That Friday, Spike and his fellow guests all got cozy in Twilight’s personal room at the palace.

The following Saturday, Spike, Fluttershy, Discord, and Twilight all wandered in wonder around the many sights and sounds of the convention at the Grande Gala Hall.

Not so much Twilight; she was still rather grumpy from Spike’s little dirty dealings to convince her to come with them (of which the less spoken, the better).

Fluttershy, despite her general dislike for huge crowds, gazed in wonder at the many works of art as they passed by. In fact, she even spent a few bits on some random merchandise.

Discord just simply ambled along amongst the crowd, getting a few stares here and there… some curious, and some downright hateful. Interestingly enough, one green stallion actually asked to have his picture taken with the draconequus.

“Yeah, that was cool how you and the others took down Tirek, dude!” he admonished with a chuckle. “Playing the… ‘traitor’ of the group, just to get near Big Bad himself, huh? Genius, dude! Pure genius!”

“Oh!” stammered Discord. “Why… thank you! I thought it was a brilliant… plan, myself. Don’t you agree, Princess?”

Twilight cringed in disbelief. “Hmm. Yes. A… brilliant plan. Very brilliant.”

“Oh, yes!” admonished Fluttershy (albeit rather slyly). “And nopony else was the wiser.” She nuzzled up to Discord as she added, “And to think he was once such an awful beast! Isn’t he wonderful?”

Discord blushed and grinned uneasily. “Yes, to think…”

No sense ruining it with the real truth… and everypony present - who was there at the battle - knew it.

“Oh, wow!” said the excited young stallion upon recognizing the others. “Oh, Your Highness!” he cried as he bowed low before Twilight.

“And… um, Fluttershy, right? Yeah… and the little dragon, too! What was your name, little buddy?”

“Spike.”

“Spike! Right on! Can I take a picture of the whole group of us? Please? Please, please, please?!” He pleaded with huge puppy-dog eyes.

Discord, Fluttershy, and Spike gathered around the fancolt… then gazed expectantly towards Twilight.

Twilight sighed and gathered with the rest of them; no sense making her own kingdom look like a bunch of miserable nags.

Another nearby pony took the snapshot as the green colt said, “Say, ‘barley’!!”

“BARLEEEEEEE-EEEY!”

The fancolt raced back to his buddy to take a look at the pic. “Oh, wow!” he cried in sheer joy (typical of a fancolt). “Oh, wow! OH, WOW OH WOW OH WOW! Omigoshthisisthebestever! This is the best day of my life!” He hugged the mares, and shook paws with Spike (and hugged him) and Discord. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!! My friends are gonna be so jealous!! I got to meet actual, local heroes!” Then he turned back to the group and said, “It was so awesome to meet you guys!” He raced off to find more treasures, whooping-up with joy along the way at his current treasure.

Discord chuckled. “My, oh my. Fancolts…!” He continued chuckling. “Oh, well. Let’s go find Mr. Liveryfield, shall we? Which booth was it again, Spike?”

The drake looked back down at his letter. “C-25. It’s this way.”

They reached C-25, where a crowd of ponies gathered for the autograph of its resident artist: Rob Liveryfield himself

He was a somewhat gruff-looking unicorn with a bright chestnut coat, and brown brush-cut mane, tail, and trimmed goatee, and fiercely piercing blue eyes. His cutie mark was a comic book with a ballpoint pen scribbling on it. He had the look of a stallion who had seen both glorious highs and horrible lows in the course of his career. Still here he was, a stallion right in his element, doing up sketches, making artwork for his faithful fans, and – as was a proud tradition amongst famous ponies – signing his million-bit autograph on his finished works. “There you are, little dude!” he said to a young fancolt as he passed him a finished work of art. “You take real good care of that, okay!”

“Thank you, Mr. Liveryfield!” squealed the colt. “My friends are gonna be totally jealous!”

The unicorn chuckled as he mirthfully shook his head. “Alright! Cool!” Clearly, working with absolute geeks was just another day at the office.

He turned back to the crowd. “Okay! Who’s up next?” Nopony else was really eager to step forward.

“Maybe when ya got more artwork, bro.”

Mind you, it was still around 10:45 in the morning, and that was still his first work of art of the day. “Oh, okay. Sure. Anypony got anything else they want me to sign, though?”

“I might have something,” said Spike.

Rob looked up his fan. “Oh, yeah? Oh, hey! A baby dragon, huh? Don’t see you dudes around very often. Can you breathe fire?”

Spike awkwardly scratched the back of his neck as he answered awkwardly, “Well, yeah, but my flame can only send messages to and from Princess Celestia,” he waved dismissively. “But that’s it.”

“Well, don’t sell yourself short, here, dude! I heard of a clan of dragons called the ‘Hundredflame’, and there’s a good reason for the name, too.”

“Really?” asked Spike.

“Oh, yeah!” He leaned closer to the young drake. “I heard they can spew about a hundred different types of flames. Think about it. You might be one. Hey, what’s your name, by the way?”

“Spike.”

Liveryfield took a closer look. “You’re Spike? Like the creator of Captain Powerfly? That Spike? Cool! You did make it!” He looked over at the rest of the group, recognized and waved at Fluttershy and Discord. “And that must be Captain Powerfly’s alter ego herself! Pretty cute in real life.” He mumbled the last statement more to himself.

Fluttershy lived up to her name once again. “Umm… hello…” she mumbled very quietly.

“And then, Dr. Miksen Matsch. Cool work on that… uh…” Then the unicorn’s demeanour changed to rather grim. “You’re… that Discord guy, aren’t you?”

“In the flesh, my good stallion!” he announced with flair.

“Yeah. Turning ‘traitor’ and all that, just to get next to ol’ Whatsisface, the big, bad ugly red and black dude. Just an act, I’m told. Right?”

“Well, of course it was,” whined Discord, looking rather hurt. “But, mind you, it did look very real, now didn’t it, my dear princess?”

Twilight nodded grimly.

“Oh, don’t mind her,” he said to Liveryfield. “She’s… just not a big fan of these sorts of conventions.”

“Eh, not everypony’s cup o’ joe,” he said as he stood up and stepped toward them. “But anyways…” He bowed to the princess. “Nice to meet you all, especially some real royalty.”

“Um… thank you, Mr. Liveryfield,” replied Twilight with a slight flush in her face. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.”

Rob chuckled. “Not used to the job yet, huh?”

Twilight sighed and grimaced. “No!”

He stepped towards Fluttershy, who was already shyly shrinking away at his approach. “And… Fluttershy, right?”

She nodded very shyly, with a tiny little whimper, and a deep, crimson flush across her face.

He chuckled. “Well, I hope you’ll be at the stage to take your prize, at least.”

She blanched and froze right in place. “S-stage…?”

“You betcha, Mr. Liveryfield!” said Spike.

“Oh, yeah; you can just call me Rob, dude.”

“Yeah! You bet, Rob!” He turned to Fluttershy… who by now was lying on the floor, hyperventilating into a paper bag, surrounded by her friends, and other rather concerned comic-con attendants and guests. Tears were flowing rampant from her eyes.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy!” Discord assured her. “You’ll be just fine!”

“Remember when you almost went onstage singing back-up bass for McIntosh?” reminded Twilight. “And you did just fine! Baby steps, remember? Baby steps.”

Fluttershy got back on her feet again and took a deep breath.

“You can do this, Fluttershy!” said Spike.

“Yeah!” offered Rob. “All you gotta is take the prize. You don’t have to do much talking… I mean, if you don’t wanna, y’know.” He placed a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. Just be cool. It’ll be alright.”

“Th-thank you, Mr. Liveryfield,” she said quietly.

“Just call me Rob, babe. Just Rob.”

*******

“Okay, ladies an’ gentstallions!” said Liveryfield in his mic on stage 4. “Let’s give it up for the… uh, drake of the hour: Spike the dragon, all the way from Ponyville, creator, writer and artist of the grand-prize winning entry, Captain Powerfly! Yeah, c’mon up here, Spike!”

Everypony howled and applauded as the proud drake strutted eagerly across the stage, waving to his adoring fans.

“Alright, alright! And, let’s also give it up for the villain of the hour, the one and only, Discord, lord of all chaos! Also known in the comic as the evil Dr. Miksen Matsch!”

The draconequus slowly and deliberately strutted across the stage, smiling and waving to his… not-so-fans, who were quite slow at applauding, naturally.

“Don’t worry, guys. He’s cool, now,” assured Liveryfield. “And last, but definitely not least, let’s give it up for the mare of the hour: Fluttershy! Also known as… Captain Powerfly!”

Fluttershy cringed and closed her eyes as she stood just out in backstage. Don’t cry! Don’t cry! She thought to herself. It will all be okay! You can have a good cry back in Twilight’s room! Just don’t cry… at least not now! She slowly ambled out onstage as everypony watched her with excitement.

Just being onstage was terrifying enough; but being watched by the crowd was utterly unbearable and nerve-wracking.

But… looking at the crowd, she noticed they had looks of awe in their eyes. She even heard a little filly whisper how beautiful she looked.

That lifted her spirits just enough to smile back at the crowd and wave as they howled and applauded at her arrival for almost two whole minutes. “Hello, everypony,” she said to them.

“Okay… I think that’s everypony. Right?” He looked around at the onstage group. “Yeah? Okay, cool! Ladies and gentstallions: the talent behind the grand prize winning entry to the Make Your Own Comic Contest, Captain Powerfly! Let’s give ‘em a round of applause, guys!”

And so the audience gave them one more round of applause.

Rob took his mic to Spike. “How you feelin’, Spike?” he asked the drake.

Spike almost burst, tears of joy forming in his eyes again. “Best! Day! Of my life, Rob!”

“Aw, yeah! Always is, ain’t it, bro?” He took the mic to Discord. “How about you, Discord?”

“Well… I can only say… I’m just really, really honoured to have been part of a project of this magnitude, Rob.”

A very lukewarm applause…

“And Fluttershy! How you feeling? You excited?”

She quivered as she bit her lip, but she still managed a slight nod and whimper. “Umm… y-yes…”

“Yeah!” he nodded back to the audience. “Yeah, I’d probably be speechless, too. Alright, let’s get to the real deal, here!” He walked towards the table and picked up a white treasure box. “Alright, in this box here… is your grand prize.” He opened it, and showed the audience.

It was a silvery medallion on a brass chain. In the middle of the medal was a green gemstone.

“Fluttershy… aka, Captain Powerfly! It is my honour and pleasure to grant you, as the hero of the comic, the prize for your winning entry: the medallion of Captain Powerfly! Hey, Spike… or Discord. Wanna put it on her?”

Spike stepped forward, carefully removed the medallion by its chain, and wrapped it neatly around Fluttershy’s neck.

After several moments of waiting for… something to happen, Spike finally asked Rob, “So, now what?”

Rob pulled out a little notecard from the box. “You gotta say this phrase. Some of my best writers figured it might be appropriate.”

Fluttershy took the card in her hoof and read, “From deepest earth to highest sky, shall come the might of Powerfly.”

Suddenly, a mighty energy flowed through her body, causing her to dance wildly in midair as her wings jerked her upwards. She glowed brightly as the medallion caused a powerful metamorphosis.

When it was over, standing in Fluttershy’s place was no longer a mere wallflower of a pony… but a much mightier creature, clad in a space-age spandex leotard with long front sleeves, trimmed with green stripes along its patterned seams. She had a green utility belt, knee-high rear boots, and hoofless front ankle boots. A lengthy green cape was draped between her wings for good measure. A green mask wrapped around her head, open only to her mane, eyes, ears and muzzle.

But Fluttershy was a very changed pony: her coat and mane colours were somewhat richer and her teal eyes had a much more empowered appearance to them.

She looked up at Spike, Discord and Rob, back towards Twilight, and down at the audience. One would have thought Princess Celestia herself was standing right there… because everpony watching was staring in absolute awe at the being before them, whispers of shock and admiration among them all.

Rob smiled and nodded as he finally spoke into his microphone. “People. I give you… Captain Powerfly!”

Once again, the audience erupted into a cacophony of howls and cheers.

A new superhero was born right before their eyes.

The Legend of Captain Powerfly was born.

Author's Note

There you go! That's how I envision Mr. L. to look in ponified form, a pony also in his element with the comics (with the exception of his magical comic-making technique in ponyverse.)

(So, Mr. L, if you happen upon this fanfic, or even hear about this... hope you're not too ticked about this! I'm just not sure how to get a hold of you, that's all...)