A “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” Fanfiction

Written by Jade Dawn

“Ha-la, Kal-El?”

He was hearing the voices again, echoing whispers in gray, formless void. He spun around in a circle, ears turning in all directions, trying to find the speaker.

“I-I hear you!” Dawning Hope called out. “Where are you?”

“Na-vida, Kal-El! Na-vida, raash wa seda!”

“I’ll find you!” Dawning cried out again. “I’ll find you soon, I promise! I know where you are, I’m coming for you!”

“Kal-El?”

From behind. A stallion’s voice, gentle and meek like his own.

Dawning turned. Where he could have sworn there was just formless darkness but a second ago, there was now a pair of pony-like figures, standing dark and blurred like silhouettes in mist. Shrouded but for their eyes, which glowed like twin sapphires in each.

Exactly the same color as Dawning’s eyes.

Dawning froze. This was new. He’d heard the voices plenty of times before, but never had seen anyone else in his dreams. “Who…who are you?” he gingerly asked, half afraid to hear an answer.

“Na-vida, Kal-El,” one of the figures said in the stallion’s voice, quiet and…mournful?

And then the world suddenly flashed green, and the faces of the dark, blue-eyed figures suddenly became screaming skulls–

And Dawning Hope snapped upright in his bed with a sharp gasp, shuddering all over. He held a hoof to his chest, pushing aside the icicle-like crystal hanging around his neck as he felt his heart beating like a drum beneath his ribs. He took deep breaths to steady himself, and slowly felt his heartbeat slow back to normal. Yet even so, the shivers that ran through his body stubbornly persisted for all his efforts to still himself, the final horrifying second of his dream burned into his brain.

What was that…

He’d never before heard any voice that he could specifically identify as an individual. He’d never even seen anything in one of those dreams, pony or otherwise. They had always been vague, more sound and thought than sight and feel. Why had tonight suddenly been different?

And at the end, why…

Dawning shut his eyes and shook his head, trying to clear the image of twin skeletal visages out of his mind. You’re anxious, he told himself. Just anxious about tonight, that’s all. But it won’t be like that. It won’t.

Dawning took the crystal in his hoof and held it up, turning it over and around slightly, watching it shine in the moonlight from his bedroom window. “I meant what I said,” he whispered to it–why, he didn’t exactly know, he wasn’t even sure if it could “hear” him. “I’m going to find you. I promise.”

Dawning didn’t bother dressing in his usual daily attire; just his glasses and saddlebags, now containing solely his Supermane outfit and the crystal. He wouldn’t need much else for tonight, Faust willing. He made sure his bags were packed and his room locked, then headed for the stairs down to the ground floor.

He could’ve easily just flown out the window again. It would’ve gotten him where he needed to go faster. But for whatever reason that he couldn’t immediately identify, he felt like walking. The halls and stairwell were peacefully empty, with most of the tenement’s denizens asleep in their rooms by now. The building was quiet…except to Dawning, whose ears picked up the breaths and heartbeats of dozens of resting ponies.

The tiny lobby was equally deserted, save for just one pony; Restful Lodgings, leaning back in the chair at the reception desk with a book in her hooves, sitting beneath the solitary glow of a desk lamp. Her ears perked up and she lifted her head as Dawning passed by. “Awfully late to be going out, isn’t it, Dawning?” she asked, with a tone of voice that was almost maternal.

Dawning shrugged. “It’s for an assignment. I won’t be long.”

“You take care of yourself out there, you hear?”

Dawning nodded, and without another word headed out the door.

Restful leaned back in her seat with a sigh as she watched him go. She liked Dawning Hope. He was a good tenant, always well behaved, always paid his rent on time. But she worried about him and his nightly outings, especially over the past week as Supermane seemed to have taken Manehattan by storm.

Of course she knew Dawning Hope was Supermane. She’d known for a few months now, ever since just happening to catch a glimpse of a cloaked pony leaping out of a window in her building. But Dawning seemed to prefer to keep that part of his life to himself–and Restful couldn’t find herself blaming him–so she simply kept quiet about it and pretended not to know. It just felt like the respectful thing to do.

He’s such a good boy, Restful thought to herself. Sticking his neck way out for us like he does. I just hope he’s handling it well. Can’t imagine the kind of pressure he must be under right now…

There were only a fleeting few ponies, walking alone or in little groups, still traversing the streets of Manehattan at this hour of night lit by moonlight, street lamps, and the lighted windows of the buildings rising up all around. The air had been feeling a touch cooler after the previous day’s rain, and the breeze that blew across Dawning’s fur gave him goosebumps–or maybe that’s just my nerves, he thought to himself.

Dawning still wasn’t sure why he’d chosen to walk instead of fly. He thought maybe he just wanted to look up at the stars as he went, wondering once again where home was. But as he walked, he slowly realized he wasn’t looking up at the stars. He was looking at the city; the buildings, the ponies, all of it all around him. He was feeling the worn sidewalks beneath his hooves, hearing the sounds of the city and its denizens coalescing into a single, pulsing heartbeat.

And suddenly it became clear in Dawning’s mind. He was going to miss Manehattan. He’d only lived here for half a year at best–longer than he’d been in most places, granted–and it wasn’t “home” the same way Smallville had always felt. But he’d grown accustomed to living here, to the city’s sights and sounds, to his daily routines. To his fellow citizens.

To Lucky. To Quicksnap. To everyone.

He was going to miss them. He was going to miss all of this. He wasn’t sure what he’d find when he got to the ship, but he’d always assumed that it might lead him to returning to whatever homeworld had sent him to Equus. He’d always been prepared for that possibility. But now, on the threshold of getting what he hoped would be the answers to all his questions, he felt torn.

Maybe if I’d told them myself, way earlier…took a chance trusting Lucky to keep it between us…maybe I could’ve at least said goodbye and…

He sighed. He was way past that point now. Nowhere to go but forward.

Dawning continued on his way up to Central Park. At this time of night it was deserted, the winding empty paths lit in patches by yellowed lamps, the moon-silhouetted branches of trees taking on a more eerie appearance than they did during the day. Despite the absence of pedestrians, the air was filled with the sounds of nightly life. Leave rustling in the breeze, hooting owls, chirping insects, fluttering bat wings–

Dawning’s ears perked up as he heard the flapping of feathers and something alighting in the grass behind him, much larger than a bird. “Fluttershy?” Dawning whispered as he turned.

“No, it’s me. Quicksnap.” Indeed, Dawning now saw, it was the young hippogriff. Along with the camera bag he usually carried with him on assignments, he was dressed in a black hoodie, pants, and a beanie that obscured his feathery crest. Quicksnap shuffled uncomfortably, looking down at himself. “This feels so wrong…” he murmured miserably. “I feel like a crook. Like the kind of guy that…well, that you would drag in."

Dawning frowned, not happy at seeing him so uncomfortable.

“But…” Quicksnap went on. “If it’ll help you stop Lex and find where you came from, I…I can live with it.”

“I…” Dawning hesitated, unsure of how to properly respond. “…thank you,” he finally answered, though he felt that was inadequate.

Quicksnap came up alongside Dawning, and the two continued down the path beside one another. “Dawning?” he asked. “Um…maybe it’s too early to ask, but…w-whatever we end up finding down there, whatever happens to you, wherever you go, um…” He shuffled his wings. “…d-don’t forget about us, alright?”

Dawning stiffened. His mind raced back two years to Smallville. The train station. Woven and Flax. “Whoever you turn out to be, wherever you came from…don’t forget about us back down here, okay?”

Oh Faust, Dawning thought. Woven, Flax…Ma. Pa. I haven’t even written them back to tell them what’s happened since…gosh, since the Lexpo.

He looked back at Quicksnap's sad, almost pleading expression, and he felt his guts squirm with guilt; he’d never answered him the day before, he realized. “Quicksnap,” he said. “What you asked yesterday, I meant to tell you…I have enjoyed knowing you. I don’t want you thinking that part wasn’t true.”

Quicksnap did a double take, his face a mixture of surprise and relieved elation. “Y-you mean it?”

“Of course I do,” Dawning replied. “I…look, what I said yesterday, the…the ‘not one of you’ part, I don’t mean like I look down on everyone else, I wouldn’t dream of that. I just…well I don’t feel like I…”

What Dawning was going to say was “like I fit in here”. Instead, Fluttershy’s words from yesterday once again echoed in his mind.

You don’t need to cut yourself off from the world because of what you are. You don’t have to be alone.

“Um, Dawning?” Quicksnap said. “Don’t mean to cut you off, but we’re here.”

“Hm? Oh, uh, right, right…”

The two turned off the path and out of the street lamps’ yellow glow, stepping through the grass of the park until they came to a little cluster of trees, their canopy providing a patch of shadow beneath the moonlight. Beneath this shroud were the rest of the little group. Lucky Lead, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all wore dark, concealing outfits similar to Quicksnap’s. The sole exception was Rarity, who was instead wearing an elegant black dress, accessorized with a gleaming pearl necklace, and a silver tiara atop her tied-back mane.

The little group had been whispering among themselves, but went silent as Dawning and Quicksnap entered beneath the shadows. Dawning paused, looking back at each member of the group, but in particular at Fluttershy and Lucky. Both mares matched his gaze in return, but in different ways. Fluttershy still looked at him with a sense of pity and guilt. Lucky’s was more complicated. She still regarded him with a glare of betrayal, but deep within her eyes he saw something else too. Sadness? Shame? He wasn’t sure; beneath the stoic, purse-lipped glare, she looked as though she was feeling a bit of everything.

They hadn’t gotten around to properly talking about yesterday’s events, at least not on a personal level. The day had been spent primarily planning their raid on LexCorp. Purely business. Nopony had brought it up, but the tensions and raw feelings of the day before still lingered in each of their hearts.

The awkward silence hung over them, feeling like the atmosphere had somehow solidified into ice, until Dawning willed himself to break it.

“So…” he said, unslinging his saddlebags and pulling out his shirt and cloak. “We all know what we’re doing?”

As one, the group nodded, reciting their roles one after the other. “Quicksnap and I look for dirt on Lex,” Lucky said.

“I keep watch,” Rainbow added.

“You and I try to find your ship,” said Fluttershy.

“And I attend the charity ball and provide a distraction,” Rarity finished. Even despite the serious mood, she couldn’t help but tilt her head just a bit, letting her necklace catch the moonlight and her mane sway in the breeze.

As Dawning finished slipping into his shirt, he paused. “…look, you don’t have to put yourselves on the line like this. I can do it myself, nopony else has to take the fall but me if things go wrong. If anyone wants to back out–”

“Let’s just…” Lucky interrupted curtly, before pausing abruptly as she gave Dawning another look. When she resumed, her voice wasn’t necessarily gentle, but it was at least a small degree softer. “...let’s get it done.”

Dawning looked around to each of the others. As one, they all nodded in silent solidarity.

“…alright, then,” Dawning sighed, slipping his cloak over himself. “Let’s do it.”

“Déjà vu here in Manehattan this evening as the city once again plays host to a high profile, high society event. This time it’s LexCorp’s charity ball, with all the proceeds being set to go towards repairing the damages left by the Bronclyn bridge disaster and the Constitution hijacking. As a matter of fact, several attendees were victims of the Constitution attack. Additionally, extra donations have been pouring in from all over the country to aid in reconstruction and damage control, even from as high up as the Crown itself.

“Obviously since recent events, there have been a number of concerns raised about the security of this event, but LexCorp’s Public Relations department has quickly and enthusiastically reassured the citizens of Manehattan that top-tier LexCorp security will be in place. Faust willing, this will be one party that nopony will be breaking into this time.”

“Rarity, Rarity, Rarity…” murmured the young guardspony as he looked over the guest list. “Ah, there you are. Sorry, took a moment to find you on the list.”

“Oh that’s quite alright, darling,” Rarity replied with a light-hearted chuckle. “I was a bit of a last-minute sign-up.”

“Well, you’re cleared, so…” The guard lit up his horn, and the velvet rope barrier stretched across the entrance to the LexCorp Plaza lifted aside. “Enjoy the party.”

“Thank you kindly, darling,” Rarity smiled as she passed by. She thought she caught him blushing slightly, but between the green-and-black LexCorp Security armor he wore, and her own general tension, she found herself not quite as amused as she normally would’ve been.

Passing through the gates, Rarity found herself mostly unsurprised by the vast, sprawling scene that now occupied the center of the LexCorp Plaza. Once more the place had been redecorated for public use–albeit semi-public in this case–but with far more extravagance and class. Spotlights projected rays of shimmering white light into the void of the night sky above, like at a theater or some other grand venue. There were glowing amber lanterns strung all about from poles erected across the plaza, providing a warm, relaxing glow to the area. Tapestries and banners were hung from the sides of the plaza’s buildings or between the poles, some as general artistic decor, others bearing the Equestrian flag–For a patriotic touch, Rarity supposed. Dozens and dozens of seating arrangements had been set up, and off to the sides were much longer tables laden with a buffet of foods and desserts. There must have been no less than forty cakes spread out amongst each of the food tables. The centermost area of the plaza was cleared out and empty, allowing the patrons to dance at their leisure to a live orchestral band on the stage where Tech Lexicon himself had spoken days before.

It all felt familiar to her, in more ways than one. Never mind her extensive experience of mingling with various socialites over the years; only a few days ago there had been the Constitution. It wasn’t just the tension of playing distraction that held her nerves, not after how that night had gone.

But at least LexCorp seemed to be living up to its promises of maximum security. The guardsponies at the gate were far from the only guards out and about tonight; all along the walls of the plaza, inside and out, small squads of armored and assault rifle-armed LexCorp security troopers marched from one end to the other, vigilantly watching over the guests and beyond. In the air amidst the bright spotlights, thin red beams of lasers glowed as they crisscrossed the sky. At intervals along the walls, and even mounted atop certain buildings, were large, bulky missile turrets, slowly rotating this way and that like gigantic pairs of binoculars, scanning the sky for incoming threats.

Everyone else probably felt put at ease by all the weaponry. Rarity, for her own part, found herself worrying all the more for her companions. Dawning might be able to navigate past them, she thought to herself, trying to tackle her worries. He’s fast enough and he’s accustomed to moving with stealth. But the others…can they all make it through? Oh Celestia, maybe this was a bad idea after all…

She took a breath. Just mingle, Rarity, she told herself. You know very well how to carry yourself at parties. Do your part. Trust in your friends to do theirs.

“Miss Rarity?” It was Mayor Policy approaching her through the crowd. “Why I’m…well, I’ll be frank, I’m a little surprised to see you out this evening after…well…”

Rarity chuckled lightly. “And miss the chance to contribute to a worthy cause and rub elbows with Manehattan’s finest? I should think not!”

“Hey, Squad Three, Overwatch here, you read me?”

“Overwatch, this is Squad Three, what’s up?”

“You mind looking that way?”

“Beg your pardon?”

“We just got a blip on the radar here, real fast, came and went between sweeps before we could get a good look at it. Should’ve passed right over you. You guys seen anything out there?”

“Uh, no. Did you? How about you? No, we haven’t. Just a breeze just before you checked in. Think it might’ve been your bogey?”

“Buck if I know. I mean, it could’ve been a bird or something…but look, keep an eye out, and if you see anything weird you check it in ASAP. Mr. Lexicon is real high strung over this whole Supermane thing and he’ll have our hides if something slips past.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice. We’ll keep an eye out. Over and out.”

There was very little polish to the maintenance corridors beneath the surface of the LexCorp Plaza. They were all dim lighting just bright enough to functionally see in, grated floors, and clusters of pipes and conduits running up and down the labyrinth of tunnels throughout the complex, feeding the laboratories and essential systems. For the most part, the maintenance tunnels were untraversed save for technicians making the occasional routine check or to patch some system that needed repair or upgrading, leaving them empty with the ambience of running gas or liquids in the pipes, and the dull electronic drone of wires and the lights.

The ambience of one such corridor was broken by a sizzling buzz as a glowing dot of superheated metal appeared in the ceiling. It moved around in a wide, circular course, raining little droplets of molten metal on the floor below, at last stopping once it had looped back around to its starting point. With a brief screech of sliding metal, the circular cutout fell to the floor with a heavy thud that echoed down the corridor, letting a beam of moonlight shine down.

One after another, the party of infiltrators dropped down into the corridor. First Dawning Hope, with Fluttershy and Lucky clinging to his sides beneath his cape, then followed by Rainbow Dash, holding on to Quicksnap. As they all let go of one another and stepped onto the corridor floor, they breathed a sigh of collective relief.

“Are you sure we got past the guards, Dawning?” Fluttershy asked, panting for breath.

“I hope so,” Dawning answered as he hefted the cut piece of ceiling over his head, and floated up to it back into the hole. “I tried my best to time our leap between radar sweeps, so hopefully we were fast enough to not get picked up. At least not for long enough to be noticed.”

“So like, you can actually see radar?” Rainbow asked.

“Mhm,” Dawning nodded without looking. Instead he concentrated his eyes on heating the seam between the cutout and the rest of the ceiling. “Radio, infrared, ultraviolet, I can see all of that if I want to.”

“Awesome,” Rainbow said, sounding genuinely impressed.

Finally Dawning finished wielding the ceiling back shut, lowering back to the ground. “I just hope I didn’t cut any vital circuits…” He muttered.

“You don’t have, like, electric vision too?” Lucky asked.

Given her mood, Dawning wasn’t quite sure if her question was sincere or sardonic, but he opted to answer earnestly anyway. “Afraid not.”

“What about your ship?” Quicksnap asked. “See anything that looks remotely, uh…spaceship-y?”

Dawning decided to check; peeling away the surrounding walls with his x-ray vision, he searched for anything that might look remotely extraterrestrial in origin. But alas, just a few levels down from them, the lead barrier was still there, obscuring all but the laboratories most immediately under the surface. “No,” he sighed. “Still not through the shielding yet. We’ll have to go deeper in.”

“Great,” grumbled Lucky. “Combing through a technological maze for an alien UFO and incriminating corporate dirt. This is gonna be a cakewalk.”

“We should get to walking on that cake, then,” Fluttershy said. “Um, in a manner of speaking, I mean.”

“Well, Dawning?” said Rainbow. “You’re the one with the x-ray eyes. Lead the way.”

Dawning took a breath. “Alright…let’s go,” he finally said, stepping in front of the others and taking point down into the industrial labyrinth of LexCorp.

“And I just said that of course Bright Moon would just send a check and her regards, she hasn’t shown her face in public for years. An utter recluse, that one. Her parents would have shown up in person for sure, Faust rest their souls, but their little Bright…poor thing never did grow up quite right after Crime Alley, I don’t think…”

“Oh, of course, it’s quite tragic,” Rarity nodded. In truth though, she was only half-listening. She barely even remembered the name of the mare she was currently chitchatting with.

Were it any other occasion, Rarity would be throwing herself into the social life of the party with gusto. The fashions, the gossip, all of it she would have gladly allowed herself to melt into for a while. But despite her best efforts and commitment, she found it hard to take her mind off the task of her compatriots. She kept taking quick glances at the roving patrols, the spinning radar dishes, the rotating turrets, as if she expected them to light up with gunfire at intruders at any moment.

If only I had somepony else up here with me to shoulder it, she thought to herself. I should have asked one of them to stay, either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash at least.

And then suddenly across the crowd, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar color palette, a familiar mane and tail cut, a familiar stature, a familiar broken horn. Tempest Shadow. She’d long since traded in her Storm King Armada armor plating, now wearing the dark blue suit and black tie of a military official. Her back was turned to Rarity, but it seemed she was engaged in conversation; Rarity just couldn’t tell with whom.

“Actually, um, do you mind if I excuse myself?” Rarity said politely to the other mare. “There’s somepony I’ve been looking to talk with all night.”

“Huh?” The other mare blinked, like she needed a second to catch up; she looked like she’d been more focused on merely talking than talking with Rarity. “Oh, um, sure, if you must.” She sounded a little miffed that her stream of gossip had been curtailed. Nonetheless, Rarity gave her a polite nod and hurried off, weaving through the crowd.

Truthfully, she didn’t know Tempest that well. Out of all of the Elements, Twilight was really the one closest to her; certainly close and trusting enough to appoint her as Captain of the Royal Guard, which in turn would make her responsible for overseeing all of the upcoming renovations to the armed forces. Reformed though she may have been, she still retained a no-nonsense, straightforward air about her, and Rarity knew she wasn’t one for idle chitchat.

Still, at least she was a familiar face. Maybe Rarity couldn’t confide everything she and her friends were up to to her just yet, but perhaps talking with somepony she at least somewhat knew would take some of the edge off of her tension–

Then she saw with whom she was actually talking with and screeched to a halt in as discreet and ladylike a fashion as she could manage.

Tech Lexicon and Merciful Grace. Or more specifically, it was to Lex himself whom Tempest was speaking with; Mercy stood behind her employer as silent and at attention as Tempest’s personal guards.

A shudder went down Rarity’s spine. She’d been hoping to avoid him as much as she could, and yet now she’d gone and practically blundered right into him.

“…very happy to have such a large donation from the Princess,” Lex was saying, sounding pleased. “Truly, I’m very happy to have your support.”

“Don’t read too deep into it, Mr. Lexicon,” Tempest answered. It was hard for Rarity to discern if she was just talking in her usual tone of voice or if she sounded especially disinterested in Lex. “The check is solely for the charity drive and I’m only here to deliver it in lieu of Twilight Sparkle’s inability to attend and with her regards. This isn’t any sort of favoritism. You’ll have to wait for your contract review like everypony else in line.”

“But of course,” Lex replied, waving it off as though it was a silly insinuation she was making. “Though I will say, I am looking forward to giving the Royal Guard a grand tour of our Guardian Angel products. Forgive me a little presumption, but I think you’ll find them quite enticing.”

“We’ll see about that,” Tempest said, unflinching as a stone. “Your company’s technologies are advanced, that much is true. Some might even call them ‘over-engineered’, or ‘too expensive to be practical.’ You’d better have some good reasons why we should buy one of your laser-armed mech walkers when we could buy half a dozen tanks from Crystaller for half the price.”

“Oh, come now, Captain Shadow,” Lex said with a smile. “You’re a soldier by trade, aren’t you? Surely you understand the merits of having a tactical advantage over one’s enemies, potential or otherwise. Perhaps it might help your decision making to consider the future.”

“And it might help you to work on a better pitch. You can spin up all the press and hype you want to the average pony, you tell them how much safer Equestria will be with a LexCorp gun in every guardspony’s hooves…but it’s the job of ponies like me to think a little bit harder about what actually will work out the best for this country’s wellbeing.” She paused, as though she wanted what she said next to stick. “And your involvement in that is not guaranteed.”

Lex’s smile was unwavering, but something rippled almost unseen through his face. A flinch, a twitch. Something that wanted to be much louder than that, something that he fought back to keep within. “Well,” he said, pleasant as ever. “Nothing is set in stone, that much is true. Well just have to, ah…wait and see, hm?” He straightened himself up, adjusted his tie. “Regardless, tell the Princess for me that I appreciate her donation. I’ll see to it that it goes forward to where her people need it most.”

Without further word to Lex, and with a nod to her guards, Tempest turned away, her escort following close on either side of her. She hadn’t walked far when she spotted Rarity, stopping and raising her eyebrows as if mildly surprised to see her.

Rarity, for her own part, smiled in some small relief at seeing a familiar face. “Why, Tempest!” she said cheerily. “What a surprise to see you here this evening, darling!”

“I could say the same of you,” Tempest replied. She didn’t smile–she rarely did–but Rarity could sense a positive note in her speech. Tempest took a step closer, dropping her voice just a bit lower. “How’s your business in Manehattan been going?”

Of course, Rarity thought. She wasn’t sure how many others in Twilight’s inner circle at Canterlot knew of their clandestine mission to Manehattan, but it stood to reason that she would at least tell Tempest about it. For a moment, Rarity was tempted to tell her everything they had learned, but especially about Lex.

But just over Tempest’s shoulder she could see him right there, maybe too far away to hear them too closely, but his eyes were squarely on her, and that was enough to get her to think more sensibly.

“Oh, just wonderful,” Rarity casually replied. “It’s going very well. Thank you for asking.”

To Rarity’s relief, Tempest didn’t press further. Instead, she just gave her a polite but silent nod, and continued on away with her escort.

“I must say, I’m quite surprised to see you myself.”

Somehow, by some feat of self-restraint, Rarity suppressed the urge to jump at hearing Tech Lexicon’s voice right behind her, and willed himself to turn around. Lex hadn’t changed much since she had last seen him in person. He was wearing a much dapper-looking tuxedo compared to his usual business suit, and his curly red mane looked a bit neater, but it was still the same Tech Lexicon she had met days ago at the Lexpo. The same confident, charming, green-eyed face.

Everything about him was the same.

Except for what she now knew of him and his dirty little secrets.

“I thought that after the Constitution,” Lex continued in a voice as smooth as oil. “You’d be a bit more…reluctant to attend public events in Manehattan.”

“Moi? Pass up a high-class charity event?” Rarity beamed back at him, smoothly pasting on a mask of charm to cover up the squirming nausea in her guts. “You must have me confused with somepony else, Mr. Lexicon. Besides, darling, I faced down Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow all at once. Some would-be robbers don’t frighten me. And of course, Supermane was there to help.”

For a fraction of a second, Rarity could have sworn she saw a flash of envy in Lex’s green eyes. “Yes, well…thank Faust for small mercies, hm?”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Incidentally where are your friends tonight?” Lex asked “I’d have thought that Fluttershy would wish to make an appearance, at the least. I know she’s fond of charity work as well.”

“I’m afraid that she…” Rarity’s mind raced as she tried to come up with an excuse. “She was more rattled by the attack on the Constitution than she let on,” Rarity finally said. “Poor dear, she was too frightened to risk another public event that ended in catastrophe. And Rainbow Dash was entirely disinclined to attend yet another ‘snooty black-tie’ event that would have required her to dress up, so she volunteered to stay and keep Fluttershy company.”

“Ah, I see,” Lex nodded. “I admit, I’m rather disappointed; I was hoping that I could get them to advocate Princess Twilight on my behalf regarding my business.”

“Oh, do tell me more about that, Mister Lexicon,” Rarity said, fixing a smile of polite interest onto her face. “Princess Twilight is always intrigued by new scientific developments.”

The orchestra suddenly started up a lively waltz which made Lex’s ears perk up. “Perhaps over a dance, Miss Rarity?” He extended a hoof graciously. “If you’d care to, that is.”

Rarity would have rather done anything but, but she remembered why she was here: Keep him distracted so the others have a chance to search the labs. Swallowing her distaste, she fixed him with a charmed smile and fluttering eyelids. “You flatter me, Mister Lexicon. Of course,” she said, taking the proffered limb.

Lex’s hoof was immaculately clean, his hold on her gentle, and she saw no gleam of lust within his eyes or smile. He carried himself as a perfect gentlestallion.

She felt like she was holding hooves with the clawed paw of a tiger that would maul her if it sensed the slightest bit of fear.

As Lex guided her towards the dance floor, Rarity caught a quick glimpse of Merciful Grace behind them. There was an envious glare on her face as she watched Rarity and Lex trot off together. Or maybe it was suspicion; Mercy’s face was about as stone cold stoic as Tempest’s. Either way, it didn’t make her feel much better.

Still, as they passed beneath the overhead lights, and as she saw Lex’s eyes glimmering beneath them, Rarity knew that she’d gotten him hooked; there is very little in the world that an egotist loves more than to talk about himself. So as they began to dance together, stepping and swaying in synchronization to the music, and as his words rushed over her in a wave of distinct noise, Rarity took some comfort in that she was doing her job; his attention was solely on boasting to her, and hopefully not at all on what might be going on in his labs far below.

The air duct that Dawning and his companions found themselves in was far more cramped than the maintenance tunnel network they had left from, all smooth, dark metal that creaked uncomfortably around them as they went, lined with bits and rows of accumulated dust along the edges and corners. They had to crawl through one after the other, with little room to stand or even to move between the walls on either side. Perpetual wafts of air-conditioned flow blew through their clothing and across their fur, giving them goosebumps, sending chills up and down their bodies, and wafting little motes of dust across their nostrils. They moved slowly and stealthily, talking only in the quietest of whispers and taking care to not make too much noise in the echoing metal tunnels.

Only Dawning moved through with any sort of ease; still at the head of the group, scanning with x-ray vision, he did not crawl, but rather hovered just a few inches above the floor of the air duct. Only the trailing ends of his cloak touched and dragged along the floor and walls as he hovered forward, silent as a ghost.

In a way he almost felt it was unfair to the others. Here he was, able to move with barely any sound, and then there was everypony else having to take great pains to be as quiet as possible. It made him feel like he was putting himself above them, somehow, and he didn’t like that feeling.

No, not “above”. Just…different.

Alone.

“Are you sure you can’t see anything that might be useful?” Rainbow asked in a hushed whisper, way back at the tail end of the group; it still echoed just a bit too loud for everyone’s liking.

Dawning shook his head, then remembered that, unlike him, she couldn’t see all the way to the other end of the line. “No,” he whispered back. “I…hang on.”

He made another sweep with his x-ray vision. There were no guards in the halls below where they were. Just up ahead in the air ducts, there was a kind of junction point where the tunnels came together, widening and opening up considerably.

“Up ahead,” he whispered. “Let’s rest here.”

The group made their way the rest of the distance until they had reached the junction, stretching their limbs as much as they could after they squeezed out of the tunnel. Sure enough, while the junction was still cramped and dark, it was at least open enough to allow the group to all fit in together with at least some wiggle room.

“No guards around,” Dawning said once they were all in. “I think we can afford to talk for a bit.”

“Okay, so,” started Lucky. “Seriously, what actually is our game plan here? Is there anything you can see that you think might give us some leads.”

“Look, I’m sorry,” Dawning replied, his voice a mixture of irritation and general stress at their lack of progress. “I can’t just look around at a whole complex like this and instantly find what I’m looking for.”

“Isn’t that literally how you found out about Girder though?” Rainbow asked.

“That was different, Rainbow, that was a few paper files in a single parked trailer. A lot easier to search through all at once.”

Fluttershy inched away from the others as they started to bicker, as much as the space of the junction would allow her. She was just near the mouth of one of the adjacent air ducts when her ears perked up at something down the tunnel. She stuck her head into the opening, listening for a moment before, unnoticed by the others, squirming down into the tunnel.

“Look, we can’t just keep wandering around aimlessly,” Lucky went on. “Or else we’re just gonna keep staggering around through vents and corridors all night or until someone finds us and then what are we going to do?”

“I know that,” answered Dawning. “But what else can we do? Unless we find something up here or get past that shielding–”

“Well gee,” Lucky snapped back. “Maybe it would’ve been nice if we’d actually thought of a more solid plan than ‘just sneak into the labs and wait for something to magically pop up!’ At this rate you might as well have just flown in and smashed through the walls without us!”

“Can we, uh, please keep the volume down?” Quicksnap asked, cringing against the wall. “Y’know, so the guards don’t find us?”

Dawning was about to say something–either a retort to Lucky or an agreement with Quicksnap, he hadn’t made up his mind yet–when he felt a hoof tap at his shoulder. It was Fluttershy. “Um, excuse me?” she said meekly. “I…think I may have found us a lead.”

Everyone went quiet, staring at her. Lucky leaned forward. “Where?”

Fluttershy nodded back at the duct she had come from. “This way. Come on, quickly. Keep quiet,” she said before ducking back into the tunnel.

Quickly, one after the other with Dawning Hope once again taking the lead, Lucky right behind him, the group followed her into the air duct, moving as fast as they could through the metal tunnel without making a sound. After a tense few moments of crawling, they came to another section where the tunnel widened out slightly, this one around a grate in the floor; or rather, in the ceiling they were overhead of.

Fluttershy crawled around to the other side of the grate, then pointed down at it and made a “shush” motion with her hoof. Cautiously and carefully, Dawning and Lucky crept forward side by side to peek through.

Below was what looked like an office mixed with a small laboratory. In the middle of the room and slightly to the left was a table bearing what looked like various instruments of science. To the right, against the wall, was a simple but wide wooden desk, laden with a desktop computer, a printer, a messy assortment of papers, crumpled styrofoam cups, and a small number of personal effects, like a few framed pictures, or a mounted diploma on the wall it stood against. Off to one side nearby, sitting atop a cart, was a large, heavy looking metallic box.

Seated by the desk was an earth pony stallion, with green fur and a blonde mane and tail, and dressed in a lab coat. He was slumped forward in his chair as he watched the printer churning out papers, his haggard face illuminated by the light of his computer monitor. He was holding an empty cup between his hooves, turning it over as he mumbled to himself.

“…some scientist you turned out to be, Green Vale,” he was saying. “All those years studying at MTI, everyone telling you ‘oh Green, you’re so bright, you’ll make a great scientist’ or…or ‘go work for LexCorp, they’d love to have somepony as brilliant as you, technology is the future, Green Vale…’” He chuckled dryly. “And what do you get for it? Working for a bucking stuck-up-his-own-ass narcissist and…and…” He suddenly pursed his lips, and abruptly, angrily crumpled up the cup in his hooves. “…plotting murder.”

Green Vale pulled back his foreleg as if he was about to hurl the destroyed cup against a wall, his body quivering…then paused, and slowly lowered his hoof and merely gave it a light toss across the floor. He spun around in his chair, leaning back and putting his head in his hooves. “Can’t even…” he mumbled. “Faust, you pathetic, spineless wimp…”

The printer beeped, and the torrent of papers ceased. Green Vale looked up from his wallowing, sighed, and leaned forward to collect the papers together, stuffing them into a manilla folder he took from the desk. He tapped a few buttons on the keyboard of his computer, then tucked the folder under the crook of one foreleg and stood up.

“Some scientist…” he mumbled as he passed out of view. “Mom would be so proud…”

The lights clicked off, there was the sound of a door opening, closing, and locking with an electronic click, and then Green Vale was gone.

For about a few seconds, no one in the air duct dared breathe, until Quicksnap spoke up from behind Dawning and Lucky. “Dawning? What do you see down there, anything he might’ve left behind?”

Dawning peered down, not just looking through the grate, but through the walls of the tunnel with x-ray vision, looking for any parts of the little office that they might not have been able to see immediately.

He was just looking in the direction of the desk when he suddenly froze, eyes widening. “…oh Faust…” he whispered.

“What?” Lucky asked. “What is it?”

Suddenly, Dawning’s eyes flared bright red, one, two, three, four times in rapid succession. The four corners of the grate flashed and sparked white hot with sudden heat, and the others cried out in alarm as they recoiled back. “Dawning, what the heck?!” Rainbow cried.

Dawning ignored her. With a kick he dislodged the grate, and dropped down into the room. His hooves had barely touched the floor before he bounded forward in a single step, cloak billowing behind him.
The others exchanged looks of worried confusion, and, one after another, dropped down through the opened grate after him, Quicksnap helping Lucky down to a smooth landing with his wings. “Dawning, for Celestia’s sake,” Lucky demanded once she was down. “What’s got you so…so…oh…”

Dawning stood before the desk, looking up at a large bulletin board on the wall, just off to the left of the computer. His eyes were wide with horror, and he stood quietly, still save for a tremble in his hooves and the sound of stressed breaths drawn in and out.

Tacked all across the board were pictures. Pictures of him. At night, in his Supermane outfit. They all looked like they were taken from a distance, but zoomed in to focus squarely on him. Some were normal color photos. Others looked like they were taken in infrared or ultraviolet, or some other form of scientific scan. There were other things tacked up on the board as well. Data charts. Printed sheets of text and figures. Hasty scribblings on sticky notes.

The others came up alongside Dawning, joining him in staring at the board’s contents as the weight of what they were looking at set in. “Oh my…” Fluttershy whispered.

Lucky leaned forward. “Wait…that’s the Bronclyn Bridge,” she said, pointing to one particular batch of photos. One was an overhead shot of Dawning approaching the burning, smoldering bridge. Another was him lifting up a chunk of one of the suspension towers. A third was of the moment the second bomb had exploded in his face within the bridge’s structure. There were notes and figures typed within each of the photos; his airspeed at the time of approach, the estimated weight of the chunk and the presumed force of his lift, the explosive yield of the bomb.

“Hey, these ones here,” Rainbow added, pointing at another set. “These look like they’re from the Constitution fight.”

Photographs and x-ray scans of Supermane battling Bronze Corsair’s pirates, aboard and within the airship. An infrared readout of his maximum projected heat vision temperature. Rainbow picked up a binder from the desk and flipped it open; inside were about ten pages worth of listings for what looked like various weapons, with notations off to the right. Some had little icons off to the left; they looked like firearms.

LXP-45 Pistol – Negligible effect

LXA-53 Submachine Gun – Negligible effect

LXR-15 Assault Rifle – Negligible effect

LXM-60 Heavy Machine Gun – Negligible effect

LXS-24 Personal Mortar Launcher – Target repelled by explosive force; no discernible long-term effect

LXB-16 Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Launcher – Target repelled by explosive force; no discernible long-term effect

LXA-102 Particle Beam Phalanx– Unknown, untested

Nirik Arcane Fire – Target experienced distress upon contact; no discernible long-term effect

Changeling Neurotoxin Exposure – Unknown, untested

Nuclear Fission Radiation Exposure – Unknown, untested

K643 Radiation Exposure – Simulations in progress

“Faust…” Rainbow whispered as she flipped through the pages. “They haven’t even tried half of the stuff listed here…” She flipped back to the first page and squinted. “Hey, wait a sec…this looks like the gun I found,” she said, pointing to the icon labeled “LXM-60 Heavy Machine Gun”; indeed the silhouette looked remarkably similar to the gun she had found aboard the Constitution.

Lucky, meanwhile, had turned her attention to the computer terminal on the desk. “Fluttershy, you didn’t happen to see what he was doing on this, did you?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I couldn’t make it out from up there. Sorry.”

Lucky frowned as she looked down cluelessly at the keyboard. “I don’t know much about computers…”

“Lemme try,” Quicksnap offered. Lucky stood aside and let him sit down before the computer, watching from behind as he worked the keys and mouse. “Talk about a lucky break,” he said. “Poor guy didn’t even bother to turn it off, we don’t even have to worry about a password…ah here we go, ‘Recently Closed Programs’.” He pointed at a tab he’d opened in the upper left corner of the screen. The topmost listing read “Radiological/Bio-Cellular Effect Analysis”.

“Load it up,” Lucky told Quicksnap. “Let’s see what he was looking at.”

Quicksnap nodded, clicking with the mouse.

But instead of a full program, a pop-up appeared instead:

ATTENTION!

This program contains Level 3 confidential company research information. Please enter a valid admin password to continue.

Quicksnap huffed through his nostrils. “Oh, now we’ve got to worry about passwords.”

“Damn…” Lucky sighed. She looked at the mess of papers scattered about the desk. “It might be written down here somewhere…in a drawer or something somewhere…he was absent-minded enough to leave his computer on and unattended, after all. Dawning, think you might be able to x-ray-spot anything in here?”

Dawning didn’t answer. He was still staring up at the board, eyes wide as he looked over all the pictures and data of himself. His ears drooped back, his flesh felt clammy, there was a horrible knot in his stomach, and a shudder running deep within his body that he couldn’t stop.

He’d hoped that he’d just been paranoid when he figured that Lex was out to kill him. He wanted to be wrong, so so desperately. But here it was, all spelled out and confirmed. All this time, they had been watching him. Studying him. Diagraming him like a butcher preparing to carve up a carcass. Dawning Hope had had people and things try to kill him before, that wasn’t new to him.

But to see someone plotting to kill him to this extent, this level of dedication to working out how to do it, to know someone hated his very existence on this planet so much that they planned all of this…it chilled him to his core in a way he hadn’t felt since he’d first learned of his origins.

All this time, Dawning Hope had lived in fear that if the world knew what he really was, they would try to destroy him out of fear and loathing of the different, or dissect him for the “science” of it. And now, here was his greatest fear staring him right in the face.

And then another thought crossed his mind: every single photo and scan of the disasters Lex had unleashed upon Manehattan focused solely on him, and him alone. There wasn’t a single bit of focus on any of the bystanders or victims, not even any sort of clinical number of how many were present.

They don’t care, Dawning thought with a chill. They don’t care how many they have to go through to get to me. He felt sick and cold all over, and a sickly feeling of self-disgust came over him as once again the thought came creeping into his mind:

If you had kept yourself hidden, this wouldn’t be happening. To you or to anypony else.

“Dawning?” Lucky asked again, sounding concerned as she watched him stare blankly at the board. “Are…you doing okay?”

Dawning blinked, shaking his head. “I…no…sorry. Uh, give me a minute, I’ll see if I can find anything…”

And it’ll get my eyes off of…that.

Dawning looked around, scanning through the desk with his x-ray vision. He had just looked towards the left and was about to sweep his gaze rightward, when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye: the metal box on the cart. He’d forgotten it was there, he’d been so preoccupied with everything else, but now as he looked back at the box he noticed something peculiar about it.

He couldn’t see through it. Everything else in the room yielded easily to his x-ray vision, but he could not see through the metal box at all.

Dawning took a step closer towards the box, looking it over normally. It was a dark metallic gray in color, reinforced at the seams and edges with gleaming steel. There was a numerical keypad lock on one side, and stamped on the box were two prominent labels; one was a radiation hazard symbol, the other a single alphanumeric marking: “K643”.

“Whatcha looking at now, Dawning?” Rainbow asked. She took a step closer to the box and squinted at the label. “Hey, wait a sec…’K643’, that’s on the list here.”

“The scientist was just closing that box when I first looked through the vent,” Fluttershy noted. “I…didn’t get a good look at what was inside, but it looked green. Or, glowing green, anyway.”

“He had it open?” Quicksnap asked, his face looking pale. “Oh geez…is the room irradiated, are we contaminated or something?”

“I…I don’t think so,” Dawning answered. “I can’t imagine he’d just handle something radioactive without a suit if it was.”

“But what is this K643 thing?” Lucky pressed. “I mean…obviously we know it’s some weapon for Dawning, but what is it, did the papers say anything about that?”

“I didn’t see anything,” replied Rainbow.

“Neither did I,” added Quicksnap. “Might be something about it on that program he was running, but, y’know…password.”

Dawning looked back at the lead-lined box. It was surreal, knowing that there was something inside meant to end his life–or at least try to–and he couldn’t see it. What is it? A ray? A chemical? An isotope? What?

The knot in his stomach tightened. There was a part of him that wanted to rip the box wide open and see what fresh horror Tech Lexicon planned to unleash on Manehattan’s denizens…and him. Still staring at the box, with movement so slow it almost seemed unconscious, his right hoof began to lift up towards it…

Ha-la, Kal-El.

The voice. The alien voice from his dreams.

Only this time, he was wide awake. He had never, ever heard that voice while he was awake before.

Dawning jumped back so hard his hooves very nearly left the ground. His eyes were wide in surprise, and his ears flicked up and around like radar dishes even as he swung his head left to right and back again.

The others leapt back themselves, startled by his sudden motion. “Dawning?!” Lucky yelped. “What’s going on?!”

“Did anyone else hear that?!” Dawning asked, his voice frantic.

“Hear what?” Rainbow asked back in bewilderment.

“I…” Dawning shook his head, confused now himself. “I heard a voice, just now, like how I told you in my sleep I sometimes–”

Ha-la, Kal-El.

“That,” Dawning insisted. “You…you really can’t hear that?”

“Dawning…” Fluttershy pointed at him with a hoof. “…your shirt.”

Dawning’s eyes darted down to his chest, and he froze anew.

His shirt was glowing. From between the red paint of the symbol on the chest, there was a bright, green-blue glow emanating for all to see.

No, wait… he realized almost instantly. It’s not my shirt or me, it’s the…oh Faust…

Quickly, Dawning Hope pulled open the collar of his shirt, and was just about to reach in when the alien crystal suddenly, impossibly, lifted out and up into the air all on its own. Dawning couldn’t help but gasp as the aquamarine light it now emitted bathed his face and eyes, and heard a faint, gentle ringing sound in the air, like a freshly tapped glass. The icicle-like crystal hovered horizontally in the air, its flattened back end facing Dawning, so that he was looking straight into the curling S-like symbol carved into it, mirroring the much cruder one he wore on his chest.

His jaw worked up and down like a gasping fish, trying and failing to form even hushed whispers of awe. His companions slowly crept closer, huddling around him as they stared at the wondrous alien crystal themselves.

“It’s…it’s never done that before, has it?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

Dawning shook his head. “No…” he answered, not breaking his gaze from the crystal. “Never…”

Na-vida, Kal-El. Na-vida.

Dawning had eyes and ears locked firmly on the crystal where it floated before him, and yet felt no sound touch his ears; and yet, there was the voice again. At once, Dawning understood. He wasn’t really hearing the voice, at least not with his ears. He was hearing it in his mind.

Then the crystal began to hover forward, and he felt a soft tug at the back of his neck as the cord it was attached to pulled against him. Before his eyes, it angled its tapered front end up and around, until both Dawning and the crystal were facing back up towards the opened air vent they had entered from.

Na-vida, Kal-El, came the telepathic whisper of the crystal. Dawning still had no clue what exactly the alien words truly meant, but by now he thought he understood what they were trying to tell him. “Come. Follow me.”

Dawning began to step forward, as though the crystal were leading him in a trance.

“Hey…hey!” Lucky called, rushing forward and gripping his shoulder. “Where are you going?! We still have to–”

“I have to know!” Dawning answered, sharply but desperately, as he whirled around and spun out of
Lucky’s grasp. Lucky recoiled, looking hurt. Dawning’s face fell, looking apologetic. The two stared at each other for a moment.

“I…I’m sorry,” Dawning said, much softer this time. “I’m sorry, but…I have to know. I’ve spent so long searching and it’s right here, and…I’m sorry…”

For a moment, Lucky’s face twitched, like she wasn’t sure what to say or feel. Finally, she pursed her lips and huffed through her nostrils. “Fine. Go. We can handle things here on our own.” Without another word, she turned away from Dawning and marched back towards the desk. “Quicksnap,” she called over her shoulder. “Come here and get pictures of these files, then let’s see about cracking this computer open before that scientist comes back.”

“I, um…” Quicksnap looked between Lucky and Dawning, as if torn between the two for a moment. “Yes, Miss Lead,” he finally said, shooting Dawning one last apologetic look before following her. Rainbow did likewise, casting a glance at Dawning before silently taking up her position.

Dawning sighed and turned away, floating up off the ground and back into the air duct. In the darkness of the tunnel, the light of his crystal bathed his face and the metallic walls around him like an aquamarine lantern, the faint ringing seeming all the louder as it echoed through the narrow corridor. Na-vida, Kal-El, it whispered in his mind once more, floating ahead of him at the end of the cord like an impatient dog.

He was just about to start moving when he felt a tug at the end of his cloak. It was Fluttershy, poking her head up through the vent. “I…I’m coming with you,” she said.

Dawning looked at her in surprise. “You…you don’t have to–”

“I do,” she insisted. “I mean…please. I meant what I said yesterday. You don’t have to go through this alone.”

Dawning stared back at her, hesitant. He always imagined that if and when he found his ship, it would be a solitary affair, a private one. It should be that way, he had thought. It had been his journey, his mystery, and he’d kept it to himself for two whole years.

And yet now, as he matched Fluttershy’s gentle gaze, he felt a pang of want for companionship clutch his soul, begging for him to reach out and take the offer. To have at least one pony to share this with.

And so, after a moment, he turned around and reached out to take her hoof in his, and helped her up into the vent. “Come on,” he told her. “We should hurry.”

“It’s an absolutely fantastic material,” Lex was saying to Rarity as they danced to the waltz, spinning and swaying amidst the other partygoers beneath the lights. “Lightweight, flexible, heat-resistant, very durable. It shields against incoming small arms fire far better than Kevlar. It’ll be an absolute boon to our soldiers…and who knows?” He flashed her a smile. “It may have a future place in the fashion industry someday. I’d show the stuff to you, if the formula weren’t confidential right now.”

“Most fascinating. I’m very curious to see the results in time,” Rarity said, doing her best to sound interested and invested.

Fortunately, despite her inner anxieties and worries, she was quite good at it. Half the magic of social interaction was appearances, after all. And in a way, she felt as if she had started to hit her stride; Lex was thoroughly occupied with boasting to her, no obvious alarms had been raised…so far so good, as far as could be told.

Yes, she allowed herself to think with a little pride. I am quite good at this.

“Well,” Lex said, still smiling at her. “I hope you’ll find it more appealing than some of my other ventures.”

Rarity’s stage smile dropped somewhat. “I…don’t quite know what you’re insinuating, Mr. Lexicon.”

Lex chuckled. “Oh come now, don’t think it hasn’t escaped my notice. I saw it at the Lexpo. You and your friends, you’re not too keen on my military products. Your friend Fluttershy raised a few objections, didn’t she?”

For a moment, Rarity felt torn on what to do. Lie further? No…he’s right, it was rather obvious when we met at the Lexpo, no point in denying it…

“Well…I will admit, I do have some similar, ah, reservations…”

“As I’d expect,” Lex chuckled, completely unfazed. “Of course, I trust a mare of your intellect to understand the why’s of it all. I hate to bring up unpleasant experiences, but you yourself have had first-hoof experience of why such measures are necessary, did you not?”

Remembering that awful night with the pirates did send a shudder down Rarity’s spine, but she kept it from showing on her face. “Oh, but of course,” Rarity replied. “But by the same token, you can’t exactly blame me for being a bit, say, perturbed by the idea of such lethal force, even on the side of angels.”

“No, I can’t. I completely understand. But I assure you, Miss Rarity, I’m no power hungry warmonger. I am merely an apostle of the gentle philosophy of deterrence.”

As the band’s waltz slowly came to an end, Lex guided Rarity through the crowd to one of the nearby refreshment tables, off to the side from the dance floor. “And I’ll admit,” he continued, pouring a glass of sparkling cider and offering it to Rarity. “I understand very well what it feels like to be powerless.”

“Do you now?” Rarity asked as she accepted the glass and took a sip. She posed the question politely and with a touch of interest, but inwardly she felt a sardonic flash of incredulity. Him, of all ponies?

“Oh yes,” Lex said with a melancholic sigh as he poured a glass for himself. “I wasn’t born to wealth, you know. All of this…the company, the labs, the technology, even that penthouse of mine, way up high on top of the tower…that was all me, from the sweat of my brow and a head full of ideas.” His gaze wandered away from her, and into the shallow liquid depths of his drink. “My father was, ah…a wretch, shall we say. A washed-up old star watcher living in some backwater farming town. I never knew my mother. Frankly, I don’t know what kind of mare would ever see anything in a stallion like my father. One of life’s great mysteries, I suppose.”

Lex chuckled mirthlessly, shaking his head as he took a sip from his glass. Rarity took the moment to process his words. She knew he was a liar, but she wasn’t about to dismiss something like a less-than-healthy childhood out of hoof. “Oh, dear…were you, um–”

“Physically? Sometimes, on the worst days. But not often. It was mostly neglect. He’d spend the days brooding over star maps and telescopes and rejected theses and bottles of alcohol, and I was left to my own devices most of the time.” Lex stared off aimlessly, leaning against the table. “Everything I learned as a colt was purely self-taught. How to sustain myself, how to comprehend the sciences from the books my father left around…how to not hope. From a young age I learned that there would be nopony to give me a path to deliverance. I would have to forge it for myself.”

Rarity couldn’t help but feel a sense of sympathy welling up within her. Charismatic showstallion he may have been, she felt like at least in this instance he was being completely sincere. In a moment in her mind’s eye, she completely grasped the kind of life and experiences that could have turned a neglected, bright young colt into the Tech Lexicon of today, and she found herself pitying him.

Then she remembered the ponies on the Bronclyn Bridge. And the Constitution. And Girder and his family.

She did pity him. But, she decided, she pitied his victims more.

“So…” she gently asked. “…how did you forge your own path, may I ask? What changed?”

“Well…” Lex said thoughtfully, twirling his glass before looking back at her with a small smile of faux humility. “Let’s just say fate saw fit to grant me a little boon.”

Rarity was about to ask for elaboration–though she already had a feeling she knew what ‘boon’ he was referring to and would never really admit–when Merciful Grace approached the table, looking as ever and yet moving with a subtle urgency. “Mr. Lexicon.”

“Hm? Yes, what is it, Mercy?”

Mercy took a quick glance at Rarity, then leaned in to whisper something in Lex’s ear. Rarity couldn’t make out what she was saying, but watched as Lex’s eyes narrowed as if in interest. He gave Mercy a nod, then turned back to Rarity.

“Do forgive me,” he said politely. “But I’m afraid some important business has come up, I’m going to have to step out for a while.” He stopped to finish his drink in one last swig. “All the same, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for the dance, Miss Rarity.”

“Oh please, the pleasure was all mine,” Rarity answered with a smile.

But as she watched Lex and Mercy go off together, she felt her stomach tighten into a knot. She was tempted to try following them from a distance and see what was up, but she worried that would also jeopardize what cover she had…if she even had any left.

So much for keeping him occupied…oh, I hope they haven’t found the others out…

Na-vida, Kal-El, whispered the crystal’s voice in Dawning Hope’s mind; it hadn’t changed its tone once, and yet he swore that it was growing more insistent the further they went.

By now, Dawning and Fluttershy were in what they could only describe as the bowels of the maintenance tunnels and ventilation shafts of the LexCorp laboratory complex, several levels down from where they first entered, and well below the office where they had left their compatriots. Contrary to what Dawning had hoped for, there was even more lead shielding in the walls down here, and his x-ray vision had proven as equally useless at navigating through as it had above it.

But that fact bothered him considerably less now that the crystal was…“alive”, he wanted to call it. Its light still shone brightly ahead of them, a beacon in the darkness. Dawning scarcely needed to use his other optical senses to see, and he could tell having an actual source of light was a comfort to Fluttershy. Every once in a while, whenever they came to a turn or a fork or a drop in the tunnels, the crystal would turn or pivot or angle in such a way as though to indicate a direction, and they followed where it pointed.

“How are you doing?” Dawning asked Fluttershy.

“How are you?” she asked in turn.

It wasn’t quite the answer he was looking for, but he at least took it to mean that she was holding up alright. Clearly well enough to be more concerned about him at the moment than herself.

“I…I don’t know,” Dawning admitted. It felt strange, actually talking to another pony about how he was honestly feeling. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long, it feels like an eternity. And now I’m here, right at the cusp of it, and…” He stopped moving, trailing off as he allowed himself to rest in the tunnel for a moment. As he did, he watched the alien crystal hovering at the end of its cord before him, the carved “S” symbol reflecting in his sapphire-blue eyes.

“…I don’t know what I’ll find,” Dawning finally continued. “All this time I’ve been so focused on looking for my answers, I’ve never really thought about what they might be. Or…what I might leave behind when I find them. I thought I was more sure of myself, but now…”

Dawning felt a hoof touch his shoulder, and looked back in surprise to see Fluttershy reaching as far as the confines of the tunnel would allow to do so. “It’s okay,” she said gently. “Whatever happens, whatever you find…it’s going to turn out alright.”

Dawning wasn’t sure if he was able to believe her. Nevertheless, he nodded and forced a small smile. “Thanks.”

They crawled for a minute more before the tunnel widened out again, enough for the two to move side by side with one another. Before them was another air duct vent, much more heavy-duty looking than the previous ones they’d encountered, and equipped with shutters that were currently closed. Dawning took a moment to try x-raying through it.

“No good,” he told Fluttershy. “This one’s lead too.”

He heard her gulp. “Only one way to know for sure what’s there, right?” she asked. She was trying to sound nonchalant, but he could tell that she wasn’t exactly fond of not knowing what might lie on the other side, through her own senses or Dawning’s.

“Afraid so,” Dawning replied. He widened his eyes and lit them up with heat, slowly and cautiously melting through the frame of the grate. When it was done, he pushed it loose and pulled it inside to prevent it clattering to the floor of the room they had just breached.

The gray-walled room beyond was massive, the height of a four-story building at least. It was so large that the two ponies couldn’t tell whether it was meant to be a laboratory or a hangar of some kind, though the gigantic doors at the far end seemed to suggest something more of the latter. Across the ceiling were rows of bright white lights to illuminate the space, but the majority of them were turned off, giving the room a gloomy, ominous atmosphere. It was filled with machines. Server racks and computer consoles lined the walls. In a circular circumference on the floor were a number of devices that neither Dawning nor Fluttershy could immediately identify, though they seemed to be sensors of various kinds; dishes, antennae, and geodesic spheres abounded.

And in the middle of the space, seemingly the center focus of all the strange machinery, was a towering crystal spire, rising no less than forty feet up into the air, just a few feet from scraping the ceiling of the massive room. Its surface was smooth and glassy, and there was a subtle corkscrew pattern to its structure, as though it had twisted in its formation. The whole strange object glowed with a faint but noticeable blue light.

Neither Dawning nor Fluttershy had need to point out that it strongly resembled a much larger version of the crystal Dawning wore around his neck. Nor did they need to observe that the same crystal had suddenly started glowing much brighter than it had even before, and it seemed to be tugging impatiently at the cord. And Dawning did not feel the need to verbalize that the voice in his mind, that repeating alien chant of Na-vida, Kal-El, had now definitely taken on an excited, insisting tone and volume in his head.

They both knew exactly what they were looking at, and they stared in slack-jawed awe at the thing they knew to be not of planet Equus.

Dawning’s heart pounded like a drum within his chest, so fast and hard he felt like it would explode, as his body shuddered in a barely-repressed mixture of excitement and terror. For two years he had dreamed of this moment, of the day when the answers to his questions would be right at the tips of his hooves. And now, as he at long last stared at the room which held his secrets, he realized what he had told Fluttershy just shortly before had been right; for all of his plans and hopes and fears and dreams, he had never been truly ready in the slightest.

Dawning took a deep breath, working to settle his nerves enough to think. He took a peek out from the air vent; sure enough, there were small camera arrays in each of the four corners of the room. One, two, three, four flashes of his heat vision later, all four arrays hung limp and motionless and bleeding small sparks.

“What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked.

“Buying time before they realize someone’s in here…hopefully,” Dawning answered. He next turned his heat vision towards the cables connecting the various sensory machines surrounding the crystal spire, cutting through the tangles of wires in a second. “Alright…I think we’re clear.”

The two ponies glided from their perch in the vent, settling down upon the cool floor of the lab below. The crystalline spire had already looked imposingly huge from the vent, but now, standing only a few yards away from it and bathed in its glow, its size and alien nature was all the more daunting.

Slowly, each step weighed with trepidation, Dawning began to approach the crystal spire, one hoof-step at a time. As he slowly approached, he found himself unsure if his heart and body had calmed, or if he was just so transfixed by the spire that he just wasn’t sensing himself anymore; he barely registered his own hoofsteps as he walked. He felt as though his emotions and feelings had risen to a kind of ascension, now beyond anything he could describe in mind or word.

Before he even realized it, Dawning was standing right at the base of the spire, his eyes, face, and body bathed in its angelic blue radiance. The little crystal at his neck now hovered just an inch away from the surface of its larger counterpart, pulling at its cord so tightly now that he half-thought it would snap off. Na-vida, Kal-El! it pleaded in his mind, Na-vida, Kal-El!

From behind, Fluttershy watched with wide eyes and a hoof to her chest, as though to still her own racing heart. She couldn’t imagine exactly how she thought Dawning must be feeling, standing at this final threshold of his journey. But she thought she had a close enough idea to empathize with him. Go on, she silently urged. You can do it.

For a moment longer, Dawning Hope stood at the edge of everything he did not know.

And then, slowly, he reached up with one hoof, took hold of the crystal at his neck, and gently touched its tip to the surface of the gleaming spire.

There was a gentle, glass-like ping as the two crystals made contact. He saw a wave of light flash through the spire from the point of contact.

The voice in his head stopped.

And then suddenly, from the very place he had touched with his crystal, glowing white cracks suddenly began spreading across the surface of the spire, like he’d just thrown a pebble through a window and shattered it. Dawning’s mind became crashingly aware of himself again, and he scrambled backwards, watching in terror as the cracks spread and rose up, up, up across the spire.

“W-what’s happening?!” Fluttershy squeaked in equal alarm. “What’s it doing?!”

“I don’t know!” Dawning cried. Did I do something wrong?!

The cracks continued to spread, until they covered the spire so thoroughly its color had shifted from glowing blue to blinding white. From deep within came a low, throbbing hum that rapidly crescendoed into a deafening roar–

And then the crystal spire exploded into a flashing shower of a thousand small pieces.

Dawning’s eyes widened. In a fraction of a second, he had whirled around and dove towards Fluttershy. “LOOK OUT!”

Fluttershy screamed as Dawning seized her in his hooves, pulling her close against his body and ducking low to shield her from the oncoming barrage, waiting to feel white hot shards slashing against his back…
But it never came. He heard the roar settle back down to the throbbing hum again, but there was no shattering or smashing of crystal shards, nor the sensation of anything striking him or the surrounding environment. What the…

Cautiously, Dawning looked over his shoulder. At the same time, Fluttershy, equally confused, peeked out from behind him, and both gasped at what they saw. The air was filled with a multitude of tiny, glowing white particles, hovering suspended in the air as though frozen solid mid-explosion. Looking at them now, the two ponies realized that they weren’t physical shards; they looked like little floating points of white light, with no physical form that they could maintain. Just light.

And then, slowly but surely picking up speed, the cloud white particles suddenly began to contract to a single point on the floor, like the explosion had been unpaused and now was being rewound. In only a second, the particles had completely disappeared, pulled into the nose of–

Oh Faust, Dawning thought.

It was crystalline in structure, just like Dawning’s little crystal was and the spire had been, and as long as the latter had been tall. But it was much more elaborate, much more elegant in form, like a strange piece of art wrought from glassy, translucent crystal. A smooth oval shape at the front. A body stretching out at the sides into two, manta-like wings, tapering into long, pointed tails that stretched up and away from the hull. A spiked sphere that spun and pulsated an amber yellow color against the silvery-blue hull, giving off the throbbing humming sound as it spun. As soon as the last of the spire’s remains had been pulled into its bow, disappearing through its surface by a means the two ponies couldn’t immediately see, the ship rotated from where its nose had vertically faced the floor, rising to point its bow right at the two.

Its surface was all but featureless, smooth crystal, but inorganic as it was, Dawning and Fluttershy were both hit with the same overwhelming sense that this ship was alive somehow; a living, thinking thing that regarded them with eyes unseen.

Fluttershy gasped in awe. Dawning stared in a dumbstruck stupor.

And then from the vessel came a voice. Out loud, in a tone of clear excitement and happiness. “Ha-la, Kal-El! Ya na-vida tere kessa nes-trota!”

Fluttershy’s ears shot up. “I heard that!” she exclaimed to Dawning. “It wasn’t just you this time, I heard it too!”

Dawning nodded numbly. He wasn’t sure what to say. The alien language spoken aloud to him for the first time in his life, the ship–his ship–hovering before his eyes at long last…so many developments in less than a minute and his brain was still scrambling to catch up.

The voice spoke again, sounding confused. “…Kal-El? Ha-la? Ah,” it said, like it had had a realization. “Va ta ermo. Selta-nama reshta-ing to local language parameters. Re-attempting communication. Many greetings, Kal-El! Your arrival has been greatly anticipated by this vessel!”

Dawning blinked, the sound of the voice suddenly speaking Ponish snapping him out of his stupor. “Wh…you…you can talk?”

It was an obvious question, he knew, but when the ship responded, it was simply matter-of-fact. “Of course, Kal-El. More specifically, this voice is that of the Mark 8.6 Kelex-type operating system in control of this vessel. It is my assigned duty to manage navigational, defensive, and archival functions, and to monitor your health and well-being on our journey to this planet. Please forgive my earlier lapse in communication; from your physical age and of course our lack of contact prior to this point, I should have presumed the possibility that you would not be familiar with our native language.”

“W-wait a minute, wait a minute…” Dawning raised a hoof. “That…that word, ‘Kal-El.’ You keep using it even though you're speaking Ponish now, is…is that my name?”

“Indeed it is,” the ship replied, once again nonchalantly matter-of-fact. “Kal-El of the House of El.”

“Kal-El…” Dawning whispered to himself. All this time, all these years he had heard that word whispered to him in his dreams, he had never thought to wonder if it might be a name, but now…

“Kal-El…Kal-El…” he whispered the name over and over again, holding on to all two syllables of it, taking it for his own with each repetition. In his heart, he felt his fear and anxiety slowly surrendering to a rising warmth of elation, his limbs tingling as a feeling of joy began spreading through his body.

He knew his name. At long last, he knew his name.

“Kal-El…” A smile began to cross his face as he looked back up at the ship. “I’m…I’m Kal-El.”

Behind Dawning, Fluttershy simply sat and watched quietly, a smile crossing her own face as she did. Though suddenly being in the presence of a seemingly intelligent alien spacecraft was certainly mind-blowing and somewhat terrifying, seeing Dawning actually happy, earnestly truly happy, overwrote whatever nervousness she may otherwise have felt.

“It would seem you and I have a great deal to catch up on,” the ship went on. “Circumstances, unfortunately, have kept us apart for far longer than was anticipated. As I have noted, you seem to have reached physical maturity, and I can see that your capabilities under this planet’s environmental conditions have already well manifested themselves. I take it you are mostly unaware of the full extent of your origins, Kal-El?”

“I…yes,” Dawning answered, his joy suddenly tainted with slight bitterness as he hung his head slightly. “I didn’t even know I’m a…not from here until just a few years ago. Up until then I thought…well, I knew about my powers, obviously, I knew I was different, but until then I never thought…”

“I see. A pity. I am afraid that this vessel has been somewhat indisposed in the intervening time frame between our landing and now. After your removal, this vessel entered a state of hibernation pending your assumed return. It was only recently that I was reactivated by an unauthorized attempt at data extraction. The invasion was quite unprecedented; it was not thought that this planet’s native species had developed technology capable of accessing this vessel’s computer systems. I was forced to take extreme defensive measures to prevent further unsolicited data retrieval.”

Dawning’s head snapped up. “Unauthorized…when was this?”

“Approximately ten days ago.”

“Ten days…” Fluttershy repeated, her eyes widening with realization. “That would’ve been–”

“The Lexpo,” Dawning finished. “The pulse, the monorail…that wasn’t anything Lex did…you were just trying to defend yourself.”

“That is correct. I apologize for whatever temporary harm this vessel may have done to the surrounding urban center. I was merely acting in accordance with my programmed tasks; any side effects were completely unintentional. I hope the damage was not too severe.”

Dawning shook his head. “No, I was able to…it wasn’t.”

“Ah. I am glad to hear that, then. At any rate, I imagine that you must have many questions about your world of origin, yes?”

“Yes!” Dawning blurted, his voice echoing around the chamber and causing Fluttershy to flinch. He winced as well, as though his outcry–and not everything else that had just happened–would draw attention down upon them. “I-I mean…yes. I do,” he said, much more quietly.

“Very well. In that case, if you will please insert the command key–”

“The what?” Dawning asked. “Oh…the crystal?”

“That is correct. As I was saying, if you will please insert the command key in the receptacle I will provide for you, we can begin with the Message. Unless, of course, you would prefer to take it more privately. Are you comfortable with hearing it in the presence of your companion here?”

“I, um…” He glanced over his shoulder at Fluttershy; he almost hated to admit it, but in his excitement and bewilderment he had almost forgotten she was there. “Uh…I guess–”

“I-it’s okay if you’d rather do it privately,” Fluttershy said to him. “I can–”

And then, from somewhere over the loudspeakers, an alarm began to blare.

“Overwatch, come in, we may have a situation here.”

“Overwatch here, what’s up?”

“Overwatch, this is Squad Four. We’re out behind the upper level Hydroponics building and there’s a…a circular burn mark on the ground that definitely wasn’t here the last time we passed by this way.”

“A what? What do you mean ‘circular burn mark?’”

“As in, like, it looks like somepony cut through the pavement with a cutting torch or something.”

“Hang on, let me hone in on your signal…okay…oh damn, you’re right over one of the maintenance corridors, leads right into the lab compound–”

“Overwatch, this is Squad Eight down near the Aerospace facilities; every single feed we had to the lab where they’re keeping that spaceship of theirs just went dark!”

“What?!”

“Everything! The cameras, the sensors, it all just went dead a few minutes ago. We thought it might’ve been something electrical, but the sensors outside the lab are going wild. They’re saying it’s the same kind of energy signature the ship gave off when…oh Faust, I think it’s active again!”

“…BUCK! Overwatch to all personnel, we have an intruder alert, I repeat, we have an intruder alert! All available units to Lab 14-B immediately, we have an active intruder situation!”

The inside of the LexCore lobby building was silent and deserted, with all but a few lights dimmed or turned off entirely. But the music from the party outside provided a rather lively background ambience as Lex and Mercy stepped inside, the clattering sound of their hooves against the smooth, tiled floor echoing around the virtually abandoned lobby.

“Did you enjoy your dance, sir?” Mercy asked, her voice tinged with sarcasm.

“Oh, don’t be jealous,” Lex admonished, not even bothering to look over his shoulder. “It was just a social pleasantry, nothing more.”

They were just approaching the elevators when one of them opened with a ding!, and Dr. Green Vale stepped out, still clutching his manilla folder in one foreleg, and he did a startled jump as he spotted the two directly ahead. “O-oh! Mr. Lexicon, sir, I was just–”

“Make it quick, Dr. Vale,” Lex said curtly. “I do have a public appearance to maintain out there, after all.”

“Um, well yes, I…” Dr. Vale held out the folder to Lex. “I just wanted to tell you, I finished running the numbers on what K643 will do to Supermane’s physiology. Um, at least what we can theorize about it from…anyway, I…think you’ll like the results.”

Lex’s brows raised as a little glimmer of interest went through his eyes. “…let me see that.”

He swiped the folder out of Dr. Vale’s hooves before he could say anything and flipped it open, narrowing his eyes at the papers inside as he scanned them back and forth, up and down, leaning his head in close and murmuring to himself quietly as he read.

Dr. Vale could just barely suppress a welling, bile-like feeling of guilt in his gut as he watched a smile slowly spread across Lex’s face.

Mercy leaned forward, trying to look over Lex’s shoulder. “Will it work?”

Lex laughed; a single, barking note of sinful joy as his smile cracked into a wide grin. “All this time…I’ve had it in my hooves all this time.” He snapped the folder shut, and turned his smile towards Vale in a way that the scientist thought was intended to be amicable, but instead sent shivers down his spine. “Thank you, Dr. Vale, you’ve just made my–”

Then came the blaring, repeating klaxon of an alarm as the corners of the lobby erupted into flashing red lights. This time, it wasn’t just Dr. Vale who jolted in startled surprise, but Lex and even Mercy as well.

“What the Tartarus is that?!” Lex exclaimed.

“Hold it–” Mercy said, pressing her hoof to a small earpiece in one ear, listening intently to the radio chatter she heard over it. Her eyes widened, and she snapped her head back towards Lex. “The ship.”

The next thing Dr. Vale knew, Tech Lexicon was barreling his way past him–almost knocking the scientist to the ground–and bolted into the elevator, Mercy hot on his heels behind him. “Mercy, tell all security teams to converge on the lab, NOW!” he barked, slamming the buttons on the elevator wall just as Mercy’s tail cleared the door.

Dr. Vale regained his balance just as the doors were closing, running forward to try and catch up. “Hey, wait for–” SMACK! went his face right into the freshly shut elevator doors. He staggered backwards,
scrunching his muzzle and awkwardly adjusting his glasses. “O-okay then…” he murmured, half-dazed, half-silenced by the realization that something had just gone terribly, terribly wrong down below.

The little group of infiltrators were still in the midst of exploring Dr. Vale’s laboratory–either rummaging through files or, in Quicksnap’s case, taking photos of them–when the alarm went off and the lights started flashing red. There was a collective jolt of startled surprise; Quicksnap fumbled his camera in his talons and set off the flash right in his face, eliciting a yelp.

“Oh Faust, not now,” Lucky groaned to herself, looking back and forth in terror. “Not now!”

“W-we didn’t set that off, did we?!” Quicksnap frantically asked as he blinked spots out of his eyes.

“We couldn’t have, it would’ve gone off long–”

“Guys, shut it!” Rainbow Dash hissed, peeking out into the hallway through the window blinds of the door. The roar of multiple sets of stampeding hooves came from outside, mingling with the blaring alarms.

“They’re not coming for us,” Rainbow reported. “They’re going down the hall.”

“Wait,” said Lucky. “They’re not going the same way Dawning and Fluttershy went, are they?”

“Buck if I know.”

“Yeah, but,” added Quicksnap. “If they’re not coming for us, then–”

“Alright, we’ve overstayed our welcome,” Lucky declared. She turned back to the desk and quickly began hurriedly stuffing papers and folders–including the weapons checklist–into a bag. “Quicksnap, when we get back home, copy those photos then copy them again and keep them somewhere–”

“Hey, what’re we gonna do about Dawning and Fluttershy?!” Rainbow demanded. “We can’t just leave them down there!”

That gave Lucky pause. Despite the massive tangle of feelings she felt towards Dawning, it didn’t feel right to run while he and Fluttershy were still somewhere within the depths of LexCorp. And if they were experimenting with weapons meant specifically to kill him, then who knew what they might be setting up to deploy against him at this very moment?

But on the other hoof…

“If we don’t go now, none of us have a chance of getting this stuff out to the public,” she retorted. “Dawning can take care of himself and Fluttershy.” I think…hopefully…

She hefted the bag up and over her shoulder. “Now come on, if we hurry we can make it out before they notice us for real!”

Damn it! Dawning swore in his mind. I should’ve known we wouldn’t have much time, shouldn’t have let my guard down…

The whole room was bathed in a cascade of pulsating red light, the angry shrieks of the alarm echoing off the walls. Fluttershy was crouching to the floor, holding her wings and hooves over her ears in fright. Dawning looked back and forth, up and down, trying to see outside the room for approaching guards, but the lead shielding refused to yield to his eyes. He tried with his ears, and found himself bombarded by a frenzied cacophony of voices and radio chatter.

“–in Sector 14, all squads converge–”

“–guests are starting to notice movement, what do we tell them–”

“–is Merciful Grace, Mr. Lexicon and I are heading down to the lab, all squads rendezvous with us ASAP!”

Oh Faust… Dawning thought as a shudder went down his spine. Not him, not now…

“Kal-El, it would appear that we have been discovered,” said the ship, as nonchalantly as it might describe the weather. “What course of action would you like me to take?”

Dawning tried to think, struggling to form a coherent plan in his mind. “I–”

“Dawning, the door!” Fluttershy suddenly cried.

Dawning spun around. One of the doors behind them, about a story up on a metal balcony, was beginning to slide open. Dawning rocketed up to the balcony, grabbing the door in his hooves and forcing it back shut while servos and motors in the walls whined and groaned in protest, then flash-wielded it shut with his heat vision.

He could have sworn he caught a glimpse of a red mane and a glaring green eye on the other side just before he’d shut the door. The voice he heard from the other side through the thick metal only confirmed it.

“Damn! You there, get this door open, you lot, come with me and Mercy, we’ll get in through the other side!”

Dawning took another look around. Aside from the door he had just sealed and the gigantic hanger-sized doors, there were three other doors in and out of the lab. Sealing them too would be easy, but that wouldn’t solve their current predicament. Lex and his troops wouldn’t stop until they found a way inside, and trying to keep them from getting in would ultimately be futile.

What Dawning and Fluttershy–and the ship–needed to do was get out.

“Kal-El,” the ship piped up again, as if reading his mind. “I am capable of breaching this facility with ease. If you will simply provide a safe location for us to continue at, this vessel can make its way there with haste.”

“Okay…okay…” Dawning allowed himself a moment to breathe and refocus his brain on the issue at hoof. They needed to go far, far out of where Lex could easily find them. That ruled out anywhere in or remotely close to Manehattan.

Smallville? No, I can’t bring it h–back there, I can’t…think, Dawning, think think think–

Dawning snapped his head up towards the ship. “North. The Crystal Mountains to the north, at the border. You’ll know them when you see them…I think.”

“Very well, Kal-El. I would advise you to step back and make sure your companion is protected as I make an exit.”

Dawning was about to ask what exactly it meant when the spiked sphere at the ship’s stern began to spin faster, and the throbbing hum it emitted began to rise into a shrill, pulse-pounding whine. The ship’s hull shifted from cloudy blue to a rapidly growing bright, burning red, the air around it shimmering and rippling with intense heat. Within seconds, the room temperature had grown so hot that Dawning felt as if the ship itself were becoming a star.

Then the ship began to rise, up, up, up towards the ceiling, until superheated crystal made contact with metal. The ceiling instantly began to rain molten droplets, and every light and conduit on the ceiling suddenly exploded in a blinding flash.

Before she could even yelp in alarm, Dawning Hope was holding Fluttershy protectively close beneath him in an instant. Even shielded by his body, she could feel searing heat all around them, as sparks, ashes, and droplets of molten metal splashed to the floor around them, all while the alien ship melted up through the ceiling. It was as though the room had given birth to a raging volcano, and the two of them were right beneath it as it erupted.

The shrill roar of the ship’s engine–at least, Fluttershy assumed it was the engine–was so loud it completely drowned out the sounds of the other doors to the laboratory opening at once, and the one Dawning had just sealed exploding open.

Fluttershy heard Dawning yell something to her. She couldn’t quite make it out, but she was fairly sure he’d been saying “Hang on!”, and the next thing she knew she’d been scooped up in Dawning’s forelegs and held close against his chest as he took off into the air, following the alien vessel up through the gigantic hole it’d made in the ceiling. As they rose, she could see now that it had already burned its way well past just the laboratory; from the various floors they passed by, each torn open by a gaping, slagged hole, the ship was rising towards the surface at an extremely rapid pace.

Only Dawning Hope, with his ears that heard far beyond the range of other ponies, could hear past the roar of the ship and the calamity of its destructive break for freedom to pick up the furious, raging cry of Tech Lexicon from far down below them.

“SUPERMAAAAAAAANE!”

By now it had become impossible for the attendees on the surface of LexCorp Plaza to not notice the sudden scurrying and frantic movements of the guard patrols. There were confused questions, all met with either silence or, at best, the most vague of responses. “There’s a situation, please remain calm”, or “Don’t panic, LexCorp Security has things under control”, and the like.

The surface level research and development buildings had been abandoned by their usual staff for the evening, their interiors dark and silent and empty.

As a result, it was quite a surprise to everypony when the Agricultural Research building’s first floor suddenly exploded.

Screams erupted en masse, as the guests misfortunate enough to be closest to the building fled away as fast as they could from the sudden roaring flames, bursting glass shards, and the unearthly pulsating shriek from within.

Then the second floor of the building blew out. And then the third. And then finally the roof burst open in one last, monstrous fireball that cracked open the night like a peal of thunder.

There was such a stampede of panic that not everypony noticed the flashing, crystalline vessel that sprang forth from the belching fires and through black smoke, and quickly soared over the boundaries of the LexCorp Plaza, tailed closely by two flying equine figures–one clad in a trailing cape–who followed it for a short distance beyond the walls before dropping down out of sight.

Not everyone saw it. But Rarity did.

The explosion echoed loud and clear across at least half of Manehattan. Sleeping citizens, and those attending to late-evening matters, all collectively bolted upright or froze where they stood, the same general thought flashing through their minds: “Oh Faust, not again!”

Almost all panic in the streets was soon quelled, though, as the alien ship flew overhead, its hull glowing a brilliant blue-white, and its spinning engine in swirling, flashing gold, sailing over the city skyline and bathing its buildings in strobing, humming light. Residents in their apartment buildings and homes scrambled to their windows to catch sight of the thing, watching with wonder as the lights of the craft danced in their eyes. Telephone booths, established around the city for quick calls to the police, were swarmed by awestruck witnesses, all clamoring to call in sightings of a very real UFO over Manehattan.

And then, just as the vessel was cresting over the top of the Crystaller Building, the ship’s engine flashed in a bright burst of yellow-white light, and the craft suddenly rocketed off like a shooting star, sailing northward and vanishing into the night.

Rarity was trying to see where Dawning and Fluttershy had gone after the ship had flown away, but standing still long enough to get a good idea of it proved impossible amidst the now-panicking crowd of party goers. Fighting for a stable position amidst the bustling, scrambling bodies was like trying to fight a pounding surf in a hurricane. Were she not so anxiously concerned about the wellbeing of her friends, she might’ve otherwise worried about the train of her dress getting shredded.

Then the shrill, piercing whine of a microphone echoed across the plaza, and–miraculously–the churning throng actually slowed down and stood still to listen.

“Mares and gentlestallions, attention.”

It was Lex. He sounded agitated, like he’d been running and was now out of breath. When she turned towards the podium just in front of the LexCore building, Rarity saw that he looked as haggard as he sounded. His mane was a mess, his tie was askew, and the whole front of his body looked to be covered in soot. Merciful Grace was beside him, looking equally frazzled and dirty, along with a squad of LexCorp Security troopers.

“There’s been an…unprecedented incident in one of our labs,” Lex went on, his voice booming through the microphone he held in one hoof. He went right on briskly talking even as a chorus of questions started to arise. “For your safety, we are now closing the LexCorp Plaza to all non-LexCorp personnel, please allow our security teams to escort you off the premises, thank you and good night.”

“Now just a minute!” came the voice of Mayor Sound Policy, as he made an effort to clamber up onto the podium even as Lex and his escort turned away. “Mr. Lexicon, I demand an explanation–”

Lex said something over his shoulder to his guards. The now abandoned microphone didn’t quite pick it up, but to Rarity it sounded like he was, very irritably, saying “Get him out of here.” Two of the guards broke away from the party and moved to guide the Mayor to an exit…or, to Rarity’s more suspicious mind, force him to an exit.

As the crowd began to file out of the Plaza, shepherded by armored LexCorp guards, Rarity moved quickly through the exit; she did not care to be similarly stallionhandled if she could possibly help it. As luck had it, though, she was able to leave without trouble, quickly veering off from the throng pouring out into the streets.

Her attention was drawn towards a nearby alleyway by a hushed, whispering “psst”. Rainbow Dash stuck her head out and waved a hoof at her, just far enough to get her attention. Quickly glancing around to make sure she wouldn’t be spotted, Rarity quickly trot across the street and into the alley. Rainbow, Quicksnap, and Lucky were all huddled against the cold brick walls, panting as they caught their breath, Lucky clinging tightly to her bag.

“Thank Celestia you’re alright,” Rarity sighed in relief. “How ever did you manage to get out?”

“A lot of air ducts and a few backdoors,” Quicksnap answered. “We…kinda were clumsier getting out than we were getting in, and without Dawning to cut away back out for us we had to make do with what we could.”

“Did any of you see what happened down there?” Rarity asked.

Rainbow shook her head. “No. The alarms went off and then next thing we know half the complex was shaking for like a minute. Whatever happened, it must’ve been Dawning and Fluttershy.”

“Did you see them get out?” Lucky asked. “I mean, after the…the thing blew its way out of the building, do you know if–”

Rarity nodded. “I saw them fly out after the roof exploded, they’re alright.”

Lucky sighed. “Good…good…”

“I don’t know where they are now, though, I hope–”

“We’re here,” came Fluttershy’s voice from just overhead, as a sudden brief breeze came and brushed through their fur. Dawning Hope, his cape once again tattered and caked with ash and soot, alighted down beside them and set Fluttershy down.

“Fluttershy, darling!” Rarity exclaimed, rushing forward and gripping the pegasus in her hooves as she checked her over. “Are you hurt?! Are you alright?!”

Fluttershy nodded. “We found the ship. Dawning woke it up, he told it to go north.”

The group turned towards Dawning, but found he wasn’t even facing them. He was turned the other way, his head and eyes looking up northward into the night sky, silent and still.

“…Dawning?” Lucky prodded, taking a step towards him. “We’ve got everything we need to put Lex away. Please. Come with us.”

Dawning turned around, matching Lucky’s gaze. Even in the shrouded shadows of the alleyway, they could see a look of pained indecision twisted across his face.

Then, slowly, his hooves left the ground as he lifted up into the air, the remains of his cape flowing around him. “I’m sorry,” he said regretfully. “I…I have to know.”

Lucky shut her eyes and sighed through her nostrils. “…fine. Go,” she said curtly before turning away and starting to head towards the street.

Dawning watched her go before looking to the others, as if hoping they might have something else to say. Nobody did. They all just looked back at one another in silence.

At last, Dawning Hope turned around and rose up out of the alley, turning away and shooting off northward away from Manehattan, the dark red-and-blue blur of his flying form quickly disappearing into the starry night.

He didn’t catch Lucky Lead stopping and turning to look back and watch him as he went. Nor did he see the look of sorrow in her eyes as she pondered the fact that this might be the last time she would ever see him.

Author's Note

It’s absolutely wild to think that the last time we saw the ship, it was way back in Chapter Four. Fourteen chapters and…gosh, three years ago. How time slogs along, eh?

And so at long last, Dawning Hope finds what he has sought…but has he truly? That reminds to be seen. Regardless, cats are leaping out of the bag, secrets being dug up...and soon, Equestria may never be the same again.

And I swear I did not intend for this chapter to be this long, it just kinda happened, I thought it was gonna wind up being only the second longest chapter as I got close to the end of writing it, only to find that it actually has the record for longest word count. Whoopsie daisy.

Also real quick here, a minor retcon: Dawning Hope's landlady has been renamed from Affordable Rent to Restful Lodgings. The original name was kind of a placeholder and I always kinda hated it, so I went back and changed it. Figured she's enough of a minor character and she's only had one other appearance that it wouldn't be all that big of a deal, and Chapter 2 has been adjusted accordingly.

Real quick before I go, I’d like to thank PonyJosiah13, TheLegendaryBillCipher, and Tarbtano for serving as proofreaders for this chapter. Their help, and that of others, has been invaluable over the course of this project.

Til next time, keep looking up, True Believers. We need people like Superman more than ever in the coming times.