• Published 10th May 2013
  • 5,580 Views, 154 Comments

Mare Do Well vs Professor Nightshade - ssjgokillo



Rainbow Dash decides she wants a turn being Mare Do Well, but quickly discovers that Ponyville is nothing like the places depicted in comic books. If only there was some bad flank villain for her to fight.

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Chapter 6

Mare Do Well vs Professor Nightshade
Chapter 6: The Infinity Cupcake

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

“Mare Do Well Stop! That’s the princess you’re hurting!” ~Chicken, sidekick of Mare Do Well

“I know Chicken, and I won’t stop until she’s dead!” ~Mare Do Well

Caption: What’s this True Believer? Mare Do well is attacking the princess? What could drive our heroine to such acts? And can Chicken stop her? Read to find out!

Princess Luna shook her head in exasperation as she looked at the comic book cover. “I always hate it when they do this. The story inside probably has nothing to do with what’s on the cover, and even if it does it’s never really Mare Do Well, always somepony pretending to be her.” She glared at the comic, as though trying to force the cover to be more truthful about its contents. Then, she shrugged. “Oh well, it’ll be humorous to see ‘Tia getting thrashed.”

MDWvsPN

After two weeks without even thinking about schemes or practicing her evil laugh, Twilight finally felt like she was ready to step into her Professor Nightshade persona again. She had been hesitant to try after the fiasco with Spike getting foalnapped. Eventually she figured that she had simply been too into the character, so much so that she was willing to take actions that only Professor Nightshade would take, like blocking her memories.

Now that she had determined that though, she figured she’d be able to keep it from happening again. She’d simply use the Professor Nightshade persona she’d developed as a guide, but she’d stay Twilight (except in appearance).

Besides, todays caper promised to be fun. There’d only be a few minions involved, then it would be her and Mare Do Well, facing off mare against mare. It’d be just like Sherclop Pones squaring off against Professor Maneiarty, or Daring Doo vs Ahuizotl.

More importantly, it meant she’d be spending time with Rainbow Dash (even if Rainbow herself didn’t know about it). She’d found herself increasingly drawn to the mare since their day in the park, and it seemed the feeling was reciprocated. It wasn’t unusual for Rainbow Dash to show up at the library at some point in the afternoon to see if Twilight wanted to go flying, or want an audience to practice magic with.

One day they’d even done some “training”, with Twilight launching harmless spells at Rainbow Dash as she tried to dodge them. The sight of Rainbow Dash writhing on the ground, laughing her head off under the effects of Twilight’s tickle spell, brought both a smile and a blush to Twilight’s face. Something that had been happening a lot since she and Rainbow Dash had been hanging out.

“Twilight, you’re doing it again.” Spike said, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts.

“Doing what?” She asked.

Spike shook his head in exasperation. “Wearing that silly grin while you stare off into space. Seriously, it’s creeping me out.”

“Sorry Spike, guess I’ve just been distracted lately.” Twilight said, doing her best not to think of the source of her “distraction”.

“Whatever, so what are you and Rainbow Dash doing today?” Spike asked. While Twilight would try and deny it, he knew that the rainbow-maned pegasus was the source of her distraction. He didn’t really care, honestly he was glad to see her get out of the library more often. Besides, she always gave him a couple gems for watching the library in her absence, so it was win-win.

“Nothing today, I have some errands to run today in Canterlot. I need to restock some of our potion ingredients, and the book I ordered arrived at Lee & Kane’s bookstore, so I’m going to pick it up while I’m there. I should be back before dinner.” Twilight said. She used her magic to levitate her saddlebags of the hook she kept them on. A moment later and they were securely cinched around her. “Will you be alright on your own today?”

Spike waved a claw dismissively. “Sure thing Twi, it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve watched the library.”

Twilight smiled at him. “Of course, I’ll be sure to bring you back some of those sapphire donuts you like from Donut Joes.”

Spike smiled excitedly at the prospect of gem encrusted pastries. “Alright! Thanks Twilight, you’re the best!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. Spike was easy to keep happy, but she wouldn’t trade him for anything. “Okay, well I’m off then.” Twilight said, trotting out the door as Spike called out a farewell behind her.

Twilight trotted a few yards away from the library, before lighting her horn up with magic and teleporting away. She appeared back in the basement of the library, which she quickly ensured was locked. No way was she going to make a repeat mistake like having Spike walking in on her.

After she was satisfied that nopony (or dragon) would be coming in, she began casting the spells she’d need to become Professor Nightshade. She checked herself over in the mirror to make sure everything looked right, it had been over two weeks since the last time she had done this after all. There was nothing to worry about though, everything looked perfect. She then grabbed two buckets full of concrete mix in her magic, before teleporting to her next destination. It was time for the show to begin.

MDWvsPN

Rainbow Dash was lounging on a cloud high above Ponyville, but she wasn’t napping for once. She was too busy thinking about the last week, the week she’d spent primarily in the company of a certain purple unicorn.

Had somepony told her a month ago that she would be spending so much time hanging out with Twilight, she probably would have laughed at them. Not that she didn’t like Twilight back then, it’s just that they didn’t seem to have very much in common. Rainbow was an athlete, a performer, whereas Twilight was an egghead, forever a student. She was a great pony, but back then Rainbow Dash figured she’d just be boring to hang out with, like wanting to read together or something.

Instead, she found somepony who got the same thrill she did out of flying, even if she didn’t have wings of her own. They also shared the intense drive to succeed, even if it was in different things. While Rainbow wanted to be the best flyer in Equestria, Twilight wanted to be the best mage. Their goals were different, but the path was oh so similar. Ever since that day in the park, she felt a sense of companionship she’d never known she longed for. Not that she’d ever say it like that to Twilight, that was way too mushy. She’d just tell her that she was way cooler than some unicorn named Starscream the Something or other, and enjoy the small smile and blush it brought to her face.

That smile... ever since that day, Twilight’s smile made Rainbow feel warm all over. If she were a less cool pony, she’d know that she’d been blushing a lot more recently in the company of her friend. But that couldn’t be true, she didn’t blush. She exuded radicalness! That had to be what it was. Still though, a small part of her found she didn’t mind the prospect of blushing because Twilight.

Rainbow Dash smiled and closed her eyes, letting her mind drift as she imagined flying with Twilight. Hearing her scream in excitement as she went into a sharp dive, or hearing her gasp in awe when she showed her a new view from the sky. Or was that scream in awe... no, she never screamed in awe, was that even a thing? Why was the Twilight in her mind screaming like that?

The screams coming from below finally thrust Rainbow from her daydreaming. The ponies of Ponyville were freaking out about something, but what? She flew closer to the town, hoping to hear what was going on.

In the center of town, Mayor Mare stood before Town Hall trying to calm the ponies to find out what was going on.

“It’s that Professor Nightshade! She’s created more horrible creatures and they’re trying to break the dam open!” Caramel shouted.

“The horror! The horror!” A mare cried out.

“Ohhh, she’s so evil, I had to write a song about her!” Pinkie Pie shouted from amongst the crowd.

“Now Pinkie Pie, darling, I hardly think now is the time for-” Rarity began, but was cut off as three ponies, dressed in western clothing and wearing cowpony hats, began to sing.

Nightshade

Nightshade

Nightshade

Nightshade

She rides across Ponyville

The alicorn of sin

She put Sweet Apple Acres

In the mess it's in

She's Mare Do Well's archvillian

So let the games begin

A heinous crime, a threat is made

Her evil always makes the grade

Nightshade

Nightshade

Nightshade

She's bad

There's evil plans of evil

She's hatching, so beware

The grade that she gives you

Will be your last, we swear

So pray that our masked hero

Can stop this wicked mare . . .

Get saddled up

There's no recourse

Professor Nightshade's

One Bad Horse

With that, the three cowponies disappeared into the crowd. Everypony stared at Pinkie Pie, who simply shrugged.

“What?” She said, “That wasn’t me, my song was a remix of my Evil Enchantress song!”

The assembled ponies as one decided to simply ignore what had just happened, and focus on more important things. Like the impending, town-destroy catastrophe that was taking place.

Then, as if to answer the prayers of the town, a shadow flew by. The assembled ponies looked up, for flying towards the dam was their hero. The Mysterious Mare Do Well

“Go get her Mare Do Well!” Somepony in the crowd shouted, and soon the rest of the ponies started cheering, shouting her name and their assurances that she would win.

Mare Do Well flew as fast as she could towards the dam. Celestia only knew how long Professor Nightshade had been working to destroy it, the thing could possibly break at any moment. There was no way she was going to let that happen.

Soon enough she arrived at the dam. She could see Professor Nightshade standing at the top of the dam, looking down as some grey, golem like monsters slammed their fists against the dam. There was only five of them, but they were sticking to the side of the dam about midway up. She’d have to be careful, she had no idea what these ones were capable of.

She landed at the top of the dam, near Professor Nightshade. Twilight had explained to her that animation magic, like this one, was tied to the caster’s will. The caster didn’t have to be nearby for the spell to be in effect, but if the caster lost consciousness, then the will maintaining the golems would be gone, and they wouldn’t be able to act. So her best bet right now was to try and take out the caster, Professor Nightshade.

Professor Nightshade turned and looked at her as she landed. Nightshade quirked an eyebrow in confusion. “A strangely dressed mare?” She asked.

Mare Do Well just stared. What... she didn’t recognize her? It had only been a couple weeks since they’d last faced off. Weren’t they supposed to be archenemies or something? Didn’t that count for anything?

Out of the corner of her eye, Mare Do Well saw her hat floating by on the wind. She raised a hoof to her head and felt nothing, realizing it somehow fell off in flight. She quickly grabbed the hat before the wind could whisk it away, and placed it securely on her head.

“Ahhh, Mare Do Well the strangely dressed mare, I should have known!” Professor Nightshade said.

Mare Do Well couldn’t help it, she had to facehoof. Nightshade only recognized her with the hat on? How did that even make sense?

Then Mare Do Well realized something even more important. Her hat had come off, the hat that Twilight had enchanted to stick to her costume despite the speeds she flew at. That meant one of Twilight’s enchantments had run out. That meant that the spell she had cast on the costume to help protect her could also be gone.

It wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was a good thing she realized it now rather than in the middle of a fight. If she fought like she did the first time she fought the apple-golems, she’d be likely to end up with a broken leg.

“What are you doing Nightshade?” Mare Do Well growled out at the mad mare, “I thought you were trying to take over Ponyville, not destroy it.”

“Oh Marey, Marey. Quite contrary, I’m not trying to destroy Ponyville. I’m just going to give them a choice.” Professor Nightshade said.

Mare Do Well grit her teeth at Nightshade’s condescending tone. “And what choice is that?”

“Oh you know, submit to my rule or....” Nightshade trailed off, grinning wickedly at Mare Do Well.

“Or?”

“Or grow some gills” Nightshade said, before laughing evily. Mare Do Well hated to admit it, but Nightshade had the evil laugh down perfectly.

“Only problem with that Nightshade, is that it’s going to be hard to finish your plan in one of Canterlot’s dungeons.” Mare Do Well said.

For some reason, this challenge just made Professor Nightshade smile in approval. “Ohhh, I knew you had it in you Marey. Still, think you’re going to stop me?” She flared her wings open, and Mare Do Well instantly recognized the challenge before it was even issued. “You’ll have to catch me first!”

As soon as Professor Nightshade was done speaking, both mares launched themselves into the air. It was quickly apparent that Mare Do Well was the better flyer, she easily caught up with Nightshade in a matter of seconds. However, right as she was getting close enough to hit the crazy mare, she disappeared in a flash of green light only to appear a short distance away.

“Ohhh, so close Marey, but you’ll have to do better than that. Meep Meep!” After that strange comment, Nightshade took off again, with Mare Do Well in hot pursuit.

The two of them flew through the sky, Nightshade teleporting away every time Mare Do Well started to get close. Not too far away, just enough to start flying again and force Mare Do Well to have to catch up.

“Come on Marey, I’m starting to get boooooored.” Nightshade called out as she flew over Ponyville. The citizens of the town stared in shock, getting their first real look at the villainess.

“She’s an Alicorn?!” Somepony called out from below.

“Like the Princesses?!” Another pony cried.

“The horror! The horror!” Guess who!

Professor Nightshade smiled as she looked down at the ponies who started running around the town in fear. She quickly teleported to the right as Mare Do Well’s hoof came inches from her head.

“Look at that Mare Do Well. Ponies are such silly little creatures. One little alicorn shows up, then everypony loses their minds!” Nightshade teleported again, as Mare Do Well tried to tackle her in the air.

“The only pony who’s lost their mind here is you Nightshade!” Mare Do Well growled out, rocketing towards her foe again.

“Ohhh, have you been practicing Marey? Why I didn’t know you cared.” Nightshade taunted, before teleporting up higher as Mare Do Well got close once again.

Mare Do Well stopped for a second, catching her breath as she tried to figure out what to do. Each moment she wasted chasing Professor Nightshade was another moment closer the dam came to bursting, but she couldn’t catch her. She was slippier than a Quarray eel.

She really wished Twilight was here. She’d be able to figure out a plan to catch Nightshade. It would probably be something complicated, something that Mare Do Well wouldn’t really understand at first, but it would be something that would work.

So that was it, she just needed to try and think what Twilight would do in this situation.

First thing first, she knew that she couldn’t catch her with pure speed. Nightshade always just teleported out of the way right before Mare Do Well could touch her. She could try going into a Sonic Rainboom, those speeds may be too fast for Nightshade to react. But those speeds could also kill the crazy mare, something Mare Do Well was not willing to do.

But... what if she didn’t need to catch her? A plan began forming in Mare Do Well’s head, a plan she was sure even Twilight would be proud of.

MDWvsPN

Professor Nightshade looked around in confusion. Surely she hadn’t lost Mare Do Well? The masked mare was much faster than she was. But the mare had suddenly disappeared after they started flying away from the town.

She was probably trying to hide in the clouds, to try and get her with the element of surprise. It wasn’t a bad plan, but she would be expecting it. She’d just have to avoid getting too close to any clouds.

A whistling sound gave her the brief warning to teleport away, milliseconds before Mare Do Well swooped into the area she had just been occupying.

“There you are Marey! I was starting to get worried. I thought something terrible might have happened to you.” Nightshade said, before her voice took on a gruffer undertone, “It figures I couldn’t be that lucky.”

Mare Do Well didn’t say anything, just launched herself towards Nightshade again. Was she really that stubborn? Did she not realize she couldn’t catch her by just charging at her repeatedly?

Professor Nightshade sighed disappointedly before teleporting away. “You know Marey, I was really expecting more fro- whoa!” Nightshade barely had the time to teleport away from Mare Do Well’s hoof. How had she gotten there that fast? She teleported away again, and then again, as Mare Do Well came closer and closer to hitting her. After two more teleports, she finally saw what was going on. It was the clouds. Mare Do Well was charging her as fast as she could, and then using the clouds around the area like springboards, launching her faster after each jump.

Of course the answer was simple, teleport out of the cloudy area. She waited until Mare Do Well was almost upon her again, before she teleported up above the clouds. Seconds later Mare Do Well burst from the clouds, and Nightshade couldn’t help but taunt her. “Oh good show Marey, you almost had me there. But what’re you going to do without all those clouds to bounce off?”

Surprisingly, Mare Do Well’s answering voice sounded smug. “I’m not out of clouds to help me yet!” She said. She reached into her cape, and pulled out a small cloud ball. “Suck cloud evil doer!” She shouted, flinging the cloud at Nightshade.

Professor Nightshade watched as the cloud ball sailed harmlessly over her. “Wow Marey.. that... even I can’t find anything funny about that.” Nightshade said, shaking her head sadly.

“Oh yeah? Do you see anything funny about that?” Mare Do Well asked, her voice sounding smug. She was pointing to something above Nightshade. She looked up, to see a dark storm cloud crackling with energy. How had that even happened? There was no pegasus anywhere near the cloud to draw lightning from it.

As the bolt of lightning raced from the cloud towards Nightshade, she realized what had happened. She had never lost Mare Do Well, Mare Do Well had been trapping her. She probably pushed all these clouds over here, corralling Nightshade into the area and then making her think that the clouds she was using as a springboard were the only danger. She’d also set up a storm cloud and primed it, needing just a little bit more pegasus magic to unleash its payload. Pegasus magic, that was contained in that small cloud ball she had dismissed.

Nightshade acted quickly, forming a small shield of magic around her. The lightning bolt easily burst through the shield, but the brunt of the power was absorbed.

“AHHHHHHH!” She scream as the lightning hit her. Then she was falling. She tried to right herself, tried to flap her wings, only to realize that the lightning strike had vaporized her delicate wings. She was plummeting to the ground, to her death, and there was nothing she could do. She idly realized that she was no longer thinking like Professor Nightshade, who would be relishing her impending demise, but instead like Twilight Sparkle

She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable impact even as she wished this hadn’t happened. She had so much more she wanted to do. She still hadn’t even told Rainbow Dash that she...

She felt her fall stop suddenly, but she didn’t feel any pain. Instead, she felt warm. Warm and protected. She cracked open an eye to see that, like that final stunt that day in the park, Rainbow Dash had caught her in her forehooves.

She couldn’t help herself, it was purely off impulse, a desperate need to convey her feelings to her savior. She lunged her head forward, kissing Mare Do Well forcefully over her mask.

As quickly as it began, it was over. She felt Mare Do Well toss her away and blinked her eyes in confusion as the masked mare backed away from her. Her heart hurt momentarily, before she remembered the situation she was in. She wasn’t Twilight Sparkle, and that wasn’t Rainbow Dash. She was the evil Professor Nightshade, and that was her foe the Mysterious Mare Do well. This, this was all wrong!

Not saying anything else, she teleported away in a flash of green. Back to the basement of the library, where she laid on the floor in the darkness for what felt like hours, but what was really a few minutes. She slowly stripped away the illusion magic, trying as hard as she could not to think about her brush with death. She looked over herself and saw a patch of singed fur from where the lightning had hit her. Her horn flared, and she cast a small illusion to cover it, making her fur look normal.

That... that was insane. This whole thing was insane! It had gotten way out of hoof! She had almost died! Died! For what? A game? That’s really all this was. And she was done with it. Rainbow Dash had gotten to play hero, surely this was enough wasn’t it?

She sighed, and teleported back outside the library. She walked inside, to find Spike sleeping at the table in the main room. Twilight smiled, even as she felt tears leaking out of her eyes. She had almost died, almost left Spike on his own. Almost left her friends on her own...

Almost left Rainbow Dash...

She collapsed onto one of the sitting pillows and cried silently, thankful that she was alive, but cursing her stupidity for getting into this situation. And worse of all, she could feel somewhere deep within herself that it wasn’t over. Of course it wasn’t over. It wouldn’t be over until Professor Nightshade either won or was destroyed. And there was no way she would let her win, because that would mean the end of Mare Do Well, the end of Rainbow Dash.

So she cried, she cried until she felt empty, and before she knew it, she was asleep.

MDWvsPN

She groaned in her sleep as she felt herself stirring. Something was prodding her side, some evil entity was trying to rouse her from the blissful dreamless sleep she’d been having, and she let her displeasure known in another loud groan.

“Twi? C’mon Twi wake up, please!” The voice that broke through her sleepy state filled her with both bliss and hatred. It was Rainbow Dash’s voice.

“Dashie?” Twilight mumbled tiredly.

“Dashie huh? I guess that’s fair if I call you Twi.” Rainbow chuckled.

That snapped Twilight fully awake. She quickly sat up and then just as quickly regretted the action. She had not been sleeping in a comfortable position, and her achy muscles were currently protesting any movement.

“Whoa! Easy there Twi.” Rainbow said, sliding up against Twilight and holding her steady. Twilight smiled in appreciation, and leaned into Rainbow.

“Sorry Rainbow, I think I slept on something wrong. What’s up?” She asked.

Rainbow looked nervous. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. She gave a gentle cough, trying to hide her nervousness, before looking at Twilight again.

“Uh, Twi? I was... wondering, ya know, if you’re not busy or anything... if you’d like to ya know... go get dinner with me?” Rainbow said, her cheeks flaring up in a blush.

“Dinner?” Twilight asked, “Sure, I’d love to!”

“Er...” Rainbow shook her head, “No, I mean... yes dinner, but I was.. you know...” Dash shook her head again, then narrowed her eyes. The stammering and blushing was gone, replaced by the confidence she normally displayed. “I meant it as a date.” And as soon as those words were said, the blushing and nervousness returned full force, and Rainbow turned her head away.

Twilight blinked, her mind trying to process what she’d just heard Rainbow had asked her on a date. Rainbow had asked her on a date!

It was getting accepted into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns all over again. It was getting her cutie mark, it was every good thing that had happened to her all at once

“Dashie, I’d love to go on a date with you.” Twilight said, her voice low and playful.

Rainbow Dash looked at her in surprise, before a smile split her face. “Really?! I mean, *cough* great! So shall we go? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving”

Twilight laughed, all her earlier misery forgotten. How could anything be bad now? “Sounds good Dashie, let’s go.” She said, leading the way towards the library door. She brushed up against Rainbow as she passed, nuzzling into her side for a moment before walking away.

Rainbow Dash stared at her dumbly, before shaking her head and grinning like she’d just won the Running of the Leaves. “Hey! Wait for me Twi!” She shouted, running out the door after her date.

Author's Note:

In case anybody didn't understand the part at the beginning, I was having fun with the old silver-age comic book covers, where the characters would be shown doing something that only vaguely had anything to do with the actual story inside. Like Jimmy Olsen shooting Superman with a Kryptonite bullet, or Batman attacking some public figure.

I'm sure everyone recognizes Sherclop Pones, but if you don't I borrowed the name from the Friendship is Witchcraft folks. Sorry, but I couldn't really think of a better pony name for Sherlock Holmes.

And special thanks to Wolfram-And-Hart, for coming up with the Nightshade/Bad Horse parody, and graciously agreeing to let me use it. You rock!

One more chapter to go, but I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. The hour grows later and my eyes are starting to blur. No worries though, the chapter will be finished even if it's not in time for the contest.

And thank you again to everyone who had commented on this story. You've made writing this a true pleasure. Seriously, it wouldn't be what it was without your encouragement, so thanks for being awesome!

Now True Believers, get ready, as Mare Do Well and Professor Nightshade rush to their final battle. Who will emerge on top? And who will be randomly brought back to life to try and improve book sales? Find out next time, same Mare Do Well time, same Mare Do Well channel.