The sun rose on the next day, burning high into the sky slowly but surely. It reflected across the grime and darkness of Everfree City, shimmering across rooftops and peering down into the dankest alleyway, spreading a warm glow. As the day wore on, a crowd gathered at the gates of the Royal Palace, herded from their homes by squad upon squad of Street Mares. Soon, the Princesses' execution would break the last remnants of rebellion, crushing the spirits of the resistance and spelling defeat for the enemies of the new order. The crowds were piled toward the courtyard at gunpoint, some moving hopelessly with grim acceptance of events, others weeping and wondering why such a terrible event could ever have befallen Equestria. No matter what the people were thinking, they were here, being forced to bear witness to their Princesses' final moments. Scaffolds were set up in the wide-open space of the Palace courtyard, the Street Mares' bikes having been moved for such an occasion. At midday, when the sun was at its highest, it began.
"People of Everfree, your attention please." A voice called out over the loudspeakers which had been moved onto the battlements. "Today will go down in history as one of the great events of this millennium, let alone this century. This will be the day that the people were freed from the tyrannical reign of these irresponsible rulers." The crackled, slightly electronic voice which sounded over the loudspeakers was revealed to be none other than the leader of the Board of Directors, Trixie. She stepped up onto the balcony of the Royal Palace, high above the courtyard. Below the balcony, the doors were flung open. Princess Celestia herself and her sister Luna were dragged out into the bright glare of the sunlight. Their legs were bound in magic-saturated chains, their horns covered with dampening material to stop the flow of magical energy. The two looked beaten and bruised, broken and ashamed that they had been defeated with such seeming ease. They were led up onto the scaffolds, and the nooses were tightened about their slender throats. Forced to stare into the faces of their subjects, they could only wait for their impending, inevitable demise. The trapdoors of the scaffolds dropped away, and the Princesses began the slow path to a death from asphyxiation, fighting for life. But as Trixie began her final speech, there was an odd crackling from the speakers. A buzz. Then, dead silence.
"What is going on?!" Trixie snarled, turning to the technicians in charge of running the speaker system. They searched frantically for an electronics fault. An unsure hope began to rise in the dying Princesses' and assembled citizens' hearts as something incredible occurred.
There was one other crackle from the speakers, and they then began working again. But not for Trixie.
"This is the voice of Mare-Do-Well." A cold, toneless voice declared, echoing out across the city. Trixie, the assembled Board sub-members, the Street Mares, and the people themselves could do nothing but listen in a shocked, almost reverent silence. "My time is up, and I may be dead, but I will not end my existence without a fight to the last. I ask you to have faith in me, now, in your hour of need. Your hour of greatest darkness. I need every stallion, mare and foal in all Equestria to know that they are not alone now. And I need you all to join my crusade. Have faith.. The war is won now." And with that, the speakers cut out completely and went dead.
As the oppressed citizens looked on in astonishment, A dark shape dove down out of the sky. Mare-Do-Well. The resistance had used information given to them by Mare-Do-Well previously to access the Lair, and had used its arsenal well. The lifeless body of the caped hero was strapped into the same model of jet-propulsion technology she had used so many years ago, blue fire blazing from beneath her cape as she tore down through the clouds toward the Palace. Strapped securely to the suit with a harness were packages of impact explosives, making the lifeless hero into a final, defiant weapon against injustice. As Mare-Do-Well neared the Palace, Heather and Ironwork, who had concealed themselves on rooftops nearby, let off shots from their sniper rifles. The ropes connecting the nooses to the scaffold were severed, and the Princesses collapsed, able to breathe again. They began to recover just as the final blow was dealt to Trixie and the Board of Directors. The explosives-packed body of Mare-Do-Well slammed head-first into the balcony on which Trixie stood, and it was engulfed in a boiling, earth-shattering fireball which rocked the very earth for miles around. If the inferno had not killed Trixie, then the collapse of the Royal Palace certainly ended her. Castle walls, shattered panes of stained glass, and ornately carven bricks of the finest stone fell backward and away as the foundations of the palace cracked wide open and split apart. The burning mess which had once been Canterlot's Royal Palace collapsed in on itself, falling back off the cliff's edge and toppling down into the waterfall basin below. Mare-Do-Well's final, posthumous act of valour had sealed off the entrance to the Lair forever, now buried under the broken remains of the Royal Palace.
The air had changed. While the mood of the people had been full of sorrow and helplessness before, a spark of hope had now become a raging fire in everypony's heart. When the first, triumphant shouts of 'Revolution!' sounded across the city, carried on the hazy, heated air, the Street Mares already knew they had lost. While some fought, and a good few managed to kill innocents, most accepted defeat. In the end, guns were tossed aside and trampled underhoof. Ammunition was poured into boxes and disposed of. Many Street Mares simply looked down with shame, but some rejoiced that, perhaps now, a free Equestria could become a better place for them too. In the end, the valour of the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well prevailed over uneven odds. It was shown that courage, loyalty and strength of spirit could overcome the worst of obstacles. It took a month to break down the walls which had been built around Canterlot, and years to reconstruct the Royal Palace. When the Palace's final brick was laid, however, a special memorial was unveiled in the courtyard. A huge, triumphant stone sculpture of Mare-Do-Well, reared up and ready to do battle. The plaque below the monument bore the inscription,
'For incredible feats of bravery, and loyalty to justice in the darkest of times, this statue is commemorated to Mare-Do-Well, saviour of Equestria'.
A new police force was set up soon after the incident by the Princesses. Working with Tarn and the members of the Resistance group who had gained access to the Lair in order to set up the final attack against Trixie, the new police force were outfitted with the weapons and technology of Mare-Do-Well. They wore the original, unmarred purple regalia of the masked hero. The new troop of Street Mares began patrols across Equestria, righting wrongs and serving unconditional justice with respectfulness - and non-lethal, non-vicious methods.
And so the story ended, with the nightmare over and justice restored to the people. The dark figure of a stallion snarled as he read this final line in a front-page article of the Manehattan Bugle. He set the newspaper down on his desk, taking a drag on his cigar and puffing out clouds of smoke. There was a knock on the door.
"Come in, lad!" The Baron called to the orderly. The scrawny servant entered, bowing low. "Well.. What is it this time, eh?"
"There's, um.. There's some ponies here to see you, Mr Baron, sir." The orderly stammered, and then stepped back. A trio of Street Mares entered, one holding a set of hoof-cuffs.
"Twenty-nine counts of murder, forty of conspiracy to commit theft, countless amounts of drug trafficking.. And one count of killing Equestria's greatest hero, our forensics team tell us." One said. The other concluded.
"That's somewhere around life imprisonment. Book him."