The Lord of Void

‘Master! It’s happening, just like you said it would’

I smiled, I had quite the speech prepared.

I’ve been waiting to ask this for a long time

I peered around the corner just as Dash tackled Pinkie

“I got you now! Alright, Miss Mysterious! Mystery... solved!” Dash begins before stuttering “P-p-p-p- Pinkie?! Whudda- hud-d-duh- hud-d-duh- huh?!”

Applejack and I both walked out of our hiding spots when Pinkie was unmasked.

“Twilight?! Applejack?! There were three of you?!” Dash exclaimed when she saw us

“Yup, we all played Mare Do Well at different times.” I said

“I stopped the carriage bus with these babies, Bucky McGillicuddy and Kicks McGee.” Applejack added

“I saved the construction workers with my Pinkie Sense!” Pinkie said, before twitching a little and dodges a falling flowerpot

“Sorry!” came a mare’s voice from above

“It’s Alright!” Pinkie said

“Ooh, ooh! And I did the flyby afterwards.” Fluttershy said

“I made the costumes. Fabulous if I do say so myself!” Rarity finished

“I don't understand. Why? Don't you want me to be a hero?” Dash asked

“Of course we want you to be a hero,” I began

“But a real hero doesn’t brag” Applejack finished for me

“So this is what friendship is? Passive-Aggressive Back Stabbing? Maybe I should try this friendship thing.” came a voice from the shadows

“W-What?” I stammered, instantly on edge

“I was just commenting on this... ‘lesson’, you all taught Ms. Dash” the voice replied

“Who are you, and what do you mean Passive-Aggressive Back Stabbing!?” I ask a bit angry and honestly a bit scared

“Me? I know it’s been awhile since I’ve been in town, but I really didn’t think you would forget me. First you fail to use the elements on me, then your princess fails to capture me during the festival. I thought I would be much more infamous by now.” it said

IT’S HIM!

“For your second question, this whole Mare Do Well thing was a perfect example of passive aggressively stabbing someone in the back. Metaphorically speaking of course.” he finished

“We didn’t do anything like that. She was being extremely boastful! We were trying to help her, and it looks like it worked” I shot back defensively

“After everything she did, did she not earn the right to boast about her accomplishments?” came the casual reply

“Well, yes… But a real hero should be humble! Taking their applause graciously and just leaving!”

“Oh! So this was a lesson in modesty and/or humility?” he asked, clearly mocking me

“YES!” I shouted

“How exactly was telling her how great Mare Do Well was, while simultaneously laughing in her face, mocking her, then telling her she was jealous of Mare Do Well, meant to teach her about humility?”

That caught us off guard

“You know, in Sugarcube Corner? When you five were smugly laughing at her about how you all were showing her up and outdoing her? Well she didn’t know it was you five at the time.” he continued

“I.. We.. Well...” I stuttered

“Oh, on a related note, did you know that you and Applejack were pretty much the only ones that had a real problem with her attitude? And speaking of! What is the difference between when Applejack was convinced she could harvest all the apples on Sweet Apple Acres herself and this little event?”

“W-what?” I asked as I was thrown even further off balance

“When Applejack tried to do all the harvesting herself, you went to talked to her not once but three times. Yet with Dash, there was no talking, no ‘Maybe you should cut back on the bragging’ chat with her. It was full on ‘Hey! Let’s destroy her reputation, sense of self worth, and spirit’ right from the start.”

“That was different!” I shout back trying my hardest to ignore the second part.

“I asked how. How are these two events different?” he asked again

“Ah didn’t hurt no one!” Applejack said, looking as defensive as I felt

“How was shooting Dash into Twilight’s library, giving Pinkie and a bunch of ponies food poisoning, and starting a stampede of bunnies, that proceeded to destroy gardens and crops, constitute as ‘no one hurt’? Also who did Dash hurt before Mare Do Well?”

Applejack did not seem to have a retort as she went from looking defensive to ashamed and began to stare at the ground.

“No answer? OK, let’s talk about Rarity.”

Rarity began to look quite worried

“Rarity constantly boasts about how her dresses and designs are the best in Equestria. Why was there no suggestion to the others about setting up your own dress shop to drive Rarity out of business to ‘teach her a lesson’ about being modest? Do I even need to bring up the Young Flyers Competition?”

Rarity’s expression began mirroring Applejacks’

“However what truly makes me wonder is this. Did any of you ever think of the consequences of what you all did to Dash would be?” he said almost sounding worried

“What- What do you mean?” I ask almost on the verge of tears

“Let me tell you about how others think and usually act when someone they saw as a hero or idolized is suddenly shown up in a big way. They begin to feel their adoration was misplaced which causes them to feel embarrassed. They will feel like they were taken advantaged of. Especially if they are the ones who started making them out to be a hero to begin with. So they begin to lash out at the one they idolized.”

I was stunned. From the looks of it so were the girls.

“Do you remember what the town thought of Trixie after she left? Dash can expect far worst because they actually respected and idolized her, where Trixie made bad impression after bad impression almost from the start.”

We all turned to look at Dash in horror, Dash looked like she felt the same.

“What do we do?” I ask more to myself than anypony else

“Well, since no one knows who Mare Do Well is, your going to need to let Dash win and Mare Do Well fail, and quickly. On another related note, I believe I can help with that.” came the unexpected reply in an equally unexpected jovial tone

“WHAT! Why would you help US!” Dash cried

“Quid pro Quo” came the simple reply

“What’s that mean?” she asked, her bluster reduced by the remark

“It means that I help you, and you help me. He will help us if we help him afterward” I said to Dash

“And why would we do anything for you!” Dash shouted

“Because you need me right now and I have need of a good tailor. I help you get your fame and the respect of the townspeople back if Lady Rarity makes me a new suit per my specifications.”

“And how exactly are you going to do that!?” Dash exclaimed

“Simple, I will distract the woeful guards in the town then enter. Mare Do Well will try to defeat me and will fail. You will then try and I will let you beat me”

“HA! As if I need you to let me win!”

“Is that why you did nothing in the forest?”

Dash faltered at this

“Rarity, would you do it?” I asked Rarity before Dash could think of a retort, or get angrier

She looks a bit worried but gives a resolute nod.

“Ok…uh” I started, before realizing that after all this time, I still didn’t know his name.

“You may call me Doctor Jackal”

“OK Dr. Jackal, when and where?” I said with a sigh

“Tomorrow afternoon, same place as my first appearance, you will know when it’s started”

“What’s the plan?” I ask

“Well…” He begins

It was just past noon. I was lying on a cloud just above the market place. I had originally wanted to strike as soon as he made an appearance, but the comments from the townsponies made me believe what he had said was true. So I would wait. Twilight outright demanded to be Mare Do Well this time, I think because Mare Do Well was her idea.

Maybe we should have told the guards or warned the ponies. We are basically letting him walk into town. Who knows what damage he could do before we stop hi-

My thought was interrupted when I heard the screams. I looked over and there he was in the center of the market while the ponies were running back to their homes. I couldn’t see any sign of the Royal Guard that was in the town.

Before many of the ponies make it out of the market, Mare Do Well appeared, causing the tide of ponies running to come to a halt.

He was right, once she came, everypony stopped running

“It’s the Mysterious Mare Do Well! Were saved!” came a few shouts

I watched as Twilight threw a few bolts of magic at him, which he simply dodged by leaning to the left or right. She teleported behind him and threw another spell, but before she even fired, he disappeared. Before I could even shout a warning Jackal had moved behind Twilight and did… something.

What was that!? It looked like he just touched Twilight then suddenly she was blasted away!

Twilight got back up and fired the spell she had prepared. Jackal simply made a barrer and blocked the shot. He then threw some of those blades at Twilight, who teleported away before they got close. However when she reappeared, Jackal had already thrown two more blades. Twilight just barely dodged as the knives tore huge rends into the cape.

I heard a strangled scream that I recognized as Rarity and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was for Twilight or the costume.

Twilight rolled as she landed and got back up slowly, obviously trying to think of how to try to get him again.

Twilight teleported multiple times, I assume to confuse him. It didn’t work, once she stopped to fire off another spell he was prepared.

He seemed to teleport in front of her and punch her in the gut, He must have done that weird thing again because Twilight was blasted back and crashed into a market stall. She didn’t get up.

“That’s IT!” I shouted

As I got up to fly down, it seems that some of the Royal Guard were not so distracted and had come to investigate all the commotion. All of the guards proceeded to charged at him at once. They never even got close. As soon as they began to charge, Jackle held up his hand and suddenly black tendrils appeared under the guards and bound them in place.

I landed and charged at him, having no desire to have a repeat of the first meeting with him. I charged at him and threw a punch, but he simply leaned away. I tried a few more times to hit him but missed every hit.

He brought out four knives and threw them at me, thankfully I was able to dodge out of the way, avoiding them entirely. I threw another right hook to his face, which he immediately caught but before I could do anything he placed his palm on my stomach and I suddenly feel a force blast me back. There was no pain like I had expected, I was simply thrown back and thanks to my training I was able to recover almost immediately.

Shit! What do I do? If I attack from the air he will just put up that barrer and if I try to just attack him he either dodges or my punches are too weak to do any real damage.

Then I felt it. It was the same feeling whenever we would use the elements, but slightly different. I pulled out the Element of Loyalty, which began to glow red. Turning into a sword once again.

Jackal smiled wider and nodded to me before gesturing for me to attack. I never actually trained to fight with a sword so I just sort of charged and swung wildly. He casually dodged everything, even getting a few punches in, all of which connecting with me.

After a few seconds that felt like hours he disappeared, reappearing further ahead of me.

“Well, I believe we can end the warm up here.” he said

He then brought his hand in front of him and suddenly a sword appeared in his hand. It looked like the same type of sword the town guards use.

“En Garde” He says while getting into a strange stance. I grip my sword with both hands, he seems to take this as a go sign and rushes at me. Before I could react he was already within range of his sword. He began to swing at my head, when something… weird happened.

Just as the sword got close, it was like the whole world slowed down. I could just tell that he wasn’t pulling his punches, I got faster! It was enough for me to duck enough for his attack to miss me. I swung at his stomach but he jumped back at the last second, avoiding my swing.

What I didn’t notice was that when he jumped back he threw more knives at me. Two scratched my arms and the other nipped my ear. Thankfully they were all superficial, no worse than a papercut. I rushed at him again trying to hit his arms or legs. He dodged again and swung at my chest. Once again when he was close to hitting me suddenly everything slowed down, giving me the second I needed to jump back and avoid his slash.

What’s going on? Is he doing this?

At this point I am panting and shaking from the adrenaline, yet he doesn’t even seem winded.

We lock eyes and charge at each other at the same time. This time however we end up in a parry. Or we would have if my sword didn’t cut straight through his! I didn’t even feel any resistance. Unfortunately this meant I was now off balance because I had expected my strike to be stopped. Judging by his smirk he was waiting for that. He took full advantage of my momentary lack of balance by uppercutting me in the jaw.

“My, my. That was rather impressive!” He says in mock surprise.

I was panting even more now and as I wiped my mouth I saw that I was bleeding.

It seemed time was on my side as at that moment we could hear the rest of the Royal Guard making it’s way to the market.

“Dammit” I heard him curse “Until next time!”

He turned and disappeared

I just stood there, dumbfounded.

He was supposed to let me win… why did he run like that!?

Suddenly I feel like I had just finished doing a weeks worth of my training exercises all at once. I fell to my knees feeling utterly exhausted.

I could hear people calling me, obviously worried. It was only after a few seconds that I realized they weren’t just trying to get my attention.

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Rainbow Dash!!”

“Rainbow Dash!!!”

“RAINBOW DASH!!!”

“RAINBOW DASH!!!”

They’re cheering for me! I thought happily

“Was that wise Master? Exposing yourself like that, what if they told the guards or worse those princesses?” Umbrasprite asked

“Yes, it was, and I knew they would not tell anyone. Their grief and pride would not allow them to. Did the letter get delivered?”

“Yes Master, it was delivered during the fight.”

“What about the library?”

“We found it. One of the darklings are alchemizing it from the ghost image now.”

“Good.” I said aloud before switching to telepathy ‘Everyone know what to lookout for next?’

‘Yes Master’ came multiple replies