Aegis Shield's Scrap File

by Aegis Shield

Intro + Mare Do Well vs. Super Stallion

Aegis Shield’s Scrap Basket
Part 1: Mare Do Well vs. Super Stallion

Aegis Shield was a Lunar Stallion, a dark-armored Pegasus pony who served Princess Luna. Though he was a soldier and ever vigilant to the protection and welfare of the Princess of the Night, he had other talents. One of which was writing. Standing stoically and perfectly still for hours on end sometimes gave him the spare time he needed to brainstorm brilliant story ideas and work out just how he wanted them. Then at the end of his shift all he had to do was sit down with some moon pies and a glass of orange juice, then pick up a pen.

His brother Lunar Stallions encouraged his gift and tried to get him to publish his works, but he was very shy about them and very mysterious about their origins. After all, a lot of his ideas ended up in his scrap basket file. It was a place where all of his dead-end ideas and stories that just wouldn’t work went. Whether he lost interest in something, didn’t want to finish it, or simply wrote himself into a corner—he kept everything he could, and stuffed it in the little file. He kept it in a box under his bed for the memories, perhaps to pluck them up at a later date and make use of them.

Reaching and touching the eye on his breast plate, Aegis Shield retracted his magical armor. His grey fur twinged over to brown, and his purplish mane exploded into a bright blonde. The armor wiggled, melted like water, and rushed towards his breast to press itself into a medallion. One couldn’t be a Lunar Stallion all the time, after all, and he could hardly sit and concentrate on his writing while in his armor. His golden eyes flickered with fading magic, turning a beautiful ocean-blue color. Sighing in relief as the weight of his vestments melted off of him, he flopped into a waiting stool at his writing desk. “Hahh, let’s see…” he mumbled, scratching himself in a rude place and chewing on his upper lip a little. He reaching, noisily unwrapping his night’s first moon pie. Chewing idly and letting the chocolate melt over his mouth, he gulped at the orange juice and eyed the blank page in front of him. Mumbling softly and pushing his mane out of his eyes, he picked up a quill in his mouth and dipped it gently in an inkwell. He liked using funny colors, and tonight’s ink was forest green. A soothing and rich color that would help him write a calming scene in some story or another. Taking another bite of his moon pie, he began to write.

The room vanished around him and he stopped seeing his words on the page. His mind slowly expanded into the great beyond of his imagination. Any true writer would tell anypony that writing was not a conscious thing until the editing stage. Putting pen to paper was like going into a trance, for Aegis Shield. The only thing that would stop him was running out of ink, or running out of moon pies. Having secured a box of eight for himself that night, he knew he wouldn’t be moving anytime soon.

He’d recently finished a time-travel piece involving a stallion from the classical Greek era of Equestria. Before that, he’d written about a pony challenging death incarnate by foreseeing and preventing deaths before they happened. Before that, he’d even composed a fictional trilogy about the Lunar Stallions, of which he was a part. It was a fun and soothing activity to calm his sharp mind at the end of his nights working for Princess Luna. She was a demanding Princess, after all, and letting stress pile up was not healthy for anypony.

As Aegis’ quill danced feverishly across the page, the hours went by naturally. He often started past midnight and didn’t stop until 2am or later. Then he would collapse exhausted and happy into bed. Writing was a joy to him.

He shared his works with his friends and fellow Lunar Stallions, but you already know about those. We’re here to see some of Aegis’ rejected works, so come along now, while Aegis Shield is sleeping. We’ll paw through his rejected story basket and see what he’s been up to lately… hmm, this one looks interesting! “Mare Do Well vs. Super Stallion”, let’s have a look...

=-=-=-=

The Mysterious Mare Do Well vs. Super Stallion

Mare Do Well peered out over Ponyville, her cape flapping gingerly in the early-evening sun. Ever since the initial Mare Do Well incident, she’d kept a much lower profile for the sake of peace for the town. Though she was a masked vigilante, it didn’t mean she couldn’t take a more subtle approach than before. She ventured forth only occasionally, when the sun touched the mountains of Canterlot, until she was tired in the night.

There weren’t exactly any super villains in Ponyville, but there was a certain thrill that came with running around in a mask and cape. Occasionally stop a falling terracotta pot from creaming somepony. A runaway baby carriage, or some such thing. Even small things seemed to justify her night time crusades, like if a mare was receiving the wrong sort of attention from a stallion on a particularly dark part of the night.

Mare Do Well spotted the pair of them in an alleyway between Sugar Cube Corner and the shop next door. She was backed into the wall, looking fearful. Who was that? Mare Do Well squinted at the grapes and strawberry on her flank. Berry Punch. She did not recognize the stallion menacing her at the moment. His grizzled chin and mussed mane told a roguish tale, and he was reaching for her bits purse when Mare Do Well arrived on the scene. Both of them looked at her. “Who’re you supposed to be?” He said with a snarl, hoofing at the ground like he was ready to charge at her.

The shadowy form of the black and purple clad mare melted forward, her cape hiding her movements. It took a supernatural grace, making her seem to glide across the ground rather than walk upon it. Her eyes narrowed at the mugger. Mare Do Well said nothing, but Berry Punch gave a rather high-pitched shriek that earned her a back-hoof across the mouth. She fell with a yelp and crashed into a dumpster, crumpling with a whimper. Her purse fell, golden coins spilling out. The ringing of the precious metal drew the eyes of the thug for a moment too long, and a trash can SMASHED into him seemingly of its own accord. But not so. It was magic! Mare Do Well’s hat floated back down to cover her horn. She’d not even parted her cape, it was so effortless.

The robber stallion rose with an angry snort, hooved the ground a few times and charged head-on! LEAPING over another projectile he slammed into Mare Do Well full-force and they crashed into a wall. She grunted in pain, then rammed her forehead into his. Trashcan lids raised themselves up and slammed onto either side of his head like cymbals. Disoriented, he staggered with a cry. Mare Do Well turned quickly, bucking him right in the jaw! His head snapped back and he fell with his eyes in swirls, defeated. The masked mare lifted a hoof as though to pose triumphantly, then went to Berry Punch’s side. Leaning down, she nosed the mare a few times.

“Wh… who…?” she shook her head to make her eyes focus, but all she saw was a shadow melting around the corner with the flutter of a purple cape. Berry Punch looked around, alone in the alleyway. It was then that the rather round face of Mrs. Cake came around the corner, trying to find out what all the racket was outside her shop so late at night.

It was quite late when Mare Do Well arrived at her home. She nursed her bruised forehead, brushing her mane more lightly than usual. If anypony saw her injuries they would ask questions. She needed to be more careful. Stretching gingerly to work the muscles before they knotted into bruises, she hid her costume and slid into bed.

=-=-=-=

Aegis Shield had been wanting to write a Twilight Sparkle and Big Macintosh romance story, but with a flair of super heroes. Twilight would be Mare Do Well, and Big Macintosh Super Stallion. Since Big Mac was one of the only named stallions in Ponyville at the time, the idea was quickly scrapped. There’s only one stallion in Ponyville, after all, that can move a house with his awesome strength. The secret identities would’ve meant nothing in the story, so Aegis had never finished it.

Comments

[Magical Trevor]

Oho... THIS looks intriguing...

[ThunderDash]

[Phoenix Quill]

So, meta!

[Chaodiurn]

I wonder if Luna knows about this...

[Rayvinne]

Maybe there will be a few more stallions in Season 3? Who knows.

That was entertaining though, and I agree with Chaodiurn, I wonder if Luna knows Aegis was writing either their 'experiences' together, or creating his own little fantasies.

[Wumz]

Interesting idea.

[Insert seal of approval]

[Starlight Fire]

Oh, this ought to be good... *marks for reading*

Edit: I would read a story like this so hard...

[thulsadoon]

Grammar Nazi Powers, ACTIVATE! Form of a Grammar Nazis, go!
"He reaching, noisily unwrapping his night’s first moon pie." No, no, no! Write it like this. "Reaching, he noisily unwrapped his night's first pie." In fact, you never did say where he was reaching.

"She ventured forth only occasionally, when the sun touched the mountains of Canterlot, until she was tired in the night." ...until she was tired in the night??? Try this, "...until she grew tired at the end of the night." Not the best I know, but this way the sentence just dosn't drop off.

"Occasionally stop a falling terracotta pot from creaming somepony." stopping

Whew! I must say that was some fun. I think I need a cigarette after that.

twentypercentcooler.net/data/sample/68/b7/68b7bf7d868dab28778dfaf761342114.jpg?1313055208

[Dess]

The fact that Big Mac should be instantly recognized would fit perfictly as a Superman allegory. Don't be silly Scootaloo, Big Mac can't be super stallion, super stallion doesn't wear a yoke.

[Cpt Celti]

That was pretty cute... Only one stallion in Ponyville? BIG FREAKING MACINTOSH

[BenRG]

If you need a potential red herring character, how about Snowflake (aka 'Roid Rage' or just the 'YEEEAAAHHH!' Pegasus). Additionally, why does Supermane have to be thought to come from Ponyville? There are lots of farms and "rock farms" around the area that probably breed strong Stallions. Being 'around' all the time and his near-monomaniac work ethic being well-known would actually give Mac a lot of cover as everypony would say: "Mac? Nah, it can't be! He's always working on the farm! He's got no time to be doin' other stuff!".

BenRG's Justice Herd Equestria
Listed in order of first appearance:

Amethyst Witch - Twilight Sparkle
Lightstreak - Rainbow Dash (Plays on her speed to make her a sort of airborne Flash)
Enchantress - Rarity (Telekinesis and telepathy-like mind-magics that she normally uses to determine what ponies want in a dress)
Titanmare - Applejack (The world's strongest mare!)
Paradoxica - Pinkie Pie (Think of Freakazoid mixed with The Mask)
Valkyrie - Fluttershy (Living up to the warrior heritage of her ancestresses of the ancient pegasi; she dresses up in her Crystal Fair Joust armour with a modified Hellenic helmet to mask her face - who'd ever guess? )
Mare-do-Well - Unknown latecomer (can either be an OC or a version of Trixie firmly on the 'journey of redemption' track)

The thing that really gets in the way is the fact that Ponyville is tiny and has a near-non-existent requirement for costumed heroes. I get around this by having Luna set up the Proactive Opponent Neutralisation and Intelligence Executive (PONIE) to deal with special threats outside the normal training and experience of the Royal Guard (army) and the Civil Militia (police). The JHE are their special operations team used when extreme measures (and flashy visuals) are deemed necessary. The Herd are distinctly separate in the public eye from the near-anonymous Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and few make the connection between them. To help keep their identities secret, Rarity has designed their costumes to conceal their identity, either with masks, helmets, hoods or such a flashy colour scheme that the last thing anypony will be looking at is their faces.

Naturally, every antagonist character/group from canon and most fandoms ends up recast as super-villains.

[WorldWalker128]

Ah, worlds that ended and are left abrupt. Many of these have I seen, and some I have walked only to see an abrupt patch of white abyss where a town road simply ends. The citizens move about and speak and go about their business, never noticing the emptiness that they walk into or walk out of as they go about their daily business...but then, their world has always been like this, so why be concerned? They never suspect that their world is incomplete, for only those whom have been outside their little world can realize the sad truth...
-
Myth-Mind aside, I like how you're taking stuff that you never completed and are turning even that into it's own little world, as it were.