The Mare Does Well.

by Undyne Devotion


Booking It. ( Remastered. )

“Gleaming, please open up,” Flash spoke from beyond the door, his voice that of a missed opportunity.

Gleaming scrunched her muzzle with a silent mouthing of a few choice curses. That bolt of lightning never materializing from above. She ran a hoof through her troubled mane, body quivered as a deep pit formed in her belly.

She swung open the door with a casual manner, the dull orange glow of the room poured out onto the dimly lit hallway. Flash towered over the mare with ease, a confident smirk spread across his muzzle.

“Sup." Gleaming puffed out her chest as she leaned against the doorway.

"I know it's late, but can we chat?" Flash cleared his throat in a swift motion.

Flash noticed the room was covered in empty ice cream tubs, a few boxes of half-eaten pizza scattered across the floor messily. He thought the mare might be a bit more prim and tidy, but the totaled room of trash somehow fit the adventurous pony perfectly.

"Just for a second, I'm like having a really stressful night." Gleaming sighed with a blatant eye-roll towards her late-night guest.

“Well close your eyes.” Flash gave a large goofy grin, his eyes full of a mischievous glint.

"How about no?" Gleaming quirked her brow with a serious gaze.

Flash felt his face droop in a frown of disappointment. Gleaming could tell this might drag on for a bit, with a defeated sigh she closed her eyes. Her ears perked hearing him shuffle closer, in a moment of curiosity she opened them. 

Just in time to get poked in the eye, by the temple of pink glasses.

“Ow, my glasses!” Gleaming squinted her hurt eye in pain, quick to snatch them out of his hooves.

“Yeah, you dropped them the other night.” Flash chuckled distraughtly.

“You really didn't have to." Gleaming forced her bright red eye open.

“Well, I could not let a mare walk around Canterlot blind.~ It was my duty to return them home.” Flash lifted his hoof in a proud salute.

"At ease soldier!" Gleaming snorted with a slight giggle of amusement.

Flash chuckled glad that he earned a slight laugh from the mare. He was certain he might have come off as a slight fool, his once calm demeanor replaced by sweaty hooves. Flash wasn't sure why, but this mare felt familiar like a long time friend.

"Do you have a brother in service?" Flash asked in a collected tune.

“You could say that." Gleaming nudged his side, her cerulean eyes shifted towards the door.

"Pie?" Flash felt his voice crack.

"Huh!?" Gleaming scrunched her muzzle confused.

"I know a small place down the street." Flash sighed as his smile weakened by the second, stepping out into the darkness of the hallway.

"It's late and I'm stuffed full of ice cream." Gleaming held back a loud belch.

"It's fine, don't know why I asked." Flash frowned with bright red cheeks, the poor stallion dragging his hooves down the hallway.

"Just one couldn't hurt!" Gleaming yelled after the stallion, she couldn't just crush his soul like a bouncing yak.

"Really!?" Flash screamed in a loud horse noise.

The stallion rushed back towards the mare in pure excitement.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Gleaming lifted a hoof to slap her forehead.


Jenkins stood in front of a cracked marble statue of a mare, guarding Shining's room was a test in isolation.

“How was your day?" Jenkins tried to speak in a soprano tone of a mare, yet it came off horribly off-tune.

“Oh, it was fine! ~ Absolutely fine!!” Jenkins sighed as both ears folded back.

“But?” She quipped curiously.

“How did you know?” Jenkins turned away with a saddened frown.

"I can read you like an open book!" She giggled.

"Have you ever felt as if you don't belong? ~ That you're different from the world, alone?" Jenkins huffed a large bruise over his hoof.

“Why stick around?" She asked in an air of seriousness.

“Where could I go?" Jenkins replied as his hoof tapped the statue gently on the side.

"Everybody deserves to be happy." She replied in an innocent melody.

“Ahem.” Twilight coughed from behind the stallion.

“Princess!” Jenkins screamed out embarrassed.

He lifted his hoof to salute but smacked his forehead hard instead.

“Uh." Twilight pursed her lips.

"It's a training exercise that helps with… I'm sorry… I'm just an idiot." Jenkins slumped over with his head hung low.

"We all have ways of stress relief." Twilight giggled with a friendly wink.

"Yeah." Jenkins groaned.

“Have you been on duty all day?” She spoke with a raised brow, surveying the room with careful eyes.

“Yes, ma’am! I was assigned here for multiple acts of ineptitude!!” Jenkins spoke in an embarrassed yet confident tune.

Twilight kneeled beside the bed, she gazed under it with large violet eyes. No trace of a book anywhere, she gazed to the guard with a thin arched brow. His broad shoulders shifted upward into a confused shrug.

"Have you seen a book here?" Twilight pointed under the majestic bed.

Jenkins felt his eyes dart around the room nervously. "No?" He coughed loudly.

"If you find an old book, please find me post-haste." Twilight frowned in worry, without that book things could only get worse.

"You have my promise as a… she's gone!?" Jenkins huffed as the princess bolted out of the room in search of Cadance.

“Wonder why you're so important?" Jenkins removed a tattered book from inside his oversized armor.

'Hearts Desire' Sparkled over the cover in a magical glow.