Mare Do Better

by Cynical

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Other, Romance, Mare Do Well, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6
Length: 17540

Mare Do Well's time was over, the time of Mare Do Better has come

Mare Do Well earned her place in the history books of Ponyville as one of its greatest protectors alongside the likes of Supermare and Batmare.
But Mare Do Well hung up her cape after teaching a lesson to one of the most egotistical mares in Ponyville.

So who is it on moonlit nights, that hops from rooftop to rooftop, who leaves crooks and con-stallions outside the doors of the watch-house, and who always arrives just in time?

Mare Do Well may have taught Rainbow Dash one unforgettable lesson, maybe Mare Do Better will teach her another.

A/N: This story starts after the Mare Do Well episode in season 2.
Major thanks to Twilight the Pony (previously Spark-of-Twilight) for the art (now with source!).

Published 2013-04-26 21:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-10 20:04:04 UTC

Prologue: Unsound Slumber

Rainbow Dash rolled over in her bed, trying to get comfortable against the clouds she lived in. A moment later, she rolled over again, her eyes furrowed in frustration before she let out an explosive sigh and sat up, abandoning sleep entirely. A glance outside showed that the stars were out and twinkling brightly against the sky.

Rainbow sighed again, climbing out of her bed and leaving the covers skewed madly out of place as she left the room and went downstairs for something to drink, shivering slightly in the relative cold of the house. Sure, clouds might have been awesome for comfort, but they were frankly rubbish for insulation and every once in a while, Rainbow had to drain the floors from any water which had decided to take up free lodging in her house.

It wasn’t the worst problem in the world; it was just a minor annoyance. But that minor annoyance meant that the heating inside her house could be somewhat temperamental at the best of times. She grumbled to herself quietly, ramming a hoof into the kitchen wall blindly in search of the light switch.

By a blind stroke of luck she hit it the first time, sparking one of the clouds within the ceiling into life.

Rainbow smiled to herself, and then there were the reasons why living on her own, high in the sky, was so much cooler. It took a special kind of weathermare to be able to control lightning clouds at the snap of her hooves. The room glowed an unearthly blue as the lightning twisted around the cloud and Rainbow began her hunt for a glass.

She kept everything impeccably tidy in her kitchen, one of the reasons for which being that she hardly used any of the stuff in there, the other being that she was trying to prove to herself that she could keep her place tidy… every once in a while.

Once the glass was resting on the top, she took a few steps and opened the fridge, withdrawing a carton of milk a moment later and placing it alongside the glass before shutting the fridge with a well-aimed kick. She yawned loudly before uncapping the milk and pouring a healthy dose into the tumbler, closing the cap again and placing the carton back into the fridge.

Milk safely secured, she took her glass and moved into the next room where a seat or three were arranged in a haphazard pattern, the walls covered in Wonderbolts memorabilia. Rainbow all-but fell into one of the seats, still being careful not to spill a drop of her drink, before looking around the quiet room.

It had been an eventful day, that was for certain. She’d finally figured out the mystery of the mysterious Mare Do Well, but had been left scratching her head when she’d found out who she really was…

Rainbow scoffed quietly before taking a gulp of her drink. She had managed to save two foals from almost-certain death without the aid of magic or Jack and Jill or whatever Applejack called her hooves. At least she’d been an independent hero.

Rainbow shrugged to herself, taking another gulp of milk, it didn’t matter, it was over and done with and she’d been taught a valuable lesson in humility, even if it did leave her questioning just what was valuable and what wasn’t in her friends’ spectrum.

Another swig of milk passed down her throat.

Like she said, it wasn’t worth dwelling on it anymore; even she could see that she’d been laying the bragging on her friends somewhat thickly. It even occurred to her that her friends had constantly been giving her hints about her behaviour. She’d just been too caught up to pay attention again.

Glancing at the nearly-empty glass, she placed it on a small table beside her and stood up, stretching her wings before she turned towards the doorway and slipped outside into the moonlight. A quick glance upwards showed it to be some time past midnight. Rainbow took off silently, looping back a moment later so she landed onto the roof of her house, laying down and looking across Ponyville a moment later.

Everything was still and silent, it was hard to imagine that not two days ago there’d been an influx of panic as carts went freewheeling and dams burst. Everything was just so… normal, so peaceful and so quiet.

Movement caught her eye and she snapped her eyes to the left, looking around for whatever had drawn her gaze. After a moment she dismissed it as a trick of the moonlight, chuckling to herself, “You need to get some sleep Rainbow,” she told herself half-heartedly before getting to her hooves once more and jumping down onto the porch and into the house, shutting and locking the door behind her a moment later.

Down below, a pony in a tight black and blue cloak jumped from rooftop to rooftop, a floppy hat fitted snugly onto its masked head in shades of navy and dark.

It flitted between chimneys, sticking to the shadows and running almost-silently into the quiet night.

The pony paused, waiting, watching, listening.

The pony heard it again and set off, jumping the gap over the street before galloping away over the slated rooftops, closer and closer to the sound.

Eventually the sound distinguished itself into two voices; one was gruff and stiff with a malevolent edge to his words, while the other was almost wheedling, begging even.

The pony slowed down, now just walking along the rooftops as it listened to the conversation below.

“- Don’t care, you know how it works, we help you, then you help us in return. Do you have the money yet?” the gruff voice spoke softly.
The other pony spoke quietly and quickly, “I told you I’m going to have the money in a week, I just need another week.”
“Then it appears we have a problem Mr Sweet. You promised us the money tonight and yet you don’t have it,” the gruff voice spoke calmly, “tell me Mr Sweet, you’re a business-stallion, correct?”
A slight pause echoed up towards the rooftops.
“And what would you do if your customers refused to pay?” the gruff voice continued smoothly.

The pony named Mr Sweet gulped audibly before stammering out, “I- I’d- I-”
A sinister chuckling echoed across Mr Sweets’ voice, gruff and malevolent.
“Now, now, Mr Sweet. All we want to do is to make sure you never do it again.”
Another loud gulp echoed up to the rooftops.

The pony in the cloak smiled to itself, the mask stretching in anticipation. The pony stepped forwards, falling from the rooftops above into the alley far below, landing almost silently as it knelt to the ground.

A quick glance upwards showed that neither of the two ponied had noticed its’ landing. Standing up slowly, the pony crept closer and closer to the duo, one of which was now advancing on the other, presumably Mr Sweet. The pony stepped into the path of the moonlight and waited until it saw Mr Sweets’ eyes widen in surprise and hope as he spotted it.

A moment later, the gruff pony spun around, muscles bunched and taut as he spotted the pony.

Another moment passed, none of them moved a muscle, then the gruff pony started laughing to himself, his grating chuckles echoing horribly against the alley walls.

First mistake.

“That’s low, even for you Sweet,” the gruff pony said, his chuckles dying off as a smirk remained, “to get somepony to play hero as the mysterious Mare Do Well? I’ve got to hand it to you, you certainly have guts.”
Mr Sweet remained silent, his brow slicked with nervous sweat as he shifted his weight from side to side.

The gruff pony snorted quietly, “Although I would have expected you to have heard, it was all a hoax, there’re no real heroes in this town, now tell your friend to back off before I stop seeing the funny side in this.”

Second Mistake.

Silence reigned for a few more moments, then the gruff pony shrugged and turned towards the masked pony, “Fair enough, your conscience,” he muttered to himself before leering at the pony with an almost-jovial derogatory gaze.

He laughed once more and spoke quietly and contemptuously, “Well come on then… hit me with your best shot.”

Author's Note

And so it begins...

Yes it is a TwiDash competition fic and Yes the romance tag does exist on this story (congrats for noticing that).
But it's not going to come into play for a while as per the competition rules which I should probably link Here...

Chapter 1: Early Morning Mail

Sunday

For most ponies in the world below, their day began with the chirping of the summer birds as they sang their loud song to the world.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, was woken by a ginormous crash as her cloud house shook and a few posters fluttered uselessly to the floor. She groaned, sorely tempted to just reach out and shove a pillow over her head instead. That little debate ended when an echo sounded through her house.

“Sorry!”

Rainbow let out another heartfelt groan. She knew that voice, she’d had to deal with its owner for years. She knew that Derpy Doo meant well, but good intentions didn’t exactly end well whenever that particular pony was about.

She dragged herself out of bed, yawning loudly and blinking at the room around her, not that she noticed anything different. Cricking her neck, she made her way to the door, her pace slow as she worked out the kinks in her muscles, each crick and crack waking her up that little bit more.

Admittedly it was a poor substitute for breakfast and a warm shower, but she needed to be on her guard whenever Derpy ‘disaster’ Doo was about. She grimaced slightly; alright, maybe it was a bit harsh to think of Derpy that way, but she couldn’t help herself, and that added to the fact that Derpy didn’t actually complain about any of it, Rainbow had accepted it as being one of the quirkier aspects about Ponyville’s inhabitants.

Rainbow walked down the stairs, not quite awake enough for flight yet, and leant against the door for a moment before stepping back and pulling it open. Far off in the distance, she could just about see the vague outline of a pegasus, swerving to and fro in the still wind. A brief glance down revealed Derpy’s true intent, her letters and todays copy of Ponyville Weekly were laid neatly in front of the door.

Sighing quietly, she picked up the general assortment of mail within her mouth and plodded back inside, shutting the door with a light kick behind her.

Most of the house had survived the collision it seemed, there were only a few posters that had floated down in the kerfuffle; she made a note to hang them up again sometime today, dumping the mail on the table before heading into the kitchen. Rainbow looked around, debating the speedy wonders of toast against the high class option of cereal.

She shrugged and opened the fridge, grabbing a few slices of bread from within before she dumped them on the counter, darting back into the fridge a moment later to grab a small package of butter and placing it alongside the bread. She shut the fridge, turning back to the bread and stood back on her hind hooves, using her wings to balance herself.

She picked up the two slices of bread and lifted off, hovering smoothly just below the thundercloud. With practiced ease, she slid the two slices into the cloud and the toast rack that she’d stuffed in there.

She landed again and went to the doorway before turning around and placing a hoof over the switch for the cloud. She flicked it and started counting as the cloud burst into life, the blue glow dimmed against the bright sunlight.

The moment that she reached eight, she flicked the switch off again and flew up to see the result, pulling the two slices from the cloud to reveal two slightly-burnt slices of toast. She sighed to herself; today was already off to a brilliant start.

A few minutes later she left the kitchen with the two slices of toast, buttered and still somewhat warm from the lightning treatment.

She sat down, a slice of toast already in her mouth and mail in front of her. She separated the newspaper from the letters, unfolding it and glancing briefly at the front page; a large black and white portrait of an earth pony with a police placard in the foreground. Rainbow furrowed her brow slightly, turning the page to reveal the headline ‘Mare Do Well Unmasked.’

Taking another bite of the toast, she read on.

The identity of the masked mare was revealed yesterday thanks to the efforts of a Miss Rainbow Dash. Mare Do Well has saved the town and its occupants on numerous occasions, the most noteworthy of which being include the reparation of Ponyville Dam, the salvation of a Ponyville building crew and stopping the tourist cart from plunging down a cliff.

It is understood that Miss Dash and Mare Do Well were rivals in the field of heroics, Miss Dash’s own endeavours including rescuing a foal which had fallen down a well and a runaway pram.

But it seems like the rivalry has come to an end as Mare Do Well was revealed to be none other than the other Elements of Harmony themselves. According to exclusive eyewitness reports, it has been concluded that Mare Do Well was a mixture of at least three ponies, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle.

Applejack refused to comment on the incident due to work commitments while we suffered some technical problems with our interview with Pinkie Pie. In an interview with Twilight Sparkle, she revealed that they had meant to ‘Help her (Miss Dash) with her ego problems,’ whether or not they have been successful, only time will tell. Miss Dash was not available to comment.

Sharp Mind (journalist)
16th May 1001

“Second page… tch,” Rainbow muttered to herself, finishing off her second slice of toast and glaring at the paper as if it had committed a mortal sin, “so the unmasking of that hero isn’t worth the front page?” She shook her head, “completely out of control…” she murmured quietly before snapping the paper shut and throwing it in the general direction of the bin in the corner.

After hearing the satisfactory ‘ker-clunk’ sound of the paper landing squarely within the bin, she smiled to herself and got to her hooves again. Speaking of smiling, she needed something to cheer herself up, something to make her completely forget about yesterday. Almost immediately, the idea of pranking came to her and Rainbow couldn’t supress a grin.

It’d been so long since she’d properly pranked anypony, being too busy with preparations for the Best Young Fliers competition, followed by the Canterlot ball, then that whole incident with Discord, pranking hadn’t exactly been her top priority.

Already picturing Pinkie’s ecstatic smile as she suggested it, Rainbow left the kitchen, her wings already twitching with anticipation. The front door clicked open and Rainbow emerged into the sunlight, already nearing the midday mark and causing Rainbow to chuckle slightly, amused by her new definition of morning.

Letting out a small whoop of joy, she ran forwards to the edge of the clouds before leaping off and hanging peacefully in the air for a moment. She waited until she was veering towards the ground, waited another moment, then extended her wings.

Her wings tilted back, bringing her into a slow loop and keeping her there for another loop or two before they righted themselves and she sped off towards Sugarcube corner.

There was pranking to be done.

It was a perfect landing for once, she trotted off the last vestiges of her momentum, congratulating herself on a landing well done, and headed towards the bakery directly in front of her.

She whistled a jaunty tune to herself, plans already whirring around in her mind. She was almost sure that Rarity’s shampoo looked very similar to a bottle of mane gel that Pinkie kept around.

These plans were blown off-kilter slightly as the door slammed open in front of her and a pink missile shot out, colliding with Rainbow and knocking her off her hooves.

“Oh my gosh, you’re here!”

Rainbow groaned and opened an eye to see Pinkie Pie leaning over her with a wide smile plastered onto her face, “Heya Pinkie,” she replied, groaning internally as a number of minor scrapes and bruises made their existence known.

“I’m so happy for you Dashie, you’ve got rid of your ego problems while still being a hero, that’s absa-fantastically-super-duper amazing, you deserve a party for it.”

Rainbow let off another internal groan before registering what Pinkie had said, “Wait, what?”
“You mean you don’t know?” Pinkie’s smile dropped and her expression turned thoughtful.
Rainbow waited for a moment, then coughed, “Pinkie?”
“Hmm?”
“Can you get off me please?”
“Okie doki,” and with that, Pinkie stepped back, letting Rainbow get to her hooves before she turned and headed towards the bakery, her expression still thoughtful.

Pinkie held the door open as Rainbow slipped past her, shutting it behind her a moment later and took a bounding leap over the shop counter, standing up again and facing Rainbow with the same wide smile from before.

Rainbow paused, then shrugged, “So what did you mean, ‘still being a hero?’” she asked.
Pinkie paused, then dived under the counter, her voice echoing up a moment later, “Did ya see the paper this morning?”
Rainbow nodded before she realised that Pinkie couldn’t see her, “Uh… yeah, I had a glance at it. Can you believe we didn’t make the front page with Mare Do Well?”
Pinkie’s hoof appeared a moment later, slamming todays Ponyville Weekly down onto the counter before the rest of her appeared behind it, “So you did see it, right? What was on the front page instead?” Pinkie questioned, withdrawing her hoof behind the counter.

“I didn’t say that…” Rainbow admitted, already sliding the paper towards her and turning it over, revealing the same greyscale image of a pony in front of a police placard.

A New Hero in Town

Police were astounded this morning when they arrived at work to find a wanted criminal tied up on their doorstep.

Mr Sharp Deal, with suspected connections to the Equestrian National Bank robbery three months ago, was found at 05:20 AM this morning by the Chief Inspector as he arrived for work.

Police revealed that the suspected criminal had also come with a note, written in block capitals with black ink that he’d been caught in the process of an assault and that any ponies wanting answers should have looked within his large overcoat. The note was signed with three initials, MDB.

Upon questioning Mr Deal, he insisted that he was attacked by a pony dressed as the infamous Mare Do Well (see page 2). When police heeded the advice on the note and searched his overcoat, they found the confirmation they needed to hold Mr Deal within the cells, awaiting trial. Mr Deal had been carrying a large hunting knife, two faked passports and a whopping kilogram of the illegal substance, gunpowder.

Could this mark a new era for justice in Ponyville as another masked vigilante takes the stage? Either way, this should send out a clear message to criminals everywhere… Beware, Mare Do Well may be gone, but Mare Do Better is taking her place.

(Continued on page 5)

Rainbow looked up from the paper, incredulous, “And you thought that was me?” she asked.
Pinkie nodded madly, “Yeppers, at first I was like ‘that’s definitely Dashie taking back her title as hero,’ but then you said that you had no idea what I was talking about and that you hadn’t even realised that you were on the front page, even though it’s not you and if it was that’d be pretty sweet.” Pinkie paused to take a deep breath.

Rainbow intervened quickly, practically throwing her hoof into Pinkie’s mouth and jamming it, cutting Pinkie’s tirade off so she could get a word in edgeways, “Well it wasn’t me… have you bothered asking the other girls yet?” she asked, removing her hoof and letting Pinkie answer.
“Well no, I mean, can you see Rarity or Fluttershy fighting crime like that, going ‘Kapow’ and ‘Smash’ and ‘Bof,’ which would be really awesome but Fluttershy would be scared she’d hurt somepony and Rarity would always worry about chipping a hoof or something. Then there’s Twilight and Applejack and I don’t know about you but I don’t think that Applejack can tell a convincing lie to save her life-”

“And Twilight?” Rainbow interrupted, trying to buy herself some time to understand the rest of Pinkie’s explanation.
“And Twilight would probably need to plan every step of the journey and any fights that they had, even though the fights probably wouldn’t be that bad because Twilight is an awesome magician and everything and she’s like the most powerful unicorn ever, she’d be unstoppable-” Pinkie paused and let out an almighty gasp before leaning over the counter and sticking her head close to Rainbow’s her voice now a whisper, “Do you think it was Twilight?”

Rainbow leant back from Pinkie’s head, “I don’t think so… it’s probably someone else…”
“Or maybe it’s the pony we’d suspect the least,” Pinkie replied dramatically before gasping again and diving back under the counter.

Rainbow frowned and tried peeking over to see what Pinkie was doing. Just as she was directly above the counter, Pinkie reappeared, plonking a green alligator onto the counter and fixing it with a glare, “I bet it was YOU Gummy, wasn’t it?” she exclaimed, “Where were you at three o’clock yesterday afternoon?”

“Pinkie?” Rainbow asked tentatively.
Pinkie let out a ‘Hmmm’ in reply.
“The paper said it was last night.”

Pinkie broke off her staring contest with the oblivious alligator and looked up at Rainbow, “You mean that Gummy beat up that pony?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Uh… yeah, what were you talking about?” Rainbow asked, thoroughly confused already.
Pinkie turned back to Gummy, resuming her glare, “I think that Gummy stole one of my baking trays and hid it somewhere in my room, but I’ll find it, don’t you worry.”

Rainbow blinked at the pair of them, Pinkie didn’t look like she was going to give up easily, still glaring resolutely at her pet. On the one hoof this was Pinkie she were talking about and she wasn’t exactly the most sensible of ponies, but on the other hoof Rainbow was getting bored.

“Alright- how about some good old-fashioned pranking?” Rainbow asked and immediately she had the attention of Pinkie. Silently congratulating herself, she continued, “We haven’t been pranking for ages and I want to try out some new ideas.”
Pinkie’s smile widened again, almost splitting her face in two. It transformed into a frown a moment later as she glanced down at Gummy who was still sitting there nonchalantly, “But what if Gummy steals another one of my trays?” she asked, eyeing Gummy suspiciously.

Rainbow sighed explosively, “Then you can interrogate him after can’t you? Now come on, I’ve got a load of ideas that I know you’re going to love.”

Rainbow raced out from the house, diving into a bush beside the house a moment later and landing next to her partner in crime. Pinkie quickly pulled the bushes closed around her before, giggling quietly.

“So didya manage it?” she asked as Rainbow turned around and gave Pinkie a cocky smile.
“Just wait and see. Did you manage to convince Rarity that she needed another shower?”

The sound of a door opening and slamming shut a moment later answered that particular question and Rainbow smiled, “Excellent.”

The two of them turned and looked out through the bush in unison, waiting patiently to see what havoc they’d wrought.

As it turned out, they only needed to wait a few minutes before they heard the rising shriek from within the Carousel Boutique. Their eyes were glued to the front door as it flew open to reveal Rarity, fuming with anger, and her freshly spiked mane.

Rainbow and Pinkie immediately broke out in quiet giggles as they watched Rarity step out of the house with murder in her eyes as she scanned the surroundings.

“I swear, when I catch you two, I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done!”

This caused Pinkie to break out into a fresh bout of giggles and Rarity to turn ominously towards the hedge they were both hiding in.

Rainbow stopped laughing almost immediately, “Pinkie?” she whispered.
Somewhere within Pinkie’s snorts, she replied, “Yeah Dashie?”
“She’s seen us.”

Pinkie rolled herself back onto her hooves and looked through the hedge again, stifling her giggles.

Rarity was walking towards their hedge, her mane spiked high above her head, and wearing a malicious smile that dictated their next move.

“RUN!”

The two of them shot off backwards, running at full speed away from the bloodthirsty pony that let out another shout of: “Just you wait, I’ll get you back for this, just you wait!”

The two pranksters kept running, cackling to themselves as they made their diabolical plans for the rest of the afternoon.

Night had fallen again over Ponyville, the shadows lying long on the ground as the moon rose steadily, surrounded by the billions of stars in the night sky.

Sadly the spectacle was lost on the five ponies who walked the street, three of whom were unicorns while the other two were comprised of a pegasus and an earth pony respectively.

The team of five didn’t speak to one another as they passed through the lantern-lit streets in rows of two and one.

As they drew level with the shop front of a jewellery store, they exploded into action, the lead member using his magic to lift a large steel baseball bat and swing it into the window, smashing it into a billion tiny fragments as the alarm went off, prompting the other ponies to dash into the store and start collecting the valuable goods and stuff them into their saddlebags.

Barely a minute later, the shop had been cleared of all the shelf items, all stowed away into various saddlebags and pockets. That was when the earth pony stepped through the wrecked window and into the shop as the alarm continued to wail around them.

He immediately focussed on the safe which had been dragged out into the front of the shop and leant down, pressing an ear to the cold metal and listening intently as he slowly spun the dial, waiting for the click which wasn’t quite normal.

The other ponies stood around him anxiously, looking around the shop and out onto the street for any more disturbances, but moments later, the lock gave way and the earth pony stepped back, swinging the door of the safe open as he did so.

The others fell upon the open safe, grabbing whatever they could and stuffing it into their bags as fast as they could.

Moments later, it had been emptied and they all fled through the window, running as if the devil himself were at their hocks.

Sirens finally started blaring through the streets as the police arrived in an almighty wave, only to find the shop empty and the streets deserted.

But the team didn’t stop running through the alleys and side-streets, still going as fast as they could.

They made another turn to the left and stopped dead in the dimly lit alley, looking forwards at the silhouette blocking their way.

The silhouette had a hat and a cape, both of which fluttered slightly in the cool night air and none of them could see its eyes.

The two sides simply stared at one another, then the pony with the large steel bat ran forwards with a battle cry, using his wings to speed up and twisting the bat above his head.

The silhouette started into life, sidestepping the pony as he swung the bat down and bucking him squarely in the side with one leg, knocking him into the wall before following it up with another kick to his head, knocking him unconscious.

The bat rolled slowly away from its previous owner and the silhouette turned to the other ponies, all of which were looking at the pony with abject terror.

The silhouette resumed its position, blocking the way ahead.

The ponies looked around at the way they’d come and saw police passing by the street.

There was no escape.

Grimly, they all looked towards the single figure blocking their way

The silhouette smiled.

Author's Note

Ok... one update down...

Now to start on the next one.

Chapter 2: Scientific Methods

Monday

Three solemn thuds echoed through the thick wood of the library door.

Rainbow looked up. It was early in the afternoon and the sky had been freshly cleared that morning, or to be more accurate, about a minute ago.

She shifted from hoof to hoof on the doorstep, glancing back at the door every so often.

She knocked again, louder this time.

The library remained silent.

“Rainbow Dash at a library? Who would have thought it?”

Rainbow started, spinning around to see Twilight Sparkle standing a few paces away, smiling at Rainbow.

Rainbow breathed out a small sigh and replied, “Morning,” returning the smile but still shifting from hoof to hoof slightly.

Twilight’s smile dropped slightly, “Are you alright Rainbow?”
Again, Rainbow fidgeted, “Um, do you mind if we talk in the library?” she asked, looking past Twilight at the almost-empty street.
Twilight frown deepened slightly, but she nodded, gesturing for Rainbow to move while she unlocked the door and held it open, letting Rainbow inside before she shut it again.

“Can I get you anything? Orange juice? Tea? Coffee?” Twilight asked, starting towards the kitchen.
“No, it’s fine… listen, Twilight, have you seen the paper for today yet?”
Twilight looked back from the doorway, “Can’t say I have… I don’t usually get the paper, more often than not it’s just about us which makes reading about it somewhat redundant,” she paused, looking directly at Rainbow again, “but I guess that’s what you’re here to talk about?”

Rainbow nodded uncomfortably, reaching her head around and taking the Morning Times from the crook of her wing. A moment later she felt a slight tugging from the paper and let it go into Twilight’s spell.

The paper drifted across the room, unfolding as it did so, towards Twilight who’d abandoned any attempt inside the kitchen.

The front page had been split in two, across the top of the page there was a panorama of the street outside the police office, that much was discernible by the sign behind the main focus. The photo also revealed five ponies, all hogtied and knocked-out, right in front of the station.

Twilight glanced at Rainbow momentarily before she looked down the page at the actual story.

Mare Do Better Strikes Again

This morning, Ponyville police found yet another criminal on their doorsteps, or rather a whole gang of them in this case, all of whom were in possession of a large amount of stolen jewellery and money.

At approximately 3 AM this morning, the Sparkles and Shine Jewellery store on King Street, Ponyville, was broken into and ransacked of all items within. The criminals were presumed to have escaped down one of the many side streets within the town in order to evade law enforcement, only to meet their fates elsewhere on the back alleys.

Two of the criminals suffered cracked ribs and broken bones and were taken for medical attention almost immediately, however the rest only suffered superficial injuries and were questioned upon arrival. Their answers matched those given by yesterday’s criminal, a pony dressed as the infamous Mare Do Well.

The police also gave a statement in a press conference about the recent arrests as follows:

No matter how helpful this Mare Do Better has been, and they have been helpful, we would like to reinstate the fact that this vigilante is not a member of law enforcement and that what they are doing is in fact against the law. Anypony who sees this masked vigilante is to report their sighting to the police so that we can rectify the situation ourselves.

In a separate statement, Mr and Mrs Shine, the owners of Sparkles and Shine, said that they were grateful for what Mare Do Better had done for them, wishing them luck in their next fight against crime.

We here at the Times support Mare Do Better in their endeavours within Ponyville and hope that this marks a new era in peace and prosperity.

Quick Scoop
17th May 1001

Twilight read it twice over and looked up at Rainbow again quizzically, “Sorry, but what’s so bad about it? Aside from the fact that Sparkles and Shine is on Ring street rather than King street, there doesn’t seem to be anything inherently wrong with it,” she finished, folding up the paper and laying it on the table.

Rainbow groaned in frustration, “I knew you wouldn’t get it.”
“Then why did you come and ask me?” Twilight retorted, her own frustration growing.
“Because I thought you’d be the best to help me catch her!” Rainbow exclaimed before sitting back and rubbing a hoof against her head.

Twilight was shocked into silence as she processed that last statement, Rainbow just sighed and stood up after another moment, “Well… thanks anyway,” she offered, taking the paper and turning towards the door.
“Wait, Rainbow!” Twilight blurted out, stopping Rainbow just as she reached the door, “Why do you want to catch her?”
“I want to know who it is, that’s all,” Rainbow’s voice carried back, she sounded morose, even to her own ears.
“Why me though?” Twilight pressed, “I mean, Fluttershy’s a better tracker than me for starters.”

Rainbow shrugged, turning around before she replied, “Well… Fluttershy’s not exactly a vigila-whatsimacallit hunter for one thing.”
“And Applejack?” Twilight prompted, “I mean, she’s much more suited to catching ponies than me. And then there’s Pinkie, she could probably track anypony she wanted to, and then ther-”

“Twilight!” Rainbow’s shout penetrated Twilight’s waffling, breaking her off mid-sentence and causing her to blush, “look, you remember your first run in with Pinkie Sense and that whole fiasco?”
Twilight nodded, frowning slightly, “How do you-“
“-Know about that?” Rainbow finished, “Pinkie told me.”
“Oh…”

“Alright… well from what Pinkie told me, you seemed to be doing a pretty good job of tracking her down.”
“But she knew I was there the whole time!” Twilight groaned in exasperation.
“This was Pinkie, I doubt anypony could actually sneak up on her.”
“Then why not get Pinkie to help you?”
Rainbow just deadpanned at Twilight, “Pinkie? As a tracker? You do know that I don’t want to be seen, right?”

Twilight smiled weakly, “I suppose Pinkie’s not the sort of pony you’d expect to be a sleuth now that I think about it.”
“Which is why I’m asking you Twi,” Rainbow said with exaggerated patience, “now are you going to stop trying to wriggle out of this or help me?”
Twilight shifted uncomfortably for a moment before nodding, “Alright… I suppose I could help you track her down…”

Rainbow gave a whoop of celebration before she shot next to Twilight, yanking on her leg and practically dragging her protesting friend out of the door.

Twilight’s frown was back again.

It wasn’t because Rainbow had dragged her out of the library and all the way across town.

It wasn’t because the first crime scene was deep down an alley which was dim even in sunlight.

No, it was because this didn’t make any sense.

After Twilight had managed to stop Rainbow and direct her to the scene of the first crime, they’d arrived and set about looking for clues, looking for anything to bring them one step closer to catching the enigmatic Mare Do Better.

“Something would definitely be nice…” Twilight muttered to herself. They’d decided to start at opposite ends of the alley, Twilight starting at the north exit while Rainbow looked at the south. If either of them saw anything, they’d agreed to shout the other over.

As it had turned out though, there was absolutely nothing. There had been a small amount of blood at the centre of the alley which they’d both agreed belonged to the first criminal, Sharp Deal.

Rainbow let out a groan of disappointment, “Bang goes that idea.”
Twilight looked across at her, “Oh come on, there’s still the other alley to check.”
Rainbow just sighed, “What’s the bet that we’ll find nothing there either?”
“We’ll never know if we don’t look,” Twilight offered by way of reassurance, already working out the path to Ring Street in her head.

Muttering something about a waste of time, Rainbow nodded reluctantly and started towards the end of the alley, Twilight following closely behind her. They emerged onto the street together and turned left, Twilight’s weary frown matched by Rainbow’s apathetic expression.

They kept walking in silence for a while until Rainbow finally coughed, breaking the silence and starting to talk, “So, uh… how’ve you been?”
Twilight looked at Rainbow, one eyebrow raised, “Is this your idea of making polite conversation or are you actually interested?” she asked sceptically.
Rainbow shook her head, “No, I’m interested, honest,” she lied earnestly.

Twilight snorted, rolling her eyes, “Sure you are…” she muttered under her breath before speaking louder a moment later, “I’m fine thanks, I’ve started working on a few new momentum spells, they all affect how hard a pony-”
Rainbow stopped listening.

It was strangely comforting. It was closer to the evening now and the streets were much quieter, Twilight and Rainbow being the only two ponies walking down the road.

The air grew quiet almost instantaneously and Rainbow looked around, shocked by the sudden silence, to find Twilight glaring at her.
“Were you even listening?” she asked before Rainbow could put up an excuse.
Rainbow nodded, not trusting her voice.
“Then what did I just say?” Twilight asked.

There was a tense moment of silence as Rainbow wracked her brain, trying to remember just what had gone in through one ear and out the other immediately after.
“Umm…” Rainbow began as Twilight raised an eyebrow expectantly, “something about new spells…?” her voice tailed off and Twilight sighed in response.

“You know what? It doesn’t matter… come on, we’re here anyway.”
Rainbow winced, it was impossible to miss the note of disappointment in Twilight’s voice. Nevertheless, they had arrived and stood in front of the alley directly opposite a boarded-up shop front with the words Sparkle and Shine written above the boards.

“So did the paper say which alley it happened in?”
Twilight shook her head, “Sorry, it didn’t look like it… how about this, if you start here, I can start from all the way over from the High Street and we’ll meet in the middle and swap streets, sounds good?”
Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, alright. I’ll see you in the middle.”

Twilight offered Rainbow a brief smile before her horn lit up for a moment and Twilight disappeared, teleporting elsewhere.

And just like that, the streets were silent.

Rainbow sighed and started down the alley, keeping her gaze fixed on the ground and looking for anything that didn’t quite fit.

When Rainbow arrived at the intersection, Twilight wasn’t there. Rainbow frowned and started down the path towards the High street, expecting to meet Twilight coming the other way any second. It was almost impossible to tell what time it was from the dusky alleys, but it looked like the sun had dropped further, the night drawing in around them.

Rainbow shivered slightly as a cool breeze made its way down the alleys. She turned another corner and saw Twilight, standing in the middle of the alley and looking at something on the wall.
“Twi?”

Twilight didn’t respond, her gaze still fixed on the same patch of wall. Rainbow frowned and headed towards her, trying to angle her head at the wall as she did so. When she drew level, her stomach did a quick flip as she saw the large blotch of dark red which had stained the wall.

“I think we found the general area…” Rainbow said, her voice echoing oddly in her ears as she looked at one part of the wall which seemed to have dented somewhat.
Twilight nodded, gulped, and spoke up, “Same story though… I couldn’t find anything, no hairs, no scraps of cloth… nothing.”

They both looked away from the splatter in unison, gulping down lungfuls of air before Rainbow spoke again, “So another waste of time right?”
Twilight nodded again.
“Is there anything else we could check?” Rainbow asked, her voice becoming steadier by the moment.
There was a pause, then Twilight spoke again, “Well we could stay up and just look out for her? My house is pretty much in the centre of Ponyville and we’d be able to see for miles.”

Ordinarily, Rainbow would have made an effort to convince Twilight to patrol the streets herself, but she could tell that wasn’t going to be an option when she looked at Twilight’s pale face, “Alright,” she said hesitantly, “In which case could I use your sofa or something? I doubt I’ll be going home tonight.”

Twilight smiled, her colour returning slightly, “Don’t be silly, I have a spare bed you can use if you need it.”
Rainbow nodded gratefully and started walking towards the end of the alley, followed closely by Twilight as they both tried to put any thoughts of a blood-splattered wall from their minds.

The moon was high above Ponyville, lighting the world in a silvery glow. Twilight sat on the balcony, a blanket over her as she looked around the library, her ears trained for any abnormal sounds.

A light snoring drew her eyes to the right and she smiled slightly. Rainbow Dash had tried to stay awake and alert, but it seemed that boredom had finally gotten the better of her. Twilight chuckled to herself; she’d offered to find Rainbow a book to read, multiple times, but she’d been refused every single time. Rainbow had refused to do anything ‘uncool’, even as she nodded off to sleep.

Twilight kept smiling and wrapped her friend in a magenta glow, levitating Rainbow with pinpoint precision before she sent her into the tree and towards the guest bed. Thankfully she’d predicted that something like this would happen and had taken the precaution of folding back the bed sheets in preparation.

Inside, Rainbow was deposited onto the bed and the sheets unfolded, tucking themselves silently around Rainbow. Satisfied that Rainbow had been tucked in, the glow faded into the air.

The night turned silent once again and Twilight focussed on the panorama in front of her, waiting for a disturbance.

Author's Note

Funny... I expected this to be a bit longer.

Chapter 3: Deducing Facts

Tuesday

It was Rainbow Dash’s day off. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t by her own volition that she never worked on Tuesdays. It had been a measure forced onto her by the corporate branch of Ponyville; a lot of complaints had arrived saying that there may as well not have been a weather team with how quickly Rainbow dealt with everything.

Corporate had been quick to talk to her, trying to find a diplomatic solution to their complaints. Maybe Rainbow could have slowed down a bit, let the other ponies have a chance to hone their skills. Needless to say, she’d turned that idea down right off the bat. There was no way in Tartarus that she would slow down on the job.

After about three or four repeats of that, corporate had just thrown their hooves up in the air and granted Rainbow an extra day off every week so that the other ponies could manage the weather for at least one day out of seven.

The complaints stopped, the newbies got their experience days on the job, and Rainbow got some more time to practise and sleep. A win-win-win situation.

Sadly this Tuesday seemed to have started about five hours before it usually did.

Rainbow groaned, stretching her hooves out above her head and opening one eye a fraction of an inch.

The early morning sun streamed in, causing Rainbow to snap her eyes shut and groan louder as she stuck a pillow over her head.

“Stupid sun…” she mumbled into the bedsheets.

A few loud knocks echoed around the room.
Rainbow ignored them.

“Rainbow?”

It was another distraction, something else trying to disturb her lovely peace and quiet. She attempted to bury her head into the sheets further, making an earnest effort to cut off all light and sound from reaching her.

She almost thought that she heard a small chuckle, somewhere at the boundaries of her hearing, and that was when the blanket was yanked away from her, leaving her body exposed to the harsh and chilly environments of a bedroom in the morning.

Forgetting completely about the harsh sunlight, she withdrew her head from the safety of the pillow and looked around, annoyed. “Hey, what gives?” she asked Twilight who was standing at the foot of the bed, cover already folding itself up within her magic and wearing a smirk on her face.

Ignoring her completely, Twilight replied, “Morning Rainbow, have a good sleep?”
“I was…” Rainbow mumbled, blinking quickly as her eyes got used to the bright light of day.
“Excellent, want any breakfast then?”

Rainbow’s ears perked up, “Breakfast? What time is it Twilight?” she asked, chancing a brief look outside the window at the rising sun again.
“It’s around eight in the morning,” came the reply as Twilight moved the folded quilt onto a deserted chair with the note ‘washing’ taped onto the front of it.

Rainbow paused again, “Wait… eight in the morning as in before midday?” she clarified.
“Well unless you know any other eights in the morning, I guess so.”
Rainbow let out another loud groan, falling backwards and letting her head slam into the pillow, “But that’s like, too early…” she moaned into the air.
She was almost certain that she heard a snorting sound from Twilight before she spoke again, “Well, fine. If you do decide that you’re hungry, we’ve got plenty of stuff downstairs.”

Rainbow waited until she heard Twilight leave the room and the door click shut behind her before she sighed…

So she’d not even managed a night watch for Mare Do Better… not that it would have changed anything; she was fairly sure that Twilight would have mentioned it to her if she’d actually seen Mare Do Better last night.

But for Twilight, TWILIGHT, to stay up and watch for Mare Do Better instead of her? There was something seriously wrong with that picture… Rainbow should have been the one on lookout for the adventure and excitement while Twilight was catching up on her forty winks.

She’d have to ask Twilight to do it again, maybe even patrol the streets instead this time. They’d certainly be less likely to nod off mid-chase.

She sniffed.

Speaking of Twilight… breakfast was suddenly sounding very appealing to her empty stomach and she was painfully reminded of the simple sandwich that Twilight had cooked up last night for her, so long ago.

Letting her nose guide her, she rose out from the sheet-less bed and left the bedroom, taking the stairs downstairs two at a time as she honed in on that delicious smell.

She was fairly sure that she could smell waffles, pancakes, toast, jam, peanut butter and hundreds of other breakfast treats that had her drooling as she came down the last few stairs and stopped dead.

Twilight certainly hadn’t been lying when she’d said ‘plenty of stuff’… there was enough to feed a small army down here, all spread out across three tables and a small patch of the floor.

She glanced around, her eyes locking on Twilight as she emerged from the kitchen, looking slightly anxious.
“Is there enough here for you Rainbow? I knew that you’d be famished after not having much to eat last night and I wasn’t sure how much you’d want.”
Rainbow could just nod numbly, before she realised that Twilight was waiting for an actual response and replied hoarsely, “Yeah… this is great thanks.”

Twilight beamed at Rainbow and started levitating a pair of plates, splitting the two between herself and Rainbow.

Rainbow immediately got to piling her plate high with food, managing to fit three pancakes, a few waffles and four slices of toast onto her plate before deciding that anything else would just bring it all crashing down.

Twilight on the other hoof was carefully and meticulously picking out her breakfast, scrutinising it carefully before moving on to eating it.

They both ate in silence, until they finished, then they kept silent, the feeling of being well-fed and among friends making all conversation unnecessary.

Then the silence continued.

And continued.

And continued.

Eventually, a loud knock at the door broke the spell on the room.

“I’ll get it,” Twilight said quickly, standing up and heading towards the door as Rainbow laid her head in her hooves.

This was idiotic. There’d never been as long a silence between herself and Fluttershy. She put it down to not spending enough time around Twilight.

Twilight’s voice drifted across the room, “How can I- Oh hi Rarity, what brings you here this morning?”
“Ah, good morning Twilight, I was wondering if you’d run into Rainbow Dash lately perchance?” Rarity’s voice followed Twilight’s, as measured and smooth as normal.
Alarm bells immediately started ringing between Rainbow’s ears. Rarity… here… looking for her…

Crud.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered that Twilight had replied to Rarity, but the forefront of her mind was more preoccupied with thinking up escape routes. If she knew Rarity, she could tell that meeting her was going to be a bad idea, scratch that… a very bad idea.

The sound of the door shutting startled Rainbow into action, sending her up onto her hooves and leaping up the stairs, all-but flying into Twilight’s bedroom; she looked around wildly, deciding on the balcony almost immediately and trying to turn herself towards the exit, skittering slightly on the wooden floor as she tried to find some grip.

Using her wings for balance, she finally pointed herself in the general direction of the way out and ran, full-pelt, towards it just as the hoofsteps started climbing the stairs.

With a whoop of relief, she leapt outside and off the balcony, congratulating herself on her quick thinking as she stretched out her wings and glided gently down to the ground.

“Ah Rainbow, so nice of you to join me.”

Rainbow froze mid-stride, her pupils dilating to pinpricks. She turned around slowly, spotting Rarity instantly, less than ten paces away and her mane as good as new.

“Ah- Hey Rarity,” she offered weakly.
“I didn’t want to intrude on your incredibly important business, but it seems that you’re free now,” Rarity’s words came out sickly sweet, but Rainbow was convinced she could hear the malice beneath. Her mind had been boosted into overdrive as her eyes darted left and right, desperately calculating the best escape route possible.

“Won’t you join me for a bit of mare-to-mare chat?”
Was there a hint of a leer in Rarity’s gaze now? It certainly looked like there was to Rainbow.

Rarity took a step forwards.
Rainbow took a step back.

“I’d rather not, thanks all the same,” Rainbow replied, slowly edging away… if she could just start running into the alley before flying away…
“No, no… you misunderstand my dear… I simply insist that you join me for some simple conversation.”

Rainbow decided. “Not likely,” she said over her shoulder, spinning around and attempting to speed off in whatever direction was not covered by Rarity.

Or at least, she would have if Rarity hadn’t caught her in a magical bubble first.

“My, my… so enthusiastic to get started are we Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow attempted to spin around in her prison until she was facing Rarity who was definitely leering at her now.

“Mercy?” she asked hopelessly as she prodded the barrier around her. Completely impenetrable.
Rarity quirked her head as if surprised, “Mercy? You mean like you and Pinkie showed my coiffure mercy two days ago? I think not. It’s the spa for us two.”

Rainbow’s stomach clenched as she realised that Rarity was already on the move, Rainbow Dash in tow, “No, please, no…” she started, trying desperately to think of an escape, “I’ll model your dresses for you, I’ll… I’ll… I’ll take part in a fashion show for you; just please… not the spa.”

Rarity turned her head and smiled angelically at Rainbow before facing forwards again, the spa just becoming visible atop the next hill.

“I don’t think so my dear. I said that I’d treat you to a spa visit and I’ll stick by my word as a lady. And if you should even so much as consider running out on this, I will hunt you down and tie your wings to your chest before I bring you back and we start over again with the full treatment. Do we have an understanding?”

Rainbow shook her head wildly as the spa loomed in front of them, “Mercy…” she whispered.

“MERCY!”

“Twilight, I want you to promise me something.”

Rainbow Dash’s voice came through the library door muffled and completely serious. Twilight reached out to push the door open to let Rainbow inside only to find that the door stayed stock still, blocked from the other side.

“Rainbow-”
“Just promise me you won’t laugh, ok?” Rainbow cut across Twilight, almost pleading.
There was a pause from inside the library, then Twilight replied, “Alright, I won’t laugh. Happy?”

Rainbow nodded to no-one in particular and stepped back from the door, letting it swing open and clenching her eyes shut. She didn’t need to see Twilight’s reaction to what had been done to her.

Time passed and the air remained silent.

Curiously, Rainbow opened an eye, trying to gauge Twilight’s reaction against her better judgement.

Dusk had fallen again in Ponyville and Rainbow had finally been released from Rarity’s care with the addition of a belt around her midriff.

Twilight had stuck to her promise and wasn’t making a sound, simply gawping at Rainbow instead before she spotted Rainbow scrutinising her and shut her mouth with an audible click.

“Well I guess that explains where you sped off to this morning…” she offered weakly, still looking at Rainbow with an air of disbelief.

Rainbow nodded self-consciously.
“And the belt?” Twilight asked, deliberately looking away from Rainbow’s face at her midriff.
“Tried to escape…” Rainbow mumbled, her voice almost inaudible to her own ears, “Rarity caught me.”

A look of understanding flashed across Twilight’s face before she stuck her head out suddenly, looking left and right before using her magic to yank Rainbow inside, closing the door with a snap behind her.

“Wha- Hey!” Rainbow started before Twilight cut across her.
“I don’t think that standing around on my doorstep as you… as you are, is going to help your reputation very much,” Twilight sighed, “you’re free to use my bathroom, first door on the left at the top of the stairs.”
Rainbow muttered, “Thanks,” and turned towards the stairs.
“Oh, and Rainbow?”
She paused and felt the belt around her chest loosen and detach itself, dropping to the floor with a loud clunk a moment later.
Rainbow nodded her thanks, before rushing up the stairs and shutting the door behind her with a snap, locking it a moment later.

She breathed out a sigh of relief, at least Twilight hadn’t laughed at her. There was that at the very least. She shuddered slightly as the day replayed itself over and over in her head.

First they’d given her a seaweed mud bath. That had been fine, no problemo.

Then they’d tried to file and buff her hooves… that had been a big problemo.

That was when she’d tried to escape, but Rarity had been waiting for her with a belt, and true to her word… they’d started again, seaweed mud path followed by hoof filing and buffing.

It had taken four ponies to hold her down and her hooves steady as the spa ponies worked their torture on her. She had that to be happy for at least.

After that, they’d started on her head and her mane, rubbing sweet-smelling liquids into her mane and pressing itchy powder against her face, no matter how much she begged for mercy.

After several hours of hell, she was finally released from the torture chamber and sped off on hoof, unwilling to let Rarity corral her into any more wretched spa treatments. She hadn’t even managed to have a look at what those imps had done to her.

That problem was solved when she saw herself in Twilight’s mirror.

The pony that looked back from the mirror was free from any scrapes, bumps and bruises that Rainbow Dash possessed. She didn’t have snarls in her mane or tail and she didn’t look like she’d just flown through a hedge backwards, nor did her body shine slightly in the low light afforded to her by a small lamp above.

She barely recognised herself.

Then there was her face. She could barely see the pony beneath all that make-up; she could barely see herself within the doll in the mirror.

But if she was honest with herself… she looked…

Beautiful.

She turned on the tap.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash emerged from the bathroom; all of the make-up removed and currently on its way down Twilight’s drain. She’d not been able to do anything about her mane yet, but she had no doubt that it’d be back to its messy self within a matter of hours.

She came back downstairs to find Twilight rummaging through her saddlebags, looking for something.

“Are you going out somewhere?” she asked.
Twilight turned and her eyebrows shot skywards, only to settle back down a moment or so later, “We, you mean. I think it’d be more productive for us to actually go and wander around Ponyville to see what we can find. We can wander along the rooftops and see what we can see.”

Rainbow blinked before shaking her head, clearing some of the cobwebs within it before nodding in agreement, “Sounds like a plan, what’s with the saddlebags though?”
“Pictures,” Twilight replied, returning to searching through the various bags that littered the floor.
“Huh?”
“If we can get a picture of Mare Do Better, that’s one step closer to finding her identity,” she explained, letting out a loud: “Aha!” a moment later and producing a dusty camera from the depths of one of the bags.

“There you were…” she murmured, turning back to Rainbow a moment later and hanging the camera around her own neck, “so are you ready to start looking?”
Rainbow nodded firmly, “Yeah, let’s just hope that tonight’s going to be more interesting that last night.”
Twilight hummed in agreement, lifting her saddlebags onto her back.

Rainbow walked over to the door, holding it open for Twilight, “Let’s get going then.”
Twilight nodded and slipped out, followed closely by Rainbow who shut the door behind herself.

The moon was starting to rise into the sky and everything was eerily quiet outside.

“Ok… first step is the rooftops right?” Rainbow questioned.
Twilight nodded again, “Right, I’ll meet you up there then?”
“But you can’t fly…” Rainbow pointed out.

Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes before she opened them again, “Hello… magic?”
“Oh yeah…” Rainbow replied grudgingly, stretching her wings open and flapping them once or twice. She had been itching to fly ever since Rarity had stuck that stupid belt on her, and now she had her chance.

She lifted off, flying just high enough to drop down on the first roof that came up in front of her, dropping down silently onto it as Twilight appeared right next to her.

“Rainbow?” Twilight whispered across to her companion.
“Yeah Twi?” Rainbow whispered back.
“Why don’t we split up? That way at least one of us is going to be near an incident if one occurs, then we can signal the other one.”
Rainbow thought about it for a moment, then replied quietly, “What about that whole safety in numbers thing?”
Twilight just pointed to her horn.

“Alright… good point,” Rainbow muttered before raising her voice again, “alright, fine. See you later then.”
Twilight nodded and lit her horn, sparking away moments later and leaving Rainbow on her own on the rooftops.

She shivered slightly as the wind blew across the rooftops.

The wind carried a sound across the silence; it was almost-but-not-quite the sound of friendly pats on the back of ponies, this sound much closer to the clacking of shod hooves on cobblestones, timed rhythmically for four clacks a second.

Curiosity piqued, she spread her wings and started flying in the general direction of the sound. Her mind briefly informed her that Twilight hadn’t said which way she was going to go, but she wasn’t worried about it, it would just mean that there were two ponies against Mare Do Better tonight if Twilight had come this way, and if not…? Rainbow was confident enough that this Mare Do Better would be no match for her.

The clacking drew closer and closer until Rainbow was forced to drop down onto the roofs, lest she be seen from below.

She carefully poked her head out over the edge of the roof and was not disappointed.

Far below, a stallion, lean and oozing power, was circling another pony on the ground.

The pony on the ground groaned helplessly.

The stallion leant down, lifting the pony on the ground up with a forehoof and barely a hint of effort, before slugging him across the face with his other forehoof.

Rainbow winced as she saw a few teeth fly from the helpless pony, yet she didn’t look away, the horrific scene below her keeping her eyes glued to the spectacle better than any stage had ever done.

Something moved to the right of the scene below and Rainbow’s eyes shot across, fixing on the pony emerging onto the massacre.

The pony wore a dark blue cloak, just like the papers had said, along with a dark velvet hat that was practically glued to the pony’s head. Rainbow couldn’t see any wings though.

The large stallion paused as he caught sight of the newcomer. He started speaking in a cultured accent, “Ah, Mare Do Better I see. Thank you for coming.”

The cloaked pony remained silent.

“You’ve angered one of my bosses to no end, those two meetings you interrupted? Someone has to pay for those mistakes, wouldn’t you say?”

Silence reigned supreme for a few moments again.

The large pony sighed, “Why are all the heroes in this town either completely egotistical or silent?” he asked rhetorically before laughing loudly, “Not that it matters, now I have to deliver a message on regards of my business,” he settled back into a fighting stance, “Come at me.”

And like that, it had begun.

Rainbow didn’t dare to blink, they both shot towards one another with almost superpony-like speed, evading blows, dodging attacks and retaliating with their own counters with perfect synchronicity.

This wasn’t a fighting style that Rainbow knew, though. This looked like street fighting. Neither of them fought fair; the large stallion tried to aim for the eyes more than once, and Rainbow thought she saw Mare Do Better attempt to kick her opponent where the sun doesn’t shine.

It looked like a perfect stalemate until Mare Do Better drew back, a pained hiss echoing up to Rainbow as she saw a thin line of blood spurt from the vigilante’s muzzle.

The stallion leered at the masked pony, walking towards her menacingly.

Rainbow blinked, and blinked again, this time in disbelief.

The large stallion was on the floor, canaries practically whizzing around his head, while Mare Do Better was still stood stock still in the dim alley.

But she looked winded; she looked weaker than she had before.

“You’re mine now Mare Do Better!” Rainbow called from high up on the rooftops, jumping off and speeding down into the alley.

Mare Do Better glanced up and started running towards the end of the alley, completely ignoring both downed ponies. Rainbow was surprised; she was quick for an Earth pony, but no-one was quicker than Rainbow Dash.

She landed on level ground and started running, flying in the dark was just asking for a darkened sign to pop up out of no-where.

Her quarry was always in her sights, every time she rounded a corner, she saw Mare Do Better turn another one, slipping further and further into the labyrinth of Ponyville.

Then Mare Do Better made the first mistake of the night, turning down into a dead end.

“I’ve got you now!” Rainbow yelled, putting on a burst of speed and rounding the corner to be met with the blank wall dead ahead.

She braked, sliding to a halt and looking around the alley. Then she lifted off and looked over the rooftops.

There was no-one there.

Author's Note

Dun dun DUN!

Admittedly it's not much of a guessing game anymore.

And for those people who say that it wasn't released on the 2nd May...

It was for the Americans, I was partially successful.

Chapter 4: Hiding Lies

Wednesday

Morning came early again for Rainbow Dash, not that she’d slept much last night. After finding the empty alleyway, she’d searched high and low for any clues as to where her quarry had escaped to.

Nothing.

It was like she’d just vanished into thin air.

She’d returned to the first alley after a while, but both ponies had gone too, the only evidence that there had been a fight there being the slightly darker patch of ground.

Finally admitting defeat, she’d flown back to the library at around midnight. Twilight was still away though, probably still patrolling for Mare Do Better. She’d briefly thought about Twilight’s safety, pacing anxiously in the front room. What if the worst came to the worst? What if Mare Do Better found Twilight? What then?

Not that she was worried about her, Twilight could take care of herself well enough, she was the most talented unicorn this side of Canterlot… no, she wasn’t worried about Twilight, she was just being covering all the possibilities, yeah, that was it.

But still, when Twilight’s voice had echoed in her head, ‘hello… magic,’ it’d felt as if a weight had been taken off her chest and she’d chuckled quietly.

If things had gotten too hectic, Twilight could just teleport out of there, safe and sound.

Something about that thought had stuck with her.

As far as she knew, Twilight was the only unicorn that could do that… just like she was the only pegasus that could perform a sonic rainboom...

The comparison had stuck with her, niggling away at her thoughts.

She had decided to sleep on it, pushing all her worries to the back of her mind and retreating to her previous bed upstairs, making sure to draw the curtains herself this time.

And she’d slept, and she was no closer to figuring it out.

Rainbow rolled out of bed with a groan. A quick glance through the curtains revealed that it was still too dark to even be considered morning. The sun had just started its ascent into the sky, the first fingers of dawn creeping over the horizon.

Drawing herself away from the window, she looked back and was surprised to see a lump in the other bed. Her ears reported a slight snoring that seemed to originate from the slight lump.

She checked outside again, the sun was still on par with the horizon, tinting the skies in shades of pink and blue, before she turned back into the room, unoccupied except for herself and the snoozing lump in the middle of the other bed.

It reminded her of yesterday morning and how she’d been woken up.

Her muzzle slowly split into a grin.

Payback would be sweet.

She crept over to the bed slowly and stealthily, trying to avoid the creaky floorboards as best as she could. Once she was close enough, she took the top corner of the duvet in her teeth, spreading her wings in preparation for the next step.

Once she was sure she had a firm grip on the cover, she took off quickly, stripping the sheets back from the snoring lump within and leaving the bed bare. Completely bare.

A moment later, she heard a loud thump from below her and looked down.

She saw Twilight, sprawled on the floor and groaning softly, for all of a few seconds before she dropped the blanket and dropped down onto the floor, immediately falling over sideways as peals of laughter echoed around the room.

Twilight grumbled something incoherent, clambering to her hooves and glaring at the raucous pegasus on her way downstairs. Once Rainbow had managed to stifle most of her giggles, she left the room too, heading down the stairs and joining Twilight in the kitchen, still smiling happily.

“So…” Rainbow started, staring at Twilight.
“So?” Twilight asked, meeting Rainbow’s gaze with a raised eyebrow.
“What happened to your muzzle?”
“My muzzle?” Twilight’s eyes zoned inwards, trying to look at the offending extremity.
“Yeah, there’s a scar on it now.”

Realisation dawned across Twilight’s face, “Oh that, I tripped and scraped my muzzle against an alley last night,” she explained, already returning to the process of making breakfast.

“Mhmm, anyway… speaking of last night… guess who I found?” she asked, smirking proudly.
“Mare Do Better?” Twilight asked.
“Mar- Hey! How did you guess?”

Twilight chuckled, “Well considering that we went out to go and search for Mare Do Better, I find it hard to believe that you’d meet Fluttershy instead.”
Rainbow just huffed silently.
“Anyway, what do you want for breakfast?”

Rainbow’s stomach rumbled, saying all that she needed to.
Twilight just chuckled again, “I take it that means ‘lots’?”
Rainbow muttered something about waiting in the library and left Twilight to make their breakfast, immediately seeking out the sofa and flopping down on top of it.

Rainbow’s gaze swept around the library, “So what do you actually do for fun around here?” she asked.
“Read for the most part, you should try it once, you might actually like it,” Twilight’s reply floated across from the kitchen.

“But that’s an eggheads thing to do,” Rainbow whined.
“Not all people who read are eggheads.”
“Alright… I’ll make you a deal. If I’m grounded in one room for more than a week, then I might read something, ok?”

Twilight chuckled, reappearing from the kitchen with two plates held aloft in her magic, “Whatever you say Rainbow. Anyway, breakfast is here,” she laid the two plates, both piled high with pancakes and drizzled with syrup, onto the table and sat down, joined by Rainbow a few moments later.

“Thanks Twilight,” Rainbow said before starting to tuck into her food.

The silence reigned for a while as they ate, reminding Rainbow about the resolution she’d made yesterday.

“So listen…” Rainbow started, causing Twilight to pause, “I’ve been thinking that I don’t hang out with you as much as I really should.”
Twilight raised her eyebrows, staying silent as she let Rainbow finish.
“And… well… I’d like to fix that, so d’ya want to hang out today?” she blurted out.

Twilight just frowned slightly, “So what’ve the past few days been if not hanging out?” she asked quizzically.
Rainbow scratched her head, “Well… it’s not really been hanging out has it? I mean… we’ve just been hunting Mare Do Better together. I meant like… I don’t know… hanging out, going pranking together, having a competition, just… hanging out…” she finished lamely.

“So you mean performing an activity together that we both enjoy where we can socialise and be around one another?” Twilight asked, regurgitating the definition she’d memorised long ago.

“Yeah, that,” Rainbow nodded earnestly.
“Well, what did you have in mind?”
“We could go pranking?”

Twilight snorted loudly, “I thought I said something that we both enjoy.”
“Oh, right…” Rainbow muttered before perking up a moment later, “How about a race?”
Twilight sighed, “I’m not Pinkie or Applejack, Rainbow. How about we just go for a walk?”

Rainbow mulled it over for a moment before shrugging, “Sure… why not, hanging out is hanging out. Did you want to walk to anywhere in particular?”
“We could go to Ponyville Lake,” Twilight replied, “It’s about a three hour walk from here and it’s a brilliant picnic spot for lunch.”

“Sounds good,” Rainbow nodded before concentrating on her breakfast again.

“What brought this on though?” Twilight asked curiously.
Rainbow shrugged, “I guess because I realised I really don’t know you that well.”
“Oh is that all?” Twilight asked before continuing, “Well I was born in Canterlot and-”

“No, no, no,” Rainbow interrupted, “I meant like… I don’t know, just not like that.”
Twilight furrowed her brows at Rainbow again, “Well that was my backstory, I can’t exactly change it can I?”
Rainbow groaned loudly, “How about we just go on that walk and see what we talk about from there?”

She went back to eating her breakfast in silence.

The door swung shut behind Rainbow and Twilight put up a closed sign upon the library. She’d donned some saddlebags before coming out and at Rainbow’s inquisitive eyebrow she answered, “Some food for lunch.”

Without further ado, they set off northwards from the library, Twilight walking while Rainbow hovered a bit above her, keeping to the unicorn's infuriatingly slow pace.

Nevertheless, after a few minutes they were out of Ponyville and on their way to the lake. The roads had been strangely quiet, only a few early starters had been up and moving around the town.

“Twilight?”
“Hmm?”
Rainbow put on a quick burst of speed, drawing in front of her friend and turning around in mid-air, now flying backwards, “How about I meet you at the lake, I can make sure that we get a good spot or whatever.”

Twilight sighed as she kept walking, “So much for walking then Dash?”
Rainbow rubbed her head again, “Well… when you said three hours… three hours is a long time to be just walking isn’t it.”
“And if you flew there I’d still have to walk there and you’d be sat there waiting for the rest of the three hours…”

Rainbow just grinned, “But you could teleport there and the journey would be over, boom, done.”
“We wouldn’t really be socialising much would we?” Twilight pointed out.
Rainbow groaned loudly.

“How about you try walking with me instead of flying?” Twilight suggested.
After an explosive sigh, Rainbow grudgingly said, “Fine…” and alighted next to Twilight, matching the slow pace. “Happy?”
Twilight smiled, “A bit more so, yes.”

They kept walking, albeit with Rainbow’s muttered curses hanging around her ears.

“So Rainbow, since you were the one who came up with this idea, what did you want to talk about?”
Rainbow looked over at Twilight before shrugging, “I dunno, that was just the general idea… umm, what was Canterlot like, growing up?” she offered, more out of something to fill the silence than actual interest.

Twilight blinked before she started talking, “Well… big… I guess. It’s hard to describe… Canterlot never had the… life that Ponyville does, it’s a big stone city and that’s about the end of it. As for actually living there… there’s really not that much to do either. All of the shops are either for the nobles or the rich and wealthy as opposed to foals and their parents.”

“Huh, that’s definitely different from Cloudsdale,” Rainbow commented.
“Oh?” Twilight asked, tilting her head at Rainbow, “Go on then, what was Cloudsdale like?”

Rainbow blinked, then replied, “Probably more lively for one thing, you don’t get many nobles hanging around Cloudsdale or Ponyville for that matter, so everything was much, much more friendly. Also it’s a city in the sky, how could you not like to live in a city in the sky?”

They continued chatting, Twilight about life in Canterlot while Rainbow talked about her own experiences in Cloudsdale. Rainbow hadn’t even noticed they’d arrived at the lake until Twilight pointed it out.

The lake was quiet, just as Twilight had predicted, and everything was peaceful. If Rainbow was being truthful, it actually looked like quite a nice spot for relaxing and getting some peace and quiet.

“See, you didn’t even have to come and reserve a space.”
“Alright, alright…” Rainbow groaned, “Can you stop rubbing it in yet?”
She could practically see Twilight smirk as she answered, “Maybe.”

Rainbow glanced up; the sun was already high above them, signalling that it had taken them half a day to get there. She could have sworn it was less time.

“Were you planning on gazing up into the sky for the rest of the day?” a voice called across the landscape, breaking Rainbow out of her trance and causing her to look around. While she’d been looking skywards, Twilight had already unpacked her saddlebags and taken a red-and-white checkered picnic blanket out, laying it under a large oak tree along with a multitude of sandwiches, fruits, and still more items that were coming out of the saddlebags.

“How much stuff did you bring?” Rainbow asked in an awed whisper as the food just kept on appearing.
“Just enough for lunch…” Twilight murmured quietly, concentrating on levitating the last few items from the saddlebags: A large array of chocolate bars and a few bottles of water.

“More like a small army…” Rainbow mumbled before joining Twilight under the large oak, lying down opposite Twilight and searching for her first course.
“So Rainbow…” Rainbow broke her gaze from the food, “What were you going to say about finding Mare Do Better earlier?”
“Oh yeah,” Rainbow temporarily forgot about the banquet in front of her, “I saw her beating up some stallion last night, she looked pretty brutal actually.”
“In what way?”

“Umm…” Rainbow paused, “Well, she was like… fighting someone about twice her size, street-fighting too, and she knocked him for six.”
Twilight looked at Rainbow with disbelief, “I doubt she actually knocked him out that badly, even if he was asking for it.”

Rainbow just shrugged, “I guess you had to be there,” there was that niggling in the back of her head again… she ignored it.

The walk back was calm. They’d stayed there for a good hour after having lunch, just chatting to one another again, like they’d done on the walk up, except there was no awkwardness this time, Rainbow had just walked alongside Twilight as they’d talked.

When they drew nearer to Ponyville, Twilight asked, “So Rainbow, did you enjoy hanging out with an egghead?”
“Yeah, I guess I did… sorry by the way.”
Twilight chuckled softly, “I don’t mind, I know you’re not insulting me at the very least.”
Rainbow shook her head vehemently, “Nope, never.”

They walked into town as the sun started on its way below the horizon once more.

“Have we really been out at the lake all day?” Rainbow asked, almost amazed, the walk seemed to have flown by once again.
“Looks like it,” Twilight replied, “I’ll give you that, today has certainly gone quickly. Just give me a moment and I’ll get the camera again, maybe I’ll manage to see Mare Do Better this time.”

Rainbow nodded and stayed outside as Twilight unlocked the library and entered, leaving Rainbow alone.

That niggling in the back of her mind prodded her again… something to do with Twilight and…

Oh.

It all made sense… why Twilight had that scar on her muzzle, why Mare Do Better had been able to teleport… and now that she thought about it, a few other things were coming together too. How Twilight had known about the other stallion’s taunts last night. How Twilight had known the back alleys so well a few days ago.

Rainbow almost facehooved as the sheer obviousness of the situation came crashing down on her. She was reminded of Pinkie’s words, not even a week ago, ‘It’ll be someone you never expect,’ and that certainly seemed to have been the case.

She sighed. She was going to need further proof even though she was almost sure of it… something that she could show to Twilight to prove beyond doubt that she was the infamous Mare Do Better.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Twilight asked from the doorway, saddlebags firmly in place again.
“I thought we could split up again, it’s more likely that at least one of us will find something that way,” Rainbow answered, trying not to think about what she was doing.
“Wait… is this… planning from Rainbow Dash?” Twilight snarked, her expression that of shock-horror.
“So what if it is?” Rainbow replied defensively, “You’re the one who keeps telling me to plan ahead.”

Twilight just shook her head, smiling, “Alright, I’ll take the west side of Ponyville and you can take the east side, how does that sound?”
Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, that sounds good, may as well get started then.”

Twilight nodded, closing and locking the door behind her.
“I’ll see you later then,” Rainbow said, spreading her wings and stretching them.
“See you in the morning I guess,” Twilight replied before lighting her horn and winking out of existence.

Rainbow stayed still for another moment, then took off, flying far over the east side of Ponyville.

The window eased itself open with barely a creak, admitting the black-clad intruder into the library before it shut again.

The intruder looked around at the darkened room, its ears trained for the slightest of sounds in the quiet library.

Satisfied that no-one was around, the pony reached up and pulled off the hood that she’d been wearing, letting her rainbow mane hang loose.

After another furtive look around Twilight’s bedroom, she got to the task of ransacking every likely hiding place that she could think of.

She peeked under the bed, into the wardrobe and through the dresser to no avail.

Every nook and cranny was found and searched unsuccessfully and the walls were carefully inspected for obvious weak points.

There were none.

Rainbow groaned. If her evidence wasn’t in Twilight’s bedroom then it could have been somewhere in the main library or the basement, two more places that would have to be meticulously searched.

Think, if she was Twilight, where would she hide something…

It’d be somewhere secure, somewhere no-one was going to find by accident, somewhere easily accessible and inconspicuous…

Her eyes roved the bookshelves and the worktops around the room, trying to think of whatever would fit that description.

Then she looked over the bookcase again and paused, pressing a hoof into her face and groaning a sigh of disbelief.

This was Twilight; of course she’d hide something in a book… that just sounded so… so… eggheady.

Now all she had to do was find the one book out of the whole bookcase.

She groaned internally again.

But maybe the books could be narrowed down somewhat?

It’d have to be a pretty big book to hide all of that stuff…

She glanced at the bookcase, eying the tomes on there with distrust.

They were all big books.

So much for that idea.

It would have had to be something that no-pony would ever ask for, something which would stay in the library forever.

Another glance at the bookcase.

Every title spoke of gobbledegook to her.

Bang goes that theory.

She sighed to herself, resigned to her fate as she took the largest book she could find and carefully manoeuvred it from the bookcase.

Once it was free, she gasped loudly, trying to balance the massive book in her forehooves before overbalancing and resorting to just slamming it on the floor next to the bookcase.

“And Spike lugs these around?” she wondered out loud.

Skimming the cover revealed that it was ‘The History of Equestria: 250 – 500 AN’.

Rainbow wasn’t riveted.

The cover was flicked open and Rainbow smiled.

Instead of there being a large amount of very small writing, the book itself was just a box, the box which held what Rainbow had been looking for all along.

A line of hoods, navy-blue with sky-blue eyepieces.

“Gotcha.”

Author's Note

Sorry... I needed a break.

Chapter 5: Motive

Thursday

It was early in the morning again and Twilight Sparkle was returning from the market, food and supplies stuffed into her saddlebags for the next week. She’d had to pick up an extra load of supplies today too; hanging around with Rainbow Dash had the unhappy effect of reducing her food supplies tenfold.

Speaking of that particular mare, she hadn’t seen her since they’d parted ways yesterday on their hunt for Mare Do Better. Almost instinctively, she looked back at her saddlebags. Of course, food wasn’t the only thing that she was carrying, certain garments had to be washed every now and again and washing them in her house was far too risky.

Not that she was too worried about being found out, it was mostly just paranoia that kept her sharp. Alright, she’d almost freaked out when Rainbow had asked her to help in the search, but she thought that she’d kept her cool remarkably well, all considering.

And nothing against Rainbow, but she hadn’t really been paying that much attention to any slips that Twilight had let through, but having said that… Rainbow had been paying plenty of attention yesterday when they’d hung out.

A memory of her and Rainbow discussing their childhood on the way to the lake replayed itself. If she was honest with herself, she’d never expected to be able to hold a conversation with Rainbow for the whole three hour journey, let alone the time at the lake and the way back too.

Looking at it analytically, she’d thought they had almost nothing in common, sure, both her and Rainbow were at the top of their game, but that was subjective. Applejack was the at the top of her game in farming, Fluttershy was at the top of her game in flora and fauna knowledge, Rarity was at the top of her game when it came to fashion and Pinkie was at the top of her game when it came to making ponies smile.

Strange really, it had never occurred to her that their differences could provide fuel for discussions instead. They’d managed to while away the afternoon comparing their various experiences while they were growing up and afterwards.

She was actually quite glad that Rainbow had suggested the talk in retrospect. She’d never realised how much she didn’t know about one of her best friends, like how Rainbow had constantly been put under pressure to perform the sonic rainboom again to no avail, it had brought back one or two painful memories from Magic Kindergarten for her.

She’d been the youngest filly ever to pass into the School for Gifted Unicorns, but until then she’d had no formal magical training of any sort, she’d just been left to her own devices. Sadly she’d been too young at the time to go straight into formal education, so she’d been put into the kindergarten class with special lessons in control from Celestia every now and then. The other foals had resented that and had made her life a living hell as they mocked her potential that apparently only Celestia could see.

Of course, for every instance of that, there were several where Rainbow and her had just had completely different experiences and completely different personalities resulting from that. But that was fine, that was what made her friends unique.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered a high whistling sound, one she’d learnt to recognise through experience, and one which seemed to be heading straight for her.

She had just enough time to safeguard her bags before she was blindsided, knocked sideways into an alley with enough force to part her from her saddlebags.

“Oww…” she groaned, “Good morning to you too Rainbow.”

Her greeting was met with silence.

Wondering why her attacker had remained silent, she rolled onto her front and got to her hooves, wincing slightly as she did so.

She looked down to the entrance of the alley, no worse for wear, but froze when she saw the culprit, and more importantly, what she was holding.

Rainbow was stood at the entrance of the alleyway, Twilight’s saddlebags laid open behind her, and the hood of Mare Do Well clasped in her teeth.

Thoughts immediately assaulted Twilight’s brain, telling her in earnest that whatever she said next would either make or break her friendship with Rainbow and possibly avoid another date with the ground.

“Ah.”

Or that was an option too, well done brain...

Rainbow spoke up from the end of the alley, “It was you then?”
Twilight settled for a slow nod, looking down bashfully; the cat was so far out of the bag that it had gone overseas anyway, so there was no point lying.
Twilight thought she heard a sigh from Rainbow and looked up. She thought she could see a hint of disappointment in her expression before Rainbow spoke up, her voice cracking slightly, “Why?”

She bit her lip. It didn’t take a genius to see that Rainbow was upset, a fact which was currently nagging relentlessly at Twilight, but still…
She let out an explosive sigh, “Come back to the library with me… I promise I’ll explain everything. Just… put the mask away… please.”
Rainbow nodded once, turning around and replacing the mask in the bags silently before picking them up and passing them over to Twilight.

“Thanks…” she muttered
Rainbow stayed silent, turning back to wait at the exit of the alley.
Twilight swallowed nervously, then followed Rainbow out onto the street and turned towards the library, already dreading the talk.

The door swung shut silently behind Rainbow Dash as Twilight closed them off from any peeking eyes.
A few moments later, Rainbow spoke up, “So… the explanation?”

Twilight sighed, “In a moment… just let me put my bags away and find some coffee.”

I’m stalling for time…

Somehow the thought rung true inside her own head and she stopped mid-stride.

“No… you know what? We may as well get this over with now, I’ll just be putting off the inevitable otherwise,” she turned to face Rainbow, determined to see this through to the end, “So… what did you want to know?”

Rainbow jumped, startled as Twilight rounded on her. Twilight waited patiently as Rainbow quickly searched through her mind for a question and asked the first one that came to mind, “Um… why Mare Do Better?”

Despite the situation, Twilight’s brows shot up into her head as she contemplated the… unexpected question. She’d expected Rainbow to ask the big one almost immediately, but she wasn’t going to complain if she had extra time to marshal her thoughts in the meantime. “Well… I suppose it was because Mare Do Well would have been too obvious and too… well… overused. Mare Do Better suited me because I already had the costumes that Rarity gave to us and Mare Do Well was comparatively bad, so it was a name of intent too.”

“Wait, how many costumes did you have?”
“Oh… originally just the one that Rarity gave to me, then I offered to take care of the other costumes and made some adaptations here and there. I might not be Rarity, but I can do some things with my magic,” Twilight replied.

“But…” Rainbow paused, “why were you doing it in the first place?”
Twilight sighed, sitting back on the floor and gesturing for Rainbow to do the same, “Well… I guess it’s because… well... you remember what we were talking about yesterday? How I’d been tired of being the nerdy egghead who-”
“Who got pushed around in school and wouldn’t let your big brother fight your own battles? Yes, yes I remember that part,” Rainbow interrupted, then saw that Twilight was shooting a death-glare straight into her soul, “sorry…” she muttered quietly.

“As I was saying…” Twilight continued, breaking off her glare, “I guess I finally realised that I could do something about that and, well, did so.”
“So why here?” Rainbow asked, “Why now? Why Ponyville?”
“Why here?” Twilight parroted, “Well… I wasn’t exactly going to go to Canterlot to become a vigilante was I? The law enforcement over there is much too restrictive for any would-be heroes,” she paused to chuckle to herself softly before continuing, “Why Ponyville though? You remember the incident with Smarty Pants?”
Rainbow nodded, curious despite herself.
“Well… after deciding that I’d managed to make an absolute fool of myself in front of the town and almost cause a minor riot, I wanted to repay the town somehow, helping keep the town’s crime rate down seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“And the now?” Rainbow cut in.
“I was getting to it…” Twilight replied, smiling imperceptibly before slipping into a lecture tone, “Well since we’d had two instances of heroes, first you and then Mare Do Well, who have both proven to be… less than heroic when it came down to it, the criminal populous would have grown in confidence as the town was proven to have very ineffective law enforcement.”
Rainbow blinked.

Twilight sighed, “Basically because the criminals were more active now than before.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?”
“I just did…” Twilight replied, being very careful not to grind her teeth together.

“Whatever,” Rainbow waved a hoof in the air before pointing it at Twilight, “But… you as Mare Do Better? I mean… you’re not exactly the superhero type are you?”
“Gee thanks for the vote of confidence Dash…” Twilight replied sarcastically, “But as I’ve said before, learning anything is possible if you can perform enough research to become adept at it.”
“The fighting?” Rainbow questioned sceptically, to which Twilight used her magic to pull out a book titled, ‘Fighting Your Own Battles’.
“The running?”
‘The Physics of Momentum and Appliances Thereof’
“The appearing and disappearing?”
“You do remember that I’m a unicorn, right?”

Rainbow grimaced for a moment before she started talking again, “Alright, sure, you’re Mare Do Better and you learnt how to fight using books, but why in the hay did you agree to search for, well, you, with me?”
“You didn’t exactly give me much choice did you?” Twilight deadpanned.
“You could still have refused to help,” Rainbow insisted.
“I think I tried to do that too.”

Rainbow changed tactics, “And why didn’t you tell me that it was you straight away? That’s a whole week that I wasted searching for, well, you, when I could have been getting back into the swing of things after you all decided to come after me with the whole Mare Do Well plot!” Rainbow’s voice had risen steadily through her rant, causing Twilight to cringe back further and further until she finally finished and Twilight was almost trying to become one with the walls.

“I didn’t think it was a waste of time…” she mumbled, almost too quiet for Rainbow to hear.
“Huh?”
“Well…” Twilight started, slowly detaching herself from the wall, her voice getting stronger and more confident by the syllable, “I learnt a lot more about you for one thing, you and I got to hang out for once, that’s another.”

Rainbow stuttered, backtracking, “Well yeah- that was cool and all, but-”
“And wandering around Ponyville together?” Twilight interrupted, “Are you saying that that wasn’t at least enjoyable at the time too?”
“Well no… but-”
Twilight cut in again, leaving Rainbow no room to finish her sentences, “And when you and I were on night watch? I know for a fact that you were enjoying yourself somewhere under all your sarcastic commentary.”

Rainbow, finally admitting defeat, nodded.
Twilight nodded too, “See… it wasn’t a waste of time, it was just an investment of it elsewhere,” she spoke, gasping slightly as she caught her breath.

The library fell silent again.

“You know…” Twilight started, “I always admired what you did… when you were saving ponies. I could have gone without the ego though.”
Rainbow cracked a small smile, “I never would have guessed from the way you were all parroting me with Mare Do Well.”
“Ah, I guess so,” Twilight chuckled softly, “they say imitation is the best form of flattery, so congratulations on that at the very least.”
“Well… thanks,” Rainbow replied, smiling.

Yet another silence surrounded them.

“So… what’re you going to do now?” Rainbow asked, leaning backwards and propping herself up on her forehooves.
“About Mare Do Better?”
Rainbow nodded.
“I don’t really know… I guess I could just stop it and Ponyville would go back to how it was… but there might be other ponies that are likely to just continue from where the others left off.”

Rainbow nodded, thinking to herself before she perked up.
“Twilight?”
“Hmm?”
“I think I have an idea.”

Author's Note

And only an epilogue left... then I'm on break and I can relax.

... Just an epilogue.
Christ, that's not jinxing it at all.

Epilogue: All Was Quiet

Friday

The clock tolled midnight; the sonorous bells rang out across the deserted town below.

Twelve headaches later, a pair of ponies pulled their hooves away from their ears only to hear the world ring afterwards.

“Remind me why we had to camp out up here?” one of them asked, her bronzed cloak reflecting slightly in the light.
Mare Do Better sighed, “Because it’s the highest viewpoint we have available whilst still remaining invisible.”
“I still think you should have let me get a few clouds together…” the other cloaked pony replied, turning a white mask towards the town below again.

Mare Do Better chuckled to herself, shaking her head slightly.
“So Twi?”
“Mare Do Better, Rainbow, secret identities remember,”
The other pony shrugged, “Same difference, anyway… I think I have a name for myself.”
Mare Do Better turned to face her partner, her brow raised under the mask.
“How about… The Pegasus Falcon?”

She couldn’t help it, Mare Do Better laughed.
“What’s so funny about it?” the self-proclaimed falcon demanded.
Mare Do Better snickered, trying desperately to stifle her laughter before she spoke again, “Nothing, it’s actually quite a good name.”
“Then why the laughter?” The Pegasus Falcon shot back.

“Come on, you have to admit it’s not what anypony would expect you to pick,” Mare Do Better snorted, “what happened to ‘Daring Dash’ or ‘The Wonderbolt’?”
“Hey!” The Pegasus Falcon protested, “I thought you said we needed to have secret identities or whatever, anyone who knows me will know who Daring Dash or The Wonderbolt is straight away.”

“Alright, alright,” Mare Do Better replied, smiling beneath her mask and raising a hoof in surrender.
The Pegasus Falcon chuckled softly, “Happy birthday by the way.”
“Thanks Rainbow, I-”
“Falcon.”
“Yes, yes. Anyway, I could definitely use something a bit more mundane after this week.”

The Pegasus Falcon snorted loudly, “Mundane? You were the one that let Rarity go to Canterlot to design something for your birthday, that’s almost like asking for froufrou and glitter.”
“I’m rolling my eyes Falcon,” Mare Do Better dictated.
“Sure you are, just like I’m rolling my own.”

Mare Do Better just smiled and shook her head slightly, letting the silence rest around them for a while before speaking up again, “Actually… everything seems pretty quiet tonight, why don’t we just drop the names and the masks? It’s pleasant enough out here to warrant it.”
The Pegasus Falcon sighed happily, immediately setting about trying to tug off her mask, “Thought you’d never ask… I still can’t get used to calling you Mare Do Better.”

Twilight Sparkle smiled under the mask, using her magic to remove her own hood followed by Rainbow’s.
Rainbow’s mess of colourful bangs flopped out of the hood in one great lump and she shook her head vigorously, “Finally, I know Rarity’s one for fashion and all, but would it kill her to make something breathable too?”
Twilight chuckled again, her own mane falling flat over her head almost immediately, “That depends on how many colours breathable fabrics are available in.”

Rainbow laughed, “Yeah, that’s true,” she started, trying to speak around the giggles, “I don’t envy you for when you get Rarity’s present, you’re going to be a walking peacock.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “But I’ll be a walking birthday peacock,” she stressed, almost hiding her smirk, “and since you’re so quick to doubt Rarity’s present, what did you get me?”
“Not saying,” Rainbow replied, sticking her tongue out at Twilight, “you’re not getting it until later, you know, when everyone else gives you their presents.”

Twilight let out a loud and mournful groan of disappointment.
“I’m serious,” Rainbow chuckled, “I’ll give it to you later or else it’ll make everyone else’s presents look rubbish compared to mine.”
Twilight turned to look at Rainbow, pouting slightly.
Rainbow stuck her tongue out in response, to which Twilight only returned Bambi eyes.

“We-ell…” Rainbow started, finally unable to meet Twilight’s gaze anymore, “I could give you that other present that I might have had for you…”
Almost immediately, Twilight’s face split into a grin, “Another present?”
Rainbow rubbed the back of her head self-consciously, “Well, yeah. I mean, the other one’s still going to completely blow your mind, but this one’s pretty awesome too I suppose.”

“Alright, so where is it?”
Rainbow laughed, “And you call me impatient?” a glance towards Twilight revealed that the Bambi eyes had made a reappearance, “But alright… close your eyes and I’ll give you your present.”
Twilight’s eyes snapped shut moments later, engulfing her in darkness as she waited eagerly for her first birthday present of the day.

There was almost a lull in the night air as the world fell silent for a few moments, then she felt something press into her cheek, gentle but deliberate, and her mind stopped working shortly afterwards. Several long moments later, her cheek was bared to the night air once more. She thought she knew what had happened, but the conclusion it left her with was somewhat absurd.

When she opened her eyes again, she stared, flabbergasted, at Rainbow Dash who was blushing slightly. “Did you- Did you just-”
“Kiss you?” Rainbow cut in, smirking as her blush died down, “Yeah… I guess I just did.”
Twilight let her jaw hang loosely as she tried to process the information, almost certain that Rainbow could hear the frantic passage of thoughts shooting between synapses in her brain.

“Uh… Twi?”
Twilight blinked and looked around wildly, blushing madly and realising how badly she’d just zoned out.
She shook her head suddenly, trying to clear away the haze that had accrued itself before she spoke, “Um… what was that for?”

Rainbow rubbed her head, smiling somewhat self-consciously, “Well, it was my thank you for the past week I guess.”
“You mean the week that was a waste of time?” Twilight asked with a sly smirk.
Rainbow just shot her a look, “Yeah, yeah, that week that was such a waste of time that I’m thanking you for it right now.”

Twilight chuckled and the conversation fell into a lull for another few moments.

“So… what did you think?”
“About the…” Twilight let her words drop off as Rainbow nodded slightly, “Well… um- Aside from being somewhat unexpected,” she started, watching Rainbow’s reaction as she did likewise, “It was… nice?”

“Not awesome?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight shook her head solemnly and Dash’s own head drooped visibly, “I think I might know a way to improve it though…”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow as Twilight got to her hooves and offered Rainbow a hoof which she grasped and pulled herself up.

Twilight just smiled again and lit her horn, causing the hatch into the clock tower to swing open.

Almost mesmerised, Rainbow followed Twilight into the relative darkness of the clock tower and into the centre of the clocks.

The hatch swung shut behind them.

Author's Note

*Falls over dead from excessive updating*