The Power Ponies

Preface

"That's the lot!" Zapp called. She tied up the last of the Mane-iac's henchmen using a rope of Radiance's creation and wiped her brow.

Mistress Mare-velous, one of her teammates and part-time high-school student, gave her a thumbs up as she headed towards the exit of the cold basement they were in. She and Matter-Horn headed outside the factory basement to meet the crowds of reporters and fans alike, waiting to hear all about how the city's favourite group of superheroes defeated the forces of evil once again. Actually, The Power Ponies were the only superheroes of Maretropolis, but that didn't stop the citizens from running polls and whatnot about whether or not people prefered The Power Ponies over The Avengers.

Zapp grimaced as she gazed around the poorly-lit basement. Apparently, most people still hadn't realised that she and her friends hadn't actually just popped straight out of a movie or comic book, never mind how cool that would be. Superheroes did exist in real life, no matter how sparse. They were spread across the globe, with very few besides The Power Ponies in Canterlot, their homeland.

Often times, people didn't realise why Supers felt so pressured most of the time. They not only had to protect the city they lived in from all kinds of threats, but often also multiple neighbouring small cities and towns because of the small numbers of Supers on Earth at the moment. This was called a district, in Superhero words, and was assigned by powerful beings from other dimensions who had granted them their powers in the first place. This was also one of the reasons why it was always better to be in a group instead of handling it all alone; you could always distribute the areas between the group members and make it easier for everyone.

It was also one of the many reasons why Zapp was so grateful for her friends, she thought as she walked across the basement floor towards some of her friends. They were always so thoughtful, whenever they sensed one of their friends was tired or sick for whatever reason, somebody would always take over her shift at her district along with their own, which wasn't easy for anyone to do straight from 9 PM to dawn. Still, they did it, and never complained even if they had to come late to school because of that, not even Matter-Horn, who was the most punctual out of all of them.

As Zapp neared her chattering friends, she heard them talking about the test they were due to give in History class tomorrow and groaned internally. What with all the chaos of today, she had completely forgotten about school, something her friend Matter-Horn/Twilight Sparkle would be sure to scold her about tomorrow in civilian form.

"I just always have such a hard time memorizing the dates! I still can't remember the exact date of the first coronation in Equestria," Radiance, a part-time intern at the city's most famous boutique, Carousel, was saying.

"Y- you could always t- try memorizing it in song form, th- that always helps me," Saddle Rager suggested. She saw Zapp coming and waved her over.

"Hey, Rainb-" she broke off nervously as Zapp shot her a look. "I- I mean, hey, Zapp. A- are you doing zapp today? Uh, I- I mean are you doing fin-" she stopped as Zapp held up a hand, sighing.

"I'm sorry, I just turned back to normal two minutes ago, and I'm a bit tired."

Zapp gave her a small smile and Saddle Rager visibly relaxed. Saddle Rager could turn into a raging mini-Hulk whenever she got angry, and only a few minutes ago, she had gone into a fit of anger when one of Mane-iac's henchmen accidently stepped on an ant (the horror).

Zapp had always secretly thought that Celestia, the magical being who had given them their powers, was a fan of Marvel, which was why she had given them such Avenger-related powers. Zapp still hadn't figured out exactly how Celestia even knew about it when she lived in another dimension, but she was working on it.