MareDoWell

by Panicked Creativity

Rating: mature
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Anthro, Main 6, Gore, Trixie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Romance, Adventure, Mare Do Well, Dark
Length: 33759

A plot to gain friendship becomes a life changing journey.

Fate. An unstoppable force created by actions we take everyday, creating set reactions to events created by said actions.

Fate is indiscriminate, even if somewhat avoidable, taking the for of karma and chance. Fate can be unfair, fate can be fair, but it is always absolute. It is always unbeatable when in progress.

And Trixie is about to learn what happens when fate is tempted... even if she only wanted a little friendship.

(Possible divergence from the show's cannon in the future.)
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this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic, so i do promise to get better as the story goes on. PLEASE COMMENT!!!.

Image belongs to Raikoh-illust of Deviantart.

Published 2012-06-30 16:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-09-28 08:58:45 UTC

MareDoWell chp 1: Origin

It had been two months since I returned to Ponyville, everything seemed to be okay. I'd made amends with nearly everypony in town and had been doing my part in keeping everything in order. Whether it was using a deconstruction spell to help take down an old building, or putting up a banner at a public event, I tried to help in every way I could. Nearly everypony in the town had forgiven me. Hay; I had even gained snip’s and snail’s affection back. But like I said, although nearly everypony in town liked me, there were still a specific five mares that didn't.

Perhaps I should do some explaining, my name is Trixie, also known as the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie, I’m a professional magician/play write. I use my magic to create amazing tricks and tell wonderful stories, combining the dazzling effects of a magic act with the intrigue of the theater. However, truth be told, it’s mostly just a cover I use to pursue my true passion; albeit it’s a well paying cover, but a cover nonetheless.

Now I could sit here all day and tell you about how wonderful it is to be a magician. I could tell you about what it’s like to be in the limelight, to have millions of fans throwing red roses at your hooves at the end of nearly every show… but that’s not why you’re here, is it?

No, the story you want is one telling of my other profession, isn’t it? One that contains love and loss, good and evil, friendship and hatred. One of blood stained tears, and inner revelations that shock the very soul of the pony they come to. One of dashing heroes and their beautiful lovers: and psychopathic, murderous villains. One of gore and bloodshed that would make even a veteran executioner cringe. If that’s what you came to see… then you’re in the right place.

The story you are about to hear is how I, a lowly little show pony, became the savior of Equestria. The faceless terror that stalks the unjust, the swift hoof that strikes down evil wherever it makes itself known. She who can grant forgiveness, or deliver unto the unforgivable their punishment.

This is how I became…

MareDoWell

I was at an ice-cream stand ordering a sundae. It was beautiful out, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, just a perfect day. I sighed and began to bask in the ambiance of my surroundings when I heard a small soft voice calling to me.

“Um… hello, Trixie…” I heard. I turned around to see none other than Fluttershy smiling at me, her pink main covering one of her eyes. I remember coming back to Ponyville; she was the first one I met coming in. It took some convincing, but she eventually granted me forgiveness, and we became good friends.

"So... um… how are you, doing today." she asks me

"Oh you know, the usual, just enjoying Celestia’s sun." I reply.

We sat there, chatting for a few minutes, eating together, until a single question popped into my head;

"I see the others refused to go with you again."

The smile on her face faded and her head began to droop. I already knew what was coming.

"I'm… I’m so sorry Trixie... but whatever I do I can't change their minds. They all think you're the same show pony from two years ago." Those words hit hard; I can still remember myself, arrogant, boastful, and worst of all I basked in the pain of others. There was not a single part of the old me that I had wished to retain, and if I ever met my old self, I’d go to prison for assault.

It was Twilight Sparkle that eventually drove me away, showing me to be just a loud mouth show pony that would rather just make up stories then be able to back up what she says she can do.

"It's fine Fluttershy, really…at least you're here." I saw a small smile return to her face. Besides, it wasn't all of them I was really interested in, it was Twilight Sparkle I wanted to forgive me the most.

‘Why’ you ask? Well… that’s what expositions are for.

It was shortly after the Ursa-minor incident that I continued my performances at other towns, my usual boastful attitude intact, I'd humiliate ponies who said they could best me, and made myself out to be the most powerful unicorn around. But, every time I put on a show, one thought began to linger; the fact that I most certainly wasn’t the most powerful, she was.

The thought of how she embarrassed me, humiliated me, and then chased me off. It all made me hate her. But the worst part was the fact that she could actually do what I only said I could do. She was better than me, and even I knew it.

The shows started to get worse after that, due to my constant state of distraction. I would misread spells and forget parts of stories. So after awhile I just stopped, didn't do shows, didn't go out that much, I just stowed myself away and asked one question over and over. Why was she better than me? I mean, she was more powerful yes, but I had so much personality, and she was just so average…  what was it.

Then one day, as I was walking along, a young colt interrupted my thoughts.

"Excuse me... Trixie is it?" the foal asks. I looked up to see a small colt with a dark brown coat and yellow eyes giving me a soft playful smile.

"Yes, it is I, the great and powerful Trixie, what do you want from Trixie?" I ask in my usually arrogant manner.

"I just wanted to give my opinion, but…” he looked away, his right hoof pawing the ground nervously.

“Maybe if you were a little more subtle, and humbled, and had a little humility, it may make the show a little bit better."

At first I was going to dismiss him like others who had suggestions like this, saying that he was nothing more than a foal that needs to mind his own business.

"Oh really, and what do you know about sho-!" I began to protest, causing the foal to cringe slightly. But then it hit me, like a runaway carriage. That was it, that was always it!

"Thank you, young foal, thank you so much for the suggestion, I will take it into account." I said softly as I walked away, smiling. I had figured it out, it all made sense. The reason Twilight was better than me was not because she was more powerful, but because she had a sense of humility. She was indeed powerful, but she didn't need to boast about it, because she could prove it.

So throughout the next two months, I began to try and develop a sense of humility. At first I tried to stop being so boastful and arrogant during shows, even thanking and complementing the audience. Then I stopped doing so many shows and started helping around the community, like cleaning sidewalks and helping out at soup kitchens. To be honest, at first I hated it. It felt like I was sucking up to the audience, putting on a fake smile to get what I want.

But, after awhile, i noticed a change. The audience seemed to be not just happy, but almost... grateful, that I put on a show for them. Instead of merely shouting at hecklers, calming down to give a witty retort proved to be a much better option as it drowned both the audience and the stage in laughter. When I would do work for the community, I found it extremely pleasing to see everyone happily benefit from what I had done.

All in all, it just started to make me feel happy, and not because I impressed them with my magical feats or whatever, but because I made them happy... It's hard to explain... it's almost like their happiness fed my own. All I know is that I didn't want it to stop; I never wanted it to stop.

But I started to realize something; all of my thoughts of motivation, centered on Twilight Sparkle.

At first I thought that I had simply found an idol, basically becoming a fan of Twilight, but it started to become something more. I began to have dreams about her, and not normal ones; I would see her dancing in a meadow, the mist causing her coat to glow, and then she would look over to me with those beautiful violet eyes. Or I would be in her room, looking out onto the terrace next to it. She would be standing near the edge, her arms crossed on top of the banister as she looked out over Ponyville, the wind occasionally blowing through her mane. But there was one dream in particular that had more impact than any other… the dream where she spoke to me.

The dream took place somewhere in Canterlot during the day, in a section of the royal plaza that was opened to the public. I was looking over the different plants, taking in their beauty, their scent. I occasionally looked over the beautiful décor, taking in the beauty of the fine craftsmanship put into the scenery around me.

But then something caught the corner of my eye, and I looked up to see what it was out of reflex. As my eyes arrived on the figure standing off to the right of me, I gazed in awe at what I saw; for standing there was none other… than Twilight Sparkle.

She was just standing there, facing away from me, and seemingly surveying her surroundings. Her lavender coat practically gleamed in the sunlight, the subtle breeze causing he mane to wave and shimmer ever so slightly. The dress she wore accented her hips and perked up her breasts.

I knew we weren’t on good terms, but it just felt like something… drew me to her. As I took the first step towards her, her ears swiveled, and she turned to meet my gaze. When my eyes met her, my heart nearly exploded.

Her eyes were not beautiful, nor were they stunning…

They were heavenly.

She stared at me, no, into me with her heavenly violet pools for a long while. Her face did not carry a look of disdain nor joy, but instead, an expression that lacked any certain emotion and was simply… beautiful.

After the long hard staring contest, her lips slowly curled into a soft smile, and for the first time, in any of my dreams… she spoke.

“I’ve been waiting for you…” she said in this, sultry tone. As soon as I heard those words, my legs grew weak, my eyes fluttered, and I nearly lost consciousness. I regained my composure as fast as I could and turned around to leave, but a purple flash of light blocked my way, blinding me.

When my vision returned to me… I felt as if my heart actually did explode this time. Inches away from mine, was the snout of Twilight Sparkle.

Before I could say, do, or even think of anything, she began to close the distance between us. Before our lips made contact, she whispered three words, words that shook me to my very core, words that repeated themselves over and over again in my mind… the words that woke me up.

’My dearest Trixie… ‘

I woke up in a cold sweat, immediately going to the bathroom to take a shower, so that I could try and figure out what was going on and fall back asleep. I wanted to say I didn't, but the truth was obvious; I had feelings for Twilight Sparkle. Weather it was the fact that she was so intelligent and yet so beautiful or how powerful she truly was, there was just something so… alluring about her.

My transformation went on as I started going from town to town, doing shows (sometimes for charity), and helping out around the area. But, something kept bugging me… and it wasn't just the crush thing either. No, now I was thinking about all those other ponies I lied to and embarrassed. How I led Snips and Snails around by the nose, how I humiliated some of the elements of harmony… how I brought that damned Ursa to town. I started to feel horrible about every moment of it, and for the longest time two words lingered in my head; I'm sorry

I kept practicing my magic for 2 years, owning my skills in combat, recreational... sexual. I even figured out teleportation. Not hard really, all it is a high level speed increase spell, a portal spell, a mixing spell to put them together and a massive amount of magic. It’s no wonder me and twilight could do it, us and the princesses are probably the only ones powerful enough to do it. But, in the back my mind, those two words still lingered.

So I decided to finally return to Ponyville to make some much needed apologies. First was Fluttershy, who I bumped into on my way to Ponyville. I remember her giving me the stare of a lifetime before I gave her my apology. I mean I could literally feel the resentment coming from her gaze. But, to my surprise, she accepted it with open arms.

We went back to town and everyponies reaction to me was… skeptical, to say the least. No one really trusted me for awhile, still thinking of me as boastful and cruel, but after a few weeks they started to warm up to me, and soon it was like nothing had happened.

Unfortunately, there were still five mares that loathed me;

Pinky Pie says she gets what she thinks are "bad twitches" when she's around me. Applejack doesn't believe a word I say. Rainbow Dash is to loyal to her friends to believe me, and Rarity will not forgive me for turning her hair green.

But Twilight, she was the worst. Not just because I had… feelings for her, but because to her, I was the mare that hurt her friends, and nearly got an Ursa-minor to destroy Ponyville… she hated me.

And now there I was, hated by five, generally appreciated by the rest.  After I sat a spell and chatted with Fluttershy, I went home to a farm house I had bought and, using the money from my shows, turned it into my own private little mansion. I walked into the living room and unlocked the secret drawer compartment on the coffee table; in it was a small heart framed picture of Twilight that i had acquired due to a favor from Fluttershy.

"If only I could prove to you and your friends that I've changed." I said "That I'm not that same mare. If only I cou-."

There was a sudden, fast knocking at my door, I opened it and saw Fluttershy standing there, a soft smile on her face.

"Oh um… hey, Trixie. I, um, forgot to mention earlier today that there is a non-invitation party tonight at Twilights, meaning that anypony is welcome, I was wondering… um… if you wanted to come." She asked nervously, probably thinking I would say no.

I thought about saying no for a moment, but then I thought 'Hey, maybe I could finally convince them that I'm not a complete ass’ so I reply.

"Sure, just let me get my things ready and I'll be there at about six." I say, instantly turning her from nervous to overjoyed.

"All right Trixie, um, see you there." she said walking away with a smile, but as I prepared for the party, I smiled myself, hoping that maybe tonight would be the night those five finally accepted me.

MareDoWell chp 2: Revelation

I prepare for the party, choosing to dawn a light blue gown. I put the finishing touches on my outfit when I hear a knock at the door, I open it to see Fluttershy in her gala dress looking quite distraught.

"Trixie, why are you still home? It past six an hour ago!" she says, slightly frustrated

"Then…why did it just hit six on my clock?"

Fluttershy looks behind me and lets out a frustrated groan.

"Oh Trixie, I've told you to get that clock fixed twice now. Come on, we're already late." And with that she rushed me out the door by the hoof.

We were almost there when a question came to mind.

"What should I say to them?" I ask, cautiously.

Shys' voice became stern; almost mother-like. "Look, just because they don't like you doesn't mean they can't act civil. Just don't try to argue with them or be to friendly and you'll be fine, and if they cause you trouble, I can always stare them down."

I look over in disbelief.

"You would stare down your friends just for me?!"

Fluttershy looks over at me with a soft reassuring smile. "Trixie you have grown so much in these past two years. You've become so different compared two your old self, that cold, selfish, evil thing you used to be. So yes, I would stare them down for you. Because frankly, you deserve better than to be treated like trash."

I was nearly brought to tears by such beautiful words coming from such a good friend; I gave a soft smile,

"Thank you Fluttershy, I... thank you." I reply, knowing that if anything in this world would harm me, she would be there to literally stare it down to nothing.

We arrive at the party after a few minutes of walking, it was wonderfully set up, waiters and waitresses strutting through the crowd, everypony dressed to impress, laughing and sharing stories.

"Trixie darling, you're finally here!" I hear a voice call out from my right. I look over to see Fleur de Lis and her husband Fancy Pants walking up to me

"It's so good to see you." Fleur says. "When are you planning to do another show, by the way. Fancy and I absolutely adored the last one. What was it called again? The Redemption?"

"Lost Souls Redemption darling. I swear that's the twelfth time you've forgotten one of the names of Trixie's shows." Fancy Pants piped in.

She looks over to him, pouting. "Well excuse me for not having a memory as good as yours. But Trixie, darling the emotion, the concept, they were all executed perfectly… exactly how much did you make from that show again?"

I tap my chin, trying to think of the number. "I believe it was six figures, if I'm not mistaken, and of course part of it went towards the fight against the recent spike in organized crime. You've seen the news right?"

They both almost instantly look to the floor, their smiles fading.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

Fancy looks up at me, a distressed look on his face. "Trixie, we didn't just see the news. We experienced it." At first I was confused, then Fancy explained.

"About a week ago, some mob hired thug broke into our house and tried to... assault, my dear Fleur."

I was shocked to say the least, and wracked with worry.

"Oh my Celestia! Fleur, are you alright?!"

"Of course I'm alright! He came and tried to have his way with me!" she starts to rub against Fancy in a tender, loving manner.

"But my big, strong stallion was there to stop him, weren't you baby?"

"Of course I was!" Fancy shouts with a grin of absolute confidence. "I wasn't going to let that ruffian do a single disgusting thing to you, so I threw him around like a rag-doll!" He looked down at Fleur with a wide grin.

"And when we got back from the police station that day, I believe I threw you around the bedroom a bit… did I not?"

Fleur blushes deeply. "Oh… hush you." Fancies grin widens at his wife's sheepishness. Fleur rolls her eyes and looks over at me.

"I personally think we should have another Everfree Empress. Someone who is able to go after these thugs directly without going through all this justice system bull... "

"Now honey," Fancy cuts her off "there's no need for that type of language, and I happen to disagree. I think it's wrong that the princesses allow a masked vigilante to go around and take the law into her own hooves. It makes the entire EPD look foolish."

"Well, I think she was magnificent, especially how she took down The King." she replies with a huff.

"Excuse me, but who are you talking about?" They both look at me as if they had seen a ghost.

"Trixie, I'm surprised you haven't heard of her. She was this masked hero that was believed to come from somewhere in the Everfree Forest. She could also use magic but most unicorns said it looked a little too off to be unicorn magic." Fleur explaines.

"And her greatest enemy was a the leader of a major crime syndicate, only known by the name 'The King'." Fancy adds. "As I heard, he was a very powerful unicorn that the the Empress had several major battles with. Before his gang was dismantled by the Empress, he had one final major bout with her and was finally defeated, then sentenced to death for treason."

I listened on in amazement, learning that the Empress had disappeared a year after the King's defeat, we talked for another hour or so before parting ways.

I was touring the party, looking for Fluttershy who had slipped away during my conversation with Fleur and Fancy, and when I found her, who else should be there except the five mares I was trying to avoid.

'Oh no,' was my first thought. I could already see them eying me, especially Pinkie who would always get those strange "twitches" around me. Rainbow was about to walk off before getting stared by Fluttershy. But what hit me hardest was Twilight, the mare I had feelings for, giving me a glare of absolute loathing and hatred.

Before I could even start talking, Twilight interrupted, speaking with an almost tired, yet annoyed tone. "We understand that Fluttershy has accepted you, but that doesn't mean we have to. Just enjoy the party, stay clear of us, and don't touch anything, okay?"

I nod in response, but as they walk away, I couldn't help but ask the question lingering inside me.

"What do I have to do?" I ask with a fury filled whisper.

"Excuse me?" asks Twilight.

"What do I have to do to prove to you that I've changed, that I'm not some show pony who's always plotting to humiliate everypony? Tell me what I have to do!" I yell.

Twilight looks over at me with an ice cold glare of contempt, and speaks.

"Leave Ponyville, and don't ever come back." she says through clenched teeth before walking away with her friends.

There it was again, that feeling of inner pain. That one big regret caused from my actions in the past. I wanted so badly for them to forgive me, to believe in the new me and forget the old, so that I could finally have closure! But it never happens. And in the end, all it leaves behind is an empty feeling. The fact that what I want the most in this world, I can never have.

I was walking through a display section in Twilight's house, holding a bottle of dandelion wine looking for somewhere to get drunk and cry, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Like many of the things here it was a lit up display, but something about it drew me closer and closer. It was a medium sized costume colored in all sorts of shades of purple and bit of dark pink. With what looked to be a modified flight mask, a flowing cape, and a dark purple hat with a pink stripe. I narrowed my eyes on the chest area.

"M?"

"It means MareDoWell." a voice calls out from behind me. I swing around, startled, to see Twilight's assistant, Spike.

"Rainbow Dash got a little too big headed one time, so Twi and the others dressed up in this costume and started committing acts of heroism, but with um, oh what did Twi call it… oh yeah, humility."

Spike kept on sweeping the display area, but my eyes were locked on the costume, and as I looked into the glass and saw my face reflected over the mask, one thought ran through my head, What if I did something like that, but they didn't know it was me.

Little did I know that this single thought... would come to define me.

MareDoWell chp 3: Awakening

The party goes on at an average pace. I talk with a few more people, eating, sharing stories, etc. Eventually the party ends and everyone, including myself, begins to pack up and leave. But as I left, that same idea kept repeating itself; What if I did something completely selfless, but they didn't know it was me.

                   Fluttershy offered to walk with me as we went back to our homes, but I respectfully declined. As I walk, I keep contemplating in my head what to do. Become a masked marauder bringing justice to the unjust to simply gain friendship, possibly at the cost of my own life. Or go on with my regular, safe life, without forgiveness from those I want it from the most. Although it would sound like the latter is the more sensible option, I honestly wasn't looking for 'sensible'. I just wanted them to forgive and forget and at any cost... especially my dearest Twilight.

I remembered back to my two years away from Ponyville, and all the physical and magical training I went through. Intense workout regiments, practice in multiple fighting styles, and firearm training whenever time would allow; and the reason I went through all of that is a story all its own.

It was a year and a half ago, at least a month after my change in attitude, when I was walking down a sidewalk somewhere in the town my show was in when somepony and his friends approached me.

"Excuse me miss, would you happen to be this Trixie girl that everyone is talking about, with the really big show?" he asks.

"Why yes I am, would you like an autograph or an intervi…."

He interrupts me with a loud, maniacal laugh. "No actually, we just wanted compensation for the damage done by the ursa."

My face shifts in tone, displaying annoyance above anything else.

"I sent some money to Ponyville a few weeks ago as an apology. It should have been enough to fix any damages done by the beast."

He lets out a soft chuckle. "Oh, we already knew about that, but that's not what concerns me and my friends, ya see me and friends had a more…physical, type of compensation in mind." he trots over, rubbing my arm up and down... sensually.

That's when the full realization of what was happening hit me, and I angrily swatted away his hand.

"how DARE you!!" I shout.

"I am a professional, and I would never ever stoop that low just to please the likes of yo…" Before I finish, his fist slams into my face, sending me to the ground. When every thing comes back into focus, I realize he's on top of me, his hooves crushing my wind pipe.

He speaks in a violent tone, like a dragon defending it's horde."Now that's just like you magic types, all pompous and uptight, think you're better than everypony else because of that stupid *fucking horn! Now here's what's gonna happen…."*

I couldn't use magic because I couldn't focus hard enough to summon any, so the only thing I could do was plea. "Please…don't…" I beg,

He silences me with a punch. "SHUT THE FUCK UP! Now first, I'm gonna have my fun, then my friends are gonna join in, and after that, we'll 'experiment' a little bit. But rest assured that by the end of this"

he takes out a large knife "I'm gonna cut that horn of yours off, and slit your *FUCKING THROAT** with it!"*

This was it I thought, this stallion and his friends are going to use me like a toy, and then make sure I can't rat on them, I was finished. I could feel his member pulsating against my leg, and I knew soon, he would penetrate me.

But then, something... amazing happened, I heard a loud bang and looked up, the stallion on top of me wore a completely shocked expression and lie still as tree, and it wasn't until I noticed the blood trickling down on me from the hole in the side of his head that he finally collapsed onto me... dead.

"Get away from her you swine!"

My head snaps around with the three other stallions to see a midnight blue unicorn stallion in a trench coat, his mane and tail jet black with a dark purple tint, and a single blue stripe, and on his flank was what looked to be a colt sitting in a Buddhist style position with multiple blades, firearms, and magic auras coming out from behind him.

"Get away from the mare…or I kill the rest of you." He says, a cold chill in his voice. The stallions immediately charged him, and what happened next, I'm not sure. I remember seeing what could only be described as pure, utter, brutality.

He spun around quickly and caught two of the males with his back hooves, knocking them out instantly, the other one immediately stood upright and threw a punch. My savior almost automatically dodged it and wrapped his arm around his opponent's, and with a flex, snapped it in two. The stallion let out a blood curdling scream, and with a chop to the neck, was unconscious.

The male helped me up, I could see that he had a strong build, firm muscular figure, soul piercing red eyes, and was extremely well kept.

"Are you okay?" he asks. "I heard the commotion and contacted the authorities, but I knew they wouldn't get here in time…" he looks down, gazing at the dead bodies of the would be rapists.

"I told the police I killed somepony in defense of another ponies life, but I still think it would be better if I left before they got here, if you vouch for me I should be in the clear."

He began to leave, but I stopped him.

"Wait, wait! Who are you?" He turns to me with a grin, as if he knew i would ask, and handed me a card with his cutie mark on it.

"I am Reave,  combat extraordinaire, and if you'd like to learn how to properly defend yourself, just find the address on the back of the card." He said with an all too knowing grin before leaving me there to wait for the police and contemplate what just happened.

And as he walked away, I swore I heard him mumble; "Damn, that's the third time this year."

Those memories started coming back; how I trained with him until I decided to come to Ponyville, how he would always become so merciless and unrelenting when training, but when we were done, would always treat me with love and kindness. How he would always come up with the funniest jokes or one liners, how wise and noble he was, and how he was a friend to the just, but a nightmare to the unjust. But suddenly, a scream brought me back to the present.

I looked down the alleyway the scream came from to see a grey, blond maned Pegasus mare struggling with a colt.

"let... go!" she yells. Suddenly the colt pushed her up against the wall, holding a knife to her throat

"Give me your purse, and everything else you've got, or I will slit your fucking throat and leave you to die!" he whispers, frustrated.

I turned and thought of walking away and contacting a nearby officer telepathically, but then something happened. As if something reached deep inside and brought it to the surface, one of Reaves old sayings rang loud and clear in my head, almost like a gunshot.

'If you see something, anything, that can be changed or fixed for the better, even if just a little bit…why not change it yourself?'

it was like something possessed me. Like I was compelled not to run away, but to stay and fight…..to save her. I turned around and began to fast walk towards the thug, but I thought of something different. I hadn't used teleportation since coming to town so that I wouldn't be accused of stealing from Twilight, but I did recently learn to slow my teleportation to a speed dash. It's a little slower, but it does the trick. Once I was right behind him, I began to yell.

"Hey!" I shout. He and the Pegasus look over.

"Get the FUCK away from her!"

He laughed, just started chuckling like a little foal that just heard a bad joke.

"Listen sweetheart, I got bills to pay, and she has the bits I need. Now how about you run along and bake some cookies!"

"I don't think you heard me, I said, get away."

He stops to look over at me with an expression of complete loathing.

"Alright you stupid mare, you wanna play, let's play." He came at me like a frustrated manticore, with a knife in his hoof. I remembered my training and waited, holding my stance... and when he was about to hit me, I struck.

I took him and spun him around, taking his knife holding arm, his right, and putting it over my shoulder, bending it until I heard a snap. The snap, being the breaking of his arm. I reveled in the girly shriek that came from him.

"You stupid bitch, you may have broken my right, but I'm still gonna kill you with the left!" he charged again, but he was met with a round house kick, knocking him out, and probably giving him a concussion.

I took a breath, allowing myself to calm down before turning my attention to the pegasus "Are you oka... ?"

I wasn't able to finish due to her very, VERY, tight bear hug.

"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!" she screams over and over again.

"Can't...breath!" I gasp out. She let go of me and gasped herself, her large yellow eyes going wide... and crossed

"Oh, I'm sorry, It's just that.... Hey, your that Trixie chick that does all those awesome shows. I loved the Tale of the Ursa!"

"Yes, I'm Trixie, and before you ask, here…" I lift her bag and magically stamped it with my signature, I hoofed it back to her, and boy was she happy.

"WOW, thank you miss Trixie, all the other girls at the post office will be so jelly!"

Before she could fly away, I called out to her

"Hey, do me a favor?" she looks over at me.

"Don't tell anyone about the whole, me saving you thing. Just tell them we met on your way home, kay?" She nodded furiously.

"Okay miss Trixie, I wont say a word, see ya, and thanks again!" she said as she flew away. And as she flew away I couldn't help but think;

Goddess she had some weird eyes.

As I walked home I knew in my heart what was coming, that the choice was not only obvious, but inevitable. And as I walked home, a voice whispered, no, silently screamed, One. Single. Word.

Mare……Do……Well

MareDoWell chp 4: Vision

        That night, when I returned home and went to bed, I had an extremely vivid dream; it took place in a dark vacant street, with dimming faded streetlights. There were at least 2 stallions, 1 colt, and 3 mares, all wearing mask and Kevlar vest. They were loading something into two truck carts with bags filled with a crystalline, white substance. But then, something happened; a noise came from seemingly everywhere, a sound of massive wings, or a cape fluttering in the wind. And with that, the group began to panic.

“Guys, we need to move now!” one of them says with a ragged frustrated whisper.

“Oh man, we’re fucked," the colt screams "we’re so fucked! Did you see what that thing did to Charlie, he didn’t have a chance, and neither do we!”

One of his friends jams a hand over his mouth.

“Shut the hay up! It could be anywhere, remember?” he said, releasing the colt after allowing him to calm down.

He turns his head to the side and calls for somepony.

“Stacy, can you levitate these salt bags onto the truck a little faster please?” No response.

“Stacy…” Yet again, no response.

They began to search the area for her, looking in every area they could’ve looked, until one of them finally says; “She’s fucking gone.”

One of the stallions looks over at him with a frustrated glare.

“You don’t know that!” He nearly yells.

“Come on man, what’s to stop it from taking any one of us, we should just go!”.

“No,” the stallion grunts “I won’t leave her here!” He grabs his friend by the collar of his jacket..

“She’s been part of our crew for a year now .  She deserves better than that! Do you understand?” He shouts.

“She deserves be-.“ A loud, almost deafening bang cuts him off.

Their heads snap around to see a light purple mare with a red mane. She was badly beaten, bruises covering her body, spine seemingly be broken. As for her blood, it was slowly covering the top of the dumpster she landed on.

They just stood there, dead silent, with the most shocked of expressions gracing their faces. The stallion, whom I had now deduced was the leader, rushes towards her at a breakneck pace.

“STACY!!!!” he yells, cut off by his friends at mid run. “What are you doing, we have to hel-!” His friend put a hoof to his mouth, looking in the direction of the now broken Stacy, staring right above her. The lead stallion follows his line of sight, and sees it..

Above Stacy, standing in front of an open vent, stood a large, tall and dark figure with a long flowing cape, its slightly torn edges seemed to coil around the neck and legs of Stacy. It wore a mask and a hat with long edges, the mask giving it soulless white eyes. And the worst part was that through its mask, you could see a grin.

They were frozen, the ability to breath failing them as they gaze upon it. Fearfully, they look back to Stacy, who with one last breath, gasped out one word; “…run…”

With that the caped figure flew up into the vent, taking the mare with her.

There was silence; cold, dead, silence. Then the colt started to cry.

“We’re gonna die…” he sobs “oh my Celestia were gonna FUCKING DIE!!!” he yells, crying profusely as he falls to his side and curls up into a ball.

They all just stood there as he continued to cry, their leader trying to calm him. “Joey…” he spoke quietly, the colt continuing to sob. “P-P-Please, C-Celestia! Luna! I’m sorry for whatever I did; I don’t deserve this, please for the love of you both, SAVE ME!!” The colt sobbed.

The stallion calls out to him again, only to be met with further tears. “PLEA-HE-HE-HEES,” he screams “I…I’ll do anything! I’ll polish your hoof guards! I’ll lick your wings and preen your feathers! Hell, if you can both use magic to grow ‘em, I’LL SUCK YOUR DI-! “

At that, the stallion finally shut him up.

“Joey! Have some fucking dignity!” The colt became silent with only the slightest of whimpers escaping his lips.

The leader opened the back of the truck, rummaging around for something. Everypony seemed to wonder what he was doing... until he pulled out three MP-50's and three tokarev TT-33's.

“You had those the entire time?” one of the remaining mares asks, he simply looks away.

“You had those the entire time, and didn’t think to bring them with us to the meet-up?”She said, her voice rising.

“I…I didn’t think we’d need them.”

The mare was no longer speaking to him, she was shouting.

“You had those in the back while that…THING had STACY!!!” she screamed.

“I panicked alright! I thought if I ran it would come after all of us and if I fired it would just use Stacy as a shield, so get the hay off my back!”

The mare quiets herself, gazing at him angrily as he passes out weapons like Nightmare Night candy. “Okay, when we get in everypony take a window, I want every side covered and I’ll drive. Okay?” Everyone nods.

“Alright then, let’s get the h-“ A loud, almost deafening explosion interrupts him.

They all recoil immediately, nearly hitting the floor at the sound of the impact. When they look to the cart to see what had caused the sound, what they see causes one of the mares to scream louder than the actual explosion itself.

There on the now destroyed car, was a dead mare, with a light-purple coat, and a red mane.

They just stood and stared, not even breathing, until that one urge that nopony wanted to have, came. The urge to look up.

On the rooftop above them, stood that same figure, glaring at them, with that grin showing through its mask. The stallion known as Cutter grabs a pistol and starts shooting straight up at the figure, screaming like an angry hydra. The mysterious figure disappears, running out of sight.

He stops shooting only to make sure that the figure can hear him yelling. “I’ll KILL YOU!!!” he screams through tears.

“When I catch you, I’m gonna rip off that stupid costume off, and gut you! Do you hear me! I’m gonna-.“  Yet another scream erupts from behind him, but when he turns around, what he sees turns his heart to ice. The figure that was formerly on the rooftop was now behind them.

Joey was now screaming louder than a mare, shuffling on his back away from the frightening sight. As soon as he was with the others they drew their weapons and took aim at the thing before them.

“Light it up! LIGHT IT UP!!” Cutter yells.

Smoke fills and soon obscures the area that the being stands in. They never once stopped firing, their fingers seemingly glued to the trigger, but when they needed to reload; there was no interruption, no halt. For good measure, they reloaded and kept firing, expending all of their ammunition for both pistols and SMGs’.

When they had all expended their last clips, Cutter began to laugh.

“Ha ha ha! That was for Stacy you piece a shit! Come guys let’s get out of here before-.” He stopped talking... just halted mid sentence with a look of confusion. After a few moments, his jaw drops, and he points into the smoke.

There in the smoke, lies a mountain of bullets, all of them covering something. With a small flex, the rounds drop to reveal the dark figure wrapped completely in its cape. Its head soon popped out of the top with its grin still intact. And on top of all that, for the first time, the being spoke, and it spoke only four words.

“Are you quite finished?” she asks sarcastically, that malicious grin showing through her mask.

It was a mare’s voice, and a familiar one at that, like I had heard it somewhere before. But it was corrupted, like someone had put it through a computer and digitized it, but you could still tell it was a mare. The dream continued.

They all stared at her, not believing what they were seeing, when suddenly the two remaining mares charged her.

“This is for Stacy you bastard!” they yell, but before Cutter could stop them, it was too late. As they ran the mare levitated the expended ammunition and re-sharpened the dulled rounds. After they had been sharpened, the rounds began to come together in two groups, pointing outwards at different angles.

When the mares realize what's happening, they skid to a halt and try to turn around, but are held in place by a magic grasp, and forced to stand upright. The males all try to rush to their aid, but find a strong force field standing in their way. The girls were mortified, completely at the mercy of this treacherous mare, and no one could save them.

Before the mare did anything else, she took out a small piece of paper in her hand to show it to each of the mares. When they had both seen it, their faces went from extreme terror to anger.

“That’s why!” one of them said. “You’re doing all of this because of some stupid-!”

She was about to finish, then it happened; the bullets exploded, each one going into and through the mares. Their eyes went wide and they began to cough up blood, and with loud thumps, they fell down dead.

The males were terrified, this…THING had just killed those two without even thinking about, and now it was looking at them. They all made a break for it down a nearby alleyway in hopes that they could outrun then mare, but when they looked back, she was gone.

Seeing that she had disappeared only made them run twice as fast. Everything seemed to go well, they were halfway down the alley…then Joey ran down a cross section in the middle.

“Joey no!” He looked back for just an instance to see who was yelling. But when he turned back around, he was stopped dead in his tracks…literally.

It took him a minute, coming back from the initial shock, but he soon realized what was going on; he was now hovering off the ground, with the now blade-like edge of the mare's cape impaling him.

As blood began to trickle from his nose and mouth the mare took out that same piece of paper and showed it to him; and when he looked at it, his eyes went wide.

But before fading into the blackness, he had one more thing to say: “Oh… that’s why.”

And with all that said and done, his eyes rolled back, and the afterlife took him.

The other two had started running right after the paper was shown. They were almost out of the alleyway when Cutters friend yelped in pain. Looking back, Cutter could see him laid out on the floor, clutching his legs and screaming. When he ran over and looked, it was obvious what was causing the pain;

the major tendons supporting his legs had been slashed.

“I…I can’t move my legs!” he shouts. Suddenly, a noise caught their attention, forcing them to look up. There in the distance, was that horrible mare; the tips of her cape not only covered in Joey’s blood, but the blood of Cutters friend. As she walked towards them, she pulled out her hand and summoned a small flame, and begun to sing;

’Here comes a candle to light you to bed.’

After this verse, the light disappeared, and was now replaced by the serrated blades that used to be her cape. She continued to sing.

’Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.’

She began to scrape her blades along the pavement with each step she took as she sang.

chop.

*shink.*

chop.

*shink.*

chop!

*shink!*

CHOP!!

*SHINK!!*

She crossed the blade/cape combination, making a V shape under her face. She looked up and sang the final parts; ’The last stallion's dead.’

The mare was getting closer, they had to get away. Cutter grabbed his friend by the hand and tried to pull him, but his friend wouldn’t budge.

“You go, I’ll only slow you down.” Cutter looks down and, for the first time, speaks his friends name.

“Shifty… no.” he said with tears in his eyes.

“Damn it Cutter; I can’t fucking walk, let alone run! GO!” Cutter recoils from his friend, starting to softly jog, and soon braking into a full on run.

When Shifty turned around, he gasped at the mare that now stood above him. After the shock wore off, he began to chuckle, and while doing so began to speak to her.

“Alright, what?” he asks “What could we have possibly done to warrant this, huh? Go ahead; show me whatever the hay is on that stupid paper!”

The mare was happy to oblige. She pulled out the paper and showed it to him. He thought he would laugh it off and even chastise her for picking such a stupid reason; but then he looked at what was on the paper. His eyes went wide, his jaw went slack, and everything went silent.

After a few minutes of silence, Shifty finally spoke, but only two words came out.

“Fuck you.” He whispered.

The mare smirked as she brought one of her hooves to his neck and pressed down.

“Fuck you.” He says again, his voice rising in tone. The mare continued to ad pressure to his neck; he kept repeating those two words, but even as he tried to yell them, the pressure building up made the words come out in short, aggravated breaths.

“Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you! FUCK Y-!” before he could finish the mare twisted her hoof slightly, snapping Shiftys’ neck. Before he died, he saw the mare look forward and begin walking past him, and whispered two last words;

“C-Cutter…run…”

By now I was convinced that this was not a dream, but a horror movie that I saw a long time ago, forgot about, and was now replaying in my head.

Cutter had been running for a good ten minutes, panting with exhaustion, sweat pouring through his coat. He was about to collapse, then he saw it; lights…somepony was still awake. Tears of joy started to run down his face, he was finally free; all he had to do was reach that house.

But then something happened, something awful; on the back of his coat, he felt a hoof touch him. Before he could turn around, the whole world sort of stopped; the air became thin, everything seemed to move slower, the surroundings became blurred, and there was no sound.  It was as if the very world ended around him in a silent explosion.

After three seconds of this, the world seemed to reconfigure; sound came back, as did the air, and the world became visible more and more, returning to normal speed. When he finally turned around, what he saw terrified him.

There, behind him, was that same cart that mare had been destroyed, with Stacy still on top of the crushed roof. Cutter looked around and confirmed his suspicions; he was back at square one.

“ What!? How did I? But I was. What the hay!?” he yells in confusion, not knowing how any of this was possible.

“Teleportation spell.” An all too familiar voice called from behind him. Shaking with fear, he turned around to see the dark mare, staring at him.

“It takes a lot of magic, but once you get the hang of it, it’s child’s play.” He continued to stare at her, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Are you going to just stand there and stare at me while this happens, or will you actually put up a fight?” He falls to the ground, almost oblivious to her, and begins to sob.

After a minute of crying on the ground, he looked back up at the mare and asked the obvious question.

“W-Why!?” he cried. “What did we do to deserve this, huh? Why the hay did you do this to me, TO MY FRIENDS!?”

"Don't you think he thought that?" she asks.

"WHAT?"

"As his body shook, his brain dissolved, his organs shut down, and white hot pain shot through him; don't you think he asked WHY!?"

"What the hay are you talking about!?" He screamed, his confusion being replaced with seething rage.

The mare only chuckled, and took out that same piece of paper, throwing it down in front of him; and when he looked at it, his eyes widened, and his mouth hung agape.

On the paper, was a stallion which looked about the same age as Cutter. The stallion was in what looked to be a family photo, in a group hug. The stallion had a coconut cream colored coat, and hazelnut hair. The mare, using a part of her cape, flipped the paper over.

On the back was the same stallion, but on an autopsy table. He was obviously dead. Underneath the photo it read;

“name: Salty Sweet, COD: salt overdose.”

“I... I don’t know what that is!” he said looking away from her, obviously lying. The mare chuckled again, this time throwing out a tape recorder. Before he could ask what it is, it began to play;

“Alright, so everypony knows the plan?” It was obviously Cutters voice on the recorder.

“Yeah, I get bad salt from our friends at the docks, and pass it onto Stacy and the girls.” Joey replies.

“Me and the girls will call Salty to his favorite salt spot, we’ll ad that if he gets there early, the salt won’t be the only thing he’ll get.” Stacy and the two other mares begin to giggle.

Shifty cut in after their laughter subsided.

“While you mares are seducing him, or flirting, either one, I’ll switch out his salt with the bad stuff.” He and everypony else looked over at Cutter as he explained the final part of the plan.

“And I’ll make it look like he was alone so we don’t get investigated.” They all agreed to the plan and began to laugh. After a little bit of laughter, Cutter gave one final speech before the tape ended:

“Guess the kid didn’t know. If you owe the Cutting Crew; you either pay up, or pay DEARLY!” After that, they broke out into a fit of laughter, the tape ending shortly after.

Cutter sat silent for a moment, then began to chuckle.

“You know what?” he said “I’m not even worried, cause I got so many friends in so many places, there’s no way your flank is gonna be alive for more than a day after this!” he yelled at her, beginning to smile.

She put a finger to her chin and began to ponder. “Hmm... friend, friends, friends... ”

She gasps, reaching into her suit.

“You mean these?” she says with a devilish amount of sarcasm, throwing several pictures in front of him. As he looks at them, his face slowly transcends into an expression of sheer terror.

On the pictures were Cutters friends. All of them had been killed in some gruesome way; whether it be drowning, mutilation, or bludgeoning. This gruesome mare knew how to make a pony scream.

“Yeah... they won’t be avenging you anytime soon.” She says… almost casually in fact. Cutter looked over the pictures and began to tear up, hunching over in the process.

“No... no... you couldn’t have killed them all. You just couldn’t have.” He wept.

“Of course I could. It was fairly easy actually; I just had to monitor them for a week to get their meet-up schedule. Honestly, you gangs think you’re so discrete sometimes.” She said in a very nonchalant manner.

“They’d all done something equally as bad as what you did, so I probably would’ve just went after them eventually.” she says very matter-of-factly.

“But I digress; it’s time to finish this.” Her cape sharpens again, and she began to walk towards Cutter.

“WAIT!” he screamed, and for some reason, she actually stopped and waited.

"Before we do this, just answer me one question.” She gestured with her hoof for him to get on with it.

“W-What… what are you?” he asked, choking it through tears and terror.

“J-Just… what the hay are you?”

She laughs haughtily, bringing a hoof to her mask. As she slowly removes it, she covers her now exposed face with her cape, until her entire head is buried withing. Cutter had little time to wonder just what was happening, the mare teleporting directly in front of him. But when she revealed her face... it didn't just terrify Cutter... it frightened me.

It was… me, Trixie. Silver hair, blue coat and all. But there was one difference; her smile. For where I had normal, healthy teeth; she had rows of sharp, gleaming fangs. And then she spoke… and the three words that escaped her snout…terrified me.

“I. Am. MAREDOWELL!!!”

As her cape covered the scene in darkness, the last ten seconds of the dream was nothing but the sound of Cutter screaming… and me laughing.

And right before it ended, I could have sworn I saw the dark version of me in her MareDoWell costume with her cape spread out. In the dark area in her spread cape, there were two words scribbled;

“EMBRACE ME.”

I woke up in a cold sweat, scared to death of the dream I just experienced. I went into the bathroom to ponder exactly what the dream meant.

Was that what was to become of me if I chose this path, some crazed lunatic in a costume who causes pain to criminals to please herself; I shuddered at the very idea. I took a warm shower to try to fall asleep again. But, as I was finishing up, I looked in the mirror, dropped my towel, and turned around as quickly as I could. For in the mirror, I thought I saw the ‘me’ from the dream, smiling at me.

I decided to sleep it off, and just try to forget about it; write it off as a bad dream. Besides, I needed my sleep; I had bigger problems to worry about. If I was going to choose this path, I needed a costume.

And only one place in Ponyville had the materials to make that kind of costume.

MareDoWell chp 5: Creation

I woke the next morning in another cold sweat, for in the night I had another dream. It was much shorter than the last but it was still very unsettling.

I was walking down the same alleyway that Cutter and his friends had, as I looked over the place, I soon noticed a noise coming from in front of me. As I looked in the direction of the noise, it soon became obvious what was making it; there at the end of the alley, in a streetlight, was Stacy. She was still on top of that cart, but she was moaning now; I think she was trying to call for help.

I rushed to her so that I could possibly try to help her, when I got close enough I put my hand on her shoulder, and shook her.

“Are you alright!?” I asked with a worried tone in my voice. She looked up at me and began to speak.

“H-Help m-.” her sentence was cut off by something falling on her, impacting with a thunderous crash, knocking me onto my plot. When I was able to focus again, I looked up at what had fallen on Stacy, and my heart froze. On top of Stacy, in all her glory, was the terrifying MareDoWell.

We stared at each other for a few minutes, not talking or moving, until I broke the silence.

“W-What do you want!” I asked very quickly.  But she did not talk, she did not gesture, oh no she did something far worse; there on her mask, I could see the corners of what would be her mouth turn upwards, forming a wicked smile.

I didn’t even have time to scream at this response. For when I tried, she had already spread her cape, and leapt towards me, causing me to let out a yelp. When her cape covered the dream, I saw another message written in the same scribbled fashion as the last;

“ Make.

Them.

BELIEVE!”

And then I woke up.

I was in the shower now, washing up so I could get ready and go to where I needed to go, and trying to figure out what the HAY that message in the dream meant. ‘Make them believe’? Believe what!? That I’m a demented psycho vigilante? That I’m going to kill the first criminal I see? That I’m always stalking somepony? Damn it!

I decided it would be best to just forget the dream and move on. I gathered my things and headed out.

When I left, the first thought that went through my mind was; what should I say? Should I be polite and kind, or should I be rude back to her? It was indeed a dilemma, but I needed these materials to make a costume, and if I had to risk a confrontation to do so, then I would.

I arrived at my destination, trembling as I walked to the door. I brought a hoof to the wood and knocked 3 times, secretly hoping no one would answer; but alas, they, or rather she, did.

The door opened, revealing a white unicorn in a black, form fitting dress, with a royal purple mane, curled at the ends.

“Welcome to the Carousel Boutique! Where everything is sheik, unique, and ma-“ she stopped once she saw it was me.

We stared at each other for a moment before greeting one another, equal amounts of awkward tension showing in our voices.

“... Rarity... ”

“... Trixie... ”

I was allowed entrance to the shop, which was already more than I expected to be given. The shops interior was quite beautiful.

The smell of certain fabrics being freshly made.

The burning of incense making the room smell of flowers and exotic berries.

Rows of mannequins all dressed in absolutely marvelous outfits with wonderful designs.

It was absolutely breathtaking.

We walked over to a set of chairs, where she gestured me to take a seat. We sat facing each other, awkward silence filling the room. Rarity was the first to speak.

“So... um... what brings you to my shop?”  She asks.

“Um... I need supplies for an outfit... preferably in bulk if you can.”

She looks over at me with a puzzled expression.

“Um... why do you need it in bulk?” she asks. I knew she would ask, I already had an answer prepared.

“I’m going to make a few new costumes for my performances, but I also wanted to do a few side projects, so I need them in bulk.”

She then looked over at me with a suspicious glare.

“Why would you come here instead of some of the places in Canterlot?” she asks. It almost felt like I was being interrogated now.

I look up at her with a soft smile.

“Because in Canterlot I’d end up spending over three-thousand bits or more, but here I’d end up probably spending around five-hundred to one-thousand.”

“Are you implying that my shop is cheap?” she asks.

I simply smile, giving a calm reply. “Not the shop, the prices.”

She turns her head away from me to mumble. “There are plenty of other clothing and fabric places in Ponyville.”

I caught what she said and gave my response.

“Yeah, but none of them are as good as this place.” I said very matter-of-factly.

She pointed her nose in the air and ‘hmphed’ at me.

“Flattery won’t change things.” She said rather harshly. After this little comment, I decided it was time to stop being nice, and start being direct.

“Look, I didn’t come here to cause trouble, I just want the supplies. Besides, you really do have the best products in Ponyville for the lowest prices, I wasn’t trying to flatter you.” I say in a more ‘to-the-point’ manner.

After this, she finally gave in and sighed.

“Fine, what do you need?” she asked, and with new found confidence, I started to list off the things I needed.

First, I need fabric of course.

What kind; silk, cotton, cloth...?

Silk and wool cloth yes, but I’d also like strengthened nylon, linen, velvet, plus carbon fiber and microfiber materials modified for durability and water resistance. Also some Teflon if you have any.

Oh... um... wow. That seems like a bit much don’t you think?

For everyday projects, yes. For what I have planned, no.

Okay then... what else do you need?

Um... graphite, carbon... and a medium amount of steal, plus molding equipment,

Okay... why carbon and steel?

I was thinking that maybe I could include some metallic pieces to the overall design.

Alright... anything else?

Um... a kit for magic-based reproduction would be nice; so that if I’m running low I can just take a bit of the materials and use magic to reproduce what I need. Oh and some Kevlar... just in case something goes wrong.

Alright then, anything else?

Actually that should be it.

And you want all this in bulk?

Yes mam.

Alright then... just let me tally up the price; it goes up to about... one-thousand eight-hundred bits.

One-thousand eight-hundred?

Well you did say you wanted them in bulk didn’t you?

Actually I asked because getting that many things in bulk usually cost way more than that.

Well you said you came here for the low prices.

Yeah... I did. So, how long is the wait going to be?

Not long, it’s all just raw materials anyway. Just wait here for about a half an hour and I should have it all packaged up for you.

Okay. And Rarity...

Yes?

Thanks.

You’re... you’re welcome Trixie.

I sat there while she went to get my supplies, a question silently spinning in my head as I waited. I couldn’t help but enjoy the lovely designs she had displayed on a group of mannequins.

The dresses just seemed to flow, each telling its own story. One told of the night sky and all of its stars, the other told a story of the plant life and wilderness of the world, and another told a story of elegance and beauty; all of them becoming equally beautiful in their own way.

“They’re our gala dresses.” My head snapped around to see Rarity levitating a large box.

“Oh, I’m sorry.... I was just admiring the good craftsmanship. They are quite beautiful.” I respond with a warm smile.

Rarity seemed to doubt my praise, but only a little.

“Um... thank you.” She says, obviously feeling very awkward right now. To ease the tension, I decided it was time to take my leave.

“Thank you for the supplies Rarity, it was really nice of you to let me in. Why did you let me in anyways?” I ask, curious as to why she wouldn’t just kick me off of her porch and slam her door.

She let out a small giggle and looked over at me.

“Because Trixie, any business is good business... even yours.” I notice the emphasis on the last part and chuckle to myself, and then another question comes to mind.

“Why were you so polite to me? With what you five think of me, I expected a least a little bit of attitude from you.” I ask.

She held her head high and put a hoof to her chest.

“It is in my personal code of conduct to show the upmost respect to all my costumers.” Her hoof went to her face to hide her embarrassment.

“That, and... um... Fluttershy confronted us about the way we treated you at the party. She was quite... assertive... when she did.” She said looking away.

“I remember when angle wouldn’t stop throwing things at me because he thought I was still the old Trixie.” i shuddered.

”Fluttershy had to be a little... assertive... to him as well... and that’s how I learned to never make Fluttershy angry... ever.” I laughed.

We each giggled for a moment at the funny memory. I then took my things and left, saying my goodbyes. As I walked home though, a single thought ran through my head.

Hmm, if my plan works, I’d like to hang out with her more.

I arrived at my house and checked the supplies;

Reinforced nylon; check!

Microfibers for durability and water resistance; check!

Teflon; check!

Wool cloth; check!

Linen; check!

Carbon; check!

Kevlar, steal, carbon, graphite, and a magic assisted reproduction kit; check! Check! And…CHECK!

I had everything I needed, but this wasn’t going to happen right now, this was going to take at least a single day to do, and I had been out buying the supplies for most of today. I decided to retire to my bedroom to receive some well deserved shuteye. Besides, I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

This time when I slept, I was given a reprieve from the nightmares. In this dream, I found myself standing atop a roof, looking down onto Ponyville. When I looked down at my hooves, something became frighteningly clear; I was in the MareDoWell costume.

I was about to take it off, but the dream took control. I immediately took flight; looming over the city as I did. before swooping down, and landing on the roof of what looked to be a three story building.

I looked around until my eyes fell upon somepony standing over the edge of the rooftop, leaning on a banister, looking over the city themselves. As I moved closer to them, I soon recognized the clothing, figure and hairstyle; they belonged to Twilight Sparkle. She seemed to be on the roof of some building enjoying a cup of tea, wearing a dark leather jacket and shirt of the same color, with skin tight blue jeans and ankle high boots.

’No... NO... you can’t hurt her! She hasn’t done anything wrong! LEAVE HER ALONE!’ I scream out in my mind, but to no avail. I was right behind Twilight now, inching ever closer, until I was right on top of her. Obviously getting the strange feeling of somepony behind her, she turned around, letting out a startled gasp at the sight of me.

I prepared for the worst, to see the mare of my dreams get beaten, battered, and inevitably killed. But then, something…unexpected occurred. Her startled expression gave way to a heartwarming smile, and she spoke to me; “Trixie... you know I hate it when you do that.”

There were now several questions buzzing around in my head ’How does she know my name? Why isn’t she scared of me in this costume? Why is she looking at me like that? Why-?’ All my thoughts came to a screeching halt as I noticed twilight had walked over to me and now had her snout next to my ear.

“Unless... you like to be called MareDoWell. If so; then I hate it when you do that... MareDoWell.” She says, finishing with a soft yet seductive smile.

“Trixie is fine.” I say, another reminder that I wasn’t in control here. However, that wouldn't be the case for long. When Twilight approached me, swaying her hips and tail, I was immediately thrust back into control of my body, jolting me forward to grab hold of her.

Before I could do or say anything I heard a voice in my head say ’Hold her, say what you feel’. She was suprised at first, but looked up at me with a warm smile after a few moments in my embrace. Then, it happened. She brought her left hand to my mask, lifted the bottom... and brought her lips against mine.

The world stopped for what seemed like hours as I closed my eyes to enjoy the moment, just as she did. I wanted to question what was going on, but the situation itself was too heavenly for me to create a single thought. When she pulled away from me, she was panting, a deep flush enveloping her cheeks, a dreamy, lustful expression covering her face.

"Trixie... I’ve waited all day for this, don’t make me wait any longer.”

My eyes widened at her words, and I found myself unconsciously saying “Me too, my love.”

Before I could think my hand slipped to her rump, grasping it lovingly, making her gasp and whimper with excitement. We dove into another kiss, letting our mouths open as we released ragged breaths and pleasured moans, our tongues dancing around and over each other.

When we separated; she looked into my eyes and started to speak. “Trixie, I . . . I l-lo . . .”

I no longer cared if this was a dream; I just wanted her to say the words I knew she was trying to say. “Trixie, I BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!”

Awakening with a jump, nearly falling out of my bed; I looked around for what could have woken me from such a heavenly dream. I looked around the room, and soon found the culprit. My alarm clock had gone off, letting out an obnoxiously loud beep.  ’Well . . . at least I know why Twilight started beeping.’ I thought.

As I look at the clock, I utter only two words; “fuck... you... ”

I washed up and prepared for the day, knowing that I would need to start making the costume today. I made a healthy breakfast of haycon and eggs and sat down, thinking about how I would make the costume, and what the order of the fabrics would be. I kept thinking of the structure, placements of fabrics, and any possible charms/spells I could use to make the costume the best it could be.

I finished eating breakfast and quickly made my way to the workroom. Gathering all the necessary materials, I began to make the suit.

I pulled out a mannequin I had molded to match my figure; I wrapped the silk around it and began to cut and stitch. When I was finished, I had created a full-body silk wet suit, only missing a mask. Now that the base for the costume had been made, it was time to add the layers.

First was the linen; nothing special, just sewing a layer medium-thin layer onto the silk, and mixing it with some velvet. This way when I moved in the costume, not only would I feel more limber, but it would be more comfortable. I also added some linen and velvet pads here and there for added comfort.

Now that the soft inner layer was out of the way; I could start on the rough protective outer layer. But before I made anything, I used a fusion spell to combine each fabric I was going to use with the durability and water resistant micro fibers. This way each layer would be stronger and harder to get through.

The next fiber that was going to be put on was nylon. Nylon is a fabric known for its strength and durability, so it would make sense to have it make the first layer. After the nylon layer had been crafted onto the suit, it was time to add the Kevlar layer, for obvious reasons. I added two medium thin layers of Kevlar and then stitched them to the suit.

Now the last layer could be added; the Teflon. Heavily combing it with durability micro fibers, I added a very thin layer of Teflon. The slippery plastic consistency of the material would make me harder to grab in possible combat situations and allow me to slip through tight spaces easier. Then, for good measure, i added carbon fiber reinforcement, to make me that much harder to damage.

And for theatricality, I used a nylon and Teflon mixture to create an M on my chest. The middle of the M went down my chest and stopped over my heart, while its two sides went down my forelegs and stopped where the upper foreleg meets the lower. I then made near microscopic holes all over the suit so that as I moved, air could circulated through the suit.

It was done; after ten hours, It was finally done. It was a standard wet suit, save for the M. the lines of the wet suit going down the sides, the flanks and legs, and the arms, showing where I had sewn the costume together. But I wasn’t done yet.

The mask and hat were to come next, and both would prove to be fairly easy. All I did was take 1 layer of silk and 2 layers of nylon, and molded them around the mannequins head. I then decided to make a hat very similar to the design of a Stetson hat. I took woolen fibers and matted them, condensed them, and pressed them; it took a while but I eventually made a felt.

I sewed and stitched the felt for hours until it formed into the shape of a hat. I put a single layer of nylon on the hat to give it a soft texture and feel to it. After I had made the hat, I took the mask and placed it on the mannequins head, and then took the hat and placed it on top of the mask, looking at where the ears would be if the hat weren’t covering them.

I began to cut holes in the hat, being careful as to not accidentally nick the ear itself, so that I could pull the ears through these holes. After pulling the ears through, I sewed the hat and the mask together, stitching it so that the holes were attached to the base of the ear. Finally, I cut two holes in the masks’ face, for when it would be time to make the eyes.

The next part would take much more time, so I decided to take a 6 hour nap so that I could be more focused while making the more complicated parts of the costume.

When I awoke, I immediately got to work on the metallic, graphite, and glass based pieces. First, I wanted to get the only glass based pieces out of the way; the eyes. I took a sheet of one inch thick plexiglass and used a color spectrum manipulation spell on it. This spell would make in so that to me, the glass would appear clear and see-through; but to everyone else it would be a slightly darker sky-blue.

The next step would have to be done carefully, as to not damage myself. I looked into a mirror and, putting the plexiglass up to my face, began to magically cut the glass to outline my eye. Once this was done, I took a blow torch to each eye piece until they became curved at the ends.

I turned to the mask, and using magic, quickly attached the eye pieces to the holes in the mask. I then took some time to make thin, polished graphite rings to go around the eyes, so they could conceal where the fabric and the glass met.

I knew then that it was time for the armored pieces of the costume to come into play, but I will spare you the details. Needless to say though, that I knew as soon as I started welding, molding and crafting; that I was going to be doing this for a while.

Done... they were all finally done. After hours of grueling, sweaty blacksmithing, I had finally made all of the armor for the costume.

First I made the hoof guards. I created a padded hoof guard base, so it would be comfortable when I walk, run, or gallop. I covered the padding with graphite, and then made the rest of the hoof guard with reinforced carbon, the design coming out similar to that of the royal hoof guards the princesses wear.

The second part was the gauntlets. I decided to make them out of reinforced graphite, a light weight material that can defend against most standard offenses, with a thin layer of carbon underneath. I thought about something I would need as an offense, and came up with the grandest idea; in each arm gauntlet, there were three sets of three steel blades that would come out of the sides of the gauntlets.

All these blades were housed in mechanisms that responded to my magic; a push would extend them, a pull would retract, and a pulse would launch them from the gauntlet a high speeds. The back leg gauntlets would have blades as well that stick out of the back.

Last but not least were the ears and cape. For the ears, I simply put graphite on the inner ear part, attaching it to the hat as well as the ear piece. The cape however, was a different story entirely.

The cape was made of silk, nylon and Teflon, but that wasn’t all. I needed this cape to be perfect, and if I wanted it to be just that, I needed a certain... spell.

I dragged the cape into a dark room with some chalk, setting it down on the ground. I grabbed my chalk and drew the incantation circle I needed. Once the circle was done around the cape, I drew three symbols in the walls of the circle and around the cape; the sun, the moon and Equestria.

Stepping back from the circle, I began to chant a spell that I learned long ago, but never thought I would use;

I bless this cloth in the name of the three.

The circle illuminated, giving off a bright glow. I continued the spell.

I call upon the princess of the light,

so with this I can go forth into the sky and take flight!

The sun illuminated, spitting fourth white flames. I could feel the power growing.

I call upon the princess of the night,

so that this will hide me from my enemies,

and show them my might!

The moon lit up, spitting fourth its own blue-ish black flames. I saw that both the sun and moons flames had increased in size and the power in the room had grown again.

And I call upon the gods in the Eternal Lands,

so that this may bend, shape and harden... at my COMMAND!

With the final words spoken, the picture of Equestria shot forth rainbow flames. The magic in the room had become so intense, it pushed me into a wall and held me there.

The flames of each circle had joined above the cape, forming a giant orb of pure magic. Finally, the orb of magic broke, pouring its contents onto the cape below it and causing a bright flash of light, temporarily blinding me.

When my vision returned, the circle was gone, and the cape lie there; smoking. I walked over to the cape, levitating it with me back to the costume.

When I attached the cape to the costume, I knew that finishing touches were in order. I gave the suit itself kinetic barriers for defense. I strengthened the overall suit with a durability charm. I enchanted the glass that would cover my eyes so that I could enable things like night vision, X-ray, etc. the graphite eardrums received a resonator spell, so that I could manipulate my hearing efficiency. And last but not least, the suit received a cloud hex, for walking on clouds of course.

Now that the whole costume was done, I had one more thing to do; pocket storage. Focusing my magic, I created a small pocket universe in my mind; then focusing on the costume, I slowly but surely transferred the costume into the universe. I watched as the suit slowly disintegrated, forming deep within my mind, until every bit of it had disappeared into storage.

Now that the suit was in storage, I wanted to test out the summon capability. I focused on the suit in my mind and visualized it forming on me; forming a mirror in front of me; fixing whatever problems there were as I went. Until finally as I opened my eyes; I was graced with the image of me in costume reflecting in the mirror.

It was marvelous, absolutely amazing, the only problem was color. I decided that the lower part of the back-legs and forelegs should be a near-black shade of blue-ish purple, this color scheme would go up the inner side of the foreleg in a line and fuse with the middle of the chest.

The chest would carry an upside-down triangle shape with this color; going from shoulder to shoulder, descending down, having the pointed end of the triangle stop at the midsection.

The color would also extend up the outer back legs, going along the flanks and sides in a line and meeting the triangle at the exact place the forelegs do. The eyes would be a faded sky-blue, the cape would be the same color as the lower back-legs and forelegs, but slightly darker. So would the mask, hat and the M on the chest. Everything else would be a very dark purple, including the stripe on the base of the hat.

Before I put the costume away, I did 2 things. One, I noticed that every time I look in a reflection, I can see my eyes through the glass, so I modified the spectrum spell so that if it’s just a reflection, the eyes will show up blue. Two, I tested out the cape.

The first test was flight. I centered my magic on the concept of flight, as well as my thoughts, and before I knew it; air had flooded the underside of my cape, making me hit my head on the ceiling.

The second test was strength and stealth. For strength, I merely whipped my cape at a nearby mannequin… slicing its head off. For stealth, I looked in the mirror and covered myself in the cape. Through the cape I could see the mirror, and in the mirror… was nothing.

I grinned with delight at my success, but I wasn’t done yet. The third test, shape shifting basically, was the last one. I used my cape to form a few objects in rapid succession; a shield, a pair of wings, a… blade.

I found myself looking at two gigantic blades, near identical to the one from the first nightmare I had. I began swinging them in the air, practicing combat strikes and blocks. I did this for a good few minutes until I heard a slicing noise next to me and felt added weight to my left blade. I looked to my left and saw what the added weight was; and immediately became dead silent.

There, impaled on my left blade, was Joey, from my dream. His eyes were white; his skin was pale; and there was blood leaking from his big, toothy grin. Before I could even question what was going on, he spoke, and his words were so frightening; I still remember them to this day.

I BELIEVE!

I woke up on the floor with a jolt, chilled to the bone. As I looked around the room, I was able to piece together the events leading up to my unconscious state. There was a piece of welding equipment swinging back and forth, as if something hit it. I figure that while fooling around, I must have hit the tool and dozed off, which led me to decide that I was too exhausted to do anymore, and the testing would have to come tomorrow.

That night, when I went to sleep, I did not dream, but instead just saw a black abyss, punctuated by whispers.

Why do you run?

Embrace me, embrace yourself.

Make them believe in us.

You shall become their reckoning.

It just kept going on and on, but I didn’t let it wake me; for I had plans tomorrow that required rest.

Yes . . . BIG plans.

MareDoWell chp 6: Flow

I stared down the barrel, sweating as I anticipated the inevitable impact; the steal of the shotgun gleaming in the sunlight. I breathed heavily, not knowing what the outcome of this situation would be.

I counted the seconds that ticked by, the sweat beginning to pour down my face and fill my mask with its scent. I could hear the trigger being squeezed, slowly inching its way down. As the trigger moved those last few inches, I heard a thunderous bang, and felt a sudden release of air from my lungs.

I felt my hooves fly out from under me as I was propelled into the air. The pain coursing through my chest was unlike anything I’d ever felt before, causing my whole body to spasm and twitch. When I finally hit the ground, the world came to a stop, my vision began to fade… and darkness took me.

“Bucking Celestia… that hurts so much!” I yell, slowly opening my eyes after a minute of unconsciousness. I used magic to remove the adaptation shells from my chest area, the layers of reinforced fabric successfully stopping them from… well… killing me.

The shells had been made to give what is called a “base impact”, which would apply the combined pressure and force of most standard ammunition's. Enchanted armor (like my own) could take this pressure and adapt to it, meaning that most rounds would be blocked without pain as long as the armor was kept in good condition.

I used an enchantment to enhance the pressure and force (P/F) readings from the shells so that the suit could take nearly every type of round from long, medium, and even close range. I put a hoof to my chest and cast a repair spell to fix the damage done by the shells.

When I was done I released the double barrel from my magical grasp, and walked over to a nearby stump; on top of it lay a clipboard with a check list on it. Picking up the list, I crossed out armor preparation, and looked over the list in its entirety. I eventually picked flexibility and aerodynamics next.

After teleporting to the edge of the Everfree forest, I looked around for any groups of trees that might make a good make-shift obstacle course.

After five minutes of searching, I happened upon a zig-zag of trees. They were tall enough to be used as training ground, but not tall enough to kill me if I fall. They were also close enough together so that I could jump from tree to tree.

I teleported to the lowest branch, balancing myself so I wouldn’t fall, looking up into the branches hanging over me in tangled sections of wood and leaves. I crouched, preparing to jump, judging the distance in my head. The next thing I knew, I had propelled myself from the branch, and was headed towards the next at high speed.

I dug my armored hands into the next branch, causing me to spin around and land on the top of it. Taking only a second to rest, I looked to the next few branches and jumped, galloping across them with rapid succession, the silk and linen brushing against my fur every so softly as I did. As I continued to jump and run, I noticed that my breathing was becoming labored, and my reaction time began to slow.

I jumped over to the next tree, leaping across its branches . . . or, trying, to leap across its branches. When I jumped to the next branch, I quickly lost my footing and began to fall.

Thinking quick, I teleported to the soft forest floor and started over; I got a little bit further, but ultimately failed again, this time hitting a branch on the way down, making me unable to focus; so the only thing I could do was instinctively twist and turn to avoid the bigger branches.

After I hit the ground, I check my body to make sure nothing was broken or sprained. Everything seemed fine, until I prodded my left side, revealing what felt like a giant bruise that started at my shoulder and ended at my flank. I cast a healing spell on myself and decided to take a break.

“What am I doing wrong?” I thought out loud.

“No matter how hard I focus, I can’t stop myself from falling. What am I missing?” I said aloud again, frustration showing in my voice. I decided to meditate while I was healing in an attempt to relax my body, so the process would quicken.

As I sat there and meditated, something happened, something... extraordinary. I found myself in a world shrouded in darkness; no lights, no sounds, not even any buildings or landmarks . . . just pitch blackness. I looked around in the darkness, trying to establish where I was when a sudden thought rocketed through my mind.

“Oh god . . . if I fell asleep while meditating and I’m having another freaking dream, I’m going to kill a bi-.” I froze, not knowing if what just happened ACTUALLY happened.

That thought was internal; I did not vocalize it in any way. But if that was the case, why had I heard it as if it had been spoken.

’What the buck!’ I said, or, tried to say; when my lips moved, no sound came out . . . I was mute.

I tried saying something else, ’Luna! Celestia! TWILIGHT!’  I screamed! But no sound came out. But, when I thought about them, each name came out clear as day, as if I was ACTUALLY saying them.

I was baffled, my mouth hanging agape. As I tried to figure out exactly what the hay was going on, I began to hear a strange noise, almost like the sound of chanting. I walked in the direction that I believed the sound to be coming from, and began to hear what was being chanted; my name.

Trixie! Trixie! Trixie! I heard over and over again, making me walk faster, revealing a small light growing bigger in the distance. I thought about teleporting to it, but, what if it was just another nightmare luring me to it, using the element of curiosity?

But then, I heard something different, something that made my eyes go wide and my jaw drop, something . . . old.

’BEHOLD! IT IS I! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!’

At the mention of my old catchphrase, I didn’t run, nor even gallop; I full on teleported to the source, shocked at what I found. It… was the last time I came to Ponyville, two years ago, specifically the show where I did… that… to three of the elements. It was actually something I wanted vehemently to forget.

As I approached the memory, I reached a hoof out to touch it, gently brushing my hoof against the screen. I immediately recoiled, startled by multiple other memories exploding from it, reacting to my touch like roaches to a flashlight.

I looked over each memory, surveying them. To my right was my return to Ponyville, leading to my eventual friendship with Fluttershy. Next to it was an argument between Fluttershy and Twilight focused on me being back.

“She hasn’t changed Shy, she never will. Can’t you see she’s playing you!?” Twilight yelled, not caring that I was watching the event silently and could hear everything she said.

“Can’t you see that you all are being a bunch of judgmental jerks!? I swear, you all are acting worse than me after the whole ‘Iron Will’ incident!” Fluttershy stated, not yelling or shouting, but talking sternly non-the-less.

I remember how it took about a week before Fluttershy talked to them again . . . and it was my fault. I looked away, not wanting to relive this horrid memory.

I felt myself begin to cry, but was brought out of my sniffling by a sound, almost familiar sound; a sound of… singing?

I looked over to my right to see a memory hovering towards me at a moderate speed.

“Happy birthday to you!” I heard. “It… it can’t be!” I thought as the memory drew closer.

“Happy birthday to you!” I heard again, my eyes widening as I realized that I recognized all the voices singing.

“Happy birthday dear Trixie!” I heard them all sing again, the memory closing the remaining distance between us.

”HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!” I heard as the dream flashed bright white blinding me.

When my vision refocused, what I saw not only shocked me… but brought me no end of pure joy.

It was me… as a 12-year-old filly, wearing a party hat. To my sides were my parents, Dazzle and Heavy-Hitter Lunamoon. Around me were some of my childhood friends like Geo Metric, Big Win, Eye Liner, and so-on. I saw myself blow out the candles on the cake. I tried to use my magic to blow out the candles, but I gave it a little too much power. The wind I used passed over the cake and blew out the candles perfectly, but then it shifted to the side and hit my father in the chest, knocking him down. He was a boxer of course, so he brushed it off like it was nothing; but I was still on the verge of crying for about three minutes, thinking I had hurt him.

I thought this memory had been lost to me, overshadowed by bigger events in my life… but to see it again… was remarkable. I was reveling in the pure joy I received from seeing this beautiful memory, when I heard a voice coming from behind me.

“Amazing… isn’t it?” I turned around expecting to see MareDoWell again… but I didn’t. instead, when I turned around this time, I saw a midnight blue pony, with a jet black mane and tail with crimson stripes in them, red eyes, and a build like Big Macintosh. I saw… Reave.

'REAVE!?' I mouthed, quite surprised mind you. 'What are you doing here? What is this place? How did I get here? , I yet again attempted to say.

Reave just shook his head.

“You are so lucky I can read lips.” He said with his usual sense of narcissism.

“If you must know, this is something I taught you when you were under my tutelage.”

“When did you teach me this?” I asked, using thought to speak.

“Really, you don’t remember?” he asked, and from his facial expression, I could tell he was actually a little surprised.

“No, I don’t remember. If I did I would get out of here and get back to training.” I replied.

“And furthermore, if you know what this place is, can’t you help me get out?” I replied, obviously annoyed.

Reave just shook his head, and tsked.

“It has been a long time I suppose. Here, let me show you.” he replied, waving something to my left over with a hoof, I looked to see another memory had damn near dashed to me. Before I could gasp, the memory flashed white, and began to play.

hr

The white faded away to reveal slightly younger versions of Reave and I, smiling at each other and laughing. We seemed to be in the same place I was in currently.

“So, I just think about something I need that might be in my memories, focus my magic on the thought, and I’ll end up here?” I ask, literally THINKING out loud.

“Yes. And remember; if you search hard enough, you’re guaranteed to find what you’re looking for.” He says, another one of his soft, knowing smiles gracing his face.

“Wow, it’s so amazing in here; it’s like a giant stadium!” I shout.

“Indeed. Oh and don’t forget, this is the realm of thought. Trying to speak with your mouth will prove futile. If you want to say something, just think it.” He says, a sly grin beginning to spread across his lips.

“Besides, we wouldn’t want a repeat of when we first got here, now would we?” he says, his grin growing wider with every word.

I looked away and blushed.

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that again!” I say threw grit teeth, annoyed.

He lightly chuckled, trying not to go into a fit of laughter.

“I’m sorry Trixie, but the look on your face when you thought this place stole your voice was priceless,” he said “and if my lip reading skills are anything to go by, I believe your exact first words were ‘Holy Celestia what the fuck happened to my voice!’ HA!” he continues, his chuckle turning into a full on laugh.

I roll my eyes and face-hoof, looking away from him and shaking my head.

“Let’s just get out of here.” I say, not wanting to sit there and listen to him laugh at my foalishness.

He looked over at me, his laughter subsiding.

“As you wish my pupil, as you wish.” he says, still slightly chuckling.

As we went back to reality, the memory ended, and I was brought back to the present memory realm.

I left the memory with a jolt, stammering back into the present. I looked over to Reave, his smile obviously saying ‘I told you so’.  I looked back into the black void to see that it had been filled with multiple memories, some of which were very old, and others very recent.

“But… I don’t understand. I didn’t cast this spell.” I said.

“Well actually, when you got injured, you cast a healing spell right?” I nodded

“Well, you were using an average amount of magic to cast it, and while doing so you were trying to remember something that could help you with your . . . training, right?” I nodded again, now curious as to what he was getting at.

“Well that’s it! While you were using the healing spell, you must’ve unknowingly transferred some of your magic to the thought, thus activating this spell.” he said, obviously amused that he discovered the cause of all this confusion.

I looked around, baffled that I could forget such a spell, and to my knowledge this was the only spell he had taught me that I had forgotten. There were a few questions still floating around in my head so I started with what I thought was the most obvious one.

“If I forgot that spell, then how did I just see the memory of me learning it just now.” I asked.

“Because nothing is ever truly forgotten, Trixie.” Reave told me.

“Even if we believe it is, our mind subconsciously records and stores everything we do. In fact, if you looked deep enough in here, and I mean realy deep, you could probably find your first moments of being alive after birth.” He said.

I was taken aback. Could our mind really record such things? Let alone store them forever? I would have to investigate this later, but for now, I would move on to the next question.

“How are you here right now?” I asked. If this was MY mind, then how was he standing here with me?

“I am not Reave, at least, not entirely.” I gave him a puzzled look before he began to explain.

“You see, when you enter the memory realm, you meet the embodiment of your subconscious. When you meet it, it will craft its appearance from that of the seeker's memories and experiences.”

“Seeker?” I asked.

“It’s the name given to those who cast the spell to seek the memories that have been buried by life and time.” He quickly replied, as if having the answer pre-prepared.

I nodded. "How come you don’t just represent yourself as a reflection of me?” I asked.

He sighs.  “When the real me entered this realm with you, he left a gift. He knew that a clone of yourself would suffice, but if you were to have a guide, you would need someone who you feel could actually lead you, and who better to do it than your old mentor, after all.”  He answered, finishing with a smile.

“That’s why you’re so lifelike!” I shouted, coming to a realization.

“You’re not just some average replica… Reave implanted you himself.” He nodded, confirming my suspicions.

Another question popped into my head and a very important one as well. “Why can’t we speak without using our thoughts?” I asked, wondering why the entire time we’ve been talking, neither of our mouths had moved except to express emotion.

“Because we are in a place that exists with the mind, Trixie.” he stated

“Here, thoughts speak louder than words.”

I had other questions, but they all seemed unimportant at the time. I looked out into the void, only turning my head slightly to ask one more question.

“I just focus on what I need, right?” He nodded. I looked back to the abyss, closed my eyes, and focused.

I could feel something being brought towards me, as if it was being pulled to me. As the distance closed, I could feel the energy drawing nearer, and the power growing. Even though my eyes were closed, it felt as if a blinding light was approaching me, getting faster as it came. As it closed the last few feet between us, my eyes flew open, and the very world became a plain of pure neon white, as I drifted into another memory.

As the white began to fade away, I was greeted with the image of me falling. As the remaining white faded away, I noticed that it took place in a sort of city area, like an alley. After noticing this, it immediately became clear to me what I was watching: this was when Reave took me to a row of abandoned warehouses after I asked about parkour. This was my fifth failure at attempting to jump from one building to another.

I hit the ground with a hard thud, bouncing slightly off the pavement. I winced slightly seeing myself hit the ground. I could almost feel the pain my past self was going through from where I was standing. i got up and immediately cast a healing spell, healing the obviously large bruises that were under my protective gear. I hear the clip-clop of hooves and turn my head to see Reave walking over, an annoyed scowl on his face.

“I told you; don’t force it, and focus.” he says in a stern yet caring voice.

“I *am** focusing, and it’s not working!” I yell, obviously annoyed.*

“I focus on every move I make, I detail every step, and yet it’s still not enough!”

“Trixie please . . .” Reave says as he tries to calm me down, but to no avail.

“NO! This was obviously a bad idea!” I state as I began to walk away, signifying that I was quitting.

I’m about halfway down the alley when Reave runs in front of me, stopping me from leaving. What occurred after this was a very unpleasant back and forth between us both.

“As your teacher I will not allow you to quit!” he shouted.

“Oh really?” I countered

“REALLY!” he shouted again

“Well maybe I don’t want to obey you in this instance. Maybe I want to go home and calm my nerves. Did you ever think that maybe I’M right for once?”

“You will not just give up! I know you can do this!” he instructed.

“Well my five past failures say otherwise.”

I begin to walk past him, but he stuck out his arm to grab me and damned near *threw me back in front of him. Before I could ask what he thought he was doing, he spoke.*

“Do you remember what I told you the penalty would be for not only disobeying your teacher, but abandoning them as well?” He said.

“Yes, actually, I do. I believe that it was you would have to have a one on one sparing match with your teacher, the loser being the one who yields first.” I answered casually.

“And the loser having to give in to the others request.” He finished.

“Well maybe this time I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get out of this!”

“Are you saying that you would be willing to fight me just so you can *give up!?”*

“I’m saying I *will** fight you just to give up!”*

“Try it!”

At this point we are nose to nose, staring directly into each other’s eyes. If we were dragons, steam would be billowing from our nostrils.

After glaring at each other for a few more minutes, we each let out a sigh and sit down, a few minutes of silence following after. I broke the silence first .

“Look… I know you think I can do this, but no matter how hard I focus on it, I just keep fa-“ I try to say before he interrupted me.

“Wait, wait! What exactly are you focusing on when you move?” he asks in haste, as if he had just found the solution to our problem… which he did.

“I focus on the next movement of course! I try to plan every movement ahead of time, but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t execute anything I plan properly.”

“No wonder you keep falling!” he states, putting hoof to his forehead in frustration. “Trixie, I told you to focus, I never told you *what** to focus on.”*

“I don’t understand.” I say, tilting my head with a puzzled expression on my face.

“With a task like this, focusing on it will only cause you to fumble and fail because you’ll over think every step. Now, while some do prefer the focusing method, it’s obviously not working for you, so let’s try something different, shall we?” he says, cocking his eyebrow and offering his hoof.

I pout, but follow him back to the starting point, yet again eying the obstacles setup within the building, and the gap between the buildings at the end of them.

“Daunting isn’t it?”

“incredibly.” I reply.

“Now, when you run through the obstacles this time, just let it flow. Don’t force you movements, just let everything come naturally.” He instructs.

“Okay… okay.” I say, breathing deeply.

I crouch down, preparing to jump, pacing myself. I breath slowly, trying to let go of my stress, my frustration. I start to enter a Zen-like state, focusing very little on the course itself, and more on my own inner thoughts. But, right before I jump, Reave slips in one last piece of advice.

“Oh and when you run through, focus on something *other** than the obstacle course… something happy.” He says, as if telling me to perform a basic magic trick.*

If my eyes opened any faster they would have flown out of my head. I nearly stumbled over and fell into an obstacle face first.

After I nearly escape breaking my own face, I turn to Reave, and lose it.

“What!” I yell “How the hay am I supposed to do… *this*, while thinking of something else!”

“Buy listening to the rhythm of the memory, and allowing your body to flow naturally with that rhythm.” He replies.

I look at him as if he said he believes the ‘Celestia created Nightmare Moon’ conspiracy. He simply shakes his head and smiles at me.

“Trixie,” he says, his voice calm and caring “if you try to force yourself through this course, you will become hardened, like a stone.” He says, levitating stone and large planks of wood

“Now as a stone,” he continues, levitating a stone and lining up the planks of wood “you can crash through an opposing object if you have enough momentum and force.”

He hurls the stone at the first wooden plank, breaking through it with ease. He uses a time dilation spell to slow down the event so that I may see the process.

“But,” he continues further as the stone hurls towards the next plank in line “if you are a stone, then as you break through things, you will lose your momentum and force.”

As the stone goes through the next two planks, it visibly begins to wobble.

“Until finally,” he begins to finish as the stone approaches the next plank “all your energy is gone.”

He says with a smile as the stone bounces off of the plank, unable to penetrate to the next.

I am not puzzled at this point, but curious. He then cast a spell to repair the planks and resets them in a different position. They started off strait, but curved down the cliff next to us. He then summoned a pot made of stone, and took half a buckets’ worth of water from the air. He set the bucket underneath the last wooden plank at the bottom of the small cliff.

“But, if you calm yourself, using a memory and syncing up with its rhythm, allowing your body to flow, like water.” He says, levitating the water and freezing it into a moderately big spike.

“Then you can become harder than rock, and sharper too.” He says, hurling the icicle at the planks point first, turning on the time dilation spell for this process as well.

The icicle cleaves through the first row of planks with ease, making the stone from earlier look like a dogs chew toy. But, even the ice begins to lose its energy after a while. Reave uses a portal spell to redirect the icicle to hit the planks going down the side of the cliff. It actually reminded me of a game that came out recently, but its name escapes me.

After the icicle is redirected, it goes through the first two cliff-side planks easily. But, as it begins to wobble, I realize the next plank shall be its downfall.

“And if you lose your energy and soften,” he says, tapping his hooves together “you can flow *around** your obstacles.” He finishes with a grin. Suddenly, the ice melts back into its liquid state, pouring onto the plank beneath it. The water pours down the sides of the plank bypassing the others and heading strait into the stone bucket. The water that didn’t head down the sides of the plank and onto the next one below it, repeating the process with each plank.*

“Then finally.” he says, giving one last wave of his hoof “if you must, you can become lighter than air itself.”

The water that didn’t make it into the bowl evaporates instantly, steam replacing it. The steam rises around the planks, gathering in the air and becoming heavier, until finally, small water droplets form and fall into the bowl until the steam disappeared.

I look over to him, now understanding what his point is.

“Be like water, Trixie.” He says. “Be like water.”

As he finishes, the last words echo and the memory begins to fade as I return to not the present memory realm, but to reality.

As I open my eyes, I find myself back in the forest, sitting in my meditation position. I look around and realize that the sun is beginning to set, telling me that if I wanted to do this, I needed to do it now.

’Be like water.’ The memory echoed in my head. I sat for a minute and thought about what memory to use until something hit me; what if instead of using a memory, I simply used something that made me happy, something with… rhythm.

“I got it!” I said aloud. I teleported back to my house for just five minutes, preparing everything I needed for my plan to work. When I returned, I had modified the suit to carry a small mp3 device in the chest area. With the head phones in and music set to a timer, I teleported back to the starting branch.

When the music started playing I let the first few wordless notes pass taking time to breath and preparing myself for what was to come. But when the words started, so did I.

I leaped from branch to branch effortlessly, timing my movements with the rhythm and pace of the song, letting them flow naturally and softly. Each note seemed to make my body move, as if the song was in control, and it felt so… good.

I dug my hooves into each branch and slid my way around others, become more like water as I slipped deeper into the music’s trance. I kept climbing until I saw the spot where I had failed last, increasing my pace when I did. And when I reached it, I passed it effortlessly. The beautiful noise seemed to be all that was in my mind know, capitalizing on every other thought. I remember that as I reached the top of one tree, I spread my cape like a pair of wings, and flew into the air. I did three loop-ta-loops before landing in the next tree, easily melting back into my rhythmic Parkour.

I listened to this heavenly noise for the rest of my training, replaying it over and over, and all throughout that day as I listened to the music, one thought kept replaying in my mind.

Be like water, Trixie.

That night when I returned home I repaired any damages the costume might have endured during training, I was going to need it intact tonight. For tonight would be my first patrol… as MareDoWell.

MareDoWell chp 8: Stories

Enter Twilight Sparkle.

It was a normal day, just like any other. I was tending to the library; organizing the books, cleaning the shelves, making sure all my notes and letters were in the right order. How could I have known that it would be the start of a series of life changing events? How could I have foreseen what was to come?

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Twilight Sparkle; personal protégé of Princess Celestia, sister of Prince Shining Armor, Ponyville’s local librarian, and… well… you’ll find out the rest later.

The story you are reading right now is not just Trixie’s, but all of ours, including my brother, my friends, the Princess’, and many others. Because as the great Starswirl the bearded once said, ‘One story can have many tellers.’

What’s my side of the story about? Well, let me put it this way; in the time you read my story, you’ll learn about true friendship, the ability to forgive, resolve and willpower, and a plethora of other things. But what you’ll learn most of all, is what happens when you fall in love… with a superhero.

I was cleaning a bookshelf when my friends barge through the door at record speeds, fumbling over each other as if they were running from a hydra. They all immediately start trying to tell me something all at once; I can only make out a few words from each of them. I use magic to clamp their mouths shut so that I can actually get a word in.

“Now, when I let go, you’re all going to tell me what’s wrong in an orderly fashion. Okay?”

They nod their heads in response and I release their snouts.

“MareDoWell’s back!” they all shout. It took a moment for what they're saying to sink in, but when it finally does, I immediately… start laughing. I laughed so hard I thought I would break a rib if I laughed any harder.  When my cackling finally subsides, I look up at them, wiping tears from my eyes.

“Oh Celestia, that was a good one guys. Got any more good jokes? I could use another good laugh.” No reply. I look up, and then scan over each of their faces; no one's laughing.

“What?” I ask. “That was a joke right.”

Rarity takes a rolled up newspaper out of her saddlebag, opens it, and throws it down in front of me. When I read the head line, my jaw drops as I tried and fail to find words to say.

who is the NEW ‘Mysterious MareDoWell’?

“I don’t understand…” I whimper. It was all I could say for the past few hours. I couldn’t believe that after a whole year, this memory still caught up with us.

“Oh, you don’t understand? Well then let me break it down for you.” Dash says, coming closer to me then what I felt was comfortable.

“Somepony made another MareDoWell costume, put a bunch of military stuff on it, and is now parading around like a Celestia damn superhero!"

“Calm down Rainbow.” AJ huffs. “There aint no need for that type a’ talk.”

“Well then maybe you should just stop wasting time and ask her then!”

“Ask me what?” I cut in.

There is silence for a moment, eventually broken by Applejack.

“Uh… well, ya see?” AJ begins to say..

“Me, Dash and Rarity  ‘ve already been to Fluttershy’s and Pinkie's and… they were honest ‘bout where they were last night.” AJ finished. With her last sentence, I figure out what she was trying to get across.

“Are you ACCUSING ME!” I scream.

“Now sugar-cube, there aint no need to be mad.” AJ says, trying to calm me down.  “Yer jus the only one who ain’t been accouned’ for.”

“There’s every reason to be mad!” I snap back.

“We’ve all been friends for years! But as soon as someone appears in a MareDoWell costume, you go off and accuse you’re three best friends of doing it!?” Applejack and Rarity look down to the floor, ashamed of their own foalishness. But Dash just gets angrier.

“Well instead of guilt tripping us for asking a question, how ‘bout you, I don’t know, ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!” Dash yells, bringing herself snout-to-snout with me. Flames of pure anger lighting up her eyes.

“Okay! You want an answer!? Here’s your answer!” I said, trying not to yell. I clap my hands and focus my magic, teleporting us to the display area downstairs.

“SEE!” I yell. I point to the costume at the end of the room, sitting in glass display case.

“That costume hasn’t exited that case for a whole year! Except for cleaning and other maintenance!”  My friend’s ears fold down and a dejected look upon their faces. As I look at them, I begin to feel bad myself, realizing just how badly I've overreacted.

“I’m sorry guys.” I say, hanging my own head out of shame.

“I guess I kind of… overreacted a little.” I let out a little laugh, sheepish and apologetic

“A little?” Rarity responds. We all laugh together for a moment, the tension winding down

“But in all seriousness darling.” she continues. “We are the ones who should be sorry. We had no right to go off and accuse you like that, we apologize.” She bows her head, taking a front knee.

“Us too!” Pinkie shouts, hugging Applejack and Fluttershy close.

“OOH! OOH! You know what this calls for? A ‘We’re sorry super sorry for accusing you.’ PARTY!” she shouts again, somehow making confetti explode out from behind her.

“We can have cake, ice-cream, party hats, gifts, OOH and streamers, we can’t forget the streamers! And we can-!” I shove my hoof in Pinkies mouth, not wanting to hear an entire list of party essentials.

“That sounds nice pinkie, but I believe there’s still one pony who needs to apologize. Isn’t that right, Rainbow… Dash!?” Everyone looks over to where my gaze has landed, only to see Dash  softly crying while shaking her head back and forth, silently mouthing ‘That doesn’t make any sense…’ over and over again.

“Dash… what…?”

“THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE!” Dash screams. She bolts out of my basement, flying up the stairs and out of my house, leaving us all to stand there for a moment, completely baffled by Dash’s reaction, Pinkie eventually gasping  “What in the hay is her problem!”

“I think I know.” I say with a huff, teleporting to the one of the two places I knew I would always find Rainbow.

Enter Rainbow Dash.

Can I ask you a question? It’s not a very complex one like 'why are we here' or 'are we alone', so it won’t take up too much of your time, i assure you.  Have you ever hated somepony? I don’t mean ‘guy who cuts you off in traffic’ or ‘that one mare at work’ hatred; I mean the type of hatred you feel when you look at a dictator, or a murderer. Like the world would be a better place if they were just dead. If you have then I’m glad you understand, if you haven’t, then use your imagination. That’s what it’s there for.

Now here’s another question. Don't worry, still not too complex. What if that pony wasn’t a pony, but a symbol? What would be the difference?

Simple; ponies can die. Symbols can’t.

You kill a pony, a griffin, or a dragon you hate, they stay dead, never to been seen again. But a symbol, you can’t just kill a symbol, and for another simple reason too; memory!

I mean sure, you can kill the pony who possesses that symbol. I mean just because you bear a symbol doesn't mean you're immune to a twelve gauge to the face.. But still, that symbol will live on in the memory of the ponies that know of it. A symbol can be passed on to the next pony and the next pony, over and over again. The friggin' thing's unstoppable!

My name is Rainbow Dash, and my first story is about that exact type of hatred, my hatred for a symbol that goes by one name, and one name alone; MareDoWell.

I sat atop my favorite tree at Sweet Apple Acres, letting tears silently escape my eyes. Yeah I know, that’s not the coolest thing to do, but given the circumstances, I’d say it was acceptable.

‘Why is she back…? How is she back? ’ I think to myself, over and over again.

‘Did I do something wrong? Are my friends mad at me?’ I continued to think.

You know I couldn’t believe it at first, when I took off that mask and saw pinkie staring back, and then my three other best friends just coming out and saying they were MareDoWell all along. I acted happy in that alleyway, putting on a fake smile to appease my friends. But when I got home… I cried; I actually fell out on my couch, and cried for two whole hours. I felt so hurt, so betrayed… but I didn’t have the heart to tell any of my friends.

I didn’t talk to them for weeks, only having small verbal exchanges or the occasional ‘hello’; but ,eventually, they found out what was wrong with me. But the best part is; after figuring out what was wrong, they were mad at me!

I was absolutely astounded; you dress up as a superhero, publicly embarrass me, then tell me it was all to teach me a lesson, and you’re mad at me! It all came to a head when we fought. I can still remember it so clearly.

”Damn it, RD! that wus fer yer own good, and you KNOW IT!” AJ screams, stomping a hoof and flaring her nostrils. Our verbal exchange had been going on since Twilight brought them up to my house to confront me about how I’d been acting, using a cloud walking spell and teleportation.

“Do you know how many times I’ve been insulted, berated, and made fun of in the past few weeks *because** of your little stunt!” I yell back.*

“Well maybe *now** ya’ll l’ think twice before ya go off n’ act all big n’ the head.”*

“THAT’S* HOW YOU JUSTIFY WHAT YOU ALL DID TO ME!” I scream. The fur of my coat was visibly raising at this point as my anger continued to spike.*

Applejack just sticks her nose into the air and shuts her eyes, as if refusing to give me an answer. I knew AJ was stubborn, but not wanting to *apologize? That was a dick move on her part.*

“You know what AJ?” I say, laughing a little. “It’s the fact that you were to much of a bucking *coward** to take off that mask and confront me yourself that really pisses me off!”*

That was a lie, but I think Applejack was too angry to notice. It wasn’t her supposed cowardice that enraged me, but the constant teasing and insults from random ponies.

For the weeks I wouldn’t talk to them, I couldn’t walk ten feet without a ‘Hey Dash! I’m going as MareDoWell for Nightmare Night! Hope you don’t mind!’ or a ‘Watch out Dash! I heard somepony bought another MareDoWell costume!’ or a slew of other insults like those. It had gotten to the point where I wanted to straight up *kill** whoever mentioned MareDoWell.*

“What* did you jus say!” AJ says, shooting me a death glare in return.  I have never flipped anyone the bird that fast, before or since.*

“Now darlings, there’s no need for… “ Rarity tries to speak, One glare from us and she stops talking.

“You heard me!” I yell. ”I called you a yellow bellied *COWARD*!”

Applejack’s eye twitches before she charges me, letting out a throaty growl of rage. Twi and the others try to stop her, but she's too strong for them to hold back. She breaks through and, before I can block, buck me right in the side of my head. I slam against a nearby wall, propelled by the force of her buck. After getting to my hooves I feel the back of my head, trying to see if I'm injured… only to come away with a blood covered hoof. My body freezes, and my teeth grit..

There is dead silence for four minutes, only broken when I look up at my five friends and whisper “You… bucked me bloody.”

“Oh gosh Rainbow… ahm mighty sorry. It was jus… I was so mad n’…” AJ tries to apologize.

“You… you made me bleed in my own house!” If you couldn't tell already, i was a little pissed.

“L-look, I’ll go down ta the farm and getn’ ice-!” She tries to say again, interrupted by a blue fist.

“GET OUT!” I scream, punching her across the room and into a nearby wall. She smacked into the wall so hard i think she flattened a bit.

AJ hits the wall with tremendous force and a sickening crack, her unconscious body falling limply to the floor. My friends rush over to her side, trying to see if anything's broken.

“RAINBOW!” Fluttershy yells, a furious glare in her eyes.

“What the *hay** is wrong with-“ Fluttershy stops when she sees my face. My eyes were bloodshot, my maw dripping with saliva, and my mane had become unruly.*

Fluttershy knew exactly what this was; it was one of the things we learned about in flight school after all. It only happened when we Pegasus were injured, cornered, and furious. Our flight instructors told it was called ‘Rabid Desperation’.

“Guys!” Fluttershy yelps. “We need to get out of he-“

I jump her, flailing my fists at her face as she blocks with her forelegs. Twilight yanks me off of her using telekinesis, and my head snaps to her like a raptor.

She tries to block me with a shield, but it only lessened the force of the impact as it sends Twi skidding across the floor.

Rarity tries to knock me out with a magic bolt from behind, but she's to slow. I dodge and fling myself around, a fistful of her mane as she lets out a symphony of pained and terrified screams.

And finally, there was Pinkie. She tries to get me off of Rarity before I can start bashing in the source of the annoying screams with my free hand, and succeeds, but unfortunately isn’t fast enough to dodge my right hook.

I began viciously screaming into the air, my friends splayed out on the ground before me. Unbeknownst to me, Twilight had already joined hands with everyone and teleported to the ground floor, now running from my house with them. I notice the flash in my rage-induced state, and look around my house for where they could have hidden. When I catch the sound of hooves coming from outside, I fly to my balcony to see my friends running from my house at unbelievable speeds, running faster when they looked back to see me.

“I HATE YOU! *ALL OF YOU*!” I scream, tears of anger and pain rolling down my cheeks. I rushed to my training room, grabbing multiple punching bags to expend the rage that was still built up inside me.

By the time I was done, several punching bags lie on the ground destroyed, with me lying next to them exhausted. When I finally got up I noticed a note on the ground next to me that wasn’t there before. It was signed by Twilight, so I figured she must’ve used a teleportation spell to send it to my current location. The note read as follows.

We will come back to your house to talk about this, but for now; stay away from our homes and relatives. You’ve been warned.

My heart sank, and my eyes stung with tears. When the words of the letter finally sunk into my mind, I knew our friendship was over.

One week later, I came to my home after some intense training. I hadn’t talked to my friends at all since the fight, and for good reason. So when I came home to see all my friends standing in the lobby of my house, I froze.

There is silence for one minute, and then they rushed me, running at top speed straight for me. I didn’t know what they had planned, nor did I care, I just wanted them to get it over with. But when they made contact with me, they didn’t buck me, bite me, or butt me. They… *hugged me*!?

They told me they were sorry they made me feel that angry, sorry that they ever made MareDoWell, and that they would *never** do anything like that again.*

After my disbelief fades, I hug back, apologizing over and over again for my violent outburst. I promised them what they had promised me, and we soon began crying and laughing together; and that day, I knew that there was *nothing** that could stop us all from loving each other.*

“OOH, you know what this calls for?” Pinkie says.

“A PARTY!”

That memory… it usually cheers me up. But not that day, not right then.

“Not again… please not again… “ I say, my face held in my palms. I could still remember ponies laughing at me as I walk by on the street. Hay, I even bought a damn hood just to hide my face.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Says a voice from seemingly nowhere. I look to the ground to find Twi looking up at me with sympathy in her eyes.

“Can I come up?”

“I don’t care…” I respond coldly.

I see the flash next to me in my peripheral, followed by two hooves wrapping around me, and a head coming to rest against my shoulder.

We sit in silence for a few minutes, finding comfort in each others embrace.

“Do you usually come out here when you have a problem?”

“Yeah…” I respond again, refusing to look over to her.

Another few minutes of silence came and went until I gained the strength to ask what needed to be asked.

“Twilight, I need you to be honest. Did you or any of the others-?”

“No!” Twilight blurts out. “We promised you that we would never do it again, and we *meant it!”*

I look over to her, seeing that her expression was stern, honest. I fall into Twilight's hug and begin sobbing into her shoulder like a new born filly.

“It’s not fair! IT’S NOT FAIR!” I cried into Twilight’s shoulder over and over again.

“I know Rainbow, I know.”

I wasn’t crying because of all the memories of teasing that had come back, I had gotten over those a long time ago.

I wasn’t crying because I was frightened by the fact that one of my friends might’ve been behind the mask, although that did bother me.

No, I was crying because of the reality that I had to accept.

That I was *forced to accept.*

MareDoWell was back… and she wasn’t going anywhere.

Enter Nightstick

I remember how this all started. How I just had to be in the *right place at the wrong time.*

I was just getting some coffee from a nearby shop when I got the call. A group of thugs tried to foalnap some fillies and got taken down by… yeah.

I thought there were joking at first when the call had come through that MareDoWell, the *fake superhero from about a year ago, had taken out a group of foalnappers. But then they showed me the tape; the one left with the chained up crooks, and my jaw hit the floor.*

My mind filled with so many possibilities. Had the elements dusted off the old costumes? Was this all some elaborate hoax? There were so many theories floating around in my head I thought I was gonna give myself a migraine.

Of course, as I would later discover, all those theories were one hundred percent *wrong!*

Where are my manners? The name’s Nightstick, I’m the commissioner of the EPD (Equestrian Police Department) from Ponyville to Canterlot. I’m a well-built, average sized earth pony mare who grew up in downtown Trottingham.

My story is one of trust, friendship, and the benefits of having both. But more specifically, it’s about my friendship with MareDoWell…

And the consequences that came with it.

It was the day after what was now being called the ‘comeback’ incident. I walked down the halls of Ponyville’s police station, casually sipping my coffee as I approached the holding area where my interrogation would take place.

I stop in front of the room to look inside for an early preview of whom I’d be dealing with for the evening. Inside the room are two stallions; one of witch had a bandaged shoulder. Both stallions wore faces of disgust and annoyance, obviously familiar with this type of situation.

“Sad n’it?” I hear a heavy Gaelic accent call to me.

I look over to see an aged Pegasus stallion walking towards me. His coat is a grayish light green, his mane and tail, a dark crimson with a beard to match. His eyes are an early morning sky blue, and his cutie mark that of a magnifying glass over a speck of blood. I instantly recognized him as my long time friend, and head of CSI, Mackey McBrawler.

“And to think, if only their mothers ‘d smacked’em on their arse’s a weeee bit more.”

“I know, right?” I reply, laughing a little.

Once our giggling subsides, we look into the room together, eyeballing the two inside.

“So, what’d we got?”

“Well, these jackarses tried t’ foalnap three fille’s in the dead o’ night with some friends, then our costumed hero decided that they needed t’be taught a less’n. Short n’ sweet.” He said.

“Do you know who either of them are?” I asked, looking over to him.

“Aye.” He responded. “The one with the broken ribs is Danny Saltine. Lad used ta work for ‘is father at a pretzel shop before he star’ed runnin with the wrong crowd.” He says, examining Danny closely.

“Have you two met before?” I ask, curious as to why he was glaring at him with such intensity.

“Yeh. Sick bastard tried ta pull the same stunt a few years back ‘nd actually captured five foals. I volunteered ta be part a’ da team that was sen’ in ta negotiate.”

“And how did that work out?”

“Aye broke both of ‘is legs.” He says with a cheerful smile.

I shook my head and smiled, looking back into the room. The two stallions at the table were now eyeing us furiously, Danny locking eyes with Mack.

“Well, here I go.” I said. Before I could enter the interrogation room, Mack’s arm stopped me.

“Ya mind if I join ye fer this one. I aint got nuttin’ better ta do.”

“Sure. Just don’t overdo it like *last time.” I say*

“I still say that colt deserved the bloody nose I gave’em.” I rolled my eyes and opened the door.

As we enter, the two stallions lock eyes with us, as if attempting to be threatening. We sat down unfazed, looking directly into their eyes, a sign that we wouldn't be intimidated.

“Oh great, she brought the Galician with her.” Danny chides.

“What’re you gonna do? Get wasted and throw up on us!” The other stallion joins in. The duo laughed hardily, fist bumping as they did. Mack maintained his cold glare, causing their laughter to die down to an awkward cough.

“Oh I’ll do more than that ya little git.”  He responded, gaining a look of distain from Danny, and a submissive whimper from the currently nameless one.

“Okay, look. If you’re here for an interrogation, we’ll tell you exactly what we told all the other pigs; we were taking a midnight stroll, talking amongst ourselves, and she jumped us. *That’s it!.” He said, putting emphasis on the last part to make his point.*

“Yeah!” Shouted the other stallion. “And further more, we’d like to speak with our lawyers! I think assault charges are in Order!” He said, his snout in the air, his arms crossed.

Mack and me looked over at each other confused. Did these two *idiots really think we were going to help them after what they’d done?*

“What’re you talking about?” I asked.

“What’re you, def? I said we want a *LAWYER!” He screamed. “You know, the ponies you can hire to help you throw a pony flank first in prison? Ringin’ any bells?”*

Mack and I just looked at each other again, still oblivious as to the cause of their… *obliviousness. I tried to wrap my head around all this for several minutes until an idea came to mind. I left only momentarily, coming back into the room with the ‘MareDoWell’ tape in my hoof.*

“Has anypony shown either of you this tape yet?” I asked.

“No! They came in and started askin’ ‘bout the costumed bitch.” He said, looking at the tape sideways. I sighed, annoyed beyond belief.

I walked over to a nearby monitor, slipping the tape inside the VHS player below it. The tape we had found on them last night had begun to play; starting with the disgusting abuse of the three fillies, and ending with them and their friends tied up.

When the tape ended, the stallions’ faces had gone from looks of confidence and pride to those of surprise, fear, and anger. Danny slammed his fist against the table, obviously enraged to see that there little stunt had been caught on film.

“That bitch *taped us!?” Danny said, sounding more than a little ticked, mind you. The other stallion, however, merely hung his head in shame, knowing full well the consequences for his crimes.*

I walk over to him and put my hoof on his shoulder. I knew that he was vulnerable, which made it the perfect moment to get some answers.

“I want you to tell me exactly what happened. Okay Mr…?”

“Saltine… Raphael Saltine.” He responded, seeming to have an odd amount of confidence in his voice.

“Ah, so you’re brothers then?” I asked. He nodded lightly before looking up to meet my eyes. I was about to start with the questions, but he was already way ahead of me.

“We don’t know anything about her and we didn’t recognize her voice. However, I came to a little bit later and heard her say something about the Elements of Harmony, but that’s all we know, I swear.” He said.

I looked into his eyes, trying to spot any of the tell tale signs of a lie, but I could find none. I looked over to Mackey and nodded, as did he.

“But that’s not all…” Raphael said his voice barely above a whisper.

Suddenly! Danny’s head snapped over to his brother, his face now an expression of pure anger.

“Raph! Don’t you say another wo-“

“He cun say whatever he needs ta say ya lil bastard!” Mackey yelled.

“Thank you…” Raphael said. “As I was saying, there’s more to the story than the foalnapping.”

“Elaborate please.” I said, taking out a tape recorder and setting it down in front of him. He took a deep breath, looking over at his brother with hate filled eyes, and began to talk.

“This morning seemed normal enough. I was just eating my breakfast and getting all of my morning chores done. After a few minutes though, my brother and his ‘friends’ came barging through my front door.” He explained, shooting another angry glare at his brother.

“Please continue.” I said.

“Yeah, sorry.” He said. “I asked them what they wanted and Danny said that he got another ‘job’. I told him I wasn’t into that life anymore, but he said if I didn’t help him he would… he would hurt my family.” He continued, tears forming in his eyes.

“You have a family?” I asked.

“Yes, a wife and two kids.”

“I see. If all this is true, why did you attack MareDoWell?” I asked.

“I-I was afraid. I thought that if I just stood there and did nothing than Danny would notice and send someone after my family. I did it to protect them!”

“Calm down boy-o, wer’ not accusin’ ya of anythin’, we just wanted some answers.” Mack said.

“I understand.” Raphael said. “But… there’s something else.”

Danny’s face lit up, not with anger… but with fear.

“Raph, don’t!” He begged.

“Don’t what, Danny? Is there something you’re not telling us?” I asked, my voice rising in tone. Sweat began to show through Danny’s coat and he started to twiddle with hoof tips of his thumbs. He was panicking.

“You don’t understand!” he said frantically. “The organization that hired me… they don’t fuck around! If they knew I told their plans…” He trailed off, now looking extremely terrified.

“We have an expert witness protection service. If you talk, we will make sure nothing-.”

“YOU DON’T GET IT!” He screamed.

“If I tell what they’re doing, they might-!”

That was all he was able to say before… *it happened. The wall behind Danny nearly exploded, and within seconds, my face was spattered in blood. I reared back violently, neighing loudly, and hit my head against the wall, causing the entire world to ring for a moment. When the ringing stopped, the first thing I heard was Raphael screaming.*

“BY THA EQUESTRIAN SAINTS!”  I heard Mack scream. When I looked over to him, I saw that the expression he wore was one of shock and terror, and I looked to see what he was staring at, my face soon wore the same expression.

In the hole in the wall stood an armor clad stallion In one of his hooves was a sword with a design similar to a katana, but with serrated teeth on the blade. He wore a long, thick black jacket with a artificial fur trimmed hood and black pants to match, and the mask he wore was made of black steel. Etched into his mask was a sinister smile filled with sharp teeth, and through the holes, you could see bright red glowing eyes with pure black pinprick pupils. As I looked down to the hand carrying the sword, I noticed something even more terrifying than his outfit; the upper half of his sword was now sticking out of Danny’s chest.

Danny had been silent the entire time, the shock of the killing blow obviously taking awhile to wear off. In his last moments of life, he found the strength to look to me, blood dripping from his mouth, and finish what he’d tried to say before his… impalement.

“…kill me.”

His head fell, and eyes rolled back. His body went visibly limp as the last bit of life left him. I felt a tear slip down my cheek, actually feeling a little sorry for the wanker.

I looked back up to the assassin and saw that he had brought his wrist to his snout.

“This is Razors Edge speaking.” He said, speaking into a wrist mounted device.

“The target, Danny Saltine, has been eliminated. This shall prove as motivation for his currently present brother to keep quiet.” He spoke again, his head turning slightly towards Raph, his eyes focusing onto him menacingly.

His voice was absolutely malicious, an unseen device or spells making him sound almost demonic. He spoke slowly, as if to make sure we listened to every word in detail.

“I also have two EPD members here… but I wouldn’t worry about these incompetent foals, hehehahahaha!” He said, laughing at our supposed inferiority.

Mack had had enough of this, and was now standing up, a pistol in his hands.

“Drop tha weapon and put yer fore legs behind yer back!” he said.

Razor only stared at him for a few seconds and laughed, walking towards him as he did. Mack discharged his weapon directly at him, unloading what seemed like his entire clip, but to our amazement, Razor blocked every bullet with his blade, moving faster than the blink of an eye. Once he was directly in front of Mack, Razor’s laughter ended, and he glared at Mack with a look of pure hatred and malcontent.

“Trivial!” he grunted, spinning around and planting his back hoof into Mack’s chest. This sent Mack flying into the wall behind him. I tried to take out my own firearm, but Razor caught wind of what I was trying to do. He took a knife out from his pocket and flung it into my shoulder, preventing me from brandishing my firearm. I screamed as the pain rocketed through me.

“Tell your masked friend not to interfere with us again, insect!” He instructed. He then turned away from me and took a ball of light out of his coat and threw it to the ground. When it broke, pure light poured from it, enveloping him, and in a flash, he was gone.

A deputy busted through the door to our interrogation and gasped at what he saw.

“What the HAY happened in here! Nightstick! Talk to me! TALK TO-!”

He stopped when he saw the knife. I had been staring at it to, and for one reason in particular. The design on the knife was similar to any other combat knife, but in the middle of the hilt, was a symbol of a black circle with two red eyes in the middle, a white flame in between them. I recognized the symbol instantly.

The knife didn’t just belong to some gang; it belonged to what used to be a gang, but turned into an insurrectionist group.

It acted as a message from the biggest and deadliest criminal organization in Equestria.

It belonged to… the Black Dynasty.

Trixie

I returned home from my night of crime fighting, putting my costume in its hidden area. I went to the kitchen to prepare a sunflower sandwich and some dandelion wine before retiring to my living room.

I rested my head upon the love seat taking in a deep breath and relaxing my muscles, finally resting myself from the strenuous activity of last night. Everything seemed fine… until the lights across the room from me flicked on.

I shot up and assumed a combat stance, getting ready to confront the intruder. But when I looked over towards the light I saw… the grey Pegasus and Spike!?

“What’re you two doing in my house!?” I asked frantically, demanding to know why they both wanted to pay me this surprise visit.

“You know *DAMN WELL why we’re here, Trixie!” The grey Pegasus shouted, causing me to real back from how aggressive she came off. I was even more curious after the sudden outburst from her as to why they were here.*

Then Spike asked me something that both answered my questions, and made my heart drop.

“Or would like us to call you… *MareDoWell."*

MareDoWell chp 9: Discovery

Trixie…

We just stood there staring at each other for the longest time, silence filling the air. Millions of questions speed through my mind; ‘How did they know?’ ‘What do they want?’ and ‘How do I fix this?’ were the most prevalent among them. I tear through my own mind, searching frantically for a solution to all this… until one idea in particular made itself all too clear.

I mentally gawk at myself, the boldness and risk of such an idea astounding me, but when I search for alternatives… I can find none. So, with new found confidence, I face Spike, beginning to charge my horn in preparation for the spell, focusing my magic.

“What are you doing?” Spike asks, a venomous glare in his eyes. Ignoring him, I put my full attention into my magic, gathering the last bit of it I need to power the spell, and hurl it at them at full speed.

They try to dodge me, scrambling out of their seats, fumbling over each other… but they're to slow. The spell engulfs them in an orb of light levitating them off the ground. When I know they're in position, I begin to recite the spell, no, the hex I have in mind.

“I call forth my magic, upon which I am reliant.”

I look up, seeing that their faces carry expressions of fear and surprise. I want so much to tell them that it will be alright, that it would all be okay soon… but saying anything other than the second verse would disable the hex. So I close my eyes, and recite that last verse of the spell.

“Keep my secret, and make them SILENT! ”

The orb of light containing both of them turns pure white and flashes in a neon blaze, causing my whole world to stop… and everything to go quiet.

Nightstick…

I wasn’t agitated.

I wasn’t angry.

I wasn’t sad.

No… I was pissed!

I had the deputy that had busted down the door up against a wall, my nostrils flaring violently. Mack and I still had our injuries, but I was far too enraged to acknowledge my wounded shoulder.

“WHERE WERE YOU!?” I scream. “WHERE, IN THE BLOODIEST OF ALL HAYS, WERE YOU!?”

“I-I’m sorry!” he says. “We tried to get the door down but that… thing had some sort of field around it! It was like every entrance into the room had been turned into reinforced titanium!”

I release him from my grasp, my anger now directed solely at the masked stallion, Razors Edge. i was practically swimming in my own seething rage when a sudden thought comes to mind; where’s Raphael? He was with us when everything went down, and now all of a sudden he was just… gone! I got up and began to search for him, asking around to see if anybody had seen him, but only to learn no one had. I had almost given up, thinking he had left home to be with his family at the time, but then I found him. He sat in front of a window, completely silent, staring out onto the horizon as if in deep thought. I walk over and put my hoof on his shoulder, trying to get a response from him.

“He was my brother…“he whispers. It was at that moment that I fully realized the full scope of this situation; this stallion, mere minutes ago, watched his own brother die.

“Raph, he was a homicidal scumbag who-.”

“HE WAS STILL MY BROTHER!” he yells, tears beginning their descent down his face. I hung my head, ashamed for assuming that, even through all the bullshit, he wouldn’t care about his own brother. I walk over and put my hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort him as best I could. He puts his face into my shoulder as I embrace him in a hug. hearing his gentle crying forming into heavy sobs.

“H-he was my b-b-brother, and I just sat there and watched him DIE-E-E!” he sobbs, his tears beginning to stain my coat. I hold him close as he cries, letting a few tears of my own fall down my cheeks.

“Promise me…” I hear Raphael whisper. I looked down at him, my eyebrow raised, before he took me by my coat and brought my face mere inches away from his, shaking me violently.

“Promise me that you’ll find him! Promise me that you’ll stop him from doing this again!” he sobbed.

“PROMISE ME THAT YOU’LL TAKE DOWN THAT SON OF A BITCH DOWN!”

I stared at him, the look on his face burning itself into my mind. I took his hands in mine, and stared straight into his eyes.

“Mister Saltine,” I began “I solemnly swear that, whatever it takes, however many ponies I need, and how ever many resources I expend. I will find him, and I will bring him bring to justice!”

With the end of the oath, I held a fist to my chest and raised the other hand in salute, signifying my undying loyalty to the promise I had made. He hugged me, his sobbing fading into sniffles.

“Thank you.” I heard him whimper. I held him closer to me, allowing him to let out his last few sniffles, before pushing him back so that we stood in front of each other.

“Now go.” I told him. “Be with your family, make sure they’re safe.”

He nodded to me and ran out of the front door.

As I walk back to the interrogation room, I realize just how hard a promise that would be to keep. But what I never realized… was just how much pain that promise would bring upon me.

“Oi, Watch the shoulder!” I hear Mackie yell. As I walk through the door, I spot a now apologetic looking medic mare patching up a nasty scrape on Mack’s shoulder. I chuckle a bit at the scene before me, always finding Mack’s aggressive attitude quite entertaining.

“How are you?” I ask.

“Well let’s see; I got kicked in me stomach, thrown into a wall, and I saw one of our suspects get executed ‘n front of me. How tha HAY do ya THINK a’m doin’!”

I shook my head and chuckled some more, looking over to the female officer and signaling her to leave the room. I walked over and sat beside him with a heavy thud.

“They showed you the knife?” I ask.

“Aye.”

“You know who it’s from?”

“Aye.”

“Good… cause I just gave Raphael the Officers Pledge.”

“Ay… YOU DID WHAT!” he screamed.

“What? The guy had to watch his brother die. So why not?”

“Because it’s tha Black Dynasty ya daft mare! Not just some random street gang!” he yells. I could see where he was coming from, knowing what the Black Dynasty was. But at the same time, I knew I made a promise to Raphael, and I intended to keep that promise.

“Black Dynasty or not, that stallion not only murdered somepony, but he did so in front of two EPD officers, and then proceeded to insult the EPD directly in front of those officers.” I state, making my way towards the door.

“So frankly, I don’t give a good Celestia damn if he’s with the bloody Dynasty, he’s going down!”

Just as I was about to walk out, I felt Mack’s hooftips grip my shoulder. I turned to see him staring at me with large eyes and low-hung ears, his look just begging me to listen. I rolled my eyes and leaned against the door frame, waiting for his opinion.

“Look, I know ya think this‘s like other cases, but this is the DYNASTY were talkin’ about. And furthermore, this aint no regular agent o’ theirs either!” he says, pleading with me to see things his way.

“How do you know that?” I ask. He looked down at the floor as if troubled, obviously holding something back.

“I… I’ve her’da Razors Edge before.” He mutters.

“How so?” I ask. I was taken aback a bit, honestly. I mean, ever since the BD graduated to insurrectionist class they’ve been specifically the Royal Guards problem, and rarely ever tangled with the EPD. So we rarely ever got any relevant up to date info unless the royals needed a helping hoof.

“Tha royal’s nee’ed some help with a case involving the Dynasty, so they invited any EPD CSI officials to volunteer. When we received the initial reports, I thought it’was just anotha case… but when we got the files on the agent they’er after.”

He looked away from me, as if reluctant to discuss the ordeal entirely. I took him by the shoulder, coaxing him to finish.

“His… every one of ‘is cases involved murder.” he said.

“What do you mean ‘every one’?”

“I mean there wasn’t a single case that didn’t involve him killing somepony!” he said, locking eyes with me. I didn’t want to believe him, but his expression told me that he was telling the truth.

“And the worst part, they didn’t send’em to kill these ponies just because he was good at it, but because the bastard enjoyed it! Don’t you understand! That stallion’s out of ‘is bloody-.”

“It doesn’t MATTER!” I yell, cutting him off.

What matters is that I made a promise, and you know…  I don’t go back on my promises.”

“I know that! But this guy is more than we’ve been trained to handle!”

“Then we’ll adapt!” I say, storming out of the door. Mack was about to protest, but simply huffed and followed me out.

We drove in the cart in silence, only glancing over at each other every now and then. I knew his concerns and understood them, but a promise had been made, and a promise had to be kept. The tension in the car was growing out of control anyway, so one of us had to speak eventually.

“You know… ya didn’t even know that stallion until this mornin’.” he says.

“Your point?” I shot back, a little venom in my words.

“Look, I’m not sayin’ that what ya did was wrong, but this guy is a stranger ta you! And a felon!” he says. “Furthermore, why the hay did you just let him go when he was involved in a foalnapping attempt!?”

“Because he was a victim of circumstance.” I reply. “You know how the Equestrian DA works; once they heard his case, saw the evidence, and got an official statement from me, they would have let him go with some minor community service. In fact, they’re probably going to send him a note saying just that.”

“Aye…” Mack says, admitting defeat. As we drove on, we decided that we would get the easiest thing out of the way first; trying to find out exactly who MDW was, and I knew six prime suspects that could help out with just that.

Trixie…

I looked over what I had done, wondering if all the possible consequences would truly be just that worth it. I hoped and prayed this would work, trying to find the right words to say.

“WHAT IN THE HAY WAS THAT!” Spike screams, his voice cracking slightly. He rapidly checked over his entire body making sure everything was still there. Once he had checked all of his claws, he let out a long sigh of relief, and continued to stare at me angrily, while his gray friend simply shook her head and smiled.

“Do it again!” she says gleefully. Both I and Spike looked over to her for a moment, confused and bewildered, before turning our attention back to each other.

“What did you do to me and Derpy!?” Spike demands.

“Now calm down spike it was only a minor hex…”

“A HEX!” he screams.

“Am I gonna grow another limb! Are my scales gonna fall off! Am I gonna-“

“Try saying who MareDoWell is.” I interrupted with a sly grin.

“What?”

“Just tell me who MareDoWell is.”

“Um… okay… you’re MareDoWell.”

“Mention her by name.” I instructed.

“████ is MareDoWell.” Spike says, his hands flying to his mouth and my face contorting into a mischievous grin.

“Trixie.” he said cautiously.

“MareDoWell.” he said again.

“Trixie, MareDoWell.” he said together.

“████ is MareDoWe-WHAT THE FUCK!”

“Spike, Watch your language!” Derpy scolded. Spike ignored her, continuing to try and state MareDoWell’s name (my name) until falling out on the chair from exhaustion.

“It’s a redactor.” I explained. “A spell that is used to stop ponies from divulging… sensitive… information.”

“So we can’t say that you’re MareDoWell anymore?”

“I was going to do you both actually, but the I decided to just do you instead.”

“WHY!?” Spike shouts, a little more than angry.

“Because Derpy owes me, you don’t.” I reply. I look over at Derpy, who smiles and nods, while Spike face-palms.  I walk past him and sit down, relaxing myself before I begin questioning..

“How do you know?” I ask.

“You go down to a basement during a house party and stare at that costume like its Faust incarnate and you suspect me not to get suspicious?”

Spike had a valid point. After all, I had stood there… admiring the costume for at least 15 minutes before leaving that night. I turned to ask Derpy, but she was already prepared.

“When I first heard about MareDoWell, I thought back to that night you saved me. Then I just put two and two together and here I am!”

I face-palmed, not believing I could be so naive as to think that Derpy wouldn’t be able to figure out the obvious. I was actually ashamed of myself for a moment, scolding my own mind for assuming a mare would be stupid because of an eye condition. I wanted to apologize for my gross assumption, but there would be a time and a place. For now though, I needed to make sure this wouldn’t get out.

“Derpy is there a reason you were so angry at me earlier?” I ask. She looks down to the floor, ashamed.

“Spike… um… had a few theories about why you had taken up the whole MareDoWell thing and, well, I may have believed them; just a little bit.”

“And what theories are those?” I asks, turning my attentions towards Spike.

“Look!” he responds. “All I’m saying is that, in the past, you haven’t been the most trustworthy of ponies. I just think that maybe there could be some ulterior motives here.”

I look down to the floor and began to think.  I knew why Spike would think that, he did live with Twilight after all. There had to be a way to convince him!

After I rack my brain for a full minute for a solution, I can come up with only one; tell the truth.

“If I make us all some tea, would you trust me a little bit more then?” I ask.

They looked at each other for a few moments, exchanging several facial expressions before nodding in agreement. Spike looked over to me and huffed “Start the kettle.”

We sat, sipping our tea, talking about nothing in particular for fifteen minutes straight. When we reached a moment of silence, I decided it was time to talk.

“I’m doing this for their friendship.” I said.

“What?” Spike asks.

I let out a sigh and began to explain. “I hadn’t seen any other ways of changing their minds about me for awhile, but when I saw the costume….” I trail off.

“The basic idea was that I would become MareDoWell for a while, fight some crime, save some innocents, and then finally help each of the five individually. At the end of this, I intend to reveal my identity to them, and if all goes as planned they will see that my heroism and generosity as a surefire sign that I’ve changed, thus gaining me there affection.”

There is a moment of silence, along with Spike giving me an awkward look before breaking said silence.

“Are you kidding me?” he asks.

“What?”

“So let me get this straight; you’re going to save lives, stop evil, and become a super hero, all so you can gain friendship! Doesn’t that seem a bit selfish to you?”

“Spike….” I try to reply.

“What if this whole plan of yours doesn’t work? I’m pretty sure that Twilight and the others wouldn’t just go ‘We like you now’ because you decided to become Daring Do in a cool outfit.”

“Spike…!” I call again, agitated.

“I’m sorry but this sounds like complete bullshit to me!”

“I KNOW, ALRIGHT!” I scream. “I’ve tried everything, literally everything to try and win them over.”

Spike and Derpy back away, their heads hanging slightly.

“Besides, who are you to judge me!? You’ve always been their friend! You’ve never had to work for it!”

“Trixie….” Derpy tries to say.

“You get to spend every day with Twilight; helping her, talking to her!”

“Um… Twilight?” Spike asks.

“I would give everything just to be with her, even if only once! To hold her, caress her… love her.” Tears were freely flowing from my eyes, slowed only by the look of anger they adorned.

“You will NEVER know what it feels like to love somepony that hates you!”

My breathing was heavy and my eyes stung, gaze stuck to the two in front of me. They looked at me like I was an alien, their expressions those of shock, awe, and surprise. It wasn’t long until I realized what I had said, covering my mouth with a hoof in embarrassment.

“Y-You love Twilight?” Spike asks.

I couldn’t respond, I didn’t know how, and like a scared filly I ran upstairs. I cried for fifteen minutes, ashamed I had exposed my innermost feelings to two outsiders. I paused in the middle of my sobbing at the sound of a knock at the door.

“Trixie?” she calls. “It’s Derpy. Can I come in?”

“J-Just go away! You two have done enough!”

“I could always have Spike burn the door down.”

Yet again, I had no response. The only thing I could do was get up, and open the door.

She walks inside too quickly and we gently butt heads, reeling back from each other with matching gasps.

She rubs her head and looks up at me. “Sorry….” she says with a half smile.

“It’s okay, come on in.” I reply.

She walks in, carrying some tea with her, and plops down on a beanbag, with me sitting next to her on another. I try to speak, but she interrupts me.

“Please forgive Spike.” she asks. “He doesn’t really understand. Not to mention Twilight’s been pumping all that bullshit about you into his head.”

“It’s odd to hear you curse.” I reply.

“Why, because I look to nice and special?”

“I wasn’t insinuating-.”

“No, forget it. It’s the eyes, I know.” she says, waving her hoof.

We have a small moment of silence while she takes a sip from her cup. But as she does, a question comes to mind.

“Why do you act the way you do?”

“What?” she asks.

“Ever since that alleyway incident, I’ve noticed you around town. You’re very bubbly, almost a blonde personality, not to mention a klutz. But here you’re well spoken, mature and you think things out. Why so different in public?”

She sighs, and then reluctantly gives her answer. “Because if I acted like this around others they’d get pissed that the special Pegasus is actually competent.”

I was confused, but before I could ask, she was already explaining.

“I don’t like to cause trouble, alright? I mean, Luna knows how many ignorant bastards would hate to see a ‘special needs mare’ do anything better than them.” she says, taking a sip from her cup. “So, unless I absolutely have to, I stow away this mare you see know and replace her with a hard working and capable, yet handicapped klutz of a mare.”

“Why?” I question.

“Because I don’t want any trouble, Trixie.” she looks directly into my eyes. “Just like how you want their friendship.”

I said nothing, allowing the silence to permeate the air. Then she speaks once more.

“That’s why I came up here, because I think, in that way, that we’re the same.”

She takes another sip from her cup, still keeping her eyes on me.

“And that’s why I want in.” she finishes. Doing so in a disturbingly happy manner I might add.

I look up with a start, gazing at the absently smiling mare in front of me. For a second, I had thought I misheard her.

“What do you mean ‘you want in’?”

“Well think about it; Batmare has a sidekick right? So it would only be fitting if-.”

“No.” I cut her off.

“Why not!?”

I look to her, seeing her gaze at me with puppy dog eyes. “Because if I get in trouble then you’re going to try and save me and then you’ll be in trouble, and then we’re fucked.”

“We could call Spike!”

I raise an eyebrow. “Really? A small baby dragon that doesn’t even have his wings yet?”

“For your information,” I hear downstairs “I may be a juvenile in my species, but in yours, I’m twenty! Also, we still have near perfect hearing at this age you bitch!”

My face goes flush with embarrassment and Derpy fails to suppress a giggle.

“Look, the fact of the matter is it’s just too dangerous! I mean, what if you died or got seriously injured? Why would I want that on my conscience?”

Derpy considers this, bringing a hoof to her chin, searching for a solution.

“I got it!” she proclaims. “What if I wasn’t a ‘sidekick’, but an informant!”

“Informant?” I ask.

“For instance; let’s say I notice some strange behavior on my paper route, maybe a few shady characters constantly going in and out of one place constantly. I can call you up, let you know what’s going down, and have you come over and take a look.”

I was about to object, but then I began to think of all the applications that might have. I wouldn’t need to wait for something to happen anymore, I would only have to call Derpy and ask her, or check my messages to see if she left me one. The other practical use would be private medical transportation. If I’m hurt bad, I can call her with my location and be taken back to my house to get the medical supplies from my basement.

While I wouldn’t want her to get hurt, somepony offering such a position wouldn’t just fall out of the sky. So the choice was obvious.

“Alright.” I huff. “We’ll try this later on today. But at the first sign of trouble on your end, we’re done. Got it?”

“Deal!” she happily squeaks. We shake on it and finish our tea, telling stories about our lives and sharing a few laughs. When we head back downstairs, Spike is sitting in the easy chair, sipping his own tea. Before I could even speak, he began to talk.

“Look.” he says. “I still don’t know if I can fully trust you, but if Derpy thinks you’re okay… than I’ll give you a chance.”

“Really!” i gasp.

“One chance!” he scowls.

He gets up and waves Derpy over with a claw, the blonde Pegasus waving to me as she goes. But as they leave, I get an idea.

“Wait!” I yell after them. They turn to me, eyebrows cocked.

“Follow me; I have an idea!”

They follow me to the room where I had made my cape, and while I would not need a full circle, the enchantment table at the back of the room would suffice. I grabbed the supplies I would need, sped into the room, and closed the door behind me.

“No peeking!” I shout. After casting a few spells, and binding the material, I come out of the room with what appear to be one bracelet and two hoof bands, each with a large crystal.

“These are contact bands.” I explain. “If you need to contact me or each other, just think of that pony, or dragon, and think of what you need to say. It should send the message telepathically.”

“Can’t we just use our spellphones?” Derpy asks.

“No. Spellphones can be tracked too easily.”

“Why do I get one?” Spike asks.

“Well you live with the mare I love, so that’s one reason, the other being that she sends you out for errands all the time, so you should see if anything goes down if you look close enough.”

“Wait, why would I help you?”

“Because if you don’t, I’ll have Derpy tell Twilight you swear when she’s not around.” I reply, smiling.

He look’s over at Derpy, only to see her smile and wink. He turns back to me with a huff, arms folded as he nods his head.

“Alright, then it’s settled! You are all now officially MareDoWell informants!” I shout, waving my hooves in the air. Derpy claps with delight and squees, while Spike merely rolls his eyes.

I bid them farewell as they leave, and go back to finish the tea Derpy graciously left behind. But before I could even begin to sip, my band vibrates, and I hear a thought ring loud in my mind. ‘Trixie, it’s Derpy! There are some ponies out here and… they’re asking about you.’

I respond, my thought a booming holler. ‘Look directly at them and focus Derpy! I’m going to try something!’

She does so, sending a visual to me. I close my eyes, letting out a surprised, startled gasp as one of them screams “I’ll ask you and you’re pet dragon one more time. Is that blue whore in there!?”

My surprised expression gives way to a grin as I get up to get my costume. They’re we’re a few new faces, but I recognized the few stallions in the middle well, and I didn’t want to keep old friends waiting.

Besides, who would I be not to repay the ponies that gave me a reason to train under Reave.

Twilight…

Dead ends.

Dead ends all day, that’s all we got. Rainbow grilled some of her friends in Cloudsdale, Applejack interrogated her entire family, and even Rarity tried to ask her customers ‘key questions’. We were sitting in the main room of my library, discussing who it could be, if the magic used by ‘her’ was unicorn or potion caused. But just as we thought it couldn’t get any worse, there was a knock at the door. I get up first, thinking that Spike has finished his errands, but when I open the door, it’s not the little dragon I expected. Instead there is a large earth pony mare with a neon white coat and a black mane with silver stripes going throughout it. Her eyes are a light purple, and on her flank is what appears to be a sheriff’s badge. I recognize her easily as commissioner Nightstick, and the green Pegasus stallion behind her as Mackey McBrawler.

“Commissioner Nightstick! What are you-?“ I tried to say.

“We’re here about MareDoWell, Miss Sparkle.”

MareDoWell chp 7: Beginning

It was time, finally time for my debut performance. I was so excited that I almost forgot half of my weapons and appliances as I was leaving. I decided I should just take two dual glock-17s' for my firearms of choice, knowing that I probably wouldn't need much more fire power than that. I chose to teleport to a random edge of the Everfree forest, preferably near downtown Ponyville, to begin my patrol.

When I got there, I cast a fog spell over the general area. The weather team would probably hate me, but it was just a minor spell. I stuck to the shadows and used what I had learned from my multiple disappearing acts to blend in with my environment and virtually disappear.

It was actually quite fun to sneak up behind ponies walking the streets at night and whisper something, only for them to turn around and see nothing, absolutely priceless.

I thought that maybe tonight was going to be a dud at first, with nothing happening for hours on end, until I came across an unusual sight; four grown stallions following three young fillies down a vacant street. One filly was dressed in overalls while another was wearing a standard t-shirt and blue jean shorts, the last wearing an obviously hand crafted dress.

Curious as to what was going on and why, I followed close and listened.

"Belle, are you sure these guys know a shortcut back to our area?" says one of the fillies.  I recognized her voice instantly as Applebloom, Applejack's younger sister. With her must've been her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

"Well they seemed nice enough when they offered to get us home, and our sisters are probably super mad at us for being out so late! So these guys are kind of our only option." Sweetie Belle says, looking anxious, obviously just wanting to get home.

"Well I think you all are worrying too much, I mean, just look at this place! I had no idea It was so cool looking at night!" Scootaloo exclaims.

"And plus, these guys even said they'd walk behind us to make sure nothing bad happens! So they seem nice enough."

"Hmm, seems legit." Sweetie says, half joking half serious.

"I guess ya'll have a point there scoots, ah jus-" Applebloom tried to say before getting interrupted by one of the stallions behind them.

"Hey girls! Could you come here for a minute." He asks. The girls complied and walked over to him and his friends.

"Yeah Danny, what is it?"

The stallion had one of the more traditional names that were coming into style nowadays. Him and his friends glanced over to each other in a… suspicious manner, as if telling each other 'get ready' with their eyes. It was unsettling enough for me to prepare to intervene, switching on my voice modification spell in order to hide my identity.

"Me and my friends don't actually know a way to your area." He says, a sly smile crossing his face.

"What!" Sweetie yells. "So you've just been lying this entire time!"

"Yup!" Danny says, his face still covered in a huge smile.

"But we did bring you here for a reason, a very… special reason."

"What reason!"  Applebloom screams. "What other reason could y'all possibly have ta-!"

"What would the Elements of Harmony do if anything happened to you three?" Danny asks. The fillies froze, as did I. I knew this was going someplace bad.

There was silence for three minutes, no one moving, speaking, or perhaps even breathing.

"…What?" Sweetie whimpers. I had seen the look on all their faces on other fillies before when I did my Halloween shows… they were frightened.

"I mean, Rainbow Dash is pretty close with Scootaloo isn't she, and you two are the sisters of two Elements!" he states in a disturbingly casual manner.

"So we were thinking the Elements would pay what, two, three million bits to see you safe again?" Danny says.

"I'd push fer 4 mil!" one of the nameless stallions blurts out.

"Whoa Bruiser!" another one shouts.  "That may be a little much for these three trouble makers!"

"What!?" Scootaloo shouts, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"Here's our proposition; you come with us and we hold you for ransom. Now if the Elements pay us, you go free, we get paid, everybody wins. But if they don't pay..." Him and the other stallions exchange awkward glances between each other.

"Well… lets not think about that right know." Danny finishes. I'd heard enough and was moving into position, waiting for a chance to strike.

"And what makes you think we'll go with you, huh?" Scootaloo yells.

"What do you have that could possibly make us go with you?"

Danny looked at his friends with a big smile, which they returned. Standing upright, they all pulled silenced .22s' out of there coats.

"Oh, these can be very persuasive!" Danny said, smiling so wide that he would make pinkie blush.

The three fillies feeze again for another minute until Sweetie tries to blind them with a magic flash, but it's too dim. The stallions come up behind them and within seconds, have their hands on the fillies mouths, and their guns to their temples.

The fillies cries for help are muffled by the strong grips of the stallions, and they froze at the feeling of a gun held to their heads. All of a sudden, one of the stallions screams. As I look toward him, my plan already in motion, I see Applebloom running from her captor, only to be caught again by him seconds later.

"She bit me! Little cunt bit me!" the stallion yells

"Well quit complaining and punish her!" Danny yells back.

"Damn right I'll punish her!" the colt takes his pistol and points it at Applebloom's right ear. "Lets see how you like being deaf on one side, bitch!"

Applebloom closes her eyes as the stallion squeezes the trigger, and then…

*click*

Bloom's eyes open fast, trying to figure out what happened and what they had done, but when she surveys her body, nothing is wrong. Her ear was still there, they hadn't shot her anywhere else… she was fine.

"What the fuck?" Blooms' captor says, shocked. He attempts to fire five more times at Bloom's ear, only to get five more clicks.

"Oh for the love of… you're jammed! I'll do it!" Danny yells, taking Bloom, aiming at her ear, and pulling the trigger.

*click*

*click*

*click*

Danny looks to his gun in disbelief, wondering what's happening.

"Okay, what the fuck!" Danny swore. He then turned to face his fellow fillynappers.

"Unload you clips, NOW!" He yells. The stallions follow their orders and fire into the air.

*click*

                    *click*

*click*

                    *click*

*click*

                    *click*

*click*

"What in the bloody TARTARUS is going on!?" That was my signal.

"Now, now… that's no way to treat a filly, is it?" I say. My voice comes from seemingly everywhere as I make the fog thicken around them.

"Who is that? Who's out there!?"

"I'll be taking them from you now." I rose the fog to the point where nothing was visible, and when the fog cleared, the fillies were no longer with them, but behind me.

All three stare up at me, gazing in awe. I even earn a long, drawn out 'whoa' from Scootaloo. I look down at them with a soft smile, invisible to them due to the mask..

"Stay behind me." I whisper.

I turn my attention to the foalnappers, and speak.

"If you surrender peacefully, I promise not to hurt you."

Then they laughed at me.

Yes, they laughed, and for a good two minutes, too. When their laughter dies down, Danny gives them one simple order.

"…Ah ha ha kill her."

They aim at me, trying to fire, but all they got was… well… you know.

"Do you like it? It's a weapon disabling spell created by the royal military." I say, an obvious smile in my voice.

"It takes just enough water from the air, and teleports it into the gun. Now there are ways to defend against it, but, I doubt you know any of those." I finish.

It was at this moment that who looked to be the weakest of them rushes me, attempting to use his pistol as a club. It took one quick punch to knock him out.

As he lay on the floor unconscious, the other three reach into their coats and take out pocketknives of different shapes and sizes.

I gasp dramatically, as if imitating Rarity. "Oh my Celestia! Four stallions with mediocre fighting capability and pocketknives! My only weakness! How did you know!"

Another stallion charges me, his blade raised.

"Oh yeah, well lets see how you like this, whore!" He plunges the knife into my shoulder, causing me to fake scream for a few seconds until shifting to a joyous laugh. I took the knife out of my shoulder and looked at it, twirling it in my hands.

"This is reinforced nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, carbon fibers and microfibers you just stabbed. Please," I said as I plunge the knife into his shoulder "try again."

He screamed for a moment before I chopped him in the neck, knocking him unconscious. I gave a few more amused giggles before turning my attention to Danny and Bruiser. They looked absolutely terrified, having dropped their knives while starring at me.

"So what will it be boys?" I asked, spreading my cape and preparing to charge.

"Fight or flight?"

They looked at each other, shaking with fear, and promptly… ran away. I expected as much actually, I mean it's not like they could've actually beat me at that point anyway.

I decided it was time to finish this, and gave chase. I hit Bruiser with a tranquilizer, deciding he probably wasn't worth the energy it would take to fight him. But Danny, he was a different story.

"Where do you think you're going!" I say, teleporting in front of him, standing bipedal. I used the fog to cover up the fact I could teleport, though. Didn't want people thinking I was Twilight after all.

"But… you said fight or flight. I chose flight!" he screams, his voice breaking. I laughed heartily at this for a few seconds then shook my head and 'tsked'.

"I did give you the option to run… but I never said I would let you go." I responded, a sly smile under my mask.

His expression turned from one of fear to one of anger, and the he charged me.

"Fine, have it your way, bitch!" He began to through punches, even landing a few on me. My armor was so thick though; I didn't even feel it when he made contact with me.

After a few minutes into are physical exchange, I grew bored, so I decided to put an end to this charade… quickly.

When he tried to throw his next punch, I took the opportunity to punch him three times in the ribs, breaking five of them. He fell onto his knees, clutching his chest in pain. When he looked up, I jabbed him in the throat; not hard enough to break his windpipe, but hard enough to make it a chore to breath. He grabbed his throat and immediately started to gasp for air. Finally, when his breathing started to come back, I delivered a roundhouse buck to his face, causing blood to fly from his mouth, and he, like the rest of his friends, to fall unconscious

I called the police and told them were to find these filthy animals, as well as chaining them up and leaving them there. I also retrieved the video camera I had set up on a nearby lamppost, taking out the tape and leaving it with them.

After I was done, I stood triumphantly over the scene before me, smiling with glee. I went over every thing in my head.'Ahhh, this is great. I came in, kicked bad guy flank, and saved the fo-.'

"The foals!" I screamed, realizing that I'd completely forgotten about them during the fight! I turned around in panic, hoping to find them soon before they got lost. Of course, when I turned around, they tackled me.

"That… was… AWSOME!" Scootaloo shouts.

"I mean, they were like 'We're gonna take you hostage.' and you were all like 'No you're not.' and they were all like 'DIIIIEEE!' and then you were all like 'NNNNNOOPE' and then they were like 'what the hay?' and then you were like 'YEAH, GET PWNED!'. That was so freakin' AW-" Scootaloo was cut off by Applebloom's hand being shoved in her mouth.

"What Scoots is tryin' ta say," Bloom says, glaring at Scoots, making her blush "is thank you miss… um… uh."

"Who are you anyway?" Sweetie asks, tilting her head in curiosity. I got up and giggled, ruffling the fillies manes, and shook myself off.

"Sorry, but I can't tell you." I told them, earning a collective 'awww' from all three of them.

"However," I continued "I'm pretty sure you could ask some of the Elements about me and get your answer from them."

"What! Our sisters and the rest of the girls know you!" Sweetie asks, smiling with glee, her eyes growing wide.

"Even Rainbow Dash!" Scoots added.

I scratched the back of my head and reply.

"Well… they don't know me personally… but they know of me." I tried to explain.

All this did unfortunately was get me confused looks from all three of them, and i face-palmed.

"Look, just ask them about me when I get you home, and I'll make sure you get you're answer, okay?" They shook their heads so fast you'd think they were bobble-head replicas of themselves.

I smiled at their overwhelmingly adorable nature, and then placed my hoof upon Applebloom's forehead.

"Join hooves with Bloom and close your eyes, please." I said. "I'm going to use a bloodline tracking spell."

"A bloodline what?" Sweetie asked.

"It's a spell that will send a magic pulse through you that will go across Ponyville and inform me if it scans across anything that shares your lineage." I explained.

"Cool… " Scoots said, her eyes wide with interest.

After they joined hooves with Bloom, and closed their eyes, I fired the spell. A surge of magical energy washed over the multiple areas of Ponyville, revealing, at first, nothing but small whispers from the minds of ponies.

But, after a lot of searching, the Carousel Boutique lit up bright red, signifying the location of one or more blood relatives. As I focused all of the resonating magic on the boutique, I discovered who the relatives are; Rarity and Applejack.

Searching further, it is revealed that there is a third pony with them with no blood relation to any of the fillies. Curious as to who it was I summoned a room sized eavesdrop spell, so that I may listen to their conversation.

"Fur the love of all that's good and decent, Rarity! Why in Celestia's name would ya let'em go out to there tree house ALONE!" Applejack screams through tears.

"B-but AJ, you don't understand. Two weeks ago, when that baby manticore attacked them, Sweetie Belle used all the magic training I've been giving her to summon plasma bolts to fight it off! I thought they would be alright!" Rarity sobs.

The third pony slammed their hoof on a nearby table, obviously angrier then sad.

"Yelling at each other isn't going to help!" a frustrated Rainbow Dash yells.

"We need to go into the Everfree forest and look until we find them! Cause if we don't soon then they might…" Rainbow pauses.

"L-let's just find them, alright!" Dash finishes, a single tear escaping her eye. I figured she was there because of Scootaloo, basically being her surrogate sister after all.

I almost started to weep with them, but I snapped myself out of it, in order to focus on the task at hand. I concentrate all of the magic I need on their location and, with the fillies, teleport to the location of the three mares.

As we appeared outside of the boutique, the fillies' eyes flew open, obviously weary from their first teleport ever.

"We feel… kinda… dizzy." Applebloom points out. I shook my head and laughed a little, succumbing to the rambunctious charm these fillies are said to have. I led them up to the door as their dizziness fades. When they realize where we are, tears start to form in their eyes.

"There are three mares in their that are really worried about you, why don't you go cheer them up, hmm?" I whispered to them in a caring manner. I didn't have to ask it twice; they sped to the door so fast, that it would've made Dash blush.

Sweetie Belle knocks first, it being her home after all. She knocks rapidly and frantically, and eventually gets a response.

"We're closed… " said a cold yet elegant voice from inside the building. Sweetie, to distraught to speak, merely knocks faster.

After three minutes of knocking, the door finally opens, revealing three teary eyed mares.

"I said we're-!" Rarity tried to say before realizing who was at the door.

Nothing happened for a good five minutes, the mares and fillies just starred at each other quietly. At the end of the silent five minutes, the mares took the fillies in an extra tight hug, as if never wanting to let go. The fillies returned the hug and cried over the mares' shoulders, the mares doing the same.

"Where in tartarus have ya'll been!" Applejack yelled, letting go of Applebloom and facing her.

"I concur! We demand to know what happened and… why are you all crying?" Rarity asks.

"We tried to take a shortcut, but we got lost." Applebloom said.

"Yeah! Sweetie and I started to fight about which direction to go, and then these five stallions walked up and offered to show us a shortcut. We were really lost, so we accepted the offer." Scootaloo continued.

"Uh-hu, but when we got to this weird, empty place, they said that they didn't know a shortcut after all and that they wanted to… wanted to… " Sweetie Belle tried to finish.

Rarity and Applejack were completely silent, unable to comprehend what they just heard. Dash however, had taken Scootaloo by her shoulders and was looking directly into her eyes.

"Did they touch you!?" Dash demanded. Scootaloo tries to say 'what?' but her face says it for her.

"Did they do things to you that you didn't like? Touch you in a bad place!?" She shouts frantically. The other mares were now sobbing, and Scootaloo still seemed confused.

"Oh my… did they molest any of you Scootaloo!" Dash yells, frustrated. Scootaloo's eyes widened in realization, finally figuring out what Dash meant.

"No, they didn't!" Scootaloo responded, calming all three mares, and earning herself a nice, long hug from Dash.

"They did say they were gunna foalnap us and use us to get ransom from you guys though… and they threatened us with guns." Bloom added, sniffling.

All the mares' eyes shot open, no longer sad… but angry.

"They did WHAT!" Applejack nearly screamed.

"Jack, Rares, you stay here. I'll head to Sweet Apple Acres and get AJs' sawed-off!" Dash said, filled with rage. If Scootaloo hadn't stopped them with her next words, they probably would've have found those guys chained up and… done something brash.

"No, it's alright!" Scootaloo screamed, causing everypony to look over at her.

"We're here now, she saved us!" Scootaloo screamed again, not wanting her idol to leave her side. The mares were calmer now, but confused.

"Who is 'she' darling?" Rarity asked. The fillies looked at each other with confused faces.

"She told us ya'll 'knew ah her' or sumthin'." Applebloom stated, sending the mares into an even more confused state.

"Well… what did she look like?" Rarity asked.

"Well actually she wore this really cool suit, so we didn't get to see her face, but she was really cool! I mean she just came in and wreaked all five of those creeps like it was nothing, I mean, she was just so… freaking… AWESOME!!" Scootaloo said with a smile, the very memory of what I did cheering her up instantly.

"Well, I can't say I know'er, but if she saved ya'll then she's okay n' mah book!" Applejack said, her voice cheerful and joyous.

"Yeah! Where is she, anyway?" Dash chimed in. "I want to meet the mare that saved my number one fan!"

I decided It was time to make my appearance, so I stepped into a streetlight and called out to them.

"You really haven't noticed me yet?" I said, saying something theatrical to get their attention. They looked over to me, as if to thank me, but before they could… they realized what I was wearing.

"What's wrong, sis?" Bloom asked.

"Ah thought ya'll wanted to meet'er?"

There was silence for a good few minutes, the looks on the faces of the three Elements never changing from one of surprise and disbelief.

"T-that's impossible!" Applejack blurts out, finally breaking the silence. I grin with delight at her outburst, having a reply already prepared.

"Oh Applejack, it's the first time we've met, and you decide to tell a lie." I joked.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… that's not a very good first impression, now is it?" I said, smiling at my own cleverness.

It's at this moment that AJ decides to faint, which even I know she doesn't do lightly. Seeing this, I decide to make my exit.

"Well I've got to go. You know; bad guys to punish, people to save." I said, turning around and taking off, my cape becoming a makeshift pair of wings.

As I flew off though, I heard one more vocal exchange that made me grin.

"Rarity… wasn't that just… I mean… wasn't that… "

"Yes… yes Dash, I… I think it was."