Maretropolis

Spike and Applejack dashed up the stairs from the subway, past a giant statue of Star Swirl the Bearded. Then past the exhibits about the heroes and history of Equestria. They raced across the vast central hallway of the museum on their way to the MPD.

“There it is!” Applejack panted.

She could see the MPD offices through the exit doors of the museum.

“Applejack!” a voice called. “Applejack!”

They stopped and turned to see Mayor Inkwell standing a few yards behind them, flanked by two female police officers.

“Mayor Inkwell!” said Applejack. “We found out what’s been happening. Someone’s darting the hybrids with a serum. That’s what’s making them go savage.”

“I’m so proud of you, AJ,” said Inkwell. “You’ve done such a good job!”

“Wait... What are you doing here?” Applejack asked as her face clouded over. “And how did you know where to find us?”

Something about the way Inkwell was acting made her suspicious.

Applejack turned to go, but Strawberry Sunrise, who had somehow caught up with them and was now in a police officer’s uniform, blocked the exit. She cracked her neck.

Suddenly, it became clear as crystal.

Spike thought back to when he saw Inkwell at City Hall.

A flash of surprise in her eyes. He didn’t know why.

She didn’t ask for his name, but he wasn’t a stranger to her. She knew who he was. And now, he knew the reason why.

Seeing him there, at City Hall, alive, had knocked her off balance for a second. She was definitely surprised. She paused, and then she recovered. Then Spike remembered a note that was taped to the phone on her desk when she answered Mayor Blueblood’s page. The name.

Strawberry Sunrise.

The woman in the underground lab. The one Applejack kicked in the butt. The woman who was now blocking their way.

Then Applejack remembered what Spike had told her.

“I know everyone.”

And because he was a known felon, everyone knew him. Everyone from City Hall to the Police Department to the D.A.’s Office.

“What were you before?” Applejack asked.

“I was the District Attorney, actually,” Inkwell replied.

It was Inkwell! She had set this all up! She was the one who led that attack on Spike’s amusement park all those years ago. She had employed those men to kill him and she was behind the hybrids going savage!

Inkwell had tried to kill Spike then, and was surprised to see that he had not died from his injuries. Granted, a simple bullet graze to the arm would not have been enough to do the job (at least not on its own), but without proper treatment, an infection would have finished him off.

But her plan had backfired. Spike wasn’t killed and he didn’t die. Her thugs were beaten off.

These women were all cops, and they were all part of Inkwell’s faction.

That is why she had known where they would be.

“Run,” Spike and AJ told each other.

And they dashed off down a corridor.

“Get them,” Inkwell told her bodyguards.

While she and Spike were running, Applejack glanced over her shoulder. She didn’t see the shovel from the statue of Rockhoof sticking out in front of her, and she ran right into it. Applejack screamed in pain as the shovel slashed her leg and knocked her off her feet.

“AJ!” Spike cried.

He rushed to her as she groaned in pain. Her leg was bleeding badly.

“I got you!” he said as he carried her behind a pillar and out of sight.

“Just remember to breathe,” he said as he bound her leg with a handkerchief.

“Come on out, Applejack!” called Inkwell.

“Take the case,” Applejack whispered to Spike. “Get it to Iron Will.”

“No!” he whispered back.

“Go!”

“I am not going to leave you!”

“I can’t walk!”

“I’ll carry you!”

“We’re on the same side, Applejack,” Inkwell said, trying to get her to surrender. “We’re both underestimated, we’re both underappreciated... Aren’t you sick of it?”

Her henchwomen fanned out.

“Hybrids. They may have the strength and powers of their ancestors, but we still outnumber them ten to one!”

Inkwell spotted a woman’s shadow on the wall, snapped her fingers and pointed to it. One of her guards noticed, killed her flashlight, and silently crept toward the shadow.

“Think about it,” Inkwell said. “Ninety percent of the population united against a common enemy. We would be unstoppable!”

The guard pounced, but it was just a wax figure.

Inkwell heard a metallic clang off to the right and saw Spike and AJ making a run for it.

“Over there!” Inkwell shouted. “Don’t let them get away!”

Spike carried Applejack bridal style while Inkwell’s guards chased after them. Strawberry Sunrise lunged, knocking the case out of Applejack’s grasp and sending AJ and Spike down into a sunken diorama exhibit in the floor, while the gun case stayed above.

Inkwell looked over the edge, down at them.

“You really should have stayed on the farm,” she told Applejack as she picked up the gun. “It is too bad. I really did like you.”

“What’re ya gonna do?” Applejack shouted. “Kill me?”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic!” Inkwell replied. “I’m not going to. He is!”

She aimed at Spike, who had propelled himself between Applejack and the shot. The pellet hit him in the neck and he fell to the ground.

“No! Oh, Spike!” Applejack cried.

Spike started to shake and crouch over as Inkwell dialed her phone.

“Yes, police!” she yelled. “There’s a Dragon loose in the Natural History Museum! Officer Smith is down! Repeat, officer down! Send back-up!”

She hung up and watched as Spike, now on all fours, started to grunt and growl like a wild animal.

“No. Spike,” said Applejack. “Don’t do this. Fight it!”

“Oh, but he can’t help it, can he?” Inkwell asked. “Since hybrids, like their ancestors, are just biologically predisposed to be savages.”

Spike turned to Applejack, growling, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

Applejack whimpered as she helplessly tried to limp away and he stalked her like a predator about to attack.

“I can see the headlines now!” Inkwell declared, pleased with herself. “‘Hero Cop Killed by Dragon Gangster!’”

“So that’s it?” Applejack inquired. “The humans fear the hybrids and you stay in power?”

“Pretty much, yeah,”

“It’ll never work!”

“Oh, no? Fear, anger, and hatred have always worked! And I will happily dart every single hybrid in this city if it just means keeping it that way!”

Spike crept toward Applejack, snarling and gnashing his teeth.

“Oh, Spike,” she breathed as a tear streamed down her cheek.

Inkwell laughed one last time and said, “Goodbye, Applejack.”

Spike lunged and his teeth sank into Applejack’s neck as she shrieked.

“Bleh... Blood! Blood! Blood!” AJ shouted dramatically. “And death!”

“And now, you’re just milking it,” Spike told her as he helped her to her feet. “I think we got it up there! You laid it out beautifully. Thank you!”

“What?” Inkwell gasped, trying to figure out what had just happened.

“Oh, are you looking for this?” Spike asked as he held up the tiny ball of serum.

“What you’ve got in the weapon there?” Applejack added. “Those are grapes from my family’s farm.”

Inkwell opened the chamber of the dart gun, expecting to see serum pellets, only to find red grapes.

“Mwah!” Spike blew a kiss. “They are delicious. You should try one.”

“I framed Blueblood, I can frame you too!” Inkwell shouted. “It’s my word against yours!”

“Oh, really?” Applejack countered.

She held up her recording pen, pressed the button, and Inkwell’s voice played back: “And I will happily dart every single hybrid in this city if it just means keeping it that way!”

“Actually, it’s your word against yours,” Applejack corrected her. “It’s called a hustle, Sugah. Boom.”

AJ and Spike both smiled smugly. She had used his line again, and this time it wasn’t against him.

Inkwell and Strawberry Sunrise tried to turn and run, but found themselves surrounded by Chief Iron Will and his men.