Disclaimer: All MLP:FiM characters belong to Hasbro and DHX Media. I do not own any of them except my OC. Also, there is no highly illegal activity going on here. The title is only there because it fits with what happens in this chapter. I do NOT condone this activity whatsoever. It is a highly illegal crime and that can land you in jail. So, NEVER attempt this. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
I went to the map room just to see what was popping. I opened the doors and saw no one there. Perfect. I sat down on my throne and turned on the map to see if anything suspect was going on. Nothing was though. Oh well. That's good news for me actually if you think about it. I turned off the map and sighed. Suddenly, I heard the doors open and I turned to see who it was. Oh. It was Twilight. I said "Morning Twilight." Twilight said with a smile "Morning Zach. What are you doing here?" I sighed and said "I was looking on the map to see if there was any trouble or not, but I found nothing, so yeah. It kinda sucks, but it is what it is." Twilight sat on her throne next to mine and said "Oh. I see. I didn't know you would come in here and do that." I said "Oh, I do that on a daily basis." Twilight raised a brow and asked "Really?" I nodded and said "Yeah, I do." Twilight asked me "But why do you do that?" I said "Well, as you know, I am the guardian of the Tree of Harmony. Or I guess Treehouse of Harmony now since that the Tree was destroyed by that WRETCHED Sombra, but whatever. Anyway, it is part of my duty to check the friendship map every day to check for problems that may be happening and alert the proper authorities to respond to those problems."
"That's why you see somepony's cutie mark appear on the map when there is a friendship mission that has to be accomplished. The Spirit of Harmony tells me who it needs to go on that mission, and I use my magic to send out that signal to the map and whatever pony or ponies are assigned to that mission, that's who cutie mark appears on the map. So, as you can probably tell, I play a vital role with the friendship map." To say that Twilight was shocked would be an understatement. In fact, she said "That's so cool! I had no idea your scepter could do that!" I simply laughed and said "Twilight, there is a lot of things that my scepter can do that even Discord wouldn't know about. This is the reason why the Defense Scepter is the most powerful artifact in Equestria." Twilight looked at me and said "From how you use it all the time, that doesn't surprise me. But remember. Great power comes with great responsibility." Ah. That saying. I've heard that so many times that my brain now hurts whenever it hears that. "It is still important though regardless of how your brain feels." She does have a point. I said "I am well aware of that Twilight. Trust me. I have NEVER used this scepter to abuse its power for my own selfish gain. There would be nothing I would get out of that."
"Besides, Celestia said herself at my coronation that I must handle this artifact with extreme care and must never abuse it, so that's what I've done for like the last 4 or 5 years at this point." Twilight said "I remember that quite well. Anyway, I need to get going." I was a bit confused and asked "Oh? Are you going somewhere?" Twilight turned back to look at me and said "Yeah. I need to go to Canterlot because Princess Celestia needs my help with something." I see. I said "Are you going by yourself?" Twilight nodded and said "Yeah. I shouldn't be gone too long, so there's no point in bringing anyone with me." I said "Are you sure you need anyone to come with you?" Twilight said "I'm fine. Thanks for the thought, but I'll be fine. Speaking of which, I need to head out before that train leaves." I stared at her and said with a deadpan expression "You can fly. Also, you can just easily teleport there." Twilight said "That may be true, but where's the fun in that? I like the train much better. Anyway, I'll be heading out now. See ya later." Bye, my dear. Twilight smiled and closed the doors. Perfect. Now she is gone. I looked out the window and saw her fly towards the train station. Now it's time to execute my plan.
As soon as I find out where Spike is. I went out of the throne room and looked all over the castle, but didn't seem to have any luck. However, when I came inside the kitchen, I found Spike there. I said "Hey Spike. What are you doing?" Spike turned around to look at me and said "Oh, hey Zachary. I'm making breakfast. Why do you ask?" I said "Oh, okay. Um, finish up your breakfast and meet me in the throne room. I have an idea that I want to do. Oh wait. I have to ask this first. You don't have anything to do today, do you?" Spike said "Nope. Not anything that I know of." I said "Great. I'll meet ya in the throne room!" I quickly teleported out of there and sat on my throne in the throne room. I'm telling you, this thing is the most comfortable thing I have sat on in ages. It's kinda interesting that mine is so different than the others in terms of the design, but I really don't care. I'm the future King of Equestria after all, so might as well have a King's throne while I wait right now. Finally, after what seemed like 5 million years, Spike arrived and sat in his smaller throne next to Twilight's. Spike asked "So? What is this idea you have?" I said "Well, we need one more creature here before we can continue with this. I was going to ask Big Mac, but then I remembered, he's helping Applejack and Apple Bloom with what he calls "The Confluence" which basically means something about where every apple that's grown on a tree is ready to go."
"Applejack says it only happens every 100 years, but I'm a little skeptical about that. Anyway, the point is, I had to retrieve someone else to execute the plan." Spike raised an eyebrow and asked "And who might that be?" I said "You'll see in a second. But you might want to stand back. I have to use a summoning spell in order to get him over here." Spike nodded and stood back a bit. I charged up my magic and the scepter began to glow before my eyes turned white and the scepter's magic wrapped around in a circle bringing forward Discord. Oh my. Oopsies. I accidently caught him in the middle of a shower. I hope he isn't too mad with me. He said "Winter wrap-up, winter wrap-" before he realized the change of environment. He quickly put on towels and made the shower disappear. He looked at me and said "Now prince, you were supposed to give me a heads up the next time you use that little summoning spell that your dear Twily gave you." I sighed and said "I don't have time for this. Anyway, I'm sorry I caught you at a time like that. Hopefully, you won't hold a grudge over me. I have brought you here for a specific purpose."
Discord raised a brow and said "And what might that be?" Spike also said "Yeah, now that Discord is here, I would love to know what the idea is you have here." I sighed and sat down on my throne. I said "Okay. Since everyone is busy today and I have nothing to do, I figured it might be best to go out and have some fun." Spike asked "What do you mean by fun?" I said "By pulling some pranks." Spike's eyes went wide and Discord had an excited expression on his face. He vanished and reappeared right next to me crushing me to death in a hug and I had to use my shadow form to get away from him. I said "Hold on Discord. Let me make something clear to you. We are only doing pranks that are just minor inconveniences and weird things. We are NOT, I repeat, we are NOT pulling any that will physically harm any creature in any way whatsoever that would put them in a life or death situation. Am I clear?" Discord stroked his chin for a second before saying "Yes, I understand. I even Pinkie promise." I smiled and said "Good. Now let's go ahead and pull our first prank." Discord asked with curiosity "Where would that be?" I smiled and said "You'll see." I spread out my eagle wings and flew right out of the castle. Spike and Discord looked confused, but followed me anyways. We flew across Ponyville and we stopped right at the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres.
I said "Okay. Here is the first stop. Sweet Apple Acres." Spike asked "Why are we here though?" I said "Well, here's my idea. I think it would be absolutely hilarious if we turned all these apples into oranges." Discord liked that idea and said "Ha ha ha! What a brilliant idea! Where shall we start?" I said "Well, we'll divide this orchard into three sections. Each of us will go into one section and change the apples. I'll summon magical lines here that only we can see to make it clearer. Remember. We have to be invisible and fly as fast as you can." Discord nodded in understanding, but Spike asked "Um, Zachary, what about me? If you remember, I'm a dragon. I don't have magic." I smiled and said "I'm glad you brought that up Spike. Luckily for you, I have a solution for that. Here. Take this." I gave some current to Spike and it made him feel weird. "There. You now have some of my power which will allow you to turn invisible and be able to change the apples with magic." Spike was excited and said "Thanks Zachary! This is awesome!" I smiled and said "Your welcome. Now, shall we get going?" Both of them nodded and I gave an evil grin. "Let's get started then." Both of them also gave evil grins and we went into our designated areas to change the apples to oranges.
After a few minutes, we were all done and we met right back outside the entrance. I said "Well, that was a massive success. Good job guys. Now we have to wait for a reaction." Discord said "Yeah, I can only imagine the look on Applejack's face when she sees all those apples turned into oranges! Ha ha ha!" I saw Applejack coming and said "Quiet. I see Applejack coming. Come over here. She won't see us here." I watched as Applejack came outside and went to go buck apples. She put a bucket down and kicked the tree. When she took a look at it, she was confused. She said "What in tarnation?! What the hay happened to mah apples?! Wait a minute. Those are oranges. BIG MAC! Did you do this?!" As she walked back inside the barn, the three of us laughed our heads off because of how funny it was. Discord said "That was a classic!" I know, right? Spike said "Did you see the look on Applejack's face when she saw oranges fall into the bucket instead of apples?" Yeah, I did. I said "That was absolutely hilarious. But, we have to get a move on now so that Applejack doesn't catch on to who the culprit is. So, let's go before she sees us." We all took off as quickly as possible and I saw Big Mac being absolutely confused along with Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and Goldie Delicious. Good luck trying to figure that out.
We went to the back end of Ponyville and Discord had an idea. I questioned him, but he said it's nothing to worry about which made me even more suspicious. He snapped his talons and I noticed every building turned into actual Twinkies which was pretty hilarious. Ponies were extremely confused on why their houses turned into a dessert and began arguing amongst themselves on who decided to pull this prank. I said "Nice one Discord." Discord said "It's nothing. I've wanted to do this for a while because it would be absolutely hilarious." I looked at the town and I had a really good idea. I said "Watch this." I summoned a pepper shaker over somepony and I made sure it was really powerful so they would have a huge sneeze. Anyway, when they did, the nearest building got yeeted across town and hit the town hall before falling down and being destroyed. That house that disappeared also had somepony taking a shower and were busy bathing, but then they realized their house was gone. Everypony stopped arguing and started laughing at that pony which made them mad. We were all laughing our heads off because how funny it was. We heard yelling coming towards our direction, so we took off before they could discover us.
We came out to an open field and I had an idea. I said "I have a cool idea for transportation that would be the talk of the town." Discord and Spike raised brows and I showed them what I meant. I charged up my scepter and summoned a 2021 RAM 1500 TRX that had the Hydro Blue paint color, the graphics package, and the RAMBAR which makes it look so cool. Spike's eyes went wide and he asked "What is that?!" I smiled and said "This right here is a RAM TRX. It is what you call a vehicle which has four wheels that moves right down the road. This particular vehicle however, is a really cool truck. It's basically a super truck because of the large amount of horsepower numbers. Anyways, hop in." I changed into my human form and got into the driver's seat. Discord sat in shotgun and Spike sat in the back. I put the keys in the cupholder and started up the truck. Man, that exhaust sounded so good. I had one of these back home in Tampa. It had a really cool wrap and a super loud corsa exhaust just to tick off the neighbors every morning. "Also, make sure you put on your seatbelts so you don't hurt yourself. Trust me, if you're not careful, you can actually die from not having these safety things wrapped around your body." Discord and Spike both nodded and put on their seatbelts. "One more thing before we set off." I used my scepter to summon a real American road that would travel all across Equestria and go over any canyons or valleys or bodies of water.
The best part was that it would not get in the way of the railroad system whatsoever. So, everything should be fine. "Okay, now we can go." I put the shifter into drive and we took off. "For our next stop, we'll be headed to Las Pegasus because those ponies there drive me nuts and I want to get some serious pranking done on them." Discord said "Oh good idea. I never liked those ponies either. They were always so much a pain in the flank because they were offended even at the smallest pranks I pulled." Yeah, I know how that feels. I said "Well, here's your chance to show them who's boss." Discord nodded and I put on some instrumental music as we were driving down the road. I asked Spike "Are you comfortable back there, Spike?" Spike replied "Yeah, I'm good. These seats are really comfy." I smiled and said "I'm glad you enjoy it." Spike did say though "If you say this is a super truck because of "horsepower" numbers, then what else makes it special?" I said "Well, there is one thing, but hold on tight." Spike braced himself and I stepped on the throttle which allowed us to hear that supercharger whine echo throughout the cabin and boy did that sound so good. After I let up a bit, Spike said "Oh my goodness! That was fast!" I said "Well, that was the beauty of a supercharger. No other vehicle has a better supercharger whine than the hellcat motor does." Yes, that is actually what I think. If you can think of any better ones, you ain't changing my mind.
Spike asked "So what exactly is "horsepower?" Oh my. This will be an interesting conversation. I said "Horsepower is the unit of measurement that would equal to 550 ft pounds every second. It is also determined by how many horses it would take to go that fast. So, for example, this truck that I'm driving right now is 702 horsepower. That would mean it would take 702 horses as the equivalent to go that fast. Horsepower is also associated with pound ft. of torque." Spike asked "What is torque?" I said "Well, torque has multiple definitions. But, in the car world, torque is the amount of turning force a vehicle may have. It is also associated with towing as well. Usually, the more torque you have, the better the towing capability a vehicle has. So, for example, this particular vehicle has 650 lb-ft of torque. A vehicle that might have 1,000 lb-ft of torque would tow better than this vehicle because the torque numbers are higher. It's kinda complicated, but I can explain it more in depth another time if you like." Spike nodded and said "I would like that." That's good. Even for me, that stuff is kinda complicated to explain to others. Especially those who have never seen a giant piece of metal with four wheels driving down the road. But, it's whatever. There wasn't that much talking on the way there except with the occasional acceleration and hearing that absolutely beautiful supercharger whine from the hellcat motor echo right through the cabin like a freight train roaring down the tracks.
Eventually, after another half hour on the road, we had arrived at Las Pegasus and I parked the TRX behind a building where no one would see it. We all hopped out and I changed back to my lion form so no one would get suspicious of me being in a different form. It is my natural form, but it's cooler to be a lion, and everyone else has accepted me that way, so there's no reason to stay in my human form whatsoever. I said "Okay. Now that we are here in Las Pegasus, it's time to get pranking. Show these ridiculous ponies who's boss." Discord and Spike agreed and we took off to the sky. It was so busy that we thankfully did not get recognized and we started the first pranks on this town. Eventually, we continued on and it involved chocolate milk clouds pouring down grape juice, changing ponies mane colors, and even as far as to changing all the buildings to ding dongs and ho hos. Yeah, that was ultimately hilarious. Spike did ask "Is this a bit much?" I said "Nah. These pranks are only minor inconveniences. They aren't physically harming anyone. But it might emotionally if they are a wimp. But, they deserve it anyways considering how much I despise this town. Anyway, let's get out of here before anyone recognizes us." Spike and Discord nodded and we went back to the TRX and took off.
We mostly did the same thing in every city that we wouldn't be easily recognized in. Fillydelphia, Baltimare, Appaloosa, Dodge City, Vanhoover, Manehattan, Rainbow Falls, you name it. We even stopped at Trottingham and pulled some scary Halloween pranks on them. Turns out, they are absolutely scared of Nightmare Moon and the Pony of Shadows and are bound by that, so it was easy to scare them with evil creatures. We stayed out of places like the Crystal Empire, Canterlot, and Cloudsdale because we would be easily recognized by someone. After what seemed to be like several million years of pranking, we headed back to Ponyville to pull the ultimate prank. Thankfully, Twilight was not back yet, so this was perfect timing. We went inside the castle and right into my own personal quarters. Spike asked "Why are we here?" I looked at the megaphones hanging on the walls and said "Well, there is one more prank that I want to do. There is this certain song where if you blare it into megaphones, it is the most hilarious thing ever." Discord asked "What song would that be exactly?" I said "Watch and learn." I picked up all the megaphones and put them in a line towards the window with them all turned on.
There were so many of them that it went from the open window to about 10 feet from the door. I made sure I had my music ready so the damage could be done when I spoke into it. I licked my lips a bit and said into the microphone "yeet" and suddenly, the microphones went flying and the three of us crashed into the bookshelf behind us. The music was blasted so far that it sent out a shockwave across the town with the gas gas gas meme song playing inside of it. We got up and saw the damage that was done. There was broken glass, broken windows, and ponies on the ground covering their ears because of how loud the noise was. We all looked at each other and then started laughing to death. It was so funny. If you have seen the Bart Simpson line of megaphones gas gas gas meme, you know why this is funny. We were laughing so hard that Discord and Spike had pain in their chests and had tears running out of their eyes. It really was that funny. Of course, I wasn't affected physically because my magic blocks the pain. So, I still felt fine. After about like 15 minutes of laughing so hard, we finally stopped and took a look outside. I noticed that Twilight had come back to Ponyville and was there in the streets trying to help out and also trying to figure out what had caused this mess to begin with. I ain't no hoe and I ain't snitching on my bros. That's the bro code.
Follow it and you'll have bros for life. Break it and you'll be alone for the rest of time. I'm just saying. I said to both Discord and Spike "Okay. Since of course Twilight is back, no one say ANYTHING about this at all. Pretend it never happened. If you get caught, take one for the team and let yourself fall for the blame. No snitching on the bros. The bro code is "I ain't no hoe and I ain't snitching on my bros." Got that?" Spike nodded and said "Yes sir." I looked at Discord and said "Got that Discord?" Discord sighed and said "Yes prince. I got that." I smiled and said "Good. Now let's go help Twilight fix the damage and if she asks us what happened, tell her that we don't know and if she doesn't believe that, then come up with a fake story. Got that?" Spike and Discord nodded and we headed out the door. I said "Good. Now let's go." We went out the door and headed out to the streets of Ponyville. Twilight saw me and said "Zach! Thank goodness! As you can probably tell, the town is a mess! I really need the help of another royal here, that is if you don't mind." She gave me that look that basically a pretty girl would give you and I just couldn't resist. I helped her restore everything and I was relieved that Twilight didn't catch on.
Me and her went back to the castle and Twilight asked me "How exactly did all of this happen? One moment I was talking to the Princess and the next, we had a bunch of guards enter the throne room telling us that there was trouble in Ponyville." I said "I honestly have no idea. I was just chilling with Discord and Spike when I witnessed it all happen a few minutes later. I think this might be a sign of what's to come in the future and it doesn't sound good." Twilight asked "What do you think it could be?" I said "I have no idea, but whatever it is, we'll be ready for it when it rears its ugly head against us." Twilight said "Yeah, that is true. We've been able to defeat villains time and time again, so we should be able to defeat whoever it is this time." Yeah, I agree. "You know what's weird, is that the guards somehow waited for both mine and Celestia's command because you were not present. Do they listen to you as well?" I said "Well, yeah. For one, I am a royal, so they take orders from royalty which does include me. Also, I'm basically the head of Equestria's military even though all final say goes to Celestia which is kinda weird if you think about it, but whatever. However, when I do become ruler of Equestria, all final say will go to me, so that'll be good for then." Twilight seemed surprised by this. It really isn't when you think about it.
She asked "Are you really the head of Equestria's military?" I said "Mostly yes. I'm basically like their leading general while Celestia is the commander-in-chief of the military. It makes sense for me to be at the head of the military since my title is "Prince of Equestrian Defense." Twilight said "I never really knew that until now. Well, I guess when you do become ruler, your main focus will be on the military, won't it?" I said "Not entirely. There is more to ruling Equestria than just maintaining the military. Unfortunately, I will have to deal with a whole lot of crap that I wish I didn't have to, but it's necessary for anyways, so yeah. But that is still quite a bit away. I know we're getting closer to Celestia and Luna's retirement, but let's enjoy these moments while we still can, shall we?" Twilight said "Most definitely. We might not have much of this in the future. But at least I know if that's what happens, at least I'll have you by my side to guide the both of us through it." I definitely agree. Couldn't have said it better myself. Well, now I can relax without getting into trouble. Today was a fun day and I hope to do more of this in the future.
AN: I'm sorry if this came out later than expected, but school is actually starting to pile up again. For some reason, the second half of the second semester is the most difficult to get through out of the entire school year when it comes to work. Anyway, I know this chapter is a little bit shorter, but there have been so many long ones recently, that I decided to have a little break in between. So hopefully, that doesn't create issues. If it does, oh well. Also, the next major threat that Zachary and the Mane Six will face will be something none of them are prepared for. No, it's not the Legion of Doom or the real Grogar. It will be a lot worse than that. You'll see eventually. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
Next Chapter: When Twilight and her friends head off to Canterlot for Spring Break, Zachary stays back in Ponyville to hang out with some other friends. Starlight is still busy as heck before the break and Trixie wants her to stop for a bit. Long story short, Silverstream goes missing and Zachary, Starlight, Trixie, Sunburst, Terramar, Maud, and Mudbriar all have to go off together on a journey to find Silverstream. Will they be able to find her, or will Zachary have to call in a search party to search all of Equestria?
Until then, my fellow readers