“You want me to go back home? You can’t be serious!”

Supermare looked very serious indeed as she stood in front of her little sister, or Superfilly, as Apple Bloom wanted to be called now.

Applejack couldn’t recall ever hearing what codename Apple Bloom wanted for herself. She knew the inevitable day would come where Apple Bloom would finally follow in her hoofsteps. That day was supposed to be way in the future, when Apple Bloom would be older and wiser. The only reason Apple Bloom had a costume was because she had been itching to stop hiding who and what she really was, and join her sister in defending Equestria.

Apple Bloom’s career as a superpony was certainly not supposed to start with her risking her life to save Applejack. Just the idea that Apple Bloom had seen her held by the slime monster… dominated by the slime monster…

Supermare cleared her throat before speaking, “There ain’t anything more you can help with. The royal guards have this place on lock-down, and we already told Twilight all she needs to know about what happened here. I need to help in freeing the rest of those ponies still trapped in the cavern—”

"Which is why I gotta stay with you! If we work together we can get those ponies free faster instead of wasting time flappin’ our gums.”

“I said no!” Supermare shouted.

Superfilly recoiled as though slapped in the face. The two sisters were several yards away from the guards, hidden from prying eyes with no chance of their conversation being overheard, yet the forest itself seemed to have gotten quieter.

Supermare kept her eyes on her little sister, watching as Apple Bloom went from shocked, to hurt, to outraged in the span of a single breath.

“Why?” Superfilly asked between clenched teeth.

Supermare sighed, breaking eye contact to gesture back at the direction of the cave, and the semi-viscous remains of the sliced-open pods carried out by squads of royal guards.

“It might still be around. Or there might be another one,” she pointed out darkly. “And I sure as heck don’t want to see you go up against something like that again.”

Even to say that sentence out loud made Applejack shudder. Despite the ordeal of being the slime monster's prisoner, her invulnerable body could still remember exactly how tight the creature had squeezed her. She would never forget how easily it had slipped inside her, pistoning into her, right through her costume, filling her up better than any—

Applejack mentally bucked that train of thought right off the tracks, even as she squeezed her hind legs together. She couldn't help feeling paranoid that there was something still on and in her to give away how the slime had used her.

If her little sister had been older, Applejack feared she would have noticed the things left unsaid between them. Things Applejack's body language tried not to say. Applejack turned to look back at the perimeter around the entrance of the cavern, and the several golden-clad ponies moving like ants around it, slowly extracting eerie purple cocoons filled with violated ponies. She could still remember being inside her own gelatinous prison as her body steadily lost strength and her stomach swelled. It was easy to remember how readily she was made to surrender. Applejack had never felt so helpless in all her life.

Superfilly looked ready to argue the point, but Supermare cut her off. “I know what you’re going to say. You beat it, froze it solid and broke the thing to pieces. I know that, and I won’t deny that you… you really saved me. But you have to listen to me, Apple Bloom.”

Supermare moved so fast that even Apple Bloom’s quick eyes couldn’t follow as she was grabbed and hugged tight, her face pressed against the shield on Applejack’s chest that she was always so proud to display.

“You were lucky. You managed to surprise that… thing, and you got lucky. I wasn’t so lucky. I walked right into it without a worry, and it surprised me. And…”

And I’m scared now, Applejack wanted to say, but couldn’t. Her body shivered again, and the more Applejack thought about it, the more she questioned if the slime monster wasn’t still inside her depths. It could be, for all she knew. It could have been waiting to heat up the secret places in her body that made her excited from perverse pleasure. She squeezed her hind legs again, clenched her teeth, and pushed those thoughts away from her mind.

She was Supermare, and Supermare was never a victim. She never gave in to fear. There wasn’t enough super strength in the world to make her tongue move and admit that creeping fear to the little sister she so desperately wanted to protect. Supermare was never supposed to be scared, not when everypony needed her to be brave.

Slowly pulling back, Applejack’s face softened as she sat on her haunches to get at eye level with Superfilly. “And I don’t take well to losing. It’s hard for me to even admit that I lost. I am glad you didn’t listen to me this time, but again, you were lucky. But right now, I do need you to listen to me.”

Applejack took a deep breath, steadying herself now as she prepared her thoughts. “From now on, you do what I say. This here, what you’re wearing, it means something important, something I didn’t want you to have to put on until you were ready.”

That caught Apple Bloom’s attention, “You said I was ready!”

“I said almost ready. And I ain’t talking about your powers. I think today proved you’ve gotten a good handle on them, and that makes me mighty proud of you,” Applejack said, trying to cushion the blow she was about to land. “I’m talking about the other things, like all the ways your life is gonna change now, forever.”

“I’m still me, Applejack. Only now, I get to stop hidin’ that, that’s all,” Apple Bloom pointed out like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Can’t we talk about this after you and I go be heroes and rescue those trapped ponies?”

Applejack let out a snort of frustration, completely ignoring the nagging feeling of fear in the far corner of her mind, telling her she was afraid to go back to the place where she had been subdued and defiled.

“Those ponies are going to be okay now. And from now on, you need to be careful about when you decide to be a hero and rush into danger. This isn’t all fame and glory, and it sure as heck ain’t nothing like those comic books you and Spike are always reading. What we do, we do because there’s no other choice. We can’t risk our friends and family catching wind of things like us always disappearing when there’s danger, or noticing that ‘Applejack’ isn’t around whenever Supermare is around.”

“But… Granny and Mac both know you’re Supermare,” Apple Bloom pointed out, not understanding at all what her sister was trying to get at.

“They know because they raised us. Granny was with Ma and Pa when they found our ship. But even them knowin’ the truth is dangerous. We can’t let anypony else know who we are. It’s the only way we can keep our friends and family safe.”

Apple Bloom frowned, feeling a knot tie up her stomach. Her first reaction was to go tell the crusaders the moment she and her sister were done here. The fact that she had kept her powers a secret from the others for so long was only because she was still trying to understand them and everything she could do. But for Apple Bloom, her being Superfilly was her secret, something that belonged to her that she had full rights to entrust with the fillies who were already like sisters to her.

“Why can’t I?”

The question confused Applejack, as if she had misheard her sister. “Why? You know gosh darn why! Appl- Superfilly, you absolutely cannot tell anypony who you are! Even the heroes in those silly comics you read know that.”

“Those are fake characters, and this is real life! I know I can trust my friends with anything!”

“It’s not a matter of trust…” Supermare sighed, shaking her head, “I trust my friends, but I wouldn’t tell them who I really am. Think of the danger that would put them in. If word ever got out about who Supermare really was, the ponies we love would become targets to our enemies!”

“But word wouldn’t get out!” Apple Bloom stomped her hoof into the ground in frustration, “I’m not talking about telling all of Ponyville. Just the ponies who matter most! Didn’t today show you can’t rely on just yourself?”

The question earned Apple Bloom a raised eyebrow from her big sister, along with an angry look that did nothing to stop the filly from continuing, “You keep thinking you’re alone when you got five awesome friends, one of which knows Princess Celestia! They’re ready to stand by your side and help you with anything. You saved the world with them even before you became Supermare! It don’t make any sense why you would keep this a secret from ‘em, and you know that too! That’s why you want to tell Rainbow Dash so badly!”

The statement struck a nerve with Applejack.

There was no denying the truth, Applejack did want to tell Dash that she was Supermare. There was also no denying how selfish that desire made her feel, and how a little part of her was also very afraid to tell Dash the truth. What would it mean to Rainbow Dash if she knew the mare she liked to have competitions with was always holding back, that there was no chance in Tartarus of her ever being stronger than Applejack, or worse, that Applejack could fly faster than her? Applejack’s desire to share her secret came with the very real risk of losing her friendship, not just with Rainbow Dash but with the other friends she had hidden the truth from.

“That just ain’t how things work. I may want to tell her the truth, but I also don’t want to risk her getting in danger because of me.”

“For all you know, she went out here to the Everfree because she doesn’t know you’re Supermare. Ah heard the things she said about Supermare, about how she didn’t trust a pony who can fly without wings, and how green with envy she was getting about hearing how you were saving ponies lives and being a hero. Ah’d bet my lunch money that if half of the things Scootaloo says about her are true, that Rainbow Dash is a huge glory hog who goes around looking to prove how tough she is, then I fully believe she went looking to prove that she’s braver than Supermare or some such nonsense like that.”

“Even Rainbow Dash isn’t that pig-headed. And that’s beside the point. From now on, the moment you put that costume on and made yourself known, you set yourself up for living the rest of your life as a hero. That means keeping secrets, telling half truths, risking your well-being. It means you aren’t a kid anymore, and you have to make every decision like an adult. This is why I said you were almost ready.”

“Sis, I am ready,” Superfilly floated in the air, getting just a little higher than her sister so she could look down at her. “And the only way I can prove that to you is by showing you. And my secret identity is exactly that, my secret, to entrust to who I want. We can argue about this until the cows come home, but right now there are ponies in that cavern that need help. The guards might not need the help, but I know I can lend a hoof and help even when it’s not asked of me. That’s something you taught me.”

Before Applejack could get another word in, Superfilly took off, flying fast as an arrow from a bow. Even from the far distance between the guards and herself, she could easily hear the surprise from each of the golden armored soldiers as the filly flew past them, down into the depths of the earth where danger had been, eager to help where she could.

She… has a point. Maybe… maybe I'm being stubborn, and doing more harm than good?

Supermare didn’t leave right away. With her sister gone, she had lost the distraction she needed to not think about her experience with the slime. Even now, she could still easily recall how the monster had felt inside her. She would have nightmares about being trapped in its mass, squeezed to the point of breathlessness, climaxing harder than she would ever have thought possible.

Rainbow went through the same thing, and I still don’t know why, Supermare reminded herself, If… if she did go into the Everfree just to show me up…

The more she thought about it, the more it did in fact seem like a thing Rainbow Dash might just try and do. Though even if it wasn’t, there was still a problem that Applejack didn’t know how to face.

“Rainbow… how am I ever going to show my face to you after this? How can I tell you the truth now?”

The hospital might as well have been another prison. Rainbow Dash hadn’t been restrained in any way, but the constant tests, doctors and nurses talking over her as if she wasn’t there, it was no surprise that at the first moment she felt strong enough, she waited to finally be left alone in her private room, promptly pulled out her IV drip and got out of bed to seek her freedom.

It was going to be easier said than done.

The normally athletic mare felt her knees wobble as soon as she tried to stand. Her wings felt like lead weights, and even the effort to make them flap a few times seemed to take too much out of Dash. There was no way she was going to fly back home. If the medical reports were anything to go by, she and all the other ponies that had been rescued that day weren’t going to be doing much of anything in the near future, including simple things like flying, or even being able to stand on clouds.

Rainbow Dash gave a dismissive, but weak, snort at the very idea that anything was going to keep her grounded for long. Magic or no magic, she sure as hay wasn’t going to spend the night in a creepy hospital room smelling of disinfectants and feeling utterly alien to her.

Alien…Supermare saved me and all those other ponies. Damn it…

The mere thought of being indebted to the supposed superpony gave Dash the push she needed to simply walk towards the window. She had to lean on a wall for support, despite the very short distance between her uncomfortable hospital bed and the unlocked window. She looked utterly uncool, but was willing to swallow that shame; she wasn’t feeling very cool at the moment to begin with.

Giving her wings another strenuous flap, she figured she at least had barely enough strength to glide from her room to the ground, and then make her way back… where? There was no going home. Fluttershy’s cottage was too far, Pinkie had no room because she rented space with the Cakes, and right now the last thing she could handle was Pinkie’s endless supply of sugar-fueled energy. Especially if she wanted to try making a chimicherrychanga… Rainbow shivered.

Twilight and Applejack would just shove her back to the hospital and talk down to her like she was being a spoiled filly. That left only Rarity… she’d take her chances there, she decided, even if it meant modeling for some stupid frou-frou dresses.

By the time she had gotten to the window, Rainbow Dash was panting and sweating. A short walk, really nothing at all, and already she felt like she had to nap. Her legs were heavy, her wings were heavier still. So uncool.

Taking a deep breath, Rainbow waited to gather the little strength she had, and then opened her eyes to put a hoof on the window sill, only to be met with the disapproving eyes of the last pony she wanted to see.

The lack of wings made it impossible to hear Supermare fly, or to tell how long the supposed earth pony had been there, floating in midair with her bright red cape billowing gently in the breeze. It was creepy to Dash, but at that moment it was also infuriating. The green eyes staring down reminded Dash of a look she would expect from Applejack, when she was being particularly pig-headed about something Dash had set her mind to. As if the farmer could talk about the wrongs that came with being stubborn.

“If you’re here… to save me from the hospital food… don’t bother,” Rainbow Dash panted, trying not to sound as tired as she felt.

The superpony blinked, then frowned. “I was really happy to see you were awake. Trust Rainbow Danger Dash to not let something like full body magic depletion keep her down for too long. And no, I’m not here to save you from the hospital food, but I will save you from jumping out a window and falling ten stories to your death.”

If Rainbow Dash could have ruffled her feathers, she would have. At the moment, the most she could do was sneer.

“Yeah, well, you know what? I once survived a whole day of having my wings turned upside down so that I crashed every fifty meters. I think I can handle a little drop.”

“Maybe, but you don’t even have the magic to fly at all, now. You can try, though. I’ll catch you before you fall, but I’d much rather you went back to bed.”

Rainbow bristled, and ground her hooves against the window frame hard enough to leave scuff marks. “You’re not my mom,” she growled. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

“I’m not,” Supermare sighed, shaking her head a little, which only further upset the weakened pegasus. “I’m… asking you to please rest a little before trying any stunts. Right now Pinkie Pie is gathering your friends, Twilight and Spike are at the library, Fluttershy is making her way to Ponyville, and Rarity is boxing up…” Supermare paused, turning her head to the west, in the direction of Carousel Boutique, and frowned a little and squinted, “I don’t rightly know what she made you, but it looks like it goes over your wings. And it’s packed with potpourri and tiny beads designed to retain heat, so I guess it’s some therapeutic thing.”

The news got Rainbow Dash to step back, looking at Supermare as if she had a third eye in the middle of her forehead. “Okay, that’s just freaky. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t spy on my friends… whatever you want, just spit it out and leave.”

To Dash’s surprise, Supermare looked hurt. She did admit privately to herself that she had spoke much harsher than she needed, but she was too tired to care about being nice to the freaky alien pony in the cheesy costume in front of her.

“May I come inside?” Supermare asked softly.

“Like I could stop you?” Dash scoffed.

“You could. A simple ‘no’ would do it. But, I’d really like to talk with you, and I won’t take much of your time, I know you like things to happen fast… Applejack is going to want to speak with you, too.”

Rainbow Dash felt tired just from talking with the superpony, and shrugged her shoulders in defeat. If Applejack was on her way, there was going to be no hope of escaping her new prison tonight. “Fine, knock yourself out.”

By the time Dash had turned away from the window, she gasped at the sight of Supermare already in her room, standing by the doorway. Dash looked back to her window, then to the door, unsure if the superpony had flown in, or had entered the hospital from the main entrance and arrived at the door to her room with speed she couldn’t imagine. Either way, the display of speed only served to further upset the weakened mare.

“Thank you. I’m glad you’re mostly okay. Knowing you, you’ll be back to flying and doing aerial tricks way before the doctors can guess at when you’ll recover.”

Rainbow Dash stayed where she was, half because she was too tired to walk back to her bed, and half because she didn’t want Supermare to see her struggle just to walk. “You talk like you know me.”

“Everypony knows who Rainbow Dash is,” Supermare spoke with a small smile on her lips.

“Yeah, they do. But you talk like we’re friends. Calling me by my middle name, telling me about what my friends are doing with that crazy vision power… thing you have. Just what do you want? If it’s thanks, then yeah, thank you for getting me and those ponies out of that cavern. Could have been a few days faster, though.”

Supermare bit her bottom lip, head downcast, looking very much to Rainbow Dash like her heart was breaking. “I… I don’t have anything to say. You’re right. I should have found you earlier, shouldn’t have waited three days. As soon as I heard you went into the Everfree, I should have gone in there after you. I’ll regret that mistake for a long time, but by the grace of Celestia you’re alive, okay, and safe. I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I… I should have been a better hero.”

Rainbow Dash had expected a cocky remark, something that threw the blame of the situation back at her. Instead, Rainbow was given what sounded to her like a heartfelt apology she never saw coming. Whatever reply Rainbow had ready to defend herself and her actions stopped dead in its tracks, leaving her jaw to drop open listlessly. Somewhere in a nearby room, a paperclip fell to the floor with a clink.

“And I will be better. It’s part of the reason why I’m here right now. I really need to know… Applejack needs to know… why did you go into the Everfree Forest alone? What were you trying to do that made it seem like going in alone was a good idea?”

With a prickling sensation at the back of her neck, Rainbow’s Egghead Alert went off, which was usually reserved for when Twilight tried to explain the Eighth Quad-dodongo rule of physics to her. Again with Applejack? What the hay was she to Supermare, anyway?

She blew a lock of messy rainbow hair from her face, realizing her own thinking was flawed. Of course, Applejack was going to want to know. All her friends were most likely going to demand to know why she went into such a dangerous place alone. She had no good answer to give them. It bugged her to see the strange pony so interested in her, but Dash did not have the strength to bother with lying. The mere idea made Rainbow Dash give an annoyed groan, as she suspected Supermare would be able to tell she was lying by listening to her heartbeat, or some other nonsense superpower.

“I don’t really trust you,” Rainbow Dash said flatly, “Everything about you comes off wrong. I’ll admit, you’ve helped Ponyville and Equestria from the things my friends and I couldn’t do, but there’s no way a pony like you can just show up one day out of the blue and earn everypony’s trust just by stopping some forest fires or fighting off a star constellation monster. Though… yeah I’ll give that to you, seeing you fight that Scorpio that one time was, kind of awesome. But I’m saying that there is no way a pony like you should even be real. Plenty of bad stuff has happened here before without you showing up. I don’t remember seeing a pony in red and blue tights helping me and my friends stop Nightmare Moon. You do a few good things here and there, sure, but then you disappear. We have no idea who you are, and frankly, you’re a little scary.”

Rainbow Dash’s tirade hit Supermare faster and harder a dozen angry hydra heads, but what made it all hurt more was that this was all new to her. “You... think I’m scary?”

“Well, duh,” Dash rubbed her eyes, “I mean, flying with no wings? Casting magic from your eyes with no horn? That one time you lifted up a fully-grown hydra? Just now, being able to spy on my friends who are miles away, able to see things no pony should be able to see… are you even a pony?”

Supermare could not respond right away to Rainbow Dash’s crushing accusation; it was taking more and more focus just to control the tears behind her downcast eyes. The superpony rubbed a red booted hoof across her nose, swallowing before she spoke up, “I… I can see that. I mean, I understand I’m… not normal. But, none of that answers the question I asked you.”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what to make of the superpony’s demeanor, but she felt compelled now to answer. “I went looking for you.”

“For me?”

Of all the things Supermare might have expected to hear, that was the last reason she would have guessed Rainbow Dash had for braving an area seething with dangerous animals and beasts.

“I notice some things… almost every time you fly away after doing the whole ‘save the day’ routine, you fly off towards the Everfree Forest. I noticed it the first time you appeared, when that lamia monster suddenly attacked Ponyville. You beat it, and said you were going to take it back to the Everfree where it belonged. Then that one time when an out-of-control class A thunderstorm set the Whitetail Woods on fire… you took out the storm, and then took out the fire, but after that you flew back in the direction of the Everfree. And that last time, when some crazy unicorn summoned something out of Tartarus looking to become the next King Sombra, you took out the freaky monster he summoned and the unicorn, and again you flew off towards Everfree. So, I figured you had to have your secret hideout somewhere in the Everfree, and I was going to find it, and get to the bottom of just who and what you are.”

Supermare was flabbergasted. Her fears were screaming from her heart, and Apple Bloom’s words of warning were loudest as they can back to haunt her—keeping her identity a secret had gotten one of her friends in serious danger.

“I went alone because I knew none of my friends were going to back me up on this. Pinkie Pie thinks you’re the greatest thing ever. Fluttershy and Rarity are also big fans. Twilight doesn’t trust you one bit, and Applejack doesn’t even like to talk about you. It was going to be up to me to find out the truth. And… instead, I found that cavern. Thought that maybe it would be a good place to hide out. And it was, but not for the reasons I thought…”

At that, Rainbow Dash looked troubled. Supermare had to wonder if she was remembering how the slime had attacked her. She could recall the sudden rush of memories that flooded her mind when the slime had gotten ready to imprison her in that pod, how she had seen in her mind’s eye how Dash tried to fight off the slime monster before it got the better of her. To think, it was all because Rainbow Dash did not trust ‘Supermare’.

“This… this is all wrong. I never wanted this. I was trying to keep you and the others safe.”

“Keep me safe?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking at Supermare questioningly, “You keep talking like you’re my friend.”

“I am, Dash… just not a very good friend, it seems,” Supermare wiped her eyes, wishing she could wipe away the shame and guilt just as easily as the tears. “Not a very honest friend, either. That’s what bites me the most… I’ve been lying this whole time, and it got you in serious trouble.”

Supermare put a hoof to her chest, directly over the S shield she was proud to display. “I’m through with lying. You may hate me more now, but you need to see that I’ve been your friend from the start.” As Supermare spoke, her costume shimmered like a mirage.

“What are you doing? Is this another one of your freaky powers?” Dash asked. She managed to back away from the shimmering superpony despite how tired she was.

“More like a bit of magic this costume has,” Supermare responded, just as said costume disappeared off her body, revealing a very familiar farm pony wearing a red handkerchief around her neck, instead of her trademark stetson. To Rainbow Dash’s quick eyes, the transformation had occurred in an instant, leaving her to stare dumbly as the pony she mistrusted vanished, leaving behind her closest friend: Applejack.

Author's Note

A little under two years ago, I wrote Feeding Time, and now I've made good on my word to start the sequel.

This has been a very frustrating and disappointing project, mainly because of the struggle I've had trying to get help to write a clop story that has actual story to it. Unlike Feeding Time, the clop in this story will not happen for a while. The purpose of this story is to explore what could happen if a superhero's secret identity being kept secret was the cause of problems for said hero. It's meant to be a little serious.

I was lucky to get some help in this. The Great Derpsby provided proofreading help, and Setokaiva provided the majority of editing this story got. He was an immense help, even though he couldn't help me with everything this story needed.

Depending on the reception this story gets will determine how readily I finish it. A second chapter is done, though it needs touching up, and a third chapter is still in rough draft format. If you read and enjoy what I have so far, let me know please.