Episode 4: The Trick of the Thing
something was off in Ponyville, Twilight could feel it the moment she woke up, a perk of being an alicorn. She couldn't put her hoof on exactly what it was, but something was wrong. She couldn't shake the feeling, but she couldn't very well raise the alarm on a feeling. So, she did the only rational thing. She researched what was happening in the town, send some of the royal guard to check on the town, and told her friends about the feeling. At first, they were skeptical. Then Discord appeared. "She hasn't gone crazy yet," Discord said, "I feel it too." "Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked. "Certainly, and for the record, you've been looking in the wrong places." Discord said, pulling a newspaper out of thin air and placing it on the table. Everypony looked at the paper to see a missing pony report. "It says his name is Nowal and he kind of famous for debunking myths and hoaxes," Twilight read aloud, "A week ago he went to a supposed mystery house, which the owner claimed to be filled with an unknown form of magic that distorted the building like some kind of worm hole. He hasn't been seen since." "It's enough to make you wonder if their little nightmare house is the real deal after all." Discord said. "Do you think we should check it out?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I think we have to." Twilight said.
"This place is a hole." Rainbow Dash said, looking around the logic defying-ly cheesy haunted house, complete with unidentifiable monster bones, bat puppets, cob webs, and neon green question marks painted on the walls. "I don't like bein' disrespectful, but Rainbow Dash is right." Applejack agreed. "I know it looks cheap, but a pony did vanish here. Remember, looks can be deceiving." Twilight reminded them. Suddenly a feeling of being watched spread over all of the mane six. "D-did any of you just feel that?" Fluttershy asked nervously. "Uh-uh." The other five answered. Applejack turned, certain she heard something behind her, family ties. Fluttershy turned, certain she heard something behind her, hidden wrath. Rarity turned, certain she heard something behind her, trust. Pinkie Pie turned, certain she heard something behind her, innocence. Rainbow Dash turned, certain she heard something behind her, fear of weakness. Twilight turned, certain she heard something behind her, power. The mane six were back to back, trying to find what was making the noise, or failing that, at least make out what the noises were. "Enough!" Twilight cast magic dispersal and sent it throughout the building. "What in the world was all that about?" Rarity wondered. "I don't know, but I know how to find out." Twilight said, casting an identification spell. She searched the entire building with her magic, then searched again, but found nothing, except for a couple discarded candy wrappers. "There's nothing here." Twilight said, confused. "Then what were all those spooky voices?" Pinkie asked. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was just white noise playing on loop to frighten the visitors." Twilight said, feeling foalish for taking a haunted house so seriously. "If this place is a fake, then what happened to Nowal?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I don't know, but whatever did happen, it has nothing to do with this particular hoax." Twilight said, leading her friends out of the haunted house. Doesn't it?
Twilight, despite her research, couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Slowly, Twilight began to notice strange things going on around town. Anypony who saw Big Mac claimed he was pulling things around town for no reason. Supposedly every time he was seen, he was pulling something bigger and heavier than the time before. The CMC said that Cheerily was acting more and more nervous when teaching, always watching the door like she was expecting it to fall of it's hinges. Even Twilight's friends started to act strange. It started with Rainbow Dash. She'd always been slow to get to work, but now she wasn't working at all. All she did was fly around town, too fast to be followed. There were reports of her landing occasionally and asking whoever was closest to her if everything was okay before taking off again. Fluttershy had gone missing. One of the fruit venders had reported that she, Fluttershy, had gone on a rampage, sending three ponies to the hospital with bruises. She apparently came to her senses and ran of into the Everfree. Rarity had boarded up the Carousel Boutique. She refused to tell anypony why, but she'd been heard grumbling about being double crossed. Applejack was refusing to let Apple Bloom or Granny Smith leave the house, claiming that there was something after them. Pinkie Pie had apparently left a trail of destruction behind her without even trying, never aware of the damage she'd done until it was too late. Once she'd realized it was her fault, she locked herself in her room. Twilight tried to reason with them, but it was no use. Twilight was in her castle, trying to figure out what was happening, when the last straw was pulled. A member of the royal guard gave her a document, telling her only that it was to be handled carefully. When Twilight opened it, she saw that it had to do with trading with Mareitonia. She skimmed the document and signed it quickly so she could return to figuring out what was wrong with her friends and the town. It wasn't until the next day that Twilight realized her mistake. The royal guard returned with the documents, telling Twilight he could help her rally troops. "Rally troops? For what?" Twilight asked. "For the war princess." The guard said. "The what!" Twilight grabbed the documents and examined them thoroughly. Somehow, Twilight had been so unfocused, that she'd somehow accidentally sent a declaration of war to Mareitonia. Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship, had started a war. Twilight quickly sent a letter to the delegates explaining that it had been a misunderstanding, then realized that it didn't matter. Something had caused this to happen. Something had caused everything that had gone wrong to happen. And it was at that haunted house, Twilight was sure of it.
Twilight entered the center of the haunted house. "Show yourself!" She shouted. There was no response. "I know your here! I figured out what you are!"Have you really?A voice resonated from nowhere. "Yes I have. Your a trickster!" Twilight stated. Prove it. The voice requested. Twilight had expected this, she'd done her research. "Trickster. A high level magical being able to take any form it chooses. Characterized by it's unmatched magical ability to bring any reality to life, an affinity for sweets, and a twisted sense of humor that drives it to play what it believes are ironic tricks on those it meets. The hoax buster pony, Nowal, he went missing after he came here. Gone with no trace anywhere. He didn't believe in worm holes, so you dropped him in one. There are candy wrappers littered throughout this entire building. I couldn't find you before because your magic outranks that of an alicorn." "Bravo! Brava! Twilight Sparkle step on down you've won a prize!" The trickster said, appearing across the room from Twilight in the form of a tall, gray earth pony with a jet black mane. His cutie mark showed a Cheshire cat's grin. "Though I must ask, how did you figure it out?" He asked. "I did my homework. I understood what was happening the moment I saw the description of a trickster in my monster manual. Tricksters were thought to be things of myth and legend. Until now that is." The trickster snickered, "Of course! I'd expect no less from Twilight Sparkle. Now for the six point four million bit question, now that you've figured it out, what to you plan to do about it?" Twilight could see in the trickster's eyes that it genuinely wanted to hear her answer. "Now, I play the part of the diplomat. Mr. Trickster, I request that you cease your mischievous antics." "Please, Mr. Trickster was my father, call me Tom, Tom Foolery." He said. "Very well, Tom, please forfeit your foalish tricks." Twilight asked. "Aw, wheres the fun in that?" Tom asked. Twilight had a minor flash back to her earlier experiences with Discord. 'No,' Twilight realized, 'he's worse than Discord.' That a creature could be more chaotic, more unreasonable, and worst of all, more powerful than Discord was a thoroughly frightening thought. Suddenly Twilight became incredibly aware of how much stronger this being was than her. How was she supposed to defeat it? "I'm waiting for an answer princess?" Tom said. 'Think Twilight, think. I'm only going to get one chance. I need to confuse him. He seems to know who I am. He knows enough about my friends to trap them in their own personal pranks. He runs on irony.' Twilight knew what to do. "If you don't stop willingly, I'll have to use force." Twilight answered. "Force? Princess, princess, I thought you'd done your research. You said it yourself, I'm stronger than you." Tom said. "Strength has nothing to do with it." Twilight said. "Oh, don't tell me, you use-" Tom appeared on top of a soap box with the Equestia flag flying behind him, "The almighty, unstoppable power of friendship!" He proclaimed dramatically. "Not even in the ball park." Twilight said. "Oh?" Tom's flag and soap box vanished. "Then what, pray tell, is your plan?" "Simple, if you do not surrender this very instant, I will send in an order to summon a small army of troops, evenly distributed among the three races of course, to defeat you in a timely fashion." Twilight said. Tom looked at her confused. "But what if defeating me seals the reality of those I've already trapped?" Tom asked. "So be it. While freeing them would be preferable, in the end I have to think about the many before the few." Twilight told him. "Seriously? Well who would have thought it! Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship for Celestia's sake! Sacrificing the supposed hopeless. I honestly don't know if I'm impressed, disappointed, or terrified! It's completely unprecedented! It's completely unexpected! It's-" Tom stopped as a blast of energy hit his stomach. Slowly, his body turned to stone, same as the spell once placed on Discord, "It's completely fake. Touche princess. Touche." Tom solidified, a look of quiet surrender permanently frozen on his face. There was a popping sound and a unicorn fell out of nowhere and landed on the floor. He had blue fur with a silver mane and a magnifying glass for a cutie mark. "Where-where am I?" He asked. "Who are you?" Twilight asked, unwilling to answer his question until she was certain it wasn't just another trick. "My name is Nowal."
Twilight explained what had been happening to the townsfolk. They were rattled at the existence of tricksters being proven, but were calmed down when Twilight explained that it was taken care of. Later, after confirming that they were not in fact at war with Mareitonia, Twilight send word to princess Celestia. Now that the existence of tricksters was proven there were a few cases that needed to be re-opened. Not to mention the textbooks that would have to be altered. It wasn't until a week later that Twilight started to wonder if what she'd done was really right. She'd saved her friends, but she'd imprisoned that, as far as it understood, was innocent to do so. Sure, he didn't know better and wouldn't have stopped willingly. Then again, he didn't know any better and had no idea what he was doing was wrong. On the one hoof, Princess Celestia did the same thing before, on the other, maybe that didn't justify it. 'Maybe this is what Princess Luna meant.' Twilight thought.
Tom Foolery's statue stood untouched. "I've got to hand it to myself," Tom said, leaning against the statue he'd manufactured, "This really has been some of my best work yet. Now, what next?"
AN: I'm going to leave the details of the tricks pulled on the mane 6 to the head cannon makers. As for Tom Foolery, well, I don't like one off ending gags. Just look at my opener.