Mysterious Mare Do Well:Rise of the Shadowbolt.

by Phoenix Kitten

4 the answer. pt.4

Shadowbolt and Izayoi were trading blows left and right in between the negative flashes pouring from Izayoi's horn.

"Who! Are! You?!?" Izayoi screamed through her mask as she slammed her hooves into Shadowbolts forelegs.

"Wouldn't you like to know!!!" Shadowbolt screamed back before a flash of negative light filled her vision and she found herself flying backwards with Izayoi surfing her into a brickwall. "Again!?! Is this the only trick you have?!?"

"Nope." Izayoi answered. "But if it works, use it." She replied before leaping off Shadowbolts back and vanishing, appearing on the rooftop above the wall the dark pegasus was aimed at.

Yukianesa faced off against Shadowdancer, the unicorn of the team. A group of gems erupted from the ground around them, all turning to point at the villainous mare.

"Gemstones are a wonderous thing are they not? When they are alone they're amazing, in a group they're brilliant, bedazzle some clothes with them and they are delegated to an accesory. But use them as a weapon..." Yukianesa tralied off as she trotted a circle around her opponent. "And they become so beautiful, so dazzling, that your opponent won't even think to block or avoid them until it's too late."

"Or maybe they're just stunned at the inherent stupidity of using them as weapons." Shadowdancer said, rolling her eyes.

Yukianesa glared at her opponent. "That maybe so, but as long as it keeps my quarry from moving, I don't really care." She snapped, before taking a deep breath and correcting her posture. "Now then... shall we begin?" She asked as the gems began to shoot forward.

Geminus and Seraphim were facing off against Shadowquake, evidently the powerhouse of the team.
"Aww lookit that. The little pony needs a guardian." Shadowquake chuckled. "I'd liked to see you fi-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" She began screaming as she was batted away by one of Seraphims giant pincers.

"Aww lookit that." Geminus mocked. "The big griffion screaming like a little filly. What's the matter? I thought you wanted a fight!" She smirked before watching Seraphim bring his claw down on the griffon again, watching as she struggled to hold it up. "I thought you were strong. Where'd all that. Confidence. Get. To. Huh? HUH!" She asked, each word being punctutated by Seraphim slamming his other claw into the one Shadowquake was struggling to hold up,forcing it down.

"Dammit. Get offa me you overgrown hunk of stardust!" Shadowquake growled before she threw the pincer up into the air and rolled out of the way before it came back down. "Shit..." She panted. "That could have hurt."

"A weakling says huh."

"Huh?" She looked to the her left... and got hit by the pincer from the right. "Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!"

Geminus giggled and flew off after her,eager to continue the fight.

Musashi and Muchourin stood as still as statues, facing each other down. The fights were raging all around them.

"Ah don't want to hurt you sugahcube. But ah will if you give me reason too."

"I don't want to hurt you either...so please... just take off your mask..."

"No can do sugah, we are going to stop Shadowbolt. And ah'd be mighty grateful if you'd sit it out while we did."

"I can't do that... I can't let you hurt her..."

"You mind tellin' me why then?"

"I can't."

"Then ah'm not goin' to stop fightin' to bring her down."
As Musashi turned to gallop over and help somepony else on her team she found herself with her face in the dirt.

"You can't! You just can't!"

"Ah can sugahcube...and there ain't anythin' y'all can do about it!" With that Musashi spun herself over and flung Muchourin to the ground, landing on her legs and pinning the rogue heroine to the ground. "Even if that means holdin' you here 'til the battles over."

"No! Get off me!"

"No. Can. Do....sugah would you stop squirmin'?"

Izayoi used her advanced teleport and jumped over a charging Shadowbolt, planting her weight and kicking off the back of Shadowdancer, vaulting back up to the rooftops.
When everypony else started moving again she watched as Shadowdancer face planted into the ground and quickly turned to watch Shadowbolt turn and fly towards her.
Just as Shadowbolt was about to connect, Izayoi pulsed out another advanced teleport, using the time to wind up a hoof strike and slam it into the pegasus' face.

Gems tore around Shadowdancer like a tornado, knicking and cutting her costume in places as she moved to try and fight Yukianesa in the middle of the storm of shining blues, greens and reds.

"Ahh the colours... aren't they magnificent?" Yukianesa smiled as she gracefully dodged the clumsy spells hurled at her by Shadowdancer. "Even something as uncouth as fighting can be made into something beautiful."

"The only colour I'm interested in is the lavender hide I'm going to hang on my wall once I'm done here." Shadowdancer growled as she quickly erected a magic shield to guard herself from the barrage of gems flying at her.

Both unicorns were interrupted as another Mare Do Well flew between them while tumbling end over end before being followed by Muchourin who slammed a second hoof strike in her gut and sent her flying up, collecting Izayoi in the process.

Applejack opened a private channel with Twilight. "You and Rar built a kill switch into these suits right?"

"Of course. the suits hold an array of gems infused with spells that do nothing unless the command piece in the mask is connected. Remove the mask,the spells shut off and the safety spell kicks in, making the suit inert."

"We need to de mask Pinkie fast then."

Muchourin's jubilation was short lived as a cage of gems erupted from the ground to seal her in place,
"Hold tight dear and I'll let you out after this is over." Yukianesa nodded, reutrning fire on Shadowdancer by pulling more gems from the ground and hurling them telekinetically.

"Open the cage Yuki!" A voice yelled.

"Says who?"

"Musashi!"

"On it dearie."

The top of the cage opened as Musashi got closer.

"Oh no you don't!" Shadowbolt screamed over, tackling Musashi out of the sky and into the ground nearby, leaving a small crack in the pavement.

"Tarnation that hurt... Ah think one of mah ribs cracked."

"One down, three to go." Shadowbolt smiled as she leant down to pull Musashi's mask off.

Musashi opted to act rather than talk and slammed her forehead into Shadowbolt's nose, knocking the villanous pegasus backwards before staggering to her hooves and slamming her hoof into Shadowbolt's chin, grabbing her shoulder and headbutting the pegasus to the ground.
"Ah ain't done yet..." She wheezed, the pain from her rib starting to become noticable. "Landsakes... that was any harder Ah reckon Ah'd be out cold right now..." She said to nopony in particular as she cantered over to the gem cage, the side she approached from opening to let her in,closing behind her.

"Dammit." She coughed as she pushed Muchourin to the ground and pulled her mask off, throwing it outside the cage where Yukianesa's gems tore it to ribbons. "One a piece." she smiled before falling unconcious.

The now unmasked Pinkie shook herself out of her shock and quickly removed Musashi's hat and mask. "Come on... just be unconcious..." She pleaded, lowering her ear to just infront of Applejack's mouth, sighing as she heard breathing.

Geminus had procured a pair of knives from the abandoned restaurants and was using them to fight off Shadowquake while her meter refilled before dropping them in shock as a voice spoke through the communications setup.
"CHANGE IN TACTICAL SITUATION DETECTED. REBOOTING ALL SYSTEMS."

She suddenly found herself unable to move as her suit locked up and all the meters on her eyepieces started refilling as her opponent chuckled malevolently and walked towards her, rolling her neck and baring her claws.

"I think it's time for a little payback."

Shadowdancer smiled as she trotted slowly towards Yukianesa, surrounded by fallen gems.
"Now then... let's see who you really are. And if you aren't the pony I think you are, I'm going to be very disappointed."

"Come on... Oh this system is positively rife with bugs like this. Phooey... and I so hoped she was able to iron all these out."

A shadow fell over Yukianesa as she grumbled to herself, causing her to slowly lift her neck to stare the other unicorn in her masked face.

"Now then... Show me your face!"

"ALL SYSTEMS REBOOTED!"

"You show yours too then!"

Both mares grabbed each others mask in their magical aura before yanking them off, leaving a furious Rarity and a stunned Trixie staring into each others eyes.

"You!" Rarity furiously shouted.

"Oh. It's you." Trixie said, an almost bored tone present in her voice. "And I was so hoping you'd be the other unicorn. The one who can actually rival Trix-"

"Wa Ha Ha!" Rarity laughed triumphantly as Trixie slammed into the fountain, the victim of a magically charged hoofstrike to the center of her face. "That's for what you did to my mane last time you were in town you annoying show-off!"

"Ugh my head... I feel like I had a potted plant, an anvil and a grand piano dropped on it one after another."

"Oh trust me. I know what that feels like. How would you like to add a broken table to that list?"

"Ugh... not thanks."

"Well too bad!"

"Wha?"

Shadowbolt looked up in time to have a table smashed down onto her face and broken into little splinters.

"Gragh! Ouch! That hurt you... well... shit... I don't have an insult for once."

"Table leg!"

"Hu- oof!" She coughed as one of the legs was smashed across her chest.

"Oh big bad miss villain can't take a hit from a wooden table?"

Shadowbolt looked up and found herself staring down Izayoi.

"You..."

"You think it's right to terrify the ponies of this fair town for no reason at all?"

"I have a reason!"

"Do you really, you masked bitch?!"

Shadowbolt coughed out a laugh. "Ring... ring.. this is pot... calling kettle." She taunted as she reached behind her back slowly.

"What?"

"You're...calling me...the masked bitch?" Shadowbolt laughed as she stumbled to her hind legs. "You... you make me sick... with that mask of yours! The one you... you've been wearing before I donned mine."

"You're point is? At least I'm wearing my mask to do good." Izayoi retorted.

"My point? My point is this!" Shadowbolt yelled as she threw a jar of thunderclouds at her opponent.

"Damn it!"

Shadowquake had already removed the mask from Fluttershy's face and had her pinned to the ground. "She said not to hurt anyone. I don't think she'll mind if one of you turns up dead."
With that she drew her beak back and brought it down as hard as she could, aiming straight for Fluttershy's neck.

The rapidly expanding black cloud shot forth and a burst of stray lightning knocked Shadowquake off the helpless pegasus and vaporized her mask.

"G-g-g-Gilda?" Fluttershy stammered as she struggled to get up

"Argh! Dammit. Fuck fuck fuck! My face!" The Griffon screeched in pain. "That fucking mask nearly fused to my damn face!"
She screamed before taking wing and flying off. "Fuck this. I'm out!"

Izayoi slammed another trio of hoofstrikes into Shadowbolts stomach before firing a quick blast of magic to knock her to the other end of the rooftop.

Shadowbolt tried to reach behind her back for another jar of thunderclouds but a quick burst of pain from having Izayoi press both of their weights against it made her drop her last jar off the back of the building.

"End of the line for you,Shadowbolt." Izayoi said as her horn lit up and started tugging on Shadowbolt's mask.

"No...it's not!" She yelled, rushing her head forward and slamming it into Izayoi's face, staggering and knocking her back.
With a quick shove from her hind legs the masked heroine soon found herself at the very opposite edge of the rooftop.

Both of them snorted and hooved the rooftop before charging forward, jumping toward each other and drawing back their hooves, sending them flying toward eachothers faces.

Pinkie was a blur of motion as she checked on the other combatants,helping them all out of their costumes and helping Fluttershy administer first aid where neccesary.
She reviewed the list of injuries by reading back through some bizarre object. "Let's see.... I've sent Rarity to help Applejack to the hospital for possible broken ribs, Fluttershy is working on getting Trixie conscious again and Gilda has left the battlefield. Who am I missing?"

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash stared each other down, the others mask in their hooves.

"Twilight? You're the Mare Do Well?"

"And you're the Shadowbolt? Rainbow...why didn't you say something?"

"Why didn't you?"

"I was trying to protect Ponyville from what I thought was some rabid fan of yours that had foalnapped you and trying to unmask me so you could be the hero again."

"I thought you were just some group of idiots who decided to try and prove that they were worth something by showing me up."

They both sighed and dropped the others mask.

"We were worried about you Rainbow."

"We?"

"Me and the others."

"You were worried about me?"

"Well yeah. Some random pegasus comes flying up to me while I'm on patrol in town and boasts about capturing you. Why wouldn't we be worried?"

"Well because you were all singing your own praises the day before hoof."

"To keep our cover up. If you were in our horseshoes wouldn't you do the same?"

"I...yeah I guess..." Rainbow admitted before she began to sway lightly. "Hey Twilight? I think I'm gonna take a nap now okay?"
Without even waiting for a response the cyan pegasus collapsed sideways and started sliding off the roof, her last sight being a slight pink glow around her body....

Which lead to the pleasant dreams of flying through an empty sky.