//------------------------------//
// Angel of Doom 
// Story: Passive Antagonism 
// by DrOcsid 
//------------------------------//

Much to Guy's relief, stepping back out into the fresh air of Ponyville did help quell his unease a bit, despite the fact that he couldn't have been in his motel room for longer than, like, five minutes. Adjusting his cape a bit, he set out into town to start finalizing what would, hopefully, be the end of the beginning of his villainous career. He was certainly delighted at how fast things were progressing, considering he'd only arrived in Ponyville yesterday. He'd barely been here a full twenty-four hours, and already he was two-thirds of the way through the initial antics with Twilight and co.

Still, though, something was getting at him - and it was that, perhaps, he was taking things a bit too fast here. He'd gotten so caught up in pranking the Element Bearers that, well, some of his exploits hadn't quite turned out the way he intended, to say the least. He'd nearly been caught by Twilight, after all, and then a matter of mere hours later, he accidentally burned down Applejack's barn. The frosting prank had to have went well, he incorrectly imagined, but the other two things nagged at him. He could've done better.

Alright, alright, Guy thought to himself, stopping in the middle of a busy street as a few irritated ponies bumped into him. You're right, me. I'm going too fast here. No reason to rush, I've got plenty of time for this. I need to take the time to actually plan out what I'm doing. You know, like back in Canterlot. No more playing it by ear. It's time to bring back the old Guy Pony pranking skills, darn it! With that ringing in his mind, Guy resumed his walking again. He'd decided that, if there was anywhere he was gonna apply this newfound philosophy, it was by making Fluttershy his next target.

Guy looked down at the ground in a deep state of thought, forgetting that he was still walking, and thus not watching where he was going. Though, where am I gonna start with that? How will I plan this out? He was rather surprised he couldn't think of a way to begin with this, given his previous experience - perhaps the unfamiliarity of the place was throwing him off. Perhaps he just needed to recall what he did for one of his previous pranks.

Yeah, there's an idea, Guy thought to himself. The question was, however, what would serve as a good reference to use? Guy racked his brain, trying to recall the last prank he'd attempted before coming to Ponyville.

~ Approximately One Year Ago ~

"PARDON ME!"

Guy dashed through the halls of Canterlot Castle, narrowly avoiding the various ponies employed in the place - most importantly, the guards. In fact, by this point, he'd built up a nicely-sized team of 12 guards chasing after him, yet he was showing no sign of slowing down.

"Stop! You are resisting arrest!" one of the pursuing guards shouted.

"I know you are, but what am I!?" Guy knew that response made zero sense, but he didn't really care. He needed to get the heck out of that castle, and, thanks to his actually-thought-out planning, he wasn't doing too bad of a job of it. The previous day, he'd taken the time to get a tour of the place, and as such, he'd memorized a good amount of the general layout - including the route back to the entrance.

Ha-ha! I'm practically home free! However, as if Guy had jinxed himself, something unexpected came up. A fold in the long, red carpet on the floor - one that was fairly small, yet not quite small enough - came up, and Guy soon found himself tripping over it and skidding across the floor on his face. That was the one thing he didn't account for - it was nighttime by now, and as such the place wasn't all that well-lit. By the time he'd righted himself, he was surrounded by guards.

"Surrender yourself, intruder! There's nowhere else to run!" One of them said, stepping closer to Guy.

Well, this is a predicament. Guess I should keep the charade going. "Yeah? And what if I don't?"

"Then we will capture you, one way or another!" The guard said, bringing his spear down and pointing it at him.

Guy looked down at the spear, surprised. "Isn't that a little excessive? I don't think I did anything that warrants lethal force."

"Terrorizing Princess Celestia while she's asleep absolutely warrants lethal force!"

"Oh, come on!" said Guy, walking up to the tip of the spear. "All I did was throw some firecrackers down her chimney! You should've seen the expression she had when they finally went off."

"No, I shouldn't have, being that I wasn't spying on her through her bedroom window!" The guard poked him a bit with the spear, for dramatic effect. "Now, come with us, or face the consequences!"

Guy, on the other hand, had grown a bit tired of arguing with this guard. He looked over at one to the right of him. "Hey, you wanna argue with me instead? This guy's getting boring."

~~~

Guy let out a painful "OOF!" as he hit the ground outside the gates of Canterlot Castle.

Guy got back onto his hooves, dusted himself off, and looked back toward the castle, mainly at the guards who had just thrown him out. He thought about saying some kind of final snarky remark toward them, but he bit his tounge just as he saw someone walk up behind them.

...Sweet Celestia, that's Celestia. She stopped behind the guards and took a good, wordless look at Guy. For just a brief moment, the two of them managed to make eye contact, sending a spontaneous chill down his spine.

"And stay out!" A guard said, and he shut the doors, hard enough to practically cause a small earthquake.

"...Huh," Guy said to himself. "That wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Should've just let myself get captured in the first place." Nothing but a brief questioning, and then they just threw him back out of the castle. Nothing else to it.

As much as a relief that was, seeing Celestia for that brief moment kinda spooked him. She certainly had an intimidating presence about her, like many ponies said. But, still, that wasn't what got him the most about that brief interaction. No, what had particularly surprised him was the expression on her face. For whatever reason, she didn't look angry. In fact, she actually looked kind of amused.

Strange. Well, regardless, I think that's that. I'd call this a successful pranking. With nothing else left to do here, Guy headed back home.

~ Back in the present time ~

"That's IT!" Guy shouted, startling the ponies in the vicinity of himself. "Why didn't I think about this before?! I just need to scope the place out beforehand!" Suddenly realizing that he was talking out loud, he sheepishly looked around at the various ponies giving him suspicious looks before he went back to his walking and thinking routine.

It's so simple. Seriously, this is extremely basic stuff. Why didn't I think about this before? Jeez, I really have gotten rusty.

With renewed purpose, Guy increased his walking speed, enthusiastic about being able to pull what could be his best prank yet. However, he ended up stopping himself about as quickly as he'd started. Oh, wait. I... don't actually know where Fluttershy lives. His previous victims' houses were easy enough to find, given that they all lived in notable landmarks or well-known businesses, but as for Fluttershy, he didn't have the slightest idea where her house was. Or what she even did for a living, for that matter.

Shoot. How am I gonna find her house? He looked around at the various ponies going about their business. He was sure one of them probably knew, but did he really want to risk compromising his situation? He didn't want anyone to know what he was up to.

Unfortunately, however, it didn't seem like he really had any other options. Looking around, he noticed a unicorn a little ways away, sitting in a rather odd manner on a park bench. For whatever reason, Guy felt that if there was any pony he should ask about Fluttershy's residence, it would be the only pony who remotely stood out to him in any way. And as such, Guy found himself walking up to her.

"Hey, excuse me? Ma'am?" Guy said, stopping in front of her.

The greenish-cyan unicorn looked at Guy. "Let me guess. You wanna know why I'm sitting this way, right? It's because it's comfortable. That's all."

"Huh? No, that's not what I was gonna ask."

"Oh, really? Sorry, I get that a lot. What'd you need?"

"I was just wondering if you knew where Fluttershy lives. You know, yellow pegasus, Element of Kindness bearer, good with animals, all that."

"Oh, alright, I see. I'm guessing you've got a pet or something that needs attention?"

Oh, so that's what she does. "Uh, yeah, my cat's, uh... barking a lot. It's real bad."

"Your cat's barking?"

"Yeah, it's weird, right? It's a serious problem. I gotta get her advice on that."

"Well, she lives just outside Ponyville, near the Everfree Forest. In fact, I think if you head that way" - She pointed directly behind her - "and stay on the path, you should be able to find her house pretty easy. I don't think she's home right now, though, I think I saw her walking around town with Twilight and the rest a few minutes ago."

Wait, what? That last part caught him off guard. The six of them were walking around town together? Oh, crap. I'd better get out of here. It's lucky enough I haven't been seen by them even by this point. "Well, I think I'll head over there and, I dunno, leave a note or something, then," Guy said, his anxiousness (and talking speed) increasing as he continued with the sentence. "Thanks for the help, gotta go, bye!" And with that, Guy dashed off in the direction of Fluttershy's house before the unicorn had even had a chance to reply.

Before long, Guy found himself just outside of Ponyville, and to his delight, could see what appeared to be Fluttershy's cottage at the end of the path he was walking. Yeesh, she wasn't kidding about her place being near the Everfree Forest, Guy thought to himself. In fact, the path up to her house was literally right next to said forest. Guy could practically feel the spookiness radiating from the place as he walked by. At the very least, though, he could get some solace from the fact that he knew Fluttershy wasn't home. That allowed him to survey the place completely hindrance-free.

As he finally got to the cottage, he took notice of how lively the place was. Like, literally. There were a lot of living things around. Right next to her house was a multitude of birdhouses, all occupied with a multitude of birds, and even along the path there were various small critters that Guy almost didn't even notice - rabbits, squirrels, even a groundhog. She must really like animals. Though, I guess that makes sense giving that she apparently works with them.

Once he reached the front door, he, for whatever reason, started getting that urge to try the "ring the doorbell and run away" trick like before. He already knew she wasn't home, but it still couldn't hurt to try, right? 

Ah, screw it. Guy walked up to the front door, gave it a good few hard knocks, and sprinted for the nearest bush. He jumped toward it, but, evidently, misjudged the jump height needed, and instead soared right over it, falling directly into the pond in front of her house.

SPLASH!

After a moment, Guy surfaced, spitting a good deal of pond water (and a couple fish) out of his mouth. "Eugh. Not my proudest moment." Suddenly remembering what he was doing, he jerked his vision back toward the front door, and prepared to duck back underwater if needed. However, to his relief, no one opened it.

Thank Celestia for that, Guy thought as he stepped out of the pond and shook some of the water off himself like a wet dog. He had no idea why more ponies didn't do that. It worked pretty well.

Guy walked back up to the front of the cottage, looking at the two main methods of entry - the front door and the window. I suppose I could try the front door for a change, said Guy. He grabbed the knob and turned it. No dice. Turns out Fluttershy, like any pony with common sense, locks her front door when she's gone.

That figures. Oh well, time to try the classic option. Guy reached for the front window and pulled on it. Miraculously, it opened with essentially zero resistance. Aha! I knew it would be weird if Twilight was the only one who didn't lock her windows. Guy climbed through, inadvertently letting his leg get caught in the process, which caused him to fall right into the cottage - directly onto his face.

Not even bothering to dignify that with an "Ow", Guy got himself back onto his hooves to be met with the rather nice, cozy-looking interior of Fluttershy's house. Given what he'd heard about Fluttershy in the past, this seemed like exactly the sort of place you'd expect her to live. Guy walked around, admiring all the neat little aspects of the place.

Nice place she has here, especially for a cottage. So many pranking possibilities, too... Just gotta think of one. Though Guy's head was already stirring with various potential ideas, he decided that he should probably head upstairs to survey whatever's up there as well. Potentially figure out an escape route as well. But the moment he began to walk over to the staircase, he heard a noise behind him. A rather unusual noise, at that. It sounded like someone clearing their throat, except, like, really high-pitched.

Guy turned around, only to come into eye contact with a small white rabbit, no bigger than his own head, sitting atop a shelf. Whatever it was doing there, it didn't look particularly happy to see him. Guy, however, remained oblivious to this fact.

"Awwww!" said Guy, walking up to the critter. "Aren't you adorable? You must be Fluttershy's pet, right?" He noticed a food bowl on the floor nearby, with what appeared to be the rabbit's name on it. "Angel, is it?"

The rabbit responded by getting particularly close to Guy's face and belting out some noises, which could only really be described as "angry rabbit sounds".

Guy stepped back, startled. "Wow. Alright, then. I have no idea what you just said, but I'm just gonna keep looking around, if it's all the same to you." However, just as Guy turned his back on Angel, he felt something whizz by his head. "GAH!" Guy said, jumping about a foot to the right and seeing the object - a decent-sized book - smash into the wall and hit the floor.

Guy looked at the book for a moment, then back to Angel. "Did... you just throw a book at me?"

Angel responded by making some more angry rabbit sounds, and then pointing to the door.

"...Ohhhhhh. I see." Guy walked back over to the door and turned back to angel. "You want me to leave, is that it?"

Angel nodded.

"Well, I can't oblige with your request, little guy. Sorry," said Guy, walking back over to him. "If it's any consolation, I'm not here to steal anything. I just wanna check the place out."

This time, Angel didn't make a direct response, instead choosing to pick up another object from the shelf he was on - a coffee mug, in this instance - and hold it over his head.

"So is that how this is gonna go, then?" Guy said, adopting an amused smile. "You're gonna throw stuff at me until I leave?"

Angel nodded again, this time making a "MM-HM!" sound as well.

Well, Guy, this is your first villain confrontation, and it's with a bunny. That's real nice. Still, though, Guy hadn't had a villain fight of any kind yet, so he did kinda want to try it out. And the thing was apparently strong enough to throw a book at him, so... Who knows? It could be fun.

Guy lowered himself a bit closer to the ground, adopting something that vaguely resembled a fighting stance. "Very well, then! Gimme your best shot! May the best pony... or, bunny... win!"

Angel paused for a moment, shrugged, and hurled the mug directly at Guy. Guy jumped back, the mug nearly missing his face and shattering off a wall instead. "You fight well! But two can play at this game!" Guy grabbed a picture frame from the wall and hurled it at Angel. Guy fully expected him to jump out of the way in time, but his heart jumped into his throat just as he saw the frame collide with Angel and knock him off the shelf, both the frame and the rabbit falling behind it.

...Oh, shoot. If he'd just killed Fluttershy's pet, that was it. He was done. Guy ran over to the shelf, trying to peer behind it. "Uh, are you okay? Seriously, please tell me you're okay." Guy finally managed to pull the shelf forward a bit to get a better look, and promptly got a smack to the face with the exact same picture frame.

"OW!" Guy said, falling onto his back. "You cunning little...!" Guy righted himself back onto his hooves, only to see Angel back on the shelf, perfectly fine and wearing a very, very smug grin. "Oh, it is on!"

The ensuing battle was truly one for the ages. Comprised entirely of the two of them throwing every object they could find at each other, the two of them were surprisingly evenly matched - and were also completely wrecking Fluttershy's house. Picture frames were shattered, sofas were torn, shelves were knocked over, yet neither of them were showing any signs of stopping. They were just too into this by now.

Guy, however, was taking significantly more hits than Angel was. Partially due to a rabbit being a much smaller target, and also because, to Guy, it seemed, this rabbit was just extremely stubborn. Seemed like it would do practically anything to protect its home - even if that meant destroying a good portion of it.

The fight eventually carried over into the kitchen, which in turn made for a change of artillery. Guy had resorted to throwing carrots at Angel, for the sake of irony, while Angel refused to hold back and elected to throw entire plates at Guy. Guy narrowly dodged a plate as it soared right above his head and shattered against the wall. "Jeez, you're insane!" Guy's ammunition, while bearing a shape more suited to air travel, suffered from being rather small and hard to hit anything with. As such, he finally threw his carrots off to the side. "Alright, that's not fair! Your weapons are way better than mine!"

To his surprised, this outburst actually caused Angel to stop for a moment. He put his tiny paw up to his chin, looked back to Guy, and tossed the plate he was holding to him - that is, he deliberately gave him the plate.

Guy caught the plate out of the air. "Woah. Wait, really? You're actually giving me a fair shot here?"

Angel, instead of responding, jumped onto the counter and opened the silverware drawer.

"...You've got to be kidding me."

Guy was quickly proven wrong as a fork flew by his head and stuck itself into the wall. This fork was followed by a spoon, then a butter knife, both of which Guy managed to block with his plate. "HEY!" said Guy, angered at the pure snideness of Angel's battle strategies. Unfortunately, he had a hard time thinking of anything to follow up that 'HEY" with. "Those... are not good table manners."

Angel responded by reaching down into the drawer and pulling out a full-fledged knife, one that was roughly twice the length of Angel himself.

"Woah," said Guy, dropping his plate on the floor. "You just hold on one second. We're getting into dangerous territory here."

Angel wound up his throw.

"Didn't Fluttershy ever tell you not to play with knives?!"

The knife flew right by, missing him by a few inches. "GAH!" Guy said, shocked that he'd just nearly been killed by a bunny. Darn it, Guy, you're in too deep! You've really bitten off more than you can chew this time! But... still, he couldn't give up now.

Adopting some rather unconvincing fake confidence, Guy turned back to Angel. "HAH! You missed! What're you gonna do now?!"

Angel responded by pulling roughly six more knives out of the drawer.

"...Oh, Celestia."

Guy belted out of the kitchen before Angel even had the chance to propel a knife at him. Holy crap, this rabbit's freakin' psychotic! I've gotta get out of here! Spotting the window he came in through, he ran right for it, not even bothering to see if the practical Angel of Death was behind him. He jumped through, landed, shut the window, and ran off, not even wanting to bother with that house of horrors anymore.

Angel, on the other hand, was satisfied he'd managed to scare the intruder off. However, this satisfaction quickly disappeared as he realized his home was wrecked from top to bottom. After thinking for a moment, Angel decided to head to the kitchen in hopes that he could at least help clean things up by eating those carrots strewn about the place.