[Maretropolis, Equestria]

Outside the Factory, red spotlight lit up the entire factory, catching the attention of a young teenage drake and a well dressed unicorn on a nearby rooftop. The unicorn looked at the young drake with amazed eyes, while he had a bit of a proud, smug look on his face.

“See, Radiance. I told Matterhorn that the Phony Pharaoh wouldn’t be after those banks that are currently being broken into,” he said, as he pulled on his tight suit that identified him as Hum Drum, “He’s gotta be after some form of medicinal herb for some reason or another.”

Radiance conjured a set of fancy binoculars and surveyed the Factory. “I would doubt he would need it for keeping his goons safe,” she said, handing the construct to Hum Drum for him to look. “Judging from what I could see, somepony had done a number on one of them and nopony has even tried to find or help him.”

Hum Drum nodded and pulled a grapple gun from his belt and fired it off toward a construct that Radiance had placed. After it connected, he swung down to the Factory, crashing through a window…

...and right on top of a blood covered mare supporting a badly beaten changeling. The impact sent the three of them sprawling and raised a rather loud racket.

“What was that?!” One of the goons shouted out.

“It came from the catwalk above! Somepony go check on that!”

The mare got up quickly and hauled the changeling and Hum Drum up. “Really bad timing,” she muttered as she stabilized the barely conscious changeling. Just as he was about to apologize, some Desert Snakes had turned around a nearby corner. Upon seeing Hum Drum, they raised an alarm.

“It’s Hum Drum! The Power Ponies are here!” One of them called out.

“Then kill the young drake!” A deep, authoritative voice bellowed. “I will not have the Power Ponies thwart my plans to bind with Horus and become immortal!” In obedience to the voice they raised their weapons to fire.

The mare saw the danger and looked at the changeling worriedly before shifting his weight around. “Forgive me, Kevin.” She then swing him around, angling his back towards the goons as their weapons fired. The bullets struck Kevin’s back, but put no damage in him. The mare was doing a fair imitation of Captain Equestria, except she was using a changeling rather than a vibranium shield.

The Snakes stopped their shooting. “Switch to the Spectrum Rounds!” One of the goons shouted out. Hum Drum heard that and pulled a few dracorangs off of his belt and managed to disarm the attackers. Before they could pick up their weapons, another window was broken through by Radiance behind the goons. Before they could react or run, Radiance captured each of them with large hair tie constructs on their wrists and legs. She then gathered the group together in a large hair scrunchie construct.

The mare relaxed a bit and managed to lower Kevin down gently. Radiance approached Kevin with a mean look on her face. Before she could even begin to try to interrogate him, the mare got between him and her with a stern look on her face. “Now is not the time to be talking,” she said. Hoofsteps were heard, verifying the statement.

Hum Drum stepped forward. “Radiance, let’s get them to safety, and then we can point blame of one kind or another.”

Radiance wilted a bit under the mare’s gaze and the drake’s words. She slumped her shoulders in defeat, and said, “Alright, we’ll get them to safety and see to wrapping this case up.” She looked to the restrained goons. “No pun intended. Hum Drum, watch our backs. I’ll carry the changeling.” She looked to the mare, opening her mouth and closing it.

“Tresemme,” the mare said, “My name’s Tresemme.”

Radiance’s eyes showed a bit of recognition before going back to serious. The hoofsteps were getting louder, so Radiance was direct. “Tres, guide us.” She then made a stretcher construct and carefully placed Kevin on it.

Tres began leading the group through the maze of the catwalk. They did their best to avoid the Snakes that were searching for them. If they did encounter one of the goons, a well aimed dracorang or a hard hit from a broom construct took care of the problem. They had managed to get to a set of exposed catwalk above some mixing vats.

Just as they were over the top of one of vats, the sound of flowing sand was heard throughout the Factory. Tres stopped suddenly, swiveling her ears to hear where the sound was coming from. Radiance stepped forward to ask what was wrong, but Tres slammed her shoulder into her, knocking her back. After she landed, and the stretcher construct collapsed, a large jackal head made of sand crashed into the catwalk, breaking it in half.

Hum Drum, Radiance, Kevin were well out of reach of the attack, but Tres was barely out of the way of the attack. She was knocked down and was barely clinging onto the edge of the platform. Hum Drum acted immediately, firing his grapple gun to the roof of the Factory, he tried to swing to where she was. However, half-way across, part of the ceiling gave way and Hum Drum found himself falling instead of swinging.

The falling sensation stopped about as soon as it started. Tres had caught him before he fell. Looking up, Hum Drum and Tres saw that part of what gave way was some electrical wires that were dangling dangerously close to the vat. Tres began pulling him up, but the damaged platform creaked and groaned in protest.

Just as she managed to get him to grab the platform, it snapped and fell a bit. Hum Drum reacted by pulling himself up and onto the more stable part of the catwalk. Tresemme, on the other hand, had let go out of fright and fell. She screamed and grabbed the electrical wire, hoping to stop her fall, but it was too late. Both her and the exposed wire fell into the vat.

Hum Drum, Radiance, and Kevin looked into the vat in horror, believing Tres to be dead. Hum Drum’s platform section was soon overrun with five Desert Snakes, holding him at gunpoint. Radiance recovered from her shock and readied a few acupuncture constructs to incapacitate them. Just as she was about to launch them, an evil voice behind her spoke. “If you value that drake’s and this changeling’s life, I suggest you pay attention to the real threat.”

She turned around to see a greyish brown earth pony in Royal Egyptian clothing (the standard headdress, ornamental chest plate, and his Egyptian skirt/kilt/lavalava). In his hands was an Ankh staff and a Khopesh edged in yellow and violet sand.

“You seem surprised to see me, Radiance,” the pony said, “I, however, am not surprised to see you.”

“I never expected you and your thugs to raid a shampoo factory, Phony Pharaoh,” she shot back. The Pharaoh suddenly looked enraged and sand flowed from his staff onto himself, forming what looked like bronze Egyptian armor.

“It’s Pharaoh Phetlock!” He swung his khopesh at her, only for it to be countered by a sabre construct. “And I expect you to remember it.” The two began a ferocious sword fight. The Pharaoh focused on wide sweeping swings with his khopesh and the occasional jab with his staff. Radiance countered the swings and jabs mostly by sidestepping them and with an occasional parry. While Radiance had a preference with defence, she did slash and thrust once in awhile, all of which bounced off of the armor.

The two locked swords. “We both seem to be at an impasse,” Radiance said, “You can’t get a hit on me, and I can’t past your armor.” The Pharaoh grinned.

“You, however, have something I don’t have,” he said.

“And what, pray tell, is that?”

He pushed her off. “Liabilities.” He then flung his khopesh at Kevin. Radiance went to created a kite shield construct to protect him, but a dracorang intercepted it, barely knocking it out of its path of travel. The sword missed Kevin barely by a few milimeters. Before both Radiance and the Pharaoh could express their surprise, another dracorang came flying from across the platform gap and attached itself to his armor. A blue light lit up on its center and several volts of electricity were sent through the Pharaoh and he fell unconscious, twitching a bit.

Radiance turned around and saw that the five goons that had Hum Drum captured were hanging by their ankles with grappling hook wire on the catwalk. After he had managed to cross the divide between the platforms, she said, “Thank you, but I must ask; how did you get past those ruffians?”

Hum Drum looked down at the vats below with a nervous look before answering. “I...uhh...had a little...HELP!!!” He suddenly shouted out the last word in response to something long and green grasping his ankle and nearly pulling off the catwalk. Radiance simultaneously grabbed his arm and summoned a scissor construct. It made the attempt to cut what was grabbing the young drake, but the construct actually broke in the attempt.

“SKREE!!!” Radiance looked to where the sound was coming from only to receive a hoof to her nose. While that did cause her to loose her grip on Hum Drum, he was able to catch himself and hold onto the platform. Radiance turned to her new adversary with a bloodied nose. There, both hanging by and being held up by her mane and tail, was Tresemme...but she was different.

For one obvious thing, she was soaked from her dip in the mysterious vat. Another thing was her looks. Her office attire was a bit tattered and torn (not to mention, soaked). Her hair was green, impossibly long, and was moving on its own (not to mention, it was soaked). Her coat was a deep purple (not to mention, soaked).

OKAY! They get the idea that I was soaked when I saw Rari...er...I mean...Radiance. Just get skip to the fight and get to the good part...you know...where I get...
Fine.

Anyway, Radiance was shocked. Her eyes were showing her a threat, but her mind could only comprehend it as a friend. That conflict nearly cost her her life as several tendrils of her hair attacked her. She set up a shield that blocked the hair and she set back to trying to free Hum Drum.

One tendril managed to get past the shield and tried to undo her grip on him. Hum Drum responded by grabbing the tendril and bit it. Tresemme screeched in pain. Hum Drum connected the dots and came up with an idea.

“Radiance, get off the platform and be ready to catch me.”

“What?!”

“I’ve got an idea, and it will hurt badly,” he responded. Radiance nodded and used bridge construct to get off the platform. Once she was safely away, Hum Drum pulled out another electric dracorang and attached it close to his ankles where the hair was. When it activated, jolts of electricity surged through him, Tres, and the parts of the platform they were touching. Both fell unconscious and fell off the platform.

Radiance wasted no time in creating constructs to catch them. She then went to retrieve the changeling and the Phony Pharaoh, but the Pharaoh was nowhere to be seen. “Drat!” She muttered to herself. She then used a spiral staircase construct to exit the factory’s roof and flagged down Saddle Rager, who was piloting the Power Plane. Once the drake, changeling, and mutated pony were loaded on, they were off to the Power Pony Hideout.

Author's Note

TRES! What did I say about the breaking the fourth wall!?
Give me a break! Be glad that It wasn't me doing the-character-in-the-moment type of breaking the fourth wall.
Touché.
Anyway, is it too soon to announce my hero name?
Well, considering that only one person made suggestions, I guess it's okay to reveal the name.
Quick shout out to Belated1truth for the name suggestions.
And of the four names he gave, we've decided on...Maneline.
Not the best of names, but what can we do?
Now to talk about some different things.
To start, the Phony Pharoah...
*AHEM*
Uh...I mean Pharoah Phetlock.
*SNORT*
Anyway...From what I know (and probably don't know), Pharoah Phetlock doesn't have powers. So I have taken the liberty of giving him powers akin to Sand Man and Sinestro.
Sand manipulation to the level of a Yellow Lantern.
And now for Hum Drum.
What about him?
He's now much more useful, able to hold his own in a fight and has better tech to use (as is demonstrated by the Dracorangs).
Now that I think about it, that shock really hurt. It felt like my hair was being pulled out with the force of a speeding truck.
Yeah, not pleasant. Anyway, once the next chapter is ready, I'll have it up. See ya soon.