Mischief Makers

In the center of Ponyville sat the tower shaped town hall. At first glance it looked just as it did every other day, though perhaps with a few extra banners flying from its two circular balconies. Inside the building, however, was an entirely different story. The walls were decorated with shelves and rows of anything from houses of cards to miniature models of buildings arranged to look like a town. These even came with tiny pony figurines. All throughout the halls ran creatures that seemed to be made of rocks in the shape of tokens. In their hands they held all forms of boxes, which they were quickly unpacking large chess pieces from. Others were making large bridges of dice that small trains could cross with messages that spanned the entire building.

One such train made its way to the mayors office, which the pegasi twins had made into their own quarters. Games Master sat in the mayor's chair with her chessboard on the desk in front of her. She was carefully moving the pieces around into a specific arrangement when the train came along. Festivities -who had been kicking her die in the air and catching it - flew over to the train and lifted the message.

“Mistress, the Stone Tokens have finished the east wing.”

Games looked up from her board and flashed her twin a playful smile.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Call me Mistress, you know I think it’s annoying.” Her twin let out a little giggle that caused Games to smile.

“Cause I know you don’t like it.”

Games let out a tiny laugh and went back to rearranging her board. Once all the pieces were in their correct places they sank into the individual squares. She leaned back in her chair and grinned as new pieces rose and the squares moves around. Soon she was looking at a three dimensional map of Ponyville and the surrounding areas. In one of these areas there rested six colored tokens that were moving towards the town.

“They’re making good time, should I go and entertain them?” Festivities asked enthusiastically.

“Yes you can Fest, but nothing too big yet. This is still the beginning.”

Grinning with delight Fest caught her die in her hoof and watched it light up. There was a bright flash and soon she was gone. Games sat back and watched the board. She had the utmost faith in her twin not to go overboard, but she still felt a little reminder here and there was needed.

~~

There was an uneasy feeling in the minds of each of the six ponies as they walked through town. After the twins had vanished a trail of breadcrumbs had appeared leading back to town and Pinkie had suggested they follow it. So they did and now found that the normally lively town had not so much as a single pony in its streets.

“What happened to everypony?” Rarity asked. ‘It’s almost like when Zecora originally visited town.”

“Do ya think those twins did sonethin’ t’ them?” Applejack asked, looking around some more.

“Oh, I hope they didn’t hurt them.” Fluttershy said.

“Where do you think they could be keeping them?” Rainbow asked as she flew above her friends. Even from the air there was no sign of life anywhere in Ponyville.

“I think the better question is how they did it in the first place.” Twilight spoke. “I mean, you all saw what they were doing back there right?”

“Yeah, there were doing all sorts of funny things.” Pinkie said happily.

“Exactly Pinkie, they were doing things pegasi shouldn’t be able to do. And did you see what happened when they they left? That was almost identical to a teleportation spell.”

“Aw, come on Twi, how can they use magic?” Rainbow asked. “I didn’t see any horns on them.”

“Yes Twilight, they were probably just using a bunch of smoke and mirrors.” Rarity pitched in.

“Yar mateys, it seems we’ve a few unicorn supremacists among us.”

Immediately all six of them began looking around for the source of the voice until there eyes fell onto three large chests. Sitting on top of them was Festivities dressed in a pirate vest with a red bandanna over her head and an eye patch over her left eye. As the ponies approached her she slid off of the chests and looked at them happily.

“Welcome mateys, to the first challenge of our little game. Behind me be three chests o’ loot, and ye’ll be allowed t’ open one.” She moves aside and gestures to them as their heavy iron locks fall to the ground. “One of em has a card for ye, one of em shall help ye in another way, and one of em has nothin’. And if ye pick that one, I get t’ make some changes.” She grinned after saying that.

Twilight let out an annoyed sigh and looked back to her friends.

“So, which of us should do this?”

“I”ll be the judge of that mayte.” Festivities reached into her coat and pulled out another eye patch and placed it over her right eye. “Look, I now be a double pirate. Yarr.” She then began walking around blindly until she bumped into Fluttershy. “Whoever ye be, ye be the one t’ choose.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened with fear as she shrank back away from the double pirate mare, who proceeded to fall face first and giggling to the ground. She looked to her friends with scared eyes, hoping they could somehow help her. Twilight was the first to speak again.

“Well Fluttershy, you’d better do as she said.”

“B-but Twilight, what if I get it wrong?”

“I don’t know Fluttershy, but we’re going to have to play along if we want to get out of this game.” She looked at Fluttershy and gave her a supportive smile. One by one the rest of her friends did the same.

Fluttershy nodded to them and stepped towards the three chests. Her eyes darted from one to the other, but she couldn’t decide which to choose. That was until she caught something in the corner of her eye. The left chest seemed, different, almost like there was a small aura of some kind coming from it. When both of her eyes focused on it the aura vanished. She hesitated for a moment before finally decided to open the chest.

Immediately air was sucked into the chest like a vacuum, and the six ponies along with it. Each of them planted their hooves as firmly into the ground as they were able, and Rainbow flew desperately against the wind, but still they inched closer. Festivities then walked over to them with Iron shoes covering her hooves.

“Great job ye buccaneers. While ye didn’t get the card, ye did get the help. So now it’ll bring ye closer t’ the other cards.” She then let out a flurry of giggles and tossed her pirate outfit into Rainbow Dash’s face. Before she could react the outfit collided with her face, blinding her and sending the pegasus tumbling into her friends. “Have fun everypony, things are gonna get a lot more interesting from this point on.”

“You’re insane!” Rainbow cried as she and her friends clung desperately to the rim of the chest. Below them was nothing but darkness and the constant howling of the vacuum that was pulling them in. Festivities looked at Rainbow with a puzzled look and then let out another giggle.

“Insane? Nononononononono, mischievous.” With that she flew into the sky and vanished. As she did the vacuum of air suddenly increased its force, and one by one the ponies lost their grip and tumbled into the black. once they were inside the chest the other two jumped inside of it as well. It then slammed its lid down and vanished with a pop.

~~

Festivities reappeared by her sister's side, giggling like a school filly. The map of ponyville now showed the six tokens began moving around the town in groups of two, finally stopping one they were all a ways away from one another. Fest leaned on her sister's side and giggled some more as she began thinking of some more ways to play with these ponies. She already had six ideas brewing when she noticed her twin wasn’t paying attention to her, instead staring at the map attentively.

“Games, what’s wrong?” she asked concernedly. “Everything seems to be going just like we planned.” Her sister turned to look at her and then pointed to the map. Festivities followed her hoof and her giggles gave way to a look of confusion. There was a small black piece moving along the board, like the pieces used to represent the ponies, only there was something different about this one. A tiny aura seemed to encompass it. “What does this mean?” Fest asked her sister.

Games leaned back in her chair and a challenging smile grew on her face.

“What it means, my dear sister, is that we have a wild card in our mitts.”

~~

Eclipse walked down the long hallway from his quarters his head held high as he did. He was a light grey unicorn with a short blue mane and tail that he always kept in mint condition. His yellow eyes never lost sight of his destination. His cutie mark, a solar eclipse, was currently hidden beneath his yellow and grey uniform.

As he walked ponies gave him salutes and greetings, but he didn’t stop for any of them. He had more important things at the moment than to talk to these ponies, and so did they. So he kept his proud posture and continued on to the end of the hall. He passed many ponies at work testing some new prototypes. They’d better be following the correct procedures. he thought as he past them.

Finally he came to the end of the hallway and came to the large double door with the image of a bright yellow sun rising for a new day. He took a moment to smiled as he gazed at the image before bursting through the doors. The room beyond was large and rectangular shaped. Long silver tables lined the room, and sitting at each were around ten ponies of every tribe and gender. In total there were most likely around forty in the room.

Eclipse had entered onto a stage at the very front, so all their eyes were focused on him. He smiled again and moved to the edge of the stage where all of them could see him clearly. It was only then did he speak.

“Greeting one and all. As all of you should already know my name is Eclipse, vice chairmen of the Yellow Sun Corporation.” His voice was authoritative and caused everypony to not dare take their eyes off of him. “You have each been chosen because you are the brightest minds in all of Equestria. Each of you excels in the fields of science, and each of you wishes to use your knowledge to help our great country.

“Our organization is just that. We are dedicated to the preservation and advancement of our society so that we may survive for many generations. And you shall all be a part of it based on your skills. Some of you will be in the fields looking through the ruins of past civilizations. Others will be here and work on prototypes and models. Others still shall-”

It was at that moment that the door behind him burst open and a brown unicorn stallion came rushing in with what looked like chart reading held in his magic.

“What is it?” Eclipse asked with frustration clearly in his voice. He did not like being interrupted in front of the new members.

“I’m sorry sir, but you need to see this.” the unicorn said, passing the readings to Eclipse. He took them in his magic and read them over carefully. Once he was finished he read them over again, this time his eyes showing hints of anger.

“Where were these readings taken?” He asked quietly.

“Around Ponyville, sir.”

Eclipse nodded to the stallion, who promptly rushed off before turning back to the recruits. With just a quick look he dismissed them all before leaving himself. He smiled again as he walked, a wicked smile of hatred and triumph. He didn’t go back to his quarters as he normally did after introductions. Instead he headed further down the hall, towards another set of doors.

There was someone he needed to show these readings to.