“Hello, Everypony! And welcome to Celebrity Stable Tonight, your daily TV show where we go over all the latest happenings, scandals, gossip and news about your favorite celebs!” Roseluck smiled at the camera, with a wink. “I’m your host, Roseluck, and tonight we have a very special guest with us, the one and only, MidKnight Noir!”

Rose turned, the camera panning out in time with her movement to reveal an empty chair.

“Uh, guys?” Rose blinked nervously, looking at her set director.

In the same instant, a dark blue alicorn materialised in the chair.

It wasn’t like she’d phased in from a cloak, or teleported in. It was just as though she’d… been there… all along. Like some kind of magical ward had occluded her very existence from the anchor, the set staff… And, chillingly, even the non-organic technology of the cameras.

This wasn’t invisibility. It was the incarnation of stealth itself.

Rose felt momentarily queasy in her stomach, like reality itself had warped and made her stomach do a flip. But she was a professional. And this was the interview that would make or break her career.

Rose squirmed nervously, as she took in the legendary superheroine for the first time with her own eyes.

The alicorn was completely clad in a lycra bodysuit with up-armor additions, elbow pads and sleek carbon-fibre horseshoes, all of which were the same stark shade of flat black. Only the wings were unadorned, each of them poking out of the saddle-padded section (as if the tremendously powerful being in front of her needed something so trivial as physical armor). The two cobalt-blue feathered wings were a stark contrast against the rest of her black-on-black coloration.

Even her mane and face were covered up in the black ninja-suit: she was topped by a pull-over hood that did not reveal even a scrap of fur… Nor did her eyes reveal any glimpse of a relatable pony — she was wearing a set of large ski-goggle-like eyewear, sealing off her mask entirely.

It was like the ponification of a black hole had taken the seat across from her.

MidKnight Noir twisted her head, ever so slightly — the barest of acknowledgments.

“Ahem, ah… oh… uh… excuse me, didn’t see you there for a moment, MidKnight.” Rose coughed, shuffling and glancing down at the cue cards she’d been handed by her producer just before walking on set.

MidKnight Noir did not respond, just stared. Or was she staring? It was hard to tell what was going on behind those goggles.

“Thanks so much for being on with us, MidKnight.” Rose chirped, trying to up her energy level and kick the interview off right. “It’s always such an honor to have a member of the famed Friendship Four on our show! Tell me, what’s your favorite thing about being one of Equestria’s most beloved superheroines?”

Rose paused, leaning forward, propping her chin on her hoof as if she were genuinely interested, beaming the widest smile she could muster for the cameras.

A moment passed.

Then another.

MidKnight continued to stare right through her, as if she weren’t even there.

Dead air.

The nightmare of any TV host.

Rose swallowed nervously, she could see her production director waving frantically at her from the side of camera 1, signalling that she should move on.

“Hahaha!” Rose managed to laugh. “Of course, of course, everypony knows how famous MidKnight Noir is for being a mare of few words. The world’s greatest detective, a master of stealth, grandmaster of every martial arts style on the planet, and the most powerful hypnomancer in all of recorded history. Just what is your secret?”

MidKnight Noir’s head twisted ever so slightly, a mere fraction of an inch toward Rose.

At least it’s some kind of response. Rose gulped, she could feel the eyes of the alicorn on her, despite their occlusion by the tinted plastic of her goggle lenses. You can do this Rose! You can!

“Now, it’s been a tough time for superheroines over the last year’s events. The reveal of compound F as a thaumatological wonder-drug that makes superpowers possible… Rainbow’s recent supersonic rainboom accident that cost a number of Cloudsdale civilians, and tragically even a kindergartner, their lives… the mysterious emergence of supervillains that have been enhanced by compound F, conveniently just as Flamco’s stock price began to dip…”

MidKnight Noir’s chin dipped ever so slightly. And yet the sheer menace in that slight motion made Rose’s hair stand on end.

Easy Rose, you’re not trying to win a Hooflitzer prize here. Leave the investigative journalism for another time.

“Er… and yet you and the Friendship Four have managed to have another record-setting year with no controversies! Mystic Magician has stopped more active crime than the major cities’ police forces combined, Hyper Heartthrob was credited with getting the Saddle Arabians to agree to a very generous peace treaty, you’ve singlehoofedly solved every major mystery and cold case over the past twenty years —including even some pre-crimes that hadn’t been committed yet—... and Sun-lander…”

For all the menace that had lurked in the air since MidKnight’s appearance, the mere mention of the leader of the Friendship Four, the most powerful superhero in existence, the former Goddess-Princess herself… it felt like the air conditioning in the studio had gone haywire, dipping the ambient temperature to a chill.

Rose could swear she even saw MidKnight’s hooves clench slightly, digging into the arms of the couch. The masked, unreadable face dipped even lower, still less than a fraction of an inch from its original position.

Why does the lack of reaction make her so much more terrifying!?

“...well, who doesn’t love Sun-lander, am I right?” Roseluck gestured out at the cameras, beaming with a wide smile. Right on cue, one of the sound engineers piped in the sound-effect of a raucous, cheering studio audience. They’d never filmed in front of one, everypony just assumed they did.

MidKnight seemed to relax, unclenching her muscles. Just what had she been preparing for? Was she worried that Rose was going to say something negative about Sunlander?

As if she’d ever do that. Sunlander was her favorite. She was everypony’s favorite!

Rose grinned to herself, and launched into the next question, this one was pre-submitted by Flamco themselves. Landing an interview like this had its price after all — in this case, the price was that they got to write the questions. It was pretty par for the course these days, it wasn’t like journalists were going to risk getting blackballed.

And in this particular case, Flamco actually owned the network that Celebrity Stable Tonight ran on.

“...but now you’re about to launch into a whole new exciting chapter of the team: it’s no longer going to be the Friendship Four. With Princess Flurry Heart’s eighteenth birthday two weeks ago, Flamco has made it official: the Friendship Four will become the Friendship Five!”

Rose paused again, letting her sound-engineer punch up the background cheering track, including the sound of hooves clattering in thunderous applause.

“That’s right, ponies! We haven’t heard yet what the young Princess’s super-name will be… or even what her powers are!” Rose grinned, checking the teleprompter to make sure she got the wording that some Flamco PR specialist had carefully scripted for her, “...but knowing her mom’s power-set, I’m sure we’ll find Flurry to be adorably irresistible!”

The production director cued a photo of Flurry Heart as a toddler, smiling at the cameraman with an adorable, missing-tooth grin.

“Awwwwww…..” Rose cooed, along with the perfectly-timed canned audience.

“But that’s not all my fellow ponies!” Rose cheered, double-checking the teleprompter as she went. “We’ve got a huge reveal, exclusive to Celebrity Stable tonight: Hyper Heartthrob will be retiring. Handing the reins over to her daughter. What a proud momma!”

Pre-recorded gasps played over the studio speakers. Rose cringed a little bit as she was sure she heard a Wilhelm scream mixed in… that was a little bit much, she’d have to speak to the sound guy after this.

“But we’re still going to be getting a fifth member of the new, improved ‘Friendship Five’. That’s right folks, for the first time ever, the planet’s top superhero team will include a non-alicorn!”

The canned applause echoed eerily through the studio broadcast chamber. Technically, this wasn’t even the same applause track that would actually be broadcast to the listeners of the program… but Rose felt that it was a bit too ridiculous to pretend she was smiling and beaming to and reacting to pure silence. Media fakery could only provide so much deception.

“The first top-tier super from one of our three races, Earth Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn! What an incredible trot forward for diversity!” Rose clapped her hooves together. Diversity and inclusion were playing big to millennials right now. At least that was what the higher-ups at the network were telling her. She’d never really talked to one, herself.

“Isn’t that incredible, MidKnight? From what we’ve heard your sister is a BIG champion of inclusion and equality of outcome in the workplace. How excited must she be about this announcement?”

“*Tch*”

The sound of the black-clad, mute, super-ninja pony breaking her silence momentarily to scoff was the most terrifying thing Rose had ever heard.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, hope you like my take on 'The BOYS' set in MLP.

If you are liking it so far... please take the time to hit the thumbs up button! Makes a big difference!

Thanks!