G5 Adventures in The Bad Guys

Things couldn't get much worse from where the Mane 6, Allura and Twitch were standing.

Right now, they were being handcuffed, tied up and accused of stealing the Love Crater meteortite along with the Bad Guys and the Mythix Tiger cubs.

But we all know the Mane 6 wouldn't actually do this, nor would the others for that matter.

Someone had to be framing them-- the Equestrians were standing right with their new friends when it all happened!

One thing was for sure... our heroes knew they had to figure out what was going on and make sure they didn't take the fall for someone else's crime... before it's too late.

XXXXXXXX

Tiffany Fluffit was one of the first reporters on the scene as the Bad Guys, the cubs and their new friends were dragged into a SUCM truck that was twice the size as the first one, in order to hold everyone who they thought was accountable for the theft.

The poor cubs looked just as frightened as Twitch was, and Mr. Wolf was trying to help Sunny plead their case. “Hey, you’re making a mistake. We didn’t do it!” Mr. Wolf protested. “I know we always say that, but this time it’s actually true!”

“A-la-la-la-la. Can’t hear you,” Chief Luggins singsonged to taunt them. “Guilty, guilty, guilty…”

“Talk to Marmalade-- they’re really good now!” Sunny protested as she was shoved into the truck with her friends. “He’ll tell you! Professor!”

But Sunny never got a word in edge-wise... the door slammed before she could see the professor, leading to next-to-near darkness within the back of the truck. “Tonight’s headline; change is impossible,” Tiffany Fluffit told her viewers. “You should always judge a book by its cover, and all stereotypes have been affirmed.”

Rogue’s ears lowered in heartache as Diane shook her head suspiciously… she felt that something wasn’t right about all this, and she had a feeling that someone wanted the others to fall…

…but who?

Suddenly, Professor Marmalade barged through the crowd, looking just as worried and concerned as Diane and Rogue were. “Stop, for goodness’ sake! Let me speak to them!” he pleaded. “I’m-I’m sure there’s been some misunderstanding.”

XXXXXXXX

Izzy sniffled in terror as she and her friends were thrown into the truck like animals, more scared than she had ever been in her entire life. “We didn’t do anything wrong… why are they doing this to us?”

“I wish I knew what to tell you, Izzy…” Sunny said, looking just as tired and defeated as her friends, new and old, looked. “But… we don’t have the evidence to say it wasn’t us.”

“We can’t give up that easily, Sunny,” Allura said softly, placing a paw on Sunny’s shoulder reassuringly. “There’s got to be something we’re missing.”

Suddenly, the door opened, and everyone turned to see Professor Marmalade entering the truck, much to Reva’s relief. “Professor Marmalade!”

“You’ve got five minutes. No deals this time,” Chief Luggins said to the guinea pig before the truck door slammed shut. “Y-You have to help us,” Mr. Wolf pleaded. “Tell em. Tell em we didn’t do it.”

“There, there. Of course you didn’t do it,” Professor Marmalade said sympathetically, patting Mr. Wolf’s paw. “How could you? After all, you’re such a good boy.”

Hearing this, Mr. Wolf suddenly remembered the old lady that he had helped at the Good Samaritan Awards… those exact words that she had said were the same words the professor had just said.

How could he know?

Suddenly… more memories began flashing into Mr. Wolf’s mind.

“That shiver up my spine. The wag in my tiny tail.”

“ARREST THEM!!!”

“What if we tried a little experiment, Diane? As you know, my Gala for Goodness…”

“...where the legendary Love Crater Meteorite will be on display for the first time ever.”

“All eyes will be on you tonight, not me.”

“You’re such a… good boy…”

Suddenly, Mr. Wolf snapped out of his thoughts once he began piecing things together, his eyes slowly widening in realization. “You… it was all you…”

“What?” Misty questioned and immediately looked at him, confused, and Ms. Tarantula was honestly on the same confusing page that Misty was on. “What are you talking about, Wolf?”

“The old lady, the Golden Dolphin, good training,” Mr. Wolf looked at the others. “It was all to get us here-- so he could steal the meteorite and let us take the fall.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Mr. Snake stopped the explanation in confusion. “What old lady?”

“Yeah,” Gretchen nodded. “A-And why would a guinea pig want a meteorite anyway?”

“I’m not sure,” Reva muttered, “but… something tells me…”

Suddenly, they saw Professor Marmalade laughing quietly, but sadistically, with his back turned and hair frazzled, scratching the door with his tiny claws. “Uh… guys?” Mr. Shark looked nervous as Carmine, Zari and Pipp hugged each other in terror. “He's creeping me out.”

Mr. Piranha, who was hanging from the ceiling by handcuffs, much like Twitch, struggled to turn around and see what was happening. “Wait, what? What's going on?! Someone turn me around!”

“Well, well…” Professor Marmalade said rather sadistically before turning around and sporting an evil look. “So, you finally get it.”

“WHAT?!” the others screeched out in shock, their eyes wide and their jaws going to the floor. “Wait wait wait, hold on,” Hitch spoke up as Allura gently closed Twitch’s mouth with her wing. “You stole the meteorite?!”

“Oh, it’s not just a meteorite,” the professor told the earth pony stallion before Mr. Piranha looked at Twitch with a smile. “I told you guys it’s a butt, but Twitch didn't--”

“It’s not a butt!!” Professor Marmalade snapped, silencing all of them before he took a deep breath to calm himself before speaking again. “It’s the ultimate power source. You see, when it struck, scientists found that it emitted an electromagnetic frequency unlike anything else on Earth. I’m going to harness its power to pull off the greatest heist the world has ever seen.”

“...okay, even I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Pipp said, glancing at Mr. Snake, “but you should’ve eaten him when you had the chance.”

Mr. Snake, who was glaring at the professor in anger while the others remained stone silent, nodded to the pink pegasus’ remark. “Yep.”

“But… I don’t understand,” Oran muttered in disbelief, breaking the silence amongst his cousins. “Why us?”

“Because you’re the perfect patsies,” Professor Marmalade explained. “Come on, when people look up “bad” in the dictionary, do they see a sweet, adorable guinea pig? No. They see you. And they always will. As for your little darling Equestrian friends, people will lose faith in their dear heroes coming to save the day… and once they’re gone, no one will DARE try and stop me.”

The cubs looked at the ground in shame and heartbreak, causing Zipp to snarl. “Okay… fine. You’re the villain in this situation. We get it.”

“But you set all of us up!” Allura accused with fangs bared. “Oh, pish-pish. Let’s be honest… evolution set your little friends up. You Equestrians were just little pawns in the plan,” Professor Marmalade scoffed before looking at Reva and Mr. Wolf, the little tiger cub looking absolutely terrified in Mr. Wolf’s arms. “But Wolfie here really clinched it. He and the water cub fell for every one of my traps, starting with saving a helpless little old lady.”

“...Reeves? Wolf?” Gretchen looked at her cousin and Mr. Wolf, confused. “What’s he talking about?”

“We… um…” Reva tried to find the words to explain, but nothing came to her mind… and that silently confirmed Mr. Snake’s suspicions, and he looked at Mr. Wolf and Reva in betrayal. “Oops… did I say too much?” Professor Marmalade asked coyly. “Anyhoo, looks like yet again, the Big Bad Wolf got outsmarted by a Little Piggy.”

“You leave Wolf alone!” Reva snapped, although terrified of this situation and of Professor Marmalade. “He only got outsmarted cause you betrayed us!”

“Oh, sweet innocent naive little Reva. You know, Safira is going to be very unhappy when she learns you’ve failed yet again,” Professor Marmalade said with a sadistic little smirk. “And when you see her next… you can guarantee it’ll be the last time. And your little friends will be sure to follow.”

Then… that one threat to the cubs he had come to care for caused Mr. Wolf to immediately growl and snap within his restraints. “You little pouchy-cheeked RAAAATTTT!!!!”

As he lunged and snarled at Professor Marmalade, the guinea pig kicked the door open to make it look like Mr. Wolf was attacking him, while everyone else around looked horrified. “I'LL KILL YOU!! YOU HEAR ME?!?! YOU'RE DEAD!!! YOU'RE DEA--”

“WOLF!!” Sunny shrieked. “STOP!!”

Upon hearing Sunny’s voice and realizing what had happened, Mr. Wolf stopped in his tracks, noticing the scared looks on the peoples' faces. “Help!” Professor Marmalade cried out, playing innocent to the attack. “The Big Bad Wolf is attacking me!”

The crowd screamed in terror as Diane and Rogue looked at Mr. Wolf in shock, and Reva tried to hold back a sob as Chief Luggins marched angrily over to the truck. “Oh, now you are done forever, Wolf!”

“NO!!” Reva shrieked as the door quickly slammed shut, and the truck drove off, leaving Rogue and Diane to look on sadly before Tiffany Fluffit spoke to the seemingly-shaken Professor Marmalade. “Professor, Professor, any thoughts on how the Bad Guys and their allies managed to steal the meteorite in plain sight?”

“Well,” Professor Marmalade spoke up innocently, “off the top of my head, perhaps they accessed the site previously and set up an intricate system of tunnels and trapdoors…”

As the professor continued to chat with Tiffany, Diane and Rogue walked away from the rest of the scene and reached into her purse, checking in the charity map and finding the spot that Mr. Wolf had marked. She and Rogue had to check it out… they had to.

XXXXXXXX

Later at the Sixth Street bridge, Diane drove a yellow FIAT 500 car to the spot Mr. Wolf had marked on the map, and Rogue was in the back seat as they drove into the tunnel and entered the elevator.

And once the elevator had stopped moving, they saw the hideout loaded with goods and realized that Mr. Wolf wanted them to find this… he wanted to give it all back.

They had to figure out what was going on with Professor Marmalade… for the sakes of everyone involved.

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, a boat was traveling across the ocean to take the Bad Guys, the cubs and the Equestrians to a very high-security, Super Ultra Crazy Max prison (which is what SUCM stood for).

Mr. Wolf had been trying to comfort a crying Reva the entire way while the others comforted his friends and their apprentices, but none of it seemed to do any good.

They were scared… HE was scared.

But, even with the Mane 6 and Allura's magic (which was restrained thanks to special cuffs on their hooves, legs and wings), they would never be able to escape from this place... not while they were alive, anyway.

XXXXXXXX

Later, the group were led into the main part of the prison, each one of them looking defeated and hopeless. “Aw, man…” Mr. Shark groaned. “I can’t believe we got double-crossed by a tiny rodent.”

“Oh, we got double-crossed by a rodent all right,” Mr. Snake quipped, “but, uh, not a tiny one.”

“Wait, what?” Carmine looked confused. “This was supposed to be us conning Marmalade,” Gretchen clarified with a glare, “but as it turns out it was Reva and Wolf conning us.”

A guard wrung his hands around Mr. Snake's neck, making him spew out stuff including a clock on the desk just before Mr. Snake turned to Mr. Wolf, who was being searched. “Does that sound familiar to you, Wolf?”

“Why-- why would you think that?” Mr. Wolf asked as he got searched. “Oh, I don’t know,” Mr. Snake said sarcastically. “Maybe because you just sabotaged the biggest heist of our lives. I think you owe us an explanation, buddy.”

“Yeah,” Gretchen snarled at Reva. “ALL of us.”

“Guys, hold on,” Zipp said gently. “I know everyone’s scared and mad and confused right now, but… come on… this isn’t gonna help.”

“No… they’re right, Zipp,” Reva sighed sadly. “We do owe them an explanation.”

“Okay. You’re right. This is what happened. Back in the museum, I just tried to steal an old lady’s purse,” Mr. Wolf said, smiling as he got his mugshot taken. “ Classic snatch and grab.”

“Tried to?” Ms. Tarantula said while putting her legs in ink and before a cop stamped her legs onto a piece of paper to get the ink prints. “Since when do you try to steal something and not just steal it?”

“I was trying to steal the purse when the old lady fell and…” Mr. Wolf hesitated slightly as he and Reva were handed two orange prison outfits. “...me and Reva kinda helped her.”

“What?!” Mr. Snake hissed before his mugshot was taken. “...we… we helped her,” Reva said quietly, trying to get changed. “But then you stole her purse,” Mr. Piranha assumed before his mugshot was taken, causing him to blink. “No, I didn’t. We saved the old lady, and she hugged me, and our tails wagged and Reva’s cutie mark glowed, and… I didn’t know what it was, but it felt, uh, you know… good.”

The others gasped in shock while Mr. Snake just glared at Mr. Wolf and Reva, causing Mr. Piranha to nod slowly. “Ah. But then you stole the purse.”

“NO!!” the Mane 6 said to Mr. Piranha sternly as they got changed. “Wolf… you started feeling the essence of good before you even started the training,” Hitch said gently. “That proves you and Reva have got good in you, even if no one else sees it.”

“...really?” Reva looked a bit reluctant to believe it. “Cause it just seemed like Marmalade was using all that training against us.”

“You know,” Mr. Snake quipped again, “Gretchen and I heard what the pig said to you about cutting us loose.”

“Wait,” Zari paused. “Like… us us?!”

“But I never thought you’d actually do it, man,” Mr. Snake glared at Mr. Wolf, causing Mr. Wolf to try and explain himself. “Hey, hey, hey, hey. I-I would never… I was trying to… I was trying to find us a better life.”

“Our life was perfect until you decided to ruin it!” Mr. Snake said angrily. “Snake, calm down,” Sunny said, pushing Mr. Snake back. “I’m sure Wolf had a good explanation for saying it, if you just give him a chance.”

“Sunny’s right… Wolf didn’t mean to ruin anything,” Reva protested. “You guys felt it at the gala. The clapping, the cheering. We were more than… than just scary villains. They loved us.”

“...it did feel kinda nice,” Oran muttered, “not having to worry about people being scared of us.”

“Yeah…” Carmine sighed. “It made me feel like I could do anything.”

“Yeah, right,” Gretchen snarled. “If they loved us so much, how come we’re in prison for a crime we didn’t commit?”

“...” Reva remained silent at this, not wanting to look her cousin in the eye. “You know what? I’ll give Marmalade this,” Mr. Snake sneered. “At least he sees the world for what it is: a place where some people are scary and some people are scared.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, I’m tired of being scary. I’m-I’m tired of being an outcast,” Mr. Wolf said, starting to get angry himself. “Maybe I don’t want the cubs to live in this life anymore. Maybe I don’t want to be a…”

“What? A Bad Guy? Don’t want to be a Bad Guy anymore, huh? You wanna take the cubs away from the only family they have left, huh? Go ahead. Say it, Wolf,” Mr. Snake challenged, but Mr. Wolf didn’t say anything, confirming Mr. Snake's silent theories. “Yeah, I thought so. And us, your lifelong friends? We’re just holding you back?”

“Yeah, maybe you are!”

The others were stunned into silence at Mr. Wolf's response to this… even the ponies, Allura and Twitch.

Sure, Mr. Wolf was angry, but he had a good reason for being angry. He didn’t wanna live this life anymore and he just wanted to bring his friends into the life of good too… especially the cubs. To get them away from Safira and the hard past.

Maybe Mr. Wolf didn’t mean what he said.

No… our heroes KNEW he didn’t mean what he said.

But unfortunately, Mr. Snake was so filled with rage, he leapt right onto Mr. Wolf and attacked him, causing Reva and Gretchen to shriek while the others froze in terror. “TAKE IT BACK!” Mr. Snake shrieked. “TAKE IT BACK! APOLOGIZE!!”

That was when two guards came in to help Allura and Sunny break up the fight. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!” the female guard shouted, holding Mr. Snake back as best she could. “Prison is no place for fighting.”

Suddenly, another male guard dropped down to them from the upper floors, stopping everyone in their tracks. “Tell that to him.”

“Huh?” Allura looked up and saw a lone figure up in the upper levels, and this lone figure leapt down and landed right near them, as if challenging the guards. “I’m sorry,” Carmine lifted a paw. “W-W-What’s happening right now?”

“I don’t know, but we better get off to the side!” Misty said as she gathered Oran onto her back. “Now!”

More and more guards rushed in as the group moved off to the side to get out of the way. But, miraculously, the strange figure kicked and punched the guards, throwing them aside and kicking them down. The figure grabbed a shoe and kicked it at the two guards, knocking them both unconscious before the strange figure dragged all of the guards into a cell and locked them up before approaching the group, with Allura and the Mane 6 trying to activate their magic, but to no avail.

However, as the figure removed their hood, they could instantly see who it was… and boy, did it surprise them. “DIANE?!”

“But how do you know how to do all of that kick-kick-punch-punch?” Izzy asked right out of the blue. “Okay, when I thought you were cool before, this made you 10 times as cool!” Zipp said with a bright smile. “How did you do all that?”

Suddenly, Mr. Wolf began to piece things together, a smile of recognition coming onto his face. “Wait a sec, you’re the Crimson Paw?” he asked, and Diane smiled innocently at this. “The queen of cons, acrobatic Swiss Army knife. Stole the Zumpango diamond twice. Once for profit, second time just for fun. Never identified, never caught!”

“Guess I’m still the best bad guy the world has ever seen,” Diane said with a smile before seeing a small blood cut on her suit, causing her to sigh. “Ugh, at least I used to be.”

“Man, are we ever glad to see you, Diane,” Reva said as she hugged the governor-turned thief. “We need to talk to you about…”

It was then that an alarm went off, and many more guards came into the main part of the prison and surrounded them as Diane put her disguise back on.

Needless to say... this was definitely gonna be a fight for the ages.

XXXXXXXX

Within just 10 minutes, the Bad Guys, their apprentices and the Equestrians were riding across the water on a boat being piloted by Diane and Rogue, who had snuck along at the last minute, just as the prison exploded behind them, much to the Mane 6’s complete surprise.

First, Diane defeated all those guards and saved their necks and then she set the prison to blow?

What wasn't she capable of?

However, Diane played the situation out rather calmly. “Nope, I’m still the best. Just like riding a stolen bicycle,” she said before noticing a bit of fire on Hitch’s mane. “Oh, uh, you got a little…”

With that, she pinched the fire, making it go out, causing Hitch to sigh in relief. “Thanks.”

“Hang on a second… why did you guys save us?” Misty asked. “Not that we aren’t grateful for it… it’s just… surprising, that’s all.”

“After the gala, Diane knew something wasn’t right,” Rogue explained, “so we did some investigating, and that meteor…”

“I know, I know,” Mr. Wolf interrupted. “Some kind of cosmic mega-super-antennae thing.”

““Right. If conducted through an array of ionized crystals, it will generate a massive psychokinetic field the size of a city,” Diane concluded before blinking in realization. “Oh, my gosh. Did I interrupt you? Were you gonna say that?”

“Uh…” Mr. Wolf glanced at the others before trying to act cool about the situation. “I-I-I was gonna be a little more technical, but you got the gist of it.”

“And that’s not even the worst part,” Sunny frowned. “For some reason, Marmalade’s teamed up with Safira, the dragon with dark magic that the cubs are so terrified of!”

“What?!” Rogue looked stunned at this piece of information. “Ohhh boy, this is a lot worse than we thought.”

“Gee,” Gretchen rolled her eyes bitterly. “You think?”

Soon, they make it back to shore, where they got off the boat and Diane and Rogue both ran to their car parked nearby. “Marmalade and Safira both need to be stopped. But Rogue and I can’t do it alone,” Diane said. “You guys know his compound better than anyone.”

“Don’t worry about a thing, Diane,” Zipp said with a firm smile. “You can count on us to help.”

“All of us,” Mr. Wolf agreed, holding her paw with Reva nodding in agreement before turning back to his friends and the other apprentices. “Right, guys?”

“There is no us,” Mr. Snake said bitterly. “We’re through with you, Wolf. With the Equestrians too. Done. Finito.”

“Because of that little tiff back there?” Pipp asked as she looked at him, appalled. “Come on, dude, that’s what you and Wolfie do! You serve, he volleys. That’s your little dance.”

“...no. Not this time,” Gretchen said, shooting her cousin a dirty look before she and Mr. Snake began to go off in a different direction. Mr. Wolf turned to Zari and Mr. Piranha, hoping that he would have some backup from some of the others. “Zari? Piranha?”

However, Mr. Piranha seemed just as bitter, walking away and pulling Zari behind him by the collar of her shirt. Mr. Wolf turned to Ms. Tarantula and Oran, hoping to get some sort of reaction from them. “Oran? Webs…?”

“Sorry, Wolfie…” Oran muttered before walking after his cousins with Ms. Tarantula on his back. “Shark… Carmine, come on!” Sunny tried to plead with the remaining members of the crew. “These… these are your friends. You can’t just abandon them cause you want different things in life. You have to give it another chance.”

Carmine and Mr. Shark looked like they wanted to join the cause, but then again… looking at the other crew members made them slowly begin to follow. “Guys…?” Reva looked like she was about ready to cry. “Guys?!”

It was then that Mr. Snake finally stopped, turning to look at his former best friend and his apprentice with a bitter expression. “Do you want to know why I hate birthdays, Wolf? Do you?”

“Huh?” Zipp looked at Allura and Twitch in confusion before Mr. Snake continued. “When you grow up a snake, nobody shows up to your party. Birthdays are a constant reminder that out there I’m just a scary, good-for-nothing monster.”

Allura gasped softly as she heard this word, reminding herself of how she once thought of herself as a monster, and felt a pang of guilt for how Mr. Snake was treated in his life. “Yeah. But nothing compares to having the one guy… the one guy,” Mr. Snake continued, obviously hurt, “I thought I could trust stab me in the back.”

“...no one meant to stab anyone in the back. We always looked out for each other, even if we made a mistake,” Reva sniffled. “Come on, Gretch… we’re a family. We’re… we’re all we have left of each other.”

“...you obviously don’t understand family,” Gretchen turned to her cousin again. “Family means looking out for each other and being HONEST with each other. You honestly can’t see that by you and Wolf going good… you’re abandoning us?”

“I…” Reva tried to find the words to continue, but her voice seemed… stuck in her cub-sized throat. “I didn’t…”

“So, no. We’re not family… I don’t think we ever were,” Gretchen interrupted bitterly, watching her cousin's eyes widen and become filled with tears before sighing and turning around. “Come on, guys… let’s get out of here.”

And so, the other Bad Guys and Reva's cousins began to walk down the beach, not bothering to look back... and this broke Mr. Wolf and Reva's hearts.

Their only friends... their only family... were gone in an instant.

The Mane 6, Allura and Twitch tried to fight the urge to cry themselves, but it was so hard. Despite knowing that their main mission now was to stop whatever Marmalade and Safira had planned...

...they couldn't help but feel that part of this whole mess was their fault.