I was physically, metaphysically, and emotionally exhausted. I had spent the last few hours charging the dozens of plants I had purchased with power before noting down the effects in my note book. Lisa had helped me at first, but at about the time we discovered that I could also charge vegetable oil with my 'magic' she said she was starting to get a headache. After that, she resigned herself to writing things down for me so I don't have to waste any more magic than I already had to lifting the pen and writing.

It was kind of funny how the term 'magic' grew on me. And like Armsmaster had said, it wasn't like any sort of energy he had seen before, and judging from the way it let me power flowers it didn't work like energy either.

Thinking back, I found myself amused at the memory of Lisa's expression when I came back into the room as a small pony. She must have put it together while I was gone, but she still seemed shocked. Even swore a little.

I took that amusement and latched into a strawberry we had not charged, pouring the emotion into it and once again leaving myself drained. Each plant required me to dig for a different emotion and each time I felt a little more and more worn down. What was worse was that I had to test the effects of each without knowing beforehand what I was getting into. It led to some awkward moments when I would take a bite of one and the effects were a little more than comfortable. Lisa had a field day when we found out Lilac makes someone more truthful

I sighed and flopped down on the floor, causing Lisa to look away from what she was doing. Currently, she was standing at the stove with the notebook of notes and several plants I had already charged. She plucked a dandelion from the mass of flowers around her before crushing it up in a bowl. After several moments, she decided it was crushed enough and added it to the pot she was cooking with. I watched her curiously as she stirred it then sampled it with a spoon. She made a sort of 'not bad' expression before putting the spoon down and pouring the contents out into a glass.

She brought it over to me and set it down on the floor where I had collapsed. I eyed it curiously.

"What's in it?" I asked her.

"Orange peels, olive oil, and dandelions." She listed. "Figured you could use a pick me up." I smiled back at her and grabbed the glass with my hoof, my not-finger's assisting. Lisa went wide eyed when she saw that.

"The hell?" She murmured to herself as she watched my hoof hold the glass without fingers. I smirked at her and lifted the concoction to my lips.

Orange peels had to be charged with a sense of growth and the dandelion with determination, both gave a similar effect of increasing stamina and energy. The olive oil as far as we could tell simply increased the effects of whatever it was mixed with. Between the three of them, I could feel physical energy flowing through my veins and adrenalin kicking in.

Not to mention how absolutely amazing it tasted! The orange peel and dandelions both had really strong, citrusy flavours and the olive oil was a more subtle bitter flavour. But overall it seemed more fruity than anything.

After I chugged down the glass I felt ready to get back at it, but I was still tired in all the other ways so it would have to wait. I checked the clock, it was about eight. My dad phoned ahead and told me he would be working late tonight, which gave me a chance to warn him about our unwanted house guest. There would be more discussion on that later, but for now I was in the clear.

"Lisa," I began. "I'm going to head out for the night, I'm going to call New Wave and get some backup. Do you think you could start mixing all of these together?" I pushed forward the blueberries and daffodils I had charged. I didn't know what they did, eating them hadn't revealed anything to me. But I was fairly sure they could be combined because they used the same emotion to charge them. Love.

Not the romantic kind of love, thankfully because I simply didn't have the experiences to draw from on that front. But it seemed the kind of love you feel for a close friend or a father would work. And so they were all charged.

Lisa raised an eyebrow at them and then me. "Are you sure," she asked. "They might all turn out to be useless."

I shook my head. "They won't." Being a cartoon horse unable to swear meant I followed certain cartoon aspects. Following that logic, nothing I charged with 'the power of love' so to speak was going to be useless. Cliche in all the right ways, but not useless.

"Now," I said, jerking my head at the phone on the wall. "You think you could bring that down here?"

Calling New Wave was a little awkward, as it wasn't like I had any of their numbers. Instead I called their help line again and awkwardly got Victoria on the phone. Apparently she was actually going on patrol with one of the Wards tonight. After a few minutes, we scheduled a meeting place near the Medhall building. Being one of the taller structures in the bay is made for an easy landmark.

I showed up about an hour in a half early. We'd meet at ten and patrol the area for another hour in a half, then the Ward Glory Girl forgot to mention would have to head back and do the night's report before going home. Got to have enough rest for school in the morning I guess.

While I waited I practiced using my wings. For the most part, I was leaping from building to building, stretching my wings out for a short glide or giving them a quick flap to gain a few more moments of air time. As it turned out, using my wings had been just like using my legs. I just had to let them do what felt natural and try not to think about how I was moving them too much.

After about fifteen minutes I chanced legitimate flying, staying close to the roof tops in case I needed to make a quick landing. Somewhat surprisingly, taking off was rather easy. Even staying in the air was easy, so long as I stuck to a straight line and don't try to actually steer. Landing though, was another story.

The first time I wasn't holding my legs right and I went face first into some store's roof almost immediately. After brushing myself off and trying again, I managed to figure out how to circle in the air before going in for my landing. I got my feet on the ground that time, but I wasn't prepared for the momentum to carry me. And once again, I ended up face first on a roof top, only the owner had decided to cover their entire roof with gravel for whatever reason.

After managing to make a wobbling landing on my third try, I decided to take a break for a few minutes. I have to do some more practising just so I don't look like an idiot when the other two show up, but for now I had gravel dust in my coat and my feathers were sticking out at odd angles.

I walked up the centre of the roof and focused my magic on my fur. I was still a little worn out from my experiments with Lisa earlier, but I had recovered for the most part. From what I could tell, my magic returned at about the same pace no matter how much or how hard I used it. I still wasn't sure how fast that pace was, but it seemed that after a good hour of rest I would be mostly fine.

It took a few tries to find a way to clean my coat with my magic, but once I got started it was relatively easy. I got it down enough that I could just flash my magic a little and anything I didn't want on me was forced away.

My feathers took a little more work. I stretched my wings out as far as they would go, revealing a rather impressive wingspan, and attempted to grab each feather individually with my telekinesis. No such luck.

About ten minutes later I found another quick and easy use of my magic that straightened and even plucked a few stray feathers for me, much to my satisfaction.

I found it odd, they way my magic worked. In a raw form, just letting it flow from my horn uncontrolled, spread it out over a wide area where I could intuitively feel it and even still control it to some degree. But certain things, like charging a plant, lifting an object, summoning my shield, I wasn't giving the magic shape like I first thought I was. I couldn't quite tell what was happening but I did have a feeling. It felt like on some level the magic was being woven into some sort of pre-made mold. And each time I called up on my shield I wasn't making a new one, instead I was simply projecting magic through that mold.

Oh, what the heck, if I'm already calling my energy magic might as well call these molds what they were. Spells.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of men shouting not that far from where I was. I rose on all four hoof and faced that direction, my wings flaring outward instinctively.

Fly in and show them your grace, let them know who you are.

I decided that stealth would be the best way to approach this situation. No sense to alerting them to my presence before they needed to know. However, I did pick up a good number of rocks from the gravel across the one roof nearby. I idly noted I could pick up a few more than usual, about forty.

Doing my best to not make a sound, I flew across the way and landed as gently as I could manage on top of the nearby building. My rocks came a moment later, staying slightly behind me. I let them fall on the roof so the glow of my horn didn't give away my position. Then I slowly moved to the edge of the roof and peeked into the alley below.

There were seven gang members with colours I didn't recognize, purple and black. Two of them were on the ground, one with a crossbow bolt in his leg and the other with one in his shoulder. Between the other five, three were standing watch, each holding a sawed off shotgun, while two attempted to drag their injured gang members to safety. What they were watching for seemed to not be there anymore.

That was, until I suddenly saw a misty apparition that looked like someone dressed in all black dive out of a wall and fire a crossbow at one of them before tucking into a roll and leaping through another wall.

I wasn't sure if I should get involved just yet. The way the apparition was dressed they could have very well been a villain, and even if they were a hero seeing a cartoon horse spring into action like that would distract them and only make things worse. However, I was reminded just last night when Armsmaster offhandedly mentioned a vigilante that liked using crossbows.

There were too many things going on, better to wait and watch.

One of the gang members cried out with a rather feminine scream and dropped to the ground, the shaft of an arrow protruding from their gut.

"Breaker!" One of the still standing gang members shouted. "Plan Ghost!" On cue, the other gang members pulled out gas masks while simultaneously dropping smoke bombs. Within a few seconds, the smoke had become so thick that I had lost sight of the gang members. The gas was heavy enough that it hung in a thick cloud in the alley, not rising higher than a single story.

I was about to see what I could do to clear the smoke when it suddenly caught fire. Rapidly, the flame spread to all of the gas and burned it away in a few seconds, leaving scorched walls and blackened concrete in its wake.

Well, that was interesting.

The gang members were gone, save for the one with his leg shot through. He had been pulled to the other end of the alley and currently have a crossbow held to his head.

I felt a little conflicted for a moment. Just last night I had done more than threaten someone with deadly force, I had out right used it on two people. Sure, both lived and I was sort of acquaintances with one now, but I had done exactly what this shadowy figure had been doing only I carried through.

On the other hoof, those were villains. Hookwolf had killed people before and was almost more than likely bound for the Birdcage. Rune might not have killed anyone, but she had done her fair share of gang work for the Empire. This was a normal man from a gang that as far as I was aware, hasn't done anything major just yet.

But I think what got me the most was that I did all of that in defense of others and of myself. These people were in small number, only had human abilities, and weren't of any threat to this shadow figure. And if what Armsmaster said was true, the cape would gladly put another bolt through this guy. I wasn't going to let that happen.

Grabbing all of my rocks, I jumped off the roof with a flourish of my wings and glided swiftly towards her. I would have said something to announce my presence, but I was too busy focusing on making sure I landed correctly. Instead, I had all of my rocks orbiting me like planets orbit the sun. Some I had going around me from left to right, some going the other way. I had some going up at an angle and coming back down, and so on. The light from my horn and rocks caught the apparitions attention.

"What the fuck!" A decidedly female voice exclaimed. I noticed she wasn't in a shadow form anymore, but that was all I had time to notice as she lifted up her crossbow and fired at me.

Almost instantly I dropped two rocks and grabbed the arrow out of the air. Compared to a bullet, it was pretty easy. And while I didn't think I could catch a bullet, an arrow was much larger and much slower.

I had brought it to a halt just a few inches from my face. Not so close it would be uncomfortable, but close enough that I would be able to examine it with the light of my horn. And because of that, I was able to make out the triangular hunting tip of the arrow.

I turned the arrow around and calmly floated it back to its owner.

"You dropped this," I said.

"What the fuck are you?" The cape asked as she pointed her second crossbow at me. I doubted it would do much more than the first one.

"My name is Nova," I told her. "A hero. Who are you?"

"None of your fucking business." She spat. "Now, why the hell are you some stupid ass pony?" I tilted my head to look at her curiously. I could say I really didn't have a choice in the matter, that my power required me to be one. But I didn't see why I should have to, particularly given that my appearance seemed to annoy her.

So with a little bit of smugness in my voice, I said, "Because it was cute."

I got the distinct impression her face twitched under the mask.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

I shrugged it off. "I don't know, you've made some pretty dumb choices."

"What the hell do you know?" She growled at me. I glanced down at the gang member who was trying to crawl away quietly without getting noticed.

"I know you've hurt a lot of gang members," I told her. "And now the Protectorate is coming for you. And if you keep hurting these people, they will catch you."

"Fuck them!" She spat. "They don't get anything done anyway. Not the way they play nice. You see these guys?" She pointed her crossbow at the injured gang member for a moment causing him to freeze. "Don't you think it is strange how quickly they popped up? How they made their move before even the ABB had? It was almost like they waiting for this, and I want to know why."

"And if you kill someone on accident while you 'interrogate them'?"

"Then screw 'em! No one gives a shit about these low lives."

"The Protectorate will." I countered. "And then they'll bring you in."

She was about to answer with something when she looked up and paused. I followed her gaze and saw the unmistakable white costume of Glory Girl. As she descended, I saw Clockblocker hanging on her back.

I smiled up at them and turned back to the shadow cape, but she was already gone.