//------------------------------//
// I Like My Mares Well-Done Pt. 3 
// Story: The World-Jumper 
// by NightmareDash 
//------------------------------//

Jack hoisted the horned Mare-Do-Well over his shoulder, and watched Dash grab the other's cape in her teeth and begin dragging her along. He lead her back down the street they had just chased their captors down, apprehensive at the job of unmasking. He broke the mildly-intimidating silence with a blunt statement of fact, if nothing else just to ease the mood. 

"You know I don't know a single person, err, pony around here, aside from you, so whoever these three turn out to be, you'll have to explain them to me."

She simply nodded back at him, as if she already knew a very large explanation would be in order. As they brought their quarries down the road, a crowd of followers from the parade grounds had formed in front of them. They broke where he walked, gasping in astonishment at such a foreign creature (relatively speaking). Their gasps changed to scorns as Rainbow Dash passed by, less confused as angered for their hero having been bested. Escaping the mass on the opposite end, Jack finally found the alley where he had hung up the other Mare-Do-Well. He could tell it from a ways away, because he could hear a voice yelling out with what he would call a pronounced Texas twang.

"Lemme down from here! Somepony get me down! I ain't nopony's dirty laundry!"

As he and Dash turned the corner, she suddenly fell silent. He set his Mare-Do-Well down directly below her, and Dash let go of the cape of hers.

"Wait here. I'll be right back. Stay clear of her."

At this, Jack scrambled up a nearby gutter pipe onto the roof. He hurried over to the chimney column, and pressed a button on his grapnel gun. It detached, then retracted itself and clattered to the rooftop, and on cue, he could hear a loud thud back at street-level. Resheathing the gun in his bandolier, he slid back down the pipe to find three Mare-Do-Wells on the ground, Dash practically standing guard over them, and a crowd of spectators at the near end of the alleyway. He nodded to her, and they both reached down to the masks of the vigilante trio. Dash's face was virtually smeared with triumph, and he could see a twinge of vengeance in her eyes as well. Despite this, her voice was icy cold.

"The game's over, Mare-Do-Well. You lost. It's time to end this charade, once and for all. Jack, shall we do the honors?"

"Indeed, Rainbow."

They both yanked off the masks of each Mare-Do-Well, revealing three very different faces beneath. Jack found an orange-faced, freckled blonde pony beneath his left hand, and a purple unicorn beneath his right. Rainbow Dash was staring on at an unexplainably giddy pink pony with curly hair to match. Dash's expression changed to one of pure shock, though all Jack could elicit was vague recollection. 

"P...P...Pinkie? Twilight? Applejack? You're all Mare-Do-Well?"

The names jogged Jack's memories, and details on these three came flowing back into his mind. This, however, was not enough to distract him from the bluish glow his peripheral vision had spotted at the opposite end of the alley. It was difficult to make out in the darkness, but he had been in enough set-up scenarios to know it meant trouble. Thinking quickly, he drew and hurled a razor-disc from his wrist, and it flew imperceptibly through the air, embedding itself in the brick wall with a metallic clang. This drew Dash's attention, and she stared down the alleyway to find an ivory unicorn and yellow, pink-maned pegasus. The razor-disc had stuck in the wall directly above them, and they were both frozen in their tracks with fear. 

"Rarity? Fluttershy? What are you doing here?"

Sensing the impracticality of fleeing, both of them stepped into the light towards the group. Rarity spoke first.

"Darn me, I knew that teleportation spell wouldn't work! We should have just left while we had the chance! That's what I told you, Fluttershy..."

Dash cleared her throat deliberately, breaking Rarity's focus from her aside and back to the matter at hand. 

"Ah, yes, well... Fluttershy and I were... umm...it's kind of hard to... Twilight, be a dear and explain this to Rainbow and her friend. By the way, what are you, anyway?"

The gasps, strange looks, and bewildered questions, though not unexpected, were starting to get on Jack's nerves.

"A human being, thank you very much."

Rainbow was too fuming to notice this last exchange. 

"Yes, Twilight, please explain why three ponies I thought were my best friends have been masquerading as the vigilante who has thus far ruined my life."

Twilight Sparkle, for once in her life, was speechless. She could do nothing but glance between the others, finally settling her gaze on Applejack.

"Tell her, Twi."

"Rainbow, there's no easy to say this, so I'll be direct. We've been playing Mare-Do-Well the entire time. We would each take up the costume at different times so nopony would suspect us. Pinkie's Pinkie Sense would tell us when a disaster was going to happen, and one of us would suit up and go make the rescue. Sometimes there was more than one of us at once."

Rainbow Dash already knew where this was going.

"Like at the dam. I'm guessing fixing the dam was your job, Twilight, then the flyover was done by Fluttershy. Rarity, I assume that means you were a part of this, too. Am I right?"

At the mention of her name, and reminder of her role, Fluttershy broke down sobbing. Rarity was able to answer for both of them, though.

"Entirely, dear. You guessed them both right, but I was never actually Mare-Do-Well. I just designed the costumes; I think they turned out very well, don't you? Stylish, but also functional, and very durable, I might add. I just may send the..."

A glare from Dash was all that was necessary to silence her. Twilight, however, was not finished.

"But I think we're ignoring the real issue here, girls. Rainbow Dash, what are you doing with a human in Equestria? I thought they were only myths, old mares' tales from ancient times. But here you have a real, living one! This is a breakthrough in so many fields! I must write..."

She had gotten up, and all the while was eying Jack up and down, occassionally moving his arms and legs interestedly. This annoyed him to no end.

"Do you mind? This human is not here to be studied, for your information."

She had been put off from her obsession with knowledge, comparable to Rarity's for fashion. She looked at the ground, almost pouting at having been denied an in-depth examination. Rainbow was, once again, disinterested in this line of questioning, and still focused on the matter concerning her. 

"No, Twilight. The real issue is not Jack. It's you. I can understand you all wanting to be heroes, too, and the cape-and-cowl was an interesting touch. But every time you showed up, I ended up with egg on my face. I don't think it's a coincidence. Please, enlighten me."

"Yes, Rainbow. It wasn't coincidence we were stealing your rescues. But if you didn't notice, the fame that came with your heroics kind of went to your head."

"Twi's right, you were getting quite a bit high-horsed there."

"Yeah, you were being a Braggy McBraggerpants. I know I used that line in the other Mare-Do-Well fic, but I like it, so I'm gonna use it anyway."

No one could help but cock an eyebrow at Pinkie, but the disruption was momentary; Rainbow quickly broke the silence.

"Alright, I'll give you that. I was being a little bit too boastful about it. But why go to all this? Just to teach me a lesson? All you needed to do was tell me, and I could've fixed it right there. I don't get you at all."

"Well, that would've been too short, and a big hero epic makes for a better episode plot."

Once again, cue group eyebrow-cock at Pinkie. Twilight was close behind with the sensible answer.

"We didn't think you'd listen. It might have worked for a day, but we didn't think you'd actually change with something so small. We..."

Rainbow quickly cut her off, voice now thawed out into a fire of rage.

"You didn't really try, did you? Quit sugarcoating it, Twilight. You betrayed me, all of you. I'm not sure if you really wanted to teach me a lesson, or if you were just jealous, or whatever the real reason was, but you've done nothing but cause me pain ever since Mare-Do-Well showed up. No amount of petty justification can change that. You upstaged me and embarrassed me on a grand scale, made me the laughingstock of Ponyville. I don't care what you intended, but that's what you've done; I hope you're happy with it."

Jack, still acting as a bystander, could feel the emotion she was emmanating. He knew the feelings betrayal brought, hatred most of all, through many painful memories he wouldn't care to relive. He also knew he didn't know enough about their friendship (if it could be called that anymore) to intervene. Until Dash made a move, he would stay back and let her vent. Twilight, it appeared, could not empathize as well as he could.

"Rainbow, please, we never meant to hurt you..."

"Well you did! You hurt me a lot, Twilight. In fact, all of you hurt me, worse than ever before. The five ponies I always thought I could go to when something like this came up, and it turns out they've been working against me the entire time! Five of you, and it never occurred to one of you that that would hurt?"

Twilight could tell her words would mean nothing, and slowly backed towards the others, head hung low in shame. Pinkie's smile was also gone, and her hair straightening by the minute. Rarity comforted Applejack, as they both realized the fallout of their actions far too late. Fluttershy was on the edge of tears, curled up in a ball on the pavement. Rainbow, having turned away from them, could do nothing but scowl at the wall, until finally working up the courage to speak. The chill had returned to her voice, and its curtness hinted to Jack something was about to happen.

"I don't know what to think right now. I need time to clear my head, away from all of this. But loyalty only works both ways. I hope you know that."

With these last lines, she leapt into the air and flew up, into the falling twilight. Opposite her flight path, a shimmering ray of sunlight cut through the darkness. One could barely make out the form of a chariot emerging from the beam. With the mare of the hour gone, all eyes fell towards Jack, Twilight's in particular. 

"I'm sure the princess will have more than a few things to talk to you about."

"Unfortunately, I don't plan to be around to discuss them with her. Give the princess my regards. I have a friend I need to visit."

Slipping a small pellet from his belt to the ground, he disappeared in an instantaneous cloud of smoke. Unseen by anyone else, he had climbed back to the rooftops. He once again began bounding across the skyline, in the last direction he had seen Rainbow Dash fly.

He knew too well that if there was ever a time someone like her needed a friend, it was now.