Although Canterlot was saved in the end, there was still damage.
Although they celebrated their victory, there was still loss.
Although they said "sorry", there was still resentment.
But not from the pony you expect.
A rebellion formed outside of Celestia's castle, declaring Twilight Sparkle and Cadance to be their new Princesses after she and Luna failed to protect Canterlot from the Changelings. Leading the rebellion is, to the shock and surprise of Twilight and her friends, the mysterious Mare Do Well, who claims to be the "will of the ponies’ voice". After discrediting Celestia, she proceeds to accuse Twilight's friends of "betraying their Element" and has them seized to be interrogated.
With Celestia gone to reflect on the damages she had done, Twilight Sparkle must find a way to restore the denizens of Canterlot's faith in Celestia, save her friends, and disband Mare Do Well's rebellion. However, a question still lingers in her head. A question that Mare Do Well presented to her. Is there a pony in her life that she can’t forgive?
Vector Credits:
hawk9mm (Luna)
mihaaaa (Celestia)
uxyd (Twilight)
teiptr (Mare Do Well)
a01421 (Canterlot Castle)
One question.
Who is "Leon"?
3498610
I was going to say this somewhere down the road, but I guess the earlier the better.
When I first started on The Masked Accuser, the Mare Do Well character was going to be a Stallion and his name would be Leon (as in Stal-leon). During the drafting of chapter 2, a more sensible idea emerged from my head, and so I scrubbed through chapter 1 to fit that idea. This meant changing Leon's name to Mare Do Well and all mentions of his gender and stitched costume (there was a plot point that the Mare Do Well outfit was stitched up to fit a stallion), as well as a plot point involving his anger towards Rarity that would serve as foreshadowing. I'll explain more when the story finishes.
But basically "Leon" was originally Mare Do Well before she got changed to the character she is now, and what you saw was just a mistake on my part. My apologies.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!! This is just sweet justice, dear friend!
Please, continue this story! Black Kyurem would die to know how this turns out! HAHAHA!!! 
Less...Petty Purpose...
Hit it right on the head.
Yes! Yes!! Make Twilight's friends suffer!
I want to see Twilight friends suffer more.
"Blitzkrieg’s Cutie Mark: a simplistic yet blazing golden thunder bolt." Oh I know where... Great Chapter.
This is just some speculation on my part and may contain spoilers
If the author feels that they want this taken down feel free to private message me and I will do so willingly
All if my points are to reinforce point 1
So here we go :
1 mare do well is twilight or at least a part of her mind her magic would allow her to animate the costume and thus perhaps imbue it with a form if telepathy linking it to the rogue part of her psyche
2 I get this from the fact that mare do well was known in ponyville but only the mane 6 have a bond with it and only twilight had the ability to manipulate it from afar
3 also mare do wells dialogue with twilight and to a lesser extent her friends imply a great understanding of there fears and flaws
4 twilight cannot forgive herself perhaps mare do well is twilight's regrets made manifest
5 believing that someone at the reception had a part in this uprising is easier to believe and more likely than an outside eavesdropper
6 my last point is something of an enigma, the only major power players I could think of in this story that are in accounted for are shining, cadance and chrysalis. Shining and/or cadance could use this opportunity for a power grab but I find that unlikely and against their character.
Or this could be chrysalis contingency plan to destabilize the government in preparation for a 2nd attack but this too seems unlikely as chrysalis seems to overconfident for a back up.
Well that's it comments on my ideas any 1
3856299 I found it very interesting.
3857757
just wondering if I am completely off target or if I hit something?
3857832 You're onto something, but not exactly "nail on the head".
3857852
gahh put out the next chapter so I can rearrange my puzzle. every little bit of info brings me closer.
would u figure that this is my hobby, also I don't always post a list like the 1 above just when the fic is truly great
3857885
Working on Chapter 3 as we speak.
...yeaaaah, I can't help but think that Fluttershy's reasoning is somewhat borked.
I'd not be surprised if someone's using mind muckery here, I'd also not be surprised if 'Mare-Do-Well' is a changeling back to cause trouble or a possible attempt by someone else to muck things up for the group.
I mean, yeah Pinkie hogging the cider didn't help keep things going, but you'd think the Apples, being small cart salesponies and farmers primarily, would keep better control of their stocks and actually ration things if they thought they were going to run out. I mean, is Pinkie's bit more valuable than Rainbow's or is Berry's bit better than Lyra's? Add to that, if we presume that there's two in working state and two on light, why not have things set so they could get resupplies while things were being sold?
Way I see this 'event' that Mare is using is barely anything to do with Pinkie. The only thing she did was overbuy the stock the Apples had making them run out faster, most of the blame is purely in the Apple's court for not preparing better and maintaining better business practices and fairness in the town. Yet… while Pinkie wore the Element of Harmony, she pretty much believed whatever came out of Mare-Do-Well's hidden mouth.
Suddenly I get the feeling these 'Elements of Harmony' are either twisted or fake with a 'suggestion' on them.
I'd need to double check with Fluttershy's thing, but if it is something where Kindness isn't really involved or isn't really related to what actually happened in a meaningful way, I'm thinking that Mare-Do-Well is someone trying to force the Princesses off their thrones by guile and is using corrupted/fake Elements and speechmaking to do so as opposed to straight up conflict.
I agree with Ghrathryn, Mare Do Well being a changeling seems like a strong possibility to me.
I also think Pinkie has done A LOT MORE that she needs to own up to then was stated this chapter
This isn't a good thing, why are you trying to make it look like a good thing...
4287058
Huh, I didn't think of it like that.
4289341 You honestly didn't see the problem of having someone repress a bad memory? That's a psychological no-no.
4313095
Well, to be more truthful, I had no idea where I was going for Fluttershy's and Pinkie's scene surrounding Coal and my only idea was to involve them acting in turn to their Element.
In a sense, I did know it was some sort of no-no. Like, you don't just throw a party and hope everything's gonna be fine, which is exactly what Mare-Do-Well stated in the first place. I think I had this feeling when I was writing it, especially they're doing the exact thing Mare-Do-Well was talking about.
Err... while a cantalot wedding does have probelms, the case presented here seems a bit lacking. First when the numbers of casualties among the whole city population is only 2, theres not a lot to complain about. There might be some cries of concern but there wouldnt be a revolt like this.
Also that weird mentioning of incest is weird. While people can be jealous when a family member gets married especially when they are younger than said family member, its not incestuous in nature. Its more like concern that the the new spouse could potentially unbalance a family dynamic. This usually fades quickly, but considering that Shining didnt introduce his bride to be until the day of the wedding there wouldnt be enough time to get to know each other. This would be more the mind set they would have.
This is countered by the fact Twilight knows and likes Cadance, which is the sole thing that shouldve been mentioned. Adding the incest comment to the mix is weird.
Nice! Please write more!
This is an awesome story. I wanna see how Rarity gets taken down a peg.
I see one of three possibilities for the identity of Mare Do Well. First, and least likely in my mind, is Chrysallis trying to cause discontent for the real invasion. Second, maybe Twilight's mom wanting to punish those who hurt her daughter. And lastly, a physical manifestation of the Element of Magic. Even if not one of these three I hope to see who it really is someday as I love this story so far. Kind of funny that I found the story on the one year anniversary of the last chapter's post date. Really hope to see it updated sometime soon.
I... uh...
this whole chapter had TERRIBLE pacing. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but it was bad. There was no point to the Mare-Do-Well telling AJ everything other than viewer convenience, everything went by too fast, hardly a coherent thought...
Everything's becoming very tense: the ponies, the Elements, Mare Do Well having a secret agenda ... oohh ,,,
This story is Awesome!!! I hope to see more!! When will you make more?
One thing though is that Twilight wasn't actually right. She thought fake Cadance to be evil but she truly believed her to be the real Cadance. The same kindhearted and gentle filly that foalsat her and that she had such a strong bond with.
I think Cadance may be even more hurt with that. That Twilight would believe she could turn into something like that. Also we don't really know if Chrysalis is evil, she does care about her subjects.
Strange that Celestia gives in so easily to such demands though.
I don't think Pinkie buying a lot of cider was really significant. After all ponyville has a population of at least 1000 ponies so her buying a few liter doesn't really make a difference.
Also how could she have possibly known that? I don't think it's going against your element if you had no idea what your actions would lead to. With Cranky she followed her element, it didn't turn out well for her but she didn't go against it at all.
6176073 well For one Mare Do Well thoight Applejack would agree with her, that's why she told her everything. Also, have you seen the ponies of Equestria? Not too bright, and they don't think ahead. Because of what Mare Do Well is atempting to do, it could result in a civil collapse, ending Equestrian society.
why would the magic of a species who's power lies in friendship incarnate out of bitterness?
Bwuh?! Well... that's a shock...
It's weird. I kinda guessed that Mare-Do-Well was a physical incarnation of the Element of Magic. I'm surprised that I was right.
Mare Do Well is the Element of Magic?! Yes, my suspicions were correct! After all, who would know Twilight's inner thoughts better than the Element she is bonded with.
Twilight will have to watch out because she's up against her own Element now.
I wonder whether if Magic will try to possess Twilight, now that it's plan has been revealed.
Knew it.
7553676 My guess: she's playing devil's advocate. She's pointing out the flaws and mistakes of each pony so that they can grow into better ponies and better element bearers. Even Celestia will learn to be better ruler from this experience. If achieving these goals means she has to act like a bitter villain, so be it.
Again another story I tried to hold out for more chapters to show but I just couldn't help myself and now I am left waiting for an epic chapter. Thank you for the updates and great story. I really, really can't wait for the next chapter
whens the next chapter?
All I want is for this story to have a happy ending.
3627950 I like your thinking.
I bucking love how you written this.
Many people will refuse it, but to become a hero, you have to be a villain and show everyone their flaws.
Twilight had somehow created a physical manifestation of her dark side and thoughts. The plot thickens...
8103303 You must not like Horror stories.
6476856
Ok maybe chrysalis isn't evil, still its completely alright to invade a country and enslave them?
Also twilight just believe it wasn't cadence not a changeling.
8802226
I never claimed that. I claimed that Twilight wasn't actually correct in her accusations and did make quite a mistake herself.
She did believe it was Cadance. Just that Cadance would lead her brother to a bad future.
As much as I love twilight, her list is probably even bigger then Rainbows.
Get on with it, Psyga315. It's been over 2 years already!
9074573
Okay.
{proceeds to work on the final chapter}
9075074
I'm really hoping this isn't sarcasm. Either way, I look forward to the next chapter.
9075116
I can assure you as of right now, that isn't sarcasm.
9075242
Awesome ending, any plans for a sequel given the changes to this Equestria? Maybe they can find a way to deal with Sombra peacefully this time around given he's as much a victim as the Crystal Ponies thanks to his mother's actions way back when.