The Mysterious Adventures of Mare-do-well

Chapters

A Challenger Appears!
A City of Secrets...
Date Night
All According to Plan
Kill 'Em with Fire
Brotherly Love
And the world came crashing down
The Episode of Trixie
The Episode of Mare-do-well
The Episode of Summer Blaze
The Episode of the Hat
The Day her World Stood Still
A Time to Mourne
The Calm Before the Storm
Blood and Rainbows
Epilogue
Oh City, My City
Hearths Warming Day

A Challenger Appears!

It was raining hard that night. Not torrentially, but heavy still. She was sure to make that happen any chance she got to discourage crime. If Mare-do-well hadn't sprung to pay extra for the night-vision goggles, the heavy rain might have been a problem, but she did, so it wasn't. It wasn't like she would've let that stop her, anyway. Mare-do-well had always had an indomitable spirit and she hardly ever did what she was told unless something big was at stake or unless it was somepony she trusted explicitly. There she stood on her old and familiar perch atop the spire. The rain would make it difficult to hear for signs of trouble that would appear despite the weather, so she took flight into the stormy night to search for it more carefully. Everything seemed to be in relative peace in the city of New Maredrid tonight. Mare-do-well took solace in that thought. It meant she had been doing an alright enough job protecting this place. It was just a shame that she couldn't tell anypony what she did, not so much as her real identity, but as Mare-do-well as well. She so longed for the chance to bask in everyponies admiration and respect, but knew she couldn't. Mare-do-well had always been a heroine that let her actions speak for themselves. To do anything else would be to disgrace the legacy of the hat and cowl and those who wore it before her. Then she saw something in the distance. There was a glowing window in the horizon. She flew there under the cover of night and saw a few figures in the room. One wore a hat and trench coat with a red bandana around his face, while the others were all knocked out except for one that wore an expensive suit.

She could barely make out what they were saying, but she listened close enough to get most of it. "L-look! You already took out my guards and burned all my merchandise!" The colt talking sounded like he was about to wet himself out of fear for the hatted figure. "I-I can give you anything you want! Money! Mares! Colts, if you're into that kind of thing!"

"It's hilarious that you think I can be bought like that after all you've done, Mate. After all the people you've hurt in the name of profit." The hatted stallion spoke with a Deep South Equestrian accent. A south equestrian all the way here in New Maredrid? Weird. "You wanna know what else is hilarious, Mate?"

"W-what?!" She could hear the trepidation in his voice.

"That you think just because you got some money means you can step on everypony in your way. The idea that a no good son of a griffon like you thinks he can do whatever the hay he wants. And you wanna know what the real kicker is, Mate?" What Mare-do-well assumed was the bad colt shook his head no. "THIS!" The hat spun around with speed that made him look like a brown blur and kicked the villain through the wall with his back legs. "G'night, Mate. Sleep tight." As he left the room, Mare-do-well waited until she thought it had been safe to investigate. She entered through the window and examined the area carefully. There were maybe six colts scattered around the room with various injuries. Some had broken legs and others had broken faces. The colt who had been kicked clear through the wall was still alive, but barely. It looked like he had a concussion or something. His face was bloody as well, but he would live as long as he received medical attention. It was then that she recognized who the hay he was: Dirty Money, one of the more ruthless crime lords of New Maredrid. She then saw the flashing lights and heard the sirens of the police unicorns outside the building and decided deliver the incapacitated crook to the authorities. She dropped him on a canopy and then abruptly left the scene of the assault. There was a new sheriff in town, apparently. Mare-do-well knew not the name or even whether he was an earthpony, unicorn, or pegasus. She only knew he wore a hat, so that's what she would call him: The Hat.

After that, she thoroughly combed the area for New Maredrid Cities new masked avenger. She searched high and low, and behind each corner she turned, she thought she could barely make out his cloak. She knew she was on his tail, so she kept on him. He kept away from the roof tops, though. It was no doubt because he knew the pony chasing after him was a pegasus and those would hold a distinct advantage over him, while on the ground and in this urban environment, they would be almost equal in terms of physical skill. The rain made it all the more difficult, but the heroine was still up to the task of tracking down this cunning rogue. Eventually, she chased him to the other side of the city, to the top of the spire. He was no doubt at the peak of pony perfection for him to do that without the use of any magic, or at least, as far as Mare-do-well knew. The chase was over, but Mare-do-well had a feeling that that was only because this hatted hero wanted it to end

On the highest point of the city of New Maredrid, he stood there stoic and unmoving, his coat flowing with the wind and the rain. Mare-do-well flew up intent on finding out who he was and what he was doing in his city. She tried to sneak up on him, but failed. "Beautiful, isn't?" He called out asking her, knowing she was behind him. "Bloody shame that it fell into the wrong hooves." Mare-do-well just stood there, half in awe that this one had been able to lead her half way across the city and half just listening. If this Hat was as smart as she thought, then he probably meant to do more than just complement the scenery she helped to make earlier that day. "Right, you're not one for talking, are ya, Sheila? Just as well, as I wasn't here for your commentary anyhow." Even under the mask of Mare-do-well and without words, her silence was able to ask all the questions needed. "As you may know, this hay-hole of a city is in right dire straits. In the days ahead, you may need my help, and I'll need yours. Should the need arise, I'll need some good mates at my side to fight the good fight." Mare-do-well just stayed silent, wondering what he meant when he said "in the days ahead". "I've heard of your work and how you do a bloody good job of what the authorities let fall out of their hooves. This city needs heroes like you, Mate. Now more than ever." He turned around and walked passed Mare-do-well, who herself was uncertain whether or not she could trust this mysterious stranger. "You don't have to make up your mind right now, though. Give it time, and then decide." He walked over to the edge of the roof and turned around to face her.

For the first time all night, Mare-do-well opened her mouth to speak. "Who are you?" If she learned nothing else this night, it had to be this colts name.

"I haven't really thought of a name yet, to tell you the truth," He thought for a moment as he turned back around to gaze at the city that was under his guardianship, sliding his hoof across the brim of his hat. She could only barely see his eyes, but she could tell he was smiling under them. "Hmm. Maybe you should just call me... The Hat!" She totally called it. He jumped from the ten story high roof top and by the time Mare-do-well flown to the side, he was gone, vanished even.

This night, Mare-do-well was left with more questions than answers. That troubled her. She was also left intrigued and perhaps even a little... attracted? That troubled her even more. One thing was for certain, though. He led her here, meaning he probably could have escaped easily enough if he wanted to, as well as making an admittedly wicked cool escape. Then if you combine that with the fact that he asked for help, that there was something that he didn't think he could handle alone, then something must be happening soon. Something big. Raining as hard as it was, Mare-do-well figured that she should probably head home. The Hat would no doubt be in touch with her in the future, but for now, she just wanted go lay her head on her pillow and get some sleep.

A City of Secrets...

She woke up to the smell of pancakes in the air and to the sound of her own stomach growling from said pancake smell. She smiled at the thought that her boyfriend woke up every morning to make breakfast. Of course, being a country pony, he was used to getting up early. As per usual, she put on her robe and entered the kitchen. To her surprise, he wasn't there. There was a stack of pancakes there, sure, but as for her somepony, all he left was a vase with her favourite flower, the tiger lily, next to some burnt coffee and some kind of burnt pancakes. She asked once why he burned everything he cooked, and he passionately answered "Cause burning makes everything better, Sugarcube!" He wasn't totally wrong, though, and he DID have a special way of making ashes taste good, although she would never let him hear her admit that. She never let anything be that easy, just like when they met. She always did play hard to get. She walked over to the note and read it: "Sugarcube, went to the market to pick up groceries. Ran out of milk, eggs, apple-bacon. Be back around lunch. Love you." She put the note down and, with the realization that she had the whole place to herself for the next couple of hours, decided to just chill on the couch.

She decided then to turn on the radio to see what songs were playing on her favorite station. Much to her surprise, there was a news report. It sounded important, so she turned the volume up. "This is Microphone Mic with a special report on the heroine, Mare-do-well! She was last seen leaving the sight of an assault on one of New Maredrid Cities most ruthless crime lords, Dirty Money. Doctors say that he will make a full recovery with a few weeks but he will be brought in for questioning. As for the elusive vigilante, police chief, Flashing Lights, had this to say."

"We at the NMPD do NOT support the actions taken by-" She turned off the radio at that point. True artists are never understood in their time, she thought to herself. She smiled at that thought. She sounded like one of her best friends back home now. Now was as good a time as any to eat, so she went for her burnt breakfast that her boyfriend made for her and chowed down. It really was good, but again, getting a complement out of her was like squeezing water from a rock. He knew what he was getting into when he moved out here with her, though, and he said so himself that he wouldn't have her any other way. She smiled at that, and then got a light bulb in her head. She should do something nice for him. She thought of cooking, but then immediately decided against that idea. She was a terrible cook. If her boyfriend had a thing with burning food, then she had a thing with starting fires and completely annihilating what she had set out to make in the first place. She thought of a movie night, but there were no good movies playing at the theaters. There was only a Celestia-awful flick about a changeling that falls in love with an earth pony who is then challenged by a buffalo for her love. One of her friends made her read the book once. She abruptly set it ablaze. The two bits she paid for the matches was totally worth it, but then the fire reminded her of something. Her somepony loved barbeque. She thought about it and then settled on that. There was a place downtown that they went once. He loved it, but they never really had an occasion to go back, that is, until now. She smiled and made a call for the reservations. She still had maybe a few hours to go before he got back, so she figured she should get everything ready for him.

...

He walked through the long hall ways of the underground catacombs briskly but cautiously. If he was late, then his bosses would have his head. But if he intruded early, then he was equally screwed in that regard. In this organization, timing and discipline had been drilled into each and every operative, high ranking or not. And Cloak & Dagger had no interest in losing his life due to some petty tardiness. Not if he intended on excelling in this shadow organization. Eventually, he looked at his wrist watch and then the giant wooden doors that have been well over a hundred years old. "11:00 AM. Right on time." He opened the doors to the room that was much more akin to a theater, only he was the performer and they were on the stage, and walked in cautiously, careful not to lose the papers he carefully placed in the folder that he held with his violet aura. He was nervous and his sweet dripped down his mauve coat, although he tried to hide it. He gulped and finally spoke to his superiors. "You summoned me, sirs?

"We did," The first council member stated flatly.

"You have brought us information in regards of what happened to Mr. Dirty Money?" The second member asked.

Cloak gulped once more. He had what was no doubt bad news. "Sirs, Mr. Money is in police custody and has undergone severe head trauma. He is not expected to survive his night at New Maredrid General hospital." He spit it out and assumed some sort of outburst would follow. He was mistaken.

"That was to be expected, Mr. Dagger." The first council colt informed him in an unsurprised way that surprised Cloak. Dirty Money had been pivotal in establishing their monetary strong hold in this city for years. Why would they not care?

"Sir?" Cloak asked, hoping an answer would follow for the apathy he had been presented with.

"Mr. Money was far too visible of an ally and this organization has moved past the use for such... blunt methods of monetary gain." A third council member spoke out, this time it was the silhouette of a mare, one that was maybe in her forties. "His disposal was already in the planning process." Well, that explained it. Nopony lasted long in this group if they outlived their usefulness. Leaders were found quickly and plucked from their origins early on, while all other members had their place. If you weren't exceedingly useful, you were either killed after you could be replaced by somepony else, or you just didn't move up. Sometimes ponies stayed at low stations because they were simply that good at their jobs, and others were there as covert agents to make sure everything went right at that level. Cloak learned early on that there was almost always an 'almighty janitor' at some point within each operating group.

Then the fourth and final council member of this organizations leadership spoke up. "Was there anything else, Mr. Dagger?" Judging by the voice, she was the prodigy he had heard rumors about. She was only maybe 23 at most, but she had a calm and sedated voice that still had an air of impatience befitting her youth. Her predecessor had made a bid for control of the entire organization. It failed miserably and he was quickly executed. "Or will that be all?"

"There was one other thing," He pulled out a report that had been summarized by one of his subordinates earlier that day. He used his magic and placed a copy of it in front of each of his bosses. "We may have a new interloper in our affairs."

"Is this about the 'Mysterious Mare-do-well'?" The fourth member asked, irritated. There was no doubt she was there for a reason, but her swift ascension had done little to temper her arrogance. It was made worse that she was promoted as a mistake. "If so then-"

"We have a new one, Sirs," He looked at all of them when he said that. He was no doubt close to execution for cutting off a superior mid-sentence like that, especially one that was little more than a brat that saw herself as a big fish in a small pond. "It wasn't Mare-do-well that ended Dirty Moneys tenure early." He took a pause, confident now that he had bought himself more time among his employers. He took a breath, and then continued. "One of my scouts was on his way home from his earlier assignment when he saw Mr. Money being confronted by a colt in a hat. Upon his escape from the scene of the assault, my scout tailed him as he led Mare-do-well to the Spire clear on the other side of the city. Please note that he did this while evading capture of Mare-do-well, who does have a reputation of tracking down rogues herself."

The first council colt was still reading over his copy of the report, and then spoke. "Are you certain that this one is a threat? Remember what your being wrong about Mere-do-well cost you." He didn't need to remind him of that. A little less than three months ago, when Mare-do-well came to town, he had filed a similar report on her after she assaulted several of his subordinates. He had been wrong; she was merely a vigilante do-gooder out to save life for the moment. Shortly thereafter, she was established to have no grand machinations beyond turning in petty scum. For his mistake on that matter, they had taken off his cutie mark along with the skin surrounding it.

"Sirs, this one seemed very aware of what he was doing," Mr. Dagger insisted on this one. He seemed as capable as this cities other resident hero, only more cunning. "Both when he ended Mr. Moneys career and when he led Mare-do-well to the Spire. I suspect he wants to forge an alliance of sorts with her."

"You believe he may know of our plans, Mr. Dagger?" The third member asked, showing a slight air of concern in her voice.

"Not so much, no, Sir. But he may have ideas of our general existence and may try to take moves to hinder us in general. If he continues in impeding our progress, I want to take actions to neutralize him as a threat."

The second leader finally spoke up again. "Your concern is noted, Mr. Dagger. Rest assured, you will be given resources as we see fit to deal with this new interloper. But not until we decide for certain whether he is or is not a genuine threat." The old horse then pulled out a folder of his own, then flipped through some of his papers. "As for Mr. Moneys replacement... I was considering Tasty Gold."

"Sir? I was under the assumption that we no longer needed that sort-"

He went back to his paper, then explained his choice for Mr. Daggers sake. "Random street violence is messy and can be counter-productive, so we will need some leadership to maintain crime at a certain level of control. Mr. Gold has displayed self-control and a fair disdain for unneeded bloodshed, so he would be perfect for this position." He looked at Cloak & Dagger once more. "You are dismissed, Mr. Dagger. You have done well this day. Please continue your work on this matter discreetly. We don't need to give this new hero a reason to dig around our affairs if he isn't already."

"Sir," Cloak said obediently. "I understand." He slowly walked backwards, then turned around and left the chamber. This new hero troubled him greatly, but to disobey his superiors was tantamount to suicide. He needed to tread carefully in the following days as he continued work his position in this organization, the Echelon.

Date Night

"Babe, hold me back," She said to her boyfriend at the Toasted Carrot Bar & Grill. He could only give a sigh of irritation as she grabbed a hold of her tail with his mouth from the back. Not for her sake, but for the colt that made the mistake to hack her off in the first place. They guy had been drunk off his plot and started making comments about her mane and then started on her boyfriend for no real reason other than being severely intoxicated. It was one thing to insult her, but if you insulted her friends, then your plot was officially hers.

"Whatsa matter, Griffin!? *hick!*" He clearly had way to much Flim Flam Hard Cider, but it still didn't excuse the way he was treating the couple. "You need your colt to hold you back?"

"Just ignore 'em, Sugarcube." He tried to say, consoling her, but sounded more like a garbled mess on account of him holding her back by grabbing her tail. He had a feeling he wouldn't be able to hold her for much longer, though. "He don't know anything about nothing."

"LEMME AT HIM!" She started to scream with pure rage. "I'LL TEAR HIS BUCKING HEAD OFF HIS NECK!!"

"I can tell who's really the stallion in this relationship! *hick*" He kept goading them, and he started to genuinely hack off her boyfriend. "And it ain't the one with in the cowboy hat!"

That last comment tore it. The boyfriend had enough of this mother bucker, so he did what he had wanted to do for the past few minutes. He let her go. "Oops. My bad." She charged and was on top of him in one tenth of a second, flat.

The plot-hole was struggling to say something, but he couldn't tell what it was. "I know you're not supposed to eat glass!" She said, shoving the mug in his face.

He only watched as she was laying all kinds of whoop-flank on that guy. He turned to the other ponies sitting at that bar to start a conversation. "Any of y'all see the Wing-ball playoffs the other night?" He quickly looked back to the curbstomp when he thought he heard something snap. "Shoot! I didn't even know wings could bend that way!" He got up to stop the fight. "C'mon, Sugarcube. We gotta go!" He grabbed her tail with his mouth and they exited the door, leaving behind a healthy tip for whoever cleans up after the ensuing destruction that was no ponies fault.

"I'm not done with him yet!"

He garbled some words that were probably something like "Yes. You are." She struggled to fly back at the drunken colt, but years off work on the farm gave him above average strength to that of average mustang. "Let's go, Hon."

As he dragged her out of his favorite restaurant, she eventually cooled off enough to talk to him. "I thought I told you to hold me back there!" She yelled, but she wasn't angry, or at least, not at him.

All he did was shrug lightly. "I thought he had it comin'" He retorted confidently. This usually happened to places where they sold liquor. Usually he held her back to avoid a bar brawl, but on rare occasions, he let her go and watched the fireworks. "Besides, you've been kinda stressed out lately, Hon. I thought you could use a good bar fight."

She landed close next to him and took on an amused face. Tonight was supposed to be for him and, not only did it backfire because of some plot-hole, but he still did his best to make it special for her, even if it was a bar fight that he let happen. "Well, I didn't need you to do that for me, you know."

"I know." He said smugly with his eyes closed, as if he was something special. "I did it because I wanted to."

"Yeah, I'll bet," She kissed him on the cheek after she said that. He was special, for sure. At least, he was to her. "Thanks for nothing, Cowboy." She finished statement of gratitude with a smirk on her face and then went to kiss him deeply beneath a street light.

"Any time, Flight-risk." He accepted her kiss and they must have been kissing for almost five seconds before they separated their lips. "Any time."

The moment couldn't have been more perfect in his mind, but he was proven wrong from the next words that came out of her mouth. "Night's still young, Babe." She took a sly grin, "You wanna head home and make some feathers fl-" Her innuendo was cut off mid sentence when she heard a crash in the nearby alley. "What was that?!"

"What was what?!" She gave an amused and wry smile when she heard his voice crack at the end of question, then went back to a serious face. She flew to the other side of the street and carefully peered into the alley that she was certain she heard the disturbance come from, but by the time she got there, she saw only the silhouette of a cloaked and hatted figure standing atop the building. The Hat!

As if set in motion by the mere flip of a switch, she nearly went after what she had naturally thought was a rival, but then stopped when she remembered the real reason she was out tonight: it was a special night for her and her boyfriend. She lowered her wings that she didn't even know she extended and then forced herself to calm down. This was their night, not Mare-do-wells, and she wanted to keep it that way.

"You alright there, Ace?" He asked her as she flew back over to him. "You look like you saw a ghost and then wanted to whoop its flank."

Creative metaphor aside, she was still somewhat disappointed that she had to let her adversary go. She forced a smile, and then went on to give a simple hoof-wave of an excuse. "It was nothing, Babe. Just a raccoon." She walked over to him and kissed his cheek again. "Offer still stands for making my feathers fly," She gave him a competitive grin like she always did when she deeply looked forward to something. "If you're up to the challenge, that is."

He was clearly at least somewhat flustered by the offer, but he hid it by simply tipping his hat to her. "You want a rodeo, Sugarcube? Well, you got one."

She began to walk away seductively, hips swaying and everything, and gave him another flirty grin as she did so. "We'll see."

...

Mare-do-well stood atop her Spire, staring out into the darkness... and waiting for any sign of the Hat to appear. She may have been initially welcoming of the help, but she still needed to know more about what she was getting into. She was still on edge from earlier, obviously. Not from the earlier sex she had, mind you. On the contrary, the fiery love-making, along with the bar fight from earlier, made her feel better than she in days, maybe even weeks. It did wonders for relieving all the stress she had built up from the last few days. He really did make her feathers fly earlier. Regardless, now wasn't the time to think about him and his considerable rodeo skills. Now was the time to stay focused on the task at hoof.

She leapt from her tower and began to fly over her city, vigilantly scanning the town for signs of trouble and searching faithfully for ponies in danger. The Hat said something about something big going down soon, she Mare-do-well needed to step up her game. It wasn't a thought that she particularly relished, either. For so many years she had been at the top of almost everything that she strove for. She beaten only rarely, and even then it was when she had been handicapped in some manner or another, and now? Now she had a rival that, despite not being able to fly or use magic, had beaten her in her own game using his wits instead of his body. He was more on top of things than she was, and that made her... she didn't even know. There was some anger in there, she knew that much. It may have been mixed with some jealousy that he knew what he was doing more than she was. Maybe a little disappointment in herself mingled in there as well. Her thoughts returned to her boyfriend as they often did when on patrol. She remembered the friendship she had nearly shattered to begin a life with him here in New Maredrid. Her heart ached and she felt so much remorse for how her best friend felt when she broke the news to her, but she possessed no regrets for her actions themselves. He had been worth it. He had been worth all of it, and all of this.

"EEEPAAA!!" She heard the scream, admittedly very strange, of what sounded like a colt. She flew over to investigate and, to her surprise, he wasn't dead. He just had both legs broken badly. "GAAAH!" He was screaming like a baby about it though. "Mare-do-well?!" Walked forward and investigated, or would have, had she not been interrupted by two more colts that were screaming on their way down, the same way the first one went.

"AAAAH!!" The two colts were jettisoned from the window at the same time. She subtly pushed the first one out of the way so he wouldn't get killed by his free-falling-friends. "GAAAAH!!" They both broke at least one of their arms and one of them broke a wing, the other broke a horn. She turned on the night-vision of her costumes specs and took a closer look at them. All three of them had a tattoo of a bear on an arm. It was the mark of Black Marauder gang. She turned and looked up the window; sure she'd find what she wanted.

She flew up to investigate who or what sent them flying. Ponies didn't throw themselves out windows, at least not usually. There she saw the end of a coat-tail just leaving the room. "Time to get to the bottom of this!" The heroine thought to herself as she began an all too familiar chase with her elusive adversary. She could barely keep up with his agile movements but, turn for turn, she did not lose him. She matched him, stair for stair and hallway for hallway, until, finally, they were on the roof of the five story high building.

"Who are you?!" She shouted out in an intentionally raspy and gritty voice. "Why do you need my help?!" But still he did not surrender. He gave chase again, only this time, he went over the roof tops. "Why would he do that?", she thought to herself, perplexed. In the skies, she obviously held every single conceivable advantage, so why would he use the roof tops to escape her? She briefly banished the thought, keeping a steady, but quickening, pace. It was deja vu in almost ever since of the word.

Eventually, they made it to one of the buildings at the base of the spire, but Mare-do-well didn't stop. The Hat was cornered. There was no buildings close enough for him to jump to and not fall to the cold brick roads, so there he stood, waiting for the inevitable collision of the two heroes. Even though her rival was wearing sun-glasses at night and bandana over his face, she still made out the faint markings of a smile on his face. "Looks like you caught me, Sheila!" He looked down the side of the building, no doubt hoping for some kind of miracle like what saved him from her last time. How he did that still eluded her, but she would find out.

"You lead me here," She began again with an intentional raspy voice. "Why?"

He began to circle her, sizing her up again the same way he did the first time they met. "And what makes you think I lead you here, Love?" He was still arrogant as hay, but she could tell he had the confidence to back it up. Or at least, he carried himself as such. She had to be very careful about confronting this one. She knew he was an ace fighter, from the way he was able take on all those criminals on that easily. She also knew that he was an extremely cunning, made evident by the way he was able to lead her last time they met and again by disappearing into the night like a wraith. Both their capes and cloaks flowed in the cool wind of the night, and both waited until the other made the first move. Surprisingly, she went first.

She made attack after attack with her front hooves, missing each time as though he were a leaf in the wind. He lunged at her and forced her back a few feet, forcing her reassess the situation drastically. He was about as strong she figured, but he was much more agile in a fight than she thought. She'd need to rethink her classic fighting strategy carefully if she wanted to win. She went at it again, and in a fight with no clear winner, the duel seemed to last for hours, though in truth it was likely only a few minutes. Kick and lunge, buck and counter. It seemed that in terms of fighting prowess, they were nearly dead even. Eventually, she found her perfect opening. He charged at her full force, hoping to throw her off guard with a sudden change from the defensive to the offensive. She quickly side stepped and, with a mighty thrust of her wing, opening it as fast as she could and with as much force that could be put behind it, sent him flying across the roof top. "NOW!" she thought to herself. She quickly flew over to him and pinned him down. "Now to find out who you really are!" She uncovered her mouth and tore off his bandana, inadvertently taking his sunglasses with it.

All According to Plan

The reveal left her mind riddled with questions. The first was how it had happened, with the second being how she couldn't have found out by now. But there he was, staring at her with both of his big green eyes and his long blonde mane. "Braeburn?!" She was shocked even worse than that one guitar incident. She didn't even know legs could do that.

"Heh heh. Heya, Dashie," he greeted her with a nervous laugh, but that paled in comparison how she felt. "Guess rodeo's over, eh?"

"How!?" She was still dumb struck that he was the hat. Him, the boyfriend that she took up the cowl of Mare-do-well and the perch of the Spire for. Him, who was stabbed and left hospitalized for nearly a week. That would explain why the wound hadn't healed yet. "You were the Hat all along?" She still had him pinned down to the roof. Even in all the confusion that was suddenly thrown in her face, she still held firm over him. Normally this may have been an alright thing, but not tonight. Tonight she was all rage and confusion. "How long have you been doing this?!"

"Funny story 'bout that, Sugarcube," he took a deep sigh and it appeared that he would "spill the beans", as he would have called it, but nearly 50 ponies appeared from almost nowhere. 25 pegasi carrying 25 unicorns, each apparently battle ready and prepared to take on the heroes as she pinned him down.

"I'm afraid the game is over, Ms. Mare-do-well and Mr. Hat!" A single mauve unicorn touched down on the roof top and continued to declare how things were going to go down. "You've meddled in our affairs for the last time!"

Rainbow Dash unpinned her boyfriend and helped him up, quietly asking him a question. "You know who these guys are, Brae?"

He picked up his sunglasses from the roof top and fixed his hat that had been crooked. It figured, Rainbow thought to herself. He was her best-friends cousin, after all, and AppleJack did love her hat like only a few other possessions she had. "You recollect when I said something about trials and how I'd be needing your help?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, I could really use your help right about now, Sugarcube." So this was it. The thing he needed help with in the first place and the entire reason he had contacted her as his own secret identity.

"Got it!" She began to charge at the ambushers, that is, until Braeburn grabbed her by her tail with his mouth. It must have been another trait that ran in the Apple family. "What are you doing?!"

"Whatever you are planning, it won't work!" The leader of their attackers shouted out in a very matter-of-fact voice. He then took a rather haughty voice as he continued. "This building is surrounded by each and every agent under my command! Not even the both of you could fight through all of these... associates of mine. Surrender and you may live past your interrogations! But if not, well... nopony is indispensable." Rainbow Dash couldn't help but since that that last part was said with an underlying feeling of contempt, as though he had been told the same thing once before.

"I thought you had a plan for this, Hat!" She whispered loudly. There was no use bothering with subtlety now, but she figured that they could still stick with using their hero names.

"I do, Sugarcube!" He looked frustrated at what had happened, but he hardly showed it. In fact, in all the years she knew Braeburn, she had never seen him look more in his element. He looked stressed, sure, but it wasn't an angry stressed. That was when she recognized the look in his face. It was the same look she got when she encountered a difficult challenge that she wasn't sure she could win against. In short, he never seemed to be more at home than at this very moment.

"Well?" She however, did not feel the same way. She had been taken completely by surprise in her own city, near her own perch, no less! She enjoyed a challenge, sure, but this? She feared that she may have gotten in way over her head this time. "Care to explain it with the rest of the class?!"

He always took on a sly grin when he had an idea, and judging by his face, he had one doozy of an idea under his hat. "Yep!" He walked a few steps in front of her, and then proceeded to speak for the both of them. She always hated when he did that. "We give up!"

"Wha-What?" The leader of the criminal force was surprised to hear that, as was Rainbow Dash.

"What?!" She was experiencing that old familiar feeling of confusion and anger again, only this time, the primary ingredient in her emotional cocktail was anger.

"Trust me, Sugercube," he began to whisper to try to assure her that he knew exactly what he was doing. "I know exactly what I'm doing."

She just shot him a concerned glare and then begrudgingly accepted his judgment on this matter. "Um... alright, then," The captain of their captors’ said, confused as hay. "Well, then. Gentlecolts?" He motioned to some of his colts. "Please restrain our new prisoners. They shall be escorted to our facility." They did as he said, putting hoof cuffs on the both of them and then a burlap sack over each of their heads. The last thing she was the moon shining light on her boyfriend’s confident grin and the lunar luminescence bouncing off of his shades. She gave a deep sigh, and then accepted the new situation as truth. One thing was for certain, though. Somepony was going to die at the end of this.

...

They were being forced down a long hall way. Of that, Rainbow Dash was certain. They took away her hat, but they did let her keep the mask. She didn't know whether or not this was out of some sense of honor, or maybe they just didn't care to take it off. Either way, Rainbow as least grateful for that much. She had no idea where they were taken, either. She guessed that it was maybe an hour away from the Spire by foot, and that there had been stairs, a lot of stairs, but that's it.

Her thoughts then went back to Braeburn and how he had been the Hat that whole time. She wondered exactly how long he had been doing this, but she had a feeling it had been nearly as long as she had been masquerading as the mysterious Mare-do-well. Given how he had been able to lead her along just to tell her he needed her help, and then disappear into the night in a way more mysterious than she typically did, she figured it was more than likely. She called out to Braeburn, in the hoped she could get at least some symbolism of an idea of why he just gave up without a fight. "Psst! Hat!" She called out in a whisper to him. "What's the-"

Before she could finish her question, she was shoved by one of her escorts. "No talking, Hero." She gave a dirty look that nopony could see, and then accepted the order of her keeper. It was probably best that they didn't discuss how they would escape this current dilemma. So she just kept walking, hoping her boyfriend had a plan to get them out of this hay of a mess. Eventually, they stopped in what she could tell was an isolated prison room. Even through both the mask over her face and the burlap sack over her head, she could smell the stale scent of a jail. It wasn't a bad smell, but it was sterile and metallic. She was shoved in to the room harshly. "Four star accommodations, Chump." She hit the wall and it hurt her wing, but not so badly. Chances are it would just be a few bruises. They threw her hat in after her and locked the door. She heard the door of the cell next to her close immediately thereafter. The guards left the room without another word, leaving the two lovers in their separate cells, alone.

Rainbow Dash waited for maybe thirty seconds to be sure that the guards were out of ear-shot, then began speaking to the colt that she was more than a little aggravated with. "So... when did you plan on telling me about you being the Hat?"

"I wasn't," he answered flatly in his southern drawl.

Rainbow was shocked at that answer. Not nearly as much as when she found out that he was the Hat to begin with, but still shocked. "You... You what?!" And there was that old familiar feeling of confused anger.

"To be totally honest with you, Dashie," he took a pause like he was about to tell her everything. He did. "Dashie, ever since I met you, for real I mean, you have been an irreplaceable part of my life. Each time I saw you leave our bed; it was like driving a dagger in my heart. And when I thought about what would happen if you didn't come back? It was like the twisting the dagger in deeper and deeper." She could almost hear him getting choked up as he gave his confession to her. "This, all of this, was meant for us. For you."

"You're crazy, you know that, right?" She wasn't sure how he could top a speech like that, even if they were in an underground prison cell. He didn't usually get all sappy like that. In fact, all of their chemistry was based upon them taking a few shots at each other with the praise being hidden in the subtext.

"Love makes a colt do some crazy things."

And there was the show stopper. She was happy as hay that he couldn't see her face, because by now she was crying her eyes out. It was not something she tried to make a habit of doing. Eventually, she able to summon the will power to stop the water-works and keep pressing him for answers. "So how long have you been doing this anyway?" She didn't even bother asking about his fake south Equestrian accent. She'd met his Uncle Apple Strudel Dundee a while back. Still, his accent was terrible.

"About three weeks after you started. As soon as the stab wound healed the first time, actually."

"That why it opened up the other day?"

"Actually," he let out a small chuckle as he began his answer. "I really was intending to take you out dancing in the next couple of days. And that really was a dance injury."

"Braeburn," she was astounded at that revelation. Braeburn was unbelievable. He was a far cry from the colt she'd met in Appleousa, that's for sure. He'd always been stubborn, albeit not as bad as her best friend, AppleJack, but she had no idea he was wily as well. She struggled to think of an appropriate response to his answer, but she couldn't think of anything good. "You're..."

"Hmm?"

She still couldn't think of a good enough word to describe him, so she just decided to move on. "So what's the plan, Cowboy?"

"You remember the guitar incident?" He was skating on thin ice now. She always hated when he brought that up, especially considering what happened that night.

"Braeburn..." she said his name in a warning fashion, but she actually was curious about where he was headed with this.

"Just here me out, Sugarcube." He took a breath, then kept on. "You remember how you got yerself outa those handcuffs that night?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Might be a good idea to do that trick with your wing right about now."

"Gotcha!" She was actually kind of turned on by this new, whily side of Braeburn. For the longest time, she thought he was just a "good-ole-boy" from Appleousa. There was the added appeal of being her best friends cousin, forbidden fruit aspect and all, but that didn't really do a lot for her, especially considering how AJ felt about them together. This new, previously hidden, Braeburn was all cunning and action. She liked it. She liked it a lot. She might have to reward him after all of this was over. She concentrated carefully on undoing her hoof cuffs, and, after maybe twenty seconds of getting her feathers in the exact right position, she was free. "And... done!" She took off her sack and gathered her hat.

"Great, Dashie!" he praised her for her accomplishment.

"I know," She gave an egotistical grin, and then proceeded to unlock her cell, then his, and then his hoof cuffs. "So what's your grand plan for getting us out, Chief?"

"We wait!" He announced triumphantly, leaving Rainbow Dash perplexed yet again.

"What?" It was the only word she can think to say. "So what was the point in telling me to get us out in the first place?"

He shot her an all-knowing smile, then proceeded to answer. "Because," his all-knowing grin became a full-blown Cheshire-cat smile. "We're not stuck in here with them... they're stuck in with us! I got back up on the way, so as soon as they show up, we show these guys what we can really do!"

"You don't mean..."

"You didn't think I would let us get captured like that, did you?"

"Brae, you are, without a doubt, the most awesome earthpony I have ever met." She put her arm over his shoulder and kissed him with a quick peck on the lips. "You're almost as awesome as I am." She stopped for a second to consider what she just said. "Almost."

"Why, thank you!" He shot his own version of her ego-grin, much to her amusement.

"So now we just kick back and wait until the cavalry arrives?" She placed her hands behind her head and began to relax against the side of the dual prison cell.

"That's just about the size of it."

"I like that idea," She put her arms behind her head and proceeded to lean against the wall of their jail. "I like it a lot." She knew she couldn't go to sleep, so she figured she'd ask more important stuff, like why they were here specifically. "So who are these guys, anyway?"

"They call themselves the

"Well, there was this one time..." And so they just sat and talked. Shooting the breeze as though there was nothing was wrong in their city and like they weren't in the underground prison. As they spoke, Braeburn smiled, as though everything had been going according to plan. And if Rainbow Dash had learned anything about her boyfriend in the last few hours, it was that, chances are, they were.

...

Finding this place hadn't been too difficult. She'd given him a tracking charm soon after they rendezvoused the night he first made contact with Mare-do-well. The complex would have been difficult to find other wise, as it had been hidden in an old and rundown apartment building on the bad side of town. Although "bad" was a relative term here. The vast majority of the town was the bad side of town.

She wondered through the halls of the complex, defeating all in her path, searching for her partner in anti-crime. Miss Magnificent used her charmed ropes wrapped around her body as her primary weapon, sending it towards the villains that attacked her in her quest to find the Hat and Mare-do-well. Her mask was one of white and black and left only her right eye uncovered, it's cool, crystal blue color acting as a dagger to those that were left unscathed by her one-mare assault on the complex. Her hooded cloak, charmed like her rope, easily stopped most of the concussive blasts from the pathetic excuses of unicorns they had for security. She briefly considered what had brought her here in this stage of her magical career, then remembered. She had done a few things in her past that she was not proud of. They were easily within the realm of atonable, but still. She felt as though that, if she started acting the heroine, she would become one. But these were just excuses for rescuing the Hat and she knew it. Her debt wasn't paid to everypony she'd hurt, but her coming to his rescue and aiding him in his plot to save the city was an obligation she felt was necessary.

She had at first questioned the Hats decision to add Mare-do-well onto their team, but he would not be deterred. He would have her on his team because this city was under her guardianship as well as his, and to a lesser extent, hers. She wondered what his true motives were for adding her on, and was easily able to figure out why. He cared for her. The revelation was difficult to swallow at first, and it still was. It was a great source of heart-ache, to be sure, but her travels over the past two years after her defeat at the greatest unicorn in all of Equestria taught her many things, and acceptance was among them. There was always a bigger fish.

"Fools!" She shouted using a classic megaphone-style spell. She'd found that it added the extra shock and awe effect that she so loved. The cloaked heroine gave an invisible smile as her ropes were sent forth to battle on her behalf. "Only defeat lies this way!" Four ropes from beneath her cloak charged back to her opponents, if they could even be called such, and sent each and every one of them flying against the concrete walls of the hallway, knocking them out cold. They would live, as the Hat requested. They were only hired security, he had said, so they deserve a chance at some redemption. She agreed to his rules, as she saw his wisdom in the matter. She was still on the path of atonement herself, after all. Besides, they were not the true enemy here. Their leaders, on the other hand, would be spared little to no quarter. She felt as though that had been a tad bit to brutal from the earthpony known as the Hat. He'd always tried to keep deaths to a minimum, but alas. T'was their duty to pay evil unto evil, and should he change his mind, then she would still follow him. She would follow him to the edge of oblivion and the gates of tartarous if she had too.

She was a drifter, as she had always been. She never stopped moving and never stayed in one place to long. Even as a child, that had been her life. In her attempts to cover up her loneliness, she reinvented herself, becoming a unicorn that all could admire. In time, the lie became real enough to her and she, in essence, became the mask she wore. It wasn't until her greatest lesson in her greatest defeat was she forced to take a long hard look at the mare she had become. She wasn't pleased with what she saw. She knew deeply within her heart that her arrogant and self-centered attitude had to stop, so, in some great irony, she donned a new mask: the mask of Miss Magnificent. Hopefully, she prayed when she created her mask and wore it for the first time; I will become this mask as I had in the past.

For two years she became a wondering heroine of Equestria, always mocked for the past of a fraud as her real self, but the object of adoration to many when she donned her mask and cloak. It was enough, at least, for her it was. Eventually, she made it to a town with two heroes. One visible, and one not. The Hat that hid in shadows approached her for her help. "There's gonna be one heapin' hay of a scrap," he'd said to her. She never seen him that serious before and she could do nothing but accept his invitation to take part in the salvation of this city. So here she was, in the belly of the proverbial beast, saving the colt that helped to save her. The alarms began to sound across the facility and she gave an anxious grin. The party, it seemed, was just beginning to get started.

...

"Cover the door way!" Mare-do-well woke up from her nap on the Hats shoulder after hearing the guard shout his command to his colts. In the four hours they were waiting for their back up, he had explained everything to her on what he had found out. The organization was called the Echelon. It meant "the highest levels". It was an organization decades old, but it was only until certain events took place when they were able to begin their plans final stages. Even the Hat didn't know what their end game was, but did know he needed a group of powerful allies to help him thwart their attempts to seize control of all and everything. The chips were down, he had told her, but he was confident that the three of them could do it. When she asked about just three, he only gave her a sly grin and said that the third teammate is a one-mare-army. "COVER THE DANG DOOR WAY!!"

She believed and trusted him. It's strange how different he was from the colt she'd met in Appleousa four years ago. He seemed so uncertain of what he could or couldn't do. He wasn't near the pony he was now. She entertained herself with the thought that she changed him, but she knew that if she did, it was only indirectly. Conflict has a habit of bringing out a ponies true colors, of showing what somepony is really made of. It worked for Twilight, Spike, Rarity, and damned near everypony else she knew on a personal level. As the old expression gos, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And if anypony got going, it was Braeburn. "Sheila!" He called out to her in his south Equestrian accent. Meh. It wasn't as bad as she thought it was. Still terrible, though. "'Ow hard can ya kick?"

"Almost as strong as AJ, why?" He answered only with a wolfish grin and a glance to the big metal door. She immediately knew what he meant when he looked back to her. "I'm likin' you more and more every day, Hat."

They both backed up to the door, at just the right distance for maximum kicking power. At the end of this whole ordeal, she had a feeling that she would be more sore than she was after the guitar incident. She couldn't stand to even look at a shovel to this day. "On the count of three, kay, Shiela?" She nodded and he got started on the counting. "One."

"Two..."

"THREE!" They said it both at the same time, and they both kicked the door off the hinges. And into one poor guard. And another poor guard. And then a third one. Mare-do-well felt bad about that. Killing was generally something she really tried not to make a habit of. The one exception was rapists. They were a special kind of evil. They deserved no less.

The two warriors found themselves soon surrounded by the security if there jail cell. There were maybe 15 of them, all unicorns of varying sizes and genders. They both heard the sound of them charging their horns up to exterminate the prisoners. "Howley dooley!" The Hat said in pleased anticipation of the challenge they were faced with. Mare-do-well gave herself a mental face-hoof. This was the colt she let sleep in the same bed as her. Somewhere, AJ was laughing at her.

They both looked at each other, smiled, and then began to clean up. The Hat leapt into action first, surprising his fiery companion. The normally reserved fighter she'd come to expect jumped in whole heartedly, dodging and zigzagging with skills only an expert rodeo-pony would have. Mare-do-well soon joined the fray, and they were back-to-back bad-flanks. She owned the air and brought down death from above, stomping on the vile hopes and heinous dreams of her victims, and he wrought destruction from the earth, over powering the pathetic excuses for guards. Maybe they weren't so bad, she mused to herself. Maybe we're just that awesome. A dozen different colors filled the air, until; finally, the colts and mares charged with making sure they didn't escape were all down. Most of them were only knocked out, but alas. The Hat and the Cape knew not their own strength and there were casualties on their side. Acceptable losses.

"You ain't too shabby in a fight, Shiela," the Hat said to her, preparing to compliment her. "Maybe one day I can teach you not to be so slow." Or not. He always did know how to ruffle her feathers in more ways than one...

She gave a smirk under her mask. "You're one to talk. I swear I saw my pet turtle move faster than you just did." He gave a chuckle as she snarked back at him, and then they got moving through the tunnels. Even here, their natural chemistry still worked like normal. Only here, there was something more between them. It wasn't respect. She’d respected him ever since they first met. It was something else. Admiration maybe? It seemed similar to what she felt for the Wonder Bolts, only deeper and more personal. Was she falling for him all over again? Could she even do that without falling out of love first? Whatever the case, she felt herself surge with pride as they found and defeated each new foe that crossed their paths.

They wondered through the halls of the underground complex. Mare-do-well, used the vast open skies of the city above, found this somewhat constricting. She didn't mind it to much, though. The hall ways still had plenty of room for flying in a straight line, and if her wings got tired she could always start hoofin' it.

Then, after running in what seemed like circles for what felt like an eternity, they came across what seemed like a new challenger. "FOOLS! YOU DARE APPROACH TO CHALLENGE THE GREAT AND POWERFUL MISS MAGNEFI-"

"Trixie! Now it not the time!" The Hat called her out, even letting his accent slip, before she could finish making her dynamic entrance. They ran by her as the Hat grabbed her by the wrist and she got with the program. So this was the back up? She didn't seem so tough, Mare-do-well thought. Whoever let her in here must be terrible at their job. Or maybe she was just that aw- Mare-do-well stopped that repeating thought right before she could finish it. She still held a grudge against her, but now wasn't the time for being picky about your friends. They still had an evil plan to thwart, after all.

Kill 'Em with Fire

They were running by the long grey hallways, passing knocked out body’s right and left. Miss Magnificent was falling a little bit behind, but she was still fast enough to keep up with them. Mare-do-well looked at her and couldn't help but feel a new found respect for the mare. She may have done some bad things in her past, like messing up her wing when she returned, causing Rarity to have to get stitches from that same visit, making Snips and Snails "lock horns" and throwing away Pinkie Pies mouth. Actually, those last two still made her laugh. But even after all she's done, she was here, helping them bring down the bad guys, which then brought up an important question: how exactly did Braeburn know Trixie? She held that question back, knowing he had never really lied or steered her wrong before. He only avoided telling her things, and even then it was for an admittedly good reason.

She ran up closer to him, intent on finding out what they were actually running to. "So what's the plan, Chief?"

He briefly looked at her with a smile and then turned his shaded eyes back to the empty hall way. "Follow me." She gave a satisfied grin under her mask. She was actually pleasantly surprised by his plans simplicity.

For the past few hours, he had been so thoughtful and so methodical in everything he did. Even when they fought through the security of this place, she could from his face that he was thinking at the speed of sound. It was almost like he was Twilight and Applejack in the same body, only the result was a stallion... and he actually knew how to have a good time. She gave a chuckle at that last thought. Out of all six of her friends, only a few of them actually knew how to have real fun: Pinkie, Spike, and Vinyl Scratch, if she wasn't too tired from entertaining at her own parties, and that mare really knew how to throw down a glass of Hard Cider. She also cheated at cards. Royal flush without cheating, her eye.

Eventually, they stopped and took a breather in what seemed like an empty room devoid of any danger or life. Even Mare-do-well needed to stop for a quick break and as for Miss Magnifiscent... "How do," she was panting loudly as she began to ask them a question, "you even... run like that... for that long?!"

The Hat and Mare-do-well just looked at each other with what they both knew was a mutual smile. "Well, I was raised on a ranch, and she's one of Equestrias finest athletes." The Hat took a moment long pause, considering what he should say next, and then kept on. "You could always get some wheels to help you out."

"Don't," she raised her left hoof up as she braced herself against the wall of the spacious room, still panting really hard. "Even... joke... like that!"

"We can take a break for a only a sec, Trixie." He took a stern face like he was all business again. Even if he wasn't so above poking fun at his team mates, he knew that they were here on business. "If we stay any longer, there's a chance that they could ambu-WHOA!!" The hat was cut off midsentence by a stream of orange fire that came straight from the other side of the room.

All three heroes turned to see a tall brownish-orange unicorn with glasses standing clear on the other side of the large room. "I'm afraid your crusade ends now, Heroes!" He had a black metal breast-plate and a brown mane with some blue streaks.

"Who the hay are you?" The Hat went back to his magically disappearing South Equestria accent. "And what in blazes are you doing?!"

The new opponent smiled smugly. It was obvious by the scare on his right cheek that he was a veteran fighter, and judging by the look on his face, he knew he could win. At least, for all he knew. "They call me Summer Blaze, Mr. Hat. And you two," he pointed to Trixie and the Hat, "have made quite a splash here in the Echelon. But you," he looked to Mare-do-well now. "Ehh, not so much."

After that, Mare-do-well was more than ready to clean his clocks, but the Hat put his hand on her shoulder and with a single touch, she knew she was being toyed with. If she was here, she was supposed to be here. The Hat wouldn't have brought her along if he didn't trust her.

She normally didn't like being ordered around like this, and truth be told, this time was no different. But here, in this place, the Hat knew what was going on more than either her or Miss Magnificent. And as she followed Twilight, she will follow him.

"So what, aren't we going to fight now?" Magnificent asked, impatiently. She still looked tired, but the urgency of the situation demanded a second wind of energy. She could rest later. "Or are you too afra-"

"Shshshsh!" He shushed her, with his eyes closed and him wagging his hoof back and forth. All three of them could already tell that this guy was going to be a ton of fun, and by a ton of fun, they meant a huge pain in the plot.

"What?" Miss Magnificent was astounded that her ego centrally asked question was cut off by this new guy.

"I'm sorry, but it's just..." He took a pause and started to examine all of his enemies that were, themselves, examining him. He let his eyes wonder as he began to speak again. "I so rarely get to fight against such real opponents. It's like its Hearth Warming Eve, and I'm just a-"

"Enough of this guy!" Mare-do-well charged at him head, to which he responded by grabbing her cape and using her momentum to send her back to her launching point.

"It is rude to interrupt," He quickly went back to his affably evil persona. "Now, as I was saying... It's like I'm just a little foal on Hearths Warming Eve and this is my present. You all have no idea how much this fight is going to mean to me, and for providing me with a genuine challenge, I thank you. And hey, if you win, I’ll even tell you everything you want to know, because I’m just that kind of guy." In another time and place, he probably would have been a good match for Rarity, but since they were in the here and now, she didn't have the time or patience to play match-maker for one of her best friends. “Well, then. Shall we get started?”

All three of them looked at each other, and then charged at the arrogant colt her who challenged them. Miss Magnificent sent her enchanted ropes flying at him first, their ends suddenly turning into serrated edges, but it failed, as he counter attacked with another stream of fire coming from his horn as he back flipped away from the magician. Mare-do-well took this opportunity to charge at him, hoping to end it quickly. They traded blows and lunges at each other for what seemed like hours, but it was only a few minutes. Unicorns were usually not in this good of shape, so he had to have been put through training through hay at some point. And then the improbable happened. “OWW!”

The Hat had been standing there the whole time, waiting for the right opening to make his move. He threw a horse shoe at Blaze. That was when Mare-do-well made her move against him. She grabbed him by his armor and through him clear to the other side of the room as hard as she could, making him hit the cold concrete wall. “That wasn’t so hard,” the Hat walked up saying in his fake South Equestrian accent. “Frankly, I expected a lil’ bit more from this one.” He looked at his fallen enemy, expecting him to surrender and spill the beans like he said he would. “Well? You gonna fess up, Mate?”

“Why, I haven’t lost yet. In fact…” All three of the adept heroes could see the reflection of rising flames from his glasses, cracked though they were. “I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” Pillars of fire erupted from all over the room, created a red glow on the walls and floor and ceiling. He then took off his glasses and discarded them. Apparently he had only worn them to look more sophisticated. “Now then… let’s dance you and I.” He had an eerie calm voice that, frankly, scared Mare-do-well a little bit. He discarded his armor, no doubt thinking it would do nothing but slow him down, and charged in at the Hat. He took of quick as a blur and punched him straight in the face, sending him flying across the room and breaking his sun glasses.

“Oomph!” he rolled across the floor several times before recovering with a ukeme and landed back on his hooves. He shook off the assault and abruptly pulled out another pair of sun-glasses and put them on. Summer then looked to Miss Magnificent, and gave a smile at her. She sent lashing after lashing at him with her charmed ropes, but he intercepted each and every one of them with his own whips of fire.

Mare-do-well couldn’t help but feel like this guy was too much, and then shook it off and flew back at him with a flying kick to his face. He was able to block it, but he had to stagger back while she continued to pressure him with kick after kick against him, causing him to stagger back and giving Miss Magnificent and the Hat time to recover and come up with a plan to take this guy out, but they didn't do anything, for Mare-do-well and Summer Blaze were engaging in close quarters combat. He was tougher than any of them had ever thought, but in this fight, the two warriors of shadow each moved faster than either eye could track. Mare-do-well had, for years, fancied herself as one of the fast ponies in all of Equestria. She was easily able to break the sound barrier. In fact, she made a habit of it in her spare time. But each and every move she made, he matched. Just like earlier when they fought, they were evenly matched. Miss Magnificent and the Hat were both in a state of awe watching the two fighters go at, and they both knew that there was almost nothing they could do to help. In fact, chances are they would only slow her down. Even the Hat, who had spent much of his spare time at home learning different fighting styles from all over Equestria and some places beyond was dumbstruck at what he could barely keep track of. Indeed, it was like watching a shadow fight a flame.

It wasn't until the bout had been going on for nearly five minutes with no interference did a fresh thought appear into Mare-do-wells head. "This isn't going anywhere," she thought to herself. That was when a crazy-plot idea popped into her head. She was spending so much time in this melee using her razor honed speed and agility that she totally forgot about another key advantage that she hardly ever made use of. She quickly jumped back and disengaged from the fight.

"Bad move, Hero!" Blaze did the same thing and unleashed an inferno upon her from his horn. "Really bad move!!"

"For you maybe!" He had fallen for her trap. She charged at him, with full knowledge that her suit was fire proof and she would make it out of this relatively unscathed. She grabbed him by his horn and then he backfired. Literally.

"GAAAH... GOOMPH!" He was sent flying across the spacious round and grey room into the hard walls, his horn blackened with soot along with most of his face. "Gonna feel that one tomorrow..." he grumbled as he struggled to get up, only to fall back on his side. "Owww."

Mare-do-well, almost beaming with pride under her mask for having defeated an enemy that neither of her partners could best, walked slowly across the room, picked her freshly defeated foe from the floor and held him against the wall. "Now that we've got you down, it's time for you to deliver." She slowly moved closer as she went to her deep and gritty vigilante voice. "Now... what. Are. You. Planning!!"

Even beaten, he still wore an arrogant smile on his face. He knew he still had all the power in this situation. If she killed him, they would be flying blind, and he knew that. "Punctuated for emphasis, eh? I like that." He looked her dead in the eye as he began to talk. "Alright. You beat me, so I'll honor the terms of the fight. I am a colt of my word, after all. I can't promise I'll be much help, though. I was only brought on as hired help."

Mare-do-well would start with something simple. "Why are you working for the Echelon?!"

He just shrugged at her, or a least, as much as he could while he was pinned to the wall. "Evil pays better. I tried being good once. Hay, I even got pretty good at it."

"So why the face-heel-turn?"

"The evil payed really well. Besides, I had some old debts I felt obliged to take care of. Old friends that I needed to help out." Mare-do-well couldn't do tell whether he was lying or telling the truth, but she thought the latter. Maybe she just hoped he was telling the truth. Good colts were hard to find in this city.

"So what's their plan?" He seemed interested in helping now. She guesses he really was a colt of his word.

"Don't know a hay of a lot about. Again, I was only a merc they brought along for additional security. Rumor has it thought that they've been gathering some powerful antiques." His tone went more serious. "And this ain't anything like the any small charms you can get at a flea-market. This is some serious voodoo stuff. Stuff predating the fall of Princess Luna from what I've heard."

"What do you mean?"

"That's all I really know about that particular part of their dastardly plan, sorry. You might have better luck asking about something else."

"Fine..." Mare-do-well quickly thought of anything else that she could ask that would make this mission any easier. "Then where is the leadership located?"

"Why do you think I was just waiting here, Hero?" He pointed past the door he came out of when he ambushed the three of them. "Go down there and in few hundred yards you'll see a really nice set of double doors."

"What's security like?" the Hat finally chimed into the interrogation.

He only gave an entertained smile. "It's got about a few hundred yards worth of security." He could visibly see a both irritated and entertained look on the Hats face.

"Are there any others like you that we shall have to contend with?" It was Miss Magnifiscent’s turn to ask a question.

"Honey," he took an entertained look on his face as he began to flirt with her. "There are none like me!" He winked at her, and even under her red and white mask, Mare-do-well could she was embarrassed at what he just said. "As for other high caliber mercenaries..." he took a moment to think. "There's only one that I can name. Her name is..." his face went dead serious and his eyes went wide. "Oh buck my life."

"Hello, Summer," they all heard an icy cold voice and they all turned around to see whom it came from. "Enjoying yourself?" Her mane was a snow white and her coat was silver. Her eyes were a crystal clear blue, almost exactly like Miss Magnificent’s. She also had a snowflake cutie mark on her flank. Guess what her special talent was.

"Hmph," it was clear on his face that he wasn't particularly happy to see her. Even under the mask of soot he wore on his face, his expression was clear as day. "You know it. I bring a party where ever I go, Winter." Witty banter aside, they all could see he was not happy to see her. "Get out of here. All of you." They were all confused at what their defeated enemy said. "NOW!!"

"What?" Miss Magnificent asked him, more curious that any one.

He struggled to his feet, actually successful this time. "I need to have words with an associate of mine. It's about time to clear the air with her, anyway."

"What about the pay?" Miss Magnificent plied him further.

He took a wry grin, looking at her, then back to the new challenger. "Evil all of the sudden doesn't seem to pay that well." His face was stoic from then on out, showing little emotion beyond the fierce expression of the classic determinator. "Now get going. You have an evil plan to thwart."

They were all surprised by his generosity, Miss Magnificent more than anypony. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. They all nodded and then went through the door where destiny awaited. Miss Magnificent took one final look at the colt that, in defeat, had become their ally. Maybe he was a mercenary with a conscience, or maybe he just really hated the mare who showed up. Either way, she was grateful. He was right, though. They did have an evil plan to thwart.

Brotherly Love

...

They both looked at one another: Winter Night and Summer Blaze. They circled each other, cautious and unsure what the other was truly capable of. This fight had been a long time coming, and both of them knew that.

"It's about time we had a little heart to heart, Winter." He was the stoic in these situations. He always had been.

"I knew you didn't have the guts to go through it, Summer." She had a look that was nothing but contempt for what had been her partner. "You're still just a little filly. And I guess I was right all along."

"Well, maybe I just changed my mind." He gave a shrug and smiled, but he was still dead serious about what was going on. "You have to see that what they're doing isn't right. Winter, they’re going to hurt a lot of ponies if we let them go through with this."

"You always have to be right about everything, don't you, Summer?"

"There's a difference between a stupid argument and actually doing the right thing, Winter. Besides, what makes you think I was totally on board, anyway?" he took a much more stern expression.

"What makes you think I care?" He figured she's say something like that. Apathy was always some she excelled at.

"I didn't," It was time to start pushing her to the edge. Maybe then she could get a good view of what was going on here. "But then, you never did care about much, did you?"

"Shut up."

"You were always hiding away in your little corner, feeling sorry for yourself and not doing anything at all to make any of your problems any better."

"Shut up," she said it a little bit louder this time. He was either getting to her or she was getting even angrier, but if he knew his little sister, and he knew he did, then it was the latter. Anger was never something she got a good hold on. It was kind of ironic, her being the hothead and him having the fire powers. Maybe it made sense because she was cold and kind of apathetic and he was fiery and passionate and actually seemed to care.

"But complaining is all you were ever good for, isn't it?!" He was straight up shouting at her now. "And now, when he have a chance to bring an end to something that could literally DESTROY LIFE IN EQUESTRIA AS WE KNOW IT, WHAT DO YOU DO?!"

"SHUT UP!" She charged at him, a blizzard surrounding her with her in the eye of the icy storm. He countered by doing the same thing with his fire magic. This would be the end of their rivalry, one way, or another.

...

The three adept adventurers ran through the halls of the complex, trusting what the mercenary had told them, perhaps even unwisely. They had no choice, though. And as they plowed through platoon after platoon of enemy soldiers, they wondered if they would see that colt ever again. Miss Magnificent shrugged off the thought as hard as she could. The way he stood behind so they could finish their mission. She had no real idea why he did that. None of them did. She found herself totally perplexed by his act of self-sacrifice. He knew what was at stake, it seemed. He maybe even knew more than any of them. She didn't put it past him. She'd seen shades of that character trait in the Hat, after all. Omitting information until it was actually needed. But she digressed. What mattered then and there was finding the leadership of this organization and bringing an end to them. Once and for all. They fought through swaths of soldiers and security, each successive wave tiring them even further than the last. Honestly, the magician didn't really have an idea of how many more guys they had to bring down before they came across what they were searching for.

"How much longer must we fight, Hat?" Miss Magnificent finally asked him. She was exhausted and her magic was nearly depleted. She'd upped her game since her duel with Twilight, sure. Hay, she'd even learned spell after spell in an attempt to emulate the one who defeated her and so she become something a little more than what she had been, but she couldn't fight like this forever. She wasn't even sure the Hat or Mare-do-well could. "Hat?"

"Sorry, Sheila," his accent was still just awful. She had been there when he was first trying it out, and it changed only slightly. She actually thought it was really offensive to everypony who lived in South Equestria, and that was her talking. "I was just wondering what all was going to happen after all this shonkey business blew ovah. We still don't have a bloody idea on the specifics on what this lot plans to do."

Miss Magnificent took a brief pause from the conversation to consider what artifacts could be gathered for their adversary’s nefarious schemes. She herself had once been in possession of the mighty "Alicorn Amulet" a couple of years ago, but that charm was dangerously uncontrollable. She knew that from experience. Mare-do-well no was no doubt wondering the same thing that she was. There were other charmed artifacts, though. There was the armour Thunder Clapper the Brave, which had been forged by the greatest unicorn blacksmith of all time, Tempered Steel, as well as the personal diary and spell book of Star Swirl the Bearded. Legends say that he meditated with his last breath while sealing away all of his magic into it. There were countless others, but she honestly didn't have much of an idea where to start.

...

"GAAH!" Winter Night was pushed back by the ferocity of her brothers fire. She had made a bad mistake by under estimating what, exactly, he was capable of. Weakened as he was, his fire was still a match for her ice. "GRRR," she let out what Summer Blaze assumed what was supposed to be a growl of intimidation.

The soot on his face from the earlier backfire was totally smudged from all the ice that he had melted away. "Is that supposed to scare me, Winter?" whenever they fought, he did his best to play head games with her. She was so easy to push over the edge and he always did that when they were training. It was intended to teach her how to keep a level head in a fight, but her failure to learn that lesson turned out to be a godsend. "Because if you think it will, I’ve got a news flash for you!" He propelled himself with his fire and rammed himself into her side. "IT WILL TAKE MORE THAN YOUR FROZEN TEMPER FROM HELL TO EXTUNGUISH MY MIGHTY FLAMES!!! Egotism was just another weapon to Summer. He realized a long time ago that if you act like you can do something, ponies believed you. It was no different here, and he could tell his little sister was losing it.

"Buck..." she was preparing a major counter attack at her older brother, but so long as he was able to control the field, she wouldn't be able to make one. "YOU!!!" She sent a beam of pure, arctic, tartarous at him. He counted with his own burning flames, but unlike any attack she made before, she actually managed to graze him on his front left leg, slowing him down.

"Crap," he said plainly as he saw what happened. Winter saw an opening and she decided to take it. She used her mastery over cold to freeze the entire floor of the large room, immobilizing him even further. She then made further use of her powers to more or less skate on said ice and prepared a chest-mounted spear made entirely of the frozen substance, no doubt meant to run through her older brother.

"TIME TO DIE, BRO!!" He knew that after it was over, after she killed him, she would live the rest of her life in regret at what she did. Too bad he wasn't going to give her the chance. He had to think past if he wanted to end the fight now without hurting her to bad.

"HOW 'BOUT NO?!" With only a few yards before he was a Blaze-kabob, he used his burning flames to melt the area of ice just in front of her. The result? She quickly lost balance and tripped over the now wet patch, sending her flying at Summer. Using all of his might of flames, he broke free of the ice and kicked her back, not only back from where she started, but also slamming her face first into a wall. Her horn broke her landing. Likewise, the landing broke her horn.

It was a few moments before she was able to came to from the crash, and it was quite a rude awakening at that. Winter Night saw pieces of her horn scattered all over the floor surrounding her. She was experiencing what he liked to call the "despair event horizon", meaning that she might be forever changed by this event, for better or for worse. "No..." her denial came quiet at first, then it quickly got louder, "no, no, no, No, NO, NO!!!!!!" Winter Night turned to her brother who had essentially left her broken. "YOU!" She tried to get to her feet to fight again, but she was in no condition to stand, let alone fight. "I'LL KILL YOU!!!"

He simply looked at her, face stern and like a tombstone, only alive. "No, little sister. No you won't." He knelt over to her and began to talk down to her. He was not her father, and she always made him abundantly clear on that. But that never, not once, stopped him from trying to help in ways her father wouldn't. "You're broken now, and not just because of your horn." She stared at him with only contempt and pure, distilled hatred burning in her eyes. "You are broken because you were never prepared for this, and now I ask you. In what world could you have ever beaten me? You tried so hard for so many years to be better at me at what I do best. You cut corners and you cheated. You stopped caring about the world at large and let only a few in. You became nothing but an instrument of hate and vengeance. And now look at you. Your broken horn matches the rest of your pathetic and fractured existence. You did what you wanted. I did what I had to do." He turned his back on her and then began to walk out of the room and into the direction of the heroes he betrayed his best contract for, leaving behind only a few more words of wisdom. "If you take any lesson from this night, Winter, then learn this. Look at everything you did and why you did it and ask yourself: Was it worth doing?" And so he left, intending to join the ones he earlier aided. What became of his sister was up to her.

...

Three Heroes could hear the screaming of a mare that seemed to pierce the very air itself. They all knew what that had to have meant. Summer had won his bout with their new adversary. Miss Magnificent couldn’t help but further wonder what, exactly, made his give up on his current employment. Maybe he wasn’t fully on board with what they were planning from the very beginning. Maybe he always intended to betray them once there was an opportunity was seen. Or maybe he just felt obliged to tell them just because they let him live. Maybe he cared about her and was afraid that they would kill her. Different options kept running through her head, but they all eventually came back to one image playing over and over and over again. Him winking at her and saying that there were none like him. She tried to get it out of her head, so eventually she just stopped and looked at all the carnage that they left behind them, the massive amount of knocked out bodies and the like. It took some kind of apples to fight through all of these guys and not use lethal force like that through almost the entirety of this whole ordeal. Eventually, after fighting non-stop for what seemed like forever, they came across two very large, very nice, and very expensive looking doors. It looked like they were made from marehogany, a tree only found in the more tropical locals of Equestria.

“This is it,” Mare-do-well said in a deep and gritty voice. She was brought on this adventure only less than a day ago, yet she had more than earned her place here. “Are you guys ready for what’s lies inside?”

“There ain’t no turning back after this, girls,” Almost totally uncharacteristically of him, he shifted out of his fake accent and spoke in his true-blue country voice The other two were almost visibly shocked. “Miss Magnificent? Mare-do-well? Whatever happens beyond those doors, I want you both to know… It has been an honour fighting next to you.”

“The Great and Powerful Miss Magnificent concurs with that statement,” She was still running with her naturally hammy persona, but Mare-do-well could still feel the sincerity in her voice. “It has been an honour!”

“Likewise,” Mare-do-well finished the triangle of honour short and sweetly. She never had much of a stomach for the sappy, but even she had to admit. What was at stake here, whatever it was, was going to change everything. For better or worse, all three of them knew that what lay beyond these intricate doors might change the very world as they knew it. Even battered as they each were, their costumes torn and worn ragged from all the fighting, they knew this might be there only chance to end this heinous conspiracy that was deep within the foundation of her city. “Well? Are we just gonna stand here or are we going to save our city?”

They both looked at her with an alien expression at her enthusiasm at what she just said. The Hat knew her better, however. She was just as afraid as they were. Indeed, she’s never been so afraid. But she would never let the Hat see her scared. She was stronger than that.

Both the Hat and Mare-do-well opened the two huge doors easily enough. What they saw wasn’t all that interesting, really. They saw what looked like a theater, only in this one, the stage watched you. It was dark with the exception of the center of the room and the actual stage. They could see what looked like four different ponies of various different ages. It wasn’t until Mare-do-well flew up to question them did she see the horror of what they had walked into.

Everypony with the exception of the three invaders were dead. Blood stains were everywhere and Mare-do-well couldn’t help but feel disgusted by the horrors she was looking at.

“Mother of Celestia,” She said in a voice that was in pure awe at the carnage. Words could not even begin to describe what the three saw. The guards and the leadership and even some poor guy that was probably in a meeting, they were all dead. “What happened here?”

And the world came crashing down

It was a total blood bath, no doubt about it. Even Trixie was astounded into pure silence. But the Hat wasn't. "All of this."

"What?" Mare-do-well asked him. He seemed angry angry in a way that she had never seen him. His face wasn't red and his eyes weren't bloodshot, but she could still tell.

He fell to his knees, almost as if he had excepted defeat after all they had done tonight. "All of this... FOR NOTHING!!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, thrashing the floor with his front hooves. She had never seen her boyfriend like this before. He was usually so calm and level headed in everything he did. Each move he made it look like he had some degree of control, with the exception of her. He never did like forcing her into anything. But this? This must have been some kind of torture for him to witness.

Trixie just stood back and watched, taking off her mask so as to get a better look at the surrounding and maybe investigate. Mare-do-well thought it was safe so she did the same. IT actually felt really good taking off her mask. She'd been wearing it for hours and, frankly, she could use a cool down. "Brae?"

He was back down to a calm enough level for her to approach him now. Although now his voice was so quiet that he could barely be heard, except by Rainbow Dash. "Everything was just... a waste. The planning. The traps. The deaths. I put you in danger for no reason other than failure."

"Braeburn..." Rainbow Dash said, trying to comfort him. It was almost as if he had hit some sort of unbreakable window. "You saw a chance and you took it. Nopony could blame you for that."

"No..." His eyes were wide open, as if trying to gauge the spoke of his defeat but couldn't. "Everything was just... I don't even." He was so broken he couldn't even talk right. "You could have been killed, and it would have been my fault. I forced you into this. I tricked you into taking on a fight that could have killed you. I-"

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, COLT!” Rainbow Dash had about enough of this Braeburn and wanted the old on back, so she slapped him hard across his face, knocking him to the floor and taking off his hat in the process. All he did was stare at her in shock at what she just did. "You think you’re the first pony to ever fail at something?! Well you're not! Do you know how many times I've failed? More times than I can count! And here I am! And here you are, complaining about something that wasn't even your fault! You couldn't have known what they were going to do!" She wasn't really angry with him so much as she was angry at how pathetic he just became. "But if you want to sit in the corner and cry like a foal, then fine!"

"Every pony!" Trixie called out to her comrades in arms. She had found something important, it seemed. "It seems as though the great and investigative Trixie has found something!" She held up a small charm with her magic and placed it on the floor next to Rainbow and Braeburn.

"What is it?" Rainbow asked her. It seemed familiar, like she'd seen something like that in Twilights house, but she just couldn't put her hoof on it.

"It figured that you would not know, so it seems that the great Trixie must enlighten you!" She hadn't changed at all since Ponyville. "This is a recording charm, a very high quality one at that! And it seems as though they left it behind because they knew-"

"PLAY THE DARN RECORDING!” She was up to her ears when it came to her patience threshold hold. She did not want to listen to Trixie’s loud mouth right now.

"Fine," She seemed disappointed, but Rainbow Dash genuinely did not care right now. She zapped it with her horn and then an image began to play out.

A magic screen appeared and within it was a young unicorn female, maybe in her early twenties. She had a reddish silver coat that almost seemed to sparkle and violet mane with golden streaks in it. She was not a small mare, but she wasn't fat. She was just tall and it seemed as though she took good care of herself. "Greetings, visitors! I trust you all have received my gifts?" She gave an evil smile. So it had been her that killed all these colts. Even the mauve one that had captured them had not been spared. "If you all are listening to this, than my brilliant gambit has paid off in full! You have killed all of my loose ends for me, and for that," she gave what had been a sarcastic bow, "I deeply thank you! Now then, away with the pleasantries. You may wish to know my name, and I intend to tell you, but first, let us play a little game, shall we? What is underground by a few dozen feet within a series of tunnels that has been filled with explosives? I shall give you three guesses and I will not even count the first two!"

"This griffon is talking way too much." Rainbow completely blew off the fact that they might be killed if they didn't do something.

"Give up?" She took a sinister smile as she continued. "It's you! If you are listening to this still, then you are no doubt smart enough to realize that there is nothing you can do to stop it. Now, before you all perish in the underground, there are a few things you should know. My plan isn't one of them. Now, first thing, your plan would have been brilliant had I not have put two and two together. You might have even won against us. Too bad I realized before it was too late. Secondly, your leader. Whoever led you here must have been some kind of brilliant. And whatever mare he is with he is wasted upon."

Okay, Rainbow thought to herself, that griffon is going to die.

"And lastly, my name. I am known to all who address me directly as 'Blood Diamonds'. Why am I telling you this? Because I want my name to be the last you here before you die... right... about... now. Bomb voyage.”

...

An explosion rocked the whole complex. Braeburn was still shell-shocked, so it was up to Rainbow Dash to take the reins of command right now. “TRIXIE!” She shouted at her as a thousand tons of debris began to fall upon their heads.

Almost instinctively, she knew what to do. A force field appeared all around them of magenta enveloped them into a protective shell, rescuing them from what would have been a quick and brutal death-by-boulder. The barrier quickly began to recede, however, and soon enough they were left with precious little space with only just enough elbowroom not is touching each other. “Is every pony okay?”

“We are stuck a hundred feet underground with a thousand tons of rock trying to crush us!” Rainbow did not feel like dealing with any stupid questions. “NO, WE ARE NOT ALRIGHT!”

Trixie was just quiet. “A simple no would have been fine. The great and observant Trixie knows how to take a hint.” She seemed discouraged after that, or maybe she was just busy concentrating her magic into the barrier that was keeping them from being crushed. Either way, Rainbow Dash was not happy about this situation.

However, she shouldn’t have taken it out on Trixie. What she asked was only a standard question and yelling at her wasn’t going to make anything better, especially with them not having much oxygen to spare. “Trixie,” she started out strong, but went into a mumble. “I’m…”

“I’m sorry?” She was still intently focused on her current job.

“I’m…” Rainbow simply couldn’t bring herself to say it. Not because it was Trixie, however, well, maybe a little. It was because she wasn’t use to apologizing about anything.

“The great and concentrating Trixie still cannot ma-“

“I’m sorry!” They both seemed surprised to hear her spit it out like that. “It wasn’t your fault we’re in this place and you are only helping. I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“The great and merciful Trixie acc-OW!” Rainbow Dash was getting tired of her doing that, so she punched her in the arm. “Fine. We get the idea. So what is our leaders great plan for freeing us from such a dark and horrid abyss?”

“I… I don’t really know.” Rainbow Dash hated not knowing what to do. If she wasn’t in control, she was always around somepony who was, and that made her feel safe. It made her feel like she actually had some level of control over the situation. But now? Now they were stuck underground with almost no way to make it out. Trixie had upped her magical game, sure, but she was exhausted and they were lucky to still be alive. She doubted she knew how to do a magical blast and, even if she did, she was probably too tired to even use it. “You wouldn’t happen to know a teleportation spell, by any chance, would you?”

“Trixie was currently working on the mastery of such a spell, she hasn’t gotten the hang of it quite yet. Mastery of teleportation spells is elusive, even for I, the great Trixie.” Even being buried deep in the earth still didn’t mellow her out at all. “For all Trixie knows, it would take nothing less than a miracle greater than the great and powerful Trixie to save us from these depths.”

Rainbow Dash was tempted to punch her in the arm again, but decided against it. If they were going to die here, then at least they could go out how they would have wanted: Trixie not shutting up and Rainbow with her Braeburn, shell-shocked and all. Indeed, it seemed like they would die right then and there had the impossible not happened again.

It seemed like a blazing inferno cut through all the rocks and boulders. Rainbow Dash nor Trixie could even fathom the kind of raw magical power it would take to melt through all those layers of dirt and earth. Even Braeburn got off his plot to see what was going on. “What in tarnation?”

They could see the faint glow of a horn maybe 50 yards away. Eventually, it got closer and closer and closer still until they could actually make out who the hay it was. And when they did, they were all surprised. “You all look like something the manticore dragged in.”

“Summer?” Rainbow Dash called out. She could hardly believe her eyes as she saw him walking casually toward them like there was nothing at all wrong with the world. “Well,” Rainbow Dash began trying not to act like she was too surprised at what she saw, “I’ll be darned.”

She could see the faint flicker of a smile beneath his flaming horn. “Well now, I couldn’t in conscience leave you all down here to die, could I?” His voice arrogant, almost as bad as Trixie’s, only not near as boasting. “Besides, I owe you guys one.”

“How the hay do you owe us one?”

He just shrugged. “You all let me live.”

“But you stayed behind and fought that crazy griffon.”

“Hey! That’s my sister you’re talking about! And besides, I’m a practical kind of guy, I’m sure we can work something out for payment if you feel so badly about me saving you for no reason.”

“Well you did try to kill us earlier.”

He took a moment to respond back “Are you still on about that? Alright. Fine. We’ll just call it even.” He stretched out his neck and popped it. “This is going to take a lot of concentration so none of you can move. Got it?” They all nodded and his horn began to glow brightly. Suddenly, the force field that Trixie had formed began to glow with an outer orange along with the inner magenta. It began to move out of the crevice it had been stuck in and, soon, it was moving through the tunnel made from fire and earth. Summer began to levitate himself and, for a moment, it seemed as though he didn’t have it in him to rescue all four of them. But that thought was soon banished as his eyes began to glow a bright shade of red. They began to move faster and faster through the cavern until, finally, they could see some faint sunlight. Going faster and faster, he propelled the team of heroes through the never ending whole in the earth, finally setting them free and sending them frying briefly as though they had been shot out of a cannon. “GOOMPH!” Summer was the first to hit the ground. He was sent rolling across the debris of the abandoned apartment complex. “Owww, he moaned in pain.

The other three heroes landed safely, though, thanks to Trixie’s force field, and it was then that they actually got a good look at what condition their savior was in. He was covered from head to toe in bruises. His coat had small cuts all over it and his horn was pitch black. He must have been totally exhausted from losing to the three of them, then fighting another mercenary roughly on par with him, and then the melting of solid rock to rescue them. Truly, this stallion was a cut above most other unicorns. Trixie was the first pony to walk over to him. “We should help him.”

“What?” Braeburn and Rainbow Dash both said at the same time. It wasn’t that they were against it, but the very thought of it being Trixie’s idea struck them as kind of strange.

“This one has aided us in a time of great need! He must be tended too at the hospital!” She used her magic to levitate him. “You, Braeburn, shall be the one who carries him!” She used her magic to throw him at the earthpony. It did not work.

“Owww…” Summer Blaze said weakly as he crashed into Braeburn.

Trixie’s eyes shifted from side to side as she the result of what she had done. “… Then the great and altruistic Trixie shall be the one who carries our savior to the retrieve medical attention!” Therefore, as they discarded their costumes and made their way to the hospital, Rainbow Dash took a moment to look at the wreckage that they left behind them. It wasn’t pretty, but at least they survived this adventure. Eventually, they made it to the hospital and they were able to check Summer Blaze in. It would be a few days until they saw him again, and with everything that went on, they all agreed that they deserved some respite.

The Episode of Trixie

Trixie was asleep in her hotel room. It had only been the a few days since their raid at the Echelons underground base, but still. She was tired as hay and that much magic drained her. She spent most of her days since then sleeping and she was confident that she wouldn't have to do much else in a long while. Her off-white hair was sprawled against her mattress and her sheets and blankets were almost all kicked off. Mare-do-well would be doing her routine patrol right about now, and she did a well enough job for Trixie not to have to wake up each and every night to aid her in her struggle against crime. As for the Hat, he was likely asleep as well. His sole mission was to stop the Echelon and now that that had been done and that he knew for a fact that Mare-do-well didn't need his help, he could actually sleep at night.

But for Trixie, sleeping had always come difficult to her. A single recurring dream would always return at least once every two weeks. It was more akin to a nightmare, however, and it was not something she enjoyed either. Her body began to move and her face began to flinch.

There she was, a young filly of only seven years old. She heard her parents fighting from across the small stable that they rented from a kindly old colt. She burried her face into her first book of magic. It was leather bound and had been a gift from her land lord. She read it over and over, as it was her only respite from her rather... sad life as a child. "CELESTIA DAMN IT, CRYSTAL!" She heard a loud bang and tried to ignore it. But what she couldn't ignore was her mother’s screams of terror at her father, Rock. "You went to your sister again to borrow more bits, didn't you?!"

Her father was Rock Salt and he was little more than a bully to anything he'd ever met. Even his wife. Especially his wife. Trixie tried harder to just be ignored, as she had always been. At that age, she wouldn't be surprised if her cutie mark would literally be nothing, because that seemed to be all she was good for. Her own father told her so. "I'm sorry!" She heard him strike her face again. "I'M SORRY!!"

'THAT'S ALL YOU SEEM TO BE GOOD FOR, ISN'T IT, CRYSTAL?!" Trixie heard another crash, and began to cry as she tried to bury her face back into her book. Things weren't always this bad, her mother once said. Her father had been nice, once upon a time. "I'M SORRY," he began to mock her in his hoarse voice, raspy from the yelling. "I'M SORRY." He pinned her against the floor of their small home. "YOU THINK I'M A FAILURE, DON'T YOU, CRYSTAL?! YOU'D RATHER BE WITH THAT RICH OLD LAND LORD, WOULDN'T YOU?!"

Trixie could hear nothing but her mom’s constant sobbing. She learned the hard way last week what happened when she tried to stop her dad from hurting her. Her left eye wore the lesson in black and blue. "Please! Stop this, Rock!" At that point, it was all she could hear her mother say. Everything else just translated into tear-filled nothing. Even as a foal, she didn't even think her mom knew what she was saying. And then the worse thing possible happened. Her father, Rock Salt, turned to her.

His eyes were still filled with rage, perfectly complimented by the broken furniture that filled the family room, although a family is hardly what Trixie would have used to describe what they were. "YOU!!" His brown eyes were almost a blaze with hatred. It was almost like she was staring into the fiery depths of Tartarous itself. "Come. Here Now!" He was calm, but not the good kind. She could see on his off-white coat the sweat and his heart beating faster than the Wonder Bolts. She looked again to her mother lying on the floor, her off-blue coat and her white mane covered with sweat and some of it matted with freshly let blood. She could see the tears flowing from her mother’s crystal blue eyes and, to this day, feel the urgency in them as she mouthed one word to her, no doubt fully knowing the consequences: "run." She saw what seemed like a smile that disappeared after only a half second. She fiercely nodded her head no and grabbed her second most valued possession in the world, her beginner’s book on magic. She turned tail and ran from the pit of agony her father created for her and her mother. "DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME, GIRL!!!" But it was too late.

The door was left swinging back and forth and Trixie fled as fast and as far as she could from her seven yearlong nightmares. By the time she stopped to take a breath, her father had long since given up the chase for her. She could still see her broken family’s home even though she was a mile away, and then she heard the one thing that would keep her running to this day. It was almost as if her mother knew what would happen if she told her to run. It was almost like she had made the decision a thousand times before in her head. She heard her mother scream her last. It was so loud and so piercing that the birds fled from the area and made the full moon look like it had been blasted full of holes. She wanted to fall to her knees and give it time to sink in. She wanted so badly to have time to mourn for her mother’s death, but she couldn't. She knew her father would be out searching for her again, so she kept at her mother’s last dying wish. She ran. She kept running and she never stopped.

It wasn't until the next day, when she left that hay-hole miles behind did she stop to take a real rest beneath a wild apple tree that was planted next to a small brook. She looked deep into it, and then realized something. She bore each and every one of her mother’s features. Her mane and her coat and even her eyes. She was a mirror image of her mother, Crystal Salt. She shed a tear made of either sadness that the one person who ever loved her in her short life was gone, or joy in knowing she will always knowing her mother was with her in some way. She then dunked her head in the brook, thirstier than she thought she could be.

"GAH!" Trixie woke up in a cold sweat, fully knowing and remembering her dream and always carrying it as a bitter reminder of what her life was like once. "Dammit," she wrapped her blanket around her body, closed her eyes, and uttered two simple words that might as well would have become her own personal creed: Never again. She fell into slumber once again, hoping that the nightmare of her past wouldn't repeat itself

The Episode of Mare-do-well

The day began like almost any other. Patrol over the last few nights had been largely uneventful. There had been a few muggings and a few robberies, sure, but it wasn't anything near as challenging as the raid on the Echelon they executed a few days ago. And since it was Rainbow Dashes day off, she thought that she'd just relax. At least, until Trixie stopped by after Braeburn already left to pick up some things.

Rainbow Dash heard the door to her apartment knock at about eleven in the morning. Braeburn had just left to pick up some things, so she was alone for maybe an hour. She hoped to use the day just relax, but apparently fate had other things in mind for them. She was still irritated by the way, Braeburn acted because of one set back. "Who is it?!" She called out, kind of irritated that some pony decided to show up today.

Almost immediately after she asked, she regretted the answer. "It's Trixie. May I come in?" Rainbow Dash was both shocked and appreciative of the way she asked. Ever since she'd known her, Trixie had been even more of a high and mighty character than Rainbow herself. To hear her asking for something as mundane as an invitation to come in was, well, out of character.

She couldn't in good conscience not open the door for her. Even she would feel bad about that after she helped her and Brae the other night. "Um... sure. Just let me get the door unlocked." She then proceeded to unlock her apartment and let the blue mare in.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash," she said as she walked in. There was something different about her today, something unsettling. It wasn't bad, but it seemed as though she was tired. "So this is where you and Braeburn live? It's..." she took the time to look for the right word to express what she thought about their apartment. Rainbow Dash patiently waited for some kind of backhanded compliment that she could snap at. "Nice. Your apartment is nice."

Rainbow was actually shocked that nothing mean came out of her mouth. This wasn't right. Maybe it was just Brae telling her to be nice, or maybe she was going through some issues. She didn't know, but what she did know was that she was going to find out. "Alright, what's up?"

"What do you mean?" Trixie was keeping a bad poker face about what was troubling her. Rainbow Dash knew that because, even though she absolutely hated to admit it, she and Trixie were almost the exact same mare. The only real difference was that Rainbow was a pegasus while Trixie was a unicorn.

"Don't 'what do you mean' me," she was going to push to find out what she wanted. "I know that-. Look, this isn't going anywhere and I just made up some coffee. Would you like to join me?"

A faint smile appeared on Trixie’s face. "Yes. I would, actually." She graciously accepted Rainbows invitation and sat down at the table.

Rainbow Dash went into the kitchen and poured two cups of coffee. It was the only thing she could make without setting something on fire. The only reason she let Braeburn make was because he was always up first, and also his burnt coffee wasn't that bad. The burning gave it a kick. She handed her a mug and then sat down across the table from her. "So why'd you stop by, anyway?"

"I just thought I would stop by to see what Braeburn had been up to since we..." She wanted to find the right words to use without offending Rainbow Dash. "Since the last time I saw him."

Rainbow raised one eyebrow and decided not to pry into that. She got the idea well enough and she could always ask Braeburn about it later on. So instead, she decided to ask Trixie another question. "You look tired. Been sleeping alright?"

"I..." she was about to lie about something, but then decided against it. Rainbow wanted answers from one thing or another today, and Trixie seemed genuinely friendly enough to warrant at least some civility. "No, actually. I haven't slept well the last couple of nights."

It was difficult for Rainbow Dash to keep up being polite. Usually Braeburn would just say no until she wore him down from asking, which took a while to do. He was really patient. But with Trixie, it seemed like she wanted to tell somepony, but at the same time, didn't. It was almost like her pride kept her from it. "Sounds like that's got a story behind it. Care to explain?"

"Trixie isn't sure that she wants too..."

"Alright," she finished the last gulp of her still hot coffee. It was a skill she'd acquired when she'd down shots of rainbow from Cloudsdale. Now that took some guts. "Your call."

"I'm grateful for your forgiveness after all that I did to you," she stopped and, for but a moment, it seemed as though she would let a tear or two pass by. They didn't. "Thank you."

Rainbow hadn't been this surprised by anything since the guitar incident. Not to say she wasn't pleasantly surprised, but still. "You’re welcome. We owe you one for the other night."

"No, I owed you one for what I did to you. And I owed Braeburn more than that."

Rainbow fought every urge to ask her about that and she succeeded. She might have failed, though, had it not been for another pony knocking at her door. "What is it?!" She called out again. This time she was actually relieved at the interruption. It meant pressuring Trixie into answering her questions wouldn't be so hard.

"It's Applejack." Oh no. They hadn't spoken since she took off with Braeburn three months ago. This was either going to end kinda good or very badly. "I, uh... I wanna talk."

She gave an irritated sigh and then opened the door for her old best friend. "I kind of have company, AJ."

"It's fine," Trixie said from the table, finishing her coffee. "I was just leaving. Thank you again for the coffee, Rainbow Dash. I was going to visit Summer in the hospital, anyway." She maneuvered past AJ and Rainbow and then left without any other words.

"Uh... was that who I..." AJ began to ask, confused.

"Yeah, why?" Rainbow answered, knowing her friend would be confused.

"Never mind..." She shook it off and then walked into her friend’s home. "So this is where you and Braeburn... live?" Rainbow Dash got the strangest sense that she had had this conversation just now. She didn't want to have it again. "I know it's nice, AJ. What did you want to talk about?"

She took a sigh and then began to spill her guts. "Rainbow," she began in her country accent and taking off her hat. "I ain't at all happy 'bout the way things ended between us."

Rainbow Dash was still hurt at what she said to her when they fell out. "Remind me what happened again?"

"I uh... shoot," Applejack was always humble enough to admit when she was wrong, but she really made a plot of herself the last time she saw Rainbow Dash. "I took you and my cousin bein' together the wrong way. I know better not to meddle in his affairs and I did it anyway. I'm sorry for calling you a cousin-stealing griffon and for sayin' all those other things about what you can do and where you could do it." She looked back up to Rainbow Dash after keeping her head down for the whole apology. "Could ya ever forgive me?"

Rainbow Dash was ecstatic to hear her best friend say that. "I'll think about it," she smugly said with a wry grin. Then AJ went for a hug and Rainbow could do nothing but accept it. She wasn't ever this sappy, almost, but it felt great to have her old friend back. "And I'm sorry for calling you a dogmatic and stupid work horse who wouldn't know a good time if it bit you in the tail."

"Wait a sec..." Now AJ was confused. "Y'all never said that to me, Sugercube."

Rainbow Das just smiled at her with her eyes closed. "But I thought it."

She gave a chuckle at her. "It's good to be back, Rainbow."

"It's good to have you back."

And for what seemed like hours, they just talked back and forth, sharing old memories and new ones. As it turned out, Donut Joe fell for Pinkie Pie while there opening a new donut shop. Ponyvilles resident renegade, Thunderlane, fell for Fluttershy. He was totally wrapped around her hoof. Rainbow Dash knew that beneath that onyx coat was just a big softy. Twilight was trying to get a hang of more advanced versions of transmutation spells, and Rarity and Spike were preparing for when Twilight mastered the transmutation spells. And as for Scootaloo... she became a weather manager in Ponyville and actually broke the sound barrier for her first time. She always knew she had it in her. All in all, things carried on as they always had. Rainbow Dash was sad that she hadn't seen her friends in months, and even worse that she missed such important mile-stones in their lives. But she also understood that things changed, and maybe, after everything with the Echelon was finished, she and Brae would move to Ponyville and settle down for real. Rainbow Dash smiled as she mused at that thought and wondered why Trixie took off to in such a hurry to visit Summer Blaze.

The Episode of Summer Blaze

Summer Blaze lay awake in his hospital bed in the middle of the day. He had been faking being asleep for the past few days from exhaustin. Truly, he had put himself in a healing trance the first day of his admittance. His wounds were actually almost totally healed, with the exception of the bruises. He only really needed to mend the tiny cracks in his bones that he got from fighting his little sister and then from almost getting crushed by the complex dropping on him. He luckily made it to the exit just time, but he couldn't simply leave those guys down there. His personal code of honour forbid it.

As he faked being asleep, he accidentally did fall asleep. He dreamed a dream he often had. It was one of the greatest tests that his magical teacher, Blue Flame, gave him. He still remembered it as vividly as it was the day after.

...

Him and his teacher had just finished sparring, and Blue Flame gave him a complement. "Good work, Student Summer. Your reflexes have improved from our last bout." Complements had been somewhat difficult to come by from the old and blue unicorn, but Summer had been able squeeze a respectable amount of the out of the old guy.

"Thank you, Sir!" He beamed with pride to hear his teachers approval. For years, Summer thought he needed noponies opinion but his own. Indeed, that was a part of his own code: you only need the approval of those you decide you need it from.

"But your form is still sloppy," that was how his praise usually went. Summer still took it, though. "Even if you do have excellent raw power at your potential, you can't always rely on natural skill, foal. You must hone your skills to be truly amazing."

"Sir!" He bowed to his teacher. The old colt was the closest thing that Summer had to a father, his own having walked out on him. Summer Blaze still had some daddy issues to work out at that point, to say the least. "I understand."

"Don't coddle the old colt, foal," he walked to his student and lifted him up, or at least, signaled for him to get up with his cane. He was getting up there in years, no doubt about that. In fact, if Summer went full force in any of their fights now, he would have toasted his master, which would have been counterproductive to his training. He remembered when he first walked up mountain pass to his teachers home. It had taken all of two days and he was nearly rejected when he got there. But the old man saw something in his eyes. He agreed to a test bout and left Summer Blaze completely and utterly defeated. When he was told to leave the grounds, Summer refused. For one week with nothing but a sleeping bag, a canteen, and whatever he could find in the woods, he challenged him. Each of the seven more times he lost and was told to leave. It wasn't until the eighth test when Blue Flame saw something in Summer. He began to learn. It was as if each and every one of Master Flames attacks suddenly had difficulty hitting Summer. He even began what looked like a fire spell with his horn. It was at that moment Blue Flame defeated Summer Blaze and accepted him as his student. And now? Now, after four years of training under him, Summer Blaze was nearly ready. "Student Summer Blaze? You are nearly ready."

"For what, sir?" Summer knew almost entirely what he was talking about. For four years he had suffered some of the most ridiculous training concerning some of the most limited magical collections in Equestria. He always did drill the basics, though.

He took a proud smile. "You know very well, Summer. The time has approached for your final test. Should you pass, you will be ready to use the magic I have given you and you will receive your own copy of the Ignus Anthological." Summer was ecstatic to hear that news. The Ignus Anthological was the highly protected tome of magic, not just of fire, but of so many other spells: advanced teleportation techniques, advanced levitation, and even certain techniques involving animals. Hay, it had even been where he learned his healing trance. Legends say that it was first brought down from a mage that rivaled Star Swirl the Bearded himself. "Tomorrow morning, you are to wake up bright and early and take what may be the first step of your destiny."

"Um, Sir? What if I fail?"

"If you fail... well, just don't think about that. You are dismissed, Student Summer… after you gather fifty pounds of fire wood!" He only nodded as he tried to keep a bad poker face. His destiny or something else. Even as he gathered the firewood, his mind wondered to what the test would be and what would happen if he failed. He couldn't go back home, not after he left his mother in tears like that. That night, he could hardly sleep, so he put a sleep spell on himself. It was easy. It was the first real spell he ever actually learned.

The next morning, he woke up as if it were any other, gathered himself and met his teacher in the middle of the practice ring. He looked back at the old log cabin just to take in the nostalgia, and then collected his thoughts. He had to pass. There was no other option. "Student Summer, you have no doubt worried about what this test would entail." Summer gulped. "Well, fear not, for this is not a test of skill but a test of will. Hold still and you feel nothing and everything."

Nothing and everything? Blaze thought the old colt had finally fallen off his rocker. That was, until, he felt his masters horn touch his. In an instant, he knew what he had been talking about and all his fears were laid in front of him as if they were on display. Spiders and heights and so many other things. Failure was one of them, but it had been small. When he saw his greatest fear, though, he did not back down. It wasn't anything so simple as not being good enough to pass. It was far more personal than that. It was a mirror, one large enough to see his whole body.

He doesn't like to remember what was in the mirror, but what he did do to what he saw would forever be branded into his mind. While he looked at it, it was like drinking a cocktail of emotions. Fear, rage, sadness and hatred. He felt all of these emotions and more. It seemed like hours passed as he felt that emotional roller-coaster take him for the ride of his life. He wanted to scream and cry and shout so badly at what he saw, but he didn't. He stayed objective to what his master told him. He didn't know what would happen if he failed, but he didn't want to. No. That wasn't right. He wouldn't fail because he wouldn't let himself fail. Want had nothing to do with it. The last thing he remembered before the terrible illusion ended was simply taking a deep breath and saying the word "no".

His master stood in front of him and wore an incredible smile. "My student." He stopped himself to find a word that better fitted the situation. "No, my peer... you have passed."

"What was that about?"

The teacher placed his hoof on his students shoulder. "Foal, the entire test was to see how would respond to your greatest fear. Each of the four students that came before you reacted either with rage or with cowardice. They either tried to hide from it in the corner like a crying foal or they attacked it without considering the situtation as a whole. You, however, faced it with dignity and bravery. You won not out of hate or spite but because you knew the stakes. You won because you had too. For that, you have passed your final test."

"Sir-"

"Please, Summer.” He lifted up one hoof to silence him. “There is no more need for that." He took out the Ignus and it appeared as though he would give it to him, only he didn't.

...

Everything seemed to go down a literal drain as he woke up and saw the unicorn he recognized as Trixie. She was wearing an sky blue black and scarf. She had been the one who brought him here and she had come to visit for maybe an hour for the past few days. He was faking sleep the whole time and he intended to bring that up today. He felt that he left her hanging enough. Her tenacity actually made him laugh.

He heard her come in and take a seat in the chair next to his bed. It was time he humored her. "Yes?" He asked as he opened his eyes and looked at her.

"So you are awake? Good," she began determined. Summer took a mental smile. He was going to enjoy this immensely.

"I've been awake. Almost the whole time, too. With the exception of night time of course."

"You... you have?" She was confused. Good. That was how Summer liked to keep people that he could potentially trust. Once he knew he could trust her and her friends, he would be more straight forward.

"Yep. Saw you the last few days coming to visit me," he shot her an entertained grin. "Apparently I left an impression on you more than the other two."

He could see the faint blushing in her blue coat. "Please. The great and powerful Trixie is above showing such obvious clues."

He put his arms behind his head, electing to change the topic. "So I assume you came for another reason other than just to say hello?"

She nodded at him. "The great and powerful Trixie wishes to know why you chose to help us the other night."

He closed his eyes as he answered. "Seemed like the thing to do at the time."

"The thing to do?"

"Yep. Also, I happen to be loyal to the princesses. Celestia herself got me out of a jam once." He opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling. "I just had a run of bad luck recently, is all."

For a split second, Trixie almost felt a sense of camaraderie with the rogue unicorn mercenary. "How so?"

"Getting a little interested in the dashing rogue, are we?" He smiled but she didn't. He took a sigh and began a story. "My little sister got into some major problems. I needed to bail her out and it ended up costing me every last bit that I had." He paused as though the drink all of his memories in. "After that, I needed two things. I needed descent paying contracts and I needed to keep an eye on my sister."

"So why the change of heart?" He wasn't sure how far he would let Trixie in, but he knew when he got there. There was something about her that seemed comforting and familiar.

"I decided it was time to leave. Besides that, you and your friends gave me something that I hadn't been prepared to embrace in a while," he looked her straight in the eye for the first time since she got there. "Hope."

"Trixie is confused. You seemed ready enough to abandon your contract when we arrived." She seemed to argue against her good fortune. He didn't mind. He enjoyed the company, regardless of its nature, and a good argument was as good as any other conversation.

"I got enough money from them at that point to get me started again. And with my sister missing, I don't have to keep my eye on her anymore." He ran his hoof through his brown mane with blue streaks. "What became of her after our fight is her problem entirely."

Trixie was once again bewildered by what the orange renegade said to her. Surely a unicorn that lost against this one, with all his vast reserves of magic, wouldn't have the strength to escape on her own from beneath all that rubble. Trixie simply sided the thought of the colt as that of the simple hopeful musings of a concerned brother. "Trixie believes that she has learned enough today."

"Wait!" Now it was him that wanted answers. "Now I have a few questions for you."

"What is it?"

"Why are so interested about why I helped you?" It seemed about as valid as all the questions she'd asked him.

"The great and powerful Trixie said she wanted answers." From the look on her face, he could tell she was lying, but decided not to push any further. He'd find out eventually if he wanted too. "Isn't that enough?"

Fair enough. But he still had one more question, although it was more of a statement. "Well if you planned on coming back tomorrow, you'd be wasting your time."

"And why would that be?"

"Because I'm leaving the hospital later today," he started. He had to tread carefully to get what he wanted. "But, if you still wanted answers, I won't be leaving the general area. I'll be at the library down the street if you want to know more." Nailed it.

"Your offer to share more information piques the interest of the great and powerful Trixie." She walked out of the room as she said her good bye. "Good bye, Summer Blaze."

"Good bye, Trixie." And so she left to do who knows what. There was something he found familiar about that mare. It might have been because they both have similarly arrogant personas, but he thought it was more. Well, whatever it was, he would find out later.

The Episode of the Hat

Braeburn walked down the cold winter streets of New Maredrid City. It was hard to believe that Hearths Warming day was only in two weeks. But there were other things on his mind. Things that he simply couldn't look himself in the mirror for doing. Even the small flurries of snow failed to lift his spirits.

Braeburn had broken down in the Echelon complex. He became weak and cracked under his loss like a foal. He felt the cold wind on his face and adjusted his long-coat accordingly. He couldn't stand to even look at himself. Rainbow Dash was right. He was weak.

It wasn't as though he felt it for no reason, however. His plan had nearly gotten the only two mares he'd ever really loved killed. If not for that one stroke of extreme luck, if not for that mercenary having a change of heart, they all would have been killed. Then he let his mind wonder to time he tried not to think about since he had gotten involved with Rainbow Dash. He let it wonder to the time he spent with Trixie back in his home town of Appleousa.

...

He first remembered the day she wondered into his little town. There were some apple rustlers that showed up and she showed stopped them, although nopony saw her. She just returned the apples as if it was nothing. The most vivid memory he had, though, was of her was leaving. They were sitting in an apple tree and watched the dusty sunset for the last time. "I still don't see why you hafta go, Trixie."

She only sighed as she gave him the real answer. She'd tried to tell him a few different reasons, but they were all fake. Some of them had been because she didn't like the dirt, and then another one had been because she didn't like the regional accent. One of the ones that was partially true was the insane amount of wheels vehicles they had there. Something about the spokes just made her... unnerved. But she could have even dealt with that if she wanted too. "Braeburn, I think it's time I told you the reason I'm leaving." He knew she was being serious because she wasn't calling herself Trixie. "The real reason, I mean."

He held her close to him up in the branches of the tree. "I'm all ears."

"I've done things, Braeburn." She stared coldly at the setting sun. "Good or bad or simply fraud, I've done all three." She sighed, then kept on. These truths were evident to her and she always did her best to hide then, but Braeburn was smarter than that. Besides, he deserved as much. "The people of this town might never trust me. That might not be so bad if I was the mare I used to be. But I'm not, and even after all these months, I'm still looked at with sideways glances and mistrust."

"But you're a hero, Trixie." He saw her put her mask on maybe the third week she was in town. He never said anything about it in the hopes that she would come clean on her own. "You saved the ponies of this town more times than I can count, Sugercube." His country drawl was comforting to her, but it just wouldn't work this time. Her mind was made up.

"So you knew?" She was actually surprised about this immensely. She thought she had been so careful about it.

"Yeah, I knew," Both of them hardly looked at each other. He knew arguing with her would be useless. It wasn’t because she really to leave him, but because he knew that the only way to get her to stay was to look into each other’s eyes. Which was why he she wasn't looking at him. If they looked into each other’s eyes, then she couldn't go through with it. "So this is it, Trixie?"

"It is," Trixie was afraid that the longer she spoke, the greater chance of her tears flooding her eyes was. "Braeburn, I want you to know that I will always be grateful for how you accepted me before anypony else. I regret nothing of the time we spent together." She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry it's gotta be this way, Trixie." At the time, Braeburn had to be strong. If he showed too much weakness, it would force her to stay. He never forced anything on her if he could help it. "But at least..." Fighting the tears was fight he was almost losing. "At least we'll always have the apple orchard."

"Yeah," a faint smile appeared on her face. "You and Trixie will always have the apple orchard." They spent the rest of that night up in that tree, staring at the sunset and then the starry night. That night was the last time he ever saw her. She refused to say good-bye. She said it was because if you never say good-bye, it's like you never left. But it sure didn't feel that way. She left the very next morning and he didn't see her again until she arrived by chance in this city.

...

Braeburn drank deep of that memory, and then his thoughts went to Rainbow Dash. They'd met before, but they didn't really notice each other at all. It wasn't until the Apple Family reunion when they actually took real notice of each other. And what really made him notice her wasn't attractiveness, although she did have that in spades. It was her spirit. It was her never say die attitude that simply would not allow her to quit on the path of what or who she believed in. Walking down the sidewalk the whole time, he stopped and realized on what he did wrong. Rainbow Dash failed a thousand times and would likely fail a few thousand more, and she still wouldn't turn tail and run. And then he looked at himself. He was willing to back down after one loss. Well, maybe it was time he took things more seriously. At that moment, he swore he would be the stallion that she thought he could be.

He found himself reinvigorated as he ran back to his apartment. It was time he became the pony he showed himself as. Rainbow Dash might ask him why he didn't pick any groceries, but he could go back tomorrow, for right now, he had some loose ends to tie up.

He ran up five flights of stairs to his and her apartment door and barged in, scaring her as she was busy drinking something, although she would never admit it. "Braeburn? What are yo-" He cut her off abruptly with a deep and passionate kiss that lasted no shorter than seven seconds. "What was that for?"

"I'm back Dashie!" he declared triumphantly in his twang voice.

She gave him a suggestive grin and had a wily look in her eye to compliment it perfectly. "I can tell." She then pushed him on the couch and he proceeded to redeem himself for the cowardice he showed the other night.

15 minutes later

Applejack walked back up the stairs to her friend’s apartment. She'd forgotten her hat when she left, so she figured that she'd just walk back up to Rainbow Dash's place to get it. The door was unlocked, so she let herself right in. "Rainbow Dash?" she called out in her cowgirl accent. "Ah thank ah forgot my... SWEET APPLE ACRES! IT'S EVERY WHERE!"

"CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR, AJ!!!" Rainbow ordered her friend as she invaded her and Braeburns private time. The door was slammed shut and Applejack picked up her hat later.

The Day her World Stood Still

"What in Celestia's name..." Those words were running through both Summer's and Braeburn head, though Summer Blaze was the only one who vocalized it. Neither of them could fully grasp the urgency of the situation, though. If it had been anything else, Braeburn would have been distracted by the broken coffee cup on the floor. What they saw would change everything. Summer knew that much.

Even as they were dumbstruck, Summer and Braeburns minds began to sync up. They both nodded as if they knew what to do exactly. Braeburn ran into the bedroom to wake up his fiancé and Summer took his jacket off of Trixie who was a asleep on the couch. "Trixie?" he tried to whisper. She stirred but didn't totally awaken, so he moved her.

"Hmm?" she asked in a tired voice. Her mane was totally messed up. Adorable.

"Trixie. We have a situation. You need to get up," he stated with dead serious urgency. "Now." He wasn't loud, but he knew how to make his voice heard even without shouting. He still found himself distracted by the new obstacle they would have to face. In all his 24 years he had never even dreamed of what he was looking at. But there it was. New Maredrid City was under attack.

She looked into his eyes and saw the seriousness buried deep within them. He was right. She got up as fast as she could, quickly grooming herself entirely with her magic. "What is that?" She finally saw it through the balcony window. Airship after airship filled the sky with silver and scarlet red, and each one bore the same symbol on the side of it: a tower with a blood red diamond at the top. Blood diamond. Even a small foal could have figured that out.

"WAKE UP!!" He heard Braeburn shouting at her. Apparently she was that heavy of a sleepy. After that, he couldn't make out what he said to her or what she said to him.

"What?!" She asked, but not near so loud as Braeburns shouting. She rushed out into the living room and took a look at what the other three saw. Her violet eyes went wider than they ever had before, and even with her "never say die" attitude, it took her several seconds for the gravity of the situation to fully sink in to her head. "Oh my gosh..." she mumbled as she saw the fleet in her city.

"Yeah, Rainbow," Summer threw in. He had more combat experience than any of them and even he didn't totally know what to do. "Oh my gosh." It was the most accurate understatement of the century.

"This is... this is BIG!" She staggered back and almost fell on the couch. The great Mare-do-wells courage had been legendary in New Maredrid City for nearly two months, and even she was taken aback by what they had to contend with. "How are we..." apparently it was still sinking in. "How do we even... fight that."

"Fight that?" Trixie asked, confused. Surely she didn't intend to fight all of those ships. "You surely don't think that we could contend with that all by ourselves, do you? The great and wise Trixie will respect bravery, but there is no glory in suicide!"

"Well, what should we do? Pull a rabbit out of your hat?!" Rainbow Dash was getting confrontational. He imagined it was with good reason, though. Even from the short time he'd known her, he could tell that she wasn't a runner. She was a fighter. She needed to be able to confront her adversaries. "Because if you have another idea, I'm all ears!"

"The great and-"

"Cowardly?" Rainbow Dash threw in, bitterly. Apparently there was still some animosity beneath her rainbow mane. "Because running is what-"

"Enough!" Both Summer and Braeburn said to them.

"This is not helping, and the both of y'all know it!" Braeburn stepped up pretty well. Summer couldn't help but respect that. It is generally not a good idea to get between two fighting mares. But given the situation, they would probably have to make a lot of not good ideas soon enough. "We need a plan."

"He's right, you two," he got a grin on his face. In all of the years he had been reading adventure stories, he never, not once, thought he would get to say the next few words. "Everypony... suit up!"

They were all confused, but then they got it. Rainbow Dash went back to her room and put on her Mare-do-well uniform, Braeburn found a long-coat, red bandana and his hat and Trixie used her magic to teleport all of her gear onto her. "Well? The great and curious Trixie is waiting for your 'suit up'."

Summer Blaze just smiled. He put his black jacket on and pulled out an orange and grey scarf and glasses. He then put the glasses and then the scarf. "Ta-da."

"Seriously?" Mare-do-well asked in a disappointed way.

"You all fail to realize that I am no hero. I'm a mercenary! I don't get a special costume. I actually get to look intimidating." He paused to take a breath. "It's one of the perks of the job."

None of them could believe what the ally/hero/mercenary was saying. Apparently he still held himself somewhat apart from them, not that they totally minded. None of them except Trixie knew him well enough to really call him a friend. They all sighed as they all knew what the next move was: to the roof.

...

All four of the heroes gathered atop of the seven story apartment complex in one of the better parts of New Maredrid City. The Mercenary, the ace flyer, the cowboy detective and the magician: there they stood as what may as well have been the last line of defense that the city had.

Summer and Mare-do-well both chuckled as they saw what they all looked like, but Summer was the one who asked. "So what... are we like a team now?"

"What?" The Hat inquired.

"Like in those old comic books."

"Does this look like a comic to you?"

"Actually, yes. It does. If we were more heroic and ragtag, this would be in a speech bubble." Summer made a compelling argument.

"Alright, so what is our team name? The great and curious Trixie is dying to know." Trixie asked sarcastically.

Summer thought for a moment. He needed to come up with something catchy and something that fit the situation perfectly. "How about 'War-Horses'?" They all looked about as surprised as they could behind their masks.

"That's actually pretty cool sounding," Mare-do-well addressed.

"Then what's your hero name and mask, Mercenary?" the Hat said with a small amount of spite. He was just irritated at the conversation they were having at a bad time. Summer understood that.

He used his magic to move his scarf over the bottom half of his face. "Ta-da. I am now Fire Starter." The Hat just sighed at what he did. Regardless, they all had a job to do. "So what's the plan, Hat?"

The Hat just sighed. It seemed that he was the destined leader of this ragtag band of misfits. He needed to think of a plan of attack. He brought them all together, so he had to think of something and fast. That fleet of Airships wasn't going anywhere, after all. Ideas and strategies rushed through his head. He needed something, ANYTHING, to figure this thing out. But alas, with so little information on his enemy, he could only think of one tactic: "First we bring down the ship in the front, and then we bring down all the others."

They all looked at him like he had dropped off the face of Equestria. "Um... that's it?" Mare-do-well asked. She’d expected something a little bit more from the stallion that led them through the Echelons underground complex. No plan was perfect, but even so…

He sighed, which made Mare-do-well relieved. At least there was something more to his move. “Until we know what we’re dealin’ with, none of y’all should be goin’ solo on this. We stay together and we might be able to fight our way out of this. THAT’S the plan, Sugarcube.”

Mare-do-well only gave him a satisfied smirk that nopony could see. She nodded, happily seeing that there was more to the plan than just going out there and messing up ponies stuff.

“Guys…” Fire Starter began. Beneath the glasses that he only for the looks, they could all see something they didn’t think they would ever see. Even after only a couple weeks of knowing him, they had always thought him to be a pure warrior. A blood knight who loved battle. But now? Now they could all swear that they all saw a tear coming out of his right eye. “I want you all to know that it has been an honour. Each and every one of you are the best fighters I think Equestria has to offer. I will be proud to die beside you all.” He went all misty eyed and then looked at them. “Now let’s get going. I have a city to save.” And so they did.

...

They all ran across the roof tops of the buildings and were confronted by a new obstacle: changelings. “Damn,” Mare-do-well muttered silently. She hated these things. Not because they were difficult to kill, but because there were so damn many of them. But since she couldn’t afford to hold back… she didn’t.

Mare-do-well flew straight into the fray of the fighting, ramming threw each and every changeling that was foolish enough to challenge her in battle. Kick after kick was released and she soon realized how lucky she had been to study karate as a filly. Then a stream of fire came out of nowhere. “Watch it!”

Fire Starter was bellow, sending inferno after inferno at the black armies of the Echelon. “Sorry! Got a little…” He stopped for a moment. “What is that?!” A black and frosty mist appeared out of one of the air ships. “Um... Guys?! We might have a problem!”

The Hat was the only one who almost responded as the other two were too busy fighting through wave after wave. “What?! Oh…” The response was basically what ran through Fire Starters mind. What made matters even worse was that it was coming. Straight. For. HIM.

“Well… buck my life!” He did not run, though. He engulfed himself with fire as best he could and charged right at the new found foe. “Bring it ON!” He jumped into the frozen haze, but it grabbed a hold of him before he could even make a killing move, as if he even knew how to.

The smoke monster grabbed him and threw him across the city and over several buildings. It took an immense amount of fire on Fire Starters part to propel himself in such a way that it wouldn’t kill him. He was awestruck by the power that this guy had. He’d vaguely remembered hearing about King Sombra, but he knew that this enemy couldn’t be him. The smoke of Sombra was more akin to a wild fires smoke. This was cold and icy to the touch. Indeed, it chilled his very soul to even touch it. And that was when it occurred to him. “Winter?!”

The smoke monster arrived in front of him and took the form of his own little sister, Winter Night. Only she wasn’t quite herself. Her silver coat had been darkened to an almost dirty looking shade of platinum and her white mane grey. Her eyes glowed red but was most surprising was her horn. It wasn’t the one he had inadvertently shattered but it was red and black. It was almost as if Tartarous itself had spit it out. “Summer!” She said in a sinister and raspy version of her own voice. “You…!”

He took a look of disgust. Even with her staring him down like that, with almost all the power in the world he wasn’t about to let his little sister win against him. “I what?”

She pinned him up against a building, freezing his body next to a window. “You did this to me!”

She seemed genuinely hacked off at him. It looked like it was time to push her over the edge once more. “You did this to yourself! What’s the matter? Couldn’t take what you dished out!?”

...

The Hat was fighting back to back with Miss Magnificent. Since the very beginning of this fight, she knew she had to throw all mercy to the wind and use lethal force if she wanted to save this Celestia forsaken city. Her mystical ropes took the shape of serrated blades at the end and each enemy that approached was defeated with an untimely end of enchanted metal and rope. The Hat was next to her, using the martial arts he’d learned in his spare time at home to keep his opponents at bay. They hadn’t even gotten close to the air-fleet and now one of their best fighters had been removed from their side of the playing field to who knows where. Still, they had to keep fighting.

“This reminds me of that one time in Fillydelhpia!” Mare-do-well shouted out. About a month ago, he took her to Fillydelphia to see the Wonder bolts exhibition match against a new team of flyers, the Thunder-divers. It ended with them beating up a whole bunch of guys.

The Hat was irritated that she enjoyed that fight so much. “You and I remember Fillydelphia very differently!” Mare-do-well gave him a smile he couldn’t see. That day ended with her having the highest count of KO’s that day. Looking back, though, she wondered if it had only been for her own benefit, being the admittedly competitive jerk that she was.

“What happened to Fire?!” Miss Magnificent asked them. Neither of them really knew, except for the Hat.

“He’s busy!” Miss Magnificent took the hint and went on doing what she had been. She was worried about him, no doubt about that. The fact that there were still some unresolved feelings from last night didn’t help a whole hay of a lot. Still, she had to have faith in him. He was one of the only unicorns that rival Twilight, after all. So surely he would stand a chance against whatever whisked him away into another fight.

...

“OOMPH!” Even with his magic shield up, the impact on the cold and snow covered brick roads of New Maredrid city hurt… a lot. He got back up, though. “Well alright, then,” He popped his neck. “BRING IT ON!!!” The icy haze that was his sister attacked him once more, fighting his pure fire with her polluted ice. Even as he fought her, his mind raced with what happened to her. He had a feeling she had survived, sure, but he didn’t think she’d go all abomination on him. Granted, he should have seen that coming. He did know her better than most, after. In fact, when they were younger, he would often say that beneath her cold exterior was a warm center… wrapped around an even colder exterior. It made him laugh, but her… not so much.

He unleashed a sea of flames from his horn, trying desperately to fight her off. Even so, it was like trying to light a campfire in a blizzard. Under different circumstances, he would have been able to take her. Even like this, he thought he could win. But his game was off. He could only feel that she had caught him off balance, totally surprising him with her frozen assault. He couldn’t win like this. He knew that much. He had to think of something. Anything or this would be his last dance. And he was not keen on it being with his sister. So he fought back, using only what power he would need to survive and began planning.

“Gah!” The Hat shouted in pain as he was rammed by a changing. He had no idea how these things got tangled up with the Echelon. None of his research into the Echelon showed anything even representing an alliance that was made with them. So one of two things happened: one, he was played… again, or two, the changed their plans. It wasn’t too farfetched to think that they would have changed their end game. He very much doubted they planned to let Blood Diamonds take over in a bloody coup. He threw the changling that attacked him down and literally stomped its brains out of its head. “WE can’t go on like this! We haven’t gotten anywhere near those ships!”

Mare-do-well had the highest kill-count, but even she was growing tired. Even being the greatest fly in all of Equestria might not help her today. “Well what do you want us to do?” She didn’t like what was going on any more than the Hat did, but she wasn’t going to give up. Even after wave upon wave of changelings attacked them all, she couldn’t surrender. None of them could, because that would be tantamount to death.

That was when he saw a huge pillar of fire appear on the horizon. A crazy plan began to turn the gears within the Hat’s head. He gave himself a mental pat on the back. “Guys!” he called out to his comrades. “Follow me!” He took off in the direction of the towering inferno. This had to work or they would all die.

Mare-do-well could have sped past either of her team mates, but she didn’t. She needed to stay with them. For their sake, not hers. Eventually, after fighting through dozens of the changlings and staining almost every inch of their costumes in their unholy blood, they made it to the fight between Fire Starter and his own little sister… whom had taken the appearance of an enemy that Mare-do-well had seen only once before. “King Sombra…” She knew what that meant. As much as it pained her, she knew that in this fight, they couldn’t hope to win. They had to stage a retreat.

“THAT ALL YOU GOT, GRIFFON?!” the three of them could hear their ally shout at the abomination. They had a feeling that this was not going to end well. He sent wave after wave of fire blasts at Winter Haze, which was what he now called her, but to little effect. Then he looked over and saw his companions, and realized that everything was about to take a turn for the better. Winter Haze sent a sheet of black ice at Fire Starter, to which he dodged expertly.

Then his friends jumped in. Miss Magnificent raised her own magenta shield to protect them from what would have been a gruesome and cold death. “’Bout time you guys got here! I’ve been on the bad end of Winter for like an hour! What, you all couldn’t see the freaking huge pillars of fire I made?!”

“You know, Summer…” Miss Magnificent started. “We didn’t HAVE to show up here.” She made a descent enough argument.

“Duly noted,” he would have helped Miss Magnificent with her shield, but he really couldn’t afford to waste anymore magic. “So what’s the plan, Chief?” He asked the Hat calmly. Although he already had an idea that he knew what it was.

“You know what the plan is, Fire!” Thought so.

“Alright, everypony, stand back!” They all looked at him in the small bubble of magical energy, where absolutely none of them could stand back. “Right… sorry.” He cracked his hooves, then his neck and then finally his arms. A large amount of magic began to gather within his horn. He’d mastered the teleportation spell a while back, but he didn’t like using it. It just seemed too… cheap. Cold fire began to engulf him. It was a bright red fire and soon, with as much concentration as he could muster, all four of them were assimilated into the flames as well. He muttered one thing. “This is gonna suck…”

When he said that, he was referring to the major hang-over he was going to have from using that much magic today, but it ended up taking another meaning entirely.

Winter Haze broke through the shield just before the teleportation happened and grabbed the Hat. Before he could even call off his spell, they were over a hundred miles away in the middle of some forest.

...

Rainbow Dash took off her mask and Hat. All she saw was a log cabin and what looked like a hanger. There were cut down trees and there was Summer Blaze and Trixie, but there was no Braeburn. It took her a moment to drink it all in, but finally, she fell to her knees. “No…” she whispered. Trixie recognized it as what Braeburn did in the Echelon complex weeks ago, only this time… this time they had actually lost someone. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

A Time to Mourne

Trixie and Summer were both just watching Rainbow Dash scream and cry on the grass near the mercenaries safe house. He'd originally had it built as just a log cabin he could retreat to during more intense missions and assignments, but it quickly became his library, store house and in general the only real home he had for years. He almost fainted as soon as they got there, too. He wasn't even sure he had the magical power after that fight with his sister to pull off teleportation with not just one, but three different ponies. Last time he was tired was when he saved their collective flanks a couple of weeks ago. But now was not the time for complaining, he thought. Now was the time to comfort a friend who had just now lost the only colt she ever really loved.

Trixie tried to step forth and comfort her friend, but Summer only grabbed her shoulder and shook his head no. She needed to sort out how she felt about the situation. He understood that much.

It was hard to believe that they all woke up only an hour or so ago, and now? Now they were at a safe house in the snowy foot-hills of Mount Killmarejaro. Summer opened the door to his cabin and abruptly fell on the his chair. It was old and it was dusty, but it was still home. Trixie immediately followed suit and fell upon the couch, taking off her mask and the enchanted ropes she used as weapons. They both looked at each other and just sighed. They both knew what had happened, although Trixie was probably taking the loss harder than Summer. He could tell by the way she looked at Braeburn that they had been something in the past. The way she followed his lead and trusted him made it plain as day for those who took the time to notice it. She looked terrible. Her white mane and blue coat was covered in dirt and she had fresh cuts on her arms and legs. Even with her charmed robe, she still suffered some injuries. He didn't really have room to talk, though. In fact, he was maybe in even worse condition. He had been totally drained of all his magic and he was pretty sure he had a few small cracks in a lot of his bones. Bruises were rampant and he had scrapes and some frost bite in places he didn't like to think about. Even standing seemed to be a challenge. But he had to stay awake if only for a few hours. When Rainbow Dash was ready to come in and rest, then he would do the same.

After nearly an hour of simply staring at the ceiling and wondering what went wrong, Rainbow Dash walked through the door. He knew she would eventually. Trixie and Rainbow Dash both had no idea where they were in Equestria and, until they could devise a real plan of attack, he planned to keep it that way. As Rainbow walked through the door, Trixie immediately got up herself. She walked up to her and no words were exchanged between the two. Rather, Rainbow Dash only looked away with sad bitterness. That was when Trixie cemented her friendship with the blue pegasus. She went in to hug her tightly. At first, Rainbow was reluctant, but she accepted the embrace after not even a second. The first words he heard since he entered his home was then uttered. "I know." Trixie said. They both had tears welling up in their eyes. If the moment was any sweeter and sadder, then Summer Blaze would have gotten some kind of heart condition from it. Finally confident that Rainbow Dash wasn't going to leave half cocked, he drifted away to sleep. They all needed rest after what happened today.

...

Summer Blaze woke up to see Rainbow Dash asleep where Trixie was earlier. As she slept, the mercenary saw a distressed look on her face. She was probably having a nightmare about what had happened earlier. He gave a look of sad remorse as he got up from his couch. His body still ached, but he sensed that he had enough magic in him to put himself in a healing trance later on. He wasn't in any worse condition than he was when he bailed them out last time, after all. The only exception was he was more hurt this time around. His body ached as he walked, but he knew he'll be fine. He'd survived worse. He went over to the window and saw that the sun had been down for hours. It was winter, though, so it could be anywhere from six pm to six am. He only sighed. Like it even mattered.

He walked into the kitchen, limping as he did so. He was starving and was surprised to see Trixie in the kitchen drinking some of his special hickory blend of coffee. There was an empty plate with the crumbs of dried foods like apples and potatoes. He smiled. He never kept perishable food in his safe house. He was always afraid of it going bad. He took out a bag of ginger snaps. It was one of the few luxuries that he allowed himself. He poured a cup of coffee and noticed that it had been brewed to perfection. He gave an awkward smile to the magician and kept on drinking. Maybe it was only because he was so emotionally strung out, or maybe it was just that awesome, but it was the best cup of coffee he had ever had. He looked at her again, and then ate a ginger snap. A little bit stale, but nothing too bad. Ginger snaps kept practically forever.

Finally, Trixie opened up to the colt who could only save three fourths of their team. "So... what's the plan?"

The stallion was surprised to hear her question. Surely, so soon after being put through such a ringer, she wasn't serious. "What?"

The blue mare had apparently cleaned herself off since he last saw her. She had her mane tied back and was wrapped in a blue blanket. He finally recognized it as the one his own mother knitted for him maybe 12 years ago. "I've noticed that you can lead us just as well as Braeburn has lead us," she was serious. He could tell by the fact that she wasn't using the third-person perspective when she spoke. "Rainbow Dash is to distressed to take the lead."

Summer Blaze only sighed. "I don't lead." He looked away out the only window the kitchen had to offer. "Not anymore."

"What do you mean?"

There were certain parts of his past he didn't like to talk about. And the story about how he became a mercenary was one them. "I don't want to talk about it, Trixie."

"Trixie thought you hated running." He gave a bitter grin. So she saw something in his eyes last night too, eh? "The way you fought that monster back in the city showed your courage. Surely your own past isn't so horrifying to confront."

He sighed again. That had begun to be habitual since he met these ponies. He took a deep breath and admitted she was right. "Three years ago... I passed the last test my master put before me." He began to tell her about his fall. "I was so excited. It meant that I wasn't his student anymore, but his peer. I was his equal. That was the single happiest day of my life." He turned around and walked to the window he was staring out. He could see a full moon in the winter night sky. "In my happiness, and maybe more in my arrogance, I joined the royal guard. The training was rigorous but it was nothing I couldn't handle. My training with Sir Blue Flame prepared me for that."

"That sounds like a dream," Trixie added her own commentary. "Many ponies might have killed for such a chance."

"That's what I thought," he agreed with her, but only just. "There was an assignment... I was placed in charge of my own squad. My commander thought he saw a natural leader in me. Today I would say that he was wrong." He took a breath and continued. "Today, I know that they were gearing up for something, but I had no idea what was going on."

Trixie got up and walked over to the former guard. "Summer, tell me what happened," she said in a serene voice. They were kindred spirits, she thought. She had thought him to be the sort that would not willingly run from his allies or those he felt he owed something, but instead, she found he ran from his own past guilt. Much like her.

"The changlings... Celestia damned changlings." It always went back to changlings. "We were investigating supposed sightings south of Las Pegasus and we all thought it was a wild goose-chase, but we were wrong." Trixie swore she heard a lump begin to develop in his throat. "We were ambushed. I got sloppy and led them right into a trap. None but me survived."

"Summer, you can't blame yourself for that." She tried to touch his arm, but he refused.

"I can. It was my fault that they got killed," He turned around to look into her eyes. She had no idea what he was going through. She may have thought her childhood was bad, and indeed it was, but she looked into his eyes and realized that he wasn't the invincible hero he made himself out to be. He might have been loyal, but it was very clear he was stilling running from his past. "Trixie, I can't atone for not being able to protect them."

Trixie now understood why he couldn't be made the leader. He would be good at it, sure, but he wouldn't let himself do the job. She put her hoof on his face and he saw her eyes illuminated by a princess’s gentle moonlight. She closed her eyes and moved her lips closer to his and for a split second, they kissed, but only for a moment. He parted his own lips from hers. "I'm sorry," he said silently. He walked off from the kitchen and into his bedroom. Trixie was left there, just standing and looking out into the winter night. She could hardly blame him. A lot had happened today.

...

Rainbow Dash woke up from a nightmare. At first, that's what she hoped. But then she saw Trixie on a piece of dusty furniture and then she saw a blanket she didn't recognize on top of her. It was real. Braeburn was gone. She took a moment to once again drink it all in. It was yesterday. An entire fleet of ships came in force to take the city. They came to take her city. As much as she hated it, she knew that was the cruel reality of the situation. She also knew that sitting with her head up her plot wasn't going to fix anything. She walked around filled with the determination and the desire for justice and revenge. She had enough feeling sorry for herself, thanks.

As she searched for her new friend, Summer, she couldn't stop but think about what any of her friends would do in this situation. None of them, especially Fluttershy or Rarity, would take this sitting down, but even they wouldn't get up so fast Rainbow Dash. When danger called her, she dashed off to face it. It was simple as that. She moved fervently to find the colt who saved her and Trixie but failed to save Braeburn. She knew it wasn't his fault, though. As much as she wanted to blame somepony close by, she knew that that wouldn't be fair. She moved from room to room, finding scattered blankets and books, but no orange unicorn. It wasn't until she looked outside did she find him. He was sitting on the porch and found him playing chess with himself. She guessed she'd seen weirder. She'd seen Twilight try to do the same thing a week before she moved, at any rate.

She barged through the door, which barely registered on Summer's radar. He didn't even look at her as he kept playing his one sided game of chess. "Summer! It's time to save my city!"

He still didn't even look at her. "Can you fly?" he asked in a dead pan voice.

"Can I fly," she mocked what he said, having no real idea why he asked it. "Watch this!" She fully extended her wings only to be surprised by the feeling of extreme pain shooting up the one on the right. "OW!"

"I examined it while you were asleep," he still wasn't even looking at her, which was starting to tick her off. She hated when people ignored her. "It's only a sprain, but you'll need to not fly for a few days."

"What?!" Okay, now she was upset. "But the city..."

"Will only get worse if we go in half cocked and injured." He finished her sentence as he finally looked her in the face. "We need to rest and we need to plan. And trust me; I'm working on a plan."

She waited for a moment to consider what he said. She knew from experience that flying on a messed up wing had 'bad idea' written all over it. "Fine..." she said in a droning voice. She considered sitting down to play chess with him, but then realized that that would only cramp her style. She decided to try to see what he had to eat in this dump.

She walked past Trixie, but didn't say anything. "This is stupid," she heard Summer declare at the one person chess match. Apparently, he wasn't as much like Twilight as she thought.

Trixie sat down next to Summer, surprised at the conversation she just heard him and Rainbow Dash have. "Trixie thought you didn't lead anymore."

He only smiled. "I'm not. I simply not letting anypony leave without my saying so."

"What?" Trixie was rightly confused.

"When we make a plan, it'll be together. But until then, none of us are leaving this place. We need time to heal and prepare," he took a breath and then a sly grin. "Besides, neither of you know where we are. I do."

Trixie herself could not but feel impressed by the thoughtfulness of his planning. She wondered if it had been him that sprained Rainbow Dash's wing in the first place to keep her down and give the two unicorns time to heal, but she sided that that thought. "So what is the plan, Fearless leader?"

He took out a book that seemed like he’d read a hundred times before, and then gave her a Cheshire smile. It seemed like he had all but become the leader, even though he would not actually admit it. Trixie supposed he knew what was at stake just like her and Rainbow Dash. "Right now, it's rest up. No army can survive if it's dragging its feet from exhaustion, after all. Even if it is only an army of three." It looked like he started to blush and the fact that he couldn't look her straight in the eye confirmed it. "And Trixie?"

"Yes?" It looked like she was eagerly waiting what he had to say.

"I'm sorry about what happened last night. I shouldn't have ju-" she placed her hoof over his mouth, as if he didn't need to say anymore. She then made the first move and kissed him.

"Don't be." He looked surprised as hay at what she just did. She then went in for a second kiss that he was fully prepared for. Trixie fully understood why he left last night. She had dug too deep into memories that wasn't hers to dig in and made him feel uncomfortable. But now she was making up for it in full. Moreover, in front of the beautiful and pristine layers of undisturbed snow, well, the moment couldn't have been more perfect.

The Calm Before the Storm

Trixie tried to step forth and comfort her friend, but Summer only grabbed her shoulder and shook his head no. She needed to sort out how she felt about the situation. He understood that much.

It was hard to believe that they all woke up only an hour or so ago, and now? Now they were at a safe house in the snowy foot-hills of Mount Killmarejaro. Summer opened the door to his cabin and abruptly fell onto his chair. It was old and it was dusty, but it was still home. Trixie immediately followed suit and fell upon the couch, taking off her mask and the enchanted ropes she used as weapons. They both looked at each other and just sighed. They were both aware of what had happened, although Trixie was probably taking the loss harder than Summer. He could tell by the way she looked at Braeburn that they had been something in the past. The way she followed his lead and trusted him made it plain as day for those who took the time to notice it. She looked terrible. Her white mane and blue coat was covered in dirt and she had fresh cuts on her arms and legs. Even with her charmed robe, she still suffered some injuries. He didn't really have room to talk, though. In fact, he was maybe in even worse condition. He had been totally drained of all his magic and he was pretty sure he had a few small cracks in a lot of his bones. Bruises were rampant and he had scrapes and some frost bite in places he didn't like to think about. Even standing seemed to be a challenge. But he had to stay awake if only for a few hours. When Rainbow Dash was ready to come in and rest, then he would do the same.

After nearly an hour of simply staring at the ceiling and wondering what went wrong, Rainbow Dash walked through the door. He knew she would eventually. Trixie and Rainbow Dash both had no idea where they were in Equestria and, until they could devise a real plan of attack, he planned to keep it that way. As Rainbow walked through the door, Trixie immediately got up herself. She walked up to her and no words were exchanged between the two. Rather, Rainbow Dash only looked away with sad bitterness. That was when Trixie cemented her friendship with the blue pegasus. She went in to hug her tightly. At first, Rainbow was reluctant, but she accepted the embrace after not even a second. Words weren't used nor were they needed in that moment in time. They both had tears welling up in their eyes. If the moment was any sweeter and sadder, then Summer Blaze would have gotten some kind of heart condition from it. Finally confident that Rainbow Dash wasn't going to leave half-cocked, he drifted away to sleep. They all needed rest after what happened today.

...

Finally, Trixie opened up to the colt who could only save three fourths of their team. "So... what's the plan?"

The stallion was surprised to hear her question. Surely, so soon after being put through such a ringer, she wasn't serious. "What?"

Summer Blaze only sighed. "I don't lead." He looked away out the only window the kitchen had to offer. "Not anymore."

"What do you mean?"

There were certain parts of his past he didn't like to talk about. And the story about how he became a mercenary was one them. "I don't want to talk about it, Trixie."

"That sounds like a dream," Trixie added her own commentary. "A lot of ponies would have killed for that chance."

"The changelings... Celestia damned changelings." It always went back to changelings. "We were investigating supposed sightings south of Las Pegasus and we all thought it was a wild goose-chase, but we were wrong." Trixie swore she heard a lump begin to develop in his throat. "We were ambushed. I got sloppy and led them right into a trap. None but me survived."

"Summer, you can't blame yourself for that." She tried to touch his arm, but he refused.

...

She barged through the door, which barely registered on Summer's radar. He didn't even look at her as he kept playing his one sided game of chess. "Summer! It's time to save my city!"

He still didn't even look at her. "Can you fly?" he asked in a dead pan voice.

"What?!" Okay, now she was upset. "But the city..."

"Will only get worse if we go in half-cocked and injured." He finished her sentence as he finally looked her in the face. "We need to rest and we need to plan. And trust me; I'm working on a plan."

She walked past Trixie, but didn't say anything. "This is stupid," she heard Summer declare at the one person chess match. Apparently, he wasn't as much like Twilight as she thought.

Trixie sat down next to Summer, surprised at the conversation she just heard him and Rainbow Dash have. "Trixie thought you didn't lead anymore."

He only smiled. "I'm not. I simply not letting anypony leave without my saying so."

"What?" Trixie was rightly confused.

"Yes?" It looked like she was eagerly waiting what he had to say.

"I'm sorry about what happened last night. I shouldn't have ju-" she placed her hoof over his mouth, as if he didn't need to say anymore. She then made the first move and kissed him.

Duchess Blood Diamonds, as she dubbed her self since wresting control of the city, walked through the halls of the of her new home, the Spire. It truly was a magnificent structure. It was the tallest on all the city and perhaps all of Equestria. It's slender appearance in the form of an old Equestrian keep belied it's strength and fortitude. In fact, besides its reputation, that had been the sole reason she had elected to make this magnificent structure her new home. It also had something to do with the fact that it was the perch of the once formidable Mare-do-well. Lady Diamonds laughed at the irony of the situation for the purple clad heroine.

What made today even better was that the entire brains behind her most serious threats operation had been captured days ago and, if not for him, they would have never stood a chance. He was their entire planning process and they were naught but foals against her without him. True, that mercenary Summer Blaze may have been problematic. She hadn't thought of him going rogue and, if she was right, he was just a formidable strategist as the Hat. Perhaps even a small bit better. His reputation for the insane had been well earned, after all. In fact, they were almost certain that he could have taken the cursed power of King Sombra's horn. Had he not gone renegade, his subtle brand of crazy may have been the perfect way to counter-act what they might have assumed was his horn trying to take over. Even without the horn to augment his strength, his raw magical power and battle experience would have served them well. He may have even been a suitable consort for Lady Blood Diamonds. She would be lying if she said she hadn't been disappointed by his defection. Because of it, they were forced to take the sister he had left broken in the rubble of their base.

The magic healed all of her most grievous wounds, but her own anger combined with the sheer animosity of King Sombra's magic turned her into even more of a volatile beast than she was before. She was little more than an attack dog, now. All they needed to do was point. Sad, really. She had almost all the potential of her brother, perhaps even more, but her anger clouded her judgement so much. While her brother always acted in control of his emotions like a river, she let them explode like a waterfall. A powerful waterfall, but one that was just the same uncontrollable.

The old council of the Echelon did not understand her vision for what their next move would be, not that it would have saved them. They had preached patience and caution, but she knew the time to strike when she saw it, and saw it she did. She was in the Arctic herself when they found the horn, difficult as it was to find it without being detected. She had sent orders to her own guards to execute all in the council chamber. Fools. She had hidden it well that he father had been the one to plan a coup De ta against them and failed. Why wouldn't she take bloody vengeance for the taking away her father?

"Lady Diamonds!" One of her guards clad in black armour ran up to her. She might have joined in an alliance with Queen Chrysalis and used her army as her own, but she still detested the changelings. Disgusting vermin was how she generally described them. ""Milday!" He bowed, then rose up. "I have great news!"

She looked at him with skepticism. Surely the day would not go even better than it had over the past five. Her enemies were on the run. She had an unbeatable beast at her disposal, a high valued prisoner in her cells and she had taken the city and would soon take Equestria as well. Truly, in all her 25 years, she never imagined things would be so great for her. "I shall be the judge of that, Corporal."

"Milady, we have news! The alicorn amulet has been recovered!" She gave a slight smile at the news. That would make so many things so much easier.

"Has it now? And where, pray tell, was it recovered from?" She knew it didn't matter, but she still liked to know.

"Milday, it was recovered from a zebra herbalist in the Ever-free forest." He took a breath, then continued. "We lost five of our own to her before she fell, though."

"How sad," she didn't really care. "Send their families some gift baskets with wine." Expertly handled. "And tell me, Corporal. When will the amulet be in my possession?"

"Milday, you should have it in your hooves by tomorrow after noon, at the latest and the morning by the earliest." The young colt, she didn't know his name nor care, looked as though he was happy as well. Perhaps it was just because he had played a part, however small, in the new era of Equestria.

"This is good, corporal. You are dismissed." He bowed to her and then he left. Things were going smoothly as ever. It was then that she decided to go see her prisoner.

She walked to the 13th level of the Spire. As she walked, all of her minions bowed to her slightly. She smiled. They knew their places. She entered the cells and saw him, the Hat. He had all fours chained to what looked like a giant letter "X". He still wore his long coat, but he had since lost his signature cowboy hat. His arms and legs were coated with frost bite. She had so disapproved of their beast, but she was a useful tool. And each tool had it's place, even a rusty and jagged hammer. She sat down and began to converse with the golden coated earthpony. "Hello, Mr. Hat," she greeted him in her formal and polite voice. "How are we today?"

He wouldn't look her in the eye. A shame. "I was still here yesterday when you asked me that, ma'am, and I wasn't to keen. What makes ya think I'll be any better today?"

She simply nodded, "Point conceded, Mr. Hat. Tell me more about yourself."

"Why?" He was still spiteful towards his new mistress. It mattered not, though. She would get what she wanted out of him. "Why are you so damned interested in me?" She found his country accent endearing.

"Why, Mr. Hat... I thought we were friends..." she gave him a fake-hurt expression.

"Look at my city, Ms. Diamonds. Then get back to me on that."

"YOUR city? Mr. Hat, I do believe that you are mistaken on who is in control here." She was only sightly irritated now. Normally, she would be worse off, but since so many things were going her way lately, she had a very high threshold for disrespect. "If you could see outside these prison walls, I believe you would be more inclined to admit defeat."

He finally looked her dead in the eye. "When Mare-do-well gets here, your plans are going to stop dead in their tracks."

"You would understand if I'm more than a bit skeptical, Mr. Hat." She finally began to take this at least some what seriously. "Look around you. I have a beast prepared to kill on command. I have an army and an air-fleet at my disposal. How am I, in any way, at a disadvantage?"

It looked as though he was looking straight into her soul. "You will lose because you are a monster, and heroes kill monsters."

Even chained down, this one acted, no, he was in control. He knew that if she wanted him killed, she could have done it by now, but she didn't. He didn't know what, but he knew as long as he kept her at bay, she wouldn't get it. "You seem to be of the opinion that I care whether or not I'm a monster. Besides, I am in no hurry to kill you and you are in no condition to escape." She stood and began to exit the room. "We will meet again tomorrow, I think." She gave him an evil smile and then left. Oh, and one more thing, Mr. Hat?" She only slightly turned her head, just enough for him to see her left eye. "I always get what I want. One way or another."

Even as the Hat tried to hide it, he was scared for his very existence whenever he saw that woman, especially when she smiled. It had taken every ounce of courage he had to tell her that she would lose and why. He gave a silent prayer to Princess Celestia. "Please, Rainbow Dash," he whispered. He didn't know what would happen the next few days, but for better or for worse, it would change his whole world.

...

It had been six days since Summer Blaze told Trixie and Rainbow Dash to take time and rest and, more importantly, heal. But it wasn't Rainbow Dash's sprained wing that needed healing the most. It was her damaged spirit. The first time that she ran to Summer as he was playing one-person chess, she really wasn't ready. She thought she was, but she still hadn't gotten the resolve she needed. She was still to damaged to what happened to Braeburn to be effective. Granted, losing a boyfriend or girlfriend under such circumstances would do that to a pony. Rainbow Dash took the week they had and prepared well for the coming fight. She spared with Summer a few times and read some of his books on old Equestrian fighting styles.

Trixie and Summer, on the other hoof, were busy with each other. He realized that she would have to up her game significantly if they were to stand a chance against Blood Diamonds and the Echelon. He took the week they had together to teach her more advanced formed of levitation and meditation for calming ones mind."These techniques are supposed to be only taught to actual students of fire-based magic," he had told her. "But given what we're up against, I don't think my old teacher would be likely to object."

"What was your teacher like?" Trixie had asked in curiosity. He'd told her a lot about his past. Maybe he would tell her more.

He was simply sitting there in front of his frozen reflection pond, levitating flaming pieces of wood. She had to admit. The way the fire's light reflected off of the ice was beautiful, and she did find it peaceful. She was careful to keep her focus as she imitated his technique minus the fire.

"He was old as dirt and wise as an owl," He gave himself a smile. "That's about as generic as I can get. But really, he was totally sane. He only took me under his tutelage because I wouldn't leave."

Trixie gave him a slight smile, "So you never quit?"

He went back to his stern expression. "Are you disappointed, Trixie?"

"There are worse qualities to have in a colt." Trixie offered him. He was actually surprised that she had warmed up to him like she did. Rainbow Dash had told him about the rather sordid details of how she and her friends met. Of how she made a big deal out of nothing and then went on to enslave a small town. Given all that, he was honestly shocked she stuck around him so much. Maybe it was just because they were both more or less broken, and if they were together, well... maybe they could be broken together.

They could both hear Rainbow Dash's grunting as she tried to master new forms of combat. He saw her earlier and, from what he could figure from the aggression of her moves, she was working on the way of manticore. It suited her.

After a week of subtle training and healing, of learning new techniques from the 24 year old mercenary, he thought that they were as ready as they were going to be. Ever since he'd met them, he had known that they were going to be the best chance that he had to save Equestria from his employers. He hadn't always done the right thing, no matter how much he wanted too. He needed to keep his cover in the Echelon for as long as possible, so he did some things he wasn't proud of. Even to his new friends, he had to hurt one of them to ensure that they had time to heal and prepare for the coming storm. The great irony was that they were the storm that was coming.

On day five, he told Rainbow Dash to put on her costume and meet him in front of the cabin. He then shot her with some of his magic and enchanted it. He must have put a lot of power in it because he was totally winded afterword. "I charmed it so Blood Diamonds won't be able to throw you around like a rag doll with her magic. You can still get shot, though." She believed him. when Trixie asked if he would charm her suit, he said no plainly. "You've already did a good enough job charming your suit, Trixie. And besides, you won't need anymore protection because I won't let them hurt you." He looked off into the distance when he said that, trying his best to hide the embarrassment of what he just said. Rainbow Dash only sighed sarcastically when he said that, but Trixie was visibly pleased. If those two survived the counter attack against the Echelon, Rainbow Dash wished them the best.

...

About an hour ago, he told the two mares to meet him in front of his barn. He'd told Rainbow Dash to wear what was left of her costume, but she really didn't know what he planned on doing. Maybe he was going to try to them a rousing speech or finally tell them what the plan was. Finally, he showed up in a different black jacket than the one he came here in. On the back, it had the face of an angry jack 'o lantern and he was wearing a new scarf with the orange and black they both had come to associate with his personal style.

"Rainbow Dash and Trixie," he knew he was going to end up sounding like he giving them an epic 'go ye, go ye and die' speech, but there was no was no way to avoid that connotation. "Things didn't go do so hot last time we fought." Neither of them looked really entertained. "But the thing is... they might not go so hot this time either." They were shocked by his brutal honesty. Hey, his old teacher always said if you want to get a message across, don't be subtle. Use a jack-hammer. "We are out ponied, out-gunned, and basically out everything. The Echelon probably has more than just King Sombras horn at their disposal. Plus, we are a colt down." He took a breath, then continued. "We lost Braeburn last time. To some of us, no, to most of us, that hurt more than any physical wound." He could see Rainbow Dash's eyes begin to fill with rage. Good. If she could control that, then they could use that. "But I'm not going to take this sitting down. I've waited for five months in that Celestia forsaken under-ground fortress for a few wide-eyes and crazy-plot ponies to try to swoop in to save the day." He gave them a smile that was made up of determination and anger. "Ain't no way I'm backing out now."

Rainbow Dash was looking bitterly to the side for past few moments, the last thing that he sad piqued her interest. "What are you saying?"

He turned around, giving the two mares a wry smile as he did so. "C'mon. I got something I wanna show you two," he said as he opened up the two great doors to the building they hadn't seen inside of all week. What they saw left them totally awe-struck.

Rainbow Dash looked at what laid within the barn on the mercenaries estate. He could see the look of excitement in both the mares eyes. They were going to enjoy the counter attack much more than they should. But hey, so was he. "Seriously?" the rainbow maned mare asked in astonishment.

"Seriously."

Blood and Rainbows

This was either the best idea that either of the mares had ever been a part of, or the craziest. Eventually, they agreed it was both. They flew an orange and black airship, what Summer Blaze had names the Trail Blazer, packed with a buck-ton of explosives into the city. When Trixie first saw the airship, she was shocked. “I thought you said that you spent every last bit you had to bail out your sister.”

“And you think I paid to get her out?” She smiled at him when he said that. She shouldn’t have expected anything less.

The trip took a few hours, but they finally saw it: New Maredrid City. The wretched hive of scum and villainy that Mare-do-well, Trixie, and Summer Blaze took it upon them to liberate. There had to have been no less than three dozen air hips with thousands of changelings guarding the largest structure in the entire city.

Mare-do-well felt her blood boil as she saw that her perch had become the base of their enemies. As she saw Trixie and Summer operating the ship, she couldn't help but wonder what brought her to this point. She had been lied to by her boyfriend for the sake of her protection and had been lying to him for the sake of his own as well. She had beaten and maimed so many criminals for the sake of justice and when her boyfriend, as the Hat, finally revealed himself and his intentions, it had been too late. The final steps of their plan had already been set in motion. By the time they could make their move, the usurper of the shadow organization had already made hers. If not for a lucky coincidence of a mercenary with a heart of gold, she, Trixie and Braeburn would have been lost that day. Then came what Blood Diamonds no doubt thought would be the coup de grace against Mare-do-well and her ragtag team-mates. She lost Braeburn that day, and she would make that griffon pay for that with her life.

She took a deep sigh, then looked at her friends. They were all scared. Even Summer. Especially Summer. Earlier if she asked him why he was shaking, he replied that he was shaking with excitement. Neither she nor Trixie, who had since dropped her hero name, believed him, but they let him be.

Rainbow Dash didn’t say much, though. She got sick when they left that morning and spent most of the time in the only room on the ship, making sure she’d be in tip top shape for the fight ahead.

"When we get 200 feet away from the Spire!" he had to shout because of the wind currents in the sky. "I want you both to jump!" Trixie and Mare-do-well both nodded in understanding of what the plan was.

They all looked to see the enemy fleet mobilizing against them in a tight formation. Good. It'll make it easier to kill 'em all if they're all in one spot. At about 400 feet, the changelings still didn't move on them. They were expecting an all-out charge. Fools. Summer Blaze changed the direction of his ship to a higher angle. For this to work like he wanted, it needed to be high enough so that it wouldn't damage the city.

As Duchess Blood Diamonds dined on an exquisite quiche, she took in all of her good fortune. The Alicorn Amulet had made everything easier for her more personal desires and all her enemies that were an actual threat would be slain this day. The foolish heroes had thought that a single airship would be enough to penetrate her fleet’s defenses? Ha. She scoffed at the thought. So as she kept eating, admiring the charm around her neck, she continued to ponder her plans. New Maredrid will be a fine point to catapult my conquest, she thought. And with the Alicorn Amulet, not even the elements or all three princesses will be able to stop me. She took a grim enjoyment that it had been one of the Hat's own allies that helped her find the Amulet. Had she not made a plot out of herself when she had been in possession of it, it may have remained more elusive. But because of that, news got out and, with enough digging and enough bits, they were able to find the pesky zebra that had been guarding it. Even with her knowledge of arcane and forgotten spells and tricks, she died and failed her personal mission in keeping the red-gemmed charm out of evils hooves.

She moved another bite to her mouth with her scarlet magic and was suddenly knocked to the floor by a large explosion. "What in tartarous?!"

"JUMP NOW!" For the past few moments, they were swarmed by enemy ships and changelings alike. Trixie and Summer both used their magic to create a low level force field to keep them out and, but the time it came to jump, all three did so.

Trixie and Summer were both in free fall while Mare-do-well flew quickly to the base of the Spire. She would have to fight through dozens of floors of security to get to Diamonds, but he knew she could do it. As for the two unicorns... Summer and Trixie both looked at the ship as it continued to sail, or fly, upward, drawing the attention of most of the Echelons fleet. Finally, as soon as he was sure that they were a safe distance away, he used his magic to activate the detonator on his ship. "Boom," he whispered with a smile on his face. They were both still plummeting to the earth when Summer spoke again.

They both saw a shock wave rock the entire area. Ships came crashing down and were set ablaze by Blazes well times trap. I’m gonna miss that ship, the thought to himself as he watch the shattered fragments of his beloved Trail Blazer fall to the city below.

"Hey, Trxie! You remember when I said I wouldn't let anything hurt you when we did this?!"

She smiled as warmly as she could in a free-fall towards the earth. "Yes!"

"Yeah... you're not gonna wanna wait up on that!" He looked back to the earth. She looked at him, concerned at what he had said. Surely he didn't mean what she had thought he meant. Then she down to the city they were falling too and she saw what he was staring at. The abomination that had once been his little sister began to charge at them from below.

She looked at him and he looked back at her. For a moment, the world stayed still as they gazed at each other for what may very well had been the last time. Neither spoke, but both understood what the other thought. She only nodded at him. His face took on an air of confidence, but not arrogance. It was like he was relishing the challenge that he knew he was up for. "COMIN' AT YA, LITTLE SISTER!" He began to engulf himself in fire and, like a comet, slammed into Winter Night. This fight would be one for the history books.

...

Mare-do-well made it to the bottom floor of the Spire. She would have started up higher, but there were no doors or gaping holes she could enter through. Mare-do-well was strong, but even she couldn't bust through solid concrete and steel. So she had to go to the top floor the good old fashioned way. It looked like she was hoofin' it.

She didn't see a single soul for nearly ten floors. It struck her as odd. Summer himself thought that the Spire would have about 19 floors worth of security. Granted, not everything he'd said could be counted as accurate. He did leave the Echelon before they made their end-game, so certain plans might have been changed. The few guards who were there were quickly dispatched. She didn't kill them, though. There will enough dead by the end of the day.

Eventually, after going through floor after floor with only the barest minimum of security, she found herself on what was obviously a prison level. There wasn't really anything worth investigating in there. She only saw a few dead ponies and a few ponies close enough to death that they might as well have been called dead. She sighed and took notice for the first time what these ponies were like. They had been fighting them, sure, but she never really had a good feel for what kind of evil they were. She began to walk to the next flight of stairs when she found out.

Behind the iron bars and strapped to an "X", she saw him. Braeburn. She rushed to his cage. "Braeburn?!" Mare-do-well was both shocked and amazed to see him alive.

He weakly lifted up his head. It was clear that he had been put through some kind of torture, but his body looked, well, healthy. At least as healthy as he could be being strapped to an "X" at any rate. "Dashie?" He struggled to give her a smile for her own benefit, not his. "It's good to see you."

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but feel a tear welling up in her eye. She honestly didn't know what to say. "I thought you were dead..." even the most fearless flyer in all of Equestria couldn't get her voice much past a whimper when she saw him. She took her mask off. If she was going to take down Blood Diamonds, then she would see the face of the pegasus that killed her. "Hang on. I'm gonna get you out of here." She used that trick with her wing to unlock him. First the cage, then the shackles.

"Rainbow..." he started weakly. “I’m... I'm sorry." He fell on her back perfectly.

"Don't be, Brae. That monster could have grabbed any of us," she was trying desperately to make him feel better, not that it was working. If she had been subjected to that kind of mental torture, then she wasn't sure she wasn't sure how she'd be, either. "C'mon, Cowboy. We're getting you out'a here." His grip was weak, but it was there.

At first, she wasn't sure whether or not she should back-track back to Trixie and Summer outside, but then decided against it. They were still in the thickest of fighting and there wasn't many guards, so he was safer in the enemies base with her, ironic as that was.

As she walked up many more flights of stairs with him on her back, she told him where they escaped to and what they were doing for the past week. She told him about Trixie and Summer being a thing now, and he got a small smile out of that. "Was it you guys that shook the building?" he'd asked.

"Yeah, Brae," she answered softly. Blood Diamonds would pay for this with her life for whatever she did to him. "Summer blew up his air-ship and took most of them out."

"Summer had an airship?" That was the biggest response she got out of him in the last 15 minutes since she rescued him.

"Yeah, he did," she smiled at him. He was back with her now, and soon everything would be alright again. "But you should be quiet now, Brae. You need to rest."

"But-" he tried to argue. He failed.

"Shhh," she interrupted. She had no idea that she would miss him this much. But here she was, fighting an army to get the one stallion she would have fought the whole world for. That was the first smile he gave her since she'd freed him. It gave her a warm feeling on the inside. Soon, everything would be right again. They'd be married and then they could leave this crap-sack city. She could be with all of her friends again. It's strange. She used to dream everyday of adventure. Of fame and of becoming a legend. But she became a legend and decided it didn't suit her near as much as she thought. She guessed that she just lost her taste for it.

Finally, she made it to the top floor and set Braeburn against the wall to rest. Floor 20. She took a deep breath and opened the door. It was time to end this nightmare once and for all. She began knocking. 'Bum-dum-dee-dum-bum-dum-CRASH!' She kicked the double door clear off the hinges. "Knock knock."

...

"COMIN' AT YA, LITTLE SISTER!" Summer Blaze shouted at the top of his lungs as his little sister as he slammed into her frozen and hazy body like a hurricane. She began to solidify just as he collided with her.

He saw Trixie safely land in a building and then turned his attention to his little sister. "You!" They hissed at him. The smoke slowed his landing so there they were, staring at each other in the middle of the brick roads of New Maredrid City.

"Me," her ice began to envelope the area, but instead of countering each and every foot of cold with fire, he elected to be the master of his own small world, taking a defensive stance. There were no more words between the two. There was only action.

They charged at him with the ferocity of one thousand winters. She released a blizzard at him, while he unleashed a wave of heat at each attempt to freeze him alive. They all failed.

He reacted himself with his breath of fire, heating the air nearly as hot as it had been in the underground complex. She only turned into smoke and dissipated after each attack.

This wasn't right, he thought. He knew that she had much more power at her disposal, but wasn't using it. He also knew that he could take her, but only if she was as reckless as she had been in their last bout. She was holding back. Or maybe it was King Sombra. Regardless, they kept fighting. Summer and Winter in one of the most bone chilling and explosive battles in centuries.

...

Duchess Blood Diamonds had elected to finish her quiche as a war raged outside of her new home. The explosion that nigh obliterated her fleet and much of her army would be a setback, true, but it was nothing she couldn't recover from. Then she heard something that unsettled her.

She heard a knocking at her door that went 'Bum-dum-dee-dum-bum-dum-CRASH!' Her very nice pair of marehogany doors were sent flying, incidentally at the two guards that had been acting as her security. "Knock knock." She saw a blue mare with violet eyes and a rainbow mane staring her down from across the room. It took a few moments, but she finally registered whom it was: the mysterious Mare-do-well.

The duchess wiped her mouth calmly. "It was unlocked, you know." But the blue mare was not entertained by her quip. Very well. "You must be the illustrious Mare-do-well. Welcome." Rainbow Dash only stared at her with hatred that shouldn't even have been possible. "It's customary to say hello back when you are a guest in somepony else’s home, you know."

"Why?" Rainbow Dash wanted answers before she ended that butcher.

"Because it is common courtesy, Ms. Mare-do-well," she paused to take an grin. Rainbow Dash already didn't like her. "You are a 'Ms.', aren't you?"

Rainbow Dash didn't know where she was going with this nor did she care. "Enough!" she barked at the self-proclaimed duchess. "WHY THIS?! WHY ALL OF THIS!?"

"Why, for power, of course. All the power in the world," red lightning began to crackle on the scarlet-silver mare’s horn and her eyes glowed red. "And the entire world that comes with the power..."

"What did you do to Braeburn?" Rainbow Dash cared nothing for the manners this griffon was forcing on her. She didn't even think Rarity would be up for it this time.

She began to wear an evil smile, and then spoke up again. "So that's his name. I've just been calling him Mr. Hat." She took a moment to consider. "But I do like the sound of Braeburn better."

"What. Did. You. DO"?!

Rainbow Dash's anger was seeping now. At least, that's what she thought until she saw the red aura around her fiancé as he levitated to their sworn enemy. "My my my, aren't we interested?" Braeburn, still weak, was forced into orbiting around Blood Diamonds. "Very well. I shall tell you every delicious detail."

First Rainbow Dash's heart stopped, then she felt it sink. She hoped and prayed that she wasn't right when she thought these things. "You didn't..."

She held Braeburn close to her with her magic, admiring him with a tell-tale smile. "I did. Truth be told, I was hoping to save that position for Mr. Blaze. That was until he turned traitor. But Braeburn here proved himself to be a very, VERY able replacement." Then she stopped eyeing her boyfriend and looked at Rainbow Dash. "Would you still like to know? Because if you really do, I can tell you one thing in particular..."

This wasn't right. Nopony she'd ever met had been this low, had been this close to being the scum of Equestria. "Shut up."

Diamonds saw that Mare-do-well was losing her resolve and her strength. Anger was being replaced by grief, a much less useful emotion. Good. Now if she could just push her a little further. "He resisted it at first. Oh, did he resist. But the Alicorn amulet makes so many things so. Much. Easier."

She began stroking him on his shoulder suggestively. That tore it. That bitch was going to die. "I SAID SHUT UP!!" She saw a downed unicorn, broke its horn off with her foot and flipped it up in the air, catching it with her mouth. She made a mad dash at the evil mare.

"Very well," That's when the unthinkable happened. Even with all the speed she could muster, she wasn't able to stop her. Blood Diamonds impaled Braeburn through his chest with her horn. She had gotten what she wanted out of him anyway "Then let us end this!" She through Braeburn aside like a rag-doll and looked back at her nemesis. At that moment, a great and terrible battle began not only for New Maredrid City, but for the very soul of Equestria.

...

The battle between fire and ice waged for what seemed like hours. All of their attacks barely made in contact beyond nearly burning one and only grazing the other. Even as Summer blaze breathed fire on his little sister, she kept coming at him. And even as she let out a beam of frozen oblivion at her brother, he kept resisting. In another time and place, Summer would have felt proud that he was able to match the power that once rivaled the princesses. It seemed that all of his training had paid off.

He fired another fiery blast at his monstrous sibling. This seemed eerily familiar, he thought to himself. In fact, he had the strangest feeling he had been in this exact same fight before, only he wasn't his magic wasn't being wasted near as much as last time. She fired a blizzard at him and sent him tumbling down the brick roads of the city. He felt cuts and scrapes on his back legs and saw a gaping hole in the right arm of his jacket. That's when he decided to change tactics.

"Alright, Your highness..." began quietly. His enemy had changed tactics almost completely. He sighed and guessed that it had been a sign that King Sombra had taken over his little sister completely. Well, one more thing to fight for, he thought. "You wanna play rough?" His whole body began to heat to levels that even he didn't think he could reach. His jacket could take it, sure, but his scarf began to burn away into ashes. He tore off his sleeves with his orange magic, figuring he would need the extra maneuverability against this one. "THEN LET'S GET DANGEROUS!" The noble mercenary was set ablaze by his own fiery spirit.

The king smiled at the proposition and as Summer began to fly straight at him. Good, he thought. The time for games was over. Smoke and fire mingled as the two warriors collided time after time. The dark lord slammed into the young unicorn and sent him flying through several buildings, but Summer countered it with his own force field spell to protect him. Like a hamster in a ball, though, he couldn't stop himself for quite a while. He had to have gone through building after building until his concentration on the matter finally snapped and he fell to the cold, hard ground. "Oomph!" His back pounded against the outer wall of a local BBQ place. "Gonna feel that one tomorrow." The abomination made of sister and smoke appeared once more, and so once again ignited his fire. This is not going anywhere, he thought as he fought for his very existence. He can't take him like this. And then a crazy plan came to mind. He went in for the kill. King Sombras kill.

Summer Blaze just stood there as the king went in to end the pesky unicorn that had been a thorn in his side for far too long. He didn't say anything beyond a loud hiss, but Summer knew what he was thinking. That the prey had given up, that the mercenary that fought a king had decided to roll over and die. King Sombra engulfed the unicorn in his icy haze. "Your mine!" he king's hissing was all around Summer Blaze, but even surrounded by frozen oblvivion, he remained as calm and as cool as a cucumber.

And that was when Summer Blaze made his death stroke. "You want to eat me, Sombra?!" he shouted at the demon at the top of his lungs. Summer began to glow with an inner heat, then an out heat. "Well then let me tell you something!" Fire began to replace the heat that surrounded the hero. He was ending this lunatic son of a griffon once and for all today. "MY SPIRIT BURNS WITH A RAGE THAT IS PURE AND RIGHTEOUS AND IT SHALL NEVER BE TAINTED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!" The flames got hotter and the cold disappeared entirely. Soon, even the smoke from King Sombra’s body began to disappear and to burn up. "AND IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT OF MY RAGE," He stopped being a mere fire and turned into a blazing inferno. The spirit of Sombra tried to make contact with Summer one last time before he was given a smile by the orange colt. "Then stay out of the kitchen." The last words Summer Blaze said to him were just loud enough for King Sombra to hear. In fact, they were the LAST things he heard. The dark king spirit and smoke was totally incinerated by Summer Blazes fiery spirit.

Summer Blaze, the mercenary who had a change of heart and who was briefly known as the hero known as 'Fire Starter' had done it. He killed King Sombra. He knew that somewhere up in the stars, his master was beaming with pride at him. Summer was smiling a bit himself. He nearly collapsed to the ground out of a very familiar feeling of exhaustion, but was then stopped by a face that was just as familiar and all the more welcome. "Trixie?" She held up the only one who actually got her on most levels. She gave him an arrogant, reassuring and warm smile. Blaze returned it. "Where have you been for the past hour?" He wasn't really mad at her, but given what he just went through, he felt he deserved and explanation.

"The great and powerful Trixie was otherwise preoccupied with the ARMY you and Rainbow Dash totally ignored." He got the feeling that he touched a nerve.

"Heh heh, yeah..." Summer just laughed it off. "Oh wait. There was something else..." He stumbled and staggered to his feet and to his little sister lying on the cold ground. He saw the horn of King Sombra and abruptly stomped in it until it was in a million pieces. "Need to make sure THAT won't happen again." He kicked her. "Alright. Wake up stupid," Trixie was almost surprised at how he treated her, but then realized who they were. Summer and Winter. Brother and sister. She rolled as if she were in her bed, as if nothing were wrong at all. "I'll pick her up later." He turned to the blue mare behind him.

"So what now?"

"Now?" he considered for a moment. "Now we wait for Mare-do-well to do her job."

A feeling of dark foreboding crept down the magician's spine. "I'm going to get a better view from the Spire," Trixie declared. They both knew that they could better see what was going on from there, so Summer nodded in agreement. Both Summer and Trixie knew what was at stake if Mare-do-well failed. As they left, they both took one last look at a sky that seemed to be stained with blood and rainbows. Trixie had a bad feeling that this day wasn't going to end well, no matter who won.

...

Rainbow Dash watched as Braeburn fell to the floor, bleeding profusely from the stab that Duchess Blood Diamonds had inflicted. She was frozen. The one great love of her life was dying now. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked back at the unicorn giving a self-satisfied smile at her, blood dripping from her horn.

"I'm sorry," she lied. She couldn't care less about what just happened. She got what she wanted out of the golden coated colt, after all. "Did you care for him?" Rainbow Dash only stared in rage at the red-silver mare baring an evil grin. "I thought so. He simply wouldn't be quiet about how his heroine, Mare-do-well, would come to save him. It's too bad to see that you completely failed."

The horn of a downed unicorn still gripped tightly within her mouth, she charged at the monster that brought down Braeburn. Rainbow Dash would make her pay for that with her life. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

"You will try," Blood Diamonds responded to the promise confidently. Her horn glowed blood red as she attempted to push Rainbow Dash back telepathically. It didn't work and, in a panic, she met the heroine’s horn with her own. She was astounded and shocked by what had just happened. "How did you do that?"

Rainbow Dash only stared intensely into the eyes of a monster, refusing to give it the satisfaction of an answer as they locked horns. All of her hatred and rage had to be put into this fight, she thought. If she didn't give it her all, then Braeburns death would be in vain, and she'd be DAMNED if she let that happen.

Blood Diamonds eyes continued to glow bright red. "Oh, I see it now. I should have seen Summer Blazes hoofety work." She grinned, proud that she figured it out by herself. "He was worth every bit we paid for, too bad he turned traitor." Then her eyes glowed a deeper shade of scarlet as she forced Rainbow Dash back with a powerful shock wave from her horn.

The suit absorbed most of the blast, thanks to Summer, so she charged again. Each of Rainbow Dash's strikes against Blood Diamonds was met and matched by the evil mare. She was good, Rainbow Dash thought to herself. Real good. Even without the Alicorn Amulet, she would have been a match for the blue pegasus. She realized that if she wanted to stand a chance in this fight, then she would need to keep in close-quarters with the scarlet mare. She met her again and this time was sure to lock horns once more. The closer I am, Dash thought to herself, the harder it'll be for her to use magic in an effective way.

As the two mares locked horns once more, Blood Diamonds began to speak more of her hurtful words. "You know, even though it wasn't consensual in the least on his part, I'm sure your Braeburn loved every. Single. Moment!" Then she did something surprising. She grabbed Rainbow Dash's hoof and brought it to her stomach. "Do you feel that, Hero? That is YOUR stallion’s child inside of ME!" Before Rainbow Dash had a chance to lash back at her, she was blasted by the whore mare through the walls of the Spire.

"Gah!" Rainbow Dash shouted in pain as she was thrown into the outside. Her suit saved her, but it was starting to show some real wear and tear now. There was no way that it could hold up to another blast like that. She looked below to see piles upon piles of dead Echelon agents, changelings and pieces of airships. So many dead, not just Braeburn, because of this monster. That's when Rainbow Dash realized something good the blast from the evil mare did: it cleared her mind.

This whole fight, Blood Diamonds had almost literally owned her through her dying boyfriend. She was tricked into doing something that Rainbow Dash would never do: feel sorry for herself. Well, that was going to stop right there.

That's when she saw a scarlet flash blast toward her. So apparently Blood Diamonds was using her magic to levitate herself. Fan-tucking-basting. But then wasn't the time for that kind of thought. Now was the time for actions. "You know, you really are fighting much better than I thought you would have. You have my res-" Rainbow Dash had enough of her talking, so she threw the horn from the unicorn straight at her, cutting her on her right cheek, barely missing the center of her face. She remained silent as she felt the side of her face with her right hoof, and then looked at it. "You will pay DEARLY for that."

Rainbow Dash gave herself the smallest smile she could without giving it away. It seemed as though she struck a nerve. Let's see what happens when she drops and anvil on it.

The two mares collided back and forth for what seemed like hours, though in truth it had only been one since she and her friends got here. The two managed to break the sound barrier more times than either would care to count and it had seemed as though they had painted the sky in bloodstains and rainbows. "Every second you fight me is a second that I could be saving your precious Braeburn! Or do you not care about him? Has avenging a death that has yet to happen begun to concern you more than stopping it?!" Blood Diamonds barbed questions were losing their edge. That's when Rainbow Dash decided to take the opportunity to seize control for herself.

"Enough about me!" She spoke for the first time since the fight started. "Let's. Talk. About. YOU!" As they moved together in an elegant dance of death, Rainbow pleaded her own case. "You took it so hard when I scratched up that pretty face," Rainbow Dash usually wasn't mean on purpose, but when she was, the gloves came off. "Why? Was it because it belonged to your mother?" The red mare only remained silent as the blue pegasus bit back. "Or maybe it was because you were daddies little filly when you were younger." She still kept quiet. "Hey, what if it was because-"

"Are you finished?" The flying unicorn interrupted Rainbow Dash. "Because I can assure you that I fully resemble my father and that he would be proud of what I've accomplished in the last week." Rainbow stayed quiet now as the Blood Diamonds opened up to her in the heat of battle. "In fact, he would no doubt say so himself. He didn't force me into this, after all. I followed him. He loved me and I avenged him after he was executed for his failed coup against his fellow council members. And would you like to know what else, Heroine? I set out this plan completely! Not my father or the council. ME! And do you see how I brought this cities greatest hero to his knees and begging for mercy? There are none that can rival me in all of Equestria, and perhaps none in the entire wo-" Her boast was cut short by Rainbow Dash.

In the time it took Blood Diamonds to finish talking about herself, the guardian of New Maredrid City was able to come up with a backup plan. Instead of making her go mad with rage, she used the distraction that Blood Diamonds herself provided while she should have stayed focused and grabbed her horn with both her hooves. "Braeburn doesn't beg... ever." And then it was Rainbow Dash's turn to boat. "Looks like I got horn. What'cha gonna do about it?"

The Duchess still remained confident as ever. "You think that a cheap trick like that would work on ME? Please, Mare-do-well. I knew you weren't as smart as the Hat, but I thought for sure you wouldn't try anything as quaint as this." Her horn began to glow a deep crimson as she prepared to end Rainbow Dash once and for all. "Say goodbye, Heroine!"

Rainbow Dash only smiled. "Goodbye." The blast then went off... and backfired as spectacularly as the pegasus could have ever hoped for. A trail of red streaked to where she slammed into the city like a comet. Rainbow flew down to meet her and she saw that her ploy had worked like a charm. Just like what she did with Summer Blaze when she beat him, only this time? This time, since Blood Diamonds had so much more power, the blast not only knocked her out of the sky and down a few pegs, but took something that was part of every unicorns identity. Rainbow Dash, in her tattered violet suit, landed before her nemesis and looked upon her.

"What..." Blood Diamonds felt her forehead with her blood covered hoof and, in pure horror, noticed that something was missing. Her eyes went wide as it registered. "No... no... this can't be..." She was so broken she couldn't even talk right. Her horn wasn't just broken like what Summer did to his sister, it was flat out gone. Only the stub at the end remained. The broken shattered into one thousand pieces from the force of that blast. "How did you-"

"You should have seen Summer Blaze's hoofety work," in a cruel and justified irony, she parroted the fallen unicorn that lay amongst the rubble. Then she grabbed her by the neck and pressed her against the wall.

"So what will you do now, Heroine?" Even at Rainbow Dash's mercy, she still acted as though SHE was the one in control. "Kill me? For whatever good it will do, make it hurt. There is no saving your Braeburn now."

"You kill and..." Rainbow Dash struggled to say that word. Ever since she began her mission as Mare-do-well, she always had a special place in her heart for those who were that special kind of evil. Those were the ones whom she showed no mercy and whom she happily ended. Finally, she just spit it out. "rape my fiancé. Kill thousands for the sake of your own sick mission for power, and now, after everything you have done, you just expect me to let you DIE?!" She was so willing to oblige her suggestion. She pulled her hoof back as far is she could and let it lose.

Blood Diamonds didn't even flinch as it hit and cracked the concrete next to her head. "I knew you weren't strong enough to do it. Just like how you weren't able to save your fi-" Rainbow Dash punched her as hard as she could without killing her.

"The only thing saving you right now, Princess, is the fact that the child you're carrying is just as much the kid of a hero as it is the kid of a monster." That was the really the only reason she could think of. Braeburn was a part of her. As much as either of her wings. Even if the foal growing inside was the child of a monster in every sense of the word. "You will spend the rest of your life in Canterlot behind bars with nothing. Not this," she tore off the Alicorn Amulet. "Or any magic. And when that kid is born, I'm sure there will be plenty of families willing to adopt the son or daughter of a hero." She saw the horror grow on the blood-covered face of Blood Diamonds. "You will be powerless for the rest or your life. Deal with it." She then planted the villainess under the rubble where she would be able to find her later and took off to find Braeburn. Rainbow Dash's face needed to be the last one he saw before he died.

...

Rainbow Dash landed where she last saw Braeburn. He was right where she left him. She also saw Summer and Trixie stood next to him. Summer approached her and she swore he wanted to cry, but wouldn't let himself.

"I did what I could with what I had, Rainbow, but..." he trailed off, but Rainbow Dash knew what he meant. He had used most of his magic in his fight against Sombra. She knew that he had some healing abilities, but she just wasn't sure to what point. "I was able to make sure he would live long enough to see you."

"We've already said our goodbyes, Rainbow Dash," Trixie entered in. Rainbow Dash could see the streaks of tears on her face. If there was anypony that felt anything like she did, it was Trixie. "You need to..." She began to cry again. "Just say yours."

Rainbow only nodded as she walked to her fiancé. "Hey, Brae," she said quietly. "How's it going?"

He smiled weakly at her. He was covering up the impalement, but she knew it was there. "I ain't gonna lie, Dashie. I've been better."

Rainbow Dash smiled as she fought back the tears. "C'mon, Cowboy." She cradled him in her arms as she took him over to the giant hole that Diamonds made in their fight. "Let's watch the sunset one last time."

"Sounds like a plan, Sugarcube." Held on to her as hard as he could. If that was any indication, then he didn't have long. She set him down and she sat down next to him. "Dashie?"

"Yeah, Brae?" It was taking every last ounce of strength not to cry on him. She had to be strong. For him.

"I love you," he looked deep into her eyes as she said that.

She only smiled. "I love you too, Brae," She hardly ever said it, but he needed to hear it one last time. She went in for one final kiss before he left. In the end, the last thing he saw wasn't the sunset, but Rainbow Dash's beautiful violet eyes tearing up. He died with a smile on his face. “Damn it, Brae!”

Trixie retreated into Summer as she began to cry. Summer himself began shed exactly one tear in response, and then many more followed. He just couldn’t hold them all back. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, held on to Braeburn for what felt like hours, crying, no, SOBBING like a filly into him as she caressed his mane one last time. A hero died that day.

Epilogue

THREE MONTHS LATER

Rainbow Dash stood there, looking at her city from the Spire one last time, only from the inside this time. Top floor. She sighed and felt her stomach. Maybe that glow that Braeburn saw on Hearth’s Warming wasn’t just her being excited after all. And maybe she wasn’t getting airsick on that flight. It was funny. Even if she failed to save Braeburn, she still gave her a little somepony to remember him by. Figured he’d pull something like that, though. Selfless jerk.

“So you’re really leaving then?” Summer and Trixie agreed to meet her there before they helped her move all of her stuff to Ponyville. New Madrid City wasn’t really the place Rainbow Dash wanted to raise her kid in this city, even if it had changed for the better.

“Yeah, she stared back at the sunset, remembering that last thing that she and Brae did together. “I‘m likin’ the sound of Ponyville more and more every day. Besides, I have friends there. Friends that actually know how to take care of foals.”

“We can help you with that, Rainbow Dash,” Trixie argued. For the past few months, those two have become her closest friends in the world. They were about as close as her friends in Ponyville, actually.

“Trixie, Summer scares the hay out of kids.”

“I do not,” she heard Summer mumble, even though he knew it was completely and totally true.

“And Trixie… Look, you know you guys are my best friends now, but this place doesn’t need Mare-do-well anymore,” She looked down to see the statue of the four heroes who risked all to save a city that wasn’t worth it. In the weeks following their battle against the Echelon, parents started telling the story of the War-Horses to their kids as a bed time story. “It can make its own heroes now.”

Trixie learned that there was no deterring her friend, so she went with changing the subject. “So what are you going to name him?”

Rainbow Dash smiled. About a month ago, she became uncomfortable with calling her kid an “it”, so she just decided on call the foal “him” instead. “I was thinking of Dutch.”

“After the apple?”

“Braeburn would have liked that,” then she gave herself a self-satisfied smile. “Besides, it sounds cool.”

Summer finally entered back in. “It does.”

“So what will you two be doing?”

Summer decided to first this time. “I hurt a lot of people when I was working for the Echelon. I think it’s time I left to go fix some of that.”

“Well, have fun with that,” Then she turned to Trixie. “And what were you gonna do?”

“I was going to follow Summer. The great and ever moving Trixie can never stay in a single place for too long.” Rainbow Dash just shook her head. In the last few months, those two had become inseparable. She wished them the best.

Rainbow Dash took one last look at the sunset, and then left. “C’mon, guys. The train leaves soon and I don’t want to have to fly all the way back to Ponyville with this guy,” She felt her stomach one last time. The two unicorns agreed and helped her with her luggage and took her to the train station.

“Rainbow,” Summer Blaze began. He was about to shed exactly one tear. “It’s been real.”

“Trixie agrees,” They’ve all been through a lot together, so naturally they would be upset to see her go. “Goodbye, Rainbow Dash.”

“I’ll be seein’ ya,” she said simply even though she knew she wouldn’t. As she boarded the train to Ponyville, sad to see her friends behind her, but happy that she would be able raise her son in a town that was better suited for that, she thought. New Maredrid City would get by without her now. It had become a city of Heroes.

The End

Oh City, My City

There he lay, her boyfriend. He was fast asleep, so now was the perfect time for her to leave to go to second job. It's not like she had any choice in the matter. When they left their own hometowns to live here together, they not only found out what kind of hay-hole this town was, but the lengths she would go to protect him. He was just lying there, too, completely oblivious to what she was about to go and do. She wished so hard that she could tell him, but she had made some powerful enemies here in New Maredrid City , so she couldn't take that chance. She finished putting her mask on and then her wide brimmed hat. "Time to get to work," she said solemnly.

...

The purple clad pegasus leapt from her apartment window and took flight. There was far too much crime in this city. So much so that she had to adopt a new identity amidst all the chaos to defend the one pony she would leave her friends and family for. She left Ponyville to become one of the weather managers of New Maredrid City. She remembered years ago that there was a violet clothed heroine that went by the name of Mare-do-well. She wasn't her though. She was the new one, and from the looks of it, this town needed a hero. She took long leaps from building to building, doing her best to avoid being seen and so better surprise the various villains across the city. Everything seemed clear tonight, so she indulged herself in remembering what had brought herself here. Her boyfriend had been stabbed while walking back home. She wouldn't let that stand so she bought a hat and set out to find justice herself. This town was corrupt as hay, and it was also a thousand miles away from Canterlot. She wasn't sure whether or not Princess Celestia or Princess Luna knew of this wretched hive of scum and villainy, or maybe they were just afraid to come here themselves, not that she blamed them. New Maredrid was a nightmare built from wood and brick, and she wasn't willing to risk the lives of two princesses just to satisfy her lust for revenge. That was her job. "AAAAH!" Mare-do-well turned as she heard the scream of an innocent. She extended her wings and took flight into the cool night air.

Three blocks later, she found what she had been looking for: three colts surrounding a teenage mare. "C'mon, little girl! We ain't gonna hurt you no-OOMPH!" Mare-do-well landed straight on his head, knocking him out cold. She very much doubted what he said about not hurting her.

"Mare-do-well?!" The young unicorn asked, half confused and half elated to see the help of somepony who heard her cries for help. "Thank you!" She expressed her gratitude and then ran off to find a guard or an officer, not that they were ever much help. Mare-do-well nodded her head in acknowledgement and then turned her head back to the matter at hoof: these two sons of griffons.

"You picked the wrong colt to do that too, Gri-!" The unicorn had been charging up a blast from his horn, but Mare-do-well had been too fast for him and landed a quick punch into his gut. "GMPH!" He fell to the floor, rolling in pain, as the third piece of scum stood just staring at her, unsure of how to proceed next. He ran. She ran after him. She grabbed his tail and tied him to the nearest light post, along with his three other companions. Catastrophe averted. She could see the flashing lights coming from the horns of the cops, so she took what little time she had left and escaped the scene. These ones would be dealt with by the courts. She didn't really do patting herself on the back while she was in uniform, but she saved that young mare, so she gave herself a mental one. She flew off into the new moon, being as invisible as the air. There were other ponies that needed saving, after all.

Mare-do-well took time to fly over each and every district to make sure that nopony would be hurt while on her watch. She wasn't a princess by any means, but she had to stop all this rampant crime somehow. The original Mare-do-well would agree with her on that. She took a moment and admitted to herself that she could no doubt do this without her mask and hat and be hailed as a heroine for being herself, but this costume wasn't there just to make a fashion statement. She dawned it for the purpose of gaining some humility in her actions, and so nopony would recognize her and strike at her beloved. No. She had to carry out her caped crusade as a masked avenger of the weak and helpless. That was her place, regardless of how much she would prefer, neigh, how much she would love waking up next to him each and every morning. Him, with his green eyes saying good morning to her as they both used to do. "But," she thought out loud, "if this is what it takes to protect him, I'll do it." Even if she couldn't be there when he woke up, her first loyalty was to him and to then to the city, and herself last. She was always last in that regard. Mare-do-well heard another scream and then hauled flank. The night wasn't over yet. There was still plenty of work to be done and more lives to save in this Celestia-forbidden town.

She flew to the top of the highest building of the city, known soley as the Spire. New Maredrid was an old town. It had been one of the last cities to be colonized before the unification of the three tribes and was founded by the greatest of all pegasi: Thunder Clapper the Brave. In fact, the 20 story high tower that Mare-do-well stood had been built in his honour.

She peered over the side to see where that scream came from. "Help!" It was a young colt, maybe 16, by the sound of it. She jumped from the tower and took off as quick as she could. In less than a minute, she arrived at the scene of the tragedy. It was a fire. No. It was a blazing inferno. The young colt was frantic and no fire fighters were in sight. It was her that had to save the night for the boy. "Help! My little sister is still in the-!" Before, he could finish his cry for help, Mare-do-well leapt into the burning danger. The place hotter than almost anything she'd ever experienced before. She's generally tried to steer clear of fires, but she had no choice this time. This colt needed her help. She searched room to room, being careful not to shout to loud or move to fast. Oxygen was in short enough supply here already.

"Hello!?" She was careful not to yell too much or too often, electing to choose where she did so carefully and thoughtfully. "Hello!"

"Help!" Mare-do-well heard the voice of a small filly crying out. "Please! Help me!" She could hear the small one weeping. She burst through the door of the room and must've looked like she came straight from tartarous to the little girl. She was right. The little unicorn was maybe eight years old and had no words for the violet phantom that stood at the threshold of what might have been her death that night, but Mare-do-well could care less whether or not the filly thought Mare-do-well to be her salvation or damnation. She would be saved. Mare-do-well grabbed the small pony with her mouth through her mask and through her on her back. She ran as fast as she could now, not caring about oxygen because the fire had gotten exponentially worse. So much so that now burning to death was a much greater risk than asphyxiation. The little girl must have now understood that Mare-do-well was the heroine here, as she held on to her for dear life. Finally, after taking turn after turn, she found a window and burst through it. She extended her wings and landed gracefully on the brick road.

"Thank you so much!" She handed the small unicorn to her brother, an earthpony. "Are you okay?!" He turned to her and asked, barely keeping his wits about him.

"Mhmm!" She moved to hug her brother. "This pegasus saved me! Her name is... um." The young filly stumbled across her next few words, unsure what exactly to call the mare who saved her.

Her brother only smiled at her confusion, then looked back at the dark clad hero. "Well, whatever your name, thank you."

Mare-do-well smiled wryly under her mask. This was one of the reasons she did this every night. "Mare-do-well" She said her name and then took flight into the cool night sky once more. The city had been under her guardianship for nearly a month. They needed to know their heroes name. As for Mare-do-well herself... she was exhausted. It was time for bed.

...

Mare-do-well snuck back into her apartment that was clear on the other side of the city. She smiled as she saw her special somepony still asleep in their bed, his blonde mane scattered across the mattress, but first thing's first. She had to take a bath. She wreaked of smoke and ash. She carefully hid her costume inside her special box that she owned the only key to. She'd told him that she kept important keepsakes from home there, and he was kind enough not to push it any further. She wasn't really lying, though. Mare-do-well WAS a hero from her hometown, so her uniform would technically count as a souvenir. As her bath neared completion, she turned off her water and slowly dipped into it. It stung, but as it entered each crevice and scratch on her body, she felt only peace. It was a good hurt, though. It meant she had done something worth doing. It meant she was still alive to secure a future for him and her. She might have even fallen asleep if not for the constant stinging of the soapy water coming in contact with her scrapes and burns. Eventually, she was satisfied with how clean she had become and exited the bath. She unplugged the drain and dried herself off and carefully made sure to unmatt and clean the parts of her coat that had blood in it. And after all that, she finally took her place next to her stallion in the bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

She woke up to the smell of burnt coffee. She smiled at the scent which her boyfriend had called his "special recipe". What made it special was burning it. She took a moment to run her hooves through her mane, dawned her robe, and entered the kitchen. "Haya, Sweetie!" His country accent permeated the air. It was a good permutation, though. It was unique, just like they were, which was why they had fallen for each other in the first place. "Ya slept in so I thought I'd make us up some of my special coffee!"

"You mean the burnt stuff that woke me up?" She playfully snarked at him. They did this to each other all the time. It was a part of the chemistry they had. Granted, she was the one that usually started it.

"Nah, Sweetiepie! That's just the extra kick I give it!" She never could get him down, or at least, not unless she deliberately chose to insult him for real. She's seen him get upset when that happened and more than a few bar fights were started as a result. He won all of them.

"You burn it to give it an extra kick?" She replied as she walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. She could see an entertained look on his face.

"I love you, too, Sugarcube," he said, chuckling at her. As they both laughed at each other, she couldn't help but feel guilty about leaving him in the dark like she did. He was sweet and he was tough. He was one of the kindest mustangs she'd ever met. He also knew how to have a good time. It was almost like putting a knife into her own heart to leave him totally oblivious in all of this. She had no choice, though. If she told him, then he might tell somepony else. It's not like she didn't trust him. On the contrary, there were only one or two other ponies in all of Equestria she trusted more. It was something else. She'd read more than a few adventure novels over the past few years, and if there was one thing she'd learned from them, it was that the special somepony of the hero was always at risk. "So what were you plannin' to do today, Sweetiepie?"

"There was a weather management meeting I was planning on skipping, in case you were interested on joining me," she said a smirk on her face.

"Sugarcube, ya know ya can't do-uurgh!" He made a hard grunt as he dropped his mug of burnt coffee and grabbed his side. It was where he was stabbed soon after they moved here a few months ago. He braced himself against the counter.

"Babe?!" She rushed to him and helped to keep him from falling. Then she saw blood. "You're bleeding!"

"Nah, Sugarcube! It's fine." He struggled to stay on his feet. "I just moved wrong earlier today, that's all."

"You call that fine?!" She touched her hoof to his side as she started mixing her concern with her anger.

He thought for a moment, then answered. "Yep. Just a flesh-wound. Hey! Where ya goin', Hon?" He called out for her as she left the kitchen and headed to the bathroom.

"First-aid!" By the time she got back, he was laying on their couch. She forced his arm out of the way and undid his old bandages.

"Since when do you know first-OWW!" She prodded his open wound with iodine to kill the germs.

"Since be quiet is when. Don't get used to it." She finished cleaning it out and applied the bandages to his side. "How in the hay did that even happen?!"

"I don't got a lot of stuff to do, here, so I was..." he mumbled the last few words of his sentence on purpose.

"Not sure I heard that, Babe." She knew he didn't want to tell her, but that was just too bad for him then.

"I was... OWW," He did it again, so she dabbed him with more of the stinging disinfectant.

"Tell me." She commanded him. He might have respected her privacy, but she had no problem digging into HIS trash for answers. She was just that kind of mare.

"I was, ah, practicing dancing for a special night out with ya, Sugarpie." It figured he would tear open an old wound doing something for her. "Just forget I said that, kay, sugar?"

"Can do, Chief." He knew she didn't really like to do things like that. Maybe that was just his good ole colt habits leaking out. She smiled at that thought, though. She may not like when he did things for her beyond cooking. Hay, she couldn't cook any better. In fact, she was even worse! But just because she was fiercely independent didn't mean she was unappreciative of when people tried to do nice things for her. "Alright, Babe. All done. Just try to stay off of your feet like that for a while." She finished tying up the bandage and patted him on the back... hard.

"OWW!" He yelped out in pain.

"Quit being a baby." She walked out of the room and got ready for work. She couldn't go out with him today, so she might as well show up to the meeting. "And stay off your hooves! I'm not gonna patch you up again!" She flew out of her window and got moving to work. Today was supposed to be rainy, so she really had to haul flank to get there.

Hearths Warming Day

It was snowing outside on that jovial Hearths Warming. And Rainbow Dash was happier than Braeburn had seen her in months. Even before they moved here together. She was probably glowing because it was the first Hearths Warming day together. Even he had to admit, her attitude during this time of year was absurdly contagious. "Braeburn, hurry up and light those candles!" He'd also never seen her so bossy. "I want everything rocked and ready before everypony gets here."

So he did what she said. It was still cold as hay outside, even in doors, so they were both wearing winter sweaters. Braeburn was sporting a dark brown turtle neck while Rainbow Dash went with a green sweater, no doubt to express her festive nature. "Sugarcube!" he exclaimed humorously. "I'm gettin' everything ready as fast as I can!"

He had no idea why she didn't just set up all the decorations as fast as he knew she could. Maybe she just wanted him to work for her. Or maybe she just did it slowly to savor every moment of the holiday. The two of them did have a rather turbulent time the past few months, after all. "Well, do it faster," she walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. "I want everything to be awesome when everyone shows up." He only shook his head in amusement. She'd invited all six of her friends from Ponyville for the day. Combine that with the fact the tree had a few gifts from her, Braeburn, and even Trixie, and chances are he would get to see Rainbow Dash get even happier before the day was out. "How's the food coming?"

"The carrots are still cooking, but the apple pie should be done in 3... 2... 1..." They both heard a ding from the oven.

"Done!" He said with a self-satisfied smile.

"Nice timing, chief," she said as she went back to decorating. "And all my friends should be here in just a few minutes. "How long till all the food is finished?"

He took a sigh with a smile. "Dashie, I already said it'll be finished in a lil' while!" He took another laugh. "Would you calm down?"

"I can't help it, Brae! They're going to be here any-" and as it on cue, she heard the doorbell to their apartment sound off. Truth be told, she was worried what her friends would think of their place. It wasn't small. In fact, they were able to spring for a decently sized apartment with Rainbow Dash's pay. Being a weather manager did pay well, after all, and there were only maybe four or five in the whole city. She was relatively important and she knew it because she was dang good at her job. Another fear she had, though, was whether or not Applejack would be able to look her in the eye after what she saw her cousin and Rainbow Dash doing on the couch... and on the counter... and then again on the floor. Rainbow hadn't been that exhausted since the guitar incident. Luckily, though, she had the key to her apartment on her that night.

She looked through the seeing eye-hole to see all of her friends, including Trixie. She smiled at all them just waiting for her to open the door. She saw Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Spike was about the height of Princess Celestia, which worried Rainbow Dash. He was only little shorter than her a few months ago. Then she saw AJ, who looked embarrassed after what she saw her and Braeburn doing a couple of weeks ago. Rainbow gave herself a chuckle. Served her right for not knocking. After considering the hypocrisy of what she had just said, herself being a prime offender of not knocking, she finally found her own honorary little sister, Scootaloo. She was leading the pack.

Finally, Rainbow Dash was ready for all them to come in. She muttered a few words and then braced herself. "Alright... time to get this show on the road."

As she opened the door, she was tackle-hugged by her former protégé, Scootaloo. "Rainbow Dash!" She knocked her clear off her feet.

"Haha!" she ruffled up her mane. "How you doin', Scoots?" She had to have grown at least two inches since she left ponyville. "It's been forever since I've seen all of you!"

Scootaloo helped up her mentor. "I know! You'll never guess what I did when you left!"

"Oh really?" Rainbow knew. AJ told a couple of weeks ago. "Would it happen to be how you created your own sonic boom?"

The happiness was still there, even with the spoiled reveal. "Yeah! Fluttershy wondered into a crowd in Cloudsdale and her wings locked up again. That's when I whooshed in and," they said the next part in unison. "SAVED THE DAY!!"

"Good work, Scoots!" She punched her in the arm. "I always knew you had it in you. I was your teacher, after all!" Scootaloo just beamed with pride after that. For two years, Rainbow acted as Scootaloos big sister and mentor. She finally learned to fly and, because of all the years she spent grounded, she had much better control than Rainbow Dash had at her age, even if she wasn't as fast. "And how are-" she was abruptly cut off by a group hug that included everypony that showed up. Even Trixie threw herself in... next to Fluttershy. It went about as well as you would think.

"Oh, we all missed you so much, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy said, afraid of the white haired mare next to her.

"Darling, you really shouldn't wait so long to visit us!" Rarity threw in, happily.

"We all missed you and everything!" Spike said. Rainbow Dash needed to remember to ask how he got so big.

"It's been so boring in Ponyville without you, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie shouted, kind of hurting Rainbow Dash's ears.

"I can't believe it's been almost four months already!" Twilight exclaimed.

"I know!" Rainbow Dash was happier than she had been in months from the embrace of her friends. "I know! But first things first... WHO'S HUNGRY!?"

"I'M HUNGRY!!" Pinkie Pie answered in her shrill voice.

Rainbow just sighed. "WHO ELSE IS HUNGRY?!"

Within the next 20 minutes, Braeburn had everything set out on the table, ready to eat. Even Applejack was amazed at how much her cousin cooked. "And then, and then... we were all WHOOSH!!" Scootaloo was just telling the story in full of her first broken sound barrier.

She laughed and then went to Fluttershy across the table. "So where's Thunderlane? I thought for sure he would have showed up with you, Flutters."

"Oh, well, um..." Fluttershy started in her meek voice. "He, um, couldn't make it. He had a family dinner back in Fillydelphia to go to. He sent his best wishes, though."

"Too bad, I looked forward to a real race," Then she turned to Spike. "So, um... Spike… You've gotten big."

His mild smile then went to an ear to ear grin as he grabbed Rarities hoof. So that happened, apparently. "Yeah! Twilight and Rarity did it! They're using super controlled greed induced growth to age me up!"

"And why would that be, Spike?" Of course she knew the answer, but she could tell he was dying to tell her himself. "There something special going on now?" she not-so-subtly hinted to the once baby dragon.

His face turned a shade of red and as he was going to answer, Rarity decided to do it for him. "My little Spikey-Wikey and I are, well..." now it was Rarity's face that was scarlet. As Rainbow Dash took a bite of her boyfriends candied yams, she eagerly awaited her to finish the answer. She took a sigh and forged onward. "Twilight is giving us the best possible thing. Do you, by chance, remember when she was turning that apple into an orange?"

Rainbow Dash wore an excited but very slight grin. "Yeah, why?"

"Twilight has been practicing with doing it to ponies!" Pinkie Pie announced, immediately covering up her mouth after blurting it out.

Then Spike got all excited again. His deeper voice was going to get some getting used too. He took a sigh in an effort to calm down, but it only works slightly. "Twilight has been researching some heavy transmutation research. She thinks that if she figures it out, there's a chance that she could turn me into a pony like you guys!"

Even though the news was old, Rainbow Dash was still legitimately surprised. They had all known Spike had always had the biggest crush on Rarity, but none of them wanted to look at the forty pound dragon in the room. Even if they did make it work on an emotional level, they were all concerned about how that would work in other areas. Not to mention that dragons aged much slower than ponies. They looked at each other longingly and then realized that she could never realize how big of a deal this was to them. "Congrats, you two!" She lifted up her glass to them.

"At first I was a tad hesitant because, well," she began to shed a tear. "But my Spikey-wikey was so adamant about it that even when he was told that he wouldn't live half as long as a dragon, he simply said "Any day living with you would be more than worth it." They both looked at each other and even Rainbow Dash found it hard not to get choked up. Braeburn, however, was barely holding himself together.

"So when were you two going to tie the knot?" Applejack asked from the other end of the table. Rainbow and Braeburn both spit out their mashed potatoes at the two sitting in front of them... who happened to be Rarity and Spike.

"What?!" Rainbow Dash was shocked at what AJ just asked. And now it was her face that was turning red, or purple, because of her blue coat and all.

"Well, y'all are getting married, ain't ya?" Rainbow Dash just took a long drink of water. "I mean, y'all moved in already, so why not?"

"AJ, that's moving a bit fast, isn't it?" She was obviously playing off of what she saw the other day. This was either her being old school kicking in or bitter, bitter vengeance. At any other time, Rainbow Dash would have been impressed by it. She didn't think AJ had it in her. "I mean, I love Braeburn and all, but..." And there she was stuck. She honestly couldn't think of anything bad to finish that sentence with. And then it happened.

Everypony was quiet as they saw the small black cube laid out on the table in front of Celestia and everypony. Rainbow Dash just stared at it, then Braeburn, then it again then back to Braeburn, and then it repeated once more. But he didn't look stressed at all. In fact, he looked cooler than she was. Even Pinkie Pie was dead silent. "You... what?" She was so lost she couldn't even talk right.

"I actually got this about a week ago when I went to Canterlot. You remember that one race you said you would have called, Dashie?" She only nodded, still reeling from the shock. "Well, I did it for you. And I went there and collected. And this here," he took the ring out of the box and placed it on her hoof. "This here is what I won. And I ain't just talkin' about the ring." Everypony was still dead quiet. And by the time time decided to keep moving, nopony decided to join it. "Rainbow Dash," he got down on three hoofs. "Will you marry me?"

Rainbow Dash was through with staying silent. "D-d-DARN IT!" She burst into tears and embraced Braeburn more tightly than she ever had before. "YES!!"

And then everypony joined in a unanimous congratulation to the newly dubbed fiancés. It would have been easier for Braeburn, had he and Spike not been the only guys there. And then Rarity started being, well, Rarity. "OH! This is big! I'll need designs! And I'll need to find an ideal location and and and..." Yep. Totally Rarity.

Then something else unexpected happened. Rainbow Dash heard the door get knocked on and had to go see who it was. And to her great surprise, it was him. She sighed and opened the door. "Hey, everypony!" It was Summer Blaze.

Rainbow sighed again. They might have owed him their lives, but she didn't remember inviting him. "Summer, what are you doing here?"

"Trixie invited me. I assumed you knew." Trixie just tried to hide her blushing face.

"I-" she wasn't totally sure how to proceed. Here he came with two gifts and here she was about to tell him no. She sighed and decided to let the mercenary through. It was Hearths Warming after all. "Sure. Come in."

He casually walked in, aware he was a guest and then took a look at everything. "Wow. This place is nice!" He pulled up a seat next to Twilight and he was given some food.

"So how do you know Rainbow Dash anyway, Mr..." Twilight asked him.

"Summer Blaze, and I helped them out of a jam the other night. They got lost on the other side of town and I helped them get home. They wanted to reward me, but I declined." All of that was true, certainly. And he was kind enough to word it so that they wouldn't get suspicious. "And it's nice to meet all of you..." he was angling for names. They gave him a roll call. "Well, it's very nice to meet you all."

For nearly three hours they played games and told stories. Even Summer got into the act and challenged Applejack to a rainbow drinking contest, which was the first gift. The rainbow itself was 50 years old. Well, he was descent enough to make sure it wasn't an alcholic drink. He won, but it took nearly two pounds of pie to take out the spice. "That was not a good idea!" He shouted after winning. So yeah, he "won". When it came to opening gifts, they were all great. Rarity gave Rainbow Dash a really durable scarf made with her colors and Twilight gave her an autographed copy of Wonderbolts: The Story Behind the Fearless Flyers.

While everypony was busy opening each other’s gifts, Summer saw Trixie just hanging out on the balcony Summer walked up to Trixie as she stared into the cloudy and snowy night. She didn't fit in with them, he knew that much. "Beautiful night, eh?" His opening line could have been better.

She didn't respond until after a second or two. "Yeah. It is."

"Something on your mind Trixie?" He was digging, but carefully. He came here to make friends after all.

"No... nothing." In reality it was a blatant lie. This time of year was always sad for her. After she was seven, she hadn't celebrated a single Hearths Warming., and she hardly celebrated them before.

Summer Blaze took a deep sigh. "It stinks, doesn't it? Growing up without a real family, I mean."

She was absolutely surprised by what he said to her. How could he have known? "How-"

"I know the feel." He moved up and watched the winter night with her. He sighed again. "I..." it sounded like he was going to say something else, but then changed subjects. “I got you something?"

"Oh?" This was a surprise.

“Just like the one you lost, right?" He pulled out a first edition of the Canterlot Elite: a Beginners Guide to Unicorn Magic. It was in impeccable condition to say the least.

It seemed as though this colt was full of surprises They'd spent time together for the past two weeks, sure, and she'd told him how she lost it down a river, but didn't think he actually listened. Nopony ever really listened to her like that. "You... what?"

He only smiled. "I happen to be a really good listener. I just don't do as I'm told."

"Why did you get this for me?" She seemed genuinely curious. She considered him friend enough to invite him here, but she didn't really think he'd get her a gift. "What did you have to gain?"

"A friend, maybe. It is a gift, so it's not like you have to give me anything back."

Trixie and Summer looked into each other’s eyes and, for the first real time, took notice of the kindred spirits they had. Trixie, who feared that all she could do was run, and Summer, who could never run. "Well, maybe Trixie thinks that she does." They both closed their eyes and moved their heads closer and closer to one another until they...

"Summer!" Rainbow Dash called him. "Pinkie Pie got her head stuck in the Vintage Rainbow bottle!"

He wanted to yell back a response, then a question on how, and then he just let it go. Talk about a moment killer. "Looks like I'm needed elsewhere, Trixie. I guess I'll see you later."

She rushed in a kiss on his cheek just before he walked off. "You had better."

"Heh," he rubbed the back of his neck and blushed, turning his orange coat into a more crimson shade.

Eventually, everypony left. Pinkie and Scootaloo had been the most reluctant, but they understood they couldn't stay. Scootaloo, though, was particularly attached. Rainbow Dash promised she'd be back soon to visit, though. Finally, there were the four of them. Trixie and Summer offered to help clean up, and, after a few hours, the area was clean enough.

The next morning, Braeburn woke up and walked into the kitchen in his robe to see Summer up and making coffee.

"Shhhh!" He hushed the colt, pointing to Trixie asleep on the couch with his black jacket over her.

"What are you doing?" Braeburn asked, slightly annoyed.

"Making you guys some coffee. I thought you might like a special blend of hickory wood."

"You can't just make another colt a pot of coffee in his own home!" They were still whispering.

"Why not?" It was a valid enough question.

"Because it's weird!"

He simply went back to what he was doing. "Well, it's too late now. So do you want some or not?"

Braeburn just sighed. "Sure." He realized there was no use arguing with it now that it was already done.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Summer opened up first. "So... you and Rainbow, eh?"

"Yeah, me and Rainbow," he gave a smile that wasn't clearly just awkward polite or happiness.

"Nice, um... pull there," Summer was not great with his people skills at all. He was a morning person, though, and if he wasn't, then it would have made the issue a lot worse. "She has a very nice, ah... mane. She has a very nice mane. Congrats on the proposal."

"Thank you. It was planned for yesterday." The awkwardness only got worse from there. These two would not have been friends under normal circumstances. That much was clear. But they both felt a kind of debt to the other, so they grit their teeth and dealt with it.

"Rainbow Dash seems nice," Summer didn't really like silence, so he wanted to keep the conversation moving. "Very spirited."

"Yeah, she is... So did you see the last Wing ball game?"

"Oh, I don't really..." And he was struck silent by the sight of what he saw next. As he lifted his cup back to his mouth, he dropped it, shattering it on the tile floors. "What in Celestia's name is that?" If there was any indication to what would happen next, then it was this: The next few days would in New Maredrid City would be hell.