Mind Over Mane-Iac Chapter 7: Issue 7: To Save A Friend, a my little pony fanfic

Note: This story is the work of Darkryt Orbinautz.

A My Little Pony Fanfiction

Mind Over Mane-Iac

Issue 7 In A Seven-Issue Mini-series!

TO SAVE A FRIEND …

Don't miss the THRILLING CONCLUSION to the Mind Over Mane-iac Miniseries!

THE THRESHOLD! With Rainbow Dash held tight in the Mane-iac's seductive grasp, how far will the Power Ponies and their allies go to get her back? How far will one go … TO SAVE A FRIEND?

"RRRRR!" Saddle Rager growled, bringing her hooves to bear on the Mane-iac and Zapp, punching them through the floor and into the next floor down, where the a resident of the building was surprised to see some of the city's biggest costumed names come crashing down.

The Mane-iac and Zapp saw they had a moment of respite from Saddle Rager beating them senseless. Neither of them knew how long it would be, but they understood it would not be for very long. The apartment resident halted and stared, thinking she should call the Power Ponies ... but … there was already a Power Pony here.

Wounded and on the verge of cracking like a egg being crushed by an overzealous teen with a hammer, Zapp rose to her feet, struggling to move. Every movement was a like a series of a thousand burns shooting through her bones. Wincing and groaning with each step of her hooves, Zapp still put forth the effort to trudge towards the Mane-iac.

"Zapp ..." The Mane-iac asked, her eyes half-shut, her body still stinging from the pain of Saddle Rager's blows. "What are you doing?"

"I'm … ugh … coming towards you." Zapp said, shutting one eye and biting her lip as she willed, as she forced one leg in front of the other.

"Why?" Mane-iac asked. "You should … conserve your strength."

Zapp smiled, giggling before groaning and putting a hoof on her back. "Why?" Zapp moved forward, communicating clear as crystal she wasn't going to stop for anything. Not for the confused and uncertain resident in the room, not for the movement of the stars themselves … and most certainly not for the Mane-iac's own pleading. "Because that's what you do when you love somepony."

The Mane-iac smiled, touched by Zapp's answer. Even if it was kinda sappy. Understanding for her not to do the same as Zapp, despite how much pain they were both in, would be both an insult to Zapp and represent a failure on her part of the relationship, the Mane-iac pushed herself and begin to limp towards Zapp, cutting the distance between the two of them at the expense of the Mane-iac's own pain. With Zapp having done most of the walking already, the Mane-iac did not have to go far for them to meet. For each step the Mane-iac took, every ounce of pain she endured, put to rest even the smallest, littlest lingering sliver of doubt Zapp might have had about the Mane-iac's love for her.

Standing inches away, Zapp and Mane-iac raised their hooves and tenderly touched them together.

A crack appeared in the ceiling. It spread out through the tiles before the brutal form of Saddle Rager fell through, landing right next to the still confused resident. One could hardly blame the architects of the building for failing to brace their ceiling against wild rampaging mutants such as Saddle Rager.

"OH, UH, EXCUSE ME." Saddle Rager turned to the resident, who shook her head and, deciding she had enough of this, bolted for the stairs.

"Well ..." Zapp turned to Saddle Rager. "We both knew it couldn't last forever." Zapp grabbed Mane-iac's cheeks and pulled her into a kiss before parting from Mane-iac, facing Saddle Rager and scraping a hoof against the floor to show Saddle Rager she was ready to fight. She tried not to show how the scraping made her wince.

"Are you sure you want to fight me, Zapp?" Saddle Rager asked, wearing an expression of concern as Fluttershy's inborn kind personality bled through Saddle Rager's mask. "Look at yourself. There's no way you can win."

"I – ugh – have to try." Zapp groaned, stepping forward. "I won't let you hurt the pony I love."

Saddle Rager scoffed, gritting her teeth. "We loved you, too, Zapp. Or was that just not GOOD ENOUGH for you, huh? Was it!? Fine. Fine." Saddle Rager scraped a hoof. "I don't want to hurt you, Zapp ..."

Saddle Rager banged a hoof on the ground.

"Too much."

Zapp held her ground, even though she knew Saddle Rager had them as good as beaten already. Let's not skip facts; getting hit head-first by Saddle Rager's hooves was more or less like getting hit by a truck to the face. Zapp knew she and Mane-iac had little chance of making it out of the encounter victorious … if even alive, considering they had upset Saddle Rager badly enough to trigger her transformation.

"We were friends." Saddle Rager snarled, marching inexorably towards Zapp like a stagnant wind that heralding the coming of death itself. "We lived together. We were practically a family! But you – YOU THREW THAT ALL AWAY! AND FOR WHAT? A GIRLFRIEND WITH TENDRILLS FOR HER MANE? WHAT DO YOU EVEN SEE IN HER? WHAT COULD SHE … POSSIBLY … " At this juncture in her speech, Saddle Rager abruptly stopped advancing towards them and instead elected to vent her frustration on the poor floor of the building. "OFFER … YOU!?"

"That's none of your business." Zapp said. "Maybe if you had tried to break us a half a moment ago, I might have told you, but now ..."

Saddle Rager roared. Bringing her hooves up, she brought them swinging down on the floor, sending a massive tremor rippling through the building and causing Zapp and Mane-iac to lose their footing.

"DON'T YOU DARE TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME! NOT AFTER WHAT YOU DID. JUST FOR THAT, I'M GOING TO BREAK YOU EXTRA PAINFULLY!"

Zapp looked up at Saddle Rager's frothing, frightening visage. She couldn't focus on anything other than the deranged, angry look in her eyes – the look of a scorned mare if Zap had ever saw one. The little bits of saliva slipping through the spaces between her teeth, which were arranged in a massive snarl.

This is it. Zapp thought. This is the end. Her time with Tresemme was over. Her time as a member of the Power Ponies was long since past. And her time on this plane was soon to come to an end. Their time was over. Finished. Close the book and stick a fork in them; they were done!

Until a most unlikely save came from the most unlikely of objects! A thrown shoe, sent whirling into the room through the holes Saddle Rager punched into the roof. It hit Saddle Rager in the side of the face, distracting her moments before she would have caused another earthquake to rattle the building's delicate infrastructure.

"Ow!" Saddle Rager rubbed her cheek. "Who threw that?"

There was, of course, but one answer to the question of who would throw a shoe – High Heel, of the Sinful Six! Saddle, Mane-iac, and Zapp looked up to see the rest of the Mane-iac's teammates poking through the roof, riding on the back of the shape-shifting Smudge, his snake-like form rising up like the spirits of departed souls who've come to wreak their vengeance on the living. The Sinful Six were battered and bruised … but not yet broken.

"What the?" Saddle Rager questioned. "Didn't we take care of you already? And how did you get on the roof?"

"To answer your questions; we recovered and we rode Smudge up to the top." High Heel pulled out another shoe. "Now let's get her!"

To the battle chorus of agreeable cheers, the Sinful Six descended through the holes in the roof, High Heel tossing another shoe at Saddle Rager. Saddle Rager was ready this time, catching the shoe and tossing it back at them, only for Smudge to intervene and catch it in his mouth like a dog playing fetch.

"Shadowmane and Long Face will get you out of here." High Heel told Zapp and Mane-iac, running up to them with Shadowmane and Long Face.

"What about you?" Zapp asked as Long Face hoisted her onto his back.

"We'll distract Saddle Rager so you can escape."

"What?" Mane-iac and Zapp asked.

"You can't!" Zapp protested. "You don't know how angry she is! She'll crush you like a bowl of cereal and turn you into wheat paste, and then she'll turn that wheat paste into more wheat paste!"

High Heel smiled. "Well, I'm not sure how she would do that, but all we have to do is just give you enough time to get away."

"But what if she realizes you're just a distraction?" The Mane-iac asked. "She'll get even madder."

"Yes." High Heel turned a gaze towards Smudge. "But we have a secret weapon. Now go. Get out of here." High Heel made shooing gestures at them. Long Face and Shadowmane rushed towards the elevator, trying to slip away unseen by Saddle Rager. But if they were, they had it covered.

And they were.

"HEY!" Saddle Rager shouted, noticing them. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" Saddle Rager prepared to gave chase, only delayed by the odd sound of Smudge whinnying behind her.

"Huh?" Saddle Rager turned around. Smudge twisted and contorted his form, stretching and shifting, changing from the snake-like shape he took to a bulky, monstrous form that was a match for Saddle Rager in both musculature and raw bulk. Letting out his unique kind of growl, Smude tackled Saddle Rager. Saddle Rager pushed him off and punched him in the head, though this only succeeding in pushing him back some.

Smudge raised his limbs. Saddle Rager, accepting his challenge, got into a grappling match with him, each titan struggling push the other out the building and out the window before the other did.

"RRRRAAAAH!" Saddle Rager swatted Smudge's limbs away. She grabbed by the midsection and lifted him up, pulling on his stomach and tearing the sludgy pony in half down the middle. To an invertebrate ooze such as Smudge, this kind of bifurcation was a minor setback. Maintaining control over the separate halves of his body, Smudge swirled around the air like a carnival ride going out of all control, eventually reconnecting his two halves in the form of a giant circle which bound Saddle Rager's front hooves together.

Saddle Rager shook her hooves, attempting to fling the Smudge-cufflink from her hooves. When simple shaking proved not to be enough, Saddle Rager did what she did best, and that was to smash. Namely, smashing her hooves into the ground. It worked, as Smudge's body lost cohesion and was splattered all across the room in the form of little droplets. The bits of Smudge begin sliding along the form, snaking their way towards Saddle Rager.

Saddle Rager grimaced, not sure what to do. At this rate, they would just be caught in an infinite loop of Smudge reforming and Saddle Rager smashing him again.

"Okay." High Heel pocketed a pink cell phone. "Smudge! Phetlocke!" High Heel shouted. "Long Face just gave me the signal! Zapp and the Mane-iac are safe at base!"

Smudge steered his component droplets away from Saddle Rager, forming into his relatively normal pony form. Smudge nodded, shifting once again into his snake form, allowing High Heel and Phetlock to ride him. He shot himself up through the hole in the roof, sliding away.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" Saddle Rager boomed, galloping after them. "GET BACK HERE!" Saddle Rager jumped through the hole in the roof after them, landing on the rooftop. She looked around for the villains, but they were nowhere to be seen. A quick glimpse over the edge of the building offered no clues to their whereabouts; they could be anywhere, going any direction by now. Realizing she there no way she could catch them now, Saddle Rager turned and walked to the elevator, all the while slowly losing her muscles and returning to normal.

The Power Ponies, having departed and leaving Zapp and the Mane-iac to contend with a furious, merciless Saddle Rager, were half-way down the building riding on the elevator. They could hear the beat of the shampoo raindrops drumming against the outside of the building, the only noise inside the otherwise silent elevator. The dim, quiet space gave the Power Ponies a moment to calm down, and in this calm, some of them began to reconsider their actions.

"Do any of y'all think letting Zapp deal with Saddle Rager by herself was a little harsh?" Mare-velous asked. "Ah mean, Ah know she abandoned us, betrayed us, switched sides, and carried out an evil villain's plan even though she didn't have to ..." Mare-velous adopted an expression of scowling, her fury rekindled as she recounted Zapp's crimes. "You know what? Ah just answered my own question."

Matter-horn levied a gaze to the elevator floor. "Maybe letting Saddle Rager loose on her was a little much … Saddle Rager wouldn't hurt a fly as long as she's in control, but … we all know how quickly she can lose control when she's rampaging. I know we were all mad at her ..."

"'Were'?" Flil-Second said. "I'm STILL mad!"

"Maybe we should have stayed behind." Matter-horn said. "You know, to make sure Saddle Rager didn't completely annihilate them."

The elevator reached the bottom floor, letting out a ding as it opened its doors. The Power Ponies all avoided the others' gaze, each of them beginning to have second thoughts about letting Saddle Rager roam free. Mare-velous and Matter-horn scratched the back of their necks while Radiance hummed innocently. Silently, they all concluded it was too late now and went on their not-so-merry way, wandering into the lobby of the building.

"Huh." A stallion observed the rain outside. "Looks like rain. Anypony have an umbrella I could borrow?"

"Halt, citizen!" Matter-horn shouted as the Power Ponies got off the elevator. "That is no ordinary rain. That is brainwashing shampoo-rain, brought to you courtesy of ..." Matter-horn paused, thinking about Zapp. "One of the Mane-iac's dastardly plots!" Matter-horn addressed everypony in the room. "We, the Power Ponies, ask that you all stay indoors until we can disable the scheme. Please inform anypony you come across of the situation and remain indoors until we tell it's safe to come out. Thank you for time, and for being upstanding citizens in doing your civic duty. Power Ponies, move out!"

As the Power Ponies raced out the door, Radiance manifested umbrellas and full-face helmets for the Power Ponies. Granted, most of them wore cloth already, but it was better to be safe than to be sorry.

"Brainwashing … shampoo … rain." The stallion rued. "That does it; I'm moving to Phillydelphia!" The stallion took a bold step toward the door before seeing the rain and remembering what it was. "Just as soon as this rain passes."

The Power Ponies marched down the street, the clip-clop of their hooves splashing against the thin layer of water the rain was spreading across the asphalt, like the spread of a buttered knife against bread.

Everywhere the Power Ponies looked, citizens had fallen victim to the sinister shampoo. Most of them simply stood in place while wearing the expressions of dullards, awaiting a command input from their master. Some gathered together and began fawning over and complimenting the others' manes.

"I, like, love your hair!" A brainwashed mare said to her friend, running a hoof through said friend's mane. "How do you get it so soft?"

"Thanks! I like your hair, too!"

"Ugh." Radiance shuddered. "Normally, I'm all for complimenting a fellow mare's coiffure, but that is just creepy."

"Girls! Girls!"

The Ponies turned around to see Saddle Rager galloping up to them, holding a lampshade (borrowed from the building she had just left) against her head for protection from the rain.

"The Mane-iac's friends … they came and rescued her and Zapp. I tried to catch them, but they escaped … oh, I'm sorry!"

"What? Why?" Matter-horn pulled Saddle Rager into a hug. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Saddle Rager. Nopony can blame you for the villains pulling off one of their big escapes."

"Here." Radiance conjured another umbrella, floating it over Saddle Rager's head. "So you don't have to carry that lampshade everywhere."

"Thanks." Saddle Rager took the umbrella, lowering the lampshade down. "I suppose I better go give this lampshade back to the pony in the building I borrowed it from."

"There's no time for that!" Matter-horn said. "Come on! We need to get back to base to call the Mayor and let her know what's happening!"

The Power Ponies raced down the street, going unnoticed by the brainwashed ponies, of which there were no shortage of. The ponies stayed where they were, their eyes blank and their bodies still. If they made any motion, it was to compliment the manes and hair of a passer-by.

"Huh." Fili-Second said. "Now I know what ponies mean when they talk about being 'alone in a crowd'!"

The Power Ponies soon arrived to their mansion, still preferring to take the secret entrance. It was unlikely that anypony would be around to see them, as the citizens were brainwashed and the Mane-iac had retreated to lick her wounds, but to let their guard down would be a foolish thing to do, under any circumstance.

Spike greeted them as they came into the house. "Hey, girls." Spike was temporarily blinded as he found a big ball of cloth thrown into his face. "Ah! Pfft! What's this?" Spike pulled the cloth off. "My Hum-Drum costume? What's this for?"

"Gear up, Spike." Matter-horn told him. "We've got a busy day ahead of us." Matter-horn galloped to the phone, dialing the mayor's number. "Hello? Is the mayor there? Oh, good. Yes, mayor, we're aware of the rain. That's what I'm calling about, actually. That rain is comprised of a brainwashing shampoo devised by the Mane-iac. Do not go outside until we call you back. Start putting out warnings on the local news station that everypony is to remain indoors and not to let anypony in, especially if those ponies try to convince them they're not brainwashed, because that's probably a trick."

Matter-horn hung up the phone and turned to the rest of the Power Ponies.

"Okay, Power Ponies, listen up! Whether she's brainwashed or acting of her own free will, we've seen how far Zapp's gone in her descent into villainy. She has gone too far, and we're not going to put up with it, are we?"

"Mm-mmm!" The rest of the Power Ponies shook their heads.

"Absolutely not!"

"No way, no how."

"I wouldn't dream of it, darling."

"Good. So we're all agreed. We're going to find the Mane-iac's hideout and we're going to beat her this time. No more games. No more fooling around. We're going to throw everything we have at her and bring her down like a stack of cards. I don't want anypony holding anything back. Zapp may have been our friend once, but I think she's made it plenty clear that's longer the case, so don't hesitate. If you see a chance to take her out, I want you to take it."

"Don't worry." Saddle Rager said with a growl. "We won't."

"Somepony go find where Mare-Do-Well and Daring Do went. We'll need their help. Spike, have you finished dressing?"

"Oh." Spike held up the cape and domino mask Humdrum used. "You were serious about that?"

Matter-horn glared at him. Somewhere out on the fringes of her subconscious, Matter-horn realized she was taking her anger at Rainbow Dash and taking it out on Spike, but that didn't stop her.

"Yes, Spike. I'm serious.

Dead serious."

The Sinful Six retreated to their headquarters, blissfully unaware of the complete and total DOOM the Power Ponies were now planning for them. After Shadowmane and Long Face helped carried the Mane-iac and Zapp inside to a bed, Shadowmane had taken up the task of bandaging the Mane-iac's wounds, applying medicinal sprays and wrapping bandages around her legs.

The Mane-iac grunted, lifting an eye to see Zapp had gone untouched by Shadowmane's almost motherly attention. "Shadowmane, dear, make sure you get Zapp, too ..."

"Oh … yes." Shadowmane glared over Mane-iac at Zapp, not quite trusting of the former Power Pony. "Of course. How could I forget?"

Soon wrapping up her business with the Mane-iac, Shadowmane tended to Zapp as well. Though, Zapp noticed, with a distinct lack of tenderness like she'd seen Shadowmane exhibit to Mane-iac.

"Get well soon, Mane-iac." Shadowmane said, leaving the room. "Oh, and, uh, you too, Zapp … I guess." She closed the door.

The Mane-iac let out a chuckle, slowly rolling onto her side to get a good look at her bedfellow as well as giving her bedfellow a good look at her. "Well, Zapp, it looks like we're alone now."

Zapp said nothing, merely nodding as she sat up and wrapped her bandaged front legs around her chest.

"Zapp? What's wrong, dear?"

"Nothing." Zapp answered with the clear, facetious tone which expressed everything was wrong. "I just … after what happened on the roof with Saddle Rager, it made me realize … I've lost the trust of my friends. I've lost my place as Power Ponies. I'm not even sure if I still have a sense of self, with all this stuff about brainwashing shampoo. And the worst part is ... I've lost my friends. I … I don't have anything anymore." Zapp shamefully buried her head into her hooves.

As Zapp sat there on the verge of breaking down and crying, she suddenly felt a comforting presence on her shoulder, expressed via means of a tender hoof. Zapp pulled her face out of her hooves to see Tresemme – not the Mane-iac – looking at her, though still wearing the Mane-iac's black and purple outfit.

"You have me."

Zapp wiped a tear from her eye. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do."

Tresemme closed her eyes and leaned into Zapp's chest, giving Zapp a hug which Zapp reciprocated, despite her usual aversion to any form of contact she might consider "sappy."

"Let me ask you something, Zapp." Tresemme raised her head up, meeting Zapp at eye-level. "If the only thing you have is me … was I worth it?" She gave Zapp a seductive look and smile.

Zapp sighed. She placed her hooves on Tresemme's shoulder. "I'm gonna be honest with you, Tresemme … I don't know." Zapp shook her head. "You're pretty great … but they were my best friends for … years now." Zapp placed a hoof on her chin. "By Celestia, has it been that long? It seems it was only yesterday when I met them and we -"

Zapp paused, noticing Tresemme's curious look and motioning for her to go on.

"Nothing." Zapp said. "We did nothing." Love her though she did, Zapp was not about to divulge anything which would help the Mane-iac deduce the Power Ponies' secret identities and make them vulnerable.

"So, you mentioned the Power Ponies have a base." Tresemme snuggled her nose into Zapp's chest. "Care to tell me where it is?"

Zapp gave Tresemme an unamused, disapproving glare.

"What?" Tresemme shrugged. "Cute as I may be, Rainbow Dash, I'm still part-supervillain. It's only natural for me to want the information I can use to beat my enemies!"

Zapp's glare continued, with her bared teeth now joining on the displeased expression.

Tresemme nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't make you have to choose between me and your old friends. You shouldn't have to betray them. Not like that. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Zapp's expression finally softened. "Thank you, Tresemme." Zapp emphasized the name, making sure Tresemme understood it was Tresemme, not the Mane-iac, who had Rainbow Dash's thanks. Tresemme resumed cuddling into Zapp's chest.

Zapp looked up at the ceiling, imagining possibilities long since past and ones yet to come while dreaming about flying into the endless sky, where she didn't have to worry about any of this superhero tomfoolery.

"Tresemme … have you ever thought about, you know, getting treatment?"

"What do you mean, Rainbow Dash?"

"You know … like therapy. Maybe if you found the right therapist, they could help you and you wouldn't have to be a supervillain anymore?"

Tresemme gave Rainbow Dash a bewildered look for a few minutes, before bursting out into laughter at the realization Rainbow Dash was being completely serious.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash … I doubt it would be that easy." Tresemme said. Tresemme looked to the side. "It would never work."

"How do you know? Have you ever tried?"

"Come to think of it … no, I haven't."

They both spent a long time staring into each others' eyes, with Rainbow Dash's magenta orbs silently pleading for Tresemme to at least give the idea some thought.

"Ah ha ha ha ha!" Tresemme laughed airily – nervously, even. The same of airy laugh used by a pony who was desperate to switch the topic of the conversation after being particularly embarrassed by either their signficant other or their parents when trying to introduce one to the other.

"Say, Rainbow Dash? You know what I've just realized? We've barely been ... you know … intimate without me putting you into a trance since we found out about the whole 'you're secretly my archenemy' thing. What do you say we fix that?" Tresemme suggestively wiggled her hips.

Rainbow Dash crossed her legs. "Tresemme, what have I told about you using sex to avoid talking about our issues?"

"I know ..." Tresemme whined. "But still, now that I've brought it up …" Tresemme began to push Zapp down on the bed. "Doesn't it sound like fun to get under the covers without you going crazy about my hair ten-" Tresemme turned her head and coughed, noticing Rainbow Dash's eyes shrinking. "Sorry. Trigger word."

"Yeah." Rainbow Dash agreed, before taking a look at her bandages. "Are we sure having sex while we're both recovering is a good idea, though?"

"No." Tresemme said with a disarming smile.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Well, that's good enough for me!" Rainbow Dash got onto her back, letting Tresemme crawl all over her. As Tresemme leaned in and gave Rainbow Dash a kiss, Rainbow Dash was powerless to resist the shiver that went through her spine.

The shiver was soon replaced by a different experience. The bed they were shook as an explosion from outside rocked the building, causing some of the tiles on the ceiling to begin to fall out. Tresemme and Rainbow Dash both sat up, each a little disappointed their moment of intimacy had to be interrupted by this rude thing, whatever it was.

"What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

An answer came forth as Shadowmane barged into the room. "Mane-iac! It's the Power Ponies! They've found our base!"

"What!?" Tresemme exclaimed. "How?"

"I don't know, but they're here now, and they're knocking on the door! And by knocking,' I of course, mean "blow up'!"

"Aaaagh!" Tresemme pulled at her mane, squinting her eyes shut as she let out an enraged whinny. "Why do those Power Brats have to ruin our special moment? … Very well. Hold them off, Shadowmane. We'll be right there. Just give me a moment to change."

Shadowmane saluted. "Will do." She closed.

Tresemme turned to Zapp, offering a hoof as her skin began to fade from Tresemme's soothing bluish colors to the Mane-iac's frightful and shadowy purple. "Shall we?"

Despite some lingering reservations about fighting her once-friends, Zapp took the hoof with a smirk. "We shall."

Though still far and away from peak condition, Zapp and the Mane-iac headed to the main lobby to confront their foes. Besides, their choices were to either stand up and fight in their weakened state, or sit down and let the Power Ponies steamroll right over them. Hardly much of a choice!

The Sinful Seven gathered, huddling together by the front entrance where the Power Ponies had come a-knockin' on their doorstep.

"MINIONS!" The Mane-iac and Phetlocke shouted, Phetlock shaking his staff for the summoning. Goons in identical green haircuts and mummies swarmed around the room, tensing up for combat.

"Boy, this is some sturdy brick!" Fili-Second's voice said from outside.

"Blast it again, Matter-horn!" shouted Mare-velous.

"Mind if I pitch in?" Mare-Do-Well joined them, and the Seven could a click from outdoors. A click, belonging, no doubt, to a bomb!

The Sinful Seven could do little other than wince and brace themselves as they heard the hum of Matter-horn charging up a destructive spell, fueled equally by both Matter-horn's rage and her sense of justice.

Matter-horn's beam impacted the building, triggering Mare-Do-Well's bomb to explode in addition to Matter-horn's explosive special effects. The entirety of the front wall was ripped out, brick upon brick being thrown out of the wall, like blades of grass fed into a hungry lawnmower to be chopped up, stirred around, and spat back out in any and all directions.

The Sinful Seven took defensive positions to shield them from tossed rubble. When the smoke clear, the Power Ponies, including Mare-Do-Well, Daring Do, and even Humdrum, were standing tall and proud on the piles of rubble they had just created.

"Humdrum?" Zapp and the Mane-iac shared a laugh. They had brought Humdrum, one of the weakest Power Ponies with the fewest powers, along. "You actually brought Humdrum?"

"Surely you must be desperate." The Mane-iac said. "To bring along a teammate so … oh, what's the politically correct way to say it nowadays? Bereft of superpowers."

"Yeah!" Zapp laughed. "What can he do?"

Humdrum pointed – rather accusingly, one might add – to Matte-horn. "She made me eat ghost peppers!"

"Ghost peppers?" Zapp nearly doubled and fell onto her back with laughter. "What are you going do with ghost peppers? Fry us all to death with your bad breath, ha ha?"

As Matter-horn's lips curled into a smile, Zapp's laughter begin to die. As did some of her hope.

"That's exactly what we're gonna do." Matter-horn picked Humdrum by the hooves, aiming his body like a shotgun with the head pointed towards them, and tugged on his tail. Instantly, Humdrum's mouth opened and the henchman could barely avoid the wide spread of jade fire that burst from Humdrum's jaws, Matter-horn sweeping Humdrum back and forth, using him as a flamethrower.

"The girls and I have been talking." Matter-horn said. "And we're agreed that we'd like out of the superhero business."

"Oh?" The Mane-iac raised an eyebrow. "Will you hand down your titles to promising recruits like your own predecessors did?"

"Nooo." Matter-horn. "We'll be going out and taking every costumed crook we find off the streets for GOOD – including YOU!"

The Mane-iac let out one of her fits of cackling for which she was so well-known. "A bold statement, Power Ponies, but look around you!" The Mane-iac made a sweeping gesture to her minions and Phetlock's mummies. "You're outnumbered."

"Let's see ..." Matter-horn took a look around the room. "The Sinful Seven, plus their goons … I'm going to estimate forty each of Phetlocke's mummies and Mane-iac's barbers … divided by nine Power Ponies equals ..."

The Masked Matter-horn's tune changed to a furious growl. Her horn fire multiple pink beams of force, which rotated and swirled around room like the flashing lights of a police siren, knocking down both Phetlocke's mummies and the Mane-iac's hired help en masse, clearing the way for the Power Ponies to take the fight directly to their opposite numbers.

"Equals 25-to-life, which is exactly long you're ALL going to jail for!" Matter-horn and the others stepped down the pile of rubble.

"Wait ..." Zapp took a scrutinizing view of her former companions. "One, two … subtract me, add Mare-Do-Well, Daring Do and Humdrum … that makes eight. Hey, Matter-horn! I think your math is a little off!"

Matter-horn took this insult, which might could be one of the most insulting insults one could ever insult Matter-horn with, with pride and a self-assured smile. "No it isn't. My math is never off."

Zapp raised an eyebrow. The Mane-iac lifted her hoof and pointed to the Power Ponies, encouraging her newest, most loyal minion to forget about the mathematics and attack. Zapp went to her task with a fervor unmatched, flying into the air.

The Power Ponies and the Sinful Six charged each other at the field of battle, each Power Pony taking on their foil. Shy, quiet Saddle Rager took on the seductive High Heel, bright and cheery Fili-Second ran full-speed at her gloomy and sullen Long Face. The honest, hardworking Mare-velous threatened the shadowy, thieving Shadowmane with a lasso. Clean and tidy Radiance, who could construct objects with her mind, took on the messy, gooey Smudge, who could reshape his body. And Matter-horn, the leader, of course took on the enemy leader, the Mane-iac.

With the Power Ponies down one member, though, it fell to Humdrum to be the one to take on Phetlocke. It was a surprisingly even match, as Phetlocke wasn't much without his minions and gadgets, meaning Humdrum had to contend with little more than Phetlocke's staff – which was easily melted with a breath of ghost-pepper enhanced dragonfire.

Zapp raised her amulet at the ceiling, preparing to call forth a storm of such thunderous wrath the likes of which had never been seen before or since! Fortunately for the Power Ponies, Daring Do flew up and tackled Zapp to the ground, bringing the wayward turncoat back to earth. Zapp tried to fight her off, but Daring Do soon proved herself the superior hoof-to-hoof combatant.

"You've been relying too much on your amulet!" Daring Do insulted Zapp before striking her in the face.

High Heel produced a large boot and charged at Saddle Rager, waving the boot around like a berserker pony gone mad with rage.

"Hi-YAH!" High Heel was overcome and taken by surprise when Saddle Rager charged back at her, grabbing High Heel's hooves and wresting away the boot from High Heel's possession, soon followed by Saddle Rager slapping High Heel across the face with the boot.

High Heel halted, starring wide-eyed at Saddle Rager after her vicious attack, rubbing the injured cheek.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Saddle Rager dropped the boot to the ground in horror at the pain she so clearly inflicted. "It's just that, well, my friends really wanted me to do everything I could to make this a final battle, so I did. I'm sorry!" She squeaked.

"It's okay." High Heel reached over and cupped Fluttershy's chin. "But … you know how you could make it up to me? Over a nice, quiet dinner. What do you say?"

"Um … I don't know."

"Ah, come on! It'll be fun, you and me ..."

Saddle Rager was spared from having to commit to an answer by Mare-velous coming to her rescue, galloping and headbutting High Heel before following by tossing a lasso around her. Mare-velous threw High Heel into the air and spun her round and round before flinging her into the wall.

Saddle Rager and Mare-velous watch High Heel slide the wall and curl over one herself.

"Saddle Rager, y'all know when she's flirting with ya like that, she's just trying to distract and confuse you, right?"

"I know that." Saddle Rager whined. "But in the heat of battle, it's, um, easy to forget … she's … quite sultry."

"Uh-huh. You ain't gonna do what Zapp did and switch sides to be with her, are you?"

"Oh, no!" Saddle Rager shook her head, giving Zapp a glare and not doing anything to help as Daring Do delivered punch after punch to Zapp's face. "Never."

Matter-horn and the Mane-iac spared. Matter-horn fired blast after blast, which the Mane-iac avoided by sliding around the room on a bed of tentacles, not unlike a slimy squid on the floor of a disco rave party.

"Ha ha ha!" Mane-iac laughed. "What's the matter, Matter-horn? Does the great Power Pony leader need glasses? Ha ha!"

"Grrr." Matter-horn showed an uncharacteristic amount of teeth in her growl. She fired another beam at the Mane-iac, who simply ducked, allowing the beam to pass harmlessly over her head.

"THAT'S IT!" Matter-horn teleported, a flash of light being the only thing Mane-iac could see before the Matter-horn manifested herself on top of the rubble from earlier. "POWER PONIES, I'M BRINGING THE HOUSE DOWN!"

Energy collected and swirled around Matter-horn's horn, little bubbles of pure magic gathering together for one big blast. Matter-horn cut loose, firing a laser from her horn which begin to shred the ceiling like a blender, bringing down a rain of roofing on the Mane-iac and her friends.

She could simply grab a hold of the builder's foundation as she'd done when chasing the Mane-iac and Zapp across town, but this way afforded her a more direct control over the destruction.

"She's going to bring the entire building down!" Zapp exclaimed.

The Mane-iac slithered up to her, using a tentacle to knock Daring Do aside before picking Zapp up. "Yes, I do believe she just said as much. There's an emergency exit in the back. Now RUN!"

The Sinful Seven picked themselves up and rushed towards the back. Phetlocke went around and made sure to pick up High Heel, carrying her on his back. The Mane-iac held the door open with a tentacle while Zapp directed the evacuation of the others to hurry up and get out before leaving themselves, shutting the door behind them.

"Matter-horn, the Sinful Seven have left." Saddle Rager said, gently poking Matter-horn's shoulder to get her attention, though somewhat afraid of turning Matter-horn's anger on her. "I don't think destroying the building will help any."

"It'll keep them from returning." Matter-horn proceeded to continue with her cutting beam, swiping it across the roof. "It's one less place for them to hide."

"But, um, what about the minions?" Saddle Rager pointed. "Surely they don't deserve to be buried them under tons of rubble ..."

Matter-horn examined the minions left behind by the Mane-iac. Phetlocke's mummies, scared speechless by the Matter-horn's display, and the Mane-iac's goons, too injured to be much of a threat to anypony. Injured by Matter-horn, in fact, and realizing this was a major part of why Matter-horn acquired to Saddle Rager's request to stop.

"You're right, Saddle Rager." Matter-horn said. "Besides, we'll want this place intact so we can investigate it later, after we capture the Mane-iac."

"Speaking of which, how are we gonna do that?" Mare-velous asked. "They've already escaped and got a head start on us."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too worried about that." Matter-horn said, walking up to the emergency exit door the Mane-iac used to flee. "We've got an agent out there, remember? With the math problem?" Matter-horn smirked as she opened the door. "We'll find the Mane-iac waiting for us, neatly wrapped up in a box of chocolates ..."

The Sinful Seven galloped through the streets, their hooves becoming soaked as they paraded through the still-wet streets. Zapp looked left and right, observing the blank-eyed, mindless slaves standing on the sidewalks.

"Wow." Zapp murmured. "I didn't realize the shampoo-rain would be so effective. Almost everypony out here looks totally brainwashed."

"Yes!" The Mane-iac cheered. "That was the plan all along!"

"Huh." Zapp said. "You know, maybe if we had remembered we had the whole city under our control, we could have used them against the Power Ponies."

"Zapp, I'm impressed! Volunteering the use of citizens for our ends and means? Congratulations. You're well on your way to becoming a qualified supervillain!" The Mane-iac complimented her.

"I ..." Zapp stammered. "I only meant – I know how the Power Ponies work. I used to be one, remember? And I know they would hesitate to harm an innocent civilian – even a brainwashed one – WHOOOOA!"

All of the Sinful Seven were caught totally off-guard as the asphalt underneath their hooves suddenly gave way to slippery liquid chocolate, causing their hooves to loose friction and send them skating on the chocolate road, each of them flailing and struggling to grab onto something – a stop sigh, a traffic light, a lamppost, perhaps, anything to regain control of themselves.

"What the ..." The Mane-iac expressed, losing her balance and falling, where her body continued to slide until it hit a roadblock in the form of a huge powder-covered brownie in the middle of the road. "Fudge?"

Shadowmane, Phetlocke, High Heel, Zapp, Smudge, and Long Face suffered similarly, only coming to a stop when they bumped their heads or other appendages up against brownies on the ground, laid out as though somepony was trying to build a brickhouse out of brownies.

"Yes!" A confident voice answered. "Fudge! Isn't it wonderful? The recipe's not mine, but the road is my own creation."

Zapp pushed herself, jaw dropping at the sight. The being she recognized as Discord descended into view, wearing a costume which looked very much like Humdrum's, with the addition of a black stealth suit and a different belt. Zapp understood the Power Ponies had decided to dedicate everything in their power to the pursuit and capture of the Sinful Six-ni-Seven, but this was a whole other level of determined, desperate, and deranged. They were pulling out all the stops on this one.

"What are you doing here?" Zapp snarled, defiantly punching a hoof through one of the brownie-blocks.

"You know him?" The Mane-iac asked.

"Oh, nothing much." Discord answered. "I'm just here to capture you and all of your little friends and put them in a box." Discord did indeed conjure a wooden fruit box, the kind used for apples. "Oh, excuse me. These ARE your friends, aren't they, Zapp? It's getting a little hard to tell with all the betraying recently. Or are these six just a phase until you find the NEXT group who gives you a better offer?"

Zapp flew up to him, incensed. "YOU, of all ponies, have NO RIGHT to talk to ME about BETRAYAL!"

"Maybe not." Discord admitted, frowning. "I've done some things I know I'm not proud of. Still, for the time being, at least, I (somewhat) have the moral high ground, and I'm going to milk it ..." A cotton candy cloud appeared next to Discord with a string hanging out of it. Discord pulled on the string, causing the cloud to rain down chocolate milk. "For all it's worth."

"Fine." Zapp admitted.

"Zapp?" The Mane-iac asked with concern, not recognizing this bizarre creature or understanding why Zapp recognized it. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing." Zapp held her hoof. "Just stay there. Let me take care of this." Zapp turned her attention back to Discord. "All right, you. Let's go. Just me and you, one on one."

Discord tilted his head back and laughed. "Oh, Zapp, we both know you couldn't beat me in a real fight."

Zapp was offended by this, ego intolerant of the idea she didn't excel at something, but she realized Discord was right and decided to play to his one weakness; his ego.

"You're right." Zapp said. "So why don't we make this a little more fair?"

Discord leaned forward, a claw on his chin. "I'm listening. What do you propose?"

"Hmm." Zapp's eyes darted to the cotton candy cloud, lingering by Discord's shoulder. "That's a nice cloud you got there. How about a weather control contest?"

Discord offered a claw to Zapp. "Deal. But who will be the judge?"

"Oh, I think we'll know who wins." Zapp shook his claw for a split-second before rocketing into the skies and summoning a huge massive of clouds with her amulets. Discord followed suit, flapping his wings and creating a mass of cotton candy clouds, which shoved Zapp's clouds out of the way so they could hog the spotlight.

Zapp was visibly frustrated, though she didn't lash out. She had a plan. She summoned several smaller clouds and made them swim around in circles.

Discord, somewhat impressed by Zapp's amusing trick, felt the need to upstage her and created a bundle of cotton candy clouds. He grabbed the clouds and smushed together, forming them into the rough shape of a dog.

The Mane-iac, watching from below, thought the dog-cloud was rather cute.

Okay. Zapp thought. Now for the Coup de Grace … or whatever it is Rarity says. She had Discord feeling comfortable, convinced this was a contest and not a trap.

Zapp dotted the sky around Discord's with precisely five clouds arranged an equal distance from each other. Discord noticed the unusual cloud formation. He laid onto his back (in mid-air) and scratched his chin as he contemplated what Zapp was making now.

"Say ..." Discord grew suspicious. "What's the big idea here?"

Zapp swung her amulet through the air. Lightning bolts appeared from each cloud at once, zeroing in on Discord and electrocuting him. As powerful as Discord was, even he couldn't shrug off the millions of amperes running through his system.

When the lightning finished frying his body, Discord remained in the air with a comical burnt crisp on his skin. He coughed, letting out a little puff of smoke.

Discord weakly raised his hand as though he was a student asking the teacher a question. "I thought this was a contest?"

"It was." Zapp smugly answered. "And I won. Isn't that right, Mane-iac?"

The Mane-iac smiled and made an approving gesture with her tentacles.

"Hey!" Discord shouted. "You can't have your girlfriend be the contest judge! That creates a conflict of interest!"

"Aw, shaddup." Zapp primed her legs and bucked a cotton candy cloud at Discord. It hit him in square in the face, binding to his muzzle and blinding him.

Discord tried in vain to pull the cotton candy off with his claws. All he ended up doing was pulling out long stretches of the candy, only for it to snap back into shape. "Ah! Ow! Oof! Oh, why did I make these things so sticky? Well, I know why, it's because cotton candy is sticky, but anyway … "

"Come on." Zapp flew down, hovering next to the Mane-iac. "Let's get out of here."

"Not so fast!"

Zapp and the Mane-iac turned around to see the Power Ponies, steadily gaining on them. Zapp dealing with Discord had given them all the time they needed to catch up, which Zapp suspected was their plan along! Clever. Sneaky.

"The only place you're going is maximum security prison!" Matter-horn shouted.

Zapp clutched her amulet and reared up, ready to fight, but the Mane-iac held out a tentacle and held her back.

"Let me handle this." The Mane-iac confidently walked towards the Power Ponies. "I remember what you said earlier, Zapp, and I agree ..."

The Mane-iac cleared her throat.

"ATTENTION, SLAVES!"

The Power Ponies became unnerved when all around them, the brainwashed townsfolk, who up until were as motionless as statues in the wind, turned to face the Mane-iac. They recognized the call of their mistress and they obeyed.

"We are on the cusp of a new era!" The Mane-iac announced. "We are about to revolutionize the field of hair care! We are going to enter a new society, a society where we'll have all the time we like to fawn each others' manes and compliment our lovely, luxurious locks!"

"Yeah!" The brainwashed crowd cheered, unnerving the Power Ponies further.

"A society where we can brush our names to our hearts' content until we've removed every last cowlick, every trace of imperfection, and can spend time coming up with news to improve our shampoos! Think about it, shampoos which promote healthy hair, prevent hair loss, annihilate dandruff, and really bring out the inner shine of our manes ..." The Mane-iac sighed lovingly, losing herself to her fantasies. "Doesn't all it sound so lovely?"

"Hey." High Heel patted Mane-iac on the back. "Listen, I get that you're excited about the whole "improve our shampoos" thing, but don't you have something to deal with?" She pointed at the Power Ponies.

"Oh, right." The Mane-iac said. The Mane-iac directed the attention of her slaves to the Power Ponies. "My fellow ponies, do you see these seven ponies and one dragon before you now?"

The crowd gave a collective nod.

"Well, these heathens seek to prevent our new world from coming into being! These heretics do not believe seeking to improve our manes is a worthy cause! Are we going to let them get away with that?"

"No!"

Matter-horn gulped as the Mane-iac smiled.

"Get them."

With those two simple words, the Power Ponies found themselves under attack by a mob of brainwashed citizens, all convinced they would soon be living in some sort of … hair-based utopia based on the Mane-iac's words, and her words alone.

The Mane-iac gave Matter-horn a flippant wave of her tentacles before exiting, stage left, with the rest of her team. Though they still had to navigate the mess of chocolate Discord had placed in their path.

Incensed at the idea of the Mane-iac getting away again, Matter-horn raised her hoof and prepared to slug the nearest pony in front of her.

"Matter-horn, don't!" Saddle Rager protested. "They're innocent! It's not their fault they're brainwashed. We can't hurt them!"

Matter-horn sighed, knowing Saddle Rager was right. "Well, then what can we do?"

"Doesn't seem like there's much we can do, other than take defensive positions and hope they don't hurt us!" Mare-velous expressed.

Matter-horn growled, furious about being forced into a defensive position when they were so close to the final capture of the Mane-iac and her gang. She wanted to simply blow away any obstacles in her path. But these weren't obstacles, they were ponies. They were innocent civilians. Mostly harmless, powerless, innocent civilians for whom even the smallest display of the Power Ponies' considerable power could cause potential permanent damage.

There was nothing they could do.

The Sinful Seven made their way through the town, under the oppressing gaze of a coming twilight as the sun set. It seemed a little too appropriate, as though celestial entities and all-powerful pony princesses were carefully crafting the stage of the play so the world itself would reflect their situation – a twilight hour.

The Sinful Seven made their way down a street. With most ponies in the city either brainwashed or hiding indoors from said brainwashed ponies, the Sinful Seven were free to stroll at their leisure. After wandering into a side street, they found what appeared to be an abandoned building. Crafted from carmine bricks, guarded by a gate rusted red, with gargoyle embellishments at the top of the building.

"This looks like a good place to hide." The Mane-iac said. "Looks dark. Wide open space, plenty of vantage points to see a lookout. Okay." The Mane-iac gestured a hoof. "Everypony in there."

"Aw, do we really have to go in there?" High Heel asked. "It looks creepy. Like a mansion from those old cartoons where you just know something bad – or at least creepy -is gonna happen."

The Mane-iac narrowed her eyes. "Do you have a better idea?"

High Heel had no answer. "Everpony in!"

The group made their way inside, dusting off the occasionally cobweb with their hooves. Long Face seemed to quite enjoy getting the silk on his hooves, though High Heel couldn't care less.

"Okay." The Mane-iac announced once they were all inside. Phetlocke made sure to close the doors behind them.

"Sinful Seven ..." The Mane-iac said. "Gather around. I have something I want to say to you. All of you. I think it's pretty clear by now that the Power Ponies are serious this time. That they're determined, and they will not stop hunting us until we're either behind bars. Do you understand? They. Will. Not. Stop."

The Sinful Seven nodded.

"So, I say we stop running. No more villainous escapes. No more 'exit, stage left.' No, here ..." The Mane-iac pounded a hoof into a creaky floorboard. "Here is where we make our final stand. Here is where the battle lines are drawn, and they'll be drawn no further than THIS very building! And in case the outcome is … unfavorable to us, I want you all to know ..." The Mane-iac became teary-eyed. She reached a tendril to wipe the tear away. "You're some of the best villainous friends I've ever had, and it's been my pleasure to work with you in evil. Sure, we tried to betray each other a few times, but what villain doesn't? I am … happy that I have gotten the chance to call each of you … my friends."

Everypony was touched by the Mane-iac's sentiment. Even Smudge, normally emotionless, seemed on the brink of tears. High Heel cried a little. Shadowmane and Long Face's expressions softened. Zapp smiled, though a bit nervously, given her brief time with the group. Phetlocke, though, proved the most touched of the lot, letting out gushers of tears which sprayed High Heel and Shadowmane and got them sopping wet.

"Yeesh! Okay, okay!" High Heel grabbed Phetlocke's head in the hopes of stemming, or at least redirecting his tears. "And I thought I was being sappy!"

"Group hug!" Phetlocke declared. Everypony could tell his emotions were in a volatile state, so they obliged him. Each pony gathered around the Mane-iac, who wrapped her tendrils around all of them. Like the wing of a hen mother wrapped around her baby birds.

"That's enough." The Mane-iac separated. "Everypony, split up and cover the building. Find whatever supplies you can, and we'll use it and whatever you have on you to make traps for our guests. Move!"

The Sinful Seven nodded. They split up and ran off in different directions, High Heel and Phetlocke taking the east wing while Smudge, Shadowmane, and Long Face took the west. Zapp flew up to cover the upper portions, but was pulled down by the Mane-iac's tentacle wrapping around her leg.

"Not you, Zapp." The Mane-iac said. "I want to talk to you in private."

"Okay." Zapp gently shook her leg out from the tentacle and got on the ground. "What's this about?"

"Zapp ..." The Mane-iac looked aside. "You're lovely. I think you're wonderful."

Zapp blushed.

"But … I think you and I both know this isn't going to end until the Power Ponies capture us." The Mane-iac said. "And I want you to be able to go back to them. I've committed too many heinous acts, done far too much evil, broke too many laws … but it's not too late for you. You can still have a good life. A life on the strait and narrow. Just because I'm going to go down doesn't mean I have to take you with me."

"Mane-iac … Tresemme, what are you saying?"

The Mane-iac used a tentacle to reach into her back pocket and pulled out a bottle of brainwashing shampoo. She held it in her hooves. "There's still some shampoo left at the bottom of this bottle. I'm going to use it on you. When the Power Ponies arrive and see you as a giggling pile of mush wrapped up in my coils, they'll be more likely to forgive you when all is said and done." As she spoke, the Mane-iac extended her tentacles and began to wrap them around Rainbow Dash's limbs.

"Tresemme …" Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You don't have to do this."

"I do have to do this. For you." The Mane-iac said. She looked at the shampoo bottle, opened its cap, and looked at Rainbow Dash.

"I'm doing this because I love you. It'll trick the Power Ponies into thinking you were brainwashed the entire time, from the moment we left my apartment. We'll know the truth, of course. We know what choice you made in the hotel. And I promise, we will be the only ones who will ever know what choice you made that day."

Ranbow Dash looked into the Mane-iac's eyes. For the first time, Rainbow Dash could see the two 'halves' which comprised Tresemme united. United in purpose and united in spirit, as a united … being for the first time in what must have been a very long time. Oh, sure, there was always some of the other bleeding through, but those were more like compromises. Sometimes it was 87% Mane-iac, 13% Tresemme, others it was 75% Tresemme, 25% Mane-iac. But this was the first time Rainbow Dash could see it being 50% Tresemme and 50% Mane-iac. No – it was more like 100% Tresemme, 100% Mane-iac, even though that wasn't mathematically possible.

But Rainbow Dash had never been good at math.

"Do you remember when we first met?" The Mane-iac asked, speaking with Tresemme's voice. "In the grocery store? You were so taken in with me. Things seemed so simple then. Who would've guessed we would've gone on this crazy adventure?" Tresemme rolled her eyes. "All right. Enough dallying. Let's get this show on the road."

Tresemme lifted the shampoo over Rainbow Dash's head, peeling off Zapp's cowl. Rainbow Dash looked up at the shampoo bottle before tearfully returning to Tresemme.

"Tresemme … don't."

"Shh." Tresemme leaned forward, holding Dash's head in place she placed a kiss on Rainbow Dash's forehead. "I love you, Rainbow Dash."

The Mane-iac's tentacle squeezed the bottle, squirting a dollop of shampoo onto Rainbow Dash's mane.

"What are we gonna do?" Mare-velous pondered as she was forced to grab a citizen by the front hooves, tie said hooves together, and hurl the citizen away from her. "Ah'm not sure how many of these folks Ah can neutralize before they wear us down!"

Matter-horn backed away, trying to put some distance between herself and the enthralled crowd who were out for her blood. Grimacing and at a loss, Matter-horn sent out the first spell she could think of to buy them some time. A force field spell. A beam of light rose from her horn before expanding and surrounding the Power Ponies inside a transparent, purple dome.

"A force field spell!" Mare-velous marveled at Matter-horn's magic. "That was a great idea, Matter-horn."

"Yeah." Matter-horn blushed at the praise. "Unfortunately, it still doesn't solve our real problem!" Matter-horn watched in horror as the brainwashed swarm pounded and banged on the force filed, trying to break in.

"Hmm." Mare-velous scratched her chin. "Think we could use the force field to push these folks out of our way?"

"No. The force field is stationary. It can't move. "Matter-horn explained. She tapped at her head, quite racked her brain for ideas. A 'ding!' sound from no discernible source happened as she had an idea. And it was a good one.

"There's nothing that says we have to be on this side of it, though." Matter-horn said.

"Er, pardon?"

Matter-horn projected a small screen which equations swam across as she worked out all the variable factors she would need to take into account to make their plan work. "Radiance, can you ..." Matter-horn leaned over and whispered. Radiance nodded.

Matter-horn's horn shimmered and the force field was dispelled, fading away. As the hordes of mind-controlled ponies ran up to their targets, Radiance conjured a giant shovel the size of a small office building. Using the shovel, Radiance scooped up the townsfolk, shoving them to adjacent side streets and clearing the way for the Power Ponies to move forward.

"Come on!" Matter-horn beckoned a hoof at the Power Ponies to move, galloping down the road. Once they reached what Matter-horn thought was a good distance, Matter-horn turned around and re-activated the force field spell. Only this time, the crowd was on the inside of the force field, trapping them in the bubble.

"What? Hey! You can't do this to us!" One pony protested, banging on the forcefield.

Ignoring his protests, Matter-horn helped herself to a smirk before she and the Power Ponies continued on their way.

"Discord, are you coming?" Saddle Rager stopped to ask.

Discord, still struggling with the cotton candy cloud stuck to his face, waved her off. "Oh, go on without me! I'll catch up." He resumed his efforts to pry free of the cloud's sticky grip. Saddle Rager nodded and joined the others.

"How are we gonna find the Sinful Seven?" Radiance asked. "Their distraction worked long enough, they could be anywhere by now."

"Hmm." Matter-horn thought about this as they came upon an abandoned construction site. It was a good bet the workers had been doing their business when the shampoo-rain hit. Matter-horn levitated up a few steel i-beams, eying them with the sort of scientific curiosity that led to the creation of Frankenstein's monster.

"I think what we need … is a bird's eye view."

"Uh, Twi?" Mare-velous asked. "Are y'all sure we can take those?"

Matter-horn shrugged. "It's not like they'll be using them. Besides, I'll pay to replace all the parts we used after we've caught the Mane-iac." Matter-horn set about affixing the beams to each other. "While I work on this, Mare-Do-Well will go and find where the Sinful Seven are hiding."

Inside the abandoned building, the Sinful Seven had returned to their foyer after setting up all the defenses they could manage with the limited supplies they had available to them. They were surprised and amused to find the Mane-iac cuddling with Zapp, whose hair was covered with foamy, bubbly shampoo. Some of the bubbles dripped off her scalp to the floor.

"Getting in some quality time, I see." High Heel observed.

The Mane-iac didn't seem to hear her. "Who's a good slave? Who's my good little, brainwashed slave?"

Zapp giggled. "I am."

The Mane-iac laughed, tickled by Zapp's child-like demeanor while under the influence. She, along with the rest of the Sinful Six, was surprised when the ground beneath their hooves shook. "What was that?"

"I don't know!" High Heel shrugged.

The ground shook again, becoming louder as the source of the noise came closer, or so Long Face would venture to guess. It shook again, and again and stopped.

The Sinful Six looked around the room, wondering if the noise stopping meant they could let their guard down a little.

The answer to that was a loud "NO!" as an enormous hoof made of metal punched a hole through the building, knocking rubble and plaster on the floor, a scant few feet away from crushing the Sinful Six underneath it.

The Sinful Six were greeted by a truly monstrous sight, one which could render the hardiest villain speechless. A series of interconnected i-beams and some other scrap metal, bent around and glued together into a twisted shape roughly matching that of a pony.

"Ha!" Matter-horn laughed, riding atop the iron beast. "Good work, Mare-Do-Well; you led us straight to them!"

"Well, it wasn't hard." Mare-Do-Well said. "I noticed a tripwire set on the lawn and said to myself, 'say, now what would an ordinary citizen be doing with a tripwire in their lawn?' Seeing Long Face walk around the yard only confirmed my suspicion."

The metal pony creation stuck its head into the hole it made, lowering its head so the Power Ponies could slide down its neck and land on the floor.

"This is how it's gonna work." Daring Do said. "You give yourselves up nice and quietly, and Matter-horn won't use her giant robot to smash you into pieces."

Matter-horn laughed. "Well, it's not a robot. It doesn't have any circuitry or wiring, it's just metal. Really, it's more like a golem or a homunculus – and you don't really care, do you?"

Daring Do clutched at her face in mock-horror. "Holy pedantic distinction, Mare-Do-Well! That answer your question?"

The Mane-iac chuckled. "I would love to take you up on that offer, but I'm afraid my slave and I are going to have to decline. Isn't that right, dear?" The Mane-iac stroked Zapp's mane with a tentacle.

Zapp nodded in agreement. "Mm-hmm. Right ..."

Matter-horn gasped. "What have you done to Zapp, you green-maned monster?"

"Oh, nothing much." The Mane-iac said. "I just used a little bit of my brainwashing shampoo on her, like I've been doing all along!" The Mane-iac burst out into evil laughter without missing a beat, allowing the Power Ponies to believe Zapp had been brainwashed the entire time. Even though both the Mane-iac and Zapp knew Zapp had only been brainwashed some of the time.

"ATTACK!" The Mane-iac shouted.

The Sinful Six sprang into action, ready to fight the Power Ponies for what they thought would be the last time.

Fili-Second used her powers of speed, running up to High Heel and smacking over the face with the same boot Saddle Rager used. With Fili-Second's speed behind it, the boot hit High Heel at fifty miles-per-hour, enough to leave a bruise on High Heel's cheek and send her sliding across the floor.

The monstrous golem wrought by Matter-horn stuck its hoof into the building. It attempted to stomped the Sinful Six, which would surely have turned them into a fine, mushy smear on the floor. It locked onto Long Face, trying to squash him. Phetlocke was just nimble enough to avoid the giant hoof, using his wings to assist in jumps and backflipping to get out of the way.

"I grow tired of this." Long Face said. He galloped up the Mane-iac and Zapp. He grabbed Zapp's amulet and pulled it over her head.

"Hey!" The Mane-iac protested at this intrusion of privacy.

"You won't mind if I borrow this, will you, Zapp?" Long Face said. "I thought not." Placing the amulet into his teeth, Long Face pointed the amulet up and swirled it through the air. Thunderclouds manifested inside the building. At Long Face's bidding, the thunderclouds sent struck Matte-horn's golem with a lighting bolt. Amidst the list of conductive elements in the world, metal was near the top of the list. The entire structure of the golem, from its head to its hooves, was soon subject to a self-perpetuating vicious cycle of electrocution. Each piece of iron formed a conduit which fed it on itself, multiplying the lightning's strength before it jumped to another part of the body.

As the creature's consciousness was only as complex as it need be to follow commands and input from Matter-horn, its 'brain,' such as it were, was totally fried beyond repair. The pieces of steel which made up its form now lacked the primitive mind that held them together, and so they seperated and fell apart into a pile of scrap metal.

"Now that Matter-horn's homunculus taken care of ..." Long Face gently slid the amulet back onto Zapp and pulled out a vial filled with black, inky liquid.

Long Face stared the Power Ponies down.

"I would like to introduce you, Power Ponies, to my old friend … FEAR!"

"You think fear is your friend?"

The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well tossed one of her signature black discus, knocking the vial out of Long Face's hoof. It fell to the floor and shattered, creating gaseous black clouds around Long Face.

"No!" Long Face gasped, holding a hoof up in horror. He knew the effects of his vial, and he knew they would wear off if he could get out from the cloud. But the smoke around him was so dark, black as night, that he couldn't see clearly.

"Let's get one thing straight between you and me." Mare-Do-Well said. Long Face whipped around, trying to find where her voice was coming from. "Fear is not your friend. It's my friend. I was born from fear. I was cast by it. Fear does not work for you."

Mare-Do-Well descended from above like a bat out of Tartarus. Having to inhale his own concoction, Long Face's mind and perception of reality was warped. When he laid eyes upon Mare-Do-Well, his vision was distorted to the point Mare-Do-Well appeared be bat-like demon, come to swoop upon him and take him away, where his soul would be weighed against a feather to determine his sins.

"Fear works for ME."

Mare-Do-Well bucked Long Face in the chest. Long Face stumbled, grasping at his chest and coughing from his smoke, before collapsing onto his side.

"Ugh ..." High Heel rubbed her head as she regained consciousness. Looking around, she saw the black smoke and Mare-Do-Well triumphant over Long Face. "Grr ..." High Heel saw Phetlocke and Shadowmane were still standing. High Heel rallied them. "Come on, guys! Let's go get them!"

Phetlocke and Shadowmane shared a glance, both of them fearful of losing. But they braced themselves. Together with High Heel, they charged at the Power Ponies, screaming like excited football players on the night of a big game.

Seeing their display of bravado, Radiance rolled her eyes. Horn shimmering, Radiance created two walls on either side of High Heel's group. Her expression of utter disinterest, Radiance brought the two walls together, trapping High Heel, Shadowmane, and Phetlocke between them.

"You're … crowding me!" High Heel complained with Phetlocke's hoof stuffed into her cheek. Radiance had not left them a lot of room.

"Well, sorry!" Phetlocke responded. "There's not much I can do about it!"

"Now that's what I call a villain sandwich!" Fili-Second joked. "Eh? Eh? "Villain sandwich'?" Fili-Second found, to her dismay, nothing but questioning glares in her direction. "Wow, tough crowd. Well, I thought it was funny."

Mare-velous observed the fact Radiance had caught and disabled three of the Sinful Six in one swift movement. "Huh. Not a bad day's work. At this rate, we'll capture this whole criminal lot in no time – MARE-DO-WELL! LOOK OUT!"

"Huh?" Mare-Do-Well turned around a second too late to react to Smudge sneaking up on him. Smudge growled and wrapped his hooves around her, pulling her towards his chest with the intent to absorb her into his body.

Although not exactly clear on what would happen to Mare-Do-Well if she were absorbed, Mare-velous was determined not to see it happen. Leaping into action, Mare-velous tackled Mare-Do-Well, freeing her from Smudge's clutches and landing her on the ground.

"Got'cha!" Mare-velous said. "Don't y'all worry now. Yer in safe … hooves?" Mare-velous paused.

In the process of rescuing Mare-Do-Well from Smudge, Mare-velous had knocked Mare-Do-Well's hat off. Not only that, but she had knocked loose Mare-Do-Well's mask, and she thought she recognized the face poking out from it.

Mare-velous, failing to think about the fact they were villains in the building, went ahead and peeled the rest of Mare-Do-Well's mask off. Revealing …

"Apple Bloom?"

"Hi." Apple Bloom said, smiling sheepishly.

"Hi!" Sweetie Belle poked her head out, shoving Apple Bloom up.

"Hi!" Scootaloo followed, pushing up Sweetie Belle's head.

Radiance galloped over to confirm what she was seeing was real.

"Ah don't believe it." Mare-velous said. "Mare-Do-Well, one of the most feared, competent crime-fighters in all of Maretropolis … is secretly run by my sister and her friends."

"Yup." Apple Bloom said.

"We knew you went out to fight crime, and we wanted to help." Scootaloo said. "But we knew you would never let us join you on your secret mission, so we went and made our superhero identity."

"We all stuffed ourselves into this Mare-Do-Well costume and began our super-secret superhero training!" Sweetie Belle explained. "That way, we could help you if things got really bad and make sure you came home on time. No pony ever realized it was behind Mare-Do-Well. Not even you, sis!"

"We've gotten pretty good at beating up bad guys and taking them to jail." Scootaloo said.

"But … if you want us to stop, we understand." Sweetie Belle said.

"Oh, Sweetie Belle." Radiance had tears in her eyes. "I never realized … you cared about me so much that you were willing to risk life and limb as a vigilante to see to it I returned home safely every night … that's so selfless of you!"

"Really?" Sweetie Belle asked. "So you're not mad?"

"Oh, I'm furious. How could you be so irresponsible as to dress up as a masked hero and then not tell your big sister?" Radiance placed a hoof on Sweetie Belle's shoulder. "But … I'm also touched, too."

"Hmph." Daring Do watched and turned away, feeling betrayed and hurt her mentor had turned out to be a trio of school fillies. She turned her attention to the Mane-iac.

The Mane-iac had opted to stay out of the fight the whole time, instead simply cuddling with Zapp while calling her cute pet names. The Mane-iac was rubbing Zapp's chin with a tentacle when she noticed Daring Do. "Who's my good little pegasus? You are. Yes, you are! … Oh." The

Mane-iac turned her attention to Daring. "Hello. What are you going to do, then? Try in vain to snap Zapp out of it? Well, let me save you the trouble. You can't. She's too far gone." The Mane-iac smirked.

"I'm not here to save Zapp." Daring Do reached into her back pocket. "I'm here to finish you. I'm removing you from the picture, Mane-iac … permanently."

Hearing this surprisingly menacing statement, The Power Ponies all turned their attention to Daring Do.

"Is that …" Matter-horn stammered. "Is that A GUN?"

Daring Do did indeed have a gun on her person. She aimed it square at the Mane-iac.

"The Power Ponies have let you get away from them one time too many." Daring Do said. "And they've been trying to fix that lately, I'll give them that … but still. I'm not convinced they can do what needs to be done."

"And you do? Well, go on then! Do it!" The Mane-iac encouraged Daring, a tear dripping down her cheek as her voice distorted, blending between the Mane-iac's and Tresemme's. "I don't want to be a villain anymore ..."

"What?" Daring asked. "Could you speak up?"

"Nothing." The Mane-iac used her tendril to wipe a tear from her face. "Do it. Show the world how high and mighty of a superhero you are that you would be willing to use a gun."

"Daring, don't!" Sweetie Belle protested.

"Why not?" Daring Do reached for the trigger. "Zapp's too far gone, and you need to accept she's never coming back. Just like – just like … how somepony I loved is never coming back." Daring Do's grip on the gun became shaky, but she righted herself. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? To put an end to the Mane-iac's schemes for good?"

"Well, yes." Matter-horn admitted. "But not like this! Using guns is against superhero code!"

Daring Do scoffed. "Code? What code? We have no legislative body. No … secret superhero council, or anything like that. We don't have a code. No, we have a bunch of guidelines we've all politely agreed to follow. There's nothing in writing which says I can't do this. When I pull this trigger, the only ponies who will have any legal grounds over me will be the police. And honestly, I'll doubt they'll arrest for putting an end to the Mane-iac."

"You mean … if you pull the trigger." Matter-horn said.

"No, I mean when."

And 'when' was 'now,' as Daring Do pulled the trigger, over the protests and objections of everypony in the building. To everypony's surprise, it was Scootaloo who came closest to saving the day, as she jumped, using her wings to gain flight time and tackling Daring, throwing her aim off.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. Matter-horn tried in vain to grab the bullet before it reached its target. The Mane-iac closed her eyes and held onto Zapp tightly before pushing her away so the bullet wouldn't hit her.

Zapp, her mind reduced to child-like levels from the brainwashing shampoo, had no understanding of what was going on when she heard the pop of the bullet leaving the barrel.

She had no understanding of why, after being so lovingly wrapped around her for so long, the Mane-iac's tentacles suddenly unwound from her body, forcing her to flap her wings to remain airborne.

She had no understanding as she heard the thud of a body hitting the floor.

Zapp moved her hooves around, trying to find some piece of her lover to hold onto. After some flailing and stumbling, she saw the Mane-iac and got down to her knees. She placed her hooves on the Mane-iac's body.

The Mane-iac's … cold … unmoving … unresponsive body,

"T … Tresemme?"

"Mmm ..." Rainbow Dash groaned. "Ugh ..." She opened her eyes to see she was on a bed. A bunk bed, in particular. She recognized this bed. It was the same bunk bed she and Pinkie Pie shared at the mansion, but for some reason, she was on the bottom when she usually slept on top.

Turning her head to one side, Rainbow Dash saw Twilight Sparkle sitting in a chair by her bedside.

"Hey." said Rainbow Dash.

"Hey." Twilight turned her head away, crossing her legs.

Rainbow Dash rolled onto her back. She rubbed at her temples and covered her face. "Boy. I really messed up this time, huh?"

"Yes." Twilight said. "But I'm not here to tell you things you already know."

Rainbow Dash removed her hooves from her face. She turned back to Twilight. "What happened?"

"Well ..." Twilight tapped her hooves together. "After the Mane-iac was dealt with, you were left lying on the floor with brainwashing soap on your head."

"Shampoo."

Twilight glared at her. "The girls and I figured we couldn't just leave you there, so we figured we might as well take you home. We rinsed the shampoo off and put you in Pinkie's bed, hoping you would be back to your senses when you woke up."

"Mmm." Rainbow Dash was grateful for her friends' kindness, especially after everything she put them through, but she noticed something. "Twilight?"

"Yeah?"

"You said the Mane-iac was 'dealt with'. How … how, exactly?"

Twilight bit her lip and sighed. "Daring Do … pulled a gun on the Mane-iac."

Hearing this caused Rainbow Dash to bolt upright. "Sweet Celestia! Did she – really – a gun? Like, a real gun?"

"Yes." Twilight nodded. "She made this big speech about how there weren't 'rules' in the superhero community, and how we didn't have the guts to do what 'needed to be done.' She … fired the gun at the Mane-iac. I tried to talk her out of it, and when that didn't work, I tried to catch the bullet with my magic, but it was too fast and – oh, Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry." Twilight closed her eyes.

"Mm-hmm." Rainbow Dash nodded. "What about her? The Mane-iac? Is she … is she dead?"

Twilight refused to answer.

"Answer me, Twilight!" Rainbow snapped. "Is she dead?"

Twilight continued to dodge the question, only answering after a long silence.

"I'm sorry. You may not have made the best choices these last few days, but I could tell you really loved her. I'm so sorry."

Rainbow Dash grimaced, taking a hoof to her forehead. She cried, letting tears stream down her face.

"That's it." Twilight said. "Let it all out."

Rainbow Dash sniffled. She uncovered her face. "And … what about Daring? What happened to her?"

"Daring Do is in custody." Twilight said. "She may have been wrong about a few things in her speech, but she was right about a few things, too. We're petitioning Princess Celestia to create superhero legislative body. For superheroes, run by superheroes. As for Daring, we're putting together a formal inquiry to decide whether her shooting the Mane-iac was justified. We got so busy with trying to subdue her after she shot the Mane-iac, the rest of the Sinful … Five got away with the Mane-iac's …"

"It's okay, Twilight." Rainbow Dash said, sniffling and holding back tears. "You can say it. I'm a big girl."

"With the Mane-iac's body." Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash cried and sniffled some more.

"You know ..." Rainbow Dash said. "I never liked her. Daring, I mean. From the moment we first met ..."

Twilight chuckled. They could at least wring some good humor out of the situation. "Yeah, I know. Oh, and Mare-Do-Well is actually the Cutie Mark Crusaders."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "As in – as in, our Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

Twilight nodded. "Mm-hmm."

Rainbow Dash a put a hoof to her cheek. "You know, in a way … I'm kind of not surprised. Figures they would do something stupid like that."

"Mm-hmm." Twilight looked away. "So, I'm curious … through the whole thing, how … brainwashed were you, really?"

"A bit." Rainbow Dash admitted.

"I see."

Now it was Rainbow Dash's turn to look away. "Twilight, listen … I have a confession to make. While the Mane-iac and I were on the run, we went into a hotel, and … she made me make a choice."

"Go on."

"My choices were to either defect willingly, try to bring her in and present her to you guys, or let myself be brainwashed so I didn't have to choose for myself."

"Okay." Twilight said. "Since it seemed like you never tried to bring us the Mane-iac, that leaves one of two options … unless, of course, I want to be generous and assume you did try to bring her in, only for the Mane-iac to subdue you and brainwash you anyway." Twilight nodded. "In fact, it might be easier to just pretend that was what happened."

Rainbow Dash smiled. "Yeah."

Twilight frowned. "But we know the easy thing isn't the right thing. So … what choice did you make?"

Rainbow Dash glanced to the side. "Well, that's the thing … I want to tell you. But the Mane-iac promised me only two ponies would know what choice I made – myself and her. I don't want to betray her trust … I don't want to break that promise. You understand, don't you?"

Twilight Sparkle nodded. "I do."

Twilight was silent once again for awhile, until she said ...

"Write a letter."

"Huh?"

"Write a letter describing what choice you made." Twilight explained. "Go outside of Martropolis. Find a wide, empty field, and bury the letter there. In five years, if you haven't earned our trust back by then, we'll go out and dig it up. I think that's a fair compromise after everything we've been through ... maybe even a little too forgiving."

Twilight levitated a pencil and a piece of paper to Rainbow Dash.

"Okay." Rainbow Dash wrote on the parchment. When she was done, Twilight levitated an envelope to her. Rainbow Dash folded the letter up to fit it inside said envelope.

After the envelope was finished, Twilight took it from Rainbow Dash.

"Well … I guess there's not much we can do now other than accept you back into the Power Ponies until those five years are up." Twilight said with a smile. "But until then, you're gonna have to work really hard to prove to us we can trust you from now on."

Rainbow Dash blushed and smiled. "Yeah, I know. Don't worry, Twilight. I promise, I'll do everything I can to make it up to and prove I'm still a Power Pony, through and through. Even if I got a little lovestruck for awhile. Pinkie Promise."

"Good. Believe me, Rainbow Dash, I want this letter to stay buried just as much as you do. Oh, one more thing." Twilight said. "The next time you suspect somepony you're in love with as secretly being one of our enemies … tell us first, before you go confront them alone."

Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Deal."

The doorbell to the mansion rang.

"I'll get it!" Pinkie Pie announced, zipping through the hall. She returned moments later to Rainbow Dash's bedroom.

"It's for yoooou!" Pinkie said in sing-song.

"Me?" Rainbow Dash pushed off the covers and got out of bed. She went downstairs to greet whoever it was.

It was a pony. A doctor, if Dash to guess, going off his white coat and blue shirt.

"Uh, yes. Hello. I'm looking for a Rainbow Dash?" The doctor said. "I've been led to believe she lives here."

"That's me." Rainbow Dash said. "What do you want?"

The doctor, as it turns out, worked at the local hospital. Rainbow Dash had become a pony of interest in the case of an unusual patient.

"We have no idea where she came from." The doctor said. "We were finishing up the night shift when we suddenly found her lying outside the front entrance, like somepony had just … dumped here there. She's quite the unusual case. With some surgery, she survived a bullet wound to the head."

"A bullet wound ... to the head?" Rainbow Dash asked, incredulous.

"Yes. It's quite remarkable, really. Almost a miracle. The odds of this happening … well, statistics say it'll be another ten to fifteen years before anything like this happens again!" The doctor said. "The bullet hit her head at just the right angle for her to survive, if she got appropriate medical care in time. Somepony made sure she did. It's funny. If the bullet had been so much as one centimeter either way, she would have never made it. If she had gotten her care a second later, she wouldn't have made it. The universe must have really been smiling on her today."

"She's suffered some head trauma." The doctor went on. "Heavy memory loss. She can only remember two things, one of which was your name – that why's I went looking for you, by the way. I'm hoping if she sees you, it'll jog her memory some. But other than that, she's fine! She has full cognition, motor functions … everything but her memory. Ah, here we go!"

The doctor stopped and opened the door to the patient's room. "Please, go in." The doctor nodded.

Rainbow Dash went in, not expecting to find much of interest to her.

What she did find made her jaw drop.

"Tresemme?"

Tresemme was on the bed, reading a book. Her cranium was wrapped in bandages, but otherwise, she looked fine.

"Oh, hello." Tresemme said to her. "Tresemme? Is that my name?"

"Uh, yeah." Rainbow Dash said, nervously walking up to her bed. Dash put a hoof on the guardrail. "Do you … remember me?"

Tresemme shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Are you Rainbow Dash?"

"Uh, yeah. That's me." Rainbow Dash still couldn't believe it. Here was Tresemme, alive and mostly well. Dash wanted somepony to come pinch her to be sure this wasn't a dream.

"I remember two things." Tresemme said. "Hairs. Lots and lots of hair … and your name." Tresemme said. "So, since I can't remember anything, why don't you tell me how we know each other?"

"I'm, uh, I'm your girlfriend." Rainbow Dash said.

Tresemme's was taken aback. "Really?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yup!"

"Huh." Tresemme looked at Rainbow Dash's mane. "I absolutely love your mane. It's so vibrant and colorful. How do you get like that? What dye do you use? What's your regimen?"

Rainbow Dash chuckled. "This? This is all natural."

Tresemme's stared in shock. "No way."

"It's true." Rainbow Dash said. She presented her mane to Tresemme. "You can feel it if you don't believe me."

Tresemme took a hoof to Rainbow Dash's hair, curling a stand of hair around her hoof. "Wow … I don't believe it. It really is natural!"

"I told you!" Rainbow Dash said.

The two of them shared in delighted laughter.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe. She not only had a second chance with the Power Ponies, but she also had one with Tresemme. She could help Tresemme build her life back up. Get her back to apartment, get her back her old job. Though hopefully without the part about falling into a vat of acid. She could train Tresemme to be a hero instead of a villain. She could teach Tresemme to control the dormant Mane-iac part of her Dash knew was still in there.

Rainbow Dash paused to wonder … was it right for her to take advantage of Tresemme's memory loss? Was it ethical to try training her to be a hero when Dash knew Tresemme was a villain at heart?

Isn't that no better than what the Mane-iac was trying to do to me? To Maretopolis?

"Are you okay, Rainbow Dash?" Tresemme asked. "You looked troubled."

"Yeah, fine." Dash assured. "You just keep playing with my mane."

Rainbow Dash resolved a compromise. She would get Tresemme to where she could stand on her own hooves. After which, as soon as both she and Tresemme felt they were ready, she would tell Tresemme about her past and let her decide if she wanted to go back to being the maniacal Mane-iac … or if she would like to start anew, as a hero.

But that was going to take awhile. For right now, Rainbow Dash was determined they were just going to have some fun, lying here in the hospital while Tresemme flicked and poked at Rainbow Dash's hair bangs.

Author's Notes for "To Save A Friend ..."

And with that, another story comes to a close.

I wanted to include another scene of the Mane-iac and Rainbow Dash being 'intimate' after the Power Ponies cut them off at the HQ, but I realized it would disrupt the flow and pacing of the chapter.

I also wanted the steel I-beam golem Matter-horn made to last longer in the fight, but it kind of disrupted the balance of power. So away it went.

And the speech Mare-Do-Well makes to Long Face is a spin on the speech Bane makes to Batman early into The Dark Knight Rises film. Originally, it was just going to BE the speech with the word "Darkness" substitued with "Fear," but I decided to give it a bit more variation than that.

And of course, in the same scene, Long Face seeing Mare-Do-Well as a demon also references multiple occurences when the Scarecrow becomes victim to his own Fear Gas and sees Batman as such.

That "weighing a soul against a feather" thing mention in the narration? Totally real. Well, "real" as far as mythology goes.

That's the end of it, for now. I've discussed with DarknessRising and toyed with the idea of writing a spin-off or "What If?" issues with alternate endings, but I won't write those until I really feel comfortable with spending my time in that manner. Don't expect any sequels anytime soon, either.

But hey, it's a comic book. I've always approached this story as thinking it was a comic book, fitting into a long series of publications involving the Power Ponies, with other Power Pony related stories being released by the same 'company' over a period of years, taking place in alternate universes, or being reboots of each other ... it's fun to think of that way.

And it's fun to think some reading this might want to do their own Power Pony stores with the same approach.