"So, what's next on the list of things for us to do?" Erex asked as the boys walked along.
"We are about to have some fun, but it will require perfect planning and excellent execution." Alex said, a grin spreading across his face.

"What are we going to do? Don't leave us in the dark." Lucas said.

"We are going to pull a few pranks on the girls." Alex said simply.

"What are you, five?" Erex asked mockingly.

"Yeah, five inches deep in your mom." Alex said.

"Ooohh! Shots fired!" Darragh said.

All the boys laughed at once. Darragh asked Alex what sort of pranks they would be performing. Alex explained the workings of the first plot on the way back to the castle.

"Okay, boys. Go inside, get a shower, get ready. Tonight, we have fun." Alex said when they reached the castle.

All the boys parted ways to prepare. Things were going to be sweet, but there was secret workings within these secret workings that Erex, Lucas and Darragh would not notice.

While the boys were getting ready, Luna and the rest of her posse were lazing in her room.

"So, do you think Alex is going to get mad at us for not trusting him?" Twilight asked nervously, knowing what Alex was capable of.

"Nah, he may seem tough, but on the inside he is nothing but a big softy." Luna said.

"Yeah, tell that to Queen Crystal." Celestia said, remembering the beating Alex had given Equestria's first ruler.

"Yes, I remember. But I don't think he would hurt any of us." Luna said.

The girls were right, Alex would never bring harm to any of them. What they did not remember, is that Alex had a horrible knack for pranks. He had pranked all of them in the past, yet it was slipping from their minds now.

The girls were lazing around, relaxing as the day drew to a close when there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Luna called.

"A letter for you, my Queen. It is from your husband." one of the guards said, opening the door.

The guard handed over the letter and Luna unfolded it, reading it over. It said:

To my dearest Luna,

I am inviting you, Celestia, Twilight, and Cadence to a special dinner me and the boys have planned. I have had special dresses made for each of you, they should be up soon after you get this. We will be expecting you in the dining hall at 8 o'clock sharp.

Yours, now and forever,

Alex

"What does it say, Luna?" Celestia asked.

"Alex is inviting us to dinner, it's at 8." Luna replied.

"Oh my god, this will be amazing! But what will we wear?" Cadence said, getting excited.

"The letter says that Alex had dresses made for us. Weird." Luna replied.

"Why is this weird. It's not every day Alex does this sort of stuff for us. Maybe this is payment for all the times we saved his human ass." Cadence said.

The girls began arguing over Alex's intentions when their dresses arrived. They were each in a box. On each box was one of the girls cutie-marks. They each opened their boxes and squealed. The dresses were beautiful. Luna's was purple with gold trim with a moon on the chest. Celestia's was white with gold trim and resemble what ancient greek's would wear. Cadence's dress was pink with red frills. Twilight's was white and purple. Each of them came with matching shoes. The girls became excited and ran off to get ready.

It was 7:59 and the boys were patiently waiting for the last few seconds to pass by. Each of them wore the same black tux with matching ties.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Erex asked.

"Of course it will. The plans have been made and I made it so that everything would be timed perfectly. Don't worry, this will work. Just remember what I told you." Alex said reassuringly.

Finally the time had come. The clock struck 8, and two seconds later, the doors opened to show each of the boy's dates for the evening. Each of them looked stunning and surprised each of the boys.

"Hello, ladies. I'm glad you could make it." Alex said in a voice that made Luna's heart beat harder and faster.

"Hi, Darragh!" Cadence said from across the room, winking at him.

"Greetings, princess. I'm glad you could make it." Darragh said, bowing and making Cadence sigh in ecstasy.

Each of the boys approached their dates. Each of them held out a hand, bowing. The girls blushed. Then the plan went into action. The boys walked up to their dates and placed their hands on their shoulders. The girls looked up at the boys with surprise. Each of the boys placed a hand on their dates cheek and said they had something very important to tell them. The boys bent down to each of the girls ears, and with that, the lights cut off, filling the room with black. As soon as that happened, they felt something grab their butts and say this:

"It's raping time!"

Each of the girls screamed and fell over, shaking with surprise. The lights came on and the boys were all on the floor as well, holding their ribs, unable to breathe because they were laughing so hard. Each of the girls got up and stormed out, pissed that their boys would pull such a low-brow trick.

"Dude, that was good!" Erex said, sitting up.

"I must admit, I didn't think it would work. But man was it good to see the looks on their faces." Lucas said.

"So what's next, Alex? You said we were going to do a few pranks." Darragh said.

"I have an idea, but it will have to be finalized. Meet me in the library tomorrow morning, 10 o'clock sharp." Alex said.

Each of the boys got up and walked to their rooms. As they did, they heard the slamming of doors echoing throughout the halls. This told them they would not be in good graces with the girls.

The next morning, the boys met Alex down in the library just as instructed. they each gathered around an open book Alex was looking over.

"Morning, Alex. What's the plan for today?" Lucas asked once all the boys were accounted for.

"Today, we are going to make our own little booby trap." Alex said.

Each of the boys looked at the book. The book was turned to a page describing a type of magic where the user could place down a piece of paper and when a word was said, a weapon would pop out and attack on its own. Erex asked what they were going to do with this particular spell and Alex motioned to four whips laying in a chair.

The girls were walking around the castle, still a little mad from the prank that was pulled on them the night before. Luna was in the kitchen, Celestia and Cadence were still in their rooms, and Twilight was reading in the courtyard. Each of them were surprised when a letter popped up in front of them. Each of the letters said this.

Girls,

We would like to apologize for our actions last night, it was not very good of us to do something like that. We hope that you forgive us.

Love

Alex, Erex, Lucas, and Darragh

P.S- Wapish

Each of the girls looked at the letters, they were happy the boys were apologizing to them, but they were also a little confused.

"Wapish?" Each of the girls asked at the same time.

Then, without warning, a whip came out of the letter and whipped each one of the girls in the butt, then disappeared.

The boys were all lazing around, waiting for something to happen. They had each heard the muffled crack of whips from the library and were waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, the doors to the library violently swung open and a blast of energy sent the boys flying backward into one of the many bookcases, making most of the books fall on top of them. Alex was the first to pop his head out from under the now large pile of books.

"I see you got out letters." Alex said, falling back into the books, laughing.

Laughter from the other horsemen could be heard from under the books as well. Each of them popped their heads out just in time to see the girls leave, which made them laugh even harder. Each of the girls had a giant red mark on their flank.

"Can you believe this?!" Luna exclaimed when the girls left the library.

"I thought Alex was supposed to be training those three, not using them as help for his cruel jokes." Cadence added.

"I must admit, this first time was a little bit funny, but this it taking it too far." Celestia said, turning to gaze at the large red mark on her butt.

"Here's a million bit idea. Why don't we prank them back?" Twilight said.

Each of the girls thought it over for a second, then they all gave each other a large grin and the girls ran up to their room to make plans and get ready.

"Dude, that was awesome and all, but why are we cleaning up the books?" Lucas asked.

"We made the mess, it is our responsibility to clean it up." Alex replied.

"Well, we technically didn't make this mess. The girls did. Their magic blasted us into the bookshelf." Erex said.

"And technically it is our fault because our prank caused this." Alex replied.

"He does have a point. Either way, I think we should start training again." Darragh said.

"Here's a million dollar question, what are we up against?" Lucas asked, placing a copy of "The History of Equestria" back in its place.

"Well, we don't know for sure, or, at least I don't know for sure. Luna is the one that keeps up with stuff like that. She is the brains and I am the brawn." Alex replied

"So, based off what you know, tell us what we are up against." Erex said.

"Well, from what I know, there are strange occurrences going on in neighboring towns and cities. The entire places end up getting ransacked or completely destroyed. Many ponies have had to move to another town, some were not so lucky." Alex explained.

"I see, so where do you think it is going to happen next?" Darragh asked.

"We have had some people on that for a while, and they suspect Ponyville will be next." Alex said grimly.

"How will we know when it happens?" Erex asked.

"When we hear screaming and see smoke. But we do have a constant watch just in case." Alex replied.

"Okay, good. So, do you think the girls hate us now?" Darragh asked, sounding a little bit concerned.

"Nah, this will all blow over soon enough, trust me." Alex said.

Alex and the boys finished putting the books up and were just exiting the library when they heard a crash and a loud cry for help. They all ran to the sound of the commotion and found Luna trapped under a fallen chandelier.

"Alex, baby! You have to help me!" Luna cried out.

Alex sprinted to her side, but stopped just before he got there and leapt backward. Some strange green slime had hit just where Alex was moments before.

"What the hell is that?" Daragh asked.

"It's some sort of acid." Alex said, holding his shoulder.

Alex moved his hand to show that part of his white hoodie was disintegrated. His skin was unharmed though.

"Scatter!" Alex yelled as more blobs of the green slime came flying at them.

All the boys leaped and dodged, jumping or leaping from place to place to avoid the slime. Some of it splattered on them and burnt some of their clothes away. One shot hit Darragh in the shoulder and burnt away some of his shirt revealing his chest. Finally the firing of the slime stopped and the boys could breathe a sigh of relief. Then they heard laughing. They looked around to find Cadence, Celestia, and Twilight on a balcony with large cannons next to them. Green slime was oozing out of the barrels.

"You should have seen the looks on your faces." Celestia said between laughs.

"You all looked so scared!" Cadence added.

Luna crawled out from under the fallen chandelier and joined the girls, also chuckling.

"They could have gotten us hurt." Darragh said.

"Don't worry bro, it only burns clothes." Alex said, holding some of the slime in his hand.

"Now you four know how it feels to be the blunt of someones cruel joke!" Cadence declared.

Erex was just about to interject when Alex held a hand in front of him.

"Let them have this one." Alex mumbled.

Erex nodded. And took a small step back.

"Alright, your basic training is now done. I think it's time we get into the more interesting parts." Alex said, turning to the boys.

"What are you talking about?" Lucas asked, confused.

"Well, you remember the jokes we did? That was your training." Alex said.

"You may have to elaborate a little, Alex." Darragh said.

"Okay, let me explain. The first joke was to teach you deception. It was to teach you how to put on a mask and deceive and confuse your enemy, giving you a chance to strike while their defenses are down. The joke with the whips was to teach you minor trap magic and to teach you trap strategies. The little joke the girls pulled was to sharpen your evasion skills. It's hard to dodge that stuff you know." Alex explained.

"So, while we were having fun, you were actually training us?" Erex asked, making sure he understood.

"Exactly."

"Alex! How dare you! Why would you use us to train them!? Why did you not just teach them the normal way!?" Luna yelled, jumping down from the balcony and landing next to her husband.
"Why? Let's put it this way. I just like to mess with you." Alex said, wrapping his arms around Luna's neck and giving her a bear hug.

"Alright, horsemen. Training is done for the day. Tomorrow, we start the real fun! You are dismissed." Alex said, looking over at the boys.

All of them high-fived each other and were just about to leave when Alex stopped them.

"Oh, and you won't be sleeping alone. You're going to be bunking with the girls. Erex, you will be with Celestia, Darragh will be with Cadence, Lucas will be with Twilight, and I will be with Luna." Alex said.

The boys froze, looks of fear appearing on their faces. They turned slowly to see the girls barreling into them. Alex laughed, knowing that this would be a very interesting night for them.