Chapter 11: Murphy's Law Part 2
The fields outside Ponyville were a fairly tranquil place. A small creek ran straight through the hills, weaving in and around the trees scattered around the area. These fields were a popular spot for ponies to have picnics out in the open and not be bothered by wind, heat, or animals. If the sun was not too high in the sky, you could set yourself under one of the few trees and not have to move for hours if the shadows moved right.
Unless your name is Aqua Jet and you don’t care where you take a nap.
The blue pegasus lay sprawled out on a cloud hovering barely above the earth’s surface, his exposed belly catching the rising sun’s rays. His head dangled off the cloud’s side, drool dripping from the tongue hanging out of his gaping mouth. Occasionally he would let out a loud, gurgling snore which startled away any animals that had gathered under the cloud for shade.
"Target acquired," a pony breathed.
The still-invisible Shenanigans and the visibly distraught Jinx lay prone under the cover of bushes. A small duffel bag lay next to them, bulging from the items contained within.
“Shen, I really don’t think this is a good idea!" Jinx hissed, trying not to wake the nearby pegasus.
“Come on, Jinx!" Shen grinned. "It’s just some harmless fun at the expense of somepony else’s dignity!”
Jinx’s jaw hung open. "You… what… no! This just seems mean! Can’t we do something else like, uh, tap his shoulder and make him look the other way or something?”
Shenanigans knew Jinx couldn’t see his face, but he still felt the urge to drill a deadpan stare of utmost incredulity in Jinx’s direction.
“You have much to learn about pranking, young grasshopper…” Shen rasped like he were fifty years older.
“But he looks so peaceful trying to sleep,” Jinx insisted. “No one likes being woken up from a pleasant nap.”
“That’s exactly why we should,” Shen sneered as he took inventory of their instruments of mischief. “The last thing he expects is a prank, which will make his reaction all the more priceless!”
Jinx still wouldn’t have it. More excuses formed in his mind about why their escapade should be called off. “But… but… what if he gets mad?” he tried. “What if he chases us and attacks us!”
“Then it will be even more worth it!” Shen replied, holding up a wooden brush. “Seeing others get mad when they realize they’ve been had is half the fun!”
“Well… umm…” Jinx’s mind raced for anything he could use. “Shouldn’t I be invisible too? I mean, what if Aqua finds me? Maybe we should go back!”
“And maybe Aqua Jet will wake up in that amount of time and be anywhere but here…”
Shenanigans rolled his eyes. “Jinx, be honest. Would anypony ever suspect you of scheming a prank?”
Jinx paused, his excuse thoroughly demolished. “...Point taken...” he sighed, hanging his head in defeat.
“Still, I think you have a point about the whole ‘him possibly causing harm to us’ thing,” Shen admitted. “Tell ya what, you stay in the bushes here just in case he wakes up, and I’ll be safe because I’m invisible.”
Jinx hesitated, but did as instructed. “Why am I letting him do this…” he thought glumly to himself. He crouched low behind the bushes and looked through the leaves. From there he could see their bag of pranking materials and the sleeping form of Aqua Jet.
Shen crept, hunched to the ground like a predator. One leg extended slowly as he kept his center of gravity low, moving steadily towards his target. One step at a ti-
“Oh silly me! I almost forgot!” Shen exclaimed. As if he was a clip of a film being played in reverse, he sped back towards the spot where Jinx was crouched.
“Our last pranking accessory is still on its way!”
“What ‘pranking accessory?’” Jinx asked. He could see his friend just looking out in the distance. For what he didn’t know…
“Oh, don’t worry. He’ll probably be arriving in about three...” he looked up towards a small clump of bushes, “two… one…”
“Okay, I know you’re around here somewhere, punk!” a gruff voice yelled.
Jinx’s heart stopped.
Firebrand burst through the bushes, steam snorting out of his nose and eyes blazing in anger. His horn was alight in gold, carrying an opened letter and a silver trombone. The anger slowly receded when he saw a gray pony frozen in place, sweat gushing down his brow like rainbow falls. The anger then made way to confusion as Jinx began waving awkwardly.
“Jinx?!” Firebrand exclaimed. “You’re the one who took these photos?”
“Uhh…” Jinx stuttered. “Actually, I think it was…”
Firebrand felt something behind him. A soft presence, but still tangible. He turned his head slowly…
“Hi, Brand!”
“Aaah!”
Firebrand let out a surprisingly high-pitched scream as he lept back, somehow landing in Jinx’s outstretched forehooves.
The three ponies blinked. Slowly.
Then Jinx lowered his friend onto the ground. The two shuffled clumsily away from each other.
“Huh… awkward,” Shen stated.
“Okay, so, Shenanigans is invisible,” Firebrand assessed. “And Jinx is around. Alright, easy to assume what happened.”
“Wait, Shen? How did you find the time to get Firebrand over here?” Jinx asked.
“Easy,” Shen chirped. “I had those photos taken a while ago for a rainy day and kept them in my handy dandy prank bag ever since.”
“That explains the photos, but not how you knew Firebrand would be coming.”
“Because he’s predictable,” Shen grinned.
“Why do I hang around with you two again?” Firebrand asked exasperatedly.
“Because you love us and we give you happy fuzzy wuzzies in your tummy,” Shen drolled, to which Firebrand facehoofed.
"So why am I here exactly?” Firebrand asked, his hoof not moving from his face.
"Simple, we need you to play our background music to make the scene more fun!" Shen said, “Speaking of which, I didn’t tell you to grab your trombone. How’d you know?”
Firebrand glared at him.
“I needed something to use as a bludgeon against somepony who was blackmailing me,” he growled.
Shen gave a nervous laugh and took the smallest of backsteps away from Firebrand.
Firebrand sighed and put the mouthpiece to his lips, before starting a diabolical bluesy tune.
Jinx saw the prank bag shuffle around in midair, before being quietly dropped on the ground. The bag continued to twist and distort before a brush and a jar of black ink levitated out of it. The jar seemed to unscrew itself and the brush decided to dip itself inside the paint. The brush then slid across Aqua’s dark blue coat, spreading the black ink all over in strange curves and lines. It then moved to the red hurricane cutie mark, drawing an angry-looking frowny face in the center. Aqua’s cutie mark area soon became the template for a mural depicting a foul hurricane-headed dragon breathing fire against the poor innocent townsponies painted on Aqua Jet’s chest.
The other side was a ninja pony holding Aqua’s cutie mark like a shuriken.
“Shenanigans, you need professional help…” Jinx groaned.
“Don’t bother. The shrink wouldn’t last a day,” Firebrand quipped.
Something caught Jinx’s eye. Water droplets formed seemingly out of nowhere above Aqua Jet, creating the rough outline of a pony’s head. The water then gathered and fell off to the side as if wind brought them together and pushed them away.
“What is that?” Jinx wondered, putting his hoof “Could that be… Shenanigans’ sweat?” He began think about how water would look on an invisible pony. The more he thought about it, the more he realized it made sense that Shen’s sweat would look like that if it was gathered and pushed away if he wiped it off.
“Wow, that’s interesting.” Jinx leaned in closer, mesmerized by the display of physics at work.
Shen drew the final stroke across Aqua’s face, completing an impressive-looking handlebar moustache, and backed away, taking a second to review his handiwork. Shenanigans wouldn’t settle for less than anything other than the highest form of expressive silliness when it came to art, and tried his best to go all the way whenever he could. “Hmmm...” he thought, examining his incapacitated victim. “It needs a little touch up...”
Shenanigans reached back into the duffel bag and pulled out a feather duster and can of whipped cream. He tightened his chest, trying not to laugh and set off the prank prematurely.
Carefully, he sprayed a generous amount of cream onto Aqua’s outstretched hoof. Shen approached Aqua’s face, the feather gripped between his teeth as if it were a sword. With a centimeter between the feather and Aqua’s muzzle, Shen lightly brushed the feather on his target.
Aqua’s nose twitched, but he otherwise lay still. Shen backed up slightly before approaching again and giving Aqua a more rigorous brushing.
Aqua’s cream filled hoof slapped to his muzzle, coating his whole face with the substance. Shen lept back, teeth clenched, the laughter threatening to overtake him. A few seconds passed in silence, the laughter slowly dying in Shen’s throat. He walked back to Aqua and examined him.
The pegasus was still unconscious, and very much not awake to be embarrassed and/or ridiculed.
“Did it work?” Jinx asked.
Shen jumped slightly, not expecting the sudden presence. “No. No it didn’t,” Shen replied in awe and disappointment. After a second of silence, he raised his hoof and smacked the side of Aqua Jet’s face.
The slumbering pegasus’ only response was a moan.
“Wow,” Shen breathed. “Just… wow. He is passed the buck out. That usually wakes ponies up instantly.”
“Aww, Shen I’m so sorry,” Firebrand mocked. “Here, let me play you a sad song on the world’s smallest violin.”
“You have a violin with you?” Jinx asked.
“No, you idiot…” Firebrand growled.
Aqua let out a soft moan, unconsciously licking his lips. Upon his tongue discovering the whipped cream coating his face, it began exploring more of the area, taking as much of the cream with it as it could. Shenanigans and Jinx watched the display with varying emotions of interest and aversion.
“Hey, Shenanigans, can you taste things in your dreams?” Jinx asked.
Shen shrugged. “You’re the scientist, you tell me.”
“I’m an alchemist, not a oneirologist,” Jinx huffed.
Shenanigans looked over Aqua’s sleeping form again, putting a hoof to his mouth. “Jeez. This is ridiculous. Guy doesn’t even realize he got pranked. We need him to be awake for him to actually be humiliated.”
“Why don’t we just wake him up? Like, poke his side or something?” Jinx suggested.
“No no no no no no!” Shen yelled. “This is a PRANK. He has to be woken up surprisingly! We need him to be shocked and slash or confused when he wakes up!”
Jinx’s head drooped as he pawed the ground. This whole “pranking” thing was almost lost on him. Shen seemed to have it down to an art form which made Jinx feel all the more inadequate to be Shen’s “partner in crime.”
“Well, I don’t have any ideas. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anypony sleep this soundly either,” Jinx observed. “In my opinion, it’d take a really big noise to wake him up.”
“And to my everlasting shame as a prankster, I left my airhorn back at my place…” Shen facehooved. “What usually wakes you up?”
“I’m a light sleeper. Usually all it takes to wake me up is the rooster outside.”
“A rooster?” Shen tapped his chin. “Hm, there's some potential there...” His eyes flicked to his left, his eyebrow moving up and down in slow succession.
“No,” Firebrand stated.
Rolling his eyes, Shen continued thinking. He spied a small building laying on a small hill. He stared at it with narrowed eyes, the gears in his head invisibly turning. A sly smile crept across his face. “A rooster’s not gonna cut it… but that…” Shen grinned and clapped his hooves together, “...that just might be excessive enough.”
“What might?”
“Here,” Shen said, placing his hooves through the cloud and onto the body of his snoozing friend, “Help me push Aqua. I’ve got a very bad idea that I intend to follow through with."
Jinx hesitantly moved toward Shen until he froze and began eyeing the cloud carefully.
“What now?” Shen groaned.
“What if he falls off the cloud?” Jinx asked, “I doubt you can-”
“Brand, throw me the glue!” Shen called back.
Brand stayed in place and narrowed his eyes in Shen’s general direction. A gold aura surrounded the bag and a can of quick-drying glue levitated out.
“Say please,” Brand replied, tilting his head.
“Pwetty pwease wif sugar on to-”
The bottle sailed through the air and smacked into the invisible Shenanigans. A pony-shaped outline formed in the ground with groans emanating from the area.
“Don’t… test me, Shenanigans,” Firebrand growled.
“How did you know where he was?” Jinx asked.
“He’s invisible, not inaudible...” Brand replied, his eyes closed.
After picking himself and the bottle of glue up, Shen placed a hoof under Aqua and lifted his back slightly off the cloud. As he did so Aqua's head lulled backwards causing his tongue to flop over the front of his face. "Charming image," Shen muttered under his breath. With his other hoof he carefully applied the glue to Aqua Jet's back and slowly lowered him back onto the cloud.
Waving his hoof, Shen motioned Jinx over, who, despite his troubled thoughts, placed his hooves on Aqua’s side and gently pushed. Aqua Jet gave a slight moan of discomfort, but still remained completely unconscious. The two earth ponies continued in silence as they pushed the slumbering pegasus up the hill. They made effort to direct their strength at a downward angle as to not accidently push Aqua Jet off the cloud.
“Move your plot, band geek!” Shen called back, getting a throaty growl in response.
“Where are we going?” Jinx wondered. He was soon answered by a building peeking out over the top of the hill. His eyes widened in realization.
"Is that the… Why are we heading towards the animal shelter?" he asked.
“This is how we’ll wake Aqua Jet up,” Shen explained. “We’re going to drop him through the sun-roof of the shelter and let the animals wake him up. If a bunch of grouchy critters don’t wake him up, I don’t know what will… unless there’s a dragon nearby, which would be completely awesome now that I think about it.”
An indigo unicorn appeared over the hill. Humming a tuneless melody, she trotted over to the shelter and stopped at the door. A pair of keys levitated out of her saddlebag and unlocked door, letting the unsuspecting owner inside.
“...My Goddess… you ponies are insane,” Firebrand said.
“OH YES!” Shenanigans said with a grin stretching beyond the physically possible.
“Please don’t lump me with him,” Jinx muttered imploringly to Firebrand. “I’m not that cra-”
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him and he turned back to Shenanigans.
“Hang on?! Animals?!” Jinx squealed, pupils the size of raindrops. “B-but if you go in there, w-what’s to stop the do-I mean animals from getting you too?"
“Um, hello?” Shen waved a hoof, knowing full well that Jinx couldn’t see him. “Invisible? I’ll be fine.”
“They’ll still be able to hear you,” Firebrand noted.
“I’ll just have to be silent and ninja this sucker,” Shen replied, gesturing to the drawing on Aqua Jet’s flank.
“Oh sweet merciful Celestia… Shen being silent…” Firebrand’s head perked up. “Wait, since you have to be quiet, does this mean I can leave?”
Shen shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
Firebrand turned to leave but pivoted on his hooves. "Not a word of this, to anypony Shen!" he said, his hoof pointed.
“Right here Brand.”
Firebrand didn’t move for several seconds. With a snarl, he stormed off towards town, growling curses to himself.
“I-I still don’t think we-you should go in there,” Jinx gulped, his body rigid and tense.
“Why not?” Shen asked half-heartedly, still pushing the cloud towards the shelter.
“Well, we’ll be seen!”
“You will, but I won’t," Shen sneered, an eager smile spreading across his face. "That's why I'm going to be doing most of the prank and you’ll be safe outside. Don’t worry, I still have special plans for you, but for now you need to help me get Aqua up onto the roof.”
“B-but we can’t. It’s too high!” Jinx insisted. “There’s no possible way we can get on top of the shelter. Well, I guess that means we can’t do this. Maybe we should go home and-”
“Oh look! A ladder! How convenient!”
Jinx’s face fell as Shen hoisted the ladder over his back and carried it to the wall of the shelter. A few clanks and clacks from the invisible pony signaled his traversal of the ladder and arrival on the roof of the shelter.
“Okay Jinx, push him up as far as you can and I’ll take it from there!” Shen instructed, reaching his legs over the edge of the roof.
“B-But… But…” Jinx stammered.
“I can’t get him up here by myself, Jinx. Quit being a such a worrywart and help me,” Shen complained, his hooves swiping towards the very out-of-reach cloud. “What’s the problem?”
Jinx tapped the ground, his eyes darting everywhere except at Shenanigans’.
“T-there's dogs in there,” Jinx stuttered.
“And?” Shen asked.
“I… I... I hate dogs!” Jinx blurted out.
Shen stopped reaching. He gave Jinx a long stare.
“Did… did Jinx just use the word ‘hate?’” Shenanigans thought, his brain struggling to compute. His head rose and he stared straight ahead with wide eyes, all of his senses shut down to give his brain more ability to process what he just heard. He looked back at Jinx and asked, “Why?”
“I had a bad experience,” Jinx replied, tapping the ground nervously.
“Bad? Like, how bad?”
“I had a bad experience,” Jinx repeated through gritted teeth, a wide fake grin appearing. “Please don’t press further. You really don’t wanna know.”
A demon of curiosity urged Shen to acquire more details, but through complex mental gymnastics he managed to banish those thoughts to the dark pits of whence they came.
“All right, just push Aqua up high enough so I can reach and… keep a lookout,” Shen directed. “You never know, Prowler could jump us at any time… Guy’s spooky like that.”
Jinx hesitated, but relented and positioned himself under the cloud. Placing both hooves on the white fluff, he pushed Aqua’s body towards the sky as straight as he could. The cloud drifted upwards, momentum keeping it going. Jinx stood watching his sleeping friend seemingly float (if jerked occasionally by Shenanigans) upwards and come to rest on the building’s edge.
Shen walked over to the wooden trapdoor laying in the center of the roof. He undid the hook and eye keeping it shut and placed his hooves on the end of the hatch. With a grunt, he pushed upwards. The wood let out a loud creak, surprising the invisible Shenanigans. So surprised he dropped the doorway, wincing as it slammed against the concrete roof. He darted his head towards the inside of the shelter; if any of the animals woke up his entire prank would be ruined.
“What happened? Are they awake!?” Jinx hissed, panicking.
“Shhh,” Shen replied down at Jinx. A few tense seconds passed where Shen just waited for a sound to send his plan crashing down. Nothing came. Releasing a breath he forgot he was holding, Shen turned back and checked to see if Aqua had heard his mess-up and awoken from his apparent hibernation. The pegasus still lay asleep, letting out his quiet snores.
“How is he still sleep? This is ridiculous,” Shen deadpanned. Shrugging it off, he reopened the trapdoor (prepared for the noise this time). Looking through the hatch, he saw several chain-linked kennels and pens all nestled against the wall and all housing animals. Luckily it was still morning and they were all asleep.
Shenanigans carefully pushed Aqua Jet’s cloud into the opening. Aqua Jet floated gently towards the ground, not making a sound as his vehicle descended. Upon hitting the floor, it bounced a little, coming back up and drifting back towards the ceiling.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Shen growled. “Nothing can ever be simple, can it?” Shen surveyed the scene, his plan readjusting itself in his mind. “He’s just sitting there halfway. Now I gotta go in there and pull him back to the ground.”
Shen stared down at the floor of the shelter, a good twenty to thirty feet separating the two of them. He decided it would be best to not jump down and risk broken limbs and began to think.
“You should keep the hatch open,” Jinx called from the ground in a shout-whisper.
“Why?” Shen asked in the same somewhat audible tone of voice.
“Dogs are violent and cruel animals,” Jinx explained, face devoid of emotion. “I would hate for Aqua Jet to be trapped in there with such evil creatures without any method of escape.”
Shen looked over with a raised eyebrow, once again facing the temptress of uncovering juicy backstory. Using his powers of friendship-based exorcism, he was able to mentally subdue and destroy her, but added a small footnote at the end of his mind to summon her back once this was all over and find out just what the buck happened to make Jinx of all ponies hate dogs.
“All right Jinx, here’s what you’re gonna do,” Shen instructed. “You’re going to take this bag in with you and walk into the front entrance of the shelter. All I need you to do is strike up a friendly conversation with the manager, and when I give the signal, place our handy-dandy prank bag of funzies in the room and book it out of there as fast as you can. This last part’s just gonna need me.”
Jinx blinked. “What’s the signal?”
“Oh trust me, you’ll know,” Shen grinned, hoofing the prank bag to Jinx.
Jinx started towards Shen’s general area. “Let’s just get this over with. The further away I am from those abhorrent demons the better.”
“Oh, now that’s just plain teasing. I NEED to know what happened to him…” Shen thought. He shook his head. “Nyah, focus Shen. Aqua’s not gonna prank himself…” He paused. “Oh wait. Technically he is.”
Shen slowly reached his legs down to the roofs of the dog cages, careful to not rattle the metal wiring. Once he felt he had decent footing, he brought his forelegs down and looked for the next figurative step down. Maybe a pile of boxes stacked near one of the stalls? Nope. A ladder? Nope. Just dogs. A lot of dogs. Could he use them? Oh wait, they’d wake up. Not to mention too unstable to walk on.
“Drat, I didn’t plan for this,” Shen growled. Peering over the edge of the top of the stall, he took a look at the ground. It didn’t seem too far, maybe seven or eight feet, and the floor was laden with straw so it could easily absorb his impact and any sound it might make.
He shrugged. “Geronimo,” Shen mentally stated, coiling his body and hopping off the edge. He landed with a soft crunch, the force of impact rattling his legs a little bit. He promptly picked himself up and turned towards the still blissfully asleep Aqua Jet. “Perfectamundo. That wasn’t too bad. Now let’s get to-”
A large yawn interrupted him. Shen widened his eyes as he realized the sound came from behind him.
Turning slowly, he saw a pitch-black dog the size of a horse curled up in the center of its cage. Large, goat-like horns protruded from the top of its skull, curling back towards its neck. Two large canines spouted from its closed maw, stretching to the bottom of the hound’s chin. A large patch of crimson fur lined its spine, leading to a long, whip-like tail decorated with a knife-like spike at the end.
“Whoa. This mutt is HUGE,” Shen cooed, his heart pounding against his ribcage. “I think I understand why Jinx is scared of dogs now! You’d need a whole freaking tree to play fetch with this guy! I think only a pony like Princess Celestia could even try taming it!” Shen glanced off to the side, his imagination taking hold. He chuckled at the cute yet frightening implications of his monarch tossing a tree to have this behemoth of a dog chasing it.
The hellhound stirred, opening one red eye.
Shen felt all of his insides freeze. “I’m gonna die,” he gulped, praying he wasn’t too loud.
With a tired growl, the dog’s massive head rose off the ground. The front legs soon followed until the titan was sitting upright. Its nose lifted and sniffed the air. Small puffs of grey smoke exited the beast’s nostrils with each breath. It glanced around the immediate area, occasionally glancing over the place where Shen stood frozen with fear.
“Oh no. He can’t smell me, can he?!” Shen screamed in his head. “No! No, stay calm, he can’t see you, and if he can’t see you-”
The dog yawned again, showcasing rows of curved spears lining the insides of its mouth.
“TEETH! Large teeth! VERY large teeth! That thing is going to kill me!”
The dog plopped its head down to the ground. It figured whatever disturbed it must be long gone and its nose is playing tricks on it. Not two seconds later, rhythmic snoring could be heard from the giant canine’s maw.
“Note to self, invisible doesn’t mean inhear-ible or insmell-ible,” Shen sighed. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, The adrenaline still made him feel lightheaded, but it was a strange, comfortable lightheadedness. After a moment, he put his hoof to his mouth to stifle the small chuckles coming on.
He couldn’t believe how scared he was, and yet he couldn’t help but laugh a little at how he’d overreacted. He could stare down zombies and not even blink when faced with the prospect of eternal night, but for some reason an oversized sheepdog chilled him to the core by its mere presence.
After carefully positioning Aqua’s cloud in the center of the room, Shen stepped back, surveying the scene. He put his hooves together like a movie director, bending his legs as if he were setting up a perfect shot.
“Everything’s in place… and now…”
Shen tiptoed over to the cages, lifting his hind legs in preparation to strike the wired pens.
“RISE AND SHINE!”
He struck the cage with all his might, the dog inside yelping awake. Its bark alerted the dog next to it, then the next, then the next, until the entire room was drowned in a cacophony of loud dog barks.
Aqua Jet shot from his cloud, ripping off puffy bits still glued to him. Screaming, he headed straight up and smashed into the roof. He plummeted back towards the ground, holding his head in pain. Unfortunately for him, he drifted too close to one of the cages and a large grey dog leapt at the barrier, snarling and trying to chew through the wire. Still unable to grab a hold of his senses, Aqua Jet yelped and recoiled backwards, directly into another cage. He shrieked as another dog latched onto his tail. He pulled away before it could get a solid grip and flew towards the ceiling again. This time he missed the ceiling and flew through the open hatch, still wide-eyed in surprise as he flew off without destination.
"Hey! What's going on here?!"
An indigo unicorn levitating a can of pepper spray and a bat burst through the door to the cages, wondering what had riled her dogs up.
“Time to go!” Shen thought. He snuck behind the owner while he was preoccupied with a particularly yappy brown terrier and slid toward the open door.
Jinx was nowhere to be seen. Shenanigans smirked, figuring Jinx figured out the signal. He searched around the room for his prank bag and found it nestled against the far corner of the room. Conveniently in the most troubling place to grab it.
“Golly friggin’ jeepers, Jinx,” Shenanigans sighed. “Oh well, he’ll learn eventually.” He stifled a chuckle as he sipped open the bag and pulled out the piece de resistance to his little escapade.
"And the cherry on top..." Shen grinned, placing the "Kick me" sign on the owner's back before slipping out the now unlocked doors unnoticed. He sprinted away, his mischief-maker instincts telling him to get as far away from the scene of the crime as possible.
After a few minutes of aimless running, he slowed down and dropped his bag. Knowing that now no one would be around to hear him, he threw his head back and roared in laughter. He pounded the ground repeatedly as the image of Aqua’s completely shocked face repeated itself across his mind. His chest hurt the more he remembered how Aqua kept ramming into everything but the exit.
“Hey, Shenanigans!”
Shenanigans turned towards the voice. Jinx came running over looking at the exact spot Shen stood.
“How did you know where I was?” Shen asked.
“You kick up dirt and grass blades when you run, Shen, and you were carrying the bag with you,” Jinx explained. “It wasn’t hard to follow you.”
“Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but how do you know exactly where I am?” Shen questioned. “You seem like you’re looking straight at me.”
“Well, you were laughing so hard, there are tears dripping down your face,” Jinx pointed out. “Plus, I can see your mouth.”
“Wait what?”
“The invisibility is wearing off,” Jinx pointed out. “I can see your mouth floating in front of me.”
Shen paused, looking cross-eyed at his muzzle. There was, in fact, a floating lime-green mouth suspended in midair. As Shenanigans stared at it, his lips curled into a grin most sadistic.
“Wow, that is just jaw-dropping!” Shen cried.
“Oh no…” Jinx took a step back his eyes widening. “Please Shen. Don’t.”
More fur spread out of the mouth, slowly taking the shape of a pony’s head. A black and white mane faded into existence, along with bright red eyes. “What? It’s just a pun. Nothing to lose your head over.”
“Sheeeeennnnnn…” Jinx whined.
The effect stopped at his torso. Instead, his hooves decided they should be the next to re-materialize. Soon, all four of his legs were completely visible, connected to an invisible body.
“Ahh! They’re back! I couldn’t stand to be without my legs!”
“I think I’m gonna be sick…” Jinx groaned. “Please Shen, no more! I can’t take it.”
Shen looked down at his still missing chest and shrugged. “No, one more please! I still feel kind of empty inside!”
“Shen, please, stop, this is actually painful,” Jinx pleaded.
“Okay, okay, fine, I’m done… party pooper,” Shen chuckled, his remaining body part revealing itself. Shen walked in a circle, scouring his being for any more.
“So, did you see the look on Aqua’s face?!” Shen cheered.
“Yeah, he was pretty scared…” Jinx rubbed his mane, remembering the utterly horrified and confused expression contorted onto Aqua’s face.
“Did you see where he went?” Shen demanded. “We gotta tell him it was us!”
“Do we have to?” Jinx asked. “I mean, I don’t want him to be mad…”
“That’s half the fun!” Shen replied. “The prank is never complete without letting the pony know he’s been had! Besides, Aqua’s a good sport about this kind of thing. The guy never gets his panties in a twist about anything.”
“Okay, I think he flew that way,” Jinx pointed. “There’s meadow over there on the other side of that hill.”
“Great! Let’s try and find him” Shen took off enthusiastically with Jinx close behind him.
The two stallions trotted over the hill, their eyes scanning everywhere a blue pegasus could be.
~SNORE~
Jinx and Shen looked up. A dark blue hoof and bright red tail poked out of the cloudtops. Their jaws dropped as they spied Aqua Jet laying face down on another cloud.
“What the…” Shen’s left eye twitched.
“Did he… fall asleep… again?” Jinx stammered. “Or… did he never wake up at all?”
Shen picked up a small rock and tossed it towards the clouds. The pebble bounced harmlessly off Aqua Jet’s shoulder. The pegasus absentmindedly scratched the impact area and rolled over, a dreamy look on his face.
“Out…. cold...” Shen said, turning to face his stunned apprentice in pranking.
“After all that?” Jinx asked, approaching the snoring pegasus. “How do you fall, let alone stay asleep after experiencing something like that?”
Shen growled. “Gosh friggin dang it to Tartarus...” He kicked the ground in frustration, spraying up a small cloud of dust. “Unbelievable. We had this ingeniously set up prank with so many great resources, and we don’t get the final satisfaction of seeing him humiliated! Well, we completely botched this whole thing up.”
“Botched?” Jinx quoted, turning his head towards Shenanigans. “How?”
“We broke the third rule,” Shen replied, not looking at his friend.
“The what?”
Shenanigans sighed and walked over to their bag of pranking equipment. After a few seconds of sifting through the toys, he whipped out a small piece of paper.
“The Five Rules of Pranking,” Shen recited.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rule 1: Know your target.
Rule 2: The prank needs to be fixable and cleanable.
Rule 3: The prankee must be made aware they were pranked.
Rule 4: Have an escape route.
Rule 5: Have fun (The Most Important Rule).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“And the problem is number three,” Shen finished, rolling up the scroll. “He’s out cold, ergo, we can’t inform him he was duped.” He shoved the list into the duffel and turned to leave, completely demotivated.
“You could always wait until he wakes up,” Jinx suggested, zipping up the bag trying not to be left behind.
“And then what?” Shen snapped, turning his head back. “Besides, telling him “hey, we pranked you” to his face will just suck all the fun out of it. He probably doesn’t even remember anything!” He hung his head and dragged his hoof dejectedly across the dirt. “This prank was a complete failure.”
“Well, I don’t think it was a failure,” Jinx mumbled.
“What do you mean?”
“I-I kinda had fun,” Jinx shrugged. “And it says here that’s the most important rule.”
Shen looked up, seeing Jinx with a small smile on his face. “You did? You really had fun?”
“Well… yeah. I mean, Aqua Jet really didn’t seem to mind that he was tricked, and…” Jinx mumbled and looked off to the side. His hoof scratched the back of his mane.
“And what?”
“His… screaming was funny.”
“YES!” Shenanigans cheered, punching the air. “Finally, someone who understands!”
“You…” Jinx stammered. “ You… wanna do another?”
"Want? Oh ho ho ho ho, my new motivated partner in crime, I NEED to do another," Shen affirmed, putting an enthusiastic hoof around Jinx's shoulder. "But first, since you seem to be a little more into this... we should both probably be invisible."
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Nice chapter, Josh. Heh... I will confess, my favorite part is that Firebrand plays the tune of that certain song.
Somehow I knew it was that tune even before clicking the link... Weird
Nice chapter, a little hard to follow, but the ending was hilarious.
4830213 It's a joy when any of them are "on screen". Shen being a top candidate for my next to Brandy. I would have used a saxophone to to bludgeon someone rather than a trombone though.
Yay you're back! Good chapter. Lookin forward to more.
What is this? An update?
Who are you and what have you done with The Fiery Joker?!
Great chapter. But does that mean there is going to be a part 3. That would be fun to read. Especially if they prank Twilight. Good luck with the next chapter. I am so happy this story updated.
It lives! I was starting to miss this story.
Huzzah! Glad to see this back. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Be nice if i can you can put my OC (If I everor think of one) in the events, rather you like it or not.
Also a SpongeBob SquarePants reference is seen in this!
Nice job, F.J., Keep it up!
thefrontloader.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/359582.jpg that's really all i have to say considering it's one in the morning as of posting this comment. good chapter i didn't see any errors (but then again i'm slightly dyslexic so what do i know
case and point i almost forgot to type a word when i meant to type it. 
)
Shen seems to be becoming a more aggressive Pinkie Pie, and that isn't necessarily a good thing. Painting stuff over Aqua's cutie mark and face, that's Okay. The whipped cream and feather routine, classic. Gluing him to the cloud and pushing him into a dog kennel housing a Houndoom of all things, that's pushing it too far. I honestly felt bad for Aqua at that point. Yeah he didn't get hurt, but he nearly could have.
Jinx admitting to enjoying Aqua's reaction at the end also kind of rubs me the wrong way. If he really is as traumatized about dogs as he is hinting, he wouldn't find any humor in Aqua Jet's screaming or his look of fear and confusion. It feels more like Shenanigans is just brow beating Jinx into enjoying it.
Shen is becoming what I think a lot of Pinkie Pie haters imagine Pinkie Pie is: annoying and dangerously psychotic. Honestly if Firebrand doesn't go and alert Prowler or Twilight of what's going on, he'd be disgracing his former position as a guard.
Also:
Jinx shouldn't have been able to see that.
If I was in Aqua Jet's' situation, I would be furious... Then again, I also would fall asleep after being attacked by dogs and flying right into the ceiling. But hey, you never know.
But anyway, thank God, this story isn't dead! Glad to see the latest chapter up Josh. Can't wait for the next chapter.
Oh, and before I forget, Shen scares me. A lot.
Okay, read each episode up to this point, and I am glad you updated this. I thought you'd have abandoned it and got tangled up with your other projects. (Speaking of which, when do you think the next MLP episode review is going to come out?)
Okay, Shenanigans is awesome...albeit a little excessive and borderline psychotic
. I honestly agree with Xain on this one; the paint and the feather-and-whipped-cream were good enough (Man, how does Aqua Jet stay asleep after all that!?) But the Houndoom!? That was f
ing dangerous! (Speaking of Houndoom, how the buck did they get their hands on one of those?) The humor is still good in this chapter, though.
Well, good to see this story is still going. Not sure whether or not this particular episode is over, so I'll just have to wait and see what the next chapter entails. Great job so far, Josh!
Shenanigan's coat is LIME GREEN! EVERYTHING LIME GREEN IS EVUL!!!
You said it, yourself, Joshua. Also, that was seriously a Houndoom, just referred to as a hellhound? PFFT, what a card.
Also, I just noticed how this chapter parallels the actual show (like the story's been trying to always do to an extent). More specificly, the first act of "Griffon the Brush On".
Dedicated indeed. Pray tell, how can one see an invisible pony look out into the distance?
4295752 Actually the dragon fruit was not a pun it's a real fruit in the tropics, here see for yourself. forums.gardenweb.com/forums/tropical/msg091949463044.021735053286.jpg
5312005
You have no idea the horrors one can enact with a spoon...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDvgL58h_Y
5312993
I'm sorry, I can't take this seriously.
(Watched a Video)
[youtube=9zSHz7Thvbc]
Ah. So THIS is the fic I've heard so much about on Youtube. Lesse now...
5364469 I'm telling you right now man, that line is funny as hell!! Lol!!
5574957
I have seriously.
It's stupid, it's funny, it is something that should not be taken seriously.
oh, my, god. I found it, after 3 months of searching.
sorry for yelling; However it took me forever to find your book Firebrand( I can call you Firebrand can I?) and I can't wait to read it.
I FANALLY FOUND THE FAN FICTION!
opps,
5689947 Because Firebrand is the Terminator.
I have to say, I love this story A LOT. The characters are so interesting and diverse. Even when the story follows similar events to the original series, it still feels new to me. After reading all the chapters, in a single day I might add, I noticed the audio drama and sat through it twice.
I'll confess. I made an account just so I could give this story a thumbs up. Granted, now that I have an account I might as well check out other stories around.
To everyone that worked on this story, amazing work. I don't know how up to date the author's notes are when saying that this story is not dead, but I am hoping to read more of this, even if I have to restart the story a few times.
To Josh, thank you so much for all the creativity you've put on the web. It has been of great inspiration to me.
... ...Oh, yeah, Josh, I have a question. I know Firebrand is basically you, albeit you've said there are some differences. Are any of the other new stallions based on friends of yours?
I've enjoyed reading this a lot, but did you hit a block or something? I'd love to hear more :D
Erm... how to start this.... oh whatever!
Dear Firey Joker,
I am Firetype55, a youtuber who has recently joined the fandom, and a fellow storywriter. I enjoy this story because it gives me a lot of what-ifs to work with. That being said, is it possible for you to check out my works on fanfiction? Or did I post them here... oh whatever!
~Firetype55
Please Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please continue SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
so... is this ever coming back or...
So, I'm noticing that this story is labeled as "incomplete" and not "cancelled," but also that it was supposedly last updated in August 2014. Are further updates still planned?
(Not to pressure you or anything- I know what writer's block is like. I'm just enjoying the story and wondering if it's going to continue.)
I do hope you plan to resurrect this fic one day. You may have been dared to do it (yes, I've seen your video with Xain), but you're really good. You got me laughing all over the place.
Please continue writing this, man, it's awesome!
I just starting to read today and got done reading your last chapter and I really like what you have so far and I really hope to read more soon
RIP this story. Loved it a lot.
I'm very concerned about Shen right now. He seems to be acting very recklessly. Aqua Jet could have gotten really hurt during that. And he doesn't seem to be thinking things through. I loved the bigginging of the chapter with the more harmless pranks, and Jinx not wanting to participate. That was fun. But now I'm just worried. I'm hoping that this is an intentional thing in the story, and that this becomes a lesson for Shen to learn. If it's not on purpose then it's a definite problem. But I have confidence in you and your writing, so I trust that it's on purpose.
I am a little confused as to why Jinx is enjoying it though. Seeing someone so scared and confused because of dogs should sympathize in his mind. And it shouldn't be amusing for those reasons.
Talking about Jinx's fear of dogs. It's interesting and I definatley want to find out more.
Aqua Jet was adorable and I never would have suspected anything less from him. Firebrand was as he always is. Which is good. Since he should be staying in character.
All in all, I'm a little worried about this arc. This could either end up being amazing, or it could crash, burn and fail. It all depends on what you do with the next few chapters!
While I do very much want this story to continue, I’m afraid this is/was my least favorite arc. Seeing as Pinkie Pie is usually my least favorite, and Shen is the Pinkie replacement, his pranks are as unamusing to me as Pinkie’s would be. Also, shame on you for enabling him Jinx!
Please say you’ll continue this story. I love this story!
are u gonna continue this story?
Mountain Dew is the best soda ever made.
https://youtu.be/Ljt5iESYA7k
Does Josh ever come here anymore. I enjoyed this fic and would love to see him continue it.
Why is this showing up as having a new chapter in my bookmarks? I don’t even have it bookmarked anymore, and haven’t for years.
Really enjoy the story, since i arrive late i m not able to listen to the audio drama anymore, would have like to see the gala but by this point i thank josh for the story