Friendship is NEXT to Heroicness

Friendship is NEXT to Heroicness

a Tiger & Bunny / My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Crossover

by GracieLizzy

CHAPTER ONE

On a Wing and a Prayer

Twilight Sparkle was pouring over a huge tome, not an unusual state of affairs to find the lavender coloured Unicorn in at any time. She scrutinized the text of the heavily bound book carefully, muttering to herself as she read.

Meanwhile, just across from where she sat was an agitated blue bodied Pegasus. Clearly Rainbow Dash was bored, pacing around the Ponyville Public Library in small circles and just generally fidgeting.

“Come on Twilight, I didn’t think a simple favour would take so long!” moaned Rainbow Dash, “am I gonna be stuck here all day?”

“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash but this isn’t really ‘a simple favour’ to be honest” Twilight replied, a mild hint of exasperation in her voice “you asked me to make you a better ‘hero’ and I am trying to find the best way to do it.”

“Man, I just want some thing like a cool suit of armour or a magic helmet or something,” complained the Pegasus, “not some über-secret magic theory on how to be an awesome hero! I already am one!”

Twilight shot her friend a knowing look as she turned a page, given the recent events that had lead to Rainbow Dash’s request, her bragging was more than a little out of place.

“Oh, right, sorry.” said the athletic pony sheepishly as she thought back to how her ego had nearly gotten the better of her during some of her recent bouts of heroism.

“Really though if it’s clothing you want wouldn’t Rarity be the pony ask, not me?” Twilight asked.

“Eh… I tried that and all she wanted to do is design me a costume, some of them were cool and all, but I want to get better not just look better” sighed Rainbow Dash.

“I suppose if that’s the case then I could ask Princess Celestia if she could get you some royal guard armour I suppose,” suggested the unicorn, “I was actually looking to see if I could find any spells that could help, but I have to admit most of what I’ve found is advice books, and most of that is just kinda obvious stuff like ‘be the best pony you can be’ and ‘always stick to your training’”

“Booooring, and I already stick to my training! I can’t believe you guys didn’t look into all this when you became the Mysterious Mare Do-Well” Rainbow Dash complained.

“Funnily enough we just sort of…. winged it.” Twilight admitted with an embarrassed blush, as she thought back to the time she and her other friends had donned a mask to try and save both Ponyville and Rainbow from her own ego.

“You know what I’d really like to try?” the studious pony admitted, “I recently read about a spell where you can call on the advice of any expert in their field like they were there in front of you, not just read it from an book, have an actual conversation with them.”

“But…” she then confessed “I’ve just been reluctant to use it, in case I’m seen as interloping on somepony’s time; after all most of the expert unicorn magicians I’d like to talk to are always busy.”

“Wait, do you think if you use that I’d be able to talk with one of the Wonderbolts again?” Rainbow wondered, “I didn’t get to hang with them nearly as much as I wanted to at the Grand Galloping Gala!” almost sounding giddy at the thought.

“I suppose,” Twilight said with a pause, a look of concern crossed her face “I just wouldn’t like to bother them if they are off doing a display or derby or something.”

“Nah, if it’s one thing I know Twilight, it’s the Wonderbolts, this time of day they should be their R&R time, everypony needs to relax sometime, especially when you do all they do!” Rainbow interjected “Besides it’s just a chat, right? It’s not like you’re pulling them away from someplace physically is it?”

“Not if I’ve read the spell right, but aren’t the Wonderbolts always on standby in case of emergencies?” Twilight enquired.

“Yeah, but I am sure that won’t happen, please Twilight? It’d be great to get some pointers from my personal heroes on how to be a hero.” Rainbow said giving her friend a pleading look.

It was the sort of look Twilight couldn’t refuse.

“Oh I suppose I could give it a go, besides, who’s to say it’ll be them we get through to?” she ventured.

“If this spell is looking for the biggest experts on heroics in Equestria, then it’s gotta get through to one of the Wonderbolts!” Rainbow said assuredly.

“Spike?” Twilight turned calling for her infant dragon friend “Can you find me that book I was reading the other day, the one about magical method’s of communication?”

“Sure Twilight, Communicating Over Distances – A Theory by Silver Dart right?” Spike replied, scaling some ladders.

“It was in either than one or Experimental Researches in Magi-Harmonic Telephryássō by Nature Miracle, I can’t remember which was the more convincing sounding text,” the Unicorn replied as she watched Spike pull the books in question from the shelves.

Spike hopped over to the two ponies brightly and lay the books on the desk in front of them, taking only a brief pause to thank the ever diligent dragon Twilight immediately started flicking through the manuscripts telekinetically; her eyes flicking rapidly across the page as she speed read.

Barely thirty seconds later the search was over, “I thought so, Silver Dart’s work always did sound like a rip off of Nature Miracle’s anyway.” She levitated the longer titled text in front of her.

“Alright, Dash you need to stand about six feet away from me while I do this,” Twilight commanded politely. Rainbow immediately sprang back, using her wings to guide her to a safe spot in the exact distance required as she smiled excitedly, “perfect!”

“This is gonna rock so hard!” the excited Pegasus gasped.

“Right now I need to concentrate on the subject matter we need assistance with, as do you – I am going to be a conduit for your thoughts” stated Twilight in a matter of fact tone.

“That’s easy, just think of heroes doing daring deeds! You know like Batpony and Supermare!” Equestria’s self proclaimed fastest flier said; now grinning.

The magical mare smiled at her friend, “Okay now I just need to focus on that thought and will that we get a connection to the biggest expert, or experts, in the subject.”

“I want someone passionate, experienced, badass and all around awesome!” Rainbow Dash said, a slight bossy edge to her voice.

“Hopefully, all we have to do now… is focus.”

It was never a good day to be an incompetent thief in the city of Sternbild whatever the weather, but the pounding rain certainly wasn’t helping one particular crook’s situation.

The teenage NEXT was on the run, having just pilfered a small fortune in diamonds for one of the cities many, many high end jewellery stores. She had hoped that she could sneak away from the scene without much incident, but it turned out she hadn’t been able to find and disable every security camera in the room after all.

Still she’d made short work of the guards at the doors on the way out; unpowered humans were no match for her abilities. Other NEXT however, now that was a concern. No doubt a hero would soon be on her tail, and the HERO TV crew not far behind.

“Stop right there!” came a man’s voice, signalling that bandit’s fears had become reality, not that would stop her from running.

She tilted her head as she ran to see if she could verify which of the stars of Sternbild’s most popular programme was attempting to be her captor, catching a glimpse of a figure clad in alabaster and slate decorated powered armour, with lime green accents blazing. Wild Tiger was chasing her.

She was slightly relieved it wasn’t one of the top rated stars, like Sky High, but still the veteran hero had been increasing in ranking recently plus if Wild Tiger were here then his partner – the far more competent Barnaby – was sure to be close by

Soaking from the rain, exhausted from the running she’d already done that night, and her left thigh aching from where a heavy coin bag had been slapping against it as she ran, she almost cried when realisation she’d have to run faster struck. Tonight was not a good night for her.

Perhaps she thought to herself, if I can keep running I’ll escape, their powers – unlike mine – only lasts five minutes, then it’s gone for a whole hour – I just need to keep ahead of them for that long.

The sudden appearance up ahead of another figure, clad much like his partner in armour but with red and white colour scheme this time, soon put an end to those thoughts. The criminal, who only now realised she’d chosen to run down a narrow street, found herself surrounded.

“I believe you have something that doesn’t belong to you, Miss” spoke the fan favoured hero. The thief span around, and darted towards Wild Tiger, hoping that the older of the two would be easier to outmanoeuvre.

She soon learnt how wrong an assumption that was, when Tiger strafed her she thought she’d managed to push past him, but he then quickly grabbed her arm and safely restrained her in bear hug.

“Nun-uh sweetie, you aren’t getting away that easy” the old hand told her as he activated his famous ‘Hundred Power’ making her struggling to get free go from merely difficult to nearly impossible. But just like her two assailants, this thief had a trick up her sleeve – or rather, in her coin purse.

“Don’t think you’ve stopped me!” she cried, and then concentrated on the contents of her coin purse. The simple pop cap on the bag opened with a snapping sound, and out flowed a long undulating snake like structure which immediately formed itself into a fist and punched Wild Tiger full force in the face. He spiralled backwards loosening his grip, allowing his capture to break free.

It was at this point he heard a familiar whirring sound, the HERO TV camera crew had arrived in their helicopter. The fact that yet again, they had managed to pick the point in the fight where he looked a fool did occur to the so-called ‘Crusher for Justice’.

“The Sand Witch always knows a good club!” cried the bandit victoriously, grinning in glee.

The Sand Witch? Seriously? Wild Tiger thought, an unseen smirk springing to his face beneath his mask-like helmet. Nearby even the ever stoic Barnaby was taken a back by the ridiculousness of his target’s name and though he made no outward show of this, he was momentarily phased. It was a moment the Sand Witch was relying upon as she used the fist against the younger of the partners as well.

When her attack came dead stop without toppling the calm NEXT in front of her, the smile she’d had just moments before fell way. He’d blocked her effortlessly.

“The Sand Witch,” Barnaby calmly stated, “yes my suit does show your weapon is a mass of compressed silicone particles. So you have sand powers then?” He didn’t often engage villains in this manner preferring to get down to business, but the aloof HERO TV star had soon realised the Sand Witch posed little threat.

Wild Tiger got to his feet, comically brushing himself down as he did, when the thief saw this she was aggravated to realise that the much maligned and supposedly faded star didn’t consider her one either.

“Funny thing about your power, Sandy,” the ‘old-timer’ chipped in already giving her a nickname, “can’t imagine all this rain is gonna to help.”

The jewel thief blanched, then span back around to face her older assailant, turning her column of sand against him. It snaked around his body forming a loop, and she mentally commanded it to contract and squeeze the man in front of her.

It was a pointless effort, not only did both Tiger’s ‘Hundred Power’ – the strength of a hundred men – prevent her attempt from doing all that much damage, but his powered armour also blocked the sand ring’s attempt. Also, just as predicted, the rain had begun to make the sand clump together making it less and less manoeuvrable.

She tried to run but it was helpless, in a matter of seconds Barnaby had safely pinned her to the ground, detaining her. Her jewel heist was over.

Back in the Apollon Media van the partners used as their mobile secondary base of operations Wild Tiger quickly shed his armour and returned to his civilian clothes, happily pulling his favourite flat cap back atop his head.

It wasn’t that Kotetsu didn’t enjoy the chase – hero work was what he lived for – but he wanted to message his daughter Kaede and tell her that, this time, Daddy absolutely promised to be home for the weekend. Hopping onto the secluded street he activated his phone, “Kaede-chan, guess what!” he chimed, switching from English to Japanese as he always did when talking to his family, “Daddy has managed to get the weekend off, so I am coming home to see you!”

“U-huh,” came the reply of his twelve year old offspring, she didn’t sound convinced “that’s exactly what you said last time, and then what happened?” Kotetsu winced his daughter did a shrill impression of his voice “Waah! I’m sorry Kaede-chan, something came up, Daddy has to work waaah!”

“I really, really, mean it this time – wild horses couldn’t keep me away!” the father replied “I promise.”

Twilight had assumed the spell would be easier than this, but the effort was seriously straining her, images of all sorts of different beings were flashing through her head. Some of them were ponies, some of them other creatures like Zebras, Pigs, Cows, even the occasional Diamond Dog, and other… things… that she’d never seen before.

“You alright Twilight?” her azure friend asked, Rainbow could see that the violet magician was struggling, “you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m… fine… Dash,” she panted in reply, “just… focus on… your idea of… a hero. That’s what the spell… needs to, to… lock on to.”

As the sky coloured Pony closed her eyes and concentrated, the Unicorn’s horn glowed. It flashed erratically, pulsating each time a different image jumped to her mind.

The winged athlete repeated to herself what type of hero she was looking for, someone experienced, some passionate, and someone who always did the right thing – she might have a lot of bravado but she was ready to admit, she had to learn from her recent mistakes.

“I think…” groaned Twilight, “…we’re nearly” her horn flashed the brightest shade of purple, “…there!”

In the middle of the room, in the space between the two ponies, a swirl of wind began to accumulate.

Kotetsu sighed as his daughter hung up on him after making him swear he wouldn’t let her down again, he only hoped that he could stick to that promise.

“Kaede still unhappy?” came a voice from the van doorway.

The waistcoat wearing thirty something turned to face his younger counterpart, “Yeah, I can hardly blame her though, this is the third time this month I’ve said that and I haven’t showed up yet.”

The wavy haired bespectacled youth stepped down into the street “You should really take a break, I can handle things on my own.”

“Ah you know me, I can never say no to someone in need, and it always, always happens when I make plans. Oh well, fingers crossed this time!” the older of the pair said hopefully.

“I’ve told you that idealism will get you nowhere,” Barnaby told his partner “I mean it you now, I can handle things.”

Up until a few short weeks ago Barnaby would not have given his partner the time of day whilst ‘clocked off’, and only gave him what little he was obligated to whilst performing hero duties. However, ever since the veteran had proven himself instrumental in the taken down of a certain Jake Martinez – Barnaby’s attitude had softened considerably, even if Kotetsu was a complete goof at times.

“I hope for your sake you manage it this time.” the blonde idol admitted.

“Ah, I’ll work out okay” the bearded father replied with a hopeful grin, “as long as there’s always hope, I’ll never give up on winning Kaede back over!”

They had not been paying attention to the wind that had surrounded them, after all, a breeze is rarely anything to worry about but it suddenly occurred to both of the partners that there was something odd about this gust. It surrounded only them, and none of the nearby litter had been kicked up by it at all.

“That’s odd does” Kotetsu stated as he held a finger aloft, as though testing the wind direction, “does this wind feel right to you, Bunny? It feels oddly....” he trailed off.

“Warm?” The younger hero suggested, a look of concern appearing on his face. Neither of them could say why, it was a sensation not unlike the one someone gets when they are sure they are being watched, but something about the wind seemed deeply unnatural.

Both heroes steadied themselves, and waited to see if another villain would appear, this street was supposed to a secured area – purposefully purchased by Apollon Media, their sponsors, as a gated drop off point for the pair, if someone had located them then the situation was not a favourable one to say the least.

The ground began to shake, and the two were about to activate their ‘Hundred Power’ abilities to steady themselves when a bright light enveloped them, and they vanished.

Twilight tried her best to maintain the spell as the building shook, books falling from their shelves, and furniture shuddering.

“W, wh, what’s go, going oooon T-twilight-ttt?” stammered the blue winged mare as the earthquake coursed through her bones, forcing her to take flight and hover to escape the unpleasant sensation, “is this supposed to happen?”

“I, I, don’t know-www. I don’t th-think sss-so!” came the lilac mage’s reply, “m-maybe I should-ddd sss-stop?”

The earthquake chose that moment to halt. Standing in the centre of the room, enveloped in a soft white bubble of light, were two creatures unlike anything either pony had ever set eyes on.

“They aren’t the Wonderbolts!” Rainbow snapped, then her tone shifted to one of confusion, “Just what in Celestia’s name are they?”

“Um, Bunny, how long have ponies been rainbow coloured? And had wings? And talked?” came Kotetsu’s apparent reply.