxurious Locks, president and CEO of Heavenly Hair Care Inc. Her sudden disappearance has baffled citizens and police, and many wonder how and/or why she vanished almost overnight without a trace. As for her company, Vice President Aaron Anderson has taken over in her stead while the police search for her. Unfortunately, Anderson could not be reached for comment.”

It’s a good thing, too. Aaron Anderson, in other words, me, didn’t have time to be hounded by the news stations. I was occupied with trying to take over for Luxurious.

And I was also mourning her loss.

My phone suddenly rang, pulling me out of my thoughts. With a tired groan, I reached for the phone and answered it without even bothering to look at the caller ID.

“Hello?” I answered, trying to sound at least a little bit awake.

“Hey, Aaron.”

The other pony on the line turned out to be Jackie Goldenmane, a mare that I met when I moved into my penthouse apartment two years ago, and another good friend of mine.

“Oh, Jackie. It’s you. What’s up?”

“Nothing, just checking on you. You alright?”

“I’m fine. How was your day?”

“Did you see the news about the Mane-iac?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s how my day went.”

“Have you gotten any closer to figuring out what Mane-iac wants?”

“Unfortunately, no. Every time the other Power Ponies and I fight her, she keeps talking to herself, saying that she ‘has to find him’. Of course, none of us have the slightest idea of what she meant, but String Theory noticed something about her.”

“String Theory? You mean Matterhorn?”

“Yeah. She noticed that all of Mane-iac’s attacks have been targeted at apartment complexes and gated communities, which leads us to believe that her ramblings might actually mean something. She may very well be looking for someone.”

“Any idea who 'he' might be?”

“Not one. For now, we’ll just have to stop her attacks as quickly as she can wherever and whenever she strikes.”

“Well, if you know that she’s attacking residential areas, then maybe you should patrol the areas she hasn’t gotten to yet.”

A pause.

“That’s actually a really good idea. I’ll let the others know to be on the lookout. We’ll try to start tonight in case she decides to try again.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I chuckled.

“Get some sleep, okay? I know that losing your best friend and taking over her business puts a lot of stress on you, but you don’t need to be staying up and watching news reports on the Mane-iac. Let me and the other Power Ponies deal with her.”

“If you say so, Jackie. Be careful. I’ve seen you and the other Power Ponies fight, and there are times where you have some lapses in judgment.”

“I may slip up sometimes, but I’m not that bad.”

“You were bad enough to change into your costume without even checking to see if anypony was passing by. It’s how I found out you were Mistress Mare-velous in the first place.”

“Go to sleep Aaron,” she interrupted. “I’ll be fine, but I don’t know about you, though. I worry about you, y'know.”

“You don’t have to. I’ll be fine. Let me know how everything goes in the morning, okay?”

“Will do. Talk to you later. Don’t forget, I’m a couple floors down if you need anything,” Jackie said as she hung up the phone.

I put my phone on the coffee table and turned the TV off, deciding to take her advice and get some rest. It was getting close to midnight, and while I didn’t have work in the morning, the mare still had a point. Staying up all night wouldn’t do me any favors. I made my way over to my bed and climbed under the covers, taking off my glasses and placing them on my nightstand…

right next to a framed picture of me and Luxi.

It was a photo that we had taken on the day her business finally started up. We had taken the picture at her then-brand-new office, her sitting at the desk and me standing beside her with a hand on her shoulder.

We had come so far in our lives. It was hard to believe that she was the same little filly that I had met in elementary school.

I was in first grade, and it was well into the school year when I first met her.

"Class, I want you all to meet Luxurious Locks," the teacher said. "She's new Maretropolis, so let's make her feel welcome, okay?"

"Hello!" the little filly said with a curtsey and a bright smile on her face. She was a petite earth pony with an orchid coat, a greyish-blue mane and tail, and light cerulean eyes. "It's really nice to meet all of you! Oh, and you can call me Luxi if you want."

"Well, Luxi, you can go ahead and take any of the empty seats," said the teacher. With a smile and a nod, Luxi walked over to the vacant desk next to mine.

“What’s your name?” she asked as she sat down.

“Aaron,” I answered.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Aaron.”

Just then, the teacher called my name, and I looked up. “Could you be a dear and be Luxurious’s special guide today?" she asked. "Just make sure that she knows her way around and where everything is, okay?”

I nodded my head in response.

That was the first of many times where I found myself having to look out for Luxi. I didn’t mind it, though. I actually ended up growing into my role, and she and I became fast friends. I thought that she was a very nice filly, and unlike all the other boys and colts my age, I didn’t find girls “icky” at all.

However, I noticed something that was happening increasingly often. As Luxi and I would talk and play throughout our elementary school years, I heard some of the other kids passing by and talking about her. At first, I paid no attention, but then I started to hear the phrases “stuck-up,” and “fake”. One day, I decided to actually listen to a conversation in full during recess, hoping to find out what the others really thought of her, but what I heard made me regret that.

“Did you see what Luxurious was wearing when she walked into school today?”

“I know! A designer sundress and a matching hat? Just who is she putting on a show for?”

“I dunno, but it’s so annoying, the way she flaunts herself, like she’s the only one that can afford stylish clothes.”

“She thinks she’s all that just ‘cause she came from a rich neighborhood. What makes her believe that she’s the only good looking girl at this school!?”

Just then, the bell rang, and the other students cleared the playground to return to class. I made a beeline for the nearest entrance, lest those girls see me. It was a good thing that the bell rang when it did, though. A second later and there’d be no telling what I’d do to those petty brats.

Well... probably nothing, since I would have gotten in trouble for picking a fight with girls.

Still, I was absolutely livid! Those girls were condemning Luxi just because she was being herself! She wasn’t doing anyone any harm at all! She was polite, she never wanted to argue with anyone, and she was the nicest filly that I’d ever met!

But apparently, some believed that no one could be that nice, and anyone who was that nice was just being “fake”.

I eventually told myself that they were just jealous. It was the only explanation for their ridiculous behavior. When there’s nothing wrong with you, some people and ponies will fabricate their own ideas and misinterpret kindness and humility for patronization and arrogance. For Luxi’s sake, I spared her feelings and kept her in the dark about what the other girls and fillies were saying about her...

but in retrospect, I shouldn’t have done that.

By the time middle school came around, the other girls and fillies became more vocal with their convictions towards Luxi, and the poor filly was nowhere near prepared for it. One day, after math class, I told Luxi that I had to go get my lunch out of my locker and that I would meet her at our usual spot in the cafeteria, but when I got there, the spot was empty. I looked around, but I couldn’t find Luxi anywhere in the cafeteria and she wasn’t answering her phone. I ended up having to leave and search the rest of the school.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to look for too long.

I found Luxi sitting in an empty classroom, her arms resting on the desk and her head laid down on her arms. My hand reached for the door handle, and after some hesitation, I opened the door and walked inside, finding that poor Luxi was quietly sobbing to herself. I approached her as she wallowed in her sorrows and put a hand on her shoulder.

She gasped quietly as she turned around and looked up at me, tears streaming down her face.

“Aaron?” she whimpered.

“It’s okay, Luxi,” I told her. “I’m here now. What happened?”

Luxi sniffled and nodded. “One of the other fillies walked up to me on my way to lunch… She told me that she was sick of me acting like I was better than everyone else, and that I was nothing more than a stuck-up bitch…” Her voice began to break again as she tried to explain what had happened, and I merely hugged her softly as I rubbed her back. “Is this what everyone thinks of me?"

“No way, Luxi. Not everyone feels that way about you.” I answered.

“And how do you know that?”

I let go of the filly and looked down at her. “Because I don’t.”

Luxi gave me a surprised look, and then she gave me the tightest hug she had ever given me. The two of us stayed there for the rest of the lunch period, Luxi holding me close while I comforted her.

Since that day, Luxi changed. She still carried herself the same way she did before, but this time she carried herself with confidence. She knew who she was, and she knew that no one, no matter how hard they’d try, could ever take that away from her.

That confidence carried her a long way, because when we both got to high school, her air of self-worth rubbed off on other girls and fillies that weren’t as confident as she was, and she became a well-respected mare amongst our classmates. By the time we were in eleventh grade, guys were asking her out left and right, but she respectfully declined every single advance, which was a relief for me…

because as Luxi and I grew older, I began to develop feelings for her.

I kept them a secret from her throughout the rest of high school and even through college, settling for the role of her best friend and confidante. We both ended up graduating college with honors. I got my degree in business, while Luxi got hers in chemistry. After college, we decided to get an apartment together so we could split the bills between the two of us. Of course, we were worried about how we'd repay out loans, but Luxi had a plan.

It was then that she came up with her idea to start her own hair care product company. Her parents were generous enough to give her the startup money that she needed to establish herself, and she bought a humble little area to open her first store. All the products we sold were concocted by Luxi herself. She asked if I could help run the business as co-manager since I was, according to her, “a lot better at this business stuff.”

Luxi’s formula became so popular that within our first three months of business, we made enough cash to pay off both our loans and then some. As much as I questioned the importance of my role in the business, she assured me that because of my business smarts and my skill with money I was just as integral to our success as she was.

“I may be the brains, but you’re the backbone,” she’d keep saying, and I eventually started to see that she was right.

After the store had been running for about a year, we began to expand. We gained investors, other product owners paid us to carry their stuff, and Luxi and I ended up growing the business into a citywide franchise that became an icon in the beauty industry. Luxi happily appointed me as her Vice-President, while she naturally took up the position of President and CEO.

As of now, it’s been nearly five years since we opened up that humble little store, and as much as Luxi insisted that my role was just as, if not more important than hers, I still called it “her” business since it was her idea to begin with. We've made a lot of moves in the industry, despite being only twenty-seven years old.

But now Luxi was missing, and she hadn’t left a single trace behind.

The timing couldn’t have been worse, either. After years of keeping my feelings a secret, I was finally ready to tell Luxi how I had felt about her for the past twelve years. The date that I had set just happened to be the day after she went missing. I had wondered if it was a good idea, considering how she had been feeling lately. She had been under a lot of stress because some of her employees attempted to give out the formula for her new shampoo to one of our competitors, and she started cracking down in order to make sure that something like that didn’t happen again. Some of the other employees didn’t like how hard she was being, claiming her to be “power-mad,” which I thought was completely ridiculous. I mean, some of her workers tried to sell our recipe to one of our rivals, and she needed to take the necessary measures in order to make sure that nothing of that sort would occur a second time.

She was doing what any boss with sense would do.

As the weeks went on, rumors began to spread regarding what fate befell Luxi. Some thought she was fillynapped, others thought that the pressures of running a company got to her and she up and left. Some were even saying that she could’ve been murdered.

I prayed every night that the latter wasn’t the case.

I shook my head and tried not to think about that. The best I could hope for was that Luxi would be found. It had only been thirty days, and the police said that they’d search for a period of ninety. “Sixty days left,” I thought as I closed my eyes. “There’s still time.” As I drifted off into sleep, I couldn’t get the image of the mare’s smiling face out of my head.

“I miss you, Luxi…”

Act II: I’ve Found You

“Aaron…” a soft female voice crooned as I slept.

“Aaaaaron…” it said again, and yet I still didn’t respond.

“Aaaaaaaaarooooooonnn…” the voice called for a third time, but to no avail.

There was a moment of silence, but then I started to feel something brushing my face. It was soft and silky, like someone was caressing my face with a blanket.

“Wake up for me, Aaron,” the alluring voice called out for a final time. It was at this point that I finally started to cooperate, and my eyes began to open a little, but then they suddenly shot open when I saw where I was.

It was dark, and deathly silent. The only source of light in the whole place was the moon. From the little illumination that I had, I could make out that I was in some sort of abandoned warehouse.

I then felt that soft feeling caress my face again, and I looked out of the corner of my eye to see what it was. My pupils shrank to the size of pin pricks when I saw a green tendril touching my face, and I let out a yell of horror as I tried to squirm away from it, but for some reason, I couldn’t move.

I looked down and saw that several more of these tendrils were wrapped around my torso, pinning my arms to my sides and suspending me from the air. It was then that I started to panic, kick and squirming while letting out cries of distress.

“What the hell!?” I yelled as I tried to break free. “Help! Someone help me!”

My pleas were answered, but it wasn’t the response I was hoping for.

My bindings were tightening around me, reacting to my wild, violent movements. As I continued to struggle, their grip on me tightened, and I was eventually forced to stop, lest they continue to squeeze me.

“There’s no need to struggle,” a voice said to me. It was the same voice from earlier, only this time, it wasn’t as soothing as before. The soft tone was still there, but something about it gave me an uncomfortable feeling.

I then noticed a silhouette standing in the shadows, and I assumed that this was where the voice was coming from.

“At long last…” she chuckled as she walked out. “After searching for so long, after being on my own for a whole month…” She continued to walk towards me, chuckling and giggling to herself as she spoke, until I could finally see her clearly. “I’ve finally found you!” she exclaimed as I saw the twisted expression on her face, her sick gaze penetrating me.

Good God, her eyes… They were two of the most bizarre things I had ever seen. They both had two irises, the one on the outside being a strong emerald green, and the one on the inside being a harsh red. Her black pupils kept varying in size as she stared at me, and I averted my eyes from hers, only to notice the rest of her.

She was an earth mare with a greyish-violet coat, and she wore a purple bodysuit that left her neck and upper chest exposed. Her suit had gold accents, and she also wore black gloves and black boots. Her mane was wild and unkempt, and was two different shades of green. I noticed that some locks of her mane were stretched out, and when I followed them with my eyes, I nearly panicked again when I saw that my bindings were the very locks of her mane.

I immediately realized who this mare was.

“Y-you’re… You're the Mane-iac!” I screamed in terror.

Mane-iac, on the other hand, was rather calm. She even laughed a little. “Is that what they’re calling me? I would have picked a better name, but I’ll give them points for creativity.” She then used one of her locks to caress my face again, and I felt another stroke the back of my neck. “Regardless, that’s neither here nor there. What the citizens of Maretropolis call me doesn’t matter in the slightest. What does matter is that I’ve found you.”

The mare started to giggle, and then she had a fit of laughter as she used the hairs on her tail to suspend herself and make a makeshift chair.

“Hahahaha! I found you! I found you, I found you, I found you!!!” she cheered as she bounced up and down on her hair-chair, cackling like a… well, like a fucking maniac!

This chick was certifiable!

Wait… She’s saying that she “found” me? My mind suddenly flashed back to the conversation I had with Jackie mere hours ago.

“Every time the other Power Ponies and I fight her, she keeps talking to herself, saying that she ‘has to find him’.”

“All of Mane-iac’s attacks have been targeted at apartment complexes and gated communities, which leads us to believe that Mane-iac’s ramblings might actually mean something. She may very well be looking for someone.”

That someone… it couldn’t have been me, could it?

“I had to scour every residential area in the city in order to find you,” Mane-iac said after her laughing fit died down. She used her hair to keep herself in the air as she approached me, and she brought her face, and those piercing eyes, uncomfortably close to mine. "Now that I have, I’ll make sure that we never get separated again.”

The hell? Again?

“What do you mean ‘again’!?” I asked.

A light chuckle escaped her. “You don’t have to yell, Aaron. I’m right here. Besides, you should be able to recognize me. I'm a little hurt, honestly. Sure, I may look a little different from when we last saw each other, but you should still be able to know your good friend Luxi when you see her.”

Luxi? Why that little- This bitch had some nerve claiming to be her! Just who did she think she was fooling!?

“How stupid do you think I am!?” I barked at her. “If you think that I’m gonna believe something that crazy, then you really are insane! There’s no way I’ll ever believe that you’re Luxi, now let me go!”

The moment I said that, Mane-iac’s expression went from ecstatic to livid in less than a second. She growled at me as she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, and she tightened her mane’s hold on me, causing me to let out a pained grunt.

“NEVER!” she yelled back at me as she clenched her mane’s hold on me, squeezing a large amount of air out of my body. “You think that I’ll just let you go after all the trouble I went through to find you!? You can’t just ditch me that easily!”

I gasped desperately for air with what little space I had left in my windpipe. Meanwhile, her mane was gripping my body tighter and tighter, bringing my bones towards the point of shattering to pieces.

“You think you can just forget me? You can never forget me! You’re supposed to be loyal to ME, Aaron! That’s the way it’s always been! You are mine! Mine, mine, mine, mine, MINE! You belong to me and only me, and I’ll be goddamned if I let anyone or anything change that! There’s no power in Maretropolis, no, in the entire WORLD that can separate you from me, not even you! I found you once, and I’ll do so again and again until you realize that you are mine!”

All the while, as Mane-iac screamed and hollered at me, I felt my bones becoming weaker and weaker against the iron grip of her mane. My breaths were becoming shallow and labored, and I became willing to say whatever I had to say in order to get this batty mare to quit yelling and at least loosen her hold on me.

And so the law of self-preservation kicked in.

“Okay, okay, I get it! I’m sorry! Just stop squeezing me so hard!”

Mane-iac gasped as her eyes widened, and she not only loosened her grip, but released me completely, my limp body falling to the ground, only for a large mass of her mane to cushion my fall. “Oh my gosh, Aaron!” she said with a frantically worried voice as she rushed over to me and held me in her arms. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do that! I just lost control of myself for a second and I… I don’t know… I just got so emotional that I didn’t realize that I was hurting you!”

I coughed as the mare held me, the locks of her mane delicately massaging my arms and my face in an effort to soothe my pain.

I just couldn’t figure this chick out, one minute she was all giddy and happy, the next minute she was trying to kill me, and now she was playing nurse! Just what was up with her!?

As much as I didn’t like being held by her and practically molested by her hair, I decided not to resist, firstly because I was much too exhausted to do anything, and secondly because I feared what this mare would do if I were to try and escape again.

“Aaron…” Mane-iac said softly, “you really don’t believe that I’m Luxi?”

I blinked and looked away from her. “Unless you can really prove it to me, there’s no way I can believe you.” I sat up and rubbed my left arm. “And don’t even try to talk me up, either. For all I know, you could’ve kidnapped her and taken her memories or something.”

“So mere words won’t be enough to convince you…” she sighed. “I understand. You were always one to want solid proof of something before believing it. I guess some things never change.”

Mane-iac used one of her locks to reach at the right of her bodysuit’s collar and began to pull at it, revealing more of her upper body.

“Wha!? What are you doing!” I yelled.

“I’m going to prove to you that I really am Luxi, and since words won’t help, this is the only way.” She continued to pull the left side of her suit down, but then she abruptly stopped just below her shoulder, revealing some kind of surgical scar. “Does this look familiar?” she asked.

I denied it at first, but I instantly recognized the scar, and the memory suddenly came rushing back to me.

I was in the third grade, and Luxi and I were on the playground as we waited for our parents to pick us up after school.

“Come on, Aaron! Don’t be a scaredy-cat!” she said as she ran towards the monkey bars.

“But Luxi!” I called out as I tried to catch up to her. “We’re not supposed to play on the monkey bars! The teachers said that they were rusty and that it was dangerous to play on them!”

“You’re always thinking that the worst is gonna happen,” the filly told me as she hung onto the first bar. “Live a little, will ya?”

I gulped audibly as I watched Luxi go from bar to bar, hoping that she wouldn’t fall.

I guess I didn’t hope hard enough.

My heart stopped as one of the bars that Luxi was holding onto broke, and the shocked filly came falling down to the hard blacktop surface, landing right on her shoulder and letting out a shrill scream of pain as she hit the ground.

I panicked as she lay on the ground, her bare shoulder bleeding and looking like it was popped out of place. The mere image put me in a state of shock as I tried to figure out what to do. I was too weak to carry her to the nurse, and I was afraid that I’d hurt her even more if I did, but couldn’t just leave her, because then she’d be all by herself. I looked around and saw one of the school monitors passing by, and I frantically called out to him.

“Hey! Over here! Somepony’s hurt! I think her shoulder’s broken!”

The monitor, seeing the limp, crying figure behind me, rushed over and called an ambulance, keeping watch over her as we waited for it to arrive.

It turned out that Luxi not only broke her shoulder, but some of the tissue in the shoulder muscles tore, as well, and that required surgery to fix. The operation was a success, but it left a permanent scar on Luxi’s shoulder, a scar that was identical to the one that Mane-iac was showing me.

“You were always looking out for me, always making sure that I’d be okay,” she said. “I really liked that about you, you know? What was it that I’d always say? I was the brains…”

“And I was the backbone…” I finished for her as I kept staring at the scar. There was no mistaking it; that was the same scar that Luxi had on her shoulder. You don’t just forget something like that, especially when you were there when it happened.

“It is you…” I said in awe.

Mane-iac… I mean, Luxi, nodded her head. “It’s me,” she said back, and a sudden giggle escaped her, the size of her pupils shifting again.

“But… how? What happened to you?”

“A month ago, I went down to the factory where the new shampoos were being made for a routine checkup after everyone had already left. The scaffolding i was walking on broke and I fell into a vat containing one of the chemicals that was used for the shampoo. I tried to get out, but then a power line fell from the roof and into the vat, and I was electrocuted. I thought that I had died, but when I came to, I saw that the vat had shattered from the huge shock, and my appearance had changed into what you’re seeing now.”

I stared in disbelief. “But… all those attacks on the city. What was that all about?”

“I told you, I was looking for you. The shock messed up my brain, and some of my memories were a blur to me, one of those memories being where you lived. I would hide amongst the citizens and look around the residential areas for you, but whenever I looked for too long, I would get frustrated, and then I’d attack. I tended to lose control of myself whenever I would get emotional…”

“Luxi…”

She shook her head and smiled at me. “But it’s okay, now!” she cheered with a twitch. “I’ve finally found you, and we’ll never be separated again. I promise!”

Luxi pulled me close to her with her mane, hugging me tightly as she hummed musically to herself, twitching every so often and tightening her grip for a split second whenever she did.

Meanwhile, I was utterly dumbfounded. She was here. This whole time, the mare that I thought was missing was never missing to begin with. She was Mane-iac all this time, and she had been looking for me, just like I had been looking for her. At that moment, I didn’t care what she looked like, and I had forgotten all the circumstances that led up to this realization.

I was just happy to have my best friend back.

I shed a tear as I hugged her back, holding her as tightly as she held me. “I missed you, Luxi,” I whispered.

She nuzzled me affectionately as she and her mane embraced me. “I missed you too, Aaron.”

After we let each other go, Luxi looked at me with a longing expression on her face. “Aaron, there’s something that I wanted to tell you for a very long time… I-”

CRASH!

Suddenly, a large hole broke in the roof of the building, and someone came crashing down through it. Luxi instinctively protected me with her hair, shielding me from flying debris as dust flew everywhere. When the dust cleared, we saw a blonde-maned, orange-coated mare standing before us, dressed in a red jacket and tights, with a green shirt underneath her jacket, green bandages covering her tail, and a set of black boots, black wrist guards, a black mask, and a black utility belt accented with gold, apple-shaped plates.

“Mare-velous!?” I said in surprise.

“You!” Luxi growled.

The masked mare grabbed ahold of her golden lasso and twirled it threateningly. “Let ‘im go, Mane-iac!” she warned, “or you’ll be sorry!”

Act III: I’ll Save You

Luxi and Mare-velous continued to stare each other down as the dust from the latter’s sudden entrance settled.

“What… did you just say to me?” Luxi growled as she gritted her teeth.

“Did I stutter?” Mare-velous spat. “I said: Let him go, or you’ll be sorry.”

Luxi glared daggers at the costumed mare, but then she scoffed and held me close to her. “I’m sorry, but I cannot grant that request.”

Mare-velous clenched her fists and furrowed her brow. “It wasn’t a request, it was a demand! And keep your paws off of ‘im, while you’re at it!”

I felt Luxi’s arms tighten their hold on me as she held me even closer to her. “Why…” she whispered, and then she looked at Mare-velous with fury in her eyes. “Why can’t you just leave us alone!” she yelled. “Every time I tried to find Aaron, you and your pesky Power Ponies tried to stop me. Your little group is always going out of its way to keep me from him, especially you! You’re the most annoying of them all, Mare-velous! What is your problem? What did I ever do to you!?”

Mare-velous scoffed. “Trust me, it’s nothing personal. The Power Ponies and I have a duty to protect Maretropolis and its citizens, and you were attacking the city, so we had to stop you.”

“I was trying to find Aaron!” Luxi argued.

The masked mare’s eyes widened, only to turn back into and angry look. “So he was the one you were looking for. I can’t believe that went over my head,” she said to herself, “I told the others that we should've started patrolling tonight, but they didn't listen!" She shook her head. "Regardless, I don’t care what your reasons were! It’s no excuse for terrorizing the city and kidnapping civilians!”

“I didn’t kidnap him!”

“Wow, lady. You’re something else, you know that? I have to ask, though, why him? What’s your connection to Aaron, huh?”

“That is none of your business! Why do you want to know? What’s your connection to him?”

“That’s none of your business,” Mare-velous answered back, “but my connection to him is irrelevant. I still have a job to do.”

“Is that job coming between a mare and the one she loves!?” Luxi yelled as she held me as tightly as she could, tears welling up in her eyes.

Mare-velous silently gasped at hearing that, and I looked up at Luxi in shock, too.

She loved me? Is that what she wanted to tell me?

“I see…” Mare-velous muttered. “Now we’re getting somewhere. It’s a classic case of delusional obsession.”

“I am NOT delusional! Take that back!”

“What other word is there to describe a mare that’s in love with someone that she doesn’t even know? You’ve probably traumatized him by now, so just hand him over and nopony’ll get hurt.”

“If you so much as try to touch my beloved Aaron, I promise you, somepony will get hurt, and that somepony will be you!”

“What gives you the right to call him your beloved? You’re just trying to take advantage of someone who clearly doesn’t want you!”

“You think you know everything, don’t you!? You think that you know what Aaron and I have!”

“I definitely don’t know everything,” Mare-velous said back, “but if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that Aaron would never fall for a crazy mare like you!”

At that moment I looked at Luxi and saw that her pupils shrank to a near microscopic size as her expression turned from defensive to furious in an instant. A lock of her hair suddenly shot towards Mare-velous, and she was barely able to dodge it, the surprisingly sharp tendril cutting the sleeve in the superhero’s jacket and piercing the metal wall behind her. Luxi began to breathe heavily in anger and let out a primal scream.

“How DARE you say something like that to me!?” she screamed at Mare-velous as she kept trying to stab her with her mane. “Just who the hell do you think you are!?”

I looked at the mare beside me in fear. Her eyes contained nothing but fury as she kept attempting to kill her enemy. Meanwhile, Mare-velous was dodging every one of Luxi’s attempts at her life, jumping and flipping out of the way of each strike.

Meanwhile, I was feeling very conflicted. On one hand, Mare-velous didn’t know any better. To her, Luxi was the Mane-iac, a delusional mare that kidnapped an innocent citizen. She had no idea who she really was, and was only doing what she was supposed to do.

On the other hand, Luxi was only trying to protect me in her own, albeit possessive, way. She had been fighting the Power Ponies for a month, and she thought that they had a personal vendetta against her. Not only that, but some of the things that Mare-velous said were out-of-line. Why did she feel the need to comment on whether or not Luxi really loved me? It didn’t matter to her, so what was the point?

To put it simply, both mares had the wrong idea about each other, and things were getting out of hand.

I put my hand on my friend’s shoulder. “Luxi, stop!” I told her.

The only response I got was her tail wrapping around me and pinning me to a nearby wall.

“Don’t worry about me, Aaron. I’m fine,” she said as she looked at me, her mane still attacking Mare-velous. “Just stay there. I don’t want you to get hurt.” She then turned to her rival and glared at her. “Now to deal with you.”

Now what I was away from the fight, Luxi doubled her efforts to strike Mare-velous down, this time using multiple strands of hair to get at her. Mare-velous, in turn, tried twice as hard to get close to Luxi and strike her.

“Don’t worry, Aaron!” she called out to me. “Just give me a few minutes! I’ll save you!”

“Why are you trying so hard to separate us!?” Luxi yelled. “What does it even matter to you!? We love each other! Just leave us be!”

“He doesn’t love you!” Mare-velous yelled back.

“YES HE DOES!” Luxi screamed as she lashed her rival’s arm with one of her hair tendrils. “AARON DOES LOVE ME, AND EVEN IF HE DOESN’T, I’LL MAKE HIM! HE WILL LOVE ME, HE WILL ALWAYS BELONG TO ME, AND HE’LL NEVER DARE TO BE WITH ANOTHER!”

In her fit of blind, jealous rage, she sent lash after lash of hair after Mare-velous, but her anger affected her aim, making some of her attacks miss without the costumed vigilante even having to try. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Mare-velous threw her golden lasso at Luxi, the thick rope wrapping around her throat, but at that very moment, some of Luxi’s mane wrapped around Mare-velous’s throat, the two mares essentially trapping each other in choke holds.

“So… this is what it’s come to…” said the Power Pony.

“I suppose so…” choked Luxi.

Both mares put as much effort as they could into cutting off the other’s air supply, Mare-velous gripping and pulling at her lasso, and Luxi tightening her mane.

I couldn’t fathom the scene that was unfolding before me. I was horrified! I never wanted something like this to happen, for me to see two friends that I cared deeply for trying to kill each other. It was then that I felt Luxi’s tail’s grip on me loosen, and the mass of hair slowly began to fall.

That’s it! I couldn’t take it anymore!

“ENOUGH!” I yelled. “BOTH OF YOU STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!”

Both mares looked at me in shock, surprised at the fact that I could raise my voice like that. To be honest, I was surprised myself. I never realized that my voice had that much bass.

The two mares loosened their grips on each other’s necks, still looking at each other in contempt, and Luxi’s tail released me, as well. I walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Look, could you let me talk to Mare-velous for a bit? Alone?”

Luxi’s mouth opened as though she wanted to say something, but no words came out. Instead, she looked at me, turned to look at Mare-velous, and then looked back at me.

“I…” she tried to say, but then she let out a sigh. “Fine, but don’t take too long.” She reached over to the warehouse door with her mane and opened it, allowing me and Mare-velous to talk privately. She and I walked outside and I shut the door behind us, and I stood face to face with her.

“What was that all about?” she asked. “You got her to stand down so easily… How?”

“Jackie…” I said, unsure of how to tell her. “There’s a reason why she’s so attached to me.”

“What do you mean?” she asked curiously.

“Mane-iac is Luxurious Locks,” I told her. “That’s why Mane-iac appeared as suddenly as Luxi left. They’re the same mare.”

“W-What!? But she looks nothing like-”

“She had an accident at one of the factories. She fell into a vat and got electrocuted. That’s why she’s so all over the place. Her mind’s a little messed up.”

“But she tried to hurt you! How can you trust her!?”

“She wasn’t trying to hurt me. I know the circumstances were extreme, but she was just trying to find me. That was her the only reason for attacking the city. Everything’s cool now, Jackie. She just missed me. We’ve been best friends since we were kids, and we’ve never been separated before. With that combined with the damage caused by her accident, she's really unstable right now.”

“So you’re just going to stay around her? She’s talking all this craziness about how she loves you! You don’t really feel the same way about her, do you?”

I hesitated to answer that question. Sure I felt the same way about Luxi before the accident, but now I wasn’t sure. She was definitely the same on the inside, but could I really handle her newly possessive nature?

“Aaron!” Jackie raised her voice, snapping me out of my self-induced trance.

“Huh?”

“Were you really thinking about it?”

“What do you want from me, Jackie? I can’t just leave her!”

“I’m not saying you have to leave her, but do you really have feelings for her?”

I paused and took a deep breath. “I did have feelings for her before the accident, and I can’t just let them go just because she’s different from what she used to be.”

Jackie looked at me with a sorrowful look on her face. “So what are you trying to say?”

I closed my eyes and sighed. “I’m saying that I love her, and that I’m not gonna leave her.”

I opened my eyes and saw a near broken Jackie standing before me. She let out a deep, shaky breath and sniffled. “…Okay. I understand,” she said to me. “But… what are you two going to do now?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “We’ll just have to work it out. I think I’ll still be able to run the company, and it’s up to Luxi whether or not she wants to reveal her identity or not.”

The mare nodded and turned around. “Okay, then. I’ll leave you two alone.”

“Jackie.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t tell the other Power Ponies about this, and don’t tell them where she is, either. Can you promise me that?”

She stayed quiet for a moment, and then she spoke. “Fine. I promise,” she said as she lassoed up to the rooftops of the city, disappearing into the shadows.

I turned around and walked back into the warehouse, where Luxi was patiently waiting for me. “Aaron!” she said excitedly as she rushed over to me.

“Hey, Luxi,” I said as she hugged me. “Everything’s okay, now. Mare-velous didn’t know who you really were, and she promised that she and the other Power Ponies won’t attack you.”

“So… we can be together? Forever?”

I nodded as I looked into her eyes. Her big, beautiful eyes.

“Yeah. Forever.”

Luxi’s eyes welled up as she caressed my face with her mane, pulling my face closer so that my nose met her snout.

“I love you, Aaron,” she whispered.

“I love you too, Luxi,” I whispered back.

Luxi giggled as her muzzle met my lips, and she kissed me as warmly and as passionately as she could. Her voluminous locks enveloped me as they pulled me closer to her, and we were so close that we felt each other’s hearts beating.

We stood there as we held each other, the moonlight illuminating the room as we relished in our love for each other. Luxi then held me in her arms as she suspended us in the air for a moment with her hair, only for us to then land on something warm and soft.

A bed made out of her mane.

“Would you like to spend the night with me, Aaron?” she asked.

I held her close to me and kissed her snout, tenderly holding the mare that I had admired and loved for years, and I smiled warmly at her. “I’d love to, Luxi.”

Epilogue: I Love You

It has been a while since I found out that Luxi was the Mane-iac. Not once has she attacked the city since then, just as I knew she would. Jackie also lived up to her promise and didn’t tell the other Power Ponies about Luxi’s secret.

Not that it would remain a secret for long.

Two months after revealing herself to me, Luxi decided that she was ready to reveal her identity to the public. Talk about her attacks had died down considerably, and the citizens of Maretropolis had near forgotten about her.

The public was shocked at first, and the authorities didn’t believe a word of it, but after several DNA and fingerprint tests, as well as some analysis of dental records, they had no choice but to believe it. Of course, she was put on trial for the destruction she caused, but she pled insanity and got off with two months of probation.

Those two months have long since passed.

Luxi told me that she wasn’t quite ready to return to work just yet, saying that I was doing a better job at running the company anyway. I decided not to argue with her, as I had grown comfortable with our new position, and I was making enough money to support the both of us.

Yes, I said “the both of us,” as in Luxi and I were living together.

It’s been that way since her trial, and we’ve gotten quite comfortable with living with each other.

And yes, we are dating now.

It’s actually been really great. Luxi is a very affectionate mare, and she doesn’t hesitate to shower me with kisses and nuzzles whenever we’re alone. Of course, this also means that she can be a little possessive at times. Ironically, though, the one mare that she didn’t get jealous of was Jackie, as they had made amends and apologized to each other. Any other mare, though, and she would get a little… protective.

Take today for example.

It had been six months since her probation ended, and Luxi and I just came home from the grocery store.

“You know, Luxi, I think you overreacted a little bit.”

“Overreacted? That floozy of a mare was flirting with you! I had to something!”

“It’s not like I was accepting her advances. Hell, I practically ignored her.”

“And that’s what you did wrong! Whorses like her believe that ignoring them means you’re saying yes!”

“Did you really have to threaten her the way you did? You didn’t have to tell her that you’d choke her out with your tail.”

Luxi groaned in frustration and plopped down on the bed. “You can be so dense sometimes, Aaron!”

I couldn’t help but smile at her, and I laid down on the bed beside her, petting her mane.

“Don’t touch me,” she grumbled.

“You know you like it when I pet you like this,” I smirked, kissing her neck, and she stifled a giggle. “See?” I told her. Luxi smirked and brushed my face with some of her mane, which was tied back in a neat bun.

It wouldn’t be tied for long, though.

I undid the bun and let her hair free. It had grown a little longer in the last six months, but she had kept it nice and neat, and she knew how to control it in public.

When we were alone, though…

“Your touch is heavenly, beloved,” she crooned as she encased me with her hair. “I don’t think I can live without it.”

I smiled. “It’s a good thing I don’t plan on leaving you anytime soon.”

“You mean it?”

I leaned in and pecked her on the cheek. “Yeah, I mean it.”

“Good,” Luxi said as she pulled me close with her mane. “Because I don’t plan on leaving you, either. C’mere.”

Luxi then placed her lips upon mine, her kiss being affectionate and loving, yet greedily possessive at the same time.

I love it when she kisses me like that.

THE END

Author's Note

I decided to put my afterthoughts in the Author’s Note since this was just a one-shot.

Writing this story was an interesting experience compared to writing my other stories. As you’ve just witnessed, the type of romance I went for in this story is quite different from my usual stuff. I really wanted to see if I could pull off the borderline-obsession type of romance, and I think I did alright for my first time.

It was definitely awesome having Zamairiac helping with the execution. I knew what I wanted to do with this and how I wanted to characterize Mane-iac, and he helped me flesh her out and make her seem like a mare that’s clearly not in her right mind, but you can’t help but root for her anyway.

Now here are some questions for you guys: What was your favorite act? Was the different kind of romance something you liked? Would you like to see another one-shot from me in the future?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, you guys.

Aaaand I’m gone.