The morning sun lightly swept at Twilight Sparkles face. She opened one eye to look at her curtains. "Another beautiful morning in Ponyville," she said softly bringing the covers over her head to shield her eyes.

Her exposed ears twitched. "Spike?"

The sounds of her dragon assistant were absent this morning. "Perhaps he's gone to get a head start on the chores." Normally he'd still be snoring away at this hour on a weekend morning. This was curious. It was a weekend morning. He didn't have any duties on a weekend morning. It was her turn to do the morning chores. It was part of their trade off in roles. She raised her head from her soft pillow to see if the dragon was standing at the foot of her bed waiting for his weekend Danish rolls with ruby glaze icing. No. The reptile tike was missing in action. His bed empty, the bedroom door closed, and there were no sounds of him moving around downstairs.

With no answer she had hoped maybe the dragon had run off to do something. Something-anything that would enable her to sleep longer. Last night had been particularly tiresome as she had reorganized an entire section of the library based on types of magic beginning with easy and ending with difficult, and book spine color. It was frivolous and chances were that she'd come to dislike it in a day's time and go back to alphabetizing the section as it once was.

That's where Spike was! She had discovered his stash of comic books hidden on a shelf she rarely peeked at. He was a clever little thing. Where the natural wood shelves created blind spots the dragon had learned to hide his treasures there. He was still a baby dragon but signs of his maturity were beginning to show. There was a diamond Rarity had given him that he left near his comic books on a bookshelf. He never snacked on it once. There it rested as if a paperweight or some decoration. Twilight knew this was his first experiment with his dragons hoard. He was kind enough to keep it off the floor. So, she was kind enough to let him have his "hoard". His hoard stood at one diamond, a myriad of comic books that he kept organized, and a picture of Rarity. Some hoard. Twilight recalled the dragon they had faced months before that managed to have an entire trove of treasures that rivaled any wealth she could ever dream of. It had crossed her mind that Spike was a little nerdy for a dragon to have only those items in his clutch but he was still just a baby dragon.

Her curtains drew themselves back at her minds flex. Lazily the purple pony rolled out of bed and went to the dresser. Her horn glowed as the bed remade itself and a hair brush straightened her mane. Drawing back the curtains to let in the morning sun Twilight gave a quick inspection to her bed chamber. Her attention then turned to opening the door and calling out, "Spike, I know you're hiding those comics again. I told you a thousand times, Rarity is interested in ponies that read books not dragons that read comics. Besides you keep that diamond right next to them. Why don't we just go down to the shops and get you your own little shelf for your collection… Spike?" Twilight peered down into the library. No Spike.

The pony still had sleep in her eyes but the oddity of Spike missing on a weekend morning was concerning. He always ALWAYS waited, patiently, for his weekend treat. It was unlike him to simply run off. She looked at his desk seeing if there was a note. Nothing.

She searched high and low. His comic books were stacked neatly where she had left them the night before with their diamond companion sitting in front as if it were guarding them. There was no sign that the dragon even did anything to disturb the room. Well, there was one comic book lay out as if Spike had been reading it but got up to go do something. She could even see the impression of his elbows and knees in the rug where he had been reading.

She checked the kitchen to see if the dragon had made his own breakfast this morning. Perhaps he was letting her sleep in out of some act of kindness. No pans were dirty, the oven was off, and there were no dirty dishes in the sink. Not even the few gems she kept for the dragon as treats were touched.

Twilight went about her business as per usual and began making Spike his breakfast. Even if he had eaten in town she doubted that he'd turn down ruby rolls. Today he'd have to settle for canned rolls, not fresh made. Not that it was difficult when using her magical abilities; it was just time consuming. She'd make it up next weekend to him.

"Where the hay did he run off to?"

\/\/\/

There was a buzz in Ponyville this morning that Spike was riding the crest of. Cheerilee had rushed over to Sugarcube Corner that morning and it didn't take long for the rumor of a superpony to reach the young dragon.

Cheerilee was embarrassed to have drawn such attention from all the ponies in town that morning. Spike hanged on every word she said.

"The filly just told me to hang on to something, anything I could grasp at. She created a tornado that sucked the beast off the ground and bucked it back into the Everfree forest!"

"Woooooooooooow. That's so cool!" Spike looked lazily at Cheerilee, "And then what happened!"

"Well she came up to me, asked if I was okay."

"What did she look like? Did she have a cape?"

"Well, it was hard to see, Spike. I don't think she had a cape. It was dark and you know how colors get kind of blurry in the dark. I think she was blue with a black and white mane. I couldn't see her face because she was definitely wearing a mask with some sort of goggles."

A voice called out from the back. "You just described the Wonderbolts you foal! Let's go. She doesn't know what she's talking about," laughed a golden pegasus.

"What I saw was no stunt performer! You believe me don't you, Spike?" It wasn't as if Cheerilee needed validation but being told she was being foolish hurt.

"Yeah!" The little dragon jumped up, "of course I do. What happened next?"

"She flew away."

At that moment another pony stepped up. "I had something like that happen to me!" By the end of it four ponies total had said something about a blue costumed mare saving their lives. All of their stories were different though. One pony said she was a unicorn and wore a cape. Another pony said that it wasn't a mare but a stallion pegasus. The other said that stallion was white and not blue. The only one Spike could believe was Cheerilee. She was able to tell her story several times in a row without getting any of her facts mixed up. And of course Cheerilee's story had all the things needed to sound plausible. A damsel in distress with a Everfree monster chasing her- a daring rescue- and a happy conclusion.

This, of course, only fueled the young dragon's imagination. It drove him immediately to purchase more comic books at the town news stand and return home for his morning breakfast.

Spike was choosy this time in picking his comics to include only hero comics as he would be spending the day daydreaming of himself assuming a role as a super dragon and rescuing a certain white mare from the dangers of whatever it was that would be dangerous to her. "Perhaps something that stains silk easily! No…wait… lame."

\/\/\/\/

Applejack could hardly believe her ears at the ponyfolk gossiping on about a super pony. "They plain just plum don't exist. A super pony? Aw heck Rainbow Dash could'a done that and done it twice as fast an' ten times better than that silly mare you're a' talkin' 'bout, Cheerilee."

The orange pony didn't give much thought to the school teacher telling her story for long and went back about her business.

/\/\/\/

Rainbow Dash was the last pony in Ponyville out of bed. She couldn't even move her wings she hurt so much. Her legs were sore, her hooves felt funny, she felt physically a little cold. Wearily she stood up from her bed. "Guess today I'll…" her voice trailed as she looked at herself in the mirror. A blue suited pony stared back. "Oh yeah. Forgot about this. Heh heh." She tried to pose for her own amusement but found moving her wings from her sides an impossible feat this morning. Slowly she peeled away the mask allowing her face to be freed. The mask hanged limply at her chest.

Rainbow slowly clopped over to the curtains to allow light into her bed room. She lay down on the bed on her stomach and slowly exercised her wings so that she could finish removing the costume. The sounds of her wings gently raising and lowering were all she concentrated on. She remembered Cheerilee from the night before. Hopefully she had gotten away without being identified. It would crush her to think if some pony she knew would catch her playing dressup in such a way and then ridicule her for it. However she did feel a certain swell of pride knowing she had saved Cheerilee from certain doom.

Once satisfied that she could move her wings enough Dash unzipped the costume and let it fall to the floor. As she stepped out she felt a twinge of guilt for taking it off. It was the closest she had ever come to being one of her heros. She folded the fabric and placed it in a box and hid it away in her closet. It was almost ritualistic the way she had folded everything. She'd never taken that much care of clothing in her entire life. But when it was out of sight she breathed a sigh of relief, "Aw dang. I didn't even take a picture of me in it."

Slowly she trotted into the living room and gazed at her trophy case. Inside were various accomplishments she had earned. The crown from the best young fliers' competition sat on a neatly dusted glass shelf. There was a custom made mannequin neck for her bejeweled necklace given to her for freeing Princess Luna. Certificates and photographs from her various competitions and titles were framed and hanged or propped up on the back wall of the display case. Mixed in with her accolades were clippings and photographs of her heros, the Wonderbolts. She even had a signed poster from one of the first shows she ever saw. She even had the action figures. One set of figures was still mint on card, a few of the variant figures mint on card (those are the ones without the goggles on the figure), and one full set was open and out for display. She looked long and hard at the action figures wondering what hers would look like if she repainted one of the opened ones. However her hooves weren't that good and intricate detail work wasn't really her thing.

A gentle breeze flew through the air of her living room. Her front door was still missing. She'd have to make a new one. Dash began a check list in her head: first she'd get some anti-inflammatory pain medication, then fix the door, then breakfast, then she'd go on down to Twilight Sparkles library and see what she was up to. If she had time she would ask around to make sure Cheerilee was okay.

Normally Dash felt as if she should be more, well, Rainbow Dash about this but something told her to keep this event low profile.

Rainbow went about her morning as normal. She took her anti-inflammatory medication, then had breakfast and then molded a new cloud door for her home. All in all it was a productive morning for Rainbow Dash. Luckily the weather schedule from Cloudsdale didn't call for her to move any clouds or make it rain anywhere. She had a free day today.

Rainbow walked to the edge of her cloudhome and looked down to see the ponies of Ponyville going about their daily routine. She couldn't help be feel light hearted today after her little escapade from yesterday. She dipped her hoof into the rainbow fountain and then bucked her leg causing the rainbow juice to flow off into a familiar ribbon across the sky. The sound of applause and gasping from below was pleasant to her ears.

"Thank you… Thank you… I'm here all week! You're all so kind!" She took a modest bow.

Gently Rainbow Dash spread her wings and gave them one more test flap. The pain had subsided but she still couldn't flap her wings comfortably. "Alright… I'll take it easy, girls. Yeesh" she muttered at her hindquarter. Holding the blue flaps steady she somersaulted off the cloud and glided down to the ground.

/\/\/\/\

Spike had returned with his new treasures in tow. "I'm ho-ome!"

"Oh, there you are, Spike!" A happy purple pony shouted from the kitchen. "I hope you're hungry!"

The purple dragon waddled over to the breakfast table in their quaint little kitchen, "sure am! I've been lookin' forward to this all day!" His eyes narrowed, "what time did you roll out of bed by the way?"

Twilight placed the pan of hot rolls in front of the dragon, "now now, I don't need guff from you for being lazy once in a while." She trotted back to the stove, "besides, it's not like you were waiting for them." She levitated a powdered red spread towards the dragon. "now bon appétit." Something caught Twilight's eye, "oh, not more comic books, Spike. These are going to rot your mind eventually."

"Oh yeah?" He pointed a claw dripping with ruby red sauce at the pony, "this is study material now, Twilight." Spike took his claw and dripped it across a danish before greedily gobbling it down.

"Oh Spike," Twilight levitated a napkin towards the dragon. "Juice?"

"Oh, please. Mmm. N-no! I mean, this IS study material! We've got a super pony in town!" A glass of juice gently set itself down infront of the reptile.

"A what?" She looked stunned. "What's a super pony?" Twilight finished preparing her Danish roll with apple spread and water tray and brought it to the table.

Spike smiled a toothy grin. "This!" He slid a comic book towards the pony. The cover bore a picture of a stallion with large muscles punching a large hay stack. "Superior Steed and the evil hay seed? You've got to be joking. This is fiction Spike!

"No! This is serious! Just go ask Cheerilee. We got… what did she call it? We've got the Fantastic Filly!"

Twilight sat down at her place at the table. "Oh, so just what did this Fantastic Filly do?"

"Well," Spike swallowed down another roll, "Last night Cheerilee was at Zecora's place in the Everfree Forest. While she was walking down the path a large manticore started chasing her. She was a goner but a super pony saved her!" He had a sparkle in his eye as if lost in a fantasy world.

Twilight clapped her hoof on the table, "Yo. Come back to me Spike. So what did this pony do that was sooo fantastic?"

"Well, the Fantastic Filly flew in sayin' "I'll save you!" and then beat up the manticore and created a huge tornado that sent it back into the woods!"

"Uh, Spike. Not to rain on your parade but the pony flew in and created a tornado? Do you know how many ponies we BOTH know that could do that?"

"uuuuuh. Hmmm." Spike seemed lost in thought for a moment. "Ooooooh. Pegasus ponies do that kind of stuff all the time, huh?"

"Yes, Spike. All the time." Twilight bent down to take a nibble from her roll.

The dragon nodded, "But I didn't tell you the super part."

"Tell me about the super part, Spike." Twilight deadpanned.

"Fantastic Filly wears a costume! Just like the Superior Steed!" He grinned again. "I'm tellin' ya Twilight, super ponies are real."