The Mysterious Adventures of Mare-do-well

by Commando-Scarecrow

All According to Plan

The reveal left her mind riddled with questions. The first was how it had happened, with the second being how she couldn't have found out by now. But there he was, staring at her with both of his big green eyes and his long blonde mane. "Braeburn?!" She was shocked even worse than that one guitar incident. She didn't even know legs could do that.

"Heh heh. Heya, Dashie," he greeted her with a nervous laugh, but that paled in comparison how she felt. "Guess rodeo's over, eh?"

"How!?" She was still dumb struck that he was the hat. Him, the boyfriend that she took up the cowl of Mare-do-well and the perch of the Spire for. Him, who was stabbed and left hospitalized for nearly a week. That would explain why the wound hadn't healed yet. "You were the Hat all along?" She still had him pinned down to the roof. Even in all the confusion that was suddenly thrown in her face, she still held firm over him. Normally this may have been an alright thing, but not tonight. Tonight she was all rage and confusion. "How long have you been doing this?!"

"Funny story 'bout that, Sugarcube," he took a deep sigh and it appeared that he would "spill the beans", as he would have called it, but nearly 50 ponies appeared from almost nowhere. 25 pegasi carrying 25 unicorns, each apparently battle ready and prepared to take on the heroes as she pinned him down.

"I'm afraid the game is over, Ms. Mare-do-well and Mr. Hat!" A single mauve unicorn touched down on the roof top and continued to declare how things were going to go down. "You've meddled in our affairs for the last time!"

Rainbow Dash unpinned her boyfriend and helped him up, quietly asking him a question. "You know who these guys are, Brae?"

He picked up his sunglasses from the roof top and fixed his hat that had been crooked. It figured, Rainbow thought to herself. He was her best-friends cousin, after all, and AppleJack did love her hat like only a few other possessions she had. "You recollect when I said something about trials and how I'd be needing your help?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, I could really use your help right about now, Sugarcube." So this was it. The thing he needed help with in the first place and the entire reason he had contacted her as his own secret identity.

"Got it!" She began to charge at the ambushers, that is, until Braeburn grabbed her by her tail with his mouth. It must have been another trait that ran in the Apple family. "What are you doing?!"

"Whatever you are planning, it won't work!" The leader of their attackers shouted out in a very matter-of-fact voice. He then took a rather haughty voice as he continued. "This building is surrounded by each and every agent under my command! Not even the both of you could fight through all of these... associates of mine. Surrender and you may live past your interrogations! But if not, well... nopony is indispensable." Rainbow Dash couldn't help but since that that last part was said with an underlying feeling of contempt, as though he had been told the same thing once before.

"I thought you had a plan for this, Hat!" She whispered loudly. There was no use bothering with subtlety now, but she figured that they could still stick with using their hero names.

"I do, Sugarcube!" He looked frustrated at what had happened, but he hardly showed it. In fact, in all the years she knew Braeburn, she had never seen him look more in his element. He looked stressed, sure, but it wasn't an angry stressed. That was when she recognized the look in his face. It was the same look she got when she encountered a difficult challenge that she wasn't sure she could win against. In short, he never seemed to be more at home than at this very moment.

"Well?" She however, did not feel the same way. She had been taken completely by surprise in her own city, near her own perch, no less! She enjoyed a challenge, sure, but this? She feared that she may have gotten in way over her head this time. "Care to explain it with the rest of the class?!"

He always took on a sly grin when he had an idea, and judging by his face, he had one doozy of an idea under his hat. "Yep!" He walked a few steps in front of her, and then proceeded to speak for the both of them. She always hated when he did that. "We give up!"

"Wha-What?" The leader of the criminal force was surprised to hear that, as was Rainbow Dash.

"What?!" She was experiencing that old familiar feeling of confusion and anger again, only this time, the primary ingredient in her emotional cocktail was anger.

"Trust me, Sugercube," he began to whisper to try to assure her that he knew exactly what he was doing. "I know exactly what I'm doing."

She just shot him a concerned glare and then begrudgingly accepted his judgment on this matter. "Um... alright, then," The captain of their captors’ said, confused as hay. "Well, then. Gentlecolts?" He motioned to some of his colts. "Please restrain our new prisoners. They shall be escorted to our facility." They did as he said, putting hoof cuffs on the both of them and then a burlap sack over each of their heads. The last thing she was the moon shining light on her boyfriend’s confident grin and the lunar luminescence bouncing off of his shades. She gave a deep sigh, and then accepted the new situation as truth. One thing was for certain, though. Somepony was going to die at the end of this.

...

They were being forced down a long hall way. Of that, Rainbow Dash was certain. They took away her hat, but they did let her keep the mask. She didn't know whether or not this was out of some sense of honor, or maybe they just didn't care to take it off. Either way, Rainbow as least grateful for that much. She had no idea where they were taken, either. She guessed that it was maybe an hour away from the Spire by foot, and that there had been stairs, a lot of stairs, but that's it.

Her thoughts then went back to Braeburn and how he had been the Hat that whole time. She wondered exactly how long he had been doing this, but she had a feeling it had been nearly as long as she had been masquerading as the mysterious Mare-do-well. Given how he had been able to lead her along just to tell her he needed her help, and then disappear into the night in a way more mysterious than she typically did, she figured it was more than likely. She called out to Braeburn, in the hoped she could get at least some symbolism of an idea of why he just gave up without a fight. "Psst! Hat!" She called out in a whisper to him. "What's the-"

Before she could finish her question, she was shoved by one of her escorts. "No talking, Hero." She gave a dirty look that nopony could see, and then accepted the order of her keeper. It was probably best that they didn't discuss how they would escape this current dilemma. So she just kept walking, hoping her boyfriend had a plan to get them out of this hay of a mess. Eventually, they stopped in what she could tell was an isolated prison room. Even through both the mask over her face and the burlap sack over her head, she could smell the stale scent of a jail. It wasn't a bad smell, but it was sterile and metallic. She was shoved in to the room harshly. "Four star accommodations, Chump." She hit the wall and it hurt her wing, but not so badly. Chances are it would just be a few bruises. They threw her hat in after her and locked the door. She heard the door of the cell next to her close immediately thereafter. The guards left the room without another word, leaving the two lovers in their separate cells, alone.

Rainbow Dash waited for maybe thirty seconds to be sure that the guards were out of ear-shot, then began speaking to the colt that she was more than a little aggravated with. "So... when did you plan on telling me about you being the Hat?"

"I wasn't," he answered flatly in his southern drawl.

Rainbow was shocked at that answer. Not nearly as much as when she found out that he was the Hat to begin with, but still shocked. "You... You what?!" And there was that old familiar feeling of confused anger.

"To be totally honest with you, Dashie," he took a pause like he was about to tell her everything. He did. "Dashie, ever since I met you, for real I mean, you have been an irreplaceable part of my life. Each time I saw you leave our bed; it was like driving a dagger in my heart. And when I thought about what would happen if you didn't come back? It was like the twisting the dagger in deeper and deeper." She could almost hear him getting choked up as he gave his confession to her. "This, all of this, was meant for us. For you."

"You're crazy, you know that, right?" She wasn't sure how he could top a speech like that, even if they were in an underground prison cell. He didn't usually get all sappy like that. In fact, all of their chemistry was based upon them taking a few shots at each other with the praise being hidden in the subtext.

"Love makes a colt do some crazy things."

And there was the show stopper. She was happy as hay that he couldn't see her face, because by now she was crying her eyes out. It was not something she tried to make a habit of doing. Eventually, she able to summon the will power to stop the water-works and keep pressing him for answers. "So how long have you been doing this anyway?" She didn't even bother asking about his fake south Equestrian accent. She'd met his Uncle Apple Strudel Dundee a while back. Still, his accent was terrible.

"About three weeks after you started. As soon as the stab wound healed the first time, actually."

"That why it opened up the other day?"

"Actually," he let out a small chuckle as he began his answer. "I really was intending to take you out dancing in the next couple of days. And that really was a dance injury."

"Braeburn," she was astounded at that revelation. Braeburn was unbelievable. He was a far cry from the colt she'd met in Appleousa, that's for sure. He'd always been stubborn, albeit not as bad as her best friend, AppleJack, but she had no idea he was wily as well. She struggled to think of an appropriate response to his answer, but she couldn't think of anything good. "You're..."

"Hmm?"

She still couldn't think of a good enough word to describe him, so she just decided to move on. "So what's the plan, Cowboy?"

"You remember the guitar incident?" He was skating on thin ice now. She always hated when he brought that up, especially considering what happened that night.

"Braeburn..." she said his name in a warning fashion, but she actually was curious about where he was headed with this.

"Just here me out, Sugarcube." He took a breath, then kept on. "You remember how you got yerself outa those handcuffs that night?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Might be a good idea to do that trick with your wing right about now."

"Gotcha!" She was actually kind of turned on by this new, whily side of Braeburn. For the longest time, she thought he was just a "good-ole-boy" from Appleousa. There was the added appeal of being her best friends cousin, forbidden fruit aspect and all, but that didn't really do a lot for her, especially considering how AJ felt about them together. This new, previously hidden, Braeburn was all cunning and action. She liked it. She liked it a lot. She might have to reward him after all of this was over. She concentrated carefully on undoing her hoof cuffs, and, after maybe twenty seconds of getting her feathers in the exact right position, she was free. "And... done!" She took off her sack and gathered her hat.

"Great, Dashie!" he praised her for her accomplishment.

"I know," She gave an egotistical grin, and then proceeded to unlock her cell, then his, and then his hoof cuffs. "So what's your grand plan for getting us out, Chief?"

"We wait!" He announced triumphantly, leaving Rainbow Dash perplexed yet again.

"What?" It was the only word she can think to say. "So what was the point in telling me to get us out in the first place?"

He shot her an all-knowing smile, then proceeded to answer. "Because," his all-knowing grin became a full-blown Cheshire-cat smile. "We're not stuck in here with them... they're stuck in with us! I got back up on the way, so as soon as they show up, we show these guys what we can really do!"

"You don't mean..."

"You didn't think I would let us get captured like that, did you?"

"Brae, you are, without a doubt, the most awesome earthpony I have ever met." She put her arm over his shoulder and kissed him with a quick peck on the lips. "You're almost as awesome as I am." She stopped for a second to consider what she just said. "Almost."

"Why, thank you!" He shot his own version of her ego-grin, much to her amusement.

"So now we just kick back and wait until the cavalry arrives?" She placed her hands behind her head and began to relax against the side of the dual prison cell.

"That's just about the size of it."

"I like that idea," She put her arms behind her head and proceeded to lean against the wall of their jail. "I like it a lot." She knew she couldn't go to sleep, so she figured she'd ask more important stuff, like why they were here specifically. "So who are these guys, anyway?"

"They call themselves the

"Well, there was this one time..." And so they just sat and talked. Shooting the breeze as though there was nothing was wrong in their city and like they weren't in the underground prison. As they spoke, Braeburn smiled, as though everything had been going according to plan. And if Rainbow Dash had learned anything about her boyfriend in the last few hours, it was that, chances are, they were.

...

Finding this place hadn't been too difficult. She'd given him a tracking charm soon after they rendezvoused the night he first made contact with Mare-do-well. The complex would have been difficult to find other wise, as it had been hidden in an old and rundown apartment building on the bad side of town. Although "bad" was a relative term here. The vast majority of the town was the bad side of town.

She wondered through the halls of the complex, defeating all in her path, searching for her partner in anti-crime. Miss Magnificent used her charmed ropes wrapped around her body as her primary weapon, sending it towards the villains that attacked her in her quest to find the Hat and Mare-do-well. Her mask was one of white and black and left only her right eye uncovered, it's cool, crystal blue color acting as a dagger to those that were left unscathed by her one-mare assault on the complex. Her hooded cloak, charmed like her rope, easily stopped most of the concussive blasts from the pathetic excuses of unicorns they had for security. She briefly considered what had brought her here in this stage of her magical career, then remembered. She had done a few things in her past that she was not proud of. They were easily within the realm of atonable, but still. She felt as though that, if she started acting the heroine, she would become one. But these were just excuses for rescuing the Hat and she knew it. Her debt wasn't paid to everypony she'd hurt, but her coming to his rescue and aiding him in his plot to save the city was an obligation she felt was necessary.

She had at first questioned the Hats decision to add Mare-do-well onto their team, but he would not be deterred. He would have her on his team because this city was under her guardianship as well as his, and to a lesser extent, hers. She wondered what his true motives were for adding her on, and was easily able to figure out why. He cared for her. The revelation was difficult to swallow at first, and it still was. It was a great source of heart-ache, to be sure, but her travels over the past two years after her defeat at the greatest unicorn in all of Equestria taught her many things, and acceptance was among them. There was always a bigger fish.

"Fools!" She shouted using a classic megaphone-style spell. She'd found that it added the extra shock and awe effect that she so loved. The cloaked heroine gave an invisible smile as her ropes were sent forth to battle on her behalf. "Only defeat lies this way!" Four ropes from beneath her cloak charged back to her opponents, if they could even be called such, and sent each and every one of them flying against the concrete walls of the hallway, knocking them out cold. They would live, as the Hat requested. They were only hired security, he had said, so they deserve a chance at some redemption. She agreed to his rules, as she saw his wisdom in the matter. She was still on the path of atonement herself, after all. Besides, they were not the true enemy here. Their leaders, on the other hand, would be spared little to no quarter. She felt as though that had been a tad bit to brutal from the earthpony known as the Hat. He'd always tried to keep deaths to a minimum, but alas. T'was their duty to pay evil unto evil, and should he change his mind, then she would still follow him. She would follow him to the edge of oblivion and the gates of tartarous if she had too.

She was a drifter, as she had always been. She never stopped moving and never stayed in one place to long. Even as a child, that had been her life. In her attempts to cover up her loneliness, she reinvented herself, becoming a unicorn that all could admire. In time, the lie became real enough to her and she, in essence, became the mask she wore. It wasn't until her greatest lesson in her greatest defeat was she forced to take a long hard look at the mare she had become. She wasn't pleased with what she saw. She knew deeply within her heart that her arrogant and self-centered attitude had to stop, so, in some great irony, she donned a new mask: the mask of Miss Magnificent. Hopefully, she prayed when she created her mask and wore it for the first time; I will become this mask as I had in the past.

For two years she became a wondering heroine of Equestria, always mocked for the past of a fraud as her real self, but the object of adoration to many when she donned her mask and cloak. It was enough, at least, for her it was. Eventually, she made it to a town with two heroes. One visible, and one not. The Hat that hid in shadows approached her for her help. "There's gonna be one heapin' hay of a scrap," he'd said to her. She never seen him that serious before and she could do nothing but accept his invitation to take part in the salvation of this city. So here she was, in the belly of the proverbial beast, saving the colt that helped to save her. The alarms began to sound across the facility and she gave an anxious grin. The party, it seemed, was just beginning to get started.

...

"Cover the door way!" Mare-do-well woke up from her nap on the Hats shoulder after hearing the guard shout his command to his colts. In the four hours they were waiting for their back up, he had explained everything to her on what he had found out. The organization was called the Echelon. It meant "the highest levels". It was an organization decades old, but it was only until certain events took place when they were able to begin their plans final stages. Even the Hat didn't know what their end game was, but did know he needed a group of powerful allies to help him thwart their attempts to seize control of all and everything. The chips were down, he had told her, but he was confident that the three of them could do it. When she asked about just three, he only gave her a sly grin and said that the third teammate is a one-mare-army. "COVER THE DANG DOOR WAY!!"

She believed and trusted him. It's strange how different he was from the colt she'd met in Appleousa four years ago. He seemed so uncertain of what he could or couldn't do. He wasn't near the pony he was now. She entertained herself with the thought that she changed him, but she knew that if she did, it was only indirectly. Conflict has a habit of bringing out a ponies true colors, of showing what somepony is really made of. It worked for Twilight, Spike, Rarity, and damned near everypony else she knew on a personal level. As the old expression gos, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And if anypony got going, it was Braeburn. "Sheila!" He called out to her in his south Equestrian accent. Meh. It wasn't as bad as she thought it was. Still terrible, though. "'Ow hard can ya kick?"

"Almost as strong as AJ, why?" He answered only with a wolfish grin and a glance to the big metal door. She immediately knew what he meant when he looked back to her. "I'm likin' you more and more every day, Hat."

They both backed up to the door, at just the right distance for maximum kicking power. At the end of this whole ordeal, she had a feeling that she would be more sore than she was after the guitar incident. She couldn't stand to even look at a shovel to this day. "On the count of three, kay, Shiela?" She nodded and he got started on the counting. "One."

"Two..."

"THREE!" They said it both at the same time, and they both kicked the door off the hinges. And into one poor guard. And another poor guard. And then a third one. Mare-do-well felt bad about that. Killing was generally something she really tried not to make a habit of. The one exception was rapists. They were a special kind of evil. They deserved no less.

The two warriors found themselves soon surrounded by the security if there jail cell. There were maybe 15 of them, all unicorns of varying sizes and genders. They both heard the sound of them charging their horns up to exterminate the prisoners. "Howley dooley!" The Hat said in pleased anticipation of the challenge they were faced with. Mare-do-well gave herself a mental face-hoof. This was the colt she let sleep in the same bed as her. Somewhere, AJ was laughing at her.

They both looked at each other, smiled, and then began to clean up. The Hat leapt into action first, surprising his fiery companion. The normally reserved fighter she'd come to expect jumped in whole heartedly, dodging and zigzagging with skills only an expert rodeo-pony would have. Mare-do-well soon joined the fray, and they were back-to-back bad-flanks. She owned the air and brought down death from above, stomping on the vile hopes and heinous dreams of her victims, and he wrought destruction from the earth, over powering the pathetic excuses for guards. Maybe they weren't so bad, she mused to herself. Maybe we're just that awesome. A dozen different colors filled the air, until; finally, the colts and mares charged with making sure they didn't escape were all down. Most of them were only knocked out, but alas. The Hat and the Cape knew not their own strength and there were casualties on their side. Acceptable losses.

"You ain't too shabby in a fight, Shiela," the Hat said to her, preparing to compliment her. "Maybe one day I can teach you not to be so slow." Or not. He always did know how to ruffle her feathers in more ways than one...

She gave a smirk under her mask. "You're one to talk. I swear I saw my pet turtle move faster than you just did." He gave a chuckle as she snarked back at him, and then they got moving through the tunnels. Even here, their natural chemistry still worked like normal. Only here, there was something more between them. It wasn't respect. She’d respected him ever since they first met. It was something else. Admiration maybe? It seemed similar to what she felt for the Wonder Bolts, only deeper and more personal. Was she falling for him all over again? Could she even do that without falling out of love first? Whatever the case, she felt herself surge with pride as they found and defeated each new foe that crossed their paths.

They wondered through the halls of the underground complex. Mare-do-well, used the vast open skies of the city above, found this somewhat constricting. She didn't mind it to much, though. The hall ways still had plenty of room for flying in a straight line, and if her wings got tired she could always start hoofin' it.

Then, after running in what seemed like circles for what felt like an eternity, they came across what seemed like a new challenger. "FOOLS! YOU DARE APPROACH TO CHALLENGE THE GREAT AND POWERFUL MISS MAGNEFI-"

"Trixie! Now it not the time!" The Hat called her out, even letting his accent slip, before she could finish making her dynamic entrance. They ran by her as the Hat grabbed her by the wrist and she got with the program. So this was the back up? She didn't seem so tough, Mare-do-well thought. Whoever let her in here must be terrible at their job. Or maybe she was just that aw- Mare-do-well stopped that repeating thought right before she could finish it. She still held a grudge against her, but now wasn't the time for being picky about your friends. They still had an evil plan to thwart, after all.

Comments

[bahatumay]

"So who are these guys, anyway?"

"They call themselves the

"Well, there was this one time..."

Now THAT is an evil cliffhanger... or a proofreading mistake.

[Flint]

1777145 i'd say evil clifhanger

[GearShift77]

So Trixie is Miss Magnificent. Interesting.

But what on earth does her costume look like? The chapter doesn't really makes it clear on the aesthetics of her costume, beside saying she wears a cloak and a mask.