Manes and Mayhem

It had all begun on a rather normal day.

Radiance, or rather, her other name she held under the mask, had been taking a well-deserved vacation from her busy life as a jeweler, having travelled miles away into the rural countryside to watch the stars at night. Typically, they remained in place, and even when one fell from the sky, she didn’t pay it much mind—well, beyond admiring the lovely show the Princess of the Night must’ve been putting on. However, soon enough, it became clear that one of those stars was becoming far too large in her sight, and it must’ve been headed right for her!

She hid amongst the starlit woods until she felt the Earth shake under the impact of the star, and it took her some time to even step outside to try and see what had happened. Soon enough, she saw the crater and trotted over, but what she found inside was nothing like what she had ever seen before...

The blue crystal that came from the heavens was beautiful, but it also held some strange properties that slowly sprung up spikes of solid magic around where it sat, and she quickly realized that her presence around the crystal made the spikes form, and their shape was due to the natural jagged shape of the crystal. With that in mind, she managed to carve the thing into a large core that was placed into an amulet worn on her breast as well as a pair of bracelets she held above her front forehooves. The former glowed with power, and the latter generated shapes of the solid magic at her very whim.

With this power, she knew what she must do.

You see, the city of Maretropolis was far from idyllic. The many grey rectangular buildings were an eyesore at best, the smoke coming from the city’s many factories blotted out the night sky and the stars within it, and the streets were often patrolled by gangs of drunkards, mafiosos, and police officers whose morality bent to every bribe. There was all too many opportunities for a Pony with some actual dignity to step up and make things right, and with the power of Radiance at her side, she decided to become a hero.

...But of course, no hero was complete without a lovely outfit to inspire hope in all the citizens she sought to save... and to hide her identity from anypony that may try to get rid of her after hours.

And it seems she was not alone in that ideology—well, most of it, anyhow. A quintet of other superheros showed themselves around Maretropolis in due time, with their own... decidedly less lovely outfits. (Seriously, green and black on red!? Purple on green on a brown coat, as well as silver on burgundy with... goggles? And the mismatches silver, platinum, and fake gold, and don’t get her started on pink, white, green, and orange, ugh...)

Regardless of these other would-be ‘heroes’, Radiance had been dealing with crimes of all sorts for some months before something truly heinous begun. A conspiracy of sorts, with many brands of shampoo becoming poisoned, and as a result, anypony who used those bottles found themselves with horribly unruly manes! A worse crime could never have been thought of by the lovely heroine, and she sought to put an end to as soon as possible!

...Provided such haste wouldn’t ruin all the effort she put into her own immaculate mane. If it did, then she would be forced to slow down so that her artistry would remain untouched.

Regardless!

Radiance had tracked down some shipments of the shampoo to what was supposed to be an abandoned factory in Maretropolis, but with all the activity about the building, it was clearly anything but abandoned. She made quick work of some of the ‘workers’ on the outside of the place (making sure not to ruin their quite dapper manes and outfits, of course) and headed inside, only to be met with...

“You! What are you doing here?!”

“What, me?!” Radiance called back in offense as she faced down the heroine known as ‘Masked Matter-Horn’, those ugly goggles already getting on her nerves again, and she shot back, “Why are you here?!” Leaning over just a bit, she caught sight of a small colt in a cape and mask cowering behind the mare, and she added, “And why did you bring a foal with you...?”

“That’s none of your business! I’m only here because a bunch of shipments across companies are going missing.”

Radiance quirked her head at that seeming slip up, and the colt behind Matter-Horn seemed confused as well, and he tried to interject with a timid voice, “Um, maybe don’t—”

“And now that I am here,” Matter-Horn went on, completely ignoring the colt and stepping towards the other mare accusingly, “You are unnecessary, and can be on your way.”

Radiance sniffed and turned up her nose in disgust for such horribly offensive words. “How rude. Do you really think so highly of yourself?” She asked with a pointed look down her snout at the other ‘hero’.

“Yeah, she’s kinda got a stick up her bum, huh?” Another voice suddenly chimed in, high-pitched and eager, with the three Ponies looking up towards a window a ways across the room and saw another Pony there, standing atop some deactivated machinery. “I knew you were gonna be here, and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that Masked Matter-Horn’s probably hog all the heroics to herself again.’ And then I thought, ‘Well, Fili-Second, you’re really fast, and you can get there in a few seconds, and you can have all the fun you want with all the wackiness going on in that factory!’ And then I thought—”

“Hey!” Matter-Horn shouted back, stopping Fili-Second’s rambling, “Are you done? I have bigger problems to deal with than you!”

“Um, are you actually gonna deal with those things or...” The colt piped up again, and while the mare that was supposedly his keeper didn’t even seem to register his voice, Fili-Second was different.

A quick pink trail zipped its way down from the machinery to the colt, and suddenly, Fili-Second was right before him, leaning down to his face, and she cheered, “Oh hi, Humdrum! Didn’t see ya for a sec! Your big-headed sis couldn’t stop yapping again.”

“H-hey, you’re not supposed to say that, with—” Matter-Horn sputtered, and pointed over to an amused Radiance, who was content to watch the drama play out for some time.

...However, she wouldn’t quite get that time, as suddenly the window Fili-Second came from got smashed, and another Pony fell through it, smacking into the floor and rolling across it for a second, then stopping a couple paces away from the others. “Ow,” She grunted, her voice slightly muffled by her muzzle being shoved into the floor.

“Hi Zappy! Watcha doin’ here?” Fili-Second zipped up to the face-planted heroine, and watched as she pulled herself up and shook her head to try and clear it.

“Mmn, jus’... heard about some dudes tryin’ something in this place, and wanted to beat the snot out of ‘em,” She muttered, still sounding a little out of it from the impact.

“‘Course,” Yet another voice spat, her tone clearly disgusted, and the Ponies looked up to see Mistress Marevelous standing in the shattered window frame, where she glared down at Zapp and went on, “Yer only doin’ this for fun, ya arses. Ain’t ya supposed ta think of all the Ponies yer tryin’ to help out?”

Radiance couldn’t help but gag slightly at the horrid outfit on that mare, and she forced herself to look away while Marevelous jumped down and landed with a harsh crack! on the concrete floor. “Not a single one of ya have actually seen the Ponies gettin’ sick ‘cuz of the darn poison in the shampoo?”

“Well, I certainly have, dear—” Radiance spoke up, looking sideways at the serious heroine in an attempt to not look at her outfit head-on, but Marevelous cut her off.

“An’ do ya care about them dyin’ or their manes gettin’ messed up, Radiance?” She asked with a loathing in her voice, clearly already knowing the answer.

And with the way Radiance herself pursed her lips and didn’t immediately reply, Mistress Marevelous shook her head in frustration and moved across the room, past the other heroes.

“Waaaaiiiiit!” Fili-Second abruptly squealed out, and pointed across the room into a corner, “You forgot one, Marevie!” With the other Ponies looking over to where she pointed, they could see the final hero in the room with them, one Saddle Rager. “Hi Saddie!” Fili-Second cheered excitedly, and waved a hoof very quickly to greet the mare.

“Ah, I was just enjoying being here, Fili,” The pleasant voice of the Rager came out as she approached, seeming quite ironic if you didn’t know her deal, as it were, “But if we’re all sharing stories, I found myself rather worried about the dangerous smoke coming out of this factory, with some folks downstream getting sick off of that.”

Mistress Marevelous sighed and looked the mare in the eyes, speaking with her usual curt tone, “An’ yet ya barely seem bothered about it, huh?”

Rager shrugged. “You are all here as well, so I figured I wouldn’t be needed,” She spoke, rather nonplussed. “My methods are a tad... messy, anyhow, so it would be for the best.”

Marevelous just scoffed and shook her head, and then continued on across the large factory room. “Y’all should just git,” She muttered in annoyance, “Ya numbskulls are just gonna get yourselves hurt.”

“Oh please,” Masked Matter-Horn rolled her eyes and grabbed ahold of the other hero’s leg with her magic, effectively stopping her, “I’ve gotten this far; I’m not stopping now.”

“Oh, same!” Fili-Second chimed in, zipping up and on top of Matter-Horn’s back, where she was promptly tossed off, but the Unicorn hero’s magic was also dispelled by a strong flick of Marevelous’s fetlock, but she remained in place, clearly seething despite facing away from the others.

“We may not be part of a team, dear,” Radiance spoke, attempting to defuse the conflict between them all, “But I’m sure we’d all like you to not get hurt either.”

A scoff came from the ever-so-snarky Zapp, who seemed to have recovered a bit, and she cut in, “I kinda do, maybe it’d help get that stick out of your—”

BANG!

The Pegasus was cut off when a loud sound snapped all of the Ponies’ attention across the room to a massive door, which had just gotten smashed in and propelled towards the heroines. Mistress Marevelous, being the closest to it, sharply brought up her forehooves just before the door slammed into her, managing to stop it in its tracks, and then she simply tossed it to the side, landing elsewhere with a loud, echoing thwam.

With the door out of the way, the heroines were free to see many well-dressed Ponies skitter into the room and surround them, all in uniform under some more powerful Pony... who could have only been the Pony that strode into the room next...

“Ehehehehe... So these are the Ponies who seek to stop me?” The mare’s voice rang out, sounding slightly raspy and broken, with a deranged confidence underneath. “You little fillies are nothing.. beneath my mane-levolence.”

Gasps of shock could be heard from all the heroes as the villain came into full view, with each mare having their own outcry:

A slightly disgusted ‘What the heck...’ from Marevelous,

A somewhat awed, ‘Oh, woah,’ from Fili-Second,

A bewildered, ‘What in the..?’ from Zapp,

A scared, ‘Oh, dear...’ from the Rager,

A irritated and deadpan, ‘That’s a horrible pun,’ from Matter-Horn,

A blank and simply shocked, ‘Oh...’ from the little Humdrum,

And a gaped, awed, and disbelieving, ‘My... word...’ from Radiance.

But Radiance’s expression was not laced with any disgust—no, rather, it was from how beautiful she found the mare that stood before them. For, instead of simply standing on four legs like every other Pony in the room, this mare was held aloft in the air, with her mane and tail doing the work for her. The striking green hairs bound themselves into tendrils that sprung away from her body, covered in a tasteful, yet clearly malicious outfit, where some of them moved down to the floor and squished into it, spreading across the floor in a small area to attain balance, with the half-dozen tendrils that struck the floor keeping their master multiple meters above it.

The mare looked quite mad with her wide, split-open grin, and her eyes were quite unique, with concentric irises of green and red, and her coat was a cold, yet soft purple, but her mane and tail stole the show. The tendrils were far longer than any mane should ever be, and they beheld a control as if they were limbs, able to hold the mare up and... likely also throw that door, as there was nothing else it sight that could’ve done that. The hairs themselves were spun together like a rope to form those tendrils, but many hairs were split off of them, wobbling in the air with a mind of their own.

Radiance always loved a good mane, and took much time out of her day to maintain her own elegant style, but this... this... maniac’s mane was unruly, split and contorted, and used for evil. By all rights, it should have been disgusting to her, but the mane was also controlled, if only just barely, and very powerful, so perhaps it was inevitable that she’d see it as beautiful regardless. However, as all those aspects were bound together within that maelstrom of a mane, Radiance couldn’t help but start to see the madness itself as beautiful too...

Perhaps... it was just the craze of a new, unique idea that was striking her, as any crazy idea would strike the runway and be the talk of all the papers for a time, but it would always fade back into a simple niche. But perhaps... it was something deeper than that, something that spoke to the mare under the mask, something... that her mind, mad in its own way, could only adore.