//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 Time Trouble // Story: Super Stallion // by PioneerofImagination //------------------------------// 1 morning the royal pony sisters were having an indoor picnic in Celestia’s chambers with 2 certain janitors.  "This was a great idea, Princess Celestia," Swift Sweep said. "Even better than your idea of lowering capital taxes as a means to provide extra cash to the local charities." The other 3 ponies couldn't quite help but stare at Swift Sweep. "What?" I am never going to understand that pony, Squeaky thought to himself.  "T-Thank you Swift Sweep," Princess Celestia responded, still rather weirded out that he knew about stuff like that. "Oh by the way I forgot to ask earlier, what's with the rainbow of trash outside?" Squeaky asked. "I beg your pardon?" Princess Celestia asked when suddenly there was a rather heavy pound on the chamber doors.  "Princess! There's something you need to see!" Stone Wall called out on the other side of the door. Princess Celestia then placed her hoof to her mouth real quick telling Squeaky and Swift to be quiet while she got up to answer her captain's call. "Coming," she said as she walked towards the door and opened it only enough for her head to show. "Yes?" "Somepony vandalized the royal garden." "What? Who?" "That's what we're trying to find out."  "I'll be out in a second and meet you in the garden." Princess Celestia then closed the door and approached the others. "So I take it the double date is off," Princess Luna replied. "I'm afraid so, Luna." "Ah I never even got to have a make out session," Swift Sweep said. Hearing that Princess Luna tapped her date slightly on the shoulder. "I'm sure, no actually I'm quite positive that we'll have one of those later. But until then I should probably get back to sleep." "Yeah me too, I gotta get some sleep now because my next shift is later tonight." Hearing that Luna turned around to face Swift. "Well then Swift, if that's the case would you like to share my chambers." Swift Sweep then jumped at Princess Luna and snuggled her. "I'll take that as a yes." Princess Luna then flew out the window and Swift Sweep quickly followed right behind.  "I'll just see myself out, your highness." "Thank you Squeaky, but you can just call me Celestia when we're alone."  "I know but I still like to call you that or princess or your majesty. Your titles are also kind of cute nicknames when you think about it."  "I suppose you have a point there," Princess Celestia responded as she used her magic to put her shoes and breast plate on herself. "Well we can't keep Stone Wall waiting.” "Wait we?" Suddenly Squeaky was teleported to the royal gardens. Before long Princess Celestia arrived with Stone Wall not too far behind as well as a couple guards who also wanted to know what was going on. Wow, Squeaky wasn't kidding. A rainbow of trash," Princess Celestia thought to herself. "Who could have done this, and without anypony here noticing it a thing?" Stone Wall asked. "I have a pretty good idea, I need to pay a visit to Twilight."   *** Princess Celestia with a small group of guards quickly got to Ponyville and informed Twilight of what was happening. She quickly gathered her friends and gave them the Elements of Harmony and they used them to summon Discord who was taking a bath.  Discord then let out a fake high pitch scream. "Didn't we agree on giving me a heads up before that spell is used?" "Don't act like you don't know why we brought you here," Rainbow Dash replied. "Why was he brought here again?"  "Somepony has gone to great lengths to fill my royal gardens with trash." "Is that true? Well then perhaps I should have a look at that for myself sun butt." Discord then snapped his fingers and he, along with Princess Celestia and her guards were teleported away leaving the element welders alone and rather confused.  "Hee hee sun butt." "It's not that funny Pinkie Pie." "Yes it is Twilight."  *** Discord appeared with the ponies he brought with him and quickly had a look around the gardens. "I must admit I think I got my hopes up when I came here." "I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt Discord-” “No you wouldn’t,” Discord interrupted. “But can you prove to me that you didn't do this?" Princess Celestia finished. "Oh please, if I did this, don't you think I'd go completely out of my way to show you that it was me?" Discord asked. "Well if you didn't do it then who did?" Stone Wall asked about getting between Princess Celestia and Discord in case he would have to protect her from the master of chaos.  "Sometimes in order to solve a problem, all you have to do is look at it from an entirely different angle." Discord then snapped his fingers and suddenly everypony there was lifted up into the air by an invisible platform which allowed them to see that the trash spelled THE PRANK MASTER. "See what I mean?"  “Yes Discord,” Princess Celestia said. Discord then lowered the platform putting the group down. "So I trust that was the only reason you wanted to see me?" "Yes Discord."  "Well then until next time sun butt." Discord then vanished. "So the Prank Master?" A guard asked. "Discord figured this out pretty quick; he most likely knows quite a few things about this "Prank Master.” "I'm more than sure you're right, Stone Wall, but even if I asked I seriously doubt that I'd get a straight answer,” Princess Celestia replied. “Him and his riddles." "Why don't you just get Twilight and her friends to threaten to turn him back to stone if he doesn't tell you everything?" "Rather tempting but no. I believe it best if we don't antagonize him." "Yeah no kidding, last time he let loose it was a literal living nightmare," another guard said. "Yes I know, I was there," Stone Wall replied to the guard's comment. "So what do you think we should do then your highness?" "For now, I think we should just wait. See what develops." The next few days were surprisingly quiet, well for most ponies.  Twilight had gone through several rather stressful days. She had been trying to stop some sort of disaster that somehow her future self warned her about. She even returned Cerberus to the gates of Tartarus with the help of Super Stallion who as it turns out was able to hear the caller bracelet Twilight made. Super Stallion had also spent several days looking for any signs of this Prank Master, but had no luck. "Nothing today either," Super Stallion said to himself as he was flying over Los Pegasus. "I don't get it, somepony makes that weird message and nothing else happens. Was it just some weird prank?" Super Stallion then made his way to Canterlot Castle as Squeaky had a night shift with Swift.  "Nothing today either," Stone Wall said while in the hall with the 2 janitors.  Tell me about it, Squeaky thought. "I don't like this one bit, it's like the calm before the storm. I wish this "Prank Master" would just show up all ready." "My advice captain, just don't think about it," Swift Sweep said to Stone Wall. "No offense but I think not thinking comes a little easier to you than it would to me." "Uh okay, I know you said no offense but you basically and rather bluntly called me stupid so how am I not supposed to take offense?" "Hm good point, I'm sorry this whole thing is just really bugging me." "Apology accepted." "Oh my gosh." "What?" Stone Wall asked as he turned to face Squeaky. "You actually apologized,” Squeaky replied. "Yeah, and?" "I don't think you've ever done that before." Stone Wall then smacked Squeaky on the head as Squeaky let out a playful chuckle. "I forgot how much of a smart aleck you can be sometimes." As Stone Wall, Squeaky Clean, and Swift Sweep continued together they quickly came across Twilight Sparkle who had a strange black suit and a new mane style and was trying to get into the Star Swirl the Bearded wing.  "Oh hi Stone Wall-" "I don't even want to know," Stone Wall said as he unlocked the gate allowing Twilight to get in and the 3 stallions continued along the hallway.      "I think Princess Celestia makes her study too hard sometimes. Makes her go nuts sometimes. I actually kind of worry about her sometimes." "Really? Maybe she just felt like dressing differently." "You really try to be optimistic, don't you Swift Sweep?" "I figure somepony should captain and it might as well be me." "Well spoken Swift," Squeaky added.   *** The next morning Super Stallion was patrolling Equestria rather early and while he had stopped a couple minor criminals and a few almost wanna be disasters, there was no sign of the Prank Master. "Maybe it was just a prank,” Super Stallion said. "OH MY FLIPPING GOODNESS!" A guard at Canterlot Castle that Super Stallion could hear all the way from Ponyville. Super Stallion flew over to the castle and to his shock, tons of books and scrolls that used to be safely inside the Starswirl the Bearded wing were tossed and thrown all over the place. And on top of the tower all capitalized in red paint, THE PRANK MASTER. "Something tells me I spoke too soon." The guards quickly got to work on cleaning up the books and scrolls and Super Stallion cleaned the paint off the tower. "Well we can now rule out this being some harmless jokester Princess Celestia, this is vandalism." "Yes, Stone Wall. I don't like this 1 bit. Even if this still is somepony's idea of a joke it's in very terrible taste." "Kind of makes me glad I don't have a sense of humor."  "Oh you do too, you just never seem to bring it out." "Well either way this isn't funny and we need to put a stop to these mean spirited pranks. As well figure out how they manage to keep sneaking into and out of the castle without being noticed." "Yes, that is rather concerning." Princess Celestia then helped a bit with the scrolls and books and put them all back in the wing when they all came together. "Way to go, your highness."  "Thank you Shining Armor, but I think I missed a scroll or 2." "Really?" Shining Armor asked. “You don’t suppose they were taken, do you?” “I hope not, those scrolls contain powerful magic. In the wrong hooves, they can be dangerous.” *** Super Stallion was flying around extra determined to find the so-called Prank Master. "There has to be some way to figure out where this Prank Master is hiding. Maybe I could do something to lure them out somehow." Suddenly, Super Stallion saw a large strange light just outside of Canterlot. "Or maybe they'll do something that will cause them to stick out like a signal flare." Super Stallion flew straight to where he saw the light and when he got there he found not 1 but 2 ponies there, 1 he knew and 1 he didn't.  "Well it seems I took a great time to take a relaxing jog to the outskirts of Canterlot," Stone Wall said as he noticed Super Stallion had joined him.  "The Prank Master I presume," Super Stallion said as the pony in front of him got out some sort of gun.  "Heads up!" Stone Wall said to Super Stallion as they both readied for a fight, but the supposed gun shot out red paint and was used to write Prank Master on the wall behind the strange mare. "Does that answer your question?"  "Yes, but now I have one. How did you get into the castle twice without getting noticed?" Stone Wall asked.  "I had to get my hooves on this here scroll right here," Prank Master said as she showed the scroll she had in her hoof. "Wait, did you say why I got in or how I got in?" "How." "Doesn't matter," Prank Master snapped back almost immediately. "I have the scroll now. I had to throw around pretty much everything else in that wing before I found it." "Wait, if you were after the scroll, why didn't you take it the first time?" Super Stallion asked. "I forgot what I was doing when I got to the castle," Prank Master answered as she rubbed the back of her head with an embarrassed smile. "So I just kinda trashed the garden and when I finally remembered what I wanted to do I was tired so I just left. Wait, how did you know I was there twice?" She asked with a change in her mood.  "Discord pointed it out," Stone Wall answered.  "Discord! That guy is still around?" Prank Master asked, sounding afraid. This mare's personality is all over the place, Stone Wall thought. "This mare's personality is all over the place," Super Stallion whispered to Stone Wall.  "You read my mind, now let's take this mad mare down."     "Sorry stallions but this mare's gotta fly! See you again, in time!" A portal suddenly appeared behind the Prank Master. "That's the strange light I saw before," Super Stallion said as Prank Master got out the scroll and began to use a spell that made the portal bigger she then made the magic collars around her attack Super Stallion and Stone Wall, but they both shot them down with spells. "I better put a stop to this." Super Stallion then grabbed the scroll out of Prank Master's hoof. "Wait no I was still reading that," Prank Master called out as the portal started to shake and bounce. "I don't think it's supposed to do that." Prank Master used her magic to incase herself in a bubble shield as the portal started to shoot off sparks. She tried to use her magic on the portal again while keeping the shield up, but the portal started to act more unstable. “Super Stallion, get down and get her away from that portal!" Stone Wall called out, but before Super Stallion could do that, several sparks from the portal shot out and landed right on Stone Wall.  He was forced to the ground instantly.  "STONE WALL!" Super Stallion yelled out as more sparks shot out, some hit Stone Wall more. Super Stallion then flew over to Stone Wall and summoned a bubble barrier of his own to protect Stone Wall. Before long, the portal became so unstable the whole thing blew up and when the smoke cleared, Prank Master was gone. *** Super Stallion brought Stone Wall to Princess Celestia immediately and explained everything. Stone Wall was then put into intensive care to Super Stallion's shock as it turned out the damage was deeper than he thought. The next day Super Stallion was doing his usual thing of patrolling, but Stone Wall was almost all he could think about.  "Look up in the sky!" A pony called out from the ground. "I know Super Stallion, so cool," another one replied. "No, the other pony swinging on some sort of rope," the pony from before said.      "Rope?" Super Stallion then saw the Prank Master herself in the sky not too far. Super Stallion flew closer to the Prank Master and saw that the said rope that was keeping her in the air was actually coming from her horn and the other end was wrapped around a nearby skyscraper. "What are you doing?" "Hanging around," Prank Master answered. "You know what with my special rope spell that I made up here." Prank Master then swung in a circle surprisingly quickly and Super Stallion was caught off guard and got kicked in the back. "Gotta!" "And now you're about to get it!" Super Stallion said as he turned around. "You'll have to catch me first," Prank Master said as she undid the rope spell causing her to fall but used it again to wrap around a smaller building to slow down her fall and safely land. Prank Master looked around and noticed the ponies noticing her and gathered. "Oh good, an audience." Super Stallion then got to where Prank Master was getting the attention of even more ponies. "Your mean spirited mischief stops now." "Oh I don't think so." Prank Master then got out about half dozen balls and made them go all around her in a magical circle. "Catch them if you can." Suddenly the balls were all launched off each in a different direction, Super Stallion flew off and managed to catch every single one. "It's going to take more than that to stop, wait a minute are these going to explode?"  "Something like that." The balls then exploded covering Super Stallion with red paint. "Gotta again!" Prank Master then laughed and laughed but then screamed as she jumped away dodging Super Stallion's punch that made a hoof sized hole on the sidewalk.  "I am going to slap you silly. Actually, I think it might be a little too late for that." Super Stallion then cast a water spell above himself so it would come down and wash the paint off. Prank Master got out a rod but before she could use it Super Stallion used a gust spell to knock her off her hooves and the rod flew out of her foreleg.  "Is that the best you can do?" Prank Master asked. "You wish," Super Stallion answered as he pulled his hoof out of the hole he made.  "Well then how about I just give these boys a spin again." And with that Prank Master got out the spinning collars from before and threw them at Super Stallion. But he used either fire spells to quickly burn them or stopped them in midair with a freeze spell.  "You pulled your last prank." "I don't think so." Prank Master then grabbed the rod and Super Stallion charged at her but she made a magic bubble appear. When Super Stallion was bounced away and then Prank Master aimed the rod at him. It fired a pink ooze that stuck to Super Stallion as he just stopped himself in the air after he bounced. "Ah come on I literally just cleaned myself!"  "From the sound of things you aren't too fond of my goo gun." "Isn't that a rod, not a gun?" "Yeah but goo gun sounds catchier." Prank Master then fired at Super Stallion again but this time he dodged and fired a spell, knocking the goo gun out of Prank Master's hoof again. Then he used another water spell to clean the ooze off. "Well I'll say this about you super duper, you know how to put on a good show." Super Stallion then noticed quite a few ponies were around him and Prank Master watching the 2 duke it out.  "Is this all just a game to you?" Super Stallion asked, starting to get upset. "Of course, now let's make the game a bit more challenging shall we?" "Uh let's not." Prank Master then used her magic to bring the goo gun back to her hoof and summoned the magic bubble again. She then used magic to launch herself in the air. Super Stallion tried to fly up and stop her but she had already fired more ooze after making a small hole in the bubble and aimed the goo gun right at him.  Super Stallion dodged it so Prank Master fired several rounds of the goo gun, getting some buildings and some ponies. The bubble hit the ground and bounced Prank Master right back up in the air. "Try again stupid stallion?" "This mare is starting to remind me of Discord. I need to stop her quickly before she makes a mess of all of Manehattan." Suddenly Super Stallion got a brilliant idea and flew directly above Prank Master.  "Wait, what are you doing?" Super Stallion then hit the bubble sending Prank Master to the ground. "Ha that won't work I'll just bounce back," Prank Master said as she bounced back like she said but Super Stallion struck the bubble again and again causing Prank Master to go and down at a very fast rate.  "I always did like Volleyball," Super Stallion said as he continued.  "Stop, you're making it go too fast! It's too fast, I'm gonna throw up!” Prank Master then dispelled her bubble and used her rope spell to grab onto a nearby skyscraper. "Ha, didn't plan on me doing-" Prank Master stopped when Super Stallion then kicked Prank Master in the back making her spin around out of control.  "1 good kick deserves another," Super Stallion said as Prank Master removed the rope spell and made a new one to stop her momentum and climbed to the top of the building. "What's the big deal are you trying to make me get whiplash or something?"  "Highly temping at this point." Super Stallion then fired several spells but Prank Master dodged and teleported to the ground. "It's time to put an end to her fun and games." Super Stallion flew down to Prank Master.  "Uh, I don't want to fight you anymore, let's pick this up tomorrow."  "Oh I don't think so. After the crud you've pulled you're not just getting away." "I beg to differ," Prank Master then threw another ball this time on the ground making a big smokescreen.  "Oh no you don't!" Super Stallion used a gust spell to remove the smoke, but Prank Master was already gone. "Where'd she go?" Super Stallion looked around desperate to find her. "WHERE'D SHE GO?" He yelled as he looked at one of the ponies watching who shrugged. "Ah you've got to be kidding me the bad guy got away again. I might as well go home."  "Uh Super Stallion," one of the ponies watching said. Super Stallion then noticed the said pony was stuck in the pink ooze fired earlier. He then looked around and saw several ponies were stuck in it and some of it was just splattered across several buildings. "Right, I should probably clean that all up. And me without a mop, how ironic.” *** The next day Squeaky Clean was at the castle bright and early, but quite tired after searching for Prank Master. "Come on Squeaky, try to stay awake. At least until your next break."  "All right guards fall in line," Stone Wall said from across the hallway. Hearing his woke up Squeaky and he ran across the room to see him who as usual was giving orders to the guards. "Shining Armor!"  "Yes captain!" "I thought I told you to clear up the mess hall!' "You did, it's just that I still have a couple things to plan for my wedding." "You can do those later." "Excuse me," Shining Armor said back a little upset. "I think my wedding is a bit more important."  Suddenly Stone Wall grabbed Shining Armor and violently shook him while also choking him a little. "YOU DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!" Stone Wall then let him go of Shining Armor and he fell on the floor, practically gasping for air as he slowly got back up and left. Stone Wall then noticed Squeaky Clean was watching, shocked at his friend's behavior. "Squeaky, what did you see?" Uh oh, think fast here Squeaky, he thought. "Enough to know I'm getting a raise." Stone Wall then rolled his eyes and walked off. "Ah geez, that was close." Princess Celestia then walked by her coltfriend.  "Squeaky hello, have you seen Stone Wall? I need to talk to him about a few things."  "Uh, I'd wait a little while before talking to him. He's in one of his bad moods." "Oh I see. Are you all right?" "Yes, why?" "You just look a little tired. Trouble sleeping last night?" "No, but yesterday was rather exhausting, I might be asking a lot but is it okay if I take a nap in your chambers? I need to recharge." Princess Celestia gave a smile and suddenly Squeaky was teleported to the royal chamber. "I guess that’s a yes." *** The next day Super Stallion was flying around Manehattan looking for any sign of the Prank Master, but was having no luck whatsoever. "This was a long shot anyway," Super Stallion said to himself as he made his way to other cities in Equestria. "What was with her personality? First it's all over the place then she'd dead focused on messing with me? Was she just pretending to be crazy the first time I ran into her?" Suddenly as he was flying over Fillydelphia he saw familiar pink ooze by the buildings and streets. "I hope he gets here soon, there's only so much goo the goo gun can have stored in it," Prank Master said as Super Stallion flew down. "Oh good you're here, why don't you stick around?" Prank Master then fired ooze at Super Stallion but he dodged and after only several shots the goo gun shot out little to no more of the ooze. "Ah geez my goo gun is running on empty." "Well then it matches the pony that's using it. Is there a point to you making a mess of everything?" "You ruined my plans so now I'm returning the favor by ruining your plans."  "Plans? What plans?" "Plans to protect Equestria of course you're a superhero. What better way to get back at you than to pop in and out just to mess with you and make you look like a moron." "Okay seriously, what is your deal?" "My deal? What do you mean?"  "I mean are you stealing stuff while doing this somehow? Are you trying to protect the environment in some way? Do you just want revenge on somepony?"  "Well yeah, you." "But what about before, why did you steal that scroll? What was the portal for?" "What difference does that make now? I can't open it now because of you and that other pony who I should also get back to while I'm at it, but first things first." Prank Master then used her rope spell to lift herself up in the air and threw several more of those strange collars at Super Stallion who flew off to dodge them. "How many of those things does she have? I need to stop her before she really makes a mess." Super Stallion flew to Prank Master and grabbed the spell she was using with her dangling just a few feet below. "Well I will say this about you, this is a pretty interesting spell." "You like it, I made it myself, I could teach you how to do it sometime if you want." "Really?"  "Yeah, I've always wanted to be a teacher." "But instead you're running around in a costume making a mess of things." "Life doesn't always go the way you want it." Prank Master then undid the spell causing her to fall. "Time to really show this guy what I can do." Prank Master then cast another spell which caused her to be surrounded in a large glowing aura. "Is she doing the bubble spell again? No, this is different," Super Stallion said as he flew down to get to her as the aura grew big and morphed into the shape of a star. "I got something really special for you now. This is my most powerful spell." "Ah yeah no." Super Stallion then flew straight into the spell. "Wait, what are you doing?"  "Putting a stop to you and whatever this spell does," Super Stallion answered as he pushed through the spell aura and grabbed Prank Master. He then pushed through the other side still holding on to Prank Master causing the magic made star to fade.  "Let go of me. I mean I've always wanted a stallion to sweep me off my hooves, but not like this. Now put me down!" "Okay," Super Stallion answered as he let go of Prank Master she fell and then landed on the top of a building.  "Oh that wasn't funny," Prank Master said, a little in pain from her fall. "It's pretty funny from where I'm standing, or rather floating." "Oh yeah, well see how funny this is." Prank Master tried an attack spell that would hit Super Stallion right in the face but he quickly countered with his own spell. His spell overpowered Prank Master's and she got hit in the face instead. "You're right." "I am?" Prank Master said on the ground. "That was rather funny," Super Stallion said with a cocky smile. "Now you've done it, you've made me not want to fight anymore, we'll pick this up tomorrow." "Oh I don't think so, I'm taking care of you now." "I had a feeling you might feel that way. That's why I kept on to this little trinket." Prank Master then got out a toy monkey with a big smile and was holding a symbol in each hand. "Oh wait sorry, wrong one, here it is!" Prank Master then held what looked like a bouncy ball. "A bouncy ball?" "It only looks like a bouncy ball but actually it's a bomb." "A bomb!" Prank Master then teleported it off the building causing the said bomb to fall. Super Stallion quickly flew after it and caught it. "Okay I have it now, what do I do with it? Should I just throw it in the air and wait for it to blow up?" Super Stallion then looked closely and didn't notice any wires or anything metallic or even a timer. He then poked it with his horn causing it to deflate. "THIS REALLY IS JUST A BALL!"  Super Stallion flew back to the building, but once again, Prank Master was gone. *** Squeaky Clean was cleaning at the castle more angry than tired. While he tried not to think about it, the mind has a bad and strange habit of not doing what you want it to do. "Next time Prank Master is going down, she’s going way down.” "Psst." Squeaky then stopped talking to himself to see several royal guards hiding in a nearby closet. "Is the coast clear Squeaky?" "The coast?" "Stone Wall is out of control; he's become a complete tyrant." "I think you 3 might be overreacting, Stone Wall has always been tough but fair." "Not anymore. I don't know what's happened to him, but he has to be stopped. So we're going to talk to the princess about it and we're avoiding him the whole way to the royal chambers. So can you please look around to make sure he isn't around?" But before Squeaky could even consider the offer, Stone Wall ripped the door clean off its hinges and threw across the hallway, utterly shocking everypony. "So this is where you 3 have been hiding." "Uh no he found us!"  "Pray for us all!" "I don't want to die!" "S-Stone Wall, don't you think that was a bit much. Who's going to fix that door?" Squeaky asked rather scared but majorly concerned for his friend. "Maybe I can make these 3 fix it after I'm done knocking some sense into them." The 3 guards cowered together in fear as Stone Wall looked like he was about to rip their heads off. Out of panic one of the guards socked Stone Wall in the jaw but he barely moved from the hit. Stone Wall then gave a death glare to all 3 of the guards and then used his horn to blast all three of them through the wall. "Stone Wall what the heck has gotten into you?"  "Get away from me Squeaky," Stone Wall answered as he jumped through the hole he made with his magic attack. "My head feels like it's going to crack open like a coconut!"  "His head?" One of the guards replied as the 3 helped each other up. "Let's get out of here before he really goes crazy."  "Stone Wall calm down, what are you doing?" Squeaky asked as he also jumped through the hole to see what was going on with his friend. "I told you to get away from me!" Squeaky was then pushed back by some of Stone Wall's magic into the wall. "He's acting crazy. Like Prank Master," Squeaky said. "Stone Wall calm down." "WHY DON'T YOU LISTEN WHEN I SAY TO GET AWAY!" Stone Wall screamed as he let out a burst of magic that burst through the walls and even broke the floor. Stone Wall landed on his legs but Squeaky's reflexes weren't as good. A dozen guards gathered around as Stone Wall continued to burst magic.  "What's the captain doing, he's going to wreck the place?" A female guard asked as Stone Wall's magic continued to make a mess of things. "Stop him!" The guards then swarmed their captain, but he quickly pushed them all back with his magic. A few got through and 1 grabbed him from behind to try and put him in a hold, but he quickly got free and flipped the guard.  "Try stun spells!" A guard called out and several guards aided him in his idea but Stone Wall summons a shield that the spells don't even crack. "You call those spells?" Stone Wall then blasted the guards that tried to stun him and nearly forced them through the wall like he did to the 3 earlier. "Those are spells." Half a dozen guards then teleported on top of him to dog pile him. "We got him, we finally got him!" But just as that guard said that, they were all lifted up by Stone Wall who wasn't even using magic. "Are you kidding me?" "How is he this strong?" Suddenly they were all scattered as Stone Wall got back on all 4 legs. "We're gonna need backup! Lots of backup!" Several guards ran off to get help as Stone Wall continued his rampage throughout the castle.  "Why is Stone Wall doing this?" Squeaky asked as he watched from the sidelines. "He really is acting like Prank Master. No reason or rhyme, just acting crazy. What am I going to do?" Shining Armor led another group of guards to where Stone Wall was after being told what was going on.  "Stone Wall, why are you doing this?" Shining Armor asked. "Everything I do, I do for you guards and the princess."  "Right now it's really hard to believe that." "There you go again questioning me."  "Well sometimes it's a good thing to question authority."  "True, but questioning it isn't enough sometimes to need the muscle and the magic to back it up." "Well lucky for me I have both." Shining Armor then blasted several spells that Stone Wall effortlessly dodged.  "My turn." Shining Armor quickly summoned a barrier around him preparing for Stone Wall's counter attack. "Give it your best shot, this is a concentrated version of my barrier spell that could protect all of Canterlot. It could hold back an entire army-" Shining was cut off when Stone Wall managed to blast through the barrier and knocked Shining Armor flat on his rump. "You sure like to hear yourself talk, don't you?" Stone Wall then noticed he was surrounded by guards and he took them down left and right.  "We have to get the princesses out of here before he brings down the entire castle."  "He might actually be strong enough to do that," Squeaky said, still watching Stone Wall slap the other guards silly. "There's no other choice," Squeaky said with utter sadness in his voice and sneaked away while a small group went to Princess Celestia's chambers.  After she was informed of what was going on she insisted on seeing him instead of evacuating from the castle. She stayed close to the guards as she went to where Stone Wall was. "Okay I'm back up," Shining Armor said. "If magic won't work then maybe brunt force will." Shining Armor then saw Stone Wall take down another half dozen guards. "On second thought." Princess Celestia then arrived on scene and saw what her beloved captain was doing. "Stone Wall?" Princess Celestia said shocked and sad. "Princess Celestia? You try to get her out of the castle and bring her to where I am? How many guards does it take to think up a plan that's actually good?" "Stone Wall, why are you doing this?" Princess Celestia asked as she slowly got closer. "Stay back!" He ordered. "I'm angry, but I don't know why. My brain feels like it's going to split in half. I think I've finally gone crazy." "He thinks?!"  "Shut up! You want him to attack again." "Stone Wall, please, just calm down and I can help you get through this."  "Get away! I don't want to hurt you, actually I didn't want to hurt anypony here but you most of all. Okay maybe Shining Armor." "Stone Wall just calm down and I can help you." "No, I don't think even you can." Stone Wall then grabbed his head with his forelegs and another burst of magic went across the room. Princess Celestia then tried to fly over to him and hug him in an attempt to calm him down, but even she was having trouble getting through his magic. The magic was then cut off when Super Stallion flew in and used his own magic to cut it off.  "I think you've made enough of a mess here."  "Well well you're here too. Honestly I've always wanted to test my abilities against you."    "I'd rather talk this out but I got a feeling that's not going to work." "I think you're right," Stone Wall then jumped at Super Stallion and the 2 started to duke it out though Super Stallion was holding back not wanting to hurt his old friend.  "KILL HIM SUPER STALLION! MURDER HIM!" One of the guards that was knocked through the wall yelled out.  "You took down the spirit of chaos and disharmony, you can do better than this." Hearing that Super Stallion charged his horn and fired a spell that Stone Wall countered with his own. He managed to keep Super Stallion's spell at bay for a few seconds but after a while he couldn't hold it back any more and it almost flew at him. As a result he was flung back and knocked through a wall and was knocked out on the floor. "YEAH HOW DO YOU LIKE IT!" The guard from earlier yelled, causing all the others to stare at him including Super Stallion and Princess Celestia. “What? It hurt when he attacked.” *** After the whole fiasco, Stone Wall was taken away to a mental hospital. Super Stallion meanwhile was scouring Equestria for the Prank Master convinced there was some sort of connection between her and what happened to Stone Wall. Super Stallion searched far and wide for any sign of the trouble making unicorn and just as he was about to give up, he saw fireworks. "I hope Super Stallion doesn't notice these right away. I'd like to empty the whole box in fact," Prank Master said to herself as she used her magic to light up the fireworks. Suddenly Super Stallion appeared. "So much for that plan, then again." Prank Master then aimed what was left of the fireworks and lit them all at once. Super Stallion however simply charged through and grabbed Prank Master by the throat then forced her against the wall. "What did you do to Stone Wall?!"  "Who?" Prank Master asked while also having a little trouble breathing.   "The pony that was with me when you made that strange portal appear." "I don't know what you're talking about," Prank Master said trying to get free. "Your portal, it did something to him. Made him go on a crazy rampage at the castle; he nearly wrecked the whole place. You better answer me right now before I really get mad!" Suddenly Super Stallion calmed himself down as he had an epiphany. "It screwed with your head too, didn't it?" "My head?" Suddenly Prank Master stared out in space. "I fell in, falling and falling through the hole, the costume store, my cutie mark." Suddenly she snapped back into reality and lifted a ball with her magic. "Let go or I'll detonate this bomb." "I'm not falling for that again-" Super Stallion was cut off when the ball exploded from the result of a burst of magic that Prank Master put inside it.  "Little something I thought up so it's a distraction whether you fall for it or not. And another thing, that portal gave me some problems too."  "So it did mess with you," Super Stallion said as he got back up. "How do you reverse it?" "Reversing it is what I was trying to do." "What do you mean?" "I'm through talking about it, it's giving me two headaches at once. I'm out of here." Prank Master then opened a portal with her magic and jumped through it and Super Stallion followed. After going through he looked around and it looked to be a rather large shack filled with all sorts of gizmos and strange objects. "Spatial magic, so that's how you were able to get away all those times." "Oh right, I'm supposed to distract you first then jump in my spatial portal. Guess I forgot." "Well how unfortunate, for you anyway, definitely not me." Prank Master then reached for some of her gadgets but Super Stallion quickly used an ice spell on her stopping her in her tracks.  "Ah geez not cool, well actually very cool, but you know what I mean." Within seconds she was completely encased in a block of ice. "Well looks like she finally learned to-" Super Stallion stopped somewhat expecting her to break free, she didn’t. "Chill out. Finally!" Super Stallion picked up the block of ice and brought it to Princess Celestia and explained everything as best he could.  Prank Master was brought to a mental hospital to hopefully get the help she needed as well.  "We'll do all we can to help her," a unicorn doctor said to Super Stallion and Princess Celestia. "You might want to wait until you get her into a room before unfreezing her," Super Stallion added. "Noted. Also your highness since you're here, we have some bad news. Stone Wall escaped." "What? But how I thought you said you placed a magic canceling collar on him and placed him in a specially secure room." "We did and we did, but he still got out. From the little time we studied him we don't think he's going to head back to the castle." "So what is he gonna do?" "We aren't sure." *** Stone Wall after escaping the mental hospital somehow made it all the way to the Badlands. "I have to go away, far away, where they can't find me. So I can’t hurt anypony." As he continued traveling he came across a small shack and seeing nopony was there decided to stay there for now. Back in Canterlot Princess Celestia had called Twilight and her friends to once again call forth a certain spirit of chaos. Who was once again taking a bath. “Oh you gotta be kidding me,” Discord said as he dried up and got out. “Seriously, how hard is it to send me a letter? What, you need to find another dragon to burp them out. Actually how does that work?” “Discord.” “Do you just teleport the letter into his stomach, why has nopony questioned this before?” “Discord.” “I mean if you can put in a creature’s digestive system, you can teleport it into a mailbox.” “DISCORD!” Princess Celestia yelled in nearly in royal Canterlot voice.  “Yes, sunbutt.”  “I need you to find Stone Wall? Something happened to him and I don’t know why but I’m really worried.” “That’s going to be a problem, he’s already left Equestria.”  “What? How do you know?” Twilight asked. “Was visiting the Badlands earlier and saw him running across. So I guess he’s in Equestria, where’s the border exactly? Or is it the whole continent? “Why didn’t you stop him?” Princess Celestia asked. “And it’s the whole continent, until you get to the Frozen North.” “Oh yeah, that used to be the Crystal Empire’s territory.” “Crystal Empire?!” Rarity said with interest. “It was a thing,” Discord replied.  “Also there’s Yakyakistan,” Princess Celestia said. “But I’ve been meaning to make a relationship of friendship between us and them- you know what we’re kind of burying the lead. I need you to get Stone Wall and bring him home.” “Did you ever think that maybe he doesn’t want to be found?” Discord asked. “Even if you get him back, what’s stopping him from just running off again?” “A cage?” Rainbow Dash asked. Princess Celestia turned to Rainbow Dash with a stern look. “I’m just spitballing.”  “Why not just give him his space and wait for him to come on his own?” “What? Let him run around past the Badlands all on his own? Are you insane!?” “Do you really have to ask?” Discord asked Princess Celestia. “He’s got you there,” Twilight said. “Just find him and bring him back!” Princess Celestia ordered. “You know I’m getting pretty sick of you and your bad attitude,” Discord replied. “MY BAD ATTITUDE!” Princess Celestia said this time using her royal Canterlot voice. Shocking the others. “Yes,” Discord said while waving his claw finger in her face. “You think you’re better than everypony. You talk about friendship and the importance of friendship, but you only call me when you want something.”  “That’s-” Princess Celestia said before stopping and reflecting. “Yeah,” Discord said. “Have fun doing something yourself for once, sun butt.” And with that, Discord vanished as Super Stallion leaned over to Princess Celestia. “Well that could've gone better,” Applejack said. “I don’t like that guy,” Stallion whispered. “He’s not my favorite pony either,” Princess Celestia whispered back. “Well, what are we gonna do?” Fluttershy asked. “I’ll continue to search for him, but with the wedding coming up, I have something else to do.” Princess Celestia then turned and saw Pinkie holding in a lot of laughs. Princess Celestia sighed. “Go ahead Pinkie.”  Pinkie Pie suddenly burst into laughter. “Sun butt!” She continued laughing. “That’s never going to get old.”   *** With Stone Wall gone, Princess Celestia had to find a new captain of the royal guard with Princess Luna helping the screening process. Shining Armor along with several others volunteered thinking he could fill the role. Others just wanted more authority and a bigger paycheck. In the end the sisters only picked 2 guards for the main screening, not including Shining Armor. "Um Princess Celestia, I need to tell you something." Squeaky said when he heard the news. "Whatever it is Squeaky, it'll have to wait." "No it can't!" Squeaky said with more authority. He then walked over to the princess and whispered something in her ear after jesting her to lower her head.  "I see. Shining Armor, you've been added to the main screening test." After the screening, Shining Armor was picked as the new captain of the royal guard and would in the days to come help make his new armor for the role. After the screening Shining Armor ran into Squeaky and quickly approached him. "Hey Squeaky did you hear!?"  "Yeah I did, congratulations Shining Armor." "So what did you say to the princess to get her to pick me?" "Sorry, but that's a secret." "Ah come on you've got to tell me."  "You can lecture me all day but I'm not saying a peep." "Well now that I'm captain of the guard I outrank you. So as captain I order you to tell me." "Not so fast Shining Armor," Princess Celestia said as she was approaching the 2 stallions. "You may be right, but I outrank you. So I order you to leave him alone about it."  "Ah geez. Fine, keep your secret," Shining Armor said, starting to pout.  "Oh come now Shining Armor don't pout like a little foal. You're captain of the royal guard now, you need to set an example," Princess Celestia said. "Yeah you're right, I'm sorry. It's still so hard to believe I'm the captain now, it's something I've dreamed about since I was small. And I'm going to be even better at it than Stone Wall was." "Tall order," Squeaky replied. "Oh you think so huh? Well I'm gonna prove it starting with looking over my own wedding. And you can mark my words, everything is going to be perfect."