Chapter 1 - Mare Do Well?
It seems that Equestria is finally at peace, Since throughout the year there's been a lot of havoc. Between Night Mare Moon escaping the moon, to Trixie's fans luring Ursa-Minors to Ponyville. But can the peace really last?
"Come on, Twilight. All I'm saying is that if you just put together some sort of telekenisis machine together with your magic, you can truly make me do sonic rainbooms without even going to top speed!
" Rainbow Dash said. In response to this, of course, Twilight wasn't pleased by Rainbow's ignorance over computer programming, magic, and engineering.. But as a friend, she simply used an answer very similiar to the last one, ignoring the building annoyance in her gut. "Rainbow, I've told you before. I'm an expert in magic and simple logic over physics. Not computer programm-" Rainbow Dash cut off Twilight from finishing the sentance by swiftly saying "Twilight Sparkle, Everyone knows that magic can accomplish anything!" Twilight's response was fairly flat, due to being tired of Rainbow Dash's ignorance. But it had a bit of spark to it, Twilight being a bit amused from the half-joke Rainbow made.
"I thought I was the expert on magic here." "Twilight, are you even serious about this? I'm telling you this is a really good idea!"
Twilight was about to respond when all of a sudden the Mysterious Mare Do Well swooped overhead, being chased by a sillhoutte going to fast to identify. "What in Celestia's name was that!?" "Rainbow... I think that was Mare Do Well.. Like, the one I and the others pretended to be!" "That's impossible, Twilight!"
And that's when it happened.
-BOOOOOOOOM!!!-
"Hoy apples!!!" yelled Rainbowdash, "Did you see that?" BASH! Something's exploded! we gotta find cover! That debree's flying everywhere! And everywhere includes here-" -BAM! "ARGH! That was too close! Come on Twilight!!!" BOOM!
~~~~~-=Meanwhile, 2 hours earlier...=-~~~~~
"Finally. You're trapped now. You can't escape this time, Mare Do Warp." "Mare Do Warp? What a silly nickname. Did you make it for me?"added Mare Do Warp. "Trapped by a bounty hunter and you still make jokes. I honestly can't understand you." "Ha ha... I understand myself perfectly, Anyways; you think you've finally done me in, Darklight?" snapped Mare Do Warp...
Darklight was a pegasus pony with dark grey skin, while his mane was like twilight's except near white, one stripe bright gray the other flat gray. Blue eyes that have seen too much, with a solar eclipse cutiemark, which has been cut badly near the edge of it, leaving a scar and thus making it a not-so-cutiemark. Darklight moved his left hindleg back a bit, along with his left frontleg, and then to keep that uneven setup in the front, he slowly pushed both frontlegs forwards, tilting his torso and head downwards, while slightly uprising his posterior and tail. Mare Do Warp hesitated, and then recognised that combat stance. []火焰衝[/] or, in English, Flame Punch. It's a kind of Karate that is designed-not necessarily for defense-but to deal damage. Designed by some of the most aggressive warriors in all of equestria, who were, actually, quite religious... Flame punch consists of 10 moves, and 2 stances. Mare do warp only knew 5 of the moves and both of the two stances. Celestian Pounce, a deadly attack stance, Lunari stone, A defensive stance, that doesn't do much good, but is easy to get into. Darklight was currently in the Celestian Pounce stance. Half-suprisingly, Celestian pounce, although can be used for a pouncing move-Celestia's rage-the Celestian pounce can also be used to truly deal a Flame Punch. which of course, most predictably, is the main attack. Celestia's rage or Flame punch, that was what Mare Do Warp was expecting. But she had her doubts, Knowing that a truly cunning pony would know to not be obvious in the art of combat.
All of a sudden, Darklight's left front-hoof moved up and back as if Darklight was reeling back and then forwards to deal the deadly Flame Punch, Quickly, Mare Do Warp dodged, leading to the deceptive trick played by Darklight to work. Quickly, Darklight reeled back as if he was uncontrollably continuing the punch, but then he quickly pounced forwards when most of his weight was on his hind-legs. "Shifting energy" is what they call it. A side affect from reeling back for a punch... Or a pounce. Mare Do Warp was barely suprised by this and entered the same stance Darklight was in, and then quickly did a weaker flame punch they call Match Fist, which is faster but less powerfull, and deliberately blunt to stop a pounce without dealing too much damage -- or start a stagger backwards.
Darklight was intercepted by Mare Do Warp's right hoof, quickly twisting midair to absorb-rather then take-most of the damage from the attack, landing on his hooves he was caught off guard by Mare Do Warp's charging attack while he was getting out of the un-counterable dissyness a Match Fist can deal. Cracker's Blade is the move Mare Do Warp used, an attack designed to paralyze the foe by sort of creating a bruise by half-impaling the victim with the tip of the attacker's hoof, where it is sharpest, though it can't just hit anywhere. It MUST, on all accounts, MUST hit the lower middle of a pegasus-pony's neck in order to work. A ground ponie's weak spot for this attack is right where the neck connects to the torso and shoulders, while a unicorn-pony's is where the neck connects to the head - Where the air pipe would be at it's most vulnerable for a ground pony - but there is a move that involves the destruction of a pony's air pipe connecting to the pony's lungs.
Mare Do Warp lashed out, and right before she hit, Darklight barely managed to counter with Lunari Stone. Dark cringed in pain from Mare Do Warp's attack, as noted earlier, This is an art of attack. Not defense. But he wasn't fully paralyzed.. though the attack slowed him. Badly. Mare Do Warp jumped over him quickly, and fled through a window. After a few seconds of rest to lose the paralyzation, Darklight got up and went after Mare Do Warp.
~~~~~+=Back to current time...=+~~~~~
BOOOOSH!!!"-AARGH!" "Rainbow!"
"I swear to Celestia, that's the last time Mare Do Warp's escaping me... But, I should help clean up the mess caused by Mare Do Warp blowing up this building..."
"...But of course, I should look out for ponies who have been hit by debree."
"Urgh! Come.. on.. you.. stupid.. debree.. ARGH! It won't budge! Somepony, Anypony, help!"
"Hmm.. this seems to be a real hotspot for landing debree. Wait, what's that?"
Darklight spotted a pony waving in the air as if she needed help, which would make sense being in a world like the nether due to being so close to the explosion...
Instinctively, Darklight dove in to help.
"Are you okay?" "No! Yes! I mean, my friend! Help me move this debree!"
Darklight joined in with Twilight to try and tip over the debree, though Darklight did not know that Rainbow Dash was under it.. yet.
"Oh my Celestia, there's a pony under here!" "Yeah Sherlock Whooves. that's why I needed you to help!"
"I'll get her to the hospital.. Can you keep looking out for ponies stuck under debree?"
"Sure thing." Immediatly, Darklight picked up rainbowdrash by the stomach-carefully-and started flying. Many ground ponies and unicorn ponies don't know why they can't just put items on their backs, but pegasus ponies know why; it would compromise their wings.
"There! The hospital!" Darklight swooped down almost as fast as he could. Any faster, and the gravitational shift from landing would hurt Rainbow Dash further.
"Uuurngh..." "We're losing her! Come on, get her heart beating!" "No, not like that. That would injure her further!" "Aargh..." "Screw your thoughts! We have to take the risk!" "Charging!" "Ready!" "Go!" Zap. "Stay with me darn it!" Zap ."Come on..." Zap.
"Uuuhnn..." "My head..." Rainbow Dash woke up, though, of course, the last thing she remembered was half of a roof falling on her, so she really had no idea where she was... "Finally, you're awake!" "Twi... Twilight? Where are we?" "The hospital," added Twilight. Darklight walked in, though Rainbow Dash had no idea who the heck he was.
"Is she awake yet?" "Yeah, I'm awake. But a real question is... Who the heck are you?" "Darklight. Pleasure meeting you." "Now, I have a few questions. And answers, I'm sure you're both curious about what you saw." "First off, What did you see?"
"We saw a pegasus pony chasing after Mare Do Well... even though partially, I AM Mare Do Well." said Twilight. "That was not Mare Do Well." "Of course it was...! Well... actually..." "It was a different pony altogether, and as long as she's out there Ponyville will be a living nightmare, and Mare Do Well's reputation will go through the floor." "So what do we do?" "Catch the fake, of course." "Do you know who is behind this?" "No, I only know that isn't the real Mare Do Warp. I don't know the mare behind the mask." "Hmm..." "We should set a trap!" said Rainbow. "Wait, You've never told me your names." "I'm Rainbow Dash." "And I'm Twilight Sparkle." "Hmm. Well, anyways, Mare Do Well is not one to fall for traps. We need to find her and corner her. Then we must defeat her... which I have failed many times. Incase you didn't see the scar on my cutiemark, that's from one of the battles... She had a knife."
"Okay, the plan's simple. Split up, Find the fake, call for backup, done!" "No, you don't wanna be talking into a phone while you have her in a corner. Unless you want her to paralyze you and flee." "..." "We have to stick together." Added Darklight. "That's not very efficient. but it would work I geuss." Said Twilight. "But wait, Rainbow's wing can't fly." "That's a huge problem, since she's the only other airborne pony in this group. We should get more ponies to help." "Alright."
"So, you're Soarin and Spitfire?" "Yeah... Who are you?" "Darklight. I need help, there's been a pony causing havoc while being duisgized as the Mysterious Mare Do Well. Ponyville's a living nightmare, now. And we need help" "Okay." They said in unison.
"Applejack, There's a fake Mare Do Well creating chaos, we need help fighting her!"
"I'll help." "Spike, you need to look for that old spell tome that gives you fake wings."
"Okay, Twilight."
"The Wonderbolts? You got the Wonderbolts to help?" "Yes, he did."added Spitfire.
"We'd be happy to help clean up a criminal." said Spitfire "Same here, y'all." "Okay, so here's the plan. We start searching for her and when she shows her mask anywhere, we pursue." "Okay."
"Twilight, I found the spell tome." "Thanks spike. Let's see..." "Okay, I think I've figured it out. Applejack, stay perfectly still." "Okay sugarcube." said Applejack.
Twilight's horn started to glow faintly, then fairly, then highly, and Twilight finally unleashed the built energy onto Applejack. All of a sudden, Applejack grew translucent butterfly-wings. "Perfect. Now, on myself." And the process repeated.
Twilight also grew the butterfly-wings. "Okay, Let's go." said Darklight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's note: Sorry guys, I sort of rushed this chapter which is why it's so short. I'll try making the next few longer.
Chapter 2 - Mare's Mischeif
They started flying outside, then into the sky, looking around for Mare Do Warp.
"There! A fire!" shouted Applejack. "Spitfire, on me! Saurin, with Applejack and Twilight!" A simple military order, Darklight always thought that the military used a great system for commands, but they were suprised this pony was so quick and expertised with it. Although they still knew their objectives.
Applejack, Saurin, and Twilight didn't go too far apart - but they went to the west to try to cover the side. Meanwhile, Darklight recognized the strategy and did the same, but to the east with Spitfire. There were very little amounts of places to run now, since it wasn't a particular hotspot for tourism, so there weren't many ways through at the start.
Mare Do Warp was spotted by Spitfire, and Twilight was spotted by Mare Do Warp. In reaction to Twilight's presence, and then almost immediatly noticing Applejack and Saurin with them. She started fleeing, But she DID NOT see Spitfire or Darklight.
"Don't let her get away!" Shouted Applejack. "Don't worry, I'm not that stupid!" shouted Saurin. Saurin was fairly clumsy on the ground, and a tad silly. But in the air, he's a male Rainbow Dash. Minus the cockyness. Meanwhile, Twilight was swooping down towards Mare Do Warp, leading her right to Spitfire and Darklight. The two did not do anything except fly down low, to maintain the unexpected stealth. All of a sudden, Spitfire jumped out and succesfully pounced Mare Do Warp, but the warped mare was already at top running speed - and thus triggered a gigantic stumble with Spitfire entangled. Mare Do Warp jumped out of the tumbling sequence and barely managed to land on her own four hooves.
Spitfire knew that in hand to hand, Darklight was the best one here: "Now Darklight!"
Immediatly, without hesitation or lack of hearing, Dark leaped out, landed and went into a Celestia's Rage stance. Immediatly, Lashing out with a Match fist landing just below the target -- On the windpipe of Mare Do Warp. This did not paralyze her, but truly did hurt her. It temporarily made it hard to breathe, and in this state she was not capable of fleeing nor fighting. She couldn't give up though, that would be the end... She had to try to fight. No matter how weak, it was her only chance to get away. She started staggering into a Celestia's Rage stance... only to be met with a Flame punch, then furthermore after Applejack landed, two back hooves to the side.
Mare Do Warp couldn't take it anymore. She fell on her good side, and blacked out.
The other ponies knew that their job was done here, and that Fireponies would hose down the fire.
Mare Do Warp woke up in a chair welded to the ground, and after the groggy haze wore off, she noticed that her legs were all strapped onto the chair by metal bars.
Mare Do Warp immediatly started struggling the second her body gave her the slightest bit of strength. "Let... me... out... Urngh...!" Murmured Mare Do Warp.
...No answer.
Mare Do Warp examined the room. Old, dark and damp concrete bricks lined the walls... They were the walls, clearly... There were also a few barrels and crates, a dim lightbulb screwed into the ceiling, and with a rusted steel door. That was the way in... Or out.
Eventually, the dark, damp room was finally brightened up a bit when the steel door opened. Of course, Mare Do Warp's irises were used to the dim light, so it was like looking into a room painted glowy - white when she looked at the opened door.
And coming from it, was Darklight, A rainbow - maned mare in a wheelchair, who had half of her body covered in white bandage - like tape, her left frontleg in a cast, along with her right hindleg also being in a cast, along with both of her wings. In a cast. Behind her was the purple unicorn mare that they all called "Twilight". Though, that can't be a ponie's full name. And her wings were gone. Behind her was a blonde ground pony wearing a texan hat. She's the cause of her bruised right side. Though she didn't know her name, and like Twilight, she no longer had wings.
"It seems the whole gang's here to interrogate me! Wonderful! But, where are the Wonderbolts exactly?" "They were busy, and now that you can't escape us, there's no point in changing their schedules again." Replied Darklight.
"Alright. Who's the blonde?" Muttered Mare Do Warp.
"My name is Applejack, thank you very much."
"And the handicap?" "It's only temporary you stupid mare!" Snapped Rainbow Dash.
"The 'handicap' is is called Rainbow Dash." Said Twilight.
"It's time for the mask to come off." Murmured Rainbow. Twilight heard this and nodded in agreement. And then Applejack. Darklight walked up and tried taking the mask off... Then found out the mask set up was mutch more advanced then they had expected, and they weren't getting it off soon. But it will come off eventually. Her suit was badly damaged. "It won't budge."Said Darklight. "What in Celestia's name did you make this darned suit out of..." Whispered Rainbow Dash. Nobody heard her, though. Darklight suckerpunched Mare Do Warp and triggered a nosebleed, which started to slightly stain the mask. "Tell me again... Why is the handicap here?"
"Your explosion's debree landed on me." "Rainbow dash's lucky to be alive." said Applejack.
"And so are you. Mare Do Warp." Mumbled Rainbow dash. "What's that supposed to mean, sweety?" Said Mare Do Warp, sarcastically...
"Only you can make jokes while you're in a torture chair." said Darklight.
"Honestly, how do you do it, Mare?" Snickered Darklight once more.
"Enough joking! I want answers!" Snapped Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was really mad and trying to be the alpha about getting answers due to the fact that she wants revenge.
"You really think that you've gotten me? That it's all over and justice won?" Snickered Mare Do Warp.
Mare Do Warp said: "I mean honestly. The mask isn't coming off, and I'm not going to give you answers through torture. No matter what. Tell you what, win against me in a one on one fight, and I'll tell you ALL you want." "No deal, we know how good y'all are in karate." Said Applejack. "But Darklight..." Responded Twilight. "I'm adept at Flame Punch, but besides that I know nothing, Twilight." Said Darklight.
The room went silent, and behind the mask Mare Do Warp was grinning.
"So you gonna torture me or not?" Said Mare Do Warp.
"I have an idea." Said Rainbow Dash. "Help me through the steel door, you know I'm not capable of pushing these wheels with my arms." Added Rainbow Dash.
"Okay, Rainbow." Said Applejack.
They helped Rainbow Dash into the next room, where Mare Do Warp couldn't hear.
"So what's the plan?" Said Twilight. "We leave her down here for a day, then you, Darklight, will fight her." Replied Rainbow Dash.
"That's a bit sadistic, don't you think?" Said Darklight.
"No, vengeful." Muttered Rainbow Dash in response. "Okay, fine." Said Applejack.
And then that followed with: "Fine, she won't die of starvation in one day." Said Twilight. "
She'll definetally be weakened, though. The plan's fine with me, I suppose."
Said Darklight. "It's settled then. We'll do it." Said Rainbow Dash, happily.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight left, Twilight went with her due to the fact that Rainbow Dash needed someone to push the wheelchair. Applejack also left minutes later, she had a farm to tend to, after all. But Darklight stayed. He knew how crafty the warped mare was, and he wasn't taking any chances.
Eventually, Darklight started nodding off through the hours going by. And Mare Do Warp's right frontleg slipped out of the bar because the cloth ripped, and it was no longer tight enough for her leg. Although, this revealed a grey leg. Darklight started noticing what was going on through his groggy eyes and started lumbering towards her from his half-nap. Then she ripped her other arm out and then aimed her left arm at him, the right arm punched the left arm, and all of a sudden Darklight felt something sting him... Then he started nodding off again. Quickly. Uncontrollably.
His body refused to move. It was like his brainwaves were cut off. Then he uncontrollably drifted into sleep.
Then he woke up in the very same torture chair Mare Do Warp should have been in.
But she wasn't. She had a tranquilizer dart shooter up her sleeve! He swore to Celestia he had confiscated her escape gadgets. But it seems her suit WAS an escape gadget...
Meanwhile...
Applejack's day started with waking up in the woods. Strapped to a tree. And her chest stung, as if a dart was fired into it. And her side hurt altogether. As if Mare Do Warp got revenge for what she did yesterday.
Twilight woke up in highly dense armor that seemed to be made out of super glued books. From her shelves. And it wasn't really armor, more like weights, since it was too heavy to move. And her chest stung. Spike wasn't home, either.
Spike woke up with about 13 darts embedded in his scales, one of them actually deeper then the others. and the others were filled with a translucent liquid. But not the deepest one. And he was hanging by a rope. which was tied to a tree. In the woods.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was probably the only one who woke up normally... Well, not exactly. The docters only allowed her to sleep back in her house if she bought one of those special beds you would see inside of a hospital that holds a leg, or an arm, up.
Which she bought. Rainbow Dash called her nurse through the phone put on her bedside by her nurse. About 8 minutes later, her nurse arrived and helped her out of bed and into her wheelchair. Then she flew RD down to the ground. Then she told her nurse to leave her, because her friends were going to pick her up. Her nurse tried to argue, but failed. Though, Rainbow dash kept the phone her nurse gave her.
... ... ... Three hours went by, and nopony came to pick RD up. She was getting sceptical. Then she told herself, maybe they were just late... Yes. Nothing more. Just... Late.
Meanwhile, Darklight was still stuck in the chair, wondering what he was going to occupy his mind with for a day and a night.
Rainbow Dash gave up on believing her friends were going to pick her up, and called her nurse, who brought her to Twilight's house. Her nurse knocked on the door for her. No answer. That's strange.
Then she had her nurse bring her to Applejack's farm. Applejack wasn't there! Just Big Macintosh, Applebloom, and Granny Smith. How strange.
Eventually, she gave up and told her nurse to bring her to the hospital for her physical therapy. Celestia! she hated being incapable of doing anything on her own. She wished the debree never fell on her. She wished her friends wouldn't just forget her. She wished she could just get up, undo the casts, and fly away.
But she couldn't. She took the painkillers that the docters also prescribed for her after physical therapy, had her nurse bring her home, get her in bed, and leave.
She dreampt of Mare Do Warp shadowing her, and trying to flee from the warped mare by dashing into an alleyway.. only to lead by Mare Do Warp beating her up, pulling out a knife, and the second it started to slice her skin she woke up, with a small shout of pain which she didn't register but thought she would.
"What a nightmare..."
Her alarm clock said it was 2:00 A.M.. So she could just go back to sleep. Or watch TV. Or try to undo a few casts and stand.
Stupidly, she did the third option that had popped up into her mind. The second the undid her front leg's cast, she was horrified. She couldn't bare to look at her leg. It looked like a bloodied corpse's leg! She re - did the cast and went back to sleep, trying to get the vision out of her mind but failing badly.
Meanwhile, Darklight was dreaming of the chair imploding. With him in it. He watched as his body crumpled, blood spurting out of the torn parts of his skin...
Then he woke up. He had no way of telling the time, except for instinct. It felt like a week, but boredom has that affect. Being famished doesn't help, either. And so he sat there. Helpless.
Rainbow Dash woke up with an alarm clock beeping into her ear. Eight o'clock sharp.
Her friends were going to pick her up so they could go rough up Mare Do Warp. She couldn't wait. Excitedly, she called her nurse who later came and brought her down.
That was when an overwhelming gloom took over. Just like yesterday, she started waiting for hours. Something was definetally wrong. She called her nurse and had her hurry her over to where Mare Do Warp was being held.
She went in quickly, her nurse practically running as she pushed Rainbow Dash's wheelchair, and on the way Rainbow Dash explained to her nurse the entire story of what happened, so she didn't ask questions when they entered the torture chamber.
"Darklight?! Where's Mare Do Warp?" Said Rainbow Dash in disbelief.
"Could you undo the restraints before asking me questions please?"
Cheery-Rainbow Dash's nurse-helped Darklight out of the chair. His legs were all swollen where the rusted bars had slowly dug into his skin like handcuffs would, and he was famished, not just parched. He could barely stand.
"Mare Do Warp slipped out of the chair... She used tranquilizer darts on me, but where's Twilight? Where's Applejack?" Replied Darklight.
"I don't know. I think they're missing!" She said frantically.
"Well, how do you think we're going to find them?!" Darklight yelped.
"Wait, I have an idea. Twilight's pet Spike might have been home. We should check there."
And so, they went to Twilight's house and basically walked in-the door was already unlocked-went upstairs, and saw a large cube built out of books glued together.
"Wh... Who's there?!" Said the mass. Rainbow Dash recognized Twilight's voice.
"Twilight...?" Said Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow Dash?!" Shouted Twilight. "Darklight, I think Twilight's in that.. thing!" "Water!" Said Darklight. "What about Water?!" Said Twilight.
"I meant use Water to make the books break down so Twilight can break free!"
He said.
Meanwhile, Spike was struggling furiously to try and snap the rope. Eventually, he hurt himself by partially tangling himself and yelped. "Spike? That you, sugercube?" Said Applejack in disbelief. "Applejack? Where are you?" Said Spike.
"I'm strapped onto this tree. where are YOU?!" "I'm hanging on a tree!"
He said frantically. And then the rope snapped. "Well, not any more." "Applejack, keep talking so I can find you through sound!" "Okay. If you don't find me I'll freak out and if I freak out y'all's gonna be in big trouble and I'll tell Twilight and she'll freak out and if she freaks out ya'lls gonna be in even more trouble and Twilight will tell Celestia and she'll freak out and the universe will end and then what Spike? and then wha-" "Applejack. I found you. But... Uhm.. Never mind." He clawed at the ropes restraining applejack and she fell off of the tree.
