Mysterious Mare Do Well:Hunted!

by Phoenix Kitten

Chapters

Prologue:Rainbow's recovery.
Arrival
Reunion and starting work.

Prologue:Rainbow's recovery.

Rainbow Dash had been flying for what felt like months before her wings started to get tired. Spotting a soft looking cloud down below she put herself into a bank and came down to land, touching down softly and resting her head against the soft fluffyness.

That's when the cloud decided to turn violent and hit her with a burst of lightning, shocking her awake.

The cyan pegasus shot up in her hospital bed, gasping for air as her wings twitched against their slings.

"She's alive. And awake." A gruff sounding doctor told the nurse.

"Wha- what the..." Rainbow stuttered.

The doctor put a gentle but firm hoof on her chest and gently pushed her so she was laying down. "Take it easy miss Dash. You've been out cold for about a week."

"What?!?"

"I know that may come as a shock to you, but you were in a bad way when your friends brought you in here." The doctor turned and said something to the nurse, but Rainbow couldn't hear him. After half a minute of back and forth talking the doctor looked back towards her. "Sorry about that. But as I was saying, you were pretty banged up, and for about ten seconds there, you were clinically dead."

Rainbow's eyes went wide. "I was... dead?"

The doctor nodded. "Your muscles, including your heart, all seized up due to over exertion, how I don't know. All I know is that your friend, Miss Pinkamena Pie, was sitting by your bed when your wings suddenly shot out to your side and your legs started flailing like..." The doctor stopped and looked at the clipboard with the recount on it. "Like one of those big inflatable pony things that they put out front of carriage stores to mark a sale."

Rainbow Dash gave the doctor an odd look.

He cleared his throat. "Her words. I'm simply reading what the nurse took down for the report."

He shrugged. "At any rate, it seems you had a seizure and we'll need to keep you here for a few more days to make sure you are fine but now that you are awake, any time after that period is up, you can leave of your own volition. However. If you do I'd advise you to take it easy and rest."

"um excuse me doctor." Nurse Redheart called from the door. "A moment please."

"Yes of course." The doctor said before turning back to Rainbow Dash. "I will be back momentarily."

The doctor trotted out into the hallway and closed the door. "What is it nurse?"

"Well.. this came in the mail for miss Dash. It's a summons to Canterlot signed by Princess Celestia herself." Nurse Redheart explained as she passed a note to the doctor.

"Let's see here." the doctor said to nopony in particular as he read, his brow furrowing. "Well... I can't just tell the Princess that she can't have this young mare perform, and if the date is correct, she should be fully healed and ready well before hoof."

Inside her room, Rainbow Dash was amusing herself by reading through the stack of newspapers detailing what had happened that had been left by Pinkie Pie. She frowned as she read, all the reports, though not identifying her as the Shadowbolt, called her a lunatic pegasi who was stopped by the efforts of the one brave mare, also not identified.

She rubbed her jaw where Twilight's last strike had connected, it was still a bit sore, but bearable compared to the pain across her chest where she had been slammed with a table leg.

'Probably some internal bruising that caused my heart to seize up. Maybe the doc is right and I should take it easy...'

It was at that point that the doctor opened the door and trotted back in. "Good news it seems. Princess Celestia has put out a summon for you to head to Canterlot tomorrow. Now it says here you will be traveling with Miss Sparkle and the rest of your friends so we'll pass on some instructions for them to keep you healthy."

"Canterlot? What for? Is something wrong?" Rainbow asked, putting the newspaper down.

"No. It seems the princess wants you to do a Sonic Rainboom to close off the wedding of her niece and the Captain of the Royal Day Guard."

Arrival

Twilight Sparkle sat by the window in the VIP carriage of the train to Canterlot. Her friends were all busy planning out their parts to the wedding that they were to be helping with.

She had the easy part, she was her brothers Mare of Honor. 'Though I guess it means alot more when your brother is the captian of the Royal Guard, is marrying Princess Celestia's niece and being married by Princess Celestia herself, who also happens to be your own personal teacher.' She thought, sighing out loud as she did.

Applejack noticed Twilight's sigh and trotted over, giving her a friendly pat on the back. "You all right Twi?"

Twilight sighed again. "I'm just a little nervous. And hurt that my brother didn't see fit to tell me himself."

Applejack chuckled and shook her head. "Come on Sugahcube. Ah'm sure he had a good reason for not tellin' you himself." Applejack reassured her friend. "You said he's the captain of the royal guard right? Maybe somethin's come up."

"Yes darling do be reasonable. He is marrying a princess after all. I'm sure it's a simple case of him just doing his job and making sure the security is in peak condition." Rarity added, looking up from her designs and offering a smile.

"Besides." Rainbow Dash said as she siddled up next to the lavender unicorn. "If there is something odd going on, we can give the guards a hoof as the Mysterious Mare Do Well and the Shadowbolt."

"Um..." Fluttershy whispered. "I don't think that would work." She pointed at the station walls as the train pulled in.

"Well shoot. No crimfightin' for us."

"The hay? That's stupid."

"You can't complain Rainbow. The doctor did tell you to take it easy for a few more days. And to check into the Castle's medical center."

"Yeah yeah..."

Pinkie glanced at the posters that were plastered all over the station walls and read aloud. "Wanted alive: reward 50000 bits. The Mysterious Mare Do Well. For the crime of vigilantism." She looked at the second poster. "Wanted alive: reward 60000 bits. The Shadowbolt. For reckless endangerment of civillians in the crime of vigilantism."

"Since when?" Rianbow Dash asked.

"Since forever." Twilight rolled her eyes. "This is the royal city, it makes sense that vigilantes would be criminalized and a bounty put on their heads."

"And with a wedding this important coming up, I can only imagine that the guards would be extra suspicious of anypony who enters the city." Rarity reasoned.

A quintet of passes floated over to each of the ponies present. "Well they won't be suspicious of us. I had Princess Celestia pull a few strings so that the guards will pay us no mind." Twilight half smiled. "All you have to do is show this to the guards and you shoud be allowed access to anywhere in the castle."

"Well shoot. This'll make gettin' the ingredients Ah need that much easier. Thank you kindly Twilight."

"Oh. And if we show them to shopkeeps we can get any materials we need free of charge, provided we have proof of why we need them of course." Rarity beamed. "Hmm... I wonder if I can keep any left over fabric for myself..." She mused.

A loud squee drew all their attention to Rainbow Dash. "And if we need help from anypony or organization in Equestria, we just have to ask."

"Oh dear..." Applejack sighed before quietly clearing her throat and nudging Fluttershy and Pinkie. She began to mimic Rainbow Dash's voice mockingly, matching the pegasi's tirade word for word.

"This is gonna be so awesome! I'm going to see if I can get the Wonderbolts to help me with this, maybe I can teach them how to do a Sonic Rainboom so we can do a straight line fly by and deliver more than one. Then they'll have to accept me as a member or at least a reserve member to call in when one of the main group gets sick..."

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy giggled quietly as Rainbow Dash continued her daydream with Applejack doing a mocking imitation.

Twilight turned to Rarity, "You'll keep an eye on the others right?"

"Of course darling, but where will you be going?"

"A few places. I probably won't be staying in the castle either."

"Oh?" Rarity raised an eyebrow. "And where will you be staying?"

Twilight shrugged. "Figured I'd use the time to spend some time with my parents. It has been a long time since I saw them."

"Say time anymore darling and I'd think you were a Chronomancer." Rarity giggled daintily.

Twilight chuckled before turning to their other friends, the train coming to a complete stop. "Alright girls!"

Without hesitation, the other four ponies turned to look at her. "You all know what you need to do. So get straight to the castle and get to it. I'll be in first thing in the morning and I expect to see some progress."

They all nodded and turned to the doors as they opened.

"Odd how the train didn't stop until we were ready to get off." Fluttershy wondered aloud.

"Talking is a free action." Pinkie stated simply as she bounced out of the car.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Fluttershy simply blinked, shook her head and took to the air, heading towards the royal aviary. "Hopefully the trained birds will be more receptive than the ones in the garden."

"The royal kitchen... gonna be a big place, hope the chefs don't mind takin' orders from me for a bit." Applejack furrowed her brow as she trotted down the path to the castle.

Rainbow Dash flew off towards the richer part of the city, muttering the addresses of several Wonderbolts to herself.

Pinkie was already long gone, which left just the two unicorns in each others company.

"So where are you off to first dear?" Rarity asked.

"The barracks."

"The what?"

"The living quarters for the guards."

"Oh. Going to talk with your brother I take it?"

Twilight nodded. "You should get to the royal dressmakers room, start working on the dress."

"Oh yes." The white unicorn giggled like a little filly. "I've poured most of my bits into getting the best equipment I can afford for my boutique, I'm curious to see how it stacks up to what they have at the castle, as well as all the special fabrics I'll be working with..." Rarity continued to talk to herself as she trotted off after Applejack.

Twilight smiled and shook her head before breaking into a gallop and heading towards the barracks.

Reunion and starting work.

The white stallions cantered about the grounds, spears gripped in their magic as they followed the orders of their leader.

The stallion in question had white fur, like the rest of them, but was easily a good three or four hands taller than the rest of them. He wore a personalized version of the standard day guard armor, which was mostly purple with red highlights and gold trim. His centurian helmet boasted a larger crest and was a two tone blue in colour rather than the solid gold of the normal guards.

With curt hoof movements he commanded a group of guards to the west side of the castle.

"You!" Somepony shouted. "I've got some words for you, Shining Armor!"

The nearby guards snapped to attention and readied their spears as Shining Armor poked his head over the wall, looking angry that somepony dared to call him out.

His expression softened when he saw the pony was a lavender unicorn mare with a tri-tone mane and tail, looking very annoyed.

He took off his helmet and allowed placed it on the edge of the tower. "Twili!" He yelled back happily before galloping down the rampart to greet his little sister.

"Oh I'm so glad you made it!"

"Don't you take that tone with me big brother!" She fumed.

A pair of guards,one senior, the other junior listened in as the petite mare berated and argued with her older brother and their captain.

"So... should we do something or..?" The junior guard pony asked.

The senior just shook his head. "Nope. Let her have her go at him."

"But. Isn't it our job to remove trouble from the castle? Why are we letting her talk to our captain like that?"

"Because that mare is his little sister."

"So?"

"She's also Princess Celestia's personal student."

"Regardless.."

"Regardless nothing. I'm not putting my job in jeopardy because we decided to break up a family spat." The senior guard added with finality. "Besides..." he gestured back to the pair of unicorns, who were know chatting amicably as they trotted up the rampart to the bridge adjoining two towers. "She always see's reason once it has been shown to her."

"So..."

"Back to patrol for us rookie."

---

Rarity had already gotten stuck right into her work making the wedding gown with the measurements on hoof, her red glasses sitting over her eyes to correct her farsightedness as she worked on cutting the fabric.

She was grateful that Princess Celestia had seen fit to give her the room she had used on her solo trip to Canterlot months ago, it was up, out of the way and seperate from the main castle grounds, which meant if somepony wanted to bother her, they'd better have a good reason.

Or they were Pinkie Pie or Twilight Sparkle, both of whom could teleport, which in Pinkie's case made no sense.

She cast a quick glance at the ceremonial sword with the Element of Generosity in it's hilt that sat on the bed in her room.

A gift from Princess Luna, who had become enraptured with the technology of video games, she had convinced Celestia that in the event Discord manages to get free again, it would be better if the wielders could have their elements with them at all times.

Celestia reluctantly agreed and helped her younger sister fuse the gems with the weapons.

"I do suppose a rapier is a fitting weapon for a lady such as myself." Rarity mused. "At least it is only ceremonial, I don't want Sweetie grabbing it and hurting herself."

With a small shrug she returned her focus to her work.

---

Pinkie Pie bounced around the grand hall like a foal who'd had too much sugar, trailing white ribbons and streamers behind her that somehow tied themselves in perfect knots around the pegs that the tapestries that normally decorated the hall had vacated.

As she finished the row she was working on, she looked up at the next level of pegs and smiled, she had been waiting for this moment.

The two guards outside jumped a bit at the sound of an explosion that sounded like a balloon deflating.

"How much do we get paid?"

"One hundred and seventy five bits an hour."

"Not enough."

"Nope."

---

Applejack cantered about the kitchen,checking on the chefs progress as she waited for the base layer of the cake to finish baking in the oven.

It was a big job and she was glad she had Applebloom and her friends galloping around,taking memos and reports from one chef to another as well as finding and taking objects to whoever needed them.

"Might amazin' what can get accomplished here in just a few hours. If ah were doin' this all solo or it was just me an' Pinkie it'd take us a week to get anywhere near a quarter done."

"Please." One of the younger chefs scoffed. "We are the best bakers in Equestria, making a simple cake like this is nothing."

Applejack smirked. "Then you'll have no problem replicating the Cakes Marzipan, Mascarpone, Meringue Madness cake that they entered into the baking contest earlier this year."

The chef looked taken aback. "How a commoner like you..."

The head chef glared at his junior and pointed a hoof at the door. "Out! You are not working on this project any longer. The country of Equestria owes it's safety not just to this 'commoner' but her five friends, one of whom is the Princess's personal protege. So you can either show this mare the respect she deserves, or leave and let one of your better mannered compatriots take your place."