The Mysterious Adventures of Mare-do-well

by Commando-Scarecrow

The Day her World Stood Still

"What in Celestia's name..." Those words were running through both Summer's and Braeburn head, though Summer Blaze was the only one who vocalized it. Neither of them could fully grasp the urgency of the situation, though. If it had been anything else, Braeburn would have been distracted by the broken coffee cup on the floor. What they saw would change everything. Summer knew that much.

Even as they were dumbstruck, Summer and Braeburns minds began to sync up. They both nodded as if they knew what to do exactly. Braeburn ran into the bedroom to wake up his fiancé and Summer took his jacket off of Trixie who was a asleep on the couch. "Trixie?" he tried to whisper. She stirred but didn't totally awaken, so he moved her.

"Hmm?" she asked in a tired voice. Her mane was totally messed up. Adorable.

"Trixie. We have a situation. You need to get up," he stated with dead serious urgency. "Now." He wasn't loud, but he knew how to make his voice heard even without shouting. He still found himself distracted by the new obstacle they would have to face. In all his 24 years he had never even dreamed of what he was looking at. But there it was. New Maredrid City was under attack.

She looked into his eyes and saw the seriousness buried deep within them. He was right. She got up as fast as she could, quickly grooming herself entirely with her magic. "What is that?" She finally saw it through the balcony window. Airship after airship filled the sky with silver and scarlet red, and each one bore the same symbol on the side of it: a tower with a blood red diamond at the top. Blood diamond. Even a small foal could have figured that out.

"WAKE UP!!" He heard Braeburn shouting at her. Apparently she was that heavy of a sleepy. After that, he couldn't make out what he said to her or what she said to him.

"What?!" She asked, but not near so loud as Braeburns shouting. She rushed out into the living room and took a look at what the other three saw. Her violet eyes went wider than they ever had before, and even with her "never say die" attitude, it took her several seconds for the gravity of the situation to fully sink in to her head. "Oh my gosh..." she mumbled as she saw the fleet in her city.

"Yeah, Rainbow," Summer threw in. He had more combat experience than any of them and even he didn't totally know what to do. "Oh my gosh." It was the most accurate understatement of the century.

"This is... this is BIG!" She staggered back and almost fell on the couch. The great Mare-do-wells courage had been legendary in New Maredrid City for nearly two months, and even she was taken aback by what they had to contend with. "How are we..." apparently it was still sinking in. "How do we even... fight that."

"Fight that?" Trixie asked, confused. Surely she didn't intend to fight all of those ships. "You surely don't think that we could contend with that all by ourselves, do you? The great and wise Trixie will respect bravery, but there is no glory in suicide!"

"Well, what should we do? Pull a rabbit out of your hat?!" Rainbow Dash was getting confrontational. He imagined it was with good reason, though. Even from the short time he'd known her, he could tell that she wasn't a runner. She was a fighter. She needed to be able to confront her adversaries. "Because if you have another idea, I'm all ears!"

"The great and-"

"Cowardly?" Rainbow Dash threw in, bitterly. Apparently there was still some animosity beneath her rainbow mane. "Because running is what-"

"Enough!" Both Summer and Braeburn said to them.

"This is not helping, and the both of y'all know it!" Braeburn stepped up pretty well. Summer couldn't help but respect that. It is generally not a good idea to get between two fighting mares. But given the situation, they would probably have to make a lot of not good ideas soon enough. "We need a plan."

"He's right, you two," he got a grin on his face. In all of the years he had been reading adventure stories, he never, not once, thought he would get to say the next few words. "Everypony... suit up!"

They were all confused, but then they got it. Rainbow Dash went back to her room and put on her Mare-do-well uniform, Braeburn found a long-coat, red bandana and his hat and Trixie used her magic to teleport all of her gear onto her. "Well? The great and curious Trixie is waiting for your 'suit up'."

Summer Blaze just smiled. He put his black jacket on and pulled out an orange and grey scarf and glasses. He then put the glasses and then the scarf. "Ta-da."

"Seriously?" Mare-do-well asked in a disappointed way.

"You all fail to realize that I am no hero. I'm a mercenary! I don't get a special costume. I actually get to look intimidating." He paused to take a breath. "It's one of the perks of the job."

None of them could believe what the ally/hero/mercenary was saying. Apparently he still held himself somewhat apart from them, not that they totally minded. None of them except Trixie knew him well enough to really call him a friend. They all sighed as they all knew what the next move was: to the roof.

...

All four of the heroes gathered atop of the seven story apartment complex in one of the better parts of New Maredrid City. The Mercenary, the ace flyer, the cowboy detective and the magician: there they stood as what may as well have been the last line of defense that the city had.

Summer and Mare-do-well both chuckled as they saw what they all looked like, but Summer was the one who asked. "So what... are we like a team now?"

"What?" The Hat inquired.

"Like in those old comic books."

"Does this look like a comic to you?"

"Actually, yes. It does. If we were more heroic and ragtag, this would be in a speech bubble." Summer made a compelling argument.

"Alright, so what is our team name? The great and curious Trixie is dying to know." Trixie asked sarcastically.

Summer thought for a moment. He needed to come up with something catchy and something that fit the situation perfectly. "How about 'War-Horses'?" They all looked about as surprised as they could behind their masks.

"That's actually pretty cool sounding," Mare-do-well addressed.

"Then what's your hero name and mask, Mercenary?" the Hat said with a small amount of spite. He was just irritated at the conversation they were having at a bad time. Summer understood that.

He used his magic to move his scarf over the bottom half of his face. "Ta-da. I am now Fire Starter." The Hat just sighed at what he did. Regardless, they all had a job to do. "So what's the plan, Hat?"

The Hat just sighed. It seemed that he was the destined leader of this ragtag band of misfits. He needed to think of a plan of attack. He brought them all together, so he had to think of something and fast. That fleet of Airships wasn't going anywhere, after all. Ideas and strategies rushed through his head. He needed something, ANYTHING, to figure this thing out. But alas, with so little information on his enemy, he could only think of one tactic: "First we bring down the ship in the front, and then we bring down all the others."

They all looked at him like he had dropped off the face of Equestria. "Um... that's it?" Mare-do-well asked. She’d expected something a little bit more from the stallion that led them through the Echelons underground complex. No plan was perfect, but even so…

He sighed, which made Mare-do-well relieved. At least there was something more to his move. “Until we know what we’re dealin’ with, none of y’all should be goin’ solo on this. We stay together and we might be able to fight our way out of this. THAT’S the plan, Sugarcube.”

Mare-do-well only gave him a satisfied smirk that nopony could see. She nodded, happily seeing that there was more to the plan than just going out there and messing up ponies stuff.

“Guys…” Fire Starter began. Beneath the glasses that he only for the looks, they could all see something they didn’t think they would ever see. Even after only a couple weeks of knowing him, they had always thought him to be a pure warrior. A blood knight who loved battle. But now? Now they could all swear that they all saw a tear coming out of his right eye. “I want you all to know that it has been an honour. Each and every one of you are the best fighters I think Equestria has to offer. I will be proud to die beside you all.” He went all misty eyed and then looked at them. “Now let’s get going. I have a city to save.” And so they did.

...

They all ran across the roof tops of the buildings and were confronted by a new obstacle: changelings. “Damn,” Mare-do-well muttered silently. She hated these things. Not because they were difficult to kill, but because there were so damn many of them. But since she couldn’t afford to hold back… she didn’t.

Mare-do-well flew straight into the fray of the fighting, ramming threw each and every changeling that was foolish enough to challenge her in battle. Kick after kick was released and she soon realized how lucky she had been to study karate as a filly. Then a stream of fire came out of nowhere. “Watch it!”

Fire Starter was bellow, sending inferno after inferno at the black armies of the Echelon. “Sorry! Got a little…” He stopped for a moment. “What is that?!” A black and frosty mist appeared out of one of the air ships. “Um... Guys?! We might have a problem!”

The Hat was the only one who almost responded as the other two were too busy fighting through wave after wave. “What?! Oh…” The response was basically what ran through Fire Starters mind. What made matters even worse was that it was coming. Straight. For. HIM.

“Well… buck my life!” He did not run, though. He engulfed himself with fire as best he could and charged right at the new found foe. “Bring it ON!” He jumped into the frozen haze, but it grabbed a hold of him before he could even make a killing move, as if he even knew how to.

The smoke monster grabbed him and threw him across the city and over several buildings. It took an immense amount of fire on Fire Starters part to propel himself in such a way that it wouldn’t kill him. He was awestruck by the power that this guy had. He’d vaguely remembered hearing about King Sombra, but he knew that this enemy couldn’t be him. The smoke of Sombra was more akin to a wild fires smoke. This was cold and icy to the touch. Indeed, it chilled his very soul to even touch it. And that was when it occurred to him. “Winter?!”

The smoke monster arrived in front of him and took the form of his own little sister, Winter Night. Only she wasn’t quite herself. Her silver coat had been darkened to an almost dirty looking shade of platinum and her white mane grey. Her eyes glowed red but was most surprising was her horn. It wasn’t the one he had inadvertently shattered but it was red and black. It was almost as if Tartarous itself had spit it out. “Summer!” She said in a sinister and raspy version of her own voice. “You…!”

He took a look of disgust. Even with her staring him down like that, with almost all the power in the world he wasn’t about to let his little sister win against him. “I what?”

She pinned him up against a building, freezing his body next to a window. “You did this to me!”

She seemed genuinely hacked off at him. It looked like it was time to push her over the edge once more. “You did this to yourself! What’s the matter? Couldn’t take what you dished out!?”

...

The Hat was fighting back to back with Miss Magnificent. Since the very beginning of this fight, she knew she had to throw all mercy to the wind and use lethal force if she wanted to save this Celestia forsaken city. Her mystical ropes took the shape of serrated blades at the end and each enemy that approached was defeated with an untimely end of enchanted metal and rope. The Hat was next to her, using the martial arts he’d learned in his spare time at home to keep his opponents at bay. They hadn’t even gotten close to the air-fleet and now one of their best fighters had been removed from their side of the playing field to who knows where. Still, they had to keep fighting.

“This reminds me of that one time in Fillydelhpia!” Mare-do-well shouted out. About a month ago, he took her to Fillydelphia to see the Wonder bolts exhibition match against a new team of flyers, the Thunder-divers. It ended with them beating up a whole bunch of guys.

The Hat was irritated that she enjoyed that fight so much. “You and I remember Fillydelphia very differently!” Mare-do-well gave him a smile he couldn’t see. That day ended with her having the highest count of KO’s that day. Looking back, though, she wondered if it had only been for her own benefit, being the admittedly competitive jerk that she was.

“What happened to Fire?!” Miss Magnificent asked them. Neither of them really knew, except for the Hat.

“He’s busy!” Miss Magnificent took the hint and went on doing what she had been. She was worried about him, no doubt about that. The fact that there were still some unresolved feelings from last night didn’t help a whole hay of a lot. Still, she had to have faith in him. He was one of the only unicorns that rival Twilight, after all. So surely he would stand a chance against whatever whisked him away into another fight.

...

“OOMPH!” Even with his magic shield up, the impact on the cold and snow covered brick roads of New Maredrid city hurt… a lot. He got back up, though. “Well alright, then,” He popped his neck. “BRING IT ON!!!” The icy haze that was his sister attacked him once more, fighting his pure fire with her polluted ice. Even as he fought her, his mind raced with what happened to her. He had a feeling she had survived, sure, but he didn’t think she’d go all abomination on him. Granted, he should have seen that coming. He did know her better than most, after. In fact, when they were younger, he would often say that beneath her cold exterior was a warm center… wrapped around an even colder exterior. It made him laugh, but her… not so much.

He unleashed a sea of flames from his horn, trying desperately to fight her off. Even so, it was like trying to light a campfire in a blizzard. Under different circumstances, he would have been able to take her. Even like this, he thought he could win. But his game was off. He could only feel that she had caught him off balance, totally surprising him with her frozen assault. He couldn’t win like this. He knew that much. He had to think of something. Anything or this would be his last dance. And he was not keen on it being with his sister. So he fought back, using only what power he would need to survive and began planning.

“Gah!” The Hat shouted in pain as he was rammed by a changing. He had no idea how these things got tangled up with the Echelon. None of his research into the Echelon showed anything even representing an alliance that was made with them. So one of two things happened: one, he was played… again, or two, the changed their plans. It wasn’t too farfetched to think that they would have changed their end game. He very much doubted they planned to let Blood Diamonds take over in a bloody coup. He threw the changling that attacked him down and literally stomped its brains out of its head. “WE can’t go on like this! We haven’t gotten anywhere near those ships!”

Mare-do-well had the highest kill-count, but even she was growing tired. Even being the greatest fly in all of Equestria might not help her today. “Well what do you want us to do?” She didn’t like what was going on any more than the Hat did, but she wasn’t going to give up. Even after wave upon wave of changelings attacked them all, she couldn’t surrender. None of them could, because that would be tantamount to death.

That was when he saw a huge pillar of fire appear on the horizon. A crazy plan began to turn the gears within the Hat’s head. He gave himself a mental pat on the back. “Guys!” he called out to his comrades. “Follow me!” He took off in the direction of the towering inferno. This had to work or they would all die.

Mare-do-well could have sped past either of her team mates, but she didn’t. She needed to stay with them. For their sake, not hers. Eventually, after fighting through dozens of the changlings and staining almost every inch of their costumes in their unholy blood, they made it to the fight between Fire Starter and his own little sister… whom had taken the appearance of an enemy that Mare-do-well had seen only once before. “King Sombra…” She knew what that meant. As much as it pained her, she knew that in this fight, they couldn’t hope to win. They had to stage a retreat.

“THAT ALL YOU GOT, GRIFFON?!” the three of them could hear their ally shout at the abomination. They had a feeling that this was not going to end well. He sent wave after wave of fire blasts at Winter Haze, which was what he now called her, but to little effect. Then he looked over and saw his companions, and realized that everything was about to take a turn for the better. Winter Haze sent a sheet of black ice at Fire Starter, to which he dodged expertly.

Then his friends jumped in. Miss Magnificent raised her own magenta shield to protect them from what would have been a gruesome and cold death. “’Bout time you guys got here! I’ve been on the bad end of Winter for like an hour! What, you all couldn’t see the freaking huge pillars of fire I made?!”

“You know, Summer…” Miss Magnificent started. “We didn’t HAVE to show up here.” She made a descent enough argument.

“Duly noted,” he would have helped Miss Magnificent with her shield, but he really couldn’t afford to waste anymore magic. “So what’s the plan, Chief?” He asked the Hat calmly. Although he already had an idea that he knew what it was.

“You know what the plan is, Fire!” Thought so.

“Alright, everypony, stand back!” They all looked at him in the small bubble of magical energy, where absolutely none of them could stand back. “Right… sorry.” He cracked his hooves, then his neck and then finally his arms. A large amount of magic began to gather within his horn. He’d mastered the teleportation spell a while back, but he didn’t like using it. It just seemed too… cheap. Cold fire began to engulf him. It was a bright red fire and soon, with as much concentration as he could muster, all four of them were assimilated into the flames as well. He muttered one thing. “This is gonna suck…”
When he said that, he was referring to the major hang-over he was going to have from using that much magic today, but it ended up taking another meaning entirely.

Winter Haze broke through the shield just before the teleportation happened and grabbed the Hat. Before he could even call off his spell, they were over a hundred miles away in the middle of some forest.

...

Rainbow Dash took off her mask and Hat. All she saw was a log cabin and what looked like a hanger. There were cut down trees and there was Summer Blaze and Trixie, but there was no Braeburn. It took her a moment to drink it all in, but finally, she fell to her knees. “No…” she whispered. Trixie recognized it as what Braeburn did in the Echelon complex weeks ago, only this time… this time they had actually lost someone. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Comments

[bahatumay]

..."greatest fly in all of Equestria"?
Best typo I've seen all day.