With the last stroke of paint, Rainbow Dash snickered as she stepped back to admire her work. She'd spent over an hour on it, but the sight of Midnight's workshop painted with rainbows, clouds, and smiley suns and flowers was giving her a case of the giggles as she said, "This is really gonna get Midnight's goat!"

*Baa*

"No offense," Rainbow said quickly to a female goat as she huffed and walked away while the Cutie-Mark Crusaders approached, all of them looking surprised by Rainbow's little art project.

"Rainbow! What's going on here?" Twinken led the Crusaders up to Rainbow as they all gazed up at her work upon the workshop, "Did you do this? Midnight doesn't like anypony messing with his workshop! He tells me over and over not to go in or near it without him in case he has something dangerous in there."

"Oh relax, Twinken," Rainbow scoffed, "Midnight and I are... just in the middle of a Prank Off! He asked for it and I'm here to deliver. I hope he's ready to fork over that title of-"

There was a loud and dramatic GASP and they looked to see a rather unhappy Midnight nearby, gaping at his painted workshop before he furrowed his brows and demanded, "Who did this to my workshop?!"

The Crusaders immediately pointed at Rainbow Dash as she made a show of shivering as if she were cold, "Ooh, do you feel a chill? `Cause you've been p-p-p-p-p-pranked!"

Rainbow beatboxed in victory as Midnight seemed to sulk as he griped, "Ugh, I hate bad art!"

But then there was an evil gleam in his eyes as he smirked, "But I do love...applesauce!"

Midnight lit up his horn as he levitated the Crusaders over to his side, formed a bubble-shaped shield of mana around them and himself, and conjured a big vat of applesauce, which poured onto Rainbow Dash, burying her in its wet, squishy goodness, to Rainbow's shock as she spat and dug herself free. As she ew'd at the sticky mess of her coat and wings, Midnight lowered the shield as he and the Crusaders laughed at Rainbow's expense and Midnight sighed in satisfaction, "Oh, Rainbow Dash. Sweet, naive Rainbow Dash! You should have known; the Prank Master cannot be pranked."

"Can't be pranked? Uh, hello! Did you not see how I painted your workshop?" Rainbow Dash whipped out a golden star badge and placed it upon her chest, declaring herself, "Prank Master!"

"Whatever are you talking about, Rainbow Dash?" Midnight responded in condescending pity before he pointed behind Rainbow, "My workshop's over there!"

"HUH?!" Rainbow looked and sure enough, there it was!

It was the same little workshop she'd just painted, only free of paint! Only it was standing about seven pony-lengths from Rainbow's position as she looked back n' forth between the clean workshop and the one she'd spent the last hour or so painting, "What the- I don't under- What the hell?!"

"You didn't paint my workshop, Rainbow Dash. You've been painting..." Midnight dispelled the illusion as the 'painted workshop' to reveal it was really, "the Sweet Apple Acres fertilizer pile."

Rainbow Dash gaped up at the big pile of poop in abject horror! Her paint was there, on the pile of fertilizer which stood as tall as a stable and stank something fierce under the warm sun. And Rainbow Dash realized in dismal disgust, I've been touching that thing this whole time...!

The Sweet Apple Acres fertilizer pile was collected every few weeks or so from the outhouses set up around the orchard for the Apple Family members to use if the farmhouse was too far though they allowed visitors to use them. Ever since Midnight started living at the farm (as his past unicorn self, that is), he'd taken up the chore since his magic made it so much faster and so much easier.

While the Crusaders all EWWWW'd and expressed their disgust, Midnight took the Prank Master badge from Rainbow and placed it upon himself, "I'm inside your mind, Rainbow Dash. One. Step. Ahead..."

Snapping out of her disgusted stupor, Rainbow Dash fiercely responded, "No, you're not!"

Rainbow Dash was momentarily surprised as Midnight had spoken the same sentence with her in perfect synchronization.

"Of course I was gonna say that!" He'd done it again!

"STOP IT!!" Midnight was smiling all smarmy while Rainbow Dash was beginning to steam and he made a face at her as he did the same angry growl at her scowling, "UURRRGGHHH!!!"

"AUGH!!" Rainbow Dash flew up and pointed down at Midnight, "Before sunset, I am gonna prank your big blue butt so hard, buster, your grandfoals will be embarrassed!"

"Then come get my big blue butt..." goaded Midnight with a cheeky smile as he turned around and wiggled his rear end, the perfect blend of plush yet firm, at Rainbow Dash, before giving it a slap, "It'd be hard to miss!"

Rainbow Dash gave Midnight another growl of frustration before she zoomed off.

"Is Rainbow Dash gonna be okay, Midnight?" asked a concerned Scootaloo as she and the other Crusaders looked at Midnight.

"Eh, she's just getting a taste of her own medicine, Scoots," Midnight assured while ruffling Scootaloo's mane, "although I doubt she expected a prescription courtesy of... the Prank Master. Later!"

The sapphire stallion then flew off, leaving the Crusaders amazed, stupefied, and uncertain of what to do next.

Or expect.

Peering down from a cloud over the balcony of the Castle of Friendship, Rainbow Dash snickered to see Midnight snoozing peacefully in a lawn chair, "Oh, Midnight, sleeping out in the open during a Prank Off? Ha! And you call yourself the Prank Master..."

Flying as softly and quietly as she could, Rainbow Dash landed behind the snoozing Midnight, hearing him slumbering in content. Thankfully, she'd had the foresight to wear woolly socks on her hooves so they wouldn't clippety-clop on the floor of the balcony. Taking out a can of whipped cream, she carefully sprayed a hooful onto Midnight's hoof as his foreleg hanged over the side.

She then slipped around and reached with her wing to tickle Midnight's snoot... until his whip cream-covered hoof made a squishy slap onto his face in reaction to the tickle.

"ARGH!!" Rainbow stood up and looked down onto Midnight, "Avast, landlubber, for Captain Rainbow Dash has just made you walk the prank- !!!!

"Oh no..." Rainbow Dash gasped to herself to see it wasn't Midnight after all!

The pony in the lawn chair was clearly a stuffed dummy, what with buttons for eyes, a sewn-on smile, and pinned onto his chest was a paper that read in big messy ink, 'GOTCHA!!!'

"IT'S A TRAP!!! AAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Rainbow Dash started flying away, unaware that the real Midnight had been watching from the tallest tower of the Castle of Friendship. He'd enchanted his stuffed double to slap itself in the face, having foreseen exactly what Rainbow Dash would do in this so-called ideal situation to prank him. He then hefted a large rocket-shaped firework onto his shoulder.

"Target two hundred-and-seventy yards out..." He held out a primary feather to check the wind, before he peeked through the scope of the firework launcher, "Wind coming from the west... Target locked!"

He cast the homing charm and then the ignition button on the launcher, "Fire."

The rocket launched in a burst of glitter and harmless firecrackers as it zoomed and zeroed in on Rainbow Dash. She flapped harder and sped up, but still the rocket was slowly yet surely getting closer and closer. She tried zigzaging, dive-bombing, using any and every aerial trick she knew to lose it. It didn't matter! The rocket was closing in, and she was already getting tired from her speeding and fancy flying. She had to outsmart this smart bomb!

Looking around, she saw Ponyville Clock Tower! She knew she'd have to clean up the mess, but it would be worth it if she could outfly Midnight's prank. She dove straight for it, the rocket following her. She had to time this just right....!

At the last second, she used her downward momentum to turn straight up and flew skyward. Gazing down, she sneered in assumed triumph of having outflown the rocket... only to see it coming right at her from an angle as it came out of her blind spot.

Oh buck me...

Midnight, having watched the whole show on the castle balcony and lounging on his lawn chair with a bag of popcorn and some ice cold colt cola in hoof, chuckled as he thought, Thank you, Fun Times for All Your Partying Needs.

He'd have to thank Party Favor for that discount on joke fireworks.

As a result of Midnight's rocket, Rainbow's coat had been dyed an awful pattern of yellow, red, and blue argyle, her feathers a pattern of spring green and poppy orange-colored vine patterns, and her mane and tail were cotton candy blue with bubblegum pink polka dots. She spent a whole hour trying to wash it off, but nothing worked! She strongly suspected Midnight had a solution to get rid of the dye, but to go to him for help in the middle of a Prank Off would have been equal to surrender.

And Rainbow Iris Dash never surrenders... she seethed into her bathroom mirror before pulling on a cloak.

She would have to endure this humiliation, at least until sunset.

Alas, the humiliation continued. For the rest of the day, Rainbow Dash tried like Haydes to prank Midnight, only for each attempt to be foiled or worse, turned against her.

She tried to prank Midnight by putting glue on his sparring dummies, only for one of the dummies to come to life and give her a really sticky hug (it took her a while to get to the hardware store to buy the solution because the dummy had been heavy). Her prank of putting itching powder on the seat of Midnight's throne resulted in her with an itchy tail (and something else) instead since Midnight had used his Distracter and Attracter spells to get hers and Midnight's thrones mixed up. She'd tried an exploding pie, but he'd passed it along to Thunderlane and pointed out Rainbow Dash, causing an angry Thunderlane to chase after her for nearly an hour.

And with every failed prank, the lowering sun warned Rainbow Dash that she was running out of time.

Finally, Rainbow Dash went to the party store, exclaiming, "PARTY FAVOR!! I'm gonna need your biggest water balloon!"

"I had a feeling I'd be seeing you today, Rainbow Dash," Party Favor levitated an empty balloon, "Made from the highest quality sap of a rubber tree. Pear-shaped and tapered at the nozzle for easy filling. Its standard filling is 150 ccs, but it'll hold twice that in a pinch."

"Bigger!" Rainbow Dash demanded while slamming her hooves onto the counter.

"Hmm," Party Favor lit up his horn and a wall panel flipped to reveal a balloon as round as the width of a chariot wheel, "The Phalanx! This sucker will-"

"BIGGER!!" shouted Rainbow Dash, disturbing Party Favor.

"You... you don't mean...?!"

"Bigger...!" seethed Rainbow Dash through furrowed brows.

"Oh... Faust forgive me," Party Favor shuddered as he reached under the counter flipped a lid open and pushed the button beneath it, and the wall holding the so-called Phalanx rose up, revealing a hidden room, in which something gave off an ominous radiance, much to Rainbow Dash's devious delight as she sneered.

"Come to Dashie..."

The locals of Ponyville were going about their usual biz. Saying hello to friends and neighbors. Buying and selling at the marketplace. All around enjoying the day, even as the sun was beginning to set... but that fading light was still enough for them all to see a vast shadow loom overhead and everypony looked up in gasping awe and dread to see what appeared to be a MASSIVE water balloon, holding enough water to fill two- No, three swimming pools!

It was suspended in the air by a cloud, which was being towed by Rainbow Dash (much to her relief, the crazy colors from that joke rocket had finally worn off) as she pulled her aqua-filled ammo towards the Castle of Friendship.

"COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE, BLAZE!! And admit that I'm the PRANK MASTER!!!" she shouted to the castle before laughing maniacally, "MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!" as thunder cracked and lightning flashed behind her (don't ask how) before she pulled her lips back in a devious and diabolical grin-

"NNOPE!!"

The inexplicable sound of a record scratch sounded as Rainbow felt her heart skip a beat in dread as she looked up and behind her... to see Midnight flapping himself aloft, carrying a water balloon, even larger than the one Rainbow had brought, with his magic, as he had his forelegs crossed and a smug look on his face... before he telekinetically poked Rainbow Dash's balloon, making it pop and splash down to the ground, soaking nopony but grass and soil.

"The real Prank Master is one step ahead of you, again!" declared Midnight before rubbing his chin as if deep in thought and then pointing at Rainbow Dash, "or, technically, I was several steps behind you."

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash raised a confused brow.

"I'm saying... I followed you to the party store and saw you get that huge water balloon. Try to keep up!" Midnight clarified with a 'duh' sort of tone and then said, "Now, prepare to meet your prank-"

Rainbow Dash zoomed away, Midnight indignantly saying, "HEY! I had a quip!"

Not wasting his breath any further, Midnight was quickly in pursuit. His magic held the massive water balloon without effort, able to carry it at high speeds despite its jiggly, cumbersome mass. He stayed on Rainbow Dash's tail, as she managed to stay well ahead of him although she couldn't shake him. She kept making sharp turns, ascending, descending, but it did no good. Despite leading Midnight on a grand chase, Rainbow Dash wasn't losing him and she glanced at the sun and groaned to see it was beginning to set.

"YOU KNOW, DASHIE, I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO GET YOU WITH THIS WATER BALLOON!!" Midnight shouted to her as he continued to pursue, "THE PRANK-OFF ENDS THE MOMENT CELESTIA SETS THE SUN AND YOU LOSE EITHER WAY!!"

"URRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!" Rainbow Dash hated it when her opponents rubbed it in (conveniently forgetting the many times she'd done exactly the same thing). But she had to face facts: She wasn't going to get Midnight with time rapidly running out and her fleeing from her target just to avoid a massive soaking.

Then an idea crossed her mind. It made her skin crawl to even consider it, but if she failed to win this Prank-Off she'd never live it down.

She veered back towards Ponyville, flying straight for Town Square where she hid behind a public bench near the fountain with the pony statue before she shouted, "I GIVE UP!!!"

Midnight halted his massive water balloon before he raised a brow, crossed his forelegs, and slowly descended to the ground like a boss, his steely gaze never leaving Rainbow Dash's freaked-out eyes. Once he was back on terra firma, he cleared his throat and made a show of putting his hoof to his ear, "Come again? I didn't quite get that..."

"UGH!! I surrender, okay?!" Rainbow Dash's wings slumped as she hanged her head in defeat, "You win! You're the Prank Master..."

Everypony in the square chattered in response to this unexpected development. Quite a number of them had been pranked by Rainbow dash over the last few days, so they were honestly satisfied to see the techniclored trickster humbled as Midnight shrugged his shoulders before his horn lit up and the massive water balloon over head faded away, revealing it was never real to begin with, much to Rainbow Dash's flabbergasted dismay.

"Wha- Was- Wait a- Hold on!" She zipped up to Midnight, glaring at him, "That water balloon was an illusion?!"

"In the sagely words of my big brother, eeyup!" Midnight gave Rainbow a horseapple-eating grin, "Even to prank you back, I couldn't lob a water balloon big enough to fill the town reservoir at you all willy-nilly! It could have caused major water damage! My prank this time was scaring you into giving up, and I... gotcha!"

Everypony present began having a laugh at Rainbow Dash's expense as she softly groaned to herself and Midnight scoffed, "Oh don't take the loss so hard, Rainbow Dash. You never had a chance against me; I'm the obnoxious little colt that got bouncy balls outlawed on April Foal's Day. Just ask Princess Celestia."

"Whatever..." Rainbow Dash turned to leave, doing her best to ignore the chuckles aimed at her from the ponies taking it all in.

"Aw, c'mon, Dash, don't be like that," Midnight cut the teasing and held out his hoof, giving his friend a sincerely friendly smile, "You did come up with some creative pranks, even if you tried to classic whip cream hoof prank. Come on, let's shake and be good sports about this. No hard feelings?"

Rainbow paused and looked back at Midnight, and she saw neither cockiness nor did he seem like he was being sneaky. She was hesitant all the same, but with everypony watching, she knew it'd reflect badly on her not to accept Midnight's hoof and end this amicably. Sighing, she walked up to him and said, "Sure, Midnight. No hard feelings..."

And she met him halfway-

*BZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT*

"WHOA!!!"

Midnight yanked his hoof back, having felt an alarming sharp and tingly vibration when Rainbow Dash had accepted his hoof, Wait a minute...!

He looked from his hoof to see a horseapple-eating grin on Rainbow Dash's face as she held out her hoof, revealing, "A joy-buzzer! Looks like the Prank Master just got pranked! HA! I gotcha, Midnight! In - YOUR - FACE!!!"

As Rainbow Dash started beatboxing and doing a victory dance, Midnight's stunned surprise quickly evaporated as he began to seethe and glare at the rainbow-maned pegasus, "Really, Dash?! I was being honest when I complimented your pranks, and I offered my hoof as a good sport!"

Rainbow Dash stopped her boasting and gave Midnight an uncaring look as he went on, "Not only that, you forfeited! If you think that-"

"So what?! I might not have beaten you fair and square..." Rainbow scoffed, "but I just tarnished your so-called title of 'Prank Master'. What was it you said before? The Prank Master cannot be pranked?"

Rainbow Dash was being entirely too smug about this, that everypony watching was starting to look at her disapprovingly and walk away, while Midnight glared at her, "You still technically lost! So no more pranks, Dash!"

"Yeah, right! I can prank anytime and anyone!" Rainbow threw a jibe at Midnight with that emphasis before saying, "So enjoy your empty title, Prank Master! Hahahahha!"

Rainbow Dash walked away, having lost the Prank-Off but was victorious all the same at having successfully pranked Midnight while Midnight glared after her when he heard, "Sorry, Midnight..."

He looked to see it was Pinkie Pie, "Rainbow Dash got that joy-buzzer from one of my hiding spots."

"Ugh... lemme guess," Midnight sighed, "you have prank items hidden all over Ponyville, for pranking emergencies?"

"You could say that," Pinkie giggled sheepishly, "So... now what?"

Midnight glared after Rainbow Dash again before his brain hatched an idea, and he sneered most evilly, "Oh, I have just the prank in mind to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson once and for all!

"Come on, Pinkie Pie," Midnight turned and walked away, a bewildered Pinkie following, "We've got work to do and we're gonna need a lot of help."

Rainbow's "victory" was to paint her as a bad sport and a sore loser as well. She forfeited the Prank Off, but seized an opportunity to prank Midnight anyway just to tarnish his "reputation" as the self-proclaimed Prank Master

Her method and motivation were underhanded and quite petty, but she's been petty before in the show-canon. Most often when it involved competition