The Legend of Mare-Do-Well

by JD2K

Chapter 5 BONUS

Note from the Author: This was originally part of Chapter 5 but seeing as though it was nearing an outrageously long word count, I decided to cut it from the chapter. However, seeing as it explains some data that left readers perplexed, I include it as a "bonus chapter". Enjoy.

Nearly thirty-so police ponies surrounded the normally quiant house in one of the suburban sections of town. Pegasi officers flew overhead making sure all available entrances and exits were monitored while the unicorns have their horns lit up ready to shoot the permitted stun-magic shots to bring down offenders when the order is given.

Lt. Buckler stood sternly as she levitated a megaphone to her snout and called out, "Felon! This is the Ponyville Police! We have the house surrounded. Release the hostages and vacate the premises or we will be forced to subdue you under harsher penalties!"

Inside, the panicked viridian-coated earth stallion tried to keep his nerves under control. It was not easy as his teeth chattered while trying to keep the sharp butterfly knife he held in mouth from falling off. It all started when he was kicked out of the dance club for being too rowdy after taking more salt that any stallion could muster. His fillyfriend chided him for being such a brute and he decided to teach her some manners.

That unfortunately got the attention of the two police ponies nearby. They frisked his saddlebags and found the small pouch of locoweed in one pocket. That right there would give him a year or two in jail and he didn't want that. He attacked them with his knife and wounded them severely. Now, he was looking at a long prison sentence for assulating and most likely horse-slaughtering police ponies. He would never be free in this life again. That is, of course, if he was caught. He forced his way into the nearest house, dragged the two wounded officers with his unwilling nervous fillyfriend inside, rounded up the family who lived there and held them at knifepoint. If he was going down, he wasn't going alone.

The nervous rose-coated earth pony was in a whirlwind of emotion. Her coltfriend has gone too far. However, all she could do was assist the kindly pediatrician whose house her coltfriend broke into in stopping Peppermint Pops and Booker's bleeding and wrap the wounds tightly. The doctor maintained his cool through the ordeal, but it was obvious to the rose filly that his mate and their red curly-maned daughter were too scared to even talk as they hugged each other.

"Young stallion, I am a pediatrician, not a surgeon!" the doctor protested. "These police ponies requiere immediate medical attention at the clinic. If you do not let them go, they will go into shock and perish!"
"Shut up, you nag! Don't tell me what to do!" the attacker snapped back with a wild look in his eyes. "If those two die, then everypony else here will die, starting with that four-eyes there!"
Twist whimpered even more as her mother looked at him with rage.
"Please, Summer Dew! Stop this! You're hurting a lot of innocent ponies. Just please accept responsibilities for once and give yourself in," the rose-coated filly pleaded.
"Zip your lips, Merry Weather!" Summer Dew barked at her, "This is all your fault if you learned to behave like a good filly! Now keep helping that muffinhead doctor and heal those ponies!"

"We repeat: Give up the hostages or you will be severely punished!" Lt. Buckler called out again.
"I want to negotiate, broodmare! My conditions for the lives of these worthless ponies!" Summer Dew yelled out. "I want a dirigible out here in an hour! I want it to take me as far away from here as possible with no pegasi tailing me! And if you all think of arresting me, I'm taking one of the hostages with me and I will only return her once I am far away from here!" With that, he grabs Twist from her mother and holds her up to the window for all to see as she cries and wails.
"You got one hour! Get to it, broodmare!"

Buckler grunted angrily under her breath. She really hated hostage negotiations for it was never quite clear if they would end up peaceful or with casualities. She couldn't get a dirigible from Canterlot on such sort notice and the offender sounded extremely agitated. He would not hold back on his word and kill the hostages if his demands were not met. She was worried over what to do. Send in the unicorns and pegasi to capture him and risk him killing all the hostages? Or try effortlessly at negotiating another agreement seeing full well he already grabbed a young filly and would kill her if he got too nervous? Time wasn't on her side.

However, an unlikely answer came from Hotshot who whistled and pointed to the rooftops nearby as he hovered in the air. Buckler squinted her gaze and managed to make out a figure with a long cape. Before alerting anyone, she saw the figure creep up to the rooftop of the house and slip in through an upstairs window. At this point, she'd order all her officers to storm in but she had a feeling this stranger would set things right.

Mare-Do-Well found herself in a little filly's room. By the smell of candy and a nearby hoof-drawn picture of various school-age ponies with a certain amberish gray pony with glasses and red curls for mane and tail with the word "ME" underneath, she deduced this was Twist's room and her own house. Now more than ever she had to save her and her parents. Slowly making her way to the top of the stairs, she could hear weeping and grunts of displeasure. The conflict area was just below her.

Peeking from the side of the stairwell, she assessed the situation. At the foot of the stairwell were Merry Weather and the pediatrician who were currently trying to keep both the nearly-conscious Peppermint Pops and Booker from not dying even though they were rapidly losing a lot of blood. A few feet from them, leaning against the windowsill, was Summer Dew who held a knife in his teeth and the shivering form of Twist in his forehoof. The point of the blade was aiming right at the back of her neck where one false stab would sever her spinal cord. Lying on the floor, shivering more than Twist, was the doctor's wife and Twist's mother who could only stare in unblinking terror at her daughter hoping nothing bad happens.

This was going to be tricky. How to subdue the assailant without him noticing her? Smoke bombs and sleeping gas would be out of the question as he would have enough time to react and would end up killing Twist in his panic. Creeping down would be not wise for as soon as the pediatrician or the filly saw her, they would inadvertedly alert the perp to her presence and he would kill her. She was running out of options.

Her eyes darted everywhere trying to find a solution and that's when she saw next to her on the stairs the support beams of the first floor's roof holding the second floor above. Mare-Do-Well slowly squeezed in and managed to fit above a beam and slowly began to scoot above it. Soon, she was able to move more freely above the beams but going at a tiptoe pace to prevent any sudden movement from alerting anypony to her presence. She moved around the maze of beams for a few seconds until she was directly above the colt and Twist. As expected, he was still nervously staring out the window for him to pay any attention to her. Mare-Do-Well's resolve hardened as she aimed directly for the colt and leaped off the beams above.

Holding her back hooves out in a drill kick, she landed squarely on the colt's back, causing him to buckle under and spit out the knife by the force of the blow. Twist saw her chance and trotted away to her mother's loving embrace. With the wind knocked out of him but still lucid, Mare-Do-Well grabbed the viridian colt's head in her forehooves and slammed it down hard against the floor, knocking him out.

At this point, an entire platoon of police ponies burst into the house and quickly surrounded the area."Everypony, hold your position!" the coral-red second-in-command mare ordered as she made her way to the front. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she saw the perp lying unconscious on the floor and the hostages freed as Twist and her mother hugged each other and cried. Mare-Do-Well simply stood there with a stern look as she looked down at the perp in case he came to.

Buckler gasped when she saw the two officers bleeding profusely despite the best efforts of the pediatrician and the felon's accomplice. Without a moment to lose, she ordered an officer to activate his receiver.

"Attention, dispatcher! Officer Beta requesting immediate ambulance to Sector 1-4-3-Alpha! Officers down! Repeat, send an ambulance to Sector 1-4-3-Alpha immediately! Officers down!" she called in.

A few seconds of static later and the response came through. "Copy that, Beta. Ambulance on the way. Over and out."

The police then got busy cleaning up the scene. Merry Weather was taken into custody without resistance as the hoofcuff chains were placed on her and was led outside. Two unicorn officers used their auras to pick up the comatose Summer Dew and levitated him out of the house and into the jail cart where his sorrowful fillyfriend was already in. The cart then left to the station jail.

The pediatrician and his family were quickly given a checkup, especially with the father making sure his daughter didn't suffer too much trauma from the ordeal. That was when the ambulance finally arrived. The orderlies soon entered the house bringing the stretchers for Peppermint Pops and Booker with them. The unicorn officers used their magic once more to levitate the injured officers and placed them on the stretchers which the orderlies took outside to the ambulance cart and the drivers quickly galloped off towards the clinic.

Lt. Buckler finally relaxed knowing everything was firmly under control. She looked by the corner of her eye and saw Mare-Do-Well head back upstairs. Nodding once with certainly, she quickly went up after her.

"Please, wait!" she called out as she saw Mare-Do-Well have a hoof outside the window in Twist's room as she was making her exit.

The mare cleared her throat and approached her. "You must be... Mare-Do-Well, are you not?" The vigilante took her hoof from the window and back on the floor. She simply stared silently at the officer.

"I guess talking isn't one of the things you're supposed to do in your line of work, I imagine." Buckler said as she extended a hoof at her. "I am Buckler. Lieutenant and second-in-command of the Ponyville Police Department."

Mare-Do-Well looked down at the outstreched hoof and then back towards the police mare's kind face and eyes. She softly approached her and lifted her own dark-blue bandaged hoof and softly pressed it against her coral-red one. Buckler merely smiled in response as Mare-Do-Well quickly took her hoof away and stepped back a few inches, eyes still trained on the officer.

"I must thank you for all you have done tonight. If you did not show up when you did, Celestia knows how things would have ended up. That colt was beyond hysterics and might have hurt that little foal or worse, and those officers might have not lived for long. You are a true hero to Ponyville," she finally said and ended with a formal bow to her.

"MITH MARE-DO-WELL! MITH MARE-DO-WELL!" a sweet yet lispy voice called out as Twist entered her room with her parents right behind her. "Oh thank you, Mith Mare-Do-Well! I wath tho thcared! Thank you ever tho much for thaving me..." the little foal said as she hugged her hoof.

"Yes, Mare-Do-Well. Thank you for saving my little Twist. I couldn't bear to imagine what life would be like without her. You are forever in our gratitude," the pediatrician added. His mate merely sniffed and nodded in agreement.

Seeing all these words of acclaim gave Mare-Do-Well the same warm fuzzy feeling as before. Underneath her mask, she was straining to keep her alter-ego from bawling but managed to hold it in and smile. That, however, soon faded when she heard another familiar voice.

"Where is she?! I demand to know where this vigilante is!!"

At that, the same earth pony colt and filly officers who blew the whistle on the party showed up at the front of the room.

The shifty-eyed maize colt grinned as he turned to his partner. "It appears we have found them, Lock Down."
His chartreuse-coated filly partner met him with an equally devious gaze. "The Captain at once we must inform, Lock Up."
"We should and we will, Lock Down."
"We will and we should, Lock Up."

With that, Lock Up and Lock Down leaned their heads down and blew on their whistles and yelled, "CAPTAIN, HERE THEY ARE!" "THEY ARE HERE, CAPTAIN!"

Buckler looked at the two lackeys with a cross expression as they moved to the sides of the door as thunderous hoofbeats went up the stairs. Soon enough, Halberd appeared and spared no time as he walked up to Mare-Do-Well and leaned down with a scornful look.

"Listen to me and listen well, you good-for-nothing hooligan! Your half-witted heroics could have put these law-abiding civilians and my own ponies in danger! Who asked you to barge in and wage your own one-horse war and risk everypony's lives?! Answer me!" he snapped at her so forcefully that Mare-Do-Well winced to prevent from smelling his stale alfalfa breath.

"You can't thay that about Mith Mare-Do-Well! Thhe thaved uth all!" Twist piped up angrily only to be shushed by her mother.
"Captain Halberd, Sir, with all due respect, Mare-Do-Well has been a part of Ponyville before you arrived and has done a good job," the doctor replied with concern.
"Which is why the vigilante must step down and allow true ponies who were born and bred to fight justice to do their jobs! Mare-Do-Well is nothing but a nuisance and an insult to the law!" the stern commanding officer answered back with force.
"Please, Captain. You must understand that nothing will succeed unless we work together with previous law-enforcers here. We must keep Mare-Do-Well close for she can help us in more ways than any conventional officer can do so," Lt. Buckler counseled.

Captain Halberd took a deep breath almost as he was trying to maintain patience. Finally he replied in a soft tone hiding contempt, "My dear Lieutenant Buckler, if you truly wish to keep your position here and not be sent back to Fillydelphia to your previous desk job, I suggest you follow my rules or I will ask you to turn in your badge at once..."
The coral-red mare let off a soft gasp and tried to hide her boiling anger at the callous remarks the khaki stallion gave her.

Halberd then said, "As for you, Mare-Do... what?!" The commander stopped in mid-sentence as he realized Mare-Do-Well was no longer there. Everypony present looked everywhere and found out she was gone.

Lock Up stood to attention and asked, "Sir, What should we do?"
Lock Down then added, "An APB to find her shall we call in?"
Halberd shook his head. "No. Hopefully she will get through that thick skull to never bother the police again. Come. We must return to the station. Justice beckons."
The twin police lackeys bowed in response. "Sir, at once!" "At once, Sir!"

Halberd bowed once and tipped his hat at the family as he walked away with hard heavy hoofsteps. Lock Up and Lock Down gave Buckler a smirk as they followed behind. Twist saw them leave and stuck her tongue out at them. The coral-red policemare twitched her eyebrow as she two bade the family good night as she too took her leave.

From a rooftop close by, Mare-Do-Well saw the Captain walk out of the house with Lock Up and Lock Down right behind him as they galloped away to the police station. A few seconds later, a saddened Lieutenant Buckler left the house and closed the door behind her as she went on her way elsewhere. The purple-clad pony could not believe how Halberd hated and mistrusted her. He most definitely earned his place in the "List" aside from Gilda. However, she could feel Halberd was a friendly soul and in need of cheering up. Maybe one day she'll make a special cupcake or donut just for her. She just needs to figure out her specific tastes.

Suddenly, Mare-Do-Well gave a long yawn and smacked her lips together. Her eyesight became slightly unfocused. She had never been up this late before and she knew the night was not over. Daybreak would come in a few hours and her other self must be ready to open the door for the Cakes when they come in for the day. Juggling this would be hard work but it was her choice. With no time to lose, she hopped from roof to roof and headed back to Sugarcube Corner.

Comments

[JD2K]

Bonus chapter up. Please send feedback.

Rest assured, Chapter 6 will soon be finished and we will finally have the first of MDW's Rogues Gallery introduced there!

[Happy Bronie]

Yes I'm glad that chapter 6 is coming real soon and nice bonus chapter JD2K.

[Kamineigh]

However, she could feel Halberd was a friendly soul and in need of cheering up. Maybe one day she'll make a special cupcake or donut just for her. She just needs to figure out her specific tastes.

I'm pretty sure you specified that Halberd was a male earlier.