It's Hero Time

Chapters

Shade Spirit
Sun Regional
Scope
Mutant Academy
Silver Watch
City on the Scene
The Announcement
Spark and Flow

Shade Spirit

In a rather small city, known as Concord, there was a teenage colt. This colt was an earth pony that had gray fur, blue mane, blue eyes, and had stacks of wooden blocks for a cutie mark. This colt’s name was Wood Cutter, though some ponies just called him Woody, specifically his mother, Rare Jewel, and his father, Tough Stone.

Woody was a typical average teenaged colt. A little geeky, a little awkward, except there was one interesting thing about him; his parents had picked up a very unique hobby: hunting ghosts. In Concord City, there were a lot of rumors of ghosts roaming and haunting around the block.

With this information, Woody’s parents did their best to research everything ponies knew about ghosts. Woody didn’t think anything about this, until one day, the young colt was just returning home after getting a new comic book he bought. He looked around for his parents, who didn’t seem to be there.

“Mom? Dad?” Woody called.

“Downstairs, honey!” called a voice. The colt placed his new comic book on the coffee table and raced downstairs to find his parents drawing some figures on the wall with a white chalk.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a portal,” Rare Jewel responded.

“Pretty soon we’ll be able to bring the battle right to those ghosts,” Tough Stone spoke with pride.

It wasn’t just chalk they were using. Woody could see his parents had a couple of gemstones, tools, and some gadgets with them.

“What are those for?” he asked.

“This will help keep the portal stable,” Stone explained. “We have to be able to close the portal or else those ghosts will get out. Help us set this up.”

Woody just sighed and did as he was told. From prior experience, he knew that arguing with them was pointless.

After what seemed to feel like hours, everything was finally set up. The chalk drawing was surrounded by some gates that could open and close thanks to a lever that was powered by a crystal.

“You sure this is going to work?” Woody asked.

“Oh, it’ll be fine,” Jewel said. Jewel was a unicorn, so she used her magic to make a forcefield around her and the boys.

“BONZAI!” Stone cried before pulling the lever. The chalk markings started glowing before the gem powering the device started out and fizzled out. Now filled with disappointment, Jewel lowered her forcefield. “Drat.”

“I guess it’s back to the drawing board.” The two disappointed adults walked back upstairs, leaving Woody with the failed experiment. While he did find his parents’ fascination with ghosts rather annoying, he did feel sorry for their experiment failing.

Woody decided to get a look at the crystal that was supposed to power the portal. He also noticed some boxes filled with glass bottles.

“What the heck are these for?” His answer would come when the bottle would vibrate and have it fall from his hoof. The bottle landed with the top facing the failed portal.

The chalk started glowing again as some sort of magic started getting sucked into the bottle. Then things started getting strange when the bottle started cracking. Before Woody could react, the bottle shattered and the magic dispersed all around the room until it all surrounded him.

His scream could be heard all the way upstairs. Jewel and Stone raced downstairs to find a colt lying on the floor. Instead of an earth pony, this colt was a pegasus that had jet black fur, a snow-white mane, had a ghost for a cutie mark, and some scars on his forehead.

“What in the spooks happened here?” Stone questioned. Jewel bent down to get a better look at the colt. The strange new pony opened its eyes, which were blood red and looked around.

“What just happened?” the colt questioned in a familiar voice.

“Woody, is that you?” Jewel questioned.

“What do you mean?” The mother quickly got a mirror and showed her son what he looked like now. He was in shock as he saw his different face in the mirror. “What... What happened to me?”

Stone looked at the glass shards and then could see the portal was actually functioning. “You think that’s got something to do with this kid?” he asked.

“I don’t know what happened,” Woody explained. “I just picked up one of those bottles over there.” He pointed to the box and his mother gasped.

“Those bottles were meant to capture ghosts,” Jewel explained. “What did they suck up?”

“Something from the portal,” Woody explained. “Why do I look like this?”

“...Well,” Stone spoke.

“Don’t you say it,” Jewel said to him, in a stern tone.

“Hey, you never said no to this.”

“This was your idea.” Suddenly, a ring appeared around Woody’s neck. It split into two and each went up and down his body. After passing parts of it, the strange pegasus changed back to the ordinary earth pony.

“Okay, I guess I’m back to normal now,” Woody commented in relief, looking over at his body.

“Okay, Woody, don’t panic,” Jewel said, “We’re going to run a couple of tests on you.”

“Once we had the equipment set up,” Stone said. “...Which might take a while.” Woody just sighed and walked back upstairs.

He picked up his comic and tried to go to his room to forget everything that had just happened a while ago. However, his comic just dropped out of his hooves. Woody picked it back up, but his hoof just went right through not just the book, but the floor as well, much to his shock. Woody picked his comic book up and ran to his bedroom. He set the book on his nightstand and took a breath.

“Okay, Woody,” he said to himself. “Don’t panic. You’ve got hit by one of your parents' experiments and now you’re losing your grip on reality.”

Woody sighed and tried to lie on his bed, but he ended up just phasing right through it and landed on the floor below it. The colt let out an annoyed sigh.

Jewel and Stone spend hours working on their research. They wanted to understand what was going on. Woody, on the other hand, refused to come out of his room. No matter what his parents called for, dinner, research, or even one of his favorite board games, the colt stayed in his bedroom all day.

He wasn’t bored. Woody managed to keep himself occupied with his comic and his strange intangibility. He did his best to keep himself from phasing through things, though this was harder than he thought it would be.

Eventually, the next day came around. Jewel and Stone woke up early and finally got into Woody’s room.

“Good news, son,” Stone announced, “We've got something...” He paused when he saw that his son wasn’t there. Running downstairs, they could see some cereal had been left out on the kitchen table. The parents had come to the conclusion that their son had gotten up earlier than them.

Woody had already made his way to school to avoid anything his parents had planned for him. Although the school wasn’t his favorite place to be at, given how some of the older students treated him, it would still be better than being a guinea pig for his parents' ghost hobby.

Walking through the school's entrance, he could see some jocks right around. He was about to run off but he tripped over his own hooves. The jocks heard the thud, they looked surprised and confused.

“You heard that thud too, right?” an earth pony asked.

“Yeah,” a pegasus replied, “Some geek made it away before they could get caught.” They walked off as two mares walked to where Woody was just at.

One mare was a unicorn with orange fur and a cream-colored mane that was quite spiky. Her eyes were purple and she appeared to have a teacup with fire coming out of the top as a cutie mark. The other mare was an earth pony that had blue fur and an emerald green mane and pink eyes. As for her cutie mark, he had a ladybug.

“You really think they’ll leave us alone?” the earth mare asked.

“They’ve got to,” the unicorn stated. “Once I’ve mastered a few spELLLS!” The two had tripped over...…something. They both looked and saw Woody, who had appeared out of nowhere.

“Are you two are okay?” the colt asked.

“Um... Yeah,” the unicorn replied. They were both helped up by the colt but were still confused.

“What did we hit?” the earth pony mare asked.

“Um... I think that might’ve been me,” Woody explained.

“What?” the mares asked.

“Hey, Wood Gutter,” called a voice. Woody didn’t have time to react as an orange colt, who was a little bigger than him, managed to nab him.

“Let me go!” Woody cried.

“Okay. Right after this.” The jock opened a locker and shoved Woody inside, locking him in it.

“You can’t do that!” the unicorn stated.

“Just did,” the jock smirked.

“We’ll... We’ll tell the principal about this.”

“Is there a problem here?” asked a voice. Looking behind them, they could see a young mare who was a pegasus that had pink fur and a blue mane that was in a ponytail. Her eyes were red and her cutie mark was a red crown.

“Scarlet,” the jock said. He smiled at the mare while the unicorn and earth pony tried to get out of this.

“No, don’t move. I wanna know what’s going on.”

“Just these two freshmen who want to be snitches.”

Thanks to his intangibility, Woody found he could phase right out of the locker. Right now, he was invisible, which he wasn’t questioning at the moment, he just wanted to teach this jock a lesson. He tried to throw a punch at him, but instead, he ended up phasing into him.

“Not to mention I...” The jock paused as somebody else had taken over by some else as his eyes turned red. He looked at himself, rather confused. “In Bolt’s body?”

“What?” the mares asked.

“Oh, uh...” Then he had an idea. “Nothing, I just remember I need to get a file to help clean my mom’s hooves. She gets a lot of dirt in them. You want me to show you how I do it?” He tried lifting up one of Scarlet’s hooves, who immediately backed off.

“Ew! Get away from me.” She ran back and came as the jock, who was known as Bolt, was given back control and was also left confused.

“Ugh. Why do I feel like cleaning my mom’s hooves?” Bolt questioned. Looking at the other two mares, who were holding back their laughter. Feeling embarrassed, the jock ran off. “Scarlet, wait!”

Now that their laughter was replaced with suspicion, the earth pony mare let Woody out of the locker. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Woody answered. “Where did Bolt go?”

“His conversation just turned on a dime,” the unicorn explained. “It’s like he became somepony else.”

“Really? That’s weird.”

“Yeah, it happened as soon as he locked you in the locker.” The mares glanced at each other before at Woody. “What did you do?”

“What?”

“It seems a little suspicious,” the earth pony replied.

“Why should I tell you? I don’t even know who you are.”

“My name is Hot Tea,” the unicorn said. “This is Ladybug Beauty. Now you can tell us yours.”

“I’m Wood Cutter. And how are you going to explain anything to...” Woody paused when he heard something. It sounded like wind chimes, even though he hadn’t seen one in the school before. He quickly raced off and found a unicorn crying while holding up shreds of paper to a mare looking down at her.

“It... It was just fine when I left it here,” the nerdy-looking unicorn said. “My l... My locker was closed.”

“Now, don’t cry,” the mare said. “I’m sure there’s an explanation to this.”

Woody heard the sound of wind chime again, which brought him to a locked door. Since Woody couldn’t open it, he looked around to see nobody was nearby, and he phased through the door and was surprised at what he saw. There was a pegasus that was completely grey with his fur and eyes, jet black hair, but what was most interesting was he had a ghostly tail that had a hammer for a cutie mark.

“Now, where is she?” the ghost asked.

“Where’s who?” Woody asked. The ghost turned around and saw the colt.

“How did you get in here?!”

“What are you doing here?”

“I’ve got some business here. I don’t need you getting in the way.”

“What kind of business?” Woody’s answer soon came from when the ghost summoned a sledgehammer, which he threw at him. The colt barely had enough time to dodge before he could get hit. “Watch it!”

“She said no witnesses.” The ghost spatted up, picked up his sledgehammer and charged towards the frightened colt.

Woody kept running as he looked like he was trying to do something.

“Come on,” he groaned. “Change.”

He tried to phase through the door, only to smack into it.

“What do you think was going to happen?”

“Just... I’ve gotta go ghost!” Suddenly, a ring appeared around Woody’s neck. Just like before, it split into two and started changing his body. His gray fur turned jet black. He gained a set of wings on his back, allowing him flight as well as a scar on his forehead. His mane and tail both turned white as snow. His cutie mark was swapped from wooden blocks to a ghost. When he opened his eyes, they were now blood red.

“Whoa. Didn’t see that coming.” Woody jumped up to the ghost and grabbed him by his tail before throwing onto the floor. Before he could stomp on him, the mysterious ghost phased seemed to vanish. Woody was a little confused until he was smacked in the side of his body, sending him crashing through the door.

He tumbled for a couple of feet before he could recover. “Did he just turn invisible?”

Woody questioned. He soon found he was able to control his wings, thanks to him reacting in time before he could get hit by the ghost’s sledgehammer again. Many students and teachers stopped when they saw the two ghosts fighting each other.

Some were able to take pictures, while a good amount of them got away as fast as they could. “I’ve had enough of you!”

“Who even are you!?”

“My name is Crash Smash. I break everything I’m told to break.”

“Do you really enjoy that?”

“Quite. It helps relieve stress.” He smacked the teenager hard enough to send him all the way across the hall. “Just like that. I feel better now.”

Woody was barely able to recover and phase through the wall before he could crash into it. This made him fly into a classroom, where Hot Tea and Ladybug Beauty were surprised to see him.

“Um...…You might want to get out of here,” Woody explained.

Crash then broke right through the wall, scaring a couple of the students. Woody grabbed the opponent's hammer to help buy the students and teacher some time to escape. Eventually, all the students had escaped the school before Woody was thrown right out the window. He was starting to feel a little weak. He could see Crash was right above him just before he got stuck in a net that appeared to electrocute him.

“Stand down you amalgamation of magic and pony soul!” ordered a voice. Woody looked to see his parents, who were in jumpsuits that had anti-ghost cutie marks on them, with some technology with them. Figuring it was their turn to tag in, Woody turned himself invisible and sneaked away.

“Fire in the hole!” Tough Stone shouted.

He placed a helmet on his head that would make him an artificial unicorn. The helmet was powered by a battery that was carried on his back. This helmet fired off a laser beam that did hit Crash, though it did cut his net.

“Stone!” Rare Jewel cried.

“Sorry honey,” Stone apologized. “First time testing this out.” Crash wasted no time flying away, much to the hunters’ frustration. “Okay, that one’s on me.”

The students all gathered at the front of the school by order of the principal. “Okay, please explain to me what’s going on,” he asked the new hunters.

“Well, you’ve heard of several theories about ghosts,” Jewel explained. “Stone and I have been researching them and found they seem to be coming from another dimension.”

“Seriously?”

“Leave this to the professional,” Stone spoke.

“We’ve only been doing this for...” Jewel was quickly shushed by her husband.

Hot Tea and Ladybug Beauty were standing beside each other as Woody, who had changed back into an earth pony, sneaked his way into the crowd.

“What did I miss?” he asked.

“Just a ghost attack,” Ladybug shivered.

“Why would that ghost even attack the school?” Hot Tea questioned.

“He said it relieves stress,” Woody explained.

“How would you know that?”

“...He seemed pretty calm when he smacked that ghost with his hammer.” The colt rubbed the side of his body that got hit, cringing a bit.

“Alright,” the principal said. “Everypony, until further notice, school is closed for now.” The students all cheered for this. “Oh, don’t get too excited. You’re still being given homework.” The students’ cheers soon turned to sighs of disappointment.

“If there are any volunteers to help hunt down this ghost,” Tough Stone said, “Come to our residence.”

After all the students went home, Woody and his parents were finally having a minute to calm down. “I can’t believe we’re actually in business,” Rare Jewel stated.

“It’s a dream come true,” Stone said proudly.

“Um, mom, dad,” Woody said, “I think I can help get some information about the ghost.”

“How?” both parents asked.

“Well, you know that explosion that turned me into that pegasus?” They both nodded. Not knowing how to explain it, Woody decided to show his parents by turning himself invisible.

“Woody? Woody, where did you go?” Jewel questioned. Her son soon reappeared behind them, starling them a bit.

“Hold on. Are you a ghost now?” Stone questioned.

“Seems like it,” Woody replied.

“Hmm,” Jewel pondered. “I guess that portal has something to do with it.”

“I did see it was sucking up some sort of magic.”

“And when it shattered, it must’ve blown some of the ecto-energy into you.”

“You mean magic?”

“No, ecto-energy. It’s what ghosts appear to be made out of.”

“And the few ghosts that have been appearing have shown what they’ve been able to do with it,” Stone added.

“So, how do you trap them in those bottles?” Woody asked.

“We heard that a couple of ponies managed to trap spirits with a magical touch to them.”

“Of course.” There was a knock on the door, which Stone almost immediately answered.

“Yes, are you here to volunteer?”

“Um, no,” the stallion at the door replied. “My daughter, Scarlet, is having a tutor at our home for History. We were wondering if you wanted your son to get some help.”

“I’m up for that,” Woody called.

“Okay,” Stone said. “Just remember, we’re here too.” Woody brushed past his dad while carrying his saddlebags.

“Woody, do you need us to go with you?” Jewel asked.

“No, I’m good,” the colt responded. He walked down the street with the stallion, leaving his parents behind.

“You think he’s mad at us?” Stone asked.

“...Maybe,” Jewel sighed.

Woody didn’t say much on the way to Scarlet’s home. When he finally arrived, he was speechless as her home was a mansion. The stallion led the colt inside, where a few students were at.

“Hey, what’s Wood Gutter doing here?” Bolt questioned, scaring the colt a little bit.

“He’s here because he needs to study,” the stallion explained. “Just like you.” Bolt just growled before walking away.

“So, where’s this tutor?” Woody asked.

“She should’ve been here by now,” the stallion stated. “Anyways, please wait with the other students.” Woody did as he was told and looked around for a place for him to sit.

Eventually, he came across Hot Tea and Ladybug Beauty again. “Are you following us or something?”

“No. I was here because I heard I could get some help in history.”

“I thought I’d give some help,” Ladybug said.

“Really?” Woody asked.

“That, and some of the girls asked me for help.”

“Hey, Lady,” said a teenage mare. The young mare flinched when one of the other girls walked over to her.

“Oh, hi. I’m...nearly finished.”

“That’s what you said yesterday.”

“Am I missing something here?” Woody asked.

“Stay out of this,” the other mare spoke. “I need that project by tomorrow.”

“But I...” Ladybug spoke.

“Leave her alone,” Hot Tea ordered. Seeing how this was going to get ugly fast, Woody slipped away to an area where he couldn’t be seen.

“And another thing,” the rude mare said, “I...” She suddenly grunted as her eyes turned red.

“...Yes,” Hot Tea said, waiting for her to continue.

“Never mind me,” the mare said. “I’m going to see if the boys are up for a belching contest.” She let out a few burps, surprising and confusing Tea and Ladybug. “Ooh, that was a good one. Later ladies.” She then walked backward, tripping over a stepping stool.

After that pratfall, Woody left her body to leave for some karma. He flew back to his hiding spot until he could hear the wind chimes in his ears again.

“Now what?” he questioned. He was in his ghost form, so he decided to investigate. He flew outside and could see a tall mare walking towards the building. For some reason, her eyes were completely green. She was about to walk inside until Woody landed in front of her.

“Gah! Who are you?”

“Not caring to answer. What’s with your eyes?”

“Oh, let me show you.” The mare fainted as a ghost phased out of her body. The ghost was mostly blue and appeared to be a unicorn with glowing green eyes and also had a set of clouds for a cutie mark. She tried to possess Woody, but his intangibility countered hers.

“Okay, that’s interesting.” The two started their fight by the new ghost punching Woody and taking him off into the air just as the mare started getting up.

“Whoa. That trip really flew by,” she said to herself. She walked inside to introduce herself.

“Ms. Count,” Scarlet said. “What took you……? You... Look... Just fine.”

“Thank you, Scarlet,” Ms. Count replied. Scarlet was the one that seemed confused as Ms. Count went to help with the students' work.

Meanwhile, the colt flew up and while he did get caught in his opponent's grasp, he was able to give her a swift headbutt. “Ow!” she cried. “How dare you hit a lady.”

“Technically, this is self-defense,” Woody stated. “You attacked me!”

He rammed into the mysterious ghost into the roof, only for them to phase through it. “Wait, I can’t be in here.” He was punched in the face by the ghost and was force through the floor.

They didn’t do any damage thanks to her intangibility. Once Woody was able to escape the hold of the ghost he turned himself invisible. “Great. Now, where’d he go?”

Before the ghost could start looking around, she was decked in the face right before she got thrown into a wall.

“You’re the second ghost I’ve fought today, and I’m already sick of your species.” Then, the colt ghost noticed something. There were chalk marks on the wall that was similar to the ones at his parents' house. This one didn’t seem to have the tech hooked up to it, however.

“How long has this been here?”

Without warning, Woody was smacked in the head with a blunt object knocking him out. “You couldn’t have done that sooner?” the ghost mare asked.

“Lour, cut me a break,” Crash said. “I’ve already dealt with this kid once today. You just get the boss, I’ll keep an eye on him.” The mare, known as Lour, nodded before flying away. Since Woody was knocked out, his form was changed back into an earth pony.

A little while later, there was a knock on the door and a maid answered it. Rare Jewel and Tough Stone were standing outside. The stallion was hooked up to a cart filled with their hunting equipment.

“Hello madam,” Jewel said, “Have you seen our son, Wood Cutter?”

“Sorry, haven’t seen him,” the maid replied. “You can look around if you like. Just don’t make much of a mess.” Both parents nodded and walked inside the mansion.

“Wowsers, look at this place,” Stone commented. “It’s hard to believe they only have one kid and her parents living here.”

“I know,” Jewel agreed, then started calling out for their son. “Woody? Woody!”

“Can we help you?” Ladybug Beauty asked. She and Hot Tea walked over to the worried parents.

“Have you seen a gray and blue colt wandering around?” Stone asked. “Or a black and white pegasus?”

“We have seen an earth pony fitting your first description,” Hot Tea explained. “Haven’t seen him, some mare bothered us before making a fool of herself. It was kind of nice to watch.”

“When was the last time you saw him?” Jewel asked, feeling concerned.

“Follow us.” As Woody’s parents followed the mares, Woody was in a heap of trouble.

The colt slowly woke up to find he was strapped down on a table. He tried to phase through it, but for some reason that didn’t work. “What’s going on?” he questioned.

“I’m glad you asked,” came a voice. Walking towards him was an alicorn that was almost as tall as Celestia. This alicorn had wings like Nightmare Moon, and her fur was dark red. Her eyes were slit and her eyes were yellow and her teeth were razor sharp. Her mane was long and purple as she had some shoes, a necklace, and a crown that someone royal would wear.

“Who are you?”

“You may simply call me, Fayde,” she said. “Soon, you’ll be fading soon.”

“What?”

“My workers have told me about your little secret, Woody. You like playing a superhero?”

“Hey, I only got these powers yesterday. Give me some slack! Somepony get me out of here!”

“Don’t waste your breath. This entire room is soundproof. If it wasn’t, my parents and the staff would’ve heard me doing my work.” Woody looked around the room. It was the one that had been knocked out in, and there weren’t any doors or wings. “Phasing through walls can be quite handy if you want to have a secret room.”

“What are you going to do with me?”

“Simple. I’m going to keep you here until some scientist, or me, dissects you for research.”

“WHAT?!”

“I know. Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing.”

“Boss,” said Lour.

“What is it now?”

“Your father is calling for you,” the ghost assistant explained.

“Can’t it...”

“No, he can’t.”

“Ugh.” Fayde flew upwards through the ceiling, leaving Lour, Crash, and Woody alone in the room.

“So, you haven’t seen him?” Jewel questioned.

“I’m sorry,” the stallion replied. “I haven’t seen your son since he arrived here.”

“Daddy,” Scarlet called. The young mare walked over to her father to give him a hug.

“Oh, Scarlet, there you are. Your tutor is requesting that you get in groups.”

“Um... Are you sure about that?”

“Is something wrong?”

“No. I...”

“You said you needed a tutor, so find some partners.” The young mare groaned as she walked off.

“Aren’t you afraid you’re spoiling her?” Jewel asked.

“A little,” Scarlet’s father responded. He walked off, leaving two worried parents and two mares by themselves.

“Oh, where is Woody?”

“Don’t worry,” Stone reassured. “I have an idea.”

Digging through the cart, Stone pulled out a set of goggles. He placed them on his head and glanced around. Looking down, he could see two figures on a lower floor. “There are ghosts in the basement!”

“What?” Hot Tea and Ladybug questioned.

“Lead the way,” Jewel requested. After grabbing some gear to assist them, the two parents walked downstairs to find their son.

When they got to the basement, they could still see that the ghosts were below them. “Where’s that other staircase?” Stone questioned.

“This... It doesn’t make any sense. Unless there’s another room we’re not aware of.”

“So, how do we get there?” Ladybug asked.

“Be right back,” Stone said. He quickly ran upstairs and brought back a pickaxe. Without hesitation, he started digging away at the floor.

Lour, Crash, and Woody could hear the digging sound from above. “What now?” Lour groaned.

“You check it out,” Crash said.

“No, you're the one with the weapon. I’ll keep an eye on this twerp.” Crash just rolled his eyes as the female ghost flew away.

As Stone kept digging away, he still had his goggles on, so he could see Lour flying towards them. “Oh, no you don’t,” Stone said. He jumped back and quickly placed his unicorn styled helmet on. The generator on his back started powering it and the second Lour came out of the floor, she was promptly blasted.

“What?”

“Where is our son?” Jewel questioned.

“That was your kid?” Lour promptly realized her mistake as Stone quickly started firing at her. In order to get away, she took Hot Tea and Ladybug Beaufity down to the lower floor.

“Stone, you keep digging,” Jewel said, “I’m going to get the ponies out of here.” Jewel ran back upstairs as her husband started digging again.

As the two mares were brought into the secret room, Lour let them go, letting them tumble a few inches. They both saw Woody strapped down. “Where are we?” Tea asked.

“A room where we’re now prisoners,” Woody explained.

“Not bad, kid,” Crash said. He soon summoned his hammer and slowly floated towards Tea and Ladybug. Lour smirked at this as Woody kept trying to get himself free.

“I thought you only wanted me. Leave them alone.” The ghosts weren’t willing to listen and just picked the mares up. “Tea, help get me out of these straps.”

“And then what?”

“Just trust me.” Hot Tea worked her magic and loosened the straps holding Woody down.

“Woody, what are you going to do?” Ladybug asked.

“Basically, I’ve gotta go ghost!” Woody’s ring appeared around his neck, split into two, and transformed him into his pegasi form. Tea and Ladybug were shocked at what they saw. Woody picked them both up and phased them through the wall as Lour and Crash gave chase.

Woody placed the mares down and flew away with the ghosts on his tail.

“What exactly is that mare paying you?” Woody questioned. “Do you even take money?” Crash wasn’t giving him an answer as he just threw his sledgehammer at the ghost colt.

Jewel was just helping the ponies out of the mansion as Woody crashed into the dining table. “Oh no,” the mare cried.

“I’m fine,” Woody groaned. “Just help fight these guys.” Crash flew up to him and tried to snatch back his sledgehammer and fought Woody for it. The colt’s enemy was suddenly shot by Stone’s helmet, who had seen the ghosts flying off from the secret room.

As ponies left the mansion, a battle ensued with the hunters and the ghosts. It seemed to be an easy fight given that it was three against two when all of a sudden, a blast came up from the floor sending Woody right through the ceiling, without the aid of intangibility. Fayde had returned.

“Great ghosts, look at that!” Stone gasped. Fayde paid no attention to them and flew after Woody.

The colt and the alicorn flew out of the mansion. “You couldn’t stay still, could you?” Fayde questioned. Woody didn’t say anything and just turned invisible. He tried to sneak up on Fayde when she suddenly duplicated herself.

“What the...?” This shock caused Woody to make himself visible and get smacked around by the multiple Faydes.

“Do you really think you can compete with me?” the ghostly alicorn asked. It was now like a game of volleyball as the colt kept getting smacked back and forth.

Hot Tea and Ladybug Beauty managed to get away from the ghost as they got to the mansion balcony to see Fayde playing with her opponent. “We have to help him!” Tea said.

“You think we can use his parents’ gear?” Ladybug asked.

“That could work.” After a quick run to get the gear, the mares had returned with what looked to be a bazooka and a bottle.

“Okay, now how do you work these?” Just then, both girls screamed as Lour had appeared, taking them into the air, making them drop the gear.

Woody could see the mares being lifted into the air as he kept getting kicked around. He gritted his teeth in anger.

“They have nothing to do with this,” he growled. “Leave. Them. ALONE!” Suddenly, from his hooves, a green laser beam shot out, slaying one of Fayde’s duplicates.

Looking at his hooves, Woody got an idea. He turned invisible to slip past the multiple Faydes and flew over to Lour to snatch Tea and Ladybug back. While it was a bit of a struggle, and Ladybug free fell for a little bit, he did manage to bring her and Tea back to the balcony safely.

“Okay, take my parents’ gear, and keep your distance with them,” the ghost colt explained.

“Got it,” the mares replied.

“Oh, by the way, you have a magnifying glass?” A little confused by this, Ladybug provided Woody what he asked for before she and Tea raced towards the mansion exit.

Woody flew up to the sky with the magnifying glass in his grasp and flew up to Lour and the multiple Faydes. Using the magnifying glass, he turned his new layer beam into a spread shot, engulfing the ghosts. Fayde’s duplicates dissipated and Lour fell to the ground. However, the remaining Fayde wouldn’t go down without a fight.

She rammed into Woody, making him drop the magnifying glass, as they flew back into the mansion. “Get off of me!” Woody cried.

His punch was given a boost thanks to his new laser abilities, knocking Fayde a few feet back. He fired a charged beam that Fayde countered with her own.

“Is this the best you can do?” Fayde made two more duplicates to pin Woody down just as Tea and Ladybug entered the room.

“Darn it, wrong way,” Tea groaned.

“Hold on,” Ladybug said, “We can’t just leave Woody here.” They both looked at the bazooka there were carrying.

“Welp. Time to see what this does.” Tea aimed at one of the Faydes and fired a net that covered the ghostly alicorn up. Suddenly, she was electrocuted by some sort of shock. Seeing his chance, Woody zapped the duplicates with his energy rays before turning to the main alicorn ghost. He charged up one last blast before hitting Fayde with it point-blank.

This ended up knocking the alicorn out and then a black ring appeared around her neck. Like Woody, the ring split into two and changed the alicorn’s form, making the colt and mares gasp at who it was.

“Is that... Scarlet?” Ladybug asked.

“Seems like it,” Woody said.

“Okay, how about we do what she was going to do to you?” Tea asked. “Give her to some scientists for research.”

“But then she could tell everpony about my secret.” Woody looked down at the unconscious unicorn. “You two find out how to make this look like this is a dream.” He then noticed a notepad and a pencil. He quickly wrote a note and gave it and Scarlet to the two mares. “Now, I’ve got something to take care of.” He flew away as the mares looked at his note.

”I won’t tell anypony if you don’t tell anypony,” it read.

Meanwhile, Crash landed outside as Stone and Jewel stood over them. Jewel held up a bottle and took its top off. “Please, work,” she begged.

She aimed it at the ghost who slowly started getting sucked up. Before he could figure out what was happening, Crash got trapped in the bottle. With him trapped, Jewel placed the top back on it.

The ponies cheered for the two hunters after completing their jobs. “Phew,” Stone sighed. “I’m glad that’s over. This help is giving me a headache.” Suddenly, both hunters were forced down to the ground.

“Enough of this,” said a voice. Looking up, the ponies could see Lour floating in the air, glaring down at the hunters. Using her levitation, she picked up a nearby cart loaded with some heavy cargo before launching it Jewel and Stone. However, before it could hit them, the cart not only just phased through the ponies and the mansion entrance, but it also landed on the ground safely nearby.

Before she could question what happened, she could feel like she was being sucked into something. Lour was helpless as she was sucked into a bottle that was being held by Woody. He landed next to the ghost hunters to help them up and give them the bottle.

“Are you two okay?” he asked.

“Yes, we are... You mysterious ghost,” Jewel said trying to act like she didn’t know who this pony was. “Do you mind telling us who you are?”

Woody thought for a moment before he responded. “You can call me Shade. Shade Spirit.”

He could hear some cheering, which was coming from the ponies that had escaped the mansion. “Well, I’ll leave these ghosts to you.” The ghost colt known as Shade Spirit flew away.

At the end of the day, Woody, who was back in his earth pony form was resting in his room before he got called. “Woody, we’re back,” Jewel called. “We’ve got some friends over.”

The colt walked downstairs and soon found his parents had returned with Hot Tea and Ladybug Beauty. “Oh, girls, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“We were just letting you know that Scarlet is going to keep your secret if we keep hers,” Tea explained.

“And...”

“And we’re not telling anypony that you’re Shade Spirit,” Ladybug added.

“So, Woody,” Jewel said. “Are you wanting to remove your ghost form?”

“Actually, no,” Woody replied. “It feels like if we’re dealing with ghosts now, it’ll be a good idea to fight fire with fire.”

“So, you’re not mad about you being part ghost now?” Stone asked.

“Not really. That accident was partly my fault. What did you do with those two ghosts?”

“They’re in another dimension. One inhabited only by ghosts.”

“Really?” Ladybug asked.

“Oh, yeah. We can explain everything you want to know."

"Do you have anything to help with ghosts?" Tea asked.

"I didn't know you'd ask."

"You might've made a mistake," Woody whispered.

"You ponies are just what we need for a safe future," Stone said. "With ponies like you, no ghost will stand a chance. No offence, Woody."

"...None taken," the colt responded.

"Are you sure you want to keep your powers?" Jewel asked.

"Honestly, if there's anypony who should help you with these ghosts, that pony is me." Suddenly, he could hear wind chimes in his ears again. Looking out the window, he could see some ghostly speed demons causing havoc in the streets.

"You go ahead," Stone said, "We'll catch up."

"Right." Woody had his ring appear again, transforming him into Shade Spirit. WIth that, he took off after the ghostly figures.

As Sandbar finished his story, Discord and the students clapped for him. "That was pretty cool," Tanzanite commented. "I especially like your combining technology with magic."

"Yeah, I want a bazooka like that," Sulcus added. "I'd like to see any ghost catch me."

"Hey, Sandbar," Kelpie said, "Did you base those ponies off of anyone?"

"Well, I kind of base Shade on me. He gets more powers once he fights a couple more ghosts.”

“Like Fayde’s duplication?” Pearl asked.

“Yeah. Also, Hot Tea and Ladybug were based on Smolder and Ocellus respectively."

"Nice," Gallus commented. "Did you also base Scarlet off of Cozy Glow?"

"Yeah."

"Who's that?" Kelpie asked.

"Let's see who's next," Discord interrupted.

Not wanting to explain who should not be named was, he pulled his horn again and the same thing happened. The glow went around in a circle until it landed on Pate. “Ooh, this should be interesting. Pate, what do you have?”

“Oh, ugh,” the changeling was a little surprised he was chosen. After digging through the paper until he found a mare and a colt who were both around the same age.

The mare was an earth pony that had golden fur with an orange mane that reached past her chin and her eyes were green and she had a hoop with two pom-poms flying through it. The colt, on the other hand, was a pegasus that had blue fur a blonde mane that was quite short that matched the color of his eyes and had some fish for a cutie mark.

“Interesting,” Discord commented. “And who are they?”

“This is Sun Regional and Sea Blend,” Pate replied.

“Those are the names you gave them?” Moss questioned.

“Well, ponies do have unique names, and all griffon names start with the letter G,” Sulcus commented.

“Yeah, why is that?” Kelpie asked.

“You think we know?” Gallus asked.

“I’m more confused about why changelings are named after body parts,” Pyther admitted. Sulcus simply shrugged.

“Yeah,” Pearl agreed. “Also, how does Sulcus sound not too fitting for a girl?”

“Actually, I’m a boy,” Sulcus stated.

“What?” the dragoness and hippogriff questioned.

“That’s enough. We’re getting off-topic,” Gallus spoke.

“Yes, thank you, Gallus,” Discord said. “Pate, please tell us about your heroes.” And so, the changeling did.

Sun Regional

In a town known as Halfway Hill, there lived a young teenage mare student known as Sun Regional, who walked inside the entrance of her high school, heading towards her locker.

"Okay, everything is good so far," she said to herself.

As soon as she got to her locker, she found her best friend, Sea Blend, walking up to her.

"Hey, S.R.," he said, "I need you to help double-check on my History homework." He handed the homework over to the young mare, who didn't look quite pleased.

"Sea, all these names are related to either food or animals. None of them are related to the Wonderbolts." The colt gave a frustrated groan.

"Come on, I've researched this all the time and I can't figure it out!"

"Sea, try to stay calm."

"But our test is in three days. I'm going to fail."

"Are you sure you didn't just sit around watching animals?" asked a voice. Looking behind them, there was a unicorn that had purple fur and a dark blue mane and crystal for a cutie mark.

"Not now Crystal," Sun groaned.

"Hey, you know it's true."

"I know you can make up whatever you want and get away with it, thanks to your dad's money."

"Well, you spend all your time around the animal foal."

"Don't you have anything better to do? Or do you just care about when you're in the spotlight?"

The snobby mare just rolled her eyes and walked away. Suddenly, Sun heard ringing inside of her locker. Looking inside of it, there was a white crystal statue that was glowing until the mare pressed on its top.

A screen suddenly appeared to show a green filly with turquoise mane sitting at a desk. "'Sup Sun?" she asked.

"Hi Jade," Sun replied. "What do you want for us?"

"Bad news. Dusky Scale has escaped from his prison cell."

"The heck!? How'd he do that?" Sea Blend questioned.

"He had a little help," Jade explained.

"Let me guess," Sun said, "Blaze?"

"Yep, that's her." A photo was shown of the two ponies. Dusky Scales was a white stallion earth pony who had a scar over his right eye. He had a short blonde mane and wore a trench coat that was black. Blaze, however, was a unicorn who had orange fur and a red and she wore a black jumpsuit.

"What are they up to now?"

"Apparently, they're trying to steal a diamond from the Manehattan Museum." Jade showed the location of where the two were going.

"So, can this wait until my history test?" Sea asked.

"I don't think that Blaze is going to wait for us," Sun stated. "Let's go." The two students ran out of their school and all the way to Manehattan.

Ponies were walking around the Manehattan Museum with a tour guide leading them. "And over here we have a set of special types of gemstones," he said.

"How rare are these kinds of gems?" a pink-maned mare asked.

"They can go up to several million bits. Like this Topaz here." There was a large topaz sitting in a glass case for the ponies to see. The tour carried on, but the pink-maned mare stayed behind. She removed the mane and dress she was wearing to hide her identity.

Blaze lit her horn to create some fire to melt through the glass. This would've sounded off the alarm but she had a couple of ponies helping her with that.

"You’re going to pay for that aren't you?" asked a voice.

Looking behind, Blaze could see Sun Regional glaring towards her. She was now wearing an orange jumpsuit that had an emerald necklace around her neck.

"Sunny," Blaze chuckled, "You made it. So, where's your sidekick." That answer came from Sea Blend, who was wearing the same gear as Sun, flying around being chased by a couple of ponies in red jumpsuits. "I guess we're even now."

"Just leave that topaz where it is and we can get on with our days." Blaze simply picked up the big gemstone and placed it in her saddlebag. "Okay, we're playing hard."

The two mares ran towards each other and started throwing several punches and kicks.

"Why am I stuck with these guys?" Sea questioned as he avoided getting tackled by one of the henchmen.

Seeing a mop, the pegasus grabbed it and tried to use it to help defend himself. However, with the number of henchmen, the mop was swiped out of his hooves.

"Right. So, back to running around?" Judging by their faces, which were hard to judge because their eyes were covered by some black goggles.

The pegasus flew around again as Sun and Blaze were in a deadlock with each other. "What's the plan with the topaz?" the high school mare asked.

"Sorry sweety," Blaze said. "That only for us to know."

"So I'm just going to have to find out." Sun flipped back before jumping off the wall and snatching the saddlebag from Blaze. The unicorn tried to use her magic to levitate the bag back to her, but Sun took the contents from it and hurled the bag at the unicorn, landing on her head.

"Sunny, what are you doing?" Sea questioned.

"Playing keep-away." Blaze tried to tackle the young mare but ended up missing her and getting kicked in the stomach, sending her flying into the air. The henchmen tried to tackle Sun but she kept jumping and flipping around to avoid them. That was until a mechanical arm grabbed the topaz from her.

"Thank you for the assistance," said a male's voice, "But I can take it from here." There was some sort of flying saucer being piloted by Dusky Scales.

"Yo, Dr. Scales," Blaze said, "Were you just letting us do ninety percent of the work?"

"Just get into the ship." Blaze jumped off the henchmen's back in order to get on board. As they took off, Sun looked towards Sea Blend.

"Sea, saddle me," she said.

"Got it," Sea replied. He helped place a metal saddlebag on Sun's back and it suddenly shifted into a jet pack. It even had a cover for her tail so it wouldn't get burned. The young mare flew off and chased after the doctor and his flying saucer.

"Oh, what now?" Dusky Scale groaned. He and Blaze could see Sun flying after them. So, their solution was to fire incredibly sharp boomerang at her. Sun dodged them, but they found another target. A window washer was simply doing his job as one of the boomerangs cut one of the cables holding him up.

Sun saw this and knew she had to catch the thieves, but at the same time, she couldn't let this pony fall. She flew down to catch the pony and bring him safely down onto a rooftop. Then things were getting worse as the lift was starting to come loose.

The mare with a jetpack flew down to grab the lift and managed to keep it steady until she got it to the ground.

"Close one," she said to herself. She looked up to the sky to see Scales and Blaze flying off out of sight. "Great."

"S.R.," Sea Blend called. He flew over to Sun as he was nearly out of breath. "I tried to get the henchmen... But they had some smoke bombs and got away. I hate it when they do that."

"It's okay, Sea," Sun reassured. "We don't even know what they're planning."

"Plus I kept thinking about that history test. I keep trying to remember. Can you share some of your notes?" Sea's words fell short thanks to Sun's thousand-yard stare. "Sunny?"

The two students had gotten out of their rescue gear, they met up at a restaurant called "Mighty Bite." They ordered some tacos and hayburgers while they were studying.

"Okay, so the name of the general who gave the Wonderbolts their name was..." Sun waited for Sea to answer, but he didn't.

Looking up, she could see the colt feeding a gray parrot. "Huh?"

"Sea, you said you needed help with this history test and you're just feeding your pet parrot."

"First of all, Clara isn't a pet, she's part of the family."

"Pretty bird," Clara chirped.

"Yes you are," Sea responded. He fed his bird another chip before thinking about the question's answer. "What was the question again?"

"Sea, the answer is General Firefly," Sun explained. "I thought you wanted help with this."

"I do, but I haven't taken Clara out of the house since..." The colt was interrupted by Clara's screeching and frantically flapping her wings.

"Look, I don't have any more chips." The parrot flapped onto the table and decided to take a look at the other meals. "Hey, you can't have tomatoes."

"I'm starting to see why you're having trouble studying. Not to mention helping to save the world doesn't help."

"Hey, some brains just work differently."

"Fair point."

There was a beeping sound coming from a necklace that Sun was wearing earlier that was now sitting in her saddlebag. She picked it up and pressed on it. An image of Jade appeared like the crystal in Sun's locker.

"Sun, I've been doing some research," Jade said. "The topaz that Dusky and Blaze stole seems to be one in a set of three."

"So, they're starting some sort of crystal collection?" Sea asked.

"Not exactly. The topaz and two other gemstones have special abilities that are like super batteries."

"And what exactly would they want to power up?" Sun asked.

"Unsure. Knowing who's trying to steal these, it's not going to be good."

"Can you try and figure out where they're going next?"

"I'll update you when I find something." The ruby disconnected from them.

"...Okay, so..."

"I found something," Jade explained. "It turns out the next gemstone that there's a sapphire being held in Canterlot. It's under tight security though."

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind if they let us in," Sea said.

"I'm not sure they would," Sun said.

"Hey, you've helped save the world tones of time. We might as well go there and try to help protect that sapphire."

"You've got a point. But that doesn't mean we can't still study."

"Right."

Meanwhile, Dusky Scales was in his lair idolizing the topaz they had just stolen. "Oh, Blaze," he said, "Isn't this just lovely."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's worth a pretty bit," Blaze said sarcastically. "What are you using it for?"

"My new doomsday device."

"Which is...?"

Scales sighed. "If you must know, I need three gems to power it. Once they power it up, I will be able to power my device and be able to dig to the center of the earth. Naturally, the world wouldn't want that to happen..."

"So, you're just having a fear tactic. Couldn't you... I don't know, maybe sell the gems for money."

"Perhaps for a plan B. Luckily, plan A won't fail."

"Yeah, probably because we're doing your work."

"What? Are you saying that I'm not capable of making great machines?"

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Grr. Look, I've been stuck in prison. I'm a little rusty."

"What was the excuse before you were behind bars?"

"...Do you want something out of this?"

"Well, if we're going to be stealing gems I thought we could get a few extra in case things go south."

"Okay, fine. You can take whatever gemstones you want. But if you get caught..."

"You'll be the one getting the sapphire."

"What?"

"I get to pick the gems I want, while you can get your sapphire."

"Fine." The doctor grumbled as he walked away while Blaze smiled to herself.

"Okay, so the capital of Equestria is... Canterlot," Sea said as he and Sun rode a flying chariot.

"Right," Sun replied. She looked towards the pegasus who was pulling them. "Thanks for giving us a lift Swift Delivery."

"Anything for you, Sunny," the pegasus replied. "You were the one who helped save my company's reputation."

"Hey, anypony could've helped deliver a whole street worth of packages."

"So, how much further?" Sea Blend asked.

"See that castle?" Swift asked.

"I think that's all we need for an answer," Sun said. "You don't need to stop, we'll drop ourselves off." Placing a parachute on her back, Sun jumped from the chariot and deployed her parachute to make sure she fell safely. Sea glided down with her as Clara flew by his side. "You brought Clara."

"She wouldn't leave me alone," Sea responded. "Besides, she won't be too much trouble. Won't you Clara?"

"Pretty bird," Clara replied.

"Yes, you are." The three soon landed in Canterlot and looked around. "Okay, so where is the museum we're looking for?"

"The sapphire isn't in a museum," Sun reminded. "Jade said it's in a facility, locked up and secure." Without warning, an explosion went off scaring Clara and several other ponies. Sun and Sea ran to find smoking coming from a large hole in a wall. "Subtly isn't their specialty."

"Oh, sorry," said a voice. "I've some aggression on upon my cellmate being unable to shut up!" The two looked up to see Dusky Scales in his flying saucer.

"Scales. How are you doing today?" Sun asked sarcastically.

"Quite fine. I needed some fresh... Don't change the subject. Don't get in my way." He flew his saucer into the building with his enemies following behind.

It was a little hard to pilot the saucer and avoid to colt and mare at the same time. Not to mention, Scales had an extra passenger. Clara had landed inside of the saucer and began to fly around the doctor's head.

"Gah. Shoo!" Scales cried.

"Get him, Clara!" Sea cheered.

"Sea, help me protect the sapphire," Sun said. The two ran to where the gems were kept and someone else was behind them.

"Get out of the way kids," Blaze ordered.

"Listen, let's just make this quick. We've got a history test at the end of the week."

"Okay, I can help with that. Lesson one, don't get in the way with a pony's business." She lit her hooves on fire and tried punching Sea.

"Whoa! Hey! Why me!?" he questioned. "This doesn't even have anything to do with history!"

Sun jumped into action and grabbed Blaze by her tail and pulled her back. The two started throwing a couple of punches while Sea got to safety.

"Okay, get to the gems and keep them safe," he said to himself. He tried to slip into the safe room, but he found that some henchmen blocking his path. "Oh, cut me some slack." He began running and screaming as he tried to get away.

As they did this, Scales looked around for the sapphire on hoof. "Where is it?" he questioned. "It's here somewhere. I know it is." He soon found a safe door, which he used a laser to help cut through it. "There we are!" Sitting on one of the shelves, was a large sapphire.

He was about to pick it up until Sea ran into him. "Aw, man," the colt groaned.

"Get off of me," Scales groaned. Sea saw the sapphire, grabbed it, and ran off. "Get him!"

The henchmen chased the colt, who's screaming was muffled by the sapphire in his mouth. "Sea!" Sun cried.

"Why do you bring him around?" Blaze questioned. Sun didn't answer and knocked her back. Their fight carried on until Clara got involved. Sea gave her the sapphire, which she carried away. Blaze tried shooting the parrot down, which was hard due to Clara's size. "You see, even a bird is better than him."

"And you work for Scales," Sun stated.

Blaze looked back to see Scales flailing around with Sea. "Okay, fair point. But there are a few differences. For one, he’s got gadgets.” Blaze quickly jumped into Scales’s saucer and started working with the controls. He activated a few laser cannons, which Sun and Sea had to dodge.

“Why is she using lasers!?” the colt questioned.

“I’m on it,” Sun cried. She managed to jump off a couple of crates and jumped up to the saucer where she had another deadlock with Blaze.

Clara, meanwhile, was getting tired of flying around for so much while carrying the sapphire. She landed to catch her breath where she was almost immediately snatched up by one of the henchmen as another one picked up the sapphire. “I’ve got it,” he cheered.

“Clara!” Sea cried running over to save his bird. He tackled the henchman who had Clara while the one with the sapphire made a run for it. He tossed it to Dusky Scales, who cheered when he finally had it.

“We got what we came for,” he declared. “Blaze, let’s...” He then noticed the vacuum coming from his saucer sucking up some of the gems. “No, that’ll shatter them.”

“Gems are a lot harder than you think,” Blaze said. She managed to knock Sun out of the saucer before using a robotic arm to pick up the doctor and put him in the saucer. After doing that, they flew out of the hole they made while picking up their henchmen. The mare, colt, and parrot looked at each realizing their failure.

The next day at high school, Sea walked glumly over Sun who was taking some books out of her locker. “Sunny, I’m sorry about letting you down,” he apologized.

“Sea, I don’t blame you,” Sun replied. “Just remember to keep Clara out of the action next time.”

“Pretty bird,” tweeted a voice. Looking behind them, Clara had perched herself on Sea Blend’s back.

“I told you to stay at home,” he said.

“It’s probably because you’ve been spoiling her,” Sun commented.

“Maybe. Anyways, I took your advice on learning in a new way.”

“And what did you do?”

“I put some questions and answers in different boxes and put them in a matching game.”

“How did that go?”

“Would you believe me that Clara did a better job than me.”

“Sea, you can’t keep acting like this.”

“What am I supposed to do? The test is in two days and I don’t even remember the first question.”

“You’re not the only one struggling with this test.”

“...You too, huh?”

“Yeah. Having to save the world doesn’t help either.”

“Probably not. I just wish I could find my way of learning.” Soon they both heard a beeping from Sun’s locker and answered it to see Jade appear.

“Go Jade,” Sun said.

“I’ve been researching where the last gemstone is,” Jade answered. “Ponies say it’s supposed to be diamond, but information about it is almost non-existent.”

“So, you don’t know where it is?”

“Not at the moment. I’ll keep looking for anything useful. Until then, we just hope that Scales isn’t having better luck.”

Dusky was banging his head against the wall to his anger and frustration. “Where is that blasted diamond!?” he cried.

“Seems like the doomsday device isn’t working,” Blaze said sarcastically. She was checking the condition of the gems she stole. “You know, these gems are still good. You can still sell them as well as that to...”

“NO! I’m this close. I’m not going to let my first scheme out of prison go down the drain. I’ve got to figure out where the diamond is.” He smacked his head on the control panel which made a couple of screens pop up. “It’s got to be somewhere. Maybe with the dragons.”

“I bet ten bits that they already ate when you were thrown in jail. Best case scenario.”

“Quiet! You’re not helping.”

“Just thought you start pulling your own weight.” Scales groaned from his assistant’s sass.

“Launch the drones!” Pressing a button, a set of drones with helicopter blades flew out of the lair and across Equestria.

Sun and Sea were just minding their own business during their classes. Sea Blend was writing down almost everything their teacher was talking about. “Now remember,” the stallion said, “This test will be a part of a good chunk of your grades. So, if you hadn’t been studying...” He paused when he heard a buzzing sound. “I thought I kept these windows closed.”

There wasn’t a bug outside the classroom windows, there was a small drone flying outside. “Oh, come on,” Sun and Sea groaned quietly. The drone flew off and the mare colt raised their hooves.

“No one leaves until the bell rings,” the teacher stated. Then they heard it ring. “Okay, class dismissed.” Sun and Sea raced down the hall to the exit.

They got their uniforms and Sun’s necklace started beeping. “You saw the drones?” she asked.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Jade responded. “I’ve tried tracking the drones’ destination, but they seem to be moving at random.”

“Scales can’t figure out where the diamond is?”

“Probably not. I’ll keep up my research, keep an eye on one of those drones.”

“Got it.” Clara was flying after the drone and wouldn’t let it out of her sight.

“Clara, get back here,” Sea cried. Some more drones started circling around the colt and mare. “Really?” The drones started firing at them. Sun and Sea were able to dodge them and the mare quickly started smacking some of them down.
Sea managed to run in between some drones. When they fired their lasers, they hit each other instead of Sea.

“We don’t have time for this,” Sun groaned. She activated her necklace to call Jade again. “Jade, please tell me you found anything.”

“Nothing yet,” the green mare replied. “I’m having a bit of trouble hacking into them. You think that you can get me one so I could get a closer look?” As if on cue, one of the drones crashed on the ground with perching herself on it. Aside from its propeller, the drone was completely intact.

“Right now, yes.”

“Okay, I’ll be right over.”

After the chaos, Jade was taking a look at the drone that crashed to the ground. “So, you find anything?” Sun asked.

“We’re about to see,” Jade responded. She plugged a cord from her keyboard as a screen pulled up. “Let’s see here.”

As they did that, Sea was trying to study while Clara helped him. “Okay, so the answer is... Commander Hurricane... Clover the Clever?” Clara shook her head before turning a card over to show the correct answer. “Dang it. I can’t catch a break.”

“Test coming up?”

“Yeah. Say, you wouldn’t be able to...”

“I’m not making you cheat sheet.”

“Come on Jade. I’m all out of options. The answers keep slipping out my other ear.”

“I’ve been studying too,” Sun noted. “Have you been trying a certain style?”

“Nothing works.”

Sun and Jade did feel sorry for the colt. “I can help you study later,” Jade said. “I think I’m onto something.” On the screen, there was a map of Equestria. Jade zoomed in closer to the location.

“So, the diamond’s there?” Sun asked.

“Most likely. You beat Scales there, you’ll be able to stop them.”

“Right. Let’s go Sea.” Sun and Sea raced off with Clara flying after them.

Dusky Scales and Blaze were flying to the mountain in the saucer while towing the doomsday machine. “Okay, so that thing can’t be in the saucer, why?” Blaze asked.

“You saw we couldn’t lift that thing in here,” Scales stated. “So, we just have to deal with this. In my opinion, it’s much more convenient.”

Blaze just rolled her eyes as she looked down at the mountain. She could see some figures at the bottom of it. “No way they beat us here.”

“Who beat us...” He then saw what Blaze was looking at. “Drat!”

“Okay, so you think he has any drones left?” Sea asked.

“Knowing him, I don’t think he would have enough drones.”

“He has to be getting the parts from somewhere. I know it’s likely he’s stealing them but...”

“Will you ever stop foiling my plans?” Scales questioned in anger as he got close enough for his foes to hear.

“Maybe if you start making some good ones,” Sun joked.

The doctor growled. “BLAZE!”

“I’m on it,” the unicorn stated. She jumped down and started another fight with Sun. Sea looked towards Scales, who just looked down at him.

“Eh, you shouldn’t be too much trouble,” Scale scoffed. Using his saucer’s robotic arm to push Sea out of the way, but that didn’t please Clara at all. She flew up to the doctor and tried pecking his face. “Ow! Hey! Watch the scar!”

“Get him, Clara!” Sea cheered.

“Look, I’m almost done with this plan, so just get out of the way and we try something smart,” Blaze said to Sun pinning her down.

“Then why do you still work for Scales?” Sun asked. She managed to roll over, but in this action, Blaze managed to throw her. However, the mare recovered and jumped off the mountain walls before tackling the unicorn that threw her.

Sea realized he didn’t have anything going on. His friends were fighting the bad guys so he thought he would make himself useful by looking for the diamond. He found a cave, which turned out to have a couple of gemstones inside. “This must be it,” he said to himself. The cave was a little small, so Sea had to crawl to get through.

Eventually, he saw some embedded in the wall at the end of the cave. It was shiny, blue, and quite big. “Oh, yeah, that’s a diamond,” Sea commented. He tried to pull the diamond out, but it was quite stuck. “Come on,” he groaned. Suddenly, with a pop, the diamond came out of the wall.

However, the cave then started to crumble. “Oh, crud.” Sea quickly made his way towards the exit with the diamond.

Sun, Blaze, Scales, and Clara could hear the rumble as Sea made it out of the cave. “Oh, what did he do?” Blaze questioned. Then, they saw the diamond.

“Finally,” Scales cried. He used his saucer’s arm to try and grab the diamond, but Clara kept getting in the way. Though, this was the least of their worries. The low rumbling was sending bad signals.

“Sun, please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is?” Sea begged.

“No, that’s an avalanche,” the mare commented. Not wanting to be buried, the ponies and bird all made a run for it. Scales and Blaze tried to get away in the saucer but towing the doomsday device slowly the saucer down.

Sea quickly picked up Sun to help her get away from the avalanche. “I never meant for this to happen,” Sea cried with the diamond in his mouth.

“I know that,” Sun replied. The colt wasn’t very strong as he struggled to keep his friend up. “Sea, get me to the doomsday device, but first, spit out the diamond.”

Sun’s friend did so, spitting the diamond out which was quickly lost in the avalanche. “No, I need that diamond!” Scales cried. He flew his saucer to try and rescue the gem, which gave his enemies the perfect opening for Sun to land on the doomsday device.

“Now, where are those gems?” She managed to find a loose panel which she tossed off. However, it was far too small for her to crawl through. Clara landed next to the mare, who had an idea. “Clara, can you get the gems inside this machine?” The parrot crawled inside the machine and looked around.

Blaze didn’t say anything as she watched Scales search in a panic. Then she finally noticed Sun being given the gems from Clara. “Hey!” the unicorn cried.

“Later,” Sun smirked. Sea managed to pick her up and fly off, but not before knocking the machine overboard.

“...Welp, I knew this would fail.”

Scales could see his machine falling. “NO!” he screamed. The machine was swept up by the avalanche and destroyed. “I’ll get you Sun Regional!” He then looked towards Blaze. “So, you still have your gems?”

“You get the gems you steal.” The doctor just sighed as his enemies flew away to return the topaz and sapphire.

After that, Sun and Sea had done their history tests. “So, you think that Jade helped you remember?” Sun asked.

“I think so,” Sea replied. They both received their papers and saw their grades. Sun had received an A- while Sea had gotten a B. “Yes!” the colt cheered.

“See, you were worrying about nothing.”

“I say we celebrate with a Sea sandwich.”

“You mean the one as big as your head?”

“What other sandwich is there?” Sun just rolled her eyes as they walked down the hall. “So, you think you can answer this? Say that Scales powered up his doomsday device, where would he be if it went off?”

“He’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“True.”

“So, what do you think?” Pate asked.

“It’s pretty nice,” Pearl commented.

“The villain could use some work though,” Gale commented.

“Well, he could be a sort of joke villain,” Sandbar said. “There are a couple in the Power Pony comics.”

“I think there are a couple more villains I was thinking of,” Pate explained. “Ugh, who’s next?”

“Let’s find out,” Discord said. With another pull on his horn, the chairs lit up again until the next student that was selected was Silverstream.

“Ooh, yeah,” she cheered. She showed a drawing of a hippogriff that was blue with a black mane and an E on its chest. “I’ll call this Elastic Fantastic. Basically her body is made of rubber and she can mold herself into almost every shape she wants.”

“Sounds like my kind of hippogriff. Do you have a story for her?”

“Well... Not really. I got excited to just turn her in and I never thought of a story for her.”

“I did say stories were optional.” With Silverstream having nothing else to say, Discord pulled his horn again and the chairs lit up again. This time landing on Emerald. “So, what do you have?”

“Well, Peri and I sort of shared our heroes to make a superhero duo,” the dragoness explained. She showed a drawing of two similar-looking dragonesses.

They looked like Emerald and Peridot and they looked identical apart from their colors. One was red with a yellow belly, the other was blue with a green belly. Both their eyes were silver, though the blue and green ones had faded pupils. Both of them had white ram-like horns and each had different elements coming from their claws. The red and yellow one was generating fire and a small twister while the other was levitating water and stone.

“Who are they?” Gallus questioned.

“This is Sparks and Flow,” Emerald explained. “They’re both siblings who were basically lab rats. Let me explain.”

“Oh, good,” Sulcus cooed, “Another story.” And he listened to what Emerald had to say.

Scope

A train was chuffing towards a small village. When it stopped at the platform, a family of hippogriffs. A father, mother, teenage son, and a fledgling daughter.

“Well, here we are,” the mother said, “Bex Creek.”

“Was this even necessary?” the teenage hippogriff asked.

“Finn, your mother has been dreaming about this,” the father said. “Haven’t you, Reef?” The mother and father nuzzled against each other as the fledgling fluttered around.

“Wow, look at this place,” she said.

“Orca, stay calm,” Reef the mother said. “We’ll get to our new home soon. Let’s go get our luggage.”

The mother, father, and daughter went to get their bags while their son, Finn, just sighed. He loved living in Seaquestria and was hoping he could move back onto land. However, he never said he wanted to leave Mount Aris. Now, he was far away from all of his friends and he would have to start from scratch.

He kept to himself as he followed his family to their new home. It was a nice little house which had three bedrooms. One for Finn, one for Orca, and one for the parents.

“See Finn,” Reef said, “We’ll feel just as home in no time.”

“Sure,” Finn sighed, rolling his eyes.

He headed over to his new room to have a sulk. He sat down and looked out the window and could see a couple of ponies swimming around in a lake. Unfortunately, Finn didn’t have a shard from Queen Novo’s pearl, so he couldn’t turn himself into a seapony. Yet another reason why he didn’t want to leave Mount Aris.

“Sure Finn. Moving will be tons of fun.” He lay his head on the window sill letting out another sigh. Seeing that there was nothing else to do in his bedroom he decided to explore the rest of his new home.

A little while later, Reef heard a knock on the door and answer. Outside, a mare was standing with a stallion.

“Hello, there,” the mare said. “We were just wanting to welcome you to the neighborhood.”

“Oh, we weren’t expecting a welcome already,” Reef said.

“Well, we haven’t really gotten griffons around here.”

“Actually, we’re hippogriffs. We’re only part griffon. We’re also part pony.”

“Interesting. Anyways, my name’s Olive Tree and this is my husband, Stone Slate.” The stallion gave a simple wave.

“Well, I’m Reef, I’m living with my husband, Gully, and we have two kids. Our son Finn, and our daughter Orca.”

“Ooh, you have children too? Our daughter is quite social. Maybe they could become friends.”

“That’s a good idea, but Finn isn’t too happy with our new home.”

“Ah. Moving can be so hard on the kids. Do you mind if we come in?”

“Be our guest.” Olive and Slate walked into the hippogriff’s new house. “Gully, I’ve met our new neighbors.” Reef’s family walked into the living room to meet Olive and Steel.

“Hello there,” Gully said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same to you,” Slate said. The hippogriff and stallion shook talon and hoof.

“This must be Finn,” Olive commented looking at the teenage hippogriff.

“Hi,” Finn said, clearly lacking interest. He wasn’t interested, but Orca was. She flew up to the visiting ponies.

“Wow,” she said. “You don’t have wings. Or talons. How do you use things?”

“Orca, don’t be rude,” Reef said. “I’m sorry. Orca is just a child.”

“Oh, I totally understand,” Olive replied. “I have a filly like her.”

“Really?” the fledgling asked. “Can I meet her?”

“Well, we need to take care of a couple of things first,” Gully stated, then turned to Stone Slate. “For starters, you know any jobs that are hiring?”

“I know a few,” Slate explained. “You want to take a look around?”

“Sure.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Reef said. “There isn’t much to do around here.”

‘Yeah, let’s find something better to do,” Finn muttered.

He and his family walked around town with the two ponies, Olive and Slate. They were shown places like the school where Finn and Orca could study, some places where Gully could work, some places where they could eat, all while three of the four hippogriffs were so interested.

Finn was struggling to care. He even tried not to. He wanted to go back to Mount Aris. The only thing he had interested in was the amount of water around this town. There were a lot of large bodies of water that ponies could swim in.

Then they walked past the wooden house. An old stallion was dumping out some broken crystals into a trash can. “Who’s that?” Reef asked.

“That’s Diamond Light,” Olive explained. “He’s the town inventor. Though, only a few ponies take him seriously. He keeps saying he makes new inventions but most ponies call him a clown.”

“That doesn’t sound very nice.”

“It isn’t. He’s actually a nice pony. He’s just got a few crazy ideas.”

“Finally, something interesting,” Finn muttered.

Finn didn’t pay much attention to what happened next. Just his parents doing things like getting a job, enrolling him and Orca at the town’s schoolhouse. Nothing that his parents suggested to him seemed to grab his interest. He started his new school year in two days, so Finn had an extra day to check out the only thing he was interested in, Diamond Light.

After eating breakfast the next day, he left his new home to check out the house of the strange old stallion. The hippogriff knocked on the door. After waiting for a few seconds, Diamond Light opened the door, and saw him standing in front of him.

“Who are you?” the stallion asked.

“My name’s Finn,” the hippogriff answered. “I just moved here and I’m already hating it. Your place was the only thing I’m interested in.”

“Really? Well, come inside. Let me show you some of my technology.”

He led Finn into his house and took him to a room that had tons of different looking gear. The one that Diamond showed him first was a helmet that had what looked to be a pipe on the area on the forehead. The helmet was connected to a large glass container that was fitted on his back with a saddlebag.

“What is that?” Finn questioned.

“This is my multi-horn. I made this so non-unicorns could use other kinds of magic. So far, I’ve only got levitation spells to work.”

“What’s powering it?”

“Let’s just say I had a few magical creatures running around my backyard and I decided they could pay me back with some magic to power my gadgets. And before you ask, I release them back into the wild. I’m not a dictator.”

“Right. What this other stuff do?” Finn picked up some boots that had horseshoes on the bottom of them.

“Those are magnetic boots. Perfect for climbing metal walls.” Finn found the boots suddenly stuck together. “Oh, dang.”

“Does this happen often?”

“Sadly, yes. These are a nightmare to get apart.” Diamond tried to pull them apart, even with Finn helping him, they both struggled. “Gah, I’ll fix this later.”

He set the stuck boots on the shelf as he showed the rest of the gadgets he had.

One was a pair of propellers to allow non-pegasi to fly, similar to his helmet. There was a saddlebag that had tons of different tools, wrenches, blow torch, and even a nail gun. Then they came across a jumpsuit that was hanging on the wall.

“What’s that?” Finn asked.

“That’s my latest project,” Diamond explained. “This suit I’m planning on having the change the size of whoever is wearing it.”

“Have you tested it?”

“I’ve tested a smaller model on my assistant.” Diamond whistled and a Harrier Hound walked into the room. “Meet Patch.”

Finn held out his talon, which Patch sniffed and allowed the hippogriff to pet him. “So, what do you mean you tested it on him?” Finn asked.

“Well, I made a suit that fits a dog of Patch’s size. Using a separate remote, I’ve shrunk him down to the size of an ant and grew him to the size of a bison.”

“Neat. And have you made one in a pony’s size?”

“I’ve tried using Patch’s suit, however, when we tried to take it off, he’d always revert back to his original size. So, I had to make one in my size in order to test it. Though, looking at this one, I think it might be a little small for me.” Finn flew up to get a look at the suit and could see it was close to his size.

“You know, I might be able to try it on.”

“You sure about that?”

“Hey, nothing else in this town has my interest. You’re pretty much the coolest pony I’ve met so far.”

“Why, thank you. By the way, since you seem to have opposable digits. That might make the suit more effective when needing to be activated.”

“Okay, so what do I need to do?”

“I just need some measurements and I can make some modifications so the suit can fit you.” Using his tool, Diamond got some measurements of Finn’s talons and head. With that, he soon started drawing on his blueprints.

“Come back tomorrow when I’ve finished my work, okay?”

“But I have school tomorrow.”

“Ooh, that’s rough. Sorry, kid. This will give me some more time.”

The hippogriff let out a disappointed sigh. “Fine, I’ll come back after school.”

He left the stallion’s home as Diamond got to work.

The stallion stopped when he heard Patch barking at him. The Harrier Hound whimpered as he clearly looked worried.

“No, I’m not telling him the real reason I’m making this. He’s just a kid.” Patch raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I know I’m making this suit that he’ll be able to use easier, but... Look, just let me work and I’ll give you those juicy treats.”

Patch started wagging his tail in excitement as he walked over to his bed to wait.

Finn made his way home where his parents were waiting for him. “Where did you go?” Gully asked.

“I was looking around town,” the young hippogriff explained.

“At least tell us where you’re going first,” Reef said.

“I left a note.”

“In the last place we’d look,” Gully stated. “Anyways, Slate managed to help me get a job.”

“What is it?”

“From the description he gave me, I think I’m working as an exterminator. He said we have to get rid of small creatures that have been invading ponies’ homes.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“As for you, you’ll be staying here until tomorrow.”

“Great.” The young hippogriff walked back inside and sat down on his bed. “The first day in this new place and I’m already grounded. Lovely.”

Later that night, Finn was sleeping in his bed when he heard the door open. He woke up and could see Orca trying to get in bed with him.

“Orca? What are you doing?” the brother questioned.

“There’s a monster in my closet,” Orca replied.

“Seriously? That can’t be real.” Looking at her face, Finn saw his sister was terrified. “Okay, let’s take a look.”

They walked back to Orca’s bedroom and took a look in the closet. There was nothing out of the ordinary in there. “Welp, I don’t see a monster in here.”

“But I saw one.”

“Okay, look, just so we can sleep well tonight, you can join me in my bed.” Orca smiled as she followed her brother back to his bedroom. What the two didn’t see was some mysterious ooze taking form after hiding in some tight spots.

The next morning, Finn arrived at his new school.

“Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled as he walked inside.

He took a look at his class schedules and head to where he needed to go. When he got to his first classroom, he was almost the center of attention. He felt fear and worry inside of him, feeling that his first impressions might be bad. He took a deep breath and walked inside.

“Is he a griffon?” one of the students questioned.

“No, he’s got hooves,” another commented.

“What is he?” a third asked.

“I’m a hippogriff,” Finn explained, sitting down on his desk.

“Oh,” many of the students responded.

“I thought he was one of those Monju,” one of the students said.

“...A what?” Finn questioned.

Then a teacher came inside.

“Alright class,” said their teacher, “I’m sure you’ve met our new student. Now, let’s get started with today’s lesson.”

Finn and the other students listened to what their teacher was saying, though the comment of whatever a Monju was distracting him.

Elsewhere, Gully was following Stone to a building with a title reading “Pest Be Gone.”

“So, this is the place?” the hippogriff asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not what it seems,” Stone said. The two walked inside and could see some ponies with some gear that looked a little overkill for pest control.

“What’s this stuff?”

“We don’t take care of normal pests like bugs or mice. We have a little bit of a monster problem. We call them Monjus.”

“What kind of Monjus are there?”

“They come in many different shapes and sizes. Some get to the size of houses. Some are even smaller than ants.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. They have different types of hazards.”

“I can already guess what the house-sized ones can do.”

“Yes. Now, if you’re going to be a Monju hunter, you’re going to need the training.”

“’ Kay, where do I start?”

”Right this way.”

Stone led his new neighbor to the back of the building, where some targets were standing about a yard away. Stone grabbed a crossbow and aimed at one of the targets. He fired a couple of arrows, which was impressive until the target exploded.

“JEEZ!”

“I can find another job if you want.”

“...No, this one pays well.”

“Alright. Just let me know when you want out.” He handed the crossbow over to the hippogriff before picking up a more complicated weapon.

“Just, answer me this; how long has this town be having this Monju problem?”

“A little while after it was first discovered. Unicorns stood up to help protect the town, but as time went on these kinds of gadgets so more ponies could help out. Some of these are pretty cool.”

“Yeah. What does that one do?” Stone demonstrated the weapons rapid-fire, slowly destroying the target with each shot. Gully was in shock.

“Does that answer your question?”

He nodded.

At Diamond Light’s house, he just finishing work on the helmet. He took the finished helmet over to the jumpsuit to see what it would look like on Finn.

“What do you think, Patch?” the stallion asked. The Harrier Hound bark and wagged his tail. “Yep, I think I outdid myself.”

Diamond walked off to find something for him to eat.

At school, Finn was wanting to get out as soon as possible. He stared at the clock as time seemed to be slowing down.

“Come on,” he grumbled. “Give me some kind of excuse to get out of here.” Suddenly, the light went out in the school. “That works.”

The teacher sighed.

“This is been going on for weeks,” she sighed. “Students, you know the drill: gather up the books of what we haven’t gone over today and take them home to study.”

The students did as their teacher was told, though Finn was a little confused.

“This has happened before?” The hippogriff was confused but was happy that he was let out early. This meant he could go and visit Diamond sooner.

He headed to the stallion’s house and knocked on the door.

“Diamond, are you here?” he called. Finn waited for a reply, but one never came. Finn waited for about a minute when he heard some ponies run past the house. Some were pulling a cart loaded with some odd-looking weapons.

Before the hippogriff could question what they were for, Diamond opened the door.

“Finn, you’re here early,” the stallion spoke. Finn jumped.

“Oh, hey, Light,” Finn said. “Is the suit finished?”

“Yes, it is. Why are you here so early?”

“The lights went out at my school. They said that it happens often.” Diamond led the hippogriff inside and took him to the finished suit. “Sweet!”

“Try it on.” Finn didn’t have to be told twice. He zipped himself up in the suit while pacing the helmet, glove, and boots on as well.

“Okay, so how does this work?”

“Well, you see those buttons on your wrists?” Finn looked at his wrists to see each one had a button. “The one on your left will make you smaller while the right one will make you bigger.”

“Sounds easy.”

“Go right ahead and get smaller.” The hippogriff nodded and pressed the left button. Within seconds, he shrank down to Patch’s size. “Incredible.”

“This is... Pretty cool.” Patch walked over to the shrunken hippogriff sniffing him. “Hey, watch it.” Finn looked at his wrist again and decided to make himself smaller. This time, he stopped he got one centimeter tall. “Hold on, why can’t I get smaller?”

“I put a safety lock on this suit so you don’t get to the size of a molecule,” Diamond explained.

“...Okay then.” The stallion held down his hoof so the hippogriff could stand on it as he was carried through the house.

“Now, before you try the right button, we should take this outside. Last time I tried this with Patch, I had to rebuild the ceiling.”

“Got it.” Once they were outside, Finn jumped from Diamond’s hoof and pressed the button on his right wrist. He started getting bigger, surpassing the stallion’s height, and stopped when he got the size of the house. “Awesome!” he cheered.

“Keep it down.” Diamond was able to reach the button on the hippogriff’s left wrist to make him shrink down to his original size. “ I don’t want to draw too much attention.”

“What, I don’t mind a couple of ponies looking.”

“I’m not talking about the ponies. There could be tons of Monjus around.”

“Monjus? What’s that?”

“Let me explain.”

As he did this, Gully was busy investigating the school with Stone. “So, are we sure this is something we should be investigating?” the hippogriff asked.

“This has been happening for a while,” Stone stated. “They’ve checked the power, and it seems like it’s been drained.” He placed a set of goggles on and scanned the area. He spotted some critter crawling around. “Get ready.”

The two prepared their weapons and raced towards where the critters were. The two critters looked like yellow raccoons with lightning-shaped ears. They hissed at the pony and hippogriff, who both launched rubber nets at them. The nets caught one of the lightning raccoons, however, one managed to slip through the window.

“Out the back!” Stone cried. They ran towards the exit to see the raccoon critter running away. “Is that a Monju?” Gully asked.

“Yep. That’s a Rightning. They absorb lightning and use it to boost their speed. We at least caught one.”

He took a look a the Rightning stuck in the rubber net. “I’m going to take this back to the base. You stay with the others and see if you can learn anything.”

“Roger.” Stone walked away with the captured Monju while Gully was still a little confused.

Back with Finn, he removed his helmet as he listened to Diamond’s explanation of Monjus. “So, how many kinds of creatures are there?” the hippogriff questioned.

“Honestly, I lost track after forty,” Diamond admitted. “I have a journal containing several of them.” Suddenly, they heard Patch growling at the ground. “What is it, boy?” Looking closely at the ground, the could see extremely tiny bipedal creature walking across the ground.

“What are those?”

“Mints. They’re like super ants, they can even team up to make certain shapes. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen.”

“Well... Maybe it’s something that I can investigate.”

Without warning, Finn placed his helmet back on and shrank himself down to fly after the Mints. Diamond tried to catch him, but Finn was too fast for him to stop. Not to mention, grabbing him would likely crush him.

The hippogriff followed the Mints across the field until they slipped through a crack in the side of the house. Diamond and Patch walked inside to see if they could take care of them.

Finn was amazed that he was able to go to such small places. He followed the Mints through the inside of the wall. They didn’t seem to pay much attention to the tiny hippogriff. Wandering through the wall, they suddenly came across something transparent, green, and slimy.

Some of the Mints sank into the slime, but some stayed back and took the form of a blade to try and slice the slime. This did very little, however, and they were starting to get absorbed. This was a clear sign for Finn to get out of there. However, the slime started surrounding him. Not knowing what to do, Finn just tried flying around until he flew through the wall.

He was surprised at what he just did. Finn wasn’t sure whether it was size or not, but that slime wasn’t giving up that easily. It crawled through the hole that Finn made and seeped into the room.

“Oh dear,” Diamond gasped when he saw the slime. He looked around until he found his blowtorch. He quickly used it on the slime, making it squirm. Finn was in a bit of a panic and flew out a window. A strong gust of wind suddenly hit him, sending the hippogriff flying through the air.

Lucky for Diamond, his blow torch managed to send the slime out of this house.

“Thank goodness,” he sighed. “Looks like I’m going to have to fix the wall. Now, where’s Finn?”

Finn was having a hard time gaining control. He managed to glide through the air gaining some control, but turning was almost impossible. He managed to keep steady until he smacked into a window. Finn was glad that he finally stopped and he noticed where he was.

This was Orca’s school. He saw his sister was already pretty popular given that she was the only hippogriff in the school. Finn then noticed their teacher was looking a little nervous.

“Okay, children,” she said. “Classes are going to have to end a little earlier than usual.” The kids cheered at this as they were all let out of the school. Orca was walking with a colt who was similar to Olive and Stone.

“So, your dad hunts monsters?” the fledgling questioned.

“Yeah,” the colt questioned. “He does some really cool things.”

“Hmm, this could be interesting,” Finn commented. He managed to fly over to a bush and then returned to his original size. Once he did that, he walked over his sister and her new friend. “Hey, Orca.”

“Finn? Where did you come from?” the fledgling asked.

“I was just wandering around town after my classes were let out early.”

“You too?”

“Yeah. What’s up with this place? Plus, who’s your friend?”

“Slab,” the colt replied. “My dad hunts Monjus.”

“Seriously? Has he ever felt with Mints or slime?”

“You mean those ants? Yeah, my dad’s fought them. I’ve never seen slime before.”

“Well, I’ve dealt with some before. I had a near miss a few minutes ago.”

“Is that why you’re wearing that suit?” Orca asked.

“...Well, kind of. I was helping someone to test this out.”

“Was does it do?”

Finn smiled as he pressed on the button his left twist. Within seconds, he was the same height as his sister and her friend. The did the opposite and made himself grow to twice his original size.

“How are you doing this?” Slab asked.

“I dunno. Magic? Diamond didn’t really explain how this works.” Finn pressed the button to turn himself back to his original size. “Still, I can think of a lot of ways this could be useful.”

“Like fighting monsters?” Slab asked.

“...Exactly. I could just stomp on them and they’re gone.” Just then, they saw a Rightning scurry around nearby. “is that a Monju?”

Slab nodded.

“Okay, perfect for a test run.” Finn made himself grow before walking over to the Rightning. The electric Monju saw the big hippogriff walking over to him.

Naturally, the Monju tried to run away when Finn tried stomping on it. “Hey, sit still,” the hippogriff ordered.

He kept trying to get the Monju, but it was too fast. Even, Finn stepped one tree, making him lose his footing and fell over. After falling on the ground, he managed to press the button and return to his normal size.

“Are you okay?” Orca asked.

“Yeah,” he wheezed. “That went way better in my head.”

“There you are,” Diamond Light said. He ran up with a cart behind him that Patch riding in it. “I see that you’ve got some used to the first features.”

“First?”

“Well, after I got through the size-shifting, I thought I could also add some other features for offense and defense. By the way, have you been feeling a few side effects?”

“My stomach feels drained.”

“That’s probably a lack of blood sugar. I’d probably get a meal as soon as you can.”

“Got it.”

After giving the suit back, Finn and Orca soon got home along with Slab. Finn walked over the fridge and searched around for some food as Reef walked in.

“Kids, what are you doing home early?” she questioned.

“School was let out,” Orca replied.

“What for?”

“Monjus,” Finn answered taking out the milk. He soon started chugging straight from the carton.

“Finn, we have a guest. I’m sorry, what’s your name little one?”

“My name is Slab,” the colt answered.

“Sorry mom,” Finn apologized, “My blood sugars low.”

“Then you could’ve asked me to cook something. Why is your blood sugar so low anyway.”

“To be honest with you, I was helping Diamond with an experiment.”

“You mean that stallion.”

“He makes a lot of cool stuff. Like some tech that can make earth ponies that do. Flight, telekinesis, stuff like that.”

“What?”

“He’s really doing that?” Slab asked with excitement.

“Finn, I want a sharp explanation.”

“He didn’t do anything I didn’t want him to do. In fact, I asked him to make a new suit that can change my size at will.” The mother just looked at her son, lost for words. “He already made one for his dog.”

“I... I’m starting to see why this town doesn’t really like being around him.”

“Look, it’s not like he’s doing anything illegal.”

“Finn, changing your size could end in disaster.”

“I was fine. The worse thing that happened is that I got too close to some Monjus.”

“Mon... What?”

“There are certain kinds of monsters that roam around here.”

“Monsters? I feel like we should’ve stayed in Seaquestria.” Then Reef gasped. “Gully! He just took up that new job.”

“I think we would’ve been told if something was wrong. Besides, we passed by him on the way here. He was fine.”

“Where is he now?”

“Probably at my school.”

“Oh... Don’t leave this house until I get back.” Reef flew outside and raced towards where her husband was at.

“Okay, I’m going to be grounded for an undetermined amount of time.”

“What do you think you’ll be able to do with your new suit?” Orca asked.

“Maybe something like a shield or something. I could use a greater variety of attacks. I wonder how Diamond is doing right now.”

Diamond was busy making upgrades on Finn’s suit. “Alright, let’s hope the kid can use these responsibly,” he said.

He pressed one of the new buttons on the new control panel that he installed. He managed to make a forcefield that dissipated when he let go of the button. Another button fired off a laser that hit the wall, making a small hole. “Great, not another one.”

Suddenly, they heard some squishing sounds. They could see some green slime oozing from the wall. Trying not to panic, Diamond picked up the suit and placed it in the cart with the boots, gloves, and helmet. Patch jumped in and they made a run for it.

Reef meanwhile got to school, where Gully was just about to leave. “Reef, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m making sure that you’re okay,” Reef explained. “You’re job is...”

“Hunting Monjus?” Gully showed a Rightning that he had caught in a net. “As long as I don’t bite off more than I can chew, I should be good.”

“...Are you sure?”

“We have tons of gear to fight off tons of them. Still, the only one I understand is the crossbow.” Then the two could hear some squish and gurgling sounds. Not too far away, they could see some green slime crawling over to them. Many of the exterminators started freaking out as they fired energy shots at them.

“Gully, you to help get ponies as far from here as possible,” a stallion ordered.

“Uh, right,” the hippogriff replied. Gully and Reef flew and began warning ponies about the slime, which was effect too much by the exterminators’ energy shots. Instead, it looked like it was heading towards a large body of water, much to the ponies’ worry.

Finn was helping himself to whatever was in the fridge when there was a frantic knocking on the door. With a groan, he placed down his meal and answered the door to find a worried Diamond Light. "Wha...?"

"Listen, Finn, we have a bit of an emergency," Diamond spoke. "Put your suit on and I'll explain." Finn didn't question and started with the boots and gloves. "Now, your first test was a bit of rocky one, but you need to figure out how this works."

"Light, what's the rush?"

"Do you remember fighting a slime?"

"I remember running away from it, yeah."

"That slime is one of the most dangerous Monjus. When it absorbs matter, it gets bigger.”

“Like with those Mints?”

“Think bigger. If it gets to a large body of water like a lake, it could get to the size of a castle.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m not making this up. Hurry up and put the suit on!”

“Okay, you don’t have to shout at me.” Finn quickly started getting himself zipped up as he noticed the new gadgets on the suit’s wrist. “What are these?”

“Some new tools to help with your offense and defense. Though I should warn you, I haven’t had enough time before the Slorb showed up.”

“That’s the slime thing?”

“Yeah, that’s its name.”

Finn picked up his helmet and placed it on. “Are there any weaknesses I should know of?”

“Fire seems to be a fire one or any kind of source that has a high amount of heat.”

“And...”

“And I didn’t have enough time to hook up some heat-based weapons into your gauntlets. You’re going to have to get creative.”

Before another question could be asked, the hippogriff and stallion heard some screaming. “That’s probably your cue.”

“Right. Just make sure that Orca and Slab are okay.” Diamond nodded. He ran inside and the hippogriff jumped into action. The Slorb was much bigger than before, to counter this Finn made himself bigger to prevent himself from getting absorbed.

He grabbed onto the Slorb and found that having it slip through his talons, instead the Slorb started crawling up his arm. The hippogriff flew upwards to avoid himself getting absorb, but the Slorb wasn’t letting go that easily. He managed to get one of his talons free and he used his beak to activate one of the buttons on his new control panel.

A blade came out of the front of the panel. Thinking fast, Finn used this to cut the Slob off of his arm. The remains that still hung onto the hippogriff eventually let go and fell back to the ground.

“Okay,” Finn said making his blade retract. “What else did Diamond add?”

He pressed a button the control panel that was on his other wrist. This one fire a beam that struck the Slorb. It made a bit of damage, but the slimy Monju just healed itself. “Okay, that didn’t work. There’s gotta be something that can stop this thing.”

Finn looked around to see if there was anything that could help. He could see some smoke coming from a mountain. Though, mountains didn’t normally do that. That's when it hit Finn. "A volcano. Perfect." Now Finn just had to figure how to get the Slorb to the volcano.

There was a river in between the town and the volcano and in order not to make the Monju bigger, Finn would have to get the Slorb over the river. There was only one thing the hippogriff could think of to get the Slorb over the river. He pressed a button and he made himself bigger.

Now that he towered over the buildings, he scooped up the Slorb and tried carrying it over to the volcano. It didn't take long for Finn to feel tired. The Slorb was having a hard time getting up on the hippogriff's arm as the Monju felt much heavier. Running low on energy, Finn couldn't hold the Slorb up anymore and dropped it.

The hippogriff made himself shrink a little bit to a size that was still big but wasn't draining him in seconds. However, he found the Slorb didn't land too far away from the river and started taking a drink, which was making it bigger.

"Oh, crud," Finn cried.

He quickly started shooting beam to keep the Slorb away from the river, but it still grew quite a lot. Since growing size wasn't the best option, the hippogriff kept shooting beam to try and herd the slimy Monju towards the mountain. However, the incline to the volcano prevented the Monju from going where the hippogriff wanted it to go.

"Come on, Diamond. You've had to have installed something for problems like this."

Pressed another button on the panels and suddenly got a shield. This gave the big hippogriff an idea. He was able to make another shield with his other control panel, to his relief, and started using them to scoop the Slorb up the inclined to the top of the volcano.

It was hard work, but the Slorb didn't seem to move very fast thanks to its size. Little by little, he managed to get the Slorb to the top and made it slip over the edge. While it tried to stop itself, the Slorb soon seeped down into the lava. After seeing it fall, Finn decided to fly back to town and take a break.

By the time he got to his home, he made himself his original size right before he passed out. Some ponies saw him land and walked over to him. Diamond Light was the one to help take his helmet off so the ponies could take a look at the worn-out hippogriff.

A couple hours later, Finn woke up in his bedroom, feeling a little sore from his mission. He looked around a little confused on how he got there until his mother walked in.

“Oh, thank goodness, you’re awake,” Reef sighed walking up to her son.

“Mom, what happened?” Finn questioned.

“You passed out after you took care of the Slorb. How are you feeling?”

“Drained and sore.”

“Your blood sugar’s probably low. Let’s get you some food.” The mother helped her son to the kitchen where Gully and Orca were at.

“Finn,” the fledgling cheered. She flew up to hug her brother, who was still a little confused.

“How long was I out?”

“About half a day,” Reef explained.

“Seriously?!”

“Yeah, we were worried about you,” Gully spoke. “Plus, you’re famous around the town.” He pulled out a picture of Finn wearing his jumpsuit and helmet with the word ”Scope,” writing above him.

“Scope. Is that what they’re calling me?”

“Yeah,” Orca confirmed. “You’re like a superhero.”

“...I kind of like the sound of that.”

“Just eat up first before you think about going out,” Reef requested. He placed a plate of food in front of her son, who soon started eating.

After refilling his blood sugar, Finn flew to Diamond’s location. A couple of ponies saw him and gasped when he flew by. The hippogriff stopped outside the stallion’s door and knocked to alert that he was here. After a few seconds, Diamond answered while wearing a welder’s mask.

“Finn, you’re alright,” the stallion spoke. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better,” the young hippogriff replied. “Do you know what happened to the suit? I couldn’t find it.”

“Well, of course, I took it back. I was putting some finishing touches on it. Come take a look.” Diamond led Finn inside and showed him his suit. It looked almost the same, though it had a few features that were noticeable, like the gauntlets.

“So, what’s changed?”

“Well, both gauntlets are hooked up with the same gear. Blades, blasters, and shields. Not to mention, the suit is made to make you much stronger regardless of your size.”

“Sweet. And fatigue?”

“I was unable to find a solution to that. I think it might be something you should watch in the future.”

“Got it.” Wanting to see what his suit could do now, Finn helped himself and put it on. He and Diamond walked outside and the hippogriff soon shrank himself down so he could be picked up by the stallion. Then the hippogriff then decided to do a little test and grabbed Diamond by the tail and lifted him into the air. “Sweet.”

“Good for you. Now please put me down.” Finn listened and after putting Diamond down, he made himself bigger, which grabbed the attention of a couple of ponies.

“Look, there he is!” a mare cried. Ponies started crowing around the giant hippogriff who started liking the attention.

“Hello,” Finn said. “You may call me Scope. I’m hoping you’ll appreciate my stay.” Judging by the cheering ponies, Finn could take this as a yes.

“So, what do you think?” Kelpie asked, finishing his story.

“I like the variety of monsters,” Ocellus commented.

“How does making hippogriff bigger make him tired?” Yona asked.

“Maybe the bigger he is the more energy he needs,” Pate guessed.

“Precisely,” Kelpie remarked.

“His superpowers come from his suit,” Gale commented.

“But Pate’s hero didn’t have any superpowers,” Shimmy Shake reminded.

“Yeah, exactly,” Kelpie said.

“Stop. Let’s not get into a fight,” Sandbar requested. “Discord.”

“On it,” the draconequus said. He pulled his horn again and the chairs of the students who weren’t picked yet. This time, the light landed on Yona. “Ah, what does our school’s first yak have to offer?”

“...Uh,” Yona said. “Yona’s story might be similar to twins’ story.”

“How?” Emerald asked.

Yona didn’t know what to say as she just showed a picture of a young mare. She had beige fur, a brown braided mane, a sled decorated with flowers for a cutie mark, green eyes, but what was interesting about her was the yak horns on her head.

“I’m already liking the looks of her,” Discord commented.

“Yona asked for our help to make her story,” Smolder added. She and Ocellus showed some drawings of a dragon and a mare.

The dragon had red scales and a white belly with short matching horns, long orange spikes, yellow wings, and her left arm was covered in crystals.

The mare, on the other hand, wore a green dress that covered most of her body, though her tail was visible. It and her mane were both pink and tied into buns. Her fur and eyes were blue and the most interesting thing about her was her broken horn.

“Who are these characters?” Sulcus asked.

“The mare’s name is Gentle Quill, the dragon’s name is Sanna, and the mare with horns is named Snow Petal,” Ocellus explained.

“That’s the mare’s name?” Moss asked.

“Pony names are weird,” Smolder said, “No offense, Sandbar.”

“None taken,” the colt replied.

“So, you worked together on your story together?” Discord asked. “Tell us more.”

“Alright,” Ocellus replied. She took a look at the paper that had their written down and explained it to her friends.

“It goes like this……”

Mutant Academy

Mutation

Some ponies thought this was just a myth or tale of fantasy, but little did they know this would be a reality. One day, a pony had a mutation that gave him/her special powers. Slowly but surely more creatures started showing off their uniqueness around puberty. Many of these creatures, who were referenced as mutants, were hunted down and kept as prisoners to prevent them from going mad with their powers.

Naturally, this caused a lot of controversies. Some were saying that the mutants should be treated as normal creatures while some say they should be locked up before they caused any damage. Those who had shown mutations were scared to show to the world. Some are even rejecting their mutations, to the point of doing harm to themselves. This was simply chaos.

One day, a young mare was just getting out of the shower and dried herself off with a towel to look in the mirror. When she did, she could see she had two bumps on each side of her head. She thought they were just bug bites or maybe she just bumped her head, but they looked like they were growing, albeit very slowly.

The young mare almost panicked as she restyled her mane to cover up whatever these bumps were. Once she did that, she walked into the living room where her parents were sitting.

“Snow Petal, is there something wrong?” her father asked.

“Nope,” the young mare fibbed, “Nothing’s wrong.”

“You sure?” the mother asked. “You look a little nervous.”

“I’m fine. I was just showing how I look after the shower.”

“Well, you do look and smell nice,” the mother said. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Um... Just a meal.”

“Do you...?”

“I can find something myself.”

Snow Petal ran into the kitchen and looked for something to eat while repeating something under her breath. “I’m not a mutant,” she kept repeating to herself.

Feeling a little nervous, she tried to find a reflective surface. While the bumps were still small, they were starting to take shape into what looked like horns. Her mane was still able to cover them up and she put some food into a bag before sneaking to her room without her parents noticing.

“You don’t think that she...”

“Honey,” the stallion said. “She would tell us if she was becoming one.”

“Would she? You’ve heard about those stories. Those mutants are just teenagers.”

“Hmm. Maybe you’re right. We should talk to her.”

The two got up and walked to their daughter’s bedroom, where the door was locked. “What the? Snow, open this door!”

The father kept twisting the doorknob until he resorted to kicking the door down. When he did that, they found the window was wide open. Both parents feared the worst.

Snow Petal ran as fast as she could while pulling her suitcase with her while chanting what she said in the kitchen. “I’m not a mutant,” she kept muttering.

Each time she said this it sounded less and less confident. Eventually, she came across some stallions who were loading a cart of crates.

“Hey, kid, where are you going?” one of the stallions asked.

“I... Uh... I’m just...” Snow kept stumbling over her own words.

“Hold on, what’s on your head?” the second stallion asked. Snow’s horns were starting to become visible. “She’s a mutant!”

He was about to attack the young mare before he was blocked by the first stallion. Snow quickly ran away. “Whoa, man. She’s just a kid.”

“She’s a mutant. Who knows what she’ll be able to do.”

Snow Petal kept running until she couldn’t see the stallions anymore. She ran into a forest where she was starting to get lost. She stopped when she got to a river where she got to look at her reflection. Snow touched her new horns. They were real. She finally broke out into tears.

“I’m a mutant,” she wept.

“Why are you crying?” asked a voice. Snow managed to wipe some of the tears from her eyes before looking around but could see a sparrow standing next to her. “Are you okay?”

The mare was a little speechless. “Did you just talk?” she questioned.

“Did I? How are you understanding me?”

Snow thought for a moment before she remembered her horns. “Of course. It must be my new ability.”

“What are you talking about?” the sparrow asked.

“I’m a mutant. They have powers that normal ponies don’t. Though, I’m a freak.”

The sparrow tilted its head. “You look like a normal pony to me. Aside from the horns.”

“That's just my point. Now I can’t go back home.”

“Why not?”

“Because if I do, ponies will hunt me because I’m different. That’s the simple explanation.”

“Where will you go now?”

“I don't know.” Snow Petal grabbed her suitcase and walked beside the river. She didn’t know where she would go, but she didn’t want to be caught by those stallions. The sparrow followed alongside her as she started her journey.

She had been walking for hours. She broke off from the river a while ago. The sparrow saw she was getting tired and flew away. Snow nearly collapsed on the ground as she was out of breath. The young mare noticed a dirt road. She forced herself to stand up as she could see a town not too far away.

Although she was clearly tired, Snow Petal slowly walked towards the town. She grabbed a piece of clothing to cover up her horn as she walked down the street. Snow looked around, hoping no one would see her horns.

She carried on until she made it to a diner which wasn’t too busy. Snow had packed some bits with her as she took out her pouch to pay for another meal. As she waited, she saw a hooded figure walk in.

“You’re a little far from home,” the figure commented to Snow.

“...How did you know?” Snow asked.

“I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“And... Who are you?” The figure was about to answer as some ponies walked in.

“Hey, we told you not to come here,” a stallion said.

“You don’t own this diner. Who says you can make the rules?” the figure spoke.

The stallion and his gangs were holding blunt objects, like a bat and a lead pipe. The figure looked at the diner’s granite tiling. It placed its claw on the tiles and its claw started gaining the same texture as the tiles.

The gang charged at the figure, who threw off its hood to reveal it was a dragon. It blocked the ponies’ weapons, barely flinching as it made its claw into the shape of a mallet. The dragon smacked the ponies back and threw a couple of them outside.

“This is a nice diner. I enjoy their eggs.”

She threw a couple more punches and even grabbed the pipe, absorbing some of the material onto her arm before decking the pony that tried to smack her in the face. Soon, they started fleeing out of the diner. The dragon’s body lost the materials she absorbed and sat back down beside Snow.

The waitress was quite shocked at what the dragon did. “Sorry about the damages,” the dragon spoke. “I’ll pay extra for it. Just give me my usual.” The waitress nodded before walking off.

Snow Petal was shocked. “That was amazing,” she gasped.

“When there are ponies like this in town, you learn to deal with it.” Their orders soon arrived but Snow was still amazed at what the dragon did.

“How long have you had these powers?”

“About ten to fifteen years.”

“I thought dragons were...”

“Bigger?” she interrupted. ”You have to wait hundreds of years if you want to see the big ones grow up.”

“Oh. Well, you must’ve had some help learn how to use them.”

“I did most of it on my own.”

“Well, there has to be a place where I can go.” She removed the clothing on her head to show her horns.

“...You’re a new one, aren’t you?” The young mare nodded. “Okay kid, I think I know a place where you can stay for a while.”

The dragon led Snow Petal to school that was within a gate.

“Here it is, kid,” the dragon said. She opened the gate to let herself and Snow in before closing it behind them.

“Who works here?”

“A couple of friends of mine. You’ll meet a lot of kids like you.”

They walked towards the school and headed inside. Not a lot of creatures were around, with the exception of one mare wearing a black jacket. Her fur was cyan and her mane was white and combed.

“Where do you think you’ve been Sanna?” she asked.

“Listen, I just found this kid wandering into a diner that was just about to have a fight,” the dragon stated. She was about to walk away until the floor she was standing on crawled around her ankles, keeping her in place. “Hey!”

“You know what she said about starting fights.”

“It was self-defense.”

“Um, should I say something?” Snow asked.

“Stay out of this kid,” the dragon known as Sanna spoke.

“Just tell me you didn’t kidnap that kid,” the mare ordered.

“You know I wouldn’t do that. I’m not like...” Sanna paused before looking back at Snow real quick. “You know who.”

“Right. I’ll take the kid from here.” The floor let go of Sanna’s feet and she walked off as the mare led Snow Petal down the other way.

“So, what’s your name?” the young mare asked.

“Atom,” the older mare explained. “I can see that you’re just gaining your abilities.”

“Yeah. So far I can only talk to animals.”

“Interesting. I can manipulate matter to make it any shape I want. Though, I have to touch what I want to change.”

“So you have to get in close?”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a drawback.”

The two walked into a room, where an old mare was just about to leave. The mare had a pink and tail both tied in buns. Her fur was blue as well as her eyes. Her cutie mark looked like a heart with a spiral on it, but Snow was distracted by the mare’s broken horn.

“Atom, who do we have here?” the mare asked.

“Sorry to bother you so late Quill,” Atom apologized, “But Sanna brought a visitor here.” She showed Snow Petal, who was a little shy.

“Hello there. What’s your name?”

“...Snow Petal,” the young mare explained.

“You may call me Gentle Quill. I am the principal of this school.”

“Who goes to this school.”

“Let’s say, they’re gifted creatures.”

“Shall I leave you with her?” Atom asked. The principal nodded and the stallion walked away.

“Petal, can you tell me where you live?” Quill asked.

“Well, I can,” the young mare replied, “But I don’t think I’ll be able to go back.”

“...I know how you’re feeling. Many creatures like you are scared about facing others that aren’t so keen on. We’ll try and contact your parents and sort things out. Until then, you can stay at this school.”

“Okay.” Quill led Snow down the hall to one of the dorm rooms. The young mare sat down on the bed and placed her suitcase to the side.

“Just get some rest and we’ll figure things out.” Snow nodded as Gentle Quill left the room, closing the door behind her.

The young mare made herself comfy as she figured she would be here for a while.

When the sun rose the next day, Snow was awoken by the sound of a bell. There was a knock on her door before Atom walked in.

“Time to get up, Snow,” she said.

The young mare groaned as she followed the older mare down the hall. She was led to the cafeteria just as breakfast was being served. A couple of the students that were there had some notable features that were a little hard to not focus on. Snow didn’t know where to sit as she then noticed Atom walking towards another room.

She decided to follow her and found a couple of adults sitting at a table, one of them was Sanna the dragon. “What are you doing here?” Sanna asked.

“I... Ugh...” Snow stuttered.

“Hold on, I’ll take care of this,” Atom said.

She led Snow back to the cafeteria and sat her down at one of the empty tables. “I know how you feel. Just stay calm and we’ll figure this out.”

She walked back to the teacher’s lounge as a young colt walked over to the table Snow was sitting at and sat with her.

“Nice horns,” he commented. The young mare whimpered at this. “Oh, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Snow Petal didn’t say anything and instead looked at the colt. He had light red fur with a dark orange mane that was a little shaggy. What caught her attention was the cutie mark containing bugs and the colt having double the amount of legs. He noticed this and quickly sucked his extra appendages back into him.

“Sorry about that. I kind of forget about them sometimes.”

“...What’s your power?”

“I’ve basically got the powers of a spider. I can walk on walls, shoot webs, …… let me show you.” He walked over the wall and crawled up before shooting webbing from his hooves at the corner. Then he walked back to his seat. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah. Way cooler than just talking to animals.”

“That’s pretty neat. If you have a pet, you can actually hold a conversation with it. Anyways, I’m Mitey.”

“Snow Petal.”

“That’s a nice name.” The two both smiled as they started their breakfast.

Back in the teacher’s lounge, Atom walked back in. “Was that the new kid?” a green stallion asked.

“Yeah,” Atom replied. “Kind of sorry for her.”

“It’s upsetting.”

“I say she needs to learn,” Sanna said.

“Like you need to learn to lighten up?” Atom asked.

“Here we go,” the stallion muttered.

“Look, sometimes you have to learn things the hard way,” Sanna stated.

“The whole point of this school is to help them understand their powers,” Atom pointed out.

“You think we should stop them?” a white stallion asked.

“I’ve tried,” the green stallion remarked. “You could drop a nuke in between them and they still wouldn’t stop.”

“You know Sanna,” Atom stated, “You could just leave if you want.”

“Oh, yeah, just blend in with the rest of the dragons that aren’t in town,” Sanna scoffed.

Suddenly, the two noticed snakes slithering all around their bodies. They both freak out until they both saw Gentle Quill standing by the door.

“Atom is right,” she spoke. “We’re all here to help students get used to their abilities. They are a part of them.”

“Thank you,” the green stallion said.

After breakfast, Mitey could see that Snow Petal didn’t know where to go. “You know, the principal told me you would be sharing classes with me,” he said.

“I am?” she questioned. He nodded. “Well, lead the way.” Mitey did so and showed Snow Petal the ropes of the school.

It honestly wasn’t that different from most schools. Subjects like Chemistry, Mathematics, Ponish, and other things most schools have. When it came to P.E. things got interesting.

“Alright kids,” Sanna said, “Get ready to do your best.”

Snow could see Mitey was extending his extra appendages. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“This is where we get to try and use our powers,” Mitey explained. “We’re not supposed to hold back.”

“But... I can only talk to animals. What’s the goal?”

“Try and get to the end of the course,” Sanna explained. She pointed to a course with several obstacles, like hurdles, a small body of water with some small stepping stones.

“Uh...”

Sanna coated her claws in brass, thanks to some spare metal she had lying around. “Go!” she cried before slamming her claws together to make a low clang.

The students all started running, Snow Petal almost fell behind. She and the others made it through the obstacle course but she soon started noticing something. Parts of the course were made with the students’ powers in mind. For example, there was a wall built up that some students, like Mitey, climbed up with ease thanks to their abilities. However, students like Snow had to use the grips on the wall.

“Oh, come on,” Snow groaned. “Can’t I get some help here?” Some animals weren’t too far away and they heard Snow cry, despite how quiet it was. A flock of birds came to her aid and started carrying her across the course. “Whoa! Easy!”

“I thought you wanted help,” a crow said.

“Why are we even helping her?” a robin questioned.

“Look just... Put me down safely, please?” Snow ordered.
The birds did as she said and the young mare was carefully placed on the ground before flying away. “Okay.”

“Kid, you alright?” Sanna asked while walking over to her.

“Think so.”

“...Try that trick again. This time, just think about calling an animal towards you.”

“Um, okay.” Snow brought her hooves to her head and focused. While most creatures couldn’t hear it, there was whooping noise that only a couple of animals could hear. A bunch of squirrels started surrounding the young mare, who opened her eyes before they scattered.

“Uh, coach,” Mitey called, “What’s going on?”

“Just testing something,” the dragon replied.

It wasn’t just the creatures at the school who were taking note of the animals responding to Snow’s commands. A pegasus mare with red fur and a black curly mane looked at the school from a distance. A duplicate of her separated from her body before they walked off in opposite directions.

“I think your powers are more powerful than you think,” Sanna stated.

“You think it could affect ponies?” Snow asked.

“It might be possible. Though, I probably wouldn’t get carried away with it.” She took a moment to fly over the field to take a look at how the other students were doing. Then he noticed the mare make another duplicate of herself.

“Kids, get inside.”

“Wh...Why?” Snow questioned.

“Just go!” Sanna forced the young mare as well as the other students to get back into the school as a large group of identical mares. Sanna absorbed some of the spare brass she found and coated her arms to start smacking the mares.

“What’s going on?” Snow questioned.

“The school’s being invaded,” Mitey commented. “Just hide inside and let the teachers do the work.” They all made it inside as Atom and the rest of the teachers started racing to assist Sanna.

“What’s with Multiple Mare?” Atom questioned.

“Who cares,” Sanna groaned, “Just make sure the students are safe.”

“I’m on it,” the green stallion called. The stallion, known as Thick Fern, started making the grass on the field grow so long that they could wrap around Multiple Mare.

“Oh, come on,” Multiple Mare groaned, “Can’t you just let me meet the new kid?”

“How do you know?” Atom questioned.

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t notice all the animals running towards your school?”

“You’ve got five seconds to explain what you’re planning,” Sanna spoke.

As Multiple Mare monologued, something invisible slipped into the school and walked around looking for the new student. Snow Petal was sitting in her dorm trying to calm down until she saw the door open. “...Who’s there?” Snow asked, a little worried.

Suddenly, she found that she was floating on mid-air, making her scream. Hearing her, Atom and Sanna raced to the rescue. They found that Snow Petal was being carried out the window by some invisible source.

“Thin Air,” Atom guessed.

“Where’s Snow Petal?” Gentle Quill asked running up.

“She just got kidnapped,” Sanna stated. She quickly ran to the window that Snow was taken out of and the dragoness quickly gave chase.

“What’s happening?” Snow cried.

“Hang on, kid!” Sanna shouted. She managed to gain on whatever was carrying Snow until something forced the dragon to the ground. There was a dark green mare with a dark blue mane that was an earth pony standing next to a pink unicorn that was carrying Snow.

“Thank you for the new kid,” the dark mare said. “We don’t need your assistance anymore.”

Sanna was soon thrown across the field all the way back to the school, smacking into one of the walls. Quill and Atom were shocked by this and were now worried about what was going to happen to Snow Petal.

After taking a minute to recover, the teachers locked Multiple Mare up so they could keep her in one place to ask her questions. “Alright,” Atom said, “What are you doing with Snow Petal?”

“We’re just seeing if you’ve already damaged any new recruit,” Multiple Mare remarked.

“You literally try to injure other creatures.”

“Only the ones that aren’t mutants. You know what they do to us?”

“We’re well aware of the terrible things that happen to mutants,” Gentle Quill spoke. “Things that we aren't comfortable with saying.”

“Exactly. Which is why I’m getting out of here.” Multiple Mare tried to leave by using another duplicate, but Sanna, who was coated with stone, smashed the clone into dust.

“Wanna try that again?” the dragoness asked. Multiple Mare decided that she would stay put.

“Easy, we need her to talk,” Atom said.

“That kid could be corrupted into committing crimes right now.”

“There’s no way they could work that fast.”

“I’m not risking another mutant giving us a bad name.”

“Quiet,” Quill ordered. “Mare, if we don’t get answers, there will be trouble.”

“Oh wait, you’ll just turn me in to the cops?” the cloning mutant asked sarcastically. Suddenly, she saw spiders crawling all over her, screaming in terror. In reality, it was just a mind trick that Quill was pulling off. Then, Mulitple Mare couldn’t see the spiders anymore. “I will tell you everything if you promise never to do that again.”

Meanwhile, Snow Petal found herself in an old building where the two mares carried her. “Where are we?” the young mare questioned.

“Somewhere safe,” the dark mare answered. “You may call me, Psyche.”

“...What are you going to do to me?”

“Nothing. We were just wanting to make sure you were safe.”

“By kidnapping me?”

“It wasn’t the idle plan.”

“There were attacking because somepony rushed in grabbing the school’s attention,” the pink mare, known as Thin Air, stated.

Inside the building, Snow Petal could see there were several other creatures with mutant abilities. It was like the school she was just at, though these mutants looked a little more violent. “Now, even though Air didn’t have the best way of getting you here, we understand your situation,” Psyche said. “Most of these mutants don’t have the best relationship with other creatures.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I was merely a filly when I discovered my advanced psychic powers. It wouldn’t be so strange if I was a unicorn, but as you can see, I’m an earth pony, like you. The regular creatures treat us like we’re something out of Tartarus. I’ve seen tons of innocent lives being tortured. Do you think we deserve this?”

“Well... No.”

“Exactly. Quill’s school isn’t enough. Creatures are still afraid of us and cause more damage than we cause.”

“So, how do you make them stop?”

“Simple. If they want us to play the villain, we’ll be the villains. We’ll be starting with the very corporation that’s against mutants.” She showed Snow Petal a picture of a building and a stallion. “This stallion has made a prison that holds mutants. Innocents that are held just for having something they can’t control.”

“That... Seems so wrong.”

“You think?” Thin Air questioned.

“But... It seems a little dangerous. Don’t they have some sort of weapons that could stop us.”

“They won’t be able to stop an entire army of mutants they’ve never seen,” Psyche spoke. “They say they’re planning on finding all mutants and wiping them out. So, do you think you want out?” Snow thought for a moment and took a deep breath.

Some birds then felt like something was giving them some commands. They flew away, leaving the mutants unaware of them.

Back with Multiple Mare, she was being held back with some chains as Sanna, Atom, Quill, and Thick Fern listened to her directions and headed where Psyche and the mutants were at. “Just remember,” Sanna spoke, “If you’re lying...”

“You do more damage to me than I can make copies of myself,” Multiple Mare finished. “Yeah, yeah.”

“We have to be getting close,” Atom commented. Suddenly, a small flock of birds flew up to the mutants. “Seriously, go away.” One of the birds grabbed onto Atom’s tail and tried to pull her in a certain direction. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s trying to tell you something,” Sanna commented. “You know where Snow is?” The bird landed on Sanna’s arm and nodded. The dragoness glared at Multiple Mare, who wasn’t feeling very confident. “You know what I said.”

“Later,” Thick Fern said. “We need to find Snow before she gets into trouble.”

“Lead the way birds.” The small flock took off and the mutants followed them.

Snow Petal was following Psyche with the rest of the mutants that were apart of her rebellion. “How much further?” the young mare with horns asked.

“Oh, would you shut up?” one of the mutants questioned. Snow stayed quiet.

“There it is,” Psyche said. Her group stopped just outside of a business titled ”Dente Industries.” Some security guards were standing outside and were about to attack until Psyche used her powers to make them float and smack into each other. This ended up knocking them out.

“Now?” Thin Air asked.

“Go nuts.” Psyche smiled as her army charged towards the building. More guards were called to help defend, but mutants had been shown to be more than they could handle. Snow was pushed into the building where a fight was breaking out. She was starting to feel like she should’ve said no to Psyche’s offer.

“Hey, you!” cried one of the guards that was still standing. Snow Petal flinched as she saw the guard. “Get over here!” He grabbed the young mare’s arm but Snow pulled back. She ended up launching the guard into the air. Fearing what he just did, Snow ran off.

She was surprised at how fast she was moving. However, she soon found she had herself walled into a corner. She could see two guards walking towards her until they were lifted into the air and they were literally tossed to the side. “Are you hurt?” the mutant mare asked.

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Snow wept. Psyche frowned at this.

“You heard the kid!” cried the voice. The two mutants looked to see Sanna and her team standing at the building’s entrance.

“Oh, for crying out loud.”

“Psyche, let’s not get too hasty,” Gentle Grace spoke. “You know what happened last time.”

“Of course I do,” Psyche said. She got the attention of her army, who started attacking. Atom and Thich Fern held back a little due to most of the mutants they were fighting being minors. Sanna meanwhile tried going after Psyche, who just tossed her to the side. Figuring that was going to be a waste of time, Sanna absorbed some of the stone onto her body and helped Fern and Atom with the mutants.

Snow Petal was freaking out as Quill and Psyche talked with each other. “Is this really how you expect things to change?” the school principal questioned.

“Your school is only taking care of things in one place. There are mutants all over the world being tortured. What makes you think that the rest of the world will listen to you.”

“I just wanna go home,” Snow muttered. Her horns soon started making her call out for some help. There was a loud smash as a rhino burst through the wall along with a bear and even a manticore.

“Where did those come from?” Psyche questioned.

“I see you’ve found this kid’s ability,” Sanna chuckled before punching a colt into the air. Snow quickly got onto the rhino’s back and told it to get her out of here. The bear and manticore fought off some of the mutants, but Psyche wasn’t done with Snow. As the young mare was just about home free, she was pulled right back towards the leader.

“Don’t you harm her,” Quill growled.

“Silent,” Psyche ordered.

“What makes you think you’re different from all of the creatures who want mutants extinct?” Psyche was about to respond until Snow displayed something new.

“Let me go!” she cried. As she screamed, Psyche felt a wave of pain hit her head. She collapsed the ground as it was unbearable. Quill saw that the fight was getting ugly, so she helped Snow up and their team made a run for it. Special forced then showed up and their weaponry started capturing some of the mutants, leaving Psyche’s team no choice but to retreat.

A couple of mutants were captured, but they didn’t put up much of a fight due to the school’s mutants stepping in. Needless to say, Psyche was furious at what happened.

Snow Petal’s parents were still worried sick about their daughter. “We haven’t seen her in two days,” the father remarked.

“She has to be okay,” the mother said worriedly. “Where is she?” Both heard the doorbell ring and they went to answer it. Standing outside was Gentle Quill alongside Snow Petal. Both parents cried tears of joy when they saw their daughter. They were going to ask her questions until they saw her horns.

“Will you allow me to come in?” Quill asked. Snow’s parents said yes and they sat down in the living room. “We’re sorry it took so long to get into contact with you. We had a few distractions when we found your daughter.”

“We understand that,” the mother replied, “But... Snow why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I was afraid of what was going to happen,” Snow sighed. “You’ve seen what they do to mutants.”

“We know that,” the father said, “But we’d never do that to you.” Snow Petal didn’t know what to say here.

“I understand the fear you’re all having right now,” Quill said. “Snow powers are a little dangerous but we can help her. I have a school that was built to help creatures like her.”

“Like a school?” the father asked.

“Exactly. We can help her, but she’ll have to live on school grounds.” The daughter and parents looked at each other as they thought.

“Snow, you do want to be safe, right?” the mother asked.

“I do,” the young mare replied. “...I think it might be best if I do go to school. If I go there, I could learn to control my powers and won’t risk hurting anypony.”

“That does sound like a good idea,” the father commented. “She will be safe will she?”

“We might have a few problems,” Quill said, “But I can assure you, Snow will be safe at our school. The teachers will be sure of that.”

With that bit of information given, Snow's parents helped her pack up for her new school. “You’ll be sure to write to us,” the mother said.

“I will,” Snow confirmed.

“Not to mention pay attention in classes,” the father added.

“I will.” After a few more minutes, Snow Petal was all packed up for her new school.

“We’ll let you know about the school’s special events,” Quill replied.

“Thank you,” the mother replied. She, the father, and Snow shared a hug.

“Stay safe,” the father said.

“I’ll try,” Snow replied. She wiped a tear from her eye as she soon left with Gentle Quill.

“Don’t feel so upset,” Quill said. “You’ll see each other again.” Snow felt better now. She was in good hooves.

“So, what friends think?” Yona asked.

“It’s pretty interesting,” Sandbar commented.

“It was a little distracting with so many different creatures with powers,” Sulcus commented.

“Yeah, I have to agree,” Silverstream admitted. “But still, it was a nice story.”

“It was pretty fun writing it,” Ocellus remarked.

“Were Quill and Psyche old friends?” Pate asked.

“In a way.”

“I’m sensing something awkward,” Pearl commented. She pulled on Discord’s horn which made the chairs light up again. This time, it landed on Gale.

“Oh, finally,” the griffon sighed.

He quickly showed a picture of a griffon wearing a jumpsuit that was dark blue and had lightning bolts around the shoulders. “This is Thunder. He has the power to control the weather. Hail, lightning, tornadoes, any kind of weather.”

“The only problem is that he’s physically weaker than the average griffon,” Moss commented.

“Hey!”

“Discord said that you couldn’t make your character overpowered. You’ve gotta have some weaknesses.”

“Thank you Moss,” Discord said. “You’ve got anything to add?”

“Well, yes.” Moss showed a green colt with some yellow metal covering ninety percent of his body. “This is Gadget. He was in a terrible accident but was able to get himself hooked up some with parts to help make him stronger than before. However, the crystal that’s powering him can only go last forty-eight hours before needing a recharge.”

“Well, what can he do?” Sulcus asked.

“He can fly, shoot lasers, has an eye that sees creatures’ heat, and he can also launch several different bombs. He is basically a walking arsenal.”

“That’s very neat,” Discord said. “Any other weaknesses?”

“Well, on land he’s a little bit slow. Leaving him wide open when he’s being attacked.”

“Very nice. Next.” Discord pulled his horn again and this time the light landed on Gallus. “Let’s see what our first griffon has to say.”

“Alright then,” Gallus spoke out, “this was actually a little hard for me to choose, but I think I got the idea of what I wanted my hero to be.” Gallus then showed a drawing of a griffon that had gray feathers and brown fur and a black beak and talons. He also wore a silver jumpsuit along with some gauntlets and some goggles while he gave thumbs up. “This is Silver Watch, the best hero that you’ve never heard of.”

“This feels very close to Gary Stu,” Discord commented.

“Just trust me on this.” And so Gallus explained his hero’s story.

Silver Watch

Maretropolis

This is a city that isn’t for the faint of heart. Many villains cause havoc around here, like a maniac run wild. Thankfully for the city’s civilians, there’s a certain team keeping them safe; the Power Ponies. Seven ponies with extraordinary powers helped keep the ponies safe from the villains’ plans time and time again.

One day, the team was just resting at their lookout waiting for something destructive to happen. Humdrum was starting to get bored.

“I'm glad that nopony needs our help,” he admitted, “But I wish we had something to do.”

“You could help me with my garden,” Radiance spoke.

“When you asked me to help you with that, those tomatoes took weeks to grow,” Fili-Second noted.

“They do. You just move so fast that time seems to move slower than it really is.”

"She's right," Humdrum commented. Filly just rolled her eyes and ran off, nearly running into Zapp.

"Did I miss something important?" the storm pegasus asked.

"Just Fil being impatient," Radiance answered.

"So, same old business." The two mares chuckled as they walked to the base's garden, where Radiance used her powers to tend to her flowers and vegetables. Zapp decided to help out by making a small storm to help water them. “You know, I didn’t think that this base was originally a good idea.”

“I thought you’d warm up to this.” Suddenly, Radiance saw a ladybug trying to get some shelter from the rain. Knowing how one of her teammates getting with animals getting hurt, including bugs, she made a small umbrella and helped the ladybug out of the rain.

“Good call.” The two remembered how Saddle Rager got when she saw animals get injured.

Suddenly, an alarm went off. Radiance and Zapp raced off to find their team preparing to set off. “What’s going on?” Zapp asked.

“The Maretropolis bridge is collapsing,” Masked Matter-Horn explained. “We need to get there now.”

“On it,” Fili-Second spoke. She raced off to the rescue as her teammates followed behind.

The high-speed hero could see several ponies on the bridge hanging on for life. Fili-Second started running over to the ponies, picking them up, and bringing them to solid ground. The rest of the Power Ponies showed up and started helping out.

Mistress Mare-velous used her lasso to provide the ponies something to grab onto to help pull them to safety. Masked Matter-Horn shot some cracked ice to help keep the bridge together while Radiance created a net to help catch any unlucky ponies that were to fall. Humdrum helped out where he could.

All of a sudden, a mare lost her footing and fell off the bridge towards the water below. Before the team could react, they could hear a ticking clock. In the literal blink of an eye, the falling mare was suddenly on the end of the bridge where it was safe. Then, one of the suspension cables snapped and was about to hit Zapp until... It just stopped. The cable had a silver aura around it as it looked to be frozen.

“Everybody,” called a voice.

Everyone looked over to see griffon in a silver jumpsuit. “For those who man to be safe, group up with me.”

The ponies listened to the griffon, he then pressed a button on his gauntlet to create a forcefield around them all.

The bridge’s aura vanished and continued to collapse. The griffon got all of the ponies off the bridge with the help of his forcefield. The Power Ponies got off the bridge as well as the griffon released everyone once they were on solid ground.

“Thank you,” one of the mares said.

“Excuse us,” Mistress Mare-velous said, “Can you tell us who you are?”

“Of course,” the griffon replied. “I am Silver Watch; the best hero you have never heard of. Until now.” The ponies that were saved from the bridge cheered for the griffon. The bridge, on the other hand, was utterly destroyed.

“This will take ages to fix,” Saddle Rager sighed.

“I could fix this in an afternoon,” Fili-Second boasted.

“Say, do you think...” Masked Matter-Horn paused when they could that Silver Watch was gone. “Oh.”

The Power Ponies, sans Fili-Second, had returned their base. They were talking about Silver Watch.

“He just...…showed up out of nowhere,” Zapp said. “Literally.”

“So long as he isn’t on the Mane-iac’s side, I’m all for him helping out,” Mistress Mare-velous admitted.

“That still doesn’t answer where he came from,” Masked Matter-Horn commented. “I’m curious about his powers.”

“You mean how he just made the bridge just stop?” Saddle Rager asked.

“Yeah. It’s like he just stopped time.”

“If that’s the case, he’s going to give Fili a run for her money.”

Speaking of Fili-Second, she was making quick work on fixing the bridge. What would take a group of workers several years, the superheroine was doing in a matter of minutes. She was about to get started on the support cables when she heard some slurping.

Looking behind her, she found Silver Watch drinking a soda. “What’s up?” he asked.

“Oh, hey,” Fili-Second said. “Come to help out with the bridge?”

“I just wanted to see what was left of it. Any ponies around?”

“Not really. Looking for another emergency that I can fix.”

“You know, you should be happy that nopony is in danger.”

“Yeah, but there’s nothing for me to do.”

“You could help out with this bridge.”

“You sure about that? You seem to be doing fine on your own.”

“Look there he is,” a mare cried. She pointed to the new superhero to show her friends.

“Hello. What can I do for you?”

“We were wondering what you're doing,” the mare said.

“Are you helping Fili-Second?” the mare’s friend asked.

“...Why, yes I am,” Silver Watch confirmed.

“But you just said...” Fili-Second was interrupted by the newcomer.

“I think I might make myself known. So, why not try and get on one of the other hero’s good sides,” he said.

“You’re not off to a good start,” Fili-Second muttered.

“Well, I think this will be dangerous,” the mare commented. They started walking away, but to Silver Watch wanting them to stay.

“Hey, don’t you want an autograph?” the griffon called. But the mares had already walked away. “Great.”

“You can still help me fix the bridge,” Fili-Second stated. The griffon groaned before he flew away. “...Fine. Be that way. You’d probably slow me down anyway.”

Fili soon went back to work.

The next day, Fili second was patrolling the city with Radiance, complaining about Silver Watch. “And he just left me there,” the fast mare said.

“Well, you managed to get the part of it done in record time,” Radiance noted.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. I’m made for speed, not strength.”

“Which is probably why you should’ve asked for help.”

“I know that. Look, I’ve learned my mistake, can we just...”

There was the sound of an alarm. The two mares rushed to the scene and found the bank being robbed. The ones robbing the bank were all mummies, except for one stallion.

“Pharaoh Phetlock!” the two cried.

“Oh, Power Ponies,” the pharaoh said. “It’s so good to see you. I’m sure that you won’t mind if some of my mummies will take care of you.” Phetlock’s mummies raced towards the two mares who quickly started defending themselves.

“Excuse me,” said a voice. Phetlock looked over to see Silver Watch looking at him. “Okay, you cosplay reject, you want some of me.”

“The name is Pharaoh Phetlock.” The stallion tried to hit the griffon, but he pressed a button on his gauntlet, and Phetlock just froze with a silver aura around her.

“Okay, if that’s how you wanna play, I’ll give you some of this.” Silver Watch landed several punches and kicks which Phetlock didn’t react to due to being frozen. When the griffon was done, he was panting before looking up. “Alright... Let’s see... How you... Like this!”

Pressing the button on his gauntlet, Phetlock suddenly reacted to all of the griffon’s blows all at once, making him crash to the ground. “Ugh... What?” he questioned. Just then, Phetlock found he was suddenly tied up by Silver Watch.

“Sorry man, but your time is up. Hmm, good one me.”

A couple of ponies were amazed that he managed to take down one of the city’s most infamous villains. The mummies were about to attack but in the blink of an eye, they were all tied up. The ponies cheered for Silver Watch, who was soaking up all the attention.

“He seems to be overpowered,” Radiance commented.

“Oh, thank you,” the griffon said to the cheering ponies.

Filly Second walked up to Phetlock, who was still confused about what just happened. “I’m already hating your new friend,” the Pharaoh spoke.

“He’s not really our friend,” Fili-Second muttered.

“Excuse me,” a colt said, “Is that a new team member?”

“Well...”

“I thought I would never hear that question,” Silver Watch said.

“Can we have a picture?” a stallion asked. The griffon agreed and wrapped his arm around the two Power Ponies so they could all be in the picture. Fili-Second and Radiance barely had time to react before the camera flashed.

Not wanting to upset the public, Fili-Second and Radiance brought Silver Watch to their base.

“So, here it is,” Radiance said.

“Man, this is way better than I thought it would be,” Silver Watch commented. He looked around the base as Zapp and Masked Matter-Horn were shocked to see him.

“What is he doing here?” Zapp questioned.

“He defeated the Mane-iac without breaking a sweat,” Fili-Second said.

“Seriously?”

“Oh, it really happened,” Radiance noted.

“Well, it seems like he’s on our side,” Masked Matter-Horn commented.

“Here it is,” cried a voice. The mares headed towards the kitchen, where Silver Watch was helping himself to some snacks. Humdrum was also there having a sandwich.

“Is he on our team now?” the little hero asked.

“For the time being,” Radiance said. “I might be sound biased, but I’m thinking that Watch here is only being a hero to be in the spotlight.”

“That’s why he was only interested in helping with the bridge when there were ponies around,” Fili-Second remarked.

“Hey, I helped save tons of ponies,” Silver Watch stated. “You’re welcome by the way.”

“We appreciate this,” Zapp said, “But we would like you to care more than just your image.” The griffon just rolled his eyes as he gathered some snacks to make a sandwich.

“I’m going to tell Mare-velous about this,” Fili-Second spoke. She quickly darted off as the rest of the mares were left with Humdrum and their new recruit.

“So, how did you get your suit?” Humdrum asked. “Or your powers?”

“Oh... That,” Silver Watch said. “I’ve built these myself.”

“Oh, did you?” Zapp asked.

“Yeah. It was hard. Frustrating beyond belief.”

“How did you not mess yourself up?” Radiance asked.

“Luck was on my side. That’s all I can say.” He finished making his sandwich and took it into another room. The mares were feeling a little suspicious.

Silver Watch flew down the hall looking for a place to have his sandwich when he saw Mistress Mare-velous walking over to him.

“Silver, I’ve been looking for you,” she said.

“You have?” the griffon asked.

“Yeah. I’ve just wanted to say I hope you enjoy your stay on the team. Just make sure to stay on Saddle’s good side. Trust me, things get ugly when she gets mad.”

“Thanks for the warning. Are there things that’ll tick her off?”

“Well, seeing animals getting hurt for no reason is the main one. Even a firefly getting hurt will set her off.”

“Seriously?”

“Trust me. I figured that one the hard way.”

“Ooh, that’s harsh. Okay, do you know a good place to eat other than the kitchen?”

“We often bring some food into the lookout room when we’re on night watch.”

“Thanks.” Silver Watch tried flying off, but Mare-velous was still wanting to talk.

“Listen, I’m very interested in your powers. What else can you do?”

“Well, if you want to know more about my abilities, my suit makes me stronger than the average griffon. I can make forcefields like this.”

He pressed on his gauntlet and created a forcefield around him. Mare-velous gave it a quick punch and she just bounced off it.

“Nice. That’s gotta be helpful.”

“It is. Plus, I can also do this.” Silver Watch lowered his forcefield and fired a laser from his gauntlet, making a small indent in the wall. “Whoops.”

“...I’m going to let that slide,” Mare-velous spoke.

“Right. But I think my best power is controlling time.”

“What do you mean by that?” The griffon smiled as he pressed on his gauntlet, but nothing seemed to happen.

“Walk forward,” Silver Watch requested. Mare-velous was about to but she suddenly tripped. This was because of her lasso being tied around her legs.

“Haha. Very funny.” She made the lasso untie itself and put it back on its place. “Listen, I wouldn’t recommend using these powers as toys. Something could go wrong?”

“I don’t see much of a problem.” Silver Watch just took his sandwich to the lookout room, as Mare-velous walked off.

“Hmm, I’m seeing what problems the others are seeing.” The mare with a lasso walked way, worried about how Silver Watch would handle his new position.

Later, Humdrum walked into the lookout room, where Silver Watch was sitting in a corner, bored. “Hey, Silver,” the little hero said. “How are you doing?”

“Do you and your team always wait this long for something to happen?” the griffon questioned.

“Usually. Our record is about half a year, I think.”

“Half a year?! I can’t wait that long for something to happen.”

“But you should be glad nopony is in danger.”

“Yeah, well how am I supposed to make myself known.”

“Man, you sound worse than I thought you were,” Fili-Second spoke. Humdrum and Silver Watch were surprised when the speedy pony ran up to them. “Is fame all you care about?”

“Well, there isn’t much to be a hero if you don’t have to do anything,” Silver Watch stated.

“If you were one of those ponies that were in danger you’d change your mind.” Suddenly, the alarm sounded again.

"Finally!" the griffon cheered. "What's the emergency?" Fili-Second took a look and gasped.

"Fire down at the Maretropolis Warehouse."

"Wait, fire? My gadgets aren't meant to fight fires."

"Well, you did want to be a hero, right?" Humdrum asked.

"Yeah, I did..."

"Then it's your time to shine," Fili-Second said. She grabbed the griffon's talon and raced down the hall.

Silver Watch and the Power Ponies arrived at the fire. The warehouse was ablaze and nearly all of the ponies had fled. “There could still be some ponies trapped inside,” Masked Matter-Horn commented. “Fili, Watch, you two are in charge of looking for anypony that’s unlucky to be trapped.”

“Roger,” the fast mare replied. She quickly darted off and Silver Watch looked around as the rest of the team did what they could to help with the fire.

Zapp brought in a storm so the rain could help Matter-Horn extinguish the fire while Radiance and Mare-velous ran around to see if there were any dangerous items that would’ve made the fire worse. Silver Watch looked around, not really feeling confident.

“Okay, just stay calm,” the griffon said to himself. He activated his forcefield to protect himself from the flames. "Kind of wish there were more bad guys."

"Help!" wheezed a voice. Silver Watch flew over to see a stallion caught under a pile of crates. The griffon fired a laser that knocked the crates off the trapped stallion. With that, he dropped his forceful and picked up the stallion, causing him a bit of pain, and then reactivated the forcefield.

He brought the stallion to a safe area and found that Fili-Second had already rescued three other ponies. "You got triple what I've got?"

"This isn't a game," Fili-Second said. She ran off to find some medical help, leaving Silver Watch with the workers. The three that Fili-Second had rescue looked over the stallion that Silver Watch had rescued and released. The griffon didn't know what to do here.

"I'm... Ugh... Going to check to see if there's anyone still inside," he said. He flew off and left the ponies to themselves.

Radiance and Mare-velous were taking care of some explosive and moving them away from the flames to prevent them from exploding. "Why would they put so many dangerous items so close to each other?" Radiance questioned.

"This has gotta be breaking several safety rules," Mare-velous agreed.

"Hey, guys, is there anyone else stuck in here?" Silver Watch asked.

"No, just some dangerous car..." Radiance stopped when she saw the Silver Watch just flew away after hearing no. She quickly created a wall to stop the griffon in his tracks. "Don't just leave us and help us!"

"Then what do I do?"

"Help give me a shield," Mare-velous explained.

"Can't Radiance do that?"

"I can't be in two places at once," Radiance stated as she carried some of the dangerous cargo, leaving the other half for Mare-velous and Silver Watch. The griffon groaned as he created a forcefield for the mare to carry the cargo away.

"This isn't what the hero life would be like," Silver Watch grumbled.

"What did you think it was going to be?" Mare-velous questioned.

"You know, fame, fortune, making yourself known."

"There's much more to being a hero than all of that. If everyone just wanted to be famous, then everypony would be a superhero. That's really all you wanted to be a hero for?"

"Well... Well... Humdrum doesn't even have powers. How come he's on the team?"

"Don't you try and bring him down with you." Silver Watch didn't reply to this, he just checked to see if they were far enough from the fire before he released the two of them from his forcefield before he just flew off.

By this point, the flames were extinguished when some ponies arrived to help take the injured stallion to the hospital. While that was happening, the Power Ponies inspected the damage that was done.

Masked Matter-Horn found the crates that had fallen on the stallion and could see they were damaged from something shooting them. "Silver was here," she commented. "What if these crates had something explosive?"

"Where is he now?" Zapp asked.

"He just left after helping me with some dangerous supplies," Mare-velous answered. "No idea where he went, though."

"Should we start a search party?" Humdrum asked.

"I would, but if he wants to keep up his attitude for being more popular than an actual hero, he can do what he wants."

"But we should still look for him."

"Listen, Humdrum," Zapp said, "If Silver just wants to play hero, let him play his game." She and Matter-Horn flew off. Mare-velous had a heavy sigh before she walked off. Humdrum pondered and looked towards the city, wondering where Silver Watch went.

The griffon superhero was sitting on the edge of a skyscraper while he pouted.

"So, what if they don't want me on their team?" he questioned. "None of them can stop time. I can be my own hero."

He jumped up off the ledge and glided down to the street. He looked around for anyone that needed help. As he flew down the street, he saw a familiar colt running around in a superhero's costume. The colt and griffon both got a glance at each other.

"Silver?" the colt question.

"Humdrum?" Silver Watch quickly came to a stop and walked over to the little hero. "What are you doing out here?"

"I was looking for you, even though the others aren't really interested."

"Why would they? I'm just some attention-hungry griffon who just wants to have a life where he doesn't have to constantly fend for himself."

"...What do you mean by that?"

The griffon looked around before he took Humdrum with him into an empty building. "Look, I grew up in a place called Griffonstone. It's a home that's a shamble."

"That bad?"

"It's another thing when you don't have a proper place to sleep. I was just a poor kid who had to fend for himself."

"But... You built those gadgets didn't you?"

"I stole them. You really think a homeless griffon would be able to make time traveling tech?"

"Well... No."

"Exactly. I came back from the future so I could have myself a better life. I was planning on winning events that I've heard about in the future and use them as a get rich quick scheme."

"But... Wouldn't that mess up the future?"

"You think I don't know what?"

"Somepony else could end up like you."

"Well... Well... You don't even have superpowers and you're on the Power Ponies. Yet, I'm not allowed on."

"That's because you don't care about others. I try to do my best and help out my team whenever I can. I'm not particularly a crowd favorite, but still, I'm happy to help my team. They're good friends. We're like a family." Silver Watch looked down at the ground.

"Lucky you. I'm on my own and that's all I have."

"You can come back. You could always have a second chance."

The griffon sighed. "I guess so."

Humdrum smiled as he was about to bring the silver hero back to the base until they heard a loud boom.

"Silver Watch!" boomed a voice. Looking around, the two saw the Mane-iac standing over them. However, Humdrum noticed she looked a little different. She had a few wrinkles and parts of her mane were gray.

"What's with her?" Silver Watch questioned.

"I'm not sure," Humdrum admitted. "She looks... Older than usual."

"Old?!" the Mane-iac questioned. Using her mane, she grabbed onto them and brought them closer to her. "You're the one who did this to do."

"Do you know what she's talking about?" Humdrum asked.

"I don't know dude," Silver Watch replied, "She's your enemy." He turned his attention to the Mane-iac. "Listen, I barely know you, so could I have ruined you?"

"As you can see, my age is catching up with me. However, I manage to get my mane on you." She pointed at Silver Watch. "We might not have met yet, but we will in the future. I'll be studying your technology so I can figure out eternal youth."

"Now I see why you're called the Mane-iac."

"Silence. I'll use both of you to help reverse my age."

"Hey! It's one thing to test on me, but it's another thing that you're using Humdrum.”

The griffon pressed a button on his gauntlet, which caused a forcefield to show up. This made the Mane-iac lose her grip on Silver Watch, who flew back and landed on the ground.

"No matter." The Mane-iac's mane moved in a strange way just as a portal opened up behind her and she started walking through it while taking Humdrum with her.

"Hey, get back here!" Silver Watch flew through the portal, giving chase.

The portal they were traveling through was practically a tunnel that had some energy flowing through the walls. The Mane-iac could see Silver Watch was on her tail. Her response to this, she smacked the griffon as hard as she could, causing him to fly through the wall.

This caused Silver Watch to fly into a city, crash landing on top of a sky-scraper. The city itself looked a little more advanced, judging by some of the robotic wings that some of the non-pegasi were using. The Mane-iac showed up with some robotic ponies flying by her side.

"Did you just punch me into next week?" Silver Watch questioned.

"Several actually," the mad mare stated. She sent the drones towards the griffon, who modified his shield to be like a skin-tight suit. He smacked and punched the drones to the side as he flew up to the Mane-iac. She simply jumped to the next building and had her drones fire lasers.

Silver Watch tanked the shots thanks to his shield and he fired a charged laser, which destroyed the drones before he flew towards the Mane-iac. Just before she could hit him, Silver stopped her in a silver aura.

"Let's see how you like this," the griffon chuckled. He threw several punches and kicks before taking a breather. "Okay... Let's see... How far... You fly."

Slamming on his gauntlet, the Mane-iac resumed motion, but to Silver Watch's shock, she barely moved. In fact, she just laughed. "You hit like a filly." She then wrapped her mane around the griffon's neck before opening another portal and taking them to another time.

In this time, there were barely any living creatures around. Silver Watch was thrown to the ground. He was alright thanks to his shield but swiftly realized that he was surrounded by dinosaurs. Raptors, T-rexes, even some herbivores which had some kind of technology around their heads.

"You've got to be kidding me," the griffon groaned.

He made his shield activate into a bubble mode to keep the dinosaurs away from them as he saw the Mane-iac standing on a triceratops, still with Humdrum in her grip.

"I had my minions set these up while we were in the city."

"Wait, you're in two places at once?" Humdrum questioned.

"Of course. Time travel is confusing, but it's helpful."

"Yeah. That's not a bad idea," Silver Watch commented. As the dinosaurs kept trying to get through his forefield, even with the t-rex biting down on it, he activated his gauntlets again. "Hopefully time won't explode." He slammed on his gauntlet and he vanished.

Not even two seconds later, he appeared behind Mane-iac. And again. And again. There were practically hundreds of him. "What?" she and Humdrum questioned.

"Yeah, impressed too," one of the identical griffons admitted. "A lot harder than it looks. Still, I managed to make an army of me from every second we've spent together so far." With that, all the Silver Watches charged towards the Mane-iac, knocking her over and getting Humdrum out of her grip.

One of the Watches grabbed Humdrum, leaving the rest of the silver heroes to take care of the Mane-iac and hero dinosaurs. From their robotic parts, they were charging up a laser that the Silver Watch army countered with their own laser beams. The Silver Watch that was with Humdrum warped away to a different time as the clashing lasers causing a massive explosion.

The Power Ponies were at their base when they felt like everything was shaking.

"What was that?" Masked Matter-horn questioned.

"It couldn't have been an earthquake," Saddle Rager said while hovering in the air. "I felt the shaking up here."

Suddenly, Silver Watch appeared right in front of the mares with Humdrum. "Wow, how are you not dizzy?" the young hero asked.

"You don't think I'm dizzy?" Silver Watch questioned.

"What are you doing here?" Zapp asked.

"Girls, hold on," Humdrum cried regaining his bearings. "Silver saved me from the Mane-iac. Well, the Mane-iac from the future."

"The future?" Radiance questioned.

"Trust me," Silver Watch said. "Time travel is way too confusing to explain. Let's just say we left her in the past and I... Just realised my mistake."

"What?" Humdrum asked.

"I'm pretty sure leaving the Mane-iac in the past is practically screwing up the time stream. Of course, I would do that." He facepalmed in frustration.

The power ponies looked angrily at the griffon until Humdrum spoke up.

"He was just trying to defend me," he stated. "I'm not sure how the Mane-iac figured out time travel but..."

"She discovered it because of me," Silver Watch sighed. "I should've known that time travel was a stupid idea." Seeing the griffon was now at his lowest moment, Mistress Mare-velous walked up to him.

"We understand your frustration," she said, "But we tried to warn you about your powers not being toys."

"I just figured that out. I guess it's just my ego and desperation to be in the spotlight caught up with me."

"I know you really wanted to be noticed, but you can't be a master chef if your food only looks good instead of tasting something that's actually food." Silver Watch just sighed as he didn't know what to say.

"Okay, so how do we fix time?" Zapp questioned.

"I think I can fix that," Silver Watch said. "Now, before you say anything, I'm not going to doubt that this was all my fault. Since this is my mess, I'm going to be the one to clean it up."

"It makes sense," Saddle Rager commented. "He is the only one that has the gear that time travels."

"And it is kind of noble that he's fixing what he started," Fili-Second added.

"Right," Silver Watch said. "I know a few of you are still a little mad at me, but I'll do my best to fix what I've caused." He began putting some settings on his gauntlets and was about to leave until Humdrum spoke up.

"Silver, good luck," he said. "And thanks for helping me out back there." The griffon gave a thumbs up before he slammed on his gauntlet and warped away to another time.

"You think we should've gone with him?" Radiance asked.

"No, he's trying to learn from his mistakes," Mare-velous noted. "By the sound of it, he's on the road to humility."

"Good for him," Saddle Rager commented.

Somewhere else in the past, Silver Watch appeared at the bottom of a hill. Looking around, he could see a tribal village in the distance. There appeared to be some zebra walking around along with... Robots? "Oh, boy," Silver Watch muttered. Preparing for the worst, he flew off to start his long mission.

"Great story," Sandbar commented.

"Thanks," Gallus replied.

"That hero definitely has an attitude problem," Shimmy commented.

"That's the point of his character. He's a hotshot that needs to be knocked down a peg."

"Kind of like you?" Moss asked.

"Don't push your luck."

"Okay, I don't start a fight please," Ocellus requested.

"Right, I'm not wanting to be on Starlight's bad side again," Discord added.

"Right," Smolder said. She and her friends didn't want to remember events during their first year at the school. "Anyways, who's next."

Discord gained a devilish grin on his face as Pearl, Sulcus, Pyther, and Tanzanite had similar expressions. "Yona have bad feeling," Yona spoke.

"You know, we were saving a special surprise," Pearl smirked. "Here it is."

Pyther pulled on Discord's second horn which caused the floor beneath the students to open like a trap door. Even the students that could fly fell down what seemed to be a bottomless pit.

"Knowing Discord, we should've seen this coming," Gallus spoke.

"Yeah," Ocellus and Sandbar agreed.

"What's that?" Silverstream questioned. Beneath them looked to be a portal. Before anyone could question anything else, they all fell through it.

City on the Scene

When all of the students finally stopped falling, they were now in a city. They all stood up from a street as Gallus suddenly noticed that he was wearing something silver. Looking at one of the building windows for a reflection, Gallus was surprised to see he looked just like his hero, Silver Watch.

"Where are we?" asked a voice that sounded like Sandbar. Gallus looked over and could see a pegasus with dark fur, red eyes, a white mane, and a ghost for a cutie mark.

"Sandbar?" Gallus questioned. This grabbed the attention of the pegasus who looked over to Gallus.

"Gallus is that you?" the pegasus questioned. The pony and griffon then noticed all the other creatures that were with them. All of them were the superheroes that they had suggested. Shimmy Shake was Sun Regional, Kelpie was Scope, Ocellus was Atom, every single one of them was their own heroes.

"Wow, Discord really outdid himself," Sandbar commented.

"You think he could've warned us," Gale stated.

"Clearly, you've never met Discord," Gallus remarked.

"Guys, look at me," Silverstream cooed. Her body was now all rubbery. She pulled on her wing and it stretched out. "Sweet! Shimmy, Kelpie, grab one of my wings." Her friends did so and they started walking in opposite directions and the hippogriff's wings stretched like taffy.

"So, what does Discord have planned for us?" Pate asked.

"Not sure," Ocellus admitted.

"Maybe it'll be like when we were playing Ogres and Oubliettes," Ocellus commented.

"Again, we probably should've seen this coming," Gallus commented.

"I think he might be taking this too far," Peridot spoke. "I can't see."

"And I can't walk," Emerald added.

"Okay, maybe Discord went a little too far," Sandbar commented.

"How you ask something new?" asked a voice. The students looked across the street to see Pyther leaning against a street lamp. She appeared to be warring a dark pink and marron kimono.

"Pyther, there you are," Shimmy Shake said.

"Can you tell Discord to stop this game?" Moss asked, a little agitated.

"Now, why would we do that?" the dragoness asked.

"I don't like this where this is going," Sandbar muttered.

"Pyther, what are you planning?" Smolder asked.

"Oh, just this." Suddenly, a spear appeared from her back. They started swinging around, trying to attack the heroes. Before they could question this, a mace appeared and smacked Sandbar and Pate into the air.

"How is this possible?" the changeling turned earth pony questioned.

"That's what you're questioning?" Sandbar asked. He flapped his new wings and grabbed onto Pate before bringing him to one of the building rooftops. They weren't the only ones up there. They found Pearl sitting up there as if she was waiting for them. She was wearing an opera styled dress along with a scarf that was covering her beak.

"You too?" Pate asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'm actually going to explain what's going on," Pearl replied. "Pyther, Sulcus, Tanz, and I secretly teamed up with Discord so we could make our own supervillains. He said it would be good to give you some challenge."

"What do you mean a challenge?" Sandbar asked.

"Well, it works like this. Downtown, there's a museum that holds a statue of one of the most powerful creatures. AKA, Discord. Your mission is to catch the four of us before we can steal the statue. If you catch us, you win. If we get the statue and release Discord, we win."

"Sounds like a good comic situation. So, what's you're power?"

"First clue, cover your ears." Seeing this as a warning, Sandbar and Pate did so before the hippogriff removed her scarf. She let out a scream that was so loud, it sent to the colts back down to the ground. This time, Gallus flew up to catch Pate as Sandbar managed to bring himself down with his flight.

"What was that?" the griffon questioned.

"It’s Pearl," Pate replied.

"They say we have to catch the four of them in order to win this game," Sandbar explained.

"Of course Discord would do this as a game," Gallus muttered. They flew back to the ground, where Pyther had appeared to leave them alone.

"She must've headed towards the museum," Sandbar commented.

"What museum?" Kelpie asked. Sandbar and Pate quickly explained what Pearl had told them before she screamed at them.

"So, we have to stop them before they release Discord?" Ocellus asked to get confirmation.

"Seems like it," Pate responded.

"So, where exactly is the museum," Shimmy Shake asked.

"We'll split up and looked around," Gallus proclaimed.

"Sounds like a plan," Silverstream said. The griffons and hippogriffs took to the air as everyone that couldn't fly split up on the ground.

"So, you think I can make myself bigger?" Kelpie asked Silverstream.

"It's worth a shot," Silverstream replied. Kelpie looked at the button on his wrist and pressed it. In about two seconds, the hippogriff had doubled in size. "Amazing!"

"Yeah, look at me." Kelpie looked quite proud to be much bigger now. "Hey, try changing your form like a changeling." Silverstream nodded before flying down to one of the rooftops. She bounced a little when she landed and she started remolding herself. While she struggled a bit at first, requiring Kelpie's help, the rubbery hippogriff manage to change her form.

She molded herself into a bear, a pony, a dragon, Silverstream was enjoying herself. "This is so much fun!"

"It is!"

As they were having fun practicing their powers, the creatures on the ground were trying theirs out as well. Emerald was trying to get the hang of her wind manipulation she’s struggling. "If I knew Discord was going to turn us into our superhero, I would've used something simpler," she said.

"Yeah," Ocellus agreed. Looking behind her, with each step she took with her forehooves, she accidentally turned the ground into small patches of grass.

"Remind me not to touch your hoof," Pate requested, stepping back a little bit.

"Discord really couldn't warn us about these?" Moss questioned.

"Discord just does things without rhyme or reason," Ocellus remarked.

Pate helped Emerald onto his back so she would have an easier time getting around. "Let's just keep looking around," the dragoness said.

Meanwhile, Smolder was holding Peridot's claw as they walked down the street with their group. "Did he really have to take my eyesight?" the blind dragoness questioned.

"He's probably trying to be accurate," Shimmy Shake said.

"This isn't really the first time he's done something like this," Smolder commented. "We were in a world based on Ogres and Oubliettes one time."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. It was honestly fun. Once we figured out what we were doing."

"Yona wondering how Yona communicates with animals," Yona spoke. She held her head for a minute and within a few seconds, a flock of birds flew right up to her.

"Well, it looks like you got it working," Shimmy commented.

Sandbar suddenly swooped down nearly crash landing. "Man, flying looked much easier for the griffs," he muttered.

"Sandbar okay?" Yona asked.

"I'm good. Discord probably turned down the pain for this world."

"That's good to hear," Peridot said.

"Did you find out where the museum is?" Shimmy asked.

"I think so," Sandbar replied. “Follow me.”

He led the group down the street until they came across the building he found.

"This looks like a museum to me," Smolder commented. "I'm going to go find the others and tell them we found it." The dragoness took off as the remaining creatures walked inside.

Looking around, there some interesting artifacts on display. Several paintings, some skeletons of creatures they've never seen, but then they noticed a statue that looked like a very familiar draconequus.

"There's Discord," Shimmy Shake cried.

"Now we just have to prepare for the worst," Sandbar spoke.

"For things like me?" asked a voice. The heroes looked across the room where Sulcus was standing. He appeared to be wearing a black jumpsuit with a couple of green stripes.

"Sulcus, is that you?" Peridot asked.

"It is. Can you see?"

"No, because Discord's taking this game too seriously," Sandbar commented.

"I had a feeling this might happen," Tanzanite spoke. He walked up beside Sulcus as he had a few new looks. His horns were a little longer, he wore some gloves and a white lab coat. "So, do you guys need to get your barrings on your powers work?"

"Not really," Yona replied. "Yona just started trying out powers."

"And I think my powers are just from gadgets," Shimmy Shake added.

"Yeah, this doesn't really seem fair," Tanz added. "I mean, Discord gave us time to train."

"I guess that's how villains work," Sandbar commented. "Not a lot of them fight fair so the heroes can win."

"Could you give us some time until the others show up?" Peridot asked.

"Sure, take all the time you need," Tanz said.

The heroes walked away for a moment as Sandbar started flying around. He flew up to a wall and tried to phase through it, but only ended up banging his head. "Darn it."

"You struggling too?" Gale asked.

"Yeah." Gale simply rose his talon, which caused a storm to appear.

"Gosh darn it."

"Hey, guys," Kelpie said. He was still quite big, much to the shock of his friends. "Pretty cool huh?"

"Yeah, it is," Sandbar commented.

"Hi, guys!" Silverstream cried. The rubbery hippogriff landed on the brim of Kelpie's nose as she changed her form into a cow. "What do you think?"

"That's pretty cool," Gale commented. Simply pointing at Silverstream cause a bolt of lightning shoot down from the storm and struck her, but because of Silverstream's rubbery body, it didn't do much. "Sorry."

On the ground, Pate walked up to Shimmy and Peridot with Emerald sitting on his back. "Any luck with your powers?" the dragoness asked.

"Not quite," Peridot replied. "I really wish I could see."

"Remind me to tell Discord to tone these kinds of things down in the future," Gallus said.

"Got it," the girls said.

"At least you can move around easily," Moss said as he slowly walked over to his friends. "I weight practically three tons. I can't even change my form."

"Well, you're not really a changeling anymore," Gallus commented.

"You think I don't know that?"

Pearl had joined Sulcus and Tanz, who were watching them in the museum. "Maybe we should've thought this out better," the hippogriff villain said.

"Yeah," the boys agreed.

"You know what?" Gale said, "I can still throw punches. I'm going into the museum." He flew right through the entrance and land right in front of Pearl, Tanz, and Sulcus. "Okay, what are you planning?"

"Do you want us to go easy on you?" Pearl asked.

"That might be a smart idea," Ocellus commented.

"No way," Gale said, "As soon as you're defeated, we can get out of here."

"Well, that is the main idea of this game," Tanz commented.

As the rest of the heroes walked in, Pyther flew in. She had a katana floating by her side. "You ready for this?" the dragoness asked.

"I guess we might as well," Gallus muttered. The multiple heroes and four villains soon charged towards each other engaging in battle.

Sandbar and Pyther flew around with Kelpie right behind them. The hippogriff flew closer to the dragoness and made himself bigger. Once he did that, Kelpie grabbed onto the dragoness with his giant talon but ended up smacking his head on the ceiling. Pyther chuckled as she slipped away. Sandbar tried to follow, but he nearly got hit by her katana.

Silverstream, Shimmy, and Smolder fought on against Sulcus, who was doing surprisingly well. "Okay, so what exactly is your power?" the rubbery hippogriff asked.

"Let me show you," the changeling said. He suddenly pressed his hoof on Silverstream's chest. When Smolder then launched a punch at him, this sent him back a bit and he gave a bit of a bounce. Smolder decided to use her new powers. She placed her claws on the floor as she could see they were getting coated in stoney texture.

Once she did that, she flew towards the changeling villain, who countered her punches. Suddenly, Sulcus stretched just as Silverstream did. "How are you doing that?" Shimmy questioned.

"You can say I'm a bit of a copycat," the changeling chuckled. "Just call me, Dupe." He then morphed his hoof into a hammer before smacking Smolder in the face.

For Tanz, he didn't seem to display any sort of powers until Moss started charging up a laser. "This should be easy," the cyborg scoffed. He fired a laser that the drake dodged just as it was fired. "What?"

"Take a guess at my power," Tanz smirked. Looked around the room, he shot some fire at the ceiling. He made it look like he was aiming at Gallus, who simply dodged it. Unbeknownst to the griffon, the fire hit a chandelier, causing it to fall and land on top of him. "Let's say I'm a little clever." Without even looking, he dodged an attack from Sandbar.

As they fight carried on, Yona managed to keep a couple of the villains at bay until an orange blur dashed by and smacked her. "What hit Yona?" she questioned.

"Oh, just a secret weapon," Pyther informed.

"And what would that be?" Gale questioned.

"Wouldn't you like to know." With some assistance from Sulcus, Pyther started lifting the statue of Discord up and out of the museum. This would've made them an easy target if it wasn't for Pearl letting out a scream. The heroes all covered their ears as the carriers of the statue slipped away.

When the heroes recovered from the loud screaming, the villains were gone. "Darn it," Gallus groaned.

"Did we lose?" Kelpie asked.

"No, they said they still needed to release Discord from his prison," Sandbar noted. "They must have some device that can free him."

"So, what do we do?" Kelpie asked.

"Track them down and stop them," Gallus declared.

"So, do we split up again?" Pate asked.

"Seems like the best idea," Ocellus confirmed.

So, that's what they did. Splitting up into two groups, they all spread out across the city. Sandbar's group searched the south side of the city, while Smolder's group took the north.

"We really need to figure out how to use our new abilities," Emerald said while riding on Sandbar's back.

“Yeah, but we don’t have time to understand it,” Shimmy said.

“Hmm,” Sandbar pondered. He thought back on how Discord threw them into Ogres and Oubliettes. He just took a deep breath before thinking like Spirit Shade. He remembered the incident, his first fight, and using his powers.

“Ugh, Sandbar, we’re heading towards a wall,” Emerald stated. Sandbar could see that, but instead of stopping or turning, he kept flying and... Phased right through the building along with Emerald, much to their friends’ shock.

“What Sandbar do?” Yona questioned.

“Just trying and think like your character,” Sandbar said. “What would they do in situations like this.”

Emerald thought for a moment. She imagined herself in the situation of Ruby Sparks. She held her claws out and some wind started to blow. Slowly, she started raising off of Sandbar’s back as a small twister appeared around her legs. She was now floating in the air.

“Alright,” she cheered. “I’m getting the hang of this.”

“How are you doing this?” Shimmy questioned.

“Just try and put yourselves in your character’s shoes,” Sandbar said. “Think of yourselves in your stories of how your character starts and how they learn about their powers.”

Yona thought for a moment. She closed her eyes and thought of calling many different animals. Birds, rodents, and other various animals came racing towards her. “Yona getting powers to work.”

The rest of the heroes did what Sandbar instructed as they all started getting the hang of their abilities. With Smolder’s team, they were also getting the hang of their powers, just not as fast. Ocellus grabbed a pipe that was just lying on the ground and she turned it into a shield.

“Okay,” she said, “We should be able to handle what they throw at us.”

“We just need to figure out where they are,” Gallus groaned. Suddenly, an orange blur raced past him. “Uh oh.”

“What is it?” Moss asked.

“We’re about to have company.” Just as he finished, Gallus got smacked down to the ground by the strange blur.

The orange blur kept darting around until Ocellus decided to try and warp the terrain. She slammed her hooves on the ground to set up a couple of walls, but the blur just flew right over them.

“Okay, this thing can fly,” Moss commented.

“How do we stop it?” Silverstream asked.

“Try and cover more ground than it can travel,” Ocellus said. Silverstream decided to stretch herself out flat as Kelpie held her like a net. The blur quickly bounced off her and raced in the other direction.

“We’re going to be wasting our time if we do this,” Moss stated. “Let’s just find that statue and get out of here.” He walked off as fast as he could, which wasn’t very fast at all.

Suddenly, Emerald and Peridot flew by with assistance from their wind and earth powers. “Hey, they’re already getting the hang of this?” Gallus questioned.

“I say that’s good in my book,” Ocellus commented. “Let’s keep going.”

The heroes kept looking around. Peridot suddenly stopped as she listened around. She could hear some talking. “Look, couldn’t you just use that brain to make this machine ahead of time?” asked an unknown voice.

“We wanted this to be somewhat fair,” a voice that sounded like Tanz stated.

“You think we should give them some sort of clue?” a voice sounding like Pearl asked. Peridot grabbed her sister’s attention and took her to where she heard the conversation. They found a factory, which had the four villains inside, along with Garry, who was wearing a yellow jumpsuit that had some orange lightning bolts on it as well as some goggles.

“So that’s who the blur was,” Emerald commented. “I’ll keep an eye on them, you go get the others.” Peridot nodded before floating away.

Emerald stayed floating by the window as the villains kept talking. “So, Sulcus, how does your power work again?” Tanz asked.

“It’s pretty simple,” the changeling replied. “I just have to touch anyone with any superpowers and I then copy their abilities. Though, I can only use one at a time.”

“Sounds pretty balanced to me,” Pearl commented.

“Well, I’m going to run around again,” Garry said. He quickly took off, not taking time to notice Emerald floating next to the window.

“Ugh, come on guys,” the dragoness muttered, “Where are you?”

“I’m right here,” Pyther said, taking Emerald by surprise. A chain mace suddenly chained the wingless dragoness up. “Did you think we didn’t see you?”

“It kind of took you a while,” Moss stated. The dragoness could see the heroes were now showing up. Pyther quickly called for Pearl and Sulcus, who helped her attack.

This fight went much better than the one at the museum as the heroes actually understood what they were doing now. Shimmy was jumping and flipping around, being able to keep pace with the three villains. However, the orange blur made itself known again.

“Not this time,” Gallus cried. He slammed on his gauntlet and managed to stop time and could see Garry was the one running around. “Okay, buddy, let’s slow you down a little bit.”

Gallus looked over to the mace that Emerald was tied up in and decided to take it off her claw and gave it to Garry. Once the speedy griffon was tied up, Gallus resumed time and Garry went tumbling. “Gah, what the heck?” Garry questioned.

“I can stop time remember?”

“And you’re a joke without your shield,” Pyther added. She threw the griffon in front of Pearl, who quickly screamed at him to send Gallus crashing to the ground.

Pearl was then taken by surprise when a giant Kelpie. He grabbed her in his talons and shook her around like a snowglobe before taking a peek inside. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” Pearl responded. “Discord said he worked around the pain.”

“Okay.” With that out of the way, Kelpie flicked Pearl away like she was a tick.

The battle carried on with Sulcus racing around and copying everyone’s powers. Emerald thought about this and made the changeling copy her abilities. This caused him to start floating because of his new wind abilities. Knowing this, Emerald quickly made him chase her into the air.

“Gale, over here!” she cried.

The weather-controlling griffon listened and flew after his teammate. Gale started creating storms to shoot lightning at the copy cat. Sulcus was barely able to move his wind before he could get hit, but he was able to fly up to the griffon and copy his power. However, since he wasn’t using Emerald’s powers anymore, he started freefalling.

Fortunately, Gale was able to catch him as Emerald flew down to her sister. Peridot quickly started creating a stone prison to keep the changeling from escaping. Garry ran up and tried to attack the prison, but Silverstream pounced on his and trapped him by turning herself into a rubber ball.

“Let me out!” the griffon ordered. He kept bouncing off the wall to little avail.

“Sorry,” Silverstream said, “But baddies like you belong in jail.”

“Just three more to go,” Emerald added.

Pyther could see they were starting to lose and she flew back into the factory. “Anyway now,” she said to Tanz.

“I’m working as fast as I can,” Tanz stated. He pressed some buttons on a keyboard as some lasers were aiming at the statue of Discord. Suddenly, Smolder flew in, coated in stone, and started smashing one of the lasers as the other one was shot down by Moss’s missiles. “Drat.”

“Welp, time to abandon ship,” Pyther said. The two dragons flew off and helped Pearl escape from the carnage as they flew away.

“See you later,” Tanz cried. Suddenly, they saw a roc flying straight towards them. Yona and Shimmy Shake were riding on its back and they slammed into the three of them.

Pyther and Pearl landed on the roc’s back, where they started throwing a few punches with Yona and Shimmy. “You enjoying this?” Shimmy asked.

“It’s way better than I thought this would be,” Pearl said. She was about to let out a scream until she tripped over her dress. “I don’t think dresses are suitable for combat.”

“Probably not,” Shimmy commented as she pinned the hippogriff down.

Pyther meanwhile wasn’t going down without a fight. She grabbed Yona by her horns, but the yak turned pony stood her ground. A mace came out of Pyther’s back, but Yona had one last trick up her sleeves. The dragoness held her head as she quickly felt light head.

“Wait,” Pyther grunted, “I thought you only control animals.”

“Yona can cause headaches and lightheadedness,” Yona stated.

“Oh, yeah.” Pyther lied on her back as she was clearly defeated.

All that was left was Tanz. He quickly breathed fire on the roc to cause it to lose control, leaving the two mares onboard behind. “Phew,” he sighed. “I guess I’m too hot for them to catch.”

“But I’m way cooler,” said a voice. Sandbar suddenly appeared beside Tanz. The drake didn’t have enough time to react as the ghost pony as phased into his body. Tanz’s eye changed from blue to red as Sandbar took control. “Wow, this is weird.” He brought his new claw to his face as he pondered. “I think it’s safe to say we won.”

Sandbar made Tanz fly down to where everyone else was. Ocellus looked at Tanz’s eyes and could see the coloring was off. “Sandbar?” she questioned.

“Yeah, I know,” the colt in the drake replied. “This is a little creepy, but still kind of cool.”

The roc landed nearby as Yona and Shimmy carried Pyther and Pearl with them. Silverstream wrapped herself around all the villains as Sandbar left Tanz’s body. “Ugh, what just happened?” the confused drake asked.

“I’m afraid you lost,” said a voice. Suddenly, Discord appeared out of nowhere with a party cannon, which fired out some confetti. “Congratulations heroes. You’ve won.” Several Discords then showed up to cheer for the heroes.

“Got to admit,” Ruby said, “This was fun.”

“Could you turn us back to normal now?” Pate asked.

“Of course,” Discord replied. Snapping his fingers, he teleported them all back to the school, with them all back to their normal selves.

“Hey, I can see again!” Peridot cheered. Emerald was glad that she was also able to walk again.

“Discord, that was fun and all,” Moss said, “But give us a warning next time.”

“No promises,” the draconequus responded.

“Figures,” Gallus said rolling his eyes.

“Well, this was fun,” Shimmy said.

“Yeah, we should do this again sometime,” Gale added.

“So do I,” Moss agreed.

All the students started walking off to do their own things, leaving Discord with the Young Six. “So, you want the next session to be Ogres and Oublettes?” Discord asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Sandbar confirmed.

“I wonder what classes the others could be,” Silverstream pondered.

Discord smiled at the students liking his ideas. “So, same time next week?” The six agreed. “Alright. See you in a while.” He snapped his finger and warped away.

“So, what did you guys think of being superheroes?” Smolder asked.

“Yona’s love being able to talk to animals,” Yona spoke.

“Yeah, stopping time was cool,” Gallus added. The six students walked off chanting about the adventure they just went through.

The Announcement

Gallus was sitting down on the carpet floor in his dorm room just staring up at the ceiling, listening to soft music from the record player in the room, doing nothing but that. He heard the click of the doorknob and looked up. There, he saw his friend and roommate, Sandbar. He walked inside and looked down at his roommate.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” the griffon sighed. “I’m just feeling bored.”

“I can see that. Don’t you have any new books to read?”

“Any ones I have interest in have already been checked out. Plus, I’ve only got one record to listen to.”

“Maybe we could go buy another one. Probably a different kind of music.”

“Yeah, sure. Might as well do something,” he said, while getting up.

The green earth pony and a blue griffon walked out of their dorm, closed the door, and walked down the hall. Before the two could get to the exit, however, they could see the students crowding around the bulletin board. Feeling curious and eager, Sandbar and Gallus then headed towards the crowd.

“What’s going on this time?” Sandbar asked.

“Check this out,” Gleaming Pearl said. There was a flyer on the board. Sandbar read what it said.

Super Contest

If you ever wanted to be a hero, now’s your chance to do it. Create your own superhero. He/She can have whatever power he/she wants. When you’re finished creating your hero, bring it to the lounge and leave it in the tray with a cape emblem on it. Good luck and have fun.

“This sounds fun,” Sandbar said.

“You only say that because you read the Power Ponies comics,” Gallus spoke.

“Are they a good series?” Kelpie asked.

“Oh, yes it is,” Sandbar responded with excitement.

“Now you’ve done it,” Gallus sighed.

As Sandbar explained the Power Ponies to Kelpie, Yona walked up beside the griffon. “What griffon think of a contest?” she asked.

“It’s either really clever or geeky,” Gallus admitted.

“I think it’s kind of fun,” Emerald admitted. She and Peridot walked over to them.

“What else does this say?” Peridot asked. Looking at the board, there were a couple of rules.

Mandatory Rules:

Provide a bio to help explain your character’s powers and background.

Try your best to be original. Nobody likes to be a copycat.

Try to keep your character balanced. No Mary Sues. An example of something to avoid is: “My shield can block any attack yet I can fire my attacks through my shield.” Please, don’t be that guy.

Optional Rules:

Provide a drawing of your superhero.

Provide a story to help show your character. The recommended kind of story is an origin story.

“Seems simple enough,” Emerald commented.

The students then heard some panting and fluttering wings along with some stomping. Frida came around the corner with a changeling. This changeling had a horn, pink chitin, purple eyes and carapace, a blue mane, and red wings.

“Is there still time for me?” the changeling asked.

“There no sign-ups,” Frida commented. “Students just put heroes in tray at lounge.”

“Hey,… Sulcus... Is it?” Grace asked.

“Um, yeah,” the changeling replied. “Frida told me about this contest, so I thought I’d join in.”

“You’re interested in this?” Gallus asked.

“Well, after Queen Chrysalis left the hive, my imagination’s been kicked into high gear.”

“It’s true,” Moss confirmed.

“Well, this will definitely be a fun activity for you,” Sandbar said.

“You know,” Pearl said, “I think there’s a special thing you can do to help with this.”

“There is?” Sulcus asked. Pearl led the changeling down the hall, leaving the rest of the students to check the rules.

“Well, I’m going to get started,” Sandbar announced. He walked back to his room as Gallus and Yona decided to follow.

“Friends borrow art supplies from Silver?” Yona asked.

“Probably,” Gallus shrugged.

“She did expressionism art in the cave last year, so I guess we’ll try to….”

However, to the trio’s surprise, a couple of the students were there, asking Silverstream to borrow art supplies, but she was getting crowded by some students.

“Hey, guys!” Silverstream called. “A little help? Please.”

Yona managed to push the students away from her friend in order to give her some space.

“Hold on! Stop!” The students stepped back a bit. “Couldn’t you guys just ask Headmare Starlight for some supplies?” Gallus questioned. Many students felt a little guilty about going after Silverstream.

“To be fair,” Pate said, “She does make some nice art.”

“Sure.”

Time started passing and several students got to work on their own superheroes. It took longer than they thought, a few days for a couple of them. Eventually, everyone who wanted in with the contest eventually turned in all of their heroes. After that, things calmed down until...

There was an announcement over the school’s P.A. system. “Would all the students who made their superhero and placed in the tray like requested, please go to the lounge as soon as possible. Thank you,” Starlight Glimmer announced.

A little surprised, some of the students walked towards the lounge. The chairs were all set up around in a circle. After a minute of waiting, nothing happened. “Okay, so do we leave now?” Gallus asked.

Just then, a portal opened up from the ceiling as a hodgepodge of a creature landed, superhero style.

“I AM HERE!” the creature announced. This was none other as Discord, who was wearing a blue uniform with a yellow cape.

“Discord?” the students gasped.

“I’m not sure if we should be surprised,” Emerald commented.

“Don’t get used to it,” Discord said as he sat down. “Now, I’m glad you all decided to join in for a superhero contest.”

“As long as this one stays under control,” Pyther said.

“Right. Anyways, how this works is I’ll randomly pick one of you and you’ll explain which hero you’ve created. Understand?”

The students nodded. “Yeah, it sounds pretty easy,” Pearl replied.

“Good. Now, let’s begin.” Discord pulled on one of his horns like a lever and one of the chairs lit up with a yellow glow. The glow then hopped to the next chair. Then the next until it carried around in a circle. Eventually, the glow stopped on the chair that Sandbar was sitting on.

“Oh. So I’m first,” Sandbar spoke.

“Shocker,” Pyther muttered.

“So, Sandbar,” Tanzanite said, “What’s your superhero?”

Discord floated the papers to Sandbar, some of which were stapled together. The earth pony found one paper that had a drawing of a colt. The colt was a pegasus that had jet black fur, a snow-white mane, blood-red eyes, and what looked like a ghost for a cutie mark.

Sandbar shows his creation to the rest of the students. “That’s cool,” Sulcus commented. “What’s his name?”

“This is Shade Spirit,” Sandbar explained. “He’s half-ghost. It happened in a freak accident.”

“I see. Tell us more.” And so, Sandbar did.

Spark and Flow

A couple of years ago, a stallion traveled to the Dragon Lands to do something. It was hatching season during that time, and Dragon Lord Torch was keeping watch. The stallion hid behind a giant rock, and pulled out some sort of grenade and tossed it at him. Torch was confused at what was thrown until it went off.

BOOM!!!

A small grenade released a very big flash of bright. The flashbang blinded the Dragon Lord and gave the stallion enough time to steal half a dozen eggs from the hatcheries. He quickly ran off as Torch’s sense started returning. He looked around and could see the stallion running with the stolen eggs. He flew after the stallion, not wanting him to getaway.

The stallion was a unicorn and used his magic to teleport himself away. Torch looked around and let out a frustrated roar as now six dragon eggs were lost.

The stallion teleported into a lab and placed the 6 eggs down on the table.

“Finally,” he sighed. “Now I can finally make my ultimate creatures.”

Soon, years started going by as the stallion extracted the DNA from the eggs to create a couple of dragon clones. The clones would develop inside of tubes until they reached the age of a toddler. Not all of the clones made it too far though; their internal organs couldn’t work properly and inevitably failed on them.

The stallion worked his hardest to create his ultimate dragon. What the station hoped to gain with his experiments was something more powerful by adding some magic into their dragons’ DNA. He managed to create a few successes, two of which were a red and yellow dragoness and blue and green dragoness. They both had silver eyes and ram horns.

The two grew up over the years with some other successes. The two had special powers with the magic infused within them. The red and yellow dragoness could control fire and wind while the blue and green one had control over the earth and water.

However, the two were wingless and that wasn’t their only flaw. The one controlling fire and air didn’t have working legs meaning she had to crawl wherever she wanted to go or use her wind manipulation to make her float. The blue and green one could walk, but she was blind. If she needed something like some food, or use the restroom, she would need some assistance from the stallion. Still, they were some of the few successes, the stallion kept them around.

They had several tests and the red and yellow dragoness proved she was quite useful. As for the blind dragoness, she had quite an interesting ability. Similar to a bat, she had echolocation that didn’t require her to screech. The stallion saw potential in these two and was hoping for an excuse to use them. Then one day, their chance had come.

The dragonesses were sitting by themselves talking as the stallion walked over to them. “Girls,” he said, “Guess what we’re doing today.”

“Are we going to do another test?” the red dragoness questioned.

“In a way. We’re going outside.”

“Outside?” the girls asked.

“Trust me, it’ll be fun.”

He carried the red dragoness on her back as they walked past some other dragons that were in some tubes. They were all unconscious right now, which made the dragoness that could see a little uncomfortable. Soon, they got to some heavily armored doors.

Using his magic, the stallion opened the door. The dragoness squinted as the sunlight hit her eyes. The blind dragoness held the red one’s claw as they walked outside. “We’re... In the middle of nowhere,” the red one stated.

“Yeah,” the blue one agreed. Using her echolocation, she sensed that they were the only ones out there.

“I’m aware of that,” the stallion replied. “We’re coming out here so your eyes can adjust to the light.” He used his magic again to teleport them to a country area.

“Where are we now?” the red one asked.

“Somewhere where there aren't too many ponies,” the stallion answered.

“Why didn’t we do it in the middle of nowhere.”

“This time, I want you to use all of your power. If you did it at the lab, you could destroy it.”

“Right,” the girls replied.

The stallion looked over to two hills on the side of the path. “Girls, each of you moves one of those hills.”

Both dragonesses did as they were told. The one with fire and wind had a bit of trouble getting the hill to move. On the other hand, the one controlling earth and water lifted her hill with little issue.

“Very nice,” the stallion commented.

“I can’t do this,” the red dragoness groaned.

“Harder.” The dragoness did, but this ended up blowing the hill up. The blast caused the stallion and dragons flying backward as the blast grabbed the attention of a couple of ponies. As soon as he recovered, the stallion instinctively teleported away.

This left the two dragonesses behind, a couple of the ponies got a closer look. The girls started gaining consciousness as one could see the ponies around them, the blue and green one’s ears were still ringing due to the blast.

She looked at ponies surrounding them. “Uh oh,” she muttered. She didn’t know what to do or say.

“Hello there,” another stallion said. This stallion had golden-brown fur along with a red mane. He was an earth pony that had a shovel for a cutiemark. He was one of the few calm ponies. At this point, ponies hadn’t really been that close to dragons. “Can you speak?”

“Um... Yes,” the red dragoness replied.

“What about your friend?” The fire and wind dragoness looked at the one that controls the earth and water. Judging by her facial expression, her hearing had returned and she was using her echolocation. “Can you tell us where you’re from?”

“We... Don’t know exactly.”

“Why do you mean?”

“The only home we know is in the middle of nowhere.”

“Right. Hmm.”

“Soil, what are you planning?” one of the other ponies asked.

“These dragons don’t seem to be that much of threat. In fact, I think they might need some help.”

“...Maybe,” the blind dragoness said.

“I’ll see if I can help these girls out,” the white stallion said.

“Okay, fine,” the other pony said. “But if you get burned, don’t blame me.” The ponies all walked off, leaving the stallion with the dragons.

“Now, girls, would you follow me?” the stallion asked.

“Um... I can’t,” the red dragoness said.

“Oh, is something wrong?”

“I just can’t walk.” Noting this, the stallion helped the dragoness on his back. The two dragons then held each other’s claw as they walked down the path with the stallion.

Soon, the two were led to a farm, where the stallion was met by a mare. Like the stallion, she was an earth pony that had white fur along with a dirty-blonde mane and had a milk churn for a cutiemark. “Soil, what are those?” she asked.

“Milkey, it’ll be alright,” the stallion explained.

“Milkey?” the dragons questioned.

“I suppose I should actually introduce ourselves. I’m Rich Soil, and this is my wife, Fresh Milk.” The two dragons looked a little confused. “Don’t you two have names?”

“Do numbers count?” the blind one asked.

“You seriously don’t have names?” Fresh Milk questioned. “How were you raised?”

“We’re... Not sure,” the red one admitted. “What... What should we be called?”

“We’ll think about names for you in awhile,” Rich Soil said. “Let’s get you two inside, so you can get comfy.”

He took the girls inside his house and took them to an extra bedroom.

"Milk and I used this room when we usually have guests," he said. "You girls get comfy."

He helped put the red and yellow dragoness onto the bed as the blue and green one was helped onto the bed. After the stallion walked away, the two dragonesses were left to talk to each other.

"This is pretty soft," the red one said.

"It is," the blue one agreed. "I've never felt anything like this back at the lab." The two lied down on the bed and sighed as they started getting comfy.

"Do you think that other stallion will try and find us?"

"Maybe. I mean, he said we were important." The two stayed there as they thought about their current situation.

A little while later, Fresh Milk entered the bedroom where the dragons were resting. "Hey, Milk," the blind one replied.

The mare was a little interested as the dragon didn't even move her head to look at her.

"Um... Hello girls," she said. "Soil and I have been talking for a while and we have thought of a could of names for you. How do Ruby and Sapphire sound?"

"Maybe," the red dragoness replied.

"I like the sound of it," the blue dragoness admitted.

"...What else do you have?"

"These were the best names we could think of. We've only just met you. You said it yourself as you don't have names."

"Well, that's true."

"You know, how about we show you around the farm?"

"Okay," both dragons said. Milk walked out of the room and the dragons would've followed, but instead, they called out for her.

"Um, Milk," the newly named Ruby called. "I can't walk."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah. My legs don't work."

"Oh. I was wondering why you were sitting on Soil's back." Milk walked to the side of the bed so Ruby could get on her back. Sapphire then followed them downstairs and outside.

Rich Soil was outside digging in the field as his wife & the dragons walked over to him. "Oh, I see you two are up," he said. "Are you liking your new names?"

"We are," Sapphire said.

"If we were just referenced by our numbers we'd get mixed up easily," Ruby commented. "So, what are you doing?"

"Farming," Soil replied. "We grow some produce for the town. Sometimes we even ship this to over places in Equestria."

The dragons look at the field and were interested in the crops. "Is this where the food comes from?" Sapphire asked.

"Seems like it," Ruby said.

"I'm assuming you don't get out very often," Milk guessed. Both dragons shook their heads. "Where have you been living?"

"A lab."

"Seriously?"

"We're not lying," Sapphire added.

"I see." Soil then noticed that Sapphire's pupils were faded. "Um... Do you... See okay?"

"...Kind of."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well... I am blind, though I can still see with my hearing."

"How?" Soil and Milk asked.

"It's like echolocation," Ruby explained. "If she can hear, she uses it to listen around to know what her surroundings are like."

"Like a bat?"

"Exactly," Sapphire replied. "I can see you, the trees, even those birds." The ponies looked around until they saw some birds flying in the sky.

"Amazing," Milk commented.

"I'm even able to sense things in the ground. Though, there are some limits."

"Sensing things in the earth sounds to be a little different from echolocation," Soil commented.

"Well, that's what I've been told my abilities is."

"And who told you about these abilities?"

"The stallion."

"That doesn't sound very specific."

"We didn't really get his name," Ruby spoke. Suddenly, Sapphire jumped. "What's wrong?"

"Something big just flew by," she explained.

Ruby looked around in the sky until she saw something black flying towards them. It was a drake that was covered in black scales and had yellow eyes and horns. This dragon didn't say anything and just glared at Ruby and Sapphire.

The black dragon charged at Sapphire. Before she could react, he grabbed her and took her into the air. Ruby saw this and started manipulating the wind. This slowed the dragon down, but he kept on flying. Seeing that wasn't working, Ruby summoned some wind around her. This created a twister around her legs and she flew into the air, much to the ponies' shock.

The black drake could see Ruby was chasing him and tried breathing fire at her. This would end up backfiring as Ruby just manipulated the fire and sent it right back at him. Ruby quickly flew up to the drake pushed him back thanks to her wind powers. This caused Sapphire to free fall for a little bit until the fire and wind dragoness caught her.

"Hold on," Ruby called. She quickly got the two of them to the ground. Once they landed, Sapphire heard the drake flying down towards them. She moved her claw up which caused the ground to move up to uppercut the drakes. When he got hit, some strange green ooze splattered from him.

When he landed on the ground a few feet away and felt his jaw. Suddenly scared, he flew away, leaving the girls by themselves. "That was weird," Ruby spoke.

"What did you just do?" Rich Soil asked. He and Fresh Milk were both speechless at what they saw.

"Well, we have special powers," Ruby explained. Moving her claws, she created a small flame while Sapphire lifted a small ball of dirt into the air.

"I didn't know dragons had that kind of magic," Milk admitted.

"I'm not sure if they do have this kind," Sapphire said. "This is our first time out of the lab."

"I see," Soil commented.

"We're sorry we didn't tell you earlier."

"I don't see how you could explain that to us. It would explain how you blew up that hill."

"Wait, what?" Milk questioned.

"Don't ask," Ruby said.

Eventually, nighttime rolled around. Ruby was looking out of the window to see the moon in the sky.

"Excuse me, Ruby," Milk called, grabbing the dragon's attention. "Dinner's about to be served."

Using her wind powers, she flew over to the dining area where Soil and Sapphire were already sitting.

Ruby sat down with them as Soil started serving mashed potatoes. “Do you need any help with eating?” he asked Sapphire.

“No, I think I can do this,” she said. Her hearing was able to let her know where her silverware was. She picked up her fork and started enjoying her mash potatoes.

“Those are often much better with butter and cheese,” Milk commented. She then passed the said items over to the blue dragoness. Soil helped put them on her mashed potatoes as Ruby placed some of the salad on her plate.

“This food looks interesting,” she commented.

“What kind of food did you have... At the lab?” Milk asked.

“Mostly some gemstones and things that were like those potatoes.” She was given some mashed potatoes and took a bite. “Honestly, I think these taste better.”

“Well, eat up,” Soil said. Ruby and Sapphire did so. However, it didn’t take long for Milk to ask another question.

“So, Sapphire,” she said, “What other elements can you manipulate.”

“Well, water,” the blind dragoness replied. She had some water in her glass, which she could sense. Holding her claw out, Sapphire started levitating the water out of her glass before she carefully placed it back.

“Impressive.”

“Can we not talk about our home?” Ruby asked. She looked down at her plate as she ate. Soil was wanting to know more and thought if he wouldn’t get answers out of Sapphire, though now wasn’t a good time.

After they ate, Ruby floated out of the room as Sapphire simply sat at the table. “I’m not sure if you’ll like this, but what was life at the lab like?” the stallion asked.

“It wasn’t something I like,” Sapphire admitted. “Most of the time we would just train and the rest of it we would be sleeping. That’s what we’ve been told. Whenever we woke up from our tubes we would often be bigger.”

“...Interesting. Tell you what, I’m going to take you and your friend downtown for a bit of fun.”

“Fun?”

“Oh, I see you have a lot to learn. How about I take you to your room?”

“Okay.” The stallion and dragoness walked upstairs where Ruby was sitting on the bed.

“I’ll see if I can figure out if we can get another bed for you two. You just get comfy for the night.” Sapphire sat on the bed next to Ruby as they found they could get under the bed’s covers. “You two sleep well.” Soil left the room and turned off the light, leaving the dragons by themselves.

“...This bed is pretty soft,” Sapphire said.

“It is,” Ruby agreed. “...It’s kind of weird not to sleep in a tube. It kind of feels... Relaxing.” The girls laid down on their pillow and relax as they slowly drifted off to sleep.

The morning sun shined across the lands. The rooster’s crow woke up Soil, Milk, and the dragons. Ruby and Sapphire rubbed their eyes as they haven’t been used to waking up this way. After taking a few minutes to wake up, the dragons made their way downstairs.

Looking outside, they could see that the two ponies were already getting to work. Soil was making sure that the crops were watered while Milk was feeding the animals. “Morning girls,” Soil said while waving. A little confused, the dragons walked and floated outside of the house.

“You’re already up?” Ruby asked.

“Of course. When you’re running a farm you’ve got to get up early. Sapphire, do you think you could use your water abilities to help water the crops?”

“I think so,” the blind dragoness replied.

“Is there anything I can to help?” Ruby asked.

“I think you could help Milk with the animals,” Soil answered. Ruby nodded before floating over to where the mare was, leaving the blind dragoness behind confused.

“So, where do you get the water?” Sapphire asked.

“Follow me.” The stallion and dragoness walked across the field as Ruby found Fresh Milk feeding the chickens.

“Morning,” the mare said. “Care to help?”

“I figure I might as well be doing something,” Ruby stated. “What do I do?”

Milk looked at the bag of feed she was carrying. It felt quite light and she found out it was empty. “Looks like we need another bag of feed.”

“I can get that. Where is it?”

“We have it in the barn. Just look for a sack that has a picture like this.” She showed the bag’s image of a chicken. Ruby nodded before floating off to the barn. Inside, she found a couple of sacks of animal feed. She found one containing feed for the chickens. She picked it up, surprised to find it heavier than she thought.

Because of the weight, Ruby got closer to the ground, meaning she had to use more wind power to keep herself airborne. She slowly floated back over to Milk as she struggled to keep herself in the air. She dropped like a rock when she stopped using her powers to sit on the ground.

“Are you alright?” Milk asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby replied. “I’m not used to carrying things.”

“I’m sure you’ll get used to it.” Milk was given the bag of feed and continued to feed the rest of the chickens.

Meanwhile, Rich Soil had led Sapphire over to a well. The stallion started turning the crank and lowered the bucket down to the water. The dragoness listen and her echolocation let her see the bucket dipping into the water. “Can you see the bucket?” Soil asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’m impressed. Is it full?”

“Yeah.” Soil nodded before he turned the handle the other direction to bring the bucket back up. “Did you say something about having fun today?”

“Of course. We just need to take care of a couple of things before we head into town.” Once the bucket was up, Soil poured the water into his watering can. “I wish I had a faster method.”

Sapphire thought for a moment before moving her claws over the well. She lifted out a bit of water until she had a rather large drop of it. She levitated the drop over to the field. Soil could see what was going on and quickly got out of the way. Sapphire used her echolocation to figure out how large the field is dropping the thin layer of water all over the field.

“Did it work?” she asked.

Soil took a look at his crops. Some of them were drooping due to the excessive amount of water as there were a few small puddles on the field now. “Technically, yes,” he commented. “Though, I feel like you overdid it.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright. No harm is done. These crops will be fine.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“We can check and see how Milk and Ruby are doing with the animals.”

They walked over to chicken coops to see they were all fed. Looking inside the barn, they found Milk was milking one of the cows with Ruby sitting beside her. “What is she doing?” Sapphire asked hearing the sound of the milk going into the bucket.

“Milking,” Ruby answered. “Is that right?”

“Yep,” Fresh Milk replied. “These cows help produce some of the best milk.”

“Sure do,” Soil said. “Ruby, you want to head into town?”

“Um...”

“It’ll be fine,” Milk said. “I’ll handle things here.”

“Okay then,” Soil said. “Follow me, girls.” Ruby sat on Soil’s back as he led the two of them to town.

“What are we going to do?” Sapphire asked.

“There’s quite a variety of activities that can be done.” After a few minutes of walking, they made it into town. A couple of ponies looked at the two dragons accompanying the farmer. Ruby took note of this. “Don’t worry. Once you start getting along, I’m sure you’ll just like one of the villagers.”

“If you say so,” Ruby said.

Eventually, they walked up to a market stand where a pegasus with yellow fur and feathers was standing. “Soil, how are you doing?” the pegasus asked.

“I'm just fine Brass,” the farm pony replied. “I'm looking for something for Ruby and Sapphire here to socialize with the town.”

The pegasus thought for a moment as he had an idea. “My kid said she was interested in them. They could become friends.”

“That could work.” Ruby and Sapphire were a little confused by what the two stallions were talking about.

Soil followed Brass from his stand towards a field where a pegasus filly was flying around. Like her father, the filly had yellow fur. She also had a white mane and green eyes.

“Polish,” Brass called. The young filly flew over to her father and was curious by the dragons.

“Ooh, they're really here,” the filly cooed. She flew up to Ruby's face, making the dragoness feel a little uncomfortable. “Hi, I'm Polished Steel.”

“I'm... Ruby,” the dragoness said. “Could you back up please?”

Polish did so, feeling a little embarrassed at what she did. “Sorry.”

“Soil, I think I know somepony you should get to know,” Brass whispered. “He says he could help increase the funds for your farm.”

“Hmm, I'm listening,” the farmer replied.

“I think we'll just be fine here,” Sapphire said.

“You sure?” The dragoness nodded. “Well, I'll try not to go too far.” He set Ruby down on the ground before walking away with Brass.

“So, what can you do?” Polish asked.

“We don't really know what normal dragons can do,” Ruby admitted. “But I can do this.” She summoned a small twister around her legs and started floating into the air.

“Whoa, so cool.”

“I can do this,” Sapphire said. She could sense some stones that were nearby into the air. Polish was fluttering her wings, barely being able to contain her excitement.

“Do you think you can fly too?” Polish asked.

“I... Maybe.” Sapphire stood still for a moment and started lifting the earth she was standing on into the air. She was using her echolocation the best she could to make sure she knew where she was going.

“Sapphire, are you sure about this?” Ruby asked.

“I'm doing fine.” She slowly made her platform float forward with Ruby and Polish following by her side.

“This is so cool,” Polish said. “I thought dragons could breathe fire though.”

“Well, I can control fire,” Ruby said. She created some fire around her claw, amazing Polish.

Sapphire decided to bring herself back to solid ground before she hurt herself. She heard some running water nearby, that water was from a river. She decided to show what else she could do and levitated some of the water from the lake.

“Oh, no way,” Polish gasped.

“Yeah,” the blind dragoness said, “I can control the earth and water and Ruby can control the air and fire.”

“We were given these powers by someone who... We didn' know his name.” Suddenly, the heard some cracking sounds. The water that Sapphire was levitating was starting to get colder until it started freezing solid. The dragoness dropped it out of shock, making the ice shatter on the ground.

“You can make ice too?” Polish asked.

“Actually, this is new,” Ruby said.

“I... Don't know how I did that,” Sapphire admitted.

“Just try not to think about it.”

“My not you try and practice?” Polish asked.

“I literally just found out I could do this,” the blind dragoness spoke.

“Which is why practice is a good thing.” Sapphire thought for a moment before releasing that the filly might have a point. She got some more water and tried to make it into ice. However, the ball of water just stayed floating in the air as a ball of water.

“It’s not working.”

“Try thinking about something cold.” Sapphire did her best and soon started hearing cracking sounds. Soon, the ball of water started freezing in less than a minute. Sapphire carefully placed down the ball of ice. “Great job.”

“This looks quite nice,” Ruby commented. “I wonder what new power I could have.”

“Let’s show our dads what we can do,” Polish cooed. She flew off, leaving the dragons confused.

“Our dad?” they questioned. Still confused, they followed the filly while taking their ball of ice with them.

Meanwhile, with Soil and Brass, they were walking downtown. “So, you’re sure having two dragons is safe?” Brass asked.

“They’re actually nice,” Soil stated. “Sapphire even helped water the crops. Though, I feel like she might wanna be a little more gentle next time.”

“Aren’t you worried they might catch something on fire?”

“Well, only Ruby can generate fire, and she seems to have that under control.”

“What?”

“Dad! Dad!” Polish cried. She and the dragonesses raced over to them. “Sapphire just did something cool.” The dragoness then showed the two stallions the ball of ice she made.

“I think I’ve just found a new power,” Sapphire spoke.

“Incredible,” Soil commented.

“Wait, by new power,” Brass spoke.

“She means that she’s never done this before until now,” Ruby spoke.

“And I just released she is riding a tornado to make her fly.”

“Yeah, it’s quite shocking,” Soil admitted.

“Do you think that Ruby’s getting a new power?” Polish asked.

“I doubt it,” the floating dragoness admitted.

Sapphire was worried if any ponies were looking at them. She used her echolocation to see who was staring but she found something else that was shocking to her. She could sense a mare being carried away by some creatures that were in similar shape to her and Ruby.

She pointed into the air, Ruby and the ponies were shocked to see Fresh Milk being carried away by two dragons. “Milk!” Soil cried.

Brass flew up towards the dragons, who could see him coming. One of the dragons held onto Milk as the other dive-bombed the pegasus. Seeing that Brass was most likely going to be injured, Ruby flew up and used her air power to help slow them down.

The dragon saw the dragoness and flew over to her, ignoring the pegasus. The two dragons started getting into a fight as Sapphire could hear them. She tried launching a couple of stones at them, but because of their distance, the mysterious dragon just dodged them.

Then, Sapphire thought of what she did a few moments ago. She stood still for a moment before lifting the ground beneath her. She created a makeshift board and started floating up to help Ruby.

The dragon carrying Milk soon started flying away as the one fighting Ruby would get some more trouble as Sapphire flew up to him. She had also brought her ball of ice with her and smashed it against the mysterious dragon. Green ooze started coming from the dragon’s face like blood as he was blasted with Ruby’s fire.

Using her earth board, Sapphire surrounded the dragon with it and trapped him in a ball. Unfortunately, this meant Sapphire had nothing to hold her up and started free falling. Luckily, Ruby was able to catch her and they brought the trapped dragon down to the ground safely.

“Where’s Milk?” Soil asked.

“The dragon carrying her must’ve gotten away,” Ruby sighed. The stallion felt quite upset.

“I think we managed to catch one of them though,” Sapphire said. She opened up the ball of dirt, but inside they were surprised to see nothing but green sludge. “What the?”

“Where is it?” Soil questioned.

“He was in there a minute ago,” Ruby stated.

“Let’s get back to the question of where my wife is now.”

“Where’s my dad?” Polish asked. Brass wasn’t with the group.

The pegasus was actually flying after the dragon carrying Milk. The flying thief saw him and quickly flew down the ground. He set the mare down before flying over to Brass and smacking him in the face. “Back off!” the dragon ordered.

“Grn,” Brass cringed. “What are you going to do for here?”

“Just holding her for a ransom.” The dragon then handed a piece of paper to the stallion before flying over to Milk, who was trying to run away. The dragon picked the mare up and flew off again. Brass took a look at the note and flew back to tell his friends.

They met up at the farm, which was quite torn up. Brass showed the ponies and dragons the note he was given.

“You have something that belongs to me. Bring the girls to the location on this map, and the mare will live.”

“What does that mean?” Polish asked.

“I think he means us,” Sapphire spoke.

“...Who’s he?” Soil asked.

“The stallion that created us. The one that had us in tubes to grow bigger, the one who always had us train, and I think he wants more of us.”

“That sounds terrible,” Polish said.

“It does, but I don’t know what he’s going to do to Milk,” Ruby said. She took a look at the map and flew up to get a sense of direction.

“What are you doing?” Soil asked.

Ruby floated back down. “We’re going to turn ourselves in so Milk will be safe.”

“You can’t do that,” Polish said.

“If we don’t, Milk will be in trouble,” Ruby said. “She’s a good a mare that doesn’t deserve what’s coming to her. We’ll try and make sure that they’ll bring her back safely.”

“Girls, please,” Soil said.

“Milk is a nice mare. We’re going to get her back safely.” Ruby floated off to where the map told her to go with Sapphire following shortly behind. The farm pony and the pegasi stayed behind, knowing talking them out would be futile.

Sapphire used her echolocation and floating platform to catch up with Ruby. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.

“Sapphire, we don’t have much of a choice,” Ruby stated. “If we don’t do this, Milk could get hurt.”

“But... They’re so nice.”

“I know. That’s why we need to do this.” Ruby held Sapphire’s claw and they kept flying to the location on the map.

Milk was chained to a wall with some dragons watching her. The stallion that created the dragons looked down at her. “What are you going to do with me?” Milk asked.

“If those dragons show up, nothing,” the stallion replied. “If they don’t... Well... Some of these dragons are in need of a practice run.” The mare looked at the dragons and started figuring out what he meant by that. The stallion teleported outside and could see two figures flying towards him. One was red and the other was blue.

“There he is,” Ruby said. The two dragons landed in front of the stallion.

“I see you’ve learned a couple of tricks.”

“Where’s Milk?” Sapphire asked.

“She’s inside. Let me show you.” He teleported the three of them inside, startling Milk.

“Girls!” she gasped. The two dragoness didn’t say anything as the stallion started releasing Milk from the chains.

“Alright, now. You leave.”

“But... What about them?”

“These two aren’t going anywhere. They’ve been exposed, so we might have to have a little rest in the tubes.” Ruby shuttered at this comment.

“Y-you can’t do that. They’re just children.”

“Teenagers, probably. Still, they require some work.”

“You’re a terrible pony. How dare you...”

“Listen!” the stallion’s tone flipped on a bit. “I’ve spent years working on these dragons. If you think I’m going to let somepony like you throw all my work down the train, you have another thing coming.”

“Hey, don’t talk to her like that,” Sapphire said.

“Silence!” At this shout, the girls were grabbed a couple of dragons to keep them from moving. Ruby and Sapphire tried using the elemental powers, but the dragons kept using them against the girls, except for one.

Sapphire managed to use her new ice abilities to push the dragons back. With them off guard, Ruby used her wind to launch her into the air. The stallion growled in frustration before he used his magic to force the two onto the floor. He then got some earmuffs and placed them on Sapphire so she couldn’t use her echolocation.

He then proceeded to move the blind dragoness across the room. “I had a feeling that you’d fight back,” the stallion commented. “These earmuffs I made in my off time. They should keep her in line.”

“Let her go,” Ruby demanded.

“I’m your creator. You do as I say. I made you and I just as well deconstruct you. Like that dragon, you decided to fight.”

“What?”

“His DNA was unstable as I let him out too early. You and the other subject, on the other hand, much better project.”

“Her name is Sapphire.”

“Did I ask for her name? You and all the other dragons are my creations. Unless you want to become a puddle of goo, you’ll do as I say.” With that, he forced Ruby into a tube, closed it, and then started filling it up with water.

Ruby tried using her fire and wind to break the glass open, but she couldn’t. Sapphire couldn’t hear a single thing through her earmuffs, so she couldn’t do anything. The trapped dragoness didn’t like being stuck in the tube and she didn’t want to figure out what the stallion was going to do to her. She could hear some sparking sounds and suddenly, lightning shot out of her claws and struck the stallion right in the face.

This sent him flying backward and making him let go of Sapphire. When he let go, the earmuffs were knocked off the dragoness. Ruby’s lightning had broken through the glass tube, allowing her to get out. Ruby looked towards the stallion, who now had a lightning scar going down from his face all the way to his forehooves.

“Get them!” he ordered. The rest of the dragons started to attack Ruby and Sapphire, and Milk was stuck in the middle of the crossfire. Ruby had to learn how to use her new lightning powers fast as she floated around to try and avoid getting hit by the dragons.

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” Sapphire cried.

“But we can’t,” Ruby said, “He’s the only one who can let us out.” The two found they couldn’t stay inside forever. The stallion’s dragons were starting to overwhelm them. “We’re going to have to break out of here.”

Both dragonesses made their way to where the exit was. Sapphire used her earth manipulation while Ruby used her lightning abilities. The door started getting weaker, but so were the girls. They eventually stopped to catch their breath, which gave the stallion the opportunity to grab them.

“That’s it,” he growled, “You two will be melted down. I had such high hopes for you.”

Milk was put to the side as the girls were the main targets at the moment. That gave the mare the chance to run up and tackle the stallion, making him let go of the girls. This anger the stallion and ended up smacking the mare in the face.

“How. Dare. You,” Ruby growled. Fire and lightning started generating from her claws as Sapphire raced over to Milk to form a dome of stone around them. This would quite handy as Ruby created a large blast that sent the stallion flying back, breaking the door open, and injuring several other dragons.

The red dragoness panted after her blast as Sapphire lowered her dome. She and Milk were completely intact and the saw that Ruby was completely worn out. Milk ran over and placed the tired dragoness on her before she and Sapphire ran out of the lab, leaving behind the stallion, his dragons, and the remains of his lab.

Ruby groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. She felt she was lying on something soft. Her vision started to return as she found she was back in the bedroom at the farm. This bed was a little different from the one she and Sapphire shared the night before.

There was an identical bed that Ruby was lying on sitting right next to her. Sapphire was sitting on it as she heard the red dragoness waking up. “Good, you’re awake,” the blind dragoness sighed.

“Are we back at the farm?” Ruby questioned.

“We are. Soil and Milk are waiting downstairs.” Ruby used her wind abilities to carry herself downstairs, following Sapphire to the living room.

“Ruby, you’re okay,” Milk sighed. “I would’ve felt so guilty.”

“I’m... A little confused,” Ruby admitted.

“Well, Milk said that we wouldn’t last long at the lab,” Sapphire said. “So, we agreed we live here.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Rich Soil said. “You’ll be living with us. If that’s okay with you.”

“...It is,” Ruby responded. “Anything’s gotta be better than staying at the lab.”

“We were hoping you would say that,” Milk said. “By the way, we also got you this.” She walked out of the room for a moment before returning with a wheelchair. “We figured that you would get tired of constantly using your powers to just get around. This will be a good substitute.”

Ruby sat down on and grabbed the wheels and pushed them to make her move. “I think I could get used to this,” she said.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“How about we try and get to know the ponies in town now?” Soil suggested.

“Okay,” Sapphire said. The ponies and dragons left the farm as Ruby got used to her new wheels.

“You know, I’ve been trying to think of some other names for you,” Milk said.

“What do you mean by that?” the dragons asked.

“We weren’t aware of your powers when we first met, so we thought we would give you second names.”

“Kind of like how you’re called Milk, even though your full name is Fresh Milk?” Sapphire asked.

“Exactly. We were thinking of Ruby Sparks and Sapphire Flow.”

“I like the sound of that,” Ruby commented.

“That’s good,” Soil said. The four carried on into town with a new family relationship.

Elsewhere, there was some grumbling as a stallion with a new metal leg walked by some large tubes containing some dragons ranging from infancy to young adults.

“I don’t care how many times I fail,” he said, “I’m going to have the ultimate army.”

“So, what do you think?” Peridot asked.

“Well,” Sandbar said, “I feel like the villain might need some work.”

“We didn’t want to reveal too much of him at first,” Emerald said. “Imagine if they did that about the Mane-iac.”

Sandbar then thought for a second. “Yeah. Fair point.”

“I like the duality of Ruby and Sapphire,” Ocellus commented.

“I have to admit,” Moss said. “I think the naming was kind of clumsy.”

“Yeah, I think those got away from us while we were trying to write the story,” Peridot admitted.

“I’m sure you were just trying to write a good story,” Sandbar remarked.

“That’s true. So, who’s next?” Tanzanite asked.

“Let’s find out,” Discord said. He pulled his horn again and the chairs lit up. This time, the light stopped at Kelpie’s chair.

“Yes,” the hippogriff cheered, pumping his fist. He quickly showed a picture of a hippogriff, or rather three. One was small and sitting next to some ants, one was gigantic as it stood next to Canterlot castle, and one was normal size.

The hippogriff was yellow with a black mane, white beak, talons, and hooves. His costume consisted of a yellow and blue jumpsuit with a matching helmet that covered his face, some gloves, and boots.

“This is Scope,” he explained. “As you can see, he can change his size to make himself bigger or smaller.”

“I like this already,” Discord commented. “Now, how did he get these powers?” Kelpie soon started explaining the origins of this hippogriff.