Mare Do Well Returns

by Patchstar

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, Adventure, Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 12654

The Mysterious Mare Do Well Returns, just not quite the way anypony excpected...

Rainbow Dash finds out that Mare Do Well has returned and that none of her friends are responsible. So who could it be?
Mare Do Well copes with the secret of being mysterious.
Based off of the comic on deviant art entitled Dark Mare Returns found here http://tan575.deviantart.com/art/The-Dark-Mare-Returns-commissioned-316687526

Published 2012-10-03 03:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-02 00:25:35 UTC

Part One

Mare Do Well Returns

Rainbow Dash unfolds the Canterlot Times newspaper she had collected off the newsstand. She stands in the spa and scans the front page while her friends get their pony pedi’s. During her recent ordeal playing Mare Do Well she was never expecting to see another article about her.

  But there on the front cover is the purple mare’s face. Rainbow does a double take before reading the article.

  “Check this out girls!” exclaims the cyan Pegasus calling over her friends. Twilight and Applejack move to stand beside her. “The Mysterious Mare Do Well returns. Last night she saved 10 ponies from a burning building.” Rainbow pauses and glances at her friends who were responsible for playing the mare to try to get Rainbow Dash to stop gloating over being a hero. She started modest at first but it was all uphill from there.

  “Okay. Which one of you is playing hero again?” asks Rainbow glancing at her friends.

  “Not me!” says Twilight and looks over at Applejack.

  “Me neither” says AJ and glances at Pinkie Pie.

  “You are loco in the coco if you think it was me!” exclaims Pinkie.

  “Rarity, what happened to the mare do well costumes you made?” asks Twilight looking up from the paper she has suspended in her magic to glance at the white unicorn.

  “I discarded them as soon as you three where done playing with them” answers Rarity with a hoof resting on her chest.

  “The article says that this Mare Do Well can both fly and use magic at the same time and only appears at night” says Twilight eyes darting back and forth to scan the paper. “Who could she be?”

One week Previous

  Princess Luna flips thought today’s Canterlot Times newspaper while sitting in the dining hall in Canterlot Castle.  She idly gazes at the articles that she could care less about.

  Breakfast hasn’t been served yet and Luna is waiting for Celestia to come in.

  Luna turns the page and stops to read an article picturing a purple suited mare. The article tells the tale of how she fixed a dam in Ponyville with her magic before flying off.

  I could do that but who else could? Thinks Luna and starts to think of other possibilities but is interrupted by Celestia entering the hall.

  Luna folds the paper back up with her telekinesis leaving it on the table and shoots her sister a smile.

  “Good morning Luna!” says Celestia and levitates the paper up to look at it. Luna sees Celestia scan the front page before gazing over the top to look at Luna. “Did you see this?” she asks raising her eyebrows.

  Luna nods and her gaze wanders off to look at the kitchen door which has just opened. The waiters place platters of turnovers and buckets of oats and cereal on the table for the princesses. Luna nods at the waiter levitating a jug of milk and the milk mare fills Luna’s glass.

  Celestia sips her tea and looks at Luna; the mare is absent mindedly poking at an apple turnover in which she seems very interested in.

  “Are you okay Luna?” asks Celestia snapping Luna back to the dining hall.

  Luna looks up from her turnover “Sorry, I’m fine, just a bit bored. You know what? I’m not that hungry” says the midnight blue Alicorn and stands up. “Excuse me” she says and exits the dining hall.

  After she leaves Celestia sips her tea again in thought.

  Luna boots up her lap top. One of 100 in all of Equestria, only the most qualified ponies have one. Hopefully some pony with access to a computer knows a lot about the Mysterious Mare Do Well.

  Luna opens up Google and enters the mysterious mare do well.

  The princess is quickly provided with images and articles on the mysterious mare.

  She clicks on the link to the Ponypedia page and reads about the mare. Most of the information is minimal or stuff she already knows.

  She beat out Rainbow Dash who was also working at the time as Ponyville’s hero. She saved a cart full of ponies going at full speed down a hill towards a cliff, a pony plummeting from the sky in a damaged hot air balloon, construction ponies from a site accident and her most recent deed repairing the dam.

  Luna exits Ponypedia and scrolls down the list.

  An entry on P.How tells one how to make a Mare Do Well Costume. Luna clicks on it. The costume is very attractive she has to admit. P.How gives detailed instructions on how to make it. Luna scans the ‘you will needs’ and gets up to go get some fabric.

  Luna blows the dust off the sewing machine she found in a storage closet. Luna has never used one before so this should be interesting.

  She stares at the machine clueless and ends up googleing it.

  Luna plugs in the machine and follows the instructions on the P.How website.

  It takes the princess three hours but when she’s done the uniform looks pretty good. The instructions are easy to follow but Luna had also never used a measuring tape before.

  Luna spreads the uniform out on the bed and moves back to the computer to shut it down when a knock comes at the door.

  Luna freezes, “Who is it?” she calls.

  The door creaks open slowly and Luna hurriedly slams the laptop shut with her hoof while at the same time pushing the uniform under her many pillows.

  Celestia walks in and glances around the room “What happened here?” she says levitating up the sewing machine.

  “We were trying our hoof at a bit of needlework my sister” says Luna and gestures to a pillow on her chair embroidered with a moon hoping that Celestia didn’t recognise it.

  “Well it turned out nice didn’t it?” states Celestia levitating the pillow so as to inspect it.

  Luna smiles awkwardly.

   “Well then, I’ll let you be, just wanted to make sure you weren’t bored” says Celestia and begins to exit but pauses in the door way. “Hey Luna, do you think you could make me a little pillow like yours?” Celestia calls back at her.

  Luna smiles “Very well, we’ll see what we might do”.

  Celestia smiles and quietly closes the door behind her.

  Luna bows her head with relief that Celestia didn’t notice the absence of stuffing.

  The princess waits a few minutes for Celestia to get a head start before going to get a bag of stuffing and some different fabric.

  As she leaves she glances at the pillows on the bed concealing her costume.

  Luna yawns and sits up in bed. She was up until the early morning finishing Celestia’s pillow and trying to get into the tight Mare Do Well outfit. She shakes out her mane and glances at the clock which reads 12:00. It’s already midday and I haven’t even departed the bed yet Thinks Luna and heaves herself up to brush her mane. In doing so she glances around the room and sees that somepony has left a tray of breakfast on her desk.

  There is a bowl of cereal a cup of tea and a newspaper.

  Luna sips her tea and chokes on the cold liquid. She lowers her horn and taps the article of china once. It glows for a minute with the princess’s blue magic before dispersing leaving a warm cup of tea behind.

  The blue Alicorn levitates the cup and newspaper up and begins to alternate between scanning and sipping.

  About half way through the Canterlot Times a headline catches Luna’s eye. It reads; Mare Do Well, chased by rainbow Pegasus.

  Luna scans the article and learns that the mysterious mare was chased by a rainbow maned Pegasus trying to find out Do Well’s true identity.

  The mare wasn’t seen since the incident.

  Luna puzzled folds up the newspaper with a swipe of her horn and drops it on her desk. She sets down the tea cup and walks over to her closet. She opens the door with her telekinesis and levitates out her Mare Do Well outfit.

  There’s a knock at the door and Luna starts before quickly throwing the uniform back in the closet and slamming the door.

  “Come in!” she calls and a yellow mare walks in.

  “Oh, Greetings Golden Sun, how might we aid thou?” asks Luna of Celestia’s Personal aid.

  “Your highness, the princess was wondering if you might be finished her cushion?” asks Golden Sun quietly.

  “We have it right here!” exclaims Luna and levitates it over to the yellow unicorn mare.

  “Thank you, your highness” says Golden Sun and walks backwards out of the room while bowing, levitating the pillow above her head.

  Luna sighs as the door closes behind Golden Sun and sits back down at her desk. Wouldn’t it be nice to just escape but still be able to interact with ponies without them knowing who thou art? Thinks the princess that’s what Mare Do Well does. Luna stops thinking for a second what if I could do the same thing? Maybe closer to home, but it would work.

  A little less than one week later, Luna is eating a peach when Silver Star, her own personal aid comes in with today’s news.

  The silver unicorn drops it on the table with a bow before exiting the dining hall again. Luna waits for the door to slam shut before levitating up the paper to see the front cover. At the bottom there is a blurb about no pony having seen Mare Do Well since she got chased by the Pegasus. The Mysterious mare seems to have disappeared completely without a trace.

  Luna smiles, now is her time to take over for the purple Alicorn. It’s the moon’s time to shine!

  Luna lies in bed waiting for the Castle to fall silent; five minutes ago a few late night works were shuffling around. Now all is silent save for the perfect timing of the night guards circling around the corridors.

  The princess of the night waits for a guard to pass before jumping out of bed. Underneath the covers she was fully clothed in her Mare Do Well costume. She pulls the hood up over her head to conceal her very recognisable face.

  She creeps out to her balcony and peers down below. Last night she spent figuring out the patterns that the guards used to complete their rounds.

  Luna flutters up onto the railing before jumping onto the roof. It would be much to exposing for her to just fly off across Canterlot, there would be too many ponies pulling late nighters at bars to notice her.

  She walks along the roof her wings spread as a precaution and to help her keep her balance. She climbs up to the highest bit of roof she can reach before gazing out at the city. She pricks her ears under her hat and looks sharp eyed out at Canterlot.

  She can hear the jeers of drunken stallions and mares roaming the streets and the crickets from the garden far below her.

  Luna is about to call it an unsuccessful night when a flicker of orange catches her eye. Fire! Sirens go off in Luna’s head and she swoops off the roof towards the light.

  After a minute she reaches a building that has its lower levels engulfed in flames.

  The Princess can her cries coming from the upper floors and knows what she must do. She throws off her hat and lets it fall to the cobble stones.

  With a wave of her horn she creates a shield around her and flies up to the top window. The mask keeps smoke from entering her lungs as she rushes towards a mare holding her two children.

  Breaking a stream of magic away from her fire shield she levitates the trio into her protection at her side. She glances around and sees a stallion trapped behind a flaming beam.

  With full confidence in her shield Luna jumps over it to grab the Stallion in another stream of magic. Not knowing if she could carry anypony else she dives out the window to take a breather and drop off the four ponies on the street.

  They cry out words of thanks as she flies back into the building. She can hear screaming from down the hall but instead of trying the door to the room she is in. She smashes through the wall separating her from her the ponies. A young mare and stallion are clutching each other while lying on the floor.

  Luna quickly picks them up and they cry out in surprise but their surprise turns to relief when they realise who it is holding them.

  Luna hears a terrified screech and quickly smashes through two walls before coming across a single mare with four foals mustering her strength the princess lifts up the ponies in her magic and smashes through the window.

  Glass shards fall with her to the street and the seven ponies she was carrying lie splayed out on the cobblestones.

  By now a reasonable crowd is gathered and the medic ponies are treating the family she pulled out first.

  One thing that catches the princess’s attention is that there is no fire crew there.

  “You saved us! Thank you Mare Do Well!” exclaims the supposed mother of the four foals. “We would have died if it hadn’t been for you!”

  Luna nods before flying off, my work here is done she thinks to herself as she flies back to the castle. The moon is big and full on the horizon.

  The next morning at the breakfast table when Silver Star brings in the paper, Luna is surprised to find the Mysterious Mare Do Well on the front page.

  She smiles at the good deed she did before eating her breakfast.

  That night Luna finds herself on the roof again scanning the streets below.

  A drunken stallion pulling a carriage is head straight towards a young tired looking mare pulling her own carriage.

  I can see where this is going. Thinks Luna and dives off the building, the stallion speeds up and so does Luna.

  On instinct she smashes into the side of the stallion’s carriage driving him of course.  He lets out a cry of surprise and outrage as his carriage goes careening into the wall.

  The mare pulling the other carriage looks up in surprise and putting the scene together realises what might have happened.

  “Oh, Mare Do Well!” she exclaims “I’m so sorry I should have been paying more attention”.

  The princess desperately wants to comfort the mare, to tell her it wasn’t her fault, but revealing her voice would be a huge give away. So, she settles for a simple nod instead before taking off.

  She doesn’t get far before she sees a group of ponies shouting insults at each other, two ponies are holding another back from a different pony who is snarling at them.

  It is my duty as Mare Do Well to stop this before it turns gruesome. Thinks Luna and swoops down to confront the ponies.

  She uses her magic to zip the mouth of the single pony, and carefully makes the other being held have feet the weight of lead.

  The single pony starts mumbling and then falls to the ground trying to get whatever it is off his mouth.

  The other, who was supported on his hind legs, partially because of the ponies holding him back, collapses onto all fours and his friends reel back in shock of how heavy he now is.

  We have stopped potential disaster. Besides, the spell will wear off by sunrise thinks Luna with a smile before flying off to the comfort of her bed for a good night’s sleep.

  “Luna” calls a familiar voice cutting into the moon princess’s slumber. “Luna, you have to get up” calls the voice again and Luna pulls a pillow over her ears.

  “I cannot hear thou” she calls back.

  “Luna we have a meeting today and you mustn’t be late” snaps Celestia whipping the pillow off Luna’s head.

  “The princess of the night is never tardy for anything!” Luna snaps back and flings the pillow at Celestia’s face.

  “Luna, please” begs Celestia “I even had Silver Star bring up your breakfast. Please meet me in the Solar hall at 1 ‘o’ clock” and with that Celestia exits Luna’s sleeping chamber.

  The midnight blue Alicorn rolls out of bed onto the floor before heaving herself up to her desk to eat her breakfast.

  Meetings were boring and she didn’t intend on attending.

  I’ll hide in the library until they give up waiting and start without me she thinks shoveling her favourite oat and cornflake cereal into her mouth.

  The previous day the princess had made a little cloak (inspired by her new found joy of making clothes) so she could walk around unnoticed.  Luna fastens it now around her body and concentrates her magic on herself.

  Her flowing mane collapses and lightens, her coat also changes shades and her body shrinks. The only thing that stays the same is her cutie mark that is why the cloak is needed to cover it.

  She glances at herself in the mirror and sees the pony that was released from nightmare moon by the elements of harmony.  She straightens her mane out flat to make herself even less recognisable and steps out of her now too big shoes and tucks them her necklace and her crown under the bed.

  She sighs and trots out into the corridor. Luna looks both ways and then quickly moves off towards the library.  She longs to stretch her wings but it is considered rude to fly in the castle.

  Fly, Luna freezes I’m still an Alicorn.  She starts to panic until she realizes that her wings are covered by the cloak.

  She relaxes and continues on, carefully looking around for other ponies that might recognise her.

  About five minutes later she finds herself in the library.

  Luna moves around the shelves packed full of books Celestia has gathered over the years. At one point the princess of the sun actually had to expand the library because she ran out of room. Several of the books are gifts from her subjects and of some books she has several dozen copies.

  Luna torts to the back and settles down in a corner of mystery novels. She grabs the nearest one with her telekinesis and pulls it up to cover her face.

  Luna spends three hours reading the same book before supposing that Celestia has given up and started without her.  She changes back to her normal self only to find that she has grown several inches.

  She is surprised for a minute before remembering that Celestia had said something about the more magic she used the larger she would get, closer to the shape and size of Celestia.

   Using the transformation spell twice had made her grow four inches. She guessed that she was now about five inches shorter than Celestia. Her wings were also bigger, and more feathery.

  After examining her changes she walks back to her sleeping Chamber, to put her shoes, necklace, and crown back on.

  She pulls them out from under the bed and tries to place her hoof in one of the shoes. Luna growls and swears; her hooves had gotten bigger and no longer fit in the shoes.  Now she had to tell Celestia what happened.

  Celestia had kept all the shoes she had had growing up and Luna was gradually growing back into them again.

  She has a similar problem with her crown and necklace so she gathers up her old clothing and walks to Celestia’s chambers.

  She knocks and when no pony answers walks in.

  Celestia is not there so she must still be in the meeting, Luna walks to the closet where she knows Celestia keeps her old stuff and swaps it out for the next size.  She notices however that there is only one more size, consisting of a heavy necklace, large crown and knee high shoes. Maybe she’s taller then she thought.

  Luna puts on her shin high shoes, medium sized crown and thick moon necklace.

  She intends to slip out un-noticed but runs into Celestia coming back from the meeting.

  Usually the Sun princess towers over her but today Luna barely has to look up at her.

  “Luna! What have you been doing! Using magic galore and sneaking around the castle unseen.” Celestia is angry, Luna can tell by the way her mane is flowing faster and eyes show a slight flare.

  “I’m sorry Celestia but I didn’t want to go! Meetings are so boring”

  “To bad, it is your duty as the Princess of the Moon to attend these meetings, I can’t have you slacking off, no matter how large you get” hisses Celestia “We could always take back the privilege of raising and lowering the moon if need be” and the suddenly fiery mare storms inside of her room.

  Luna rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue at the door before heading back to her chamber.

  There is something defiantly wrong with Celestia, she usually isn’t that snappy. Thinks Luna remembering the way her sister’s eyes flared with fire.

  Luna closes her eyes thinking of the days leading up to her turning into nightmare moon.  She had had several stressful days and fall outs with her sister. Celestia couldn’t be going down that road, could she?

  The next day, after a long night of Mare Do Well appearances Luna walks over to Celestia’s room to say sorry.

  When she gets there she can hear heavy breathing and the crackling of flames, had Celestia forgotten to open the flu when starting a fire? Thinks Luna and pushes the door open.

“Sweet Celestia!” she cries at the scene before her.

  A mare who Luna supposes used to be Celestia is bowed down in the middle of the room, flame making up her mane.

  Golden Sun is whimpering in the corner but looks up when Luna comes in. There are burns on Golden Suns coat and she looks at Luna with pleading eyes.

  Celestia straightens up and glares with all white eyes at Luna.

  “Celly?” asks Luna uncertainly.

  “No Luna, I am Solar Flare and you should be prepared to endure eternal day, because you no longer attend the meeting to keep the night going I shall take over and leave Equestria in eternal day forever” hisses Solar Flare “But now I suppose you are going to banish me to the sun?”

  “No Celestia, because I don’t banish ponies to the solar system.” Answers Luna calmly. The whole time her Mare Do Well outfit has been making its way towards them.

  Time for a show she thinks and the outfit explodes through the door and onto her body stretching itself to fit her new form.

  Mare Do Well rises up gathering her magic to her horn tip as she does so. She takes a deep breath and blasts her blue magic at Solar Flare.

  Solar Flare does the same and their magic connects causing spurts of light to glance off and hit the ground exploding in sparks.

  The ponies grunt as they push all of their magical energy out towards each other, each hoping to knock the other down.

  Luckily for Luna, Solar Flare is still tired from her transformation.

  Luna’s midnight colour magic starts to push Solar Flare’s own orange magic back.

  “No, No!” she screams and is thrown back spinning around and around before hitting the ground and exploding in a wave of fire. Luna lands quickly and covers Golden Sun with her wings.

  Luna feels the uncomfortable heat hit her like a blow to her whole body with a hot frying pan.

  The Moon princess grits her teeth and feels the Mare Do Well Costume take the full blow and go up in flames.

  Before Luna and Golden Sun have time to scream, the heat wave is over and Celestia is in her normal form lying on the ground.

  Celestia jumps up “Luna! I’m so sorry! You have to understand that that wasn’t me!” the princess of the sun opens her mouth to say something else but Luna cuts off her sister.

  The mare steps forewords to stand in front of her sister, the two are now the same size and Luna’s shoes, necklace and crown are long gone.

  “No my sister, it is my fault. I saw thou heading down the same road as Nightmare Moon and I did nothing to help thou, I even waited until today to come say that I am sorry for not showing up to the meeting.”

  The edges of Celestia’s mouth curl up into a smile before she dives into the closet and pulls out Luna’s new accessories.

  Luna looks at the elegant sparkling blue crown and knee high shoes. The necklace is large and heavy coloured sparkling midnight blue with a shiny white moon made of pearl in the middle.

  Luna places the accessories on her body and feels the heaviness of them.

  Celestia’s smile widens, “you look like you did one thousand years ago” says Celestia.

  “Excuse me your highnesses” calls Golden Sun and the princesses’ glance over at her.

  Golden Sun is covered in dark ash from damaged materials but mostly what used to be Luna’s Mare Do Well costume.

  “Take the rest of the day off, but don’t tell anyone” says Celestia.

  “Begging your pardon your highness, but you can’t keep this a secret forever” Golden Sun mutters glancing around the charred mess that was Celestia’s chambers.

  “We don’t intend to keep it a secret, I have a plan” smiles Luna and glances at her sister.

  “I’m not buying this” says Agile Flourish, a white Pegasus journalist with a yellow and blue mane.

  “I’m not vexed about thou believing it as long as thou convince Equestria that it was indeed Mare Do Well who saved poor Princess Celestia from being possessed. I have complete confidence in thou Agile that thou might complete the said task”

  The young mare flips through her notebook “only for you your highness, only for you” says Flourish and stands up as Luna gets up.

  “By the way Princess you seem taller”

  “Ah, yes that is a different matter” says the dark mare “one in which is none of your business”

  Agile nods and watches the princess trot out of the room they were meeting in, in Canterlot castle.

  Her speech has improved but I still don’t believe what she said. She neither denied nor approved her claims upon what happened. A mare of secrets and riddles that one is, thinks Agile Flourish before trotting of with her stallion friend Sunrise back to her home in Ponyville.

  “Mare Do Well strikes again saving Princess Celestia from being possessed” says Rainbow Dash reading the cover of the newspaper.

  “What?” exclaims Twilight walking over to peer over Rainbow’s shoulder to read the headline in the Canterlot Enquirer.

  “That’s what it says, are you guys sure you aren’t playing hero again?” asks Rainbow Dash.

  “No Dashie!” smiles Pinkie Pie “We were all at Twilight’s for a sleep over last night, we couldn’t have done it”

  “Okay, okay I was there, but who could it be?” ponders Dash looking at her friends.

  “Huzzah! It’s finished” says Luna to herself holding up her finished Mare Do Well costume. This one is bigger and it’s enchanted to be ten times as durable and can withstand absolutely everything that the princess could think of.

  A knock comes at her door and with a wave of her long horn the outfit disappears.

  “Come in!” calls Luna and Silver Star enters only to drop off the newspaper.

  Luna looks at the cover Huzzah! She did it, thinks Luna reading the article written by Agile Flourish in the Canterlot Enquirer.

  It’s perfect she thinks and smiles.

  A tap comes at Agile Flourish’s door. The young mare looks up from her laptop; she works everywhere so she, needing a place to keep all her notes when she travels purchased one quickly.

  “Ooh! I’ll get it!” yells Cherry Flourish, Agile’s younger sister. Agile turns back to her laptop, anyone who rings the door wants to bother her in some way or another, whether it be one of Cherry’s friends or someone coming to try to sell her a horn file Cherry was supposed to take care of it unless it happened to be some pony important.

  “Agile!” calls Cherry.

  Agile dips her head before getting up to walk to the door.

  Sunrise is standing beside Cherry looking out the door at the Elements of Harmony, or so they were called.

  Twilight smiles at Agile Flourish before opening her mouth. “We were wondering if you could tell us more about Mare Do Well?” asks the purple unicorn.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything more than what I put in the article”

  “Who is your quote ‘anonymous source’ than can you tell us at least that much?” asks Twilight.

  “I can’t tell you that”

  “Why?”

  “Because she wishes to remain anonymous” snarls Agile “Isn’t that much obvious?”

  “Please? You can trust us, we won’t tell another soul” begs Twilight.

  “Fine but you have to come inside, if you tell, I’ll set Rainbow Tornado on you” hisses Agile talking about the vicious newbie Wonderbolt, Agile and her being known accomplices.

  The six ponies step inside and Agile shoos Cherry away.

  “The other day” begins Agile Flourish “I went to Canterlot at the request of Princess Luna. Luna then gave me this information in the hopes it be put on the press. I wish I could tell you more but this is all I can tell you.”

  “Thank you, you’ve been very helpful” says Twilight before leading her friends away, most likely to the mountain where Canterlot is perched.

  Another knock comes at Luna’s door and she groans, shuffling towards the door in her now large body. She whips open the door to find none other than the Elements of Harmony at her door.

  The kind one gives a yelp and hides behind the loyal one.

  “Nightmare Moon” Luna can hear her whisper.

  Luna scowls “how might we assist you?” she asks.

  “We wanted to talk to you about what happened with the Princess. We assumed that you would know more about it seeing as you are her sister” says Twilight.

  “So Agile told you” says Luna.

  “I never said that” mutters Twilight, but Luna knows the truth. Agile would never have kept information from the Elements of Harmony.

  “So did she tell you that she thought the story was a fake?” says Luna stepping aside to let the ponies into her Chamber. “I suppose you think the same?”

  “I never said that” mutters Twilight again leading her friends into the room.

  “You never say much do you?” replies the princess.

  “I guess not”

  “That was a rhetorical question Miss Sparkle” says Luna with a grin.

  Twilight frowns “Our main goal is actually to find out who is now playing the role of Mare Do Well.”

  “You’re saying she is not the same pony?”

  “You see princess, me, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were Mare Do Well. But we aren’t anymore, we discarded the costumes we had and haven’t had anything to do with her since.”

  “You were Mare Do Well?” exclaims Luna surprised; she hadn’t seen that one coming.

  “Yes Princess Luna, we were Mare Do Well”

  “I see, I do know who Mare Do Well is now but I can’t tell you” Luna says “I’m sorry; I can’t be of more help”

  “Why can’t you tell us? Don’t you trust us?”

  “Twilight, Celestia trusts you completely and so do I, but I promised that I wouldn’t tell”

  “I see” replies Twilight with a frown “Goodbye princess” and with that the elements leave.

  Luna collapses onto her bed that was a close one she thinks before falling asleep before starting her nights work as Mare Do Well.

  Princess Luna sits on the roof of the main building in Canterlot Castle looking out over the streets.

  She is the size of a normal pony so as not to be recognisable as Luna.

  She looks out over the peaceful streets nothing eventful is happening at the moment.

  After about a half an hour of sitting like a statue on the roof Luna gets up and start to walk around the roofs of the castle.

  The time passes uneventfully until she sees a rainbow streak appear in the sky coming from Ponyville.

  She stands and watches it for a minute until she looses interest and looks out at the city.  She hears a scream and is off like lightning.

  “Thief!” comes the yell from below and Luna can see a pony dressed in black dashing away from a mare a purse clamped in his jaws.

  Luna swoops down ready to knock him over, when the Rainbow streak comes down and starts after her.

  She shakes her head thinking she is imagining it as she darts after the pony in black.

  As she takes pursuit of the thief, she looks behind her to find the rainbow following her.  The princess gives a little growl and picks up speed following the thief down the streets.

  Unfortunately the rainbow also speeds up.

  Luna frowns I bet it can’t go as fast as me she thinks and puts all her energy into chasing down the thief. She shoots around like a rocket but as she turns a corner she sees the rainbow still on her tail.

  She is looking behind her when she slams into the thief. She falls to the cobblestones with a smack, and when she looks up the thief is gone all that’s left is a bit of purple powder, a trace of magic.

  She’s still looking at the powder when the rainbow smashes her into the ground again.

  “Mysterious Mare Do Well eh?” hisses a voice that sounds familiar but Luna can’t see because her hood is askew “Well, Mystery solved” says the voice and rips of her mask.

  With no time to cast an invisibility spell Luna makes a feeble attempt to cover her face with her hooves.

  “Princess Luna?” exclaims the voice who Luna now recognises as Rainbow Dash the element of Loyalty.

  Luna removes her hooves from her face and glares at Rainbow.

  “Get off me or I shall call the royal guards and have you thrown in the dungeon!” hisses Luna angrily even thought the castle no longer has functioning dungeons.

  Luna gets up as Rainbow steps of her and looks up to see Pinkie Pie and Twilight rounding the corner.

  She hears them gasp in shock to see Luna standing there in her Mare Do Well costume.

  “Princess Luna!” exclaims Twilight, and Luna frowns at the purple magic she is using to pull a cloak off Pinkie Pie.

  Luna thinks for a minute before she realises what the three ponies did “Huzzah! I know, you where the one who yelled!” exclaims Luna pointing a hoof at Pinkie, who nods. “You” she continues pointing at Twilight “you made the thief, you made it fast enough to give Rainbow enough time to take we down without letting me catch it until she was ready to take me down and pull of my mask” Luna pauses “I must say that I am very insulted.” She says with a frown at the trio of ponies.

  “Your Highness, we’re so sorry! If we knew it was you we would never have even thought about it!” says Twilight quickly.

  Luna frowns even harder, “So if it hadn’t been me you would have taken down an innocent saint out of pure curiosity?”

  “Well, when you put it that way” says Twilight trailing off.

  “I’ll put it behind me just this once Miss Sparkle, but that is all” Luna pulls her mask back up over her face nods at the trio of mares and takes to the sky, back to Canterlot castle in time to lower the moon.

“I assure you Luna I didn’t mean for them to go after you”

“You lead them straight to me Miss Flourish” says Luna with a frown as she paces back and forth across her star chart carpet in her chambers.

  “I’m sorry your highness but surly they won’t tell anypony” replies the green and blue maned Pegasus mare.

  “I hope not Agile Flourish; it would absolutely destroy my already poor reputation.”

  “I realise that your highness”

  “Luna, please”

  “Sorry Luna, but if you don’t mind I must be on my way. I have to get my article into the paper for tomorrow and I am not close to ready yet”

  Luna waves off her acquaintance and the door slams behind the journalist.

  What am I going to do now?  Thinks Luna and collapses onto her bed.

  BURP

  “Spike!” says Twilight disapprovingly before seeing the scroll that has popped out of the baby dragon’s mouth.  “I’ve never seen this seal before” comments the purple unicorn holding the scroll up with her magic. Imprinted in the wax is a crescent moon accompanied by several small dots probably meant to be stars.

  “It’s probably the Princess Luna’s Twilight” says Spike stating the obvious.

  “I guessed” replies Twilight looking at her number one assistant.

  Spike rolls his eyes and wanders off to go finish sorting books. He is picking them up and handing them to Owlowiscious who takes them to the higher shelves.

  Twilight looks back to the scroll and peels off the seal, carefully wanting to preserve it for later. She

un-furls the parchment and reads the neatly written note.

Dear Miss Sparkle

  It is requested that you are to have a meeting with one Princess Luna this Tuesday morning. We hope that you can make it anytime before 12:00. Bring Miss Pie and Miss Dash if you please.

Miss Star (aid for Ms Princess Luna)

  Twilight gulps, an audience with Princess Luna. After their last encounter she can’t be asking Twilight over for tea and cookies.

  Tuesday morning at 10:00 sharp a train pulls into Ponyville station and four ponies pile in to a car and take their seats.

  At 11:00 an hour later the same train pulls into Canterlot station and four ponies trot out. On the platform two more ponies are waiting and the six head towards Canterlot Castle.

  “Right this way if you please” says Silver Star to the four ponies that came off the train.

  “We can find our way our selves. I’ve been here plenty of times before” replies Agile Flourish.

  “The Princess asked us to escort you and we can’t ignore a direct order from the princess!” explains Golden Sun.

  “Okie dokie loci!” says Pinkie Pie but bounces ahead anyways.

  Rainbow Dash takes to the sky and flies low after her pinkie coloured friend. Twilight, being Twilight tried to talk to Silver Star but the unicorn mare was not interested in Celestia’s favourite student.

  Two servants of the princesses lead the four Ponyville mares to a room adorned by the princess of the night’s decorative tastes. The four are told to sit on the couch where they are served tea with biscuits.

  “Please wait here, the Princess will be with you in a minute” says Silver Star and leaves and that’s where the mares wait, sipping their tea in silent anxiety.

End of Part One

Part One (revised)

I as well as some others where not quite happy about how this turned out. So have a revised version!

Mare Do Well Returns

Rainbow Dash unfolds the Canterlot Times newspaper she had collected off the newsstand. She stands in the spa and scans the front page while her friends get their pony pedi’s. After her recent ordeal with Mare Do Well she was never expecting to see another article about her.

  But there on the front cover is the purple mare’s face. Rainbow does a double take before reading the article.

  “Check this out girls!” exclaims the sky blue Pegasus calling over her friends. Twilight and Applejack move to stand beside her. “The Mysterious Mare Do Well returns. Last night she saved 10 ponies from a burning building.” Rainbow pauses and glances at her friends who were responsible for playing the mare to try to get Rainbow Dash to stop gloating over being a hero. She started modest at first but it was all uphill from there.

  “Okay. Which one of you is playing hero again?” asks Rainbow glancing at her friends.

  “Not me!” says Twilight and looks over at Applejack.

  “Me neither” says AJ and glances at Pinkie Pie.

  “You are loco in the coco if you think it was me!” exclaims Pinkie.

  “Rarity, what happened to the mare do well costumes you made?” asks Twilight looking up from the paper she has suspended in her magic to glance at the white unicorn.

  “I discarded them as soon as you three where done playing with them” answers Rarity with a hoof resting on her chest.

  “The article says that this Mare Do Well can both fly and use magic at the same time and only appears at night” says Twilight eyes darting back and forth to scan the paper. “Who could she be?”

One week Previous

  Princess Luna flips thought today’s Canterlot Times newspaper while sitting in the dining hall in Canterlot Castle.  She idly gazes at the articles that she could care less about; it’s more of Celestia’s business than her own.

  Breakfast hasn’t been served yet and Luna is waiting for her sister to come in.

  Luna turns the page and stops to read an article picturing a purple suited mare. The article tells the tale of how she fixed a dam in Ponyville with her magic before flying off.

  I could do that but who else could? Thinks Luna and starts to think of other possibilities but is interrupted by Celestia entering the hall.

  Luna folds the paper back up with her telekinesis leaving it on the table and shoots her sister a smile.

  “Good morning Luna!” says Celestia and levitates the paper up to look at it. Luna sees Celestia scan the front page before gazing over the top to look at Luna. “Did you see this?” she asks raising her eyebrows.

  Luna nods and her gaze wanders off to look at the kitchen door which has just opened. The waiters place platters of turnovers and buckets of oats and cereal on the table for the princesses. Luna nods at the waiter levitating a jug of milk and the mare fills Luna’s glass.

  Celestia sips her tea and looks at Luna; the blue mare is absent mindedly poking at an apple turnover in which she seems very uninterested in.

  “Are you okay Luna?” asks Celestia snapping Luna back to the dining hall.

  Luna looks up from her turnover “Sorry, I’m fine, just a bit bored. You know what? I’m not that hungry” says the midnight blue Alicorn and stands up. “Excuse me” she says and exits the dining hall.

  Leaving Celestia to sip her tea again in thought.

  Luna throws another book off the shelf in the needlework section of the library.  All of this is making little sense to her but in the end she goes to the library desk and checks out the whole section.

  “All of it?” says the librarian “to your chambers?”

  “Yes, is that a problem?” Luna asks nervously.

  “Not at all your highness” smiles the librarian uncertainly.

  “Thanks” mutters Luna and leaves the library. While the librarian wonders how she’ll get 56 needlework books up to Princess Luna’s room.

  Luna blows the dust off the sewing machine she found in a storage closet in the basement. She has never used one before so this should be interesting.

  The Alicorn stares at the machine clueless before lifting it with her magic to carry it up to her room, where she flips through book after book about how to sew costumes.

  It takes the princess six hours but when she’s done the uniform looks pretty good.  Luna spreads the uniform out on the bed and moves back to admire her hoof work when a knock comes at the door.

  Luna freezes, “Who is it?” she calls.

  The door creaks open slowly and Luna hurriedly pushes the uniform under her many pillows.

  Celestia walks in and glances around the room “What happened here?” she says levitating up the sewing machine and looking at the 56 books littered throughout the room.

  “We were trying our hoof at a bit of needlework my sister” says Luna and gestures to a pillow on her chair embroidered with a moon hoping that Celestia didn’t recognise it.

  “Well it turned out nice didn’t it?” states Celestia levitating the pillow so as to inspect it.

  Luna smiles awkwardly.

   “Well then, I’ll let you be, just wanted to make sure you weren’t bored” says Celestia and begins to exit but pauses in the door way. “Hey Luna, do you think you could make me a little pillow like yours?” Celestia calls back at her.

  Luna smiles “Very well, we’ll see what we might do”.

  Celestia smiles and quietly closes the door behind her.

  Luna bows her head with relief that Celestia didn’t notice the absence of stuffing.

  The princess waits a few minutes for Celestia to get a head start before going to get a bag of stuffing and some different fabric.

  As she leaves she glances at the pillows on the bed concealing her costume.

  Luna yawns and sits up in bed. She was up until the early morning finishing Celestia’s pillow and trying to get into the tight Mare Do Well outfit. She shakes out her mane and glances at the clock which reads 12:00. It’s already midday and I haven’t even departed the bed yet Thinks Luna and heaves herself up to brush her mane. In doing so she glances around the room and sees that somepony has left a tray of breakfast on her desk.

  There is a bowl of cereal a cup of tea and a newspaper.

  Luna sips her tea and chokes on the cold liquid. She lowers her horn and taps the article of china once. It glows for a minute with the princess’s blue magic before dispersing leaving a hot cup of tea behind.

  The blue Alicorn levitates the cup and newspaper up and begins to alternate between scanning and sipping.

  She had long since acquired the ability to drink liquids that would normally scald a pony’s innards.

  About half way through the Canterlot Times a headline catches Luna’s eye. It reads; Mare Do Well, chased by rainbow Pegasus.

  Luna scans the article and learns that the mysterious mare was chased by a rainbow maned Pegasus trying to find out Do Well’s true identity.

  The mare wasn’t seen since the incident.

  Luna puzzled folds up the newspaper with a swipe of her horn and drops it on her desk. She sets down the tea cup and walks over to her closet. She opens the door with her telekinesis and levitates out her Mare Do Well outfit.

  There’s a knock at the door and Luna starts before quickly throwing the uniform back in the closet and slamming the door.

  “Come in!” she calls and a yellow mare walks in.

  “Oh, Greetings Golden Sun, how might we aid thou?” asks Luna of Celestia’s Personal aid (because Celestia detested the word servant.)

  “Your highness, the princess was wondering if you might be finished her cushion?” asks Golden Sun quietly.

  “We have it right here!” exclaims Luna and levitates it over to the yellow unicorn mare.

  “Thank you, your highness” says Golden Sun and walks backwards out of the room while bowing, levitating the pillow above her head.

  Luna sighs as the door closes behind Golden Sun and sits back down at her desk. Wouldn’t it be nice to just escape but still be able to interact with ponies without them knowing who thou art? Thinks the princess that’s what Mare Do Well does. Luna stops thinking for a second what if I could do the same thing? Maybe closer to home, but it would work.

  A little less than one week later, Luna is eating a peach at breakfast when Silver Star, her own personal aid comes in with today’s news.

  The silver unicorn drops it on the table with a bow before exiting the dining hall again. Luna waits for the door to slam shut before levitating up the paper to see the front cover. At the bottom there is a blurb about no pony having seen Mare Do Well since she got chased by the Pegasus. The Mysterious mare seems to have disappeared completely without a trace.

  Luna smiles, now is her time to take over for the purple Alicorn. It’s the moon’s time to shine!

  Luna lies in bed waiting for the Castle to fall silent; five minutes ago a few late night works were shuffling around. Now all is silent save for the perfect timing of the night guards circling around the corridors.

  The princess of the night waits for a guard to pass before jumping out of bed. Underneath the covers she was fully clothed in her Mare Do Well costume. She pulls the hood up over her head to conceal her very recognisable face.

  She creeps out to her balcony and peers down below. Last night she spent figuring out the patterns that the guards used to complete their rounds.

  Luna flutters up onto the railing before jumping onto the roof. It would be much to exposing for her to just fly off across Canterlot, there would be too many ponies pulling late nighters at bars and clubs to notice her.

  She walks along the roof her wings spread as a precaution and to help her keep her balance. She climbs up to the highest bit of roof she can reach before gazing out at the city. She pricks her ears under her hat and looks sharp eyed out at Canterlot.

  She can hear the jeers of drunken stallions and mares roaming the streets and the crickets from the garden far below her.

  Luna is about to call it an unsuccessful night when a flicker of orange catches her eye. Fire! Sirens go off in Luna’s head and she swoops off the roof towards the light.

  After a minute she reaches a building that has its lower levels engulfed in flames.

  The Princess can her cries coming from the upper floors and knows what she must do. She throws off her hat and lets it fall to the cobble stones.

  With a wave of her horn she creates a shield around her and flies up to the top window. The mask keeps smoke from entering her lungs as she rushes towards a mare holding her two children.

  Breaking a stream of magic away from her fire shield she levitates the trio into her protection at her side. She glances around and sees a stallion trapped behind a flaming beam.

  With full confidence in her shield Luna jumps over it to grab the Stallion in another stream of magic. Not knowing if she could carry anypony else she dives out the window to take a breather and drop off the four ponies on the street.

  They cry out words of thanks as she flies back into the building. She can hear screaming from down the hall but instead of trying the door to the room she is in. She smashes through the wall separating her from her the ponies. A young mare and stallion are clutching each other while lying on the floor.

  Luna quickly picks them up and they cry out in surprise but their surprise turns to relief when they realise who it is holding them.

  Luna hears a terrified screech and quickly smashes through two walls before coming across a single mare with four foals mustering her strength the princess lifts up the ponies in her magic and smashes through the window.

  Glass shards fall with her to the street and the seven ponies she was carrying lie splayed out on the cobblestones.

  By now a reasonable crowd is gathered and the medic ponies are treating the family she pulled out first.

  One thing that catches the princess’s attention is that there is no fire crew there, but there will be soon.

  “You saved us! Thank you Mare Do Well!” exclaims the supposed mother of the four foals. “We would have died if it hadn’t been for you!”

  Luna nods before flying off, my work here is done she thinks to herself as she flies back to the castle. The moon is big and full on the horizon.

  The next morning at the breakfast table when Silver Star brings in the paper, Luna is surprised to find the Mysterious Mare Do Well on the front page.

  She smiles at the good deed she did before eating her breakfast.

  That night Luna finds herself on the roof again scanning the streets below.

  A drunken stallion pulling a carriage is head straight towards a young tired looking mare pulling her own carriage.

  I can see where this is going. Thinks Luna and dives off the building, the stallion speeds up and so does Luna.

  On instinct she smashes into the side of the stallion’s carriage driving him of course.  He lets out a cry of surprise and outrage as his carriage goes careening into the wall.

  The mare pulling the other carriage looks up in surprise and putting the scene together realises what might have happened.

  “Oh, Mare Do Well!” she exclaims “I’m so sorry I should have been paying more attention”.

  The princess desperately wants to comfort the mare, to tell her it wasn’t her fault, but revealing her voice would be a huge give away. So, she settles for a simple nod instead before taking off.

  She doesn’t get far before she sees a group of ponies shouting insults at each other, two ponies are holding another back from a different pony who is snarling at them.

  It is my duty as Mare Do Well to stop this before it turns gruesome. Thinks Luna and swoops down to confront the ponies.

  She uses her magic to zip the mouth of the single pony, and carefully makes the other being held have feet the weight of lead.

  The single pony starts mumbling and then falls to the ground trying to get whatever it is off his mouth.

  The other, who was supported on his hind legs, partially because of the ponies holding him back, collapses onto all fours and his friends reel back in shock of how heavy he now is.

  We have stopped potential disaster. Besides, the spell will wear off by sunrise thinks Luna with a smile before flying off to the comfort of her bed for a good night’s sleep.

  “Luna” calls a familiar voice cutting into the moon princess’s slumber. “Luna, you have to get up” calls the voice again and Luna pulls a pillow over her ears.

  “I cannot hear thou” she calls back.

  “Luna we have a meeting today and you mustn’t be late” snaps Celestia whipping the pillow off Luna’s head.

  “The princess of the night is never tardy for anything!” Luna snaps back and flings the pillow at Celestia’s face.

  “Luna, you can be so stubborn!”  exclaims Celestia “I even had Silver Star bring up your breakfast. Just meet me in the Solar hall at 1 ‘o’ clock” and with that Celestia exits Luna’s sleeping chamber.

  The midnight blue Alicorn rolls out of bed onto the floor before heaving herself up to her desk to eat her breakfast.

  Meetings were boring and she didn’t intend on attending.

  I’ll hide in the library until they give up waiting and start without me she thinks shoveling her favourite oat and cornflake cereal into her mouth.

  The previous day the princess had made a little cloak (inspired by her new found joy of making clothes) so she could walk around unnoticed.  Luna fastens it now around her body and concentrates her magic on herself.

  Her flowing mane collapses and lightens, her coat also changes shades and her body shrinks. The only thing that stays the same is her cutie mark that is why the cloak is needed to cover it.

  She glances at herself in the mirror and sees the pony that was released from nightmare moon by the elements of harmony.  She straightens her mane out flat to make herself less recognisable and steps out of her now too big shoes and tucks them her necklace and her crown under the bed.

  She sighs and trots out into the corridor. Luna looks both ways and then quickly moves off towards the library.  She longs to stretch her wings but it is considered rude to fly in the castle.

  Fly, Luna freezes I’m still an Alicorn.  She starts to panic until she realizes that her wings are covered by the cloak.

  She relaxes and continues on, carefully looking around for other ponies that might recognise her.

  About five minutes later she finds herself in the library.

  Luna moves around the shelves packed full of books Celestia has gathered over the years. At one point the princess of the sun actually had to expand the library because she ran out of room. Several of the books are gifts from her subjects and of some books she has several dozen copies.

  Luna trots to the back and settles down in a corner of mystery novels. She grabs the nearest one with her telekinesis and pulls it up to cover her face.

  Luna spends three hours reading the same book before supposing that Celestia has given up and started without her.  She changes back to her normal self only to find that she has grown several inches.

  She is surprised for a minute before remembering that Celestia had said something about the more magic she used the larger she would get, closer to the shape and size of Celestia.

   Using the transformation spell twice had made her grow four inches. She guessed that she was now about five inches shorter than Celestia. Her wings were also bigger, and more feathery.

  After examining her changes she walks back to her sleeping Chamber, to put her shoes, necklace, and crown back on.

  She pulls them out from under the bed and tries to place her hoof in one of the shoes. Luna growls and swears; her hooves had gotten bigger and no longer fit in the shoes.  Now she had to tell Celestia what happened.

  Celestia had kept all the shoes she had had growing up and Luna was gradually growing back into them again.

  She has a similar problem with her crown and necklace so she gathers up her old clothing and walks to Celestia’s chambers.

  She knocks and when no pony answers walks in.

  Celestia is not there so she must still be in the meeting, Luna walks to the closet where she knows Celestia keeps her old stuff and swaps it out for the next size.  She notices however that there is only one more size, consisting of a heavy necklace, large crown and knee high shoes. Maybe she’s taller then she thought.

  Luna puts on her shin high shoes, medium sized crown and thick moon necklace.

  She intends to slip out un-noticed but runs into Celestia coming back from the meeting.

  Usually the Sun princess towers over her but today Luna barely has to look up at her.

  “Luna! What have you been doing! Using magic galore and sneaking around the castle unseen.” Celestia is angry, Luna can tell by the way her mane is flowing faster and eyes show a slight flare.

  “I’m sorry Celestia but I didn’t want to go! Meetings are so boring”

  “To bad, it is your duty as the Princess of the Moon to attend these meetings, I can’t have you slacking off, no matter how large you get” hisses Celestia and retreats into her room.

  Luna rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue at the door before heading back to her chamber.

  There is something definitely wrong with Celestia, she usually isn’t that snappy thinks Luna before shaking her head there’s nothing wrong with her she’s just tired.

  That night Luna neglects to go out. Her mare do well costume is much too small and she’s quite tired. She kicks off her jewelry and collapses onto her puffy night sky comforter and quickly falls asleep.

  Luna spends the next day updating her costume with a simple growth spell and because she can’t find much else to do before nightfall she returns the sewing books to the library herself.

  That night Luna is flying around Canterlot when something explodes in a nearby building.

  Pieces of debris scatter everywhere and Luna is knocked out of the sky by the blast. Se lands heavily on the cobblestones below but quickly heaves herself up and runs in the direction of the explosion.

  Quickly locating the door she runs through what’s left of it and soars up through the levels above her using her magic to break away the floor.

  Upon reaching the top she scans the floor which is more of a roof now before jumping down through the hole she came up through. She scans the next floor and locates the source of the blast. Something must have exploded in the middle of this floor blowing out two floors below, the ceiling above and the roof.  As she approaches the huge hole she stumbles through debris that used to be furniture and appliances. Judging by that, this used to be a kitchen. A mare is lying beside the hole and Luna stops wondering if she’s dead.

  The mare stirs and Luna rushes forward scooping up the mare carefully in her magic.

  “Am I dead?” asks the Mare and Luna shakes her head.

  “The stove exploded” she rasps.

  Luna lifts up he hurt mare and brings her out to the street below where she is then crowded by paramedics.

  Luna sighs before quickly retrieving several more ponies from the building ad returning to the castle.

  Agile Flourish pauses as she looks at the notes she has on the incident that happened in Canterlot earlier that night.

  Mare Do Well has struck again.

  Agile herself was visiting friends in Canterlot no too far from the building that suffered from the blast.

  The building had collapsed shortly after Mare Do Well left the scene and the white Pegasus had been there to record it all.

  She had her suspicions about who the mare was and had spoken with that pony and that mare had told her things whilst not admitting that it really was her.

  Agile brushes her yellow and blue mane out of her eyes and stats writing the newest Mare Do Well article.

  “Mare Do Well strikes again saving seven ponies from an exploding stove” says Rainbow Dash reading the cover of the newspaper.

  “What?” exclaims Twilight “an exploding stove?” walking over to peer over Rainbow’s shoulder to read the headline in the Canterlot Enquirer.

  “That’s what it says, are you guys sure you aren’t playing hero again?” asks Rainbow Dash.

  “No Dashie!” smiles Pinkie Pie “We were all at Twilight’s for a sleep over last night, we couldn’t have done it”

  “Okay, okay I was there, but who could it be?” ponders Dash looking at her friends.

  “Huzzah! It’s finished” says Luna to herself holding up her finished Mare Do Well costume. This one is bigger and it’s enchanted to be ten times as durable and can withstand absolutely everything that the princess could think of.

  The mare had decided to make another, her costume from last night had taken quite a beating from when she as knocked out of the sky by that blast.  A knock comes at her door and with a wave of her long horn the outfit disappears.

  “Come in!” calls Luna and Celestia enters.

  “Oh, hello my sister” says Luna.

  “Luna, I wanted to say that I’m sorry for being so short temper with you yesterday.”

  “It’s fine Celestia. You were tired; I promise that I’ll try to make the next meeting.”

  Celestia smiles and exits the room.

  A tap comes at Agile Flourish’s door. The young mare looks up from her notepad.  “Ooh! I’ll get it!” yells Cherry Flourish, Agile’s younger sister. Agile turns back to her notes, anyone who rings the door wants to bother her in some way or another, whether it be one of Cherry’s friends or someone coming to try to sell her a horn file for her wing tips, Cherry was supposed to take care of it unless it happened to be some pony important.

  “Agile!” calls Cherry.

  Agile dips her head before getting up to walk to the door.

  Sunrise is standing beside Cherry looking out the door at the Elements of Harmony, or so they are called.

  Twilight smiles at Agile Flourish before opening her mouth. “We were wondering if you could tell us more about Mare Do Well?” asks the purple unicorn.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything more than what I put in the article”

  “Who is your quote ‘anonymous source’ than, can you tell us at least that much?” asks Twilight.

  “I can’t tell you that, and if I recall correctly she was not featured in my latest article.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she wishes to remain anonymous and she had no input for this piece” snarls Agile “Isn’t that much obvious?”

  “Please? You can trust us, we won’t tell another soul” begs Twilight.

  “Fine but you have to come inside, if you tell, I’ll set Rainbow Tornado on you” hisses Agile talking about the vicious newbie Wonderbolt, Agile and her being known accomplices.

  The six ponies step inside and Agile shoos Cherry away.

  “The other day” begins Agile Flourish “I went to Canterlot to interview Princess Luna. Luna then gave me some information, which I chose to include in my articles because she is a most reliable source. I wish I could tell you more but this is all I can tell you.”

  “Thank you, you’ve been very helpful” says Twilight before leading her friends away, most likely to the mountain where Canterlot is perched.

  Another knock comes at Luna’s door and she groans, shuffling towards the door in her now large body. She whips open the door to find none other than the Elements of Harmony at her door.

  The kind one gives a yelp and hides behind the loyal one.

  “Nightmare Moon” Luna can hear her whisper.

  Luna scowls “how might we assist you?” she asks.

  “We wanted to talk to you about what happened with Agile Flourish. We assumed that you would know more about it seeing as you provided the information” says Twilight.

  “So Agile told you” says Luna.

  “I never said that” mutters Twilight, but Luna knows the truth. Agile would never have kept information from the Elements of Harmony.

  “So what did she tell you?” says Luna stepping aside to let the ponies into her Chamber. “Lots?”

  “I never said that” mutters Twilight again leading her friends into the room.

  “You never say much do you?” replies the princess.

  “I guess not”

  “That was a rhetorical question Miss Sparkle” says Luna with a grin.

  Twilight frowns “Our main goal is actually to find out who is now playing the role of Mare Do Well.”

  “You’re saying she is not the same pony?”

  “You see princess, me, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were Mare Do Well. But we aren’t anymore, we discarded the costumes we had and haven’t had anything to do with her since.”

  “You were Mare Do Well?” exclaims Luna surprised; she hadn’t seen that one coming.

  “Yes Princess Luna, we were Mare Do Well”

  “I see, I do know who Mare Do Well is now but I can’t tell you” Luna says “I’m sorry; I can’t be of more help”

  “Why can’t you tell us? Don’t you trust us?”

  “Twilight, Celestia trusts you completely and so do I, but I promised that I wouldn’t tell”

  “I see” replies Twilight with a frown “Goodbye princess” and with that the elements leave.

  Luna collapses onto her bed that was a close one she thinks before falling asleep before starting her nights work as Mare Do Well.

  Princess Luna sits on the roof of the main building in Canterlot Castle looking out over the streets.

  She is the size of a normal pony so as not to be recognisable as Luna.

  She looks out over the peaceful streets nothing eventful is happening at the moment.

  After about a half an hour of sitting like a statue on the roof Luna gets up and start to walk around the roofs of the castle.

  The time passes uneventfully until she sees a rainbow streak appear in the sky coming from Ponyville.

  She stands and watches it for a minute until she looses interest and looks out at the city.  She hears a scream and is off like lightning.

  “Thief!” comes the yell from below and Luna can see a pony dressed in black dashing away from a mare a purse clamped in his jaws.

  Luna swoops down ready to knock him over, when the Rainbow streak comes down and starts after her.

  She shakes her head thinking she is imagining it as she darts after the pony in black.

  As she takes pursuit of the thief, she looks behind her to find the rainbow following her.  The princess gives a little growl and picks up speed following the thief down the streets.

  Unfortunately the rainbow also speeds up.

  Luna frowns I bet it can’t go as fast as me she thinks and puts all her energy into chasing down the thief. She shoots around like a rocket but as she turns a corner she sees the rainbow still on her tail.

  She is looking behind her when she slams into the thief. She falls to the cobblestones with a smack, and when she looks up the thief is gone all that’s left is a bit of purple powder, a trace of magic.

  She’s still looking at the powder when the rainbow smashes her into the ground again.

  “Mysterious Mare Do Well eh?” hisses a voice that sounds familiar but Luna can’t see because her hood is askew “Well, Mystery solved” says the voice and rips of her mask.

  With no time to cast an invisibility spell Luna makes a feeble attempt to cover her face with her hooves.

  “Princess Luna?” exclaims the voice who Luna now recognises as Rainbow Dash the element of Loyalty.

  Luna removes her hooves from her face and glares at Rainbow.

  “Get off me or I shall call the royal guards and have you thrown in the dungeon!” hisses Luna angrily even thought the castle no longer has functioning dungeons.

  Luna gets up as Rainbow steps of her and looks up to see Pinkie Pie and Twilight rounding the corner.

  She hears them gasp in shock to see Luna standing there in her Mare Do Well costume.

  “Princess Luna!” exclaims Twilight, and Luna frowns at the purple magic she is using to pull a cloak off Pinkie Pie.

  Luna thinks for a minute before she realises what the three ponies did “Huzzah! I know, you where the one who yelled!” exclaims Luna pointing a hoof at Pinkie, who nods. “You” she continues pointing at Twilight “you made the thief, you made it fast enough to give Rainbow enough time to take we down without letting me catch it until she was ready to take me down and pull of my mask” Luna pauses “I must say that I am very insulted.” She says with a frown at the trio of ponies.

  “Your Highness, we’re so sorry! If we knew it was you we would never have even thought about it!” says Twilight quickly.

  Luna frowns even harder, “So if it hadn’t been me you would have taken down an innocent saint out of pure curiosity?”

  “Well, when you put it that way” says Twilight trailing off.

  “I’ll put it behind me just this once Miss Sparkle, but that is all” Luna pulls her mask back up over her face nods at the trio of mares and takes to the sky, back to Canterlot castle in time to lower the moon.

“I assure you Luna I didn’t mean for them to go after you”

“You lead them straight to me Miss Flourish” says Luna with a frown as she paces back and forth across her star chart carpet in her chambers.

  “I’m sorry your highness but surly they won’t tell anypony” replies the green and blue maned Pegasus mare.

  “I hope not Agile Flourish; it would absolutely destroy my already poor reputation.”

  “I realise that your highness”

  “Luna, please”

  “Sorry Luna, but if you don’t mind I must be on my way. I have to get my article into the paper for tomorrow and I am not close to ready yet”

  Luna waves off her acquaintance and the door slams behind the journalist.

  What am I going to do now?  Thinks Luna and collapses onto her bed.

  BURP

  “Spike!” says Twilight disapprovingly before seeing the scroll that has popped out of the baby dragon’s mouth.  “I’ve never seen this seal before” comments the purple unicorn holding the scroll up with her magic. Imprinted in the wax is a crescent moon accompanied by several small dots probably meant to be stars.

  “It’s probably the Princess Luna’s, Twilight” says Spike stating the obvious.

  “I guessed” replies Twilight looking at her number one assistant.

  Spike rolls his eyes and wanders off to go finish sorting books. He is picking them up and handing them to Owlowiscious who takes them to the higher shelves.

  Twilight looks back to the scroll and peels off the seal, carefully wanting to preserve it for later. She

un-furls the parchment and reads the neatly written note.

Dear Miss Sparkle

  It is requested that you are to have a meeting with one Princess Luna this Tuesday morning. We hope that you can make it anytime before 12:00. Bring Miss Pie and Miss Dash if you please.

Miss Star (aid for Ms Princess Luna)

  Twilight gulps, an audience with Princess Luna. After their last encounter she can’t be asking Twilight over for tea and cookies.

  Tuesday morning at 10:00 sharp a train pulls into Ponyville station and four ponies pile in to a car and take their seats.

  At 11:00 an hour later the same train pulls into Canterlot station and four ponies trot out. On the platform two more ponies are waiting and the six head towards Canterlot Castle.

  “Right this way if you please” says Silver Star to the four ponies that came off the train.

  “We can find our way our selves. I’ve been here plenty of times before” replies Agile Flourish.

  “The Princess asked us to escort you and we can’t ignore a direct order from the princess!” explains Golden Sun.

  “Okie dokie loki!” says Pinkie Pie but bounces ahead anyways.

  Rainbow Dash takes to the sky and flies low after her pinkie coloured friend. Twilight, being Twilight tried to talk to Silver Star but the unicorn mare was not interested in Celestia’s favourite student.

  Two servants of the princesses lead the four Ponyville mares to a room adorned by the princess of the night’s decorative tastes. The four are told to sit on the couch where they are served tea with biscuits.

  “Please wait here, the Princess will be with you in a minute” says Silver Star and leaves and that’s where the mares wait, sipping their tea in silent anxiety.

End of Part One