“You’ve what?!”

Twilight flinches, her ears flattening against her head. “Rainbow Dash, this is a library. Please quiet down.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus groans before speaking in an exaggeratedly quiet whisper. “You’ve what?”

The purple alicorn rolls her eyes, turning back to the open tome in front of her on the table. “I’ve never read a comic book. So what?”

“But… you’re, like, the ultimate bookworm!” Rainbow throws her hooves in the air, hovering back and forth in the air around her friend the way a frustrated parent would walk around their child. “You’ve read everything!”

“Clearly not,” Twilight remarks. “Comics can barely even be considered ‘books’. A book has a story that makes sense, not just pictures of buff stallions and overused onomatopoeias.”

The pegasus pauses for a moment before she lands with a sigh. “Look, I don’t know who you’ve been hearing from, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a comic with monkeys in it. And what makes you think comics don’t have stories?”

“Are you telling me they do?” Twilight asks with a raised eyebrow. “Spike’s tried telling me about the ones he reads. I didn’t understand a word of the silly thing.”

Rainbow stares at her for a few seconds before narrowing her eyes. “So when you don’t understand a comic book, it’s ‘silly’. But when I don’t understand those theoretical-whatever things you keep talking about, it’s ‘complex’?”

The alicorn bites her tongue. She was being a little hypocritical. “Okay… but remember when we were sucked into that Power Ponies comic? Did you understand what was going on?”

“Uh, duh? The Power Ponies were fighting to stop the Mane-iac.”

“Pretty simple plot, don’t you think?” Twilight glances back at her book, realizes she won’t be getting time to read it while her friend is around, and puts a bookmark in before shutting it. “Bad guy wants to take over the world. Good guys stop them. The end.”

“Isn’t that, like, twenty percent of our lives?” Rainbow remarks.

“Irrelevant!” The purple mare sighs. “Aside from Spike, everypony I’ve ever seen reading a comic book has done so as a distraction to keep from focusing more on their schoolwork. Cheerilee even told me a while ago that she’s caught three students reading them in class since the start of the school year!”

The pegasus raises an eyebrow. “I think just three cases over the course of six months isn’t anything to worry about.”

“Why are we even arguing about this?” Twilight puts a hoof to her forehead. “Can we just drop it? I don’t want to read comic books. Why is that a problem?”

Just as she’s about to give up, something occurs to Rainbow. A mischievous smirk crosses her muzzle, Twilight’s choice of words sounding just a bit familiar to her. “Because didn’t I say the same thing about Daring Do?”

Twilight blinks. “...what does that have to do with-”

“You got me into it, Twi!” Rainbow points a hoof at her, almost accusingly. “I didn’t want to read, and I kept refusing, but when I gave in, I loved it! How do you know the same won’t happen with you and comic books?”

Her friend pauses, holding back the first response that comes to mind (something along the lines of how ‘it isn’t the same’), as she thinks on this. Eventually, she sighs. “Okay, you might be right...”

Rainbow pumps her hoof victoriously. “Booyah! So you’ll at least try it?”

“...fine. But!” Twilight gives her a look before her reply can sink in. “If I don’t like it, I don’t want you to bug me about comic books ever again. Deal?”

The pegasus smirks and spits on her hoof, holding it out. “Deal!”

Twilight cringes at the glob of saliva on the offered hoof. “...er, we can skip that step.”

Getting back from his usual errands around town, Spike nudges the door to the library open, several letters in claw. “Mail, Twilight!”

The alicorn looks up from her book and smiles. “Thanks, Spike. Just leave it on the table for now, okay?”

He nods, depositing the letters there. “Anything else you need before I go help Rarity?”

She bites her lip. “Uh… actually, there is.” Despite having thought about how to go about this ever since Rainbow Dash left, she still feels surprisingly awkward making such a request. “You don’t happen to have any… comics I could borrow, do you?”

The dragon pauses, scratching his head. “Huh… I didn’t think you were interested in them...”

She sighs. “Rainbow and I had a debate, and we agreed that I would give them a try before making any assumptions about them.”

“You mean you insulted them, she shot down your arguments, and you finally gave in to make her go away?” Spike deadpans.

“...so do you have any?” She grins sheepishly.

The dragon sighs before thinking. “Well… not that many first issues that are still in good condition… and I don’t think you’d want anything to do with Power Ponies after what happened last time.”

“You’d be right,” she says with a small grumble.

“Still, a superhero comic might be a good place to start.” He rubs his chin before snapping his claws, an idea coming to him. He jogs up the stairs and quickly returns, one of the thin paperback books clenched in one hand. “How about Mishmash?”

Twilight raises an eyebrow. “Mish-what?”

“Mishmash! The first issue just came out two weeks ago!” He holds the comic up for her to see.

The alicorn curiously takes it in her magic and glances at the cover. A feminine unicorn in an identity-concealing costume stares back. Her whole body is clothed in purple spandex that reminds her vaguely of the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well incident from a while back; however, this outfit seems to be in two pieces, with an odd belt around her midsection and the back half being a lighter shade than the front. A dark blue pattern of two lightning bolts crossing is emblazoned on her chest, a lighter blue “MM” in the centre. Separate from the body part of her costume is a black balaclava with goggles over the eyes, and a similarly black cape flowing from her neck that barely reaches her flanks.

“...was she named after that thrown-together costume?” Twilight snarks.

Spike sighs. “Don’t judge a book by its cover, Twilight. Even if it’s a comic book.”

“...touché, Spike.” She giggles at the irony of her frequently-spouted advice being used against her. “I’ll give it a try, then.”

“Great!” He smiles before turning to the door. “Hope you like it!” With a wave, he runs off to help his longtime crush.

Chuckling playfully at his eagerness, Twilight turns her attention back to the book. Now focusing on something other than the mare herself, she gets a look at the background. Rather than an exploding building or dark alley like she imagined, the environment looks… almost peaceful. Like Ponyville at nighttime, but just ominous enough that she can tell the mare in the middle isn’t going to have an easy time. Aside from the comic name in big text across the top (“Mishmash: Equestria’s Greatest Superpony!”), followed by the issue title (“The Origin of Mishmash!”), there’s also a little note in the bottom-left corner.

“‘Equestria needs a hero, and only one mare is willing to risk her life to become that hero! Meet Mishmash now!’” Twilight reads out loud, finding herself already curious just from that little synopsis.

Not hesitating a moment longer - whether out of actual excitement, or simply wanting to get it over with quickly, even she wasn’t quite sure - she opens to the first page.