The Mysterious Mare Do-Well
The Mysterious Mare Do-Well
---<^^>---
“Fillies and gentlecolts! May I have your attention to the stage!”
Fireworks exploded in the night sky and the smell of popcorn and cotton candy pervaded the air. The patrons of Haylee’s Circus came for the tent show but they tended to stay for the stage. A barker got their attention as they exited the tent, children and adults smiling enthusiastically after a wonderful show. They congregated before a large brilliant wooden stage with ruby red curtains and gold lace. A purple unicorn walked alongside a young purple dragon as they exited the circus tent, only one of them wearing a smile. “That was so fun, Twilight!” the dragon shouted. “With the fire and the rings and the clowns!”
“Yup, nothing like a circus, Spike,” Twilight muttered.
“Everything okay?”
A popgun went off nearby and Twilight turned sharply to it reaching for her belt but nothing was there. She let a breath out. “No, I’m fine. Just been a while since I’ve had a day off.”
Spike smiled and friendfully elbowed her. “Can’t be a super serious vigilante all the time, can you?” She didn’t respond.
The barker continued. “The fun doesn’t stop with the tigers and acrobats, oh no! Here on Haylee’s world famous stage, you will find a show surpassing all others. It’s here you will find… THE GREAT AND POWERFUL LULAMOONS!!”
The curtain rose to reveal three ponies in wide brimmed hats and capes. Stars embroidered every inch of their oufits and they all flourished them at the same time, doing a simultaneous bow to the audience. The barker continued his spiel from the sidelines. “Hailing from parts unknown, Nocturne Lulamoon and his lovely wife and daughter, Spella and Trixie!”
Spike stopped at the edge of the crowd making Twilight stop as well. “I guess this is an after show,” he said.
Twilight tapped her hoof. “It’s already eleven o’clock, what show goes on this late?”
The three on stage bowed again before the father, a black stallion with a light blue mane, made a large cloth levitate to him from backstage. The daughter, a mare with a blue coat and silver mane, walked to center stage and smiled as he laid it over her. He waved his hoof over the cloth and then removed it to reveal she’d disappeared and been replaced by the mother, a mare with a coat similar in blue to the daughter but a white mane. The crowd applauded lightly until suddenly somepony at the front of the crowd jumped up on stage and threw off her clothes revealing her to be the daughter.
“Wow! That was amazing!”
Twilight looked down at him and shrugged. “It was some nicely timed teleportation.”
“Must you always be a stick in the mud?”
“I’m just-” She stopped as she noticed the mare with the silver mane start a new trick. Her horn glowed strongly as she set herself and managed to lift the entire audience. Even Twilight felt herself getting lifted up, though she applied her own spell and fell back down before the rest. “I didn’t even feel that,” she muttered under her breath.
They stayed for more of the show, watching as the three performed trick after astounding trick. Spike was simply pleased to watch but Twilight grew more interested in other things. The parents were good but the daughter had astounding capabilities. More than once, the parents would take credit for a trick when she knew it was the daughter that did most of the heavy lifting in their spells. She had to be the same age as her.
Close to the end of the show they put on a final act. The parents locked themselves in a box as the daughter stuck swords through set holes in it. A pretty standard trick with a standard ending until she opened the door to reveal they hadn’t left the box at all and were actually dodging the swords the whole time. They crawled out and took another bow. Even Twilight had to applaud them for that one, though she wished she could see more of the daughter.
Suddenly a loud snap caught everypony’s attention. Something thunked and one of the floodlights above the daughter went out. Twilight wasn’t able to act quick enough, but the parents who were on stage did. The daughter looked up just as the line holding the floodlight above snapped. With a swift push the two shoved her out of the way and off the stage, just as the light crashed where they were now standing. Shouts and cries of horror rang out and ponies ran in panic. They emptied out fast leaving only Twilight, the daughter, and the leftover spotlights standing over what remained.
Police arrived ten minutes later. Spike said he’d felt sick after the show and left but Twilight decided to stick around. She blended into the shadows as she watched the investigation unfold.
The bodies had been taken away and the daughter simply sat on the back of a wagon staring out into the middle distance. Twilight had seen that look before, in the mirror every day. The look of a lost soul tossed into the world not knowing what to do. Commisioner Applejack stood off to the side and talked with her CSI. They listened to them closely from behind the corner of a wagon. “Paramedics called it on arrival,” the CSI stated. “Their necks were broken by the falling light.”
“Damn.” Applejack stuck a cinnamon stick in her mouth and chewed. “Hell of a time to quit. Any sign of foul play?”
“Bolts were tight enough on the rafters. Might have just been the age. It’s a pretty old set of lights.”
Applejack nodded. “Yeah, hope you don’t mind if Ah get a second opinion?”
“From who?” She just shrugged and left as the space where Twilight had once hidden was now empty.
Twilight returned there a little later that night in her work clothes. Silently, like a spider she crawled up the taped off rafters of the stage and took a closer look at the bolts that held the spotlight.
The barker sat in his wagon nervously tapping his hoof. The events of the night refusing him sleep. The light of the moon illuminated the wall he stared at until a dark caped figure overshadowed it. He gasped and turned only to find her already inside the wagon. “Talk,” she stated bluntly, pushing him into the wall. “Those bolts were rescrewed after the light fell.”
“How do you-”
“Rust shavings are sprinkled everywhere. Only a third of the bolts are clean metal meaning they were just recently screwed in to the head. Before that they stuck out. So talk!”
The barker trembled before her then fell to his knees and put his head in his hooves. “I didn’t know they’d go that far. All they wanted was protection money, there’s hundreds of regular places in Pony City to hassle why go so far with a traveling circus?”
She got up in his face, her purple mask and wide brimmed hat filling his vision. “Give me a name.”
---
Trixie sat in the police department, a cup of cocoa in her hooves, though she didn’t drink it. Her hat sat by her side laying half on and half off her leg, like the comforting hand of a felt companion. By now nopony was paying attention to her. Her case had been recorded and they’d get back to her when they had anything, but she was expected to find somewhere to go. She couldn’t go back to the circus. She didn’t want to. She wanted something else. She just wished she knew what that was.
A tap from the nearest window drew her out of her thoughts and she turned to see the image of a disappearing cape. This got her attention and she finally got up. She left the police department, exiting into a deserted alley. The door swung closed behind her revealing a masked purple figure in the shadows. “Do you want to know what really happened?”
She turned to the figure, her heart skipping a beat. But something inside her filled her with a new drive as she looked at the mare before her. “Yes.”
“Then follow me.” With a rush of her cape she leapt over her and began to run. She took off after her.
The run was long and arduous. The caped mare able to jump and dodge and climb in such fascinating ways, but Trixie kept up. In fact, it filled her with a new sensation. This running and flipping and leaping through the city making her heart beat a little faster and the pain a little number. At times she even thought she saw the masked mare looking back to check on her and smiling under her mask at the fact that she was catching up.
They ended on the roof of a small building just across from a sleazy looking restaurant. “Are you going to tell me why I’m here now?” Trixie asked.
The mare pointed below just as a plain looking pony with a toothpick in his mouth exited the restaurant. Four others flanked him, big and tough looking. “Meet the pony that killed your parents.”
Her blood ran cold. She stepped up to the ledge to get a better view and looked down. Had she even seen this pony before? Why was he the one responsible?
As if listening to her thoughts the mare answered her question. “He runs a protection racket here in Pony City. Threatens to run businesses out of town if they don’t pay him. Connections to several mob families. Haylee’s Circus was one of his latest conquests but the owner wouldn’t pay up.”
Trixie dug her hooves into the rooftop gravel and clenched her teeth. “I don’t understand.”
The mare walked up to her and looked down beside her. “It’s a hard thing to understand. But if you ever want to, you need to take that first step.” Without another word she took a step off the roof and let her cape glide her down. She spun in the air and kicked one of the big thugs in the teeth knocking him into the wall. The rest reeled on her.
“Crap! It’s the Mare!” A thug swung his hoof but she ducked and delivered a one-two to his chest before an uppercut to his jaw that put him on his back. Trixie watched the fight unfold. The movements of the caped mare, flowing and graceful like a ballet, yet hard and fast like a storm. She got that feeling in her gut again. That feeling of something she wanted but couldn’t put a name to. She could now. She wanted control. The kind of control of one’s life the mare showed. The kind of control that would ensure nothing like this ever happened to her again.
The last two tried to attack the mare from both sides but she grabbed one by the arm and threw him into the other. They landed in a heap on the pavement. Just then a silent, recently toothless figure tried to sneak up from behind and grab her. One of the thugs had gotten back up. Before she could turn around to retaliate though, Trixie teleported in and grabbed the thug’s leg. With a yell of effort, she pulled his leg until he toppled over, smashing his head against the door and effectively knocking him out. She stood there breathing heavily as she amazed herself at what she’d just done. “It’s not over yet,” the mare whispered.
The sound of hoofsteps running away reached her ears and she looked up to see the mare throw a bola rope from her belt. It wrapped around the legs of the last pony, the plain looking one that tried to escape. He fell with a thud and they both walked over to him. The fall had dazed him enough that he barely struggled when they arrived and pushed him onto his back.
Trixie just stared wide eyed at him, breathing heavily. She looked with confusion at the mare who simply stood by and watched. “Now what?”
“Now it’s your decision. You decide what to make of him.”
She looked back at the stallion. Just some no name stallion had taken everything from her simply because of… what? What was the reason her parents had to die? The mare told her what to make of him, did that mean she decided the punishment. If so she could only think of one. She lifted her hoof above his head, preparing to bring it down.
“I know that kind of anger,” she interjected. “I understand it. So that’s why I can respect your choice at this juncture.” Trixie looked at the mare pleadingly, her hoof trembling above the prone pony. “But that choice comes with consequences. Do that and you make him into an example. An example for others to be afraid of. An example for you to convince yourself your right. But take the other choice and you make him something he can never influence or come back from.”
Trixie gritted her teeth and let her mane hang in front of her eyes as tears welled up. “Just tell me!”
“You make him nothing.”
Trixie fought back her tears and nodded weakly, finally starting to understand. She lowered her hoof and turned from them both. “I want him to pay for his crimes.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” The pony moaned as he was coming to but Trixie kicked out her back leg and snapped it against his head knocking him unconscious again. She smiled slightly as she began to walk away.
“Hey!” the mare called out again and she turned. A small card flew at her and she caught it, looking at the number and address written there. “There’s a library there. The librarian is pretty nice. She can help you get your life back together, if you want.”
Trixie was about to decline but she looked back at the card and slipped it into her mane. “I’ll give it a try, thanks.”
---<^^>---
“You wanna what?” Spike asked as he tried to balance a stack of books while he scooted along the shelves on the rolling ladder.
Trixie walked alongside him, her magic making sure he didn’t spill anything. “I want to go out with Twilight. I want to fight crime with her.”
Spike looked down at her questioningly. “Twilight does this whole Mare Do-Well thing because she has some issues to work out.”
Trixie smirked at him. “And I don’t?”
Spike rolled his eyes. “I didn’t say that, you did. Anyway, why do you even want to? Isn’t working at the library fun enough?” He waved his arm at all the rows of books, his voice echoing off the large walls. A shush came from somewhere and he lowered his volume. “The point being, just because Twilight does it doesn’t mean you have to.”
“But I want to, Spike. And not just because I want to fight crime but also… well…”
Spike sighed. “You want to help Twilight.”
Trixie blushed slightly. “She helped me get something back I never thought I’d find again. I just want to thank her for that.”
Spike bit his lip and slid to the bottom of the ladder. He placed the books on a table and looked back and forth conspiratorially. “Okay, maybe I’ve been working on a little something in my down time. But she asks, you didn’t get this from me.” Trixie raised an eyebrow and smiled conspiratorially.
---
Twilight was fighting a platoon of goons in a warehouse on the wharf. She interrupted them as they were attempting to fill balloons of all shapes and colors with a strange gas and distribute them through vendors on the street. She already knew who was behind it. Who else could it be? Though there didn’t seem to be any sign of the culprit around.
Two goons ran at her and she flipped horizontally in the air, wrapping her legs and her arms around their necks. With a loud grunt she forced them down and forward smashing their faces into the floor. “Bring the cannon around!” one of them shouted.
She got up just in time to see several goons on a metal railing laugh as they lit the wick. She’d have to teleport if she wanted to get out of range, but she was already feeling pretty low on magic. May just have to see how the dragon scale mesh in her cape holds up.
Suddenly a glowing blue stick flew out of nowhere and lodged itself in the cannon’s mouth. The goons looked confused as the explosives inside the cannon went off still inside and hurled them from the railing. Twilight moved to save them from falling to their deaths but several ropes shot out from the roof and wrapped around their hooves slowing their descent.
“I got it!” came a voice. Twilight looked up at the skylighted ceiling and saw a hooded figure in dark blue wave to her. A horn glowed from beneath her hood, illuminating a blue face mask like her own, and the blue stick flew back up to her. She caught it and neatly sheathed it behind her back. Twilight simply narrowed her eyes at the new arrival. “What?” She just kept angrily staring. “What?!”
The sound of police sirens were not far out. “Let’s go somewhere to talk. Privately,” Twilight said with an air of disapproval.
---
“Isn’t it neat?” Trixie laughed as they both flipped onto a deserted rooftop. “The hood is reinforced nylon and the sticks are made of-”
“What are you thinking?” Twilight asked her.
Trixie stopped. “I’m going to help.”
“No, you’re not.” Twilight’s words had a finality to them and she tried to walk away from the conversation.
Trixie frowned and got in her way. She removed the mask and hood. “Hate to break it to you but I’m an adult just like you, I can do whatever I want.”
Twilight huffed. “And you think risking your life is what you want to do?”
“What I want to do is help you fight crime.”
“And what if you get hurt or worse?”
“You often get hurt or worse! I can’t count how many times I’ve seen you get some injury I’m sure is going to end you when you’re back up in a day or two! At least with me here, you’ll have another pony to watch your back.”
“You’re unprepared.”
“Then prepare me.”
Twilight let out an aggravated sigh and threw up her hooves. “Do you even get why I do this?”
Trixie suddenly became serious. “To make sure nothing like what happened to us happens to anypony else.” Twilight was silent. “I know you don’t like to talk about it, but I hear a lot of it anyway. I mean you are pretty famous around town. It’s not like I don’t understand why you picked me out that night and took me on that run. You saw something in me that was the same as you. More than just eye color, we have the same goals. I want to share the same goals as you.”
Twilight took a slow breath and let it out. “Probationary basis.”
“Yes.”
“You go on missions with me only until I say so.”
“Yes!”
“You listen to everything I say.”
“…yes.”
Twilight looked her in the eye before sighing once more and rolling her head with a laugh. “Fine, let’s go. By the way, let Spike know he is in so much trouble for giving you that suit.” Trixie chuckled as they walked to the ledge of the building and prepared to jump. “By the way, you have a name in mind?”
“Oh yeah,” Trixie replaced her mask and flipped the hood up. She glanced at the suit then looked at the light of the moon showing down on them. “How about Nightrix?”
---<^^>---
Twilight kneeled at the edge of a building, spying her quarry through binoculars. She heard the sound of somepony alighting the rooftop behind her and she heard the familiar sound of Trixie’s cape. She started talking without turning around. “Nightrix, good you’re here. The number of crooks is larger than I thought and we may need more hooves.”
“Ahem.” Twilight turned as Trixie cleared her throat. She went deadpan as she turned to see a smaller mare stood beside Trixie, this one in a clearly homemade stitched together black suit like Mare Do-Well’s. A blue “M” adorned her chest and she wore a domino mask that completely failed to hide her apple red mane and yellow coat. Trixie rubbed the back of her head shamefully.
“Pleasure to meet you, Miss Mare Do-Well!” she announced trying but failing to hide her recognizable accent.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at Trixie. “What is the commisioner’s sister doing here?”
The mare blushed profusely. “Commisioner’s what? AH… Ah mean ‘I’ don’t know what you’re ‘talking’ about.”
“I caught her following me two miles back on Mattress Mile. I thought I’d lost her but she just kind of showed up right after me.”
She managed to follow Trixie without being spotted? Twilight turned to her. “Miss Apple Bloom I’m going to need you to leave. Now.”
Apple Bloom’s blush deepened. “O-Okay you got me… Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight and Trixie flinched. “It didn’t take a miracle to figure out, though Ah am pretty smart. Ah’m also strong and fast. Mah sister has me in twenty different personal defense classes and Ah even managed to beat a lot of mah teachers. Ah swear Ah won’t tell a soul, Ah just want to be a help to you!”
Trixie leaned in to whisper to Twilight. “What do we do with her?”
Twilight looked back at the room full of crooks she was dreading facing alone, then back to Apple Bloom. “If just one thing goes wrong, you run. Got it?” Apple Bloom nodded ecstatically.
Trixie elbowed Twilight with a smile. “Gotten a little easier to accept help since me, huh?”
Twilight simply grumbled as she stepped onto the ledge. “Yeah, just don’t push your luck.”
---
Trixie burst into the hospital, nearly kicking down the door. She breathed heavily as she ran up the stairs to the intensive care unit. She found the room she was looking for and tried to calm down before entering. But she was still trembling as she opened the door. A nurse was still in the room looking over the patient who lay motionless with her eyes closed. Her back legs sprouted from under the white bed sheet, a small tray of needles beside it.
Trixie walked up to the edge of the bed, the sound of the hospital machines beeping around her. The mare in the bed was struggling to breathe, her red mane frazzled and yellow coat slick with sweat. “How is she?” she asked the nurse.
“She’s lucky the shrapnel from the blast only pierce her lower back. Any higher up and…” The nurse paused as she bit her lip. “She’s stable enough to talk so I’ll give you two a moment.” With that she left the room.
Apple Bloom’s eyes fluttered open and she caught sight of Trixie. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Trixie tried to gulp down the emotions threatening to burst for her friend.
“Twilight was here. Did she find mah sister?” Apple Bloom’s eyes widened. “Please tell me she found her! Ah don’t know what that maniac would…” The machines began to beep faster as her heart rate increased.
Trixie put a calming hoof on her chest. “It’s alright. Twilight found her. Applejack’s safe.”
Apple Bloom seemed to calm down. “That’s good.” She blinked wearily and looked at her motionless back legs at the foot of the bed. “Ah guess Ah’m not gonna be swingin’ from rooftops any time soon, huh?” She began to laugh weakly but it slowly turned into tears as she reached out for Trixie.
She pulled her into a hug and let the mare cry softly into her shoulder. All Trixie could think about was her anger though.
---
“Why?” she asked Twilight when they were alone in the cave below Pony City Library. “Why is that monster still out there breathing?”
Twilight removed her hat as she began to disrobe. “She’s in custody.”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it!” Trixie’s voice was harsh and made Twilight pause in front of the glass case she’d put her outfit in. “Look, I get the rules. I really do. Make them mean nothing, I’ve heard it before. But Pinkster is different. I can’t just dismiss her when everything she’s done and keeps on doing affects so many. And now it’s hit one of our own! You can’t seriously stand there and tell me it doesn’t affect you!”
Twilight slammed her hoof into the glass case, a spider web crack showing up on it. “Of course it affects me! I hate seeing ponies I love abused or hurt like this. And what happened to Apple Bloom… I can never forgive myself for that.”
Trixie frowned deeply as she contemplated Twilight’s words. “Then let’s break the rule. Just this once. It should only apply to ponies that are capable of being saved anyway. Pinkster is too far gone. She lives for the thrill of hurting others. There’s nothing worth anything in that.”
Twilight pulled herself away from the glass case and looked Trixie in the eye. “And what happens when you make that decision for somepony else. Say, Two-Mane or Scarecrone. Hell, what about the pony that killed your parents?”
“Don’t say that.”
“It needs to be said or nopony will say it. One bad decision will lead down a terrifying road. You make the choice to take on all the evil of the world yourself and you’ll end up finding in yourself what you always hated.” Trixie slapped her across the face, scowling at her. Twilight rubbed her cheek lightly.
“How can you have any idea what will happen? You’re not all knowledgeable!”
“That’s why I have you.” Trixie drew back. “Before you I worked alone. Every night these questions came to me and every night I fought with them until my basic sense of morality barely won out. But something different happens when you have someone else beside you. You can talk about these things. You can discuss them and become an outlet for each other. Working with you I learned that I don’t need to keep my feelings bottled up. So yes, I want to hurt her. I want to subject her to every depraved thing she’s ever done to somepony else. But I don’t. Because you’re there to stop me. Just like I’m here to stop you.”
Trixie felt a shouting match bubble at the back of her throat but she held it back and instead felt tears well up instead. She turned to her own glass dome and pushed it over, smashing it to the ground. Without a word she left the cave.
Spike entered as she left, surprised to see Trixie so angry. “Is she going to be okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” Twilight replied. “She needs to be.”
---<^^>---
Silt rained down from the roof of the library as another explosion sounded not too far away. The place was huge and sturdy so most ponies had been relocated here while the attack went on in the city outside. Several ponies worked to nail boards onto the windows while Spike walked around handing out blankets to any refugees that needed it. From a small corner of the library he heard the familiar sound of a hidden wall opening up then closing, Twilight running in from down the hall.
She spotted Spike immediately, a rattled look on her face. “Spike! Have you seen her?”
Spike knew who she was talking about but shook his head. “I don’t think she came. Do you think she could be in another bunker?”
Twilight cursed under her breath. “Her costume’s gone.” Spike’s eyes went wide. “I’m going after her.”
Spike grabbed her arm before she could leave. “There’s an alien invasion out there! Even you can’t handle that.”
“And what do you think she’s doing?” she shot back. “Damn it, Trixie.”
---
Trixie felt her rib crack as she was sent catapulting into a railing. Her head lobbed over the side and for a brief moment she saw how high up she was. She had made her way up to the tallest tower in Pony City. Fires were erupting all over the town. Green portals and nightmarish creatures filling the sky. She had come here attempting to find the leader of this invasion and put an end to this, but instead she got more than she bargained for.
A large hammer swung down on where she lay and she rolled out of the way. It landed with a crunch, flattening the metal railing like breadsticks. “Oh, come on! It’s no fun if you move around!” Pinkster grinned viciously at her as she pulled her hammer back and approached once more.
“I have had enough of this farce, child,” Darkclyde, in his impenetrable dark blue armor, announced as he stood in the center of the roof. He pointed to Pinkster. “You promised me a pony worthy of a fight, yet all I see is a pale blue soldier of tin.”
Pinkster shouldered her hammer and shrugged. “Oh, don’t worry. If this girl is close, no doubt she’ll be along shortly. Plus, we kind of have this thing going. Bitter Rivals. Hero and villain, you get the gist. She’ll be here.”
Trixie used her magic to pull out her batons and spun them at Pinkster. They decked the mare in the chest and jaw putting her on her back. Trixie jumped on top of the mare, holding her movements down. “Your world is under attack and the first thing you do is turn traitor?” she asked the trickster.
Pinkster grinned at her. “I’m an opportunist. I take what I can get. Like this.” She reached her hoof over Trixie’s head and planted something on her back. She tried to get it off but whatever it was had already activated. A large oversized balloon expanded quickly behind her and lifted her off the ground.
“No!” Trixie scraped her hooves against the ground but she couldn’t catch a grip. Her hooves were able to catch the railing just before the winds carried her off the edge of the building.
She held on as tight as she could, unable to do anything as Pinkster sauntered closer to her, twirling her hammer in her hooves. “This has been fun, really. But I’m getting tired of waiting. Let’s hope the Mare notices this.” She pointed at the balloon and Trixie saw that it had a large comicallty styled “M” on it.
Trixie narrowed her eyes at the madmare. “You’re insane.”
She gave her a cute small smile and batted her eyelashes. “Aren’t we all in our own horrible ways?” Then she lifted the hammer to smash her face in.
A shuriken buzzed by, slicing Pinkster’s hoof and making her yelp as she dropped her hammer. She turned toward the source with a growing smile while Darkclyde simply turned his eyes. Standing on the railing on the other side of the roof was a mare decked in purple with a wide brimmed hat and mask. “Is this your champion?” Darkclyde asked.
Pinkster made a low chuckle. “Oh yes.”
Trixie caught Twilight’s eyes as she looked into hers. She wanted to say her name. To tell her what was going on and to help her but all she could think about was what Twilight had told her about taking things on by herself. She did just that and she had failed. “Mare Do-Well I-” Before she could finish though, Twilight hurled another shuriken. This one slapped Trixie on her hooves and made her let go, the wind picking up and carrying her off. “NO!!”
She quickly flew out of earshot as she saw Twilight approach the giant armored stallion, his eyes aglow with red fire. Her course put a building in her way, obscuring her view before she could see what unfolded. Grabbing a shuriken of her own she started to cut at the part of the balloon tying her up. She sawed back and forth but the material was sturdy. An explosive wave of pressure emanated from the rooftop, shattering the glass of all the buildings close by and pushing her even further from the fight, sailing downward. “I need to get back! I need to help!”
After the explosion something amazing happened. In the sky, the monsters began to disappear. The green portals began to swallow up their horrid legions like some kind of recall. Had she done it? Did she actually beat that enormous monster of a stallion? “Twilight…”
Then the rooftop exploded. A massive fireball rose from the tallest point in the city. Trixie stopped trying to cut the balloon and reached out her hooves in vain. “NOOOOOOO!!!!”
With one last angry swipe of the shuriken, the balloon cut open and exploded above her. The force hit her in the head and she spun recklessly in the air, falling, falling until everything went black.
“It’s fun not knowing what comes next.” Trixie blinked and found herself floating in an empty blackness, a familiar voice echoing in the void. “But it’s even more fun to not know what comes before. I always loved imagining up new and interesting origins for myself. Sometimes it’s one way, sometimes another.”
“Twilight?” she groaned.
“But no matter what story I think up, it always makes me laugh.” Spotlights shined down from seemingly nowhere illuminating the world around her. She was sitting on a roller coaster, the bar pulled tight against her chest, unable to escape. “Your story makes me laugh too.”
The coaster lurched forward and a haunting calliope song began to play as doors shaped like teeth parted ways and bid her enter into a dark room. She fought to escape but it felt like her entire bottom half was numb, incapable of moving. “Please, keep all hooves inside the ride at all times.”
The coaster dipped into the dark, gaining speed and flipping her mane back as she rocketed deeper and deeper. “Get… me… off!” she tried to scream, but the force of the wind threw her own words back at her.
“But we’ve just gotten started!” the voice replied. “After all, you’ve wanted to see what happened, right? How your hero overcame all odds? Let’s take a look from another persepective.”
A door opened up ahead letting in a flood of light as the coaster decelerated through. When it exited, Trixie found herself floating in the coaster above the scene she had just remembered. Twilight forced her to escape while Darkclyde approached, menace in his eyes.
This time she saw it all. Twilight dodged the eye beams, using the same trick as she did on Aklopolips. She got in close to the dark god and did a flurry of punches, planting bombs across his body as she did. They exploded, doing little damage to the massive beast but distracting him long enough for her grab one of Trixie’s lost batons and slam it into his head. The electricity coursing through it was an added touch but it still looked like the stallion would not go down. He glared at her angrily and blasted his eyebeams once more. Twilight ran and dodged but this time ran toward Darkclyde. She jumped off his chest, flipping over the beam as it flew toward her and letting it hit him in the chest. His armor exploded and he stumbled back. Then grabbing the baton once more she shouted as she drove the stick into the recently made hole pushing it into his chest and delivering the rest of the electric charge directly into him.
Yet still Darkclyde didn’t look like he would go down. That was when a pink blur jumped up behind him, driving two knives into his fiery eyes. The dark god screamed as he stumbled back. Trixie saw Twilight’s eyes widen as she pushed a little harder on the baton, driving it deeper into his chest until it hit something buried deep within his armor. A shimmery aura surrounded him for a brief second as sparks flew and a shockwave blasted out around him. Every portal the wave hit began to reverse and the pegademons were sucked back up. Even Darkclyde, who looked like he could either be dead or just unconscious, was sucked back up into the portals. After a minute or two they all disappeared, the sky finally clear.
Twilight fell to her knees, out of breath. Her mask was getting torn in places and her mouth was visible. The Pinkster on the other hand jumped up and down excitedly. “That was a fun! What ride, eh? Nice use of teamwork in the end.”
Twilight got back to her hooves, breathing heavily as she pointed the baton at her. “You… are coming with me.”
Pinkster gave her a smug smile. “Still the brilliant hero. That’s what I love about you. You want to keep fighting? I can keep fighting.”
Twilight simply stared at her. “Why are you like this?”
Pinkster laughed. “Because it’s fun!” She spread her hooves wide taking in the still burning city around her. “Death is forever so we might as well enjoy each and every day like its our last.”
“And this is your version of enjoyment?”
“It’s my version of a good time. Give me a bag of kittens and an alligator and I’ll show you enjoyment.”
Twilight hung her head. “I used to think you just needed help. That something had happened to you to make you like this. Something awful. But that’s not the case is it?”
Pinkster blinked at her. “Something happened to make me like this? This is who I am! You’re the hero, I’m the villain! The sooner you understand that the sooner our story can progress and we can get to the fighting.”
Twilight looked up at her, then dropped the baton. “No, not anymore.” She turned to leave.
“Hey, where are you going? We’ve got an epic set up here! Tall building! Fires everywhere! Let’s fight!”
She stopped and looked back at her. “I’m not a part of your story.”
Pinkster looked at her with wide shocked eyes. Then for the first time, her smile vanished. “You don’t get to WALK AWAY!” She pulled two playing cards from her suit and threw them like shurikens.
Twilight dodged but didn’t notice a gas pipe right in the way of the cards. They sliced through it, creating a leak and with the rising fire in the air that made for a bad combination. “Get down!” Twilight shouted as she ran back to the Pinkster and grabbed her in her cape. The pipe exploded, the force of the blast sending them flying off the side of the building. They tumbled through the air together as they fell.
“No! This is even better!” Pinkster shouted hysterically. She wrapped her arms around Twilight’s neck, grappling the mask and it slipped off, along with the hat. Twilight and the Pinkster looked at each other, the Pinkster’s eyes widening before grinning like a madmare. “The librarian?! That’s brilliant!”
Twilight grabbed Pinkster by the shoulders, struggling to get out of her grip. “We’re both going to die if we don’t do something!”
“No! This works! This is perfect! A climactic end!” Twilight pulled a string on her belt and her cape stiffened and stretched becoming a parachute. Still they were falling too fast. Pinkster spotted the parachute and began to kick it. “That’s too cliché! It’s got to be like this!” They were fast approaching the fire.
Twilight looked at the flames below and then at the mare trying everything she could to get there. “I’m not giving you what you want.” She unclasped her belt and reattached it around Pinkster’s waist while she was distracted. Pinkster was so surprised she didn’t even notice as Twilight kicked her arms off of her, making her let go. She fell as Pinkster’s descent slowed and her form disappeared in the fire.
“NOOOOO!!!!!” Trixie shouted as loud as she could and struggled against her seat but the coaster remained firm, floating just above in the air. She watched as the Pinkster struggled in vain with the belt, unable to get it off as she cursed and cursed. Finally, she just gave up, her arms falling limply to her sides. “Why? Why did she do it?”
“To spite me,” the voice returned and the scene went dark, the coaster moving again. “It was love at first fight. We were made for each other. Pretty little enemies. But she had to go and spoil it by making the ‘ultimate sacrifice’.” She said the word mockingly.
The spotlights came back on revealing the world around her. It was a long corridor with a vaulted ceiling, pictures of Mare Do-Well plastered everywhere with decorative frames. “But that sacrifice means nothing now. I was in such a rut until I’d heard you took the mantle. Put me in good spirits again! And now that I’m… wait for it…” Two large majestic oak doors opened at the end of the corridor leading into a grand throne room with a ceiling that was so high she couldn’t see the top. “RULER OF REALITY! I can bring her back and we can be happy again!” Pinkster sat atop an enormous throne with gold and red trimming, a cartoonish looking royal crown on her head and a flowing red cape with white fur frills that trailed down a set of marble steps.
Trixie felt her heart drop into her stomach. “I… You…”
“Hush.” Trixie hushed. Pinkster tapped her hooves together excitedly as she sat on the edge of her throne. “I think your going to like what I have planned. I made sure to find places for all of you in it. I hope you like your new accomodations.” The coaster glided past the throne and began to enter another dark room. “So long, Nightrix! And if I don’t see you again? Rest in pieces.”
“NO!” The darkness consumed her and Trixie threw her arms forward only to hit something hard. She wasn’t in the coaster anymore, but there was something holding her. She darted her eyes around, the barest hint of light showing that she was in some kind of box. She began to hyperventilate as she slammed all four limbs against the top. Gradually the wooden lid broke and finally she reached her hoof through it, up through dirt until she felt air.
She pawed around the ground trying to get a firm grasp and began to pull herself up. She poked her head through and breathed in a large gulp of air before pulling the rest of her body out. She lay on the ground looking up into a blank night sky. No stars in sight. Trying to hold back her emotions she rolled her head to the side and saw a field of gravestones, one in particular where she’d been buried. “HERE LIES THE FALSE MARE DO-WELL, AND SO TO HER WE BID FARE WELL.”
Trixie gritted her teeth and lay her head back on the dirt. “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Sounds startled her and she lifted her weary head to see more hooves sticking out of the ground and scraping at the dirt. Trixie began to panic and tried to get up but her body didn’t listen to her. All her strength was nearly gone.
Ponies with rotting flesh and hair falling out rose from their graves around her and trudged closer and closer making eerie moans. They gathered around her as she covered her face. She had nothing to fight with, nothing she could do. This was the end. The zombies leaned their heads in to attack.
“WAHOO!!” A flash of light caught her eye as a blade swung through three zombie heads and cleaved them in half. Whoever wielded the sword continued to swing and slash until all the zombies had fallen or were decaptitated.
Trixie looked around wearily, first spotting the sword. “Applejack?”
“Afraid not, everyone’s favorite waifu.” She struggled to raise her head and saw her savior, a pony in a deep red and black suit with a face mask and white eye holes. He slid katana he carried back into a sheath on his back then held out his hoof to help her up. “Come with me if you want to live.”
Trixie stared at him in disbelief until another figure pushed past him, glaring at the stallion. “Honestly, the manners of a braindead chimp!” His coat was tan and his mane brown, a collar around his neck and a bowtie. He looked down at her with kind eyes and held out his hoof as well. “I assure you miss Lulamoon, we’re here to help.”
Trixie didn’t know what to believe, but she didn’t really have a choice. She took his hoof and he helped her up. “Who are you?”
“You can call me the Doctor,” the stallion replied. “Now let’s hurry. There’s not a moment to waste.”
He pulled her along as they ran through the graveyard, the stallion in red slashing happily at any remaining zombies. “And who are you?”
“A well loved cameo!” he replied.
They stopped at a big blue box, the Doctor urging her inside. “So we’re just going to hide? Can that even fit us?”
The Doctor grinned and waved his hoof. “Prepare to be surprised.” He opened the door, a light spilling forth. Trixie looked at the inside in amazement, giving a quizzical look to the Doctor before heading in. The Doctor was next, stopping at the door to call back to the red stallion. “Are you coming or not?”
He pulled his katana out of a zombie brain and waved the juices off. There was still a veritable horde behind him. “Yeah, yeah, hold your horses.” He snickered and ran to the box.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Oh ha ha, very mature.” He closed the door behind him, the box giving off a large wail as it began to fade in and out of existence before disappearing entirely.
THE END
===SS===
“Sunset, are you okay?” Sunset shook her head as she tried to understand what she’d just heard. She and Flash were at the dance, trying to have a good time all the while hearing the story in her head going on. And now it said it was finished?
“That makes no sense,” she muttered. “Why are you-” She looked and saw that Flash as well as a few others were staring at her. “Um, excuse me, I need to go use the ladies room.”
She ran into the bathroom and leaned against the sink as she looked in the mirror. “The End? Are you kidding me? And how can it be the end if I can still hear you, you stupid voice!” She let out an aggravated sigh and began to pace. “There’s still so much unanswered! Where did Ditzy and Noteworthy come from? What’s the big… ‘thing’ he kept talking to? Why was Suntrix there? Did she have anything to do with anything? And what about Rainbow’s speed powers? What happened to those, huh? In fact, where did everypony go? …I mean ‘everybody’. Damn it.” Nothing came in answer.
She rubbed her eyes as she looked in the mirror. She had replaced her glasses with contacts and even got a new red dress for this party. She wanted to have fun, not argue with herself about something that probably didn’t even matter. Her hand brushed against her bangs and she felt her lightning shaped scar on her forehead. Was this all happening because of who she was? The Girl Who Lived.
She locked eyes with herself in the mirror and frowned. “What was my point in the story?”
I WouLD LiKe TO kNOw As wEll
Her reflection suddenly changed, the image of a giant yellow eye taking over her face. Sunset screamed and pulled back but the mirror image actually reached out and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her in. Her screams went silent and the mirror rippled for a moment before settling back into place.
A moment later there was a knock at the door. “Sunset? You okay? I know this is the girls room but I’m coming in anyway.” Flash opened the door slowly peeking in. “I’m worried about y-” He stopped as he noticed the room deserted. He looked around but saw nothing. As he panned around he laid eyes on the mirror and shouted in shock as he saw his own face with one giant eye. He blinked once and the image was gone. “What the hell was that?”
Epilogue
“Hey,” A stallion in futuristic maroon armor with his faced covered in a visored helmet against the cold, turned to an orange armored one as they stood on the top of an icy lookout. The orange stallion turned to acknowledge him. “You ever wonder why we’re here?”
“That’s one of life’s great mysteries, isn’t it?” the orange stallion replied. “Are we individual beings with free will to dictate our lives as we see fit? Or are we just ancillary characters in some hackneyed story orchestrated by a cruel and pointless god? …I don’t know man. But it keeps me up at night.”
They stood in silence for a moment. “What?” the maroon one asked. “I meant why are we freezing our asses off out here when we could be down below by the fire?”
“Oh! Uh, yeah, sure let’s do that.”
They walked in awkward silence to the metal lift set up by their lookout. The orange one pressed a button and the steel rope pulleys crackled to life flaking off the built up ice around it. The maroon soldier looked to him. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Huh? Oh, no. No, it’s fine.”
They stood in awkward silence again as the lift descended slowly down the giant ice shelf. “But seriously, why are we here? I mean, we’ve got a red base, those guys on the east have a blue base and all we’re doing is staying put watching some giant frozen wall to make sure that nothing comes crawling out from behind it.”
“Not nothing, dude,” the orange soldier replied. “You don’t believe in Windigoes?”
The maroon soldier waved his hoof dismissively. “That’s just an old mare’s tale.”
“I don’t know. My dad told me about them when I was young. Spirits of ice and snow, he called them. He said they freeze you to death and then seep into your skin and turn it white. Then they walk around in you like a zombie.”
“White? Walking? Now I know your full of shit.”
The lift stopped and they reached the base of the enormous ice wall, stretching out in both directions for miles on end. They proceeded to a large bonfire warming themselves. “You just keep saying that until one of those things kills you dead.”
“That’s redundant.”
“Exactly!”
A brief spark of light exploded in the sky not too far and they covered their eyes. They turned from the fire and the wall to the vast countryside laid out below them. “Fireworks down there,” the maroon soldier noted. “Must be a party.”
High above them dangling from the sky was an enormous disco ball. The facets of which flared with every light and color imaginable as it reflected the explosions of color and light around it. The sky was completely black except for the constant explosions of soundless fireworks. Below was a patchwork of cities, buildings and landscapes. Hilly areas rose and fell before giving way immediately to towering skyscrapers. Small towns rested precariously on the sides of large mountains and even an enormous desert in the far distance. The ground was every shade as well, from brown to green to purple to plaid. There was lush green, dead trees, and every kind of terrain imaginable all within sight at this northernmost tip of the world. In the center of all this stood a glittering castle carved from the tallest mountain. Its top seemed to scrape the disco ball moon above. Everything within a ten mile radius of the castle was pink.
“Wish I could be there,” the orange soldier muttered. “I haven’t had a good party in ages.”
“Party hard,” the maroon pony raised his hoof and said nonchalantly.
“Yeah, yeah, party hard,” the orange pony replied. “So what do you think everypony down there is doing tonight?”
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FIND OUT…
TO BE CONTINUED IN PARTYWORLD
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blink......... WHAT THE BUCK
TOOK YOU FREAKIN' LONG ENOUGH TO SHOW UP!
Anyway, WOW, this has been one helluva ride! Great action, great excitement, a plethora of worlds and characters, LOADS of development (something I obsess over), and now we got a SEQUEL in the works! I'll be waiting at the starting line for Partyworld to get started...
We know I'll be there, mhmmm hmm hmm heh hah hah...
Back in your corner, Mayhem.
Also, Red vs. Blue and Game of Thrones at the end... Nice choice? I think?
7713787
While this series has been a plethora of worlds, PARTYWORLD is going to offer them all up at the same time, often intersecting. If you haven't, I encourage you to read some of the stories in Marvel's Secret Wars. They put old characters into new or more outrageous situations. Gay Captain America riding a t rex through a continent infested by hulks, spidermen of different universes meeting to save a cartoon pig from the green goblin, etc.
My sneak peek will go into more detail about where the red team's story will go, but to have any fun with Partyworld you will need an open mind and a wide knowledge of what the hell I'm referencing
But glad you got it was game of thrones.
7721519
You're fun!
I haven't had a lot of people critique the story like this. Not too venomous but just enough to get me thinking. Glad to see you've read this far.
WTAF was this chapter?
8058082
Yes. I tried to make them all counterparts with the Injustice Regime. Rarity=Aquaman, Rainbow Dash=Wonder Woman, Twilight=Green Lantern(Yellow Lantern), Applejack=Flash, Pinkie Pie=Cyborg, and Fluttershy=Captain Marvel
So...
Pinkster (Joker) absorbed the power of the fourth wall, put all the planetary Equestria's into one dimentional plane. Then made those worlds physically collide, making one amalgam world (Partyworld) consisting of all the universes on this 'Pearl Necklace' that this multiverse seems to be.
This amalgam world includes (but I hope is not limited to)...
Mare Do-Well (Batman)
Powerponies
Dayline (Wonderbolt Dash v. Shadowbolt Fluttershy)
Neighpone (Samurai Applejack)
Fey-questria (Flutterbat)
Neo-Nightmare (Nightmare Rarity)
Equestria Beta (Alicorn Derpy's new home)
Hogwarts Girls
Fusion World (Suntrix)
Attack on Dragon
Disharmony: Gods Among Us
Equestrinoir (Daring Do and Shadow Mane)
Wonderland
Apokolips
Red vs Blue
Game of Thrones
Did I miss any?
8059406
Is Partyworld almost ready yet?