Mad as a Hatter

by squitxl

Hats off to you

(1 Month after the changeling invasion)

The attack on Canterlot was foiled by the elements, and the lovebirds were off on their honeymoon. It's been peaceful since then and from what I know nothing will happen until the crystal empire shows up, making this a great time to get back into the action.

Hat would you mind sending out a call to all my knights? I mentally prepared myself for a fantastic call out.

"It's ready whenever you are."

My knights, my engineers, my scouts, the time is nigh! I was starting to get really into this. Let it rain madness...and hats. For the Mad Hatter wishes to start the game. Finishing my broadcast monologue, I poured my collected magic in my hat. A vertical eye opened on the front of my hat. It gave off a shadowy glow that enveloped my statue. The glow continued until it dulled into nothing. The stone that was my prison fell off of me as if it was paper, floating down to the ground.

I had a good long stretch on top of my pedestal. Finishing my stretch and opening my eyes brought me a pleasuring sight. My loyal knight on one knee, head bowed, before me.

"My master, I wish to welcome you to what Equestria has become." His voice was formal and still but you could hear the deeper happiness to see me moving around again.

"Cain, You and Kar have been giving reports, I know what's been going on." I rolled my eyes at my happy little knight. Cain was as tall as an adult pony, which is slightly above my waist. He has a metal bar over his left eye and looks like he came from the island of misfit toys. Well, except for his very real crystal blade sheathed at his hip. I headed towards one of the other statues in the garden. "Cain?"

"Yes sir?" He turned his head up to look at mine.

"Where are all the guards?" I asked while still looking at the upcoming statue.

"Some are on shift change while the others are dealing with one of Blueblood's more major tantrums." He chuckled. "I may have caused the ladder."

This made me lift a brow and glance at him. Cain was one of the few constructs that I couldn't see what he saw through my hat, so I believed he just went about his day watching over my statue and collecting ambient magic from the princesses. Not to say I didn't like to see this new wild side, I just had no clue he even had one. "You go around pranking ponies?"

The question shocked him, and he had a look of guilt written all over him. "I don't do it often, I just thought you would need a distraction."

We reached Discord's statue, and I turned to look at its face. "Don't feel so guilty about it, I'm thankful you were able to give me the time you could." I could hear him breathe a sigh of relief. Now for my little message.

"Discord, I can't break you out at the moment, but I've come to tell you that you'll be released on parole in a few months." I wore a quite devious smile. "Do not fret I won't do anything drastic without you. I need to get everything straight with the progress my group has made over the millennium." I went up on the pedestal he was on and put my arm around his stone neck. "I'll try to lay down the carpet for your arrival. No pony will fear the spirit of chaos, we will dance and be merry." With the final sentiment I raised my hand into the air and looked towards the sky.

"And how will you change the xenophobic ponies?" Hat questioned in a disbelieving tone.

We'll find a way, don't you worry my dear Hat. "Now, Cain, where is my ride out of here?" Starting my walk out of the gardens.

"The moment you were free Kar sent a vehicle over." He pointed towards the garden exit.

"Gotcha." This gave me some time to think about my next course of action. Should I head straight to Kar and get the grandiose report I knew he was going to give me? Or should I drop by Celestia and Luna to say hello?

I was still deep in thought when we reached what looked like a normal taxi that ponies would use, maybe slightly bigger. What brought me out of my thinking was who was pulling the cab. A slightly buff earth pony and a spry pegasus. The pegasus noticed how close I was and nudged the other.

"My master, we were sent by Kar to pick you up." He spoke in a formal and slight gruff voice.

"You two are constructs?" Another new surprise for the day.

"Yeppers sir, we woke up and were sent to pick you up the moment Sir Kar got word." A chipper, happy-go-lucky pegasus, I love Kar's work. The only strange part was that these two looked very life-like for being made by one of my own. I can only guess how much progress Kar wanted to surprise me with.

"Before I forget, what are your names?" If they woke up and got here this quickly Kar may have not given them names. Giving a construct a name is one of my cardinal rules.

"Clockwerk, sir." He is most definitely the soldier type.

"Timestop is the name I was given, cause when I start time just stops." He giggled at his boasting. He had spunk and confidence I'll give it to him.

I took another look at the castle and gave a scratch to my stubbly beard. "You two stay here and wait until I have a word with my fiery friend. Cain you can follow me, but keep out of sight." He gave me a nod.

"One of the guards found you're missing and is running to Celestia." Hat gave the report of what his screens were showing him.

I started towards the throne room. Send me the directions I'll head there directly.

"She has company." He had an unsure voice.

Blueblood right? He's nothing to worry about. I thought, not understanding the problem.

"No, he's gone. She has some new companions with her now."

It's fine. I'll only pop in to say hello and maybe tease her a bit. A quick visit shouldn't make her blow up.

"If you say so..."

---

Man, today is a day with enough surprises for the year to come. I knew the month was May. What I didn't know is that today was some event that wasn't celebrated on Earth. Or it's just a made up event for her to have fun with.

My little visit became more difficult the moment I found out who she was having her chat with in the throne room. I'm glad I was smart enough to not use one of the normal entrances.

In the middle of the big room was Celestia giving a hug to her student, the element of magic. With the other elements behind her friend watching this happen. Gotta be careful about how I seem. Too intimidating and they might just lock me back up. That is not to say I couldn't just break out again, I did have a huge amount of magic stashed away with Kar. Though it would be a ball buster to go back to soon.

The hug broke up. "My little ponies, I am glad we could have this get together." That smile and motherly feeling always made me feel like she had a bigger plan. My plan will beat your plan right out of the water, just you wait. My voice turning somewhat evil.

"Pay attention to what's going on you knob."

The throne room door slammed open to a new face. "Sister!" A frazzled Luna shouted. "The guards tell me Hatter has escaped his seal."

This broke up the loving session Celestia had. I watched her emotions go directly to the opposite side of the spectrum.

"Princess Luna who has broken free?" The purple one questioned as Luna now coming to her senses to look guiltily at the mares and Celestia. Luna began to start before being cut off by Celestia.

"The Mad Hatter is what he is known as."

Oh? She's going to start listing off my achievements and how I met them both?

"He is a creature that lost his sanity."

What?

"He was a loyal knight to Discord and even rivaled his chaotic nature." Her truthful expression only made it worse. I couldn't take it anymore.

The side of a pillar slammed open to reveal a door. Yea, I got some reality bending powers, nothing big. I turned and closed the door quietly and faced the group again. "That is blatant slander and you know it Celestia!" Pouring my anger on full blast. "Saying I rivaled Discord, when he was the one that was doing his best." She and the group of mares seemed shocked at my outburst. Luna on the other hand was rolling her eyes.

"What happened to not being intimidating?" Hat declaring my first plan gone.

"Mad Hatter, if you've come for revenge then you will be stopped by the elements of harmony once again." Her horn lit up and put the box of elements from behind the thrones.

Guess she was prepared. She put the elements on the six mares, which seem to confuse them. I held an inquisitive face, and waited for this to play out.

"But princess shouldn't we need to know what he did or why he must be sealed again?" The purple one starting to have doubts and most of the group seemed to agree with her.

"Do you want to tell them or should I?" I slyly insinuated. The group seemed to turn their heads from me to Celestia. Celestia gave me her best frustrated face she could give. "The only problem with me telling any stories is that since you don't know me you have no reason to believe anything I say." Letting my head give a small shake from side to side.

"Sister, we should calm down and talk this over peacefully." Celestia seemed to be betrayed by Luna's words. "It isn't to say Hatter has wronged us." With that Celestia brought her emotions under control. I let out a small chuckle which I quickly hid behind my pokerface. She narrowed her eyes and started staring daggers.

"The Mad Hatter is as I said, an insane knight of discord." She reiterated herself.

"While Discord was you and your sister's childhood friend." This seemed to make Celestia go wide-eyed, the sound of the jaws hitting the floor from the mares, and Luna let out an audible sigh. I am the closet cleaner, just need to throw all these skeletons outta here first. "She is right though, I am the first knight of chaos."

The rainbow haired mare recovered first and flew close to my face. "I bet you're going to try and steal the elements and cause a whole load of chaos, just like Discord."

"First things first, would you please not have your face so close to mine? Didn't you ever hear about personal bubbles?"

The pink mare raised her hoof into the air. "OH OH is that like your own personal bubble buddy?"

"Close" pointing at her and giving her a wink.

"What is it that you want, Hatter?" Celestia questioned while finally dropping the formalities. "Even if you didn't do anything personally you still went along with Discord and instigated him." I frowned at this. I guess Discord's efforts were either forgotten or went to waste.

I decided to go along with the path I wanted to take, and for that I would need to be the bad guy. "My dear old Celestia, so old are you, very, very old. With you being there when ponies first discovered wheels." She started to catch on to what I was doing. "I am going to continue what I was doing from before I was locked up." I winked at her.

"Girls! Activate the elements before he-" I held my hand up to halt Celestia.

I started my act. "Do you ever wonder why no demons have escaped Tartarus since we were sealed? What I mean is, when Discord was the king there were at least a few reports of demons escaping, so why did they all the sudden stop?" My tone turning serious.

"It's because Cerberus guards the gate so that nothing can leave Tartarus." The purple mare stated with certainty.

"Cerberus has been guarding the gate for much longer than a thousand years, from what Discord told me he was there before even he was born." This evidence seemed to bring the mare into deep thought.

"But how would you know there hasn't been any demon escapes if you've been turned to stone?" The pink mare asked. The realization seemed to hit everyone like a ton of bricks.

"Before you all start naming theories, I was turned to stone."

"Then how?" Purple seemed to be so interested.

"Well..." I took my hat and flipped it. I reached in and took out a card with a picture of a black cloud on it. "You see this card?" The mare nodded. "I can use them to do all sorts of things, like this one for instance. It has a picture of a smokescreen on it." Celestia's eyes widened right before a huge cloud of smoke exploded from the card I held.

---

(Celestia's POV)

His trap was too quick as everypony was hit by the wave of smoke. "Guards! Make sure he doesn't leave the castle!" I shouted to any guard nearby.

I concentrated on using my magic to clear the smoke that had enveloped the room. After it was removed I looked over my little ponies. "Is everypony alright?" They all seemed to be in bits of coughing, but they all nodded in unison. There was no sign of the Mad Hatter.

"I'm alright princess but what did he mean about Tartarus?" Twilight asked while it seemed the smoke made everypony's fur a slightly darker color.

I longingly looked towards the door. "I don't quite know Twilight, but I believe he will see to it that we find out."

Author's Note:

Next chapter is going to be set in the past.
55 favs in 24 hours, Glad to see you all are interested.

Comments

[SeventhBrony]

xenophobe tia, if it isn't a pony it's deranged, crazed and a threat that must be stopped
make her life he... tartarus

[nighters]

giggle fun madness~! lots of fun!!!

[squitxl]

4251237
She could even be the reason why everypony is so cold towards anything that is not a pony.

[Clemerl]

"I don't quite know Twilight, but I believe we will see over that we find out. "

Sorry to say, last sentence needs a tune up.

[The Well Dressed Ninja]

I don't find anything so "mad" about him right now.

[SeventhBrony]

4251501 ir would add up

[Tome Turner]

guards found your missing

You're

[The Crimson Reaper]

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!

[Dismay]

You see this card?" The mare nodded. "I can use them to do all sorts of things, like this one for instance. It has a picture of a smokescreen on it." Celestia's eyes widened right before a huge cloud of smoke exploded from the card I held.

PRICELESS XD