The Amazing Spider-Mare #1

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or Hasbro. I am in no way affiliated with Spider-Man, or Marvel. I make no money from this writing. It is done purely for entertainment.


My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

The Amazing Spider-Mare #1

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Stalliongrad was a city filled with frowns. There lived unhappy ponies and unhappy diamond dog's living dull, unhappy lives. Each day they woke up, the sky grey and air think with factory smoke. They went to long workdays in those factories and manufacturing plants and train yards. At day's end they returned to their homes in just in time for a late dinner, or they visited the many bars and nightclubs that populated the city's entertainment center.

     Despite the existence of such a sector and the food, drink, music and film which filled it, the city could never be called a vacation spot. The city was nothing but an oversized manufacturing town. Violent crime filled the streets day and night, an outlet for the unhappiness and frustration the population felt. The police were too few to do much, and most of them were corrupt. The schools were overfilled and underfunded, so that many kids quit, seeking quick fortune on the streets. It was not a good place to grow up.
Surprise loved it all the same.

     Surprise Party was a teenage earth pony. Her yellow mane lay long and flat against her head, with just a bit of curve to it near the bottom, so that it almost hooked forward. Her coat was white and complimented by her cutie mark of two balloons, one pink and the other purple. The mare had been born in the city, as had her earth pony parents, spending all their lives there, from beginning… to unfortunate end. When Surprise was four, an unexplained factory accident took both her parents, leaving her in the care of her earth pony Aunt May Flower and May's diamond dog husband Best. Of different species but born soul mates none the less, the two, unable to have children of their own, soon saw their niece as more than that; they saw her as a daughter. And she, in return looked to them as parents. There had been much hardship and discrimination for this, but they made it, together.

     The three continued on as a family for over ten years, living above the party supply store that had been in their family for generations. May worked the store during the day, while Best worked the mines that supplied coal, iron ore, and many other resources the nearby factories needed. Surprise helped with the store after school and homework. As far as Surprise knew they never wanted for food or clothing, but this innocent thought might have changed if she ever saw Aunt May's and Uncle Ben's harried faces as they looked over every monthly bill, or if she ever thought for a moment on how the diamond dog worked later and later shifts.

     Whatever problems the two hid from her, they made enough to send Surprise to the best school in the city with the help of academic scholarship that only one of Surprise's intellect could earn. Surprise could never thank them enough for this. To make this seem worth it, Surprise always worked as hard as she could at school, always studied until she could remember the books front to back without looking, and made sure to always bring home A's.

     Despite this however, Surprise always wished that she could do more to repay her aunt and uncle's generosity. Not just make their spent money worth it, but actually pat it back a little. And she did not try to hide this wish. At all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     "But Uncle Best!" she whined.

     "No, Surprise," He replied.

     "Aunt May!" she whined.

     "Listen to your uncle, Surprise," she replied.

     Surprise huffed, scooting up to take another spoonful of mashed potatoes. It was later in the evening, and the family was gathered close around the dinner table, a rare occasion for them all to be eating together, and not just because of the kitchen's smallness. The meal for that night was Aunt May's special: fried tofu in garlic sauce.

     Surprise's mind was far from what she was eating at that moment. She took a few bites and tried again. "I turn 16 in a week, Uncle Best. That will put me at the legal minimum age to work in the mines. Most people don't even wait until the legal age and lie to get in, so I'm even better. Let me get a job!"

     "No," replied her uncle, in that same calm voice he always used when Surprise brought this up. Surprise recognized it. "The mines are too dangerous. The Factories are too dangerous too," he added before Surprise could interject, causing her to slump in her seat. "Your aunt and I both want you to stay in school. Go to college. Get good job, get out of Stalliongrad; move to nice city. Meet nice person and have kids. That is the life you deserve."

     "Oh, come on, Uncle," said Surprise, deciding to try another approach. "Nobody in the Party family has ever left Stalliongrad. Each generation always ends up staying."

     His response was to smile and place a hand on her shoulder. "And each generation keeps hoping the next is smarter than they are."

     Surprised huffed again and sat back in her chair, folding her forelegs across her chest in a pout. This was totally not fair.

     "Surprise, dear," interjected Aunt May, acting the peacekeeper as she always did. "We really don't need the money. In between Best and the store we are doing just fine."
Surprised huffed…again.

     "Trying to blow the house down?" her uncle asked. Surprise raised an eyebrow at him in question as she took a drink out of her glass of milk.

     "You huff and you puff…"

     Surprise stifled a laugh, dropping her glass of milk as she did. May caught the glass just before it could shatter against the floor. "Oh, what I am I going to do with the two of you," May demanded as Best started snickering as well. "I mean honestly, I feel like I'm raising two kids!"

     That set Surprise off all over again, with Best joining her a moment later. May tried to look reprimanding at them both, but as Surprise expected she didn't last long before she too succumbed to the giggles.

     After a minute or two all three caught their breaths. Once she was sure they were done, Surprise cleared her throat.

     "I know we don't really need the money, but there are always rainy days. And besides," she shrugged, a habit picked up from her bipedal uncle," the store doesn't really do that well."

     This was the truth neither of the two grownups ever discussed aloud. A city like Stalliongrad simply didn't have that much room for a party supply store, most of the workers of the city preferring to spend their earnings on more…exotic (alcoholic) pursuits that Surprise would have insisted she knew nothing about. This left most of the ponies and dogs that lived in the smoke stack metropolis only needing party supplies around birthdays. Most of the rest of the store's sales fell on either Nightmare Night, Hearth's Warming Eve, and Hearts and Hooves Day. This would leave most party loving ponies disappointed, and Surprise loved parties more than most.

     Then Aunt May asked the one question that Surprise never failed to get excited about. "What about that new invention you were talking about earlier?"

     If there was one thing Surprise loved more than parties, it was tinkering with gadgets and gizmos; a trait inherited from her other great-great-great-great-a lot of other greats grandmother Twilight Sparkle. Surprise had studied and worked until she was an expert in chemistry, computers, and mechanical engineering. In fact, it was her hope to get into college thanks to these skills and the inventions they led her to. Or, at least help the business with them, as most of her inventions had to do with parties and… well, fun. Especially the latest invention she had been working on.

     "My newest invention, that's right! One second!" Surprise leapt up from her seat to run off to her room, but paused when she saw the way her aunt was looking at her expectantly. "Oh, uh… may I be excused?"

     "You may," her aunt replied.

     Instead of running off to her room however, Surprise just stared at her aunt for a moment, a grin growing on her face. "No, you're May. I'm Surprise. Uncle Best, Aunt May's going senile!" she laughed and scampered up the stairs to her room, leaving behind a groaning aunt and a laughing uncle.

     Upstairs she rummaged around her cramped room for her latest creation. It wasn't small, just filled with bed, desk, bookcase, and then boxes scattered all over, filled with the tools with which she worked. Finally finding the specific box she was looking for, Surprise put it on her back and returned to the kitchen with a bounce in her step. Best and May stopped their clearing off the table after dinner to watch Surprise as she set the box on the wooden surface with a little flourish.

     "Ta-da!"

     "…What is it dearie?"

     "…It's my new invention. Super Silly String Supremo!"

     Her uncle and aunt looked at each other uncertainly.

     Nonplussed by the lukewarm reaction, Surprise opened the box and took out what seemed a simple spray can, if a bit flatter than most. "No, really! It's a hyper-pressurized hardening component elastic! It remains a dense liquid while in the container but expands instantly on contact with air, shooting out as a solid string of… well, silly string. It took me weeks to get the formula right!"

     With that she picked the device up in her mouth, pointed it away from them, took a moment to aim the little nozzle at the front, and finally applied pressure to the button on top. Just as she said it would, a string of a white colored substance shot out from the device, hitting a lamp several feet away.

     "See!" she said turning her head…and pulling the lamp off the table. "Sorry!" Surprise tried to say, dropping the device on to the ground. On contact with the hardwood floor however the device activated again, spinning its web like string straight up onto the ceiling. "No, that's not right!" Before her relatives could stop her Surprise grabbed hold of this new string to try and pull it down.

     The next few seconds were a bit of a blur for her, but the next thing Surprise knew she was hanging half a foot off the ground, entirely wrapped up by the string.
"Uhh… maybe the formula isn't quite right yet."

     Aunt May coughed. "Do you need some help dearie?"

     Surprise shook her head, and then gave a snap at Uncle Best as the diamond dog started poking at her cocooned form with a broom. "Na, this stuff dissolves in an about an hour. I made it that way to help with clean up. I'll be fine till then."

     "If you're sure…"

     "Although…" Surprise gave another bite at Best, before looking at May again. "You think you could prop a book open for me or something?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     It was later that night,. Surprise sat her bedroom desk, her head bent over various chemistry books to figure out how to fix her string. Her phone rang. Surprise glanced at the clock and blinked at how late it had gotten, before picking the phone up in her hoof.
"Talk to me," she answered, half her attention still on the book in front of her.

     "Surprise, are you watching TV?" demanded a rough male voice on the other end.

     "Oh, hi Flash!" she said with a smile, before frowning. "Wait, I wasn't supposed to help you study tonight was I? If so I am so sorry…"

     "No, no, that's tomorrow. Have you seen the TV," he demanded of her again, more insistently this time.

     Surprise reached for the remote, fumbling to hold it in one hoof while keeping the phone against her ear. "What channel," she asked.

     "It doesn't matter, just turn it on!"

     She quirked an eyebrow at this, even as she managed to get the remote balanced. Now she just needed to hit the button. "Wait, what do you mean it doesn't matter?" There! It was on. "How can it not…"

     She dropped the phone, and her lower jaw.

     A few minutes later the news report switched to commercial, allowing Surprise the chance to realize that Flash's voice was still coming over the line, trying to get her attention. She grabbed it up and pressed it to her ear in excitement. "There is a superhero on TV."

     "Yeah, that was why I was calling you. It's on every channel.

     "There is a superhero on TV."

     "Surprise…"

     "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmy-"

     "SURPRISE! Breath!"

     Surprise stopped, took a deep breath, and then let it out. "There is a superhero. In real life. ON THE TELEVISION."

     "She's called Iron Mare. At least that's what it says on the internet. "

     "Internet? When did this happen?"

     "A few hours ago, at the Grand Galloping Gala."

     "And I'm just hearing about it NOW?!?"

     "I had practice!"

     "Superhero! TV!"

     "How do you know she's a superhero? Last I saw news was still iffy on hero or villain…"

     "Please. Did you see that color scheme? Total hero."

     "You read too many comics."

     "Can we get back to the fact that there is a super hero on the TV?!? A real-life superhero… with powers! And a secret identity! And angst, probably!"

     "I don't know about angst, but she doesn't have a secret identity."

     "… What?"

     "She unmasked herself, like, straight away, in front of a big crowd."

     "… WHAT."

     "And Surprise… its Princess Galaxy."

     Surprise's brain broke.

     Galaxy. THE Princess Galaxy. Absolute genius, richest mare in the country (not counting the Princesses), and now, a superhero. Surprise's eyes wandered across the comic posters that adorned her walls, depicting as favorites as Mare Do Well, Wonder Mare, the Green Lantern, and Booster Gold, and then over to the life size Princess Galaxy poster that hung over her bed. Scientist, partier, and now superhero. An embodiment of Surprise's three favorite things.

     Surprise wasn't into mares, but if there had to be an exception…

     She was brought out of her musings by the tail end of whatever Flash was saying. "-arrive the day after-"

     "Wait, what?"

     "Weren't you listening? They said on the news that Galaxy is visiting Stalliongrad for some kind of performance review of her company's local branch. She something about that she's decided on taking her company in a new direction. She's supposed to arrive the day after tomorrow."

     Surprise's heart stopped. Then, "I have to meet her,"

     "WHAT? Are you crazy?"

     "She's my hero! Even before, er, she became a hero. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity!"

     The pony on the other end of the line was silent a moment, and then "How exactly are you supposed to get in to see her? I doubt you'll be able to just walk right in. Security's gotta be tough at the factory."

     "I can try. Day after tomorrow right? That's a Sunday. I bet the place will be staffed pretty lightly, even with Princess Galaxy showing up."

     "You'll never get to see her, Surprise."

     "I have to try, Flash. Galaxy is a genius. A total genius."

     "Sigh… I don't get your fangirlism of Princess Galaxy… but do what you have to do. Just don't get into any trouble, okay?"

     "I won't."

     The two talked for a while longer before ending their conversation, Surprise promising to be over the next day right after dinner for tutoring. Once done with the call, Surprise tried to return to her work but found she couldn't concentrate, her gaze wondering past Galaxy's poster to the map of Stalliongrad that graced her closet door. Her eyes traced the path of the bus route from her neighborhood to downtown Stalliongrad, where the local division for ArmEx Industries was located.

     "Soon…"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Meanwhile, across town a very different phone conversation was taking place. Razor Cutter, the head of ArmEx Industries' Stalliongrad division, sat in his office overlooking the better part of Stalliongrad. He was on the phone with one of the few ponies who could tell even him what to do; his boss and the owner of the company he worked for, Princess Galaxy.

     He was not happy.

     "Look your highness… I understand that… yes it's your right to decide which way the company's going, but to exercise control over individual projects like that… I'm not trying to be presumptuous… oh. I see. We could talk more over your visit... canceled you say? Of course, with your unveiling it makes sense for you to be... busy, all of a sudden. No ma'am! That wasn't sarcasm... yes. Of course. Just send the list over and I'll make sure the appropriate projects are shut down at once. And increase security, and do a warehouse inventory to make sure the missing stock isn't from this location. Yes. Goodbye, your highness."

     Cutter ended the phone connection and pressed his hooves into his head, massaging lightly. Then we stood up with a snap, took the phone in his mouth, and tossed it into the wall where it shattered on impact. Pieces of plastic scattered in all directions as he vented his rage. "GRAAAUGH!"

     "Boss?" came a wary voice to Razor's left. It was Rhinestone, a stallion with a light-grey coat and darker grey mane and tail.

     Glancing at the unicorn that stood to his side, Razor sighed and sat back in his seat. It would not do to lose his temper in such a matter in front of the help. Grabbing a pen off his desk, he scrambled a quick note out for his combined secretary bodyguard and handed it to him.

     "Bring me the files on these projects, would you, Rhinestone? The princess wants these projects canceled."

     "Yes sir," replied Rhinestone as he took the list. As his eyes landed on one project in particular he paused. "Project Big Pony is being canceled?"

     "It and another half dozen."

     "Good."

     Razor watched him through a pair of half lidded eyes, lips turned up into the faintest smile. "That reminds me. How is your friend?"

     "I-I don't like talking about that…that abomination."

     "Of course. Still, the project's one success and it was a lab accident of all things. No matter; the project is being dropped, so you don't have to worry about it happening to any other ponies. Now then; the files?"

     "Oh! Yes sir, I'll be right back."

     'Right Back' turned out to take just over twenty minutes. When Rhinestone returned the red and black Pegasus pony stood behind his desk, studying the pair of Gryphon battle blades that adorned his wall. Too large for a pony, the blades were meant to be worn by a gryphon over their wings, both lengthening them and turning them into a weapon. A gift from the leader of a gryphon clan following trade negotiations.
Gryphons were a violent, adversarial bunch. Like him. He liked that about them most of all.

     Yes, how fitting that the son of a pair of barbers, butt eternally marked with a straight edge razor would become a leader in the cut throat world of business. The mark certainly made ponies think twice before going against him.
Ponies not named "Princess Galaxy" anyway.

     "Sir? The files?"

     "Hmm? Oh yes. Hand them here." He took the files from his underling. Returning to his desk, Razor began going through the stack, only pausing to give one of them a closer read. After finishing it he put it aside for the moment and returned to the rest of the stack. A few minutes later he finished looking through the stack and returned to the one. "Other than Big Pony, none of the project's here look anywhere close to having promising results. Except for this one… 'Project Pink'. It says that the formula was stable, but failed to completely bond with the DNA of the test subjects?"

     Rhinestone nodded, and then after a nod from Razor elaborated. "Yes. The lead scientist theorized that something in either the formula itself, or rather a lack of something in the DNA of the recipient caused the failure. He believed that a closer DNA match might have a better result."

     "Hmm. And how is the good Doctor Coins?"

     "Still recovering from the incident with Dragon DNA last month."

     "Ah. Yes. Rather unfortunate business. Still, at least the poor fellow got his hoof back?"

     "It's more of a claw now sir,"

    "… well, I'm sure they'll get him squared away sooner or later. Great job keeping that out of the media by the way."

     Rhinestone grinned and puffed his chest out. "It's my job sir."

     "Still it seems a waste to just shut a project like this down. Tens of millions of bits were spent on each of these projects and while most of them were a waste of money this one was making progress. And yet it's getting scrapped, just like the rest. Does that seem fair to you?"

     "No sir."

     "Hmm…" Razor leaned back in his seat and pressed his forehooves together in front of him. "It would seem Coin had a version of the serum that he hadn't tested yet before his accident put him behind schedule… I want you to mark it destroyed."

     "Sir?"

     A grin crept across Razor's face. "If Galaxy doesn't want it, we'll see if anyone on the black market does. Yes, it would seem that the serum had been destroyed in Dr. Coin's rampage last month, and in the confusion we didn't notice it was missing until the audit. Saves on having to get disposal to fake paperwork for us."

     "Yes sir."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two Days Later…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     "Excuse me."

     The security earth pony looked up from where he was watching the game on his portable TV to spy a yellow and white Earth Pony standing across the check-in desk from him and smiling. She was dressed in the outfit of a popular pizza chain, several boxes strapped to her sides. A baseball cap covered most of the pony's hair, and the way the boxes were attached covered up her cutie mark.

     "I'm supposed to deliver these," said the pony, gesturing behind her with her head. The security guard narrowed his eyes at her.

     "Nopony called down saying to expect you."

     "Oh! Uh, well…"

     Slowly the blue earth pony moved his hoof over to the ALERT button to signal backup. Right before he pressed it however, the phone rang. The guard picked it up. "Hello? Oh, ok." He hung up. "You can go on up. They're expecting you up on the 15th."

     "Thank you!" squeaked Surprise. The white pony hurried over to the elevator.  

     Half an hour later a pizza delivery pony arrived at the building and tried to gain entrance. Minutes later he was dragged out by security. Twenty minutes after that one of the workers of floor fifteen came to the lobby, trying to find out what was taking her pizza so long.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     "I need a better disguise…" Surprise muttered once she was in the elevator. Flipping open one of the boxes she pulled out a business suit and slid it on, stuffing her pizza delivery outfit into the box afterwards. Then, from the second box she pulled out a suitcase and strap to attach it to her side. Finally from the last box she pulled out a long purple wig, which she then quickly switched out for her baseball cap. Then she allowed herself a grin. "It's a good thing we sale costumes and disguise kits in the party shop!"

     With all that finished she turned to press one of the machine's buttons; but froze as she realized something terrible.

     "I don't know what floor she's on!"

     Surprise stood looking at the block of buttons for a second, before settling on an ancient method of divining that even Celestia herself took part in.

     "Eenie Meeny Miny Mo…"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     An hour later Surprise still hadn't found Galaxy. She had, however found the little mare's room, the little colt's room (that had been embarrassing), the cafeteria, the payroll department, and several offices, one of which happened to be hosting the birthday-and-or-retirement party for an elderly diamond dog named Stanley (who kept asking her if she was a "true believer", whatever that meant).

     Oh, and she had also found the labs. AND IT WAS AMAZING.

     To be honest she probably shouldn't have been in there (ok to be honest she shouldn't have been in the building) but she just had to take a peek. Ignoring the large CLOSED sign that adorned the glass doors leading into the building's primary laboratories, Surprise couldn't help poking around; after all, she was an inventor, and here she was in the home of some of the greatest innovations in Equestrian history. She forgave herself for being a bit over excited.

     "Oh my gosh a chemical bond simulator! And a gravitational manipulator! And the world's smallest arc reactor!  And a flux capacitor! And big metal tentacle things! And… and I'm not sure what that is," she said aloud as she trotted over to a strange looking machine near the center of the room. Leaning closer she read the label in the machine. "Genetic Infusion Modulator? What in Tartarus is that?"

     Before she could find an answer for herself however the door to the lab slid open and two ponies walked in. Surprise froze in terror, but then realized after a moment they were engrossed in conversation and hadn't noticed her. Not yet, at least.

     Thinking quickly, Surprise threw herself behind a desk before they could notice her. She then peaked out around the side of the desk to see what was going on, curiosity getting the better of her.

     It was a pegasus and a unicorn. The unicorn held a vial filled with some kind of dark pink liquid in his magical grip.

     "Why are we here again, sir? We're not infusing it to anyone are we?"

     The pegasus huffed. "Of course not! But we need know if it will work before we sell it, or if our customer will only be able to use it as a starting point. We're going to use one of the simulators to test it."

     The pegasus then frowned. "We'll need to change the serum to an active state first. The labs started keeping serums in inactivated forms while not in use to help prevent accidents, so we'll have to plug it into the modulator to be able to use it," the Pegasus answered with a wing-gesture toward the Genetic Infusion Modulator.

     The Unicorn grumbled to himself for a moment, but set the vial of dark pink serum into the machine. It was then that Surprise noticed that laying there, between a desk and the machine where she had apparently dropped it, was one of her spray packs. It was wedged in the narrow space between that table and the next, the only reason neither of the two had spotted it so far.

     Well horse apples.

     When she looked back up the two ponies had apparently finished what they had been doing, because the liquid in the tube was now a bright pink, almost glowing. For Surprise, it was strangely alluring to look at; she felt drawn to it.

     The unicorn slid the tube into a syringe, which then leaked a small drop of the liquid onto a glass slide. Setting the injector on the desk besides the Modulator, the two made their way to the other side of the lab, where the simulator was located, a good dozen yards away at least.

     Taking her chance, Surprise slid along the floor back to the Modulator to try to get her pack. After all it wasn't exactly cheap to make and she didn't want to leave evidence behind; especially not evidence with her name printed on the side.

     As Surprise strained to reach her spray pack, she found herself pressing against the desk set beside the large square of machinery that was the Modulator in a rocking motion, though she didn't think much of it. She should have, however. With each rock the injector that lay on top of the desk moved closer and closer to the edge, with nothing to arrest its movement.

     Finally, with one final lunge two things happened. Whether they were mere chance and sheer cosmic coincidence, or some greater power at work, none can say. But they happened.
First, Surprise's hoof managed to wrap around the pack, pulling it a little toward her. Second, the injector slid off the table and fell straight down needle first into Surprise's neck.

     Gravity was enough to cause the needle to break the skin. The instinctive jerk up into the side of the machine was enough to send the plunger down, pumping the bright pink contents of the tube straight into Surprise's body.

     All at once Surprise's world turned upside down and inside out, a thousand and one sensations flooding through her. Pain. So much pain, tearing through her, burning through her. Bones breaking, shifting, creaking from the weight of her own body. Her skin itched madly, begging to be scratched away until it was a perfect shade of pink, and all the while the lights in the ceiling turned to laughing flowers and yelled at her to tell jokes. She opened her mouth to scream, but rainbows came out and swirled through the room, the most beautiful rainbows in the world, as if she had never seen rainbows before and all she could do was smile and smile and smi-

     Then the pain ended, the visions faded, leaving Surprise shuddering and gasping on the floor, grateful simply for not soiling herself. She reached a shaking hoof up and with a whimper pulled the syringe out of her neck, not knowing what she was doing as she dropped it into her suitcase.

     The next thing Surprise did, after checking to make sure she still had all four legs and that her coat was not pink, was to crane her neck up and look around. The pegasus and unicorn were still standing by their machine, bent over it with all their attention. Surprise let out a sigh of relief and stood up. Her legs shook but supported her weight, so she grabbed the spray pack, stuffed it into the suitcase on her side, and checked the scientists again. They were still looking away, talking in hushed tones that Surprise could barely make out, something about failed experiments and it all soon being someone else's problem. That did not sound good, not good at all.

     Feeling it would be better to worry about all that later when she wasn't in danger of getting caught by what were clearly mad scientists, Surprise ducked down beneath the level of the surrounding desks and snuck as quickly yet quietly as she could out of the lab and back to the elevator. There she changed back into her pizza delivery outfit as the elevator took her back down to the building's lobby.

     Only then did she allow herself to relax a little. "That was scary as heck… forget Galaxy, I'm going home…" A ripple of fleeting discomfort in her belly made her grimace and rub at where the needle had pierced her neck. "Or maybe the hospital… no idea what was in that syringe…"

     Out in the lobby, Stanley smiled at her as she passed and proclaimed Surprise to be a true believer. She still didn't know what that meant, and so passed him by with a quick, forced smile and hurried through the doors.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     "WHERE IS IT!? WHERE!?" Razor stormed through the lab, wings flapping erratically at his sides, eye wide and wild as he swept stacks of papers and glass beakers off tables in a vain attempt to uncover the suddenly missing syringe. Accidentally breaking the syringe or, worse, sticking himself with the needle never crossed his mind. He had to find it. He had to, or else lose potential thousands of bits. Potential millions of bits.

     A crash and the sound of breaking glass filled the lab as Razor flipped a table with his bare hooves. "I NEED IT!"

     Rhinestone stood to the side near the lab's main exit and watched his employer in concern. He had seen the pegasus freak out like this only very rarely. Maybe twice out of the five years they had worked together. It was… always scary.

     Feeling Rhinestone's eyes on him, Razor turned to glare at him. "What are you doing just standing there? Look around, you idiot!"

     "Boss, I don't think-"

     "Wait, shut up!" Razor had turned away from the unicorn, his eyes drawn by one of the security cameras in the room's corners. More were scattered along the ceiling, covering every inch of the lab. Razor let himself calm down a little at the sight of these. This was a start. A very good start.

     "Things do not just… disappear," Razor said, half to Rhinestone and half to himself. He started pacing, making a token effort to straighten up the trashed lab. "Things have to be lost, or taken. We didn't lose the syringe with the final version of the Pink Serum in it, so it must have been taken."

     He turned to Rhinestone. "Get the video for the security cameras in this room. Go through the video of our time in here until you find our mysterious serum snatcher. After that, destroy the video. We don't need any evidence of our being here in any case."

     The unicorn nodded and turned to the door to go. Before he left however, he turned back to Razor with a thoughtful frown. "And… after I've found the thief?"

     Razor grinned. "There must be no evidence of our being here… and no witnesses of our being here."