Mistress Do Well: Submission
by milesprower06

Prologue

Every step felt like a mile. Every minute, an hour.

Rainbow Dash trotted down a forest path through the eastern region of Equestria, headed south. She felt her new earring as it hung from her ear. Her saddlebags weighed her down, the majority of which was the 19,200 bits she had barely begun spending, and it had already been a month since leaving.

Beginning a gradual uphill climb, Rainbow saw a wagon kiosk start to come down from the top, about a quarter of a mile away. The pony pulling it wore a purple cloak, much like the brown one she was currently wearing. She lowered her gaze to the ground in front of her, and did her best to conceal her features as she and the kiosk crossed paths halfway up the hill.

“You're the last pony I expected to run into out here.”

Rainbow turned, and laid eyes on the blue-coated unicorn owner of the kiosk.

Trixie Lulamoon.

Rainbow, in no mood to dig up another piece of the past, began to walk around the kiosk, trying her best not to make eye contact.

“Are you okay?”

The words gave off sincere concern as they came to Rainbow's ears, making her stop in her tracks, but not turn around to face the unicorn.

“I heard about what happened. A lot of ponies have. There are Missing posters everywhere.”

“Exactly. So why would you wonder if I'm okay?” Rainbow asked, turning around. “Every time I want to buy something to eat... Or if I want to sleep indoors for a night... Or whenever I pass a pony on the road... I have to wonder if these vendors and desk clerks and passers-by know me, and if they've heard about what my friends did to me... And if they're going to alert the royal search parties out looking for me, and if I'm going to wake up surrounded by guards. So don't even ask if I'm okay, because I'm not! You have no idea how badly I just want to disappear!”

Trixie saw the tears prick the pegasus' tired, defeated eyes. She saw the clipped primaries when her wings flared out in anger, and how she shivered underneath her ragged cloak.

“You're right. You're absolutely right. I know that none of what happened is okay, or why they would ever even think about doing what they did to you. You want all of Equestria to forget about you. What if I could give you a way to?”

Rainbow scoffed, wondering why she was still standing here listening to this.

Trixie turned back to her kiosk and shuffled several items around. She came back around to Rainbow with a neatly folded article of dark gray clothing.

“Even as a showmare, I did a little artifact collecting on the side. Once I got out of doing traveling shows, I stepped that hobby up a bit. This is the Cloak of the New Moon. It's enchanted with incredibly powerful magic. You just put it on, bring the hood up, and nopony will ever recognize you. Only powerful disillusion spells can break the enchantment, but then again, why would any unicorn of that experience have any reason to? After all, you're anonymous. Just a face in the crowd. You could even tell somepony your name directly, and they still wouldn't have a clue. Go anywhere you want. It was very hard to come by, so even for you and what you've been through, I'm going to have to ask 5,000 for it.”

Rainbow scoffed again.

“Right. Like you can prove to me that it even-”

“Look, over there! You, stay right there!”

Rainbow and Trixie both looked up towards the top of the hill, where two Royal Guard pegasi were galloping down to their location.

Dash's heart crept up to her throat. She knew she couldn't outrun them, and she couldn't fly, either.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow saw Trixie's horn light up. By the time she turned to see what was happening, the unicorn had unfurled the cloak, took a step forward, draped it over her shoulders, and pulled the hood up. Before she could object, the approaching hoofsteps became loud enough to bring her attention back to the two guards, now standing directly in front of her.

Rainbow gulped, unsure what to do. The situation grew tense and awkward as the guards also were unsure what to do, as they just stared at the now hooded pegasus.

After a nervous clearing of the throat, the guard on the right spoke up.

“Um, I'm sorry ma'am. I thought for sure that you were somepony we've been looking for.”

With several more seconds of staring, the two guards exchanged a glance and a shrug, and continued walking down the path. Once they were out of sight, Rainbow turned to Trixie with a look of disbelief, tears of relief running down her face.

“Trixie...”

“Do you want it?”

After a moment of silence, Rainbow nodded.

“I only recognize you because of this spell. Wait until I stop casting it, then hand me the bits, thank me, and be on your way. Best of luck to you, Rainbow Dash.”

The glow on the tip of her horn dimmed and went out. Rainbow dug into her saddlebag and got out a small bag of bits, which she had pre-portioned into certain amounts. She handed these to Trixie.

“Thank you.”

Trixie smiled in return.

“Enjoy, thank you for your patronage.”

As the cyan pegasus galloped off towards the crest of the hill, Trixie set the bag of bits into the center drawer of her kiosk, then closed and locked it. She wasn't sure what she had just sold to the mysterious mare, but she was confident that she had just made a fortune, and that was perfectly fine with her.