Marvel Mares

by neorenamon

'Sometimes, it's a pain being in the Canterlot School system'. That thought often crossed the mind of Pinkie Parker.

She felt bad that her aunt and uncle known as May and Ben Cake spent so much of their time and money raising her because of her parent's death in a train wreck when Pinkie was but a foal. They paid to move her to their humble home on the outskirts of Canterlot so she could have the foalhood they felt that she deserved.

She felt bad about 'mooching' off the Cakes, so she always spent more time helping them around their bakery known as Sugar-Cube Corner instead of looking for other foals to play with. When she wasn't helping them in the shop, she was attending the Canterlot Pre-School. She was one of the highest rated mares in the class.

It didn't help her any that most ponies thought she was out of her mind. She was routinely seen making comments to empty space. Her mane held things that no normal mane was supposed to. And she did things that were bordering on the physically impossible. Above all of that, Pinkie was very shy. She had no friends other than Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

Her grades excelled during her time at Canterlot Junior High. She studied Chemistry, Math and other Sciences all so she could make even better baked goods for her adoptive parents. Every baking based class was taking as well. All she wanted to do was help them keep their humble bakery open. She made a number of natural food dyes that the Cakes could make themselves cheaply without altering the basic taste of their cupcakes.

And now she was attending Canterlot High School for the first time. She was walking towards the gates of the Canterlot High School compound wondering how her first day was going to go.

"Morning Pinkie!" called a nearby mare.

She looked over to see that one of her few friends, Vinyl Stacey, was catching up with her. A mare she had known since her first day back in Pre-School. She was extroverted as much as Pinkie was introverted. She had a dream to be a radio DJ and play records all day long. Pinkie was jealous that she had such dedication and drive in what she wanted to do.

"Morning Vinyl," she replied.

"Cheer up!" she answered, "I hear that High School is going to be amazing! They have a radio station just for the School! I'm going to be the best DJ they ever had!"

"I'm sure you will," she replied as she looked away.

"You should really stop acting like you're going to a funeral Parker."

"I'm fine," she sighed, "Really."

"Well well," growled a nearby stallion, "If it isn't Puny Parker!"

"Just what I needed," she sighed. She didn't even have to look to know it was Eugene "Flash Sentry" Thompson talking to her.

"Give it a rest Flash," snapped Vinyl, "Don't you have a jock to itch?!"

"You could be hanging out with a cool stallion like me," he replied as he leered at Vinyl, "Part of the cool crowd. I can guarantee I'm going to be the captain of the Canterlot High School Hoof-ball Team."

"If I wanted to talk to somepony smarter than you," she snapped, "I'll talk to my record collection."

"Your loss babe," he replied as he headed off to meet the rest of his jock friends.

After he walked away, Vinyl said, "What a maroon. What an ignoranimus." When Pinkie didn't respond, she said, "So... think about what I told you yesterday?"

"About what?" she replied, "The school newspaper?"

"That's right! You're great with a camera and I'm sure the school paper needs a photographer!"

"After working at the shop, I don't have much time for..."

"Aw c'mon," she replied, "It won't take that much time. Perhaps if you do well, a real newspaper will give you a job. If you're worried about supporting the Cakes, work as a freelance photographer. Then you can takes new pictures when you feel like it."

"Well there is that," she answered. A small grin crossed her face.

"Ah-hah," she said, "I made you smile. Admit it."

"You make it sound like I never smile," she replied as she blew raspberries at Vinyl.

"When you smile like that," she giggled, "I have to note it in my Diary. If that's all I ever put in it, it would still be almost empty."

Pinkie was so busy speaking to Vinyl that she walked right into another mare's flanks.

"Hey!" she said as she spun around.

"I'm so sorry!" said Pinkie as she backed up.

"Watch where you're going sophomore," she replied as she turned to walk away.

"Wow..."

"I wouldn't mess with her," said Vinyl, "That's Octavia-Jane Watson. She's a senior."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing... except she has a reputation..." she replied slowly.

"So..."

"And she's Flash Thompson's marefriend," she continued, "He has been known to... hurt those who get too close to her."

"But... we're both mares."

"Yeah," she replied, "but then Flash treats you like one of the stallions."

"I don't know why."

"Me neither," she said, "But here we are."

Pinkie looked up at the main doorways to the central school buildings. Then she looked up at the clouds gathering overhead.

"Think it will rain today?" she asked.

"As long as it comes while we're in class, I don't care."

...

Later in Science Lab

...

Pinkie found herself looking into a glass aquarium at a rather large spider. It was tucked away under a shelf full of various chemicals. Each one in a glass jar labelled by hand as to its contents.

"Do you find spiders interesting, Miss Parker?" asked a stallion's voice behind her.

"Oh yes teacher," she replied without looking back, "If this spider was a large as me, it could bench press a medium train engine!"

"Yes, they are quite strong for their size," replied the unicorn teacher.

"And the crawl on walls, spin webs and all kinds of cool things!"

"They are very efficient predators," he said, "but could you pay more attention to the demonstration I'm about to give?"

She turned about quickly as she said, "Oh, I'm sorry."

"That's all right Miss Parker," he sighed, "I'm sure a bright young mind like yours will one day be a great asset to science."

"Thanks," she replied as he walked away.

He walked to the podium at the head of the class as he went over his notes.

"Good morning class," he said in a monotone voice, "Today we're going to demonstrate how magic generates large amounts of electricity that makes out modern society possible."

"Snore," said Flash in a low tone to his jock friend.

"Are we boring you, Mister Thompson?" asked the teacher as he interrupted his own speech.

"Yes," he replied, "I could be practicing hoof-ball."

"Well if you want to keep playing hoof-ball, Mister Thompson, you better not fail this class."

"Please," he sniffed, "All I need is a 'D' to pass."

"Ah, I'm so glad you've set the bar so high."

"Whatever."

"Now where were we?" asked the teacher as he went back to his notes, "Ah yes. Magically generating electricity..." He held up two rods made of two different metals. Each one looked different. "These rods are made of two different metals." He pointed his hoof at one rod as he said, "This one is Copper." He pointed at the other rod and said, "This one is Zinc. Can any pony tell me..."

"When the rods are immersed in an acid like sulphuric acid," said Pinkie, "The zinc oxidizes releasing..."

"NEEEERRRD!" exclaimed Flash.

"Mister Thompson!" snapped the teacher, "One more outburst like that and you're having a little talk with the Principle!"

"At least I'm not a kiss flank like Parker," he replied.

"What was that?!"

"Nothing sir," he replied quickly.

"Yeah, I thought so," he replied, "Now..."

Suddenly the rain began to pour outside. They window was open enough that some of the rain was coming into the room. The teacher paused to go and close it.

"Just a second class," he said.

Pinkie turned to look at the spider again when she heard lightning strike right outside the window. Something exploded outside. Most likely the nearest tree. She felt a piece of wood hit her and drive her into the glass cage. Her body landed in the rocks and dirt as the shelf above collapsed. She was bathed in chemicals as the frightened spider bit her above the coronet. The heavy fumes were making her pass out even as she heard the teacher screaming, "Nurse!! Someone get the school nurse!!"

...

Pinkie woke up in a white bed which was enclosed in a white curtain. She looked around wondering what hospital she was in. Her head was swimming in fog and her hoof was hurting her pretty badly. She had bandages wrapped about her hoof and a few other parts of her body.

"Where am I?" she asked.

The curtain opened as a nurse said, "Oh, you're in the Canterlot Nurse's Office. I'm the school nurse: Nurse Tenderheart. How are you feeling?"

"My head is in a fog and my hoof hurts," she replied.

"Well I've cast some spells on you and there doesn't seem to be any long term damage."

"What happened?"

"It seems that lightning struck the tree outside the window. The tree exploded and you were struck by one of the limbs. Then you were thrown into the spider's terrarium where you were bit and got chemicals dumped on you."

"Was anyone else hurt?"

"Some minor scrapes and bruises," she replied, "Nothing major."

"Am I alright?"

"Oh," she replied, "I think we can send you home when the classes end for the day. You'll probably be totally fine. If you aren't feeling completely well, just come back tomorrow and see me."

"Oki-dokey-loki," she replied cheerfully.

"What?"

"Oh, it's nothing," she said quickly.

"Well since you're here," said the nurse, "You get the school lunch."

She nodded. The nurse left to get her lunch.

Then somepony else poked her head in. "So this is where you've been slacking off Parker," said Vinyl, "I can't say I've ever done anything so radical just to get out of my classes."

"Oh yeah," she replied, "I commanded the lightning to strike so I could get out of class. Of course I'm secretly the Thunder-pony Thor."

Vinyl laughed before she said, "You can be quite funny when you want. I'll get you some more friends here if it's the last thing I do."

"I prefer to think I have quality friends rather than a lot of them."

She came over and hugged Pinkie as she said, "Oh... I don't know what I'm going to do with you!" Then she paused as she said, "Whoa... have you been working out? You feel more... buff."

"I was wondering when that would get some results," she replied.

"Well don't overdo it," she said back, "You'd look awful as some kind of jock-mare."

The two just giggled.

"You shouldn't stay much longer, Miss Stacey," said the nurse as she came in, "Lunch time is almost over for you."

"Don't worry about me," she replied as she turned to leave, "I'm pretty fast and nimble."

"See ya later Vinyl!" called Pinkie after her.

...

The rest of the day passed without incident, the nurse stopping by a few more times to cast spells as well as check her heart and breathing. Each test turned up no problems. No one else stopped by to see her. The nurse released her about half an hour after the last class had let out for the day. But in spite of catching a couple of hours of sleep, her head still felt really weird. The nurse gave her a couple of Aspirin and told her to call her in the morning.

"Well this has been quite the day," she said, "It almost feels like I'm being set up for some kind of super-hero origin story." She paused to giggle at herself. "Like I'm that lucky," she replied.

But in her distracted state, she had wandered onto train tracks while a train was coming right at her. Even though it was a good hundred yards away, there was no way it was going to stop before it could hit her. And apparently the engineer didn't see her as the train wasn't trying to brake or slow down at all.

Suddenly something like an alarm went off in her head. She jumped back to get out of the train's way as it thundered by. By the time she knew what happened, she was looking down on the train from the side of a ten-story apartment building just beneath the roof.

"What-da-what?!" she asked, "How did I get up here?!" Then she looked at herself as she added, "Am I sticking to the side of the building?! This is SO CRAZY!!"

She crawled over the top and onto the roof. It seemed totally natural that she could stick to any surface and let go of it without any problems. Her strength and reflexes just felt like they were off the charts.

"I'm like some kind of... amazing spider-pony!"