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The Golden Age of Comic Books: A Mutants and Masterminds campaign. Interest and OOC here!

Kirby Krackle

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AzalR75 Crazy Oatmeal

AzalR75

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Also, further clarifications of my brainstorms/ if you don't like, let me know =P. "Weird Ponies" (I hadn't even thought of a name for that organization) like I described to Bramble as I was thinking of them in just a random brainstorm reminded me of a memetic mutation of witch hunters/spanish inquisition/magical/mad science types. Basically created after King Sombra as a way to curb ponies using dark magic to harm other ponies before they could gain too much power. Also... the "weird ponies" is the nickname others gave them because... they were just a bit creepy. (The title comes from the Weird Sisters, naturally)

Also... random brainstorm I -HAVE- to write down and say because if not I'll forget it and I hope someone like it. As always, tell me to stfu if I go too off the deep end ^^;;. Etymology of the world. There is nightfall. But no dayfall. Why? Well when Nightmare Moon stopped day from coming, and that battle started, it was "Day Fall" as day had indeed fallen to night. But when Celestia defeated the Nightmare and banished her to the moon, then it was "Night Fall" when night fell to the day. 1000 years pass and the event known as "Night Fall" had indeed evolved to nightfall, as night always falls to the day in legend told by ponies.

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Bramble Rose Wonderbolt

Bramble Rose

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Arcane Comics Issue 1:
A New Morning Dawns (Part 3)


Bravado sat in the food court with the Daymares, listening to them go on about the last game, and what they were planning for the next one. It wasn't so much a strategy session as a bragging session - and one that Bravado was kinda tired of.

Well. He was tired in general. The daily hoofball practice. The late-night magic practice with Doc. He was getting the hang of light, and telekinesis, and making shields, at least. Unicorn magic was ... hard. But exciting. And then there was classes, and the cleanup at the labs. And then the very, very strange funeral for Doctor Stein. An empty casket. With the Doc making commentary in his head. And in between all that, a few times where he was needed to save lives.

"Bravado? Bravado? Hey, space cadet, come back down to the stratosphere with us!"

Bravado shook his head and grinned up at Dawn Rising. "Hey, if you're going to repeat the same bragging, you can't complain if I just zone out every once in a while!"

They laughed around the table, and he shook his head, rolled his eyes, and the Daymares were going on about how awesome they were, again. He went back to polishing off his second alfalfa sandwich and started thinking about a third ...

"Geeze, you eying the sandwich mare again? You can't seriously still be hungry after all those hay fries and two sandwiches! Or you just have a crush? She the one that gave you that fancy necklace you keep wearing?"

Bravado smirked, touching the alicorn amulet around his neck. "Nah, I told you, this is an old family thing. And I dunno. Just been really hungry lately." With all the extra activity, one would imagine so. "Hey, I'm still lean, fit, and ready to go, so don't worry about me." Those cupcakes were looking awfully good, though...

"Oh, no! Check it, Bravado, it's those two eggheads again!"

Bravado's head snapped up, looked once, then ducked back down. Oh no. Not this, I don't have the energy for this. It was Hypothesis and Test Tube, coming to get food, and they were about to get into it with the Daymares again. Or rather, the Daymares were about to ... ARGH! This he did not need.

"Comon, just leave 'em alone this time..." he muttered, his stomach churning. "They're just trying to eat."

"Hey, don't worry, you big foal. You won't lose your job over a little teasing." Dusk Wing said, smirking at him. "Though why you want that job ..."

Bravado let out a soft groan and dropped his head onto the table. Why him?

"Hey, lookit the eggheads!" cried Afternoon Glide much louder. "Hey, is the food in here really up to your brainy standards? Don't you need something more scientifically balanced or something? Too many sacharines?"

"Disaccharides," Bravado mumbled under his breath.

"That's disaccharides," Hypothesis said primly. "And leave us alone. We've had a long and tiring day already."

"Oh, yeah!" Dawn Rising chimed in too. "All that lifting of paper and pens! Do you do eyelid-pushups to get ready for all that tiring reading?" The Daymares all giggled at that.

"Please, stop," Bravado groaned quietly. He wasn't even looking and he could feel the angry glares from Hypothesis and Test Tube. "We all have to eat, can't we call this a neutral zone or something?"

"Though I admit, trying to read all that stuff puts me to sleep, too!" Dusk Wing added. "How boring must you be to find THAT dull stuff interesting?"

"Well, at least we HAVE brains! At least we do work!" snapped Test Tube. "Not just brainless running around with everyone making exceptions for them cause they're good at a foal's game!"

There was a brief silence. The Daymares started to stand up, then. Oh, no. They thought Hypothesis was joining in the game. Or they were going to beat her up. And Hypothesis had been on her last nerve already. Either way, this wasn't good.

"Well, look who finally got a little nerve!" Dawn Rising said, an edge in her voice. He still couldn't tell which way this was going. "Well, let me tell you something-"

"No, let's not," Bravado pleaded. "Guys, they don't understand, this is a cultural-"

"Ease off, Bravado," Dusk Wing said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. He went silent. Again. His head down. He felt something shaking inside him. Why wasn't Doc making comment? She always made comment. But she felt ... horrified. She'd never seen him like this. Never seen him bowing under. She'd only seen him in the lab, where he had to work just as hard to prove he could keep up with the unicorns. Where his only saving grace was that his grades WERE that good. And the Daymares had always been better athletes than him. Any one of them would have made a better Morning Glory than he did. Loyalty had nothing to do with fighting criminals and monsters ...

The voices in the background were indistinct. The blood was rushing in his ears. He'd never been this scared, not when the pudding was eating him, not when he'd battled that giant kelp-thing in the bay. He felt like he was going to throw up.

"Would you all just SHUT UP?!"

Oh harmony. Had that been his voice? It had been. He stood up from the table, his forehoof thumping on it as everypony stared at him in shock.

"Yeah, woooooo, you're the all-mighty Daymares! So what?! Your only teamwork is with each other, bumping up your stats! Sure, you're good, because you don't let the rest of the team have a turn! You don't even know what I can do! How could you? You never let me show off! You never even let me get a word in edgewise! You'll never make it to the professionals, cause you don't know what it's like to be part of a real team! You're just big fish in a small pond, and when you're older, this'll all be your glory days!" He pointed at Test Tube and Hypothesis. "Them? They're just in practice now, and all their glory days are yet to come! Advancing Knowledge! Making the lives of ALL ponies better, every day, with new inventions and discoveries! They'll be winning *real* awards that actually mean something, while all your childhood trophies will only be good for dusting off and showing to visitors as you reminisce on the good old days! So STOP trying to do this with them! They'll win in the long run, even if they don't understand the game of insult tennis! They're not FROM Cloudsdale! And you don't even play it right! You've got too much of a bite to it, too of an edge! You don't CARE if it hurts them!"

Test Tube had a smug expression, and Bravado turned on him.

"And don't you get that look on your face! Congratulations, yeah! You finally stood up for yourself! Took you long enough! A lot easier to just blame your friends and make them feel miserable, huh? It's not my job to protect your feelings from getting hurt! Did you try TALKING to me to make me realize how you were feeling, instead of attacking me with your words? Did you bother thinking of how hard this is for ME to have to live with this all the time? Or is it that you're just jealous of me, cause I get better grades than you AND I'm athletic? Well, tough! I got lucky or something, who knows? Try not worrying so much about what I do, and start worrying more about what YOU do! You can't be me, you can only be you! And the best you that you can be! Which right now, I'm not laying odds on, cause I'm not feeling a whole lot of kindness from your end!"

Then he turned back to the Daymares. "Yeah, that's right! I'm an Egghead! I'm the biggest Egghead of all the Eggheads! So stop trying to find me a new job! I LIKE my job! Doctor Stein was a brilliant, wonderful mare whose only goal in life was to HELP ponies! To help EVERYpony! She was a genius, and she sacrificed her whole life! Not just to save the others in that lab, but for decades before, she spent every day in the lab, lonely nights in the lab, just trying to pursue her dream of a better world! Not for recognition, not even for a pat on the back, but just because she believed in her dreams! That's what I call a hero! And I want to be more like her! Being her assistant was an INCREDIBLE honor! The finest honor ever bestowed on me! So stop insulting her every time you belittle my job! She's more of a mare than you will EVER be! Do you know why I wear this pendant everywhere?" He touched the alicorn amulet. "Because she left it to me! She died, and left this to me, and I can only HOPE to be half the scientist, and half the Egghead, and half the hero that she was!"

Bravado stood there, quivering, shocked with himself, and the rage finally burning off. Harmony in Horse Apples, he was under a lot of stress. He suddenly realized tears were running down his face. Were any of them ever going to speak to him again? Oh, who cared? This was what Doc wanted to help? He turned and stamped off, quickly, before anypony could say anything more and set him off. He wasn't sure if he'd explode on them again or just break down crying.

B... Bravado? What's wrong? What's going on? Is that really how you see me? Why are you crying? Bravado, come on, it's all right!

He turned a few blind corners, all the noise lost in a rush of blood in his ears, the halls wavering before him. He found an empty classroom, burst into it, and fell into a pillowed seat with his face in his forehooves.

Oh, Doc, I'm sorry I couldn't save you. No matter how many lives I save, I'll never be able to save you. You would have made a better Morning Glory than I ever will. You deserve it. You worked for it. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

For the first time since the lab explosion, since the funeral, he cried for Doc, even while she was there in his head, trying to comfort him. The sobs wracked him, and he didn't hear the door opening and closing again, and barely registered it when he felt the touches on his shoulder, and then the two mares were hugging him, holding him. Hypothesis and Dawn Rising. Together. Comforting him.

"It's OK, Bravado," Dawn said softly. "It'll be all right."

"No it won't," he mumbled through the sobs.

"No, it won't," Hypothesis agreed, "but the pain will ease. You know how I got my cutie mark? My mom was in the hospital. And the doctors saved her life. And I realized that somepony had to invent that medicine. I wanted to do that. I know how you feel... that's when I realized I wanted to invent those medicines." She squeezed him tighter. "Doctor Stein was a great mare, it's all right for you to be hurt that she's gone."

"Besides," Dawn said softly, "She's not fully gone. She's still there in you."

How in Tartarus did she know that?!

"My mom ... wasn't saved in the hospital." Dawn glanced at Hypothesis, then looked back down to Bravado. "But that Doc? She's in you every time you do an some Egghead experiment she taught you. Every time you hold up those test tubes and fiddle the dials and turn on those crackling lightning machines and whatever you brains do in there. I dunno what discoveries she made, but when other ponies use those discoveries, and their lives are made better, she'll still be there. After everypony's forgotten her name, she'll still live on after that, just because the breezes she made with her life will never fully disappear ... they'll just feed into other breezes that will turn into great winds that change the world." Dawn had this note in her voice like she was trying to remember just how someone else had said this ... then shook her head. "Bah. Nevermind, that never helped me, either. Look, I'm not some poet type. I'll just say this straight. My mom died, and it hurt. It hurt a lot, and for a long time, and it never really goes away. But eventually it'll ease up enough that you can remember all the good parts, and the good things she taught you. It stinks, and that's all there is to it, but you'll get through it."

Bravado let out a little helpless sound between a laugh and a sob, and took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry," he sighed. "Horse apples, what a scene I just made... I'm such a jerk."

The two mares snorted and Dawn smacked her forehoof into his shoulder. "Oh, stop that. No turning that on yourself. That's my job."

Hypothesis nodded. "I'm sorry, too. That wasn't fair of us, either. You'll have to teach me the rules of this ... 'insult tennis'. She turned her head towards Dawn and ventured, "Cause apparantly this one's not very good at it?" she said uncertainly.

Dawn snickered. "Oh, harmony. That won't do at all. You need to have a little more confidence behind it than that." Then she sighed. "Look, I'm sorry if I ... no. I'm sorry that I did go too far. Maybe ... maybe if there were more ponies like you in the world, my mom wouldn't have died, right? So whatever I end up saying in the future ... you keep on being an Egghead, all right?"

Hypothesis looked insanely proud of herself, and like she had no idea what to do with this. Bravado couldn't blame her - he wanted to cry again, but for a totally different reason. "Good. Great. Just what we need. You two teaming up on me," he laughed, only a little awkwardly. They looked relieved.

Then that twinge happened in his stomach, and it had nothing to do with feeling sick with worry and nervousness. Trouble.

Not NOW!

He gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and let it out. "Look, I'm going to head back to my dorm room. I need some time alone. Hype, could you take notes for me in class? I ... don't think I'll be able to focus."

Hypothesis nodded, patted his shoulder. "Gotcha covered."

"Dawn, see you lot at practice tonight, probably. But if not... cover for me there, too?"

"Yeah, whatever. You know Coach doesn't give a anypony a break."

They rolled their eyes in joined frustration, and Bravado forced himself to get to his feet. His stomach twinged again, and the tingle ran out to every extremity. He could feel the magic building up inside him. Time to leave, NOW.

He walked away. Then he trotted. Then he was galloping out the front door, and around the corner. There was a plume of smoke in the distance.

Well, at least that'll make it easy for us to find, right, Doc?

These criminals, Bravado. I swear. So rude. No consideration for what we heroes might be going through.

Bravado hurried to a little grove of trees that were a convenient blind spot, and pulled the alicorn amulet from around his neck and held it up high. It glinted in a slim beam of sunlight shining down through the trees.

"For Loyalty!" he cried, "for Justice! And for Equestria!"

The light glinting from the amulet shone brightly, wrapped around him. He floated up off of the ground, turning slowly in the air, as bands of light wrapped around his form. He swelled, growing a little bigger, his form growing feminine. Her wings flared to an impressive wingspan, she turned a half-rotation, and a light shone from her forehead, then swelled out to a long horn. Another half-rotation, and a light shone from her flank, settling in as the rising-sun cutie mark of Morning Glory. The amulet disappeared from her hoof, then, and the light at her horn spread out to cover her head in the distinctive helm. The light settled around her chest, formed into a breastplate. Around her hooves, forming into the distinctive boots. Along her flanks, turning into the skirts of her uniform. And then the rising sun cutie mark flashed, and settled into the center of the breastplate, before Morning Glory settled back down to the ground, her wings spread, her head low, and a fierce, ready grin on her face.

"Well," said Morning Glory. "Let's not be rude and keep them waiting." Her wings flapped once, shooting her high up into the sky, and then darted across town at speeds faster than any pegasus could keep up with, heading for that plume of smoke.

Fin

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Kirby Krackle Equestrian

Kirby Krackle

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Forgive me for posting out of turn, but I felt like I needed to change the scenery now that Glory has robbed an instrument of its right to become a priceless antique. I also would have gotten this up sooner, but I needed to figure out the flavor of the situation. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Initiative order.

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Blueblood Alicorn

Blueblood

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OK, so if I'm reading this right, Pagemaster failed both a Will and a Fortitude save, so he's both panicked and fatigued? Makes perfect sense, just want to be sure.

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Bramble Rose Wonderbolt

Bramble Rose

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Yeah, and howcome Glory gets more debuffs than anypony else? I don't see Pagemaster's horn getting iced up! Or Captain Nightguard's wings! Or the Hobo Ronin's ... um ... feet?

I joke. it's the same reason there's always a tank for Superman to waste the fight punching. So that everyone else can do stuff, too.

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