• Published 4th Dec 2011
  • 1,629 Views, 23 Comments

Midnight Green - Voyd211



A self insert fic that desperately tries to avoid Mary Sue-ness and other self-insert cliches

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Chapter 6


Chapter 6

Midnight's father arrived fully six hours later, and dropped off his siblings. The older of the two was an orange earth pony colt, whose name was Tangerine. He loved bugs, and this showed in his magnifying glass cutie mark. The younger was a purple pegasus filly named Violet Shimmer. She had inherited her mother's constant grin, although at the moment she lacked a cutie mark.

Tangerine was mischievous, with a look in his eyes that suggested that he was looking for ways to cause trouble. Aside from orange color and a lack of glasses, he looked like a younger version of Midnight. Shimmer, on the other hand, was quiet and introverted, but she opened up if her family was present.

Horizon decided to take the little ones around Ponyville. Midnight snickered as Tangerine and Shimmer ended up leading her around. “Yeah, Mom's sense of direction is worse than mine, but we're the only ones. Everyone else has an impeccable knowledge of how to get around.”

Midnight managed to pull some of his musical equipment together, but decided to save it for later; after all, the Gala was coming up. He had some other plans, and he decided to work on something else. He put up a large canvas, dipped a paintbrush into a pallette, and went to work.

Tangerine and Shimmer figured out where everything in Ponyville was rather quickly, while their mother STILL couldn't find her way from the library to one of the shops across the street. Tangerine was, as was usual for him, looking for opportunities for mischief. Shimmer followed behind him, not wanting to be alone even if she knew exactly where each brick was.

Just as Tangerine spotted a bunch of ponies carrying around heavy-looking glass objects, Horizon leapt out in front of him. “There you are! I was looking all over for you. The castle, the forest, the buffalo camp... anyway, we're going to find someplace to stay for the night, it's getting late. Come along now!” Rather unhappily he followed her. Shimmer, however, had spotted an interesting-looking toy across the street and strolled across to it.

“Alright girls, you know what we're doing. We're splitting up and finding Zebra Mask!”

Twilight and her friends knew that Zebra Mask would come back tonight; why wouldn't he? He had said that he'd return the following night, hadn't he? So of course they would try to find him. All they had to do was look for smoke and listen for the voice. He was hardly difficult to miss.

As if on cue, Zebra Mask appeared to them again. He had obviously been expecting them, since Rainbow Dash charged and passed through him. “Another splendid night to thee, and to another round of hide-and-seek, phantom edition!” He stalked away and vanished into the darkness. Twilight and her friends split up again, and met similar results as the night before. Yet more mirages, floating capes and masks on sticks were strewn about to confuse and confound the ponies. And as before, they were the only ones that saw him; when they asked other ponies they found roaming at night, none of them had seen the Zebra Mask.

They ranged a bit farther in their search than they had previously, going to Fluttershy's house, Sweet Apple Acres, and several areas not technically in Ponyville, but close enough to get to easily. Mask had obviously predicted this, and set up yet more frustrating fakes for them. Now he began taunting them in earnest.

“Go on, you're nearly there, I'm over here!”

“No he's not, are you daft? I'm the real Zebra Mask, not that one!”

“Hello, ma belle-fleur, perhaps your hair would look better if dripping wet.” This particular taunt was punctuated by dumping a bucket of water on Rarity. “Oh, I must say, you look positively stunning, if I say so myself.” Rarity scowled, wishing she could see Mask and knock some sense into him. “You are simply a rogue, a scoundrel! I won't let this go unpunished!”

“Ah, but I thought ladies loved the rogues! Ah well, yet another thing to not learn from literature.”

Yet more pranks and taunts followed. When they met back up at the library, Rarity was drenched to the bone, Fluttershy's mane was bright blue, Rainbow Dash was dyed red, Applejack was covered in smashed pineapple, and Twilight's tail was slightly singed. Only Pinkie Pie was completely unharmed.

Rainbow Dash was furious. “Who... in the world... does that pony think he is? He can't just torment us like this.”

“Normally, I would be gone by now, but I believe this young filly is looking for her mother.” Again they turned toward the voice; Zebra Mask stood there. He stepped to the side, revealing a frightened and tired Violet Shimmer. As amazing as her sense of direction was during the day, she had difficulty finding her way in the dark, and had gotten lost, without any idea where Horizon was.

Mask nudged her forward, and she ran towards the other ponies. Before they could question him, Zebra Mask faded again. While the other ponies went home to vent their frustration, and Twilight took Shimmer to her mother, Pinkie Pie bounced over to where Mask had been standing.

He had left his costume in its entirety.