Chapters I had been in Manehattan when I gained my superpowers. I was visiting my mother in the hospital, but she wasn't ill. She was in the hospital because she was having surgery to remove an extra bone in her wing. The bone wasn't doing any damage to her, but it had started hurting in the exact spot where the extra bone was, so the surgery had been.
"Mom?" I asked, popping my head into her room.
"Sunshower!" she said, looking up from a book she had been reading, "It's so good to see you, sweetie!"
"It's good to see you, too," I walked in and placed a box of chocolates on the table beside her bed, "Just came to wish you good luck on the surgery!"
"Oh, you came all the way out to Manehattan to wish me luck?"
"It's my week off, and I decided that it was the perfect time!"
"Oh, Sunshower, you're still the sweetest little pegasus in the sky!"
"Moooom!"
"It's true and you know it!"
"So when is the surgery happening?"
"In a couple of days. How long are you staying?"
"I could only get a train ticket for this afternoon, so only today."
"That's a shame, but I don't think you would've had much fun sitting in a hospital room, eh?"
"I suppose so."
I stayed and talked with my mom for the next few hours, until noticing that the train was going to leave soon.
"Oh geeze, it's already three fifteen?" I said, "Sorry, mom, but I gotta go or I'll miss the train!"
"It's no trouble," she said, "It was nice catching up with my daughter."
I smiled before zipping out of the room.
"Bye, mom!" I called.
"Bye, Sunshower!" she called back.
I weaved through everypony as quickly as possible, without going at a sprint. The train was scheduled to leave at three thirty, and the station was only five minutes away, so I wasn't in that much of a rush. However, I wasn't going to take the risk of leaving with no extra time, so I hurried anyways.
I turned a corner just as the lights everywhere suddenly flickered out, and crashed into a shelf. Something spilled over my head, but I simply shook myself dry and continued walking as the lights flickered back on almost immediately. I made it to the station with seven minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, and boarded without a second thought about what had happened earlier. Surely it had just been water.
The trip back to Ponyville took around forty five minutes, and I was relieved when the train finally arrived. I happily exited, flying into the air to stretch my wings. It felt warmer today than usual, so the cool breeze from flying felt really nice. I decided to stop and buy something to eat at the market place, so I landed in front of Applejack's stand.
"Hey there, Raindrops," she said, "How many apples would ya like?"
"Three, please." I said.
"Sure thing! That'll be three bits."
I reached into my saddle bag and pulled out three bits, which I placed down on the counter. Applejack gave me three apples, and I put two of them away in my saddle bag, and started on the last one.
"Thanks!" I said, flying away with satisfaction.
"Yer welcome!" said Applejack.
I took a bite of the apple, and noticed that it seemed to be warmer than usual, which seemed rather odd. It wasn't that hot out, so how was the apple's temperature changed already? I simply assumed that the apple had been sitting in the sun for a while, and flew back to my house.
A stroke of luck had given me my beautiful cloud house. It was a lucky lottery win from a ticket my brother had given me, and we split it with ourselves, as our parents had rejected the gift, saying that we would need it more than them. My house wasn't too fancy or anything, but it was perfect to me.
I flew into the kitchen and placed the two remaining apples on the counter. I felt rather sleepy all of a sudden, and flew up to my bed and laid down. In an instant, I had fallen asleep, and entered a strange dream.
I was standing in the middle of a field of grass, with nothing but sky in the distance. The sun was shining brightly overhead, with no clouds in the way. The sound of a breeze could be heard, but there wasn't one blowing.
"Hello?" I called out, "Is anypony out there?"
I took a step forward, and my hoof suddenly blazed with fire. I instantly stomped my hoof into the dirt to put it out, but that only caused a ring of fire to shoot out from it, igniting everything it touched. The grass erupted into flames, and the sky turned dark.
"What?!?" I cried in surprise and fear, "What's going on? What's happening?!?"
Do not fear the power you hold... whispered a voice, It can stay within your grasp if you hold it...
The flames circled around me, and the sky lit on fire. I awoke abruptly, breathing heavily.
"J-just a dream..." I whispered nervously, "It was just a dream..."
I nervously flew out of my bed and looked outside. Everything looked fine, nothing was on fire. I glanced down and my hooves, shook my head, and flew into the kitchen.
"Something to eat will make me feel better..."
I grabbed one of the two remaining apples off the counter and took a bite. A second later, my hoof blazed with fire, and the apple also began to burn. I dropped the apple in shock, and it landed on the cloud floor, which caused it to stop burning.
"T-this must be a dream, too!" I said, "Yep! Just another dream!"
I pinched myself, and flinched in surprise when it hurt.
"Not a dream! Not a dream!"
My hoof was no longer on fire, and I noticed that it wasn't burned at all where it had been. I stared at my hoof until it was suddenly ablaze again, but this time I was far more curious than scared. I waved my other hoof through the fire, and it also became ablaze.
"What in Equestria?" I muttered.
I quickly poured a glass of water my holding the cup in my teeth, and held it in my hooves. The water began to boil quickly, and splashed out of the glass on to me. But I didn't feel any scarring heat, just regular, as if it hadn't even been boiling.
"This is so weird..."
The flames on my hooves flickered up my legs, until both of them were completely ablaze. I stare at them until the flames died away, and I had returned to normal. I blinked, and then concentrated hard, until my hoof was flaming again. I smiled with both interest and nervousness, and watched as the flames flickered out again.
"Pretty neat, though..."
I tried again, and both my hooves were soon flaming, again. I held them near each other, and the flames centered into a small fireball in between them. I moved both of my hooves in the same direction, and the fireball stayed between them. I pointed my hooves at the jug of water I had on the counter, and the fireball flew from between my hooves and smashed into it.
"Oops..."
The water had put the fire out, but the jug was destroyed. I stared to pick up the pieces when I noticed my reflection looked different in the puddles of water. I flew upstairs and looked in the small mirror on my dresser, which showed that my mane was red, and my eyes were orange.
"What?"
As the flames on my hooves flickered out, again, my mane and eyes returned to their normal blue colors. I blinked in surprise, and continued staring in the mirror.
"Maybe I should see if Princess Twilight knows what's going on..."
I flew downstairs and outside just as a strange-looking beam of magic passed under me, freezing everything it touched. I instantly looked towards where the beam had come from, and saw a masked pegasus hovering in the sky. He pointed his hoof down and the ground, sending out a beam of ice. I quickly flew behind my house, and stared in surprise.
What?!? I thought in shock, Does he have some sort of ice powers?!? And what is he doing? Some pony needs to stop him!
I waited for a moment before realizing that everypony was running around in a panic. My hoof flickered with a flame, and I did the first thing that came into my mind. Just as the pegasus sent down another beam of ice, I blasted a fireball at it, causing them both to vanish.
"Who did that?!?" yelled the pegasus, "Show yourself!"
I saws the tips of my mane change to red, and flew out with both of my hooves on fire. I said nothing, waiting until he saw me. As soon as he spotted me, a small smirk formed, and he flew over to me.
"So you have fire power, do you?" he asked.
"Yes," I said confidentially, "And I see you have ice powers. What exactly are you doing?"
"Does it really matter?"
"Of course it does! You're covering Ponyville in ice!"
"Well, that's not really my problem, now is it?"
"But you're the one doing it!"
"That's what makes it so much fun!"
In a moment of rage, I punched him his cheek, leaving a small burn mark. He flew back in surprise, and then looked at me angrily.
"So you want a fight?" he asked, his hooves starting to glow white, "Then you're on!"
The blasted a beam of ice at me, and I threw a fireball at it. We both flew at each other and punched simultaneously, hitting each other's hooves. A blast of fire and ice connected from the punches, and a large explosion blasted me back in the air. I saw the pegasus get blasted into the ground, and lay still, unconscious.
Did I win?
I crashed through several trees and landed on the damp ground. My mane faded between red and blue, until finally fading to blue. I got to my hooves and stretched out my wings, but my right wing. hurt too badly to move. I started walking through the dark forest, until I realized that I was in the Everfree Forest. I broke into a sprint, before pausing in a medium-sized clearing. I heard a growl from behind me and turned around.
Timberwolf!
A Timberwolf walked out of the dark trees, along with several others that surrounded me in a circle. I tried to fly up, but my right wing still hurt too much. I glanced around at the six total Timberwolves surrounding me, and my hoof lit up. My mane shifted to red and I prepared a fireball. There was going to be a fair bit of tinder in a few minutes.
The day had started out normal for me. Well, as normal as it could for a special agent who recently joined a new undercover team. I had simply been running the store as usual until a masked pegasus flew up into the sky and started covering Ponyville with ice.
"Lyra!" I called upstairs, "Watch the store for me!"
"Sure thing, Bon-Bon!" called back Lyra, "I mean, Agent Sweetie Drops!"
I smiled and activated my invisibility spell. I slipped into the crowd of panic ponies and quickly jumped on to the nearest roof. I jumped from roof to roof until I was close enough to the pegasus. I pulled out my grappling hook and I aimed towards him until a blast of ice he let out was suddenly intercepted by a fireball.
Who was that?
A pegasus mare with a red mane and a yellow coat flew out with her hooves blazing with fire, and the ice pegasus flew over to her. The two talked briefly before the fire pegasus socked him in the jaw, and they began to fight. The ice pegasus blasted a beam of ice at the fire pegasus, and she threw a fireball and the ice. The two flew at each other and punched at the same time, which caused a large explosion in the air.
Well, that makes my job easier. But who is that mare?
I caught a glimpse of her cutie mark as she was launched beck from the explosion, and I blinked in confusion. She had a cutie mark of three raindrops, but had fire power? It dawned on me who it must as been as her mane color flickered from red to blue, as she crashed down in the Everfree Forest.
That's Raindrops! Alright, Sweetie Drops, questions later, helping now!
I jumped down from the roof, hoofcuffed (and wingcuffed) the unconscious pegasus, and dashed off into the Everfree Forest to where Raindrops had crashed. I didn't fear the creatures in these woods, as I had seen worse. Plus, I was fully and completely trained to deal with all known creatures in these woods, so if anything, they should be the ones fearing me.
"Die you stupid kindling!" cried Raindrops from ahead of me, "I will burn all of you to death!"
I quickly dashed forward to see Raindrops, with her mane still red, taking on six Timberwolves at once with her hooves blazing brightly. Her right wing looked like it had been injured, which explained why she wasn't flying. I considered jumping into the fight, but she was actually starting to damage them, while keeping them at a safe distance away from herself.
"That's it!" she cried angrily.
She jabbed her hoof straight into one of the Timberwolves' chest, and her eyes changed from orange to red. There was a burst of fire, and the Timberwolf was instantly reduced to ashes. She whipped around and destroyed the nearest Timberwolf as the others fled as fast as they could.
"Where do you think you're going?" yelled Raindrops, not sounding like her usual self at all, "I said I'd burn you all to death, and I will!"
I sprung into action and pinned down Raindrops before she could charge after any of the Timberwolves. Her eyes almost instantly faded to orange and she gasped in surprise. I turned off the invisibility spell, much to Raindrops' surprise, and I gently unpinned her.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Bon-Bon?" she asked in surprise, quickly getting to her hooves, "What are you doing here?"
"My name isn't Bon-Bon. It's Special Agent Sweetie Drops, and I work for a secret organization that worked to help keep Equestria safe."
"W-what?" her mane and eyes faded back to blue.
"We help to keep Equestria safe with the help of many agents, and we could use you to help."
"Me?"
"You have those fire powers, plus you just took on six Timberwolves at once and came away unscathed."
"But-"
"Just come to ULTRA Labs so we can at least check out your ability. And if you don't want to join, then I'll simply erase the memories of this even happening from you."
"... O-okay."
I grinned and pulled out my IHT and threw it on to the ground. It opened up to form a black base, and I stood one it.
"You getting on?" I asked.
"What is that?"
"My IHT. Instant Headquarters Teleporter."
She nervously stepped on and I flicked a few buttons on the base. A white light surrounded us, and in an instant, we had left the Everfree Forest.
I looked around in shock as we almost instantly appeared in a large laboratory. There were many creatures, including ponies, griffins, zebras, donkeys, mules, and even some dragons. Sweetie Drops stepped off the teleporter-thing and I nervously followed her lead. The teleporter condensed into a small black cube that she picked up and slipped into a black saddle bag.
"Welcome to ULTRA Labs." she said proudly.
"What does ULTRA stand for?" I asked.
"I have no idea. The 'U' stands for Undercover, but that's all I know."
"But aren't you an agent here?"
"Honestly, I don't think that anyone knows what is stands for."
I simply nodded and followed Sweetie Drops as she casually walked past everyone towards the other side of the room. She stopped next to a table where a unicorn stallion with a white coat and a black mane was cleaning out some beakers.
"Hey, Glass," she said to him, "What are you up to right now?"
"Just cleaning out these beakers," he said, "Why?"
"I need someone who know how to work lab equipment."
"I know how!" he said gleefully, "What do you need me to do?"
"This is Raindrops," she pointed at me, "And I need you to run some tests on her power."
"Wait, so are you saying you found someone to be an agent who has actual powers?"
"Yep."
"Oh my gosh, that's awesome!" Glass placed down the beaker he had been cleaning, "Are you going to tell the Commander?"
"Slow down, Glass, she hasn't agreed to become an agent, yet. We're just testing her abilities."
"Yeah, yeah, but talking later and testing now!"
I followed Sweetie Drops and Glass around the corner and into a medium-sized room filled with tons of strange-looking technology. As I glanced around, Glass pulled out a clipboard and Sweetie Drops sat down in one of the few chairs in the room. Glass grabbed a pencil in his magic, and looked up at me.
"Okay," he said, trying to contain his excitement, "So what's your power?"
"Uh, fire." I said nervously.
"Can you show me?"
Just as I was about to light up my hoof, a griffin ran frantically into the room.
"Sweetie Drops!" she cried, "We've got an emergency!"
"What is it?" she asked, jumping out of the chair.
"The door for Storage Area Three is frozen open!"
"But that means the whole place will freeze!" cried Glass.
"So we need to get the door closed right now!" said Sweetie Drops, "What do you need me to do?"
"Get Drake and Scale and have them shut the door," said the griffin, "Since no one else can get near those temperatures. The rest of us will be trying to contain it so nothing gets destroyed."
"On it!"
The two sprinted out of the room, and i tried to process what they had said.
"What's Storage Area Three?" I asked.
"It's a room kept at the coldest temperature ever reached," said Glass, "But if anyone leaves the door open, that's a huge risk of freezing the entire facility. There's a ton of safety precautions keeping the door locked, so it worries me who bypassed them."
"We need to help!"
"I just do lab work, there's nothing I can do!"
I noticed something that looked like deep white fog spilling out of a nearby vent, freezing everything it touched.
"What we can do now is move!" I said, pointing at the fog.
"Oh!" said Glass, backing away from the fog.
He quickly tried to open the door, but it had been frozen shut on the other side.
"No, no, no! The whole place is probably frozen if the freeze has already made it to here!" he said, panicking, "What do we do, what do we do?"
"I got this!" I said, hoping it wasn't a lie.
Both of my hooves blazed with fire, and everything near me that was frozen almost instantly melted back to normal. A perfect circle of non-frozen-ness formed around me, with a radius of about six feet.
"Is that your power?" asked Glass, "Fire?"
"Uh-huh." I said, happy that it worked.
"How is your fire hot enough to prevent that freeze from reaching you, but not be burning everything else around you?"
"You're the lab worker, not me! Now let's move! Like you said, everyone else is probably frozen already!"
I blasted the frozen door down with a fireball, and peeked outside. Everything I could see was frozen over, but I didn't feel cold at all.
"Do you know where Storage Area Three is?" I asked.
"Yeah." said Glass.
"Alright, let's move. Stay close so you don't get frozen."
We hurried down the hall, with Glass giving me directions. We soon found Sweetie Drops, who was frozen in a running position. I put my hoof on her, but she didn't thaw for some reason.
"Okay, that's not good..." I said, when an idea popped into my head, "If someone broke into here to get something of extreme importance, where would they go?"
"Uh... Probably to the record room," said Glass, "There's a ton of files and other important stuff in there, but it's guarded at all hours."
"Everyone is frozen! What good will guards do if they can't even move?"
"Oh yeah..."
"Where's the record room?"
"I thought we were going to Storage Area Three!"
"If someone's in the record room, we've got to get there before they leave!"
"But wouldn't it be better if we unfroze the agents, first?"
"We don't know how long that will take! My fire doesn't even seem to be doing anything! Now come on, we've got to get to the record room!"
We changed what direction we were running in, and made it to the record room in about a minute. The door to the room was completely unfrozen, so I quickly ran over and tried to open it, to no avail.
"Does this thing have a lock or something?" I asked.
"Yes, but I don't know how it works!" said Glass.
"Brute force, then!"
I made a fireball and blasted through the door with it. The freeze slowly crept into the room, and Glass and I both cautiously entered.
"What did you do?!?" cried a voice from in one of the corners, "You'll freeze the entire room!"
"Who are you, and what are you doing?" I yelled.
"Get them!"
Two ice beams suddenly came flying out at me, which I blocked with my hooves. Glass hid behind me while I threw two fireballs in the directions of where the ice beams had come from. I blocked two more ice beams, before a third one hit my forehead, and made me lose my concentration. All three ice beams hit me and knocked me backwards into Glass, and we both crashed into the corner.
"This is why I work in the lab!" whispered Glass.
"We need... A shield..." I whispered, breathing heavily.
"I might be able to make one!"
"Then do it..."
Glass's horn lit up with gray magic, and a small bubble formed around us just as three more ice beams came flying towards us. The beams hit the bubble, but it stayed strong. I laid back against the wall, and my head smacked into something metal. I glanced back at what it was, and saw that it was a switch to turn on the sprinkler system, which have me an idea.
"Where is the water for the sprinkler system regulated?" I asked, having caught my breath.
"Storage Room Eight, but why-"
"Where is Storage Room Eight?"
"Uh... On the other side of Storage Room Three. But-"
"Is it more important to keep ponies from stealing all these secret files, or keeping everything in this place in tact?"
"Keeping ponies from stealing secret files-"
"That's all I needed to hear!"
I flicked the switch to the sprinkler system, and a large hissing noise sounded. A moment later, a loud explosion sounded from off in the distance, and everything began to thaw.
"What did you just do?" asked Glass.
"Blew up Storage Room Eight and Three, and whatever else was next to Room Eight."
"What?!?"
"That disabled whatever was cooled Room Three, so hopefully everyone will thaw."
"What if they don't thaw?"
"We fight the thieves."
"Is that safe?"
"Are the jobs of agents supposed to be safe?"
"Well, they're not usually..."
"Then there's your answer."
A second door slammed shut in front of the first one suddenly, and a greenish mist started wafting down into the room.
"That's knockout vapor," said Glass, "That means that someone activated the security measures!"
"It can't get through the shield, right?" I asked.
"It shouldn't be able to."
There was three sounds, similar to someone slumping over from being knocked unconscious. The knockout gas was sucked from the room, and the door swung open. Sweetie Drops walked in, shivering slightly, and Glass dropped the shield as she glanced around and spotted us.
"You both know what just happened, right?" she asked.
"We blew up two rooms?" I said nervously.
"Everybody got frozen?" said Glass.
"No, you idiots!" said Sweetie Drops, "You two just saved this entire facility!"
"We did?" we asked at the same time.
Sweetie Drops rolled her eyes and pulled out three pairs of hoofcuffs. She walked into the darkness, and the cuffs clicked three times from being locked. She walked out of the darkness with a smile.
"Well, we can just leave them until someone drags them off to a prison cell!" she said happily, "Now what do you say to celebrating our new agents?"
"I vote yes." I said.
"That's what I was hoping you'd say."
"Can I still test her abilities?" asked Glass.
"Sure. When you're out in the field with her. I said agents, after all."
"Wait, WHAT?!?"
"Shut up and accept your promotion." I said.
It was easy to break out of the cuffs that had been placed one me, presumably by that fire pegasus, since I simply used my ice powers. I flew away as soon as I had broken free, just in case she was nearby. Though, it was confusing as to why she would have cuffed me and then left, but I wasn't complaining.
"Windigo!" yelled her voice in my earpiece, "Why did your earpiece stop working?"
"I-" I started, before being interrupted.
"And why have you stopped freezing the town?!? Don't think my GPS can't track where you're going!"
"I ran into some unexpected difficulty!"
"You should be able to take on any common creature with your powers!"
"It was a pegasus with fire powers!"
"WHAT?!?"
"She flew out from nowhere and punched me with fire!"
"Why didn't you just hit her back, you idiot?!?"
"Of course I hit her back! But-"
"Don't use that tone with me!"
"Sorry! Anyways, I hit her with my ice punch just as she did her fire punch, and there was an explosion!"
"Your powers must be complete opposites, and that's why there was an explosion, fool! So you just gave up?"
"I was knocked into the ground, and she cuffed me. However, she left for whatever reason, so I fled in case she returned."
"So I suppose that little agency finally started experimenting, too... Damn it! Windigo, get back here immediately so we can modify your powers to counter that stupid fire pegasus!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
A click sounded in my earpiece, to show that it had been turned off. I let out a sigh of relief, glad that she was more distracted about the fire pegasus than that I failed the mission. Though she couldn't technically blame me...
Focus, Windigo. That's as much as yourself as you are, so get used to it! I thought, I just get back to the base so they can mess with my powers again...
I gulped nervously. It was never pleasant when my powers were tampered with, but it was for my own good. I needed my powers to be stronger if I wanted to win in more battles. Especially against that fire pegasus... I regain my focus, realizing that I had started to dip below the line of visibility from the ground.
It's that stupid pegasus who's distracting me!
My eyes wandered downward to see that I was above the Everfree Forest. I glanced at the trees far below, when a flash of light caught my attention. I instantly dove down to an open clearing, and looked around the area. There were small piles of ashes on the ground, which were being blown away by a slight wind.
Ashes... From fire... But what in the Everfree uses fire? I thought about all of the known creatures in the Everfree, The fire pegasus! The explosion must have sent her flying into here, and somepony else cuffed me! But where could she have gone?
I pulled out a small device from one of my pockets in my ice-blue outfit and turned it on. It began vibrating rather violently, and I smirked with happiness.
She used some sort of teleportation device, huh? Well, that's easy to track...
I punched a few numbers into the device, and a location popped up. I smirked again as the device showed directions, and started off.
I looked at the dead tree oddly, confused as to my my device had led me here.
Is this a secret entrance or something? If is it, it's the stupidest one I've even seen...
I cautiously pressed my hoof on the tree, and a platform floated up on the inside of it. I smirked, and stepped on to the platform. However, my smirk faded when a small machine popped up, demanding identification. I simply froze the device, and smashed down through the platform, flying down to the bottom.
Lamest security measures ever!
I landed in an empty room, and cautiously strolled through a doorway that was didn't even have any security measures. Only a moment later, the door slammed shut behind me, and I looked around nervously. I quickly pressed a button on the side of my mask, and my outfit condensed into a small necklace with an icicle charm on it.
Let's just hope nopony notices my lack of a cute mark, or whatever those things are called...
I took a single step before a layer of freeze suddenly came flying down the hall. I flew into the air as everything around me froze, and even with my resistance to the cold, I could feel how freezing it had become.
Weird...
I flew down the hall until I saw an Earth pony, frozen mid-run. I smirked, again, realizing that probably everyone in the facility must have been frozen at the rate the freeze had been moving. I continued falling, taking a random turn whenever I felt like it. I noticed a room with the door blasted to pieces, and went over to check it out.
The door was broken after being frozen... Was it that fire pegasus?
As if in response, the freeze began to melt away, and I panicked.
Everyone's going to unfreeze! I need to hide in case that fire pegasus sees me!
I flew into the room with the wrecked door, ripped off the cover for an air vent, and slid inside. I made sure I could look into the room, in case the fire pegasus came back.
"Windigo!" came from my earpiece, "Where in Tartarus are you?!?"
"I found their secret base!" I whispered, "I need you to be quiet or I'll get caught!"
"Liar! If I haven't found their facility, then neither have you!"
"Then where am I?"
"According to your GPS, you liar, you're..." she faded off in surprise, "Sweet Celestia, you are in their base!"
I resisted every urge to say 'I told you so', and responded calmly, "You've copied my location, right?"
My earpiece suddenly short-circuited, and I yanked it out of my ear quickly. I put my hoof to my ear to cool it off, and looked at the broken ear-piece nervously. The security measures must have been frozen over, and must have just thawed.
No, no, no, no, no! Now I'm completely alone in the enemy's base! What do I do?!?
"Of course, you'll need a cool name," said a voice, coming nearer, "Can't let everypony know who you actually are!"
"How about Phoenix?" it was the fire pegasus speaking, "Because I can fly and have fire powers!"
"Phoenix?" asked the second voice, "Huh, that sounds pretty cool!"
"I am a genius."
From the vent, I saw two ponies enter the room. One was a unicorn, and the was the fire pegasus, Phoenix. Neither seemed to notice me, which was very fortunate. If even a single pony saw me, I'd be captured in two seconds purely because of how many ponies must be in this place.
"So, Phoenix," said the second voice teasingly, "You ready for a couple of tests?"
"What kind of tests?" asked Phoenix.
"See how hot you fire is, what you can do, and I'll need to examine your blood to see if there's anything special in it."
My eyes widened in fear at the thought of somepony withdrawing blood. It brought up those moments, which I was forced to relive every week... I shifted a bit backwards from the vent, and the next thing I knew, I was falling down. I tried to fly, but the vent was too thin to allow me to open my wings.
Stop, stop, stop!
A sheet of ice blasted out under me, and I landed on it safely. I took in a deep breath of relief, until I heard a voice coming from above.
"Did you heard that?" asked the voice of whoever Phoenix was with, "It sounded like somepony fell down the vent!"
"Then I'll go investigate!" said Phoenix.
"Wait, that seems like a bad idea-"
"Too later, I'm already doing it."
I heard the opened to the vent get yanked off, and panicked. I could make ice at will, but making it vanished was much for difficult. If Phoenix spotted me, she would be sure to blast me with a fireball!
"This is a really bad idea!" warned the second voice.
"Psh, I've already taken on, like, four ponies today!" said Phoenix, "Going to investigate a possible intruder is nothing in comparison."
"But what if they have a weapon to kill you with?"
"La la la, I'm not listening!"
I began panicking as I saw the tips of Phoenix's red mane peek over the side of the vent far above me. She turned around to say something to her partner, but continued moving forward, and fell down the same vent as me. I quickly shifted to the side of the vent, just as Phoenix crashed down on to the sheet of ice I had made.
"You!" she cried, noticing me and getting to her hooves, "What the heck are you doing here?"
Her hooves blazed with fire, and the sheet of ice instantly melted away, causing both of us to continue falling down the vent. We both crashed through another vent, and fell on to a concrete floor. I landed on my side, which caused me to flinch in pain, but Phoenix hit the ground with a sickening thud as she landed on her.
She instantly fell over to the side, unconscious. I stared at her for a moment before blasting the open vent above me with a ice beam, sealing it shut. I turned back to Phoenix, and felt the urge to hurt her rise. But... She was injured. Wouldn't it be cheap to hurt her while she was badly injured?
I cautiously approached Phoenix, and saw that she was bleeding. Any thought of hurting her faded away instantly faded away, and switched to nervousness. I may not be the smartest pony, but I can tell that if somepony hits their head on concrete that they're not okay.
What do I do? I know nothing about anything medical related! Er... I should probably check the wound...
I gently rolled Phoenix over onto her side, and saw her wound. She had a large slash across the side of her head, and frowned in confusion. You don't get that kind of injury from hitting the ground. She must have hit something in the vent. I gently placed my hoof against her injury, and covered it with a thin layer of ice. Phoenix's mane suddenly faded to blue, but I didn't really pay that much attention to it.
Okay, that should help. And that's probably all I can do...
I glanced back at Phoenix, still lying unconscious, then flew off to find an exit.
"Ugh..." I moaned, sitting up off the hard ground, "My head is killing me... What happened?"
"Rain!" cried Glass, running up to me suddenly, "Rain, are you okay? You went into the vent and then didn't come back out!"
"I dunno.." I muttered, "But I feel like I just slammed my head into a brick wall..." I placed a hoof against the side of my head, but oddly enough felt ice, "Huh? Wait, why is there ice on me?"
"Looks like its covering some sort of injury," said Glass, looking at the ice, "How did you get hurt?"
"Um..." I paused to think, "I don't remember... I just remember going to look in the vent, but then it's all blank..."
"You can try and remember later, we should probably get that injury looked at. Wonder how it got covered in ice, though..."
I nodded, and walked over to some sort of elevator with Glass. I strained to remember what had happened after I went into the vent, but I couldn't think of anything.
I flew out of the Everfree Forest and above the cloud layer before anypony could see me. I wasn't quite sure who I got out of their base, but I wasn't complaining. Plus, she was probably going kill me if it took me any longer to get back to headquarters, especially since my earpiece was destroyed and she couldn't scream at me.
I hope Phoenix is okay... She was bleeding a lot... Ugh! Stop thinking about Phoenix! She's just another obstacle to overcome and defeat!
I beat my wings at double time, and tried to get Phoenix out of my head. After all, I know that ULTRA is only full of evil ponies who try and stop us. They might pretend that they care sometimes, but they're not good. At least, that's what I've been taught. And it's not like everypony would lie to me about something that important!
Stop thinking. You're not supposed to think about stuff like this. You're supposed to remember your training, and think only about strategy. Now hurry up and get back to HQ so you can get power modifications!
I shuddered at that. I know they need to do it to make me stronger, but those needles can really hurt.
"You seriously got back to being a techie?" I asked Glass as we walked down the hall.
"Hey, I wasn't a techie to begin with!" said Glass. "But this way I can actually be helpful! Seriously though, have you seen what the techies have to monitor? It's insane!"
"Blah, blah, blah! You go do your techie training, and I'll go do my fire training!"
Glass paused to look at me. "Wait, who's training you?"
"Couple of the dragon agents. I mean, I basically have dragon powers, so it should work!"
"Okay..."
I stopped in front of a door with the label of "Fire Warning" and smiled at Glass.
"See you later, techie!" I said, opening the door. "I'm off to fling fire around!"
"Later, Phoenix!" said Glass with a grin.
"And I already regret making that name..."
I walked inside, and shut the door behind me. There were about ten dragons in the room, which made me feel a bit nervous. One of the dragons, a green one, noticed me, and flew over.
"Hey!" said the green dragon with a grin. "You Raindrops?"
"Uh, yeah..." I said nervously.
"Nice to meet ya! I'm Ardere."
"Nice to meet you, too..." my wing nervously twitched.
"Hey, no need to be nervous! Nobody in here's gonna hurt you unless you majorly hurt them."
I nodded and followed Ardere across the room to an odd device. It looked like some sort of high-tech thermometers.
"Alright, so before you get training we need to do some data analysis. Like what your powers are and how hot your fire in is. This gadget here measures your fire's temperature, so why don't you show me what'cha can do?"
"Okay!" I said, excited to see the details of my powers.
I put my forehooves together, and my mane shifted to red and my eyes shifted to orange. A fireball formed between my hooves, and Ardere switched on the device. A weird scan-thing passed over the fireball I was holding, and the device beeped. My fireball suddenly launched out from my hooves, knocking me backwards. It crashed into the wall, and dissipated.
"Heh, nice." said Ardere, helping me back up. "You held that still for a pretty long time! Now, let's see what the temperature was..." he pressed a few buttons on the machine, and a bunch of data appeared on its screen. "Okay, looks like your fire is one thousand one hundred and thirty six degrees Celsius. That's right around the temperature of most dragon fire."
"It's that hot?" I asked in surprise. "But I didn't even feel the heat at all!"
"Well, most of the time if someone has some sort of fire-related power, they also have heat resistance. So, we can test your heat resistance, too!"
I followed Ardere over to a door, and he placed his claw up against something beside it, and the door swung open. We walked down a long hallway, which was oddly empty. We eventually walked into another room, and my mouth dropped open in surprise. In the ground there was a pool of lava .
"Is that lava?" I asked in surprise.
"Yep!" said Ardere happily. "Ultramafic lava at one thousand six hundred degrees. Dragons can stay in it for up to an hour due to their heat resistance. Most other creatures can't even get within thirty metres! We use the lava, and the following hallway, to check for heat resistance. Looks like you've got a really high one."
I smiled, and we both flew down towards the lava. I might be going swimming in it, soon.
"Hey, Windigo, get over here!" called Darkbeak.
"Yes?" I asked, landing next to the griffin.
"Commander said that you weren't preforming well enough, so you need to train more."
"Oh..." my ears nervously flattened. "Okay..."
"Listen, dude, you just need to do better, then you won't have to train as much. And for Celestia's sake, don't be a wimp!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it..."
I flew off towards my locker to grab my training gear, when I ran into our newest agent, Cloud Showers, in the hallway. She was a blue pegasus with a purple mane and a blonde tail.
"Oh, hey, Cloud." I said simply.
"Um, hi, Windigo..." she said nervously. "Do you know where the lab is?"
"The laboratory? Yeah, it's on the third level."
"I don't know how to get to the third level..."
"You want me to show you?"
"Yeah!" she suddenly seemed very excited.
"Okay, then." I flew down the hall with Cloud following, until reaching an elevator. "So, you can get to the lab by going in the elevator and typing in the security code. You do know it, right?"
"Um, I'm pretty sure I do..."
I nodded, and then turned around to continue heading to my locker. Cloud suddenly grabbed me, and yanked me into the elevator with her, just as the door shut.
"Cloud, what the heck?!?" I said in surprise.
"Shut up..." hissed Cloud, as the lights suddenly flickered out.
"But-"
"Shut up!"
Cloud whipped around, and tried to punch me, but I blasted her hoof with an ice beam. She turned around, again, and tried to kick me, but I blasted out another ice beam.
"Cloud, what are you doing?!?" I cried. "You're acting crazy!"
"No, I'm not!" she yelled, whipping around to punch me.
I blasted out an ice beam, which caused a wall of ice to go up between me and Cloud. It was thick enough that I couldn't see through it, and I didn't hear anything. I nervously stood up, and glanced around the elevator. There was a vent at the top, so I flew up to it and pulled it off. The vent was oddly large, but I wasn't about to complain.
Why is Cloud acting so weird? I thought, before flying into the vent. She's kinda creeping me out...
As I flew down the vent, I heard my ice barrier shatter, and heard wing-beats coming closer. That meant that Cloud was chasing after me. I flew at double time through the vents, until I suddenly found myself outside. I didn't hesitated, though, and continued flying away from Cloud.
"Windigo, you get back here!" yelled Cloud from behind me.
My hoof automatically went to my ear, and I realized that I didn't have my earpiece in. I flipped over and blasted an ice beam at Cloud, but she dodged it. I continued flying and throwing ice beams, but quickly landed in a nearby forest to take a breather.
My eyes were still wide in excitement. I had just gone into the lava, and according to Ardere's math, I had higher heat resistance than most dragons. I was taking a break while the lab did a blood test, and I was in a back corner out of sight because I was feeling a bit shy.
I hope I can get to actual training, soon. I thought. I mean, it is cool to find out all of this data, but I want to actually do something!
"I don't like that stupid pegasus!" I heard a voice say from around the corner. "She thinks that she's a super hero of something, but isn't even as good as us!"
"Drake, dude," said another voice, "You just need to get over it."
"You know what? When I next see that stupid pegasus, I'm gonna punch her eyes out!"
"Really, dude?"
"I'm not kidding! I will!"
I realized that the voices were coming closer, and nervously flew into the air. There was a vent next to me, so I quickly yanked it open and flew into it. I placed the vent back on, and then flew down the vent so they couldn't see me. I suddenly found myself outside, and nervously landed on the ground. Why did the vents even lead to outside? That made no sense!
"Cloud, knock it off!" yelled a familiar voice.
"Not until you stop trying to get away!" yelled another voice.
I looked up just in time to see an ice beam go whizzing past my face. I quickly sprung back, and my mane and eyes shifted to red and orange. Somepony suddenly crashed into me, which sent both of us sprawling across the ground.
"Ouch..." muttered, getting to my hooves as seeing who had crashed into me. "Wait a second, you're that ice pegasus!"
"And you're that fire pegasus!" he said, getting to his hooves.
"What are you doing here?" we asked at the same time.
A electrified rope sudden swung over our heads, and we both ducked.
"Okay, how about we deal with her first?" asked the ice pegasus, pointing at a pegasus holding the rope.
"That sounds like a good idea to me." I said, a fireball forming between my hooves.
The rope suddenly lashed out, again, and wrapped around my right forehoof. The pegasus holding the rope pulled me over by yanking the rope back.
"Not quite sure who the hell you are," she said with a smirk, "But I'll consider you a bonus."
She was suddenly blasted with an ice beam, and flew into the air to form a fireball. The ice pegasus blasted another ice beam at the other pegasus, but she blocked it with her electric rope. I threw a fireball at her, but she blocked that with her rope, too. She suddenly pulled out a second rope, and whipped one at me and one at the ice pegasus.
"Will you two just stop?!?" she yelled angrily.
The rope wrapped around my forehooves, and I tried to form a fireball, but instead got an electric shock that knocked me out of the air. I saw that the ice pegasus had also been grabbed by the ropes. The pegasus yanked us both over, and the ice pegasus and I crashed into each other head-first. Everything became dark, and I saw the ice pegasus fall unconscious, just before I also fell unconscious.
I came back to with my head killing me. I opened my eyes to see only darkness, and felt cold stone n the ground. I tried to move, but my wings were tightly tied down, and I felt somepony else tied to me. I tried to freeze the ropes holding my hooves down, but instead I got an electric shock.
"Ouch..." I muttered, gritting my teeth together.
"Ow!" cried the pony tied to me, who I realized was Phoenix. "What the heck was that?"
"Um..." I said nervously. "The ropes are electric, and-"
"Then I'll just burn them off!" she snapped.
"No, wait! You don't want to-"
Another electric shock hit me, and both Phoenix and I winced.
"Okay, first of all: ow ." said Phoenix angrily. "Second of all: you couldn't have tried to warn me sooner?"
"Hey, you're the one who acted before I even finished saying my sentence!" I sniped.
Phoenix sighed. "Sorry, but I'm just pretty ticked off about this situation. So the ropes zap us when we try to use our powers?"
"That's what it seems like."
"Kay..." she paused to think. "When we had been fighting in Ponyville, our powers hitting each other in close range caused an explosion, right?"
"Uh, I think so..." it was a bit difficult to remember stuff when I was in my other forme.
"Alright, so we're going to use our powers at the same time and explode these freaking ropes off!"
"Wait, what? That doesn't sound like a good idea at all!"
"Would you like to do some trial and error and get electrocuted until we figure it out, or do you want to just get it over with?"
"Um..."
"Okay, we go on three!"
"Wait, I didn't agree!"
"Don't care! One... Two... Three!"
I quickly used my ice powers, in fear of getting electrocuted, again. I felt Phoenix's powers and mine hit each other, and then went careening across the room as the corresponding explosion occurred. I blasted out a sheet of curved ice right before I hit the wall, and safely slid away. However, I heard Phoenix smash into the wall, and cry out in pain. I quickly zipped over to her in the darkness, and helped her off the ground.
"Are you okay?" I asked nervously.
"Why are you helping me?" asked Phoenix suddenly.
"What?"
"When we were fighting you seemed fine with attacking me, but now you're concerned that I'm hurt."
"Er... When I fight I kinda switch into another forme that fights for me, so yeah. Our Commander tells me that it helps us defeat you guys, because you guys are the bad guys."
"...What? You're told that we're the bad guys?!?"
"Yeah..."
"Alright, clearly you've been lied to because you guys are the bad guys! Good guys don't go around and freeze towns!"
"They... They don't?"
"Okay, we'll talk about this later, but first we should get out of here." Phoenix put her hooves together to form a fireball, which lit up the room. "See a way to exit anywhere?"
"Looks like there's some sort of trapdoor over there." I pointed over at the corner of the ceiling.
"Good."
Phoenix flew into the air over to the trapdoor, and yanked it open. I followed her over just as her fireball faded away, and I noticed her wince.
"Are you okay?" I asked. "You seemed really hurt when you crashed into the wall..."
"I'm fine. Let's just get out of this place."
