It was that time of the year again. It's Night Mare Night and the festivities were in full swing. The town centre was buzzing with activity and Luna's moon was high in the starry night sky. Ponies of all kinds were out milling about, either showing off their costumes or participating in idle conversation. Lanterns,neon lights and many kinds of comically scary decorations were hung from lamp posts and from the roofs of houses. Screaming and laughter could be heard in the distance from the many excited and costumed foals who were out hunting for sweet candy. Many games stalls were erected for the entertainment to all those who were out looking for a fun time. A stage was also hastily set up and a band was playing an upbeat tune to which several ponies were dancing to. It was a night where everypony could have fun and forget about their problems.
All this was lost however, to a certain rainbow-maned pegasus. This particular pegasus was wearing a black, hastily sown, skin-tight wonderbolt costume. No, tonight was not a night for games or dancing. To this particular pegasus, Night Mare Night was a night where she could prank anypony and get away with it;and she was eyeing her next victim like a hawk to it's prey.
Her target was a tan coloured earth pony and her name was Roseluck. She had a red mane and a rose for a cutie mark which would have been visible if not for her bumblebee costume. The unsuspecting pony was accompanied by her friend, Colgate, whom was nigh unrecognisable through her skeletal face paint, dark robes and scythe to which completed her look of the Grim Reaper Pony. The two were currently laughing and making fun of each other's costumes while they walked together towards a games stall to try their luck in bobbing for apples.
"You look ridiculous, Colgate!" Roseluck teased.
"Says the pony wearing a bright yellow bee costume!" Colgate retorted, making them both devolve into a fit of giggling.
The two continued laughing until they reached the stall and addressed the mare manning it.
"Hello, Applejack!" greeted Roseluck.
"Howdy Rose! Colgate!" Applejack greeted them in turn with her usual southern drawl and jovial smile. "Wanna try yer luck in bobbing fer apples?" She said gesturing toward a barrel. It was filled with water and many red delicious apples could be seen floating on its surface. She was dressed in her usual scarecrow costume. The same exact costume that she had worn three years in a row now.
Bo-ring! Thought Roseluck.Can't that mare wear something else? That outfit's getting old...
"You bet!" Roseluck said, her demeanour not betraying her previous thoughts. The two friends made their way to the barrel and Roseluck took the initiative and plunged her head in, hoping to come back out with a prize. Colgate settled on waiting for her friend.
She moved and bobbed her head until she finally emerged from the barrel. Her mane and the fur on her face was soaking wet but she had a large goofy grin on her face, courtesy of the apple between her teeth.
Meanwhile,a dozen or so feet above them, the aforementioned pegasus was rearing her front hooves in preparation. She held back the chuckles that threatened to escape her throat as she waited for the perfect moment to strike...
Colgate was about to congratulate her friend when suddenly,
BANG!!
A loud resounding boom was heard, making her jump and Roseluck spitting out her apple...
right into Colgate's eye.
"OW!" Colgate yelped, falling to the ground and putting her hooves over said eye. Roseluck, the dear friend that she was, ran away in a panic, leaving the pained Colgate on the dirt.
Applejack, for her part, merely glared at a suspicious looking thundercloud with an even more suspicious looking multi-coloured tail hanging off of the side of it.
"RAINBOW DASH!!!" Applejack yelled, attracting the attention of a few nearby ponies.
Rainbow merely ignored her friend in favour of laughing some more.
Rolling her eyes and sighing in frustration, she proceeded to help the groggy Colgate up who was now sporting a brand new shiner. She winced at the sight. "That's gotta hurt, you okay Colgate?" Applejack asked in concern.
"I...I'm fine...I think I need to go lie down for a while..." replied Colgate somewhat shakily.
It was at that time that Roseluck decided to come back looking for her friend.
"Colgate!" she gasped, galloping to her friend's side. "Your eye! Did I do that?! I'm so so sorry!" she blurted, her voice remorseful and apologetic.
"It's fine, Rosey...I just need to take a rest for a while..." she said, giving her friend to what she hope would be a reassuring smile.
Roseluck nodded and guided her friend away, muttering apologies the whole way.
Meanwhile, Applejack was now reprimanding Rainbow Dash, who was now on the ground.
"Ah can't believe you just did that, Rainbow!"
"Aw, lighten up Applajack. It's all in good fun!"
"Colgate got hurt!"
"I'll make it up to her."
Applejack stared incredulously at Rainbow Dash's nonchalant response. After a moment, she came back to her senses and levelled her gaze to her friend. "Ah hope yer plannin' on apologizin' to her..."
"'Course I will! But later, I've got more ponies to scare and too little time!" she took off but stopped mid-air as a thought came across her.
"Hey, Applejack?" she said, turning to face her friend once more.
"Yes?" came an irritable reply.
"Have you seen Pinkie around lately? It's Night Mare Night but I haven't seen her around at all."
"Well, now that ya mention it, I haven't seen her either...strange...you'd think that she'd be out getting candy with the foals ..."
"Yeah...strange. Welp, I'll see ya around, Applejack!"
"Sure...and try not ta give anypony anymore injuries!"
"No promises!!"
Meanwhile...
not too far away, two anonymous figures were watching the scene unfold, discussing in hushed whispers. Well one of them was anyway.
"Is everything set?" said the larger one, voice deep and gruff.
"Yeppers~!" replied the other one, in a much more cheerful tone.
"Good good... soon I'll have my revenge! Mwahahaha-! How was that? Was that okay?"
"Mmmm... I'd give it a four out of ten!"
"Awww..."
"That's okay! It takes oodles of practice to get an evil laugh just right! Just like baking!"
"That's easy for you to say! I've been practising all week for this!"
"Don't give up just yet! Here I'll Show you!" the figure then proceeded to rear his/her head back and proceeded to let loose the most terrifying laugh the larger figure had ever heard. Somewhere in the distance, lightning and thunder could be heard, as if somehow the other-worldly beings deemed it appropriate for that particular moment, amplifying the already scary visage to new disturbing degrees.
"See? Like that!"
"O-O-Okay...L-Let's just get going shall we?"
"Okay!"
Rainbow was eyeing her next target :A group of unsuspecting foals were happily counting their candy haul for the night. hehe. This is too easy... She reared her front hooves, poised to strike when suddenly...
"Pssst!"
"Huh?"Dash's ear swiveled every which way, trying to locate the origin of the noise. It's definitely a voice she's heard many times before but she just couldn't put her hoof on it...
"Psssst! Dashie!!"
"Pinkie?" she answered, finally putting a face to the voice.
"Over here!!"
Dash spotted a silhouette retreating behind a house. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she abandoned her conquest and decided to follow it. As she touched down she was suddenly pulled into an alley.
"Hi, Dashie!" greeted the cheerful pink party pony.
"Pinkie! I was looking everywhere for you! Where were you?" Dash said in a somewhat accusatory tone and making pinkie's smile falter a little. After a moment, she also noticed something else that was odd about her friend. "And why are you naked?"
True enough, Pinkie was indeed without a costume. Her mane was as poofy as always and her coat a bright pink and she had no clothing on her whatsoever. It wasn't unusual, considering the fact that they were naked most of the time, but not tonight. Dash was perplexed. And to add to Dash's confusion, Pinkie's smile only broadened at her question.
"Because I'm not wearing anything silly!" she said, oblivious to Rainbow's deadpan stare.
Taking a deep breathe and counting to ten to calm her nerves, she reiterated more carefully "What I mean to say was...why aren't you wearing a costume? It's Night Mare Night and I would've thought that you'd be wearing a costume."
"Oh, well I was gonna wear my super-duper-cool new costume that I had worked on for a really long time and I really wanted everypony to see it but then I thought to myself,'wait wasn't I suppose to surprise Dashie with this?' And then I thought-"
"Wait wait wait, what was it you said about a surprise for me?" Rainbow knew it was rude to interrupt somepony when they were talking but Pinkie was a special case. She loved her friend dearly, but she wasn't about to stand Celestia knows how long listening to Pinkie ramble about random things. Especially when she had better things to do, like scaring more ponies. It was Night Mare Night after all, and she wasn't going to waste this opportunity.
"Oops!" eyes widening and a hoof flying to cover her mouth. Pinkie suddenly looked rather nervous. "Uh, I mean-uh..."
"Yes...?" Rainbow asked expectantly and with a small smile, amused at how flustered Pinkie was. As much as she wanted to go back to scaring ponies, she reckoned she could put it off for another minute or two to interrogate Pinkie Pie to find out what her supposed surprise was.
Pinkie's shifted this way and that, looking everywhere but the mare in front of her. Suddenly, her eyes locked on to something behind Rainbow Dash."Look, a tree!" Pinkie blurted out.
Rainbow turned to verify Pinkie's claim, half expecting to find nothing there. Instead she was greeted with a sight that nearly made her keel over in laughter. There, standing about a dozen feet from them, was another one of Rainbow Dash's dear friends. Her yellow and pink-maned head poked out of the tree trunk of the cardboard costume.She was currently walking towards town centre, her steps unsteady due to how gaudy her costume was. Small cardboard cut outs that were made to look like twigs were also tied to her wings, completing her look. A tree. Fluttershy was a tree.
To her credit, Rainbow tried not to laugh for her friend's sake.
Which she succeeded to do in all of two seconds.
"Bahahahaha!!!" Rainbow laughed. Conceding defeat to an already losing battle to not burst out laughing. Thankfully, they were still close to the town centre, so Rainbow Dash's guffaws were drowned out before it could reach Fluttershy's ears.Rainbow made a note to tease her friend later. Despite everything though, Rainbow was proud of Fluttershy. Being her friend for so many years, she knew for a fact that she would have much rather stayed locked up in her little cottage, no matter how matter much Rainbow tried to coax her out. Fluttershy was coming out of her shell and Rainbow was happy for her.
Wiping her tears off her face, she turned to face her pink friend again.
Only to have a cupcake shoved into her mouth.
Rainbow couldn't spit it back out, lest she risked chocking on the offending confectionery.
"What the HAY Pinkie!" she yelled, irritated. She knew her fiend could be a bit spontaneous but forcing down a cupcake down her throat was crossing a line. "Why in Celestia's mane would you do that?!"
Pinkie merely smiled at her friend's expense, aggravating Rainbow further. "Sorry, Dashie. But I needed you to eat this cupcake for the surprise."
"But wha-" whatever Rainbow was about to say died in her throat as her vision started to swim and her legs felt more akin to jelly. "Pinkie...what did you...". The last thing she saw before she blacked out was her friend's ever cheerful grin. She was out before she hit the floor.
Rainbow slowly came to. Her head felt like it was being hammered, and her whole body felt like lead. She tried opening her eyes but immediately regretted it due to the brightness of her surroundings. "Ugh, what happened?" she asked no one in particular. Silence. Wait, no, there was something. Was that somepony whimpering?. Groaning, she tried lifting one of her hooves to rub her eyes, only to find out that she couldn't. She tried lifting her other hoof to no avail. Why Can't I move? she thought. It's like I'm tied up or something... Figuring that she'd get her answer if she opened her eyes, she slowly tried again. And regretted it.
The first thing she noticed was the blood. She couldn't not notice it. It was all over the floor. She stared wide-eyed for a moment before pulling her gaze away, only to be greeted with more disturbing sights in the room.
The room itself was decorated in the usual Pinkie Pie-esque style, but twisted. Entrails of what Rainbow could only recall from her biology classes as intestines were hung from the walls. Other organs that were filled with Rainbow could only assume to be helium were tied to the backs of chairs. A hastily made banner of what was most likely made out of leather was hung from rafters with the words ' Life's a PARTY!' scrawled on it with blood.
Rainbow was in a state of shock. She didn't know what to think. In fact, she was having trouble thinking anything at all! After a minute, she smiled. Another minute later, she was chuckling. And the next, she was all out bawling! She didn't know why she was laughing at the time or what was so funny. Maybe it was the absurdity of the whole situation. Blacking out and waking up to what's quickly looking like that one bad fan-fic she read in the newspaper that one time involving one of her friends. Yeah, that hadn't ended well. She couldn't eat a cupcake for a month.
Rainbow stopped abruptly when she heard somepony else's voice giggling along with her. She opened her eyes to look for the source of the noise.
There, in the centre of the room, stood Pinkie Pie, cutie mark dress and all.
Rainbow laughed even harder.
"Bahahahaha!!" she couldn't help it. The tears wouldn't stop! As it turns out, Rainbow's laughter was infectious, and her supposed captor and soon-to-be tormentor joined in.
After an indefinite amount of time, Rainbow was able to calm down and properly examine her surroundings. Her attention fell onto herself. Instead of being strapped onto a metal table with leather straps, she was merely tied to a chair with a length of rope. Next, her eyes wandered to her Pink friend. True to that fic she read that one time, Pinkie was wearing a costume supposedly made out of leather sewn from other ponies. Some of the cutie marks on the dress looked vaguely familiar. Wait, were those bubbles? She also had the necklace made out of horns being strung up together, and the pegasi wings that were sewn onto the back. She also had that tray filled with hospital equipments by her side.
"Nice dress, Pinkie." she chided.
"Thanks, Dashie!" her pink friend replied, as enthusiastic as ever.
Pfft. If she thinks that this is gonna scare me than she has another thing coming. Nobody out-pranks the Great Rainbow Dash!
Rainbow watched with a smile as Pinkie sauntered her way over to her friend. "I'm glad that you're awake Dashie!" she cheered in that bubbly voice of hers. "But I'm afraid that you're a little early, I've still not finished making the first batch!"
Seeing Rainbow's confused expression, Pinkie gestured to the other side of the room. Rainbow squinted towards the direction Pinkie pointed to and could just about make out a rectangular outline. Pinkie bounced over to the other side of the room, her horn-necklace clacking loudly the whole time, and pushed the object closer and into view.
When Rainbow could properly see it, her eyes widened in shock. She began to sweat and was beginning to rethink of her previous assessment of her current situation.
There, in front of her, was a familiar pegasus, one who was a frequent victim of her pranks. His usual mohawk of a mane was in a mess, and his dark grey fur lacked the luster it usually showed.
Thunderlane looked pathetic.
Rainbow noted that he was also strapped to a vertical metal table with leather straps, exactly like that fic that she read that one time. And he also had blood trailing down from a cut near his thundercloud cutie mark.
"Poor thing," Pinkie said, interrupting Rainbow's train of thought. "I barely cut him and he started screaming like a mare right before he fainted! You know, I've had fillies who weren't nearly as squeamish."
Rainbow began to hyperventilate.
"I thought about waiting for him to wake up, but since you're up too, I think I should speed up the process!"
She then got up to her hind hooves and positioned her muzzle right next to Thunderlane's ear.
Rainbow couldn't prepare herself in time.
"WAKE!!! UP!!!
After the ringing in her ears subsided, she noticed Pinkie comically slapping Thunderlane's face with a rubber chicken. It would have been hilarious if not for the dour situation she was in.
After a minute of rubber chicken meeting the sides of an unconscious pegasus's face, Pinkie stopped with a pout.
"*Huff* He's still not awake yet! Wait what was I supposed to do again? MMmmmm...."
Rainbow watched with wide eyes as Pinkie's face lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree on Hearth's Warming eve.
"I remember now! Silly me!" she exclaimed. Rainbow also noted that Pinkie's enthusiasm is looking more and more out of place to what she's about to do. She watched as her pink friend quickly scanned the tray full of various medical equipment until she found what she was looking for. "A-ha! Found it~!" she singsonged as she pulled something out. The item in her hoof was a syringe with a very sharp needle and was filled with a very strange green substance.
She then proceeded to stab Thunderlane in his inner thigh.
"OW" Thunderlane yelped, waking up with a start.
"'Bout time you woke up, silly-billy! Don't you know it's rude to sleep through your own party?!"
"GAH! Get me outta here!" he then noticed Rainbow Dash, sitting across from him. "Rainbow! HELP!!"
"I'm afraid she can't help you at the moment. Besides, you don't need help! You should be enjoying the party!" she said with an increasingly unnerving smile.
Thunderlane tried struggling with his binds, hoping against hope that a miracle would happen, but to no avail.
"Wow, you must be excited! Don't worry, the party's just started!"
"To tartarus with you!"
Pinkie responded by stabbing his flank with a kitchen knife.
"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!
"Wow! You're really excited! Just don't go fainting on me again!"
She then proceeded, with no surgical precision whatsoever, carving out his cutie mark on his left flank.
Rainbow tried to drown out the blood curdling screams that filled the air among other things. Rainbow will probably never forget Thunderlane's screams for the rest of her life, which was probably only going to be for another couple of hours if this kept up.
A minute of a stallion screaming like a mare and obscene squelching noises later, she carefully placed it on the tray and proceeded to do the same on his other cutie mark. Thunderlane started crying.
